Chapter Text
“Oh God, I think I’m gonna be sick,” Dipper wheezed, leaning against the door frame of his attic room. His vision was starting to swim just a little, and he could not remember how to breathe normally for the life of him.
“I’ll be right beside you, Pine Tree,” Bill crooned, running his lithe, gloved fingers soothingly through Dipper’s hair.
“Thanks, Bill,” Dipper sighed, leaning into the touch and beginning to calm a little. “I know you probably have better things to do than to sit through this.”
“Are you kidding?” Bill chuckled. “I wouldn’t miss you telling Stan Pines that his grandnephew’s been dating the demon lodger for a month right under his ugly nose for the world! You are so gonna get it, kid.”
Dipper swatted Bill’s hand away, betrayed. “You’re supposed to have my back on this!”
“Aw, kid, you know I do,” Bill said, about as tenderly as he was wont to say anything when mortal danger wasn’t immediately involved. For Bill, showing his feelings in any obvious way was like pulling teeth. No, scratch that, the dream demon had practically made teeth-pulling into a hobby. In any case, Dipper had accepted that Bill wasn’t about to start writing him sonnets any time soon, but Dipper did expect Bill to be his ally, especially today.
“But I’m a demon,” Bill continued. “I can’t help that I find conflict funny. It’s in my nature.”
“Your nature isn’t an excuse, Bill,” Dipper said, having gained the confidence to speak to Bill as an equal over the last month. Bill hadn’t flayed the skin from his flesh yet, despite that and many more creative threats. “Falling in love isn’t in your nature, and you did it anyway.”
“Whoa whoa whoa, Pine Tree. I never said the ‘L’ word,” Bill said stiffly.
“You didn’t have to,” Dipper said. “I can tell.”
“What?! That’s a lie! There’s no way you can tell!”
Dipper snickered. “I can now.”
“You little brat!” Bill hissed, gold, slitted eye flashing. “I will slit your stomach and feed you your own intestines ’til they look like the damn World Snake!”
“I’ll make you a deal,” Dipper said giddily. “You don’t do that, and I don’t lock my door tonight.” Not that a locked door meant much to Bill anyway, but that wasn’t the point.
Bill’s face slowly split into a smile. “Deal,” he said, holding out his hand as it ignited in blue flame.
“I’m not shaking on sex, Bill,” Dipper huffed in annoyance.
Bill’s eye narrowed. “You’re despicable, kid. Maybe that’s why I love you.”
Dipper looked up at him in surprise, and it was only then that Bill realized what he’d said.
“Shit! That just slipped out. It proves nothing, Pine Tree!”
Dipper gave Bill a shit-eating grin. “Sure, Cipher. I’ll see you downstairs.”
With that, he swept open the door and strode down the hall to the stairs. If he could survive wringing a confession of love out of Bill Cipher, unwitting though it was, he could survive breaking the news to his Grunkle and the others. Even if he had just lost Bill as his backup on this, he knew he could count on Mabel to provide ground support.
☆
“Attention, attention!” Mabel yelled, standing on her chair and banging her raised glass of Mabel Juice with a spoon as Grunkle Stan, Wendy and Soos sat down at the table, followed shortly by Dipper, and Bill a few seconds later.
Dipper had asked her to call this Thursday Shack lunch so that he could tell their closest friends and family about Bill’s “nature” and his and the demon’s relationship. The thought of what he was about to do made him queasy all over again, eradicating nearly all of the confidence he’d gained from his conversation with Bill, but he knew it was better to get it over with sooner rather than later. These were not secrets he wanted to keep forever, or that he even could if he did want to. As exciting as it was, he was getting tired of he and Bill having to pull each other into closets and secret rooms just to get a moment alone together, and having to dance around each other when they were in the company of anyone other than Mabel. Dipper wanted everything out in the open, for better or for worse.
“We are gathered here today–” Mabel continued.
“Whoa, who’s gettin’ married?” Grunkle Stan asked.
“No one!” Dipper said quickly as Bill snickered beside him. “I asked Mabel to get everyone together because I have an announcement.” Dipper hauled in a breath, and exhaled his next words in an unbroken string: “I’msortofseeingsomeone.”
“Cool, dude! Who is it?” Soos asked.
“Yeah, spill the beans, Dipper,” Wendy goaded.
Grunkle Stan kept Dipper under an even stare, his face betraying nothing.
Dipper swallowed nervously. “Well, it’s someone you already know.” His gaze flicked briefly to Bill, and he caught the glint of mischief in the demon’s eye too late. Of course Bill would be out for retribution after Dipper had tricked him into talking about his feelings, and Dipper had presented him with the perfect opportunity.
Dipper’s eyes widened, and he pleaded silently with Bill not to do whatever it was he was about to do. But Bill only grinned and, faster than Dipper had a hope of avoiding, clasped his hands around the back of Dipper’s head and pulled him in for a very wet and very sloppy kiss.
