"You going outside today Leo?" Ford asked as Leo came out of the backroom in new clothes and put on his new hat.

"Oh don't you look like a normal earth kid, it looks pretty far out," he turned in his spinny chair from the desk and Leo smelt the shirt.

"It smells like fire," Leo made a face.

"Also no I'm not, they ask me to many questions," Leo rolled his eyes and ford raised a brow.

"Like what?" He asked.

"What I like, what I am, my eyes, my birth parents, the journal, I don't have all the answers," Leo threw his hands in the air with a loud groan.

"Oh.. um do you want to talk bout any of that?" Stanford offered concerned and Leo crossed his arms.

"That parent crap? No, you told me everything I needed to know," Leo stuck his tongue out unamused.

"Besides, you're my dad, you've been my dad... right?" He looked at his parent figure a little nervous now.

"No question about that, I will always be your dad Leo, but I also want you to be comfortable to share your feelings about your birth parents," ford put a hand on his shoulder and Leo nodded a little.

"I guess it does bother me that they were not the best people... what if I'm a bad person because they were? Or I become what they wanted me to be?" Leo sighed giving in.

"Well your not them, your you, your a good boy Leo, your my son," ford placed his hand on top of the boys hat to squish it down.

"And that freak of a cult has been gone for ten years, once bill is gone you'll be safe forever, that's my mission," he smiled down at him.

It's been ten years since ford found the little boy, there was a time ford was wanted for going out of his way to find bill's weakness, even if it was illegal in every universe and someone dropped the hint of a cult that worships the cruel and unimaginable like bill. And there was rumor that there was a perfect vessel being harvest to be sacrificed to the demon cipher.

And Leo was unfortunately born into a cult that saw his birth defect as a sign. A sign that bill could walk their earth and grant them protection and power. Power to the insane.

When ford found the disturbing news, he found the cult with the one year old in the middle of a sacrifice, he didn't hesitate to shoot each parent and the other six members of the cult. Leaving him bloodied, changed morals, and alone with a baby.

He never meant to get attached to him.

But when Leo took his first steps to him, there was a sense of pride and protection in ford that he never felt before.

"Come here Leo," ford opened his arms and Leo hugged him tightly around the shoulders.

"I love you so much Leo, I'll always be here if you need to talk, your to young to be carrying such scary things," he held him close and Leo smiled relieved and nodded.

"Then why can't I call you dad upstairs?" Leo mumbled still hanging onto fords neck.

Ford was quiet for a moment. He didn't know what to say, it was one thing to just bring a child around now being back home with his own brother and now the twins. Maybe because that would mean Stan would include the boy as family?

"Hang tight with that for a little longer, I'll tell Stan," he patted his back and Leo nodded softly. Ford gave him a good squeeze that made the boy laugh and let go.

"Back to work, I'll catch you up on what I've been working on since yesterday with the portal," Ford put Leo on the chair and spun him around dramatically.

"Did you fix my blaster yet?" Leo grabbed a hand held blaster that was slimmer than the one ford usually had on him.

"Ah haven't had time but you don't need that anymore kiddo," ford told him but Leo grabbed a tool to start figuring out why his gun didn't work.

"So?" He stuck his tongue out in focus and kept his mismatch eyes on the weapon.

"Alright you have your fun with that, but I'm going to need your help eventually," Stanford smiled as Leo crisscrossed his legs and kept tweaking with the blaster gun.

"Yes sir," Leo grinned and tried to load up the blaster but it shut down almost immediately. He lost his smile and grumbled going back to work.

They worked side by side as ford was gathering information about his portal and the terror it could bring to the earth.

But as hours went by, next time leo finally looked up he noticed his father knocked out with his arms crossed under his head and snoring away. He knew fords sleeping habits were irregular, suffering from insomnia so he let his father sleep.

Leo slapped the side of his blaster gun and it finally loaded up.

"Finally," he smiled excitedly and hopped out of the chair. Leo tip toed around fords desk not wanting to wake him and snuck over to the elevator so he could make sure the blaster worked effectively outside.

