Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Falling.

Henry was falling.

One wrong step, one faulty board was all it had taken for him to slip down this deep hole.

It must have been at least thirty feet deep, Henry guessed. A thirty-foot deep, seemingly intentional drop down to another level, and covered in ink. And he was falling.

By the time he landed in a pool of goopy ink at the bottom, he was feeling dizzy. The ink was… weird, though. It felt like it had grabbed him, like it reached out and caught him. Of course, the wind was still knocked out of him, but his bones seemed intact for the most part.

Gasping for air, he stood up and looked down at himself. His clothes were spotted with ink, particularly in the places he had landed on. When he finally recovered his breath, he saw that he was in a rather small room, with a single door to his left. Henry glanced back up at the hole he had just fallen through. It seemed rather unlikely that he’d be able to climb out, as it was a long ways up with few hand-holds and lots of slippery ink. Sighing, he made his way over to the door and opened it, finding to his dismay that it was another maze of rooms and hallways much like the one on the upper floor.

Ink was all over the place in here. On the floor, on the walls, even dripping from the ceiling. At this point he was done with life and ready to get out of here, any way possible. After a good, long while of wandering around and solving puzzles, slashing at ink monsters with an axe and finally getting into Sammy’s “sanctuary,” he thought he had finally gotten to an exit.

Nope.

With a solid thunk to the back of the head, Henry was laying on the ground, out cold.

-

Slowly blinking his eyes open, he finds himself strapped to a chair with an odd man in front of him.<

The man’s skin is black, coated and stained by the ink that lurks all over this place. He’s shirtless. His pants are an off-white canvas, tattered at the bottom, held up by suspenders, a stark contrast to the inky black skin. On his face is a Bendy mask. Oh, poor Bendy, what has happened here?

The man in front of him begins to speak.

Henry’s head is throbbing, the pain spiking with each pulse of blood through his injured head. He’s a bit dizzy, and it doesn’t help that his ears are ringing and making it hard to make out what the man is saying.

Something about a sacrifice, I think. A sacrifice…? Henry ponders this in his mind. A sacrifice to what?

The man has stopped speaking now, and has, in fact, begun singing.

The words are oddly, eerily like something one would use to summon an entity.

The man disappeared behind a door, and Henry was all alone in the room.
In front of Henry, a door began to open up into the ceiling, and reveal a deep, dark, inky blackness behind it. Speakers blared, apparently offering Henry as a sacrifice.

Though not for long. It appears that whatever the man had been summoning had taken him as a sacrifice, not Henry.

After managing to free himself, Henry runs out of the room through the same door the man had exited through earlier, in an attempt to avoid the dark, ominous hallway that had opened up earlier.

He ran through the hallways, around corners, looking for an escape. As he neared a door at the end of an ink-flooded hallway, a figure manifested out of the ink in front of him. The creature that appeared was tall, seemingly made only of sticky, semi-solid ink, with a very cartoon-ish smile, a face half-concealed by ink, a bow-tie around the nonexistent neck, gloves on the two hands, a long, thin tail with an arrow point at the end, and every limb on the body was dripping ink.

Henry was about to run when he paused. That smile, the bow-tie, the tail, the gloves, all looked very familiar.

Too familiar.

“Bendy?”

Chapter Text

“Bendy?” Henry questioned aloud. The creature froze.

“You…” It spoke in a demonic voice, “YOU.”

Henry was the one who froze this time.

He was sure it was Bendy, but he was… not something out of a cartoon.

Out of a horror movie, maybe.

Bendy began to walk towards him, a harsh tension flooding the room. He didn’t look happy to see Henry.

Deciding it would be best to get out of here, Henry backed up, slowly at first, but speeding up as Bendy got closer. He backed into the inky pool between him and the door, his speed increasing. A few feet from the door, he tripped.

It may just have been a broken board hidden under the ink, but it sure felt like the ink reached out and grabbed his ankle.

Falling backwards, he hits the back of his head on the threshold of the door. Hard.

How many times am I going to have to hit my head before I get out of this place, he wonders to himself as he slips off into unconsciousness.

-

Henry had half-expected to be killed while he lay there unconscious.

Alas, no. Damn. Looks like he’d have to deal with being still alive in this dreadful place.

Sitting up and looking around, he found himself lying on the ground in a small room, dimly lit and, once again, there was ink everywhere.

Including his entire back, and, to his disgust, in his hair. That was going to be a pain to wash out.

At least whoever it was that brought him here was nice enough to lay a towel down underneath him. Though, Henry pondered, who else was here? From the looks of it, it was fairly abandoned.

Well… Aside from the ink monsters.

Henry tried standing up, but gave up very quickly when the dizziness became too much to handle. Two hits to the head, in nearly the exact same spot, probably weren’t doing good things for him. And it had been hours since he’d eaten anything. Not counting the hours he’d been unconscious. Looking around, the shelves were pretty barren.

He turned around to examine the shelves behind him, when he heard a door opening. Henry quickly spun around to face the sound, only to find the door closed. With a cutout of Bendy propped up next to it. He was pretty sure that wasn’t there before. A rolling sound drew his attention to the floor, where he saw a can of bacon soup rolling towards him.

That’s peculiar.

The little voice in the back of his mind screams not to trust the mysterious can filled with contents who knows how old. But it’s a sealed can. Canned foods are supposed to have long shelf lives, so Henry figures a single can couldn’t hurt.

Opening it using a little tab on the top, he finds that it looks fairly normal. Smells fine, looks fine, probably tastes fine. Failing to find any utensils, he resorts to just drinking it from the can. He must have spaced out while eating the soup, because when he glanced back at the door, it was slightly ajar, and the Bendy cutout was gone.

Okay, now he was sure of it.

Something was fucking with him. And he wasn’t sure he wanted to know what that ‘something’ was, considering the last ‘something’ he saw was that ink monster.

This place had really fallen to ruin in the past thirty years.

Thirty years. It didn’t really feel like it had been that long. He didn’t feel any older, especially not now that he was back in the same place.

Alright, enough stalling. Get off your ass and open that door. Henry forced himself up and stumbled a bit before regaining his balance enough to walk to the door. It opened into a hallway, with a few doors here and there.

He figured that he might as well try the doors, and found them unlocked. The first he tried led to a bathroom, the second led to what looked like a sort of office that had a piano, desk, a couple chairs, and a hat rack, and a third led to a bedroom. The fourth door led to another, smaller bedroom, and the final door led out of the hallway and into another portion of the building, with a few more musical instruments, a table and chairs, old reels and a film projector, and what seemed to be a sort of kitchen.

Not only did Henry not remember the workshop being this big, he definitely didn’t remember there being any living area in it. Joey must have added this after Henry left.

You know that feeling you get, where you can just sense a presence in the room, and that chill runs down your spine, the hair on the back of your neck stands up, your heart starts beating quicker, and you can sense impending doom? Henry just got that feeling. The sense of dread built up in the pit of his stomach, and he really didn’t want to turn around, but he felt he needed to.

So, he turned around.

All he saw when he turned around was a dark blur, and a cutout of Bendy clattering to the ground.

He knew it couldn’t be Sammy, because Sammy was dead. So who was messing with him?

Henry still felt the presence of another in the room, but he didn’t want to tear his eyes away from the hallway in the event that it had hidden in one of the rooms.

At this point he was fed up enough with the thing messing with him that he decided he should face it and-

Well, he didn’t know what he’d do then, but he wanted to at least glare at it, maybe scold it.

He thought he heard noise coming from the biggest bedroom, so he walked up to the door as quietly as he could and, deciding he needed some sort of weapon, he picked up a thin broken plank from the floor next to the door.

Henry inhaled, built up his courage, and opened the door.

Nothing was in there.

He narrowed his eyes, and backed up slowly.

Until he bumped into something. Something slightly wet, sticky, and tall.

Chapter Text

Henry’s eyes widened and he spun around. It was Bendy.

His face wasn’t melting anymore, yet he was still terrifying. Bendy towered over him by at least a foot, and Henry wasn’t exactly short at 6’3”. Bendy looked… amused, in a sadistic way.

In a knee-jerk reaction, Henry swung the plank at Bendy and nailed him in the side of the head. Bendy grabbed it and ripped it out of his hands, then tossed it over his shoulder and began to walk towards him as Henry backed away.

Henry backed up past the bed, and continued to back up until he hit the wall, then he tried to go to the side until he got cornered. Bendy strode up to him and blocked him into the corner, then put a hand on each wall and leaned down slightly.

“Well hey Henry, long time no see.” Bendy’s face was almost unreadable, blank, but definitely carrying strong emotion behind it. The tension in the room was heavy, and it took Henry a long time to finally get his voice to work.

“Bendy?” Henry questioned, trying not to sound like he was fearing for his life. Bendy’s smirk turned into a grin, and he finally straightened up, and Henry thought he heard Bendy snicker.

“Well aren’t you smart,” Bendy teased, backing off a bit. Henry was still glued to the corner out of fear. Though, the new distance between them allowed Henry to take in Bendy’s appearance.

Bendy’s face wasn’t melting anymore. His eyes seemed to stare at him relentlessly, and his grin didn’t seem like it could get any bigger. He had two gloved hands and a bowtie. He had a long, thin tail with a point on the end. His skin, though still ink, was more solidified now.

He is still the same creature as before. He can still kill me.

Henry had an obvious look of distrust on his face, so Bendy put up his hands and closed his eyes.

“Jeez, pal, if I wanted to kill you, you would have been dead earlier.” Bendy peeked one eye open to see Henry’s reaction.

Henry narrowed his eyes. “Was it you that brought me in here?” He would have backed up further if he weren’t pressed entirely against the wall.

“Well duh, I mean, d’ya see anybody else here?” Bendy rolled his eyes and motioned around the room. “Boris is elsewhere, so it wasn’t him. I carried you here after you so stupidly tripped and knocked yourself out cold.”

Henry blushed, embarrassed. “Well what would you do if you saw a monster coming towards you?” He immediately regretted saying that. Everything in the room froze, and Bendy’s grin faltered and grew less amused.

“Monster, eh?” was all Bendy said, quietly. His grin re-plastered itself to his face, though this time it was an angry grin, and his face began to melt slightly. He clenched his hands into fists and stared dead at Henry.

Henry gulped, and gave up trying to hide his fear. He looked up at Bendy, waiting for him to try and kill him.

But Bendy did no such thing. He simply chuckled darkly and turned, walking away. He stopped at the door. “Take a shower, you’re filthy.” With that, he simply walked out and towards the kitchen area.

Henry was flooded with emotion all at once. Fear, anger, regret, relief. His knees collapsed and he slumped to the floor, drawing in quick, shaky breaths. He brought his knees close to his chest and hugged them, resting his head on them and closing his eyes. His chest heaved as he slowed his breathing, and his head hurt. Why did I say that why did I say anything why did I say that, he repeated over and over in his head, regret taking place as the chief emotion. He had obviously hurt Bendy, though if he was being honest, Bendy was a monster. He killed Sammy, he could easily kill Henry too. But he didn’t.

Maybe that’s why Henry was regretting it.

Either way, Bendy was probably right. He was filthy, and probably needed a shower after several hours of being in this ink-covered place.

Henry forced himself to stand up, using the wall for support as blood rushed from his head and the dizziness returned. Once he could stand without the wall, he walked quietly over to the door and peeked out into the hallway. To his left, coming from the kitchen area, he heard humming, and the sound of silverware being moved. He turned the other way and walked to the next door down on the right, opening it to find it was actually a bathroom. Why would an ink demon need a bathroom with a shower, or even a bathroom at all? Henry wondered. He walked in and closed the door, looking around. To his right was a sink and a mirror, and in the back right corner there was a toilet, across from a shower. Finally, to his right, was a towel rack. The bathroom was clean, well-kept, though it didn’t look like it had been used for a very long time.

