#Since Dipper never agrees to do it instead :(

[tswwwit]

Not sure if this has been brought up before but, Billdip with a pet?

Neither of them really seem like Pet guys to me, more like Stuff In Jars kinda guys. But maybe petsitting for Mabel or someone else? I think the minute Dipper showed any affection for something other than Bill he would get really jealous and Dipper would think it's very funny and very annoying. I specifically like the idea of Bill vs a cat bc I think they would HATE him on instinct and they'd definitely hiss at eachother. Bill's very much of the opinion that pets are useless brainless hunks of flesh that eat your food, but he's also got very little competition in terms of Affection coming from Dipper and if HE doesn't get pets and treats, neither does this stupid creature that skulks around the house eating spiders and ripping up the carpet. That's BILL'S job

They really are both kinda Stuff In Jars guys, aren't they?

That being said, Dipper's absolutely the type to get suckered in by something cute if it showed him attention and affection. Likely he found it on the street, or rescued it from a monster; then of course claim he'd only keep it for like a day before bringing it to a shelter. Maybe two.

And he would, too! He is Responsible™ and wouldn't want to introduce a poor innocent animal to the vicinity of Bill.

UNLESS said creature was very Clever and Conniving and wormed its way into his heart, using all kinds of dastardly tricks and loving affection. Then two days turns into three, and to a week, until Bill knows with Dread Certainty that this slimy little hairball is here to stay.

It's probably a cat, let's be honest.

If for no other reason that Bill doesn't seem at all like a Dog Person. If he had to take that thing for WALKS and PICK UP after it, it'd be about two hours before he 'accidentally' left the door open during hours of heavy traffic - whereas a cat is standoffish and independent enough that they can safely spend their days ignoring each other in the same room.

But you just KNOW that he seethes with jealousy anytime Dipper gives that miserable feline a gentle kiss on the forehead.

[nonsensology]

So I've had these Grunkle Stan crackships on my mind for almost a year now. Could be interpreted as platonic, but I think there's great and fascinating potential if interpreted fully romantic. Full musings and explanations below (Warning: very disjointed and random).

Uncle Chan from Jackie Chan Adventures

Maybe Ford and Stan stumble across the Chans on one of their globe-trotting adventures. Both groups fight off the same supernatural threat and surprise each other with their ease and familiarity with the weird and fantastical.

I feel Uncle is kind of a weird in-between of Ford and Stan. He is knowledgeable but not a nerd like Ford, is generally cranky but doesn't get into trouble like Stan does, although he does have a level of disregard towards authority if it gets in the way of his goals. He's quick to do research instead of impulsively charging into a situation.

I think Uncle's dynamic with Stan would be hilarious. They would argue a lot on how to deal with a threat, but once they agree to work together, they could kick ass. Once he gets past his initial annoyance, Stan would probably enjoy Uncle's quips, even more so when he realizes that Uncle does not say them to be funny, he's just naturally snarky.

Uncle is never shown having any romantic interest or relationships, so I kind of headcanon him as ace, but I think it would be really interesting to see what kind of queerplatonic relationship he and Stan could form.

Jade and Mabel would probably hit it off immediately, and while Jade isn't as studious as Dipper, she also has an enthusiasm for the supernatural so she'd probably get along decently with him. She'd also probably think Stan and Ford are super cool, especially considering their lax attitude toward giving children weapons. Though they do still take the kids' safety very seriously.

Jackie is doubtful of Stan, much like he was with Viper, but seeing Stan look out for the kids would probably endear him a little. Ford might also help ease his worries, and maybe they both could have fun discussion about archeology.

I think Tohru and Soos could get along decently, though Tohru would find Soos' eccentric musings odd at first.

Additionally, Uncle's shop is in San Francisco, practically next door to Dipper and Mabel in Piedmont. The kids would easily visit each other every weekend.

Bruno Madrigal from Encanto

Stan has been to prison in Colombia, so I don't think he'd willingly travel there for fun, and Encanto Valley seems relatively closed off from the rest of the world, so I imagine their meeting is accidental, maybe a result of the Stans getting caught in a storm or something. They stay for a while in the valley while repeating their boat.

Stan might initially be outraged at the idea of the Madrigals not charging anyone for the use of their gifts, but perhaps lightens up when he sees how close-knit the community is. He'd still come up with ways they could show off their powers Mystery Shack style, probably butting heads with Alma in the process, lol. He might encourage Bruno to adapt a more showman-like approach to his seer abilities to make it more presentable and less intimidating.

Bruno and Stan connecting over their shared feelings of isolation from family is definitely what drew me to these two together in the first place. If they ever got serious about their relationship, I can imagine the biggest hurdle would be deciding if they should continue a long-distance relationship, since neither is keen on asking the other to be separated from their family.

Yuuko Ichihara from xxxHolic and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle

Major spoiler alerts for both series. It's been many years since I've read them, and Tsubasa had so many plot twists that even CLAMP (the writers) admitted they were confused by the end result. I also might be misremembering some details, so bear with me. Factoring in the plotlines for both series and Gravity Falls would make for an incredible AU fanfic that I unfortunately am not qualified to write.

Due to Yuuko's shop being in Tokyo, a whole ocean away from Oregon, I like to imagine some timey-wimey space mumbo jumbo allowing Yuuko and Stan to meet in the dream realm. Maybe at some point, Yuuko's shop would obtain a door connecting it to the Mystery Shack.

Stan and Yuuko both have a mischievous side, though Yuuko is generally more reserved. They could start out as drinking buddies, though I imagine Stan would probably favor a light beer, while Yuuko loves sake.

They also both use aliases (it is never revealed what Yuuko's real name is), but Yuuko would likely be upfront about it. As their relationship progresses, Stan would probably feel comfortable telling Yuuko his real first name, even after she tells him the supernatural dangers of giving your real name.

While Stan scams his customers, he generally sells harmless entertainment and trinkets, whereas Yuuko grants wishes and operates strictly on an equivalent exchange basis. To quote the wiki, "All of Yuuko's customers must pay a price in order to grant their wishes, which can be no more or no less than the one demanded, or else harm will come to one's way. She is not one to tell the customer the most direct way to solve their problems because in the end, it can only be solved with that person's own realization and resolution to change themselves... Her abilities are not unlimited and may almost seem like a curse as it appears that she is unable to do anything for anyone or grant any gift (other than feelings) without it becoming a binding transaction." 

When Stan finds out just how powerful Yuuko is, I think he might react with a mixture of hesitation and awe, especially when she reveals she knows about his past, and Ford being lost in the multiverse. I am on the fence on whether Yuuko would use her powers to bring Ford home sooner, or let Stan continue working on the portal because he's already close to completing it and this would be significant in defeating Bill.

I found that the main villain of Tsubasa, Fei Wang Reed, surprisingly parallels Stan. Both endanger reality to bring back someone who is lost, but while Stan does it out of love and devotion to his family, Fei Wang Reed only did it in an arrogant plan to prove himself a powerful sorcerer. And in Fei's case, the person is already dead. CLAMP's universe establishes that the dead cannot be brought back to life, and Fei's wish to do so would cause the universe to be destroyed. I wonder if Bill would factor Fei as part of his plans.

Stan also surprisingly shares a lot in common with Fai D Fluorite. Both use their twin's name (Fai's real name is Yuui), and for much of the series Fai's tragic backstory regarding his twin is unknown, and he hides his trauma under a laid back exterior. I think Stan would empathize a lot with Fai, after he finds out his backstory.

Kimihiro Watanuki is revealed to have been created to fill a void left by Syaoran after the latter wished to turn back time. I remember Watanuki's character arc involved realizing that people cared about him. "Don't disappear", "Continue existing". Stan would probably take Watanuki under his wing, much like he did with Soos. Watanuki might find life with the Pines family far more chaotic than he's used to, but slowly warm up.

Yuuko is revealed to have died a long time ago and has basically been in magical stasis due to Clow Reed's unintentional wish. When time finally moves forward again, Yuuko eventually passes on. She doesn't return in the canon series, but Watanuki is stated to have also suspended his time to wait for her return. In this AU, maybe she reincarnates in the past and reunites with Stan and the Pines in the present day.

[raining-dreams]

Best Underrated Shows

Saving Me 

Saving Me is about a lonely old guy who invents a time machine so he can go back to his child self and fix all his past mistakes. I learned about this show from this video titled Watch THIS instead of Hailey's On It by M!n!mal M!ss Art. Despite this video, I was still very excited to watch Hailey's On It. It seemed like a story with a cool premise and cute art style (and ultimately I do really like the show) But Hailey's On It wasn't gonna be out for weeks when I came across this video and this video really sold me on giving Saving Me a try. I never would have even heard of this show without that youtube video which would have been a real shame because Saving Me is fantastic! I hope this show reaches more people and I'm dying for a season 3!!!!!

House of Anubis

Mystery is my favorite genre and House of Anubis is chuck full of it. I used to be obsessed with this show back in high school. I had so much fun coming up with theories and live-blogging my thoughts and opinions about each new episode. Some of the acting & dialogue could be a little cringe sometimes but the story is just so good that it doesn't matter. I've heard that Het Huis Anubis (the Dutch version of the show that House of Anubis is based on) is even better, though I haven't gotten around to watching it yet.

Over the Garden Wall

Those of us who have seen Over the Garden Wall seem to agree that this show is amazing! Which makes it feel a little weird to call it underrated. But it seems like so few people have actually seen it. Maybe because it was a mini series, it couldn't reach the same level of popularity as other shows of similar quality. If you like Gravity Falls, you'll likely enjoy Over the Garden Wall as well. (Wirt is even voiced by the same guy who voiced Dipper!) I would highly recommend anyone that hasn't seen it already.

Dead End: Paranormal Park

I feel like it's pretty rare for animated series to exist in the horror genre for some reason. It truly is an untapped market. But if you love horror and animation, Dead End is the show for you! (Of course it's kid friendly horror since the target audience is children) The two main characters, Barney and Norma get jobs at a haunted park and work together to fight ghosts and demons. Dead End has a super cute animation style, in my opinion, and a very diverse set of characters. I encourage everyone to watch it!

Just Add Magic

Just Add Magic is based on a children's book by the same name. It's a show about three girls who love to cook and basically discover that they can use cooking to do magic. It's a pretty interesting take on how magic works in their universe. It's very fun to watch. All of the actors are also so talented! And one of those actors is Zach Callison (the voice of Steven Universe)!

The friendship between the trio is awe-inspiring! They have so much chemistry. It's a pretty fun watch.

The Last Kids On Earth

Based on a comic of the same name, this show is about a group of kids who have to survive on their own when a zombie apocalypse breaks out. And other various creatures start to threaten them (or even become their allies) It's basically a cute found family story. The premise is pretty simplistic but that's what I love about it. The animation style of The Last Kids On Earth is so beautiful as well!

I'm still waiting for a season 3!!!!!

Code Lyoko

I remember as a kid being aware of this show and thinking it looked kind of interesting (and I always loved the theme song!!) but I never ended up watching it back then because I let peer pressure get the better of me. I remember I met someone who brought up how much they loved the show. When I heard them express that interest, I was at first excited to ask them more but before I had the chance, everyone else started making fun of him for liking Code Lyoko.

I guess it was like the nerd show or something? I don't really know why it was considered cringe to like Code Lyoko but upon seeing my peers act this way, I decided I can't like Code Lyoko if I want to fit in. So, I avoided watching it. But earlier this year, when I was flipping through channels, they were showing old episodes of Code Lyoko! I was intrigued since I remembered it from childhood and thought I'd actually give it a chance this time. And it's actually a pretty good show! It can be slow at times but overall I enjoy it.

If you're like me and avoided watching this back then due to peer pressure, I highly recommend leaving that in the past and just letting yourself enjoy this show!!

Slugterra

Slugterra is honestly pretty similar to Pokemon, except it's slugs! And the entire series takes place underground. Basically, there's a whole underground world called Slugterra, home to slugs, trolls, moles, etc. And all the slugs have cool powers so the people collect & befriend slugs so they can use them as weapons ("slugslinging"). If you like Pokemon, you're sure to like Slugterra!

Detentionaire

I discovered Detentionaire randomly while I was searching through Amazon's library of cartoons. I was looking for a new show to watch and just stumbled upon this one. It looked pretty interesting and I was surprised to see it was a show from 2011. I don't know how I missed this show back then. Idk if maybe it only aired in Canada or something? (cuz it's a Canadian show) But anyways, Detentionaire is such an intriguing show where the main character, Lee, discovers some grand conspiracy and has to try to expose it to prove his innocence so he can get out of detention. It's such an interesting concept. And, as I mentioned earlier, mystery is my favor genre, so I had a lot of fun with this one.

The only problem though is, of course, it ends on a cliffhanger. The show got canceled before they had the chance to conclude the story in a satisfying way (or any type of way) so watch at your own risk.

Catscratch

I honestly don't even remember what this show was about but I do remember enjoying this show and being excited when I saw a new episode was out. I remember thinking it was so funny. I just don't think enough people know about this show.

[billford-dump]

Ford but he gets jealous.

Bill has been back for a while now. Long enough that they know he’s powerless, stuck in a body he’s still getting used to, mostly harmless as long as you aren’t careless. He jokes and rips people off with Stan, explains (rants about) random tidbits to Dipper, does the occasional craft with Mabel and sometimes lets her do makeovers on him (at least after he showed her how to do makeup properly).

But he gives Ford plenty of space and it makes him absolutely burn with envy sometimes. Is he not even worthy of Bill's attention now? If not as a friend or partner, then at least as an enemy? An acquaintance? If that's it, what makes all these other people worth his time?

Meanwhile Bill is trying not to bother Ford, he's avoiding him to be polite because he thinks Ford wouldn't want him anywhere near him. (Because he fears that if he pushes too hard Ford will kill him for real this time.)

Ford is just quietly annoyed for ages, trying not to snap or lash out, but when he does its damn near catastrophic. Everything comes pouring out at once about how he hates how easily Bill moved on and left him behind, how he misses him but he's never been good enough, has he? No, Bill doesn't care about some feeble little human, he just plays with it and tosses it aside when it breaks!

