Mabel Pines was a strange girl.

Now, her family would never say so. Her uncles, Stanley and Standford Pines, also known as Grunkle Stan/Ford, were loving and caring, although neither would escape their pride enough to admit it.

Her brother, Dipper Pines, was similar to their uncles in the way that he would always watch out for his sister. (Though, he would admit it with pride.)

Still. Mabel Pines was a strange girl.

Not that anyone ever complained.

~o0o~

It was a normal day in Gravity Falls. The sun was shining, the clouds were fluffy, the pigs and goats were stampeding the forest like usual.

Then there were the Pine children.

Mabel and Dipper Pine we're a sort of magnet for supernatural occurrences. When they got in troubling situations, everyone knew they were better off staying out of their way.

There was no surprise when the two little rascals ran into town being chased by pixies.

"Mabel!" Dipper yelled over the buzz, "Did you get it!?"

Mabel answered back immediately.

"The pixie dust? Yeah! Got it!"

"Alright! Make sure to- Oof!"

Mabel turned around to see a face fallen thirteen-year-old boy in the middle of the dirty, rocky road.

"Dipper!" She screamed.

She scrambled back for him, then tripped on the same rock he had. Some of the townsfolk laughed at their misfortune, while others just cringed.

"Dang it, Mabel!" Dipper screamed as the Pixies came upon them.

"Sorry Dipper." Mabel smiled sheepishly.

"GIVE OUR DUST BACK!" The swarm screamed.

"This was a bad idea." Dipper sighed.

"No kidding dimwit!" A pixie in the crowd said.

The swarm of angry pixies formed various shapes of anger.

"YOU WILL NOW FACE THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR ACTIONS!" The swarm advanced and got ready to attack when-

"WAIT!" Suddenly broke out from the back of the crowd. Pixies gasped and got out of the way for their princess.

"That's just simple dull dust, mother! It has no value to us!" She exclaimed. The queen gasped.

"Amaris, you're right! I am so sorry for not seeing it sooner!"

She turned back to her subjects.

"Retreat! All of you, retreat!"

The swarm of pixies retaliated.

"So sorry, you two. My mother has been the queen for thousands of years. She doesn't have the best memory. If you're ever in trouble, call us! We owe you a favor now!" With that, the pixie princess turned to join her friends and flew away.

Dipper and Mabel looked around. The townsfolk had already turned away to carry on their business. A few still had their eye on them, but most were still laughing their heads off at the situation. The children sighed and went home.

~o0o~

"Uncle Ford! We got the pixie dust!" Dipper exclaimed tiredly.

An old man immediately poked his head out of the kitchen door. He studied the two children in the living room for a moment before readjusting his glasses.

"You're alive." He noted.

Dipper rolled his eyes and dropped the brown pouch he was holding in Ford's hands, the old man giving a yelp at the weight of the bag. He carefully opened the pouch and looked at Dipper incredulously, his eyes as wide as dinner plates.

"I'm gonna go sleep now." Dipper proclaimed, climbing up the stairs.

Ford readjusted his look onto Mable, who just shrugged.

"What?"

~o0o~

Dipper sat on his bed quickly, trying to shake off the incredible pain in his legs.

He had been like this for a week.

It had started off with a little bit of numbness at first, nothing to worry about. He figured it was nothing to be worried about. It was nothing, he told himself.

The next day, the numbness had spread. Instead of just his feet, his knees were numb too. It was spreading, that was obvious. Still, he refused to worry about it. Just a bit of soreness, he told himself. Nothing serious. He continued his adventures with his sis like always, rubbing off his exhaustion and insisting he was okay. He woke up on the third day with slight pain in his toes. AGAIN he Ignored it. Then in the middle of the day, it grew worse as well as spreading to his whole two feet. It was annoying, he admitted it. BUT! It was not unbearable. He could deal with it, he decided. It was nothing, he told himself. Nothing.

Then he woke up two days later with a blazing fire in his legs and the worst fever in his life.

He took care of himself for the first hour, (it had been midnight when he'd awoken.) but gave in to care once he'd woken Mabel by dropping the glass lamp in their room when had to lean on the table for support. Mabel had immediately sensed something wrong and had called their two uncles in as soon as she could wake them,(despite Dippers protests that he was fine, the liar.)

