#Aromantic Mabel Pines

[matcha-milkies]

LOVE? ACTUALLY?

Summary: In which Mabel and Ford are both aromantic, and neither of them has the vocabulary to express it.

A sequel to “Well, You Did Ask.”

Relationships: Ford Pines & Mabel Pines, Ford Pines & Stan Pines, Bill Cipher/Ford Pines (Mentioned), Pacifica Northwest/Dipper Pines (Mentioned)

Tags: Humor, Family Bonding, Past Relationships, Advice

Word Count: 1,584

Link to AO3: Here

A/N: I once saw a post talking about how Mabel could be aromantic because she seems really in love with the idea of being in love and picks a lot of random people to have crushes on, and as an aro person that felt SCARILY familiar lol so here you go.

Ford is aro gay <3

“Ugh.” Mabel draped herself over the arm of the couch like a piece of laundry, stomach down, long hair flopping. “I can’t believe I’m 15 and still single! I’m never gonna get a long-term boyfriend!”

Ford, who had been preparing himself tea in the kitchen nearby, poked his head into the room, as though to ascertain whether his great niece was talking to him. They were the only two in the shack right now, aside from Waddles, so it was a 50-50 chance. 

Well, maybe 25-75. In Waddles’s favor.

“Grunkle Ford,” she lifted herself a little and drew back the curtain of her hair so that her eyes peeked through, “when did you first get serious with someone?”

Despite being addressed directly, Ford still glanced over his shoulder to make sure there wasn’t anyone behind him, perhaps some alternate-dimension Stanford Pines who was better equipped to answer such a question. “Serious?” He tugged at the collar of his sweater as obscenely equilateral imagery flashed across the backs of his eyelids. “W-Well, I suppose it depends on what you define as serious.”

“I dunno, I guess it’s serious when you both agree it’s serious?” She frowned at the ceiling helplessly before slumping back over the arm of the couch. Her voice came out muffled. “I wouldn’t know. It’s not like I’ve ever been in a serious relationship.”

Tea in hand, Ford stepped more fully into the room, looking about as comfortable as he’d been at his first college party (he’d been dragged there against his will, obviously). Come on, Ford. A few sage words from her great uncle. That’s all she’s asking for. A few times, he opened his mouth to say something and then snapped it shut. Luckily, conversations with Mabel did not require much input from the second party.

“I mean, Dipper is dating Pacifica! For a whole year now! I can’t believe he beat me! How does that even happen?”

Ford chuckled a little to himself, remembering high school, when Stan had teased him for having a girlfriend before Ford did. “Well, Mabel, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone goes at their own pace.”

“Urgh! But I want a boyfriend now! I don’t wanna waaaaaait.” She kicked her feet in agitation. “Is it so much to ask? To have someone in my life who makes me feel special?”

Ford knit his brows and seated himself at the nearby table, setting his mug down. “I understand your frustration, but, Mabel, I…” The man rested his head on his hand for a few moments, contemplating how best to put it. “I fear you’re looking at this all the wrong way.”

She peered up at him, leery. “What do you mean?”

He stirred the metal spoon in his tea, lazily winding it around the ceramic rim. “If all you’re looking for is someone to make you feel special… I worry you might end up with someone who doesn’t have your best interests at heart.”

“Oh, Grunkle Ford, I’ll be fine.”

He had started talking before she even finished her last word. “I’m serious. You have to be careful who you give yourself to. You become so desperate not to feel alone that you-you rush into things blindly, without thinking, without stopping to consider the ulterior motives your partner might have, and before you know it—”

“Hey! I don’t do any of those things,” Mabel protested, even though she very much did do all of those things in that exact order, and also even though Ford had not been talking about her.

“My- My point is,” he went on, taking a steadying breath, “you shouldn’t settle for less. One way or another, you’ll find special people to be in your life. I know it’s not quite what you’re looking for, but you’ve already got a wonderful brother.”

Mabel flopped onto her back and stretched the skin beneath her eye in distress. “But what if he marries Pacifica and I barely see him anymore? I’ll have nobody!”

“Dipper cares for you very deeply, Mabel. I doubt the two of you will ever drift apart.”

“Mmmmm,” Mabel groaned.

