This was originally posted on tumblr and was written at midnight. It's the first in an upcoming series of connected oneshots of mine... beware. Beware the angst and stangst. Honestly? Rated for Stan's mouth and implied gore. Nothing explicit.

[Random Disclaimer]


Fallen

It hurt. God it hurt. He was lying on his chest and his whole body hurt.

Everything was too blurry. Foggy, hard to make out, hard to think...

'Stanley!'

Yeah... that was right. It was coming back to him.

It was a cave. They were in a cave. Some manbear thing or other that Dipper wanted to show Stanford. Stanley wasn't sure on details right now, just that he tagged along to make sure his brother didn't get the kids hurt.

'Grunkle Stan!'

Everything hurt... everything was too blurred to make sense of...

...he could remember the rocks falling... the kids easily bolting ahead and avoiding the larger ones...

'Stanley, please answer me!'

Stanford. He had stopped. Why..?

Oh yeah. They'd been fighting. He could remember the both of them yelling. He could remember that was when the rocks started falling.

'Oh my god...'

Stanley remembered a push. He'd given it. Stanford hadn't been going fast enough. There wasn't even a conscious decision involved. His brother was in danger, so he reacted.

Oh god it hurt make it STOP.

He heard a moan... was that him? Sounds were kind of making sense now...

"Stanley, Stan?! Answer me!"

There was sound but it kept echoing in his ears. God none of this made sense. He moaned again.

"You idiot! You... you didn't need to do that..!"

Huh. Sixer sounded pretty upset. Ass. That's the second time he'd saved his life and didn't even get a thank you.

Stanley suddenly become very aware of a crushing weight on his back. God it hurt oh god oh god OH GOD.

"Grunkle Stan!"

Aw hell, that was Mabel. He tried opening his eyes. Were the kids okay?

"Mmffhh..." He tried talking but it was so hard to breathe. There was something wet and hot in his throat and he could feel it spilling out his mouth.

"Oh god, Stanley, hold on tight, Dipper's calling for help!"

Help... yeah... that was probably for the best... it wasn't supposed to be this hard to breathe. He wasn't supposed to HURT this much.

Stanley finally got his eyes to open a little bit. Damn, everything was so blurry... did he lose his glasses? He could see a large shape in from of him. It was reaching towards him but wouldn't touch him for whatever reason. That was a pretty familiar sweater...

"Ssshtgh..." He barely got out a gurgle. Geez what was in his throat? Shit, trying to breathe HURT. Oh god his throat was blocked, he could feel his lungs being crushed- "Hhhggsh..!"

Stanley couldn't help it, he started coughing.

OH GOD it hurt. His body couldn't move, that crushing weight was coming down heavier with every second. His lungs wouldn't work and his mouth was filled with hot liquid-

"Stan..?!" Stanford apparently got over his indecision and reached his hands forwards to lift his head up. "Come on, don't freak out on me." Geez Poindexter sounded so worried. Even terrified.

His brother moved closer as he held Stanley's head off the ground. Oh come on, was he really putting his head in his lap? He wasn't a little kid!

Okay, that actually made it a little easier to breathe. The liquid was flowing back down. It hurt like hell to go down - crap, he could feel it getting in his lungs - but it was easier to get air.

"S-Stanley..." His brother's hand was running through his hair. Stanley thought that maybe he should brush him off, he didn't want him this CLOSE, but damn that felt good and everything else was in pain. "I'm so sorry, Stan..."

He tried opening his eyes again - when had they closed? - but they didn't get very far. "Shhtgh..." Damn, gurgling was still about all he could do.

The hand on his head paused, trembling. "Th-this is my fault..." Oh goddamnit Sixer. Stanley grunted loud as he could, eyes flickering open by pure force of will to glare upwards. Stanford gave a short laugh, voice watery. "D-don't even try. This is my fault. I started it, th-the noise..."

Damn. He was crying. Stanley's eyes wouldn't stay open. He sighed breathily, not realizing he was tilting his head closer into his brother's hands.

Everything was getting fuzzier. He couldn't focus...

"Stan?" Aw come on, he sounded so worried! Stanley was just tired. He wanted to sleep. "Please don't, I-I can't... Stanley please don't go to sleep! Stay awake, please!" Crap he was shaking his shoulder oh GOD THAT HURT.

"Grunkle Stan?!"

How could he say no to that? That was a cruel double whammy right there. His twin and great niece were ganging up on him.

Stanley managed a small grunt. He could try. He didn't think he'd be able to stay awake though.

Damn... it hurt so bad...

He was vaguely aware of his brother talking again. He couldn't hear what it was but it was... nice to hear his voice. And he was running his hand through his hair again. Man that felt good. It'd been too long since they were this close.

He wasn't sure how long they were there. He didn't really care.

Weird, all the pain was starting to go numb. Stanley knew, somewhere, that this was bad. But he just sighed in relief as the pain started to go away finally.

He tried to fight it as he started drifting off. Hell, he could hear Stanford freaking out as he was. But he couldn't stop it, he was just too damn tired and in pain.

"...Stan..?"


Pssst, please read and review! (Also psst- no worries, Stanley's not dead! Just don't tell tumblr that.)