Dipper had been a hand full for sure. He whined and whimpered the rest of the night, reliving his worst nightmares. He screamed and cried all sorts of things, from spiders to gnomes, and the most frequent, Bill Ciphers name. That had clearly been justified.

Finally, just as dawn broke out, he calmed down and slept. Mabel, Ford, and Stan finally had a moment of rest as Dipper quietly muttered strange words from his fever induced dreams.

In the afternoon, Dipper woke up to his knocked out family members ready to ask for a glass of water. As the three tired meat bags made their way to the kitchen, Mabel tiredly explained that this was the first time in seven years that Dipper had gotten sick. To Stan, it was nothing more than senseless gibberish, but to Ford, it was something interesting to think about while making coffee.(Extra sugar, obviously)

Finally, after a few more hours, Dipper woke up for good, fever broken. After explaining what happened, Mabel excused herself to go back to bed. Stan and Ford then enlisted the help of Wendy and Soos for any additional errands, as well as taking one-hour shifts to make sure Dipper was okay. Finally, curfew came and Dipper was proclaimed independent again.

What they didn't know was that the pain in Dipper's legs had once again spread. Dipper didn't tell them anything. He refused to worry his family anymore that he already had.

One thing was for sure. The pain in his legs was NOT normal.

"Dipper! Dinner's ready!" he heard Mabel scream from downstairs.

He grudgingly stood up, fire in his every step.

"Hey Bro!" Mabel greeted. Her smile fell for a second before reluctantly returning to her face. It did not go unnoticed by Dipper.

He raised an eyebrow. Mabel ignored it.

"A-anyway, guess what we're having for dinner?!"

"Umm..."

"Nachos! Some new Nabors came in today to greet us and gave us their famous Nacho dish! At least, it was famous in their old Naborhood. I thought they were pretty cool, but Grunkle Stan said they wanted free favors. Haha, classic him, huh? Anyway, Grunkle Ford was really happy with how much Pixie dust we got for him. He said it'll be more than enough for his experiments/research-"

"Stop."

Mabel's eyes widened momentarily before dulling.

"What's wrong?" Dipper said calmly.

"...What's wrong with you Dipper?"

Dippers eyes widened in surprise.

"I'm worried about you, bro-bro," she began, "You keep saying that you're okay, but I know you're not."

Dipper smiled.

"Is that what you're worried about?"

Mabel hesitated, then nodded.

"Mabel, I've already told you, I'm fine! I'm just tired. Promise, sis! Ya know, being chased by a swarm of Pixies is really tiring." He laughed.

Mabel frowned, then smiled and sighed.

"So, what's this I hear about Nachos?"

~o0o~

She stood firm as the circle began to glow.

It had been years since she'd allowed assistance from a demon.

Sure, it probably would have been beneficial to summon them immediately, but she knew what she was talking about. She knew from past experience how tricky demons could be, how difficult.

Well, she was desperate.

She knew this particular demon would be the most beneficial. Not many knew he still existed. After his previous defeat, he had promptly disappeared from the face of the multiverse.

The circle finally stopped glowing. She breathed a sigh of relief before putting her guard back up, preparing herself for the blinding light that came with the arrival of this narcissistic demon. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes to find a faintly glowing orb in the air.

' So,' She thought smugly 'the rumors are true.'

She grinned as the orb floated down to her, stopping in the center of the circle she had so carefully drawn. The sphere expanded to form the silhouette of a certain, near omniscient demon.

The demon spoke.

"Ughhhh..."

She almost burst out laughing.

"What... where... where am I?"

She snickered.

"Well, you did take quite a beating. I don't know what I expected from a half dead demon, to be honest."

The demon snapped up to look at her.

"And it seems that you've also lost your dinky triangle eye patch, too."

"Who- who are you?" he croaked.

She grinned with pure malice.

"No one you need to know about just yet."

She removed her cloak.

"Well, glorified nacho, I'm here to make a deal."

He looked at her curiously, then attempted a grin.

"I'm listening."

ยง

Thanks for reading and have a nice day!