Hello, everyone. I'm really sorry about the lack of updates recently... I'd try to offer some excuse, but there really aren't any. I was just kind of being lazy. So... Sorry.

But I've made a New Year's Resolution to be the dedicated author I said I would be at the beginning of all this, so I'll write and update as often as possible.

This chapter was really enjoyable for me to write. Hooray for 2000 words! Thanks again, you guys, and welcome to 2015!

~ Three

Come on, pull yourself together, Bill. I thought you were stronger than this.

Bill was sitting on a rock protruding from a cliffside that stretched out over a glasslike pond. He was gazing down at the water, at his reflection, which was really nothing more than a silhouette.

How could he have let things get this far? Sure, he had liked Pine Tree from pretty much the moment he had encountered him. His fierce intelligence and determination separated him from all others, and made him especially pleasing as a target for Bill... But it was something more now, something that grew every day and was intent on taking over.

Sentiment, compassion, love. Those were all things Bill had sworn not to let himself feel. He was planning on overrunning this world. How could he do that if he cared about something or someone in it? He had made a pact with himself to avoid emotions.

And yet, here he was, falling in love with a sweaty preteen boy who could be the biggest danger to his plans... And not just because he had the supernatural knowledge and mental ability to beat Bill. This sentiment, creeping into Bill's corrupted heart like poison, would be the end of him.

You've fallen into something you can't get out of.

He couldn't allow himself to feel this way, especially towards Pine Tree. This would jeopardize everything he had worked for in his thousands of years of existence.

What could Bill do to prevent this from consuming him completely? He had seen plenty of humans fall in love so desperately, and it was not easy to fight.

Bill conjured a small flame on the tip of his index finger and held it up in front of him, watching it flicker and waver in the slight breeze.

What could he do?

~~~TIME SKIP~~~

As Bill watched Pine Tree go about his business during the day, it became increasingly obvious that he wasn't the only one to feel this way. Pine Tree would hardly stop smiling all day, greeting every customer that walked into the Shack with a huge grin and a loud hello. He was happy, almost ecstatic, and seemed lighthearted and free for once in his life.

When Pine Tree was on a short break at around lunchtime, Bill floated down to him and hovered right in front of him. He was sitting at the kitchen table with his chin in his hand, staring vacantly at the ceiling. Bill pressed his fingertips to the boy's temples, and closed his eye.

Pine Tree's thoughts came rushing to him in a jumbled flurry, almost knocking him backwards from the sheer force of it all. The scramble was incoherent, but Pine Tree wasn't conflicted in any way, about anything. His mind was set and focused on one idea, one daydream, and one demon.

With each little thought and emotion that passed through, Bill's eye widened a little bit. The boy was in love... With HIM. He felt like he would throw up.

It would be much harder to escape this now, when he knew it was mutual. But even with Pine Tree's thoughts saying what he felt loud and clear, Bill was still confused.

What had happened, what had changed? Just a week ago, the boy had dreaded the demon's appearances in his dreams, and had been afraid of him. Now, after the one dream and their one kiss, he was completely head-over-heels.

That had gone really fast, and had been an incredibly significant change.

Hatred to love in one night? Heck, any mortal feeling something towards a demon was strange enough, but this? Bill didn't know how to react to that.

Through it all, Bill was feeling nauseous and confused, but also elated. The boy returned his feelings, and even though those feelings weren't supposed to exist, this made the dream demon feel fluttery and joyful inside.

But he couldn't get rid of the nagging sensation at the back of his mind that all this was wrong and needed to be stopped. This love would tear Bill's plans to shreds, and he didn't want to lose everything he had been working so hard to achieve. He wouldn't be able to save this mortal child when the world fell to darkness.

Bill took his fingertips off of Pine Tree's head and backed away, all the contradictory emotions he was feeling making him dizzy. He refused to look at the boy sitting before him.

Weak...

Bill shook his head, trying to eliminate this thought, then snapped his fingers and was gone from the Mystery Shack.

~~~TIME SKIP~~~

"Hey, Dipper," Mabel called to her brother, who was sitting on the stairs. "I'm having Candy and Grenda over tonight for a sleepover! Is that okay?"

"Yeah, go ahead." Dipper didn't look up from the journal he was scribbling in.

Mabel approached him and looked over his shoulder. Filling the page of the book he was holding was a drawing of a teenager wearing a suit, top hat, bow tie, and eyepatch.

"Whoa, who's that?"

"He's-" Dipper stopped drawing. Oh, no. What should he tell her? "He's, um... Just a friend."

"He's kinda hot," Mabel said to no one in particular. Dipper felt his face flush, although he couldn't tell from what.

"Yeah, sure." He continued to work on the picture.

Mabel took a few steps back from him and mulled over this. Dipper was drawing some guy who she had never seen before, but he claimed was a "friend." Well, the twins hadn't spent much time separated from each other recently, so when did he meet this person? And why didn't he tell her about him?

Suddenly, she reached out and plucked the journal out of his hand.

"Hey, Mabel, give it back!" Dipper tried to reclaim it from her, but she kept him away from her with one hand (she was stronger than he was) and flipped through the journal pages with the other.

