"Only you would listen to rap that educates you about Shakespeare, you fucking nerd," she groused at him. They were slowly trudging back to the Mystery Shack, Dipper looking like death warmed over, and Pacifica going through the music on his phone for the hell of it.
"I'll have you know, MC Lars is a master of both spoken word and lyrical prose," he said distractedly to her.
Laughing, she dropped back to him, throwing an arm around his shoulder companionably. "I'll take your word for it, Dippingsauce. How are you holding up?" Although she wouldn't admit it to him, his outburst had scared her. Not for her own safety, but for his; she knew that he and Mabel still had nightmares, even all these years after the defeat of Bill Cipher (and, if she cared to admit it to herself, she still had them every once in awhile, too), but she had never seen them so bad before.
Before he had woke up, he had been actually screaming in his sleep, thrashing about and crying, and she had had no idea what to do!
And, when he woke up, he had tried to kill her.
There was no getting around that fact; Dipper could have seriously hurt or even killed her while still in the throes of his nightmare, and she knew that, in the moment, she couldn't have stopped him. Thankfully, her words had woken him, which was why she was doing her best to joke around with him instead of bleeding on the forest floor.
He smiled grimly, still wary of being around her after his incident. "I've been better," he understated. He looked like hell, his face still red from his tears, hair mussed to the point of chaos, and his clothes looking more tattered than usual. More than anything, he exuded an aura of sheer exhaustion as he plodded along, swaying from side to side. It seemed that whatever rest he had gotten sleeping with her was eradicated by his nightmare.
"No shit, Sherlock," she teased, gently flicking his nose, sticking her tongue out in a semblance of playfulness.
"Well, fuck you, Watson," he teased back, bringing his hand around lazily to poke her in the side. She yelped, jumping, and laughed richly.
"Never change, dork. Life would be too boring without the Pines."
BREAK
Wendy lounges against the cash register of the Mystery Shack. The more things change, she mused lightly. She had worked at the Shack part time for three years, from fifteen to eighteen, doing whatever Stan or Soos asked of her with teenage sloth and sarcasm. Now, three years later, she was back at the Shack again, working for Soos for pocket change and a bit of the auld lang Syne, as it were. She could honestly say that she liked the place, but that was more for the company it brought, and not the cheap and tacky "Mysteries" that Mister Mystery hawked upon the tourist masses in their ignorance.
And speaking if the company, Dipper meandered into the Shack through the front door, looking like absolute shit. "Hey, dude! What the hell-"
Pacifica came in behind him, quietly closing the door behind them, gently leading him up the stairs, pausing at the bottom only to throw a mean glance her way. "What the fuck?" She said to herself under her breath, practically vaulting the front desk in order to race up the stairs after them.
She caught up to Pacifica just as the girl was closing the door to his room, violently shushing her as Wendy's boots made a loud noise throughout the small hallway. "Shhh! He's sleeping!"
Taken aback at her vicious whisper, Wendy slowed to a nervous plod, she padded closer to the girl, movements exaggerated in her effort to keep quiet. "What happened to him?"
Looking at the door with a lost expression, she shook her head. "Nightmare," she said simply.
"Bill?"
"I don't know. He didn't say. Whatever it was, it was bad." They had both, at some point, dealt with the Pine Twins proclivity for screaming nightmares about their vanquished arch-rival. Being in close contact with the demon for so long had affected them more than anyone else in town, except for the older Pine brothers.
"How bad?" She nervously wrung her hands together. She hated this; not being able to help him or do anything at all. She was a girl of action, damnit.
"Really bad," she answered curtly. Her face softened, and she slumped into herself, her own weariness catching up to her now that she didn't have to be strong for Dipper anymore. "Like, really, really bad. I held him for two hours, and he was, just, sobbing the entire time, and he wouldn't stop shaking, and he kept apologizing to me, and-"
She cut herself off before she rambled anymore to the ginger girl that she considered an enemy. "It was bad," she reiterated.
Wendy made as if to reach out comfortingly touch the shaken girl, but thought better of it. Instead, she nodded sharply, turning away and striding out. Parting, she said "I'll call Mabel over. You get some rest, too, Paz."
