"Kid, wait up." Robbie called. "I didn't mean to flip out at you like that."

He had caught up with Mabel quite quickly, despite his efforts not to. He wanted to go home and pretend none of this ever happened, but it was as if some supernatural being was pushing him along in her direction.

As soon as Robbie caught up to her, part of him wanted to turn around and just leave already. Part of him thought he'd dealt with Mabel enough for one day. But something in the back of his mind told him to at least talk to the younger girl, even if she had been irritating him more than anything just a moment ago. Sure, he knew he was probably right; Mabel knew absolutely nothing about love, nor did she know anything about how Robbie was feeling. And he certainly knew that she was only making things worse by flirting with him in attempt to somehow comfort him. But for whatever reason, Robbie just couldn't stay mad at her, no matter how hard he tried. He knew that she hadn't been trying to make things worse. And after seeing how hurt she looked after he'd snapped at her made Robbie think that maybe he'd been a bit too harsh. He hadn't meant to upset her; he just didn't really want to be around her at that exact moment.

He was hurt and confused, so he took it out on her. That was something he unintentionally did to people an awful lot. Usually Robbie hid his true emotions somewhere deep inside in attempt to distance himself from other people. He knew he was a jerk sometimes, but that was just his way of keeping himself from getting hurt. But for some reason, when he was around Mabel, he had begun to let his guard down. He actually started to let himself care about Mabel. Normally, he wouldn't have cared any less about making her upset. But this time it was different. He'd rarely seen Mabel without a smile on her face. And, for a reason he didn't quite understand, the fact that he had upset her really bothered him.

"Huh?" At the sound of Robbie's voice Mabel skidded to a stop and turned around. When she realized that Robbie had followed her she let out a quiet gasp of surprise. Even though Mabel was generally an incredibly optimistic person, she hadn't expected Robbie to care that she'd left, let alone seemingly notice that she had been upset by what he said. Mabel could tell she hadn't been wanted just moments ago, and right now she was quite curious as to what had made Robbie suddenly change his mind.

She started to get the feeling that maybe he wasn't quite what she'd thought him to be. Maybe Robbie actually did care. Maybe he did have a heart under all that 'coolness' and body spray.

"Look, I-I guess what I'm trying to say is..." Robbie trailed off and sighed. "I'm sorry. So like, don't worry about what I said. I seriously didn't mean it or anything. I'm...I'm just kinda angry, I guess." He told her, shrugging and avoiding her questioning gaze. Robbie wasn't exactly used to apologizing to anyone, especially not to people like Mabel. Usually doing something like this would have been completely out of the question. But right now he felt like he should apologize to her, even if it rather humiliated him to do so.

Mabel was really surprised that Robbie actually bothered to apologize, but she tried her best to just shrug it off, hoping to not offend him any more than she already had. "Oh, don't worry about it." She said, giving him a wide grin and hoping to lighten the surprisingly serious tone of the conversation.

Even though what he'd said really had hurt her, she didn't want him to know that. She didn't like to be seen as a person who was easily upset. Not because she wasn't, but because she didn't like it when people worried about her. Dipper was constantly fussing over her whenever she got upset. And she didn't like to cause other people to worry. She liked it when everyone was happy, even if she wasn't. So she did her best to act as happy as possible all the time, because she thought it'd help others feel happy too. Generally she was a very optimistic and joyful person on her own, but sometimes she let the negative thoughts in the back of her mind get to her, and the unhappiness she felt in those moments was astonishing. But after hearing Robbie apologize to her, which she figured was a rare event to witness, she felt much better than she had. She still felt bad for misunderstanding how he felt about Wendy, but it was merely an afterthought at the moment.

"You were right, anyway." Mabel told him, never allowing the bright smile to leave her face. "I don't know anything about love…" She made it seem like it was just a lighthearted statement, but in reality there was more to it than just that. She really did know that Robbie was right.

All Mabel wanted was the kind of love that she saw in her supernatural romance novels. She wanted a love that could overcome anything; a love that would last forever. She wanted someone in her life that she could make happy, someone who could make her actually feel as happy as she usually seemed. She wanted someone who would accept her, even if she was different and a little bit weird. And for some reason she felt incredibly hopeful about finding that person now that she was in Gravity Falls. At home she'd been considered a freak. Mabel was a girl with an always present smile who knitted in her spare time, almost strictly wore sweaters, and was unhealthily obsessed with glitter, vampires, and pigs. Back in Piedmont, she just wasn't 'normal' by the standards of most people her age. But in this town she felt like she was normal. Especially when compared to everything else. And she felt like if she met someone here who was even less normal than her, then maybe they'd accept her and love her the way she was. She knew it was silly, but these thoughts were still there in the back of her mind. Plus, her overwhelming kindness did tend to make her fall in love quite quickly. She saw the good in everyone. Mabel did tend to rush into relationships. She knew that. But it hadn't been brought to her attention that what she was feeling wasn't true love until Robbie had pointed it out. What she was feeling was nothing more than loneliness and desperation usually mixed in with a bit of admiration.

