Bill Cipher was walking down the streets of Downtown Mercy, his one and only goal at the moment being to steal some cookies from the local bakery in town.

It didn't seem too hard of a goal to achieve. Shoplifting from the town's local bakery would be like stealing candy from a baby. Plus, it'd keep his mind off the fact that the only human he was starting to like hanging around with was now ignoring him. He just had to open his stupid mouth and convince them to go hang around a bunch of their stupid friends at some stupid amusement park.

It was so stupid. And that's why he refused to think about it. Cookies. Only cookies were on his mind.

He walked down the street with his hood over his head, not because it was cold or anything but because he wanted to look as inconspicuous as possible.

"Bill? Is that you?"

Which failed almost immediately.

"It is you- How've you been, Goldilocks? Heard you've been sick these past couple of days."

"Brik... hey. It's going alright. I was sick, but I'm doing better now. Still got this annoying sniffle I have to deal with but overall I feel a whole lot better now."

"That's good to hear," Brik said, standing in front of Bill now as he held a small, white, cardboard box in his hands. "If you're feeling better though, how come you're not on that trip the others are taking to go to Queen's Court? You don't like rollercoasters?"

"What? No. No, I love the idea of eventually getting to ride my first roller coaster! It's just... I mean, I'm feeling better but not 100% better, y'know? I still feel pretty drained from the cold and thought it'd be... better to stay home, let Candle and the others have their fun."

"But you're not staying home right now. What are you doing out and about if your goal was to rest today?"

"I'm currently planning on shoplifting."

"Oh, well good luck with- wait, what?"

Clearly the answer that Brik was given wasn't one that he had been expecting to hear. Not in the slightest. This definitely took a strange turn that he could not have predicted and yet Bill could not appear anymore confident with his choice for an answer.

"Yeah! Well- See, here's the deal: I'm hungry. I need sustenance in order to survive. The food of choice I am craving at the moment, however, happens to be none other than the delicious, sugary, chocolate chip cookie. I require cookies and I refuse to eat anything else! But the problem I'm having is the fact that Cand- Y/n hid the cookies we had at the house from me! I've tried contacting them, I tried searching all over the house for the delicious jar of goodness, but I've found nothing! I'm left empty-handed! I would go and just buy the cookies from the town bakery, of course, but Y/n also left me with no money! Can you believe it?! Now I'm left with no CHOICE but to go and shoplift just so I can satisfy my craving hunger," Bill cried out his woeful tale to the old man, acting as though this were some life or death type of situation. If you asked Bill, he'd tell you that was indeed the case here.

"I see," Brik said cautiously, looking down at the box in his hands before lifting his head to look back down at Bill once more. "Y'know, there might be another way to get those cookies that you want. Another way that isn't quite illegal and could get you into serious trouble."

"Aw, but where's the fun in that? Laws were made so they could eventually be broken, otherwise the laws are just a bunch of words that have no purpose!"

"I-... Bill, do you want some cookies or not?"

Bill's eyes lit up, pushing the hood off of his head to stare wide-eyed up at Brik. "...Do you have cookies for me to eat?!"

"Well- Yes, I do have cookies, but-"

"That's what's in the box, isn't it?! Gimme!" Bill exclaimed, diving forward to grasp the white box only for Brik to move to the side just in time to dodge the demon and have Bill fall and collapse onto the sidewalk face first with a heavy thud. "Oww..."

"...As I was saying: Yes, I do have cookies and yes, they are inside this box. But the only way for you to get some is to earn them. I'm not just going to hand one out to you for free."

"What?!" Bill sat up, looking up at Brik in horror. "Earn it? What do you mean?! That's not fair!"

"It's completely fair considering these cookies weren't even for you but they were for my kids who made sure to keep up with their chores all week and deserve a reward for it. What kind of example would I be setting for them if I went ahead and gave you a cookie without having done anything to deserve them?"

