Gravity Falls belongs to Disney.
"Dipper! Dipper! Wake up Dipper! Please wake up," Mabel yelled at her sleeping twin, trying to shake him awake.
"WH...What? What's going on," Dipper cried out sitting up, looking around in a panic, "Mabel, what's wrong?" He looked at the clock and it was a little after midnight, the full moon shining through the window.
"Nothing's wrong, I just couldn't wait till morning to tell you about the show," Mabel squealed, "Everyone loved it! Gabe was impressed and thought it was amazing! He even took me out for ciabatta, which I thought was a car or scooter or something, but it turns out it's just bread. The whole night was perfect! Now we're going to do puppet shows together!
"Wow, that's great. I'm glad you didn't wait till morning to tell me that," Dipper said dryly, still upset that she ditched him for puppets. Was some guy really more important than keeping her promise to help him find out the password for the laptop? Suddenly Dipper remembered what had happened hours earlier. He ran to the laptop and saw the access granted on the screen before showing a series of ones and zeros.
"Yay, you figured out the password," Mabel said excitedly when she saw the screen, "What was it? Password? Wordpass?"
Dipper was excited but remembered the price, "Oh no! Oh no," he said in a panic, his face paling.
"Oh no oh no? That was the password," Mabel huffed, hoping it would have been something funny or really obvious that would have really annoyed Dipper for not getting right away.
"N...No. I...I couldn't figure out the password! And...and it suddenly said that it was going to delete all the data in the laptop. I got desperate," Dipper panicked, laying down on the bed. "I made a deal with Bill Cipher..."
Mabel gasped, "The evil triangle guy? You said you weren't going to mess with him! What did Bill want," she asked. "To eat your soul? To rip out your teeth? Replace your eyes with baby heads?!"
Dipper couldn't help but let out a laugh, "That is what I asked if he wanted."
"What? No way," Mabel laughed.
Dipper chuckled then shook his head, "I wish that's what he did. Instead, he asked for my hand..."
Mabel interrupted him, "Bill cut off your hand?!
"No...he asked for it," Dipper sighed, showing his sister the ring on his finger.
It took Mabel a moment to realize what Dipper meant. Her eyes widen in shocked before she fell to the ground laughing hysterically.
The male twin looked at his sister with an angry glare, through it wasn't that menacing. "It's not funny Mabel! Bill says he plans to marry me when I'm older! What am I going to do?"
"Start planning the wedding," Mabel laughed wiping some tears away, "Are you going to wear a dress?"
"Mabel, would you please stop being useless for five minutes and help me," Dipper snapped at his sister. His face fell when he saw her hurt face and her lip wobble. "I'm sorry Mabel, I shouldn't have said that," Dipper sighed, "But this is serious and I really need your help."
"No, you're right, I haven't been a good sister," Mabel said sadly, "If I had just helped you like I promised, you wouldn't have had to make a deal with Bill in the first place."
Dipper gave Mabel a sad smile, "You can help me now Mabel. Unless you want Bill to be your brother in law," Dipper tried to joke.
"No way, who knows how he'd act at a family get together," Mabel said, "And I have no idea what to get him for gifts, unless I can make a sweater that fits a triangle."
"...Right," Dipper said, "I'll see what information I can get from the laptop. You had a long night, get some sleep."
"You should be the one getting sleep Dipper," Mabel scolded.
"I was sleeping, but I don't think I can get back to sleep," Dipper said, typing on the laptop, trying to translate the binary code. To be honest, he was worried if he slept he would meet with Bill in his dreams and he wanted to avoid him for a while.
Mabel frowned but went back into bed, tucking in her sock puppets. She tried to get to sleep but something kept bugging her. "Hey Dipper, if you do end up getting married to Bill, will you let me make your dress?"
"I am not going to answer that," Dipper said, taking his laptop to go work outside.
The night went by quickly, Dipper setting the laptop aside to watch the sunrise. He thought about going to the library later to find a book on binary code, or maybe ask Soos if he can use his computer to look up information if the library was lacking. Dipper pulled out book 3 and started to look through the pages, needing a break from staring at a screen.
Dipper enjoyed video games and TV just as much as anyone else, but he loved books. Everyone always asked him why he didn't just get tablet to download books onto, he told them it just wouldn't be the same. Dipper liked the feel of books, the weight in his hands, the smell of the pages and the sound of opening a new book. At first Dipper just kept his face buried in books to hide his birthmark, but found that he actually really enjoyed reading.
"It's really romantic watching the sunrise with you, my little Pine Tree."
Dipper shouted in shock, looking beside him where Bill was sitting. "What are you doing here?!"
"Watching the sunrise with you," Bill said, "Or I would be if you'd put that book down. I'm starting to feel like you don't pay enough attention to me."
"Okay Bill, what are you playing at," Dipper questioned once he calmed down a bit, "What's with the whole marriage thing? Why would you want to marry me?"
