Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Gravity Falls by all accounts was an extremely weird and strange place, but that didn’t mean you couldn’t find moments of peace. It was late at night, many of the residents were asleep, although some were still returning home from the party the Northwests had thrown a little while ago. It normally didn’t allow entry of the townsfolk, but because of a vengeful ghost and someone who was not like their parents, the townsfolk were let in. It had been a wild night, and it was the calm after the storm. At least that’s what everything thought, because in reality, for a group of 5 friends, and a pair of twins and their uncle, it was actually the calm before the storm.

_____

 

Mason “Dipper” Pines was walking home through the woods from the Northwest’s party. He was alone because Grenda took Mabel and Candy home early due to both of them being in a fondue induced coma. Dipper had decided when he got to the bottom of Northwest hill to take the scenic route home. He had a lot to think about, mainly how wrong he had turned out to be about Pacifica. She was still stuck up and thought she was above people, that likely wouldn’t change, and if it did not for a while, but she was surprisingly vulnerable and down to earth once you got to know her, and all you had to do for that was to defeat an extremely dangerous ghost, get tricked by her parents, be tricked by said extremely dangerous ghost, get turned into wood and almost burn to death, and finally spread mud on some carpet. It had been a wild night.

Dipper smiled to himself, the memories returning to him. He was barely paying attention to where he was walking anymore, and regretted it when he accidentally walked headfirst into a tree. “OW!” he cried, startled from his thoughts. He looked around in panic for a second, then he realised what he had done. His ears burned in embarrassment, he was glad that Mabel wasn’t there, she would tell Grunkle Stan, who would never let him live it down.

Dipper sighed and started to get moving to the shack again. Just then, there was a flash of light from the other side of the clearing he was in, and a group of shouting voices met his ears. Dipper jumped and then tripped over a root, falling into a bush.

Dipper looked from in between the branches of the bush and saw that there was now a vertical rectangle of light between 2 of the trees on the other side of the clearing.. It soon became transparent and Dipper gasped as he saw a group of people on the other side, at least 4. 3 of them ran through the rectangle, one was very thin and had black skinned guy with curly black hair and was wearing a sort of uniform with sky blue sleeves and pant legs, there was another slightly chubby girl with glasses, white skin, blueish hair with a similar uniform, hers had green sleeves and pant legs, the third one who ran through what Dipper suddenly realised must be some sort of portal was a blond male with a large scar on his face, he was wearing a pair of brown gloves as well as a grey undershirt with a light tan overshirt as well as a grey pair of pants with brown boots.

As these three came through the portal so did 3 animals, a blue chameleon, a rather large bee, and a red bird. They were looking back into the portal now and shouting things, Dipper couldn’t quite make out. He could see a 4th person just inside the portal, they seemed to be a female with purple hair and a simple black gown. They were all looking through the portal, seemingly at someone who was still inside.

As Dipper watched, the portal flickered, almost went out, then stabilized. The group seemed even more agitated now, and the purple haired person moved out of view, presumably to fetch whoever was still inside. Then the other three went back in too, and a few seconds later, Dipper heard a strange shout, it sounded a little like the wail of a crying baby, all of them were almost immediately thrown back through the portal, into Dipper's side. They were now joined by a 5th person, they were a female wearing a jacket with white sleeves and a dark grey torso, they had tan pants and brownish skin, not african, more spanish. This newcomer started shouting, and now Dipper could hear what she was saying.

_____

 

“NO!” Luz shouted, sprinting back toward the portal. “KING!” Just as she was about to reach the portal though, it flickered, and disappeared. Leaving nothing but a pair of trees that had oddly door shaped branches. Luz froze, eyes wide. She didn’t believe it. She reached for the door of the abandoned house, only to not find it. With a start, she realised they were not at that abandoned house in Gravesfield Connecticut. They were in the middle of a forest, one she didn’t recognise. Luz fell to her knees, staring at where the portal had been, less than a minute ago. Thoughts of King filled her mind, but there were also thoughts of Eda, and Lilith, and Hooty. They were all gone, she had no way of getting back, and they weren’t even in a place she recognised. She fell forward more, she was now on her hands and knees, and drops of water wetted the ground beneath her.

