I have no words. Enjoy.

'So, you think…?' Dipper began. The two had walked back home in silence, save for Dipper now trying to ask if he was going got get possessed just as they arrived.

'No, you're not going to be possessed.' Dipper looked a little shocked, obviously at Norman's blunt wording. 'At least, I don't think so… That ghost, it'll regenerate in a bit, and I think it's just latched onto you as a waypoint until that happens.' Norman explained.

'Oh,' Dipper mumbled. The two stood there, outside the front door to the Babcock residence for a bit, Dipper scuffing his shoe into the ground as neither really wanted to go inside. Suddenly, Dipper had an idea.

'You know what? Let's take a selfie!' He announced.

'A what?' Norman intoned.

Dipper spun around, cellphone magically in hand. He slung his free arm over Norman's shoulders and pressed his face close to the reluctant other's. Norman looked at the image they made on the camera— ouch, he really was bruised badly—, and couldn't help but smile a bit at the joyous grin Dipper was shooting the camera.

'That was imbecilic.' Norman said once Dipper snapped a few hundred.

'Yeah, yeah, party pooper.' Dipper said while flicking through the shots, elbowing Norman's arm playfully.

'Ow,' Norman hissed, his other hand flying up to rub at his sore shoulder that Dipper had jerked. Dipper looked up instantly, all playfulness gone.

'Are you okay?'

Norman mumbled a "yeah" while rubbing his arm, wincing through the pain. Could you sprain your arm? It wasn't dislocated or broken, but pain kept shooting up Norman's neck from his shoulder.

'Will you be okay?' Dipper asked, and Norman froze. Slowly, he turned to look at Dipper's concerned face.

'What?' Norman asked, his voice awash in confusion.

'I'm asking if you're gonna be all right,' Dipper said, slightly exasperated and wondering if Norman hit his head, too.

'Um…' Norman had never been asked this before. Perhaps maybe by Aggie on occasion, but not by another living human being that owed him nothing. 'I… Yes?'

Dipper forced his expression to relax, nothing good ever came from looking too interested.

'Uh, okay. Shall we go in, then?' He asked, gesturing to the door. Norman hesitated.

'Um, you go on in, I'm just gonna… Clean up a bit.' He said. Dipper just nodded and entered the house, leaving Norman by himself outside. The breeze all of a sudden picked up and Norman shivered in the freezing gust. He crossed his arms over his chest and took a deep breath. Dipper haunted. These fucking powers being shitty. My… Family. Everything's going terribly. Norman cringed as the weight of his world bore down on him. Can I fix nothing?

Norman stood there for a few minutes until he noticed his arms were turning numb. He shook them out to get some feeling back in, before remembering he was injured. Norman froze, waiting for the pang of pain, but received nothing. He moved his injured arm around and felt nothing.

Norman was so tempted to blame it on the cold and the numbness, but what actually happened was staring him in the face.

Residual sparks from him using his powers (again?!) fizzled out into nothing after flicking around his fingers for a few seconds. His powers, he used them again. And they— it— he fixed his arm?!

Cool. Awesome, actually. Healing powers, thank god, something good from this curse.

With a small smile to himself, Norman entered his home.

~ O ~

Two days passed. The two attended school, shared small smiles if they passed in the hall or at home, but other than that, they enjoyed a comfortable separation. Dipper told himself Norman wanted space after the Halley Hill disaster. Norman told his Grandma (and therefore, himself) that Dipper changed his mind about them being friendly and was content with just being an exchange student. Norman was fine with that. Really.

This was, once again, what he told himself as he lay in his bed at night, staring at his blank ceiling, blanket tucked up neatly around him. Light streaked his room from his window, unnervingly still. Sometimes he'd watch the largest section of illuminated ceiling until dawn came and the street lamps were turned off, when all of a sudden Norman felt like he'd blinked but really the light had just disappeared.

This time it wasn't dawn that stole Norman's idle attention away, but the creak of his door opening.

Norman rolled onto his side to see who'd entered his room, not seeing the point in hiding his insomnia when he'd mentioned it so many times. Dipper's silhouette stood out against the light of the hallway.