Bill of course had no idea, but he still gets angry about being yelled at. Ford always looks annoyed when he’s around, he’s been giving Ford space and trying not to bother him! He thought Ford wanted to be left alone!

It's their biggest fight since Bill came back. Even early on it wasn’t this bad, with Bill still in a state of mild shock at his new body and Ford too busy trying to figure out how Bill had come back to be truly angry. It’s a solid 10 minutes of screaming at each other about how this is your fault, you're the one who didn't communicate! The only reason they stop is because Stan broke it up when it looked like Ford was gonna take a swing at Bill and he put them both in time out. Bill agreed because he doesn't actually have the energy for a serious fight, and Ford agreed because he will not be seen as the unreasonable one compared to Bill fucking Cipher.

Stan eventually manages to herd them into apologizing to each other once they calm down.

Ford (reluctantly) admits that yes, he was being unreasonable and overreacted, he's been extra stressed because of Bill's return and Bill being around his family (because he still half-expects to find the demon standing over their corpses one day) and he lashed out over something that could have been easily avoided if he just talked to him instead of bottling everything up.

Bill agrees that he was being unreasonable too, he should have told Ford that he was going to give him space until he felt comfortable being around Bill, if he ever felt comfortable being around Bill again, rather than assuming he knew.

---

The next day Bill sits next to him while he works, rambles on about whatever comes to mind, which makes it hard to concentrate and is incredibly annoying-

But he finds he doesn’t mind it too much.

[i-prefer-base-twelve]

Hello ! Could I ask for a oneshot (or headcanons if you like) of Dipper x A reader who was pressured too much by parents with school grades? My whole life I've been pressured, and I must say, it's not good, you end up doing the things that others want without thinking about you first, mostly you do it out of fear of suffering consequences... But I'm getting better ! If you can be inspired by this little description I would love it ! — Anon Simp

Hi sorry it has taken me literally forever to get to this. It's been a long time since I've had to worry about grades, so I hope this still rings true, but I think it might go something like this--

You and Dipper start talking because of DD&D, of course--he noticed your pin and couldn't help but strike up a conversation. You've never actually played yourself, but you've read all the rulebooks and you watch a lot of videos and--

"You should play with us!" He cuts you off in his excitement. You immediately agree. But as the day draws closer, you realize you can't, there's no way, you've got too much studying to do. You text him your regrets, and you can tell he's disappointed, and you agree to try again next week.

Of course, the next week, you still have homework.

Just like the week after that.

But a funny thing has happened over the past three weeks; you and Dipper have started texting each other, not just about rpgs, but about, you know, life. And as you stress-text at him again and again, he starts to put the pieces together.

One day he says, "You're really hard on yourself."

It strikes you as absurd. "Well, yeah. I have to be."

He frowns. "Why?"

"Because--" is he being deliberately obtuse? Isn't it the most obvious thing in the world?-- "Because if I don't get straight As, my parents will kick me out, I'll never get into college, I'll never get a degree, I'll never get a job that pays more than minimum wage, I'll die alone and homeless at 27!--"

He watches you with concern as you catastrophize. Then he says, "You know, my uncle Stan never even graduated from high school. He lived out of his car for ten years. But even he ended up ok." He smiles to himself; he clearly loves this uncle. "And anyway, you're smart. I bet if you don't study for this test, you'll get like a 92 instead of a 98. That's still an A."

You shake your head miserably. "Not good enough for my parents."

He nods sadly, then says, "Listen, I get it, I used to be really anxious too. About, like, everything. But last summer I kinda had a... near-death experience."

He what? You stare at him in horror, but he doesn't elaborate, just goes on, "And it really put things in perspective, y'know? A bad grade isn't the end of the world."

Something about the look in his eyes as he says that, the sudden flatness in his voice, makes you shiver. What happened to him?... you hope he's in therapy.

He meets your eyes again. "I know it feels like it, though."

You swallow. His eyes are big and serious and looking right at you. "Maybe..." you say, voice wobbly, "Maybe we should start smaller. I can't take a whole Saturday off to play games, but maybe... maybe if we, got a coffee or something? I can tell my parents we're studying."

Dipper breaks out into a huge grin, and you feel like you might float away. "See? I told you you were smart!"

[goat-and-a-pig]

Chapter 12

Mabel took a deep breath. “Hey, so, um, Stan,” she started, then winced. “Yeah?” He replied, a little hoarsely. Aw, he’s still so sad…

“I know who you really are.” That stopped him in his tracks. “Excuse me?”

“You’re the banished Prince Stanley Pines. Your twin brother, the missing king, was lost to the multiverse. And… You’re also my great uncle.” That caught Stan by surprise. He spun to face her quickly. “WHAT?!?” Stan’s cries startled the birds. It looked like he was doing complicated math until it dawned on him.

“You’re Shermie’s missing granddaughter! The one they’ve been searching for for almost a year!” Under his breath he added, “You really did take after Ford in that way.” Mabel heard him.

“It’s almost been a year?!? It’s hard to tell time accurately in his- that- nightmare realm…”

Oh Dipper, she thought sadly.

“So you knew this whole time?” Mabel nodded her head. “Pretty much. The puzzle pieces were mostly in place… It just took your cave confession to solidify it. Why haven’t you told him you’re royalty?”

“Was royalty,” Stan corrected. “I’m not anymore. Not since- well, Dad made it pretty clear I wasn’t. Why haven’t you?” He pointed at her for effect. “ Because I’m not allowed to.” Mabel got quiet. “What?” Stan asked. He almost sounded concerned.

“When Bill came to our universe to look for a friend for Icarus, he took me and mutated me and D-Dipper.” She stumbled over his name. “Why he chose me, I don’t know. Before we got to the spaceship, he made me agree to never talk about my life before the tower and to go along with everything he said, or I’d never see Dipper or the rest of my family ever again.” She felt tears well up in her eyes. “And I just can’t go back to his dimension, I just can’t! I’d have to break Icarus’ heart in order to heal mine! I’ve never been able to talk to Icarus about anything real, and he’s one of my best friends- it’s just not fair!” Tears were openly streaming down her cheeks now. Stan gulped, then brought her to some stumps to sit. “Look kid,” he began. Mabel scrubbed her eyes and sniffled. “I know what you’re going through. It’s rough. And- and if you really need me to, which you will, I’ll go with Icarus instead. Okay? I’m old and doing nothing worthwhile with my life. You need your brother. So when the time comes, go. I’ll take your place. You got that?”

Mabel smiled gratefully through her tears. “You’re the best, Grunkle Stan!” Stan grinned back at her. “We should probably grab some firewood for real though,” he said.

“Okay,” Mabel agreed.

[harper-collins]

DCJ - A Night Out - Billdip

Previous 'Dipper's College Job Oneshot'

Sigh. Dipper wasn’t ready for this. He was never ready when Mabel suggested doing this sort of thing, but this time he was twice as unprepared as usual. This week there was a… Party. One that the brunette didn’t wish to go to, but had no other options. It was an end-of-year party, and Mabel had dragged him in more so than usual. Probably because of Bill.

The two had met during one of Dipper’s shifts. Mabel had come to get both a book and give some food for her twin, as he’d skipped out on multiple meals during the day in favour of studying. Bill had come in and instantly recognised her as his twin… For obvious reasons. The two got on quite well which had surprised Dipper, as he thought Bill would aggravate Mabel more than amuse her… That had not been the case.

Both of them were practically friends by now, and Mabel dropped by more often on his shifts and for longer… No doubt because of the handsome blonde. When Bill had heard that Dipper was getting dragged into the party, he had insisted upon bringing the brunette as a date. Mabel had squealed in delight at the idea and Dipper had to shush her. After all, he did work in a library.

After a lot of conversation, and persuasion from Mabel, Dipper had let in, but not all the way. Bill had insisted on getting the brunette from his small apartment, but he wasn’t quite there yet… Instead, they were going to meet in the party, and hang out until Dipper or Bill were to leave, but not together… Not unless it was warranted.

As he finished looking himself through Mabel’s mirror, examining the clothing she’d chosen for him tonight, he turned to look at the door. Some parts of it felt tight and uncomfortable. She had assured him that it was how ‘fashion’ worked, and that he looked amazing with her chosen clothes on. 

She had given him tight black jeans to wear with a white button-up shirt that had an open waistcoat over said material. The brunette wanted to desperately close it up, but she had insisted that it looked great that way. It had only made Dipper feel twice as nervous as before… Which didn’t help things, to say the least.

It didn’t take long for the twins to proceed after that. It was a twenty-minute walk from their apartment to the party, which made it easy for the two to get back in a hurry… Just in case. Mabel had promised she wouldn’t bring a boy back home tonight or be loud with them if it were to happen - it had been her sacrifice for getting Dipper involved in the first place. She had whined about it, but eventually agreed… She could do it another time.

With that being said, when they got to the party, Bill was at the door waiting like a gentleman, which took Dipper by surprise. Mabel noticed him first and giggled with glee. She was fully aware of the blonde’s advances toward her brother and was up for it! She kept encouraging him since the brunette hadn’t really met anyone and had a relationship… He’d always been ‘too busy’.

As soon as Bill noticed him, his face brightened up as if a light had turned on, and he walked his way over to the two, who were taking their time (much to Mabel’s annoyance) walking towards the party. It didn’t take long for Bill to arrive.

“Well well well! Look who we have here!” Bill said as he began to play with Dipper’s hair which had been sorted out by Mabel earlier. The brunette thought she’d get angry, but just seemed happy when she saw it. With a grin on her face, she left, going inside the party. Dipper didn’t know how to react. 

“Stop it…” Dipper mumbled back, as he half-heartedly tried to push the blonde back. He only giggled in reply, but after another minute or so, eventually pulled back. “I wasn’t sure whether you were actually going to come without fuss, or whether I’d see your sister drag you along!” Bill cackled, grinning at the brunette as his face began to resemble one of a tomato.

“Shut it, Bill! You’re lucky that I even came,” He angrily replied, and it seemed to ease the blonde. “That I am! Shall we go inside? I heard they had killer alcohol,” He said, smiling brightly at the young brunette. Quietly, he nodded and without question, Bill took his hand and began taking him to the entrance.

Dipper would have objected, had they been in any other situation, but Dipper would probably never walk through the entrance if he wasn’t being dragged. He wasn’t a party animal like everyone else. As soon as he came in, the two were hit with a loud noise that had barely been heard through the doors, and it caught Dipper by surprise.

Bill laughed as he turned to look at the brunette’s reaction, and it only made him feel twice as embarrassed as he had felt previously. “Let’s go get the drinks!” Bill shouted over the loud music. Without speaking, Dipper nodded, knowing he wouldn’t be heard in this environment easily. The blonde led him towards the counter and let go of his hand to pour a drink.

Bill gave him a plastic cup filled with whatever had just been in the jug he’d poured from, which made Dipper feel uneasy. What if it had been tampered with? The brunette shook his head as a way to ‘dissolve’ the thought in his head and took a sip of the alcohol. Bill watched his expression as it turned from one of unease to disgust at how potent it was. 

The blonde grinned and took a sip of his own, but his face stayed unchanged. How he could do that was a mystery of its own. After that, it was like a whirlwind. The alcohol was extremely strong, but not spiked, as Dipper found out later in the night. The brunette at first wanted to stay on the sidelines, talking, but with enough alcohol in his system, the two ended up dancing and having fun.

After a few hours of this and merciless drinks, the brunette was struggling to stay up on his own two feet, and Bill was concerned for him. The blonde had a little less to drink and could take alcohol a lot better than his date it seemed. When Bill realised Dipper needed to go home, and make sure he didn’t pass out anywhere strange, he located Mabel with a drunken Dipper clinging to his arm to make sure he didn’t fall.

When she saw the two, she beamed, it seemed as if they had gotten closer together, and she was thrilled at the sight. “Hello! How are you two?--- Oh goodness, Dipper?” She said, realising how gone he was. He moved his head to look at his sister. “Hiya Mabes!” The brunette replied, looking as if he was happy on life.

“I’m gonna take him home, could you give me directions?” Bill informed, glancing between the twins with a small smile across his face. Mabel turned to the door and frowned slightly. “Are you sure you don’t want me to take him back?” Mabel asked with a hint of concern in her voice. Bill shook his head. “No–” He began but hiccuped accidentally midway through his sentence. He quickly took a breath and continued speaking. “I’ll take him, Dipper’s the only reason I came,” He finished, turning back to look at the brunette.

Dipper was watching Bill as if he was the sun in a dark room, which surprised Mabel when she turned to look at him. “Alright then…” She said, unsure of what was going on between the two. She quickly told him the directions, and said she’d be following his path on her way back, so if he got lost she’d find him. Bill quickly assured her that he’d make it fine and the two shortly left after.

What was a twenty-minute walk there turned into a thirty-minute walk back, mainly because Dipper kept almost falling over. Bill eventually found the apartment and took the key from Dipper, who kept babbling what the blonde thought was originally nonsense. But it wasn’t until he kept trying to bring him to his bedroom that Bill heard what he’d been yearning for months.

“You know,” Dipper casually began, with a big grin on his face. Bill moved his head slightly as they got closer to his room, to show he was listening. “I’ve liked you for a while, you were annoying at first but then—” He stopped midway to hiccup and clutch his stomach. “But then you coming to see me started… Started…” He lost his sentence midway and began to look a little lost as he tried to think of the right words.

“It’s okay Pinetree, as long as I know you like me,” He chuckled back, bringing the brunette to his bed. The blonde sat him down, detaching Dipper from his right side. The brunette put his entire body on his bed and relaxed. “I’ll get you a bowl and some water for the morning,” He quietly replied, knowing things wouldn’t be fun.

Dipper didn’t seem to hear him as he closed his eyes in his bed. Bill quickly got everything prepared. He found some paracetamol and put it down next to the water on the brunette’s bedside table as well, just in case. After everything was sorted Bill moved to the couch and settled down there. He didn’t want to leave just in case the brunette needed him during the night. He had no idea when Mabel would be returning.

