Chapter Text
Dipper stands in that hallway again.
The long pale walls stretch forward ending in a single white paneled door. A door Dipper doesn’t want to open, but knows he will. Pale yellow incandescent light seeping out from the bottom edge, creeping toward him.
He can hear the water. Running and running and running, soon flowing out from under the door with that sickly light. The creeping tide of pink water is a nauseating churn.
Dipper feels himself take a step.
Then another.
Suddenly, the hallway is too short. He’s too close. He doesn’t want to touch the knob that his hand is around.
“Mom?” His voice sounds so hollow. Dipper sounds so young.
The knob is cold under his touch, slick with sweat from his hand. He doesn’t want to turn it, as the latch clicks releasing the door.
The door swings open and a rush of red hot water gushes around his feet, thick and sticky. The bile rises in his throat as it hits his ankles. He doesn’t want to look up from the floor. He doesn’t want to see that again as his eyes meet the limp form in the tub. Her unseeing eyes glassy as they bore into him. Her cracked lips parted slightly, mouthing words he cannot hear.
“MOM! NO!” Dipper hears himself scream, and scream.
He shoots up in an unfamiliar place. Dipper’s breaths are ragged gasps as he tries to get his bearings. His hand reached for his chest where he felt his heart pounding. Flickering warm light is all around him. Bouncing off the stone walls, the wooden floor, and the bed he lays on. This is wrong. Where is he? Suddenly, the door swings open and a man darts in.
“Dipper!” He calls as his eyes scan the room as if expecting someone else to be here, “Are you alright?”
Wirt. That is Wirt. Dipper thinks as he stares at him startled by the cold wind he brought in. This is Wirt’s house. I’m in the Unknown. Not that it was much comfort to him to remember that.
Closing the door behind him Wirt walks over, crossing the room on long legs. “Dipper, you’re crying.” he says as his hand reflexively grabs Dipper’s shoulder as a comfort. The other hand hesitates to brush the tears away. Dipper’s neck complains as he turns to look at him. Wirt looked him over, and checked his bandage with gentle fingers.
“It’s nothing.” Dipper assures him with a sigh, relaxing a fraction as the world solidifies around him. Quietly relishing the grounding pressure of Wirt’s warm hand. Quickly, he wipes at his eyes and focuses on his breath. His heartbeat the pace of the pounding sledgehammer in his skull.
“Just another nightmare. The same one I always have” Dipper tells Wirt, his voice shaky.
Wirt takes a step back, releasing his hold, leaving Dipper colder. “Sorry, you just scared me. You were screaming really loud. I didn’t know what was going on. I thought…”
Dipper stares at the other man, “You thought what?”
Wirt seems to falter, as he shifts his weight back and forth. “I uhh..” He starts, as he gazes around the room once more. “I was afraid you weren’t alone.”
Dipper stares in confusion, “Why wouldn’t I be alone. Are there other people in the Unknown?”
“Yes, and not all of them are worth meeting.” Wirt says his voice cagey. Seemingly gripping on to something that seems to loom over him. An odd presence, a worry, a fear that Wirt seems to carry. Dipper takes a few breaths, as he feels the pounding behind his eyes even out.
Dipper wants, no needs, to know more, but doesn’t know what to ask. It’s almost like when he was a kid searching for secrets that he didn’t know existed before. He had all these questions, and when he got an answer it only led to more and more and more.
“What are you afraid of?” Dipper digs, leaning closer to the other man. Dipper feels Wirt’s closeness, the mingling of breath, but doesn’t want to back down. If there is something in the Unknown to be afraid of it’s better to know about it than be ambushed unprepared.
“N-nothing… It’s.. uh… complicated.” Wirt attempts as his voice fails. Wirt’s breaths pick up as he leans back from Dipper’s stare.
“You are scared. Don’t lie to me.” Dipper challenges as more and more of his nightmare melts away, transforming into stubborn resolve for answers. His eyes locked with Wirt's dark ones almost trying to pry that locked door open in Wirt’s mind with sheer will.
Wirt looks more and more flustered, until he blurts, “I have an idea on who can help us.”
Dipper doesn’t want to let him off the hook, but there will be plenty of time to unspool the secrets this man has. Especially why his cheeks are aflame.
“You do?” Dipper asks as he relaxes back to pull the blanket off him, “Who?”
Sighing in relief, Wirt continues as he rubs the back of his neck, “Her name is Auntie Whispers. She’s hard to get to, but I think I remember how.”
“Well, let's get going then.” Dipper says, as he swings his legs from the bed. “The faster I can get out of here, the sooner I can get to Gravity Falls. I haven’t figured out how time works here, but I’ll make it work somehow."
“Right.” Wirt agrees, reflexively stepping back from Dipper. The space marked by Wirt’s increased fluster. “I just have to put some things away. I’ll be right back.” He says as he turns to leave.
“Wirt.” Dipper calls, as the other man jumps slightly. Waiting for him to turn towards him, Dipper holds up the purple blanket with a smile. “Thanks for the blanket.”
Wirt’s face flushes further, somehow an even darker shade. Mumbling something else, Wirt quickly escapes through the door. Dipper wonders how long it has been since Wirt has been around another person; if this was just normal nervousness, or something else.
One way or another, Dipper was going to have fun testing the waters of this striking and gentle man. Afterall, it had been such a long time since he had seen another person look at him like that. He knew that the last few partners he’d had over the years weren’t going to stick. Not with Dipper's obsessions that monopolized his time. No one stayed, at least not long enough to truly care. It felt odd for someone to care for him that wasn’t family. Someone who listened to Dipper’s pain, and didn’t flinch away. It seemed like Wirt understood, as unfortunate as that was if true, but selfishly it was comforting to Dipper.
Obviously, Dipper didn’t plan to stay in the Unknown. He couldn’t, not with everything at stake, but the feeling of Wirt’s hand on his arm to comfort him, making him tea, and tucking him in under that blanket felt good. The way Wirt’s eyes looked at him felt even better.
Maybe Dipper could lean on that feeling, at least a little.
At least for now, until he ultimately had to finish what he started.