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Dipper shielded his eyes as he stepped off the bus. Mabel was lugging two overstuffed suitcases and struggling to drag them down the bus steps behind him. In his hand he had his own, much smaller luggage box that he had done his best to keep light and failed miserably to do, but his pride kept him from showing any struggle from holding it casually in one hand.
Even though she was still standing behind him, she started bouncing up and down and shouting, “Come on, Dipper! Hurry up!”
He laughed. “Okay, okay! Come on, I see Grunkle Stan and Great Uncle Ford.”
They were on the opposite side of the bus stop completely absorbed in one of their petty arguments that they still managed to get into. It turns out that even though their relationship had more than completely repaired, they still knew all of the other’s buttons and still were totally okay getting into it in public. It had concerned them, especially Mabel, when they first saw them going at it, but now after so many years they just thought it was cute.
Stan was in the middle of a tirade as they walked up. “I wouldn’t trust that old crone to tie my shoes , and you’ve got another thing coming if- hey, kids- if you think that I’ll let her step foot on-” he stopped, having actually realized Dipper and Mabel were standing there. He repeated, much more emphatically this time, “Hey! Kids!”
Ford was rolling his eyes at Stan but waved at the two. “Salutations.”
“Morning Grunkle Stan, Grunkle Ford!” Mabel beamed and ditched her bags to squeeze them into a bear hug.
“Come on kids, let’s get inside before we melt out here,” Stan said, not even bothering to offer to carry any of their bags.
Same old Grunkle Stan , Dipper mused to himself.
---
Naturally their first stop after dropping off their bags was to the Mystery Shack. Their Grunkles lived on their house-boat which was docked at the lake, but for old times sake Dipper and Mabel still spent a lot of time at the Shack whenever they visited. Soos had really come into his own running the place and it was great actually being paid to help out unlike when Stan ran the place. Even though there had been some staffing changes and Wendy hadn’t worked at the shack in years, it was still a fun environment.
It was still business hours when they got there so while they considered just walking in the front door Dipper reminded Mabel, “Soos is probably working. We should go in through the Gift Shop.”
It was all the same to Mabel who just nodded and said “ okie dokie.”
The creak of the Mystery Shack door brought back a flood of pleasant memories. Soos had replaced the carpet and re-papered the walls, but the sound of that old hinge still remained. Ford had told him to get it fixed every chance he got, but Soos pointed out that creaking hinges helped add to the atmosphere. Stan, who just enjoyed disagreeing with Ford, emphatically agreed with Soos every time. For Dipper, he had to admit there was a certain level of nostalgia he had every time he heard it, so he was 100% aboard the “creepy atmosphere” train, if only for selfish reasons.
And of course Mabel wanted to keep the hinges because that way she could sarcastically imitate the “EEEEK” noise from every time they opened a door.
A familiar voice called out from the inside of the gift shop. “Dudes! It’s so awesome to see you!”
Dipper whipped around to see Wendy standing behind the gift shop’s counter- a magazine was thrown down on the countertop, clearly just discarded. Dipper’s eyes went wide when he saw her there and he started to greet her back, but before he could get even one word out she had leapt over the counter and was crushing him in a warm, spine-breaking hug. “God, it’s been so long. You’re so much taller! Geez!”
She let him go and he wheezed out a shaky chuckle. She was hugging Mabel now and he got his first good look at her. She had gotten a haircut- it was a short bob, only just longer that her chin, and she had a new batch of freckles dotting her arms and face. She had always been fit, but now he was acutely aware of her lean muscles.
He couldn’t believe he was really seeing her right there in front of him, not after how much difficulty they’d had getting back in touch ever since their first summer in Gravity Falls.
Their first summer, year 1 A.B. (after Bill), their Grunkles had still been on their epic “exploring the entire Atlantic Ocean” voyage aboard the Stan-O-War. Then the year afterward, Wendy had been the one who couldn’t be in town when her dad forced her to finally take that long-dreaded stint at Lumberjack camp. Then the year afterward Wendy was again leaving town, but this time for a much more anticipated trip abroad with friends to celebrate their graduation. The ball had been back in his and Mabel’s court for the fourth summer, and that time the Grunkles had actually been invited down to Piedmont by their parents in a move meant to be courteous to Stan and Ford, but really it ended up just being an entire summer that Dipper and Mabel spent wasting away as they wished they from the place they could just go back to their true home. And almost as bad, they still didn‘t get to see Wendy. Candy and Grenda had been able to come down to visit, but for Wendy who now was dealing with college it just wasn’t feasible.
It continued that way year after year, and yeah, it sucked, but Dipper didn’t let it get to him one bit. They still texted all the time, and sure, within a blink of an eye he’d gone four years since he’d seen her- like, actually seen her in person- but he wasn’t about to make a big deal about it. He was over Wendy- he'd dated 3 different girls since and she’d dated... well, too many to count, but the point was they had moved passed that whole thing.
And then she just had to hug him like that.
