"Whoa! That's, like, extra cool creepy, dude. And he drew that on with his claw?" Soos poked gently at the skin around his chest, a rune set there with puckering, healing skin.

"He carved it into my flesh, Soos. With his claw." Dipper half-heartedly swatted at his good natured friends hand.

"Ouch. Extra creepy, but also bonus cool points, bro!" Nodding to himself, Soos left Dippers chest alone, backing up a few steps until he was next to Pacifica, who was looking at him with a worried furrow to her brow.

Dipper sighed, straightening a little. The rune on his chest was a straight line, starting at the base of his throat and running down to his stomach. Three perpendicular lines crossed the top of it, and another longer and thicker line marked the bottom of it. His skin was hot and pink around the edges where the cuts were made; an angry color for an angry time. "Yeah, cool as hell," he muttered.

"Hey, man, Soos has a point. Chicks dig scars! Plus, it's totally keeping some dream demon God thing from eating your eternal soul. So, like, extra points there, I guess." Wendy was behind him, lounging on the ratty couch in their living room. Mabel was sitting on the armrest, twiddling her thumbs and trying to not look worried for her dork brother.

She was failing, but, like Grunkle Stan would say, It doesn't matter what they think, as long as you get paid. God, but she missed him.

"But will it? Scar, I mean," asked Pacifica. "It's, like, magic, right?"

"No idea!" Dipper rejoined brightly. "Multibear seemed more concerned with the parasite trying to kill me. But, hey, I don't care too much about that, since this is going to keep him out of my head for awhile. Anything that allows me to get some sleep is A Okay in my book right now." The rest of them nodded in agreement; the young man still looked like shit, with small bags under his eyes.

However, his eyes no longer seemed distant and dim, so something must have gone correctly with him.

Pacifica smiled wryly. "Well, I guess that we can forgive your bear friend for carving you up, this time. He trys to do something like this again, though, then we're going to be having a very long conversation about it." Mabel giggled lightly, and Dipper shook his head.

"Oh, ha ha ha, Paz. Thanks so much for your concern."

She scoffed at him, "be thankful I love you so much, dork! Who else is going to go to bat for you against a bear monster?"

"Me!" Said Mabel excitedly, eyes finally lighting up.

"I would," said Wendy. "Axes, yo."

"Pterodactyl Bros before bear created woes, dude!"

Pacifica blushed, but laughed as well. "Well, I said I would do it first, so it counts more!"

Break

After the meeting broke up, Dipper slipped quietly into his room, and the others agreed not to disturb him.

Within moments, his eyes closed.

He slept.

Break

He stared at his phone, a frown creasing his face. His phone had two simple messages on it when he woke up, and he had a sinking feeling that he couldn't avoid the consequences, no matter what he did.

From Pacifica: Hey, dork! It's good to know that you finally got a good nights sleep! When you wake up, we should go out on an adventure, like the good old times, alright? What's a Pines Twins Summer without getting a bit lost in the woods, right?

And, from Wendy: Dude, it's awesome that Multibear's magic whatever worked. We should have our movie night tonight, yeah? It's been way too long, man!

Dipper Pines was not a stupid boy. Far from it; he understood many things. More importantly, he knew that there were many things that he did not understand. One of which, obviously, was girls.

What was plainly obvious, though, was that he was fucked.

Super mega turbo fucked.

He had kissed both of these girls. Both girls have seen him kissing the other. And Paz had even-

He twitched violently, shaking his head at the (jarring, scarring, pleasant) memory of his blonde haired friends lips and teeth and hand.

Regardless, he liked both of them. A lot. And both of them (for some reason) liked him.

A lot.

Maybe too much, but he wasn't really in a position to complain about female affection, considering his track record. Specifically, his lack of one.

The point, though, was that he was trying to navigate a mine field. If he screwed up, he was going to end up with, at the least, a broken heart caused by him. If it went really, really badly, one of them might kill the other one.

Or him.

Or both.

He groaned, his head falling into his hands in exasperation. "What the fuck am I supposed to do?!"

"Suffer, obviously," said Mabel, hip checking his door as she came in with a tray of food.

Scratch that, this was a tray of cookies and syrup laden pancakes.

"Hey, sis," he spoke glumly, rubbing the last bit of overdue sleep from his eyes.

"Brought you dinfest, bro-bro! It's dinner, it's breakfast, it's two in the morning!"

"Oh, Christ, you're right," he said after glancing at his alarm clock. He paused for a second before turning to her. "How did you know to come with food?"

"I didn't!" She answered cheerily. "I just finished making it. I was gonna wake you up, since, ya know, you just slept for twelve hours, but this works better! Now, tell Mama Mabel what the problem is, Dippin' Dots!"

He showed her his phone, the two messages still in his recent events. She frowned thoughtfully at it, nibbling on a cookie. For his part, Dipper gingerly took a bite out of the pancakes, almost wincing at his sisters overuse of sugary confections for breakfast foods. "Bitches be crazy," she concluded solemnly.