As Bill began to go to sleep, what the brunette had said whilst he was intoxicated truly started to set in that Dipper liked him.

[fereality-indy]

Wendip Week 2022 - You Belong With Me

Set in 2022, Wendy, Pacifica, & the twins are all at Willington U. Pacifica is going for her bachelor's degree in business. Mabel is attempting to dual degree in teaching and child development. Wendy is going for her bachelor's degree in forestry after working two years with her dad to save up for college. And Dipper is juggling a bachelor's degree in archeology, being a division 1 track star, and a girlfriend.

Everything is going great, except Wendy has a problem.

Wendy's problem is that she is not the girlfriend...

________________

Prompt - On 4 Wheels

April 16th, 2022 45 minutes outside of Spington, NV

‘Ugh, not again.’ Wendy groaned internally as she tried to not listen to Dipper’s side of the phone conversation he was having with his girlfriend. But it was hard. Here he was having yet another disagreement with miss priss about why they hadn’t made it to the Springton U’s track field yet, never mind the fact that they were in the convoy with the rest of the track team. And also never mind the fact they still have a hour and a half before they were supposed to be there. Just because the cheer coach wanted her squad there early to get some practice in before the match, Kayla expected him to be there with her. It doesn’t matter to her that the track coach wanted Dipper and the team to arrive together. If Wendy wasn’t driving right now she would have rolled her eyes at that one. But she was and so she instead decided that while he was looking out the passenger window, she would “accidentally” turn the radio up.

She heard Mabel and Paz snicker in the back as Occam’s Raybands’ “3ating Pi” started blaring throughout the microbus. She nearly regretted it as she saw Dip jerk away from his phone for a moment before he started trying to placate “Her Raven Priss-ness”. This really shouldn’t be bothering her, but since the beginning of last year (ok, longer than that even, if she was being truthful with herself) she’s realized that things have changed for her. She had been ok with just being friends (especially since she was the one that had told him she was too old for him that first summer), but that summer before they all back went to college she finally decided to tell him how she felt. Unfortunately the twins arrived to town after visiting their parents, he hit her with the news he had a new girlfriend who would also be heading to Willington U in the fall. She told him she was happy for him and they continued to hang out the rest of that summer but inside she was torn up.

“Sorry man, I thought you were done with her.” Wendy said as he got off the phone, “I mean I know this is one of your favorites, so I thought we could rock out to it to hype you up for the race.”

“That’s okay, Kayla was just wondering how long it was going to be until we got there.” Dipper said as he slid his phone into the pocket of his vest.

“Broseph,” said from the back seat, “you know we can hear your side of the call and as loud Kayla was we heard most of her side too.”

“Well…” Dipper started as he rubbed the back of his head.

“Dipper, I really can’t see what you’re doing with her.” Pacifica cut him off, “Yeah, she’s cute but she’s also a self serving, stuck up lil b…”

Mabel had quickly gotten her hand over her girlfriend’s mouth before she finished her thought. “Paz, Com’on you know how I feel about cursing, no matter how much I agree with what you’re saying.”

“Alright,” Pacifica said as Mabel removed her hand, “Just think about it, Dipper. And remember that’s coming from me.”

“She’s not all that bad,” Dipper responded causing Wendy to roll her despite the fact she was driving.

“Look Dip Dop,” Mabel said in a placating tone, “we know you want to believe that, but you’re talking to the three people who probably know you better than you know yourself. You’ve been mopping around for really most of the semester and don’t try to deny it. You didn’t even want to checkout the rumor of the sasquatch that’s been seen near campus recently.”

“And you blew off last week’s DDMoreD session cause you didn’t feel like it.” Paz added whilst twirling a lock of her hair “Poor Dylan had worked so hard on the adventure too. He was crushed that we had to cancel cause our tank wasn’t going to be there. I was gonna to get give you a piece of my mind, then Mabel told me you had gotten into another fight with the dye job diva.”

By this time Dipper had shifted in his eat so he was mostly facing the rear passengers. Shaking his head he said, “Man, I’ll have to apologize to Dyl. I didn’t mean to upset him like that, I was just having a bad day.”

“You’ve been having a lot of those recently. And most of them are due to her prissy-ness.” Wendy said before she even realized it.

“Et tu, Wendy?” Dipper half joked/half asked.

“Dude, you blew off our last movie night because Kayla needed you to proof a paper for a class you don’t even take. I mean I could see Mabs taking a couture design class but fashion is not your thing.”

“Well she needed me to catch any errors it her writing,” Dipper explained even though he had hated missing the cheesy movie and hanging with Wendy.

“That’s a load of bull hockey bro!” Mabel said before she blew a raspberry to emphasize her point. “There’s this great function on every computer called spellcheck, I know you’ve heard of it.”

“According to Grace, Kayla just didn’t want you spending time with anyone else. Especially Wendy.” Paz added.

“Who’s Grace?” Wendy asked as her grip tightened on the steering wheel.

“Kayla’s roommate.” Dipper responded without thinking. Wendy made a mental note to have Paz introduce her to her. Dipper continued, “Guys thanks for looking out for me, but it’s ok. We’ve just hit a rough patch. Every couple does.”

“Dipperdoo,” Mabel said solemnly while pyramiding her hands, “you guys have been together for two years and she still has to come to me for any ideas on what to get you for any gift related occasion. How else do you think she knew to get you that new DD&MoreD expansion for Christmas and the hot sauce set for Valentine’s.”

“And let’s face it Dip, you’ve never been the best at figuring out the opposite sex.” Pacifica added, “ I had to kiss this beauty beside me before you realized that yes, I was interested in a Pines twin just not you.”

“Hey that was not my fault,” Dipper said defensively, “there was a lot of weird signals going around that summer. Heck, I was surprised that Lovegod wasn’t visiting the Falls at the time; I mean Candy started dating Kevin, Thompson started dating the girl from Bebblybop’s, Tambry caught Robbie cheating on her, etc.”

“Like you said, we’re just looking out for you, dork.” Wendy said while doing her best to keep her eyes on the road, she wasn’t sure her expression would betray her feelings here. She already hadn’t liked Kayla, now she was beginning to despise her.

“Well for now let’s change the subject, I’m feeling a lil uncomfortable here.” Dipper said as he turned back towards the front of the microbus.

“Just one more thing and I’ll drop it,” Mabel said. “Think about what we’ve said and ask yourself, do you want someone doesn’t know you well enough to figure a simple gift or maybe someone who not only knows your favorite song, but also your favorite food and even your favorite movie.”

Mabel noticed Wendy stiffened a lil at the remark, but as usual it went over Dipper’s head. She may not be as observant as her brother when it comes to mysteries, but she’s a professional matchmaker and when it comes to romantic feelings it’s hard to hide them from her. She had thought for awhile that maybe Wendy was finally gonna give into her feelings for Dipper, but then Kayla popped into the picture. And while she was happy for him at first, she noticed that it was bugging her ginger friend. So she has made it her goal to see the two of them realize they were perfect for each other. Or to be more precise, to help them realize that the other already does feel that way.

True to their word they changed the subject and spent the rest of the road trip talking about nonsensical stuff and singing along to the song list Wendy had arranged for the trip.

After a half hour or so the convoy turned into the parking lot of the college sports center. Wendy quickly found a spot to park and Dipper hopped out to get together with the rest of his Division 1 track team.

As soon as he was outta sight, Wendy turned towards Mabel, “What the heck was that Mabs?”

Mabel seemingly pulled a pair of heart shaped sunglasses out of thin air and slid them on. Then she pulled them down so that she was looking over the top of them and said, “Just doing what comes naturally Wen-Wen. You need to snatch him up soon before that harpy gets her claws too firmly into him.”

And with that Mabel turned and headed on towards the line at the entrance to the stands. Paz quickly joined her girl, leaving Wendy standing there realizing she hadn’t been as good as hiding her feelings as she thought.

Dipper was still going over the conversation from the microbus when he caught up to the rest of the team.

“Hey Dipster man, thought you wouldn’t make it,” his teammate Toby said as he slapped him on the back.

Snapping back to the present, Dipper replied “I was just over there, it’s not like I wasn’t in the vehicle behind you.”

“Oh I know, but your entire walk over here you were a thousand miles away.” Toby said as he led Dipper towards the athletes entrance, “You worried about racing your old training partner?”

Perplexed, Dipper asked “Huh?”

“Don’t you remember, Malcolm transferred here when his mom got sick to be closer to her.” Toby chided, “You two are in the 100 meters and the relay!”

Dipper stopped where he was. He had actually forgotten about that, mostly since he hadn’t thought about it since Malcolm had left. Training buddy, mote like sparring partner if anything. They were always competing for spots at track meets and standings in the teams pecking order. Or more like Malcolm was. He could never stand to be second best.

“Uhm, Dip.” He heard Toby say, snapping him out of the tangent of thoughts running through his head. He turned to look towards where Toby had stopped at the exit of the tunnel they were in. Toby waved Dipper back as he continued, “You may not want to come out here.”

Dipper’s natural curiosity urged him forward. He couldn’t think of any reason to not go out to the track field. They did have a competition to win. As he got to the door way Coach Auburn stepped in front of him.

“You know what son, why don’t you take this meet off. Maybe go get your sister and her cute friends and you all can take in the local sights.” The Coach said as he did his best the block the exit.

Wondering what in the world was going out there that would cause the Coach to suggest that he gave up the spot he had earned, Dipper ducked down between the two blocking the way and slipped outside. He took a look around and at first he couldn’t see any problem. The other visiting teams were getting to their benches, the Springton team was at theirs, the various cheer squads were over in the area, Kayla was kissing Malcolm, Mabel and the girls were just getting to there seats…

He jerked his head back towards where he saw his girlfriend kissing his old rival. He broke into a sprint towards them. Toby tried to catch him, but Dipper ran the 100 meter for a reason. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement in the bleachers but was focused on the couple. They had just broke apart when he reached them.

“Kayla, what in the seven layers of hell is going on here?” he asked as she realized he was there.

“Dipper…” Kayla started but was quickly cut off by Malcolm saying, “What does it look like Pines. You’ve come in second again.”

“Why you…” Dipper started towards Malcolm ready to thrash him before a firm hand landed on his shoulder.

“Don’t let him get to you Dip.” Wendy said from behind him, it was her hand “He’s not worth it.”

“You’re right. I’ve known he was a jerk for as long as I’ve known him.” Dipper said as he attempted to pull free from Wendy’s grip, Turning his gaze towards Kayla, “You though, I would have never guessed this from you. We’ve been through so much together.”

“I’m so sorry Mas…,” Kayla started before she just stopped and shook her head. Slipping an arm “ You know what, no I’m not sorry. It was fun while it lasted, having you follow me around like a well trained puppy.”

Dipper started at her like she was growing a second head. He jerked out of it as he felt Wendy’s hand tighten on his shoulder. By now Mabel and Pacifica had made it to the crowd that was gathering.

It didn’t seem to matter to Kayla that they were there as she continues, “But after awhile I just needed a man. I was gonna break up with you last year but my Mal here had to go take care of his mom, after all he needed to protect his inheritance.”

Kayla continued on, but Dipper stood there getting madder as Kayla spoke. He couldn’t believe all the time they were together meant nothing to her. If it wasn’t for Wendy’s hand holding his shoulder he might have done something stupid. “And to top it off, you were always going on about or spending time with that red headed tramp behind you!”

It was Dipper’s turn to hold back Wendy, but they both got some satisfaction because Paz wasn’t as successful at holding back Mabel.

“You jezebel!” Mabel called out as she delivered a right cross that would’ve made Grunkle Stan proud. Kayla went down like a sack of rice.

The rest of the event ended up being fairly uneventful after that. The coach again offered to let Dipper skip the race if he wanted too, but Dip said he need to blow off the steam. The organizers did have the good decency to put Malcolm and Dipper in lanes on the opposite end of the track. At the shot Dipper tripped coming of the starting line but quickly righted himself. It didn’t take him long to catch up to and take the lead. He got bit of satisfaction in beating Malcolm. If looks could kill, neither of them would have survived to make it to the relay at the end of the meet. And while Dip’s team didn’t take first place they still beat Springton.

Dipper begged off going with the team to eat after the meet and so the four of them piled into the Dipper’s microbus. Though neither Dipper or Wendy felt like driving so he tossed the keys to Pacifica and they took the back seat. It was decided that they would grab their stuff from the hotel the team had and head on back home.

Dipper really didn’t say much on the way home and when they finally got there he went on up to his room.

[countlessrealities]

@sinruby asked: How would you describe your relationship with your family? for Mabel!

Mabel's lips curl in a pensive frown at the question. This is the first time someone asks her about her family and the relationship she has with each member. It's not like she doesn't know how she feels and what that's like, because she does, no matter how little she tries to dwell on it. She just has never been forced to put her thoughts on the matter into words.

The first person she thinks of whenever someone says "family" is, of course, her brother. Dipper is and will always be the person she's the closest to, no matter what might happen. They have always been more than siblings, after all. They are twins, best friends.

However, that's not where she chooses to start from.

"My parents are...alright? I guess. They always made sure Dip-stick and I had all the stuff we needed. Food, clothes, toys, school things..." She trails off and ends the sentence with a shrug instead. "For the rest, they are never around. They're always at work, or away on their own. That's why they sent us to Grunkle Stan's last summer. So they could go on holiday on their own."

Is that how parents are supposed to behave? She isn't sure. That's how it is in her life, and she has never paid attention to what her friends' parents are like. Aside from Pacifica's, but everyone can agree that they are not a role model.

"But it's alright. Dip-sauce and I can handle ourselves! We learnt very quickly and it's...fun, in a way. I get to do everything with my twin! And that's amazing...you would get it if you had a twin too."

She means it. She's more than content to share everything with Dipper, to be independent, to have her life with him. It's what has allowed them to live through and survive everything they have faced in Gravity Falls.

