**[[[On a totally relevant note, who else is physically distressed that Alan Rickman has died?!]]]
Holy smokes you guys, feedback has been awesome! I know I swore to work on YCLTD after Nico, Interrupted was finished, but I just caught the writing bug for this fic and figured I'd go with the flow. *puts on cool sunnies even though it's nighttime* *realises I look like a douchebag* *takes sunnies off*
Thanks a million to: mangagirl1990, torioarangeflower, HappyRaven379, and guests Marie, neko skyresa, guest (very creative, well done ;P), and Lucypiepen.
Here you go, guys (Oh, heads up, Mabel and Dipper are a little/lot OoC):**
More notes at the end, though**
The next morning Dipper woke less refreshed than the day before, but he didn't let it faze him. He headed to the bathroom and paused when he saw the door wasn't fully shut. Inside, he caught a glimpse of what was obviously Norman pulling his shirt up and examining a bruise on the side of his ribs. Dipper flinched when he saw it; it was purple and blue and sickly looking. Being as stealthy as possible, Dipper creeped back down the hall to his room that still smelled like the Beiber's Baby, Forever perfume Mabel had expressed her fondness of previously.
'Something's up, Mabel. I know it.' Dipper said quietly to himself, thinking about Norman and yesterday and what he'd just witnessed. Smiling to himself, he thought about how it would be now that Mabel would remember some detail he'd missed, and lead them on with a legitimate investigation.
His smile quickly dissipated. It was always Mabel figuring out how to save the day in the end, wasn't it? He was just there to tag along and occasionally help out when Mabel needed it. That, or need Mabel's help—
Quickly scorning himself for such negative thinking, Dipper tried to focus on the day ahead. One, it was obvious Norman was being bullied, and pretty severely. Two, there was something everyone except Dipper knew about Norman, something possibly to do with tree-talking. Three, he can totally do this without Mabel's help. Totally.
~ O ~
Dipper had to admire how well Norman hid his discomfort at having to walk to school. Obviously he had to be in some pain, and he was acting just like yesterday. Still, that didn't mean he was warming up to Dipper or anything, but whatever.
The two made it to Blithe Hollow Middle School and it seemed like Dipper blinked and Norman was gone. Sighing, he made his way to his first class.
The teen didn't know how he could've not heard it yesterday, he supposed he was just focussed on every new class and seeing if he could spot Norman around anywhere, but every time he walked past a clique or even just stray students, vigorous whispering would commence, and Dipper heard Norman's name with "freak" on more than one occasion.
Dipper was understandably peeved by the time lunch rolled around, and caught Neil in a hallway near the theatre.
'Hey, I think we need to talk.' Dipper instructed, pulling the obese teen through a set of double doors into the empty theatre.
'Uh, what about, friend?' Neil tried, but Dipper's glare cut straight through it.
'Look, there's obviously something here I missed, so if you'd be kind enough to fill me in—'
'I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.' Neil declared, doing that weird little thing liars do when they lie, and pointing his nose into the air. With a scowl, Dipper tried again.
'Look, if it's something to do with Norman, then I think I have a right to know. I am living with him, after all.'
At this, Neil hesitated. Dipper waited patiently for him to say something, and just as he was about to shake the boy until he spilled his secrets, Neil opened his pudgy little mouth.
'There was this… Thing. That happened, a few years back. It was pretty freaky and… Basically, there was this ghost that started attacking the town, and Norman defeated her. Things were good after that, and I even got to help with some extra ghost-fighting stuff he got into, but…' Dipper noticed how quickly Neil's face fell from talking about ghost-fighting with his best friend, to whatever happened next. 'After he started spending more time at Halley Hill, he started pulling away again. We rarely talk, really. I can't really help you there, but if you manage to get through to him, just tell him I still think we're friends, okay?' Neil clapped Dipper on the shoulder, and promptly left, leaving Dipper to take in the information he'd bust been given. Blithe Hollow had ghost problems? Cool. But it seemed Norman had problems, which was less cool. Dipper didn't know why, exactly, but more than wanting to solve this mystery, he wanted to help Norman.
