Come on in,
We Haven't slept for weeks,
Drink some of this,
It'll put color in your cheeks

-Color in your Cheeks by The Mountain Goats

Dipper couldn't catch a break. He honest to goodness could not get any relief, from anyone or anything today. It started out horrible and seemed like it was going to end horribly too. All after one of the best nights he'd ever had.

Coming back to the town he loved, to the friends he loved, to helping out a certain best friend and then finding out that he actually really, really liked said best friend, and then wrapping it up by making out with that 'best friend' until close to 3 o'clock in the morning after talking under the stars all night. It was magical.

Dipper dropped off Pacifica with the giddy intentions to come back the next night if he couldn't see her tomorrow in the day. They had held hands the whole drive home too! It was amazing, just amazing.

Less amazing was coming home to his Great uncle and Grandpa waiting for Mabel to return after her run in with the police, which occurred because she stole the car the old men used on a regular basis. Worse she had apparently dented the famous Stanley Mobile, and that would be punishable by death to all outside the family.

But the clock hit 3:21 when he came in the front door, the lights were all off so Dipper assumed all were asleep, being quiet and stealthy was wasted immediately when the living room lamp clicked on and revealed the older twins.

"Dipper?" Grunkle Stan was surprised to see the male twin tiptoeing through the front but his grandpa figured it out pretty quickly.

"Huh, that's right you went out with your own car to meet the blonde dame. We had forgotten for a bit and just assumed you went to your room to write or read or something you normally do."

"HUH, That's right! Oh man you and your sister are going to hate this summer. Welcome to the full time crew and night shift buddy. You can't pull one over on us." His Grunkle was spitting these words, the though act never really being an act. But, night shift?

"Grunkle Stan what do you mean night shift? We close at 9?" Dipper inquired, thinking it for the best.

"New scheme poindexter and I came up with! Things are scarier at night, the more scared they are, the looser the grip on their wallets! The shift is from 10 until 1 in the morning and its every night except for Sundays." His Grunkle was proud of this, very obviously. And to Dipper, it sounded like death. How was he supposed to sneak Pacifica out and help her if he had to work all night? How was he supposed to get work on his journal done? His grandfather elaborated further:

"Because both you and Mabel are in high tides right now, you'll alternate nights of who'll work the night shift. Not too many people will come through so having only one person working can't possibly go wrong."

And in that there was some salvation. In the window behind the old men he caught a flash of a colored sweater. Mabel was sneaking in then to avoid punishment until tomorrow; it was expected but not appreciated. At least he knew what was going towards her.

THUMP THUMP CRASH

And then Mabel worsened her sentence in three loud noises. The older twins didn't mind being lied to, they were liars themselves and could generally tell what was going on. But deception and avoiding the truth were not acceptable, and Mabel had done just that by avoiding their immediate punishment. Grunkle was red in the face. The two men charged up the stairs, to make sure she was both okay and to explain to her the situation at hand.

Dipper took the opportunity to slip down the hall and into his room, sleep was right behind his eyes and he didn't want to face the old men going to their rooms so angry and so late at night. He came in got comfortable in his pajama pants and removed his shirt, lying on his bed seemed like the best thing besides Pacifica right now. Yeah Pacifica was definitely the best thing right now in Dippers mind. Who knew she felt that way? Who knew he felt that way?

Dipper stayed up for a while just to think about her, about what she had said was going on. Her parents were going off the deep end. How was Pacifica going to ruin their name without ruining her own though? It was beyond puzzling to him, but she was smart, too clever for her own good, so he decided not to doubt her until he heard a flaw in her plan, whatever it ended up being.

He eventually fell asleep, thinking about all the exchanges with her, and everything said that night.

He awoke to Mabel loudly wailing and screaming about something. Grabbing a shirt and making his way to the screaming, and therefore into the kitchen, he saw what he could consider inhuman.

Mabel was being placed on a Sugar Ban.

The girl lived on sugar, he was sure she couldn't function with out it. He knew she couldn't, their parents had tried this years before and were left with a shell of their child left. Mabel wasn't Mabel without at least a little artificial energy to get her going.

Mabel was sobbing on the floor, holding waddles in her arms. The original mystery twins were looking stern, but guilt was clearly displayed across both of their faces.

"Well, well, maybe just for three days! But a full three days! It's better than a week kid! It's what you get for giving the cops our new tag number and denting the car!" Grunkle Stan tried to remain tough but his resolve would only weaken if he opened his mouth again, so his brother punched him in the arm, and they exchanged a glance. Dipper decided not to step in, they hadn't seen him yet, and he would keep it that way until he had to start a shift in the gift shop. Walking back down the hall, he decided he could use the time to work some in his journal.

