AN: This is my first contribution to the Gravity Fall's fandom, writing wise. I've grown to really really like this pairing and had all of these ideas! Finally settled for this certain plot and wrote. Just a heads up, Mabel is mute and Bill is human, well /has/ a human form. I was debating on whether putting it here or in my tumblr, because I don't use ff that much anymore, but it's here!
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Gravity Falls or any of the characters mentioned below (sadly :cc ), it's rightful owner is Alex Hirsch. I only own the writing.
One Step At A Time
Her name is Mabel Pines and she recalls that waking up and not being able to make a single sound is not pleasant.
The morning was a hot one, even if she herself was found wearing sweaters in the summer and not bothered in the slightest by it. But this hot was beyond ridiculous, it was uncomfortable and her brown hair stuck to her forehead in sweat, the desire to escape the locked cage of blankets around her being was more than welcomed by her brain, kicking the blankets off she sat in her bed, rubbed her eyes and placed a hand on Waddle's head, petting him as the pig gave a much delighted oink.
Dipper wasn't up yet, she wasn't expecting him to. One quick look towards the bed at the other side of the wall was enough to confirm her theory that he had been up reading Journal 3 all night. She almost wanted to take the book away and have him spend the day with her, even if it were bound to happen anyways. Just having a nice change in the day of not having her twin brother carrying the book around would make her so much more content. After All, they only had one week left of summer, which meant going back to their home and waiting for the next summer vacations to come around again.
Waddles nuzzles her leg and she's snapped out of her thoughts, one quick hop, she's heading towards the bathroom to get ready for the day, her pet following closely behind. Mabel can already hear Grunkle Stan down in the kitchen making breakfast, and the way it smells almost makes her drool. It was definitely something sweet and she wanted to have part of it.
She only makes it to the third step before something pushes past her legs and the stairs and floor come way too close to view for her own comfort. A flash of pink is already down stairs, and by the time she makes contact with the ground, she doesn't recall much after that. Just blood, lots of it accompanied by dark spots that filled her vision and searing-white hot pain that started from her neck and sent shivers down her spine.
Something at the back of her mind also reminds her that somewhere along her fall, an ear-piercing scream had rang out in the shack.
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When she opens her eyes again, the sense of hopefulness is disintegrated by the white walls and ceiling. She frowns, the room is so small and uncomfortable and so plain, boring, tedious. She almost wanted to scream out in frustration but even if she were to speak no sound would come out. The bandages around her neck are still ever so present and it's bothersome. She says nothing, brown eyes fix themselves on the calendar that hangs in the wall and ignores the pain that clenches her heart when she realizes that she's been stuck here for at least four days.
So much for spending her last week in Gravity Falls having adventures and spending time with her friends.
It must've been at least a couple of hours since she woke up, because when she hears the door to her hospital room open, her eye's widen slightly and her head snaps towards the door. A smile comes to her face when she sees that Dipper is there, a nurse closing the door behind softly. He takes seat besides her bed and Mabel reaches out to hug her twin, he does the same.
"Grunkle Stan couldn't make it here today," he starts, digs through a backpack he had been carrying, Mabel notices it's full of some items that probably were in Journal 3, a notepad and a pen, markers and stickers. "So I made it my duty to get you something to do while in here."
Dipper hands her the notepad, the pen, the markers and the stickers and her eyes beam with happiness. It wasn't the most expensive gift her twin could buy her, but she'd taken anything by this point. Staring at the window and wall became so dull after a while, that and her speech condition didn't leave much room for interaction with the nice nurses of the hospital. She flips open the notepad and scribbles something on it, she turns it so Dipper can read the pink ink.
Thanks, Dipper!
He shakes his head but smiles nonetheless. He begins to tell her what happened after she had fallen down the stairs by tripping on Waddles. The scream had woken him up and managed to scare the living lights out of their Great Uncle. She had been unconscious for quite a while before the paramedics could come, Waddles was nowhere to be seen and she had surgery. The doctors had to remove her vocal chords because they had been damaged.
The conversation had gotten quiet after that, however it wasn't an uncomfortable silence. Mabel played with the blanket on top of her. Also white, cold and had a hospital smell to it. She wrote something else in the notepad and ignored how Dipper had his attention on her. It wasn't until she clicked the pen did Dipper jumped up a bit, stuttered out an apology and proceeded to pul out something else from the backpack.
Much to her surprise, it was yet another book. He gave it to her, she sat down the notepad besides her and examined the cover. She turned her attention to Dipper, confusion evident in her face.
"Oh. I thought that writing on a notepad to get your point across would get tiring. So I found another way to communicate," he smiled at his brilliant idea and Mabel blinked, looked at the cover once more and realized just what it was.
