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“So,” Carla said, after a half hour of listening to Ford ramble on about the mysteries of Gravity Falls, “you really are studying some strange things out here, huh? Guess that is right up your alley.”
“Oh, yes.” Ford adjusted his glasses, not minding Nikola, who was on the kitchen table next to him licking the leftovers off Ford’s empty plate. “I’m sure you’ll encounter some of them yourself soon enough. Some of them, like the gnomes, aren’t exactly subtle.”
Carla twirled her fork on her plate absently, ignoring the way the metallic screech of the prongs made Ford’s eye twitch. “Huh. It all kind of sounds like a fairytale.”
Ford straightened, sniffing in offence at the perceived slight to his studies. But before he could defend himself, Carla continued.
“I’m not saying it isn’t true,” she reassured. “Just that it’s kind of crazy that all those things are real. Like, it’s a lot to wrap your mind around. Who would have thought?”
“I would have,” Ford said primly, clearly still a bit miffed.
“Well, obviously.” If she didn’t know any better, Carla would think Ford’s cat was snickering at him—as much as a cat could snicker anyway. Her eyes widened as an idea hit her. “Hey, if all these creatures exist, and all this spell stuff and curses and whatnot you talked about, does that mean things like true love’s kiss are real?”
“Yes, they are.” Ford’s eyes lit up, excited once more at the prospect of explaining his findings. “Admittedly, I haven’t done a lot of studying on true love’s kiss—at least not as much as I have on other things—but the phenomenon itself is real. True love’s kiss can break any curse, even the strongest kind.”
“Romantic,” Carla commented dryly. It didn’t surprise her that Ford hadn’t done much research on it, considering the man seemed allergic to romance in general.
But to her surprise, Ford said, “Not exclusively.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, guarding her plate from Nikola, who had finished licking at Ford’s and was eyeing hers intently.
Thankfully, Ford solved her burgeoning problem by grabbing Nikola as he stood up, beginning to pace. The cat looked disappointed, squirming only briefly before seemingly resigning himself to being trapped in Ford’s arms.
“Despite popular media portraying true love’s kiss as a romantic thing, in actuality that is not what I have discovered,” Ford explained. “It certainly can be romantic, but it isn’t constrained to romance. There are all different kinds of love, you know. The Ancient Greeks attempted to categorize them into types, such as agape, philia, storge, eros, ludus, and the like.”
“What do any of those mean?” Carla asked.
Ford ignored her, too deep into his own excited rambling. “While our society places a heavy significance on romantic love, platonic love is not inferior to it. In terms of true love’s kiss, any kind of love could break a curse, so long as that love is strong and true. I haven’t exactly had the means to run any sort of experiment on the phenomenon, so my next thoughts here are purely speculation, but I have good reason to believe that the love doesn’t even have to be reciprocated.”
“Does it even count as true love if it’s not?” Carla asked sceptically.
“As long as the one giving the kiss has a genuine love for the receiver, any curse on the receiver should break,” Ford said. “The only contingency being that there can’t be any sort of non-living material barrier in the way, such as clothes. Wherever the kiss is placed it must be skin to skin contact in order to work.”
“Or so you theorize.”
“Yes, but I’m highly certain I am correct.”
Carla refrained from rolling her eyes. Of course Ford would be confident he was right despite having no evidence or studies to prove his theory. Although, she wouldn’t be surprised if he was correct, in all honesty. His ego might be big but the man certainly did have the brains to back it up with.
Ford was still prattling on. “Therefore, a love that is strong and true can break any curse, no matter the type of love or whether or not it is reciprocated. Certainly, a kiss between lovers could do it. But also so could a kiss between close friends. Or a kiss from a mother to her cherished child.” Ford held up Nikola. “Potentially even a kiss from an owner to a beloved pet.”
Ford placed a kiss on Nikola’s head as an example, right between his furry little ears as the cat turned his neck up to look at Ford. Almost immediately there was an unexpected flash, accompanied by a popping sound, and suddenly Nikola was gone, and in his place in Ford’s arms was a man, blinking rapidly.
Carla gaped.
As did Ford, his eyes wide with shock.
Funny enough, Stanley—because it was Stanley—was also gaping.
“Did you just break my curse?” he asked Ford. He patted himself down, seeming astonished at his own body. “You broke my curse!”
Ford continued to just stare in stunned silence.
“You were the cat?!” Carla asked, jumping up from her seat in surprise. “You’ve been missing and this whole time you were Ford’s pet cat?”
“Nikola,” Ford mumbled finally, looking at his brother as if he’d never seen him before. “Nikola, you—! He—! Stanley?!”
Stan gave a nervous, weak chuckle and jazz hands. “Surprise?”
Ford let go of Stan in shock, then immediately lunged forward to catch him again when Stan began to topple over.
Stan clung to his brother. “Woah! Okay. Not used to two human legs anymore.”
“You’ve been my cat this whole time?” Ford’s voice was beginning to ascend into a yell. “And you never told me?!”
“Hey! I tried! It ain’t easy when you’re a cat!” Stan defended himself.
“I can’t believe you!” Ford hissed. “I thought… I thought—!” He crushed Stan to his chest.
Stan wrapped his arms around Ford in return, patting Ford’s back a bit awkwardly. “Yeah, well, uh. Surprise. Again. I’m here. Thanks for breaking my curse, by the way. It’s nice to have hands again.”
Ford only squeezed him tighter, and Carla winced in sympathy at the wheezing noise Stan let out.
She began to collect their dishes from the dinner table, muttering, “Well, I guess true love really does break any curse.”
As she walked to the sink, she heard Stan gasp, “Wait, Ford, does that mean you love me?”
“Of course I love you, you absolute moron!”
“Or does it mean you just loved Nikola?”
“I loved Nikola but I love you more. You’re my brother, Stanley, of course I love you. Why would you even ask that?”
“I don’t know, it just kind of seemed like you preferred the cat more.”
“I didn’t—” Ford sighed. “Just because I was—well, am still—mad at you doesn’t mean I stopped loving you. I don’t think I could ever truly stop loving you.”
There was a quiet, wobbly little, “oh” from Stan, followed by a sniffle.
“Are you okay, Stanley?”
“Shut up, there’s just cat fur in my eyes.”
It went silent then, and Carla strained her ears to hear, glancing over her shoulder to where the twins were still holding tight to each other.
Finally, she heard Stan whisper, “I love you too. Stupid genius.”
Carla smiled to herself. Both of them were idiots when it came to interpersonal relationships and communication, but this was a good start to repairing the broken bridge between them. She was certain they would be okay.