"Paz? Paz, can you hear me?" He spoke into the mic as the video call connection tried to make itself clear between him in California and his friend in Oregon.

"I can hear you fine. Can you see me?"

"Yeah...nice dress. I'm assuming your parents are having a Christmas party?"

Pacifica laughed and shyly covered herself with her cardigan. Her cheeks blushed slightly, but not enough for Dipper to notice.

"Yeah. Well it was for Christmas Eve and I just fell asleep in it. Did you get my present?"

Dipper held a box wrapped in the hard to open plastic-y paper. Pacifica had decorated it with a gold bow, matching the color scheme of the paper and a 'to/from' sticker plastered right beside it. It wasn't an overly large box, but it wasn't a small stocking stuffer either. If he had to guess, it probably contained clothes or, knowing her expensive taste, a new laptop.

"Did you get mine?"

Pacifica held up her own box in frame. It was almost equal in size of his, but slightly smaller. It was also wrapped less carelessly, with one side taped lopsided and the other mostly tape than paper.

"You should've left Mabel to do the wrapping." She laughed.

Both of them held their presents on their lap, waiting to see who's open first.

"You go first." Dipper said, watching her eager smile look down on the package she almost fought to open.

The paper was tossed behind her and revealed a box.

"Ooh, new clothes?" She guessed. Dipper shrugged, pretending not to know.

She opened the box and her smile slowly faded. She picked up her present, unfolding it, and held it up to her body.

"Wow...this is a really nice...blanket?" She guessed.

"No, it's a sweater!" He said happily.

Truth be told, it was a horrible mess of knitted yarn with uneven sleeves, reaching longer than the end of the length of the sweater itself. There was a mess of a design in the center than looked like a deformed animal. Maybe a puppy. Maybe a bird. And the neck hole and opening of the sweater were nearly identical, making it confusing as to which way it was suppose to be put on.

"I made it myself." Dipper said, getting Pacifica's attention again from the atrocious craft. He said it was such pride, she almost felt bad for calling it a blanket at first. "Mabel showed me how to knit. I wanted to make you something and I know you have that sweater Mabel made with the llama on it so I wanted to give you my version."

Pacifica looked at it again and put it back in the box. "Oh."

Dipper's smile turned into a worried frown. "You hate it." He stated.

Pacifica looked up at her screen and saw his anxiety begin and the obvious embarrassment he was feeling.

"No, no!" She reassured. She took the present back out of the back and stood up. She struggled to get it onto her body properly, but after failing once, taking it off, and repeating hopefully the right way, she got it on and looked...awkward. "It looks fantastic on me!" She stated, posing for Dipper.

All he could do was laugh at how ridiculous it looked. "Oh my god, it looks so bad!"

He could hardly control his laughter seeing how unflattering his work was on her body. It came off the shoulder, fit her too loosely to even give her a shape, the sleeves were too long and hung off her hands, and the "llama" was still nothing identifiable. Pacifica, embarrassed for trying to make him feel better, quickly removed the sweater and sloppily put it in the box.

"Wow, I am so sorry!" Dipper said, wiping away a single tear that escaped.

"You sound really authentic, saying that."

He cleared his throat and looked at her. "I'm sorry. Really. I didn't think it'd be that bad. That was probably the worst gift ever."

Pacifica chuckled. "Honestly? It could've been a lot worse. At least it was made by you and you didn't just buy it for cheap online. This one has your...artistic abilities."

"Or lack of."

Both kids smiled humbly at the last comment.

Dipper looked down on his lap. "Okay, my turn." He quickly ripped away the tough paper, revealing a box like the one he packed for her. He opened it to find a basic suit. "A suit?"

Pacifica smiled and straightened herself up. "Uh huh! I figured you could use one. Or maybe a new one. I didn't know if you had one already, but that one's designer and should fit you. If it doesn't, you can get it tailored."

"Wow...this is so...expensive. And unnecessary." He joked.

Pacifica's jaw dropped with dramatize offense. "So was this sweater. I still put it on though!"

"Wait...really?"

"Pay your dues, Pines!"

Dipper sighed and walked out of frame. She waited, listening to the sound of clothes being tossed on the floor, tissue paper crumpling as he retrieved his suit, and the zipper of the fly as he finished up.

"Okay," he said, walking back into frame.

In all honestly, it didn't look too bad. A little looser than she had originally thought, but nothing another year of growing couldn't fix. Her minded flashed back to summer when he presented himself in a suit that was too tight at the time. A year and a half later, he still looked unimpressed and dissatisfied with the attire.

"Oh cheer up, Pines. It looks good!"

"You're saying that because you're the one who bought it in the first place." He said, sitting back down at his desk.

"That's because I have undeniably good taste in clothes."

Dipper looked at himself in the tiny self image of the video stream. He had to admit, it wasn't the worst look-he just felt completely out of character.

"Where's the bow?" Pacifica asked.

He looked down at his empty collar and back at the box where a strip of black fabric lay.

"Oh...um...I didn't put it on."

"You can't tie it yourself, can you?"

Dipper shyly looked away from the camera causing Pacifica to laugh.

"Are you ever going to learn?"