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Stan had only been wanting to take the twins to the beach, just have another fun day on the water with his niblings, some good family bonding time. But then Soos had overheard him making plans and had gotten so excited about it and Stan hadn’t had the heart to tell him he couldn’t come, not when he’s basically raised the young man since he was 13. So Soos had come along too. He’d considered inviting Ford too but the man is still so pasty from not being in the sun for thirty years, he’d legitimately worried that he’d burst into flames if he came into direct contact with it now. At least at the shack, there are trees to filter it out. Plus, it’s probably not wise for him to swim with that metal plate in his head.
Then they’d gotten to the beach and Wendy had been there with her dad and brothers, the boys ‘fishing’ and he uses that term lightly, since they seem more interested in trying to shove each other off the pier than actually catch anything. Naturally, she’d gotten bored of that, seen the four of them in the sand, and come to join them.
“Sup.” She greeted, snagging a Pitt Cola from the cooler.
“We’re making the best sandcastle ever!” Mabel announced.
“We’re going to dig a moat around it when we’re finished.” Soos adds.
Dipper is knee deep in the water, fetching another bucket of water to make more wet sand, so he doesn’t respond, but he smiles and waves at her when he sees her.
“Awesome.” Wendy sighs, dropping down to help out.
Stan chuckles, shaking his head at her antics. He likes it though, as much as he may grumble about her always randomly tagging along with him if she sees him in public, he could never shoo her away. Not so secretly, he loves that she’s decided that he’s her go to when she needs some relief from the craziness that is her father and brothers.
He’s not being so helpful in their quest to build ‘the best sandcastle ever’ and he’s fine with that. He’s got his beach chair set up under the umbrella he’d re-stolen from Wendy’s roof spot and a cold can of Pitt Cola in his hand, content to just watch them play around. Waddles is lounging happily beside him, thoroughly muddy from his trek to the swampy spot by the little river that runs from the lake and towards town. The kids are doing a pretty good job so far, they’ve got a big centre structure and they’re working on adding towers to its corners and smaller structures surrounding it.
“Careful Dipper!” Mabel scolds as he dumps the water onto the surrounding sand so they can mould it. “You’ll knock down the castle!”
“I’m being careful!” Dipper insists.
“Dudes, check this!” Soos says, interrupting the argument before it can begin, “If we had a smaller bucket, we could put a second tower on top of the ones on the corners!”
“Ohh, we could!” Dipper agrees, he and Mabel moving to Soos’s side to look at what he’s pointing at. “Do we have a smaller bucket?”
“We’re using the smallest size we have on making the towers.” Mabel says with a frown.
“What if we used, like, a cup?” Wendy asks, perking up like a meerkat. “My dad bought cups of worms for bait, I’ll go grab one!”
And just like that, she’s off running. Stan watches as she rejoins her family, grabbing a styrofoam cup of worms, upending it into another open cup of worms, and running back to their little crew. Dan watches her run and then looks to Stan, raising a thumbs up to double check that Wendy is welcome and he raises his own thumbs up in return. He could never send the kid away, she’s kicked and clawed her way into his old, dead heart and refuses to leave.
Brat.
“Here we go!” She announces, presenting the cup to the three like she’s brought them the Olympic Torch.
“Awesome!” Mabel gasps, taking it from the red head. “Now we can make smaller castles.”
And they return to building, working surprisingly efficiently for what the task is. Mabel is clearly in charge, she’s got the artistic vision, and she’s commanding the worker ants under her. Dipper keeps making trips to the lake to grab more water, making sure they constantly have wet sand to work with, while Soos does the more delicate positioning of the tower, his experience with light bulbs apparently making him best suited for that job. Wendy packs the sand into the bucket and cup tightly and hands it off to Soos to place and their little city is growing impressively.
“Oh! We should add pebbles and shells to the buildings for decoration!” Dipper gasps, the idea striking him like lightning.
Mabel gasps too, reaching over and using her sandy hands to sandwich her brother's face, squishing his cheeks tightly between them.
“You! Are! A genius!” She shouts, squealing in excitement. “Let's go find some!”
The four of them stand up, ready to break off in different directions to collect shells. Mabel and Dipper are a unit, as always, heading towards the pier, while Wendy is moving towards the town and Soos is moving towards the marina. Waddles grunts beside him, hauling himself to his feet and trailing lazily after the twins.
“Grunkle Stan!” Mabel calls, “Can you make sure nobody knocks down our town?”
“I’ll guard it with my life.” He promises.
The assurance makes Mabel light up and then she and Dipper are rushing off to find decorations for their sand city. While they’re gone, Stan takes the chance to get a proper look at what they’re making and he has to admit, it’s pretty impressive. They’ve made one big castle in the middle, clearly made of several bucketfuls of sand positioned incredibly closely together and then an extra, tighter layer stacked on top of the original, giving it a pyramid type of look. At the corners, they’ve got what are likely supposed to be watch towers with one main portion at the bottom and then added a taller, skinnier tower on top of them, obviously from the cup Wendy stole from her dad and brothers.
Surrounding the big tower, they’ve got smaller towers spaced around it, the town for whatever character they’ve made up to live in the castle to govern. It’s funny, he can see in the town when Wendy got the cup, because the big towers are broken up with smaller ones that could only have been made with the worm cup. It’s cute, it’s clear they’ve put a lot of thought into it, and he can see why they’re proud of it.
“Isn’t it cool?” Dipper asks.
He turns around to see the twins returning to their city, hands full of shells and pebbles that they dump in a pile near their bucket. Waddles scuttles down to the lake and laps up some water, then returns to his spot beside Stan’s chair and flops back onto his side.
“Looks pretty awesome.” He nods. “I’m liking the castle, looks pretty imposing.”
Both kids grin widely, wiggling with excitement at the praise. He smiles back at them, watching them start sorting their haul into categories only they understand. Then, when Soos is scurrying back with his collection, he returns to his seat.
“Look dudes!” He says, “I found seaglass!”