“But let’s say hypothetically you did,” Ford proposed. “You’d still have me and Stanley. You’d have your friends, your parents. Waddles, of course. And any number of new friends that you’re going to make in the coming years. I of all people can’t guarantee that relationships won’t fall to pieces. What I do know is that there’s always someone waiting for you on the other side, if you’re willing to let them in.”

“Aww… I guess that is kind of sweet.” She finally rearranged herself so that she was sitting normally. “Say, Grunkle Ford, you never told me about your first serious relationship.”

“I- Oh, you don’t want to hear about that.”

“Yes I do! Come ooooon, I’m so bored! Storytime! Storytime!”

“W- I- Um.”

“Wait.” Mabel narrowed her eyes. “You’re getting all weird the way Dipper does when he has something embarrassing to hide!”

“Mabel, don’t be ridiculous. It’s just not that interesting.”

“What’s not that interesting?” asked a gruff voice from the next room over. A few seconds later, its owner popped in carrying what looked to be groceries in his arm, mostly snacks, fruits and drinks.

“Grunkle Stan! We were just talking about Grunkle Ford’s love life.” She clasped her hands together and batted her lashes.

“What?” Stan raised his brows as he set down his paper bag on the table. “You told her about Bill?”

Ford got up from his chair fully with the intent to commit fratricide. 

“WHAT!” Mabel exploded. “GRUNKLE FORD?!” She glommed onto his leg and anchored him to the ground before he could give chase. Stan wisely moved over to the fridge to look for a few beers. “WHAAAAAT?!”

Ford tried to drag her along. “Mabel! Aren’t you getting a little old to be doing this?”

“No!” She looked up at him with wide, sparkling eyes. “Now tell me everything! Everything! EVERYTHING!” She shook his leg with violence.

Stan popped a couple of bottle caps and extended one of the bottles towards his brother in gesture. “Sixer, if I come over there to give you this, you gotta promise not to try to wring my neck.”

“I can make no such promise, Stanley.”

“Okaaaay then.” Stan, ever the innovator, set the drink on the table instead and slid it over to Ford, who caught it before it could slide off the edge. He eyed it for a moment and then took a few long gulps.

“Mabel,” he sighed, glancing down to find that she was still staring up at him with puppy-dog eyes. “There’s not much to tell! He manipulated me and lied to me and then we blasted him out of Stan’s brain. The end.”

“No, no, no!” Mabel cried. “Tell me when you first realized you were falling in love with him!”

“F- Falling in—” Ford cleared his throat.

The truth was, he’d been “in love” with Bill, in a sense, from that very first moment. But that all made it sound so much more… romantic than it was. It was difficult to explain exactly what he had felt. It was intense, and it was an attraction, and at one point he might’ve thought it was love, but… “I… didn’t,” he finished lamely, as if he were just now realizing it himself.

“Come on, Grunkle Ford, the cat’s out of the bag now! You can’t lie to me anymore!”

“No, I… I really didn’t,” he went on, looking down at his empty hand. “We had a connection. A deep and intimate connection to one another. But I… I don’t think it was anything like what you’re imagining, Mabel.”

“Huh?” she blinked a few times. Even Stan seemed confused as he leaned back against the fridge.

“Hang on a second. Back on the boat you told me you were romantically involved. Those were your exact words.”

“Well, we… were?” Ford himself sounded perplexed, as though he were working out a Rubik’s Cube in real time. Of course, if this were a Rubik’s Cube he would’ve figured it out a lot faster. “At least, that’s what the understanding was at the time…”

“Uh… okay, you lost me.”

“I’m sorry. I can’t really explain it.”

“I think I get it,” Mabel said thoughtfully, and the two grunkles turned to look at her. “You thought you were in love, so you got into a relationship, but you weren’t really in love. But you still loved him. Just not in a lovey-dovey way.”

“I, uh… Well, yes… I think so,” Ford affirmed.

“Yeah, I get it. I think I did that with this guy in freshman year. We really connected, you know! But I realized I wasn’t… in love…” she finished softly, as though she were now the one deep in thought. She snapped out of it with a shrug. “Womp womp.”

“Well, there you have it,” said Stan after taking a particularly long swig. “Hey, Sixer, now all you gotta do is tell Dipper and you’ll be three for three.”

“Stanley, don’t even joke about that. I’m absolutely done talking about this.”

“Awww,” said Mabel, who had really been looking forward to squealing to her twin about it. “Double womp womp.”

