Reformed

Chapter Ten

"He's been up here too much lately. She needs to stop bringing him up here to just... hang out. This isn't what I had planned."

"Trust me, Ford, I feel the same way, but I can't argue with the kid. She makes a pretty good point about him not having done anything wrong yet."

Ford sighed. "I suppose... But the moment that he acts out at all, he's going back down there and never coming back up again."

Bill rolled his eye as he listened to the older pair of twins talking about him. They were standing in the doorway to the living room. They must have thought that neither him nor Shooting Star could hear their whispers from at the table they were sat at on the other side of the room, but Bill at least could. Shooting Star seemed to be more focused on the puzzle she had somehow convinced him to do with her.

He had to admit, he was liking the privilege of coming upstairs more often. It was much better than that cramped, dark bathroom, and had much more to offer him. Bill was never bored up here. There was always something going on. Plus, he was getting along pretty well with Shooting Star. He was beginning to tolerate her more and more as the days went by. She wasn't all that bad, if he was being honest, especially compared to the rest of her family.

"Oh, another corner piece," Bill pointed out as he picked up a puzzle piece.

Mabel let out an eager grin. "Yes! That's the last corner! Great job, Bill!"

She let Bill place the piece into their barely complete puzzle. Bill wasn't sure what it was yet, but he already didn't like how annoyingly colorful it was. Had this kid ever liked anything simply-colored in her life? There was nothing wrong with something black-and-white every once in awhile!

Bill became distracted once more when he suddenly saw Fez walking over to them. He hadn't been paying attention for a moment or two, so he had no idea what was going on now. He stiffened up.

"Hey, kid. Mind if I take Bill for a bit?" he asked.

"For what?" Shooting Star raised an eyebrow in suspicion. Bill was grateful that she didn't immediately give him away. "You usually never want anything to do with him."
"Well, Poindexter and I both think that if Bill's gonna be up here so often, he should make himself useful," Fez explained. "He can come do some chores in the gift shop like you and Dipper do sometimes on the weekends. I'm sure Soos would like an extra pair of hands around."

Bill winced at that idea. He hated to admit it, but he only felt comfortable upstairs around Shooting Star. He was guaranteed to be safe and treated like a living thing around her. Sixer easily became violent around him, and Bill expected his brother to be the same way. Pine Tree simply tolerated him, which wasn't a bad thing but not necessarily an enjoyable thing either. Everyone else was indifferent to his existence... Shooting Star was the only person he could even vaguely trust or feel comfortable with.

Hey, well, even if someone ends up hurting and killing us, that's not too bad of a thing, his thoughts pointed out. Do we really want to spend the rest of our puny mortal life in Sixer's basement? We gotta die at some point.

Bill had to admit that his thoughts had a point, but he found himself shocked to be thinking about that. The idea of death still made his gut twist with unease, even if it would save him from the shameful predicament he was in. There had to be some other kind of solution... right?

"Hey, he'd get a chance to hang out with the rest of us," Fez then pointed out. "You've been wanting him to get along with us, so this might be his chance."

Wrong, Bill wanted to snap.

"Well, I guess it couldn't hurt to give it a try-"

"What?!" Bill immediately exclaimed, interrupting the brunette.