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bizarrejoe · 8 years ago

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A Unexpected Discovery

So. I started this fic last year, but became stuck for months, and then, last night, I pushed through and wrote the last 3000 words. And here it is. This takes place in my AUofanAU. Inspired on @edward-or-ford ‘s Unexpected AU, but I’m not trying in any way to continue his AU.

This takes place three years after Yes, and four before Worries Among The Smoke.

Its 7820 Words long and it starts, right now!

How? How could they? “You’re brother and sister for God’s sake!” She thought out loud. They heard a thump, a fall, and the loud, sudden sound of steps. They broke their kiss and looked at the door. Somebody was running up the stairs. They panicked, and started to follow, but their voyeur is already gone. There was only one other person on this house.

***

Two floors above, she is freaking out. Sitting on the corner, holding her head with her hands. How long have they been doing this? She asks no one, unable to stop thinking about what she just witnessed.

***

Minutes ago, she went to her mother’s room to ask for permission to go out with her friends -Priscilla and Prince-, but she wasn’t there. When she opened the door, she found a pink, barely decorated room. Some magazines were there, just like some wool and clothes and some more of her old working equipment, the bed was very well done but here was a layer of dust on everything, it almost looked… unused.

It was weird, but the Mystery Shack was a big place, she probably was on one of the other rooms.

She tried going in another one of the rooms on the second floor, just to find them in a similar state. With her confusion growing with each room she went into, she decided to go looking for her mom.

She wasn’t in the living room or the kitchen, nor any of the rooms on the first floor. She looked and called anyone on the house. That was weird, Mabel Pines wasn’t the kind of mother that went out without letting her kid know. Well, she tried. time to do what any normal teenager would do and just go out without telling anyone, the Northwest twins weren’t going to wait forever.

Keys on hand, hair done, humming “Looking for the perfect beat” and walking in rhythm, Cassie prepared to leave, but when she opened the gift shop door, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. The vending machine was moved to the left, leaving open the secret entrance it was supposed to be covering.

Seeing how her uncle Mason was nowhere to be seen, this was more than a little unusual. Once he went inside the cave he practically lived in, he rarely came out. Ehhh, come on girl. You had to be out five minutes ago; the literal rich kids are going to leave without your cute-yet-poor ass! You can see whatever your uncle is doing in his secret lair of science and occultism at any other time! She tried to tell convince herself, but there were two things wrong with her own argument. One, after a little incident some time ago, Mason became very careful with what he showed her. And two, she was a natural investigator, the house was empty and there were many things she didn’t know about basically everything she cared about, waiting for her down there. She probably could fill so many pages on her journal with the things he has down there. Probably.

She grunted as her insatiable curiosity won over her need for social interaction and quickly went down the stairs.

Whatever, she didn’t need friends back in New Jersey, she didn’t need them in California, and if these friends couldn’t wait ten more minutes, then she didn’t need them here, either.

Wait, What? She thought, as she saw the lights on at the bottom of the stairs, and heard voices that were barely audible. So there really was someone at home? She screamed for anyone to notice her not five minutes ago! They could’ve answered! Those two! They were going to see how she was when she was angry!

She started to go down faster, but she stopped almost immediately. As the voices became clearer her curiosity grew with them. It was the voice of her mom, who always did most of the talking, but there was another one Was that her uncle?

“What were you thinking?! why would you repair this thing?!” she heard her mother say, Mabel was using a tone that she could barely recognize. She didn’t sound angry, just disappointed.

“I thought it was a good idea to have it! You don’t need to get all up in arms about it! I rebuilt it when we were fifteen!” Were they talking about one of uncle Mason’s inventions? Now that was weird. Mabel was pretty much on board with every one of her brother’s inventions, even the dangerous ones! especially the dangerous ones! What made her have second thoughts about this one?

Now she was genuinely curious about whatever was going down here. As she got closer and closer, the voices became much clearer.

“Why would you think that having another memory erasing gun would be a good idea!?”

A what now? Uncle Mason told her about something like that in some of his stories, but she never thought he still had it.

“Well, not everything you and I do is exactly legal, so…” Did any of that had to do with all the counterfeiting they made during the “Family Fun Days?” Boy, county jail wasn’t kind to kids her age.