"It'll be fun, we can learn sign language together and if you need to get a message across I'll be your spokesman." He pointed his thumb at his chest and puffed it out, Mabel let out air from her nose, and smiled, she wrote a simple message on the notepad, forgetting about the previous one she had written out.
I'd really like that :)
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Mabel found out, that despite not being able to speak anymore and voice her opinions when needed, nor singing alone to her favorite songs, being mute was actually not as bad as she thought it out to be. Sure her communication was limited, but having Dipper by her side made things a little bit better. Her parents had also been supportive all year long, which made her attitude change from the first month to the end of the school year.
Things surprisingly went her way a lot more, not that it didn't happen before, and she actually became so much more better at appreciating things around her than before. There were still times where she would move her tongue to try and speak and found nothing but silence coming out, she tried to kick off the habit of moving her tongue when she was too excited to remember that no sound would come out.
After a while of practicing this involuntary movement to stop, she decided to just carry a notepad with her at all times, it took away the air of just voicing her thoughts, but she got used to it, she used it around other people that held no knowledge of sign language.
Speaking of which, the language, had been more easy to learn than she thought it to be. It also came in useful whenever Dipper and her staid up later at night and would secretly speak through hand movements. It was something she grew to like, she never offered the idea to Dipper of teaching their parents sign language. It was something that brought her and Dipper closer than before, call her selfish or whatever. But the whole thing just seemed so awesome. She had told Dipper once, after their sixteenth birthday, that it felt like they were speaking some sort of coded conversation that would only be known by them and them only. Like spies!
That and Dipper never brought up the point of teaching others the language. Something she was grateful for.
Two nights before the end of summer, she dreamt of being able to talk. Then on the last night, she stood awake at 4am and tossed and turned in bed until it was 7am and they were supposed to get in the car to leave.
Restless and having nothing to do or talk on the way to Oregon, she falls asleep and dreams of black and white scenery, and of her speaking not with her mouth, but with her mind, and the man in yellow understands And offers his hand.
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Grunkle Stan is the first one to hug her when she comes back and tells her just how worried she had him. Mabel gave him a simple smile, a big one because it wasn't like she was upset over it. This was probably just another thing that was supposed to happen to her in life. Then she writes on her notepad, puts a sticker on her Grunkle's cheek and skips inside, lime-skirt moving swiftly with her movements.
Dipper comes inside a couple of minutes later, both hands occupied with their belongings and finds Mabel sitting on her bed, Waddles on her lap as she affectionately nuzzles the pig. Dipper smiles at scene, Mabel had been going on and on about how much she missed Waddles and how he was not responsible for her fall, claiming that even she would've skipped down the stairs as fast and eager as her pet because the breakfast did smell delicious. Dipper wouldn't remember, he barely ate anything after Mabel had been hospitalized.
Mabel taps the wooden frame of her bed, catching Dipper's attention, however by the time he looks up from his unpacking, she's already half way through signing way too fast for his own brain and eyes.
"Woah woah! Mabel, slow down! I can't understand you."
"I said, that I've had weird dreams for the last couple of weeks." She signs, a frown forming on her face.
Dipper's expressions matches her own, "What kind of weird dreams are we referring to?"
She taps her chin in thought, then slowly signs, because she does not want to mess up. Though she had mastered the language quite easily by now.
"I always wake up on a different place, places I've been before. It's always black and white."
Dipper concludes that the shiver that raced down his spine was not his imagination.
"And there's a man, some guy that wears so much yellow it hurts my eyes. It's annoying. But he talks to me, and we spend hours talking but I don't move my mouth, and the words I can hear them as if I'm the one saying them."
Her twin brother takes a shaky sigh, he doesn't like this at all. Mabel doesn't seem like she has anything else to say, so he takes this opportunity to ask, least he go mad later by not taking this opportunity and satisfying his curiosity.
"Is he evil?"
It was Mabel's turn to change her reaction, she shook her head. "Not evil, I mean at first I thought he was just annoying and a jerk. He seems like he knows a lot, reminded me of you actually. But he's nice and talks about a lot of stuff that I like. He says his name is Williams."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, that and he likes my sweaters." She signed this with a pleased smile on her face and Dipper let his guard drop a bit. The last thing he needed was an all too-familiar demon having conversations with his sister. The worst thing Bill could do was offer her a deal, get her voice back maybe. Mabel wasn't stupid though and he relied on that simple thought to calm him down.
They ate in silence, lasagna and white pasta, watched a movie together and promptly went to bed a tad late. Dipper had spent the rest of the day speaking to Stan about the Journal, as the man confided him on some things that had happened while they were gone. Mabel spent her time listening to music, taking Waddles out for a walk and then returning later on to shower and put on pajamas. Once she hit the bed, she realized just how tired she was and how quickly it took for her pillows to send her off to a land of peaceful dreaming and much needed rest.
