During one visit Samuel gives his friends in one mid-November Sunday, the boys have finished their school work and just left the room to prepare afternoon snacks. Mabel, however, is struggling a little with her history homework. And the girl does make her frustration heard with an annoyed groan. Suddenly...

"What's up with the moaning sound, Shooting star?"

She jumps out due to a scare. "Bill! Don't scare me like that..."

The triangle doesn't care about being called out, like often. "You know I'm linked to your friend, right? If he's at your home, then I am too!"

Mabel wants to argue back. "But you don't need to... Ugh, whatever, I'm busy..." She goes back to her desk.

Bill floats forwards to her. "What you're doing? Is that..." He almost sounds disgusted. "... school work?"

Mabel sighs. "History homework, yeah..."

The demon frowns. "This sounds dreadful. It's bad enough you humans have to waste precious time of your one life working, school follows you at home too? And I thought I was cruel..."

"Bill, I don't have time to talk with you! I need to get this finished for tomorrow!" She frowns as she's holding her pen. But then... "What...?" She sees her handwriting applying itself, giving answers with all the informations she needs. She turns around and sees, the demon just snapped his fingers to make it happen.

"That'll do!" He says, smugly.

This doesn't satisfy her, however. "I can't cheat! I have to understand what I'm doing and prove it too!"

"Oh, you have a conscience too..." Bill facepalms on his eye. "Fine, I'll dumb it dow..." he realizes that sounds a little too rude. "I mean, I'll make it easier to understand for you..."

He spends a couple of minutes talking about the homework's topic, and then Mabel gasps with a smile. "Oh my gosh, I got it! You're a genius, Bill!"

The demon puts his hands on his hips and looks away smugly again. "Tell me something I don't already know..."

"But... Why...? Why would you help me with that?"

Bill's confidence breaks a bit. "You wanna know...?" Dipper and Samuel do take time to ensure everything's ready, so he says. "Close the door, I'll try to be quick before Fuzzball and Pinetree come back!"

Mabel obliges, and then Bill exclaims. "Well, the logical reason is... You had zero hesitation believing in me, despite..." He doesn't want to talk about everything he did to her during the vacation, so he stops there. "You immediately wanted to forget about our past and treat me as a friend, as soon as I've started feeling remorse and sorrow... Which I'm still not sure where they came from." Mabel is stunned, and he continues. "You also wanted to help me find a new use for my mischief. And heck...

You succeeded at making me feel joy again... So... I suppose a part of me feels thankful to you and wanted to repay you in a way..."

She barely resists squeeing. "Oh, you're welcome, Bill. I'm thankful for your help!" She smiles at him genuinely.

Then, the triangular demon looks away as he gets a little more personal. "There's more..." He leaves some silence, but then thinks about how the boys won't be long anymore, so he hurries up. "I think I always... kinda liked you, Shooting star..." He notices a stare of disbelief from her, and once again... He has to leave his pride behind before it's too late. "You're cheerful, you love fun and seek it at all costs, you sometimes push rules aside if you think this is worth it... In a way, we're kinda alike... So for those reasons... I think I always liked you, but couldn't express it."

She looks emotive with a smile. "Aww... I like you too, Bill. Especially now that we're friends... And know that I'll keep supporting you!" She tries to grab his hand, but then he disappears as the boys make themselves heard in the hallway. "Uh oh..." She quickly opens the door and acts innocently. "Hey, Sammy, Bro-bro... You got everything?"

They're grabbing a platter together. "Yup, what about you, Sis? Are you done?", asks her brother out of curiosity.

She thinks about how shameful it would be for Bill to reveal what just happened, so she simply answers. "Yup, got it all done while you were busy!"

"Awesome! Now it's snack time!" Exclaims, Samuel. The twins giggle at this.

Meanwhile in Gravity Falls, underneath the Mystery Shack, Ford is busy reading the notes that the kids send them. No matter how many times he does it, he still has the same feeling of disbelief. "I never thought it'd be possible for him, of all beings, to..."

Suddenly... "Hey... what are you doing here?" Stan surprised him joining him in the room without being noticed.

Ford gets startled. "You scared the beans out of me!"

His brother gets amused about that, as proven by his short laugh. "So, what were you doing?"

The question is a heavy one. Should Ford tell him about the current situation? Should he hide it to not get him worried? For now, he answers... "What do you think? I was busy studying stuff. Stuff that... really wouldn't interest you!" Seeing Stan's curious look, he concludes in hope to change the subject. "... complicated things you wouldn't want to give attention to. Anyway, why did you come here?"

"Obviously, I came for you. It's been a while since you left that room. Is something wrong?" He asks genuinely.