Seeing her in person and getting one tiny, itty-bitty hug, and all of the feelings he’d tried to leave behind five years ago came flooding back into him.
Dipper was barely listening when Mabel shouted, “Wendy! I thought you said you weren’t going to be here this year!”
Wendy laughed and put and arm around Mabel’s shoulder. “Heh. Nah, I just wanted to surprise you two.”
“Well consider us surprised! Right, Dipper?”
His words caught momentarily in his throat. “Y-yeah, totally.” He wondered if the flushed feeling that had suddenly washed over him was reflecting as a blush on his face. Wendy made no facial expression to indicate she saw one, but then again she was always the cool type who wasn’t about to point out something like that. He collected himself. “I thought you didn’t work here anymore?”
“I didn’t, but this summer I got my old job back. Gotta pay those college bills,” she said while giving two giant thumbs down.
Mabel cupped her mouth with her hands and shouted, “Boo!”
“You got that right.”
Somebody walked in the store- clearly a tourist since neither twin recognized them- and Wendy greeted them with an emphatic “ yoooo ” before turning back to Dipper and Mabel. “Look, I gotta work, but I’ll talk to you guys later, cool? Soos is leading a tour in the new and improved hall of mirrors, which you should totally check out!”
“New and improved? Ooh la la ,” Mabel laughed.
Wendy left to help the out-of-towner and Dipper watched her walk away a bit longer than he should have. He broke eye contact to see Mabel eyeing him with a smile. “What?!”
“Bro, can we just real quick agree that you are, like, reeaaally bad at getting over Wendy?”
“Ha ha ha. Ha. Hey, shut up.”
“Hey, maybe she’d be interested now!” Mabel didn’t even attempt to whisper.
“Mabel, shh! Come on, don’t-”
She had adjusted her volume but still continued, “You were too young before, right? Well you’re a little man now-” Dipper huffed and she continued, “-so you should totally ask Wendy out!”
He didn’t want to admit it out loud, but he was suddenly hoping she was right about that. But admitting it felt like the opposite of a safe bet. Dipper merely grabbed her hand. “Come on, let’s check out this stupid hall of mirrors.”
---
The hall of mirrors was indeed new and improved and they got lost much more than either would like to admit. After that they spent most of the afternoon checking out the other new attractions, and before they knew it, it was closing time. Dipper was sitting on the couch and flipping through channels when Wendy approached.
“Hey, dude.”
“He-he-hey, Wendy!” He half-stuttered, half-laughed.
“Bro, we have got to catch up. It’s been the pits only being able to text.”
“Yeah, uh, I’ve really missed you, Wendy.” He realized he was saying her name waaaaay too many times.
“Same here,” she said while punching his arm. She sat down on the arm of the chair, so close he felt a deep blush paint his face all over again.
“So... uh...”
“Dipper, please tell me you caught ‘Attack of the Re-Living Dead’ last week. I need to talk to somebody about it.”
“ Of course I saw it! It was a total rip-off of ‘Zombies in the Shopping Mall’!”
“Thank you!” She shouted. “Did they think nobody would notice?!”
“Please, the climax even took place in the same Shoe Festival.”
“Exactly!” Wendy shook her head. “God, I’ve missed this.”
Dipper was silent for a long while before saying, “Yeah. Same here.”
Wendy was the one who didn’t speak for a few long beats this time. “Hey, like... I don’t wanna give you the wrong idea. I’m not...” She paused for a long time again. ‘I don’t wanna give you the wrong idea’ could only mean bad things, but Dipper didn’t dare prod her to say it. He kinda hoped she’d just chicken out and change the subject, but after a long moment she finished, “I still just wanna be friends, you know?”
Dipper threw his hands up. “Whoa-ho, hey, I wasn’t saying-”
“Long distance friendships suck enough already. I don’t want to have to deal with a long distance relationship on top of it. You understand that, right?”
“Yeah! O-Of course I do!”
“ Cuz like, seriously, not being able to see you for so long, it was the worst. And I don’t want to make it harder on either of us if we have to go another four years apart.”
“No, yeah, obviously,” Dipper said, doing his best to keep his voice from betraying his disappointment. It did make total sense, but that didn’t make it any less upsetting to hear.
"Sorry, man. I guess I made things weird, huh?"
"What? No, Wendy, I-" he exhaled. "I mean, yeah, I still like you, okay? But I'm just happy we're friends. You're the coolest person I know and even being able to just hang out again, it's... It's still awesome that we get to spend time together for real this summer."
She smiled. "Yeah. It is."
“The last thing I want to do is mess that up.”
“Ha, you dork.” She punched him in the arm again and relaxed, laying back on the chair. “Okay, but seriously, it was such a rip-off, right?”
He smiled. Being disappointed was stupid. Getting to talk about dumb movies in person with Wendy was all he’d wanted to do for the past four years, and he was doing it right now. Being here, being with her, being her friend? That was something he wouldn’t trade for the world.