Sleeping at night is proving to become more of a challenge as time goes on. You wake up at 2am in a cold sweat and a feeling of dread in your gut. Breathing a bit heavy, you look around the room but nothing seems out of order. You think to yourself for a moment, remembering that you just had a nightmare but can’t remember what it was about. That’s the second time that has happened. You wonder if Bill is at fault.
You shake your head and go to the bathroom for a moment, washing your face with lukewarm water. Your eyes look a little tired but you are otherwise as perky as usual. You sigh and brush your hair back, leaning against the counter slightly. You are used to late nights but being woken up so suddenly is not exactly your cup of tea. After another five minutes, you head back to bed. It’s a little rough getting back to sleep, having to toss and turn for a while before you drift off.
You are jerked awake at 4am by the loud sound of crashing and breaking. Blinking your eyes several times to wake up, you quickly stumble out of bed half asleep and a bit annoyed. You rub your eyes and look around your room. The dresser that sits on the opposite wall of your bed has suddenly broken, the mirror on the mantle shattered to pieces with glass scattered around the floor.
With a slight groan, you go to your closet and take out a broom and dust pan. You get to work sweeping up any glass that fell on the floor, you would deal with the glass on the dresser later. When it is all swept up, you throw it away then go to make breakfast. Bill is still asleep on the couch since he likes to sleep in so you don’t bother him.
You run through your morning routine, albeit slower than usual since you feel so sluggish. You are only just starting to get to your garden duties when Bill wakes up. He seems surprised by this fact, given that you are usually halfway done when he does wake up. He helps you out and you end up finishing your routine just about 45 minutes later than usual. This kind of throws you off but you know it isn’t the end of the world.
You spend most of the morning gathering your leftover ingredients for potions and herbs. Ford wanted you to move over to the Shack for a bit so you two could collaborate on fixing the hole in the barrier, and it would make it easier to test your creations this way. Most of your potions are still destroyed from who, or what, got into your potions room but there is a bottle or two of some ingredients and potions that managed to survive. Since you have so many, you have to get multiple duffle bags to fit everything, but it doesn't cause that much trouble thankfully.
What does cause trouble however is Bill tripping over himself to get you to stay home. He had been sneaking ingredients out of your bags when you weren't looking until you caught him and ordered him to stop. He's practically begging you at this point. "Why do you have to go? You can help Sixer perfectly fine from here!" You give a long sigh as you zip up the last bag. "Bill, I thought you would be happy about this. I'll be in Ford's lab almost all the time, which gives me plenty of time to find that crystal to restore your powers. Isn't that what you want?" You start to lug the bags onto your shoulders while Bill pouts. "Yeah but I don't want you staying with my enemy."
"Is that really the only reason you don't want me to go? Because I have a very strong feeling that it's because you'll miss me too much." You give him a smirk which causes him to start tripping over his words a bit. "No! I just- What if you get hurt or something?! Then the deal will break!" You chuckle lightly, all four bags now on your shoulder which starts to weigh you down. "Aw, you care about me. I'm touched. Look, I'll be fine. The Shack still has the unicorn hair around it and I severely doubt anything getting past that. Now, make sure you don't destroy the house while I'm gone, remember to feed Jack, and if anything stops by then you should have enough information from watching me to at least temporarily help them." With your mind made up and Bill in a severely depressed mood it seems, you head out the door with a quick goodbye.
You get to the Shack within the hour, the sun barely starting to graze its way across the sky. You knock lightly on the door which is immediately answered by Ford who has a kind smile on his face. “Early as usual. Come on in, I set aside a spot in the lab for you.” You smile back at him, letting him lead you inside and down into the basement through the elevator.
The lab opens up to you as the door opens. It as messy as it always has been. Papers are scattered everywhere, organized in a way only Ford knows, and several inventions are splayed across the floor and tables. You can see from the elevator two tables pushed together, completely free of papers or inventions. You figure that is the spot Ford has set up for you. You both step off and start heading further in.
Your head is on a swivel as you keep looking around, trying to pinpoint where the crystal would be. You remember how Bill described it so you hope you can spot it if it’s in an invention or just out in the open. However, as you wander through, you can tell that Ford keeps valuable projects elsewhere. Most of anything you see are incomplete inventions and papers that don’t seem to matter much.
Ford presents the two clear tables with a subtle flourish of his hands. “Well, I hope it’s enough room for your experiments. If you need more space then I’m sure we could figure something out.” You set your four bags down on the tables and nod. “This should work just fine, thanks Ford. I brought everything I need so I should be all set to get started as soon as I want.” He nods back to you then heads to his own space around the lab, presumably to work on the applicator he talked about before.
It takes you awhile to unpack all the bags of ingredients you have, an hour to be exact, and you organize them alphabetically. Some of them are put under the table because you don’t think you’ll need them while others are spread out along the table. Most of the ingredients you want to use have some sort of sticky characteristic or residue that you think would work towards making a magical glue.
You used to experiment with plants and potions about two years ago but you stopped doing that when you almost set the house on fire due to two potions having a volatile reaction against one another. You had only successful created a mixture once, between some potion ingredients, and of course you didn’t have anyone else so you tested it on yourself. Anyone that drinks it ends up floating the next time they sneeze. They would have to sneeze again to stop floating, which happened most of the time, but there were two or three times that you were stuck to the ceiling for a few hours.
All that aside, you have more experience so you hope to be less dangerous when it comes to experimenting with ingredients, and it’s especially important now with someone you care about in such close proximity.
