TW!! CHILD ABUSE, DRINKING/ALCOHOL AND VIOLENCE!!
3rd Person POV
Mabel and Dipper hadn't spoken about the body swap incident.
Dipper had just refused to talk about his relationship with Stan and Mabel had eventually given up on trying.
The only person who knew anything about how Dipper was treated when Mabel wasn't there was Bill (besides Dipper and Stan of course).
Bill had been there ever since Dipper had summoned him, so he had seen Stan get violent.
Usually, Dipper's grunkle would just yell since Dipper was mostly in the forest and didn't even see Stan that often.
Since Bill was still in the mindscape there wasn't much he could do other than give Stan intense nightmares whenever he would hurt his Pinetree.
Today Mabel wasn't home. She was having a sleepover at Grenda's and now Dipper was alone in the shack since Stan had gone out with his friends too.
Dipper walked into the kitchen and took some food as he sat down on the couch.
"What are we watching Pinetree?" Bill appeared next to Dipper.
"Whatever is on the TV right now." Dipper said as he pressed play on the remote.
Most of the channels were shows about either romance or some reality shows Dipper didn't like. He sighed deeply and was about to turn off the TV when he stumbled across a channel with sock opera.
"This isn't that bad." Dipper said.
"You know Pinetree, I am quite the puppeteer myself." Bill said.
"Really? I have never seen you with puppets." Dipper said as he had no idea what Bill actually was talking about.
The show went on and Dipper didn't question Bill's weird remark. Soon Dipper heard the front door open.
It was already quite late so he had figured Stan would be getting home by now. He turned his head to see Stan at the door.
"Hey Stan, how did it go with your friends? Did you rob a bank?" Dipper joked but Stan just seemed to be stumbling around and muttering things.
"I will get going." Bill said and disappeared. Bill and Dipper had made this rule that Bill must not be there when Dipper's family members were around.
They couldn't have Dipper talking to himself in front of everyone.
"Stan?" Dipper stood up from his chair and took one careful step backwards as he took a good look on Stan.
He was wobbling and looked like he struggled to stand, his clothes were a bit messy and he smelled like alcohol.
Stan had been drinking.
"Oh, hell no, I am not doing this." Dipper plainly said and was about to walk past Stan and up to his room when Stan suddenly grabbed his arm.
"You!" Stan pointed at Dipper. "You are... so grounded."
"Wait what?! Why!?" Dipper jerked his arm back.
"Don't raise your tone at me!" Stan raised his arm and Dipper automatically covered his head. The punch never landed though and instead Dipper was dragged into the kitchen.
Stan threw Dipper at the floor as he looked like he was trying to focus on Dipper.
"You are... always such a hassle." Stan said. "You never listen to me and you are a waste of money!"
Stan started yelling and raging. Dipper sighed in relief; this was luckily just one of Stan's rages which would be over soon.
Dipper just sat on the floor and had stopped listening as plate was tossed right beside his head.
The plate crashed into one of the drawers and smashed into pieces. Dipper turned his head towards Stan, a terrified expression painted on his face.
That was supposed to have hit him.
"I HATE IT WHEN YOU JUST STOP LISTENING TO ME!!" Stan threw another plate at Dipper.
Luckily, Stan's aim wasn't that good because he was drunk and none of the plates actually had hit Dipper.
Stan realized this method wasn't working so he walked up to Dipper and grabbed his hair. Dipper struggled as the much stronger adult was pulling his hair.
"This is my house; you are going to listen to me!" Stan gritted his teeth. By now Dipper's facade had broken.
Dipper always tried his best not to show too much emotion, he didn't like those. He wanted to see himself more as a demon than human, so he kept his face straight no matter what the circumstances were.
But right now, he was scared. He was so, so scared of what Stan would do and he couldn't help but sob.
The tears streamed down his face as he desperately tried getting out of the man's grip.
"I AM!" Dipper sobbed. "I-I AM LISTENING TO YOU!"
Dipper tried screamed senses into Stan but that didn't seem to be working as Stan just threw him on the floor again.
Dipper used that opportunity to escape and run to his room. He and Mabel ended up just sharing his room again since Mabel thought it was too creepy to stay in the 'carpet room' as the twins would call it.
He ran into the attic and quickly shut the door and locked it. Stan stumbled up the stairs and started banging on the door.
Dipper wrapped himself up in a blanket as he tried calming down his sobs.
"Hey Pinetree, what's up with Fez-" Bill stopped mid-sentence as he saw in what kind of state Dipper was in.
"Pinetree, look at me." Bill tried speaking softly but he was filled with rage. Dipper poked his head out the blanket, his tears still streaming down his face.
