Bill POV
Ana met my eye over Dipper's curly hair, judgment and a question in her gaze. I hushed her with a flip of my hand. She only shrugged at me before disappearing leaving the two of us alone in the throne room.
Dipper lifted his head from my shoulder, in slow motions he removed himself from my space. "See you did it. Good job." I smiled, placing my newly freed hands on my hips confidently.
Dipper blinked rapidly, a sheen to his eyes I've not seen before, his brows pulled together confused. "What?"
"I said good job."
"At what? What was that?! You said 'trust you' and then didn't even do anything." He sneered, throwing his hands up in the air.
It pulled a laugh from my lungs, seeing him still all worked up after everything, couldn't he see he won. "For finally standing up for yourself!" The words carried laughter in them, only further influenced by the continued confusion in his features. I couldn't help it, I reached for his face, squeezing his jaw in both hands. "Don't you see! You finally told them off! Didn't it feel good? Having confidence in yourself again." I shook his head back and forth in my own excitement.
His hands met my wrist, prying his face out of my hold, "Are you kidding?" Anger flitting in and out of his voice.
"Normally yes. Now no."
The edge in his eyes softened in exhaustion, "Yeah, it did feel nice to get that off my chest." His hands still on mine, fingers fidgeting with the cuffs of my coat.
"See, that's why."
Dipper scoffed, something running through his mind, something I could easily grab on too if I wanted, but I wanted to hear him put it to words. He didn't. "Yeah well, whatever. I need some space." Finally letting go he took another step back, drawing himself to his full height. Thin frame straightened as he pressed his arms behind his back, lifting his chin indignantly, "Show me the proper way to at least get between the room and mine, I don't like feeling like a damn maze rat."
Heat fluttered under my skin, this new side to Dipper introducing a whole new gambit of games, "Right this way," Humming I slipped past him to a different door, one that led directly to the room he was staying in, it was a long flight of stairs up but still. I floated up them with no issue. Dipper, while close on my heel, cursed under his breath loud enough to make his opinions known.
The glow of the hall outlined the door of his bedroom. I expected a thank you at least, definitely not the hard brush of the shoulder or the swift slam of the door.
Pushing it open anyways I took him up by the arm, he'd only made it a few steps into the room before I'd followed suit. "Cute as you were standing up to them was, Pinetree. I'm going to need more than that from your side of the deal. I intend to collect. You may have not been there when he did it but you have read Sixers journals. You know. I know you know how to bring down that field." He didn't pull away, gaze searching my face for something, from my eyes to my lips.
His own features held nothing but caution, to the turn of his brow and the hardness of those brown questioning eyes, in the part of pink dusted lips. "What happens to our deal if I don't?" Dipper's eyes ducked away, turning to search the room instead.
"You do." It was so matter of fact, nothing would happen to the deal because he does know. I'm sure of it.
He on the other hand did not seem to think so, and my insistence only seemed to aggravate him more. "How?" Pulling free from my grip he took a step back, his arms folded in on himself. Messing with the sleeves making the end of the tattoo I'd given him for shits and giggles came into view. Dipper noticed me looking at it, "Why would you put this here? You never did this to Mabel or Stan."
With all the nonchalance I could muster, "I learned a new trick from a friend. A physical identification of the deal works as a written contract and is much more binding. It also answers your first question, if you can't remember how to bring down the field nothing will happen to the deal, because we will simply find another way for you to fulfill it." He rolled the sleeve of his shirt all the way up to take a better look at the piece of art. Running the light touch of his fingernails over the lines.
"Peachy," he deadpanned, finally returning his attention back to me, sparking the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up. "I don't know how to bring down the weirdness field. Ford never told me how he put it up."
I stepped closer to him, feeling desperate to grab hold of the confidence from the throne room and shove it back in him as it faded. "Have you read, or come in contact with all three of his journals?" I asked slowly, forcing the touch of annoyance out before it could seep into my tone.
His brown eyes, eclipsed by hair, met mine, "Yes." I simply adjusted the sleeve of my coat, waiting for him to elaborate, "I've read the third one, over and over from when he was trapped in that portal." Strength steeled the softens of his gaze, confidence. "I've skimmed the second one a few times. But I've only seen his first journal a few times, and I barely got the chance to leaf through it."
Broad smile returning with the confirmation I patted his shoulder, "Then you do know how it comes down. I guarantee that Sixer wrote everything down in those silly little books and it just so happens, I happen to be the Best dream demon there is. All we gotta do is go pokin around in that mind of yours and we'll have everything we need."
Realization dawned on him, "You want me to let you in my mind."
"Old habits die hard." I grinned.
Wendy POV
I was seething, pacing like a caged dog in this stupidly plush room with barely enough light to see by. Dipper had been teleported away again mid conversation leaving me in silence. I would have tried to go back out in the halls, retrace my steps from last night and pick up where I left off trying to get back to the throne room, but the door was locked. Fucking locked. It had to have been Ana, and she must have done it after Dipper left. This was the first time it's been locked since she showed me this place.
So I was stuck. Caged and practically growling when the demon herself reappeared in the closed door way. "Wendy." She said, her hands met her knees as she doubled over with a sharp breath. Worried thoughts shot through the angry ones and I was at her side in a moment.
"Ana what happened? What's going on?" There was still an edge to my words pushing the demon to finally have the talk she's been so deftly avoiding. "Ana." She inhaled sharply. Pulling herself to her full height again which wasn't very tall, she stood an inch or two shorter than me.
