"You'd better be almost done with this, Bill.  I am not having another all-nighter incident."

"Cool your jets, Zippy.  I'm like two-thirds done."

"Did you just call me 'Zippy?'"

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

Will's carriage was in sight of the Gleeful manor when he heard a distant bell chime midnight.  Immediately, he was crushed from all sides as the vehicle abruptly transformed back into a pumpkin.  He was left sitting on the road in a daze, surrounded by smashed vegetable remains.

The pastry-cat abominations vanished before his eyes, turning back into mice that scampered out of sight.  His formal attire had already become the patched old clothes he was used to, and he was now missing a shoe.

He didn't move for a few minutes, slowly collecting his bearings before lurching to his feet.  With only one shoe, his gait was uneven as he shuffled down the road towards the house.

"Heya, champ!" a voice suddenly said.  He didn't react as Bill appeared directly in front of him, instead walking right through him and continuing on his way.  Bill's yellow body rippled as Will's head passed through it.

"Hey, that's no way to greet your best demon friend!" Bill mock-protested.  He appeared in front of Will repeatedly, forcing him to walk through his incorporeal triangle form until Will realized he wasn't getting any closer to the house.  

"What do you want?" Will mumbled, staring at Bill with dead eyes.  "Haven't you ruined enough already?"

"Now, now, kid!" Bill chuckled.  "Let's not cast blame here!  I simply provided the wheels and the costume, everything else was all you!"

Tears pricked at Will's eyes as he realized that Bill was right.  He'd finally been able to see his dear friend again... and she didn't even remember him.  Her face was burned into his eyes, looking interested but politely detached as she tried to carry on a civil conversation with a pathetic wreck like Will.

What did I expect? he thought miserably.  She's a princess, and I'm just some random kid she used to play with a decade ago.  I probably never meant much to her in the first place.

"Did you just come here to make fun of me?" Will asked dully.

"Pretty much," Bill agreed amiably.  Will sighed and started walking again.

The distant crash of thunder only provided a few seconds' warning before the first raindrops began to stain the dirt road darker.  In no time, Will's hair was dripping and his calves were splattered with mud as he walked.

"Oh, come on, kid!  Don't be like that!" Bill cajoled, now floating alongside him.  "You got your wish, didn't you?  Your only desire in the world, and I quote, was to see your friend one more time.  Now you can die happy, right?"

Will's only response was a dissatisfied noise in the back of his throat.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think you weren't grateful," Bill said nonchalantly, spinning his cane around.

"You couldn't have made the carriage last five more minutes?" Will muttered, eyeing the distant manor.

"I could have, but I told you it would all vanish at midnight, and I'm a triangle of my word."  Bill mockingly placed a stick-hand over where his heart would be.

Resolutely ignoring him, Will fixed his gaze on the lights in the distant house and trudged down the muddy road.  Eventually Bill vanished, leaving Will walking alone.

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

*sniff*

"Oh, crap!  Will, how long have you been listening?!"

"Th-the whole time..."

"I should have known... Come here, sweetheart.  No, don't cry, it was just a story.  Bill was about to finish the sad part and make it all better, wasn't he?"

"Actually, I was about to make everything worse."

"Bill, for Pete's sake-"

*whimper*

"No, no!  Come here, baby!  Just cuddle up with us here, and Bill will finish the story with a happy ending.  Right, Bill?"

"Actually, I was thinking-

"I.  SAID.  RIGHT.  BILL?"

"Right.  Exactly.  Happy ending for everyone.  But first, more sadness."

"Bill, I swear-"

"And then the happily-ever-after."

"Ugh... I guess that's the best we can hope for."

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

Will had arrived at the manor, cleaned the mud off his legs, and was in his room drying his hair with a towel when Dipper burst into the room.

"What do you think you were doing?" he snarled, dragging Will off the bed and pinning him to the wall by his collar.  His toes were barely brushing the floor as he gasped for breath under the sudden assault.  "You ruined my chances with the princess!"

"I- did?" Will choked.

Dipper leaned in close, his angry eyes an inch away from Will's.  "After you ran off, she wasn't interested in even talking to me," he growled.  "I had big plans, and you've ruined them all, you sniveling fool!"

"I- I'm sorry," Will managed to say.

"It's too late for apologies now."

Dipper released his grip on Will's shirt and let him drop to his feet.  He tried to stumble out of the way, only to be met with a ferocious punch to the face.

He crashed to the ground with a strangled cry.  Dipper lashed out with a sharp kick to Will's unprotected ribs, making Will grunt in pain and curl up reflexively.

Dipper stood over him, breathing heavily with murder in his eyes.  Abruptly he turned away and stalked to the door.

"You're not worth my time," he hissed before he stormed out of the room.

Will heard him lock the door behind him.

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

*sob*

"DAMMIT, BILL, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

"It's getting there!  I can't give you a happy ending without some tension first!"

"Tension?  This is flat-out trauma, Bill!  Why are you doing this to your brother?"

"Why are you finding this hard to believe?  What else would you expect from me?"

"You... I... Ugh.  Can't argue with that."

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

The next day dawned to find Will curled on his bed, staring blankly at the wall.  He had run out of tears sometime during the night, and now sat in miserable silence as the birds chirped obnoxiously outside his window.

He had been locked in his room since Dipper had left the night before.  He was starting to get hungry, having been too nervous to eat anything at the ball.  There was no sign so far of anyone coming up the stairs to either release him or punish him further.

He briefly considered climbing out the window, but panic seized him at the very thought of the extreme drop and the horrifying splat that would inevitably follow.  Trying to shake off that particular mental image only caused him to try imagining other possible futures, which only depressed him more.

No matter what, it's all downhill from here, he thought miserably.  Maybe turning into a blue-haired smear on the cobblestones is the most optimistic scenario.

What else is left for me?  It's not like things can go back to normal now that Dipper hates me... more.  Unfairly, he felt the slightest pang of guilt at getting between Dipper and Y/N.  At least if he'd married her, I might have been a little better off... once again, the mental image of their wedding made him nauseous.  But that's not possible now.  I've ruined everything... for everyone.

He continued wallowing in self-pity while the sun slowly swiveled outside his window.  He didn't get up, not even when he felt an inquisitive mouse run across his foot.

Sorry, little friend, he thought to it.  There's no food here for either of us.

Time ticked by, slower and slower.  Will almost fell asleep again until a noise from downstairs startled him out of his daydreams.

What?  No, it couldn't be... but what if it is?

He scrambled to his feet, despite knowing he couldn't leave his room, listening closely to hear it again.

It could be anyone... right?  Why is my heart pounding?

Many floors below, the doorbell rang again.

(A/N: Undertale comic dubs are seriously sucking away about 90% of my life these days... BUT I LOVE IT.  I'm in stage 3 of my Undertale obsession (and stage 4 is fanfic!!!!!!) and I'm legit wondering if it's weird to be attracted to a skeleton.  CURSE YOU ZARLA FOR MAKING FLUSTERED GASTER SO ADORABLE.

Anyway, I've got two or three chapters left of this, and then it's off to UnWilling 4!  I haven't actually storyboarded it yet, so.... hahahahaha I'm disorganized AREN'T I AWESOME.  I'm still about to make a schedules/tags/randomness book to help myself stay on top of things.  But then again, I've been "about" to make it for about a week now... CURSE YOU UNDERTALE COMIC DUBS FOR TAKING ALL OF MY TIME.

I curse a lot of things.)