“Yet even though the monster had shown the prince the worse of him, still did the prince trust him. Not only trusted him, but loved him. And thus the prince married the sister of the monster and the three of them lived happily ever after.”
Dipper finished his tale, and looked happily on his niblings, who had long fallen asleep (though Hank surprisingly was the one to last the longest).
He leaned in to give each of them a kiss on the forehead, making sure in the process that their dreams would be pleasant tonight.
“Pole Star, Bright One, Little Fighter…good night,” Dipper whispered. He stepped out of the room and made a motion with his hands, which shut the door gently and turned the light off.
He stood in the hall a second more to make sure his niblings stayed asleep, then began to float down the stairs. Mabel, before she left for an investigation in Kalamazoo, had stocked the fridge full of cookie dough ice cream for him. After spending time with the kids, Dipper thought he had it in him to materialize for a half hour and eat a whole carton of ice cream.
(Mabel knew her brother well, which was why there were seven cartons of ice cream in the freezer.)
Dipper popped on to the material plane, grabbed a carton, and went out into the living room, where Stan had long fallen asleep in his recliner. Dipper snapped and the recliner gently went back.
Also, Grunkle Stan stopped snoring, saving his ears.
Dipper settled in on the couch and began shoveling ice cream in his mouth, watching Duck-Tective on screen.
It was still a little weird to be at home while Mabel was out doing the whole Mystery Twin thing. But when the kids had been born, they had decided that anything that would take longer than two days or was more than four hours away Mabel would handle on her own.
“It’s just,” she had said as they sat on the porch swing feeding the babies, “I know Stan and Henry can take care of themselves and protect the kids but-”
She paused as Acacia spat out her bottle and began to yell. She gave Acacia over to Dipper who handed her Hank in turn.
Mabel went on. “But I’d just feel better knowing you were here to make sure things are okay.”
Dipper had pulled a face at her and she didn’t even need to hear him say anything. Mabel boffed him upside the head.
“And of course I would call you if I needed help brobro- I’m not THAT stubborn!”
Dipper raised his eyebrows and his twin laughed.
His jaunt down memory lane was broken by an intense wave of emotion coming from Henry and Mabel’s bedroom. It was all dark, somber blues, anxious sickly yellows, deep throbbing purples of loneliness, the scent of old books and freckle that Henry exuded usually faded and faint, like something was missing.
Or, Dipper realized with a start, someone.
Sometimes he forgot he wasn’t the only one that missed Mabel when she was away.
He had an idea.
———-
Henry never slept well when Mabel was gone and tonight was no exception.
He was drifting in and out of that odd haze of consciousness and sleep when suddenly the springs of the mattress went clink and he felt next to him warmth and weight.
Henry opened his eyes to find cuddled up on his left hand side Acacia and Willow, with Hank on his right. They had all brought their blankets and the stuffed animals Dipper had made for them so the bed was a little crowded, and were already back asleep.
He ran a hand through Hank’s curls, gently, and looked over at his brother in law, who had joined the triplets on the bed and had spread his wings out over them.
“Sleep over?” Dipper asked a tad sheepfully.
“You got ice cream on your nose Dipper,” Henry pointed out, but he was smiling as he did so. He settled back down into the pile of blankets and children and pillows, and Dipper did the same.
Then Henry had his first full night of sleep since Mabel left three days earlier.
(They did it again the next two nights, and when Mabel finally came home, it was still early enough that the five of them were in bed. She managed to save her squeeing until she had surreptitiously taken some pictures.)
Totes mcgoats!
Especially as Henry first lives with Manly Dan and Tyler (aka Uncle Dan and Uncle Tyler) before he marries Mabel and moves to the Shack!
Mod S sees Manly Dan becoming Grunkle Dan (and Tyler being Grunkle Tyler) to the kids as they grow up, especially as they have almost no contact with Henry’s parents.
Bonus Dan and Wendy teaching the kids lumberjacking
this is too fucking adorableplease stop
maeblueisanerd answered: Dipper and Henry coparenting becuz I love their relationship SOOO much
——-
Henry was feeding Willow her bottle, and balancing the checkbook, when from upstairs he heard the wails of first Acacia, then Hank, waking up from their naps.
“Dip, can you get the kids?” Henry yelled from the kitchen into the living room. There was no reply, nor sound of steps on stairs, but a moment later the sounds on the monitor turned from upset to content.
It was beyond wonderful to have extra help, Henry thought, when one had three four month old infants at home.
Even if some of that help was often invisible and unheard by him at times.
Though Henry could tell most times, even without Mabel there to let him know, when his brother in law was in the room. There was a palpable presence in the air when Dipper was around. Not to mention the kids usually started to giggle and coo when Dipper was around them, and Willow would look at her uncle like a cat having a staring contest with the wall.
Hank and Acacia came into the room, looking like they were floating in midair, bobbing gently up and down and cooing.
“Mabel left some milk in the fridge,” Henry informed Dipper. “The bottles with today’s date on them.”
Henry waited a second and then responded to Dipper. “And no I don’t know why she dated them if she knew we were going to use them this afternoon and she pumped this morning.”
His children bobbed towards the fridge. They floated there for a second, and then suddenly Hank moved in a little circle and faced Henry.
“Dipper, I could have held him while you opened the fridge; you know I don’t like it when you hold them in your wings. What if you drop them?”
Two bottles floated out of the fridge.
“No I’m not being a worrywart; also, that’s rather rich coming from you.”
The bottles went onto the counter.
“Dude, don’t stick your tongue out at me you know I have a point.”
At this Dipper summoned the power to pop briefly onto the physical plane.
“Henry, how on earth are you doing that? I know you can’t hear me.”
Willow finished her bottle, and Henry adjusted her to burp her.
"I can’t,” he gleefully admitted. “But give me some credit, I’ve known you for six years, I know how you are.”
Willow burped, and Henry smiled. He put her gently into the car seat he had brought into the kitchen for her to lie in.
“Now, if you got Hank, I’ll feed Acacia….”
hehehehehehe
There’s one fic that Mod S wrote about exactly this scenario, but she says that doesn’t happen often; siccing Uncle Dipper on someone for petty revenge, after all, is like using a sledgehammer to swat a fly. (Plus, Acacia can usually think of something great anyway, so they don’t even need to call on their uncle!)
I think the kids would be smart enough not to actually summon Dipper for such a thing, but they’d certainly be giggling to themselves because there’s no freaking way their dads couldn’t beat up anyone else on the planet like seriously “yeah sure Billy, your dad could tooootally beat up ours”
backup 