"So you just found a boy in the woods who claims to be Bill Cipher?" Stan asked before taking a big gulp of Pitt Cola and staring at the trio of 14-year-old's standing on the porch in front of him.

"Actually she's a girl," Mabel chirped helpfully.

"Yeah, I can see that," Stan paused. "How about we keep this a secret from Ford for now? Wouldn't want him burning the whole town down in an attempt to get to him.

And in the meantime, you kids can go upstairs and do whatever you two do upstairs," Stan waved vaguely. "While I talk to Tweedledum here." Bill gave the most offended look he could muster, the other two looking slightly concerned that Stanley had lost his mind, but went inside nonetheless.

"So, kid," Stan started before Bill cut in. "I'm not a kid. I'm over a trillion years old, ankle-biter," Bill answered venomously.

"Kid," Stanley retorted just as scathingly. "If you're going to be staying, let alone survive a week here, we're going to have to set some ground rules."

"I don't do rules," Bill answered.

"Well then you should start kissing your ass good-bye because without your magical abilities and your obvious lack of knowledge about the human body, you're going to be kissing it goodbye by the end of the week, kid," Stan replied.

Bill was disgruntled by the fact that Stan was able to see through him so easily and thought for a moment. "How about we make a deal instead?" Stan looked slightly unnerved by this proposition, but agreed anyways.

"You won't harm or kill anyone unless you feel you're being attacked and you protect the kids from danger. I'll protect you from danger, provide the things you need to survive as a human, and answer any questions you have about the whole being human thing. That sound okay?" Stan asked.

"Yeah, sure. Aside from the gaping loopholes you left in it, it's perfectly fine," Bill answered condescendingly.

They spent the rest of the day fixing the deal until it was perfectly acceptable for both parties.

"We need a piano," Bill declared from his spot on the couch with the twins.

"Why? And since when were you making any financial decisions around here?" Stan guffawed from the kitchen.

"Since now, old-timer. And because I'm bored. Is there nothing to do around here aside from getting lost in the forest and watching terrible television shows?" Bill complained.
"There's plenty of things to do. You're just not creative enough to figure something out on your own," Stanley answered.

"I'll show you something to do," Bill growled, holding a fist up threateningly before being tackled by Candy and Grenda, who'd just entered the shack seemingly unannounced (Bill suspected that they'd broken in).

"Girls!" Mabel cried out in excitement, throwing herself into the group hug while Bill struggled to escape the death grip of the girls.

"Why didn't you tell us you had another girl staying with you? Now we can have an even bigger sleepover tonight!" Grenda exclaimed. Dipper snorted from his spot on the couch, ignoring the scathing look Bill sent him.

"Her name's Bell and she's a friend from California. She just got here today." Mabel smiled, introducing Bill with seemingly no effort in thinking up the lies she spouted.

Dipper seemed slightly unnerved by this fact, but also relieved at the same time.

"Well, come on. Let the sleepover commence!" Candy shouted and the girls dragged Bill up the stairs to the twins' bedroom.

Dipper glanced and Stan. "Welp. He's a goner," Stan announced.

"No kidding." Dipper flipped the channel.

Meanwhile upstairs, the girls were practically fawning over the new 'girl' that they had acquired.

"You're from California?"

"How'd you get your hair like that?"

"Do you know how to dance?"

"Do you want to make friendship bracelets?"

"I like your name. It's pretty."

"I wish I had your hips," The last comment came from Grenda, who shrugged when everyone stared at her.

"I wish I had your eyes," Bill smiled, holding out a hand as if to take them, obviously referring to his lust for maiming others. Though Grenda and Candy remained oblivious to this fact.

"Bell," Mabel warned as the former-demon shrugged.

"Thanks!" Grenda said.

"Bell, you said you wanted a piano. Do you play?" Mabel asked, putting emphasis on the name, Bell.

"Yeah," He pulled the sleeves of his sweater over his hands. "It's a hobby of mine. I can play pretty much anything."

"Really? Can you play Cray Cray by Sev'ral Times?" Grenda asked.