Yet, at times, she wonders.

"Then there are Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford. They weren't...great at first. Grunkle Stan was always grumpy, but now I get why. He had lost his twin and...in his way, he was trying to protect us."

Stan also doesn't have the best people skills. Not when it comes to being sincere. He's a conman, he can lie and cheat his way through a lot of situations, but when it comes to baring his soul and dealing with his real feelings? He's as emotionally constipated as someone can be. And Ford isn't any better.

"As for Grunkle Ford, he's...well, he's been away for a very long time and he hasn't had the best life, so...I can't blame him for forgetting how caring works."

A hint of gloom lingers on her features, betraying that there's more to it that she's not saying, but after a moment her expression brightens.

"We had a rough start, the four of us, but hey, what matters is how we ended up! Our Grunkles saved us all, and Dip-Dip and I helped! Grunkle Ford and Grunkle Stan made up and now they are living their childhood dream. And we can tag along! They promised!"

Her grin brightens, as if the idea of battling sea monsters and getting lost in caves populated by dangerous creatures is the best life one can have.

"I can't wait to go back to Gravity Falls next summer! Buuut Dipper and I might even get to spend our winter holidays chasing after Bigfoot!"

Much better than sitting at a table eating pre-made Christmas food and receiving boring presents. Their winter holidays have been fun only when it snowed.

"And then, of course, there's Dip-pick! He's my family. He has always been. We're brother and sister, we're best friends, we're twins. We've been together since when we were just two little cells! We're basically platonic soulmates!"

Maybe she's being naive, or perhaps too optimistic, but she believes in that with all herself. Things have been tense between them from time to time, especially after what has happened during Weirdmageddon. The trauma, the fights, the insecurities, the regrets, the guilt. They have left indelible marks on them both and loose strings that they will eventually have to deal with.

However, Mabel has to hold onto the idea that she and Dipper will get through it all because it's the only scenario she can accept.

"I can't picture my life without him. And I know he can't picture his without me."

[snekdood]

oh and by the way if i wasn’t making my posts clear enough: queer doesn’t have an appearance to me. to bigiots, they have dog whistles to signal how they perceive queer people to be and how they want other people to see them, but since im not that and i am queer, i dont subscribe to their narrative of what queer looks like (flamboyance, being dramatic, etc) and i don’t think anyone else should either bc there is no one singular appearance that screams that someone is queer and maybe sometimes ppl who dress a certain way aren’t queer!!!!!!!!! crazy i know, its an amazing vast and wild world out there !

[apinklion01]

Hallway of Possibilities

Middle of Somewhere

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@amorpho

Being the oldest sibling wasn’t the greatest thing in the world. Never had it felt more obvious the whole 40 hours Easton had driven between Amity Park and a town in the middle of Oregon called Gravity Falls.

Not nonstop of course. While Wes was in a hurry to get there to meet his online friend, he needed to rest and sleep off the stiffness in his arms. Telekinesis could only help drive the SUV so far, and Easton was grateful that Kyle decided to come along since the other had a driver’s license.

The SUV trailed along a dusty road in the middle of a large expanse of trees. Aside from a few deer and a bear, there wasn’t a change in scenery the past few miles.

“Kyle, how much longer until we get close to the Gravity Falls?” He asked his younger brother.

“Hmm? Oh, it’s supposed to appear really soon.”

“How soon?” Wes asked from behind Easton.

“Riiiight about… now.” Kyle pointed a finger to the right. At first Easton just saw a water tower with what looked like a muffin graffitied on it. It wasn’t much of a landmark.

“East, pull over,” Wes muttered.

“Why?”

“Just do it!”

He pulled over and then he saw the town.

It was in a massive crater that stretched for at least a hundred miles. Two towering ridges overlooked the place, both with a long crack as if someone struck out a piece with an ax. A railway connected both ends, making it look like the crack was caused by a UFO. The one on the right had a huge waterfall that led to a lake with a small island in the center. Closer to the middle the town sprawled out, with a river running off into the distance.

There was only one word the three brothers could say: “Whoa…”

“...How deep do you think that lake is?” Kyle asked.

“Don’t know,” Easton said. “Hey Wes, you might want to give your friend a message and ask what part of town he’s in.”

“On it,” he answered, taking a photo of the view before sending a text message. A small noise emitted from Wes’ phone a minute later. “Alright, Dipper says he’s over on the west side of town. Just keep driving to the town until you hit the fork with a sign about the Mystery Shack.”

“The Mystery Shack? That sounds wild,” Kyle said.

“Sounds like a place for tourists,” Easton added, driving the car back on the road.

“I think it is?” Wes shrugged. “He talks a lot about how one of his uncles used to own the place. There’s a lot of rumors about Gravity Falls having weird or supernatural sightings online.”

“Doubt that it’s actually true,” he muttered to himself.

If Easton had placed a bet on his words from earlier, he would’ve lost.

The SUV got a flat tire, and with a small wifi connection, Kyle had run up ahead to get to the Mystery Shack for some help. Easton and Wes stayed behind in case someone drove along.

Both Wes and him looked at their dad’s now totaled SUV in shock and horror. It was squished like an empty soda can, large hand markings covering the roof. Their suitcases lay abandoned nearby, as if whatever giant crushed the car gave them only a slight bit of mercy and didn’t destroy their clothes.

“Shit,” Wes hissed.

“Dad’s going to be so pissed,” Easton regretfully agreed with him, clenching onto his blue cap. “No mechanic’s gonna fix it up for cheap, unless we try using one of dad’s credit cards.”

“Are you crazy? If we use it in the middle of Oregon, dad’s gonna find out we were out of the house. He’ll ground me for the rest of summer!”

“You sort of set yourself up for something like this to happen,” he pointed out. “You could’ve just waited for dad to come back so he could’ve taken you.”

“Yeah, I know, I made another reckless mistake!” He yelled. Both brothers looked at each other dead in the eye. But instead of trying to fight, Wes turned away and kicked the ground. “Now it looks like we’re stuck in this town until we find a way back.”

Easton pinched his nose, took a long sigh, and placed a gentle hand on his youngest brother’s shoulder. “I know… I just got worried thinking what could’ve happened if you were still inside... If we're lucky we can find some way to make up some story dad will buy.”

Wes looked at him quietly. “Like that time when Technus tried taking over the bus system and I was inside?”

He gave a small chuckle. “Yeah, something like that.”

“Oh shit,” an unfamiliar voice said.

The both of them turned their head as a golf cart pulled over a short walk ahead of them. Inside were three people: Kyle, a redhead around Easton’s age with a blue cap with a pine tree and flannel clothes, and a girl around Wes’ age with a pink sweater, bright cyan shorts, and long blue socks.

“I thought you said that your car just had a flat tire,” the redhead said to Kyle, who pushed aside their bangs to see the wreckage better.

“Dudes, did you try moving the car to the shack?” They asked them.

“We didn’t-” Wes started before Easton gave his shoulder a nudge. “Yeah, we just didn’t expect it to roll that far down," he told his brother.

The forest near the road rested on a slight incline, so while it wasn’t hard to believe it veered downhill, it didn’t look like that was the cause of the damage.

“I’m pretty sure old man MccGucket or Grunkle Ford could fix it up if we gave him a call,” the other teen answered. “Hmm, that ain’t a bad idea, Mabel,” the redhead said, nodding along to the suggestion.

“Wait, your name’s Mabel?” Wes asked. “Is your brother by chance-”

“Dipper? Ohhhh, you must be that guy he was crazy about meeting!”

“Yeah, where is he!?”

“Back at the Shack. The minute your brother came in and told us about the car, he ran up to clean his room. I tried telling him the whole week he should’ve done it sooner, but oh well.”

“Oh yeah, he’s super psyched to meet you too,” the redhead agreed.

“Well then what are we waiting for, let’s go!” Wes said. The three brothers grabbed their suitcases and got inside the golf cart. Easton sat in between Wes and Kyle, well aware of how strong the Cain instinct could be at times.

“What’s your name?” The redhead young adult asked while she drove the cart.

“Easton,” he answered.

“Easton? Pretty weird name, but I’ve heard weirder. Mine’s Wendy.”

“You guys look like you could be related,” Mabel commented.

“Last time I checked, no Weston lived in Gravity Falls,” Wes answered.

“Wait, your guy’s last name is Weston?” Mabel giggled.

“Hey, none of us picked out our last names,” Wes grumbled.

“If we did, it would’ve been way less punny,” Kyle agreed. “Or maybe more weird, who knows.”

“Yeah, what he said.”

“Huh, congrats Mabel,” Easton said in surprise. “I think that’s one of the few times they’ve agreed on something a stranger they just met said to them.”

“I do have a way with people!” Mabel said. “Unlike Dipper, he’s more people shy than I am.”

“I get that, Wes is pretty much the same.”

“Am not!” Wes complained.

“Nah, you give off the same Dipper vibes, no escaping it now,” Wendy laughed.

Wes moaned, clamping his hands onto his face to avoid the others from seeing his embarrassment.

[goldnn-harry]

i’ve been wanting to write this for a while, so lets see how it turns out:)

(ps, harry is 18 and y/n is 17)

i haven't forgotten about your guys' requests! i'm trying to get to them i promise, but i have a lot right now and i also have tons of school! however i really love all of them, i love what you guys come up with

y/n looked over to her window when she started hearing tapping noises coming from it. expecting to see a bird, she frowned when she didn't see anything. hesitantly, she walked to her window, opened it and looked down.

“oh my god, harry?!” she whisper-yelled.

harry grinned at her, tiny rocks in his hands, and motioned for her to come out.

“no no, no way. you need to go home harry, my mom will kill you.”

“she's sleeping, isn't she? besides, that's not very christian of her,” he grinned.

y/n’s mom was a very christian woman. this meant she absolutely hated the idea of boyfriends. especially harry. with his tattoos, and slightly long hair, y/n’s  mother couldn’t hate him more.

y/n had been very clear with the fact that she didn't care what her mother thought and that she would continue to date harry as she pleased, because it was her decision and not her mother’s. that didn't mean that she hated harry any less though. and if she saw harry, right there, outside her daughter’s window at 11pm at night she would absolutely lose it.

“yes harry, she is sleeping but she could wake up you know.”

“come on love, just put pillows under your blanket and jump down. she won't wake up,” harry said. he knew she wanted to come, he wouldn't force her if she didn't.

y/n chewed on her lip. she wanted nothing more than to jump down and escape with harry for the night, but the consequences if her mother found out would be terrible. 

“we’ll be back by 2, right?”

“we can even make it 1 if you’d like.” harry smiled.

she smiled nervously at him. “fine, give me a second.”

her heart was beating ridiculously quickly, but she knew this was worth it. yes her mother would be livid if she found out, but y/n knew she couldn't let what's left of her teenage years go to waste because of what her mother would think. many teens sneak out, and she wanted to be a part of them.

she disappeared out of harry’s eyesight as she changed into some slightly more presentable clothing. she grabbed her phone and peered down the window again.

“you'll catch me?”

“of course i will.”

y/n nodded, not giving it much thought before she jumped out. she squeezed her eyes shut and braced for a hard impact, but all she felt was harry’s soft chest.

“told you i’d catch you.” he whispered and kissed her. 

y/n blushed, still getting flustered by something as small as a kiss even after 2 years with harry.

he set her down and took her hand. 

“where are we going?” she asked. 

harry motioned to the small bag on his shoulder, “i thought we could go stargazing.”

“that sounds perfect.”

the couple walked in silence for a few minutes until they reached the field they'd grown accustomed to. they walked over to the tree they always sat by and set their things down. 

harry pulled out a thin sheet from his backpack and laid it across the soft grass.

“look,” y/n said softly, “it’s still there.” she lightly touched the tree, right where their initials were carved. they'd done it on their one year anniversary. “i thought it'd would've disappeared by now.”

“ ‘course it didn't, it was there last week.” harry smiled and kissed her cheek. “come on, lets lay.”

he took her hand and laid down, pulling on her hand slightly to get her to do the same. she smiled and did what he wanted.

harry pulled her close, kissing her temple as he did so.

“look, the big dipper.” she pointed at the sky, looking over at harry to make sure he was seeing it.

“orion,” he said as he pointed to another one.

“they’re all so beautiful,” she said after they'd named all the constellations they could find.

“yes they are.” 

y/n looked over at harry, expecting him to be looking at the sky, but instead he was looking at her. 

harry leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to the corner of her mouth. “you’re so beautiful y/n.” he whispered. he didn't let her respond, pressing another kiss to her mouth this time.

“i love you,” he said between kisses.

“i love you too.” she mumbled.

harry elevated himself slightly by propping his head up his arm, giving him a better angle to kiss her.

soft kisses soon turned into a makeout session, harry on top of y/n, his hands cradling her face.

after a couple minutes, he pulled away. “mm- what's wrong?” she asked.

he layed back down by her and turned to his side, brushing the hair out of her flushed face.

“i’m not having sex with you in a field, my love.”

y/n’s eyes widened. truth is, her and harry had had sex before. it was the morning after their one year anniversary. y/n had spent the night over at harry’s house (she told her mom she was sleeping over at a friend’s) and it sort of just happened. despite both of them enjoying it, they had agreed to not do it again. they didn't want to risk getting pregnant, and besides, they wouldn't even have time to do it, since they barely hung out in a setting where sex could be possible. they usually had very few, short dates, because of y/n having to sneak around.

so when harry said that, it'd surprised her. 

“did you really think that'd lead to sex?”

“i don't know, it.. felt like it was going to.”

she swallowed, “do you want to have sex?” y/n remembered enjoying it very well, and she remembered how amazing it was, but she also remembered how scared she was for the next month, wondering if some how she had gotten pregnant. 

they were very careful and used protection, but things happened, and with her luck she’d probably end up getting pregnant. but luckily, she didn't.

harry sighed. “of course i do. i want to do everything with you. but, i know why we never did it again, and i’m okay with that.”

“oh. so you're not mad at me or anything right? for not having sex with you?”

