⅃ƎઘAM ИUᆿ ӘИIVAH UOY ƎЯA

"AAAAHHH!" Mabel screamed, flailing around frantically. She was trapped, TRAPPEDTRAPPEDTRAPPED, chains all around her, LET ME GO!

She fell

.

.

.

out of bed.

Mabel hit her carpeted floor with a thump, just barely managing to catch herself before her head hit the floor. Even so, her head was only an inch above the ground, her knees digging into the rug. She groaned, pushing herself up to kneel.

Just a nightmare, she thought. Then, out loud, "Just a nightmare."

She looked up to find her stuffed animals staring at her.

She screamed again, shooting up and reaching for a grappling hook that wasn't there. The noise woke up Waddles, who squealed and started running around. Mabel staggered backward, hands feeling across the wall until they finally found her lightswitch.

The light-the light, I hate the dark, the lightlightlight-came on, illuminating her bedroom. Bright colors popped out at her, comforting and fear-inducing all at once, and her stuffed animals came into better view. They weren't staring at her, but were scattered haphazardly around the room, looking in the direction they had been thrown.

"Oh, yeah," Mabel said shakily. Before…before Mabeland, she slept with her stuffed animals on her bed, but when she got back to Piedmont she had found that she couldn't stand to be so close to them, so she had thrown them on the floor. "Guess that backfired, heh."

Her bedroom door opened, and Mabel yelped, hands balling up and flying in front of her face the way Grunkle Stan had taught her, but it turned out to just be her dad. For the third time that night, Mabel breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Mabel?" he asked, worry in his tired eyes, brown hair disheveled like a wet cat's. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," she said, tugging the sleeves of her nightshirt down even though they covered her whole arm. "I just had a nightmare."

"Seems like a pretty vivid one," Dad said, rubbing his eyes. "Are you going to be alright on your own? Do you want to sleep with me and Mom?"

Mabel bit her lip, and then said, "No. I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yup," she decided. "And that's a Mabel Promise!"

Dad chuckled. "Okay, then. The offer's still open if you change your mind."

"Thanks," Mabel said, shooing him out of her room. "Good night!"

"Good night, sweetheart."

Mabel closed the door behind him, taking a deep breath in and out.

In and out.

In and out.

A soft knock interrupted her breathing exercise. Mabel tugged her sleeves down again, taking one last deep breath before opening the door.

On the other side stood Dipper, looking just as tired as Dad, but way more alert.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Mabel nodded, smiling. "Just a nightmare, bro-bro. Nothing to worry about."

Dipper frowned, not looking convinced. As his chocolate-brown eyes bore into her identical copy, she felt some of her façade crumble.

"Actually," she started, causing him to turn around from his way back to his room, "can I sleep with you tonight?"

Dipper smiled. "Of course."

A few moments later, they were snuggled up close in Dipper's bed, just like they had been in the womb. They held eachother's hands, staring up at the glow-in-the-dark stars Mabel had talked Dipper into putting up, arranged in the formation of the actual constellations. The Big Dipper was placed over Dipper's bed, of course.

"Do you wanna move to Gravity Falls?" Dipper asked after a stretch of silence.

Mabel blinked, surprised at how sudden the question was. "Of course, Dip-Dop, it's just…what about Grandpa Shermie?"

"I talked to him that day I came home early because I passed out," her twin said. "Did you know we're the reason he and Dad made up after Grandpa got divorced?"

"We are?!" Mabel gasped. "We helped Stan and Ford made up, and now you're telling me we brought Dad and Grandpa together too?! Do we have superpowers or something?!"

Dipper laughed. "I think the only superpower we have is being cute kids. Anyway, Grandpa said that if he and Dad could make up after twenty years, then he and Grunkle Stan could make up after forty."

Mabel's grin spread from ear to ear, braces glinting in the dark. "We have superpowers! We're the Super Twins!"

Dipper laughed despite himself. "Doing anything a super-twin can!" Mabel punched him on the shoulder, their laughter filling the room. The sound slowly died down, however, and Dipper spoke again when the room was quiet. "What are we going to tell Grandpa about Ford?"

Mabel blew a raspberry, forcing Dipper to shield his face with his hands. "They should stop being dumb buttfaces and make up! We'll make an elaborate plan with bleventy billion steps to introduce Mom and Dad and Grandpa to the magical and it'll all come crashing down on step eight, when Ford walks in asking for the next episodes of Star Trek or something."

"Ooh, it would be fun to show him Star Trek-was Star Trek around before he went in the Portal?"

Mabel snapped her fingers infront of his eyes. "Focus, Dipping Sauce! The point is, we're gonna have to do it like ripping off a bandage-get the crippling pain over with in one go!"

Dipper pouted. "It's not that easy. We can't just go, 'Oh, and by the way, your brother, who you've thought has been dead for thirty years, has been alive this whole time and has been impersonating your other brother, who was travelling the Multiverse for the past thirty years-also, magic exists. Surprise!'"

"Sure we can!" his twin protested. "You just did do that, and now you have to do it again, but for real!"

Dipper groaned, but without real annoyance. "Okay, let's say we do that. What about-you know…"

He gestured to his chest, and then his crotch.

Mabel blew another raspberry ("C'mon, gross!"). "What's worse: Living here as a girl with no real friends, no Grunkles, and no Soos, Wendy, or Pacifica? Or living in Gravity Falls as a boy where Grunkle Stan will punch out anyone who says otherwise?"

Dipper bit his lip, turning away from his twins smug grin; she knew she'd won. Finally, he sighed, "Gravity Falls. But it's still not like I-"

"Dipper, you've fought ghosts and zombies! You beat Gideon, you survived Weirdmaggedon! That's more than I did." Before Dipper could question that last bit, Mabel plowed on, "Are you really telling me you can't tell them you're a boy and then bolt before they can question it?"

Dipper didn't answer.

Mabel's expression turned a sad downwards. "Okay. I won't push you. It was really brave of you to be a boy in Gravity Falls at all when Grunkle Stan was there when we were born, anyway."

At that, her twin smiled. "I wonder if he knew and didn't care, or just forgot."

"Whatever it was, he'll defend you if Mom and Dad and Grandpa turn out to be stupidfaces about it," Mabel said. "And I'll defend you, too! And so will Soos and Wendy and Candy and Grenda and Pacifica and maybe even Robbie if he's there!"

Dipper smiled, then pulled his twin into a hug as best he could with them both lying down. "Thanks, stupidface."

Mabel laughed. "Good night, stupidface."

"Good night."