Henry walked over to the shower, and upon turning it on was relieved to find that the water was clean. He stripped down and got in, letting his muscles relax after a very long, tiring, stressful day. He washed all of the ink off of his body that he could. It left stains on his skin, but at least all of the goopyness was gone.

Halfway through his shower he realized that his clothes were also covered in ink, and would probably just make him dirty again. However, when he got out of the shower, he saw a clean set of clothing in the spot where he had left his dirty clothes. He was grateful that the glass door on the shower was frosted so that no one saw his naked ass.

Once he was fully clothed he stood in the middle of the bathroom for a solid five minutes, trying to figure out what he was supposed to do. He couldn’t leave, there didn’t seem to be any exit from down here. He had neither the courage nor motivation to go hang out in the same room as Bendy, and he couldn’t just sit in the bathroom forever. He finally decided to go back to the room in which he woke up, and when he got there, he sat down on the towel in the middle of the floor and contemplated.

What exactly was going on here? And why hadn’t Bendy killed him yet? How was Bendy alive? Where was Joey? Why was he so calm about all of this? These questions raced through Henry’s mind repeatedly as he sat there on the floor. He must have been there for 10 or so minutes before a voice called him back from zoning out into the void.

Chapter Text

“Hey. Hellooo, you in there?” Bendy waved his hand in front of Henry’s face. Henry yelped and jumped back, looking at Bendy wide-eyed and concerned. Bendy looked slightly amused, and stood back up.

“Dinner’s ready, bud,” he said nonchalantly, one hand on his hip. Henry noticed he was wearing an apron, with ‘Dreams come true’ scrawled on it in black ink. Looking up at him, Henry struggled to find words.

“…D-dinner?” Henry questioned, not moving from his spot and keeping his cautious gaze trained on Bendy’s face.

“Yes, dinner. Get up or I’ll carry you in there by force,” Bendy answered, adding, “Though I’d rather not do that since you just got cleaned up.” He backed up a few paces, waiting expectantly.

Henry figured it’d be best to just obey, and that he didn’t have anything better to do, so he got up and took a step towards Bendy. Bendy, satisfied, turned and led the way to the dining area. Henry followed several steps behind, cautious and his stomach filled
with butterflies, of the not-so-good kind.

In the dining area, Henry was surprised to find a set table, with actual, edible, non-ink food set out. It actually looked good. It didn’t stay his nervousness though. The table could sit six people, one at each end and two on each side. Bendy had set the dishes at each head, so they would sit opposite each other. Which would mean that they were forced to face each other. Which made Henry uncomfortable.

Bendy took his place, leaving Henry the seat at the opposite end closest to the wall. Henry nervously took his seat and sat with his head down, trying his best to keep from looking at Bendy. Bendy took notice, but didn’t mention it.

“Well, your food’s gonna get cold pal, might wanna eat,” he said, picking up his fork and taking a bite. Henry looked up slightly, watching Bendy for a split moment before picking up his fork and spearing some of the food. He studied it on his fork before taking a hesitant bite, finding it to taste just fine. It was beef, cooked in oil judging from the grease, and seasoned with something akin to garlic. It actually tasted great, now that he had had a moment to savor it. He took another bite, chewed, swallowed, then took another.

Bendy paused to watch him for a moment, pleased that he liked the food. His tail flicked happily.

After ten minutes of dead silence, with tension so thick you could cut it with a knife, Henry decided he should at least try to say something.

“Um,” he began, a bit quietly. Bendy looked up and across the table at him. “Thank you for the, the uh, food. It’s good.” Bendy smiled, his tail swishing, and he set down his fork.

“Why thank ya, I appreciate it.” He looked at Henry, finding himself wanting Henry to glance up, even if for a moment. Why, he didn’t know. He was just as confused.

Henry sighed internally, thankful that the tension had broken. But now the room was quickly filling with an awkward silence. Both shifted awkwardly in their seats, then Bendy sprung up.

“Have you finished eating?” he asked quizzically. Henry glanced up, surprised.

“Um, yes, I ha-“

Henry didn’t get to finish his sentence before Bendy swept in and kidnapped his plate and utensils, quickly walking with all of the dishes into the kitchen area. Henry sat there for a moment, caught off-guard and perplexed. Off in the kitchen he heard the sink running, with the occasional interruption of the sound as a dish passed under the flow. After a bit he heard Bendy start to hum, and he got up to go investigate.

He walked over to the doorway of the kitchen area, and saw Bendy standing in front of a sink washing the dishes, his tail swishing back and forth contentedly. Henry wasn’t sure what he was thinking. It was certainly a cute image. Wait, what?

Bendy’s tail faltered in its movement for a second, and Henry really hoped it wasn’t because Bendy had noticed him. Deciding to stop being a creeper, Henry returned to his seat. A few minutes later, Bendy joined him. Only he didn’t sit down.

“…Would you like me to show you to your room?” Bendy asked cautiously, fiddling with the back of a chair. Henry glanced to the side, finding this whole situation very odd.

“Sure,” he finally responded, carefully, getting out of his seat slowly.

Bendy waited for him to take a few steps before turning to lead him down the hallway.

“That bedroom we were in earlier was mine. This other one here,” he said, opening the door to the smaller bedroom, “is gonna be yours.” Henry looked inside. It was about the size of a walk-in closet, with a single twin bed, a small nightstand, and a lamp. “Is it alright?”

Henry nodded. “Yes, it’s great. Um…” He paused. “Thank you. I’m not sure why you’re doing this but, thank you.”

Bendy gave a small smile and patted him on the back. “Well, despite my appearance, I am not a monster.” With that, he walked out of the room and shut the door. Henry was left, alone, in the dimly lit room, with those last words running through his mind. His mind flashed back to what he had said earlier in the day. Well what would you do if you saw a monster coming towards you? He didn’t know how much more regretful he could feel. He plopped down on the bed and held his head in his hands. His head still hurt from earlier. He didn’t know what time it was, but figured he could use some sleep anyway. He set his glasses on the night stand, lay down on the bed, comfortable enough to not get under the covers, and let himself drift off to sleep.

'I’m not a monster' rang through his head one last time.

Chapter Text

Henry was sure he just fell asleep. So why was he laying on the floor in a pool of ink?

Come to think of it, this looked like the hallway where he had knocked himself out earlier. Was it all a dream?

No, something’s not right here. The ink is…warm. It’s really warm. Hot, actually. It’s beginning to sting Henry’s skin, and he tries to sit up. Only he can’t. He tries to move his arms, but they’re stuck to the ink.

Wait.

No they’re not.

The ink has formed into hands, all of them grabbing him and holding him down. They gripped his legs, his arms, pinned his torso in place, held him by the throat. He can only look straight up at the ceiling, and out of the corners of his eyes. Down by his feet, he hears a gurgling sound, and feels the ink start to change.

At his feet manifests Bendy.

Only, it’s the Bendy from before. The monster. It takes a step towards him, two, and then it’s glaring down at him. Suddenly it leans down, and searing hot ink drips onto him. The hands holding him down begin to dig into his skin, the grip around his throat tightens. He feels the pool of ink begin to rise around him, and he starts to sink underneath it all.

Oh god, I’m going to die. I’m going to drown.

He feels the ink begin to cover his face, and soon it’s covering him entirely. He can’t breathe, he’s suffocating. As he begins to black out, he feels a very real tightness around his midsection pull him back to reality.

Suddenly his eyes shoot open, and he’s back on the bed. He frantically writhes as he tries to figure out what’s attacking him, his breaths quick and sharp.

Oh.

It’s the blanket.

The blanket had wrapped itself around his midsection during his fevered dream, and his tossing and turning had only tightened it. He allowed himself to calm down, then untangled himself from the blanket, collapsing back onto the bed once he had freed himself.

Strange, he hadn’t remembered getting under the blankets in the first place.

He propped himself up on his elbows and looked around the small room. Everything was exactly how he’d left it.

Well, other than the glass of water on the nightstand next to him. That wasn’t there before.

Henry rubbed his brow, letting his head plop back onto the pillow. He was still tired, but knew that if he went back to sleep he’d be back in that nightmare again. He had no idea what time it was, but judging by the absence of light coming from under the door, it was still sometime during the night.

After several minutes of lying there awake, tossing and turning and probably giving himself some serious bed-head, he got out of bed, stood up, and began pacing around the room. He must have walked every inch of available floor space that night. It would
have been better if the room had had a window. Whenever he had nights like these, he always found that opening the window to let some fresh air in would help.

Unfortunately, this tiny room had no such thing. The only sources of air flow were the crack under the door and the small air vent on the floor in the corner. He began to feel restless and panicky again, so he slowly cracked open his door.

The hallway was dark, but not pitch black. There was some ambient light, though Henry had no idea what it was coming from. He figured he could try going to the bathroom, maybe he was restless because he needed to, though he didn’t feel a need.

After going to the bathroom, he paced quietly up and down the hallway a few times before returning to his room. At the door, he paused, reluctant to go back, but grudgingly opened the door and walked in. He closed his eyes as he leaned back against one of
the walls, letting himself slowly sink to the floor.

“You doin’ okay pal?” he heard a familiar voice call from the still open door. Henry jumped and glanced over and saw Bendy’s silhouette in the doorway. His silhouette was ominous to say the least, and the inability to make out his face combined with the recent nightmare made Henry’s nervousness spike.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine. Just can’t sleep,” Henry answered, looking away from the doorway. It was the truth, just maybe not all of it.

“Bad dream eh?” Bendy folded his arms and leaned up against the door frame, though he didn’t move from his spot.

Henry sighed, cursing his easily-readable face. “Yeah, but it’s fine.” He should really work on his poker face.

There was silence for a long moment, then Bendy straightened up. “Well, there’s water there if you need it,” he said, turning around and heading back to his room, leaving Henry alone on the floor.

Henry wasn’t sure he trusted the water, so he just got up and laid back down in bed. Even if he couldn’t sleep, it wouldn’t hurt to close his eyes while he lay there.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Henry woke up half-under the covers. Turns out he had actually fallen back asleep. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, yawning. He didn’t know what time it was, but it felt like late morning. Deciding it was probably time to finally get out of bed, he swung his feet over the edge of the bed and stood up, noticing the glass of water on his night table was gone. He put on his glasses and wandered out into the hallway. Upon hearing sounds coming from the kitchen, he walked that way, and saw the table being set again. Bendy glanced up, then grinned.

“Heya pal, looks like you’re finally up.” He glanced up at the top of Henry’s head, snickered, then went back to setting the table.

“What?” Henry asked, confused, and slightly suspicious. Bendy glanced up again, visibly holding back a snicker.

“You might wanna look in the mirror, and run a comb through your hair,” he said, his tone laced with amusement. Henry narrowed his eyes and walked down to the bathroom. When he saw his reflection in the mirror, he immediately realized why Bendy had been snickering. He had really given himself some major bed head last night while tossing and turning. His brown hair was sticking out in every direction possible. He tried running his hands through his hair, wetting them down with some water with the sink. It tamed his hair slightly, though it was still puffy. He didn’t see a comb around anywhere, so he settled for puffy hair.

When he got back to the dining area, Bendy had set out the food and taken his seat. He looked up at Henry, grinning, obviously still amused, but said nothing. Henry noticed that his own place was in a different spot. Instead of sitting at the opposite end of the
table from Bendy, he was now sitting one seat closer, on one of the sides. He raised an eyebrow but decided not to mention it, and took his seat.

Breakfast was waffles, some toast, and coffee. Once again, it passed in silence, though with less tension in the air than the previous night’s dinner. Once they were done, they sat quietly for a moment, then Bendy spoke up.

“So did you end up getting back to sleep last night?” he asked, obviously trying to make small talk. Henry blinked a couple times, then realized what he was talking about.

“Oh, yeah, I suppose I did. I mean, I woke up this morning, so I must have.” Henry chuckled nervously, then cleared his throat and shut up when Bendy didn’t laugh with him. Bendy had a neutral face, which was out of the ordinary for him.

