Chapter Text
Danny's relationship with his extended family was… complicated, to put it lightly. Heck, his relationship with his immediate family was complicated, which probably didn't help matters, honestly.
On his mother's side he had two aunts, Aunt Alicia and Aunt Elizabeth. Aunt Alicia was a weirdo who lived in the middle of nowhere, although a different sort of weirdo than her sister Maddie, so they didn't see her much. His Aunt Elizabeth and her family, the Westons, actually lived in Amity Park. Unfortunately for Danny, they seemed to be regular people, and thus avoided the Fentons when possible.
On his Father's side… Well, he knew his dad had several siblings, and those siblings all had families, but he saw them so rarely and heard of them so seldom that he wasn't even sure how many Aunts and Uncles he had, let alone cousins. A large part of him didn't even really care, either they'd also be weirdos, or they'd be normal and want nothing to do with them for being weirdos. Either way, Danny wouldn't like it.
All that to say, when his parents told him that his Aunt Wanda and her family were visiting for a couple weeks, Danny's first thought was ‘who?’ With a side of resigned disdain.
Apparently, his Aunt Wanda was one of his dad's younger sisters. She'd married a computer programmer fifteen years ago and they hadn't really had contact since. If only because his dad was terrible at remembering to do things like that.
The reason for their sudden visit was the fact that his parents had finally finished their crowning accomplishment: their ‘Ghost Portal’, a supposed window into the ‘ghost dimension’.
It was stupid and it had always been stupid, and he couldn't believe that his parents had invited so much of their extended family to come witness them turn it on. Honestly it was even more unbelievable that Aunt Wanda had actually decided to come. She and her family had been the only ones to accept, afterall. Everyone else had been reasonable.
So for the next two weeks, not only would Danny have to deal with his parents being insufferable about the failure of their project (no way was this thing going to work) but he also had to babysit his Aunt Wanda’s kids, two cousins he'd never heard of before. Joy.
They were supposed to arrive any moment now, and Danny wasn't happy about it. He'd much rather be hanging out with Sam and Tucker, but he'd texted them to steer clear of the Fenton residence until the whole thing was over. He could already imagine his mother scolding him for hanging out with friends instead of his cousins, and he didn't really want his friends to meet these strangers he was related to.
He groaned, pulling a hand over his face, clicking his phone off and sliding it into his pocket. Jazz shot him a look from her place on the other side of the room. She'd been pacing for the past hour, just as Danny had been texting his friends. Both of them anxiously awaiting the arrival of their guests, though with different expectations and goals in mind.
Jazz was just happy to get to know any of their extended family, at least, any of them that didn't already have such a negative opinion of them (darn it Westons…) so she'd put herself together all nice, and he'd heard her practicing her self introduction late at night. He didn't understand what she was doing, there wasn't really a way this could go well.
The doorbell rang, and both Jazz and Danny stiffened. She hurriedly patted down her outfit, smoothing invisible wrinkles. He just groaned again, and slid down in his seat. The beginning of the end of his peace.
“They're here!” His dad's booming voice echoed through the house as the mountain of a man ran into the room with unlikely speed, his wife close behind. In a testament to how serious they were about this reunion, both of them had actually elected to put on real clothes- no doubt at Jazz’s behest. It didn’t really matter, since he was sure they’d mandate hazmat when everyone watched the portal get turned on the next day.
A moment later, the door was thrown open, and Danny got his first look at the people he'd be sharing his house with for the next two weeks.
There were two adults, presumably his Aunt Wanda and his Uncle Alex. His Aunt was a thin woman with flyaway black hair, and a pair of thick glasses on her nose. His Uncle was a scrawny, slightly unhealthy looking man with short brown hair, and a pallid face. He looked tired, and like he wasn’t sure he wanted to be there.
Behind the two of them were a pair of kids, a boy and a girl, several years younger than Danny. They looked very similar to each other, with fluffy brown hair and pale skin. The boy had a brown ball cap pulled low over his eyes, and the girl had a bright pink sweater that nearly seemed to drown her.
None of this filled Danny with confidence.
“Jack!” His Aunt Wanda said, throwing her arms wide and accepting his dad's crushing bear hug. “It's been forever!” she managed, even through his crushing grip.
“Ahhh too long!” His dad said, releasing her. Danny rolled his eyes, and resisted the urge to pull his phone out again. Only the fear of his mother's ire stopped him.
“It really has been,” His mom said, giving Aunt Wanda a quick hug.
