Breaking the news to his mother was the hardest and happiest thing Stanley had ever done.
Next to reuniting with his brother of course.

He actually slept that night, Ford was... well, Ford was being Ford in the other room. Probably working on some nerd problem. But he had a cross bow, and Stan had little doubt anyone would, or could, survive his brother if they tried to hurt either of them.

Stan slept on the couch, but it was better than the last place he slept, at least there was no cockroaches, or goons, and it wasn't his car.

He dreamed about Ford, like almost every time, but this time it was different, in this dream he was doing what Ford wanted to do, and that had never happened before.

He woke with a tired smile on his face.

He glanced around the room, and saw his brother, one of his books pressed almost up to his glasses.
There was another cup of coffee in his hand, but Stan didn't blame him, not after last night.

Ford still looked awful, but at least he didn't seem to hate Stan anymore, that was always a plus.

Stan told him good morning, and asked where he could get some coffee.

"Kitchen, there's already a pot. I just made another one." Ford said, actually looking at Stan, which almost never happened, even when they were kids, but there was a first time for everything, and apparently a lot of stuff wanted to start today. "Thanks," Stan said, and made a mental note to check if Ford had any other kinds of mugs than white, he didn't want to get them confused.

But why? It wasn't like they had never shared their drinks as kids, in fact that had happened on an almost daily basis when they were young.
But Stan still wanted to keep at least some privacy, Ford probably wouldn't like it if Stan acted as if nothing had happened. Look at where that got them as teenagers.

He found a blue mug in the back of one of the cabinets, (but not after opening most of the top ones, he'd forgotten to ask Ford which one) it had a, rainbow? on the side, with big letters that read, "Backupsmore! Everyone is welcome here!"

Stan's smile was almost as bright as the lettering on the mug. Stanford had gone to Backupsmore? Shouldn't he have gone to Harvard? or any other college except the one that had excepted even Stan?

They had excepted Stan.
Ford probably had gone to Backupsmore, because he might have seen Stan.

Stan's smile faded.
But he still used the mug, just for the look on Ford's face.

It was just as priceless as Stan had hoped.
A mixture of utter shock and embarrassment, Stan wished he had a camera so he could capture his brother's expression. He chose to keep it in his memory, didn't Ford say something about doors? Maybe Stan could figure out a way to get in there to check.

They sat in silence, at least until Stan asked Ford to read what he was reading out loud. "And I don't even care if I don't understand it." Stan said, taking a sip from his heavily sugared drink. "I just want to know."

Ford looked a bit surprised, yet happy, and began to read. All Stan could understand was that it was about weird rock formations, but that was okay, hearing his brother's voice was worth it.

They had gotten only about three pages in when Ford yawned for a good ten seconds. "Wow," Stan said, suppressing a laugh, "That must be a record."

Ford shot him a look that was supposed to make him feel bad (which it kinda did), but ultimately only made Stan feel sorry for him.

"Sixer, I think you need to sleep." Stan said, taking Ford's mug before he could grab it. Ford scowled, but Stan was right, and both of them knew it.

"Stan, you know why I can-" but Stan cut him off. "I know a tired person when I see it. And I understand the dangers you're facing. But I think you need to do this. It might seem scary now, but it's easier for him to get you the more tired you are."

Ford furrowed his eyebrows, Stan knew his logic was good, and he tried hard not to throw a smug smile at his brother.

"Fine." Ford relented, "But..."

"But what?" Stan said, as Ford stood up and placed his book down on the table.

"But you have to call mom. And tell her you're living with me now."

Ford had no objections with rubbing his verbal dirt in Stan's face. Stan had never hated his brother's smile as much as he did then.
"I already talk to mom plenty." he said, as Ford started to exit the room. "I know," Ford said, as Stan stood up to follow him. "How do you think I got your address?"

Stan was going to either kill, or hug, that woman.

"Mom?"

He was holding Ford's phone. It had been about an hour since Ford had told him to call her, and now they were finally doing what they had said they would. Stan just wished there was a way that he didn't have to tie Ford up.

