I'm not sure how to explain how this story came to be. But meh, I can't help but cross these two shows together based on the possibilities it can hold. And on top of that, this gives me a chance to try a couple idea that is incredibly different from what I see done in other Fanfictions. I'll get more into that later, but for right now enjoy the tale of a random background character getting caught in the weird world. And I mean that quite literally.
Disclaimer: I am content with not owning We Bare Bears and Gravity Falls, because both are great on their own as is.
Ticking.
As repetitive as it was, the ticking of an old clock managed to keep a young man awake. A large yawn escaped his lips as he contemplated taking another dose of Espresso. Taking off a blue cap and scratching his scalp, the man could feel a heavy weight pressing on his back. 'Just gotta stay awake for a few more minutes… You can do this!'
Slapping the sides of his face a few times, the young man began to read through a textbook, quickly jotting down notes as he took in the information. The sound of his pen scrapping against paper drowned out the ticking of the clock as well as the nagging thoughts of sleep. After finishing the notes, he sighed in relief as his arms went limp. For a few minutes, the man just sat there in relief. His mind fading into unconsciousness before popping back out, remembering that he should pass out on his bed rather than an uncomfortable chair.
Stretching as he rose to his feet, the young man sighed as he dragged himself to his bed. Shedding a few layers of clothing, the man fell unto his bed face first, the soft fabric and familiar scent soothing him as he fell asleep.
The following morning, the young man rushed through his morning routine. Splash of water to his face, shaving razor ignored, quick rinse of toothpaste from his mouth followed by quickly dressing himself in his usual orange polo and tan pants. Placing his favorite blue cap on his head, he felt a few locks of brown hair return to their original wave. Catching the scent of something burning, the young man sighed deeply as he watched the toaster pop out two burnt pieces of toast. Shaking his head, the brunette reached for his backpack and made his way out the door.
Stepping out onto the street to see an immense amount of traffic, the young man swore under his breath as he saw that walking would be the better option if he wanted to make it to class on time. Course he could have taken the option of ditching class altogether, but the costs of skipping didn't outweigh the benefits. A small, foul scowl spread across his face unknowingly as his thoughts ran to his roommate always going in late for classes. As much as he hated the bad habits of his roommate, it wasn't as if he could kick him out for a new one. It would take far too long for him to find a new one when all that time could have been spent wisely on his studies.
After traversing through the streets, the young man began to notice what had stirred up the traffic jam. A Fire Truck parked in front of a building with lingering smoke made things a bit more clear. He could see most civilians around him worried over the safety of the occupants, yet the brunette had full faith that everyone was pulled out of danger in time. Continuing on his way, the young man began to grow nervous as the time seemed to pass by too quickly. Panicking, he started to dash through the streets hoping to cut through time and keep a decent attendance record.
"Mabel, can you please put that away?" A sigh escaped a young brunette's lips as he watched his twin polish a pair of glasses on the sleeve of her sweater, she had been cleaning the lenses for over an hour, claiming that they were tarnished with some sort of thick and dark dirt.
"I would if I could, I'm close to burning these things to get the dirt off!" The young woman replied, half-joking but scanning the area for anything flammable. Taking the spectacles from his sister's grasp, the young man inspected the glass.
"Mabel... These are tinted, it's supposed to look like that." The brunette woman's facial expression sent a mixture of intrigue, amazement, and confusion all at once. Taking them back and putting the glasses on, Mabel giggled as she began to view the world with tinted vision.
"I think they're also prescriptions, Dipper~!" A small chuckle escaped the brunette's throat as he watched Mabel have fun seeing the world in a much different perspective, though was quick to warn her of upcoming headaches if she kept them on.
While the two continued to walk around the campus, Dipper began to notice his sister beginning to stumble around, almost as if she was intoxicated. Shaking his head, the brunette boy advised taking the glasses off before she crashed into anyone.
"Never!" Mabel responded with a bright smile as they rounded a corner.