Except she woke up cold, and in her bedroom.
Off to the side, where Dipper was supposed to be, the only coloured thing against the black-and-white theme of the room was that yellow color.
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His name is Bill Cipher, and he gave the teenager who had just woken up a small wave of his hand and a big smile that showed all too-many teeth. He ignores how perplexed she looks and tries to focus more on her form, it's difficult and he tries to understand why exactly it is. He hovers towards her spot, helps her stand up and gives a bow.
"Shooting Star, it's nice to see you!"
Mabel seems to still not be out of it, and a flash of recognition passes by her eyes before she smiles slightly. Opens her mouth and nothing comes out, she thinks of her words is awarded by the own sound of her voice.
"It's nice to see you too!" It sounds so good the way her voice sounds, how she can hear it but still not speak it.
Bill nods, the smile still present on his face before he floats back. Tips his hat and a table with a tea set appears on top of it. Mabel takes a seat on the chair that's closest to her, waits for Bill to do the same and then crosses her leg, pushing back the slight paranoid that creeps up her spine. Because she knows that she's not suppose to be speaking to this demon, he's caused too much trouble before for the Mystery Twins, for everyone she cares about. But Bill is the only she can speak to without worrying about language barriers, he reads minds. It pretty much made useless her knowledge of sign language with him around.
He proves Mabel's point when he speaks.
"Don't worry Shooting Star, I'm not gonna harm you or Pine Tree. The two of you are so much fun!" He dismissed the obvious with his hand in an old-fashioned manner, Mabel blinked.
"Then why did you call me?" She asks and places both her arms on the table, the teacups are empty and there's no smell of tea in the kettle. She swings her legs back and forward and Bill simply shakes his head, making an over-exaggerated sad face.
"What?" He draws out the 'a' and Mabel frowns a bit, "am I not allowed to visit my favorite Shooting Star?"
"I was sleeping."
"Now you're not!" He pointed out, clapping his hand once. The table disappears and the chairs do to. Mabel finds herself on the floor and oddly enough it doesn't hurt her. Bill's infront of her, he smirks, too sinisterly and then pokes her nose.
"I'm here because I saw your conversation with Pine Tree earlier, and I must say I am nothing more than disappointed." He crossed his arms, took four 'steps' -they couldn't be called steps because his feet were never in the ground to begin with- back and clapped his palms, opening them slowly and as he did a small screen-like box appeared. Mabel was surprised to say the least, as she watched the interaction between her and her sibling.
"You were spying on us?!"
"Not spying, I just happened to be watching."
"So you were spying."
"Call it whatever you want. I'm curious, enlighten me." He tapped his chin, his left hand holding his black cane. "Why did you lie?"
Mabel at this point, was at loss for words. She hadn't technically lied, Bill's second name was William, or so he had said. She just didn't want to worry Dipper, because so far Bill had proven to be trustworthy -and by that she meant that he was not pressuring her into making a deal with him, something for which she was grateful for.
"I didn't. I just didn't want Dipper knowing I'm meeting up with you."
"And why am I so bad all of the sudden?"
"Bill, you took possession of his body and almost tried to destroy us." She pointed out with a straight face, stood up and walked towards her bed.
He let out a chuckle, and that smirk on his face never left.
"Oh, yeah."
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He once spent a couple of weeks without holding his cane, when Mabel took notice of this they were having a picnic just outside of the Mystery Shack, the one diploid of life. Even if the leafs from the monochrome trees moved, Mabel couldn't hear the wind that moved them or even feel it. Everything was so silent, she was sure if a needle were to be dropped down in the forest, she would hear it from where she stood. The thought was not one she liked to think of, because that meant that she was reminded just how vulnerable and alone in the demon's dreamscape she was. She knew Bill wouldn't hurt her, the key word here being wouldn't. Because he could, right now.
In front of them and under them laid a plain baby-blue blanket that had been used for them to sit on -more like for Mabel to sit on, Bill was floating- and pastries with tea that held no flavour or smell were just sitting there, another coloured thing amongst the endless monochrome. She brought up her knees to her chest and rested her head in the little space, between the comfortable warmth that her sweater gave her, as an exception of the skirt she wore that did nothing to prevent her legs from being cold -which again, she wanted to know just how it was even possible.
Her eyes had been on Bill all this time, who took in the scenery as if he was captivated by it. But that wasn't it, she just couldn't pinpoint what was bothering her.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, the blond's eye that wasn't covered by his hair twitched and annoyance.
