Three days had passed since their first afternoon in the clearing, where they did return often. All the time Mabel wasn't off doing something with her friends he would do something with her, otherwise, he would go with Bill at the pond. He was also leaving the demon alone in his room, guessing he could entertain himself with the books he had and Netflix. Apparently, the dream demon had enjoyed finding out he could watch movies in the room, especially horror ones.
Bill even showed him some little tricks, mostly about focusing so he could manage to do some. He showed him how to create fire, even if it was only a little flam in the palm of his hand. Dipper was happy when he heard the demon say he was quick to get how the thing works for a beginner. Bill was such the human had more magic in him that he would have thought of at first. Maybe his funny birthmark was for something.
It was late in the after none when they were back at the shack, stopping at the edge of the forest when Dipper noticed a car parked close to the habitation. Bill directly smiled, not needing much to know the Stans were finally here.
The young man was divided between being excited and happy about them finally arriving, and being worried about getting caught helping the demon. He turned to the demon, his look clearly telling him not to fuck it up. "Don't worry Pine Tree, I can be very quiet when I want to, how would I entertain myself if Six Fingers locked you up in the shack" joked the demon with a smirk, putting his gloved hand on the lower back of Dipper to make him walk towards the house.
"I will find a way to get inside your room without your help, just go and see them" Said the demon, leaving the human on the porch before leaving. Dipper hesitates about telling him to wait, before thinking he was right, it would be weird of not greeting them and he wanted to see them after all this time.
So he went in and joined the family sitting in the kitchen, waiting for Ford to finish cooking. "You finally managed to get here" smiled Dipper, yelping a little when Stanley came to him and dragged him in a thigh hug. He responds to it with a laugh, telling him he was happy to see them too. "Ford was sad not to see you dip-dop" commented Mabel with a laugh, Ford trying to make himself look tougher, even if they all knew he had a soft spot for Dipper.
"Anyway" he cut in his fail attempt at keeping face "You are on time for dinner, hope you didn't eat before". Dipper answer negatively, other than snack he hadn't eat since morning, so he was hungry. "I'm starving even" he joked, earning him a worried look from the scientist before he finally caught on the joking tone of the boy.
Soon they were all served, the older twins talking about how things had been, recounting stories from their time on the sea. Everything was going fine until they all heard something coming from upstairs. Dipper blood froze in his vein as everyone was now silent and trying to see if it would happen again. "What was that?" asked Stanley, frowning a little. "I'm going to go take a look".
"No!" said Dipper, surprising everyone at the table, before he coughs a little, quickly trying to find an excuse. "It must be an animal" he managed to find "I left my window open to change the air and I must have forgotten to close it" he explained as he was standing up. "I'll go and close it, the thing must be out if it was still open" he said quickly as he could suddenly hear other sounds.
He then rushed to his room, taking the stairs two by two. When he finally opened his door he saw Bill standing in the middle of the room, a squirrel in his hand, trying to free himself. "What are you doing!" He said, trying not to speak too high and be heard downstairs. "I opened the window to let some fresh air in and this little guy got in" respond the demon, keeping his own voice low too. Dipper's eyes widen when he heard Ford asking if everything was okay, clearly going up the stairs
"Yes, I think it was just a squirrel, it already went out" he said, seeing front the corner of the room Bill throwing the animal out while cursing because he had bitten him. Still, he could hear the scientist coming up and Dipper couldn't have Bill be found. "hide" he mouthed, as he was closing the windows, tensing when he heard Bill footsteps. He turns to see Ford appearing at the doorstep and the sheet hiding the storage room annexe to the bedroom area being closed.
The man was looking at him concerned, not understanding what all the fuze was about. "Is everything's okay? You were not bitten or scratch" he asked, looking at his hands. "No, no I'm fine, don't worry, it already had run out the window, it just knocks some of my things on the floor" he explained. It wasn't lying though since he could himself see some of the things that must have fallen to the ground, even if he suspected Bill might have done that too.
"I will be back down soon, I will just quickly clean up" affirmed the boy with an awkward smile, already starting to do so. He simply receives a nod, before seeing the man going away. He soon after left out a relieved sigh, seeing the dream demon poking his head out to see if everything was cleared. "Well, that was close" Dipper said, still in a lower voice.
