Welcome to my first Gravity Falls FanFiction. ^-^ Please leave encouragement at the end folks!
Title: Let's Make a Deal
Pairing: MaBill
Summary: Over the years, Dipper has slowly become more and more obsessed with Journal #3. Mabel worries for her twin, as she slowly watches him descent into madness. Yet will she be desperate enough to make a deal with the damned to save her brother?
It starts when they are fifteen, and Mabel suddenly realizes how different her brother is from when they were twelve and first spent their first summer in Gravity Falls.
After their first summer of fighting Gremoblins and misadventures with Soos and destroying ghosts and demons, Dipper put his journal in the drawer next to his bed, and it stays there for the year until it is time for them to return to Gravity Falls. He plays baseball after school and Mabel sets up her own fashion club, and both are happy until the year ends and they know it's time to return to their summer vacation.
They have a completely new adventure with finding more animals that can talk, and reaching a waterfall that pours Pitt Cola instead of water, and saving the town from monsters and demons and everything else under the sun. Mabel wonders how they managed to make it through the school year without her and Dipper to save them.
Pacifica is more of a friend than a foe this summer, and finds herself invited to too many sleepovers where she learns about romance novels and boy bands. Mabel ignored how much the other girl doesn't seem to get Candy and Grenda, and hopes they can all get along.
Dipper spends more time with Soos and more nights doing his late night reading, but Mabel doesn't mind, for it is so totally Dipper, and she finds that she can sleep through his muttering and gasps of delight. Though sometimes she can only get him to take care of himself if she reminds him of Bill taking over his body, and he regretfully takes care of himself once more.
He falls asleep with the journal laying by his head more often than she would like, but she doesn't say anything, and he enjoys the mystery and adventures of Gravity Falls and so does she. What more can she do than be the best Mystery Twin she can be and support him all the way?
When they go back to school, their parents let her take Waddles and Mabel practically jumps for joy, while Dipper complains with a smile on his face that now he'll have to deal with even more 'Mabel and the Hog' radio shows than he can handle. Mabel laughs and Waddles loves having a backyard where he won't get taken off by a giant pterodactyl.
Sometimes she wakes in the night and Dipper is reading, yet not his normal late night reading of mystery novels. He reads the journal and sticks notes on his walls, muttering about how much of an idiot he was for not realizing things before. She is about to get up, to tell him to go to sleep, but then Waddles cuddles against her and she falls back asleep with the words still on her lips.
Christmas rolls around, and Dipper's late night obsession becomes something quite more. He stays up late and sleeps during the day at school. Mabel worries and tries to tell him to take care of himself, but he brushes her off, and doesn't even seem to think about anything else but his journal. Mabel buys him the best set of mystery books she can find, hoping that something, anything can break him away from his journal.
The books remain untouched in the corner of his desk.
Mabel attaches herself to Waddles, always taking him everywhere she can, caring after him like a mother. Her parents send Dipper to a counselor, but he pitches a fit, and nothing changes besides a new memory of an office and a person they will never meet again. And when summer rolls around, Mabel hates the thought of going to Gravity Falls, even though Grunkle Stan and Wendy and Soos and all her friends were waiting.
Dipper only talks about the journal, and gets kicked off the baseball team. The bags under his eyes seem permanent, Mabel can't remember the last time she saw her brother sleep. The day before school ends, Mabel puts another girl in charge of her fashion club, a girl with a good heart yet a calm demeanor. The others complained that it wouldn't be the same without Mabel, yet she knows she won't be able to handle the club next year if Dipper is still the same way.
Grunkle Stan is happy to have them back, and everyone greets Mabel with the best attitude she has seen sense she left, all determined to break Dipper of his reading and dependency on his journal. She laughs and believes them.
It's the middle of July when Dipper finally crashes and sleeps for over a day. Everyone sighs from relief of a day of peace where Dipper isn't dragging them into the forest to go and chase after something completely deadly. Mabel creeps into the room, careful not to make a noise, even though she is sure that not even an earthquake would wake him. She slips the journal away from him, hoping to be able to do something, anything, before he wakes up.
The leather cover is soft in her hands and warm from where Dipper was still holding it. She flips through the pages, not expecting an answer but still searching for one in the book that helped them so many summers ago. It's been four years since that first summer, and she and Dipper are sixteen, but she wonders how much longer Dipper can last with the pressure he is putting on his body.
She finds herself staring at the picture of Bill and his wheel. Nothing else seems to have anything, unless the Squash with a human face and emotions suddenly knew how to give psychiatric advice. Mabel grabs the purple glitter pen she just happens to have on hand and copies down his summoning spell, all the while telling herself that she will never have to use it, it's just for back up, because she can't trust the being who once tried to take over her brother
Mabel thinks she hears Dipper move around upstairs so she is up in an instant, racing up the stairs and placing the journal right next to him where she found it, breathing a bit easier now that she knows he won't have a breakdown if he woke up without it.
Grunkle Stan pats her back and asks if she wants 'Stan-cakes' because those always cheer her up, and Mabel says yes because she knows that it would be strange to refuse, and Grunkle Stan can't handle more than one kid who is weird enough right now.
She ignores the paper that feels like it's burning a hole in the pocket of her sweater.