I do not own Gravity Falls.


Cures For Boredom

When Dipper finally woke up the following morning, it was to see his sister sitting on the hardwood floor, surrounded by piles of pillows. There were large ones, square ones, small ones and round ones. Yawning, the boy sat up and rubbed at his eyes.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

Mabel looked over at him with a bright smile. "Perfect timing, bro! I was just about to start constructing the pillow fort."

"You must have gotten every pillow in the house."

"I did!"

Dipper climbed out of bed, his white sleep shirt sticking to his back with sweat. "Okay. Least it will give us something to do."

They spent the next hour or so meticulously piling pillows and supporting against them against boxes and stacks of books. Mabel used the blankets and draped them overtop the fort, creating a ceiling. Dipper stepped back and studied their creation. Two walls of pillows stretched in between their beds. There was a small hole that they could use as an entrance, and the blankets would block out the sunlight streaming in through the windows.

"It's perfect!" Mabel grinned. "We can have breakfast inside it!"

Dipper wrinkled his nose. "Uh, I think I'll stick with orange juice."

"Boring. I'm gonna have waffles."

She skipped out of the room and Dipper crawled inside the fort, careful not to jostle the wall. He sprawled out on the floor, enjoying the cold that seeped through. He was starting to feel better, no longer feeling nauseous, which he was grateful for.

Mabel returned a few minutes later, carrying a wooden tray. Dipper sat up and accepted his glass of orange juice. "Thanks." He took a sip and looked at her breakfast, which was two waffles with blueberry faces and doused in syrup.

"Jealous?" she asked, cutting off a piece with her fork and popping it in her mouth.

"No way. I'm taking it easy with food until I'm certain I'm not going to upchuck it."

"I hope we get over this dumb cold soon." Mabel pouted. "I'm tired of staying inside."

"Me too," agreed Dipper.

"What could we do today?" hummed Mabel, taking another bite of her waffles.

"Read?" suggested Dipper.

"Nah."

"Watch T.V?"

"I'm kinda tired of watching T.V."

"Videogames?"

"You always win. It's no fun."

Dipper sighed. "Then what do you want to do?"

Mabel thought for a moment, nibbling on a blueberry. Her face suddenly brightened. "Ooh, I know what we can do!"

Dipper eyed her nervously, for she was wearing the expression that often promised something was about to happen that he wasn't going to like. "What?"

"I can paint your nails." She pointed at his toes. "I've always wanted to."

"No!" protested Dipper.

"Aw, come on! What are you gonna instead?"

"Read."

Mabel huffed. "Pleeeease? You can take it off as soon as I'm done, swear."

"No."

"Fine. Then I'll do it by force. You don't have the energy to fight me off this time."

Dipper's shoulders slumped. "Fine," he grumbled. "But no one will know about this."

Mabel used her finger to draw an invisible cross over her heart. "Promise!"

They stored their empty dishes in the corner of their fort and Mabel ventured out to find her nail polish bag. She crawled under her bed, sneezing at the dust, and grabbed her small pink bag. "Hi, Waddles!" she greeted, seeing her pig standing in the doorway when she emerged. "Come into the fort with us!"

Waddles snorted and went into the tent, where he immediately settled down next to Dipper. Mabel entered after her pet and poured her collection of glass bottles of nail polish onto the floor. "Pick whatever colour you like!"

"Gee, thanks," muttered Dipper. He studied the shades, avoiding pink completely. He eventually settled on a light blue polish that wasn't too bright or noticeable. It was also the only nail polish his sister owned that didn't have sparkles in it.

"Good choice!" approved Mabel.

She spent the next ten minutes carefully running the small brush over her brother's short nails. Dipper sat in a sullen silence, lips turned downwards. I can't believe I agreed to this.

But, then again, he had no doubt that his sister was serious in her threat to force the nail polish on him. So it was best to comply and save himself from extra humiliation.

Sisters. Bah.

When Stan finished up his last tour of the day, he suddenly realized he had not heard a peep from his niece and nephew. Brow furrowed, he went up to the register, where Wendy was lazily cashing out the last customer.

"Have you seen Mabel or Dipper today?"

"Nope," she replied. "And it's been real boring without them."

"Huh. Guess they're resting." But he could not knock the sudden urge to check up on the twins. "Lock up down here. And don't steal from the cooler-I know how many sodas there are in there."

"Yeah, yeah," dismissed Wendy. "I got it."

Stan departed from the shop and paused by his bedroom to drop off his cane, eye-patch and fez. He went up the attic stairs and knocked on the door. "Yo, you alive in there?"

"Yup!" came Mabel's cheerful voice.

Dipper only grunted in response.

Stan pushed open the door, where he was immediately greeted by a massive pillow fort in the middle of the room. "What the heck?"

"Welcome to Fort Twin-Twin!" said Mabel from inside the fort.

"Are those my couch cushions?" demanded Stan, noticing the familiar yellow cushions lodged in the middle of the wall.

"Maybe."

Getting down on his knees with a grunt, Stan crawled over and paused in the opening of Fort Twin-Twin. Mabel and Dipper were locked in a game of cards, with the girl leaning against Waddles. There were sticky dishes stuffed in the corner of the fort and a giant bowl of potato chips.

But what immediately caught Stan's attention was his nephew, whose fingernails and toenails were painted a gentle shade of blue. Dipper refused to look up from his hand, but his cheeks were turning a dull red.

"Mabel, what did you do to your brother?"