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"Come on Dipdop, at least he's thinking of you?" Mabel tried, an embarrassed and worried look in her brown eyes.
"It's our wedding anniversary!" Dipper hissed, just honestly confused at this point. Mabel shrugged, and just sighed.
"I think the two of you should talk. You guys have been kinda distant for the past couple of weeks. Even Paz noticed it, especially from you. Hell, she even talked about it with me, and she never brings her concerns about you to me. She just goes to you and tells you to stop acting-"
"Like a baby. I know Mabel! Stop telling me about Pacifica and about how perfect you two are and how smoothly your relationship is going!" Dipper's voice wavered on the last word and he sucked in a breath through his mouth, looking away from his sister. Dipper expected his sister to see that he was upset, but Mabel was not a mind-reader.
"Dipper! Get your head out of your ass for one damned second and realize I wasn't even in-depth talking about my relationship! Like what the heck? I wasn't even centering the talking of my relationship around us, it was centered around you! If you want to be Mister Grumpypants than fine, but don't get mad at me and Paz for no reason other than you needing to work on your shit!" Mabel was closing in on Dipper, her eyes narrowed, but then suddenly she was out of his space, and Dipper watched as she walked out of his shared room with Bill.
Okay, worst fight since a week ago, check. Crippling anxiety, check. Crippling guilt, definitely. He should have known not to have talked about Mabel and Pacifica like that, Mabel was always so defensive of her wife and there he went, being a massive douche bag- Calm down idiot! Dipper thought to himself, and quickly cleared his mind. He'd had been doing that a lot lately... Ugh, couldn't he just do something right? For example, instead of looking absolutely repulsed by the deer teeth necklace that Bill had probably taken a super long time making and carving into to make all the pretty designs and he had just made that face! And Dipper knew because there was the mirror and for the love of what was that noise?
Knocking.
He knew right away that it was Bill through there bond and Dipper didn't know why until it hit the witch that he was surrounded by bad thoughts. Really bad thoughts.
"Dipper? Can I come in?" Bill's voice was barely audible, and Dipper probably wouldn't have heard it if the door was fully closed.
"Yeah." Was Dipper's shaky reply. He didn't want his husband to see him like this- even if the demon had already seen worse. Dipper felt the weight of Bill on the bed next to him, the distance perfect for their circumstances. Perfectly far away and yet not close enough.
"Paz told me to come up and talk to you, explain what the teeth actually meant." Bill said, his voice a drastic contrast to what Dipper's confirmation had been- all smooth and stable. Even though Bill didn't say it, Dipper heard the words directly after Bill finished talking.
before i ran away before i ran away befo-
"Dipper, stop, come on, you know I don't blame you." Bill whispered, and Dipper was engulfed in a warm hug and all Dipper could think was How did I get so lucky?
They spent a full minute like that, until Bill slowly unwrapped his arms from his husband. Taking Dipper's hands in his he spoke.
"I've told you before how Pacifica and her folks took me in when I was a monling right? Well. I don't remember a lot from before the Northwests. What I do though, I hold very dearly." Bill paused, looked Dipper in the eye.
"I do not blame you for running away, or rejecting the gift, because you did not know. I'm the one at fault here. I didn't tell you, okay? Don't feel bad." Bill looked expectant, so Dipper nodded and Bill smiled a little.
"Teeth were one of those things I could always remember being important. I never really understood why, but I remember one time I tried to give some to Paz's mother in exchange for sweets, and she told me, 'no no dear you don't have to pay me for that', and I looked at her weird and she realized her mistake. The Northwests decided to blend my Clan's traditions with theirs once I was of age to help make the decesion, and of fucking course I agreed. I was told of the history of the Cipher Clan. They were pretty, hm. Unforgiving with outsiders and especially if you double crossed them. They gave you one chance and that was it. They killed for sport, and they weren't really favored in the Underworld. When the new heir was born- spoiler alert that was me- a bunch of rival Clans decided it was time to get rid of them. The Northwests were on pretty good terms with the Ciphers, and surprisingly, they were the only Clan to be on such terms. So that's where I ended up when my whole Clan was killed off. I was about seven when it happened. I remember teeth festivals and history lessons taught by my grandmother and how my mother would always sing me songs to get me to go to bed, I think I had a brother that was born a few years after my birth but no one could find him, I remember how fierce the women were and they didn't take anyone's shit. I remember dreams and discovering my ability to control dreams. It's really not a lot to what I could have had, but it's enough.