"Well, the song isn't written with a piano part, but I could improvise."

"What about Beethoven?" Candy asked.

"Beethoven's a person, but yes, I can play every song he's ever written. Like WoO 47 #1 in E WoO 47 #2 in F minor, WoO 47 #3 in D major, also known as the three early Kurfürstensonatas, Opus 2, the Grand Sonata, Pathétique, Funeral March, Sonata Quasi Una Fantasia, Moonlight, Pastoral, Tempest, The Hunt, Waldstein, Adante Favori, Appassionata, À Thérèse, Les Adieux or Das Lebewohl, and Hammerklavier just to name a few," Bill listed off.

The girls stared in awe at his knowledge of the famous composer. "I didn't know you liked human songs, Bell." Mabel scooted closer to Bill, who proceeded to move away.

"I don't like them persay. I just know some. Except for Vera Lynn. She's a goddess," Bill commented.

"Who's Vera Lynn?" Candy asked and received a genuinely offended gasp from Bill. "Dame Vera Margaret Lynn is only the most talented woman who ever walked the earth. The one who sung during the Second World War and brought moral to the Britons fighting in it. The woman who wrote my favorite human song, We'll Meet Again, in 1939. That Vera Lynn."

Candy nodded along as if she knew exactly what he was talking about, when in reality she had no clue who Vera Lynn was and just liked hearing the other speak, especially with such pride over such an obscure subject.

"Sounds like you're pretty old-school," Grenda commented.

Bill shrugged. "I know newer and older songs, I just don't like them the way I like Vera Lynn's music."

"Sounds like someone has a crush," Mabel teased. Bill scoffed. "First off, she's 101 years old and lives across the Atlantic Ocean, so it wouldn't work out. Second off, I'm aromantic. And third, Are you assuming my sexuality?"

Mabel frowned. "It was a joke, Bell."

"Yeah. But also, age and distance doesn't matter when it comes to love," Grenda added.

"Again, over 100 years old. And I'm not interested."

"Didn't figure you to be a fan girl though," Mabel commented.

"I'm not- Do you people not have anything to talk about other than romantic interests?" Bill asked. The girls glanced at each other and shook their heads, no. Bill sighed. "This is going to be a long night."

"Hey, how about we start a random dance party?" Mabel suggested, getting up and turning on a bright pink radio that was shoved in the corner of the room. It started playing a song by Imaginative Dragons that they all recognized, dancing along to separately. Bill stood aside uncomfortably, staring at the odd way the other girls danced. "Come on," Mabel grabbed his wrist, pulling him into the circle of dancing girls. "Come on. Dance with us."

"That's not how you dance. What you're doing is jumping around like a couple of crack addicts at a Justin Bieber concert," Bill complained. "Show me how to dance, then," Candy insisted, holding out a hand to him. He took her hand and moved it to his shoulder and wrapped his arm around her side, grabbing her other hand in his as he proceeded to talk Candy through the steps of ballroom dancing. "It's pretty easy, really. You just have to follow the other person's steps."

"Grenda was right about you being pretty old school." Candy twirled around the attic with Bill as Mabel and Grenda attempted to mimic their movements (with varying levels of success).

Bill merely shrugged in reply, singing along to the song under his breath. "It's who we are. Doesn't matter if we've gone too far. Doesn't matter if it's all okay. Doesn't matter if it's not our day. It's who we are. Doesn't matter if we've gone too far. Doesn't matter if it's all okay. Doesn't matter if it's not our day. Save us, what we are, don't look clear, it's all uphill from here." Candy hummed along.
"You're a pretty good singer," She commented, receiving a chuckle. "Really? I've been told that I'm a terrible singer," Bill answered. "Well, whoever said that is obviously wrong. You've got plenty of talent."

"Having talent doesn't make me a good singer."

"You're a talented singer. And pianist."

"You haven't even heard me play. For all you know, I could just be someone who's a fan of Beethoven, but has never played a day in their life."

"Just take the compliment."

"Okay. Compliment received. I will file it away for later." Candy laughed at Bill's shenanigans.