With a sigh, he leaned back on the freezing brick wall. 'What am I doing?' He asked the silence, and was only answered with an echo of another question.
~ O ~
For the rest of the day, Dipper was distracted, totally fixated on trying to figure out what to do next. Asking Norman outright why people thought he was a freak would probably freak him out, and asking questions to anyone else right now made him feel a little nervous.
Dipper paused in grabbing his bag from his locker to rest his head against the cool metal. Mabel probably wouldn't have that problem; she'd rush in here and efficiently interrogate everyone, probably while doing something else, solving another mystery, that was equally as spectacular.
Great, what am I supposed to do now? He thought as a shiver wracked his body. Geez, does this place not have central heating or something?
Dipper suddenly wanted to get outside, so he did. He swerved through the last trickle of kids still filing out of the main corridor, and before he knew it, had walked around to the back of the school.
Frowning, Dipper cursed his wandering feet and turned to leave, but a sound stopped him. It sounded like the shuffling of feet one might hear in a basketball game, but the pained cough that followed told Dipper it was not. Dropping his bag on the ground, he rounded the corner and saw three brutish teens gathered around a much smaller kid. Two of them were holding the other kid's arms, while the kid himself was obviously Norman. Dipper only passed for a moment and heard Norman mutter something, before he snapped to attention as the most primitive looking of the group lined up for another punch.
'Hey!' Dipper yelled, and the brute turned around. Dipper tried his damnedest to look intimidating, but he didn't know if it was working.
'Whatddya want, punk?' The obvious leader spat. Dipper bit back any retort that would land him in deeper water, and took a breath.
'Y'know, I get to hand in a report of what it's like to be on exchange at this school.' He began, praying this approach wouldn't backfire. 'I get to name anything or anyone I don't like, and it gets resolved.' Dipper fixed his stare, his voice dropping a few tones.
'He's with me. So back. Off.' Oh God, moment of truth.
With an almost animalistic snarl, the bully took few steps toward Dipper and grabbed him by the neck of his sweater, pulling him almost off his feet. Dipper could see the acne scarring on the boy's face and his lips pulled up into a sneer.
'Whaddid you just say to me, shrimp? I didn't catch that.'
Dipper only just stopped his expression of fierce determination turning into fearful horror, and didn't let his gaze sway from the monstrous teen's eyes.
'I said, you leave him alone, or you get arrested for assault and expelled.' Dipper declared. The silence that followed in the next few seconds was incredibly tense. Out of the corner of his eye, Dipper saw Norman free of the other two teens, and all three spectators were watching with bated breath.
With one last scowl, Dipper was shoved back on his feet, and in a few moments, he and Norman were alone.
'Holy shit…' He breathed. Dipper turned to Norman, shaking himself out of the terrified stupor.
'Are you okay?' He asked. Norman didn't answer for a moment, just laid a hand on his stomach and took a few deep breaths. Dipper didn't exactly know what to do, so he just grabbed their backpacks and when he returned, Norman had straightened up.
'Shit, man…' Dipper sighed, and Norman murmured something unintelligible in response. He wiped away the blood dripping from his nose and took his offered bag.
'That bad?' He asked.
'Um…' Norman shot a gee, thanks look in return, and grabbed pack of tissues out of his bag to wipe his nose with. Norman's face was mainly okay, but his left cheekbone was purple and blue, and with a split lip and bleeding nose, the injuries weren't exactly inconspicuous.
'So, are you gonna go home like that, or something?' Norman tried to shoot his housemate a snarky look, but it soon failed. His father might not return until after he got home, but there was no avoiding his mum at least once in the afternoon. Even if he did somehow sneak past, Grandma would throw enough of a fit once she saw (which she definitely would) for someone to come into Norman's room to ask what their deceased relative was on about now. That meant no going home right now, at least not looking like this.