“Are you referring to the Family Fun days or…” Yep, suspicions confirmed

“Mabel, i…I understand what you’re saying, but every time we have to lie about her, I--you--” that was something new. Mason stuttering? Cassie couldn’t remember the last time she saw her uncle stumble over his words. It didn’t matter the problem or situation; her uncle had a silver tongue. Otherwise his act as ‘Mister Mystery the Third’ wouldn’t be so effective at bringing in rubes. “What I’m trying to say is that if you ever decide that you just want to forget about it You... have a way now.”

Forgetting about the Family Fun Days? That wasn’t right. They were almost a family tradition. At least four generations of Pines had done them. Did her mom really feel guilty about them?

At the bottom of the stairs, their voices were loud and clear. She didn’t need to have her ear against the door to hear. Besides, the door was ajar, if she did that they would find her out immediately.

Better to just be by the wall. She could hear better that way. And that she did.

“Oh Dipper. You beautiful idiot, what am I going to do with you?” Mabel’s voice became a lot softer. Intrigued, Cassie looked through the small opening just in time to see her mother take her brother’s hands.

What’s with that look on her face?

“Yes, it hurts every time we have to lie about Cassie. But what happened is something I wouldn’t change for anything in the world.”

Dipper started to speak, “But--” but Mabel continued immediately.

“Besides. If you actually shot me with that, two things would happen. First, I would just fall in love with you all over again…”

“Mabes,that’s beau---“

“And then I would kick your ass for shooting me in the first place!”

“And there it is. You have a talent for ruining what would be beautiful moments.”

Wait what. What was that about falling… did she mean… is she? And he? No, they can’t Cassiopeia Pines started thinking excuses, reasons for this to be something ordinary, building walls around her mind to protect her from an unwanted truth. Just for them come fall down with the words “You come here” as her mother took her sibling and kissed him on the mouth.

As if the long passionate kiss wasn’t enough, she was getting handsy, and starting to remove his shirt. He broke the kiss to say “not that I’m complaining, but why?”, his interruption should have calmed her down, but she found the normality on his tone unsettling, and her mother’s answer, just made her stomach curl “Maybe I’m just as frustrated as you are. Just consider it a reward for being honest. Now, what will mister mystery do to--”. Their words, even in the safety and privacy of this bunker, became whispers. Or maybe she just couldn’t listen anymore, because as they began to undress each other Cass couldn’t stand to look anymore. She took a step backwards, but fell on her back. Realizing the sound she made, she began to run back to her room.

And now. Now she sits there taking apart every single moment of the last five minutes and wondering so many things. In the flurry of questions that she asks herself, one comes to the forefront of her mind. What are they lying about?

Her. Who? No. It couldn’t be her. What lie could they say about her? Right as she tells herself that there is nothing to lie about, then she remembers the one thing they keep repeating.

No. Please No.

The Pines are a family of thieves and liars. That much is known. From their beginnings on Glass Shard Beach, New Jersey, they developed a reputation for tricking people out of their money. Their businesses are always phony, their hands are always tricked and their mouths always speak dishonesty. Yet, they were very capable of something great, honor among thieves. Anyone who knew them beyond a simple transaction knew that they were the kind of people that would care for friends and family, and that they usually considered those things to be one in the same. That they could stick together and trust one another, because it is for those close to them that the few spots of honesty on their being are reserved.

In one side, she was devastated they could lie to her, or even about her. On the other hand, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to know about what they could lie about. Because at barely thirteen years old there was an amazingly little number of things they could lie about. And having gone through most of her memories to try to find something that could be a lie. She ran into the one thing they kept repeating.

While she has always been aware that her mother and uncle lied to other people for fun and profit, since they moved to Gravity Falls to work in a tourist trap the importance of telling a good lie became more relevant to her (as her mother constantly told her that one day she would inherit the shack, just like them), her uncle mason began teaching her about the two most important parts of a good lie. Consistency, and fluidity.

You need to be consistent enough to keep your story basically always the same. Yet you need to be fluid enough to not let it be obvious enough that you are just repeating something you made up. Then you need confidence, but that can be injected later.

Among all of her memories, there was one thing that her mother always kept saying that was always the same, something that she repeated a lot. Something almost practiced. And it always had to do with her dad.

Even at her short age, she learned when not to press the issue. And seeing how every time she asked, her mother avoided talking about it, changed the conversation or “was called” out of the room. She learned to just, not ask. She was young, not daft. But even then, it was impossible for her not to listen in to some of her mother’s conversations.

