Hello, my readers. You can thank Thanksgiving day for this update. Its the only reason why next week was light enough that I had the time to finish the final third of this chapter. I think this chapter turned out awesome, but then again I have been working on it for like 2 months, so it really should be.

I promised one of my earlier readers that I would stretch my brain and try to do a Mabel chapter. Here it is. Feel free to give my blunt feedback on how well I captured the essence of Mabel. She's a tough cookie to understand on a 'author in her brain' kind of way.

Chapter 3

Mabel's side

Mabel was beginning to get frustrated. She spent all day trying to keep her mind off Awkward Moment #1. She spent the morning in sweater town reading Mermando's letters in his cool accent of course. Or at least she was tried to, but every time she thought she had filled her brain with the coolness that is Mermando's mysterious voice and relishing the memories she had of him Dipper's dark, dark eyes would invade out of NOWHERE and Mabel would find her heart hammering in ways that Mermando's letters could never accomplish.

Heck, my heart didn't race that much when Mermando kissed me. Mabel had thought to herself as she tried to read Mermando's 4th letter.

First kisses are supposed to be way more exciting than sibling play fights. Like if they were sports, they wouldn't be on the same field: crapnuggets they wouldn't even be played at the time of the year. First kisses would be like baseball played in the heat of summer and sibling play fights would be hockey played in the dead of winter. Yet here we are: I have a hockey team playing baseball against a professional baseball team AND THE HOCKEY TEAM IS WINNING! The Blargh is up with that?

When it became apparent that her boyfriend's letters would fail to take her mind off of the look in Dipper's eyes—Reading quietly never was an activity I enjoyed anyway—she decided to distract herself by rotting her brain on TV.

Mabel settled contently into the worn out sofa, and flipped on the tube. However, a problem with that plan arose quickly: the TV room was between the stairs and the kitchen. Dipper was upstairs: what if he decided to get a snack?

Mabel knew in her head that when Dipper got hyper involved in academic nerd crap, he tended to skip meals, but darn it she couldn't keep herself from constantly glancing at the stairs wondering when Dipper would come down. Watching TV was meant to distract her from thinking about him, yet here she found herself thinking about him anyway.

Mabel groaned loudly to herself. I just wanna watch some T.V. without constantly wondering what Dipper is up to. Is that too much to ask for?

Then Mabel had an idea: if the location of the T.V. was causing her to wonder about Dipper's eating habits, then why not move the T.V.?

And that was how Mabel found herself watching T.V. in the down stairs toilet which has been out of order for longer than she'd been alive. Grunkle Stan never used it, and so had never told Soos that it needed fixing. Besides, why buy parts for a toilet when the one upstairs works just fine?

Reception in the toilet was terrible, so Mabel found herself force to stick the rabbit ears out the window in order to watch another dumb marathon of Ker-prank'd episodes.

As Mabel settled onto the hard toilet lid a thought occurred to her: Maybe I'm over reacting to all this jazz. I mean Dipper is a preteen boy and health classes did say that these things do happen. So Dipper got a hard on while we were half wrestling together. It doesn't mean anything. Yeah, we'll just pretend it didn't happen and blammo I'll have my twin back!

Then Dipper's needful eyes flashed across her mind. I'll start pretending this didn't happen tomorrow…yeah…tomorrow everything will be back to normal.

It was in the midafternoon that Mabel abandoned the sanctuary of the out-of-order restroom for several reasons: for one Justin Ker-prank was only funny in small doses. The marathon had gotten repetitive after the first episode, the second reason was that toilet seats grew slowly more uncomfortable the longer you sit on them (and Mabel's butt was killing her by that point), and the third reason was that she was hunnnnngggrrrry!

I'll just grab a quick snack, the tv guide, and a pillow: no sweat. I definitely won't run into Dip—it was then that Mabel turned the corner into the kitchen and saw Dipper bent over and rummaging through the fridge.

I just had to jinx it, didn't I? Mabel found her eyes glancing downward. Those shorts look good on him…Gah, don't make sibling awkwardness worse, Mabel! Noticing Dipper's bu—shorts is not what good twins do! Stop thinking about it and definitely don't say that out loud. Mabel took a deep breath. Okay, Mabel, play it cool. You were going to start pretending that awkwardness didn't happen tomorrow any way. Just do it half a day early.

"Hi, Dipper," Mabel's voice came out an octave too high—so much for playing it cool, "How's your shorts, oh brother of mine?"

Dipper turned with a can of pit-cola in one hand and an amused smirk on his face, "How's my what, Mabel-dearest?"

