"Distance"

A/N: I'm clearly in the middle of a Wendy & Dipper fixation right now, so I figure I might as well ride it out. Hope you like!

As the bus pulled away and began its long journey out of Gravity Falls and towards Piedmont, both Dipper and Wendy knew they were going to miss each other. Though Wendy had grown close with both of the Pines twins during the summer of 2012, it was undeniable that she and Dipper had something of a special bond, something neither of them had with anyone else. Maybe it was Dipper's persistent crush on Wendy, or maybe it was a result of how deeply they had relied on each another during the events of Weirdmageddon; whatever the cause, it went without saying that each of them had a special place in their heart for the other.

Dipper knew he was going to miss Wendy. Wendy knew she was going to miss Dipper. What they didn't know was just how soon they would miss each other – or how much.

Dipper first began to miss Wendy almost as soon as he woke up on the morning of September 1st to find he was no longer in Gravity Falls. It took a few moments for the by to adjust to his new surroundings, and he was confused at first, wondering where he was and why Mabel hadn't woken him up with her usual antics.

"Oh, right," he said aloud to himself as he sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "Back home."

Indeed, Dipper was no longer sharing a makeshift bedroom with his twin sister in the attic of the Mystery Shack in Gravity Falls, Oregon, but was, in fact, back in his own bed in his own room in his own house in Piedmont, California. The walls were covered in posters taken out of science fiction and fantasy magazines, the closet was full of clothes only for him, and Mabel was decidedly absent, albeit not far, considering her room was right next door.

Though Dipper missed Gravity Falls and all it entailed – his great uncles, his friends, the adventures of a lifetime – part of the boy nonetheless felt a sense of comfort and familiarity come over him as he realized he was back home. He took in the smell of the laundry detergent his mother used to clean his clothes, the glowing numbers of his flying saucer-shaped alarm clock, the shelves of books and comics lining the far wall, and he smiled.

It was good to be home, Dipper decided.

Then he looked down at the woolen trapper hat lying next to his pillow and he felt his smile begin to fade.

"Trying out a new look?" his father had asked him yesterday afternoon. He had been carrying Dipper and Mabel's bags at the time as the family made their way out of the bus station and towards their car for the drive home. Dipper's mother was ahead of them, smiling and nodding politely (if somewhat concernedly) as Mabel introduced her to Waddles. "Are trappers more popular in Oregon or something?"

"Oh, uh, not exactly," Dipper had responded with a nervous laugh, suddenly self-conscious of the fact he was still wearing Wendy's hat. "I actually lost my old hat, but I got a new one from the Mystery Shack that I wore most of the summer. It had a pine tree on it."

"Fitting," his father said with a smile. "You lose that one, too? Or did the pig eat it?"

"No, I, uh…switched with somebody right before we left Gravity Falls," Dipper admitted, blushing a little bit as he remembered. "I got this one from her."

"Uh-huh. And does this 'somebody' have a name?"

"Wendy," Dipper said, knowing his face was growing red as his father smiled mischievously at him. "Wendy Corduroy. She works at the Mystery Shack with Grunkle Stan. She took my hat and gave me hers. So we'd have something to remember each other by."

"Sounds like someone had a bit of a summer romance," his father commented with a smirk.

"No, Dad, come on," Dipper protested, still blushing madly and glad Wendy's hat was covering his ears, which had to be burning red. "It was nothing like that."

"If you say so, buddy," his father replied as they finally reached the car, clearly not believing a word his son was saying. "If you say so."

Dipper had fallen asleep holding Wendy's hat that evening; he had assured himself it was because the scent of pine trees about it reminded him of Gravity Falls, which he already missed. Now that he was awake and looking down at the hat in question, however, Dipper knew it didn't just remind him of Gravity Falls; it reminded him of its original wearer.

Holding the hat in his hands, Dipper closed his eyes and thought of gleaming green eyes and long, red hair blowing majestically in the gentle summer breeze. He thought of cool, comfortable laughter, the sound of which made his heart melt and his worries fade away. He thought of being excited in the presence of the other, and the longing he felt whenever they weren't there. He thought of confessing his feelings one muggy night in July to someone he knew didn't return his feelings, but someone who had nonetheless stood by him, accepted him, defended him, even fought beside him.

