Hey everyone! Thanks for clicking on this story. It means a lot to this humble college student that you'd take the time out of your busy lives to click on a little story like mine. Unless you're that cat again. In which case, meow, meow, meow meow, mrow.

... If y'all've not read my other story, I just look nuts there. Whoops.

Anyway, this story is basically what would happen if, in the future, we went back to being ruled by a king and our 'Perfect Matches' were determined by a nation wide online dating site. I go more into detail in the chapter, but that's basically it. Not sure why I went with this story taking place in the distant Future, but eh.

Also, this story has nothing to do with anything; I.E I didn't reference anything to make this story. I think I saw a movie synopsis that sounded like this story a while ago, but I don't remember what it was called and I never saw the movie, so all of this is mostly my own weird mind. If you see any similarities, either it's coincidence, or I subconsciously copied. Regardless, it was not my intention. This story is also the most upbeat thing I've ever written, so hopefully it comes across as well written and not awful.

I will be posting once a week, since I've finished writing the story; I just need the extra time to edit and possibly add an epilogue. I also have no editor for this story, so any mistakes are mine. Please leave a comment or review if you spot anything out of place! Or if you want to let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

Characters (in order of importance): Dipper Pines, Bill Cipher, Mabel Pines, Pacifica Northwest

Tags: Soulmate AU (kind of), Human!Bill, Compatibility, Not Drift Compatibility, (Basically what would happen if computer dating got really big), Future AU (technically), Grown up Dipper and Mabel

Summary: At the end of the day, he supposed there were worse things in life than not being claimed by the person who was supposed to be The Love of His Life.

Things such as, oh… constantly getting harassed by the Insane Prince Cipher, for example.

Dipper was about five seconds away from filing a formal complaint with the world.

Chapter One: Dipper and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Dipper Pines was ordinary. It was a Fact, with a capital F. There was nothing about him that really… shined. Sure, he had his smarts, but they weren't extraordinary. Beside his sister, Dipper was always the one who faded to the background. The one who people saw, but never really saw. One half of a pair of twins, nothing that stood out about him.

He had come to terms with this Fact years before. It didn't even bother him much, anymore. It was just… a Fact of his life. He was the ordinary, everyday person. Likable enough, but not really special. He knew this. He had come to terms with this.

However, standing here amongst the thousands of other people his age, waiting for his Compatibility Match to arrive, he felt the most intense feelings of panic and dread fill him as he thought of his ordinary nature. After all, the Compatibility Matches were made based off one's best and worst characteristics. If he wasn't particularly special, then just who on Earth would he get? And, worse yet, would they mind the fact he wasn't special?

The panic firmly settled in, Dipper felt his heart pound and his breath speed up, the sounds around him muffling to nothing. Just as he felt he was about to hyperventilate, sure his heart was about to pound out of his chest as he thought of this Most Important Moment in his life and how he was positive he wasn't Enough, he heard his sister let out an excited squeal, bouncing up and down in her obvious excitement. He could practically see the beaming grin he was sure was wearing on her face, despite the fact she was turned away from him to view the crowd.

Well, that was easy for her, he thought with only mild bitterness, observing her excitement with envy. She had more personality in her left pinky than most people had throughout their entire bodies. She'd have no problem getting a good Match. It was well known that the more Special the person, the better the Match. And Mabel… Mabel was Special, no doubt about it.

"Oh, isn't this amazing, Dipper?!" His sister beamed, her eyes bright as the sun as she looked around at all the other Secondary People around them. Dipper looked around at well, with just a touch of a frown.

See, every Match was split into two categories: Primary People, and Secondary People. It was determined by the person's personality in their Match, whether they would be the dominant force in whatever relationship the two had. He and Mabel had, apparently, been put into the Secondary People category. Honestly, he wasn't surprised that he had been put in this category, as he had never had a domineering attitude. Mabel, however… he would have thought with her outgoing nature, she would have been the most dominant of any pair. That's how it had been whenever she had dated. Obviously whoever her Match was, they were more dominant than she was. He wondered if that would be a good thing or not.

"I don't know, Mabel. I'm not sure 'amazing' is the word I'd use," he replied faintly, his nerves flaring. Nerve-wracking would likely be a better word. Or maybe, completely and utterly terrifying. As everyone knew, meeting up with one's Match was probably the biggest moment in a person's life. While there was no saying that a person had to marry their Match, most people did. After all, a Match was with a person who was almost perfect for you, in your age group at least. Occasionally a person wouldn't find their perfect Match in their age group, thus having to go onto the next year, but that rarely happened. So as long as things went well, this would be the time he met his Soulmate, as Mabel always said. This one moment in time when he'd be able to make a first impression on the person he was, hopefully, going to spend the rest of his life with. So yeah, definitely nerve-wracking.