"Haven't done anything?! Buddy- I'm ALIVE! You know how hard it is to stay alive in this fleshbag of a body in this world? The fact I'm standing here living and breathing definitely deserves the reward of a cookie."

Brik did not answer at first, simply staring at Bill with a "really?" expression. He then sighed, shaking his head as he lifted the box higher while Bill got himself standing back up once more. "Look, Goldilocks... You remember my car, right? Old Bessie? Yeah... she's not working. Again. So I'll make a deal with you: you help me work on her this afternoon and I'll let you have some cookies. Fair?"

Bill frowned, not liking the idea of having to work to get a cookie. Then again, shoplifting would have been a lot of work, too. Why couldn't life be less work and more fun? The human experience was absolutely exhausting and he'd much rather go back to how his life used to be. At least when he had powers he could just snap his fingers and presto: cookie in his hand ready to be munched on. But he didn't have his powers anymore. He didn't have his old life anymore. That was all gone and he needed to embrace this new life- no matter how stupid it was.

"I mean-... I've never worked on a car before. I'd probably screw it up even more than actually fix it."

"There's always a first time for everything! I'll teach you, we'll work on it together. Come on, what do you say?"

Bill was really debating hard on this. He could go steal some cookies, bring them back home, and spend the rest of the day alone with the reminder that... that Y/n wasn't there and refused to answer any of his calls... but hey, at least he would be home alone with the freedom to do as he pleases!

Or he could go with Brik, spend the afternoon with someone so he wasn't all alone, work all day on a car, be covered in grease and gunk, and get a cookie at the end of the day that probably wasn't worth all the work he just had to go through.

It was pretty obvious which option he chose.

The walk back to Brik's place wasn't too far. They walked in silence for the majority of the time, not that uncomfortable silence that makes your skin itch and you start to regret every life choice you've made to end up here. No, it was a pretty peaceful silence. A silence that both could enjoy, where Bill was aware that there was someone else present and he was no longer alone. Out of all the people he has met so far, he'll admit that Brik was the last person in this town who he thought would willingly want to spend a day with him. Well no- scratch that. Claire was the last person in this town he thought would willingly want to spend a day with him, probably not even an hour. Bill didn't necessarily mind.

Bill wasn't a huge fan of Claire. The guy had the worst taste in partners and thought that wearing glasses indoors was cool. He really isn't fooling anybody: the guy is so far from cool he is practically burning. Not in a good way- he didn't think Claire was hot. The guy was burning in toxic waste. It still shocks Bill to know that Y/n was willingly dating the guy. Out of all the people in this town, how could they have fallen for someone like Claire? Maybe they had horrible taste in partners, too. Maybe they were meant for each other. Bill hoped not. Y/n could do a lot better than Claire only if they took off those rose-colored glasses and saw the guy for who he really was. But sadly, they were too blinded by love to notice any of his flaws. Love. Love was a weakness. It made you do stupid things.

When they got to Brik's place, the two of them spotted three little goblins running about his front yard.

Not actual goblins- this wasn't Gravity Falls.

"Kids! I'm home!" Brik exclaimed once they were close enough to be heard.

The three children stopped running, turning to look in their direction before immediately sprinting off towards them.

"Dad! Dad! You won't believe what happened!" the eldest kid yelled, running over to them. The kid looked no older than maybe seven or eight years old.

"Anya! What's going on, princess?" Brik smiled, seeming way more relaxed now that he was home and had his kids in front of him.

Bill stepped back a bit behind Brik, suppressing the urge to hiss at the children like a feral cat would. Children. He wasn't a big fan of children, especially since it had been children who had outsmarted and defeated him. Children were the reason he was now a human with no powers and trapped in yet another small town.

"We were playing kickball and it was my turn to kick the ball- I was passing it to Jared when I kicked the ball a little too hard and hit him right in the face!"

"Oh- what? Is he alright?"