'Shit,' Norman swore, feeling something inside of him coil up uncomfortably at the angst.
Before Dipper knew what he was doing, his hand was patting Norman's shoulder like they were old friends, though Norman had tensed up like a deer in headlights underneath his hand. After a moment of tense silence, he let it drop back to his side.
'Well, if you need to waste time before going home, I'm pretty curious about your town, and I'm pretty sure I could use a guide…?'
Norman managed to give Dipper a questioning look, and a mischievous grin overcame his face.
'The old house on Halley Hill. I wanna see it, will you show me?'
Like most of time Dipper spent in Norman's presence, Norman's face suddenly went blank and emotionless.
'Why would you want to check that out? It's just a stupid old house with a lot of hype around it for us small-town kids to prove themselves with.' Norman said, almost like he was reciting. Dipper wasn't intimidated.
'Then let's go check it out, if it's so stupid and harmless!' Yes, Dipper was calling Norman chicken, though his playful resolve wilted a bit when a hint of anger painted Norman's eyes.
Norman turned away from Dipper while he felt his eyes flash electrically. Taking a deep breath, Norman tried to convince himself that Dipper was just poking fun and didn't actually know that he was a… He was a freak. He'd said so himself…
He sighed in annoyance. Norman was done with lying to himself. Dipper wanted to go see a haunted house with the freak kid? Norman would make sure to deliver.
'Fine.' He said stonily, turning to face Dipper. 'Let's go.' Dipper grinned, and Norman still couldn't shake that tiny inkling of maybe Dipper really didn't know.
But this one time, Norman wasn't going to take any chances. He wouldn't be made a fool again.
~ O ~
The two walked in silence to the far side of town, almost in the direction of Aggie's tree, but not quite. Speaking of, Norman reminded himself to visit her some time.
They trudged up the last of the dirt path leading around a pine-covered bend to the old decrepit house on Halley Hill, the only one on it. The large front door, thick maple wood, was slightly ajar, and the breeze from behind the two boys blew forward and pushed the door open a smidgen more, as if inviting them in.
Norman eyed the broken windows and cracked wooden panelling as Dipper practically jumped from foot to foot with excitement.
'Well?' Dipper offered, taking a flashlight from his backpack and flicking it on, the bright ray illuminating the dusty door too much and blanking out everything else entirely. Norman didn't like it. 'Shall we go in?'
'Do you keep a flashlight on you all the time?' Norman asked.
'Hey man, you never know.' Dipper said with a sidelong smile. Norman just sighed and started toward the door.
~ O ~
'I don't even know why you'd want to come here.' Norman's voice rang out from the other room while Dipper poked around what might've once been a sitting room.
'Are you kidding me? I'm way into this stuff!' Dipper called back.
'You have prior experience?' Norman asked back with a doubtful frown, wincing as he heard a crash from Dipper's room. Sighing, he walked in there only to stop dead in his tracks.
Dipper shot him a sheepish grin, setting the small side table he knocked over back up. The beam of light from the askew torch in his hand illuminated a dust eddy, and beyond that, a dead person.
Norman had frozen, mid-step, mouth half open and eyes wide in fear. Sure, this ghost was nothing like Aggie on the terror factor, but he was still pretty damn scary.
His face was ashen, his marble white eyes standing out even more above gaunt cheeks. He was wearing clothes of the last two or three decades, which fit the mid-twenties age guess. Around his neck was thick rope, wound three times, like one of those stupid "choker" necklaces the girls at school wore. He was staring right at Dipper, something akin to rage clear on his face.
Straightening up and brushing the dust from his pants, Dipper turned the flashlight to Norman's feet, to see how the other kid was holding up.
Norman's face was… Well, it looked like he'd seen a ghost. Dipper followed his line of sight, and nearly dropped his flashlight.
'Oh, holy shit.'
The ghost was still staring at Dipper, but said stare-ee's last comment drew Norman's attention away.
'You—You can see that?' Norman sputtered, seeing Dipper staring exactly where the ghost was, a similar look of horror on his face. The exchange student nodded dumbly.