“no darling, of course not.” he hesitated, choosing his next words carefully. “but do you really want to live like this all the time? missing out on things and having to sneak around, all because of your mother?” his words were soft, caring and tender. as if he spoke any harsher, glass would break.

y/n looked away, “no.. i turn 18 in a couple months. i’ll be able to do whatever i want then.”

“baby, do you really think that when you turn 18 your mom will let you do what you want?” 

“i- yes. i’ll be an adult.”

“yes, you will be. but you'll be an adult living under her roof.”

she swallowed. she hadn't thought of that. she just figured that when she  turned 18 her mother would have to let her do what she wanted. but harry was right. as long as she lived under her roof, her mother would have control over her.

“i don't know harry.” she said weakly.

“i hate that you have to go through this.”

“it’s not your fault.”

“it’s still not fair, y/n. your mom is a monster that doesn’t care about you.”

harry’s words were harsh, but they were right.

she turned on her side and looked at him. “i know h,” she said softly.

he sighed. “lets just enjoy the night.”

“i agree,” she murmured and cuddled closer to his side.

[flying-guinea-pig]

Not What He Seems ch.13

AO3 link

“You flew a plane,” Dipper said. 

“He almost crashed a plane,” Adams corrected, with a roll of her eyes. The chibi Alcor on the hospital monitor shrugged. “And get away from there before you accidentally up my painkiller dose. Or whatever that machine is supposed to do.”

Dipper inspected the machine and how it was connected to Adams in the hospital bed. “I think that just measures your blood pressure. See, a spike.”

[I flew it very carefully!] the kid said, jumping to another screen. [No one got seriously hurt, did they?]

Adams narrowed her eyes. “That was pure luck and you know it.”

[Well, what was I supposed to do? You were in trouble and dad didn’t answer!]

“How about not almost crashing a plane?”

“Sorry,” Dipper said. The first of many apologies today, maybe. He’d been avoiding his friends since it happened, but he couldn’t keep doing that. He shouldn’t. “Things were… a bit crazy, at the time.”

“I heard,” Adams said, and raised an eyebrow at him. “The journalists are having a field day. I don’t think there’s two of them that agree on what happened.”

As far as fishing for an explanation went, that wasn’t the most subtle attempt. “To make a long story short? The low-level demons banded together to ruin my reputation. Possessing Hicks and Thomas, pretending to be me during summonings. Making their cults team up. It was all about me. Killing my friends was apparently just a bonus.”

Adams grimaced at the mention of possession. She had her own bad experiences with it.

“I’m going to want the long version of that story,” she said, and leaned back against the pillow. “But not while I’m all spaced out on painkillers.”

“How long do you need to stay here?”

“Only until I can bully someone into releasing me.” The bandages and assorted electronics made her seem even paler. Dipper glanced at the screen the kid currently inhabited. Alvie put its hands on its hips and nodded its pixelated head.

[I’ll keep an eye on her.]

“I don’t need a babysitter,” Adams complained. 

[You were almost eaten.]

“By Freghnup, of all demons. Ugh. How’s that for ruining my reputation?”

“Don’t worry, Elisabeth, we all know you can handle bigger demons than him,” Dipper said, and felt sick to his stomach at the thought of what almost happened. “He’ll never try that again.”

Adams frowned. “Next time I’ll be more prepared.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t come quicker.” He could have. He’d seen the headlines rolling by, Beëlzebob’s grin on Thomas’s face, and he’d known he was taking a huge risk by staying in the demonology lab and stalling…

“We had it handled,” Adams said, a blatant lie. “But whatever. Thanks for the assist.”

The ‘assist’, namely dragging her from Freghnup’s mouth while Alvie had an almost literal crash course in flying an airplane.

“You’re welcome,” Dipper said, with a little cringe at the memory.

(- the passengers that weren’t passed out already were screaming, the plane was spinning, Freghnup was gnawing on Adam’s legs -)

He liked some excitement in his life. Eternity was a long time, it needed spicing up, and adventure was fun! That night had not been fun. “If you want to make a deal for healing, I’ll offer a discount, you know.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Adams said. “But making demon deals while under the influence of drugs is ill-advised. Even when it’s you. Get back to me when I’m less woozy.”

“Will do,” Dipper promised. He doubted Adams would make that deal, stubborn as she was, but he had to offer. This was his fault, after all.

“Now, I appreciate the visit, but shouldn’t you be somewhere else?” Adams said, with a knowing look. “If Strange got possessed, I’m not the only one of your friends in the hospital right now.”

“Thomas actually got released yesterday,” Dipper said. “He just needs rest, so I’m giving him that.”

“Why does that sound like you’ve been avoiding him?”

He didn’t meet her eyes, choosing instead to focus on the assortment of hospital equipment in the room. “Define ‘avoiding’.”

“Seriously, Alcor? It’s been two days already.” She softened the words with a wry little smile. “Go and talk to your friends, idiot.”

----

Thomas had never been to Hicks’s house before. It was in the suburbs, and quite small. Although the latter might be caused by the many cages and bookshelves cramped inside. It also had a distinct smell of hay and ammonia.

“Apologies for the mess,” Hicks said, as he ambled back from the kitchen with their coffees and several cucumbers. “With all that happened I’m a bit behind on cleaning.”

“How many guinea pigs do you currently have?” Elisha asked, very politely. She was perched on the chair the furthest away from the cages and doing a rather good job appearing unruffled. 

“Twenty-six,” Hicks said. He sat down gingerly, opened the nearest cage and dropped one of the cucumbers inside. The vegetable was immediately mobbed by the fuzzy little rodents, under the accompaniment of many high-pitched ‘wheek-wheek!’ sounds. “But I’m fostering another twelve  until they find good homes.”

From the other cages came complaints. Elisha met Thomas’s eyes in the cacophony, the plea obvious.

“I’m glad to see you’re feeling better, sir,” Thomas said, cradling the coffee cup between his hands. “And while I’m grateful for the invitation, we really can’t stay for long.”

“Right, yes,” Hicks said, and got up again. “Just a second. I need to keep things fair.”

His movements were restless as he distributed the remaining cucumbers between the cages. He lingered for a moment at one of them, where an especially long-haired guinea pig paused its dinner to accept some soft scritches behind its ears.

Possession injured the soul, Thomas knew. The best medicine for that was time – and spending it with those you love.

His hand sought out Elisha’s. She intertwined their fingers together, giving him a comforting squeeze.

“I am taking a short leave of absence,” Hicks said, returning to the table with a little less tension in his shoulders. “I will be able to face the demonology lab again, I’m sure, but not quite yet. How about you, Thomas? You were worse off than I was.”

Yeah. He had been. “Tyrone put me back together.”

“So he did,” Hicks said. “In either case, I wanted to be the one to tell you. You’re not suspended anymore. The summoning circle alterations have become public - for better or for worse. Together with several witness accounts of demons impersonating Alcor and how he actually averted a plane crash… Things are muddled right now, but the board has at least agreed to give you another chance. And him as well.”

“That’s good,” Thomas said, quietly.

“This doesn’t mean you have to rush back to the university,” Hicks added, understanding. “If you’re considering alternative careers, no one could blame you.”

Thomas was silent for a moment. “Barnes has taken over all of our classes?”

“Some of them, yes. The practical demonstrations have been put on hold, for now.”

He wasn’t sorry for erasing their Safe Summons List. How many of the demons on it had been involved? How many had Tyrone left alive after this stunt? 

“Okay,” Thomas said. Squeezed Elisha’s hand. “I need to think about it.”

They left a little while later. Thomas sat down in the passenger seat of The Car and blankly stared through the window as Elisha started driving.

“You’d tell me, right?” he broke the silence. “If your deal with Tyrone was something bad?”

Elisha kept her eyes focused on the road. “Is that what has been bothering you?”

“I know what a bad possession looks like, Elisha,” Thomas said. Days later, and his voice was still hoarse. As if all the screaming he’d been doing inside his head had translated to something physical. “I also know demons can’t just do whatever they want. There’s got to be a balance, give and take. Fixing me up must have been pricey.”

“Not as much as you would think,” she said, and The Car made a sharp turn, just barely missing a gangly guy in a yellow raincoat. 

“Are you going to tell me what you offered?”

“Only some of my time, Thomas.” Now she glanced at him, her expression soft. “Compared to what I gained, it was a bargain.”

Stars, his heart was going to burst. “Marry me?”

That broke the quiet tension in the car. She laughed. “That’s the plan, yes. But I never want to make another demon deal in my life. Don’t scare me like that ever again.”

“I wish I could promise that,” he said. “Might be tricky with this job, though. Maybe I need to choose something less risky, like shark-wrangling.”

“You’re going back to the university,” Elisha said, and it wasn’t a question. 

“I mean… yeah,” Thomas admitted. “It’s what I know. And I suddenly feel really motivated to try and finish that big anti-possession project. For some reason.”

“You’ll be careful?”

“Yes. And you?” His research was dangerous, and he knew it. But Elisha’s life wasn’t supposed to be. She was nearly kidnapped from a parking lot, all because of Alcor’s association with them… He couldn’t blame Tyrone for that. He owed Tyrone his life. Yet… no, he didn’t want to think about it. If he opened up that little door inside, all the emotions would come bursting out, and Elisha didn’t deserve those. She wasn’t to blame.

“I’m always careful.” Elisha patted the dashboard. “And I have this big lump to protect me.”

Thomas smiled, stupidly grateful for The Car. Then he noticed which intersection was coming up. “Could you go left here? If you don’t mind a small detour. I- I’d like to stop by the lab.”

Elisha didn’t protest, only shot him a questioning glance before turning The Car towards the university.

They stopped in front of the building Demonology shared with Cryptozoology. Thomas stayed in his seat for what felt like an eternity but was probably only a few heartbeats.

“You don’t have to do this,” Elisha said. “Not right now.”

“I do.” He unbuckled his seatbelt. Why were his fingers shaking? “I’ll see you at home.”

“Do you want me to come with you? Or I can wait in The Car.”

Thomas shook his head. He managed to push open the car door. The building loomed in front of the blue spring sky. “No, you said you wanted to get some rest before everyone arrives. I can make my own way back. Go home. It’s fine.”

“Thomas…”

“It’s fine,” he repeated. Looked up at the building. There was plenty of movement past the windows, and while he was watching a group of Cryptozoology students exited the front door, led by Banerjee, all of them chatting and geared up with boots and shovels. It was a far cry from the emptiness of that night. “I need to do this by myself.”

She knew him too well. “Are you going to summon any demons?”

“Only the one.”

So busy, at this time of the day. So many people, most of which he recognized. Students, other faculty. All faces he’d seen before. Yet he couldn’t help but flinch a little when a red-robed silhouette approached – only to have it turn out to be Miss Su, one of his first year students, wearing a long red coat. 

He ducked into a less crowded hallway and told himself he only did that to avoid difficult questions. Not for any other reason.

The door to the demonology lab accepted his badge. He pulled it open and took some time to stare into the dark depths. The police had been here, of course. There had been an investigation, but ‘demon deal gone wrong’ was nothing new.

There had been an attempt at cleaning up, Thomas noticed, as he descended the stairs into the lab. Must have been Barnes, not many others had access to this place. Alcor’s summoning circle – the real one – was dismantled neatly, the sigils scrubbed away and the candles back into their storage closet.

Thomas closed his eyes. Took a deep breath. 

It was just a room. A room where he had spent so many hours, working on interesting deals or doing research or just joking around with Tyrone. 

Alright. 

Just a room.

Armed with chalk and candles, he kneeled on the floor and drew a summoning circle. The bag of gummies flared blue when he sacrificed them, the acrid smell of burning sugar wafting through the air. 

“Hi Tyrone,” he said. “Can we talk?”

Tyrone appeared above his symbol, his feet yielding to gravity. “Believe it or not, I was actually waiting in your apartment. Hi, Thomas. How – how are you?”

“Not great.”

“Oh.” Tyrone fidgeted. “Before you say anything… I’m sorry. Okay? It’s because of me you got involved in this, and Elisha and Adams and everyone, and I’m not asking for forgiveness, but I just want to say it’ll never happen again and I completely deserve your anger.”

He’d stepped out of the circle during that little rambling speech, and flopped down on the edge of the workbench. 

Thomas pushed the stack of notes aside and sat down next to him. “I’m not angry about that.”

“You aren’t?” Tyrone side-eyed him. “But you are angry.”

“Your special demon senses telling you that?” Thomas snarked. The lab was empty, aside from them. No sneering demon, no red-robed enemies. Just him and Tyrone. “You stayed.”

“Well… yeah.”

“You don’t get it. You stayed. Here, with me. While our friends and who knows how many other people could have died.” Thomas clenched his hands on his knees, the bitterness thick on his tongue. “How could you ever think I would want that?”

“Thomas –“

“The entire time I was screaming at you to go,” Thomas interrupted, without meeting Tyrone’s eyes. “But you didn’t hear me. You stalled. Everyone I love could have been dead by now.”

At least Tyrone had the decency to not deny it.

“What do you want me to say?” Tyrone broke the sudden silence. “Our deal meant I couldn’t act against any other deals made in this building, as long as they involved demons from the Safe Summons List. I had no idea how many Beëlzebob had made here - with Hicks, with other demons. I could leave you here, sure. And it might all be for nothing, if they were also protected by that deal! And it wasn’t your life in danger but your soul, which is even worse but we didn’t put that little detail in that stupid clause!” 

Tyrone was growling now, a deep rumble. His fingernails sharpened into vicious black claws. “He threatened to destroy you if I left. At least here, I knew I could do something.”

Thomas considered those words. The frustration in Tyrone’s voice. It was easy to think of Alcor as all-powerful – he certainly did his best to keep that reputation alive. But he too had his limits, made mistakes.

“I’m just glad you didn’t give him your true name,” Thomas said. He rubbed his face. That would have been a disaster. “How did you know it wasn’t me?”

“That was easy,” Tyrone said, and met his eyes. “You would never ask for it.”

