Slices of Life and Family

by bluefrostyy

PART 3 of The life of Sebastian Pines! (Read that first, I doubt you'll understand what's going on) The story follows Seb's life after Gravity Falls. Bill was defeated, but the Pines family still have thousands of adventures together. Old characters will come back, new characters will make an appearance, all to accompany Seb through his journey as a human (Cowritten with Mizuuma)

12. Teens(mis)adventures & an awaited truth

hi guys we're back and hope you like it! If you wanna see how the interns look, check my deviantart :)

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Dipper smiled when he checked his phone and got a notification.

Ah~ Pacifica~

He had texted about her new job and how she was doing. He understood what it was like having a job, he tutored younger kids in different subjects (Mabel also 'worked' but hers didn't last too long, she got bored of it pretty fast). Dipper smiled. He was really proud of her moving up from waitressing. Pacifica already made her own bank account so she could support herself without relying on her parents. From what he understood, after she 'rebelled' during that party where everyone turned into trees (it seemed so long ago), and her family became less rich after her dad went bankrupt (Dipper felt guilty for not feeling sorry at all. Who the fuck sided with Bill?!), her relationship with her parents became...tense. But she was doing fine, all things considered.

"MR. PINES HAND OVER THAT PHONE!"

"AAHHH!" Dipper screamed and dropped his phone. The person who screamed, his dear twin, started laughing loudly. "One day a teacher will find you with your phone and you'll REGRET not using this as practice!" Mabel blew a raspberry.

The younger teen grumbled, picked his phone back up and walked along with her. "Geez Mabel, it's not like I'll be on my phone during class." He wasn't like Mabel who was checking her social media constantly, chatting with people on all platforms and getting the status update on everyone's lives.

And this was their last week. No one would care!

"Whatever~" Mabel grinned at him. "So how've you and Pacifica been doing? Still being super cute~?"

Dipper felt his cheeks warm up and coughed. "Well. We're doing fine. She's doing fine."

"Eeeeehh!" The girl squealed. "I paired you up~ This is my work! And considering you used to hate her~~" She put her hands over her chest.

"I-I didn't hate her!" Dipper blushed. "I-I just-"

"Sure, you just called her fake blond and thought she was the worst!" Mabel teased. Her twin gumbled. "it's not like you liked her at first either...We were just kids…" Dipper pouted.

Mabel nodded. "True~ But I tried being nice! And be friends! Because that's who I am! A cute nice girl!" Dipper laughed and pulled her closer. Mabel thought it was a hug, but it turned out to be a noogie. "Aahhhh! Noooo!" She wailed. Dipper was slightly taller than her now and she didn't like that one bit!

"Heeeelppp!"

"Say who's the alpha twin! Say it!" Dipper roared.

"It-It's still ME!" Mabel freed herself by tickling Dipper's armpits (he was as ticklish as ever) and the boy squeaked before jumping away.

"Well~ I'm gonna look for Chad~We were going to eat together! I made donuts! With lots of sprinkles! He loves that! See ya in class, Dip Dot!" Mabel called out as she skipped away.

Dipper waved. Chad. He was Mabel's latest boyfriend. They've been together for a month. Dipper didn't really know the guy, but he had a feeling things wouldn't last. Like her previous boyfriends…

Mom and Dad said Mabel had a unique personality. According to his dad, he was glad his 'princess' didn't have serious relationships with anyone because Dad's were overprotective of their daughters. Dipper saw the way his dad and uncle Seb were protective of Mabel whenever she tried to date anyone and found it all very annoying.

(Dipper would never act like that if he had a daughter!)

On the other hand, their mom wanted to meet one boyfriend that lasted more than a few weeks. He had heard her tell Mabel that boys didn't understand her strong, bubbly personality, and those who didn't weren't worth it.

Dipper wasn't really sure if it was just that. It was weird. If boys 'did not understand it', girls shouldn't want to be friends either, and Mabel had lots of female friends. It was always boys who were...scared? Intimidated? Disgusted? Dipper had no idea.

What he knew was that whatever it was, it hurt his sister everytime one of her boyfriends broke up with her, and he didn't like to see her sad, it always broke his heart.

On her way to find her boyfriend, Mabel stumbled across him. "Chaad! I found yoou!" She squealed and leaned forward to kiss his lips. Chad tensed up. "Wanna have lunch now?! I made donuts!" Mabel swung out her personalized lunch box (that she made herself with hot glue and sequins!)

Chad sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Listen, Mabel...We, we have to talk, ok?" Mabel frowned a bit but agreed. They went to a more private space with less noise and people.

"What...do you have to tell me? Maybe-maybe if you don't want donuts, it's fine!" The brunette girl said quickly. The sinking feeling in her stomach was tormenting her.

"Um...Mabel, you're very...sweet ok? And...nice, but this-this isn't working…" Chad grimaced ashamed.

"O-Oh…" Mabel looked down and nodded slowly. "Ok, I-I get it…"

"We-We're ok, though, right?" Mabel wasn't a bad looking girl, and she was very sweet, he just...couldn't be with Mabel. He didn't know why. It felt weird being around her. Like, she was a little too much sometimes, and Chad could never tell if she was serious about him or if she just dated him because she wanted to date someone, the fact that she would go after a new guy after every break up left the impression on him and the other boys that Mabel wasn't really… serious about any of them? (And a few guys privately thought Mabel might be a slut.)

(Not that Chad or any of the other boys knew that Mabel was still a virgin, despite how much she actually wanted to get intimate with a guy, none of them had really gotten to know her enough to get to that point, always assuming incorrectly that Mabel didn't actually care about them. But that wasn't true, Mabel just wanted to express her love as much as she could.)

Mabel smiled a bit and nodded. "Yes, fine, totally fine, don't worry…" She waited until the teenager was gone before she left the secluded corner. Mabel hugged her multicolor backpack to herself as she made her way to the bathroom where she could finally shed the first tear.

"..N-Nobody likes me…" The heartbroken girl whispered to herself. None of the boys had ever seen her cry after a break up. Mabel didn't want to be the type of girl who would cry and make others feel bad, and maybe making them feel bad enough to take back the break up out of guilt. She didn't want to do that.

If they didn't want to be with her, then… she didn't want to guilt them into staying with her when they didn't want to. On Mabel's end, she was putting on a brave face, smiling through the pain and acting like she was fine because she didn't want to make others feel bad. But from the outside, it made people think that Mabel wasn't affected either way by the break up. Like she just didn't actually care. Because she never seemed to be sad from it. Mabel was good at hiding her pain.

Dipper was always sad about things, and Mabel had taken it upon herself to not add to his anxiety, stress and sadness by letting herself be sad. Well, she did get sad when she was younger, and had always gotten Dipper to help her with it. But she'd told herself not to be so self centered anymore, so she didn't want to bother Dipper with her relationship problems anymore.

So Mabel wiped her tears, washed her face and pasted on a smile before leaving the bathroom. Maybe she could find her friends and have lunch with them...

-.-

Despite the fact that she didn't want to bother her brother, Mabel had her confident who was always a very good listener. Dillon, like her, was a sad heart with not much luck with love, so they could talk about how they felt.

Dillon looked at his cousin's sad face and sighed. "Oh, Mabel, I'm sorry to hear that…"

"He-He...He said it wasn't working...What did I do?! Maybe I'm not being nice enough...or-or I'm too suffocating?"

"I'm sure you aren't. Maybe they're just dicks, you know? It isn't your fault." Dillon stared at Mabel seriously. "Mabel, you're a strong independent woman who don't need no man." The boy waved a finger.

"But I want one." Mabel said sadly. She had her family, and she loved them a lot, but Mabel wanted to be loved by a partner too. She wanted to feel the same way she saw her twin felt. To be happy and all lovey dovey with someone, do things together and cuddle…

Dillons eyes widened a bit when he saw Mabel was starting to tear up. "Hey...come on, boys aren't worth crying for, trust me." It was dumb, they didn't deserve your tears. Like his first boyfriend. He was an ass.

"Maybe he wasn't the right one for you. There's always someone special for you, just look at our uncle Seb and our Dads! Who would say those idiots would find someone? If they can, you'll DEFINITELY find the right person too. You're super nice and amazing!"

Mabel wiped her tears and smiled. "Thanks...Do you think I'm pretty too?"

"As a cousin, as a boy or as a gay?" Dillon teased and Mabel giggled. "As Dillon."

"I think you're very pretty but it's just a tiny fraction of all the other great qualities you have." He nodded solemnly. He thought of a fun way to cheer up his cousin and he came up with an idea. "Hey~ I found the funniest smut fanfic in the history of funny smut fanfics! It's soooo over the top and soo cringeeyyy!" Dillon laughed. "You know you wanna read it~"

Mabel laughed. "Oh my gosh yeeees~" the link Dillon sent her started with the line 'When he regarded me from across the bar with such a gaze of introspection, while sliding his cocktail cherry along his tongue, I knew he was going to be one hell of a fuck.' and Mabel started cackling.

"AAAHHHH!" She screamed with laughter. "DILLON!"

"Hahahahahaha! Continue reading~" The boy urged. "That's not even the best part yet!"

The two teens read aloud the cringey fanfic and laughed together. They joked about the silly synonyms used to describe the characters' bodies ('his mighty meat stick.') and complained about the bad story set up ('we fooled around in the bath until he slipped and fell to sit his ass right on my-'). This had become a tradition between them since Mabel learnt Dillon liked to read fanfics, especially smut. He just liked it, not in a dirty way or anything. (Or at least, that's what she thought…)

She absolutely LOVED having a gay cousin, it was so nice to have someone she trusted to talk about things she couldn't talk to with Dipper and was too embarrassed to tell her friends or mom. She could talk about boys with him, and he never judged her about it, and in return, she could listen to him. Mabel felt so proud of herself that Dillon trusted her as much as she trusted him. He told her about how he felt with his own sexuality, his crushes, and how scared he was of talking to his dad.

The two of them could talk about their own needs and desires, especially about their sexuality. It was very liberating for the two teens. They looked at pictures of cute boys together, they'd even touched on the subject of what they'd like to do with said cute boys. Part of Mabel felt a little embarrassed and shameful for her desires, but as a teenager who was very much sexually curious (and horny) she couldn't help it. Dillon also admitted to her that he'd get horny and have to masturbate, and that from what he's read on the matter, this was perfectly normal and healthy.

"It's better to masturbate and satisfy your body's needs, then to have it all cooped up inside until you go crazy and do something stupid." Dillon told her. Mabel knew he was right, but part of her was still a little embarrassed to start touching herself in such an intimate way, no matter how much she was craving it.

"It's just weird, you know?" Mabel sighed over the laptop to her cousin. "Like, I always liked boys, but now I REALLY like boys. And I stare at them as they flex, or bend over, or reach up and their shirts lift just enough for me to see some skin, and… ugh…" Mabel hid her face in her hands, blushing hard. "And I really, really want to fuck them." She groaned. "Am I a slut?"

"No, you're not. You're just a sexual person. There's nothing wrong with that." Dillon assured her. Mabel clutched the bear shaped pillow she was holding. "But that's what they call me. I can hear what they say about me, even if no one's saying that to my face." And the teachers were always telling them that they should wait until they were older before having sex. And, well, Mabel was 15, but she was horny! And part of her felt like she was a bad person for being so.

