#bendyxreader

[toontails]

Toon Quest

Chapter 11: Working Hard or Hardly Working

Y/n stared at the tree—aiming the arrow at the trunk—her pointer finger being her line of sight. The sun had set an hour ago but Felix stuck to his word when he said he’ll train Y/n to properly use a bow. Not only that, Y/n also got Ruck to help her train for the contest. Starting tomorrow, she was ready to go. Headstart into the unknown. Killing two birds with one stone. 

“You’re doing good.” Y/n heard Felix a few feet away. She released the arrow—watching it fly over to the tree, but it landed at the base. Y/n only made maybe one hit—and she wasn’t satisfied with that. It was like the more she tried to use the bow the more horrible she got at it. 

“Dammit..” Y/n muttered. 

“You did good, don’t worry too much about it.”  He says as Y/n reached back into her quiver for another arrow, which she retrieved and loaded it into the bow, despite still learning to aim and shoot. She was getting better at loading the arrow, after a few stumbles here and there with latching the nock onto the nock point, she was able to load the arrow without looking. Not much but it was something. 

Aiming the arrow once more at the tree, Y/n slowly pulled the arrow back and gently squinted her eyes at the tree and stared off at it, she failed way too many times to hit the tree and the arrow either ended up past the tree or right at the base of it. So she became hesitant as she stared at the tree in concentration that soon dwindled off into hesitation. Her grip loosened on the arrow and she slowly lowered her arms before looking over at Felix who was already looking at her, waiting for her to release the arrow to hit the target. 

His eyebrows slightly raised in response to her halt in action. Y/n was silent for a moment as she stared at him and then moved her gaze to the tree and then to Felix. 

She couldn’t really explain her hesitance. Was it out of embarrassment that she couldn’t even shoot an arrow, or the fact that this is the 100th thing she found out she wasn’t good at? Or was it the fact that earlier encounter with the contestee’s left her in sheer shriveling doubt that she wasn’t good at anything other than probably picking up a controller on some console and playing the day away, or just sitting in bed and taking talleys how long she could sit without getting up and running to the bathroom. 

There was a doubt crawling in her head that maybe even with training she wouldn’t do no good to make it to the finals, even make it to the basics of the contest, though Warrior Falls was just one thing on the list that worried her. If she couldn’t surpass that, what the hell good would she even bring to the table? She felt like she repeated this same exact thought in her head countless times and everytime tried to swallow it down with everything being alright and she would be good, but reality had kicked in long ago when the book came into her life. It wasn’t a movie, or a game or anything fanatical that would magically happen. This was something that she had to make due on her own and she couldn’t even shoot an arrow correctly. 

“What’s wrong..?” Felix’s voice cut through and Y/n slowly furrowed her eyebrows as she lowered the bow to her side. 

“I need help.” 

Felix moved to walk over to Y/n and reached over and gently raised the arm that was holding the bow. Resuming her original position. She aimed at the tree, Felix’s hand enclosed hers holding the arrow and he helped her pull back and aim correctly. 

“Right there.” He tells her. He moved his hand away and Y/n released the arrow and it flew over to the tree and landed right in the middle of it. 

She looks at Felix who smiled at her. “See?”

“You helped me, that’s why.” Y/n deadpans before moving to grab another bow from her quiver and loaded it onto the bow. 

“So the arrow can stay right there for you to get a better aim at it.” Felix replied as Y/n aimed towards the tree once more and pulled the arrow back, staring at the tree once more as before she hesitated yet again and her eyebrows slowly stitched together. 

“It’s okay to make mistakes, Y/n. It’ll help you learn.” Felix spoke once more and Y/n had grown silent for a moment before releasing the arrow, it shot off towards the tree and landed at the base of the tree—a tad bit higher than before. A difference from what she made for the last hour. 

“See? Look at the difference there.” Felix moved to stand beside Y/n who was staring off at the tree. She slowly nodded and glanced at him. 

“Yeah.”

The two fell in silence as Felix’s eyes gazed down at the bow in her hand before slowly nodding. 

“Want to try again?”

“Yeah.”

For the 3 hours, Y/n would aim and shoot towards the tree to try and land the bow in the same exact place the last bow was that Felix helped her with. Leaving it embedded into the tree to help her everytime she would move to retrieve the arrows to start over again. 

With aiming and shooting nonstop she saw some difference, Felix would come in ever so often to redirect her pose correctly or if she was holding the bow the right way—because lord knows the last thing they needed was for her to accidentally shoot someone. 

Y/n was silent for the most part until the string would zip back and hit her forearm. She hissed in pain and flinched seeing it hit the same exact spot from last time. Felix placed a hand on her back. 

“Remember. You let the bow rest in your hand, you don’t hold tightly onto it.” He reminds her and Y/n slowly nods and sighs through her nose. 

Before moving away to go retrieve the arrows that were emptied from her quiver. 

“You know, if I can shoot one thing, that would be great.” Y/n tells him. 

Felix watched as the human retrieved the arrows stuck in the ground and placed them back in the quiver one by one. 

“I’m certain you’ll hit something. It takes time to learn these things, Y/n.” Felix states. She fixes the strap of her quiver on her shoulder and turns to look at Felix slowly walking over to him and standing in front of him, she motions towards the tree. 

“I suck at this. It’s been three hours, and I missed like—a hundred times already.” She complained, it was evident the human was becoming agitated and Ruck’s statement about her being patient was starting to become very self explanatory. 

“Took me 100 times to tie my shoes once.” Felix states and Y/n gives him a confused expression before a smile cracks onto her face. Felix soon smiled after gently.

“It takes time…” 

Y/n stared at him before nodding, her irritation being pushed back once more. She glanced back at the tree where the arrow was embedded in the tree.

“I’ll try again tomorrow.”

-

Lucy sat next to Bendy at the table watching the priest prance back and forth and about vows, and promises, and proper speech etiquette…the man had been ranting for the last 2 hours and the sun had set some time ago and Bendy was utterly exhausted. Running around doing deeds and other stuff was unbearable, he didn’t expect someone with such a label to do so much damn work..

Lucy seemed half ready to hop out of her seat and just walk away, as much as he wanted to and he hadn’t seen that bored and unamused expression on her face yet, but he was glad the two were on the same page. 

She still had an arm intertwined with his and at this point Bendy just got used to it as she never seemed to leave his side. 

“And remember, you two are the face of this empire—Especially you Bendy as you are an adventurer!” Exclaims the man and Bendy only blinks slowly before leaning further into his seat, his eyebrows furrowing together in frustration.

“Great…couldn’t be reminded.” Bendy muttered under his breath. As the man spoke Lucy looked at Bendy who was still staring off at the man with a time ticking expression.

“Well..I’m certain it’s time for bed now.“ Lucy starts before she stands from her seat. Bendy’s eyes flicker to Lucy before he stands up as well.

-

Walking down the hallway, Lucy was busy picking something off her dress—perhaps lint, Bendy walked beside her, he was pretty much just returning her to her room for the night, thankfully for as many times he’s been around the castle he was able to get a layout and properly know his way back to the residence hall where everyone else was. The last thing he needed was to be walking around clueless as hell. 

He actually enjoyed the peace and quiet that Lucy gave—he was ready to close his eyes and just drift off into a forever sleep. He's been up since the break of dawn and he could feel his eyelids burning from fatigue, screaming for him to find a bed and quickly go to sleep. The sound of their footsteps hitting the carpeted floor was the only sound up until Bendy surprisingly started to talk. 

“So, I see Modi is. You know. The kinda n’ all that. Hadn’t seen the queen yet, where is she?” He asks. Lucy looked away from down the hall she had been watching and glanced at Bendy. 

“Oh. I don’t know much about her. She passed away years ago.” Her statement was very..off? All considering the queen had to be her mother. Bendy raises an eyebrow and turns his head to look at her. 

Lucy slowly looks away from Bendy and nods once. “I was an orphan. I was brought into this family by my father when I was 3 I believe.”

Bendy’s confused expression flattered when she started to explain, he didn’t expect that at all. It seems to affect the girl though as she still kept her shoulders high while mentioning it. 

“Not so many people liked the fact that I was the new face of royalty ever since being picked from the orphanage, I’m quite thankful it happened. I wouldn’t be able to see all the wonderful things I’ve seen so far.” She looked back ahead and smiled and Bendy slowly looked away as well. 

“I wanted to prove I can be…which is why I’m glad I ran into you at the time.” Lucy trailed off. Her eyes landed on her room door where Bendy slowly stopped walking. Lucy removed herself from Bendy before placing a hand on the doorknob. 

“Because of you, you made everyone give me a second chance..”

“And I thank you for that.” She smiled at Bendy who stared at her for a moment. “Yeah..” his eyes flickered away. 

“You know even without me, m’ sure ya’ would have made a change in view.” He starts and Lucy nods.

“Yes, I understand…”

The two silently stood in front of each other, Bendy resting his shoulder onto the wall before Lucy started to speak. 

“You know. You have a funny way of talking? Do all adventures talk like that?” 

“Like what?” 

“Say nothing.” 

“Nothin?”

“See?” 

Bendy raised an eyebrow at her pointing out his accent—which she somehow didn’t know existed for whatever reason or did she expect him to speak a certain way? 

The two soon let out a laugh at that conversation and Lucy twisted the doorknob before opening the door. 

“No, really. I had a wonderful day with you, Bendy.”

“Me too. See you in th-“

He was cut off by Lucy wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing a firm kiss to his cheek. Bendy stiffened as stiff as a wooden board. His hands glued to his side, Lucy pulls away and smiles at Bendy’s amazed expression. His mouth opened slightly as he seemed to want to say something but couldn’t seem to find the words. 

His eyes flickered away from Lucy and down the hall as if checking to see if anyone was there. Which there wasn’t. He then looks at Lucy before pouncing towards her, his mouth slamming against hers, whereas the two fell into the room and the door slammed shut. 

-

Y/n laid on the bed. Staring up at the ceiling, her head was busy thinking about what tomorrow would hold. Training with Ruck was the biggest thing on the list certainly, everyone was fast asleep in their original spots. Spunk found comfort with sleeping on Donald’s back on the couch. Y/n tried to close her eyes to go to sleep but it seemed every time she tried, her eyes would be ripped right back over. 

She heard the door open and looked over to see the yellow light from the hallway spilling into the room, and soon Bendy stepped inside with a tired expression, seemingly ready to collapse on the nearest spot open and just fall to sleep. The sudden feeling of excitement rushed through Y/n when she saw Bendy though. It had been all day since she’s seen him and the events that took place today, she was glad to see he was still alive and kicking while having to spend time trapped with Lucy. 

Bendy’s eyes offhandedly trailed over to Y/n when he checked to see if everyone was asleep. When he spotted she was still awake, he turned his head to her and Y/n sat up and smiled, the blankets falling from her shoulders as Bendy quietly walked across the room.

“What’re you still doing up?” He asks her. Y/n yet again couldn’t find an answer for that other than shrugging. 

“Not too tired.” She replied. Feeling the bed dip down as Bendy sat next to her, his eyes glued onto her face before they furrowed together.

“What happened to your face?” He asks. Honestly she knew that was coming, out of everyone to question it, Bendy was the one she worried the most about finding her earlier injuries. 

“Asking me? The hell happened to you?” Y/n raised an eyebrow and her eyes flickered down to his shirt, where three of his buttons were undone, like they were hastily buttoned back up. Bendy brought his hands up to his shirt to fix it. 

“Nothin.” He quickly replied. Y/n was silent for a moment before he moved his gaze back to her. “So. What’s goin’ on with your eye.”

“I fought a dragon. What else you wanna know.” 

Bendy squinted his eyes, which it was clear that was a lie. “Don’t lie.” 

“Guess that makes two of us.” 

Bendy fell into a deep silence before looking away from Y/n and to a wall across the room. The human fixed the blankets to her shoulders and then moved to lay down on her side. Bendy looks back at her when he feels her move to lay down. 

“It’s nothing bad. Just a small run in when I was out today.” She soon replied. Closing her eyes in an attempt to get her ready for sleep. 

“Who did it?” He asks. 

“Some guy. Don’t worry about it.” 

“You givin’ me the cold shoulder or somethin?” Bendy asks. Y/n shook her head with a laugh out of her nose.

“No. I need to be up early tomorrow in the morning so I need to sleep. Which you should be too, Mr. Lady’s Man.” Her last statement caused Bendy to deadpan. His eyes flickering over to her form. 

“Ha ha. Funny.” He muttered. Y/n slowly opened her eyes and looked at him. In which he was already looking at her. When he looked at her, his eyebrows flickered up and he placed an arm on her arm. 

“Get up. Hadn’t spent a minute with you and you’re already tryin to fall asleep on me.” He says before sitting up from the bed. Y/n remained laying down and raised an eyebrow at his sudden bothersome behavior, not that it was really aggravating. 

“You mentioned you wanted ta’ show me some of your archery skills.” 

Y/n sat up with a grin. “Oh yeah. I got a few tricks or two.” 

-

“Jesus—be careful with that thing.” Bendy flinched away from Y/n’s view as she pointed the arrow at him. Y/n was surprised she could remember the path around the wooded area near Welkin, with how many times she’s been in and out of it with the others, it was no surprise It was new to Bendy, with it already being dark the area was dim, but the moonlight fed some light into the area, who would have knew away from the city you could actually see in the dark with only the moon and stars? No pollution or city lighting from buildings, cars and streetlights. Just the stars in the sky and the moon. 

“Looks like you guys been havin’ much more fun without me.” Bendy grunts as he trailed behind Y/n who stepped over a log, she glanced over her shoulder to him and shrugs. 

“It was at first till I got my ass kicked earlier today.” 

She stopped walking and Bendy slowly stopped behind her. Y/n turned to face him and was met with a concerned expression but he soon chuckled. 

“Maybe trainin’ ain’t for you.” He teases and Y/n shrugs.

“Maybe it’s not.” She sat down on the log and Bendy followed after her. Resting his elbows on his knees as he looked at her. 

“What was the Loud Adventurous Y/n up to today? Aside from—whateva’ scuffle you had today.” 

Y/n thinks back on what happened in the day. Minus Stinks being a small bump in the road. Her earlier run-ins with a mage was another part of it. 

“We were catching chickens today and I ran into this witch. And she knew about Hector, and it was so weird. Like she made me see a vision of what happened back then when Hector was alive and he told us to go to this cave or something. Something that would help us, from what I know. He marked it in the book somewhere, so after Warrior Falls we’ll have to check that out.”

Bendy slowly blinked and deadpans. “Fuckin’ hell. So you all really did do some stuff without me.” He muttered. And Y/n let out a soft laugh. 

“Well. I miss having you with us. What have you been up to on your side?” Considering Bendy’s role was to do nothing but follow Lucy around, she was certain it was nothing too complicated. 

“Beside bein’ dragged around by Lucy. Nothin’ too interesting unlike what you all been up to.”

Y/n smiled before moving her gaze off to the trees. Placing the arrow back into her quiver and placing the arrow around her. She heard the crickets chirping in the air and the cicadas singing. The rustling of the leaves danced in the cool midnight air, the two sat in silence as they stared off into the vass land of trees and nature.

“You know. We should actually take a vacation to the offlands..you know. Not with the whole. Running for our lives situation and all that.” Y/n’s meek voice reached Bendy. He glanced over at her as she continued to stare out into the trees. 

“There’s so much stuff here to explore, like who would have known this place existed? I wonder why some people on the mainland haven’t heard of this place.” The human glanced up at the trees reaching out for the sky before glancing back at Bendy who turned his gaze to her. His index finger tapped the log they were sitting on as he gave her a calculated look. 

“Let’s hope we don’t get dropped from the face of the earth before then.” He soon responds and Y/n chuckles before nodding in agreement. “Right..”

“Also. What are you doing to have to be up so early?” Bendy asks. Y/n inhales before looking back up at him. 

“Training. Had to enter this contest called Warrior Falls.” 

“Oh. Yeah, I heard about that. Heard it’s a real big thing for the people in town.” 

“Which is what I’m afraid of. The guy I ran into earlier doesn't like Hector. So he doesn't like me. Some family shit, or something like that. Long story short.” 

She grimaced and rolled her eyes. 

“Nobody likes me. So Ruck’s training me to atleast do something good in the contest, all across the land of the offlands will know us.” She says and Bendy furrowed his eyebrows together. 

“Y/n. From what Lucy told me, that contest is a very dangerous thing…you’ve never traveled a day in your life, you’re a mainlands body. You-“

“And you never wore a crown over your head before.” 

Bendy silently stared at Y/n when she turned her body to face him on the log. He sighed and furrowed his eyebrows together. 

“That makes two of us. We both don’t know anything out here. We’re clearly being chased so lord knows what would happen to us if we don’t do something productive.”

Bendy continued to stare at Y/n with the same expression and Y/n tilted her head. “I'll be fine. If things get too rough. I’ll drop out. But Bendy, I only have 4 days to make a difference for my title, our team for having the view for being voyagers, something clearly grand in the offlands eyes—“

“So…you’ll do what you have to do then..” he finished for her. Y/n slowly opened her mouth and stared at him and she slowly nodded. 

“Whoever that guy is. If he causes too much problem, don’t be surprised when I slice his throat.” Bendy sneered and Y/n smiled before clasping her hands together. 

“So, you’ll be there to support me even if I’m being beaten to the ground?” 

“Have no choice but to be there. The whole town will be at the contest. It’s an annual thing from what I’ve been told.” 

Y/n froze for a moment. She knew it was a contest but didn’t expect the entire town to be there. She was going to make a fool out of herself in front of thousands of people…great..

She pinched her lips together and slowly nodded her head. “Great..” she really hoped Ruck could help her. From what he told her, he wasn’t going easy on her. 

“Well. Ruck’s helping me so, that’s a good thing. He was there with Hector and clearly Hector’s good. No doubt I’ll be atleast decent.” 

“Well if we’re going through with this. How are you feelin’ about it.”

Y/n was silent for moments before looking back at him. 

“I trust Ruck. But more so scared what he’s gonna have me do.” 

“Whatever it is, I’m sure it’ll do you some good.”

“You tryna say something?” Y/n raised an eyebrow and Bendy let out a chuckle. “Maybe. I think you got a thing for being a target.” 

“Says the guy who got his ass kicked multiple times for our first run.” 

“And how do you think your run is gonna go?”

“…Hopefully good.”

-

Y/n felt a nudge to her arm and she squinted her eyes and felt the sleep slowly start to be pushed away at the harsh nudge. Opening her eyes she spotted Ruck standing near the bed with her bookbag in his hands, the others were in the back getting ready as well. Meek and Don surely were already outside waiting. When Ruck saw Y/n open her eyes and slip from her sleep he tossed the heavy book bag at her, the weight of the bag caused her to let out a huff. 

“Let’s get a move on kid. We got a long walk.”

Y/n furrowed her eyebrow in irritation from suddenly being woken up, but she really had no reason to be upset as this was the purpose of the whole training. 

Sighing she sat up from the bed and looked down at her bag. Placing a hand on her face, she tried to rid the tiredness away but no matter what she couldn’t seem to pull herself from the bed. 

The next thing she knew she was walking away from Welkin with everyone? Minus Bendy of course, the quiver was placed inside the bookbag—sticking out for easier access and Y/n had her bow around her, she felt like she was some cargo carrier carrying so much stuff. 

They had been walking for over 2 hours and she was sure that they passed up so many cool things but Ruck didn’t stop to take a gander at the stuff. But that was mostly taken over by the fact that wherever Ruck was leading them was way too far out. She couldn’t imagine what the walk back to Welkin would feel like. After an hour of walking with such a heavy bag she felt like her legs would give out. 

Felix and Oswald were trailing behind everyone talking with each other, Cuphead and Mugman—as always were walking next to each other, surprisingly this time Cuphead wasn’t bothering the soul out of Mugman which Mugman seemed to appreciate the serene trees that slowly seemed to be disappearing the further they walked. The environment was starting to become dry and much more humid, like the sun got closer to the earth on this side of the Offlands. Y/n had to roll up her sleeves to her button up to get at least a bit more air—but the air was so still and thick it felt like no air at all was cycling. 

The straps of the bag rubbing against her shoulders didn’t make it any better. Her scalp felt hot and she just felt like jumping into a pool of water to cool down. The weather felt like one of those horrible sunny summer days where everyone was hot indoor and outside they even a pool or a water park would suffice to their needs of comfort of cooling off, 

Y/n felt a tickling sensation crawl down her temple, and lifted a hand up to her temple to wipe the sweat away. 

Panchito and Donald were busy comparing the sticks they picked up—they didn’t seem bothered by the heat, not nearly as Y/n did. No one actually did. They walked just fine like it was nothing.

She slowed down and Oswald and Felix walked past her, the two glancing back at her when they spotted her slowing down like a car out of gas. Meek glanced back where they were and looked at Y/n who had let out a heavy huff and soon stopped walking completely. 

He turned his head back to Ruck who was walking between him and Don and said something to him. In which Ruck soon spoke up, not even glancing back at Y/n. 

“What’re doing Y/n?” He called back. 

Panchito and Donald looked back at Y/n to see she was a few feet behind, Cuphead and Mugman slowly stopped walking and stood next to  Panchito and Donald to glance back as well. And Oswald and Felix stopped walking as well to check on Y/n.

Y/n slowly sat down on the ground, her legs sprawled out in front of her as she sulked. 

“It’s hot.” She whines. She wanted to take a break from walking to cool off just for one second. 

Ruck glanced over his shoulder to the human while she turned her head to look at him. “And my legs hurt.” 

“You’re gonna end up dead if you don’t start picking yourself up.” He tells her. Y/n stared at him and furrowed her eyebrows and huffs. 

“It’s hot.” She repeats. 

Ruck looks at Meek and nudges his head forward for them to keep walking, Meek and Don continue walking and Ruck turns around and walks over to Y/n. 

“I got her.” Ruck told the toons as he motioned for them to continue walking. They all hesitated before they moved to continue walking. 

Y/n side eyes Ruck as he turns away from the others who were walking away. He moved to stand in front of her before kneeling down to her level. 

“Come on. Get up.” He moves an arm to slap the side of her arm. Y/n and sulks and sighs heavily. 

“But it’s hot—“

“You let something that’s not even physical stopping you from walking to a location, what makes you think you can fight something that’s physically in front of you when you’re sitting here whining about it being hot.” He rested his forearms on his knees and raised an eyebrow. Y/n furrowed her eyebrows, her chest heaving up and down from being tired out. 

“It’s only the first day.” He tells her. He placed a hand on her warm head. Her hair brushed between his fingers where he could feel her warm scalp.

“What seems tiring and impossible right now, will feel like a walk in the park the next day.” He gently shook her head and Y/n stared at him—she seemed to be on the fence, she’s never been in a situation where she either chose to just sit, or move. 

“Until you learn to stop walking backwards. You’re never gonna see what’s in front of you.” 

He could see her pupils dilate, like a match being lit in her, The corner of Y/n’s lip twitched into a frown and Ruck stood up and stood in front of her. Her eyes followed him as he stared down at her. 

“Your choice kid. Your journey, not mine.”

He moved and started after everyone else who was still walking. He heard the grass and leaves rustle, and when he turned to look behind him, he saw Y/n pushing herself up from the ground, dusting her pants. She looks at Ruck and he nods silently. 

“Let’s go then.” He tells her. 

-

Walking down the now dirt trail, the dirt resembled much like a dried dessert and it was understandable why the heat was so strong. The dried cracked ground was like concrete and there was a meadow of dried grass and some sand. A few trees around the arrow and a lake somewhere in the distance. The sun hadn’t lifted up, and Y/n’s legs felt like they were going to give out on her.  

Ruck slowly stops walking as well as everyone else and he glances around the area before glancing back at everyone. 

“Here.” He said. Y/n immediately drops the back on the ground near a tree under the sun. Spunk waddles over to the bag and flops on the ground to lay down. 

Y/n’s eyes gazed around the area, her chest heaving up and down from the walk. The trees were brittle and dried but seemed tall and healthy. The sand blew in the wind—the air hitting Y/n’s damp forehead, chasing a cool shiver to run up her spine. 

“Wonder if you can make a sand castle with some of this sand.” Cuphead pipes up as he hadn’t spoken too much through their short journey to the location. 

“I’m sure you probably can’t..” Oswald muttered from the background. 

“Put your bookbag back on.” Ruck glanced at Y/n. She looked away from her surroundings and glanced at him before furrowing her eyebrows, she just took it off..

“But—“ 

“Put it back on.” 

Huffing from her nose. She bent down and picked the heavy book bag up and placed it back on her shoulders, her sore shoulders weighing down heavily, she grimaced before fixing the straps and glancing at Ruck and he motioned over to the opening out into the hot sun that was ready to attack her with its spiking heat and devour her whole. 

“Walk over to that area over there.” He points way across the way, where some wooded area was located, perhaps the other side of the woods. It had shade, but that seemed like another 20 minute walk! 

Y/n flinched back and she grimaced. “What?! I already did all this walking!” She shouts. 

“Go.” Ruck orders. Y/n scrunched her nose up in irritation before throwing her head back with a loud shout. She trudged passed everyone out into the sun, spews of shouts and curses escaping from her mouth. 

“Dammit!” The human's voice shouts from the background. 

“Oh yeah. She needs a lot of work.” Don muttered and Ruck silently nodded as she watched her walk off, still speaking incoherently. 

“You know she kinda reminds me of Hector.” Meek adds on before turning his gaze to the toons behind the three. Don and Ruck still staring off at Y/n walking off to the distance. 

“I guess in the meantime you guys can train as well! Might motivate her.” He brings up and Donald deadpans. No thank you, he wasn’t going to be walking around for gods know how long. 

“We aren’t competing though.” He says. 

“Still got a group of goons waiting for you back home though and let’s not forget the fact that you all are fighting against the world, you’d rather procrastinate till deaths in front of you?” Ruck redirected his gaze to the toons and Cuphead snorts. 

“I fought death twice.” He boasts. 

“No he hasn’t.” Mugman quickly denies. 

“Well. Didn’t want to be reminded about that..” Oswald muttered as he rocks back and forth on his feet. 

“Then get out there.” Ruck said before walking off to follow Y/n.

-

Y/n felt her legs shake—something she never felt before, her knees giving up on her, the weight of the bookbag felt like a million anchors were on her back. She was tired. And hot..

Her legs slowly lowered to the ground, her knees gently touching the ground but she fixed the bag on her shoulders and lifted herself up before she could even touch the ground. Straightening her posture as she continued walking and furrowed her eyebrows before her eyes locked on the shade that was only a few feet away. 

She lets out another huff before her knees feel weak once more. Repeating the same action as before, she felt like a deer walking for the first time. Scrunching her nose up, she slams her foot on the ground and pushes herself forward, it was like she was fighting for her body to move instead of shutting down. 

She was almost there. 

Trudging a few feet she tumbled into the shade and fell onto the ground, the lake of water was a few feet ahead near the trees and water randomly laying around never looked so good until now. Y/n heaved and huffed as she rolled onto her back. Facing the leaves of the trees where the sun was peeking out of them. 

Ruck soon walks over and looks down at the tired human who seemed just about ready to pass out. 

“Good job, kid.” 

Y/n heaved and huffed and her eyes followed him as he walked off. She heard Meek call out to Ruck and Don but didn’t care to listen to what they were saying, she was more so focused on getting herself stable. 

Felix soon walked over and kneeled down next to Y/n. Placing a hand on her forehead.

“You okay?” He asks and Y/n nods slowly. 

“Never been better..” she grumbled. Donald laughs as he walks over. His foot nudged her side.

“You look horrible! Haha!”

“Donald.” Oswald warned before giving the duck a pointed expression. Donald huffs and stops laughing. 

“Oh, querida, are you okay?” Panchito sits on the ground near her head and gives her a worried expression. 

“God dammit—you fuckin’ mutt—“ Cuphead cursed as he tried to pick up Spunk away from the water the pup for some reason dipped his head in, but when he tried to pick up the pup, Spunk snapped at his hand like some crocodile and dipped his head back in the water and scurrying over to Y/n. 

Spunk stops near Y/n’s face and water shoots from his mouth and onto her face. She immediately closed her eyes and grimaced before quickly sitting up. 

“Alright, Y/n. Come on, get up.”

Ruck calls out, he looks away from the tree he was looking at and over to Mugman and Cuphead. “You boys know how to shoot?” 

Cuphead raises his eyebrows. “Oh most definitely, you know. I knew a few tricks.” His eyes slid over to Y/n and he caught her gaze before winking. Y/n stared at him before looking at Ruck and standing up. Felix and Panchito followed after her as they were kneeled on the ground. 

“Great, we’ll get to that later. First thing is. You need to learn how to hold your breath.” Ruck motions over to the lake a few feet away, rocks and trees and sand surrounding the large lake. She could only wonder what it would be like to swim in it. 

“Having a bow is precisely about how you aim and shoot. The more you hold your breath the better you can aim at what you’re looking for, but most importantly.” His eyes trailed off to the water. 

“It might come in handy for later down the line. You’re a warrior now, you should learn to hold your breath for more than 5 minutes.” 

Y/n was silent before her eyes flickered to the water and back to Ruck. “So I get to swim.” 

Ruck rolled his eyes. “What did I just say?” 

“So swimming it is.” 

-

Wading in the water, Ruck sat on a rock near the lake. He held the bow and was adjusting the string seeing Y/n somehow loosened it up. 

Panchito and Donald were busy off near the trees exploring some things—like always. Oswald and Felix were already in the water—mostly because Oswald was complaining about how hot it was and the fact that Cuphead was going to teach her to hold her breath and Felix wanted to make sure the two didn’t die in the process. And Mugman sat near a tree holding the book in his hand reading to pass time until they all would start doing the technical stuff, Ruck wanted to start off slow. For Y/n’s sake.

Cuphead slowly drifted over. His hand rested on the dry ground as he floated near Y/n silently. 

“What are we gonna do after this?” Y/n asks. 

“Practicing your archery.” Ruck responds before his head flickered to the water— in their direction. 

“Go practice until I can get this damned thing fixed that you somehow destroyed.” 

Y/n looked at Cuphead who started floating backwards. 

“Alright. Come on.” He tells her, Y/n swam after him and gazed down at the water. The lake was actually pretty clean—usually when she saw lakes they were green and murky. But the water was as blue as the ocean. 

“I dunno how much of a good trainer you are.” Y/n jokes and Cuphead raised an eyebrow. “I can be a good trainer. What makes you think Mugsy knows how ta’ play the piano so good?” 

“I’ve never seen Mugman play a piano before.” 

Cuphead grew silent at that statement. “Right..right, yeah.” 

The two were silent for a moment and Cuphead’s eyes moved away from the water before opening his mouth to speak but whatever he was about to say he couldn’t seem to get out. Y/n pressed her lips together and Cuphead grimaced. 

“Shit…” he muttered under his breath. 

“I said don’t make anything awkward.” Y/n lowered her voice to him and he tilted his head and huffed. “Me? I ain’t makin’ anythin’ awkward—“ 

“You’re a dirty liar.” Y/n furrowed her eyebrows and Cuphead snorted. “Look we’ll talk about this later—“

“No we’re not.” She quickly declines that statement and Cuphead stares at her and blinks. “Yes. We are.” 

“We promised it would be under lock and key.” 

“Y/n. I’m serious—“ 

“And I’m serious. You’re gonna teach me to hold my breath underwater or not? Because this is getting real awkward.” Y/n lowered into the water and the water touched her chin and Cuphead slowly sighs. 

“Yeah. Just hold your breath.” He deadpans. Y/n stared at him before slowly lowering herself into the water. Cuphead perked up and gasps. 

“I was joking! I’ll help!” 

-

“Like this?” Y/n said as she inhaled, her chest heaving up and filling her lungs with air. Cuphead nods as he follows her actions. 

“Yeah, like that. It should slow your heart down—“

It took a little over an hour for Cuphead to give Y/n a good rundown on the proper way to hold your breath under water. At first she couldn’t go 3 minutes, but now she could go a good 6 minutes. She sat under water and watched the fishes swim past her, her eyes following them, the air bubbles left Y/n’s nose and she was off in her own little world looking at what the water had to provide. The rocks and fishes of different colors.

Later on. Y/n was standing next to Felix who was speaking to her about how to walk with the bow while aiming at something. She held the bow in her hand as she aimed it at a tree and walked sideways. 

“Like this?”

Felix shook his head and pointed to her feet. “Foot over the other.” 

She placed her right foot over the left to move and repeated the action as she pulled the arrow back and shot it at the tree. In which it actually hits it! She smiled and quickly looked at Felix who smiled at her. 

It was about an hour Felix got to train Y/n with the bow, until Ruck walked over. 

“Left.” 

Y/n aimed to the left. 

“Right.” 

She then aimed to the right. 

“Left.”

And repeated the action over again. She thought that the training would be horrible but overall. With swimming and getting better at the bow. 

But that was quickly ruined. 

“Alright. Warm up is over.” 

Y/n quickly looks at Ruck as she places the arrow back on her quiver. 

“Huh?” 

“You’re good with swimming and getting better with the bow. But the contest isn’t relying on those two.” Ruck stands next to some trees that seemed to resemble an aisle, something she hardly noticed. 

“It’s based on your strength and agility and obstacles.” 

“Oh man. I love obstacles.” Panchito sighs and Ruck nods. 

“You guys are doing it too. It’s a race.” 

Ruck motions Y/n over to him and she walks over and looks down the aisle of trees that had branches intertwining, vines, rocks and other things that looked like a natural organic obstacle. She blinked owlishly at the view. It seemed fun to explore it; if everything didn’t seem like it would cause her to break an arm. Her eyes slowly moved to Ruck who had his arms crossed over his chest. 

“I can’t get past all this shit.” She juts her finger behind her, motioning to the toons behind her.

“They can.” 

“Your name’s on that board with Stinks.” 

Y/n immediately stopped talking as she stared at him and furrowed her eyebrows. 

“What?”

“You’re gonna fight him. Vendolez and a boy who has a chain of annual wins.”

Y/n’s eyes stayed glued on Ruck and her eyes hardened and he slowly nodded once seeing her expression. 

“…”

“So it’s your choice. I’m teaching you to take the hits, not punch harder.”

“Guess I’ll bust my ass through this course again.”

-

Y/n hissed in pain as she trudged back into Welkin. The sun was starting to set, the course was..a pain. At Least she was learning to climb trees more, despite having a few falls and tumbles, the race was nice with her friends. They more so were playing around rather than training but Ruck surprisingly let them, she was certain the training would get harder as days progressed. 

Mugman laughs as Donald complains about how he would have won if he didn’t trip over a log—his typical bad luck of course coming in to ruin it for him. 

“Oh don’t worry! I think you did wonderful!” Panchito slaps a hand on Donald’s back who grunted in response. 

Felix was the one who won the race. No surprise Y/n came in dead last again. “Yeah. I lost.” Y/n said. Her clothes were littered with dirt and grime from the amount of climbing and falling. But that was the least of her worries. She just dreaded having to wake up and be met with a sore body and new obstacles. This was just the tip of the iceberg. 

Felix placed a hand on Y/n’s back and smiled at her. “You still did great.” He praised. 

“I’m starving..” Oswald mutters and Mugman nods in agreement. With a day's worth of training and running around and walking back for almost 4 hours. Food was the first thing on their mind. And Y/n couldn’t agree more. 

Some people in town greeted the group, Atleast one good thing came out of being a Vendolez. 

“I’ll get us something to eat.” Meek says before breaking off in a different direction, surely towards a shop, Don followed after him and Y/n spotted some benches with tables and immediately walked over to them and sat down. Panchito had grown distracted with a toy shop that made handmade toys and he was too busy looking at the displays. Y/n saw a paper be placed in front of her, her eyes flickered down at the paper to see it was a flier—in some way to promote the contest. 

She saw her name right next to Stinks on the list of names—on who would be going up against each other. Y/n looked over to see Donald who grinned at her. 

“So, this is the guy?” He asks. Y/n deadpans before nodding. “Yeah..” 

“Stinks? What type of name is that?” He laughed and crumbled up the paper and tossed it behind his back. 

Mugman sat down next to Y/n and looked at her. “I’ve seen his dad around the castle. He’s the first in command for their battalion.” Mugman brings up and Y/n could remember Stinks vaguely boasting about that. 

“How’d you know that’s his dad?” She asks. 

“He was telling me about how his son is the leading winner of these contests.” He then rolled his eyes. 

“Sorta bragging about it if you ask me..”

“Where is he? I wanna meet this guy.” Cuphead piped up and crossed his arms. “He got an arm, I got one too.” 

“No one’s doing anything to him.” Felix wants as he gives everyone a pointed expression. “I’m sure that his personal vendetta with Y/n is in the rings only.” 

“In the rings only? The guy busted her eyebrow open.” Oswald placed a hand on Y/n’s head. Oswald knew Felix didn't believe in what he said either. 

“Or..he..probably doesn't like you.” Felix quickly adds in before continuing to speak to push away what he said prior. “But either way. Just stir clear from him.” 

“Great advice. I’ll be sure not to run into him when I have to fight him.” Y/n sighs and rubs her forehead. 

“Hey guys!” 

Looking over. Bendy and Lucy walked over, her arm intertwined with his as always. “Oh god.” Oswald quickly said once seeing Lucy. 

Lucy gives Y/n a concerned look when she sees her state. She looked exhausted, beaten and dirty. 

“Oh dear. What happened?” She asks before removing herself from Bendy and walking over to the table and pinch at Y/n’s cheek. 

“Ow—nothing—I’m fine—ow—“ as Lucy worried about Y/n’s state, Panchito walked over and spotted Bendy before smiling. 

“Well. I have not seen you in..hours. You’re still alive, that is a good thing.” He smiled and Bendy hummed in agreement. 

“Yeah.” He glanced at everyone. “Looks like you all came back from trainin?” 

“She’s a little irritated right now.” Felix informed and glanced at the human show as still being checked up on by Lucy. 

“But she did great today.” 

Y/n brushed Lucy’s hands away, in which she backed away from Y/n and placed her hands behind her back with a smile. 

“Yeah, I'm good. Just a few minor scratches.” 

“Minor?” Bendy raised an eyebrow. And Y/n deadpans before grimacing. He then leaned towards Y/n and sniffed her. “You also smell like a wet dog.” He teased and Y/n huffs. 

“It’s almost like I wasn’t outside in the heat all day.” 

Ruck had walked over but when he spotted Lucy he seemed to be taking a step back to walk away but the girl already caught sight of him and smiled. 

“Oh hi!” She quickly says and Ruck deadpans. It was clear he did not want anything to do with Lucy. 

“What have you two lovebirds been up to?” Cuphead teased and Bendy looked over Lucy towards him and squinted his eyes. 

“Oh nothing. Just doing some duties around the town.” Lucy replied. Felix’s ears perked up and he smiled at Bendy. 

“That’s great. We’ve only gotten around to catching chickens.” 

“Which is why I brought the offer to the table, she never did much around the town before.” Bendy replied and Mugman raised an eyebrow. 

“Since when did you start willingly wanting to help people?”

“Since when did you start askin’ so many questions?” Bendy quickly shot back. 

“I’m glad we ran into you all, I wanted to see how your archery skills are.” Lucy looks at Y/n. Y/n blinks and sighs. 

“I’m sore.” She muttered before getting up from the bench and stretching. Her muscles and bones popping. 

“I’m as stiff as a board I can do this—“

“Jesus christ don’t.” Ruck muttered but Y/n ignored him before stiffly moving her arms like she was mimicking a robot.  

Panchito tilts his head. “What—what is that?” 

Lucy smiles before letting out a soft laugh at Y/n’s actions. 

Donald deadpans and rolls his eyes. “Embarrassing..” 

A few ways ahead stood a small group standing near the bulletin board. The dog toon taps Stinks on the shoulder who was busy examining the flier on the board. The classes just let out and everyone was either on their way home or standing around catching up with one another. 

Stinks turns and looks at his friends who snickered and points over across the way, where Stink’s eyes landed on Y/n. Who was busy standing with her group—she was doing some odd dance. 

The dog mimicked the humans moves goofily and the others in the group laughed except for Stinks who didn’t find it funny at all. 

“It’s the Prince.” Someone whispered.

“He’s a demon.” 

“There goes that girl.”

“Ay, Stinks.” Stinks looks over to see another contestee leaning on the wall, near their age with toned skin and broad shoulders, he was the second rank in the contest. But as an alumni, even then he couldn’t beat Stink’s score. 

The guy pointed to the flier and chuckled. 

“That’s that Vendolez?” He asks. The contestee’s either gathered around or were still speaking to their friends. Stinks furrowed his eyebrow and glanced back over at Y/n who was busy speaking to her group. 

“Gal clearly is good if she’s gonna go 1 on 1 with the man.” 

“Talking that? I’m worried about that demon, you know you can’t trust em.” The dog toon points outs. 

Stinks ignored them before he started across the way. A few contestee’s giving hushed whispers when he saw Stinks sauntering over Y/n’s way. 

“Oh yeah, I know those. I love those flowers!” Lucy smiled as Y/n was explaining what cool things she saw while they were all out. 

“I heard they make you sneeze for eternity.” Mugman pipes up and Lucy quickly smiles and nods in confirmation. 

Lucy digs in her dress pocket before looking at Y/n and pulls out a paper. “I made this for you. Bendy told me what happened while you were training. I didn’t have much so I made a drawing.” She smiled and Y/n unfolded the paper and looked down at it to see a smiling sun. ‘Don’t give up!’ 

It wasn’t much, but it did cause Y/n to smile. “Aw..thanks L—“

“Lucy.”

Y/n turns around to see Stinks had stopped walking and looked at Lucy who raised her eyebrows. 

“I didn’t expect you to actually find someone.” His eyes flickered over to Bendy. “Especially a demon. I heard they eat humans.” 

“Razor sharp teeth!” Howled one of his friends from the background. Some of the pedestrians had stopped in their duties to place their attention on the group. 

“Hey man, if I were you, I would do somethin’ about that.” Cuphead quickly tells Bendy. Bendy only blinked and rolled his eyes. 

“Come on, Stinks. It’s not that serious.” Lucy starts. Y/n remained silent as she glanced at Stinks who seemed to completely ignore her, and she was glad in all honesty. She was too tired for anything. 

Lucy sighs through her nose and her eyes flickered up to Bendy. Donald had nudged Bendy and shook his head when the demon looked at him. 

“That’s enough.” 

“And you, you’re on the list with me.” Stinks placed his gaze on Y/n.

“I’ll put you on the front page of every newsletter. I ain’t got nothing to lose.” 

Y/n looked at Stinks and she heard some murmurs in the crowd and she only shrugged. “Not fighting you—“

He smacked the paper from her hand and Y/n furrowed her eyebrows before picking up the paper and he yet again knocked it from her grasp. 

“What do you have to lose?” Stinks asks. And Y/n huffs before moving to pick the paper up again. 

“Okay, Stinks. Leave her alone.”

Ruck shook his head at the group sitting at the bench, he knew they would pounce in whenever but he wanted Y/n to figure her way out of this situation. 

When Y/n picked the paper back up, Stinks was about to smack it from her hand again—in an attempt to get her angry, clearly. But Y/n countered that by moving her hand away from his, which he looked at her in surprise—like she wasn’t supposed to do it.

He quickly placed a hand on the side of her face and shoved her to the ground. Y/n fell onto the ground and hissed in pain. Felix slowly stood up from the bench to walk over to her but Ruck placed a hand in front of him and looked back at everyone. 

“Don’t move. I need to see what she’ll do.” 

“You crazy? She’s getting beat—“ Cuphead quickly objects. 

“Stinks! Leave her alone!” Lucy shouts. Stinks turned to walk off—ignoring Lucy. Y/n breathed heavily and she clenched her eyes shut but soon opened her eyes and heaved herself from the ground. Ruck nods as Y/n sheds herself from the bookbag and tosses it to the ground.

Some of the contestee’s made a noise of surprisement which caused Stinks to turn and look back at Y/n to see she was standing up. Y/n sighed and looked at her group of friends. 

“This shit about to hurt.” She said and Donald gave her a strained smile. “You’re doing great!” 

Stinks raised his eyebrows before motioning Y/n to come closer, beckoning her to do something, she only stared at him before he started to walk over to her first, she immediately threw a punch but he caught her arm and tossed a punch to her abdomen. 

Y/n stumbled and he shoved her back causing her to fall back onto the ground. The group chanted in unison but Y/n was mostly focused on finding a way to get out of this without making a fool of herself.

She wheezed and stumbled back up. Stinks didn’t hold his cocky attitude like he did yesterday, he genuinely seemed angry at something. 

As he glanced at his friends who were patting the ground towards Y/n’s direction as they spoke to her in humor. Some speaking in some language she’s never heard before. 

“Get up!”

“Get him!”

Stinks eyes landed on his father who had come over to see what the suddenly crowded area was for—all considering it was his job. Stinks’s ears perked up when he saw his father there.

“She’s gonna pass out.” Felix says as his eyes were glued on Y/n form who was on her hands and knees wobbling. But before Ruck could say anything, Stinks looked back at Y/n, but was met with her quickly getting up and throwing a stern punch to his face. 

He stumbles back but quickly recovers and grabs her shoulders before tossing his knee up and kneeling her in the abdomen, she kneeled over and and met with a punch to the temple. 

And then her nose. It was like one blow after the other. Y/n stumbled and her vision blurred but she tossed herself at Stinks with a shout, the two stumbled to the ground and Y/n tossed a punch at him but he caused her wrist, his hands squeezing her knuckles before shoving her off him. He squats above her and with all his might tossed a punch to her temple. 

“Möhsha!” Lucy shouts in a different tongue. Stinks pauses when he hears her—it was clear whatever she said, it was a command for him to stop. 

“Okay! That’s enough! Get off of her!” Lucy repeats as she quickly walks over and shoves Stinks off Y/n who remained on the ground. Stinks steps back as told and wiped the blood from his mouth and nose. “I’ll see you at the contest.” He spat before turning and walking off. 

Y/n stared up at Lucy  as she placed a hand on her wrist to sit her up, but the human felt like a log. “Come on. Get up, we’re going home.” 

“K.O’d!” Laughed a contestee as they all walked off. The crowd dispersed thanks to the guards doing their job. 

Felix kneels beside Lucy and places a hand on the side of Y/n’s face. “Yeah..he knocked her out.” He says before sighing. A wheezing soft escaped Y/n’s mouth, a split from under her eye and chin leaked blood, and he was certain a black eye would start forming soon. 

“But she’s still wake?” Donald asks. 

“Yes she’s still awake, just in a daze.” Felix replied. Panchito was ranting about something in Spanish in the background and Lucy placed a hand in Y/n’s stomach and leaned down to get a closer look in her eyes. 

She saw Y/n’s pupils dilate and her eyes weren't focused on Lucy, it seemed like she was looking past her. “You poor thing..” 

“Here. I’ll get her.” Bendy walked over and kneeled down onto the ground and slid his arms under Y/n before picking her up. 

-

Y/n leaned her head on the pillow and slowly blinked as Lucy sat on the bed in front of her. “I apologize for Stinks behavior.” She frowned. Y/n was still very dazed but good enough to understand. Oswald was seated next to the bed and was busy wiping away the dried blood from her face. 

“She’s still in a daze I think.” 

“I’m fine…” Y/n replied and slowly blinked. 

“Told you that shit would hurt….” She muttered. 

“You did good, kid don’t worry about it.” Ruck says from across the room. Spunk laid on the bed fast asleep and Y/n’s mouth slowly formed into a smile once hearing his words. 

“Look, I’ll handle it next time, just give me the world, I have him high tailin it out of town in no time.” Cuphead walks over and Y/n’s eyes slid over to him. Y/n sighed and frowned. “My eye hurts..” She whispered and Oswald placed a hand on her arm. 

“I know. It’s swollen.” He says and Y/n sighs as she felt him place a cool towel on her eye.

“How are you feeling about tomorrow?” Ruck asks. And Y/n moves her gaze to him.

“I’m ready for it.” 

“Really now?”

“You saw that punch? I woulda had him down.” 

“As if.” Donald laughed and Y/n cracked a smile at his statement. “Maybe. I almost had him, better than last time.” 

“I’m sorry…you’re still going to fight him?” Mugman asks in bewilderment and Y/n smiles. “I ain’t got nothing to lose.”

“Oh your determination is so inspiring.” Lucy’s small voice speaks up. Soon Bendy walks over and sighs. “I almost killed the guy.”

“Is it because he called you a human eating demon?” Panchito asks from over by the couch where Felix was sitting beside him. Bendy deadpans.

“Aside from that.” 

“I don’t look at you that way.” Lucy says before looking at Bendy, he stops talking and looks down at her before slowly nodding. “Thank you…” 

Cuphead whistles and gives Mugman a sideways glance who also looks at him with the same expression. 

“Well. You need some rest. You’ve been active all day.” Oswald gains Y/n’s attention again and she turns her gaze to look at him. 

“Alright..”

“And tomorrow, we’ll do it all over again. Yeah!” Donald feigned excitement from the background.

-

“Stand your ground.” Y/n fixed her footing as Ruck stood beside her and slowly extended his left arm. “Twist the back to get a good friction.” 

Y/n did as told before extending her arm in a punching motion, ever so slightly twisting her back. 

“Good job.” Ruck praised. 

Y/n felt the sun beat on her once more and surprisingly the walk to the deserted location wasn’t nearly as tiring as it was yesterday. It was like the debacle from yesterday pushed her more in the direction to get up and make a change, she didn’t complain not once while holding the heavy bag for their walk. Her left eye was sore to the touch, and a nasty colored bruise was forming there. But Y/n still got out of bed and was ready to face the day. Which was a surprise to Ruck.

Ruck was surprised to see even with Y/n covered in bruises and scars, the kid still hopped from bed and walked back outside as if the entire town didn’t just see her get her ass kicked last night, she was like a stubborn bull, at times wanting to do as told but other times backing away and just simply letting her target go, she was always on the fence, but she was starting to get a better understanding of having to move forward. And that was what Ruck was glad to see. It made him wonder how many times did this kid fall and busted her ass for her to finally get the gist that maybe it would be best to atleast teach herself some basic training to defend herself. 

Ruck slowly stopped in his motion in teaching her to properly throw a punch as he watched her silently straighten her arms from left to right, following in his actions as he told her. She smiled before she quickly swung her arm over to Ruck to his rib cage, even with him drifting off to his own mind thinking he could see what she planned on doing a mile away. He quickly grabbed her wrist and shoved her to the ground, which she let out a shout and fell onto her back. The dried dirt from under her puffing under her fall and she coughs and lets out a wheeze before squinting up at Ruck. The run casting a shadow over him. 

“You tried it.” He says. Usually what would have pissed Y/n off from being knocked to the ground too many times caused a smile to erupt on her face before she lets out a laugh at being caught so quickly. Ruck stared at her for a moment with furrowed eyebrows before the corner of his lips slowly raised and he chuckled softly. 

“Come on, get up kid..” he says before reaching an arm down where Y/n took ahold of his hand and heaved herself up from the ground.

Oswald watched from under the tree, mostly because he wanted to sit under the shade. He smiled softly as he watched Y/n return to her position and look at Ruck and he continued to construct her on how to properly hold her ground while fighting. 

“You know they seem to be getting a lot more.” Oswald says. Felix and Panchito were standing beside him as they were also watching the two as well. 

“Well. I believe it is a good thing. He is her uncle after all.” Panchito agrees. 

Cuphead was laying on his back staring off at the sky with a calculated expression, his brother looked at his brother as Panchito, Felix, and Oswald were speaking with each other. Cuphead didn’t nearly seem as active as usual. Usually he would be busy climbing trees and raising havoc to maybe piss off Ruck who was trying to train Y/n. But no. He sulked on the ground instead. 

“What’s up with you?” Mugman asks and Cuphead slowly blinks. “Nothin.” 

Donald held Spunk before placing the pup on the ground. The pup rolled on the ground and let out a bark. 

“Yeah, we’ll just pretend like Felix didn’t almost have a panic attack over Y/n last night.” Donald chuckled and walked over to Oswald, Felix and Panchito standing next to each other as they watched Y/n and Ruck. 

“I know you guys have had some run-ins with people but I wasn’t actually there to experience it. I was just worried is all.” Felix says and Cuphead grumbled as he stared out into the sky.  

“I’ll blow the guys head off the next time I see him.” 

Mugman furrowed his eyebrows. “No you won’t..” 

“I’ll make it possible—“

“Shut up—“ 

Meanwhile, Y/n was invested with Ruck teaching her the basics of fist fighting. The day was going to be king with training, and despite the heat already pounding onto her, she was still ready to face it. 

Ruck smacked the back of Y/n’s head as she was busy repeating the actions with punching the air slowly. She flinched and quickly held the back of her head and looked at Ruck. 

“I told you to pay attention. The guy got to you because you were focused on him and not his swings.” Ruck said. Y/n rubbed the back of her head and slowly lowered her hands to her side. 

“He moves too quickly.” She tells him. Stinks was very quick when it came to him throwing punches, fast enough to where her mind couldn’t latch onto everything at once. 

“Then you’ll be quicker.” 

Y/n focused on what he said and pressed her lips together in an; ‘alright’ motion.

Ruck lifts an arm up again to hit Y/n’s head, but she quickly flinches away from his arm. Ruck stopped in his motion at the sudden reaction she had, he couldn’t tell if it was because of a reflex or she was learning. 

“I was reaching for the arrows on your back, dumbass.” 

“What do you expect? You kept hitting me.” 

“Get your bow, we’ll start from there.” 

-

The last several hours was spent training, Y/n was busy doing most of the work as her friends sat around, either exploring the area, watching or coming into help every once in a while. But Ruck was actually spending time to help Y/n this time. 

At one point she was swimming around in the lake, focusing on holding her breath under the water as Cuphead had once started teaching her before—and no surprise, from his statement yesterday. He was a pretty good teacher. Repeating his steps in her head, she held the stopwatch in her hands. Resting her forearms on the rocks, pieces of grass brushing against her arms, she clicked the button on the stop watch and placed it on the ground before slowly taking a deep breath, her lungs expanding with air and she soon dipped into the water. 

Ruck was slowly walking over to the lake where he saw Y/n vanish under the water. Sending her off to work on her breathing skills as yesterday she did good—average for a human to hold their breath underwater, but not good enough. The furthest she went was maybe 5 minutes before the kid came rushing back up for air. 

Y/n was under the water gazing upon the fishes in the meantime. Staying completely still, with her being focused on holding her breath, she couldn’t keep track of how much time passed under the water. Her chest tightened to a degree, signaling she was running out of breath. The bubbles left from her nose slowly, her heart rate picking back up, she slowly closed her eyes to focus on her heart rather than focusing on the fishes. Calming herself down, the human furrowed her eyebrows in frustration at the feeling of wanting to get air. 

Another 3 minutes passed before she opened her eyes and swam back up to the surface. Slowly taking in the air and filling her lungs with the air she looked over to see Ruck holding the stopwatch. He looked at her when she arises from the water. 

“You got to 10.” He tells her. Y/n smiled widely and he chuckled. “Good job kid.” 

“Yes!” She hissed in glee and splashed the water.

Later on. Y/n was practicing her archery skills, Mugman stood a few feet away with an apple on top of his head and his arms glued to his side. 

“Please! Don’t shoot me.” He quickly warns for the 100th time. Cuphead seemed intrigued and wanted to actually volunteer to shoot the apple from Mugman’s head but Felix wouldn’t let him anywhere near the bow. Cuphead had the tendency to get too carried away. 

“You’ll be fine, the best way to teach her to shoot a target is to focus on it.” Ruck was leaning on a tree gazing at Mugman before he looked over at Y/n who was loading the arrow onto the bow. 

“You don’t wanna shoot your friend now do you?” Ruck states—in an attempt to further push Y/n to shoot the arrow at the Apple only. 

“You shout anywhere else, you’re running the risk of potentially leaving your friend in critical condition—“

“I know. I know.” Y/n groans before lifting her arms up and bringing the arrow back. The string creaking which caused Mugman’s shoulders to tense up.

“I won’t shoot you Mugman, I promise—“

“And when was the last time you made an actual bullseye?! Better yet for a target as small as an apple?!” He shouts over to her. Y/n puckered her lips and raised her eyebrows. 

“Or. I could shoot you. We can always go that route too.”

Mugman points a finger at Y/n, the apple wobbling on the rim of his head—how it didn’t fall? No one had a clue. 

“Don’t you dare!” He shouts—he was already kicking in frustration and anxiety just by standing there. Donald was busy in the background laughing at Mugman’s tantrum. 

“Stand still.” Ruck orders before Mugman quickly stands as stiff as a board. Y/n pulled the arrow back once more, her knuckles brushing her cheek bone. She pointed her index finger out and aimed it above the apple. She was still for a moment debating if it was right to shoot, despite her statement before, she really didn’t want to shoot Mugman. 

Furrowing her eyebrows in concentration.

Don’t hit Mugman, Don’t hit Mugman, Don’t hit Mugman!

She released the arrow and it flew off and embedded itself into the apple! The apple falls from Mugman’s head and falls onto the ground and he lets out a heavy sigh of relief. Ruck looks at Y/n and nods in approval. 

Y/n gasps before quickly looking at Felix and smiling widely. “I hit something!” She shouts in glee as she prances over to Felix and hopped up and down in front of him in excitement. 

“Good job! I knew you could do it.” He laughs. 

Later on Y/n was busy trudging up a steep hill that was a few ways from the wooded area. The other stayed back near the woods with Meek and Don to work on their own things, since they were there they might as well be productive and train on their own. Emphasis on the training as it was usually Cuphead using his peashooter to shoot at everyone as they ran away from him and tried to see who could hurdle over stuff the fastest. Deadly to a human, but fun for toons. 

Y/n had a harness strapped to her, it reminded her of those harness leashes parents would put on their children out in public, in this case. Ruck had a harness on as well, and there was a Velcro lead that was wrapped from the back of Y/n’s harness and ran about a good 12 feet over to the front of Ruck’s harness.

It was stored in Y/n’s bookbag and Y/n wondered what it was for when she questioned it, and now she wished she didn’t. She had to walk up the steep dried grass hill. While tugging Ruck’s weight. And he felt like he weighed a million tons. 

Now that she is getting into the technical part of training after working her way up from the easy stuff this morning, she immediately felt frustration build up in her. Too much work! 

Y/n let out a loud strained shout as she fell onto her knees. And clawed at the ground to heave herself up the hill. She couldn’t do it. He was too heavy, he was trudging behind her and was relying on her to walk him up the hill. 

Y/n let out a heavy sigh before falling into the ground, landing onto her sore torso. The side of her face pressed onto the dried grass. The harsh grass pricking her skin. Her back heaved up and down frantically and sweat was rolling down her face. 

“What’s wrong kid? You were doing just fine earlier this morning. You seemed ready to take on the world.” Ruck remained a few feet behind her. He wasn’t even at the slope of the hill yet and Y/n couldn’t even drag him up there. There was no way she could get the two of them up the entire hill. 

“You’re too heavy!” She complained. She clenched her eyes closed at the sore feeling in her legs and chest. Her breathing was rigid and tired, Ruck walks over and squats down. Slapping her back multiple times like he was hitting some machine. 

“Of course it’s gonna burn, what you think this was gonna be? Easy?” He placed the palm of her hand on her back, feeling her rapid heart beating through her like drums. She laid on the ground and a whine escaped her mouth. 

“I can’t do it..” she whispered.  Her lips wavering, every ounce of motivation had quickly vanished in one sitting. 

“You gotta get used to the uncomfortable environment, kid. Life’ll sneak up on you and take your dignity—whatever left you got of it that is.” He starts. And Y/n didn’t reply as she was too focused on easing the pain in her legs and the now headache swelling in her head.

“Tryin’ to teach you to push back, the world is going to soon rely on your ability, kid. And it’s up to you to take matters in your own hand.” 

Y/n lets out a shaky breath slowly lifting her head to look up the steep hill. Her blurred vision was being blocked by the glossy wet feeling in her eyes. Ruck watched Y/n silently. He waited to see what her next move was. Y/n placed a hand on the ground and heaved herself up from the ground. The string between the two moved up from off the ground as she stumbled slightly upon the steep hill, but soon started to trudged forward, pulling Ruck with her as he trudged after her. 

“Good job.”

She heard him mutter from behind her. Y/n lets out a strained groan as she felt like she was tugging with all her might. Bringing a foot forward and digging the sole of her shoes in the ground, her hands latching onto her straps of the harness for tension as she trudged towards the top of the hill with Ruck following behind her. 

Ruck slowly nods as Y/n crawls the hill with every strength in her body. Her legs felt sore and weak, yet she continued on, she trudged for a good few minutes, almost reaching the top—one more step to the top, but she grew weaker, as her knees trembled.

“Don’t stop now, you’re almost there.” She heard Ruck quickly shout out. Y/n placed both hands on the flat ground of the hill and tugged herself up, her leg placed on the ground, she squinted her eyes and dug her sore nails into the soil and with one hard tug, she rushed onto the top like a bull running towards a muleta. 

“Whoa—“ Ruck stumbles slightly from the sudden surge of energy that possessed the human. He stumbles onto the top of the hill as well and looks at the human who had turned to look at him, her chest heaved up and down heavily from exhaustion. Sweat glistened on her forehead and she jumped up and down with a smile. 

“I did it!” She shouts. Her voice echoing in the air from the hill. Ruck raises a hand, and Y/n quickly high gives him. 

“Let’s go!” 

With newfound confidence, for the last several hours Y/n felt confident in herself. More confident than she felt in weeks. 

She had climbed the trees with Felix next. 

Falling from the branch and falling onto the ground. Felix’s ears quickly fold back and he gasps. 

“Oh my goodness! Are you okay?!” He quickly walked over to Y/n and was about to help her up, but she pounced back up from the ground like it was nothing. 

“Sorry, put my foot in the wrong place.” She quickly apologized as Felix took her arm and looked at the small splinter stuck in her arm, he gently picked it out and flicked it away. Y/n wipes her arm on her pants and looks back at the large tree—the one that had the many obstacles that she..failed miserably. But now, she wanted to return to it with open arms. 

She bounds back over to the tree and jumps up to the first branch and looks over to the branch diagonal of her that was a few feet above. But also a branch that was above her. She picked the easiest to obtain, which was the branch above her. Jumping up, she grabbed onto the branch and heaved herself up before standing on the branch and placing a hand on the trunk to keep her balance. She looked down to see Felix watching her. 

“See? I got it.” She smiled. Felix’s eyes flickered over to the branch diagonal of her. He was supposed to be teaching her to climb the tree in a more agile and helpful manner. Ruck was supposed to be doing it. But he got distracted while helping Mugman and Cuphead aim their peashooters. They had very good aim from what Felix could see and had impeccable reflexes. But lacked in shooting a moving target. Something Y/n would soon dwell in, but for now. Taking baby steps to climb trees would be best. 

“Can you get to this branch without falling?” He asks before raising a hand and pointing to the branch. Y/n looks at the branch and eyes it before looking at Felix. 

“You grab with your hands first.” Felix adds. Y/n stared at the branch for a tad bit long before hopping from the branch she was standing on. Her arms grabbed onto the branch she was aiming for. And she heaved herself up, despite her sore body, she still used every ounce of energy she could. 

Felix smiled up as she was situated herself to stand on the tree. “You’re doing good, Y/n!” Felix praised. Y/n peered down at him and smiled. Repeating her actions before she hopped from one branch to the other, the higher she climbed the more confident she became with climbing the trees, but also the more she climbed up, the more the branches started intertwining. 

She placed her foot on the V shape branch and climbed up on the thick branch that could be used for a bridge seeing it was sturdy enough for her to walk upon it. Gazing down at the ground. She felt lightheaded when she saw she was feet away from the ground. She couldn’t tell how far, but it was certainly enough for her to break something internally if she were to fall. She couldn’t see Felix at the base of the tree—which he was there watching her to make sure she didn’t fall off, but alas. She didn’t see him. 

Furrowing her eyebrows she squats down and lays on her stomach to gaze down to the ground. Looking under the branch to see if he was on the other side of the tree, she didn’t see anything other than vegetation and other trees. 

Standing back up, her shoulders lowered from the tension she didn’t even know she had in them. But the human quickly flinched when she saw a figure standing beside her. 

“Shit!” Y/n shouts. Felix takes a step back from her sudden statement, she hardly heard him coming up the tree. In fact she didn’t even know he was climbing it. 

“Sorry!” He quickly apologized—clearly he didn’t mean to frighten her. Y/n’s heart rate calmed down seeing it was just Felix and she let out a weak laugh. 

“I didn’t know you were up here.”

“I followed so I can show you how to jump from one tree to the other.” He says before walking past her, the branch shaking slightly from the two walking on it, it caused her to pause in walking—hesitant if the branch would fall, but seeing Felix walking with no problem was a good sign that the branch was pretty strong enough for them to walk on it. The further out the branch got, the thinner. Thin enough to where you would have to balance yourself like you were walking a plank. Felix walked past it with. In Fact he didn’t seem like he had to balance himself at all. Y/n placed one foot in front of the other and gently raised her arms to walk across the branch. She glanced up to see Felix turned to look at her, she smiled and walked over to him like some child taking their first steps. 

“You know, me personally, I think I’ll make a great Tarzan.” She jokes. Felix chuckled. 

“I don’t think you would like sleeping outside for more than a week.” 

“True. When we slept in the snow, that was a nightmare.” 

She stood next to him and he looked over to the tree across the way. There was a decent sized gap, enough for someone to make a jump, but still risky for anyone new to jumping. Like Y/n. “We’ll jump to this other tree, same as before. Your arms will balance you out. You know, sorta like a plane when they are in the sky.” 

Y/n nods at his words. Her optics danced between where they were standing and to the branch across. Felix was still ranting on about the aerodynamics of how the wind travels through your arms when you jump—bad gravity and Newton's law and inertia for some reason? 

“Which is why I say, when you just go it, it’ll be so much easier. Just jump to the branch and jump over to the next one.” Felix finally ends before looking at Y/n. Y/n stared at the tree and then looked at Felix. 

“Okay so what do I do if I fall? Just asking.” 

“Hm.” Felix’s eyes flickered down the ground quickly before it flickered back to Y/n.”It’ll more than likely hurt.” 

Y/n deadpans and Felix smiled before he walked ahead and hops over to the other branch like it was no problem. 

“Alright! Come on!” He shouts over. He steps back from the edge so Y/n could have room to jump. Y/n walked to the edge of the branch and her eyes immediately looked down to the ground. Feets away from the ground, a tickling shiver crept up her spine and she let out a sigh. Backing away from the branch with one step Felix quickly started to speak before the human could create a cocoon of worries around her head.

“Hey, hey, don’t look down. All you have to do is jump. One big leap. Jump with your knees, keep them straight.” Felix immediately comforts. Y/n looks at him and then back at the ground and then back at him.

“If I jump, I’m falling.” 

“Y/n, you did so good climbing the branch’s all the way up here. You even fell and got back up, don’t be afraid to stop now.” 

The human shuffles on her feet before slowly edging back to the edge of the branch and looking at the branch on the other side. Felix outstretched his arms to Y/n. 

“I’ll catch you.” 

That did actually cause comfort to rise in her body. She slowly nods at the thought of that before taking a step back and jumping off of the branch. She felt her stomach sink at the feeling, she landed into Felix’s arms, his hands holding onto her sides for extra cushion. Her feet landed onto the branch and she smiled brightly as Felix looked at her and smiled.

“See? That wasn’t so bad.” 

Next, She had practiced yet again with swimming and holding her breath. This time with Mugman. The two weren’t in the water. But sitting on a warm rock as Mugman was teaching her breathing techniques. 

“Like, in your chest?” Y/n asks. Mugman shakes his head and points a finger at her xiphoid. “No. Here.” He corrects. 

“So what do I do. Breath in until I show my ribs?” 

Mugman raises an eyebrow at her sarcasm. “Actually that’s correct so—“ 

“Alright then.” Y/n inhales heavily. Straightening her back, and lowering her shoulders. Mugman leans over and presses his finger in the same spot. 

“You’re still breathing too heavy.”

Sighing to release the air, Y/n was about to say something until Mugman laughed. “Just kiddin!” 

Later on. Donald was teaching Y/n to peddle in a more effective way. He was standing outside of the water, swinging his arms in a motion for Y/n to follow—but Y/n was too busy playing in the water. 

“Not like that!” Donald shouts. Y/n kicked her feet frantically as she floated and a bright smile littered her face. “Hey this is kinda fun!” She shouts over to Donald who deadpans and shakes his head. 

But soon Y/n got back to work and followed his direction. Putting Cuphead and Mugman training into motion, along with Donald swimming techniques, she swam under the water, holding her breath as long as she could. Ruck stared down in the water as he watched her swim around. 

Y/n slowly came up from the water yet again and looked up at Ruck and smiled and he gave her a thumbs up proudly. 

Next, she returned to the bow an arrow once more. With her targeting becoming more accurate, she gently walked down the trail as she aimed the arrow. She heard a rustle in the bushes and immediately pointed towards it and shot the arrow at it. A hard ‘thunk!’ emits in the air and Panchito dramatically fell from the bush, the arrow sticking in the wooden target he was holding in his hands. 

“Oh no! veo la luz! ha llegado mi dia!” He strains before laying on his back and sticks his tongue out as if he died. Y/n lowered her bow and smiled at Panchito’s dramatic acting. 

Next, Ruck stood under the tree following along under the branch Y/n was standing on. She was aiming her arrow at a wooden target down on the ground near a tree—Hard from her view but she was sure she could make it.

“Remember. The faster you are. The slower your opponent's brain will react.” Ruck tells the human. The  arrow shoots over to the target and embeds into it. The splintering sound of wood breaking echoes in the air. Y/n quickly reaches back to grab another arrow—but before she could get the arrow to the cliff, a decent sized rock hits her hands, the arrow flying from her hand, she hissed in pain and quickly swats her hand to rid the pain. 

She looks over to see Ruck wasn’t the one that threw the rock as she suspected. But it was Oswald, who she hardly noticed. 

“Dammit.” Y/n grumbled. 

Later on, Y/n was holding a rock above her head as she stared at Ruck with a pleading expression. “My arms hurt—can I please take a break?!” Y/n shouts. 

Ruck was leaning on a tree with his arms crossed. Under the shade, as Y/n stood out in the hot sun. 

“You got 10 more minutes.”

Y/n would have started to bawl her eyes out if she didn’t see Donald standing near another tree teasing her. He stuck his tongue out and then laughed loudly. Y/n rolled her eyes and sighs, she was making a mental reminder to strangle Donald when they get back into town. 

Spunk sat next to Ruck’s feet as he watched Y/n as well. Y/n let’s out a heavy sigh and was above to drop the rock—her arms couldn’t take anymore, but Ruck’s voice soon came in. 

“If you drop that rock, I swear I’ll have you running tracks around this entire area.” He warns. 

Y/n three her head back in a frustrated shout before straightening her arms. She was never making that same mistake again when it’s time for her target practice again. 

Later on, Y/n had her arms outstretched in front of her, clenched her hands closed into a tight fist. She stared at Ruck who was speaking to her about properly connecting a punch. He raised both his hands and Y/n slowly moved her fist to collide with his rough hands. He nods and tells her to continue , which she did. Left, right, left. Everytime he ordered which hand to throw a punch, Y/n would follow in order, until he repeated it faster and faster. She smiled as she did so until his hand collided with her temple. She quickly stopped in their exercise and raised a hand to her eye and glared at him. 

“Ow! What was that for?” She grumbled. “I said watch your guard.” 

And she was back with holding the rock above her head for 20 minutes. It felt like everytime she got; The Rock. It would grow heavier and heavier every time. 

Back to climbing trees. She hopped from one branch to the other as Panchito followed after her. He laughs as he hops over to the other branch, which Y/n was already jumping on as well. Causing it to shake and the two to tumble off of it from its vibration. Y/n holds onto the branch below to save her from falling, as well as Panchito. The two didn’t even heave themselves onto the branch fully. Their bodies dangled off before they looked at each other and laughed. 

“Oops.” He laughs. 

Returning back to swimming. Y/n was busy underwater moving to touch a fish—which it kept swimming away—creating her own game of tag with the fish, she followed after it. The bubbles of air leaving her nose, properly breathing she was able to hold her breath under the water for much longer. 

Ruck stared down at the stopwatch. 

12 minutes. 

Ruck’s eyes flickered up to the water to see if she would come back up, but to his surprise. She didn’t. Sitting on the rock and waiting for her to come back up. He didn’t see her for another 2 minutes. 

14 minutes now. 

Standing up from the rock and crouching onto the ground and slowly placed his face into the water and opened his eyes. Looking down in the deep part of the water. He could see Y/n chasing a fish. Her hands pushed off of the rocks to fly after it like some predator. A laugh escaped Ruck’s mouth at the scene, it was silent seeing he had his head under the water, the bubbles leaving his mouth. Y/n felt the vibration and looked over to see Ruck looking at her. Pushing her feet from the sandy ground she floated back up to the surface and Ruck removed himself from the water and stood back up. Dusting the sand from his pants. He looked back down at the stop watch and stopped it. 15 minutes. 

The trickling of water catches his attention and he sees Y/n sticking her head up from the water. 

“15 minutes.” 

“Really?” She gasps before immediately crawling out of the water. The sand sticking to her knees and elbows. She grabs the stop watch with her wet hands. Water drilling everywhere. 

15.00”

Y/n smiled widely. Her chest heaving up and down, it was clear holding her breath for so long had tired her out. 

“Good job, kid.” 

Next up, Ruck had taken Y/n over to a patch of grass. Which she didn’t change back into her clothes. She wore her tank top and shorts and left her socks and shoes near the lake, feeling the dirt and grass under her feet as she watched Ruck sit down on the ground and move the grass from the way, Y/n followed after him and watched as he plucked a berry from the ground. 

“Been lookin’ everywhere for these. These are called FreezeBerries.” He states. Handing a berry to Y/n. She takes it to see it resembles a strawberry. But with blue seeds. She looked back at Ruck to see him biting into it. Y/n followed after him and bit into the strawberry, it was cold to her teeth. Like a berry that’s been sitting in the freezer, which was odd considering it was scorching hot outside. But it taste delicious, a tangy sweet flavor, she smiled and when she did so, a puff of smoke escaped her mouth, causing her eyes to widen and quickly look at Ruck, which he was blowing smoke from his mouth as well. 

“Whoa!” Y/n laughs, putting the entire berry in her mouth and chewing she blew a large puff of smoke from her mouth, Ruck chuckled and followed after her. 

Y/n picked at another FreezeBerry and placed another one in her mouth, and turned her head to Ruck and blew the smoke in his face. He squints his eyes before looking at her and blowing the smoke in her face as well. Y/n lets out a laugh, the smoke escaping her nose and mouth. It reminded her of those freeze dried treats you would get from a street vendor. 

“I bet I can do a trick.” She said, forming her lips into an O, she lets out a puff of smoke in hopes to form a ring. But failed miserably. Ruck looked at her to see her attempt before he formed his lips into an O as well, and with ease a ring puffs from his mouth. 

Y/n huffs. 

“What? How.”

Ruck chuckled as he watched Y/n attempt to form the ring again. 