She had failed, again. Everything was her fault, how could it not be? She was the one who helped Belos meet the collector, she destroyed the first door, she was even the reason they were all here right now, if only she had dodged Kikimora, then her friends wouldn’t have come for her, and they would still be in the Boiling isles, in a prime position to go help Eda, King and everyone else. Instead though, they were here, and it was all her fault. She couldn’t even lead them anywhere safe if she didn’t know where in the Titan they were themselves! She cried, and cried, and punched herself in the leg. Soon though, she felt someone by her side. She looked over and saw Amity. She didn’t say anything, just extended her arms in a silent invitation. Although Luz knew she didn’t deserve it, she gratefully accepted, lunging forward and grasping Amity tightly in her arms, crying into her shoulder. At least Amity was still here. It could be worse.

Luz stayed in Amity’s arms for almost a minute, and eventually calmed down. Amity helped her to her feet, “Come on sweet potato,” she said. “Not all is lost.”

“Y-Yeah!” Gus added, clearly struggling not to break down like Luz. “Things could be worse.”

“We are all still here with you.” Willow added with a slightly strained smile.

“Yeah, what they said!” Hunter added. He wasn’t very good at this, but even attempting made Luz feel better.

“Después de todo, todavía nos tenemos el uno al otro.” Amity finished.

Luz smiled. They were right, they still had each other, and they could always just give a phone call to her mom when they found civilization. “You're right,” Luz said shakily, “but here's the thing, this isn’t where the other portal led. I have never been in a forest with trees this tall in my life.” The others seemed taken aback by this information. Willow took it the best, the others were visibly shaken, Amity paled slightly, which Luz didn’t think was even possible, Gus flinched and Hunter an audible noise of distress. “However,” Luz continued. “In this dimension, other people have phones too, so we can call up my mom and see if she can come get us.” Everyone visibly relaxed.

“Whoo!” Hunter said. “You had me worried for a bit there.”

Luz smiled “Gotta keep the suspense somehow!” She joked, then she pulled out her phone. “Uh-oh.”

“Uh-oh!?!” Gus shouted, “What do you mean uh-oh?!? If this is a joke!” Then he stopped, Luz showed them her phone, or at least what was left of it. It had been in her pocket as she had fought Belos, and clearly that petrification spell had worked on it. It was now completely stone. It was worse than useless.

“Uh-oh indeed.” Willow said gravely as she looked at the now literal brick.

“Hey, you said other humans have pho- uhh, phawns?” Amity asked, brutally misspronouncing the word, but the point got across. “If we can find a town or something we can ask to borrow one!”

“Hey, that ideas not half bad!” Hunter said, to the agreement of Gus and Willow.

“So the plan is to go and find people, then call my mom?” Luz asked, just to confirm.

“Well, maybe wait till tomorrow?” Willow asked. “I’m feeling pretty tuckered out.”

“Yeah, come to think of it, so am I.” Luz said.

“Wait, you’re just gonna stop for now?” Hunter asked incredulously. “We gotta make every second count if we're to make it back in time to save anyone!”

“I get that,” Amity responded. “But what's the point of doing anything if we’re too tired, me you Gus and Willow will probably freak the humans out regardless, we don’t want giant eyebags on top of our ears.” Hunter was about to flounder for a reason on why they should move now and eventually agree after actually thinking it through himself and realising she was right, when they heard a slight gasp and rustle from a nearby bush.

Immediately all five of them twisted to face the noise, Gus, Willow, and Amity drawing spell circles, Hunter calling Flapjack into staff form for help and Luz pulling out a stack of glyphs. The Person quickly threw their hands up and jumped out the bush, clearly terrified. He was a rather scrawny male that looked to be at least a year younger than them, about Gus’s age, wearing a red t-shirt, blue vest, and grey shorts. The most stand out thing though was his hat. It was white and blue, with a blue pine tree image on the front, in the white section.

“PLEASE DON’T HURT ME!” He shouted quickly, sweating nervously and obviously had heard them talking. How long he had been there none of them knew, but if they were being real, he didn’t look like he could really do anything.

Luz exited her battle stance and lowered her glyphs slightly. “Who are you?” She asked as long as he was here, might as well ask him a few questions.

“My name is Dipper Pines! I live in the Mystery Shack about a mile that way,” he pointed in the direction of where he had been hiding in the bush, “and my favorite color is blue!” He said it all really fast, in about 2 seconds total, but Luz understood him.

Luz leaned down toward him as the others began relaxing too, although they made sure that their palismen were close. “Hello Dipper. I’m sorry for scaring you, but would you mind telling me where we are?”

