To the Nights in the Hold of Stone (BillDip)

It Was All Just a Dream(18)

Dipper POV

I forced myself to sit at the desk again. I'd expected Bill to leave when I tucked myself back into the desk chair, turning the small table light back on, but he didn't. Instead he snapped his fingers and cleared the dinner set up from my room and then made himself comfortable on the end of my bed. Crossing his long legs up under him and resting his head on his palm, a playful cheeky smile pulling on the corners of his mouth.

Turns out he had all intentions of staying and making himself incredibly distracting. "Pinetree I was thinking, if you didn't like my throne what do you think we should do with all the extra humans?" or, "Pinetree have you ever been to a screaming goat and head opera? Human opera's sound so incredibly boring." and many more that he would randomly contribute to the silence. Each time I'd turn to find him in a different position on my bed, sitting up, laying down, on his back or on his stomach with his head hanging off the side or upside down.

"Bill, if you're bored, why don't you go find something to do?" I'd asked at some point only to get scoffed at.

"Do you not enjoy my company?" He asked instead.

I pursed my lips, getting the distinct impression that he would be offended if I'd answered yes. "No, I do." I said slowly, "I just didn't realize that you enjoyed mine."

His smile shifted as he worked around the thought, "I do enjoy your company. I like the way you think." He squinted at me, obviously there was something else but he didn't put it into words.

"Thanks?" I murmured, pushing my hair back from my face, heat rising under my collar as the vibe in the room took a hard turn to something much heavier than before.

"You're welcome." He preened, his smile returning in full. I rolled my eyes and turned back towards the desk. Hoping the heat on my neck hadn't colored my checks.

Another hour or so passes without very much progress, a symbol here and a phrase there, something about unicorn hair or maybe unicorn blood? No, maybe tears? I growled at the page and fisted the hair above my ears to hold my head up. It had something to do with unicorns, but who the hell knows what about them it is.

"Going well?" Bill had pulled a book down from the many shelves and was haplessly flipping through its pages.

"The more I look at this the more I want to rip my own eyes out."

"I could arrange that."

"No thank you, it's just an expression." I shook my head, too tired to feel grossed out by the mental image of actually pulling my own eyes from their sockets.

"It's a stupid expression. Don't say something like that unless you mean to follow through." He rolled his eyes with the same emotion that I'd put into shooting him down. "Why don't you put it down for now, we can do something instead."

He closed the book, putting it down on the bed to be forgotten. "What did you have in mind?" I heard myself ask him, I watched myself lean forward moving to the edge of my chair in the act of giving him all my attention.

Rising from the bed Bill crossed the room, I had to crane my neck up as he spoke "You still look exhausted." He murmured, raising his hand slowly. Pinned under the look in his eye I held still, forcing myself to breathe normally. Air in air out, it is not this hard. His palm cupped my cheek, the soft pad of his thumb trailing the underside of my eye. My head swayed uncontrollably, pressing closer to the foreign touch.

"Thanks." I hissed with heat that wasn't real, as if the comment stung.

"Right well I was thinking," He pulled his hand away, stepping back so I didn't have to look up. Internally I had to hold tight to my heart, shove its beating wings back. I knew what it meant, what my stupid little heart wanted and it was starting to scare me. "You are still incredibly sleep deprived but I get bored holding still for two seconds let alone several hours. So instead of that again how bout we do something that keeps us both entertained and well rested."