True, the hat did smell of pine trees, and it did remind Dipper of the town where he had spent his summer. He missed Gravity Falls, there was no denying that. He missed the Mystery Shack, and the supernatural happenings, and the friends and family he had made while he was there.

But he missed Wendy most of all.

The first time Wendy missed Dipper – really missed him – was the first Friday night she decided to stay in and watch a movie (or three) instead of going out with her friends, as she usually did.

It wasn't that Wendy hadn't missed Dipper here and there before – she did – but it was usually a fleeting feeling, or a general sense of missing the summer, or the Mystery Shack, or the adventures she had participated in with the Pines Twins together. School had started back up, and so Wendy had found almost all of her time and energy being funneled into adjusting to the new school year; at fifteen, she was officially a sophomore, and with sophomore year came an entirely new set of academic challenges. Likewise, she had spent most of her evenings out and about with her friends as they tried to get up to whatever trouble they could manage now that the summer had come to an end and Wendy was no longer working at the Mystery Shack.

As such, though Wendy desperately missed the freedom of summer and the two thirteen-year-olds who had made it such an exhilarating experience, it wasn't until she had an evening entirely to herself that she had both the time and the wherewithal to actually miss Dipper.

"You feeling okay, honey?" Manly Dan had asked his daughter upon learning she wasn't going to hang out with her friends that Friday evening.

"Yeah, Dad, I'm just tired," Wendy had told him honestly. She was carrying a large bowl of popcorn as she spoke with her father, having been on the way to her bedroom when he stopped her. "Just gonna stay up and have an old-fashioned movie night. Might catch up on some homework if I feel like it."

"Now I know something's wrong," her father replied, only half-jokingly. "You? Doing homework? Who are you and what have you done with my daughter?"

"You got me, dude!" Wendy said with a smile, holding up her one free hand as if giving herself in to the authorities. "I'm not the real Wendy, I'm actually an alien shapeshifter created in an underground laboratory by a six-fingered scientist!"

"Haha!" Manly Dan laughed, throwing his head back as he did so and unintentionally smacking into the ceiling as he did so; he always was too big for the home he had built himself. "You kids and your stories! Where do you come up with this stuff?"

"You have no idea…" Wendy responded as she finally made her way towards the stairs and up to her bedroom, her father's laughter echoing throughout the entire house.

Exhausted both physically and emotionally from two straight weeks of school, Wendy had proceeded to fall onto her bed with every intention of remaining in it until the morning. Throwing a handful of popcorn into her mouth with one hand and grabbing the remote control with her other, the girl turned on her television set and switched it to the old movie channel just in time to catch the opening credits for Catastrophic Disaster 2: Calamitous Happening.

Unfortunately, it wasn't long before Wendy found she wasn't enjoying herself as much as she had thought she would. Indeed, she had the distinct and nagging feeling that something crucial was missing from her movie night, something she couldn't quite place her finger on. She had the bed, she had the popcorn, she had the B-movie…what was missing?

It wasn't until she found herself fingering the blue-and-white cap she wore on her head at all times that Wendy finally realized what was missing.

Dipper, she thought, pulling her hat off as she did so she could better look at it. I miss Dipper.

Ignoring the calamitous happenings taking place on the television, Wendy instead focused on the cap she held in her hands and allowed her mind to wonder, thinking of brown eyes and brown hair and an adorably awkward voice underpinned by boundless curiosity. She thought of pulling pranks and staying up late with her partner-in-crime, knowing they had each other's back no matter what trouble they got into. She thought of being able to drop her cool and laidback persona and just be herself, unflattering insecurities at all. She thought of handing a letter to a special someone and then waving goodbye as their bus pulled away, doing her best to ignore the ache she felt in her heart the moment they were gone.

Wendy missed summer and the freedom it represented, the opportunity to work at the Mystery Shack and go on adventures and spend time with her friends, but it wasn't until that evening she realized she missed one aspect of that summer most of all.

She missed Dipper Pines.

As the weeks and months went by, both Dipper and Wendy continued to miss each other and, despite their best efforts, the more time passed, the more they missed the other.

