Mystery Universe

The Inconveniencing

Today was a slow day at work. Most people that had taken the Mystery Shack tour had either spent less than five minutes pursuing the gift shop, or didn't even spare any of the merchandise a passing glance. Wendy leaned against the counter, reading a magazine, Soos was wiping down the shelves, Dipper was writing in the Journal, and Mabel was spinning on a giant globe of the Earth. Steven stood behind the counter, tapping his fingers against the polished wood, going out of his mind with boredom.

"Mabel, do you believe in ghosts?"

"I believe you're a big dork, haha- aah!"

Steven looked over at the two twins and saw that Dipper had stopped the spinning globe with his pencil. And Mabel was now on the ground on her back.

Steven smiled. He never had siblings, it was only ever him. Only he had to shoulder his mother's legacy... and problems. Steven frowned. Best not to think of that right now. He looked over to Wendy flipping through her teen magazine. He never had much time to be a 'normal' teen. He had spent a good amount of his teen years either fighting, or acting as ambassador and helping the Diamonds dismantle their tyrannical rule. There was even a year that he had spent exclusively away from Earth. He had a lot of work to do, and so he did what he needed to do to get it done. Then he went home, and Spinel tried to destroy the Earth. So yeah, a lot of fighting and diplomacy. He never really hated that part of his life... but still, a part of him wished he had had a normal teenhood. But, other than Connie, there weren't many people in Beach City his age. He had gotten to spend time with other teens, yes; but they were older than him. And when he turned 16, they had already graduated highschool and were doing their own thing. Kiki spent most of her time at the pizzeria, Sadie had her own thing with Sadie Killers and the Suspects, and Lars was busy being a... actually, Steven didn't know what Lars was up to. Probably something cool.

The bell above the gift shop door rang, drawing Steven out of his thoughts.

"Soos! Wendy! Steven!"

Soos ran over from where he was wiping shelves, dropping his spray bottle of cleaner. Wendy didn't look up from her magazine.

"What is it Mr. Pines?" Soos asked.

"I'm headin' out. You three are gonna wash the bathrooms, right?" Stan asked.

"Yes, sir," Soos saluted

"Absolutely not," Wendy saluted.

"I'll get back to you on that," Steven saluted.

He didn't like cleaning the bathrooms at the Shack. The one in the house part of the Shack, fine, but the guest one? No sir.

Stan laughed before squinting at them, "You stay out of trouble."

With that, Stan shut the door. Steven watched through the window as he walked away. To where? He didn't know. And with Stan, he wasn't sure if he wanted to know. He clearly had secrets that he didn't want to share, and Steven wasn't about to stick his nose into places it didn't belong.

Once Stan was out of sight, Wendy turned and walked over to a curtain jutting out from the wall.

"Hey, guys, what's this?" she pulled back the curtain, "Secret ladder to the roof?"

Sure enough, there stood a ladder with a trapdoor above it.

"Uh, I don't think Mr. Pines would like that," Soos said.

Steven was about to agree, but stopped himself. He should see where this goes.

"Can we actually go up there?" Dipper asked.

Wendy was already on the ladder, "Sure we can. Roof time! Roof time!"

"Roof time! Roof time!" Mabel and Dipper chanted, following her up the ladder.