“It was about me, wasn’t it.” His tone was serious, and Henry was taken aback, really trying not to sound mean.

“Um, I mean, I guess, yeah. How did you know?” Henry cringed, knowing this all sounded very bad. Bendy sighed, then smiled half-heartedly.

“You know, you don’t have a very good poker face. You should work on that,” he responded simply as he took his and Henry’s dishes into the kitchen. Henry sighed and buried his face in his hands. Curse his readable face.

After a few minutes, Henry got up and walked back to his room, taking a seat on the bed and sighing, bored already. He had figured that having some time alone with his mind might be a good thing, but now that he was back in his old workshop, his mind was
being pulled back to old friends, old art. Bendy. Out of all the characters, Bendy had always been his favorite, though he had no idea why. Now that Bendy was real, and he could hang out with him, he was confused. Why wasn’t he more comfortable? Why wasn’t he happier? Why was he thinking about this? At times, Henry really hated his mind. It liked to throw odd thoughts at him, and then he would end up dwelling on those thoughts. Like now for instance. He felt himself zoning out as he thought about having to spend a long time down here with Bendy.

“You sure do zone out when you think, don’t ya buddy?” Bendy spoke from right next to him. Henry jumped back slightly, startled. Apparently, he had zoned out so far that Bendy had been able to not only open the door wide and walk in, but sit down right next to him on the bed.

Henry only chuckled nervously in response. He blinked a few times to bring himself fully back to the present, wondering why Bendy wasn’t saying anything. Bendy was, in fact, watching him compose himself. Henry was so easy to sneak up on, and the look of surprise on his face was, actually, cute. Cute?

“Anyways, what’re ya doin’ in here by yourself? Ya just gonna be bored all day?” The tall demon looked at him quizzically, waiting for an answer. Henry raised an eyebrow, returning his gaze.

“What, have you got anything better to do?” Henry sat still, finally breaking his stare with Bendy, even though he could still feel it burning into him. Bendy feigned offense.

“I’ll have you know, I love to have fun. I’ve got plenty of things we can do!” Bendy scoffed, turning his head but continuing to look at Henry out of the corner of his eye. Henry blinked, then shifted awkwardly on the bed. I mean, it is better than just sitting here…

“Alright, fine.” Henry flinched as Bendy sprung up joyously. His tail was swishing happily, and his smile widened.

“Yay! Follow me!” Bendy waltzed out of the room and turned towards the living area. Henry hadn’t bothered to look around much in there, but there was a couch in front of a fireplace, a small table (aside from the dining table, which was in the same room) with two chairs, a piano, a book case, an easel, and a desk. Henry raised his eyebrows.

“Let’s start with a board game. How about Monopoly?” Bendy asked, leading him over to the small table. He pulled out the game from the bottom shelf of the book shelf, and laid it out on the table. Henry took the seat closest to him as Bendy set up the game.

They played a total of three rounds. In the first two, Henry got his ass kicked by Bendy, and in the third, he pulled a narrow victory. By the time they finished, lunch time had drawn around, so they took a break for lunch.

Henry found himself loosening up a bit. He even laughed – genuinely laughed – once or twice. Yet he still had an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach. A very odd feeling indeed.

After lunch, they played some other games, then had a drawing contest to see who could draw given things better (Henry won). They had a little break for a while, then ate dinner. Dinner was more relaxed this time, with playful banter between the two. Bendy had shifted Henry’s seat again, one seat closer so they ended up sitting next to each other. They relaxed for a bit after dinner, and sat on the couch. After a good fifteen or twenty minutes, Bendy stood up and started a record player. It was some up-beat swing music that had been in style thirty years ago. Bendy waltzed back over to where Henry was sitting, and reached out his hand.

“Wanna dance?” He asked, grinning.

“Actually, I don’t dan-“ Henry began, interrupted by his own yelp as Bendy grabbed his hand and pulled him up off the couch and over to some open floor space. Stumbling a bit, Henry blushed embarrassedly as he stood there awkwardly while bendy began to dance. He certainly was the ‘dancing demon’ they had called him. Bendy raised an eyebrow.

“What, am I gonna have to make you dance? You do know how right?” Bendy didn’t stop dancing through this, and Henry could barely focus on his words while simultaneously being killed from second-hand embarrassment. Bendy continued staring at him, and Henry shook his head.

"I- I don’t know how.” Henry stared at the floor, and his face felt like it was as red as a tomato. He fiddled with his hands as Bendy stopped dancing.

“What?? How do you NOT know how to dance?” Bendy’s eyes were wide as he stared at Henry with astonishment, trying to figure out how he could possibly not know how to dance. Henry sat there quietly, and Bendy noticed how red his face was and rolled his eyes.

“Oh golly, okay, well, we have a long night ahead of us then!” Bendy kept his chipper tune, but he was now starting to become embarrassed as well. “First things first, footing. Put one foot in front of the other, like this,” he said, demonstrating, “and then kick out your other foot, step back with it, and then do it with your other foot. Simple.” He demonstrated the whole thing for Henry a few times, and then motioned for him to try it. Henry took a step, then another, then swung his foot out, then stepped back, then stepped back again, and then swung his foot backwards, and then brought his foot forward. Only his foot got caught on his leg, and he lost his balance and fell forward right into Bendy.

Luckily, Bendy kept his balance and kept them upright, but Henry had face planted into Bendy’s chest. Bendy dazedly wrapped his arms around Henry, with no idea why he was doing it. Henry, meanwhile, was slowly dying inside. Oh god let me die this is awful I wanna die let me die why am I such a klutz oh my gOD. He didn’t want to remove his face from Bendy’s chest however, because if he had to look at Bendy he would probably just die right there. Bendy awkwardly patted his back and chuckled a bit.

“Jeez bud, how’d ya manage that?” he said, though he wasn’t looking down at Henry anymore. In fact, he was looking anywhere but at Henry. If he could blush, he’d be blushing furiously.

Henry was still burying his face in Bendy’s chest. It was oddly quite comfortable, he found, though that thought didn’t help his face return to its normal color. He focused on his breathing and slowing down his heartbeat, and that seemed to help. After a few moments, he felt okay enough to remove himself from Bendy’s chest, though he didn’t look up at Bendy. Instead, he kept his gaze trained to the floor. Bendy took a step towards him and put his hands on his shoulders.

“Relax, relax. Ya just tripped is all. Here,” Bendy said, taking Henry’s hands. “Try again.” Henry kept his gaze on the floor, but focused on his feet. Step forward, swing, step backward, swing, step forward, swing. He stumbled a couple times, but luckily Bendy kept him from falling again. After Bendy was satisfied that Henry had gotten the hang of the footwork, he showed Henry what to do with his hands.

“If you’re leading, put one hand on their waist and grab their hand with the other. If you’re being led, put one hand on their shoulder and take their hand with the other. I’ll lead.” Bendy grabbed his hand and put his other one on Henry’s waist. Henry reluctantly put his free hand on Bendy’s shoulder.

No music was playing anymore. They danced in silence. Awkward, awkward silence. They slowly spun around while dancing, and neither of them would look at the other. Finally, Henry allowed himself to steal a glance at Bendy. He was tall and thin, with long legs and a muscular chest. His tail was swishing slowly, and he was looking away.

After several minutes, they stopped dancing. They both took a couple steps away from each other.

“Well, it’s uh, getting late pal. You should probably hit the sack,” Bendy suggested, rubbing the back of his head.

Henry nodded. “Yeah, good idea. I’ll be going then.” He started towards the hallway, very aware of the pair of eyes watching him. “Uh, night then.”

Bendy waved. “Night!” He watched Henry walk down to his room, then plopped down on the couch. Why was his heart beating so fast?

Henry quickly shut the door to his room once inside, and plopped face-down onto the bed. Oh boy, that was something. He could still feel his heart racing. From embarrassment. Yeah. He sat up long enough to take off his glasses and turn off the lamp, and then got back into the bed and buried his face into the pillow.

He tried to think about something – anything – else, but it was useless. He resolved to just go to sleep instead.

Chapter Text

Henry found himself dancing with Bendy. When the dance ended they both sat on the couch, and he glanced over at Bendy. Bendy was watching him with a peculiar glint in his eyes. He felt Bendy’s tail bump up against his thigh, and glanced down at it. It slowly crept over his thigh and between his legs, and his heartbeat began to pick up.

“H-hey uh, Bendy,” he began, tearing his gaze away to look back at Bendy. Bendy had crept across the couch and was now inches away. He quickly sprang forward and kissed Henry. Henry’s eyes widened, and he squeaked, his heart jumping. Oddly, he found he didn’t mind it, and slowly began to allow himself to kiss back. Bendy slowly pushed him back onto the couch in a laying down position, and crawled on top of him. Bendy’s tail returned to Henry’s crotch, and it slowly flicked back and forth in light motions, causing Henry’s breathing to accelerate and hitch.

Bendy slowly pushed his tongue into Henry’s mouth, licking Henry’s own tongue and exploring around it. His tail began to use more pressure, making circles every now and then. His hands slipped underneath Henry’s shirt, massaging his chest and toying with his nipples.

Henry was beginning to make small, high-pitched, breathy moans, arching his back slightly off the couch. Bendy broke the kiss off, and looked down at Henry, who was making some very lovely faces at this point. He watched his eyes squeeze shut tighter every time he toyed with his nipples. Henry turned his head, burying his cheek into the couch. Bendy took this opportunity to lick Henry’s now-exposed neck, and leaned down to suck on it when he elicited a moan.

Henry was coming undone, between the increasing teasing on his crotch and the teasing on his neck and torso. He panted, placing his hands on Bendy’s shoulders in an attempt to latch onto something. Bendy removed his hands from under Henry’s shirt and began to unbutton it, stripping it from him once it was fully unbuttoned.

He noticed how long Bendy’s tongue was. Though Bendy had not moved his head from the crook of Henry’s neck, his tongue reached all the way down to the dip in Henry’s collarbone below the center of the neck. One of Bendy’s inky hands slowly slid down Henry’s chest, down to the waistband of his pants. Henry was too out of it to notice, however, and jumped when the slightly wet inky fingers wrapped around his dick.

The warm, gentle, sticky pressure was making his breath hitch, and Bendy removed himself from Henry’s neck to gaze upon his quivering face. Henry had squeezed his eyes shut and his mouth had fallen open, panting. Bendy took the opportunity to steal his mouth in a kiss, tightening his grip around Henry’s dick. He let his hand begin to move, painfully slow at first, then speeding up as Henry began to fall apart, moaning and gasping for air between kisses. Henry moved his legs slightly, bending one and moving the other to allow for more room, and Bendy happily obliged with more ministrations.

Bendy could feel Henry falling apart more and more underneath him, and he increased the pace of his hand movements, going back to kiss Henry and sticking his tongue in his mouth, teasing. Henry’s moans had evolved into loud and quick-paced sounds, and he began to roll his hips as he drew closer to the edge.

With one particularly hard movement of Bendy’s hand, Henry climaxed, throwing his head back and squeezing his eyes shut tighter. Bendy continued to move his hand as Henry slowly slipped off into blackness.

Suddenly his eyes shoot open, and he’s back laying in the bed in his room. It’s dark in the room, but he didn’t need a light to know that he was hard. Looking over to the nightstand, he faintly saw a clean glass of water. Which, again, was not there when he went to sleep. Oh dear god, he hoped that had been put there before his dream began, because whoever it was probably would have gotten a show. Oh god.

He smacked his face a couple times to try and clear all thoughts of the dream from his mind. He really wanted to go back to sleep without any troublesome dreams this time, because it would make waking up in the morning *fun*. His insomnia began to act up and he tried to will his arousal away, thinking it might have something to do with it. However, when he had no luck, he glanced around his room to check for any visitors. When he was satisfied that he was alone, he reached down his pants and began to masturbate.