_____

 

Dipper was absolutely terrified, when he heard the purple haired one talk about humans being scared of their ears, Dipper couldn’t resist a peak. Dipper had accidentally made a noise and started to back away, rustling the bush. He had assumed they were human, but he had clearly been wrong. Their ears were pointed, and obviously not human, now that he thought of it, she did look a little too pale to really be human anyway. Now though, they seemed to calm down, more or less, and Dipper looked up at the spanish looking one, and saw that she had round ears, not like the others. “Y-Your in Gravity Falls.” He said cautiously. The blonde one rolled his eyes and Dipper understood. “Sorry, Gravity Falls Oregon.”

This seemed to catch the attention of the spanish person who looked to actually be a human, they froze, eyes going wide. She stood up, and turned back to her friends, with the same scared expression. “Hey, what's wrong sweet potato?” The purple haired one who had comforted her earlier asked.

“We, I,” They seemed quite distressed again. “We should be in Connecticut.”

“Is that far or…” The glasses one asked, trailing off.

“It's about 2945.3 miles away.” Dipper said before he could stop himself.

This hit all of them, Dipper looked between them, standing up. They did not seem to be in a good spot. Dipper didn’t understand where they came from, why they had such an odd assortment of animals with them, or what those weird glowing circles had been, but what he did know was that they were clearly lost, and held no ill-will for him. “Hey, if you all want, I might be able to convince my uncle to let you all stay the night at the Mystery Shack, it’s not much, but it can get pretty cold at night.”

This also got their attention, they looked at him, clearly trying to see if he was serious, then huddled together, Dipper couldn’t hear what was said, but when they turned back the blonde one seemed a little upset, as if it hadn’t gone his way, and the glasses one stepped forward. “If you're being truthful, we would greatly appreciate it.”

_____

 

Luz walked through the forest with the others and with Dipper. It was getting quite dark now, so she pulled out a light glyph and tapped it, but nothing happened. “Huh?”

“What is it Luz?” Amity asked.

“The Glyph isn’t working.” She responded.

At this Amity shot a glance at Dipper, who hadn’t noticed the commotion. She grabbed Luz by the wrist and moved to the opposite side of the group. “What do you mean?” Amity whispered into Luz’s ear.

“Exactly what I said.” Luz whispered back. “Watch.” She tapped the light glyph again, but as before it just acted like normal paper.

“Weird.” Amity said. “Maybe it only works in the Demon Realm?"

“Yeah,” Luz said, obviously disappointed by the prospect of no more magic for her. “I guess not.”

_____

 

Hunter was now walking through the forest with this “Dipper” character. He didn’t trust him, but he had been outvoted so now they were going to the Illusion Shed or whatever it was called. “So, you never told me your names.” Dipper said as he led them toward the shack.

“Oh, I’m Luz.” Luz said, “and this is Amity, Willow, Gus, and Hunter.” Hunter looked at her incredulously, if she wanted to give him her own name, go ahead, but why share his name!

“Nice to meet you,” Dipper said, and in front of them they now saw a large wooden building labeled “Mystery Hack.” Hunter was confused, wasn’t it called Shack? Then he saw that the “S” had fallen off of the sign and now lay on the roof. “Now, before we go in, I should warn you. My uncle doesn’t really like weird things, not after I accidentally summoned the dead a couple weeks ago.”

“You what.” Hunter asked in a monotone voice.

“Oh did I say that?” Dipper said nervously. “Well… I did. It’s actually surprisingly simple.”

“Ok, I said nothing when you guys voted to accept this guy's offer,” Hunter said, turning to his friends. “But he can raise the dead!?! Are you still sure this is a good idea!?”

Now they seemed a little more apprehensive. “Yeah, it might not be a good idea..” Amity said, backing away slowly now.

“Exactly, how can we trust that he won’t use some weird human magic Luz doesn’t know and kill us all!” Hunter exclaimed, glad they were finally listening to him.

“Hey, if you don’t trust me I get that,” Dipper said. “I don’t fully trust you either, but if you think I would do that again, whoo boy, you’d be much mistaken. Stan would kill me! If you want to really know how it's done fine, I guess I do have all the power here. I know you're not human, not even from this dimension, so I’ll let you in on something too.” He pulled a dusty, worn out journal from his vest. “This is the journal, it’s filled with weird monsters, creatures and spells that only work here in Gravity Falls. I don’t know why, or even who wrote this journal, but it’s come in handy. Helped me fight a ghost just a few hours ago as a matter of fact.”

“How should that make us trust you?” Hunter asked.