“I'm Alex Pines, it's nice to meet you all,” Danny's Uncle said, stepping forward to shake his parents hands. The kids shuffled in after him. The boy was looking around a little hesitantly, as if he was scared of being caught interested. His sister had no such qualms, and was openly staring around with sparkling eyes.
“Hi, I'm Jazz Fenton, your niece,” Jazz said, stepping forward to shake hands, a practiced smile on her face. “We're so happy to have you here!”
“And that's Danny, over there,” His Mom said, pointing over at the couch. Danny raised a hand in an apathetic wave.
“This is Mason and Mabel, our twins,” Aunt Wanda introduced the kids, pointing to them in turn. “Go on, say hi!”
“Hello!” Mabel enthusiastically waved at each of them in sequence, her fire not dimming even for a second when she got to Danny's apathetic form.
“I go by Dipper, actually,” Mason- Dipper mumbled, shoving his hands in his pockets. A bit of an odd nickname, but Danny wasn’t going to judge.
“Wonderful! Well, Dipper, Mabel- Danny will show you where you'll be staying,” His mom said, indicating him again. He very specifically didn't roll his eyes. He'd known this would be his job, and he'd keep up at least a facade of politeness. “Wanda, Alex, we have some things to discuss about the schedule.”
With that, his parents led his Aunt and Uncle away into the kitchen, leaving their children alone.
“Alright,” Danny sighed, getting to his feet. The faster he got them settled, the faster he could go call Sam and Tucker. “This way.”
“So,” Mabel started conversation before they'd even left the main room. “We're here to see some kinda invention thingie, right? Are your parents geniuses? It might be kinda cool to be related to geniuses!”
“They might be,” Danny sighed, leading them up the stairs. “Or they might be idiots. You'll get to decide for yourself, tomorrow.”
“They're not idiots, Danny,” Jazz said, following them up into the hallway. “They're just… not using their skills in the right ways.”
“If they're not using them the right way, how are they using them?” Dipper asked, peeking out from under his hat. His voice was threaded with trepidation… and cautious curiosity. “We weren't really told much before we got here.”
Danny bit his lip. If they didn't know, he didn't want to tell them. They'd either love the answer, or hate it, and neither option was good for him.
“I'm sure they'll tell you if you ask,” he settled on.
Before any more questions could be asked, he pushed open the door to his room. Unfortunately, since the guest room was going to their parents, Dipper and Mabel would be staying in Danny's room. He'd be moving in with Jazz for the next two weeks.
“Here we are,” He gestured widely to the room. He hoped they appreciated how much effort he'd put in to making it available for them, it had been a pain to get all of his fragile items put away in time. “Put your stuff anywhere, make yourselves at home, I guess.”
“Woah, is this your room?” Mabel asked, running in and running a hand along one of his NASA posters. He winced, keeping himself from slapping her hand away. He'd hidden away most of his possessions, but…
“Don't touch things, Mabel,” her brother sighed, pulling her away in Danny's stead. “Thanks, and all that.”
Danny nodded, before leaving them be. He made it out of sight, before basically sprinting for the bathroom. It'd be the only place he'd get any privacy for a while, afterall.
----------
Dipper wasn't a fan of this situation. Who wanted to drive over 24 hours to meet family you'd literally never heard of before, just to watch them turn on a machine? Not Dipper, that's for sure.
The drive had sucked, but the worst part by far was the lack of information. All he and Mabel had been told was that their Uncle Jack and Aunt Maddie had made… a thing, and wanted family to be there when they turned it on. He wasn't sure his parents even knew more than that, which almost made it worse.
They'd arrived, and he'd sort of been hoping his mysterious cousins could fill them in, surely they knew what was going on. Then they had turned out to be overly an overly smiley, scripted teen, and a gloomy, quiet kid. Honestly he was also probably a teenager, but he didn't really look it. Neither of them were very forthcoming with information.
He and Mabel were going to be teens next summer too, but right now that was feeling more far away than the moon.
“So? What do you think?” Mabel asked, leaping backward onto the bed in the room, claiming it. Dipper sighed, moving his stuff over to the cot that had been set up. “I think I like this place!”
“I haven't seen enough to form an opinion,” Dipper shrugged, opening his suitcase and making his bed.
“Then why are you so grumpy?” Mabel smirked at him, kicking her feet without a care in the world. He sighed, rubbing his temples.
“Because we just finished a really long road trip? I dunno, leave me be.”
“You just don't want to be excited about this!” Mabel claimed, leaning over and flicking the brim of his hat. “You'll see! This visit is gonna go GREAT!”