A/N: Well, here's Chapter Nine! finally, right? yesterday felt so long that I was thinking about and was close to uploading this chapter yesterday. But I decided, "Nah. People are often their busiest at Fridays. And I wanted to keep up the schedule. So... yah."
By the way, thanks for such awesome reviews, and for all the favorites and follows! but enough of my chatter. Enjoy the chapter!

A Triangle in the Stars
Chapter Nine: Meeting Connie

Steven, with Bill's hand in his, skipped to the beach, hoping to meet his friend, Connie. Bill was silent all the while, groaning in his head. Soon enough, they rounded the corner, and, indeed, they saw the girl. She was sitting, with some boards beside her, waiting for him. He smiled, "Hey, Connie!"

Bill didn't argue this time about being "manhandled" or whatever. He was a little too tired for that. Plus, he wanted to impress Connie, and he was sure complaining wouldn't quite get what he wanted, especially since this was a first impression. He smiled at her, and tipped his hat, "Y'ello, Connie!"

Connie smiled, "Hey, Steven! I was getting worried that you wouldn't be here! uh... who's this?" she looked at Bill now, raising an eyebrow but smiling.

"This is Bill Cipher. He's staying at the Temple with me for a while," Steven smiled and then let go of Bill.

Bill nodded, and then floated next to her, scanning her with a finger on his "chin". His smile turned into a grin soon enough, "Yep. Bill Cipher's the name! please do wear it out!"

"Nice to meet you. I guess you're one of the Gems, right?" she asked, smiling kindly at him.

Bill laughed, waving a dismissive hand, "Oh, no. I'm something much better though!"

He was reminded then of when he and Steven first met. He wondered how and why they mistook him for a Gem. He hardly looked like any of them, and he hadn't a gem on any of his body parts. It, dare he say again, confused him. He realized he was starting to get confused a lot. And it all started since he washed up on this very beach. He surely hoped he'd stop getting confused soon. He couldn't imagine what it was doing to his repute as an all-knowing dream demon, but he knew it was negative.

"Well, what are you then?" Connie asked, smiling. "If you're so much better than a Gem, what could you possibly be?"

"A dream entity," he half-lied. He kept the fact that he was a demon hidden for several reasons. One of those reasons was that the majority of this world held quite the grudge against them, justified or not. Second was because of people like Sadie and Stan, both of whom tricked him in some way involving his own deals, and the former didn't even know about his demonhood! He didn't want to go through either of those reasons again, or any other reasons, so he left it at that.

She frowned, "I don't understand... what does that entail, exactly? what does it mean to be a dream entity?"

"Well, exactly that. I can enter dreams... and I'm able to manipulate them to my whims too."

He fought the urge to glance at Steven, hoping he wouldn't figure it out. He knew the kid was smarter than he sometimes let on. And he knew Connie was even smarter. He also could do a lot more than he mentioned, but chose to omit them. He didn't want Connie freaking out or asking him to conjure up this and conjure up that. He was still a bit tired from his meltdown earlier. That and he didn't feel like being nice. He never felt like being nice.

"Oh, that's cool," she didn't draw much attention to it, dismissing him as she looked towards the water. "I brought some boogie boards, and my swimsuit. You guys wanna go in the water?"

Steven grinned, "Do I! hold on, I'll run back to the Temple and get on my trunks!" he began literally running back, leaving Connie and Bill alone.

Bill gazed out across the ocean, and a flash of a vague memory of some kind rushed through him. He shuddered at it, and gripped his arms. He remembered being trapped under the water for long periods of time, he remembered traveling across it for even longer. All in his statue form. Because of this, he didn't think he could go through with this. He still needed to rest up anyway.

He shook himself as an answer to her question, and then gazed up at Connie for a second, smiling a bit, "Nah. I think I'll sit this one out. Thanks for asking though."

He was relieved, though, that Connie didn't press into this "dream entity" business, as she seemed often known to do. He was relieved that Steven was distracted. He thought for sure he'd figure it out otherwise. He rubbed his top point, as if wiping sweat off of it, and then looked down at the sand.

"So, uh, dream entity..." she tapped her fingers against the sand. "You ever boogied on a board before?" she asked with a smirk, seeming to forget what Bill said, then continued with, "I brought three on accident, so, if you'd like..." she let him finish the thought.

"I have a name, ya know..." Bill frowned slightly, and he shook himself again, "and, didn't ya hear me? no means no, kid. I'm taking a break from water... I'd seen too much of it, and felt too much of it..."

