Author Note: Okay, so I decided that I would also do a cute one-story-every-day (maybe) thing for the Christmas season. I might miss some due to exams and other junk, but I'll try my best to update every day! By the way, "This is a Problem" and these stories are NOT Bipper. They are Dipper/Human!Bill friendship.

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Disclaimer: Gravity Falls does not belong to me. It belongs to Alex Hirsch, which is evident through the fact that Bill is a yellow triangle and not a really hot demon/human.

DECEMBER 11, 2017

Bill was confused. What the heck was Christmas supposed to be about? Of course, since he had known everything in his former life, he had an inkling of what the holiday represented, but the Pines family was taking it way beyond what he had considered traditional.

In the gift shop and tourist area, for instance, Mabel had gone crazy with her glue guns and glitter buckets. The ceiling had somehow gone from wooden and brown to sparkly and pink. The whole floor was covered with rugs and the scent of gingerbread had permeated the whole house from top to bottom. The totem pole outside the shack had found a replacement in the 17-foot-tall pine tree that Dipper had found on one of his "forest adventures".

The once-sane interior of the living spaces had been robed in green and red. The stereo was constantly playing tasteless human songs that sounded like Jeff and his band of gnomes had tried to make it big, and Stan had even consented to wear a "festive" costume! Bill had observed all this and more take place and invade the perfectly fine space that the Mystery Shack had been.

Bill was beginning to go past the state of being confused and into the state known as irrevocable panic. For the past week, everything was too loud and too busy, and the former demon wasn't up to the task after spending centuries in the dead quiet Mindscape. He looked around hastily to make sure no one was around before opening the false vending machine and darting down to the basement. He unlocked the glass cell that he had once seen as his prison and ducked into it.

He crawled into the darkest corner and tried to make sense of Pinetree's stupid human holiday. It wasn't fair; Pinetree had tricked him into thinking that Christmas would be fun, but instead, Bill found it to be horrible and noise-filled, a large change from his perfect quiet in the Mindscape. So instead of participating in the fun festivities upstairs, the former demon huddled in a ball and let a small, bloodred tear drip down his face.

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Dipper was looking around for Bill. Even after Ford had gotten the demon under control, one could never trust him alone for more than five minutes, especially not in the weirdness-filled Mystery Shack. However, after searching for fifteen minutes and not seeing hide nor hair of Bill, Dipper was beginning to get worried. Bill was not one to be quiet, quite unlike Myker in that aspect. He always showed off and announced his presence.

Finally, after enlisting Grunkle Stan, Grunkle Ford, Mabel, and Soos to help with the search, Dipper knew where Bill was. Down in Ford's lab, in the glass case that used to serve as his prison. Dipper looked around quickly to see if any tourist was still there before punching in the code to open up the vending machine. He took the elevator down and immediately saw Bill huddled in the farthest corner of the glass case.

"Hey! There you are. We've been looking for you all afternoon! Come upstairs, Mabel's making cookies with edible glitter."

That's when Dipper noticed the red tear that was making its way down Bill's cheek. Bill never cried. If he was letting his guard down now, to let a tear slip, something must have been terribly wrong with him. Dipper made his way over to the glass case and unlocked it but didn't go in.

"Is there something wrong, Bill?" he asked, trying to keep the concern out of his voice. God, he sounded so pathetic, worrying about a former demon that had nearly destroyed the world, but Bill was his friend now.

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Bill looked up at Dipper's words. No, he wasn't alright. He missed the Mindscape and the blessed relief from the noise that it offered, and he was mad at himself that he let PINETREE of all people trick him.

"Go away," he croaked in a thin, reedy voice. "I don't want to see you."

Dipper looked at Bill with what had to be a little bit of sadness. At least, Bill thought, it's not pity. Pity is the worst, and I absolutely hate it.

Dipper shook his head slowly, as if the former demon was a slow child. "C'mon, Bill. Why don't you tell me what's made you like this?" Dipper asked aloud. "I'm sure that if you tell me what's going through your head right now, I can help to get you out of your funk."

Dipper looked away as Bill wiped the solitary tear from his cheek. "Fine, I'll tell you," he said. "But, only on one condition."

Dipper nodded, trying to be understanding of Bill. "What's the condition?" he asked. If it were Mabel or Grunkle Ford, he would have immediately agreed, but with Bill and Grunkle Stan, one could never know what they might ask of you.

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"If you promise not to tell another living being, I'll tell you what's been bugging me," Bill said, sniffing slightly. He was still confused, but not as much as when Pinetree was around. He seemed to have this weird power to instantly GET Bill's mind. And that was a hard thing to do.

He saw Dipper nod his head.

Dipper walked into the cell and closed it behind him. "Okay, buddy. Tell me what's been going on."

And Bill told him.

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An hour and a half after Dipper went down to the lab to search for Bill, the duo came up. Two hours and seventeen minutes, three arguments, nine shattered ornaments and one pot of hot chocolate later, the fire was roaring along and the Christmas tree had been decorated. Dipper (who using his hot chocolate as a hand-warmer), surveyed the room in satisfaction. Mabel wasn't in here, she had gone to bed and hours ago, but Grunkles Stan and Ford were engaged in friendly (kind of) game of poker. On second thought, it looked like that game might be getting a little heated; he would have to go break it up.

Just as Dipper went to rise and stop his Grunkles from landing themselves in the hospital for the third time this month, he remembered that he couldn't get up. This was because there was something heavy in his lap. And that heavy something liked yellow and sometimes glowed red when woken up suddenly...

So, Dipper tuned out his Grunkles' good-natured yelling and resigned himself to sitting by the fireplace with a demon on his lap.

AN: Okay, hoping that all we Dipper/Bill friendship shippers all enjoyed that... the next update will be tomorrow! I'm going to try to write these drabbles out ahead of time so that all I have to worry about is posting them... well, constructive criticism only! Thanks, MillionLights out!