A/N: Chapter 8: In which Mabel is awesome.

...

"Have you picked out a suit yet?"

"Hm?" Dipper replied, absent-mindedly.

She looked back at her brother and nearly broke out into laughter.

He'd never really got used to the idea of shopping for clothes with her, she knew it made him uncomfortable and right now that was as true as ever. They were deep in the women's clothing and the ever chivalrous Dipper was trying to avert his eyes from everything and refusing to let his glance linger on anything for more than three seconds.

The mischievous part of her, which to be frank made up about 95% of her personality, won a short mental debate.

They were stood next to the underwear section. While Dipper was focused intently on a spot on the ceiling, she retrieved something which even to her looked like nothing more than a couple of bits of string. Barely able to restrain the grin smeared on her face, holding the frail articles against her, she said in the sweetest voice she could muster,

"Dippeerrr, what do you think of this one…?"

"Oh I'm sure whatever you choose is fi-" His eyes came to rest on her. "…fi-fi-fi-ffffuuuuu…?" The words gave up and died in his throat.

"Yes?" She stuck her hips out, running a hand through her masses of hair, sending the tresses falling wildly around her face, like the models did. "No?" She smiled innocently.

Dipper only stared, face getting redder by the second. He looked like he might have a stroke. She hung the skimpy thing back up, shaking her head. Sometimes it was too easy, she almost felt bad for him.

Almost.

He was still blushing furiously, eyes fixed on her. Mabel felt flattered, she was worried she was going to break her brother if she pushed it any further though.

"You're…you're taking the piss." He managed, recovering slightly.

"Picked up on that didja Dipster?" She quipped, dryly. Still. "Although, you did seem quite taken with it, bro, maybe I should-"

Her hand wasn't halfway to the rack again before Dipper had a firm hold on her wrist and a hand pressed down on the rack, to stop her picking anything up.

"Oh, you want to pick something?" She purred, beaming up at him.

She saw the gears in his mind turning as he saw where his hand was, then she saw them shudder to a halt as he jumped, actually jumped, backwards.

"…umm…" He fumbled.

She glanced around. The shop was pretty empty. While Dipper was still in the throes of Mabel-induced chaos, she leaned up and kissed him on the nose.

"M-Mabel!" He hissed. "There's-"

"-nobody around, dude. Chill." She smirked.

He made a quiet grumbling noise.

"Don't get so stressed out." She sighed, shaking her head. "Sometimes you can be so edgy."

"To say people frown on what…" His eyes softened as he looked at her. "…what we are is an understatement. I don't want you to suffer because…"

"Like our freshman prom?"

His eyes clouded over.

"I never hated anybody so much as I hated Chris that night."

"It's in the past." Mabel squeezed one of his hands, affectionately.

"You deserved better than that. You-"

"Hey," She gripped his chin, gently. "I got better, I got you didn't I?"

He managed a soft smile.

"And besides," She continued, grinning goofily. "Somehow, don't ask me how, but somehow, you got me. And we both know I'm way out of your league Dippingsauce."

"Oh yeah, you're a real princess." He grinned.

"Damn straight!" She agreed. "Now, since you've completely sabotaged my shopping trip, you owe me."

"Y'what?" He blurted.

"Yeah Dipper. You totally sidetracked this. I demand you buy me cake. And ice-cream. And a cool hat. And we want the finest wines available to humanity. And we want them here, and we want them now!"

"Did you just quote Withnail and I?" He quirked an eyebrow, as he stuck his hands in his pockets and offered her an arm.

"Possibly." She took the arm as they made their way out.

"I knew there was a reason I put up with you." He laughed, as she punched him in the arm.

…

Dipper lounged by the side of the gymnasium. The music blared on, partygoers danced, mingled and hurried back and forth. Mabel had wandered off soon after they'd arrived, with Chris. He'd found his way over to a group of people he knew vaguely from his science class and tried to keep up with their conversation, but his focus kept drifting to his sister, across the room.

Everything seemed okay, despite his misgivings. She was talking excitedly, surrounded by the larger athletes and some of their dates. She stuck out like a sore thumb but she didn't care. She never did.

Chris met his gaze once, when his attention drifted to Mabel once again. The jock smiled.

It wasn't a comforting smile.

It was true that since he'd asked Mabel to be his date, he and the others had left Dipper alone, and it was true that while Chris's friends went out of their way to pick on him, maybe he'd been wrong. Maybe Chris was just-

The smile turned into a sneer.

He saw with a looming inevitability as one of Chris's friends held up a drink and poured it over Mabel's head. Half the gymnasium turned toward them as she let out a cry of surprise. And then the others took it in turns to do it again, and again, and again. His sister didn't make a sound after the first one.

And there were the names. Loner. Freak. Spaz.

Dipper, meanwhile, was furious.

So they didn't like him, for some reason. Whatever. He didn't care about that. If they had a problem with him they could make his life miserable, by all means, but humiliating Mabel to get at him? In front of everybody? He was furious.

He knew he had exactly no frame of reference for what he was about to do, as he felt himself crossing the hall toward them. Sure, he'd dealt with spooky happenings and ghouls and monsters but those were things he could figure out with his brain, a puzzle, a problem. This wasn't quite the same.