"Oh, I get it. You're just like Lapis, right?" she asked, smiling, "trapped for a while? Steven told me about how she was in a mirror once..."

Bill nodded, deciding to roll with this, "Yeah... trapped. It's an awful feeling..."

He wasn't lying, however. It really was an awful feeling, despite his having had a limited consciousness, and perhaps even because of that. But he wanted to tug at her heartstrings. However, at the same time, he was wondering... how similar were he and Lapis..? so far two people compared him to her. Could it be why they thought he was a Gem?

"I bet it was," she nodded and patted his back.

Bill shuddered. He was touched again. But he didn't complain. He wouldn't. It would ruin his chances.

"Yep. So... how are you today?" he asked. Again he decided casual conversation would be good here.

"Bored. I had to do a bunch of chores around the house... and then I was worrying I wouldn't get to see Steven."

"Chores, eh?" he focused in on that. He really had nothing to say about her being worried about Steven.

"Yeah. Doing the dishes, taking out the trash..." she shrugged, and then looked in the Temple's direction. "Oh, hey, there's Steven!"

Steven waved as he came down from the Temple, without a shirt on, revealing the gem where his belly button should be. Bill didn't give the gem a second glance. He knew the boy wasn't completely human. The demon waved back, a bit annoyed that he wasn't able to finish his conversation with Connie. But he figured Steven would have had to come back out some time, and now was a good time.

Connie took off her dress, revealing a suit. She ran into the water, laughing, holding a board between her arm and her side. Steven grabbed a board too, laughing, and ran after her, leaving Bill alone. The demon simply took to watching them, crossing his arms.

"C'mon, Bill, get in! the water's nice!" Steven suggested, sitting in there, his board by his side. He smiled at Bill, and splashed the water at Connie. Bill narrowed his eye at him. He wasn't willing to get in the water any time soon, especially after all the time he'd spent trapped in and traveling across it. But he soon found himself looking at the spare board Connie brought along.

"Come on, Billy!" Connie tried, patting the water and unintentionally splashing Steven back.

His eye twitched, and he corrected her, "The name's Bill." He accepted no variations of his name. He sighed. He really didn't want to join them. But then again, he was exceedingly bored. He looked at the board again, and pointed at it, slowly picking it up with his magic. He rubbed at his "chin" with thought now, "Hmm..."

Steven paddled a little more out, and so did Connie. The demon looked at them again, and then back at the board. He alternated his glances for a few minutes, until...

...he broke down and agreed, "Oh, what the heck? it'll give me something to do."

Bill got up and began walking towards the shoreline, the board floating behind him. He shouldn't be scared of mere water. It couldn't do much to him anyway. Steven cheered him on, and Connie had the widest smile, "You can do it, we believe in you!"

He looked at them both again. This felt weird. No one had ever cheered him on before. Aside from his interdimensional friends, but this was different. This wasn't causing chaos. This was having fun in the simplest way, without any bit of chaos involved at all. He tossed the board into the water, making sure it didn't land that far away from him, and then he glanced at the two kids again, looking very uneasy. They didn't stop cheering, though. Steven, who still thought Bill deserved a couple more chances. Connie, who didn't even know how bad Bill was at all, aside from what Steven had told her.

The demon wasn't used to this. Not at all. He was confused once again. He turned away from them for a while, trying to recompose himself and his thoughts. And then he took a deep breath, turned to face them again, and levitated onto the board carefully, ignoring the fact that he was about to go beyond his comfort zone.

Steven paddled up to him, "Come on... get in the water! it's really nice, I promise!" he laughed and plugged his nose, then dove down under the surface. Connie stayed where she was, agreeing with Steven.

Bill watched this, struggling to maintain his balance. The boy made the water move too much. He didn't want to fall in. Didn't want to relive that vague memory. His eye was wide and his legs were shaking due to fear, but to the two kids it looked like he was just trying not to fall. He sighed eventually, "I... I don't know..."

What is this? what are you doing, Bill? the only time you've felt this way was when Stan literally one-punched you and "killed" you. This isn't even tantamount to that! it's just water! it can't do anything to you! show no fear! he attempted to psyche himself up. He looked at the water, eye twitching.

Steven sighed, so did Connie, and moved away, "You don't have to get in if you don't want to. But we could have more fun if you did."

The demon looked at him. And then at Connie. Those faces looked so pitiful. And it was his fault. Wait wait wait, no. Why did he just think that? he was supposed to take delight in the expressions. Besides, this wasn't his fault. He didn't have to take a dip if he didn't want to, just like Steven said. But he'd be bored if he didn't. Very bored.