Meanwhile Mabel was still crying on the ground. She had to make it look convincing even though she had already come up with a survival plan. She had stashes all over the secret parts throughout the house, as well as the stash she brought and hid in her room and the stash she kept in Dippers glove box in his car. And in the rim of his left back tire, but that was mostly smile dip, and that was for if she really needed a boost. The two old men shuffled around her until she felt grunkle Stan picking her up by her arms and her grandpa picking her feet up. In a whoosh she was in the air and then shuffled along until she was on the couch, lying down.

Knowing that they loved listening to her talk, because she was brightness in their pretty dull lives, she decided if she was going to be punished, so were they. No more talking to them. Sealed and Done. They could deal their cards, but she had an upper hand when it came to being adorable and naturally peppy.

She had seen Dipper go back to his room, but he didn't rat her last night when he saw her sneaking in, so she did him the favor of not pointing him out. Besides she needed to know why he was out so late. Maybe he discovered something while she was on her joy ride with her friends?

Eventually, the coast was clear of the geezers and she went back up to her room to get dressed for the day, and start planting her sugar around the house where she could grab it easily when working. This was going to go easier than she originally thought. She would con the conmen, and enjoy sweet, sweet sugary victory. But as she passed Dippers hole in the wall to get to the attic stairs, she heard him muttering and definitely heard the name Pacifica. Maybe he figured out what happened to her?

"Bro Bro! I'm coming in!" She announced loudly enough for him to hear but not to shake the house like she normally did.

"Yeah okay Mabel. You do that." He was a bit cold, he would admit it, but he started think about how to do a spell and with Pacifica on his mind and now Mabel coming in, he might as well give up. She came in and he scribbled his last train of thought and turned to her.

"What's up? How did your joy ride go?" He asked her the first question to hopefully keep her from feeling hurt at his last cold remark.

"Wonderfully! It was great! I was booking it at 125! The Cops got my speed down after I had seen them though and slowed to 80, so I get to keep my license! How'd your stargazing go?" She was as enthusiastic as the sun, but the inquiry turned on him and he didn't know how much to tell her.

"Well, I went to see Paz, cause she was so distant from, well, everyone. She working out some sort of plan to ruin her parents for good but keep herself out of trouble. I ended up taking her with me to stargaze." He told her the truth, just not all of it, if she asked the right questions, she would get more. That was his decision and he was sticking to it.

"Hmm, sorry bro but your story doesn't check out. You might've gone to see Paz, but there was very little stargazing considering your telescope is still in the corner over there and still coated in summers dust." And sure enough it was, she was observant when she really wanted to be, it was frightening sometimes.

"Well, yeah I forgot it, I was just really freaked out that something was horribly wrong with her that stars became less important."

"She's more important than the stars to you? You know symbolically that must mean you like her, Huh bro bro!?"

"oh, uh yeah, I do. I think I really like her. But somethings going on in that house and im not sure how we're going to help without getting in there ourselves." He responded trying to sound as to-the-point as possible towards her and keep the conversation from floating to where he told her everything about last night.

"WHAT!? You REALLY like her! Dipper this is big! When did you figure it out? Why didn't you tell me? We need to come up with your plan of attack, like, now! The time is right my brother! Dippingsause this will be your summer!"

"Oh yeah I guess it could be…" But then he saw how imploring her eyes were towards her first couple of questions, so out went the complete truth "…I guess I figured it out when she kissed me last night. No it was probably the second time she kissed me, when the police started chasing after you. But for plan of attack, we need to get into the Northwest manor somehow and work our way through the security systems they have in place so we can help Paz."

"OH MY GOD DIPPER. She kissed you!? Twice?! And you didn't tell me last night!? Bro Bro! This is great! She'll be my sister after all, who knew! I can't be a bridesmaid before being a bride though. Oh my god I need to step up my game… Oh yeah we can get into her house in the gala their holding tomorrow night. No one knows why their holding it, but Candy said that it was going to be huge."

"Then that's perfect! We'll have a short spy mission, get info on what their actually watching and where in the house and get out! Like regular guests leaving!" Dipper was over the moon with this new opportunity, he would be helpful to Paz before she even got to tell him the full plan. What was his shirt made of? That's right, boyfriend material.

"And you'll probably get to slow dance with Pacici for a bit too! Oh my goodness it's going to be so adorable. You've done well brother of mine." She saluted him and took a couple steps towards the door.

"I'm going to go place my candy around the gift shop for around the day and get dressed I recommend a similar choice of action, our little old men are on their high horses today."

"You did kind of dent their beloved car Mabel."

"Shut it, I have candy to get to, See ya Dip-n-Dots."

And with that she left, and Dipper went back to working on a spell for invisibility.