Next, Y/n went back into working. Returning her clothes she held the bow in her hand as she shot the arrow off to the target, which it hit the wooden target. Y/n was back to walking on the branch once more, hearing a rustle from below she quickly aimed down, and Donald hops out of the way before the arrow could pierce him, unfortunately he dropped the wooden target in the process. But good thing, was she still hit it. 

Hearing footsteps from her left, she continued walking on the branch but aimed her arrow to her left to hit Cuphead holding the wooden target a few feet away—he stopped in his running when he got caught, the arrow hitting the wooden target, Mugman didn’t get too far before the arrow embeds into his target as well. 

“Damn..I was hopin’ I would sneak pass you.” Cuphead grunts. Mugman placed the target on the ground before smiling at Y/n proudly. 

Meek held onto the wooden target and stood next to Don, they were both standing near a tree, a few feet away. She still had trouble aiming off too far, with two people standing next to each other no less. 

“They’re too far.” Y/n tells Ruck as she continues to saunter down the branch. Her eyes glued on Meek and Don. 

“Make your hand into a quiver. This is where sharp shooting comes into place.” Ruck states. 

Y/n reached back into her quiver and grabs two arrows, placing them both on the ledge and pulling them back, before she could attempt to shoot at Meek and Don, she heard a sound from behind her, at the last minute. Causing her to quickly turn around, but she felt a hand quickly tap her arm, tagging you out. 

“Got ya!” 

“No!” Y/n shouts in sorrow. Felix lowered the wooden target and Y/n sulks. 

“Dammit!” Y/n stomps her foot on the branch. 

“Hey, you still did good.” Mugman walks over to the tree and looks up at the two. 

“I almost had everyone.” Y/n placed the arrows back in her quiver and looked at Felix. “You walk too quietly.” 

“You can’t blame him for not being able to hear him.” Ruck pipes up.  

“Hey, cheer up. Soon, you’ll be the best damn sharpshooter in the offlands.” Don states. Y/n nods and sighs. 

“Yeah, I mean I guess.” 

Panchito sets his target down and Spunk barks before looking up at the sky, Ruck looks at him and knows he was signaling the time.

“Yeah, it’s gettin’ late. Hell. Maybe tomorrow you’ll do great at the training back in town.” Ruck says and Y/n furrowed her eyebrows. “I don’t wanna go back there.” 

“Oh cariño, I am sure that with the improvements you made you will be perfect with the others.” Panchito says, him and Oswald walking over from the hiding spot they were at first. Y/n didn’t seem too moved with that statement. 

“Tell you what. I’ll give you the day off tomorrow if you go to morning training, the rest of the two days, we’ll train out here.” Ruck brings up. Y/n squints her eyes..she wouldn’t lie she would much rather spend the time back out here training. It was quite relaxing in an odd way. 

“Alright, fine.” 

-

Bendy stared down at the ring, examining it in his palms, Lucy sat on the bench as she fiddled with something in her palms. Bendy was sitting beside her, leaning back lazily with his arm tossed on the back of the bench behind Lucy. She was busy twisting the stem of the flowers together to create some sort of bouquet of some sort. 

She was humming softly as she did so, the sound of the stems rustling emitting into the air as well. 

Bendy looks at the diamond ring once more before placing it in his pocket. Lucy notices the small movement and looks at him before looking back at the white flowers. 

Bendy stared out into the courtyard, his eyes bouncing off of the various flowers and bushes, bees and birds flying around and landing on the cobblestone pavement to either peck at the ground or examine a pollinated flower. He felt a strong headache starting to stir in his head, it felt like a heavy bottle of water swaying around with so little movement. 

“You’ve been awfully quiet.” Lucy pipes up. Bendy turns his head and looks at her, his eyes traveling down to the flowers in her hands. 

“Just lookin’ around s’all.” He responds. Lucy nods once more and returns her gaze back to the flowers. 

Returning his gaze back to the courtyard, he was grateful to have the peace and quiet, his head felt like it was going to explode and Lucy wasn’t even the reason for it. Surprisingly.

Lucy then slightly nudged the flowers towards Bendy and looked back at her and back at the flowers. “These are called, Acyndytes.” She starts. 

“A-shine-dites?” Bendy repeats and she nodded 

“They resemble grief. The color is white because even life after death, there is…life.“ 

Bendy raises an eyebrow and she continues. “We use these to resemble a new journey for one who has passed.” 

“Who passed?” Bendy asks. 

“My fathers old friend. He was struck by something our apothecary here in town could figure out. He passed last night.” Lucy stands up from the bench and looks back at Bendy. 

“I want to deliver these, my father should be there now.” 

Bendy slowly stood up from the bench and nodded. “Sure..” 

-

“Would you stop—“ Mugman shoves Cuphead off him, Cuphead laughs at his brother's agitated response. Y/n was busy thinking of the good sleep she would get when they entered the room—and not to mention, a good shower. Her skin was sticky with sweat, grime and dirt. Her clothes were dirty from dust and dirt from all the training they did. The walk was long, but eventful. 

Y/n placed her hands on Ruck’s shoulders and jumped onto his back, wrapping her arms around his neck—he stopped walking for a moment at her sudden motion. 

“So—how’d I do with my archery skills this time?” She asks. Ruck grumbled and shook his back to shed the girl off him but Y/n was stuck to his back like a leech, she pressed her legs into his side and looked around the town above his head. 

“Above average. Now get the hell off me.” 

“Oh, look. There’s Lucy and Bendy.” Don points out the two walking in their direction. Lucy held a white bouquet of flowers in her hands, her arm intertwined with Bendy’s as the two walked over to the group. 

“Oh I’m so glad to see you all! We were just heading out for a small gathering a few blocks down.” Lucy states. Oswald tilts his head.

“What’s the occasion?” He asks. 

“It’s a home going. Wishing a friend farewell.” She replied. 

“Who died?” Cuphead says bluntly. Mugman makes a small noise and harshly grabs Cuphead by the arm. Cuphead hisses in pain.

“Oh. I’m so sorry to hear..” Felix adds and Lucy nods. “Yes. Very upsetting. Come! Follow.” She and Bendy walk past the group back in the direction they were just leaving from. Turning around and following Lucy—unfortunately. 

Y/n rested her chin on the top of Ruck’s head and closed her eyes. Feeling the wind blow in her air—she cooled off when they started to return back to Welkin. The lukewarm air was comforting and not as scorching hot where they just were. 

Ruck turned around to follow after everyone, unwillingly carrying Y/n with him as she didn’t seem to move one bit. It was like a father holding their son up at a baseball game to see the wins, instead it was just a super exhausted uncle carrying around his joke of a niece. 

Y/n felt his every footsteps on the ground and smiled silently before placing her hands on either side of his head before straightening her back to look down at him.

“So. If we were travel buddies. And you had to rely on me to finish a mission, you’d think I would do it?” She asks. 

“No.” He answered blatantly. 

Y/n huffs before placing her hands back on his shoulders. 

“I dunno, I think I got some pretty wicked tricks up some sleep.” She brushed off her shoulders dramatically—not that it mattered as Ruck couldn’t even see her. 

“Yeah, you do.” Ruck responds. She couldn’t tell if he said it just to push past the topic at hand. Or it was a genuine statement.

She stared down at him and smiled. 

“Now get the hell off me. We’re here.” 

-

Y/n stood next to Panchito as the two watched Lucy hand the white bouquet of flowers to Modi. Who was standing next to a toon. The woman had brown curly hair that complimented her fair skin. She was gently patting under her eyes with tissue. Modi was saying something to her but Y/n wasn’t paying too much attention. Her eyes traveled over to the candles on the ground. It’s golden light flickering in the gentle wind. The sun was starting to set, the gradient purple and red, filling the canvas of the sky, as the sun edged near its horizon, bidding everyone farewell for the day. 

There was a lake in town that led out of it—everyone stood near the border of town. There were other people there, it seemed like almost half the town with how many people, Y/n was just glad they were able to stand in the front of it all. Y/n could see the guard—Stink’s father—as she presumed seeing he was a skunk and Stinks was standing beside his father. Was also near as well. Though he hadn’t bothered to even glance in Y/n’s direction, his gaze stayed on something in the water. Y/n followed Stink’s gaze and she spotted toon, laying down on what seemed to be a wooden platform. A dark blanket covering their chest, the dog toon had his eyes closed, like he was sleeping. With various flowers surrounding the body, like a bed. 

Two other toons stood on either side of the wooden platform, which they seemed to have been crying for days. They were wading in the water. 

“Oh man.” Y/n muttered to Panchito, he slowly nodded in agreement. “Yes..It is very unfortunate.” He responds. 

“I apologize that we couldn’t find a cure.” Modi tells the woman. She only sniffs and shakes her head. 

“No no. No need to apologize…he..is in a better place now.” 

Lucy had stepped back away from her father so he could speak to the woman—a small child in the crowd excitedly waved at Lucy in which she smiled and gave a small wave back. 

“I thought toons were incapable of dying..” Y/n lowered her voice and looked at Felix. Felix raised his eyebrows and slowly nods at her minor confusion. 

“That is..sorta true. Remember, toons can still die—just like humans can—“

“It takes longer?” She finished from what she briefly remembered him stating back in the boat before arriving to the offlands. And Felix nods. 

“Yes. Whatever happened to him, I’m sure it was devastating.” 

“You kiddin? Wonder what knocked him off the board. Can’t be from old age, that’s for sure.” Cuphead states and Mugman sighs before shoving his elbow into Cuphead’s ribs who flinched at the action. 

“One more word from you. And I’m going to deal with you.” 

Y/n looked back at the water to the toon, it was odd. Y/n heard distant sounds of voices harmonizing, the candle flickered in the wind. As the crowd solemnly held their own candles of their own. The sun slowly set in the sky, the canvas darkening and the candles being the life of the darkness. 

Modi walked past the group, as he walked over to the water, the ripples of the water bouncing as he stood beside the toon.

He had started to speak in a different tongue that Y/n couldn’t tell. But she still paid attention no less. Watching as he gazed down at the body in sorrow, the crowd's once peppy attitude had mourned for the loss of one soul. How did he die?

A toon was a very tough soul to take down. Yet..here they were. 

“—The loss of a friend. Where he will be with us. In spirit.” Y/n couldn’t tell she drifted off in her mind. The small platform floated down the stream as everyone watched. The candles in their hands were now the only source of light, the golden light reflecting from everyone, a warm glow to the toon that had drifted further away, where the arm light was nothing but a dot in the distance. 

It was sad to see. A few of the people cried at the farewell. As Modi stood in the water, watching the old friend drift off into the night. 

#bendyxreader #bendy and the ink machine #toon quest #panchito pistoles #cuphead x reader #mugman x reader #felix the cat x reader

[deafeningbasementmoon]

Crimson Ink - Chapter 9 (on Wattpad) https://www.wattpad.com/435775491-crimson-ink-chapter-9?utm_source=web&utm_medium=tumblr&utm_content=share_reading&wp_originator=tmvtzx6KPfJFar2nxCk6yDhkTE2WoykdCFYIzxR75YaE5vDMYOtFHTsjIMDpGtnm8iR3G51TJeG124%2Bm4fj7OY0NifWifem0gkjHizHIA0Y859CDEdyR1Q9BxGwoez7J Being a freshmen in high school and trying to fit in is hard for everyone. Including (Y/n) (L/n), all she really wants is to fit in with society. And she gets that chance today.... Lily and Selene Hallows, two bullies and sisters. Dare (Y/n) to sneak into a so called, 'haunted' animation studio with them and some of there friends. (Y/n) agrees to do this, but she finds something more than just old sketches and old fashioned animation equipment.... This is a Yandere! Bendy x Reader fanfiction. To advise everyone who are going to read this, yes this will have strong language, and maybe some lime or fluff. Don't like anything I say? then turn away now, if not.... then go right ahead and I hope you enjoy!!

#batim #bendyxreader #fanfiction #romance #yandere #books #wattpad #amreading

[mickeychii]

Human!Bendy x Fem!Reader

After years of avoiding, how'd Y/n appear up here? She knew to avoid it at all costs but her curious personality diminished any voice of reason. But something had been tugging at her heart to pay a visit after having flashes of old memories of childhood, faceless, friends fill her head.

 Blowing into the mittens on her hands in an attempt to gain warmth, a lump in the persons' throat was swallowed down as they pushed open the old, creaking door with a grunt. "Gosh darnit..C'mon!" Y/n heaved before getting impatient, kicking the door open and losing her footing the process. "Geez, harder than I remember." Y/n grunted and stood from the snowy ground, walking into the old building. Carefully shutting the door while intentionally leaving it open a crack, she knew it'd be harder to open it from the inside. Her head swiveled as her eyes scanned the dark room. Y/n gulped once more before summoning some courage and pulled a small lantern from her pack, lighting it in means of warmth and visual. Black goop lined some of the walls and cracks of the ceiling. The sound of seemingly to be watery ink dropping into a puddle of said ink filled the ears of the missus. Being in her mid-twenties, Y/n had been here long ago it seemed. Her grandfather constantly brought her to his work as it shut down, giving her empty tours of the building, talking of when he was an animator. Inspiring Y/n to become one herself but she was still in school and working a full-time job in order to take care of her deceased sisters' two-year-old son; still a long way away from her goal in life. Taking a few paces forward, a loud screeching sound inflated the air. Screaming herself, Y/n quickly hid behind the closest thing beside her being an old, pushed onto its side desk. Y/n attempted to blow out the lantern but decided against it and hid it in her tan brown coat that was luckily long enough to do the deed. Another scream enveloped the air once more but this time it was human-and agonizingly painful to listen to. Y/n's gloved hands clasped over her ears. The screaming stopped. But ragged, inhuman breathing remained then they stopped. A loud sniffing sound replaced the previous sound as if it was sniffing something out as a hound dog would. Y/n sucked in her breath and peeked over the desk, spotting the exit. "Ok... it's right there..just..rUN-!" Y/n's voice turned to a scream as she was about to finish her self pep talk. As she hunched-over-walked from behind the safety of the desk, a large-big-as-her-head, clawed hand swatted at her legs and grabbed her right. Her body left the floor and hung upside down, her hair pulled down by gravity. Y/n held the lantern to her chest that illuminated the bottom half of her face and upper-half of her torso plus her arms. Her eyes were wide with terror of the unknown. Her line of vision locked with a face. A face with a large snarl that emitted animalistic growls and ink dripping low enough to cover its eyes. Two black horns laid atop its head. Noticing the fact that it honed a seemingly only black and white palette. It's body hunched over as to not crash itself into the ceiling. It looked like the devil himself. Y/n stared in panic but stayed silent with a clenched jaw. She felt as if she was a stranger in a very strange land. Like an Alice in a very dark, inky wonderland. The creature leaned forward and inhaled her scent. Generating a small squeak to emit from her. It cocked its head again and repeated the action, another, much softer noise came from Y/n. Her arms hugging the lantern as tight as she could. "...H-hi there big guy..?" Silence. "I-I can leave! J-just put me down and I'll go!" A gruff, quiet, snarl escaped the large ink demon and began to walk down the hallway. Y/n felt like vomiting from being hung upside down. 'Can I please walk?! I don't exactly feel like a dying upside down.' She thought sarcastically and slapped a hand over her mouth as nausea hit her. The creature stared down at her then slowly let her down. But as soon as it did, a thick metal 'collar,' you could get tetanus just from looking at it, formed around her neck. As well as a chain connected to it. This thing really didn't want her to run away, did it? Y/n huffed, holding the lantern out a bit from her body as it was becoming to hot against her chest. A sudden yank by her neck caused her body to begin walking. Y/n was reconsidering the previous choices of her wardrobe. Only wearing the heavy winter coat, black gloves, a black pencil skirt, and a white blouse tucked into the said skirt. But she was lucky enough to be wearing a strap on flats and having her pack with a small lantern was only a plus. "Um..Where we going?? M-Ms, Sir??" She swallowed as she stared up at the hunched over figure in front of her. Again, Y/n was only met with tense silence. A sigh left the woman and looked around. The building seemed to creak with every movement. Her vision faded in and out along with the black spots concealing her perception. The thing around her neck felt so tight and restricting. It had already seemed like hours of walking until they finally stopped. Everything was a blur. Where was she? Y/n, lost in her thoughts, bumped into the creature. The ink from the creature didn't stay on her clothing nor her skin. It simply rolled off and turned into puddles on the hardwood, leaving no stain of black ink. Y/n gained a puzzled expression and looked behind. Only footprints of the creature were left, none of hers followed. Y/n took note of this. She could escape easily without being tracked down. 

A sloshing sound filled her ears, making her spin her head back to the creature. She was shocked to see the ink melting from the inky-being, revealing a...human? Y/n took a hesitant step back, the chain tugging slightly. "Now, now. No need to fuss little girl." Y/n said nothing as she stared at the seemingly grey-scale male in front of her. He almost gave a vibe like that old cartoon character 'Bendy' but...human? She wanted to snap at him of calling her a 'Little Girl.' Y/n was only twenty-three. "Oh? You're not going to talk? Not even a 'stuh'-stutter?" A mocking tone came from the man as he mocked her previous dialogues of questions. Her shoulders drooped as a feeling of dread enveloped her. She wasn't getting out anytime soon, was she? The male chuckled and tugged on the chain, sending her into a collision into his much taller frame. He was definitely shorter than the creature but stood at a grand height of six-six along with two curved horns atop his head and a skinny black spaded tail. His own attire consisting of a white dress shirt, black slacks and shoes. Including black suspenders and his inky-black hair in a short, low pony. His right arm hung in the air, holding the chain up so her eyes met his pure black pupils while his left arm tightly wrapped itself around her torso in a rather possessive manner. Being so close made Y/n notice the small stubble on his chin. "Seems I've found myself a pet." Y/n's breath hitched, shaking her head in the act of defiance. Another grin followed and his arm tightened. The only thing between them is the remarkably hot lantern. Y/n sucked in a breath as the heat was beginning to do what fire does best. Burn. A whimper fled from her but she dared not to move. The male's fingers drummed lightly against her side as he watched the pain flicker against her eyes, a satisfied grin on his lips. "Aw, is the Lil' doll hurting? Just say something and I'll stop it. I'll stop it ALL." He whispered into her ear, pressing himself against her for the sole purpose to bury the burning lantern into her chest and torso. Y/n winced. He was too close for comfort. His head retracted from her ear and his gaze pierced hers, he could feel her shiver against him. Y/n attempted to pull her head away put her chain was yanked-harshly again. Now his face was closer than before, their noses touching. Y/n opened her mouth somewhat but shut it immediately. What would she say? 'Hey, can you get off me, you more than likely pervy dude? You're kinda causing this thing to burn me, y'know.' "Hm? C'mon sweetcheeks, I know you can talk with that tiny voice of yours~" He cooed toward her ear once more. Feeling another shiver from her. Y/n didn't know why she was acting this way. She was normally one to speak her mind, but something was wrong. This place had instilled something into her to fear this demon. The pain from the lantern was becoming too much to bear. She began to squirm some, a dark giggle to erupt from the man. "Oh yes, squirm like a trapped birdie, doll. You don't know how long I've been longin' for a darlin' like you." Y/n stiffened with a small gasp as something pinched her behind. As if a crab latched its claw then immediately released. It was HIM. HIS hand. Y/n finally let out a small cry of pain and, with all her strength, pushed the man away. The lantern dropped to the floor but didn't shatter luckily. If it did, the rickety building would've gone up in flames. Y/n quickly batted at her chest in a slight panic, blowing out a small blaze that had erupted. But now, a hole lies on her chest, a bit under her collarbone. The edges of the cloth singed and brown. A red ghastly mark underneath the hole showed and a bit of her singed bra. "My, my. What vigor!" The man mused in the voice of a 1920′s radio host. Y/n was confused about how all this brought him such pleasure. She hesitantly met his fervent gaze, her chest rising and falling at a quicker pace. His grin only grew at the sight of such a frazzled girl. "So, It seems you don't want to make a sound." He paused. "Oooh, but I can surely get one out of you." He laughed and advanced towards Y/n. She quivered under his gaze and stepped backward. Taking a few more steps, Y/n attempted to bolt away but the man gripped onto the chain. He roughly yanked her back to him. His grin no longer a tenant on his face. "The... OBEDIENT.. pets don't run off." He then advanced on to take a pining, jesting lick at what exposed skin showed for him by the collar. Y/n finally came to her senses and scowled, pushing back. "Get off!" She screamed. The force of the push caused her own body to fall back while tripping over a wooden plank. The chain fell from his grip with a grunt. "Why! Ya' talked! Haha!" Y/n stared up at him in terror and her body shaking along with it, wiping off the saliva he left on her bared skin. She couldn't move, he stared down at her. He stared down at her with a blank expression. His body suddenly stiff, ridged, and held no emotion. The chain fell away into ink but the metal collar stayed. The male's face softened into a pained feat and gripped his head, using his free hand to lean against the wall. "Ah, Jesus that f...no..no kid friendly remember, Bendy...God damn my hea.." His pained eyes locked onto hers, pain turning into surprise and let out a shout. "AaahiiE! HuMAN. What?!" He looked just as terrified as Y/n was. She let out her own shriek and sat up against the wall. "Why are you here?!" He shouted and pointed at her. "E-EH?! YOU BROUGHT ME HERE YOU SKANK!" Y/n shouted back on the brink of tears. "What?! Why would I do that?! And skank?!" Y/n was panting heavily, already sweaty from hyperventilating. "Y-YEAH! Y-YOU JUST-" Y/n felt her neck, feeling the tender spot of his remaining trail of damp saliva. A whimper emitted from her. She shakily stood and grabbed the lantern. The man stiffened. "Do you...do not remember?!" She asked shakily and rubbed her eyes, her voice still a bit raised. He gazed upon her in confusion then his eyes went wide and harshly bit his lip, a fang breaking the skin. "You met him didn't you?" He grabbed the sides of his head. "Not again...whenever he comes out bad things happen!" Y/n stared at him, gripping the lantern with dear life. "W-who's h-him?" Y/n questioned and took a small step forward. "HIM. He...he marked you. He marked you didn't he?!" The man muttered and stared at her wide-eyed. His finger pointed to the trail. Y/n gulped and slowly nodded. "Oh god, I-I'm so sorry! He does that whenever he finds a new--" Y/n interrupted. "Pet....he kept calling me..pet." He sighed heavily and let his hand away from his disheveled bangs. "I'm sorry..." He whimpered and slowly walked over to her. "I'm so sorry...sorry... Bendy...I'm Bendy, that's it!" Bendy hesitantly extended his hand as he remembered his identity. Y/n flinched. "A-ah...I suppose you WOULD be hesitant after that. But...Um! Anyways! You don't have to give me your name." Bendy forced a smile and looked down the hallway. Why were all the lights out? Y/n stared at him, she couldn't figure out why he looked so familiar. "I'm sorry but do I know you?" She suddenly spoke, making the already shivering man jump. "I-uh, I don't know. You seem like someone I'd know but I don't. Sorry." His voice had a certain swing to it as if it were stuck in the 20s. Y/n furrowed her brows and turned her head, her eyes still on him. But her gaze flicked to the dark hallway, sighing heavily. "I'd better get back. Not exactly nice meeting you, er, Bendy." Y/n turned herself and picked up the lantern. "Hey! At least lemme walk you out!" Bendy chimed in an attempt to make light of the situation. She gave a deadpanned, un-amused expression. "Really?" Her voice was void of any emotion.

Bendy nodded, crossing his arms nonchalantly. "Of course! I'd be going against my own standards if I didn't escort you until you're safe." Y/n stared at him then sighed in defeat, look ahead. "Alright. But if you-" He put up a finger. "Ah-ah, He's gone for a while. He only comes when I'm asleep." Bendy let out a small grin and Y/n's eyes flicked to his. No wonder the circles under his eyes were so dark and a bit bruised looking. He must try not to sleep at all. 'Maybe he's just delirious.' She thought and began walking once more down the hallway. But nothing looked or seemed familiar, even Bendy was confused. "Uh, Bendy, where are we?" Y/n huffed timidly, afraid to make a wrong move and his head swiveled with own puzzled expression. Bendy even spun himself to see if any was remotely alike to the entrance. ".....to us...How?" He began to mutter and placed his hand on his chin. "Did you go down any elevators?" Y/n shook her head. Bendy sighed and thought for a moment. "You were blindfolded at or something like that?" Y/n opened her mouth and nodded. "I think so, I know I think I lost consciousness a few times...But I'm not sure." They both sighed as they realized they were lost. And in a creepy basement. With creepy sounds of dripping goopy ink. Bendy shivered and rubbed his arm, looking back to the human girl in front of him. "I'm sorry, again. I got you into the mess." He sighed, leaning against the wall. Y/n crossed her arms as her mind became less terrified and more serious about the situation. "I accept the apology, but I should've known gramps would leave something like HIM to guard the place. And I should've of came in here in the first place. So, don't take all the blame." Y/n spoke bluntly with a hint of sympathy in her words. How long had Bendy been trapped here? In all this ink and more than likely some blood. Bendy stared at her in surprise and rubbed his head. "I...Thanks, ms." He gave a small, genuine smile and became sheepish. All in all, Bendy had terrible people skills. All he's known is to sit down, stay quiet, and let the evil ink blob drive. It was weird to have control of his actions, it felt like he was more human than a demon-at the moment. Bendy blinked from his dialogue of thoughts and gave a confused expression. "Gramps..? Do you mean...-?" Y/n hummed in recognition. "He went missing one day after coming to work. Never saw him again." Bendy gulped, looking to the hallway. "What was his name?" Y/n's body jumped as a loud bang rang out. Sounding like a gunshot or something close to that. But it rattled the entire building, unlike a gunshot. Bendy jumped into action and let the instincts kick in, grabbing the stiff woman's arm and sprinting off.

Luckily Y/n had the lantern. Bendy beckoned for the light source in which she handed it over. A loud shriek, almost banshee-like followed after the previous sound. Then sudden screaming. "I'll get you! I won't stop till' YOU'RE dead! You STOLE it from ME." A shriek of a female voice rang out, making the fleeing pair cover their ears with their unoccupied hands. Y/n gasped as Bendy's grip loosened and fell with a loud 'thunk.' "Bendy!" She yelled and crouched down. He was unconscious. Y/n swallowed dryly, shaking his limp body. Tears beaded her eyes out of pure terror of the situation. A shrieking, almost murderous sounding woman, an unconscious Bendy that was susceptible to turning into the freak demon. And a more than fifty-fifty chance of dying by either of them if not her dumb choice of entering the building in the first place. Quick, thunderous footsteps began down the hallway towards the two. Y/n gulped down the nervous nauseous feeling and used all of her arm strength to slap Bendy as hard as she could. The sound made Y/n wince and a red mark immediately appeared. Bendy let out a yelp of pain, shooting up from his laying position. "What was that for?!" He screamed. He was pissed. Y/n stood up and yanked him up along with her. "Someones coming!" Y/n whisper shouted and began running, her turn to frag the disoriented male down the hallway. A turn in the hallway surprised Y/n, her left side colliding into the wood and fell through. It was another room but it was safer than the hallway. Bendy pulled her up and found a spare piece of plywood. He shoved it into the hole in the wall. Luckily it covered enough to where they couldn't be seen. The running footsteps slowed but passed them, returning to the quick pace as it cleared the corner. The two let out quiet sighs of relief and let their bodies relax. Y/n noticed how dark it was and stiffened. She forgot the lantern. Bendy carefully felt around the walls. "Somewhere, somewhere...Ah-HAH!" He cheered softly and pulled down a lever. A soft yet bright light came from the ceiling and illuminated them. Y/n smiled slightly in relief and looked to Bendy. "Ah, sorry about slapping you but last minute thinking isn't really the safest thing with me." He chuckled tiredly, sighing. "Had to wake me before the beast came. It's understandable. OH-! That thing's still on ya." Bendy snapped his fingers and the rusty collar dissipated, rolling off in blobs of ink. Y/n sucked in a breath, the tightness in her throat leaving. Letting out a much-needed sigh and felt blood rush back into her head. She had previously only had been able to take in short breaths due to the constriction. "Thanks." Y/n breathed and leaned against the wall, earning a creak from the floor. "By the way...My name's Y/n.." Bendy looked to her in surprise from the box he was searching through. "Y/n...? Is..is your last name..Lawrence?" He inquired quietly and crouched before her. His head tilted in awe and curiosity. Y/n leaned back against the wall in order to gain her bubble. "Y-yes...Why?" She gulped, her eyes averting and her hands beginning to clam up. "You...you don't remember me. DO you?" Bendy lowered his head sadly with a heavy sigh. Y/n's eyes widened. "I knew you?" She asked in surprise, receiving a nod. "Yeah, but it's been so long I didn't recognize you at first but then your..PERSONALITY...gave it away. You've certainly grown up." Bendy's voice was gravelly as if trying not to cry and stood up, looking to the plywood barricade. Y/n stood and placed a hand on his shoulder. "How come I don't remember? Wouldn't I remember someone like you?" Bendy tensed from the words, it not helping that his cheeks became a dark grey from the contact. "Boss musta did somethin' to make ya' forget me. Wouldn't doubt if he did." His demeanor was less tense now but apathy filled his tone. Y/n lowered her eyes to the floor. "Sorry.." She whispered and removed her hand. What was going on? Is that why he was familiar? Because she might have known this man as a child? Bendy looked to her once more with an unyielding gaze. It was hard to look at her.

What her gramps had done left a terrible mark on the place. Y/n rubbed her arm with a heaviness resting itself on her chest. "I need to get out of here...I have a son-" She paused, letting out a heavy sigh and rubbed her eye with the heel of her palm. "My NEPHEW." Bendy raised a brow. "Son? You look a bit..young to be a mom." His eyes narrowed. "And you continued your...how should I put this...nasty bloodline?" Y/n looked up at him in shock, an expression of pure sorrow concealed her expression. "Bendy, why? I've done NOTHING to you. Just because you..knew me? Just because of my grandfather you're immediately going to group me up with HIM?" She looked to the floor. "I have a life. I can't stay here forever." Y/n walked over to the old door of the door and pulled it open. "He's not even my son. I took him in out of obligation and my own loneliness." Y/n looked back to Bendy who had a pained expression, causing a twinge of sympathy for the man. She pulled her gaze away and into the dark hallway. "Sorry...I-I have..what you can call a grudge against your gramps.." Bendy sighed, following her carefully into the hallway. "I can tell. But, before everything, he was a good person. Deep down inside he's probably still the guy who snuck candy to his granddaughter whenever she was breaking down." Y/n smiled slightly at the memory, their hands against the wall for balance. The rest of the walk was silent but soon enough the cracked open door Y/n left open was coming into view. Y/n quickly made a run for it, rushing to tug the door open. Tripping a few times over her own feet as Bendy followed. He didn't know why but he was drawn to the light. Y/n panted as she finally got it open with the taller persons' help and heaved a breath. "Thanks. I suppose this is where we..uh, split." Y/n took a step outside, enjoying the cold weather for once. She was a summer baby and hated the cold. Bendy felt the cold air rush around him and stiffened. He's never felt such a thing. "Hold on..what's this?" He asked quietly, crouching down and picking up a pile of snow. Y/n looked down at him, raising an eyebrow. "Snow...Do you not know about winter?" She mused. But Bendy stayed silent. He stared at his hand in awe, using his thumb to move the melting substance in his hand. Wait, melting? "Uh...That's not..Y/n, why is it melting?" Bendy vigorously shook his hand free of the freezing snow. Y/n laughed and crouched beside him. "Heat melts snow, so your hand melted it." Bendy stared at his hand in slight horror. "But..I'm not...I'm not human. I have no HEAT.." Y/n noticed how his previously grey-scale glove was now a pure white as before it had a grey tint to it.

Bendy stood up and backed into the building. The grey tint returned. "Wait..so that means.." Y/n thought for a moment. "Come..come outside." She ordered in which he quickly did. What happened next would change their lives forever. The secret of the ink. Bendy's grey scale skin slowly became a normal, pale peach color. The little horns on his head turned into..hair. It falling to rest atop his head but still had the small curved shape of his horn. The skinny spaded tail suddenly retreated into his spine-where it came from in the first place. Making the poor boy fall to the ground. His clothes remained black and white but his eyes became a dark brown color, losing the pie-cut look. "My god...What did he do to the others then...?" Y/n breathed with wide eyes. Bendy began to hyperventilate and rolled over onto the snow-covered ground. Using his hands and knees to sit up but he couldn't move. So, he stayed there, staring at the ground wide-eyed, terrified and on his hands and knees. His bangs hanging from his head and his pony hanging off his shoulder. Bendy felt his inert heart..beating. He couldn't remember the last time it had beat, especially this fast and...alive. He felt as if a barrier broke open, feeling the blood rushing into his once dormant veins. His once dry tongue felt a sudden, slow, wave of saliva coat his mouth. Hesitantly, his tongue licked across his previously dry teeth, feeling his own fang. That didn't go away. "What...I don't.." His fists clenched, balling up snow in his palms. Y/n stared in shock. She herself couldn't bring herself to talk or even think. "Bendy...Do you remember anything before the..show? Before you met my grandfather?" Bendy slowly raised his head, shakily standing. "I remember..nothing. Just bits of childhood." He rubbed his forehead and looked to her. Y/n shook her head. "Well, it seems you're... human now so I guess you just gotta suck it up and deal with life now. You're comin' with me." Bendy blinked but followed nevertheless. And that's when their lives got a bit more interesting.

~~

25,076 Characters

~~

#batim #bendy and the ink machine #bendyxreader #x reader #x female reader

[mitterstorm]

Dance For Me

Chapter 2

*Thump*

 *Thump*

*Thump*

 Your heart beats faster.

 *Tu-tump*

 *Tu-tump*

 The footsteps of whatever is coming are getting louder and louder, maybe its the echo messing with your auditory perception. Whatever or whoever is making all that racket isn’t friendly; good thing you didn’t explore any further.

 <<The exit it’s not far away, just a few feet more and I’ll be safe>>

 You feel as a character of a scary movie: the last survivor or who dies at the end. What startles you the most is that it fits your current predicament.

Abandoned studio, old pal of my dead friend, mysterious letter, unexpected meet up, the idiot travels alone and enters the damn place with nothing more than her phone with no calls at her disposition. The icing of the cake? There’s probably a monster that’ll kill her if it lays eyes on a living being, which in this case just happens to be you.

Yay.

 <<Well fuck me, I won’t stay long to let it rip me to shreds>>

 You run faster at the sight of the door, raising your knees a little bit higher and putting more pressure in your tiptoes, it’ll hurt you later, however, these burst of adrenaline won’t let you feel it right away.

 *Tu-tump*

 You sweat drop with the increasing tumult, bust of wood and cracks in the walls, strong force and velocity are being used to create such destruction, you are already picturing the debris that will come out of these place.

 *Whomp!*

 Shit.

You finally reach the door!

 <<Now get out!>>

 You never thought opening a door would be such a hard task until now, under pressure and with a beast on your heels it feels like you were tied and the lock is coated with oil, fortunately for you it only took you two seconds and in five you were out of Joey’s Studio.

 Or that’s what you thought.

 You crash onto something and a sudden pain attacks your head and forehead, the impact knocks you down to the wooden ink-stained floor, with a bit of struggle you look up to see a fake paperboard background.

 Wait..what?!

 Before you can move something grabs your legs, then you feel another grip on your arms. Looking sideways you catch sight of hands.

“Let go let go! Let go of me!” You struggle trying to free yourself all in vain, when a final pair of hands clutches your hips and your waist you feel a pull, in the process you hit your head again, slipping away of it all.

A bunch of inky hands swallow you down, wrecking the wooden floor into pieces, slowly you are dragged down.

Silent snickers echo around, three little devils watching you descend into your demise.

What did you expect? You are in a toon studio, you shouldn’t have expected less!

It sure it’s cruel how our minds can be tricked so easily, you were fooled by them.

 You’ll be their new toy.

 Well, that is until he decides what to do with you, but surely you’ll be given. After all, the creatures that lurk around the studio are sure to tear you into shreds.

 They all despise humans.

 Especially the Ink Demon.

 “Alright, Joey. I’m here. Let’s see if we can find what you wanted me to see.”

The male made his way through the old workshop and felt himself going down memory lane, caught in the past with souvenirs from back on those days were the animation studio offered hopes and dreams to dreamers like him who envisioned their own fantasy world inside a blissful abode holding unlimited possibilities.

Echos of the creaking wooden floor with each step he took his wondering gaze taking every detail he could as if it was the first time.

He found another reminder of his prime.

“Hey, here’s my old desk. I’ve wasted so much time in this chair.”

Admiring the piece of carpentry before him slowly running his fingers down the material, then he walked away and gawked at the sight, his past workplace went by some renovations.

“Looks like they knocked out a wall or two after I left. Guess it took a few people to replace me.”

After admiring the view he went inside another room and found an old projector with a film tape still on running smoothly but it was blank, no images nor animations being shown, he turn it off.

Leaving the room he walked off into a new one passing a signboard that had written ‘Art Department’, ‘Ink Machine’, ‘Theater’ and ‘Break Room’. He glared at the wall suspiciously reading out-loud the following:

“’Dreams Come True’.” Not giving much thought into it and following swift along the corridor, he started hearing music coming from a room, curious he opened the door and turned off the radio emitting the catchy tune.

He kept walking and took a turn on the right then another and what he found took his breath away, he let out a whistle amazed by the machinery in front of him because what he sees excites him.

These man had no fear for the unknown and instead of escaping he approaches it, intrigued he went along with it.

“This lift could use a few dry cells.”

Unbeknownst to him, he was going to set free a greater evil.

His little devil darling will arise from the depths of the Ink Machine and he won’t receive the Creator with open arms, instead he’ll place his hands on his neck.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two hours passed until you finally start regaining consciousness, you groan in pain, feeling the throbbing of your head and the ache in other parts of your body. Her back is bruised for sure and her right hand burns horribly.

“Ng......f-fu..ck..”

Talking hurts just like breathing does, it requires a lot of effort from you.

<<How am I alive? These agony justifies it...what happened up there? All I remember is hitting something...something hard..paperboard I think>>

Carefully she tries to move her left arm and hand, touching the floor below her. Wood and old at that. She’s still at the studio, she knew it was stupid to think otherwise, but she kept hoping for it to be differently. Coming here was a bad idea, now she knows that, even thought it makes her feel incredibly stupid, but who cares.

<<I need to get out of here or at least try>>

“You won’t go anywhere injured, you dumb bitch” She said to herself, her voice weak like a whisper. First she has to get up and look for something to patch her up or at least lean on like a cane, she ain’t stupid, she knows she’ll walk limping and that won’t help with her current predicament.

<<Here I go>>

Groaning she tries to get up or at the very least sit up, straining her back and legs by forcing them to lift her, she slips from one side when she tries to use her hands, hissing in pain she takes a look only to realize until now the state of her right hand.

<<How is it that I didn’t notice for fucks sake!>>

It must have occurred when the wooden planks snapped. A huge piece of wood broke through her hand’s skin, exactly in her life line; shock travels rapidly inside of her at the sight of the injury, her breath hitches a little when she unconsciously tries to lean on it again. Dried old blood and a bit of new blood were oozing out of the wound, the wooden stick proved to help retaining as much as it could, however with the pressure she applied trying to stand up, well it was starting to come out a little.

Fuck, she’s fucked if that gets infected and it’ll be one help of a pain when she takes it out.

“These sucks..agh..”

Now she has to get going, doesn’t matter how much it hurts, as long as she doesn’t hurt herself any further she’ll be okay. Probably.

<<I’m grateful for knowing a bit of this stuff, it’ll be useful right now>>

True, she ain’t a doctor, but she’s a nurse and knows a bit by seeing her colleagues (who are doctors) treat injuries and all that jazz, obviously she isn’t capable nor authorized of partaking in a surgery, but you know stuff thanks to being observant and curious.

You cry out in pain when you try getting up again, using one arm and securely folding your right arm on your abdomen, you only get as far as to lift your upper body and one of your knees bending. You unbutton a little bit your shirt to look at yourself.

Some scratches and a bruise near your ribs (fortunately no broken bones, not counting the metacarpals of your hand). You want to see your back, it should be covered in bruises and scratches or maybe something bigger than that, since it stings a lot.

*Huff*

Breathing it’s more difficult in this position, you have to stand up now.

<<Besides who knows if what attacked me is still around here>>

Groaning louder you push yourself until you are up, leaning on a wall, not trusting your strength or balance.

Limping, you start walking through the studio. You hate yourself for coming here, sure your clothes may be all dark, but ink stains aren’t welcome because of it and all the ink makes it difficult for you to move. There’s a lot of ink, but not enough to drown you, it doesn’t reach your knees and there are some clean spaces where the dark liquid doesn’t follow.

“..the electrical system is practically useless, it’s too dark...” You say to no one in particular.  

It’s a miracle the building is still standing after all these years, obviously these walls have been neglected after that accident, nonetheless, the place could be of use to someone else who has the money to make all the repairs and maintenance it deserves.

You weren’t avail to explore the first floor ‘cus you know...this happened, besides some pipes broke (probably the whole pipeline system needs fixing) and if the floor was stained then all the files and artwork should be in similar or worse conditions.

<<Did Henry leave with all of his work or he left some behind? I would have loved to see some of he’s old work..maybe he made some progress after all these time...>>

You hiss in pain, your back hurts and you have a headache, there’s no chance you’ll find some aspirins or whatever, maybe some bandages or even an old cloth to cover the wound.

<<That thing is down here and I don’t want an encounter when I’m in these state: injured and sick. I’ll have to keep going, at least until I mend the wound>>

Time to man up then, be a badass bitch and endure the pain.

After a few minutes you take notice of something.

<<This path has been cleared>>

You confirmed it when you walked down the stairs (you nearly fall and you were scared shitless when you saw practically all the room was flooded with ink) and found a valve, you did the following and turned it. Subsequently the room started to clear itself and you were able to pass through it easier.

Now you know that-

Was someone else here?

<<I mean Joey should be here, but I don’t know anymore, maybe I was right and he send that letter years ago>>

Yes, however, there’s something you are missing.

Why is it open?

The entrance wasn’t locked, no key sealing it away and that growl you heard. Who or what exactly lives here?

“I have to leave and quickly, I don’t want to find out.”

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bendy’s POV

The devil’s smile still intact and genuine now, he couldn’t help but smirk when the human fell into his trap. He wasn’t using his beast form anymore and was avail to stalk them from afar (of course, he used one of his portals so he could get there faster), it was a good idea to summon those three fellows.

Even thought years have passed there are still some things left from the ol’ days, that fake paperboard background was possible because of cartoon logic, it didn’t matter if the Butcher Gang wasn’t the same, corrupted by the ink. It was irrelevant, they were still part of the spectrum.

Piper, Fisher and Striker were trembling once they spotted him, these fear of them only serve to feed his sadistic side.

He’s able to smell their fear, since they are made of ink sweat is not a way for him perceive it, no, the key it’s the ink. Depending on the consistency he’s able to differentiate various emotions. Similar to physical and chemical reactions of a human body, it can’t compare to the real thing, however it comes in handy for him.

Thanks to his ability, he can read those around him even better (thick ink is a sign of nervousness and fear, thin or boiling ink means anger, frustration and aggressiveness, slimy or jelly-like consistency means sickness or sadness, last runny means either normal or strong emotions similar to excitement or sadistic tendencies such as his) and it helps him with his lack of sight. The tar-like liquid that covers his pie-cutted eyes acts like wax, once fluid and with time it hardens. He can’t remove it at will and he tried scratching it with his claws, it hurt him horribly, he fell unconscious that day.

Ugh, just remembering makes him want to end that musicians life immediately, however, he has to wait. Lawrence is still of use to him.

<<No time for that, I have to keep these three at line>>

The demon snarled at the trio, they didn’t need to be said twice, they banished in seconds leaving behind ink splotches.

<<Good, they need to know who’s in charge around here, I don’t need them turning themselves against me>>

Of course, those lackeys helped him just in time to trap them on the lower levels. Him being one of the top dogs inside the studio (he shares part of it with Alice to keep her at bay, as long as she doesn’t interfere the truce stands) has another skill only he possess. He’s capable of controlling the ink to his desire; those hands and arms that pulled you down? It was him, not the Lost One’s.

Approaching smugly towards the hole on the floor he jumped down, landing graciously on the ground and immediately searched around the room, soon he found what he was looking for: the girl. He couldn’t see her, but could feel her. How you may ask, another gift, but he is not the only one able to use it, all ink creatures have it, the answer is ink.

Think of it as a tether, a connection or bond between the source and its off-springs. What separates them from normal ink is their conscious, their minds.

<<Joey said something similar to me once...what differentiates them from animals is their ability to think..even thought they don’t show it>>

Until Henry that is, the Inkarnate knew his creator Joey Drew was a man of science who dreamed walking on the red carpet, ambitious and headstrong, besides him other...individuals never truly showed any brains, so when he met Henry it changed his view on humans (not completely, but a little it’s already too much if you know how Bendy is).

He knows the girl won’t have many problems traversing through his home, Henry cleared the majority of the pathways and left a mess at some levels. Stein proved to be entertaining for him, not an easy prey like other inhabitants that were trapped by the ink, he hunted each and every last of them, their fates worse than death.

If he was bored and in the mood some were tortured, he experimented with them diverse methods to inflict pain and traumatize them.

Boredom it’s Eternity’s enemy, that’s what he believes at least. Not that he’s complaining, he has no desire to end his life, yet.

It would be a lie if he said the idea never popped on his mind, the demon isn’t suicidal, however his domain tends to be rather grim. Hollow would be an accurate description for the living here, insanity plays a big part too, it feeds the flame of vengeance inside him.

That little detail can be seen as a disadvantage too, hysteria brings such brutal ideas as suicide and ways to do so, it should be morbid for him feel excitement by holding those thoughts. But it isn’t.

He’s grateful, after years condemned of humdrum there’s some thrill for him.

Eerily watching how the woman’s chest went up and down, he took a look at the room and absorbed some of the ink, no he wasn’t trying to save her, no, just delaying fate.

"ﾚ乇ｲ'丂 丂乇乇 んのW ﾚの刀ム ｲん乇丂乇 の刀乇 ﾚﾑ丂ｲ丂."

Giving another glance to the female beneath him he noticed her injury.

<<That dog will find her, it’ll help them, just like Henry>>

There’s no need to worry, he’ll make it last as longs as he needs to, once he appeases his dullness they’ll be gone.

<<Alice has to know, the others too, especially Lawrence. I have to make it clear, those too disobey me, Samuel rarely does it, but when he does...I can’t believe he’s that foolish>>

Normally the devil let’s them do as they please with intruders, that was in the past, he grew bored and those lunatics never left something for him, they were too simple-minded for him. They didn’t enjoy the hunt or torment them until it breaks beyond repair.

He learned to savour his kills.

Although he can’t always relish their distress, those are dark days plagued by migraines, screams brought him suffering instead of pleasure. When the voices got too loud for him, weakening his self and succumbing into the abyss...

He dwells too much.

Time to change that.

Smiling in glee he opened another portal, shuffling at his own pace towards it, every time he set a foot in one it reminded him before his sentience.

Like a never ending cascade.

Too bad he couldn’t enjoy it anymore.

“I thought we had an agreement, name your business and leave.” Said automatically the witch while working on her stupid beauty products.

He’s not oblivious, the madwoman has been sacrificing a big bunch of their lot to fix her ugliness. Because of his abhor and apathy concerning the flunked angel he didn’t interfere, it kept her busy and in line, besides...who was he to judge? Obviously he’s the law, and overseer, the boss. However, he can’t fault them for their tainted nature.

"W乇 んﾑ√乇 ﾑ √ﾉ丂ﾉｲの尺." Its always like these with the Angel, he knows every inch of her like no one else, despite their hateful relationship it once held passion. The Demon possess so much knowledge about her: what makes her tick, what brings her euphoria, how to bath her in glee and ecstasy, why she’s so selfish, etc.

She’ll never admit it, but she still likes how he shows dominance, like now that he has her trapped, in a matter of seconds he had her pinned to a wall, looking down at her while she looks up to him, she was suppressing down her smile by replacing it with a scowl.

<<You don’t want me to know? Still prideful then>>

He feels a bit of disgust by being so near, but he can’t deny his want, they always felt this attraction to each other, since they were supposed to be a romantic couple in the show.

“Yes, I heard the racquet, what about it?” She crossed her arms faking anger at his interruption, however, the tether told him otherwise.

-Runny and rushed-

“Don’t be too rough with them.” As if he was burning her the Angel pushed him away, good thing he couldn’t see her if he has the ability then he would be aware of the slight trickling from Alice’s left side of her face were hideousness its more apparent, by-product of her imperfection.

Bendy knows this because she was like that before he lost his sight, yet he didn’t care, what’s on the outside won’t change what she’s on the inside, after all, they are monsters. Susie happens to be one of them, back in the days when she was a beauty her interior carried a decaying putrid soul, many were believed the lies assembled for them, luring those who once possessed such naivety.

The gal showed her discontent towards him by screaming.

“Why?! I thought we were done! There are no creators left and all the employees have been corrupted by the ink, you made that happen! So what’s left?!” Ah yes, screeching, another reason for their ‘break up’, he couldn’t take her moodiness and when she yelled at him? Ugh, he considered several times ending his suffering and tried shutting her up until his patience ran thin and he relied on violence.

Like now.

The hellish creature it’s choking the fallen angel, baring his teeth at her, a guttural sound coming from him. She expected this and already had her hands trying to loosen his grip, spitting venom from her eyes.

“It does not matter. Do as I say, I don’t want you nor any of your pets to kill them! Not yet at least.” He tighten up a little bit more his grasp on her, he feels a clot forming in her throat, their bodies are different from humans, but ink its their whole being. Blood, tissue, muscle, organs, veins, etc. He could get a feel of how her normal ink pressure is centered were his hands are strangling her.

If she was human his sensitive senses would give him the satisfaction of perceiving how her blood runs through her veins, her slowed down pulse and her hitched breath trapped on her longs trying to get in and out seeking more oxygen, until she starts coughing while trembling at the verge of death and he would-

“F-Fi-ne.”

He woke up from his delirium maelstrom, soon he released her and could only hear her desperate gasps for air (not that she needs it), cautious she rubs her neck and then expectantly looks up at him.

“Good.”

The little devil left her alone and carried on with his duty, now he’s missing Lawrence.

He wonders what his little admirer could be doing.  

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sammy’s POV

The maestro was attending his most precious possessions, what kept an ounce of sanity alive in him are his instruments, it’s unfair he’s not well stocked with supplies to restore them back to their glory, four decades ago they still held divine graciousness.

Unlike his soul what he created was pure not carrying any of his sins and embraced all his passion for what he did: music. Innovative melodies no one had heard before that came from the bottom of his heart and mind, his whole life recorded on simple notes he calls reflections.

Ah yes, his darker dreams transformed in golden faded mist were he gives his life a twirl. Dangerous emotions as the likes of anger, frustration, depression and loneliness banish in a second when his fingers travel along those riches.

He was cleaning them when he heard an uproar.

“Oh? What pray my Lord be the problem?” It’s unusual for his master to cause such ruckus, did something happened? Why wasn’t he informed? He’s supposed to know all the whereabouts of these place to keep it’s ruler safe!

Swiftly he set down the banjo and made his way through a satanic circle and went searching for the reason of his Lord’s discontent.

<<Maybe another tender sheep is trapped inside these hellhole>>

Soon he found what he’s been looking for.

You.

He just didn’t expect you to be so...breathtaking.

A limping beauty before him in the open,defenseless. The Prophet never found his master, instead he stumbled into a besom. Is it a gift from his savior? Did the devil accepted his apologies?!

How he envisioned that day! After that black sheep came to Bendy’s kingdom he gave him the cold shoulder, he even tried to murder him when he was only showing how grateful he is for all he has done for him. He didn’t understand..but he would never let past mistakes repeat themselves, he’ll change whatever brought displeasure to the boss.

For the better.

If he has been blessed as he believes then he’ll accept the Inkarnate’s present and treasure it just like his valuable instruments.

But if he’s wrong and the human is not a signal from the Dark One then he must continue with his duty as a guardian.

The old music director knows his ways and stalks you inside the ink, keeping himself hidden from you and in a short time he takes notice of your physical state.

He worries that if you are his then it’s his responsibility to aid your graciousness with how fragile you look Lawrence can’t stop the scenarios that play in his head, he’ll tend to your needs and nurse you back to health while protecting what’s his, teaching them what they’ll require to stay in here adoring their king.

And he won’t lie, fantasizing with a noble charmer like yourself...well, the liquid that keeps him alive runs faster than before, it excites him greatly.

Captivated he follows the Lamb he found without her noticing he’s even there.

Something he takes pride on.

His time will come, eventually he’ll have the pleasure of meeting you.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It keeps disturbing you looking at the big ass stick inside your hand protruding noticeably, but it helps as a constant reminder of being careful so you don’t bury it more, if you did it would cause serious damage.

That’s why you still have the piece of wood puncturing your hand, it wouldn’t have been a problem if the stick wasn’t that big or that far into you, hypothetically that were the case then you would have already taken it out and clean it with some water, soap or alcohol while covering the wound with a piece of your attire.

Your problem is the infection, whether you can prevent it or not is an issue and you don’t know where to find any alcohol to maintain around the wound clean, even if you somehow manage to do so it wouldn’t change anything because you are still running the risk of dying from gangrene.

<<I have to options get the fuck out of here or look for help>>

And no you can’t call 911, the impact destroyed your cellphone, you couldn’t even pick up the broken pieces of the screen because your back hurt too much and crouching made breathing a harder task. So as you can see your options are limited, besides you can’t even draw out the thing because you don’t have enough strength to do so with one hand.

You grunt in pain and irritation by remembering that little detail, you life is on the line and you don’t know exactly how much time you have left until the injury gets infected.

“I need to hurry.”

<<I can’t believe my luck, really, like this whole place has a serious leaking problem and Mr.Drew should get all the pipeline system checked. I haven’t passed a place without a splotch of ink or where the walls aren’t dripping ink! I don’t want to imagine a worse scenario than this for myself, injured, no communication or way to get help, no medical supplies and I’m risking my life by being out in the open because there’s a possibility a bloodthirsty monster is on the lookout for me!>>

Finally you reach a room with what appears to be a desk with a toolbox and a mug, there’s nothing else or that’s what you think until you notice a perplexing message written on the wall beside the desk.

“’The Creator Lied To Us’..what’s that supposed to mean?” You ask to no one after reading the message out-loud.

<<Is these about that article? Who wrote this?>>

Your theory is that one of Joey’s workers came back to the studio and vandalized the wall, that’s the more logical explanation you can think of.

<<After all they were overworked and abused, I would have done the same if I had the guts to do so>>

You didn’t put much thought into it and carried on with your task, another detail that comes to your awareness are some wooden planks blocking what appears to be an entry to a new part of the studio, however, finally a stroke of luck is given to you and you are still able to pass through them with no complications.

Slowly you walk across the corridor squinting your eyes at the little light that offered the room, scared of tripping over she lift her legs in order to not fall with one of the wooden planks trying to block her way, she feels scared and alone.

<<Never thought I would develop a fear of the dark at my adulthood>>

She reached a door, hesitant she drew her hand closer to the doorknob and with her shaken good hand she opens it a weak, fearful gasp leaves her.

“Wh-What’s...this?” Horrified she takes a step forward. Maybe her mind is playing games with her or her eyes are deceiving her perception of reality “I-it...it can’t......it can’t be!” A silent scream resides her inner walls.  

<<Am I really seeing this?>>

What appears to be a satanic circle drawn on the floor with black ink, candles adorning each side of the pentagon and two coffins near it.

You step into the it, just at the edge to look at it closer, but as your foot lands inside it you start feeling dizzy and fall into a deep slumber.

Old jumbled memories have been revealed once again.

 A machine.

 One wheelchair.

 Dark silhouette.

 ...what does it all mean?

 Madness. All went to hell thanks to Mr. Drew’s mindset, egocentric and greedy as many others. He used all the resources that were at his disposition: money, cleverness, social skills, manipulation, machinery and people. He took it all for his own desires, overriding any morals he had, if he even had them to begin with.

He doomed them all, himself counted. Crossing paths with death served him right, he died bearing resentment for never being able to accomplish his dream. Immortality. His decaying for made it evident, he needed a wheelchair because of how weak his body had become.

Too weak to fight back.

His own creations slaughter him. Buried deep in ink.

#Bendy and the Ink Machine #bendy #boris the wolf #alice angel #sammy lawrence #bendyxreader #henry stein #reader #Dance For Me Fanfic #fanfic #bendy fanfic #BATIM fanfic #batim fanfic

[lesbiaseagull]

(I’m sorry that it’s not the Personal Question) If it’s ok, an Imagine that Reader paying the debt, owing Bendy for saving her?

This is going to be a continuation from the last imagine where Bendy saved the reader. 

- You didn’t really know what to do with Bendy. It doesn’t seem like he wants to hurt you, so you have no reason to run. 

- You both are still in the same room with the soup. After he saved you you two kinda just stayed, him not wanting you to get any trouble, and you felt that if you tried to leave it wouldn’t end well. 

- “So like..I’m figuring since you saved me…I owe you, right?” You asked. Bendy looked at you and nodded in response. 

- “Well, what do I owe you?” You started to play with your hands, trying to distract yourself from the thought that he might want to hurt you. 

- You noticed Bendy began to write something on the floor, the ink coming from his fingers. 

- ‘Stay’ was spelled out on the floor. 

- You sighed, happy that it wasn’t anything bad. 

- “You want me to stay with you?” You asked smiling slowly. Bendy nodded again. 

- “Well..I suppose I’m staying then.” 

#bendy #bendy and the ink machine #bendyandtheinkmachine #bendyxreader

[ms-aromantic-blog]

Aro did the sketch and lineart, Peace did the colouring and final touches. Yeee, its here! (good thin we finished it already we're almost out of ink) Don't worry, Aro, we can get more- (no peace i fucking swear) From the ink machine! (im so dun with this woman) Anyways, this was inspired from a BATIM fan fiction found on Quotev right here > It's a BendyXReader, so if you don't want to read it, that's okay. If you want to read it, that's also okay. ========== Bendy and the Ink Machine -- theMeatly Inked Love(fan fiction) -- Toonie Fanart -- Ms. Aromantic

#bendy and the ink machine #bendy the demon #bendy the dancing demon #boris the wolf #batim boris #batim #black and white #fanart #love is important #bendy batim

[toontails]

Toon Quest

Chapter 7: It Had Big Ears and a Long Tail!

The sound of wind blew into Y/n’s ears. The sound of water hitting each other, she felt herself breathing. A heavy warm feeling was across her body. She was regaining herself, her eyes fluttering open and she was met with a clear blue sky, she felt like her body was wobbling—as if..she were moving. Slowly sitting up, Y/n’s eyes immediately closed, her eyes felt sore from the amount of light that evaded it. 

After a moment of her eyes being closed, she slowly opened them back up, her eyes landed on nothing by pure blue water. The ocean. 

Y/n felt someone was leaning on her and she looked over to see Bendy had his arms wrapped around her—and was fast asleep, his leaned resting back on the wall of the boat, the brown blanket wrapped around the two. 

Y/n looked ahead to see Panchito, Oswald, Donald, Cuphead and Mugman fast asleep as well. It seemed they were in the cockpit of the boat, there weren't any beds—but just floors with various blankets sprawled out. But that didn’t seem to bother everyone as they were tucked away in the blankets, getting the sleep they so utterly desired hours ago. 

Spunk was fast asleep under a pile of blankets as well, what he needed to sleep for? Y/n had no clue..but nevertheless, the pup was fast asleep. 

Y/n felt Bendy shuffle and soon sit up, looking over at the demon, Bendy gently rubbed at his eyes before looking at Y/n. “You’re up…” he starts and Y/n nods. 

“You feelin’ okay?” He asks and Y/n nods once more. “Yeah..did I pass out or something?” She asks, the last thing she remembered was being in town, not getting in a boat. But either way she was At Least grateful they all got away from whatever fiasco last night was. 

“Felix said you went into shock. They must have really shaken you up..you passed out when they left, and you’ve been sleepin’ this entire time.” Bendy recalls—Atleast she wasn’t out for too long. Y/n went silent as she slowly looked away from Bendy and onto the floor. 

Bendy looks away from Y/n shortly after before he glances over at her wrist which had been wrapped in bandages prior to her being asleep. Looking away from the covered wound Y/n spotted Felix on the other side of the boat, seated—he was the only other person awake. Standing up Y/n walked over to Felix, which was did to do on a semi moving boat, but when she made it over to him, she dropped down next to him, he was sitting on the ledge of the boat staring down in the water, his ears standing on its ends. 

“Glad you’re awake.” He greets Y/n as his eyes are still glued onto the water. “How long have we been sailing now?” Y/n asks. Felix looks away from the water finally and back to the human. “About a good 7 hours now. 3 of those hours were spent getting the boat in the right direction with the help of the book—but after a while the trail went away so we’ve just been trailing off into the same direction it led us too.” Felix informed her. Well Atleast they had a direction. 

“Whoa..” Y/n says. She looks back out into the ocean nothing but water and sky—no land anywhere in sight. It was scary, yet fascinating to see so much water as far as the eye can see. 

Y/n leans over the boat and down into the blue water. 

“You venture off to places and stuff, right? Is it hard telling where to go on the sea?” Y/n asks Felix, placing a fingertip in the salty water. Felix shook his head. 

“Oh no! Not at all, it’s actually quite simple in fact. When it’s dark out the stars usually are like a map to lead you to different areas around the world.” Y/n felt like Felix has  tons of stories to share and Y/n most certainly would love to listen to them. Literally. This was the best big thing! Adventure! 

Y/n felt someone tug at the back of her shirt gently to sit her up away from the water, sitting down correctly, Y/n saw it was Bendy who was the one to lead her away from the water and sat down next to her. 

“So what’s so different to the other lands compared to the mainlands?” Y/n asks Felix. 

“The environment is very different from the mainlands, because it's divided by different magical realms, something the mainland’s doesn't have.” 

“We get to see dragons?!” Y/n flinched at Cuphead’s sudden voice. The cup had somehow managed to sneak behind her and was standing there like he wasn’t just asleep at all. 

“Cuphead, lower your voice.” Mugman groaned as he stood up from the floor and trudged over. Oswald, Donald and Panchito were starting to wake up as well. 

“Remember guys, entering the offlands is very dangerous. There’s creatures and different things there that are very dangerous.” Felix says sternly before he quickly smiles. “Which is why I think it’s awesome!” 

“Oh leave it up to me. I’ll keep us all safe.” Cuphead boasted as he placed his hands on his hips and winked at Y/n. Y/n let out a small laugh and looked away. 

“We’re voyaging with the greatest adventurer of the generation, are you gonna teach us how to make traps with shoelaces?” Y/n quickly asks. 

“How to turn radioactive water into purified water?!” Mugman asks shortly after. 

“Or cut open a camel and sit in its guts for warmth?” Cuphead smiled and Y/n grimaced and furrowed her eyebrows at Cuphead. “Ew..”

Felix chuckled and nodded. “I’ll teach you all everything I know throughout our journey out here.” 

“This should be fun.” Panchito smiles and Oswald and Donald—Donald was busy looking off into the sea before looking at Panchito. 

“So, how long until we reach the next location?”  Oswald asks and Donald looks off into the sea. “Well, if we had a map of the location I could figure it out, but the stupid book only gave us a trail. Barely even that.” Donald answered—Y/n almost forgot that Donald sailed. She actually did start to wonder if he was a good swimmer considering he has webbed feet. And is literally a duck. 

Cuphead pulled something from his pocket and handed it to Donald, it was a rolled up paper—the map that Puck had given them back in town—Donald looked down at the map and took it before unfolding it. 

“Oh yeah, Puck gave us that.” Y/n answered and Donald’s tail feathers wagged for a moment as he placed the map on the floor and sat down to start pinpointing their location and work his magic. 

Panchito sat down next to Donald and curiously watched him start drawing on the map with the pencil that Felix had handed him shortly after he sat down. 

Y/n felt Cuphead nudge her slightly, she looked at the cup and he motioned to Bendy who was sitting down still staring off into the water. “What’s up with him?” He asks. Y/n slowly shrugs—as much as Y/n wanted to find out, she didn’t know much about Bendy, but still nevertheless seeing him look somehow dejected did raise a few questions as to what made him upset. Or maybe was he still sleepy? Was he hungry? Sick? 

“Maybe he’s homesick. I know I was when we left Inkwell.” Mugman gently pipes up. Maybe that could also be a reason. 

“If you ask me, I believe he may be upset about last night, specifically the Angel.” Oswald says the three look at Oswald to see him standing near them, which Y/n clearly wasn’t there for the interaction they had with the archangel and the other toon. She was too busy getting her ass handed too by some masked weirdo. So much for being harmless— as Cuphead promised Pib wouldn’t harm a fly. 

“Oh yeah, must be an honor meeting an archangel, yeah, I was busy getting my ass kicked by the person Cuphead said wouldn’t do much harm.” Y/n grumbled and Cuphead let out a nervous chuckle. 

“Sorry about that..really, I didn’t think she would do that.” He apologized and Mugman rocked back and forth on his feet. 

“Well, the good thing is, you’re alive?” Mugman tried to weigh the bad with the good, but Y/n only shook her head at the two. 

“I’m gonna go speak to Bendy.” She says as she turns around and walks over to Bendy. Cuphead quickly looks at Oswald. “She ain’t mad at me right?” He quickly asks almost as if that was his worst nightmare coming to bite his head off. Oswald gives him a confused expression. 

“Uh…I don’t know.” 

Bendy heard the boat creak slightly and looked over to see Y/n sitting back next to him. The human looks at him for a moment before looking out into the ocean. “You don’t look too happy.” Proclaimed Y/n.

Bendy hummed for a moment. “And, what makes you think that?” He asks. Y/n looks back at him and back out into the ocean. 

After a moment of silence Bendy spoke. “I thought you were done for last night.” He confessed and Y/n chuckled and slowly nodded. “You? I thought I was done for, she damn near dropped be from a 80 foot bridge above water.”

“What?” Bendy says—now he didn’t know that but then again when the two vanished he didn’t know what the hell Y/n went through. 

“But I’m alive though.” The human moves on as she looks back at the ocean, Bendy stares at Y/n for a moment before looking back at the water as well. 

“Yeah…” he muttered. 

There was a moment of silence, listening to the boat creak and the waves collapsing onto each other. Bendy didn’t seem to want to talk much, but after a few more moments he looked at Y/n’s wrist. “Is your wrists okay?” 

Y/n glanced down at her bandaged arms and nodded. “Yeah, they don’t hurt or anything. I mean, I guess it kinda is bruised but, I’m okay..” she fiddled with the bandage. 

“But no really, are you okay?” Y/n asks. Bendy chuckles and nods, lifting his head up to show he was alright—or in a way to portray it, but Y/n had a feeling that he wasn’t telling much, pulling off a facade of something that he wasn’t telling her, but it was nowhere in Y/n’s place to pester about it. Bendy could tell with Y/n’s suspicions of his attitude but he only chuckled. 

“M’fine, really.” 

Y/n was silent for a moment before she wrapped her arm around Bendy’s and leaned head onto his shoulder, watching the ocean travel miles away from home, Bendy glanced down at Y/n and placed a hand on hers, he looks back out into the ocean and silently took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. His eyebrows furrowed together before leaning his head on top of Y/n’s. 

-

The muffled noise of jazz playing from the radio reached the ears of the masked individual. Standing on the balcony, hands resting on the banner. Pib watched the city folk wander down the streets, her finger tapped the banner slowly and in a deep frustration. 

Standing in the doorway was the winged creature, Abel. He had been watching Pib for the last 10 minutes stare off into nothing, not a single word ever since arriving back to the base. 

“You know, it’s good to eat every once in a while, you haven't done that in the last few hours.” Abel brings up. Pib slowly glanced at Abel from over her shoulder before looking back out into the street. 

“Pib’ll come around, probably pissed is all.” Slice appeared next to Abel, he glanced at the toon who reached up and removed the mask form her face, revealing the white hair and look of fierce determination. 

Slicer placed the mask onto a nearby table and walked over to Pib, who was not bothering to pay the two any mind. “Well either way, it’s been a few hours since she ate anything. She needs to eat.” Abel pestered and Slicer waves her hand in a swatting motion. 

“C’mon, leave ‘em be. She just needs a little heart to heart with space.” Slicer placed a hand on Pib’s arm. And Abel deadpans for a moment. Carley only chuckled before she motioned towards the door. “Fine then.” She says before turning and leaving. Abel looks away from the door before his eyes land on Pib. He walked over to them and stood beside the human. 

“You let your anger get the best of you.” He starts. Pib looks at Abel before looking back at the city, Pib rolls her shoulders, a small pop from her bones emits into the air. 

Abel stared at Pib for a moment before looking at the town as well. The quiet tapping of Pib’s finger hitting the railing reached his ears. “Come rest. You’ll stress yourself to death.” He turned around and his wing gently pushed Pib away from the railing and turned the human around to walk with him, which Pib did and the two entered the building. 

Once they did Abel had released Pib and watched as Bettigan seemingly was searching around the room for something, Mango had been aimlessly floating around the room in hopes of an idea to spark in his head and Slicer had been standing near the front door with her arms behind her back, watching Bettigan search for whatever he was looking for. 

“Dog gone it..where the hell did I leave it?” He muttered under his breath. Abel’s eyes watched as Bettigan lifted the couch pillow, his eyes trailed down to see the missing revolver from his holster. 

“He’s looking for his gun, that’s his most prized possession.” Mango cackles and Bettigan rolled his eyes. “Yeah—real funny, I coulda sworn I just had it!” 

“I mean, you could have dropped it, you two couldn’t tell those brothers were working under your noses this entire time.” Slicer pipes up and Bettigan grunts. 

“Actually kinda glad they’re Atleast gone for now. Won’t have to listen to them argue every second.” He grumbled and Mango frowned slightly. 

“I dunno, I sorta miss Mugman.” Mango sighs and portrays an expression of sadness before immediately smiling. 

“I’m over it now!” He cackled, he was such a strange…person. Mango could never keep one emotion in line. 

“Well. It’s late, and I believe they left town, we can think of something tomorrow, but as of now, Pib used too much energy today and need—“ When Abel looked over to take a glance at Pib who was supposed to have been by his side, but he was met with an empty spot. Abel furrowed his eyebrows and looked around the room to look for Pib, but alas, she was nowhere to be found. 

“God dammit..” 

-

Pib curiously followed behind an injured bird, it went on with its everyday life as it paddles around the towns sidewalk, Pib at their eyes glued on the bird, it’s wing was injured as it laid loosely to its side, it flapped its wings every once in awhile to hop forward, but it didn’t get anywhere far. 

It wandered into the grass which Pib followed, only to quickly get distracted by a child who had stumbled and fell onto the ground a few inches away, Pib reaches down and gently sets the child up by the back of her shirt with ease, in which she smiled up at Pib before thanking her and scurrying off, Pib looks back forward to see the bird had rested itself in the grass, it must have gotten tired after the short walk. Pib slowly walked over and slowly sat down onto the grass, the bird looks up at Pib who had gently reached a hand out and took the bird in her hand, a chirp resonated from the small bird, lifting another hand, the familiar golden aura of light gently glowed from the palm of her hand, the golden veins articulating and slowly traveled to her index finger which Pib placed on the birds broken wing. 

The bird stayed still as it nestled into the warm palm of Pib’s.

Pib gently brushed four fingers against the bird's wing as if wiping something off, and removed her hand, the bird springs up as if it were reminded of something. Chirping in a sweet melody, it hops up from Pib’s hand and opens its wings before flapping and raising itself from her hand, the bird gently pressing its head against the masked figure's face before flying off. 

Pib watched the bird, watching as it slowly disappeared into the night sky. The sound of shuffling was the cause of her looking away, when her eyes landed on the new figure she spotted a kid who stared at her in shock, standing next to his mother who also was shocked, the mother blindly grabbed her sons hand before quickly backtracking wherever they walked from until they were away from view. Pib looks away before staring off into the trees. 

-

M/n stood next to Henry as he glanced down at the clipboard in pure attentiveness. They had been so busy planning for the big celebration, Henry hardly noticed how Alice, Boris and the Butchers weren’t present in the studio for the last 3 days, not that he needed them for anything or needed to know where they were 24/7 as they had free will to go anywhere they so please, but when M/n took notice of it. She asked around the studio for Alice, or maybe Boris, but all she got back was. ‘I don’t know’ 

That was until Alice showed up a few hours ago with a box of chocolates for Wally as a gift for letting them use his car. And ever since Alice hadn’t stopped pestering them for some odd reason, not that M/n didn’t appreciate the angels' conversations, but she did have a tendency to ask many questions, Alice had always been curious, but god, never this curious. 

“So..is this like a suit and tie celebration?” Alice asked the 1000th question for the night and M/n gave Alice a strained Y/n. “Alice..don’t you have..anything better to do?” M/n chuckles, Alice giggles and shakes her head. “Oh not at all! I hadn’t seen you guys in the last couple a’ days, I missed ya!” Alice smiles brightly, the halo on her head shines brightly that M/n squints her eyes close for a moment. 

“I missed you too Alice.” M/n laughs softly.

Alice swats her hand as if saying; ‘oh stop it’ 

The Angel had continued the day really just observing M/n and Henry’s talks. All she could think about was how much she wanted everyone to come home safely. 

-

Y/n’s eyes curiously watched as the fishes of different kinds swam past the boat—they seemed to be chasing each other as if they were playing tag. Mugman was curiously scrolling through the book now that he had time to settle down to assess everything, he took the time to read the book and maybe find some interesting things that could be useful, when Y/n asked about how long he planned on reading the book as it seemed Mugman had been reading for several hours now, but with how Mugman seemed to enjoy telling her about his findings in the book—that mostly was about various detailed information about various creatures outside of the mainland, like a centaur! 

Y/n came to the agreement with herself that Mugman clearly had to be a book nerd. But atleast he had something to entertain himself with as time would pass by. Bendy was put to rest by Felix after the demon clearly wasn’t feeling too well and his dull demeanor hadn’t cleaned up so he had been asleep for some time now, Donald was busy marking things off on the map for later, like marking trails, and some directions and what time the sun sets and rises. While Y/n spent some time watching him do that, Oswald and Panchito also were busy watching him as well, but it consisted of Oswald going to sleep after a short while and Panchito silently watching Donald. Felix was busy making sure the boat was going in the right direction—after the trail disappeared the only best thing he could think of was keep going straight—he knew the ocean just as much as Donald did—even more because at times she would see him direct the boat somewhere else if he felt they were going off course, which Y/n really wanted to know how Felix was able to do these things, not only was Felix an archeologist, but an adventurer, adventuring in the deep depths of earth. Which did make Felix tell  the human a few stories about his adventures. 

And Cuphead, he would follow her around the boat, it seemed like he came a leech to her side, not that she was complaining for anything. 

At first the two was playing a make up game of goldfish using scrap paper from Y/n’s bag, but that got boring after awhile, the two started to become restless, they wanted to move around, Cuphead was tempted to jump out of the water at first for a sim but Y/n scolded him not to. 