"He's fine! You didn't let me finish! I hit him in the face- I hit him and I quickly ran over to him because he fell on his bum and I went to check and make sure he was okay. His mouth was bleeding-"

"Bleeding?!"

"Daaaad- let me finish! His mouth was bleeding and so he spit in his hand- Oh my gosh, it was bloody! I thought I hurt him. Like really bad. But it turns out I just knocked his loose tooth out! We finally got his wiggly tooth to come loose! And now Mom says that the tooth fairy is going to come tonight and leave him a surprise!"

The second child, a little boy, came over finally and lifted his hand up to show Brik the baby tooth they had successfully knocked out. "Look, Daddy! Look! Look! Sissy got it out! Toof Fairy is going to visit tonight!"

"Fairy! Fairy gonna come!" the third child, a little girl who looked a lot like the little boy, exclaimed as she rushed over and was jumping up and down like a little bouncy ball.

Bill watched Brik go through so many emotions in those last five minutes, clearly not expecting all of this to occur upon arriving home. He seemed very relieved in the end, though, once the children finally were able to get the full story out and explain the situation. With his free hand, he gave a pat to Jared's head which made the child giggle, revealing the open gap in his mouth where the tooth had fallen out from.

"Well, looks like I missed out on all the fun. Good job, kiddo, glad you were able to finally lose that darn little thing! Hope your mouth isn't too sore now, though. Otherwise I might have to hand your cookies over to your sisters."

"What?! Noooo! Not too sore! I can eat cookie! I can, I can!"

Brik chuckled, shaking his head before looking back at Bill, finally remembering that the blond was still there and still hiding behind him. "Bill, these are my kids: this is my eldest, Anya, and these two are the twins, Jared and Jade." He then turned back to look at his kids and pointed at the demon behind him. "This is Bill, Daddy's friend from work. He's going to be helping me fix up Old Bessie today."

"Hi, Bill! Nice to meet you!"

"Yay! Bessie is gonna get fixed!"

"Daddy, is Bill secretly a fairy?"

The kids all seemed very pleased to meet the dream demon for the very first time, but Bill was too busy panicking to really notice.

Twins.

The two younger ones were twins? They were so young, probably around four or five years of age. No wonder they looked so identical- well, not completely identical. Their vitiligo patches across their faces were in different areas. Other than that- they were exactly the same. Twins... another set of twins. He couldn't seem to escape them. Did they plan to outsmart and defeat him, too? First it was Stanley and Stanford, then Dipper and Mabel, and now-

He hasn't done anything wrong yet, though.

There's no need to get rid of him.

Let him stay, let him stay.

He doesn't want to die.

Not again.

Please.

Plea-

"Mr. Bill...?" Anya spoke softly, staring up at the blond with a very concerned expression. "Why do you keep muttering that word? 'Please' what?"

"Daddy, is fairy okay?"

"Is he grossed out by tooths like Mama, too? I didn't mean to freak him out."

"No, no, Jared- You're fine, you didn't do anything wrong. The fair- uh... Bill is okay, Jade. He just hasn't eaten much today. Why don't you three go inside, wash up, and head to the table. We'll be right in with the cookies." Brik suggested with a kind smile.

The children listened to their father, heading inside as their worries were quickly replaced with excitement for the dessert they have been waiting all week for.

Brik stayed behind, turning around and facing the dream demon with a fatherly look of concern. "Bill? Goldie, hey-" He was speaking softer than he ever had. Dad-mode really must've kicked in watching Bill start to panic. He bent down to get to Bill's level, keeping some distance between the two of them as to give the panicked demon some space. "Goldie? ...Hey, come on, let's play a game. I want you to name five things that you can see right now. Think you can do that? Can you focus on me for a minute and play the game?"

Game? Bill liked games... He always liked playing games. That didn't mean others liked his games, though. Like Stanford... Dipper...

"Five things you can see, Bill. Can you name some for me?"

"...You..."

"Good. Good, four more."

"...Ball... House... Grass... M-... Mailbox..."