Every time they asked Mabel about her dad, how was life as a single mother or just imply she should find a couple to help her raise her kid. Every single time, the first answer was something on the lines of “He was someone I met on piedmont”, the second one was that she really wasn’t, and the third one is that she didn’t need to.

If what she was suspecting was actually true, then all of those answers would make sense. Was... Was Mason her—

Before she could finish the thought however, she heard a series of fast, almost desperate knocks on the door accompanied by the voice of her mother asking her to open it.

They’re here! As quickly as she could, she scanned around the room for a way out. She didn’t want to see them Not now! Whatever they were going to do to her was not good, the only way out wasn’t exactly a safe option. But after hearing the sound of keys being used in the doorknob, she took it anyways. On the old attic where she lived there was only one window, she decided to open it, quickly she walked on the porch’s ceiling, and using one of the wooden beams as a ladder she lowered herself to the ground and started to run. Where? Right then, it wasn’t important, she just needed to get away. The last she saw of the pines twins they were sticking their head out of the window and screaming something she couldn’t make out, as she ran towards the trees.

For who knows how much time, she ran. And ran, and ran, until she ran out of breath.

Breathing in quickly and loudly, she started looking around herself, she saw the place her rundown had taken her, the evergreens were everywhere her eye could see, what wasn’t was the Shack. She was away from any visible road and from home and, she was in the forest, at night, alone.

Oh, crap.

In her impulse to get away she went beyond any recognizable landmark. Now, she was probably lost.

While the panic overtook her mind, a bizarrely calming thought came to her mind. this is probably for the best. It wasn’t something she would normally think after running away from her family. But something was happening at home that she couldn’t really deal with. Something with implications that may be beyond the boundaries of morality. With an implication that she just couldn’t shake off.

She took a breath, and sat down on the roots of a nearby tree, and began to think.

Come on cass, think. there needs to be an explanation for this, that doesn’t need to be inc… egh.

Ehh, the Pines family originally came from Israel, didn’t it? some people on the middle east tend to kiss in the mouth as greeting. Maybe—

But Jews don’t french each other as a salute. and you know very well that they are pagans.

Well, twins do have weird customs, maybe this is one of theirs

Yes. They made a routine out of casually undressing each other while kissing.

Maybe, maybe… maybe. “Argh” -she grunted, frustrated by what she was thinking about. She moved, and hit the back of her head against the tree- God dammit logic, stop making me go back to it. Can’t you see what it may mean?

She closed her eyes, and started thinking.

It was something that came to her mind from time to time, a small suspicion about her family. Her mother and uncle always seemed weirdly close. For a pair of siblings about to hit their thirties, they had no apparent intention of moving away from each other, literally or figuratively. They were always so close, when they were going out, they would be so… handsy with each other. And being so sickeningly sweet between themselves, specially whenever they were out on whatever city or town they were staying at the time.

That time back on Canada, when she jokingly told them that they looked like newlyweds popped into her mind. She remembers their faces, and how quickly her mother’s went white, and how deep was the red in his uncle’s face. She found it so funny back then, it was hilarious to think that they would be so ashamed of a joke like that. Yeah, they were siblings, you’re not supposed to imply things like that about them, but they had no reason to be. Or so she thought back then.

Ha. For all the praises and recognition her intelligence received, she surely was feeling stupid.

Look at her. Cassiopeia Gwendolyn Pines, technically-teen reporter, always on the case! There is nothing she can’t uncover! They say it took her three years and unintentionally stumbling on to a situation just so she could notice something was happening right under her nose.

So stupid, how come she never realized that there they were together? Then again, maybe she just didn’t want to.

The feeling that maybe there was something between them was frequent, but she always brushed it aside as quickly as it came, dismissing it as the misunderstandings of an only child. They were twins after all, they are supposed to be close and weird. But this… this was far too much.

And, and… what if… no, don’t think about it... Shouldn’t she just be able to live and let live? They raised her like that. To never judge a person out for any reason if that person had never hurt or had a reason to hurt them personally… But of course, they would teach her something like that, if they always had this kind of relationship.

Would they have pushed corrupted values into her? A day before-- hell even that same morning, she would have never dared to think so, but after what she just saw, it was hard to think that they wouldn’t. She closed her eyes, and started to remember, to look for something to justify her escape.