The kids clamber to invite Soos to deposit his treasure into the pile they’ve made, starting to sort his additions into their piles. Occasionally, he can hear snippets of their planning, they’re going to use the seaglass to make a stained glass mural in a certain tower they’ve deemed ‘the church’ and the prettiest pebbles and shells on the castle and the rest will go on the remaining buildings. Mabel’s traced a circle in the sand and they’re laying out the seaglass to see what designs they like best before they put it on the structure when Wendy comes back.
“What’d you get?” Dipper asks, no doubt having noticed that she didn’t go towards where shells usually are.
“I got some wild flowers, some bark, some sticks, and some long grass.” Wendy lists. “I thought we could use the petals from the flowers to make flags and we can make, like, doors and stuff with the bark. And when we did the moat, I can use the grass and some sticks to make a bridge.”
“Ohh, that’s smart.” Soos says with a nod. “That way, the people in the city will be able to get across.”
“And flags! Like a real kingdom!” Mabel grins.
So while Soos and Mabel play with the seaglass mural, Wendy and Dipper start picking petals off flowers to create a flag. He’s no expert on flags and neither is Dipper, but the way that the boy’s talking about it, you’d think that he designed flags for a living. He’s muttering about colour patterns and what will be most noticeable from a distance. He’s also fairly certain he’s heard the kid mention what will be recognisable in the Olympics and he has to stifle a laugh.
It’s cute though, it’s soothing. They’re kids just being kids, no worries, not worried about food or if they’re going to be able to afford a motel room tonight or if they’re going to have to sleep in their back seats again. Something he’d noticed when Soos and Wendy came around is, he’d been really young when his dad kicked him out and no matter what he’d done, he hadn’t deserved that. He’d brushed it off because he assumed he’s been bigger and more mature but looking at them now, picturing Soos having to take the jobs he had to just to survive, imagining Wendy having to pick through a restaurant dumpster for food, it makes him sick. It makes him realise that he was that little too.
Regardless, it’s nice to see them just play and have fun. No matter how much of a hurry Dipper is in to grow up, he’s still young, still a child, and it’s nice that he’s actually doing regular kid stuff. He’s engaged with his sister and their friends without having his nose buried in Ford’s journal or any book he got from the library. Mabel and Soos are debating the appeal of different designs for their mural and Wendy keeps jumping between projects. Eventually, when she and Dipper settle on a flag design, they wander off to the forest, shoes in hand, to grab pine needles to hold the petals together.
“Grunkle Stan!” Mabel calls, rousing him from his thoughts. “Come look at our murals and tell us which one is better!”
“Alright.” He grunts, heaving himself out of his chair again.
Waddles gets up with him, snuffling at his feet while he walks. Damn pig, always trying to trip him up. Soos and Mabel are sitting in the sand with their sea glass pieces between them.
“Okay.” He says, crouching beside them. “Show me these murals.”
Mabel goes first, simply because she’s faster, and puts the pieces together in her practised design. It’s very Mabel, the colours are limited but she makes them work, it’s abstract but there’s some odd organisation to it that makes it work. Once he gets a good look at it, Soos takes his turn.
Soos is a little more organised than Mabels, he’s arranged the pieces in patterns but the patterns sort of shift the further out they get in the circle. Almost like looking at a spiral staircase from the bottom, the stairs look like they’re getting looser and looser the further up they go. He’s impressed, though not surprised, Soos has always had a knack for this type of creativity, he’d done very well in his art classes in high school and it’s no wonder why he and Mabel get along so well. But still, it’s clear they’re both expecting an answer.
“Could you combine them?” He asks. “Put Mabel’s design in the centre and then Soos’s around the edge? That’s kinda how real church windows are, they’ve got one design in the centre, then there’s a break, then another design around the edges.”
The two look at each other, then Soos grabs one of the thinner sticks Wendy brought back and starts gently bending it until it holds a curve, and puts it in the centre of the little sand circle, working the glass pieces around it. Mabel doesn’t need inviting to join in, minimising her design to fit in the smaller circle of the stick while Soos works around her. Patting himself on the back for another job well done, Stan stands back up and shuffles back to his chair, nearly getting trampled by Dipper and Wendy on the way.
“Careful.” He warns.
“Sorry Grunkle Stan!” Dipper huffs.
“Sorry Mr. Pines.” Wendy calls over her shoulder.
He shakes his head and goes back to watching them. Soos and Mabel have gotten to actually putting their mural on ‘the church’ while Wendy and Dipper start using pine needles to piece together flags. For once, they’re surprisingly quiet, something he’d normally take as a warning sign that they’re up to some shit, but given that they’re less than two metres in front of him, he’s not concerned. Waddles sniffs around Dipper and Wendy until he realises that they haven’t brought back anything edible, then he returns to the shade and grunts unhappily at Stan, who placates him with an apple slice.
When Soos and Mabel have finished with the mural, they move on to taking finished flags from Wendy and Dipper and ‘hanging’ them on the buildings, mostly on the tops of the castle towers but also on some of the taller surrounding buildings. When they run out of flags, they start adding shells and pebbles to the castle and other buildings and using the bark to make doors. Now that they’re not fetching supplies constantly, things go quickly and then they move onto building the moat.
Once they start digging, Waddles wanders over to help them. If it’s one thing the pig is good at, it’s pawing holes in his damn lawn. Mabel squeals in delight when her beloved pet starts ‘helping’ them, even though he’s not much help, and starts digging beside him. Soos and Wendy are making quicker work than the twins, and they’re more analytical about it, making sure they leave a few inches of flat sand between the edge of the moat and the sandcastles so that their buildings won’t fall into the water. Wendy even uses some spare pebbles and sticks to shore up the edges so they won’t fall. He’s going to have to get her designing some attractions, it seems she has an eye for the logistical side of things like this.
“Should we dig a river to the lake or just carry bucketfuls of water to the moat?” Dipper asks.
Before any of them can answer, Stan pipes up. He’s been relatively quiet before now, letting them play on their own, but they’re getting his two cents now.
“Bring the water to the moat, I don’t want people breaking their ankles tripping on your river.” He instructs.
“Won’t they break their ankles on our moat?” Mabel asks innocently.
“Nah, your city is enough of a warning for it. I’m worried the river will be too hidden.” He assures.