Now Y/n had been watching some fishes swim by, she could see the ocean floor—the water had to only be Atleast 6 feet, she didn’t know that in some parts of the ocean, the ocean floor were like hills, some were steep leading you to the bottom of the ocean and some had the ocean floor still present, Y/n slowly reached her head down and stuck her face into the water curiously, her eyes closing on instant before opening her eyes to see the crystal blue water, seeing the coral and the various colored fishes, some fishes she hadn’t even seen before, Y/n eyes widen slightly as she glanced around the ocean floor, a fish swam over to her and gently pecked at her nose before swimming off. Y/n laughed, the air bubbles leaving her mouth as, school of fish swam by and some of their fins tickled Y/n’s face. 

Y/n sits up, the water falling from her face and down to her shoulders and chest, she looks over to see Cuphead looking at her and Y/n smiles and points at the water. “Look at these fishes.” She says, Cuphead removes his back from the way before getting onto his knees  glancing down at the water, the ripples of the water made it hard to see, but he watched as Y/n stuck her face into the water, Cuphead repeats her action and smiled when he spotted the fishes swimming around, the two pointed out various fishes and sea creatures like a sea urchin and a few plants, and Y/n never expected to see these things in her lifetime, but she was glad to see them now, they were so wondering and colorful in person. 

Felix felt the boat shake slightly from the two moving around and curiously leaning over just to see the sea creatures. He smiled softly at the curiosity of the two. 

Y/n hardly noticed Felix walking over until she felt a presence by her, removing her face from the water, she looked over to see Felix holding two snorkels in his hands—which 9 times out of 10 it probably came from the never ending life saving fanny pack of his. 

“If you two can keep up with the boat and stay around the area, you guys can swim around.“ he says, Y/n smiles immediately and nods. “Yeah!” The two answered. 

-

Considering there was nowhere to change, and as cool as the magic fanny pack was, Felix didn’t have any wetsuits, so Y/n kicked off her shoes and socks, removed the bandanna and work the plaid shirts underneath that she had more prior to the show because the costume we're making her legs itchy, and Cuphead only removed his shoes—the two were happy to do Atleast something to pass the time. 

Y/n stood up on the edge of the boat and fixed the goggles on her face before looking over at Cuphead. Cuphead fumbled with the goggles for a moment before looking at Y/n, Y/n smiled and jumped into the water with a loud laugh, Cuphead following the same. 

When the bubbles subsided, Y/n felt the water engulf her body—not like earliers unfortunate slight mishap with Pib damn near drowning here but Y/n felt warmth as she felt like she was floating in the water, floating over into her back she spread her arms out and her fingers grazed the coral, Cuphead swam next to her as he reached a hand out in an attempt to catch a fish, floating over to a rock, Y/n pressed her hand against it to stop her from moving, pushing herself from the rock she felt her legs slowly kick up and slowly she did a front flip, the fishes moved from her way as she swam down to the sand, feeling the fins of the fishes and the soft soothing thump of her heart. 

Y/n slowly flipped to her back to look at Cuphead, who was following her, she smiled at Cuphead revealing whatever he had been hiding behind his back. It was a shell he had picked up from the floor, slowly down in her swim, Y/n stood up straight and waited until Cuphead floated over to her where he too soon stood in front of her as the two looked down at the shell. 

The rigged sharp points of the shell were a tad bit dull—but the color was as similar and bright as a sunset. Little red particles dotted the shell and Y/n gently took it from Cuphead’s hands, before she swam back up to the surface of the water for fresh air, Cuphead following in tow as he came back up and Y/n held the shell above her head. 

“I saw tons of stuff!” Cuphead points out and Y/n nods. “Me too! There was a stingray.” She answered as the two swam back over to the boat which hadn’t moved too far, it seemed Felix slowed the boat down so the two could explore the area for a little while longer. 

Y/n placed her hand in the boat and placed the shell inside where her bag was seated which had Spunk sitting protectively next to the bag. 

Cuphead tugged at Y/n’s shirt. “C’mon, I wanna get that starfish down there.” 

Y/n nods and the two dove back underwater and swam back to the floor, the starfish that Cuphead spotted was laying on the ocean floor, the two gently landed onto the floor, Y/n felt the sand beneath her feet—between her toes and the little rocks and pebbles gently poked at the sole of her feet. Cuphead picked up the starfish, with a slight tug, when it was removed from the ground, the particles of sand floated up slightly from his tugging—but Y/n’s attention was torn away when she spotted the golden trail that she knew oh so well. It pulsated slightly and Y/n turned her head to see where it was leading, it went around a corner of a large rock, with coral and fishes and other deep water plants surrounding it. Y/n looked back at Cuphead who was still looking at the starfish and patted his shoulder, Cuphead looked at Y/n and the human pointed towards the area the trail was leading them. 

Not waiting for a response, Y/n swam off in the direction, she felt the water behind her move, signaling that Cuphead was following close behind her. When they rounded the corner, there was a hole in the ground—it resembled more like a cave—but what was interesting was the glass water like wall in the corridor of the cave, almost like an air bubble. Y/n felt Cuphead brush shoulders with her and stared at their findings, he perked up slightly and started swimming towards the cave but Y/n took him by the forearm, causing him to look back at her and give her a perplexed expression as if saying; ‘what’s wrong?’ 

Y/n shook her head before she pointed up at the surface of the water and pointed to her chest, referring that she needed to breathe, Cuphead gently took her by the waist and gently pushed her up to the surface, and the two swam back up, once reaching the surface Y/n inhaled the air and looked at Cuphead. 

“The trail is leading to the cave.” Y/n says and Cuphead nods—“Yeah, well let’s go check it out.” He ushered and was about to dive back in before Y/n grabbed him by the handle, Cuphead’s stops before coming back up and looking at Y/n. 

“We can’t go in there, we don’t have any proper oxygen tanks to go in there and we don’t know how far it goes and we can’t just hold our breaths the entire t-“ 

“You’re startin’ to sound like Mugsy.” Cuphead dismissed Y/n deadpans and slowly shook her head. 

“And what do ya’ mean you can’t hold your breath for long, I know tons of folks who can hold it for 20–me personally I can do 23, Mugs can go almost 30 minutes.” That actually did catch Y/n’s attention though. She tilts her head slightly and gives Cuphead a confused expression, usually she ignored the statement that didn’t have to do what they originally were talking about because Cuphead clearly had the tendency to get sidetracked at times either physically or verbally, but this did…catch her attention. 

“What..?” She tilts her head slightly as if she didn’t hear him correctly. 

“Let’s go to the cave?” He says as if trying to see if that was what she meant for him to repeat. 

“You said something about being able to hold your breath for almost 30 minutes.” She repeats. 

“23.” Cuphead corrects Y/n huffs and shakes her head slightly as if saying; ‘I don’t give a damn’ 

“But yeah, we all can do it.” Cuphead chuckled and Y/n shook her head and furrowed her eyebrows.

 “I can’t. Actually no human can hold their breath underwater for 30 minutes straight, maybe for a world record where they practice specifically for it, but last I checked the only human that went the longest holding their breath underwater was 24 minutes, even then, they still couldn’t do half an hour.” Could toons hold their breath longer than humans?

Cuphead was silent for a moment as if he were thinking. “Huh..” he says as he takes in the information. 

“Can ya..remove an arm?” He asks. 

“Not unless there’s a medical reason to, and even then we can’t take our limbs off and just put them back on. Maybe surgically but, overall no.”

“Hit yerself in the the head and see stars, my stars are blue and Mugman’s are red, ain’t that cool? Ya’ know with our colors an everythin.” Cuphead laughed slightly and Y/n shook her head. 

“Can you pull random stuff from behind you, like this.” Cuphead digs in his head and pulls out a fish that was flipping around before tossing it back in the water, Y/n laughs and shakes her head. 

“No.” 

“Really..? Man..” He says his eyes fell onto her hand and he perked up. “Geez, you don’t even have 4 fingers!” He grabbed her hand and examined Y/n’s 5 fingers, His thumbs pressed against the palm of her hand before releasing it. 

“Yeah, humans got 5…you really never seen a human, have you?” Y/n says. She knew the brothers were from off the mainland, and he mentioned his lack of human contact, but wow, never this much. 

“Yep, just me, Mugsy and our Elder Kettle.”  Cuphead nods and Y/n slowly nods. “So..no humans on inkwell?” 

“None. I never knew humans were so…” Cuphead paused for a moment Y/n looked at him and saw he seemed to watch what he said and hesitate for a moment.  “Fragile.” He says but quickly pushed what he said prior away so Y/n couldn't react. 

“I just can’t teach you to hold your breath?” He asked and Y/n shook her head. “Cuphead, if I were a child, you would probably succeed in doing that, but my body is used to only holding my breath for at least 3 minutes, maybe 4. Practicing me to hold my breath now will take ages and even then I more than likely won’t succeed in passing the 30 minute mark unless I just go unconscious.” 

“Wow, talk about can’t teach an old dog new tricks..” Cuphead mutters under his breath and Y/n glared at the cup before splashing the water in his face, Cuphead sputters and swats his hand from the water. 

“Okay, well. What can you do?” He asks and Y/n gives him a confused expression. “What do you mean?” 

“Cuphead humans have a very different build than toons.” Cuphead and Y/n looked to see Felix standing on the boat and watching the two, Y/n swam over to the boat and Cuphead followed along and peered up at Felix. 

“Really now.” Cuphead says and Felix nods. 

“Human anatomy is different from toons by speed, durability, health and mentality. Reason why you don’t see humans running towards hungry tigers on a daily basis.” Felix seemed to know a thing or two about biology as well. 

“So..they can just die? Just like that?” Cuphead asks and Felix nods his head. 

“You guys can’t die?” Y/n asks Cuphead before looking at Felix.

“Well, yes, toons can die and get injured, but it’ll take some time, think of it like a shield in front of a toon, they can take a few attacks and what not, a few hits to the head, but overall it won’t kill them on impact, but overtime that shield can wear out and that can eventually kill them.” He explained it and Y/n actually learned something new, she never knew that about toons, no wonder every time they got chased the others hadn’t even remotely been injured to the point of being bed ridden, unlike her, if she messed up just once, she could just kiss this world goodbye. 

“Wow. That’s unfair.” Y/n grumbled. 

“Oh, don’t worry, it’s not anything too drastically different, that doesn't mean that makes you any different from us, and us any different from you.” Felix comforts. 

“So, anythin’ can literally kill a human is what you’re tellin’ me?” Cuphead reiterated and Felix’s eyes quickly glanced at Y/n and he motioned a: ‘sorta’ answer with his hand. 

“I can hold my end just fine, I managed to get away from that Pib thing back in town.” Y/n justifies and holds onto the boat as if desperately wanting to prove her point. 

“And I’m certain you did and you can protect yourself, Y/n.” Felix says—he seemed to portray the teacher calming down a short fuse between two classmates. 

“Well uh..! There was this cave a few feet under that the trail led to, I think it went under water when you said it disappeared.” Cuphead quickly changes the subject, Felix’s ears perk up and he tilts his head. “Really now.” 

“Yeah, it has this weird bubble pocket.” Adds Y/n and Felix nods. “Well if that’s the case then maybe that’s one of the locations.” He says—which Y/n agreed but what would be in there?

“Oh! We are going scuba diving?” Y/n looked over to Panchito looking down at the two, Oswald and Donald walked over as well and looked into the water and Y/n smiled up at Panchito. 

“Does this mean we’re going cave exploring?” Cuphead asks Felix and Donald and Oswald looks at the two.

“Cave exploring?” Oswald asks before eyeing the ocean. “Where’s a cave?” 

“It’s a few feet under, we’ll have to swim in order to get there.” Felix answered as he stood back up from him crouching down and grabbing the starfish that Cuphead randomly handed him. 

Panchito leaned over and offered his hand to Y/n, which she took it and he helped her back onto the boat, heaving herself up, she removed herself from the water and stood next to the rooster, the air nipped at her skin and she shivered slightly as Cuphead crawled back onto the boat as well. 

As the boys planned on what the overall plan was to enter the cave, Y/n spotted Mugman steal seated, reading the book in his palms, she walked over to him and drop down next to him, the toon flinches slightly before quickly looking at Y/n—the water dripping from her body and creating a small puddle beneath her. 

“You were in the water?”  Asks Mugman, the human nods and motions to Cuphead. 

“Yeah, we found this cave and we’re gonna go explore it.” She replied and that seemed to get Mugman’s attention, he opened the book and showed it to Y/n. 

“I was reading and saw this. Look.”

Y/n looked down at the book to see shadow drawn people on the page—and various words to the side that Y/n didn’t feel like reading. But the picture was captivating as there were alot of them drawn across both of the pages. 

“It’s called the Shadow Realm. A Realm where this witch keeps closed because it’s too powerful—it says that’s where negativity and despair is held.” Mugman points at the middle of the page of what seemed to be a figure with their arms extended towards the shadow creatures, as if banishing them away. 

“She banished them away because at one point someone freed them for that realm, and an attack was put through the world, and it did a lot of damage, but it left behind one omen, death.” He flipped the page to present what looked like an angel, holding some sort of staff in their hands. 

“And there were these like, angels—they weren’t real angels, clearly. But they were called them because they fought the darkness, to put the shadows back to where they belonged, and these guys have, like, super inhumane strength!” 

“Is that what that Abel guy is?” Y/n asks and Mugman thinks for a moment. “Wow..I never put that together..” 

Y/n and Mugman looked at each other for a moment. “Well, if that’s the case, then why is he trying to kill us?” 

“Well…he did mention about his sort of vendetta against Bendy.” Mugman lowered his voice as his eyes flickered to Bendy who was still asleep on the floor with the blanket tossed over his shoulder. 

The two looked back at each other and Y/n slowly lifted her shoulders as if she were going to shrug. “Well. What’s the omen then? That means it’s like some imprint right?” 

“Yeah but..I don’t know what it is. It didn’t specify it. Just death..unfortunately.” He seemed to shiver at that before slowly closing the book. 

Y/n silently looked at the ground before glancing at Mugman. “Well Atleast we learned something new.” 

“You bet, this might come in handy.” Mugman pats the book. 

-

“Okay, we’re going to enter the cave, so that means anything can be down there.” Felix starts, Y/n placing her shoes in her bag along with the book and removing thighs she didn’t want to get water damaged like her phone, pencils and some papers—how would the book react under water? She had no clue, she just hoped that the damn thing didn’t get soaked to the point of it not working—which he doubted considering…it’s a magic book and all…

Bendy had woken up—but he still looked exhausted, but he seemed to sway away the various; ‘are you sure you’re okay?’ Which Y/n and the others asked him multiple times. 

“Oh please, we’ll be fine.” Cuphead dismissed and Mugman nudged his brother and shook his head. 

“This better be good if we have to swim and look through a cave with…gods knows what’s in it.” Donald grumbled as he stepped off the boat and into the water, which had been anchored and wouldn’t go anywhere, that would be the last thing they needed which was to be stranded in the middle of the ocean. 

Oswald was already in the water and was examining a shell he had picked up when he got distracted. 

“Well. We’ll make it quick. It’s not good to wander through caves anyway.” Felix responds and Panchito looks at him. 

“Oh? But I thought it was a hobby for people to explore caves.” Panchito was confused, why would it be so bad. 

“On the mainland it is, but out here, not so much.” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mugman nervously asks and Cuphead laughs before slipping into the water. “Don’t worry so much Mugsy.” 

“Alright, stay together, don’t split off, if anyone gets lost, return to the front of the cave, don’t enter the water.” Felix laid out various rules in case anything happened, Y/n realized that Felix was  used to adventuring on his own, so having a group with him would probably be nerve wracking and a handful. 

“Alright, alright. Let’s go.” Donald calls out as he was already in the water, Panchito had placed his hat down and gotten into the water as well and Y/n followed after alongside with Bendy. 

Y/n turns back to the boat to see Spunk peering down at the group in the water. “Spunky, stay here and watch the boat, okay?” 

“Bark!” Spunk responds before sitting down and immediately keeping an eye out for anything. Not that anything would happen so far out in the ocean, but still, it was good to be sure. 

“Ew! Seaweed!” Cuphead shouts from in the background. 

“Here. I’ll show you guys where it’s at. Follow me.” Y/n dove into the water, her bookbag made it a tad bit more difficult to swim properly, but she could manage. Swimming back over to the open cave, she turned around to see the others had followed her, pointing to the cave Felix slowly swam over to it and examined it before sticking his hand in the cave where the air bubble was. He pulled his hand back and looked back at everyone and made a motion to follow him before he entered the cave, Y/n followed after, and stumbled through, it felt like she jumped off the porch—or very similar to like catching a fall as she lands on her feet and in the cave, it was pitch black dark—the only light coming from was from the blue water behind her, the sound of water dripping onto the cold rock echoed, Y/n felt the cold rock under her feet and immediately took her bookbag off to place her shoes on with the little light she had. 

She unzipped the bag and removed her shoes and placed them on, as she did so, everyone else followed after—Cuphead damn near falling onto her, the last to arrive was Bendy, and he coughed up some water and shook his head before squinting his eyes. 

“I can’t see anythin’ in here.” His voice echoed as Felix glanced around the area, Panchito shook the water from his feathers fiercely, similar to a dog, small droplets of water hit everyone as if it were raining.

Oswald squeezed his ears gently and water fell from them. “Yeah. We don’t have a flashlight either.” He points out. 

“Good thing you can always make one.” Felix chuckled and walked over to a sharp drip stone hanging from the ceiling, he yanked it off and dug in his pocket and pulled out a towel, wrapping it around the sharp stone that was being used as a torch holder, and glanced at Mugman. 

“Here, light this.” 

Mugman placed the tip of his index finger on the towel wrapped around the stone and shot it—which went up in flames before lowering down and there..a torch. 

“Whoa.” Y/n says as she stood up from the ground, her shoes were wet, but it was better than walking on gods know what in here barefooted. But now that there was light. Y/n could see the cave lit up, drip stone littered the walls, and the ceiling grew higher the further the cave went. A blue hue filled the cave and Y/n glanced around in awe, she’s never been in a cave before, the air felt stale and still, and any noise echoed. 

“Mirarías esto, this place is crazy.” Panchito mumbled and looked around as well. 

“Alright everyone. Careful where you step.” Felix calls out before turning and walking away, everyone follows behind him. 

“You know I never expected Cave exploring to be anywhere near fun.” Oswald says and Y/n agrees. “Me either.”

“Oh wow!” Cuphead was about to scurry over to a glowing flower that came into view that was on the far side of the cave leading to another direction, until Felix without missing a beat grabbed Cuphead by his handle and guided him back over to him. 

“Hey, hey, hey. What did I say about staying together?” Felix scolds gently and Cuphead grunts in pain before Felix lets go of his handle. 

“Alright, alright, geez, don’t gotta pull so hard ya know..” 

Walking deeper into the cave, Y/n was busy indulging herself in the new environment, she had never seen these things before? Of course not being in a cave and everything but she’s seen plenty of caves online but this? She’s never seen glowing flowers, bugs that crawled the walls that looked like they glowed in the dark. She’s never seen bioluminescence that littered the walls like stars and grass that sparkled with a blue soft glow when you walked through it. She felt a small beetle land on her forehead, gently reaching up to touch it, it spread its wings and flew away. 

Y/n smiled as she placed her hand on the walls and dragged her fingertips along it, a blue gently glow trail being left in its wake, it seemed the more they traveled in the cave the more lively it grew. 

The sound of the water dripping onto rock had dissipated the further they walked. And soon they didn’t need the torch really, but Felix kept it lit just in case. 

“This place is cool..” Y/n muttered to herself which Bendy heard. “Yeah it is. Never knew glowing rocks existed until now.” He looked at a rock that glowed slightly. Y/n busy infatuated by what the cave had to present, she hardly noticed a shadow scurrying away. Oswald’s ears slowly perked up as he had picked up on the noise. “What’s that noise?” Oswald asks, slowly stopping in his tracks, Felix turned around and looked at Oswald before his ears perked up as well, hearing pebbles and rocks hitting the ground in the distance, not too far ahead. 

Donald looks at Oswald and raises an eyebrow. “I don’t hear anything.” 

“I can hear something moving.” Oswald explained, his ears lowered for a second before raising once more, as if trying to track down where the sound was coming from. 

“I do too.” Felix says—but it seemed as if he were distracted as he glanced up at the ceiling of the cave.

“Could be some cave critters.” Felix guessed—but he still seemed cautious. Y/n looked away from behind her before she continued walking with the others, the colors of the bioluminescence had started to fade away, leaving a cold moist cave, the orange light from the torch flickered and lit of the glistening rocky walls, Y/n fixed the straps of her bookbag and felt like she was suffocating in the now dark area. 

Felix had soon stopped walking when they reached a dead end, he turned back to look at the others. 

“Well, it doesn't look like anything in here, are you two sure it led to this cave?” Felix asks Y/n and Cuphead and Cuphead nods. 

“Pretty positive—“ just when Cuphead had replied, the flame on the torch went out, as if someone blew it out. Y/n flinched slightly at the darkness and neared Bendy which she knew he was the closest to her, wrapping an arm around his, Bendy placed a hand on hers as the two stood next to each other. 

“Uh oh.” Donald says but stumbles slightly. “Ow, Panchito, that’s my foot you’re standing on!” 

“Ah, sorry my friend.” Panchito quickly apologized. 

Mugman heard Felix shuffling around slightly to get the light to engtite again with a blow to the heated cloth. While he almost had it, Mugman felt a drip on his head, causing him to flinch and furrow his eyebrows thinking his brother must have been pulling a light prank on him. 

He blindly shoved his arm in Cuphead’s direction as last he checked his brother was beside him. “Stop flicking water at me.” Mugman complained and Cuphead gently grabbed Mugman’s hand. “That wasn’t me.” 

“Stop shoving!” Mugman pushes Cuphead and Cuphead grunts and glares at the darkness. 

“Then stop shovin’ me you dingus.” 

“Is Felix done with the light yet?” Y/n mumbled. 

“I thought Bendy had the light.” Mugman calls out to Y/n, which causes her great confusion as everyone watches Felix with the torch—and Mugman even helped light the torch up. 

“No, Felix had it.” Y/n slowly says. Mugman was silent for a moment, he lifted a hand up, a light blue flame ignited from the top of his index finger like a lighter. Lighting up a small portion of the area, Y/n was a few inches away from Mugman and Cuphead. 

Mugman looks between Cuphead and Y/n and the three glanced at each other in confusion, Y/n looks over to her side where her arm was still intertwined with Bendy’s, the light hadn’t shown his face—only from the neck down, she looks over to Cuphead and Mugman who were still dead silent. 

“What…the fuck…” Y/n whispered. Mugman nervously shuffled on his feet and he seemed to cower for a moment. 

“Guys..I don’t think they’re here..”  whispered Mugman. Y/n felt Bendy remove his arm from Y/n, he steps into the light and looks at the three. “What’s going on?” He asks. Y/n moves over to Mugman and Cuphead and Mugman points a finger at Bendy. 

“Stay back—whatever you are!” Mugman shouts and Bendy gives him a tired expression, the same expression he had when they were on the boat. “Mugman, that’s not funny.” He grumbled. 

“Stop yelling, it’s already loud in here.” Oswald pipes up, the three look over to Oswald who was rubbing his head, and Panchito fixes the collar of his shirt.

“Can’t seem to get this thing to work.” Felix grumbles and tosses the torch off to the side. 

“We can just use Mugman’s light.” Donald pipes up as he motions to the mug, Felix nods and motions for Mugman to continue the path back the way they came, considering that they were still at a dead end. 

Mugman looks down the path before looking at Mugman. “But I thought you were suppose ta’ be leadin,” he grimaced and Felix looks back at Mugman. 

“Well how else are you all supposed to learn the ways of being away from the mainlands? I think you guys can handle yourself walking on your own.” Felix encourages. 

“We’re not doing that.” Y/n held onto both of the brothers arms and they gently backed away from the group. The light on Mugman’s finger flickered ever so slightly and soon it went and Mugman shook his hand viscously. “Oh come on!” Mugman grumbled, when the light flickered back on his finger, revealing the empty area, Cuphead and Y/n made shocked noises before looking at Mugman. 

“Okay, I’m just going to let you know, in the next few minutes I’m going to piss my pants if we don’t get out of here.” Y/n panicked as she shook the two boys arms. Cuphead placed a hand on Y/n’s arm to calm her down. 

“Don’t worry! It’s okay, alls we gotta do is just walk back the way we came.” Cuphead comforts and Mugman glances up at the ceiling when he hears rocks moving, his straw when limp as he feels the air get sucked from his body and he frantically taps Cuphead and Y/n’s arms. 

Y/n looks at Mugman confusion to see his petrified yet shocked expression, but Cuphead looked up at the ceiling as well and his eyes widened with a gasp and soon Y/n looked up as well, her eyes landed in a. 8 black eyes, two sharp pointing fangs with a long string of saliva dripping from its maw, it hung upside down and the three were frozen in fear until the spider like let’s out a loud piercing screech. The three shrieks in fear before they turned around and dashed away, hopping over rocks and almost tumbling to the ground, the spider swung an arm down and it collided with the rock behind the three? Causing them to fly in the air upon impact. 

Cuphead waved his hands frantically before he points his had towards the ground, the peashooter shoots from his finger and exploded on the ground creating a hole as the three fell into it, 

The three landed into a pool of water, Y/n quickly swam up as did the brothers, finding a platform to crawl on, Y/n quickly crawled onto the ground and stumbled slightly, the water dripping from her as Cuphead and Mugman quickly stood up as well. 

“What was that?!” Cuphead quickly asks. 

“It’s a mind eating amoeba! It makes you hallucinate! Felix and the others were never in here!” Mugman shouts—recalling from reading it from the book. The wall across from them bursts open, a dark appendage bursts through and soon the head of the spider-like creature bursts through as well, staring at the three with a glowering look, Y/n takes a step back and glances around frantically for a way out. 

“You enter my home, thinking you’ll take what’s mine?! I harness this power!” A voice echoes throughout the cave, the womanly voice was Eldridge—it can speak?!

“What..” Y/n Whispered before she saw Cuphead take a step back—a glowing bright ball of energy forming in his hands before he shoved his hands as if shoving someone and the ball of energy shoots towards the spiders face, the spider lets out a screeching sound in pain and backs away from the hole if burst through the caves wall. 

The three heard a whistle from afar and looked up to see Felix, holding a rope in his hand. “Up here!” He calls out, the three quickly ran over to Felix and looked up at him as he was standing on top of a platform. 

“Felix!” The three exclaims. 

“You left us! And we thought we all came in here as a group but it really wasn't. It was actually the spider making it seem like you guys were with us!” Y/n explains frantically as she grabbed onto the rope and climbed up, Felix nods as he tugged at the rope to get the three up to where he was. 

“Good job guys for not falling for it.” Felix praises and ruffles the top of Y/n’s head and pats Cuphead and Mugman’s shoulders. 

“Well how do we know we’re speaking to the real Felix?!” Mugman accuses and points a finger at the cat. 

“You cried so hard last night snot shot from your nose.” Felix recalls and Mugman blinks slowly and shuffles on his feet. “Let’s not bring that back up again..” he muttered. 

“Where’s Bendy and the others?” Y/n asks, as soon as she did the voice from above caught their attention. 

“Up here!” Y/n looks up to see another ledge where Panchito, Oswald, Donald and Bendy were. 

“I’m assuming we all got split up?” Donald asks and Felix nods. “Yeah, that’s how usually how it gets people alone, it creates scenarios in the host's head to lure them away for an easier attack.“

“Climb up.” Panchito threw down a rope for the four, Y/n grabbed onto the rope and climbed up and stood next to Oswald, she glanced down at her hands to see her previous wounds from before had started to heal, once Felix had made it up Bendy looked away from over the edge. “Okay, so how did we get out of here?” He asks. 

“I would say back the way we came, but I don’t think that would be a smart idea..” Felix muttered under his breath.

“I dunno. If it led us down here, then maybe there’s something we need to be looking for?” Mugman suggested and Donald made a small noise. “You kiddin? Look at the size of that thing? That thing can kill us in one sitting.” 

“Yeah, I agree.” Oswald agrees with Donald and Y/n slowly nods her head. “Well. When it was speaking, it said something about harnessing power, maybe it’s inside it.” 

“Maybe it is one of the pieces perhaps?” Panchito brings up and it would make sense, it had to be. 

“Alright, well. How do we kill it?” Bendy questioned and no one answered nor really had an idea how to without—well being severely injured. 

“Well clearly all we gots to do is kill it.” Cuphead pointed out the obvious and Oswald deadpans.

“Oh really? I was thinking maybe take it out alive.” He complained sarcastically. 

“Maybe just kill it with a rock?” Panchito suggests and points over to a stack of rocks above the cave. Felix looks over to it before thinking. 

“Not a bad idea..” 

“Ya’ know if that’s the case, then we needs a distraction..” Bendy’s eyes slowly slid over to Cuphead. Cuphead looks at Bendy and glanced over at everyone else who was already looking at him. Cuphead's eye twitched before he threw his head back in a loud groan. 

“Oh come on!” 

-

 Watching Cuphead a few meters away, standing next to Mugman behind a rock, Oswald, Bendy, Panchito, Donald and Felix stood behind another rock next to theirs as Cuphead stood out in the open, the plan was to lure the spider out where Cuphead was, Mugman would shoot at the boulder above where the spider would stand—and it would land on top of it. Hopefully killing it in the process. 

“Where is this stupid thing?” Cuphead complains and Y/n looks at Mugman. “You can aim, right?”

Mugman gives her a look as if she offended him. “Of course I can!” 

Cuphead had still been pacing back and forth; he slowly stopped when he heard the sound of rubble moving and soon the creature dropped in front of him, right where he needed it. 

The creature lets out an intimidating hissing sound, Cuphead backs away and Mugman hops from behind the rock—quicker than anything he shoots at the bolder above—but alas..it didn’t move. 

“Why ain’t it working?!” Cuphead shouts over to Mugman who shuffles on his feet. “Don’t shout at me or I’ll panic!” Mugman whines, Oswald shoves Donald from behind the rock and Donald stumbles beside Cuphead. Donald glares over at Oswald and furrows his eyebrows. “What was that for?!” 

The rock magically fell down and landed on the spider, Cuphead was shocked for a moment and Donald glanced at the spider before deflating. “Right..” 

“See? Told you bad luck would come in hand after a while.” Oswald insist as he walks over to Donald and placed a hand on his shoulder, Panchito, Felix and Bendy walks over as well, Mugman and Y/n walks over and Y/n carefully examined the the creature as the others poke in the background about how to retrieve the stone—if it even had it as it was just a lucky guess. But Y/n was too curious about the creature as she examined the small hairs on its appendages, the oddly..scary eyes and the color—she had never seen anything like this before, but then again they weren’t in the mainlands any more. Y/n spotted a familiar green glow coming from the spiders maw, spotting the green stone piece that they needed, Y/n cautiously picks up the stone, and backs away from the spider, looking down at it she turns around, but only pauses when she spots a small child standing behind her. It was..her. 

The child wore jean overalls, holding a teddy bear in her arms, pale gray sweater and busted tennis shoes. The girl stared up at Y/n and Y/n silently stared back. 

“I would say you are naive, but you just lack knowledge of something so simple.” The voice of the creature appeared behind Y/n. Y/n clutched the stone and glanced over her shoulder to see the spider towering behind her—almost as if it never was hit by the boulder. 

The sound of laughter reached Y/n’s ears and Y/n glanced over to see the child in the arms of her mother and father, the two held onto the child before smiling ahead of them as if they were posing for a photo. 

“But I believe you may have forgotten who your real enemy is.” Y/n turned her head over to see Bendy, who was seated on the ground—he actually appeared to be a lot younger than before. Sitting in front of the child as he held onto a toy train. The child held some paper in her hands along with a pencil as she blindly colored on the page. Bendy places the toy train down before leaning over to see what the child was drawing, the toddler covers the paper and shakes her head to Bendy, refusing to show him the picture. 

“What do you mean?” Y/n asks, but the creature didn’t respond, when Y/n turned back around to face it—she was only met with the corpse of the creature still crushed under the boulder, standing beside it was the small child. She curiously had her hands on the rock, the child looked up at Y/n and smiled. They jumped up and tapped Y/n’s forearm and laughed before backing away—almost as if she wanted to play tag, Y/n felt the small hand of the child but she didn’t move from her spot. The child backs away even more as if waiting for Y/n to chase her but Y/n slowly furrowed her eyebrows. 

The child caught on that maybe Y/n didn’t want to play tag and she smiled before walking back over to Y/n and gently took her hand and didn’t move. 

Y/n’s eyes never left the child and the child stared up Y/n and smiled. 

“Y/n.” 

Y/n blinks at the call of her name and she furrowed her eyebrows to see Panchito standing in front of her with Bendy beside him, Panchito had a hand on her head and Y/n blinks a couple more times and glanced down at her hands to see she was still holding the stone but not the child’s hand. She grimaced as she was nauseous and grunted. “Damn.” 

“Are you okay?” Bendy asks and she nods. “Yeah.” 

She then slowly held up the stone. “It spat this out also.”

“Okay, good news and bad news.” Felix pipes up, Y/n turns around to face him to see he has climbed down from a ledge, he must have left to go somewhere. 

“The entrance we came in from is blocked off—and the only way to get through it is if we blast through it—but that’ll risk a rock avalanche which..isn’t the best thing right now…” he was silent for a moment.

“But there is an alternate path back up to the surface. But it’s a 10 minute swim up.” Felix then glanced at Y/n. “But that’s also too risky too.” 

“Oh..” Y/n slowly said before slowly nodding. “I can do it.”

-

Wading in the water, Y/n watched as Mugman cautiously looked at her. “Are you sure you’re ready?” He asks and Y/n nods. “Yeah, it’s just 10 minutes, it’s not like I’m going 20 minutes.” 

“Just take a deep breath, and swim quickly.” Felix tells Y/n and Bendy lets out a sneeze, the water sputters from his mouth and hits Donald who quakes and fiercely wipes at his face. Bendy rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Oh please, you’ll survive.” 

Felix went under the water to guide everyone to where they needed to go, Donald followed after, then Oswald, Panchito, Mugman and soon Cuphead. Bendy glanced at Y/n and nodded. 

“Deep breath.” He says and Y/n nods before inhaling a large ball of air and soon sinking into the water. 

Following everyone Y/n felt fine—but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t lose air in the next minute or so. 

Bendy had stayed beside her to make sure she kept up at a decent pace—which she did. They swam through rocks and other small tunnels, up until they made it out into the open where the light from the sun had been beaming down on the water's surface. They were almost there but Y/n’s chest tightened and the only thing she was thinking was air. She couldn’t go back now—she was too close…and also because that would just waste more time just for her to go back and get some air. 

With a few more seconds Y/n reached the surface and immediately opened her mouth for air and coughed, the water from her hair and head she leaned onto the boat and let out a heavy sigh. 

“You did it!” Panchito praised Y/n. Y/n let out a weak laugh as she leaned her head on the boat and closed her eyes, heaving heavily from the lack of air for so long. 

Spunk barked once he spotted the group come back up, his tail wagging as he watched as they all climbed and piled back into the boat, the boat might as well have become a boat with all the water falling into it from everyone. 

“Never am I entering a cave with you guys again. Ever.”  Oswald wrings the water from his ears and Panchito lets out a small laugh. “It was just a short stop, I’m sure we won’t have to enter another cave anytime soon, besides, we have the other piece, so that is a good thing!” Panchito brings up the piece that they managed to snag away from the spiders Y/n was placing the piece in the wet bag and placed the bag onto the corner of the boat and wringed the water from her shirt. 

“What did I tell ya? You can hold your breath for more than 5 minutes.” Cuphead nudges Y/n and the human gently shoves him away from her. “Shut up.” 

“So, are we just going to continue the same direction?” Mugman asks Felix who had been in the background moving around to sail the boat again. 

“Yeah, it seems to be taking us in the right path.” He agrees. 

“Maravilloso! 24 more hours to go!” Panchito smiled brightly and Donald deadpans. “Great..”

-

“I think..that one is the brightest.” Cuphead points to a random star in the sky, Y/n was trying her hardest to keep her eyes open—she didn’t know what time it was—as it was hard to really tell and she didn’t feel like rummaging through her bag to get her phone, but she was sure it was somewhere nearing midnight, and they still were in the middle of the ocean, traveling. For the most part, everyone was asleep, but Cuphead and Y/n were sure the guy didn’t even have a sleep schedule. 

Y/n only took one nap—but she wasn’t used to sleeping..out in the middle of the ocean so she couldn’t complain too much, but then again, sleep was very much a nice thing to have though.

“Mmhmm..” Y/n agreed gently as she lazily pulled the blankets up to her chin, Cuphead sat up from beside her and looked down at her. “Geez, don’t tell me you’re gettin’ all doozy on me.” 

“Cuphead, go to bed..we’ve been up all day.” Y/n slowly opened her eyes to look at him and Cuphead shrugs. 

“Eh. I ain’t too tired.”

“When are you ever tired?” 

“Uh..whenever I’m tired?” 

Y/n was silent for a moment as she gave Cuphead a blank expression before slowly shaking her head. She heaved herself up to sit up and fixed the blankets so they were wrapped around her shoulders and the two silently stared off into the ocean, Cuphead being oddly silent as the two basked in the moment of silence. 

“So…what happened back there in the cave?” He abruptly asks, Y/n’s tired expression turned into one of confusion as she moved her gaze to him. 

“What?” She asks. 

“When you were blacked out for a moment.” He recalls which Y/n then remembered the small—deja vu moment that she didn’t think to ponder too much about. Now thinking about it, what the hell did it mean? She could try to make an understanding of it all day but she was sure she wouldn't get any answers, and on top of that, the thing was probably telling her fibs—it didn’t try to potentially kill them after all. 

Y/n pondered for a moment on the best way to explain it without making herself seem crazy—which she doubted Cuphead would care if she was losing her last brain cell. 

“It was so weird..I was like, talking to myself.” She started. 

“Like yourself? Physically?” 

“Yeah, but she was a kid. And the thing was telling me—basically I was stupid or something like that, I don’t know why, but it was weird, you know?” Y/n slowly looked back at the water and she felt herself gently wringing her fingers—she felt nervous, as if it were something she should have paid more attention to, but..she didn’t. 

“But I ain’t too worried about it.” Y/n mocks what Cuphead would usually say every once in a while, the cup perked up and smiled before wrapping an arm around her shoulder. 

“Ah man, you sure do know how to make a cup proud.” Cuphead sighs in content before speaking. “But whatever happens, I’m there, you can count on it.” 

“I will.” 

-

Y/n felt the frantic sniffs and the cold nose press against her forehead. Y/n furrowed her eyebrows before moving her head to see Spunk was waking her up and—the boat was still. She slowly sat up to see that they were at a dock, and what appeared to be a village ahead of them with people walking around—with horses and carriages, it actually reminded her of something you would see from a fantasy’s film, she excitedly shot up and stared at the town ahead of her. Felix walked over and grabbed Y/n from under her arms and stood her up on her feet. 

“Alright, we’re here, the trail led us here, I don’t know what we’re exactly looking for but I’m sure we’ll get a clue.” Felix says as he fixed Y/n’s bandanna, the human seemed excited to run off and explore the town but if it weren’t for Felix having her by the bandana he was certain she would have scurried off.  

“So are we sure this place doesn't have dragons?” Cuphead reiterated and Mugman rolled his eyes as he stepped off the boat and onto the dock. “I’m positive, I don’t think dragons exist in this world outside of Inkwell.” Mugman answered. Panchito was curiously picking up a few seashells a couple feet away from off the beach shore 

Donald and Oswald stood beside Mugman waiting for everyone, Y/n grabbed her bag and tossed it over her shoulder—while it was still wet..

“Ew…my bag is still wet.” She muttered as she stepped onto the dock. 

“Hey! Look at this one!” Panchito shouts over as he holds up a sea shell he found—a few of the town folk gazed over at his abrupt shouting. 

“Yeah we most definitely look like we don’t belong here.” Donald grumbled. 

“I think it would be best to get new clothes? Salt water does not dry up quickly.“ Oswald says and he shakes his leg while water drips from his pants and Felix nods. “Yeah, maybe that’s a good idea—I’m sure there’s a shop somewhere in town.” 

“You kiddin? I felt like I was walking around in wet socks the entire time.” Bendy pipes up and Y/n nods in agreement. She had a hard time sleeping because her clothes were still damp from the swim they all had earlier. 

Mugman takes a huge deep breath of air and exhales. “Ahh, the sweet smell of adventur—CUPHEAD!” Mugman shouts over to his brother who had found his way over to a booth and was busy taking whatever bread rolls the vendor was selling—without him looking. Cuphead paused in his action and immediately hid the stolen dessert behind his back and smiled at his brother innocently. 

-

Walking through the town was far more interesting than Y/n anticipated, there weren’t any cars, but mostly carriages and horses, which was not entirely a shocker to see considering she knew about those, but seeing that was what this town only transportation is was actually cool to see. 

They had stopped by a clothing shop to get more clothes—preferably some more comfortable ones, and had been inside the shop for a good 30 minutes now. Y/n had fixed the button up to her shirt and gazed at herself in the mirror. The man that had gifted the clothes to the group had gifted them for free, which was nice for him. 

Y/n actually liked her bandanna and decided to keep it. Spunk sat near Y/n’s foot as he waited for her to finish examining herself in the mirror. The clothes were light weight, and she had many pockets on her cargo pants, she even had a new travel bag where it fit the book perfectly and some other essentials. Gazing down at the boots that protected her feet from anything that may try to nip, stick or poke at her feet. Her feet felt way more protected than the tennis shoes she was once wearing—which was ruined by the saltwater by the way..

“Feels nice.” Y/n says as she looks down at Spunk, who had looked up at her and lets out a bark in agreement. 

“I feel a little weird without my hat.” Panchito pipes up as he walks over. He wore something similar to what Y/n had on. Except he had on a brown vest, Y/n spotted the gun holster by his side and she perked up slightly. Oh yeah, she forgot he had a gun. 

“You can probably hold my toy gun.” She jokes as she takes off her book bag and digs through the bag and reaches for the pistol before pulling it out. Panchito tilts his head for a moment. 

“When did you get that?” He asks. 

“Charley gave it to me before we left town, it’s from the venue.” She replied and gently spun the gun around her finger with the trigger. 

“Clearly he trusts me with i—“

The sound of the bullet being released from the gun echoed in the room—and thank goodness it didn’t hit anyone as it embedded itself in the floor. Y/n’s mouth opened in shock as Panchito’s feathers ruffled up in shock from the sudden noise, the two went silent as Panchito slowly looked at Y/n who had the gun clutched by the handle, her finger nowhere near the trigger now.

“….I..did not know that was a real gun..” she muttered and Panchito slowly took the revolver away from her and smiled. 

“Ah…yes, I will be..keeping this, thank you..”  he says as he placed it in the empty holster. 

-

Soon after awhile they were back out into the town—mainly exploring rather than looking for a clue, Spunk was busy sneaking up on a chicken who had been pecking some food off of the ground, the pup barked and the chicken scurried away in fear. 

“Out of all the places we visited, this would have to be one of the only places that hasn't tried to kill us.” Oswald picks up and Felix nods in agreement. “Yeah true.”

There were toons and humans amongst each other speaking, joking, trading and what—going on with their everyday lives, Y/n was stopped by a woman gasping upon seeing the group, which caused the human to slowly pause in her walk—oh great, did they do something wrong? The last thing she needed was a town full of people coming to kill them. 

Bendy shook his head slightly from the fatigue that had started to take over him again, his lack of sleep was starting to get to him—not to mention he couldn’t properly sleep on the boat, Y/n had been walking next to him the entire time and noticed his lack of speaking and wrapped her arm around Bendy’s and looked at him. 

“Are you okay?” She asks and he nods before giving her a soft smile. “Yeah I’m okay sweets..just a bit tired is all.” He answered and Y/n slowly nodded as she then released Bendy from her hold.

“Hey.” Y/n looked over to see Cuphead, he gently nudged her and motioned over to a game booth. 

“C’mon, let’s go play.” He says before the two scurried off to the booth, Mugman noticed the two had wandered off and soon followed after them—of course once telling Felix he was touting explore the town with the two which Felix agreed and said they would remain in the center of the town for the day, all considering it would be best to maybe get some rest before venturing off into the unknown. 

The game was very ordinary and simple, toss the beanbag into the hole to get a point—but the thing was, there weren’t any prizes to be won—which Y/n noticed as she gazed at the booth. 

She heard footsteps behind her and looked back to see Mugman had jogged over. No one really seemed to be playing the game and at first he thought it was empty seeing there wasn’t a vendor. 

“Huh..no one’s here.” Mugman points out and Cuphead leans on the booth and rolls his eyes. “Boring, I came over here for a stupid game.” Cuphead grumbled before pushing himself from the booth and stood beside the two. 

“Maybe they left for a moment, I’m sure there’s other stuff in the market—“ Y/n was cut from her word, when a dark cloud of smoke poofed into the air inside the booth. 

Poof! 

Y/n, Cuphead and Mugman took a step back from the sudden smoke, and a man appeared inside the booth, Y/n’s eyes widened, she‘s never seen anyone do that before! 

The man was clad in a dark cloak—golden pen days decorated the chests of the cloak—as if they were badges. He had a silver gray beard and cold eyes, his dark pupils were like slits, almost like a snake. 

“I see you all came up to my stand.” He spoke his words smooth like honey. And Cuphead blankly stared at the man and rolled his eyes. 

“Yeah, yeah. I just wanted to play bag toss.” Cuphead shot to the point and the man chuckled. “Of course, of course.” He says as he lifts a hand from under his cloak. 4 bean bags clutched between his slender fingers. 

“You toss these 4 bags in that hole—“ he points over to the hole before looking back at Cuphead. “You walk away free—“

“No prize? Nevahmind—this game sucks, what typa game is that? I win, I gets nothin?” Cuphead huffs before turning around to walk off and reaches to grab Y/n by the arm but is stopped when the man speaks up.

“Then we make a deal.” 

That seemed to make Cuphead stop as he turned his head back to the man, Mugman slowly squinted his eyes and started to shake his head. “On second thought, I think we’ll pass on this..” Mugman's voice wavered as he glanced at Cuphead, Y/n looked at Cuphead before glancing at Mugman and then at the man. 

“You win three rounds, 4 holes each, 12 in all, you walk away with the riches of this land, if you don’t, you’ll be running away with your tails between your legs.” The man looks at the three of them instead of just Cuphead and Y/n slowly raises her eyebrows. She wasn’t even playing, why did she have to be included in this? 

“A small scare? Oh I can take that, and I can most definitely make 12 holes.” Cuphead placed his hand out, you could practically see the confidence radiating off of him. 

Mugman grabs Cuphead’s arm and glares at him. “You dimwit! We don’t need another deal.” Mugman whispered to him and Cuphead shrugged. 

“Relax Mugsy, it ain’t a real deal unless you sign something’ or shake on it, it’s just a game. Ya know I think the Devil got you shaken up.” Cuphead brushed it off and Mugman removed himself from Cuphead and deflated, what was the point, trying to talk to Cuphead was like speaking to a brick wall half the time, when he had his mind set on something, there most definitely weren’t no letting go. 

Cuphead retrieved the throw bags and Y/n looked at Mugman. “Is it a bad thing?” She asks him when she noticed his sour expression, but it soon went away when he heard the human speaking to him, Y/n only knew Cuphead just a tad bit, she wasn’t aware of his issue of running into situations without thinking—mostly death defying issues, Mugman sweats for a moment before fixes the collar of his shirt. 

“Ahaha…uh…no..no, don’t worry.” Mugman smiled at her nervously as she gave him a confused expression before looking over to Cuphead to see he actually was doing a pretty good job at tossing the bags in the target one by one, the man didn’t even have to move to get the bags and hand them back to Cuphead, they just appeared right on the counter for him to grab. 

One bag after the other Mugman was watching Cuphead like a hawk, but it seemed Cuphead could handle himself just fine, tossing the bags with ease and even doing a few tricks.

Y/n smiled and clapped her hands at some of the tricks—she was impressed to say. “Good job Cuphead!” She praised, and Cuphead hesitated for a moment as he turned to look at Y/n before slowly smiling—he was in the midst of throwing the bag that he barely noticed it hit the side of the target until Y/n’s expression changed to one of surprisement and he turned to see the bag had landed on the ground.

“Shit..” Cuphead cursed and the man chuckled before looking at the three. 

“Take your losses.” The voice echoed.

-

Y/n groaned as she shakily lifted herself up from the ground, the soil squishing between her thin pink fingers…pink? 

Y/n eyes quickly opened back up as she scurried up from the ground, she looked at her hands to see four pink fingers, looking down she saw two pink feet, brown fur, she felt her heart start to quicken and her blood started to pump. She quickly touched her face to feel snout, and big ears. Looking over she spotted a glass shard, leaning on a huge wooden pallet. The glass shard acted as a mirror where she spotted a mouse, two big ears, brown fur with white spots littering the body, almost similar to a reverse Dalmatian, a long pink tail and a tuft of curly hair sprouting from the top of her head. 

“AHHHHHHHH!” Y/n let out a terrifying horrifying scream, her hands reached to tug at her ears, she was a rat! A rat! A rat! A cute one…BUT SHE WAS A RAT! 

She felt tears start to swell in her eyes, oh god, how could this happen! Was she going to spend the rest of her life like this?! She couldn’t! She had a life! A family! A dog! And cool little action figures back at home and a bunch of stuff! 

“Ugh..wha..what’s going on?” The familiar voice of Mugman pipes up, Y/n quickly looks over to see Mugman stumbling up from behind a rock, he stands up and places a tired hand on his head. He was also a rat, blue nose, and a white mass of fur that seemed to turn gray near his feet. 

Cuphead quickly shoots up from the ground which he was a few inches away from, he hits his head from a low stick hanging above, but he grunts and quickly rubs his head before looking at the two. 

“Guys?” He calls out. He looked similar to Mugman, expect for his cherry red nose and untamed hair unlike Mugman’s he seemed to be combed back. 

“What—what’s going on?!” Panics Y/n. She pressed her hands against the glass shard and her ears quickly folds back. 

“WE’RE RATS!” 

“Hey, hey! Calm down toots.” Cuphead quickly scampered over and gently placed a hand on Y/n’s shoulders and gently turned her to face him. Her eyes glazed over with tears and he was silent for a moment as he opened his mouth to speak. 

“I—jeez, don’t look at me like that will ya? You’re makin’ me feel bad..” Cuphead frowned, Mugman glares at Cuphead before stomping over. 

“You should feel bad! This is your fault we’re in this mess! If you only just stopped  playing the game we wouldn’t be in this mess!” Mugman scolds his brother and Cuphead only rolls his eyes at Mugman. 

“Okay, okay, are we done playin’ the blaming game game?” Cuphead grunts through his teeth. 

“No! Goodness knows how long we’ll be stuck like this!” Mugman places a hand on Y/n’s shoulder and she notices how much shorter she was compared to the two, regularly they really weren’t that much taller than her, only by a foot when they were..normal..

Y/n let’s out a soft hiccup. “Oh god we’re going to die like this.” 

“Well—it if it weren’t for Y/n distractin’ me, we wouldn’t be like this!” Cuphead just said the first thing that came to his head to really just shoot back at Mugman but when he felt Y/n look at him, he quickly looked at her and his ears quickly flattened when he saw her hard cold glare. 

“Not-not sayin’ that this is your fault or anythin—I was just—I—“

Cuphead stops himself from stammering as he watches Y/n for a moment.

“You..have big gorgeous ears..?” He gives her a nervous yet strained laugh. Y/n couldn’t contain it before she quickly pounced onto Cuphead, her hands immediately moving to grab ahold of his ears, the two rolled to the ground, somersaulting out into the open of the wooden area.

“Ow! Ow! I’m sorry!” Cuphead shouts out various apologies and tried to remove Y/n from him, who was busy tugging at his ears, her foot pressed against his snout, Mugman quickly ran over and grabbed ahold of Y/n, he tried to pick her up from Cuphead but she had a tight hold on his nose. 

“Jeez! You really have a grip!” Mugman strains as he holds tightly onto Y/n as if he were hugging her as he holds her close and pulls away. The sound of flapping and a gust of wind reached the threes ears, they looked up to see an owl swooping down, it’s sharp talons reaching out, the three screamed as Y/n lets go of Cuphead, causing herself and Mugman to fall back, the owl missed them and lands on the ground where they once had been. Y/n and Mugman quickly stands up as did Cuphead and the three quickly then scurried off, the sound of the owl screeching echoed, Y/n hardly noticed how quickly they had fled if it weren’t for them running away on all fours—it was a miracle what different creatures could do to escape. 

“Quick!” Cuphead stands up and skids to a stop and points up a tree, the three quickly without a thought scurried up the tree, it didn’t feel any different from running on the ground and it actually felt odd to see the world from such a bigger perspective. The bird screeches as the three scurry onto a branch, the bird swoops down, it’s talons claws onto the branch causing it to shake, Y/n felt her feet lift from the ground, but she kept a strong hold onto the branch, there was no way in hell she was dying by falling a hundred some odd feet in the air. Mugman falls into Y/n causing her to slide from the branch, her lower half hanging off which knocks Mugman off, he lets out a shout and ultimately grabs hold of Y/n tail, the stinging pain of her muscles felt like they were being pulled by the weight of Mugman.

Y/n’s nails digs into the wood as she slams her face into the branch and lets out a muffled shriek. Suddenly Cuphead shouts and falls off the branch, quickly grabbing onto Mugman’s leg which ultimately added more weight onto Mugman’s iron grip. The sensation was unbearable at this point and caused Y/n to lift her head up and let out a loud ear piercing scream. 

“OW!!!!” 

The bird shakes the branch causing it to deep slightly and it lets go of the branch, which shoots up, sending the three flying into the air, Mugman releases Y/n’s tail as the three screamed in fear, the bird flew up and was about to close its maw—but it only missed by a few inches as its wing got caught on a vine bringing it back down to the tree under it. 

Which was good, if the three weren’t plummeting to the ground, hundreds of feet below. Hitting leaves which did slow down their fall, Y/n fell into a bushel of vines, she let out a few grunts as she ultimately passed through them. 

Mugman lands in a body of water a few inches away, but Cuphead falls face first onto the ground, hard. A loud ‘oof!’ emits from it. His tail sticks up as Y/n lands on top of him, his tail being the main source in catching her, while she is held up, her body facing the sky in shock. 

Her chest heaved up and down as she looked over her shoulder to see Cuphead hadn’t moved, his tail slowly lowered to the ground to place Y/n down. Her feet gently touching the grass as she cautiously stared at Cuphead, her body was shaking from the adrenaline rush. 

“Cuphead…are you okay?” She asks. Her foot gently poked at the side of his head, he let out a long muffled groan before shakily pushing himself off the ground, Y/n heard a few cracks from his bones as he slowly—yet dizzily stood up. “Nothin..I can’t handle..” he garbles. 

The sound of wet footsteps emits from behind Y/n, Y/n turns to see Mugman trudging over..with a not so happy expression ridden on his face. 

The water dripping from his form was sorta comical up until he shook the water off and it got onto Y/n. She shielded her face from the water and Mugman huffs. 

“Well what now? We aren’t even an hour in and we’re already going to die from some massive bird!” Mugman complains as he walks over to Y/n and removes a blade of grass from her hair. Cuphead placed his hands on his back as he stretched, more bones popping as he did so. 

“Look—let’s just calm down, I’m sure we’ll find a way out of our rat s-“

“Your.” Mugman blatantly corrects.

“My…rat problem.” Cuphead sighs. Y/n had been looking around as the two spoke and she furrowed her eyebrows. The trees surrounded the tree. The sound of cicadas in the air echoed and the rustling of the leaves entered her ears. There were so many trees the sun rays peeked through the holes of the trees, touching the ground with light. It would be a relaxing sight, if everything wasn’t 10 times bigger. 

“We aren’t even in the village anymore.” Y/n points out and Mugman’s ears perked up before he looked around and took in his surroundings. 

“You have to be kidding me..” he sighs. 

“Don’t worry, we can just..” Cuphead turned one direction and placed his hands on his hips.

“Go this way.” He turns to Mugman and Y/n, who both had the same readable expression on their faces. 

“And what makes you think that would lead us anywhere?” Mugman asks. Cuphead was silent for a moment.

“I got a good sense of direction Mugsy, all it takes is a little bit of manpower!” Cuphead flexes his arm before he starts ahead. 

“Let’s move my friends! We’s gots ourselves our own little adventure, mission is now in action!” Cuphead calls out as he walks, Y/n’s ears slowly flattened as her tail dropped to the ground, Mugman looks at her and gently frowns. 

“Hey, it’ll be alright.” He starts before placing a hand on Y/n’s shoulder. “Cuphead may be a cup filled with nothing, but he usually knows how ta’ get outta these sorta situations.” Mugman comforts as the two start to follow after Cuphead. Mugman had to remind himself that Y/n—as a human. These situations don’t come as an everyday thing to them. Humans were so simple, they lived simple lives, it wasn’t everyday they get tossed into an adventure and had to go save the world and in the midst get turned into a rat. 

Toons could say they can find themselves in that sort of situation, because that’s the sort of logic they had. Humans were so odd when it came to having to experience new things like this, Mugman had to remind himself that they were like babies sometimes, they needed time to learn, and Y/n was unfortunately one of them. So sad it had to be with Cuphead the absolute knucklehead. 

“Thanks, I’ll be fine.” She nods as the two watched as Cuphead was saying something incoherent up ahead. Atleast he could make it Atleast enjoyable. 

-

Felix watches as Panchito danced around with the children of town, Bendy was stuck on the bench—assigned by Felix so he could rest. It was nice to actually get a room from a local hotel owner, which could come in handy considering it was now getting late, but they were waiting for the three to return, that being the cup brothers and Y/n, and just as Felix worried, the moment Cuphead left, he had a feeling the knuckle head would cause trouble. 

“Why did I let him walk off by himself..oh right. Because he isn’t a kid..” Felix spoke to himself before slowly shaking his head and sighing. They would have been back by now but considering the sun was about a good hour away from setting, they were either lost..or gods knows what could have happened to them. 

“You don’t look too happy.” Oswald points out, he had been standing beside Felix for the majority of the time.

“The brothers haven’t been back ever since leaving 3 hours ago and they have Y/n with them.” Felix points out and Oswald was silent for a moment. 

“Now that you mentioned it, they have been gone for some time.” When Oswald said that, it seemed to have set off some trigger in Bendy’s head, he perked up slightly and quickly looked at the two. 

“What?” He immediately asks. Donald placed a hand between Bendy’s horns. “Ah, don’t get your tail in a twist, I’m sure they’re just exploring the town.” 

“They can handle their own, I’m certain of it, we just got to give them time.” Felix says.

“Just give them time..” 

-

Y/n stared up at the sky—the purple, orange hue was vibrant yet so dark, the sound of creatures she never even heard before howling and bellowing from the distance filled the air. It seemed no matter how far they walked the trees looked the same and the burning feeling in her feet was yelling for her to sit down. 

“How far are we going to keep walking? I’m tired..” Y/n groans as she feels herself slow down, Mugman slowly stops before he gently grabs Y/n’s wrist to help guide her. 

“Just a few more and we can take a break.” He reassured. 

“Yeah, I see an opening patch of land, there might be somethin’ there.” Cuphead tells the two as he points ahead, Y/n looks up to see that there indeed was a cut off. And an open area—which seemed to look like dirt. 

Y/n decided to just silence herself and follow along, as she did so she heard the slightest sound from in the tall grass, her ears perked up as she looked over to nothing but the vegetation. 

Once they reached the open area, the three hid behind a decent sized rock and cautiously perked behind it to look around and make sure no predatory animals were scouting around nearby. Ahead of them looked to be a small cottage, which seemed well kept together and very welcoming aside from all the other locations that were a bit questionable. 

“There might be someone in there that can help.” Y/n points out and Cuphead nods. “Yeah, sounds g—“

Y/n was dragged back by the tip of her tail, watching the world move upside down, Y/n let out a shout as she was suddenly picked up unannounced. Mugman and Cuphead quickly turn around to see her being held by her tail—following the furry hand it was..a stray cat. Standing on its hind legs it’s left eye seemed to be missing—giving off an intimidating expression. The orange fur turned gray near his chest.

“Hey! Put her down!” Mugman shouts, the cat looks away from Y/n who had slowly rotated around to look at the feline. Cuphead took a step back and ran forwards getting ready to pounce onto the cat until he was snatched up by the neck of his fur by two claws. He let out a shout as he was hoisted up with ease by another straw cat, squatting on a rock, all gray fur and a look of excitement in his eyes as he held Cuphead up. 

“Look at this one, he gots a red nose.” The cat laughs, Mugman was picked up as well by another cat that was white— Hoisting Mugman up by his tail as well. Cuphead was gently tossed up and grabbed by his tail as well. The three left dangling in the air. 

“Who are you three and why are you trespassing?” The orange cat asks, Y/n could only assume he was the head honcho of everything. Y/n kicked her feet frantically and flared up at him. 

“We’re just passing by!” She quickly answered.

“We-we—we’re looking for someone to help us, it’s a long story, we got turned into rats and we’re just looking for someone to get us back to normal!” Mugman answered completely. The orange cat was silent for a moment as he stared down at the three, he lifted Y/n up to his head and Mugman and Cuphead gasped. 

“Hey-hey-hey! Don’t eat the girl, okay? This is my fault!” Cuphead quickly spews as the cat sniffs at Y/n, Y/n felt the wind of the sniffing hit her back and she gently squirmed around and let out a grunt. 

“I’m sorry, I really am, if this area is your guys territory we’ll leave.” Cuphead filled in the silence with his frantic talking. The cat pulled away from Y/n and his ears quickly perked up as he stared at her. 

“Wait a second..” he says. Y/n slowly rotated around as she uncontrollably faced the cat, whom which curiously examined Y/n. 

“Set them down.” The cat orders, in which the other two obeyed and sat Cuphead and Mugman back onto the ground, the boss sets Y/n down as well in which Cuphead slowly eased over to Y/n and grabbed her arm to pull her to him and Mugman. 

“You.” The cat stares down at Y/n. 

“What is your name?” He asks. His voice was rough and demanding.

“Uh..Y/n..” Y/n slowly answered.

“The grandchild of Hector Vendolez.” Well..she didn’t expect that. Y/n shuffled on her feet for a moment as she glanced at Cuphead and Mugman who had looked at her. 

“Well..from what I’ve been told—“ 

“You crazy?! Hector was the most well known adventurers of all time!” The cat from behind the three loudly exclaims before he lets out a laugh. 

“Pipe down you idiot.” The white cat grumbled. 

“Who are you guys?” Mugman asks cautiously. 

“I’m Ruck, that’s Don and Meek.” Ruck introduced himself—despite being intimidating a few moments ago, he portrayed himself as calm as possible to the point Y/n didn’t fear they would kill them at any given moment. 

“How do you guys know Hector?” Y/n asks. 

“We used to work with him a couple of years ago.” Don answered, he seemed pretty stoic and blank aside from Meek who had slid from off the rock and happily jumped from one foot to the other. 

“Yeah! We tagged along with him when we set sail from the mainlands!” Meek smiles happily and Mugman furrows his eyebrows. 

“How is that even possible?! He’s been dead for over 70 some odd years! You guys should be old by now.” Mugman asks suspiciously and Y/n slowly nodded in agreement. That would make sense considering Hector clearly wasn’t born anytime in recent years. 

“We were cast by a curse from a witch back in 48.” Ruck answered and Cuphead hissed through his teeth. 

“Talk about old.” He jokes and Mugman slowly turns his head and glares at his brother in which he had quickly stopped laughing. 

“A curse you say?” Mugman asks as he turns his head to continue speaking with Ruck, who had nodded upon Mugman’s question. 

“A witch was looking for Hector at the time and we didn’t give up where he ran off to.” 

“So you guys risked your lives for the guy?” Cuphead asks bewildered.

“Oh trust, he was a good guy! Kinda wish he was still here.” Meek sat down on the ground to make himself appear small with a lighthearted smile on his face. 

“So you guys been stuck on this island for 70 plus years?” Y/n asks and Don hums in agreement. “Unfortunately.” 

“And I’m taking in account you three got yourselves into some mess?” Ruck asks and Y/n and Mugman both turn and look at Cuphead. He nervously smiled and gently rubbed the back of his nervously. 

“It’s..a long story..” he says and Y/n looks back at Ruck. 

“Some witch guy made us into rats after playing a bag toss game, we woke up here and we need to get back to our friends or else they’ll think we’re dead, which I’m sure someone noticed by now.” Y/n explains and Ruck slowly nods. 

“Good thing for you guys, your spell is brand spanking new! You got time to get it off you and reverse it!” Meek explains and that caused Y/n to perk up quickly. “Really?” 

“Yes, but it has to be before midnight.” Ruck answered and Mugman made a noise. 

“Okay…but how do we get back to normal? Play the game again? Find him?” 

“Make a deal with someone else to bring you back to normal. These curses and deals are locked tight, this ain’t a fairytale kid, you get yourself into a mess you’ll be scraping pennies to get out of it.” Ruck explained which did cause Y/n to deflate..well..

“We can’t just make a deal with someone else! That’ll contradict everything!” Mugman shouts in frustration.

“Then maybe you all should tread more lightly, you aren’t on the mainland anymore, you’re out in the unknown naked, anything can happen.” Ruck moves his sharp gaze down to Y/n whose ears flattened as she nervously looked away from somewhere else. 

“Bendy.” Cuphead pipes up and Mugman looks at Cuphead. 

“He’s a demon, he can make deals.” 

Mugman sputtered before tugging on his ears. “We’re not doing this again! Besides, he’s not that sorta demon. I'm positive he can’t make a deal like the devil can, and on top of that he’ll kill us if he finds out what happened.” Mugman names off various things and Meek looks away from Mugman before looking at Y/n. 

“Jeez, this guy always so pent up?”

“I’m not pent up!!” Mugman shouts and Y/n places a hand on Mugman’s shoulder to comfort him. “I agree with Cuphead, maybe we should head back to town and see if Bendy can do a deal.” Y/n says and Mugman visibly calms down, his tail drops to the ground.

“Can you guys help us back into town?” Cuphead asks the three and Ruck was silent for a moment. 

“Of course. We must hurry, it’s already getting late.”

-

Y/n had been following aside Ruck for majority of the time, he had been telling stories about Hector and how odd he was as person, seemingly Hector was very curious about the outside world—or to put it simple, outside of the mainlands—and Y/n couldn’t agree more, everything she’s discovered so far was far more different from an everyday life back home. Ruck was very stoic and blatant, he clearly didn’t seem like the type of guy to joke around, he spoke in a set rough tone or authority, like some sergeant of some sort—but to Y/n it sort of reminded her of Gill of Finding Nemo, especially with his missing she.

“So. You were good friends with him?” Y/n asks as she tried to keep up with Ruck as best as she could—being 10 times smaller than him was the major difference but he seemed to slow his pace down when he noticed how persistent Y/n was in speaking to him and learning more about Hector. 

“I’m his brother.” Ruck corrects which Y/n fell silent for a moment as she stared up at Ruck. Her tail quickly swings side to side in excitement. “So that means you’re technically my great uncle!” Y/n quickly exclaims and Ruck chuckles gently. 

“Smart kid.” He points out. 

“You know this is actually great, my dads side of the family mother and father passed away a few years before I was born so I never knew them, and my mothers grandmother, I call her G-Ma, she lives up north and she rarely comes to visit because she doesn't like traveling much, she only does it during the holidays, and my mother was the only child growing up so she doesn't have any siblings, and my father was also the only child growing up as well.” Y/n quickly explains she felt Cuphead and Mugman scurry next to her and Mugman perks up. 

“So, you three aren’t siblings?” Ruck asks as he eyed the three and Mugman shook his head. 

“Oh no no no, we’re her friends. This is my brother.” Mugman placed a hand on Cuphead’s shoulder and Ruck nodded before looking ahead as the two continued down the dirt path. 

“You know about your grandfather, you sailed here because of him?” Ruck asks and Y/n slowly shakes her head. 

“No..not entirely..we’re here because of a book, and it told us to leave the mainlands to search for these pieces of a stone that goes to an island called Ruby Falls.” Y/n explains and Ruck looks at Y/n as she explained.

“And there’s these guys that are looking for the book, though I doubt they’re here now.” Mugman adds and Y/n nods in agreement. 

“Hm..” Ruck starts. 

“Just a regular kid.” Ruck looked back down at Y/n and she was silent for a moment as she stepped over a stick. 

“Well..yeah, it’s not everyday some magical book comes to someone and forces them on a voyage around the world.” Y/n points out, who did she think she was? Spider-Man? 

“So, these people that are after you guys, you take them out yet?” Ruck asks and Y/n glanced at Cuphead and Mugman who the three all shared the same expression of nervousness and anticipation. 

“Uh..no..not exactly..” Mugman answered and Ruck raised an eyebrow.

“They’re really strong guys, we were lucky to even get away barely scratched..she almost took my head off.” Y/n aimed that last statement to Cuphead and Mugman, referring to Pib, who by far was one of the only guys she was aiming to disregard fighting and steer clear from whenever she runs into them again—hopefully never. 

“The excuse to not fight back because of someone else’s strength, only makes you weaker.” Ruck says and the three were silent for a moment. Cuphead rolled his eyes but he didn’t say anything. 

“You have a lot to learn.” Ruck looks back down at Y/n as she gives him a confused expression. 

“Like what?” She asks. 

“You won’t survive out here, that book keeps up the tradition with casting one human to it, Hector was one, and now you are. You can’t bounce back like your toon friends, you’re human. You have one life and if you mess that up, you’re out of here, kid.” Rick seemed..very blatant, Y/n was about to say something until Cuphead intervenes and points an accusing finger up at the feline. 

“Now you listen here! She knows exactly what she’s doin’ she got this far and ain’t 6 feet unde-“ he was cut off by Ruck gently shoving Cuphead with his tail, Cuphead trips and falls into the ground face first and Y/n turns around to help Cuphead off the ground until Ruck placed a paw in front of Y/n. 

“And the first rule is for you to understand defending you, by yourself.” Ruck emphasized and Y/n looks up at him as he lets her go, Cuphead huffs and pushes himself from the ground. 

“So, what do you know kid?” Meek asks Y/n and she thinks for a moment; “What do you mean?” She asks. 

“How are your survival skills? You know, you being the only human and all that jazz, you gotta have some sort of knowledge on how to keep yourself alive.” Meek adds on for better explanation and Y/n slowly shrugs. 

“I..don’t have one?” 

“Ah geez.” Don grumbled and Meek let out a soft laugh. “Ah, Ruck, you could be her mentor!” Meek brings to the table and Ruck is silent for a moment before Meek looks back down at Y/n. 

“Hector always went on about having kids of his own so he could show off the world to, you know how estatic the guy would be today seeing you take his shoes?” It felt like Meek wasn’t entirely aiming that statement to Y/n but more so to Ruck who didn’t seem to care to speak but more so led the two through the forest. 

Meek gently leaned down to speak to Y/n. “An adventurer is in your blood, kid.” He whispered before fixing his posture. 

“It don’t matter if you grew up in front of a TV all day with no knowledge of the outside world and all the things it holds? I mean like you said, it ain’t everyday someone’s traveling the world runnin’ for their lives with an ancient book someone specifically used to own.” Meek edges before Ruck turns to the two and furrows his eyebrows. 

“She’s a lost cause.” Ruck grumbled before looking away from Meek and to Y/n. 

“We’ll lead you to town, and you get back to normal and head back home. This place isn’t for you.” Ruck finished before turning away and continuing on, Y/n’s tail slowly lowered to the ground as she furrowed her eyebrows. 

“Hey! You can’t just tell us to return home! We’re here because we need to be!” Mugman declares.

“You’ll die out here. Especially you, Y/n.” 

Y/n remained silent as she walked alongside Cuphead and Mugman, Mugman placed a hand on Y/n’s shoulder. “Don’t listen to him, you’ll be fine.” 

“Oh come on Ruck, give the kid a chance, teach her what you know. She is Hector's blood, she’ll adapt quickly.” Don brings up. 

“Shut it.” Ruck grumbled and Don slowly shook his head as they all continued walking. 

-

Once making it into town, the sun had set and the lights of the town flared and danced around in the night with life. 

“Alright, they should still be in the middle of town, hopefully.” Y/n announced as she ducks back behind the stall and looks at the five. 

“Geez..Bendy’s not gonna be happy about this..” Mugman nervously said—he seemed to catch on that Bendy wasn’t too careless around Y/n, if he finds out that the two got her into some trouble for the second time Mugman feared the guy might actually behead the two. 

“I ain’t too worried about it, the guy is all bark no bite.” Cuphead shrugs his shoulders before walking out. “Now come on, I gots a deal to make.”

Y/n followed after and Ruck, Don and Meek followed after, clearly it wasn’t uncommon to see stray cats walking around town, Y/n was glad some passersby didn’t see three walking rats, that surely be something she did not want to deal with at the time. 

It took over 10 minutes to find the group—which Spunk was the first one they spotted. The pup curiously watched the small group of animals and bent down in a playful position as he hopped side to side as he stared at Ruck. 

“Arf!” Barks Spunk and Ruck tilts his head. “That’s Spunk, Hector made him.” Y/n explained. Spunk’s ears perked up when he heard Y/n’s voice.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot the guy created stuff on the side.” Meek pipes up. 

“Where’s Bendy and the others?” Mugman asks Spunk who looks down at Mugman and gently moves his head down to sniff at him. Spunk perks up before pointing his nose in the opposite direction and barks. 

“He’s a smart dog too..” Ruck points out and Y/n nods. “He is. He can assess things very quickly.” Y/n answered. 

“How long you’ve had him?” Ruck asks.

“About 2 days.” 

“And how long you’ve been on the run with the book?” Ruck asks. And Y/n had to calculate that for a moment, it felt like forever but surely not much time had passed since the day Panchito arrived to her with the book. 

“About a week, now two weeks.” She answered and Ruck slowly nodded and Meek looked at Ruck with an expression as if saying: ‘see? See? She’s a good kid!’ 

Spunk let out a small noise before he turned back, picked Y/n up by the neck of her fur with his maw and gently scurried over to Donald who came into view. Cuphead and Mugman quickly followed after  and stood beside Spunk who lifted a paw and gently tapped Donald leg, who was busy fiddling with something in his hand. Donald looks away from his hand and down at Spunk, Donald quickly furrows his eyebrows and shakes his head. 

“Hey! Put that down.” He immediately scolds the pup, Spunk sets Y/n down and Y/n raises her arms to Donald. 

“Donald! It’s me Y/n!” She immediately says before he could try to step on her or something. Donald froze for a moment before looking over to see Cuphead and Mugman who both nervously smiled at Donald. 

“What happened?!” Donald panics and Cuphead nervously smiled and slowly looked away. “Yeah..it’s uh..it’s a long story.” 

“They led us back into town.” Y/n points over to Ruck, Don and Meek. Who had been standing a few feet away watching the interaction. 

Donald placed a hand down on the ground and Y/n immediately crawled onto his hand and he moved to pick up Cuphead and Mugman.

“We have to make a deal with Bendy to uh..turn us back to normal..” Cuphead said and Donald looked over to where the others were and Bendy—who was standing beside Panchito and Felix. 

