(Gravity Falls, Stanley Pines, Stanford Pines)

[Orionbob]

No sexytimes stuff happens between these two old dorks here so I don’t know if I consider it incest, but it might be close enough for some people to be squicked so I’m going to go ahead and warn for that. I hope you guys enjoy!

 

Stanley scratches at one sweat-damp sideburn, sets his fists on his hips, and takes a look at whatever it is his brother’s got them stopped in front of. “So what, it looks like a cave. What’s so special about it that you gotta be so secret about it all the way up here?”

 

“Well,” Ford starts, reaching into his pockets with that smug grin he gets when he knows, he just knows, that whatever freaky science-whatever he’s got up his sleeve is going to knock Stan’s socks off. Stan tries not to give the arrogant prick the satisfaction of knowing that he’s getting good at it, hinting just enough at his big fancy surprise on the hike up here that Stan can’t not be a little curious, and can’t help his pleased little smile, either.

 

Whatever this is about, Ford put the effort in to scout this place out, set up whatever it is he’s digging around in his pockets for, put enough showmanship in to make a big deal out of the whole thing - and not for anyone else, either. There’s no one else around. It’s been about a week since they set out from the last real port town and seen anyone’s face but their own, and there’s no one else on this little island, at least not that they’ve seen. It’s just them.

 

Ford’s not doing this for anyone else. He’s doing it for Stan.

 

Stan don’t know if he should feel the way he does about that, if it’s too selfish or too happy or too… Too whatever, all that stupid stuff. But he’s earned it, hasn’t he? All those years of working every night to save Ford from whatever it was he was doing over there, whatever it was Ford was seeing, to set things right and finally see his brother home and safe. And then those months after he finally did, finally saw all his hard work made good and thinking Ford still hated him, and was only waiting till the kids went back home at the end of summer to kick Stan out of his life. Again. For good, this time.

 

After doing all that, feeling all that and going through that pile of grade-a absolute crap, is it really that bad to see Ford trying to do something special just for him and feel gratified? To see Ford setting all this up just for Stan, no one else, and think, finally, after all this time, I’m finally getting what I deserve? He thinks that might be the kind of thought you’re not really supposed to admit to.

 

He’s wondered the same thing before, in the month or so since they set out on their Old Fart Adventure of a Lifetime together, and he hasn’t figured it out yet, just how selfish it is, what he’s feeling, how or even whether to tell Ford about it. He might figure it out at some point, but he don’t think that day’s gonna be today.

 

Ford finds what he’s looking for before Stan’s thoughts can go too far that way, anyway, so that’s alright.

 

“What do you got there? Test tubes and little nail file things and, uh.” Stan looks up at Ford’s face, feeling his own face going a little red. “Uh. Tissues?”

 

“Well.” Ford’s smug little grin is still there but the rest of him’s looking a little nervous now, watching Stan carefully and folding his one free hand behind his back. “If we go too far inside I’m going to need them. Unless you, um.” Ford pulls his hand out from behind his back to tap the vials, his fingernails doing a quick, jittery little dance against the glass. “Unless you’d rather go back to the ship. Or explore the jungle! There’s the strangest ring of trees a little east of here arranged almost exactly like-”

 

“Yeah!” Stan realizes he said it a little too quick and loud, and lowers his voice a little. “Yeah, cool your jets, poindexter. We might as well do this first. I mean, I lost about ten pounds in sweat hiking here, and all, I’d hate for that to go to waste.”

 

Before anyone - a certain anyone - can make any comments on how transparent Stan was there, how very not-casual, Stan leans closer and taps at the other stuff, the equipment Ford brought out. “And what are these for? They look sciencey.”

 

“They are, sort of. I’d like to collect samples of- Ah, you’ll see once we’re inside, but if we can collect enough of whatever it is in there I think I might be able to replicate the effects-” Ford seems to second guess what he’s saying there and stops, adjusts his glasses, and stares at Stan for a second. “If you’d like me to, I mean, obviously I wouldn’t do any of that unless you were comfortable.”

