-----
(BlueBill Interlude)
Bill was pleased. Everything was going according to plan.
That Stanley would see EXACTLY what had happened in the past, AND WHY. That Stanford would be taken down -- HA! -- one measly peg? More like SEVERAL RUNGS DOWN THE LADDER! And Bill? Would be thoroughly and completely entertained by ALL of it! ...Really, he was looking forward to seeing how Stanley handled things, once everything hit. It looked like Stanley might actually be stubborn enough to stick around and really SEE EVERYTHING through! (And Bill was really VERY INTERESTED in seeing what his Stanley decided to do. How he would 'handle it', all of it, everything!)
And when all was 'said' and 'done'... when they all got back...
Maybe Miz could help run… just a SMALL bit of interference for him, really -- without any risk to herself! Maybe just a small bit of distraction without ANY blame -- and in the midst of that minor chaos, Bill would bring Stanley's twin-brother back.
And everything would be just fine.
Stanley would have his entire family, entirely un-messed-with. No problems with the agreement, there!
That Stanford would lose Stanley, because with what Stanley saw HERE and realized THERE, he (...that Stanford!!...) would NOT call Stanley his brother anymore. --That Stanford would decide that he'd lost Stanley! That idiot Stanford would give Stanley up, all on his own! Because that would be what that Stanford had decided, and nobody else could say or do anything that would ever change his mind, once he did that. (Moron. That Stanford had NO IDEA what a BROTHER actually was! Let alone what one was WORTH.)
And Stanley wouldn't lose that idiot Stanford, because that Stanford was Bill's Six-fingered Hand. They were both a part of his Zodiac. So everything would be fine.
And none of them were going ANYWHERE unless Bill said so. They were all HIS.
...If Stanley wanted to take a whirlwind tour of the multiverse to get away from that Stanford for awhile, though, Bill certainly wouldn't be adverse to the idea! HA!
---
3rd person POV
Nothing happened at the pawnshop all night. Nobody came in, nobody went out, and as far as either Stan or Ford could tell (glancing at each other), there were no big fights that happened indoors, either.
Ford almost looked disappointed.
Everyone had eventually slept (except Ford, no matter how much Stan glared at him and tried to get him to at least take shifts with him), and Stan had downright stared at the way Miz had curled up beside Bill -- not at Miz, but at Bill. Because the kid had not only let her do it, but he'd seemed to try and 'curl up' right back, sort of back-to-back with her in return. And Miz, for her part, had spent a good half-hour humming out music softly to Bill, until her brother had finally calmed down from all the 'excitement' of taunting Ford earlier, and finally fallen asleep.
(Ford would have stared himself, but he'd had to split his attention between the demons and the house above the pawnshop, so it was more of a series of long glances, with even-longer glances-away in-between.)
And, of course, as Stan had been pretty sure was going to happen, Ford was absolutely mentally (and physically) exhausted by the time he and the kids had woken up again. ...and Miz. The human demon ended up waking up before Bill did, blinking blearily into the sunlight. (Stan had a feeling that that might be a thing, given when the kid usually woke up in the mornings, and how late he usually wanted to sleep in...)
"Ford, c'mon," Stan told his brother. "You gotta sleep sometime. --Look," Stan said, pointing down at the sidewalk. "They're walkin' off to school. Nothin' to do about it, now," Stan said. "Right?"
"I could follow them," Ford said, not quite under his breath, and Stan gave him a long look.
"And do what," Stan asked him sarcastically, "Hold his hand as he crosses the street, and try and give that presentation for him?" Stan rolled his eyes, and Ford felt uneasy, and a little embarrassed and ashamed by this point.
Ford looked down at the sidewalk with a bit of a frown. Was it possible that Stan had been right last night? Had Bill just been… messing with them the entire time? (...That didn't feel right to him, though.)
Ford jolted in place when Miz started singing. The Stans both turned to see the dragon-demon-used-to-be-human leaning against the side of the roof, singing softly with her eyes closed.
"Oh father, mother dear, I'm sorry for what I've done~" she was quiet but the music carried easily. "My legs are trembling as I stand and suck on my thumb~"
The twins glanced over at her after awhile, and then back at Bill as the older demon stirred restlessly in place at the sound of the music in his sleep. "Oh brother, sister dear, I guess that this is the end~ with broken shoes in hand~ I'll never turn back again~"
Stan let out a sigh and got up slowly, to make his way over to the kid just as slowly. Miz was now humming the instrumental part. She waved lazily at Stan, eyes still closed. (Yeah, must've really fixed the headband thing right, then, if she was seein' him without needing her eyes open.)