"Stop looking at me." He snarled and turned to sharply look at her. Past her.
Mabel made a great effort to not turn her head back, surely it was just him trying to freak her out. She opened her mouth to speak, closed it and then thought of a question she had been meaning to ask but never found the time to do so. When she did, she could've sworn she saw Bill's gaze harden, even if just a bit, and the tiniest second that could've been just a trick of the eye. She swore Bill had almost stiffened, but as soon as it came it went and she was rewarded by a laugh so natural that sent shivers down her spine.
"My cane? Why it's right here Shooting Star" the words had taken a toll on his open hand, because Mabel didn't even had to blink for the object to appear, the black and sturdy cane was in possession of his left hand.
"I didn't know you were a lefty." Mabel pointed out.
"I didn't know you took notice of such trivial things."
Mabel had to shrug at this, it was just in her genes or something. She's always been good at noticing little things, even if it was never all the time. "I guess I just worry, what if you had broken your right hand? huh?"
"Well I don't worry about your being Shooting Star, so don't worry about me."
Then he smiled and smiled, because that's what Bill Cipher loved to do. If there was something more scarier than his smile, Mabel could not think of it at the moment, the smile wasn't one that promised good fortune or actions. Heck, she was sure that Bill just did it for the sake of watching her scoot away, even if he was almost at the other end of the blanket. Somewhere in the silence that had taken place, she ignored the sound of a bell ringing off in a distance and asked about the colour of his clothes. Sure enough this caught him off guard again.
"Why? You don't like it Shooting Star?" It took her by surprise just how close he had gotten to her, the picnic was gone and no reminders of ever being outside were with them. She realized she was sitting on her bed, Bill by her side as he used one hand to prop himself up just besides her. His free hand had intertwined with hers, she blinked and then tried to pry his hands away from her. He didn't budge.
"I never said that." Her voice was low, Bill could see she was not comfortable.
"So you like it." He was just mocking her now.
"No, I just wanted to ask about it."
Bill frowned a bit, bringing his index finger to her forehead and poking it, he got closer even more, their legs touched as Mabel sat appropriately. Bill's gaze was creeping her out. He seemed to be looking at her but at the same time not. "Then what's on that little mind of yours?"
"Nothing, just unusual to see you wearing something that's not yellow." She gave a simple shrug, tilted her head to the side when Bill's eye widened slightly and he let out a chuckle.
Then it was full blown out laughter that made her want to cover her ears. She couldn;t, Bill was still holding onto one of them.
Mabel couldn't exactly pinpoint what was so funny. He was wearing his top hat, black, usual black vest and just plain out formal, as if he was a businessman that was invited to every party held and he would just be there ready and elegant as always.
"Shooting Star, lay off the sugar! I'm completely wearing yellow."
Mabel was about to protest, but stopped mid track. He was right, it was yellow. He was wearing yellow. Not black, not brown, not blue, but yellow.
She shook her head, "That's not the point Bill! You should really wear more cool clothes!"
"Are you telling me I have a horrible fashion taste?" He faked a hurt gasp.
Mabel rolled her eyes, but smiled nonetheless at his antics. "I''m gonna make you a sweater. No, it's not going to be yellow. And yes you are to wear it whenever I'm around."
"And why would I need to wear a sweater?" He inquired.
"You'll be just as adorable as me!" She proudly pointed at the two of them.
True to her word, she knit him a canary yellow sweater that had a stitched design of the providence eye. He spent about two days waiting for her to finish, something that was hard to do because she wanted to spend some time with her twin brother. She gave it to him on a rainy night, going upstairs to get ready for bed when she found him on her bed sitting down and staring at nothing. He hadn't noticed her presence until she had tapped him on the shoulder, and he momentarily froze before he realized who it was.
He thanked her for the gift, and before leaving had complained over one single fact.
"Too bad it's not yellow."
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She knit him a sweater and got nightmares in return, just a few days prior to Dipper telling her that he had already known of her meetings with Bill. He, surprisingly hadn't lashed out at her like she expected him to. Not like she would fight him back, because if he did get worried it would be for logical reasons. Bill had done some unspeakable things to the Pines and the least they should be worrying about is being good friends with the demon and knitting him sweaters because they didn't approve of his clothing style. Mabel was gawking at her brother as he read a novel in his bed, she was sitting on his bed, legs crossed.
"I realized it after I saw you knitting him a sweater, that and he came by a day ago just to be bother me. You seemed fine, so I didn't question it."
"So you're not mad at me?" She poked his leg.
"Hardly, I'm just still not getting how easily you lied to me before." He let out a small chuckle, "I never expected my own twin to lie better than me. And in this sort of situation."