 

Stan sees the road they’re going down, the two of them each getting more jumpy and nervous at each other until they both probably just explode, or something, and not in the fun way. Yeah, not how he wants today to end, so he makes his body language ease out, laughs, and punches at his brother’s shoulder. “Come on, Ford, you’re lookin twitchier than you did back in prom when you started trying to actually talk to people. Don’t worry, it’s not like I got any punch to throw on your nice new suit.”

 

Ford looks down at that ‘nice new suit’ - or, whatever passes for one when you’re planning on spending the day trekking through the jungle - with a rueful little grin. “You’re right, of course you’re right. Well. Like I said, you’ll see once you go inside.”

 

Ford’s obviously got his balance back now because he takes a few steps in front of Stan to stand next to the cave’s entrance, grinning a broad salesman’s grin and sweeping his arm toward the inside, a look and gesture that, up to now, Stan’s only ever seen when he practices his own sales pitch in the mirror. Ford’s looking all smug again, too, all pleased and sure, and Stan grins to see it, can’t really help himself.

 

“You first,” Ford says. “I think you’ll want to take a look around.”

 

He’s right. Stan steps in, hooks the lantern Ford hands him onto his belt, and stops. There’s the little pool of light around him from the lantern, a little sun leaking in from outside, but mostly what he sees are dark cave walls, rock sparkling with something, a tall wide room dotted with shining blue. The blue is something growing out of the walls, it looks like, and when Stan reaches out to scrape his finger over the nearest one some kind of mist puffs up from it.

 

“Huh.” He plants his hands on his hips, looking around the place and watching out of the corner of his eye as Ford steps up to stand beside him.

 

“Do you remember the fairies we saw carrying those strange rocks a couple nights ago, Stanley? I think they got them from here. I was trying to figure out the significance but, um-” Ford sniffs and Stan’s head snaps around to look at him, seeing Ford with a sheepish grin and a finger rubbing at his nose.

 

“-But I discovered something else instead and, well.” Ford’s breath hitches once, then again, and his eyes go all half-closed for a second while he tries to wiggle his nose around. Once that passes he must catch something on Stan’s face because his grin looks a little more pleased.

 

“And, well, I thought you might like to do a little exploring with me.”  

 

Strike that, a lot more pleased.

 

“Hey, don’t get ahead of yourself, nerd.” Stan elbows Ford with a little grin, and he can’t really take his eyes off his brother’s face right now but he does manage to sound casual so, hey, point to him. “I ain’t even been here five minutes yet, I still got time to change my mind.”

 

“In that case I’ll just have to keep you interested, won’t I?” Ford’s tone is this exaggerated coy thing and when he turns away to swagger toward a nearby wall he casts this look over his shoulder that makes Stan burst into loud, surprised laughing.

 

“Yeah, like that’ll be hard,” he says, jogging a little to catch up and continuing quick before Ford can realize Stan said something that sounds dangerously, blatantly, like an actual compliment, and not like the usual teasing jab he’d shoot right back at that kind of comment at all. “You ain’t told me what you want me to do with all this science stuff yet.”

 

“Oh, right! Nothing too complex, ju-” Ford’s breath hitches and he holds a finger under his nose for a couple seconds with a couple more quiet gasps. “Oh, this is happening mu- much more quickly than last time, I’ll have, have to, to- ah- to explain quickly, or- or I, ah, ahhh- ah-hngcht-choo! Oh, there they go. First, Stanley, take thi- this, thi-iiiiiihhh gnxxt-ah! Take one of these, and- a-and- a- ahhhht-gnxct-ah! Oh, for heaven’s sake, I- I, ah, ah, aaaahhhhh-gncht-choo! aht-hiiigggt!”