"Well, can't say I didn't warn yo-" A string of alternative swears finished his sentence as he fell to the ground by some large body crashing into him. As much as he struggled to get up, the weight of the other person was too much for him to lift. Many feelings began to wash over him, a swirl of pain mixed with small amounts of anger and even a hint of irony, among it all Dipper realized the impact was hard enough to knock off his own hat.
"Shi-I am so sorry about that," the larger man responded as he quickly pulled himself up off of the smaller brunette. A sigh escaped Dipper's lips as he felt the weight lift off of his body. Looking up, the young man caught glimpses of an orange shirt, yet the sun's blinding rays obscured his view. He could make out frantic motions coming from the other man, almost as if he was noticing something was missing. "Again, I'm so sorry, I'm running late!"
Before Dipper could even pull himself off the ground, the other student had picked something off from the ground and ran off. With help from his twin, Dipper rose off from the ground and dusted the dirt off his clothes.
"Poor guy, must be so stressed out right now." The brunette girl commented as she handed her brother a hat. A bit of sympathy rose in his heart as he thought about the countless times he had been over-stressed throughout his childhood. With a small bit of understanding, the anger slipped away from his mind.
"Mabel, this isn't my hat." Dipper bluntly stated as his eyes could not find the signature Pine Tree. Instead, his eyes scanned around the solid dark blue cap, the material looking a bit worn out yet still kept intact and still appeared nice.
"Looks like it to me," She responded simply, Dipper scowled slightly as he lifted the glasses on her face. "Ooooh... I'm sorry for your loss."
Another sigh escaped the thing man's lips for what seemed like the millionth time. On top of attending classes, now he had to keep an eye out for his own hat and the man wearing it.
"Let's just go, we'll find him eventually." Dipper responded as he held the hat by its bill.
Taking in a deep breath, the brunette felt a wide range of mixed emotions as he took his seat. His pulse throbbed throughout his body, the impact against the other student left a small bruise on shoulder, and the scene he had accidentally caused on his way into class didn't help. In no way did he consider himself a bad student, but at times people questioned why he would go to great lengths just to achieve something that seemed small and menial.
After his heartbeat finally slowed to a reasonable rhythm, the brunette began to pay attention to the lecture being presented. A smile spread across his face as he recognized many of the terms already. It never hurt to study ahead to be able to prepare for small inconveniences such as today's.
While jotting down details of the lecture that he had yet to fully understand, the young man began to wonder about the current state of his life. Save for the strange shenanigans involving a trio of Bears, the brunette's life lacked a certain luster to it. Recent events had caused him to reflect on himself numerous times, all of which concerning a major dilemma. Anyone could stand in the background and react to weird occurrences, but he wanted to be a part of the bigger picture. For as long as he could remember, he had a strange curse that would cause any outstanding achievement get overshadowed by someone or possibly multiple people. Causing his work to be seen as average and bland. 'Average...' The word always seemed to haunt him, the way that he could never shine from his own ability or quirks, having to hang back and never be fully acknowledged. Most of the time people referring to him as the student with a hat despite countless times sharing his name.
Closing his eyes and removing his cap for a moment, the brunette began to feel nostalgia cloud his senses as he held the hat close to him. Opening his eyes, the young man nearly swore out loud as his eyes met with an unfamiliar design. A long string of swears echoed throughout his mind as stared in shock at the Pine Tree looking up at him. A small shiver ran through his body as he began to belittle himself, a scolding for not slowing down once to even notice his mistakes.
All he could do at the moment was grieve and hope that whoever had his cap would be courteous and keep a look out for him to settle the mix up. After all, he couldn't stand the idea of losing something so precious to him. Classes seemed to take longer than usual, especially given how badly he couldn't settle down. It was as if he couldn't calm himself, always assuming that the other person would be a jerk and throw away his hat.
When classes ended, the brunette dashed out of the classroom and searched high and low for the familiar dark blue cap. Although his search was for the other student with his hat, the young man ended up finding someone that could posdibly help his search.
"Hey, Panda!" Rushing through the crowd, the brunette closed the distance and breathed a sigh of relief.
"J-Jon!? What are you doing here!?" The young man arched an eyebrow as he knew he was on the wrong end of that question. However, why the Panda was on campus didn't matter at the moment, he just wanted help in looking for his hat.