"Yeah. Yeah, okay."
Break
Three hours later, when Mabel came into the Shack, her hair a tangle of fallen leaves and windswept, she exchanged a glance with the Corduroy girl, who mouthed "his room" to her from where she was forced to man the register. The Alpha Twin nodded, smiling prettily at Wendy before heading up the stairs towards Dippers room, absently stroking the leaves out of her hair as she ascended.
Quietly opening the door, she smiled at the sight before her; Dipper, sprawled haphazardly along his bed, snoring and snuffling in his exhaustion, and Pacifica curled up into herself on the squishy beanbag chair in the far corner of the room, hair all flyaway and makeup smudged.
They were adorable.
Grinning, she tiptoed over to the beanbag, leaving Dipper to his slumber for a while more. Shaking her shoulder gently, she whispered at the blonde, "Paaaaaz... Pazzy Pazzy Paaaaaz!" The girl groggily pushed her away, fingers finding Mabel's cheek and futilely pushing at the grinning twin. Softly giggling, Mabel leaned into the girl, mouth barely an inch from her ear, she deepened her voice to match Dippers as best she could, and lowly moaned at the girl with her best impersonation (which, after years of living with him, was rather spot in), "Oh, Wendy!"
Pacifica's eyes shot open, wildly looking around the room, her hair flying with each spastic movement of her head. After a tense moment, she found Mabel next to her, struggling not to break out into loud guffaws at her friends displeasure. Their eyes locked, neither blinking, Pacifica's intense frown deepening at the same rate that Mabel's mischievous smile grew. Finally, the taller brunette let loose the tiniest snort from her nose, which let loose a torrent of giggles that only served to make Pacifica's face even redder from anger and embarrassment.
Pacifica's face went blank for a second, and then she shot like a rocket into the Pines girl, sending them both to the floor, with a muffled yell of "I'm going to fucking kill you, Pines!" Mabel was still giggling as the Northwest tried to strangle her, the girls playfully rolling on the floor of Dippers room.
Abruptly, they pulled to a stop as Dipper rose from his bed at the waist, tiredly rubbing at his eyes for a moment. The girls stayed still and silent, and the boy fell back upon his bed, light snores soon filling the room again.
"That was close," whispered Mabel. Pacifica's hands were in her hair, no doubt to slam her thick skull into the floorboards, and Mabel's were about to tickle the blondes waist in retaliation.
"Yeah. What time is it?"
"About one. You've been out for a while, sleepyhead "
The Northwest groaned, rolling off Mabel with a thud as she hit the floor. "Goddamnit, Mabel, what do we do?"
Sympathetically, the brunette patted the blonde on the shoulder that she could reach from their side by side prone position. "First, tell me about what happened, Paz. We'll go from there, okay? It's probably nothing, but better safe, yeah?"
"Alright." She drew a deep, steadying breath. "We were sleeping on a hill in the forest, maybe two miles from the Shack. It has runes carved into the trees, and they make it so all the animals and weird shit can't come in, you know? So it seemed perfect to just relax togethere and catch up, and it was! We talked for hours, and we played around like we were kids again, and it was the best day I've had in two fucking years, Mabes. And he was telling me about all of the stars when we fell asleep, and then..."
Mabel looked at her with an encouraging smile, secretly cataloging all of the cute things the two had done together in her absence.
"And then he started screaming. Still asleep, but screaming like he was being burned alive or murdered, or... Well, it was bad. And when I tried to wake him, he attacked me, Mabel. He overpowered me before I could blink, and he was still screaming like he was dying, but he had his fist ready to beat me, kill me, I- I-"
Mabel crushed Pacifica to her as the blonde broke down crying, stroking her hair and soothing her just as the blonde had done for her brother, hours ago. After a few moments, Pacifica regained enough control to continue.