You can hear Ford fiddling away in his own little corner of the lab so you start getting to work yourself. The task of experimenting with magical plants is a very delicate one. One little mistake could create a consequence that you do not want to have, including being transformed into something other than human, which is not as fun as it may seem. You can’t say you’ve never been hurt by it but it’s never been permanent.
A few hours pass. You and Ford have been experimenting all day with no sign of leaving the lab anytime soon. You both haven’t eaten either but you are both used to that so it’s no bother. You haven’t made much progress in terms of making the ‘glue.’ Most of the magical plants end up cancelling each other out while others just don’t seem to want to work together. You’ve tried looking at it from a different angle, but you are pretty sure you’ve gone through all 360 degrees.
“Add the...Mrognat with the Siphlig.” You mumble to yourself while trying another combination in the beaker. “Two parts Afyade….” You gently crush the ingredient in your fingers, watching the small flakes fall in. You think to yourself for a moment, scanning what you have available. “Ulkers are usually slimy…” You grab a small vial of, what appears to be, a decaying leaf. You take it out carefully and grab your pocket knife to scrape off the top of said leaf. A goo appears on the end and you carefully drop it in. You watch with a subtle cautiousness as the Ulker slime disperses itself among the other ingredients, turning the whole into a shimmering gray. With a slow breath, you grab some Igloil and take one part of the branch to stir the rest of the ingredients.
You hold your breath, watching the beaker intently as the color starts to fade into a green which is good news for you. Unfortunately, you pull your hand back when the Igloil branch starts to melt into the beaker, the substance now bubbling dangerously. You scramble to grab your duffle bag as an ugly creature that could only be thought of in nightmares starts to appear from the beaker. Some of its limbs are green and decaying while other parts of it appeared to have already peeled off by the sight of organs you can see. It gives a low, guttural growl while trying to climb out of its tomb. You grab a blue, glowing flower in a pot from your bag and quickly bring it over, sticking it into the beaker. It immediately comes to life, the petals turning into teeth that suddenly grab on to the creature and close around it. You can hear it yowl in pain before there is silence.
You take the failed experiment and dispose of it accordingly, along with the rest, then put the flower back in your bag. That should keep it fed for at least an hour or so. You eyes scan over your plant parts with an utterly exhausted look. You sigh and lean against the table, your head in your hands. Your hands hurt from other failures but you don’t care about the sting of pain that hits you when the burnt skin touches your face.
“Need a break?” You slowly turn your head around to see Ford with a plate of sandwiches ready. You tiredly smile and get up, making your way over to him while taking one sandwich with (S/I) and (2/S/I). “Yeah, thanks.” You take a bit and it feels like heaven in your mouth, probably courtesy of your exhaustion and hunger. “That was quite a show you put on (Y/N). Does that usually happen?” You can’t help but laugh. He leads you over to another empty table you hadn’t noticed before and you both sit down.
“Not really. It depends on what ingredients you use but it’s rare for anything, you know, moving to come out of it. Usually, it affects whoever is trying to combine the ingredients aka me. I assume your experiments have been much more successful than mine?” You can see a gleam of interest in Ford’s eyes as you talk. “Well, I have made the base of what will apply your ‘magical glue.’ All I need now is a way to store it that won’t make the gun unstable or the glue itself unusable which would depend on its properties..”
“Right so we have to wait for me to find the ingredients for this glue before we can continue.” You sigh softly and finish the last bite of your sandwich, brushing the crumbs off your hand. It is only the first day of experimenting and you are severely stressed out. Ford seems to notice this and smiles gently at you, standing up from his chair. “How about I show you something?” He gestures for you to follow him and you do so with a curious air.
You both wander deeper into the lab though Ford seems to know exactly where he is going. It seems to get a bit messier until you both go through a door that leads into a large room, where the portal once was. It was since dismantled and the parts of it have obviously been stripped over time, probably for more of Ford’s inventions. There are now more tables in here, still as messy as his regular lab with technological inventions strewn about.
He takes you over to a table where a small robot is built. It has wheels to move around and a cylindrical body with a small screen on where its stomach would be, if it had one. You stare at it for a few seconds as Ford goes up to it and clicks something in the back. It suddenly comes to life, a small mechanical whirring coming from inside it. You jump a bit and take a huge step back from the table, staring at it as it rolls around. Ford chuckles. “Not much of a technology person (Y/N)?”
“I prefer the mystical, yeah...Technology is weird.” He gives another light chuckle then gestures for you to come closer. You do so, slowly. “Well, from my point of view, I’d say the mystical is odd myself.” You smile a bit, realizing he’s right. The little robot turns towards you and starts beeping quietly, the screen on its stomach showing an outline of you. You look at it strangely then look towards Ford. He shrugs and turns it off. “I never could get the little guy to work properly.”
He leads you over to another table where there are just parts of technology. You don’t understand what most of it is except for random screws, bolts, and chips. You glance over the table then look to Ford again. He spreads his six fingers open towards the table. “Well, what do you say we take a break? I have plenty of spare parts lying around.” You stare at him for a while. “You mean, you want me to try and...make something? Out of this?”
“Well, not without help of course. Let’s see what we can do.”
YOU ARE READING
The Witch in the Woods (Bill Cipher x reader)
FanfictionA week has passed since Weirdmaggedon happened and Bill was 'defeated.' Everyone had already gone back to their normal lives under the 'forget-about-it' movement that was input. You did the same though it was less normal than everyone else's. You ha...