And that’s the end of that discussion. Perks of having their respect (though Dipper and Wendy will never admit it) is that when he gives them an actual order, they listen. So they bring buckets of water to fill up their moat. He reaches to grab another can of Pitt Cola and when he sits upright, Wendy is right in front of him. He doesn’t even hide his startled yelp, nearly dropping his drink.
“Do you have your knife?” Wendy asks.
“You don’t have yours?” He returns.
“I left it over with my dad and if I go get it, I’ll get a lecture on knife safety.” She shrugs.
“And you think I won’t give you a lecture on knife safety?” He asks.
“You taught me how to get free snacks out of a vending machine.” Wendy answers.
Fair enough.
“Why do you need a knife?” He asks.
“I want to carve notches into these sticks so the drawbridge will stay together.” She explains, holding up some sticks she’d brought with her and pointing to where she wants to carve.
“Okay, but you’re the only one who touches it. The twins don’t get to use it, Soos doesn’t get to use it. You use it and then you bring it right back to me.” He instructs, fishing his old pocket knife out of his pocket. “And don’t leave it in the sand, you’ll make it dull.”
“Thank you!” Wendy chirps, taking it from him and hurrying off.
He contemplates telling her not to run with it but thinks better of it. She’s lived with lumberjacks her whole life, she’s probably been running with knives since she would walk. As much as he trusts Wendy, he does keep an eye on her while she has the knife. A fifteen year old is a fifteen year old, no matter how mature.
As promised, she does return the knife to him promptly, even showing off the bridge she’s made. Of course, she pretends she isn’t showing it off, she just happens to put it on his leg while she grabs some crackers out of the cooler. It’s well done, she’s braided some of the long grass together to make rope and has used the notches she’s carved into the sticks to make the bridge stick together, then tied it with the rope. It’s good, it may actually hold some weight. Also not surprising, Dan’s a talented carver and while he may not have known her mother well, he’d heard the same things about her, she’s probably had some lessons from both of them before her mom died.
“Looks good.” He shrugs, pretending to not be that invested.
That’s the trick with her, you can’t focus too much on what she’s pretending not to show you. You have to be as lackadaisical about it as she is, or she’ll get weirded out and stop doing it. Soos is the opposite, he’ll show off what he’s done with pride radiating off every inch of his body, and if it’s shrugged off, it will crush him. Dipper and Mabel fall in different places on that spectrum and he’s learned to work with them too. He’s not entirely sure if they’ve figured out that he adapts how he reacts to their needs either, or if they’re just grateful that he doesn’t try to push their boundaries about it.
Wendy scampers off, putting her bridge into its place over the moat. Dipper and Mabel watch her do it with awe, the finishing touch on their masterpiece. Soos even mimics a trumpet noise to commemorate the occasion, which makes Waddles squeal in excitement.
“It’s amazing!” Dipper says, sounding like he just built Rome.
“Right!” Wendy agrees, throwing her hands out to show her excitement. “Best sand city ever!”
Mabel says something too fast for him to catch it, but he knows it’s an agreement. Soos is just walking around the circumference, taking in the fruits of their labour.
“Wanna see Mr. Pines?” He asks.
There it is, there’s that pride in his accomplishment that he knows to listen for. He sounded like this the first time that the kid showed him a spelling test from school, or when he asked Stan to look over a history assignment for him.
“Sure.” He nods, getting up again.
In an instant, Mabel is at his side, clinging to his hand and barely restraining herself from trying to drag him over faster. Dipper is bouncing on the balls of his feet, also clearly excited for his grunkle to see their city, and he’s so proud of it.
It’s a lot to be proud of too, they’ve clearly put their hearts and souls into it. The towers are all decorated with pebbles and shells, their main castle has flags on all the towers and bark doors, the church has a stained glass window, and it even looks like they’ve used the yellow centre from the dismembered flowers to make streetlights. It’s very well done.
“Kids, this looks good.” He praises, wandering around the edges of the moat to look at it from all sides. “This may be the best sand castle city I’ve ever seen.”
He and Ford never had the patience for this type of creativity, they preferred working on the Stan O’ War or Stan would skip stones and Ford would read. This clearly took time and effort and it’s paid off.
“I’ll get my phone.” Wendy announces, rushing over to the cooler. She comes back with her phone in hand, walking around to get pictures of their city.
“Send those to me, I’ll print them out so Mabel can put them in her scrapbook.” He requests.
“Already on it.” She nods, waving it happily.
They continue to admire their city for a bit before the sand on his skin starts to get to Dipper and he pats his thighs to get some off.
“Ughhh, I need a swim.” He groans. “I think I have sand in my pores.”
“Race ya!” Mabel cries, darting off towards the water.
Dipper is close on her heels, both of them splashing through the shallows loudly. Soos laughs loudly at them and follows the twins, dipping to pat Waddles on the head as he passes. He and Wendy laugh as they watch Soos wade through the water to get to the twins, then fall forward to splash them, making them squeal.
“Can you take my phone back to the towels?” Wendy asks, holding it out to him.
He nods, taking her device and then laughs as she races out to join them, throwing herself up to cannonball at them, making a wave to splash them. From there, a water fight breaks out, every man for himself, and they’re just trying to soak each other. Waddles squeaks at the edge of the water, either scolding them or egging them on, Stan can’t tell, but he’s chuckling to himself as he walks back to his chair. He puts Wendy’s phone in the side pocket of Mabel’s beach bag and pushes the back of the chair back into a recline, ready for a beachside nap. Wendy was a lifeguard for a week, she can keep the rest of them alive. Waddles rests against his feet while he snoozes.
~~~
It’s years of paranoia and being on constant alert that warn him about the mischief creeping up on him, and he opens his eyes just in time to see Mabel, Dipper, and Wendy standing over him with raised buckets.
Then they tip the buckets and he’s covered in water.
“Ha!” Dipper crows, laughing as he splutters.
The laugh dies on his tongue when Stan calmly reaches for a towel, pats his face dry, and then stands up.
“Welp, guess kids need disciplining.” He shrugs, lunging forward.
The three of them scream as they try to get away from him, he gets the twins first, holding both of them by one ankle in one hand, thankful that they’re still small enough to do that with, and then goes after Wendy. The teenager is a lot more agile than the twins, and with their added weight, he’s slower, but he’s also a boxer, he knows how to fake someone out. He feigns going left and when she goes right, he’s there to meet her, catching her around the waist and holding her under his arm like a football.