"Oh Dip-Dop. You're just not thinking about this positively! I'm sure everything's going to work out fine, just you wait and see bro-bro," Mabel enthused, nudging his shoulder lightly with her own, grinning widely at him. Dipper managed to give her a tight smile back, but was quickly distracted by the milling crowd.

As he looked around, he noticed that he didn't recognize even a tenth of them. It made sense, since the crowd was made up of eighteen year olds from all over the kingdom, not just his small town of Gravity Falls. It made him, if possible, feel even more nervous. He wondered if he'd get someone from Gravity Falls, or if he'd get someone from a distant town or village, or even city. He wasn't sure which would be worse. It wasn't like there was anyone in Gravity Falls that he was particularly interested in, his age at least. Maybe Pacifica, but she wasn't exactly his type. However, if he got someone from far away… they may want him to move to their town. And, no matter what, he knew that he didn't want to be separated from his twin.

Time passed slowly after that, as he listened absently to his twin chatter on and on about who her match would be, wondering what his name would be, if he would be handsome, etcetera. Part of Dipper wondered if she wasn't nervous herself, with how rapidly she spoke. It wouldn't surprise him. She had been dreaming of this day since they had been children, enthusing on and on about her future Match. Now that the day was here, it wouldn't be amiss to think that she might be a touch nervous. Heavens knew he was.

This had to be the worst part of being a Secondary Person, he thought bitterly, watching the crowd around him get steadily more anxious as the minutes passed. They had to wait for the Primary People to arrive before they figured out who their Match was, while Primary People knew in advance. It was a tradition left over from the past, when the Matches used to be made between a man and a woman only, with the men being the ones who claimed the women. That had been changed decades beforehand, with the reforms for complete honesty amongst the Matches, as well as gender and sexual equality, but the tradition of the Primary Person being the one to claim the Secondary Person had stuck. Regrettably.

Dipper could feel his heart beat faster and faster as he felt time moving, as he heard the crowd's whispering grow louder and louder. He barely even registered the fact that his sister had stopped speaking, instead deciding to cling to his arm like she had when they were children, whenever she had been afraid. He was too preoccupied with not throwing up to spare a thought for his twin.

"Do you think they'll like me?" He heard Mabel ask in a small voice minutes later, causing him to look down at her, his heart clenching at the terrified look he saw there. Ah, so he had been right. She was nervous. Forcing his own panic down, he smiled down at his twin, gently reclaiming his arm so he could wrap it around her thin shoulders.

"They'd have to be a complete idiot not to," he declared, meaning the words wholeheartedly. Anyone who didn't like Mabel had to be completely bonkers, in his opinion. He watched as a slow smile grew on her face, her terror fading just a bit as she grinned back up at him, showing off her brilliantly white smile, teeth perfectly straight after three long years of orthodontic work.

"Yeah, I guess. Same goes for you, bro-bro. I'm sure that whoever your Match is, they'll love you immediately," she asserted, nodding her head in emphasis. Dipper wasn't so sure of that, but he nodded back either way. He looked away after that, but did not remove his arm from his twin's shoulder. He felt that they both needed the support, right at that moment.

Finally, right when Dipper was sure he was going to burst from the panic and anticipation, he heard the sound of a train pulling into the station, signifying the arrival of the Primary People. He tightened his grip on his twin, hearing as she let out a tiny squeak of fear. The rest of the crowd was having similar reactions, all sound silenced at once as they stared at the train that carried their destiny. Nearly every Primary Person was on that train, and while the official ceremony wasn't for two days, nearly everyone met their Match for the first time this very moment. As long as the Primary Person wished it, of course. All the power was in their hands, at least until that first meeting had been made.

The crowd collectively held their breath as the train door opened slowly, the very first Primary Person stumbling out, paper gripped tightly in their shaking hands. Dipper could only watch as they handed the paper to the man who organized the Matches, a loud voice calling out over the loud speaker the very first name. His heart was beating so fast he could barely hear anything but it, feeling like he was about to faint. It was with mild disappointment that he realized his name hadn't been called, but he supposed that was alright. It was only the first person. He still had time.

Slowly but surely the crowd around him and his sister grew smaller and smaller. There had to be thousands of people in the courtyard, but names got called out every five seconds, so quick that if one wasn't paying attention, they'd miss it completely and have to wait until the end to meet up with their Match.

It was when there was only about a thousand people left that he heard his sister's name get called, a loud 'MABEL PINES' spoken clearly across the intercom. Giving his twin an encouraging smile and one last shoulder squeeze, he let her go, watching as she stiffly made her way up to the train, where her Match was waiting. Dipper hoped their meeting went well.

