I think it's pretty obvious that the update schedule for this fanfiction has gone to shit. I'm so so sorry for not updating sooner, and this chapter is mediocre at best so it really doesn't make up for it, but I've been stuck in writers block and my computer keeps crashing for the past few weeks, so that's the only explanation I really have for why it took so long for me to get this up. But it's here now, and I really hope that you enjoy it, and I apologize for any grammar mistakes I may have made!
Chapter Eleven
Dipper found himself spending a lot more of his free time in Bill's apartment than expected. After the disastrous night at the restaurant- which had ended in the brunet realizing that he hadn't even paid for the meal and traipsing back to the restaurant from Bill's house at 11:30pm to pay and apologize- the blonde had seemed reluctant to take their relationship anywhere outside of his place of residence.
When in the comfort of his own home, Bill seemed to act a lot like mIndscape, which, admittedly, did take a little while for Dipper to adjust to; especially in the instances when he'd arrive at the door to find Bill lying on the floor, legs propped up on some piece for furniture, and be greeted by a shout of "Just ignore me, I'm plotting out the inevitable death of this tiny planet.". However, after about a week, that all simply faded into normality- just another part of the routine that had developed wordlessly between them.
During the daytimes, Dipper would run tours of the forest, and Bill would film his videos, then, after the two of them were done, the brunet would head over to the other's apartment, and the two would simply just sit together in enjoyment of each other's company, Bill glad for the feeling of someone sitting beside him as he edited his videos, Dipper glad to see the youtuber smiling and laughing every time he added in a stupid sound effect or came up with a witty joke to insert into the edits.
The two of them were simply just happy.
Happy to sit beside each other, Bill with his legs draped over Dipper's lap.
Happy to eat home cooked food, or, on busier nights, order takeaways and sit on the floor staring across the whole of Gravity Falls out of the tall glass windows of the apartment.
Happy to just lie there for hours on end, Bill's head fitted comfortably against Dipper's shoulder, his hair lightly tickling the brunet's chin, breaths falling into synchrony.
Happy to laugh at all the times Bill forgot to take his mask off after filming and tripped over things.
Happy to steal quick, sweet kisses that simply said ' I'm still here' 'I'm not going anywhere' .
Just Happy.
Of course, it wasn't all smooth running at the start. It took at least a week of apprehension and uncertainty before Bill fully began to relax around Dipper- the first few days after the date to the restaurant filled with silence that was awkward rather than companionable, and conversations that didn't interest either of the participants- however when things began to ease around them, they did so quickly. Bill the Starbucks barista's smooth talking and clumsily flirtatious gestures and mIndscape's strange humor and forward comments seemed to blend together into a personality that was entirely new, however, as cliche as he cursed himself for being, Dipper found himself falling head over heels for the blonde faster than he had before.
Bill wasn't exactly keen to let him forget that either, the youtuber finding himself taking extreme pride in being able to fluster the brunet so easily, sneaking quick kisses whenever he could, just to enjoy the surprised look on the taller male's face.
The two of them kept the relationship strictly to the confines of one another's places of residency however- if they saw each other outside during the day, the only interaction between them would be a brief smile to acknowledge each other's presence, occasionally a light touch on the shoulder or back if they walked past one another, nothing more. Dipper was fine with this; in his mind, it just made the lazy evenings they spent together all the more special, yet another thought that he condemned as painfully cliche.
"Pine tree, what are you hiding?" Dipper shifted slightly in confusion from where he sat on the arm of the chair Bill was sitting in, the blonde in the chair also adjusting his position so that he could keep resting his head against the brunet's arm.
"What do you mean?"
"You never take that hat you're wearing off." Dipper let out a barely audible sigh of relief that it was just one of Bill's mIndscape-esque monologues he had to sit through rather than bringing up a serious concern, and shrugged.
"Not everyone can have their hair looking as perfect as yours all the time, you know." Bill let out a loud laugh at the brunet's statement, twisting around to face the person sitting on the arm of his chair.
"I know that much, Pine Tree, but I'm sure your hair is fine too." Reaching up, Bill seized Dipper's hat before the brunet could protest, and removed it from his head, allowing the ruffled, undignified mess of unbrushed hair that sat barely contained beneath it to spring free. The Blonde sat and stared at him for a few seconds with an unnervingly scrutinising gaze, before shaking his head and roughly shoving the hat back down onto Dipper's head. "I changed my mind. That is anything but fine."
"I can't help it that my hair is a sentient being." A wide smirk slid onto Bill's features, and he leaned up from his computer to poke Dipper in the forehead.
"Oh, so I'm guessing that's why you take all the food for yourself- you have to feed your hair as well as your flesh-prison."
"What?" Dipper's response was indignant. "I do not take all the food for-" He was cut off as Bill stretched up and pulled him down from the arm of the chair onto the seat beside him. Moving in close enough for Dipper to feel the blonde's breath against his skin, Bill placed both his hands on the brunet's shoulders, the smirk still lingering on his features as he leaned forwards and kissed him, then kissed him again, further to the left, just on the side of his mouth, before moving around to whisper in his ear, voice low yet still holding a teasing note.
"You totally do." Dipper let out a loud huffing sigh, before reaching up and detaching Bill from his shoulders.
"Fuck you, Bill." The smirk on the blonde's face morphed into a wide, shit-eating grin.
"Well, I mean if you're offering then-" The sound of a Skype 'call incoming' tone interrupted the youtuber, something which Dipper was honestly quite glad for, until he spotted the ID of the caller on the screen.
"Bill, why is my sister Skype calling you?"