“Where’s Soos, was he in on this?” He asks, marching them towards the pier.
“He went to the bathroom.” Mabel giggles, sticking her tongue out.
“Makes sense, he would never betray me like this.” He nods sagely.
Waddles is trotting around his ankles, looking up as best he can at Mabel and Dipper, held upside down. He’s oinking loudly too, not really helping his ‘stern’ demeanour. He marches them up to the pier, not too close to the rest of the Corduroys, and stands on the edge of the pier. Wendy and the twins are shrieking in excitement. Dan looks over at him with a raised eyebrow and he nods at him respectfully before tossing his daughter off the edge into the water below. Then he takes Dipper in his freshly freed hand and throws him in after her, Mabel following shortly after.
In the water, all three kids are laughing hysterically. Mabel and Wendy have their hair floating in every direction and Dipper’s is flattened to his scalp, making him look even smaller than normal.
“They bothering you?” Dan asks with a laugh.
“Little brats splashed me.” He says. “Had to show’em who’s in charge.”
“Ahh, of course.” Dan nods, playing along. “It’s the only way.”
Mabel and Dipper climb up the ladder of the pier, standing beside him dripping wet and still laughing.
“Again!” Dipper demands, pulling on Stan’s arm.
“Again! What, didn’t learn your lesson the first time?” He asks, pretending to be angry. “Well alright then.”
He lifts Dipper up under the armpits and heaves him up over the edge and into the water, the boy laughing loudly until he hits the water. Mabel is next, shrieking happily as she follows her brother into the water.
Stan’s chuckling too, waiting patiently with a faux-stern look on his face while they climb out again. Wendy leads the charge this time, playfully trying to push him off the edge, only to wind up thrown into the water. When Dipper climbs up his back to ‘choke’ him, his cold little feet digging into his old back, he plays along for a second before lifting him off his shoulder, hoisting him over his head, and throwing him back into the water.
“Looks like the lesson isn’t getting through.” Dan comments. “Kids these days.”
“Tell me about it.” Stan agrees, swinging Mabel around like a sack of potatoes before she joins Wendy and Dipper in the water.
Each time he tosses them, he watches intently for them to surface again. He’s not throwing them roughly and the three of them are strong swimmers, but he’s careful nonetheless, he doesn’t want to accidentally hurt one of them. As much as he’s joking about punishing them, this is just a game.
And isn’t that nice, they trust him enough to dump water on him, to tease him like this. He would have never done this with his father, Filbrick Pines did not play with his children, and even something as harmless as splashing him with water would have resulted in a stern lecture at best. When he’d been younger, he’d thought it was just respect. He doesn’t think that anymore, what he’d felt for his father wasn’t respect, it was fear and those are not the same thing.
Wendy respects him, as much as she pretends she doesn’t, and part of that is teasing him. The twins respect him, he’s their go-to when they need help with something, and they play with him all the time. And he wouldn’t trade it for anything, he’s not a young man, he won’t be around forever. How are people going to remember him? As the jackass who screamed down the kids for splashing him with water, or as the guy who plays along and has fun with them?
He knows how his father is remembered and now, looking at Wendy’s devilish expression while she and Dipper whisper a plot to shove him off the edge, he knows how he’ll be remembered.
“Arhhhhh!” Dipper yells, racing at him. He simply side steps, letting the kid run off the edge all on his own.
When Wendy tries to push him, he flips her up over his head and holds her for a second, like a wrestling move he’d seen before he realised most wrestling was staged, and then tosses her into the water. Mabel is less focused on trying to shove him into the water, she just likes being tossed.
“My turn!” She demands, arms up for him to pick her up.
“Ugh, alright pumpkin, up ya come.” He says, lifting her up.
He kisses her head before he throws her, Wendy and Dipper treading water below them, cheering when she splashes down. Waddles squeals and paces the edge of the dock until she resurfaces, then snorts and starts gnawing on a leftover rope tied to one of the posts.
“To battle!” Dipper shouts, climbing the ladder with as much grace as a preteen boy can manage and then charges him.
The boy is smiling while he rushes him and he’s even lifted his arms to make it easier to pick him up when he gets close enough. Stan grabs him, holds him like a rugby ball, and tosses him, putting a spin on him that makes him scream. Wendy rushes him, actually getting some good momentum behind her and it forces him to take a step forward or fall down. A lesser man would have been pushed into the water, he’s just displaced, he finds his centre, doesn’t over compensate for the movement, and he’s fine. Now Wendy, on the other hand, needs to be taken down a peg.
He turns as quickly as he can, laughing at the look of shock on her face, and grabs her under the arms. She shrieks, squirming to try and get away from him, but he lifts her up and tosses her in after Dipper. She resurfaces looking disappointed, slapping the water like it’s offended her.
“Almost got me that time.” He laughs, trying to reassure her. He knows she isn’t really hurt about it, but she’s competitive and she likes to win.
“I’m putting you in a home.” She returns.
“What home?”
Soos choses that moment to join them, trotting up the pier just in time to hear Wendy threaten him with long term care facilities.
“Why are we on the pier now?” Soos asks.
“These three splashed me while I was napping, I had to get back at them somehow.” He says.
“You threw water on Mr. Pines!” Soos gasps, glaring down at Dipper and Wendy, Mabel has climbed back up to stand beside him.
“He’s lying!” Dipper shouts, flailing in the water. “He’s gone insane!”
“The dementia has got him!” Wendy agrees, swimming for the ladder. “It’s so tragic when old people go senile.”
“Careful little lady, if I’m senile, your paycheques are no longer valid. I’ll have my lawyer come after you.” He warns playfully.
“You and I both know you’d literally rather drink bleach than go in front of a judge.” Wendy shoots back, climbing up onto the pier. “So I think I’m safe. Besides, who are they gonna side with? The centuries old criminal or the sweet little girl?”
“HA! I knew there was a reason I liked you.” Stan laughs, ruffling her wet hair. “You’ve got sass!”
Then he pushes her back into the water.