She bit the inside of her cheeks when Dipper stood up, ruffled her hair and told her he was going out with Soos to help Grunkle Stan with something. And she shook her head, shooed away the tears that threatened to fall and the horrible weight on her throat. Of course it would be no big deal to lie to people in her current state, in the state she would be for all of her life. Hand signals did not stutter, they did not tell the truth after the lie, they simply told the lie and that was it. That was the end of it.
Mabel Pines dreamt that night of being engulfed by black flames that turned into a deep azure colour as they danced around her skin, her body, she danced with the flames that licked her skin and made her feel hot, cold, comfortable and burnt her and she never once screamed, not even as everything seemed to stop and was nothing but black. She could hear the sound of the flames and she could feel, she could speak, it was her voice that sounded in the endless place. It was so weird, not being able to see and then she realized that she wouldn't be able to see anyways.
Her voice was back, her vision gone. The flames ate her body whole.
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Bill makes it a point to bothering her even in the real world.
She blames it on him being bored, he wasn't much of a social butterfly as demons weren't exactly normal friends in the everyday lives of people, so she didn't blame him as long as he didn't get in the way of things. She also could feel some sort of sympathy for him, after all she's been in his dreamscape so many times that even she herself found out why the demon seeked company. It was a cold and boring place, silent too silent. No amount of imaginating things would cure someone's boredom, after all, when you could get things easily. What would be the point of it anyways?
However, it became rather tedious whenever he and Dipper would start fighting over petty things. Seriously, she thought that they would both act like civilized people, but it proved that her thinking was far from true. If Bill touched Dipper's books, the Mystery Twin would make it a job of his to underestimate the dream demon. They'd hide their belongings, call each other names and Bill would often at most time somehow drag Mabel into the middle of their arguments. If she wasn't as oblivious to things like they thought she was, she would've noticed how Dipper sometimes would whispers things into Bill's ears and the male would simply deny everything he said.
Bill, Mabel noticed, was not as creepy as she thought he was. Even Dipper had to agree with her. He loves to wear suits and over complicated clothing that would make him stand out as a sore thumb in the middle of a normal crowd. He loves playing with dice and would roll them all around the room if it meant getting either of the twins mad, he did this out of pure amusement. He has knowledge to everything and everything he says can and will be true because demons cannot lie, he simply calls it a Twist Of Words whenever he made deals with people and Mabel took a mental note of this for future reference.
He understands when people do not wish to be bothered and at most would just hover over the twins whenever they were on their own things. He and Dipper would speak about knowledge about certain subjects and would totally avoid the mentioning of the Journals, he claimed to have lost interest in them, but the way his eye flashes with an unknown feeling tells otherwise. He likes to sit and braid Mabel's hair and signs with her all day long, and when he gets tired of doing these he likes to deem the lights and show them a constellation of stars just under their roof and show them of all the wonderful things in the world.
Despite all of this, despite the fact that he tried to act like everything was normal, he found himself bumping into things way more frequently. Even going as far as almost falling down the stairs because he stopped floating and decided to just use his cane, which apparently Dipper had hidden and the demon claimed he didn't need the fashion accessory. It didn't take long for the Mystery Twins to notice these things and Mabel found herself in the need to ask the demon.
They watched a scary movie downstairs after their great-uncle went to bed and knew he would not stay awake. The room was dark and cold and the movie was thrilling and for once, actually scary. Somewhere along the movie, Dipper had fallen asleep and Bill's cold hands had intertwined with her own's warm hands and he had his head on her shoulder and Mabel found out that she did not mind the closeness. She didn't even stop to ask Bill what part of the movie he found interesting because he was no longer there with them. Mabel only had one thing in her mind and it was how the young man did not have a pulse.
She fell asleep on her brother's lap and dreamt of soft music composed of cries.
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He underestimated his Shooting Star too much and it was too late to make amends.
Their feet touch the skies and they swirl and swirl and step on invisible crystal and stone and every contact with the invisible platform only reminds her that she is not floating and that they move to the synchronization of the sound of no-music. Its one step, then the other, followed by a certain pattern to step, step step and then swirl and end up in his arms as he leads the dance. It repeats until Mabel learns the dance and doesn't mind how how close she is to him, or how he stares forward and not at her. His scent fills her nose and she doesn't mind, he smells of powder and cinnamon and something else that she can't quite place but still likes. There's no sound that comes from the both of them and everything is quiet except for the click of her heels and the swoosh of her white dress.
Step.
Step.
Step.
Twirl.
"Oomf-" She falls to her rear and tries to avoid the whimper that almost escape her rosy lips and tries to shoo away the feeling of dread that fills her stomach when she realizes just how close she was to falling from the sky into the impending doom that awaits her at the floor. She knew it wouldn't happen, Bill wouldn't hurt her.