"Oh, we talk quite a lot, actually. She mainly just tells me embarrassing stories about you and I make notes of them for possible blackmail opportunities. You know, the usual." Dipper was about to protest, but Bill reached over and shoved him roughly off the chair, causing him to crash onto the floor by the blonde's feet. "Get under the desk and hide there until the call is done." With that, Bill snatched up his
mask and pulled it on over his face, and picked up the voice changer, then answered the call.
Dipper couldn't hear much of what the two of them were saying from where he was bundled up underneath the desk, but from the way Bill, or mIndscape as he was at that point of time, was laughing, he could guess that whatever story Mabel was sharing about him was something that the youtuber wouldn't let him live down for a while.
He made an internal note to Skype Pacifica later and tell her about the time Mabel had tried to eat a ball of wool when the two of them were ten. The conversation went on for a few infuriating and uncomfortable minutes, Dipper having been kicked in the side multiple times in the side by Bill's boots due to his position under the desk, unable to complain about it because Mabel had no idea that he was down there. The brunet let out a sigh of relief when Bill's face, the mIndscape mask flipped up on top of his head, appeared over the edge of the desk and beckoned him back up.
Dipper staggered to his feet, stretching out his legs, then let out a shocked exclamation as Bill grabbed his arm and pulled him into the chair beside him, almost sending the two of them toppling over the back of the spinning chair, a breathy laugh escaping the blonde as Dipper had to swing his arms around Bill to keep the two of them steady, the smirk from earlier filling out Bill's features as he flopped backwards, allowing the brunet to support the both of them.
"If you let go of me, Pine Tree, I'm going to tell everyone that the Mystery Shack is stupid." Bill's threat was lazy, and he threw his arms back and closed his eyes, leaving Dipper to keep him upright, the mask falling off his head and toppling to the floor.
"Oh no, what would I possibly do if you did such a thing." The brunet's response was sarcastic, However a small voice sounded from the computer, and Bill's relaxed form stiffened and sprung out of Dipper's arms, a look of wide-eyed horror upon his face.
"You uhh... You forgot to hang up on the call." Mabel's face was still visible on the computer screen.
"Shit...Shit…" Bill's voice was breathless with panic as he snatched the mask back up off the floor, pulling it back over his face before pushing Dipper roughly out of the way as he sat down on the chair. "How much did you see?" His voice was demanding, yet every word still shook with worry.
"I saw pretty much everything. I'm sorry, I should have hung up when you started taking the mask off, but then I heard Dipper and I got curious." Bill's elbows thudded down on the table as he cradled the sides of his head in his hands, his fingers tangling into his hair.
"Did you take any screenshots of my face? Please delete them. Please. I can't…" The blonde's voice trailed away and was replaced with nothing but the sounds of his breathing, quiet gasping noises, muffled by the material of the mask.
"Why would I do that?" Mabel's voice was questioning and innocent, displaying a look of confusion. Bill raised his head slightly. "You obviously don't want to have your identity revealed, so I wouldn't do anything like that, and neither would anyone else. Sure, people do want to know what you look like, but I'm pretty sure the people who watch your videos also respect you as a person."
"Mabel is right." Dipper spoke up for the first time in the conversation. "I also started off wanting to find out who you were, but even if I had found out in the way I intended to, I never would have told anyone. I don't think anyone would." The brunet reached over and placed a hand on Bill's back in what he hoped was a comforting gesture.
"You think so?" Bill sat up and adjusted the mask. "You really wouldn't tell anyone?" When Mabel nodded, the youtuber let out a disbelieving laugh, and turned to Dipper, evidently grinning despite the mask that hid his face. "She's not going to tell anyone. It's all okay." His voice was filled with a sense of almost childish relief. "It's actually okay."
"Now that's out of the way though, would you mind explaining this?" Mabel gestured to Dipper and Bill. "How long has this been happening exactly?" Bill responded, his posture now relaxed, a sense of pure relief seeming to fill him, as if he was glad to be able to talk about everything that had happened without worry.
"It's kind of a confusing story, but it's been about two weeks since this whole thing happened."
"And when were you planning to announce it?" Bill glanced over at Dipper, who shrugged.
"We weren't exactly going to. It would probably give away too many clues about the fact that Bill lives in Gravity Falls." Mabel looked slightly exasperated.
"You know, there are people who would probably be very happy to see this happening." Dipper glanced over to his sister in confusion as Bill gave a slight, choking laugh at the person on the other end of the Skype call's statement.
"I'm pretty sure he has no idea about the whole shipping thing, you know." the blonde seemed extremely amused at Dipper's confusion, and reached up, pulling him back into the chair. "Let me tell you a little bit about the mIndscape and Journal Number Four fanclub that seems to have started up in the past month." Dipper was concerned to say the least.
"I'm going to leave you to educate my poor, innocent brother." Mabel waved slightly at the webcam. "Good luck, Dipdop!" then the screen cut off, leaving Dipper with a widely smirking Bill sitting next to him, the mask now pushed back up on top of his head.
"So, I'm surprised you haven't found out about it yet, but there is a custom amongst a certain group of people on the internet, that deems that as soon as two people talk to each other, then it's acceptable to start insisting that they're in a relationship, then start writing and drawing hypothetical scenarios for that relationship that usually turns into porn."
"Wait what? People are doing that with us?"
"Yes. How about we go and find some?"
"What, no! Why would I want to look at that?"
"You know you want to, Pine Tree."
"Trust me, I really don't."
Im so sorry I half-assed that ending so so badly omf
Anyway though, I hope you enjoyed reading this installment of trash, and thankyou so so much for reading it!