The girls all ended up dancing the night away.

Bill quietly crept down the stairs in the dark, tripping every so often as his foot caught on the stairs. Soon enough he was at the bottom of the stairs and he crept into the gift shop. He tip-toed toward the ladder that led to the roof and started clambering up the rungs. He opened the hatch to the roof to see Dipper sitting on the edge of it, not seeming to have noticed him. He quietly closed the hatch and snuck up behind him before tapping him on the shoulder, causing him to jump almost a foot in the air and almost fall off the roof.

Dipper took a moment to gather his bearings before he spoke. "What are you doing up here?"

"Oh, you know. Planning on how to get my powers back and destroy this pathetic dimension. Normal teenage things. And I wanted to see the rain. What about you?"

"There's no rain."

"Not yet there isn't. And you didn't answer my question."

"Nightmares."

"I feel you. I had a lot of those before I stopped being able to sleep. Guess I'll have to deal with that again with this body," Bill sighed.

"You did? Wait, how did you stop sleeping?"

Bill looked up at the moonlit, cloudy sky. "Yep. Doing the stuff I've done does that to you sometimes. I only stopped sleeping because I became a pure mass of energy. Energy never sleeps. So unless you know how to become pure energy, you've got no way out of those nightmare induced dreams."

"How'd you do it?"

"I cheated at Globnar and got a time wish."

"Really? Why did you even participate in Globnar?"

"I was gonna die for causing trouble, so instead I enacted Globnar against a couple of friends. They were in on it. Since it was my idea, I got the time wish, but everyone else got their freedom. It's against the law to ask for the same time wish I did now. Sucks for everyone else I guess."

"So you asked to be all powerful?"

"Pretty much. Worst decision of my life, I think."

"How so?"

"I could've done a lot better. All I thought about was myself. I didn't even think about the fact that I could've brought back the dead. Or done literally anything. I could've gotten my family back or I dunno. Just anything else."

"You're being awfully honest, for someone who kind of thrives on lies."

"You remember that deal we made once, right?"

"Yeah? Why?"

"It never got called off. So I could theoretically still possess your body if I wanted to. Although that would probably have a bad effect on this body, which I seem to be tied to at the moment."

"What does that have to do with it?"

"My side of the deal was that I would give you the answers to the universe. So unless you or I call off the deal, I have to tell you the truth all the time."

Dipper stared at the sky in clear astonishment. "Well, I guess I'm willing to risk it," He said just as it started raining.

"Hey, do you think if I slid down the roof it might collapse underneath me?"

"I think you'd be more likely to fall and crack your head open on the ground below," Dipper answered.

Cool. See you on the ground, Pinetree," Bill said as he hopped off the ledge, sliding down the roof and landing on the ground.

"Bill!" Dipper scrambled to the edge, easily seeing Bill over it, where he was dusting himself off and ushering Dipper to join him on the ground. Dipper rolled his eyes before sliding down on his but and falling to the ground, scraping his knee on the way.

"Come on," Bill said, grabbing Dipper's wrist and pulling him along into the forest.

"Where are you taking me?" Dipper asked apprehensively.

"Chill, Pinetree. There's a small clearing at the edge of Gnome Man's Land that has a great atmosphere."

Dipper sighed and followed Bill, where he brought him to a small grassy area surrounded by towering trees. The moonlight shone down on them, causing Bill's long blue hair to shimmer in the light.

She's kind of beautiful. Dipper shook those thoughts out of his head viciously at once. "So what are we doing here?"

"We're gonna dance. Old-timey dancing as Shooting Star calls it. You know how to dance, right?"

"Yeah. I just put my hands here, right?" Dipper slipped his hand into Bill's and wrapped an arm around his waist, which he duly noted was rather thin. Dipper wore a new jacket as well as his usual clothes (excluding the vest) while Bill's blue sweater seemed to fit rather tightly, especially around the chest area. If he had looked closely he might've noticed that Bill's sweater had gotten so soaked that it had made the black bra underneath it visible to anybody with prying eyes. Otherwise, Bill wore black shorts and shoes.