He could hear Bill snickers in his corner, clearly more amused than worried now that everything was cleared. "Yeah, that was close, I think I will just sit and read for now" said Bill as he was getting out of his hideout, helping the younger man. "And no more open window" said the younger one as he was finishing cleaning up. "Sure, whatever, not my fault if a dumb animal went in" point out the demon, which only earned him rolling eyes from the human.
Dipper was soon back at the table, feeling like the conversation just before his return had been broke. Why did he have the bad impression he was the subject of said conversation? Maybe it was better not to worry too much about it. "kid you should be more cautious" commented Stan when he sat back down. "Sorry, totally got out of my head when I went out today" lied Dipper.
It was quickly swift under the rag, as they were now back at telling stories that had happened in the last year. That way Dipper could be less tense, getting more confident about the fact that Ford hadn't figured it out, otherwise it would have been the first thing he would have heard of. No, he would have tried to take care of Bill first.
It only when it started to be late that they finally said they should go to sleep, Dipper managing to sneak up some snack. It was a good thing they thought about keeping some food in his room, otherwise, it would be hard to take with him a full plate when he ate not so long ago.
He was going to enter his room, when he felt a hand tugging at his shirt, turning toward a concerned looking Mabel. "Dipper, is everything's okay?" she asked "You were acting weird earlier, no, you are acting weird since we came here" she clarified so he wouldn't try to get away with it.
Dipper would dismiss it, but he hated the worried look his sister had. He left out a sigh, passing a hand on his neck. "It really nothing to worry about, I just... met someone when we arrived, it's nothing" he said, happy that it wasn't really a lie. It wasn't long before the worried look on Mabel face changes for a surprised one, before a happy one.
"Why didn't you told me" she asks, clearly excited. "How is she? Who is she?" she then adds.
Dipper was biting the inside of his cheek, looking a little on the side. "It's someone new in town, also here on vacation for... well for the supernatural stuff too" he said, pretty close to the truth. "It's definitely not like what you are thinking about, it more of a creature hunting buddy thing" he then explain, still not so far from the truth.
None the least, Mabel was still looking happy that her brother was finally befriending someone else, and who knew, maybe it would turn into something else. She was biting her lips, trying not to gush too much about it, knowing it would just make Dipper try to run away from the subject more. "You better introduce her to me before she has to go" she demanded while pointing at her brother "I want to know who was able to befriend my anti-social brother" she add amused.
She would most likely have continued, but a song interrupted her, Dipper knowing already who was calling her. Her expression totally changed from playful to pure joy, reaching immediately before going for her room, saying it was an important call.
Dipper was left to stand alone, a little grin on his mouth. He finally went to his room, knowing Mabel wouldn't come back, or at least not before a long time.
Once he was inside and had closed the door, groaning as he saw the mess Bill had made with his cloths near the wooden chest. Suddenly it dawned on him what was in it, looking for Bill, finding him laying on his bed, all his journals next to him as he was reading through them. He quickly placed the snack on the table, going for the books. "Why do you have to put your nose through all my stuff" he asked, clearly annoyed that he was found.
"Calm down Pine Tree" laughed quietly the demon, "I was just reading through them, didn't you said y'all destroyed them, hmm~?" added Bill in a teasing tone. Dipper bite the inside of his cheek again, looking away before a little smile creeps on his face. "I may or may not have made a copy of all the pages so I could redo them in my own journals" he admitted, seeing Bill's smile getting wider, closing the journal he was reading.
"Well, is little Pine Tree trying to rebel against his mentor" said the demon jokingly. "No!" said Dipper, shutting his mouth, listening to be sure he wasn't too loud. They were going to get caught if they weren't quieter.
Dipper sighed, sitting on his desk chair. "I just thought it was stupid to get rid of such valuable information, especially after all his years of research and all the things he went through to get them, he also most likely keep one on sea, if he need somethings from his older one I could always help" explained Dipper as if it was all for the good of Ford. Deep down he knew it was all selfish, he simply wanted the information for his own curiosity. And of course, Bill knew damn well that what he said wasn't really why he kept copies of the old journals. He could even tell Dipper made corrections to it.