"I've found a better piece of pattern paper to use~ even if the old was fine, I'll start all over anew~" She opened her eyes, gazing up at the sky.
Stan nodded to her, then came close enough to the pillow-'nest' the kid was still curled up within, to lean over him and say, "Hey, kid. Wake up."
"Oh what's it like to be so loved? As I grapple for~ scissors sharp enough and large enough~ to cut this face I abhor~"
"--Why are you singing that?" Ford cut in, somewhat on edge. He couldn't figure out the point of it. (Bill's songs had always had some pointed meaning to them, in his experience, but this one seemed to be all over the place.)
Miz glanced over. "Because I love this song." She turned her face back to the sky.
"About cutting people's faces with scissors," Ford said, almost deadpan. (Bill stirred and shifted a bit again, as Stan talked to him again, telling him to wake up.)
"About cutting mine," Miz responded softly. Ford shuddered slightly; that was his only response. "Hey did you hear them? Words of wisdom because god has said it so~ but where's my mind gone? This is all wrong~" She was starting to dance lightly, stepping around pillows without even looking.
Ford was still staring at her, worried that there was a deeper meaning there that he might simply be missing. (...and thinking of what would happen if she decided to cut 'her own face' in someone else's body…)
"Why not? I don't know!" she tilted her head forward. "Although it's painful as I disdainful~ly hold the future that I sewed~ I pulled the string along the seams until the gap is closed~"
"Mm." Bill slowly sat up sleepily, blinking. "-gap-is-closed~" he echoed out without realizing it, with multiple odd harmonics underlying the repeated melodic tone. He swayed in place slightly, and blinked again, then seemed to wake up a bit more. He lifted his head up properly, and looked around.
Stan watched this without comment. The kid looked oddly tense, but also slightly relaxed. Not really at-ease, though.
And then the kid looked up at Stanley.
"Kid," said Stan, and Bill rubbed at the side of his head absently with the side of his right hand, frowning up at him slightly.
"...Did you figure it out while I was asleep?" the kid asked, peering up at him, and that left Stanley blinking.
"No, kid," Stan said.
And to this, Bill gave him a half-smile and a "Hm. Didn't think you would," which turned into a half-grimace as the kid stretched all his muscles right where he sat, in-place.
Huh. So the kid had thought he might be able to figure out, maybe… whatever the thing he was taunting him with was... just by thinking about junk for awhile? Or was it something that had had to do with last night? Stan eyed the kid.
...Hell, he was probably overthinking it. Stan figured he should stick to what he knew; he wasn't about to let the kid shove him around, and it was time to let the kid really realize what that meant.
"...You really think you've got an answer for everything, huh kid," Stan said, eyeing him from above, as the kid finished up his stretching. That got him another smile. Yeah, keep smilin'. Stan figured that'd change pretty quick, the second the demon realized that he had figured out something that the demon hadn't, by coming up with a problem that the demon couldn't solve. "Yeah, okay. Got a couple more questions for ya, then."
Bill tilted his head and looked up at him, waiting. Hell. Stan shook his head at the kid and thumbed a hand back towards the food crate. "Crackers for breakfast for you, first." He wasn't about to give the kid an excuse to skip a meal now, accidentally or otherwise.
Stan managed to get them all gathered around the food crate together for breakfast without any major fights breaking out, and some beef jerky and some more pancakes into all of them (except the demons, who went with fish and crackers, young and older).
Miz hummed as she ate, a continuation of the song from before, by the sounds of it, but without the words this time. Bill… just ate. So did Ford. ...Well, the kids seemed to enjoy the pancakes, at least.
And, once they were through all that, and were mostly finished cleaning things up (by taking turns handing stuff off to the kid, for him to go stuffing all the things back into his hat), Stan announced, "We're gonna spend the day on the boardwalk at the beach."
Ford gave him an odd look. "Are we?"
Stan side-eyed him back. "Me and the kid are," Stan told him. "So Miz is probably coming with. --Figure I'll do some busking," Stan said. He wanted to be able to buy a few things. Didn't sit right with him, depending on Miz for all this stuff, the blankets and pillows and fish, and depending on the kid for the magic and the… Stan sighed. He was gonna have to do somethin' about payin' back those gold coins once they got back, as it was. He was the adult guardian, and the agreement-holder; he was supposed to take care of these kinds of things -- not the kid, and not his little sister.
