Gravity Rises (S3)

CW: Part Twenty-Five

The Pines and their friends spent a happy day together after Lee possessed Fidds. Forget packing, forget all of it. Lee could finally be with his family without the thought of Bill looming over him. He had the freedom to truly enjoy himself.

And with that freedom, the first thing Lee wanted to do was have a snowball fight.

"Careful with my body," Fidds said. "I'm more fragile than you were."

Lee could feel that fragility, yes. But he wanted so badly to go outside and just. . . play. It didn't matter that he was in Fidds' sixty-two-year-old body. The exhilaration of being in a body at all made him feel like a kid again.

Andrew left to go back to the minotaur village. Everyone else scrambled to get in snow clothes, and soon they were ready to go outside. The wide-open space of Ford's backyard was perfect to play in. When Lee opened the door and saw all that snow — all that space — his eyes welled up. He could feel the cold. He could take big steps to walk through the deep snow. He was physical.

Ford looked at his brother and smiled. "How's the weather?" he asked.

Lee made a show of squinting up at the sky. "Cloudy," he said.

But even with the sun behind the clouds, Lee was perfectly happy.

That happiness turned to determination as the snowball fight started. Lee and Ford led different teams, and there was little mercy from either side. On Lee's team, Grace turned out to have one of the best aims, and Dipper was a fast snowball maker, which kept them supplied with ammunition. Ford's team had Camille, who also had a great arm, and Pacifica, who darted between her opponents, making her hard to hit.

Lee's team had a bit of a disadvantage, because they only had five people, plus Waddles, against the other team's six. But Lee didn't mind. And Waddles enjoyed nibbling on the extra snowballs that Dipper made just for him.

There was another disadvantage, too, but this one was just amusing: Because Lee was the one they were celebrating, he was also the one that everyone on the other team targeted. Mabel ran up and sent a snowball into his chest. Gideon made a throw that went further than Lee was expecting, and it hit him in the shoulder. And Ford, with a wicked grin, nailed him right in the face.

Oh well. It was worth it.

It didn't take too long for Fidds' body to start aching, unfortunately. And then Grace needed to pause and catch her breath — it wouldn't do to get too worked up, with the baby. But the snowball fight had still lasted a good amount of time. Lee sat in the snow and leaned against the ridge Sam had built to protect their team's base. Lee couldn't stop smiling. And he noticed Fidds' spirit, watching their game, smiling as well.

Dipper suggested building a snowman next. "Wait, no," he said, his eyes alight, "a snow minotaur."

Lee was worried about that being more complicated than he had the skills for, but Dipper's idea turned out to be a normal snowman with snow horns on its head. Lee liked it. And though there were no minotaurs here to see it, he thought they'd like it, too.

After building their snow minotaur (and naming it Xítway, at Lee's suggestion), the group went back inside. Lee made another suggestion: Could Melody make her hot chocolate again?

"Again?" said Melody. "Were you. . . here yesterday?"

Oh. He hadn't meant to tell them that. But, "Yeah," Lee said. "I watched the whole thing."

There was silence for a moment. Then, "Well, of course I'll make more hot chocolate," said Melody.

"I hope I didn't say anything embarrassing yesterday," Sam said, with a sheepish smile.