Prompt: Bill and Stan snarking at each other? Double points if they to pause real quick while one of the twins are in the room.
So, what I wanted to do was a tiny continuation of the last sic fic where Bill took Dipper flying during the night. But like, I also wanted to do monster falls, and that would be switching aus between fics and that doesn't even make any sort of sense. (I mean, this is Gravity Falls but there's got to be some cohesion.) I decided to go with normal!verse, with my…added headcanons about Cipher. Also…let's face it. Human, normal Stan going up against demonic Bill and not giving a flying fuck he's yelling at a demonic entity? That's actually pretty adorbs because this is how much he loves his niece/nephew. Stan runs from stuff a lot (the store, Gideon's father, he's even running in the opening theme.) But…
Do we ever see Stanford turn and run when the twins are involved?
If You Were Flying
"Flying? You took him flying?!"
"Look Stanford, this isn't the time to get out that book now, is it? Aren't you over reacting a little?" Cipher was not fleeing. He was just calmly stepping backwards with his hands out. This is called a 'tactical retreat,' thank you very much.
"A little?! I'll show you a little you shrunken little pyramid freak!"
"Hey I resemble that remark! Ack—" Cipher flattened his wings and ducked as a Bible went soaring over him.
"Are you out of your ever loving mind, Cipher!"
"It was a little flying, Stan! You're always telling the kid he needs to get out more and do kid stuff!"
"Flying on the back of a demonic force of the supernatural. Is. NOT. KID STUFF!"
Each sentence was broken by holy runes now being lobbed at the demonic looking human. And the last sentence was the biggest attack of them all, going right through the window pane and shattering the glass. Bill thought he heard the startled cry of a goat but he ignored it, and twisted upside down from his perch in the rafters. His wings clutched the wooden beams and he glared lightly down at the old man.
"You better watch it, Pines. I'm almost back at full power! It wouldn't take much for you to vanish and never be heard from again." Cipher added a deadly, wide smile to his little bluff—Stan had no way of knowing he'd promised his kids he wouldn't do anything to harm their 'dear' Great Uncle.
Thinking back, Cipher muses he should have added a little fine print to that deal. Something like 'if YOUR uncle tries to kill ME first, I'm going to protect myself!'
It was a childish thing to think, but Stan had started.
"Get down here and fight me like a man!" Stan barked.
"You come up here! Oh wait, you can't!" He added his trademark echoing laugh, which echoed off the ceiling and bounced round the room, no doubt pissing Stanford off even more. Goodie!
Cipher right himself and swung a leg over the beam he was straddling, perching up there happily.
"I don't see what the big fuss is, Stanny-boy. It was a night, no one saw us, and the kid—"
"The kid isn't going to forget that."
Stanford's tone was low and almost quiet, and it was so far from the previous shouting the dream demon actually paused midsentence and looked down at the oldest Pines member. His eye half blinked, questioningly along with a little head tilt. Stan looked away and rubbed the back of his neck, moving over to take a heavy seat in his easy chair.
"This is Dipper, think about it. Flying is dangerous. Especially the way you do it. All it takes is one wrong move and the next thing I know I'm scrapping my great-nephew off a rock somewhere." A heavy sigh, Bill was still quiet, simply listening. "Worst part is, you don't just forget about something like flying like that. And he's already so damn curious."
"…I suppose." That was as close as they'd ever get to hearing Cipher agree with Stan, and both knew it.
Silence fell over the living room.
"He's gonna want to go out there again."
"He's probably out there now." Stan commented tiredly, not taking his eyes off the black tv screen. His voice was distant and lost in thought. Cipher nodded. He was.
Cipher was staring too, but his single eye was focusing on something no human could see. The current present. Just a little bit far away. Suddenly, Bill started droning,
"They're in the south forest, about 8 meters from here. Talking with the satyrs. Mabel's braiding ones hair, and Dipper's asking them questions and drawing them." Bill shook his head to clear his present sight spell and frowned a little at the thought of Dipper drawing someone other than him. Then he wondered briefly why it mattered so much to him. Hm, he'd have to look into that later.
Stan was quiet, and Cipher took the moment's rest to begin to scale down from the rafters and back onto the carpeting.
Stan eyed him, but made no move toward another bible. Something Cipher was secretly grateful for, because he was still a bit ill, and after this was going to stalk up into the attic and curl up in the first bed he found and sleep.
"You know. I'm waiting for the day."
Cipher paused over the threshold out of the living room, and glanced over his shoulder.
"You're waiting for quite a few days, Stanford Pines." Cipher pointed out, voice low and knowing. Stan turned to glare at him quietly, and he seemed much younger to the demon then. Time had a funny way of passing so differently for every species and sometimes Cipher forgot this was an old man he was looking at, and not the one from 40 or so years ago.
In 40 years, where would Dipper be?
"The day you finally show your true colors and go after them, you bastard."
Bill Cipher smiled his wicked crocodile smirk, lips showing pointed teeth and single ruby eye glinting with the stuff of nightmares. Even from where he saw the way Stan felt fear, and tensed a bit. He saw how Stan covered it too, impressively but nevertheless. The fear was there. As it should be.
"I'm very sorry to inform you, but that will be a day you will never see. Sweet dreams, Stanford Pines." Cipher ended the sentence with a purr and stalked up the stairs.
He knew Stan shuddered when he left the room. Cipher only smiled and on his next blink his eye was no longer scarlet.