It was something he'd have to handle later. But for now… Stan glanced over at the kid. "You ever do anything like that before? Busking?" ...Well, the kid perked up and looked interested, at least. Stan turned back to Ford. "If you and the kids want to do something else, while I handle the demons, that's fine." He took in a breath and added, "But I'd rather grab us a booth and have you sleeping in the back. I don't want you sleep-deprived when it's getting closer to midnight." Heck, if the last time Ford got sleep-deprived was any indication... Maybe Ford wasn't nearly as sleep-deprived as a couple weeks ago anymore, but Stan did not want his brother out and about in public while he was exhausted and wound up with nerves. (As far as Stan was concerned, Ford was actually in even worse shape right now in some ways, than his brother had been after that two weeks of next to no sleep, a couple of weeks ago.)
Ford frowned slightly, then glanced over at Bill. Then he glanced over at the niblings, who shared a look with each other, before looking back up to him.
After a beat, Dipper and Mabel looked over at Stan. "Grunkle Stan, do you not want us to help out with the busking?" Mabel asked him.
"Be easier if you were with me," Stan admitted. "Heh, Dipper's already got a hat for collectin' money in it," he added, tapping the brim.
Miz was thrilled at the idea of conning people with Stan. "I wanna learn to scam people!" Her tail wagged cheerfully before she shoved her tail back down and seemed to 'push' it back under the bottom of her shirt.
Stan let out a laugh. "A scam? Nah, we're not really doin' that today. --Could pickpocket a few folks, but the heat ain't worth it." He slowly stood up. "C'mon." He waved them all towards the fire escape ladder mounted at the edge of the roof and down the side of the building.
Miz quickly changed her clothes and followed them down, floating out of laziness instead of making her way down the steps like the rest of them (Bill included). The pajamas she was wearing shifted into a loose blue dress with black trim, and thin pants underneath. Dipper noted that Miz seemed to be matching herself to Bill's colors. He wanted to write that down too. Maybe it meant something? (Really though, Miz just thought it would be fun to match colors. Besides, half of Bill's hair was a pretty shade of blue that reminded her of Will, it was… nice…)
Once they'd all clambered down the fire escape and were down at street level, Bill was the one who actually prompted Stan first with, "...Questions?"
"Yeah." Stan got to walking side-by-side with him, Miz trailing behind by not so much. The kids were in front of him, with Ford leading the way. "First question: you're so sure about nobody dying, fine. You ain't always right. What happens if anybody does die?"
Bill didn't even blink. "I roll back time in the area, until they're no longer dead."
Miz raised her hand. "I can also just repair their body and shove their Soul back in." She was walking backward carelessly, somehow not tripping over anything.
Stan blinked at them both. ...Right. Uh. He took a mental breath, and kept plowing on. "Second question: you said nobody dies. What about anything worse than death?"
Bill blinked at him this time. "No, nothing worse than death." He glanced up at Stan, then away again. "If you don't like anything, you can fix it. I'll help."
Stan let out a breath. Right. At least that was one giant-ass loophole off the list. (Wasn't like he hadn't talked about 'worse than death' mental and physical attacks before, as part of the whole agreement and everything else. Kid had a pretty decent grasp of that one, even if he usually got the 'lesser boundaries' on stuff pretty wrong still.) "Third question: what happens if I want to stay here for longer than a few days."
Bill just shrugged. "Then we stay."
Stan eyed him. "A few weeks?" Bill shrugged. "A few months?" Stan pushed. Bill looked up at him.
"Time isn't a problem," Bill said to him.
Stan frowned down at the kid. The kid had said something like that before they'd left. ...No, not something like that, hell. The kid had said the exact same thing.
"More than two months, and the summer's over," Stan pointed out slowly, wondering what he was missing here. He knew that the kid knew that the kids had to be back home in California after that. (...Hell, he was pretty sure the kid was up to something about tryin' to find a way for the kids not to leave, the way the demon kid had been asking after all sorts of information on the high school registration process, beginning to end -- and transfers -- and prowling around online for even more info when Stan didn't get him things from the school fast enough.)
"Brother controls time. The summer back in your dimension will not end until he wants it to," Miz said absently as she tried to balance on a fence, waving her arms for balance. (Dipper frowned at her. He could see that she was cheating -- her feet weren't even touching the fence half of the time that she was 'walking' along!)
