Chapter Text
Return of the Pines
Pacifica brushed her long blonde hair and tossed it over her shoulder. Today they were finally coming back! She took a deep breath and erased the smile. No, play it cool. She applied her makeup with practiced perfection. She closed her bag with a click and looked out the window. The Pines twins would be arriving in an hour and dragging chaos in their wake she could bet, good. Maybe something would actually happen to her for once. She leaned on the window and closed her eyes. Something good, that is.
“Late.” Pacific muttered. She almost kicked the dirt out of boredom, but stopped herself, that would scuff her boot.
Finally the Speedy Beaver bus appeared around the bend. Pacifica adjusted her sunglasses, straightening up. The doors opened and something colorful hit Pacifica knocking her back into the bus bench.
“Pacifica!!” Mabel was crushing her ribs. “It's so good to see you again!”
Pacifica gasped for air. “Mabel, stop, get off.”
Mabel bounced back up. Pacifica straightened her glasses again. Mabel has certainly grown the past few years. Instead of short and awkward-looking she was tall and less awkward-looking. She was taller than Pacifica by quite a bit, her hair braided back with various colorful things in it. She wasn't wearing her ever present sweaters but her tank top was still colorfully un-fashionable as ever. But it just seemed to fit her. She had a wide braceless grin as she jumped up and down. “Oh My Gosh! It's been forever! I can't wait to tell you about everything!”
“Mabel, can everything wait until we get the bags off the bus?” A muffled voice said behind a mountain of luggage he was carrying.
Mabel bounced aside and let Dipper step forward to set the luggage on the ground.
“Hey watch it!” Pacifica hissed as one of the bags landed close to her foot. “These boots are worth more than your ticket heeeerrre.” The last word came to an undignified slurred stop as Pacifica looked up and caught sight of Dipper.
He definitely wasn't the awkward nerd that had left five summers ago. Like his twin he was tall, but he also had added some muscle tone to his once skinny limbs, it seemed his fashion sense was as unchanging as his short, messy brown hair was crammed under a baseball cap. He had definitely gone from a weird-looking nerd to a better-looking nerd, the kind you think twice about before rejecting.
“Sorry,” he muttered.
“I suppose it's fine.” Pacifica said in a bored voice flipping her hair over a shoulder.
“Thanks for picking us up! Gruntled Stan isn't supposed to be here for another three days.” Dipper said with a smile. “It's good to be back.”
“Yeah, well, I was in the area, not like I drove out here for you dorks.” Pacifica winced. She was sliding automatically into the “mean flirting”.
Mabel tilted her head, confused. “Didn't you drive out here to pick us up? I wrote you a text message about it.” She pulled her phone out to check her messages.
“Whatever, it's fine, come on.” Pacifica interrupted hastily. “Any stops before the shack?”
Mabel climbed into the passenger seat. “Nope! Let’s kick it!”
“I missed you so much!” Mabel threw her arms around the goat in the yard. “Waddles says hello and his heart will always be yours.”
The goat continued to chew a can.
Dipper slung his back over his back and grinned. “Still looks the same. They didn’t even fix up the S.”
Pacifica dropped Mabel’s bag next to her. “Soos calls it branding. Melody calls it lazy.”
“Soos!” Mabel jumped up and ran for the front door.
“It’s Sunday, the shack is closed.” Pacifica yelled after her. “Soos and Melody are at their house.”
“You know a lot about what’s going on here.” Dipper commented, eyeing her.
Pacifica tossed her head. “Whatever.” She knew she sidestepped the question with all the grace of Stan Pines, But Dipper let it drop as he followed his twin into the shack.
“I’ve missed this, and this, and those and….” Mabel was running around the house hugging random objects.
“Mabel you bag is in the yard.” Dipper said over his shoulder as he walked up to the attic. “Might want to get it before the goat does.”
Mabel looked at Pacifica who crossed her arms. “I refuse to be a taxi and bellhop on the same day.”
Dipper got out his cell phone as it chimed. “Soos says that he and Melody are bringing pizza to the shack for dinner. We should have just enough time to unpack before that.”
The twins unpacked their bags in the attic room talking excitedly about memories of summers past and plans for the current one.
Pacifica sat on Dipper’s bed, Mabel’s was covered in craft supplies. “So why weren’t you here last summer?”
