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Bill Cipher always dreamed of finding his other half. In his world, finding ‘the one’ meant so much. You where destined to be together, time and death would literally have no effect on your body until they day you unite. The most romantic stories have been passed down by people accidentally meeting the one and not knowing until they realise one day that ‘hey, when did my heart start beating again?’ It fills you up and makes you whole, you can enjoy the rest of your life with someone you know your meant to be with, who is truly compatible with you like no other ever could be.
Yes. Bill Cipher always dreamed of finding his other half. And killing him.
Its a pattern he has repeated for centuries, as soon as he could feel the stirring of his heart waking up he knew the hunt has begun. He wishes he could explain his compulsion with a tragic backstory or just some kind of reason at all! But.. he can’t. There seems to be a void in his chest where other people feel the warmth of empathy and the understanding of love. He used to feel jealous of others who it just seemed to come naturally to. Being able to understand and navigate the annals of other peoples hearts. It was frustrating. But instead he fills that void with knowledge and experiences all over the world, absorbing other joys life has to offer until he feels the familiar pull and pulse of his heart awakening once more in the presence of the newest incarnation of his pre destined lover. Most would say he is giving up a large part of life, but those people hadn’t witnessed the pyramids being built in Egypt, felt the soil of what would become America or watched as man triumphantly walked on the moon for the first time.
It had become routine really, not that he derived pleasure from it but, no matter what day or age he always just seemed to.. find the other. Like magnets being pulled together across time and space.
Except one magnet has a tendency to wield a knife and end the charade before they become too close.
This man is the same as the others before him. Warm brown eyes, soft tufts of curling brown hair and round gentle features. A stark contrast to his own sharp face, cold icy eyes and blonde straight hair. His own fashion sense seemed to stop evolving during the victorian era, despite his own warnings that blending in with the current time period is safest, his old heart just can’t let go of his favourite time period so far.
A dull thudding rings in his chest like metal hurling about within an empty can. It causes him to draw his gloved hand to rest where his heart, if he has one, should lie. Its obvious the boy across the road feels it too as he mirrors his movements but with more apprehension and confusion. Twisting his head up, his eyes seem to scan the crowds of people filtering through the street, looking for a sign of someone who is coming to the same realisation as him. The boys hazel orbs finally connect through the bustle of the street with his own icy blues. Despite the repetitive nature of his task he can’t help but feign a smile on his face, warming his usually dagger like appearance. The rest of their world have their own dance with reincarnation, finding their love with every new generation again and again; but Bill Cipher dances his own tango. Like a fox hunting a rabbit time and time again. In his own strange way he knows his own pre destined lover inside out. The faces he makes, the things he’ll say, the curious twist of his lips each time he breaths his last. How his mind ticks, just where he will run to, even what he may say despite each decade and iteration. Its a thrill all of its own, an intimacy all to itself, a safe predictability he has perfected with time.
The young mans eyes seem to dart to his chest, watched the blonde clutching his own newly beating heart, its practically transparent watching the gears and cogs turn in his head as he puts together just what is happening. His realisation is punctuated by his soft lips parting in a small gasp and his eyes transfix with the others in a new, almost kindly way. The distance between them starts to close as they approach one another with a secret understanding. A brown haired girl that had been standing with the boy seems to be a few steps behind him, a frown tugged on her face as her eyes dart between the two searching for the secret link only the two boys seem to share, eager to understand just why her brother is trailing away so suddenly from their little group.
“You.” The boy seems to say breathily and without much comprehension.
“Me.” The blonde responds as a smile warps his sharp features with an alien presence.
“You felt it too?” He enquires with a small furrow of his brows as his eyes dart between their chests to punctuate his meaning before he draws his hazel orbs back to meet his companions eyes.
He only nods in response to the youngers question.
“My name is Dipper, and I guess.. your the one.” He says with a laugh trying to exterminate the corny-ness of his sentence.
“Bill, and I suppose I am.” The taller male replies, threading his fingers expertly with the others to draw it close to his own chest, allowing the other to feel the evidence of their connection. It draws a small gasp from Dipper as he almost bounces on his heels in elation as his cheeks flurry with warmth.
“I’ll be honest, I didn’t really believe in all this stuff.” He admits shyly as he keeps his fingers laced with the others tugging their hands back down to feel his own heart beat in rhythm.
