Bill Cipher floated down the hall of the Mystery Shack, his eye furrowed as he glanced in every room, moving up the stairs and towards the attic where he burst into the bedroom up there, crossing his arms as he spotted Dipper curled up in bed, blankets covering him completely but his form being obvious. The kid hadn't even flinched when Bill slammed door open and he didn't make a comment either as the dream demon floated closer, hovering directly over him in his triangular form.

"Pine Tree... Is there any plausible reason you can give me as to why you're here and not working?" the Cipher demanded first, his usually golden color already becoming darker, like a bright orange, as he waited. The teenager, now 17 going on 18, shifted beneath him, though all he did was curl up further.

"Bill.. I want to go back." came the muffled response he didn't expect. Well.. He didn't expect it now of all times, seeing as Dipper has been awake for awfully long and the dream demon had expected for this to happen after around a month of consciousness, not several.

The demon returned to his usual coloring, still miffed but calming down now that he'd been given a reason. "And just why do you want to go back now?" Dipper took in a breath underneath him.

"I need to see Mabel.."

"And why is that?"

"Because I need to apologize."

Now that wasn't what Bill expected at all.

The triangle hummed softly before reaching down and pulling the blanket off of his favorite worker bee. The boy looked like he'd been crying and just as he usually did when he was distressed, he was pulling his hair again. The demon papped his hand so that he would let go, but just so his arm wasn't in the way of his face. Bill had gotten used to making eye contact with people when he spoke to them, seeing as it made a great amount of people uncomfortable, which he really liked.

"Alright. Then, out of all the things you've done since you woke up, what the heck are you going to apologize for?" Bill hummed, now intrigued by his absentee. The look in Dipper's eyes was one of pure self-hatred, something Bill hadn't seen in a while due to everyone being too busy trying to survive to care about interpersonal events.

"I... Everything. Just.. everything! I need to say sorry for not saving her, and everyone else, and for siding with you, and for doing all this... All this horrid shit you call my job!" the teenager shouted, a hand coming up to cover his face as the kid began shaking. Bill moved it out of the way again without, not skipping a beat.

"You were perfectly fine with this job for the last year. What happened?"

Honestly, Bill had no idea. He was an all-knowing dream demon and was now the ruler of all the known world, as well as some unknown to even Dipper because of all the free labor he's been getting from this world to help him in others, but he didn't technically know everything. Sure, he could, but that was a lot of wasted effort using his magic to know every little detail about everything when he could easily just ask his supervisors, like Dipper, what had been happening since that was also their jobs. It was a lot easier to let other people do his work for him and just get an over view, after all.

Dipper didn't answer for a moment, miffing Bill once again, only to speak up a moment before Bill was going to delve into his mind. "I.. I killed them.."

Bill's eye widened in a way to make it look like he was raising a brow. "And just who did you kill?"

"Children! I-I killed two.. two little children... Because you said that was my job, and they were making a problem..." Dipper started shaking harder, trying to gulp down his emotions. "They were just trying to make their lives better, but they were stealing from the head demon, and I.. It was just an automatic response, but..." Without seeming to realize it, a small sob escaped Dipper.

Bill just floated where he was, unresponsive to the others pain, though that was mostly because he didn't know how to handle this situation in a way that wouldn't make Dipper angry. How was he supposed to act when Dipper suddenly decided to grow a conscious again? He'd had a near perfect worker in the boy for nearly a year now, so he never expected he'd have this conversation...

"Well... Look kid, it's not your fault, they were the ones stealing. How old were the brats that did it?"

"I.. I-I don't know, really young... P-Probably like seven."

"Then they were old enough to know better and did it anyways! It's never anyone's fault for someone else's incompetence, that's a personal failure." Bill replied, his tone bright again as he tried to brighten up his Pine Tree. Nothing. If anything, what he'd just said made it worse, Dipper pulling the blanket over himself again as another sob racked through his body, which was much less scrawny now that he'd been up and about for so long.

The triangle scratched under his hat for a moment as he kept thinking, wondering just how quickly he'd be able to make a week in Dipper's mind pass. It was possible to make much longer amounts of time pass in what felt like the blink of an eye, but Bill had noticed that speeding up time that much in a human mind, where time was a very important - though stupid - construct, could be harmful if it went by too fast. Their brains, as usual, just weren't well built enough to handle it, at least not after so many times of Bill doing it to Dipper's head anyways. After spending 13 mental years in his head, where the real time of the world had only been about half of that, Dipper's mind was already weakened to certain events. Which was a very probable cause of this, though Bill pushed that thought away since nothing that bugged him was ever his own fault.

One week going by can't be as bad as a whole summer in the long run, so this should be fine. He's already missed half a day's work anyways.

"Alright, Pine Tree, fine. You win. You get to go back in your head for a while, but you're not getting a full summer. Hear me?"

"Y-Yeah.."

"Good." Bill muttered, snapping his fingers before he watched the shivering sheets in front of him slowly stop moving and the evident breathing under it even out. Within a matter of minutes, Dipper was completely asleep and devoid of any previous distress. Sure, his cheeks and nose were still red, along with the corners of his eyes, and sure, his hair was still a complete mess and he every once in a while he'd sniffle, but besides that the kid looked right as rain again.

The Cipher patted himself on the back for handling the situation, though he was a little ticked that Dipper had convinced him to give him the day off. Ah well, it's just one day I guess. I do have all eternity for him to work it off, and then some.

There was silence in the room for a few moments as Bill wondered what he should do now, staring at the calm mass of sheets in front of him. In the end, all he did was magic away the snot that Dipper had gotten on himself from crying - disgusting.. - and float down to sit on Dipper's sleeping form, where he closed his eye and watched over the events happening in the boy's area, skimming through much quicker than Dipper was currently capable anyways. Someone had to monitor them for the day and, seeing as he had nowhere to be, he guessed he could do his own work for once.

If anyone's wondering why Bill isn't in his human form, it's because that form is mostly for when he's out in public.

Like for when he's making speeches and stuff and needs to scare/charm people.

He prefers his regular form much more, as does Dipper.