“But nothing about ya is sweet.”
Dipper is now up on the pier with his sister, the two of them sitting on the side, legs dangling over the edge while they watch Wendy reclimb the ladder. The five of them are quiet, waiting for the next move, when Wendy spits a mouthful of water at him, right at his chest, then grins like a devil. Dipper and Mabel howl with laughter, not even bothering to hide it, while Soos looks like he’s not sure whether to laugh or scream.
“You’re such a brat.” He chuckles, lightly shoving her.
“Gonna throw me?” She taunts/asks.
“Ehh, I’m old.” He shrugs. “Soos, throw the girl!”
“On it Mr. Pines!” Soos salutes, grabbing Wendy’s waist and throwing her the same way he’d throw a trash bag into the back of his truck. Dipper gasps and Stan braces himself to jump in after her if she hits the water awkwardly and ends up hurt.
Instead, Wendy comes up laughing, swimming in a loose circle to stretch out her limbs. Stan lets himself relax a little, though he is going to have to tell Soos not to throw the kids like that, he doesn’t need one of em getting hurt.
“You throw like a pansy!” Wendy teases, climbing up the ladder.
“Yeah, you throw em like this.” Stan says, snatching Dipper up from the ground and tossing him over the edge.
Mabel laughs while her brother hits the water, only to shriek herself when Stan grabs her and tosses her in right after him. Soos nods intently, like Stan’s shown him the most important info in the word.
“Like this?” He asks, grabbing Wendy and shoving her over the edge.
This time, it’s much gentler. He’s not worried about her getting hurt this time, and he nods.
“Exactly.” He praises. “You’re getting the hang of it.”
Despite being the last one in the water, Wendy is the first one out, climbing the ladder with Dipper on her back. And while his nephew swears that he doesn’t have a crush on Wendy anymore, his cheeks are awfully red, but at least he’s not such a spaz about it. Mabel isn’t far behind them, shoving her brother out of the way so she can get to Stan.
“Again!” She demands, hands up.
“Ahh, sweetie, I’m too old.” He smiles. “Soos, keep tossing the kids, I’m going back to my chair.”
Soos nods while Wendy and Dipper get ready to try and push him into the water. Mabel though, fixes him with the puppy eyes.
“One more time?” She asks.
Damn his old heart, it melts. He lifts her up under the arms and tosses her over the edge, hearing her yell a quick “thank you” before she sinks beneath the surface.
“Have fun kids!” He calls, “Don’t hurt each other!”
“No promises!” Wendy calls back, climbing up Soos’s back.
He’s chuckling all the way back to the beach towels, Waddles chuffing along at his heels, excited for the prospect of rolling in the swamp again. He collapses in his chair and fetches some apple slices from the cooler, dropping one in the sand for Waddles to find when he returns from the mud. He’s keeping an eye on the kids, watching Soos get attacked by Wendy and Dipper and how he clumsily flings them into the water. He’s proud of the kid, really, he may not have the decades of practice like he does, but he’s turned into a damn good boxer.
Eventually though, Wendy and Dipper overwhelm him and he topples backwards into the water with the two kids clinging to him. From the end of the pier, Dan stands up and cranes his head to look over the edge and then gives him a thumbs up. He can see Soos, Wendy, and Dipper resurface happily, he can see their heads poking up from the waves.
~~~
When the four kids return to him, they’re soaked to the bone, goosebumps on every visible inch of skin, and their lips are starting to turn blue. While Dipper, Wendy, and Soos go for the towels that have been soaking in the sun for a few hours, Mabel flops into the lawn chair with him and presses herself so closely to him that it’s like she’s trying to graft herself to him. He yelps, moving violently when her cold hands latch onto him.
“What are you doing?” He demands.
“Warming up.” She shrugs, squirming closer to him.
“You have towels!” He says.
“You’re warmer than the towels.” She says.
He huffs, rolls his eyes, and wraps his arm around her to make her comfortable and does his best to ignore her cold feet and hands against him. Dipper tilts his head at his sister and then looks at him with the devilish grin that is so much like Ford’s when they were younger.
And then he climbs onto his other side and purposefully presses his frigid, sandy feet against his side.
“You’re on dish duty for a week kid.” He warns, knowing it’s an empty threat.
“Worth it.” Dipper smiles.
Wendy then pushes her cold hands on the back of his neck and laughs when he shudders, meanwhile, Soos, the only one who actually respects him, tosses Mabel and Dipper’s towels over them.
“Alright, I think our beach day is done.” He announces. “The three of you I came here with, start packing your stuff. The one who tagged along after, either go back to your family or go ask your dad if you can come back to the shack with us.”
“I’ll go ask my dad if I can come with you.” Wendy says, running off.
Dipper climbs off him and starts folding towels up while Soos takes down the umbrella. Mabel detached herself from him with a lot more reluctance and then held the towel bag open for Dipper to stuff the towels into it. Stan folds up his chair and helps Soos secure the umbrella while Dipper tries his best to lift the beach bag and the cooler at the same time and then nearly falls forward onto his face.
“Don’t break yourself kid, take one at a time.” Stan instructs.
With great reluctance, Dipper releases the cooler and starts hauling it towards the car. Stan lifts the beach bag onto his own shoulder and tucks the beach chair under his arm, he and Soos following his nephew. Poor kid, he understands that he’s trying his best to be strong and he respects that, he just needs to keep him from falling into the trap of thinking you need to break yourself to become stronger.
Wendy runs over to them, grinning from ear to ear, and snatches up the buckets and shovels they’d used to make the castle. Clearly, she’d gotten permission from her father to keep hanging out with them. Mabel is soaking Waddles, the mud running off him in rivets and Stan sighs at the knowledge that he’s going to have to scrub wet pig smell out of his car’s upholstery later.
“Come on kids, we’re wasting daylight!” He orders, shoving everything haphazardly in the trunk and ushering the kids into the car.
“Do we need seatbelts?” Wendy asks.
“Yes!” He says.
“But you don’t wear one.” She returns, sitting in the middle of the back bench between Dipper and Mabel.
“Do as I say, not as I do.” He instructs sagely. “Besides, I’m old. I can put myself in danger if I want, you’re young, I get a fine if a cop catches me driving you around without a seatbelt.”