“He can make deals?” Donald asks and Cuphead only shrugs. “I dunno, I just assumed.” 

Donald walks over to the small group who seemed to be busy talking, Y/n couldn’t lie she was a tad bit nervous but hey—this had to be better than running around as a rat all her life. 

“Guys, I found them.” Donald pipes, Bendy, Panchito and Felix turned around to face Donald once he mentioned finding the three and Felix’s eyes immediately flickers down to the three who stared at the three silently.

“Now, I suspected you three got into something, but not this.” Felix deadpans and Bendy squints eyes for a moment as he tries to comprehend exactly what happened. 

“I was playin’ this game at a stall, it was a bag toss game and the guy made a deal for a scare if I lost but the thing is I didn’t think it was anythin’ too serious' and I lost one round and now..we’re rats. And we have to make a deal to get back to normal.” Cuphead then slowly looks at Bendy who didn’t at all look pleased with the story. 

“Mind you..” Cuphead added as he raised a finger and smiled at Bendy who slowly furrowed his eyebrows at Cuphead. 

“Since you are a demon..you can undo the deal and create a new one that way we can get back to normal.” Cuphead finishes and Bendy looks at the three before he extends his index finger to Cuphead. A golden hue slowly flickers in his hand—very similar to the glow that Y/n had seen on Pib.

“Alright, you three turn back to normal, and..I dunno. Stop runnin’ off..” Bendy starts—it was clear he never made a deal before, ever as he didn’t know exactly how to make a deal that would benefit both parties but Y/n was more so focused that Bendy could make a deal, he was an actual demon? That means that Alice had to be an actual Angel! 

“Or I’ll kill you.” Bendy’s expression hardened and Cuphead had grown silent.

“He doesn't mean that.” Y/n’s voice pipes up from in the background and Cuphead sighs. 

“Fine, but you also gotta undo their curse as well.” Cuphead points over to the three felines in the background and Bendy looks over to look at them before looking at Cuphead. 

“Who are they?”  He asked and Mugman slowly smiled. “One of them is Y/n’s uncle and they know about Hector.”

“I say that’s a good idea.” Felix agreed, who else would be nice to lead them around the island than someone who’s lived here? 

“I stop jumpin’ into trouble, you bring us, and the three over there back to normal.” Cuphead offers and Bendy nods. 

“Deal.”

-

Y/n hadn’t slept so heavenly in so long, the bed was warm and soft and the blankets felt like a pocket heater, after the deal was made—they didn’t immediately turn back to normal, turns out the deal wouldn’t take effect until a few hours later—however long they may be—since Bendy does not heavily makes deals, who knew depending on how many deals you make how long it takes for the deal to take action. Y/n certainly was learning something new everyday. 

Y/n flexed her toes and wiggled her fingers, stretching nice and big. She slowly cracked her eyes open, to see the sun rays peeking from the blinds of the room. She felt Spunk gently move around at the bottom of the bed, he opened his mouth and let out a big yawn before slowly crawling over to Y/n and laying beside her shoulder. 

Y/n raises her hands in front of her to see her normal hands, flexing her fingers Y/n slowly smiled before sitting up and removing the blanket to see her legs and feet, wearing some shorts and a tank top that she wore under the new clothing she had gotten from yesterday, Y/n let’s out a sigh of relief. For a second there she truly thought she was a goner. 

Spunk gently nudged his head into Y/n’s back to signal her to get out of bed, which she did as she placed her feet onto the wooden floor and let out a soft sigh before standing up. 

Walking over to her book bag Y/n unzipped it and took the clothes from yesterday out of it before quickly getting dressed. As she did so, Spunk gently slid off of the bed by the blanket and sniffed the floor and slowly tracked down something, his head gently hitting the wall as he wasn’t paying attention, the pup shakes his head gently before looking up to see it was actually a cabinet he had run into. 

Y/n finished tying off the bandanna and turned around and was met with Spunk holding a granola bar in his mouth. Y/n leans down and takes the granola bar and Spunk lets out a short bark before scurrying over to the door to wait for Y/n. 

Y/n placed the energy bar into her pocket and picks up the bookbag before walking over to her shoes that were placed near the bed and slipped them on as well. 

Knock knock knock 

The knocking emitted from the door and she looked over—which Spunk was sitting by the door looking up at it curiously. Y/n walks over to the door and opens it to reveal a man, who seemed to be somewhere in his 50s, he wore a beige button up, with brown cargo like pants with fitted boots, his skin was toned yet rough, he had a dark beard that was gray towards the middle and dark hair that glistened under the light. His left eye was a sickly gray as his right eye was brown and thick bushy eyebrows with a pencil like mustache. He had his hands on his hips and Y/n shuffled on her feet at his sudden and rather cold appearance. 

“You’re finally up.” He says. That was when the familiar voice piped up and Y/n immediately recognized it. 

“Ruck?” She questioned.

“Yeah, looks like your little friend stood true to his word.” Ruck refers to Bendy and Y/n slowly nods. “Of course he will, he’s a good guy.” Y/n states and Ruck motioned for Y/n to follow as he moved away and started down the hallway of the inn, Y/n followed after and Spunk removed himself from the floor and followed along as well. 

“I took in account that you’ll…probably do fine out in this world.” Ruck starts as the two slowly walk down the hall to—well Y/n didn’t know she was blindly just following Ruck. 

“And I’ll be there to help you understand how to use your resources.” When he mentioned that Y/n looked at Ruck and smiled but his expression stayed the same. 

“Really? Oh man, that's great! So do I like—get badges or something? You know like scouts do? Like, a badge for when you make a fire or when you make monkey fist with the rope—I always wanted to do that, oh! What about being able to—“

“Hey, hey, hey. Christ.” Ruck immediately stopped Y/n from frantically talking which she immediately stopped as she grinned up at him in excitement.

“Listen kid, this ain’t Girl Scouts, you’re away from the mainlands, so you’ll be adapting to here, there are no EMT’s so you’ll be using your brain-“ he taps her head.

“Your sight—“ he flicked her eye and Y/n flinched and immediately placed a hand on her eye as he gently flicked. 

“And your strength.” He gently pats her arm before straightening his posture and staring down at her with his hands on his hips. 

“Your friend Felix seems very educated—I already spoke to him, so it ain’t just you getting this treatment..” his eyes flickered up behind Y/n and she turned her gaze behind her to see a room door opened, she spotted Cuphead and Mugman wrestling on the ground, Mugman didn’t seem to be in the mood to fight as Cuphead had his brother's head in a choke hold. 

“Geez! You’re squeezin’ too hard!” Mugman cried out and Cuphead only laughed in response. Panchito was busy watching in interest with the two fighting and Mugman quickly squeezed his head from Cuphead’s hold and shuffled away. “That’s enough Cuphead!” Mugman dusts his clothes before heaving himself from the floor and Cuphead laughs as he also removes himself from the floor and looks at Panchito. 

“How was that!” Cuphead calls out and Panchito smiles. 

“I mean, he quit a lot earlier than last time.” He recalls and Mugman huffs and shakes his head. 

“Be careful—the last time you two broke something.” Oswald scolds Cuphead and Mugman—mainly Cuphead. Bendy was busy sitting on the couch—which he seemed to be asleep, shockingly. 

Donald had been packing something in his bag quietly. 

“They have a lot to learn as well, but not nearly as much as you.” Ruck’s voice brought her attention back to him and Y/n slowly nodded. 

“Is it because I’m human?” 

“Glad you got common sense.” Ruck answered. While it was a bummer, with Y/n being human and not a toon, it was a lot easier for her to die from something simple out there unlike being a toon with a lot more durability.

“When do we start then? We have to find the next stone piece as well.” Y/n brings up, not trying to get off track that they needed the next stone piece and it could be just about anywhere. 

“Then hop to it, go get ready.” Ruck gently guided Y/n into the room, in which she smiled once they spotted her walking in, Felix the first one to walk over to make sure she was alright after being a rat and all not even 24 hours ago. 

“Oh boy, this should be fun, I hadn’t had a good adventure in a while.” A scrawny male dressed in similar clothing walked over to Ruck who was busy watching Y/n. The male had blonde unkempt hair—and he seemed to be in his 40s, another man was over as well.  Dark hair and a stoic expression. It was Don and Meek. 

“What made you change your mind?” Don asks and Ruck was silent for a moment. 

“She’s a strong kid..I can tell.” Ruck answered as the three looked into the room. 

“She just needs a push, and I’m sure it’ll be hard for her when it comes to it. She's been cradled, but she has people around her.”

He watched as Felix checked her ears and hair for any minor scars or anything out of the ordinary, she opened her mouth as he checked her teeth and he soon ruffled her hair and Y/n smiled at him as Spunk barked at Cuphead who wrapped an arm around Y/n’s neck and dragged her to the ground, Panchito laughs as Y/n struggled to get up from the ground and Bendy woke up and shouted at Cuphead to let her go. As Mugman shakes his head in disappointment.

“I said don’t break anything!” Oswald shouts from across the room. 

“Like Hector says, a heavy bond makes a strong person.”

#toon quest #bendy and the dark revival #animaniacs x reader #cuphead x reader #oswald the lucky rabbit #bendyxreader

[toontails]

Toon Quest

Chapter 12: It's All in Your Head

Y/n fiddled with the bow in her hands, she tightened and fixed the strings, sitting in the bed facing away from everyone. She felt Spunk hop onto the bed and lay down. Panchito was already asleep in her spot—for whatever reason, he would have been up by now, but crazily enough, he was asleep still. And she was certain it was because of the walk to and from their far off location. 

Mugman, Felix and Donald left into town to do more work considering Y/n would be going to the town's training this time, she decided not to tag along because of the sick feeling in her stomach. Cuphead had left shortly after to chase the 3 down when he woke up late.

Y/n didn’t bother to wake up Panchito, if he was still asleep then clearly it was for a good reason. She wanted to go trail off to Ruck to talk about the nervous feeling in her chest but she was certain he would either just toss her in the training hall to face the troubles head on, or just simply tell her to suck it up. But she didn’t want to. She held the quiver between her legs as she placed the bow on the bed, and picked up an arrow before picking up the damp towel near her and wiped away the dirt from the arrow. At Least if she planned on using it for archery training today, she might as well have her stuff look presentable. The last time she’s seen her contestee’s they all witness her get beat to bloody mess. 

She didn’t want to go back there, the sheer feeling of embarrassment was wavering around in her head like a flag. Even the constructor didn’t like her too much. 

She was proud of herself with how many minor achievements she made yesterday, but they would amount to facing the staring eyes when she walks through those doors today. She tried to have that suck it up attitude like Ruck always seemed to give, but it would only last for mere seconds before she would deflate into nothing but anxiety. Her fingertips felt cold as she wiped away the dried mood from the arrow. 

The sound of nails scratching against wood caused her to flinch and quickly look over to the floor, but it was only Spunk stretching. His nails accidentally brushed against the wooden floor, creating that familiar scratching sound. Oswald—who was seated on the couch near the door, noticed her sudden frightened movement and looked at her, her back facing him. 

“Are you okay?” He asks. Y/n glanced over her shoulder over to Oswald and nodded silently before looking back at her arrow and continued to clean it, it seemed her silent reply wasn’t enough. Oswald slowly stood up from the couch and walked over to Y/n. Walking over to the side, his eyes traveled down and watched as she placed the first arrow back in the quiver and took out another one to clean it. He slowly lowered himself down onto the bed and sat beside her. 

“What’s wrong?” He asks. Y/n flickers her gaze to him and deadpans. “Going back to training is going to be so embarrassing.” She responds. 

Oswald slowly nods his head—he immediately knew what she was referring to.

“Plus..I’m exhausted. I was going to go help out in town. But—I’m sore, and I gotta go to the training there—not to mention. I don’t even want to go head on with Stinks again. Jeez, that guy has some issues.” She muttered, she placed the arrow back in her quiver and looked at Oswald who was staring at her. 

“I dunno..if you ask me you seem paranoid.” Oswald states and Y/n was about to open her mouth to disagree, but she slowly closed it when she thought about it. With recent events, it was understandable that she would be on edge 24/7. Leaving town was already bad enough with the state she was in and her last unfortunate one sided brawl. Only to fall into another one here in the offlands. Which was Stinks. 

Having so much responsibility and eyes on her just for being a Vendolez, to getting dragged through the mud by some guy, not once but twice on multiple occasions. Having to make sure things were okay back at home and adapting to this new world. And not only that, adapt to being a hero because the book assigned her to, it was a lot for her to handle. 

“I guess I am.”

“Rest then?”

Y/n fell silent and looked at Oswald before smiling. 

-

Panchito wakes up from his sleep and slowly opens his eyes, Spunk had found comfort sleeping near his head. Panchito didn’t mean to fall asleep for so long, but Atleast he felt energized. When his eyes trailed over, he spotted Oswald and Y/n on the couch, they were asleep. The human laid on her side, half off Oswald and half on the couch, her leg over his as she laid on his shoulder. Oswald was fast asleep as well, he had an arm wrapped around her, his fingers gently pressed against her back, his ears hanging off of the couch. A blanket that was tossed over them before was slipping off as Oswald’s other hand was hanging from the couch. The two seemed utterly exhausted.

Panchito sits up from his position and smiles at the two, Spunk waking up soon after, looking up at the rooster who had looked at the two asleep on the couch.

He didn’t wake up the two—as he was certain they certainly needed the rest. 

-

Y/n walked next to Ruck who was silently listening to Y/n speak—who was mainly talking about what different foods she could make if they went shopping, despite her days she’s been through, she’s been starving for a meal, she ate, but she was really looking for some fries, for whatever reason. 

Once they reached the training arena, Y/n stared at the entrance where the contestants were walking in, some laughing around and joking around with each other, ready to begin the morning. The small nap Y/n took with Oswald did give her some energy, but that seemed to be quickly drained away when she deadpands at the building and sighed through her nose. 

“I was told today you’re going through two courses, archery and the obstacle.” Ruck starts and Y/n turns to look at him, her hands wringing the quiver trap in her hands. 

“Right..” she muttered. 

“You go below the percentage of 10, you’re kicked.” He adds and Y/n furrowed her eyebrows and glared at him. “You don’t have to be rude about it—“ 

“Not by me, dumbass. I’m talking about the finale. They cherry pick certain ones to fight in warrior falls.”

Y/n felt her heart sink to her stomach. “What..?” 

She glanced back at the building and back at Ruck. “But I can’t—I just started training, if I mess up, I won’t even get a chance to step a toe to the finale stage. All of this would be for nothing if I get kicked out immediately.”

“You’re a fast learner, you adapted pretty well in my eyes.” 

Y/n silenced herself for a moment. Her hands become clammy and cold at the thought of failing her only chance. “Ruck, I’m serious. If I go back to everyone and tell them I failed the only objective out for me, I’ll look like an idiot.” 

“I think you worry too much about what others think.” Ruck grumbled. Y/n stared at him once more, her eyebrows lifting up ever so slightly. 

“You. Go in there. And just do it. The outcome will be what you make it if you keep pondering over it. Now go, I heard they’re giving you your uniform for the contest.” 

“What’s the point if some people might get kicked?” 

“Don’t ask me that.”

Y/n slowly nods and her eyes flickered back over to the building. Ruck didn’t move from his spot he was standing it was evident that he was planning on staying outside until they actually started training. 

Y/n took a step back and turned around and started towards the building, but her feet slowly came to a stop. She eyes the building before looking back at Ruck, who had seemed like he was about to turn to walk off but he stopped in motion when he saw her turn back around. 

“Can you come in there with me?” She asks him. Ruck furrowed his eyebrows at her question, Y/n glanced back behind her towards the building and back to Ruck. “I don’t want to get my uniform by myself.” 

Ruck sighs and brings a hand up to his eyes to massage them in a frustrated manner. 

“Please.” 

He heard her add. Ruck removes his hands from his eyes and walks over to Y/n and soon past her. “C’mon. Christ you’re gonna give me a headache..” 

“Yes!” 

-

The man at the vendor booth hands out a uniform to one of the contestee’s—with beads and jewels—made with rich fabrics, Y/n stood in line with Ruck, she was looking around at the other contestee’s, their uniforms all were so creative, with designs of tiger stripes and zebra patterns. Y/n couldn’t wait to receive hers, Ruck didn’t say much other than stand beside Y/n and wait in line with her. Once they reached the vendor, the man looked at Y/n and raised an eyebrow. 

“Oh, hi, haven’t seen you before.” His eyes slowly slid down to the yellow paper on the booth top, looking at the various names of the contestee’s that he knew by heart and not once had he seen Y/n before. 

“I’m Y/n.” Y/n responds. Placing her hands on the bar top, rocking back and forth on her feet. 

The man silently read over the paper of names, his eyes squinting as he tried to find the name. Y/n seemed to deflate at that, was she not on the list? 

“Erica, Nora, Coü, hm…Zazu..”

The man mutters different names as he reads down the list, Y/n eyes kept flickering down to the paper and then at the man and back at the paper and then back at the man until he finally finds her name. “Ah! Here we go, Y/n.” He taps the name where it was placed all the way at the bottom of the paper. 

Y/n pressed her lips together. “Great..” 

The man turns around and scavenges through a wooden bucket of clothes, moving some stuff out of the way as he sorts through everything. Y/n glanced at Ruck who was busy looking somewhere else to pay attention. 

“Here we go.” 

Y/n immediately turns back to the man and smiles in excitement to see her costume, but what was placed in front of her, was first a brown shirt—that seemed similar to some sort of tube top—but around the neck to resemble the neck of the shirt was a short brown poncho that was made of a thick fabric, black fringes dangling from it. A hood was attached to the poncho, down the poncho was a black Aztec like pattern. 

Unfortunately it was attached to the shoulderless shirt underneath, not that it mattered as the poncho ended right above her ribcage. The pants ended right above her knees and had no design other than the straw like fringed running down the sides of the pants. 

Y/n blinks before looking at the man. 

“This is it?” 

“Yep.”

Y/n brings a hand up and takes the clothes in her arms and nods her head at the man. “Thank you.”

-

Y/n walks down the hall with Ruck and stares down at the clothes in her hands. 

“This looks dumb, everyone else has some cool stuff. I look like some old Wild West character.” 

“Everyone’s costume has a meaning because they customize it every year. You get a standard one because you never entered Warrior Falls before.” Ruck informs in an attempt to not hear anymore of Y/n’s ranting. 

The two stopped at a door—which was the changing hall, Y/n stood in front of the cobblestone corridor and looked at him. “If I look dumb, I’m not wearing this.” 

Ruck raises an eyebrow. “And I would care because..?” 

Y/n blinks before walking into the changing room. 

Thankfully there was no one in there. Most of the contestee’s had already changed in their uniforms as Y/n was the last one out of everyone in line, she didn’t mind though, she would get peace and quiet to herself until she could mentally get herself together. The changing room looked similar to some High School gym locker room. Minus the lockers. 

The wooden benches were laid and separated by some rooms of even more benches, slowly placed her bow and quiver against the wall, And glanced at the mirror on the wall ahead of her. It was like a public bathroom mirror, the room was dim—the sun coming through the tainted blue windows above near the ceiling. 

Placing the clothes on the bench, she stared down at them and placed her hands on her hips. 

It was the time she had to think, would she spin out and lose this only opportunity? Or actually try out there. She felt confident she would do something right. But that thought in her head kept telling her it would be best to back away and just let the opportunity go. But she couldn’t. 

Y/n picked up the poncho and shirt and gazed down at it, clutching the fabric in her hands tightly. 

“What seems tiring and impossible right now, will feel like a walk in the park the next day..” she whispered to herself. The assuring words that played in her hands. Closing her eyes she took a big deep breath before exhaling. 

-

“Ruck, look.” Y/n walks out of the dressing room excitedly, her quiver and bow in hand, but she immediately stopped once she saw him standing with the others.

Meek, Don, Felix, Donald, Panchito, Oswald, Cuphead, Mugman, even Bendy and Lucy.

Y/n froze in her motion at the sight of everyone standing there. Lucy looks away from Ruck, who was speaking and turns her gaze to Y/n and immediately smiles. 

“Oh! You look wonderful!” She exclaims. In her palms she was holding two wooden boxes, she quickly placed them on the ground and rushed over to Y/n, her hands flying over to Y/n’s poncho and fixing up the neck of the collar and then the hood. 

 “I knew yours wouldn’t have a meaning to it, that’s why I bought paint!” She starts. Y/n had her mouth open as her eyes flickered to everyone. 

“Great…what’s..uh. What’s everyone doing here?” She asks. A hint of nervousness swelling in her chest. The one chance she had to actually make an effort and everyone was there. 

“Finale picking. ‘said it was a towns viewing for who’ll be in the finale runner ups for the contest.” Donald informed nonchalantly. 

“So this is basically a contest for the ones losing—well—I dunno, a part one from what I’m guessing.” He adds on. Y/n’s heartbeat immediately started hammering in her chest. Her mouth slowly closing at that information. 

“Great..” she whispered. 

“Oh don’t worry! I’m sure you’ll do great out there, it doesn't matter what happens out there. We’ll be here.” Lucy smiled before she motioned towards the boxes on the ground. “I’ve bought paint so you can customize your uniform.” 

Customizing her uniform was the last thing Y/n was thinking about, she was mostly now focused on actually having to try to get some good points up there to make it past this hurdle. She’ll be damned doing all this work just to be tossed out of the game. 

“Yeah..” Y/n muttered in a distracted manner. 

“I dunno, if you ask me. I think some of them will be disqualified after the first round..” Mugman points out. His gaze fixated on a girl in the training arena struggling to pull the arrow back on her bow, when she did it immediately shot from her weak fingers and the arrow was sent flying lord knows where from his view. 

Mugman shakes his head and looks at Y/n. “I believe you’ll do fine.” 

“Been trying to tell her that for the last hour.” Ruck pipes up and Don nudges the man. “Give er’ a break. She just got her ass kicked by that skunk fella.” 

“Which won’t happen again.” Cuphead quickly says and Donald chuckled. “Where’s the guy by the way?” He asks and Y/n immediately shrugs. 

“I dunno. Haven’t seen him, and don’t plan on wanting to.” She grunts, it was clear she was starting to become agitated. Shuffling on her feet before placing her hands on her hips. She felt Lucy’s hand cautiously place on her shoulder—like she didn’t know if she could touch Y/n or not. Y/n turned her gaze and looked at the girl. 

“Let’s get you ready for the course, no?” Lucy gives her a smile. “Customizing your uniform is supposed to resemble what you’re fighting for. Many of the contestee’s have different things they’ve added to their name to showcase throughout the contest.” 

So that’s why Y/n’s costume was blank. Not that it didn’t look perfectly fine as is. 

“Oh that is cute, it is like your own little journal. But you can wear it..in a weird way.” Panchito drawls. Y/n’s eyes flickered down to the small boxes on the ground. 

“What’s that?” She asks.

“Paint. I brought it since I have to be here with my father to spectate.” She answered, pulling away from Y/n and moving to pick up the boxes from the ground. 

“And the kings here too? Great.” Y/n deadpans. 

“Cheer up, like Ruck said. You’ll do great. If not? Oh well! You still went out there and did it.” Meek comforts. And Felix nods soon afterwards. “Yes, it might be uncomfortable now, but we’re here with you, Y/n.” 

“Don’t take it personally if I laugh.” Donald pipes up and Oswald silently looks at Donald and furrows his eyebrows at the duck. 

“Which he won’t be doing..” The rabbit spoke through his teeth and Donald rolled his eyes silently—clearly understanding Oswald. 

Bendy was busy silently leaning on the wall, his hand holding him up as his other was placed on his hip. He watched as Lucy picked up the boxes and turned to Y/n. 

“So! What were you looking to add to your uniform?” 

Y/n grew silent, she couldn’t think of anything. Most of her mind was focused on what would stir up on the course than customizing some clothes in the moment. 

Staring at the boxes In the princesses hand, Y/n’s eyes flickered back to the group. “You said it’s supposed to represent something?” She repeats and Lucy nods. 

“I think I may have one thing in mind.“

-

“This looks magnificent!” Lucy skips around Y/n, they all congregate back in the dressing room, standing in front of the mirror. Y/n glanced down at her uniform. Various hand prints stamped on the pants, and poncho of all her friends. Minus Ruck who didn’t want to get his hands dirty. Black and red paint littering the clothes, and the sight of it made a small smile appear on Y/n’s face. 

Panchito placed his hand in the red paint before walking over to Y/n and placing his hand to her shoulder, where he stamped his hand print. 

“Stop—swattin’ your hand, you’re flingin’ paint.” Bendy hissed at Cuphead who flickered his hand to get some wet paint off—why he didn’t just wash his hands was beyond everyone.

“Sorry.” Cuphead immediately apologized. 

Felix was busy fixing Y/n’s poncho—mainly her hood. She stood still and she felt Lucy place a handprint on her knee, Y/n felt like she was getting ready for prom of some sorts. Staring at herself in the mirror, she actually started to like the uniform a tad bit more, it didn’t have much of a design to it like everyone else. But it was still something. 

Felix pulls away from her and moves to walk over to a sink to wash his hands off from the paint that stained his hands. 

“Wonderful.” Lucy starts. Standing up from the ground, the palms of her hands were stained in red paint, but she didn’t move to wash her hands yet. Watching Y/n who was busy silently examining the uniform. Lucy couldn’t tell what Y/n was thinking, with how silent she was, not a single thought seemed to cross the mind of Y/n. 

“Looks nice.” Ruck broke the silence that he could sense Y/n was giving. She blinks and slowly nods. 

“I like it.” 

The paint was drying up pretty quickly, thankfully as she needed to be out in the area soon. 

Soon Don walks into the dressing room, Ruck turns his head to him and Don nods. “It’s starting, we gotta go get Bendy and Lucy up to the balcony area.” He informs. Lucy looks away from Don and looks back at Y/n who had moved away to saunter over to her bow that was leaning on the wall. 

“Okay! This is nice!” Donald outstretched his arms and gave an optimistic smile, his eyes planted on Y/n who tossed the quiver’s strap around her shoulder. She felt her heart beating in her stomach—anxious for the upcoming events. 

“You’ll go out there and do great, toots. We’re rooting for ya!” Donald clearly was trying to make shine for some light of motivation as she didn’t seem too good in the face. Y/n’s eyes flickered to Donald and she gave him a single nod. “Yeah..” 

Ruck’s first thought was to have a talk with Y/n before leaving out, but he watched as her toon friends slowly gathered closer to her to speak to her themselves, and he waited to see what would happen as Meek and Don left out of the dressing room, Ruck removes himself from the wall and exits the dressing room as well. 

Felix placed a hand on Y/n’s shoulder and placed one on Panchito’s shoulder seeing he was standing beside them. The group made a small circle, minus Lucy who took a step back and watched them with a smile.  

Mugman stood beside Y/n and she looked at everyone. “Whatever happens out there..” Felix starts, when he started talking she turned her gaze and looked at him. 

“All that matters is that you tried. You’ve done wonderful so far. And that’s all that matters.” Felix's words seemed like he was telling her, even if she didn’t make it to the final stage for being in the official Warrior Falls contest, it was okay because she still learned new things in the process. Like archery, and climbing trees and swimming with her breath held for long periods of time. 

“Whatever happens. We’re still a family.” Felix smiles at everyone and Panchito smiles widely. “Ooooh, that is very nice! Please, don’t make me cry.” Panchito said dramatically. Y/n cracked a smile before nodding in agreement. The small speech gave her comfort. 

“Yeah…”

-

Y/n fiddled with her bow, tightening the strings on it. She furrowed her eyebrows in concentration, doing the best she could, the other contestee’s were getting ready, some seated under the shade away from the hot sun to speak with their peers. A few others speaking to their families were in the lower parts of the stand in the arena. There were people already pooling in for the first viewing of Warrior Falls. Not entirely a full house but it was far more than enough to have Y/n overwhelmed and thinking about what the actual day would look like. 

Many people had their support, wishing them luck, giving them gifts to motivate them. Y/n’s eyes wandered over and landed on Stinks, who was looking up the stands where his family was started. 

Stinks gazed up at his mother. She held a calculated expression as she looked down at her son. “That girl.” She starts. Stinks ears perked up and he raised his eyebrows, he immediately knew she was referring to Y/n. 

“You know what to do.” She said, Stinks silently nodding his head. “Yes..” he muttered. The mother moved to place her attention on the toddler beside her who climbed to sit in the seat. The child smiled up at her mother before looking over to Stinks, in which she  had to  stand on the chair and peek over the railing to gaze down at him. “You got this Zazu!” She gives him a thumbs up. Stink’s gives a shirt and quickly smiles before looking back at her mother. 

“Mother, I think that she’s not—“ 

“Hey, Stinks!”

Stinks turns around to see his friends calling out to him. They waved him down and Stinks removed himself from the wall and glanced back at his mother who nodded her head to dismiss him. Stinks sighed through his nose and turned to walk over to his friends, his eyes landed on Y/n, who was looking at him from over her shoulder. Stink furrowed his eyebrows and the two looked away from each other. 

Y/n sighed and looked ahead and away from Stinks. She furrowed her eyebrows and shuffled on her feet. Placing the bow back around her. 

“I can do this, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this.” Y/n whispered to herself. She walked over to the benches and sat down. The heat from the wooden bench warmed up her legs as she furrowed her eyebrows. Her eyes looked over to see 5 judges standing over near the stands in a booth, they were speaking to Modi who stood in front of them listening to whatever they were saying. 

They held papers in their hands, no doubt some Talley list. Y/n looks away and back to the ground, rubbing her hand to her forehead. She rested her elbows on her knees and sighed heavily. She had the urge to leave, to just walk away, the bubbling hot pot of anxiety was growing worse by the minute. But she didn’t move. She inhaled and rolled her shoulders before looking up. 

-

The..pre contest had started, and Y/n sat on the benches along with the other contestants. Similar to some basketball players waiting to be called onto the court. There were 50 in all and the first round was archery. 10 targets, and all Y/n was thinking on was how badly she would screw up. For contestants who didn’t have a bow—they were given a temporary one for the meantime, it Atleast made Y/n feel good that  she had one At Least. She sat lazily on the bench as her eyes watched 4 contestants walk up to the center of the arena. The number of people they picked to walk out to shoot the targets was random, but she couldn’t give a rats ass about the number, she was more so worried that her time was up as she saw the line of who went next get closer to her…and of course. She was at the end of the bench, meaning she went last.

The stands had so many people seated that Y/n got dizzy just gazing at them. Eyes everywhere watching and cheering for their loved ones on the ground to hit the target. 

Y/n’s eyes flickered up to the balcony way across the area where she saw her friends. 

Donald down at Y/n, his arms resting on the railing. “Geez. She does not look good out there.” Donald says. 

“She has stage fright.” Bendy answered and Mugman grunted. “Oh yeah..I know how that feels.” 

Panchito waves frantically at Y/n and smiles at her. From afar Y/n raised her hand and waved back at him. 

Oswald was leaned back into his seat as his eyes were busy flickering between the contestee’s doing their rounds with archery. Some missing the bullseye and knocking off points. Some getting close to the target and some even missing entirely. 

“YOU SUCK!” Cuphead shouts down at the contestant who fired their arrow but missed the entire target. The contestant looks up at the balcony where Cuphead shouted from. The contestee sighs and sulks before turning away and trudging back over to the benches. A whistle went off for them as well, signaling they were disqualified. 

“What’s up with the whistle?” Meek asks. Lucy looks away from the game and glances at Meek. “It signals who’s disqualified from the contest, as stated this is the picking of the contestants.”

She points down to the judges in a booth examining the game. “They’re the ones watching and picking.” 

“If she gets kicked out from this first game I think I might lose it.” Donald rubs his temple and Felix looks at him. “Donald..” Felix warns. 

“What’s important is she’s trying.” Ruck states and Felix nods in agreement. 

“Aww..my sweet querida looks like she needs a hug.” Panchito sulks as he frowns and looks down at Y/n. 

“And when is she never stressing?” Donald chuckled. 

“Is that the guy that was causin’ problems?” Cuphead squinted his eyes as he tried to get a better look at Stinks from afar. Stinks had got up from the benches as he was called out. He was 3 people down from Y/n. She was going to be up soon. 

Stinks grabs his bow and walks out to the middle of the arena. The crowd chants and sings his name; ‘Zazu’

Stinks seemed to glance around the arena at everyone as he reached back and grabbed an arrow from his quiver. 

Two other contestee’s joined as well. Those were the last two, but Y/n wasn’t called up. 

“Why are they letting her go by herself?” Don grunts and Ruck squints his eyes. “Right..” he agreed.

Stinks had hit the target—clearly a bullseye. He did it with such an ease he didn’t even seem like he had to think about it. The other contestants had missed their target, and a whistle blew and the contestant sighed and walked back over to the bench. The other contestant shot the target—but inches away from the red bullseye, but still safe enough for them to stay in the contest. 

The constructor motioned Stinks and the other contestee back to the benches, they both turned 

 and walked back and the constructor landed his eyes on Y/n and his hand motioned to the center of the arena. Some people were removing the last arrows for Y/n. The human blinks owlishly. “Shit..” her fingers felt cold as she felt every bit of knowledge on archery fly out the back door. Why the hell was she going by herself? 

“A Vendolez!” One of the announcer's shouted and the crowd shouts and hollers in excitement. 

“If you sit at the end of the bench, you’ll go last but you have the risk of finishing the round on your own.” Lucy sighs as she rested her elbow on her knee and placed her face in her hands. How the hell did she forget that one detail!

Felix’s ears flatten. “Okay..maybe on second thought she probably will panic..” he laughs nervously and Donald huffs. 

“You think? Look at her!” Donald motioned to Y/n who was walking slowly to the center of the arena. Gripping onto her bow. She had one chance. Or else she was done…

Bendy sighs and closes his eyes in frustration and dissatisfaction before inhaling.

Y/n stared at the target in front of her with furrowed eyebrows.

“Shoot all 10 targets.” The man said before strolling back to give Y/n space. Her eyebrows raised before she looked ahead.

“Shit.” They both said in unison.

Y/n placed an arrow in the bow before aiming at the target. Her heart thumped in her chest. Her pointer finger sticking out to aim at the red dot. Everything became muffled in her ears. The cheering and clapping. The birds, the wind. She zoned in on the target and pulled the arrow back further. 

Ruck and everyone in the booth watched Y/n in anticipation, this was either a win or lose moment. Y/n let’s out a shaky breath before releasing the arrow. It shot and hit the bullseye on the target! 

“Yes!” Everyone in the booth shouts beside Ruck who lets out a sigh of relief through his nose. Y/n’s sweaty hands distracted her, but she didn’t let that interfere with her. Y/n slowly edged to the other target, reaching into her quicker and grabbing another bow. Loading it, pulling back and releasing, the arrow hits the bullseye yet again, the crowd was stunned—but exhilarated! 

Y/n’s eyebrows twitched as she had them furrowed. She edged to the 3rd target. And reached into her quiver and repeated the action. 

“¡ir! ¡ir! ¡eres un gran tirador de maravillas!” Panchito shouts proudly down to Y/n. His voice echoed. 

Lucy claps, a bright smile on her face!

“Well ain’t that a bitch..” Ruck muttered in surprisement. 

Y/n was reaching the last target after hitting the bullseye on the last 8. Some of the contestee’s stood up from their benches in shock. Some yelling in their tongue encouraging statements. 

Y/n pulled back once more on the arrow, her breathing echoing in her head. Releasing it. The arrow shot to the target and embedded in the middle of it. A bullseye once more.

“YEAH!” Donald, Cuphead, Mugman and Panchito shouts in excitement—jumping from their seats. Bendy’s shoulders dropped from being tensed. A sigh escaped his mouth. Lucy stands up and claps her hands loudly. Felix smiled as well as Oswald. 

Y/n lowered her arms and looked down the row of targets she hit, and glanced up at the balcony and looked at Ruck who was clapping his hands along with everyone. He was clapping for her. A smile appeared on his face as he raised a hand up. Two fingers pointing to his eyes and then at her. Y/n raised her hand, two fingers pointing to her eyes and then back at him. 

The crowd chants Y/n’s name as and the conductor nodded at her to return to the benches. She walks back over to the bench, a small smile present in her face and not an ounce of fear in her body. Some of the contestee’s greeted her excitedly, frantically speaking to her she couldn’t even pay attention. 

Stinks looks away from Y/n and back to the targets, he..was actually surprised to see what she did. 10 bullseye’s..his eyes landed on his father who was speaking to Modi over by the judges booth. When he met eyes with his son. His fathers eyes hardened, Stinks looks away and back over to the targets. 

“Still time to kick the brat out.” Stinks looks over to the boy sitting beside him. He had his foot propped up on the bench with his bow hanging around his shoulder. 

“Obstacle course. She failed it last time. She’ll fail again.” The boy chuckled. And the dog toon next to him laughs and nods. 

“Right!” He laughs. Stinks leans back, his back against the wall as he sighs. “Don’t lose to her man.” Another contestee’s grumbled and Stinks sneers.

“Listen, shut up. Can I think for a fuckin’ second?” He grumbled. Clearly he wanted peace and quiet. 

“I’ll get her..”

-

Y/n stared at the obstacle and..actually felt pretty good about it. With all the climbing she did yesterday, this obstacle was nothing but a playground in her eyes. This was the last round to see if she could make it into the contest, and she’d be damned if she lost. Only 7 other contestants made it..which was a large chunk chopped off, but. She was glad she was in the runner ups. The obstacle had targets they had  to shoot with their arrow and that was the only thing she feared at the moment. As good as she might be shooting the bow stationed..she wasn’t so sure about doing it while running around everywhere. 

Stinks walked past her and he didn’t even bid her a glance. Y/n blinks before she glanced over at the booth where the judges are, seated and waiting. 

The constructor was at the end of the finish line. Where a flag was. The same exact flag she couldn’t get to before. 

Standing at the line. Y/n blankly stared at the obstacle course. Don’t mess up..don’t mess up…don’t mess this up…

Was what she kept repeating in her head over and over again. The constructor raised a hand up in the air, he held a pistol, pulling the trigger, the pop of the bullet echoed, and the face started. 

The contestee’s ran into the obstacle, going their own ways either, crawling, climbing or trudging through the mud. 

Y/n ran over to the wall and her hands instantly found the dents in the wood for her to climb. She climbed the wall quicker than she did ever, it reminded her of like climbing the branches she had to do so many times. Her muscles were sore from all the training prior but that was the least of her concerns. The wooden plank was before her. She balanced herself across it as she took her bow and loaded her arrow, spotting a target a few feet away. She released the arrow and it hit the target. A bell rang in the air for her hit. 

One of the judges added a point to her name. Which was right under Stink’s name. 6 points. Stinks already have 11.

Y/n crossed the plank and quickly placed her bow around her and hopped off the platform, holding on the nylon rope and swinging over to the other side of the platform, she jumped off the rope and landed onto her feet. She heard one of the contestee’s fall from behind her. A whistle shrieks in the air. They were disqualified. 

The judge removes the name from the board. Leaving 6 people. 

Y/n jumps down the ladder and vaults over a wooden barricade, removing her bow from her she quickly loads it and hits the next target that was a few inches from her. 

Felix’s ears perked up when he spotted one of the contestee’s near the human. Y/n in which turns around to see the contestant and moves away from their swing. Y/n quickly rushes away and climbs up a ladder to get to the next platform, when she made it to its surface she saw she had to hop across the gaps—which reminded her of when she was hopping trees yesterday. She hops over the gaps and huffs. 

“Ouch!” Two contestee’s ran into each other and fell off the platform and into the mud. The whistle blows twice disqualifying them.

“Come on!” Donald shouts down at Y/n. Mugman frantically shook Donald’s shoulders. “Stop! Don’t distract her!” 

Y/n hops over another gap and lands to the other side. The sound of whistles blowing in her ears would have distracted her, but she didn’t take a moment to look back, her foot hops over to a thin pole like platform, big enough for only one foot to stand on. She hops to the other small pole, her arms slightly up as she balances herself to hopping from one pole to the other, if she fell into the mud, it was over with. 

“Come on kid..” Ruck whispered to himself as he watched her. “Damn..” Cuphead gazed at her. Mugman rolled his eyes at his brother's dazed expression. Bendy had leaned forward to silently watch Y/n hop to each platform. Felix had his arms behind his back as she anxiously watched her. 

Y/n hops onto the wooden platform and takes her bow out before shooting yet another target. They were exactly bullseyes but it was still her hitting the target. She smiled as she saw the end. She hops down from the platform and back onto the ground. Placing the bow back around her as she ran to the flag only a few meters away. This was it! 

But she felt someone collide into her. Arms wrapping around her as they tackled her to the ground. Y/n lost her footing and the two went tumbling down to the ground. Y/n’s heart felt like it leapt into her throat. Fear spiked within her. The sounds of the outside world went blank to her. Her eyes clenched closed as she felt like everything had paused and went slow. She slowly fell onto the ground.

Y/n’s chest tightened. Like her body knew exactly what frightened her. She could feel her heart thumping in her ears, shaking her ribcage. Her hands started to sweat as her body went cold. Y/n rolled on the ground, the dirt under her had hardened into what felt like cold concrete. Y/n groans, from her lack of breathing and from the impact from the ground. The cheering echoed in her eyes like a far distance.

Y/n slowly opened her eyes and looked ahead, getting in her hands and knees. Stinks back was turned from her, he was picking himself up from the ground. But as her eyes zoned in on him, her heartbeat picked up. And she lets out a wheezing noise like she couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t. Stinks heard the noise she made and turned around to look at her—his motion was slow, Y/n slowly blinked. And standing in front of her. Was what she didn’t know she feared the most until it stood right there. Pib. 

Y/n let out an uncomfortable groan as she jumps back. 

The sound of a cars honking echoed in her head. But there was none in sight. She knew she was still on the course but her body thought otherwise. Pib turned to look at Y/n. 

Y/n’s chest heaved up and down frantically, a hand reaching up to grip at her chest, a loud wheezing sound escaped her mouth. Her eyes blurred as tears formed in her eyes. 

The sound of her heavy breathing soon turned into her hyperventilating, unsteady frantic breathing. Her body felt frightened. How was she here? 

Y/n struggled to stand herself up, her legs felt weak, like a baby deer learning to walk. A snivel escapes Y/n’s mouth as she takes a step back, away from the finish line. 

A tear falls from her face. Pib’s head only moved to follow her movement. But didn’t move to walk towards her, it was almost uncanny. How still it was. 

Y/n tried to breathe, but it didn’t matter how much she tried to inhale it seemed like something blocked her from breathing. Her hands clamped at her chest, she never felt her heartbeat so quick in her life, sure she had moments she was afraid, but she never felt her heart beat like that before. 

Hands grasp onto her shoulders, and she quickly shouts and whips around. Stumbling, her frantically breathing was heavy. 

“Hey! Hey! What’s wrong?” It was Felix. Y/n rapidly blinked when she saw him. The world becoming brighter as it seemed to shade down before. She quickly latched onto him.

“It—she was—i was—I—she—she was right there!” Her words were chopped from her heavy breathing, sniffing her throat felt right, her body tried to breathe, she sounded like a child who cried to themselves so much they would stammer to their parents as they cried trying to explain something. Breaking the rhythm of their breathing. 

Lucy quickly rushes over and stands in front of the two. “What’s wrong?!” She asks. As the others had quickly walked over as well. 

Stinks held the flag in his head as he stood at the finish line. He won the course, the good thing was Y/n wasn’t disqualified seeing she didn’t touch the mud at all.

Bendy quickly placed a hand on Y/n’s back and looked at her. She closed her eyes and was panting frantically. 

“Give her some space! Don’t crowd her.” Ruck quickly tells everyone. 

“Is she okay?!” Mugman quickly asks. Felix gently rubbed Y/n’s back when Bendy had pulled away to look at the judges. Her name wasn’t removed from the chart..she was still in the game. 

“Hey..it’s okay..no one’s here—“ Felix was caught off by Y/n pulling away from him. “No! I saw her!” She shouts, she accidentally bumped into Oswald who was behind her. He cautiously placed a hand on her arm. “It’s okay Y/n..” 

“You need to breathe..” Oswald says. She turns and looks at him and her frustrated expression softened, her chest heaving up and down as she stared at him. Her heart was still beating quickly, but not nearly as fast. He grabbed her arm and pulled her to him. “Let’s just head back, she needs to sit down.” Oswald says and Felix nods. 

-

Y/n laid in the bed, her eyes glued onto the wall. Not a single sound from her the entire time. Lucy sat on the couch next to Bendy—his eyes were glued on Y/n’s back. 

“She seems upset..” Lucy frowns. Cuphead grunts. “I would be too if some bastard tackled me to the ground.” He said and Mugman furrowed his eyebrows. 

“That's not the point you nut. She had a panic attack.” Mugman swats Cuphead’s arm and he rolls his eyes. 

“Keep her in the bed for the rest of the day.” Donald says and Panchito sighs. “Fellas, please. Let us not talk about her..she does not seem too happy right now.” He says. And Felix nods. 

“Panchito’s right..just..give her space.” Felix tells. Ruck, Meek and Don were seated on the couch as well, though they had yet to say anything. 

“What happened to her?” Lucy asks slowly—in hopes the group had a thought on what triggered Y/n’s frantic mind.

“Clearly something she doesn't like.” Donald replied—he himself couldn’t latch onto what made Y/n so upset, it could have been something before she met them—or during their small journey. 

The sound of the door opening caught the attention of everyone—besides Y/n. A guard walks into the room, his eyes landing on the group. 

“Ms. Y/n is qualified for Warrior Falls.”

#toon quest #bendyxreader #cuphead x reader #bendy and the ink machine #oswald the lucky rabbit #felix the cat x reader #panchito pistoles #animaniacs x reader

[toontails]

Toon Quest

Chapter 5: Deep Under the Streets of Wellington

A/N before reading I just wanted to let you know that this chapter does have music and that Quotev works best for it, though if you don’t use and or can’t access Quotev, the song is in the link when reaching the scene! If you’d like to read the chapter on Quotev, the link is right here!

-

Y/n couldn’t remember much that happened last night other than drifting off to sleep under a tree with a throw over blanket that Cuphead had bought. The two really only bought it because it was chilly outside and the fact that they continued wanting to speak, they got a small blanket and sat under a tree…now…Y/n didn’t exactly expect to wake up to the sun blaring into her eyes and the sound of birds chirping as an alarm. 

Her eyes slowly fluttered open, she felt her head resting on something that wasn’t the tree, she had been resting on Cuphead’s shoulder and he was leaned into the tree—not necessarily asleep, but busy picking at the grass blades—how did she manage to sleep so comfortably—she had no clue in the world—it wasn’t until then did she realize that she had slept..outside..and the sun was up. Y/n immediately shoots up and quickly examines her surroundings, they seemed to be in a park—a few bystanders walking around doing whatever, Y/n quickly pats her pants to see if she could find her phone but to no avail she remembers she left it back in the room. 

“Jesus, you let me sleep till sunrise?!” She exclaims a bad gut feeling stirring up—jeez she could already hear the earful she would get from the others, surely Alice would notice she was gone! But the minute that she had shot up onto her feet and placed her gaze on Cuphead she noticed Mugman standing beside him, Mugman flinched slightly at Y/n’a quick and abrupt movement and took a small step back. Y/n immediately went silent as she saw Cuphead stand up. 

“Don’t worry ‘bout it. You’ll be fine.” He says. Y/n furrowed her eyebrows at his ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude, clearly that was something Cuphead was known for as Mugman had slowly shook his head as well. Mugman gently rubbed his hands together before finally gathering the courage to look her in the eyes, when he did he gave her an ever so small wave with his gloved hand. 

“Hey uh..sorry about the whole chasin’ thing.” He says bashfully as he rubs the back of his neck. Y/n stared at Mugman for a moment, which seemed to make him shuffle on his feet, she slowly nodded before giving him a small smile. “Don’t worry about it.” She says. 

“Mugs, this is Y/n. Y/n this is my bro, Mugman.” Cuphead introduced with a boyish smile as if Y/n didn’t already know Mugman’s name by now, but it was still good to have an actual introduction. 

“Nice to meet you.” Y/n says and Mugman smiled ever so slightly before nodding. 

“Cuphead told me about the situation and the book.” Mugman says and Y/n nods. “Yeah. My friends are at this church to get the jewel—but in order to get it we have to win the town's music competition.” She tells him. Now saying it she felt much more confident considering yesterday the choir actually sang pretty good. 

Cuphead grunted and scratched his neck. “Geez, you shoulda heard the amount of singing we heard while bein’ here,” Cuphead grumbled, understandable. 

“He doesn't like musicals.” Mugman tells Y/n. “I actually really liked the songs,” Mugman smiled—Now noticing how Mugman's tense form seemed much more relaxed once realizing that Y/n meant no harm, he seems much more relaxed and talkative than before. 

“I hate them, who wants to sit around and listen to someone sing about—whatever for the next 4 minutes? I don’t.” Cuphead crossed his arms and complained—Y/n would enjoy spending more time and speaking to the brothers but she really had to get back to the chapel, she genuinely didn’t want to worry the others—whatever they might be doing. 

“Alright, alright. We’ll walk you back.” Cuphead says he walks past her, Mugman follows after Cuphead and so does Y/n. 

“So, I take it you also don’t know what’s going on?” Mugman asks Y/n. The human slowly looked at him and made a small expression that meant she didn’t exactly know. 

“Uh…not necessarily. From what I know. It’s a book that tells us where to go and who to get.”  She says before motioning towards him. “And you and Cuphead are a part of the book, which is why we’re getting the jewel.” 

“Hopefully—“ she quickly adds. 

“Well..didn’t expect so much when coming to the mainlands.” Mugman expresses. Cuphead shrugs. “Eh. M’ sure there’s far worse to come.” He says and Mugman sputters at that before nudging his brother. “Don’t say that, you can’t jinx it you moron!” Mugman scolds and Cuphead only shrugs. “Can’t get worse from here, Devil got us under a contract, the book we need to take to give to them is somehow something we actually really can’t give to them because we’re apart of it—“ 

He then smiled. “And not to mention we’re far from home.” The list could go on and on for everyone surely, Y/n already got a thousand things she could go on about. Mugman only rubbed his face in frustration. 

“What are you guys going to do about the Devil anyway?” She asks. Mugman sighs and looks away. “It…it’s complicated. We don’t know ourselves.” Mugman mutters. 

“I’m sure we’ll figure something out, Mugs.” Cuphead says as he slowed down in walking so Mugman could catch up. 

“Sure, I mean. We’ve gotten away from him once.” Mugman tried to bring a voice of reason to swallow away his worries, and Cuphead nodded wrapped his arms around both Mugman’s and Y/n’s shoulders. “See? Positive thoughts, everything will sail just smoothly, we’ll take her back to the others, let her work the magic and boom, we’ll all get our happy ending.” Cuphead says. He seemed so…’so—so’ about certain situations as his brother seemed vigilant to certain things, two major differences in the brothers.

Mugman slowly sighs before shrugging, letting the worries seep away. “If you say so—“

“Hey! You surfers! Down here!” Shouts a voice. Mugman looks at Y/n who had also heard the voice as she slowly furrows her eyebrows at the sudden voice—looking around she doesn't spot anyone that might seem to be talking to them and Cuphead looks around as well. 

“The hell was that?” Cuphead asks before releasing the two. Mugman slowly shrugs. “I-I dunno. That’s weird.” He says. 

“Look down!” The voice shouts. The three heard the voice nice and clear that time, immediately moving their gaze in front of them and down to the ground, there was a small toon rat—standing on its hind legs, a leather strap wrapped around its torso with—what seemed to be an archery bow wrapped around him as well. The rat stood firm and stiff as if some sergeant. Y/n furrowed her eyebrows in confusion before glancing around her to see if the small guy was speaking to anyone else, which the rat noticed. 

“I’m talking to you three!” He shouts and Cuphead shoulders jolted and huff came from him—a short chuckle before he looks at Y/n. “Ya’ know this guy?” He asks and Y/n looks at Cuphead and Mugman. “Uh, no, do you two?” She asks and Mugman shakes his head—no—he can’t recall speaking to someone so small. 

“Nope.” Cuphead chuckled before looking back at the rat. 

“What’s up little guy, need a ride or somethin?” Cuphead squats down to see the rat up close. “Cups, don’t get too close.” Mugman quickly warned his brother. 

The rat had quickly taken a dagger from his pocket—which looked to be a sharp stone or rock -- and jabbed it onto the tip of Cuphead's nose. “Ow!” He shouts in pain before quickly standing up and standing right back between Mugman and Y/n. Y/n placed a hand on Cuphead’s arm as he held onto his bow sore nose, Cuphead ripped his nose with the sleeve of his arm and sniffed, he turned his gaze back onto the ray and glared at him. 

“What was that for?!” He hissed. 

“You three have a warrant out for your arrest from our leader, Argus! Surrender now, or we will have to take lethal action.” A warrant for their arrest? What? 

Y/n furrowed her eyebrows and placed her hands on her hips. “What? You can’t do that, we don’t even know you! Besides, we aren't even residents of this town.” She says the soldier rat looks at her and glares. 

“Are you all resisting arrest?” He said and Cuphead grumbled. “Clearly—“ He says before placing a hand in front of Y/n to back her away, he motions his fingers in a gun like position and pointed his index finger down at the rat, the familiar blue beam of light charging up but the rat didn’t even flinch nor run off, before Y/n could think, a toothpick sized arrow swishes past her and hit Cuphead in the back of his hand, Cuphead quickly moves his hand and hisses in pain, he looks at his hand and removes the arrow.

“You gotta be kiddin’ me…”

Y/n felt a sharp pain in her leg as Mugman had gotten shot in the arm, and almost immediately the three fell to the ground, everything blacked out.

-

All Y/n felt was the cold ground beneath her. The sound of echoing droplets of water and the ambience of still air, and occasionally squeaking echoing somewhere from in the mysterious place. 

Y/n’s leg muscle twitches—the leg that she had unfortunately gotten shot in. Her eyes fluttered open, a blur of dark colors and the pungent smell of mold and mildew hit her nose. Her eyebrows furrowed and she groaned, her hands planting on the ground before heaving herself up, the ground was cold and slick—almost as if it were a broken concrete, it wasn’t until she finally adjusted her eyes to her surroundings. Bars. A cell. She was in a cell. Infront of her was another cell with it empty. 

Y/n quickly stood up, stumbling on her feet, her small frantic breaths echoed and her foot hit something hard, a groan escaped from whatever she hit. 

“Oh…my head..” she looks down to see Mugman finally waking up, Cuphead laid next to him, who was also waking up as well. 

“Guys—“ she quickly bends down and takes Mugman's hand to sit him up, which he did. His hand then rubbed at his head as he looked away, Cuphead already sat up himself with an irritated expression. 

“Where are we? How did we get here? What are we doing in a jail cell, oh I’m too young to be in the slammer!” Mugman immediately starts to panic and Y/n starts to wave her hands in front of him. 

“No, no, don’t worry Mugman. We’re fine, At Least we’re alive—“

He immediately looked at her when she said that. “You mean we’re going to die?!” He cried out…maybe it would be best to not say that again…

Cuphead stood up and walked over to the cell and planted his hands on it. “Jeez—it’s one thing after another.” He groans and gently slams his head into the bars, a clink echoing in the area. Mugman stood up but he glued himself to Y/n’s side. 

The two walked over and grabbed the cell bars as well. 

“Did that rat bring us here? That’s one strong guy.” Y/n says and Cuphead grunts. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more.” He says which would make sense. 

Soon the sound of feet pattering on the ground echoed, the three turned their gaze to the direction the sound was coming from and watched as a few rat toons wandered down to their cell..so there were more.

One of the rats turned to the cell and gazed up at the three, and even though Y/n, Cuphead and Mugman were giants to them, that didn’t seem to bother them. 

“Let us outta here you little rodents! Whatever you’re looking for, we don’t have anything you need! You got the wrong people!” Cuphead shakes the cell bars, the iron clanking as he did so. The rat slowly shook his head at the notion. 

“I’m afraid you do.” The rat chuckles—it didn’t take until now to realize that that was the same exact guy that captured them..wow..great looking Y/n..props for paying attention. 

“Come on Jura, Argus will be coming soon and I don’t wanna hear her nag my ear off.” One of the other rat soldiers points out, Jura immediately stops laughing and rolls his eyes. 

“Poe, shut it, I need complete silence when executing my diabolical plan.” Jura grins mischievously. Cuphead had rested his elbow on the bar and had his head resting on his hand as he gazed down at the rats. 

“Evil plan huh? Well you sure are one evil genius.” Cuphead says nonchalantly and Mugman glares at his brother. “Don’t taunt him.” he immediately hissed. 

“You should listen to your brother, Cupboy.” Jura advised. 

“It’s Cuphead.” Cuphead growls under his breath. 

Jura shrugs and huffs. “Could care less.” He muttered. 

Y/n could care less about the back and forth—she needed to know what they were doing in a cell for—and after worrying about a warrant for their arrest—she would assume she would be in a police jail cell—which —not to mention, looks nothing like a Police precinct cell. 

“What are we doing here?” bossed Y/n. Her voice was stern as she glared daggers down at Jura who looked up at her with a glint in his eyes she couldn’t exactly recognize. 

“The book, where is it?” Jura asks. And the three immediately went silent..what? Why the hell did they want the book? Who were they? And dear god more people were after it?! 

Y/n felt her eyes slowly roll in frustration as she sighed through her nose. “And what exactly makes you think I’ll tell you anything about it? And even give it to you?” 

Jura fiddled with his nails as Y/n spoke as if what she said wasn’t interesting. “Oh, trust, it was already easy enough to get you all down here.” He says. 

“I don’t have it.” She answered. Jura’s ears perked up as he looked at her and squinted his eyes. 

Poe stomps his foot on the ground. “Dammit, I was positive it was these three, Argus will have our head if she finds out!” Poe panics and Jura hums.

“Then w-“

“Argus said bring out the prisoners!” Someone echoes down the hall, Jura and Poe look down that direction and Jura looks over to the other rat guards and motions his hand towards the cell. 

“Restrain them and bring them out.”  He says before Poe and Jura turns and leaves the area, Mugman, Cuphead and Y/n all shared looks as they moved away from the cell when it opened, immediately Y/n felt a tug at her arms, she looks down to see a thick nylon rope had been tied onto her wrist, binding it together. Her first thought was to tug her hand to escape but she saw one of the other two rats lift their bow and arrows up to her—aiming and ready to shoot just in case—she would have laughed at that considering the arrows didn’t hold much damage—until  she remembered that the arrow was clearly laced with something to make her pass out—and she didn’t want that to happen again. And clearly Mugman and Cuphead had the exact same thought. 

The three were tugged out of the cell and into the walkway, despite the rats small nature, they did have some strength to tug her with a bit of force. Now walking beside Cuphead and  Mugman the three looked at each other as they obliged to walk. 

“This is crazy, I’ve never been in a situation like this before.” Y/n whispered to the two and Mugman quickly nodded. “‘Me either..but for the most part, they know about the book too..” he brings up. 

“I’m just thinkin’ how far they’ll fly if I kick the hell outta them.” Cuphead muttered to the two and Y/n and Mugman only gave him a deadpan expression, he only shrugs his shoulders. “Just sayin.“ 

“We gotta get out of here.” Y/n said and Mugman agreed. “Well yes, but here’s the thing…how?” 

“I bet there’s a rat civilization—with little rat people and their little rat homes and little rat markets with little rat families.” Cuphead abruptly says as he looks down at one of the rays who still held the arrow up at him, daring for him to make a move. 

Mugman gives his brother a look. “Cuphead, there’s no such thing as a rat village.” Mugman hissed—but immediately when he said that, the wooden doors in front of them had been pushed up, and behold—was a large open sewer area—with buildings made of old boxes and metal and other tossed away trash that was recycled to make a town—the buildings reached above Y/n and the others, and there was…an actual civilization! Small wooden carts with scrapped bread  and markets and stores and schools and homes! The light was dim but it seemed that used flashlights were their source of light. The town was big enough for the three to walk through it; some rats  had spotted them and gasped softly, murmuring to each other a sea of hushed voices whispering. 

Y/n and Mugman had their mouths agape as they gazed upon the creation of a town! A literal town!

“Look—it’s a surfer..” whispered a child mice that hid behind his mother, the mother gasps and covered her child’s eyes away from the dangers of the three—known as ‘Surfers’ 

Whatever they meant. 

“They really do exist..” another voice whispered 

“Look at how big they are—“

“The stories are real…”

“Killers..”

“That one is a human surfer, they hate toons..”

“How many of them are there?” 

The voices circled around the three as they stood next to each other. Y/n could see how some of the civilians seemed afraid—but what for? She was more afraid of them than they were to her! 

“Where…are we..” Y/n asks and Cuphead slowly shakes his head. Hell, of course he called it but he..didn’t expect to be right. “I have no clue..” 

Jura raised his hands with a smile. “My people! I bring you, the surfers!” He announced and the civilians gasped and the sea of voices grew louder as they all gossiped. 

“Vile creatures from the surface, that grab you with their bare hands and rip you to shreds! And they have what is ours to bring our community back our queen!” He says. Cuphead slowly furrowed his eyebrows. 

“Hey! Uh—“ he shouts, getting the attention of everyone. The civilians stopped talking in fear once hearing Cuphead. Jura turned and looked at Cuphead. 

“Yeah, I dunno what you all are talkin’ about, but who ever you’re looking for, You got the wrong people. We’re just regular people like you a-ow!” He hops on one foot when one of the soldier rats poked him with the sharp weapon. Cuphead quickly stomps his foot down onto the ground in an attempt to stomp at the rat—but it quickly scurried away before his foot could land on it. That gesture frightened the civilians and they all gasped and shouted.

“They really are monsters!” 

“The horror!”

Y/n looked away from the crowd and grabbed Cuphead by his shirt and he quickly looked at her. “Stop it you moron, they’re already on edge about us.”  She harshly whispered to him. Cuphead quickly shrugs as much as he could, seeing Y/n had a tight grip on him and his wrist were tied. 

“Look—it’s not my fault they’re flighty.” He seethed. Y/n huffs before letting him go. Jura only motioned up at the three. 

“And this is why they are our enemies! Harsh, bloodthirsty creatures!” Whatever he was saying, it was all lies. 

“Hey! We-we’re not like that guys.” Mugman laughed through his teeth nervously as he looked at the civilians who only seemed to fear him. 

“And I’m going to assume there’s no bad news, Jura!” A voice shouts. Cuphead, Mugman, and Y/n look up to see a slim rat—wearing a long dark cape and a golden staff—that Y/n was sure was used as some sort of tool beforehand. She walked down the lane of the village up to the thre, the civilians moving from her path, she had sass and moxie. 

She gazed up at the three before eyeing Jura.

“Where is it?” She says slowly. That was Agrus. 

“Well..you see…” Jura starts and Y/n immediately knew they were referring to the book, what did they need it for? Y/n’s eyebrows furrowed as she gazed down at Jura and Argus.

“They don’t have it.” He took some time to say it almost as if he were afraid to do so. The civilians had fallen into a deep silent coma, it seemed disappointing Argus was something of a great fear. 

“I think I need to remind everyone around here who runs this place!” Argus's boisterous voice shouts out, minus the fact she was just a mere rat, her voice spoke volumes and shook fear into the civilians as they backed away. 

Cuphead clearly knew what was up next as he sighed and hung his head low with a groan. “God please no..” he says. And Y/n could feel the build up as well as Argus then points her staff towards some of the civilians who backed away in fear. 

“Noooow! When I wake up in the afternoon, which it pleases me to do! Don’t nobody bring me no bad news! ‘Cause I wake up already negative, and I’ve wired up my fuse, so don’t nobody bring me no bad news!” She sings before her gaze at Jura. 

“If we’re gonna be buddies, better bone up on the rules, ‘cause don’t nobody bring me no bad news—“ she quickly looks at another civilian who smiled nervously under her gaze. 

“You can be my best of friends! As opposed to payin’ dues! But don’t no body bring me! No. Bad. News!” The civilians scattered away to their prospective places and started to work—sawing, stocking and other things. 

“No bad news!” Argus sings 

“No bad news!” The civilians sang after her.

“No bad news!” Argus sings again as she pushed a civilian to the side as she walked close to the three. 

“No bad news!” The civilians sang. 

“And don’t you ever bring me no bad news! ‘Cause I’ll make you an offer, child that you cannot refuse, so don’t nobody bring me. No. Bad. News!” Argus gazes at the three before she motioned the guards down the town which they led the three down as Argus continued singing. 

“When you’re talking to me? Don’t be cryin’ blues! ‘Cause don’t nobody bring me no bad news! You can verbalize and vocalize, but just bring me the clues, but don’t nobody bring me. No. Bad. News!” Argus shouts as she prances around, Cuphead, Y/n’s and Mugman’s walking feet as the civilians sing along in the background, Y/n’s eyes couldn’t keep in one place as she stared between Argus and the civilians and wherever the guards were taking them. 

“Bring some message in your head, or in something you can’t lose! But don’t you ever, ever bring me no bad news! If you’re gonna bring me something, bring me something I can use, but don’t you bring me, no bad news!”

As she sang the guards stopped walking and Y/n watched as some civilians scampered around—grabbing ropes, needles, weapons and wrapping around their feet. She tried focusing on the signing; she was so focused on the fact that they were literally wrapping them up. She couldn't move as her hands were confined together and she heard Cuphead shouting at the rats as Mugman was tied to Y/n and the same for Cuphead. 

“Hey! Let go!” Cuphead shouts as he kicks at the rats but misses every time. The three fell to the ground and Y/n yelped slightly as the three were tied together. 

The three shuffled and moved but the ropes were way too tightly to even move properly, one thing for sure those rats were strong. Y/n watched as the rats hopped over their legs to tie the nylon rope around them, only further tightening it that Y/n was starting to think they were going to tie them to death. 

The civilians quickly scurried away as Argus had been signing; she scurried to the three with a grin.

“Don’t you ever bring me, bring me, bring me, noooo bad neeewwws!”

-

Alice stared at the empty bed, her eyebrows stitched together..where..was Y/n? She slowly blinked before walking over to the bed and lifting the covers. There was nothing under there, the bookbag was tilted over on the floor—which Alice immediately noticed. She walked over to the Y/n’s bookbag and picked it up, she remembered how the girl kept the book in the bag at all times and lo and behold. The book wasn’t present. 

No Y/n. No book. 

“Oh..this is bad..” Alice whispered to herself. 

“What’s bad?” Bendy’s voice asks from behind her. She turned around and her gaze landed on Bendy, who had slowly walked into the room, his eyes falling onto the bookbag before raising an eyebrow. “Where’s Y/n?” He asks.

Alice sighs before giving him a look. “She wasn’t with you?” She quickly asks and Bendy squints his eyes and shakes his head. “Not that I remembered, I was with Donald the entire morning.” 

Alice placed the bookbag on the bed and placed her hands on her hips. “Well, she wasn’t with me and I can’t find her, I've been looking for her for the past 10 minutes.”  She scoffs and Bendy only chuckles. “Don’t worry too much. She wanders off sometimes to get some alone time? You know how humans get, especially when they’re away from home for so long.”  He pushed the matter away as if brushing dust from his shoulders. 

“Besides, the gal’s been stressing with everythin’s that been going on, m’sure she’ll turn up later on today.” Bendy’s words did bring Alice down from her small stupor, she sighs softly and rubbed her forehead. “I mean, if you say so.” 

Right when Alice finished her sentence a small thud emits from under the bed. The two looked at eachother and Bendy soon smiled and chuckled before his head motioned towards the bed that made the noise. 

“That’s probably her.”  He muttered to Alice. Which..Alice could only hope it was Y/n under the bed. Bendy lifts a foot up slightly, lifting the draping sheet up near the bed. 

“C’mon kid. Jokes time over, we got work to do today.” Bendy chuckled. But he was met with silence. He was about to speak again until the book slid from under the bed as if someone pushed it. Alice and Bendy watched as the book slid between the two and opened. The pages flip and Bendy furrowed his eyebrows in seriousness, once the book stopped its flipping he could see the page were the names of the people who had already been found was imprinted on the book, his name, Panchito’s, Oswald, Donald and Y/n—but her name glowed ever so slightly in a yellow golden soft light.

“What does that mean?” Alice asks Bendy and Bendy slowly opens his mouth and moves to pick up the book. “I have no idea, but are you sure that isn’t around here?” Bendy looks at Alice and she nods. 

“I know she really won’t walk around this place and I hadn’t seen her when I woke up either, I just assumed she was off in the bathroom or something or with one of the boys.” Her voice edged slightly in worry. 

“Come on, let’s go to Felix.” Bendy quickly turns around and walks out of the room, Alice followed behind him, no one had really left their rooms yet, mostly because there wasn’t much to do around the chapel other than the rehearsal that Alice scheduled for later on in the day. And pretty much it was a very relaxing time to just sit back and let loose.

When Bendy entered the room with the book opened. He spotted Boris and Edgar making paper airplanes, Charley and Barley hadn’t been doing much but sitting on the couch talking? And Felix, Oswald, Donald and Panchito were sitting at the counter talking with each other, Bendy walks over to the four and looks at them. 

“Have you guys seen Y/n by any chance?” He asks.

“Uh..no? I thought she was with you.” Oswald says and Panchito agrees with Oswald—he hasn’t seen her as well. 

“No, sorry.” Donald answered and Felix could see Bendy’s change in demeanor. “What’s wrong?” He asks him and Bendy places the book onto the table. 

“Well, I mean, no one saw her and usually she would be around us, and the book did some weird thing and her name is glowing.” He explained as Oswald, Felix, Dondald and Panchito looked down to see the name glowing in the book, Alice had slowly walked over. 

“I think she may be in danger.” She went ahead and called out and Felix moved to touch the book, but before he could land a claw on it slammed shut in a way for a defense mechanism.  Felix had moved his hand away quickly and looked at Bendy, but the demon had his gaze on the floor, as well as Panchito, Oswald and Donald, the golden trail leading out of the door. 

“Oh god she is.” Bendy quickly states which caused Felix’s ears to perk up. 

“Well then what are we waiting for? Come on!” Donald removed himself from the seat as everyone hopped up as well. 

They had to find Y/n.

-

Y/n, Cuphead, Mugman we’re tied together and all they could do was silently and grumpily watch the civilians move to continue their work—as Jura and Argus left to go and discuss ‘more important matters’ as she claimed..

“Can’t believe we’ve been napped by a couple of rats…” Cuphead muttered. Y/n grumbled and shoved him with her shoulder, Cuphead grunted before turning his head to look at her. His straw gently hitting the top of her head with how close they were to each other. 

“Can you stop tryna hit them for one minute, Jesus Christ, Cuphead.” She hissed at him. Cuphead sighs before looking away from her. Everytime a civilian would wander pass, Cuphead would try to kick his foot to hit them and that only fed into the narrative that they were monsters to them. 

“Now you see what I have to deal with.” Mugman sighs and his head lowered. “We’re going to die in here!” He cried out dramatically. Which Y/n thought he was overreacting but he started to actually cry. Tears fell down his face as he threw his head back, and then landed his face on her shoulder, his large tears soaking her shirt. 

“Oooh, Mugman don’t cry, we’ll be fine.” Y/n quickly comforts Mugman as she gently rests her cheek on the rim of his head. Cuphead gazed at the two from the corner of his eyes and he rolled his eyes. 

“You two are big babies.” He says nonchalantly and that earned him another shove to the arm and he grunts. “Okay! Okay..jeez..you sure do pack an arm.” 

“Um..excuse me.” A voice calls out. 

The three turned their gaze down to meet another rat..great..what now? 

He wore a white dingy lab coat and had round glasses, he adjusted his glasses and smiled at the three. 

“Oh great, another one.” Cuphead grumbled. 

“My name is Puck—and uh. I think you guys would be better off with me.” He seemed to talk as if he were speaking from a script? His eyes quickly glanced over at the soldier who was standing a few feet away, clearly keeping an eye on the three as Jura and Argus were away. 

Y/n’s legs felt like pins and needles and her muscles were starting to stiff up—not entirely a good position to sit as she was practically squished between Cuphead and Mugman. The guard turned to Puck and Puck smiled. “I’ll take these three to run some test.” He says and the guard nods. “Of course sir.”  He says. 

Puck motioned towards another guard to the three. “Untie them.” He says. As the guards wandered over and pulled out the sharp metal of a sword and started to cut away at the ropes—some crawling the rope like a latter to to cut away, Y/n could not think—test? What test? 

And clearly Mugman thought the exact same thing as well as he nervously looked down at Puck. “Uh-uhaha—test? What test?” He asks leaning down slightly towards Puck once the ropes around him had been cut away and loosened, Y/n felt the blood slowly rush back to her arms that she hadn’t noticed was cutting circulation away.  But the restraints around their wrist were still there. 

Puck only winked silently at Mugman—quite..obviously actually but the guards didn’t seem to catch wind of that. 

“Follow me!” Puck shouts before turning the opposite direction and walking off. Y/n immediately stood up—Cuphead and Mugman following after her—it only took her a couple of strides to make it over to Puck. “And—what exactly are we here for? Where are we going?” She asks him—she felt awkward just..speaking to a rat..but that didn’t matter at the time—clearly her life was at stake and she really didn't want to go out by dying in a sewer line. 

“I'll tell you when we get to my base.” He tells the three, his small feet patting the ground as he quickly scurried on all fours towards a hallway to wherever he was taking them. The three following close behind. 

Mugman curiously looked around the town—some civilians only looked away in fear and continued on with their day—the place was so dull and gloomy—then again—it was a small town filled with rats, Y/n didn’t know what to expect. 

“I say we just book it.” Cuphead says and Mugman slowly looks away from the small town and to Cuphead. “I dunno Cuphead..something fishy is going on around here.” Mugman seemed to sense something was off and Y/n glanced at him and raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?” She asks. 

“I mean this town just looks so—so—“ 

“Stupid.” Cuphead blatantly cuts in and Mugman quickly shakes  his head. “No! They look so miserable.” Mugman’s bottom lip quivered almost as if he were going to cry about the small town. 

“Well..yeah I noticed that too.” Y/n admits. She did see how off the civilians acted when Argus came around—it was clear Argus ran pretty much everything and maybe perhaps abused her power.. 

“That’s because you’re right.” The three looked down at Puck who was standing in a doorway—which was a bit too small that she was sure they would have to crouch slightly to get in. 

“Come in, hurry.” Puck says before scurrying into the room. The three look at each other before Y/n walks over to the small corridor—rags as curtains enter her vision as she ducked down slightly and entered the room. 

Which was tad but difficult considering her wrist were still bonded together. But once entering the room she slowly opened her mouth in awe. 

A blue lamp filled the room in a warm nice blue glow—there were small sized trinkets and lab beakers and other lab instruments. A desk filled with papers and other stuff—the room was small but it was enough to fit the three even if the ceiling brushed the top of their heads making them bend down slightly. There was a computer screen on the wall in front of them that was turned off and a small bed off in the corner of the room. Puck excitedly scurried over to the table and moved papers out of the way. 

“Whoa..” Cuphead says in awe—his binded hands lifting up to gently tap the plastic star near his head that was taped to the ceiling as decoration. 