The first few memories in which she was afraid in their presence, were also some of the first few that she remembered, period. Her first few years on the world, were for a lack of a better word, noisy.

Glass Shard Beach, New Jersey was a noisy place all onto itself, but there was never a silent moment in her great-great-grandma’s house. And that wasn’t good, at least most of the time. For what seemed to be every night, when Dipper came home, there would be a few minutes of peace, before him and her grandfather got into an argument, and those arguments would always escalate into a fight.

Thankfully, her mother and grandma would separate them before they got physical. although sometimes, they would ignore whatever they told them, and keep screaming at each other.

Usually whenever her grandpa and uncle were arguing she was on the second floor with her great-great-grandma, with whom she spent most of her time, considering that her uncle and grandparents worked outside during most of the day, and her mom didn’t like to be bothered while she was sewing. Her work was difficult and they didn’t have the resources to botch a single request. So, most of the time, whenever the house fell silent, she would be up listening to gran-grans’ tales, and there would not be enough time in going from family getting home to all the males in the house going at each other’s throats. While her grandparents frequently came home earlier than Mason, it seemed like they only needed a few minutes to get angry at each other. It was like that every single time, well, every time she wasn't on the room.

As she grew up, she tried to get to know why did they fight so much. “Is it because of me?” was a question that she repeated herself with worrying frequency, even as such a little age. So whenever they came home, she would hide on the corners of the room or behind the couches, just to see them.

Why did they fought about? “What did they didn’t fight about?” should be the question. It didn’t take a lot to get them angry at each other. They fought even for the smallest things, once, they almost got into a fistfight for the remote. It didn’t matter the reason, what mattered is that the speed that they went from happy and joyful to boiling with rage was the thing of legends, you could miss the turning point with a blink.

She hated the memory of those days, in those days she did most of her crying. She loved the beach (even if glass shard beach was a bit too literal of a description to go barefoot), but house life was boring and the kids in kindergarten were mean. The best times she had on the old Pines Pawnshop, were the times she spent on the company of her great-great grandmother Gert. Her almost blind, overly talkative, mythomaniac great-great grandmother.

Mythomaniac… Oh god! Seriously? how didn’t I found out earlier? It was so obvious when you looked back on it. Even if her gran-gran found out about them nobody would believe her because most people on the neighborhood already knew of her condition.

How many people knew? Was her the only one that didn’t know that she was… that she was… no. There is no way in hell that they have been doing this so for so long, nor that they were so far gone to go all the way and produce a child. But… then why did they left the way they did?

She has never been as scared as she was during the night they left the pawn shop. She was four when it happened, it was a rainy night when her mother came into her room. She could barely see her on the darkness but she remembers the worry she saw on her mother’s face when she picked her from her bed and took her to an offsite garage. Telling her to be quiet the whole way there.

Uncle Mason’s car was on, and roaring. Her mom placed her on the backseat, and told her to be calm, that they were going on a trip. Cassie asked if couldn’t say goodbye to her grandparents. Her mother’s face contorted into a weird grimace, as she answered “They already know”. Cassie had no way of knowing back then, as it was an expression she didn’t had often, but that was the kind of face that Mabel Pines put when she was lying. Mason was going through clipboard, looking for something. After a few minutes later, when her mom was trying to calm her. A figure opened the door and stood there.

She couldn’t make who it was, but the figure just stood there with its arms crossed. With the promise of coming back as soon as Cassie counted to sixty, her mother left to talk to whoever was waiting in the door frame. She didn’t even get to thirty. The meeting was brief, they exchanged a few words, the person gave Mabel something that looked like a letter, and they shared a hug. And just like that, Mabel was back on the car, but instead of going back with her, she took the passenger seat. Moments later, the figure pushed a button on the wall, causing the garage doors to open. And as it was waving them goodbye. The car took off into the rainy streets and Cassie was taken from her first home, never to see it again.

For almost a month, her uncle’s old car was their home. They ate from food cans that her mother had packaged before, and only stopped driving for gas and rest. They moved from city to city looking for something she didn’t knew. It was a tiring, confusing and blurry time on her mind. What she knew for certain. Is that she even after they finally found a place to live, they usually didn’t stay on it for more than a year. Not in Philly, not in piedmont, never, anywhere… but here.

Last month was their third anniversary since they came to this town, what was about this little town that let them finally stay on one place enough time to make connections, grow roots? … Aside from the quirky people and general weirdness? … You know what, that question answers itself.

