Thankfully, by the time the waitress came around to take their drink orders, Dipper had managed to compose himself, and was no longer a blushing mess hiding behind his hands. The waitress was a young lady, seeming about Dipper's age, perhaps a year older, with shoulder length brown hair that fell in ringlets around her face, a few loose strands falling into her light grey eyes. Her pale skin was dusted with freckles and when she smiled down at the two of them, it was revealed she had a dimple in her left cheek.

"Hello! My name's Morgan, I'll be your server today. Can I get you two anything to drink?" she wondered brightly, notepad braced against her hip, pen at the ready. Bill looked up at her with a wide smile, flicking his hair out of his face with a swift motion.

"Two Pitt-Colas, please," he requested, and the girl nodded, scribbling down their order.

"Would you like that in the can, or on ice, sir?" Bill's eyes drifted to Dipper for a moment in hesitance, so the teen quickly picked up for him.

"In the can is fine, thanks," he told Morgan with a small smile. The waitress nodded happily, informing them that she'd be 'right back with their orders,' then disappeared to wait on another customer. Bill leaned back in his seat, grinning to himself. Dipper raised an eyebrow at him and he shrugged, fiddling absentmindedly with his scarf.

"Never been called 'sir' before," he explained simply. Dipper blinked, a bit caught off guard by the odd statement. Surely it wasn't that big of a deal to be called 'sir,' considering it's just proper etiquette, especially among waiters, waitresses, and waitpersons of other identifications. Perhaps this was simply one of those times when the little things in human existence, like heightened sensory nerves and sleep, were intriguing and downright hilariously fun for the dream demon. The teen huffed a small laugh, shaking his head slightly at the other's antics.

"It's common courtesy in a restaurant for the staff to use titles like 'sir,' 'ma'am,' 'miss,' et cetera," he explained, folding the corners of his napkin over in a seemingly random manner. Bill watched him for a moment, a fond smile growing on his lips at the unfocused concentration in the brunette's eyes, the twitch of his lips as his fingers folded and tucked the napkin beneath them. Bill hummed slightly, unable to take his eyes off of the teen beside him.

"Granted, but I still kinda like it. Makes me feel important," he admitted, which received a lighthearted snort from Dipper. "I'm serious!" he defended himself with a laugh, his heart fluttering slightly as the teen gave him that over the shoulder smirk that always had him reeling. "Maybe you should start calling me sir," he suggested with a sly grin. Dipper's nose crinkled up in disgust, pulling another rich laugh from Bill's lips.

"How about no," he growled, elbowing the blonde playfully as he sat back in his seat again.

"No sir," the chaos god corrected. Dipper groaned, rolling his eyes despite the small smirk of humor fighting its way onto his face.

"I swear, Cipher, I'm gonna destroy you," he threatened. Bill grinned, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Kinky," he teased. Dipper balled up his napkin, his cheeks firing up crimson red again, and threw it at the blonde, who just laughed as it bounced harmlessly off his face and into his lap.

"Shut up, you know that's not what I... ugh..." Dipper grumbled, attempting to hide in his hands again. This time, however, Bill pulled him into his arms instead, nuzzling into the crook of his neck, which only served to redden the teen's face to a seemingly unhealthy state. His throat felt tight as he struggled to breathe, his heart thudding exceedingly fast and unbearably loud, he was certain the blonde could hear it. "L-Let go of me, B-Bill," he managed. The dream demon just hummed, the sound vibrating against Dipper's neck and sending chills down his spine.

"You're adorable when you get all flustered," he told him cheekily. Dipper pursed his lips and managed to wriggle an arm free enough to elbow the other in the gut. With a small grunt of a laugh, Bill let go of him, still beaming. The Pines twin tried to be mad, but... he just couldn't. There was something so contagious about the pure joy and adoration in his twinkling golden eyes, Dipper knew that all the teasing in the world couldn't keep him from smiling too. As annoyed as the teen tried to appear to be, he'd missed this over the past year. The soft banter, the smug looks, the unspoken challenge to see who would admit to having butterflies first...

"I've missed you, Dipper."

The teen blinked, caught off guard by the sudden serious tone, not to mention the lack of the usual nickname. He gave the other a small smile, fingers brushing against his.

"I've missed you too, Bill," he assured him. The dream demon shook his head slightly, lips pursed.

"No, I mean... I didn't just miss you, I..." he seemed to be struggling for the right words. "It was agonizing... I know I joke around about pain being hilarious and all, but..." he shook his head once more, eyes closing for a moment in the shadow of his dark thoughts.