Bill looked towards the door where Stan was still raging, he could see Stan's yelling was what stressed Dipper out the most right now.
"Calm down okay, you will be fine." Bill tried comforting Dipper, but it didn't seem to work as Stan was getting louder and Dipper was starting to shake even more.
Bill then had an idea.
"Pinetree try laying down, okay?" Dipper obeyed and laid down on his bed. "And close your eyes."
Dipper closed his eyes and Bill's hands started shining. Bill placed a hand on Dipper's forehead, causing the brunette to slowly start drifting to sleep.
Without realizing it, Bill had started humming. It wasn't a specific melody, just something random.
"...Don't stop." Dipper muttered when Bill stopped humming. Surprised, Bill turned slightly pink before starting to hum again.
Dipper fell asleep easily after that.
~Next morning~
The next morning Dipper woke up more peacefully than he thought he would. He looked around.
The last thing he remembered was Bill's voice... Bill was actually good at singing. Can't forget to blackmail him about it later. Dipper thought as he smiled smugly.
Though his smile dropped when he heard his sister scream from downstairs. Shit, is Stan still drunk!? Dipper basically ran down the stairs as he hurried into the living room where the scream had come from.
Mabel was standing in the kitchen and looking at the broken glasses and plates.
"Dipper what happened here?!" She raised her tone.
"I-I just tripped yesterday." Dipper said.
"And where is grunkle Stan?" Mabel looked around.
"He is probably still asleep. How did the sleepover go?" Dipper changed the subject as he started picking up the broken glass pieces.
"Dipper, are those bruises?" Mabel pointed at Dipper's bare arms. When Stan was about to hit Dipper, he had protected himself with his upper arms, resulting in him getting bruises.
"I told you, I tripped." Dipper said and Mabel decided not to question it any further.
After all, the only two people in the house were Dipper and Stan. Mabel couldn't even imagine Stan hitting Dipper so what he really must've tripped.
While the only thing Dipper could think was repeat to him, I will be out of here soon anyways, this is fine.
A certain triangle was watching Dipper and Mabel clean up the whole place with a frown.
Bill POV
This is unacceptable. How dare these mere humans treat Pinetree like that!? I want to rip their eyeballs out but... I can't.
And soon Pinetree will leave me for stupid, clueless Shooting Star! I want him to stay with me... But I can't do anything to get him to stay here.
Shooting Star is making him soft. I wish I could just kill her, but I am stuck in this stupid mindscape! I have no choice but to just watch this since I am stuck here.
...
Or perhaps there is a way.
3rd Person POV
A week had gone by since Stan's drunk incident.
When Stan had woken up that morning he wasn't able to remember anything from last night. He said he could remember yelling but not at who or why.
Dipper had just not told Stan anything about what actually happened and told him he had been yelling at the TV.
Dipper had always had many things he couldn't talk to anyone besides Bill about but this summer it seemed like the things had started to bottle up.
Mabel was also suspicious of Dipper flinching whenever she would raise her hand or yell a bit too loud.
She had been worried about Dipper so she had asked Grenda and Candy how Dipper was doing in school, after all Candy and Grenda were also twelve so they and Dipper should go to the same class right?
But when the girls had answered that they had never seen Dipper in school Mabel had been deeply confused.
Grenda also told Mabel they didn't even know Dipper was living in the town since he never showed himself, but Mabel just thought it was because Dipper was a bit anti-social.
But right now, the twins were just sitting and watching TV, completely ignoring all the questions they wanted to ask each other and all the secrets they tried to keep.
"Hey Mabel? Wanna go to the library?" Dipper asked.
"But libraries are booorrinng!" Mabel said.
"You think this is better?" Dipper pointed at the TV. Mabel thought for a bit.
Last time they went to the library Mabel couldn't find a book about glitter and she was very disappointed
But on the other hand, whatever was playing on the TV could make Mabel fall asleep.
"Okay." She muttered. "What do you want to do at the library anyways?"
"I just like it there. It's peaceful and i want to get a few books." Dipper shrugged.
The Gravity Falls library could look pretty boring at first but if you looked closely you would notice the shelves were loaded with books about the supernatural.
And Dipper had noticed that most of the books were written by dead people and published after the person had died.
So that meant some of the books were written by ghosts (and frankly, they were quite good).
The twins arrived at the library and walked in. It looked like every other library, big bookshelves with many books and a few tables with chairs where you could sit.
Immediately as they walked in Dipper speed walked towards some shelf and Mabel was left to wander.
She then heard a faint melody. Out of curiosity, Mabel walked closer to the sound of soft music.
"All my life I've been dreamin' over love that's right for me~" Where all the kids' books and small toys was a boy.
