Into the mindscape

Interlude: Tripping all over you

(Hi, and sORRY SORRY SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT. Had some brain bullshit beating on my skull for a a while, my apologies. 

Anyways, a little shippy interlude before jumping onto the last chapters! Enjoy!)

The dying forest isn't anything to write home to in terms of beauty or distractions, once the whole morbid curiosity at the rotting trees wears off. Yet, the silence has fallen over them like a blanket filled with holes frayed where the sickening splat of wet leaves sounds with every step. 

Dipper glances at the man, curiosity finally taking him out of his own mind to pay attention to his partner, and blinks. William's face is closed off, expression thoughtful as he absentmindedly rubs one finger under his lower lip, eye looking downwards pensively. It's strangely distracting, just enough to make Dipper forget they're supposed to be paying attention to the path for branches and other ground dangers, and his foot catches on something solid and big. 

A root, his brain informs him, before he begins to mentally curse as he trips forward and face first into a mesh of sickly blackened roots that seem to be oozing some kind of black liquid. The mental curses increase tenfold with his fleeting but soon to be overwhelming disgust as he precipitates to the ground.

And then there's a hand wrapped around his arm, fingers curled in a strong and wiry grasp as they stop his fall and, with a tug, send him back upwards with an unexpected bout of force. Dipper reels in, feet tripping back as he straightens up, and back-first into William. His hand shoots up, heart still pounding with the foreknowledge that he's going to smash him face into a bunch of rotting wood, and he grabs onto the man's clothes as he tries to get the flush of adrenaline out of his system. 

Then he realizes what he's doing, still leaning heavily on the man, and Dipper straightens up as his face begins to flush.

"Uh, sorry," he apologizes with a cough, looking down in embarrassment, and shakes his arm towards the tree's roots. "Roots."

William hums, and when Dipper chances a glance up the man is looking at him, golden eye crinkled in amusement and something else Dipper can't fully put his finger on.

   "I know I'm irresistible, kid, but there's no reason to go around tripping all over me," the man says with a shit eating smile, and Dipper's mouth falls open and closes again, unable to come up with an answer to the sudden dig.

Then his face reddens, and he massages the side of his face with a hand.

"You wish," he bites back, before chuckling, and when he glances at William from the corner of his eye the man is smiling as well.

"Aww, Pines, I know you do like me~," William sing-songs, smiling from ear to ear as his eye creases, and Dipper chokes a bit on his spit, though the sound that comes out can be passed as a hum.

"You're not half-bad, I guess." Dipper shrugs, turning around to hide his burning cheeks. Mabel had always teased him about his "adorably bright" blush, and Dipper isn't looking forward to what William would think of it.

He'd be mercilessly teased, most likely.

"Oh, kid, half of me is bad indeed," William chuckles, voice dark and chilling, and Dipper snorts softly, eyes falling on the ground as a shadow of movement sprints on the corner of his eye.

Dipper frowns, eyes shooting up to and feet stopping on his steps to scan the protruding roots in search of whatever called his attention, and he distractedly hears William's steps continue on. Dipper squints at the roots, annoyed at the grayscale of everything that makes picking things apart so damn harder than it would've normally been, and bites his finger thoughtfully for a lack of having a pen at hand to chew on.

"Pines?" William says, finally seeming to realize that Dipper isn't following anymore, and Dipper glances up at the man's bemused but slightly curious expression before fixing his eyes on the roots again.

"I think I saw something move," Dipper squints, almost glaring at the ground in challenge to whatever is there to move again.William hums, curiosity clear in his tone, and Dipper hears more than sees the man approaching his side.

"Move? Think there's some kind of--" William's voice cuts off with a startled curse that sounds an awful lot like Latin, and Dipper barely has time to look up before what must be at least 70 pounds of dark haired man crashes against him. They both go down.

Dipper groans, head and arm hurting where he hit against a couple of blackened roots, and his hand automatically pats the heavy body over his in a plea of oxygen. William's own groan comes a moment after, his sudden and uncharacteristically deep voice vibrating against William's own chest and Dipper's stomach, and Dipper feels his body heating up over the feeling of being squished.

Then William gets on his hands and knees, rubbing a hand over his forehead with what's either a groan or a giggle, and Dipper huffs a chuckle.

"Who's the one tripping all over the other n--?" Dipper begins, looking up to the dark-skinned man with a smile, and the words die on his throat at the sight.

Oh.

Oh no.

"Pain is something else," William says, chuckling as he looks down at Dipper with an immensely amused expression, and then he shifts and winces. "The novelty wears off after a while, though." Dipper can feel all the blood converging on his cheeks in an impromptu meeting to make his life miserable, and he tries to cough away the knot on his throat.

"Uh, yeah, that's, that's how pain is," Dipper stammers, trying to look any way except at the man's face and body still looming over him, "hilarious." He finishes lamely, and then winces as his brain finally gets up to date with his mouth.

Nice one, Dipper.

The man seems to think it funny, given his chuckle, and Dipper thanks his luck and William's own weird sense of humor. Dipper laughs it off as best as he can while still being straddled by William (which is harder than it sounds, but Dipper isn't thinking about hard things, nope, no. No), and rubs at his cheeks in an attempt to wipe the heat in them away, looking to the side and hoping William doesn't see.

The forest drifts into silence, and when Dipper doesn't hear the man move away or say anything else he finally summons to courage to look up, mouth opening in askance before the words die on his throat.

William is looking at him, eyes half-lidden and face pensive and...some other emotion Dipper can't read. The mix of both expressions makes his face flush deeper, so much he can feel his ears warming up, but William's expression doesn't change other than blinking, something hungry flitting through his eyes before disappearing without a trace.

The man gets up without a word, finally freeing Dipper from his cage of legs and arms, and outstretches a hand to Dipper. Dipper takes it, coughing and rubbing at his neck before fussing on his clothes, cleaning away as much traces of the forest floor as he can. William doesn't bring up the flush even though Dipper's face still feels on fire, and he's too embarrassed to look up at William's face as it is. Instead he coughs again, giving a last pat to his clothes, and William silently turns around and begins to walk again.

Dipper follows, and does his best to try to leave what just happened (what he just realized, a quiet voice whispers in his head) behind.

He needs to focus on what he came here for. Yes.

He can't forget.