Which was stupid. Mabel knew that intellectually, but emotionally, she had her parents warning her and Dipper about sex and teen pregnancies all her life, for obvious reasons, and condoms weren't fool proof. So Mabel always felt somewhat guilty about her feelings of wanting to have sex.

Mabel shrieked and turned around when her door was thrown open.

"MAbEL!" Dipper screamed, clicking a pen as fast as he could. "I thought of something horrible and now it can't leave my brai-wha-what were you watching?" He stared at her open laptop and Mabel quickly clicked on Dillon's face to zoom him. "Nothing! Just talking with Dillon here! Right?!"

Dillon nodded. "Yeah! Talking about di-"

"WHAt did you want, bro?" Mabel gave a big grin as she tried to change the subject.

Dipper narrowed his eyes but let it go for now. "Remember Uncle Ford's infinity sided dice?"

"Umm~ The one that made your nerdy game come to life and we saved your asses and brains?"

Dipper deadpanned. "Yes, yes that one…"

"An infinity what?" Dillon asked, but was ignored. "Ok, what about it?" Mabel asked.

"Well, I was suddenly thinking about it and I remember Uncle Ford said it could make the world turn into an egg! And the implications are so scary and unpredictable! Like-like what would happen to us?! What if it got broken?! What if it hatched?! If the world was an egg, would we all suddenly be living in yolk? Would we become yolk?!" The brunet teen was scared out of his mind. Dillon and Mabel shared a look through the cam.

"Aaww, my poor bro bro~" Mabel patted his shoulder in a sincere sibling hug. "Do you wanna talk to ol' uncle Ford and ask if the crazy dice is safe?"

Dipper sniffled and nodded.

Mabel called Ford and put on free speaker mode, so Dillon could hear and be part of it too. It was on the second try that someone picked up the phone, but it wasn't their uncle's deep voice. "Hello? Dr. Pines' phone? He's holding dangerous material and can't talk right now. Who is this?" A boy's voice asked.

"Who are you?" Mabel frowned a bit and Dipper already looked worried. "Oh man! Oh man! Uncle Ford was kidnapped!"

"He survived in space. I'm sure he'll be fine." Dillon rolled his eyes. It'd be hard for him to believe someone was kidnapped after being lied to for 13 years. But, he wasn't too worried if it had really happened, he knew Ford could take it. And no, it had nothing to do with his grudge. He wasn't as angry anymore. Forgive and forget.

"My name is Tyler, I'm an intern at the National Institute-"

"Ok, ok the Mystery Shack research center, ok." Mabel giggled when she heard the boy make some confused sounds and mutter something. "I'm DOCTOR-hAH! Doctor Pines' niece~ Can you please give him the phone? My bro Dipper wants to know if the infinity dice is safe and won't turn the world into an egg accidentally."

There was silence on the other side of the line before Dillon interrupted it with a snort. Tyler finally spoke. "Eh...sure…" Tyler pulled back his mask and walked over to Stanford, who was explaining something to Viola (he already knew this subject, because he learnt it at school, of course), and showed him the phone. "Dr. Pines, your niblings are calling and they're asking about some dice and...and an egg...What should I do…?"

Ford grinned. "Oh, just put them on free speaker while I finish this." Tyler obeyed and put the phone closer to his boss. "Hello, Mabel, Dipper?"

Dipper sighed in relief. "Hey Uncle Ford! Hi! You got an intern huh?" He smiled, feeling much more relaxed now that he could hear the man's voice. Ford nodded, but Dipper didn't see him. "Well, two in fact."

"Hahahahaha! Dipper you got replaced~Woohh!" Mabel giggled on the back and high fived the screen of her laptop as if she was high fiving him.

"So tell me, Dipper, has something been bothering you recently, I think?" Ford asked and Dipper nodded. "Yes, um, I was overthinking and remembered the infinity sided dice-It's safe right? Like, you're keeping it in a safe place, right?!"

Ford nodded. "Yes, in my vault under key and lock, exactly where we left it after defeating Probabilitor."

"AFTER MABEL AND MY GREAT BROTHERS DEFEATED HIM WITH IMAGINATION!" Mabel corrected him. Ford sighed. "Yes, that."

Tyler and Viola shared a very confused look at the conversation the Pines were having. Their boss didn't study weirdness for years for nothing. Stanford himself was a little weird...

They briefly chatted for a while, Dillon even joined in the conversation before Ford told them he had to leave and finish his work. "Bye, kids."

"See ya Uncle Ford! Say hi to Grenda and Candy for me!" "And Paz!" Dipper added, earning a giggle from his twin.

Ford frowned. Did they just asked him...to say hi to their friends? Again? Why they didn't simply call their friends to say hello was a mystery Ford just couldn't solve. "Uh...Suuure...If I see them…" He said slowly. Having to track down his nibling's friends would surely take too much time. Well, perhaps he could pass on the greetings…

Ford hung up the phone and glanced over at Viola and Tyler. Well, Fiddleford did say that interns were there to do stuff for him…

"Once we finish storing these chemicals away, I have a mission for you two." Ford told them quite seriously. The two stood up straight. A mission from Dr. Pines? "What is it sir?" Tyler asked (eager to earn more points with the Doc and perhaps even getting hired for reals by the Center once his internship finished).

"I need you to track down my niblings' friends and pass on the 'Hello' to them."

….Viola and Tyler thought he was joking and were waiting for the punchline. But Ford just looked at them expectantly.

Finally, Viola asked "And… why us? We don't know your niblings' friends…"

Ford's mind raced to come up with an excuse besides 'I'm busy and don't want to leave the lab to go find them.' And blurted out "You two are still new in town, you don't know the area or the people yet. This would be a good opportunity for you to walk around, meet the townsfolk and get to know the area." Ford nodded to himself. "And any good scientist should know how to go out and find out information, such as tracking down people or some supernatural creature. This will be a test of your information gathering skills to find these people."

The interns nodded. Right. That made sense. Tyler side eyed Viola. If he found them first, that'd prove he was better at information gathering. Scratch that, it'll prove that he was better.

"What are their names?" Viola asked, and Tyler internally berated himself for not asking that first.

"Well there's Pacifica Northwest...Sweet, she was named, oh! Candy...Candy...something, Korean last name? ...Sounds like Achoo and Grenda Grendinator." Ford listed off. He only remembered Grenda's last name because it stuck out to him.

The interns stared. Was… was that last one a joke?

But no, it wasn't. Their boss was completely serious.

The two college kids stared even harder at Ford, (that was it?! He didn't even tell them the last name of one of them). Their boss groaned. "I don't really know those girls, ok? Now go research and find them!" Ford was also tired and wanted to work on his own, so getting rid of the interns while making them think they were important was a great idea.

It was noon, and after retrieving their phones, they stole a golf cart from the souvenir shop because they didn't feel like walking all the way to town. They were sure the nice guy (Zeus?) wouldn't mind.

"Huh, do you know one of Dr. Pines' triplets owns the store? That tourist trap? He started it years ago." Viola said, just to break the awkward silence. Tyler rolled his eyes, not looking up from his phone as he texted his friends. "The football player or the one without an eye?"

"Ummm, the one without an eye." Viola nodded. "I saw him in the news. He opened a store. I think he designs clothes."

"That's gay." Tyler commented. Viola remained silent because she really didn't want to argue with the dick right now. She sighed. "I...think we could ask around in town for them? It's a small town, people usually know each other."

"Listen, Viola." Tyler sighed as if Viola was dumb. "This mission is clearly a test to see who is the best. And I want to win, so I'd appreciate if you stand aside, yes? I'll say you tried your best~"

Viola deadpanned. "When we graduate, we will have to work with people, as a team, with annoying jerks like you, whether you like it or not."

"I don't work as a team." The boy grinned and Viola nodded. "Alright." Said the girl before stopping the golf cart. "Then get out. It was my idea to get a golf cart. And we're not a team."

Tyler's flabbergasted expression made the girl smiled. "FINE!" The boy stomped out, slammed the door and Viola waved sweetly before driving away.

Stupid Tyler. She hoped he got lost.

She calmly drove into town and wondered what to do next. The kids who called were still in school so their friends might be as well. She parked the golf cart and walked into a store. She could get information about these kids and buy something to eat. "Hello~" She smiled at the cashier. "How can I help you, dear?" The woman with poofy hair grinned back.

Viola put some cheetos on the counter. "I'm Viola Se, intern of the National Institute-"

"Oohh~ the scientific Mystery Shack, yes! Sebas's brother built it." The woman nodded. "But he doesn't live here anymore, not since-"

The customers in the convenience store ALL turned to look at her wide eyed (it REALLY creeped Viola out) and the seller coughed. "Since he moved out with his partner, never mind all that~" She waved a hand dismissively. The other customers resumed what they were doing.

"So, you know the Pines? Dr. Pines, Sebastian and his family? Even...Mabel and her brother?"

"Oh yes, we know the twins, they're such sweethearts~"

Viola smiled. "Maybe you can help me with something then! I'm looking for their friends, Pacifica Northwest, Grenda...Grendinator and Candy, but I don't really know her last name."

"Oh I know those girls." The woman scanned Viola's cheetos. "Candy and Grenda buy stuff here all the time, I used to go with her parents to the town therapy group to forget about...the earthquake-"

'The earthquake?' Viola thought to herself.

"-Pacifica's family founded the town, had a big manor before they went bankrupt after the earthquake, now not-crazy McGucket lives there and the Northwest have a house in town."

Not-crazy McGucket? But the doc was a mechanic genius! Sure, he had weird ideas, and ate frogs at one point in his life, but he wasn't really crazy! Right?

"Um...Do you happen to know where I can find them?" Viola asked politely.

"Umm~ Pacifica works in the library now, maybe you can find her there?" The woman said apologetically, she didn't know more, but it was enough for Viola. she thanked her and got out as she munched her cheetos. So there was an earthquake here that really scared the townsfolk, huh? She wondered why she never heard about it.

She rode in her golf cart and slowly made her way to the library. Viola wanted to see the town she would live in for the next few months. It was a nice town, quiet and kind of slow. Aside from that earthquake, she doubted anything interesting happened here.

That was literally the town's catchphrase.

As she had been talking with the woman, Tyler finally arrived to town, grumbling and gasping for air. Stupid Viola leaving him in the middle of the freaking woods! He had been scared, but his pride and arrogance forced him to get out of the cart. Now his sneakers were dirty and he was tired and just wanted to sleep.

Tyler was actually also kind of spooked. On his way here, he began hearing weird noises from behind him, but everytime he looked back, there was nothing. It gave him goosebumps but he tried to remain calm. All forests had weird sounds. Was probably just some animals. He ended up putting on earbuds to drown out the rattling noise, but the feeling that someone was following him never left until he made it out from the trees and into town.

Damn forests.

He looked around. Pacifica Northwest, he knew that name. His parents knew that name. He realized Viola didn't recognize it, peh, course she didn't. The Northwests were a very powerful, rich and influential family. At least until a few years back when Preston Northwest lost a lot of his money from some sort of bad business deal. Tyler didn't know the details but he remembered his own father talking about it.

