Pidge starts laughing too, but not in a disbelieving way. A few months ago, when she was an aloof and bitter cadet undercover at the Garrison she might have brushed him off. Aliens are one thing, but that's just crazy.

But after everything she's been through, all she can ask is: "OK, A...what were you fighting and B...how did you convince the dinosaur?"

Pidge kind of wishes she'd known Mabel better before she left. People thought she and Matt were twins all the time, but he was four years older than her and just had a bit of a baby face.

"That sounds really nice. Matt and I have been in so many advanced classes we didn't have much time for friends except each other for a long time." She fishes out the old picture of the two of them right before he left for Kerberos and hands it to Dipper with her free hand.

The weight of exhaustion and pain and anger is still there, and probably will be for a long time, but it's just that little bit lighter as she talks to him. She squeezes back.

"As long as we're trying, huh?"