"I'm just gonna ignore that question, can you help me out real quick?" The panda bear shook slightly in nervousness before agreeing to help out his friend. Quickly adding that he should not mention to the his brothers that he was here. Although curiosity ate at Jon's mind, he had to respect Panda's one request, after all it was the least he could do for help.
"I like your new hat by the way." The brunette cringed slightly as the compliment hit his ears, though it was his own fault for continuing to wear the hat. He just didn't feel right without the feeling of something covering the top of his head. The brunette rubbed his temple as he removed the Pine Tree hat.
"About that, there was a bit of a mix up earlier and I need help finding the guy with my hat." The panda bear quietly apologized for his earlier comment and nodded in understanding. Agreeing to a small plan, the two split up to widen their search.
After ten minutes of searching, the young man felt discouraged. Fearing that he would never have his priceless hat back.
"HE'S SO FLUFFY~!" Jon froze in place as the yell caught him off guard. Searching around, the young man could make out a growing crowd in the direction of the yelling. Knowing that Panda was the 'fluffy' thing in question, he felt that he should step in and help the guy out.
Struggling to get through the large crowd, the brunette could see a young woman in a bright pink sweater clinging to the panda bear. Said panda bear having an expression so full of embarrassment that if the temperature had been any hotter he had no doubts that Panda would combust.
"Mabel! We've been over this, you can't hug everything that is cute, " Relief washed over Jon as he noticed his hat in the possession of the man beside the young woman. "Remember the Porcupine incident?"
The young woman shivered at the memory of many barbed quills that covered her arms and ruined one of thousands of sweaters. The lesson from then was rather different from the present situation, but she did understand the absurd scene she was causing.
Finding his chance, the brunette stepped in as the sweater wearing woman released the bear. Jon gave a pat to Panda's back and took a look at the young woman and man. Aside from wearing a bright sweater, the young woman had strangely worn a frilly skirt with it. A strange contrast of covering her upper body up yet allowing her legs some air. The long flowing brown hair she had reached below her mid-back and shown to be neatly brushed and treated with care.
She stood just a few inches shorter than himself, though being shoulder to shoulder with the young man proved that the two were relatively the same height, maybe a small inch separating them however it was difficult to verify. The man beside her wore a dark army style jacket, the color appearing to be a faded green with only one patch adorning the right sleeve that only read "SEES". Staring up at the young man's face, he could make out a few locks of the same shade of brown as the woman beside him. His eyes seemed to scan him up and down in a similar matter as he was doing. He could see the man's lips move briefly yet the words could not pierce his current thoughts.
"Jon, he's talking to you!" The tall brunette felt the panda bear trying to shake him out of his doldrums. Jon scratched the back of his head in embarrassment as he apologized and urged the man in front of him to repeat himself. The young man, however, did not repeat himself, instead taking the Pine Tree cap from Jon's head and replacing it with his original hat.
The tall brunette sighed deeply as he felt like a complete idiot for causing the mix up. "I'm really sorry about causing all that trouble."
"Don't worry about it, I'm sorry my sister smothered your friend." By now the crowd had first dispersed, leaving the four to stand in the courtyard with their apologies staying between them. Upon apologizing on behalf of his sister, said sibling jumped in to deny any apologies.
"It's the panda species' fault for being adorable." The response came out in such a calm manor that none knew whether to respect her argument or laugh it off. Silence soon befell the group as no one had anything else to say, though Jon noticed how Panda was trying to slyly leave.
"Oh uh, you can go ahead and do whatever you wanted Panda, thanks for helping." The panda bear sighed in relief and began to scurry off away from the crowd, giving both a wave and reminder as to never tell his brothers he was there. The tall brunette shrugged his shoulders in disinterest, though he was going to keep up his end of the bargain.
Distracted by his thoughts again, Jon barely noticed that the young woman stood beside him with a wide smile. Before he could question as to why she was standing beside him, the brunette woman reached out to touch his nose with a single finger.
"Boop!"