'Hey,' He said, voice raspy from what Norman guess was sleep.

'Hey.' Norman returned. Dipper, without turning around, stepped into Norman's room, shutting the door firmly behind him.

'What's up?' Norman asked, the question coming out much quieter than he'd wanted. Dipper strode over to Norman's bed, leaned over and promptly kissed him.

Norman's breathing stopped. His eyes went wide and all of his thoughts went toward the feeling of Dipper's lips against his. So soft.

Dipper moved closer, prompting Norman to roll onto his back as Dipper lifted one leg to kneel partially on Norman's bed. Dipper shifted to kiss Norman's prone lips harder, and Norman's eyes had just fluttered closed in the euphoria when a thought hit him.

Suddenly hating, hating the situation, Norman shoved Dipper hard off of him, into the beam of light that hung above Norman every night, and saw exactly what he didn't want to.

No green dust surrounded Dipper, and said kisser grinned down at Norman devilishly.

'What? Didn't you like it?' Not-Dipper asked coyly, not knowing that if he were to glance down, he'd see exactly how much Norman enjoyed that. Norman felt his face cringe from shocked euphoria to steely rage.

'Get out.' He growled. Not-Dipper raised a brow, the way Norman never could.

'Oh? What if I like it here?'

'I'm telling you to get out. No way you're pulling this shit in my house, you don't belong here. You're dead, you had your—'

'I had my chance and my time ran out, I need to accept I'm not apart of this world anymore, blah, blah, blah. Your words aren't going to work on me, Norman Prenderghast.' Not-Dipper hissed, his glowing eyes narrowing to slits and leaning in close to Norman again, who was suddenly feeling very vulnerable. 'And what exactly do you mean by "this" not happening in "your house"? As if you're some big-time hotshot ghost whisperer,' Not-Dipper scoffed. 'You're just a bullied little loser from a backwater town who'll never leave. You say I'm stuck here and there's nothing I can do about it, Norman? Well, let me tell you a little secret,' Not-Dipper leaned closer again, his mouth a fraction away from Norman's ear.

'You and I have a lot more in common than you think. And one day, you're gonna wake up, and you're gonna be just like me.'

Norman barely kept his face from scrunching up in response to how tears were flowing from his eyes as he lay in his bed, Not-Dipper still leaning over him. Not-Dipper's check twitched in what might have been a victorious smile, kissed the shell of Norman's ear, swept his tongue over where a tear had rolled down, and straightened up.

Norman was biting his lower lip not only to stop himself from responding— he's a bully, Norman, he just wants a reaction— but also to stop more crying. Not-Dipper's words were nothing he hadn't heard or thought of before, but hearing them from a voice he'd come to… Admire? Trust?

It hurt.

A lot.

Not-Dipper laughed softly again, the sound like broken glass being crunched in a fist.

'Damn, you really like him, don't you?'

Again, Norman kept himself form saying anything. Not-Dipper leaned down, planting his hands either side of Norman's head and had their noses almost touching.

'You know he's going to have to leave. You do. You know it won't be good for either of you if you fall for him. You've kept yourself form caring this long, what's another?' Not-Dipper tilted his head, a cat studying its captured mouse. 'What's so important to you when you've kept so many away already?'

'Shut up.' Norman said through gritted teeth. The thing was getting on his nerves, even more so again when it smiled at his growl.

'Ah, so I was right. He likes you, too, you know.' The thing cocked an eyebrow, a clear challenge for Norman to enquire. Norman managed to abnegate. The thing smiled slightly more, obviously looking forward to the challenge of making Norman snap.

'You know what I'm talking about.' It breathed in deeply, then out through Dipper's nose, a sickening imitation of thoughtfulness. 'You know he's only ever going to cause you pain, Norman. Let him go. He's mine, anyway.'

Before Norman could respond, Not-Dipper quickly kissed the tip of his nose and was out of his room, the door squeaking once on its hinges.

Norman lay on his bed, forcing himself to breathe.