Wendy makes a groaning noise of exasperation but does up her seatbelt.
~~~
The trip back to the shack is made up of out-of-tune singing along to the radio, Waddles sticking his head out the window, and Wendy urging him to go faster and hit cyclists. He likes her style, she’s brazen and her humour is dark.
When they get back to the shack, Waddles immediately finds himself a wet patch of grass to roll in, apparently, he’d been feeling too clean. Wendy ‘sneaks’ her lawn chair and umbrella back up to the roof while Soos unloads the cooler and Stan sends the twins off to find wood for a campfire while he goes to get the matches. Ford is sitting at the kitchen table when he steps inside, staring off into a cup of coffee like it holds all the answers to life itself. That’s something he’s noticed since his brother has been back, Ford does that, he’ll just zone out. It’s almost like he’s sleeping with his eyes open, it’s weird.
“Ford. Ford!” He calls, gently nudging his chair.
Ford comes back to reality with a jolt, shoulders drawing up to his cheeks, fists up, ready to go. He’s not really judging, he wakes up the same way, but probably not for the exact same reasons.
“What?” Ford demands, still on alert but settling slightly when he remembers that he’s back on Earth and safe.
“Kids and I are back from the beach, we’re having a bonfire outside if you want to join us.” He invites.
“You went to the beach?” Ford asks, tilting his head and hiding a pout. “Why didn’t I know?”
“Because you exclusively wear sweaters and that damn trench coat, you haven’t been out of the basement since you got back, I was worried if I brought you into the direct sun, you’d burst into flames.” Stan replies sarcastically.
Ford fiddles with the hem of his sweater, glaring at Stan as he fetches the matches from their drawer.
“I wouldn’t have burst into flames.” He grumbles.
“Whatever, want to come to the bonfire?” Stan re-asks.
Instead of gracing him with an answer, Ford just flits out the door. Stan rolls his eyes but follows after him, the older set of Pine twins stepping onto the grass while Mabel and Dipper throw armfuls of sticks onto their growing pile of firewood.
“Grunkle Ford!” Dipper shouts, abandoning his sister to rush over to his idol. “Do you want to hang out with us? We’re gonna make a fire!”
“I’d be delighted to.” Ford smiles, awkwardly ruffling Dipper’s sandy hair.
He’ll give Ford this, he’s really working on being better for the kids, especially since what Stan refers to as ‘The Basement Incident’ earlier. He’s stopped dragging Dipper along on dangerous adventures, he includes Mabel more in what he’s working on, and he’s been more open to physical touch. Not that he’s great with the touching, but better, he doesn’t move away when they try to lean against him or detach their hands when they hang onto his coat. It’s awkward but it’s progress and the kids have noticed.
Then Wendy returns from fixing her break spot and spots Ford, narrowing her eyes at him.
“Stan two.” She greets coolly.
“Hello.” Ford nods, averting his gaze.
“Wendy, back off. Help me light the fire.” Stan instructs, beckoning the young woman to the firepit.
Really, he understands why Wendy’s so touchy about his brother. She’d seen him angry as hell, chasing the kids into the woods, and she hasn’t really forgiven him for it even though Dipper and Mabel have. Maybe it’s her age, maybe it’s the fact that she has younger siblings, or maybe it’s just Wendy being Wendy, but she’s holding that grudge like it’s a winning lottery ticket.
She crouches down next to him, making a pile of dry leaves and twigs surrounded by thicker sticks for Stan to light. Ford shuffles his feet and then sits cross-legged on the grass, letting Dipper sit next to him, practically leaning against him, while he regales him with the story of how they built the best sandcastle ever. By the time Stan and Wendy have the fire going, Dipper has moved on from how awesome their castle was to how Stan threw them off the pier.
“Breathe kid.” Stan reminds, poking him in the back of the head. “Give Ford a break and go change, it’s gonna start getting cold soon.”
For the first time in fifteen minutes, Dipper pauses and inhales deeply, seemingly just remembering that he needs oxygen. Then Mabel grabs his hand and drags him off to get changed, Soos and Wendy trailing behind them. Ford stares after them, waiting until the door is closed before turning back to his brother.
“I don’t think that Wendy girl likes me.” He says.
He snickers and drops his head into his hands. Ford sounds like he’s just now figuring this out.
“Now you realise? Not when she hit you with the handle of her axe?” He laughs, shaking his head.
“Well, I mean. I knew but I didn’t realise she disliked me that much.” Ford says sulkily.
“In her defence, she and Soos are pretty loyal to the twins and you scared them.” Stan points out.
“The twins forgave me.” Ford reminds him.
“But Wendy hasn’t.” He says sternly. “She’s not as young as the twins and she’s got her own stuff going on. You need to really work to earn her trust.”
Ford opens his mouth to say more but closes it with a clack of teeth when Mabel comes running back out of the house, leaping right into Ford’s arms. His twin catches their niece with a grunt and holds her awkwardly. If Mabel notices that Ford’s uncertain about how to hold her, she doesn’t acknowledge it, she just hugs him tight and giggles happily.
“Can we make s’mores?” She asks eagerly. “Please please please please!”
“Uhh.” Ford responds. “That may be more of a Stan question.”
“We can have s’mores after dinner.” Stan agrees. “I was thinking we could just do hotdogs on the fire for dinner.”
“Omigosh! That’s super amazing!” Mabel gasps, spinning around and inadvertently driving her elbow right into Ford’s gut. “Dipper! We’re gonna make hotdogs for dinner!”
“Awesome!” Dipper cheers, running across the live. “Did Great Uncle Ford say we could make s’mores?”
“Grunkle Stan says that we can make them after dinner.” Mabel nods.
Wendy runs up to join them, dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie that she keeps stashed in the shack. She’s also brushed out and braided her hair, tying it off at the end with a piece of string that she’s definitely stolen from Mabel. Soos isn’t far behind her, in his typical question mark t-shirt but he’s also switched out his jeans for sweatpants, and he’s got a can of bug spray in his hand.
“Mabel, Dipper, go grab the hose will ya?” Stan requests, shooing the twins off. “Wendy, you wanna find some good sticks for cooking hotdogs and sharpen em?”