Either way, even after that, their wealth was only brought down from billion to hundred millionaires. Tyler heard that they sold their mansion, but with the money they still had, and Preston's hard work and ruthless business practice, they were rebuilding their family fortune. So, by that deduction, they must be living in another house, one that was still grand and on the higher end side of town! He couldn't imagine living in a neighborhood nearby these plebeians.

With that in mind and after asking some pedestrians which was the best part of the town, he made his way there. He looked around, but Tyler couldn't find a house he could qualify as 'Northwest'. All of them looked the same!

He was forced to stop and ask for help, explaining he was an intern at the National Institute- and then cut off with "Ohh the Mystery Shack!" From the townsfolk he was asking. Tyler was very confused with this. They remembered a fake tourist trap created by Dr. Pines' least well-known brother more than the incredibly amazing scientific center made by Dr. Pines?! Didn't they know the town was finally being mentioned and being put on the map thanks to Stanford and the other scientists? What did the tourist attraction and the other Pines do to be so appreciated here?

Even Dr. Pines' niblings were well known, and they were kids. Everything he heard about them was about them being 'heroes and the scary 'earthquake'. This town was so weird. If the internship wasn't worth it, he wouldn't have chosen it in a million years. Damn small town folk with their limited brains and limited-

He was brought back to reality when he realized he was lost. Damn it! And to make things worse, he was near a cemetery! Great! Everything was so freaking fantastic! He was creeped out as it was!

"Why hello dearie!" An incredibly chipper voice made Tyler jump. He turned to see a middle aged woman with a friendly smile and a shovel slung over her shoulder. "Haven't seen you around before. I think you're a little lost, dear." She was very pleasant and it grated on Tyler's every nerve. "If you're looking for the town, it's down that way." She gestured to a path. "It ain't safe to wander around the graveyard for a walk, not since the earthquake." Despite her words, the woman sounded positively delighted.

Tyler was… very uncomfortable with the woman's cheerful tone. And why did she have a shovel, in a graveyard? Was she burying someone? He nodded slowly and took a step back, away from the lady and (hopefully) back towards town. "Ah, I was looking for someone actually…" Tyler said as casually as he could. The woman giggled. "Oh. I hope they aren't dead already, that would be a shame~"

Tyler paled and he didn't recover his normal tone even when she smiled. The woman smiled even wider (how that was possible, Tyler didn't know) "What's their name? I know where everyone is." She gestured to the graves around her. Tyler shook his head. "No, not a dead person. I'm looking for friends of Dr. Pines' niblings." He held back a stammer.

The woman blinked. "Those sweeties? They have lots of friends! Why, little Mabel got my darling baby Robbie together with his girlfriend you know? Such a lovely couple they are. It's a shame they're studying far from each other~"

"Well I'm looking for Pacifica, Candy and Grenda." Tyler interrupted before the lady could go off on a tangent about her son. The woman laughed. "Oh, the Grendinators are such lovely people~ We buried the grandpa last year~ it was a nice funeral." Tyler twitched at that. The woman didn't seem to notice his unease at her casual mention of the funeral. "Well, at this time I think miss Grenda is having wrestling practice over at the high school."

"...Right… well, I'll just… Be going back to town now...Yeah..." Tyler backed up another step, visibly shaking.

She watched him the whole time, bright smile on her face as she stood in place, watching him.

As soon as Tyler was far enough away, sort of walking sideways to keep the woman in sight, he turned and booked it back down the path, praying it led to town. That shit was creepy! Unbidden, all those horror movies about small towns and their weird townsfolk came to mind and Tyler shook his head. Couldn't be. There's no way the great Dr. Pines would build his lab in some creepy town with a demonic cult or something. That's ridiculous!

With the adrenaline moving him, he didn't realize he was back in town until he heard the cars. Tyler sighed in utter relief. He didn't want to come across that woman ever again! Tyler was slightly gasping for air, from tiredness and from the scare he just had. He bought a bottle of water from a nearby shop, asked for directions and made his way to the school.

All of this to prove he was better than Viola! He bet she hadn't found anything yet! "Hah, suckupsmore…" He smiled to himself.

Tyler wondered if he needed a pass to enter the school, but then remembered this was a public school so who cared.

He entered the school as if he owned the place. He stuck out a little because of his age but no one really made a fuss or stopped him since he was still young looking. Like an older looking senior student. Wow, security really didn't care if any stranger just waltzed right in, especially if they looked like a kid.

Oof. That wouldn't happen in his old high school… they had actual security. It had been a private school that had a budget set aside for metal detectors and campus police to patrol the grounds. Tyler shrugged, whatever, this didn't concern him.

Finally, he found the girl he was looking for (after a bit of asking around). She was a tall muscular girl making a dance of victory over the girl she defeated. "YEAH! ANOTHER WIN FOR THE GRENDSTER!"

Tyler sighed. "Grenda Grendinator?"

She turned to look down at him (holy shit this gal was huge. Tall and hulked out with muscle) before frowning. "SORRY, YOU'RE CUTE BUT THIS GIRL'S TAKEN!" She told him, looking a little annoyed. "I KEEP TELLING YOU BOYS I HAVE A BOYFRIEND." Another girl patted her arm. "It's because you're the hottest girl at the school, they all want to at least try."

Tyler's eye twitched. "What? No! One, I didn't come for that, and two, you are a minor. I'm almost 22!"

The girls with Grenda all 'eeww'ed'. "You perv!"

Tyler pulled his hair angrily. "The Pines twins say Hi. I was asked to pass on the message." He was having a headache. Urghh.

Grenda gasped and she cooed. "AAAWW! THANK YOU!" She should write to Mabel.

"Do you happen to know where Pacifica Northwest is?" Tyler asked. He doubted it though, he doubted Pacifica studied here.

"SURE! SHE'S AT HER JOB AT THE LIBRARY!"

"If you go there, be careful with crazy Gabe though, he's kinda very weird~" A girl warned. That boy was a year older than them and ever since the 'earthquake' he became more weird than normal. Grenda sighed when she remembered the sock opera.

"Aaaallright...thanks…" Tyler gave them a thumbs up and walked out. One girl. Two to go. He bet Viola hadn't done shit yet!

Viola could have in fact finished the job a while ago, she had the cart and was 1 girl ahead, but...she got distracted. The earthquake thing caught her attention and as she made her way to the library, visited some spots to socialize and get more information about it.

She searched on her phone about it, but literally the only news featuring the town was when Dr. Pines and his brother reappeared and the center' inauguration.

Weird~

When she was sitting on a bench, eating ice cream, she saw someone had carved some sort of triangle on the floor, but it was so scratched up (she could tell the person was eager to erase it), it was barely recognizable.

A couple of cops saw her sitting there and said hi. Viola was just naturally polite and attracted plenty of pleasant greetings from the locals. She told them she was new in town, working at the N-Mystery Shack research center, and once again, Viola was told very positive things about the triplets and their niblings.

"They were here when the earthquake happened, right? I guess the Pines were very brave?" What could two kids do to be called heroes by the entire town?

The deputy held the sheriff's hand tighter. "It was very shocking for us but...never mind all that."

And why did everyone use that phrase?!

At the end, defeated, Viola just went to the library to find Pacifica. She entered the building and a teenage boy around 16 or 17 with long blond hair and blue eyes was sitting on a table. He was holding some puppets and at first Viola thought he was playing with some kids, but as she walked past him, she saw him alone, talking TO the puppets.

"I can't do it guys, we're going to fail that exam…" The boy cried. "Oh don't worry Gabe~ You're doing just fine!" The book puppet, himself, kissed his cheek. "Yeah, we're here for you!" The bee puppet waved its little hands. "Oh, guys, I love you so much, what-what would I do without you~"

Viola regretted spying because she shuddered when he started kissing his puppets. She ran the heck out of there. Browsing around the shelves, she found a blonde girl reshelving books from a cart. Well, Viola heard that Pacifica worked here so hopefully this was her. "Hello? Are you Pacifica?" Viola asked. The blonde girl looked over and nodded. "Yes, that's me. Did you need something?"

Viola smiled relieved. "Oh well, not really, I was just sent by Dr. Pines to tell you his niblings say hi, um, Mabel and…Dopper?"

"Dipper, he's my boyfriend." The blonde girl smiled and Viola squealed. Cuuuteeeee! "Thanks for coming all the way here to tell me. What's your name?"

"Viola, it's nice to meet you, I've been searching for you all day~" Pacifica laughed softly. "Right, sorry about that. I bet Ford took everything literally again." Cute man, but dumb, a lot like Dipper actually. If she didn't know Shermie, she would think Ford was his dad.

"What do you mean?"

"The twins, scratch that, normal people just say that, ' say hi to', even when you know it isn't going to happen, you know? I saw him in town last month, he was searching for me because 'the twins said hi'." Paz rolled her eyes.

Viola blinked before groaning and facepalming.

The two talked for a little bit, shared phone numbers (in case there were more 'hi's to be given) and Viola left after Pacifica told her that her shift was done and that she knew Grenda was at school practicing wrestling at this time.

Viola wanted to finish her mission, despite Paz saying Ford did this all the time. No more distractions this time! She walked out and as she drove to the school, she spotted Tyler. She stopped and looked at him. "Hey~ Thought you would return to the center before your very expensive shoes get covered in dirt~" She teased.

Tyler laughed. "Say all you want, backup intern, I already found a kid and I bet you haven't talked to anyone yet!"

"In fact, jerk, I know where 2nd kid is!"

"Me too! I'm going to talk to Pacifica!"

"I already did!" Viola smiled a bit smug. Sucker. "I'm going to Grenda now!"

"I went there, suckupmore!" Tyler spat but both interns sighed, upset and sat down to sulk. They still needed to find Candy, none of them asked the other girls about her and they must be gone by now. No one was going to win this competition. After a bit of arguing, they decided to ask around town, and if they couldn't, they would just go back home. Viola allowed Tyler to ride in the golf cart with her, she took pity on him.

They drove around quietly for a while before Viola spoke up, "Have you noticed how weird this town is? And the people? Like… it's almost like they're all…"

"In on some secret that they don't want outsiders to know about?" Tyler wasn't looking at her, his gaze out at the town around them as they drove. "Yeah. It was pretty damn obvious. But this is a small town, they're all like this, right? Some deep dark secret that the locals keep to themselves?" He shrugged. "As long as there isn't some sacrificial cult dedicated to some demon, like in that Quiet Valley game, we should be good-" he cut off as Viola hit the breaks on the golf cart. "Oof! What the hell, Viola?!"

But she wasn't looking at him, she was staring forward with a horrified expression. Tyler turned to look at where Viola was staring and he stiffened as well.

Some kind of… creature was there, in the middle of the road, walking by and no one in town seemed to care. As the two stared, a passerby waved at the horrifying monstrocity with a friendly "Good afternoon, Toby." and the thing responded with "I keep telling you, I'm Bodacious T!" the creature said before glancing over and noticing Viola and Tyler. "Oh hey, that's the Mystery Shack golf cart. Are you new employees?" and then the thing took a step towards them, raising a camera that Tyler hadn't noticed was hanging around its neck.

Tyler reached over to shake Viola. "Drive! Drive!" he urged and that made the girl snap out of her transfixed terror enough to put the cart in reverse and slam on the gas, zooming back and away from that thing. "Ahhhh!" the two screamed as Viola swerved the cart and switched gears to put it back in forward drive and they made a hasty retreat.

