There was a silence after he spoke, a moment where he felt stupid. Then, Dipper's body stirred.

"Isn't this nice," Bill said into Wirt's chest. He turned his head so that his chin rested on Wirt and he could look him in the eye. "All warm and snuggled up." He smirked. "And then you go and call your other partner behind your partner's back."

Wirt felt a flash of quilt but pushed it aside. "I realize this is a bit shady, but I don't want Dipper involved." A thought. "He's not listening in, is he?"

"Nah, if you want shady, you've definitely called the right entity. Shady is practically my middle name."

Wirt couldn't help but grin a little. "Your name is Bill Shady Cipher?"

Bill grinned back. "At your service. Gotta admit it has a certain ring to it."

"Definitely."

It was so easy to slip into casual banter now that they officially didn't hate each other. Though, Wirt supposed hate had never been the problem, it had been more about distrust on his end. A prejudice against demons that Bill hadn't helped, at first. Now he had no choice but to admit that they were on the same side. Bill was the particular kind of weird Wirt could appreciate.

"I need you to help me back into my subconscious," Wirt stated. The thought of roots and branches in that hallway frightened him, but so did seeing Dipper scared and concerned.

Bill quirked a brow. "I can do that, but," he held up a finger, "in exchange you have to make up with Pine Tree." He poked Wirt's nose. "And deal with the aftermath of doing this behind his back but that goes without saying."

"I thought we did make up," Wirt said.

"I mean properly. None of this acting all mellowed out and then calling me once you think you can get away with it."

They stared each other down. Wirt felt like he had the disadvantage seeing how he was the one lower and how Bill wasn't wrong. Perhaps he was a bit peeved. In any case, Wirt didn't want to argue the point.

"Alright," he promised. "I'll talk to him like a real adult and work this out." He could feel nerves claw at his insides. "Please, can we just do this."

Bill studied him, mulling it over. Then he wiggled to get more comfortable. "Ok, let's 'do this'." The same hand he used for air-quotes landed on Wirt's forehead. "Night, Pilgrim."

The next thing he knew, he was standing in front of his gray toned childhood home. The house creaked and groaned. A window was broken. Wirt swallowed his nerves and went in.

Bill popped into existence next to him. "Do you know what you're going to do?"

Wirt hesitated. "Um, sort of?" He didn't. He hadn't thought beyond going in there and comforting whatever he found. There was a branch growing through a crack of the door to his subconsciousness. Wirt wished he had brought a match.

Bill dipped his shape forward in a nod. "Fire is always a good solution," he said, sagely. "As long as it doesn't burn down the whole house."

Right. Wirt pushed the door open the rest of the way. Roots covered the floor, dead leaves fell from the ceiling. A chill traveled down the hallway and as reluctant as he was to do so, Wirt followed it.

It was slow going, stumbling over the roots, but he reached the end of the hallway and the pair of glowing eyes.

He wanted to run.

"I want you to leave," he said, voice wavering. The yellow glow in his peripheral was the only hint Bill was still with him. The demon was silent.

"You're too lost," The Beast spoke. "You've rooted me deep. I can't leave."

Wirt shivered both from cold and fear. "Y-you're just trying to trick me again." There it was; like he wanted this, like this was all voluntary. It was his fault that this had escalated the way it had. If he hadn't ran away from his problems, if he had admitted to them sooner, he wouldn't be so deep in this mess. His subconscious wouldn't look like and old, withering forest.

"Oh but don't you remember how it felt to walk in the woods?"

He did. The rays of sunlight filtering through the foliage, the calm certainty. It was unlike he had ever felt before.

"But that wasn't really me," Wirt said, though it lacked conviction.

The eyes in front of his shifted. "It was more you than you realize. You have a talent for solitude."

Wirt took a step back, tripping on a tree root and falling back. It felt like moving in slow motion.

"Let me show you something," The Beast said.

A startled yelp echoed in the hallway before a door slammed in his face and he landed on snow. Bill was no longer with him, he was alone in a blizzard. The door vanished the moment it shut. Cold bit into him and even though Wirt knew he wasn't physically there, the frost felt real. He got up and wrapped his arms around himself in an effort to conserve warmth.

In the distance, he saw a small figure walking against the wind. After a moment of hesitation, Wirt started to journey towards them. In heavy snow he wasn't going much faster than the figure but he was slowly gaining on them. He could make out a red hat and a cape.

It was younger him.

He could remember the wind and the cold but this wasn't how it had happened, all those years ago. This wasn't a memory.

The figure, the him, wasn't far away now. Wirt thought about calling out to him. What would be the point? Could younger him even hear him? He knew with absolute certainty that younger him would freak out if he saw older him in a snow storm, following him. So he refrained.

There was a light. Young Wirt walked towards it, past a lump in the snow. The distance between them grew and despite picking up the pace, Wirt couldn't regain it. Younger him grew smaller and smaller until he disappeared in a flash.

