Sorry about being gone awhile before posting the last drabble. I had some trouble figuring it out. This next one is a request-drabble-doodly-dop that I'm doing! Hurray!

Request from "look out(guest)":

"hey could u do
a mabill monsterfalls fic"

I, myself, am not a personal fan of that particular pairing, but I think I know how to make this work. Enjoy!

Drabble 12: Curious, Childish Love

Sum:
Bill is naturally curious. He's lived with the Wildlings, the group
of people/monsters who first took him in when he became a
human, for several months. Now, he's staying at the Mystery
Shack with some of the other Wildlings for the summer.
He's still curious about something though, after a visit
to the lake. And he thinks Mer-Mabel can help him . . .

Universe:
Monster Falls

A`N:
A request that I'm not sure exactly how to work with. I, personally, am not a fan
of Mabel/Bill pairings. I have ways to work-a-round certain things though whilst
still getting out the wanted thing. Just to warn everyone, there is
going to be a lot of missing context in terms of Oc monster characters; that's
alright, since I'm going to be making an official stand-alone story soon,
and all the characters you don't know here will be revealed there. Enjoy!

Bill stared up at the sky. He was next to the little kitty pool thing that they'd set up in the backyard for Mabel. Dipper was a little ways off, being instructed by Stancio on how to better operate his deer legs when resting, so as to be more comfortable. Just a short ways away behind the tree line, he could hear Wendy and Marci arguing about how better to clean their fur; shampoo or this strange flower-and-bark stuff the other used.

Kaden and Stanley were arm wrestling on the porch, neither really getting a leg up on the other, both struggling as they had been the last fifteen, twenty, fifty-nine minutes(bloody stubborn gargoyles; will they ever give it up? Probably not). Wilma was discussing the the natural qualities of her tears with Stanford, who kept wanting to use his own claws to scratch himself and test it, even though she repeatedly had to stop him from injuring himself, especially with his wings, the dumb-old Sphinx.

Bill finally sat up, stretched, yawned, and declared, "Well, I'm bored now. Mabel? Wanna go down to the lake?" he asked.

Mabel 'sat up', as well, and looked over at him, the pink fins on her forearms flaring out, like the larger fin on the end of her long, pink, scaly tail. "Don't see why not." she replied cheerfully. "You just gotta get the wagon and fill it up."

Bill stood and gave a mock salute before running off to do just that. It was easy enough to find the wagon, pull it over to the hose attached to the house and top it off. It was harder to pull around once it was full of water. And increasingly so by the time he'd helped Mabel and got her into it. He was sweating by the time they'd gotten onto the road to town, puffing in the summers heat.

As they went, Mabel would occasionally splash him, to help him cool off, but Bill was still ready to collapse by the time they were in sight of the lake. He kept at it, however, ignoring the limits of his 'weak' human form(not like he remembered being a demon in the first place, but still) and managed to make it to the lake shore.

Where he promptly collapsed, wheezing and making no move to get more comfortable. Mabel frowned and gently splashed a little more water on him, despite being almost out in her wagon. Bill hardly reacted to it, breathing fast and one arm curled beneath him awkwardly. She pouted and splashed him again, leaning over to lightly shake his shoulders.

"Bill!" she reprimanded lightly. "If you're feeling tired, let me know! Taking a break isn't a bad thing. Dipper has trouble and he's older than you, besides having extra legs to hold himself up with."

Bill slowly dragged himself up, sitting up and leaning hard against her wagon. He shrugged. "S-sorry. . . ." he panted, closing his eyes again. "Didn't want . . . water . . .you run out . . . heh'boy . . . " he huffed, curling in on himself with another heavy pant.

Mabel rolled her eyes and pushed her tail hard against the bottom of the wagon, managing to spring out into the water of the lake. She resurfaced and exhaled, water running down her shoulders from the gills on her neck. She swam closer and scootched in the shallows, using her tail to splash Bill once close enough.

Said child, just starting to dry off and regain his breath, cried out in protest to this, sitting up and pushing back his soaked locks to stare at her. "Hey!" he exclaimed, then giggled a little. He jumped in the water and splashed her, feeling much better. Mabel laughed with him, splashing him back.

The game soon took them deeper and deeper into the water, to the point where they were far from shore and Bill was paddling constantly now to stay afloat. He didn't mind, though. Occasionally, he'd dive under the water, trying to follow after Mabel, who's laughter and speech was warped to his human ears under the surface, but still mostly-discernible.

While he didn't try to breathe under the waves like his friend, he didn't think much of taking a deep breath before diving. Meaning, most times he resurfaced, he was dizzy and seeing little black dots, his body aching for air. Being as unfamiliar as he was with the human body, however, Bill primarily ignored these signs of needing more oxygen that he was receiving, passing it off as just a "weird human swimming thing" and kept doing what he was doing.

After a particularly deep dive, however, Bill was having trouble focusing. When Mabel circled him worriedly, he gestured that he was fine. His mind just felt foggy . . . he startled to paddle upwards, but his movements were slow and uncoordinated.

She circled him again, and again he gestured that he was okay. He kept trying to swim upwards unaided, but he felt like he was sinking lower . . . .