He had long blond hair that was tied up in a ponytail and blue eyes. He was singing and performing a puppet show for the small preschoolers in the library.
"And now I finally know her name and it's, sing with me kids, li-te-ra-cy~~!" The boy ended the song.
"I finally understand what all the buzz is about! Reading!" A bee puppet the boy controlled spoke.
"Give me some of that honey!" A book puppet said and started making out with the bee puppet.
Mabel got sparkles in her eyes as she stared at the young puppeteer.
"Oh boy." Dipper had walked by and saw the whole scene. "Let me guess, new crush?"
"So much a new crush." Mabel said as she didn't take her eyes off the boy.
Dipper simply rolled his eyes as he smiled. At least she got a normal childhood. He then simply resumed his search for interesting books and let his sister be.
The puppeteer ended his show and the kids left with their parents.
Mabel sheepishly approached as her head was full of thoughts like, ohmygoshboyswithlonghairaresooocute!!
"Is she just going to ignore the fact the guy literally just talked to his own puppets?" Dipper was spying on Mabel hidden behind a bookshelf.
If his sister was going to have a boyfriend he needed to approve after all.
"He actually isn't bad looking..." Dipper's cheeks got slightly pink from thinking that.
"What are you doing Pinetree?" Bill startled Dipper which caused him to fall backwards into the bookshelf.
"Iwasnotthinkingboysarecuteyouarethinkingboysarecute! SHUT UP AND DON'T JUDGE ME!" Dipper screamed as his face was now not just pink but fully red.
"What?" Bill simply asked and Dipper calmed down. He sighed in relief as the demon looked like he clearly didn't understand what Dipper just said.
"Nothing. I am just making sure Mabel doesn't fall for the wrong guy." Dipper simply said as he went back to stalking his sister.
"Hey, I'm Mabel! Nice to meet yo-" Mabel accidentally stumbled on a book laying on the floor. She blushed hard as she realized how horrible first impression she had made.
("Looks like both of you are really awkward in talking to and thinking about boys huh?" Bill teased.)
"Are you okay?" The boy offered Mabel a hand to stand up, but he was also holding one of his puppets in the same hand, so Mabel just decided to help herself up.
"I-I'm fine!" She dusted herself up.
"I am Gabe Benson, master of puppets nice to meet you." Gabe offered a small puppet hand which Mabel shook.
"You're amazing with those puppets!" Mabel gaped.
"Really?! A lot of people think puppets are just dumb or just for kids or something." Gabe said in a dramatic voice.
("Oh god he is a drama queen, he is all yours Mabel." Dipper muttered for himself and Bill chuckled.)
"Are you kidding me?! I'm puppet-CRAZY! People call me puppet-crazy-Mabel!" Mabel said.
("Nobody does that" Dipper noted.
"Yeah I know.")
"Really?! People used to call me puppet-crazy-Gabe! So, when is your next puppet show?" Gabe asked.
"My what?"
"I mean, you can't truly love puppets if you're not throwing puppet shows right?" Gabe smiled.
"Yeah- I-I mean, I am totally working on a puppet show!" Mabel chuckled awkwardly.
"Oh, what are the details?"
"Details? U-Uh there are so many." Dipper mentally face palmed. How can somebody who is that bad at lying possibly be related to him?
After finishing talking to the guy Mabel walked away and found her brother spying on her.
"Were you spying on me?" Mabel asked.
"What? I-I mean, u-uh no." Dipper panicked.
"Looks like your lying needs improvement too."
"Shut up Bill." Dipper hissed.
"Who are you talking to?" Mabel asked.
"No one!"
"Anyways, how hard do you think it would be to write and compose a sock-puppet-rock-opera-slice with its original music by Friday?" Mabel asked and Dipper stared at her, waiting for her to say it was a joke.
"...You didn't."
"LOOK I DON'T WHAT HAPPENED! I got lost in his eyes and his ponytail and I am going to be so embarrassed on Friday if I don't have anything!" Mabel screamed and the librarian shushed at them.
"Mabel no matter how good looking the guy was there is no way you have been so foolish! I mean, you could have just told him that you like puppets but don't do puppet-shows." Dipper said. "Even though he is quite cute..." Dipper muttered.
Mabel looked at her brother for a few seconds.
"If you help me with this is promise I will find you a boyfriend!" She begged.
"W-Wait what-"
"PLEASE!" The twins got another shush from the librarian. Dipper's cheeks became red as Mabel still was begging.
"Alright I will help you! But not because of the boyfriend part..." Dipper muttered.
"Thank you!" Mabel hugged Dipper tightly. "I will surely find the best boyfriend for you ever!" Mabel screamed and people started looking.
"Okay, okay but shh!" He said as his cheeks went back to being red.