There is almost a sadness in his eyes, one he has never seen before in his pre destined lover. Perhaps he can feel the inevitability of whats coming, of what has happened time and time again for years and years before like a distant memory of his other incarnations dying at the hands of the blonde elder. Like a warning hidden within the deep canals of his brain. Its.. different. It causes the insincere smile burned into his sharp features to warm into an honest to god real one. Its a small difference, but when you have danced this dance so many times with the same person before, a little change creates a new dynamic.
“That is my friend, Mabel.” The boy says as the girl from earlier stops a few paces back with an awkward wave. He had assumed them to be siblings, in a past life they where. Bill even remembers her shrieking when she caught him in the middle of his latest slaughter. They look so alike its hard to believe they aren’t related in this life too. He pulls on his most charming smile and waves a hand her direction in casual greeting.
“Can we go somewhere more private to talk?” The words slip from his mouth with ease and a flicker of elation ignites in his chest as the boy nods in confirmation, even pointing out a quiet alley branching off the busy main street.
This will be too easy. Its like the boy has a death wish.
“Mabel, its him, its actually him! You where right! We’re going to get to know each other.” The young boy says in an upbeat tone, the sentence so trusting its as though he had known him his whole life. The girl seems to accept this, pulling her face into an ‘o’ and watching the two disappear into the crowd with a smile coating her lips. She seems to shout some words of encouragement at her friend as Dippers face seems to drop with an emotion Bill can only decipher as embarrassment or nervousness.
Their presence seems to fill the empty alleyway, fingers still entwined like they had known each other their entire lives. Their arms are almost stretched by the distance between the two, but drop as the smaller brown haired boy slightly closes the distance between them.
“I can’t believe it.” He murmurs, releasing the others hand to gesture between the two of them in an unspoken connection.
“I don’t even know what to say. I don’t think anyone ever wrote a script on whats meant to happen next. Are we supposed to hang out or talk or what ..?” He continues before trailing off bashfully, biting his tongue to stop his traitorous mouth from divulging more of his frantic brains inner thoughts.
“Your funny.” Bill only finds himself able to respond with a quirk of his mouth, a laugh rumbling from his belly as he closes some of the distance between them.
“I never really believed in all that destiny lark. I don’t know you at all.” The younger muses, letting out a surprised squeak as a hand draws him in closer, flush to the strangers chest.
“But we’ve done this many times before, no?” Bill adds with a deep sense of knowledge laced through his words. In truth this boy is not like the others, he can’t put his finger on it but there is something odd about him. As much as he would like to discover just what it is that is tantalising him so he can’t run the danger of getting attached. Even now he can feel the hand of time beginning to tick once more ageing his body, just as it does every time they are reunited in another life. If he wants to keep his immortality he has to end Dippers life and survive long enough to dance this charade again. They are alone already, he has his weapon concealed, and the boy is oddly trusting of him despite the brevity of their encounter. He needs to distract him, keep him quiet while he finishes the job he has done before. He almost feels sorry for this one, but sorry is an emotion he can't allow to consume him now.
The hazel eyed boys breath hitches in surprise as their lips meet suddenly, surprisingly tender causing a flurry of butterflies to swarm his stomach, almost threatening to burst out. His eyes are widened and meet the blondes whose have fluttered closed, embracing the new sensation. Bill can sense him studying his face in shock as he relaxes into the sudden embrace. Shortly after nipping at his lip tells him he is starting to enjoy it, causing him to smirk against the others lips. Pressing against each other with odd familiarity, their lips part and meet time again, a tongue sweeping tenderly as one of Dippers hands hold the taller males waist closer to his. The action causes the grunting blonde to steer the smaller frame in front of him half against the rough brick of a building concealing them, allowing him more control as he leans down into the boy fluttering gentle kisses on the corner of his lips.
With the other fully indulging in him, Bill slides his long fingers beneath his blazer, grasping the shaft of a long silver blade. He tightens his grip around it, unsheathing and twirling it within his palm with a sense of familiarity permeating his movements. With sly cover, he expertly slides it behind his partners back, drawing his upper body closer to smash their lips tighter against each other, pinning his head between himself and the wall constricting the boys face from straying from his lips. The boy seems to sense these movements causing his eyes to dart open and an unreadable expression fluttering across his cloudy eyes as they meet with the immortals own.
