Mabel looked up at Ford, eyes spelling out her worry and confliction about leaving. Knowing her, she wouldn't want to leave him until he was smiling again.

Bill didn't seem to care or acknowledge the fact that Mabel had been essentially asked to leave. Eyes cast on the ground, Bill seemed nearly frozen at this point. If they hadn't looked carefully enough, they might've assumed he had stopped breathing altogether.

Part of Mabel was wondering if she even trusted Bill and Ford together in one room. Especially the lab. There were dozens of things that both could probably use to kill each other. But- Ford didn't really look like he was going to kill him- Mabel sighed, and shifted to give Bill a hug.

Bill took in a sharp breath and looked up, glancing at the girl. She leaned back away, smiled, and stood up.

"Kay. Be good to each other," Mabel said, with a pointed glare at Ford. Bill let out a giggle as he watched Mabel. Partly amused by the fact that the trust had been flipped.

"Yes. Of course," Ford said with a soft smile. "Thank you," he added, in afterthought.

Mabel raised a brow at him as she left, but nodded. She smiled, turning to leave upstairs. Eyes on the doorway, Ford paused a movement as he waited for her to be gone for sure.

Ford turned to Bill and sighed. "If you just wanted to stabilize the Nightmare Realm, why didn't you just tell me?"

"You're not my dad," he grumbled. "I'm older than you by a couple of centuries."

Shaking his head, Ford sat on the ground. In silence, they sat on the floor together. Ford analytical gaze falling squarely on the humanized demon. After a while, Ford's silence was killing him more than the questioning.

"Why can't I stop thinking about it?" Bill said quietly, braking the silence. "I don't want to- to think about it. I want to just move on with it already. There's nothing I could do at this point. Why can't I stop thinking about it? It makes no sense."

"Like you're the king of making sense."

Bill groaned, letting himself fall backwards. Flat on the cold floor. "Humans make less sense then I did," Bill huffed, "I'm supposed to be crazy, what's humanity's excuse?"

Ford laughed, "Speaking from a logical standpoint, people are flawed parts of nature. Chemical imbalance, maybe just some terrible personality traits and you get a group of beings with no proper stability." He shrugged, "I guess sense and nonsense are both a part of being human."

Bill scoffed from the floor, covering his head with his arms, "Save me from human existence," he complained. "It's annoying being this- pitiful and sad."

"You're sad?"

Pouting, Bill raised one arm to look at Ford, "I'd rather be angry. Direct my energy at something I can hurt," he said sharply through gritted teeth. Hesitating a moment, he glanced away. "But all I've found to be angry at is myself so-" He flailed his arms and stared at the ceiling. "I was fine a little while ago," he complained, voice choking up again. "I stopped thinking about it and I was fine. I want to stop feeling like- like this!" He gestured to himself before let his arms drop limply.

"You distracted yourself from it," Ford said, "I've done it often enough myself. You bury yourself in something so you can ignore it and when you finish it all, all that's left is to just feel."

"Growing to be a wise old man are you?" Bill said, leaning up to smirk weakly at him.

Ford laughed, "Start acting like a cocky Dream Demon again and I will want to kill you."

"Oh come on," Bill said, sitting up fully and smiling, "You liked me well enough before. I do believe I was gaining 'worship' status."

Ford shook his head, "I was young and eager to ignore my troubles through learning. You- were a distraction from my troubles with my family."

"Back to that point," Bill bemoaned, rolling his eyes, "Alright sure." Sitting cross-legged and held his calves, leaning to the left a little, he looked Ford over with a critical eye. "How'd you deal with everything?"

Considering the question, Ford frowned. "Well," he sighed, "I guess I let myself feel for a moment. Expressed my emotions."

Bill glanced down at the ground, "I don't want to. I don't like feeling-" He dropped off on the words and bit his lip.

"And the fact that you became a teenager makes a lot more sense now."

Bill crinkled his nose, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Ford shook his head and laughed, "Teenagers have a tendency to be the most chemically imbalanced. Hormones and stuff, quite chaotic."

Pouting, Bill folded his arms, "I'm not 'chemically imbalanced.'"

"I'm joking, honestly. I was a teenager once myself. I can sorta get the whole feeling of it, but I've got to say, some of it's just drama."

Bill raised his arms in protest, "What does that have to do with this! I'm not being dramatic! An entire realm got destroyed! Shattered! Folded in on itself! Kapoosh! Dead!" He dropped his arms and gritted his teeth. Tears were trying to well up in his eyes again. He's starting to hate that.

Ford returned to a serious expression and Bill watched him for a moment.

"Bill-"

"Ford," Bill mimicked.

He shook his head, "Sometimes the part that was the drama- was when I was ignoring things."

Bill sighed, nodding. "Okay, I get it." A small moment of reflection and he laughed lightly. "Look at me, taking advice from you."

"The student becomes the teacher, huh?"

"I still know more about everything than you," Bill said defiantly as he leaned back slightly.

