Chapter Text
All his life, Dipper has had a friend by his side. He was lucky to be born with a twin sister and the two of them grew up together being friends. As they got older and attended school, they became closer because they were still each other’s only friends.
Girls thought Mabel was weird so they didn’t include her in anything of their own and boys thought Dipper was strange for spending so much time with a girl and being more interested in books then sports. So for years, they spend time just together as friends.
In hope to get them out more and maybe make friends with other people, their parents sent them to live with their “Grunkle” Stan for the summer. It worked out for the best; Mabel got two new best friends in Grenda and Candy along with becoming friends with Soos and Wendy. Dipper, while friends with Soos and having a huge crush on Wendy, didn’t have any friends with anyone his own age.
It was one of those days were Mabel was spending the day with her friends and everyone else was incredibly busy. Dipper was able to slip out of the Mystery Shack before Stan could make him work or give him some humiliating or meaningless chore to do (or both).
Walking around town, the young boy felt bored and a little sad. He wished he had something to do, or at least something to take his mind off of his loneliness. Dipper wished he had some friends his own age, beside Mabel of course, but preferably male. He could only take so much of his sister’s friends while they giggled about boys and boy bands and who actors were cute and other stuff that was rather gross to him.
Dipper turned a corner and happened to look around to see where he was. He wasn’t sure where he was exactly but a rather large metal sign with a coffee cup sitting on top of a pile of books with the name “Alice’s Café and Bookstore” hung from above a door. Feeling his curiosity being peaked, Dipper opened the door and stepped inside.
The smell of coffee, sweet bread, and books hit Dipper just as he walked in and it made him smile fondly.
“Hello there!” A voice from behind the counter called cheerfully.
Looking up, Dipper found an old woman beaming down at him.
“I don’t see many people your age in here; especially in the summer!” The woman, presumably Alice, had long grey hair pulled back into a high raised ponytail. She wore a purple dress with a simple black belt and a light shawl around her shoulders. Her face had many smile lines on her face and she had gentle and dulling blue eyes. “Welcome to my little book and café shop! I’m Alice.”
The old woman held her hand out and Dipper shook it politely.
“Hi, I’m Dipper Pines, and yes, I’m related to Stan Pines.” Dipper added the second part seeing Alice’s questioning look. Besides, he always got that question.
The store owner smiled and chuckled a bit. “Alright then. Well, feel free to make your way around and if you get hungry, first time visitors get a free purchase from the café!” The woman winked playfully and Dipper grinned back.
“Wow! Thank you!” The young boy turned and headed towards the rows of books, just taking in all the books. Honestly, he got kind of bored looking at some of the more adult related books and the kids section was nothing too interesting, but what really caught his eye was the history section (though he paused momentarily at the mystery section). Hoping to maybe get more information about Gravity Falls, Dipper hurried towards it, excited. Suddenly someone came around one of the corners, Dipper hadn’t even seen them, and nearly bumped into the young boy.
“Sorry!” Dipper hastily apologized and waved slightly as he turned his head but the other person didn’t seem to care in the slightest as they continued turn the corner into another aisle of bookcases. Dipper has just caught the sight of darkish golden hair and black clothes as they quickly turned. Shrugging to himself, Dipper continued and looked at the book case that was labeled “Town History” with a grin. That grin though soon slid off his face as he was the mostly bare shelves.
“What?” He mumbled to himself. “Why is there so little?”
Dipper continued to search, going through books and frowning as he came to the realization that most of the books were saying the same things and not really speaking about anything else. It was just dates of when the town was created and the creator, who Dipper knew wasn’t actually the founder of Gravity Falls.
“What the heck? Why is there so little info on the town’s history?” Dipper wondered aloud. Putting the book back where he got it, Dipper made his way back up front. He found Alice putting a new pot of coffee on and cleared his throat. When that didn’t get her attention he called out.
“Excuse me, ma’am?”
The shop owner turned around and smiled at him.
“Hey there little man; you ready for that snack? And just call me Alice dearie, everyone does!”
“No, I just wondering why there is so little in the town history section? I mean, Gravity Falls is so big and interesting; there has to be more than just a couple of books right?”
Alice’s face turned dark for a second before the smile returned, although it seemed more strained then the casual and warm smile from before.
“Ah, well, the town council has started banning books they find ‘not appropriate for children’.” Alice spoke with distaste as he even did the finger quotes. She paused when she saw Dipper staring at her. “Oh, is that not cool to do anymore?” She continued to make the finger quotes gesture with a grin. “Look, they look like bunny rabbits!”
Shaking his head a bit, Dipper was reminded of Mabel and it made him briefly wonder if Mabel would still be like that when she was that old. Dipper shook his head of those thoughts and tried again to get Alice’s attention.
“But how could they ban history books? Especially history of this town? I mean, they have founder’s day, but I can’t really find anything else!”
“Oh look! My cookies are done! How do you like chocolate chip? Here, try one!” Alice said, obviously ignoring his questions as she pulled steaming tray of cookies from the oven. Using a spatula, Alice quickly grabbed one of the oven hot cookies and shoving it in Dipper’s mouth.