"What WAS that thing?!" Viola sobbed as they finally lost sight of it.

"M-maybe it was some escaped experiment from the lab?!" Tyler tried to rationalize. "A-and it… maybe it was docile enough that they allowed it to live…"

The two passed by the sheriff again and told him about the ugly creature they'd just seen. Sheriff Blubs just laughed. "Ah you city kids and your wild imaginations." he laughed and sent them off with a "Drive safely now."

The two interns were so scared and overall stressed after their meeting with that horrible cryptid that Viola drove them to the diner to have something to drink. "City kids…" Tyler slurped his beer angrily. "That sounds like an insult when it shouldn't be...Dumb town…"

Viola rolled her eyes and sipped her tea. "I don't think the town is that bad. It's actually pretty nice...Despite being kinda weird." Tyler rolled his eyes. "You probably don't know anything better, to be honest."

"I seriously don't know why I keep talking to you, you're a disgusting person." Viola spat, angry at the boy, who smirked as he was wholly unaffected by the insult. "Well, it's because you, deep inside you, admire me, and want to stick with me because I'm better than you. Besides, we can't help but talk to each other, we are stuck together for the entire summer and we're the only other person our age we can socialize with, even if we hate each other."

"That makes sense…" Viola muttered. "The fact that you're nothing more than my bare minimum needed level of social interactivity, not that I admire you. In fact, I hold nothing but contempt for you."

Suddenly, a group of teens entered the diner, cheering and being loud. They were 3 red headed teens whose ages ranged between 14 and 18. The group started chanting "FOOD! FOOD! FOOD!" Tyler groaned. "Great. More kids."

The interns of the research center watched the group of gingers as they sat behind them and banged their fists on the table, excited to get food. The lady who served the interns chuckled fondly and went over to receive the teens. "Hey Marcus, Kevin, Gus! The same as always~?"

"Yeah!" The middle one exclaimed as he grabbed his youngest brother by the neck to give him a noogie. "NOO! Let go!" The youngest teen, Gus, growled. "We come from helping dad at work!" Marcus told Susan as he blew his hair up a little bit, but to no avail as the red locks fell down to cover his face again. "He'll come later."

"Ok, kiddos~ Be right back." Susan waved and left to put in their order. Tyler's eye twitched as the teens kicked their table and laughed loudly. "Maaan~ we have more work now that Wendy left!" Kevin complained. "Yeah, but she said she would come back, THEN we leave her with all the work!" Gus laughed maniacally.

"Dude, chill." Viola frowned as Tyler seemed about to explode. "Tyler!" She glared as he stood up, looked behind them and glared at the kids. "Can you keep it down?!"

The youngest kid growled menacingly and stood up, Gus and Kevin had grown a lot during these past few years, Marcus was almost as tall as their dad by now. So, for their ages, they were fairly tall (and muscled). Marcus narrowed his eyes as Gus knelt on the seat to look at Tyler. "And who are YOU to tell my brothers and I what to do?!"

Viola facepalmed. Those kids were going to break Tyler's face...She smiled a little bit. That would be fun to watch. Tyler went on a dumb explanation about how they were disturbing his peace and how he was paying to eat here and wanted a quiet experience and bla bla bla his parents would sue if they tried anything on him bla bla bla, but Kevin simply grinned. "We don't care about your money, city boy! This is our town, get it?! And you're just being rude and usin' words we don't understand!"

Gus punched his palm. "And you know what?! We punch what we don't understand!"

"Are you going to hit him? Can you wait so I can record this?" Viola turned around as well to look at the red haired teens. Marcus deadpanned (you could feel it despite his eyes being covered) and looked at Tyler. "Dude, don't embarrass yourself in front of your girlfriend. You're going to regret it."

Tyler's eyes widened as Viola shrieked, her smile wiped off her face immediately. "I'm not his girlfriend EW!" Viola gagged. Tyler glared at the teens. "How dare you insult me like that?! You're going to pay for that!"

Gus laughed loudly and stood up to walk over to Tyler. "Oh yeah?! Do ya wanna fight?! Do you know we work with axes all day?! Do you want my fist in your face?!" He waved his fist in front of Tyler's face, but Marcus pulled him back. He didn't want his brother to get in trouble, he and Kevin tended to get a bit too aggressive, but this city boy was getting annoying. So he smirked. "So, you started a fight with me and my brothers and then want us to pay?! How about we bet something? If you defeat my youngest brother in arm wrestling, he's just 14-" Gus growled again. "-we will apologize for bothering you and your girlfriend-" "I'M NOT HIS GIRLFRIEND!" "-But if we win, you pay for everything we order."

"Deal!" Tyler agreed, because testosterone and he couldn't back down from a challenge. It was like his fencing classes. Once you were slapped, you had to accept it. Besides, he was just 14 years old. How bad could it be?

Viola prepared her phone to record.

-.

"So, I think you sprained your arm. I can show you the video where the kid beat your ass so you can see for yourself?" Viola suggested innocently as the Corduroy brothers laughed loudly and walked out of the restaurant, carrying the entire crate of sodas they ordered from the diner and Tyler was forced to pay for. Along with their huge meal.

Tyler was holding a bag of ice on his elbow and holding back whimpers. Viola sat next to him with a big smirk. "That's what happen to people who are asses~"

"Just shut up, idiot. Let's just go to the center already." He spat angrily. Viola laughed, his pain was enough happiness for her, and she started the golf cart to go back to the center. However, when they were halfway there, their golf cart started malfunctioning and eventually stopped altogether. Now, the two interns were alone in the middle of the creepy forest with creepy noises. "Dammit!" Viola cursed.

Tyler, despite his sore arm, managed to laugh and say "NOW you'll have to explain Dr. Pines and Soos why the golf cart is missing...After all, it was your idea~" Viola ran a hand across her face and concluded the best next thing they could do was walk back to the center, explain what happened, and they'd pick up the cart.

However, the woods were completely unfamiliar to the both of them, they hadn't really spent much time out here and barely knew their way back to the center. Tyler reaching the town was pure dumb luck.

Soon enough, the interns were lost, and the sky was quickly darkening.

Viola didn't want to admit she was a little worried now. Her phone's GPS didn't seem to work. It just kept spinning and saying "Recalculating." when she tried to find the Center. She bit her lip and tried calling Dr. Pines, since by this point, they were well and truly lost, even as Tyler kept insisting it was "This way!"

The phone rang and rang and finally picked up to Dr. Pines' deep voice saying "Hello?"

"Ah… Dr. Pines, hi, it's me Viola. Um… the golf cart broke down in the middle of the woods and now we're kinda… lost."

"Oh no. Hang on, just stay where you are while I get a search party to find you." Dr. Pines told her and Viola slumped in relief. "Thank you, sir."

"Did you seriously call Dr. Pines for help?!" Tyler's eyes were wide in shock. Viola put her phone away and narrowed her eyes. "Of course I did! Do you want to stay here forever!?" Tyler ran a hand through his hair and laughed humorlessly. "We could have gotten out on our own, you useless DUMB girl! What you JUST did is make us look stupid and incapable of solving our own problems in front of our damn boss!"

Viola stepped back a little, startled at the reaction Tyler had, and she swallowed the lump in her throat. "I...Don't talk to me like that." She managed to whisper. Tyler deadpanned. "I can talk however the hell I want! Because this is a free country! And we have free speech! And I say you're just useless and stupid! And you'll never be anything more than some stupid, useless waste of space!"

"Free speech doesn't give you the right to be a piece of shit!" Viola sniffled, glaring at him and holding back tears as she walked closer to him. "You were just randomly pointing directions thinking you know soooo much! Do you think I give a single damn if you were in the scouts or whatever?! Knowing you, you probably bought all your badges! You're a horrible person and no one will ever like you! I'm going to stay here and wait, you can leave if you want and get lost somewhere for all I care!" Viola sat on a fallen tree trunk.

"Kill yourself, bitch!"

"Eat shit and die, asshole!"

The two interns flipped each other off and Tyler stomped away, furious. But his dramatic walk was totally ruined when he tripped over a branch, fell over his already injured arm and screamed. "Ahhh!" Tyler whimpered in pain.

"You're so stupid…" Viola rubbed her teary eyes (she defended herself pretty well, but his words still hurt) and turned around, giving him her back. He could stand up by himself. She wasn't going to help him. She heard Tyler moaning and groaning like a baby, but she didn't move. Tyler looked up at Viola, waiting to be helped, but when the girl didn't move, he frowned, so confused. Why wasn't she helping him?! He couldn't even see where he was and what had made him trip. He reached for his phone in his pocket to turn on the flashlight; there was a huge tree root, that made him trip. Tyler pointed with the flashlight at his surroundings until it landed on...

Tyler screamed and backed away from the eye looking down at him.

Viola HAD to turn around this time. Not because she cared what happened to him, but because she was curious, and wanted to see what made him scream. Tyler was a meter away, illuminating what looked like a...statue, a triangular statue. Tyler apparently was only startled, because he used the same statue to stand up in pain and was now examining it. "What is this? It's so cool~"

Viola decided to approach the statue too. It was in fact a triangle, a triangle wearing a cute hat and stretching his hand out, as if waiting to shake hands. "Why is this here? It doesn't look really old, but it's covered in moss and vines…" She ran her hand over the eye and shivered. Ugh. The stone was freezing! How was it even possible for it to be so cold?

Tyler poked the statue. "I doubt someone in town made it. It's a triangle, and the townspeople seem to have something against them." He told Viola, as if minutes ago he hadn't insulted her. Viola wondered if he was stupid, had memory problems, or he was simply an ass who didn't care about people's feelings and just assumed she'd be okay with talking to him after he'd outright insulted her. "Well it's a pretty good marker for our location." Viola admitted, taking a photo of the statue and texting it to Dr. Pines, so that maybe he'd be able to know where they were.

While Viola was on her phone, Tyler was taking selfies with the statue while laughing at this weird thing they found. His friends loved it.

"Well, I don't care how or why it's here, but I'm taking this to the center. If it's a weird object, I could show it to Dr. Pines and he'd know what it is~And then I'm taking it home!" Viola shrugged, still pissed. "Whatever man." She went to sit back on her tree trunk. Tyler was about to snap at her for being so mean (he was just talking!), when the two interns heard movement coming from the bushes.

"Hello?" She called as Tyler tried to pull the statue out by the extended arm, but even using both arms (which hurt a lot), he couldn't move it an inch. Why wasn't it moving?! It wasn't that big!

More bushes moving. Then growls. "Um...Mr. Pines? Is-Is that you?" Viola asked fearfully.

Before any of the interns could actually react, around 20 little creatures with beards and red hats came out of the bushes, growling loudly at them with their pointy teeth bared. "Why are you trying to move that?!" One of them screamed at Tyler.

Tyler jumped away from the statue as if it had burnt him and backed away, closer to Viola, shouting, "Holy shit!"

"Are-Are those gnomes…?" Viola's eyes were huge with fear. She had read about them, she read Dr. Pines' thesis about strange and supernatural creatures. She thought they were super rare though. They didn't look very happy with them. "Get away from that, you-you crazy humans!" More and more gnomes started surrounding them, and Viola and Tyler found themselves trapped.