"Ah! Shooting Star, ugh, sorry!" His voice was laced with concern and he blindly extended out his hand and looked at everywhere but her and Mabel contemplated on taking his hand, but did and was found back into square one with his hand around her waist and her fingers locked with his own, his chest on her head and she takes a deep breath because he smells so nice and she doesn't know how to feel. They start to move, and Bill ends up being more careful and moves upwards, and she can feel how they elevate in the air and dance to the sound of their breathing.
Step.
"Bill, since when have you been blind?" Mabel asks and her question clearly caught him off guard because he stops and takes a deep breath. He continues to move and Mabel keeps up the pace.
"I'm not blind-"
"Bill." She frowned.
Another step, another twirl and a slight shudder runs down his spine when he realizes just how good she smells when her hair swings by his face dangerously close. It's different than the lack of smells and flavours and sound and color that his dreamscape is. He catches her by the waist just before he is about to fall and brings her close to his chest and ignores how she is visibly stiffening under his avoidance of the subject. He gives an almost non-existent sigh.
"It's no big deal, I'd rather not talk about it." He gave a nonchalant shrug.
"You know, not talking about stuff does not make it go away." She took a step back.
"And you trying to get me to talk will not work, Shooting Star." He gave a sympathetic smile, one that meant he wanted her to drop the subject, Mabel kept on going.
"Fine. Then what can I do to make you talk?" She asked with genuine curiosity, sometimes her caring nature got the best of her.
Another step, twice then three he spun her and Mabel blinked when she almost stumbled forward into nothing. One second to realize the demon was no longer in front of her, and two seconds to realize that he was behind her and his cold breath on her neck made goosebumps arise in her skin. His fingers traced her hand towards her arm, and all this time he hadn't moved his head. Mabel took a lucky guess that he was not staring at her, but past her.
He can't see her.
She doesn't know if that's comforting in some way, because it's not.
"How about... a deal, Star. You get your voice back, I get something in return."
Mabel bit her lip, turned around and began to take a step back. Bill understood what she meant and didn't push much further into the situation, he was joking of course. A part of him was, at least. There was no way that Mabel would be so desperate to know why and how he had ended up this way.
"I thought you were the all-knowing expertise, isn't this holding you back?" She asks as he spins her in place and she realizes just how light and feather-like she felt for a second there, it takes Bill a full twenty seconds to place his hand on her hips and then lead the way.
One, two, three, one, two,three.
"I'm still the most powerful demon, I just have a slight disadvantage for the time being, Shooting Star." He cautioned the way he said this, but Mabel took notice of the subtle annoyance in his voice.
Silence reigns over them and Mabel takes this time to inspect the demon in a closer look. He's rather slim and doesn't seem to gain weight no matter how many sweets he ate, sandy blond hair that covers half of his eye and is mostly unkempt in a way that only he could show and look good. His dark skin mixed lovingly with the yellows and dark browns that were his clothing styles, but if there's something that always caught her attention, it was Bill's unusual eye colors. A vibrant gold that could send many into his hold with a simple look, they no longer had that shine to them. They looked vacant and the colour worned out.
She realized that because she hadn't paid close attention to his eyes before, she hadn't realized it sooner.
"So... hypothetically speaking, that I do want to make a deal..." She trailed off, noticed she was leading the music-less dance now.
Bill's eye widened slightly, "Yes?"
"What would you want from me if I do accept." Step, step. Oh how she wished the feeling of being afraid left.
"Why, Shooting Star. I'd want to have my vision back."
"I'm not following."
"I mean," He took a step too close and Mabel almost tripped on her own feet but regained her balance. "I want a replacement for my eyes, you'll get your beautiful voice and I get Pine Tree's vision." He said the last part in a whisper and a smirk that made Mabel's heart sink a bit.
"W-why Dippers?"
"Why not?" He asks and if it was possible, the grin on his face stretched too wide.
"N-no! I'm not going to let you take Dipper's vision, you... you evil triangle!" Mabel screeched and tried to push the man away, she expected more fighting for him part but was surprised to find that he had let go rather easily and he himself had become too shocked at this, because he hadn't lashed out as quickly as she thought he would.
Mabel just wanted to get out, before things got too dangerous but the only who could send her back was Bill. This was the worst time to anger the demon, she quickly realized. She wanted to stutter out apologies, make it up to him but another part of her was standing still with terror but determination to not let him get his way. She felt so... used! Surely he was joking right? They were getting along too, it just broke her down a bit.
All she wanted to do was spend her last summer in Gravity Falls amazingly.
