The invitation to the ball had arrived several days previously.

"Man, they're scraping the bottom of the barrel already?" Stan had grunted, reading the letter over the breakfast table.  Will had eavesdropped from the kitchen, desperate for any news of the princess.

"She's barely eighteen, and she's already rejected all the potential suitors from every neighboring kingdom at record speed," Stan had elaborated.  "Now they're willing to marry her off to any man with a pulse."

"I have a pulse!" Dipper exclaimed.

"That's the spirit, kiddo," Stan chuckled.  "If you get your butt to the ball, it'll be your chance to wow her."

"Oh my gosh, Dipper!" Mabel gushed, slamming her hands against the table.  "If you marry the princess, I'll be a princess-in-law!  You have to marry her, Dip!  Do it for me! Pleeeeeeease?"

Dipper chuckled, considering the potential of the opportunity.  "Well, I am pretty irresistible," he'd mused.

Will had nearly sprinted out the back door of the kitchen, not wanting to hear any more.  The idea of Dipper getting married to Y/N made him want to vomit.  He knew he'd face a punishment for ignoring his chores, but he hadn't cared.  That day, he'd stayed far away from the house until the sun went down, weighing the pros and cons of fleeing the kingdom entirely.

Eventually, though, there was one deciding factor that outweighed all the rest:

I want to see Y/N one more time.

After that, he didn't care what happened to him.  Perhaps he would run away after all and start a new life somewhere far away.  Perhaps he wouldn't have enough nerve to run, and be worked to death in this horrid house, loved by no one.

When he'd returned that night, well after dark, he'd been berated harshly and locked in his room without any supper.  He considered that to be a light consequence, compared to several past incidents.

He barely noticed the hunger pangs and noises of the vermin in the walls, focusing all his effort on making it through the next few days until the ball.

I have to see her again.  I miss her so much.

---------------------------

"Bill, is this going to get any worse?  You're going to make me cry here."

"Don't you worry, the best part's coming up right now."

"You mean the part with you in it?"

"Exactly!"

"You're so narcissistic it's sickening."

--------------------------

Will woke up well before the birds on the morning of the ball.  Usually he dragged his feet while getting breakfast ready for his stepfamily, but he wanted them in a good mood.  He scampered down the stairs, taking them two at a time, and had breakfast prepared and on the table by the time Stan shuffled down the stairs in his undershirt.

"About time you learned to hop to it," Stan remarked, which was as close as he'd ever come to giving Will a compliment.

Will completed the rest of his morning chores at lightning speed.  While he was out in the yard, Mabel dumped a bucket of water on him from an upstairs window.  At least, he hoped it was water.  She tossed the bucket on him too, and it hit him squarely in the head and knocked him to the ground.

His lip was bleeding and he could feel the beginning of a black eye, but he didn't care at all.  All of his attention was focused on finishing his usual tasks as quickly as possible.

Scarcely half an hour before Dipper and Mabel left for the ball, Will was finished.  Hesitantly, he approached Stan in the drawing room as he was helping Dipper tie his bolo tie.  Mabel was sitting next to them, looking radiant in a pink satin gown.

"G-grunkle Stan?" Will asked nervously.

Stan turned around in surprise.  Will rarely spoke unless spoken to, and even less frequently did he talk to Stan directly.

"What the hell do you want, brat?" he barked.  "I'm busy."

Will flinched at Stan's gruff tone, but steeled his resolve.  "I w-was wondering i-if... I c-could go to the ball with D-dipper and Mabel?"

Stan's only reaction was to raise one eyebrow, so Will continued, breathlessly explaining his reasons.

"W-well, I already finished a-all my chores, and I w-wouldn't be a burden, and I've n-never asked you for anything before..."

He trailed off as Stan's expression didn't change.  He waited for a long moment, trembling slightly, as Stan considered.

"No."

"B-but-" Will tried to protest, but Stan cut him off.

"I said no.  You have five seconds to get out of my sight."

"But!" Will tried again.

"One."

Knowing what would happen if Stan got to five, Will turned on his heel and fled the room.