Stan frowned up at her. "Their parents will still want 'em back two months from now, however long that feels to 'em."
Bill let out a laugh. "Not a problem!" The kid looked at Miz. "Easier than that: I can control what time the portal out of here connects to when I made it, back in Dimension 46'\ for the connection there." Then the kid looked at him and told him, "I can set it for only a minute or two after we left, if I want!"
"...If I want," Stan said slowly.
Bill tilted his head at him. "Yes?" Bill agreed, not seeming to see the problem there. (...Yeah, okay. Fair. Not like Stan was plannin' on shooting himself in the foot, picking a bad time for them to get back there okay, makin' 'nonlinear time loops' the kid had a hard time handling, or whatever -- not if he could help it. Didn't want to piss off the kid for no reason, or have to send the kids back home 'early' himself. Speaking of…)
"Fine," Stan said. "What if we ain't talking months." He took in a breath. "What if we're talkin' years," he asked of the kid. ...Because Stan was pretty sure he could out-stubborn the triangle if he had to, in trying to figure out this 'Ford losing him' problem. Not that he was planning on taking things that far, but the kid couldn't just--
"Years means that Pine Tree and Shooting Star grow up here," Bill pointed out, and yeah, Stan knew the kid wasn't stupid.
"Yeah," Stan agreed. "And their parents would notice that. So what would you do about that?" Stan asked him, thinking he was going to stump the kid hard with that one, if not the next--
Except Bill just shrugged and kept walking along as he said almost thoughtlessly, "Kick them both into the Mindscape, de-age their bodies, have them settle right back in after, all memories and their full Selves intact." Then Bill only hesitated for a moment, to raise a hand, palm-down, and say, "Might need to tweak the brain bits a bit--" Bill said, making an odd half-puppeteering half-surgically-precise series of jerking gestures with his fingers, "--to make everything-physical consistent with their Minds again." Bill lowered his hand. "More than a day and a sleep between and things start to diverge a bit!" the kid said, almost consideringly, as he made a 'what can you do?' gesture with his hand, before dropping it to his side.
Stan stared.
"I could do what what I did with my Friends and just stop their bodies from aging in general," Miz pointed out.
"I could do that, too," Bill said, "But that's more invasive, and harder to do with strictly-magic or only-science than weirdness."
Stan looked over at Miz slowly, then back to the kid.
And then it sort of hit him exactly what kind of a trap that he and his family were in.
Stan thought as he walked, and he looked away from the two demons for a moment, and pulled in a slow breath, as it occurred to him. As it really started to hit him. Because Miz had talked about trapping her 'friends' (family?) with her yesterday, up in the attic. Bill had said that she hadn't done that, because they had free will and they could die and she wouldn't stop them and would let them do it, would go along with it if they killed themselves to get away from her.
And Stan really hadn't understood any of that. He definitely hadn't understood what any of that meant, until now.
...And on top of it all, the pair of them could both bring people back from the dead.
Bill had just talked about pulling them all back from death like it was nothing special, not even hard, even without using his weird-powers or whatever. He'd talked about being able to control time, being able to make them younger again but still have them remember everything…
And Bill had never said anything about not trapping anyone -- like his Zodiac -- with him. And Bill considered his Zodiac to be HIS; Stan knew that.
If they died, Bill could bring them back. If Bill killed them, he could bring them back. If they tried to escape, even if they managed to catch a portal and got away from him for years... Bill could probably pick a time and grab them whenever he wanted, as long as it took him to find them again -- which hadn't taken very long with the kids (and, hell, he'd done it with a damaged Eye, while rushing things). And once Bill had them back, however long it took or however long he wanted to take, Bill could just de-age them all once he had them back and pick up right where he'd left off with them, like nothing had ever happened in- between. Like they had never left or managed to escape him.
If Bill wanted them around… they weren't getting away from him.
Stan glanced up to look at his brother, who was still moving along at the front of their procession. From the very tense set of his brother's shoulders, Stan got the suspicion that Ford had been listening to their conversation, and hadn't exactly known all of this before… and Ford had already been afraid of the triangle enough to want to kill him for good.
Stan pulled in another breath, and let it out again. ...Well, fine. He'd just pull the ripcord for them, then. If it ever got that far. Wasn't like he wasn't planning on keeping his family safe from the start.