"Stanley? Thank goodness." his mother's voice was something that Stan always missed, and she was the only member of the family that he felt like he could talk to, until now that is.

"Yeah mom, it's me."
"Are you okay? Did you get a letter from... well, from your brother?"
"Yeah mom, I did."
"Are you mad?"

She sounded worried, and Stan couldn't blame her. With his last interaction with Ford being what it was, Stan would have been worried if he was her.

"A, a bit."
"I'm sorry Stanley, I thought that- that maybe..."
"He'd want to make things right?"
"Stan?"
"I'm at his house mom, I'm moving in. Well, I've sort of already moved in. I don't got a lot of stuff."
"You are?" she sounded happy, and relieved, Stan sort of wanted to see her all of a sudden. To know what she looked like now.
"Stanley... Stanley, you have no idea how happy that makes me."
"I'm sure I don't."

A sudden odd sound from another room caught Stan's attention. "Mom, I'm so sorry, but, I've got to go. One of Ford's thingy's is making a strange sound and he probably needs help."

"Okay Stanley."
"I love you mom."
"I love you too Stan. Tell your brother I love him as well."
"Okay." Stan said with a little laugh, but it was stifled by another odd sound, a thumping, he had a sinking feeling in his stomach. "Goodbye mom." he said, and hung up.

"Ford? Ford are you okay?"

Stan walked into the room where Ford had last been, and saw his brother, standing in the middle of the cluttered room, hands tied with his arms pinned to his sides, with his back to him.

"I was wondering when you'd hear me." The voice was coming from Ford's body, but it wasn't Ford. It sounded both logical and totally insane, and a bit nasally, it made Stan's blood curdle. Was this the person Ford had told him about?

"Well, well, well," not-Ford said. "Stanley Pines, I was wondering when I'd meet you."

Ford's body jerked around, like he wasn't used to controlling it, and Stan had to stifle a gasp. He looked perfectly normal, except for his eyes. They had turned from their normal white with round pupils to a rather snake like yellow.

"Get out of my brother's body you jerk!" Stan yelled, sounding braver than he felt. He didn't know what he'd expected, but it wasn't this.

"Looks like you did a great job on the arms," not-Ford said, didn't Ford say something about a William? was that this guy's name?
"But remember that he has legs next time." the not-Ford, William, added, this time ending with insane laughter that bent his brother's body over forward.

Then, without warning, he rushed at Stan.

Stan silently thanked his father, and his past, for all the boxing lessons.
Unfortunately, Ford had been exercising, so it was harder to keep him off of him. It also didn't help that it was Ford, and Stan didn't really want to hurt him. Stan grabbed his shoulders to keep him from barreling into him, but he got headbutted right in the chin.

"Gah!" he shouted, "Hot Belgian waffles!"

"Oh, I could do this all day." William said, contorting Ford's face into a haunting smile. "I think Sixer would like that, wouldn't you? Actual payback." He lunged at Stan, who had taken a step back in shock, and brought Ford's teeth down on Stan's wrist, and the pressure, coupled with the fact that he'd only gotten a small amount of flesh made Stan's whole arm tingle slightly.

But Stan didn't let that deter him, and he pounded the wounded arm's fist right in Ford's forehead, and that caused his twin to let go of him.

"Ha! That's the best you could do Fez? That barely tickled." Stan was really starting to hate this freak.

"You leave my brother alone!" Stan said, looking around the room for something, anything, that could help him, and not hurt Ford too badly.
"But he invited me." William said in a sing-song voice, "Name's Bill Cipher, and I'd give up if I were you."

The next thing Stan knew he was on the floor, his brother was on top of him, and he was lifting his head to strike...

He ducked his head to the left just in time, Bill wasn't quick enough to not slam his head into the floor and the thud that Ford's head made almost made Stan want to puke.

"This hurts me more that it hurts you." Stan said, wrapping his arms around Bill- Ford? and twisting his body with all his might, rolling them over, a bit too hard though, and they just landed against a pile of books in the same situation as before.