 

“I’ll have to show you!” Ford says it quickly, voice all breathy, head tilted back, eyelids fluttering, and Ford, who was always the better one out of the two of them, the smarter one, perfect Ford, can barely keep his eyes open right now, he’s looking like he’s thinking about putting a hand on the wall so he doesn’t fall right over and there’s not a thing he can do about it.

 

“You always try to hold ‘em back like that?” Stan can’t take his eyes off Ford, and he might have taken a step closer to him without really meaning to, but he’s not going to give Ford the satisfaction of getting him speechless already so he makes conversation like an adult. And despite the way all the blood in his brain is working on, uh, let’s call it ‘moving to a vacation home in warmer climates’, Stanley is curious. He really don’t know. Until recently he hadn’t seen Ford, really seen him for more than that one awful moment, in, wow, about forty years. The two of them, they’ve got a lot to catch up on.

 

Ford moans a little, the finger that’s still under his nose starting to rub at it, and hot damn Stan don’t know if that’s an act but it pulls him back to the here and now real quick. They’ve got a lot to catch up on, but uh, maybe not just at this moment.

 

“Don- ehhhiiiigchht! Don’t worry Stanley, I just have to- to hiiiiicgxxt! ehgchht! to show you this, I really do wa- do want- I want- ah-chghxxt-ooo! Oh, I have to hurry or I won’t be able to explai- ehghiiicht! ehgxt! ahgchht! to explain, but Stanley, I really do want these samples so we can do this agai- aga- agggchghhht! Ah,” he says, sniffing hard and taking a quick, deep breath, “Again, if I can only, onl- hiiiiiigxxxt! Oh, this is hopeless, Stanley, watch my hands so you know how to do this, I certainly won’t be, be- ah, aht! Oh, that one got away, oh, I won’t be able to do this more than once, so you’d better pay attention.”

 

He bends a little, holds one of those metal tools he brought in one hand, and he has to take his finger out from under his nose so that other hand can hold a vial nearby and once he does, his breath does more than hitch. He gasps and gasps again, and again, his head jerking back with each one, mouth wide, but he still moves his hand just so and a piece of whatever it is growing all over this place falls into the vial with a little plink. Stan is gonna’ be honest, he don’t know if he’s got the first clue what specific little trick to doing that Ford wanted to show him because, just like when Stan just walked into this cave and poked one of these trying to figure out what it was he was looking at, a cloud of something floats up and out right in the middle of one of Ford’s big, helpless gasps. His nostrils flare out and his gasps start sounding more like moans than anything else, and then- Well, then the show really gets on the road.

 

“Aaaaahhhhhh! Ahhhhhh ohhhhhhchoooo ahCHOOO hiiiiiiCHOW ahchiiiiOOOOO-” Ford tries to straighten up, struggling to keep his eyes open, head jerking back with a couple high, gasping breaths, before- “ahCHOOO, hiiiSHOOO hah-shaHOOOO--!” His hand flails out, grabs a hand of Stan’s shirt, and uses it to pull himself up straight, and he might be wobbling a little but there’s no way to really tell because he bends forward right after with another one of those loud, deep noises that screws his whole face up. He keeps hanging on to Stan, though, and Stan puts an arm around his shoulders, trying to keep him from faceplanting into the rock wall in front of them.

 

“Jeez, are you, uh, I mean, w-we could leave if you want, uh-” Stan waves back the way they came and Ford looks up at him with this watery squint that looks like the best he can manage right now, bringing his other hand up to grab it onto Stan’s shirt, too, and holding himself up and close with it. Stan’s got no idea what his face looks like right now but apparently Ford sees something he likes there because he laughs a little, in the couple seconds he’s got before he gasps again and his eyes close and his face goes all desperate, and now when he gets thrown forward by the force of his own sneezing it’s Stan his whole body moves into because Ford can’t stand on his own right now, couldn’t even if he tried. He needs Stan for that.