“Because,” said Dipper. “You have no idea the amount of corrupt jerks there are in Gravity Falls who would love to get their hands on it, and everyone knows where the Pines live, we are the most infamous family in Gravity Falls, mostly due to my uncle, this place is a massive tourist trap. Just look inside and you’ll see all sorts of ridiculous fake monsters he sells photos of to tourists.”

“I, I guess that's fair.” Hunter said, rolling the info over in his mind, “but why let us stay in the first place?”

“Simple,” Dipper said. “I feel bad for you all, I can’t say I've ever been stranded in another dimension, like I presume you are, so while I'm not inviting you to stay here for the rest of summer, I still want to help.”

“You could just be saying that.” Hunter pointed out, crossing his arms.

“Hey, look man, if you don’t want to stay here for the night, be my guest, saves me from one annoying talk with my uncle.” Dipper said, shrugging.

“Hey, I’ve got an idea.” Amity said, stepping forward. “Do you trust me Dipper?”

“No.” Dipper said bluntly.

“Well, that's reassuring.” She said to herself. “Anyway though, I thought of a way we can be sure you won’t sell us out to someone.”

“Oh?” Dipper asked.

Amity crouched, walked up to Dipper and made a magic circle in the air, then stuck her hand through. “This is a simple spell called the everlasting oath, we both make an oath, and the spell will prevent either of us breaking the vows made in oath until we choose to do away with it.”

“I get it.” Dipper said. “I promise not to hurt you or sell you out, and you do the same.”

“Exactly.” Amity said.

“Ok, it's a deal then.” Dipper stuck his hand through the circle and shook Amity’s. “So as I was saying, my uncle doesn’t like weird things so it might take some convincing, but I think I can do it.”

“For the record, I still don’t entirely trust you.” Hunter said.

Dipper sighed. “This is what I get for being nice.” Then he trooped inside, and started talking to Stan.

_____

 

Amity was slightly nervous as she walked through the Mystery Shack, following Mr Pines as he led them through a hallway and opened a door with an intricate pattern carved into it and led them into a relatively big room. On the far side was a desk with a mess of different objects in it. There was a couch with a stained glass window over it to the right of the desk and a large empty space in the middle of the room. “You better be careful in here, this is Soos’s break room.” Mr. Pines said as he left the room, only to return a few minutes later, arms full of a bundle of blankets and pillows. “Dipper may have convinced me, against my better judgement, to let you all stay the night. So you better behave or I'll charge rent.” Then he left the room.

Amity walked across the room to the door and shut it. She turned back toward the others. Gus had flopped onto the pile and passed out, Hunter and Willow were now trying to wake him up as he groaned for 5 more minutes. Luz had moved over to the couch and sat down. Amity could already tell from even this far away that Luz was stuck in her head again. She moved toward her and sat next to her. She waited for Luz to talk, and eventually she did. “Was this a good idea?” She asked Amity.

“I don’t see why not.” Amity replied, putting her arm over Luz’s shoulder and trying to get her to look at her and she reluctantly did. “Mr. Pines might not be very welcoming, but Dipper isn’t a problem and better sleep out here than in the forest. Especially if what Dipper said about this town is true.”

Luz looked at her, and smiled. “Heh, as always, you're right. Things will be fine, I'm just a worrier.”

“Hey,” Amity said, “you might worry, but it doesn’t make your concerns any less valid. Listen, tomorrow we will wake up, and we can asked to use Mr. Pine’s uhh,”

“His Phone?” Luz asked.

“Yeah, that.” Amity said. “So let’s just get a good night's rest and save our worrying for tomorrow.” She finished, tickling Luz slightly.

Luz giggled and blushed slightly. “Yeah, again you're right. Let’s worry tomorrow.”

Chapter Text

Willow and Hunter had failed to wake up Gus, so instead they just rolled him off of the pile of Blankets, then Willow draped a blanket over him and Hunter tossed him a pillow, it landed directly on his face, so Willow moved over and put it under his head instead as Hunter began making another bed for Willow. By the time he made a bed for himself he realised that there would be no more room for a 4th bed on the floor.

“It’s fine.” Hunter said. “I don’t need to sleep.”

“What do you mean?” Willow said, “Of course you do!”

“But there’s no more room on the floor,” Hunter protested, “If we all want to have our own makeshift beds then I have to abstain from sleep.”

