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“Come on, Stanley! You’re being unreasonable!” Ford tugs the measuring tape back towards him. His brother has always been the stronger one so it’s a struggle, but he refuses to lose this time. His feet dig into the ground, expression hardening.
“Me? Unreasonable? You’re being selfish!” Stanley spits, yanking the tape so hard that it sends both boys tumbling to the ground.
“How am I selfish?!” Ford screams, going red in the cheeks. “I just had the best day of my life! I have friends, real friends and you want to take all that away!”
“Well, I just had the worst day of my life!” Stanley lets go of the tape, his brother going backwards and hitting the muddy ground hard. “But, of course you don’t understand! You never understand anymore! It’s all about Ford- how he’s smarter than me, how he has more friends than me, how he’s such a well behaved kid!”
“Maybe you’d have more friends if you weren’t so difficult to get along with!” Ford shouts back, getting to his feet and gripping the tape tighter.
His face flushes a bright red with anger, six fingered fists trembling.
The heart rate in his ears drowns out any other sense of sanity, pure rage bubbling over like a fountain.
That seems to turn a switch on his brother as Stanley tackles him to the ground aggressively.
“Fine! If that’s what you think then maybe I’ll go back in time when I got that F in math and leave for good- get rid of the extra Stan!”
Ford goes to scream something else, but he freezes when he notices the tears spilling over his brother’s face, barely contained sobs becoming apparent.
“Lee-“
With one more powerful yank Stanley pulls the time tape from his twin’s hands, reaching to reset the time, his hands pulling on the measuring tape’s tongue. “Some brother you turned out to be.”
“No!” Ford jumps up, getting to his brother right before the tape is let go and crashing into him, trying to protect him maybe, trying to do something that won’t end in them being separating forever.
The world seems to be pulled from under him and he screams, feeling weightless for a moment.
He reaches for his brother, but finds him missing from his side.
“Stan! Stan, where are you?!” There’s a blinding flash of light and Ford gasps, sitting up on the street corner.
He inhales sharply, the cool air biting at his face and hands.
He’s on a lonely curb, the streets around pretty much empty except a woman smoking on the corner several buildings away and a lone stray cat staring at him across from some dead bushes.
“Lee?” Ford whispers, eyes flicking around but finding no sight of his twin.
His heart hammers in his ribcage and he lets out a broken cry, sobs shaking his chest with their weight.
His brother is gone and the time tape with him.
He can’t lose Stan- he can’t lose his twin but he did.
With wails of defeat he curls his hands to his chest and sobs into his knees, letting the heart wrenching noise echo through the empty streets.
It takes him a few moments too long to register the footsteps and he lets out a strangled breath as a hand touches his shoulder.
On instinct he flinches away, eyes looking up at being met with— Grunkle Dipper?!
“Hey, you okay kid?” Dipper asks and Ford opens his mouth to speak, but nothing intelligent comes out.
His Grunkle is here and by the looks of it thirty or forty years younger. His brown curls are a tangled mess and he has a bandage plastered across his cheek and nose, wearing a sweater with multiple stains and patches that are poorly sewn on.
The eyebags under his eyes are even bigger than they are in the future. He barely even looks like his Grunkle with his sunk in face.
“I-“
Dipper blinks and suddenly takes a step back. “Right, uh, stranger danger. My bad. Um, are you okay? Where’s your mom?”
At that Ford bursts into more tears despite how humiliating it is.
He quickly covers his face, trying to quell the oncoming tears.
“Hey, it’s alright. I’ll help you find her, okay?”
Ford shakes his head, clumsily wiping away his tears as he looks at the man above him.
“You don’t want to go back to her?”
“I want my brother-“ Ford’s voice breaks and he notices a switch in his grunkle’s face, something almost pained flashing across his features. It’s gone in a second, replaced by a deep sadness as the man sighs.
“How about we get some food and you tell me about it?”
There’s a pause of silence and Ford weighs his options.
On one hand he has to find Stan, but he could be anywhere.
Grunkle Dipper might be able to give him shelter until he can somehow locate his twin.
Not to mention it’s really cold out here. He could freeze.
After another few moments of debating he nods with a sniffle.