“No I don-MMPH!” The cookie muffled Dipper’s scream as the cookie was much too hot. Forcing himself to choke it down, the boy grabbed the glass of milk that Alice had just set down for him and chugged it to cool his mouth and throat down. Coughing horribly, he looked at Alice and was about to demand why she had just done that when the said lady turned him around and pushed him back towards the books.
“Okay, you’ve had your snack now; go read! Don’t worry about those boring history books and go read in the kid section!”
Dipper nearly fell on his face as he tried to dig his heels into the ground to stop himself from being pushed but was able to right himself before he made a embarrassing face plant. Turning to say something to Alice, he saw her quickly disappear into the back room. Dipper sighed and rubbed his cheeks and wince as he could feel the rawness in his cheeks. Knowing that he wasn’t really going to get anywhere with the store owner, he resigned to the fact he wasn’t going to find anything out for a bit and made his way to the mystery section that he saw earlier.
When he got to the section of his desire, Dipper found himself relaxing more than he had wanted to, but was really unable to stop. He really did love a good book. Looking at all the books at his height and below, Dipper found that his favorite series was unfortunately at the top of the bookcase. Rolling his eyes in annoyance, the young boy went and pulled a nearby chair to the shelf and stood on it. Getting on to the tips of his toes, Dipper strained as he tried to reach the book he wanted and wondered just why the shelves were so far apart. Suddenly, just as he had managed to get a couple of fingers worth of grasp on it, the chair, which had been wobbling precariously for the past moments, toppled to its side and taking Dipper with it. Just as Dipper had been preparing himself for the hard landing, something caught him.
“Ooph! Well, aren’t you heavy?” A voice said. The voice snickered slightly and Dipper opened his eyes. Looking down at him was a man with black eyes and a wide grin whose face was very close.
“W-Whoa!” Dipper spazzed slightly at seeing the face so close and pulled away, ending up falling out of the man’s arms and onto the ground anyway. “Ow…”
“Well that wasn’t very smart of you, was it Pine Tree?”
Dipper rubbed his head and looked up at the man who was smirking a bit at him. The first thing he notice was that he was tall, maybe even taller than Grunkle Stan, but incredibly skinny looking too. His clothes, while they seemed to fit him well, seemed so small that Mabel could probably wear them without complaint. The man had golden hair that seemed longer on one side of his face, covering his left eye from view. His other eye was trained on Dipper though and it was half closed as if watching him in contemplation, or maybe, anticipation. The man wore a black buttoned down vest. Under it he had a white long sleeved dress shirt, a black bowtie around his neck and black dress pants.
The man continued to stare at Dipper and the boy coughed nervously. For some reason, this guy seemed to give him a weird feeling.
“Alright there Pine Tree?” The mysterious man asked before holding a hand out.
Hesitantly, Dipper took the hand offered to him and let the other pull him up. As soon as their hands touched, a warm feeling traveled up his arm and down his spine; making Dipper shiver subconsciously. Dipper pulled away and the warm feeling was gone.
“Uh, yeah, I’m fine.” Dipper said awkwardly, rubbing his hand where the man had touched him. “Wait, what did you call me?”
“Pine Tree!” The man gave a huge grin, one that almost defied physics.
Dipper had a confused look on his face and the man pointed to Dipper’s hat.
“Oh.”
“Oh is right Pine Tree.”
“Well, stop calling me that! I have a name!” Dipper glared at the man but the man just laughed.
“O-oh, don’t do that Pine Tree! When you glare, you look like you’re pouting!”
Dipper flushed. “No I don’t!”
A knowing eye looked at him. “Are you sure? Have you ever looked in the mirror and seen what you look like?”
“Well, no, but-”
“Well nothing Pine Tree, that’s just how it is.” The man pushed Dipper’s hat down, blocking his view.
“Hey, stop that! And stop calling me Pine Tree! I have a name!” Dipper attempted to smack the hand away blindly but missed. He lifted his hat and glared again at the man before stopping and flushing slightly when he saw the man’s growing grin.
“Oh? Well how am I to know your name if you don’t give it to me hmm?” The strange man peered at Dipper, raising an eyebrow.
Dipper suddenly turned and walked away. “I don’t give my name to strange men!” He shouted over his shoulder as he hurried towards the door. He heard the man laugh loudly and wish him a good day. All the way home Dipper couldn’t help but wonder what was with that guy and wondered if he hung around that store a lot and hoped not. He had thought that was nice, if the woman running it wasn’t a bit crazy, and he’d like to go back to it sometime.
The man smirked as he watched Dipper run away. Oh yes, this would be fun.
XxXxXxXx
Mabel walked into her and Dipper’s room and found a strange sight. Dipper was standing in front of the mirror, giving it a hard stare. She stood there for a moment, cocking her head in confusion, before finally speaking up.
“Dipper, why are you pouting at the mirror?”
TBC….