"Great job. Okay, now I want you to name four things you can feel."

Four things he could feel? Easy. He could feel the spray paint hit his eye when Mabel had made an attack against him. He could feel Stanley's punch when they were in the mindscape right before he dissolved into nothingness-

"Bowtie," Bill muttered, reaching up to grasp the bowtie that was around his neck and starting to fidget with it. "Hoodie... Jeans..."

He frowned, his other hand lifting up and reaching forward. For what? He wasn't sure. Then he felt it- warmth. Oh- Brik grabbed his hand. Number four.

"You."

"Great. You're doing really good so far. You're great at games, huh? Alright. Now three things you can hear."

"I'd never do a favor for you! Don't forget who defeated you last time!"

"Get out of my brother's body, you evil triangle!"

"You're insane if you think I'll help you!"

"You're a real wise-guy, but you made one fatal mistake: you messed with my family."

"You. I-... I hear you... and birds... and that car that just drove past..."

"Awesome. Only two more rounds left. Can you name two things that you can smell?"

Bill frowned, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath in. Smell? What's something he could smell? He took a small step forward. Then another. Brik's hand briefly released Bill's before going and wrapping his arm around the demon, holding him close. Oh, a hug. He took another deep breath in.

"You... and the cookies."

"Last round. Okay, the last thing I want you to name is one thing you can taste."

Taste? Bill thought for a moment, moving his tongue around in his mouth absentmindedly as he tried to think about what he could taste. His own saliva, maybe? He hadn't eaten anything in awhile so he could no longer taste his breakfast from this morning. Was he about to fail the game? It was the last question, he had to answer it!

Bill felt his arm being poked and opened his eyes, leaning a bit further into the hug as he stared up at Brik and then looked down at what Brik was holding out to him.

A cookie.

His eyes widened, taking the sugary treat in hand and taking a bite into it. He chewed, he swallowed, and he could sense the taste linger.

Name one thing you can taste.

"A cookie... A chocolate chip cookie. It... It tastes good."

Brik smiled, giving Bill a small squeeze through the hug. "Good job, kid. You won the game."

"Thanks... That was-... That helped. A lot."

"I was hoping it might. Anya and my wife, Cynthia, get really bad panic attacks sometimes and I learned that this technique helps them to calm down and ground them to where they are, not wherever their mind had decided to take them briefly." Brik rubbed Bill's arm comfortably as he continued to eat his cookie, smiling softly as he watched him start to calm down. "Would you like to talk about what just happened? If it's something I did that I can avoid doing again, I would like to know. But you don't have to tell me if you're not comfortable."

"No... Thank you. But I-... No, no I would rather not talk about it."

"Fair enough. You don't have to explain yourself, I get it. If you want to go home now, though, you can. Take some cookies for the road."

Bill's eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. "But... the deal-"

"Kid, you just had a panic attack. I'm not going to make you do anything you don't want to. Go home and rest if you need it, I can work on Old Bessie by myself."

Well, it's not like Bill wanted to work today anyway. All he really wanted was the cookies. Seriously, that's it. He would've stayed indoors all day had it not been for Y/n hiding the cookies. And Y/n not answering any of his calls. And the fact Y/n wasn't home to talk to or bother. He really didn't want to be alone, and if he went back to the house now... When was Y/n supposed to come home? How many more hours would it be until Bill had company again. He began to fidget with the small piece of the cookie he had left, staring at the grass underneath them as he leaned into Brik's touch.

Warm. Brik was warm.

The house was cold.

"...Can I stay?"

Brik's eyes widened for a brief moment, too brief for Bill to have noticed his reaction. The man smiled, holding Bill a bit tighter before nodding his head.

"Come on, the kids are still waiting on their share of the cookies inside. We can take a snack break before getting to work."

