The Triangle's Deception...

Chapter 1: A Dead End

Note: This fanfiction begins when Stanford Pines and Fiddleford McGucket are research partners, studying Gravity Falls together. Enjoy!

-Hexalotl AKA Hex.

A candle flickers on the old wooden table.

The sound of a pen scratching on paper and some random mumbling from Ford filled the colossal silence. The study seemed unusually quiet, lacking the usual hum of Fiddleford's banjo. Ford, surprisingly so, found it hard to work without his assistant's background noise. He took a sip of his already cold coffee and winced.

Ford grumbled, setting his pen down beside himself. He couldn't focus. His mind was racing with paranoid thoughts.

"He wasn't supposed to be gone for so long. "Independent fieldwork" didn't take four days, now did it? What if something happened to him? I can't lose a research assistant, not now! Maybe he got ambushed by some creature? Maybe he-"

He abruptly cuts off his own thoughts.

"No. Fiddleford is a brave and clever man. He can handle himself; he isn't helpless. He'll be fine. He knows what to do if anything. I can trust him." he says to himself in reassurance.

His gaze flickers over to the disorganized bulletin board on the other side of the dimly lit study. Countless pieces of red string and push pins hang from it, along with notes, paperwork, newspaper articles, pictures, sketches, charts...

Fiddleford had helped Stanford in creating the board, in the beginning of their journey together in Gravity Falls. Since then, the two ambitious researchers kept adding on new information, whenever they could find it.

Although, the same couldn't be said for the past two weeks. Two weeks without a single new discovery, in a place teeming with weirdness.

It was at a dead end.

"Why did we get stuck at this point...why here, why now? We're so close to cracking open something big...I can feel it," Stanford mutters under his breath. He strides over to the board, inspecting it closely. "But...what are we missing?"

Something...a link to something? A theory we hadn't considered yet? Maybe a creature of sorts.

He instinctively adjusts his glasses, pushing them further up on the bridge of his nose. A heavy sigh escapes him.

He looks over to his assistant's desk, noticing something on top of all the messy paperwork, scattered all over Fiddleford's workspace. That wasn't there before F left. It was a yellow sticky note, with Fiddleford's unmistakable handwriting, in black pen.

"Stanford, if you think you're missing some research, feel free to look through the paperwork! From F, your friend. P.S: Eat, take care of yourself, and most importantly; SLEEP, while I'm gone! Please."

A small chuckle found its way out of Ford. He was always so...nice to him. Always making sure he slept, ate, and actually stayed alive. F always got him random gifts, that he said reminded him of Stanford and did lots of research alongside him. Finishing up work for him when he happened to fall asleep...

A true friend.

But Fiddleford's note was right.

If he was going to discover anything, he wasn't going to do it without any sleep. Besides, if he didn't, he would get another fifteen-minute lecture from McGucket.

Still, he couldn't help but wonder...

Was his assistant's little "field trip" successful? What new, fascinating thing did Fiddleford find, if anything at all? Was he actually okay and alive?

Stanford shuddered at that last thought, grimacing. "Please be alright..." he whispers, reading over McGucket's note again.

He'd just have to wait and see.