Counting Stars (Mabifica)

Chapter 34

Stanford Pines froze, wanting to say something but a lump had formed in his throat. To he honest, he thought Fiddleford had died, or at least moved away from Gravity Falls after all the traumatic stuff that had happened. But no. He was shorter than Ford remembered, sporting a long white beard that brushed the ground as he stepped closer. He wore a large hat, covered in patches and dungarees the same colour. Thick goggles covered his eyes, the green glass glowing slightly in the bright light of the apocalypse.

Fiddleford looked strangely calm about the whole ordeal. He was holding a blowtorch in one hand and a scrap of metal in the other.

"Fiddleford?" Ford had to make sure this was the right person, bringing the wrong one could result in a very painful death for him and his family.

"Yes?" He replied, giving Ford a toothy grin before turning to walk back into what looked like a homemade house.

He lived here? Gross.

"Uh... I need your help" Ford followed him inside, trying to ignore the foul smell that made him want to throw up.

"With what, stranger?"

Fords heart dropped. Stranger?

"No, no! Its me, Stanford Pines" Ford stepped in front of the other man.

"Stanford Pines died years ago" Fiddleford replied, a lot more serious and quiet than he was before.

"No, I'm here" Ford stated as he watched his old friend pull a mask over his face and start melding scraps of metal together and placing them onto what looked like a spaceship? "Stanley helped me, he rebuilt the portal!"

"What!?" Fiddleford turned around, looking angry and confused "the portals back up? Accessible?"

Ford took a step back, worried that his old friend would fry him with the blowtorch. Better safe than sorry.

"Once again, no" Ford stopped backing away to look Fiddleford in the eyes "it broke when I came out".

Ford blinked and shook his head, annoyed that he had gotten distracted and forgotten his mission. He placed his hand on Fiddleford's shoulder. Fiddleford looked down, staring at his fingers.

"Six fingers?" He said, mostly to himself. He looked back up, his eyes shining.

"Okay good, now we've got that all sorted, we really need to get to the shack!"

Fiddleford nodded, a determined look on his face as he grabbed some metal things Ford didn't recognise and followed him out of the dump.

They arrived back at the shack minutes later and noticed Stan sitting on the steps leading up to the gift shop, humming to himself, eyes closed, concentrated . He opened his eyes at the sound of footsteps, following the two men with his blue eyes as they stepped into the bubble.

"Hello" Stan and Fiddleford had never really gotten along, even before... The portal incident.

Fiddleford nodded and went into the shack with Ford, probably to catch up on the thirty years they'd been apart. Stan sighed and sat back down, cradling his head in his hand.

∆ ∆ ∆

Mabel Pines took in a deep breath before stepping forward into the tent of telepathy, which was surprisingly still popular with the locals, even after all these years. She made her way towards the front and onto the stage. She knew Gideon was probably backstage, she'd seen the board with the performance times when she walked in. It was nearly showtime.

"Gideon?" Mabel pushed the curtain away and knocked on a small door with a golden star in the middle. Your typical changing room.

"Who is it?" He sung back, his voice muffled by the door. He sounded older, his voice was less squeaky and annoying than Mabel remembered.

"Uh..." Mabel hesitated, considering just leaving. Why had she agreed to get Gideon again? "Mabel Pines".

There was an awkward silence and some shuffling from the other side of the door before she heard the click of locks being undone. The door swing open, revealing a taller, but still as baby faced and chubby as he was four years ago, gideon gleeful.

They stood there for a couple of seconds, Gideon's greedy eyes scanning her up and down.

"Gideon, I have a girlfriend" Mabel huffed.

"Girlfriend?" Gideon raised an eyebrow, well she supposed he had. They were as white as his hair and not very visible. "Who's the lucky lady?"

"Pacifica"

Gideon snorted, choking on air for a second before standing straight once again "really? She's waaay out of your league. She's rich, you're poor" he held up both his hands "plus she's really grumpy-"

Mabel cut him off "no she's not! She's really nice once you get to know her!"

"Whatever"

"Anyways, I'm here because I need your help" Mabel said, rubbing the back of her neck.

Gideon's eyes lit up mischievously and he opened his mouth to say something but Mabel interrupted him.

"No! No" she was getting impatient, she needed to hurry up "no deals, do you want to die!?"

"What?"

Mabel sighed and grabbed his sleeve, dragging him from the tent and outside. She pointed towards the tear in the sky and the screaming people.

"Oh" Gideon said quietly.

The brunette started walking again, she still had a firm grip on Gideons sleeve. They made it safely back to the shack, only running into one seemingly harmless monster that got kicked out of the way by Mabel. Stan was waiting, he looked sad.

"Grunkle stan!" Mabel waved and he smiled.

Gideon went into the shack to wait for the others whilst Mabel sat next to Stan, a worried look on her face.

"You okay?"

Stan shrugged "I feel worthless. You guys just left me here".

"You volunteered to stay"

"Yeah, but..." He sighed, wiping his tired eyes and licking his dry lips.

"Honesty, I think you just need time to chill out" Mabel rubbed circles into his back, calming the old man. She went on "Y'know, because of the portal thing" Stan flinched. "And now your brother's back and everything's happy, I just want you to be happy".

"Thanks"

"And I know you're stressed out about the whole thing so I figured if you stayed here you could relax, maybe get some sleep".

Stan nodded, understanding.

"Okay but seriously, get some sleep old man" Mabel patted his back and helped him up.

Stan laughed and nodded once again, slowly walking to his room. Mabel sat down, taking his position as guard of the mystery shack.

I didn't think I'd write a whole chapter, since I'm pretty tired but here ya go lmao

(Edited)