To the Nights in the Hold of Stone (BillDip)

Enjoy Being Rudimentary(17)

Bill POV

'Morning' came quicker than I wanted it to. Dipper slept fitfully for a little before eventually settling into deeper throws of sleep. Having to wake him felt wrong, but if I didn't get up soon I'd start twitching. Holding still for this long was a bit too much like being stone, which was way too boring to do again.

Sitting up slowly and bringing the sleeping form with me he stirred at the movement. Lashes heavy from sleep flutter open, not really seeing the world around him. Turning to shield his eyes for the magic made sunlight against my collar, arm encircling my back to pull himself closer, "just a little longer." he uttered under his breath. Alighting a new sensation across my throat, the skin that coated it physically responded.

His hair smelled strongly of cedar trees, "Just a little longer of what?" I whispered back though I'm sure the comment wasn't meant for me.

The long sigh that followed conforming that suspicion, "To pretend this is real." The forest around us ebbing now as my magic turned it back into my office.

"The day has to start at some point." I answered, a bit louder this time to reach through the fog of sleep surrounding him.

He nodded into my shoulder, abruptly pulling away. He pushed backwards on his hands, half getting to his feet with eyes fully awake and alert. "Yeah, I have to start that spell..." He straightened his shirt, patted down his hair, while looking everywhere but at me.

"Yes." I hummed, getting to my own feet. I produced the pages I'd taken from the journal in his memory, "This is what I grabbed, only one of the pages actually mentions the weirdness field but I didn't get to take a closer look at the surrounding so I just took them too." I handed the papers to him.

He thumbed through them quickly with a nod, "Ok." Dipper looked over his shoulder at the door, pausing as a thought crossed his mind. He looked at me, meeting my eye for the first time sense waking up. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Air filled lungs I didn't need, heat rushed through veins that served no function. "I'm going to meet with Ana, but I should spend more of the day in the throne room after that. If you need anything don't hesitate to ask." I tapped the side of my head indicating he could just think it and I'd be able to hear him. His features soften, brown eyes filling with something new before flitting away to look about my office once more. The rush of human bodily functions quickened met with the jump of my own power's response to it all.

"Thanks." Dipper answered stiffly, "I'm gonna use the desk in my room, and probably be there for a while if- if anything comes up."

He kept distance between us as we left my office, parting ways in the hall as he disappeared into the adjoined room.

I retreated quickly to find Ana.

The halls of my fearamid quietly echoing my own footsteps back to me, another thing I'd not expected when taking a human form. The environment and lights all seemed so much more colorful, everything felt more, just more. I could feel everything, touching things was different, things looked different though two eyes, things smelled different through a human nose and tasted different through a human mouth. It was all fascinating.

Ana had an office of her own, where we met now, full of shelfs similar to Dippers and a desk piled high with works and a never used couch. I fell onto it right away, stretching out with a sigh.

"What's wrong Cipher?" She closed the door softly, peering at me from behind a shadow of doubt.

"You've had a human form for a long time now right?" I sighed.

She squinted at me, obviously this is not what she was expecting me to ask her about, "Yes."

"So you know what it means when different things," I rolled my wrist turning my hand in a waving motion in the air, "happen or change."