If the idea of Bill doing that to them, basically trapping them with him for who-knew-how-long (...how long had Miz known her friends?...), was something that his family wasn't okay with -- and let's face it, they definitely weren't -- then Bill's very presence around them after a point would be considered a mental attack. They could tell him 'no' and 'stop', and… Bill would have to leave, to leave them alone. Because Stan would hold Bill to it.
Stan didn't exactly like the idea of his family dying, and him being left all alone, but…
...if the alternative was Bill bringing his family back to life and, hell, effectively torturing them for all of eternity? Stan would stick around with the triangle instead, keeping the agreement going -- because as long as he was doing that, he could tell the kid that bringing his family back from the dead (after living really good lives, Stan was gonna make sure of that), when they'd made it clear that they'd wanted to stay dead after they died, would be 'messing with his family'. And the kid knew that was a line that Stan was never going to be okay with him crossing.
The kid wasn't going to blink first. Stan was pretty sure of that by this point. If Stan kept the agreement going, and didn't break it himself, the kid wouldn't break it first. --Whatever was going on with the triangle demon, the kid had shown him a couple times now, with how flexible he'd been about things, that he really did want to keep the agreement going, for whatever reason.
Stan figured that he'd have to figure out that reason pretty soon, yeah, but whatever it was, it was pretty solid. He knew that much. --Maybe it was pure spite, the kid always having somebody else break whatever-it-was on him first, but Ford had said (and the kid had admitted) that sometimes the triangle demon had been the one to break a deal first. This wasn't one of the kid's deals (and hell, the kid looked down on deals as the worst and least-trustworthy of the things he'd be willing to do), but...
"Kid, you know I want you to not break the agreement, right?" Stan asked him.
"Yes," he got back in reply.
"What if I asked you right now, to never break it?" Stan asked of Bill next. (The kid had said he'd help him while they were here, after all. Could he get away with just straight-up asking him for a straight answer about all of this, right now?)
"...I'm not breaking it," the kid told him slowly, watching him, and Stan let out a breath in frustration.
"Kid," Stan tried again, "What do you want from me, anyway?" He heard Ford let out a strangled sound. "--Ford, I ain't talkin' to you, I'm just asking the kid," Stan told his brother, trying to stop that one early.
"You don't write a demon a blank check!" Ford ground out, looking back over his shoulder at him as they walked.
"I'm not doing that," Stan told his brother, "I'm just asking--" Stan sighed at the look on his brother's face, that he was giving him. "...Ford, you got no sleep last night," he tried instead, and watched his brother struggle with knowing that, and knowing his reactions were off right now, and knowing that he still wasn't feeling well from getting kicked in the head with the idea of multiple Bill Ciphers existing only a couple days ago on top of that.
Stan watched Ford try really damn hard to take that into consideration… and then watched his brother shoo the two niblings up in front of him, as they hit one of the longer streets towards the boardwalk. Stan debated if he should make Miz follow them too or not, instead of trailing along behind them. ...Whatever, wasn't a huge problem. Didn't really matter anyway; she'd probably still hear them, wherever she decided to walk within their little procession.
Stan turned back to address Bill again. "Kid, what do you want from me?" he repeated. The kid looked at him, but didn't reply before looking away. …Great. He tried again. "What do I need to do, to keep you on my side?"
(Miz huffed and skipped forward a little in case they wanted privacy; she could still hear them though. She was curious about this, too. ...Ford himself carefully steered away from walking too close to her, annoyed and in general feeling aggrieved.)
"We're on the same side," Bill said, not looking at Stan. "My side, your side. Our side. It's…" The kid let out a sigh, instead of saying 'the same side', like he usually did. (Huh. Progress?) "You want to do what you want to do? Say it's your side I'm on? While giving me things? That's fine. You're still my right-hand man," Bill said (while Ford choked). "As long as I don't cross your line." Bill added, looking away from Stan.
"As long as you don't cross my line," Stan affirmed, trying not to listen to the somewhat-silent sound of Ford freaking out in front of him -- from the lack of actual coherent words, to the sound of his brother's stumbling footsteps.
"Really, should've known better before, anyway," said Bill. "Just because that Stanford is my Six-fingered Hand doesn't mean he's really anything other than just a 'hard stop'," the kid grumbled out at Stan. "But YOU… you get things done," Bill said to him. "Would be better if--" Bill stopped talking, and stopped in place, as Ford stopped walking, turned around, and got right up in Bill's face, standing firmly in place on the sidewalk.
