7Storge
(In which, despite knowing that Bill might just be the worst character in the series, I end up writing this anyway)
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In retrospect, watching a sleeping, pre-adolescent girl with her very protective twin brother in the same room was probably not a good a idea.
"Stay. Away. From my. Sister."
Bill didn't even turn around.
"Hey! Don't just ignore me!"
Only when a bandaged little fist broke through the yellow pyramid did the softly glowing triangle turn to see a red-faced Dipper Pines in striped pajamas.
"Oh, hey, there, Pine Tree," he said, his jolly, outdoor voice oddly muted though still as falsely jovial as ever. "Aren't little lambs like you supposed to be asleep at this hour?"
"What are you doing here?"
The truth. For just one fraction of a millisecond, Bill Cipher thought of telling the Pines brat the truth – not that he would understand it. Not now, anyways. Heck, even Bill didn't understand things clearly at the moment. "Can't I just visit a friend?"
"You are not our friend!"
"Shh, now, or you'll wake the whole house~"
"Get out!"
Bill dodged another swipe at him, all the while glaring at the brat. Sheesh, he wasn't even doing anything. Yet. He rolled his eye. "You humans – so emotional all of the time!" Granted, it was what he played on to talk them into deals, but really, it was just annoying sometimes.
Especially when it came to these two children.
"What's got you so riled up, Pine Tree? Got another puzzle you can't solve?"
Really, the kid's punches were so weak that dodging them almost took more effort. Of course, Bill's little body-stealing escapade probably contributed a lot to that lack of strength.
Humans were just so fragile.
And Bill had reveled in it – he always did. Did they even know how wonderful it was, to feel pain? Cold? Heat? To see all those wonderful colors? To see them in depth? He remembered, with a small shiver of delight, the feeling of forks sticking out of his arm.
"Anyway," Bill continued, "It's your fault I'm here in the first place, so stop being so loud."
That stopped the kid short.
"What?" he asked, a bit calmer but still just as wary. "You're staring at Mabel because of … of me?"
"That's what I said, kiddo."
"But why?"
Why, indeed.
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Pine Tree's entire body ached as Bill walked into the cool, dim theater. Mabel's production was about to start, a production that Stan knew for a fact had been hastily put-together for another boy she was smitten with. Even without him, the entire endeavor was hilariously destined to fail.
What would be the harm in helping it along a little?
Bill's search for the journal led him on a little hunt backstage but eventually, he was in a badly-made reverend's costume, trying to convince the other Pines brat to just give up the freaking journal! No one would possibly put a dumb sibling over their dream!
Stanford, and so many others besides him, certainly hadn't.
"…But Dipper would!"
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Those words still haunted Bill.
"I'll let you figure that one out on your own, Pine Tree," he said with a tip of his hat. "I'm afraid I've some chaos to bring about, deals to make and all that jazz."
He disappeared into the night with Dipper still shouting G-rated profanities at him.
She was having nightmares.
They came more often now, he noticed. More often as time passed, as her list of adventures grew. Was it really possible for so much to happen in one summer?
Quietly, he banished the strange giant that chased after her. Did something like that even exist? It was probably an exaggeration of something else. Not that that meant much in a place like Gravity Falls. He put her, instead, in the living room of Stanley's house. A familiar place.
"Huh?" she muttered. "What happened?"
"I rescued you from the evil monster," Bill said, popping into visibility. "I suppose that makes me your knight in shining armor!"
"Bill!" she snapped, like his name in itself was a sort of profanity. "Dipper warned me about you!"
"Did he now?" He floated around her, observing the anger in her eyes, the hurt. "How's the little pine tree doing, anyway? Healing from all those bruises I gave his noodle limbs?"
"Those weren't just bruises," she hissed.
Ah, yes, falling down the stairs would probably do more damage than that, wouldn't it? How could he forget? He waved his hand dismissively. "Water under the bridge."
Mabel stamped her foot. "What do you want from us?"
For just a moment, he considered that; what did he want from them? To stop all their confounded interfering, he guessed. And in the dreamscape, faced with child blushing from frustration, he wondered at what he was doing. He had better things to do than waste his time on these twins.
"…But Dipper would!"
What was it?
What was so great about this … this child that Dipper would do so much for her? Bill had observed them and the girl never seemed to do much more than bring about more trouble than she was worth. She was ditzy and unreasonable and a typical human. So why?
Bill scoffed. "What, can't I chase away a nightmare once in a while?"
Mabel folded her arms and glared.