'A lot scarier than…' Dipper muttered something, but Norman didn't quite catch it. Frowning and telling himself to deal with the at-hand situation, Norman turned back to the spectre.
'Hey, we're sorry we intruded, we'll be leaving now.' Norman said, with the bravest tone he could muster up.
The ghost did that creepy thing ghosts do when it turned to look at Norman, its eyes swivelling over to him first, followed by its head. Norman tried to appear strong —gotta protect Dipper, Norman, come on— but felt that facade crumble when the apparition narrowed its eyes at him in anger and curled its lip in disgust. Norman barely had time to squeak in protest as a huge antique chest of drawers flew from the other side of the room straight at him. Norman may have heard Dipper cry out (his name?) but was too distracted by being thrown into the wall behind him.
Everything went black for a moment— minutes? Hours? And Norman came to to the sound of his own heavy breathing. Pressure on his chest made his arms move reflexively, and while pain shot through one, rendering it idle, the other pushed the huge wooden chest away far enough to crawl out from behind it.
'Norman!' Norman's vision was dark and swimming, but the slapping of sneakers on old wooden floors and vibrations against the side of his head where it rested on said floor told him Dipper was running over.
'You okay, man?' Dipper's worried voice fluctuated in clarity in Norman's mind. Son of a bitch hit me hard, Norman cognised as he managed a garbled moan. 'Don't worry dude, I got this.'
Norman managed a You So Don't glare through the pain shooting up his arm, but his attention was drawn by the huge scrapbook lying in Dipper's lap. Dipper, apparently having decided Norman was fine, also turned to the book, opening it up and flicking though pages in search of something.
The six-fingered hand almost made Norman want to pass out again. Dipper's a ghost hunter wannabe. Great.
Norman managed to push himself into leaning on his good elbow, looking up to see the ghost swoop in.
'Dipper!' Norman cried, wincing as Dipper flew back, his entire body making a sickening thud against the other wall, a twin sound made by Dipper's weird scrapbook hitting the dusty floor to his left. Norman growled in annoyance, 'This is enough.' He muttered.
'Hey!' Norman called as he stumbled to his feet. Dipper fell to the floor as the ghost turned his attention to Norman with a sneer.
'Listen to me, you rotted son of a bitch, you better clear outta here before I make your afterlife a living Hell. You got me?' Norman spat. The ghost made a sound which Norman was okay to accept for the laugh it was, and lunged at him, taloned hands extended.
For once, Norman wasn't suddenly scared by the onslaught of pins and needles and fire that rushed through his limbs, for once, it felt right. He grabbed the ghost as it flew at him, one hand around its neck, the other pressing against its chest, and let all the pent-up energy shoot out through his hands. He fell to his knees as the ghost sank to the floor, seemingly trying to escape that way, but the electricity flowing from Norman's hands and frying the spectre's ghostly body bound them, and prevented the ghost from going anywhere Norman's hands couldn't. With a ghastly screech, the apparition spasmed and shook into green dust, that then disappeared.
Breathing hard, Norman tried to blink the neon yellow light out of his vision and shake feeling back into his hands, sneaking a glance at Dipper as he stood up and did so.
Dipper was on his butt, frozen from when he'd dropped out of the ghost's grip, and staring at Norman in shock horror. Norman quickly looked away, knowing his eyes were still lit up like the Fourth of July, but also not wanting to see that expression on Dipper's face.
'C'mon, we should get out of here.'
'Norman,' Dipper started, his voice shaky. Norman just walked away from Dipper to retrieve his flashlight from where it had been kicked to the other side of the room at some stage.
'Norman,' Dipper tried again, his voice cracking, and Norman ignored how terrified he sounded. Norman left the room momentarily to grab their backpacks from where they'd been dropped in the front room, stuffing the torch into Dipper's. Norman walked back into the room and spared a look at Dipper's face as he held out his backpack to him. Dipper just blinked up at him, and the look on his face told Norman what question was coming. What are you?!
