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Bill was not your average siren. This was something Dipper tended to forget, and the siren enjoyed reminding him of.
It shouldn't have surprised him when he found a way to enter his dreams, but it did. He remembered after the third time that this had happened, that Bill had mentioned before that he could read minds… It wasn’t something he could do often, Dipper had picked up on this considering Bill never made much of a show of it, much less responded to the majority of his thoughts. It was an ability he’d said only he possessed. It made him wonder about sirens, not for the first time, and with that followed the question of why the siren saved him. What could be worthwhile enough that the siren hadn’t let him drown?
After beating around the bush to get the siren to answer his questions cryptically, he thought he had the answer. “Oh. S-so.. you only saved me for my birthmark?”, he scolded himself for how disappointed he sounded. How hurt he felt, that it was his abnormality that saved him the fate of drowning. Bill took a hold of his chin and traced his bottom lip with his thumb, disrupting his thoughts for a heartbeat. When he finally looked Dipper in the eyes, his face was gentle and sincere.
“Is that what you’re afraid of?” he asked, his expression softening. “I’ll admit I sensed something was amiss, but this? Sometimes my Pine Tree... “ he chuckles. “What am I to do with you?” He muttered something along the lines of too adorable under his breath when he thought the brunette wouldn’t hear.
Leaning closer he kissed him, stopping only when the human whined as he bit his lip. He was smiling when he finally pulled away. “Make noises like that for me and I won’t be held accountable for what happens next… and you won’t be going home, not without a few bruises. If at all!”
“B-bill!” The boy blushed scarlet
“ Dipper? ” the boy shuddered at the tone that dripped in the siren’s voice.
“You.. you still haven't told me…?”
Bill hummed, scoffing a little before he took his beloved's hands and traced lazy triangles on their backs over the thin bones and the pale blue veins as he thought of the words to explain what happened for his sake as well as the other’s. “My love, you’re gorgeous, it was a sight to see, you drowning.”
Dipper hadn’t appeared amused with his compliment. Worth a shot , Bill thought to himself, saving the information away so he knew to try harder next time, or to steer away from compliments rooted in the events of his almost drowning and keep those thoughts to himself. That one clearly didn’t earn him any points. It really was a compliment though... Maybe his Pine Tree could use some more lessons in the way sirens’ minds worked?
Bills sighed, his expression becoming more serious as he reflected on the events that led to him saving his Pine Tree. “I thought it would be a shame for one so innocent to endure the harsh realities of the world. Better to end as you began, with the sea.”
“Bill, are you stalling?”
“Of course not my constellation.” Bill answered cheerfully in that singsong voice of his, snickering as he kissed the boy’s forehead as the other attempted to push him back playfully.
“B-bill! Not you too!”
This was not something he should have said lightly. He should have watched his wording in the situation he was in, and paid heed to who he was with. what he was speaking to.
“ Pine Tree … is there someone back in… Siren Falls that you let get as close to you as I am now? Because if there is, I will tear them apar- ”
“No! No, Bill, it’s you. There's only you, no one… no one else would even bear me a second glance.. I… you’re the only one Bill.” the siren was perplexed as he saw tears start to form in the boy’s eyes.
Bill cooed and rested the other’s head on his chest, running his fingers through his mate’s hair. “Dipper… How have I upset you? Is it because I don’t wish to share you?”
“... Bill… Bill, you have nothing to worry about.” The brunette sighed, leaning his head back trying to put his words together from there. This was delving more into his personal life than he wanted to tell the siren. “I’ve never kissed another person until you, I’ve never heard the words I love you except from my family and I… I’m okay with that now, because I have you, but… I’ve been bullied for much of my life because of my stupid birthmark. I’m a walking target.”
“Your birthmark isn’t stupid.” the siren laughed, but Pine Tree wasn’t laughing with him. “P- Dipper... Dipper, look at me.”
After a moment, the boy did as he asked. The siren steadied his gaze and read the other’s expression for a time, trying to reach his mind, but once again failing. It was too cut off and confused.
“Dipper, you know I love you right? Every inch of you, and I wouldn't change a thing, so why should you want to if the only thing that bothers you is what others say? If that's the case wouldn't I be the more important one? Or your family for that matter?”
“You say you love me...”
“Of course I do you codfish!” Bill didn’t hesitate, but he had begun to analyze what he could of Pine Tree’s behavior, his prodding questions. There was something he still hadn't’ asked and Bill was starting to panic. He didn’t know what Dipper was hinting at, but it felt like he was slowly slipping away from him.
“Then tell me my birthmark isn’t the only notable thing about me.”
Bill tensed. He felt like he’d been slapped. Was this the direction Dipper really wanted to take this?
“Y-yeah, crazy I know…” he tried to shrug off how it bothered him, like it wouldn’t matter if he was right. Like he hadn’t spent nights away thinking about it and Bill and how it shouldn’t bother him. He stopped when he noticed the other’s expression, muttering a small, “Oh.” His eyes pricked with an emotion he wanted to bury behind his neutral expression… or bury himself with.
“I’ll admit… when I saw your birthmark I… paused , but it was the look in your eyes when I was close enough to see them. Something took over, and before I knew it, I was carrying you to shore… While that may have been what brought us here to this moment, it’s not the only one.”
“So many things could have happened from then to now… I could have learned to hate your guts if I really tried. But you’re a wonderful person Dipper, a lovable, adorable human being and I don't care how we got here, not as long as you’re willing to stay with me, to continue to visit me... ” He broke off then, not that the boy would know how much he left unsaid. There was so much he wanted to say. He wanted to confess just what stopped him, to tell the boy that he wanted to claim him, to keep him to himself and.... But what would he think? It would be admitting how selfish his motivations were that day, how selfish they felt beneath the stubbornness that spurred him on. He had a better idea now of why, though he wouldn’t have been able to give Dipper an answer at all had he asked then, because he hadn’t understood it. He still wasn’t certain he fully understood it. But it wasn’t something he dwelled on, besides, what he felt for him now was different, it was… of purer intentions and yes, while it was still selfish of him, he truly loved the boy. It was why he didn’t sing, why he didn't coerce, it was why he let the boy leave every time though it pained him more each time.
He must have said the right thing, because his Pine Tree was smiling that wonderful smile of his. He was leaning his forehead to his own, and whispering two words Bill hadn't heard since the day he saved him. “Thank you.”