He rolled his eye, floating around the little girl with his arms crossed. "Come on, kid, I'm not offering or asking you for anything. This is your dream – you can do whatever you want here. Even kick me out."
Bill reminded himself not to take offense as she proceeded to do exactly that. He was, however, very annoyed.
It didn't stop him from coming back.
He remembered warmth. He remembered pain. Those, at least, were familiar; pain and warmth were staples of possessing every human body. But then, in the theater, upon seeing the production the little shooting star had put up, a small swell grew inside his chest. It felt good and proud because that's my sister's work. Which honestly didn't make sense; even without Bill's interference, the whole thing would have been a disaster anyway. Mabel had no idea and no time to learn how to make one proper sock puppet, let alone so many. And in the end, it was all for a pompous boy who cared more for the puppets than the girl herself.
… Pine Tree rather resented other boy.
Residual emotions were amusing.
But even in the heat of it all, even while making grabs for that accursed journal, Bill couldn't bring Dipper's body to outright physically hurt Mabel. Drop her on the stage, maybe; threaten bodily harm in the same way he'd been abusing Pine Tree's body, no.
He – ugh – loved his sister that much. It was a rare experience; the kinds of people Bill dealt with were more often the selfish types. A steady stream of memememe was the regular for Bill. In fact, if Pine Tree were any older, Bill doubted he ever could have convinced the kid to take any sort of deal at all. Especially considering that whole invading-your-great-uncle's-mind fiasco.
"I just don't understand why you wear those sweaters."
They sat in an overly bright meadow full of field flowers in this dream. Bill could almost swear it was based off one of the many little glens in the actual woods in Gravity Falls, but he couldn't remember Mabel ever going to any of them…
"Because sweaters are adorable!" she exclaimed, waving her little arms wildly. Shooting Star really was too trusting; a few friendly visits had been more than enough to assure her that Bill wasn't up to anything. Not that he was, which was probably the point. And anyway, he'd done nothing in her dreamscape so far but chase her nightmares off. It wasn't really in Shooting Star's nature to stay angry at someone who did something like that.
Another thing for Bill to puzzle out.
"But they're unbearably warm." Even in shorts and a t-shirt, Bill had sweltered in Dipper's body. Personally, he blamed the vest. "I'm surprised you don't get sick from it." Was that why she always wore a skirt? To compensate?
Shooting Star laughed. "Pines don't get sick from a little heat."
He rolled his eye. "Sure, kid."
Sure.
Her little secret – that was what he'd turned into. And he wasn't even getting anything out of the deal; whatever emotions he'd experienced from his time in Pine Tree's body were quickly fading away. Even if he would never forget them – things like those weren't the sort of thing that one ever forgot – the warmth, the feeling of the fullness of it filling him up inside had gone and he was left grasping at an emptiness that wasn't there before.
Sometimes, he thought rather he hated them for it.
But no matter how much he hated them, in the hour of his victory, he still couldn't bring himself to harm Shooting Star.
Maybe those feelings hadn't faded like he'd thought.
He trapped her in a dream, a good dream where she could have everything she ever wanted. But she didn't stay there – of course she didn't stay there. It was ill logic to ever think that she would. Really, Bill, you should have known better. And before he knew it, the Pines family was destroying the only goal he'd been working towards for since human prehistory. It was laughable and utterly infuriating at the same time. In that moment, he really could have destroyed her. He should have already gotten rid of her before, but he'd been weak like so many of the human's he's seen.
Weak.
Him.
The thought burned through his core and ate at the edges of his being. Bill Cipher – weak! He'd show them. He'd show all of them, just like he'd done in his home dimension!
It was almost funny; Bill had cared for Mabel the most … and now he hated her the most. If it wasn't for her, everything would have been over the minute Weirdmageddon started. It was her fault and somehow, whatever leftover affection from his time in Pine Tree's body made everything hurt worse. Hurt in a way that he absolutely did not enjoy.
"Eenie," he said, drawing it out, relishing in the fear the simple word gave.
How could you do this to me?
"Meenie…"
I trusted you.
The thought, rising unbidden in Bill's mind, nearly toppled him over. Luckily, he maintained his decorum. And if anything, it made him angrier. If he was human, he might have been rushed to the hospital for high blood pressure.
Bill was the most powerful being in the multiverse. For goodness' sake, he destroyed the Time Baby!
Bill had followers.
Bill trusted no one because no one was equal to him.
And yet…
I trusted you.
"Miney…"
Everything hurt so much he could have squeezed the damned twins to death and not noticed.
This started with Shooting Star and Pine Tree.
It would end with them.
His eye flashed Shooting Star's sign.