“You’re a scientist?” Mugman asks and Puck looks up at the three and smiles. “Yeah! First in command.” He said proudly and Y/n had to admit it was adorable to see him beam up at them, Puck goes back to searching through the sea of papers before finding a razor blade, he walks over to the three and lifts it up. “Here—let me give you guys a hand.” He says. Mugman reached his arms down to Puck’s height, and Puck cut away at the rope and freed his hands. Mugman rubbed his wrist and smiled at Puck. 

“Thank you.” Mugman says and Puck hums happily In response before moving over to Cuphead and cutting his rope away—as he did so Y/n’s eyes landed on a piece of paper—it was a photo of the book in a display case—more than likely before it was snagged. 

“You know about the book?” Y/n looks down at Puck and watches as he cuts the rope away, once the rope slips from Y/n’s wrist and onto the ground Puck nods quickly. 

“Yes!” He says. Y/n gently rubbed at her wrist and immediately knew she needed answers.

“What? Really?” She frantically asks. 

“My great grandfather was your ancestors' researcher and all eyes.” Puck hops from one foot to the other with excitement and Cuphead tilts his head. 

“All Eyes?” He repeats and Puck nods. 

“Yeah, basically just keeping an eye out for stuff. Not much of a serious job, but it’s still something.” Puck seemed overjoyed about that but hey, Y/n didn’t want to raid on his excitement, she was more so focused on the thousand of questions that she was about to ask Puck. 

“Wait. So, you know about the book, which clearly means you know about us—how did you know we have it?” She asks. 

“Oh that’s easy, I saw how you all were running around yesterday, this town doesn't get too much action so seeing you run around crazy after the book was a major factor.” Well..she would give him that. She did run past many people yesterday trying to secure the book so there was no doubt some people saw her doing that—which did bring up the fact that they had to be extra careful next time—if Puck saw that—lord knows how many other people saw her with the book that was literally trending on the news. 

“Wait a second. Then if you’re apparently the good guy, how come those other rats want the book?” Mugman asks suspiciously, placing his hands on his hips and Puck sighs softly. “That’s the hard part. Argus wants to use the book and use it as some totem to bring back the queen for our town.”

“I don’t know much about the book, but I’m pretty sure resurrection isn’t a thing in it.”  Y/n deadpans. 

“It isn’t. She made it up to make herself look good in the eyes of the town, to put her as the new leader, she wants to use it for its power.” Now that speaks a lot. The three went silent as they stared down at Puck. Puck walks over to the cluttered table and picks up a photo, he walks back over to the three and turns it to them. 

The photo seemed old—the colors in black and white, a man with a pencil mustache—wearing a light button up and suspenders with slicked dark hair. He wore a paperboy hat and he seemed to be in his mid 30s. He had his elbow on a table and was leaning on it. A stack of books was stacked up to reach his shoulders and there stood a rat with a bushy mustache, wearing a lab coat as well. 

“This is your great grandfather.” Puck hands Y/n the photo and she gently took it in her hands. Staring down at the photo in awe. She had..never seen this man before…never..

Her thumb gently brushed over the photo and she felt Cuphead and Mugman hover over her shoulders as they both also looked down at the photo. She turned the photo around to see a small note. 

Hector my friend, as you venture off to contain the demons of the world and its mystery, I want you to take this photo—of the last time we will see each other. 

You are a great friend, and an amazing hero.

The note was vague—but Y/n could only assume the man's name was Hector. She turned the photo back around and felt like she was looking dead into the past. 

“Geez, he sorta looks like Cab Calloway.” Cuphead mentions. 

“His name was Hector Vendolez L/n.” Puck says. 

“Do you know him?” Mugman asks Y/n and she slowly shakes her head. “I have never seen this man before, nor heard of him.” She answers as she hands the photo back to him but Puck shakes his head. 

“You keep it. That is a part of you.”

Y/n looks back down at the photo, she just couldn’t seem to stop looking at the man. This was her grandfather—her great grandfather. A man who was in the same exact situation she’s in. An adventurer…he was an adventurer! 

“That book you all have—from my fathers past research, that book holds a great power, and only the hero’s can access it.” Puck starts as he walks back over to the stack of papers and looks through them once more. Y/n stared at the photo before looking at Puck. 

“So, your grandfather got some notes about the book, through my grandfather?” Y/n asks and Puck fixes his glasses and nods. “Yes!”

“That book originated on an island called Ruby Falls.” Puck turned to the three with a map—which was the only human sized object in the room, he pulled it from the table with a tug and it landed on the floor, pushing it slightly the map slowly uncurled—a coffee colored map was present showing the countries and what not—it seemed pretty much like a regular map a school teacher would have in their room. 

“I’m glad you all came, because I have everything you need.” Puck claps his hands excitedly. The map had a circle marked on it from what was a marker Y/n assumed with an arrow pointing at..nothing but the ocean..

‘Ruby Falls’ 

“Ruby Falls?” Mugman says and Puck nods, who had managed to scamper back over to the table to fiddle with a few things and a—he somehow managed to pull a decent sized box out besides the table. 

“Yes! Ruby Falls is an island—and on that island is this—area—a cave maybe? Who knows—from my grandfather's notes and journal it said that it’s an island down on the Atlantic Ocean—No population, that island will unlock the book and all of its—I guess you can say power—I dunno, his notes were hard to interpret. He made it seem like it was some second world thing—I wouldn’t ever know though so it’s really up to you guys.” Puck spoke quickly but Y/n made sure to hear every word he said. 

“Well it looks like we’re lookin’ at the ocean to me.” Cuphead points out. There was no island on the map, the circle was just in the middle of the ocean—that said nothing. 

“That’s because it won’t be on any maps. I can’t exactly tell you how they found it, it wasn’t mentioned in my grandfather's notes. But one thing is if they were able to find it, hey, you all can too!” Puck’s tail wagged and Y/n reached down slightly and picked up the map. Her eyes looking over the pictures of the countries, the rough paper rubbed against the palm of her fingers, clearly that paper was old, lord knows how old. 

“But, there’s this stone—called Ruby’s Heart. And..that’s pretty much when everything ended for them..” Puck lifts up another photo—yet again in lack and white, a small circular stone with an emblem on the front—which actually sorta made the stone look like a button, it was laying on a table when it was taken. 

“You need this in order to access wherever the book takes you when you get there. It acts as a key to a door—from what I read. With that key, there'll be an altar inside. But the thing is..” he slightly lowered the photo and sighed. 

“The key was taken years ago—when Hector and his team died, the key was broken into pieces and taken to different parts where I can’t say, because I don’t even know. But he had a speculation that with you all—you can still find it and put it together.”  Puck had smiled nervously as if the information would have made them upset—which it slightly did—but at this point Y/n was getting used to disappointment. 

“So Hector was the only human in his group like me?” Y/n asks and Puck’s smile comes back and he nods. “Yep!” He answered. 

“And boy will I tell ya, they were such a fierce group. My grandfather made it seem like they were the best in the world.” Puck sighs softly before his ears flattened and tail slowly lowered to the ground. 

“But..it’s uh..unfortunate that they didn’t get to see the hero’s they got now.” 

Mugman’s eye twitched at this slightly as he held a strained smile. “So..they…they died? Like..they were killed? That type of dead?” He edged—it was evident that didn’t put him at ease, if their ancestors couldn’t even make it—what makes them think they can do it?!

“Oh please Mugsy, we’ll be fine, they left this adventure in the right hands.” Cuphead boasted and placed his hands on his hips. Y/n’s head felt like it was spinning, there was so much to do! 

“So..we find Ruby Falls—and we’ll get some sort of answer as to what’s going on?” Y/n asks but Puck nods and then slightly points his finger at her. 

“Yes, but you all would have to do what first?” He asks as if testing her. “Find the pieces to Ruby’s Heart in order to access the island.” She answered and Puck nods. 

“Yes, and despite all the work you guys will have to do, there’s one thing that’ll help you all.” Puck walks over to the box and gently pulls at the front of it. 

“Hector was originally an engineer, he built all sorts of things! And he made this for you, human!” Pulling the box open and the front falling onto the floor with a soft thud—Puck didn’t get to speak before something quickly dashed out of the box, the sound of metal clinking together, Cuphead, Y/n and Mugman backs away quickly sharing a yelp as the thing finally stopped moving, and..it was a puppy! 

The puppy turned around and looked directly at Y/n. He was clearly made of colored white metal, with dark spots, and a dark spot on its left eye. It’s tail wagged excitedly before pouncing on Y/n’s leg. 

“Arf!” Y/n gasps and quickly shoves the map into Cuphead’s chest for him to hold. “Oof!” Cuphead fell to the ground at the unwanted shove and Y/n quickly bent down to let the pup.

“Aww you’re so cute!” She shouts. She felt the pup place it’s paws on her shoulders and lick at her face—-she was utterly surprised to feel a wet tongue lick at her face, the tail wagging in pure excitement, it’s head rubbed under Y/n’s chin and Y/n’s hand gently rubbed against a cold metal, she looked down to see a name tag on its collar, gently taking the name tag to get a better look, she saw the name embedded in the metal. 

‘Spunk’

“Spunk.” Y/n read and turned to tag around and immediately furrowed her eyebrows. “Therapy dog?” She grimaced before looking at Puck for an answer and he tilted his head slightly. “I..don’t know why that’s there.” He says quickly. 

Spunk lets out another robotic bark to catch Y/n’s attention, which it did, when she looked back down she saw him in his back for a rub, which she rubbed the pups belly and he gently stuck his tongue out and closed his eyes in joy. 

“How come I don’t get a dog?!” Cuphead quickly glares at Puck, Mugman only looks away from Spunk and his eyes look at the ceiling as if saying. ‘Dear god why’ before looking back at Puck. 

“Ignore him.” He says. 

“Hector is an odd guy, I dunno why he made it. But it said in the notes he wanted to give his future grandchild something to help them with their journey and ease them from being overwhelmed.” Puck answered and that was really all he had information on regarding the gift. 

Y/n huffs as she finally stopped rubbing the pup and shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t get..overwhelmed..” she muttered under her breath. 

“Sure ya’ don’t doll.” Cuphead says and she looks at him to see him looking down at her with a hand on his hip with a sly smile. Y/n only rolled her eyes and stood back up while Spunk quickly stood up and sat close to her foot, proud and tall as if he were guarding her. 

“Personally I would think making an adult sized dog would have been better.” Puck points out the size of Spunk—he was just so small—either Hector only thought about Y/n being a kid at the time or just genuinely felt like a puppy would have been better—who knows, only he knew the true reason why. 

“But there is one thing that I feel might actually be useful for you all…one of the pieces of Ruby’s Heart, is here. And Argus has it. She uses it as some sort of deity to the town—saying it would tell them to bring the ‘Surfers’ to us so we can sacrifice them to make her queen.” He spoke about Argus in disdain and disgust, his ears flattening as he grimaced. The three fell in silence as they looked at eachother…sacrificed? 

“Uh..sacrifice?” Y/n asks and Puck nods. “Yeah..doesn't sound too good.”

“You kiddin?! That’s horrible!” Mugman cried out in fear. 

“But don’t worry! I’m going to get you guys out with that stone piece and you guys can be on your way.” Puck rushes over to the table and looks through his notes for the 100th time it seemed. 

“Great, so we can’t leave this stupid place without that piece.” Cuphead deadpans before turning his head to look at Y/n. “Yeah..” she replied before looking at Puck.

“I take it you’re the one that sent them out to get us?” It would make sense, he saw they had the book—knew who they were—hereditary wise—and knew that the only thing that would help them advance later on was located in the town he resided in—but really, Y/n didn’t feel betrayed nor upset for the matter. In fact, quite grateful, without any of that happening, who knows how long it would have taken for them to find out they needed a key to get to some mysterious island. 

Puck nods bashfully and rubbed the back of his neck slowly. “Yeah..sorry about that..had to use my label for granted for this one.” He apologized. 

Cuphead had folded up the map and placed it in his pocket and Y/n still had a grip on the photo which she then placed into her pocket as well. 

“Alright, well where is it? We can just kick our way through, snatch the piece and bust outta here.” Cuphead announced before nudging Y/n slightly as if she would agree with his plan—which not gonna lie, she actually was thinking about doing it. 

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Those arrows are laced with heavy chemicals that can shut the brain down in a matter of minutes, we don’t use them in ourselves—which is why they can take out someone as big as you guys so quickly.” Puck informed and Cuphead deflated, his straw went limp slightly. 

“Good to know…” he muttered through his teeth. 

“Why do they have the stone piece if Hector was close with your kind?” Mugman brings up. That would seem kinda backstabbing someone—in a sense.

“Oh he was very close to us, but the thing is, our last queen died..or..Argus killed her. For some reason she thinks we’re close—I..don’t know where that came from— but she told me her plan was to take out our old ruler and have her become the new ruler—where we’re from, you have to sacrifice something of great power to become the leader.” Puck’s ears slowly flattened and he deflated slightly in sadness.

“I shoulda told someone about her plans but I just stayed back and let it all happen..”

“Oh don’t worry!” Mugman frowned before getting on his knees and patting Puck’s back with his index finger, in the best attempt to comfort him, Spunk had spotted Mugman squat on the floor and the pup laid on his tummy—squatting as well as if they were sneaking and Mugman being the one to initiate it. 

“So sacrificing someone gets you a big role around here?” Cuphead raises an eyebrow.

“It doesn't have to be a person, it has to be something big—not size matter—but something that the civilians and feel in their heart—something passionate—our last ruler burned flowers as essence, to show love—but—with her passing, the story on how she died was..well..” Puck looks up at the three once Mugman stood back up. 

“The ‘sufers’— you guy—Had killed her, and Argus promised to bring the surfers down here to restore justice—and if she kills the thing that killed our ruler—“

“The civilians would look at her as a hero and deem her the new ruler to keep them safe.” Y/n finished and Puck nods. 

“But that doesn't explain why she wants to book. Sure she can try ta’ kill us, but she knows about the book and has one of the pieces to that key.” Cuphead didn’t finish his sentence but only raised an eyebrow and looked at Puck. 

“She wants to get power from it. I’m a way that even if it's—technically broken. The piece can still react to the book..the confusing part is while no one can access the book that’s not a part of it, anyone can still land their hand on that piece and—sorta in a way gain power from it.” Puck fixes his glasses slightly and Mugman things for a moment. 

“That’s probably why it was broken.” Mugman comments. It would only make sense, a stone that could give you some sort of power or strength with anyone—entirely different from the book—but the catch was; 

“You can only use it when the book is either near opened.” Y/n says quietly but they heard her. It had to be that—why else would Argus need the book—unless she wanted for the same reason the others were after it for.  Well—Y/n didn’t know why they were after it—but still. 

“Jeez Puck, thank you for this information—I never knew any of this stuff. Is there anything else we need to know?” She asks, Puck could only think for a moment before shaking his head. “That’s all he wrote—other than a few dated pages in his journal about Hector—not anything informative to help you all though.”

“So. What’s the plan to get that key and get outta here?” Cuphead asks and Puck’s tail wags. 

“Well…they’ll tie you up again that’s for sure..Argus will bring out the piece—I don't know where she’ll have it. Best chance is to escape and take it.” He replied and Mugman slowly squinted his eyes and his shoulders raised slightly. 

“And..how are we going to..do all that?” 

Puck slowly deflated. “I’m only good at researching..not planning..I thought that was a ‘you guys’ thing!” He quickly said and Cuphead jolted his head. “Us?! That’s a her thing!” He points at Y/n who furrowed her eyebrows.

“What makes you guys think I can make a plan to take a stone from a rat while being sacrificed and not die??” She could barely even think straight when people were chasing her! There’s no way she can make a full fledged escape plan! 

Cuphead lifts a hand. “I’ll make one.” He smiled. 

“We first grab a chains—“

“Cuphead, shut up.” Y/n rolled her eyes. 

“It’s a good plan!”

“There you guys are..” 

Cuphead, Mugman, Y/n and Puck looked over in the corridor to see Argus and Jura. Mugman started to sweat as he flashed a nervously smile.

“Puck, great. You got them ready for the offer?” Argus walked in, her hands clasped together, the dark cape moving ever so slightly—following her moment. Puck quickly fixed his glasses and nodded quickly. “Yes.” 

“Wonderful.” Argus says ever so softly before turning to the three with her hands behind her back—when Y/n moved her gaze down to her, she noticed Spunk was missing, but her focus was mainly now on Argus. 

“3 surfers should be more than enough, hm Jura?” Argus asks as her eyes wandered over the three, Cuphead only rolled his eyes at her statement. 

“Yeah.” Jura muttered—clearly not caring about the conversation at hand. 

“What’s up with surfers? What’s that supposed to mean?” Y/n had asked and Argus only looked her up and down and huffs. “It talks..” she sneered. 

“I mean, you’re not so bright looking yourself.” Y/n shot back and Cuphead snorted before letting out an obnoxious laugh and nudging Y/n. 

“Good one!” He laughs and Y/n lets out a snicker. Mugman gently rocked back and forth on the balls of his heels silently not saying anything in fear Argus might do something. 

“Restrain them. And get them up to the dock—and gather the people. We start early..” Argus grins…well…that was..bad. 

-

“If only you two…” Mugman muttered—the sound the creaking rope echoed, hanging upside down wrapped together with the nylon rope. How the contents in Mugman and Cuphead’s head didn’t spill and fall into the 60 foot abyss and into the large mass of murky green water below..was beyond Y/n. 

“KEPT YOUR MOUTHS SHUT!” Mugman shouts, his voice echoing and bouncing off of the moldy, slimy walls of the sewers. 

Y/n’s heart was beating quickly and she felt the blood rush to her head, now she was scared, she was afraid—80 feet away from them was a 12 foot deep body of water with lord knows what was in it. Holding them up was the thick nylon rope holding onto a cranked crane that could lower them into the water. Y/n’s mind was worried about multiple things at once. Would that rusty metal crane break and they’ll plummet to their death, or would the rope snap instead from the three bodies that were weighing it down. 

Or would they fall into the water and immediately die on impact—or whatever in the water gets them?! 

Or would they just hang until the blood rushes to their head?! She’s never been in a situation like this before! 

“Hey! Y/n—doll—calm down—breathe!” Y/n’s clogged ears heard the voice of Cuphead and her vision finally came back to her, she felt Cuphead’s head gently nudge her own. Her heart was beating so fast it felt like it would rip itself from her chest and flee. She hardly noticed she was breathing so fast.

“It’s okay, we’ll be fine guys.” Cuphead told the two—Mugman was clearly pissed..

“Cuphead, we’re dangling feet away from water that I’m positive has radiation, nothing is okay!” Mugman shook his legs angrily. 

“We’re going to die.” Y/n sighs and closes her eyes. Damn it—right when she found out who Hector was and everything that Puck told them..even a little robot puppy too! 

The loud laughs echoes—chattering and murmurs echoed in the area, looking over, they could see the town of rats slowly walking up the spiral stairs they circled around the body of water. 

Argus’s laughs echoed as she wandered over to the ledge that had the rod that was holding onto the rope that held onto Cuphead, Mugman and Y/n. Jura and Poe and a few other guards stood behind her. 

The three had moved their gaze over to see Argus—which the led was above their left—and immediately Y/n’s eyes landed on the white cracked stone—that looked like a porcelain plate being held up by a string wrapped around Argus’s neck, acting as a necklace of some sort. That was the key.

“She has the key.” Y/n muttered to Cuphead and Mugman, the two moving their gazes back to Argus. 

“Nuts. How are we supposed to get it now?” Cuphead cursed.

“My people—what I bring to you—are the creatures from above! That has rightfully so taken our queen away from us!” Argus’s voiced shouts, her voice echoing and bouncing from the walls for everyone to hear. The people cheered at the announcement she made—acting as if a rightful judgment of justice was taking place. 

“With this sacrifice, I bring to you a new generation of wealth and prosperity, I shall be your new leader!” Argus raised her hands in the sky as the cheering from the town grew louder. 

“Behead them!”

“They deserve death from all they’ve done!” 

“Never trust surfers!” 

The voices of different cries reached the ears of the three and Mugman made an uneasy sound. “Oh god..I’m gonna be sick..” he shuddered. 

“Deep below..for our sacrifice..we shall feed them to the great green beast!” 

Immediately when she said that everyone cheered even louder. Big green beast? Hold on what?! 

“WAIT!” Y/n shrieks—which the town simmered down their noises and some gasps at the sudden outburst. She felt Cuphead move his head to look at her. 

“Are you guys blind or something?! There is no such thing as a surfer! We didn’t do anything, we’re regular, ordinary people like you all!” 

Meanwhile a few meters away—a group of toons pushed a set of wooden doors open, Alice gazed around the empty town and her eyebrows furrowed. “Wow.” He said. Felix's ears immediately perked up at the sight. “Rat People.” He says. 

Bendy held the book as he looked around the area as well and raised an eyebrow. “Rat People?” He repeats and Felix nods as he slowly walks into town—the streets were empty and very vacant almost like a ghost town. 

“The actual name is Atika—transferred from the long lost language of Alu. Not important though.” Felix then turns around to look at everyone. “The important thing is, they’re a very smart tribe of Rats.” 

“So they won’t be a problem then, right?” Oswald asks. Charley chuckled before kicking over a basket of apples which caused Edgar to punch his back and immediately stop him from destroying things any further. 

“Well—I hadn’t ran into them and had a problem before, but, every part of the world is different, you gotta always keep that in mind, one moment you’ll run into a tribe of talking rats who would let you stay for a few days and give you food—and the next you’ll be scuffling into a fight to get away.” It seemed Felix had met with that last statement a lot more than he was willing to admit. 

Panchito frowned and his tail feather gently lowered to the ground. “Aw..but where is Y/n?” He asks, the trail led them there and vanished the minute they opened the door—when they all saw the door they assumed that she would be behind there but behold there was an abandoned town—but no Y/n. 

Alice sighed and rubbed her forehead. “This is my fault, I should have kept a close eye on her.” She says softly—her halo dimmed ever so lightly, she felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked over to see Charley giving her a comforting pat in the back—she smiled softly at him and he then chuckled. 

“Yeah you’re right it’s your fault.” He quickly says, cutting the sappy interaction off quickly. Alice deflated and rolled her eyes before shoving him away from her with one hand. 

“Guys, focus.” Donald scolded the two and Boris looked over when he spotted Felix unzipping Y/n’s bookbag and taking out her jacket, he then held the jacket up to Boris’s nose. 

“If it led us here—that means she has to be around here somewhere.” He tells everyone. Boris took in the scent of Y/n’s jacket before sniffing the humid air—after taking a few more sniffs his nose finally started to lead him to the area Y/n was—a trail of her and..

“Someone else was with her.” Boris informed as he walked the opposite direction towards a dark hallway.

“Who?” Donald asks and Boris slowly shrugs as he was more focused on tracking down where Y/n was—it seemed she was walking in one straight line. 

“Can you smell over there?” Felix stops Boris from walking and points over to the other side of the hallway—completely off track where he was smelling, Boris only looked at Felix before walking over to the area and sniffing around—but there was no identical smell to Y/n. 

“No.” He tells him and Felix points over to another area which Boris repeats and does the same thing and shakes his head. 

“What are ya doin?” Barley asks—watching Felix point in different directions for Boris to sniff. Barley started to get the idea that the cat was playing a joke on Boris. 

Felix looks at Barley and then to everyone else. “If Y/n wasn’t in any other parts in the town or this hallway—and only in one continuous direction, that means someone does have her.” He says and Alice gasps softly. 

“Well—is she alive?!” She quickly asks—she was much more worried now that Felix mentioned the poor girl was basically kidnapped. 

“I sure would hope so because I can’t even begin to imagine what to tell M/n—in fact I might not even go back home knowing her, she’ll kill me.” Bendy shivered at the thought of that. M/n never was bothered with much—but she sure as hell cared about her family and if that woman even remotely finds out about Y/n going missing? Oh boy..

“Come on! I can still smell her!” Boris said impatiently as he continued on down the hall.

“Whatever happens, just keep an eye out, and keep a good hold on that book, we don’t know who we’ll run into.” Felix says and everyone agrees as they follow Boris down the hall. 

Back where Y/n, Cuphead and Mugman were, when Y/n finished her first statement, then town had gone silent and Y/n breathed slowly.

“Your leader Argus killed her!” She confessed. A few gasps and murmurs filled her ears—yeah..they heard that alright. Argus looks down at Y/n and her eyebrows furrowed together. 

Argus lifts up her head to look at her people. “She’s telling lies, fibs!”

“She’s using you all!”

“You can’t listen to a creature with flesh!”

“She doesn't care about you! All she wants is power!”

“Pay attention to me!” Argus lifts her hands up in order. 

“What a woman…” Y/n heard Cuphead purr and she looks over to him to see him looking at her with a boyish smile and glazed eyes. Y/n rolled her eyes softly at his statement—but the three yells once feeling them drop for a split second, her stomach dropped as if she were on a roller coaster and the fear set in, Y/n looked back up to see Argus holding the crank.

“I am your salvation!” Argus tells everyone—but instead they didn’t cheer as they only either watched the three or was busy overthinking Y/n’s words. 

“You’ll kill us for no reason.” Y/n tells Argus—she tried to find a way to reason with her—she really did—but only so much could go through Argus’s brain, and she looked to have had her mind already made up. 

Argus only stooped down low to the three. “I have a reason..” she bellowed to Y/n specifically, Y/n stared at Argus—but not with a glint of hate—but one with confusion..what? Y/n felt her eyebrows slowly furrow together. 

“What…?” She whispered. 

“Don’t listen to her, she’s only trying to get in your head.” Mugman tells Y/n. 

Argus stands back up—this time with a newfound passion of anger and resentment.

“Because when you’re gone—that book will belong to me, your bloodline will be no more!” Argus shouts at Y/n, removing a sharp knife from behind her and holding it to the nylon rope that felt like a strand of hair ready to be snapped. 

“You were just like your stupid grandfather, curious and hopeful. Well that ends here.” 

Everything went silent for Y/n as Argus’s words met her ears. 

“L/n.” 

She cuts the rope and Y/n felt like everything went slow, she closed her eyes and clenched it closed, the rope that was wrapped around the three slowly fell off as they fell—inching closer and and closer to the murky water, Argus’s laugh echoed in Y/n’s ears the sound of cheering from the people and the shouts of herself and the cup brothers. 

To be honest Y/n didn’t think she would die this way. Not by rats..well..then again who would think they would die by rats not unless you lived near a plague—but that was quickly erased when she felt her felt give out a rough pull, she gasps and opened her eyes—a few feet away from the water and she saw Cuphead and Mugman hanging upside down as well. Looking up all the way at the top of the staircase near an open door was Edgar! 

“Eddie!” Y/n shouts as she extended her arms towards the spider who squeaked happiness and hops up and down—he held onto the spiderweb—with surprisingly good strength, she felt giddy and smiled up at him. Oh man was she glad to see him! 

“Good—god! I thought I was a goner.” Cuphead gasps for air and Mugman lets  out a sigh. Of relief his hands dropped to his side in exhaustion. 

Edgar squeaks once more as if telling them if was going to pull them up. Which he did and they started to slowly yet safely be tugged up. 

“Wasn’t there suppo—“

“Don’t!” Mugman shouts at Cuphead—quickly cutting him off from his question and Cuphead sucked his lips in as he glanced back at the water. 

“Oh—the green monster?” Y/n asks and she felt Mugman glare daggers at the side of her head. She looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “Wha-“

Just as she said that. The sound of water bubbling emitted from below, she and the cup bros glanced down to see the water bubbling as if it were boiling. Y/n clenched her teeth and furrowed her eyebrows, and suddenly a large green alligator jumped from the water, the three screamed in fear and held onto each other. Mugman and Cuphead hugged tightly onto Y/n, squishing her between them, the alligator hopped up so high they could peer deep into his maw, the heat of its breath radiating onto them before snapping closed—almost catching by a hair strand before falling back into the water. 

One last tug and the three quickly latched themselves onto the ledge and crawled up—finally onto land, and Y/n smiled at Edgar and immediately wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight hugging—considering how short he was she had to hug him on her knees—mostly because she finished crawling back up.

“I’m so glad to see you!” She shouts. Her eyes looked up to see the others were there as well. Dropping the web from their hands as they were the ones to also help Edgar drag the three to the top, which explained how Y/n thought the small spider could manage to handle all that weight. 

“Guys!” She stood up and immediately was pulled into a hug by Panchito. Hugged her tightly and shook her body. “Oh there you are! my friend, you had us worried! ¿Dónde has estado? ¿estás herido? alguna lesión?” Panchito frantically questions and checked her face for any scars or bruises as well as her arms. Y/n smiled and Alice walked over and placed a hand on her head. 

“Are you okay?” She asks. 

“She looks fine to me, takes a lot to knock down a L/n. Ask M/n. That woman never stops.” Charley pipes up. Y/n laughs softly and nods. “I’m good.” She said, and Bendy finally caught her eye—and he was too busy eyeing Cuphead and Mugman. Who was looking at him. 

Cuphead smiled before walking over to Bendy, holding his hand out for a shake. “You must be Bendy? My name is Cuphead.” Cuphead smiled at Bendy and Bendy had a disgusted look in his eyes before he let out a small chuckle and smiled slowly giving his hand to Cuphead. 

“Pleasure to meet you.” He said before his hand quickly grips onto Cuphead—a loud crack emits from Cuphead’s hand and Cuphead shouts in pain and buckles his knees, Y/n quickly pushes Bendy’s hand away. “Stop!” She scolds him. 

“Cuphead isn’t bad, he and Mugman didn’t do anything.” She quickly tells Bendy who looks at Y/n for a moment. “So you were with them the entire time?” He asks. 

“Yes. Don’t hurt them.” She looked at everyone and wanted to make sure that the cupbros were okay and didn’t need to be manhandled. 

Cuphead swats his hand and hisses in pain. 

“Felix!” Mugman noticed Felix and smiled and Felix smiled at Mugman. “Good to see you boys are okay.” Felix tells the brother and Mugman quickly nods. 

“So—what’s with the rat sacrifice?” Oswald abruptly says and Donald nods. “Yeah..” Donald said slowly in utter confusion.

“It’s crazy, I..” Y/n slowly stopped talking as she glanced back at Bendy who was already looking at her. Jeez..she didn’t really wanna go over the fact she snuck out of the church last night. “I can explain the story when we get out of here.” She muttered. 

“But the important part is—this rat named Argus wants to kill us for a sacrifice to her people to make her the official queen but the thing is, she killed the original queen—to make her the new leader which can turn her into the queen if she finds a sacrifice which was is-and we met this guy named Puck who told us about the book—because his grandfather used to work as a researcher for the last book holders and this guy named Hector—who is my great grandfather—had the book at the time—and basically there’s this island called Ruby’s Island that we have to go to because it can unlock the secrets to the book to help us stop what’s going on—BUT we have to find this key called Ruby’s Heart and it unlocks some sort of temple in the island, so we need that key but the thing is the key broke years go—and it broke into pieces and we have to find those broken pieces first and put them together in order to find the island and Argus has one of the pieces that we need to get to the island but the thing is she wants to book because I can only assume the book reacts to the key piece—whatever it is. It’s not good.” Y/n takes a deep breath after explaining it all in one full sentence and the faces they all made were hilarious. 

Oswald, Donald, Panchito and Bendy had their mouths opened slightly in shock as Alice, Charley, Barley and Edgar stared at Y/n and basked in all the information that she managed to spit out in one go and Boris smiled goofily. 

“Ruby Falls, I heard of that, never been there myself.“ Felix says. Cuphead sighs dreamily as he looks at Y/n his hands behind his back as he rocked back and forth on his feet. 

“Man..ain’t she somethin..” he purred and Mugman nudged Cuphead and coughed in an attempt to stop him from his awkward staring. 

“Well—I mean it’s a good thing you guys didn’t bring the book.” Mugman says and Bendy raises an eyebrow. “No, I have it right h-“ he looked down at his and went silent—Y/n looked down at Bendy’s hands as well to see nothing. Bendy’s tail dropped to the ground and he huffs heavily. “You gotta be kidding me!” He shouts. 

Hearing the familiar laugh, Y/n and everyone else looked over to see Argus, holding the book above her head, Y/n was still astonished with how strong these rats were but that wasn’t even something to be thinking about right now. 

“With this power! I can finally be powerful!” She lets out a laugh loud and powerful. 

“Aw..she’s so small.” Panchito cooed with a soft laugh and Oswald let out a strained laugh through his teeth. “Not the time Panchito..” he wheezed. 

“Good luck trying to get in it. You can’t open it.” Donald tells her with a simple shrug—at the point he knew if anyone got their hands on that book, it would be for a short time because they simply couldn’t get in it—but instead of meeting an embarrassed and angry expression, he was met with one of smugness and courage. 

Bendy chuckled. “And what are you gonna do little guy?”  He teased. 

“I don’t need to open the book..” she says before tossing the book in the air, a bright light zapped from the front of the closed book and down onto Argus’s chest, hitting the stone that was on her neck, the bright yellow light growing fierce as everyone immediately stared in awe and astonishingly surprised expressions. 

The wind circled around them—Y/n’s hair moving as she felt the ground beneath her shake.

Before her Argus lets out an echoing deep laugh, the sound of the ground cracking and debri falling echoes. And the sound of cracking of bones or muscles as Argus started to grow before her. The rat surpasses everyone’s height—standing at least 10 feet tall now. 

The book falls limply onto the ground—near the edge of the ledge near the water. “Who’s the little guy now?!” Argus shouts down at everyone with a laugh. 

Y/n sighs before looking straight forward…great. 

Argus looks down at Y/n before swinging her tail—knocking her off of her feet and off of the ledge, Y/n quickly grabs Argus’s tail and lets out a shout—glancing down at the water below. 

“Don’t! Don’t do it!” Alice shouts Argus, the rat only looks at Alice and smiles before moving her tail up and back down—Y/n’s arms slipped from the tail and she felt herself falling a few of her friends calling after her as Argus let out a loud menacing laugh. 

“I’ll get her!” Bendy shouts before he without a second thought hops in after Y/n—not waiting to hear what the others had to say or what would happen next. 

-

Y/n fell into the water—making sure to inhale a deep ball of air in her lungs—the water taking her in as she. The water slaps her body harshly and she quickly opens her eyes—the water is murky and barely transparent. She kicked her feet to swim back to the surface—but caught glimpse of a moving creature—quickly looking over she was met with a maw snapping in front of her—she quickly smiled plunged deeper into the water—she could only move so fast with swimming in the water,  her body gently barrel rolled as she looked between her legs to see the alligator quickly lunging for her yet again, when it got close she quickly with all her power kicked the alligator in the head—her shoe collided with the hard scaly skin—which sent her back when she kicked it. 

The alligator clearly felt the kick and growled—shaking its head before quickly snapping at Y/n—but she moved back yet again—this time her back bet something and a hang grabbed the back of her shirt and dragged her down. Y/n would have gasped if she wasn’t holding onto the last bit of air she had. She looked over to see Bendy was the one that latched onto her to move her away from the gator. 

He spotted a small tunnel and looked at her, before releasing her. He points down at it and points down to his wrist as if telling the time. ‘Give me time.’ 

He must have wanted her to hold her breath for just a tad bit longer. She nods before Bendy grabbed her wrist and swam towards the tunnel—as he did so Y/n felt a movement of water hit her her feet—looking back she spotted the gator yet again snapping at her, she hugged Bendy’s arm and he looks back as well before quickly looking at Y/n and furrowing his eyebrows—he must have not noticed it was behind them. 

But before the gator could get any closer, the two entered the tunnel and quickly swam through, Y/n felt her chest tightened and her neck become hot and in need of air—she needed to breath—unlike Y/n who was a human, she couldn’t hold her breath for too long compared to toons. 

But once they exited the dark tunnel they entered another small sewer room—a light from above them and they quickly swam up—that must have been the surface—Y/n felt like jumping out of the water when she finally was able to break free and get air flowing into her lungs. Inhaling loudly she coughed as the water left her nose and ears—eyes closed as she grasped onto the ledge of concrete, she coughed and hacked up water as she pulled herself onto the ground weakly, Bendy following after her as he coughed up water as well. The two were drenched in water, Y/n felt the water exit her mouth—her nose burned and the cool air started to attack her, Bendy crawled into the ground—but he had still been coughing. 

Y/n looked over quickly when she noticed his coughs sounded more like he was choking, the water spilt from his mouth and a long string of black saliva from what it seemed dripped from his mouth, but it seemed to be ink of some sort. 

“Bendy—“ Y/n shivered before she placed a hand on his back. Bendy sits up and wipes his mouth. “I’m fine.” He grumbled. He..didn’t sound happy at all. Y/n removed her hand from his back before looking around, there wasn’t a way out—not a door nor a ladder—it was just an area where the water would transfer. She shivered softly and held her arms and slowly sat down. She heard a few muffled coughs from Bendy which his throat should have been cleared from water by now but she didn’t think too much of it. 

Bendy looked around as well and slowly stood up. “There’s no way out.” Y/n tells him. 

“I can see that.” He quips. Y/n felt that Bendy must have been upset with her leaving last night which—was understandable..

“Sorry..” Y/n says quietly. Bendy looked down at her and furrowed his eyebrows, his chest jolted as he muffled down another cough. 

“We wouldn’t be in this mess if I had just stayed at the church, sorry.” She apologized and Bendy sighed. 

“Do you know what could have happened to you? Anything. Y/n we can’t play games like that, especially with people that tried to kill us not even 40 hours ago.” Bendy scolds harshly and Y/n didn’t exactly like the feeling of her grunts and felt her cold hair attached to her face. 

“I can watch over myself, Bendy. I’m not a kid.” For years Y/n always felt that she had an eye on her. Mostly from her parents—they were so afraid of—the world they didn’t want her in harm's way—and as nice as that may sound it made her seem like a kid—felt like a kid, but she wasn’t . She could take care of herself! 

“So taking care of yourself is being tied up in a sewer by rats going to feed you to a gator?!” Bendy tilts his head and Y/n falls silent. 

“You almost died if it weren’t for us looking for you!” Bendy immediately lowered his voice before closing his eyes and sighing. “I didn’t mean to yell—“ He immediately says. Y/n looks away from him and to the water silently. The sound of the water dripping from their clothing echoing and she felt Bendy stare at her and a few muffled coughs exited his mouth. 

“I’m sorry..” Bendy apologized again. 

No..he was right..blindly just leaving and winding up in a mess they now had to get out of…she scratched the back of her neck and sighs through her nose. Bendy slowly wandered over to her, gently wiping his mouth yet again and slowly sitting down beside her, his tail gently resting behind her. 

He looks away from her and into the murky water—reflecting from the dull yellow lights above on the ceiling that looked like it was ready to go out. 

She did have to admit..she did almost die. The silence between the two wasn’t tense—but something was there, it was evident that Bendy wanted to say something. And after a few more moments, he spoke; 

“You just had me worried, that was all...” he tells her. Wrapping an arm around her shoulder to pull her into a side hug. Y/n rested her head on his shoulder and sighed. “It’s not your fault. I was just bein’ an idiot and sayin’ stupid things, sorry about that..” he rested his head ontop of hers—cascading her in his warmth, it took Y/n a moment to notice how apologetic Bendy was for his sudden burst of anger and shouting—something that he really didn’t need to apologize for—it wasn’t like Y/n would break down crying because of it. But when he had stopped—it looked as if he had remembered something—or thought of something in the least. 

Y/n wrapped her arms around Bendy to properly hug him and he wrapped his arms around her as well. “Thanks for coming back for me.” She tells him and Bendy gently pulls back and smiles at her. 

“Oh please sweets, I’ll always come back for you.” He stands up and Y/n stands up with him the two letting go of eachother. 

“Okay le-“ Bendy let out another cough and He clenched his eyes closed at the coughing fit. Y/n gently placed her hands on his shoulders. “Dude are you okay?” 

“It’s —probably somethin—“ he let out another cough and shook his head gently. “It’s probably somethin’ in that water.” He finished and Y/n placed a hand on his head to feel his temperature—his head was warm and wasn’t burning hot or anything. 

“I’m fine toots, really.” Bendy chuckled and Y/n’s arms fell to her side.”okay..just checking—how are we getting out of here? I don’t think swimming back to the other side is a smart idea.” She says before moving away from Bendy and looking around the area, Bendy walks over to a wall and places his hands on it. 

“This way.” He held out his hand to her and Y/n looked behind her to see a black puddle formed on the wall, similar to what she saw back at the bar a few days ago when Bendy popped out of it. She curiously looks at it and then to Bendy. 

“C’mon, it’s just like walking through a door.” He chuckles before leaning over and grabbing her hand himself and immediately walked through the ink like portal, Y/n walked through as well—felling Bendy’s hand in hers—she couldn’t seem much but just like he said—it was like walking through a door, when she made it to the other side she felt herself stumble slightly as if her brain said ‘whoa!’ Being in an entirely different area than where they were. 

She heard shouting and other scuffling noises from afar. And Bendy looks down the hall. 

“We need to get that stone from Argus.” Y/n tells Bendy and he looks at her and nods. 

“Alright, well—if you ask me, I’ll send you on rat duty and me and the others can try to snag the stone.” He smiled at her and Y/n huff before placing a hand on her chest. 

“I’m not doing that!”

-

Y/n stood behind the towering body of Argus. Felix had sent Alice, Charley, Barley, Edgar and Boris to go tend to the civilians with Mugman—in the time Bendy and Y/n were gone, Puck found Cuphead and Mugman with the others which he quickly explained the situation that Y/n had already explained prior to falling off the ledge. Puck had gathered the people in town with Alice and the 5–telling the truth about Argus and how the ‘surfers’ aren’t the people they were looking for. 

Which—the town could only cry in disbelief. How dare she lie to everyone! The human girl was right—they changed for the human—they wanted to see her but Puck couldn’t find Y/n prior to them being saved by Edgar.

Alice held some of the children's mice to be distracted as Argus was busy, hopefully not killing her friends somewhere along the sewer lines. 

Puck stood on top of Edgar’s hand as he looked down at his people.

“The human! She’s a miracle for telling us the truth! How could we be so blind!” One of the civilians cried out. 

Charley chuckled and rolled his eyes. “Idiots.” He laughed softly but Alice glared at him. 

“We are so sorry? We’ve been blinded by our own selfishness for someone to help us mourn from our last queen that we didn’t look to see the surfers aren’t the real problem.” One civilian apologized. Barley tilts his head. 

“How long as Argus’s been ya’lls leader?” He asks. Puck looks at Barley. “A year.” 

“We stand with the human!” Shouts a civilian and right after they shout after him. 

“We stand with the human!”

-

“Hey!” Y/n shouts—throwing a fairly large rock at Argus’s back. Bendy and scampered over to Felix, Oswald, Donald, Panchito and Cuphead who had been distracting Argus ever since waiting for Bendy and Y/n that they had been hoping for their return the entire time. 

“We need to get that stone off of her neck.” Bendy points out Argus’s neck and the boys looks over to see the tied necklace around her neck. Y/n stood in the background taunting Argus.

“Oh great—how are we supposed to get up there?” Donald asks Bendy and Felix looks at Panchito to see he had the lassos behind his tail feathers. 

“Panchito, I’ll need that lasso.” Felix said—Panchito looks away from Argus and to Felix and takes the lasso away and hands it to Felix, Felix holds the rope in his hands before looking at the others. 

“I’ll help Y/n with tying Argus, you guys find a way to trip her and when we get this rope around her, Cuphead you shoot at that wall over there—“ Felix points his fingers over to the weak crumbling cobblestone near a leaking vent. 

“And Oswald you’ll hold the book with Donald—I’m certain there’s a way to redo whatever she did.” Felix says and Cuphead hands the book to Oswald who nods and takes it in his grasp. 

“Bendy and Panchito—while you’re helping cause a distraction—I want either of you two to take either side of me and Y/n’s rope and help tug her down.” He looks between the two and they nod silently. 

“Alright, then let’s go!” 

Y/n hardly noticed Felix run over to her and drag her out of the way when she moved to dodge Argus’s tail when Cuphead threw a rock at her to distract her. 

“Hey!” Felix smiled at Y/n and he handed her one side of the rope, she grabs it and Felix placed on foot in front of the either and motioned his head down as if signaling her to follow his movement which she did. 

“We’re gonna tie her up okay!” He tells her and Y/n nods quickly. 

“Toss, pull—“ he then motioned his hand in front of him as if going in a circle. “Clockwise!” 

Toss, Pull, Clockwise. 

“You ready?” Felix asks her gently, nudging her shoulder, Y/n looks over at Argus to see Cuphead was pretty good at taunting her, he hopped around each time she tried to swing at him with either his tail or hands. 

“Uh..” she took a step back and she felt Felix’s hand gently place itself on her back to stop her from backing away. “You’re an adventurer now Y/n, rise to the challenge.” 

When Felix told her that—she slowly eased up, just like her grandfather..she could do it. She gripped the rope in her hand and placed her foot ahead and leaned forward slightly. 

Toss, pull, clockwise.

Felix's ears perked up and he smiled at her change in demeanor, in sync the three took 4 steps back, and tossed the rope, when it caught around Argus’s waist they both pulled and leaned back so their weight could pull! The rope tightened but Y/n didn’t ever think about letting go.  Argus stumbled and Cuphead shot at her feet to get her to move—which did get Argus to stumble back more towards the area he needed her, Y/n kept a strong hold onto the rope and started to run the direction she was supposed to as Felix ran the other direction, Argus bellowed and lets out a roar of anger. Y/n smiled as she felt joy spark in her! 

The rope tightened around Argus as the two wrapped her tightly into the rope—Felix’s boots dug into the ground as he skidded to a stop the same as Y/n across from Argus’s other side, she felt someone run up behind her and take ahold of the behind her and tugging as well—looking over she saw Panchito who smiled at her and the two tugged together. Cuphead points his hands towards the wall and a blue beam of light shot from his finger and hits the crumbling wall, but it didn’t do much as only a few debri of rocks fell down and onto Argus’s head. 

“Hurry! We can’t hold her for long!” Bendy shouts over to Cuphead. Who had shot at the wall over and over again—but to no avail it wasn’t enough. Cuphead cursed under his breath before taking a deep breath his shoulders heaving up a ball of light forming in his hands his straw sticking up and soon releasing the energy and it shot at the wall—the wall crumbles down onto Argus, dropping her to the floor, the debri of dust and rocks flew in the air and Oswald opens the book up and almost immediately the same string of golden light shoots out the book and aims at Argus’s neck, Oswald seemed like he was pushing the book with bow strong the force of it was that Donald came up behind Oswald and pressed his back against his to keep it steady? Argus shrinks under the rubble and the light goes away, the book closing and landing itself in Oswald’s arms. 

Y/n immediately drops the rope and rushes over to the rubble to see Argus laid on the ground she coughed and Y/n quickly snagged the necklace away from her. Argus growls but was far too wear to say or so much of anything. 

Y/n smiled down at Argus and dangled the necklace down at her. “Who’s the lil guy now?” 

“I!” Y/n turns her head to see Felix smiling at them all. “Am so proud of you all!” He finished before he wrapped his arms around Bendy, Donald and Panchito, grabbing Cuphead by his straw to pull him into the hug and then grabbing Y/n by her shirt to also drag her into the group and lastly grabbing Oswald to pull him into the hug, his arms engulfing everyone as the cat purrs and releases them. 

Cuphead stumbled slightly at the amount of energy he just had to use. “We wouldn’t have done that without your plan.” Donald tells Felix, the 7 looked like they just finished running through a dusty house as the dirt and dust from the air and fallen cobble stone decorated their bodies. Felix ruffled Y/n’s hair and smiled at her. “You did good going back when you wanted to leave, that’s very brave of you Y/n.” He tells her and Y/n bashfully swatted her hand and looked away dramatically.

“Jeez, this thing is strong.” Oswald tiredly handed the book to Donald—who held it—clearly pushing against the book could wear someone out. 

Y/n held up the stone to everyone and smiled. “But we got it.” She tells them and Felix smiles and nods at her with pride. 

“Got me thinking if I should start getting you guys some more outdoor clothes.” He says and looks at everyone—considering how scuffled they always get dealing with their adventure it would be smart to get some more comfortable lightweight and durable clothing. 

“What makes you think you’ll walk out of here alive?” The voice of Argus croaks. The group looks over to see Argus still laying on her stomach—weakened by the tumble and rocks piling onto her. 

“Your people will soon find out what you truly did, it’s not like you can hide it from them.” Y/n grumbled. 

Argus only chuckles. “They don’t know anything..I killed that woman because she was in no power to continue running this place..only me.” She muttered. 

“And I will get to see that happen, stone, book or not..all I have to do is tell them to rip you all apart and they’ll do it.” Argus was silent for a moment before laughing under her breath. 

“Well, you heard that ladies and gentlemen?” The forum looks over to see Charley, standing in front of ofnthr town of civilians who was on the other side of the wall that had been blown away—via Cuphead. 

Alice, Barley, Mugman, Edgar and Boris stood behind the civilian and Puck was standing in Alice’s hand, Y/n looked down at Argus to see she had weakly gotten up. 

“Wh-you can believe these people! They are surfers! They harm our people!” She shouts and Puck looks at Y/n from Alice and nods his head before smiling. She smiled back at him and nodded her head as well. 

“Oh no—she’s gettin’ rowdy—cease this menace.” Charley laughs as the guards walk past him and grab Argus by her arms, she grunts and kicks her feet. “You can’t do this to me! I’m your queen!” She shouts they are dragged back into town.

“You are no longer our queen!” Shouts a civilian.

“Guards, you’re forgetting two others as well that were in on it.“ Mugman clears his throat before pointing a finger over to Jura and Poe. Poe shivered slightly and waved nervously.

And just like that, the guards dragged them away as well, with Jura clearly upset about the entire plan being foiled. 

Puck looks at Y/n. “Our new leader—is someone who we thought we should fear, but with knowledge we shall move on as a society—to accept others.” Puck says. Y/n perked up slightly at the mention of the leader, the civilians all looked at Y/n with a glint of glee and hope in their eyes. 

“Uh—“ she didn’t know what to say…

“I—flattered, really.” She felt the paper in her pocket when she nervously placed her hands in her pockets, pulling her hands from her pockets she saw the photo of Hector..a sense of calming came from the photo—a fiery fierce rage of determination.

She placed the photo back into her pocket and looked at everyone. 

“As your leader, I promise to deliver prosperity amongst you all, no fear will walk the streets—not while I’m here…” 

“Not while I’m here…” 

-

“Alright, bye Puck! Keep an eye on the town while I’m away! I’ll make sure to visit!” Y/n waves goodbye to Puck who happily nods and waves goodbye to the large group.

“Bye guys!” He waves to them, Cuphead and Mugman standing beside Y/n waving with a smile—standing right in a ditch of a creek where they had been blindly dragged through..god she didn’t even wanna think about it. 

“You guys stay safe! And I wish you good thoughts on your adventure!” Puck says as her friends waved him goodbye as well. 

“Feel like I’m missing something..” Y/n suddenly says and Bendy looks at her. “What is it?” He asks. 

“Bark!” 

Y/n smiled at him before looking over to see Spunk scurried over to Y/n, Puck smiled softly. “You forgot Spunk.” He said and Y/n laughs before looking at Puck. 

“Thanks, see you soon!” 

Puck nods before scurrying back into the sewer, Spunk ran in circles as his eyes landed on all of her friends! 

“What is that?” Alice asks.

“Whoa!” Donald exclaims.

Oswald tilts his head at the dog when Spunk sniffed his foot and looked up at him before going over to Bendy to sniff him, Bendy chuckled before Spunk scurried over to Felix who had bent down to examine Spunk.

“He’s a creation Hector made for Y/n.” Mugman informed. Spunk rolled on his back when Felix reached down to grab at his tag. 

“Geez, you tellin’ me this dog is his old?” Barley points out. Panchito cooed and rubbed the dog's belly. “He is just a puppy.” Panchito cooes. 

“I don’t know how long ago it was made nor do know what year Hector and the other holders had this book.” Y/n shrugs and Oswald nods. 

“Well..If he’s still in working order, then maybe it couldn’t have been that long. The book itself might be old, but not the people who had it before us.” He says—which yeah—makes sense considering it was said the book was eons old. 

“Jeez..I’m starving..” Cuphead muttered. 

Boris looked up at the sky to see the sun was starting to set. “Well, it is gettin’ late.” He mentions. 

“Best head back to the church and get cleaned up for tomorrow.” Alice brings up and Felix nods, with them having the new information they had now regarding the booo, the stone called; Ruby’s Heart and the location it was supposed to go to—but before they could do that he had to finish finding the pieces to the stone and before they could do that they had to get the jewel.

“Yeah, we got a lot to do—we’ll start planning about finding those stones after we get this jewel for Cuphead and Mugman.” Felix brings up and Y/n nods—thank goodness—taking one thing at a time..

-

Once making it back to the church which took an hour—and having some of the nuns baby her the minute she walked through the door looking like a disaster—they immediately fed her and gave her clothes for a bath and now Y/n sat in the window sill listening to the birds, Cuphead sat next to her, the two watching the sunset as she heard the boys arguing in the background who was best at playing cards. 

Mugman was in there with him—finally relaxing and having fun after the dreadful events they went through. 

But unfortunately the cup brothers wouldn’t be able to stay, they would have to head back to their lair until they could get the jewel. 

Cuphead fiddled with a piece of paper he was folding up—creating an origami with it, listening to him ruffle with the paper in his hands and hearing the birds caused Y/n’s eyes to drift close—she was so exhausted..she heard the rustling of the paper go quiet and she opened her eyes to see the paper horse near her face, she smiled and looked at Cuphead and he made a nose with his mouth similar to the noise a horse makes when sputtering their lips. She lets out a soft laugh. 

Cuphead chuckled before placing the origami horse beside him. “So..it’ll probably be awhile till I get to see you again.” He said and Y/n smiled.

“Cuphead, you’ll probably see me in the next..I dunno 20 hours?” She chuckled and Cuphead laughed shortly after. 

“Yeah? Well, 20 hours too long. Just sayin.” He then looks at her and smiles; “A good luck kiss would do me right.” He smiled boyishly at her and Y/n felt a smile form on her face as well. She laughed yet again and gently pushed him. 

“Okay, stop joking around.” She says and Cuphead gently took the hand that pushed him. “Don’t be gettin’ all flustered on me now.” He teased and Y/n laughs again.

“C’mere you..” Cuphead grabbed Y/n’s face and leaned forward but was met with a hand that shoved him away and shockingly it wasn’t Y/n’s, it was Bendy’s. Bendy crawled and sat between the two and look Cuphead who had shook his head upon the shove. 

“Sorry, was I interrupting something?” Bendy smiled. Mugman walked over with a giddy smile—winning 6 times in goldfish! What a night! 

“Alright, alright. We’ll leave..” Cuphead says before jumping from the window sill and landing on his feet on the ground. Mugman waves at Y/n and smiles. 

“Bye! See you soon.” He says before following Cuphead’s lead. “Bye boys! We’ll make sure to get that jewel for you.” Y/n waves as Cuphead and Mugman smiled and waved back as they walked off and Y/n hopped they would come back to the group in one piece considering they had been gone the entire day from their group.

“Well, it’s time to hit the hay.” Bendy says before standing up from the window sill and stretching, Y/n followed after. 

“See you tomorrow, Bendy.” She bids a goodnight to him as Bendy leaves the room. “Night sweets.” He tells her before leaving. Y/n quickly hurried into bed in desperate need of sleep. And the last thing she saw before laying down—was Alice fixing her blanket before she left her vision to go to sleep as well. 

#toon quest #toons #bendy and the ink machine #bendyxreader #animanics 2020 #animaniacs x reader #the three caballeros x reader #three cabarellos #oswald the lucky rabbit #batim bendy #felix the cat #mickey mouse #donald duck #panchito pistoles

[toontails]

Toon Quest

Chapter 10: She Ain't Nothing But a Runt!

Y/n stood next to Ruck as the two stared at the wide dirt patch of land—an outdoor building with the contestants walking about, speaking, jogging, stretching and some doing some course that would look similar to the monkey bars. 

They all had the physique of people that clearly had been training since they were kids, and Y/n seemed like she stuck out like a sore thumb. Shuffling on her feet, she glanced at Ruck who had his arms crossed across his chest. She looked back forward and felt her hands become clammy with nervousness. She really wanted to scamper off to Felix and just have him teach her archery, but he wasn’t here at the time. The others had gone to do other duties—which was to finish duties around the town to make a name for themselves. And of course Bendy went off with Lucy, she didn’t get to see everyone else this morning as she had to leave so early. 

The sun was just rising in the sky and the boiling pot of anxiety was bubbling in Y/n’s stomach as she watched the people joke around each other. There had to be Atleast 13 people there in all and Y/n seemed to be the smallest of the pack. Toons and humans speaking together and whatnot. 

Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad. 

“You look like you’re gonna vomit.” Ruck pipes up and Y/n nervously glances at Ruck. “So many people.” She muttered. And watched as he moved to walk over to a bench sitting under the shade, Y/n followed after him and he turned and motioned for her to sit down on the bench, which Y/n did and plopped down onto the wooden bench. 

“This is your only chance to get your foot out there. Ain’t nothin’ too bad.” He starts and Y/n nods. 

“Yeah, I know that..” 

“So get your ass up and get over to the barracks—heard that’s where your temporary conductor is. Have a quick meet and greet and come back to me and tell me how it goes.” Ruck orders and Y/n stood up from her seat almost automatically with the tone of his voice. 

“Where’s that at?” She asks him—referring to the room where he mentioned the others would be located. 

Ruck just stared at her and deadpans. 

“Figure it out..” he grumbled before turning away, Y/n sighs and rolled her head as she trudged away from him. Giving a mean side glance before turning around and lifting her hand up to extend her middle finger to him even though his back was turned. Ruck could practically feel Y/n still behind him and turned around whereas she quickly turned around like a frightened mouse and faced the other direction and quickly started to walk off. 

Glancing around the area—she took a step back as two people tumbled by her—one laughing as his friend had wrapped an arm around his neck and tugged him further away—continuing on, Y/n glanced over to a small stand where a man was speaking to another contestee, the stand had pocket knives and arrows for bows. Slowly looking away as she walked by slowly—she looked over to two other people wrestling with each other on the dirt ground. Y/n walked further down the path and looked over to see a contestee sitting on top of a horse—another person holding the reins of the horse as they spoke to the person on the horse—most likely teaching them how to properly tread on a horse. 

So many people were doing various things and there goes Y/n…walking around lost. She felt like it was her first day at school and she was sauntering down the halls looking for her first class. She heard some echoing voices to her right and looked over to see a hallway leading into the open building. Y/n decided to walk down there instead—there were doors lined up—similar to classrooms, but there was only one opened with a man standing outside of it with his arms behind his back. That was the conductor for everyone for the contest. 

She straightened her posture and walked over—the man saw the girl wandering over and looked away from the wall and placed his gaze on Y/n. He had on a uniform on with the badge of the town's symbol on it, standing as straight as a pole with a monocle and slicked black hair, he gave her a look. 

“Name.” He orders and Y/n looks to her side as if he was speaking to someone else with the way his tone was—she didn’t say anything to him and when she didn’t see anyone there besides herself so she looked back at him and placed a finger on her chest referring to herself. 

“Me?” She asks. And he didn’t reply as he only stared down at her. 

“Y/n L/n.” She just decided to just give him her name. 

“Ah, so you’re the talk of the town.” The man spat—almost in disgust and Y/n’s eyebrows twitched as she only just smiled at him with a tilted head. 

The man then circled around Y/n and examined her physical form. He held a wooden stick in his hand—mostly for training purposes no doubt. The stick lifts Y/n arm up and she turns her head to look at him—eyes following as he circled around her like a lion cornering its prey. The man lets out a; ‘tsk’ and shakes his head in disappointment before the stick swacks her calf, causing her to stumble and her knees to buckle but luckily enough she quickly straightened her posture and turned around to the man but the stick jabbed into her abdomen causing her to tumble back slightly. 

“And you call yourself a Vendolez?” The man shakes his head and lifts a hand to fix his monocle. 

“He’s my grandfather, of course I’m a Vendolez, the hell else am I supposed to be? Some damn idiot?” Y/n grew agitated from being probed at and degraded in just a matter of seconds. 

“You have the mouth of him too..” The man grumbled in disgust. 

“I’ll tell you this now. I’m not a fan of Vendolez and I’m certainly not a fan of you.” Well no shit she could see that now. 

“If you continue on to enter this contest, I assure you, you won’t make it. You’re weak. And even the blind can see that.” The man moved past Y/n and stood by the door of the room before he pointed the stick inside motioning her inside. 

“And you’re late. 2 weeks late. Now get in with your other peers. We’ll be starting training soon.” He dismissed Y/n and she furrowed her eyebrows and slowly walked inside, her eyes glued onto the man, fixing the strap of her quiver on her shoulder. She looked forward to see a small room that was similar to a classroom of some sort. Three rows of wooden benches with a few contestee’s in already. 

A group of 5 sat off near the corner of the room—huddled together. A toon skunk had his foot perched on the bench—his elbow resting on his knee as the 4 other toons stood around him as they all spoke. 

The first two toons seemed to be twins as the boys both had brown short hair with freckles—scrawny with fair skin. One had the side of his head shaved in a mullet. 

The next in the small group was a dog toon—brown fur and floppy ears—almost similar to a brown retriever. And the one next to him was a ferret? Or—well he looked to represent one that is. 

They all had the same matching uniform. A white undershirt with a brown vest and brown pants—on the back of the vest was a small symbol of a knife that seemed crudely drawn on with whatever paint supplies they had around. The skunk guy on the other hand has his sleeves rolled up to his shoulders—in a dumb attempt to let off a ‘bad boy’ impression. 

Y/n locked eyes with the skunk and he squinted his eyes and lifted his top lip in a sneer before his finger motions towards her way, and he said something she couldn’t hear as they weren’t close. The 4 others looked in Y/n’s direction and she looked at them for a moment before looking over to an empty spot and walked over to the other side of the room and sat down. Placing her hands in her laps she glanced around the room to see she—honestly was the only human there. Great. 

Sighing to herself Y/n raised a hand to her temple and closed her eyes. If she was going to make a fool of herself she wouldn’t hesitate to just air the place out with her semi improving archery skills. 

Opening her eyes she heard a whistle from across the room and she looks over to see the skunk toon had pushed himself off of the bench with a grin, his lowered arms outstretched as he walked across the room over to Y/n’s direction some of the other peers turning their gaze over to look at the skunk. 

“I think my eyes may be deceiving me.” He starts. The four other toons had trailed behind him. And Y/n pressed her lips together.

“So, you’re Vendolez huh?” The skunk asks, Y/n didn’t reply immediately as she had to think about that. 

“In a way, yeah.” She states and the skunk chuckled before looking over his shoulder to everyone in the room and motion towards Y/n as if saying; ‘Get a load of this guy.’

The skunk turns and looks back at Y/n—his pupils scanning her up and down as if evaluating her. 

“Name’s Stinks. Chief Melbourne’s son—first in command chief down in the castle, I got a winning streak for winning Warrior Falls every year—this is gonna be year 5.” He chuckled, his shoulders bobbing as he did so. The class went quiet and Y/n slowly nodded. 

“Nice….” She says..what was he telling her this for? 

“Just wanted to give you the info, I sure do hate repeating myself.” He removed his foot from the bench near Y/n’s legs and stood there with his arms crossed. 

“Humans such as yourself won’t stand a chance. I surpassed Vendolez—and I’m sure I can pass you too.” He stopped talking for a moment before he pointed to her arm—she had her button up sleeves rolled up. He pointed directly at the bruise on her arm and chuckled. 

“And it seems like you’re just taking baby steps.” He let out a laugh and everyone else in the class did as well. 

Y/n furrowed her eyebrows together. No doubt he had to be some uptown daddy’s boy, snobbish and had an ego as big as his tail. 

“It’s whatever, man.” Y/n said. Bullying wasn’t something Y/n ran into too much—but she surely knew how to diffuse them when it happens. 

“I hadn’t ran into your father yet at the castle so he probably isn't holier than the guy that you're putting him out to be.” Y/n wasn’t trying to make a joke but just say something to the guy that would just make him scamper off, but that made the smile lower on Stink’s face—he grimace and lowered his arms to his side as he shuffled towards Y/n who was still seated on the bench.

The people around the room made murmured hushed sounds of surprisement and giggles. 

Stinks pats the sides of his pockets on his hands before slowly nodding his head. 

“So you are a Vendolez.” He spat. He lifts a hand and points his index finger at Y/n. 

“Your grandfather killed mine. I've been waiting for this day to go up against his own.” He told her in a low tone. Y/n twisted her expression with confusion and surprisement. 

“Two people only make it to the winning stage—and if you do make it. I’ll kill you.” 

Y/n stared at Stinks and lifted her top lip in a sneer and grimace. Stinks leaned back and placed his hands in his pockets. “That’s if you even make it.” He turned around and walked off with his posse back over to the side of the room. Y/n kept her eyes on Stinks before slowly shaking her head and looking forward. 

The hell was that about?

-

The conductor had come into the class shortly after, and the class wasn’t really a class to say—it was more like a small holding room to discuss what was on today's list of things they would be training for. 

With Y/n’s now newfound arch nemesis, Y/n was constantly punching her brain to not make a fool of herself out there whatever their activities may be. 

Standing in front of the jungle gym-like course—wooden bars and handles and stairs—it was certainly an obstacle course. Now if it were like those inflatable bouncy house obstacle courses—oh man, Y/n could tred through it like it were her own home. But seeing the mud underneath and the makeshift rock climbing wall—it all looked so tactical and complicated—it felt like she was in some bootcamp, no not the bootcamp where you had your own personal fitness trainer for gym—no the military bootcamp where they had you crawl through mud, do planks in the raining 40 degree weather, hop over car tires and whatnot. Maybe if she knew this layout beforehand she wouldn’t have such a bad feeling in her gut, she’d even be lucky if she didn’t pass out from exhaustion. 

“Fuck…” she cursed under her breath and shakes her head in dissatisfaction. She felt someone bump her shoulder, and looking over she saw Stinks was the one that did it, his group of friends following close behind him as they moved to go stand in a line next to each other. 

The conductor had motioned over to the course. “You all know the rules, 10 minutes to get across! Or you’ll be mopping the floors with toothbrushes.” He paced back and forth as his eyes landed on Y/n.

“Some of you already have your name written on it.” His off handed comment was most definitely meant for her. Y/n furrowed her eyebrows as the conductor stopped in his pacing before pulling out a stopwatch from his pocket. 

Ruck was on the sidelines with his arms crossed—eyes glued on Y/n to see how she would do. 

The conductors didn’t say anything else as he stared at everyone in line, with a calculated expression, before pressing the start button on his stopwatch—the contestee’s dashed off like a pent up rubber band, the soles of their shoes scraping the dirt ground. The guy didn’t even count down so Y/n was appalled to see everyone starting to run off. She quickly dashed off as well, her legs carrying her over to a ladder in her aligned view, she quickly latched herself onto the ladder and immediately started to climb up it. She was moving so hastily she almost misplaced her footing and fell if it weren’t for her iron grip on the peg of the ladder, fixing her footing she scurried up the ladder, where she reached the top of the wooden platform, it was a decent sized wooden ‘bridge’ ahead of her. The wooden bridge really wasn’t anything she could walk on but more so to balance herself so she could get across to the other side and make it back down the ladder on the other side. 

Y/n slowly walked across the thin wooden bridge, slowly placing one foot in front of the other, she felt her legs shake and she started to lean to one side but she quickly moved her other foot ahead so she could fix her posture, which thankfully worked. Ruck slowly walked alongside down below of the course as he watched Y/n. 

Y/n felt the wooden platform shake and she looked ahead of her to see one of the contestee’s hopped from the other platform and over to hers. 

“Remember! The more hits you get, the more points you get!” Y/n heard the conductor's voice echoing. The contestee ahead of her held a wooden sword—thank god it wasn’t real—Y/n stumbled backwards at the sight of them running towards her with ease as she was struggling to even keep balance, Y/n fell forward onto the thin wooden bridge—the air was knocked from her lungs as she wheezed and felt herself start to fall over, but she hugged the wooden plank and flipped upside down on the other side, the constestee tripped over Y/n’s hands—their foot scraped against her wrist and she hissed in pain but she held on for dear life—gazing down at the mud under her, Y/n wormed a few inches away before swinging herself back up where she hastily crawled the rest of the way over to the platform, she picked herself up and hopped down the ladder instead of crawling down, crouching onto the ground before quickly scurrying up, she heard the contestee land behind her, Y/n sprinted off to see there were were two paths—one was under the deck of the course—it seemed you had to crawl, the other you had to crawl up another ladder, but she didn’t want to crawl up another ladder so she dashed to the ground and quickly started to crawl through the muddy soil—she heard footsteps from above her head from other contestee’s, Y/n spotted a hole in the ground and immediately crawled through it—falling into the ground—she stood up and saw she was in a dirt like tunnel—candels were lit to light the path as she jogged down it, spotting a hole up in the roof she quickly jumped up and dug her fingers into the ground and heaved herself up, she slid back down the slope and felt the soil in her fingernails. 

Huffing heavily from exhaustion already, Y/n took several steps back before running and hopping back up and forcefully digging her nails into the dirt and tugging her form up—back into the outside world, Y/n crawled from off the ground and scampered ahead to see a wooden wall she had to climb, she slowly stopped in her tracks—chest heaving up and down from exhaustion her head tilted up at the wooden wall with indents for climbing—but they were too far apart. The toons contestants seemed to climb it perfectly fine..this again. 

Y/n shuffled frantically on her feet as she tried to wire her brain on what to do. She jogged over to the wall and pressed her foot against the wall to heave herself up like she had done before back when they were climbing the trees. Her hands grasped onto the indents on the wall to anchor herself—Atleast it had something for her—but each space was too far apart!!

Y/n kicked her legs up to hop up to the next indent for her hands. 

“Come on kid..” Ruck hissed in anticipation, locking his lips tight as he watched her. 

Y/n grunts as her hand slipped from the devot as she slide down, the soles of her shoes dug into the wall and she climbed up yet again—her arms were tired and she couldn’t take much more—but her brain was fueling in energy for her as she grabbed onto the higher dent in the wall—pulling herself up she felt her fingers graze the ledge of the wall and she crawled onto the surface—air escaping her mouth as she weakly lifted her body from the ground, she felt her arms shaking and she looked down at her hands to see her middle and index fingernails cracked and bleeding—then blood slowly rising from the cracks of her nails like a broken dam. Y/n rubbed her hands to her side and pinched her lips together to keep in a grunt. 

Y/n’s face was ridden with pain as she continued forward—but was stopped by a figure moving in front of her, Y/n slowly stopped to see it was Stinks—he held the wooden sword in his hand and it was clear his main objective was to get her out. She didn’t even have a weapon with her—but that didn’t matter as he tossed it to his side, he shook his arms. 

“Most hit points.” He states before bringing his arms up in a position to provoke and fight her. Y/n glanced behind him to see the rest of the course and a few ways ahead was the finish line, a red flag dancing in the air—but it seemed Stinks could care less for the win—he had points stacked up already to keep him in the lead and it seemed his eyes were locked on the new guy in town—which was Y/n—especially with her status—nothing but vile intentions were coming Y/n’s way from Stinks. 

Y/n lifted her fists up as well and Stinks tossed a punch and Y/n quickly dodged it as she moved out of the way, she swung her hand as well to aim right at Stinks temple, but he caught her wrist and lifted a foot up and kicked her right in the middle of her chest—she fell to the ground with heavy thud and she felt like all the air was ripped right from her lungs—hissing—Y/n bared her teeth in pain as she felt Stinks grab the collar and back of her shirt—picking her up back onto her feet—Y/n’s knees buckled and she quickly grabbed his arm and tugged him to her side—in which he tumbled—but his leg locked around hers—Y/n felt her leg pivot the other direction and she lets out a shout—he swung his elbow to her shoulder which knocked her back to the ground—landing on her stomach. Stinks removed himself off her—his chest heaving up and down as he tried to control his heavy breathing, a satisfied smile on his face. 

Y/n laid on the ground—a muffled wail escaped her mouth—she twisted her ankle and she could already tell the pain it would be to walk on it. 

Stinks started to walk towards her to finish putting her down as much as he needed—but when he neared her he didn’t suspect Y/n to immediately turn around and swing her arm back—her fist colliding with the corner of his eye—Stinks fell backwards into the ground and Y/n pulls herself up and shot off towards the course, her foot stung but her adrenaline was pumping—blocking off the pain as she hopped off the platform and grabbed onto the nylon ropes to swing to the other side—when her feet landed onto the other side of the platform—Y/n’s knees buckled but she heaved herself up and took a step forward before something swiped her off her feet and onto the ground—Stinks stood up from behind her and towered over her, Y/n quickly scampered up and shook her arms and brought them up—but she felt the stinging pain in her nose as Stinks swung—Damn, he socked her in the face, hard. 

She tumbled, and tried to keep her stance—the warm tickling feeling trickled down her nose, and Y/n lets out a heavy sigh before swinging at Stinks—but he caught her arm and swung his other arm but she caught his arm—as she thought she may have thought outside the box, Stinks throws his head forward and hits her in the forehead with his, causing Y/n to release her hold hold on him. 

Stinks throws a kick at Y/n’s side—which was her rib cage—she felt his foot collide with her side and she fell back to the ground—her eyes clenched closed and she laid on her side and held her side, which twitched under her touch at the harsh impact it had taken. 

Stinks fixed the collar of his shirt before jumping down the platform and finishing the course. 

Her shallow breathing echoed in her ears and her hands remained on her side, the only thought in her head was how she was going to kick his ass if she could even get up! 

She wanted to, but she just laid there, under the hot sun—with dirt and grime over her skin and clothes. 

“That’s a Vendolez for you.”

She heard the voice echo, as some others spoke as well, the sound of a whistle blowing as the race had ended. 

Once she had trudged down the ladder off of the platform, Y/n felt exhausted, sweaty and dirty. The dried blood trickled down her nose as Stinks and the other contestants walked past her. Stinks locking eyes with her. 

“You ain’t making it to the League round, you might as well turn back now.” He gave her the condescending advice before he continued walking. Y/n felt like her shoulders were to her ears. 

“She ain’t nothin’ but a runt!” Laughed one of the contestee’s as they all followed behind Stinks for a good mornings worth of an exercise, they all walked off so unbothered, that course wasn’t a problem at all, easy in their book—but of course a human—such as Y/n, would have a problem completing it. She damn near tore off her fingernails trying to climb the wall. 

Y/n’s eyes glazed over and she felt her throat tightened, she wasn’t upset that she lost…a little, but she was more so upset in herself—getting distracted with whatever vendetta Stinks now has against to stop her from doing the one thing she had to do, complete the damn course! And to think she could do that?! 

She was mopped across the floor by Stinks for crying out loud! Y/n felt her heart sink at the thought of not even being able to complete a simple course—how the hell did she even remotely think that she would save the world? She couldn’t. Her mind wandered back to Pib and she blinked as a shiver traveled down her spine at just the thought of Pib—she…was way worse than anything imaginable. 

Y/n’s nose felt like it was burning but that soon was brushed off when the conductor walked over and gazed down at her. 

“Last.” He tells her. 

“Dead last.” He corrects. And Y/n hesitated before nodding. 