Luz thought about this for a bit, then the Idea struck her. She blushed slightly at the thought and leaned toward Amity to ask if she was ok with it. “Hey, I want hunter to be able to sleep, if there’s no room-”

But Amity interrupted her and blushed heavily before blurting back with, “Then why don’t we just share the couch?”

Luz blushed even harder now, but it seemed like a good way to convince Hunter to sleep so she nodded. Hunter looked between them and said, “Hey, you don’t have to, I’ll be fine.”

Amity replied with, “No, I don’t mind.” Then blushed even more and continued with, “I kind of want to anyway.”

Hunter looked between the two of them as Luz also blushed more and realised that they really did want it. He was relieved, despite what he said, he was tired and some sleep would do wonders for him. So he just smiled slightly and grabbed a few pillows and a blanket and handed them over to the lovebirds before grabbing the remainder of the supplies and made himself comfortable. He gave one more glance around the room, Gus was out cold and Willow smiled softly at the couple as she drifted to sleep. Hunter laid down and began to drift himself.

_____

 

Amity smiled as she laid down on the couch, draping the blanket over herself and her Sweet Potato. She looked over at Luz, she was smiling, a little nervously, and looking right back at her. Amity smiled back and kissed her on the cheek. “Good night, Mi batata.”

Luz blushed and responded with a “Good night, Sweet Potato.”

______

 

Amity was sleeping peacefully, Luz had woken just a few minutes ago when the morning light peeked through the window and into her face, but Luz didn’t move. She was content and didn’t want to wake up Amity.

Then she heard it, there were stealthy footsteps outside the door to the room they were in, and Luz heard the click of the doorknob twisting open. Luz looked around swiftly, Gus was awake now too, just relaxing under blankets and he heard it too. Hunter was snoring and Willow seemed close to waking, but was still asleep. Luz looked over at Gus, who nodded and cast an illusion over the room to make the blankets look empty.

He finished just in time, because the next second the door swung open quickly, and on the other side was a very excited looking girl, they were wearing a sweater with a shooting star on it and shouted “HELLO FRIENDS FROM THE WOODS!” Quickly waking Hunter, Willow, and Amity. Although Luz couldn’t see them. The girl looked around the room and her grin fell. “Oh, I guess they left.” They said a little disappointedly.

Dipper then walked up behind her and said, “Hey Mabel, huh. Guess they did leave, also you do know you shouldn’t barge into rooms like that, right?”

“I know,” the girl named Mabel said, “but you know I get excited whenever I can meet new people!”

Dipper sighed. “I know, but still, you don’t know if people could be dangerous.”

“Dangourus smangourus.” Mabel responded. “I just like to make friends!”

Dipper was about to respond when the voice of Mr. Pines shouted from somewhere else, “Hey kids! Don’t bother the guests! Now come help me with the Stancakes!”

Dipper and Mabel shouted back saying “Coming!” and Mabel ran off, but Dipper looked back into the room.

“I won’t rat you out, I don’t know if you’re even still there, but if you are, your lucky Mabel is the one who checked.” he said. “Anyone else besides Soos would be hard to convince that they just didn’t see you.” Then he walked away, shutting the door as he left.

Gus ended the illusion and looked around at everyone else. “So next time just let her sneak up on us while 3 of us are sleeping?” He said. “I don’t really like that idea.”

“True,” Hunter said, “but Dipper has a point. Now we either hope he’s right about convincing Mabel, or just leave invisibly and not come back.”

“Personally,” Luz spoke up. “I say we trust Dipper on this, because we just need to use a phone, and we can leave anyway.”

“Alright then.” Willow said. “Let’s go meet the Pines.”

“Wait!” Hunter said. “Mr. Pines didn’t see our ears yesterday because it was dark, we can’t count on that again today.”

“So what do we do about it? Amity asked.

“I got it,” Gus responded, making a spell circle and casting an illusion on their ears, making them look round and human-like.

“Good call Gus!” Luz said. “NOW, let’s go meet the Pines.”

_____

 

Mabel had been super excited when Grunkle Stan had mentioned the people lost in the woods yesterday, but when she rushed over Soos’s break room, where they were supposed to be, all she found was a bunch of empty blankets. She was disappointed, but hey, she had Stancakes and Mabel Juice to cheer her up!

Mabel was now quite content, eating at the table with Stan and Dipper. “So they ran off in the night?” Stan asked Dipper.

“Yeah, when me and Mabel went over there, all we found were the blankets they slept in.” Dipper responded.

