Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The bus pulled to a stop. Two pairs of feet and one set of hooves hit the ground. Bags were slung over their shoulders. The bus door hissed closed behind them before the bus drove off. They were unaware of its departure.

Gravity Falls. It had been a whole year and now summer was here again. These three couldn't be happier. To the uneducated eye nothing had changed. They knew better.

One bent down and picked up their four-legged friend. Looking at the other, words exited the one's mouth, "I'll race ya!"

The other looked at the first. A smile crossed the face. About to reply, the one raced off. "Hey, no fair!"

"Anything's legal if you don't get caught!!!!"

Feet pattered along the dirt ground and then along the sidewalks of the small Oregon town. Citizens stepped aside as the two went running by. Waves and shouts of greeting reached their ears, but they had a destination.

They continued to run when the road returned to dirt. They continued to laugh when the sky was blocked by tall trees. Their excitement continued to grow when they saw the gnomes in the trees. They continued to run until it came into view: an old rundown shack that they had spent their last summer in. An old rundown shack with a sign that read Mystery Shack.

Out of breath, the two exchanged a glance, then they ran into the shop. A bell jingled over the door as it opened and closed. That old familiar ring. That bell had marked the beginning and end of multiple summer adventures. Oh how good those days were.

Standing in front of them was a nick nack shop full of oddities and faked exhibits. Also in front of them was a man in a black suit. He had a staff and atop his head was a red fez with a Pacman-like fish opening its mouth to eat a circle. He had turned as soon as the door jingled. Now all three mouths curved into even wider smiles. The man threw his arms out.

"Dudes!"

"Soos!" The one drops their four-legged friend before they both run to him.

"How have you dudes been??" Jesus Alzamarino Ramirez, simply known as Soos, asked after the hug.

"Much better now that we're back here!" The one replied.

Soos jumped as if he remembered something. He went to the counter and held his hand out to the cashier, who took it. "Dudes, you remember Melody right?"

Melody, the girl on the other side of the counter, waved with a sweet smile.

"Hi, Melody!" The one said.

The other waved.

"Melody, you remember Mabel and Dipper right?"

"How could I forget them," she laughed.

Mabel Pines, the one, ran over to their four-legged friend and picked him up. "And Waddles too!"

"And Waddles too!"

The other, Dipper Pines, looked around the shop. He reached up and pulled his hat off. It was a brown lumberjack hat. He looked up at Soos. "Uh, hey, Soos, is- is Wendy around?"

Wendy Blerble Corduroy. Last summer, she and Dipper had become close friends, even switched hats at the end of summer when he and Mabel went home.

"Sure am!"

A hat was pushed down on his head it covered his eyes, but he knew the voice. "Wendy!"

"Hey, Dipper! I see you brought my hat back!"

Dipper pulled the hat back away from his eyes. It was a ballcap with a blue black and a blue bill. The front section was white and had a blue pine tree engraved in the center. He held the other hat, the lumberjack hat, out to the red-head now in front of him.

She took the hat and set it on her head. "Man it's been so weird around here without you guys!"

Mabel had been all smiles up till this moment. She now lowered Waddles a little and her smile faded. "Too bad Grunkle Stan isn't gonna be here this time..."

Dipper frowned too. Their Great Uncle Stanley Pines was who they had spent their last few summers with here in Gravity Falls. He used to own the Mystery Shack but had promoted Soos at the end of last summer.

"Don't worry, Mabel dude," Soos assured her, "we can make it just like old times! We cleaned out the attic for you guys again."

Dipper gave his twin sister a sad smile. "Wanna go jump on the beds?"

Mabel began to smile as well. Yeah, why not?"

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Chapter Text

"This was a great idea, Lawrence."

"You know it, Ducky."

In the driver and passenger seats of a rented motorhome were Linda Flynn-Fletcher and her husband Lawrence Fletcher. They were on their way out of Danville where they lived for a real summer vacation.

Linda looked into the back part of the motorhome. "And we got a good start too! Everyone was loaded up within the hour. Well, it took someone the whole hour." She glared at one of the children in the back.

"What? I had to pack!" The girl humphed. She had orange hair and wore a red shirt with a white skirt. Her name was Candace Flynn, Linda's daughter.

"You're supposed to pack the night before, Candace. Your brothers were packed in a matter of minutes!"

"I told you we should have made Candace a self-pack suitcase too," one of the boys, also with orange hair and a triangular head, said, looking at his brother who had green hair and a long neck. These were Phineas Flynn and Ferb Fletcher.

Ferb shrugged.

"Thanks for having us along, Mrs. Flynn!" Sitting next to Candace was a black-haired girl with a blue ribbon in her hair.