Wirt stopped, confused and out of breath. Now what?

The lump in the otherwise even snow caught his attention again and he made his way towards it.
The closer he got, the more it became evident that it wasn't just a rock or a tree stump. It was a small, plump boy.

Wirt ran the last couple of steps and landed on his knees in the snow. He wiped frost off the tiny body, calling out to him with no response. The teakettle his brother had used for his elephant costume just within reach. It was freezing to the touch. If only they had a fire or...

The nightmare where Greg had burned flashed, vivid and horrifying, through his mind. No fire.

He looked down at the teakettle in his hands, helpless. An image showed on the frozen surface. It was him, holding hands with Sara, then him signing a book what must have been a hundredth time with how much ease he did it, and him, holding a small child, smiling. Happy, like he had forgotten everything that led up to it, like he had forgotten Greg.

He placed the teakettle in the snow. Greg was pale and blue. Wirt covered his body with his own and sobbed for a life he could have had.

"Wirt!"

The shout echoed through the landscape. When Wirt lifted his head, there was a door, open with a figure silhouetted in a soft yellow glow. He was slow to recognize it was Dipper with Bill hovering behind him. The cold made it hard to move, hard to think.

"Wirt, I know you still think I was a jerk but I need you to come to me," Dipper yelled. He sounded desperate.

"I can't leave Greg," Wirt croaked, feeling drowsy. It would be a hassle to move, he would much rather sleep.

"He's not real," Dipper called. "Greg is safe where you left him. He's grown up and happy because you already saved him!" He turned to Bill and it looked like they had an exchange but Wirt couldn't make out what was said. At the end of it, Dipper nodded, and shot Wirt an apologetic look. Bill extended his arms until they wrapped around Wirt and pulled.

"No!" He tried clinging to Greg's body but his hands slipped on the snow covered clothes and he was lifted back into the hallway. Once there, Dipper pushed the door shut and knelt by him. Bill's thin arms unwound and were replaced by Dipper's warm ones. Wirt shook, sat on a tree root.

"Hey, shh," Dipper hushed, brushing snow off Wirt and rubbing warmth back into him. "That wasn't real, that's not how it went. Greg's safe."

"You're right," Wirt choked out once he found his words again. The shaking subsided. "That's not what happened. In there, I walked out and became happy."

Dipper stopped what he was doing and aimed a helpless look at Bill. The demon shrugged, equally clueless.

"But in real life you didn't!" he settled on. Dipper frowned.

"Wow. Helpful.

Bill threw his arms in the air. "What do you want from me? You know I suck at emotions."

"You're right." Dipper held up a placating hand, turning back to Wirt. "What Bill means in that you didn't leave your brother to die, you wouldn't."

"Ah, but that room is there for a reason," The Beast spoke. Both Bill and Dipper turned to him but Wirt was too tired to.

"I will find a way to get rid of you," Dipper promised. Wirt found it in himself to move at that. He searched out Dipper's eyes until they turned back to him.

"No, you won't," Wirt said with new determination. Greg died in the snow while he walked away in the depths of his mind. It was horrible, but he had known it was there. In the darkest corners of his mind where he tried to bury everything he hated about himself.

Wirt pushed himself up. "I'm doing this so you don't have to," he explained to the confused and pained Dipper. "I can't watch you run yourself to the ground for me. And yes, I'm still angry with you. I trusted you and you went behind my back. So I guess me doing this behind yours is some kind of twisted payback because apparently I'm awful." Wirt made a short, angry gesture at the door.

Dipper looked like Wirt had just struck him. "That's not-" Bill interrupted him with a hand on his shoulder. Wirt didn't pay much attention to their silent exchange, turning to the beast.

"You're the worst at turning people to the darkside, you know that, right? I tried to get help for nightmares so you made me go on calming nature walks. Seriously?"

The beast said nothing. Wirt heard doors open behind him. They were slammed shut just as quickly by Dipper who was clearing away the leaves and branches in the doorways and on the signs above them.

"I get that you're trying to use my mind against me but there's nothing in here I haven't beaten myself up over and over. You can't hurt me more than I hurt me. So throw more selfish desires and inner most fears at me!" In a rare show of aggression, Wirt kicked a tree root. Doors kept opening and slamming shut behind him.

"You have to most horrible things in here but you haven't made much progress in corrupting me," Wirt pointed behind him. "You know why I think that is?" he asked with confidence he didn't feel. He balled his shaking hands into fists and closed his eyes. "Because I'm already worse than you!"

Everything went silent except for the groaning of the roots around him as they gathered and rose up to form a cage of wood between Wirt and the beast. He could hear Dipper calling to him, so he turned away from the glowing eyes of one of his childhood boogiemen. "You can't leave? Fine. Stay. You're not even the worst thing in here."

He was enveloped in a hug, he could feel a tiny hand in his hair. Words were exchanged and the world around him faded.