“Hmm.” Stan said, clearly thinking about them. Mabel didn’t notice though, because she was too busy using the eggs Stan cooked up to give her pancake big buff arms.

As they ate, they eventually heard a door open and close somewhere in the shack, Stan groaned and stood up. “I swear if it’s those beautiful men again I’m going to start a mob and hunt them down!”

The person seemed to hear that and said “Oh no, it’s just us.”

Stan sat back down and shouted back. “Dipper told me you left, where did you go?”

The group of people had now found their way into the kitchen and Mabel saw 5 people. “We, uhh, couldn’t find the bathroom, so we went outside.” Said a girl who looked 14 and a little spanish. Mabel’s thoughts flowed toward Mermando and she quickly dispelled them, no need to sulk.

Stan muttered something to himself as Mabel caught sight of one of them, they had dyed their hair a nice purple color and Mabel just couldn’t restrain herself. She jumped out of her chair like a squirrel on a sugar high and rushed forward to the group of about 5. “OHMYGOSHYOURHAIRISSOPRETTY!” She quickly said, staring at the purple haired one.

“Mabel, remember to breathe.” Stan said to her before turning his attention to his guests. “Now good morning you five, sorry about last night, you just interrupted me while I was doing something important. I don’t believe you’ve said your names. Better say them before Mabel gives you weird nicknames based on your appearance.”

TOO LATE!” Mabel shouted.

The spanish one chuckled to herself. “Well, my name is Luz.”

After that 4 others also shared their names. They were Gus, Willow, Amity, and the last one seemed reluctant but eventually said his name was Hunter. “Please forgive Hunter for his apprehension,” Amity said. “He’s had a hard life, doesn’t trust people that easily anymore.”

“Hey hey,” Stan said. “I get it. Sometimes you need to lie, because the truth is a bit too much to share.”

The 5 guests agreed heartily, and something in Stan’s said that a suspicion of his had been confirmed. The group saw it and didn’t seem to like it, which only served to convince Stan even more.

“So, uhh,” Luz said, trying to change the subject. “Do you have a phone? I just have to call my mom and we can be out of your hair.”

Stan looked at them for a moment then stood up and said, “Sure. Kids, stay here and finish your food.”

“Why?” Mabel asked. “I wanna talk to them!”

“I said so, I would just like a word with them myself and then you can talk all you like, kay pumpkin?” He responded.

“Ok…” Mabel said, and Dipper shot a concerned look at the group.

_____

 

Hunter didn’t like where this was going. They followed Mr. Pines who led them into a room near the middle of the shack, it seemed to be his room. Then he turned around and looked at them and asked, “So, who are you calling?”

Luz swallowed nervously and replied with, “My mom..”

“Where is she?” He asked next.

“Uhh.” Luz responded. “Connecticut?”

Mr. Pines sighed. “Ahh crap. Well then this phone’s gonna be useless to you.”

“What?” Hunter cried. “Why!?”

“Simple,” Mr. Pines responded. “The phone lines in Gravity Falls only have service to other places in Gravity Falls and a few places in California. If you want to call Connecticut, you gotta get someone to take you out of the valley.”

This disheartened the group and Mr. Pines continued. “Now, I don’t like the idea of a defenseless group of kids lost in the forest so I can take you there, but if so you’ll have to wait a few days.”

“Why?” Willow asked.

“I have a… matter to deal with.” He deflected. “A very time sensitive matter.”

“How long will it take?” Hunter asked.

“Oh, just about 3 days.” Mr. Pines said. “Then I can take you for your phone call.” This seemed to please the group. “But,” Mr. Pines continued. “If I’m going to let you stay in this house, I need to ask a few questions, which you must answer honestly. For the kids and my own safety.”

“Alright.” Amity said. “Fine. Ask away.”

“First, where were you this morning?” Mr. Pines asked.

“We told you,” Luz said. “We couldn’t find the bathroom.”

“Uuugh.” Mr. Pines groaned. “I JUST said not to lie. The bathroom is only 2 doors down from your room. You would have found it if you just looked, and I used to be an expert con-man. If you want to fool me you’d better practise more. If you think I won’t believe you, my nephew literally raised the dead last week. Whatever it is, or whatever you are, I don’t care. I want to help, but I can’t do that if I think you’ll be dangerous to my family.”

Luz looked around at her friends and said. “Can you give us a second?” and Mr. Pines nodded. Luz turned around and huddled with the other 4. “What do we do? His offer sounds genuine and his requests are fair, but are we sure we want to tell him anything?”

