Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Soos is right.” Dipper said to himself, watching the recordings of Mabel and Norman. “I don’t have any real evidence that Norman’s a zombie, and I guess I can be kind of… paranoid sometimes, and—” He looked down, noticing that in the recording, Norman’s hand fell off, and he put it back on like nothing happened. “WAIT, WHAT?” He exclaimed.

“I was right!” The chair he’d been sitting in tipped over and he scrambled to find Grunckle Stan. No surprise, he was leading a tour of the Mystery Shack, and paid no attention to Dipper in the crowd.

That’s when Dipper looked over and saw Wendy pull up in the golf cart. Without thinking, he ran over, with the intention to borrow it.

This was his first actual conversation with Wendy, but he’d seen her around the shop. She worked there part-time with Soos, though it seemed like she barely did anything. Now that they were face-to— well, not face, since she was several inches taller than him— he noticed the pins on her green flannel.

Suddenly forgetting about Mabel and Norman, he blurted, “Is that the trans flag?” 
Wendy looked down at her pins. “Yeah, I’m transfem. I use she/they pronouns.” She shrugged, as if it was no big deal, and looked Dipper up and down. “Did you need something?”

Oh yeah. He couldn’t believe he had almost forgotten. “I need to borrow the golf cart so I can save my sister from a zombie!” He rambled, expecting Wendy to ask a lot of questions.

They didn’t even flinch, just handed him the keys and, giving him finger guns, said, “Don’t hit any pedestrians!”

He sped away in the golf cart, and made a mental note to talk to Wendy later, when Mabel wasn’t in danger. 

After the gnome battle, Dipper found Wendy at the gift shop, still working (aka: reading a magazine at checkout). He’d finally processed their conversation earlier, and, in an attempt to make some friends in Gravity Falls, decided to tell her he’s trans. At this point the only other person he’d told was Mabel, but he decided to live as a guy over the summer since no one in Gravity Falls knew him before. (Including Grunkle Stan. Man, that guy was a piece of work).

“Hey, uh, Wendy, you know how I, uh, asked about your pin earlier?” Dipper scratched his head nervously, walking up to her. A few leaves fell out of his hair.

“Yeah, I remember that. It was only a couple of hours ago.” they barely looked up from her magazine.

“Don’t you wanna know why?” Dipper asked.

They shrugged nonchalantly. “It’s none of my business, little dude.”

Every time Wendy called him ‘dude,’ he got a rush of gender euphoria.

“What if I want to tell you?”

When Dipper said this, avoiding eye contact, Wendy knew it was serious enough to set her magazine down.

“You can tell me, dude.” They guessed where this was going.

Dipper took a deep breath. “I’m trans, too. Only Mabel knows. But I decided I could transition over the summer since no one here has ever met me. Luckily no one has made the connection that identical twins are biologically the same gender.”

“Thanks for telling me.” Wendy vowed right there and then that she would protect this little trans baby with her life. “You need anything, anytime, let me know.”

Dipper smiled. “Thanks, Wendy. I know it may seem weird that I told you when we barely know each other, but it felt important to me.”

“I get it, dude.” Wendy said. “Hey, what happened to your hat? And what’s with the leaves?”

Dipper shrugged “Long story.”

“Does it involve the zombie you were trying to save Mabel from?”

“Actually, it was the gnomes.”

“Gnomes?!”

“Do you want me to tell you or not?”

“Okay, I’m listening.”

Chapter Text

Dipper smiled, happy that Wendy invited him to hang out with her friends. They’d been super nice to him ever since he came out to her, in an older sibling/younger brother type of way. Since Stan had gifted him a hat from the gift shop, Wendy helped him sew the trans flag on the inside, hidden from the public but a reminder to Dipper to not be ashamed of who he is. At least, that’s what she’d said when they’d sewed it together. Who knew Wendy Corduroy could care so much about someone?

Wendy looked at the clock. “Oh, look at that, my friends are waiting!” She took off their name tag and headed towards the door. 

Dipper stopped her. “Hey Wendy, can we come?” 

“I don’t know, my friends are kind of intense,” Wendy told him, crossing her arms. 

“Hey, we fought off an army of gnomes, remember?”

“Yeah, I think we can handle some teenagers,” Mabel chimed in.