Craning his arm back, he steadies himself for thrusting it into the unsuspecting innocent. Thats when he feels a sharp pain shaking his senses.
The sound of steel clattering against cobble fills his ears as the blondes eyes lock widely in shock with his prey, an unfamiliar sound deafening his ears and clawing at his throat. A scream. His own scream? Oh god, when did he start screaming? This wasn’t meant to happen. The small boy pushes the would be murderer backward, a bloody gleaming object sparkling within his own hand and tears piercing his suddenly cold eyes.
“Wh-what? How did you..?” He isn’t sure when he stopped screaming long enough to utter that sentence at the brown haired boy. The pain in his back grows as he weakly fails to keep himself haunched upright onto his elbows, clattering against the cold floor of the secluded alleyway. A warm moistness he recognises as his own blood starts seeping wildly around his body, spreading like an infection and weaving its way through the cobble on the ground like a sick painting.
“Cipher.” Another voice, certainly not the boys whose back is meeting the wall, sliding slowly onto the ground at the feet of his would be lover and assailant. No. Its more feminine. He cranes his head weakly to the side mustering his best glare which aids in focusing on the figure. The brown haired girl from before. Maple was it?
“Im not letting you hurt him. Not again. Not like you did before.” There is a quivering to her voice, almost masked by the edge she fronts it with. As she draws closer he gets a better look at her face. There is an age to it he hadn’t noticed before while he was in hunting mode.
Images flicker behind his eyes. His last kill. Screaming. Screaming that was not the boys. Hurried footsteps chasing him out. One glimpse of a girl with long brown hair and soft eyes.
The boys sister. His last victims sister. And she was here. She must have found and warned the newest incarnation of her brother.
“I’ve been waiting a long time for this!” She practically screams, the toes of her shoes meeting the pool of blood gathering on the pavement. Her eyes soften as she looks at the quivering mess of the latest incarnation of her brother sitting on the floor.
“I don’t know how long you have been doing this for but this is the end of your cycle.” She spits back at the bleeding would be immortal.
The blonde eyes his own knife sitting just millimetres from his hand, stretching his fingers and moaning at the expense of energy it robs of him. Smaller fingers catch his own causing his eyes to meet with the owner of the intrusive hand. Dipper. A scowl reaches his face as he weakly wretches his hand from the others. The movement causes blood to tickle his throat, begging for release onto his soiled white shirt. Tears sting the boys eyes as his fingers draw back, pulling Bills knife back toward him.
“When she told me, it was like a fog. But now that I see you, I can feel it, I can feel every time before.” He speaks with a shaky but harsh voice, his resolve hardening as his knuckles turn white under the pressure of gripping the knife.
“It wasn’t anything personal kid.” He chokes out with a laugh, sharp eyes meeting soft hazel ones once more as a smirk twists across his lips.
“I’ve seen a lot of things. Watched civilisations grow and fail. I wanted to make my own destiny, and you just didn’t fit in it.” He spitefully bites back.
“I meant it when I said I didn’t believe in destiny. I refuse to let mine me be to die by your hands for eternity.” He utters without much feeling. A part of him wants to believe there is some time, some place where the iteration of his supposed other half isn’t a jack ass.
The blonde looks like he is about to say something snarky as the girl kneels by her once brother, holding his shoulder firmly in support, but a fit of coughs lurches more blood that has been pooling within his lungs, forcing the hot iron scented liquid out.
“Congratulations kid.” He bites back, a hard stare pointedly directed at the two. Something stirs within his stomach, an intrigue that wasn’t there before that seems to be making the quivering mess in front of him much more.. meatier and compelling than the others. Maybe its how the boy has defied him, beyond what he thought where the realms of possibility overcoming him, or maybe its the gaping knife wound in his back and blood loss.
But.. he thinks he likes this one.
A horrid realisation cooling his mind causing him more pain than he is feeling physically, a horrible epiphany of a feeling he has never experienced before.
As his shaking, convulsing form watches the would be, should be twins leaving the alleyway his foggy distant mind laughs at the sudden change tearing him apart.
He likes him.