'Shit.' Was all his bedroom ceiling heard that night.

~ The girls at my school did this to me too, Norman ~

Unlike most (read: all) people, Norman answered more calls from unknown numbers than actual contacts he had.

The kids at school, after he'd lost what respect he'd gained from defeating a freaking two-century-old witch (apparently not much), had uploaded his number to a phone-sex website, and he'd been getting multiple calls a day ever since from weird old pedophiles who'd read whatever the idiots had advertised his service as being and evidently liked it.

Norman had tried tracking down the post to get it removed, but it was gone, untraceable to Norman but apparently shooting fireworks to anyone and everyone else on the internet.

As such, the most he could do was answer unknown numbers, and save them as the cretins they were so he knew not to answer a second time.

The day after Not-Dipper's late-night visit, Norman was eating breakfast (at the table, actually using a piece of crockery for once) and his phone rang. It wasn't a blocked number, but not one he'd saved, either. Norman inwardly sighed and prepared himself for yet another "Tell me what you're wearing" moment.

'Hello?'

'Yeah, uh, hi? Norman?' Norman's face scrunched up in confusion. A girl, calling him, from an unknown number?

'Yes?' Norman thought he could hear a braces-induced lisp as the mystery caller breathed a sigh of relief and thanked God.

'I'm so happy I could reach you. You're the Norman from Blithe Hollow, right?' Again, Norman responded in the affirmative, having no idea this was how his morning would turn out.

'What do you, uh… What can I do for you?'

'Well, you see I have a bit of a problem…' The girl said, and Norman instantly saw what this was. A little early for prank sex-calls, though, right?

'The thing is, my brother calls me every week but he missed our call this week, and in our lives that never means a good thing. So, Dipper's either dead, possessed or kidnapped, and I figured I'd call you first.'

Well then.

'Um…' Was all Norman could come up with.

'So… Oh, I'm Mabel, by the way. I'm Dipper's twin— older by five minutes, though.' Before Norman could mumble some poor response again, Mabel continued. 'Y'know it's funny, the last Norman I really interacted with turned out to be a—… Y'know, not so good, but here I am, asking for another Norman's help! Crazy, right?!' Mabel snorted out a laugh, and Norman found himself still dumbstruck, and managed a laugh to stall.

'So, can you help me, Norman?' Mabel finally said after an awkward silence. Her tone reminded Norman of some over-excited camp leader asking him to go on a dangerous mission to put on his trousers the right way out. Norman sighed, not letting this Mabel miss any of it.

'What do you need help doing?' He monotoned, definitively sick of the conversation.

'Well… First off, by your tone I'm guessing he's not dead, which is a good start!' Norman rolled his eyes at the return of the camp leader tone.

'So…'

'So, what's up?' Norman gave up.

'Well, he's not kidnapped.' A pause.

'The fact that I'm not surprised it took him less than a week to get possessed is just worrying to the state of my psyche.' Mabel announced. 'Still, it's not great news. Being possessed doesn't exactly lead to good stuff, I'd know first hand.'

That caught Norman's attention.

'You do?'

'Oh yeah, didn't Dipper tell you anything about where he came from— Gravity Falls?'

'No, not really.'

'Oh, well the gist is—' There was a crash from somewhere on Mabel's end, like a shelf of little items falling over. 'No, my grappling hook!' Was all Norman heard before a hurried good bye and the tone of Mabel having hung up.

Norman sighed, and returned to his breakfast, thinking about Dipper.

~ O ~

Norman looked down at his lit up phone screen, while dodging screaming freshmen in his periphery.

Calling: Mabel Dipper'sSister

Accept Decline

Taking a deep breath, Norman hit Accept and lifted the phone to his ear, shouldering another student out of his way in the crowded hallway.

'Hello?' He said loudly over the roar of the crowd.

'Hey, yeah, it's me Mabel. So what's the plan, boss?'

'Excuse me?'

'Y'know to save my brother?'

'Oh.'

'Oh indeed, so what's the play?'

'Well I don't know, I thought you said you're the one who knows about this stuff.'