Dipper missed Wendy as his eight-grade year began and he adjusted to being back at school and surrounded by hundreds of other boys and girls his age. An introvert by nature, Dipper had few friends besides Mabel, and those few friends he did have were largely because of shared interests or similar academic abilities. Otherwise, he felt little emotional connection to his classmates, and thus found himself missing more and more the special bond he had forged with the older girl back in Gravity Falls. He and Wendy had little in common at first, and had largely been thrown together by circumstance rather than any similar interests – and yet, Dipper had felt closer to her than he had to practically anyone else he had ever met. He had something special with Wendy, something he didn't have with anyone else, and he missed that desperately.

Likewise, Wendy missed Dipper as she found it increasingly difficult to organize time with her own friends as the school year went on, what with all of them either being older than her or busy with other things. Thompson spent all of his free time working at the movie theater, Robbie and Tambry were going out on dates every other evening, and Nate and Lee were practically joined at the hip – if one wasn't available, then neither was the other. More often than not, Wendy began to miss the times when she could get into trouble at the Mystery Shack or just hang out with Dipper and watch awful movies. It was rare Wendy spent time with her friends individually, rather than as one big group, and the more she thought about it, the more she realized how oddly comfortable she had always been spending time with Dipper, just the two of them. She missed that sense of camaraderie; she missed it a lot.

Dipper missed Wendy when some of his classmates discovered (or, for some of them, rediscovered) the origins of his nickname after a trip to the barber ended in disaster for his bangs. With his birthmark on full display once again, it was only a matter of time before boys and girls alike began to take notice and poke fun at the constellation on his forehead. Then came the nicknames: Dipstick, Little Dipper, Starface. Dipper did his best to ignore the bullying, and Mabel did her best to protect him and/or beat the snot out of anyone who dared teased him, but it hurt all the same. He was a freak again, and the realization of that fact made him miss his other 'freak' all the more, the one person he had shown his birthmark to and who hadn't immediately laughed at him or judged him or made him feel like a loser. They were both freaks, he and Wendy, and he missed that.

Wendy missed Dipper when she found herself fighting a mysterious creature while out on her first date of the school year with a senior named Steve Philburn. Steve and Wendy were out in the middle of the woods when the two of them were besieged by a fearsome critter known as an Agropelter which immediately began hurling twigs and branches at the pair. Rather than defend his date, Steve had screamed and ducked behind a log, leaving Wendy to fend for herself. Though she fought valiantly, the creature's brute strength was greater than Wendy's, and it had almost dragged her off into the darkness before she used a stone to land a lucky strike to its face, knocking it unconscious. Steve had apologized profusely, of course, but Wendy ignored him and walked home that evening on her own. Fuming, she found herself missing the time when she had a real partner, someone brave, someone reliable, someone who would fight beside her. She used to have someone like that.

Dipper missed Wendy when his Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford returned from the Arctic Ocean and decided to drop by Piedmont to see him and Mabel before heading off once again into the unknown. Mr. and Mrs. Pines had been more than happy to allow the two men to stay for a few days, particularly after Grunkle Stan had taken such great care of Dipper and Mabel over the summer – and both parents were likewise deeply curious to learn more about Ford, whose very existence had been as much of a surprise to them as it had been to everyone else in the family.

It was while the two great-uncles were staying in the house that Dipper had entered his room one evening to find Grunkle Stan examining the bulletin board tacked onto the wall beside Dipper's bed. Though mostly covered in awards Dipper's had won in spelling bees and other academic competitions, it also contained two objects of great importance to him: the first was a photograph of the Mystery Shack crew out in the woods with Stan in the center, Dipper and Mabel in front of him, and Soos and Wendy on either side. The second, of course, was the letter Wendy had given Dipper before he left Gravity Falls, signed by all of their friends and family. It was these two objects that Stan seemed to be so interested in.

"Sorry, door was open, curiosity got the better of me," Stan explained as Dipper approached him, more than a little curious as to what his great-uncle was doing in his room. "But hey, I was a thirteen-year-old boy once, I'm sure you got nothing in here I ain't already seen before."

I sure hope not, Dipper thought to himself with a gulp as Stan carefully took the photograph off the bulletin board so he could better look at it through his foggy classes.