Her pondering was interrupted, however, by the sounds of 80’s synth pop and a vibration inside her pockets. It was her Uphone 7 going off, someone was calling her. The picture of her hugging her smiling mom adorning the screen was all she needed to see to know who was it. Should I? The fact that she was doubting answering her own mother made her feel somehow… bad. She slid the green button, but laid the phone on the ground and watched the screen shine. She could hear the worried voice of her mother coming from the other side, her voice was broken and her breathing agitated, like she had been crying or running (or both) before calling. Well. At least she cares about me. She wanted to pick up the phone and tell her mother to stop crying, that she was fine. But Cassie was afraid. Afraid of what to say, or what she would hear.

Uncle Mason always said that being afraid was normal, but that being frozen by fear was unacceptable. That if let, the fear itself could be worse than anything one is afraid of. Well, she was afraid of him being a little more than her uncle.

“Why?” She hears. A question that came from nowhere, it seems. If it was her own voice that muttered it, she doesn’t remember. But she answers anyways. “Because... I don’t know” Maybe, she wasn’t ready for a change. Maybe she was afraid that they were perverting her somehow. She respects— No. She adores her uncle too much to even bear the thought of such a betrayal.

Because in the past, she wasn’t afraid for long. Because after they got out of the old timey walls of the pines pawnshop, the fighting stopped, they were “at home” all the time, and above all, they were happy. Which in term made them able to make Cassie happy. They were protective and warm. Even more than they were in their old home. Because they were free be like that, without any kind of fear. It didn’t matter how hard their situation ever got, they pushed through, together, for themselves, and always and above all, for her. It didn’t matter if they had to spend a day or two without eating, there was always food on her plate, even if it was a little.

They didn’t have a lot to give her, she knew that, she always knew that. She knew because for most of her life, new things were a privilege. Something she got in her birthday, or as a reward in special occasions. Like that new computer, she got when she skipped a grade. Everything else was made by her mom, or was just a hand me down.

It was weird, how clothes that they kept from their youth were fit for her. Or it would be, if they weren’t just twenty-eight years old. It was scary, how young they were. In two years, she would be the age they were when she was born. It was… terrifying. They were so… inexperienced, so unprepared. They were just kids.

“Just like me” she thought while looking at her phone. A gift her… uncle, gave her for her eleventh birthday. The Pineapple Inc. device was just a couple of years younger than her. Just like most of her devices, it had other owners before it got to her hands. But they made everything special, Mason refurbished the phone himself. And her Mabel made a pouch where to keep it. It was more than enough, anything they gave to her always was.

“And now it's on the ground getting dirty and scratched” She said, almost in a whisper and still looking at the screen, feeling worse every single second that her mother’s voice kept coming out of the speaker hoping for an upcoming answer.

“Cassie? You’re there? Thanks, the gods, I almost thought you dropped your phone, are you OK? Are you hurt? —” She wanted to tell her that she was fine, that she was stupid for running without looking where she was going. But she couldn’t bring herself to pick up her phone. Not yet

Not when she wasn’t sure that any admiration she felt for them could be just an Electra complex.

“Listen, Dipper jumped after you right after you went into the woods. I’ll catch up in a second, don’t be afraid, but please stop running” And with that, she ended the call and the phone went back to just her My Little Horsie’s wallpaper. The change of light brought something to her attention. not in the phone itself, but alongside it. She saw her own shoes. Her pink sneakers.

Just like her Toronto Leaf’s Jersey, they were a gift from a trip to Canada three years before. And just like her jersey, her shoes were about a size too big. Not because her mom didn’t know her size, but because those would be the only ones she would have for a while. It never once bothered her. Looking at them right now didn’t bothered her. What did, was the mud on them.

“When did I became so careless?” Was it after getting used to this place? To Mason and Mabel getting money regularly? To getting new things almost constantly? She chuckles when she remembers what she did after first getting to the shack. After getting out of the car and realizing that the ground was wet and there was mud on her shoes. She didn’t say hi to the pair of twins that eventually would become her best friends. She didn’t run to her room. She just sat on the porch, got her shoes off, and started to clean them. To the amusement of her great grunkles and and Soos, the previous owner of the place.

“When did I stopped caring?” Probably when I started having too much fun to care.

