"Dipper!"

Ignore it.

"Dipper, please! Something's wrong,"

At first, I never really understood why we were sent to live with our Grunkle Stan. We being Mabel and I, and we being twelve-year-old little kids. Our time of innocence and unintelligence was nearing it's end, and fast. Neither of us saw it coming. Nobody did.

I shifted slightly and opened my eyes, prompted by that last line. Mabel was kneeling on my bed, prodding my shoulder. I frowned and sat up, crinkling my nose. "What's that smell?" I asked groggily as the smell grew more apparent.

And then Mabel was grabbing my hand and pulling me out of bed. A bright orange glow was blanketing everything in the hallway. I coughed, and covered my mouth. It was becoming clear from the overwhelming heat and cloudy air what was happening. Both Mabel and I hurried down the hall, trying our best to avoid the tendrils of fire surrounding us. The entire bottom floor of the house, to our horror, was up in flames. So we turned back. I took charge now, pulling Mabel along to the window and shouting in a frantic voice to get out onto the roof.

It was when I was making my way through the window behind my twin that we heard the sirens and watched the firetruck spin around the corner and speed in the house's direction. Mabel and I exchanged glances before sliding forward and to the edge of the roof. It was quite a drop, but the fire was inching closer, seeking to consume the roof as well. I suppose we didn't have much of a choice to jump down to the ground below. I made sure Mabel was down at the bottom, then jumped myself.

However I didn't have such a pleasant fall.

I slipped standing up and fell to the ground, landing with a crack on the cement pathway to the porch. There was a sharp pain in my arm but I ignored it, pushing myself up and looking to see the house collapse. The house next to our's was already a smoldering pile of wood.

"Mom and dad!" Mabel shrieked behind me. The thought hit me. Our parents weren't outside and they hadn't followed us out. I just stood there until the pain in my arm drew my attention. I finally looked down at it, it was bent only slightly but covered in scrapes and bruises. And then there were hands pulling us away from the flames.

A few days later we were riding in the back of black car, Stan driving at the front and telling us all about Gravity Falls.

Mom and dad weren't with us..

I gasped and snapped my eyes open.

I was staring up at the ceiling in the Shack. Letting out a soft breath I checked the time. One AM. I stood up slowly and put on my hoodie and shoes, before walking out. It had been three years since the fire mom and dad died in, and I was still having nightmares about it. It seemed so real...

I strolled down the stairs and walked out into the cool summer air. By now I knew the woods like the back of my hand, and walks usally calmed me quite a bit.

When I returned, I flicked the lamp on and began to read. Reading was my passion, I suppose. I wasn't like other teenage boys. I didn't go out and party, I never drank, played sports or video games or anything.

I didn't even like women.

At one point I thought I had some sort of crush on Wendy, one of Stan's employees, but it didn't last. I was always reluctant whenever Mabel urged me on to ask girls out, and I found it uncomfortable when they flirted with me. For the longest time I couldn't figure out why.

Until the following day.

I got up as I usually did and walked downstairs. Mabel was already dressed in one of her very, very shiny sweaters. She had never grown out of it. She and Stan were sitting at the table, Stan sipping from his coffee and nodding unenthusiastically as if he were listening to Mabel's suggestions about decorating the Shack. I couldn't help but smile at this as I sat down. I must have had bags around my eyes or something, because Mabel stopped talking to Stan as I sat.

"You alright Dip'n Dots?" She asked, ignoring my snort at the nickname, "you look tired."

"I uh...had another nightmare last night. But I'm fine."

Her face drooped into a sympathetic expression, and she nodded. The rest of the morning was quiet, even after I showered and walked downstairs to watch the television. I hated when they did this. It wasn't like the world was ending, and I didn't need to be isolated. Finally Stan told us to go open up shop, so we did. I had the job of stocking the shelves and Mabel ran the register, while Stan did some of his 'tricks' on some customers as they came through the door. By noon the shop was buzzing with activity.

I was attempting to put a particularly heavy box on a high shelf, and to be completely honest, I wasn't exactly tall enough to reach. In fact I was far from it. I strained my muscles to reach the shelf, and when I finally did, the box fell back down and landed on my stupid face. I yelped and fell back but suddenly arms were underneath my back, preventing me from falling. I blinked, clutching the box in my arms and looked up. A boy was staring down at me with a bit of a startled expression. I blushed madly realizing this boy was the only thing holding me upright, and I opened my mouth to say something but I lost the words.

The boy was lean, his blonde locks framing his face magnificently. He had creamy skin and bold eyelashes, and boy did the sweatervest he was wearing bring out his eyes. And that bowtie-

"Are you alright?" He spoke, tearing me from my thoughts. His voice was even better.

"I-I, uh, yeah, I'm okay." I croaked, continuing to stare up at him. Neither of us moved for a moment. Finally I stood up by myself and set the box down. "Thank you." I said quietly. The boy looked at me for a long time, and I almost thought something was wrong, but he smiled and nodded.

"No problem, Pine Tree." He said, gesturing to my hat. "Need some help getting that box up there?" He asked before I could say anything.

"I couldn't ask you to.." I started, but trailed off seeing that he had already picked up the heavy box with ease and set it atop the shelf.

"There. Be more careful next time. I probably won't be there to catch you." He snickered as he turned around. I noticed Mabel eyeing me from the register. Feeling my cheeks heat up, I nodded. "I'm Bill." He said, studying me carefully. "Bill Cipher," he added with a small smile. He held out his hand.

I shook it a bit to eagerly. "Ah, Dipper. M..my name's Dipper Pines." I responded.

He laughed and tapped the pine tree on my hat, "Figured." I smiled nervously and looked away. "I figured I'd drop by here- I'm new, just moved here. I wanted to explore a little, but to be honest this is as far as I got.." He frowned.

"Oh! I could, uh, I could show you around. If you want." I offered with an inviting smile.

Bill cocked his head to the side and chuckled. "You want to give a complete stranger a tour of the town? Haha, alright. You seem okay. I'm in."

I nodded slightly, "okay, can we go now or..?"

"Well we're not just gonna stand here! Let's go." Bill smiled a smile that made my insides warm, and with that, he turned and opened the door, waiting for me to follow.