"Sure Bill." Ford said as he moved to stand.

Bill's smirk fell. Folding his legs against his chest, holding them with his arm. "Ford?"

"Yeah?" Ford said as he glanced down at him.

"One of the things that Pacifica and Mabel kept telling me I needed to do to be polite was say thank you," Bill muttered, before looking up, "I think I should say thank you."

Tilting his head, Ford smiled lightly, "What for?"

Bill sighed, "I guess, for being nice."

"That's what friends are for," Ford said. "Now leave before I regret saying that," Ford said gruffly, jerking his head toward the door.

Bill laughed.

"I'm actually quite serious."

He scrambled to a stand and nodded. He turned away, before turning heel. Ford stumbled back, at the sudden attack of a hug, staring at Bill. He sighed, giving Bill an awkward pat on the back before grabbing his shoulders and pushing him to arms length. Flashing an uneasy smile, Bill sprinted away.

Ford watched him leave and folded his arms, "He's still yellow and evil."

Golden yellow rays of light shifted through the trees. Everything looking a little brighter than before. Bill leaned against the shack as he listened to the girls voices grow. Glancing over to the other tent, he sighed and wandered off to toward the forest.

Dipper woke up without anyone else in the tent. He frowned and scrambled out of his sleeping bag, falling onto his face once in the scramble before finding his way out of the tent. He looked around for a moment and frowned, moving into the Shack.

"You know who that- yellow-headed creature is," Gideon complained, "You honest to goodness trust that- that thing?"

Mabel folded her arms, "Someone has to. He can't go through life alone. He won't. Not if I can help it."

Dipper frowned and leaned behind the edge of the doorway.

"Mabel, you serious?"

"Oh like you're the best person. What gives you the right to judge?"

"He's not even human!"

"Save it Gideon. He needs someone to trust him and be his friend, otherwise he'll never change," Mabel snapped. She turned out to the door and paused. Eyes going wide. "Dipper!"

Dipper gave her an uneasy smile. "Um, what were you talking about?" he said, feigning that he hadn't heard the conversation at all.

She looked back and flashed Dipper a smile. "Nothing important anyway. Hey! Why don't we go back outside?" She announced as she pushed through the doorway, taking Dipper's arm to drag him with her.

Gideon folded his arms. "If you can go back and trust that demon then why can't you trust me?" he muttered under his breath once the twins were out of earshot.

"So, why were are you up this early?" Dipper said as he found himself being dragged toward the tent with the the girls.

Mabel shrugged, "No reason really. Was just kinda- I'm not actually even sure." Mabel turned fully toward the tent and smiled, "Alright girls, heading in! Bringing a brother with me!"

A giggly squeal came out of the tent. "No! No brothers allowed!" Candy's voice called out.

"He can chat with us," Wendy said.

"Not about this he's not," Grenda said.

Pacifica let out a laugh, "I think Dipper wouldn't like the topic anyway!"

Dipper groaned, "I don't have to come in-"

"Dippy," Wendy said, popping her head out of the tent, "No, you can chat with us. Don't listen to them."

"I can just go find Billy or write or something, honestly I'm cool-"

Wendy nodded with a smile, "Well, whatever works for you bud. You should have some fun with your new friend. Maybe you can bring him back here when you find him," she said, retreating into the tent once again.

Mabel pursed her lips.

"Yeah! Go find your 'Male Best Friend!'" Grenda called, "I wanna formally meet him!"

Dipper raised a brow as Mabel choked, "Grenda!"

"You've already met him-" Candy muttered.

"He was too quiet last time," Grenda complained.

"You probably scared him," Pacifica giggled.

"Gals," Wendy huffed, "Can we simply agree that we need more face-time with Dipper's new buddy?"

Dipper shook his head, "Mabel, you just go in and talk with your friends. I'll find Billy and, maybe convince him to come back over to talk with you girls."

"Um- I- maybe you should-" Mabel let out, but her brother was already turned away. He gave her an absentminded wave goodbye as he jogged back into the Shack.

Dipper entered the room to find Gideon carving circles with his finger over the table, "Hey."

Gideon glanced up at the brunet and sighed, "Well hello again."

"Um, what were you and Mabel talking about earlier, she didn't-"

"She said I shouldn't say," Gideon huffed, "And I kinda don't like the idea of crossing her at this point."

Dipper bit his lip and sighed, "Were you talking about Billy?"

"How would you draw that conclusion?" Gideon said with a mild smirk.

"Well the only yellow-headed person here other than Pacifica is him, so-"

"How much of that did you hear?" Gideon said, sitting up fully.

"Enough to be mildly confused," Dipper huffed, "Why did you say he wasn't human?"

Gideon looked Dipper over and rolled his shoulders back- which Dipper found suddenly threatening now. He'd gained a similar body-type to his father. It gave the teenager a physical embodiment of his early threatening nature. Dipper stepped back softly and watched Gideon closely.

"Well it's simple 'Pine Tree,'" Gideon drawled, "He's not."