They had not returned to the Gravity Falls that they remembered, but Dipper and Mabel Pines were not overly troubled by it. The exotic adventures that had seemingly lurked around every corner that summer were absent from their Christmas break at the Mystery Shack, but the twins had promised their Gruncle Stanley that they wouldn't seek out any more of the dangerous creatures or deadly phenomena that they encountered during those strange months. They'd been entirely content to spend time at the Shack and catch up with old friends; Stan and Ford had enough tales from their own adventuring over the past few months to satisfy any thirst they might have had for more excitement.

Rubbing his eyes, Dipper glanced out the window momentarily before his gaze dropped to his bedspread. He saw the dungeon he had been putting together for Ford; still not quite complete, but near enough that he could finish it before their game resumed. He picked up a pen with a vague thought of finishing it right then, but then groaned involuntarily – it was far too early to even think about thinking.

Mabel was already downstairs, helping herself to a heaping mound of Stancakes. "Morning Dipper! You missed the syrup race, so I did it myself."

"Who won?" Dipper asked, poking his head in the fridge to see if there was any milk.

"Deliciousness," Mabel responded, grinning broadly, and Dipper noticed the sticky residue around her mouth.

"… Mabel, is there any syrup left at all?"

Immediately her expression became downcast. "I'm sorry Dipper. I couldn't help myself. Stancakes aren't the same without syrup, I know."

"Actually I was gonna pass on the Stancakes," said Dipper. "I love Gruncle Stan but he's got more body hair than the Multibear, and it tends to get everywhere."

"Dipper, they wouldn't be Stancakes without the hair," said Mabel. "Besides, I've been collecting it! See, I made him a bracelet!"

Dipper wished desperately that he could have unseen the Stan-hair bracelet, but it did resolve his quandary of what to have for breakfast. "Actually Mabel I think I'm gonna skip eating right now,"

he said. "Ford and I - "

"Aww c'mon Dipper, you can't skip breakfast! It's the most important meal of the day!" said Mabel. "Look, I saw some milk in the fridge. You can still have cereal."

"Mabel, that's not milk, that's one of Ford's experiments," said Dipper.

Mabel looked perplexed. "But Gruncle Ford was supposed to pick some up two days ago, and there was only one bottle in the fridge."

"He forgot. Don't you remember him and Stan arguing about it yesterday?" Mabel merely shrugged and took a drink from her glass, which Dipper noticed was filled almost to the brim with what looked for all the world like fresh milk.

Fighting the urge to retch, Dipper turned to head back upstairs, but Mabel said "Oh Dipper, there was something I was supposed to tell you. We're having another sleepover tonight."

He let out an involuntary moan; it was difficult to imagine the day beginning much worse. "Mabel, you've had Candy, Grenda, and Pacifica over every single night except this last one, and it's the first time I've gotten a full nights' sleep since we've gotten here. I don't think that's a coincidence."

"Oh come on, Dipper, you know you love them," Mabel said dismissively.

Grumbling incoherently, Dipper left.

Throughout the day he found himself dreading the coming sleepover; even Dungeons Dungeons and More Dungeons felt more like Diggity Dungeons and All That, though when Ford asked what was wrong he brushed him off. He always felt a bit guilty when he kept anything from his gruncle, but there seemed little point in complaining about it to him.

All too soon, the doorbell rang, and Dipper heard three familiar voices. With a world-weary sigh, he took his mystery novel downstairs to the den – at least he had the television (unless of course the girls decided to commandeer it), and Stan's chair was fairly comfy. Even from the attic, however, he could still hear them giggling and squealing. It was impossible to concentrate on his book.

He turned the TV on and began flipping through the channels. "Ducktective rerun… The Bachelor, True Werewolf… Real Housewives of Pluto… lame Ducktective spinoff… My Babysitter's a Zombie 3... nothing on." He flipped the TV off again and buried his face in the pillow he'd brought downstairs.

"You ok Dipper?"

He looked up; it was Pacifica, standing over him holding four Pitt colas. "Oh… hi Pacifica. I was just… um… watching TV?" He tried to discreetly press the remote to turn it back on, and the TV flickered back to life. "Princess Unicorn Ponies will return after these messages!" blared from the set, and Dipper felt his face turn deep red. "Just… yeah, catching up. They're doing a marathon."

Pacifica laughed. "If you wanted to do girly stuff you could have just asked to come upstairs. I'm sure Candy and Grenda would love to give you a makeover." She looked back at the screen. "I loved that show when I was little. God, it looks so lame now. But I can still remember, the first time I threatened to sue someone was when they announced they were taking a year and a half off."

"Ah, yeah," Dipper said. He could feel his palms growing sweaty as Pacifica showed no signs of leaving; at the same time, talking to her was at least better than burying his face in his pillow all night. "So… you wanna sit down, or something?"