“On it!” Wendy nods, marching off to the woods.
Mabel scrambles off Ford as gently as she can and she and Dipper run off to get the hose. Soos sits in the spot Wendy just vacated and puts the bug spray behind him, away from the heat of the fire to avoid any accidents, and starts humming a tune to himself. Mabel and Dipper come rushing back, Dipper’s holding the nozzle of the hose while Mabel follows behind him with the bulk of the hose wrapped around her arms, both of them grinning proudly when they drop it beside Stan.
“Thanks kids.” Stan says, Dipper leaning against him.
“Should we grab the hotdogs?” he asks, folding himself over Stan’s shoulders.
“No, not yet. We need to get some coals built up before we try to cook anything.” Stan says, ruffling Dipper’s hair.
The boy groans unhappily and droops further down Stan’s side dramatically. Ford looks at them quizzically, like he’s watching a professor write out equations.
“Are you hungry now? Do you need something to eat?” Stan asks, looking between the kids. “Because we can get some snacks to tide you over until we’re ready to make hotdogs.”
“Yes please.” Dipper says, the weight of his head pulling him forward until he flips over Stan’s shoulder and into his lap.
“Mabel, you need a snack?” Stan asks, looking at his niece.
“Yes please!” Mabel nods eagerly.
“Okay, come on kids. Let's grab some snacks.” Stan instructs, lifting Dipper up. “Soos, you’re in charge of the fire, don’t burn down the forest.”
“Excuse me! I’m older than him, I should be in charge of the fire!” Ford protests, looking majorly offended.
“You shave with fire and once lost an eyebrow playing with lighter fluid and matches. I don’t trust you to be in charge of the fire.” Stan snaps back. “Soos is in charge of the fire, you don’t get to touch it.”
Ford crosses his arms unhappily and mumbles something, definitely curses, in an alien language, but he doesn’t refute it. Soos leans over and pats his shoulder sympathetically and nods to Stan.
He carries Dipper to the house, Mabel skipping sling beside them, only putting his nephew down when he gets inside. Stan grabs some apples from the fridge and the peanut butter from the cupboard, pulling out a cutting board from a drawer. Dipper wanders off to grab a bag of goldfish crackers that he then dumps into a big bowl, no doubt to be shared at the fire. Meanwhile, Mabel has used her grappling hook to get on top of the fridge and get the Tostitos from the stash he keeps up there and tosses them down to her brother.
While Stan cuts the apples into slices and spreads peanut butter on them, Mabel and Dipper get some salsa from the fridge and wait eagerly for him to finish with the apples. He contemplates having them put the corn chips back but ultimately decides against it, chips and salsa aren’t that unhealthy and it’s easy to have around a campfire, all he does is hand them a bowl to put the salsa in and has them leave the jar inside, then he ushers them back out to the fire.
Wendy has returned from the forest, a small pile of long sticks at her side, one in her hand, and she’s sharpening the end with the pocket knife she retrieved from her father. She’s also glaring unhappily at Ford, who is doing his best to ignore it by studying the grass, pulling out individual blades and then pulling them apart. Soos is sitting between them, looking like he’s torn between trying to talk to break the tension or just letting it continue so he’s not the target of the anger bubbling beneath Wendy’s skin. He visibly relaxes when he sees Stan coming out with the kids and the snacks.
“Alright guys, we brought some snacks.” Stan announces, making Wendy drop the glower and brighten at the sight of the food.
They don’t have a picnic table by the fire, so they just stamp down the grass as best they can and put the cutting board of apple slices and peanut butter, the bowl of crackers, the bag of chips, and the bowl of salsa right on the ground. As soon as it’s down, the kids are lunging for it, Wendy grabbing a handful of goldfish to shove in her mouth while Dipper and Mabel go for the apple slices, Soos goes right for the chips and salsa. Stan waits until the kids take some before he grabs some food for himself, taking an apple slice to munch on while he builds up the fire.
“Do they always do this?” Ford whispers.
“Do what?” Stan asks.
“Eat like they’ve never seen food.” He clarifies.
That makes him smirk, because while he’s had time to reflect on how he was like them when he was younger, Ford hasn’t yet. He also doesn’t have the relationship with any of them to really understand it.
“Wendy has three younger brothers, she has to eat fast at home. Soos’s family had some financial struggles when he was younger, and the twins are about to hit a growth spurt.” He whispers back. “And they all played hard at the beach today, they worked up an appetite.”
Ford nods silently and then takes some goldfish for himself, watching with a curious gaze while Mabel sticks her own goldfish to the peanut butter on the apple slices and then sticks it in her mouth. Dipper is doing the same thing, though he’s making an apple slice peanut butter goldfish sandwich with his. Wendy has her cheeks stuffed full like a chipmunk while she sharpens their roasting sticks. Waddles returns from where he’d been rolling in dirt, his pink skin now grass stained, and tries to get at the salsa. Stan reaches across and shoves him away, pointing at him sternly.
“Try that again and you’re going to spend the rest of the evening in the house!” He warns, “I mean it, that’s people food.”
The pig oinks sadly and wanders back to Mabel, falling dramatically to the ground with his head in her lap. He swears, this pig is smarter than it looks. It acts dumb but it knows how to get it’s way, he’s onto it.
“Thsticks ore eddy.” Wendy mumbles around a mouthful of half chewed goldfish crackers.
“Thanks kid.” Stan nods, smirking while Ford winces at her bad manners. If he had to guess, that’s why she’s doing it.
“Are we ready to start cooking?” Dipper asks, reaching for more apple slices.
“Fifteen more minutes.” He says, tossing more wood on the fire. “Then we can cook.”
~~~
Cooking the hotdogs is fun, Mabel and Dipper are pretty haphazard about it, sticking their wieners directly in the fire until the outsides are burnt black and covered in ash while the insides are still cold. Wendy is more precise about hers, she’s got her own little equation for it, how often she has to rotate the stick, how far away it should be away from the fire, and where to insert the stick into the wiener. Soos alternates between Wendy’s method and the twins'.
