Mike yawned as he slowly made his way through the Mystery Shack. He should have probably taken the opportunity to sleep last night, but since Mike was so busy during the day now, Mike had no problem keeping himself entertained at night, so he didn't fall asleep out of boredom anymore and he liked the reprieve from his usual nightmares. Still, he'd have to sleep tonight if he didn't want to act like a zombie as well as look like one.
Dipper and Mabel suddenly came rushing by, moving at top speed.
"Oi! Watch it!" Mike called as they nearly knocked him over. It wasn't fair how kids could be so energetic this early in the morning even when they stayed up late. Mike blamed his tired state for the fact it took him a few minutes to realize the twins had stopped their mad dash and were staring at him with shocked expressions.
"What 'ca lookin at? Did my face somehow be more horrifying?" Mike asked with a huff. Seriously though, they hadn't stared this much when they first realized he was a member of the undead so he had no idea what was causing this sort of reaction.
"You have an accent." Dipper informed the first to recover from his surprise.
"Huh, I must be more tired than I thought for it to surface again," Mike commented, stifling another yawn as if his body wanted to prove him correct. Honestly, Mike was surprised he still had his accent at all after all these years.
"You mean you've been secretly British this whole time?!" Mabel exclaimed in excitement. "Are you a wizard? Or a super secret spy?"
"Nope, not a wizard or a spy," Mike chuckled. "I can't even really count as British as I was born and raised here in the states. My parents were from England though so I grew up with the accent."
"So you just grew out of it?" Dipper guessed.
"While I'm sure there was some of that, I actually trained myself not to have the accent when I was a kid," Mike explained. He had grown to hate the constant comparisons between himself and his father long before he found out the man was a crazed child murderer. He already looked so much like Willam that Mike hadn't wanted to sound like him too.
"Why would anyone not want to have a British accent?" Mabel asked scandalized.
"It just was one of my many ways to rebel as a teenager," Mike shrugged. "That and really leaning into the slang at the time."
Mike had used slang so much around the house that Evan even started to pick it up. The look on his father's face when Evan called something "tubular" had been completely worth the weekend Mike ended up getting grounded for.
"I need to hear you speak with your accent more," Mabel declared, leaving no room for arguments. "Let's go upstairs and you can read Harry Potter to us."
"It's not going to be as strong as the actors in the movies," Mike warned even as he and Dipper followed her upstairs. "Even when I was a kid my accent had never been as strong as a native Englishman."
"Whatever you have is good enough for me," Mabel replied as she got pillows for them to sit on. "This will be fun."
Mike obliged and began reading from the book Mabel handed him. The twins listened attentively most of the time though they would try and imitate his accent every now and then. They were like that until Stan fetched them to do some chores.