"I'm not sitting on that filthy floor of yours," Pacifica said, pointing to the admittedly dirty floorboards of the Mystery Shack. It didn't even have a rug at the moment; Dipper wasn't quite sure what had happened but there were scorch marks in the boards.

"Yeah, uh… sorry. Never mind."

"Why can't I just sit in the chair, dummy?" she asked, nudging Dipper over and sitting down next to him. "Your uncle may be a hero, but he's still fat enough that any chair that can fit him can fit both of us."

"Hey now, I'm not that tiny," Dipper protested. "I'm growing actual muscles now, see?" He brandished his forearm and tried to flex. Pacifica tried to hide a smile. "Please. You're so skinny, your dorky little butt looked like it was going to disappear into the chair."

"But… I have a second chest hair now. A third one, even! And I've grown taller!" Dipper pulled down his shirt. Pacifica laughed, but it was kinder this time. "Yes, you have. Still a skinny dork though with your face always in a book."

Dipper sighed, and Pacifica laughed again. "Don't take it so hard dummy. It's cute in your own weird way."

"Yeah, but… I don't want to be cute!" Dipper said. "I've always wanted people to take me seriously. I want respect, I want people to treat me like I'm not a little kid anymore."

Pacifica looked taken aback. "I'm sorry," Dipper said hastily. "I just… this summer is really the first time I ever even thought I might be losing out on much of anything by growing up. And since I got back to California, it's been back to my old life – back to being Mabel's weird twin brother. Back to being treated exactly the same as before I left. Nobody there knows what I did here; I beat Bill twice and now I'm back to just being… just a kid."

Pacifica was silent for a moment, but Dipper sensed she was thinking. "Dipper," she finally said, "Nobody else could have done what you and Mabel did for this town. If it had been just Ford and Stan against Bill, the town would still be his." She put a hand on his shoulder. "You know, I really hated the idea of growing up until I met your family. To me, it meant becoming more like my parents. Caring more about what people thought of me than how I actually felt, trying to control everyone and everything around me with money and social status." Dipper noticed a tear glistening in her eye as her head bowed.. "I hated it. But then I met you guys. And… I guess I saw that I didn't have to be like that. I didn't have to be like them."

He felt strangely comforted by her words; he wanted to do something comforting in return. Impulsively Dipper brushed her hair back over her ear. Shocked by his own boldness, he flushed and stuttered, trying to explain. "I'm sorry Pacifica," he muttered quickly as he sat on the offending hand in penance.

She smiled and sniffed. "Don't be. As I said, you've taught me that growing up doesn't have to be all bad."

Dipper smiled tentatively and looked over at her; she smiled back and leaned her head on his shoulder. He could feel his heart pounding; he couldn't believe what was happening. Pacifica had always been pretty but he'd hated her so much at first that he could barely be bothered to notice, but now… as he put his hand carefully on her golden hair and let it rest on her head, as he looked down at her face, eyes closed and smiling, he couldn't deny it – she was beautiful, even when her copious mascara was starting to run a bit.

"Whatcha thinking, Mr. Brainy Dorkus?" she asked through a smile and a sniffle.

"I… haha, no, you don't want to know," Dipper said, unable to keep a nervous tremor out of his voice.

"Oh come on now Dipper," Pacifica said, looking up at him and smiling devilishly, "talk to me. Tell me what deep mysterious thoughts are going through that head of yours?"

"I-it's too corny! You don't want to know, trust me."

"Dipper, if you don't tell me, I'm going to get Candy and Grenda down here to do a makeover on you."

Dipper sighed. "Fine, you got me. I was just thinking – you look beautiful right now. There's the genius thought you were so desperate to get."

Pacifica looked startled at first but then smiled shyly at him. "You really think I'm beautiful?"

"Haha, uh yeah, I… I guess," Dipper said, feeling tremendously awkward. Pacifica laughed. "You dummy. No girl hates being called beautiful, especially by a cute guy like you." She touched his arm lightly. "You can call me beautiful anytime."

Dipper laughed far too loudly and nervously. "Oh hey look, uh, my novel! I'll just go ahead and..." he picked it up and began searching frantically for where he left off. "Chapter nine… chapter nine..." Pacifica put her hands on his shoulders. "Oh come on you dork. What would you rather pay attention to? That book?" She kissed him on the cheek. "Or me?"

"I… uh..." Dipper could feel his palms sweating profusely. Pacifica smiled. "You know, I'm just lucky you haven't noticed all those California girls looking at you. I bet they'd pounce on your cute little butt in a minute if you gave them have a chance." She kissed him again on the cheek. "I'm just lucky you're such a dummy."

