Same ol', same ol' from me. Read, hopefully enjoy, and review if you see fit! - SGA

Dipper Pines had hit many a low moment over the years. He allowed a demon from beyond space and time to trick him into giving up his body. He had seen his family nearly lose everything at the hands of a maniacal child psychic. He had almost been devoured by a shambling pack of the living dead that he had accidentally called up. And that was all before he had even turned thirteen.

Yet even with such those particular episodes to bear in mind, at that very moment the young man honestly felt like he had never despaired harder in his whole entire life. Today had simply been a total disaster. The only reason it hadn't become even more of a fiasco was thanks to an ever-helpful twin who lived a mere short ten minutes away and had been more than happy to drive over and perform ambulance duty.

As a nurse escorted him back out into the ER waiting room, Dipper couldn't see his sister anywhere waiting among the crowd. The despondent young man guessed she had either slipped off either to the bathroom or to change some diapers. That was fine. Frankly he was in no rush whatsoever to get back to the mess waiting for him back at his apartment. There didn't seem to be any way he could possibly salvage today's plans in time.

As he waited, his gaze wandered down to the fresh bandages covering his arms. Beneath the layers of gauze lay an incredibly extensive criss-cross of cuts and scratches. The amount of tiny wounds he had sustained was almost a pathetic marvel. How could such little birds hold such incredible fury?

His thoughts were interrupted when a pair of hands snaked out from behind a corner, grabbed him by the shirt and yanked hard. Suddenly he found himself reunited with his beaming sister and her baby twins.

"Where'd you go?" He cocked an eyebrow at her. Mabel completely ignored the question. Instead she just flashed an eager grin as she hopped from foot to foot in an involuntary dance of excitement.

"Call Wendy!" She demanded.

"What?" Dipper instantly blanched. Had she lost her mind? How could she not realize that his wife was literally the last person he wanted to talk to at the moment?

"Call her!" She didn't back down one inch. "C'mon, do it! Call her now!"

"Wait-"

"Do it! Do it! Do it!" She punctuated each and every word with an enthusiastic poke to his side. "Call her, quick!"

"Mabel, stop! Stoppit!" He stepped back out of range. "What is with you?"

Mabel as usual wasn't going to let a little thing like obvious reluctance get the best of her. After sneaking a glance back around the corner, she lunged forward. The twenty-five-year-olds grappled for a moment, but soon she successfully snatched his phone out of his pocket.

"Hey! What are you-" Her brother made a futile grab.

"Cover me, babies!" The crafty woman leapt behind the double stroller, providing herself with the perfect improvised shield. With his baby niece and nephew curiously looking on, Dipper's heart sank as he watched her hit speed-dial.

"Mabel wait-" He tried grasping one last time.

The chorus of a classic rock song chimed out nearby. It had happened with such precise timing that Dipper knew instantly that it couldn't be mere coincidence. He looked around the corner and spotted a familiar woman up at the front counter, clad in her unmistakable Parks Department uniform. After scratching out a signature on a form, she reached for her phone and winced.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me." She groaned. "Not now."

"Wendy?" By the time Dipper realized his lips were flapping, he had already called her name.. His heart immediately skipped a beat in despair. Wendy however seemed just as shocked, if not more so. She did such a violent double take that she managed to smack herself in the face with her own long ponytail.

"D-Dipper!"

As they instinctively raced to one another, Dipper couldn't help but notice that his wife moved with a slight limp. Her eyes in turn were immediately drawn to the obvious bandages on his arms.

"Oh my God, are you okay?" He yelped.

"Dude, what happened?" She sputtered. Both immediately went dead silent as they struggled to wrap their heads around the situation.

"Wait...Wendy, did you…." As Dipper stammered, he half-heartedly tried pulling down his shirt sleeves before thinking better of it. Wendy in turn decided that he wasn't going to make any effort to hide his injury, then she might as well open up. She pulled up one of the legs of her heavy work jeans and revealed a fresh bandage. There was another pregnant pause as they gawked incredulously at one another.

"I'll leave you two alone for now…" Mabel popped out of nowhere, only to slink off with a fat smile stretched across her face. Stroller wheels squeaked as she made her exit. "C'mon babies, let's go get a snack!"

The couple carried on their tremendously awkward silence for a few seconds more. Thankfully, neither one seemed to be in any life-threatening danger as far as their other half could tell. That is, unless one wanted to discount the fact that they both wanted to die of embarrassment.

"Uh….wow." Dipper scratched at an anxious prickling at the back of his neck. "So…..you want to go first, or….?"