"I bet they were trying to bring him back!" "They're his minions!" "We have to stop them!"

"We-We-will leave your statue! P-please!" Tyler said in a shaky voice, raising his hands as if trying to placate their anger. "I haven't done anything!" Viola pleaded and whimpered. "It was him! Please, please don't hurt me!"

"We don't believe you! You're probably brainwashed by that damn demon anyway!" "We'll stop you before you bring chaos again!" "LET'S GET THEM GUYS!"

Tyler and Viola screamed loudly as the little men lunged towards them. They were so many that the two fell to the ground and even as they struggled with all their might, they couldn't free themselves. "HELP!" "HELP USSS!" They screamed desperately as they were dragged deeper into the woods. Viola's phone was dropped in the struggle.

Viola's phone buzzed nonstop with messages from their boss.

-.-

Minutes before, Fiddleford was massaging his temples as Ford seemed incapable of realizing what was the problem. "How could you send the interns into town on their own! They haven't been here long enough to know about the woods!"

"They took a golf cart from the Shack." Ford waved a hand. "Sure, it stopped working and now they're in the woods, but I already sent some of the security team to go find them-"

"They're WHAT?!" Fiddeford pulled his blond hair. "Stanford, any creature could attack them there!"

"The creatures near the road are more docile, the dangerous ones are deeper into the woods. Besides, they're kinda more friendly to people now after Weirdmageddon." Ford rolled his eyes. "They'll be fine, they aren't kids." If his niblings at 12 could wander these woods and come out fine, why wouldn't two 20 something year old kids? His phone buzzed with a message, it was from Viola, she was probably going to tell him they were already found and returning.

He didn't expect the picture he received. 'So, we are here, Dr. Pines, if this helps? Near the triangle statue.' Ford screamed and Fiddleford took the phone to see as well. Then he screamed as well.

"DON'T TOUCH IT! VIOLA! VIOLA GET AWAY FROM THAT!" Ford texted furiously, and tried calling the girl, but to no avail. She wasn't picking up. Shit. Ford threw his lab coat and rushed for the door. If it was like this, then he would have to go and find the interns himself. He only hoped he wasn't too late.

"I can't believe they tied us together." Viola grumbled as she and Tyler sat together on the mossy ground. The gnomes had thrown them into this holding cell made of tree roots as they went to debate on what to do with them.

"Let us go! You-you little bearded fuckers!"

"Shhhh! We're trying to think here!" The brown bearded gnome hit the cage with a long stick and the humans whimpered.

"Please, please let us go, were sorry for messing with your statue, please, please!" Viola sobbed.

"We don't believe your lies you demon followers! Everyone knows not to touch it!" The gnome poked them with the stick from between the roots. "So if you're even anywhere near it, you must have come because of his orders!"

"No! We just got lost!" Viola protested. The gnomes didn't listen to her as they muttered amongst themselves. "We'll need to ask the elder." one declared. Another gnome groaned. "But he died like, last year."

"Oh right." The gnomes all sighed. "If only we had a Queen…" They sighed again, sounding more sad this time.

"Oh Mabel! Whyyy?! Why did you leave us!" The gnome sobbed dramatically and hit the floor with his tiny fists. Viola's eyes widened. Mabel? Could they be talking about Dr. Pines' niece?

Viola looked at Tyler. "Ma-Mabel? We-we know Mabel! Right?!" She nudged Tyler who nodded eagerly. "YEAH! Yeah! We even know her friends!" " Mabel-Mabel is Dr. Pines niece and she's good...right? Right?" Viola laughed nervously.

"Yeah we aren't evil!" Tyler agreed. Viola could disagree with that statement, because Tyler was a dick, but decided to keep quiet about that for the moment. The gnomes all frowned. "Hm… we will need to have a meeting with the rest of the gnomes, put this to a vote." One gnome decided. The others all nodded and they filed out of the dungeon for now.

"Great. Now they all left." Viola sighed. Tyler scoffed. "I've got a knife in my back pocket. I just can't reach it."

"You have a knife?!" Viola gasped. "It's a pocket knife! For my pocket!" Tyler protested. "For self defense! Like right now!" He wiggled a bit, but he still couldn't reach it. Viola frowned in thought. As she was tied up next to him, her hands behind her back…She started turning around to try to reach Tyler's pocket. "Hey! What're you doing?!" Tyler yelped as he felt her brush her fingers along his butt.

"I can grab the knife-" "P-Pocket knife!" "THAT SHIT, and free us!" She said in a hissed whisper. Tyler hissed back, "You're touching my butt! That's sexual harassment right there!"

"I'm trying to get the knife! I don't give two shits about your damn ass!"

"My damn fine ass, you mean!" Tyler couldn't help but pout.

"Every part of you is an ass!" Viola growled.

The two struggled against each other for a bit before Viola finally slid the pocket knife out of Tyler's pocket and the two stopped moving so she didn't cut them both as she carefully flicked the knife open and started cutting against their binding. Tyler couldn't help but whimper. "You're cutting us both free, right? You're not just going to leave me here, right?"

"Keep talking and I might be tempted to…" Viola huffed as she sliced through the vine ropes.

Meanwhile, armed with a gun, Ford ran and jumped expertly through the woods. Fiddleford had followed him (something quite stupid, now that the engineer thought about it), with much less experience but willing to help. Ford was muttering that something in the forest must have attacked them, otherwise, why else would Viola not answer his calls? (He tried very hard not to think about how perhaps the reason she wasn't picking up was because she or Tyler had messed with the statue and caused something even worse to happen-)

"You're really gonna kill whatever might have gotten them?" Fiddleford huffed as he tried to keep up with his much more athletic friend.

"Not if we can reason with whatever it is, like the good rational beings we are." Ford stopped but continued running after doing a quick look around and changing directions. "Unless it's a gobblewonker. I'll shoot that thing in the face if I see it! I just can't believe they were close to-to that!" He growled. "And that boy was touching it!" Now he'd have to check if they weren't affected by Bill somehow!

Frankly, Ford wanted to destroy the statue, like Seb had told him before he almost died, but no matter what he did, it wouldn't break. And then he tried to hide it in his lab, lock it up so no one had to see it. But that didn't work either, he'd ended up waking at night and sitting in front of the damn thing through the night, paranoid and afraid Bill would reanimate when no one was looking. It got to the point where Ford was forced to take it out into the woods, deeper than anyone would normally go, and bury him there with some binding runes so that he couldn't be moved by anyone who might try to take him.

But that too, was a mistake. Ford knew that now. He should have buried Bill's statue FULLY. Made it so that no one would even be able to see him-

Ford shook his head. No, he would berate himself later. He had to find those interns now!

"Viola?! Tyler!" He shouted. Fiddleford joined in and screamed. "Violaaa! Tyler!"

They reached the place where the statue was. Fiddleford watched Ford approach it with an angry look. Sitting there looking so smug! Ford let out a growl. Fiddleford turned on a flashlight and Ford jumped out of his skin, but relaxed when he realized it was just light. The two scientists carefully examined the place. The last place where the interns had been.

Fiddleford didn't notice anything really out of the ordinary (despite the fact that the place was really cold and creepy), but Ford had, he had to survive in space for years, and despite how they both needed glasses, Ford and Stan had developed very sharp senses to be aware of their surroundings.

Ford crouched to look at the ground and carefully ran his fingers over the marks on the floor. Big footsteps...and very little ones. The strong smell of squirrels. Then a long trail someone failed to completely erase.

"Gnomes…" Ford whispered dramatically. He also found Viola's phone. She'd probably dropped it when she was attacked. There was a good chance that Tyler was with her. And there would be no cell service where the gnomes took them, cell service was always hit or miss around Gravity Falls to begin with.

"Gnomes…" Fiddleford repeated. "Those-those helped us with the Shacktron, it should be easy enough to talk to them, I think?" He crouched to look at the markings Ford noticed. "Why would they take the kids?"

Ford nodded. "Well, they'll listen to me, but they really dislike outsiders. And if the kids were messing with Bill's statue, they might have assumed the worst of them. We must hurry." He motioned for his friend to follow him. "The gnomes have an underground place, it's where they sleep-" He missed Fiddleford's surprised face. He really thought the gnomes just slept in the open air! "-so we should just find it and negotiate with them. I'm sure the interns are intelligent enough to keep themselves alive until we get to them."

Ford and Fiddleford reached an open field with two ways forward. Ford frowned and concentrated. "Now...I only need to remember which way it was… I'm 84% sure it's this way." Ford pointed to the left. The engineer sighed. Even after all these years, Fiddleford never really went that far into the woods, subconsciously terrified of it after all he'd been through. He didn't know much about where the local cryptids lived.

They were in luck because Ford was correct in his assumption and came upon a cave entrance surrounded by tree roots and mushrooms. There was a commotion happening inside, lots of screaming and growling. Ford didn't even see any guards. Well, one of the voices he heard seemed to be Viola (whose voice stood out more clearly among the gnomes deeper tones) so the scientist ran inside.

Unfortunately for the two interns, when the gnomes came back from debating, and decided they'd just eat them, one gnome saw what Viola was doing and all hell broke loose.

Even if the two were untied, they were still trapped down here, but since their arms and legs were free, they were able to fight back somewhat. Tyler managed to open the lock of the cage and the two quickly ran away, not daring to look back at the massive amount of angry gnomes growling at them. "GET THEM! DON'T LET THE DEMON'S FOLLOWERS ESCAPE!"

"This town! Even the monsters! Have a demonic cult problem!" Tyler screeched. Someone in here adored some sort of demon and this was the entire reason they were attacked and were about to be eaten by a bunch of CRAZY GNOMES! "I don't want to die!" The boy sobbed.

"Oh, Jesus! I don't want to die with you!" Viola screamed. "Help!" She screamed as tears blocked her vision. They ran through different tunnels without really knowing where to go. They thought this was the end. They were going to die with the person they hated the most in an underground basement eaten by gnomes because they had to say hi to some kids in a weird as fuck town!

"EVERYONE STOP!" A familiar voice thundered out through the tunnels. The gnomes and interns both stopped in place. Viola's heart skipped a beat. It was Dr. Pines! He came to rescue them! The gnomes gasped as Stanford Pines strode in with a frown. "Release the kids, they're my interns."

"They-" The gnomes blinked. Interns? What was an intern? The looked at each other, a silent conversation flitting by super fast amongst them. Intern? A human thing? He said they were his, so they belonged to him. Perhaps it meant a minion. Oh. That's it. So these humans were Pines' minions. And perhaps he'd ordered them to move the statue? But clearly they couldn't. Well, that was fine then.

"Alright then." One of the gnomes nodded when they all realized that these humans were Pines' minions (servants? Slaves? Maybe.) so they had to return them. "Take them back, and don't let them near our sections of the woods anymore. They're troublesome!"

Ford blinked, surprised at how easy this was. "O-okay. Yes. Come along you two, let's get back to the lab."

The interns were shaken out of their shock by the gnomes showing them their pointy teeth, and the two quickly scrambled towards their boss. He seriously saved them! Against angry gnomes! Just talking! Has he always been this amazing~?!

