"Bill, I love it..." Dipper breathed, smiling. Bipper grinned, blushing.
"I hoped you would."
In front of them was a large clearing just barely painted by the sunrise, filled with a rainbow assortment of wildflowers, with medium sized rocks scattered around the clearing, mossy and unseen for ages. It was a truly beautiful sight. But that wasn't what Bill had come for, nor what Dipper was looking at. That was the Hawkoctopus perched peacefully on a rock in front of them.
"I've only seen these in the Journals, Bill! Thank you!" Dipper swooped down and tried to hug Bipper, but he just fell right through his body. "I forgot that would happen," Dipper explained to Bill, blushing hotly. "Can you take notes on it for me? Since I can't exactly hold stuff..." Bipper nodded. "Thank you. Why did you need to take my body to do this anyway?"
"That's for later, Pine Tree," Bill said, pausing his taking of notes for a minute to grin creepily at Dipper.
"I'm gonna pretend you didn't just do that, and go on loving you right now."
They stood (or floated) there for a while more, until the sun was basically all the way up. Dipper yawned once or twice, and Bill, of course, made fun of his lack of stamina. Dipper just thought it was strange that he was still yawning, meanwhile Bipper showed no signs of exhaustion, despite having been up for the whole night. The oddities of Gravity Falls, Dipper guessed.
"This is amazing Bill... But I think we should go back home now, because I swear, someone's going to get really worried when both of us are gone." Bipper sighed, pouting.
"Fine Pine Tree... but I get to stay in your body a little longer," Bill said, having quite the smirk on his face.
Dipper nodded. "Deal," he said, giggling. Sleep depvrivation does ugly things to everyone's sense of humor, don't you judge. They walked back, Dipper floating slightly behind Bill, who knew the way home better than Dipper. They didn't talk a whole lot, but various thoughts ran through Dipper's mind. Things that were mostly completely unrelated to anything that was going on in the current world. Leftovers from past summers, thoughts of the end of this summer and his and Mabel's birthday, memories of past birthdays. Which brought him to the semi-obvious conclusion.
"Bill, what will happen at the end of the summer?" Dipper asked him, a little worried about this part. "You still can't leave Gravity Falls, can you?" Bill shook his head.
"I'll just have to kidnap you, or you could just stay here. Get Shooting Star to stay too! It'd be a regular Pines family club around here!" He threw his hands up, like a true showman.
"I can't do that, Bill. I have to go back to Piedmont, because that's where my school is and I have friends there, and family, and all my life." Bill sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Humans and your stupid customs. You should just become immortal with me!"
Dipper stared at Bill, his eyes wide. "You can do that?"
"I know a guy," Bill shrugged. Dipper laughed, only considering the idea in an alternate dimension. They walked the rest of the way home in a contented silence, Bill thinking about his plans for the future, and Dipper thinking of Mabel.
They got back to the shack soon enough for breakfast, and snuck in without anyone seeing Bipper. The table was set for all four of them, and the mourning light poured through the windows like honey.
"Bill, give me my body back now! Mabel'll be suspicious."
"Nah, I think not, Pine Tree. I like your view of the world, and darling," Bill turned to face Dipper and cupped his cheek with his own hand. "It'll be awhile. I've not felt this way about someone in nearly forty years, and I have some wonderful things planned for us later..." Bill trailed off as Grunkle Stan entered the room, grumbling about something or other. Dipper blushed, but decided to stay quiet. It would be better if the Grunkles didn't find out that Bill was the man they had let into their house and that he was being essentially pedophillic with Dipper. Dipper floated up to the ceiling, so he wouldn't be in the way and watched the interaction.
"Hey Fez, how you doin' to-day?" Bipper smiled. With his gums.
"Aw, Dipper, you okay? You never ask me how I am." Stan snorted. "It's funny, because I'm dense!"
Bipper chuckled awkwardly. "Yes, very funny." He sat down at the table, snorting to himself. Mabel walked in then, smiling and humming to herself, twirling around in circles.
"Yo, Sir dippingsauce! What is up?! You weren't in our room when I woke up, and suddenly you're down here?" Dipper gasped. He had forgotten he was supposed to be in the same room as his deceptively perseptive sis.
"Come on, Mabes, I get up early sometimes too." Bipper said, chuckling and lightly slugging her arm when she passed him. Mabel rolled her eyes. Everything seemed to be going fine, and Dipper let out a breath.
They all ate breakfast together, Ford coming in a little later, once Bipper had already left. The day passed mostly without incident, but Dipper did worry quite a bit about what Bill had said right before Stan came into the kitchen. They sat alone together, Bipper investigating his left behind body. it occurred to Dipper that the other members of his family would be pretty confused as they haven't seen "Will" in nearly a day, but he hoped they wouldn't get suspicious. He watched Bipper poke his body in various places, one of them being the very down low area. The body didn't react. Bipper shook his head and laughed.
"Human bodies are so strange." Dipper found himself smiling as Bill spoke, a warmth spreading to his heart as much as it could, being caught in the Mindscape. He remembered exactly why he had made this agreement with Bill: It was all for this feeling, the kind that made you more alive, more perfect, more yourself, yet at the same time had the power to completely destroy you. It was all for love.
"You know, Bill, we're amazing."
"What?"
"I mean, we used to be enemies. We were literally at each other's throats sometimes, and now we're in love. What kind of Axolotl-given miracle are we living, Bill?"
"A pretty damn good one, I believe, as much as I hate the big frilly," Bipper said, smiling with his gums.