"I was so scared, Mabes. I didn't know what was going on, and I only wanted to help him when he just... turned on me, like he was an animal. And all I fucking wanted to do when he was about to murder me was to make sure he was okay, and I don't think that's what I should have been thinking, because that's, like, really fucked up, isn't it? Because self preservation is so important, but I cant-"
Mabel put a finger to Pacifica's lips as the girl rambled on, cutting the upset girl off before she could get even more worked up than she already was. "It's because you care for him, Sweetie. And that's perfectly okay, alright? It means you love him enough to worry for him even when he's doing something scary, okay?"
Pacifica gave a wet sounding laugh, awkwardly shrugging while in the other girls grip. "It's still really fucked up, Mabel. I'm certain that he would have killed me."
"Dipper would never-!"
"It wasn't Dipper. Not really. It was like, base human nature or some shit, Mabes. Like he was reduced to an animal. I'd trust Dipper with my life, and I have before. That wasn't Dipper."
Mabel quieted, frowning thoughtfully. Mabel was not a stupid girl; she understood, better than almost anyone, how the supernatural world could make people act strangely, violently, horribly.
Even someone as great as her brother.
It was vexing, if she cared to use the word. On the one hand, it could be nothing. Dipper had had nightmares of a similar nature for more than six years now.
On the other hand, if she ignored it, it could very well prove to be catastrophic. As much as the twins liked to pretend that they were normal people (for a certain degree of normal, of course), they were positively steeped in the Weird; where they trod, strange things followed. It was just how their family was. And Mabel had seen too much of her twins pain to even dare to think that she could afford to play ignorant this time around.
After all, the last time she tried to run away from the horrible truth, she had ended up in a sugary pink bubble of doom.
Abruptly, Pacifica gave a little giggle. "You know, he said he loved me? It was so cute!"
Mabel squealed into the blondes hair, a smile bursting forth upon her face. Dipper and Pacifica, score one! "Spill, bitch!"
BREAK
Dipper awoke to fingers softly stroking his hair. He adjusted himself, looking up to see Mabel gently petting him, almost like their mother would when they were sick. "Hey, sis," he yawned.
"Hey bro-bro. How you feeling?"
"Shitty. What happened? It's all kinda blurry." That was an understatement, of course. His head felt like Waddles had dropped on it from three floors up.
"You had a nightmare, Dip. Really bad. You almost hurt Paz. Almost. She's okay, bro," she said to him as his eyes clouded in panic. "I sent her home to sleep it off. I think we need some awkward sibling bonding conversations to happen, cuz I have a bad feeling about this, bro."
"...Yeah." He forced himself to rise, stretching and yawning profusely. "It's all kind of fuzzy, but the dream was... Well, it was like when Bill came back. But, worse. A lot worse." Unbidden, the echoing laughter of whatever it was that had invaded his sleep came back, and he shivered despite himself. "I think something's coming, Mabel."
Pines
pines
pines...
Over the years, they had learned to trust one another's hunches when it came to the supernatural, especially when it came to dreaming about the Weird.
She stood, smiling at him. "Well, bro, it could be nothing. But, in case it isn't..."
"ROAD TRIP!"
BREAK
When Mabel said "Road Trip", it was a bit incongruous. A better term would have been "Golf Cart Trip", but it didn't roll off the tongue quite as well.
Bidding adieu to Wendy, who had given them her best regards and a big hug ("You get yourself better, dude! Or else I'll have to use Corduroy medicine in your ass!"), they set off into the woods, Mabel's insane driving sending Dipper backwards into his seat as if he were strapped to a discount rocket. On the bright side, any creatures that might have meant them harm simply scattered.
Honestly, he would have rather tangled with that gremloblin they just passed then deal with Mabel's tender mercies.
"Maybe... Slow... Down!?" His voice was almost lost to the howling wind that passed them in the open air cart, the only coherent sound being Mabel's joyous cackling. Abruptly, he was going forward, chest straining against the seat belt as his arms scrabbled for a handhold to arrest his terminal momentum, the terrifying sound of screeching tires inundating his senses and making his head spin.
They had arrived, sheer forest giving way to a deep, dark cave. Inside, the sounds of BABBA echoed outwards.
Dipper smiled to himself.
Then, he vomited onto the forest floor, silently cursing Mabel's driving as she danced happily to "Disco Girl" around him, singing along merrily.