"Ford…" Stan said slowly, coming to a stop next to the kid, as the niblings and Miz stopped and turned around, too. "We're just talking."
"No," Ford said quietly. "You aren't." Stan saw his brother pull in a breath. "You're talking about sides, and you're talking about--"
"--a puppet-turned-pawn standing right in front of me who doesn't even have the sense to get out of my--" Bill began caustically (even as Ford reached for his gun), but they both stopped when Stan pushed his way between them, leaving his back to Bill.
"Ford," Stan said warningly. "Back down. Now."
Ford let out a soft and shaky laugh, staring at him, eyes wide. "You… you've really picked his side." He looked a little scared.
"Kid's on my side," Stan repeated to Ford, and this was how many times he'd had to say it to him, now? "--My side. Understand? He's mine," Stan told his brother, and-- Stan stopped himself short at the 'hard intake of breath' sound he heard behind him.
He twisted his head around, to look down at the kid. And Stan realized that the kid's eyes were wide, and he was staring up at him while blinking hard.
...What the hell? Why had the kid reacted to him like that? What had he said that would…?
Then Stan blinked.
Stan turned in place, just slightly more towards the triangle demon kid, and he repeated: "You're mine, yeah? You're on my side." ...and Stan paid attention as he said it. And Stam saw the differences in the expression the kid got when he said each of those two things. (Really, convincing the kid to 'drop down further' into that body of his had been one of Stan's better ideas. Kid had practically no poker face to begin with, but now...?)
Well, damn. This was the same thing as that stupid 'you don't have to tell me', 'you can tell me if you want' thing all over again, wasn't it? Except this time, it was wanting the kid on his side, and...
"Kid," Stan said. "Bill. I want you. Understand?"
And Stan watched as the kid made a noise like he'd just been punched in the gut, and stared up at him in absolute wide-eyed surprise, and a shock so complete that it bordered on total disbelief.
...Wow. This was kind of, well... pathetic, almost. And so freaking messed up. Kid wanted to be wanted. It was that simple. ...Shit. (...was that really all it took?)
Miz was grinning widely at the two of them and almost squealed. "Congratulations!" she cheered wholeheartedly with her hands in the air. She looked absolutely delighted.
Stan glanced back over his shoulder at her, and was shocked himself because... holy shit, that was really all it took?! What the hell had Ford been doing--
Stan turned towards Ford, looking for something from his brother, he wasn't sure what-- (confirmation that he wasn't completely crazy and just hearing things, maybe?)
...and Ford looked absolutely ill. He was also staring at Stan, not either of the demon kids.
"You can't--" Ford began, and Stan clenched his jaw.
"He's mine," Stan ground out at his brother, "He ain't yours anymore. I told you that before, back home, in the kitchen, weeks ago. So don't go complaining about it now." Because if his brother was gonna complain about it, then he should have--! ...Hell, not believing the kid would go along with it was one thing, but-- (Shit. Shit. --Was that why the kid had been staring at him like that, that night, after he'd gone back to the bedroom and brought up whether the kid had been listening in on…? --The kid had asked if he'd meant it. The kid had been talking about... --This was actually a thing with the kid. Holy hell.)
Ford seemed to be struggling with something, but damnit, right now Stan hardly cared.
--up until Ford pushed right past him, and said straight to the kid, almost desperately: "Leave him alone! Take me instead!"
Stan wasn't sure if he felt like he'd just been dropped in a volcano, or dipped in ice.
He'd barely managed to get his head back around to start to try and talk down the kid (--shit, what the hell would happen if Bill said 'yes'?), when the kid's look of absolute rage kind of up and hit him in the brainpan.
"YOU AREN'T INTERCHANGEABLE!" was what the kid screamed out at Ford, and it left Stan pulling in a breath hard, and Ford actually backing up a step. "And YOU are a LIAR!" the kid spat out at Stan's brother next. "You-- YOU--!!" the kid was shaking in place, fists clenched, struggling for words.
"Damnit kid, just talk to him like you talk to me," Stan ground out at him, because he was tired of dealing with this shit, trying to play telephone between these two -- talk about games -- and if the kid would just talk to Ford like he was talking to him-- if his brother could just listen to Bill for two seconds without acting like he was losing his goddamn mind in the process-- "Just try and act like we're--"
"--you aren't interchangeable, I can't TALK to him like I talk to you," the kid rounded on him, "--you're actually SMART." Stan flinched. "I-- he--" Bill got that struggling look again.