He tried not to think about it.

He really did.

But he kept finding his mind drifting back to the dream, to Bendy.

He tried to make Bendy shift back into the monster in his mind, but it didn’t help. In fact, it made it worse.

His skin was tingling in the places where Dream Bendy had touched him, his stomach was doing flips the closer he got. By the time he finally climaxed, he had given up and let his mind go back to the dream.

Satisfied that his ‘problem’ was gone, he cleaned himself up as best as he could and lay back down, resolving to take a shower in the morning.

He slowly let himself drift off to sleep, and was relieved when no other ‘problem dreams’ showed up.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Henry awoke with messy hair again, and a bit of surprise before he remembered the night’s events. The sudden wave of shame hit him like a train, and he hid his face beneath the covers in shame. Getting up, he noticed his original clothes sitting neatly folded on the foot of his bed, and sighed, knowing Bendy was the one who put them there.

Wait, why was that any more embarrassing?

Henry stood up, grabbed the clothes, and made his way into the bathroom, setting the clothes down on the counter and doing his business before turning on the shower and stripping. When the water was warm enough, he stepped in and put his face in the stream, trying to clear his head (and eliminate some of his bed head).

After about ten minutes of scrubbing his body from head to toe, he turned off the water and stepped out, towelling off. When he was done and close enough to the counter to see, he saw a jed black comb sitting there, with a little tag attached to it. The tag read:

Henry,
Figured you could use this to tame that hair of yours.
B

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that “B” was Bendy. Henry just hoped that the simple phrase written on the tag was a reference to his hair in general, and not just his hair due to recent events. He sighed again, putting his clothes on and then running the comb through his hair. After inspecting himself in the mirror as best as he could, he realized he had left his glasses in his room.

Only, they weren’t there. He knew for a fact that they were there before he took the shower.

Stumbling blindly down the hall, he made his way into the dining area and found Bendy sitting in his place already, with Henry’s glasses on his face.

“Geez pal, you sure are blind aren’t ya?” Bendy looked over at him, an amused grin on his face. Henry looked right back at him, very unamused.

“Bendy give them back,” he said, sounding very tired. Bendy raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms.

“What were you dreaming about last night anyways? I went in there to give you the glass of water and you were tossing and turning, breathing heavily-”

“You can keep them.” Henry turned around and began walking towards the door, his shame and embarrassment returning in the form of a bright blush. Bendy shot up and hugged him to keep him from getting too far.

“Noo Henry don’t leave, I’m just messing with you,” Bendy said, chuckling slightly while he did. “Besides, your breakfast’s gonna get cold!”

Henry tried to struggle, but Bendy’s grip only got tighter.

“Pleeeaasse?” Bendy whined.

Realizing that Bendy wouldn’t give up, Henry sighed.

“Fine,” he said reluctantly, jumping as Bendy placed his glasses on his face. He took a deep breath, composed himself, and turned around. With his returned clear vision, he could see the table and food clearly. And Bendy. Who was grinning and waiting for Henry to sit down. Quickly averting his gaze to anything but Bendy, Henry took his seat and began eating. Bendy tilted his head questioningly, but said nothing and began eating as well.

Soon, however, his curiosity got the best of him, and he couldn’t help himself.

“So what were you dreaming about?” Bendy asked, making Henry choke on his food momentarily. Henry glanced over, trying to stifle the blush rising to his cheeks.

“Well, uh,” he began trying to think of something. “I was dreaming about….dancing! Yeah, dancing. I guess all that dance practice we did before bed made it’s way into my dream.”

“So then what was with the heavy breathing and sounds?” Bendy questioned, with a look that said he wasn’t buying it.

“Well, uh, I was dancing on top of a skyscraper, and I kept losing my balance and nearly falling off.” Henry gulped, hoping that sounded believable.

“Hm, wild dream then,” Bendy responded, his face still saying it wasn’t buying it at all. Henry looked away awkwardly and took a drink of water. Bendy was quiet for a bit, then stood up and took all their dishes into the kitchen.

Henry let his head slowly hit the table, taking a deep breath and sighing.

Chapter Text

After breakfast, Bendy had introduced him to the bookshelf, telling him he could read any book he wanted to. Henry spent the first couple hours after that reading a book on art. After he finished that book, they took a break for lunch and then Henry returned to the shelf.

This time, however, he pulled out a peculiar book.

The Illusion of Living, by Joey Drew. He had no idea Joey had written a book.

He flipped to a random page and began to read.

...Characters are much like ghosts. They will not realize they are not living unless they have reason to suspect that they are dead. This is why any good creator will not put their character in harm’s way frequently without having them become injured, even severely. If the character is in a life-threatening situation with very little chance of survival and they come out without a single scratch, it removes the illusion of life from that character. If the character by all means should have died, and yet they still stand without any harm done, they are not alive...

...In addition, if a character is never shown needing to do basic bodily functions, such as using the restroom, then by default the character has no need for these and, therefore, is no longer believable as living...

...This is why I refer to “lifeless” characters as “ghosts” on occasion: they can not get hurt or die, and have no need to perform basic bodily functions or daily tasks, however they can still do them by choice…

Henry read the passage, and then read it again. Something about it wasn’t sitting with him. He reread it several more times, thinking back to all the times he could have died whilst wandering in this old workshop. The times he should have died. The times he should have been hurt. The times when he wasn’t hungry when he very well should have been. The times when he didn’t need to use the restroom.

His mind began thinking further back, to right after he left the workshop. He had stopped feeling hungry, had stopped needing bathroom breaks. Of course, he had just thought he had fallen into a depression, and had figured that the Great Depression had been part of what caused his lack of hunger and bathroom needs.

But the more he mulled it over in his mind, the more things seemed to fall in place.

He tried to snap himself out of it. This was Joey after all. He had been known to play pranks, and besides, how could Joey know anything about ghosts and life?

But then again, he was capable of bringing Bendy to life. That had to account for something, right?

Henry felt himself begin to have a panic attack, his breathing unsteady and his heart pounding. He sat down on the couch and curled up into a ball, bringing his knees close to his chest and feeling the hot tears begin to well up behind his eyes. He squeezed his eyes shut as they slowly began to fall down his face, his stomach twisting into knots and his breathing very irregular and shallow.

Bendy came into the room a few minutes later.

“Heya Henry I found a few more books you might-” he began, cutting himself off when he noticed Henry. “Hey, you alright?” He rushed over, noticing the book laying on the ground. He then glanced over at Henry and sat down next to him. Bendy placed his hand on Henry’s back and gently rubbed it, sighing.

About an hour later, when Henry had finally calmed down enough, Bendy straightened up and took a deep breath.

“Henry, I think it’s time we talked.”

Chapter Text

“What?” Henry asked, worried. Whatever Bendy had to say, he was serious about, and it didn’t look like it was going to be good.

“Haven’t you ever wondered why you haven’t changed a bit since you left thirty years ago?” Bendy asked, his voice laced with apprehension. Henry thought about it a bit.

“I mean, I didn’t think about it often, but when I did I figured it was because I aged well,” Henry responded, not liking where this conversation was going.

“Well,” Bendy began, pausing to brace himself, “you died.” When Henry didn’t respond, he continued. “Thirty years ago. You and Joey were working on the ink machine. You had been reluctant to build the ink machine, but Joey convinced you that it would be a good thing. After a few days, you were ready to test it, but something wasn’t put together right, and it ended up exploding. You probably would have lived if the shrapnel hadn’t gone into your brain. Joey regret it every single day after that. He finished the machine, but it wasn’t enough. He researched for a way to bring your favorite character to life, spent several sleepless nights writing that book.” He motioned over at the book lying on the floor. “And he finally succeeded, and here I am. He thought that bringing me to life would have absolved him of all the guilt he felt, but it didn’t. On Christmas Eve that year, he killed himself. You really didn’t know?”

Henry sat silently, looking down at the floor. After a few long moments, he turned his head slightly towards Bendy.

“I didn’t.” Henry couldn’t find much else to say. He’d been walking around as a ghost for the past thirty years of his life. Or, well, not life, death. Wait.

“Wait, if I’m dead, why could people still see me and interact with me?” Henry questioned, feeling very very overwhelmed.

“Ghosts aren’t intangible and invisible until they realize that they are dead. The instant they realize it, poof. They vanish.” Bendy put his hand on Henry’s shoulder, trying really hard to be comforting despite not knowing how.

Henry took a deep breath, then sighed and collapsed back on the couch.

“I need a drink.”

“If you’re referring to alcohol, there’s some vodka in the back of the far right cabinet in the kitchen,” Bendy said, watching Henry get up and wander in there.

Henry grabbed the bottle and took a long swig, coughing a little at the strength. But he took another drink. And another.

A little while later, Henry wandered back over to the couch with the bottle in his hand, half-empty already. Bendy’s eyes widened. That much alcohol in such a short time would probably not do good things.

Henry stopped for a moment, took a rather large swig of vodka, then sat down on the couch and took another swig. They were both silent for a moment. Bendy watched wide-eyed as Henry drank the remaining vodka in the bottle. Bendy snatched the empty bottle away from Henry before he could do anything with it, taking it and tossing it in the trash.

Upon sitting back down on the couch, Bendy noticed Henry was watching him.

“You need to chill out with the drinking pal, you’re gonna hurt yourself,” Bendy said cautiously as he watched Henry. Henry rolled his eyes and leaned his head back.

“I can’t get hurt, remember?” Henry slurred, “I’m dead.” Bendy sighed, patting Henry on the back. They were both silent for a while, and then Henry spoke up.

“Y’know that dream I had las night?” he said, closing his eyes. “Was about you. We were sittin here on this couch, right, and you, you uh, you were lookin at me. Then that tail ‘f yers started wanderin between my legs, ‘n then ya kissed me, ‘cept I didn’t mind. ‘N then your hands started wanderin too-” “Okay, that’s enough.” “-and I didn’t mind that either. It was weird, y’know. Why didn’t I mind? Thought I was scared ‘f ya, but guess not? I dunno.”

Bendy blinked, glad that he couldn’t blush. He was still very embarrassed though, and the burning stare of the drunken figure next to him wasn’t helping.

“Say, what does this tail ‘f yers do anyway?” Henry drunkenly questioned, grabbing Bendy’s tail. Bendy jumped, yanking his tail away.

“Anyways, whadd’ya think? Would ya mind, if that happened?” Henry crept closer, staring Bendy directly in the eyes. Bendy backed up a bit, then pushed Henry away.

“You’re drunk,” Bendy said, watching Henry as he gave up and slumped into the couch.

“Yeah yeah whatever,” Henry said, yawning. Bendy watched as he slipped off rather quickly into unconsciousness.

Once Henry was fully asleep, Bendy sighed and rested his head on his hand for a moment, then glanced back over at Henry. Judging by the amount of Alcohol Henry had consumed and what time it currently was, Bendy guessed Henry would be out until mid-day tomorrow, and then probably be too hungover to move until the day after. Rolling his eyes, Bendy stood up and stretched, then picked Henry up and carried him bridal-style into Henry’s room, then laid him down on the bed and left.

Bendy then went and filled a glass of water, and set it down on Henry’s nightstand.

It wasn’t even dinner time yet.

“Fucking dumbass.”

Chapter Text

Henry awoke with no sense of what time it was or how much time had passed since he had fallen asleep. He found he had a major headache and was dehydrated. Luckily, Bendy had set a glass of water on his nightstand. He groaned as he rolled onto his side, his head throbbing. He reached the glass of water and sat up enough to take a drink without spilling it everywhere, feeling like shit.

He had no clue as to what happened after he went back into the sitting area, and he just hoped it wasn’t bad. He flopped back onto his back after setting the glass down, his whole body beating him up for drinking so much. He rubbed his eyes, tensing as he heard Bendy walk in. He peeked one eye open and watched Bendy give him a new glass of water and set a plate of food down.

