(A/N : I'm sorry for how long it is. It was originally written in Google Docs, so please leave criticisms or grammar mistakes in the comments.)
MABEL'S POV
"Just one date, please darling."
"I told you no. And stop calling me that," I hissed, swimming away from the shore. The little gnome grumbled, tears threatening to fall. I rolled my eyes and sank further in the pond. He ran off into the woods, making me sigh out of relief.
"Come on out. It's safe now." I crawled back up onto the little rocky outcropping I used for stuff I couldn't do underwater. A small splash followed by ripples spreading across the water's surface revealed my brother. He looked almost exactly like me ; light brown hair, fair skin, a spray of freckles on his nose, and warm amber eyes. While my hair was long and well-kept, his was fairly short and always messy. He flashed me a sheepish grin before swimming up to me.
"Thank you," he mumbled, rubbing his shoulder. We both had scales on our shoulders and of, course, on our tails. I glanced down at my own tail. Mine was a gradient from pale pink to hot pink, with yellowish fins. I shrugged, resettling my coral necklace over my shoulders.
"Your welcome. Though, I still don't understand why you don't want people to know it's you. I feel bad when I take the credit." He ducked his head and rubbed the nape of his neck.
"I don't really know. I just... Knowing people know about me makes me nervous. I didn't even intend to show you. I just didn't notice you wake up." He stretched his arms up and flopped back into the water.
"Well, OK, that makes sense. But will you sing for me a little while I sew? I convinced Stan to go buy you waterproof paper, so you can draw," I asked, giving him guppy eyes. He sighed and nodded.
"It's the least I could do, since you've helped me for so long." He outstretched his hand, taking the paper as I handed it to him. He swam to his own rock, one he had sanded down till it was a flat surface. He started drawing.
"What do you wanna hear?"
I thought for a moment. "Whatever you feel like singing," I said, returning to my sewing. Stan had said humans made swimsuits out of this fabric, so I figured it would work as clothes for me and Dipper.
It took a moment for him to begin ; I assume he was deciding what to sing. I instantly felt calmer, his magic working its way into my muscles. I wouldn't be controlled like the other creatures in these woods, since I was also a siren, but he helped me calm down and chill out when I got over excited. Dipper is my favorite person, and I will protect him with my life. I don't care if I'm magically weaker ; I'll keep him safe.
DIPPER'S POV
I finished the song and held up my completed drawing, smiling. I looked over to Mabel, who was definitely more relaxed now. "Mabel, how's your sewing going?" I asked, drifting back over to her. She looked over and gave me a toothy grin.
"I actually finished something for you. Here," she said, handing me a small pouch. Didn't take much sewing, but y'know," I looked away from it, wanting it to be a surprise.
I have something for you too actually," I mumbled, blushing a little as I handed her my drawing. It was just us swimming and laughing in the pond, but I really hoped she would like it. Drawing was basically the only thing I was good at, outside of magic and singing. She smiled at me and hugged the paper to her chest.
"This is amazing! Thank you, Dip-Dop! But I want to see you react to your present. Hurry up, put it on!" She slid back into the water, dipping under for a moment to wet her hair before popping back up. I looked at the gift in my hand, confused for a moment. I gave a small squeak as she grabbed it out of my hands and placed it on my wrist. It felt nice ; not too tight and not too loose. She had used wire to make me an extra bracelet. She giggled at the noise I had made and led me to the makeshift bookcase I used for my personal items. Stan had swam down to help me hollow out rectangular cubbies in the rocky sides of the pond walls. He had made a similar one for Mabel directly across from me. We each had larger ones next to the bookshelves he'd had fashioned into beds, using more of Mabel's special watersafe fabric and wire to make blankets and pillows.
"Do you like it," she signed with her hands. The other sirens that visited us every once in a while had taught us their version of ASL. Mabel and I had jokingly called it SSL, replacing "American" with "Siren," but the others had adopted it as the official name for the underwater communication system. Stan's brother, Ford, came with him sometimes and taught Dipper and Mabel English and ASL, so they could talk to the other creatures that visited them and read whenever they needed. Mabel realized I was busy thinking, and turned me to face the full length mirror we had salvaged for personal use. I saw the charm bracelet on my wrist and smiled. It was made of fabric, with a small panel of white. A sky blue pine tree symbol was situated in the middle of the white. A few silver wire charms hung off it ; a star, a heart, a triangle, and a moon. I pointed to the surface and shot up, soon followed by Mabel.
I hugged her and laughed, thanking her somewhere in the middle of the following tickle war. We calmed down and raced to the edge of the water. Mabel won, as I was tired from losing the tickle fight and laughing till my stomach hurt. We pulled ourselves up to sit where we could dangle our tails into the water. We sat there, talking about cool things we had seen throughout the day.
"Bro, that squirrel was as big as a fox, I swear!" she shouted, throwing her arms in the air and splashing water over us. "It ran up that tree over there and I haven't seen it since!" She pointed at a tall pine tree to the left of us. It was constantly moving a little, animals scurrying through its branches. A question I hadn't thought to ask popped into my head.
"Speaking of pine trees," I started, catching her attention, "Why did you choose to put a pine tree on it? If there is a reason." She thought for a moment. The chilly night air swept across the small clearing, making us shiver. We slid back into the water, sitting on a rock shelf so only our shoulders and up were visible.
"No reason really. It just... seemed to fit, I guess." She yawned, telling me goodnight before swimming to her sleeping cubby. Various bioluminescent plants casted a soft light on her sleeping form. While I had carefully planted mine to form a rainbow gradient, Mabel had basically thrown the seeds into a pile, planted them at random, and hoped for the best. The results were a random array of colors with no order ; it just showed how different our personalities were. I was more orderly and cautious, while she was wild and brash.
