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The t-shirt was from the very very bottom of the laundry basket. Mabel was shocked that it even made it in there. That was the last place she would search for one of her brother's worn shirts and she suspected it was their mom that threw it in there. It was strange enough that Dipper's clothes were not scattered all over his room per usual, and by that she knew for sure that their mom was taking advantage of his absence.
It was only day one the Debate Team's road trip to the Nationals and she missed him already. It was one in the morning and Mabel couldn't sleep. Not even Bear-O was cuddly enough. They had never managed to sleep in the same bed together and could sleep just fine on their own, but somehow, just knowing he was far away was enough to keep her awake. Taking the shirt from his empty room was disorienting. She was used to him sitting at his desk, wide awake and chewing his pencil as he worked on either homework or paranormal investigative journalism for the school newspaper.
During late hours such as these if she woke up or was still awake, she would walk in, uninvited but always welcome. Sometimes they took out their DS handhelds and traded Pokemon; other times they turned on the laptop and watched a movie together in his bed. If she fell asleep he carried her back to her room and tucked her in. She wondered if he ever slept.
Right now she imagined him on the bus, scribbling furiously on his notepad. If he couldn't sleep in a bed, there wasn't a chance he could sleep on a bus. She knew he had hated the bus ride to Gravity Falls when they were twelve. She was the only one who had managed a nap on that rickety bus.
She stared at the t-shirt for a moment, registering the design in the darkness. It was an acorn. She didn't remember the last time she'd seen him wear the shirt, but even after all that time, it still smelled like him. She pressed the shirt against her chest and breathed, closing her eyes.
Nope. Sniffing your brother's shirt was not creepy at all. Nope nope nope.
She slipped out of her night-sweater and replaced it with Dipper's shirt. It felt warm and like home. For a guy's shirt it was pretty soft too, like one of her sweaters knit from alpaca wool.
From the corner of her eye she spotted one of his hats jutting out from the closet. She perched the cap on her head and quietly ran on tiptoe to the bathroom. For the next ten minutes she did horrible impersonations of Dipper in the mirror. Her lungs burned from laughing too hard and it was all she could take to muffle herself with her hand.
Her laughter quieted and she stared hard at the mirror. Sometimes she forgot that they were twins, but now that she was sorta dressed like him from the waist up she realized she looked like Dipper. A Dipper that didn't suffer from insomnia, that lived on huge smiles and had glitter on their cheekbones. In her honest opinion, she was the best version of Dipper. Tyrone could have to eat his heart out.
Another idea popped into her head and she not quite quietly hopped to her room to grab her phone. She turned the lights back on and after trying various angles, succeeded taking a selfie.
>Alrdy replaced u, bro-bro <33
After the witty text and abusing the glitter app on her phone, she sent the picture.
The phone vibrated in her hands within seconds.
>Haha nice try, Mabes. I know it's just you. Go to bed.
She fell back first into bed but didn't sleep, texting him until he presumably ran out of battery power. She glanced at the clock at the upper right corner of her phone. Drat. It was only 3:47. She wondered if Dipper's insomnia was contagious and decided that wearing the shirt was a bad idea. Fifteen minutes later, tired but still not sleeping, she remembered she had had trouble sleeping before she put on the shirt.
Two cans of Pitt Cola and a bowl of cereal later, she was messing with the family video camera. She was doing her Dipper impressions again, which gradually devolved into a one woman show with an impromptu Waddles mask and a Grunkle Stan outfit which was honestly just a pair of costume glasses and a Solo cup as a hat.
The camera was still running at five in the morning and by that time Mabel was passed out in a pile of last-minute costumes and gummy bears.
Her mom had prodded her awake.
"WHO-WHA- GET UP ON THE HYDRA'S BACK!"
Her mom bent down to turn off the camera, completely unfazed. "Honey, it's five in the morning."
Groggily, Mabel was led back to her bedroom, the costumes and camera set at the foot of her bed. In her half-awake state she pulled up the front of the baggy t-shirt and took in the comforting scent that could only be described as Dipper. She wondered if he missed her too.