“We can’t trust him.” Hunter said. “No matter how genuine he seems, he said it himself. He used to be a professional con-man. He saw right through us!”

Amity thought for a moment and said, “But what other options do we have? If we go through the forest we might run into the weird locals of Gravity Falls that Dipper mentioned, and if we ask anyone else it could go pretty badly.”

They bickered and argued about what do do for almost a minute, then they decided that they either risked the forest, or tell Mr. Pines some things. Eventually they all agreed to talk to Mr. Pines, but they wouldn’t say everything, just enough to gain his help. No need to mention any of their friends in the Boiling isles, only that they needed help, and no need to mention Belos or the true extent of their abilities, or the truth about their palismen.

“So.” Luz said turning back to Mr. Pines. “We are willing to accept your offer, just ask what you want. We won’t lie anymore, but ask at your own risk, we have been through some things.”

“I think I can handle it.” Mr. Pines responded. “So, first, where were you this morning?”

“We were in our room. We just hid ourselves when we heard Mabel approach, you can never be too careful.” Hunter said.

“Hide how?” Mr. Pines asked. “That room is tiny.”

They all looked at Gus, who sighed. “I hid them, like this.” Then he drew the circle in the air again and the group of kids disappeared from Mr. Pines’s vision. Then they all reappeared with a small puff of smoke.

Mr. Pines’s eyes widened. “What the heck was that?!”

“Magic.” Luz responded.

Mr. Pines took a moment to regain his composure before asking “So, how am I going to ensure you won’t hurt us when you can do stuff like that?”

They group sighed, sensing that thor chances of staying were vanishing and quickly. Amity stepped forward and attempted anyway though. “Well, to be fair Mr. Pines, if we really wanted to hurt you, why not do it last night when you were unaware of our abilities and one of you was still asleep?”

_____

Stan thought to himself, her argument made sense, but… He still struggled to trust them. He was about to say something about needing to get something from him, but then he thought how they could have just killed him and found it with magic, and he didn;t want to insinuate to them anything that could even possibly allude to the existence of the portal. So he had 3 options, 1. Unfairly ignore the validity of the argument and send them away. 2. Be unsure and ask for more proof, like maybe a motive of theirs. Or 3. Accept the argument and let them stay. He didn’t want to anger them and risk getting him or the twins hurt, so option 1 was out the window, and the 3rd option was just foolish, so he went with the second option. “In all my years in Gravity Falls,” Stan began. “I have never seen any kind of magic even close to what he just did. Where are you really from and why are you here?”

The group immediately seemed a bit down, and Luz stepped forward. “To be honest, Mr. Pines,” She began. “We, well, they” she motioned to all her friends. “Aren’t from this dimension. We were in a separate one called “The Demon Realm”. We didn’t really want to come back here, but we had no choice. The Demon Realm is in big danger and we just want to get back there. The portal to this Realm sent us into the forest, and we just need to get back to go help our friends.”

Stan was shocked. His thoughts again returned to the portal in his basement, and his brother who was trapped on the other side. They were no different from his brother, not really. They fled away from danger and now needed to go back. They could be lying, but based on the sincerity of Luz’s tone, she clearly wasn’t, and if she was, she was one hell of a con-woman. Stan sighed to himself, as his thoughts quickly turned to how it might be possible for him to help them with the portal after getting his brother back.

_____

Amity looked up at Mr. Pines, who had at first seemed shocked from their origins, but he quickly accepted it to be true, and as his thoughts turned to… something. Something he clearly cared about. Luz had struck a nerve, and it might be enough for him to let them stay. Mr. Pines sighed and began talking. “I, I think I understand, at least a little. You can stay, as long as you follow the rules I will lay out for you, ok?”

Amity broke out into a grateful smile and quickly nodded, as did the others. Even Hunter could sense Mr. Pines’s genuineness. “Of course, Mr. Pines!” Amity said.

“Ok, first things first, don’t call me that, I’m not a professor or anything. My name is Stan.” He shot at Amity.

“Oh,” Amity said. “Sorry about that Mr, sorry, Stan.”

“Second things second,” Mr. Pi, no, Stan continued “No magic in the house. I don’t care about anywhere else, but don’t get caught, and don’t scare off the tourists.”

“Alright.” Gus said, removing the illusions on their ears.

“Sweet waffles!” Stan cried out in surprise. “Ok, those ears might scare off the tourists, please change them back.”

