Tick, tock.
Tick, tock.
Tick, tock.
Tick, tock.
Tick, tock.
Tick, tock.
Tick, tock.
TICK.
TOCK.
TICK.
A scream echoed against the wooden walls of the old room, loud gulps for air following suit. Bill sat in the couch bed, his eyes darting about the room to affirm his location. The morning's silence held him lovingly after the hissed whispers, and the chilled January air told him the agonizing heat he had felt just a moment before had left him upon entering the waking world. He sent his clammy, trembling hand through his hair. A final puff and the closing of his eyes assisted in wrangling himself together again.
He twisted himself from his seated position to pick up the clock he had on his nightstand. He sighed when he read it. "No hope for me to catch up on any beauty rest," he muttered, wiping the grit from his eyes.
He brought himself up to a kneel and peaked through the window above where he slept. It wasn't cold enough for snow last night and had instead rained, leaving the bare trees and dead ground visibly sodden and dreary. Bill shivered.
As per usual with every Monday since the day he arrived, Bill dragged himself out of bed rather early to prepare the Mystery Shack for that week's visitors. For nearly the past month, though, he had been rising almost half an hour later than he would have preferred, with none of the bonuses that typically come with sleeping in. He swung his legs off the side and gave his back a stretch. Halfheartedly covering a yawn with a fist, he dragged himself to the attached bathroom. He splashed his face with cold water from the tap to help jostle him awake, blotting off any extra with a towel.
He looked up at his reflection in the mirror. He could feel the blackened eye staring at him. He stared back. The red center scanned his face over, at his hair, his scruff, even to the gray orb next to it, before finally falling upon itself once more. Bill's eyebrows furrowed at the sight of it. The back of a hand reached up wipe it clean, but it remained the same ebony and crimson colors. Bill's face softened, defeated.
He quickly finished getting ready for the work day ahead, minus a few key details. He stepped towards the table he kept near his bedside and picked up the two pieces of silk lying on it. He faced the large mirror on the wall to tie his bowtie, all while averting eye contact with himself. The eye patch he placed over his left eye was tied with the same rebellious tug he had first tied it with. He headed towards the door, slipping his shoes on and grabbing his top hat from the horns of his stuffed jackalope.
Bill tapped a pencil to his chin, periodically scribbling something onto the clipboard he was holding. He busied himself by counting the bobbles on one of the shelves in the gift shop in the few minutes he had before the Shack officially opened. He was so engrossed in his work that the apocalypse would have happened again before he would notice the sound of footsteps behind him.
Mabel had walked up behind him. She giggled at the sight of Bill chewing on a corner of his mouth as he counted snow globes, a stolid expression fixed on his face. She giggled even harder when he yelped at her surprise hug. "Good morning, starshine!" she greeted. "The sun says 'hello'!"
He craned his neck behind him and grinned at the sight of the young woman beaming up at him. "And to you as well, Shooting Star," he replied. He turned to face her when she finally let go.
She eyed the tidy handwriting on the page he was holding. "What'cha got there?"
He nodded his head towards the shelves. "Just doing a boring inventory check. Nothing too spectacular." His eyebrow lifted. "Ready to tackle another week?"
Mabel nodded, saying "Yep!" Her face soon scrunched as she squinted at Bill. She couldn't help but see the circles underneath the eye she could see or notice the fact that his face was becoming more glazed over as time went on. "But I'm starting to wonder if you are. Not to make you feel bad, but you look like you haven't slept a wink in a while." She nudged him, saying, "Do you want some of my signature 'Mabel Juice'? I'll leave out the plastic dinosaurs this time."
Bill feigned a smile, turning back to the shelves. "Don't worry about me. I'll be okay, I promise."
"So you were able to get some sleep last night?"
"... No. Nothing restful."
"Is it because of nightmares? Sometimes I can hear you scream from my room."
"Ironic, ain't it?" Bill curtly commented, resuming his inventory check. He heard Mabel's feet shuffle behind him towards the cashier's counter.
"Hey, Mr. Sleepyhead! Maybe you're so tired because you've been standing in one spot doing nothing for who knows how long."