Wendy laughed. “Fair enough. Okay, you can come.” 

They exited the gift shop, and Wendy introduced them to her friends. “Hey everyone, this is Dipper and Mabel, my friends from work.” 

Robbie whispered to Wendy, “Are you sure they’re good to come along? They’re like half your size!” 

Wendy rolled their eyes and nodded. “Come on, Robbie. They’re chill. Trust me” 

Robbie grumbled a little under his breath, rolling his eyes, but they didn’t say anything out loud.

The teens greeted Mabel and Dipper, and Wendy introduced them, pointing to each person as she said their names. 

“This is Lee and Nate—” They pointed to two guys, and one punched the other, laughing.

“Tambry—” The girl in question waved her hand at them, barely looking up from her phone.

“Thompson, who once ate a run-over waffle for 50 cents—” 

“Don’t tell them that,” he said nervously.

“—And Robbie. You can probably figure him out.”

“Yeah, I’m the guy who spray painted the water tower.”

Mabel looked impressed, and Dipper said, “Oh, you mean the big muffin.” 

“No dude, it's a giant explosion!” Robbie turned red, and everyone laughed. Robbie glared at Dipper.

Wendy smiled. Robbie bragged too much about that, they needed someone to keep his ego in check. Plus, it did really look like a muffin.

They all loaded in the van, with Mabel and Dipper in the back. 

“Where are we even going?” Dipper tried to ask, receiving no answer.

They arrived at an abandoned convenience store and started climbing the fence. Dipper was not built for this, and, to be honest, he didn’t really want to go inside, especially after Nate said it was haunted.

He pathetically fell from the top of the fence. (Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Lee may or may not have thrown him off the top. What a terrible first impression.)

Robbie tried to bust down the doors, and when that didn’t work, Dipper got an idea. Climbing onto the roof, he crawled through the chimney and opened the doors from inside. 

After happy chatter and Nate saying his new name would be ‘Dr. Funtimes,’ they all ended up inside. Wendy congratulated Dipper on opening the door, affirming that their previous decision to bring the twins along had been a good one.

Everything was going great- Dipper got to hang out with teens, doing teen things! They had a food fight, made a Pitt Cola fountain and Mabel messed around with Smile Dip (not a good idea in Dipper’s opinion but when Mabel set her mind to something, there was no stopping her). Dipper started getting suspicious when he thought he saw a ghost in the freezer, but he said nothing, for fear of being treated like a little kid.

 Then, he saw their reflections in the glass. As skeletons. Nope. Dipper did not plan on dying today. He tried to call Grunkle Stan, but he wouldn’t pick up, so he did the next best thing. 

“Hey Wendy,” he whispered. She believed him about the gnomes, they had to believe him about this. But she didn’t hear him. 

He started to go towards Mabel in order to ask her advice when Robbie called, “Hey guys, you should really come see this.” 

The group walked to the back of the store, where Robbie had found the outlines of two bodies. 

“Whoa, so the rumors are true,” Lee gasped.

Dipper gulped. 

“Dude, dare you to lie down in it,” Robbie pointed to the ground. 

“Good idea! Go lie down in it!” Lee joked, shoving Nate closer to the outlines.

Nate laughed. “I’m a dead body! Look!”

Dipper stopped him before he did it. “WAIT! Maybe let’s not do that.”

“This guy’s scared ,” Lee mocked. 

Dipper ignored him, which took way more effort than he’d like to admit. “Look, all I’m saying is, why tempt the fates? I mean, what if this place really is… haunted?” He clenched his fists, ready for them to call him a scared little boy or something. 

To his surprise, Wendy spoke up. “I think Dipper’s right. He does have experience with this sort of thing, and I do feel a weird vibe around this place.” 

“C’mon, not you too, Wendy,” Robbie groaned. He sighed, then addressed Dipper. “Just take it down a notch, Captain Buzzkill.”

Dipper’s face fell. “But I thought I was Dr. Funtimes?”

“Well, you’re acting like Captain Buzzkill,” Robbie countered, and the rest of the teens nodded, except for Wendy. 

“Guys, if Dipper thinks this place is haunted, I believe him. Maybe he has a point?” Wendy suggested. “We can still hang out here, just steer clear of the… bodies?”