"Yeah, I guess." Wendy wearily settled herself in the nearest molded plastic hair, and he plopped down beside her. "My crew was taking care of an old dead tree that had gone partway down during the night near some wires. I kind of wasn't being careful where I was cutting, and…."

She showed off the tear in her jeans. The clean slice looked like she had gotten caught in a knife fight. "A flying splinter totally nailed me."

"What?" Dipper performed a full-body jolt.

"It's okay! It's okay." His tough-as-nails wife gestured for him to calm down. "Dude, relax. It only need a couple stitches."

"Stitches?" His voice automatically cracked with dismay, triggering an unstoppable chuckle out of her. He could handle demons and monsters with experienced ease, yet a loved one getting a cut was still somehow the end of the world.

"Chill, Ill be fine. I've had a lot worse. Don't freak out."

"It's kind of hard not to. Seriously, stitches!" He exclaimed. "Wendy, why didn't you call?"

"I…." She now grew a little sheepish. don't really know. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I didn't want to scare you or anything especially because I thought you'd already be stressing pretty hard about...you know…"

"Please don't tell me that you drove yourself here." He groaned.

"Fine, I won't then." She took this out with an eager smile. Wendy pointed to his dressings. "So how about you?"

"Uh….." Dipper was already sweating like fury in anxious anticipation. He swallowed heavily, took a few more moments to brace himself, then made his blunt confession. "Birds."

"...Birds?" His wife repeated curiously.

"Birds. Um….doves, actually." The embarrassed young man specified. "Lots of doves. Like, a lot."

"Wait…waaait…." She quickly caught on. "Were you….no, you didn't...dude, you weren't trying to-"

"Yeah it's exactly what you think." He meekly deadpanned. By now his cheeks had turned the color of fresh beets. "I was trying to make tonight extra-special, and….preparations didn't go as I planned-"

He couldn't get any further when she burst out laughing. Soon Wendy was shaking so hard from mirth that she needed to rest her head on his shoulder. She simply couldn't help herself. Dipper allowed himself to crack a smile, and soon, he was chuckling alongside her as the double-serving of insanity that had been served that day finally got to them.

"Seriously, what is wrong with us?" She wondered loudly.

"I'll get back to you when I figure that one out. Might take a while though." Her husband cracked back. .

"Well I know this much. This afternoon totally sucked." Wendy remarked with a tired grin.

"Yup." He readily agreed.

"So….what do you want to do now?" She raised the inevitable question. Dipper anxiously drummed his fingers.

"How about you pick? All my ideas so far today...kinda haven't really worked out." He understated.

"All on me, huh? Okay, then I want to…." She tapped her chin as she mulled it over. "Order take out, watch a bad movie at home, and then crash."

"Seriously?" Dipper thought she was joking at first. After all, this was their first year. Tonight was supposed to be a night to remember, wasn't it?

"As long as you're there, I'll be good. And yes, after all this, I'm dead serious." She knew it would take more than that to convince him. Wendy thoughtfully made sure to clear his doggedly lingering doubts with a kiss on his cheek. She could feel him immediately relax on contact.

"Sounds good to me." Dipper was rushed with a flood of relief. The load that had been lifted off his shoulders was beyond compare. "Pizza?"

"How about Chinese?"

"Thai would probably be little more romantic." He joked. She smiled as she lay her head back on his shoulder.

"Deal."

Not too far away, Mabel was simultaneously singing nursery rhymes to her little twins, chowing down on a candy bar from the vending machine, and making literally no effort to hide the fact that she had been watching her brother and sister-in-law the entire time.

"This was fate!" The hopeless romantic gushed ecstatically around a mouthful of milk chocolate and nougat. "Fate! You're so meant for one another! I can't even stand it!"

"...Are they all coming over for dinner too?" Dipper checked.

Wendy met the wandering gaze of her wide-eyed niece and instinctively made a silly face for the tot, making Gladys squeak with laughter. One of the many things that had made her such a good fit to their little clan for the past twelve months was that Wendy honestly preferred being surrounded by peculiar family. As a former Corduroy, it was all that she knew.

"I just assumed they were." She smiled at the little ones.

"Me too." Dipper grinned adoringly at her. As a heavy yawn overtook him, he cautiously slid his hand closer to hers. Before the neurotic young man could seriously fret over whether this was the right moment or not, she interlaced her fingers tightly with his as she burst out chuckling.

"Happy Anniversary, doofus." She murmured affectionately. He was more than happy to share a loving squeeze with her.

"Happy Anniversary, Wendy."