Chapter Text
“It looks pretty deserted, Ford, you sure?” Stan gave a look to his brother who was still looking at his detector.
“I’m sure, it’s gotta be here, I’ll bet my 6th finger on it,” he said, the mountain was tall and he knew there were ancient caves near the top, something had to be here. They kept climbing until they found a cave Stan turned off his flash light and Ford did the same.
“Sixer, this looks like…” Stan nodded.
“Bill” he agreed, there triangle symbols and even the telltale zodiac drawings.
“Well, we gonna keep going?” Stan asked, raising an eyebrow toward the dark tunnel.
“We have to find out what’s going on,” Ford replied, they trekked through and paused when the tunnel gave way to tall entranced opening in the cave and they both held their breath.
A boy was in the middle of the floor, asleep; he had very blonde hair almost a yellow shade with black locks at his neck and under his top locks of hair. He curled up in the fetal position not wearing anything even though it was cold in the cave. He looked Dipper’s age, 15 years old. His back was etched with the zodiac as well as Bill’s signature eye symbol on the back of his neck.
Ford walked forward quickly and listened for a moment and sighed with relief “he’s breathing” he said taking off his jacket and placing it over the boy.
“Do you think a cult is still going on around here?” Stan asked, sensing his thoughts as he set his bag down and pulled out a pair of pants.
They both put clothes on him so he was a lot warmer, the boy’s cheeks were red while the rest of his face was pale from the cold. Almost immediately after they’d dressed him, his eyes snapped open and he sat up. His eyes were a whiskey color and the moment he saw them he froze in fear and flew back right into a wall.
The poor thing was shaking badly, tremors jerked his shoulders “Hey shh, it’s okay, you’re safe now,” Ford said walking toward him.
“Stay back, don’t erase me again I won’t do anything I promise!” he froze, his mouth gaping at the boy.
“Bill?” Stan said.
“Who else, what’s this shaking anyway?” Bill asked looking at his shaking hands and his eyes widened a fraction.
“You’re… scared, scared of us?” Ford said.
“No I ran away from you for no reason,” was Bill’s sarcastic response “wait, what’s scared, is this scared?” he said, seemingly confusing himself.
“Where’d you get the body, Bill?” Stan asked roughly.
“I just woke up, how should I know?” Bill asked, flinching when Ford took a step forward.
“Relax, I’m just checking your temperature,” Ford said, he used one of his machines to check it quickly “low but I think that’s just cause you’ve been in this cold cave” he mentioned. Bill hugged his knees and watched him wearily.
“So what are we gonna do with him?” Stan whispered to Ford.
“As far as I can tell Bill isn’t possessing the body he’s in and biologically he’s 15, Dipper and Mabel’s age. I don’t think I could kill him in this form, either. He’s so tiny.”
“It’s summer, right? We can take him to Gravity Falls” Stan suggested.
“That might be our best bet, Dipper might be the best person to take care of him; right now he looks lost” Ford agreed. “Hey Cipher, let’s go” Bill got up wearily following them out of the cave, lucky the island they were on was tropical so his temperature went to normal fast.
A half hour into their trek Cipher stopped and sat down abruptly “what’s wrong?” Ford stared at Bill who was inspecting his foot and he frowned when he saw the thorns as well as blisters on his feet. Ford smacked his forehead, he’d forgotten that Bill didn’t have shoes.
Bill sniffed and tears ran down his cheeks “pain isn’t funny in this body” he said pulling out the thorns from his feet.
“Why didn’t you tell us your feet hurt?” Ford asked he couldn’t help but be nice with Bill in this form.
“I figured you wouldn’t care” Bill replied.
“We’re trying to help you,” Stan told him “right now, you’re not a threat to us. Unless you give us a reason to,” he added.
“Really?” Bill asked, wiping his eyes then looked down to take another splinter out of his foot.
“Yup, now get on my back already, you don’t have shoes” Stan sighed and Bill climbed, when they arrived at the village they were staying at Bill was asleep.
“I’m gonna buy him some clothes that fit, take him to where we’re staying,” Ford said and Stan nodded walking down the path. He went to the market in the village, his found a pair of leather black boots, socks, boxers, a yellow sleeveless vest, a soft cotton white button up, and black pants.
When he got back, he found Bill getting his feet wrapped in bandages because of the blisters and cuts. Bill humming cheerfully while chewing on a granola bar “eating is so weird, it’s like everything makes a different noise in your mouth” Bill said, Stan grumbled his assertion and finished up his left foot.