Realizing her Freudian slip, Mabel flushed red and laughed nervously "Did I say shorts? I meant day! How's your day? I mean clearly day makes more sense."

Dipper's smirk transformed into a genuine smile as he took a step closer to her, just barely invading her personal space. Close enough to notice, but not close enough to give her reason to step away, "Better now that my precious sister is talking to me again. So, Mabel, how's your skirt?" Dipper's eyes flicked down to her purple miniskirt for a millisecond before dipping a bit lower to her thighs for another millisecond and then returning to her own eyes: all confidence.

Oh my god, he's flirting with me! We were supposed to be pretending the awkwardness didn't happen. I slip up for one sentence and give him an opening and he takes us straight back to awkwardland, population: the Pines twins, "Oh, you know…comfy?" Mabel's blush was not fading.

"I'm glad. Being comfortable is a good thing; however, if we are willing to try new things eventually they will become comfortable for us too. Wouldn't you agree, Mabel?" Dipper spoke all this without his voice cracking once, which must have been a record for him.

"Yeah, of course. The first time I used a hot glue gun I accidentally caught the kitchen table on fire, but now I'm a hot glue master: my crafting is much improved," Mabel was relieved: Dipper was taking the conversation into safer waters.

"I'm glad you agree. We shouldn't stop trying new…experiences. You never know when a new experience will be something enjoyable," Dipper's eyes had slowly drifted down from her eyes till they rested on her lips as he was saying that. There they remained.

Did I say safer waters: I meant to say stranger waters, "Right on, Dipper," Mabel laughed nervously, "Whelp, I've got important things to do, so I'll just grab a quick snack and get back to it." Mabel blindly reached past Dipper to grab a pre-packaged snack off the table. Because Dipper was already so close to her this had the effect of bringing her deep into Dipper's personal space. Dipper made no attempt to hide his enjoyment of her closeness. A look of bliss shown through on his face. In fact he was even bold enough place a hand on her sweater clad shoulder and breathe in deeply the scent of her shampoo.

Didn't think that one through, huh, Mabel?

Mabel grabbed the first bag off the table and fled.

"Bye Dipper," She squeaked as she retreated to the out of order rest room. Dipper's eyes followed her purple skirt out of the kitchen.

"Bye, my only love," Dipper answered to the now empty kitchen.

I think I might have overstepped my bounds: Mabel was definitely not ready for that kind of reckless flirting. Oh well, if I've poisoned the waters too much, all I have to do is put on a song and dance with Wendy and Mabel will rationalize this moment away. Just like she has done with every other time I've let slip my unending desire for her.

Dipper took his pit and climbed the stairs. The day was still young, and should his evening meeting with the shadow stalker go according to plan, he would want the covetous circle ready to go.

After all, we wouldn't want Mermando to wait too long for justice. Justice delayed is only a pale imitation of justice. Like arresting a Nazi war criminal in 2001: why bother? The man is 85 years old and has lived his whole life on borrowed time. Mermando will not get that luxury.

Mabel was close to hyperventilating as she sat on her newly pillowed toilet seat.

Okay, okay: Calm down, Mabel. So what if Dipper may have come on to you a little: it's not like he was being serious. His heart belongs to Wendy. It always has and it always will.

For some reason, Mabel's heart sank a little as she thought this. Mabel ignored the feeling and continued her train of thought.

Once Wendy finally pulls her head out of her teenaged butt, and realizes just how awesome my bro-bro is, they will make a good couple. I took compatibility quizzes from Preteen Girl Magazine for them and everything. If it weren't for the fact that Wendy is 3 years older than us, she and Dipper would have started dating weeks ago. Seriously, Wendy needs to get over herself. If I were Wendy I wouldn't let something as silly as a small age difference stop me from dating someone as brave as Dipper.

So what if Dipper has been acting strange lately: he's still a great guy. Sometimes I just want to grab Wendy and shake some sense into her. Sure, Dipper may be shorter than her, but he'll hit his growth spurt soon and then she'll be able to look up into his warm, brown eyes as the moon rises like in all those romance movies. She could have it all: the perfect summer romance has been practically gift wrapped for her, but instead she wastes her time on that emo-butt Robbie. It kinda ticks me off.

And look at me, I've been trying to have a summer romance for about a month now: and I keep running into romance dead ends. Between Gideon and the dozens of boys who wouldn't even tell me their names, I'm beginning to get discouraged. I mean Mermando's cool and all, but there's more to an epic summer romance than 2 days at a pool and becoming pen pals. I guess that's why I'm so blargged right now: I tried so hard for so long and am forced to settle for a pen pal romance, meanwhile Wendy has the perfect romance literally throwing himself at her and she doesn't even notice.