"Talk to me, kid," Stan tried next, and that got him a--
"--pair of kings with both the same faces, face cards, but it's a rush and a race to the bottom for him, lower and lower and flattening himself out more and more, down past a jack, a possession, a puppet, a pawn, a ten, nine, eight -- blow straight past six! -- all the way down to a TWO-DIMENSIONAL two until he can't go any lower, still trying to match you, struggling to MATCH you--" Bill chattered out, "--down and down but he doesn't understand, refuses to understand that you're not aces-low, you're ACES HIGH--"
Bill was shaking and then he shook his head, looked up at Stan, glaring. "You're not him, he's not you -- you think I can't tell the difference?!" Bill demanded out of him. "--I wasn't THINKING STRAIGHT BEFORE! Can't tell the difference between you? --I WASN'T EXPECTING HIM TO LIE!"
Bill brought a hand to his head and squeezed his eyes shut. "He wasn't supposed to-- I shouldn't have to CHECK! To see if he would try and checkmate ME! That YOU were--!" Bill shook his head frantically from side to side. "He wasn't supposed to-- He was supposed to-- He doesn't-- He WON'T-- My Six-fingered Hand was going to be my right-hand man! SYMMETRY! I-- nn--"
Bill gritted his teeth and shook in place again, and Stan got something of a deepening bad feeling about this...
Miz winced. "Hey kids? How about we just… step away a bit more and give them some… time to sort this out." Stan was grateful Miz was getting the niblings out of the way before this got any more nuts. (He was definitely going to have to give her a pat on the head later for this one.)
Miz herded the children farther down the street, muttering something about, "Of course he would try to take Bill back after being the one to break it off with him. Seriously, what does he even want? Can't he just make up his mind already!" (Stan mentally took back the thing about the head pat. And it was a good thing the kids were telling Miz off and setting her straight on that one, from what little Stan heard from down the street that was travelling back his way, because Stan didn't have the time to try and handle the two of these demons at once, right that very same minute.)
"--It's fine! It's fine, I don't need him anymore, I'm done with him, I have YOU now!" Bill said, looking up at him, with an almost feverish look to his eyes, as insane as Stan had ever seen him, and a grin so wide that… that... (Holy shit.)
Stan stared down at the kid, watching this sickening display, and all he could think was...
"YOU'RE better than him anyway!" the kid told him, "You can actually FIX things!" and at the last, the look the kid was giving him morphed into a terrible mixture of a kind of mad glee and desperate want, and… damnit, if this was anything like what his brother had had to deal with before, Stan had not given him enough credit… but he had a sick feeling that Ford had never gotten anywhere near this far with the kid, not even close.
...and if Stan had to guess, he'd bet that the distance between them was the difference between wanting the kid to give up half his free will and be a backstabbing 'friend' without even knowing what he was asking for, and just straight-up telling the kid that he wanted him.
(Seriously, somebody needed a damn punch to the face. Maybe that goddamn stupid 'god'-lizard that the kid kept insisting was stupid as fuck.)
The kid was panting and swaying in place and staring up at him with a mad sort of glitter in his eyes, and the next thing the kid said was, "You're not LYING to me, ARE YOU? You-- you're MINE," the demon said. "You WANT to be MINE!"
"Stanley--" came the faint warning from behind him, the desperate call, and Stan had figured it out finally: his brother had no idea what he was talking about. (Damn him.)
Kid was a goddamn mirror, most days. You tossed something at him, he tossed it right back at you. You just had to be ready to catch it, to not toss anything at the kid that you couldn't handle yourself. --Color within the lines? The kid was game for that; he'd try it too, try to match it -- try to match you, to see if he could. Just to see if he could. --Give him an inch, he'd go an inch; then he'd come back, and give you one back, too, just to see what you'd do with it. He got curious; he wanted to see what you'd do.
(...Give him a reason to trust you, and make him too dizzy to think twice about it? He'd take it. And take it. And take it. ...And then look down and realize what he held in his hands, when he finally had a chance to think. And then… he'd want to keep taking more of it. Because you'd cheated, yeah, sure, but you'd also shown him that you could be trusted, too, because where were the chains and the confining cage, the lock on the door and the painful blows? --There weren't any. There wasn't any of that, and the kid learned quick. The kid paid attention.)