“It’s about time you finally woke up,” Bendy said teasingly, snickering a little when Henry groaned and covered his eyes.

“How long have I been out?” Henry asked, moving his hands from in front of his eyes so he could see. Bendy thought about it for a moment.

“Well, about twenty hours. Give or take a few minutes,” Bendy said, grinning. Henry sighed, his headache lightening up enough for him to relax.

“Jesus,” he mumbled, sitting up on his elbows. He watched Bendy stand there for a moment.

Bendy knew he probably shouldn’t mention what Henry told him about the dream. He really shouldn’t. But he couldn’t help himself. The urge was too strong.

“By the way,” Bendy said as he was leaving the room, “that was definitely an interesting dream you had. The real one.” With that, he exited the room into the hallway and left the door open. Henry sat there for a moment, confused. Until he remembered his dream, and then his eyes widened. He screamed internally, covering his face with his hands and hiding under the blanket.

It took him a while to build up enough courage to get out from under the blanket to eat the food on his nightstand.

Bendy came in several times throughout the day, and Henry wouldn’t look at him. Finally, Bendy came in one last time.

“It’s getting late, you should sleep,” he said as he replaced the glass of water. “That way you can sleep off your hangover.”

Henry was laying facing the wall, curled up in a ball. He didn’t say anything.

“Listen, pouting isn’t going to do anything.” Bendy waited for him to answer, then walked over to the bed and grabbed Henry’s shoulder and forced him onto his back.

“I’m serious. Are you going to sleep or do I have to babysit you all night?” Bendy said, staring so intensely at Henry it felt like he was staring into his soul. Henry thought about those words, then his mind twisted it into something dirty and his face flushed red.
“N-no, I’ll sleep,” he said, looking away. Bendy grinned.

“Good, see you tomorrow then,” Bendy said, straightening up and walking out of the room, shutting the door behind him. Henry lay there, trying to clear his mind of the dirty thoughts.

As he lay there trying to fall asleep, memories of his drunken haze began to come back. He slowly remembered the conversation about his dream, and then he remembered grabbing Bendy’s tail. Of course, at the time he hadn’t thought much of it, but now that he was sober, his mind kicked into dirty overdrive and he shook his head, trying to get that out of his head. It wasn’t like that. Maybe the tail is just sensitive. Not in a dirty way. Nope.

He shook his head again, squeezing his eyes shut and rolling onto his side.

Henry lay there for a good long while before he started drifting off to sleep.

He really hoped that he could get out of bed tomorrow, because he was beginning to go crazy.

Chapter Text

Over the course of the next few days, Henry gradually relaxed around Bendy again, satisfied that he had probably forgotten about the dream, or at the least let it go. These days were fairly uneventful, filled with reading, eating, sleeping, and playing games.

However, they were also filled with something else.

Teasing.

Bendy had stopped mentioning the dream, yes, but he had instead taken up teasing.

It first happened at dinner four days ago. Bendy had leaned his face dangerously close to Henry’s when he was collecting their dishes. Of course, Bendy didn’t seem to care, but Henry died a little.

The second time was the next morning. Henry woke to see Bendy peering over him. Of course, Bendy was only there to say that dinner was ready and that he had big things planned for that day. They ended up playing hide-and-seek.

The third was two days ago. Henry had gone into the kitchen to grab something, and Bendy cornered him. But then Bendy reached up behind Henry to grab a cup from the cupboard above him.

The fourth time was yesterday morning. Henry had been reading a book at the table while they were eating, and Bendy popped his head between the book and Henry’s face.

The most recent time was earlier today, midway between breakfast and lunch. Henry had been sitting on the couch with a pad of paper and a pencil, sketching and writing a few ideas down. Bendy walked up and stood behind the couch, then leaned down and grinned.

“Whatcha doin’, doll?” was all he had said. It caught Henry off guard, and he stuttered a bit before finally answering him, which seemed to make him grin wider.

Henry was becoming very flustered and very confused. Was Bendy actually flirting with him on purpose, simply teasing him, or was it actually nothing and Henry was just overreacting?

Either way, it was working. Henry felt himself slowly falling more and more, and though he was certain that Bendy was never going to feel the same, his mind kept twisting things.

Either way, it was nearing dinner time now, and Henry was sitting on the couch, staring off into space now that he had finished his sketches. He began to daydream, and didn’t hear Bendy walk up behind him.

“Ya ready for dinner, doll?” Bendy asked, startling Henry. He snickered as he watched Henry compose himself. Henry cleared his throat, nodding. He looked around, noticing the lights were off.

“Bendy, why are the lights off?” he asked, and Bendy grinned.

“Well come see if you wanna know!” He walked over to the table, and Henry stood up to follow. When he looked over at the table, he realized why it was so dark.

On the table was two candles, both lit. Bendy had switched their places so that they were sitting opposite each other on the sides of the table.

“Bendy, uh, what, what is this?” Henry asked, having a feeling it was exactly what he thought it was.

“It’s a date, silly! C’mon, your food’s gonna get cold,” Bendy said, taking his seat and looking at Henry. Henry flushed red, suddenly feeling very shy and nervous. He shuffled over and took his seat, feeling very self-conscious. He took a bite, chewing silently. Bendy watched him, blinking.

“Well? Is it good?” Bendy asked, and Henry thought he sounded a bit nervous himself. Henry nodded.

“Yes, as usual, your cooking is excellent,” Henry said, blushing as he realized what he had said. Bendy smiled brightly, then resumed eating. Henry followed suit, and they were both quiet until they had finished eating. Bendy took their dishes into the kitchen and washed them, leaving Henry by himself for a few minutes.

Henry was confused, and surprisingly happy. Why was Bendy doing this? What else did he have planned for tonight? Oh god, no, stay away from that question, that is not a Good question. The thought that Bendy might actually like him slipped into his head, and he began to blush again. He looked up as Bendy returned to the room, and looking at Bendy somehow only made his blush worse. Bendy was smiling, and he sat down in his chair again. They sat there quietly for a while.

“So uh, come here often doll?” Bendy asked, making Henry laugh. Henry figured he might as well play with this for a while.

“Why yes, actually, every day,” Henry responded, figuring it best to break the ice.

“Wowie, every day? Golly, what do you do?”

“Well, sometimes I read, sometimes I draw. Sometimes someone I like will play games with me.”

Bendy smiled. “Do you do anything else with him?”

“Well, he taught me to dance, but we haven’t since then.” Henry fully expected this conversation to continue, but Bendy stood up and walked around to his side of the table and held out his hand.

“Well then, would ya like to dance, doll?” Bendy asked. Henry stared at his hand for a moment, remembering that this is kind of how his dream had started, but he shook that feeling away.

“Sure, I would,” Henry responded, taking his hand and standing up when Bendy tugged on it. Bendy led him over to the same spot where they had danced before. He turned on the record player, then returned to Henry and positioned his hands accordingly, Henry doing the same. Bendy led, and they danced in circles, rotating slowly. They continued to dance even long after the music had ended, and by then Henry had finally gathered enough courage to look up at Bendy. Bendy was smiling down at him, and their gazes met, and Henry felt his heart jump. Bendy pulled Henry closer, stopping their dance so he could embrace him.

Henry’s eyes widened, but he gave in to the hug and hugged back, not used to physical affection. His nerves were tingling. Bendy held him as if he were going to lose him at any moment.

After a while, when it became awkward, they broke the hug. Bendy wandered over to the couch and plopped down, sighing. Henry wandered over cautiously, his brain goblin reminding him of his dream.

“So, have you ever been in a relationship?” Bendy asked, crossing his legs. Henry, taken aback by the question, was trying to form answers as he sat down on the opposite end of the couch.

“Well, there was one girl who my parents set me up with, but she left me when I wasn’t comfortable having sex with her,” Henry explained. “I just wasn’t interested in her.” Bendy nodded a couple times, then perked up.

“Wait, so does that mean you haven’t had sex either?” Bendy questioned, sitting up straight. Henry blushed, rubbing the back of his head.

“Yeah, I guess that’s right. I haven’t,” he responded, wondering if he should be embarrassed or uncomfortable. Bendy raised an eyebrow and leaned back, thinking. Henry decided on embarrassed and blushed again, smiling nervously as he closed his eyes.

However, when he opened them again, he saw Bendy’s face a few inches from his own.

“So, does that mean you haven’t had your first kiss either?”

Chapter Text

“So, does that mean you haven’t had your first kiss either?” Bendy asked, looking Henry in the eye.

Henry’s eyes widened, and he struggled to find his words while desperately trying to keep calm.

“N-no, I haven’t,” Henry finally said, sure his face couldn’t get any redder than it was. Bendy grinned slightly, leaning forward.

“Let’s fix that then, shall we?” Bendy said right before his lips met Henry’s. Henry squeaked, backing up slightly. Bendy pursued, placing one hand on Henry’s hand and the other on Henry’s cheek. He rubbed his cheek with his thumb, and Henry slowly loosened up and kissed back.

Bendy smiled into the kiss, glad Henry was beginning to loosen up. He deepened the kiss, and Henry could feel his heart speeding up.

Henry noticed Bendy was getting more aggressive with the kiss, and he squeaked as Bendy began to push him back and into a laying-down position. Henry felt his stomach flip, and his breath began to get heavy. Bendy deepened the kiss once more before trailing his tongue along Henry’s bottom lip in a silent ask for entrance. Henry opened his mouth and jumped at the feeling of another tongue in his mouth. Bendy’s tongue seemed to be writhing in his mouth, exploring every surface and then some. Henry moaned, placing his hands on Bendy’s shoulders. Bendy chuckled and ran his long tongue under Henry’s, making Henry moan when he found a particularly sensitive spot.

Henry felt himself grow hard beneath his layers of clothing, and his stomach did another flip. He jumped when Bendy broke the kiss and moved to his neck instead, sucking and licking it. This was beginning to be quite similar to his dream.

“Such a peculiar thing, necks are,” Bendy said between sucks. “So sensitive,” he added, then sucked on a sensitive spot, eliciting a moan from Henry. Henry was painfully aware of every breath he took, of every pulse that coursed through his body.

Bendy switched back to kissing Henry while he let his hands wander down Henry’s body. He let them stop briefly at Henry’s chest to play around a bit before letting them fall further down. Down, down, down between Henry’s legs. He grabbed Henry’s hardening bulge through the clothing, smirking slightly as Henry gave a particularly loud, whiny moan. He removed his hand after playing around a bit more, and brought it up to Henry’s collar, where he began unbuttoning his shirt.

Once Bendy had fully unbuttoned Henry’s shirt, he nibbled a bit on Henry’s collarbone before slowly kissing down his chest, down his stomach, until he reached the waistband of Henry’s pants. He undid the belt slowly, then went back up to kiss Henry as a distraction while he pulled Henry’s pants down and off. He reached down and gently grabbed ahold of Henry’s dick, distracting Henry with another kiss.

Bendy began moving his hand, slowly at first, relishing in the sensitivity of someone as untouched as Henry. He began to speed up his hand movements when Henry began rolling his hips.

Henry, however, felt he had no control over his body. His hips moved of their own accord, his voice articulated his pleasure all too willingly. He moaned pleadingly as Bendy removed his hand from his dick. He saw Bendy sit back a bit, taking off his gloves. Henry blushed at how *nice* of a view Bendy was getting from down there. He watched Bendy lower his head closer to Henry’s dick as if he were inspecting it, getting awfully close. Bendy glanced up at Henry briefly, and then Henry half-yelped, half-moaned as he watched Bendy take his dick in his mouth. He panted a few times, moaning with every other breath.

