# Peeper Pines

By: TheDragonBoy

## Content

It was another ‘normal’ summer’s day in the Mystery Shack. The birds were singing, Soos was Soos-ing, Stan was scamming every tourist in sight, and Mabel was deep into the creation of her latest sweater- this one star-themed.

She’d had to take a break from her ingenious work, though, when she felt the pesky call of nature. Setting down her wool and needles, she’d scampered down the stairs and walked the familiar halls. She hummed a catchy melody from Sev’ral Timez as she went- one which she’d already sung through several times that day.

“Huh?” something caught her curious eye, two steps after rounding a corner. She looked a bit further down the hall, her gaze pulled toward the wooden floors.

“*Gasp*! Dipper!” she yelled in alarm. She raced down the hall, skidding to a stop just in front of her brother, who shockingly stood just a few centimeters tall. She reached down to pick him up off the dangerous ground.

“Dipper! What happened!? Who shrunk you!? Did Gideon steal the flashlight again!?”

“Wha-!? Shhh! Shhhhhhh!! Mabel! Shhhh!! I shrunk myself!” Dipper urged in a hushed tone, while fighting off his sister’s worry-fueled death grip. Mabel relaxed her hands, but grew a puzzled look.

“You shrunk yourself? But why would you-?” A small, muffled noise from her left caught her attention. That’s when she realized they were standing right in front of the bathroom door. By the sound of it, it seemed someone else was already inside. She looked back down at her brother, still confused; he looked away awkwardly.

Wait a second, I know that look…

“*Gasp*! Wendy’s in there, isn’t she!?”

“Mabel be quiet!” Dipper pleaded. She looked down at him with a disapproving, semi-disgusted expression, but she did lower her voice.

“Grunkle Stan was right! You are at that creepy age where you spy on girls!” she exclaimed in a whisper. She turned and started walking away from the bathroom with Dipper in hand.

“Mabel, stop! Let me go!” he protested.

“Bro, being awkward and sweaty is one thing, but this is not cool. You’ll thank me later,” she insisted.

“Come on, Mabel, this is nothing compared to when you go all boy crazy. What about the time you kidnapped that one kid? Who came up with that great excuse to keep you from getting in trouble?”

“I didn’t kidnap him!” Mabel argued, stopping a couple steps down the hall. “I just had him follow me into a room and then locked the door so he couldn’t leave…” Even she had to admit that explanation didn’t sound the best out loud; it hadn’t worked at the time either, but luckily Dipper had jumped in to save the day.

“Look, I know this isn’t the most… polite thing to do, but, like, I’m not hurting anyone or anything, right? Just put me back on the floor and leave. No one will ever know.” He pleaded awkwardly.

It was hard for her to refuse a heartfelt request from her brother, even one like this. She hesitated for a moment.

“If you let me have this, I promise the next time you go crazy over a crush, I’ll leave you alone and you can do whatever you want.”

That caught her attention.

“…You promise?” she asked, though she still sounded mostly undecided.

“I swear,” he replied.

She thought for another few seconds, and then finally opened her mouth to speak.

*clack*

The bathroom door opened behind her and she heard Wendy step out.

“Hey Mabel, you alright? I thought I heard someone yelling out here.”

Dipper: Oh crud! Oh crud! She’s gonna see I’m tiny and ask why! Think of a plan! Think of a plan!

Mabel: Oh crud! Oh crud! She’s gonna see Dipper’s tiny and ask why! And when she finds out she’ll think I was helping him! Am I helping him!?

Dipper: Maybe I can think up an excuse.

Mabel: Maybe I can hide him somewhere. She glanced over herself. She wore no sweater, since she was still in the middle of making one, and neither her shirt nor skirt had any pockets.

Dipper: I could say we were doing some kind of experiment. Yeah, totally scientific.

Mabel: He’ll try to come up with some dumb story. But he can’t lie to Wendy. He’s way too awkward! Somewhere to hide him- somewhere to hide him- somewheretohidehim!

“Mabel?” Wendy asked again.

Ahhhh!!

*NOM*

Dipper: …

Mabel: … OH MY GOSH WHY DID I DO THAT THAT WAS SO DUMB WHAT WAS I THINKING!?

In a moment of irrational panic, Mabel had shoved her shrunken brother right past her braces. Her eyes wide, she could feel him floundering around on her tongue, his muffled exclamations prominent in her ears.

“*Blech*! Mabel what are you thinking!? You can’t hide me in here!”

No duh I can’t hide you in there! How am I supposed to answer Wendy if I can’t talk!? And how am I supposed to explain this now!?

Dipper pushed himself up off her tongue, strands of drool clinging to his neck and chest. His back hit the roof of his sister’s mouth, causing her tongue to rush upwards and pin him there, stilling his unexpected touch. The squishy mass relaxed a moment later, probably after Mabel realized what she was doing, leaving him once again face down on a bed of taste buds and saliva.

“Let me out!” Dipper demanded.

Stop yelling! She’ll hear you! Mabel thought desperately. She heard Wendy take a step closer.