"That was one hell of a summer," Stan said, smiling as he looked at the photo. "You know, I miss you more than I thought I would, kid. You and your sister both. You were nothing but a nuisance, but I'll be damned if I didn't enjoy having you around."

"We miss you, too, Grunkle Stan," Dipper told him, responding with a smile of his own. "And Gravity Falls. I already can't wait to go back next summer."

"Funnily enough, I got that impression," Stan commented as he put the photograph back on the bulletin board and instead turned to the letter posted beside it. "'See you next summer.' You really liked it in Gravity Falls, didn't ya?"

"I did," Dipper answered honestly as he too looked up at the letter pinned to his bulletin board. "It's the most amazing place I've ever been to. And not just because of all the weird stuff that goes on. All the friends we made, the adventures we went on, the mysteries we solved. Sometimes, I feel like my whole life was leading up to that summer. And sometimes…sometimes I feel like I left something behind by leaving."

"Something?" Stan asked as he reached down and gently lifted the trapper hat off his great-nephew's head. "Or someone?"

Wendy missed Dipper when she finally returned to the Mystery Shack after neglecting to stop by for months on end. Though Stan and Ford had left for their adventure to the Arctic Ocean (or wherever they were going) shortly after Dipper and Mabel returned to Piedmont, the Mystery Shack remained open under its new manager: Soos. Wendy had been more than a little skeptical about the fate of the tourist trap when she first heard Soos was taking over, but she was glad to discover her misgivings had been unfounded upon entering the shack and finding it packed with almost twice as many oddities – and twice as many customers – as ever before.

"Wow, dude, looks like Stan should have put you in charge a long time ago," she commented after she and Soos had greeted each other. She was looking at the large crowd of people scouring the shelves of the gift shop as she spoke. "Guess it's a good thing I got out at the end of the summer, though. With this many customers, I might have had to actually work for once."

"Oh, yeah, dawg, I put the booming in business," Soos responded, understandably proud of himself. "We've made more this month than Stan used to make in three."

"Damn, Soos," Wendy said, whistling lightly, "what's your secret?"

"No secret, Wendy," Soos told her with a smile. "Nothing but hard work and a little imagination."

"…you're using one of Ford's inventions to hypnotize people into coming here, aren't you?"

"You can't prove anything."

Stan taught him well, Wendy thought to herself as she shook her head and smiled.

With Soos's permission, Wendy spent the next half an hour or so roaming the building and checking out her old haunts, going from the kitchen to the parlor to the living room, where she greeted Soos's abuelita. From there, she made her way upstairs and, eventually, to the attic, almost entirely bare save for two empty beds on the far side of the room, both of them stripped of sheets and covered in a thin layer of dust.

It was there that Soos eventually found her, sitting on the bed to the left and looking around the attic with a forlorn expression. Save for a few pieces of paper on the floor and some glitter covering the other bed, there was little evidence anyone had ever slept in the attic at all.

"It's not the same without them, is it?" Soos said upon taking a seat next to Wendy on Dipper's former bed. "Dipper and Mabel, I mean. It just isn't the same."

"Yeah," Wendy answered sadly, once again fidgeting with the pine tree cap she wore, "it really isn't."

For Dipper, it was Mabel who first recommended he actually try reaching out to Wendy. Mabel was having a sleepover at the time, and had spent most of the evening gossiping and playing games with the friends she had invited over. Just as Dipper remained as introverted as always, so too had Mabel only grown more extraverted as time went on, meaning she had made (and maintained) many new friends during her eighth grade year. As such, this was neither the first nor the last sleepover she would be hosting in Piedmont.

The last Mabel had seen Dipper had been at dinner, when her parents ordered pizza for everyone. He had been his usually awkward but charming self around Mabel's friends, and Mabel had the feeling Sarah might have actually been trying to flirt with him at one point. Nonetheless, he had disappeared shortly after dinner ended, and Mabel had been too caught up in hanging out with her girlfriends to really notice or question his whereabouts until she emerged from a trip to the bathroom and noticed his bedroom door open just a crack.

