Archive of Our Own ^beta

"Mabel?"

"Yes Dip Dip?" Mabel glanced at her brother as she walked out of the pool dressing room, "something wrong?" she adjusted her berry patterned pink swimsuit.

"Yeah. I can't find Bill," Dipper was looking around the public swimming pool of Gravity Falls. It was their fourth summer at the Mystery Shack and little has changed since they first stepped foot on the pavement of the town. Well not counting that Wendy left to college and her place was taken by... Well-

"Bill?" Mabel joined her brother in looking across the water, "I thought he was with you. He was so excited to come," Mabel checked the plug on her floating mattress.

Dipper slowly crawled into the water, "Well he /was/ with me until he simply poofed into his swim shorts and said he'd wait outside."

"Well I bet our dear Dori-"

"PINE TREE /LOOK/ !" A man in plain, yellow swim shorts and offensively yellow hair hollered as he appeared out of no where about seven meters above the deep end and dropped into the water.

"-to" Mabel finished quietly. Then her face went white, "Bro bro?"

"That was impressive," Dipper slowly nodded and turned to his sister, "what?"

"Dipper?" She pointed at the bubbles above the water where the demon was moments ago, "DIPPER HE CANT SWIM!" She flapped her hands around the surface.

"what?" Dipper whispered, then immediately turned to where Bill fell, "oh shIT!" he dove towards the demon.

It wasn't a far swim and Dipper has been going to swim meet for two years since he lost a bet with Mabel. He saw a flash of yellow and swam deeper. Bill was already almost to the bottom and was steadily drifting deeper. When he caught sight of who was progressing towards him, he smiled, more bubbles spilling out of his mouth. "EMLOE INE TEE" what he was saying was muffled by frightening amounts of air leaving his mouth. Then he tried to breath in but quickly started coughing, "INE TEE?"

Dipper sternly grabbed Bill at the waist and kicked at the tiled floor.

When both resurfaced, Mabel was already nearby, handing the light pink mattress over just to have Bill flopped onto it.

Dipper swam over to the edge and hauled himself on top, breathing heavily. Mabel soon pushed Bill and the mattress over to the edge as well and sat next to Dipper, "You think he's alive, bro bro?"

"Sure a-" Bill broke off into a coughing fit, sitting up in the process and flipping the mattress over. Dipper groaned, already slipping into the water and pulling the other out and onto the light pastel orange tiles. The demon only chuckled and spit out more water, "Why you still hugging me Pine Tree?" He grinned and poked the male twin on the side.

Dipper's arm was still indeed draped over the other's waist. Bill was expecting the boy to grow red and try to mumble out a response but after years of coexisting with the damned triangle, he has finally grown immune to the snarky remarks and teasing comments.

"Because if I let go and you fall in again, I'll let you drown this time," Dipper poked Bill back. Mabel grinned and hooted, "Someone's feeling braaaave today!" As Bill sat, wordless. This was the first time Pine Tree has ever bounced back his comment with an equally good reply.

Mabel already had her old camera pulled out with a satisfied squeal of, "/scrapbookortunity!/ " as she snapped a picture of the two, "First time Bill got burned back!" She slapped the already printed picture into volume six of summer memories that appeared as mysteriously as the camera has.

Bill needed to comment something in reply to win back his throne of jokes, pranks, and remarks. "Well. Well..."

"What Dorito, out of comebacks?" Dipper pushed Bill to the side, finally letting go of him.

Bill regained his composure and waved his hand in the air, "Well, Pine Tree, you have done good," this was a very risky plan, he needed backup. So he quickly turned to Mabel and winked, "I think you deserve a prize!" Bill grinned from ear to ear. This comment made the short haired twin lose his smile, while the other two grinned. He was partly used to seeing Bill's predatory grin, but seeing a similar one on Mabel's face made him question his safety. What was the worst that could happen? Maybe he'd just be pushed into the water. Or maybe he'd be given another pile of teeth. But what could possibly happen that the thought of got Mabel to twist her face into that? Oh no Mabel was getting up, what was going on? The girl whispered, "wait a sec!" As she jogged over to her purse and pulled out her other, more modern camera. She ran back over and turned it on, nodding to Bill. Dipper readied himself for the wor-

Bill grabbed him by the shoulders and yanked him toward at a dangerously fast speed only to meet him in, what Dipper claimed later was his first real kiss (not counting the Mermando incident that Mabel brought up way too frequently for his liking).

At first Dipper flung his hands at Bill, trying to swat away the wet demon, but ended up just leaving his right hand in the yellow dyed hair.

He had known the dream demon for four years and half of that time, he hated the guy. Well not counting the fascination that was hiding under all the, "Oh god! Mabel! Why is he in the house? Get him out!" And other squeals of despair as Mabel persisted that it would all profit them to let Bill hang out in the Mystery Shack. But later the 'hang out' part tuned into 'live'. He hardly ever left now. Two years ago Dipper had nothing to do but complain and lock himself somewhere and try and avoid the triangle for hours. Mabel however had other plans for the two.

She would organize marathons of Ducktective (back then those almost all ended in Bill kicking Dipper out of the armchair, just making the other try and exorcise the him). She would take them all to the park (those just ended in Bill chasing Dipper up a tree and not let him get down. One time Dipper had enough of that and simply threw his shoe at the triangle. Surprisingly enough he hit him smack in the face). The girl tried a lot of things and put up the two's bickering and fights, but she noticed that as days passed, the bickering and fighting turned more joking than actually offensive.