“Stinks is the top tier of every contest, going against him could possibly kill a human like yourself.” He informed her, Y/n’s eyebrows stitched together and her jaw clenched. 

“Tread lightly.” The conductor turns and walks off. Y/n glanced at the ground and placed a fingertip on her nose to touch the blood before wiping it away on her pants. She turned around only to face Ruck—and dread took over. 

She didn’t want to look like a fool to him and here she was. “Sorry.” She mumbled under her breath. 

“You held your own with him.” Ruck starts. And Y/n’s bouncing eyes landed on Ruck. He placed a hand on Y/n’s head, his fingers digging into her hair gently. 

“I say you did mighty fine.” His hand shook her head gently and Y/n’s head bobbled as he did so. Y/n gazed up at him with big eyes.

“He doesn't like me.” She tells him.

“Who the hell has to?” Ruck asks and raises an eyebrow. “Your boys back at the castle like you, who else do you need to? You gave him a few hits here and there to show him that you do bite—not some deer waiting to be shot at.” Ruck pushes her head forward—past him so she could get to walking, which she did as they walked over to the bench they were at earlier in the morning. 

“Prove the bastard wrong that you’re making it to the major leagues, don’t need a damn name to prove anything, you get hit once and lose something you think it’s the end of the world.” Ruck moves and takes her bow and quiver from off the bench and hands it to Y/n, she takes the bow and quiver and looks back at Ruck. 

“Little practice here and there and you’ll be doing just fine on your own, we’re going hunting.” When he mentioned that, Y/n perked up and a smile twitched onto her face as she watched him turn around and start to walk off. 

-

Pulling the arrow back, Y/n gazed down in the water, the water reaching her ankles—she took her shoes off so they wouldn’t get wet—and the cool feeling of the rocks and dirt between her toes was distracting, but she gaze down in the pond—her eyes following a fish swimming around. It neared her foot and she gazed down at it and stayed as still as a rock. 

When it swam a few feet away, Y/n extended her index finger and squinted her eyes down at the fish before releasing the arrow, it shot into the water but missed the fish by an inch, Y/n cursed under her breath and stomped in the water—the plopping sound emits from the water and water splashed her pants. 

“Almost had it, kid. Try it again.” Ruck calls out—standing near a tree with his arms crossed as he watches Y/n. She took out another arrow from the quiver before loading it and pulling it back and locking her eyes on the fish—she was about to shoot it until Ruck interrupted.

“Slow down, you didn’t even give your eyes time to adjust to the damn thing.” He pipes up and Y/n nods. She tended to her nose on the way to the trail—and washed her hands from the dirt and grime on her hands—though her clothes still had dried mud on it that hardened in the hot sun. But it was nothing she couldn’t handle. Her ankle and side was sore but she was mostly thankful that nothing was broken. They left the training house so Ruck could train her instead before heading back off to the castle, and frankly Y/n liked this better than being the odd one out back in the training house—even though she would have to endure that tomorrow, but of course she wouldn't go in a careless attitude, having Ruck there made her feel better. Pushing her to dry her tears and push forward—and ignore the talk from others, Ruck was…hard. But he spoke through steel, something hard and sturdy that he would give to you to be able to learn to use for your own battles. And Ruck was teaching her that. 

“I got a question…” Y/n states as she follows the fish swimming around in the water. 

“Ask me later, pay attention.” Ruck gruffed and Y/n sighed through her nose. 

A few moments passed by before Y/n released the arrow and it stuck right through the fish. She smiled immediately and yanked the arrow from the water and showed the flopping fish to Ruck. 

“Got it!” She exclaims. 

“Good job.” Ruck praised watching as the girl hopped around in the water howling with glee that she finally caught something. 

Over the course of the 3 hours—Ruck led her deeper into the woods—teaching her to use the bow on different targets he would mark out—and cleaning up on her balancing skills that he noticed she lacked back in the training center. 

He walked on the ground under the tree branch he told Y/n to walk on.

“Make sure you bend your knees—place one foot in front of the other.” Ruck orders. Y/n walked along the branch, aiming her arrow over to the tree he told her to focus and shoot at when she felt she could. Two objectives at once were distracting, balancing on the tree branch—which she wobbled ever so often—and aiming off to the three a few meters away. 

She pulled the arrow further back and released it which flew off and hit the bark of the tree. She straightened her posture and looked down at Ruck who looked away from the tree and nodded in satisfaction.

Some time later, he taught her how to climb a tree, minus breaking her fingernails. Y/n hopped up on the tree branch and pulled herself up but soon fell right back down and onto the ground, landing on her back. Ruck looked down at her and motions his head towards the tree. 

“Try again.” He says. 

Which she did.

Everytime she failed at something, either falling off the tree from climbing it, balancing on its branch or shooting at something, Ruck would give the same answer. “Try again.”

At first that would irritate her—but she would bounce right back up and shoot right back at it. And he was shocked to see so. 

As they walked back to the castle, Y/n had played with the bow as they walked down the trail of the woods. She would make it a game for herself to shoot at the nearest tree they were going to pass and take the arrow when they walked past—or if it hit the ground she would pick it up from the ground and continue walking. She did it to help sharpen her aiming, but mostly because she actually found fun in shooting the arrows and Ruck noticed before he hardened his gaze and looked at her when she shot the arrow off to a tree as they walked. 

“Stop doing that, that isn’t a toy—you can kill someone with that damn thing.” He scolds as Y/n walks over and tugged the arrow from the tree and placed it back in her quiver.

“Just sharpening up on my aim so I can show Felix when we go out to train for my aim again.” She lied—well—not fully. 

“You’re getting better at it, so that’s good, don’t go around breaking it.” Ruck furrowed his eyebrows in frustration. 

“Whatever..”  He heard her voice mutter and he slowly shook his head at her statement.

The two continued walking—the leaves and sticks crunching under their shoes. “How’s your nose feelin?” He asks. 

Y/n inhaled dramatically and her shoulders sagged. “I can breathe, so I say, pretty good. Clearly.” She says nonchalantly. 

“Keep that up and I’ll sock you in your nose, you’ll be breathing from your ass the rest of this week.” Ruck grumbled and Y/n cracked a smile and a laugh left her mouth at his statement, Ruck gave a chuckle.

“You aren’t in your prime years anymore Ruck, let it go.” 

“Still got the power to kick your ass.”

“Whatever you say.” 

Y/n felt a smile on her lips, the air around her was clear and wonderful, her thoughts from earlier had dissipated into the the air—she wasn’t worried about Stinks but surely whenever she’s face to face to him, she’s going to drag him up and down the floor until his name was written on it. 

Just her, Ruck and the outside world.

-

Y/n leaned on the couch with an exhausted expression. Oswald stood in front of her with his eyebrows pushed together. He was the only one in the room when she arrived—the other left somewhere in town—Bendy clearly was with Lucy, and Ruck left to go find Meek and Don who had been asked to help inventory check for the wedding—as if there weren’t more than enough people in the castle to help do so. 

“What..the hell happened to you?” Oswald asks. Y/n had a nick on her eyebrow, and right under her left eye, and bruises on the bridge of her nose. Her clothes were dirty and it looked like she survived hell. 

“Training.” Y/n deadpans and Oswald’s eyes scanned her face silently.

“Some guy didn’t like me because of my relations with Vendolez and while we were doing a course he was kicking my ass.” She explained briefly and Oswald’s ears lowered in irritation before he shook head. 

“Not a lot of em like me back there.” She watched as Oswald silently turned around and walked over to the counter across the room and grabbed the first aid kit that they all brought, he walked over to Y/n and started digging through the kit. 

“Here, I’ll patch you up.” Oswald states and takes out the alcohol wipe and band aid, he sits down next to Y/n and places the alcohol wipe on her scared eyebrow, she flinches away at the stinging burn of the bacteria dying. 

“Stay still..” Oswald commands and Y/n muttered. “It burns..” 

After wiping away the dried blood from her scar on her eyebrow and under her eye, Oswald placed a thin band aid on Y/n’s eyebrow. 

“Alright. Just don’t touch it and it’ll be fine.“ Oswald says and tossed the first aid box on the other side of the couch, Y/n quickly grabs her bow and hops onto the couch. 

“You shoulda seen my fire archery skills!” She pulls out an arrow from her quiver and quickly loads it and pulls back—ready to fire. Oswald’s ears perked up and he quickly looks at Y/n—before he could say anything she shot the arrow across the room—the door had opened and Felix walked in, in which the arrow hits the wall behind his head—he abruptly stopped walking and looked at the arrow—Y/n opened her mouth and quickly hid the bow behind her back to hide it before Felix turned to look at her. 

“Hey..now you know not to shoot that in the building..” Felix slowly scolds and Y/n gives him a nervous smile, but Felix quickly smiles and his ears perk up. 

“Not without me!” He shouts and Y/n jumps off the couch and scampers over to Felix and he had his hand out for a high five.

Y/n smacks her hand against his with a bright smile. 

“Good job! That’s good you’re getting better with shooting!”He praised and reached down to bump his head against her temple as Y/n smiled at him. 

“Hey! No shooting that in here.” Mugman’s voice steps in and she looks over to see the cup brothers walking in. Y/n’s eyes locked with Cuphead and she quickly looked away from him and back to Mugman who perked his eyebrows up in shock. 

“What on earth happened to your face?!” He exclaims before grabbing Y/n’s face to examine the bruises to her eyebrow and nose. 

“Some guy didn’t like me down at the training center.” She briefly explained—in all honesty her plan wasn’t to tell them what happened but her bruises spoke out quicker than she could—no doubt they would question it. Mugman removes his hands from Y/n before placing his hands on his hips. 

“Well that’s just wrong.” He scoffs and Y/n shrugs slowly. “Don’t worry about it, I’m good now, where have you guys been?” She quickly wanted to move on to another topic and not how she got her ass kicked again. 

“Well. Some lady wanted us to find her missing chickens from her pen—Panchito and Donald are still in town finding them, I just came to get Oswald.” Felix’s eyes landed on the rabbit who was leaning on the wall next to Y/n. He lifts an eyebrow and shrugs. 

“Who was supposed to be helping us.” Felix finished and Oswald removed himself from the wall. 

“I would if one of the chickens didn’t try to peck my eye out.” Oswald grumbled. So much for making a name for themselves in town. 

“I just got my ass kicked and laughed at by a group of  people at the training center. If they see me getting attacked by chickens I think I just might toss myself off a roof.” Y/n deadpans and Felix pulls the arrow from the wall and hands it to her. 

“Who were they?” He asks. And Y/n shakes her head. 

“Don’t worry about it—“

“Sure, let's not worry about it. She says as she comes back with a split eyebrow.” Oswald says nonchalantly and Y/n rolled her eyes. 

“Moving on, we got some duties to do today for the town! Come on!” Y/n pushes past the four and out of the door—the burning enthusiasm to do some chores around town! 

-

“13 chickens! I can’t even catch 1!” Donald shouts, balling his hands up in a fist. Panchito stood next to him with his hands on his hips as he gazed around the town—people walking by—children playing, people trading—but no chickens. 

“She really needs a new pen—do some good deeds around the town and we get stuck doing chicken duty!” Donald complained about the chickens missing, which Panchito had to endure listening to his rants for the last several minutes but—of course he didn’t say anything about it. 

Donald turned around when he heard footsteps to see, Y/n, Felix, Cuphead, Mugman and Oswald finally making their way over to help. 

“Did you guys find anything yet?” Mugman asks and Panchito looks away from whatever he was looking at and shakes his head. 

“Unfortunately, no.” He answered and Donald grumbled. 

“Everytime we get near them they just scatter off.” No surprise as that’s what frightened chickens do. Donald spotted Y/n’s face and raised an eyebrow. 

“Geez, who dumped you in a wildfire?” 

Y/n deadpans and rolled her eyes. “Don’t ask.” She grumbled and Panchito looked at her and it seemed like he was going to say something before closing his mouth. 

“Well, since we’re all here—minus Bendy. I’m sure it’ll be a lot easier to find them now.” Felix responds.

And—frankly it was a tad bit easier. Emphasis on the tad. 

Y/n held a chicken in her arms as she gazed around the town—Mugman was with her—as they all split up and the two ran into each other by accident whilst finding the chickens. 

Now placing the chicken in the pen instead of opening the gate considering they always escaped everytime they tried to open the gate to set them in—so they all just decided to place them in the pen over the fence. No wonder they always kept getting out. 

Mugman placed the chicken in the pen as well. The chicken scurried off with the others who were eating some seeds on the patchy grass. 

“I think that was the last of them.” Mugman says. Panchito, Donald, Oswald, Felix and Cuphead were standing near the pen as well. Donald squints his eyes and shakes his head. 

“There’s still one missing..” he says. 

“What? I caught like 3 of them.” Oswald says in disbelief, overall there were 12 chickens in all—Y/n didn’t know how many they had to find when they were searching for them, she just started searching the area for chickens—which they hadn’t traveled off too far thankfully. 

“There’s 13 in all, one’s missing.” Donald adds and looks away nonchalantly and then squints his eyes. 

“Why can’t we just leave the damn thing out here? She wouldn’t notice one missin’ chicken.” Cuphead sighs lazily but Donald quickly spotted the chicken a few meters ahead. 

“There it is.” He said before turning to wander after the chicken. Following behind him, Y/n also saw the chicken sauntering near the bridge of the town but the second Donald got near it—he scurried off across the bridge—Donald quickly stopped walking before turning around and shrugging. 

“Oh, well, it’s gone, nothing we can do now.” Jeez, so much for helping, Donald. 

“We can still get it, come on, stop being lazy.” Mugman deadpans before walking past Donald and exiting the town. Y/n had a feeling in her chest that it was going to take some willpower to catch this chicken..

-

The chicken pecked at the ground—collecting the worms from the soft dirt—it wandered 20 some odd minutes away from town and the group had tried countless times to catch it but the minute they would get close it would sprint off to an entirely new direction.

Standing behind a tree—Y/n stared at the chicken before turning around to face the boys who were also standing behind her as well, Donald heavily puts his arms out to his side in frustration. 

“I say we just leave it here!” He grumbled and Y/n was really wanting to take the latter on just returning to the lady and saying they couldn’t chase her last chicken down, it traveled way too far from town it almost had Y/n wondering if this wasn't the animals first time running off this far, it’ll explain why no one else wanted to collect her chickens. 

“Yeah, I’d say we just head back and build her a new pen while we’re at it, I’ll be damned if I have to chase down chickens again.” Cuphead agreed, even though he did the bare minimum, she hadn’t seen him collect a single chicken yet or her eyes must have been lying to her. 

“No, we have to catch that chicken! What’s the point in doing all of this if we can’t catch the chicken? We'd done all this for no reason!“ Mugman says in the most frustrated manner—he was mostly agitated about the chicken. 

“Well.” Oswald starts and then looks at Felix. 

“Felix you sneak up on it, don’t cats have great stealth skills?” He asks and Felix’s ears perked up as he silently looked at Oswald. 

“Oh right. I forgot, you are a cat. We should have had you go and sneak up on it to begin with—would have saved us more time.” Donald deadpans and Felix looks over at the chicken. 

“Well, I can try.” He says before walking from behind the tree. 

“We need to corner it, so I can’t do this all by myself.” He tells them—clearly standing around wasn’t going to do them no good so they might as well make themselves helpful. 

He squats down slowly and his eyes focused on the distracted chicken. Donald and Oswald wandered over to the side as Mugman went on another side—practically creating a circle so the chicken wouldn’t scamper off more than what it needed to, because lord forbid they did not need it running off again. 

Y/n was still behind the tree—just deciding to stay there in case they somehow let the chicken go.

Panchito and Cuphead stayed near Y/n as they watched the four slowly close in on the chicken. Y/n hardly spent time focusing on them trying to get the chicken as her mind seemed to have wandered off, her eyes slowly wandered over to the deep part of the forest, she heard muttering from the others as they tried to sneak up on the pesky chicken—an alluring feeling pulled her away from the tree silently. There were tracks off in the direction she had been staring at—curiously gazing up at the trees which had leaves falling from its bare branches. The sun peeking from the trees and down onto the ground—the air had gotten cold—almost like she had wandered into a cold room with a fan that had been on the entire day. 

A brisk breeze gently pushes past Y/n and she lets out a visible shiver. The more she walked the more noticed the air had gotten cold, she could see the small snow landing in the ground. Some snow already littered the ground but it wasn’t enough to where she was trudging through the snow. 

The white puff of air left Y/n’s lips as her eyes danced around the snowy area, completely different from the area she had once been in but after some time on the offlands she noticed how there were different parts of the lands that had different climates, this was just one of the many ones. 

Her eyes landed on a pond, iced over with a thick layer of ice. It was a big pond—big enough for anyone to go canoeing if they wanted to, if it wasn’t glazed over with a thick sheet of ice. 

Y/n’s walk slowly soon came to a stop, the tips of her shoes digging in the ground before landing on the soles of her shoes. Curiously looking at the newly discovered area, she could see mountains a few distances ahead with snow covering its peak—there seemed to be no end of the frozen lake, and she was certain there had to be a ‘No Crossing Allowed’ sign somewhere. 

The flakes of snow in the sky slowly fluttered down to earth, landing in Y/n’s hair and on the ground collecting with an already thick blanket of snow. Spunk slowly stopped behind Y/n and he gazed up at her in curiosity as to why she wandered off from everyone. 

The brisk wind was cold and he could see the human let out a shiver as she moved to walk in the opposite direction to explore the area. Spunk silently trailing behind, small pawprints being left in his wake as he followed after Y/n’s shoeprints. 

“This is weird.” He heard her whisper. Spunk quickly trotted over beside Y/n and looked up at her with big eyes. The human bent down and pressed her hands into the snow—picking it up and balling it in her hands, packing in the snow to be a snowball and dropping it onto the ground. Continuing on she felt the snow deep into her boots from her ankle—the cold feeling pricking at her feet. She glanced back up into the sky to see some birds flying in the distance, as they ventured off elsewhere. The leaves in the trees blowing in the wind—letting out a soft rustling as the clumps of snow fall from its branches and back onto the blanket of snow. 

The sky was a pale grayish white—covering up the once blue sky with its monochrome gradient color. Y/n couldn’t remember the last time she actually sat outside in the cold for more than a few minutes. Most of the time she would just dash right back into the house to warm up next to a heater and sit and watch TV. Last she remembered playing in the snow was with a few of her elementary friends in school. 

Squatting down onto the ground and placing her hands onto the snow—making a small print on it, Spunk walks over and looks down at Y/n’s hands before he moves closer and lays on top of her hands—the warmth from him heats up her hands and gently melts away at the snow—it felt like she was wearing mittens. The pup looks up at her before laying his head on the ground and closing his eyes. Y/n removes a hand from beneath Spunk and placed a hand on his back where he opens his eyes to look at her but his eyes quickly flicks behind her and he quickly stands up and fixing himself to a tense posture—letting out a not too intimidating growl he stared behind Y/n which caused her to quickly stand up and stand beside him to look behind her. Standing next to a tree was an elderly woman. Wearing a dark black cloak. A necklace made of pine wood decorated her neck. She had white curly hair and pale skin, her dark eyes stared at Y/n and her thin eyebrows furrowed for a moment. 

“So we meet.” The woman’s voice prowled. Y/n couldn’t tell if the woman wanted to harm her or just was really weird. Y/n remained silent as she glanced to her side to see if she was talking to anyone else but the woman wasn’t. 

Spunk jumps in front of Y/n and lets out a bark before sitting down between her legs. His body warming up her legs—despite Spunk not being too intimidating he did make great use of being her eyes and ears. She didn’t even know the woman was behind her nor how long she was standing there. 

Y/n’s lips remained closed as her eyes cautiously examined the woman. The woman slowly gives a smile—which in Y/n’s opinion was..a tad bit nerve wracking. The woman turned her head to look off to the side—particularly nowhere but she removed her eyes from Y/n as she could tell how she seemed nervous under her gaze.

“You dislike being stared at.” She states. Which was actually true—Y/n had a pet peeve when people wouldn’t stop staring at her—it was something she developed in school at a young age, something that was so small yet Y/n made a big deal out of it. Her mother had to scold her for having tantrums about it but with the years passing, Y/n grew out of it. A little. 

Y/n felt her shoulders slowly relax and return to its original position—she didn’t know she tensed up so bad but with with recent events with meeting new people that clearly didn’t like her and was out to see her dead—it was to nose surprise every other odd person would make her tense up abit. She felt like every day she stepped foot outside she had to glance behind her back every second.

The woman gives Y/n a sideways glance to see she was patiently looking at her. 

“I knew Hector.” The woman turns her gaze to look at Y/n, in which she continues to stare at the woman. 

“He always spoke about how he wanted a child, someone who he could explore the world with.” 

“Who are you?” Y/n asks. That was really the only question she could think of—some lady randomly appearing and talking about Hector was clearly a bit concerning. 

“Who are you?” The woman asks—whatever that was supposed to mean considering she clearly knew about Y/n. Maybe to an extent. 

Y/n didn’t reply and the woman let out a soft laugh. 

“I’m just joking with you, dear. I already know who you are.” She states and Y/n slowly furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. 

“What?” Y/n muttered as the woman turned around and started to walk down a path that was behind her. 

“I believe you’re still learning, the face print speaks for itself.” The woman starts to wander off and Y/n watches her for a moment and Spunk looks up at her. 

“Follow, child.” 

Y/n couldn’t really sense any danger coming from the woman but she was still hesitant and the woman could sense that. 

“If I wanted to harm you I would have done that already.” She said, Y/n rocked back and forth on her feet before she trudged ahead. 

-

“So, if you knew Hector, does that mean you know about the book? Oh—are you Hector’s friend?” Y/n was already asking the woman a handful of questions as she walked alongside with the woman.

“I met him when he first came to the offlands.” She answered.

“Then how are you still alive?” Y/n asks. She was certain that Hector was alive years ago—anyone his age would be 80 or even 90– minus Ruck and his run-ins with a witch. 

“I’m a mage, dear. I don’t age.” Answered the woman. Y/n’s eyebrows slowly raised—yes she was told they existed a few times but standing right infront of one, she didn’t even know that woman was a witch until she mentioned it. She just seemed like some regular woman—it was odd to see witches in films who were portrayed as these green guys with long noses and a pointy hat. 

“So..you don’t have an age?” 

“Last I checked I remembered somewhere around 80.”

“How do I know you aren’t lying.” 

“You ate a bread crumb from the ground this morning, you strongly believe in the 5 second rule.” 

Y/n grew into a heavy silence. Her eyes flickering off to the side.

…yeah…that happened. 

“Well…how did you know Hector when he got here?” Y/n soon moves on to the next subject at hand.

“Because he came to me, about you.” The woman looks over at Y/n who was already looking at her. Y/n tilts her head.

“Hector and his brother Ruck grew up with only each other. Surprisingly Hector was a family oriented young man. He found out that the book would be passed on to another generation, which is yours. And he was upset he wouldn’t be able to meet you.” The woman started and Y/n could remember back when Ruck immediately seemed to know who Y/n was. 

“He came to me as there were no mages allowed on the mainland…” the woman’s eyes slowly turned to face forward as she trailed off. 

“Who are you?” She asks Y/n. 

“Y/n.”

The woman heard the human answer her question and she looked back at her to see Y/n was holding Spunk in her arms for warmth. Spunk laid his head on Y/n’s shoulder and the woman turned to look ahead. 

“He wanted to see you, and I let him.” 

Y/n smiled and perked up. “How?” 

The woman brings a finger up to her temple and gently taps it. “Through vision. It’s a very strenuous thing to perform. But he was in wonders when he saw you.” 

Y/n felt her smile slowly edge back onto her face—she hadn’t really thought much about Hector viewing her as anything—much less her thinking of him other than some walking star clearly. The woman slowly stops walking and Y/n looks ahead to see a small cottage—a puff of white smoke spilling from the chimney—snow littering the top of the roof and even on the porch. The woman didn’t seem bothered by the cold at all, not as much as Y/n. 

“That is why I came to you. To show you his word he had out for you.” The woman continues down the path and to the porch of the house—Y/n following behind her as she holds onto Spunk like some portable heater. 

The mage opens the door and wanders into the house with Y/n following behind. The warm air caused a shiver to run down Y/n’s spine as she gazed around. There were shelves of books stacked neatly. The wooden floor creaked under her shoes as her pupils danced around with all the trinkets that had their own glow—so witches did make potions! 

The yellow glow of the candle lit up the room and the woman walked over to a table and sits down—there was a chair across from her and she waited for Y/n to come sit as expected but after moments passed and she looked over her shoulder she saw the human staring off at the displays of artifacts. 

“What’s this?” Y/n sets Spunk down and the pup sits on the floor as Y/n leaned to look at a glass display of an arrow—similar to the one she had in her quiver. 

“That’s Hector’s arrow.” The woman responds as she watches the human scamper around the room gazing upon all the things. 

“He had a bow and arrow too?” Y/n asks, not breaking eye contact from the shelves of many books. 

“Yes, he did.” 

“So, you knew Hector for a long time.” 

“For some time now.” 

“You knew Ruck too?” 

“We never really talked.” 

Wow. She asked a lot of questions and that was a shocking thing to see how estatic the girl was over the man. Y/n turns and looks at the mage. 

“Come sit.” The woman motions towards the table and Y/n walks over and sits down—Spunk’s scampering gently tapping against the wooden floor—Y/n sat sideways in her seat as she glanced around the small kitchen before facing forward and looking at the mage. 

“Close your eyes. And empty your mind.” She says and Y/n closed her eyes—clearing it was a tad bit difficult considering her mind was always running with thoughts. She heard the woman shuffling across from her—causing Y/n to gently peek from her left eye—the woman placed a hand over Y/n’s eyes. 

“I said close.” 

“Sorry.” 

The woman’s warm hand got warmer as the seconds passed—like a heated towel laid upon Y/n’s eyes. 

“You watch. And listen. This will open roads for you as a person..and as a hero.” The woman tells. Y/n didn’t know what that meant but remained silent—her head felt light, almost like she was floating from her seat. It was dead silent, she could feel her heart beating in her ears. The room itself felt empty—vague of any life, her eyebrows twitched in uncertainty but she didn’t know what to say. 

The warm feeling was still there but it didn’t feel like hands were on her eyes.

The sound of a muffled voice from behind a closed door reached Y/n’s ears, someone was talking, Y/n cautiously opened her eyes—squinting as if not to get caught opening her eyes again—but she met a dim room—which looked more like a bedroom than a kitchen that she was just seated at. 

Fully opening her eyes, Y/n noticed she was standing up and looked down at her feet before back up to a closed door when she heard talking again. 

“Stop asking stupid shit.”

“It was just a question, Jesus.” 

Y/n wandered over to the door and placed her hand on the doorknob before slowly opening it to reveal a balcony over the living room she had just been discovering around with the mages' antiques moments ago. Surprisingly she hardly noticed the staircase leading upstairs. But what caught her interest were two young men standing in the front door way. 

It was Ruck and Hector, considerably younger though. Y/n placed her hands on the railing of the balcony and gazed down at them. Hector had a brown travel bag around his shoulders—his dark hair slicked—but somehow slightly unkempt—gazing around the area excitedly. Ruck didn’t have a mustache as she thought he would have—but then again she only knew him when he was older—on his left eye was a white gauze and she remembered the eye that he couldn’t see from—she expected that he just couldn’t see from it from birth but now had the nagging feeling something probably caused it. 

Ruck didn’t seem too interested in his surroundings as he looked over at the mage—what was standing in front of the two with the door in her hand—she didn’t seem to look any younger then again she also mentioned she couldn’t age. 

“That..is a very dangerous procedure to go through.” The mage removes herself from the door and walks further into the cottage. Hector and Ruck follow behind.

“Yes..I was told that..” Hector says slowly almost like he knew she would say that, he rubbed his hands against his pants as he looked away from one of the bookshelves. 

“But please. This is the last time I’ll be on this island before I’ll have to leave for Ruby Falls.” He starts as he follows the mage into the kitchen.

“I was told you were the best mage here in the offlands. And that you know about the book, and that you have the power to have a glimpse in time.” Hector states and the mage sits down at the table and gazes at the man who stood awkwardly in the middle of the room. 

“I mean—if that’s possible—“

“Are you here for understanding your journey? I’m afraid I can’t help you with that. The book chooses who it will and I can’t subject it—but I do have other knowledge.” The woman states. Hector falls silent for a moment—he clearly didn’t understand what that meant, he glanced over his shoulder to Ruck who only  slowly shrugs in response. 

“If..it’s about the fall.” Hector looks back at the mage. “I don’t wish to hear it.” 

“But you are the wielder of the book Mr. Vendolez. It’s not wise to shy away from the truth.” The woman prodes and Hector lets out a strained laugh before shuffling on his feet. 

“Oh please! I’m not shying away from anything—moving on—” he quickly moves on the subject at hand he originally came to the mage for. 

“I would like to see if perhaps—maybe in the future, we would have any family.” Hector brings up. The mage was silent for a moment and Hector couldn’t tell if she was debating or just finding his question absurd and stupid. 

“It’s just in case anything were to happen to us in the long run.” Hector says quietly as the mage stares at him. 

“It’s sterenous.” She soon says and Hector perks up when she starts to speak. 

“But I fear you might need it.” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ruck asks from the background—Hector glanced over his shoulder to Ruck and quickly shook his head. He would not let his brother destroy this only opportunity he had—after searching through many witches through the offlands and finally finding one who specialized in small future visions, he couldn’t let this moment fall through his fingers. 

“Sit.” The woman motions over to the table with two other chairs in which Hector walked over and sat down. When he did he looked over to Ruck who was still standing before glancing at the seat next to him which Ruck silently walked over to and sat down next to Hector. The mage had stood up from her seat as he did so and she walked over to Hector and lifted a hand to his head. Snapping a strand of hair from his head. Hector flinched harshly and raised a hand to his head and looked up at the mage before she walked back over to her seat and placed the strand of hair on the middle of the table. 

She wandered over to the side of the room where the cabinet was—opening it she started rummaging through the cabinets and Ruck gave his brother a sideways glance. 

“Are you sure about this? I hear looking into the future isn’t too good on someone’s mind..she just basically said you’re going to die soon.” Ruck lowered his voice so Hector could hear. Hector gently placed his hands on the table. 

“Well..this makes this all the better. You know I always wanted a child—“

“Jesus Christ.” Ruck deadpans as Hector chuckled before placing a hand on his brother's shoulder. “We knew something would be bound to come around soon. I’m certain if there is someone in the future to take the book they’ll have better care for it than what me and the others had for it..” 

Ruck didn’t reply back as the mage placed scented twigs on the table, near the strand of hair. She takes a piece of cotton from her pocket and leans her hand over to a wall where it caught fire from the candle lighting up the room. Placing the lit cotton on the sticks and hair strand. It caught the flames and started eating away, she sat back in her chair and the sweet smell of pine wood danced around the room, the flames standing on the table.

After a brief moment of silence, the mage looks at Hector. 

“She’s generations down.” She answered and he immediately smiled at the answer. 

“And she is your granddaughter—“

“Great! I’m going to be a grandfather—who woulda knew!” Hector shouts in glee and frantically shakes Rucks’s shoulders, Ruck blinking frantically at the shaking before looking at Hector who seemed to want to shoot out of his seat. 

“Tell me. What is her name?” Hector asks. 

“Y/n.” The mage answered and Hector’s smile widened. 

“She is a weak soul.” 

“Well—some children go through some devastation—probably won’t learn to ride a bike like I did.” Hector brushed it off but the mage continued on. 

“Where is she?” Ruck asks. The woman placed her forearms on the table. “Close your eyes.” 

The two stared at the mage for a moment before closing their eyes—Hector a tad bit too excited as he peeked an eye open and the mage furrowed her eyebrows. 

“Close.”

“Sorry.” He immediately apologized. 

The mage closes her eyes as well and inhales the room falling into a deep silence—seconds seem to have passed by—and frantic sound of shuffling on the floor emits around the room. Hector slowly opened his eyes at the sound as did Ruck—Hector’s eyes landed on a small hand holding onto the chair of the mage and peeking up at him and Ruck was a child. No older than the age of 6. She quickly dips back behind the chair.

“Here she is.” The mage announced before standing up from her chair and glancing behind it. Ruck and Hector stood up from the chairs and both wandered around the table to look behind the chair and there sat a small child, wearing a brown dress—that seemed a tad bit tattered but that was the least of his worries. 

“What the fuc-“ Ruck was cut off by Hector. 

“Magnificent!” Hector shouts with glee. The e/c eyes gazed up at Hector and a wide toothy smile stretched on the child’s face as Hector quickly kneeled down and picked the child up. 

“Isn’t she just the most adorable thing, ain’t that right? Look at that smile!” Hector held the child in front of him, her legs dangling in the air. 

“Is this really her?” Ruck asks the mage who shook her head.

“A vision. She doesn't exist in this world yet.” The mage explained as Hector walked forward—holding the child above his head—Y/n burst into a fit of giggles as Hector smiled up at her. The child reached her arms out and opened her mouth before chomping down on the air—her teeth clinking together as if she were aiming to bite something. 

“Oh—what is that you’re doing?” Hector cooed at the child before bringing her closer and placing her on his hip—resting his arm under her leg he turned to Ruck and smiled. “Look! She’s your niece!” He exclaims and Ruck looks at the child who was already looking at him. His eyes then flickered back to Hector who moved to hold Y/n in front of him. 

“It’s a shame I won’t be there to see you.” He says and Y/n stared at Hector silently before smiling and covering her face—in which he chuckled. 

He placed the child down onto the ground and she immediately pounced at his leg—wrapping her arms around his leg—similar to a kitten pouncing at something—Hector smiled before moving his leg back.

Ruck looked at the mage as Hector became busy with the time spent playing with Y/n, which was him obnoxiously running around the house with the child. 

“Does she survive?” He asks.

“I can’t see that. As stated, actions from the book affect me, that is something that is determined in time.” 

The child latched onto Hector’s leg and laughed and lifted up a leg and she had a tight grip on his leg —dangling in the air as she stared up at him he let out another laugh. 

“I like this kid!” 

Hector kneeled down to the child who had unlatched herself from his leg, Y/n sat down on the ground as she smiled at Hector, a hand raising up to touch at his forehead. 

“I’m certain she’ll do just fine.” Hector says—the child was busy making incoherent babbling and watched as the man stood up and glanced between Ruck and the mage. 

“Will she survive?” He asks. 

“She can’t tell.” Ruck answered for the mage. 

“Speak to her.” The mage says before her eyes flickered down to the child seated on the floor who was already looking up at the three. Hector looks back down at the child before slowly squatting back down to her level. 

“Yes..let’s see..” he starts. Thinking about what to say as the child silently stared at him. 

“I can’t entirely read the future—well I can’t at all.. but I won’t be there when you’re in the process of your own journey.” He starts. The child continued to stare at the man and he was certain she couldn’t understand him at all—not a thought running around in that mind of hers.

“You win some you lose some—that’s what Ruck tells me. But me personally.” Hector lowered his voice so only the child could hear him. “But me personally I’d rather win them all. But we can’t win everything can we?” 

The child slowly smiled before Hector silently laughed. “If you—at any time would hear this. You are a strong kid. Even if something happens in the line of your journey. You have the greatest bond anyone could ever have.” 

The child’s pupils dilated and a soft sound came from her mouth. Hector smiled once more and placed his hands on her arms. 

“I heard as time goes—people lose touch of where they came from. Me and Ruck don’t have much to offer from our name—but I hope you’re strong enough to put a start to saving mankind.”

“I’ll be glad to be dead and gone if the time even comes.” Ruck muttered under his breath and Hector looked at his brother—before looking back at the child. 

“I might just pay someone to cast a spell on Ruck to keep him here.” Hector jokes with a small laugh and Ruck remains silent, surely it was to get back at the small prank he pulled on Hector a few hours ago. 

Hector was silent for a moment before looking at the mage.

“What do I tell her?” 

“Your discoveries, in time if she has the heart to enter this world to embark on her own journey, that is where I’ll find her. And show her your message to you.” The mage responds finally giving some useful response. 

Hector raises an eyebrow. “How? She’s not here yet.” 

“I will show her this memory.” 

Hector tilted his head in interest—something sparking in him as he opened his mouth silently. “Like—a recording?” 

The mage nods at his comparison.

“Thought she won’t be able to remember this if she isn’t here yet.” Ruck states and the mage looks at him. “She won’t.” The woman glances down at the child still silently sitting on the floor. 

“But when the time comes where she exists in the world—hopefully with no failure, she looks back at it, and if she so happens to come to the offlands where I find her. She’ll be listening right now.” The mage flickers her gaze off to the side of the room where Y/n had wandered from down the stairs to sit on them and watch the four in the living room. 

Hector looked over to where the woman was looking at but didn’t see anything standing there. But to Y/n it was like he looked directly right at her. His gaze didn’t last too long onto her before looking back down at the child who was still silently looking up at him. 

“I would advise you to hurry and tell her your discovery.” The mage points a finger back at the table where the fire was starting to dwindle down. 

“When the fire dies away, so will she. And I’m afraid that is the only time I will be allowed to grant you the wish to see her.” 

Hector slowly nods—quickly tracking through his brain, he didn’t rehearse for this so he didn’t want to fumble too bad. 

“You..I was told—you will be gifted with a gift. A power that no man has ever had before. A mark that will be given to you for the greater good, to not only to protect yourself from the darkness, but to protect the world.” 

The child silently stared up at Hector as he slowly stopped talking. “I couldn’t do it. They wanted me to have it—but I told them to pass it onto you..because the war wouldn’t happen in my time—but yours. I don’t have the others with me, I unfortunately lost them during our journey, and I hope you don’t lose any of yours, whoever they may be.”

Hector sits down on the floor and takes his backpack off, placing it on the ground and soon opening it, scuffling through it he then pulls out the book that Y/n tried her hardest to understand—and clearly not get taken away as so many people tried getting their hands on it.

“This book. Is powerful. Don’t lose it, from what I gathered, it guides you. I don’t really understand the meaning of it, but I did find some pretty interesting things about different creatures—pretty neat in my opinion.” He opened the book and started flipping through the pages, the child looked down at the book to see various picture of sketches and words that she clearly couldn’t comprehend.

“There’s this—cave in the offlands, here.” He flips to a page that seemed to be a drawn map of land—which was the offlands—a circle marked on the map—marking a location. 

“This, is where I found out about the mark. You can go there and there’s these pretty clever women there—they’re goddesses of storytelling and vision. They were the ones that told me about the magic power of it and as well as the shadow realm, which I believe is the problem to all of this—it’s my speculation. But if you have the time, go there. They speak about the world and what will happen—and about the stone to Ruby Falls.” The more Hector spoke the more frantic he got as the fire soon started to fade away—whereas the child tilted her head at him in confusion with his bantering. 

The mage looks at the fire that had diminished into nothing but ashes and golden embers, when she looked back the child was gone and Hector stood up before slowly closing the book. 

“I don’t know if I explained enough.” Hector says before looking at the mage.

Y/n had been standing at the bottom of the staircase, her hand on the railing as she watched Hector then look at Ruck. 

“I’m certain she’ll come through whenever or wherever.” Ruck responds and Hector slowly nods as he wanders back over to his brother to stand beside him. The mage looks over to Y/n in which the human looks back at her. 

“Who are you?” The mage asks yet again and Y/n’s eyebrows twitch in confusion. “Y/n.” She responds. 

The background where Ruck and Hector was standing had darkened leaving only the mage and Y/n.

“I don’t have magic.” Y/n responds, of course she had a million things running through her head. Seeing Hector in the flesh, and Ruck, hearing Hector give her some semi hint—but what stood out the most was him mentioning magic—but she didn’t have any. And she was certain if she did she most certainly would have known that by now. Or at least she thought so. 

“Does that bother you?” The woman asks. And that set Y/n back, did it bother her? 

Y/n remained silent as she stared at the woman. 

“You will be in denial. That is something normal for all living things, follow Hector’s guidance.” 

Y/n shuffled on her feet and gave a strained smile. “Okay…is..that something I’m supposed to be concerned about?” 

“Close your eyes.” 

Y/n slowly nods before closing her eyes as told—this time without peeking. 

When she opened her eyes she felt the cold air nipping away at her. The sound of the wind wisping by and the feeling of snow reaching her ankles. The snowy path from before was in front of her. Y/n turns around to see the frozen lake and looks down to see Spunk looking up at her. 

She was back in the same spot as before. 

A wave of confusion hit Y/n as she scrunched her face up—she had been through a lot of things but that by far was one of the most confusing scenarios she had been through. 

Yet—she was certain it happened. The woman was a witch afterall..

“Damn..” Y/n whispered. Raising a hand to her head before slowly trudging away and back to the path she had first found the frozen lake. Spunk walked beside her as he hopped up and down in the snow to get a better advantage at walking. 

“That doesn't make sense.” Y/n muttered to herself. Not at the fact that she managed back outside. But what Hector said. Some goddess was going to gift him some ability to stop something—but gave it to Y/n instead? Yet she didn’t even remotely have anything magic related to her. Not to mention, Hector unfortunately died, and she had a feeling he knew he would. If he did, and she couldn’t even finish some gym course without tiring herself out—what the hell was she supposed to do with some future Armageddon, she didn’t have magic, that she was certain of, whatever goddess gave him that information was wrong. Unless they decided to just not give it to her, sort of like picky colleges only accepting students that fit their criteria. 

Hell, Y/n wouldn’t even pick herself to save the world- sure let’s give the human magic to save mankind when they can’t even walk across a wooden bridge without falling off of it. 

Spunk barks and Y/n looks ahead to see if he was barking at someone but didn’t see anything, when she looked back down at him he was looking at her. Spunk stopped walking and sat down on the ground. 

“What?” Y/n asks. Spunk gently perks his ears up before standing back up to his fours and pressing his nose Y/n’s leg.

The human stared down at Spunk before reaching down and placing a hand to his head and smiling. 

“Come on..let’s get back to the others.”

-

“It was so weird. She randomly just disappeared out of nowhere.” Y/n says—she was seated on a log with Felix seated on the ground with Spunk in his lap. The others were busy in the background discovering what the land had to offer in the wooded area. When she made it back to the others they were still in the same exact spot—thankfully with the chicken. 

When they returned the chickens back to the lady, she was ecstatic—and of course Donald had to scold her for making a better pen, he did not want to repeat finding those chickens again. But they all decided to pause momentarily in doing good deeds—well, Felix and Y/n did so he could continue to teach her to use the bow and the others were supposed to go off and finish some good deeds but decided to tag along—knowing their full intentions were to be lazy. 

Y/n slowly stopped talking when she saw the look Felix was giving her. His head was facing Spunk but he was giving Y/n a sideways glance with squinted eyes. 

“Which..I didn’t mean to walk off, sorry.” She immediately backtracks. Wandering off from the group and coming back telling a story about how one met a witch was probably not a good look. Especially being out in an area she knew little to nothing of. 

“You know I’m starting to think you may be more trouble than Cuphead..”  Felix chuckled and Y/n smiled gently. 

“Well. I think it’s rather cool you got a glimpse of the past- if you can call it that. Maybe what Hector told you about that goddess is true.” Felix states and Y/n thought about it, he did tell her to go to some cave, maybe that would also lead them somewhere or give them some sort of information? That..was a lot though, they already had a full plate with little time—making rounds to a cave lord knows how long would definitely knock off time but it had to be done if they expect to do anything useful with themselves in finding out all that’s going on. Certainly everyone wouldn’t mind a small trip from the town for maybe a day. 

“Yeah…” she started. And Felix glanced at her as he watched the human gaze off into the trees. 

“So, you’re not gonna tell me why your eyebrow is scratched?” Felix brings up. Y/n flickers her eyes to him in confusion. 

“I did. Some guy didn’t like me earlier today.” 

“You don’t seem too happy about that.” 

Y/n grew silent before bringing a hand up and rubbing at the back of her neck—gently pulling at the small hairs at the nape of her neck. 

“It was so embarrassing..you should have seen me. It was like the entire building didn’t like me. The course was hard and I broke a few nails climbing a wall. Then I got my ass kicked while doing the course and I hit my head—the constructor also doesn't like me.” She stops talking before looking at him. 

“It was awful.” She confessed. Felix stared at Y/n for a moment before looking back down at Spunk who got up from his lap to go wandering off somewhere else—finding something more entertaining. He then moved and sat down on the log next to Y/n. 

“Well you stood your ground just fine it seems.” He starts. The human looks away from him and over to a tree. That Spunk had been sniffing at, her eyebrows twitched and Felix gently tilted his head to look at her. 

“You know you don’t have to win the contest..right?” 

Y/n’s eyes flickered to him. “I’m aware.” That wasn’t her main objective to win..before that was. But with the way things played out earlier this morning, she was really considering otherwise..

The sheer embarrassment of what just happened made her not want to show her face back up in the place, but that small sense of inner turmoil and confidence was telling her otherwise. 

She was still brand spanking new with using a bow and arrow, and she could barely make it out of the course with her skin intact with her body, there was no way she was making it with the finals. 

“If I don’t win, I’m literally going to be the laughing stock of town. I can sorta make a few shots with the bow—but I still suck at it.” 

“Then we’ll sit out here for as long as you’d like so you can learn to use it.” Felix offers. Y/n perked up at that offer—surely Felix still needed rest, she was positive it would take more than just a few hours in the day for her to learn to properly use the bow. But she needed it, clearly. 

“We won’t be going to sleep if that’s the case.” She joked and Felix chuckled before shaking his head. “I can take staying up for a few hours. Besides, I’m sure Ruck would be glad to see you staying up a few more hours to work on your archery skills, shows him you’re at least trying.” 

Y/n slowly nods at that statement, she also wanted to show Ruck she could be serious when the time comes—which to her she was a pretty serious person…to an extent. 

Felix noticed Y/n’s silence and gently placed a hand on the back of her neck. “I promise you before you start out with the contest, you’ll make a hit with an arrow.”

Listening to his promise, Y/n felt a newfound motivation stir in her.

“Can I learn to shoot an arrow with fire!”

“Absolutely not.” 

-

Ruck wandered down the path of the wooded area—the leaves crunching under his shoes was oddly quiet in the serene environment. The birds chirping in the sky and the sound of water trickling from a stream a few feet away was relaxing enough to put a baby to sleep. It was relaxing…

That’s if he didn’t know Y/n was trailing right behind him. 

Y/n had found Ruck in town with Meek and Don—the two were actually the ones who dragged him out to explore the town up until he walked away to get some alone time, which Y/n had followed behind him like a moth to a flame. She had told Felix she was off to speak to Ruck after their short conversation and she was grateful to even find the guy almost immediately when she headed back into town. 

Not to mention she was proud of herself for remembering the trail back into town with the many times they took it now. 

But she followed behind him silently all the way out of town, Ruck didn’t know she was behind him until he heard a twig snap from behind him 4 minutes into walking. And the rest of the 10 minutes was him tossing his alone time out of the window to see how long it would take for the kid to actually speak and not just follow behind him. 

Ruck furrowed his eyebrows before slowly stopping in his walk. Y/n slowly stopped as well and silently stood a few feet behind Ruck. 

The still silence in the air was enough for the birds to stop in their melody for a moment. Ruck moves and turns around to look at Y/n who was already looking at him silently, like some bite sized stalker. 

“Jesus kid..what.” Ruck grumbled. Y/n slowly smiled before placing her hands behind her back. Rocking back and forth on her feet as she stared at him. 

“So…I was thinking.” She starts and Ruck sighed through his nose heavily, like he knew she was going to place some outlandish offer on the table. Which that wasn’t the fact—well to her that wasn’t.

“It’s not bad! Just listen!” Y/n quickly extends her arm out as if she was stopping him from talking just in case he did. 

She stayed there for a brief moment in silence as if waiting for Ruck to say something. Which he noticed before lifting an eyebrow. “Go on..” 

“I was thinking maybe you could train me to be more resilient for the contest.” 

Ruck remained silent as he stared at Y/n and that made her nervous—did he not agree? 

“The contest is in 4 days, you don’t have enough time to train, you know how much time it takes for something like that?” He questioned her and Y/n had no clue. She hadn’t touched a weight ever. 

Y/n pressed her lips together and squinted her eyes at him. 

“C’moooon. Family bonding, it’ll be a neat thing!” She tried to persuade but Ruck remained silent with a nonchalant expression. Y/n straightens her posture and clears her throat. 

“Take it to the extreme, I’ll toss myself off a plane to show you, I can take training days! Felix is helping me with my archery, you help me in agility and all that. Might not be enough time, but I’m a fast learner, I promise!” Y/n locked her hands together and pleads;

“Please! Please! PLEASE! I can’t make myself look like a fool in front of the town. You saw how I got my ass kicked today, if that happens again I’m nothing in the name of a Vendolez!” She cried out. Her demeanor quickly changed to that of desperation, she couldn’t go out like this. 

Ruck slowly blinks as Y/n continues saying—‘Please!’ Frantically in the background. Ruck didn’t have to do anything. But considering how quite literally he couldn't say no to her simply because the kid genuinely was trying to make something of herself, he slowly shook his head at the annoying pleas that kept falling from her mouth. 

“Okay..” he said over the pleases but they kept continuing on and he furrowed his eyebrows at that. 

“Okay!” He raised his voices, Y/n shot up from the ground she once had fallen down from her short tantrum. 

“Yes!” She shouts in glee and wraps her arms around Ruck in a tight hug, in which he stumbles slightly at the sudden action, baffled by her sudden affectionate behavior he gazes down at her as she jumps up and down. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” 

Pulling away Y/n runs around him in joy. 

“So what’s first! Swimming?! Catching fish again? Oh! I can climb the tree much faster now!” 

Y/n was about to scamper off to show him before Ruck grabbed her by the back of her shirt—putting her in a halt. 

“We’ll start tomorrow morning. We can skip the morning classes.” He says and releases her, she gives her a confused look. 

“But, the training is the actual course. And—clearly fighting.” She grumbled about that last part. Her altercation with Stinks left a sour taste in her mouth about him. 

“While you were off prancing around doing whatever, I checked in with the conductor after your first round of training—“ 

“Why were you speaking with the conductor?” Y/n questioned and Ruck squinted his eyes at her. 

“Shut it.” 

“Sorry.” She immediately apologized.

“Like I was saying, I checked in with the constructor with what will be in the contest along with the finals. You’re doing more than some obstacle race.” He says. 

“What does that mean?” 

“You’re in for one hell of a training.” 

#toon quest #bendyxreader #the three caballeros x reader #bendy and the ink machine #cuphead x reader #duck tales x reader #felix the cat #felix the cat x reader #oswald the lucky rabbit #animanics 2020 #panchito pistoles #toons

[toontails]

Toon Quest

Chapter 6: Just Close Your Eyes

A/n: This was already posted on Quotev, but I was so busy I damn near forgot to post on here. Sorry guys, but here it is, I have so many chapters in my stack for you guys because I love you all so much.

before reading I just wanted to let you know that this chapter does have music and that Quotev works best for it, though if you don’t use and or can’t access Quotev, the song is in the link when reaching the scene! If you’d like to read the chapter on Quotev, the link is right here!

-

Y/n sat and watched as Alice combed her hair—the Angel sat on the end of her her bed—today was the day..and frankly..Y/n was a tad bit nervous about today—the day of the competition, she had heard them rehearse and the sound was glorious and meaningful but the thing is, who else might be there at the competition, some guy that was equivalent to Michael Jackson himself could be there! But that small bit of courage kept telling her that everything would be alright.

It was currently 6 in the morning and Y/n’s eyes felt like they would just close on their own, but Alice had woken her up twice now and hadn’t moved until the human finally sat up. Y/n slipped from out of the bed and mentally prepared herself for all the challenges that would be tossed her way, but either way she would face them—not that she really had a choice in the matter. 

Doing the regular routine of brushing her teeth, grabbing a fresh pair of clothes..which was the clothing the church provided but nevertheless she wore them, she opted out on not wearing the itchy stockings and placed her flats on before checking her bag to make sure the book and the stone was secured, which thankfully it was, throwing her bookbag on she looked over at Alice who had just finished combing through her dark thick hair. The Angel shot Y/n a smile before the two left the room. Walking over to the boys room, Y/n was met with Spunk’s peppy footsteps following after her, looking up at her with his tongue lolled out. 

Pushing the door open she spotted Panchito holding a rubber band in his hand and childishly shooting it at the back of Donald’s head who was busy fixing something on the kitchen counter—when the rubber band hit his head, Donald rolled his eyes before looking over his shoulder and to Panchito who gave him a smile with his hands beside him as if he hadn’t done it. 

Oswald was brushing his ears with a brush as he sat on the couch next to Felix and Bendy. Charley and Barley were talking—or more so antagonizing Bendy—as always. And Edgar was curled up on the couch beside Bendy asleep. Y/n walks over before sitting down between Bendy and Felix and Bendy looks at her slowly with a blank expression as Charley spoke in the background. 

“Remember that time you had to wear a tutu?”  Charley wheezed before laughing and Bendy looked away from Y/n and to Charley before rolling his eyes. “Gee..how could I ever forget..” muttered Bendy. 

“Charley, shut it.” Alice grumbled as she walked over and pushed him away from the arm of the couch before she sat down next to Edgar who had woken up shortly after she sat down. 

“About time ya’ got up. What’s the plan for today?” Barley asks—Y/n had taken notice that he didn’t have his eyepatch on which he wore the entire time she’s been around him but instead he didn’t have it on, his left eye was dull—as if he couldn’t see from that eye. Maybe visually impaired? A scar that started from right under his eyebrow and ended at the bottom of his eye was prominent; she hadn’t ever seen it in any of the shows he starred in—even if he had the patch off for a split second, even then she could vaguely remember not seeing the scar. 

It was actually quite cool to look at to be honest. She looked away from Barley who was still distracted by Alice speaking—which Y/n didn’t know she was speaking until she placed her attention on her. 

“So, today is the day guys.” Alice started before looking at everyone. Panchito smiled excitedly and wrapped an arm around Donald’s shoulders. “I must say so myself? I am quite excited!” He exclaims, Donald stumbled slightly when Panchito leaned all his weight onto him. 

“And..what exactly are we going to do if we don’t win that jewel?” Oswald asks the real question that Y/n had been pondering over for the last few minutes and Charley turns back around after thinking about walking off to do gods know what.

“No. We’re not stealing it.” Alice quickly spoke for Charley who groaned and clenched his eyes shut. “What else is the best option then?!” He bellowed. 

Alice only snickered—clearly she only said that to get a reaction out of him. “Fine..if we somehow don’t manage to win. Which I hope we do..then you can steal it Charley.” Alice comments and Charley seems to calm down at the mention of that—like a child being gifted a basket of candy to keep them at bay for the time being. 

“We’re supposed to be down there at 10am to get the sisters ready.” Alice informs—it was currently 8am and they had about a good hour to get back into town and Felix noticed the time on the wall clock when he glanced over. 

“Well, maybe it would be best to leave now, what time does the actual competition start?” He asks Alice and she searches through her brain to remember the time. 

“7 at night. So I’ll have plenty of time to get the sisters ready and all that.” She says And Edgar squeaks before sitting up and clapping his hands—Y/n still couldn’t understand anything that came from Edgar’s mouth but it seemed, Charley, Barley, Bendy and Alice would understand him—but the odd thing was Boris couldn’t really understand Edgar at times. 

Alice laughs softly at what Edgar said before nodding, placing a hand on Edgar’s head. “Me too Eddie.” 

“Well! Come on—we got the whole day ahead of us.” Donald announced before motioning his hand towards the door. 

The day was only starting and Y/n could feel the excitement stirring up. 

-

Once making it to the venue—Alice had wandered off with the sister that way they could start rehearsing for majority of the day—Charley and Edgar had went off with her and Barley was busy writing the names down on the tickets—mostly the nuns names as they were the ones that would be singing up on stage tonight. Alice didn’t want to get onstage as much as they wanted her too, they even tried to stick Y/n into, but the human never slipped away from a conversation so quick In her life. 

The boys were standing near a bench talking—mostly trying to think about what to do until the time came to congregate back at the venue. 

Y/n walks over to Barley, Spunk removes himself from the ground he had been busy watching bee’s fly around in the grass and follows behind Y/n. 

When she slowly stopped beside Barley who was still writing down the many names that he surprisingly could remember. 

“Barley.” She says and he was still writing down as he grunted letting her know she got his attention. “How’d you get your scar on your eye?” She asks. 

“If I said I ran into a pole, ya’ won’t ask me that again?” He says as he continued writing down the names slowly now that Y/n was speaking to him. And for some reason his answer seemed like a lie. 

“Really, a pole.” She deadpans and Barley laughs before placing the clipboard down and looking at her. Spunk circled around the inside of Y/n’s legs before sitting in between her feet to look up at the two. 

“No—that’s a fib.” The two looked over to see Bendy walking over. “I gave em’ a good punch one time on set by accident.” Bendy answered Y/n’s question that he somehow heard her ask. Y/n furrowed her eyebrows. Jeez. 

“Jeez Bendy, you punched him that hard?” She says as Bendy laughed and Barley chuckled under his breath. “Coulda’ been harder, come on sweets. Let’s take a walk, yeah?” Bendy motioned for her to follow him, intertwining his arm with hers as the two started to walk away—Spunk scurrying after the two, his tail wagging as he trots after. 

But Barley never truly answered her question. But she brushed it off as a small inside joke within Bendy and Barley and walked beside Bendy back over to the boys who stood by a picnic bench. 

“Jeez Panchito—you didn’t have to pinch so hard.” Donald groaned in pain and rubbed his arm—Panchito sat on the table—his feet resting in the bench seat as he watched Donald cower in pain. “Oh—my friend I barely even landed a finger on you.” Panchito laughs. Felix chuckled at the two and moved his gaze over to Bendy and Y/n when they wandered back over. 

“Glad you two came back, and heard there was a small fair a few blocks away for the competition, maybe it’ll be nice to let loose and enjoy the day, yeah?” Felix’s eyes  looked at the group and Y/n immediately nodded. All she did ever since leaving home was fight for her life and run around like a chicken with its head cut off. Some time at the fair before they had to get back to work was perfect in her opinion. 

“Sounds good.” Oswald says—letting go of Donald’s arm he was examining after Panchito punched his arm. 

The next thing Y/n knew was Bendy scurried off chasing Spunk when the pup took off running with someone’s balloon—Felix had wandered off with Donald and Panchito to look for something to eat and Oswald chose to stay beside Y/n, watching as they all wandered off. 

“Well then.” Y/n said before looking at Oswald who was busy looking off in another direction. “It’s you and me then!” She smiled at the rabbit who then looked at her and smiled.

And for the last hour or so Oswald and Y/n pretty much went around to different booths playing various games..which Y/n felt was a tad bit rigged as in one of the games it was toss and aim—and she certainly hit the stack of blocks but the ball just bounced right off as if it were a wall. She really only aimed it because she wanted the elephant teddy bear that was on display and when she used the only 5 dollars she had in her pockets and lost, she felt like tearing apart the damn stand—up until Oswald had won it for her—despite her aim being pretty decent, he managed it hit the blocks down and win it for her. 

Bendy had managed to find the two—with Spunk locked in his arms, the pup laid limply in his arm as his tail wagged excitedly, Y/n held the elephant teddy bear in her hands and smiled at Bendy when he got close to the two, placing Spunk on the ground, the pup sat down obediently and gazes up at the three. 

Bendy’s chest heaved up and down as if he were out of breath and he sighed. “That thing is a lot faster than I thought.” Bendy pants and Oswald reaches down and pats Spunk’s head. “I’m sure he wasn’t that fast.” Oswald.

Bendy only huffed at that statement, Spunk hadn’t moved once he spotted Y/n glance down at him and made sure he didn’t wander off again. Thankfully he didn’t. 

Spotting a snack stand, Y/n decided it would be best to get a small snack—she was sure they wouldn’t return to the church until late at night to actually have a meal. 

“I’ll be back.” Y/n says as she wandered past Bendy and Oswald, she heard the metal of Spunk’s collar clinking together and the pup trotted behind her as she walked over to the snack stand. The cashier was busy scrolling through their phone until Y/n placed her hands on the counter and when she did so the cashier placed his phone away to take her order—there wasn’t much aside from small snacks like a bag of chips, nachos…which consisted of really just nacho chips and cheese and a basket of fries which she decided to take order the fries. 

As she was waiting for them when the cashier turned his back to grab the fries from a pan of already made ones—Y/n looked down at Spunk who was already looking up at her. His tail wagged quickly when she placed her focus on him and she smiled softly. “Do you eat food?” She asks him. Not that she really expected an answer from him—but Spunk’s ears perked up when Y/n spoke. He stood up on his fours and sniffed the ground frantically. The tip of his nose moved ever so slightly until it landed on an abandoned lonely fry. Picking it up he raised his head up and ate the fry before looking at Y/n. 

Which…she was surprised considering that he could actually eat what sort of technology was Hector using when developing Spunk? 

The sound of laughter and cheering caught Y/n’s attention. Her eyes moved away from Spunk and the two looked over to a group of people clapping and dancing, soon a man slipped through the crowd in fits of laughter. A flower necklace of various colors rested upon his neck and a pair of star shaped glasses. He had a thin mustache and dark hair. Wearing a white dress shirt with slacks he seemed to be like he belonged more so in a business office rather than a festival. But who was she to say anything

“Alright! Alright! That’s enough!” He laughed as he waved off some people who wanted him to continue in their little group serenade. Which they did let him go as they turned back around to continue dancing and singing. 

The man fixed his shirt as he walked Y/n’s way. Not busy paying attention until he looked up from fixing a loose button on his dress shirt. Catching each other's gaze, Y/n thought he would walk around her to walk off, so she stepped to the side—closer to the stand but he slowed down in his pace and stopped walking to look at her in—what she would say ‘shock’ 

“Well…I be damned..” he says. Spunk moves to stand in front of Y/n and crouches down slightly and lets out an audible growl. Y/n glances over her shoulder to see who the man was speaking to. But finding no one she looked back at him and slowly furrowed her eyes. 

“You don’t happen to be M/n’s daughter, right?” He asks. Hearing her mothers name leave the man’s mouth did cause her to ease up a tad bit and not assume he was another person out to kill her, because it seemed like that number was rising quite frequently as the days passed. The man smiled and placed his hands on his hips. 

“Uh. Yes, that’s my mom-“

“Why, I can’t believe it! Look at how healthy you got! I knew you when you were just a baby!” The man says. And frankly Y/n had never seen that man a day in her life—and she was certain she had Atleast a decent memory. She slowly squints her eyes at the man’s face to examine his features but..frankly she didn’t see him anywhere in that head of hers. 

“Uh…who are you again?” She asks. Not wanting to rip down his confident accusations.

“Bertram Piedmont. I made you a little car toy in the studio when you just learnin’ to walk—or was that when you fell down the stairs that one time..” he tapped his finger to his hip. 

Y/n was too focused on Bertram—which to remind you the name didn’t ring a bell to her—that she didn’t notice Spunk wandering over to Bertram and sniffing at his foot in a discreet manner. 

Y/n only remembered having a few conversations with Henry and some of the others in the studio, but she couldn’t remember too much in the factor or being given toys but then again she could barely remember half of her classmates names when she graduated—but that came mostly because she never cared to keep it stored in her mind. 

Bertram noticed her silence, but didn’t point it out. “Oh don’t worry. I can barely remember where I keep my pens.” He chuckled. 

“You used to work with my mom?” Y/n asks. Which wouldn’t be surprising if he did—considering Y/n’s mother was the office assistant and basically second in command when Henry wasn’t around the studio she would deal and manage with a lot of employees in and out on a daily basis. 

Bertram seemed to think about that for a moment before moving his hand in a so-so motion. “Wasn’t really a worker there—I worked for a third party in an attempt to open a park.” He says. It seemed Bertram had stories to share—which was rather exciting considering she enjoyed hearing stories her mother had to share when she came from work—turns out working in the studio was a whole lot more adventurous than she thought.

The man seemed to contemplate for a moment, clipping his mouth closed with a slow nod before he dug into his pocket, pulling out a piece of paper and handing it to Y/n, the girl stared at the card for a moment, a white card that didn’t have any eye catching details on it other than the name of the location and the buildings title. 

Slowly taking the card from his grasp she looked down at the card and examined it. 

267 Boulevard Lane, CA

Greystone Hospital 

She looks back at Bertram and gives him a perplexed expression. 

“Whenever you have the time. Give it a visit. Please.”  He tells her. He then motioned towards a direction. 

“Now I gotta get going! Tell your ma’ I’ll visit sometime this month, I do need to give everyone a surprise visit.” Bertram gives a short laugh as Y/n looks back down at the card—no. What the hell did he give her this for? 

“Don’t show anyone that card or else they’ll have my head.” He says. 

When she glanced back at Bertram he had already scampered off before she could ask him about the card.  Glancing back down at it, Y/n flipped the card over to see it was nothing there, flipping it back to the front to see the words still there. Y/n could feel a small feeling erupting in her, she had begun to be curious with not only Bertram—but whatever he handed her. 

The words stared back at her and she heard Bendy’s voice from behind her. “You good?” 

Y/n clasped her hand over the card before turning around to face Bendy and the others who had thankfully found each other safely. Panchito was holding a bag of cotton candy—his entire arm sifting through the bag as if he were looking for something. 

Donald stood beside the rooster—as always and was watching his friend as Felix and Oswald stood behind Bendy as well. 

“Yeah.” Y/n quickly reassured. Bendy slowly nods and gives her a short smile as if finding her quick reply nerve wracking. 

“Well, Alice has something to tell us, so we gotta get back ta’ her.” He explains and Y/n nods. Spunk sits down and looks up at Y/n when Bendy turns to look at Felix who started to speak about—whatever, Y/n wasn’t paying attention. Moving her arm to place the card in her bag's pocket she then started after everyone who turned to leave the festival. 

-

“Alright, do you want bad news or good news first.” Alice stood in front of everyone with her arms on her hips. The nuns were off rehearsing in some room in a building across the street from the venue which gave time to settle the much bigger problems. 

Bendy stood next to Y/n and the two looked at Alice with the same exact expression. Confusion and frustrated anticipation. Jesus..what could get in their way now. They were currently backstage of the venue stage where the actual performances would take place, a few people here and there wandering by to get stuff ready but Y/n wasn’t nearly paying attention to all of that.

Charley was lazily sitting in a chair near a desk that had random stuff and props on it. He was watching as if he knew exactly what Bendy would say when Alice would finish talking. 

“So. Turns out. We need a speaking scene.” She says. Great. Bendy groaned inwardly after placing a hand on his hip. “Great..” he muttered. 

“I mean it ain’t too bad.” Charley pipes up as he was busy fiddling with whatever paper he was folding together in his hands. Edgar let out a soft grunt and shook his head. He was seated on the floor, by his feet was a flute and Boris was also seated on the floor leaning against the wall beside Panchito—who seemed to not even be paying attention to the conversation as he was busy. 

“Yeah, might not be bad…if we didn’t have a little under 7 hours to create a scene and have everyone mesmerize lines..which we don’t have.” Bendy was right. Just a short team sounds nice. But considering the fact that they didn’t have any sort of script—and they surely didn’t have time to make one and then get everyone to memorize it. 

“Not to mention, I don’t think the nuns would be any good at acting besides singin.” Bendy looks back at Alice and she slowly nods, Boris looks away from the flute he had in his hands to fix up before looking at Bendy and Alice with a smile. 

“Ya’ know! What harm would it be if we got on stage? Not to toot my horn or anything. But toons can create a scenario in seconds. Plus, we do it for a living.” He says and Bendy thought for a moment. Charley grunts. 

“Don’t—“

“Great. Charley, you can get up there.” Bendy quickly says and Charley groans and pressed his hand to his face after Bendy’s quick recruitment.

“Why?” He asks. 

“You owe me a favor anyway. And this is the favor.” Bendy gave Charley a snarky smile—knowing he didn’t have to send Charley up on stage tonight for any particular reason. He just wanted to. 

Charley seemed to want to say something but he froze before grunting. “Ya know what fine…I guess Henry wouldn’t mind me tellin’ who broke his lamp a few months ag-“

“Don’t..” Bendy quickly looks at Charley with a pointed expression. Alice slowly rolled her eyes and shook her head. “You both will go up there.” She diffused whatever argument the two would get themselves into. 

“Just perform like you would on any show day. Butcher Gang against Bendy. There.” Quick and simple and surely they knew what she meant considering they shot many times on scenes. 

Bendy sputtered for a moment. “Now hold it! Why I gotta be the trash of this whole show?” 

“Because. That’s what yer best at.” Barley chuckled and Charley laughed after him. Boris’s tail wagged and he gently lifted a paw. “Oh oh! I wanna join. Y/n should too!” Boris suddenly brought Y/n up and she slowly opened her mouth to decline. She hadn’t had too many experiences acting on stage—better yet with no rehearsal whatsoever so improvising wouldn’t be too good to do on her first ever try. 

“Uh…” she slowly said and Bendy glanced at her from the corner of his eyes before looking at Alice who was already looking at Y/n.  

“Ya know that ain’t a half bad idea..” Charley said slowly as he slowly stood up from his chair.

“She’s comin’ with us.” He quickly says and Bendy squints his eyes. “Why?” 

“Why the hell we need two hero’s to the story? A 4th member of the Butcher Gang sounds good to me.”  

-

Which ultimately led Y/n in the green room—surrounded by clothes and other props, the smell of dust and old paper hit Y/n’s, Charley, Barley and Edgar’s nose. 

“Wow.” Y/n said as she wandered over to a desk where props of badges and fake guns sat. She picked up the holster and the prop gun and glanced at it. 

“Alright, rule number one to being a Butcher. What’s your best line for when you’re robbing a bank?” Charley said as he stood by the door, Edgar scurried off to go mess with the plethora of clothes as Barley stood beside Charley. 

Y/n looks over at Edgar who was in the motion of climbing the wall. Pointing the prop to him Edgar quickly looks at her. “Gimmie your money!” She shouts, Edgar lets out a shocked squeak before scurrying off the wall and hiding behind a box. 

She looked at Charley and smiled brightly who didn’t exactly expect her to shout and flinched when she did so. 

“Can I pick out the outfits? I want an eyepatch like Barley! Oh wait no there’s a hook!” Y/n’s attention was quickly taken away to the open box filled with even more props and clothing. Charley shrugged and lets out a chuckle. “We should be fine.”

It took a little over an hour for Y/n to find some clothes—and Alice walking in with Bendy—who was wearing some cowboy get up—which he did not like. 

Alice had him by the horn as she smiled at the four. “Look! Ain’t he cute!” Alice squeals, Bendy swats her hand away and rolls his eyes. The cowboy hat was hanging on the string around Bendy’s neck, and he seemed to represent the sheriff. 

“Good simple plot. Sheriff comes to town and stops robbers from robbing a bank.” Alice explains and frankly Y/n liked the sound of that as everyone else did as well considering that they didn’t object. Alice walks over to Y/n and places a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll get her dressed. You boys go and practice.” She says. 

“We have a little over 6 hours. So we have to make sure everyone’s ready.” Alice said as Charley, Barley and Edgar walked towards the door where Bendy was. Charley nudged Bendy and chuckled who only rolled his eyes. 

“Alright, alright.” The boys walked out of the room, closing the door behind them as they did so. 

“Alright. Let’s see.” Alice starts as she slowly walks over to the box of costumes and starts sitting through them. Y/n sat down at the vanity and watched Alice—who seemed to already found an outfit. The Angel turned around with the clothes in her hands and placed them on the vanity. 

She turned the chair around towards the vanity and Y/n found herself looking at herself in the mirror as Alice pulled out a brush from seemingly nowhere.

“Alright. This’ll take just a moment.” 

-

Mugman had been gnawing at his fingers for the past 20 minutes for what it felt like. Cuphead stood beside him with his hands in his pocket with a careless expression. Butch had been sitting on a chair holding an ice pack to his eye with a—not so happy expression. 

Susie had her arms crossed as she looked at the gang of goons with a perplexed and infuriated expression. “And..tell me…again…how on earth…DID YOU LOSE THEM AGAIN?!” She shouts. Bettigan scratched the back of his neck with a strained expression as he rocked back and forth on the heels of his boots. 

“Look—they’re good at running, that’s all I can give you.” Mango grunts before rolling his eyes and then glancing down at Cuphead. “This knucklehead had the girl right in his hand but she managed to get away.” Quickly changing the attention to him and to Cuphead, Cuphead raised an eyebrow and shrugged his shoulders.  

“She hit my head.” He says nonchalantly. Susie only rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “The job is simple. Kill the girl, get the book and that rabbit.” Susie didn’t even know how many times she had to stress it out for them but it seemed she had to do it damn near every day. 

“The girl.” The voice of the man in the trench coat was present. He slowly sauntered over—he was so mysterious to Cuphead and Mugman. They couldn’t see his face, he spoke in one tone half the time—which was very low and demanding yet he never really shouted at anyone—not nearly as much as Susie, King Dice and the Devil. Which all made Cuphead very curious. 

Who was he?

Susie looks over at the man and gives him a perplexed expression. “I don’t think you all noticed but she’s very observant. Attacking her head on would only startle her. I noticed she gets reckless when being in pursuit. Distracted and lets her guard down.” 

What? What was he pointing that out for? Mugman slowly opened his mouth as if debating to say something. 

“Then—“ he starts. The man looks over at Mugman. “Then—if we don’t attack her head on, what are we going to do, just..chase her until she gets tired?” He asks. The man seemed to think of that as a moment. 

“Ugh—just toss her away—how hard can that be.” Cuphead looks over to see the Devil standing by a pillar with King Dice standing beside him. 

“Which is why I have three other people to help.” The man looks over to the door behind him. Mugman quickly looked at Cuphead and nudged him. 

“This is bad.” He whispered to Cuphead who still held a nonchalant expression on his face. 

“If I’m honest…I have been holding back on doing this. But it’s the only option we have.” The man says. The doors opened slowly—and a figure walked out, their clothing was bland. And didn’t stick out. Wearing a black vest jacket and what seemed to be a black sweater with dark jeans and shoes with gloves covering their fingers—it seemed more like winter gloves than anything, which was questionable as winter wasn’t until another 6 months. 

But what really caught the brothers attention was the odd white mask, with two holes for the eyes—it didn’t have much details—but it resembled something more like what a person would wear for their Halloween costume. Moving to stand on either side of them were two other people. 

One also had a mask on—and was a few inches shorter than the one in the middle. The 2nd figure wore a dingy white mask—there was a stitched whole near the area the mouth should be. And two horns near the top of their head with gems dangling from either one. And a bowler hat resting on top of their head. The golden eyes pierced through the holes of the mask and flickered over to everyone in a way to just examine them. The third one stood tall and had white feathered wings protruding from his back. A white jacket and white dress shirt—he had a golden halo above his slicked white hair. His eyes looked away from the man in the trench coat before looking over at Cuphead and Mugman which Mugman quickly looked away. 

“You’ll be working with them.” The man in the trenchcoat says. 

“Oh man…” Mugman muttered 

Not even a second when Susie, Dice, the Devil and the oddly mysterious man in the trench coat left. Mugman grabbed Cuphead by his shoulders and immediately pressed his nose against Cuphead’s and spoke lowly. 