Bill was about to snap, she could tell by the way his body shook with built up anger and how everything seemed to shake momentarily. Before it stopped.
"Shooting Star, you're leaving?" He asks and it's a tiny whisper.
"I... how do you know tha-" She stopped her sentence when she remembered where she was.
"I.. yeah. This is my last summer here," she bit her lip and tried to push the upset feeling that was taking over her. Their parents had the great idea to travel the world, they only had this summer and the next one to spend with their friends and their Great-uncle. "I thought you knew."
"No."
Mabel rubbed her arm and looked somewhere else as Bill's cane appeared out of nowhere and the demon began to walk towards her.
He hesitated, a small second, before saying something. "How about... you getting your voice back-"
Mabel's eyes widened slightly, "Bill, I already said no." She huffed annoyingly, she no longer wore the white dress but a sweater, the one she had been wearing before the demon had called her.
"But Star-"
"No. And I wish to leave, thank you very much." She crossed her arms and turned around.
It was in a desperate moment, but he knew he couldn't keep Mabel with him here all along, he couldn't stand to think the female hating him more than she already did, even though she didn't exactly hate him it was more a reasonable fear, he reached out to her.
"Fine, you can go. Just... JustHowAboutIfYouPromiseToKeepMeCompanyInChangeOfYourVoice?" He said it all so fast, and flinched when he realized what he had just done. He couldn't help but want to swallow his own words, smile and tell her he was joking and nothing more. But she would wake up and the last thing he needed was an upset Mabel that would not talk to him.
"I'll think about it." She says and disappears, leaving him to his own thoughts.
He wished so much that her words did not make his whole being feel at ease.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
It takes her exactly three days to think over the deal he had offered her and Mabel Pines wrote a list. She never even thought about why she actually cared thinking about it. But then looking at Bill so helplessly, she couldn't help the feeling of guilt that washed over her. Even if he was evil, no one deserved to be alone.
It takes her another two to get the courage to summon the demon -thankfully he had given her enough time and didn't pester her with nightmares- and she recited in her head the summoning spell that to this day she does not want to know how fast she had learn it.
"Triangulum, entangulum. Veneforis dominus ventium. Veneforis venetisarium!"
The feeling she gets it's not pleasant and for a moment she thinks everything around her turns a light blue before her surroundings turn to white and black and Bill's standing there with a too-large grin that holds her immobilized. She hands him a list he cannot read and then proceeds to go on with what she wants and what he can't do.
He's rather amused by her choices, for starters, she wanted her voice back and not someone else's voice. She wanted her own voice and nothing more. The second thing she asked was for a way out of the dreamscape for whenever she wanted it -he almost wanted to deny this but simply nodded- and access to it at any given point. The third thing she asked for was for him to not twist his promise in any way. The fourth one, and by far the one that caught him the most off guard was that she wanted his vision back only when she was around in the dreamscape and/or the living world, anything other than that didn't count and he would go back to his disability.
Bill gave her his word and as blue flames slowly engulfed his hands as he stretched out for her to take, Mabel could only think of one thing as she took his hand and sealed the deal. She really hoped she wasn't making a mistake.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
He told himself it was a simple deal, that the female only did it because she didn't want to anger him and keep her twin brother safe. Not because she cared about him or his dilemma, that he was lonely and that he had a disability that could only be resolved with her around. Still, a selfish part of him liked to imagine that she had only agreed to form a deal with him after she had seen just how desperate he was to not have been left alone again -he would forever scold himself for letting his useless emotions get the best of him- and that she enjoyed being able to talk to him freely with her "new" voice. That she liked to dance with him to classical music and would not try to leave early even when he got way too touchy or made her uncomfortable, that because she enjoyed his presence as he did with hers, that she would not abuse her power to come and go whenever she pleased.
He would listen to her speak about trivial things and about how her parents had decided against travelling, and how she was sure he had something to do with and he would deny. But she could tell and never said anything about it. He loved to look at her knit and pet her pig and tell him of silly little quirks of hers that he found to be entertaining all at once. It would warm his chest in a way that would make his old-self screech at himself in disgust and disapproval, but now would make him smile and not the ones that held nothing but malicious intent to them. A true smile, that she had said she very much liked. And he wasn't sure if the feeling he felt whenever she would compliment him was the old one or a completely different one.
Then in between these emotions there was this still-growing emotion for shamefulness and anger that had settled deep in his soul. In a moment of weakness he had let out to her that he was lonely, so lonely, that he was willing to change a deal like this one just for the sake of being able to run his fingers through her lovely hair, or hold her hand when they would go out in town with her brother and eat ice cream. That every time they hugged and he got the nice smell of her, that he could only describe as being her's and only her's, didn't make him go weak and try to get the female to give him more attention.
