*nervous laughter and dramatic lighting as Call enters*

...Sup?

So...I'm alive. Thank you to everyone who sent me messages of concern, don't worry, I was just super SUPER busy with work and life (I work in theatre in both tech and acting and it was hectic trying to balance the online side of my life so I decided to put it on hold for a bit). I can't promise weekly updates but I will try to update as soon as I can.

Since I cannot respond to guests privately (which sucks in my opinion), I am going to answer one I wanted to address right here. Cybertoy00, I believe you asked about toning down the AU requests? (Thank you for asking politely, by the way) I personally prefer the ones canonically too, but I am also swamped with requests and most happen to be AU's apparently. I try not to read them until I get to writing them, but I don't want to deny every AU request I get. That being said, I will try and tone it down (which will require the reviewers to do so as well, sorry). I'm almost tempted to make a separate one-shot collection solely for AU's, honestly.

So how about we tone it down on the Au's for now, okay? This was planned more for getting inside the character's heads. I won't stop them, but I won't do quite as many AU requests now, sorry. (If I don't do your request, I'm sorry. I've been mainly doing everybody's requests until now but at this rate I will never get caught up in writing them all otherwise)

From taylovesbevin: "I LOVE ur book! Its awesome! I have a request, and hopefully u can do it! Maybe u can please do a Dipper/Stan bonding moment? Like Dipper having a nightmare, or maybe Dipper getting hurt and Stan being all Over-Protective!Stan? Please?"

Why not? I need some of my favorite duo (besides the younger Mystery Twins, of course) bonding, especially with the apocalypse coming. This one-shot is set after A Tale of Two Stans but before Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons canonly begins.

What Could Have Been

It was strange not going down to check on the portal's progress after dark. It was strange just going up to his room in general after practically living down in the basement for thirty years.

Stanley Pines was no stranger to being alone, of course. He just hadn't had to deal with it for...quite some time. Not since before he hired Soos.

So he didn't go up to his room at first. He waited outside of it, waiting until he heard his brother go down into the basement before he walked cautiously back down the stairs. He swallowed hard as he eyed the vending machine, something hard lodging itself into his throat. He pretended that the ache in his heart had nothing to do with the fact that apparently he had messed up - again, it was always him, wasn't it? - and went into the kitchen. Stan grabbed some milk and downed it in one gulp, sighing as he plopped into an empty chair.

He had thought that Ford would at least acknowledge the fact that his brother had saved him from whatever the heck had been beyond that portal's surface. Maybe even smiled at him, told him that he had done good.

Instead he now had to pack and find a new place by the end of the summer.

Maybe Soos' grandmother would let him stay there a couple of nights.

Stan sighed again and growled at his near-empty glass of milk. It wasn't fair. He shouldn't have to put up with this, shouldn't have to listen to Ford... Yet he respected Ford's space and wishes. He vaguely understood that the other was uncomfortable with having his workspace turned into a tourist trap. Yeah, he would probably be a little irritated by that too.

But he hadn't expected to care about Gravity Falls so much. He hadn't expected to love this town, despite the ignorant people in it and its terrifying supernatural creatures.

He had never been able to uphold a scheme like this for so long.

It was well past midnight by the time he felt his eyes start to droop. Endless nights spent underground were starting to take their toll on his old body so he decided to call it a night. Boy, he really wasn't looking forward to dreaming tonight.

As if on cue, Stan caught a faint creak in one of the steps of the stairs and his head whipped around to spy a small preteen form not too far from the bottom of it. Once his eyes adjusted, he recognized the person as Dipper. The kid looked frozen and torn with panic and nervousness. That never led to good things.

"You okay, kid? What are you doing up at this time of night?" Stan turned his body toward the other, frowning the longer he stared at Dipper.

"Why are you up?" Dipper shot back, more out of lack of a response than anything Stan realized. He did chuckle, however.

"Touché. You didn't answer my question, though."

The brunette shifted his weight on the step, causing it to creak more loudly and he winced, hurrying down and into the kitchen instead. Stan's chuckling faded into a frown as he studied the twelve year old more carefully. He was obviously upset about something and that immediately sent him on edge.

