The One He Protected///Gravity Falls Fanfic///TW in desc.

Punk In Purple

Elizabetta didn't know how long she was hugging her son. She didn't care. How could she care how long? Seven million years without her son would pale in comparison to how long she could hug him.

All she wanted at that moment was to hold him and never let go. However, she had to.

She pulled herself away from him, though he clung onto her shoulders like she was his life. William's doe-like eyes stared up at his mother. "You... you're here... H-how are you here?" He whispered, tears starting to run down his face. Elizabetta smiled weakly. "I'm always here, sweetie. All the time."

William looked over to his brothers, still in disbelief. He smiled at Benjamin, his heart racing. Then, he looked over to Zace, and his smile dropped a bit. He waved shyly, nervous but wanting to be brave. Zace shrank at his brother's anxiety, backing away quietly. "H-hey, Will..." The older whispered.

'Bad brother. I'm a bad brother.' Zace thought to himself, remembering how much he taunted his brothers. When he wasn't, Holy Axolotl, he hardly even left his room. All his brothers saw of him was a side of hate. Of course, he never laid a hand on them. Yet, his insults were enough to make the youngest frightened of him.

"Listen, I-I-" Zace's attempt to apologize was cut short by...

William hugged onto him and buried his face in red cloth, letting it muffle his weak cries. Zace was still for a moment, processing this.

He was wanted. It was scary how foreign that feeling was.

After a while, he pulled back. William looked up at Zace, who was still frozen. He looked at the rest of his family. "So, what happened to you guys?" He asked. There was joy in his eye that made the room seem brighter.

However, the question did make everything a bit tenser. It seemed that none of them really wanted to talk about what they'd been through. After waiting for a moment, the smile wavering slightly, the youngest said, "I'll go first!

"Did you know that a lot of other beings also get lost out of their own dimensions? A lot of the kids go to this big orphanage with a bunch of others! That's where I went!"

Even if that assured Elizabetta that her son was at least taken care of, it still hurt to know that he was in an orphanage since he was three. Did he see anyone else as his mother? Just... it hurt for her...

All she truly wanted to be was her children's mother. Holy Axolotl, it sounded so selfish of her. All she wanted was for her family to be happy.

Then again, one look at the silent mess that was Zace told her she'd already failed. What kind of mother did she think she was?

William looked over to Ben. "Youngest to oldest then!"

Ben leaned his head back, letting it think on the wooden wall behind him. "Dimension hopping- we'll, more like I was just thrown from dimension to dimension. I landed in this dimension - this planet, these woods - a few months ago."

Elizabetta looked at him in concern. "We're you ever seen?" She asked.

Ben smiled assuringly. "Never left the woods, so probably just some lumberjacks. But you know how much people believe their stories, so, I'd say we're safe." He said.

The woman again felt sad for her son about this. Ben was someone who thrived off of learning. Off being part of a functioning society. Being caged up in the woods must've been torture for him.

Zace didn't remove his gaze from the floor. "Can I skip?" He asked quietly. William looked at him sadly.

"Zace, look away before you get puppy-eye-ed." Ben warned, but it was too late. Zace had already given a glance to the pool of purple purity that made William's eye.

That eye could make anyone tell him anything. They had suspected that was one of his powers, but after finding out he had none, besides an oddly high pain tolerance (which the doctors invalidated as magic), they just found it was hard to refuse the baby of the family anything.

"I landed in a Ghost Realm." Zace blurted out. William tilted his head with intrigue. "Apparently, they don't like Dream Demons. Sooo, I was put in a dungeon."

The others' curiosity turned into a mixture of confusion and horror.

"Zace, you were ten." Ben said.

"I was a criminal to them." Zace said, refusing to meet anyone's gaze. "Princess helped me escape, and I ended up here."

William had ADHD, so it was already difficult to keep focus. Mix in his love of fairytales, and you got his response: "You met a princess?!"

The three others stared at him for a moment. William's face flushed in embarrassment. He was a bit nervous, knowing his oldest brother's temper, and wondered if he'd be mad at him for losing focus.

Suddenly, to his surprise, Zace began to laugh. It wasn't malicious or taunting. It was genuine laughter of joy. "Yea, yea, I did, buddy." He managed to say, smiling kindly at the youngest.

William smiled, clapping in amazement. "Alright, let Mother go now, 'kay?" Zace said, reaching over and ruffling William's hair. The latter nodded and they looked up at their mother.

Elizabetta smiled at them as well. For a moment, her thoughts diverted to how short all her sons were. Zace was something like 5'5, and he was almost an adult. William was around 4'7, and Ben seemed to be a mere one inch taller than the youngest. Even the one that wasn't even related to her was small.

The woman wondered where her tall genes had gone, because they most certainly had not gone to her sons.

"I found this nice little land called Canada." She hummed thoughtfully. "Stayed there for a while. I felt a force pulling me here - literally. I was literally dragged into this town a week ago. It had some odd magnetic properties when it comes to... oddities like us." She gestured to the cabin walls and said, "So, I made my home here." She looked at her sons, her eye full of sympathy.

"I know it's nothing like the home we once had, but I can promise you that I'll make this place as much of a home to you as I can. We can be happy here."

Zace noticed how his mother didn't say they could be family here. If she did, it would feel hollow.

He knew how much his mother adored their father. Without him, there would always be a missing part of their family.