Several pages were covered with drawings of the same strange teenager, from all sorts of different perspectives. As she saw each drawing, her smile widened. When she stopped on a particular one depicting Dipper and this stranger sitting on a park bench together, a lightbulb went off inside her head, and she let out an ear-piercing scream.

"So THAT'S who you've been obsessed with! Dipper! OH MY GOSH, this is so amazing! Why didn't you tell me that you like guys?"

Dipper blushed, his face turning a dark red. "WHAT?! Mabel, I don't like guys! What are you even talking about?"

Mabel tapped the image of the two sitting on the bench, wiggling her eyebrows. "This, bro-bro, is a romantic obsession. Oh, man, this is awesome! Now we can talk about cute boys and you can join Candy, Grenda, and I at sleepovers, and-"

"Mabel, just shut up, okay? I don't like guys, and I definitely don't like him." He snatched the journal out of her hand with surprising force and stalked upstairs. He slammed the attic door behind him after entering, and collapsed onto his bed.

Great... This was just what he needed, Mabel thinking he liked this guy. She wouldn't give him a moment's peace now.

Well, at least she didn't know it was Bill.

~~~TIME SKIP~~~

When Candy, Grenda, and Mabel were together in one room all night, it tended to keep Dipper from getting any sleep. They would play screechy pop music at full volume, read awful romance novels, play obnoxious games, and generally destroy almost everything in sight.

Dipper had gotten used to all this over time...

But now he had something even worse to worry about- instead of trying to keep him away from it, they were now trying to drag him into it.

Grenda dumped out the contents of her backpack onto Mabel's bed. There were at least twenty books about werewolves or vampires in there. Dipper shuddered at the thought, remembering the horror he had to endure when he and Mabel had switched bodies and he was forced to listen to Grenda read those.

"Hey, Dippingsauce, you should come over here and read these with us! It'll be fun!"

Dipper was once again deep into the journal, sketching and writing furiously. "Uh, no it won't. Just leave me out of it."

Mabel frowned, then marched over to her brother and wrenched the book away from him. She tossed it over to her side of the room and returned to her bedside. She opened it, and began to display the drawings that he had made.

Her friends seemed to be awestruck by Dipper's artwork, and dazzled by the teenager it involved. Grenda spoke after a few moments. "Whoa, he's HOT."

Dipper ground his teeth, cheeks flushing again.

"Yeah," Mabel said, smirking. "Dipper's obsessed with him."

"Uh-oh," Candy said, reminding him of his sister. "Somebody's in loooooove!"

The three girls giggled, and Dipper shot to his feet.

"Alright, fine! Say what you like, I don't care... Just give me back my journal!" He stomped over to them and grabbed the journal from off the bed before exiting the room and going onto the roof.

The cool night air felt good on Dipper's face, blowing through his hair. He sighed loudly and sat down on the edge of the roof, staring up at the brilliant full moon.

All of a sudden, Dipper's eyelids started to feel heavy, and his head spun. He was overcome by exhaustion, and decided to rest his eyes... For... Just a few moments...

Dipper found himself in the mindscape. He was still on the roof of the Shack, though, which meant that this probably wasn't a dream.

The thought of a visit from Bill made Dipper smile just a bit. He desperately wanted to see the demon again.

After a few moments of silence in the gray world of the mindscape, Bill finally appeared, sitting next to Dipper.

"Hi," the boy said, looking up at Bill.

"Hey, Piney. How have you been?"

"Great! I mean, uh... Good, you know." He shrugged, trying to come off as nonchalant but failing.

"Mhm. Fantasies treating you well, hm? By the way, you're a very talented artist, Pine Tree. I'm flattered."

"Oh, you saw those?" Dipper looked away, suddenly nervous.

"Kid, there's not much I don't see in this world." Bill leaned back, putting his hands on the wood behind him to keep himself upright. "I see the past, the present, and the future, and everything each contains. I am omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent... But despite all this power, I am still weighed down by... Human things."

"What do you mean?"

Bill let out an exasperated sigh and tilted his head backwards. His top hat fell off, but he didn't seem to care. "I mean that I still feel things, Pine Tree, no matter how much I don't want to. I don't want to care for a thing in this world, because one day it will burn to its core and there's nothing I can do to fight that."

Dipper blinked, somewhat confused. "Okaaaaay..."

"Oh, you wouldn't understand, kid! Just... Whatever." He closed his eye.

"So, why did you come here, then?"

Bill suddenly became very uncomfortable. He picked up his hat and placed it back on his head, and wouldn't stop adjusting it.

"I came to tell you that I... That you... Well, you see, you're very intelligent... And, uh, kind... And attractive- No! It's just that, I mean... I like you, Pine Tree. Well, I guess you kind of knew that already, but, er... I do." He made an attempt to hide his face with the brim of his hat, but Dipper could still see it.

"Wow, uh... Okay." They refused to meet each other's eyes.

Dipper spent quite some time trying to find the words to express how he felt, and to let Bill know that he felt the same, but by the time he opened his mouth to speak again, the demon was gone.

Hopefully, I will have Chapter 7 published by Sunday. Please let me know what you thought of this chapter. Happy New Year!

~ Three