A spell that could come in handy so often for Pacifica; who was currently hiding in the third floor of the East wing of the mansion she lived in, trying to find the passcode she knew they kept in one of the paintings here. It was a matter of choosing though, because the paintings were huge, and the second one happened to 'fall' she would be toast if it didn't have the code because she would definitely be escorted back to her room in the west wing and not permitted into the East for at least a week or two.

She hated games of chance; she preferred poker, where it was about being better than the other competitor no matter what cards you were dealt.

She lifted around the edges of two of the paintings to look for the symbols she knew she had seen before but couldn't determine a thing. Maybe she should wait and get Dipper's advice on the subject? No, there wasn't time for that, she needed them gone soon. She knew she was better than them, even if they had been dealt a better hand of cards.

Deciding on the image of her mother first accepting her husband's marriage proposal against the image of her father in his hunting gear with a prized bear of his, she tore it off the wall in a single pull.

There was a crash, she could hear footsteps coming her way. She let out a shriek to make it seem like an accident, and seeing nothing on the back of her mother's portrait, she took a gambling move to tear down her father's when people were already on their way. She did so and let out another shriek.

Sure as hell, the code was on the man's pride and joy rather than his wife, NLMVB was boldly displayed in a corner on the left side. She put the portrait over her legs and screamed for help, knowing that there were people coming right around the corner.

"Help! Help! The paintings fell and knocked me down! Help! Get it off of me!" She pretended to cry a little until one of the "butlers" lifted it up. Suspicious that a butler was a muscularly built as he and had a gun poorly hidden near the front of his trousers.

"Thank goodness you came. The one painting of my mother, I was admiring it and it suddenly fell. Sure enough I jumped out of the way just to have my father's fall on top of me! My rotten luck I'm sure."

He said something mundane and obviously a lie and sure enough her father came right in. The butler had already gotten her father's portrait back up on the wall and was working on her mother's one.

"What is the meaning of this Pacifica Elise? Tell me right now and do not dare lie to me." He father was brusque, harsh, and his tone was completely even. He wanted an answer and he meant no funny business, but that was expected.

Pacifica repeated the lie to her father, about the portrait falling on her, changing it only slightly so as to say it was the Mother's that fell on her and that the butler needed a raise for being so quick to help get the heavy thing off of her. She didn't need him to know that she was so close to the code he hid there.

Preston seemed to buy it and grumbled out something about controlling her clumsiness better before she was put out of the house. An empty threat but a very dark one none the less.

That night Pacifica would crawl under her bed, to the wall and scratch into the paint the five letters with the back of her earing stud. That way she could never forget and they wouldn't find it unless the whole bed was removed from the wall which it was built into.

Now all she had to do was use the code to get into the security footage.

The new night shift thing was a bunch of crap though.

Dipper had the first night, as decided by a coin flip, and no one came. It was literally just him sitting in the gift shop, the only difference being that it was dark outside and no wallets were coming in the door. He pulled out his journal and worked on a new spell for protection, trying it in different ways on pens and then trying to snap the pens. He was doing fairly well considering only one caught on fire and only two melted out of the ten attempts he had made.

Scribbling that the fire pronunciation might be possible to work from, he looked up to see Mabel sneaking back into the house through the gift shop doors where only Dipper would see her.

"How were the girls?" he inquired knowing full well that she was out with Candy and Grenda again, they were a constant trio, it wouldn't surprise him if they stayed that way the rest of their lives.

"They were fine, the same old same old. They were kind of upset with the lack of fresh meat here for the summer. The thing with them going to high school here, is that they know like, everyone! And it makes impossible to flirt if Candy tells me he cheats on his math tests or Grenda can name every one of his past girlfriends! And this is like for every guy! It's bumming me out!" She seemed bummed out too. Maybe it was because she had less sugar than normal, maybe because she was getting tired of having to seek out boys like she was 12 all over again.

What she didn't realize right away though, was that her brother was the absolute best sometimes. And when Candy sent him a text 20 minutes ago when Mabel left her house, that Mabel was upset, he took it upon himself to make some Mabel juice for her. Edible glitter and all.

She was continuing on with her story about one particular guy, and Dipper was getting pretty bored with it. So Bam, he placed the water bottle of Mabel Juice on the counter, coughed like in a movie and waited for the gasp; which he heard, followed by plenty of thanks by his older twin.

"Yeah I figured, You could drink some of this stuff right about now."

The shift was almost up, and Mabel was feeling like herself again, so she left Dipper to go to her room and make a call or two to see if she could get a date for the gala.

Dipper was packing up the rest of the shop when it happened.

Blue hell fire appeared from the grass outside, and yellow pyramids were all he saw before he was blacked out on the ground and thrown into the dreamscape.