Chapter Text
Dipper's eyes flickered open, light from the triangular window filling the room. His eyes abnormally stung as they adjusted to the light. He glanced over to Mabel's bed and saw that she wasn't there. "Mabel?" He winced as he sat up. Pain shot through his arms and his head felt like something was pounding inside, trying to get out. The day before was blurry, the memories just out of reach. He noticed a glass of water on the bedside table. When he went to grab it, his arm was wrinkly and discolored. He jumped, nearly knocking the glass over. Shakily, he brought his arm closer to examine it. Blinking a few times, Dipper realized it was a bandage wrapped around his arm that he was seeing. Carefully, he pulled it off. Dark red spots and lines covered them. Strangely, the dots seemed to be grouped in four. Even weirder, the groups were arranged so the dots were in a line. "What happened?" Besides a few small smears of blood, his arm was clean and taken care of. He breathed in and slipped out of bed.
His whole body ached, similar to when he fought Rumble McSkirmish. Limping, he grabbed a jacket and trudged to the stairs. He gripped the railing, hoping his legs won't give out from under him. Suddenly, it all came back to him. The deal. Bill Cipher. Bipper. Images of forks in his arms and yellow eyes with stretched pupils swirled in his mind. His memories shifted to Mabel's sock puppet show, and how it ended in disaster.
Wait...
Mabel!
She had to fight Bill! Dipper rushed down the stairs, repeatedly losing balance and slamming his body into the wall. If that demon did anything to my sister...
Dipper had tripped on the last few steps, but instead of face planting into the floor, big arms had caught him. "Woah, easy there," Grunkle Stan sounded...softer than normal. Dipper recovered from the shock of the fall and looked up. Stan was clearly concerned. How much did he know?
"Where's Mabel?" Dipper tried to dart to the living room, but Stan held him.
"Kid-"
"Where is she? Is she alright?" Dipper wrestled against his grunkle's grip.
"Hey, relax" Stan shook him lightly. Dipper stopped fighting and looked back at Stan. "Mabel is fine, she's in-"
"Dipper?" The two looked toward the kitchen to see Mabel. A messy apron was wrapped around her front.
"Mabel!" Dipper rushed toward her, and Stan didn't try to stop him. The twins hugged tightly, which was painful for Dipper, but he didn't care. He frantically looked around her body, examining arms, legs, and head. "A-are you alright? Did he hurt you?"
"Dipping sauce, you need to take a serious chill pill. I'm not hurt, see?" Mabel did a quick twirl. A loud beep rang out from the kitchen. "The cupcakes! I'll be right back!" She ran inside the kitchen. Soon a delightful aroma could be smelled. Dipper was going to follow but he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Kid, look, I don't know what happened last night. Your sister was very quiet about it, and that alone is concerning," Stan hesitated, eyeing the jacket. He sighed. "I know I'm not the first person anyone would go to for help but...if you need to talk, I'm always here."
Dipper didn't know what to say. What could he say? He couldn't tell Stan about Bill because...well for starters he has been actively going against Stan's wishes for him to leave the journal alone. Then there was him making a stupid deal with Bill. He certainly didn't want Stan knowing about that mistake. Then there was Bill himself. If Stan found out that a demon has been terrorizing him and Mabel, he would definitely take the journal away. "I-uh..." Dipper avoided Stan's eyes. Grunkle Stan was being more sincere and caring than normal. Unfortunately, that made it way a lot difficult to keep big secrets from him. Ones that were important to Dipper. "Thanks, Grunkle Stan. I...um-"
"Finished!" Mabel shouted from the kitchen. Dipper was already incredibly grateful for his sister, now even more so.
"Coming!" Dipper shouted back. He brought himself to look Stan in the eyes. Stan nodded with a small smile and the two of them walked towards the slightly suffocating but sweet smell of cupcakes. They sat down at the table while Mabel brought over two plates with fully decorated cupcakes on them.
"While you were sleeping, I wanted to make you a treat for when you woke up," Mabel grinned. "I was going to make you my confetti waffle milkshake, but Grunkle Stan said that you would probably want something 'tamer'."
The cupcakes were extremely vibrant and were covered with various types of sprinkles. Dipper smiled widely, which strangely made his face hurt. "Thanks Mabel!" He grabbed a cupcake and bit into it. He could feel the sugar going straight into his blood stream, but the taste was wonderful. "These ones are awesome!" Mabel constantly was trying out new recipes. By now, Dipper considered himself to be an expert on cupcakes.
Mabel beamed. "Yes! Baker Mabel has made yet another satis-fabulous desert!"