Dipper didn't really like the demon. Not in that way. Well he /had/ known him for a while. He looked nice especially now that he had a body. He had /very/ good humor. He told Dipper different stories. He took him on missions to the forest. He could cook. He had beautiful eyes. He smelled nice. He- Fuck. Okay Dipper liked him.

Bill pushed past his lips, deepening the kiss. Mabel was prancing around, filming. Wait Mabel was filming? Mabel was filming. /Mabel was filming./ Dipper questioned his life choices.

Bill bit Dipper's lower lip. That was so Bill. And Dipper was having none of that. He immediately slapped Bill's shoulder. When the other didn't part the kiss, he slapped at him again, but the other dodged his torso to the side. To the demon's misfortune, that was the side where the tiles ended and the water started.

Dipper was splashed with water as yellow swim shorts quickly disappeared under water. Mabel peaked from behind the filming camera and looked between Dipper and the bubbles, "You gonna get him out, Dipping-dot?"

"Nope," Dipper sat back with a bored look.

Mabel knew he was joking but she couldn't have part of her ship drown. She had worked so hard for this to work. "You either get him out or I'm tickling yOU!" Mabel was about to reach to tickle her brother when he slipped into the water with a laugh and a 'fine'.

-~timeskip~-

All three were sitting in a nearby café, waiting for their drinks. So many more shops have opened since four years ago, and now Greasy's wasn't the only option of cheap food. Mabel was rerunning the video of the two at the pool and five more she filmed on the way there. Dipper was forced to sit next to Bill, not that he was much against that but... Bill was opening all the toothpicks and hiding them, placing the paper cases back into the little holder. People were gonna be angry.

"Bill can you not." Dipper fumbled with the menu as Bill kicked him under the table again.

"Can I not what?" Bill kicked him again. Sounding totally innocent.

"Can you not do /that/!" Dipper looked at Bill who just smiled and raised his eyebrows.

"You mean /this/?" Bill kicked again. Dipper just grumbled in response. "What? I didn't hear you. You mean don't do /this/ ?" Bill kicked yet again and Dipper hit him on the head with the soft menu. Bill threw a chopstick that landed into Dipper's still damp hair.

"Boy, boys, stop!" Mabel reached across the table and pried them apart. 'Save the ship save the ship save the ship' she chanted in her head as the two finally stopped. Now they just sat on opposite sides of the long couch-bench. Throwing angry gazes and grunts at each other.

Bill could be an asshole sometimes. He'd just kissed the guy an- wait. He just kissed Bill. Dipper gulped and quickly turned to the window. /Hehadjustkissedbillandeveryonewasokaywithit/. He stared at a leaf on the pavement. /Andbythewaybillwastheonewhostarted/. Did Mabel take a picture of them kissing apart from the video? If yes did she put it in the scrapbook? If yes, what was he going to tell his parents. They still didn't know about the 'I live with a demon 24-7' and now it turned into 'I live with a demon that I like 24-7'. What was he going to say? 'Oh and just saying he tried to kill us all when I was twelve' ?

while her brother was having a staring contest with a leaf, Mabel scooted on her own couch to face Bill. She looked at him and gestured at her brother with her eyes. Bill shook his head, a silent no. The young woman gave one of those 'you better do it or you're grounded' motherly looks. He huffed back and slowly nodded.

"Hey Pine Tree?" Bill scooted over, speaking in his usual teasing manner. Mabel hid a camera behind the menu stands. She was determined on filming EVERYTHING. "Pine Tree?" Bill drew out the last word, getting the brunette's attention. Dipper turned from the window with a 'what' and a puzzled look.

"Okay, Pine Tree. I am proposing you a very life changing opportunity," Dipper raised an eyebrow, forgetting the thing that bugged him a second ago. "Your answer might change the course of the universe. Or it might just make a certain demon feel rejected," Bill placed his hands on Dipper's shoulder. Much more gently than at the pool. "Will you," Dipper stared into Bill's eyes. One was an intense blue, the other, a bright golden-yellow. Oh god was he beautiful. "Dipper Pines," Bill begged this would work. Doing this was /even/ riskier than the pool experience. So far luck was on his side. He gazed at Pine Tree, this wasn't the first human he felt attraction to, but possibly the first to return the feeling. This was worth a shot. "Be my," Dipper gulped. What the hell was this. Bill was nervous, it was obvious. What could an immortal being of pure energy, or whatever the fancy dork called himself, be nervous about? He wasn't ready to marry the guy. Yet.

He was a powerful being. Immortal. Pure energy. Why the hell did this scare him? Bill chickened out the last second and repeated, "be my...." Mabel kicked him under the table and the unexpected collision of Mabel's foot with Bill's calf made the demon blurt out "mysignificantpinetree" and when he looked back at Dipper, the brunette was just staring at him. No reaction. What did that face mean? After years of sticking around the mindscape, Bill had forgotten a good portion of all the things he learned about humans back in the Middle Ages.

Dipper just looked at Bill. Did he just ask to date him? Did he? He didn't know what to say. He saw Bill shrink in on himself. He was a living emotion when in his human form that he learned how to make himself into. And the first thing he did was go show the twins. He felt Bill's hands go limp on his shoulders and the different colored eyes half closed. Bill was looking down onto the floor.
Shooting star said that this would work. She promised. And Pine Tree was just sitting there. He was going to remember this to the end of time as one of the most embarrassing and possibly disappointing minute in his life. No, he wasn't staying. He readied his form for teleportation when his ears caught a hoarse 'yes'. The demon looked up. Pine Tree cleared his throat and mumbled a soft 'yeah. I will be' causing the demon to grin his usual sharp teeth.

Mabel squealed the hundredth time that day.