No doubt. Only an absolute certainty. It was a heady feeling, to be trusted that much. Did he even deserve it? He made mistakes too…

“I suppose I can’t stay mad at you,” Thomas sighed. He could hold on to the anger or let go. No choice at all, really. “You did save my life. And my soul.”

“I wish I could have done more,” Tyrone said, and now the void crawled higher on his arms, overtaking his shirt sleeves. “There just wasn’t any time to think.”

“Everything did work out okay.” Somehow. Stars, he didn’t want to think about the alternative. 

“Beëlzebob was here. The hardcopy of the Safe Summons List was here. If there was any way to break that web he built, I had to do it here.”

“Tyrone, you don’t need to keep giving me reasons,” Thomas said, quietly. “It’s okay. Well, it’s not okay exactly, but… we’ll get there. I understand.”

“Do you have any idea how difficult it was?” Tyrone said, his expression bleak. “To just… have to trust that they could survive on their own, at least long enough? I don’t want to lose any of you. And Beëlzebob ma̘̩d̠̲̫̬̗e͕̲̟ ̥̱̙̳̫m̤e ̼̯ch͔̦̬͔͔o͓͚̯̠̥͈̫o̥͇̙̪̳͕̞s̤̹̞e̜.”

“Speaking of him,” Thomas said, with a shudder he couldn’t entirely suppress. “Is he dead?”

“Y̮̲̦͎e̦̼͙̫̩͍̽ͅs̙̗͓̬̋͌.̤͕”

“Good.” Thomas took a deep breath. He’d expected it, sure, but hearing it confirmed did finally quiet the little part of him that had started screaming during the possession and hadn’t entirely stopped since. “And the others who were involved?”

“Right, I wanted to talk to you about that.” The void withdrew, and Tyrone’s expression turned somewhat sheepish. “I may have come to the conclusion that this was kinda my fault too?”

“What, you mean deliberately terrorizing all the low-level demons?” Thomas said, with a wry smile. “Why on earth would they decide to team up and take revenge?”

“Yeah, but demons don’t team up,” Tyrone said. “They just don’t. And this was a stupid plan – sure, it would piss me off, and then what? They knew it wouldn’t kill me, only make me angrier. Our deal might protect them for a little while, but eternity is a long time. Especially if Beëlzebob had succeeded in killing you – I mean, you wouldn’t be able to fulfil your end of the deal, so my part would also be null and void. This was pretty much a suicide mission for them. And demons don’t do that.”

“Beëlzebob must have been very persuasive,” Thomas said. “Or they really hated you. Or both.”

“Or both,” Tyrone agreed. “Though I think it was more fear that drove them, not hate. You know, the classic fight, freeze or flight response. Drive anything in a corner and it’ll lash out.”

“It almost sounds like you’re planning to let them live.”

“Actually, that’s what I wanted to ask you,” Tyrone said, surprisingly. “Obviously I can’t let all of them live. Freghnup actually hurt Adams, I’m not that forgiving. But apparently most of them just spied on us a little. And what will happen if I kill them all? The rest of the demons will only get more afraid.”

“More likely to lash out,” Thomas understood. He offered Tyrone a faint smile. “Look at you, learning lessons and all.”

Tyrone grimaced. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

“So what is your idea? I don’t know anything about internal demon politics, so I’m not sure how I can help here.”

“You need to rebuild the Safe Summons List, right?” Tyrone tapped his claws on his knee. “Let me help with the recruiting. That’s the least I can do. We figure out a deal to offer them that soothes their nerves a little.”

“Join up and play nice or get eaten by Alcor?”

Tyrone grinned. “Needs some work on the wording, but yeah. Basically.”

“You really think that will make them less afraid?”

“It gives them the option to not get eaten.”

“Ha! Sure. It’s worth a try,” Thomas admitted. “And speaking of deals, I’d like to annul the one we have, if you agree?”

“We have a few ongoing, you’ve got to be more specific.”

“You know which one I mean.” Thomas clenched his fingers, the memory of what happened like an ache under his skin. “I still owe you most of twelve hours. When that’s settled, that deal ends. You’re welcome in the lab whenever, Tyrone. Clearly I can’t do this job without you.”

“Don’t blame yourself,” Tyrone said. “Hicks was the first one to get tricked, and he’s way more experienced than you are. You were all just unlucky.”

“Still. If you’re going to play nice with the others on the Safe Summons List – if we manage to rebuild it – then there’s no reason you should stay out of the lab.”

Training wheels back on? Did he lean too much on Tyrone? Could he do his job without the big bad Alcor to watch his back?

Maybe. But while he might be a good demonologist without Tyrone, who exactly was he proving it to? Even if he could do it alone, that didn’t mean he had to. 

And together they could do so much more.

“Okay,” Tyrone said, and met his eyes with a quiet smile, as if he understood the words Thomas had left unspoken. Thomas had never gotten confirmation if he could read minds or not, but at this point Tyrone probably knew him well enough that it didn’t matter. “Consider it done.”

There was one other thing to be settled. “There’s another deal I’d like you to adjust, now we’re at it.”

“Oh?”

“The deal you made with Elisha,” Thomas said, fidgeting a little. “I don’t know the details exactly, but since it involves me – let me pay the price, alright?”

“Sorry, no can do,” Tyrone said, but with a small grin. “You’re a good guy, Thomas, but your people skills aren’t so great. Besides, Elisha doesn’t need you to play the white knight for her. She’s got this.”

“It’s not dangerous, is it?”

“Difficult, maybe. Time-consuming, probably. Dangerous? Nah.”

“Alright then.” Thomas jumped off the workbench. He felt lighter as his feet touched the floor, a weight fading from his shoulders. “You’re invited to dinner tonight. Brad is bringing take-out, Chinese I think. Maybe some poker afterward, or a movie.”

“Right. Do you happen to know if, er - they’re angry at me?” Tyrone fidgeted. The claws were gone now, and he looked very human and surprisingly young. “For, you know. Not saving them.”

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Thomas said. He softened his words with a little teasing. “I’m pretty sure Rainbow Basher is their absolute favourite right now, but second place isn’t too bad.”

“Funny.”

“Everyone survived, Tyrone. If they’re angry, at least they’re alive and might get over it. But I doubt it will be as bad as you think. Have a little faith in us.”

“Faith,” Tyrone repeated, and why did he suddenly look so determined? “Maybe I should, yeah. Thomas?”

“Yes?”

“It’s time I told you about Gravity Falls.”

Thomas paused. “I already know about Gravity Falls. Little town in Oregon, probable origin of the Transcendence? I’m familiar.”

“It’s where I lived, you know,” Tyrone said. His eyes were a burning black and gold but his gaze was distant. The third eye on his forehead shimmered into existence - open, wide and terrible. “In the beginning, when my sister was alive. Over the centuries I've trusted quite a lot of people with this secret. It didn't always end well."

“Don’t tell me,” Thomas interrupted him, desperately. “Don’t tell me because you’re feeling guilty. You don’t need to do this.”

“No,” his friend said, quiet but firm. “I want to tell you.”

----

[mrpenguinpants]

Childe/Tartaglia: “Enemies” to “Lovers”

Aww, thank you 💕💕 All of you are so lovely ;-; Coming out from the bushes and attacking me.

Have you guy’s seen the Childe trailer? It’s in Chinese but holy shit I want him?? Who is Xiao anymore? WHAT ARE LOYALTIES??? I’m gonna ATTEMPT to roll for Childe. I love snake two faced characters so much.

I’ve never written for Childe before and there’s not a lot to go off on but I will try my best. Honestly, he’s like Dazai 2.0 for me lol.

I’m not sure what scenario you wanted but since I’m hard simping for this man, I made this a lot a bit self indulgent. I actually had a completely different idea so that’s where the enemies to lovers title comes from before I scrapped it. Now if you’ll excuse me, here’s your 2k words of food.

Update: Guess what? You’re getting a part 2. Don’t know when but now I have a taglist if you want to be added and tagged when it comes out 

---

Childe/Tartaglia: “Enemies” to “[Lovers]”

Childe silently hops over the wall and onto the roof in the dead of night. The moon was shining high, casting dark shadows that he slips in between them as he eyes his destination. An open window leading to an important personnel. Usually, he would send an agent to observe, but once he learned who this secret person was, he decided to take it into his own hands. To stretch his muscles a bit. His hand quickly caught the edge of the window sill as he raises himself and drops into the spacious room. He whistles lowly as he looks around. This was a big room but it wasn’t that much of a surprise, considering who was staying here.

“Thank you, have a good night.”

His head perks up as he hears a voice and steps into the shadows of the room. He can faintly make out an outline of a body behind the sliding doors and stands back, out of sight. He watches as the doors slowly open and the person he’s been looking for steps in. One of the leaders of the Qixing. As soon as the door’s close behind you, your shoulder’s finally relaxed before turning around to walk to the other end of the room where a large mirror was placed. You loosen the pin holding your clothes up, finally ready to get rid of these heavy clothes. He quickly averts his eyes but your voice once again breaks the silence.

“Do you make it a habit of watching others without their knowledge or are you going to say something?” you ask as you turn around as your eyes roam around what appeared to be an empty room. He weighs his options before shrugging and stepping out into the moonlight with his arms raised in mock surrender.

“I swear I would look away. I’m a bad guy but I’m not one of those types. I promise!” He laughs casually despite the circumstance, “I’m surprised you noticed me. But I suppose one of the Qixing would be capable of such an act.”

“Oh no, you were perfect. You just came at a bad time. But who are you? You don’t act like an agent” you eyed him carefully as you fiddled with your pin.

“I’m Childe, one of the Fatui’s Eleven Harbingers,” he replies giving a mock bow in your direction. He watches your reaction to see if you’ll panic and call for the Millelith. Instead, you simply nod along and you’ve stopped fiddling with the pin on your clothing.  

“Ah, I’ve met a few of you Harbingers. You don’t look like one” you remarked as you turn around once again to finally undo the pin. Childe quickly turns his gaze away as you settle the heavy clothes on the table to fold. You pull your inner clothes closer to yourself to keep warm in the chilly room.

“I’m a bit too young to see their way of thinking. So I don’t fit in well with them,” he shrugs unbothered. He’s never liked the other Harbingers anyways, “I wasn’t aware that the Qixing had other leaders present.”

“Well, the Qixing prefer to keep things somewhat discreet-”

“Yaoguang? Is everything alright? We heard voices,” one of the Millelith cuts you off as both Childe and your eyes dart to the paper screen door. Childe steps silently towards the window sill, ready to escape if needed. He would have to do a lot of unnecessary explaining if he were caught and the Qixing were already suspicious of the Fatui.

“Yes, I’m alright. I haven’t heard anything at all. Are you sure you are alright? Maybe you should rest,” you quickly walk to the door and slide it open just enough for the Millelith to see your face. The Millelith shakes his head and quietly apologizes for disturbing you before leaving.

“That looks like my cue to go, it’s getting pretty late anyway,” Childe smiles as he ducks under the window sill and gives a small wave back to you.

“Have a good night Childe.”

“You too, Yaoguang.”

---

“Don’t you think the Qixing are a bit too secretive?”

You turn around to see Childe sitting on the window sill as he ponders the thought. His right leg is resting on his left knee as his arm hold’s his chin as he stares at the wall in front of him. You give him a quick once over before going back to what you were doing, polishing your pin.

“Are you sure one of the Fatui should be saying that? Your organization plays with deceit and trickery” you laugh quietly to yourself as you place your pin in a old wooden box. It looked out of place in the room with the crude drawings and chipped paint, but Childe thought it suited you.

“Hey, I don’t agree with those methods at least! I’m here in front of you, aren’t I? But what about you? Aren’t you keeping me a secret from the Qixing?” he grins mischievously as he directs his attention onto you. Your back to still to him but he can watch your face in the reflection of the mirror. He’s not sure if he should commend you on your relaxed expression or the fact that he could easily kill you with your back turned.

“Mm, perhaps. But I enjoy this. You may not believe me but I think of you as a friend Childe. A personal secret of mine.” you say amused as you look up into the reflection of the mirror and manage to catch his surprised expression before it disappears.

“A friend? We’ve barely known each other,” he looked at you incredulously but with a wry smile, “I might seem nice but I’m still a bad guy.”

“A lot of people in Liyue don’t appear as they seem. But I don’t consider all of them as bad people. Don’t you think so Childe?”

He doesn’t say anything. You never mention it again.

---

“I have a younger sister who is an astrologist,” you say as you’re lying back on the bed while he sits on the window sill, “she’s the one that gave me this pin except her pin is red with the star and moon.”

You held the pin up for him to take and look for himself. He slips off the window sill and walks to your lying figure to take hold of it. It was a blue pin with a star in the center and the sun’s rays lining the edges of the rim. It was a bit worn but it was in incredibly good condition. He’s seen how you look at the pin so he’s not surprised.

“Astrology huh? Aren’t you Qixing named after the Big Dipper’s stars?” he asks as he hands the pin back to you and watches your eyes take a childlike gleam. He huffs a bit amused under his breath, you always seem to get like this whenever he let’s you ramble about stars.

“Yes, Yaoguang is translated from the Alkaid star. Alkaid derives from the Arabic phrase meaning "The leader of the daughters of the bier". The daughters of the bier are the three stars of the handle of the Big Dipper, Alkaid, Mizar, and Alioth. While the four stars of the bowl, Megrez, Phecda, Merak, and Dubhe, are the bie,” you ramble on making different gesture as you continue your mini lecture, “Tianquan and Yuheng are the stars Megrez and Alioth. They are here in Liyue too but Tianquan will be the one that preforms the Rite of Descension. It feels as if I’m attending my sister’s talent show even if Tianquan is older than me.”

“Hm, I’ve never looked into studying the stars. I’m more of a fighter,” Childe comments as he hears you laugh that you’re not surprised. He looks towards the moon and see’s it’s his time to leave. You give him a small wave as he starts back to the window sill before giving a small comment over his shoulder.

“You know I also have a younger sister.”

“Is she aware of what you do Childe?”

