Chapter Text
It's the cutest thing she's ever seen and she needs it. Its ears are all floppy and its fur is brown and it's got a white spot in the middle of its forehead. She loves it. It's going to be her new best friend; bro-bro will understand. She just has to get to it.
She gets as far as off the blanket and into the grass before her plan is ruined by someone picking her up. She gives a kick as the person holding her lets out a, “Woah there, kid, where do you think you're going?”
“Grunka Tan!” she whines, squirming to escape but only managing to flip herself upside down in his hands. Grunkle Stan was strong; she could usually wiggle out of her mommy and daddy's arms if she tried hard enough. She points at her new best friend that he is being mean by keeping her from. “Puppy!”
She can hear her mommy laughing over where she's sitting on the blanket. Bro-bro is napping in her lap and Mabel really wants to wake him up so they can plot an escape together. The puppy can be both their best friend!
Instead though she's hefted onto Grunkle Stan’s shoulder as he sits back down; she kicks again to no avail. Usually she likes her grunkle; he smells like under the couch and gives her all kinds of ice cream and candy and thinks the way she talks is funny. But right now he is a meanie face! “Grunka Tan, lemme goooo. Wanna see the puppyyyyy!”
“She's going through an animal phase.” Mommy says, rubbing a thumb over bro-bro’s cheek. “Her room looks like a disaster area of stuffed puppies and kitties and whatever else she sets her eyes on in the store.” She smiles up at Mabel and Mabel grins right back because she loves her mommy. “She's a handful; hard to believe they're twins.”
Grunkle Stan laughs which makes her bounce a bit and Mabel can't help a giggle at that. He gives her back a pat, “Kid's got personality, that's all. Ain't that right, pumpkin?” he pulls her from his shoulder into his lap and she giggles more when his fingers dig into her side.I
“Perso-ality!” she repeats, trying to push away his hand from her side. He stops with the tickles she she slumps in his lap, seeing if she can reach her foot over to touch bro-bro’s with it.
“Shermie says she's just like your brother was at that age.” Her mommy says it with a smile but Mabel feels her grunkle suck his tummy in a bit, his hands squeezing his knees on either side of her too. Her mommy gasps and covers her mouth. “I'm sorry, I know you don't usually like to talk about—”
“It's fine.” He says it the same way her daddy says it when she and bro-bro catch him saying bad words on the phone. Mabel doesn't like it. “She's a much better kid than St—than he ever was.” his hand rubs at her hair; normally Mabel would get mad cause her hair was in pretty pigtails but she can tell grunkle is sad.
Mabel stands up out of Stan's lap, taking a moment to brush off her dress before running over to her Pretty Princess backpack where it was next to Bro-bro’s Professor Science one. She runs back over to where her grunkle is sitting and turns it over, dumping several handfuls of crayons all over the blanket and her drawing pad. She wanted to bring her glitter pens but mommy said she couldn't. She picks up the drawing pad and a handful of crayons before returning to her uncle's lap, settling back against his big tummy to get comfortable.
Taking a worn down pink crayon into her fist, she starts drawing. “Grunka Tan, do you like animals?” She asks as the most perfect pink piggy starts taking up the page. “I like piggies and kitties and puppies! Bro-bro likes war-wolfs.” bro-bro was weird but she still liked him.
“Werewolves, sweetie.” her mommy says, smiling again and adjusting bro-bro where he was napping. “Mason really likes monsters these days. I blame you for letting him watch that scary movie last summer.” She points a finger at Stan and that's Mommy's ‘better watch out’ look she gives when she catches Mabel and bro-bro climbing on the counters.
Grunkle Stan laughs though and Mabel liked that a lot better than the stiff way he was before. “I warned ya not to let me babysit.”
Mabel likes when Stan babysits; it feels like he's always gone forever then he shows up with stickers and toys that look like him and big bags of candy. Mommy and Daddy will let him watch them and, even though Mabel loves their normal sitter Haley, Stan is the best. They get to stay up late watching movies and eating treats. Once Stan fell asleep before them so they drew on his face. That had been fun.
“Thas what I said! War-wolfs!” she says with a huff, coloring in her piggy. She flips to a new page and looks up at Stan. “Do you like animals or monsers, Grunka Tan?”
Stan rubs at his chin for a moment then shrugs. “Whichever makes me more money, I guess.” he grins big so Mabel grins right back. “I do have a goat though, for what that counts for.”
Mabel can feel her eyes go wide. “Really?” Like the ones at the petting zoo? Mabel liked to feed them hay and once got to ride one until her daddy took her off for ‘terrorizing the other kids’ or something like that. She bounces in Stan's lap and immediately switches to a purple crayon to start drawing a goat. “I wanna see the goat!” it could be her best friend! “Can we go to Grunka Tan’s and see the goat?”
Stan tenses again but it's only for a second. She feels his hand on her hair again. “Maybe when you're older, sweetheart.”
“That sounds like a great idea. When they're older.” her mommy chuckles.