A Promise to Deliver (BillDip)

Chapter 9

"We should play a game."

"What kind of game?"

"A question game."

Dipper looked up at the dream demon, eyebrows raised in surprise. The two had been lying in relative silence for about half an hour. Bill had set the journal aside quite some time ago, and had taken to playing with Dipper's hands; counting every joint by lightly squeezing them, gently manipulating his hands into different shapes, tracing various letters and symbols into his palm, intertwining their fingers, following the veins in his forearm with his pointer finger. However, upon breaking the silence with his abrupt questioning, he released Dipper's hands, letting them fall back into the boy's custody. Bill smirked slightly, an involuntary reaction whenever he caught the brunet's gaze.

"What do you mean?" Dipper inquired curiously. Bill, who seemed incapable of sitting still, now began to play with Dipper's hair, running his fingers through it, twisting and untwisting strands of it absentmindedly.

"Well," he began as Dipper settled back into the crook of his arm, head rested on the soft spot between the demon's shoulder and chest, "I'll ask a question, then you'll answer it. And then you can ask me a question, and I'll answer it. It's pretty simple, but... you know." Dipper considered it, his lips pursed. He glanced over at the clock on his nightstand. It was still pretty early, the clock proudly displaying 8:46 PM. 

"Alright, sure. I've definitely got some questions for you," he chuckled. "You can start," he added. Cipher hummed in thought, silently reflecting on how soft the brunet's hair was as he considered his first question.

"Hmm... ooh, I've got one. Did you ever have any feelings for me before last year?" he finally asked. Dipper clicked his tongue, the corners of his lips slightly turned down as he pondered his response.

"I..." he began slowly, brow furrowed in thought, "I think there was something. But I don't think it was love, per say. I was... fascinated by you. Captivated. Curious. Of course, all that was outweighed by the terror of you and apprehension of what you had in store for my family. There was definitely a lot more fear and anger back then than there is now," Dipper replied, giving a small laugh. Bill let out a short laugh of his own through his nose, a faint smile on his face.

"Fair enough," he allowed. "Your turn." Dipper picked at the seam in Bill's jeans as he thought, not about what to ask, but instead about what to ask first.

"How about..." he shifted slightly, readjusting himself so he was more comfortably nestled against the dream demon. "If you were so clueless about being human before, how come since you've gotten a new body, you seem to know so much more?" Bill let out a laugh of genuine surprise, resting his head back against the headboard in thought.

"Am I that obvious?" he chuckled before pressing his lips together, pondering his response. "Well, Pine Tree... as I've said before, when I made a deal with you last year, I had every intention of ruining the lives of you and your family. In order to make my situation convincing, I had to, shall we say, play the part." He paused as Dipper let that sink in. The brunet nodded slowly, shrugging in admittance that it would make sense. "Now, granted," Bill continued, "there are still plenty of things I am unfamiliar with in regards to being human. For example, the range of human emotions, the extent to which pain can be felt, money, the strange concept that gender has something to do with love, love itself... these are all new and rather confusing things to me, as such things don't exist in the Nightmare Realm. However, when you've been around as long as I have, you pick up a thing or two about the dimensions you try and enter. I guess in summary, knowing about something and actually experiencing something are two very different things."

Bill looked down at Dipper only to see him peering up at him with a gentle grin. Bill felt his cheeks growing warm at the brunet's soft gaze, his stomach fluttering slightly. Acting quick so as to make sure his slightly flustered nature wasn't noticed, he smirked and planted a quick kiss on Dipper's lips. Just as the dream demon had expected, the brunet's face turned a soft shade of pink and he quickly looked down at his hands, smiling.