"But – "
"I have just the thing to cheer and wake you up at the same time!" She clicked on the radio and tuned it to her favorite station, dancing to the pop music blasting from the speakers. She tugged on his arm. "C'mon! Mandatory dance break!"
Cipher glanced back at her and watched her laugh and move about the room. A mischievous glint was in his eye. He laid the clipboard and pencil down on the counter before making his way towards the radio. "No, no. This won't work. Too electronic for my taste," he said, shaking his head. He fiddled with the knob until the static gave way to Roaring Twenties era swing music. "Now that's more like it. Nothing like the sound of real instruments."
Mabel cupped a hand at him. "Okay, Picky Peter, now get over here!"
Bill walked over to her calmly. "I'm coming, but you have to promise me one thing." He took Mabel's hand is his and rested his other hand behind her shoulder. "We dance my way."
Her half-lidded eyes smirked at him. "But I thought you said you had never danced before."
A small chuckle escaped his lips. "You got me there, dearie. But you'd be surprised how much you can pick up when you're stuck people-watching for eternity." He grinned. "You showed me how to dance on the fly. Now let me show you where a little choreography can take you."
Mabel felt his body straighten. "So, will you be taking me waltzing?"
Bill shook his head. "Oh, please. Everyone and their mother knows the waltz. Just follow my feet; these foxes are trotting."
He walked Mabel back, long strides from the both of them letting them float across the room. He spun the two around and stepped them to the side, then took them back across. Their mild height difference didn't seem to bother either of them as they continued to sway to the jazzy rhythm.
"Looks like you're getting lighter on your toes, there," Mabel remarked, noting how sure the blond's footsteps seemed to be.
"Hey, now," he said, twirling them both. "Youngsters take longer to learn how to sit up than I took to learn to walk a straight line. Besides," he continued, slightly tipping her backwards, "You would trip on your own feet, too, if the only walking you ever did was in someone else's body."
The song played on, and the two figures continued in their circular movements, tight spins dotting their performance. The brunette began to flow with the motions more naturally and moved with her partner easily. "Do you," she began quietly, squeezing the hand she held. "Do you wanna talk about them? The nightmares." She ducked her head. "You don't have to, it's just that sometimes telling them to someone helps me. It might work for you, too."
Bill held his breath, his forehead wrinkling. He watched their feet move to the background tune. "Really, I-I'd rather not. It's not you, it's just that they're... a lot closer to reality than your run-of the-mill dreams. That's part of what makes them so bad."
"I'm sorry," she sympathetically offered. "I wish I could help somehow." She leant her head on his shoulder.
His lips curled slightly upwards, his expression soft. "It's okay. These aren't your nightmares; let me deal with them."
The band's piece came to its climax, and Mabel looked up to see Bill listening intently, his steps taking a sudden stop. The ex-demon dramatically swung the woman around one final time before dipping her torso down with a flourish. Both mildly huffed to catch their breath. Shooting Star grinned, looking up at Cipher. He returned the smile.
"All right, gang, our first car just rolled in and – what is going on?"
Bill nearly dropped the girl in his arms at the sound of Dipper's shocked voice from the "Employees Only" doorway. He pulled themselves up from the dip, keeping his hands where they were for their dance. "What?" He glowered when his employer remained slackjawed. "Take a picture. It'll last longer."
"Actually, Dipper, could you take one for me?" Mabel interjected. "This moment needs documentation!"
Hey! 75 FOLLOWERS? Thank you all so so so SO much!
Merry Christmas to all reading! Here's a little Christmas present from me to all of you. Here's an announcement: I have two brand new stories! One is a short Pokemon Christmas-themed story that I've had lying around for... is it three years now? Sheesh. Well, I finally finished it and it's up to read.
And the big one is that I'll be starting a Gravity Falls/Bill and Mabel drabble series, and I will most definitely be taking any requests you happen to have! *party cannons* I'll be posting some of my pre-written stuff first. Don't worry, though. This story will be my main priority
Cheers, and Merry Christmas plus happy New Year's to you and yours.