“Now will you please detach from my leg?”

“Nope! We’re bonding, baby! Learning each other’s backstories and stuff! Mabel-Ford bonding time!” She threw up her hands like she was on a roller coaster, although her legs stayed wrapped around his ankle. “Woohoo!”

[coffee-master]

New Headcanon! Cupioromantic Mabel Pines!

[lyracreek]

adding a couple more pines twins sketches! I forgot I was going to draw them with glasses lol and I’m trying to convert more people to my aro!Mabel agenda

Image description: to the left two drawings of Mabel and Dipper Pines. On the top they are around 14 years old and Mabel is poking her brother Dipper while he looks disgruntled. He is wearing square glasses

Mabel says “Haha nerd lol”

On the bottom, Dipper is poking Mabel, mirroring the poses from above. Here they are in their early 20s and Mabel is wearing cat eye glasses while Dipper wears circular glasses.

Dipper says “Look who’s the nerd now!”

Mabel responds “It’s still you Dippindots.”

On the right, Mabel Pines in her early 20s poses with the a romantic pride flag. She has her hair in pigtails, a leather bondage top over a flowing shirt, a multi-layered tutu, fishnets, and knee high platform boots with hearts on them.

[yellowcry]

Nothing at all

Mabel was worried that her lack of attraction to others was abnormal. Turns out that she wasn't the only one.

Ford and Mabel talking in the night. And a couple of months later she called him to tell about something.

According to clock it was about 3 AM. Pretty much, it was time when kid supposed to sleep, instead of lying on the table in the kitchen.

Ford said the same as he saw Mabel in the kitchen. She didn't answer just sadly looked away.

“Something happened?” Her gruncle asked worriedly as he pushed back his chair and sat next to her.

“I think there's something wrong with me.” Mabel whispered almost unhearable.

Ford's eyes widened. “Who said you so, pumkin?” He slighty pat her spine. “You are perfect.”

“Girls supposed to love boys. Romantically, I mean.” She kept resting her chin on her shoulders.

Stanford frowned. “As I heard from Dipper and Stan, You've got a pretty big amount of crushes during this summer.”

He shuddered as Mable whimpered. She rubbed her eyes with a sweater sleeve. “W-well... I don't actually... love them?” Mable hited table with fists and kept talking before gruncle Ford could actually explain something. “Others just keep told me that falling in love is the best thing that could happen to girl. So I thought that... maybe...” She whimpered again. Ford moved the chair closer and pressed Mabel to his chest. “If I choose a cute boy and keep told myself that I have crush on him, I might actually do it.”

Ford's sweater started to be wet from Mabel's tears. “... And it never worked.” He continiued as his great niece wasn't able to say anything. Sobbing stopped for a moment as Mabel looked up to Ford, eyes still filled with tears. “I know how it feels.”

Saying it out loud felt strange. Ford never told anybody about this problem, he just forgot about it when he graduated from college. But back then he was trying to feel anything. He even stole dad's magazine with naked girls thinking that he would find them actually attractive. And they looked nice. But it was nice in a way like nice scenery. Nothing like doing that strange stuff that adults liked to do. At least, by Stan's words.

“You tried to fall in love?” Mabel asked unsurely.

“Well.” Ford shrugged. “Not really. I actually wanted to love girls, even so I never find them attractive. But I never tried to fall in love on purpose. But, honestly, my only love is anomalies”

Mabel giggled. “Then my true love is sequins.” Her eyes were still wet, but voice became a bit funnier.

“Becides” Ford added patting Mabel's head. “You already love many people.” A little smile appeared on his face. “You love your brother, you love Soos and Wendy with her friends. You love your family and friends. And who said that love supposed to be romantic?”

Mabel laughed. Now the fact that she cried a couple of minutes ago was unbelivable, Ford scratched the back of my head thinking how his great niece was able to change her mood so soon.

“Are you feeling better right now?” Ford asked putting a hand on her shoulder. Mabel gave him a fast nod. “I suppose it's time for somebody to go to sleep. It's past you bedtime.” He smiled.

Mabel crossed her arms resentfully. “Then you will go to sleep to.” She said firmly. “You look like you haven't sleep for days.”

“I have work.” Stanford explained as he stood up and extended his hand to Mabel to help.