“No, of course not. Does your sister know what you do?”

“No, she doesn’t know either.”

---

“Can I see your mask?”

He unstraps it from his head and hands it to you as he watches you run your finger around the intricate details before moving it over your face. You’re both seated on the bed this time beside each other.

“I don’t understand how you can fight wearing this,” you say as you squint your eyes through the opening of the mask. He chuckles softly at the weird expression before plucking his mask out of your hands.

“Hm? I thought the Qixing were capable fighters?” he asks as he reattaches the mask to the side of his head. He rest’s his chin back onto his hand and settles back into his comfortable position.

“Yes, Tianquan uses the geo element while Yuheng uses electro,” you list off on one hand.

“What do you use?” he asks.

“Who knows” you answer.

He pouts a bit which you have to stifle your laugh at. It’s somewhat amazing how far he’s gone with this. He’s pretty busy managing business behind the scenes and getting on friendly terms with that funeral parlor man, Zhongli was it? Yet, he finds himself back here whenever he get’s a free night.

“I’m sorry for laughing but I never thought you could make such an expression. But I’m being honest. I can’t use a vision so I don’t know,” you shrug as you lie back down and close your eyes. Childe nods along even though you can’t see him. He had always thought the pin you carried was your vision until you let him hold it for himself.

“If you joined the Fatui. We could give you a vision,” he says as his gaze almost pierces through you but you continue to look unbothered. Your eye’s still remained peacefully closed.

“It’s the night before the Rite of Descension. It will be a busy day so you should get some rest before then Childe”

---

It was the day of the Rite of Descension and he had yet to see you. He knew you would be observing but wouldn’t you at least be at a vantage point where you could view the entire ritual?

“Excuse me, have you seen the Yaoguang?” he asks one of the Qixing attendants but she only looks at him confused. He’s not that surprised about that either.

“Yaoguang? I’m sorry but that leader isn’t here in Liyue right now. Did you mean to ask for Tianquan Lady Ningguang perhaps?” she attempts to correct as she gestures to the middle of the stage, where the white haired woman was standing.

“Yaoguang isn’t here? They haven’t appeared at all these past few weeks for the Rite of Descension to observe?” he asks again but the lady shook her head as he chuckled. So not even people closest to the Qixing knew that one of their leaders was being impersonated.

“Oh, sorry. Yes, I meant for Tianquan Ningguang. Sorry, these star names are a bit hard to wrap my head around” he laughs it off before walking away before the lady has time to respond.

“She is busy preparing for the Rite of Descension so she won’t be seeing anyone anytime soon. Perhaps after the ceremony if it’s urgent?” she still calls out to him before going back to her responsibilities.  

Tartaglia nods as he waves goodbye before continuing on. He never cared for the Rite of Descension but maybe today will be interesting. He spots two familiar faces in the crowd trying to get to the front to see the Rite of Descension. They seem to be friends. He laughs to himself as he reminisces all your past interactions with him. He’ll find out sooner or later who this mysterious Yaoguang impersonator is. After all, the walls have ears.

---

Part 2 perhaps? Depends on the feedback I get on this. I read about the big dipper for this fic. 

[lordofhunger47]

My take on Mabel's controversy:

Ugh, here we go again: I find amusing and ironic that Mabel apologists keep defending her and antagonizing whoever shares a different opinion about Mabel that's not adoring her blindly, yet THEY are the ones bringing up this topic OVER and OVER and OVER again, and go as far as mock and insult everyone, to the point of calling scumbag and laughing at whoever disagrees with this, all over a fictional character, and worst of all is that some people AGREE with this treatment.

This has been going on forever, but I'm going to answer anyway:

1. "Bruh, she's 12". Yes, and so is Dipper (main protagonist), and Pacífica (secondary character), even Gideon is 9 years old (main villain from season 1), and that was NEVER an excuse for them not facing consequences for their actions and progress as characters and learning lessons. That's ALL we were asking for Mabel to go through.

2. The problem isn't that Mabel is selfish, that's a flaw that makes her reallistic, and that's great, the problem comes when she is being constantly selfish and instead of facing consequences and learn from it, she gets away from it scott free and learns nothing.

3. Dipper WAS sacrificing everything for her: his time with Wendy, his pool job, the laptop, going to parties with his new friends, his apprenticeship for her. Dismissing his sacrifices with "he was never gonna get with Wendy" and "staying with Ford was a terrible idea" only shows how hypocrite you guys are being with him. Mabel wasn't going to ever gonna get with ANY of her crushes either, yet that never stopped her from placing her random crushes of the week above her brother over and over again and get away with it, not to mention ALL the terrible ideas Mabel committed through the summer like drugging Tambry and Robbie or trapping the entire town in a time bubble. Dipper's apprenticeship with Ford was his dream, he litterally said it was the best day of his life and he was totally on board with it, he only backtracked for Mabel.

4. She might not know at first, true, but she knew the rift belonged to Ford (Blendin told him himself "your grunkle won't even notice"), she knew it was in Dipper's bag for "saving the world or whatever" (her actual words that same morning), gave it away to Blendin, you know, the time traveler guy that tried to kill her and Dipper twice a few weeks ago, and agreed to trap the entire town in a time bubble against their will forever, she knew all of that and she was totally okay with it. That was basically repeating the same thing she did in The Love God, Boyz Crazy and Sock Opera in a nutsell and proving she had learnt nothing. And it's even worse when AFTER she finds out about Weirdmaggedon, she doesn't even react or care, rubs in her brother's face a mocking clone she created to replace him, and refuses to go out to save her friends and family from the apocalypse she unintentionally helped to create and threats to kick him out in the apocalypse unless he gives up his apprenticeship, and only agrees to come back with him after he does what she wants him to do, and NEVER apologizes or shows a pinch of remorse after all of this, she doesn't even admit or tell anyone her role in the apocalypse.

5. Because she constantly has proved that she doesn't care about Dipper's feelings, or at least not more than she cares about herself since she places herself always first: she is the one constantly causing her brother's insecurities, ditching him and throwing him under the bus whenever a better plan or idea comes for her, even if that ruins an amazing oportunity of happiness for her brother, but she is quick to guilt him into doing what she wants whenever he wants to do something she doesn't approve of. And again, being 12 is not an excuse when Dipper is also 12 yet the show expects him to be the mature one exclusively but gives Mabel a free pass to be as inmature and irresponsible as she pleases with zero consequences.

6. If to prove your point you HAVE to insult others calling them scumbags and laugh at them, then you only prove how weak your arguments are, because you've ran out of them.

what I critize about her is how the writers turned her into an author's pet and people are willing to call anyone scumbags over not adoring 100% the fandom's favourite teddy bear.

[slapshot-to-the-heart]

road less travelled - m. tkachuk

I was throwing together a list of ideas yesterday, and this one stuck out to me for some reason. So I started writing, thankfully had a pretty free weekend, and finished today! It was a fun piece to right, I hope you all enjoy it! As always, I read all my tags, so reblogs are a writer’s best friend! You’re also more than welcome to come into my inbox and yell at me if that’s more your speed.

word count: 4.5k+

March 18 (thurs)

Elsie couldn’t believe she had gotten herself in this situation again. Every time she woke up in his bed she swore it was the last time, but one drunken mistake turned into another, which turned into a threepeat, and now she wasn’t so sure it had been a mistake in the first place. There was just something about Matthew Tkachuk, something so intoxicating that she was able to ignore the every fiber of her being that was screaming at her to stop this, stop things before it turned sour. Stop it before her brother found out. 

It had been easy enough to keep things from Johnny when they first started hooking up; they’d meet at a crowded bar, somewhere where the cover of anonymity was all but guaranteed, or a late-night text, a few words by the other communicating everything they needed to know. He was lonely. And Elsie Gaudreau was the only one who could help. It had been easy enough to keep things from Johnny at the start, but then they started texting before 11 PM, and then they decided they were exclusive, and then, Matty decided that it was about time that they put a label on it. And suddenly it wasn’t so easy to keep their secret anymore. 

The team knew that he was seeing someone, but much to everyone’s surprise, he had said precious little about their relationship. He called her Leigh in the locker room, or out with the boys — her grandmother’s middle name, one he felt toed the line as well as possible between complete fabrication and some semblance of the truth — and they knew the couple had been together for a few months, that she made him laugh, and that he was more into her than they had seen him act with anyone in recent memory. She didn’t come to events because she was shy, Matthew said, and he didn’t want to subject her to the kind of spotlight he knew she might be scrutinized under the moment they went public. He wasn’t lying when he said she’d been to games — Elsie usually made it to a few a month, usually on Johnny’s invitation — but left out the part where she wore the number 13 in the stands instead of 19, or where she caught a ride home with her brother after media availability instead of her boyfriend, the man she’d been sleeping with for the past five months. 

“Leaving already?” Matty mumbled, slinging one arm over her waist as Elsie tried to sit up. 

She twisted over, kissing him softly. His stubble tickled her cheek. “Got class, remember?” Of course he remembered. Class was the whole reason she was in Alberta; most of it, at least. She had done her undergrad in astrophysics at Wellesley in Massachusetts, and when the time had come for her to decide where to do her graduate studies, Johnny had been all too quick to offer up Calgary. “It’s a great program!” he had said. And it was, but Elsie also had her doubts that her brother knew much about astronomy beyond the ability to find the Great Dipper on a clear day. They had always been close, even when he went to go play in Dubuque when she was 13, but their time together had naturally been more than a little limited ever since he turned pro. So when the opportunity arose for them to be in the same city full-time for the first time in a decade, he was jumping at the prospect of being able to look after his younger sister again. And, especially after he offered to pay her tuition, she wasn’t about to say no. International fees didn’t come cheap. 

Matty groaned, pawing at her hand as she got up from the bed, throwing the covers back over him. “Do you have to go?” he whined. 

Elsie rolled her eyes. “It’s an 8 AM, and it’s,” she glanced at her watch, “already 7. I’d love to stay in bed with you, babe, but I’ve still got to eat and get dressed and grab all my stuff. Plus, it’s at least fifteen minutes to drive and find a place to park, so I’ve got to build that in too.”

“I still think it’s dumb that they make you pay to park at your own school. You’re already paying tuition, plus you TA that one course, so it’s not like you’re doing nothing for them,” he said.

“It’s dumb,” she agreed.

Matthew clicked his tongue. “It’s highway robbery, is what it is, Els.”

She laughed, bending over the bed to run a hand through his curls. She loved those curls. “Be that as it may, Matty dear, I’ve still got to get there on time. Experimental space physics waits for no man.” 

He pouted. “Fine.”

Elsie shot him a sympathetic look. “I’ll try to swing by after my classes let out, how does that sound?”

“Can’t. Johnny and some of the guys are going to be over after morning skate, we’re going out to lunch then they’re coming back here. I’ll call you if they don’t stay too late?” he proposed, looking over at her. 

She gave a tight smile. “Works for me.”

---

Matthew couldn’t believe he had managed to keep things from Johnny for as long as he had. As pretty much anyone could tell you, he was the world’s worst secret-keeper off the ice, and even more so when it came to his friends. And every time Johnny would lean over to him in the locker room, showing him a picture Elsie had posted on Instagram, or recount a story from the intro astronomy class she TA’d, he had to bite his lip and pretend like he hadn’t been the one to take the picture, or he hadn’t been the first to hear about the kid who didn’t believe you couldn’t see the Southern Cross from Alberta. As much as Matthew hated it, he knew that part of what made his relationship with Elsie so exhilarating was the illicit nature of the whole thing. Something about sneaking around with your best friend’s little sister made everything that much more exciting. 

The first time they hooked up hadn’t been a mistake, but it hadn’t been planned in any possible sense of the word. Elsie had moved to Calgary in August, a few weeks before everyone had stated trickling back into Alberta for training camp. Matthew was pretty sure it was mostly Johnny not wanting her to only be surrounded by “space nerds” — his words, not Matty’s, because while he had endless admiration for his sister’s dedication and academic skill, he understood approximateky 0.2% of what she was studying — all day, so by late September or so, she had established herself as a core member of the Flames’ “going-out” group. Which led to one particular night at a bar in October, with Johnny having already headed home thanks to an early breakfast with his fiancée and most of the rest of the group leaving around midnight. And it was a Friday, so Elsie had let herself have a few more drinks than usual; the team didn’t have practice until noon, so Matthew let himself shrug off any worry of a hangover. And Matty and Elsie already knew each other, so they got to talking, then they got to drinking, then they got to kissing. And then Elsie cancelled her Uber to get into Matthew’s, and before she knew it they were stumbling through his doorway, her fingers tangled in his curls and her legs wrapped around his waist as he walked her back to his bedroom.

There were a few people who knew the truth, and only a few people. Matthew had Brady and his mom. His logic being, as soon as Brady knew he was even vaguely interested in someone, he never took no for an answer and would have annoyed her name out of him regardless of whether or not he was being particularly forthcoming with any personal information. His mom because if he needed any advice, if he needed someone to turn to that wasn’t the incredibly vague commentary he gave the boys in the locker room, he wanted to have someone there who wouldn’t judge him and would have his best interests at heart. Okay, scratch that. Chantal definitely judged him, lifting her eyebrows over FaceTime as he called to break the news. She knew Elsie from the one trip with Johnny she’d made out to St. Louis and the times the Tkachuks had travelled up to Canada to visit the boys, and as much as she told Matthew that keeping it a secret was just about the worst thing he could do to his friend, she couldn’t say she was exactly surprised he had fallen for Elsie. 

Elsie had Ines, her best friend from college. It was easier with her, much more straightforward with a lot fewer of the conflicts of interest she felt she got with talking with anyone in the “hockey world.” Ines knew hockey, she obviously had met Johnny and some of the other boys before. Wellesley was only a twenty-five minute drive away from the Boston city center, so the one time a year the Bruins played Calgary at home she’d go with Elsie. But Ines was compassionate, objective, and one of the smartest people Elsie had ever met in her life. She didn’t have any stake in the matter that wasn’t named Elsie Gaudreau, and she wasn’t about to mince her words because she was afraid of what Matty — or Johnny for that matter — would think. So there were people who knew, but the list was very short and, at least for the time being, they wanted to keep it that way.

