The Witch in the Woods (Bill Cipher x reader)

Chapter 6

Just for clarification sake, all the events that happen are not all in the same day. They are over the span of the two weeks, and I tried making this clear by differentiating them with present and past tense, so anything present tense is just you generally talking about your schedule, and past tense is the events that have happened over two weeks.

A little over two weeks have passed since Bill landed in your garden. The time you've spent with him has actually been going surprisingly well. You have finally settled back into your daily routine, just with a few added...kinks. You usually wake up in the morning, an hour or so before Bill, and get to making breakfast then taking care of your garden. Bill usually wakes up around that time.
"What about this one?" Bill pointed to a tomato plant a few rows away from you. You glanced up from your Acrimane, a magical plant that is rather poisonous, and looked towards Bill. He had been trying to learn about normal human plants, he knew all about the magical ones obviously, and you've given him the task of harvesting all the ripe ones. He's still learning. "Did you do the squeeze test?"
"Yeah...It felt like you told me it should." You smiled at Bill, knowing that it was probably a 50/50 chance that it was actually ripe given his skill in the process. "Then pick it." You didn't really mind losing a few plants though, since you had plenty to spare. He picked the plant without hesitation and gently put it into the basket you had given him when you started.
Once you both finish around the garden, Bill goes to take stock of your potions and herbs while you make him a late breakfast. Sometimes, your mind starts to wander and often enough, the topic of your thoughts is usually Bill. You find it strange how just three weeks ago, he was trying to take complete control of this dimension but now here he is being helpful around the house, and even stranger so, wanting to help you instead of complaining. You wonder why that is considering that, even with his new reformed human body, he should still be...well, him. Conniving, mischievous, egocentric. Now he just seems kind, helpful, and surprisingly sweet.
"(Y/N)?" You blinked a few times, realizing you became a little too lost in thought for a moment. You turned and saw Bill who was giving you a slightly worried look, but it relaxed slightly once he noticed he got your attention. "Lost in thought again?" You gave him a shrug and a nod. You do tend to get lost in thought often because of the lack of company you've had in the past 10 years you've been here. Without much more interruption, you gave Bill some eggs for breakfast. Overeasy is his favorite.
Nothing has changed in terms of how your day goes. Even with Bill now around to help out, they are still as busy and chaotic as ever with wounded creatures showing up every few minutes. Bill usually takes care of grabbing the potions or herbs you need for specific injuries and you're the one that does the actual work of finding the problem and fixing them. He watches you while you heal them, so he can learn about that as well. Though he knows more about magical creatures than you do, you know more about healing them. He has also recently found out about a week ago just how busy your days can get.
You were woken up early in the morning, even earlier than you usually get up, because of a little pixie that had a broken wing. She had crash landed on your window after a nasty Sparkler, creatures even smaller than pixies that can cause a right fuss, had torn up her wing and was frantically tapping away at it around 5:37 in the morning. The sun hadn't even come close to rising but that didn't stop you from getting up and helping her inside.
You had her in and out of your house in about an hour, her wing mended thanks to you successfully attaching a new one, and by that time you figured you could start breakfast. Before you had the chance though, a new problem arose. This time with a little baby phoenix whose beak had been scratched up by something. The little phoenix came and went, Bill was awake just as it had left, and you figured a late breakfast is better than none. Except you hadn't had time for that either.
The next three days had gone this way. You barely had time to take a breath before another creature was at your door needing help. Bill seemed to notice your exhaustion and helped a little more those days, but he also seemed to take notice to your lack of eating. No food in three days does take its toll and you were hungry but too busy. This came to a head when Bill finally approached you a few minutes in between creatures.
"(Y/N), humans are supposed to eat daily, right?" This question had come as a surprise for you but you didn't hesitate in answering since Bill was still getting used to human behaviors. "Generally, yeah. Humans can last about three weeks without food but you don't have a lot of energy if you don't eat and you get something called hunger pains." Which was something you were experiencing at that moment. Your gut twisted painfully at times but it wasn't anything you couldn't handle, yet.
