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“Once the portal opens,” Bill says, “how about you come visit me?”
Bill is in the middle of examining Ford’s eye, which is freshly red and irritated from Bill’s presence in Ford’s body. He pulls at Ford’s lids for a better look, admiring the brightness of all the burst little veins against the wet white of the eyeball. He almost misses it when Ford gasps in surprise in the back of their now shared brain.
“That- that would be an honor.” Ford’s mouth keeps trying to smile in the way Ford smiles, but Bill doesn’t let him, keeping his lips drawn wide open and teeth exposed instead. Ford doesn’t even seem to mind, his mind fluttering with joy against Bill’s.
“Of course it’d be.” Bill jabs a finger into the reddened eye, making both of them scream; Bill in delight, Ford in shocked pain. Bill squeezes the eye shut, laughing as it floods with tears. “Imagine the fun we would have, Sixer! Hell, just think of the fun we have here and increase it tenfold, babe.” He peels the eye open, runs a fingertip across the wet eyelashes. “It’s gonna get wild, believe that!”
Somewhere within them, Ford hesitates. Bill supposes he can’t blame him, given what Bill is doing to him right now; humans are fussy about pain and discomfort that way. But soon the hesitation gives away to the unbridled excitement again, the sheer happiness over getting to meet Bill in his own world snuffing any antipathies Ford might feel. His Fordsy is predictable like that. Bill finds it endlessly adorable.
“And you will come to my world too, right?” This time, Ford seems to mind Bill’s laughter, hurt coming off him in slight waves as Bill keels over and swats his knee. All this time, Bill’s believed he’s been barely subtle about his desire to come to this world, even if he has kept the thoughts about wanting to tear it apart strictly to himself, but apparently he’s been too subtle. This has to be the first time this has ever happened to him.
Unless-
“Is this your low self-esteem talking again? You don’t think I want to come?” Bill lets his presence slide more fully into Ford’s body, turning his eyes from brown and red to yellow in order to give his eyeroll more force. “I’m not even going to address that.”
“Trust me, the moment that portal is ready, I’m coming through it. In fact, it’s the first thing on my to-do list.” He starts running his hands through Ford’s hair; the touch is meant for Ford, but it takes Ford a few moments before he realizes that. When the realization lands and the insecurity within Ford starts easing off, his body and mind relaxing, Bill continues: “I will come to your world and I’m going to rock it.”
He rubs behind Ford’s ears with his thumbs, letting his words sink into Ford’s yearning mind.
“Emphasis on you, Ford.”
He pushes his fingertips beneath Ford’s eyes, into his lashes, watches as those of his other eye become slick with blood. He backs off, letting Ford slip back into his body again, and meets his disciple’s eager, hungry stare.