He gazed at the water again, and steeled himself.

That's it.

He was doing it.

And he'd have no regrets.

He jumped off his board and made a little splash in the water as he touched down. His eye was wide for a while, as he came back up quickly and waded in the blue, but soon he just felt warmth. Nothing was harming him at all, and he wasn't drowning either. They were right.

He was right.

It was just water.

He survived.

He grinned and started chuckling with his hands clasped, almost like a kid on Christmas Eve.

"Way to go, Bill!" Connie raised her arms, laughing.

Steven grinned, "I knew you could do it!"

Bill smiled at them both. He felt a warm sorta feeling for some reason. It wasn't coming from the water, but rather from himself. It was odd. He wasn't used to feeling that way in particular. He then tried his best to ignore it, and fixed his smile into a smug grin, "Yeah, I did it! didn't I? hehe!"

Steven got on his board, chuckling. Connie smiled at the triangle's reaction. Bill splashed around in the water, and then started using his powers to make it dance. It was far from harmful chaos, but it satisfied him enough. It was all he could do right now, anyway.

Steven watched with joy, as did Connie, although she was a bit more awed.

"Just like Lapis..." he whispered.

Bill chuckled, honestly having fun with himself. He wondered why he didn't want to do this in the first place. This was way too fun!

Steven watched him with glee, and Connie started dangling her fingers in the water, still observing with wonder. Bill suddenly grinned mischievously. He had an idea. These two liked to get wet, didn't they? he glanced behind them, and a wave started forming there. It was huge, huge enough to cover a portion of the beach and then some. A shadow loomed over the two kids. The boy looked behind himself, and gasped when he saw the wave. Connie looked back as well and developed an expression of horror and fear on her face.

Bill chuckled, grinning maniacally. He held the wave over their heads, not dropping it yet. However, he was still tired, so the wave slowly, bit by bit, started decreasing in size, but it was too slow to be noticeable. Steven reached up and touched the wave, awed by it. Connie was freaking out, trying to paddle to a safe distance.

"Oh, what's the matter, Connie?" the demon wondered, watching her paddle away. "I thought you wanted some water of fun in your life!"

He also watched Steven, becoming a bit confused again. The boy was awed by his power, and not fearful of it...

He felt that little feeling again, but he shook himself out of it, focusing on Connie once more.

"I..." she watched it, and saw it wasn't moving. Not really, at least. It was safe. But she shook her head, "That wave could come down at any minute! Steven, you gotta get out from under there!"

"Don't worry, Connie!" Steven smiled.

Bill raised his only eyebrow. He kept the wave from falling, but it was still dwindling. It wasn't really that huge anymore. He sighed. He had wanted to cause a tsunami of some kind, and get them trapped under it too for some reason. But why didn't he? was it because it'd cause too much damage too soon?

Connie sighed and swam up to Steven, "You're crazy, you know that?"

"I'm not crazy. You just don't know how waves work. This one isn't big enough to hurt us... even with the size it used to be, it wasn't big enough!" Steven grinned.

Connie pursed her lips, seeming to think on this. Bill deadpanned. He groaned, and then he finally made the now medium-sized wave fall on them, thoroughly soaking them even more than they already were. Steven chuckled, surfacing from it with ease, "See! told ya!"

The girl gasped, and soon started laughing too, having resurfaced as well. Bill crossed his arms, not wanting to laugh and keeping a grumpy look on his eye, but eventually he did. Laughter was infectious, he learned that day.

Steven then splashed Bill. Unfortunately, right in the eye. Bill recoiled, holding his eye. It stung viciously. He screeched, flailing his legs about and kicking up the water, "Owww, my eye! why?! why does that always happen to me?!"

Steven winced, "I really didn't think you'd get hit there... hold on..." he then whistled, and, seemingly out of nowhere, Lion appeared on the shoreline. Steven dove into his mane, and came out a minute later, holding a giant... thing. It looked like a one-eyed goggle. "Don't ask me why this is in there, I don't know."

He got into the water again and handed it to Bill. Lion roared and vanished again. Bill soon recovered, and was blind for a few seconds. He huffed and puffed as he reached for the goggle. His vision cleared up and he grabbed it and put it on, "T..thanks."

Steven smiled, silently returning the thanks. The demon, meanwhile, knew he was wearing a hand-me-down, but he didn't care. It was either this or get his eye destroyed again. And, as payback, he splashed Steven. The boy feigned death at this splash, rather dramatically too.

Connie laughed, and Bill also pointed and laughed at Steven. She then noticed how Bill looked wearing the goggle and laughed even harder, "You look... ridiculous!"