"I just wanted to...um, get something to drink." Dipper proved this by going to grab his own glass, although Stan could see the kid lying through his teeth.

"You're talking to a professional con man, kid. What's wrong?"

Dipper bit his lip and ran his hands over the glass he held, not meeting his great-uncle's eyes. The older man didn't push him, but the nagging sense that something was wrong still lingered. He'd gotten more acute at understanding when the twin were upset or hurt over the past month or so (Mabel called it his "Twin Alarm" when he mentioned it in passing once, which he thought was kind of odd but it fit a lot better than the other title he had been thinking of).

"I... It was a bad dream, that's all. About today. It's nothing, really, Grunkle Stan - "

His stomach dropped. "Dipper."

The boy tensed, his grip tightening on the empty glass.

"You... You can tell me about whatever it is," Stan said quietly.

That seemed to be the wrong thing to say because a scowl crossed over the boy's face.

"It's just, after everything that happened today... You knew about the journals this whole time. You knew I was looking for more information on the author and you kept it a secret from me. I could have just gone down to the basement and found the other two journals myself this entire time!"

"I didn't find the second one until after Gideon took over the Shack," Stan corrected sheepishly, but Dipper only glared at him, the anger in his eyes causing the elder to flinch.

"The point is, you knew about all of this! It took you a whole month or so just to admit that you had been lying about not knowing that the supernatural existed! Were you ever planning on telling me or Mabel about the journals or this town or even your brother?"

Stan stood as he noticed how close the brunette seemed to smashing the glass against the counter. "Dipper, you think I didn't wonder about what would happen if I brought it up casually to you two? I almost told you earlier about it all because I wanted to get it over with. I lied to protect you and your sister from the weirdness of the town, but clearly that didn't work."

"You didn't need to lie about your brother, though!" Dipper shot back. "You could have told us!"

"And what would you have done if you had known? If I had told you that there was a portal underneath this place that could possibly destroy the town but could also bring back my twin brother?"

Dipper faltered, his eyes lingering on his great-uncle's as he took note suddenly of sharp pain hiding in their brown depths. He suddenly noticed just how pained and weary the man looked. How long had he been trying to hide this from them? How tired he was of trying to bring back the person he had once cared about more than anyone? How many sleepless nights had he had of yelling at the machine to turn on, of stealing nuclear waste to get the thing to work, to bring back his brother?

He was reminded of a familiar time when Mabel was scolding him over his own sleeping habits: "You look like a vampire! And not the hot kind!" Dipper swallowed a lump as he pictured himself in Grunkle Stan's shoes, attempting for thirty years to bring back his own twin.

"I..." He looked away and stared back down at the glass in his hands. Finally abandoning it on the counter, he ran a hand through his unruly hair. "I don't know," he admitted in a soft voice.

Stan's gaze softened as well and he knelt beside the younger Pines, placing a hand on his small shoulder. "Kid, believe me, if I could have told you earlier, I would have done so. But I knew you wouldn't understand so soon, and then I just got caught up in trying to bring Ford back and... All I've ever done is try and protect my family. Whether it was Ford or you and Mabel. I couldn't lose you two to the craziness of this town just yet."

Dipper glanced at Stan and his expression contorted into one of sheepishness and guilt. "I'm sorry for not believing you, Grunkle Stan."

"You don't need to apologize again, knucklehead." The old man ruffled the preteen's hair, snorting at how he pretended to be annoyed by the action. "Like I said before, I wouldn't have believed me either. I'm still going to be here for you and your sister whenever you need me, okay?"

Dipper nodded, hesitating for a moment before embracing the other. Stan froze and took the time to fight down a sharp ache in his chest, right over his heart, and then hugged him back slowly.

"Thank you for everything, Grunkle Stan."

Stan nearly buried his face in the kid's shoulder to hide how his eyes were stinging at the words he had been waiting to hear since that figure had stepped out of the portal, albeit from a different person. "Don't mention it, Dipper."

I just need these two to hug it out, dammit. Or for Ford and Stan to forgive each other. Or for Mabel and Dipper to hug it out. JUST...HUGS NEED TO HAPPEN ASAP.