But now it doesn’t matter because I was stupid and now I’m lost in the forest and I’m going to die here alone.

Her glasses were getting damp, her breathing agitated. Was she crying? No, it couldn’t be. She didn’t cry. She never cries. But why did it matter if she was going to? It wasn’t like somebody was going to see her. Like, ever.

“Well, I think I've seen enough” The voice surprised her. From behind the tree she was sitting on, came the voice of her uncle, his person soon following. “Do you mind if i sit here?” He asked. she didn’t answer. But he sat down nonetheless, in a tree not that far away from where she was. He took his time and winced after bending his right leg.

She was frozen in place. She was afraid before, what she was feeling wasn’t fear. It was doubt. A doubt that left her mute for a while. For what felt like forever, they shared an uncomfortable silence, both looking to the dark forest in front of them. She looked at him, his shirt was half open, and rugged. Was it just where it was when they stopped? Did he just run after her without dressing up? It was one of many questions, but his lack of shoes answered that one, she started by “How long have you been there?”

“For a while” He answered immediately, looking at with an apprehensive look “You looked like you needed to think”

“Is that the memory erasing gun?” She asked, pointing at the strange device on his pants. “Yes… Do you- Do you want me to use it?”

If he asked her that when she was on her room, the answer would have been a resounding yes. But now she wasn’t so sure. The question itself she found a bit… insulting. “It wouldn’t really change anything, would it?” She answered. frowning at the sight of the gun. Without a second thought, he took the device, grabbed the light bulb in his hands, and pressed until it broke. “Okay then, that's out of the question”. Even with little bits of glass on his hands, his face was calm. He was sweating, but she blamed that on the running. He was expecting her to ask something.

“Are you my dad?” Okay, straight to the jugular. And boy did that got a reaction out of him. That's the first time she saw him surprised in at least three years. He put his hands together, and let out a sigh. It was something he did every time he had to seriously think and plan on something. It was easy to recognize, she did it too. After an eternal minute, he looked at her and…

“Yes, he is” Mabel’s voice surprised them both, they looked back at the woman. She was still trying to catch a breath but still tried to talk and say “The real que-question is-s what's that to you?” she said, in between inhales.

She had spent the last what? Half an hour, pondering that same question. And now, now they wanted an answer.

They didn’t look mad. Not even expecting. Her unc- dad, her dad, looked almost relieved that he didn’t have to answer. But the both looked at her with an utter most care. As in moving too quickly, or breathing on her direction was going to break her.

“I--”

“Take your time” Said Dipper, barely emoting “you don’t need to answer, if you don’t want to”. Her mother took seat alongside her brother, not caring about her gown getting dirty. Both of them were paying attention to her as if their lives depended on it.

They treated the situation as if they were walking on eggshells. And, she could see why. She ran away without even a word, she lost herself in the forest. She made Uncle Dipper hurt himself looking for her. Her mom came running after them too.

They deserved an answer. But… she had one more question.

“Why didn’t you two tell me?”

They both shared a look, and a gesture. As if trying to decide who was going to try and bite the bullet and answer. In the end, it fell on Mabel to say “We were going to, we decided a long time ago that we weren’t going to let you in the dark about it”

“When we left our gran gran’s Pawnshop, we were scared as all hell that anyone would find out about us. So we kept our mouths shut, and told the truth about ourselves. We were just a brother and sister living together”

“At least part of it” Interrupted Mabel. “It wasn’t until almost a year later, and after living in two towns that we realized something”

Before she could ask “what?”, Dipper interrupted to say. “People don’t give enough of a fuck about other people to realize it. Nobody really cared about us. Nobody knew us. We look very different now, for all they cared we could have just been a married couple”

“But when we realized that, well. You were six, and”

“And I could have said something in school or somewhere” Cassie said. She understood, she really did. But that only brought up more questions. One of which was “Then why did we move here? Everybody knows Who you are! You guys have a statue here! I’ve seen it, your heads were HUGE!”

“Oi our heads were not different than yours” Said Mabel, louder than she intended to, somehow taking offense in the criticism. “Anyways, why not? After the whole thing when we went back in Piedmont, this seemed like a dream”

“For a while it was, Actually. I think we kept and kept pushing the day away. And, not too long ago we realized that. Well, if we didn’t told you now, we would never be able to. Since you know”

“Big question now. Are you two going to keep completing each other’s sentences? It's very distracting”

The twins just looked at each other and laughed. “Sorry kid” Said dipper “We can’t stop it” continued Mabel “Twin telepathy and all that”, said both.