Glancing around and listening for anything that sounded bigger than a rabbit, I began to sing. It wasn't an existing song or something Stan had taught me ; whatever words came to mind, I sang. (A/N : For plot reasons, this song doesn't exist in this world, but it's amazing IRL. "Same Love" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. You should probably listen to it before you read my lame-ass writing, just to understand the rhythm and timing. It's the video at the top.)
"When I was in the 3rd grade, I thought that I was gay 'cause I could draw, my uncle was, and I kept my room - straight. I told my mom, tears rushing down my face, she's like, "Boy you've been loving girls since before pre-K."
"Trippin', yeah, I guess she had a point, didn't she?" A bunch of stereotypes all in my head, I remember doing the math like, "Yeah, I'm good at little league..."" I sang, not knowing where this was coming from, but knowing it felt right. My heart felt weird, like it was happier with whatever I was saying then anything I'd ever sang before. I stopped, feeling like the end of the song had been reached. Confused, I blamed my tired mind for coming up with the strange song and yawned.
I stared at the moon for a little longer, basking in its light and feeling a calm wash over me. My eyes landed on my namesake ; the Big Dipper. I smiled, happy to be associated with such an interesting and beautiful thing. I gave in to my sleepy eyes, swimming to my little rainbow colored cubby. As I laid on the slab and snuggled into the blanket, I fell asleep with a grin on my face.
???'S POV
"Excuse me, sir," said the small demon in front of me, "but your subjects are stressed. Someone in the Overworld has been luring demons away, and they never come back. We think the criminal has been using them as servants. What should we do?"
"For fuck's sake Ashtoni, calm down and knock it off. They aren't being taken or used. They're choosing to stay. And call me Bill ; you're my closest friend, stop being formal." I sighed, rubbing my temples. She sighed, letting her muscles relax.
"Sorry, Billy," she yawned, stretching her arms behind her. She snapped her fingers and changed out of her work clothes. Where she had been wearing dress slacks, a white button up, and a tux vest, she was now dressed in black basketball shorts, an anime tee, and a plaid jacket tied around her waist. She opened her hazel eyes and grinned at me. "Wanna grab a smoothie? I'll pay this time."
"The look on your face says otherwise, but either way, definitely." She gave a shark toothed grin and started walking away. I followed behind, hands in my hoodie pockets as she started talking about some cute guy she'd met at work. With her curly teal hair and short, stocky figure, nobody had expected her to turn out as powerful as she was. Some of the kids we had classes with bullied her. Those demons now ran from her in the halls. Of course, school here in the Underworld was always more dangerous than the tame, human ones above.
"Bill, are you even listening?" she demanded, a smirk playing on her lips.
"Umm, yeah. You said something about some cute guy ya met at work."
She smirked again. "Wrong. One, it was a girl, and two, we met Gamestop. Now you HAVE to pay." I rolled my eyes.
"I was already planning on it. What was her name? I might know her." She skipped ahead and started humming the X-Files theme, ignoring my question. I grinned and followed behind her again. We walked into the best smoothie shop in town, a small, family-owned business called "Savanat's Sweet Stop," and sat in one of the window booths. A tall, lanky teen walked over to us and asked for our order in an upbeat, excited tone.
"Darkford, you know what we want. We come here every other day."
"Can ya remind me? I got zero sleep last night," he said in the same excited manner, the bags under his eyes more noticeable than usual. Ashtoni looked up and her face shifted.
"Why were you up all night? Don't tell me you're still upset over that dickwad Danti!"
"Of course not! I was filling out college applications, dumbass. Danti can go suck Satan's asshole for all I care." His eyes were slightly more desperate as he asked for our order once more. "Please. My boss won't let me take a break till I get you guys' order."
Ashtoni looked ready to drag Darkford back to his house just to make him go to bed. I turned to the sleep-deprived demon, "A raspberry-melon with purple ice. I'll take a regular blueberry-lemon and a black coffee, for you." I handed him the money as he gave me a grateful nod. He dashed off to the kitchen. Ashtoni gave me a suspicious look.
"He'll want it after his nap break." She nodded thoughtfully. She looked into my eyes and her fiery personality calmed for a moment.
"If you wanna take a nap, it's ok. I'm gonna ramble about Eryn." I gave a gentle smile and closed my eyes, nodding. She didn't say anything. At least, I didn't hear anything from her. I was asleep. Of course, being a dream demon, I was always lucid in my dreams. I was beginning to read my past thoughts - a common pastime of mine - when I was suddenly interrupted by a voice. My conscious mind was instantly soothed and almost lulled into dreamless sleep. I couldn't make out the words of whatever the voice was singing, but it was still calming. My heart swelled and filled with something I didn't understand. The only thing in your heart is blood, dumbass. I thought to myself. I pulled myself from the calmed state and reached out to find the voice's owner.
All I saw was a pretty blue tail, soft brown hair, and caramel eyes. I was about to say something, but the voice stopped and I was pulled back into my reality. Ashtoni was hovering over me with concern in her eyes. I sat up and my thoughts were immediately overtaken by the person I had partially seen.The tail implied mermaid or siren, and with a voice like that, I was betting on siren. The short hair and slightly deeper voice implied the singer was male. None of the sirens I knew in the underworld were male, so I had always assumed there were no guy sirens. I should've asked.
"Bill, are you OK?" Ash said, concern dripping from her voice.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Do you have our drinks?" She nodded. "Let's go then. I've gotta talk to you." I stood, steadying myself before grabbing my smoothie from the table and walking out the door. I heard Ash walk out the door behind me, shouting a thanks as the door shut. She jogged to catch up to me and gave me a questioning look. I shook my head.
"Not here."