One Rainy Night

Beginning the trek

The rest of the morning was filled up with Ford gathering supplies that he thought were necessary, including a Ziplock baggie filled with extra pens (just in case), his journal, an assortment of emergency supplies for protective spells, curses, and other things for dealing with the creatures that lurked in the forest, and his nice down sleeping bag. Oh, and of course a large bag of jelly beans.

Stan prepared by taking his newly laundered things out of the dryer and stuffing them back into his duffel bag (ha ha, stuffing stuff in his duffel, that was almost a poem), before going out to the Stanley Mobile and rooting through the back seat and trunk to see if they had anything to offer up that might be useful. He decided to bring his brass knuckles, his lighter, both his switchblades and, after some hemming and hawing on the subject, the gun (acquired by methods of somewhat dubious legality, and which definitely was not registered to him) that he mostly just kept for real emergencies.

He had just stowed it in his duffel and zipped it up when Ford approached, the path crunching under his shoes a little.

"The caves I want to visit are about a day's hike away, and I don't know how long we're going to stay there, so you should probably bring at least a few day's worth...of clothes..." He faltered; that probably meant he'd remembered that a few day's worth of clothes literally constituted all the clothes Stan possessed. Dangit. "...Do you have anything to help you keep warm? It's starting to get cold at night."

Stan shrugged. "I got a blanket." He held it up as evidence; it was a long, handmade one that some kind soul had given him one night while he was in Utah. It wasn't the warmest thing in the world, since it had a lot of little holes in it because it was crocheted, but you know-waste not.

Ford did that little frown thing again. "I've got some extra blankets we can bring."

Stan bristled. "I don't need any handouts, I'll be fine."

The frown became deepened by exasperation. "It's called 'sharing,' Stanley." He quirked an eyebrow. "You remember what sharing is, right?"

Stan, after a moment of hesitation, tilted his head in mock confusion. "Sha-shar-um, sha-"

Ford rolled his eyes and turned back to the house. Stan couldn't help smiling a tiny bit.

****

In the end they brought three large, thick blankets in addition to everything else, and a couple of pillows. Ford didn't have a tent, but the weather was supposed to be relatively fine, and either way they'd be staying in a cave for a while, out of the elements.

So, after they made sure the house and the car were securely locked up, and that they had all the supplies they needed for the journey, they set off into the forest.

Stan had to push himself a little, since it had been a few months since he'd had to run for his life from an angry crowd and was therefore not as in shape as he would have liked, but he managed to keep up with Ford well enough as his brother strode happily through the trees. Which was more than a little surprising, considering which one of them had gotten a D- in gym on several consecutive occasions.

The walk was mostly quiet, save for Ford occasionally pointing out some interesting flora or fauna, or scribbling something in his journal. It wasn't as awkward as the night before had been, but it wasn't exactly as comfortable as Stan would have liked. However, it seemed wrong to disrupt the silence, so he kept quiet until they reached the crest of a hill.

"Whoa," he breathed, staring down at the crystal blue lake lying in front of them.

It was farther up than Gravity Falls Lake, and smaller-but it was also far more beautiful. The water was so still that the mountains reflected in it seemed to blend in the middle, and the shore was decorated with tiny green trees so it literally looked like something that should be on a calendar.

Ford turned and, to his surprise, smiled at him.

"It's lovely, isn't it?"

Stan nodded.

"Believe it or not, there's a family of sirens living in an underwater cave out in the middle there." He pointed towards the center of the lake. "I actually dated one of them for a while...but it didn't work out."

Stan's jaw dropped. He couldn't believe his ears.

"Wait, what?!"

"Yeah, I know, it's crazy! I never expected to find a full colony of them out here-"

"You dated someone?!"

Ford's excited glee over being able to once again discuss the weirdness of this place dropped, replaced by slight confused annoyance.

"...Yes, Stanley. She was a siren. They're this type of bird-human hybrid that-"

"No, no, sorry." Stan waved his hands, trying really hard to suppress the smirk that was trying to work its way onto his face over a chance to do some partly-sincere, good-natured ribbing. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea that you actually dated someone."

"...Shut up, Stanley."

Stan started guffawing anyway.

********

It's in Gravity Falls: Lost Legends if you don't believe me.