“Hey I got some clothes for you,” Ford said laying them out, Bill really had no shame so he’d taken off his clothes and put on the new ones right in front of them. The next day they took a cab to the airport, the flight proved a problem Bill was terrified the entire time.
They couldn’t help but he feels for him because Bill seemed to fear for his life, one of the flight attendants even had to use an emergency oxygen tank on him. He wouldn’t calm down and had thrown up twice and he couldn’t breathe right.
“Where are we going?” Bill asked when they were finally on the ground and out of the airport.
“Gravity Falls” Stan replied, Bill was quiet then, a common trait when he was bothered.
“Are you going to erase me again?” he asked.
“Bill, we’ve said no as many times as we can say it” Ford said.
“But humans lie!” Bill snapped and they were quiet, Bill wasn’t used to human emotion and didn’t understand the complexities of his brain and how it affected everything. One minute Bill was cheerful the next he was crying, he was like a kid learning about emotions for the first time.
“Come here,” Stan told him and Bill hesitated before he walked up to Stan, shaking a little. Stan sighed then pulled him into a hug, Ford had never been good at emotions when they were little but Stan had. He could tell every little mood swing Bill got was from fear or loneliness and other things Bill himself didn’t understand yet.
“You erased me before, why wouldn’t you do it again?” Bill asked Stan felt his shirt get wet his with his tears.
“We wouldn’t because you’re human and you’re not attacking us or hurting us. You know why we did it in the first place right?” Stan asked.
“Because I was hurting people” he sniffed then he was quiet for a little longer “you know why I did it?” Bill asked.
“Why?” Ford finally spoke up.
“I was alone and angry because I was left in the dream scape for an eternity. But now after it I feel… bad” Bill had no name for him of what he felts just that his chest felt tight.
“Guilty, it’s called guilty” Stan corrected and Bill nodded, they got onto the bus now on their way to Gravity Falls. Bill stared out the window the entire time at least until he fell asleep on Ford’s shoulder.
“Do you think he has any residual power?” Ford mentioned to Stan.
“If he does I don’t think he’ll use it like he did before, Bill’s human now and he’s got all the emotions that go with it” Stan said.
When the bus dropped them off at the Mystery Shack they were pleased to see not much had changed and Bill stayed close to Stan. “So are Pine Tree and Shooting Star here?” he asked.
“Yes, but their names are Dipper and Mabel” Ford corrected him.
Bill followed them into the shack. Bill met the cashier boy’s face and suddenly his face felt really hot. But the boy wasn’t looking at him “Grunkle Stan! And Ford!” he leapt up and hugged the two men.
“Hey Dipper, you gain about two feet again?” Stan asked.
“Only 6 inches. Alpha twin!” he laughed.
“Stan! Ford!” a high pitched voice and a girl ran in hugging them the same way the other boy had. Another man who Bill recognized as the question mark guy. Bill felt a tugging loneliness again and turned to look at the souvenirs, he was surprised when he found a little, stuffed animal version of himself as a triangle. Everything was spot on.
“Bill,” Ford said and he jumped clutching the stuffed version “why don’t you say hi,” he said.
Bill’s cheeks turned red again and he walked up to them and stared at the boy’s hat, suddenly he realized something. It was Pine Tree but an older version of him, he was a little shorter than himself and the girl was Shooting Star but a lot taller and prettier than he remembered.
“Bill?” Pine Tree said then glanced at Stan and Ford than at him “you know, Bill Cipher, that Bill?” he asked.
“Stop talking like I’m not in front of you,” he said, what was this heat on his face? Why was he so mad all of a sudden.
Pine Tree returned his attention to him “I’m sorry, hi”
“Bill appeared in a cave when we were visiting some island, he’s human now so he’s going to be confused about some stuff so we figured who better to understand a 15-year-old than 15-year-olds?” Ford explained.
“Uh, right” Dipper looked at him, Bill shifted “you really are human, so what no powers anymore? That why you’re not trying to kill us?” he asked.
Bill tensed, squeezing the life out his stuffed triangle form. He didn’t like Dipper’s tone, if he was a demon he’d sense malice but right now he couldn’t tell. He felt defenseless, his eyes felt weird, water had spilled out of them. He turned around and walked outside hearing a loud comment, “Dipper!” by Shooting Star.