The triangle grinned at Connie, taking the statement in good nature this time. Any other time he would've flipped out. He probably did look ridiculous with this cycloptic goggle on, but he couldn't get a good look at himself right now. The water was rippling too much for it to properly reflect any of them.

Steven soon "recovered" and splashed Connie, who splashed him back. He then came up with an idea, his eyes lighting up. "Oh, I know what we should play! Marco Polo!" he suggested.

"In the ocean?" Connie asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah!" Steven cheered, raising his arms up. He didn't see the huge problem with it.

"I'd... I think I'd like that... how does it go, exactly?" Bill was embarrassed even asking the question. He was supposed to know lots of things. But he also supposed this was inevitable; he had ignored quite a bit of human culture and some of its games, having decided they weren't worth his time. He only focused on the psychology and philosophy, so he could see exactly which strings to pull and when to pull them. Now though... well, he was starting to regret it. But he shoved that down soon enough. He'd never let them know this. Especially not Steven.

"Well," Steven began explaining, "one person is Polo, and the rest are Marco. The Polo closes his eyes—or, in your case, eye—and swims around, calling for Marco. Marcos always have to reply with Polo, and the first person to be tagged by the Polo becomes the Polo. It's really fun!" he smiled.

"But it'd be hard to play in an ocean, if you're the Polo. One person could be going one direction, and one person could be going the other," Connie countered, sighing.

The demon mulled over what they both said, muttering to himself, "So this game is like relying on your other senses then?" he couldn't help feeling the slightest bit evil again. He had the idea to lead them far from shore and deeper into the reaches of the ocean. But then he decided not to, for a reason he had yet to know besides the fact that it was somewhat dimwitted and was a shaky, unfinished plan to begin with. He shrugged eventually, directing this towards Connie and climbing back onto his board, "Let's at least try this, kid. It may be even more fun!"

The girl thought on this, and eventually nodded.

"Alright," Steven smiled, and then shouted, "not it!"

"Not it!" Connie said less than half a second later. She smiled at Bill, "You're it!"

"Heh... alright then..." he closed his eye, and used his magic to move his board around, and after a while shouted, "Marco!"

"Polo!" shouted the two at the same time, from the same general direction.

Bill began wading on his board in that direction, and then shouted again, "Marco!"

"Polo!" the two replied, Steven sounding more to his left, and Connie more to his right.

Suddenly, Bill heard Connie shout, sounding rather upset, "Hey! Steven! fish out of water!"

"...what...?" Bill was confused again, and it showed, however much it could with his eye still closed. He was irritated by how little he knew about this game, if that even was a part of the game.

"Steven's cheating!" she explained, and then argued, "he's out of the water! he should be the next Polo!"

"Nah, my feet are still in the water! see?" he jumped, and it made a splashing sound as he landed.

The demon "looked" in Steven's general direction. He wasn't able to see anything, obviously; for some reason, he was (still) playing by the rules. He then sighed, crossing his arms, "So what's it gonna be? is the kid gonna be Polo now? or do I keep at this?"

Apparently, he mentally noted, the Marcos aren't allowed to be out of the water... he then hummed with some thought.

Connie shook her head at Bill to answer him,—though he was clearly unable to see—cupped her hands and shouted, "Steven! the rules—!"

"Okay, fine, I'll be Polo!" the boy sighed and closed his eyes, heading into the water again, "Marco!"

The demon then opened his eye and jumped off his board and into the water without hesitation, and answered back, swimming a little ways away from the boy and Connie, dragging the board with him via magic, "Polo!"

"Polo!" the girl said after him, grinning and swimming away from Bill.

"Marco!" Steven called, heading, clearly, after Bill.

"Polo!" Bill swam farther away from Steven. He was, unintentionally or not, physically distancing the boy from the shore. And Connie too.

The girl shouted the word a moment after Bill. Steven was hot on pursuit. Bill kept swimming, grinning all of a sudden. Not just because this was fun, but because of something more sinister. The demon was aching to cause at least a little bit of chaos again, even defaulting to and augmenting the plan he previously tossed away. Long story short, he was going to scare the kids out of their skins...

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this! Ace plays a remarkable Connie, doesn't she? and she plays a wonderful Steven as well!
So.. yeah. :3
This scene is so adorable, and it would be completely adorable if... well, ya know, Bill wasn't such a psychopath. XP
So, I'll see you with the next chapter next week! but if you have reviews for me, then you'll see me whenever you make one. Ta ta!