He didn't stop until he made it outside, collapsing to his knees next to the fountain in the garden.  The sky was beginning to darken, the sunset a beautiful red, but Will didn't even notice.  With a choked sob, he finally started crying.  Will almost never cried, most forms of physical and emotional pain having ceased to bother him years ago.

He leaned against the stone fountain and buried his head in his knees, too distraught to even sit upright.  

This was my only chance to see Y/N.  What do I do now?  What do I do... ever again?  Just live in this horrible house until I die?

"Well, that's certainly one option," said a voice right next to him.

Will shrieked, jerking reflexively and nearly toppling over the low stone wall into the fountain.  When he regained his balance, he was staring at the single most bizarre sight he had ever seen in his life: a floating one-eyed yellow triangle in a top hat and bow tie.

"W-what?" Will stammered in total incomprehension.  "Wh-who are you?"

"Who do you think I am, the Easter Bunny?" The triangle cackled at his own joke, twirling his cane cheerfully.  "I'm your demon god-brother, of course!"

"My... what?" Am I hallucinating or something?

"The name's Bill!" the triangle tipped his hat, making the whole world lurch.  Will collapsed back to his knees, trying not to vomit.  "And you are?"

He didn't give Will any time to answer before cackling again.  "Just kidding!  Of course I know who you are: a talking blueberry!"

"I, uh..." Will blinked.  He wiped the tears out of his eyes with the bandage on his hand from the gash that stubbornly refused to heal.

"Aren't you eloquent," Bill remarked.  "Anyway, we're burning daylight here, so it's time to get to the point!"

"But... it's night," Will pointed out shakily.

"Man, you sure did pick a time to grow a sass mouth, kid!" Bill laughed.  "I'm trying to give you what you want here!"

"Wait, you're what?"  Will wasn't following this lunatic.

"What, did you think I was just here to chitchat with a whimpering lump?  I've got a job to do, kid, and that's to get you to this ball so you can see your friend again."

"You- you can do that?" Will felt a spark of hope.

"Duh.  I'm magic.  I can do anything."  Bill rolled his eye.  "Now let's see..."

He pointed his cane at a nearby pumpkin and it suddenly swelled to ten times its size, transforming into a blue carriage with gilded wheels.

Despite his lack of a visible mouth, Bill whistled merrily as he turned several nearby mice not into horses, but into bizarre abominations that looked like rainbow pastries attached to cat heads.  With a grand flourish of his cane, Bill turned Will's worn-out clothes into a dapper blue suit and vest, styling his hair as a final touch.

"There you go, kid!" Bill declared.  "All dolled up and ready to dance!"

"I- I don't know what to say..." Will stared at his reflection in the fountain.  He couldn't remember ever looking so presentable.

"One more thing," Bill warned.  "All this fancy stuff wears off at midnight, so you've got to be out of there before then or you'll look like a contestant on Reverse Extreme Makeover."

"What?  Why?" Will demanded.  "If you're magic, can't you just make this stuff last longer?  While I'm at it, if I have a demon god-brother, where have you been all my life before this?"

"Well well, look who's getting snippy when I'm giving him everything he wants," Bill said, sounding miffed.  "It wears off because I say so.  This has to be fun for me somehow, you know!  As for where I've been, isn't this the one thing you want most in the world?  Would you really have wanted me to show up at any other time?"

"But-"

"Get your butt in the carriage or I'll assume you don't want to go after all," Bill said sharply.

Swallowing his objections, Will meekly climbed into the carriage and allowed himself to be driven away from his stepfamily's house.

Despite his confusion and irritation at Bill's sudden appearance, Will's overriding emotion was one of joy and nervous anticipation.

I'm going to see her again.  After all this time, I'm finally going to see Y/N.

(A/N: I meant to post this yesterday, but Undertale comic dubs have officially taken over my life.  I SERIOUSLY CAN'T STOP.  I'm not entirely happy with this chapter, but I have to get it out sooner or later.  Maybe I'll fix it up tomorrow.

I simplified my outline for this book a bit and removed some filler, so the story will *probably* end up being about eight or nine chapters long now.  After that, I'm still planning to go straight into UnWilling 4.

Another shout-out to my choose-your-own-adventure, Heaven and Hell!  The plot proper has started, and the decisions from here on out will become more complex and morally ambiguous!  Have fun playing along!)