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After breakfast, Dipper and Pacifica tidied up the kitchen while Wendy and Mabel got dressed and took Waddles outside for a brief walk. While Waddles’ main focus was finding a place in which to relieve himself, he also had a great deal of fun playing in the snow.
Mabel took Wendy’s arm as they strolled through the woods, Waddles running circles around them, then coming back to them, as if urging them to run and play with him before zooming around again.
“Yup,” Wendy said to herself out loud. “Definitely gonna hafta put the plow on the front of the truck when we head out.
“So…” Mabel began, laying her head against Wendy’s shoulder as they walked along. “I know we’ve kinda talked about it before, a little, but when did you decide you really liked Dipper? I mean, ‘in love’ kind of like? How’d it happen for you?”
Wendy paused, turning her head to look down at Mabel, who looked up at her, all innocence and absence of guile. She smiled to herself as she turned back to see where they were going.
“Well,” Wendy said, contemplating her words as she spoke. “He wasn’t like all the other boys and girls I’d been with.” Her smile became even wider as she looked down at her boots. “He was so sweet and dorky. I guess it was good he started with that ‘impossible’ crush…cos what’d he know about love and sex, anyway?”
“Not much, I can guarantee,” Mabel commented.
Wendy glanced down at Mabel, surprised.
“What?” said Mabel. “Girls usually mature faster than boys. And, you know—Twin telepathy…Twinepathy…? Anyway, he couldn’t hide it from me, even if he could hide it from himself.”
Wendy shook her head. “So, he couldn’t have been hung up on getting into my pants. Not then, anyway.”
“Uh, huh,” Mabel nodded. “And at that age, he was probably intimidating himself into good behavior with you, most of the time.”
Wendy nodded. “And, y’know, when I said ‘No,’ to him, he didn’t fight me. He didn’t leave me, or lose interest. He went right on being my friend.”
“He hurt for a long time, though.” Mabel said quietly, looking down. Wendy either didn’t hear her, or ignored her as she continued.
“…And after all we’d been through together, all the adventures, all our movie nights, and just knocking around the forest with each other…. Well, I…I just started having feelings…um. Feelings I didn’t know what to do with…that I hardly recognized. Y’know?”
“You told me and Grunkle Stan a little of that over the summer. Sort of.”
Wendy shrugged, but did not lose her smile.
“Dipper wasn’t the kind of boy a girl sleeps with. But, after a while, I…I really wanted to. He treated me so well. And… And I was…afraid to tell him when I started feeling that way about him.”
“Why didn’t you just tell him?” Mabel asked. “Me and Paz told each other everything when we were conducting our online romance.”
Wendy gave a small laugh. “Yeah, but me and Doofus didn’t have an online romance.”
Mabel snorted. “You mean, he didn’t know he was in one,” she said.
Wendy laughed louder. “He sure didn’t!” she chuckled. “On the other hand, I was afraid to ruin things by being obvious, so, it wasn’t all his fault.”
They started to turn back toward the house. Mabel was concerned that Waddles needed to get out of the snow and warm up a bit—even if he did enjoy playing ‘bulldozer’ against the drifts.
Wendy continued. “When you guys came back this past summer, though…I just couldn’t…. I didn’t wanna miss my chance. You know?”
Mabel hugged Wendy’s arm tighter. “I know,” she said.
Wendy sighed and looked up and around at the sky, the forest, the drifting snow….
“It’s a beauty day,” she commented to no one in particular.
At the sink, Dipper washed while Pacifica dried. She hummed a tune he didn’t know as they worked.
“So, Paz,” he began, trying to make conversation. “I’m really glad you’re here and all, with Mabel, and us, but, um….”
“But what?”
“Well, what about your own family? Don’t you have Christmas with them?”
“Well…I guess…sort of?” Pacifica began, not sure if this was a conversation she wanted to have. “I mean, ever since my dad lost half his fortune after Weirdmageddon, everything is about making back his money and connections. He can’t stand being an ‘ordinary’ millionaire, you see. So he and mom do a lot of holiday functions and stuff, where I’m like…an accessory.” She sighed as they finished and she moved to put the tableware away. “They hardly notice whether I’m there or not.” She turned to face Dipper. “For all the grief you say you get from your folks, at least they care about you.”
Dipper stood silently for a moment, just looking at the young woman. Then, he began packing up the leftovers and putting them away.
“You know,” he said, “I really like the person I’ve seen you become…a-and I know Mabel is completely crazy about you….” He began to blush. “So, like, how did you two connect? I mean why…I mean--”
Pacifica silenced him with a smirk. “Stoppit, dummy; you’re gonna hurt yourself.” She relaxed into a friendlier smile and began to help with the leftovers.
“Mabel seemed to like me,” she said, “Even back when I was always mean to her. And she was always kind to me, no matter what I did or said.” She looked up at Dipper. “And I said some horrible things to her that first year.”
“Maybe I wasn’t very nice, either,” Dipper began.
“Nah,” Pacifica interrupted. “You were just sticking up for your sister. Like a good brother.”
She sat down and watched Dipper as he finished up.