"I mean, really, my kind of 'love' generally only lasts a week. Then the boy leaves, moves on, or turns out to be a zombie or whatever." She said, shrugging and giggling a bit at herself.

But behind her seemingly carefree smile, there was a hint of some other emotion that glimmered in her deep brown eyes for a split second. If Robbie hadn't glanced up at her exactly when he did, he wouldn't have noticed it; and he wanted to pretend he didn't see it at all. But he knew that he wasn't just imagining things. Mabel was hurting. She really was upset. And it struck him somewhere deep inside. He had somehow managed to see the sadness and loneliness that so few people ever saw in usually cheerful Mabel. Robbie saw what she wanted no one to know about her. That underneath the perpetual joy she always seemed to emanate, she actually did get genuinely upset sometimes. Robbie wished he hadn't seen it. Because it was what kept him from just nodding and leaving at that exact moment; it changed his entire opinion about her. Now Mabel didn't seem so annoying all of a sudden. Something about the emotion in the younger girl's eyes kept his feet planted on the ground right where he was in front of her. He just couldn't leave after seeing her like that. Maybe it was because he knew exactly how she was feeling.

Robbie really had loved Wendy. He didn't believe in love at first sight, but he couldn't deny that he knew he loved Wendy almost exactly upon meeting her. Something about Wendy Corduroy made Robbie completely insane. Whenever he was around her he felt a strange fluttering feeling in his gut. Words escaped him. His palms sweated mercilessly. And somehow, he loved every moment of it. If that wasn't love, he didn't know what was. But right now, just thinking of Wendy pained him. Wendy had made him so happy. And without her in his life, though it had only been a few hours since they'd broken up, he felt like all the happiness he'd ever had was being sucked right out of him. When they'd first started dating he was completely overjoyed. But now that it was over, he felt like maybe everything he thought they'd had was never even real in the first place. He never knew he could go from being on top of the world to being at the bottom of the universe so quickly. He was suddenly back to square one; keeping his distance from everyone and hiding his feeling away somewhere inside himself to keep from getting hurt. But when he saw all the loneliness and sadness in Mabel's eyes he felt like he could identify with exactly how she felt at the moment. They were both different. They were both lonely. And they both wore their personalities like masks to hide their true emotions. He never thought he would have a connection like that with someone like Mabel Pines.

Robbie sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He wasn't used to expressing his emotions. Usually he loathed the thought of telling another person what was on his mind. But today was just full of surprises. "Look, kid. Just-Forget about what I said, okay? There's nothing wrong with having crushes while you're young. Because hey, I'm still young too; and who's to say what we're feeling isn't really love? 'Cause there's always a reason you like someone, you know? So maybe it's not 'love love' or whatever, but I bet you do know what it's like to love someone." He told her. "I mean, you're like, super nice all the time. Even today, you tried to help me out even though I'm a major jerk to your brother. You care about people a lot. Way too much in my opinion. And in a way, caring about someone is loving them, right?" When Mabel didn't say anything in response, he took it as his cue to keep talking. "Point being, I'm really sorry I snapped at you when you were just trying to help me out. Thanks for trying to get my mind off things."

After he finished rambling, he jammed his hands in his pockets and finally looked up at Mabel. She was staring at him with her eyes wide and her head tilted slightly in complete and utter confusion. Robbie felt his cheeks heat up. He instantly regretted what he'd said. He knew he must have messed something up or said something in a really stupid way. He knew he probably completely destroyed his image. Not like he cared what this girl thought anyway, but still. Just as he was about to abandon ship and finally get himself away from the less irritating of the Pines Twins, Mabel opened her mouth.

"Oh wow." She said quietly, seemingly in shock. "I don't know what I expected...but it was soo not that. What even was that, Robbie? Where did that even come from? Oh wow. Wow, wow, wow."

Robbie shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Oh shut it, kid. That...I...I didn't..." He trailed off, huffed, and yet again turned to walk away.

"Hey, wait! Why do you always try to walk off whenever I want to talk to you?" Mabel asked him.

Robbie glanced at her over his shoulder and saw a playful glimmer suddenly replacing the sadness that had been present in her eyes just moments ago.

"Robbie, that was the sweetest thing I've ever heard! Well, outside of Wolfman Bare Chest anyway. That seriously just made my day!" Mabel exclaimed. "Who knew you were such a softie?" She teased, grinning widely.

Robbie scoffed, trying his best not to show how embarrassed he was. "I am not a softie. I-I was just…Look, squirt, if you tell anyone- and I mean anyone- about this you will regret it. Don't tell your brother, your friends or even your pig. Just…Forget that even happened. I don't…I'm not usually like this, I swear!"

Mabel giggled and nodded. "Oh, of course not, Robbie. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. It can be our little secret."

A/N: I finally decided to update this story! Yay! I was really hesitant to upload this because it's kinda personal to me, it's not my best work, and it's definitely a bit OOC. But, depending on some things, I might end up writing a few more chapters for this. Or fixing it up a little bit. Who knows? Anyway, thank you to everyone who's supported this story despite the fact that I took over a month to update!