'Well it's gotta be— you've gotta be able to do it, you're the one there.' In other words, you have to save Dipper's butt, just like we saved everyone's butts last time, and look how that worked out, Norman.

'Look, Mabel, can't you just say there was a family emergency and get whatever adult you're living with to call my parents and get him sent back? I really…' Norman didn't know how to explain just how much he was emotionally unprepared to deal with something like this.

A long burst of static indicated Mabel was shushing him.

'Nope, can't do that.'

'Why not?'

'It wouldn't further the plot, you dope!'

'Wait, the wha—'

'So, I propose you get him somewhere secluded, then maybe get some old, mysterious, probably-has-secret-ghost-powers person in your village to fix him up, then yay! Happy ending!'

Norman was glad he reached his locker by the time Mabel finished speaking because when she announced that stunning plan, he couldn't keep walking.

After a few dumb moments, Mabel was in his ear again.

'Hello? Still there, Normy?' Norman flinched at the nickname.

'Seriously? That's your plan?'

'Well do you have something better, Mister… Mister So Good At Plans?!'

Norman sighed heavily, stacking his books away and grabbing his lunch, knowing he couldn't give anything away to do with his quirk.

'I dunno, there's just no "old guy with secret ghost powers" here. And did you just call my town a village?'

'No, I called your village a village. Look Norman, he can't come back just yet, okay? There's some stuff going on, and he's finding it hard to be here, around… Around these people right now. I can't tell you how happy he was leaving, even if it was only for a few weeks.' Norman hated how Mabel paused for effect. 'Look, just take a look in that book of his— I'm sure you've seen it, the six-fingered hand with the three on the front? Yeah, flick through that, I've gotta go.'

'But Mabel—' Again, Norman was left with only more questions, and an ended phone call's beeping in his ear.

~ O ~

The book was junk. Norman had no idea what crackhead thought of all this stuff, but it was giving him a headache. Of course someone with Dipper's attention span would read this for fun.

Every other page was a different entry on some magical and incredibly specific and strange creature. Sock Gremlins, what?

It was as Norman hit Toaster Gremlins that he heard footsteps outside his door. His entire body froze, pulse racing, as he waited for someone to come in and catch him with Dipper's stupid book.

Norman thought he may've heard a sigh, but the footsteps definitely retreated. Norman was alone again.

~ O ~

Norman paced the creaky floors of the house on Halley Hill as he waited for Not-Dipper to come. Norman was sure the ghost would see Norman's note —meet me Halley Hill 4PM need to talk— and see it as a challenge. Already Norman could tell this ghost was loving having power again, and would look for any way to embarrass or simply beat Norman.

The front door opening then slamming shut drew Norman from his thoughts.

'Hello~' Not-Dipper's voice singsonged from the from hallway. 'Anybody here?'

Norman didn't dignify the brat with an answer, but waited as Not-Dipper made his way to exactly the room he was in. Scuff marks still marred the floor from where the ghost had thrown furniture at him.

Not-Dipper rounded the corner, smiling viciously, and Norman felt the hairs on his arms rise as the room cooled noticeably.

'So?' Not-Dipper raised one eyebrow as the smile dropped, an expression that didn't escape Norman's notice as a very un-Dipper-like move. 'What do you want?'

Norman tried to swallow to wet his dry throat, but nothing happened. 'I, Norman Babcock, command you, spirit, to leave this body immediately.' Again, the eyebrow raise. 'You do not belong here and will leave at once—'

'Do you seriously think that stating your name, not using contractions and saying shit like "at once" will seriously give you more power over me?' Not-Dipper laughed as he neared dangerously close to Norman, who was trying to stand his ground. 'You seriously believe that after all this time, being locked up in this rotting shit-hole, that I will ever leave?' Not-Dipper towered over Norman, talking right into his face. 'Your words won't work, Norman Babcock—' He spat Norman's name like a curse. 'Ever. No words can sway a deal made between two willing parties.'

That shocked Norman out of his terrified stupor.

'What?' Again, Not-Dipper looked down on Norman like a snobby adult to a toddler.