"Hey, Bro-Bro," Mabel said as she slipped into her brother's room with the usual smile on her face to find him lying in his bed and staring up at the ceiling. Waddles was lying beside him and snorting happily as Dipper rubbed his belly, having apparently had enough of the girls for the time being. "Wanna come hang out in my room? The girls and I are gonna play Truth or Dare and yoooouuuu're invited!"

"Uh, no, thanks," Dipper responded, frowning a little upon finding his sister in his room without knocking first; she never knocked. "Truth or Dare isn't really my thing."

"You suuuuuure?" Mabel asked again, now standing right by the bed and reaching over to play with Waddles as her brother stopped rubbing the pig's belly. "We have cookies. And Mabel Juice! I made sure not to put any paint in it this time."

"Tempting, but still no," Dipper answered dismissively, turning away from both her and Waddles as he did so. "I'm fine, Mabel, really. Just go have fun with your friends, okay?"

Mabel frowned and pouted a little upon hearing her brother's response. She waited a moment, as if expecting him to change his mind, before realizing it was useless and heading back towards the doorway. Just as she placed her hand on the doorknob and prepared to open it, however, she stopped and turned back around.

"You know you could, like, call Wendy or something, right?" she asked.

Back on his bed, Dipper turned back towards her and frowned. "Why would I want to do that?"

"Ugghhh!" Mabel groaned, letting go of the doorknob and heading back over to Dipper's bed. "Dipper, look, you're my brother, and I love you, but you're being Super Ultra Mega Stupid right now. If you go another week without talking to Wendy, I'm pretty sure your heart will, like, explode or something!"

"Is it that obvious?" Dipper asked after a moment's pause, wishing he could fight the blush creeping upon his face.

"Only to, like, everybody who's ever met you," Mabel told him as she jumped onto his bed and took a seat beside him and Waddles. "Just text her already! Or email her! Write a letter if you have to! We have the technology, Dipper! And you'll feel better if you do!"

Dipper simply sat there next to his sister for a few moments, as though thinking over what she said and weighing his options. Mabel could tell he was putting a lot of thought into whatever was going through his head; she knew him well enough to know the look of gears turning in his mind. Unfortunately, when Dipper finally did come to a decision, it wasn't the one she had suggested he make.

"I can't," he said, unable to hide the disappointment in his voice. "It would be weird to reach out after all this time. And I…I don't want to make her uncomfortable."

"You're not gonna make her feel uncomfortable!" Mabel exclaimed. "Just talk to her like a normal person! I'm not saying you have to ask her to marry you!"

But Dipper was not to be persuaded.

"No," he said definitively. "I can't do it. I confessed my feelings to Wendy like you told me to, and…she made her feelings clear. I'm not going to push it. I'm going to respect her wishes. Her friendship is important to me and I don't want to mess that up."

"Even if it hurts?" Mabel asked after Dipper fell silent.

"Yeah," Dipper answered softly, reaching over to place an affectionate hand on Waddles's head as he did so. "Even if it hurts."

For Wendy, it was actually Robbie who was either the first to notice or the first to actually mention how much she clearly missed Dipper. After months of failed attempts, the crew was finally back together again, and all six of them were hanging out in the old graveyard and just messing around like they always did. They had hit the supermarket first and made a show of buying as many snacks and sodas as they could before they were inevitably kicked out due to Nate and Lee pulling some kind of prank on the general manager. From there, Thompson had driven the rest of them to the graveyard, their old hang-out.

Though Wendy had been overjoyed at first to have all of her friends back in one place again, something about the group's chemistry still seemed off to her. Maybe it was because Robbie and Tambry were always holding hands, or Thompson's talk of preparing to go off to college in the fall, or the fact the six of them hadn't hung out together in so long; regardless of the reason, Wendy found herself forcing a smile several times during the experience, something she had never had to do with her friends before.

It wasn't that she wasn't enjoying herself, or the company of her friends; she was, and she did. But it did nothing to dull the hole she felt in her heart.

"You really miss him, don't you?" Robbie asked as soon as he had a moment alone with Wendy.

The two of them had been standing on the edge of the road and watching as Nate and Lee glued Thompson to his own van while Tambry filmed the event and took photographic evidence with her phone. It was just the kind of wacky antic Wendy would have thrown herself headlong into any other time; perhaps that's how Robbie knew something was wrong.

