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“So yeah, Dipper, what do you think?”
Dipper snapped back to pay attention to his sister after a second, blinking rapidly as he realized he hadn’t heard a word she’d said. “What?”
“Dipper!” Mabel smacked his shoulder, frowning. “You’ve been distracted all morning! Is it ‘cause Norman’s going to be in town in a week? His family is visiting, I know you’re excited, but it’s not like they’re here yet.” She crossed her arms over her chest, bundled in a couple of sweaters. It was nearing Winter break for them, their school preparing to have them be out for two weeks, and it was unseasonably cold.
“No!” Dipper’s first reaction was an intense blush that made his entire face turn red. “I mean, y-yeah, I’m excited he’s coming into town, I get to see him again,” he bit his lip and looked at the ground, rubbing gently at the wrist that had been broken the summer before. “But I thought I saw a guy sitting in the trees over there.”
He jerked his head gently instead of pointing.
Mabel blinked a couple of times before looking by only shifting her eyes. The trees Dipper had been looking at were covered in frost, which was strange. The ones around them weren’t frosted at all. “Here,” she said quietly, pulling her backpack off her shoulders and rummaging in it while still facing her brother, looking at the trees. She pulled her grappling hook out and handed him her bag. “I’ll be right back,” she whispered.
Before he could stop her, she marched off towards the trees with frost on them and shot the grappling hook into them, being pulled up a second later.
Dipper hesitated for a second before running towards the tree as well, dropping their bags at the bottom of it and starting to climb. Above him, he could hear Mabel talking, her voice oddly quiet, and he only climbed faster in response. His sister was almost never quiet, the quietest he’d ever heard her being was when something was wrong.
When he got to the branch she was sitting on, he perched on the one just below it and looked up to see a guy that looked about their age. His hair was white and he wore a blue hoodie with frost all over it.
“Uh,” Dipper shrunk back a little, looking at him and trying to process.
“Dipper, this is Jack,” Mabel grinned at her brother. “So, you know how weird things were happening in Gravity Falls? Apparently, they happen outside of there, too.”
“How so?”
“Jack Frost,” the other guy smiled a little nervously. “Did you say ‘Gravity Falls’? Is that a town or something?”
“It’s where our Grunkles live,” Dipper shrugged one shoulder, flailing for a second before steadying himself on his branch. “Little town in Oregon. Are you Jack Frost like the myth?”
“Yeah,” Jack nodded slowly. “I…I think there’s something we all need to talk about and I think we might need to get out of the tree to do it. You look like you’re having some trouble.” He reached out and steadied Dipper, keeping him from falling over. “Please don’t fall out of the tree, that would be a terrible way to go.”
“Thanks,” Dipper hunched closer to the trunk, wrapping his arms around it. “So, uh, you’re Jack Frost. Next thing I know, we’ll find out that the Easter Bunny is real…Or Santa! I don’t know,” he looked at Mabel, both of them laughing for a second. “I mean, we just keep finding out things that aren’t supposed to exist do actually exist, I wouldn’t be surprised.”
Jack looked at them and snorted. “Easter Bunny has an Australian accent and Santa is a big Russian guy with tattoos on his arms.”
Mabel and Dipper both turned to him as one, identical looks of shock and confusion on their faces. “WHAT?”
“Here, come on, out of the tree before you fall out,” Jack climbed down around Dipper and helped him find the balance for climbing back down. “I’ll explain to you when we’re on the ground. I like it up here and I’m safe because I can fly. You can’t fly, so onto the ground with you.”
It took a few minutes but they managed to safely reach the ground.
From Jack’s bare feet, several feet in each direction, frost spread across the ground and Mabel spent a few second tracing the patch closest to her with the toe of her shoe. “So you’re Jack Frost and you know Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny?”
“What’re they like?” Dipper grabbed his bag and pulled a notebook out of it, along with a pen. With a click and a flip of pages, he looked back up at Jack. “Can you tell us?”
“Well, Bunny’s a big rabbit-looking guy with an Australian accent and a short temper,” Jack grinned as Dipper scribbled notes down on the page. “Santa Claus’s real name is Nicolas St. North and he’s a big Russian guy. Carries swords everywhere, used to be a Cossack. Apparently, he once defeated a cavalry with a bent steak knife? Anyway. Sandman is also real and if you stay awake for too long, you’ll meet him, he goes by Sandy. Tooth fairy is real, goes by Tooth, which is short for Toothiana. She’s nice, likes healthy teeth a lot. Goes off on you if you don’t brush and floss and keep them clean.”
“She sounds cool,” Mabel interjected.
“She’d like you, I think,” Jack gestured at Mabel’s sweaters. “Likes bright colors a lot, has really colorful feathers. I think you two would probably get along pretty well.”
“…Would North like me?” Mabel put a finger on her chin and tilted her head. “I mean…We are Jewish. Does that count against us? He sounds neat. How come you know them? Did you get into a fight and have to defend someone’s honor and ended up being friends?”
Jack made a face as he processed her words, then started laughing. His shoulders shook and he bent in half, his staff helping him stay on his feet. “Man, you have an imagination,” he managed to say once his laughter subsided. “Nah, we work together because we’re supposed to be the Guardians of Childhood or something along those lines. Grandiose titles, blah blah,” he waved a hand in the air, clearing his throat and leaning against his staff. “So, who exactly are you two? Didn’t ask before because it’s rare that people can see me, still getting used to it.”
“Well, I’m Mabel and he’s Dipper,” Mabel bounced on her toes for a second. “We’re twins and we were heading home from school when we saw you.”
“Pines, if it matters,” Dipper followed up her introduction.
“How old are you guys?” Jack looked at them, something confused in his eyes. “Normally people stop being about to see me once they’re about fourteen or fifteen.”
“We’re sixteen,” Mabel’s grin grew even bigger. “Dipper, we’re even weirder than we thought!”
Jack looked at her again. “Would I be able to bring them to see you guys?” he asked after a moment of silence. “I’m going to tell them because I don’t think people are supposed to see us after a certain age. They turn into adults and they forget we actually exist but they do keep telling the stories to their friends and kids and they vaguely remember the mythology.”
“So we might be anomalies,” Dipper’s eyebrows shot up nearly to his hairline. “We’re not supposed to happen.”
“Not…Technically,” Jack frowned, leaning back on his staff. “At least, I don’t think so. I’ve only been what I am for a few years now, don’t know all the rules. Which is why I’m going to talk to the others and see what they say. Which is why they might come meet you, if that’s alright.”
“Yeah,” Dipper pulled out his journal. “Here.” He scribbled something down, then tore out a chunk of the page and handed it to Jack. “If you want, you can follow us for now and then that’s our address so that you can bring the others with you.” His face was flushed a healthy pink, his eyes bright and joyful. “Man, this is so cool!” he laughed a little. “Oh, you might also want to…Can you survive in summer?” he looked Jack up and down, frowning. “Our grunkles live in Gravity Falls and you might want to ask the guardian people about adults who can see things that most people can’t.”
“Yeah,” Jack nodded. “I think I can make that happen.”
Mabel tugged at Dipper’s sleeve and started walking again. “We’ll be late for dinner if we don’t start moving,” she told both of them. “Talk and walk people, talk and walk.”
“’Have you been reading that business strategies book again?” Dipper rolled his eyes. “Mabel, that book is like…Forty years old.”
“Doesn’t mean it doesn’t have good advice!” she laughed at her brother.
Tooth did turn out to like Mabel, both for her sweaters and her braces. North was surprised by the both of them but listened intently to the stories about Gravity Falls.
Norman turned out to be able to see the Guardians as well.