For anyone on the outside looking in, who didn’t know them as well, they might have said that it was a long time coming. “It” being Matthew and Elsie’s relationship. And, if she was being honest, Elsie might have agreed. She knew Matty since he joined the team; he and her brother were thick as thieves from the beginning, and he’d visited them on the East Coast pretty much every summer since his rookie year. Visited Johnny. Not her. Johnny had made it crystal-clear from the beginning that under no circumstances was their relationship ever allowed to proceed beyond friendly. 

And it didn’t. For four years, almost, it didn’t. Sure, Elsie may have carried a torch for him from the moment they were introduced, but she was far too concerned about Matty’s physical and mental well-being to pursue anything. Even if, once or twice, she could have sworn that he felt something too. But then she moved to Calgary for grad school, and Johnny started bringing her out with the boys, and she finally got to see him in his element, really in his element. She got to see Alternate Captain Matthew Tkachuk, the one who’d go to the ends of the earth for his team, who would score goals and drop gloves and do whatever needed to be done whenever it needed to be done. And it didn’t hurt that Matty looked hot as fuck whenever he got into fights, his curls flying as he stuffed his helmet under an arm, skating over to the penalty box. It only hurt that she had let herself fall for him.

March 22 (mon)

Johnny was over at Matthew’s apartment; he had come over under a pretense of going over some tape from their last road trip, but it had quickly devolved into a very heated game of Super Smash Bros before the pair took a break for dinner. “Dude, your laundry’s in the way,” Johnny said as he made his way to the bathroom, Matthew staring at the half-cooked pot of pasta on his stove. 

“It’s clean, you can just dump it in my room,” he called down the hall. He didn’t hear the tell-tale click of the bathroom door, so he looked down the hallway, only to be greeted by a site he hoped he’d never have to see. 

A conspiratorial grin on his face, Johnny held a black, lacy pair of panties between two fingers. His sister’s panties. The half-second it took for Matthew to reach, jumping forward and grabbing them out of his hands, unfortunately wasn’t enough. He held them behind his back, almost as if he was hoping that if Johnny couldn’t see them, they weren’t really there. 

“Leigh’s?” he asked, raising one eyebrow. 

Matthew rubbed his temples with the hand that wasn’t holding the panties. “Yeah. Just...Pretend you never saw those, okay?” 

Johnny rolled his eyes. “Who would I tell? The boys? They wouldn’t care. You? You already know. Elsie?” Matthew froze. “She’d just slap me and get mad at invading your privacy.”

“And you are,” Matthew mumbles, stuffing the panties into his back pocket. 

Johnny’s brow furrowed; he leaned up against the doorframe. “Seriously, though, Chucky. What’s going on with you and this girl? You know everyone respects your decision to keep things quiet and private, but I’m your best friend on the team.” The look on his face betrayed the hurt he felt inside. “I would have thought you’d say something, to me at least.”

Matthew let out a deep breath. How was he going to talk his way out of this one? “I know, and I feel bad that it seems like I’ve been keeping things from you.” But he was keeping things. Very important things. “I think with Leigh and I, we just want to take things slow, make sure what we have is real. And I think it is,” he said, hazarding a glance at his friend. “I don’t know if it’s love, yet, but I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way about a girl before. But we both agree that we need to know before we open it up to the opinions of the rest of the world, before she gets shoved into the public eye. And she understands what that’s like better than most, but it’s still not fair.” 

Johnny’s ears perked. “Better than most?” Matthew froze. “What is she, like an Instagram model or something?” 

He smirked, pushing him with one hand. “No, she’s not.” 

Johnny realized quickly that he wasn’t going to be getting any more information out of Matthew anytime soon, so much to his chagrin, he dropped it. Johnny left Matthew’s apartment that night with a weird taste in his mouth, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was. And he didn’t like that. 

April 3 (sat) 

Everyone was at Gio’s house, one of his quarterly team barbecues that had quickly become one of Matthew’s favorite things as soon as he joined the team. By “everyone,” that meant the players and their families, kids, partners, parents if they were in town. Johnny hadn’t invited Elsie — he assumed she’d be getting ready for finals, which was true, but Matthew knew she could have spared an afternoon — and Matthew couldn’t think of a way to invite her himself without arousing suspicion, so she was back in her downtown apartment while the boys were busy grilling up an inhuman amount of meat for dinner.

After everyone ate and the dishwasher had been loaded, someone decided to light the fire pit, and the conversation turned to relationships. For once, Matty didn’t tune out.“It’s the little things, you know?” Gio said, tipping back his beer. “When I see Lauren in my jersey at the games, or when she’s fallen asleep on the couch waiting for us to get back from a road trip. Makes you realize that what really matters isn’t so much how many goals you score or how big a contract you have. It boils down to the quality of people in your life, and we’ve got some good ones.” 

“It’s the same thing with Leigh and I,” Matthew said. His words caused everyone to listen. There were precious few times Matthew willingly volunteered information about his relationship, and as much as his teammates genuinely did respect their penchant for privacy, that didn’t mean they wanted any fewer details. “Sometimes when she stays over and doesn’t have anywhere to be the next day, I’ll walk out to the kitchen and she’ll just be dancing around the stove, making pancakes and singing along to a Fleetwood Mac song. Usually takes her a minute or two to notice me.” 

The guys laughed, and Matty took a long pull of his beer. He wasn’t really risking anything by saying that. Plenty of people liked Fleetwood Mac. “And she’s got this little scar behind her right ear, got it from falling out of a tree as a kid. She always tries to cover it up, but I like it better when she lets it show.” Maybe it was the alcohol, or maybe it was Matty’s frustration about not being able to say anything about the woman he was falling in love with finally coming to a head, that made him say something he maybe shouldn’t have. 

He realized, as he hesitantly met Johnny’s eyes, and could see the gears in his head turning, that he definitely shouldn’t have said anything. Johnny was looking in between his beer and Matthew, then Matthew and his beer, then his hands and Matthew’s, which were tapping nervously on the arm of his deck chair. And then he started to put things together. The orange blossom soap at Matthew’s apartment — Elsie’s favorite scents were citrus. Fleetwood Mac was one of her favorite bands. Their maternal grandma’s middle name was Leigh. And the scar. He remembered the day she got it, falling off an oak tree in their backyard in New Jersey, running into the house to get their mom and then in the car to the emergency room with a six-year-old Elsie who needed four stitches from the accident. And with an extremely uncomfortable feeling, he realized that that more likely than not, that meant the pair of panties he had picked up that one afternoon in Matthew’s apartment had been hers. He wanted to throw up. 

Matthew was sweating as Johnny finally looked him in the eyes, realizing that the secret he and Elsie had tried so hard to keep for so long wasn’t going to be a secret much longer. “Matthew,” he began, his voice dangerously low. Matthew winced. He couldn’t remember the last time Johnny had called him by his first name. “Her name’s not Leigh, is it.” He said it like a statement, because, well, it was. He knew the answer, he just needed to hear it from someone other than himself, that the one thing he had asked of his best friend had apparently proven too much. 

Matthew shook his head slowly. “No.” Everyone else’s eyes flitted between the pair, Markstrom and Gio and Andersson and everyone else very clearly confused. 

“Something going on here?” Gio asked carefully. 

“Tell them what her name is, Matthew.” Matthew squeezed his eyes shut. If he didn’t see everyone’s reactions, everyone’s disappointed faces, maybe they wouldn’t happen. 

“Elsie.” 

“Elsie what?” he prompted. 

“Elsie Gaudreau,” Matthew finished. You could have heard a pin drop, the backyard was so silent.

 “Dude, you’re dating his sister?” Noah asked. 

Matthew nodded, one hand still tightly gripping his bottle. 

“How long?” Johnny asked, looking him straight in the eyes. 

“Just under six months,” Matthew admitted. 

He sucked a breath in. “You’ve been dating my sister for six fucking months and nobody ever thought to maybe, I don’t know, tell me?”

“It didn’t start as dating, we were just—” 

Johnny cut him off. “I can see where that’s going, and I don’t want to fucking hear it, Matthew. This was the one thing I asked you to not do. You’re a fucking All-Star NHL player, Matt. You could have any girl you wanted, you could wheel half of Calgary and I wouldn’t care as long as everyone was into it. But my little sister? The one person I told you years ago was off-limits? You had to fall for Elsie?” 

“I—” Matthew stammered as he set his drink down. “I didn’t expect anything to happen. Neither of us did. But then it did, and I fell for her, and for some ungodly reason she’s decided to stay with me, and I don’t know, Johnny,” he finished weakly. “I felt terrible about keeping it from you, and for what it’s worth, Elsie does too. I feel awful about how you found out, you deserved better than this. But I won’t apologize for my feelings.”

Johnny scoffed, standing up and grabbing his keys. “She deserves better.”

April 4 (sun)

The first thing Matthew did the next day was go over to Elsie’s house. He had already called her the night before to tell her what happened; even if he didn’t, she had the numbers of half the guys on the team and more than one had texted her to check in after seeing how Johnny left things. When he opened the door, Elsie wasn’t doing well, to put it mildly. She was sitting on her couch, wrapped up in a blanket with a barely-touched mug of tea on the coffee table in front of her. She gave him a weak smile as he walked over. “Hey.”

He bent down, kissing the top of her head. “Hey, Els. How are you doing?”

“Not great.” At least she didn’t try to hide, not like it would have been any use with Matthew. He could read her almost as well as her own parents could. “I tried to call him last night and this morning, sent a few texts, just trying to explain. Asking to talk. But he hasn’t responded to anything, I called my mom and she said she hasn’t heard anything either.”

Matthew sat on the couch beside her. “He hasn’t talked to Gio either.”

She rested her head on his shoulder; his fingers carded through the soft hair at the base of her neck. “I feel like it’s my fault,” Elsie said despondently. Coming in between her brother and one of his best friends was the last thing she would have wanted, and she was starting to feel like everything was falling apart because of her. “It never would have happened if I wasn’t there,” she mumbled into Matty’s shoulder. 

Matthew immediately shook his head. “No, no, don’t say things like that, babe. It’s not your fault, don’t put all the blame on you. Everyone dropped the ball on this one, and you shouldn’t have to take responsibility for how your brother decided to react.”

They were jolted out of their relative peace by a frantic knocking on the door. Elsie furrowed her brow. “I’m not expecting anyone?” she questioned as she threw the blanket off of her lap, She opened the door to see Johnny, staring bashfully down at his hands, an apologetic look on his face. 

“I’m sorry,” he said. 

Elsie raised her eyebrows. “You should be.” After a moment, she stood aside to let him in the door.

He scratched the back of his neck, avoiding Matthew’s eyes. “I talked to Mom, she kind of chewed me out about the whole thing. Not talking to you when you called or texted, the way I kind of blew up at you yesterday,” he nodded at Matthew, “but mostly the leaving. Neither of you deserved that. You deserved to have a chance to sit down, explain yourselves, and have an adult conversation.” A flash of regret shot through his eyes, which steeled again as soon as he saw Matthew’s arms around Elsie, who had returned to the couch. “But that doesn’t mean I like it. I’m still pissed that you went behind my back, and that you two decided to do the one thing I asked you not to do, and how you blindsided me—”

“You’re not my dad, Johnny. You don’t get to decide how I live my life,” Elsie said sharply.

He screwed his eyes shut. “I know, but I love you and I don’t want anything bad to happen to you, and—”

“No more ‘ands.’ I know you don’t like it, Johnny. You’ve made that much very clear,” Elsie said in frustration. “Pretty much everyone knows that if you could make a list of guys you wanted to date your little sister, Matthew Tkachuk would be in last place. But just think,” she paused, looking up at her brother. “Think about all the things you said to look for in a guy when I started getting old enough to date. Divorce who Matty is from your feelings about us being together. You always gave me three things. Someone who cares about me. Someone who respects me. And someone who’s honest.” Johnny nodded, his hands in his pockets. “Matty is all of that and more, Johnny. He treats me better than anyone I’ve ever been with, and I love him. And that’s what you’ve always wanted for me. Nothing more and nothing less.” 

Johnny leaned up against the bookshelf. “I guess you’re right.” 

Elsie cracked a tiny grin. “I’m sorry, what was that?” 

He groaned in response. “Don’t make me say it again, I’m not going to.” She shrugged. He looked between her and Matthew, sighing. “I overreacted, and I’m sorry about that. If you love him,” Elsie smiled, “and he cares about you,” Matthew frantically nodded, “then there’s really nothing more I could ask for. I think it just hurt that you two felt like you couldn’t come to me as soon as things progressed, as soon as you got together.” 

“We were afraid you’d react like you did,” Elsie said, reaching over to grab Matty’s hand. “We never wanted to hurt you, and I might only be speaking for myself, but I think I was worried you’d try to come between us, or say something about the relationship, or…” She trailed off. “I don’t know. Sure, you shouldn’t have reacted that way, but you’re not the only one to blame. We shouldn’t have kept things from you, or from Mom and Dad for that matter.” 

Johnny laughed. “Honestly? I’m pretty sure Mom called it from the beginning.” Elsie frowned. “What do you mean?” “You know when Matty came over to Jersey in the summer when you guys were about 20, and we all took that vacation on the beach?” She nodded. “There was one time when she saw you together, running into the ocean together. You were laughing as hard as I’ve ever seen you, Matthew was splashing water back at you, and you kept trying to tackle him into the waves. Mom, Dad, and I were back up on the beach. She just looked at you two, looked at me, and smiled.” 

Matthew rubbed his thumb over the back of Elsie’s hand. “You think she knew?” he asked curiously. 

Johnny nodded. “I think she knew even before you guys figured it out for yourselves.”

“How could she tell?” Elsie asked. 

Johnny gave a soft smile, looking over towards the couple. “You’ve never been a good liar, Elsie. And you can’t hide love.”