Bill rested his chin on Dipper's shoulder, singing under his breath. "Now you're moving on and you say you're alone, suspicious that this string is moving your bones. We are the fire. We see how they run, see how they run. Lift me higher, let me look at the sun, look at the sun. And once I hear them clearly, say, 'Who, who are you really? And where, where are you going?' I've got nothing left to prove. Cause I've got nothing left to lose. See me bare my teeth for you, see me bare my teeth. 'Who, who are you really? And where, where are you going?' I've got nothing left to prove. Cause I've got nothing left to lose. See me bare my teeth for you. Who, who are you?"

"What's that song?"

"Who Are You by Mickey Echo. Released in 2017. It's a song from Wolf Teen. Season 3, episode 7. Not a fan of the show, but the song's okay I guess."

"Sing another song."

"Like what?"

"I dunno. Just sing something you know."

"Today's just so wonderful, I feel like chuckling. I feel all fuzzy inside like a duckling, full of... Tarantulas, and now that I'm here, tonight, it's gonna get weird."

"Okay, stop."

"'Kay." Bill continued swaying with Dipper from side to side. "What about-"

"No."

"I promise it's not a weird song."

"...Fine."

"People are puppets held together with string. There's a beautiful sadness that runs through him as he asked me to pray to a God he doesn't believe in. Time and again boys are raised to be men. Impatient they start, fearful they end. But here was a man mourning tomorrow. He drank, but finally drowned in his sorrow. He could not break surface tension. He looked in the wrong place for redemption. Don't look at me with those eyes. I tried to unheave the ties. Turn back the time that drew him. But he couldn't be saved. A sadness runs through him, through him. Time and again boys are raised to be men. Impatient they start, fearful at the end. But here was a man mourning tomorrow. Who drank, but finally drowned in his sorrow. He could not break surface tension. He looked in the wrong place for redemption. Don't look at me with those eyes. I tried to unheave the ties. Turn back the time that drew him. But he couldn't be saved. A sadness runs through him, through him. Don't look, don't look, don't, don't, don't look at me with those eyes. I tried to unheave the ties. Turn back the time that drew him. But he couldn't be saved. No, he couldn't be saved. A sadness runs through him. A sadness runs through him. A sadness runs through him. A sadness runs through him. A sadness runs through him."

"Nobody. Well technically, it's by me. It's not really good though. It's kind of stupid. I mean it's really repetitive. And there's not enough C sharps in it," Bill rambled.

"I didn't know you wrote songs."

Bill laughed. "Yeah. You don't know a lot of things about me." He stepped away from Dipper. "It's really old, anyways. Something I wrote before I really knew there were way better things to do with my time than trying desperately to be normal."

"What's it about?" Dipper asked softly.

"It's kind of how I felt after my brother died. Now it's kind of about... other stuff." Bill showed reminiscence on his face.

"Sorry."

"Don't be. It happened a long time ago. Besides, I love talking about him. Or I did. I think..." Bill looked confused for a moment. "I guess I forgot about him for a while because I couldn't handle thinking about him anymore. But he was great. He was kind of like Sixer. He was the smartest guy I knew. Taught me almost everything I know."

"Sounds awesome."

"He was."

They fell into silence and Bill finally got comfortable enough again that he rested his chin on Dipper's shoulder again.

"Hey, you don't happen to know how the hell I'm supposed to get these clothes off this human body, do you?" Bill asked, startling Dipper whose eyes practically popped out of their sockets.

"What the hell?"

"I have no idea how to change clothes."

Dipper stared at him for a moment as if gauging his seriousness.

"You're going to have to ask Mabel for help with that."

"Aw, I thought we bonded."

"Not that much."

"Is it the boobs? Are they too much?"

"Ohmygod. Please shut up."

"You act like you've never watched porn. I don't get those weird human procreation rituals anyway."

"That's different! Hey, don't walk away from me!"

"Too late. I'm going back to the shack."

"Wait for me though!"

"Nope! You gotta catch me!"