 

“ehhhh Wha- hiiiiSHAOW what- hiiii, wha-, hiiishooohiiiichooohiiiiCHOOOO what’s wrong Sta- ha- haaiiiiiiSHOOO-ah! Stanley, gonna- ihshoohiishiiiihshiiiheeeAHSHOOO gonna’ wimp out on me now?”

 

Ford may rush the words as fast as he can to get em out but Stan can still hear the grin in them, and he thinks, that smug little son of a gun, even though Ford ain’t little no more, he’s never been as wide as Stan but he feels tough, pressed all gasping and unsteady on his own feet and rocking into Stan with each one of those loud, deep sneezes, he feels tough and strong and even all helpless like that he’s still a smug little snot. Stan leans back, not noticing the huge, pleased grin taking over his face as he looks down at Ford, but he sure does notice the tone in his voice, kind of self satisfied, kind of wicked, when he talks back.

 

“Wimp out, huh? I’ll show you wimping out,” Stan says, and scrapes one hand against blue whatever-the-fuck on that wall, those glowing rocks or whatever they are, and leans back just far enough to rub the dust from it off of his hand and straight onto Ford’s face.

 

“Oh, oh you li- little-” Ford laughs and the laugh turns into a moan and then into hitching breaths, strong and deep, one desperate, heaving breath for each sneeze and even when the sneezes start to come too quick for that Ford keeps making those noises between a lot of them, high and desperate, whining, almost.

 

“Ahhhhhh hashaHOOOO ahhhhhhh! CHOOOOO ah-! Ah, aaahhhhhh aaaaahhhhhhashooo, ah, haaiiiiiishooo, ah, ah! haiSHAHAWWWWWahHIIIIIISHAOWWhiiiiiiiiHEIHSHAHAHOOOOO oh! Oh iiiihssshhh-! iiiiishhhhii!iiiishhhhii!iiiishhhhii!iiiiiissshiiihahCHOOOAHTSHOOOO ahthiiiishooo, aaaaaah!” Then Ford takes a huge, high gasp and apparently his knees stop working because he’d fall right on his ass if Stan didn’t wrap his arms around Ford’s back real quick and lean backward, giving Ford a couple seconds to get back on his feet again.

 

“Okay, that’s it, I’m calling that the showstopper, time to wrap this up.” Stan starts shuffling them toward the cave entrance before he even stops talking and Ford shuffles along with him, looking like it’s taking all the power from that big old brain just to try and get out whatever it is he’s trying to say to Stan now.

 

“I’m just-hiiishooo I’m only chiiignxtahtgnxtCHOOOCHOOOahtchooo! oh, I’m only- hiishiii, hiishiiOOOO ahshooo! only dizzy, Stan- ihh, iihhshooo! Oh, Stanley, ihhSHAAAA! ha, oh, it’s ha, haaaahhh, hahshiiii-ah! It’s noth- ihshahhh! It, it’s nothing! iiiishiiiHEEEEAOWWWW! ah, ah, aiiishhhaiiishhhahooo!”

 

While he’s bent over from that, because even the sneezes that don’t sound like they’re trying to shatter someone’s eardrums are violent ones, they just sound tired, too, like Ford’s body’s still trying to get something loud out of him but the equipment’s starting to crap out on him - while Ford’s doing that Stan’s still shuffling him outside, and he keeps his arm wrapped around Ford while he pretty much falls backward against the wall outside the cave and slides down it, because hell, after that Stan’s not all that sure how far he can walk, either.

 

“Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s nothing, you’re supernerd,  you can take it.” Stanley waves his free hand, looking over with something that no one can say is worry because, hey, Ford’s too busy sneezing into those cupped up hands of his to be looking at much of anything, let alone at Stan’s old face.

 

“But what if I can’t, huh?” Stanley laughs, the sound breathy and distracted, and pulls Ford a little closer, watching Ford give one of those hitching gasps and pull his hands off his face, wiggling his nose around.