"As incredibly interesting and entertaining as it is to experience, if there's one thing I've learned over the past year, it's that it reaches a point where it's too much," he admitted, eyes opening once more to drift down to his hands. Dipper gave Morgan a small smile of thanks when she returned with their drinks, and was thankful that she seemed to sense the gravity of whatever conversation was happening between them, and therefore quickly busied herself with another table so as to not interrupt.

"There's a difference between conscious and subconscious pain. It's subtle, and often goes unnoticed, but as someone who enjoys testing the limits of neural receptors, the expanse between the two seemed vast and blatantly obvious." The dream demon crossed his arms over himself, as if holding himself together. Dipper winced slightly at not only the blonde's words, but the despondent look in his eyes. He understood all too well everything he was saying...

"I didn't understand, I couldn't understand. I hadn't been human long enough to understand the depth to which their emotions could reach. Every thought of every moment revolved around the undeniable truth that I couldn't go on like this. See, this was more than just the agony of guilt and longing as I had thought it to be at the time. What I hadn't realized at first was that, in my weakness and distracted thoughts, my subconscious was wandering the mindscape, searching for the one I'd lost. Within a few days of my 'death,' I had involuntarily latched my subconscious onto you. My pain, your pain, they were melding, morphing. It took me a day or two to understand what had happened,  but I knew that I had to do something before it killed both of us."

Dipper sat for a moment, having processed his every word with a solemn reverence of understanding. Not only had Bill been suffering with his own pain, but Dipper's as well. The first few nights after the dream demon's apparent death had been the worst for the teen. It hurt him even now to think about it, even with Bill's shoulder brushing his own.

The Shack had been a graveyard itself, a silent tomb not only for the loss of Bill, but for Dipper as well. The teen's family may not have shared the same adoration and devotion to the dream demon, but they cared immensely for Dipper, and seeing him in such agony was more than unbearable. For nights on end, Mabel had stayed up for hours, simply holding her brother in her arms as he trembled with night terrors and dry sobs, having already cried all the tears his body could possibly produce. He would hardly go downstairs, and for a while it was almost as though his body had stopped functioning, becoming nearly a lifeless presence in the other's lives. They closed the shop for the week, devoting all of their time to insuring the teen's will to exist hadn't ceased. They'd held a small funeral for Bill, Stanley carving him a little gravestone, Mabel helping her brother collect flowers. He hardly spoke, his eyes broken and lifeless. It was indeed as if a part of him had died with the dream demon...

"That day at the grave, with the first note," Dipper finally spoke, his voice low and ever so slightly graveled from the revival of the dark memories. "That was you, wasn't it?" Bill nodded with an almost guilty expression on his face.

"I knew that if I didn't do something to ease the pain in some way, the link in our subconscious would start to deteriorate both of us. It took every fiber in my body to simply give you the note then leave, I wanted to wrap you in my arms and hold you forever..." he trailed off, picking at the tab of his soda with a distracted look in his eyes. Dipper turned his gaze to his own drink, tracing his finger through the condensation on the cool surface.

"Why didn't you..." he whispered, almost to himself. He knew the answer, Bill'd told him why last night, but... knowing he'd been so close, that this whole year of agony could have been avoided...

Bill winced, opening his mouth to respond, but Dipper interrupted him, shaking his head and turning to face him with a small smile, quickly wiping the water that had begun to well up in his eyes away.

"It's okay, I know. I just..." he shrugged, the same sad smile still plastered on his lips. He shook his head with a half-hearted laugh. "Look at us, getting all depressed on our first proper date!" At the word 'date,' Bill's cheeks flushed and he quickly looked at his hands, smiling softly to himself. Dipper nudged him, brushing a finger under his chin to get him to look up at him. The twinkle had returned in the brunette's eyes, making Bill grin, that devilish yet charming glint returning to his own eyes.

"How about there's no more talk about last year or other depressing matters for the rest of the day?" Dipper suggested. Bill let out a small laugh, nodding, leaning forward and planting a light kiss on the teen's cheek, making his face turn a faint shade of pink.

"Deal."

NOAN TAL 'LQJ'NAQBWX QBNIJILNQBM (I couldn't help myself, I'm sorry XD XD)

A/N: Holy cow, I've been so busy... School starts in two days, and I still have two essays to write and a chair audition in the orchestra I'm in that I didn't know was tomorrow to prepare for, plus a dentist appointment and getting ready for the school year, and band practice. Like, ugh XD So I don't know if I'll get another chapter out any time soon, but I had taken a break today after finishing some more summer reading, so I thought I'd try and update :3 Anyway, I hope you liked it, and I'll howl to you later!