If I had what Wendy has, I sure as heck wouldn't ignore it: I'd snatch a beautiful boy up in a heartbeat. Dipper deserves a girl who knows just how dorkingly awesome he is, but enough of that; I have my snack and I have my brain drain machine. It's time to stop thinking and start potatoing.

It was evening now. After wasting the whole day hiding out in the broken rest room, Mabel felt brave enough to venture out mainly because she really needed a bathroom that worked. At this moment in her life a functioning toilet would be appreciated. Also she had skipped her shower this morning and she was feeling particularly gross, but before she could bathe she really needed a change of clothes. Which is what brought her to hesitating outside the attic bedroom.

Why am I acting like a coward? Dipper is nothing to be afraid of: he is like the biggest dork in Gravity Falls. Anyway the sun had set, so it is jammie time in Mabel-land.

Mabel loved her jammies: they were the softest things she owned, and soft jammies were totally worth the risk of awkwardness with her favorite brother. With that decided Mabel boldly entered.

….Only to find the bedroom empty. Mabel couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

After all that time hiding away from him and psyching myself up to see him: Dipper isn't even here. I wonder where he is: he probably wouldn't even tell me if I asked. Dipper has become way too secretive. Sometimes I get the feeling he's afraid that I'll stop loving him, which is probably the dumbest thought he has ever had: Me, the lovingest girl of all time, stop loving her adorkable brother? How absurd. But I know Dipper: his insecurities make anything seem possible. And I probably fueled those insecurities by running away from some harmless teasing and a touch of awkwardness. He's probably off right know talking himself in circles trying to figure out if I hate him or not. He can be such an idiot.

Well, no more. I am no coward. The instant he gets home I'll apologize for being a butt and Dipper will give me that perfect half smile that I love so much and everything will be back to normal.

But before any of that could happen Dipper had to come home. And anyways Mabel really needed that shower: Dipper deserves an apology from a pretty girl; not a grease monster.

Mabel felt refreshed after her glorious shower: I feel like I can face anything.

She had finished drying her chestnut curls and brushing her teeth for the night before slipping on her purple night dress and fuzzy purple slippers.

Ready for bed, Mabel padded her way to the attic bedroom. As she approached the attic door, Mabel noticed a shadow moving across the crack at the bottom. It looks like my disappearing broseph has returned from whatever adventure he was on. Mabel grinned to herself. She didn't realize just how much she had missed Dipper until this moment. Whelp, it was stupid to avoid him anyway, and the only way to cure missing someone is to spend time with them. So no more waiting: let's do this.

Mabel burst through the door eyes shining and a smile on her face, "Hey, Dipp-!" Mabel froze.

Dipper had just finished taking off his shorts and was bending over to pick them up off the floor: his vest and t-shirt were shed moments ago. Which meant that Mabel had just barged in on her brother who was currently dressed in what appeared to be a pair of black silk briefs.

Daaaannnnggg…when did he get those?

Mabel found that she could not look away. They sure are clingy. Dipper may be a toothpick, but I can already tell puberty is being kind to him…very kind.

Suddenly realizing the nature of the thoughts flowing through her head, Mabel felt a flush darken her cheeks. She shook her head half to clear the inappropriate thoughts away and half to force herself to look away.

Mabel heard Dipper chuckle at her reaction. Oh laugh it up, Dipping sauce. You're the one who is supposed to be mortified. Instead I have enough mortification for the both of us. Well, if you're going to pretend that this is an okay situation then I'll just have to beat you at your own game. I am the alpha twin, not you.

Mabel looked right back at Dipper and noted that other than a slight reddening of his face Dipper didn't seem all too concerned by the fact that he was caught by his sister with his pants down. He still had made no move to cover himself up.

You wanna be confident, Dipper? Then I'll just have to be ten times as confident.

"Nice underwear, broseph. Where did you get them from? Hot Topic?" Mabel wanted to be mildly sarcastic, but it was only after the words came out that Mabel realized that they were disturbingly sincere even if there was a chuckle hidden behind them.

"Actually, I conjured them myself," Dipper spoke smoothly, "The whitey tighties mom bought me were by far too dorky."

"Wha…I didn't realize your magic junk could make real stuff…and what does it matter how dorky your underwear is? It only matters if someone is gonna….Dipper! You scallywag!" Mabel had an epiphany.