Bendy watched him for a moment, then slowly took the rest of Henry’s dick in his mouth and ran his tongue along it. He enjoyed the way Henry shuddered with every movement of his tongue, the way he trembled with anticipation beneath his fingers. He could feel a hard object begin to manifest in the ink between his own legs and felt a wave of pleasure roll through him, then began to move his head up and down, slowly but speeding up. Henry’s breaths began to come in short, quick bursts, and his moans were laced with desire and pleasure. His chest heaved and he began to feel an intensifying feeling building up in his lower abdomen. Bendy seemed to pick up on these signs and sped up, holding Henry’s hips down with his hands and wrapping his long tongue around Henry’s dick, searching for every sensitive spot he had. He must have hit a good one, because Henry moaned loudly and arched his back. Bendy did it again, and Henry’s breaths quickened again, becoming shaky as his hands searched wildly for anything to grasp. What happened to be in grasping range was Bendy’s tail, which Henry’s hands found and gripped tightly.

Bendy immediately tensed up and let out a low growl, digging his fingers into Henry’s hips. The vibrations from the growl translated immediately into pleasure that sent Henry over the edge. He practically screamed as he came, his body convulsing as waves of pleasure crashed through him. Bendy kept his position, happily swallowing the white liquid as it was released and holding Henry’s hips in place with a strong grip.

Once Henry’s body was done spasming, Bendy lifted his head and crawled forward so that their hips ground together. Henry moaned and opened his eyes, and was surprised and concerned at what he saw. Bendy’s face was beginning to melt, and his grin had begun to expose rather sharp teeth. He sat up a little to try and confirm what he was seeing, but two clawed hands pushed him back down. He was about to protest when Bendy stole his lips in a deep kiss, squeaking when Bendy pushed his long black tongue into his mouth. Bendy moved one of his hands and pushed Henry’s legs apart, running his hand along one of Henry’s legs.

A few minutes later, Bendy broke the kiss and crept back down Henry’s body, eliciting a whimper of anticipation from Henry. Bendy sat back for a moment, and whistled in admiration, making Henry hide his face with his hands. Peeking out for a moment, he happened to glance in between Bendy’s legs, and part of him wished he hadn’t. A dick had manifested out of ink, and still appeared to be forming. Henry immediately felt his stomach jump and his dick begin to harden again, and covered his eyes with his hands again. He felt a presence between his legs, and braced himself, moaning as he felt something slide inside his ass. Only, it wasn’t a dick. It was wet and tapered off to a point and ohmyGOD he knew what it was now. He didn’t need to uncover his eyes to know that Bendy had just slipped his tongue inside him and was wriggling around like some kind of tentacle. Bendy chuckled and gently thrust his tongue in and out, getting deeper each time searching for ~the spot~. Bendy knew he had found it when Henry let out a particularly needy yelp and his muscles tensed up. He brushed his tongue over that spot a few more times before pulling his tongue out and straightening back up. Henry was panting again, his eyes covered by his hands but his cheeks a bright red. Bendy positioned himself between Henry’s legs and leaned up so that his face was above Henry’s. He gently grabbed Henry’s hands and removed them from over his eyes, delivering a gentle kiss to the palm of one of them.

“Love, no need to be shy,” he said softly, kissing Henry on the cheek. Henry felt the unease in his stomach begin to dissipate, despite the fact that Bendy’s face had melted and he should by all means be trying to kill him. “I do have one question for you though. Are you willing to go through with this?”

Henry froze momentarily, then gathered up enough courage and pulled Bendy’s head closer.

“Yes,” he whispered before kissing Bendy on the lips, Bendy gladly kissing back. Bendy shifted slightly, and Henry groaned as Bendy slowly pushed in, pausing every so often to let Henry adjust. Once Bendy was all the way inside, he began to make slow, tiny movements, relishing in the small, faint moans Henry would let out. He began to make his movements bigger, keeping the same speed. In, out, in, out, all the way in, halfway out, all the way in, mostly out, all the way in, all the way out. Once he was confident that Henry had adjusted to the deep thrusts, he increased his pace. Henry’s moans increased in volume and quantity, until he was moaning wantonly at full volume. Henry heard faint moans coming from Bendy every once in a while, so he went searching for his tail. Once he found it he gave it a light tug and knew it was having the desired effect when Bendy’s thrust faltered midway and he bent over, suddenly taking very shaky breaths. Bendy continued thrusting, though his soft moans became a little more noticeable. Henry gave it another tug and the same thing happened, though slightly more intensified. He began to play with the tail, experimenting with it until Bendy bent over, moaning loudly. Henry had just gripped the tip of Bendy’s tail not-so-gently. He tightened his grip and Bendy mewled, finishing his current thrust particularly harshly, making Henry moan in turn. Bendy grabbed Henry’s wrists and held them above his head, swishing his tail out of reach as he increased the intensity behind his thrusts. Henry felt a knot begin to form in his stomach and he moaned as Bendy brushed against his prostate. Bendy picked up on this little hint and aimed for that spot, slowly but surely unravelling. A few moments later, Henry came for the second time that night, his back arching and toes curling as he moaned. Bendy, however, wasn’t done, and he continued to thrust. Henry found Bendy’s tail again and tightly gripped the tip, yanking on the tail. Bendy shuddered, and with one final thrust he too came, black and goopy. They sat there for a moment, unmoving aside from their heaving chests, and it was at this point that Henry realized they were both still on the couch. He shifted awkwardly, groaning as Bendy pulled out and looked Henry up and down.

The reality of what he’d just done - who he’d just done - hit Henry and he began to blush profusely, sitting up quickly, though he regretted that action as he began to get dizzy from sitting up. Bendy pulled Henry into a hug, gently stroking his matted hair and letting Henry lean against his chest. Henry relaxed into the embrace, and they sat like that for several minutes.

That is, until Henry began to feel a leaking feeling, and he noticed how sweaty he was. He shifted uncomfortably and broke away from the hug. Bendy glanced over, confused at first, then grinned.
“Let’s get you cleaned up then, shall we?” Bendy suggested as he stood up and offered Henry his hand. Henry took it and stood up, following Bendy over to the doorway that led into the hallway. Bendy went first, Henry following slightly to his right.
THUNK.
Guess who just smacked his head into the damn doorway?? THIS GUY. Henry winced and hissed in pain, backing up and holding his head. Bendy looked at him with a deadpan face and Henry almost thought he was going to facepalm. Instead, Bendy rolled his eyes and laughed out loud, pulling Henry through the doorway and swooping him into his arms, carrying him bridal-style.

“Fucking dumbass,” Bendy said jokingly. “You know that’s not how doors work, right?” Henry smacked Bendy on the arm and sighed, still holding his head.

“Yeah yeah whatever.” Bendy helped Henry clean up and then put a bandage on his head, going over-the-top with a smooch to the “injured” area.

“Bendy it’s just a bump it’s not-” “Silence klutz.”

Chapter Text

Henry woke up completely smothered in blankets, wrapped around him like bubblewrap. He had at least 3 pillows under his head and was in the center of the bed. That last fact alone was odd, because upon further inspection, it wasn’t his bed. It was way too big. He struggled to free himself from the blankets for several minutes, to no avail.

Henry groaned and rolled over, the blanket burrito restricting his movement. He sighed and tensed up when he heard the door open. He tried to roll back over, then rolled again, only he rolled with too much Force™ and ended up laying on the bed face-down. He heard a snicker, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out who it was.

“Well heya sport,” Bendy said, chuckling at his work.

“Did you wrap me up like this?” Henry’s unamused muffled voice questioned. This only made Bendy snicker again and pat Henry on the back.

“Well I mean, ya are pretty clumsy. I figured you might try and fall off the bed!” Henry rolled over again so that he was facing Bendy and glared.

“What kind of idiot falls off of the-” Henry rolled too far again and ended up on the floor. How cliche. Bendy full-on burst out laughing. Henry lay on the floor, repeatedly smacking his forehead against the ground. He jinxed me he jinxed me I jinxed me.

“Well can you at least help me up you fucking asshole,” Henry spat as he writhed around on the ground, still trapped in the blanket burrito. Bendy finished laughing and caught his breath, then reached down and untangled Henry. Henry was glad to find that he was wearing pants. He stood up, but quickly took a seat on the bed when the sudden rush of blood flow made him dizzy.

Having nothing left to talk about, the room quickly flooded with awkward silence. Henry fidgeted with the blanket nervously, desperately searching the depths of his mind for something to say. Luckily, but also unfortunately, he didn’t have to.

“So uh, about last night…” Bendy began, rubbing the back of his head. Henry tensed up, having little to no experience with this thing. “I um.. I hope you’ll forgive me.”

“Forgive you? Wait why?” Henry was puzzled. Bendy stood timidly, clasping his hands together.

“Well, I mean, I just kinda...yeah, ‘n I didn’t ask or anythin’,” he explained. Henry glanced up, and couldn’t help a small smile creeping across his face. Bendy trailed off, until his mutters became mumbles. Henry laughed lightly. Bendy snapped out of it and looked back down at Henry, confused.

“Bendy, if I had minded, I probably wouldn’t have been so willing,” Henry admitted, then regretted his choice of words. Why didn’t I say, I didn’t mind, instead of being so blatant?? U g h whyyyyyy. I could die from this emb- oh wait.

Bendy blinked a couple times, then grinned, seeming to ease up a bit. He took a seat next to Henry, and they were both silent for a couple moments.

“So then, uhm,” Bendy began cautiously, “this wasn’t just a one-time thing?” Henry turned at least 5 different shades of red before collecting himself enough to respond.

“I mean, unless you wanted it to be,” Henry choked out, “I’m, uhh, I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to…” Bendy laughed and leaned against Henry. Henry let out a nervous chuckle, and they both were silent for a moment, though it wasn’t as awkward.

“So then, can I,” Bendy spoke quietly, but loud enough for Henry to hear, “can I kiss you?” Henry was already red from before, so he could only feel even more embarrassed as he nodded yes. Bendy didn’t wait for him to take back his choice, leaning quickly over and kissing him on the cheek. Henry squeaked, and tensed up, but didn’t mind. They sat for a moment, then Henry spoke up.

“So uh, what’s for breakfast?” Bendy grinned again, his tail swishing back and forth.

“Glad ya asked! I hope you’re gonna like it,” Bendy said, standing up and offering Henry his hand. Henry took it and followed Bendy out the bedroom door and down the hall to the dining area.

Breakfast consisted of belgian waffles, topped with syrup and light powdered sugar. Henry just had to wonder…

“Where are you getting all this food anyways?” Henry questioned, looking at Bendy. Bendy laughed.

“I sure do,” he said, then walked over to his seat. Henry sighed, taking his place next to Bendy.

Breakfast passed slowly, yet in the blink of an eye. They chatted a bit, interrupted by the ends of sentences and food. It was probably the most relaxed Henry had felt in the week-and-a-half since he’d gotten there. Maybe it was the unspoken trust pact formed when you fuck another person. That pact where you both agree that you trust each other enough to hang out with each other, even if only because you’ve seen each other naked and at your most vulnerable. Or maybe it was the fact that Bendy hadn’t tried to kill him yet. Or both.

After breakfast they sat on the couch for a bit, not saying much. Henry was staring at the spot where “The Illusion of Living” sat on the shelf, still not fully believing it. If he were dead, why would he still be able to produce...nevermind, you get my drift. Besides, Joey wrote it. And, knowing Joey, he was not always the most accurate human being alive.

Henry liked sitting with Bendy, but the fact that nothing was happening was absolutely killing him. He shifted a bit, and Bendy looked down at him.

“So what did you want to do today?” Henry asked, sitting up straight. Bendy mumbled something under his breath, a short word, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out what he had said. “OTHER than that,” Henry added, raising an eyebrow. Bendy opened his mouth to say something, but a distant sound of planks clattering to the floor got both of their attentions. Both stood up, but Bendy motioned for Henry to stay put. Bendy walked out of the room and down the hall to the door that led to the room where Henry had first woken up.

Psh, like Henry was just going to ‘stay put’.

Henry crept down the hall and hid half-in the doorway of Bendy’s bedroom, just close enough to the end of the hallway to hear what Bendy said.