"No problem, Stacy, I'm glad you could come. Phineas and Ferb were having their friends along, so we thought it only fair that Candace get to bring her friends too."

Their were four more children in the back seat. The last of Candace's friends was a blond boy named Jeremy Johnson. Phineas and Ferb's friends were as follows: an Indian boy named Baljeet Tjinder, a bully named Buford van Stomm, and a Fireside Girl with a pink bow named Isabella Garcia-Shapiro.

Isabella held on to the back of Phineas' seat as she leaned over. There was a pet carrier beside hero on the floor. She couldn't see inside but she was a bit worried. "Are we sure Perry is okay in there? Don't you think he'd rather be out here with us?"

Phineas looked at her with a big smile. "Don't worry, Isabella, he's a platypus, they don't do much."

She pulled herself back up and returned her gaze to him. "That's true."

"Hey, Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher, how long until we're there?" Buford asked. His back was to her, so he wasn't looking at her when he did. This got on Baljeet's nerves.

"Buford, you do know that when you speak to someone, you are supposed to look at them, right?"

Buford looked at Baljeet and the boy immediately regretted saying something.

"Oh no. I do not like this look."

"Darn right." Buford pulled on his seatbelt so that it would extend, then he basically climbed Baljeet, first putting his hands on Baljeet's shoulders and pushing himself up in the seat a little, then putting it on Baljeet's head and pulling himself up more so that he could see over the back of the seat. "Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher-"

Linda turned around to look at him. "Don't worry, Buford, I heard you the first time. Honey?" She looked at Lawrence.

"We're just about there, darling. Just thirty more minutes I'd say."

"Thirty minutes, Buford."

"Thanks!"

As Buford returned to his sitting position, Baljeet sighed. "That was a thoroughly unpleasant experience."

"I'm gonna thoroughly unpleasant your experience!" Buford snapped, pounding his fist into his palm.

"Uh, Buford, I think you already did," Phineas pointed out.

Jeremy looked at Candace. "Hey, Candace, thanks for inviting me to come along. It's been really fun so far."

Candace melted. She let out one of her crazed laughs before clearing her throat. "Oh of course, Jeremy, I wouldn't dream of going on summer vacation without you!"

"Ferb, ol' boy, you've been awfully quiet so far, are you alright?" Lawrence called back. "You aren't carsick are you?"

"No, but since every moment of our trip so far was to be covered in this chapter, I decided I best not speak until now. Since it is a different form of media than our summer escapades are usually portrayed in then I have to watch just when I say something and what I say so that it is both important and random."

Everyone in the back stared at him while Lawrence and Linda were quiet.

Lawrence shrugged. "Alright then. Well we're making a rest stop, does anyone need to go?"

Ferb's hand raised.

"Ferb does," Phineas told them.

Once they came to a stop everyone unbuckled and hopped down. Phineas grabbed the pet carrier and was first off the motorhome, with Ferb right behind him. Once he was on the ground he opened the pet carrier door and out walked a teal platypus.

"Come on, Perry, we're at a rest stop!"

"Oh stretch your legs, boys and girls," Lawrence warned them, stretching his arms up into the sky with a deep breath in. "It'll do you some good."

"Outhouses? Outhouses?!" Candace yelled. "Why does it have to be outhouses!"

"Outhouses aren't that bad," Jeremy told her.

"Yeah," Stacy agreed. "They're just like bathrooms outside."

"Stacy Stacy Stacy. No. Outhouses, are disgusting. There's no running water! A bathroom at least has a mirror to check your hair in!"

"Well if you aren't gonna go," Linda said, "I will. You better go while we're here though, Candace, because we don't want to hear any complaining the rest of the drive."

Candace let her arms slump. "Fine."

"Come along, boys," Lawrence said, waving for Phineas, Ferb, Baljeet, and Buford to follow him. "We'll go stand in line at the stall."

Phineas looked at Isabella. "Hey, Isabella, could you watch Perry for me?"

"For you?" Isabella sighed. "Anything."

"Thanks!"

Perry chittered. He looked around before heading for a bush that was nearby. Isabella sighed, still watching Phineas. A car went rolling by on the main street, causing Jeremy to look down.

"Uh, hey, Isabella?" Jeremy asked, looking around.

"Yeah?"

"Where's Perry?"

Shocked out of her daydream, she grabbed her cheeks in horror. "Oh no! He's gone!"

"No he's not, he's just over there." Stacy pointed to the platypus as he exited the bush.

Isabella ran over and picked him up. "There you are, Perry! Don't do that again!"

He chittered.

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