Chapter Text
The two hit the road again (which was now busy enough that Stan couldn’t constantly look away from the road, which he seemed surly about), splitting the four blueberry pancakes between them. Stan tried to politely refuse, but Mabel had insisted.
Things was happy enough, but… Mabel felt the atmosphere change. She tried to ignore it, enjoying the cinnamon on her pancakes and connecting the dots in her book the wrong way, then coloring it in, but it kept pushing at her psyche. Mabel wasn’t sure exactly how she knew; maybe it was the way Stan kept tapping the wheel without ever stopping. (Didn’t his fingers get tired? or sore?) Like he was anxious or something. Or, maybe Stan could just be fidgety, like–like–
Mabel shook it off and went back to shading in her centaur-taur.
A few minutes later, Stan cleared his throat. “What’re you expecting?”
Mabel looked up. “Huh?”
In the rearview mirror, Mabel could see Stan’s eyes flick upwards to look at her. “What’re you expecting?” he repeated.
Mabel frowned, lowering her connect-the-dots book. “I don’t get it.”
Stan sighed. “What do you want to happen while you’re staying with me?”
Mabel cocked her head. She… hadn’t really thought about that. Mabel had just seen the opportunity to stay with someone she knew, and leapt for it. She hadn’t exactly considered the future.
Mabel imagined it.
A world where she lived in the seventies; a world where she was raised by her grunkle; a world where she lived in a car, traveling the states; a world…
Without Dipper.
Mabel stared at her book. She was about to speak when Stan continued.
“I don’t want you to have any false expectations,” Stan said, tearing his gaze away from the rearview mirror and stubbornly staring at the road. “I don’t have a lot of money, so you’re not getting new toys all the time. I’m almost always living in this car, so you’re not getting a nice house. I’m always moving around, so don’t think you’ll get to go to school and make permanent friends. I’ll be gone a lot, trying to scam–er, sell stuff to potential customers, so you might not see me a lot.”
Stan tensed up again, seeming to realize how far the downsides stacked up. “This might not be a good idea.”
Mabel sat up, panicked. She was not going to lose Stan!
“Well, you can’t take me back to my family,” she said stubbornly.
“Oh?” Stan asked sarcastically, shifting into the left lane and passing an old-looking truck. “And why’s that?”
“Because–”
Mabel’s mind shuddered to a stop.
Stan wouldn’t believe her. Not in a million years. Even in his eighties (at least, that’s how old Mabel assumed her grunkle to be in her time), he was so disbelieving of everything weird that he was able to live in Gravity Falls and think that nothing strange was going on! Mabel could only assume that Stan was the same way in whatever year she was in; he wouldn’t believe a twelve year old girl if she said she was from the future, especially if her time machine had conveniently dissolved into dust.
So… maybe Mabel could tell a version of the truth.
She couldn’t go home. She couldn’t see her family again. Then maybe…
“Because they’re dead,” Mabel said simply.
Stan’s wheel-tapping stopped. He snapped his face up to stare at her through the rearview mirror. Suddenly feeling uncertain and uncomfortable, Mabel avoided his gaze, opening her connect-the-dots book and staring at her drawing of a scarf kitten.
The atmosphere of the car was thick and silent.
“…Sorry,” Stan said lamely.
Mabel picked up a crayon and started coloring.
Stan didn’t seem to know what to say. He kept staring at Mabel, and ignoring the loud horns of cars behind honking as he slowed down.
“All of them?” he finally asked.
Not trusting herself to maintain the lie, Mabel nodded without looking at Stan.
Stan looked ahead once more. “Ah.”
The car lurched forward, getting back up to speed.
Mabel stared at the dots on the page, unseeing. Did Stan believe her? She didn’t seem sad enough for her whole family to be dead, did she? Plus, Mabel felt kind of bad lying to Stan like that. He didn’t deserve it.
She looked up and opened her mouth to reverse what she said– how exactly, she wasn’t sure–but she was interrupted by Stan.
“How are you at scams?” he asked, voice low and scratchy.
Mabel cocked her head. “Scams?”
“Tricks. Cons. Grifts. Swindles. Rackets. I could keep going.”
Mabel thought for a moment. “Uhh… not that great. I kno–knew someone who was awesome at them, though. I can probably learn.”
Stan nodded a little, thinking on her words. “You good at distractions?”
Mabel grinned widely. “Industrial-size sprinkles!”
Stan frowned. “What’re you–”
He paused, then laughed. “Nice.”
Mabel’s smile fell. She stared at the back of Stan’s head, filled with anticipation.
Time seemed to drag on while Stan thought, so it was a long, long, LONG time (approximately three minutes) before he spoke once more.
“Everything I said before still stands,” he said quietly.
Mabel drooped. Of course she wouldn’t get to stay with Grunkle Stan. He’d send her to an orphanage or something; he didn’t know her, he wouldn’t take care of her. It was too good to be true. Maybe… maybe Mabel could run away and try to find Grandpa Shermie?
“But…”
Mabel snapped her head up to stare at Stan. He seemed tenser than ever, but plowed through nonetheless. “…I can probably find ways around all that. Especially if you can help me with money-making opportunities.”
Slowly, slowly, a smile began to flicker across Mabel’s face.
Stan looked up at Mabel. “Capeesh?”
Mabel nodded eagerly, holding her pinky finger forward.
Stan groaned, but managed to twist his arm over the back of his seat and shake Mabel’s finger. He did wince when he got his arm back into place, though.
The two fell into silence once more; but it wasn’t awkward or uncomfortable. More… content.
Mabel almost couldn’t believe that everything had worked out. She was going to get to live with her grunkle! Now that she had Stan, she was never letting him go.
Mabel wasn’t going to lose anyone ever again.
She snuggled up against the car door, beginning to color once more.
“Not all my family’s dead,” she said simply.
Stan glanced back at her.
He smiled.