"Oh, I'm sure it hurts Ford a lot." Bill said, smiling that awful smile, "You must have a body of steel then. Or..."

Stan didn't want to know what Bill had planned for his brother, and he was sure he'd hate it. He hissed, "You can hurt me all you want, just leave my brother's body alone."

And then he brought his freshly filled hands down on his head.

Ford's body went limp. Stan didn't envy the headache his brother was going to have, and speaking of headaches, he was starting to get one.

"Huh, turns out even inter-dimensional demons can't handle a good thump to the skull." Stan muttered to himself as he rolled Ford off of him, and dropped 'Anomalus Phenomena' onto the floor.

"Who knew your nerd books would come in handy some day." Stan said, grunting as he slung his unconscious brother onto his shoulder like a rag doll. "Thanks for being a geek."

When Ford came to he had a headache, and probably a concussion.

He felt the rope Stan had tied around his wrists, and it had chaffed a bit. Then he realized that he was sitting up, and that it was light outside. Had he slept for almost an entire day?

"Good, you're awake."

Ford turned his head to the direction that his brother's voice was coming from, and instantly regretted it. Too fast.

"Stan? What?"

Stan smiled, he had the Backupsmore mug and was sipping from it, he had a bandage on his left hand, and an ice pack held up to the back of his head with his other hand. "How was your sleep?"

"Good..." Ford said, and blinked hard, "What happened to your..." he trailed off, noticing Stan's sad expression.

"Bill."

It was all that needed to be said, Ford glanced down at the floor, it was freshly cleaned, this room hadn't been that neat yesterday, Stan must have reorganized.

"Can I have the ice pack?" Ford found himself saying. "And is your hand alright?"

"I've been through worse," Stan said, and walked over to his brother, "And sure, do you want to hold it or should I?"
"If you could untie me," Ford said, and Stan nodded.

It took a little while, Stan had done a good job, but Ford was glad to have slept. The look in Stan's eyes though, it was wary, and he kept staring at his eyes, and shaking his head slightly, Ford didn't have to ask how the encounter went.

Boy did he hate this.

He didn't want to talk about Bill then, and he knew that Stan didn't want to either, but it was all that was on Ford's mind. Funny, how the worst experiences are the ones we relive even though we never wanted to do so in the first place.

"I called mom."

Ford glanced up at Stan, who was handing him a plate filled with some yellow mush, "You did?"

"Yeah," Stan said, grabbing his own plate, "Twice actually. She said she loves ya'."

Ford remained silent, it felt like years since he'd been told someone loved him, probably because it had been. It felt... weird.

"Oh." was all he said, and he glanced at the yellow mush.

"Mushow." he said, dully, and pulled a pen out of his pocket, he clicked it rapidly until finally grabbing a napkin and drawing a picture of the filled plate.

"What?" Stan said, looking at his brother like he was crazy.

"It's yellow mush, I'm going to call it Mushow. Like a combination of mush and yellow, do you get it?"

Stan chuckled slightly, and looked down at his own plate to shake his head. "It's eggs genius. Didn't someone teach you foods?"

Ford stared at the 'eggs', and resisted the urge to smack himself in the forehead. "These can't be eggs," he opted for instead, "They're too wet." Stan laughed, "I tried." he said, and pushed a bite around his plate. "Coulda' cooked them longer though."

"Definitely," Ford said, but he raised his own bite up, and put it in his mouth.

"I should tell you that you're out of salt now." Stan said, right after Ford choked on the lumpy breakfast. "And the shaker broke."

"Better than my own..." Ford said, after drowning the flavor out of his mouth with all of the rest of his coffee.

"Yeah, cause this exists." Stan said, and the two of them laughed for a awkward moment, before slipping into silence.

It's crazy how easy this is for me to write. Most of the time I'm stuck in front of my computer thinking about how I want the story to go. But this one sort of writes itself.
Thank you PurpleWonderPower for the review, and Katapultman for the F 'n F. You guys are the best!

Any way, I got to go. Have a great week, or however long it takes me to write the next chapter.

-BrilliantLight