"Then...Why haven't you eaten?" This question hit you like a brick and you looked at him with a mild shock for a moment. "Um, well, I just haven't had time really. What with everyone coming by needing my help and such. I'm used to not eating so don't worry about it." He pouted and made a sound in between a groan and moan. "But you just told me that it's bad if you don't eat. I demand you eat some human fuel!" You couldn't help but smile at his childishness. "If I have the time, then I'll-" You cut yourself off as a knock on the door sounded throughout the house. You shrugged to Bill then left to go help whoever it was.
Bill was not going to let that stand however because, while you were busy with a cracked shell of a lion turtle, he made you dinner. The kitchen was an absolute wreck when he was done, and took an hour or two to clean, but he had managed to make you a salad. It obviously wasn't the best but it tasted fine and he seemed really proud of it. You didn't dare ruin that for him.
Meanwhile, you have been teaching Bill how to 'human,' as he puts it. He's successfully drinking soda without spilling it everywhere, eating food without dropping it or choking, he finally knows how cleaning supplies work, and you even teach him about sleep so he doesn't stay up all night until he passes out. You've given him a crash course in cooking and baking, something he picked up surprisingly well though he isn't very good at it. He also has complete free range of the house as well as outside as long as he doesn't go deeper into the forest, all given as an order so he legitimately can't go into the forest unless you tell him to.
You also finally got around to washing the clothes he had landed in. You use the nearby river to wash your clothes since you don't have a washer and dryer, and you couldn't trust whether Bill's clothes could handle a washer and dryer anyway. Either way, the dirt was washed away from them and Bill has taken to wearing a fancy tailcoat, a white button up shirt, bowtie, and black dress pants all day around the house. How that is comfortable to him, you will never know.
The only other notable change to your daily life is the fact that Bill seems to have a liking to music, which is what has caused you to now have a speaker system spread all throughout the house.
You were working on fixing a potion that you had accidentally messed up by adding the wrong ingredients, mistakes happen, while Bill was somewhere random around the house as he usually just wandered around when he was bored. However, a few minutes later, he ended up walking into your potion room with your Ipod in his hand, something you hadn't used in at least 10 years. It looked old and dusty now.
"Hey (Y/N), what's this thing? I found it in a drawer." Bill held it up for you to see and you chuckled. "That's my old Ipod. It plays music that you can listen to when you're bored or need some white noise." You took a pause from your work to walk over to him as he poked at it like it was some wild, unexplained creature that even he didn't know about. That made you laugh more before you took it from him. "Here, I'll show you."
You turned it on and selected shuffle so it would play a random song. Music immediately started coming out of the small speaker as it filled the entire room. Bill listened and you watched as his face continually changed expressions until it landed on interest and he took the Ipod from you, mid song. "Does this have any more music?"
"Well, yeah. I used to listen to a bunch of different stuff on there so there should be a pretty wide array of music if you don't like that song. It's pretty much the only technology I have around here." Bill only hummed in response to you and simply waltzed out the door, fiddling with it and you could hear the song change just as he shut the door behind him.
He ended up coming back only 10 minutes later with a complaint. You had finished your potion work so you were just cleaning up. "Isn't there any way to make it louder?" He shook it slightly as if that would help which caused you to roll your eyes. "You could plug some headphones or earbuds in I guess but there isn't really a way to make it louder if you already put it at max volume." You shrugged.
Long story short, you accidentally mentioned speakers to Bill and he wanted them. How badly he wanted them? Well...Let's just say you aren't going to need to clean the house for two weeks or do the laundry. You had dropped everything just to go pick some speakers up for Bill, and you trusted him enough that if anyone came by the door that he would be able to handle it.
One drive later and you got your entire house fitted with speakers in each corner of the living room and then one in each of the other rooms, except for your potions room. You didn't get them from a regular store so you didn't have to cash out your entire life savings. Bill was ecstatic and bouncing off the walls with giddiness. You couldn't really understand what made music so interesting to him, but it was nice to see him happy.
Those speakers are still in your house of course and Bill plays music almost all day long now. He has a surprising amount of music he likes and listens to it on loop sometimes. You asked him his favorite song and it's apparently 'Royalty.' Figures. There are even some times where he will pull you into dancing with him, though you have told him multiple times that you have two left feet (and had to explain to him what that means).

