Apprentice {Gravity Falls}

Mornings

"What do you mean, "you let me live here" this was my house, Stanley!" A muffled voice yelled. It wasn't unusual for Dipper to wake up in the middle of the night, or in this case, 5:00 a.m. However, Stan and Ford didn't argue often anymore, at least not around him.

"I'm just saying, if you're going to live here, you could at least help with the chores! That's all I'm asking," Stan's voice exclaimed.

"If I'm going to live here? Where do you expect me to live, on the boat?"

"Yeah, sure! I already got kicked out once! I'm not letting it happen again!"

"I don't plan on kicking you out! I'm just saying you've been living in my house!"

Dipper tried to go back to sleep. He burried his head under the blankets and curled up into a ball to try to block out at least some of the noise. However, that effort turned out to be fruitless. The Stans didn't realize how loud they could be.

At first, Dipper was going to lay in bed and block out the noise. Yet, Dipper quickly realized he'd be more effective if he got up. Dipper sat up and stretched, "Guess I'm getting an early start today..." he mumbled to himself.

Dipper trudged down the stairs to see his grunkles bickering in the kitchen.

"-made all those mortgage payments?"

"Well, you made those payments in my name! That doesn't change the fact I'm the owner of this house."

Dipper sighed and sat down on the stairs, "Morning..."

The grunkles didn't notice him, just kept on arguing. Dipper was about to fall asleep right there on the stair case. Whenever the boy was about to fall asleep, part of Stan and Ford's arguement woke him back up. Dipper wasn't paying attention to the argument itself. Well, that was until...

"-and we wouldn't be having this argument if we didn't come back to Gravity Falls in the first place!" Stan yelled.

"We came back because-"

"So you could get Dipper to be your apprentice, I know Poindexter."

"So this is Dipper's fault now?"

"Of course this isn't his fault! Don't you dare bring the kid into this!" Stan exclaimed.

"Ugggghhhhhhhh!!" Dipper groaned loudly. He sat on the steps with his fist holding up his cheek. It took him a few moments to realize the noise suddenly stopped. Dipper looked up to see Stan and Ford starring at him.

"You're awake?" Stan questioned.

"Have been for about half an hour, thanks for noticing," Dipper mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

"What are you doing up? Couldn't sleep?" Ford asked. Dipper gave a tired chuckle.

"Guess you could say that..." he said with an annoyed smile.

"We... uh... woke you up, didn't we? With our arguing?" Stan suggested. Dipper nodded.

"Yeah," Dipper confirmed "You guys can be really loud," he chuckled, "Don't worry about it though! I'm not that tired!" He exclaimed. The bags under his eyes begged to differ.

"Dipper-"

"No, it's fine!" He yawned, "Decided to get an early start today, y'know? Beats sitting in bed listening to arguing..." he trailed off.

Ford rubbed his shoulder and Stan looked down. "You should go back to sleep, kid," Stan suggested.

"Stanley's right, for once," Ford mumbled the "for once" under his breath. "You still seem tired, my boy."

"For once? I'll have you know I'm right about a lot of things!" Stan yelled.

"Yeah and you're wrong about a lot of things as well!" Ford countered.

Dipper sighed. "I... um... I think I'll go watch TV or something..." Dipper started to walk towards the living room. He tried to mute the sound of his grunkles' yells with the noise of the television. Even the infomercial channel was better than listening to an argument.

Twenty minutes passed before he heard silence. Then footsteps. Dipper looked at the entrance of the room to see Stan and Ford.

"Hey kid," Stan greeted. Dipper nodded an affirmation.

"Ford and I have something to say to you..." Stan started. Dipper muted the TV.

"I'm listening..."

"We're sorry for waking you up," Ford started. "Our arguement did get out of hand, and we should have watched our volume."

"Yeah, we both know you like to sleep in when you can. Shouldn't have had to wake up because we couldn't agree on who should vaccum!" Stan explained, guilty. Dipper's head snapped up.

"This is why you guys got into an argument? Because you... I..." Dipper sighed. Sometimes his great uncles acted more immature than himself.

"Stupid, I know," Ford admitted.

"I can't believe you guys. I'm not upset! Just disappointed!" Dipper claimed. "I can vacuum!"

"No!" Both the Stans exclaimed.

"Don't worry about it, Dipper!" Stan started.

"Yeah, you already didn't get enough sleep because of us. It's our responsibility, my boy."

"Then... who should?"

"How about this... which ever one of us woke Dipper up has to vaccum?" Ford suggested.

Stan shrugged, "Works for me."

"Dipper, which one of us woke you up first?" Ford questioned. Dipper thought for a moment.

"Sorry, Grunkle Ford, but I'm pretty sure it was you who woke me up," Dipper admitted. Ford chuckled bashfully.

"Sorry, my boy."

Dipper shrugged, "It's fine... uh... can I go back to sleep?"

"Of course!" Stan exclaimed. Dipper smiled and trudged back up the stairs. He crashed into his bed, already exhausted from resolving an argument first thing in the morning. Now the only noise he could hear was the white noise of a vacuum coming from downstairs, which lulled the boy back to sleep.