"True, maybe I was overfocused for a bit. I can take a break to spend time with you and the rest of the people upstairs if that's what you want..." Ford seems relieved that the question is gone for now.

Stan gets worried. "Overfocused? Do you work too hard? Because that isn't good."

He nods. "Yeah, maybe I was thinking too hard about what I was studying, to the point where I forgot to take breaks until you arrived. So, thanks!"

But the question comes back immediately. "What were you studying?", as he asks with a friendly tone.

Ford thinks about all the times bad communication has been a detriment to them, and so he takes the tough decision to ask him "So, you wanna know?" with a fairly regular tone. As his brother confirms, he gets more serious. "You really wanna know...?"

Stan answers "Yes" with a mix of genuine curiosity and growing concern, as Ford starts speaking honestly while evading the touchy subject.

"It's something that the kids are sending me regularly. They're making and sending me observations about something. Alongside their friend, they are studying... a specific subject... and they want my feedback..."

"Oh, Dipper for sure would be the kind to seek this kind of exchange! He really inherited that from you, didn't he?" Stan states this amused, but the main question keeps returning. "And what is that subject?" Stan does care about what the kids are doing nowadays, and seeing that his brother is beating around the bush is starting to show.

But Ford takes a concerned tone, as he's about to let out a massive information. "Fine, I won't make you wait longer. The subject of the research is... ... ..." He takes a giant breath of courage before saying "... Bill..."

He sees his twin being shocked to hear this name. "As it turns out, Bill somehow survived after the failure of Weirdmageddon, despite what we did."

"BILL IS WITH THE KIDS?", yells Stan in horror and a hint of anger.

Ford has some sorrow in his voice, knowing he made his brother feel all sorts of emotions. But it was a necessary evil for the sake of honesty "I didn't ask them if they know how, or that kind of details, but... yes, he survived! I saw him myself during a video call..."

Stan looks at him seriously. "ARE THE KIDS SAFE?"

Ford once again speaks the truth. "Based on the reports their friend did... Bill started manifesting himself as soon as the school year started. He did some pretty bad things, eventually tricking the kids' friend into making a vessel deal with him..."

Stan sounds like he's in complete disbelief, growing angry. "He messed with the kids... Of course... We have to do something to stop him!"

Ford interrupts him. "Wait... Your reaction is justified, but..." He tries to find the best way to explain it.

"But what? How can you be so calm when this monster is out there?"

"I know this sounds crazy, but... when he and this Samuel kid made that deal, one part of it that he has to respect is not physically harming the kids. And apparently, Bill has been obeying it. More shockingly... He hasn't done anything bad to them after the first couple of days, even apparently trying to make amends to them... It has been a couple months since his latest mischiefs, and they are still fine."

Stan calms down a bit, but... "That's still really bad! Bill's a very dangerous being! It'd be so easy for Bill to change his mind, trying to twist the terms and whatnot! The kids might be safe now, but it could just be a giant act on his part!" He then asks a very serious question. "Do you even trust Bill?"

Ford admits in a serious tone. "I can't trust Bill! Especially not after my history with him...!" He talks more emotionally. "But... I trust the kids, and their judgement of him! And I trust that their friend isn't a liar either! If they say he's not being a danger to them, then I trust them..."

This is barely enough to reassure Stan, however. "What if he's just hiding his true intentions? He's a master manipulator! And he can easily fake these acts of kindness just to hit harder! He's tricky and he's scary! He's just waiting for an opportunity to ruin everything!"

Ford reaffirms his point of view seriously. "If the kids trust him, then I trust them... And I'm telling you the truth about all this because... I don't want more secrets and fights between us... Not after what our previous ones led to..." This hits Stan hard, as he feels like he went too far despite having every reason to be emotional over it.

And Ford adds. "I understand you're doubtful. I'll show you what they sent me at a later time if it helps you get a better idea of the situation."

Stan gives him a calm, but genuine thanks. Right after that, Ford asks him. "Do you think... we should tell anyone else from the town for now...? Or should we keep it to ourselves?"

"I'd rather keep it to ourselves" Stan says with a slight pause "I don't want word to get out that someone as dangerous as Bill is alive. Besides, Dipper and Mabel seem to trust Bill, so It's probably best we just trust them for now." Stan's face is serious for a minute. But it then softens a little bit.

Ford feels satisfied. "I'm glad you understand. Now then, you were right to come to me, I really need a break. Let's go back upstairs."

"Sounds good" Stan says with a nod.

Author notes: Nothing much here, just another little breather to show some extra bonding without much of a scenaristic reason.

The second half is actually the first scene where none of the story's main characters contribute, and I hope I wrote Stan and Ford well enough despite that.

Thanks for reading!