“Mabel? Something wrong?” the older girl asked.

Oh no! Oh no! ERRRRRR! ( > m < ;)

“Wait! What- Mabel NO!”

*GULP*

With no warning, Dipper found himself suddenly shoved forward. A loud squelch filled his ears and he felt Mabel’s mouth squeeze him tightly from all directions. Only it wasn’t her mouth anymore, it was her throat. He felt himself slide off the back of her tongue, her esophagus opening up to receive him, then closing up behind him as he disappeared into the slimy darkness.

“MABEL!!”

Mabel spun round to face Wendy.

“No, sorry, everything’s fine,” she said hastily.

“Oh…” Wendy looked the girl over skeptically. “…You sure?”

“Yeah, I just- erm- had something stuck in my throat,” she replied, skirting a lie. “I was just coming to use the bathroom and-” *BURP*! She threw a hand over her mouth.

“Ha, nice one dude. Well, it’s all yours,” Wendy said. She shrugged the encounter off and started walking back toward the giftshop. Mabel stood there, frozen in place, waving with an oversized, totally non-suspicious grin until Wendy was out of sight, at which point she promptly freaked out.

Crud- crud- crud- crud! Mabel raced into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

“Oh my gosh! Dipper! What have I done!? Agh, I should’ve known it would end like this!”

“Mabel! I’m not dead! I’m in your stomach!” came a muffled, frustrated voice.

“Oh, thank goodness!!”

Dipper wasn’t in the most pleasant of moods, but he was alright for the moment. He was on his back, curled into a crescent, resting at the bottom of Mabel’s gut, stewing in a pool of hot, smelly slop with goop smeared all over his face. Everything he touched was either alive or digesting, and every tiny move his sister made sent him jiggling around with more slop splashing over him.

“What made you think eating me was a good idea!?” he asked.

“I don’t know! It wasn’t an idea! I just panicked! What do I do?!”

“Get me out of here!”

“How!?”

“Throw up or something!”

“Right- right!” Mabel rushed over to the sink. “Okay, just gotta throw up. Just… think of gross things: public bathrooms, bugs, Pacifica’s face, Dipper’s laundry, Gideon- though he did take me to that restaurant which was actually pretty nice, I had that whole can of spray cheese and-” *GRUGLE* Her belly rumbled, intensely enough that she could feel it as well as hear it.

“Mabel!!”

“Sorry!! Bad Mabel! Thinking of delicious spray cheese will not help you get your brother out of your stomach!” She set herself back on track. “Rotten eggs, Grunkle Stan’s back, dust bunnies- actually those are kinda cute- BLARG! This isn’t working!”

“Stick your fingers down your throat!”

“I can’t reach you all the way in there!”

“No! It’ll make you gag!”

“Oh- right!” She lifted her hand and extended her index and middle fingers, grimacing at the thought of what she was about to do, but she closed her eyes and did it anyway.

*UCH- BLECH*!

Mabel felt her stomach contents shoot up her throat and spill out into the sink with a splatter and a thud, followed by an uncomfortable moment of silence as she slouched over.

“…Oh- oh man- I think I liked it better when I couldn’t see this stuff,” came Dipper’s voice.

Mabel opened her eyes to see her shrunken brother sitting in the sink, along with the remains of what presumably had been her breakfast, looking like he might barf himself.

“Ugh…” Mabel groaned. “Definitely not a good idea.”

Dipper drew a hand across his face, wiping off most of the goop.

“Nope,” he agreed.

“Here,” Mabel offered, reaching out with her clean hand toward the faucet. She turned the knob, letting a bit of cold water trickle from the spout.

“Thanks,” Dipper replied appreciatively, moving under the miniature waterfall. She watched her brother rinse off for a few moments as her guilt started to pile up.

“…So, um, sorry about… all that,” she apologized.

“It’s… it’s fine. I’m sorry I ended up pulling you into my weird puberty stuff.” He always was the mature one- well, usually.

“Yeah, that puberty can sure lead to some weird stuff…” she replied. Her tone seemed to hint at some personal experience. He felt a bit of relief that at least he wasn’t totally alone in that.

“I guess I’m a little small for an awkward sibling hug,” he remarked.

“Maybe just a little,” she agreed.

He stepped out from under the water, dripping wet but now mostly clean. She reached down and picked him up, starting to walk toward the door.

“Hey... um, maybe you could just leave me in here?” he asked hopefully.

“Sorry bro, no can do.” She opened the bathroom door.

“Really?” he asked with a hint of frustration.

He was surprised when, instead of taking him back upstairs for the flashlight, she placed him back on the wooden floor in the hallway.

“What?” Dipper asked, confused.

“I came down here to use the toilet,” Mabel told him.

“Oh,” Dipper muttered, now feeling a bit awkward about having asked to stay.

She took a step back and started to close the door between them.

“You can ‘use’ the bathroom after I’m done, but you better keep your end of the deal,” she added.

*clack*

The bathroom door closed.

Originally Published: 5-Aug-2020