'I— You… You…' Dipper stuttered, and Norman braced himself for the outburst. 'That was friggin' awesome!'
'Wait, what?' Norman couldn't help it.
'You, you were all— I mean, like you— Norman!' Dipper cried, his face twisting into a childishly excited grin. 'Norman, you're—' Dipper's eye twitched minutely as he hesitated, like he wanted to say something else. 'You were amazing.'
Norman managed a dumb nod, and Dipper finally took his bag form Norman's extended hand, swinging one strap over his shoulder.
Well… That was unexpected, Norman mused. But pleasant?
'Seriously, Norman—' Dipper began as they exited the old house on Halley Hill.
'Don't, really. Just don't.'
'No— Norman, what was that?' It threw Norman that Dipper's voice still sounded so belated and his face showed the same.
'I… Just a trick. I mean, a thing. That I learned. For ghosts?' Norman tried, thanking whatever god that Dipper was just too distracted to notice his lie.
'Well I gotta learn that, wow!' Dipper exclaimed again, and Norman blushed a little. Glancing over and seeing Dipper staring at him as they walked with crystal-clear adoration on his face made Norman imitate a strawberry.
The two emerged from the dim pine expanse that shrouded Halley Hill, both boys simultaneously taking a deep breath of the more familiar air. Knowing Dipper would be shooting him a victorious smile, Norman couldn't help glancing over, but something else caught his eye instead, draining any building happiness he may've been feeling.
'Aw, shit.' He swore quietly. Dipper's grin disappeared and he quickly looked all around them, obviously looking for a threat but stopping when nothing attacked, and when he noticed Norman was actually looking at him.
'… What?' He asked nervously. Norman's face twisted up in wistful disappointment, and Dipper felt his unease grow. 'What, what is it— what's wrong?'
Norman opened his mouth to answer, but took full minute before apparently choosing the words he wanted to deliver.
'You're… I think you're being haunted.'
It wasn't something Norman had seen a lot of, but there was definitely faint green dust floating around Dipper, not going away.
'What?' Dipper asked with a nervous laugh. Norman just scowled at him. 'Well, do you— What do— Do you think— Wait, how'd you know that?' Dipper managed, and Norman paled.
'Um, well it's… I can see it. You can see it— one can see it! Like, anyone! Could see it. The thing. I mean,' Norman stuttered, setting off again so they could be distracted by walking home and not Norman's obvious lies.
'Well— oh. Okay then. Have you seen "it" a lot?' Dipper asked, still curious as to how Norman would know that quickly.
'I guess…' Norman said, his sidelong smile twisted by unease. Dipper let out a small, understanding hum.
'You have many ghost problems in this town?' Dipper asked.
'… You have no idea.'
**Two things, one, I realised while writing this that this story will be quite a bit shorter than I initially imagined, sorry *pout*
Two, that just means I'll have to do sequels! *squeal* I've already got a bunch of ideas but if you folks want something to happen during the magical six weeks our gaybies have ahead of them, just request.
And thank you all again for the fabulous feedback!
Wolf154657— Here you go!
dsaygunhbmnzxj— It turns out I'd had this chapter written for a while now, just forgot to post it (︺︹︺)
a fanfictioner— I know right?! This just makes me want to hurt Norman more though .
Lucy Moon-Walker— Don't worry, this is my number 1 story from now on, so there will be many updates, and soon!
mattyaoiboy— Your enthusiasm is infectious :D
EnderNadra— For your compliments, you get all the rice in the world ;3
normanxdipper— Yes, I'm thinking there'll be two more parts after this one is done.
Pjbunny13— Thank you! I'll be writing more of it over this time.
Ectolilly— One, I love your nickname, two yes I'm going to complete this story (my friend made me promise when I told her I was going to start writing fanfic that I never leave a story unfinished :P) Also I love Wendy, she's so chill.
Frass22— My pleasure :D
Love you all, peace out.**