The two entered the house together, Bill being led into the kitchen where the twins insisted that the demon sit between them. He felt quite uncomfortable beside the two of them. It's not like these two seemed super deadly or out to get him, but due to having such a bad experience with sets of twins in the past caused him to still be extremely cautious around them.

Bill tried to focus more-so on the cookies he was eating than the two gremlins sitting beside him, which worked for the most part- until Jade began to ask him fairy-related questions. The child seemed quite obsessed with learning all things fairies. He figured it wouldn't hurt to spill some information about what he knew on the different types of fairies that came from different dimensions. Bill expected her to be disgusted or horrified, but she ended up being quite the opposite. She laughed at the idea of barf fairies, wondering if it was magical barf that they puked up and if it was possible for her to collect said magic once they've thrown it up. She was amazed by the idea of fairies that had GIANT teeth. She went on to explain that that's exactly how she imagined the tooth fairy to be, quickly running to her room and coming back with a drawing she had made of what her idea of the tooth fairy looked like.

On the subject of the tooth fairy, Jared butted in to show off his bloody tooth once more. He seemed quite proud of it and Bill made a comment about how he liked teeth, mainly for jewelry purposes. Jared laughed at this and said if he successfully captured the tooth fairy tonight then he would make her give up all the human teeth she had collected so he could give them all to Bill. Then he asked if there was any way Bill could make him a necklace to wear and to keep and to remember him by.

Brik was quite disgusted by the conversation and lost his appetite to eat his share of the cookies.

Bill was the opposite. He felt quite relaxed the longer the conversation went on. These kids... they liked him. They found him funny and cool and though he talked about weirdness, they encouraged him to keep going. They wanted to hear more, they wanted him to talk more.

These twins weren't Stanford and Stanley.

These twins weren't Dipper and Mabel.

These twins were Jared and Jade.

And he couldn't have been more relieved to realize that.

Once snack time was over and they finished their delicious treat, Bill and Brik went to the garage and began working on the car together. That was definitely an... experience for the both of them, to say the least. Bill really had no clue what he was doing. Brik had to hold his hand and explain every step they did in an easy-to-understand way.

They made some progress on the car. Was it great progress? Did they get far in said progress? ...Just appreciate the fact that some type of progress had been made. Brik did. He really appreciated the time spent with Bill and just getting to know the boy a bit better overall. After all the time he's spent in town so far, Brik knew little to nothing about Bill. It was no surprise why: they were always so busy at the Mercy General Store that there was never much time to talk with one another. But now they had time, and Brik planned not to waste a second of it. He wanted to show Bill that he did care. Even though they didn't talk all the time, he was listening and he cared for him just as he cared for all of the other kids who worked at the store.

It was really Brik's dad-mode that was kicking in. Those kids at the store were practically his second family/responsibility. Bill was not an exception to this even though he didn't actually work at the store. And he wanted to make sure that Bill knew that, that he always had a home here that he could turn to if needed.

As they were working on the car together, the three little goblins decided to sneak into the garage and steal Bill away from their father. Why? Well, obviously because they needed a fourth player to make the teams even in their game of kickball. It wasn't fair for their dad to hog their fourth team member all afternoon.

Brik allowed the kidnapping, watching Bill run away with them and start to play with the children. It was quite refreshing to see the smile on Bill's face, watching him have fun and play like he was a child himself. Now that he thought about it, he wasn't entirely sure how old Bill was. He just assumed he and Y/n were around the same age since he was told that they were childhood friends.

Bill looked so young while they played, though. The way he smiled, the way he laughed, the way he was overly competitive and kept trying to run away with the ball. After Anya's game of kickball, they then played hide-and-go-seek only it was monsters vs. humans themed because Jared likes to add little twists to their games. After Jared's game was over, Bill then became a tickle monster that chased after the three young ones. Jade got a kick out of this, purposely running slower just so Bill could catch up to her and pick her up. He'd swing her around in the air, tickling her sides- and oh, her sweet giggles made Bill feel warm and happy. Then after tickle monster came dinner time which Cynthia requested that Bill stay for due to her "accidentally" making an extra plate more of food than she was supposed to and someone needed to make sure it didn't go to waste. It didn't take much to convince Bill; he sat down at the dinner table with the family of five and helped the kids tell the story of what all they did today. You would have thought Bill was a child himself with how giddy and excited he acted after fooling around and playing for an afternoon.