Mabel rolled her eyes. “Mom and Dad made us take some summer camps. We told them we wanted to be here but they wanted some variation in our lives.”
Dipper shrugged. “They want what’s best for us, even if it gets in the way of what’s actually best for us.”
“That must be nice.” Pacifica muttered under her breath.
“What?” Dipper asked.
“What are you planning on this summer?” She hastily changed the subject.
Dipper got an almost manic look in his eye. “I built some equipment that will be able to help me track anomalies. I’m going to take a week in the woods and…”
“Dipper!” Mabel put her hands on her hips. “You promised me a fun day before you went cuckoo banana pants, paranormal hunter.”
Dipper groaned. “Fine. How about a pool day?”
Pacifica examined her nails. “Closed. Got taken over by a squid monster last summer and everyone’s too scared to use it.”
Dipper scribbled something in a notebook. “I’ll put that on my to-do list.”
“How about the lake?” Pacifica asked. “People are actually starting to use it again and I know a great swimming spot.”
Mabel hugged her around the neck. “You would come with us?!”
Pacifica untangled herself. “Um, yeah, if that’s ok.” She hated how needy it sounded and how needy she felt.
“Of course!” Mabel screamed in her ear. “Tomorrow?”
“Sure.” Pacifica smiled. Mabel should be labeled a virus by how infectious her mood was.
“Dudes?” The front door slammed. “You up there?”
“Soos!” Mabel flew down the stairs with Dipper right behind her.
Pacifica got up and slowly followed the sounds of hugs and screams and ‘dudes’ and laughter. She found them all in the living room all talking over each other. Melody looked up from her hug with Mabel. “Pacifica! Thanks for picking them up.”
She shrugged. “No problem.”
Melody smiled warmly. “Would you like to stay for dinner? We picked up enough pizza for everyone.”
Pacifica had grown closer to Melody in the past three years, not that she was about to tell the twins exactly how much time she spent in the shack. Something about the natural joy and acceptance that oozed off of Melody drew Pacifica like Mabel to glitter. “Sure.”
Mabel and Dipper both looked at her in surprise.
She tossed her hair. “One can get tired of lobster and caviar.”
Dinner was loud and joyful. Pacifica found herself quietly watching them talk and laugh about the good old times. She envied it. She wished she had spent more time with them instead of trapped in the world her parent’s had made for her. Trapped by that stupid bell. Pacifica realized she was clenching her jaw and released it.
“You should have seen the way those puttputt guys flew!” Mabel laughed. “I swear Pacifica hit three hole-in-ones with them.” Mabel nudged Pacifica who looked up and smiled. “I go for finesse not power, you were knocking them over the windmill.”
Melody glanced up at the clock. “Midnight!? We need to sleep.” She ruffled Dipper’s hair. “Not all of us have the energy of youth.”
Pacifica reluctantly got up from the table. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“Lake day!” Mabel cheered.
“I’ll walk you out.” Dipper got up.
Pacifica raised an eyebrow. “When did you have the time to study manners?”
“About the same time you took up being a taxi service.” He grinned.
They walked in quiet to the car, Pacifica stifled a yawn as she dug out her car keys.
“Thanks for the ride today.”
“Ugh, you people act like I carried you on my back or something.”
Dipper looked up at the Oregon stars. “No, but it’s way more than you usually do for friends.”
“Don’t usually have friends to do it for.” She murmured and brushed her hair behind her ear.
“Huh?”
“Nothing.” She blushed. “I’ll see you losers tomorrow.”
“Should we expect you in a palanquin? Or do your feet touch sand?” He asked with a smirk.
She scoffed and rolled her eyes as she unlocked the car. “If I did have one, you wouldn’t even qualify to carry it, noodle arms.”
Dipper grinned and crossed his arms, unphased. “It’s nice to see you too. We missed you.”
Pacifica smiled back. “I know. Later, dork.”
She watched as Dipper waved goodbye as she drove away, she had a hard time concentrating back on the road. Pacifica gripped her steering wheel forcefully and hunched forward. No, if anyone was going to fall this summer it was going to be him, not her! She wondered where her bikini collection went.
She rolled through the irons gates of the new Northwest estate, parked, then opened the front door. Cold darkness greeted her.
She sighed. “I’m home.”