More names got called. The crowd got smaller. Still Dipper stood, mind racing, heart pounding. Minutes ticked by and he wondered if he had missed his name, if he'd have to wait 'til the end to meet up with his Match. Or, worse yet, his Match was one who had decided against this initial meeting. He didn't know why they wouldn't want to meet now, as meeting later would just put more pressure on the both of them, with the first meeting they had immediately followed by them announcing to the whole world who their Perfect Person was, which was just a touch terrifying. It did happen, though, and it would be just his luck that his Match would be one to decide that.

Finally, long minutes later, the very last name was called. There were still about a hundred people left in the courtyard, all looking as nervous and scared as he. A moment of silence filled the air, then, the very first since the whole affair had started. After the moment passed, the organizer's voice filled the air once more, stating that everyone who had not been called form a single file line and see if their match had declined the initial meeting or not.

With a churning stomach, Dipper marched forward, his arms shaking as his heart pounded. Oh, it was everything he had feared, not getting called and being forced to wait even longer. Well, at least it was better than meeting his Match and realizing they hated him or something.

Waiting on the line was excruciating, but part of him was grateful for the reprieve. At least it gave him the luxury of attempting to calm his nerves.

When he arrived to the front of the line, hands shaking, he looked at the man who held his fate in his hands and took a deep breath, all his nerves flaring at once.

"Name," the man demanded, looking at him with cold, uncaring, clinical eyes. Like Dipper was just a bug, an annoyance that was in this man's way. He tried not to pass out from nerves.

"Uhh... I-I'm… D-Dopper. W-wait, I-I mean Dipper! Uh… D-Dipper Pines," he stuttered, fumbling his words worse than he had on his first date at age fourteen. He tried not to recoil at the unimpressed look the man gave him before looking at the book that held everyone's name.

"'Mason 'Dipper' Pines: declined meeting,'" the man read, looking back up at Dipper a second later with bored eyes. "Your Match had declined this meeting. You will meet them in two days outside the ceremony hall, an hour before the Ceremony begins."

And that was that. The man continued to stare at Dipper until the boy managed to stammer out a word of gratitude and walked off towards the right, where all the other Unclaimed people were standing, looking dejected and somewhat afraid.

So. He would have to wait until Monday, two days of agony while he waited. Letting out a breath of air, Dipper tried not to let it get him down, tried not to feel the rejection that this declined meeting potentially signified. After all, it was well known that there were quite a few people who objected to the Matching Ceremony, calling it barbaric and primitive, not to mention an inexact science. If his Match was one of those people…

But he couldn't think of it, he reminded himself harshly. He couldn't psych himself out now, not after coming all this way. Besides, why would his Match sign up if they didn't want to have a Match? Protest from within? It made no sense! So he would be safe.

Well, as long as he didn't have only a Partial Match, he thought as he walked over to the buses that would take him to the hotel the Matches were to stay in over the weekend. Partial Matches were the worst; it was basically saying that you did not have a full match in your age group and therefore had to settle for someone with only partial compatibility to you. It didn't happen often, but the most notorious example of that would have to be Prince Cipher, who had gotten partial matches for the past four years in a row. As Prince, though, he couldn't settle for a Half Match, a Lesser Match. He needed a Full Match, a Proper Match to be his partner. So he kept moving on to the next year, hoping that he would get a Proper Match in the next age group.

It probably didn't help that Prince Cipher was said to be completely mad, though, like his mother had been before she had been carted away to the insane asylum. No one could say anything against him, however, since he was the King's only son and heir, his brothers having all been murdered in an attack when he had been a young child, with him managing to survive the attack by hiding under another dead body, though he had still lost his left eye.

It did hurt his compatibility, though, since those who were… less mentally stable than other's always had a harder time finding a person who could deal with them with all of their… 'Issues.' Not that anything was wrong with them; no, they simply needed someone who was patient and caring enough, which was a hard thing to find in this day and age. It was also a point that Prince Cipher had a reputation of being an utter ass to anyone who spoke to him, which also didn't help his case much.

So, Dipper assured himself as he took a seat next to a window on the bus, as long as he didn't have Insane Prince Cipher as a Match, he should be fine.

And if not, well, Matches weren't everything. Sure, they were the people meant to be the best fit for you, but it didn't always work out. And you could find a love match that wasn't a Perfect Match. Or a love match that was from a different year, which wasn't common, but definitely wasn't uncommon. And Matches could be done at any time, if you did find a match outside of your Perfect Match, to see compatibility. It wasn't as fancy and ceremonious as the Matching Ceremony, but there was no shame in it.

So he would be fine, he told himself firmly. Completely, totally, fine.

Probably.