He's needy, and lonely.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
She had told herself that this was just a deal, and that by any means Bill would not hurt her at all -but in retrospect, she never listed that in the list she had made, but if the dream demon hadn't made the first intention then she wouldn't worry about it- and that by no means she was to get attached to him. Dipper had warned her, and so far Grunkle Stan hadn't said anything about him, whether Bill took a different appearance to the man whenever he was around or the old man simply did not care, left the twins curious, still not much to ask.
Mabel had realized after a couple of weeks of being visited by Bill, that she did not mind his company at all. She was still cautious around him because the nagging voice at the back of her head kept on telling her that not only had she made a deal with a demon, a powerful one at it, she had also become too attached to him. She would deny it a first, but Bill had just grown onto her and more often than not her thoughts wandered back to the demon sometimes. She did not mind when he would whisper things into her ears about how beautiful she looked, and would hide her blush and try to act indifferent when her twin looked their way. She would hold his hand and teach him how to knit and smile brightly when he would make her scarfs she wouldn't use, but nonetheless kept. She would not feel uncomfortable whenever he pointed out little things about her that she herself did not know and would take him into town to show off her fabulous choice of clothes.
Still, if there was one thing that she couldn't help but wonder was if the demon actually minded her presence at all, or simply stayed by her side because of the deal. Did he really enjoy the moments they spent together? Or was it all an act so he could get his vision back, but even if his motives were the evil ones. She had come to the conclusion that he had nothing to gain from it. He was still the seer of everything, he could estimate when people would die and describe the way they did and do it with a much content expression. He could manifest into any form and destroy things in the blink of an eye, he could end her life before she would notice and he would not bat an eye. But the only downside was, that without her, he could not see the material things and was left with nothing but darkness.
Maybe, just maybe, he actually enjoyed her company. Maybe the things he would coo when they would stay late at night were true.
So far, she wasn't sure. But the day she told her family she could speak again, it took both Dipper and Stan at least a full ten seconds to realize that the teen that looked to be slightly older than Mabel, was not a human but Bill Cipher himself and that they had made a deal. She had been screamed at, reproached by her actions but Bill had calmly stated their agreements. It did not settle her brother nor her great-uncle, so they kept an eye on him for the last remaining weeks of the summer.
On the last day, she gave him a kiss on the cheek and promised to visit next year.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
He finds that human time was too slow for his liking, too slow. He knew it would be a couple of months before summer would come so he spent his time on his dreamscape and tried to think of anything he could do. Frustratingly enough, his thoughts kept on going back to Mabel. After countless times of trying to get her out of his mind, he simply had given up. There was nothing he could do anyways. He couldn't see, could still move around his own place, but seeing was something he needed.
Days turned to weeks, weeks to months.
Before he knew it, his vision had cleared a bit and was surprised to see that the twins were back in town.
His theory was confirmed when Mabel's form slowly appeared on his dreamscape and his vision regained it's full power back. He had to blink twice before he grew accustomed to his surroundings, however he didn't pay much attention to any of that. He watched as Mabel stomped towards him, her long hair bouncing slightly with each step she took. He couldn't help the way his lips twitched forward.
He made a table with sweets and tea appear and offered her a seat which she took without too much words, she eyed him carefully before speaking and he realized that she was hesitant to speak with her voice, not with her thoughts.
"Bill, you lied!"
"Of course I did Shooting Star." He waved his hand with a grin.
Mabel pouted at this, she should've seen it coming. Still, she wanted an explanation, so she asked and the demon was more than happy to comply into her wishes for information.
"Star, the only thing you promised me was your voice back, that and other miscellaneous things," He snapped his fingers and the list she made appeared besides him, enveloped in blue flames. "The deal to get my vision back whenever you are around is still intact, and let me tell you that these past months have been torturous without your wonderful self being here."
Mabel rolled her eyes.
"So?"
"So. You never specified if you wanted your voice all the time, you only said you wanted your voice back. I gave it to you, but you can only use it when in Gravity Falls." He loved the way her eyes flashed with realization, then defeat. "If it makes things better, I'm stuck in a similar situation."
Mabel nodded, still mad at him. She had been so excited to tell her parents the news of her "miraculously recovering" only to find that she couldn't speak once she and Dipper left Gravity Falls. There was no way she would contact Bill while on school year, so she decided to wait -agonizingly- until they went back to Gravity Falls.
She let out a sigh, observed the sweets that were calling out to her and hesitantly picked one up. Bill shook his head.
"They're not poisoned."
A glare from brown eyes followed by the female taking a big bite of the sweet and trying to not squeal over how delicious it tasted.
"I know."