“But you never liked me back then. And…I guess that’s fair. I wasn’t very likeable, then. But you still came to me when I needed you.” She leaned her head on her hand as she sat. “And then…we all went through Weirdmageddon together, and you and Mabel were the only ones there for me.”
“There was Grunkle Stan,” Dipper pointed out. “And Wendy…and the Manotaurs, and Multibear…and even the gnomes….”
Pacifica waved away his points. “Yeah, but you two were the center of it all. Does that make sense?” She paused.
“Anyway…I guess…I dunno. I just wanted to be a part of a family like that.” Her eyes misted over, focusing inwardly, now. “A family that could like me for me…even when I wasn’t being very likeable.”
“But Mabel loves you,” Dipper said quietly, sitting down across from her at the table. He reached across to take her hand. Pacifica smiled. He hadn’t used his robotic arm, but his own arm. She sighed, and looked him in the eye.
“You were always honest with me,” she said, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. “You never even pretended to like me. So when even you…I dunno…thawed out toward me…I knew you weren’t just trying to get anything out of me, or get in good with my father.”
“Just be good to my sister, and love her as much as she loves you, Paz,” said Dipper. “That’s all I want.”
“Dork,” Pacifica said, smiling now from ear to ear.
When Wendy, Mabel, and Waddles returned, Dipper had hot cocoa waiting for them.
“You’re the best, Bro-Bro!” Mabel proclaimed.
“Yeah—Wendy’s got him well-trained,” Pacifica said, grinning.
“Hey—y’know what let’s do?” Wendy said as she drank. “Let’s all get ready for tonight’s do at the Shack, but let’s go into town for a while first!”
“What? Why?” asked Dipper.
“I wanna go out and see the kids playing with their new toys and stuff,” Wendy said
“That actually sounds like fun,” Pacifica said. “Come on, Mabes—let’s get washed and showered, and stuff.”
“We’ll go next,” Wendy said. She ran to the bureau to pick out matching outfits for herself and Dipper, as she did the first night she had taken him to Skull Fracture.
“Hey, girls?” Dipper called as Mabel and Pacifica were about to disappear into the bathroom together. “Do want me to pack your stuff into the back of the truck so you can just stay at the Shack?”
“Don’t be silly, Dipper,” Pacifica told him. “We rented our own car, remember?”
“Besides,” Mabel added. “We’re coming back here for another night or two.”
“Yeah, and Wendy promised us a good time after dinner, and we have games to play for Christmas.” Pacifica winked as she closed the bathroom door.
“We really shouldn’t go empty-handed,” Wendy said to Dipper, while they waited for Mabel and Pacifica. “What can we bring?”
“How about some of your dad’s apple-cider or mead?” Dipper suggested.
“Oooh, good choice,” Wendy said. “Go grab a few bottles and put ‘em the truck, will you?
It was nearly two o’clock when the two couples drove into town. Wendy spent some time getting the plow onto the front of her truck, and the drive along the access road took longer than usual, as Wendy was careful to ensure the road remained passable. They drove through foot-deep snow, and the occasional drift that reached three feet. Once they made it to the main road, the going was much easier.
Mabel had been delighted ad riding in a ‘real’ snowplow. Wendy even allowed her to take the wheel, coaching her through some of the finer aspects of plowing a road in a pickup truck.
In town, they parked in the supermarket’s lot, and piled out. They were all bundled warmly against the cold, and they enjoyed looking at the decorations on all the houses as they walked along. Scores of young children scampered about in the snow, laughing and playing, and sledding on everything from genuine Flexible Flyer sleds, to saucers, to old bits of cardboard, taken from Christmas packages.
As they walked and watched, Wendy took Dipper’s arm and pulled him close. “Hey, Dipper,” she whispered. “What do you think about a few of those of our own, one day?”
Dipper turned to look at his girlfriend directly. She blushed, a shy smile playing about her lips. Dipper smiled and gave her a quick hug. Her arms draped over his shoulders as he held her about the waist.
“I think I might like that,” he said. “We’ll certainly have a lot of fun trying.”
They laughed. And then they kissed.
Mabel and Pacifica hooted and cheered them on before pausing to kiss, themselves.
They continued along, greeting other couples and families that had also come out to watch the kids at play and see all the seasonal decorations.
By the time they came upon Greasy’s Diner, which was closed for the day, they decided to have a snowball fight.
At first it was Wendy and Dipper against Mabel and Pacifica. There was much slipping and sliding, and falling into snowdrifts, and although Wendy was a deadly shot with just about any projectile weapon, Pacifica was almost as accurate. Their first battle in the snow was inconclusive.
But for the second round, the younger Pines Twins teamed up against their future intendeds. And as a team? Mabel and Dipper were unstoppable. They used a huge plowed up pile of snow as a fort and munitions supply. There was much shouting and laughing. Even some of the neighborhood kids joined in on one side or the other.
Finally, when everyone was red-cheeked from the cold, and grew tired of pelting each other with snowballs, The four made their way back to the parking lot where they’d left the truck, and headed for the Mystery Shack.