Across Dimensions //Will Cipher x Fem!Reader//

3// Pines Laboratory

"Wendy, I'm expecting someone right about—" Mason—Dipper—Pines' eyes meet yours, and he stops and smiles are you. "Hi. You must be Yasmin."

You make a little squeaking noise. Hopefully everyone will think that was the baby.

"Y-yep, that's me!" you manage. "I'm here for—I mean—you know why I'm—um—nice to meet you!"

Dipper looks at you with an amused smile.

Mabel laughs and crosses the room to her brother, nudging him with an elbow. "Ah, bro, she's just like you when you first met Grunkle Ford." They both glance at the baby on her hip.

"I like your birthmark!" Your hands immediately fly up to your mouth. You seriously did not just say that!

Dipper grins at you. "Thanks. So, you want to be my apprentice for the summer, right?"

"Apprentice," Mabel snorts. "I still don't get why you and Ford used to always call it an apprenticeship. That makes it sound like you guys are from the negative seventeen hundreds."

Dipper shrugs. "Neither of us would've admitted it back then, but that was kinda the point."

"I like apprentice," you say, a bit shier after your earlier outburst. "I-it makes it sound really cool."

"See?" Dipper says to his sister. He gently pushes her off him and strides towards you. "You said you're only in town for the summer, correct?"

You nod. "This place is like my summer home. My mom always brings us up here."

Dipper frowns a bit in thought. "What's your last name?" He only learned your first one through the email you sent him.

"Larson."

A look of surprise crosses his face. "You're Pacifica's girl!"

You nod again. "She told me all about you a-and Weirdmageddon, and all the cool things you did to save everybody."

Dipper shrugs. "I wasn't the only one." He doesn't try to deny what you said, though. You like that. He smiles again. "Your mom and I go way back."

"I seem to recall," Wendy says, stepping towards her husband, "that they dated in high school."

Your eyes bug out. "You did?" Your mom had never told you that she dated Dipper freaking Pines!

"It's true," Dipper says, "though I wasn't going to say anything." He directs that part at Wendy before turning back to you. "You tell your mom hi, alright? It's been ages since we've all seen her."

"O-okay," you say. You're still not sure how to react to all this.

"Would you like to come see my lab?" Dipper asks.

"Yes!" you immediately exclaim, all previous thoughts fleeing your mind. A real scientist's lab!

"It's just down here," Dipper says, gesturing behind him. The metal door he had come through has a descending staircase behind it. Somehow that makes everything even cooler.

Wendy waves you off, and Mabel gives you a hug as if she's your aunt as well as baby Stanford's, and then you follow Dipper down the stairs. He walks purposefully, like he's on his way to a meeting with the President, and you have to hurry to keep up. Your stomach is alight with a buzzing excitement as you stop at the base of the stairs and follow Dipper into an elevator.

The elevator slides shut, its sleek metal doors reflecting the lights on the ceiling. Dipper presses a button, and the elevator lurches.

"We had to replace this a few years back," Dipper says as the elevator descends. "It used to be like something out of a horror movie. Everything was when I first came down here. But it's all state-of-the-art now."

You're too nervous to respond, but luckily the elevator stops before the silence becomes too awkward. The doors slide open, and you gasp at the sight in front of you.

Two long rows of machines stretch out from the elevator, one on either side. There are blinking lights, small screens, large screens, keyboards, wires, and all other equipment you can imagine all lining the hall from the elevator. Dipper steps out and, following him, you gape at all the machinery as you pass. At the end of the corridor of machines are multiple tables and desks, all cluttered with papers, vials, boxes, and bulky objects covered in cloths.

Dipper stops at the edge of the room and leans against a desk, his palms firmly pressing down on it. "Well, here it is. Pines Laboratory."

You stare at it for a little longer, trying to take it all in. One of the covered objects near you snarls, and you jump back.

Dipper chuckles. "Sorry about that. In there is a baby Gremloblin. Not the friendliest of creatures I keep here."

You look up at him in disbelief. "Y-you mean—those cloths—and—there are magical creatures in here?"

"That there are," Dipper confirms, "although it sounds like most of them are asleep. A lot of them I find injured or abandoned out in the forest. This guy" —he gestures to the blanket covering the Gremloblin cage— "I found as an egg, slightly cracked."

You're extremely tempted to lift up the blanket to see the creature, but you resist. It would be bad to touch things without Dipper's permission, at least your first time down here.

"If I took you in as a student," Dipper said, "you would learn about everything from basic biology to technological science to quantum mechanics to how to deal with and care for magical creatures. It would be a lot of work, and take up most of your time this summer, but if you're anything like me, you'll love every minute of it."

You sure hope you will. You start to bounce a little on the balls on your feet.

"So," Dipper says, standing up straight, "what do you think, Yasmin? Would you like to be my apprentice?"

You want to scream, to say yes, to do something, but your energy is instead released in a furious nod, a grin splitting your face. Dipper starts to laugh, and your mouth starts working again. "Yes! It sounds so amazing! Yes!"

Dipper has a smile on his face, too. "You're just like me at your age. Then it's settled!" He reaches out his hand to shake, and I take it. "Come back here tomorrow at nine A.M.," he instructs.

"Then we'll get started."