“That's a bunch of malarkey” said Cassie with a frown.

“You think she is jealous?” Said dipper, smiling at his sister. “I think she is jealous”. She answered. They looked at each other and laugh. Cassie couldn’t do anything but to look incredulously at them. She didn’t notice at the moment but her eyes teared up. How… How…

“How can you two be laughing at a moment like this!” She screamed, opening the floodgates without meaning to “How can you two just act like nothing's happening!” her tears were dampening her glasses, she almost couldn’t see, the cold, her agitated breathing and her tears, all conspiring to make her glasses as useless as possible.

Her mother snapped instantly, trying instinctively to get to get to her to comfort her, but she pushed her away. “Did-- Did you two even want me?”

Mabel looked as if the question itself was a punch in the gut. It hurt her, and let her out air. She was stuttering. Trying to find the words. Even when it was just one. The answer could be any between “yes” “definitely” “absolutely”. Dipper, however, took her hand, asking her to let him speak.

He lied as a profession, but this question needed an honest answer. “Cassiopeia, back in the day. When we were fifteen. We were afraid. Can you imagine? After bears, and monsters and the end of the world. You were the thing we were most afraid of. It was stupid of us, but we were teens, what were we supposed to do?” He used his free hand to shift his hair back. he was collecting his thoughts quickly, getting the words in order. He didn’t want to say anything that would hurt his daughter. Before his silence lasted too long, he continued “After… After we moved to Jersey, our dad tried so hard to make us get rid of you. From giving you into adoption to… the other option. We decided that we were going to give you into adoption. For months, we acted like we actually knew what we were doing”

She looked at him, shocked not only at the words but at how affected he seemed by them. He was snorting, his voice was faltering, he looked almost hurt and ashamed of saying that. She couldn’t interject, she was… she was… un…

“But, nine months after that decision. Cassie, you were born. I held you in my hand, you were barely bigger than a loaf of bread. When we saw you, and heard you cry for the first time, we knew...” his voice was cracking, his eyes tearing up. “we knew that there wasn’t a single way in all hell that we were going to get rid of you. You were our kid. And you were perfect. And we were going to take care of you until you became the government’s problem, and then some more”

She had no words, if they were lying to her, it certainly didn’t look like it. She snorted, and dried her tears, but she still had one question. “Why…don’t you regret it? Our lives were horrible! and it's all because of me”

“Hey Dipper” Mabel said, giving a faint smile to her brother. “Do you regret something?”

“Not a thing” He answered immediately, his smile was far more noticeable than hers. “Me neither” Answered Mabel. “Cass, we have a house, the closest thing to our dream jobs, and above all else, we have you. The most wonderful daughter we could ever ask for. Yeah, we had some hard times before, but we are fine now. And If I was given the chance to go back and change anything, I wouldn’t take it. Because what we have here is good enough for me”

“Am I good enough?” She asked, she had calmed down somewhat. But the doubt still lingered. “Kid, you’re straight A student and more mature than most adults. You’re a child many parents would only dream to have. The only downside is that I can’t brag about you”

“I would brag for you, but that would need her to stay her” Cassie asked what she meant, truly not understanding. “Well, it’s kinda obvious that you don’t want to be here. So, I was thinking of calling Mom and Dad, to take you back to Jersey”

Both Dipper and Cassie were surprised at her response. But, if the former had any objections, he didn’t voice them. It was a wise, serious decision. It was a good decision. It would be good for her.

“I don’t want to leave” Said Cassie, raising her voice. “I just. I-- What would people think?”. Now those were four words that nobody present expected to hear out of her, including Cassie herself. But in some level, it was true. She had been living in Gravity Falls for three years, she could deal with danger, she could deal with the supernatural. But her friends rejecting her because of something she had no choice in, that made a cold run through her spine.

“Cass, love, are you going to start every single conversation with ‘hello, my parents are related’?” Asked Mabel, at her side dipper gestured. Even for her this was a new level of tonal deafness, this was a moment in which they needed to be careful, a moment that could make or break (most probably break) their relationship with their daughter. And--

“Mom… what. What do you mean with that?” Cassie looked at her, expectant. Her mother answered “Look, the only way anyone will know, is if you tell them. That's all you need to keep a secret. You don’t need to lie, just don’t call attention to the It” She wanted to ask if that's all it took for them. But the question would have been stupid, she thought. They had been together for over thirteen years without anyone noticing without they telling them first. Herself and their parents both included.