“This is horrible! We gotta warn them!” Mugman whispered and Cuphead placed a hand on Mugman’s shoulders and gently pushed him away to give him space. “Don’t worry about it. You saw the way they all handled themselves the day before, and in that sewer. A couple of ‘reinforcements’ ain’t gonna stop them.” Cuphead seemed pretty confident in the fact that Y/n and the others can hold their end just fine. But Mugman was bothered. He felt something was wrong—and frankly he was good at spotting things while Cuphead was good at just brushing things off his shoulder and letting the world handle the problems for him. 

“You idiot. They brought an archangel!” Mugman shouts and frantically shakes Cuphead, Cuphead furrows his eyebrows and seats Mugman’s hands away. 

“Mugman, Cuphead.” The two quickly looked over and spotted Bettigan standing next to the shorter toon with the mask, he motioned to them. “You’re with these three tonight.” He said. Mugman looks back at Cuphead. 

“That kind of power can kill a toon in an instant.” He says before releasing Cuphead. 

“What..” Cuphead says as Mugman starts over to the two with a nervous laugh. “Sorry about that. Ya’ know. Sometimes he gets distracted.” Mugman says and Bettigan only grunts. “Whatever. You two are in charge of finding them tonight. Abel’ll report back to us when you guys see them.” 

Abel. Mugman looks over the Angel toon who was busy picking something off his wings before he stopped doing so and looked over to Mugman. 

“Oh, you must be Mugman.” He says. Cuphead walks over and Abel looks at Cuphead as well. Bettigan didn’t seem to care for introductions as he walked off to go get ready for the night. 

“And Cuphead.” Abel says. Cuphead shrugged. 

“So. You’re an actual Angel or somethin—I got a few stories for you about the Devil.” Cuphead started but before he could get too deep Mugman nudged his brother's shoulder. “Ignore him.” 

“Oh yeah. Because he’s totally a real Angel, he only took the offer because of some demon guy.” Mugman flinched when he heard a feminie voice from behind the mask, looking at the toon wearing the mask he assumed she didn’t speak but was surprised when she did. 

“Bendy?” Cuphead asks and the toon nods. “Yeah..” she grumbled—which she seemed to not like the name—if Cuphead could see that without seeing her facial expressions, then it was evident her disdain towards the demon was well aware. 

“I’m Slicer.” She introduced. Extending both her hands to Cuphead and Mugman. Cuphead took her hand and shook it but Mugman was a tad bit hesitant as he slowly grabbed Slicer’s hand and shook it. Releasing their hand, Slicer looked over towards the third who hadn’t said much. 

“And that is Pib.” Abel introduced them. Mugman looks at Pib who only moved their head slightly to look at Mugman, they were taller than him, which Mugman took a step back from Pib who had such an intimidating aurora.

“Uh..hi! My name is Mugman. And…this is Cuphead.” Mugman placed an arm on Cuphead. But Pib didn’t speak. 

“Pib doesn't talk.” Slicer says. Oh…well. 

Pib looks away from the two. In a state of disinterest, but instead looking around them ever so slightly. Cuphead only slowly furrowed his eyebrows as he watched Pib. “Uh…what’s wrong with ‘er?” He asks and Mugman huffs at his brother from his prude comment. 

“Cuphead.” He grits through his teeth. 

“Just isn’t much of a talker. I don’t think she talks at all, never heard her speak.” Slicer explains—well as best as she could as Abel remained silent—he didn’t seem to care to explain much of anything. “I’m not too..well educated on humans, I had a fair share of time speaking with them, but I can’t understand their health too much.” 

Cuphead slowly looks away from Pib and looks at Abel. “So. What’s your deal with Bendy?” He asks. 

Abel didn’t respond immediately before letting out a single grunt. “Nothing specific.” He then looks at Pib and motioned towards them. 

“I think some good fresh air would be nice for Pib.” 

“Yeah!” Mugman immediately agreed, mostly because he just wanted to get away from the conversation. “We can—we can split up—“ Mugman looks at Abel and Slicer. “You two can check the West end of town while me, Cuphead and Pib can check the East end.” Mugman gives a wavering smile at the two and Slicer’s golden gaze flickered over to Abel for a moment as Abel stared down at Mugman before nodding. 

-

“And..do..pray tell…why are we taking her? Why couldn’t it just go with Abel and Slicer?” Cuphead glanced over his shoulder to the figure trailing behind the brothers as they walked down the sidewalk in town. Mugman moved Cuphead’s head back to facing the front as they continued onward. 

“The competition is on the east side of the town. If Abel and Slicer are over here they’ll find the others way quicker than needed…plus.” Mugman glanced back at Pib, who was curiously glancing around at the men and women of the town dressed in their pristine clothing. 

“She seems harmless.” He says before looking back at Cuphead. “Plus. We’re just luring them away from the venue.” 

“I mean I guess.”  Cuphead looks at Pib and whistles to catch their attention. Pib looks away from a pup being walked and looks over at Cuphead. 

“Ever had any cotton candy?” He asks Pib. But of course she didn’t answer as she only stared at them. The brothers slowed down so Pib could catch up, and when they did, Cuphead motioned towards a stand—a man was handing out cones of cotton candy of different colors and flavors. 

“Go get some candy—“ 

Mugman smacks Cuphead’s band and glares at him. “Pib’s not a dog!” Mugman scoffs. Pib walks over to the stand as Mugman had scolded Cuphead—who was busy rubbing his hand as he squinted at Cuphead. 

“What’s yer problem? Geez, we gotta ditch the idiot.” Cuphead lowered his voice for Mugman to hear in case Pib tried cutting into their conversation.

“I don’t know about that Cuphead. Pib seems really nice. I mean look.” Mugman looks over to Pib who was taking a cone of cotton candy and handing it to a kid who was peering up at Pib. The kid smiled and thanked Pib before quickly scurrying off. Pib turns back to the man at the stand and motioned for more, Cuphead gives Mugman a blank expression.

“We ditch Pib, and go to the others. It’s almost sunset and that’s when Bettigan and the others will find out about the venue because half of the town’ll be down there.” It was new to Cuphead to be the voice of reason in this scenario but Mugman at times could be just as stubborn as his brother.

Mugman did think for a moment before grunting. 

“Fine..” he says. “That means that when the concert ends—we gotta high tail it outta here.” 

“You’re still worried about Abe—“

“ARCHANGEL!” Mugman shouts at Cuphead who immediately stops talking. Cuphead furrowed his eyebrows. 

“Alright, alright..” 

-

7:07PM

Y/n looked away from the clock on the wall and rocked back and forth on her feet—rather nervously. Charley had been standing beside her as he was busy ripping something up—she was sure it was someone’s book as she noticed Charley had a knack for destroying people's property. Edgar laid on the floor playing with the prop gun and Barley was seated in a chair trying not to drift asleep. 

It seemed Y/n was the only one bothered. The wood creaked under her boots everytime she rocked back and forth. And soon she felt Charley grip her shoulder, which caused her to look at him and see he gave her a blank expression. “Would you sit the hell still?” He grumbled. Y/n stopped moving and placed her hands to her side which was nervously fiddling with the bandanna around her neck. 

“I have never been onstage before and I literally have five lines to remember and they all escaped my head.“ she confessed and Charley released her shoulder and raised an eyebrow. “So? Just improvise.” He says and Y/n lets out a strained noise with her throat. 

“That’s even harder.” 

“Trust, it won’t be too hard when you get out there.” Charley’s pep talk wasn’t exactly a pep talk but what did she expect from the guy. 

Edgar wandered over and placed a hand on her arm and squeaked before placing his head on her hand. Y/n gently rubbed Edgar’s head and sighed Atleast someone tried to help her. 

She felt someone gently grab her face and when she looked up she spotted Alice who smiled at her, and gently pats her head. “You’ll do great.” Alice says. 

“So..” looking over. Donald, Panchito, Oswald, Felix, Boris and Bendy walked into the green room as well. 

“What’s next after this?” Donald asks. Alice didn’t have a clue—she only had one plan which was to get that stone. 

“Well. You mentioned getting pieces to the heart. That should probably be your guy's next objective when you receive the stone, so At Least you won’t have the Devil on your back while you’re out.” Alice says, Barley opened his eyes—he had been listening to the conversation the entire time. 

“And..what exactly are we gonna tell Henry we head back home?” Barley asks Alice. Considering they did leave sorta unannounced. Alice tapped her arm as she thought to herself. 

“Well…that celebration is next week..” Alice looks at Bendy. “Which means you guys need to be back home by the following Friday. 8 days from now.”  She says…8 days surely won’t be enough to find four stone pieces. 

“8 days?” Bendy seemed to think that wasn’t enough as well. And Alice nods. “I won’t be able to cover for you all if you guys aren’t back in California next week. And from the notes I read from Henry’s and M/n’s meeting. It seems important…and mandatory.” She says. 

“Well. That means we’ll just have to work quicker. No biggie.” Felix pipes up and Donald grunts. “Now we’re timed?” Panchito nudged Donald and he smiled. “Oh don’t worry! Look at how easy it was to get the first piece. I’m sure the 3 others wouldn’t be too hard to get.” It seemed Panchito was more of the comic relief—which Y/n thanked as he was very good at setting a comfortable mood. 

“Don’t die—“ Charley paused for a moment before swatting his hand towards Bendy as if shooing him away. “As a matter of fact. Please do. M’ sure Henry will let me take your spot.” 

“So. Are we certain that they’re comfortable being on stage?” Oswald looks out of the green room from the group of nuns—who actually were enjoying their time outside together backstage, smiling at one another and singing until it was time for the show to start. Oswald looks at Alice who smiles and nods. “Oh yeah. They’ll be just fine.” She reassured. 

“Oh wow!” Panchito suddenly appeared next to Y/n and looked at the costume that Y/n was wearing. Brown pants with various pockets. A brown button up with a velvet brown vest with a brown bandanna, on her head was a cowboy hat that Alice managed to find deep in the boxes of props and a prop gun in a holster to her side. 

“You look like a broke hobo in the Midwest.” Panchito says as he quickly circled around her to examine the costume. Y/n laughed and Alice fixed the hat on the human's head. “Remember guys. Simple and quick.” Alice reminds before eyeing Charley and Bendy. “That goes for you two.” 

“Oh please. We’ll sell the show with us being up there.” Charley says and Edgar squeaks in agreement. 

“Where’s your hat?” Felix asks Bendy and the demons grunts. “M’ not wearin’ that stupid thi-“

“GUYS!” Everyone flinched at the loud voice and looked over towards the door to see Cuphead and Mugman—how did the brothers manage to find them way in the green room backstage at the venue—no idea.. 

Spunk had been asleep on the floor but his ears perked up when he heard the brothers enter the room, gently lifting his head to look at the two before resting it back on the ground. Y/n furrowed her eyebrows at the two. 

“What’s wrong?” She asks. 

Mugman inhales before he starts to ramble. 

“They’re sending an archangel and some other guys to kill you! Like reinforcements! And we all know reinforcement sorta are the real problem everyone worries about!” He exclaims. Alice tilts her head. 

“Well…they got away the first time—what’s the problem?” She asks. 

“Archangels are very powerful.” Felix answered for them—of course! How could Y/n forget! Felix is an adventure slash archeologist slash total badass when it came to upscale knowledge when it came to different creatures and locations—he had to have some knowledge in that head of his.

“Yeah, he’s specifically looking to kill Bendy.” Cuphead says nonchalantly. Bendy’s expression twisted into confusion. “Wha—me? Why? What did I do?” He sputters. That was the first time Y/n saw him look genuinely confused. Which to be honest. Who was looking for Bendy and why?

“Maybe because he’s a demon.” Donald points out. Angel versus demon. Kinda obvious in his eyes. 

“Well. Either way. It’s best to avoid him.” Felix says and Bendy raises his eyebrows slightly. “And how are we supposed to do that? In fact. We hadn’t had a single weapon to use against them.”

“Yeah, Cuphead and Mugman can shoot bullets from their fingers.” Y/n said as she pointed at the cup brothers. “Juss pick somethin’ up and hit them.” Barley says as if that was the most obvious solution known to man. Which it would work—for a short time. 

“That stone can be your weapon until then, not only can it shy away dark forces, but beings with higher powers as well—mostly considering because they both inhabit the same power. So the Angel won’t be able to touch any of you if you have that stone.“ Felix says he thinks for a moment. 

“But—out away from the mainlands. Any cellular connection won’t do much.” Felix looks at Alice and then at Bendy. “Which means getting connection from us and between Alice will be a problem.”

“What? They don’t have any Wi-Fi out there?” Donald says and Mugman smiled. “Oh I know! I never heard of a phone before!” He says. Y/n’s mouth slowly opened…no..cell phone…out in the mainlands. Not that she felt like she needed to be on her phone 24/7, not considering that she would be entering a 3rd world that wasn’t even known to half of the earth's population because it wasn’t on any map and she was sure she would be distracted with the new discoveries there. But it mostly came down to her mother having to check up on her via the phone. Despite being an adult now having free will to travel around—a mama bear still is gonna worry and who is Y/n to get angry when literally she would be continents from home.

“Well. My peoples back at home will be blowing up my phone every hour so unless you hook a satellite to my back for Wi-Fi—my mom will literally tear the entire world apart looking for me.” Y/n says and Bendy grumbled. 

“She’s not lyin..” 

“Well, why can’t what’s-his-face create something to fix the problem? You know. Considering he knew your great grandfatha’ and all.” Cuphead points out referring to Puck—which, that did seem like a good idea all considering Puck was one of the smartest little guys Y/n’s seen. Ever. 

“That’s not even going to be remotely possible. Creating a device to connect and speak through from miles away that doesn't have any connection or wifi whatsoever in under a few hours? I don’t think he would have those ready by the time it’s time to leave town.” Oswald points out. Which he did bring up a good fact all considering the main plan is to leave town immediately after the concert. 

“Well…it does not hurt to try.” Panchito shrugs. “Me, Oswald and Donald can go to Puck to see if he can perhaps create something to communicate from the mainland and out there.” Panchito motioned to his side, referring to the unknown. 

“Well if that’s the case then we have to leave now to go to him so he can get started.” Donald agrees and Oswald tilts his head. “And if he doesn't get it finished before we leave?” 

“We leave.” Panchito shrugs. 

“If she burns something, I’ll send you a farewell card.” Alice places a hand on Y/n’s shoulder and Y/n’s eyebrows furrowed together as she lets out a strained laugh. 

“Yeah…Panchito..please make sure he at least creates something for us.” Y/n tells the rooster, Panchito smiles at her and quickly nods. 

“We’ll just get the stone. And head back to the church and you all can leave tonight to the islands away from the mainlands with the stone,” Alice starts. 

“Me, Charley, Barley, Edgar and Boris will head back home and at the least just keep us updated so we can Atleast know you all are alive while you’re away. And remember guys. 8 days no longer than that. If then—then I’m going to assume you’re dead.” Alice reminds—which was a bit nerve wracking for her. Letting them all leave to gods knows where, but in order to understand what’s going on—and not only that but out a stop to this, they had to do it. 

“Alright! Then we are off! We will be back no later than  an hour! Back at the venue!” Panchito smiles as he rushes over to the door, and drags Oswald and Donald with him. 

“Hurry back!” Alice tells the three, the rushing footsteps of the three slowly disappearing down the hall with each second. 

“Cuphead, Mugman. Do you know where the others are?” Felix asks the brothers. Mugman nods—thanks to him and his big brains. 

“I sent them all to the east part of town. But I don’t know how long they’ll be searching down there.”  He says. 

“Wait—how come if Abel’s an archangel that harness these crazy insane powers, Alice don’t have anythin?” Cuphead asks and tilts his head in confusion. 

“She’s not a real Angel, dimwit.” Charley answers. 

Felix’s ears flickered and he looked over his shoulder to see one of nuns standing there with her hands behind her back and a small smile, Felix stepped aside assuming she wanted to speak to Alice considering that’s all who they’ve been speaking to. 

Alice looks over to see the nun and smiled gently. 

“I just wanted to let you all know how terribly grateful we are for you guys helping us.” The nun thanks. Alice lets out a small laugh. “Aw, that’s very sweet of you. You don’t have to thank us—“

“We do! If we do manage to win for tonight. We wanted to hand the prize over to you all.” Oh..

Y/n looked at Alice from the corner of her eyes and she had only smiled at the nun but couldn’t seem to find anything to say. The sound of music muffled from the stage caught everyone’s attention. 

“Well! It’s almost time. Go get ready with everyone, I’ll be right there!” Alice smiles. The nun smiled brightly and scurried off to the others to get ready. 

Bendy slowly looks at Charley. “So we don’t have to steal it.” He smiles smugly at the butcher and Charley grunts. “That’s if we win the damn thing. Miss fumble feet over here is gettin’ last minute jitters.” Charley points his thumb lazily over to Y/n. Who had rolled her eyes and shook her head. 

“I’ll be fine.”  She grumbled. 

“And what exactly are we gonna do if they show up?” Barley brings the conversation back to the more important matters. 

Alice walks over to the door to leave. “Fight them. That’s all we got. You know what Sammy says. The show must go on.” Alice sings as she trots out the room. 

-

Peering from the wing of the stage, Y/n watched as the contestants sang and pranced around on stage, looking at the seated people seated down in chairs or picnic blankets it was almost like the entire damn town was present. 

Spunk looks up at Y/n once spotting her sudden change in demeanor. Yeah…maybe..this was the worst idea ever. I mean she’s been shot at, chased, almost sacrificed by a tribe of rats—but getting on stage is where Y/n crossed the line. Sure…

Spunk nudged his head against her leg gently, causing the human to look down at him. Spunk wagged his tail and peered up at Y/n before sitting down and standing up straight and tall—almost as if puffing his chest out. 

“Yeah, I know.” She said quietly. 

“You know when I’m scared I close my eyes.” Y/n looked over to see Boris. He smiled at her and walked over to stand beside her to peer out to the stage. 

“I have to see somehow, Boris.” She laughs. Boris laughs afterwards. “Yeah, what I’m saying is. Covering your eyes might help you—it's like training wheels. You have to do it—and soon you won’t need them anymore. Does that make sense?” He taps his chin as if he was debating his own words. 

“Alright everyone.” Alice walks over and motions Boris and Y/n over to the small group meeting with the nuns. The two walked over—plus Spunk trotting over as well. Standing between Alice and Boris. Charley, Barley, Edgar, and Bendy stood next to each other as Felix was the last to wander over before standing next to Barley.  Cuphead and Mugman stood next to Felix—which it seemed Cuphead was of course messing with stuff seeing Mugman had to drag him over by his handle.

“I don’t have much to say, I just wanted to call everyone over.” Alice says as she relaxes her shoulders and a few of the nuns laughs. 

“But no, really. In a few moments you sisters are going to be onstage for the first time in forever. And either we win or lose, I just wanted to let you all know, it was a pleasure being here with you all.” Alice smiled at the nuns who smiled back at her with a soft welcoming smile. 

“Alright. Let’s go.” 

-

Watching the various people perform onstage was very entertaining in itself. Seeing the different talents were cool and..concerning..considering Y/n thought they would way better than the nuns—no offense. 

But—but the nuns going and performing—it seemed the town recognized them and missed their presence in the past—hearing the loud clapping and cheering did ease Y/n’s nerves for going on stage. 

Y/n pats her sides nervously as she fumbles around on her feet. Edgar circled around her before easing between her legs and standing up slightly, Y/n stumbled and sat down on Edgar’s back, the spider toon looked up at her and squeaked. Y/n placed her hands in Edgar’s head and smiled down at him. 

“Alright we’re gonna play a small little game called; Play Pretend.” Charley says as he walks in front of Y/n. 

“It helps Boris everytime he performs.” 

“He still gets nervous when he has to perform?” Y/n asks. The wolf had to play the piano backstages and wasn’t able to help Y/n with her small little stage fright she was having—which not to mention, she didn’t know she had.

“Close your eyes, and go.” Charley’s pep talk had to be one of the worst things ever. Y/n deadpans and furrowed her eyebrows. 

“That doesn't help me.“ she tells him. Charley shrugs. “All yer’ doin’ is building the world around you. That’s as best as it’s gonna get.” 

“How does closing my eyes gonna help me? I have to have my eyes open!” She grumbled. Barley laughs and pats Y/n’s back. “Don’t stress er’ out lad, you know it takes humans time to set the area.”

“Human brains are so fragile and slow.” Charley rolls his eyes and Y/n would have taken offense of that if she wasn’t too busy sweating her skin off. Bendy walks over and looks at Y/n. 

“Ya’ still feelin’ nervous?” He asks her. And she nods. 

“I mean, I tried, can’t try to tell me later I didn’t give her a pep talk.” Charley raised his hands up as if defending his statement. Edgar removes himself from Y/n so should stand before standing next to Charley and Barley before they wandered off to finish getting ready—which it seemed their time to go on stage was coming hotter and quicker by the second.

Bendy hooked his arm around Y/n. “So. Boris is nervous about performing sometimes?” Y/n asks and Bendy nods. “Yeah. You would think someone his size the guy wouldn’t be afraid of anythin’ but clearly that’s not the case.” That did cause a short chuckle to come from Y/n, Boris was a pretty tall guy. 

“But I guess even small things scare big guys. To me. I don’t think there’s a way to approach fear.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“I mean, sometimes ya’  just gotta throw yourself out there. If you’re scared, do it anyway, either way, messin’ up or not, we’re still here.”

Y/n thought for a moment as the two stared out onto the stage. A feeling of something being lifted from her shoulders was evident. She smiled softly to herself and slowly nodded. 

“Alright..” she lets out a sigh. And Bendy nods. 

“Where’s your hat?” 

“I’m not wearin’ that damn thing…”  Bendy gives her a deadpanned expression Alice walks into the room and looks at the Butcher Gang, Bendy and Y/n. 

“Alright guys. It’s showtime.”

Charley, Barley, And Edgar walked over to Bendy and Y/n, who was already standing by the wing to enter the stage. 

Charley flicks Y/n’s ears. “You’ll be fine.” He repeats for the 100th time. 

“I know, I know.” She rolled her shoulder before closing her eyes. 

“Good luck guys..” was all Y/n heard from Alice as the five entered onto the stage. 

-

The woman sat behind the bar drying a glass pitcher. The music of old ragtime played from the rickety radio that sat on the bar top. Some patrons were busy arm wrestling and drinking away their hearts. 

The sound of the doors opening slightly creaks  throughout the bar. A lone bottle rolls into the bar—a cloth that was dingy and burnt at the end from a recent match with a single flame on it—a smoke trail following after it like a moth to a flame. The bottle hit the stool and exploded—smoke escaping and filling the room. The patrons coughed and waved in front of their faces at the thick gray smoke interrupting their airways. 

The woman placed the glass cup she was drying and furrowed her eyebrows. “What on earth..” she whispered. 

When the smoke dissipated, four figures stood before her. Y/n held the pistol in her hand, pointing it to the lady, the bandanna covering the lower half of her face. Two stubby hands slam onto the bar top and Edgar soon heaves himself up on top of it in an attempt to be eye level with the woman. Breathing heavily as if that climb tired him off. Standing on his seat legs he pointed an accusing finger to the lady and squeaked. 

“He said all the money.” Y/n says. 

“Squeak! Squeak!“ 

“And all the fake ids you took in the last 3 weeks from your patrons.” She added. 

“Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!” 

“And all of your—what?” Y/n furrowed her eyebrows and looked at Edgar who still bald a stern expression towards the lady. 

Edgar then looks at Y/n and squeaks. “I’m not asking her for a bag of grape twizzlers.” Y/n deadpans. 

Charley pushed the two aside and placed his forearm on the countertop. “Listen we’ll be outta yer’ way, we just need whatever is in that register if yours.” He says—almost as if he’s trying to smooth talk the lady. 

The lady crossed her arms and gave the bandits an unbothered. “No.“ 

Charley was caught off guard by that answer and moved his arm from the counter before looking at the woman. “What—no? What do you mean no?” 

“Hahaha!” Barley lets out a laugh from the background, Y/n, Charley, and Edgar turn their heads to look at Barley to see him with his feet propped up on the table watching them. Charley deadpans but didn’t say anything, as Barley seemed to understand the look. He huffs and gets up from the chair before truding over. 

“Do you really think I’m gonna fear you guys? In fact. I just called the sheriff and he’ll be here any moment!” The woman shouts at the four. Edgar was silent for a moment before quickly flickering his eyes over to Charley before looking back at the lady. 

“I’ll get a whole case uh’ money from you all.” The woman seemed…a tad bit smarter than they expected. Y/n scratched the back of her head and muttered under her breath. “Ma’am if I’m honest I was just promised money if I took up this job.” She says.

“Ya’ can’t even prove if we got a bounty on us or not.” Barley chuckled. The woman points over to her side. And the four look over to see the four wanted posters of the goons and the desired amount pinned to a bulletin board. 

“Alright.” Barley taps his fingers—that backfired on him. 

The doors opened up, and the four looked at each other before turning around. Standing in the doorway of the bar, was the sheriff in town, with his hands on his hips. The demon toon looks at the floor and raises an eyebrow. “Alright guys. Let’s make this quick and simple, just come with me, and we’ll get this over and this can be less of a headache for everyone.” He says. 

Charley blinked slowly and rolled his eyes. “No.” He says before turning around to the lady again. “Just give us the money, brat.” 

“I don’t have any money!” 

“Squeak, squeak!” Edgar squeaks at the woman. 

“Deal with the sheriff.” Barley looks at Y/n. Y/n sputtered before quickly glancing over at Bendy. “What you want me to do?  Shoot him?!” 

“And why did ya’ recruit an intern again?” Barley grumbled before moving his gaze over to Charley who was glaring at the stubborn woman. 

“Just get the damned sheriff!” Charley shouts at the two. 

Y/n flinched slightly before muttering under breath like some stubborn teenager, walking a few inches ahead she turned her gaze to Bendy who was still by the door. Y/n fixed her vest nervously and cleared her throat, eyeing the toon up and down, Bendy stared at her with a nonchalant expression. Y/n motioned towards Bendy and sniffed. “Stop.” She tells him. 

Charley stops talking to the woman before peering over his shoulder to Y/n and furrowing his eyebrows. He turns around and smacks the back of her head, causing her to flinch and quickly rip the pistol from her holster and aiming it at Bendy. 

“You heard me! I’ll shoot! I'm not afraid to use this thing! I got a clip on me .” Y/n shouts. Bendy moves his hands away from the doors he had been holding open. At first she thought he was going to leave and she looked over her shoulder to Charley, Barley and Edgar. Charley chuckled and nudged Barley. 

“See, told you the interns were good.” Charley lets out a chuckle, looking back ahead of her, Bendy looked at the four silently before speaking. 

“You tryna duel me or somethin?” He says—which didn’t really seem to come out as a question, it seemed more of an accusation than anything. Y/n opened her mouth slowly and tried to speak but nothing came out. 

“Fine then..let’s make a deal.” 

Charley moves to stand next to Y/n and crossed his arms. “N’ what’s the deal?” 

“I’ll life the bounty off your heads if she can catch one of the deadliest criminals in town. I’ll give you a position—a offer so good you wouldn’t have to go rummaging through the town's gutters again.” Bendy starts. But he lifts a finger. 

“But. You gotta find that bandit first. No Bandit. Your bounties won’t be disregarded.”  

Charley thought for a moment before shrugging. “Alright.” He says. 

“Wait what?” Y/n looks between the two quickly. 

“Bring him here by sundown.”

-

“You made a deal to get a thief. That has a higher bounty count than we do over our heads.” Y/n followed Charley down the dust filled roads of the town—the people in town would scurry away once being faced with one of the many dangers of the town, the Butcher Gang. 

Charley scratched at his tooth with his pinkie and shrugged. “We get money if we find the guy—who said we gotta become officers?” He asks her. Which..yeah. They technically didn’t have to listen to Bendy. Just kiss up to him until he could give them the money for the job and hightail it out of town. It was a win-win in Charley’s eyes considering they would get money—either stealing it or doing the sheriff's quest. 

“Yeah sounds nice—“ Barley groans as he trudged after the two. “But where the hell are we supposed to start? It’s not like there’s a sign pointin’ to the first cl-“

“There’s this sign pointing east saying; ‘first clue’.” Y/n interrupts Barley as she faces and reads a wooden sign with the words written on it..rather..goofily in fact.

Charley stops walking and looks over at Y/n and furrows his eyebrows. “The hell?” 

Edgar claps his hands and squeaks before pointing down the path which led off to a passage, rickety wooden fences came into view as it seemed to be an entrance to a hole, dim golden lights spiraled around the wooden fence as if they were Christmas lights.

“Nah.” Charley says before turning and walking away from the direction the sign was pointing. 

Y/n looks away from the fense and looks at Charley. “But, it says first clue.” She repeats and Charley turns to look at her. “Yeah, and water turns to ice.” 

“Huh?” Barley gives Charley a confused expression. 

“Well, where else are we supposed to go? Wander all through town until time runs out? We got a first clue right here. We might as well see what it is.” The human slowly walks backwards to the entrance of the fence with a smile and Charley slowly rolls his eyes. “Why I decided to take you in? I dunno, worst decision of my life—“

“Let’s go!” Y/n’s voice shouts from ahead as she slips down the dirt path, with Edgar squeaking behind her in an attempt as if he were saying ‘wait up!’ 

Once walking down the path, they were met with a small wooden house that..could use a bit of a fixer upper in Y/n’s opinion, the sun was just now setting, and the stars were out to twinkle in the clear night of the western sky.  Small golden lit lanterns hung in a nearby oak tree. And individual candles were lit near the fence—surely with all the candles unlit the place would be covered in darkness, only the moon being able to be their light and salvation for whoever inhabits the area. It was getting quite chili out but that was the least of Y/n’s problems. Slowly nearing the wooden house, Y/n walked onto the porch, the wood groaning under her feet as she stood near the door, she felt Edgar step onto the porch as well and stand next to her.

Charley and Barley were the last to wander over and Barley was  busy looking around as Charley motioned for Y/n to knock on the door. When she knocked on the door there was silence—no one answered the door or it was maybe perhaps empty.

Knocking once again. There was no answer until she tried to open the door—which to no surprise—it was locked. 

Y/n looked at Charley. “I don’t think anyone's home.“ the human tells Charley. Charley looks at Edgar and motioned him to the building. Edgar lets out squeak and nods before scurrying away in search of a way in. After a few moments prior to Edgar leaving, Y/n heard muffled footsteps from the other side of the door and soon it swung open to reveal Edgar in all his glory. Edgar smiles up at the three and Y/n walks into the building looking around, the interior of the house was rather normal. A living room, kitchen and a staircase leading to the second floor. 

“Alright. Search the place for ‘clues’ I guess.” Charley orders the three. 

Y/n found interest in exploring upstairs, walking up the stairs, she reached the top to see a small hallway with only one door at the end of it. Which only told her maybe one person lived there. She walks over to the door and opens it, the lights were out so she slowed her pace and squinted her eyes in the dark. Moving her hand over to the wall blindly she felt a light switch, flickering the light in it revealed nonetheless but a small room for one. Person, glancing around the room—nothing really daughter her eye—but she wasn’t aware of the tall wolf cowering away from her. Y/n blinks and looks to her side but the wolf quickly moves to her right—her blind sight. The wolf shivered in fear as he slowly moved the opposite direction of her vision, Y/n looked over at the dresser and spotted a flute—which caught her interest as she wandered over to it and examined it. The wolf took that as a signal to leave the room, he slowly retreated away as quietly as he could as the bandit was busy distracted with his belongings, they could take anything for all he cared he just needed to get away from them! 

His tail tucked between his legs as his ears were pinned to his head he grimaced as he took another step back, only to step on a crumpled piece of paper from earlier he had been writing on. The bandit perks up before turning around quickly and her gaze landed on Boris. 

Boris quickly fixes his posture as if he wasn’t just trying to sneak out. “Uh!” Boris stammers, shocked from being caught. Y/n opened her mouth slowly..not entirely sure what to do—she thought no one was home! 

“I uh—“

“Don’t kill me!” Boris cried out, dropping to his knees and clenching his hands together as if begging for his life. “Hey! Don’t worry—I’m not here to hurt you! I’m just—we’re just—“ 

“We’re?!” Boris shrieks. 

“I mean!” Y/n held her breath for a moment. 

“You’re gonna kill me are you! I heard the story of you guys!” He lets out a loud sob as comical streams of tears shoot from his eyes the wolf sobbing loudly and for his size the wolf could actually cause a lot of harm to the human, but he..seemed to be quite the scaredy cat..or wolf in this matter. 

“Don’t cry!” 

“WHAAAAAAAA!” Sobs Boris. 

“What the hell is goin’ on up here?” Charley slowly walks into the room to see the wolf sobbing on the floor. He stared down at the wolf before his eyes flickered down to Boris and over to Y/n who was standing a few feet away from the wolf. 

“He just started crying—“

“JUST TAKE ANYTHING! PLEASE NOT ME!”

“We’re not he-“ Charley started to speak but Boris only started bawling out crying again. After a while Charley got tired of hearing Boris’s feverish crying and grabbed the wolf by his ears. “Would you shut up!” Charley hissed. The wolf quickly stopped crying and sniff loudly—as if his nose were stuff, Boris looked up at the two when Y/n walked closer to stand beside Charley. 

“We’re not here to take anything or hurt anyone. We just saw your sign in front of your cabin for clues for where the town's thieves may be at.” Y/n explains. Boris remained on the floor, he wiped his sleeve across his nose and looked up at Charley and Y/n.

“But..but..you guys—“

“Yeah, yeah, we know! Thieves, made a deal with the sheriff to find the guy he’s been lookin’ for in exchange of the bounty bein’ lifted, now do you know anythin’ or not?” Charley quickly cuts to the chase, Boris’s tail quickly wagged and he nods the sound of his tail thumping the wooden floor emits.

“Yeah! A few miles from town, there’s this abandoned city, I remember seein’ him leave that way. But I don’t know what he looks like.” Answered the wolf. Y/n and Charley looked at eachother and Y/n placed her gaze back onto Boris. 

“Well. When was the last time the guy was here?” She asks. Boris thinks for a moment, his ears perking up for a moment as he taps his chin for a moment. “Uh..last night. He left on a horse—“

“Which means that it’s probably some ways away.” Y/n tells Charley who had his hands on his hips, thinking.

“We can always grab the sheriff and he can come with us.” Y/n adds. Boris quickly stands up.

“I would like to help!”  Boris quickly recruits himself. Charley hummed to himself before slowly grinning to himself—rather mischievously than anything. “Oh yeah…take us to Bendy.”

-

Bendy stared at Charley, the bandit was standing in front of the desk with his hands planted in the desk.  Y/n, Barley and Edgar stood behind their boss as Boris stood to the side of the room with his arms behind his back and a goofy smile. 

“Ya’  broke into his house?” Bendy squints his eyes. 

“Look, you said fix this problem, not fix it in the most legal way possible.” Charley growls and Bendy places his hands on his hips before motioning for Charley to continue what he originally came to tell him.

“The guy left the town last night—he must have gone to that run down town 6 hours from here, he took a horse and that town is the only town closest to here.” 6 hours? Jesus that would be a long walk.. 

“And you’re certain that’s him?” Bendy edged. And Charley points to the door of the office. “We need horses if we’re goin’ anywhere, and you’re helpin’ us.”

“Why I can’t leave town. Need ta’ stay here in case anyone gets into some trouble.” Bendy quickly declines the offer to leave town. 

“Be honest. The only reason why this town thrives from entertainment is because of us.” Charley’s finger twiddled around himself-mostly referring to himself, Y/n, Barley and Edgar. 

“Well no duh, you come here wrecking havoc maybe once a month or so.” 

“We leave now.”  Charley squints his eyes and Bendy was silent for a moment before sighing. 

“Alright..fine.” 

“Oh boy! Did I hear we’re going on a road trip?!” Everyone turned their heads to see two brothers standing in the doorway. Both wearing identical clothing of their westerns git up with a button up, a vest and a  colored rookie badge. Red for Cuphead and blue for Mugman. 

“Who are they?” Y/n asks Bendy who slowly looks away from the two and shakes his head. “The new recruits…” Soon Bendy perked up, a light bulb above his head lit up above his head, signaling an idea popped off in that head of his. 

“This could be a great training for you two!“ 

“Wha—what are they doing here?” Mugman asks as he eyes the former bandits standing in the small office area. 

“They’re helping with hunting down our guy. Come on, let’s get a horse and get going.”

-

Grabbing a horse was quite the challenge considering Y/n never rode one before. Ever. The brown horse stared down at her as she slowly unlocked the gate to the pen. 

Gently placing a hand on the horse's snout. The horse lowered his head at the warm touch of the human. The others were busy gathering their horses for the short trip that Charley really didn’t want to do. 

Soon—a figure landed in front of her, leaning on the fence with its arm posted up  and smiling smugly, Cuphead. 

“So…you run from the cops?” He says as he jutted a finger over in the direction that Bendy was standing at busy feeding one of the horses some hay not at all paying attention. 

Y/n looked back at Cuphead and furrowed her eyebrows. “What do you want?” She asks. The guy was weird…seriously. 

Cuphead blinked slowly as his attempt to smooth talk did not go as planned. 

He dusted his shoulder as if dusting away any particles and sighs. “Oh you know. Just was gettin’ the feelin’ that maybe we could be the next Bonnie and Clyde.”  He purrs and Y/n remains silent, holding the gate in her hand as she stares at the cup brother. 

“Look, you don’t gotta pretend we don’t have somethin’ goin’ on, pretty thing. I may not be a guy with money, but I sure do have Lady Luck on my side to get things I want.” Cuphead winks. Y/n was silent yet again and Cuphead was about to say something else until she slammed the gate in his face. The rookie falls to the ground with a loud: ‘ow!’ The visuals of stars flickering above his head appeared and Y/n turned around and walked away from him, Cuphead raised a shaky hand and heaved himself from the ground and let out a heavy as he leaned on the gate and watched Y/n. 

“Don’t worry! I understand bein’ shy!” 

When Y/n found Charley a few feet away busy strapping the saddle onto the horse, she glowered at him for a moment and huffs to get his attention. The toon looks away from the horse and to Y/n and raised an eyebrow. 

“The boys are weird in this town.” She tells him and Charley shrugs. “Shoot em.” He says before turning back to the horse. Y/n crossed her arms and sneered. 

“Someone clearly must be hungry for food.” He points out..which was true..

“No, I just want to get this over with so we can leave this place.” Y/n confessed. I mean, going to find a thief?! What are they animals?

And that only was the start of it. 

Riding the horses was much easier than she thought, Edgar rode with Y/n and was busy squeaking away, but once reaching the town—which took a little over 7 hours..simply because Edgar had to make a potty break 4 times..but upon making it to the town. It felt colder than ever. The people of town sat around, either bartering or..sulking from what it seemed. 

Slowing down the paces of the horse. Y/n glanced around the dull and rickety town—dead weeds and crops, she felt Edgar standing up and used her shoulders as a way to peer over her to look around. 

Once the horse finally stopped, Y/n slipped down from the horse, landing on her knees and helping Edgar down as the two looked around at the..awfully dull area. 

“This place is a wreck.” Mugman points out and Y/n nods, Barley and Charley had made their way over to the Edgar and Y/n and Charley grunts. “Great…” he grumbled. 

“Boris, are you sure the guy came this way? This place looks…” Bendy glanced around the area and grimaced. “Dead.” 

“Oh I’m certain.” Boris nods. 

“It could be because majority of th’ well known thieves usually stop by here.” Barley says—causing Bendy to look at him and raise an eyebrow. 

“What?” He asks. 

“If you have cops hot on your trail. You need a place to stay.” Barley dumbed it down for the demon sheriff. 

“Sorta like a place to lay low?” Mugman asks Barley curiously who nodded as his answer. 

“Which means that somewhere nearby someone probably got mugged around here I’m sure, if he just left town a few hours ago—that means the guy should still be in this town.” Y/n pipes up. She felt Charley place a hand on her head and ruffle her hair. “Taught er’ everything I know..” He sniffs and flicks a finger under his eye as if wiping a tear. 

“Yeah that’s great and all, but who was mugged—everyone practically looks dead in this joint.” Cuphead deadpans and motioned around himself, referring to the area. 

“It’s not like someone gonna shout Bloody Mary about a missing family portrait or somethin—“

“HELP! I WAS MUGGED!” Shouts a voice a few meters away. 

“I felt like I heard this from somewhere.” Charley sarcastically recalls, Edgar squeaks before pointing to the person shouting. 

Bendy was the first to walk over to the man. A dog toon who seemed in distress as he paced back and forth. 

“What’s going on?” Bendy asks, the toon looks at Bendy and his tail starts wagging quickly. “Some guy stole my family portrait!”

“How—“ Cuphead squints and genuine confusion but that wasn’t their worries as of right now, finding the bandit with whom Bendy had a feeling he was nearby. 

“Is the guy still in town?” Bendy quickly asks.

“He went that way!” The toon points to his far right. 

Great! So the guy was still here. Bendy turns to the others and motioned down the town. “Let’s split up and find him. If you do, just chase them back into the middle of the town.” 

And how did Y/n find herself in this situation? She hated it..walking between Cuphead and Mugman. Mugman was..going in about his bottle cap collection for some reason, as Cuphead was picking up different rocks and flicking them off somewhere—she was certain one pebble hit some kid in their forehead which Cuphead didn’t seem to care that he did that. 

“And then I also got this hair pen collection! Did you know you can make dioramas with them? I made a cottage with my collection of hairpins but I’ll have to start over with collecting them now considering I used them all for the cottage dioramas.” He just…kept taking..Y/n felt her boots trudging through the dirt path. She felt like pulling her hair from her scalp, the feeling of just wanting to turn around and hightail it back to Charley and the others were tempting. 

“That’s nice Mugman..” Y/n muttered. She knew rookies were..questionable and a pain—but jeez, not this much of a pain. 

“So when did you start stealing?” Mugman asks. Why he felt the need that now was the moment to be asking questions about her life when they were in the midst of finding some guy, she had no clue. 

“Couple of years ago.” She answered. Mugman nods and looks away from her and back ahead of them as they walk down the town. Glancing at Mugman from the corner of her eyes as if knowing he would ask another question. When he didn’t she looked straight ahead once more and basked in the short moment of silence. 

“So—“

“Mugman, please.” Y/n quickly groans. Soon—a flash of light zips ahead of the three and lands at their feet—the ground vibrates at the sudden impact on the ground—looking down—the three saw a burnt patch of dirt from the ground—the three are silent for a moment before looking at each other. 

“What was—“ Y/n was cut off yet again by the exact same bullet of energy almost hitting them—the three had to jump away in order for it not to hit them.  Quickly looking up towards a building. Y/n’s eyes landed on the two familiar figures. The cowboys get up and the 8-ball with the everlasting smile. Bettigan smiled down at the three. 

“Heard you all were lookin’ for us.” Bettigan says. Y/n stared up at the three and Mugman quickly shakes Y/n. “You have a gun! Shoot them!” He shouts. Y/n quickly taps at her sides—feeling the holster only to find it empty. 

“Hu-“ 

“Lookin’ for this?” Bettigan removed his hand from his back to reveal the pistol. Y/n was silent for a moment before extending her arms. “I don’t need a gun! Fight me like a real man!” She shouts up at him—which didn’t seem to put Bettigan off a bit as he was a tad bit shocked. 

“Come on!” Y/n boasts. Bettigan stared down at her for a moment before placing the pistol in his holster, taking a step off the roof, landing on his feet with ease, Mango didn’t have to do much than slowly float down from the roof. Cuphead and Mugman backed away for a moment and Mugman gently nudged Y/n. 

“What’re you doin?!” He exclaims for only the three to hear. 

Bettigan was a few feet away and Y/n silently watched him—but before the guy could get a word out, Y/n quickly took off her hat and shoved it in his face—quickly taking a wooden trash can from her side that was a few inches away, she lifted it up and slammed it on top of Mango’s head and quickly dashed the other direction, Cuphead and Mugman following close behind her. 

“They’re goin’ to kill you!” Cuphead shouts after her. Y/n only laughs as the two rushes into a nearby building—which was a seams shop—looking around frantically, Y/n pushes the boys into a dressing room and the three all squish into the once stall as Y/n locks it. 

“Oh my goodness! They’re gonna kill us!” Mugman panics, his back glue against the wall. Y/n shushed him as she peeked an eye from the crack of the stall. Watching Bettigan rush in with a fuming expression ridden on his face, Y/n looks at Cuphead and Mugman. 

“Yeah he’s pissed.” She confessed and Mugman huffs and outstretched his arms as if saying: ‘clearly!’ 

“Oh don’t worry about it, I’m sure he won’t find us in here.” Cuphead places his arms behind his head in a relaxing position. 

“We gotta get outta here, we can’t just hide in here.” Mugman tells Y/n who was debating whether or not to just run off with the two or stay in the stall. 

“We’ll just wait for him to leave.” Y/n hissed. 

The three went silent as if to listen in on the store..which not much was happening but a few patrons speaking but overall nothing out of the ordinary. The three looked at each other yet again before Y/n slowly unlocked the door to the stall and slowly opened it. The door creaked as the two slowly yet quietly edged out of the stall like an animal being greeted into a new home for the first time and being aware of its surroundings. 

When no one appeared to attack them, Y/n relaxed and looked at Cuphead and Mugman who seemed to relax as well. “Come on.”

The three quickly fled from the store and back down the town where they came from to go warn Bendy and the others, the first person they ran into was Edgar—who was busy standing in the middle of the town staring down at a map—he clearly must have gotten lost somehow. Y/n rushes over to Edgar and it gets the spider toons attention. 

“We were attacked by them!” Y/n says. Edgar perks up and squeaks—clearly saying something, waving his hands around frantically. 

“You and Boris seen them too?” Y/n reiterated and Edgar nodded before pointing over to a nearby trash can where Boris was behind it hiding—which was comical as he was bigger than the trash can. Boris perks up and spots the human and he quickly stands up and rushes over to her and hides behind her back. 

“Thank goodness! I thought I was gonna be put down for a second!” Boris whimpers, Y/n looks away from Boris and Cuphead rolls his eyes. “Seriously? Look at how big you are!” He points out and Mugman nudges his brother for his prude comment. 

Edgar pulled something from his back and handed it to Y/n, it was a lasso. 

“Squeak, squeak!” He tells her and Y/n nods as she fumbles with the rope for a moment to tie a knot in it. 

“There you guys are—“ Y/n looks over to spot Bendy, Charley and Barley. 

“So that’s where my rope went.” Charley says as he eyed the rope in Y/n’s hand. “We gotta lead them over here, and we can tie them up.” 

Barley’s eyes flickered over to Boris. “Boris. Yer good at makin’ noise.” He says. Boris’s tail immediately ducked between his legs and he let out a nervous chuckle. 

“I d-I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He frantically shakes his head. Barley then looks at Y/n. “Then you do it.” 

Y/n pressed the rope to her chest as if someone were trying to steal it from her. “What? Why me? Why can’t Bendy do it?” She looks at the demon who sputters. 

“What? Just send the brothers. They’re the rookie’s good training for them.” Bendy quickly placed the heavy duty to Cuphead and Mugman and Mugman gasps before plunging a thumb to his chest to refer to himself. 

“Excuse me! I just promoted myself to Lieutenant Mugman!” He says and Bendy snorts. “Oh please, since when? You’re wearing a rookie badge.” Bendy laughs and gives the mug a smug smile. But Mugman didn’t budge as he held an expression as if he had high regards of himself. 

“Since now, look.” 

Everyone looks at Mugman’s badge to see it magically changed to a high tier badge. 

“How the hell?” Y/n muttered under her breath. 

“That dosen’t matter! Let’s focus on gettin’ this bastard before he kills us all!” Charley snapped his fingers to get everyone’s attention. 

“Then we can leave this god forsaken town—“ Charley was cut off by a sniffle. Everyone looks down by his leg to see a child took, holding her teddy bear with big tears in her eyes. “Are..you guys here to restore happiness back into our town?” Her lip wobbled and for a second it was hard to say no to a face like that..

“No. Go away.” Charley declined before looking away from the kid without a second thought. 

“Hey, don’t be rude to th’ lass.” Barley warns Charley. Bendy looks around the town to see some of the civilians gathered outside to see the commotion, some whispering to one another—they were there to save the city.

“I think Y/n should be good for a distraction.” Bendy says, Y/n quickly looks at Bendy and furrows her eyebrows. “What?!” 

Cuphead placed an arm in front of Y/n and pointed a finger at Bendy. “Now you listen here, I ain’t gonna let some guy with a badge make the orders around here—the gal doesn't want to—“ 

“Your shoes untied.” Bendy grumbled and Cuphead looked down at his shoes and Bendy smacked the back of Cuphead’s head, causing Cuphead to shout in pain before quickly looking at Bendy. 

“Hey! What the hell was that for?!” 

“Why do I have to distract them?” Y/n crossed her arms in frustration. “Not them. The town.” Bendy refers to the civilians. 

“And we’ll handle the bandits.” 

Y/n thought for a moment..hm..distract the town to bring back joy instead of running around like crazy? Hm…

“I get 50 from you if I manage to get the town back in order again.” Y/n wanted a bid. And Charley laughs and motions to Y/n. 

“I’m so proud!” Charley chuckled and Bendy sighs heavily. “Fine..”

“Matter of fact. Make it 150

“You can’t!—“ Bendy stops and lets out a calm sigh as he makes a hand motion to calm himself down. Y/n only gives him a look with her arms crossed. 

“You can’t just hope from 50 dollars—to 150.” 

“I can if I’m gonna be distracting an entire town of people.” 

Bendy was silent for a moment before blinking slowly and nodding. “I’ll give you your 150.”

“Alright here.” She hands him the rope considering she won’t be doing the dirty work. Bendy takes the rope and wraps it around his wrist. 

Now..how hard could it be to distract a town? 

-

Staring at the people, Y/n cleared her throat as they civilians all looked at her—she was standing near an open area in the town, and was trying to think of the next big thing in her mind. 

“You guys..uh..get an..tourist around here?” Y/n says as she rocked back and forth on her feet. 

“Other than you guys..no..” said a dull toon. 

“We’ve been so empty for years now.” Another toon says. 

“Damn, talk about a tough crowd.” Y/n muttered to herself. They were so…sad. 

“Aren’t you wanted—“

“You guys wanna hear a joke?” Y/n quickly redirected the conversation and the people quickly placed their attention back onto her. 

“What does…a duck say..when they find something funny?” Y/n gave a strained smile—but no one answered her as they all stared at her in confusion but mostly not impressed expression. Y/n gently tugged at her bandana, the feeling of nervousness seeking through her veins—okay maybe helping them chase down the others would have been easier..

“You..quack me up..” Y/n’s voice cracked as she got silent the more she talked.

A cough emits from the crowd..no one laughed. 

Well duh, that joke sucked. Who would laugh?! 

Y/n shuffled on her feet, the dirt and grind crumbling under the soles of her boots.

“Look guys, I’m trying here, give me a break.” Y/n gladed at the ground—it seemed her sudden gesture and aggressiveness frightened them. As some backed away and some whispered amongst each other. 

Y/n immediately fixed her stand and placed her hands to her side. Her eyes scanned over the crowd. 

“We’re sorry. We understand you just want us to be safe from the bandits raiding the town. And we could do everything we can to help but..we just don’t feel motivated to do so.” Another civilian expressed. 

They’re telling you the answer, idiot.

Y/n felt like the answer went off in her head. Of course! Bad town, no motivation, just get them motivated! 

And she felt like she knew how..

“God dammit..” Y/n muttered under her breath. 

Y/n stared at the crowd for a moment and rocked back and forth on her feet, her lips pressed into a thin line. 

She lets out a sigh before cracking her knuckles. “Fine. I can do this. Lead my own scene. I’m a dog.” She smacks her chest before walking over to the civilians and wrapping her arms around two people before singing.

“Everybody’s got a thing, but some don’t know how to handle it, always reaching out in vain, just taking the things not worth having.” Y/n expresses as the civilian’s smiled at her—some slowly bobbing their heads as they all had their attention on her. 

“But don’t you worry bout a thing, don’t you worry bout a thing mama.” 

Dancing around each other, the civilians seemed a lot more at peace than what they first started off as. 

“Cause I’ll be standing on the side, when you check it ouuut!”

She moves to a civilian with patched and dirty clothes, a frown on his face as Y/n grabs him by his shirt. 

“Oh! They say your style of life’s a drag, and that you must go other places, just don’t you feel too bad, when you get fooled by smiling faces!” 

She releases him as the man smiled and Y/n smiled as well as she shuffled on her feet around the civilians who had started to dance, which to no lie, she was starting to have fun as well as she danced with the people.

“Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing! Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing baby! ‘Cause I’ll be standing on the side when you check it, ouut! When you get oooff your trip.”

She felt a kid take her hands as the small child danced with her as best as her small legs could. 

“Don’t you worry ‘bout a thiiiing!”

“Don’t you worry ‘bout a thiiiing!” 

The kid let’s go before Y/n turns to the civilians and continues on. “Everybody needs a change, a change to take out the new, yeah! You’re the only one who sees the changes you take yourself through!” 

Everyone hummed along as they danced around each other, some shouting and hopping around as the solemn expression was removed from their faces, and a look of joy took over as they too soon began to sing along. 

“Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing!” The civilians gathered around Y/n as they all sang along, the air being filled with voices of joy and new found motivation, ridding their sorrows to their graves. 

“Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing!” 

“Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing!” 

“Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing!” 

As everyone harmonized together, Y/n could hear more voices and it sounded as if they were far away, as if other people were singing as well. Clapping in rhythm Y/n rocked from side to side as the civilians did as well. The small voices of the children singing as well brought joy to her heart.

“Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing!” 

“Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing, mama!”

“Cause I’ll be standing on the side when you check it ouuuut! When you get ooooff your trip!” 

Y/n turned to the civilians once more and spread her arms out to them as they sang alongside with her. 

Edgar spotted Y/n and squeaks and jumps up and down excitedly, Bendy panted heavily after wrestling with Bettigan and Mango who..was actually tied up. The two goons sat on the ground with..pretty upset expressions. Charley, and Barley watched as the former bandit pranced around a few feet away. Boris clapped his hands before rushing over to Y/n to dance with her. 

“I wanna join!” Mugman rushes after Boris as Y/n smiles at the two. Bendy glanced at Bettigan and Mango before looking at Cuphead, Barley and Charley. 

The four laughed before rushing over to the group to stand beside each other in a line facing forward to end the scene. 

-

Y/n slowly opened her eyes and squinted slightly—the bright lights of the stage entered her vision. The sound of cheering and clapping sounded like waves from an ocean. Some people stood up from their seats and blankets—a standing ovation.

Y/n felt the cool air hit her skin—she had been sweating this entire time? Y/n looked over to Charley, Barley and Edgar, dressed in the same midwestern bandit get up as she, looking to her other side to Bendy, Boris, Cuphead and Mugman. Wearing the same clothing as well. Y/n glanced over her shoulder to see the nuns onstage as well and looking at her and waving frantically from the wing of the left side of the stage was Alice. Alice placed a hand on her heart and smiled at Y/n. 

Y/n smiled back as she looked back at the crowd, what? Wow! She did it! She felt her heart beating in her chest frantically. 

The judges were appalled, shocked. 

One judge walked up onto stage, and over to Mary Patrick—who had a smile on her face —something rarely ever seen, placing a hand on the woman, the judge nodded his head and motioned to everyone on stage. 

They did it! 

-

After the judging—it was very evident that the nuns had come in first place..and they did. Y/n was over the roof! For the fact that they won, not only the stone—but—money. Not that they needed it—but more so the church to get it back open again—all considering that they made their big debut onstage. 

Mary Patrick was very proud of everyone going onstage, when Y/n went backstage, she spotted Felix standing next to Alice, the two smiled at Y/n and Felix outstretched his palms upwards for a downwards high five, Y/n jumped up and slammed her hands onto his for their high-five and she smiled brightly. 

“You guys did awesome out there!” Felix shook Y/n’s hands fiercely and then placed a hand on top of her head and ruffled her hair up. 

Alice pulled Y/n into a tight hug and rubbed her cheek on top of the human's head and smiled. “Great job!” Y/n laughs at the many praises she received. Soon various footsteps grew closer and the three looked over to see Bendy, Boris, Charley, Barley, Edgar and Cuphead and Mugman wandering over. 

“That went a whole lot better than planned.” Charley admits and Alice smiles. “Either way, you guys did wonderful.” 

“All thanks…” Bendy starts as he looks at Alice but then points to himself. “This guy.” He smiles smugly and Alice playfully rolls her eyes. 

“So..where are they?” Felix asks refering to Bettigan and Mango. 

“Oh, we got them.” The voice of the elderly Mary Lazerous pipes up. Everyone looks over to see the nuns, Mary Patrick holding the rope as Bettigan and Mango were wrapped tightly together—how Bendy and the others manage to do it? Y/n had no clue. Mango did look pretty funny wrapped in the nylon rope. 

“Just wait till Devil hears about this.” Bettigan grows at Cuphead and Mugman. Cuphead chuckled and shrugged. “Ain’t too worried about it, send him our resignation.” 

“And I believe this belongs to you all.” Mary Patrick walks over to Alice, holding a small display case, with a green rigid like rock perched inside. It was the stone. 

“We have no use for this…with the money, we’ll be able to open our doors and that’s enough for us…plus, I heard you all needed it.” She chuckled..great..how bad that would have sounded—Y/n only hoped that they didn’t feel betrayed for understanding the real reason they were there to begin with. Alice gently took the case and looked at Mary Patrick. 

“Thank you.”  Alice thanks. 

“You all are welcome anytime. Now hurry.” Mary Patrick looks at Bettigan and Mangosteen. “We’ll keep these two here as long as we can.”

“Dear god.” Bettigan rolled his eyes. 

Alice looks at Bendy and then the rest. “Let’s go guys. You gotta leave town.” 

-

“Okay, it’ll only be a matter of time before the devil finds out Cuphead and Mugman is with us.” Y/n says as they walked down the street of the city, it was 10 at night and was getting late—but Y/n had a lot of energy to spare. 

Soon she stopped walking and turned to face everyone. 

“She’s right, he’s not too fond of us anyways, and..I don’t wanna be around when he decides to come into town.” Mugman shivered 

“Guys!” Everyone looks over to see Panchito, Donald and Oswald a few meters away. They’re back!

“For a second, I thought they were dead.“ Charley muttered and Barley heard him and chuckled under his breath.  Edgar squeaks as he sees a device in Panchito’s hand. 

“Alas! We were there with Puck, but he did not have a device that can be used to communicate overseas from such far distances, so he had to create one—“

“Which.” Donald buts in before quickly glancing at Oswald. “Proves Oswald wrong.” He points out, and Oswald deadpans “yeah, aware of that.” Oswald muttered. 

Panchito holds up a small chip. “He said to just connect it to any device we will communicate from, and it can extend the connection from up to 2,000 nautical miles—whatever that means!” 

“He managed to make that in under an hour?” Y/n asks and Panchito nods quickly..wow..he sure was a smart mouse. 

“What..are they doing here? Did we miss something?” Donald motions to Cuphead and Mugman, Mugman waves at Donald with a smile and Cuphead squints his eyes as if trying to remember something—which he had been holding that same facial expression for the last 10 minutes. 

“The competition, remember?” Alice remembers and Donald is silent for a moment before he perks up slightly. “And you guys actually managed to win?” 

“With the exception of those goons gettin’ on stage. Yes.” Bendy nods and Oswald grimaces. 

“And where are they now? If they know, Cuphead and Mugman are with us now.” 

“The nuns have them on a short temporary lockdown. Enough time for us to leave town.” Felix says and he then motioned to the glass box Bendy was now holding with the stone in it. 

“In order for that to work, we have to crush it into a powder and absorb it into a liquid to consume it.” Felix points out and Y/n could only imagine how long that would take.

“Well. The important thing is, we have everything. You guys need to get going. We’ll head back home.” Alice gently takes Edgar's hand who seemed to want to follow Bendy and the others.  but clearly he couldn’t tag along. 

“Don’t die, or I guess. I mean, unless you want your mom to kill us.” Charley pointed out and Alice nudged him and rolled her eyes. Oh yeah, Y/n would make sure she would make it back with all limbs intact—the last thing she needed was her mother completely losing it. 

“No seriously, don’t die. Find out what’s going on, and remember 8 days!” Alice points a finger at everyone like a stern mother and Bendy chuckles.

“Relax sweets, we got it.” 

“I’m serious, I’ll call to remind you guys in 3 days. I don’t know how long I can keep Henry and the others distracted, Sammy was already interrogating us before we left town.” Alice seemed to stress over that part a bit much, she was mostly afraid to let them go off into a world that no one knew about, with the exception of Felix basically going to be their tour guide. 

Edgar lets out a sad squeak before waving bye to the group. Bendy walks over to Edgar, and places a hand on the spider's head. “Thanks guys..really.” Bendy thanked Boris's tail wagging as he smiled at Bendy. 

“Dah…of course. That’s what families are for, we’re here for eachother.” Boris claims and Alice nods in agreement placing a hand on Boris’s shoulder. 

“Oh yeah! We didn’t get a chance to take a picture for winning the competition with the sisters and they wanted a photo of us together so they could frame in the church.” Alice remembers as she motioned her hand for the group to get together, Y/n pulled out her phone and opened her camera, luckily they still had their costumes on, Spunk jumps up and snatches the phone from Y/n’s hand. The pup moves in front of everyone with the phone In his mouth. Sitting up slightly as he sat down the dog tilted his head to the side as the camera pointed at the group.

“Well ain’t that sweet.” Mugman tears up as he sees the group stand in a group picture, he wipes a tear from his face and Y/n motion the two to get into the picture. “Come on guys.” 

Mugman perks up at the offer, a picture? With them? Who was he to pass that offer up! 

Mugman grabs Cuphead by his shirt and the two walk over and stand next to each other, Y/n was in the center of the group. 

Everyone looked at the camera, with smiles on their faces, Y/n felt..joy. How they managed to escape death many times in this town—was unbelievable, but they still did it. Together. Y/n felt like she accomplished more than just laughing in the face of death. But creating bonds and friends along the way. 

And when they enter the world of the unknown, Y/n knew that she would have people behind her—just like she would be for them. 

She didn’t sense fear anymore, but perhaps bravery to step into this new objective and take it, wherever her journey may lead them, she would follow it till the ends of the earth with her friends, no matter how big the obstacles may be. 

The flash of the camera flickers off, capturing the moment of everyone, pride and joy and the sweet newfound presence of adventure. 

-

“Bye!” Alice waved goodbye to, Bendy, Y/n, Panchito, Donald, Oswald and Felix—and even Spunk. The six waved back as Alice and the others slowly walked away to the car they had arrived in town in—which was parked on the side of the road—thankfully it was unscathed—if so, Wally might lose his mind. 

Charley slowly stopped walking before he turned around and looked at Y/n. He walked back over to the group and stood in front of her, the human watched the toon before she watched him take something from behind his back. 

“Here, you might need this.” He says. Looking down, Y/n saw the butcher holding a pistol, the prop? Y/n laughed as she took it from his hand. The pistol held some weight to it, but Y/n blindly placed it into her holster. 

Charley sighs and places a hand on Y/n’s shoulder. “You’re just a new starting Butcher Gang..but that’s okay. We’re all gonna learn how to truly be a Butcher—one day—“

“Shut up.” Bendy grumbled as he walked over and stood beside Y/n, Charley swatted his hand in Bendy’s direction. “And he’s not a member for various reasons—but you’ll thank me later.” Charley lets out a laugh before turning and walking back to the car where Alice was waiting. When he entered the car Alice waved goodbye one last time, Y/n waves bye as well, watching as the Angel got into the car and then drove off to finally head back home. Departing from the group for a small goodbye. 

Watching the car get further away—until finally it left from their sights. 

“Where to now?” Donald asks. The small display box was placed in Y/n’s book bag along with the book, safely tucked away. 

“Well. We need a boat. That’s the only way to leave the mainlands—“

“Like..by ocean?” Oswald quickly asks and Felix nods. Oswald’s ears slowly flattened. “And are we positive that we won’t get lost at sea?” 

Oh that didn’t sound good at all and Y/n grimaced. “When you put it like that, Oswald, that’s a bit concerning.” 

“Oh, it’s not too hard, me and Mugsy sailed here on a canoe.” Cuphead recalls. A canoe, in the ocean? How did they even do that? 

“So, we’ll be sailing?��� Y/n asks Felix who thought for a moment before nodding. “When you put it like that, yes.” He smiled and Oswald glanced at Donald. “Well. Donald knows all about boats, he’s good at sailing.”

Oh yeah, Donald did own a small boat. But surely not enough room for them all to fit in.

“There is a dock a few blocks from here. It has tons of boats.” Panchito points out—he recalled passing by it on their short adventure to go find Puck and retrieve the device from him. 

“Well let’s go, it’s getting late.” Donald rushes. Cuphead suddenly perked up though. 

“Oh yeah! Now I remember!“ he reminds himself. Bendy slowly looks at Cuphead and gives him a look of confusion. “Remember what?” 

“We left Pib over here somewhere.” Cuphead said—Y/n wasn’t aware of who Pib was—was that the archangel that they were warned about earlier—which not to mention Y/n was grateful they hadn’t run into them yet. 

“Oh yeah..” Mugman sighs and rubs the back of his neck. “I feel bad.” 

Cuphead rolled his eyes and shrugged. “She’ll survive.” 

“Who is Pib?” Panchito asks and tilts his head in confusion. “One of those ‘reinforcements’ they called in.” Cuphead answered and Bendy glowered at the cup for a moment when he wasn’t looking. 

“I thought there was only one of them.” Bendy grits through his teeth. 

“No. There’s three.” 

“And you’re just now telling us this because?”

“Whaddya mean? I already told you guys back at the venue.” 

“Yeah, you only told us one person was after us, and that’s the angel.”

“Yeah, Abel. You just gotta worry about him—the other two don’t seem too complicated—especially Pib, I doubt the goon even has a single brain cell in that head of theirs.” From the looks of it, Pib didn’t seem too reliable in Cuphead’s eyes—not much of a threat as Abel was—and whoever the 3rd person was. 

“Now..thinkin’ about it Cuphead, we should have told them about the other two.” Mugman nervously tapped his index fingers together. 

Y/n shrugs slowly. “Well…we know now.” 

The sound of a rock hitting something metal echoed in the street, everyone looked over to see the figure standing under the street light. It was Pib. 

Cuphead perked up at Pib’s very..on time appearance. 

“Oh. That’s Pib…great..” He grumbled. Y/n furrowed her eyebrows ever so slightly—the appearance of the person was odd and reminded her of some purge horror character. Standing still under the light, Y/n looks at Cuphead and Mugman. 

“What’s wrong with them?” 

“I dunno, she’s weird.” Cuphead shrugs. Pib seemed harmless, keeping a safe distance before slowly wandering over to Cuphead and Mugman, their shoes tapping the ground with each step Pib took before she pulled out something from behind their back—to present a bag of candy in her palms. Cuphead stared down at it at first before chuckling and glancing back at everyone. 

“See? Told you you didn’t have to worry about this one—“ Cuphead was cut off short when Pib hands Cuphead the bag of candy and gently moved him out of the way by pushing the bag of candy to his chest to slowly move him from her lane—Cuphead slowly stops speaking has he held the candy to his chest that Pib shoved it at and stumbled out of the way, Y/n had been standing behind Cuphead and Pib’s attention glued itself onto her. 

Y/n felt like she was in front of some wild animal and on instinct took a step back, pressing her back against the car that was behind her. 

“Okay Pib..” Mugman chuckled nervously. Y/n smiled nervously at Pib and chuckled. 

“Uh, hi—I promise we aren’t here to like..I dunno..cause harm or anything..cool mask..” Y/n strains. As close as Pib was—it seemed through the eye holes she couldn’t see Pib’s eyes. 

“Alright, that’s enough.” Bendy placed a hand on Pib’s back—and tugged at their shirt to remove themselves away from Y/n—but as quicker than anything, Pib swings their arm towards Y/n—a flare of golden light grew brighter—Y/n quickly ducks away from Pib’s blow, the fist had collided with the car, the window shattering and the car alarm went off. 

Y/n fell to the ground with a surprised expression. The damn thing almost took her head off! 

Spunk barked at Pib and Mugman and Cuphead were surely caught off guard as well. 

Pib stared down at Y/n, the dark hallows in the mask that were once pitch black were filled with a glowing golden light. Y/n felt the car shake as if someone landed on it. Glancing up at the car—another masked person was present—but this time they resembled more of a toon rather than human. 

It was Slicer. Slicer motion to Pib who looked up at her from the car. 

“Go. You can have her. We’ll get the others.” Slicer tells Pib. 

“Wh—“ Y/n was cut off by feeling herself falling—as if she fell through the ground—she heard everyone shout her name.

“You bring her back now!” Panchito glares at Pib. Pib only looks at the group before taking a step forward and disappearing into the puddle she had created. 

-

Y/n fell to the ground—falling from the middle of the air as it seemed, feeling the air get knocked from her lungs—she saw she had been dropped into an alleyway, quickly scurrying up—she only took a few steps ahead before she was tackled to the ground, the two rolled to the ground, Y/n kicked her legs to kick off Pib—which kicked them in the abdomen, Pib falls off and Y/n quickly grabs onto a pipe that had been laying on the ground, she stumbled up and points it to Pib. 

“Who are you!” Y/n shouts—not to lie. She was scared of Pib. She’s seen the Devil, a cowboy trying to shoot at her, and other crazy things in this short timespan of an adventure, but Pib had to be up there to one of the few things that would make her piss her pants. 

Pib didn’t hesitate and move to grab the pipe with their left hand—Y/n shoved the pipe into Pib’s hand and swung her fist to punch her, but Pib grabbed Y/n’s hand with theirs and shoved her backwards—which caused Y/n to stumble. Pib swings her arm in an attempt to punch Y/n, the human felt the fist collide near her lip—quickly placing a hand on her face, Y/n felt the metallic taste of blood—she grunts and tossed herself at Pib, causing the two to fall over, Pib grabbed ahold of Y/n’s arms—the feeling of a hot burning sensation scorched through Y/n’s wrist—the shining light flared and Y/n flinched back at the burn and at the reaction it had caused. It caused her to remove herself from Pib and quickly look down at her wrist—the blisters and bruise skin were present around her wrist. 

Y/n hissed in pain and shot the other direction and ran away. Fuck that, she can’t fight that thing. 

Pib quickly shot up and ran after Y/n. Y/n ran across the street and Pib was hot in her trail—Y/n could basically feel Pib’s shoes grazing the back of hers. Y/n felt her heart beating and straining—in fear and because of the running. She heard a grunt emit from Pib. 

Pib jumps up into the air and aims her hand down onto the ground in front of Y/n. The sound of something ripping in the air reached Y/n’s ears and Pib appeared in front of the human—Y/n skids on her shoes, almost falling to the ground but she regained her balance and moved as Pib swung her fist and it collided into the wall behind Y/n’s head when she moved away—any inch closer and Y/n would have been done for.

Y/n grabbed Pib’s wrist and Pib grabbed at Y/n’s neck—the feeling of the hand squeezing tightly at Y/n’s neck caused Y/n to grunt in pain—Y/n felt Pib push her through the wall—where it seemed the mysterious threat created another portal—leaning Y/n through it, Y/n felt herself slip off the edge and fall—but the hand removed itself from her neck and grabbed at the back of her shirt—holding her up above a body of water—it was off to the side of the bridge. Y/n gasps and brings her knees up to her chest. 

“Oh shit!” She shouts. 

She looks up at Pib, who was holding onto a pipe from the brick wall on the other side of the portal- using such strength to hold Y/n above the water. But if Y/n was falling—Pib was falling with her. 

Y/n grabbed at Pib’s forearm, digging her nails into the arm of Pib’s and tugged—causing Pib to lose footing and stumble away from the pipe she was holding on. Y/n grabbed onto the ground after pulling herself up by Pib and scurried up like a frightened cat, Pib had almost fallen off on the other side but kicked herself up and tried to grab at Y/n once more but Y/n moved away and punched Pib. Pib let out a grunt and shook her head, falling onto her knees as Y/n ran past her. 

Y/n stumbled slightly but felt herself running as faster than ever. She felt arms grab onto her and pull her up into the air, Y/n shrieks as she is pulled through yet another portal. Pib was bent down by the portal and pulled the human up. Y/n fell onto the ground and like a leech, she shot right back up and turned to the masked figure who moved their hand to swing yet again, this time Y/n caught the masked figures hand and pushed back—Pib pushes Y/n back and through another portal—how many of these damn things are there, falling through the other side and into a room in a building, Y/n stumbled onto some stairs—she grunts but quickly shot up, the dark room only showed light from the windows around the bar like area, the moon and street lights gave her the small bit of light as she hurried over to the bar counter and hopped over it, squatting down she pressed her back to the counter and slowly peered around it, she watched as Pib slowly walked through the portal and glanced around ever so slightly, shivering slightly, Y/n watched as Pib looked down at the broken chair that Y/n accidentally fell on top of.

The masked perpetrator hadn’t moved from the spot, the sound of the portal slowly closing up behind her caused Y/n to slowly back away into her hiding space. She glanced around her area to see what she could use to protect herself with. Spotting a glass beer bottle that had been thrown away in the employees trash can under the counter, Y/n slowly reached inside and grabbed onto it, her hands gripping onto the neck of the bottle before glancing back out so see Pib was near the counter. Pib had neared the counter Y/n was, but didn’t seem to take notice of the human slowly backing away to the opposite side of the counter to avoid her view, Pib slowly walked behind the counter, their boots scraping against the wooden floor and letting out a creek with each footstep, Y/n rounded the opposite side of the counter Pib once was, and slowly backed away near the exit which was at the front of the store a few feet away. Slowly standing up as she did so, she clutched onto the beer bottle like it was a teddy bear, waiting to give her comfort of any sort. But the ever so slightest groan from the floor, when she misplaced her footing caused Pib to stop her search and pause, her back still turned from Y/n, Y/n froze as well before Pib quickly turned around, a bolt of yellow light shot towards Y/n and hits the floor, Y/n heard wood cracking, but that wasn’t the least of her problems, Y/n ran the opposite direction and ran away from the door that she was sure was locked and would have to figure out how to unlock but with Pib knowing she was there she wouldn’t have enough time to do that. 

Y/n ran towards a set of stairs to the right of the room and quickly ran up them, she heard Pib scamper after her, once reaching the second floor, Y/n swung her arm back, the glass bottle colliding with Pib’s head and the glass cracked, Pib stopped in her short chase and lets out an animalistic grunt and turned their face the opposite direction and held the side of her head as Y/n quickly ran down the hall and spotted a door, opening it and quickly running inside she closed the door behind her and spotted a barrel bolt lock, quickly switching the barrel to lock the door, she turned around but spotted nowhere to leave the room! The bar just had complimentary temporary staying rooms, but who the hell ran the business where no one installed windows! What was this, a prison cell?! 