Scarlet began to spread across his face as he didn't quite expect any invasion of personal space. The tall brunette flinched slightly as he caught notice of her brother beginning to step between them. A small bead of sweat ran down his head as he feared he'd be threatened to stay away from her.
"Mabel, I thought we discussed about not forming anymore pointless crushes on boys, you're not twelve anymore." Jon felt relief wash over his body as he watched the two siblings argue with one another. 'Mabel... It has a nice ring to it.'
"Mabel," He whispered to himself, wanting to see how the name would roll off his tongue. As if hearing him, the brother gave a glance in Jon's direction, once again scanning him up and down. "Um, can I help you?" Being under the short brunette's prying gaze began to make him incredibly uncomfortable, it felt close to be dissected to find out how he worked.
"You fit the description of the guy that's seen the local Big Foot."
Memories flashed back in Jon's mind as he recalled the incredibly ridiculous scenario in his head. Although it was nice to see the small attention it gave him, there was still the backlash that many claimed he was lying. As well as hating to admit the incident that caused him to drop his only evidence.
"Y-yeah, that was me." The tall brunette responded, he struggled to stay calm under the other's gaze yet he couldn't help stumble over his words a bit. A short moment of silence followed before the short brunette fished into his pocket to pull out a pen and notepad. From his perspective, Jon could make out that the pen was slightly chewed up. After scrawling something on the notepad, the young man tore out the page and handed it to the taller brunette.
"I'm curious about that Big Foot and want to know as much as you can tell me about it, just call me any time later in the day and we can arrange a meeting to discuss it, now can I get your name?" Jon took the paper in mild surprise, almost forgetting to share his name with the other boy.
"Ferguson, Jon Ferguson." The shorter brunette stretched his hand out to give a formal handshake. Without the slightest bit of hesitation, the tall brunette gripped the brother's hand and shook it.
"Call me Dipper Pines."
"AND I'M MABEL~!" The brunette girl shouted as she emptied out a bag of sparkling confetti over them. Luckily their hats shielded their eyes from the festive party rain, but the sparkles did cling onto their clothing. Jon could hear Dipper apologizing on her behalf.
"She's always like this, you can easily just wash the confetti out." With that brief solution to the small inconvenience out of the way, the siblings waved to the taller man as they left the area, leaving Jon at the courtyard on his own. Covered in sparkling confetti. A small mark of embarrassment spread on his face yet again as he realized how ridiculous he must look at the moment. Shaking off most of the confetti, the tall brunette continued on his way home.
As he walked down the street from the university, he retrieved his phone from his pocket to register the number in his contacts. A small smile spread across his face as he looked at the nice penmanship followed by a signature of Dipper's name. 'Dipper...' The name itself was rather strange yet it held a nice ring to it. Rather cute even. A playful smile spread across his face as he began to think about all the possible whacky scenarios those siblings had been in. On top of that, there was a possibility of finally getting the evidence that he did in fact see the local Big Foot. The small bit of joy gave him a bit more spring in his step, making the trip home more enjoyable.
In case it wasn't made clear, Jon is the background character with the camera in Charlie and the Snake, and he has many small appearances throughout We Bare Bears. His only other slightly major appearance being in My Clique where he greets Chloe. Well, a lot of background characters reappear in that show, but I grew interested in that one in particular and ended up constructing an entire personality for him while creating millions of possibilities of the Pines twins attending CU. And then I just fell into a large hole full of lovely plots and character interactions. On top of that, although I do plan on Jon and Dipper to be a couple, it's going to be a way that seems more original and unlike any other couples I see in an attempt to break away from the typical Slash Curse that surrounds most Fandoms. I seek to make each couple I write for unique so that you can't switch them out like cardboard cutouts and still have things be the same. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the work. Also, this can be seen as the Sister Fic/Indirect Sequel to Smokey Bear, I will draw some small parallels to it but I'm not going to do too much.
Dammit, I keep forgetting to mention this. But as to why Panda was at the College, it's a small reference to Redstreak489's story We Bare Us. It is a great read, I highly advise taking a read of it if you want to see a good Panda Slash fic.