Hopefully this one isn't all over the place, I don't want it to conflict too much with itself. DROP A REVIEW AND a prompt if you have one. I hope you enjoy.

"Mabel…can you…help me with something?"

The brunette looked up from her nails and stared incredulously as Dipper turned tomato from blushing. "Dipper Pines; the god of self-reliance needs MY help? Little ol' ME?" her expression of sarcastic shock caused him to cover his eyes. "Can I please just tell you what it is?" Giggling at his expression she gestured for him to sit down beside him on her queen size bed and scooted backwards.

"This better be good dork, I was in the middle of planning our next show." Dipper got to do the majority of the magic, but she got to do the stunts and he was usually too busy researching and making demonic pacts to decide what they could and should put on stage. Mabel loved planning out their act however, her creative brain coming up with genius ways to bring new amazement every week.

Dipper was careful not to disturb her papers, knowing better than to anger his volatile sister. "Well it's just…I want…I-" Mabel sighed, "Dipper, I am not having The Talk with you, if you're having so much trouble than skype dad and I'm sure he can explain about the birds and the bees." He blushed even harder and shoved her lightly, "I serious." She sighed, "Anyway, I'm not the one who wrote a diary full of fantasies about Deep Chris taking me on a romantic cruise…where we never left our rooms."

It was Mabel's turn to blush and she hit him lightly, "I don't read YOUR diary!" He rolled his eyes playfully, "That's because I don't leave personal information lying around after calling myself the "Master of Blackmail." Sighing the brunette turned back to her plans, "Also I don't have a-" She shot him a discerning look. "Do you have a point, because I'm about to kick you off this be-" Realizing that the gig was up, Dipper took a deep breath and revealed his motives in an incomprehensible string. "Ineedtoknowhowtosewforthisonespellcanyoupleaseteachme!"

Frowning, Mabel instructed him to explain again, at a slower pace. "Fine." He scratched the back of his neck as the words struggled to be released. "I need to know how to sew, can you teach me?" A grin spread across Mabel's face as she realized that in quite the turn of events, SHE had power over her brother. Ever since discovering magic at age nine, he had been the one giving the orders, teaching her and telling her what she was and wasn't ready for. "Alright. I'll do it…" He lit up, "But it will cost you…" Sighing, he raised an eyebrow. "What?" They shared all collective funds, and there weren't any objects he owned that she would particularly enjoy ownership of. "A favor…to be cashed in at a later date."

Dipper was usually quite wary about such vague dealings, he knew from experiences with demons that they rarely ended well. But he was desperate at this point. He REALLY needed to know this for an upcoming spell, and knowing Mabel, she would probably just get him to hex a girl in her ever growing social circle that talked about her behind her back.

"Deal."

"OW! Ughhh!" Mabel sighed as her brother sucked on his bleeding thumb and through the string and needle down with the other hand. "This is impossible! How am I supposed to-" She took his bleeding hand in hers and his fidgeting came to a stop.

Picking up a piece of cloth, she wrapped it around his finger. "Do you want to learn from your mistakes…or act like a crybaby?" He shook his head sheepishly. "That's what I thought." Picking up the thread and needle, she returned them to him and guided his hands with her own. His touch was surprisingly warm, and for some reason he avoided eye contact.

"There we go! One stitch." He smiled and she released his hands. "Honestly it's surprising it took this long for you to learn…" He gave her a disapproving look, and she returned it with a smile. "I meant that as a compliment silly…you're good at almost everything you do." His cheeks pinkened slightly, "Well you must be pretty good if you're able to go to the rough parts of town for the special string, fight rats for needles, and train your fingers catching fish and lock picking."

Mabel stared at him in confusion for a moment, before realizing that her piteous brother was speaking of the tasks she had used to mess around with him. "Umm Brother-dear…that stuff was...umm, just a joke."

Realizing that he had been duped, Dipper gave her a spiteful look. If there was one thing he despised, it was being manipulated. Mabel tried to hold back giggles, having always found his pouting face humorous no matter the occasion. "Oh c'mon…you deserved it after teasing me about my diary."

A smirk crossed his face, one which Mabel had by now learned to fear. "You…Sister-dear, started this with your comment about my knowledge regarding sex." She pffted, and he slipped backwards off the bed, stalking out of the room like a retreating snake. His smirk did not vanish as he left the room, and a shiver ran down her spine at his next words, "Of course you know…this means war."

As children Bugs Bunny was Dipper's favorite character on TV, he would cheer the cartoon rabbit on with violent instructions. Throughout their many prank wars, he would always repeat that same line before leaving to plan the ultimate revenge. As they had both grown younger, the revenge itself would advance in complexity and maliciousness. Of course her retaliation was usually almost as if not just as good.

After all, they could always find some other faucet of each other's personality to mock and ruin. They knew each other better than anyone else in the world. Sighing, she removed the sewing supplies and tried to focus on her long forgotten work.