"Moe!"
"STOP!"
He'd been defeated. It was…
Illogical.
Embarrassing.
Utterly infuriating.
He was made of stone now. Trapped. Him. Bill Cipher. With an outstretched hand, he lay in the earth, half-buried. No one visited him. No one remembered him. No one cared. Mabel didn't care.
It hurt more than it should have.
But Bill couldn't hate her forever. And it did, indeed, seem like forever before he decided that he was tired of being angry. It had grown boring, mentally raging at a girl who would never hear him. And once the initial fire had gone away, his inclination to hurt her diminished, although a spiteful part of him still hid somewhere in the back of his mind, ready to reach out and strike, if ever there was an opportunity.
What was she doing now? Where was she? What did she look like? Was she safe? She had better be safe – it would be rather pathetic of Pine Tree if he couldn't keep his sister safe despite somehow taking care of her the entire, hellish summer those two had gone through. And then there was ol' Fordsie. He'd keep his grandniece safe.
Mabel was safe.
Repeating those three, unbelievably reassuring words in his mind, Bill settled into himself and allowed the time to pass him by.
There was someone coming near.
Bill stirred from his stupor, wondering how long it's been he'd bothered being mentally active. No one came around this part of the woods anymore, thanks to the keep away signs some of the townspeople – probably Stanley and Fordsie, too – had put up a while back. His last visitor had been a wandering doe. But this … this felt like a person. A lost tourist, maybe?
The person stopped right in front of his petrified form.
A deep breath.
"Hey."
Bill started.
Mabel?
Could it really be her? It couldn't be…
But she continued. "It's been a long time. To be honest, I thought about coming out here a lot, every summer I visited Gravity Falls. But I guess… I was kind of scared."
She paused and Bill waited, feeling very much at the edge of his metaphorical seat.
"I just couldn't reconcile the you that started Weirdmageddon with the you that played with me in my dreams. I … still can't. Were you just manipulating me the entire time? I – I don't understand you. I don't think I ever will. And I don't know if I want to."
For the first time he could remember, something inside Bill wanted to cry.
He heard her take in another deep breath. And when she spoke, she sounded like she wanted to cry, too.
"But I remember you chasing away my nightmares, even though you didn't need to. You never did ask for any favors, or poke around in my head. You didn't say anything against my brother or anyone else, you just asked and listened and acted like you cared. Sometimes … I think I hate you for that. For making me sort of … care about you, too."
Bill wished he could bury his face in his hands.
"Even after what you did to Grunkle Stan and Dipper, I trusted you."
I trusted you.
Huh. Well, would you look at that?
And then he started.
Because there was warmth. Not sunlight warmth like he was so familiar now, but living warmth, human warmth, with pulsing blood right beneath the skin. Shooting Star had pressed her hand on his cold stone form and although Bill couldn't move, he leaned into it as much as he could anyway.
Mabel was here.
She was safe.
She was safe.
"It's been years," she continued. "And I'll never forget the things you did to us and I'm not saying that I wouldn't stop you all over again if I had to…"
Bill held a metaphorical breath.
"…But I forgive you."
The words came out of her in a rush. In the middle of the forest, they tumbled out of her like so many droplets in a stream. Bill almost couldn't believe it. But he knew what he heard.
The warmth disappeared and an ache rushed to fill up the emptiness it left behind. Bill wanted to scream, shout, break out of his stupid rock form and rush up to Shooting Star and make it all up to her.
Don't leave me!
And all at once, he was angry again because she would go now, wouldn't she? And she would forget him, go back to her perfect brother who always took care of her as if Bill couldn't have done a better job at it. She would return to all those fragile mortals who could only promise their best to help her though life. She would go back to the people who really loved her.
…Except Bill loved her, too. And he would give anything to stop himself from possessing Pine Tree's damned body because that's where it all started, wasn't it? Pine Tree … just loved her that much.
Wow, I can't believe Mabel actually managed to do all this.
She wrote that script? And those songs? In a week? Preetty neat, Sis.
How the heck did she manage to put together a reverend's costume in my size before I even - you know what? Never mind.
It hurt.
It all hurt.
The grass crunched slightly as Mabel shifted her position. When she next spoke, it came from high above, higher than he'd expected it to be.
"Goodbye, Bill."
Goodbye, Shooting Star.
...I'm sorry.
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Author's Note: And there's my very first Gravity Falls fic! Thank you so much for reading it. I apologize for any mistakes that managed to escape the editing process. Feedback is very much welcome, so please feel free to tell me your thoughts on 'Storge' in a comment!
