Neither of the Pines men would refer to themselves as "cuddly." They were grown men, after all, and while they were relatively secure enough in their masculinity to do things like wear fluffy slippers and watch the Black and White Period Piece Old Lady Boring Movie Channel with minimal embarrassment, and while they were more physically affectionate with each other and the kids than their father would have considered acceptable, they didn't "cuddle." Hardened adventurers and grizzled con men were not cuddlers.

Yet how else would you describe their current situation?

It had been a night where all of them had woken up gasping from some kind of nightmares (even though they still loved Gravity Falls, Dipper and Mabel were occasionally haunted by dreams of Weirdmageddon, or the portal they'd thought would destroy the world, or even a hundred gnomes all banding together into a giant gnome monster and chasing them down; and of course the older set of twins had forty years' worth of traumatic memories to disturb their subconscious minds even before the almost-end of the world) and gone seeking each other for reassurance. At first Ford had been worried about some kind of supernatural outside influence affecting them as a group, but he'd done a thorough check, and all the defenses they'd set up, including a new unicorn hair barrier, were still intact. So he had tentatively concluded that maybe it was just a random happenstance, just this once.

Either way, though, none of them had been comfortable with trying to sleep separate from each other. So instead they grabbed some old mattresses and as many blankets as were comfortable for a relatively warm summer night, plus every pillow in the house, and brought them to the living room. While Ford put these together into a makeshift bed, Stan and the kids decorated the room with Christmas lights and some fancy dream catchers Stan had "liberated" from a creepy pawnshop in Maine, giving everything a cozy, not-too-bright light.

Finally, they arranged themselves on the bed. Ford lay stretched out in the middle, his arm wrapped around Stan, who lay on his side next to him with one arm draped loosely around his middle. Dipper lay on Ford's other side, using his stomach as a pillow, and Mabel was sprawled next to Dipper with her legs across Ford's knees, and her arm around Waddles. If Stan reached out, he was able to ruffle Dipper's hair, or tickle the bottoms of Mabel's feet.

It was perfect; if any further nightmares disturbed them, they could reach out and satisfy themselves that yes, everyone was alive, everyone was safe, everyone was here.

They could all sleep in peace.

But of course, if anyone referred to it as cuddling, Stan and Ford would emphatically deny it.

What none of them knew, however, was that it was a supernatural influence: a sinister being from another world, who plagued them with nightmares for the sole purpose of forcing them into a group cuddle pile! BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HAAAAAA!

Ahem.

Sorry about that, don't know what came over me.