Chris had some snide remark on the tip of his tongue but Dipper was past talking. He barely registered Mabel tugging soaking strands of hair out of her eyes and the surprise on her face as he balled his hand into a fist and swung it into Chris's jaw. Dipper's hand hurt like hell, but as the older teen lurched backward, it felt worth it.

Then all hell broke loose.

Dipper vaguely recalled a whooshing sound to his left before a fist slammed into his head with the force of a freight train. He staggered, head spinning, trying to keep a grip on what was happening.

Chris was cursing, nursing his jaw and his friends were stalking toward Dipper. He didn't need to be psychic to see what was coming his way.

Of course, they'd underestimated Mabel. Everybody did.

He didn't mind admitting she was the muscle in the two-twin operation to combat the insanity that was Gravity Falls. It wasn't so much that she had mastered any kind of martial art, rather that she was just really good at hitting things harder and faster than they could hit her.

At some point she'd liberated a nearby punch bowl, bring it down heavily on one of the jock's heads. A second swung at Dipper, and if he wasn't having such a hard time standing, it probably would have connected. As it was, he stumbled again, and the swing struck the back of the head of the person behind him.

"Motherfucker!" The angry victim cursed.

Somebody crashed into him, sending the two of them tumbling to the floor, grappling. Somewhere in the background he saw a large kid wearing combat boots drive his foot between the legs of one of Chris's friends.

"You little fuck." His attacker swore. He realised it was Chris as the Sophomore drove his fist into Dipper's stomach.

Things were going about as well as he thought they would.

"Hey!" He heard Mabel yell. "Let go of my brother!"

Chris stopped hitting him long enough to get a high-heeled shoe hurled into his face. Dipper couldn't even hear the music anymore, but there was a lot of shouting going on.

"What the fu-" Chris clutched his head, getting up. Mabel removed her other shoe, holding it over her head threateningly. She hurled it, grinning as it connected with Chris's head. Again.

Their scuffle had turned the gymnasium into a brawl. The school staff had at last begun to intervene, pulling students apart and he was pretty sure by now the cops had been called too.

Chris was still clutching his head, growling to himself when Mabel was suddenly in front of him. Time seemed to slow for a second as he realised she was there and saw her pull back her arm, hand balled into a fist. Before he could react, she swung her fist into his nose, with a snarl, followed by the most sickening crunch. He wailed, wailed. Dipper laughed.

Mabel and someone he only recognised as the "Motherfucker" guy helped him up as they scurried out of the gym, before things got any worse. Dipper didn't care. It was probably a side-effect of being hit in the head, but he couldn't have been happier. He'd got a good hit on Chris's jaw before he had the stuffing beat out of him, Mabel had made the jock cry like a baby and best of all, his sister wasn't with that asshole anymore.

They stopped a ways down the street out front of the school, on a public bench. The three sat quietly, catching their breath. Dipper leaned back, not really caring about the pain while Mabel kept glancing his way, worriedly. Their new friend broke the silence.

"So…my name's Dave. It's…uh…"

"Just call me Dipper." He managed, wincing.

"Mabel." Mabel waved.

"That was ballsy, dude." Dave grinned.

"Ahh, well, I was defending the honour of my sister!" He smirked.

"It's just as well your sister was around to defend you, Dip." Mabel poked his forehead, with a chuckle.

"That was awesome, you've got one hell of a swing."

"Thanks!" Mabel beamed.

"Hey man, I'd better get going. Dance turned out to be a bit of a bust and all, but I'll see you around Dipper."

"Sure thing." Dipper saluted goofily, as Dave left them.

The two sat side by side in quiet again. In the distance they heard she sound of sirens, from the direction of the school.

"Defending my honour, huh?" Mabel said, wryly.

"Absolutely."

"What were you thinking?" She asked, more seriously this time.

He turned toward her and hesitated. Her eyes were full of concern, face clearly painted with worry.

"I…uh…wasn't." He answered, truthfully.

Mabel's expression shifted, slightly. To what, he wasn't sure.

"I…I couldn't just let them…I wasn't going to let them do that to you and get away with it. You're my sister and I…love you." He looked away, he could feel his cheeks warm, why was he blushing? What did he have to be embarrassed about?

He felt her hand on his and before he realised it, she'd leant over and kissed him softly on the cheek.

"Thank you." She smiled. He smiled back. "B+ for effort, at least." She quipped, suddenly.

"Come on, that was at least an A-, it was dramatic as hell." He argued.

"We'll see if we can bump it up with your extra credit assignment." She got up, straightening her dress out.

"Extra credit?"

"Yeah. Piggy-back home Dippingsauce?" She batted her eyelashes.

"You kidding?" He got up, sore all over.

"You see any shoes on my feet?" She gestured down. "The honour of a lady and her feet are at stake here!"

He considered objecting again, but gave up, sighing and shaking his head.

"Fine." He conceded, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt. "Let's get the lady home."

She giggled with barely constrained glee and hopped onto his back, whereupon he nearly dropped her twice trying to grip her legs, once again blushing furiously. He was tired, and sore, and confused. This kind of intimacy had never bothered him before, and he was too worn out to try and think about it now.

"Home, yo!" Mabel yelled, wrapping an arm around his neck.

"No backseat driving." He grunted, earning him a gentle smack on the head and another kiss on the cheek.

Confused, absolutely. But that was Mabel, he figured. Not such a bad night after all.