“But you said,” Gus began.

“This is an exception.” Stan said as Gus replaced the illusion. “Finally, you’re not allowed in my room unless I take you here, Oh yeah. You can trust Soos not to say anything, but under no circumstances will say anything about this to Wendy. She will gossip to those friends of hers.”

“Ok!” Luz said. “So, uhh, what do we do now?”

“Probably go answer the 30 questions that Dipper and Mabel are going to ask you when you leave this room.” Stan said, hitting the door with his fist causing 2 surprised voices and quickly retreating footsteps.

_____

 

It had been about an hour since the magic people had exited Stan’s room. Dipper was now feverishly asking them questions in the living room while sketching them into the Journal. Hunter seemed to still be a bit wary of Dipper, and his notebook. Gus was taking the questions and interview in stride, answering everything quickly and clearly enjoying the attention. Willow was running throughout the room, finding the various plants in the shack and watering and helping them feverishly trying to help them get better due to the fact that Stan had forgotten to make Dipper water them for 3 days. Mabel was talking to Luz and Amity, mainly Luz because they had much more to talk about. Luz was wishing they could have met Mabel earlier, they were very similar and Luz was starting to come out of the shell she had made out of her “Failures” Amity simply watched Luz as she excitedly conversed with Mabel, correcting a detail or two as she told Mabel about the time she and Amity fought the living books in the library as the wailing star flew overhead.

It was quite peaceful, and it was only interrupted when Soos arrived. At first he thought the newcomers were some sort of evil nymphs from the forest who would mind control them (He had been playing too many video games.) Now though he had calmed dawn and everyone introduced themselves. Despite what Stan told them, they didn’t share anything with Soos. Dipper could sense that he would have to wait for Soos and Wendy to leave till he got more information. The Mystery Shack was more busy than maybe ever in recent memory, maybe because Gus and Hunter had discovered the Gift Shop and started rifling through the stock, looking at what they could fined, and getting more than a few incorrect assumptions about the Human Realm that Luz, and Dipper were quick to correct them on. Mabel however would feed their incorrect assumptions because she thought it was some sort of game.

The first day flew by and everyone had a blast, Luz by hanging out with the twins, Amity stuck with Luz the whole time and contented herself with seeing Luz so happy. Willow went into the forest and quickly got acquainted with the local plantlife and spent the whole day taking care of them, so that a section of the forest was now much bigger and healthier than the rest. Gus and Hunter spent a lot of the time, as previously mentioned, in the gift shop and by the time they all got back in their makeshift beds, even Hunter admitted that he had had a good time, and that most, not all, but most of his suspicions had been quashed. Then he let Flapjack out and apologized profusely for confining him all day.

The next day though, things began to go wrong. Hunter was in the forest, exploring with Gus and Willow, and he saw him.

_____

 

“Wait, look there!” Hunter suddenly shouted, pointing toward a dark patch of trees. Gus and Willow didn’t know what it was about but quickly turned toward Hunter’s warning and got in a battle ready position.

But there was nothing there. It happened 3 more times that day, and Hunter was scared. Whenever he pointed him out, no one else saw him, but Hunter knew was there somewhere. Somewhere in that forest was Belos. Hunter knew it, he wasn’t sure how, but he knew he was there.

_____

 

Belos was amused by Hunter’s efforts to warn the others of his proximity, but he wasn’t interested in Hunter right now. The first night back in the Human Realm, Belos had sneakily followed them to the Pines’s cabin, and he had seen something that was very interesting. He had seen Stan entering the basement through the vending machine, and he had followed him. What he saw Stan doing in the basement Belos knew would be his ticket back to the isles, and his ticket to finish his righteous mission. For now though, he would keep hiding inside of Hunter, and would Hi-jack the portal when he could, he wasn’t sure where it was, but he could smell Titans blood, and adding a little of that to Stan’s portal should change the destination to that of the Demon Realm.

Chapter Text

Yeah.... I'm sorry. I know this fic seemed to be going well, for a bit at least, but I really lost the will in one fell swoop. So this is good by to this fic, for now at least, might come back to it later. Don't get me wrong, I still really want to write The Owl House, but the way this was going was not going to work. I really didn't want to write it after a bit, and I might come back and finish this, in time, but I'm going to try to step away from only doing cross-over long fics. So I'm going to step away from this to write other things. I will replace my effort toward this, by putting effort toward a fic where Amity gets stuck in the human realm, instead of Luz going to the monster realm.