Bill blinked his eyes open. He hadn't even realized that they were closed. Finned arms were wrapped around his chest, underneath his armpits, moving at a fast speed upwards. He tried to take in a breath, but only breathed in more lake water. Uncomprehending the situation, he panicked and tried to breath again, only to suck in even more water.

They broke the surface. Bill couldn't take in Mabel's frantically asked questions. He was too busy trying to cough up water and suck in as much air as possible. Darkness was creeping in on his vision from the lack of oxygen; he wasn't ridding himself of the water fast enough, nor getting enough air . . .

He suddenly felt lips on his own, and then his lungs filling with air being forced into him. He couldn't understand what was going on, focusing to much on coughing up buckets of water, it felt like, when the lips pulled back. He was still heaving for breath, however, when the lips reconnected and forced more air inside him. Again, they removed themselves, and he finally managed to cough up the last of the water, breathing on his own with half-ragged, shuddering breaths.

The darkness that had hung in front of his vision retreated, and he could finally take in his surroundings. Mabel was holding him tightly to her, worried brown eyes staring into his own baby blue. They were in the middle of the lake, far away from any shore. Bill trembled, from cold and his recent ordeal. Crying, he latched onto the mermaid, who hugged him back, murmuring reassurances.

Slowly, gently cradling him, she swam back towards shore.

A few days later, Mabel and Bill found themselves alone outside, Mabel in the kitty pool and Bill leaning on it's edge, staring up at the evening sky. Everyone else was either inside or back at the Wildlings cave, eating dinner or talking or practicing new skills.

Evening soon turned to night, full of stars. Bill sighed contentedly.

"Bill, look!" Mabel suddenly whispered, excited. Water sloshed around as she moved closer to the eight-year-old, pointing out a streak flying overhead. "A shooting star! Make a wish, quick!" she encouraged.

Bill stared up at it, thought quickly, and silently made his wish. The star disappeared, and he turned to smile at her, toying around with a small flashlight. "Thanks, Shooting Star, for letting me have the wish." he told her sincerely.

She gave him a toothy grin, nodding. "Of course! What'd you wish for?" she asked.

He blushed, but scrambled for an excuse. "Doesn't telling your wish make it not come true?" he shot back, playfully hitting her shoulder. But gently, gently.

Mabel scoffed in reply. "Ordinarily, yes, but I am a shooting star, too!" she countered, reminding him of the nickname the boy always called her.

Bill hadn't thought of that. "Oh, well . . . okay, but don't laugh." he pleaded, sounding oddly anxious.

Mabel nodded, putting on a serious face for a moment. While unable to hold it long, Bill nodded to the sentiment of it.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Well . . . I wished that I might get to try kissing a certain Shooting Star again." he blushed heavily, though it was barely seen in the dark.

Mabel had to take a moment to process and understand. She furrowed her brows. "You mean like . . . that thing I did out on the lake? T-to save you?" she asked, trying to clarify. She had been honestly terrified when IT had happened, and kept beating herself up about not paying closer attention to him, aware of his view of "weird human things".

He nodded, looking down and ducking his head. "Y-yeah, the k-kissing thing." he answered, surprisingly shy.

Mabel smiled a little, gently lifting his chin so he was looking at her. From this angle, him looking up at her, his one visible eye seemed to reflect the stars. Leaning forward, she gently kissed him on the lips.

Bill, while startled, closed his eyes and slowly leaned into it. After about a minute or so, they pulled back, Bill smiling dreamily while Mabel grinned at him. She could recognize the "lovestruck puppy" look about the boy.

"So, how did you like you're first kiss?" she asked teasingly.

Bill shook himself and smiled his usual seemingly-impossibly-wide grin at her. "It felt like kissing a pretty star." he answered truthfully. He suddenly leaned forward and hugged her. Mabel hugged him back, surprised at the suddenness of the gesture.

"Thank you." he whispered into her hair.

Mabel smiled softly, pulling back a little to lay a kiss on his forehead. "Your welcome." she replied.

Well, "look out", I hope you enjoyed this, as well as everyone else who reads this. I tend to lean towards the "MermandoXMabel" pairing, but having it placed in Monster Falls made it a little easier to do. The two aren't exactly going to start dating after this, but Bill was just curious about kissing in general. We all gotta start wondering at some point, right? :-)

If Bills experience of drowning felt/seemed unrealistic, think of it this way; he was once a demon incapable of death/getting injured. Now, as a human, he has no memories of his past and has little idea of how vulnerable he really is, nor what his body is telling him most of the time, so he passes it off as a "weird human thing" and typically ignores it.

Because of this, he'll throw himself in dangers way, and come out injured but ignoring his wounds. Therefore, since he didn't know what was going on in the first place, he didn't react in a "human" way to it. Only afterwards, and mostly subconsciously, did he realize his brush with death, and then his eight-year-old emotions kicked in and he freaked out over it.

Challenge time!

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Gsv qlb xlfow mvevi yv uzpvw

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Wldm, wldm, wldm, sv hrmph
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Zmw zugvidziwh, sv klmwvih hl
'Dszg rh z prhh orpv? Nzb R pmld?'

Hl sv nzwv z drhs
Zmw drgs z ozwb-urhs
Hsv nzwv rg szkkvm
Lm gsv tvg-tl."

Ta-da! New challenge! Can you decode it? If you do, make sure that you review your request along with it! Enjoy and please review~!