Dipper looked back at her and met her gaze for the first time in a while. Was it possible she'd gotten even more beautiful in the last few minutes? Had it only been a few minutes? He tried to think, but the only thing he could do was look at her, the gorgeous girl that was somehow, impossibly sitting on his lap, looking into his eyes… with her soft, pale skin that he wanted to caress and perfect little red lips that he desperately wanted to feel against his own. One thought consumed his mind – lean in. Just do it. She's done everything short of smash you over the head with a brick while screaming KISS ME through a megaphone! What are you waiting for? Just move your stupid neck! Why won't your neck move! Oh god why are your palms so sweaty? Why do they always get sweaty when something like this happens, what is wrong with you?

"Dipper, are you okay?" Pacifica looked genuinely concerned by now; for a panicked moment, Dipper wondered how long he'd been in his mental fugue. "Dipper?" She took his hand in hers. Oh god, she's going to feel how sweaty it is and she's going to be so grossed out and she's going to run away and sue me or something and then never talk to me again and… wait what's squeezing my hand?

Pacifica was still holding on.

In fact, she now had both hands around one of his and was squeezing it gently. "Hey, dummy. Stay with me. Talk to me. What's going on? Did I do something wrong?" She looked crestfallen. "Oh my god I can't believe this. I just made a complete idiot out of myself, didn't I. I don't know what I was thinking, I just… do you want to pretend that never happened?" She looked on the verge of tears again.

"Pacifica..." Dipper began, but his brain had shut down yet again. He couldn't think. He wanted to say something that would comfort her, to let her know that he never, ever would forget what happened; that he couldn't pretend that it didn't even if he wanted to, and how desperately he didn't want to forget any of it. He wanted to tell her how it felt to have her head on his shoulder, her lips against his skin, her arms around him, as though nothing existed in the world but the two of them and the chair. But he couldn't.

Show her.

He leaned in and kissed her.

It was an awkward kiss, to be sure – his lips bumped against hers, quick and uncoordinated, lingering only for an instant before Dipper jerked his head back, smiling shyly. "You really are the worst, you know that?" he whispered impulsively.

Pacifica laughed and gave him a playful shove. "So what, you do like me? Why couldn't you just say so you little dorkus?"

"Ah, haha," Dipper laughed nervously, "I hadn't really thought… well, I hadn't thought about you a lot, you know, in that way. I mean you were always pretty and all but I started off hating you because you were trying to destroy my sister and after you became our friend I guess I just… I mean, we went back to California, and… I thought about you. I wanted to see you again, I liked you, but I didn't think about it like this."

"Well, maybe you should stop thinking so much all the time," Pacifica said, and leaned in to kiss him again.

"Pacifica!" A voice from upstairs jolted them both; it was Grenda's unmistakable gravelly baritone. "Where are you? We're just starting with the trashy romance novels!"

She looked at Dipper. "I don't want to go," she whispered, giving him another quick kiss, "but I should. I'll see you again soon." She put his book back in his lap, grinning mischievously at him. "See if you can concentrate on your book now, nerd boy." And she went back upstairs, leaving a deeply confused Dipper Pines in her wake. Eventually he flipped on the television, but he didn't really watch it – he was in a daze the rest of the evening, barely even paying attention as the shadows lengthened and the skies darkened. He felt himself growing drowsy; it was dark out, and a quick glance at his watch showed that it was well past his bedtime. The noises from upstairs had long since ceased, the girls having apparently retired for the evening.

Suddenly he heard a creaking of the floorboards; someone was coming down the staircase. Jolted from his stupor, he sat up, craning his neck to see who it was.

"Pacifica?" he whispered, for it was her, standing awkwardly in the hallway, holding her pillow. "Hey, scoot over dummy. If I had to listen to Grenda's snoring for one more minute I'd have totally lost it. So I'm sleeping down here," she said. "You can go back to your bed, or stay here. Not that I care. But that chair is mine tonight."

Dipper smiled. "Well then you're gonna have to come and take it from me," he said, "and I'm not gonna give up without a fight."

Pacifica pushed him roughly aside and squeezed in alongside him. "Fight that, you skinny little nerd," she said, grinning at him.

"Ok, ok," Dipper said, smiling. "I surrender."

Pacifica burrowed into the blankets and snuggled up next to him. It was pleasantly intoxicating to have her warmth right up against his in a way that he had never felt before. "Put your arms around me dummy," Pacifica murmured drowsily.

"Oh, right," Dipper said, embracing her, hesitantly at first, but then feeling her settle and relax in his arms, he felt confident enough to tighten his hold. It was a strange new feeling, this, sleeping right next to someone else like this, a girl who could make his heartbeat quicken with her lightest touch – and now she was falling asleep in his arms, her whole body pressed right up against him. It felt good, it felt right – as though something in the world had fallen into place, and he hadn't even known it was missing. But now… he listened as Pacifica's breathing slowed and steadied as she drifted off in his arms. Now, he thought to himself, he wouldn't have it any other way.