Freedom To Another Cage [BILLFORD]

Chapter 14: Nobody Expected That

A couple weeks in, Bill's unknown sickness sort of passed, although it reappeared briefly a few times.

Ford was sitting nearby, reading a old looking book of some sort. He occasionally glanced up from the book to keep an eye on Bill and Mabel doodling. He still didn't know what was going on with Bills stomach, he still never got his real answer. For the past few weeks, whenever he tried to ask or check, he had either been swatted away or ignored like usual.

Bill slid his paper over to Sixer to show a... pretty crappy doodle of two blue and red shapes. Honestly, it was a bit hard to tell. "I'm sure you'd been curious about them." Ford looked at the doodle. He had an eyebrow raised before he asked a question. "What is that exactly?" He asked, still not able to tell what the doodle was.
Bill scoffed and took the paper back. "My parents, idiot."
Stanford rolled his eyes slightly, but looked somewhat curious at the mention of Bill's parents. "And, uh, what're your parents like?"
"They were fine. Pretty average, but nice." He shrugged, leaning back in his chair and looking at his drawing.

Ford paused for a moment, thinking it over before he continued to speak. "So... If you had a normal family... A semi-normal childhood... Why the hell did you turn out like...you?"
"A lot can happen in more than a million years." Bill shrugged, sitting properly up again and scooting the paper aside.

Ford was silent for a moment, before a small, amused smile came onto his face. "So much for 'average family'. I guess that was only a little white lie."
"Nope. Everything was pretty solid. No cracks, not a single one... Other than me, of course. I was a complete mistake." Bill chuckled.
Ford rolled his eyes at Bills statement, but the smile still stayed on his face. "Oh, come on, don't say that, you can't have been that much of a mistake."
"Well, for one, my eye placement was wonky. And two, I wasn't the right color. Red and blue don't exactly make yellow."
"Wait. You-" Ford suddenly cut himself off and started laughing for a moment, finding that a bit funny for some reason. After he recovered from the short laughing fit, he spoke again. "How could your parents mess that part up? Everyone knows how primary colors work."

"Yeah. My dad probably cheated."
"That's..."
"It was probably Mike."
"Who the hell is Mike?"
"Some green square."
"A green square? And why would your father cheat on your mother with a green square?"

"Choosing someone to be with in my world was like sampling different ice-cream flavors and choosing which one is your favorite. Dad suspected both, tried both, chose one. But the after-taste of the first still lingered. You get it? But I dunno all the details. For all I know, it could'a been a polycule. So either it was some cheating/poly type thing, or I was a complete mistake all around."

Ford went silent for a moment, thinking it over. He had been joking about Bill being a mistake earlier, but now, he was having second thoughts. He actually felt somewhat bad.
"Well, regardless if that were the case or not, it doesn't change the fact that your parents still cared about you, right? I mean... They never said or hinted that they regretted you, did they?"
"No. They loved me." Bill put his elbows on the table and rested his cheeks in his palms, staring forward at Mabel, who didn't say a single thing the whole time.
Ford glanced over to Mabel. He had completely forgotten that she was in the room. He was surprised and somewhat relieved that she had been pretty much silently listening to their conversation. He turned his focus back to Bill and spoke again, "Then it doesn't matter. You at least know that they cared about you and loved you. That's what matters."

"Yeah..." He looked down at the table for a moment before back at Stanford. "Can you get me some grapes?"
"Yeah, sure. Give me a second." Sixer said, standing up from his seat and walking into the kitchen. Shortly after, he returned with a bowl of grapes in one hand. Bill took them and started eating. "Thanks."

"No problem." Ford said, taking a seat again. For a moment, they was silent before he spoke again, "If you don't mind me asking, why the sudden asking for grapes? Just wondering."
"Because I want them?"
"Yeah, yeah. I get that. I mean in more of a 'why grapes specifically' way."
"I don't know! Don't ask me, ask this form you forced me into!" Bill hissed.
"No need for snapping." Ford said, his tone firm but keeping calm. He didn't like the sudden snapped tone, but he didn't show any reaction from it.
"I snap all I want!" Bill got up from his chair, picking up his bowl of grapes and floating away.

Ford watched as Bill suddenly got up and flew away. He was a bit pissed but didn't show any reaction to it. He let out a small sigh before turning his focus to Mabel. "Sorry you had to listen to all that." Ford let out another small sigh and looked over at the clock on the wall before back at her, "Hey, I'm going to go... check on Bill real quick, alright?"
"Good thinking." Mabel agreed.

Ford nodded, pushing away from the table and getting up from his seat. He started walking in the direction of the room, heading inside and shutting the door behind him. He watched as Bill pace around while eating for a moment. He wasn't that surprised at the pacing, but he was getting a little tired of the random mood swings. "You good-"

"No!" Bill snapped. "I feel like shit, I'm almost always upset, I want to fill up on meaningless junk, I-" His pacing got a bit quicker.

Ford was a bit surprised at the sudden snap. After a second, he stepped in and stopped Bill's pacing by grabbing his shoulders and making him stand still.
Bill went silent. But now that Sixer was close, he could see a change in his brick pattern; the gaps were thinner. Ford kept a hold on Bill's shoulders as he took a second to look him over. He raised an eyebrow as he noticed something off about his brick pattern, and reached a hand up and touched one of the bricks, trying to confirm his suspicion.
Alas, Bill slapped his hand away, like all the other times. "Quit it!"

"..Right, should've expected that." Ford muttered to himself, before speaking again, "Bill, calm down for a moment. I just want to check something, alright?"
"No!"
"Bill, I'm not going to do anything bad. I just want to look at your brick pattern for a minute."
"What? What's wrong with it?" Bill pushed Ford's hands off before heading out of the room to look for a mirror. Bill eventually found one in the bathroom, eye looking over himself.

Ford stood in the doorway of the bathroom, watching as Bill looked over himself in the mirror. He was still a bit concerned over the thinned-out gaps in his brick pattern that he noticed earlier.
"Oh, great! Just what I needed!" Bill complained to himself as he ran a finger along one of his edges.
"What's that supposed to mean? You find something wrong?" Ford asked.

"Everything!" Bill sighed, which then turned to a growl.

Ford was a little shocked at the growl for a moment, but regained a calm look. He knew Bill was upset over something, but didn't really know exactly what he was so upset about. He walked over to Bill and stood near him, "Alright, something is obviously bothering you. Mind telling me what exactly it is?"
"You know what? That's a great idea!" Bill said with sarcastic happiness as he turned to Ford.
Ford rolled his eyes slightly at the sarcasm in Bill's tone. It was a genuine question, but yet Bill was being more sassy than usual. "Great, glad you can agree." He replied in a slightly mocking tone.

"You got me pregnant."

Ford was caught off guard at the unexpected statement. He went completely silent in shock for a solid 5 seconds before he shook his head and spoke again. "...Excuse me, what?"