Dipper's eyes opened and he was back in Mabel's car... He looked around in confusion. Why was he awake? Did he look at a memory that made Bill upset?
"I... I guess one of us woke up naturally," Bill awkwardly chuckled. "Sorry if that scared you, Pine Tree. I didn't think that would happen."
"Oh, no, dude. It's fine," Dipper quickly told him. "We should probably get home... I think we were asleep for a long time."
Dipper had said that because he had noticed that the sun was setting.
The brunette put on his seat-belt and started the car. He pulled out of the parking lot and started to drive back to the Mystery Shack.
For once, Dipper was actually the first to break the silence.
"Um... I had a good time today," he murmured, catching Bill's attention. "You made me feel a lot better, so, uh... Thanks."
Bill stared at him, smiled, and exclaimed, "No problem, Pine Tree! Glad I could cheer you up, kid!"
Dipper smiled back at him.
It was pretty nice to see Bill being so happy over something that was actually good for once... Instead of Dipper accidentally dropping something on his foot or anything like that. It made Dipper actually kind of like Bill... At least for this one time.
Dipper was still trying to find something that he didn't like about Bill, but he gave up and just decided to find him likable at the moment.
As Dipper pulled up to the Mystery Shack, he saw Mabel, Stan, and Ford outside. He found that strange. What were they all doing outside? Most of the time Ford was in the basement...
Dipper saw Bill looked slightly uneasy as he parked the car. He just brushed it off and stepped out of the car. Bill reluctantly exited the car as well.
"Hey, guys," Dipper greeted to the others, waving.
Mabel rushed up to him, shouting, "Dipper, where have you been?!"
Both Bill and Dipper flinched as Mabel spoke.
"I sent Bill to come find you and then you both disappeared!" Mabel continued. "And you took my car, too!"
Dipper was just about to speak, but was distracted when he saw Stan aggressively grabbing Bill by the collar of his shirt.
"What did you do to him?!" Stan snapped.
Bill growled back, "What? Me? I didn't do anything to him!"
"Oh, please. We all know you're always up to something," Ford snorted walking up behind Stan.
Dipper rushed over to them and shoved Bill and Stan apart.
"He didn't do anything wrong, okay?!" Dipper quickly exclaimed. "I... I just got upset this morning and needed a break. Bill cheered me up, alright? We just hung out and he didn't do anything to me. I'm sorry I took off with Mabel's car and didn't tell anyone... But I just really needed some time to get better."
Ford raised an eyebrow at him, "He really didn't do anything?"
Dipper nodded.
"See, Sixer? I'm not all that bad," Bill snickered with a shrug.
There goes his likableness, Dipper's thoughts sighed.
Ford sighed, turned around, and headed back inside.
"Wait, a second!" Mabel exclaimed, running over to her brother.
She halted, uncomfortable close to him even for being his twin, and investigated him.
The girl gasped, "Dipper Pines, you got your ears pierced!"
"Uh, y-yeah. I did!"
"I've been trying you to get your ears pierced for years! Why'd you finally give in?"
"Um... Bill suggested that I should and it just kind of sounded like something fun to do..."
"Wait, Bill convinced you to finally get your ears pierced?"
Bill smiled and casually wrapped an arm around Dipper's shoulders, making Dipper tense up.
"Yep! I think it's a nice new look for the kid!" Bill chirped.
Mabel started giggling when she noticed that Dipper had started blushing. Dipper just rolled his eyes.
----
Dipper drummed his fingers on the kitchen table.
A day had passed since Bill and Dipper "took their day off".
Mabel had made sure to tell all her friends, especially Wendy and Soos about how Bill managed to convenience Dipper to get his ears pierced. Mabel seemed to find it something... Well, special. Dipper just assumed that she was happy to see that he was getting along with Bill.
"Hey, dude... Are you alright?" Wendy's voice interrupted his thoughts. "You've been kind of acting weird all day."
Dipper's head shot up and he looked around.
Wendy, Soos, Stan, Mabel, Ford, and himself were in the kitchen of the Mystery Shack, just finishing up lunch. Bill was upstairs, asleep. No one dared to try to wake him up.
"I'm fine," Dipper told her. "Just been thinking about something..."
"You want to talk about it?" Stan asked, resting his head on one of his hands.
Dipper shrugged and replied, "I dunno... It's about Bill and I don't know if he would be okay with you guys knowing about it..."
"If it's important information, you should tell us," Ford suggested. "We need to know more about Bill, especially since he's living with us."
"Yeah, but if Bill doesn't want him talking about it, I don't want the dude to get beat up," Soos pointed out.
"I-I don't think he'd beat me up for it," Dipper chuckled, though the thought of it terrified him.
"Then go ahead, man. Tell us!" Wendy exclaimed, playfully punching him in the arm.
"Well, while Bill and I were out yesterday, he let me see his Mindscape."
"Wait, Bill let you into his Mindscape?!" Ford interrupted.
Dipper nodded.
"You must have really gotten on his good side, bro bro!" Mabel giggled.
Dipper rolled his eyes and continued to explain, "Apparently, when he became a hybrid, it was such a powerful spell that it destroyed some of his memories. He didn't talk too much about it... I guess it was a sensitive subject or something.
"But he let me look at a few memories before we woke up... There was one that made me really interested in what Bill has been doing the last couple of years... It was a really recent memory of when he was changing in the bathroom-"
Wendy interrupted, "Wait, wait, wait! You spied on a memory of naked Bill?!"
The entire room erupted into laughter... Except Dipper of course who just sighed and shook his head.
"He was only shirtless, okay?!" he quickly exclaimed, his cheeks rose-red. "But I saw that he had a ton of scars on his chest and back... They were kind of faint and small but there were a lot of them... I have no clue what happened to him but when he looked at them he seemed to get... I don't know, uncomfortable?
"I just can't get that image out of my head... And it's not like he'll ever willingly tell me and I could never ask him," Dipper mumbled. "I just really want to know what happened. I've never seen so many scars on one person in my entire life."
The room was quiet for a moment.
"Maybe he just got mauled by something?" Mabel suggested. "Like some kind of weird monster or spooky creature."
"Yeah... Maybe... I don't know. I just feel like something happened that wasn't just a monster attack," Dipper admitted.
"Who knows what could've happened," Soos said. "The dude's been a human, dream demon... Thing, for a couple of years. Anything could've gone on during then."
"Hey, maybe Bill will open up to you sometime soon and tell you," Stan told him. "I wouldn't stress out about it too much, Dipper. You probably already have enough to get worried over."
"Yeah. Definitely," Dipper chuckled.
(A/N: once again i'm uploading when i shouldn't be haaa
just finished writing this so here you go
sorry that i've been writing so slow i just don't have as much as i normally do
i have a sucky language arts teacher who gives homework every single night and i've been dealing with some personal things that i can't really get a solution to currently
i still haven't given up on bty or anything else i've been working on though
just keep patient and i'll keep working as hard as i can! <333)