It had been three days since he had promised that she would pay for mocking him, and he considered her sufficiently relaxed to be greatly surprised by his plan.

He was heading for the front door to pick up a large (but non-poisonous) scorpion, it flung open and Mabel stared at him with tearful eyes. Shocked by her sorrow, he stopped dead in his tracks and struggled for words. She hadn't cried in a long time, not since they found magic. She had become rather stoic to the majority of situations, just like him.

It was a change that he dared not let himself hate, but found slightly uncomfortable regardless.

"Mabel what-" she pushed right past him, heading straight for the bathroom. Standing still for far too long, Dipper rushed after her upon unfreezing. "MABEL!" He caught up with her just in time to stick his shoe in the way of the closing door, "Mabel…can we please talk abou-" The eleven year old raised a hand and sent him sprawling back with her telekinetic powers.

His back struck the wall, and he groaned, watching as she slammed the door closed. Jumping to his feet he brushed himself off with considerable frustration. "Stop acting like a child and open the door!" No response, besides some cluttered sobs. Realizing that he wasn't helping the situation by getting angry, Dipper took a few deep breaths and tried to calm his restless spirit.

Anger came easy to him, and calm was extremely difficult to obtain when his anxious mind was producing reasons why he should stay angry. The thought of her crying sunk in, and he banished such thoughts. Realizing what was required to comfort his sister and get to the bottom of her misery, he pressed his head against the door and swallowed his pride. "Mabel please let me in..."

The crying slowed and was followed by utter silence. Dipper waited anxiously, and his patience and humility were rewarded with the sound of unlocking. Stepping inside, he found his sister staring at the mirror with a distant look in her red puffy eyes. "Could you please tell me…what's wrong?" She gave a deep exhale and turned towards him, averting her eyes. "It's nothing. I was just being silly, can we ple-" he placed a hand on her shoulder, "Mabel. If you don't tell me I can't help."

She placed her head in her hands, and murmured a response, one which he could have sworn he heard incorrectly. "Am I beautiful?" Dipper frowned, and stepped closer to his downtrodden twin. Mabel put on make-up and curled her hair, all kinds of "girly" stuff, but she never really worried about her appearance. The mouth-breathers in school had ruined her self-confidence, but she had regrown twice as strong, able to send them into tears with a few words or even just a special kind of look. She wasn't interested in what people, male or female, thought of her. She only had so many "friends" to help their public image and to gain Intel on the older families in town.

Not to mention, if they ever needed extra blood for a sacrifice, the chatterbox tweens would come in handy.

"You're the prettiest girl in town, everyone knows it. I don't understand where this is coming fro-" She gripped his collar, "NOT pretty. Beautiful." Dipper frowned and pulled away. "Elucidate." The brunette rolled her eyes at his use of elite words and leaned against the sink unsteadily. "I saw the Northwest girl…Pazzy or whatever her name is." Dipper nodded, still unable to see where this was going. She couldn't possibly be jealous of an air-head like Pacifica Northwest, could she?

Mabel took a stabilizing breath and continued. "I saw her talking with this little…this little white haired boy…and she...she was so full of life…the way they talked, the way he listened. It was just so…she was just so…special." She turned to him, biting her own lip nearly hard enough to force blood to the surface. "Any idiot can be pretty…but she…she was unique…the way I used to be. With joy that was grounded in love for life…not ignorance like most people."

Meeting his fiery hazel eyes with her own darker ones, she let more tears slip forth. "I…I want to still be beautiful Dipper…what's the point of scratching your way to the top if you lost part of yourself along the way?" He was unable to answer the question, and almost shrunk under her gaze. Instead he stepped forward, accessing his courage from the handful of good traits that he had.

Closing his arms around her, he spoke into her ear. "You are still beautiful. You still see the wonder in the world. No one can take away that from you." He didn't know if he was telling the truth, but the idea of his sister remaining spiritually skewered was too sickening to even consider. Mabel hugged him back and only pulled away when the tears had dried, looking up at him (He was a few inches taller and she was hunched) hopefully. "I *gulp* I want to use my favor…you're gonna sleep in my bed with me tonight." She said it with the hint of the command, showing that she still held a semblance of control here. Dipper knew better than to break a deal with his sister.

Dipper was surprised, and the nagging voice of automatic logic commanded him to tell Mabel that she should save her favor, that this use of it was uncalled for and it wasn't "optimal."

Screw optimization. "OK."

She mustered a smile, giving him a thankful look before striding past him and bouncing off to get her costume on. Realizing that the show was in thirty minutes, Dipper scrambled to get dressed as well.

The show went off without a hitch (better than usual the optimistic side of him noted), and when Mabel later woke at three o'clock in the morning from a nightmare, Dipper wrapped his arms around her, and hummed an ancient and nostalgic tune until she had fallen back into slumber. She may have murmured thanks, but he didn't care.

He was too busy staring at the beauty beside him.