Work Text:
Mystery Kids: Girl Trouble
Time Period: Third Winter
Dipper was sitting on his bed when his phone rang.
[Call From Raz Aquato]
Raz was calling him?
Raz never called him out of the blue like this.
During the school year, the Mystery Kids talked together through their ongoing group chat and video calls that they were able to pull together about once a month. Raz and Lili sometimes couldn’t join due to Psychonaut duties, and Raz had the extra issue of his family traveling through places that made wifi connection difficult, but they did their best to talk when they could.
Normally, when Raz wanted to contact him on a one-on-one basis, he would just text Dipper. These texts mostly consisted of random memes or videos.
So why was Raz calling him?
Whatever the reason, it couldn't be good.
Dipper answered the phone, putting it on speaker for convenience since he was the only one in his room.
“Hello?” Dipper answered, half expecting to hear a Psychonaut firefight with psi-blasts and telekinetically thrown objects over the phone.
Instead, there was silence. And then, Raz spoke.
“H-hey!” He sounded off- nervous, which was uncharacteristic for Raz, who was usually able to keep his cool in even life threatening situations. Dipper couldn’t hear any background noise, so he couldn’t tell if Raz was in danger or not.
“Hey,” Dipper said. “Are you okay?”
“O-oh, yeah, I’m fine. Umm, how are you doing?”
“Fine…” Dipper trailed off, confused.
“So, umm, what are you up to?” Raz asked, as if it was every day he called up Dipper just to chat.
“Not much,” Dipper said cautiously. “Just doing homework.”
“Right, right. I should do that too,” Raz said with an uncomfortable laugh. “When your parents are the teachers, you really can’t get away with much.”
“Yeah…” Dipper said because he couldn’t think of anything else. Raz was homeschooled due to his family moving around so much, but he doubted Raz was calling for help with school work.
“Yep, I should probably get to that,” Raz said again before the call fell into an awkward silence.
“Did you… did you call for a reason?” Dipper asked. “Is something wrong?”
“What? No, nothing is wrong! Well, maybe it is, I can’t really tell. I might have really messed up, or maybe everything's completely fine!”
Dipper sat up straighter. “What do you mean? What happened?”
“Well, I might be having some girl trouble… with Lili,” Raz explained.
“And you called me?!” Dipper yelped. “Why would you call me? I don’t know anything about that stuff! Why wouldn’t you call Mabel, or Coraline, or your sister?”
“I know, I know,” Raz said. “I thought about calling them, but to be honest, it's kind of embarrassing.”
Dipper blinked. He never knew Raz to be embarrassed about much.
He did understand where Raz was coming from. It would be pretty embarrassing for Dipper to ask a girl for advice about his crushes. Mabel was the only exception, but he knew Raz has a different relationship with his sisters.
“Okay, but still. Why me? Norman would at least be more level headed about it! I just freak out about this stuff.”
“But that’s why I called you!” Ras insisted. “I need someone to freak out with me! Or I need someone who would usually freak out to tell me that it’s not a big deal and everything's fine.”
“So you’re calling me because I’m bad at this stuff? That's the dumbest..." Dipper took a breath. “Fine, what happened? What did you do? And if Lili’s mad at you, I would just lie low for like a week… maybe a month. That girl can hold a grudge.”
“She’s not mad at me. At least, I don’t think she is,” Raz said. “So, umm, we were talking on the phone like we try and do every night unless my family has a performance, and we were just saying goodbye like usual,” Raz began talking faster. “She said goodnight, and I said goodnight, but then I might have accidentally said ‘I love you.’ And then there was silence and Lili said just said ‘Oh.’”
“Oh?” Dipper asked. “What do you mean she said ‘oh’? Was it like 'OH!' or like 'o-oh', or 'Oooh?'”
“It was just ‘oh!’” Raz repeated in exasperation. “W-why, is that bad?”
“I don't think it's a great sign. Did she say anything else? Did she say it back?”
“No, because I might have freaked out after that and hung up on her before she could say anything else. Once she said ‘oh’, I knew I messed up! I mean, we are just 14! Who says I love you when they’re 14?! It was so stupid. Do you think I should I text her and tell her it was just a mistake?”
Dipper was wasn't sure what Raz should do, but he knew one person who would know the right thing to say. He did his best to channel his inner Mabel.
“Well, do you?” Dipper asked.
“Do I what?”
“Love her?”