“Ugh, Wendy, not you too,” Robbie sighed, and everyone else started mumbling in agreement. 

“Status update: trapped in store with insane 9-year-old.” Tambry said out loud, typing the words into her phone.

Dipper turned red. “I’m not 9, I’m 13. Technically a teen!” The teens gave him a skeptical look as he fell backwards on the outlines. They gasped as the outline started to glow. Suddenly, the lights went dark.

They took Tambry first, after she had been texting on her phone. She ended up trapped in the TV that before showed the security footage of the store.

Their next victim was Thompson, who’d been playing the dancing video game. He ended up trapped inside the game itself, arrows plummeting towards him.

After Thompson, they took Lee for being sarcastic and trapped him on a cereal box. Then Mabel rose. It appeared as though she’d been possessed by the ghost haunting the store.

She spoke in a deep voice. “Welcome to your graves, young trespassers!” She laughed evilly.

“We’re super sorry for hanging out in your store!” Wendy apologized, hoping it would work.

“Yeah,” Dipper agreed. “Can we just go now and leave forever?” 

“Well… okay,” the ghost said through Mabel. “You’re free to go.” She/he waved her/his hand and the doors opened. “But before you leave, hot dogs are now half off. I know it might be crazy, but you gotta try these dogs!”

Robbie and Nate looked at each other, screaming, and booked it for the door.

“Just let us outta here already!” Nate said, trying to run at Mabel/Ghost Dude, but Robbie held him back.

“I don’t like your tone!” Ghost dude said, pulling Nate up and turning him into a hot dog. “It begins!” The ghost continued, turning the store upside-down. “Welcome to your home for all eternity!”

“Dipper, what do we do?” Wendy asked, Robbie also looking to Dipper for advice. He pointed to a cabinet. 

“Quick, in there!”

Robbie, Wendy, and Dipper all ducked into a small cabinet. The three of them were packed pretty tight in the small space, but it was better than possibly being killed. 

“Oh, are you gonna save us with your little journal?” Robbie teased Dipper. 

“Shut up Robbie, Dipper’s fought gnomes before, he can handle this,” Wendy defended him, giving Dip a small smile. 

“Oh, he fought gnomes?” Robbie tried to hide the fact that they were impressed by cracking a joke at Dipper’s expense. “Oh were they like half your size or something— no wait, I forgot, you’re just as tall as a gnome.”  

Dipper ignored him, taking out the journal. While he read over the page on ghosts, Wendy took the chance to whisper to Robbie, “Why won't you give him a chance?” 

Robbie shrugs. “He's just a kid. Why did you give him a chance?”

“I… I can’t tell you. It’s not my secret to tell.” Wendy scratched the back of their neck.

Even as the jerk he was, Robbie understood. But they had to keep up the nonchalant attitude. “Whatever. So how are we gonna get out of this?”

“Ghosts always want something. They always have a reason,” Dipper said. 

“Yeah, sure, you’re gonna save us all with your stupid journal,” Robbie teased. 

Wendy and Dipper ignored him. “We didn’t do anything wrong!” Wendy said. “Why’d they take our friends?”

“I don’t know— is there a pattern here? Why was each person taken?” Dipper asked.

“Let’s see—” Wendy started. “Tambry was texting, Thompson was playing a video game, Lee was being sarcastic—”

“It doesn’t make any sense!” Dipper interrupted. “There’s no pattern!”

“Yeah, those are all just normal teenage things,” Robbie shrugged. 

“Wait. Say that again, Robbie,” Dipper asked. 

“Those are all just normal teenage things.” Robbie repeated. “How is that relevant?” He asked, confused.

“That’s it! Robbie, you’re a genius!” Dipper exclaimed. “Stay here, guys.”

He stood up, crawling out of the cabinet. “Hey ghost!” he yelled. “I’ve got something to tell you! I’m not a teenager!”

The ghost let go of Mabel’s body and two ghosts appeared, a grandma and grandpa. 

“Well, why didn’t you say so?” Pa asked with a chuckle. “How old did you say you were?”

“Um.” Dipper looked back at the cabinet where Wendy and Robbie were watching the confrontation. “I’m 12. Technically not a teen.”

“When we were alive, teenagers were a scourge on our store,” Ma said.