“Boris?”

Chapter Text

Henry furrowed his brow in confusion. Boris? Wasn’t he, you know, dead and cut open upstairs?

Before he let himself follow this train of thought down the rabbit hole, he snuck back to the couch and acted like he hadn’t left at all. A few moments later, he heard footsteps enter the room and glanced over his shoulder to see Bendy walk in tensely, followed closely by Boris. Henry raised an eyebrow, and Bendy shrugged slightly.

“Henry, I’m sure you know Boris,” Bendy said when he had rounded the couch. Boris stood silently, giving a slight wave. He looked...concerned.

“Uh, hi Boris,” Henry said cautiously, not sure what to trust. Boris continued to stare at Henry, not moving.

“B-Boris doesn’t uh,” Bendy stuttered, “doesn’t talk. I guess it’s what Joey did to him.” Bendy chuckled oddly and walked quickly into the kitchen. Boris stood there for a moment, then followed him. Henry was left all alone on the couch, thinking. Was Boris an experiment? Why was Joey doing this? Was… was Bendy another experiment? Henry was pulled away from his thoughts by muffled noises coming from the kitchen. That doesn’t sound good…

Henry got up and walked quietly but quickly over to the kitchen, and peered into the room. Boris was standing against the counter with his arms crossed, and Bendy had one hand covering his face, which appeared to be slightly melted. Henry’s eyes widened a bit and he felt his muscles tense up. He took a deep breath and walked into the kitchen, causing both Bendy and Boris to glance over.

“Just getting a glass of water,” Henry lied, walking over to the cabinets and searching for a glass. Bendy and Boris blinked a couple times, and then Bendy spoke up, his face back to normal.

“Here, let me get that for you.” He grabbed a glass from the top shelf in the upper cabinets and then handed it to Henry, who promptly filled it with tap water and walked back out of the kitchen. He paused just outside the door, but the kitchen remained silent. Henry sat back down on the couch with his glass of water and waited, listening for any sounds. But none were heard. A few minutes later, Bendy and Boris walked back to the couch in silence, and nobody said anything for a while.

What was there to say? It’s not like Boris could say anything, but he could hear, so Bendy and Henry weren’t free to just talk about anything. And really, what was there to talk about?

The rest of the day passed slowly, with awkward silence filling the air like toxic gas. Meals came and went, and Boris ate with them. By the time they were getting ready for bed, the silence was grating on everyone’s nerves.

“Boris, you can have the spare bedroom over there,” Bendy said, pointing at Henry’s room. Henry looked at Bendy quizzically. Bendy glanced at Henry and grinned. Boris smiled and went into -now his- room and shut the door. Bendy seemed to physically relax, his shoulders dropping and all of his muscles loosening up. He turned to face Henry and smiled, a genuine smile. He pulled Henry into his bedroom and shut the door behind them, hugging Henry.

“That means you’re stuck with me,” Bendy said teasingly, rubbing Henry’s back. Henry chuckled, sighing and relaxing into Bendy.

“Oh no, what a shame,” he said sarcastically, feeling some of the tension of the day be washed away by Bendy’s love. Bendy laughed softly, lifting Henry’s chin so he could place a gentle kiss on his lips. Henry relaxed into the kiss, returning it with the same care.

They fell back onto the bed with a thump, a tangled mess of limbs. They lay there a while, content, not really saying much, each just enjoying the company of the other. Henry slowly let himself drift off to sleep, and Bendy watched him close his eyes, finally relaxing.

Chapter Text

Henry woke up the next morning comfortably, not suffocated in a blanket burrito. Only, something was missing.

His cuddle partner was nowhere to be found.

Henry got up, gave himself a quick once-over, and then walked into the hall, expecting to hear noises from the kitchen.

Nothing.

Nothing at all.

Henry furrowed his brow in confusion and noticed Boris’s bedroom door was open. And his bed was made. Not a trace of life (I guess) to be found. He was beginning to get worried.

As he walked back into the hallway he heard a noise coming from the room in which he first woke up. He walked quickly down the hallway, expecting to have to scold Bendy for hiding.

He did find an ink monster. Just not his ink monster.

They were just some of the ones he had been fighting before, the ones that crawled along the floor. Nothing that he couldn’t handle, right?

He cut through half of them, but the ink just kept reforming itself back into more ink monsters. He began to grow weary, despite the rush of adrenaline.

They all collapsed into puddles of ink on the floor, and Henry lowered the plank of wood he had been using to fight and caught his breath.

Of course, like everything in life - and death - nothing is that easy.

The ink all formed into one giant body, with a bendy mask and ripped trousers.

Sammy. Wait, Sammy?! Bendy killed Sammy! ...didn’t he?

Distracted by Sammy, Henry was taken aback when he was grabbed by ink hands, rendered immobile and a prisoner. The ink monsters from before had Henry by the legs, shoulders, torso...everywhere, really. Sammy laughed, a deep, gurgling laugh, ink dripping off of his body and onto the floor.

Ink began to envelop Henry head to toe, and he found it running down his throat and in his ears and up his nose, and soon the only part of him left uncovered was his eyes, and he could only watch helplessly as everything faded to inky black.

--

Henry woke up in a small dungeon-esque cell, in god knows where. Honestly, either he had accidentally fallen through a portal to another realm or Joey had made some significant additions to the animation studio.

And where the hell was Bendy?

He groaned and pushed himself off the cold, hard, stone ground, accepting the fact that his clothes were just going to be inky.

Henry paced the cell, like a caged animal. For several minutes. What little light there was seemed to be emanating from somewhere off to his left, far enough that he couldn’t see the source.

After what seemed like an eternity in the timeless cell, the sound of heavy metal being drug made him look up at the cell bars. Sammy was standing there, next to Boris, who had been the one to open the cell door.

Boris.

Henry glared at both of them, but arguably more at Boris. Boris stared blankly back, with a hint of guilt on his face.

Boris held open the door while Sammy’s ink monsters bound Henry with ink chains, and Sammy led Henry out into the hallway and down to a large, open room that was eerily reminiscent of a throne room.

And sure enough, there was a 3-ft high platform in the middle accessible by stairs on all sides, ovular, with a large stone chair on it. The chair was stained with ink.

And guess who was standing next to it.

Bendy.

Henry cleared his throat and glared at Bendy, practically staring daggers into his inky black soul. Bendy wouldn’t look at him, but he also didn’t look very ashamed.

If anything, that grin was a smirk.

Before Henry could say anything, a deafening sound echoed through the cavernous room.

Somewhere behind the throne, a large door had been pushed open, and now footsteps rang out, bouncing off cold stone as they drew nearer.

An inky figure stepped in front of the throne and sat down, putting its hands together and staring down at Henry.

The figure laughed, chuckled even.

“Well, if it isn’t my old pal Henry.”

Henry knew that voice.

Chapter Text

Henry stared in awe at the ink-covered man sitting in the throne.

“Joey?” Henry sputtered, not able to say much else.

Joey grinned, a sinister grin that made Henry’s skin crawl. This wasn’t the same Joey he knew.

“Indeed, old friend! How’d you like my additions to the studio?” Joey’s grin grew wider, and his voice sounded as if it had been laced with perfect ink, words too smooth. Henry would have shrunk into himself if he weren’t still restrained by ink. Joey seemed to sense his unease, and he motioned to Bendy.

“How about my cartoons? Pretty cool, don'tcha think? Though,” Joey paused, feigning thoughtfulness, “I did have to make a few changes to the original designs. But I think I like this version better.” Joey chuckled darkly, the ink staining his face making the whites of his eyes stand out.

At the mention of himself, Bendy straightened up and strode over to take place next to Joey’s throne, his devilish grin tearing Henry’s fond memories to shreds.

Henry wanted answers. And he wanted them now.

“Hold on, so why did you lure me to the studio? Why did you have Bendy kidnap me..?” Henry’s gaze jumped from Joey to Bendy and back again. Joey closed his eyes and grinned lopsidedly.

“Why don’tcha tell him, Bendy buddy?” Joey urged, taking some sort of sick pleasure from this whole exchange. Henry caught a glimpse of guilt on Bendy’s face before it was covered up with a sadistic grin.

“Joey needs your body, your life force, for one last animation,” Bendy explained, his grin never faltering. “I was in charge of securing you, and getting you to trust me.”

“So then...all that stuff you told me, everything, was...was a lie?” Henry felt his eyes begin to burn, the sinking feeling in his chest solidified in stone. It was all a lie, all of it...is Henry really dead? If what Bendy says now is true, then...he’s not.

“BINGO~!” Joey shouted, very obviously amused by it all. Bendy let his gaze drop to the floor, still keeping his grin. Joey stood up.

“The animation will commence in two hours. Boris, Sammy,” Joey announced, turning to face the two named, “take him back to his cell.” With that, Joey turned and left the room through the doors he came in, and Boris and Sammy escorted him back to his cell.

“Sammy, gimme a minute,” Boris said, to Henry’s surprise. Sammy said nothing, but left them to it. Boris walked inside Henry’s cell, closing the door behind him. Henry couldn’t decide whether to glare at Boris or stare in astonishment, so he decided on a mix of the two. Boris sighed, hands up in defeat.

“Listen, Henry, I-” Boris was cut off by Henry slapping him, taken aback, but not completely surprised. “Yes, I deserved that. Listen, I didn’t want to do this.”

“Then why in christ’s sake did you?” Henry fumed, stricken with both heartbreak and anger, and betrayal.

Betrayal mainly.

Boris looked like he wanted to say something, but just couldn’t get the words out.

“If you’ve got something to say, say it.”

Boris inhaled, glanced around to make sure nothing was listening, then began.

“I’ve got an idea.”

Chapter Text

Henry had decided that the best use of his last few hours was to take a nap. When he awoke, the only indication that time had passed at all was Sammy, who was now standing outside his cell.

“Get up, it’s time,” was all he said, his mask hiding any emotion he may or may not have been expressing. Henry sighed and stood up, not even bothering to dust himself off. What was the point? Presentability? He’s going to die anyways, why bother looking good when going to meet his fate?

Whilst being escorted to his doom, he tried to strike up a conversation with Sammy.

“Say, Sammy, didn’t you hate Joey?” No response. “I’ll take that as a yes. So why are you working for him now?” Sammy seemed to pause at that, and Henry thought he sensed a sliver of anger. “He has power over you, doesn’t he…” Henry questioned delicately, “Over the ink that constitutes your being.”

Sammy growled and smacked Henry on the back of the head. “Be quiet.”

Henry raised an eyebrow, and would have righted his glasses if his hands were free, but alas, they were doomed to sit on the tip of his nose for the rest of his miserable life. What a shame, looks like Henry is going to go out with a horrible headache.

A few moments later they arrived in the throne room yet again, and now Henry was absolutely convinced that they were not in New York anymore. There’s no way they were far enough down to have a ceiling THAT high. Also, he was fairly certain that the city officials would never permit the building of a private dungeon and throne room.

Joey was not there yet, but Henry was certain he’d be joining them soon. He caught the gaze of Boris, and the both nodded at each other. It was ready.

Henry had just enough time to turn back to the throne before Joey entered the massive room, taking his sweet-ass time getting to the throne. Above the throne was a large chandelier, which Henry had not noticed before. This must’ve been the one Boris was talking about. How they were going to do it, Henry had no idea.

Joey placed himself in front of his throne, standing as if he were a king. That bastard.

“Well now, dear friends, are we ready?” Joey mused, and Henry could tell just how power-mad he’d become. It was sickening. “Bring it over.”

Boris and Sammy brought over a giant barrel filled with a very strong-smelling chemical - acetone, by the smell of it. Henry didn’t know what it would do to him - and he didn’t want to find out.