Ford goes on a small ramble about how hotdogs are made, only to teeter off when he gets disgusted looks from the audience. He’s also sharing his hotdogs with Waddles, making him the pig’s favourite person for the night.
Once hotdogs are done, they move onto s’mores. Out of an abundance of caution, Stan puts the pig in the house for that, he doesn’t need it eating chocolate and getting violently ill. For one, it’d be messy to clean up and two, it would stress the hell out of Mabel and Dipper.
The night is fully upon them while they make s’mores, the fire lighting up their little circle and casting weird shadows across the grass. Again, the kids have different methods of cooking. Dipper prefers golden brown marshmallows but doesn’t have the patience to make them, so he sets them on fire and has them burnt. Mabel likes hers dark brown and basically liquid, which is why she has at least five marshmallows worth of goo in her hair. Soos likes his barely toasted, barely warmed up but still solid. Wendy likes them burnt, basically just charcoal sandwiches between graham crackers and chocolate.
Stan is mostly just eating the crackers, he doesn’t want to have to clean melted marshmallows out of his dentures, but he toasts some anyway for Dipper. Ford has broken out some paper and a pen and is legitimately conducting an experiment to see how to make the best toasted marshmallow. Leave it to this loser to bring science to a campfire.
Soon enough, the fire starts dying down, the shadows growing longer as the flames grow smaller. Mabel shifts over to sit beside Stan, leaning until she’s laying with her head on his shoulder and starting to doze off, exhausted from the long day of fun she had and the late hour. Across the firepit, Dipper is in almost the exact same state, curled up on his side with his arm tucked under his head to cushion it. Wendy’s trying to stay strong but he can see she’s fading too, she’s staring blankly at the coals with her shoulders loose and her arms heavy, occasionally, her head dips forward to her chin and she jerks awake suddenly.
“Alright kids, I think it’s bedtime.” Stan announces, “Come on, inside.”
“Are you employees spending the night?” Ford whispers, looking up from studying his marshmallow notes.
“Yeah.” Stan shrugs. “Come on brats, into the house.”
Soos hoists himself up, grabs the hose, and sprays the coals to douse the last of them. No need to cause a forest fire but it does result in all of them being swallowed up in the darkness of the night, with only the moon above to light the way. Wendy grumbles something he doesn’t catch and pokes Dipper with her foot until he moans dramatically and pushes himself into an upright position.
“Whaaaat?” He whines.
“We’re going into the house.” She says.
He hums in some form of affirmation and drags himself across the grass to latch onto Stan’s ankle, going back to being dead weight. Mabel stands unsteadily on her feet, rubbing at her tired eyes while she sways and yawns.
“Into the house, everybody brush your teeth.” Stan instructs, dragging Dipper across the grass. “Soos, Wendy, you know where the sleeping bags are.”
“Mhmm.” Wendy nods, walking heavily across the lawn and nearly tripping up the stairs.
Dipper finally stands up when they get to the bottom of the steps and he can’t be dragged anymore, nearly tipping into the railing because of how tired he is. Stan shoots out a hand to steady him, narrowly catching him before he can wack his head against the wood.
“Moses kid, you gonna be okay going up the stairs?” He asks, genuinely concerned that the kid’s gonna fall down them and hurt himself.
“Mmm good.” Dipper slurs.
“Exhaustion can cause similar effects to drinking.” Ford supplies, lifting the boy up the three steps to the porch and climbing up behind him. “Come on boy, let’s get you to bed.”
Mabel climbs up behind them, clinging to Ford’s trench coat while he ushers the kids into the house and towards the bathroom to brush their teeth. Stan grabs the food garbage and tosses it in the trash, leaving the dishes in the sink to deal with tomorrow, and fetches two new toothbrushes from the drawer of spares for Wendy and Soos.
Speaking of, Soos and Wendy are setting up camp in the living room, Wendy by the axolotl tank and Soos by the TV. He tosses the toothbrushes at them, getting tired thumbs ups in response and grumbled thank yous. The twins stagger out of the bathroom, Dipper's hand lightly holding onto the ends of Mabel’s sweater, and trailing behind her sleepily while Mabel herself has her head tilted forward like it’s too heavy to hold upright anymore. Stan steps between them, scooping Dipper up before he can fall down the stairs trying to climb them, takes Mabel’s hand, and guides her up the stairs.
At their bedroom, he stands outside the closed door while they change, and then when Mabel opens it again, he goes to tuck them in. Usually, Dipper would read a little before going to bed but his head is already buried in the pillow and his eyelids are half closed. He shuffles over to his nephew first, knees protesting as he kneels down to pull the blankets up to his chin. He brushes the hair out of his face and rubs his back a little, feeling his heartbeat thumping through the covers.
“Night Dip.” He says.
“G’night.” Dipper slurs in return, already dozing off.
He gets up from the floor and walks across the room to Mabel’s bed. She’s made herself a little nest with her stuffed animals and some blankets she’s knitted since coming to stay with him for the summer, and she’s curled up in the centre of it all with Waddles resting at her feet.
“Sweet dreams Pumpkin.” He wishes, kissing her head and ruffling Waddles' ears.
“Good night Grunkle Stan.” Mabel returns, slightly more coherent than her brother.
“I had a fun day with you kids today.” He says to the room, knowing Dipper may not actually be hearing it.
“We had fun too.” Mabel smiles. “We should do it again.”
“We will.” He promises. “We can talk about it at breakfast, you two get some sleep.”
She hums at him, shifting around in excitement and tugs Waddles closer to her. He rubs her back too and then stands up and heads for the door. He leaves the door cracked, just how they like it, and turns on the hallway night light, though he doubts either of them will be up in the night, too tired to wake up for anything, then he creeps down the stairs as quietly as he can to check the living room.
Soos is flopped out like a starfish, head barely on the pillow and head tilted towards the television. Wendy is more of a side sleeper, but she’s got her arms extended slightly towards the centre of the room. He turns the bathroom light on for them, just in case they need it in the night. Both of them have been in the shack often enough to find it in the dark but just to clear up any confusion, he leaves it on anyway.
After that, he retreats to his room, also exhausted from the day. He changes into his pyjamas, drops his dentures into the fresh cup of water beside his bed, and he’s out before his head hits the pillow.