When he got back to the mystery shacks level he noticed it was strangely quiet, keeping an eye out for anyone while he walked outside to the back again.

He clicked and flipped the gun around till it lit up to load and he listened to the humming of it to make sure it was staying smooth.

"What is that?" A voice popped up behind him and Leo yelled surprised and dropped the gun, it blasted a blue laser to the side and hit a tree.

Leo spun around seeing dipper was already outside and now looked shocked at what happened.

"Don't scare me like that," Leo took a deep breath and picked up the weapon.

"Are you suppose to have that?" Dipper looked unsure sitting on the stairs.

"Mind your business, I've been fixing it all morning," Leo picked it up and growled when it stopped loading again.

"Son of a bitch," he plopped in the grass and started using the tool again on his blaster.

"Are you allowed to curse?" Dipper couldn't wrap his head around how this kid works. He cussed, he had a gun, his mentor is the author of the journals, and he had two different color eyes. Hes anything but normal.

"Stanford cusses like a sailor, where do you think I learned it from?" Leo rolled his eyes.

Dipper tilted his head to the side seeing the kid work like a pro on the little gadget.

"So like if your human and born on earth how did you get stuck out in the wasteland of other dimensions?" Dipper asked curiously.

"I don't know I was like a baby, something about how a sacrifice opened a hole in the universe and stanford got me before monsters ate me, cult shit," Leo shrugged not really understanding as much just cause he was still to young to know the dark stuff.

"Cult... stuff?" Dipper couldn't get himself to curse but wanted to know more.

"Yea once they tried to sacrifice me and failed ford couldn't figure out how we could get back cause the hole closed up, so we got stuck again," Leo held up the gun and closed one eye to aim the gun up at the sky making sure it was accurate.

"Why...?"

"Don't know, crazy, Stanford said I'm to young,"

Leo aimed the blaster to the tree that was hit before and shot at it again, this time the laser was more powerful. Shot it a few more times just to check again and smiled proud of himself.

"Wanna try? It's kid friendly," Leo smiled back at the other boy and held the blast gun up by the barrel.

"I never used something like this," dipper slowly took it and inspected the piece curiously.

"Just aim and shoot, it's turned on and everything," Leo took a large step to the side.

"What about the side nozzle?" Dipper looked at it confused.

"Oh yea I guess I should turn it to stun just in case," Leo quickly turned the nozzle to stun before dipper shot.

"There's stun, explode, and kil- um not stun, but your good now so try it out," he smiled innocently.

Dipper looked unsure as he held the blaster gun, he gulped and held it up with both hands, just as he pulled the trigger he closed his eyes and shot it anyways.

"Try keeping your eyes open, it helps," Leo cackled when the laser blast missed the tree and went to the sky.

"What if it hurts someone," dipper turned to him worried.

"It's stun, it'll just knock someone unconscious," Leo patted his back and took the blaster back.

"I'm just glad it works again," he turned it off and held it by the handle.

"So where's your sister? Why are you out here?" Leo tilted his head to the side.

"Mabel is with her friends and they're in our room again," dipper rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

"Are your friends on the way then?" Leo looked around at the parking lot.

"I don't have friends to hang out with.. and soos and Wendy are working," dipper went back and sat on the stairs with a sigh.

"They're like way older?"

"Well they hang out with me and Mabel so their friends," dipper defended and Leo put his hands on his lips looking at the twin.

"Ford dozed off napping... we could hang out?" Leo offered, dipper looked surprised.

"You want to hang out?" He asked disbelief.

"I don't have friends at all," The blonde smiled with a shrug.

"Do you... want to go downtown? I can show you around?" Dipper asked slowly not really knowing what people do when they hang out here.

"Okay!" Leo nodded with a bright smile.

"I'll get the golf cart!" Dipper jumped up smiling back.

"I'll bring the gun!" Leo raised his voice in excitement.

"No guns!" Dipper cried out.

"Ugh fine, but I'm bringing my knife," Leo pouted and set the gun under the stairs where Wendy hid the sodas so no one took it.

"Fine just keep it put away," the older kid raised a brow and Leo agreed to the compromise.