*********

In any case, you and Bill are scheduled to head out to the forest to gather ingredients. You can tell he has been antsy to get out of the house recently and going to town is obviously not an option so you've both opted to explore a little. You are hoping Bill can help you find the more difficult ingredients that are a bit hard to spot, even for someone like you that has experience.
"Bill, if you don't hurry up, I'm leaving you behind!" You stand at the edge of the forest beyond your 'front yard,' having already been waiting for Bill at least 10 minutes. You tap your foot impatiently, your wicker basket in hand and empty at the moment. There's silence for a few seconds before he comes bursting out of your front door, running to meet up with you. You sigh and stay where you are as he runs towards you then past you which causes you to brace yourself. The moment he attempts to get any further into the forest, the magical chains and shackles appear on both of your wrists. His wrist is immediately yanked back, and yours yanked forward, which causes his feet to slip out from under him and he falls.
There's a dull glow as the magical shackles and chains on both you and Bill's wrists show themselves then disappear. "I still haven't uplifted my order, you know." You smirk at him a little mischievously while he glares at you and grumbles under his breath. You help him back onto his feet and smile at him, handing him your wicker basket. "Let's go." You guide him into the forest and this time, the shackles don't bother him.
It only takes both of you half an hour to get through all your needed ingredients. Bill helps a lot more than you thought he would be able to; he finds some ingredients as easily as if they are in plain view. He keeps saying it has something to do with him being a dream demon but you can't tell whether that is an exaggeration or not. Either way, you come back home with a basket and arms full of ingredients.
"I'm going to put this in the potion room, k?" Bill gives you a quick nod and you head deeper into your own home to set down your arms full of Fyium, Dramire, Gine, and other miscellaneous plants. It's a struggle to make your way to your potion room but you indeed make it. You set down the ingredients by the door with a sigh then take a closer look into the room.
Every single beaker, tube, jar, and funnel is completely destroyed. The table is in wooden pieces all across the floor along with the shattered glass remains of your work, spread around like confetti at a party. You can see seared markings on the table, signalling that it had been set on fire, though it is only smoldering now. Potions that you had stored under the table join the cemetery of glass, the liquids that had been inside mixing together to completely ruin any chance of using them. You also know that mixing some of those potions can cause combustion which immediately explains the destroyed and burnt table. You only soak in the entire site for a second then scream.
Bill suddenly appears out of thin air beside you, you assume he teleported, and appears both panicked and worried. "Where's the danger? What happened?" He glances around the room quickly only to realize no one is there and looks to you for answers. You can barely utter a sound, let alone explain anything as you drop to your knees. Tears start to run down your face rapid fire though you don't sob or whimper.

Meanwhile, Bill is simply lost. Human emotions are still a foreign concept to him despite his experience with many humans over millennia. He has had deals with love, murder, greed, of any and all sorts really. At the very least, he understands that humans cry when they are extremely upset about something, but the way you are crying is only usually when a human has lost another human, more specifically a family member or lover. 'Then why is (Y/N) crying over...this?'
He can't explain it to himself since he doesn't understand it, but what he cannot understand even more is this heavy weight that suddenly appeared on his chest the moment he saw your tears. It 'hurt,' and Bill does not like pain as much as he used to, but this is a different kind of pain. Is this human body dying? Is he...'sick'? There is something else too, a feeling. A human feeling. He thinks it is something called sympathy, something similar to sadness. Whatever it truly is, he wants it to go away.
Doing so, he figures, is a matter of cheering you up. He takes another look at you, you are still crying and your eyes are very red and puffy, then kneels down beside you. You look at him through blurry vision then freeze up as he suddenly hugs you, gently wrapping his arms around your shoulders, albeit a bit awkwardly. "I...hope I'm doing this right..." Bill chuckles slightly which makes you faintly smile, if only a little bit. You lean into his hug and dig your head into the crook of his neck, weakly wrapping your arms around him. For just a moment, you are at peace.

Extra long chapter for the few that read this. Why I'm mentioning that? Because I've dedicated this chapter to Barbiegirl4212, who is one of the reasons I have the ambition to continue this book. Hope I didn't keep you waiting long.