“Always sassafrasin’ customers with their boomie-boxes and disrespectful short pants, so we decided to up and ban them, but they retaliated with this newfangled rap music!” Pa continued. 

“The lyrics, they were so… hateful,” Ma said. “They were so shocking, we were struck down with double heart attacks. That’s why we hate teenagers so much, don’t we, honey?”

“But… they’re my friends. Is there anything I can do to help them?” Dipper asked cautiously. 

“There is one thing,” Pa said. “Do you know any funny dances?” 

“Uh… is there anything else I can do?” Dipper asked. 

“NOOOOOOOOO!” Pa screamed. 

“Okay,” Dipper said. “I do know the lamby-lamby dance. But, uh, I can’t really do it without a lamb costume.” He put his hands on his hips triumphantly, as he’d just found an excuse not to do the dance in front of Robbie and Wendy. That feeling didn’t last long. Pa snapped his fingers and his clothes turned into a lamb costume. He sighed. 

“ Well, who wants a lamby lamby lamby? I do! I do! So go up and greet your mammy mammy mammy. Hi there! Hi there! So march, march, march around the daisies! Don’t, don’t, don’t you forget about the baby. ” He smiled, winking at the end. 

Robbie giggled from the cabinet where he and Wendy hid. “Dude, did you see that?” He snickered. 

Wendy gave him a death glare, and they shut right up.

“That was some fine dancing, boy. Your friends are free.”

Robbie and Wendy climbed out of the cabinet, and Robbie just couldn’t contain it anymore. ”Dude, how do you even know that dance, it's so girly!” He exclaimed.

Those words felt like a punch to Dipper’s gut. Luckily, Robbie got what they deserved because Wendy punched him right in the stomach and they doubled over. 

“Why the fuck would you say that, you asshole?” Wendy yelled at him. Robbie didn’t fully understand what was going on until Dipper’s normal clothes reappeared and his hat ended up on the floor at his feet instead of on Dipper’s head. 

Dipper rushed over to grab his hat. “Give that back!” Robbie picked it up, ready to put it on his head and do an embarrassing impression of Dipper, but then they noticed the trans flag sewed carefully on the inside. Shit , Robbie thought. 

Everyone else, just recovering now, stood in the middle of the store, totally confused by the situation because of their lack of context.

“Shit… I fucked up.” Robbie realized as Dipper grabbed Mabel, still in a trance, and booked it out of the convenience store. 

“Yeah you fucking did.” Wendy deadpanned, then went after Dipper, to give him the hat back but also to make sure he was okay after all that.

Chapter Text

Dipper tore through the woods, pulling Mabel along with him. Tears streamed down his face. Robbie’s words echoed in his mind. 

How do you even know that dance, it's so girly! 

It’s so girly!

GIRLY. 

GIRL. 

Unknown to Dipper and Mabel, Wendy ran after them, kinda like those gnomes. 

When Mabel and Dipper finally arrived back at the Mystery Shack, Dipper panting because he’d just run in a binder like an idiot. 

“Dipper what’s going on? Was there a monster?” Mabel asked once they got to their room.

Dipper doubled over. “Dude hold on, I’m dying over here.” He tried to take deep breaths, but his lungs were not in his favor. “Okay, I'll explain later, I really need to take my binder off, I can’t— breathe—” 

Mabel is confused but accepting and went to wait in their room while Dipper went to the bathroom to take his binder off. A knock sounded at the door. 

“KIDS! WILL YOU GET THAT? I DON’T WANNA GET UP!” Stan’s voice yelled through the house. 

Mabel glanced at the bathroom door and hesitated for a second before going to get the door. 

It's Wendy. “Hey, I have Dipper's hat. Is he ok, can I come in?” 

“I don’t know, he might not want to see you right now but I can go up and ask him.” Mabel replied.

“Alright, thanks dude!” Wendy replied, taking a seat at the kitchen table.

Mabel ran up the stairs once again, ready to talk to Dipper after he came out of the bathroom.

Meanwhile, back at the store, Lee, Nate, Tambry, and Thompson all asked Robbie what happened.

Robbie came up with something random on the spot, knowing Wendy would murder him six times over if he disclosed what really happened and the details of the lamby lamby dance. 