Outside the cave, Fiddleford was waiting with Fords gun. He was scared of getting in, but thinking about it, staying outside was even more dangerous.

Viola sobbed and hugged Stanford once they were out. Her clothes were dirty and torn, and she had a small bleeding cut on her cheek from where the gnomes knocked her to the floor. She was so scared. "Oh my god! Thank you!" Ford was frozen and the best thing he could do was pat her disheveled hair. "Its ok, they won't hurt you anymore…" Fiddleford looked at Tyler. "Are you ok?" He noticed he was holding his arm.

Tyler nodded slowly but changed his mind when the two scientists turned to focus on Viola. "I-I mean, I'm as fine as someone with a sprained arm can-can be, I-I hurt my arm and it really hurts! Ow!" He groaned, not quite acting, his arm had gotten worse.

Fiddleford helped hold his arm still as Ford still held a shivering Viola. They made their way back to the lab and Ford was so angry at them for touching the statue. However, Fiddleford reminded him they didn't know about it, so Ford just sighed. "Don't ever go near that again, it's dangerous."

"No shit." Tyler spat, exhausted from this horrible day. "The gnomes almost killed us for it! Why didn't you tell us, I don't know, that supernaturals shits could attack us?!"

Ford raised an eyebrow. "I thought you read my work on Gravity Falls and its weirdness magnetic properties. That you read about the documented creatures. It was a requirement for the internship in this town, and it was explained." He said with a deep harsh voice. "Do I have to tell you everything like a child?! You're a grown man!"

Tyler flinched at being called out in such a way by his boss. He looked down embarrassed and stayed silent. To his surprise, Viola spoke up with a soft voice. "I'm sure Tyler read your work, Dr. Pines, but we just didn't expect such a thing to actually happen...It was late, and we were lost, we didn't know about the statue and we should have known better than to approach it."

Tyler knew perfectly well that he was the only one messing with the statue. And yet, Viola was sharing the blame?! Why! She was so dumb, she should be blaming him and using it to raise her own favor!

Ford nodded after thinking about it. "Alright...I guess you couldn't have known about the statue…I still need to check if you're ok after being close to it though."

"Dr. Pines. The gnomes were calling us demon followers for touching the statue, and-they seemed very afraid of it. We didn't hear anything about such a thing in town, but it feels like there's something going on...Do-Do you know why?" Viola tentatively asked.

"..." Ford stayed silent, eye slightly twitching. He looked at Fiddleford for help and the blond patted the interns' shoulders. "Nevermind what they said. You only need to know that you shouldn't touch that statue again."

Viola had so many questions (even her bosses seemed to be hiding things), but she decided not to question them. She was so relieved when they reached the center, but found herself in Ford's lab with Tyler (as if spending the entire day with him wasn't enough) so he could check on them. He checked their eyes carefully, he fixed up Tyler's arm, which lucky for him it wasn't broken, and put some sensors on their forehead and temples, read the readings to himself and nodded.

"Now you're free to go." Ford waved a hand and the tired interns dragged themselves to their rooms. "You spoke up to defend me in front of Dr. Pines, why?" Tyler demanded before each went into their rooms.

Viola massaged her eyes. "I really don't know, I guess I'm not a horrible human being and didn't want you to get fired? We had enough shit today and I decided to save your butt."

"I-I don't have to thank you, I didn't ask you to do it…" Tyler mumbled. Viola rubbed her eyes again. "I don't care what you do or not. I don't expect anything from you. Nor do I expect you to respect me. I just didn't want to listen to Dr. Pines yelling at you for another hour. I'm tired. Now let me sleep." Viola entered her room and locked the door. Tyler rolled his eyes and did the same.

The next day, (Tyler already had his arm bandaged from yesterday's adventure), while the interns were having breakfast early in the morning and trying hard to 'never mind all that', like Dr. McGucket said, they saw Stanford walking to the front door of the center, active as ever. Did he even eat? Did he even sleep? He was wearing a blue turtleneck (in summer!) Compared to his red one from yesterday so he did change clothes...right?

They followed him curiously and saw him approaching a teenage girl with black hair. They spied on them quietly and discovered SHE was Candy! The girl they couldn't find yesterday! She was explaining Ford how she was going to science camp and had a project idea and asked if he could please check it up ("I thought that you could help me, being my best friend's uncle and how great you are…")

None of the interns cared though, they were busy pushing and pulling each other to follow her and finish their mission. However, as Viola pulled Tyler on his hurt arm and the boy screamed silently, Ford waved at Candy goodbye. "By the way, Candy, Mabel says hi."

"Oh, thank you!" She smiled and left.

The interns facepalmed.

-.-

Mabel was trying to get over Chad. She couldn't stay sad forever after all. So she distracted herself by immersing herself into Dipper's love life. Specifically in helping him plan out his next big date with Pacifica.

And by helping him plan, she meant setting up a date between Dipper and Pacifica.

It wasn't like Dipper was going to make the first move here. Mabel checked, he was still writing and rewriting a list of things to do for dates with his girlfriend. It wasn't as bad as with Wendy, since talking to Pacifica didn't rile Dipper up into a fit of nerves like with Wendy, but he was still a dork who needed help with getting the ball rolling. So, Mabel called up Pacifica and asked her if she wanted to come over to California to hang out during break.

Mabel never mentioned anything about a date. She just said hang out so Pacifica couldn't suspect A. THING! From what she had spied on her brother telling Paz when the two had lovey-dovey face chats, Pacifica loved video games. She had been hiding this fact to the public to not appear like a nerd, but she had told Dipper about it because she trusted him and HE was a nerd, so he had no right to mock her.

AAWW! Mabel shipped them hard.

Mabel told her parents about the plan and agreed as long as Pacifica stayed in her room. Mabel couldn't be happier. She just LOVED sleepovers! Pacifica's parents accepted grumpily, after Abigail talked to them over the phone and told them Pacifica will be fine with them. Shermie wouldn't talk because, much like his older brother, he couldn't stand the Northwest's attitude. They had lost most of their fortune, but they were certainly still very wealthy and never less arrogant.

He liked Pacifica though. She was a nice girl, nothing like her parents, and she made Mason happy. ((Besides, she always said he looked nice and that she liked his hair and eyes and that made him like her even more))

So, after catching up with the blonde girl at home, watching movies and playing board games, Mabel thought it'd be a great idea to invite Pacifica and Dipper with her to an arcade for the day. It would be like a play date, but then Mabel would just so happen to leave the two of them alone together and it would become a romantic date! Ahhhh! It was the perfect plan!

In fact…

Mabel grinned as she hid behind one of the crane-game machines and watched Dipper and Pacifica chat together. They were playing a shooter game about evil demon clowns and she watched Pacifica laugh at something Dipper said to her. They were enjoying themselves, enjoying this chance to hang out together.

Seeing her brother and friend being so happy made Mabel's heart settle. Even if she couldn't find romance, Dipper could, and that made her feel much better, seeing him happy. Mabel loved her twin and she would do whatever it took to make sure her little brother stayed happy forever with the person he loved.

Besides, Mabel giggled when Dipper pouted at Pacifica getting a higher score than him. Pacifica was in fact, a video game master, she just didn't want many people to know that. "I want revenge!" Dipper jokingly complained, and Pacifica nudged him. "Sure, you big baby. But just know you still owe me that chocolate!"

Mabel cooed. Having her friend and her brother being together was so adorable! They looked perfect together. She spied on them for a little more until Pacifica pulled Dipper closer for a kiss.

"Um, Mabel? What are you-do you mind?!" Dipper shrieked when he noticed his sister staring at them with stars in her eyes. The brunette girl squeaked before running to a new hiding spot.

-.-

Dillon watched from his seat at Phillip dutifully writing down the homework their French teacher gave them. It was summer, but French classes weren't done. The class for today, however, had just ended and he should be going outside to meet his driver…

But Mabel had scolded him and told him to grow a pair. She said he had to talk to Phillip, not just texting each other. "Face to face conversation~ Like in the old days our parents lived in~"

Dillon took a deep breath. He missed his chance to talk to him during break because he was with some friends, but now he had time to talk! He walked as casually as he could towards the boy packing his stuff up. "Um, hey~ Um...You-you did great in your presentation today…"

"Nah, don't lie, it was really bad." Phillip laughed. "I basically used an online translator for it." Dillon laughed and blurted out. "Um, I don't have anything to do right now and I was thinking you'd like to-to, I don't know? Hang out? We-We can go somewhere to play or…"

Phillip grimaced apologetically. "Sorry, dude...But I'm taking a summer course at my university to fill in some credits so I could graduate faster and I have some readings for tomorrow…" Dillon's brown eyes widened. "O-Oh! It-It's alright! Ok! DOn't WOrry! I-I had to-to take care of my little brother, now that I remember and-and you should focus on your studies, so-so see you next CLAss!" He sprinted towards the door, feeling so stupid. Of course Phillip wouldn't hang out. He was a college student, he had important things to study and do! Dillon rubbed his face.

Phillip quickly grabbed his things and followed him. "Hey, Dillon! But- if you want, maybe we can still hang out, you know? When you don't have to babysit your brother. I can't go out to play or anything, but I hang out and read at the coffee shop around the corner everyday after French class, maybe you can come and hang out with me when you aren't busy?"

Dillon laughed nervously. "Did I say babysitting? I just remembered it was for tomorrow! Yeah! I can accompany you!" Phillip smiled, his light brown eyes shining and Dillon hoped he didn't look too creepy staring at them. "Great then, let's go!"

Dillon walked next to him, marveling at how tall Phillip was. Dillon was also tall but Phillip was older so he was taller and much cuter~ Dillon texted his driver and told him where he'd be and to come in a couple of hours. To Dillon's disappointment, the evening was spent...actually studying. They bought some coffee (Dillon invited him, for "Sharing ton lieu spécial d'étude". Phillip just nodded, not understanding), and sat down on a table.

Dillon felt like such a baby. His homework was coloring inside the lines compared to Phillip. He had photocopies of his books and he was reading and highlighting and writing summaries as well. He was so responsible and Dillon just loved how dignified Phillip looked while he was concentrating.

Dillon typed to Mabel. "I'm accompanying P to study." And casually snapped a photo of Phillip studying. Mabel, who lived with her phone in her hand, answered immediately. "OMG, he's so cute, and soooo studious looking~ College boys~"

"Agree. Idk what to do tho!" Mabel sent a thinking face. "Just keep him company this time! But next time invite him for a real date!"

Dillon sighed, put his phone away and slurped his frappuccino.

-.-

For his next attempt, Dillon recalled the old trick of buying food for your crush. Phillip accompanied him to the educational institution's cafeteria where he bought delicious french fries for both of them "You should definitely try them! Best junk food you'll try." The ginger boy agreed eagerly, and hummed in bliss at the french fries. "Ah, god! This is amazing! Thank you!"

"You-You're welcome...If-If you want fries any other day, just tell me! Because I just buy them a lot and-and I need to share! Yeah!" Phillip grinned and punched his arm in a friendly gesture. "Sure, man. I'll eat your extra fries any day."

After that, it became a small tradition for them to sit during break to eat french fries. The two laughed and complained about how unhealthy it was, but neither made an attempt to stop. However, Phillip suggested they could share, so it was less money and less french fries for each of them. Dillon agreed immediately. That was so intelligent, of course it was, college student~

Dillon was so relieved his family wasn't meeting up this summer. It meant he could continue seeing Phillip and trying to…

To what?