When the sun had finally gone down and Bill thought it was time for the Walls Family to kick him out of the house, the children dragged him outside to play one more game: catch the fireflies.

Bill was... awestruck by how many fireflies were in their backyard alone. The children and Bill ran around, catching as many fireflies as they could and placing them into a mason jar that had small holes in the lid so they could still breathe. They brought the jar inside, showing their parents of their accomplishments. Bill just seemed so proud of himself when Brik told the four of them that they did good work today.

Before Bill was allowed to leave, Anya, Jade, and Jared begged him to stay and watch an episode of Ducktective with them. Sure they were only reruns and the series had ended so long ago, but the show was just that good it made you want to rewatch it over and over again. Besides, Bill had never seen it before and they really wanted to introduce him to it.

So Bill stayed.

One episode.

Two episodes.

Three episodes.

When Brik walked back into the living room to let the kids know that it was time for bed, he found what seemed to be a cat pile of sleeping children on top of a sleeping demon that was sprawled out on the couch. Bill had one arm wrapped around each twin with Anya laying in the center on top of his chest. It was... a sight Brik never expected to see. But it was a sight that he would look back on constantly, especially now that he had a photo saved to his camera roll.

Out of all the possible things that could've happened on that day, Brik was glad that this was how the day had been spent.

Brik took a blanket, draping it over all four of the sleeping beings before he began to head back to his room for the night. Just as he was on his way back to his room, his phone went off and he answered it without even checking the caller I.D. to figure out who was calling this late at night.

"Brik? Brik! Oh my gosh- I need your help!"

"Y/n? Hey, what's up? Is everything okay?"

"No! It's not! I accidentally left my phone in my bedroom when we went out to go to Queen's Court. We had to come home a bit earlier than expected because Jerome got sick on one of the rides. When I got home- My gosh, I'm home and Bill is missing! I have 27 missed calls from him that he made from the house phone to try and contact me- I think I screwed up! I think he's in trouble and I need help finding him before something bad happens to him! I can't- I can't lose him!"

"Woah woah woah- Slow down, Y/n, take a breath. It's okay, everything's alright. Bill-"

"-is gone because of me! Because I'm a terrible friend who left him behind while I went to an amusement park and now he's gone!"

Brik sighed, leaning against the wall. "Y/n, he's not gone. Bill is just fine, he's just sleeping right now and will be back home in the morning. Unless you want to come and pick him up from my place, but my kids may fight you to keep their bed for the night."

"...Wait, what?"

"Yeah, it's been a long day. Tell you what: you go get some sleep, come here around 9:30 for breakfast and I'm sure Bill and the kids will be happy to tell you all about the day they had today, okay?" Brik chuckled, though keeping his voice down as to not wake anyone who was in the next room over.

"Bill-... He's with you? He's alright?"

"He is just fine, Y/n. He's spent the entire day over at my place. Would you believe it all began with him attempting to shoplift the bakery this morning?"

A heavy, disappointed sigh could be heard coming from the other side of the call. "Sadly, yes. Yes I can... I'm so sorry if he's been bothering you-"

"Oh, no. None of that now. Bill has been a great guest here at the house and I think Cynthia and I can both agree that we'd love for him to come by again soon. But for now... you need to sleep. It's late, you sound drained. Go get some rest and we can talk more again in the morning. Okay?"

"Alright. Umm- Thanks."

"Not a problem. Goodnight, Y/n. Sleep well."

[End call]

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Chapter 19: Sunday, February 5th, 2023

Two more chapters before the official hiatus arrives...
Be prepared~