The henchmaniacs came back into the throne room. Some of them were surprised to see that some of the people that made up the stone throne were now free, as they recognized Wendy's family.

Dipper turned to see Wendy fixing Bill's nose and cringed as his enhanced demon hearing picked up on the crunch sound of Bill's nose being set. Bill just made a noise and flinched. Dipper would have screamed and cried if it were his nose that was broken.

"Hey, Dip?"

"Yeah, Mabel?"

Dipper studied his sister's face. She seemed reluctant—a bit unsure. She fiddled with her thumbs. She finally looked at him and said, "You love Bill."

Dipper knew this conversation would happen sooner or later. "Yeah. I do. I don't expect you to understand, though. It's fine." What Mabel was probably seeing right then was her brother loving the demon who wanted to kill their entire family at one point. But she didn't know the whole story. She didn't know Bill had changed. She didn't know the monster was vanquished when Tad turned him into a human.

"You're right, I don't understand as much as you do. I heard your conversation with him. Now I—I understand that you would do anything for him. And that he'd do anything for you. He is like your family. It doesn't sit with me right that Bill would someday be a part of our family maybe, but maybe I'd understand completely and accept that sometime too."

"He's not the same Bill as Ford and everyone else thinks he is," Dipper asserted, taking a step forward. "Something happened and he changed. I was with him."

Mabel's eyes were filled with a new determination that he'd rarely seen in her. They were so full with hope and light. "I know. I trust you, Dipper."

Dipper didn't know when he'd started to cry. He hugged her again and said, "I love you so much."

His sister squeezed him. "I love you too, bro. Be careful with...whatever happened earlier."

"What about Ford?" He let her go and eyed Stan talking to Ford. Ford was still glaring at Bill.

Mabel bit her lip. "I don't know. He was one of the only people who believed that Bill brainwashed you or something. It's obvious that he hasn't. I know so. But ever since the thing that attacked your mind..." she shook her head. "I think that might make him realize soon enough that your mind is protected."

"Yeah, I really hope so. Bill taught me how to do that years ago."

"It's a bit weird that I now have a demon brother." Mabel was taking this in easier than Dipper thought. That's good. She wasn't afraid of him.

Dipper lit a ball of yellow fire in his hand and smirked when Mabel jumped in surprise. She stuck out her tongue at him. Dipper snorted.

___

Once Mabel went to talk to Soos, Bill snuck behind Dipper and kissed his ear.

Dipper flinched with surprise and blushed, but smiled nonetheless. "Bill, I could've punched you."

Bill walked in front of him and held both of his hands in his. "Careful, Pine Tree. You wouldn't want me to end up with another broken nose, would you?"

Dipper squinted his eyes at Bill and pulled him along with him to go see the others.

Bill overheard Dipper and Mabel's conversation without meaning to—most of the refugees really didn't actually believe that he brainwashed his Pine Tree.

When we was a full demon, he wanted to. He really did want to brainwash Dipper into doing his bidding. But something in him...it was fighting hard. Bill liked to believe that it was the human soul locked up in the back of demon Bill's mind that pounded on the bars and fought with everything he had.

"Cipher? Are you gonna stop swooning over my friend or are you gonna talk with us?"

Bill snapped out of his thoughts when Wendy interrupted them. Maybe he was swooning over Pine Tree. He'd never admit it out loud.

"No one will believe you," he said and turned back to the others to see what they were talking about.

"Sure they won't." Wendy said playfully.

Bill was trying to listen to the conversation, but all of his focus was on Ford. He was watching Bill intently, but the rage and anger were gone. He saw a promise in the old man's eyes. If you hurt him, your pain will be worse, Ford seemed to say.

Bill nodded.

Ford nodded.

And then that's when Bill new Ford could trust Dipper. And Dipper trusted Bill. Bill squeezed his Pine Tree's hand. A promise.

___

Dipper trailed off from the conversation once Bill squeezed his hand. He looked up and found Bill's hazel—almost yellow—gazing on him.

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

Dipper grinned. "I love you too, Bill."

A while later, everyone said goodbye and left the Fearamid. Dipper watched Ford with pride in his heart.

His great uncle arrived with rage and lack of trust in his soul but left the Fearamid with trust. Hope. Love.

___

Bill followed Dipper into the bedroom that night so they can think and talk about earlier. Tad Strange shouldn't have been able to get through the Fearamid wards, Dipper thought. At least he knew how to shield him out completely. He and Bill would find a way to get rid of Strange forever.

Bill snapped and then nightclothes appeared on himself. All he wore for every night was just a loose yellow shirt with boxers. Dipper only just wore boxers in bed—it was way more comfortable. Dipper didn't know how to do the whole snapping-your-clothes-on thing, so he just took his shirt off the old-fashioned way.

"Wait—Pine Tree, stop."

Dipper halted in his tracks, turned away from Bill. "Yeah?"

"You...you have...close your eyes."

Dipper did. Once he did, a memory appeared in his brain. And that memory was of right now, as if he were seeing through Bill's very own eyes.

And his back, Dipper's back—there were constellations. Everywhere. It looked like they were painted onto his back. And they were glowing.

"What the fuck," Dipper ground out. He opened his eyes and turned to face Bill. His hazel eyes were wide. "Do you know what it means?"

"Yeah, actually," Bill tore his gaze away and sat on the bed. Dipper followed, fighting the urge to reach behind him and touch the constellations on his back. "There are legends about The Mark of the Stars or something, and only few demons had it. Some thought it wasn't even real. It meant Savior."

Savior. The word clanged through him.

"What...what does it mean by that? What did I do? I didn't actually defeat...anything today."

Bill shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe it has something to do with the future." He kicked his shoes off and patted the bed. "C'mon. Let's go sleep. Pyronica said she's planning something tomorrow for us." He shrugged again and went under the covers.

Dipper frowned and kicked his shoes and pants off and got in bed next to Bill. He kissed the side of his mouth and said, "I'm not tired, though. Not after Tad today and seeing my family again. Especially seeing Ford. It's like he went crazy after I left." He watched as fingers played with the sheets under him.

Bill pushed Dipper's bangs out of the way and pressed his lips onto his birthmark. "I'm not tired either. But let's forget all of that for tonight, yeah?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively but playfully.

"Okay."

Bill's face turned a satisfying shade of red, including his ears. "I was kinda joking, but...what?"

Dipper kissed Bill's tan shoulder, trying to hide his own blush. "Yeah. Tonight, if you want."

Bill pulled Dipper into his lap and kissed his lips meaningfully. "As you wish, Pine Tree."

I'm the worst at writing smut and it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do, so I did that. I hope you still like it. Honestly, if I'd written the whole scene anyway, this part would be out way later than I intended. I wrote a small one in Red Hands if you want to read that (it's somewhere at the end.)
-Hawk