'I'm sure I don't really have to explain, dear Norman. Your Dipper was surrounded by people more powerful than him, be it superpowers, or just by knowledge. He was always striving to catch up, to be great. But he never could. Then you come along, and even though you're hated, you're special.' Not-Dipper's eyes narrowed again but Norman cut him off before he could continue.

'Dipper! I know you're in there!' Norman even steeled himself enough to reach out and pull Dipper's face closer to his. 'You have to believe me, I know what it's like to want power, to be noticed and be loved! It's okay to want power, Dipper, as long as you don't let in consume you!'

The last thing Norman saw before his mind shut off was Not-Dipper's lips twist up in an amused smirk, because then Not-Dipper closed the distance between them and kissed Norman hard. Norman gasped in surprise, and couldn't help but melt into the feeling of Dipper's lips and arms surrounding him. Eventually after what felt like forever later, Not-Dipper pulled back, but not so far as their noses weren't touching.

'How's that for consuming?' Not-Dipper whispered, and it was so cocky and self-sure and not Dipper that it only took a moment for Norman's arms to lift themselves and push Not-Dipper away.

'Stop that! Stop doing that!' Norman yelled to the unfazed ghost. Not-Dipper just gave a small laugh, and turned to leave. Norman felt his panic build, he knew that if he let the ghost leave that house then he'd never see Dipper again.

'Stop, wait!' Norman called out, to which the now bored-looking ghost obliged. '

'What.' He hissed. Norman took a deep breath and steeled himself.

'I bet he told you that I'd only hurt you, right?' Already Norman saw Not-Dipper's eye twitch, a sign that Dipper was fighting back? 'He said you'd never achieve anything if you didn't have him? Well he's wrong, and I can prove it. Just you, by your dorky self, managed to make me…' Time to nut up or shut up, Norman. 'You made me fall hopelessly in love with you, and that was all you! What do you even get out of this deal, you don't even have control over your own body anymore!' Norman cried, desperate to change the subject from the huge confession he'd just made, but also needing Dipper to come back.

'Stop. Talking.' Not-Dipper growled, advancing on Norman.

'You know I can't stop, because I lov—' Not-Dipper grabbed Norman by the throat, easily lifting him off his feet and cutting off his air. Norman choked, clawing at Dipper's hands, but knew he couldn't stop now. With pulse racing and blood pumping painfully, he continued.

'You know I care for you, and I love you just the way you are, Dipper… Please…' The thumb of Dipper's hand dug even deeper into his neck, and Norman felt capillaries burst in his eyes. He gasped for one last breath as he lost feeling in his extremities, blackness soon following.

~ O ~

it was instinctual, the need to breathe, and as Norman heaved for breath, feeling the cool air flow in and out of his lungs, Norman had never been more happy for instincts. He coughed and gasped and wheezed through his traumatised throat, the feeling of breathing the only thing occupying his mind, until it wasn't.

A thick layer of dust under his hand and the smell of wood rotting to dust drew him back to Halley House. Why am I back here?

Norman looked around, and saw Dipper convulsing on the ground. The past few week's occurrences came back to him, and he scrambled over to Dipper to hold him.

'It's okay, it's okay, just get it out, Dip.' Norman cooed as Dipper growled and thrashed about, eventually a green smoke pouring from between his lips.

Norman zapped the green apparition into less than dust before the ghost could even take form, thinking nothing of it except for a little justified satisfaction.

'Dipper? Dipper, you with me?' Norman called, cradling Dipper's head so he wouldn't choke if he was sick. Dipper groaned in pain, but it still filled Norman with joy to see his chocolate brown eyes, and not the glowing green.

'Norman?' Dipper coughed, 'your town is way more fucked up than mine.'

Norman had never been so happy to have his town insulted, and was grinning as he leaned down to kiss a smiling Dipper.

The End

For Now…

I apologise for the rushed ending, it's just that I wanted finish this story before posting any new ones, so yeah. I hope you enjoyed anyway, there will be two more instalments in this series, so keep posted!

All my love,

- TJ