Mabel shook her head. “I won't go to sleep unless you will do the same.” She turned away amd closed her eyes.

Ford let out a sigh. With this face expression Mabel looked really simulare to Shermy when he was angry. On other hand, she was his granddaughter, so it probably was a genetic stuff. “Okay, I'll try to sleep a couple of hours.” He wasn't in mood for argument. Becides, a little part of his mind actually understood that he needs some sleep. And as much as Ford hated this thought, it still was true.

Mabel threw her hands up in the air with a victorious facial expression.  She jumped off the chair. “You better to sleep well!” She puted her hand on her hips.

Ford nodded as both of them get out of this room.

****

When Mabel called him, Ford was really suprised. Usually, Mabel always talked eighter to Stanley or to both of them. Still, she always made a phone calls to Stan's number. So at the first moment Ford thoughed that his niece just called by mistake.

“No, no, no!” Mabel assured him. It was pretty suprising. Between both couples of twins there wasn't really need to say that Mabel has closed bond with Stanley, when Dipper were more close to Stanford. “Grunkle Ford, do you remember our conversation?”

Ford scratched his head. “Which one?”

“About love!” Mabel's tone was so light that Ford decided that she actually fall in love for real. “And how both of us bever actually had romantic feelings to anyone?”

Ford nodded weakly, even so it was useless because Mabel couldn't see him. “Well, yes.”

“I find out that it actually was a thing!” She screamed happily. “It's called being aromantic!” Her words began to blend together as she clattered into the phone. “It's like when you don't feel, or feel very little amount of romantic attraction, regarless of people gender. And there's many people like this!”

She kept talking for a while before her energy went down.

“Aromantic.” Ford whispered a word that he just heard, just like he was trying to taste it. He heard about it once or twice, but he never actually thought about this. Mostly because back in Twentieth Century there wasn't much of information about non-hetero relationships. Becides, when Ford was too busy with all of these anomalies in Gravity Falls to think about this. And before he went to this town, he kept telling himself that he just haven't found the right person yet.

According to the fact that he was over sixty years old, there's probably wasn't a right person, actually.

Ford fell on his bed. Or on his brother's bed, since Ford slept on the second floor. His head was full of thoughts. He whispered this word once again. Like if it was a Lifebuoy. A little part of him, that he never understood suddenly started to make the way more sence now. This word felt like something, that Stanford really belonged to. Like a little part of him that he never realized. It just... felt right. And that's all that was matter.

[matcha-milkies]

I’M SO GLAD I FOUND THIS AGAIN I JUST WROTE A FIC BASED ON THIS

Literally my journey step for step

Putting Mabel through that straight to bi to aromantic pipeline

[artsymeeshee]

Needed to make more aroace Ford. Along with a supportive Mabel

[lavendorii]

whatever

[inkies-art]

one last stanford sunday post, this was just supposed to be a doodle but i liked it too much

[stephreynaart]

Sweater Twins with the aroace flag? The sunset one?

[green-green-grass]

aro mabel is something that is so dear to me

[astrohyper]

You know, it's wild to me that Aromantic Mabel isn't a tag on AO3, but we have Aromantic Dipper, Ford, and Stan tags.

I'd love to do something about that, but alas, I am but a single college student with a Physics exam next week.

hint hint

[coffee-master]

Alternative version of the Pines family from this post:

[wackpedion]

nearly everyone in gravity falls is aromantic slash arospec in one way or another you cannot convince me otherwise. wendy? aro. robbie? aro. mabel? aro. ford? aroace. stan? aro. dipper? aro. hes also trans and autistic. fords autistic too. probably has npd too and also hes trans To Me. and also grenda is intersex. im right you agree

[salswitchtrial]

i am not immune to sweater duo propaganda

also doodles🥰

[nyenyel]

[Image description: a comic of Mabel from Gravity Falls. She looks sad at first, saying: "Whenever my crushes like me back it feels wrong."

Perking up, she says: "I guess I'm losing feelings! Time to choose a new crush!"

She looks through binoculars, and continues: "Which boy should I have a crush on? I want an epic summer romance!"

In the last panel, she's in front of the aromantic flag. She's staring blankly, saying: "What. What do you mean that's not how crushes work. What is comp-het?" End ID.]

I propose: Mabel is aromantic she just has comphet

[artsymeeshee]

Aro Pines!! 💚