"What? Miss who?" Wendy responded, blinking wildly as though her mind had been miles away. In truth, it had been; she hadn't even been paying attention to what her friends were doing.

"You know, Dr. Fun Times," Robbie answered with a small smile. "Don't try denying it, Wendy. You haven't been the same since he left. I know I can be a jerk and an idiot, but even I can tell something is up."

Wendy sighed. He was right; what good would denying it do?

"I knew I would miss him, man, I just didn't know it would be this much," she admitted after a moment, kicking the ground a little as she did.

"The kid grows on you, I'll give him that."

"Yeah," Wendy said sadly. "He really does."

"Have you, like, texted him or anything?" Robbie asked, raising a questioning eyebrow when Wendy shook her head. "Why not?"

"I dunno, man, it would be…awkward," Wendy told him, hugging herself as though suddenly cold. "He had this huge crush on me all summer, which was kinda weird, but I told him I was too old for him, you know? I just wanted to be friends. And, like, I want to reach out, but I don't know if it would be a good idea. I don't want to lead him on or anything."

"Since when is sending a text leading someone on?" Robbie pondered aloud.

"Look, dude, I know I'm over-thinking this," Wendy admitted as she threw her hands up in exasperation, "but I'm only over-thinking it because I know Dipper would over-think it, too. You know how he is. I don't want to stress him out or make him anxious or whatever. He means a lot to me. I don't want to hurt him, you know?"

"I guess," Robbie said slowly, following Wendy's line of logic even if he disagreed with it. "But, like, what about you? Are you just destined to be miserable all day, every day until he comes back to Gravity Falls?"

Wendy shrugged. "If that's the way it has to be."

The two stood in silence for a little bit after that, neither speaking nor needing to speak. Back on the road, Nate and Lee had succeeded in gluing Thompson to the front of his van and Tambry was busy sending the resulting photographs to everyone she knew on social media. Smiling as he watched his girlfriend broadcast their friends' hijinks, Robbie reached over and placed a reassuring hand on Wendy's shoulder.

"If you want, I could point out some freshly-dug graves for you to wallow in."

"Shut up, dude."

Unfortunately for both themselves and for everybody else involved, Dipper and Wendy were nothing if not stubborn and steadfast in their beliefs.

As such, despite words of wisdom from their respective friends and family members, the weeks and months went on, with neither Dipper nor Wendy reaching out to the other. There were no phone calls, no texts, no emails, no letters sent by post or carrier. They continued to miss each other more and more every day, but remained resolute in their respective decisions; they had sworn not to contact the other for fear of making them uncomfortable, and so that's exactly what they did.

Holidays came and went, school drudged on, Wendy turned sixteen. She and Dipper each had their own experiences, their own lives, and they lived them the best they could, knowing all the while there was someone else out there they wished could be a bigger part of their lives. Long nights were spent lying awake in bed and thinking of the other, wanting nothing more than to pick up the phone and make the call, only to reconsider at the very last moment.

Time went on. Seasons passed. School ended.

Plans were made and put into motion faster than either Dipper or Wendy had been expecting, and soon enough both of them were caught up in the thought of finally seeing one another again for the first time in over nine months.

In Piedmont, Dipper packed his clothes and books and anything else he thought he might need for his extended stay in Gravity Falls over the summer, trying to keep himself busy so he didn't become overwhelmed at the thought of seeing Wendy again. In Gravity Falls, Wendy began to psych herself up as she helped Stan and Ford (who had only recently returned themselves) both move into their shared home downtown and prepare it for the arrival of the Pines Twins.

Eventually, the day came when the bus picked up Dipper and Mabel (and Waddles) in Piedmont and began its long journey to Oregon.

Wendy had woken up late that day, not because school was out and it was technically the first day of summer, but because she hadn't fallen asleep until after midnight the evening before, her excitement and anticipation having kept her up most of the night. As much as Wendy tried to tell herself (and others) that she was simply excited to see Dipper and Mabel after so long, as well as begin working at the Mystery Shack with Soos again, deep down she knew the truth: while she certainly missed both the Pines Twins, it was also true she missed one of them a little bit more.