“Okay, let’s go.”
Dipper seems to brighten up a bit, but there’s still lines of concern in his face as he reaches out his hand.
Ford takes it without thinking, being lifted to his feet but his hand isn’t released.
His heart drops when he notices where Grunkle Dipper is looking.
The old man never made fun of him but is his younger version just as accepting?
Is he going to be called a freak or-
“You have polydactyl and can move each of your fingers? That’s- incredible!” Dipper exclaims, looking up at him with a face that makes Ford freeze.
He’s excited.
In the future he didn’t make a big deal of it but this younger version of him is amazed.
“Oh uh, yeah.” Ford pulls away, flexing his fingers with a shy smile before dropping them in his pockets. “Most people think it’s gross or freaky.”
“Yeah, well people are assholes.” Dipper scoffs and an awkward smile crosses his face as he lifts his bangs. “But hey, birth defects are kinda cool in my opinion.”
Ford gasps, eyes lighting up when he sees the birth mark in the shape of the Big Dipper.
Dipper!
That’s why he calls himself that.
Why would his future Grunkle hide that?
“That’s so cool!”
“Sure is. Come on, I know a good burger joint down the street.”
Ford nods again, following after him.
He can’t help but cast a glance behind him, hoping to see his twin.
He’s not there.
He could be anywhere and it’s all Ford’s fault.
He’ll fix it though.
He has to….he can’t lose his twin forever.
*****
Stanley hits the snowy ground hard, yelling as he struggles to get away from the measuring tape that’s sparking electricity and red hot.
His hands at least cool in the freezing snow.
Wait- snow?!
The realization hits him so hard it takes the breath from his lungs.
“Pointdexter?!” Stanley calls helplessly, glancing around wildly.
He’s remembers Ford rushing at him and then- then the flash.
Ford isn’t here- he stayed in his time.
Stan will probably never see him again all because of his stupid tantrum!
Tears spring to his eyes and a choked gasp shakes his chest as he reaches for the tape.
It’s still warm and the inside light has gone out, flickering, cracked, broken.
Stanley feels frustration built in him and he screams, throwing it at a tree with a sob.
Stanley Pines, the screw up, the dumb kid, the extra Stan.
He can’t do anything right, can he?
He’s a parasite, a leech even.
If only he could just disappear forever, wouldn’t that be nice.
If only he could escape the humiliation that is Stan Pines.
His sobs only become more messy as he pulls himself over to the tree and cradles the broken time tape in his hands.
He’s pathetic.
Pa would be so disappointed.
All he’s done is prove how useless he is.
He should’ve never fought Ford for the time tape.
Who cares if he had a bad day, who cares if Preston humiliated him in front of everyone, who cares if they shoved him in stocks and had rotten fruit thrown at him by that rich brat and his crew before they let him out, who cares if he accidentally ruined his Grunkle’s show by having a panic attack from how high up the attraction was and ran off before he could take the punishment, who cares if he spent the rest of the day hiding in the bathrooms afraid he’d be hurt for screwing up so much.
Who cares! No one!
No one has ever been nice to him his entire life except maybe Ford.
Ford cares….he cared.
Stanley closes his eyes, the sobs leaving his body and replaced by shaky sniffs.
He’s so tired and so, so cold.
He just lays back on the snow and stares at the cloudy skies, shivering.
He’ll never make anything of himself.
All he has is his strength, no smarts, no nothing.
The snow crunches under his footsteps and- no, he’s not walking. He’s laying here and-
Stanley lets out a startled yelp as someone picks him up.
His whole world blurs for a moment and he realizes how badly his teeth are chattering.
He’s so numb and he can’t help but instinctively cling to the heat.
His mind seems to slip out of consciousness, so cold, so tired and…
*****
When Stanley wakes up he’s warm. He’s wrapped in layers of cozy blankets and wearing a sweater that’s quite comfy. Its stitching is nice, a design of a kitten in the front of the colorful creation.
It reminds him of some of the sweaters he found in Grunkle Dipper’s closet before he was shooed out.
He remembers making fun of the old man for having girly sweaters.
They’re actually pretty warm.
