I'll protect you

Chapter fourteen

TW: mention of SH (self harm)

A few days later Bill finally had a free day.  So he decided that he wanted to learn to cook.

Around noon he dragged his boyfriend to the kitchen with a smile on his face.

"Bill slow down geez."  Dipper laughs as they entered the dimly lit room.

"Okay!  Teach me."

"Well what do you want to cook?"  Dipper asks while walking to the refrigerator. 

"Hm...eggs?"  Bill asks.  Dipper nods and grabs  a few eggs out of the fridge.

"Okay, making eggs is easy."  Dipper grabs all the stuff they need and turns the stove on.

"Alright.  First you're going to crack the eggs into the bowl."  Dipper instructions him and hands him an egg.

"How the hell do I do that."  Bill asks.  Dipper laughed and put his hands over Bills.

"Like that."  Dipper smiles and puts the eggs shell on the counter.

"That's weird."  Bill says with disgust in his voice.  Dipper laughs again.

"Alright, we'll start with one egg for now."  Dipper grabs the milk and hands it to his boyfriend, "now just pour a little of this in there."

"How much?"  Bill asks while taking the milk into his own hands.

"Just a little bit.  I'll tell you when to stop."  Dipper says.  Bill takes off the top to the milk and pours it into the bowl slowly.

"That should be good."  Dipper smiles and Bill hands the milk back to him. 

"Alright," Dipper puts the milk back in the fridge.  "Now mix it together."  Dipper hands him a spoon.

"That's pointless."  Bill protests.

"Just do it Bill."

"Fine."  Bill mixes it while Dipper puts some butter into a pan and starts the stove.

"Is this good?"  He asks the shorter boy.

"Yep, perfect.  Now just pour it into the pan."  Dipper tells him.  Bill compiles and dumps the mixture into the pan.

"Now what?"  He asks.  Dipper smiles.

"Now we wait, we have to mix it a little bit every few seconds so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan."  Dipper explains.

"You said this would be fun."  Bill complained.

"It is fun once you learn the basics."  Dipper shrugs and hands Bill a spatula. 

"So how do I do this?" 

Dipper laughs lightly and put his hands over Bills, guiding him.

"This is stupid."  Bill muttered.  Dipper laughed.

The two boys waited for a few minutes until the eggs were done.

"Now just season it and put it onto a plate."  Dipper says.

"How do I season it?"  Bill asks.  Dipper shakes his head and grabs some seasonings.

"You're hopeless Bill Cypher."

"Hey!"  Bill says dramatically.  Dipper laughs and grabs a plate.

"Just put it onto the plate and try it."  Dipper says while handing him the plate.  Bill does what he's told and Dipper grabs two forks.

"Here."  He hands his boyfriend one and each of them try it.

"It's good."  Dipper says with a smile.

"Hope you enjoy it because I'm never cooking again."  Bill grins.

Dipper puts his back hands on the counter, getting eggs yolk on his hands.

"Ugh.  I'm gonna wash my hands quickly."  Dipper says with a smile and walks over to the sink.  Bill watch's him turn the water on and roll up his sleeves.

Dipper had forgotten about his cuts until he looked down at his arms.  He dried his hands off quickly and pulled his sleeves back down.  But it didn't matter, Bill had already seen it.

Bill walked over to him and grabbed his arm aggressively.

"Ow!"  Dipper screamed.  Bill couldn't be bothered though.  "Bill stop it."  Dipper demanded.

Bill rolled Dippers sleeve up and saw the eight new cuts.

"Dipper!  What the hell?!"  Bill screamed at him.

Dipper wasn't thrown off by Bill yelling, he was more thrown off by the fact that he called him Dipper.

"Why would you do this?!"  Bill yelled at him.  Dippers eyes filled with tears.

"I don't know."  His voice broke, "please stop yelling at me."

Bill calmed himself down after hearing Dipper's voice break like that.  Dipper wipes his face off with his sleeve while looking at the ground.  Bill just looked at him sadly.

"Pinetree why would you do this?"  He asks softly while trying to calm himself down.

Dipper took a deep breath, "for a while I shrugged with addiction and I was just having withdrawals."  He said quietly as more tears came out of his eyes.

"You mean you've done this before?"  Bill studies Dippers arm and noticed scars around his arm.  Dipper nodded.

"In California I was doing it maybe once or twice a day."  He said quietly.

"What did you do it with?"  Bill demanded.

"Kitchen knife." 

"You did it in our bedroom?"  Bill asks him.  Dipper nodded.  "Is the knife still in the bedroom?"

Dipper shakes his head 'no'. 

"Dipper I swear if I go into that bedroom and find a knife."  Bill says harshly.  Dipper wiped his face again.  "Where is it?"  Bill asks again.

"Under my nightstand."  He mumbles.

"You aren't going to do this again, understand?  I'll make sure of it."  Bill said while slowly releasing Dippers arm.  He quickly pulled down his sleeve and nodded.

"Hey, look at me."  Bill said softly and lifted his shorter boyfriends chin up so he could look into his eyes, "promise you won't do it again.  Promise that if you do want to do it again that you'll talk to me."

"Yes, I promise."  Dipper says quietly.  Bill smiled softly and kissed his boyfriend lightly, Dipper kissed back for a second before Bill broke the kiss and pulled him into a hug.

***

Word Count: 1,022
Date Published: 12/16/22

A/N:
I just want to say quickly that I'm not trying to romanticize depression, self harm, or anything like that.  As someone who has and still does struggle with self harm addiction, I'm only writing it in the story to add another layer to the story because I wasn't sure what else to write.  But I just wanted to write this little bit so people didn't attack me (Ik how people can be online lmao.)