It was 11:30 when Mabel, acting the "Responsible" twin, dragged Dipper away from the harsh glow of the TV screen upstairs to his bed. His hands maintained the movements to use a controller long after it was torn from his hands, his eyes barely aware of Mabel's writing before losing out function to the night.

Mabel's body maintained it's tremors of excitement for a short while before she herself drifted off to sleep. She needed her rest for tomorrow's activities.

It was mornings like these when Dipper questioned the alarm to ring at 5:30. He had a headache, his forearms hurt from white-knuckle clutch, and the light made him feel like an old-fashion vampire. Nevertheless, the morning called him, made him rub his eyes to try to exact some feeling other than ache, when Mabel hit snooze.

"I got first shower." Mabel said, sounding like what Dipper imagined he sounded like.

"'Kay." Dipper said through a strained grunt.

5 minutes later the alarm prodded him from sleep again.

"Why is it always you you you? Don't you every think about what I want?." Dipper said to the alarm, slamming down on it's sleep button. After many mornings of this, the sleep button knew pain more than most mortals.

In a few minutes, Dipper was eating a box of rice by the fridge in the manliest way possible; taking bites out of it's congealed takeout goodness. It made him forget about his exhaustion, at least until it got the point where he needed to dig out chunks from where his mouth couldn't reach. It was then, scooping rice out of an almost empty box with one of his fingers, that he noticed a glow from a painfully familiar room, a glow that drew his attention from the hollowed box. It fell over quietly in his leaving, Dipper quietly approaching the living room, looking forwards to the harsh glow of the TV set.

"The heck..." He said, amazed at the sight with a light mix of confusion. "why..."

"Whatcha doin'?" Mabel asked from behind her brother, eating old takeout just as Dipper had.

"Waaah!" He cried out, spinning and protecting himself with his arms and exclaiming, "Mabel!"

"Dipper!" She retorted, jumping back for effect.

"Mabel, what the H are you doing here?" Her brother asked, quickly composing himself and righting his hat. "I thought you were in the shower?"

"I was." she said through a mouthful of potentially suspicious brown rice. "But then I got done and needed to find you before we started planning for tonight so you wouldn't forget, and I couldn't find you anywhere upstairs so I assumed you were down here-"

"And now you're here." Dipper cut in, halting Mabel's mindlessly twirling spoon. "Handing out unwarranted surprises. Greeeaaat. I'm gonna take that cold shower now, if you don't mind."

"But you never answered my question!" Mabel asked softly, taking steps towards her brother as he took his onto the first step.

"About what?" Dipper asked, turning his body with foot firmly planted.

"What you were looking at." his sister asked, eyes in mild resemblance of a puppy's. "It seemed important."

"The TV was frozen." Dipper answered, one hand holding the banister and the other holding an invisible apple in front of him. "It's more interesting when you see it for yourself."

"Okay." Mabel said, turning to the other room. "I'll do that." Dipper was about to turn and walk when a thought popped into his head, one about Mabel's choice in garb.

"Oh hey Mabel?" he called back, twisting to his former position.

"Yeah?" she answered excitedly, moving out from around the dividing wall.

He hesitated for a second before responding with, "Could you get the towel to me in a few-"

"Sure." She answered removing it from around her and tossing him it from behind cover. Nevertheless, Dipper shielded his eyes with his arms as if 1000 suns shone from her, turning his head and squeezing his eyes shut for further protection. The towel hit and hung off of one of his extended arms. Thank god he didn't need to turn around.

"I meant...!" he cried out, not daring to move until he could again recollect himself. "I meant while I was in the shower. Not now."

"Ohhhhh..." she responded, "So...should I take it back? Give it to you then...?" the sound of a wet foot against hardwood informed Dipper of her movement towards him.

"No, just..." Dipper commanded, moving to charge at the stairs. His eyes, while still shut, relaxed from their protective position. "Put something on and be thankful my optic nerves know when to shut up." with his eyes shut he slammed his bare foot into the hardwood of the stairs and let a yelp escape his lips. It failed to stop his advance on the stairs and the allied bathroom.

Mabel simply shrugged and observed the TV in the other room. Frozen on the screen was a victory screen, left by someone other than her or her brother. It was, indeed, more interesting than being told.

I have no excuse for the exuberant delay between chapters, I was just lazy. And dealing with a bit of writers block. The former is unsolvable, the latter was alleviated by a sentimental album that I had always written to when I was younger, trying to write the novel that gets me a place on the map.

Two things: one): Major edits have been made to the previous chapters that I posted about in other edited chapters since then, and two): I wasn't trying to imply anything unwholesome with Mabel's scene, I was just trying to describe something of a lack of an understanding of social norms.

Thank you for reading, have a good day.