“Sammy!” Henry shouted, and Sammy quickly spun his head to look at Henry, and Boris shoved him and spilled some of the acetone on Sammy, who shrieked and writhed on the floor, melting just a bit and smoking. Henry backed up a bit, unnerved by what it could do to ink, but prepared to fight. Boris took a bucket and filled it with the acetone, careful not to get it on himself, and flung the contents of the bucket at Joey.

Everyone in the room stood in shocked silence, the world standing still as the acetone came into contact with Joey. It was like a moment frozen in time, and nothing happened at first. But Joey screamed, and Henry and Boris were about to start celebrating when a dark, booming laugh came from the smoking, melting form that was Joey. The entire room froze again, this time in fear. Where Joey once stood was a large, inky figure that seemed to be growing in size by the moment.

“You idiots. You fucking idiots,” the creature spoke darkly, his head down but his eyes still trained on Henry and Boris. Boris was much closer to him, however. Joey reached out with a long, dripping arm made of ink, and punched Boris across the room. Boris went flying, hit the wall, and landed on the floor, still.

“Boris!” Henry yelled, then turned back to face the monster that Joey had become. The monster stared at him with a sinister grin. The grin grew wider as he turned to Bendy.

“Bendy,” Joey’s voice echoed frighteningly, “Kill him.” Bendy turned to him, hesitant. Bendy’s face began to melt, and he let out a low growl. Henry’s eyes widened, and he backed up a couple paces. Bendy charged.

Henry was knocked to the ground, and pinned down as Bendy climbed on top of him on his knees and raised a clawed hand to strike.

Henry shut his eyes.

Chapter Text

Henry lay still on the floor underneath Bendy, and nearly jumped when he heard Bendy whisper.

“Play dead.”

Henry wanted to question it, but knew better and, when Bendy’s clawed hand pretended to hit Henry, Henry pretended to be in pain, and with the next faux blow, he pretended to be dead.

Bendy stood up, walking back over to where Joey was. Joey grinned wider.

“How pitiful he was,” Joey growled. “And yet you favored him.” Bendy said nothing. “You favored him, and yet you were still willing to kill him.” Bendy lowered his head. “Pathetic.”

Bendy must have snapped, because in the next instant, Joey’s inky arm fell to the floor in a puddle of ink, and Bendy wiped off his hand. Joey was silent for a moment, then growled, straightening up and laughing. With that, he glared down at Bendy and hit him across the room, getting down from the throne platform to follow him. Bendy recovered at first, but another blow from Joey and he was finding it harder and harder to get up.

They fought for several minutes, and it took all of Henry’s willpower not to get up and help. Though, what could he do?

Wait, dammit. Bendy had said play dead. That means…

I actually am dead!

Henry pushes himself off the floor and grabs the nearest object - a piece of a broken barrel - and hurtles it at Joey. It bounces off of him, and only succeeds in making him angrily turn his head.

“Aw look at that the poor little rat didn’t have it in him to kill you,” Joey gurgles menacingly, turning back to face Bendy. Bendy backs up a bit, but still stands strong. Joey laughs and, in the blink of an eye, his hand has been raised and brought back down again, crushing Bendy into the ground. Henry hears a faint cough, and can only stand rooted-to-the-spot as Joey chuckles darkly and clenches his fist around Bendy, picking him up and preparing to toss him.

Henry feels some odd urge welling up inside of him, and it’s beginning to eat away at him. He feels it scraping up his insides, like a monster trying to get out. It twists his organs around, makes him burn all over. In that split second, he felt tears welling up in his eyes and the urge to make himself heard in his throat.

When he saw Bendy’s body hit against the wall with a sickening splat, he broke.

The feelings building up inside of him spiked, and suddenly it felt like he lost control of his body. His eyes dimmed slightly, to where it felt like he was watching everything through a TV screen. His body goes numb, and it’s like it’s not his body anymore. He lets his gaze drop to his hands, which have begun to turn black. His left arm is...liquid? Is he….oh god. Is he ink?

His skin melts away, and he faintly hears himself scream over the pounding in his head. All of the anger, all of the hate, all of the sadness he had built up was finally manifesting itself.

With a final inhuman roar, he watched himself straighten up and growl. Somewhere in the back of his mind it registered that he had horns, sharp teeth, and a body of ink. And then, just like that, he found himself forced into co-control of his body.

Henry glared over at Joey, who looked just the slightest bit afraid. Joey was still slightly bigger, but the playing field had turned from cliffs to a flat plateau. Henry felt he had a chance - no, knew he had a chance.

Henry grinned, a sharp grin, and took a step towards Joey, then two. As Henry got closer, speeding up now, Joey took a step back and looked like he was ready for a fight.

Henry’s liquid arm turned itself into an axe and he swung at Joey, who staggered back after it cut off a rather sizable chunk of his arm, which fell to the floor in a puddle of ink. Joey growled and punched Henry, who fell back but caught himself, standing back up with a very determined look on his face. Joey laughed and sprinted over, punching him again and grabbing him by the shoulder only to toss him a couple yards back.

Henry hit the ground with a thud and was in the middle of getting up when Joey shoved him back down and got on top of him.

Joey grabbed him by the horns and held his head down, and Henry made use of his free hands to smack Joey across the face, leaving scratches that went across his eyes. Joey hissed in return and let go of Henry’s horns to grip him around the throat. Henry glared up at Joey through his one non-ink-covered eye.

“What happened to you Joey…?” he growled under his breath, and Joey only laughed.

“My my, nothing happened to me. I was always this way. You just never saw it.”

Joey was about three seconds away from probably ripping Henry’s throat out, but a shout from a few meters to the left got their attention.

“Hey!” They both turned their heads to see Boris standing there, and barely had time to register that he had a barrel in his hand before the contents of said barrel were covering Joey and Henry.

Joey let out a very sinister screech as he slowly began to melt, and Henry growled as he too began to feel the pain. Joey’s ink slowly began to drip off of him in large clumps, and he jumped off of Henry and tried to escape the liquid. But it was too late. He made it a few feet before collapsing onto the floor, letting out one last yell as all the ink washed away and was left diluted on the ground, leaving Joey laying there motionless in the middle of it all.

Henry felt his body shrink too, and he yelped as the stinging intensified, to an almost blinding white-hot pain. He curled up into a ball on his side and blacked out.

By the time he fully regained consciousness, it was only a minute or two later, and Boris was knelt down next to him, seeing if he was okay.

Henry groaned and pushed himself up off the floor, holding his now-human head with his now-human hands. His curls felt so soft, he’d never take them for granted again.

“I’m fine Boris,” he sighed when Boris continued to stare at him, a very concerned look on his face. “Hey, where’s Ben….. Oh my god Bendy!” Henry jolted and ran over to where Bendy had hit the ground, and Bendy blinked open an eye weakly, smiling softly.
“Looks like ya did it, eh doll?” he spoke softly, and Henry really tried not to let his emotions show. He truly did. But he couldn’t mask his voice.

“Yeah, I guess we did,” Henry choked out, a tiny lump forming in the back of his throat. No.

Bendy smiled again and closed his eyes.

“I’m sorry. I am, really-” “Stop.” “-it’s my fault. I didn’t lie to you though.” “Please stop this.” “You were such a pleasure to have around and-” “Don’t-” “I really did love you.” “Bendy please-” “I still do, and always will.”

Henry felt his emotional barrier begin to break down and his eyes stung, tears beginning to cloud his vision. “Bendy don’t you dare-” He could only watch heartbroken as Bendy let his eyes drift closed.

“Love you….you fucking dumbass…” Those last three words were almost a whisper, and Henry slowly sank to the ground next to him as he watched that heart pumping ink slowly beat to a halt.

Chapter Text

After everything was over, the false reality that Joey had constructed around them fell apart, and suddenly they were back in the studio’s basement.

Boris led Henry to the exit, and they said quick goodbyes, hugged, and then Henry walked out the door, fully aware of everything he was leaving behind.

Henry got home late that night, as someone had stolen his bike and he had to walk the whole way. His house looked almost exactly like he had left it, except that his flowers were either dying or dead. He sighed. It took him damn long to raise those flowers, and now they were dead. He walked up to the door, found his spare key, and went inside. Everything seemed frozen in time, from the glass of water he’d left on the dining room table to the covers on his bed that were slightly pulled back from when he had woken up the morning he left.

He sighed and laid down on his bed, realizing that he was, in effect, simply haunting this house now.

Weeks passed, then months. Almost a year later, Henry’s house had finally been sold to new homeowners, ones with kids. They were a happy family, and Henry took to spending his time entertaining the kids as a ghost, instead of making them scared. Though no one could see him, the kids knew he was there and enjoyed his company.

One day, Henry was walking down the hallway when he heard the parents talking in the kitchen.

“Who’s Henry?” the wife asked, holding a letter in her hand. The husband looked over her shoulder and stared at the unopened envelope. “Harold, do you think they meant you?”

“No, dear,” Harold, the husband, replied. “Henry was the man who used to live here before us. Though they should have switched his mailing address by now.”

Their two kids, Johnny and Harry, came running into the kitchen.

“Didya say Henry, dad?” Johnny asked, eyes wide and a smile on his face. His dad nodded, raising an eyebrow. “Harry! Let’s bring this to Henry!” At this, the dad looked a little concerned.

“Who’s Henry, son?” the dad asked, worried his sons were hanging out with middle-aged men. The boys looked at each other, then smiled.

“Henry’s our friend! He’s a ghost, so y’ can’t see ‘im,” Harry said, and Johnny nodded vigorously. Harold and his wife smiled, chalking it up to be an imaginary friend.

“Alright, you can have the letter,” the dad says, giving them the letter. The wife shoots him a stern look as the kids run off.

“Harold, don’t you think that’s a little rude?” she asked, “Disrespecting his mail and all that?”

“Matilda, it’s likely spam mail,” Harold responded. “And besides, they’re kids, let them play.”

Henry walked back to the kids’ room, and saw they were sitting on the floor holding the letter. Henry picked up a toy and set it down next to them to let them know he was there, and they smiled.

“Henry! We got a letter for ya!” Johnny said, holding up the letter. Henry smiled, even though they couldn’t see it, and took the letter and opened it. He sat down on the floor across from the two kids as he read it.

Henry
It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Almost a year now, eh doll? If you’re not busy, you should come down to the old studio sometime. I’ve got something I want to show you.
B

Henry’s eyes widened and he read the letter again, then again. It was almost the same wording as the letter Joey had sent him, only…..

‘Almost a year now, eh doll?’

Only one person called him doll.

Henry set the envelope down on the floor and took the letter.

“Kids, I’ve got somewhere I gotta go,” Henry said, happily. The kids looked up at the letter in his hands, nodding.

“I hope to be back someday, but until then,” Henry added, “don’t forget me.” Harry smiled, and Johnny looked a little betrayed, but nodded.

Henry ran out the front door of the house, down the street, and began heading to the studio.

Those kids reminded him of himself and Joey, when they were kids.

Henry had, by this point, figured out what had happened so long ago. Yes, he had died by the ink machine’s hand, but Joey didn’t know that. Someone hid his body in one of the many coffins, so Joey continued to see Henry as if he were still alive. And Henry had no idea he was dead either. But then when Henry got drafted for the war, he and Joey fought. Joey didn’t want him to go, and claimed Henry was only trying to cut him out of his life. Henry argued, but Joey was stubborn, so Henry eventually just left. The war was brutal, and Henry had blocked most of it out. He’d gotten shot once or twice, but made it out okay in the end. And then he lived at home, alone, for years. Until he got that letter.

Henry clutched this letter in his hands as he ran towards the door to the studio. It was falling apart at this point, but still in one piece.

He ran up to the door, catching his breath as he stood in front of it.

He reached for the handle, opening it into the dark, ink-covered interior that he knew so well. He walked inside and shut the door behind him, and found his way back down to the basement. A voice called out to him.

“Hey doll, long time no see.”

Chapter Text

Ye asked and ye shall receive

This Ink That Stains

Enjoy~