"I told you before that I liked you," Bill reminded, "I even gave you a courting gift of a head that's always screaming, so you know I'm serious."
"You said you liked me, not that you like me liked me," Dipper groaned, wondering why the demon triangle had to be so crazy, "And what kind of courting gift is a screaming head?"
"Would you rather have an exploding head," Bill asked getting ready to summon one up.
"No! No exploding heads," Dipper shouted.
"Okay, what kind of exploding body part do you want," Bill asked.
"I don't want exploding anything! I want to know why out of all the things you could have done to me, you decide that you want to marry me," Dipper demanded angrily. This whole thing felt like some sick joke that he didn't want to hear the punch line to.
Bill hummed, like he was trying to think of his answer, "I like you Pine Tree, I've been interested in you since you first came to Gravity Falls," Bill admitted. "You were here less than a week before you started noticing weird things. There's people who have lived here their entire lives but turned a blind eye to everything."
"I knew I was being watched," Dipper muttered under his breath then shook his head, "My grunkle Stan noticed the things, he just acted like he didn't. And Soos notices weird things too."
"Yeah, but Stan didn't start believing how crazy this place was until it was far too late," Bill said, "As for question mark...he's not really a threat. He's an overweight man child who could only get a date when a pig had control of his body."
Dipper glared at the laughing triangle, "Don't talk about Soos like that! Yeah, he's a man child, but he's a good guy who has helped us out a lot." Dipper knew Soos did mess things up from time to time, but he always there when Dipper needed him, so he wasn't going to let Bill insult his friend.
"Another thing I like about you Pine Tree, so protective and brave despite your weak noodle arms," Bill teased, feeling Dippers arm, "But you have bulked up a bit since you first got here."
"Wow, you really think so," Dipper asked excitedly, flexing his arms. He then remembered who he was talking to and got serious again. "I'm not going to let you hurt anyone Bill, and I'm going to end our 'engagement,'" Dipper said doing air quotes, then tried pulling off the ring. It wouldn't come off so he tried pulling harder.
"Careful Pine Tree, you're going to break your finger," Bill said, "That ring is stuck on you forever...or until I give you a wedding ring. Is there a difference between a wedding ring and engagement ring? I can never remember."
"I'm not sure either, I can go ask Mabel. She'll probably know, she's been planning her wedding since she was five," Dipper said before shaking his head. "I'm trying to argue with you! How do you keep turning it into a normal conversation?!"
"Heck if I know Pine Tree, maybe you just love me too much to stay angry with me," Bill teased, laughing at Dippers angry look, "Well you're about to wake up, so I will talk to you later." Bill blew Dipper a kiss.
Dipper woke with a start, book in his lap and the laptop leaning against him. He climbed back in the room, noticing Mabel was gone so he went downstairs.
"You're looking better today kid, finally get some sleep," Stan asked, noticing he had less bags under his eyes.
"Grunkle Stan recorded my puppet show, want to watch it Dipper," Mabel asked, holding up the tape excitedly.
"I'm just going to have some breakfast and head to the library to do research," Dipper said pouring a bowl of cereal.
"It doesn't open for a few more hours, you have time to watch it," Mabel said, "Take some time to relax and enjoy yourself Dipper."
Dipper groaned, really not in the mood to watch a puppet show, but couldn't say no since Mabel looked so excited, "Fine, but once it's over you have to come to the library with me to help."
"No problem brother," Mabel said, "It's my turn to be there for you, no matter how boring it is! No brother of mine is going to be forced into marriage!"
"Hah aha! Funny Mabel, lets go watch the tape," Dipper said covering Mabel's mouth when Stan looked at them funny, dragging her to the living room.
Dipper had no idea how a puppet show could last this long, but was glad that all the puppets they made got used so it didn't seem like a complete waste of time. He cheered when it was over, because he was happy it ended.
"I'm glad you liked it so much Dipper," Mabel said after Dipper cheered, "Want to watch it again?"
"Sorry, business before pleasure," Dipper said holding up the laptop.
After taking the golf cart without asking ("We're giving it back so it's not stealing," Mabel had said) and drove it to the library. There wasn't many people in there, just the librarian who was sleeping and Old Man McGucket who was eating books, loudly claiming that it was brain food.
"Okay, we got the password, but the laptop seems to have some kind of binary code, which I don't know how to read, so I need to find some books on it," Dipper told his sister, "You look through the journal to find anything we might have missed about Bill, and I'll look around."
"You got it Dipper," Mabel said, putting on a serious face and opening the journal.
Once he made sure Mabel was actually reading instead of just staring at the pages, Dipper went to the library catalog, found where the books were and went to get it. The "How to Read Binary Code" book was big and just out of Dipper's reached. He was ready to start climbing when someone grabbed the book and handed it to him. "Is this the book you wanted?"
"Yeah, thanks," Dipper smiled.
"No problem Pine Tree."
Dipper froze at the nickname and finally recognized the voice. Praying that he was wrong, Dipper slowly looked up at the man and screamed.