There was silence over the phone before Raz spoke again, his voice less frantic and more certain. “Of course I do. I mean, it’s Lili. She’s the most amazing person I’ve ever met.”
“Then you shouldn’t take it back,” Dipper said. “You might be 14, but you’ve been together since you were 10. And you’re not just boyfriend and girlfriend, you’re also partners that fight psychic threats and monsters together. Your relationship isn’t exactly typical for 14 year-olds.”
“But that’s just it! We are partners! I don’t want to say something stupid or too fast and ruin that. If she doesn’t feel the same way, then I might make it awkward, or maybe by saying it too soon, I make her feel like she has to say something that she’s not ready for!”
“Raaaaz! Come on!” said a young girl’s voice through the phone. “Stop talking with your girlfriend and help me already! You promised you would help me with the advanced trapeze move dad taught you!”
“Mirtala, I’m busy! I’m kind of in a crisis situation over here!” Raz shouted back.
“Yeah, well my crisis situation is that my brother is lame and breaks his promises and hey-! No levitating away, I’m trying to talk with you! I’m telling mom that you won't help me!”
There was a rush of air and the voice of the young girl disappeared.
“There, it will be a while before anyone finds me up here,” Raz said.
“Your sister sounds mad.”
“I’ll make it up to her later. I can’t really think about acrobatics right now. So, what do you think I should do?”
Dipper paused, trying to stick with the facts he knew about Raz and Lili.
“When it comes to Lili I don’t think you have to worry about pushing her to stay something she’s not ready for. It’s impossible to get Lili to do anything she doesn’t want to do,” Dipper reasoned.
“True. She’s strong like that,” Raz said and Dipper could hear the dreamy smile on his face. “So, you don’t think I should be worried?
“She might not be happy with you that you dropped the L bomb on her and hung up like that,” Dipper said thoughtfully. “And it might be awkward the next time you see each other. When is your next Psychonauts mission?”
Raz groaned. “Next week.”
“Yeah, that’s probably not enough time for the awkwardness to pass. It will probably be weird at first.”
“Should I just ignore what happened when I see her, or should I try to talk to her about it?” Raz asked, his voice taking on a desperate quality.
Dipper had no idea what the right answer was. His initial instincts were to tell Raz to ignore it and let it pass, but he knew Mabel would encourage Raz to talk to her about it. But what if that just made things worse?
“Oh crap, Lili just texted me!” Raz shouted.
Dipper jumped up and began pacing around his bedroom.
“What? What did she say? Is it bad?”
"It's..." Raz let out a small, relieved laugh. “It’s okay. I think everything’s okay now. I guess I didn’t mess it up after all.”
“Really? How do you know?”
“She said: Can’t wait to see you next week. Love you too, doofus.”
Dipper chuckled and collapsed on the edge of his bed. He did his best to calm down his own irregular breathing. “See, you were worried for nothing.”
“Yeah… thanks for letting me freak out.”
“Sure, man. But let’s at least loop Norman in next time. This stuff stressed me out.”
“Deal. Talk to you later?”
“Sure, let me know how the Psychonauts mission goes. At least the non-classified stuff.”
“You got it! I’m going to go help my sister now. Bye!”
“Bye!”
Dipper let the phone fall out of his hands and onto the bed. He mimicked the phone, flopping over as well. Relationships were exhausting and this one wasn’t even his own.
There was a quick knock at his door before Mabel let herself in. She had her phone pressed up against her ear.
“Okay! Bye Lili! Talk to you later!” Mabel said into the phone. “Yeah, yeah, I know you miss me! Don’t even try to hide it! You- Oh, she hung up.”
Mabel didn’t look put off by this as she grinned up at Dipper.
“That was Lili?” Dipper asked. Mabel often texted and called Lili, but it was rare for the girl to pick up. Had Lili called Mabel this time?
“Yeah, I think she needed some girl talk.”
“Let me guess, this is about Raz saying he loves her?”
Mabel’s eyes went wide and then she noticed the phone sitting next to Dipper’s hand.
“Did Raz call you?” Mabel asked giddily. “What did he say? And why did he hang up on her before she could say it back? That made Lili think that he just said it by accident and didn’t mean it.”
“He did say it by accident, but he did mean it. You convinced her to text him back?”
“Yep, she was too embarrassed to call him, so I got her to at least text him.” Mabel shook her head. “The only thing Lili Zanotto is afraid of: being vulnerable with her own feelings.” Mabel sat on his bed next to him. “Don’t worry Dip-stick, we can take credit for this at their wedding.”