This year we're doing crossovers for all seven days of Halloween, which means a couple of "repeats" for fandoms, but I think it will be a whole lot of fun. At the very least, I hope I can do something that I enjoy with each of these crossovers.
Day 1 (Oct. 25th)- Teen Titans and X-Men
Day 2 (Oct. 26th)- Ducktales and Big Hero 6
Day 3 (Oct. 27th)- The Good Place and Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist
Day 4 (Oct. 28th)- Teen Titans and The Owl House
Day 5 (Oct. 29th)- Gravity Falls and Lilo and Stitch
Day 6 (Oct. 30th)- Gravity Falls and The Owl House
Day 7 (Oct. 31st)- Gravity Falls and Over The Garden Wall
I had to completely rewrite this last-minute because I didn't like the first take lol. I went back to read a one-shot from 2016 called More Than Anything In The World and sort of based the Grunkle Stan and Dipper dynamic off of that. I'm not gonna tell you to go read that fic because it is from 2016 and kind of cringy, but if you do want more things to read you'll notice that there's been a whole week of Halloween crossover stories that you might enjoy.
Dipper was moping again. More than usual, even. More than he did over the Wendy and Robbie situation.
"Hey, kid. You look weirder than usual."
"Thanks." Dipper hugged himself and looked away.
"Seriously, what's wrong?"
"Why do you care?"
"For the record, I don't care. It's just that your sister is busy and I was bored."
Dipper nodded, "Makes sense. Why would you care about the boring problems of your boring nephew? Why don't you go talk to Soos? He actually still believes you care about him."
"For the record, I do care about Soos. And you can't tell him otherwise."
"Glad to hear that you have at least one person you care about."
"I care about people. Mabel's cool."
"Geez, why do I even try? I know you don't care about me. I don't know why I care that you don't care about me."
"...If you tell me why you're upset I'll tell you something about me. Does that seem fair?"
"You're not going to believe me. You never believe me."
"Name one time I haven't believed you."
"There was the living wax figures, the secret president, the convenience store ghosts, the gnomes-"
"Okay, I get it," Stan said, rolling his eyes, "But I'll believe you this time. I promise."
"When I was in town earlier, I met this weird lady, I think her name was Sara?"
"And she did something to you?" Grunkle Stan narrowed his eyes. The name didn't ring a bell and it already didn't like where this story was going.
"No, no- nothing like that. Well, she grabbed me, but I don't think that was malicious…"
Grunkle Stan was frowning now, "What happened next?"
"So, she grabbed me by the shoulders, which was weird, and told me that I looked like her friend, which was also weird. She seemed really upset and so I figured I'd ask her what was wrong, to maybe console her? And she told me her friend went missing a long time ago, and that I should stay out of the woods. Because a beast lurks within, or whatever."
"Huh." Stan fell silent.
"It just freaked me out- not the monster, I've dealt with monsters. But the grief on her face… She lost someone she really cared about and it drove her crazy. Nothing scares me more than that. I don't want to ever lose Mabel..."
"Yeah," Stan said, sounding more serious than he ever had before, "I know how that feels."
Dipper's eyes widened, "What? Really? You're not messing with me?"
"I've been through things you don't know," Stan said with a shrug.
"Like what?"
"I don't like talking about it, Dipper."
"Come on, you said you'd tell me something about your life." Dipper crossed his arms and glowered pointedly at him.
"Fine, fine. I was a missing kid once. Well, I was like seventeen, the age doesn't really matter. I got into this fight with my family, well, it was kind of my fault… And I left. I had to leave. Everyone in New Jersey who remembers me thinks I'm dead."
"Whoa, seriously?"
"Yeah… I should have known you wouldn't believe me. Forget about it." Grunkle Stan moved to get up.
"No, no, I believe you! Can you tell me more? Like, what happened with your family?"
"Well, your grandfather and I kept in touch, obviously, or you wouldn't be in Oregon right now. But I never really saw the rest of my family again. And I never went back."
"Huh. So…"
"So what?"
"So, me and Mabel are kinda like… Some of your only family now, huh?"
"I guess you could put it like that." Until Ford was back, at least, but Stan wasn't going to talk about that until it was actually in his grasp.
Dipper searched his uncle's face and saw the same grief and regret that had colored Sara's face earlier.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know."
"Yeah, well, I don't like talking about it."
"Thanks for telling me, Grunkle Stan."
"Don't sweat it, kid. I've got to go make sure Wendy and Soos haven't burned down the gift shop. But uh, be careful in the woods, okay? I care about you."
"I care about you too," Dipper said, and both froze in place for a few seconds, unable to communicate how much that exchange had meant to each of them. No matter how many things were left unsaid between them, it was nice to know they weren't entirely alone in the universe. It was nice to know that someone cared, even just a little bit.