"The thing I came to talk about though, teeth. When I was with the Northwests, we wanted to maintain the Cipher Clan's culture with me, so everything on everything that had to do with my Clan was brought to me. Tax records, birth records, farm records, the whole thing! But what I really cared about was teeth. Remember when I said we had entire festivals dedicated to teeth? Each person in our Clan had some sort of animal with teeth that represented them. I remember when I was like, ten I spent hours pouring over some prissy Karen Gleeful's essays about stuff I already knew. I had to be sure though, you know?" Bill pauses again, looking at the ground, and Dipper nudges Bill's mind through the bond. Warm and gentle, Dipper's magic coaxes Bill to finish his story.
"So I kept learning. When I was fifteen though, I decided to visit my land. It was all left to me. I wish I could visit sometimes, and I could I think, but it's all ash. Maybe if I rebuilt it, but I don't know if it'd be the same... Anyways, the teeth. Everyone has a animal that represents them, it's kind of like an animal totem I guess. In Cipher traditions, royalty have shapes, instead of animals. But when people court each other, people hunt an animal and take the teeth and everything else, using the teeth and bones for jewelry, the meat for food, the skin and hide for clothing and sometimes the jewelry, and anything else is left up to the imagination. The Cipher Clan got the idea from one of this world's cultures, and really liked it. Even when they killed other demons, they tried not to be wasteful. Like, yeah they actually ate some parts of the demon, which was actually pretty gross I'll admit. Ugh, okay I'm rambling, I'm sorry. I'll just shorten it. The necklace was a courting gift and it was deer teeth because I think you're a deer." Bill grumbled out the last bit.
Dipper blinked. And then snorted in amusement. Before Bill could respond in any way, Dipper spoke.
"You think I'm a deer? What's that supposed to mean?" He giggled. Bill didn't respond at first, but a heavy blush made it's way across his face. Dipper snorted again, and laughed.
"It means you're cute. I'm beginning to rethink that statement though, seeing as you keep snorting..." Bill said sarcastically, and Dipper decided to play along. He'd missed this.
"Oh yeah? Well, I can recall at least seven times you've called the snorting this cute, and three 'adorable'. None of them I've appreciated, but regardless, I win." Dipper smirked, actually thinking he had won, before being lifted up and tossed on the bed. Bill had crawled over his witch husband and was now just staring at him, and now it was him smirking. Dipper tried reaching into the demon's mind, but Bill was closing it off purposefully. Damn it...
He had two second to wonder what was going on before he was being tickled. Mercilessly.
"Bi-ll!"
It lasted two seconds before Bill sensed Dipper was about to have a hard time breathing and Bill stopped. Dipper caught his breath within a couple of minutes and then remembered just why he hated being tickled when Bill was doing the tickling. Because Dipper could never find where Bill was ticklish.
So now they just laid side by side on their bed facing each other, something they hadn't done for nearly a month, and Dipper spoke.
"Hey. Thanks for trusting me with your story." He said quietly, and Bill smiled widely, something Dipper hadn't seen as often as he should have.
"But I'm sorry for rejecting the necklace... If. If you still have it, I want to wear it." Dipper spoke more confidently, and while Bill's smile had dropped, Bill's eye was looking at him with such affection and awe that Dipper nearly started crying. Bill reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the deer teeth necklace.
Yeah, it was kinda weird, but that was purely Dipper and Bill.
Bill put it on his husband and grinned the toothiest grin Dipper had ever seen in his entire life, and Dipper chuckled. Okay, do it now you big idiot.
"So, I also wanted to apologize for this past month of being distant. I uh. I saw that couple in the diner with the baby and I uh. I was jealous. I'm not gonna ask you to adopt a baby with me because that's-"
"Yes."
"What?" Dipper asked, confusion lining his features.
"There's an orphanage in the Underworld, they don't get very many kids, but they always have one or two and. Yes, Dipper yes I will totally adopt a kid with you." Bill grinned excitedly and started to pepper kissed on Dipper's face and Dipper laughed.
Yeah. They'd be alright.
------
(The next morning Dipper went to a makeup store and bought a bunch of makeup, went home and and styled his face to look like a very sad clown that probably had a run in with a KISS fan. He went to breakfast looking like that and Bill dropped his food, Paz snickered, Ford shook his head, Stan blinked, and Mabel hugged him, careful not to get anywhere near the poorly put on makeup.
"Apology accepted brobro.")