Wendy thus woke up that morning groggy and with butterflies in her stomach, yawning as she dressed herself and then pausing as she took the blue-and-white hat from here bedpost. Instead of immediately putting it on as she usually did, Wendy instead took a moment to look at the pine tree emblazoned on its front, smiling as she did so. Finally, after waiting and wanting for so long, she was going to see her friend again.

If Wendy was being honest with herself – and she tried to be – she had to admit she was nervous. She hadn't seen or spoken to Dipper in over nine months; surely he had changed in this time, learned new things, maybe even grown a little taller? Would she even be able to recognize him? What if he wasn't same the Dipper she remembered, the same sweet and neurotic boy she had come to know and love? What if he had changed?

It will be okay, she tried to tell herself as she once again looked at the hat in her hands. Even if he has changed…he'll still be Dipper. He'll still be my friend. And I'll still be there for him.

Unfortunately, it was just as Wendy was looking at the hat that she likewise noticed the sunlight peaking through her closed curtains, far brighter than she had expected it to be. With wide eyes, she turned to her alarm clock and felt her heart sink into her stomach as she finally realized what time it was.

"Damn it!" she exclaimed, throwing the hat in her hands onto her head and then rushing out of her bedroom as quickly as possible. She brushed her teeth in record time, grabbed a bagel out of one of her brother's hands ("Hey!"), and then she was out the front door and gone.

She was late.

Dipper would have been lying if he said he wasn't a little disappointed when he and Mabel (and Waddles) stepped off the bus to find Wendy wasn't there to greet them. Everyone else was: Stan, Ford, Soos, Melody, Candy, Grenda, even Pacifica. Nonetheless, he tried not to let that bother him too much as he greeted his friends and family, exchanged hugs and stories and all the usual pleasantries. Wendy or not, he was back in Gravity Falls, and he tried to focus on that fact to the exclusion of all others.

Even so, Dipper still found it understandably difficult to keep up his smile and cheerfulness as he joked and laughed along with his friends and family, especially when he saw the huge hug Grenda and Candy pulled Mabel into. As much as he loved being back in Gravity Falls, and as happy as he was to see Mabel rediscover her 'people,' he still felt like something was missing, and that something continued to pull at his heartstrings. He lifted a hand up to feel the woolen lining of the trapper hat he wore at all times, as though reminding himself it was still there.

But then…there she was.

Just as Dipper was about to resign himself to the fact that Wendy hadn't come to see them, he heard someone huffing and puffing a few meters away and turned to see who it was. His eyes widened as he saw her finally emerge from out of the woods, boots covered in mud, clothes torn and damp with sweat, red hair wild under the well-worn blue-and-white hat.

Wendy Corduroy.

Their eyes met and, for a moment, the two simply stared at each other as though they couldn't believe the other was standing right in front of them. Dipper's cheeks grew hot as he looked at Wendy, and she fought to catch her breath as she looked right back at him, having run all the way from her home.

It's her, Dipper thought to himself, his heart pounding in his chest. It's really her.

It's really him, Wendy thought at the exact same moment, wiping some sweat from her brow.

They practically threw themselves at each other after that, Dipper dropping his suitcase on the ground and running towards Wendy as she used the last of her energy to meet him halfway. Then they were embracing one another, Dipper wrapping his arms around Wendy's waist and Wendy wrapping hers around his neck, what with him still being shorter than her even after his apparent growth spurt. They smiled, with tears in their eyes, squeezing each other as hard as they could, as though afraid they might disappear if they let go for even a second.

Both were perfectly aware of the fact Mabel and Stan and all of the others were no doubt watching them, but both were likewise far beyond caring; they had waited so long, too long, for this moment, and now nothing was going to ruin it. Neither Dipper nor Wendy had any idea how long they stood there on the side of the road, holding each other quietly but fiercely, but neither did either of them care.

"Hey, dude," Wendy finally spoke up once she was able to talk through her tears, squeezing Dipper lightly as she held the boy in her arms. "Long time, no see."

"Too long," Dipper responded as he sniffed a little and rested his head against her chest, squeezing her right back. "I missed you, Wendy."

"I missed you, too, man," Wendy said as she closed her eyes and rested her head atop Dipper's, simply allowing herself to enjoy his presence for the first time in over nine months. "I missed you, too."