He didn't know if the ginger boy liked boys, he probably didn't. Dillon was so scared of confessing his feelings, he feared he would lose him as a friend, but Dillon also knew that if he kept waiting, he would be even more heartbroken if (when) Phillip rejected him.

Dillon got the courage to talk to his mom about this. He was so conflicted. He loved spending time with him, it made him so happy, and...he felt Phillip liked it too, he felt...Phillip could like him too, but if he was just dreaming, his rejection was gonna hurt. "We're spending much more time together...I don't want to lose that…"

"Oh baby~" Carla hugged her baby boy closer to her. She felt a bit weird giving tips about boys to her son, but she guessed this would have been seen as normal if Dillon was a girl. And even if it felt a little odd, what with her upbringing and cultural values, she cared more about making her baby happy. "I think...you should confess your feelings, it will make you feel better. Like you said, the more time it passes, the more difficult it will be."

"But-but-" Dillon sniffled and rubbed his eyes. "But he could get angry at me...No one likes g-gay people…he could hate me..." the poor teen swallowed the lump in his throat and held back tears.

Carla stroked his hair. "That's not true…"

"A boy at school said that if a faggot liked him, he'd beat the shit out of him." Dillon mumbled.

"Those aren't people, those are assholes. A sane person would not react that way. And from what you told me, Phillip is a nice boy right? Even if he wasn't gay, he'd just take it as a compliment, say no and move on."

"So you think he wouldn't hate for being g-gay?" Dillon sniffled. His mom hugged him and kissed his forehead. "I don't know, honey, but you can be sure your family will always be there for you~" She poked his side and Dillon squirmed with a giggle. "Moom~"

"Diego, come here! Lets all poke Dillon until he pees his pants!" The toddler, who was playing on the floor, gasped and ran towards them to tickle his 'big bwotheh' "Yayy! Attack Dion!" Diego squealed as his tiny little hands found all the spots that Dillon couldn't defend.

"No! No! Guys, stop it!" Dillon squirmed and laughed loudly.

-.-

Dillon was going to try to confess his feelings to Phillip. Sure, he risked losing the most amazing boy he had ever met because Phillip could be disgusted by him, but hey! His mom said it would make him feel better so he guessed he had to trust her on this?

It was a Saturday, Dillon waved off his dad's "Hey! Where are you going?!" And replied with a "I'm hanging out with a friend! Will come home later!"

Stan looked horrified to be left alone with Diego and Peppa Pig's GODDAMN ANNOYING VOICE AND OINKS all day. "But you said you'd help me with your brother!" He seriously couldn't deal with this! He wasn't made to deal with this! Diego squealed at the cartoon pig on the TV and frowned when his daddy groaned loudly.

"Sshhh!" Diego smacked Stan's chest with his sippy cup. "I'm wachin'!

Dillon grinned. "See ya dad, enjoy toddler parenting~"

"You'll pay for this, boy!" Stan waved a fist in his direction. The children's cartoon played on. "Hi! I'm Peppa! Oink! And this is my brother George! Oink!" Diego looked delighted and clapped with joy.

"No! NO! NOOOOO!" Stanley cried in despair.

Dillon met with his driver who diligently took him to the coffee shop he had been going to a lot recently. "Are you going to meet with that ginger boy, master Dillon?"

"Yup~ We're going to his house later, I think? He said we would go to a secret place!" Dillon not-quite squealed.

The driver sighed. It was not his duty, but he cared for the boy. "Well, if you don't know where you are going...keep your mother informed and tell me exactly where you want to be picked up and I'll be there, ok?"

"Sure, don't worry." Dillon waved it off. Dillon waited for his friend in the coffee shop with a big innocent smile on his face. He wrote to his friend that he had arrived. Phillip didn't respond. It was ok~ He could plan how to confess his feelings.

Dillon waited for Phillip patiently, texting him from time to time, but nothing. A waiter asked him if he'd order and he had to order a muffin to stay.

"Phillip, where are u? Are you ok? I'm in the coffee shop…" He wrote again and sighed. He hugged his muffin close to him and the brown haired teen held back tears. Why wasn't Phillip coming? What if he found out he was gay!? What if he didn't want to hang out with him anymore?! Dillon wiped his tears and was about to call his driver to pick him up because there was a 'change of plans' when a panting ginger came into the coffee shop. Dillon's eyes lit up and ran towards him.

"Phillip! What-What the hell!?" He complained lightly. The red-haired teen moaned and motioned him to follow him. "Sorry, got late, had to pick up some stuff for someone." He made his backpack jump.

"Pick stuff? For who?" The younger asked curiously and Phillip smiled. "Some kids, they need it, you'll meet them, I bring them more supplies almost every time I can."

"You, you get stuff for some kids every time you can? And, just for free?" Dillon raised an eyebrow.

"Let's say my payment is not really in money...but you'll see! It's much greater~ They're great, tough guys, we really have fun when we meet up."

Dillons mildy worried face didn't leave him even as they got on the bus. He examined Phillip to distract himself. He had put on all his piercings today, even the nose and eyebrow one. Huh, nice~

"You like them?" Phillip asked with a smile as Dillon blushed. He caught him staring! "I have a friend who can pierce whatever body part you want! Though, since you're still underaged, you'll need your parent's permission. Legally anyway."

"Eh~ I'm not sure I'm a piercing guy...Your-your parents didn't say anything against it?" Dillon asked. Phillip shrugged. "I got my first one at 15, they couldn't do anything since it was with my own money and I found a guy who would give 'em to him even without parental consent." Here, Phillip frowned. "It was fine for me because I knew the guy really well, but you probably shouldn't get piercings from anyone shady enough to pierce you without legal consent." he told Dillon, who laughed "Well I'm not gonna get a piercing so it's fine, thanks for worrying about me..."

Phillip coughed awkward before nodding. "Wha-What were we talking about?" Dillon giggled. "Your parents and piercings"

"Oh! Ri-Right...Then my parents understood that I liked it and it was just my way of expressing myself, so they didn't get too mad at me. I have to take them off for laboratory classes though, for security reasons."

"That's cool~" Dillon put on headphones and looked out of the bus' windows, getting increasingly worried as they got further and further away from the zones he knew. He had been around lots of places, but there were parts his mother had told him not to go as she considered them dangerous. He looked at the bag Phillip was hugging towards himself and decided to ask. "So~ What-What do you have there?"

"Stuff for the kids we're meeting remember?" The ginger said and Dillon rolled his eyes. "I know that, but what kind of stuff?" Phillip wrapped an arm around his shoulders and smiled softly. "It's a surprise~ Don't worry~" He said with a calm voice, and it made Dillon relax. Phillip seemed to realize his hug was getting too long (and awkward in his eyes) and slowly let go.

He looked away and missed the brown-haired boy's disappointed look.

At some point, they reached their stop and the two teens walked out. This place was making Dillon a little nervous. He wasn't a sheltered kid (God no!), he simply...had never had any reason to come to this part of the city. "Do...your friends live here?" Dillon asked with a small tentative smile. "This is where I give them the stuff!" Phillip grinned.

Dillon bit his lip and followed his friend through the loud streets. From what he had gotten today, he was starting to make very bad assumptions he hoped weren't true. 'Please, don't be a drug dealer, please don't be a drug dealer!'

"Keep your phone in your pocket ok?" Phillip warned him at some point, when the two walked by a place where some people were starting to look at them. It also smelled very weird. Dillon wrinkled his nose. He knew that smell from the awful parties he had been to. Ugh. Weed.

"Phillip, where are we going?" Dillon asked once again and walked up to him to stay even closer. And if Phillip got upset he was too close, he could tell him it was just a precaution. His friend never replied and they took a turn to walk through an alley. Before Dillon could assume the worst, they walked out of there, turned left and...they were in front of a hospital…

O-Oh.

Phillip smiled widely. "Welcome to the Saint Peter's children hospital. I volunteer here every Saturday!"

"This-this is the cool place you wanted to show me?" Dillon raised an eyebrow. Phillip blushed a little and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah?" Dillon's eyes narrowed. "Why would you keep saying this was a surprise and make this all creepy!? I was worried! I thought you were taking me to a drug deal or some shit!"

Phillip snorted loudly and let out a laugh, a beautiful laugh in Dillon's ears, but he was still upset about this secrecy. "Let's go inside, you'll like it." Dillon pouted and only followed because his crush was still cute.

Inside, some doctors waved at Phillip and smiled at him. He pulled out a pink doctor coat that the hospital gave to volunteers. "Do-Do you want to help?" Phillip asked Dillon softly. "I-I should have told you where we were going, but I didn't want you to say no, this is important for me, and I wanted to share it with you…" Phillip rubbed his arm sheepishly.

Dillon's eyes widened a bit as he gasped softly. Phillip considered him important enough to share this with him?! He internally squealed and accepted the pink coat. If Phillip loved this, then he loved it as well! Phillip explained how they were going to go to the pediatric wing with the children and how some of them were very sick. Dillon nodded.

It was...shocking at first sight, Dillon had to admit. And it hurt him. So many kids here. He stayed aside for a while, preferring not to upset the kids with his long face, and just watched Phillip do his job and make the little kids laugh. In his backpack, Phillip had bought toys and some candy, that Dillon later learnt Phillip had bought them with his own money for the kids. He finally understood the tough guys part. They were indeed very tough children. The kids here were very ill, but they didn't let that get them down.

A little girl squealed when she saw Phillip and hugged his arm. "You put it on!" She giggled, pointing at his nose piercing. "Yup! You really liked it the other day!" He poked her cheek and the toddler giggled loudly. "Who is that?!" She pointed at Dillon, standing by the doorway. "Oh! He's Dillon! A very good friend who came to visit you!"

"OOHH!" Another little boy gasped. "He's the boy you telled us about?!"

The two teens blushed madly when all the kids started giggling at them. "Is he your boooooyfriend~?" one of the little girls teased. Dillon stiffened but Phillip just sputtered and said, "H-hey!" before changing the subject. So… Dillon wasn't too sure how Phillip felt about that idea.

Dillon eventually joined in to play with the kids too, reading a story book to the kids with funny voices. He was great at reading to little kids, if he said so himself, he had practice with Diego afterall. He loved when he looked up from time to time and Phillip was with the actual doctors who came to check on the children. Phillip was so focused on what they said and he asked some questions here and there, eager to learn about a profession he was clearly passionate about. He had put on gloves a while back and helped change the IV's on some kids, or check their throats with a wooden stick. Some doctors even lent him their equipment after they had checked the kids so Phillip could check himself. Dillon was really amazed. He had seen his crush study very hard before, but now he could see him on action.

They took a break hours later. They went to the hospital cafeteria. The food wasn't good, Phillip jokingly told him, so they just sat down with water and some chips. "It's actually great the docs here let you work with them and teach you stuff." Dillon smiled. "Sometimes, when I go with my dad to work, he kinda explains stuff but his co-workers just ignore me." Phillip grinned. "Well, I've been a volunteer for years now, and they know I wanna be a doctor, so I have… 'special treatment~' It's great to have free classes." He grinned and Dillon swooned. So precious!