As the three of them munched on cupcakes, Dipper avoided looking over at Stan. His grunkle had been watching him the whole time, most likely out of worry. It felt unnatural to be avoiding Stan like this and it only took a few minutes for him to give up. He looked over and the two made eye contact. Stan didn't say anything. He wore the same smile from before. Dipper returned the smile, and only then did he realize that Stan's smile was...sad. Dipper looked down and thought back to what Stan had said. Dipper had never thought about it before, but it must have been hard for Stan seeing him hurt without knowing what's going on. Especially since it happens quite a lot.
When Mabel had gotten up for a glass of Mabel Juice, Dipper grabbed a napkin. He simply wrote "soon" and then slid it over to Stan. After reading it, he looked at Dipper and nodded. They had a complete understanding in those few moments that rarely happened between them. What happened the night before, what was going on, everything Dipper was going through wouldn't be hidden forever. Dipper just needed time and Stan would be there for him when he was ready.
⑅◬⑅
"Hey Mabel?"
"Yeah brobro?"
Dipper and Mabel were up in the attic, getting ready for bed. Dipper had a couple of questions hanging in his mind that kept bringing him back to the events of the previous night. "What does Stan know about last night? What did he see?"
"Well, he saw us fight, which was really me and Bipper-"
"Bipper and I," Dipper corrected.
"Grammer, shmammer. So, he saw 'us' fight. I knew that this was something that we can't tell Grunkle Stan, so I refused to tell him anything. I couldn't, especially after I stole the journal..." Mabel sat on her bed, her voice getting quieter.
Mabel's last comment hit Dipper like a brick. "Mabel, it's okay. You didn't know that Bill would be looking for it."
"Thanks Dipper," Mabel smiled and rubbed her nose. "Since Grunkle Stan couldn't know anything, I had Soos and Wendy help me with your cuts." Dipper blushed. He tried his best to move on from Wendy, and was doing well for the most part, but you can't just turn off feelings for someone. "Soos carried you back and I think Grunkle Stan saw the bandages on your arms. Speaking of which," Mabel quickly ran out of the room and came back with a roll of bandages, "you need to have a bandage." She started wrapping his arm carefully with the bandages.
"Since when are you a medical expert?" Dipper half joked. Last time he checked, Mabel had no first aid knowledge besides the very basics. You clean the wound and put a Band-Aid on it.
"Soos showed me," Mabel smiled. "'You will want to keep the cuts covered and to replace the bandages daily. The bandages are like a blanket for the cuts, dude. It makes them happy and then they heal faster.'" She did her best impression of Soos, which was scarily accurate.
"Huh," Dipper made a mental note to thank Wendy and especially Soos. Maybe he can show Dipper how to wrap the bandages too.
After getting ready, the two climbed into their beds.
"Goodnight, Dipper."
"Goodnight, Mabel."
Dipper struggled to sleep that night. He couldn't help but feel like Bill was there in the room with them, watching, waiting for the right moment to hurt them. After waking up, gasping for air for the fifth time that night, Mabel had enough. She got out of bed and started pulling Dipper out of his.
"Mabel- what are you doing?"
"You need a sleeping buddy." After Dipper got into the bed, Mabel pulled him into a hug. "You're safe, Dips. I gotchu." Dipper quickly fell into a deep sleep. Mabel felt herself slipping, so she kissed her brother's head goodnight. She couldn't help but notice the tear on Dipper's face. "I gotchu," she whispered. They slept in each other's arms for the whole night.
⑅◬⑅
Early in the morning, Stan had woken up from his near-daily nightmare. However, instead of the usual nightmare, this was a new one. An arguably worse one if you asked him. Normally, he would have gone back to bed, but what he saw continued to haunt him. Sighing, he slowly got up and out of bed. Floorboards creaking below him, he slogged up the stairs. Opening the attic door, he braced himself for what he might see. Panic rose inside him when he saw Dipper's bed empty. "No, no, no, no, no," he mumbled to himself, swiftly making his way to the bed. Whipping around, he checked on Mabel. Relief flooded him as he saw Dipper in Mabel's arms. Pushing memories of him and his brother away, Stan smiled. Before returning to bed, he made a trip to the restroom. Right when he was about to leave, he saw something in the mirror.
A kid with blood dripping down his arms stood where Stan should have been. A bloodstained knife was held in the boy's hand. His messy, brown hair was covered by a cap. Behind him was an older man. He had a big nose and hair that reached his shoulders. Pain screamed in his eyes.
Stan ran out of the room, breathing quickly. "You're losing it, Stan. Your age finally catching up to you." He didn't dare go back to sleep. He went down to the hidden lab beneath the shack. He pulled out blueprints for a giant portal. "I need ya Poindexter. I need you..."