From Sweethearts to Soulmates [A Stanford Pines x Reader]

Chapter 11

Later that night, I was looking for my latest novel when I came across Stan and Ford looking at themselves in the hall mirror, side by side. I stayed behind the wall, listening in on their conversation. Stan spoke up first, breaking the silence. "Look at us. When did we become old men?"

"You look like Dad." Ford replied with a chuckle.

"Ugh, uck, don't say that." They laughed together for the first time in years. Ford sighed, almost like he didn't want the moment to end.

"Okay, Stanley, here's the deal. You can stay here the rest of the summer to watch the kids. I'll stay down in the basement and try to contain any remaining damage. But when the summer's over, you give me my house back, you give me my wife back, you give me my name back, and this Mystery Shack junk is over forever. You got it?" Any smile Stan had previously shown had faded into obscurity.

"You really aren't gonna thank me, are you?" He sighed. "Fine. On one condition: you stay away from the kids; I don't want them in danger. Cause as far as I'm concerned, they're the only family I have left." He turned in my direction and I darted away to the living room.

I eventually placed down my novel, dog-earing it, and letting my mind wander as I settled back into the couch cushions. Stan and Ford used to be so close, they never even told me what happened when Stan disappeared to another state, another country. I wondered what Dipper and Mabel would end up like when they got older. I'm sure they'll be fine, I thought. I let out a small sigh, adjusting my posture and delving back into my fictional universe.

I took another sip of my coffee, sitting at the desk in mine and Ford's bedroom, when he shot up from where he lay. He adjusted his glasses and said, to wall directly "I have to warn them!" and looked down at his hand before looking over to me. "He's coming." Ford didn't need to describe who "he" was, I had an edging feeling I already knew. Ford leapt from the bed, still dressed in his sweater and trench coat (he'd been sleeping in it a lot lately). He started to dig through our closet, pulling a few maps and a black bag from its depths. He gathered the things in his arms, panic and determination in his eyes, saying to me, "We must make haste, Y/n, we may not have much time." I nodded, picking up my now empty mug of coffee and following him into the dining room.

"Family meeting! Family meeting!" The kids ran into the room and I could hear Stan shouting in Spanish outside. I decided to leave that one alone. Mabel jumped onto a seat.

"Ooh, mysterious scrolls and potions! Are you going to tell us we're finally of age to go to wizard school?" She reached over, opening the black bag to peer inside, before Ford snatched it from her grasp, closing it.

"No! I can assure you if there's an owl in this bag, he's long dead." Mabel looked disappointed, with a slight hint of horror on her features. "Now, children, do either of you recognize this symbol?" He held up a scroll with many different symbols, with Bill in the middle. Both of them gasped, Dipper recoiling slightly.

"Bill." Ford looked over at him in surprise.

"You... You know him?" Dipper stared back, memories seeming to flash across his face as he pushed his hair back from his face.

"Know him? He's been terrorizing us all summer! I have so many questions and theories..." Mabel put her hand on Dipper's back.

"Dipper's been pretty paranoid since Bill turned him into a living sock puppet." She said, her own memories haunting her usually bright eyes. I was vaguely aware of this incident, but I hadn't realized how severe it really was. Dipper's back straightened once more as he said semi-proudly,

"The important thing is we defeated him twice."

"Once with kittens and once with tickles!" Mabel chimed in.

"It was a lot more heroic than it sounds."

"The fact that you've dealt with Bill is gravely serious." Ford began digging through his journal that he'd recently taken back from Dipper.

"So, how do you know Bill?" Dipper asked, cautiousness mixed with curiosity almost seamlessly in his voice.

"I've encountered many dark beings in my time, Dipper. What matters is that his powers are growing stronger, and if he pulls off his plans, no one in this family will be safe!" He dodged the question so effortlessly, I'd be convinced he didn't even realise he did it, but he most definitely did.

Both the kids gasped. "Fortunately, there should be a way to shield us from his mental tricks. A way to Bill-proof the Shack." He drew a map of the basement on a scrap of paper. "All I have to do is place moonstones here, here, and here, sprinkle some mercury, let's see... I always forget the last ingredient!" He flicked through the journal for a moment. "Ugh, unicorn hair."

"That's not, like, rare, is it?" Dipper asked nervously. Ford sighed.

"It's hopeless." He adjusted his glasses, reading from the journal. "Unicorns reside deep within an enchanted glade, and their hairs can only be obtained by a pure good-hearted person who goes on a magical quest to find them." Mabel screamed.

"Grunkle Ford, can I please go on this quest? I am literally obsessed with unicorns! My first word was "unicorn," I once made my own unicorn by taping a traffic cone to a horse's head." I let out a tired laugh at that. "Are you even looking at the sweater I'm wearing right now?! Not to mention that I'm probably the most pure of heart person in this room." Ford agreed.

"That's true, she has a point." and so did Dipper,

"I can't argue there." Ford turned to Mabel.

"Very well. But it won't be easy." He handed her his journal. "Take this." Then handed her a... crossbow. Hey, I wasn't about to argue. "And this." Mabel let out an "Oooh!" Ford looked at me. "I haven't been in this dimension for a while. It's okay to give children weapons, right?" I shrugged; Mabel could handle herself.

"Pssh, come on, dawg." She said, before accidentally firing a bolt through the window. Outside a car alarm went off and a startled Stan yelled,

"AH! IT'S THE COPS! GUN IT!" There were tires screeching, accompanied by the sound of yapping dogs as a car sped away from the shack.

Mabel pulled out her phone, dialling a number and almost immediately talking into it. "Candy, Grenda, Wendy, clear the afternoon!" She ran off, a trail of glitter and bubbliness seeming to follow her.

Dipper looked up at Ford. "So, what are the odds she gets that hair?"

"Unlikely. I've dealt with unicorns before, and if I had to describe them in one word it would be... frustrating." he replied, a grim determination on his face.

"So, what are we gonna do about Bill?"

"Follow me." They walked off towards the basement, Dipper flipping the gift shop's sign from "Open" to "Closed". I knew what Ford was going to do, I had it done a couple years before he disappeared and, man, it was not pleasant.

As far as I was concerned, it didn't completely work either, but... I couldn't blame them for trying.