As they ate, Dillon said. "I would have still come if you'd told me we were coming here...You-You're my friend, and I just wanted to spend some time with you…" He confessed. Phillip sighed. "I'm sorry...It's that...not many people I know like to do this...my friends at college don't wanna come by on their days off just to play with children and many people don't like this part of the city, but they also need volunteers, you know?"

"You're great with kids, my only real interaction with children is with my brother and occasionally my baby cousins!" Phillip laughed at that. "That's already better than some of the kids at my school."

"-you're going to be a great doctor…" Dillon hugged his coke and looked down, blushing.

Phillip tucked a bit of hair behind his ear before coughing. "So, what do you want to study?" Phillip asked him. Dillon made a thinking face. "Well, I like marketing, my dad studied business but his company is FULL publicity, they work with other companies and that kind of stuff. So, I'd like to continue with the family business." Phillip nodded, interested. "That's actually great, keeping your family's profession. My dad's a surgeon, and while not exactly medicine, my mom is a psychologist."

"That's so awesome!" Dillon gasped. "Well, my mom is an dramaturgist and actress. Works on Broadway."

"No way!"

The two teens talked a bit more about their lives, listening with full attention to each other until Phillip chuckled at the question "Why do you want to be a doctor?' Was it because of your dad?"

"Oh no, nothing like that…" Phillip sighed and held his empty bottle between his hands. "When I was a kid, I-I was kind of a dick ok? I was always angry and uncomfortable ALL the time, and I didn't know why, I couldn't understand it, so I just took it on everybody. I fought with my dad every day, I got grounded a lot, my mom was very worried about me, and I just totally ignored her or snapped at her. Yeah, a total dickhead." The ginger confessed. "I did pretty stupid things too, all the time, because I didn't care about anything, and I guess it took my head off the things I couldn't understand...I got a fight with some bad kids, real bad kids this time." He chuckled a bit. "And, aside from all the beating, I actually got stabbed!" Dillon gasped in horror and Phillip pulled up his shirt a little to show him the scar. "Look at this fucker, the mark of my sins." Phillip swooned dramatically.

Dillon couldn't help but snort.

"So, you can guess I ended up pretty hurt, and had to stay in the hospital for a while. As I was...14, I think, I was stuck in the pediatric ward. My parents were so scared for me, but I still didn't care about anything, I was complaining about the colors, and the pictures on the walls~ and how stupid everything was~ and how I wished they killed me so I didn't have to look at the doctors' stupid faces~ That kind of stuff."

"Wow...I can't really see you doing that…" Dillon frowned. Phillip nodded. "Trust me. You wouldn't have liked me one bit as a kid. I hated people at that age." He grinned though. "But, despite being a dick, the doctor and nurses were really nice to me, they helped me, tried to make everything less painful and horrible. One nurse was particularly nice. He had to stay with me because I pulled at my IV and tried to open my stitches on purpose, a total maniac! He had to watch me. He'd listen to me rant and rant about how stupid everything was and how I hated everything and how everything and everyone also hated ME! But he tried to understand me."

Phillip felt so comfortable around Dillon that he was managing to tell him about this. "And then, he told me something. He was like 'dude, I know why you're always so angry.' He was african american and he spoke with AAVE, I liked how he spoke, and he said 'boy, you gay as fuck, my dude, and you're just stressed because you're trying ta be something you're not.' It turned out he was right. Everything and everyone around me, every movie, book, commercial and family kept saying how boys should date girls, that it was the 'normal thing' to do. It was stressing me out. I didn't feel that way about it. But I didn't realize that, and it made me angry because I didn't understand why I felt so uncomfortable about it. This man and all the doctors in that hospital saved my life. That's why I swore I'd be better and become a pediatrician so I could help-"

Dillon didn't hear the rest of the explanation. At all. He started spacing out after he heard the word 'gay'.

'He's gay, he's gay, he's gay, he's gay, he's gay'

His brown eyes were wide, and he couldn't really hide his shock. His mouth was agape. Phillip finished his explanation and slowly, his own eyes widened. Oh. Did-Did he just out himself in front of Dillon!?

"Yeah...I'm gay…"Phillip confessed, but lowered his voice a little bit. "Sorry for not telling you before...I-I not embarrassed, I swear, but-but I just don't like going around telling people, you-you know?" The ginger teen looked really nervous, Dillon was still gaping. "Dillon? It's ok, right? I-I understand if you don't wanna hang out? I-I'm not going to change who I am."

"You-you're gay? I'm a gay!" Dillon finally managed to blurt out. Phillip paused. "Wait, really?! You're gay?"

"I-I-" Dillon's cheeks turned completely red. "I've been meaning to tell you this for a while now but I was scared you'd stop being my friend! But you're gay too! Haha!" He laughed maniacally and Phillip frowned, a little worried now. "Dillon?"

"I'vehadacrushonyousincethedayIsawyou,IthinkyouareamazingandprettyandIloveyourhair!IreallyreallylikeyoubutIwassoscaredoftellingyouthisbecauseIthoughtyouwouldn'twanttobemyfriendagainbutI'mSOgladyouaregaybecausethiswayIcantellyouthiswithoutfearingtoloseyou!" Dillon took a deep breath after not breathing at all.

Phillip was stunned by the sudden confession. He smiled a bit and ran his hand through his hair. "Tha-Thank you…" He let out a silly giggle. "I-I think you're pretty handsome too. And I like spending time with you...You're great…"

Dillon's face couldn't go any more red. "I...I'm going to pass out…" He couldn't believe this was actually happening. "So...are we dating now? Is-Is this a date?" He asked very softly, as if scared.

Phillip laughed. "Ye-yeah! I think so!" He paused for a second, a little worried. "You're...16 right?" Dillon smiled even wider. "I'll turn 17 in July!" Phillip seemed very relieved about this and chuckled sheepishly. "Great, that's-that's great!" The two looked at each other for a few seconds before Dillon slowly grabbed his hands. Phillip chuckled. "But you're still underaged, so, no offense, but nothing's gonna be happening between us until you're older."

Dillon snorted. "Yeah, that's fine." He was just happy that Phillip liked him back and they were dating now!

-.-

So, now that he had a boyfriend, Dillon considered it was finally a good time to tell his dad. Phillip's parents knew and accepted him. Phillip's mom was nice and gave him cookies. Dillon should introduce Phillip to his own parents as well, it was only fair. Uncle Seb sounded SO confused about how he had hid it for years. Stan wouldn't give two shits about it! But Uncle SEB hadn't told everyone he was pan either! So he could just shut up!

After getting lots of heart emojis from Phillip, he made his parents sit in the living room, and told them he had something very important to tell them. Diego was there too, because, well, he was a baby, he couldn't be left alone. He was busy playing with his legos though, so he wasn't paying attention to Dillon anyway.

"So, what do you want, kid?" Stan raised a bored eyebrow. He probably would explain how he really wanted some game or something for his birthday. And his answer would depend on how expensive it were close to his birthday though, so he'd just have to say yes to anything.

"Yeah, um...there's something I wanted to tell you a long time ago, but-but I was really scared…" He took a deep breath before continuing, holding his hands to keep from shaking. "I-I don't like girls, dad, I don't like them at all...I'm-I'm gay always have been..."

Stan was shocked, he didn't expect Dillon to tell him that... He went silent. Carla frowned and held his hand. Dillons courage was slowly vanishing. His dad was never going to talk to him again.

Finally, Stan sighed and ran a hand through his face and hair. "You know I have guns, right Dillon? And I can use them whenever I want…"

Carla stared in shock as Dillon slowly backed away from his parents. "Da-Dad…" His eyes welled up with scared tears. No, no, he definitely hated him now!

Dillon started sobbing. "I-I was joking, I'm SORRY! DAD, PLEASE, I'M SORRY!"

Unaffected by his cries, Stan stood up and walked towards his shaking son. "I guess there are new rules in this house now…" Dillon looked down, ashamed, ready to hear him say he needed to get ou- "No taking a boy up to your room alone, not without having them cleared by me first!" Stan said simply. "And, like, we keep condoms in the box under the bathroom sink. But-But you're NOT allowed to do anything that would require them until you're 18, got it?" Stan huffed. "And if any boy hurts you, I've got guns. And all the lawyers I'd need to make them regret it."

Carla managed to breathe again and laughed in relief. What a dick. Scaring her and Dillon like that.

Dillon stared at his dad with tears in his wide eyes. Stan's stern look softened. "Come here, kid." He opened his arms and Dillon rushed into the hug.

Stan hugged Dillon. "Dillon...I'm sorry you felt the need to hide this from me…" Stan sighed and Dillon wiped his tears. "I-I didn't know how you'd react and-and I didn't want to lose you or to m-make you hate me...You always talked about me having girlfriends and liking girls and-and I didn't want to disappoint you…" The teen sniffled.

"What? No! Kiddo, I don't want you to hide something from me ever again, ok? You like men? Who the fuck cares?! You know how much I was looking forward to meeting you?! You being gay changes nothing. You're MY kid." Dillon buried his face in his neck and Stan patted his back, before waving a hand around. "Besides, I've seen so many weird alien stuff. 'Gay' happens to be the least weird thing I've seen." Stan chuckled. "Remind me to tell you about all the aliens that hit on me and Ford back when we were in space. I swear most of them didn't even have male or female."

Carla frowned. "Yeah, Stan, we'd love to hear about that!" Stan paled a bit, realizing he spoke too much.

"Thank you…" Dillon sniffled and Stan rolled his eyes, deciding to ignore Carla right now (he'd assure her he loved her later). "Yeah, yeah, you're so overdramatic, no shit, of course you are! Seb raised you!" Dillon made a wet laugh.

Diego looked up. "What is gay?"

"Means that I want to date a boy and kiss him, instead of a girl." Diego wrinkled his nose. "Eewwwww! Kissing is gwoss!"

Carla laughed and kissed her oldest baby's forehead. Dillon smiled. "Oh, it's actually great you accept this, 'cuz I kind of have a boyfriend now."

"WHaT?!" Stan shrieked.

Carla gasped. "Ooh~ That's amazing, sweetie! You can invite him to the wedding!"

Dillon raised an eyebrow. "Which wedding?" There was a wedding?

"Ours!" Carla said, as Stan was too busy realizing his baby had a boyfriend and he had to deal with him!

"What the fuck?! Aren't you married?!" Dillon gasped and Carla shrugged. "Apparently not yet? But your uncle Seb and Wanda are getting married as well! It's a double wedding!"

"Oh my gosh, I love that!" Dillon squealed and hugged his parents. "I'm so, so happy, guys!" He screamed. "Me too!" Diego shrieked and ran towards them. He didn't really get what was going on, but he wanted a hug too.

Stan laughed and hugged his family, lifting them up in the air. He snuggled his boys closer to him. He was definitely taken aback by Dillon's confession, he had never personally dealt with someone gay before and he didn't know how to talk about 'boys' to boys (and he wouldn't be able to talk about girls until Diego was old enough, unless Diego turned out to be gay too, but Stan would deal with that when it happened), but he would make his best effort, he wanted his baby happy...

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So this chapter was mainly dedicated to the teens and the interns because we love messing with them. Leave a comment please we love hearing what you think! See ya soon!