I do not own the show Gravity Falls or the characters in the show; show and characters were created by Alex Hirsch and are his his and the Walt Disney Company's properties. I make no money from my fanfiction, but write just for the fun of it, and, I hope, to entertain other fans.

A Development

(January 2018)

Oddly, Wendy and Dipper had been home from their Hawaiian honeymoon for two weeks before anyone noticed the anomaly. They had settled right into their University classes. Wendy had a couple of courses now that counted toward her major, forest ecology, one of them taught by Dr. Roger Deavers, Dean of the School of Forestry himself. Ordinarily the class was restricted to fifteen seniors and five graduate students, but Deavers had suggested to Wendy that she take it.

"I remember you from the time you appealed the delay on your acceptance," he told her. "I'm convinced that you can not only pass the course, you can make it a richer experience for all the other students."

So far, she loved it. That term, she and Dipper managed only two classes together, but Dipper liked his schedule, too—rich in science and math. Every day was a new kind of adventure.

Mabel had seriously evaluated her educational aims and that term she had decided not to try out for a play. "So much fun, but so much time!" Instead, she concentrated on her first loves—visual and plastic arts. She spoke to Teek about every day by face-time, and he was excited to be underway with his first very short film project, a five-minute maximum scene that introduced two characters and a conflict and could use images and music, but no dialogue.

As for Tripper, he had met a nice girl. She was part coyote on her mother's side and part fox terrier on her dad's. She was not very domestic, true, but she was notably companionable. They met for romantic interludes out on the trail, but not while Wendy and Dipper were running They needed more privacy.

They found enough moments to make Tripper a happy doggy. And what happened on the trail stayed on the trail.

Then one day Dipper made an album of photos from their vacation, and one Saturday in January, he, Mabel, and Wendy sat in front of the laptop and scrolled through the pictures.

"This is Rainbow Falls," Dipper said. "It's practically in downtown Hilo. Not the tallest, but it's the first one we saw."

Mabel smiled. "Pretty."

They went through them in order, and before long they came to Volcanoes National Park and Mount Kilauea. And then the photo of the beautiful rainbow they had seen on their way down from the crater.

And the next photo—

"Aw, that's perfect!" Mabel said. "Who took it?"

Both Dipper and Wendy stared at the scene. There they stood, arms around each other's waist, heads touching, beatific smiles—and the rainbow arched behind and above them, exactly framing them. Dipper looked at Wendy. "Who the heck did take it?"

"Mabes," Wendy said, "I swear, we took three or four of the rainbow, but we were all by ourselves."

"Photoshop!" Mabel said.

"No, we haven't edited these. We haven't even looked at them!" Dipper said.

"Then it's a mystery!"

Tripper went to Mabel's room and returned three times. He brought three alphabet blocks with him and woofed.

Wendy looked. "P-L-E."

"How did you know?" Dipper asked the dog.

Tripper did a dog-shrug, turned around three times, lay beneath the dining table, and stretched out for a nap.

"Pele," Wendy said, getting it.

"I remember her," Mabel said. "She was nice. What's next?"

"Uh—this is in Kona," Wendy said. "A honey farm. . .."

Under the table, Tripper dreamed and smiled a mysterious, doggy smile.

The End