A/N: Inspired by limey404's fanart.
"Da- aaaaaang, bro." Mabel waved her hand, fanning the air away from her nose. "You need a serious bath. You smell funky."
Dipper groaned in response, lifting his rotting stump arms uselessly.
"Don't give me that attitude, Mister Dipster." Mabel tugged on the lead, made out of a copper pipe and attached to the Huggy Wuvvy Tummy Bundle baby carrier. It had once been used to carry Waddles, until Dipper ate him. She still had trouble forgiving him for that. But he was her brother, even if he was terrible at conversations, smelled bad, and had a tendency to try to eat anyone in his vicinity.
"You're just going through a tough time, bro." Mabel nodded to herself, snorting. "Puberty!" Though it was nothing like that book Grunkle Stan read to her. Thankfully, she had blocked that memory out. She was getting good at that- hiding the truth from herself.
The truth was that she had lost her brother over a year ago. The truth was that she was all alone as the world fell apart around her. The truth was no matter how much she smiled, how hard she tried to joke about things, or how much she fought back, she could never go back. She held her old self as tightly as she gripped the lead to Dipper's corpse. Her knuckles were bone white.
As she tugged Dipper forward the last threads of the skin around his ear disintegrated into mush and the ear fell at her feet. She stared blankly at it, and then him, slowly grinning.
"It's a skin condition! No need to get self-conscious, bro-bro. There's a convenience store right there. I'll just. . ." She delicately picked up the ear, rancid and cold, writhing slightly from the maggots inside, chewing hungrily. "Nothin' a little glue, foundation, and skin cream can't fix."
She tucked the ear in the pocket of her skirt. Dipper followed her, dragging his feet, his legs awkwardly bent. His steps were slower than Mabel's and occasionally she had to stop and wait for him.
He would have done the same for her.