Wayfarer [Bill Cipher x Reader] [REVISED]

Chapter Five: Almost (Sweet Music)

That evening found you pacing in your room, your hands clenched and your heart throbbing in your ears. Your eyes skimmed over the room. So, let's see... chairs moved, check. Throw pillows arranged, check. Toiletries put away, check. Clothes put away, check. Trash cleaned up, check. Snacks bought, check.

You swallowed and unclenched your fists, wiping your sweaty palms on your shirt hem. Oh, God. Was all of this a mistake? What were you thinking, letting him come into your room? He might not like what he saw. He might think that you were weird, and awkward, and desperate, and he might not want to hang out with you ever again. Oh, God, ohGodohGodohGod—

You gulped and turned to tug down the edge of the blanket, straightening it out. Being left alone with your racing thoughts was the last thing you needed right now, you thought to yourself, gritting your teeth. You smoothed the blanket surface. Better give yourself something else to do.

Turning, you glanced at the armchair and, eyeing the angle, stepped forward and shifted it a little to the left. Then, you shifted it back to the right a hair. Then back to the left.

God, was this what hell was like? Perpetual anticipation and anxiety? Forever arranging and rearranging things, dreading the moment of judgment? You wished that he'd just show up already. Or tell you that he wasn't showing up. Something, anything decisive, just to let you be able to at least know your fate—

A knock came on the door.

You almost jumped out of your skin at the sudden sound. "(Y/N)!" Bill's voice rang out on the other side. "I'm here. My bad for being late—"

You flung the door open. "Bill!" you said. You wiped your hands on your shirt again, trying your best to plaster a nice, steady smile on your face. "It's great to see you. Come on in!"

Bill followed you into the room. His eyes swept over the place, darting from the walls to the floor to the furniture as your internal temperature increased. "Nice place you got here!" he remarked. "Good job keeping it neat."

"Oh, well, thanks," you replied, a little breathless. "But I can't take all of the credit. I mean, housekeeping cleaned while I was out, and there's not much to keep clean, anyways, so—"

Bill laughed. "Yeah, well, same goes for my room, but it still looks like a tornado touched down! So, still, good job."

You shrugged. "Oh, it's nothing, really. Just a little... tidying here and there. Can I offer you a chair?" you asked. You pulled out the armchair and gestured to the seat. "Here, have this one. It's the nice one."

"Oh, is it?" Bill replied. "Well, then, wouldn't dream of taking it from you. You have it." He shoved it towards you.

"No, it's fine! I'm fine with sitting here," you said, gesturing to the desk chair. "You take it!"

"Nah, I'm good. Here, take this." He smiled and nudged the armchair.

"Oh, c'mon, just take it," you said. "I mean, I saved it just for you." Your eyes fell to the ground. "It'd be a waste if I just hogged it for myself."

"Hey! Nothing you do for yourself is a waste."

You fixed him with a look. "Are you sure about that?" you muttered. "I mean, if you'd ever seen some of the things I've done for myself..." You trailed off in thought. Then, you cleared your throat. "But seriously, stop being stubborn and just take the seat, okay?" You laughed. "I'm trying to be nice to you!"

Bill lifted his hands up. "Okay, okay, okay, if you really insist," he replied. He settled down onto the armchair. "There. You happy now?"

You nodded. "Much better," you replied. "Now, do you want any snacks before we get started? There's popcorn, potato chips, and Doritos, if you want any. Take whatever you like. It doesn't matter to me." You held out a bag of each snack.

"Snacks?" Bill raised an eyebrow. "This soon after dinner?"

"Well, yeah! Anytime is snack time," you said. "Plus, I've seen how much you can eat, so..." You trailed off. "It never hurts to be prepared."

Bill shrugged. "Fair enough." He took the Doritos bag from you and opened it.

In turn, you settled down into the desk chair with the popcorn and opened up your laptop. "Could you turn away for a quick second?" you asked. "I gotta put my password into the computer really quick."

He turned, his brows furrowing. "Your computer password? Why? Aren't we gonna watch this on the TV?"

You sighed. "Yeah, well, that was the plan, but..." You frowned. "I couldn't figure out how to get CrunchyRoll to work on the TV, so we're just going to watch it on this instead." You opened up a tab for CrunchyRoll.

"Why CrunchyRoll, though? Why not Netflix? Netflix works on the TV, right?"

"Netflix doesn't have it."

"What? Netflix doesn't—?" He turned to you with wide eyes. "Actually, nevermind. That makes sense." He sighed. "Can't get too much on Netflix anymore."

"Yeah, I know, right?" You snorted. "You have to get, like, eight subscriptions now if you want to be able to stream everything you want. Stupid streaming companies." You sighed. "Well, at least I got CrunchyRoll for the anime. That much I can count on... Now, can you turn away again? I need to log into my account."

Bill did so as you typed in your password. "Okay, you can look now," you said.

As you typed in "boku no hero academia" into the search bar, Bill spoke. "So," he said. "Have you watched this show before?"

"My Hero Academia? Yep," you said. You pulled up the anime. "Why do you ask?"

He shrugged. "Just wanted to know. Did you like it?"

"Eh..." You stopped and turned to him. "Yeah. Yeah, I did. The animation's pretty decent, and I like a lot of the main cast. Plus, the worldbuilding's pretty interesting." You chuckled. "I mean, I wouldn't recommend that we watch it if I didn't like it, you know?"

"Yeah, well, what's the main character like? It's that little... green-haired boy, right?"

You nodded. "Yup, that's Deku. He's a nice enough character, I guess. Kind of a crybaby and all, but I like that he gets to be open with his feelings, you know? A lot of shonen protagonists just express all their feelings by punching things." You snorted. "So it's a nice change of pace, I guess."

"So what I'm hearing is, he's not, like, a Naruto-type guy, huh?"

"Well, I mean, he does have that whole 'I wanna protect my friends' thing going on, but, I mean, do you really want a protagonist that won't protect the people close to him?" you asked. "But yeah, overall, he's not really a Naruto-type guy, if you're gonna call it that."

Bill let out a big exhale. "Oh, thank goodness," he said. "Wouldn't be able to make myself watch another one of those..."

"Yeah, I know." You sighed. "It's annoying when all the protagonists are the same, you know?"

"Absolutely!" he huffed. "Can't stand most of 'em. They're stubborn idiots with the brain cell count of a protozoa who wanna protect their friends. That's it. That's their entire personality. I mean, c'mon. Can't anyone come up with even kinda an original protagonist? I swear, if I have to watch one more of these generic main characters—"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," you replied, patting his arm before he could get too deep into ranting. "Trust me, you won't have to worry about any of that with this. Now, come on! Let's stop talking and get around to watching the anime, okay?"

Bill sighed and shifted back in his chair as you set the computer down between the two of you, balancing it on the chair arms. You pressed play.

Then, leaning back, your heads inclined towards each other, the two of you listened as the first lines began to play. "That's mean, Kacchan. Can't you see he's crying?"

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