Slowly he sits up, looking down at himself. He’s still wearing his jeans but they’re not as snow soaked as before and there’s a pair of sweatpants set out on the coffee table in front of him along with some cozy socks.
Stanley slips off the wet pants, happy to be warm but just as he finishes pulling up the soft sweatpants he freezes.
Where is he?
His fingers clutch the fabric around his hips, heart beating so fast he can barely think.
The tape- his brother- his brother is gone.
He left his brother in the present where he could be endangered by anything and everything.
Stupid, stupid, stupid!
A sob threatens to burst through Stanley’s throat but he stifles it as footsteps come in.
A woman stands in the doorway and his mouth drops.
She has the face of his Grunkle, but slightly softer. Her eyes are brown, not marred by glasses but with deep eyes bags. Curly brown hair falls across his shoulders and in her face. Her skirt is long, modest but colorful, matching her bright sweater which has suspicious red staining.
“You’re awake.” she smiles, it’s a thin one and she comes over, offering a cup to him.
Stanley in turn glares at her with distrust. “Who are you?” he snaps, his mind muddled with the images of his Grunkle and the young woman in front of him.
It’s strange, odd even.
It makes his stomach turn.
“Mabel. Now, drink this. You still look half frozen.” She frowns and Stanley cautiously takes the cup, testing the drink with his tongue.
Hot chocolate.
It tastes exactly like the type his Grunkle makes and he takes an actual sip this time, relishing the heat.
It’s only as Mabel’s hands pull away that he notices there’s bandages on her knuckles, a dusty brown red staining the white wraps.
“What happened to you?”
The woman’s eyes flit away nervously but she puts on a bright smile a second later. “Was practicing karate. Guess I got carried away, huh?”
“Yeah.” Stanley mutters, disbelief coloring his tone as he looks into her face.
She’s the spitting image of his Grunkle, but younger. Still her eyes carry this sort of sadness, a sort of burden that even Grunkle Dipper’s don’t show. They’re the eyes of someone who’s had terrible things happen to them.
Her face is shallow too, thin, pale.
It takes Stanley’s stomach churn.
He remembers seeing something similar before.
Mrs. Miller. She lived down the street with her husband. She was so kind but she constantly had bandages and bruises.
She didn’t tend to her garden for weeks and eventually her body was found.
Her husband was arrested a few days later.
The woman in front of him carries that same sadness, that same hurt.
Stanley suddenly becomes so much more aware of his surroundings as he quickly glances around.
“Is someone else here?”
Mabel’s eyes seem to read his frightened posture and she shakes her head, smiling gently.
“No, it’s just us.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely positive! Boop.” Her hand is in his face a second and he flinches but no hit comes. Something sticky is pressed on his face and he opens his eyes just in time to see the woman putting away a pack of tiny stickers.
“Uh…why’d you put that on me?”
“Because stickers are awesome and you deserve to feel awesome too.”
Stanley can’t help but sputter at that, completely and utterly confused.
“Why- why are you being so nice to me?”
Mabel’s face changes at that, it somehow softens even more, into a motherly gaze.
“Why can’t people just be nice?”
“Because people always want something.”
“I don’t.”
“There’s got to be something.” Stanley’s eyes narrow, hands trembling ever so slightly.
“How about a bit of company? It gets lonely out here you know.” Mabel sits down on the floor crossed legged. Her knees show just a bit, the skin scraped, barely healed.
It makes bad feelings spark in Stan again.
Shes hurt.
There’s got to be someone hurting her.
“So, what’s your name? You look like a Bert.”
Stanley lets out an offended scoff. “It’s Stanley, but uh, you can call me Stan.”
“Okay, Stan. Do you like card games?”
There’s a pause before he nods slowly.
“Wanna play one?” She pulls out a deck of cards from a pocket in her skirt and offers it to him with trembly hands.
There’s another pause before Stan sits down in front of her.
“Okay. One round then I have more questions.”
“Sounds good to me.” Mabel winks, her one eye twitching in a way that looks incredibly painful. In fact it looks like she can barely see out of it, the sclera completely bloodshot.
It doesn’t give Stan high hopes of what she’s been through and if she’s truly safe.
At least the game will keep his mind off…things.