Dipper made a muffled, high-pitched sound of panic, but Bill held him fast, and Dipper realized that this way, at least he didn’t have to say anything. So he closed his eyes and let his awareness of place and time fade for a moment, giving in to the surprising comfort in the kiss. Maybe this really was Bill’s way of saying he was here for Dipper, come what may. After all, Bill, when it really came down to it, wasn’t a fan of words either.
After a timeless moment, Dipper felt Bill’s grip loosen and he pulled back and opened his eyes. Looking around the table, Mabel was brimming with barely contained excitement, Wendy had a knowing look in her eyes and a slight smile, Soos began to applaud, and Grunkle Stan’s expression hadn’t changed at all, except for a worrying twitch in his eye.
“So, uh, yeah,” Dipper began, then cleared his throat so that he didn’t sound so breathless. “B-Bill and I are...t-together.”
Wendy chuckled good-naturedly. “Hands raised if this is news to anyone in this room.”
No one raised a hand except Soos, who thought about it for a moment, then shook his head and lowered it again, laughing. “Nope, never mind. Totally saw this one coming.”
“O-oh,” Dipper said, running a hand through his even messier than normal hair (courtesy of Bill). “Then, I guess, on to part two.”
“Part two?” Grunkle Stan ground out. “You two are not getting married.”
“No one’s getting married! I said that already!” Dipper yelled.
“I dunno, Pine Tree, I think you’d look cute in white,” Bill purred. “Also in a dress.”
“Bill’s a demon!” Dipper blurted out.
“Whoa, that escalated quickly,” Wendy said. “Bill was only joking…I think.”
“No, he’s an actual demon,” Dipper said, taking a breath. “Wait, why am I the one in a dress?” he demanded of Bill.
“Because I look fucking fabulous in a suit,” Bill replied easily. And Dipper really couldn’t argue.
“There’s no such thing as demons, kid,” Grunkle Stan cut in. “That old book is filling your head with crazy.”
Bill casually snapped his fingers, and a vortex of blue flame spiraled into existence behind him, then opened to reveal a landscape of raging red fire and blood-curdling screams. All eyes fixed on the spectacle in astonishment and horror. Then Bill snapped again, and the blue flames closed around the scene and vanished, taking the screams with them.
“Fuck me,” Grunkle Stan breathed, the first to speak several long seconds later.
“Afraid I’m rather engaged with your grandnephew in that department,” Bill said smugly.
Grunkle Stan was up out of his chair and around the table surprisingly quickly for a man of his age, and Bill didn’t offer any resistance when Stan pulled him up by the lapels and slammed his fist into his face. In fact, Bill burst into laughter while Dipper shrieked in horror. He raised a gloved hand to his quickly bruising jaw and caught his breath. “That tickled,” he giggled.
Grunkle Stan punched him again. The room erupted into chaos as Dipper and Mabel tried to haul their Grunkle off of Bill, Bill continued to laugh hysterically, Soos hid under the table and Wendy grabbed her axe, waiting to see who she needed to use it on (if they were human, she would use the blunt end).
When the twins finally managed to corral everyone back to their seats at the table, it took a lot of honest, heartfelt words from Dipper and smooth talking from Bill to smother the fire of murder in Grunkle Stan’s eyes down to dull embers. Dipper assured the table that he, and everyone else in the room was safe with Bill – probably safer than anywhere else. Bill was the same person they had all gotten to know well over the past month; he just also happened to have the power to raze the town with a thought if he wanted to. Which he definitely didn’t, because Gravity Falls was his home, too.
When it was time for the Mystery Shack to reopen after lunch, Grunkle Stan was willing to wait and see where things would go with the two of them, but he warned them that he’d be keeping an eye on them both for the slightest sign that Bill was a bad influence on Dipper. If anything, Wendy thought Bill was even cooler than before, and Soos was happy as long as Dipper was happy.
For the most part, they fell back into their normal rhythm in the afternoon. Bill even helped out in the shop as a gesture of good faith. Grunkle Stan’s focus turned to Mabel when she forgot to restock the shelves for the second time that day, and Dipper breathed a sigh of relief. All in all, the day had gone…well, just about how he’d expected, really, but at least it hadn’t been worse. And now it was all behind him.
After dinner, he kissed Bill goodnight in plain view, and headed up to his room with a smile probably as big and goofy as his sister’s plastered across his face. He only just remembered to leave the door unlocked before stripping down to his boxers and collapsing across the bed, exhausted. He’d close his eyes and rest, just for a little while, until everyone else was asleep…
☆
When Bill came into Dipper’s room an hour later, he huffed out a quiet laugh to see that the kid was out cold, sprawled across the bed, drool soaking into the sheet beneath his face. It had been a long day for the fragile little human. Carefully, he pulled the sheets over Pine Tree’s sleeping form, then slipped in beside him, settling in for a night of work in the Mindscape.
“Sweet dreams, kid,” he murmured, and it was a promise. Then he reached over and turned off the light.