The kid learned, and the kid listened. But the kid was still a kid. And he didn't want much. He wanted a choice. He wanted to choose. (He'd said he hadn't had a choice with his Zodiac. ...And they hadn't chosen him, either. Shit. Was that why...) --The kid wanted everything, and he'd trade it all for a couple of scraps, because the kid didn't care about everything, he only wanted...
...his brother. (--Match this card. I'm not letting go of this. 'I already drew my hand.' --You're not taking this from me.)
And some help he could actually rely on. (--I'll let you stack the deck. What do you think I need? '...Got any triangles?' --Give me what I want.)
To get him back. (--As many cards as you want. Show me what you can bring to the table. '...How about a Liam?' --Give him to me, I WANT HIM BACK.)
And Stan knew exactly what he was doing. (--All in? 'Bets in, cards down; call.' --What do I need to do to have you HELP ME get him back!)
Stan dropped a hand down on top of the kid's head, the kid who was staring up at him waiting (for a trillion years, waiting but why did it end up having to be him?), and Stan bent down just a little bit, just enough to look Bill Cipher right in the eye. --Both of them.
And Stan said, "Bill, you're on my side. I want you. --And if you think I'm ever gonna let you go, then you're out of your goddamn mind."
Ford choked behind him.
But the kid just lit up like a damn Christmas tree, and gave him the widest grin Stan had ever seen.
Endgame.
(--Gotcha.)
You lose. I win. I get you. (--And you win... me.)
...See, kid? It doesn't have to be so hard. Isn't it better this way?
(Stan had thought it would be harder. ...Why did the kid keep letting him cheat? He set the rules, and then he let Stan break them? Why did he even have them in the first place, if he was going to let him cheat to win?)
---
"So that Stanford isn't trying to make brother take him back?" Miz raised her eyebrows. "Despite saying, and I quote, 'Take me instead!'..."
"He was trying to save Grunkle Stan," Mabel told her firmly. "He thought Grunkle Stan was in trouble and needed saving."
"Probably the puppet-thing," Dipper muttered. "Taking him." Because that was probably the worst thing Great-Uncle Ford could think of. Because if Grunkle Stan said he wanted Bill -- not what Bill knew, or what Bill thought, or what Bill could do for him, but Bill himself -- then… Bill would think that he could ask for anything out of Grunkle Stan and that Grunkle Stan would give it to him. And Great-Uncle Ford would probably be afraid that that was what Grunkle Stan had meant when he'd said it, too. Right?
The twins looked at each other as they thought about that, though, and then looked back at Bill and their Grunkle. And Bill looked…
The twins exchanged another glance. Did Grunkle Stan need saving? Bill looked completely nuts right now. ...And now the twins were actually a little worried.
Miz sighed. "So that wasn't Ford trying to rekindle some past relationship?"
Mabel turned back to Miz and her mouth dropped open, while Dipper just groaned out: "They're NOT a c-couple!" The teenager looked horribly uncomfortable at having to have said this out loud, as he pulled his hat brim down. (Why did she keep on thinking that?!)
Miz frowned. "Well, that Stanford isn't brother's type anyway, 'least I don't think he is…" she said, and Dipper groaned again and pulled down on his hat harder.
Mabel sighed. "Miz, please stop telling us about Bill's type." Miz shut her mouth. Mabel thought about it for a bit, though. She kind of couldn't not. She was a romance expert, and what Miz had said made absolutely no sense to her. "Why do you keep assuming they're… a couple?" she asked Miz.
Miz's response to this was a deadpan, "I read too much fanfiction."
The kids frowned back at her with identical, confused expressions. Miz sighed and looked down at her feet as she walked. "You're too young for me to explain this to…" she mumbled, "--And Stan would probably accuse me of corrupting you or something." Miz looked back up at the twins. "Does this really upset you guys that much?" She was honestly curious.
Dipper nodded, shuddering in revulsion. "They're not romantically interested in each other. Nope. None of that. Never." There was no way.
Miz stared at him for a bit before shrugging. "Ok. If you're sure." She paused. "I guess it's a good thing they're not into each other. Would make an awful couple."
The twins heaved a sigh of relief, glad that Miz was going to drop this idea.
Miz tilted her head as she thought of something. "So… what IS Ford's type anyway? Didn't he date a Siren? Or am I getting my dimensional sets mixed up again?"
Dipper groaned loudly as his sister enthusiastically jumped on the subject shift with a: "--Yes, he did!"
---
Grammarly said I made 69 mistakes in this chapter