In reality, he was still lying on his back In Dipper's bed with Dipper looking down at him. Wirt blinked, trying to clear the fuzz from his mind. He heard Dipper speak but it was distant, like he wasn't fully awake. Closing his eyes, Wirt waited for his senses to come back.

"You're a fucking idiot." Dipper's voice sounded broken. Wirt agreed; that could have gone horribly wrong. "What were you thinking?"

"I didn't want you worrying about me anymore," Wirt confessed in a whisper. He didn't feel like opening his eyes yet.

Dipper snorted. "Well, you did an excellent job on that one."

Wirt smiled a little despite feeling awful. Sarcasm was better than tears. "Sorry."

"Imagine how calm I was when Bill came to get me, yanked me right out of a great dream about a book tour, you were there too, it was amazing," Dipper was babbling now. "Told me you could probably use, and I quote, 'some moral support', the asshole, and explained what was up. I was so collected, you should've seen me totally not panic."

Somewhere during the tale, Wirt had opened his eyes. Dipper's were wet around the edges. "Alright, I get it. I did a stupid thing," Wirt piped up when it looked like Dipper was going to go on. "Hey, imagine a situation where Bill is the sensible one."

That got a laugh. It sounded like Dipper was taken by surprise. "Yeah, just picture all the dumb choices everyone involved has to make in order for that to happen."

"What complete morons."

The laughter that followed was like the one you have after an accident or a near-death experience, high and relieved. It was Dipper that sobered up first. He searched Wirt's face, no longer smiling.

"So what are you going to do now?"

"I guess I should thank you and Bill for coming to my rescue but beyond that," Wirt trailed off. He hadn't thought about after.

Dipper picked at the sheet, eyes falling away from Wirt's face. "Continue therapy?"

Wirt thought about how the beast was still there, diminished, less meaningful, and about why that was. He nodded, solemn. "Continue therapy."

Dipper mirrored him. "Let me drive you there and back next time?

"Alright." Wirt wondered if Dipper had asked if he was staying in such a round-about way on purpose. He didn't even need to think about it. The strange town would take some getting used to but that was where Dipper and Bill were, so that was where he wanted to be. He owed his family a visit but it could wait. Maybe he would bring Dipper.

As the mind fog started to clear, Wirt pushed himself up. Dipper accommodated him by moving back.

"How are you feeling?"

Wirt rubbed his forehead like chasing away an imaginary headache. "Dizzy," he said, blinking at Dipper in order to bring him to focus. "My vision's a bit blurry."

"Hmm." Dipper's hand replaced Wirt's and he narrowed his eyes, looking Wirt over. "You're not feverish, and there's no damage I can see, but take it easy for tonight. See how you're feeling in the morning."

"I don't really feel like sleeping, after," Wirt made a vague hand wave to mean what he had just done.

"We can watch a movie or something?" Dipper made to move off the bed but Wirt reached for his hand to pull him back.

"Look, I... I shouldn't have gone about that the way I did. I was stupid and angry." Wirt paused to give the hand a squeeze. "I should've at least ran it by you first."

Dipper's smile was strained. "If you had, I would've told you not to do it. It's risky, to go in and tamper with stuff. But I was an idiot with the Bill thing, too. I don't know why I didn't just tell you." His eyes went to their joined hands. "You know I think you're great right?" he said, voice small.

Taken back, nothing came out when Wirt opened his mouth to speak.

"I mean, you're nice and considerate but when you need it, you have enough sass to rival Bill, which is honestly impressive." Finding whatever courage he needed, Dipper face Wirt again. "You're a good person."

"Dipper," Wirt didn't know how to continue. He settled on a simple, "Thank you," and a warm smile. "I think you're great, too."

Dipper ducked his head, but not before Wirt caught his pleased expression. "Yeah, well, I hope you still think so when you see my collection of crappy horror movies." He got up, pulling Wirt with him.

Before the first half of Zombie In Space was over, Dipper was sound asleep against Wirt. Lured into a sense of calm by Dipper's steady breathing, Wirt jumped at the hand petting his knee.

"Good job, Pilgrim," Bill spoke. Wirt relaxed again, letting his head rest against Bill's.

"Was it? It felt a little anti-climactic," Wirt confessed. He felt weird about having the beast still in there, even though it lacked the feeling of foreboding it once had. His head was clear.

He felt Bill shrug. "Things don't always go out with a bang, the solution isn't always the ideal one and so on."

Wirt snorted. "You're really half-assing this being comforting thing."

"I'm not comforting, I'm diabolical," Bill said and snuggle deeper into Wirt's side.

"Of course you are." He felt agreeable and warm, sleep catching up to him.

"I scheme better like this."

Wirt leaned more heavily into the warm body next to him, eyelids drooping. The movie had reached what seemed like its second climax, the zombie fodder mindlessly running around. He had stopped paying attention a good while back. "What sort of schemes?"

Bill let out a content exhale. "By the time you find out, it'll be too late."

Wirt fell asleep.

A/N: That's it. Thank you for reading :)