She didn't want to go back with her grandparents. Her mom and unc-- parents, her parents, cared about her, and they loved her… In a healthy way, that much was obvious. But she, she felt strange knowing what she was. It was the one thing making her uncomfortable. That implication that regardless of who knew, she was abnormal.

“Mo-- Guys, a-- am, am I… Am I weird?” Asked Cassie, her voice barely audible over the sounds of the woods. Mabel reached to her, and she left herself be hugged by her mother. I her moments of doubt Mabel’s warm was calming her voice more soothing than a hundred lullabies.

“Well, let me see” Answered Mabel, in an almost playful tone. “You like to eat cheese and mustard sandwiches” noticing what his sister was doing, Dipper intervened, “You like to sit upside down in the sofa to think” Mabel continued after his brother, saying “You can’t paint your nails, because you tear away the paint when you bite them” Dipper then picked up the pace with “You tried to mate your friend’s spider with your gecko”

“What we are trying to say Cassie-kins is that, yes, you’re weird. But you aren’t weird because you’re our kid. You’re weird because you’re you. And we wouldn’t want you any other way. You wanna know why?”

“Why?” Asked Cassie, looking up at her mother with a genuine curiosity and vulnerability like she hadn’t felt since the fifth grade. Mabel moved Cassie’s hair out of the way, and put her finger on her forehead. Carefully and slowly, she traced her daughter’s birthmark and said “Because you have stars on your head, and that's something only great people have”

That wasn’t the first time that Cass heard that answer. Back then, in a time she barely remembers, she heard it from her uncle. But this wasn’t something they repeated ad nauseum, like their lies. It was honest. He remembers him saying that somebody that loved him told him those words before. Now she understood. Why in both occasions, she was feeling warm at the sound of those words. It was because they came from the heart. Her mother’s heart, to be precise. And she loved them both, him, she loved as a brother and a husband. And her, she was her one and only daughter. The one she loved unconditionally. The one she asked nothing from and gave everything to. The one both of them immediately ran after when she stupidly tried to run away.

God that was dumb. “Can you guys forgive me?” She asked both of them, still not leaving her mother’s embrace.

“Why for?” Asked Dipper. looking at her, even after everything, she still wasn’t angry. “Kid. We know that his is something big, and we don’t expect you to just accept it all at once. And you don’t have to do it alone. We will go back home and deal with this as-”

“As a family?” Interrupted Cassie. “It isn’t that big. I, I just found out that I always had a full family and didn’t knew… Dad”

Dipper covered his face. Damn, right when he recovered his calm composure, she comes with those green eyes that can melt his defenses away and says this. They both hear him snort. Was he going to cry? He really didn’t expected to be called a dad. He wasn’t supposed to be the emotional one. But this kid. This kid was one of his weaknesses.

The other however, interrupted the moment, saying “Guys, I know we are being accepting and sentimental and all, but can we be that at home? A bunch of ants have been eating my leg for the last twenty minutes.

After sharing a laugh, they all collected themselves, turned back and started walking. A minute into it, she took each one of them by a hand. Like they used to do when she was a little kid. It was stupid, but it made her happy. Because this time, she wasn’t being held by her mom and uncle. She was being held by her mom and dad. Although--

“I guess the question ‘how did you met dad?’ is a bit awkward now” She said to her mother. “I mean…”

“Oh nonsense! You see, it was like twenty-eight years ago. I was in the hospital when this really nice lady came to me, brings this nerd with her and tells me ‘This is mason, you two are going to spend a lot of time together’. And right then and there I thought ‘Yeah, if it came down to it, I could defeat this guy’ “

“And she has been trying -and failing- ever since” Responded Dipper. Snickering at Mabel’s tale.

This was perfect, she had a symmetric, loving couple of parents. And Cassie could bask in this feeling of joy forever, but there was one more question that needed to be answered.

“Dad… can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Can I go out with the Northwest Twins?”

He rolled back his eyes, and muttered “Why does talent has to be hereditary?”

#Gravity Falls #Fanfic #gravity falls au #Pinecest #au of an au #Next time: A conversation you missed

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