"The Pines family showed up, Bill thought it would be a good idea to let them in so the boy could tell them off or something. Fuck I don't know." Her head hit the door as she squeezed her eyes shut, delicate purple hair falling away from the scared side of her face, a long faded ring of jagged marks along soft skin meeting at the corners of her eye. Closed like this I couldn't see the eye itself but I knew the space where her iris should be was taken by an upside down triangle that didn't meet at its bottom most point. Her hand flitted up to it, fingers gently running the edge of the scar on her temple. "He was there." The words were barely a breath.
"Who?" I asked, stepping closer, suddenly feeling as if she'd collapse to the floor at any moment.
Her eyes opened and finally met mine, sadness filling the human one, "There is so much I withheld from you."
I reached out for her, taking her wrist and touching the back of her knuckles to my cheek, "All I'm asking is that you tell me now."
"I know, I will." Ana said, sounding more like herself. She pushed off the door, guiding me to the edge of the bed and tugging me to sit down facing her. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you the whole truth, but I promise everything I did tell you was the truth. I never lied to you about what I was, I just didn't tell you how powerful. Truth is I used to be one of the most powerful. Among those like Bill Cipher and more, that was until my curiosity about this dimension grew out of my own bounds and I met a man." Her eyes shifted downwards with the confession. "I'd never spoken to a human before, I thought he was friendly, sharing a genuine curiosity for this town and its anomalies. I spent a year befriending him, working alongside him in the woods. So when I finally told him what I was, it was comforting that he took it in stride. Even became excited because he'd been dreaming up ways to protect the anomalies of the woods and town from prying dangerous human eyes. I just couldn't see that danger in him."
Her hand went back up to her face, brushing over the scar in a self soothing motion. I took her other hand in mine, giving it a squeeze. She continued, "I didn't know he'd meet Bill before me, I didn't even know Bill had been in this dimension for many years before. When I told him what I was all he saw from that point out was Bill and his games, in me and my intentions. He tricked me, told me all it would take was a little of my power and a little of his science and the town would be protected. So I made a deal with him, lending him some of my abilities in return for some of his inventions he was so secretive about." Ana turned her hand over in mine, a small blue flame danced in her palm, in the flicks of light and ember a circle enclosed with symbols in and round it. "He took me to his research lab, told me to stand in the middle of this, then he changed and suddenly it felt as if all the power and energy stored in my being, in every cell, was exploding outwards." The flame soared upwards harmlessly, disrupting in smoke. "I couldn't feel anything past the pain, the rush of fire and lava. I can remember the exact moment he took too much, it was like the flood suddenly ran dry yet still the spell he used forced more and more, the literal fire that poured from my Couronne is what left the scar."
I already knew. The anomalies, the forest, Bill, and the portal. I already knew who she was talking about but I needed her to say it. "Ana," I asked carefully, "who?"
"Stanford Pines. You know him as Ford." Her gaze met mine, just as carefully.
Several different emotions pounded on my heart like a drum. I wanted to hug her, I wanted to scream at her, I could feel begs of sorrowful need behind my teeth. I choked it all back, I am stronger than this and I can be strong for her. "I understand why you didn't tell me about Ford, I can even understand why you didn't tell me about Bill. But why didn't you just talk to me after the fact. I'm losing it here Ana."
She closed both my hands in hers, "Would you have made the deal with me if I'd told you about Bill and his plan?" Her round about way of getting to the point was normally endearing and I was normally happy to follow the story she weaved to its satisfying conclusion, but now it just felt like she was ignoring me.
"No, I wouldn't have, not after what happened that summer."
She nodded, it'd been a rhetorical question and she just wanted to hear me say it out loud, " I got so used to keeping things from you, I just kept doing so. I was so concerned with the start of Bill's madness I'd told myself you'd hate me. What I'd become beside him. I could only see that hate in your eyes." She was looking down at our hands again, still not meeting my eye.
Slowly, telegraphing my motivations, my hand slipped from hers. Rising in the space between us till I could hold her face, with gentle fingers under her chin I tilted her head up. She did so willingly, gaze climbing the length of my arm to trace my features till her steel gray finally met my eye. "Do you see hate in my eyes now?"
A single shining tear filled the edges of her human eye, but didn't fall, "No."
"No. Ana, I couldn't hate you, just because you're right and I wouldn't have made the deal that doesn't change anything about the fact that I did. I knew parts of you and I fell in love with what I saw. All I want is to get to know the rest of you so I could love her too. But I need you to talk to me." Tenderly I pulled her closer to lean my forehead against hers. I could feel her breathe, slow and measured against my cheeks.
"I'm sorry I didn't just do that." She said in a hush.
"I know, just talk to me now, tell me everything. Please. What happened out there that made you lock the door?" I returned in kind, as if our bubble would pop at a loud noise.
Ana closed her eyes again, this time in a look of comfort, then she explained what she saw in the throne room.
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I love writing mlm relationships but I also find something so tender in writing wlw, I was kickin my feet like a kid while writing it.
The next couple of chapters that I'm currently working on are very Billdip heavy as sort of the starting point of their relationship and I'm deviating from the original fic more so the writing process is a lot slower and I keep writing and rewriting things so I might go down to publishing 2 at a time like today or even just 1 every week or so depending on how these chapters go.