"That good, at least I didn't lose my times helping him" he said, even if it was all to his benefit at the time. Dipper finally went and took back the journals, Bill letting him do so, only keeping the forth one. As Dipper was hiding them again and folded back up his clothes, he could hear Bill comment: "You must really love your symbol to also put it on your journals, could have us the big dipper or something". This made Dipper blush as he realised how much he did use the Pine Tree symbol for stuff like this. "I was just trying to copy the style from the other ones" he said. "Yeah, but the older one I believe Ford simply traced his hands, he hadn't known about me at the time" affirmed the demon, only making Dipper more embarrassed.
"Okay yes, I do use it a lot, happy to hear it" ask Dipper, still not looking at Bill. surely he did it unconsciously all the time as if it was something that couldn't get out of his head. He didn't need the demon to also mock him for always using things that were linked to him. "Hey don't take it like that, I think it nice you do, maybe not for the right reason I will give you that, but I still think it nice... If it can help you it is my favourite one~" he said with a smirk, only making Dipper blush harder.
No, it wasn't really helping, especially not with the way he was saying it. He, wasn't sure how he was suppose to interpret that. The demon thought it was enough teasing for now, opening back the journals to go through it. "Not much to find in the big cities uh?" he asked, knowing well that Gravity Falls was an exception to any other place. This seemed to help Dipper relax a little, closing back the chest as he went to sit next to Bill, looking at which pages he was scanning through.
"I mean, there is pretty cool stuff too, but not as much and it more difficult to look for them without looking crazy" explained Dipper. "Also with school, I don't always have the time" he added, even if clearly the younger one was taking away some precious sleeping time for his research.
Also, they never found anything as dangerous as what Bill did, even if Dipper would be lying if he said he wasn't wishing for some dangerous adventures, nothing deadly, just a little bit dangerous. He sighs, laying next to Bill who was sitting, back against the walls. He simply stayed like this, eyes close, Bill reading what the younger one had found in the cities or Gravity Falls.
"How long do you think it would take for you to gain enough power to get your original form?" asked Dipper after some silence between them. "I don't know" admitted the demon, looking away from the book to look at the laying figure. "It also not sure it will do the job, I never had someone forcing me to get back in the physical world when I was weaker and without a full Cipher wheel" pointed out Bill, so he couldn't tell. He wasn't even able to tell why it worked in the first place.
"Maybe we need to make a deal for it to work?" suggested Dipper after clearly hesitating on his proposition. This made the demon smiled, he knew Dipper was meaning some low level deal that wouldn't cause total chaos, but the fact that he suggested it made him smile. "Couldn't say, if it works in the same way of a normal summoning would it should work, normally I can go back whenever I want to" he said. Mostly when he was feeling like the deal wasn't worth his time or because it was more simple to deal with stuff via the Mindscape or at least when he was powerful enough to drag anyone in it.
Dipper sighed, still not knowing how they would do it. He opens his eyes surprised when he suddenly felt a hand ruffling his hair playfully as if to make him feel better. Bill had taken off the leather glove he found somewhere in the shack, it was feeling nice to feel bare skin instead of leather. Dipper offered him a smile, style surprised by the gesture, but not rejecting it either. Maybe he was growing softer for the demon, not knowing if it was good or not.
They agreed on watching some horror movies before going to sleep, both knowing very well Dipper would never go to sleep if he was starting to read now. They also had to move Bill's bed in the small room annexed to his, not wanting someone entering the room and seeing a stranger sleeping on the floor. Sure, the sheet wasn't much, but no one was ever looking there for something since it was just useless stuff stored there.
Bill was thinking about joining Dipper in his sleep, like this, he would be sure that he wouldn't have any nightmares and sleep well, but he could also keep on teaching him magic tricks. He was going to do so but heard the door opening. It was really quiet as if the person was doing their best not to be heard. The demon concentrate so he could see through one of his hidden eyes in the attic, keeping silent.
He could see Ford entering the room, looking around as if trying to find something suspicious, before going out again. They would have to be careful from now on, clearly, Ford was suspecting something, maybe they could make up a lie.
He finally stopped watching, feeling tired just from that, which was frustrating. He shouldn't be feeling tired just from this. He left out a quiet sigh, before finally going to sleep, choosing to go and bother Dipper in his sleep so he could change his mind. It was more fun to do than worry about Ford or getting angry at his power.