"Dipper, what's that on your arm?"

The boy blinked, still finding it strange to hear his own mother's voice after three months away from home. Everything, in fact, felt strange after his time going through Gravity Falls. Go figure, events like Weirdmageddon had become his new normal.

Thinking that maybe Mabel had drawn on his arms on the bus ride the day before when he'd been sleeping, Dipper moved his breakfast cereal aside and looked over his arm. After a few moments of searching, he tilted his head to the side, trying to find what his mom was talking about. No ink tattoo or anything out of the ordinary-even the spare few mosquito bites he had left were almost completely faded away.

While he was examining his arm, Mabel walked down the stairs, sporting a watermelon sweater.

Cheerily, she greeted them, "Morning mom! Good morning, Dipper!" before grabbing a plate with still-warm pancakes, taking a seat next to her brother.

"Morning, honey," Mrs. Pines responded warmly before turning back to her son who had just given up on finding the discrepancy, his attention now on his sister.

"Hey Mabel, how's it going?" Dipper replied, giving her a fist bump.

"No wait," Mrs. Pines interjected suddenly, pointing to the back of her son's arm before making her way around the table to inspect him further. The twins shared a confused look, shrugging at one another.

"Right here," Mrs. Pines said as she scrutinized Dipper's arm, "Those white spots...they look..." she furrowed her brow before gasping, "They look like scars!"

Dipper raised an eyebrow, glancing at his forearm. "I'm not sure what you're-"

"BOY, these arms are durable."

Swallowing, he looked at his offended limb. In four places, three consecutive pale imprinted marks stood out against his summer tan.

"Oh, these?" he laughed nervously, an uncomfortable feeling curling deep in his gut "These are, uh, they're..."

He couldn't think of what to say-because really, what could he say?

That, oh hey, these are scars from when this evil triangle demon named Bill Cipher possessed my body and because he wanted to feel pain-why? He thought that feeling pain was hilarious-so after he made my body fall down the stairs-I lived, it's okay-he smashed my arm in a cutlery drawer until I got several forks stuck in my arm.

Who exactly was Bill Cipher? Right, so we kind of left some...minor details out of the story of our summer at Gravity Falls. (Because really, either you guys wouldn't have believed us or would have permanently banned us from Grunkle Stan's forever.)

Bill Cipher was after this journal I had that was written by Great Uncle Stanford. Journals? Hehe, I guess we did leave out A LOT. Anyways, the first time we met him he was hired to get a secret out of Stan's mind. Didn't work thankfully, even though he shot a hole through my chest while we were there.

Next time he only came to me, preying on the fact that I was super stressed and sleep deprived from staying up all night. (Oh, right. I guess you did tell us not to stay up late while we were away...Whoops.) I told him off, but the next time he came he made me a deal that sounded good at the time (I've since learned my lesson) and that's how he possessed me. After we defeated him and I got my body back I was in a world of pain-but no sustainable damage done, thankfully.

Then there was the whole Weirdmageddon fiasco-

"Dipper? You look like you're going to be sick."

"Wha? I mean what? No, I'm fine-just," Dipper tried, spluttering, too many images bouncing around his head while that cursed, demonic laughter echoed across his thoughts.

"I'LL BE WATCHING YOU..."

Mabel frowned as she watched as her brother fumbled, not used to seeing him at a loss for words.

Mrs. Pines watched as her competent son stuttered, growing more suspicious and worried by the second.

"You kids sure are gullible!"

"Dipper, what happened?" she questioned firmly, setting him with a no-nonsense stare that only moms could achieve.

Dipper avoided her eyes, wishing that he was anywhere but there, rubbing the back of his neck. "Um, you see..."

"I've got some children I need to make into corpses."

Oh, man. Maybe he would get sick.

"A porcupine," Mabel blurted out.

Mrs. Pines blinked, turning away from Dipper, who in turn took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart.

"Uh, yeah," Mabel started, "those are from a porcupine. Somewhere in the middle of the summer Dipper was walking around the woods and got too close to one. Totally spiked him. He was so embarrassed."

"Hey! That's-" Dipper began before catching the look on his sister's face.

Mrs. Pines folded her arms over her chest, growing increasingly estranged by how her children were acting.

"But that doesn't explain why he looks so upset," she pointed out with a frown.

"Well, like I said, he was really embarrassed," she leaned forward conspiratorially, "he wouldn't let any of us talk about it. He thinks he's some master of the woods."

Mrs. Pines stood back, watching the twins with a careful eye. Dipper looked less white in the face, and Mabel was smiling her usual childish grin.

From somewhere in the house a phone began to ring, and, finally, she relented, ruffling their hair as she passed. The story was believable enough. After all, she had never known Mabel to ever lie about anything.

"Alright," she said as she passed by, "but next time, tell me if you get hurt. We worry about you two."

Dipper and Mabel held their breath until their mother left to the other room.

"Whew," Mabel said, pretending to wipe sweat from her brow, "that was close. What was with all that stuttering Dipper? Ha, you'd think that Bill really scared..." she trailed off, seeing how quiet her brother was being.

"Hey, are you alright?" she asked in a kinder tone, giving him a concerned look.

"I'm fine, Mabel. It's just hard to think about that time. Ugh, it makes me mad that I ever listened to that creep," he muttered as he stirred his soggy cereal around the bowel, appetite gone.

Mabel put her arm on his back, trying to comfort him.

"Hey, it's okay. He's tricked more than just you. Me, you, Great Uncle Ford...It's kind of a family tradition if you think about it!"

Dipper raised an eyebrow at his sister, unsure of just what she had been going for.

Mabel laughed awkwardly and coughed, "Uh, forget I said that. What I meant to say was that you're not alone. If you ever need to talk, I'm here for you, bro bro."

Dipper smiled faintly at his sister and put his spoon down. "Thanks, Mabel. I'll take you up on that someday. But for now I think I'm just going to let everything settle. Including...including Bill."

Mabel watched him carefully, trying to think of a way to make him feel better.

"Well," she said as she got up and grabbed a can of whip cream out of the fridge, "if his consciousness wasn't eradicated from existence," she grinned, proud of her intelligent sounding vocabulary, "well, then..."

She shook up the the whip cream and squirted some onto her breakfast and moved Dipper's ruined cereal aside, replacing it with the pancakes.

"I think he would be pretty scared of how brave you've become. You're the best brother a person could ask for," Mabel smiled sincerely, but suddenly started, looking at the clock.

"Oh kittens! I told Grenda and Candy that I would start our video chat with them five minutes ago!" With one last pat on the back, Mabel bolted up the stairs.

Now alone, Dipper looked down at his plate and couldn't help but let his mouth curve upward when he saw what Mabel had done: a smiley face on the top.

"Yeah, well," he said to himself as he cut off a piece of the pancakes, "you're pretty much the greatest, too."

.-.-.-.

AN: Hope you like that little sibling moment! Thanks for reading and reviewing.

Just had to write something for this show because after watching it for the first time recently I couldn't get it out of my head. Especially Bill Cipher, definitelymy favorite villain ever. Creepy but funny all at the same time. He makes me totally uncomfortable but intrigued at the same time.

'Cicatrix' by the way (in case you haven't looked it up) means a scar. At first I was thinking, 'Huh, but it's mostly for trees' then...Dipper Pines...Pines...Pine Tree. A match made in heaven.

Also, Sock Opera was my favorite episode. Why? I wish I could explain it, haha.

-Pinklily8

PS Disclaimer: I do not own Gravity Falls. (sigh)