“Uh uh uh so basically Dipper had to fight off the ghosts. Yeah. And he got injured. So he and Wendy and Mabel went to the mystery shack to get a first aid kit. But yeah Dipper freed us.” 

All the teens whoop and get in the car. 

“Robbie, are you coming?” Thompson called out the window. 

Robbie shook his head. “Nah, I’ll walk home.”

Thompson shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

The van drove off and Robbie headed in the direction of the Mystery Shack. He didn’t know if he could make it up to Dipper but he wanted to try.

At the shack, Dipper told Mabel what Robbie had said.

“How could he say that?” Mabel cried. “Do you want me to… talk to him?” she asked, punching her hand. 

Dipper explained between tears. “Like, I know he didn’t do it on purpose but it still hurt.” 

Mabel rubbed Dipper’s back while he rambled and sniffed.

“Maybe now is a bad time to tell you, but Wendy’s downstairs. She wants to talk to you,” Mabel told Dipper as he wiped the tears from his eyes. 

“They also have your hat,” she added after a moment of silence. “You don’t have to talk to her if you don’t want to.”

He sniffed. “No, it’s ok. I’ll go talk to them.” 

He headed down the stairs, finding Wendy at the kitchen table.

“Hey dude,” she said, turning off her usual snark for this conversation. Time to get serious.

“Here’s your hat.” They set it casually on his head, and Dipper grabbed it. 

“Thanks,” he cracked a weak smile. 

“I wanted to check if you’re ok,” Wendy said, motioning for him to sit at the table with her.  

“It’s fine,” Dipper shoved his hand in his pockets. “I know Robbie didn’t know but…” 

“Yeah, I know, it still hurts. I would say you get used to it eventually but...”

Dipper nodded. 

“And I know it doesn’t help, but Robbie knows he fucked up. Also, I punched him.”

Dipper tried to laugh, but his heart wasn’t really in it.

“Okay, I should probably head home, it’s late. See you tomorrow, dude. Let me know if anyone else messes with you.” She ruffled his hair, noticing that he had been holding the hat and touching the patch on the inside. “Glad you like the hat,” she added, smiling at him and heading for the door. 

When she opened it, Robbie was on the other side, about to knock. Well, guess I’m staying a little longer, they thought.

“Robbie?! What are you doing here?” Wendy asked.

“I know I can’t change my actions but I just wanted to talk to Dipper.” Wow, Wendy did not have ‘Robbie admitting he’s a jerk’ on her summer bingo card.

Wendy peeked into the kitchen from where she stood, knowing Dipper had heard her exclaim Robbie's name.

Dipper slowly walked out, with his hat on this time, a comfort object in this tough situation.

“What do you want, Robbie,” he deadpanned, hiding all his emotions under his hat.

“I wanted to own the fact that I'm an asshole. I know my actions affected you deeply and I also know apologizing doesn't fix it but I at least wanted you to know that I know I fucked up.” Robbie scratched his neck, looking down at the floor. 

“Thanks, but you don't actually know what it’s like.” Dipper went to shut the door, but Wendy cut it.

“Actually—”

“I do,” Robbie interrupted, turning sideways and revealing a patch on the sleeve of his hoodie.

Of course.

How had Dipper not noticed before? He must've been too preoccupied trying to prove himself to the older kids that he’d lost his normal attention to detail.

‘Cause there it was, plain as day: a trans flag. 

“Wow.” Dipper scratched the back of his neck. “I don't know what to say. I can't believe I didn't notice.” 

Robbie shrugged. “Sometimes I purposely turn away from people so they can't see it. I’m out, but not that out.” 

Dipper nodded. He understood. “Yeah, I get that. I'm not out back home but I guess my parents will find out when I come home looking like this.” He gestured to himself.

“Oh, I can help, actually,” Robbie replied. “I started wearing ‘boy clothes’—” he did air quotes— “When I got to middle school and my parents did not like it very much so I came up with a lot of excuses. We should compare notes sometime.”

Dipper smiled. Apparently, Robbie was true to his word about making it up to him. “Yeah, I'd like that.”

“Okay, we should get home,” Wendy said. 

“Bye Dipper, see you around.” Robbie smiled, closing the door behind him.

Dipper sank down against the door. Wow. He did not expect today to go the way it did.