"And why am I a scallywag, Mabel dearest?" Dipper was curious.

"You made those sexy underwear, because you are planning to seduce a girl. You made them cause you want them to be seen: you scallywag!" Mabel was certain, then a thought occurred to her, "And what's worse you kept it all to yourself: yet another stupid secret. Come on, Dipper, we're twins. We share everything. You gotta tell me who your crush is! Who did you make the underwear for? Did you make them for Wendy?"

Now Dipper's eyes shifted away from her own, "They're for no one. I just wanted briefs that were comfortable…"

Mabel saw a look of guilt flash across Dipper's face. He's lying.

"I know your fibbing Dipper. Now spill: who are you crushing on?" Mabel approached Dipper and continued pressing for the truth. Come'on Dipper, no more twin secrets.

"Leave it alone, Mabel…" An edge of panic was develop in Dipper's mind: You aren't ready yet, Mabel. You don't love me…yet.

"I'm not gonna give up, Dipper," Mabel grabbed Dipper's shoulders—hmmm, it seems puberty has been here: I swear his shoulders are like a whole millimeter broader. "Now don't make me tickle you: who's your crush!"

Mabel's closeness had swept Dipper's panic into a frenzy. His whole world now consisted of a Mabel who was not ready for the truth demanding the truth anyway. All he could see was the question in Mabel's soft brown eyes. All he could feel was Mabel's warm, warm hands on his naked shoulders. All he could smell was her freshly shampooed chestnut hair. He was overwhelmed by her. He was confused by her. He was intoxicated by her.

"Who's your crush, Dipper!" Mabel did not realize the storm she had invoked in Dipper's shattered mind. She pressed on. "Tell me now!"

"…As if you could ever be just a simple crush, Mabel!" Dipper finally answered.

"Wha-?" Mabel was cut off by Dipper forcefully claiming her mouth with his.

Mabel was a little dazed by this unexpected turn of events. Distantly, Mabel was aware of Dipper's left hand holding the back of her head in place—fingers tangled in her soft hair that was still puffy from the hairdryer. Dipper's right hand was on the small of her back pressing her needfully into him. His lips were doing things to her mouth that would make the author of Wolfman Bare Chest blush.

I think I might be kissing him back…I probably shouldn't be doing that.

Suddenly, everything that Mabel was distantly noting became not so distant and very real very fast. Mabel felt the muscles of Dipper's thin shoulders under her clutching hands. Mabel felt Dipper's own grasping hands in her hair and on her waist. She felt his chest pressing through her thin night to her own. Dipper tore his mouth from her swollen lips and looked at her with lust burning eyes and Mabel just knew her eyes looked the same. For a brief moment Mabel thought this weird thing was over and she was surprised to find that she was disappointed. Then Dipper brought his mouth to her neck—disappointment gone.

Mabel tried to choke back a wanton moan as Dipper continued to love her neck. She was partially successful; it only came out as a whimper, "Dipper…ah, Dipper."

He smelt of pine trees and smoke and adventure. Thank god he doesn't smell like a fish. That would be the most unromantic thing in the world. Fish scents are gross…fish, fish…Mermando! I've only been dating Mermando a few days and I'm cheating on him…he's only a pen-pal boyfriend though. No, bad Mabel! No rationalizing! The principle stands. You have to stop this.

Her heart broke a little as she pushed him away. And judging by the look in his eyes his did too.

"I'm sorry, Dipper. We can't do this. I have a boyfriend…and, I'm your sister," Mabel added the last part on almost as an afterthought. She couldn't look at him when she said this. She didn't want to see how badly she was hurting him.

"Of course…sister dear," Mabel didn't have to look at him to know. She could hear the tears he was holding back in his voice. "I'll…I'll go take my shower."

Mabel still couldn't look at him as he grabbed his towel and left the room.

She heard the door close behind her. Her emotions were such a mess that she didn't know what she was feeling as she padded to her bed. She climbed in and clutched one of her favorite stuffed animals to her chest. One thing became painfully clear: she would much rather be holding Dipper as she fell asleep.

Oh god, I'm sick.

Mabel quietly cried herself to sleep holding her stuffed animal wishing desperately that it was Dipper.

Author's note: there you have it, chapter three. This chapter did not turn out how I initially envisioned. The last part was supposed to be just another moment of awkwardness, but then Mabel demanded that she confront Dipper about it. I kept telling Mabel that she needed to let it go, but she insisted on answers. Then Dark!Dipper said that he was backed into a corner, and he had to do something. And do something he did.