He rolled his eyes. "Case in point, yeah. But what should I do? Like, I don't want to hurt either of them, but I can't not do anything. It's maddening!"

"Well, bro, I gotta say, this is a new one for me, even Matchmaker Extraordinare Mabel! But, I think that you need to start fresh, bro! Everybody got a little crazy last week, you and Wendy and Pazzy. So just, like, start a clean slate and junk! But make sure to tell them what you're doing. Communication is key, nerd-bro."

Dipper gulped down another sugar laden bite of pancake, pausing to drink a long sip of milk from his glass. "Hell, why not? It's a better plan than anything I've got to go on."

Break

Pacifica looked down at her phone, a knot of apprehension twisting in her gut despite herself. This was what she wanted, right? On her screen, she looked over Dippers text once more.

I'm feeling awesome, Paz, thanks. And you're right; we need a good old Dip and Paz adventure. Meet me at the Shack at nine, alright?

That wasn't the problem; that was exactly what she wanted. Even more than she wanted to be with Dipper in a romantic or sexual sense, she missed her best friend; their adventures, the easy laughter and conversations they shared. No, the problem was the text that she had received on the way there. From Mabel Pines.

Ohhhhh Pazzy Pazzy Paz Paz Paz! Friend of mine, ol' buddy ol pal! We need to talk before I let you run around with BroBro, okay? Okay! The message was followed by an incomprehensible array of emoticons, smiley faces, and what she assumed was the phone texts best approximation of a spilt bag if glitter.

Despite the silly tone of the message, Pacifica knew that Mabel could be the most vicious person on the planet when it came to protecting her brother.

And, if she were being honest with herself, Dipper may just need that protection from her and Wendy. The two of them hadn't been...

Well, nice. Or decent. Or even sporting.

And poor Dipper was caught in the middle, and he most certainly didn't deserve that.

"Pazzy!" Mabel jogged slowly towards her, an easy smile on her face, a big, fluffy sweater covering her top half from hands to butt. On her chest, a shark was apparently flying through the air, a top hat upon its head, a monocle perched on one eye, and five separate sparklers sticking out of its mouth from between it's teeth. Pacifica smiled slowly at her, the nervous butterflies slowly dissipating.

She could take this. She would win. And she would make Mabel see her point of view.

"Hey, Mabes. How's Dip?"

Mabel grinned like a sunbeam, and that alone made Pacifica feel a thousand times better. "Great! Like, super fantabulous! He slept for, like, eighteen hours or whatever, so he's pretty much all caught up after this stupid shitty week. You two are going on an adventure, right?" The happy twin threw a companionable arm across the blondes shoulders.

"Yeah. No idea where, but I generally leave the mysterious wilderness planning to Dipper, anyway. You coming with?"

"Nah, I got stuff to do today. Talk to Wendy, hang with Candy, bedazzle Waddles. I'm booked, babe. But we need a quick word, okay?"

Pacifica nodded. Of course, she knew that Mabel wouldn't be coming- the girl very rarely tagged along when Dipper and her had their explorations, preferring to, as she had put it to her once, "let the magic happen on its own". "Sure. What about?"

They were getting closer and closer to the Shack with every step, and she saw Dippers silhouette through his window, getting ready for the day ahead. Mabel took a deep breath. "Okay. So, I may haaaaaave... Told Dipper to start again with you and Wendy. Clean slate, you know?"

Well, that wasn't as bad as she had thought. "I like that. Do it right this time around, and not be like... animals," she finished quietly. They arrived, leaning against the walls of the rickety looking establishment. "That's a really good idea, actually, Mabes. Thank you."

"Anytime, Paz! I know that you and WenWen didn't want to hurt Dipper or each other," she said.

Well, not Dipper, no. But, Wendy? Oh yes I did! Smiling, she said, "Of course not! Things just got... Crazy, or whatever." She shrugged, arms flopping into the air haphazardly. She adjusted her bangs, and slung the backpack over shoulder into a more comfortable position.

"Ahuh! So, here's my patented older sister statement to the girls trying to get with my little bro: Don't hurt him, or I'll make you the new Gnome Queen."

Pacifica snorted, and then shuddered lightly. At this point in time, they had learned just how... Ugh... Jeff and his Gnome squad could be when it came to women. "Point taken, thanks. Ick. Mind telling me what's off limits?"

"Well, don't ride him like a pony in front of your love rival as some sort of strange revenge scheme, and I think you'll be okay." Mabel shot her a thumbs up, still grinning.

Pacifica nodded thoughtfully. "I can do that. Can I ride him in private?"

"That's up to hiii~iim," the brunette singsonged at her. "Alright, I gotta go catch Wendy and give her the same spiel, alright?"

"Alright, Mabel. Thanks. I won't go too... Crazy, I guess, on him."

"Good girl! Have fun! Don't give me any nephews yet! Buh-Byeeeee!"

Pacifica watched fondly as her (other) best friend skipped merrily down the road.

This is it.

She took a deep, steadying breath.

This is us.

She stepped inside.