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“C’mon Grunkle Stan! We’re gonna dance!” Mabel said enthusiastically, grabbing his hand.
Stan had been staring at a newspaper for what seemed like hours, not able to pay attention to the outside world. He didn’t even try to read it because it was too much effort. Until Mabel stomped up to him, demanding that he was going to dance.
“Why?” Well, if he was going, he might as well get some answers.
“‘Cause when I feel sad, I always dance, and it seems to cheer me up! And you looked like you needed some cheering up!” She explained cheerfully, still pulling him along.
He didn’t know what to say to that, or how to explain that it might not work for him, so he let her drag him along. She lead him to the living room where a circle had been cleared in the middle of the room. A beatbox stood on the table, with disks surrounding it. She popped in a disk and hit play. It was a song that Stan couldn’t recognize, but immediately identified that it was a boy band song. Turning back to him, she started dancing as if there was no-one else in the room. Which was really unfair, considering that he couldn’t even begin to copy her moves. She grabbed his hand, and pulled him farther into the circle. Letting go of his hand, she turned up the volume and continued her dance.
Sighing, he knew there was only one way out of this; dance. He began to do the macarena, which only seemed to encourage Mabel as she started to headbang to a song that really didn’t match it. Idly, he kicked his leg out, wondering how long the song was, before deciding that she probably had a playlist. Grimacing, he continued the macarena. Mabel danced closer to him, picked up his hand, and spun herself. Stan retaliated by picking her up over his head and span around in a circle. She started laughing, only to abruptly stop when hair got in her mouth. Stan found that he was laughing too.
Setting her down, he started dancing in moves that would make even the most inexperienced dancer grimace, but somehow he felt free. Mabel didn’t seem to mind as she did the ‘sprinkler’. The moves came fluidly to him -terrible as they are-, and he lost himself in dancing. He barely even noticed that when he thrust his arm out vigorously, his elbow popped. The song ended, but neither of them noticed, just changed to the beat of the next song. Nearly an hour later, Stan had collapsed in his chair, absolutely exhausted. Mabel flopped down next to him, nowhere near as tired as him. Darn kids and their endless energy.
She scoots closer to him, perched on the arm of the chair, “You feel better?”
He surprises himself with the answer, “Yeah.”
She swings her feet, building up courage before asking, “Can I ask what you were sad about?”
He doesn’t know how to answer. He trusts her, and would do anything to protect her. But… she’s a kid. A kid who has been through the apocalypse and has seen enough sadness to last her the rest of her life. She… she deserves to know the truth. Her brother too, but he’s sure she’ll tell him.
“Um… I was thinking about… my parents. They weren’t very… nice. I was just remembering stuff that happened.”
“Oh! Is it like Pacifica?” She asks innocently, likely not sure of the extent of it all.
Hearing these words, Stan stills, “Pacifica?”
“Yeah,” She continued, oblivious to Stan’s rising anger (then again, he’s an amazing actor), “She always seems to be afraid of her parents. Dipper told me about how she was terrified about stepping on a carpet! People are supposed to walk on those!”
“The Northwest's, huh?” Stan said slowly, gritting his teeth “I’ll have to have a little chat with them.”
After that day, Pacifica hung around the shack more, looking more comfortable then they’d ever seen her before. When asked about it, she’d smile and say that nothing happened. Those with sharper eyes could possibly see her quick glance to Stan, but no one really looked that far. If she had secrets, then it was up to her to decide what to do with them. Stan never mentioned her being there, simply called her one of the kids, content with another child. This is what surprised them the most, considering how cheap Stan was, you’d think he didn’t want more kids. She quickly became a common sight in the mystery shack, and slowly became friends with the other kids. And if her parents seemed afraid of Stan, or held bruises for a week after Mabel had told him? Well, nobody mentioned it.