 

“Wha- Ah, ah, ah, aaahhhh-! What- hiishiii! hiiiiiihhshiii!” Ford sniffs, then decides to give actual words another try. “What, don’t tell me you’re getting to- to- ihhshaaa! Oh, excuse me.”  He sniffs again, grinning over at Stanley. “Don’t tell me you’re getting too old for that sort of thing.”

 

“I don’t know!” Stan grins back, fishing around in their stuff, pulling out one of those tissues, and holding it out. Instead of taking it Ford just kind of tilts his head back, leaning toward Stan’s hand and raising his eyebrows at him.

 

“Maybe I- uh,” Stan finishes, his mouth catching up with his eyes, and he shuts up just long enough to move the tissue slowly around one of Ford’s nostrils, than the other. Ford’s breath starts hitching again while he does it and he sneezes twice, loud and wet, into the tissue while Stan holds it there kind of wondering if it’s physically possible for his face to get any redder than he’s sure it’s already got.

 

“hih, hiiii, hih hih hiiiii- hehSHAOWAH! hehROHSHHHAH! Ooh.” Then Ford decides to take the tissue, looking at it. “Hm. This go-round didn’t clear my sinuses as much as I expected. I’ll have to work on that.”

 

“Sheesh, Ford, it’s like you’re the one with the-” Stan waves his free hand around, trying to figure out how to say what it is that gets his motor running without actually saying it. “You know, the whole weird, uh, thing.”

 

“Don’t be silly, Stanley,” Ford says distractedly, taking the bag of their things and looking through it. “I’ve done stranger things than this. Sometimes as many as six stranger things before breakfast. Besides, isn’t that why we’re out here, traveling the world? To discover the weird and the wonderful?”

 

Ford stops digging through the bag to grin at Stan, wide and excited like he gets whenever he starts talking about all that stuff, and Stan decides Ford probably didn’t mean that the way it sounded, that Stan might be one of those wonderful things, but Stan’s face don’t get that message because it decides to heat up again, anyway.

 

“Yeah, well,” Stan says, gruff and looking away because that is absolutely going to keep Ford from noticing what’s going on with Stan’s face right now. “I just didn’t expect you to talk about it like some kinda expert, is all.”

 

“Oh, of course! I’ve been doing research!”

 

“Oh, god.”

 

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, Stanley, it’s really very fascinating! For instance, did you know that-”

 

Ford keeps going for a second, but stops when he realizes the words aren’t going to make it past Stan’s hand, which has decided to do the heroic thing and cover Ford’s mouth up before he can get any further. Stan feels Ford laugh against his palm and leans his head back look up at the sky while he waits for his own smile to die down a little.

 

“I think I’m full up on research for the day. And I think you’ve had all the research you can handle, so how about we just sit here for a while, huh?”

 

Ford sits there long enough for Stan to get a false sense of security and let his hand drop, and then finds the bag of their stuff that Ford was looking at a minute ago being shoved at him.

 

“I notice you didn’t bother to pick up my sample,” Ford says, and yeah, now Stan thinks about it, that vial’s probably still lying on the floor of that cave somewhere. He thinks about the two of them going in to get it, and laughs.

 

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll get you your samples. Then you can do all the research you want. Just… In a minute.” When he feels steady enough to stand up again. After Ford and him have sat there, quiet, looking up at the trees around them. Ford sniffs occasionally, rubs at his nose, and neither of them really feel the need to talk for a while.

 

You know what, as surprises and reasons to be smug go? Stan’s giving Ford this one.

Edited May 31, 2016 by Orionbob
paragraph spacing was weird

[MonaLisaSmile]

I love this so much! I've never really seen Gravity Falls, but I love the scenario of one person willingly inducing for another. Great job!  

[Orionbob]

Thank you, that's great to hear! The idea of one person knowingly putting themselves in a situation where they'll be out of control like that, as an act of affection and trust for another person, is pretty much The thing that gets me so if I do happen to start ficcing more often I'm afraid there won't be much variety when it comes to that theme. Well, at least I know what I like. And I'm glad there are people who specifically like that part of it too!