“Shit..” Y/n cursed under her breath before she quickly rushed over to a closet and opened the door, nothing but hangers and dust, she glanced around the closet yet again to spot a chained string for the light, without thinking, Y/n snatched the string from the roof, breaking it but also breaking the light in the process as it started to flicker and buzz. Holding the chained light string, Y/n glanced around the room for something else, she flinched when she heard the harsh sounds of thudding, looking over at the door, she saw Pib punched through it, the fist let off an intimidating yellow glow, and had yellow glowing trails around the knuckles and down the arm as if it were some henna tattoo or as if it were following the veins in the arm, the fist uncurled and grabbed at the door—clawing at it and Y/n had to think what it felt like for people that were in those horror movies, because it felt exactly like that, who was Pib and why were they so pissed off at Y/n?! She doesn't even know her!  The claw marks were left in its wake of Pib’s nails and Y/n paused for a moment before looking around the room as if someone else saw it.

Pib seemed to acknowledge the fact that the door was locked and was searching for the lock. Y/n quickly ran over to the dresser on the wall and hopped onto it, to anyone it would look like two kids playing hide and seek, but to Y/n, she started to realize she was legit fighting for her life at this point. Y/n spotted a flower pot holder edge above the door, and immediately hopped up and grabbed onto it. Not thinking if it would hold her weight up, but who gave a damn when you were using only a little of the resources given to you to survive, it’s not like she had magic like it seemed most of their opposing team had, if that was the fact she would have went head on with Pib—maybe—because the way Pib was portraying Y/n didn’t want to be anywhere near Pib, at all. 

Y/n grunts and heaves herself up onto the ledge shelf—and glued her back to the wall, feeling the ceiling touch the top of her head, she felt the wall shake and watched as Pib stumbled into the room, looking left and right, distracted with finding Y/n, Y/n held the chain in her hand and heaved herself from the wall, and landed onto Pib’s back—she thought Pib would have fallen to the ground but that wasn’t the case, she managed to get the string around Pib’s neck and Y/n let’s out a loud shout and tugged at the string, Pib stumbled and on instant her hand went up to tug at the choking device, Y/n felt her back hit the wall and she pushed her back against the wall and tugged tighter on the string, Pib placed her hand on the wall and the two fell backwards through another portal, Y/n fell onto her back and Pib fell over her, rolling over Pib shoots to her feet and Y/n fell the cold concrete under her, back outside, Y/n tore herself from the ground and and saw that they were back outside in the street, she watched as Pib placed a shaky hand on her neck, Pib looked down at her palm to see the red substance on her fingertips, Y/n takes a step backwards and shivered, she felt cold—but it wasn’t that cold just a minute ago. 

Pib ran towards Y/n and tackled her to what Y/n thought would be the ground, but she felt water submerge the two. Dragged under water Y/n felt Pib grasp on her throat, slowly opening her eyes, Y/n held her breath and grabbed onto Pib’s wrist, clawing and pinching but it seemed that didn’t make Pib falter at all. The lack of oxygen had started to get to Y/n, the human felt her chest jolt in response for her lack of hair, Y/n felt her back hit the ground at the bottom of the pond, the jagged ground pierced through her back, Y/n felt her heart quickly beating, panicking but also alerting her brain to breathe and hurry to get fresh air. Y/n’s hand grazed a loose rock and she picked up the rock before swinging her arm as fast as she could underwater, the rock collided with Pib’s temple causing her to quickly let go of Y/n. Her hands grasping the side of her head and Y/n kicked her feet from off the ground and quickly started back to the top of the water, the moonlight reflecting from the water, when she reached the surface, the cool air licks at Y/n’s face and Y/n doggy paddle to the nearest land—which was a small ditch on the side of the towns road, breathing heavily and panting, Y/n crawled onto the ground and hacked up the water that managed to make its way into her lungs and throat. 

Y/n claws at the dirt, feeling the dirt embed itself into her nails. She gulped and swallowed in the air as if it were water, weakly turned over to sit and lean on her elbows and glanced at the water to see Pib—peeking from the water at Y/n, Pib was as still as a stone. Y/n’s chest heaved up and down as she slowly backed away and stumbled weakly onto her feet, her legs felt like jelly. 

Pib slowly seeps back into the water like some hippo and Y/n scurried away like a frightened child, running back into the city, the human couldn’t yet again take another step until she felt herself get tackled, the wet form of Pib embraced Y/n and the two fell once more into a new portal. 

Y/n felt herself fall into someone. Y/n grunts and quickly gets up to see Oswald who had got up as well. 

“Oh thank goodness you’re here!” Y/n shouts as she quickly places her hands on Oswald—Oswald was about to say something but the feeling of him shoving her away causes Y/n to stop talking, the sound of concrete breaking and smoke entering her nostrils. Y/n looks up to see Abel was walking over, a hand shot from the ground and grabbed onto the ground—like a zombie crawling from the dead. Pib pulled herself up from the portal and stood up, rolling their shoulders and looking over to Abel who motioned something towards Pib. 

Y/n looked over to see Oswald had scurried over to her and helped her off the ground, backing away from Pib and Abel. And even Slicer who had slowly sauntered over to the two, Y/n felt another pair of arms grab onto her, she looked over to see Panchito. 

“There you are!” He sighs in relief. Bendy spotted Y/n and quickly walked over to Y/n, Felix was watching Cuphead and Mugman hold  something up to Abel, who didn’t look pleased at all.

“I’m not afraid to use this!” Cuphead shouts, it was the stone..how the hell did he get that, Y/n thought she had it in her bag.

Abel looks at Slicer and Pib—which Pib was still looking at Y/n like some ravenous wolf. Ready to tear her into pieces. 

Y/n leaned back onto Panchito and Oswald and pants—she was out of breath and was damn near going to die at one point. 

The gem in Cuphead’s hand glowed and Abel took a step back but not that he was afraid of the stone—but what he knew Cuphead was holding was nothing good to him; he then looked past Cuphead and Mugman and to the group.  

“We know where you go.” Abel confessed.

“We’ll be back.” He adds, his wings shivered and Y/n lets out a shaky sigh. 

Pib motioned towards the ground—where they created another portal. Slicer laughs before jumping into the portal, her laugh echoing. Abel removes his gaze from everyone before jumping in, and Pib looks over to Y/n, they raise a hand up to their head, the tip of their fingertips touching their forehead before motioning towards Y/n, and off Pib went, into the portal. 

Everyone was silent for a moment.  Y/n felt the world fade from her, her eyes becoming blurry. And soon her world was darkness. 

#toon quest #bendy and the ink machine #oswald the lucky rabbit #animanics 2020 #bendyxreader #panchito pistoles #cuphead #cuphead x reader

[toontails]

Toon Quest

Chapter 9: I Can Wait

A/n: 🫡 time to get the ball rolling—enough banging around, we turn into real men from now on guys, this plot is driving 180 on an 30 mph road

-

Y/n laid in the bed staring up at the ceiling, not a single thought roaming in her head, Spunk had his head resting on Y/n’s foot, the pup was fast asleep and at times would roll around to find a more comfortable position—despite the many rooms the hall provided for everyone, it seemed everyone decided to remain in one room—minus, Ruck, Meek and Don, clearly seeing they were much older than everyone they want their own rooms so they wouldn’t have to hear the loud voices of the young group—lord knows how many headaches Ruck can get in one night with already having to put up with Meek and Don—mostly Meek. 

Mugman was asleep on the couch with Cuphead, and despite the very different personality traits, Mugman was the one to be a wild sleeper, he had his socked foot on Cuphead’s chest, as his other leg dangled off the couch, Mugman’s head was also having off the couch as well, but seeing he was snoring away—the position didn’t seem to bother him, Felix was asleep on the floor with Panchito, Oswald and Donald. She could hear the soft purring from Felix was sound asleep, Donald at one point muttered a name under his breath: ‘Daisy’ 

Despite the piles of blankets that were on the floor, Oswald didn’t care to cover up, sleeping on the floor with his arm tossed over his eyes and a neutral expression you would think he was dead. And Panchito laid beside it on his stomach—at times his tail feathers would shiver as he snored. 

Bendy had actually arrived a few hours before everyone decided to call it night. After being dragged around everywhere by Lucy, Bendy of course was exhausted just as much as they were. 

The tailor shop was ran by an elderly man, kind hearted and was very talented seamster, the mannequins had the showcased the clothing he made—they were all created and sewed from rich fabrics, pure cotton and velvet, satin robes and sashes, golden highlights on suits and linings, when they arrived at the shop the man wasted no time to take their measurements and start frantically sketching on some parchment paper he had lying around, garbling how he would make the best known warrior uniforms for them all, to carry Hector’s dream. 

The people in town would move away from Y/n as she went to explore it with Panchito later in the day, moving sideways like water parting down the middle. 

It was surely a sight to see but it made Y/n stick out like a sore thumb, all her life she spent at home—living the life of any ordinary person, wake up, work, eat, sleep—maybe make time to hangout with folks, but being ripped into a new world and placed to where people saw you as some hero when you truly hadn’t done anything remotely hero worthy other than walking in the shadows of a man that once was a…hero.

Even then, it was something that was heavy to think about, Hector died. And Y/n couldn’t even fight off one person, or tie a monkey knot.

Y/n thought her head felt empty, but the problems had soon started to seep back to her, if it got too quiet she would think too long, worry too much. She had an Uncle, though she thought he didn’t see her blood, but something more of a student he was trying to mentor to grow from a bud to a blooming flower, some dog to just teach so she wouldn’t die in the process of the objective. A deep feeling in Y/n wanted to show him that she was better and more useful than some gal that just sat and waited for the situation to hit her in the face—but that’s all she really knew. 

It was evident she wasn’t going to get sleep anytime soon, sighing through her nose the human furrowed her eyebrows and closed her eyes—no amount of fatigue would make her drop dead asleep at the moment. Her brain was running rapidly, her eyes opened back on it at the sound of soft labored breathing, moving her head over where the window was, laid Bendy, wrapped in the blanket with his back turned from everyone as he laid in the couch by himself, in the dim room Y/n could see he was shivering—as if he was left out in the cold and trying to fight away the cold air nipping at him. 

But it wasn’t cold. Y/n sat up, her eyes remained on his form and Spunk moved away from Y/n’s foot and laid his head on the bed nstead—not budging from his sleep. 

Bendy’s shaky breath was soft, not enough to wake anyone up, but Y/n could hear him. She removed the blankets from her and slipped off the bed, the cold hardwood floor met the sole of her feet, causing a chill to run up her spine. She walked over to the couch—which wasn’t too far from the bed. 

Walking over to the arm of the couch where Bendy had laid his head on the pillow she looked down at him. “Bendy.” She whispered and reached down and placed a hand on his back, the warmth immediately warmed up her hand—like she was touching a warm water bag—he clearly was too warm to be cold—and far too warm for it to be his regular body temperature, Y/n wasn’t a doctor or anything but the damp feeling on her hand mixed with the warm feeling from Bendy’s back clearly wasn’t normal. She shook his shoulder and Bendy let’s out a soft grunt  before slowly sitting up, Y/n removed her hand from him and Bendy turned his form to face Y/n, his eyes were tried—ridden with exhaustion, his eyes glossy and eyes ready to close to drift off back to sleep. 

“You look sick.” Y/n muttered before sitting down at the spot he once was laying down at, Bendy shoved the blanket off his shoulder—clearly taking notice how hot he was—he wasn’t wearing the uniform they had given him earlier in the day—but his regular outdoor outfit they had arrived in Welkin in—the button up shirt and loose pants—that was different she didn’t know where he got them from but At Least he had more than one pair of clothes. 

He raised a hand to rub at his head. “Yeah..my—I—my head had been bangin’ since…since earlier today.” His words drawled out as if he couldn’t latch onto what he was saying himself. 

“Why didn’t you say something then? We could have gotten you some medicine before we all headed to bed.” Y/n questions—a common cold would be understandable, they did sleep through a small snow storm after all. 

Bendy didn’t answer as he closed his eyes, his chest heaved, and a croaking yet regurgitation-like noise muffled in his chest—it sounded sorta similar to a dog bellowing. But Y/n thought he just stopped himself from burping in her face. The human was about to open her mouth to joke about it but a crawling black line of liquid slowly dropped down Bendy’s forehead, he let out a balanced sigh and placed a hand on the back of the couch near Y/n’s shoulder, with his other hand he raised and wiped away the substance.

“I feel—like—god dammit—“ Bendy closed his eyes and inadvertently leaned forehead accidentally bumping heads with Y/n, who raised a hand and rubbed her forehead that he accidentally bumped, but she wasn’t too bothered by that, half her focus going into Bendy seemed to be in disarray. 

Bendy opened his eyes and looked at Y/n to see her eyebrows furrowed and a hard attentive gaze was locked on him.

“M’fine…just need some air s’all.” He tried to coax her out of her stern expression, Y/n’s slightly moved her head. 

“I would say stay seated but I think it’s good for you to get some air.” She stood up from the couch and Bendy slowly stood up as well, his hand resting on his abdomen before slowly resting to his side, Y/n’s eyes landed over to the curtained balcony door, she gently grabbed Bendy’s arm and then grabbed the blanket that was abandoned on the couch, sauntering over to the door and feeling like she was hauling a log as Bendy trudged behind her, Y/n rested the blanket between her shoulder and chin before unlocking the balcony door and opening it, keeping a hand around Bendy’s arm. Once walking out—the chill air hit Y/n—thank god she brought the blanket she didn’t want to sit out in the cold, she released Bendy and he sat down on the cushioned bench, Y/n following after and sitting down beside him, the view was of the courtyard and though it was nice to gaze upon, she mostly had her focus on Bendy. 

He was unbuttoning his shirt as he leaned back and hazily gazed off into the sky, his chest heaving up and down as if he ran a marathon. With the now light from the moon she could see his shirt had been stained with a dark blotch near his chest, arm and back. Bendy opened his shirt to cool off and Y/n wrapped the blanket around her shoulders, a deep heavy silence falling between the two, the soft groans from Bendy and the soft breathing was the only thing in the air. Y/n stared out at the sky before hearing Bendy. 

“Thanks…” his voice was too low and too soft—she almost didn’t hear him and thought he was speaking to himself at first. Y/n looks at Bendy to see him wiping at his face—he didn’t have his gloves on as she usually saw him wearing—he must have taken them off earlier in the night. Her eyes landed on four figures—four claws like nails. 

“I’ll get a towel so you can wipe off.” Y/n sheds the blanket around her shoulders and got up from the bench before entering the room again—looking over near the counter was, she walked across the room and spotted the neatly folded towel, grabbing it she then walks over to the sink—twisting the iron knob cold water leaked out of the nozzle, placing the town underneath it, she damps it up and made sure the water was as cold as it could get. 

Bendy had sat up and leaned his elbows on his knees, he heard footsteps and knew it was Y/n returning back, she held the cold towel and sat back down next to Bendy, she saw a black string of drool hanging from his mouth, reaching a hand he wiped at his mouth and sat back on the bench, Y/n placed the cool towel on his forehead and wiped away at the dark sweat. 

“You’re probably going to have to rest for tomorrow.” She said. 

“That’s if the gal lets me…” he muttered weakly. He moved his head away from the towel and the same choking sound gently rumbled in his chest. He closed his eyes and stiffened.

Y/n knew she hated being bothered when she was sick or anywhere in pain, so she gently moved back and gaze at Bendy some space. 

“I dunno, even so, I think a doctor visit should be good, we’re not back at home you could have caught anything while we were out.” Y/n pipes up, she places the cool towel back on his forehead and wiped away the sweat. 

Bendy’s eyes slowly opened as he gazed at Y/n. He didn’t reply as he stared at her, his eyes slowly glazed over—a watery reflection as he gently placed a hand on her arm. 

“M’okay. Really, just a minor headache.” He replied. Y/n decided to let the idea of visiting a doctor go, if Bendy felt okay, then she would trust him….a little. 

This didn’t seem normal, exhausted to the bone, sweating profusely and dripping ink like stains, it was something to be concerned about, but it was mild at the moment, not anything detrimental at the least. Bendy lets out a shaky sigh and Y/n slowly nods after a moment of long silence. 

“Alright.” 

Bendy reached up and took the towel from Y/n and sat up, she could feel the heat radiating off of him, he leaned on the arm of the bench and outstretched and arm towards Y/n to lean on him. 

“C’mere..” 

Y/n wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and slid closer to Bendy and leaned into him, his damp and warm body pressed into hers as she laid her head on his shoulder, Bendy wrapped an arm around her and leaned his head back and stared out into the sky. Y/n could feel his heartbeat thumping rapidly in his chest—so hard to the point she could feel it on her ear, the hollow thumping—sounded like frantic beating on a wall—like his heart was going to jump right out of his chest. He clearly was having a hard time breathing so Y/n removed her head from his chest and rested her head back on his shoulder. 

A minute passed by and soon 10 or so minutes flew by before she glanced back up at Bendy to see his eyes were closed, eyebrows pushed together, a grimace present on his face, his bottom eye twitched, the towel still rested on his forehead, thank god he kept it there. Y/n placed a hand on his forehead and removed her hand from him and looked at the palm of her hand, the black substance stained her hand and Bendy opened his eyes as he did so, the human looked down at her hand. 

“I’m not too knowledgeable about, you know, toons and what happens when they're sick but I’m sure it’s not any different from when humans get sick, this doesn't look normal Bendy..” Y/n deadpans as she shows him her palm, Bendy looks down at Y/n’s hand. 

“I ain’t a doctor so..” he answered but soon trailed off and Y/n shook her head. 

“Like I said, we can always make time to go to one, I’m sure they have one here—“

Bendy placed a hand on Y/n’s mouth to stop her from talking and a sigh left his mouth. “Doll, yer talkin’ to much, m’sorry my brain can’t handle all of that right now.”  He silenced her and Y/n moved his clammy hand from her mouth. 

“I’m just saying.” 

Soon Bendy quickly sits up, Y/n moving back from him as he frantically sniffs the air. “I’m starvin.” He whispered. Y/n slowly blinked and stared at him with an odd expression. 

Bendy placed a hand on his head and groaned, the human moved to pick up the towel from the ground that Bendy knocked off from his head. She folded the towel back up, and placed it beside her, Bendy slowly leaned back to his original position, Y/n leaned back as well, the blanket blocking off the unwanted chills of the night air. 

“What’re doin’ up so late anyway?” Bendy soon asks. Y/n didn’t entirely have an answer for that, she just wasn’t tired. 

“Wasn’t tired.” She replied, her eyes glued onto the dark canvas of a sky. Bendy inhales slowly—which was rigid in action, he heard her answer clearly but didn’t respond before moving an arm around her shoulder and pulled her back to him, the human leaned into the demon, laying her ear back onto his chest, Bendy’s warm hand gently laid on the back of her head. 

“Let’s..get some shut eye then..” 

Y/n started to soon feel the fatigue start to swallow her, she wondered if it was because of the cool weather that made her feel tired than what she felt like laying in bed where everything was warm, Bendy’s body seem to regulate it’s normal function from whatever small episode it just had, but he wasn’t breathing as heavy as he once was, his breathing was much more calm and balanced, his chest heaving up and down and Y/n didn’t really drift off to sleep until she could tell he Atleast was decent to the point where he wouldn’t suffocate to death in his sleep. 

“Not gonna lie, you made me feel a whole lot better.” Bendy pipes up, Y/n opened her eyes and stared back into the sky. 

“You know..a doctor also can make you feel better.” She adds on jokingly finding it now the best seeing Bendy wasn’t withering in pain. 

“Go to bed..”

It didn’t take too long for the two to drift off to sleep, Y/n laid across the bench as Bendy remained in a sitting position, not the most comfortable position to have a full night's worth of sleeping but he wouldn’t move an inch for Y/n. 

A tad bit later, she could vaguely remember Bendy getting up from his position—the soft midnight blue was starting to be overtaken by a soft orange and yellow glow in the sun, the sun was rising, Bendy stood up and gently laid Y/n’s head on the bench, gently moving the blankets to cover her shoulder, she heard a voice in the background. 

“M’comin.” Bendy calls out. Y/n slowly opened her eyes and looked at Bendy and he placed a hand on her head. 

“I gotta go, I’ll see you later, okay?” He tells her and Y/n slowly nods—clearly she was too tired to speak, Bendy removed himself from the ground he was kneeling on and resumed buttoning the last three buttons on his shirt as Y/n slowly fell back into a deep sleep. 

-

A few more minutes had passed and Y/n felt a soft furred hand on her forehead, the human clenched her eyes closed before slowly lifting her eyelids—the sun was just rising in the sky—but it was still a tad bit dark out. Her eyes landed on Felix who had crouched down near the bench. 

“Hey, it’s chilly out here, come inside to sleep, yeah?” 

Y/n sat up from the bench and soon stood up, Felix stood up as well and walked over to the door and held it open for Y/n as she tiredly walked into the room and immediately made her way over to the bed and climbed onto it like some zombie—laying in her stomach she felt Spunk get up from the foot of the bed and saunter onto Y/n’s back and curled up, she heard Felix maneuver around the room—mostly picking pieces of clothing up and some trash the boys had made prior to everyone going to sleep. 

Felix looks down at Panchito who had sneezed at the cool air that came into the room from the balcony door that was once open but Felix had closed it shortly after he and Y/n entered the room, Felix bent down and fixed the blanket to be at Panchito’s shoulders, the felines ears flickered over to the couch Cuphead and Mugman were still heavily asleep on. He heard Cuphead grumble under his breath and move his head from Mugman’s foot, if Mugman moved any more he was certain to fall off the couch, walking over to Mugman Felix moved the cups foot off of Cuphead’s chest and fixed the blanket on the brothers before looking over at Y/n who was halfway off the bed, she tried to climb onto the bed but was extremely too tired to do anything, walking over to her and moved her legs onto the bed which Spunk raises his head to look up at Felix, a soft yellow glow escaping Spunk’s eyes before he laid his head back down on Y/n’s back. 

Returning back to his spot onto the floor, Felix leaned on the wall and closed his eyes. 

-

Ah yes, morning. Sounds familiar right? The soft tones of the birds chirping outside, and a few footsteps from outside of the room from some of the workers in the castle was a warm welcome and a warm start to the morning.  You guys thought I left did you? No, I’m very much still here as your narrator, laying on the bed who had started to stir from her slumber laid Y/n.

Y/n opened her eyes, a newfound form of energy bouncing through her warm and ready to go! She felt Spunk stand on her back and soon remove himself from her, he sat down and waited for the human to fully grasp ahold of her surroundings, but before she could even sit up to give a good stretch, she was slammed right back onto the bed—a form landing onto her back, though not harsh to back her break her spine or lose breath in the moment but enough to give her a startle. 

“Riiiise and shine sugarbelle!” 

Oh, it was Cuphead. 

Cuphead wraps an arm around Y/n’s neck and Y/n lets out a grunt and places a hand in his chest. “Get off!” She shouts, Spunk barks and gently lunges forearm and chomps in the air, a hollow; chomp! Emits to the air but the pup didn’t actually bite Cuphead—he seemed to hesitate to do so. Cuphead lets out a howling laugh as Y/n sits up and faces him, Cuphead laid on his side as he looks at her. 

“You’ve damn near slept through the morning’ I feared you might’ve been dead, Mugs wouldn’t let me wake you up.” Cuphead announced. Y/n slips off of the bed and stands on the floor and stretches, Cuphead rolled off the bed on the other side and placed his hands on his hip. 

“Didn’t get too much sleep last night, Bendy was sick so I stayed up with him until we could go back to sleep.” She announced—speaking of which. 

“Where is he?” She adds on and Cuphead was busy picking off something from his button up. 

“Left out earlier this mornin’ with the broad. So early the sun wasn’t even in the sky, but hey, what to expect when you’re marryin’ a princess—duties everywhere.” He rounds the bed and walks over to the human and the two turn around towards the door where Mugman was walking in—everyone else must have left out to do—gods know what. 

When he spotted Y/n up, his neutral expression immediately soured before turning his optics towards Cuphead. “Cuphead, I told you to let her sleep!” Mugman scoffs and Cuphead shrugs. 

“Got bored.” 

Mugman took a step forwards but quickly retracted his foot back into its original position, almost like he was ready to pounce onto Cuphead and give him a run for his money. But the thought of tackling his brother to the ground immediately dissipated as quick as it came. 

“Well, we have to go into town to visit the tailor shop.” Mugman brings up. Right—there couldn’t be possible the man managed to create the uniforms overnight, maybe they were just going in to check up 

“Alright, alright, jeez, already gettin’ to business.” Cuphead grumbled and glanced at Y/n who had moved to her bag to take out her day clothes—which was the outdoor clothes she had been wearing for the last two days—again, it was better than nothing. 

-

Y/n held the sweet tart in her hand and was busy eating away to listen to Ruck—Bendy was still busy—and it was a chance she wouldn’t been seeing him anytime soon, the castle didn’t have much to explore—well, aside from the hall that Modi mention dedicated to Hector but Y/n could find another time to explore that—now was the time for more important matters.

The bench was in a small park—and the more Y/n explained the village it represented something more from a medieval era than anything else—to her, medieval seemed like such a boring concept and place to be—just brown everything, she heard they had poor hygiene and horses, and plagues and other stuff she didn’t find interesting out of the many eras she learned in school. But in fact that wasn’t true at all, the town was very cleansed and seemed a lot brighter than what photos would present the towns in any social studies book, not to mention the pastries were delicious. Y/n didn’t pay any kind to anyone was she devoured the soft dough breakfast pastry, it was similar to a danish of some sorts, with a jam in the middle with powdered sugar on top—she was starving this morning but that quickly was solved when Oswald handed her the pastry to eat—he had got it for her when they all woke up before her and knowing Y/n wouldn’t wake up in time to eat the breakfast danish they had out in town he got her one as well. 

She had a cup of water beside her hand on the bench, Meek was sitting in the ground with Spunk between his legs and Don was the only one standing as Ruck sat on the table of the picnic table, his feet on the bench as his elbows rested on his knees. 

Cuphead sat across from Y/n as Donald sat next to the human, Panchito was sitting beside Donald as Oswald sat on Y/n’s other side where Felix sat next to Cuphead and Mugman on the other side of the table with Ruck sitting at the end of the table. 

“I want you all to keep in mind with your names now out there, you’ll be havin’ a few fellas trying to rough you up, especially knowing you all are under King Modi.” Ruck eyes gazed at the group and Donald sighs before leaning his head on his hand. 

“It doesn't get any worse than this.” He grumbled. Yeah, it truly doesn’t, what next, the world ending? 

Well..yeah..that..kind of sums up the reason they were out in the offlands to begin with. 

Y/n felt Ruck flick her temple and she flinched and immediately placed the half eaten danish down and looked at him. “That means it’ll be a problem for you, we’ll be going to get you your own weapon today.” 

That made Y/n perk up in interest, a weapon? 

“Do I get a dagger? A knife? Oh—wait—what about a sword—I could use a gun but Panchito told me I couldn’t use it.” She rambled on and Ruck deadpans before shaking his head and sighing. 

“None of those, it’s a bow, something that’s easy to carry around and easy for you to use—and safe enough for someone your…” Ruck looks back at Y/n who looked up at him patiently. 

“I was going to say something that might’ve pissed you off but I’ll just say, age.” He finished and Cuphead groans. 

“I want a weapon too!” 

Felix raises an eyebrow and looks at Cuphead. “But, you already have one.“ he reminds and Cuphead gives a blank expression before crossing his arms. 

“It ain’t similar to actually holdin’ somethin.” He grumbled.

“A bow and arrow…” Y/n deflated and furrowed her eyebrows. 

“You need it, archery is not only good for the body for your physical strength, but it’s also good for your mind—teaches you patience and faith. Something you lack in I reckon.” Ruck had the tendency to dissect and take Y/n apart and point out the imperfections and minor mistakes that she hadn’t even noticed herself. 

“Well, I think archery is good, a bow can be a very helpful weapon despite what people may say about it,” Mugman pipes up and Felix nods in agreement. 

“I’ll teach you how to use it.” Ruck adds and Meek makes a small noise. 

“Trust, you don’t want him to be your teacher in the physical strength department, he’s a pain!” Meek laughs and Don surprisingly nods in agreement but he remains silent. 

Ruck only shrugs before looking back at Y/n. 

“You can take the offer up or not, walk around and continue running for your life until you run into your gravestone, or take the only cheat sheet you got to get ahead of the game, choice is yours.” Ruck brings to the table.

“Clearly the bow and arrow.” Y/n answered and Ruck nods, pursing his lips before nodding once more. 

“So..what are we gonna do about the book? We’re here for the wedding? I doubt they have the other stone piece because we would have found that out by now with as much as Lucy talks,” Oswald gets back on track. 

“Make a name for yourselves.” Don answers. 

“How does that help us?” Donald asks and squints his eyes. 

“You get your name out there, people’ll start running to you like you’re the local cops of the town—more people that know who you are, the quicker your name gets around, the quicker something’ll pop up. This town has a mage a few ways ahead she mostly the towns godmother they go to seek help for a sick kid or somethin’ like that—figured that out when I was walking around last night. It's best to maybe ask someone with greater power about the book—and who has greater knowledge?” 

“Witches.” Y/n answered and Don nodded. She was actually still astonished that witches even lived in this world but at this point a lot of possibilities were frequent now. What next, aliens? 

“The book clearly stopped leading you guys when Lucy was calling for help—I’m certain it led you guys to her, now it’s up to you to start picking up the rope and start dragging the problem to the solution.” Ruck adds on. Donald grumbled. 

“Yeah, took notice of that a long time ago.”

It was certain that Donald probably had some vendetta against the book, with how unorganized it was with leading them somewhere, off and on, off and on, it was a headache. 

“Well only a day passed by in the mainlands, we have plenty of time.” Felix smiled—that was good to know—almost 3 days passed in the offlands and if that was actually the case back at home—they were wasting time already. And Y/n did not want to meet the scenario of her mother thinking she was off somewhere dead, that woman would lose it. 

“Talk to a witch, make a name for ourselves, help the town, great, got it.” Cuphead snaps his fingers as he rises from the bench. 

“Let’s get to work then! I know how’s to be a great samaritan.” He smiled widely and it was evident his ego was growing bigger by the minute, who’s ego was bigger, Cuphead or Bendy’s? Y/n was leaning on the side of Bendy’s, he wouldn’t back down for even the strongest man in the world before putting on the front on how much of a guy he was. 

“I doubt that, but okay.” Donald quickly slips in and Cuphead’s eyes flickered to the duck

“Oh, shut it wrist kisser, I heard you mumblin’ last night—“

Cuphead then clasps his hands together and smiled dreamily. “Oh Daisy, oh Daisy, oh my sweet, sweet, Daisy! I miss you so much!” He mocks and Y/n smiles before looking at Donald who had his mouth open in shock. 

“Aww, you missing someone at home?” She asks and Donald stammers before looking at her. 

“Uh—I—well—yes!” 

Oswald slowly smiled from the background. “I’m sure she misses you too.” 

“Who is Daisy again?” Panchito tilts his head as he tries to recall the name of Donald’s dearest lover. 

“Everyone don’t worry about it! Let’s go walking, everyone needs to stretch their legs anyway, you’re all lazy!” Donald shouts before hopping up from the bench and immediately starting to walk away, the quacks getting quieter as he walks off, Y/n laughs and stands up from the bench as well—grabbing the danish she once was eating. 

“Wow, he gets flustered easily.” She heard Cuphead from the background. 

-

“I think this is it.” 

Staring up at the wooden sign with a green painting that wrote—Andy’s ‘Blacksmith & Armory’

The hut had a few display of wooden mannequins sitting outside with metal armor that Y/n gently moved over to lay her finger onto it, the heat of the iron armor stung her finger from the sun—and she could only imagine how hot it could get in there—it was practically like a walking oven. 

“Wow—these guys gotta walk around in these things?” Mugman asks as he also was examining the displayed armor suit. 

“Yeah, good thing we don’t have to wear them.” Y/n heard Donald agree—Felix opened the door to the shop—the sound of a bell rang to announce someone had opened the door. 

Walking into the shop after Felix the others trailed in as well. Y/n gazed around the shop—candles lit the area—even though the sunlight from the windows lit up the entire room, the wooden floor creaked under everyone’s feet, Y/n smelt the rich fine smell of gunpowder and burning metal—shaven wood and heard the sound of some workers in the back talking and tending to the duties to create the weapons and armor for the town. 

Swords hung on the walls—and it wasn’t until now that Y/n realized what an actual sword looked like—not the ones people would go to cons with to top their costume off—but a real life sword—she could see the gray metal reflecting of the sunlight, some were small—some were large—black handles—pink handles, some had designs engraved on them. 

As boring as she thought it was to visit a blacksmith store, she was..actually starting to become intrigued, so used to just jumping right into the action—she was glad to take time out of the day to see some authentic weapons. 

She could see other weapons as well in a small glass display case, sharp daggers and some other form of knives and helmets. 

“Ah! Welcome my friends!” A loud voice welcomed in a warm tone, looking over there was a stout toon with a bushy mustache, dark hair pulled into a tight ponytail—out of his face. He smiled and his eyes squinted as he did so—rosy cheeks to express his warm smile. A white button up that had stains of coal and charred bits and a thick leather apron around his waist, the man outstretched his arms when he saw everyone enter the store—as if presenting the store and being astonished for who was standing before him. He claps his hands together—his fingernails and fingertips decorated in black and some fingers having bandages around them from the minor cuts he had but nothing too bad to stop him creating what he loved. 

He then motions both his hands towards the ground. 

“Ahaha! I have been waiting for you all!” His accented voice was strong and attentive before he rounded the counter and slowly walked over to everyone, his eyes locking onto Y/n. 

“And—it is Hector’s baby lamb!” He was ridden with glee. 

Cuphead had grown distracted with a sword freely out on a display stand on top of a shelf, but Felix without batting the cup an eye grabbed him by the shoulder to stop in motion off walking too far away—everything Cuphead touched turned to hell it seems. 

“Young group of adventurers, that’s what I like to see!” He chuckled before placing a hand on his chest. 

“My name is Andy Mancini, what is it you all need? Weapons before you all hit the road for the day? Oh I heard about the wedding coming soon—I heard he was with you all—where is the prince—Ah—what am I saying, of course Lucy has him!“ the man spoke frantically. 

“She needs a weapon.” Ruck glanced at Y/n and soon Andy looked back at her as well, a smile soon edged on her face before nodding silently and it seemed like Andy just won the lottery as he smiled much wider. 

“Ah, yeah, I have been waiting for this day for years!” He shouts before turning around and walking back over to the counter where he kneeled down behind it—the sound of stuff clinking together. 

Spunk had his tongue lolled out his mouth before slipping it back in and tilting his head at the noises from behind the counter. Andy soon stood back up and placed down various daggers, knives, and even a sword onto the counter. 

“I got all you need, friend!” He picks up a small black square that seemed to represent something like a lighter. He looked over to everyone and placed the back of his hand to the side of his mouth as if telling the most top secret of all time.

“This is personally my favorite.” 

He flicks it open and a long fierce ray of fire shoots from it—causing everyone to quickly back away at the fire shooting from the small compact object—a loud; ‘WOOSH’ emits in the air before the lid closes—stopping the fire from shooting. 

Y/n and Cuphead immediately dashed over to the counter and started picking around at the displayed weapons. “Whoa!”

“I want this one!” 

“Look at this thing! What does it do?!” 

“Oh! I wanna do pin the needle with this one!” 

Andy chuckled at their frantic speaking and their joy in seeing the many wonders of weapons out there to them. 

“And that is exactly why. She’s getting a bow and arrow.” Ruck grumbled and Meek shrugged. 

“Ah, come on, just let the kid pick out what she wants, technically any weapon is good exercise for her!” Meek tells Ruck. 

“Oh, you can test as many things out as you need!” 

Ruck was about to decline but he stopped before a word could exit his mouth before nodding. “You know what, fine. Kid.” 

Y/n turned her head to look at Ruck when he called. 

“You seek out what’s best for you, pick out what you think you’ll be best at—which I doubt you’ll know anything on how to hold a sword the proper way.” As he spoke Y/n turned her wide grin back over to the counter of weapons waiting for her like a bag of candy. 

“Uh oh..” Panchito muttered under his breath.

-

Y/n held three three daggers in her hand—standing outside in the back of the shop where a few targets were a few feet ahead, Y/n gazed down at the knives with a smile. 

“Okay, all you gotta do is hit the target.” Felix says from the sidelines as Y/n nods, Oswald was sitting on the ground as he watched Y/n closely. 

Ruck was leaning on the wall almost as if he was going to predict how Y/n would be with these weapons. He just wanted the benefit of the doubt. 

Mugman stood beside Cuphead who seemed ready to grab a weapon on the table and surely just start swinging but knowing Mugman sparing him a harsh glance every second—he wouldn’t even be able to lift an arm up before Mugman would be there to tackle him to the ground. Panchito stood beside Donald and Felix as they watched Y/n as well. 

“I can throw this just fine—easy peasy—you might as well hand me a blind fold—I got the damn eyes of a cat—“ when Y/n states that she glanced at Felix in hopes he didn’t hear that last part. 

“Don’t let your mouth write a check that your ass can’t cash, kid.” Ruck calls out before Y/n lifts her chest before looking at the target and taking a step back and tossing one of the daggers at the target—it spun in the air and the hilt of the dagger ricochets off the leg of the target and bounces back and aims over to Oswald, where it flies and lands between his ears that quickly flinched down when it embedded into the wall of the building. 

Oswald quickly stands up and edges away from the knife and Y/n slowly opens her mouth. “Sorry Oswald!” She quickly apologized. 

Over the course of 20 some odd minutes—testing out the weapons was..an adventure—tossing at the targets was a sight to see as Y/n couldn’t even make a single bullseye with the daggers—one had a mind of its own it seemed and almost hit Donald in the foot…3 times—but that was because of his luck—it had to be. Maybe. 

There were these little cool smoke bombs that looked like the firework poppers people would give their kids on the 4th of July. When she tossed them to the ground it was a smoke bomb—-and the word ‘bomb’ in that title wasn’t used for no reason. 

Staring at the 2 gray balls that seemed to be wrapped in a paper-like wrapping—Y/n felt everyone—minus—Ruck, Meek and Don and Andy—who went inside to tend to a customer—hovering behind her. 

“What does it do?” Mugman asks. 

And Y/n shrugs. “I dunno. Let’s see.”

Felix's ears perked up before he looked at Y/n. 

“Be—“

Boom!

Y/n, Cuphead, Mugman, Donald, Oswald, Felix and Panchito had the dark ash covering their faces—a cloud of gray smoke overtaking them all, slowly opening her eyes, and letting out a cough from the dusty air she could see Felix waving a hand in front of his face to move the smoke away. A few coughs emit from the others as well. 

“Careful..” Felix finishes as he looks at Y/n who gives him a timid smile. 

The next, Y/n tried to lift up the sword—which didn’t appear to be heavy when looking at it—but once she grabbed ahold of it to pick it up from the ground when Andy placed it down for her. Y/n couldn’t even get it fully off of the ground, her arms shaking as she heaved it up—how the hell did guards carry these without a hitch?! 

“Who’s the target?” Meek asks when he looks away from Y/n lifting up the sword. Mugman immediately takes a step back and looks at Cuphead who crossed his arms. “Ay, I was already the bait for the spider cave incident!” He shouts 

Felix looks at Panchito who—for once actually has a nervous smile. 

“Estoy muy enfermo hoy, tal vez la próxima vez.” He quickly says, placing his hands behind his back before looking over at Donald who crossed his arms. “No.” Was his flat out answer.

And Felix looks at Oswald, who gives him a sideways glance before looking his eyes flickered back over to Y/n who was also looking at him—and then back to Felix who was still looking at him. 

Oswald slowly sighs.

“The things I do for you guys…” he muttered before walking over to stand before Y/n in the grass. 

Placing the helmet on that Felix handed him, Oswald folded his ears down his back considering they didn’t have holes for his ears, Y/n lifted the sword up and points it at Oswald. 

“Do I just swing it?” She asks and Ruck was silent for a moment before replying. 

“Yes. But don’t let go of the—“ 

Y/n swung the sword and her hand slipped and the sword flew in the air—the weight of it dragged Y/n and she fell straight towards Oswald, the two falling onto the ground as the sword came back down and embedded itself into the ground, right stern Oswald’s legs. 

“Sorry!” 

From weapon after weapon, from knives to swords to even a weird chainsaw—it was like none of them worked if she wanted someone’s head torn off their shoulders or foot amputated or exploded off. 

Staring down at the bow on the table—she felt like she was looking at her arch nemesis, the weapon she had been trying to avoid the entire time—glaring down at the bow like he personally just said the most foul things to her. 

Who the hell was a fierce hero walking around with a bow and arrow for crying out loud! 

It was small—big enough for her to hold—but to her it felt like a bite size version of an original bow and arrow, three arrows laid beside it—the blue feather seemed authentic and Y/n blinked before opening her eyes and her unamused gaze landed on Ruck who looked at her from across the table with his arms crossed. 

“Pick it up.” He tells her in which she picks up the bow, gazing down at the wooden structure, there wasn’t really much to look at on it. 

“It’s made of fine authentic sinew, straight from an elk's leg, so that string is strong and sturdy and has the bounce back of an eagle's eyes.” Andy explained what was used for the bow as Y/n gazed down at it. 

“What’s sinew?” Cuphead asks and raises an eyebrow. 

“It’s a tendon.” Felix answered. 

Ruck walked past Y/n and over to the spot where the target was a few feet away. “This weapon here will be like your new best friend, you just don’t know it yet, you give it time to understand how to use it, and you’ll be attached to it.” Ruck tells her as Y/n grabbed the arrows and followed the man. 

“This weapon is going to exercise your brain to have—“ as he spoke Y/n lifted the arrow up to the string, placing the other two down beforehand, but Ruck flicked her wrist and she hisses before stopping in action. 

“Patience.” He furrowed his eyebrows and gently jabs two fingers to her temple. 

“And to think with that empty head of yours.” He shook his head and sighs through his nose. 

“I don’t know how to aim a knife at a target—I don’t think a bow and arrow would be any different. Especially if I’m going to use this thing to hit someone with.” Y/n tells him 

“That’s why you practice, now, face sideways.” 

Y/n faced her back towards Ruck, walked around and stood in front of her, his foot nudged her right leg to shift to the side more to straighten her posture. 

“Make sure your legs are straight with your shoulders.” 

Fixing her footing, Ruck nods

“Alright, lift the bow up.” 

Lifting the bow up along with the arrow, Y/n looks at Ruck—waiting for the next set of instructions. 

“Now—you don’t have any aim assist, so you’ll be using your finger.”

Y/n held the bow with her left hand, glancing back at Ruck in confusion he continued to speak. 

“You’ll be using your pointer finger.” 

She looked back ahead and gazed at the bow—flicking her pointer finger out as she kept a grasp on the bow, her finger became the aim assist—pointing out at the target. 

“Load the arrow.” 

Placing the nock of the arrow onto the bowstring with her free hand that was holding the arrow, she felt Ruck place a hand on the nock of the arrow and moved it down where a small metal notch of what looked to be sat—she hardly even noticed that. 

“Not there. You load it here or else you’ll send the arrow just flying anywhere.“ 

Fixing the arrow she held onto it with the tips of her fingers and Ruck shook his head. 

“Between your index and middle finger.” He corrects, and Y/n corrects her hold on the arrow, catching the nock of the arrow between her index and middle finger—it was odd to hold it like that  as it felt like it would fall from her fingers but she kept a good grip on it. 

Ruck placed a hand under Y/n’s elbow—the arm that was holding the bow and gently moved it up, his other hand moved her elbow up that was holding the arrow up as well. 

“Make sure the arm with the arrow is above your collarbone. You need to make sure your body has a T shape or else you’ll be embarrassing yourself with a shit pose.” As he spoke Y/n unconsciously yet inadvertently lowered her arm holding the bow to listen to him speak—Ruck smacks her elbow in which she quickly was sent back to the form she once held. 

“Stop sagging, puff out your chest.” 

Puffing out her chest, Y/n takes a deep breath and Ruck nods. 

“Shoot.”

Pulling the arrow back, she heard the creak and groan she thought it would snap, she didn’t know how far to pull back as Ruck didn’t seem to stop her as he took a step back. He watched as the girl stood there for what felt like ages—almost like she was waiting for Ruck to tell her something. 

Y/n felt her heart shake and a thought appeared in her head…she..was afraid to shoot—never shooting an arrow before she felt okay with tossing the knives and the swords but that was the fun in it. Standing with a weapon she never touched in her life was..nerve wracking. 

Ruck expected her to turn back to her group of friends for help as she was used to doing, but he saw as she softened the grip on the arrow and lowered the bow and arrow to the ground before her gaze landed on..him. 

“I need help.” She tells him. Ruck was silent for a moment as a glint of confusion flickered in his eyes. 

“I need help shooting.” 

Ruck stared at Y/n for a moment and she expected him to just brush it off and tell her to do it on her own but he walked over and motioned for her to make a stance again. 

Quickly fixing her posture, correctly—or well half correctly as the arm holding the arrow was down far too low but before Ruck could say anything about it and fix it—Y/n fixed it herself and pulled back on the arrow. Ruck stood behind her and placed a hand on her wrist that held the nock of the arrow, helping her pull it back more. 

“The further you pull, the farther it goes.” He told her. And Y/n silently nods as she felt him guide her hand back—far enough to where the string couldn’t give anymore, pushing Y/n’s arm over, her pointer finger seemed to go over the target she was looking to aim at. 

“You aim over it..” 

Y/n fixes her aim and Ruck nods. “Now shoot.” 

Releasing the arrow when he said so, the arrow shot away from the bow so fast—a whistling rip in the air and soon the arrow embedded into the ground, near the leg of the target stand.

“You’re too tense—you won’t ever hit anything if you don’t relax.”

“I thought I had to straighten my shoulders.” 

“Yes, straighten, not lock it like some statue. Try again.” 

Y/n reached to the ground and grabbed the 2nd arrow, fixing her posture, Y/n pulled the arrow back—Ruck stood beside her as he wasn’t there to guide her anymore or fix her posture as she thought he would—when she noticed she glanced at him and he looks away from the target and over to her before lifting his eyebrows at gently jutting his head in the area where the target was as if telling her; ‘go on’ 

Y/n flattened her lips before looking back at the target. Releasing the arrow, the string slings back in its original position—but hits her forearm in the process. Y/n flinches at the sting pain—dragging the bow as if he burnt the palm of her hands skin off—the bow fell to the ground and the arrow she shot hit the ground a few feet behind the arrow she shot before. 

Quickly looking down at her forearm she saw a long thin line askew on her arm—a lump starting to form in a welt and bruise—the skin darkening at the abrupt smack across the arm from the string. Y/n hissed in pain and she felt Ruck nudged the side of her hand. 

“Pick it up, your arm was too close when you launched it needs to be at a 45 degree angle.” He says and Y/n rubbed at her arm the stinging pain grew worse.

“My arm—“ Y/n muttered but was cut off by Ruck. “Pick it up.” He repeats. Y/n looks at Ruck and her hands slowly fall from her forearm, before bending down to grab the bow and the last arrow. Repeating the same position, and puffing out her chest she pulled the arrow back and made sure her arm was out of the way of the string when it would bounce back. She stared at the target and her finger pointed at the target.

“I don’t know where to put my arm.” She tells him as she stared at the target. 

“Just shoot and you’ll learn where to put it.” Ruck’s voice tells her—she didn’t want the damn string to hit her arm again; she felt like a hot iron rod had been pressed to her skin when she made the mistake. 

Her heart thumped in her chest anxiously and her fingers felt cold as ice cubes—fumbling on her feet she pulled the arrow back once more she released, the same scenario happened, the string bounced back and hit her arm—she flinched but this time didn’t drop the bow. 

“Try it again.” 

Countless times, Y/n walked across the yard to retrieve the bow, and stand right back next to Ruck—repeating the position—shooting the arrow—but each time it didn’t make it anywhere near the target, thankfully the string hadn’t hit her arm as she loosened her grip on the bow—but that didn’t make a difference in her aiming. 

The 18th time she tried shooting was when she started to lose patience—she got tired of standing there, the minutes went by so slow it felt like hours—hearing Ruck just repeat; ‘Try again.’ 

Was starting to make Y/n lose her mind, Releasing the arrow quickly, it shot across the yard and lands in the soul—entirely too far away from the target—when Y/n was about to lower her arms to grab the 2nd bow  without Ruck saying something, Ruck grabbed her wrist and pulled it which stopped her in motion. 

“Slow the hell down, you’re moving too quickly, you’re not giving yourself time to think.” He scolds—a sneer edged onto his face and Y/n snagged her wrist from his hand. 

“I keep doing the same thing over again—But it’s landing damn near in the same spot—“ she points over to the arrow in the grass—it was clear she had grown irritated—the itching familiar feeling was showing across her face and body language. 

“Calm yourself down.” Ruck tells her as he watches the girl grab the arrow off the ground to aim it to the target. 

“You can’t focus if you don’t have patience with yourself—“ 

“I got patience, plenty of it actually.” Y/n grumbled but was too focused on aiming at the target so her words came out in a distracted manner. Releasing the arrow it shoots off and lands into the soil yet again. Y/n hands fell to her side and she lifted a hand up to run at her temple as she stared off at the target. 

“Listen, kid. Let me tell you something.” Ruck starts. Finally getting the attention of Y/n as faced the target instead of standing sideways, Ruck stood beside her as he folded his arms in front of his chest. 

“You don’t have to like me—or pretend you do. But considering the fact you’re in the shoes of a hero—you need to act like it.” His voice grew low so only the two of them could hear. The two stared out at the target not caring to look at eachother. 

“Only reason why I’m helping you, was because of how much Hector wanted to see you.” 

“I thought you didn’t want the help to begin with.” Y/n muttered.

“I didn’t, and still don’t because you got the brain of a centipede. You just need to learn and I strongly believe you’ll be able to do it.”  He then turns gaze to Y/n and she looks up at him with furrowed eyebrows. 

“But you won’t be able to learn if you don’t listen and take the initiative to step a foot through the door you locked for yourself. I can just leave—and let you figure it out for yourself—I know the boys’ll be just fine. But you, it’s a question that’s up in the air.” 

Y/n looked away and fiddled with the bow in her hand and the man could tell he sent her in a debate in her head—she had to be thinking about something, she always was. 

Y/n glanced at Ruck from the corner of her eyes and nodded. 

“I’ll take the bow and learn.” She whispered. 

Ruck's head leaned down when she spoke to him to hear what she said as she spoke lowly—but when he heard her answer he slowly straightened his posture and nodded. 

“And what..are you going to get better at?” He asks in the same tone and Y/n looks ahead for a moment and blink. 

“Being patient and learn to do hard things.” She answered and Rucks nods as Y/n straightens her posture like before, lifting the last arrow to the string—her two fingers gripping onto the nock and pulling back, she points her index finger out and stares at the target before releasing the arrow—the same as before, he embeds into the ground and her arms slowly lowered to her side. 

“And that’s only the beginning. So don’t get upset because you can’t make it the first time.” Ruck voice comes to her ears, Y/n looks at Ruck—the feeling of dissatisfaction and disappointment overwhelmed her before sighing. 

“That’s a wonderful start!” Andy’s voice shouts from over near the table where everyone stood as well. 

Ruck had said something but Y/n wasn’t paying no kind as she held the bow in her hand and sulked behind him—eyebrows stitched together as Andy led everyone back into the shop—excited to get Y/n her personalized bow. 

Y/n felt a hand on her head—Felix gently leaned down and bumped his forehead to her temple. “Don’t worry, Y/n, you did good.” He tells her before pulling away and gently leading her into the shop. 

“You know—when I was small and was learning to use my peashooter—I wasn’t the best at it.” Mugman pipes up and Cuphead chuckles. 

“Yeah you sucked at it.” Cuphead pokes fun at Mugman—who deflated and gives his brother a sideways glance.  

“Ha-ha. Funny.” 

“Just a bit more time—and you will be the best leyenda del arco empuñando of all of the lands!” Panchito shook Y/n’s shoulders with a bright smile and a soft laugh emitted from her nose. 

“Sides’ you get to have a bow—wish I could have one—woulda been cool to shoot an apple above Mugs’s head.” Cuphead announced with his arms crossed and Mugman squints his eyes. 

“And that right there. Is exactly why you don’t have one.” Donald proved. 

-

Placing the bow into the table, Y/n stared down at the brown wooden piece of art—the same size as the one she held in the back of the shop—the the string was white—there was a stealth backpack to hold the arrows—the feathers on them were white and black, with one yellow feather —and came 2 dozens—filling the black leathered quiver with 24 arrows—a pocket with a latch was also on the quiver to hold any small objects.

“Here it is, your very own set.” Andy smiled as he pushed the set to the human. Y/n takes the quiver and slips it on over her shoulder—fitting it like a satchel would. The arrows were actually light, a big difference than the heavy book bag she wore and carried around for several days. Picking up the bow, Y/n examined it before nodding, Andy smiled and clapped his hands. 

“Great! Now—the town is having this contest the day of the wedding. It started 2 weeks ago, I think you would find use to it.” Andy starts as he turns around and the sound of paper rustling was heard. He turns back around to show a pamphlet of some sort. 

An image of black outlined figures standing in front of each other as if they were fighting. In black words above it read; ‘Warrior Falls’ 

“This would be the perfect time for you to claim your spot as Hector’s blood. Some people in town may not tremble in fear now—but when they see a Vendolez in action, the surprisement ridden on their faces’ll be better than a 1 thousand stars in the skies!” Andy lets out a laugh. 

“Ah..that is..actually a great idea.” Panchito says before looking at Y/n who was still looking at the paper. 

“Training has already started I’m afraid. But I’m certain you will do just fine, it’s not about winning to me—but for the town to see a true hero is back. Is all that matters.” Andy folds the paper backup and Y/n slowly nods. 

“Well..he did say make a name for ourselves.” Oswald says.

“I’ll think about it. We sorta have a busy schedule.” Y/n tells Andy who nods with a smile. 

“I wouldn’t be surprised, now, you kids enjoy the weather, it’s nice out! Via!”

-

“Man if I knew we had so many objectives—I woulda stayed in the rooms.” Cuphead grumbled and Donald smacked the back his head—in which Cuphead grunts and rubbed the back of his head but Donald didn’t say anything—he must have just wanted to hit Cuphead. 

“Well—I say we have plenty of time—3 days passed here and 1 day passed in the offlands. Wedding is in 2 days—we got time.” Oswald pipes up as they all walk down the town—a few passerbys waving hello to them all. 

“I can’t even shoot an arrow the right way, there’s no way I’m entering a competition to do god knows what.” Y/n muttered—the bow had a thin black strap to wrap around her chest so she wouldn’t have to carry it everywhere—she thought in movies they had the string around their chest—but was very much proven wrong when Felix pointed out the strap. 

Cuphead soon appeared next to Y/n and wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to it. “If it makes you feel better sugarbelle—we can just raid the place together, you and me—that’s the best way to get your name out there as a serious Vendolez—think about it, no one would bat an eye your way!” 

Mugman furrowed his eyebrows and tugged Cuphead away from Y/n by his handle. “What are you nuts?! Ya’ can’t just go stormin’ in the place and threaten your way to the top!” Mugman scolds and Cuphead rolls his eyes and shrugs. 

“Just a suggestion.” Cuphead muttered. 

“Just give it a chance—you got all of us to help you.” Oswald tells Y/n and Donald nods. 

“Yeah…besides the fact we ourselves don’t know anything about archery or any other fighting techniques besides a good ol’ run.” Donald states and the more he talks, Oswald slowly turns his head to Donald as if saying; ‘shut the hell up I’m tryna make her change her mind!’

Panchito seemed to be way ahead of him as he clamped his hand on Donald’s beak and smiled at Y/n.

“Mi querida, it is something that may seem hard now, but perhaps you will find fun in it! People out here in the offlands see Vendolez as a hero—you returning as his offspring will certainly have everyone in hopes!” Panchito states before removing his hand from Donald’s beak. Y/n furrowed her eyebrows and stopped walking before turning around to face the boys. Ruck, Meek and Don were a few feet behind everyone still catching up and off in their own world. 

“What does that matter? They don’t even know that sometime soon the entire world is going to end. Hector went to Ruby Falls—but didn’t make it out—I can’t even tie a knot—and you expect me to high tail it to the nearest dangerous road and know what I’m doing?” Her voice wasn’t stern—moreso speaking as if it was the most outlandish thing of all time. 

“We’re only here for the wedding to get information from King Modi.” 

Oswald quickly nudges Felix to step in as he was the one that was best at persuading—clearly as it was shown with his earlier talks with Bendy. 

“And if you enter the Warrior Falls contest and prove that you are truly and Vendolez, Modi would certainly open up more—frankly I believe if Lucy was so attracted to Bendy, Modi wouldn’t really look out way—you may be his blood but—are you capable of upholding a title he once had?” 

Y/n glued her mouth shut as her eyes were glued on Felix. She slowly placed her hands on her hips and soon sighed through her nose. 

“Or I mean. We could try to have Bendy get some information out of Modi instead of us, but he’s already been stressing with Lucy and I doubt he can take another objective on his shoulder before exploding.” Felix adds. Y/n’s eyebrows slowly lowered and the thought of Bendy shouting in frustration with everyone standing in front of him with nervous smiles after spending an entire day with Lucy and people he wouldn’t honestly stand to be around entered her mind—he would be like a mother shouting in frustration after her kids bothered her about getting some fast food with the last bit of money she has. 

What Ruck told her earlier to start taking initiative was like a promise, to herself. 

“And what..are you going to get better at?” 

“Being patient and learn to do hard things.” 

Y/n grimaced before nodding. “Fine.”

-

Y/n placed a hand on the counter as she gazed at the man. “I would like to sign up please.” 

The man grabs the clipboard to the side on the counter and slides it over to Y/n—her eyes landing on the many names on the sheet signed up. Grabbing the pen she signed her name down—which was the second of the last open slots—thank goodness she hightailed it to the signing booth. 

“So. When is the—uh. Contest?” Y/n asks the man behind the counter. 

“It’ll be the day of the wedding. It’s a fight for the position for the town title.” The man explained. Y/n gently taps at the counter and she sighs through her nose before nodding.

“Alright, when is the wedding?” She asks blindly, with every single objective being tossed onto her plate—the date of the wedding slipped her mind. 

“5 days from now.“

Y/n stared at the man before she turned and faced Felix who was standing behind her listening to the conversation. She could have sworn it was 2 days ago. 

“You got plenty of time. Names on the list, you already have a title as if as a Vendolez, all you gotta do is do a few training—which I’m certain most of the contestants are kids that are way over their heads and can’t properly hold a stick the correct way—I think you got a fine win here.”  Felix pats Y/n’s shoulders and Mugman nods. 

“Yeah! Plus, it’ll be fun! Oh! What if there’s a water balloon contest!” He sighs dreamily at the fact that a water balloon throwing contest would be possible. 

“Yeah, you don’t have to win…” When Oswald said that he gave Y/n a strained smile and rocked back and forth on his feet. 

“Which you should, but that’s just me.” He shrugs and lets out a strained laugh. 

“We have plenty of time to get you ready. I’ll take you down by the lake to help you with your archery skills, and Ruck can take you here for the contest training hours for the next few days.” 

“But I thought Bendy said it was in 2 days.” Donald pipes up exactly what Y/n was wondering and she nodded in agreement. “I did too.” 

“Must have gotten the dates wrong, guy has been stressing ever since we got here.” Oswald answered which—could be true. That did remind her. 

“Yeah, he was sick last night, that’s why I was sleeping on the balcony, we both slept out there last night because—I dunno, I think he has the flu.” She says and looks at Felix as he was the one that seemed at the least knowledgeable about what medicine to take—he did help her with her small apple incident after all. Felix raises an eyebrow in confusion and purses his lips before nodding. 

“I see..but..he was just fine yesterday.” 

“Well he was fine when he woke up this morning—alright enough about that—can we please do somethin’ fun?!” Cuphead cuts to the chase and snaps at his fingers.

-

Ruck, Meek and Don had agreed to Felix’s idea—for the next few days Felix would help Y/n with her bowing skills in a manner where he felt would fit Y/n’s pace—not that he was judging Ruck’s way of teaching—but a tad bit less aggravating to the human would do her right—and when the contest had its training hours open in town Ruck could take her. And the training hours were listed as early as 6 in the morning..they did have one at 4 in the afternoon but Ruck didn’t care for that, stating the others would already be up at that time and would want to get other work done at that hour instead of watching Y/n train—which Y/n was glad for one thing about having her training hours with Ruck so early in the morning considering the others wouldn’t be there to experience Ruck rip her a new one because she miss a target for the 100th time. 

Ruck, Meek and Don decided to go back to the castle mostly because the others were in charge of their own adventure—making sure to tell Y/n to stay out of trouble—which—let’s be honest, would she truly? 

Felix would help her later today with archery—but now with Cuphead whining about all the hard work they had been doing when the day just started—a break was in session. 

“I’d say we go tombstonin!” Cuphead says as the group walked down the path of the town—Panchito immediately smiles and nods. “Oh yes! I love that activity.” He exclaimed and Cuphead smiled at Panchito and nudged the rooster's shoulders.

“Good thing for me and specifically not listenin’ to Felix last night when he said don’t wander off, I found a trail—it’ll make great do for Y/n and her shootin’ as well!” Cuphead pipes up and looks at Felix who gave him an unamused expression. 

“Should I be surprised..” Felix says nonchalantly. And Cuphead chuckled lowly. “No.” 

“What’s tombstoning?” Y/n asks—didn’t sound like anything good in her opinion—Especially if it was coming Cuphead—as fun of a guy he was, he had the tendency to do some things that could kill not only him—but her as well. 

“Cliff jumping.” Mugman muttered as he continued facing ahead as he walked almost like he knew Y/n would ask that question. 

“It’s swimming first of all.” Cuphead corrects Mugman before looking at Y/n. “It’s just swimming.” He repeats. 

“Well—I think a good swim is not a bad idea, I can’t remember the last time doing that besides almost getting my head torn off at that underwater cave.” Oswald agrees. Oh yeah—that, how could she forget. Y/n already knew immediately she wasn’t tossing herself off a cliff—the pinnacle of that saying was raw. 

“Oh don’t tell me you ain’t gonna come cliff jumping with us.” Cuphead eases in and Y/n nods. 

“Damn correct. I’ll sit and watch.”

“So, you’re telling me if your friends jumped off a cliff, you wouldn’t do it too?” Cuphead asks and Y/n turns her gaze and stared at him—as well as everyone else. 

“Was that a joke? Or was he being serious?” Donald asks and Mugman slowly shakes his head—whatever that may have meant. 

“We don’t have any swimsuits.” Y/n says and Cuphead snorts and his shoulders bobbed as he did so and his eyes danced around as if saying; ‘Heh, this guy.’

“Who the hell needs swimsuits? Shorts and a shirt is all me and Mugs used to jump in back in Inkwell. And I know you have shorts on right now.”

Y/n grimaced and a short laugh left her mouth as she shoved Cuphead away from her as he moved near her. “Ew, you watch me change?” 

“I don’t know about you all—but I agree, it’s nice to have a good swim.” Donald says—he was a duck—of course he would think any day was a good swim. 

Making it to the ultra secret area that Cuphead had found—which was a path across the bridge from the entrance of the town that led a few ways away—the trail was quiet and relaxing and there was an opening with nothing but the blue sky and far away mountains of green. The sound of birds chirping squawked  in the sky. Spunk topped over a stick and rolled on the ground before quickly shooting back up. 

The area was spacious with green grass that danced in the wind and even a few white small flowers that decorated the ground. 

The heat was—well hot and no wonder Cuphead brought up the idea of a good swim. Felix walked over to the edge of the cliff and gazed down at it—seeing the rocks on the cliff's wall were big enough to climb back up safely and no rigid rocks in the water to cause any harm. Y/n edged over to the cliff cautiously—never being even remotely near a cliff—she felt the wind hit her face as she gazed down. Hundreds of feet up and the water waiting with open arms. 

“Oh this is a perfect height too.” Donald nods and Cuphead lets out a calculated laugh. 

“You bet your tail it is.” Cuphead started to unbutton his shirt and quickly took it off and tossed the shirt to the side before unbuttoning his pants. 

“You guys are actually going to jump in that?” Y/n asks. Of course they made it here but she..thought they were bluffing. 

“Duh.” Donald laughs as he kneels to the ground and gazes in further down. 

“Look! A vine!” Panchito shouts as he scampers over to a tree that was a few feet from the cliff. It wasn’t stuck between the two branches—as if it were purposely looped there—Panchito pulled it down—a few leaves falling in process and he gave it a great strong pull—the branch creaking as he did so.

When Y/n turned back around she saw her group of friends seemed ready to go swimming. Shedding their shirts and wearing shorts underneath—they looked like a group ready for a walk down the beach. 

Even Mugman surprisingly seemed ready—which she didn’t know why she was surprised as it was already mentioned he and Cuphead went tombstoning before. 

“Is the water deep enough?” Oswald asks and looks at Felix who had folded his shirt and placed it neatly near a tree. 

“I believe so—“

“I will check and no one can stop me!” Panchito ran by so quickly with the vine in his grasp—leaping off the cliff as he held onto the vine and swung into the air before letting go and freefalling—he let out an echoing grito that echoed in the sky. 

Y/n opened her mouth in shock as she and the others quickly moved to the edge of the cliff—Panchito pops his head up from the water and lets out a loud laugh. 

“¡Qué divertido fue! Únete a mi!” He shouts and Donald’s tail feather wags. 

“Catch you guys back up here!” He shouts before hopping off the cliff—Y/n had to admit it looked fun—but the anxiety started to drip in her soul—that was an extremely far jump—way too high. 

Oswald followed with a laugh and soon Felix followed after—Mugman shuffled on his foot as he stared down. 

“You always do this.” Cuphead rolls his eyes at his brother who had tossed the shirt to the side he had been holding and using as a stress ball.

“Shut up! I always get last second jitters!” Mugman shouts at Cuphead harshly but Cuphead wasn’t phased at the shouting. 

“You know that…” Mugman’s timid voice abruptly shivered. Cuphead looks at his hands as if he were looking at his nails. 

“I got a remedy for that.” Cuphead says and Mugman looks at Cuphead—who then punches his brothers back sending Mugman flying off the cliff with a shout. 

“Cuphead!” Y/n shouts. Cuphead only laughs before outstretching his arms to Y/n. 

“What? C’mon! Let’s go for a dive.” Cuphead motioned off the cliff and Y/n hastily shook her head. 

“Nah, I’m not jumping off of that. I’m used to pools—“

“Well. We aren’t near any pools now are we? C’mon, it ain’t that bad—might look nasty but it’s a real good treat when you get into the groove.” Cuphead shakes his shoulders and gives her a boyish smile. Y/n takes a step back and shakes her head stubbornly. 

“No.”

“Come on.”

“No.”

“Just once!”

“No.”

“Just dip just one toe in the water!” 

“No.”

“Even for the most handsome guy ever that’s standin’ right infront of you!” 

“No.”

Cuphead laughs and waves a finger. “Stubborn—I like that inna girl.” He chuckled slyly and Y/n cracked a smile before shaking her head. 

“I’ll sit and wait for you guys to be done.” She tells and walks over to a log before sitting down and Cuphead silently watches her before smiling. 

“Yeah…no!” 

Y/n rolled her eyes and shrugged. “I don’t want to jump off a cliff, Cuphead.”

“Jeez, you must have lived under a rock back at home, you barely swim and you don’t go tombstoning?” His statement seemed far more shocking than genuine. 

“Yeah. And I enjoyed it.” She didn’t.

“Look, I gotcha—you fall—“ he motions to her. 

“I fall.” He points to himself. 

“You break somethin—“ he motions back to her. 

“I break somethin’ easy peasy, maybe I can get a kiss towards the end—and we go runnin’ in the sunset together—“ he was definitely getting off track and Y/n couldn’t help but smile as Cuphead neared her with a smile. 

“I’ll toss myself a hunnid’ times off that cliff just to show you how safe it is.” Cuphead seemed to be joking but his words were far more serious than what his expression was giving him. 

Y/n stared at Cuphead for a moment and took a step back. 

“Don’t believe me? Watch!” He shoots off and Y/n quickly starts to speak. 

“You don’t have to do that!” She shouts after Cuphead but he had already hopped off the cliff, a howl of laughter leaving and echoing in his wake. 

After a 6 minutes or so—with Y/n remaining seated—A hand grasps onto the ground from the ledge and Cuphead heaves himself up—with a heavy huff—it was certain he was running up the rocky steps to make it back up in a timely manner. Huffing and puffing heavily—he was out of breath as he stood at the ledge—water dripping from his form as he presented himself with outstretched arms. His straw was facing forward instead of pointing backwards like it always was, before he quickly fixed it and smiled at Y/n. 

“And again!” He shouts and before Y/n could say anything she watched as he jumped off the cliff once more.

And he was the same as before, crawling onto the ledge and standing there as he gazed at Y/n for the second time. “I can do this all day, sugarbelle.” And Cuphead hops off the cliff again. 

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again. 

And again!

And again!!

And again!!!

And again!! 

And again!!! Jesus how many times?! 

It wasn’t until his 20th jump—did Y/n stand at the ledge as he stood up and stood before her—seeing her standing up caused a smile to run across his face. 

His bare chest heaving up and down heavily—he was out of break and tired she could tell but he didn’t move to take a seat or catch a breath. 

“Cuphead. Okay, geez. Take a breather before you pass up while climbing back up here.” Y/n grabbed him by his shoulders and shoved him further onto the land over to the log where he walked backwards as his eyes were focused on her. 

“So. You’ll jump?” He asks. As he sat down on the log. The water soaking the wood beneath him. Y/n knew if she didn’t—he would just continue the strenuous action with climbing up the cliff to jump back up. None of the others came back up yet as they were busy playing around in the water to do so. She could hear their voices and laughs from above. Y/n stood in front of Cuphead and crossed her arms, her eyebrows stitching together as she glanced at the cliff. 

“It ain’t that bad, really.” He says. Y/n looked back at him before sitting next to him on the log—he was still breathing heavily in an attempt to catch his breath. Y/n thought to herself silently—maybe..it wouldn’t be too bad. 

She glanced at Cuphead and near his chest where earlier she noticed a thin long crack traveling from his neck down to his navel. She hardly noticed it until she took a chance to glance at it. 

“How’d you get that?” Y/n asks. Cuphead was already looking at her before he looked down at his stomach. “Oh that?” He asks

“Sparrin’ with the Devil—was bleedin’ like a stuck pig when I first got it.” He recalls before he ran an index finger down the crack before placing his hand on his lap.

“That must have been scary fighting him.” She muttered and Cuphead was silent for a moment before silently nodding and looking back at her. 

“It was. Ain’t nothing I can handle though.  So..” his eyes flickered over to the cliff. 

“You coming or not?”

Y/n stared at him and he stared back and soon she stood up from the log. “Yeah.” 

She places the quiver and the bow near the log and Cuphead shoots up from the log and silently jumps in victory. 

Y/n unbuttoned her shirt and placed it where the bow, wearing a tank top underneath she then sheds her pants as well where she was wearing shorts as well, kicking off her socks and shoes she stretches her arms and turns to place her shoes on the log and looks at Cuphead who was already looking at her. 

“Stop watching dammit!” 

“Come on!” Cuphead scurried over to the cliff and Y/n followed after him, the blades of grass tickling her feet and she looks down to see the others swimming around with eachother and splashing water and exploring the deep waters. 

“You know how to dive, right?” 

“Yeah.” Y/n asks and Cuphead nods before locking his arm with Y/n. 

“Alright, we’ll go on three.” He says and Y/n nods but unconsciously takes a step back but Cuphead tightens his arm around hers. 

“Hey! No backing out now, your cards are already on the table.” He tells her. 

“Okay! Damn, on three.” Y/n started to get anxious and Cuphead nods in confirmation. 

“Yeah, three.” 

“Okay. Three. Right. One-“

“Twothree!” 

Cuphead spoke so fast and jumped off the cliff with Y/n plummeting after him, the ground left her feet and she let out a shriek, her stomach felt like it was floating like riding a roller coaster with the deepest drops. 

Landing in the water—cold everywhere. Y/n opened her eyes and saw Cuphead floating in front of her. The two swim back up to the surface and Y/n shakes the water from her face like a dog shaking water from its fur. 

Cuphead comes up and laughs. 

“Ain’t that fun?!” He shakes her shoulder and a bright smile was planted on Y/n’s face. 

“Yeah..” 

“Oh. So miss jitter foot finally came down.” Donald’s voice pipes up near Y/n. She turns her gaze and looks at him before smiling. 

“Cuphead helped me.” 

Cuphead flexes his arms and a triumphant smile enters his face rather cockily. 

“I race to the top! Who’s up first buys me a slice of cake today!” Panchito hastily pedals over to the shore.

Over the next 2 hours the group spent their time swimming—Y/n never went tombstoning before but she felt like a kid again at a water park with a group of friends on a hot summer evening. 

Oswald splashed the water in her face as she tried to lick his feet underwater whereas she laughed and shook her head free of the water.

Panchito had taught her a cool water trick—he had water in his mouth and somehow made it spray from his nose—which caused her to stare at him in surprise. 

“Try.” He says. Y/n leans her head into the water, taking the salt water in her mouth and lifting her head up to look at him but was met with a large amount of water being tossed at her face from Oswald, again.

“Stop splashing me!” 

At one point, Y/n had managed to crawl back up the cliffs wall with the others—it wasn’t a staircase as she thought but surprisingly it wasn’t difficult to climb as it reminded her of those rock climbing walls in elementary school—minus the height—good thing was the rocks were big enough for her to safely stand on. 

Swinging from the vine and diving into the water was a lot more fun than it seemed. She was about to swing off into the water until Cuphead latched onto her leg at the last minute causing the two to fall with a flip that she hadn’t even tried to do. 

But god was it fun. 

There was a section of shallow water a few feet away in the sea of water—and Felix pointed it out as everyone spent a good 40 minutes over there practically snorkeling at looking at all the creatures the water had to offer. With a small class session with Felix and him telling them facts about why some fish could glow in the dark because they were deep underwater sea creatures. Who woulda knew? 

Y/n had placed her hand on the coral at the bottom of the bed of the water, and took a seashell from it before swimming back over to the top of the water and looking at the shell, she heard voices call out her name and looked over to see her friends meters away further in the water. Donald waved her over and Y/n gave them a confused expression. 

“C’mon! There’s more over here!” Donald shouts over and Y/n releases the shell where it falls back into the water and swims over—but the further she swam the higher the water got—-she felt the water reached ears and soon she stopped swimming and shoved her face in the water and saw nothing under her feet with water. She quickly sticks her head up and looks at the others who were feets away and she slowly floats backwards back to the land she didn’t even know disappeared under her feet. 

“That’s too deep!” 

Donald swam over to Y/n and she looked at him. 

“Fine, you cry baby. Hang on.” And tells her and turns his back towards Y/n, she smiles and places a hand on his shoulders and floats her legs to the top of the water where Donald did all the work to swim back over to everyone. Donald actually swam a lot faster than anyone else—that had to be because of his webbed feet. 

Exploring the waters was fun—the fishes were beautiful and followed Y/n as she swam around the area searching for different sea creatures. 

Back up on the cliff—Panchito had shoved Oswald off the cliff when he saw the rabbit standing near it distracted by the birds in the sky—laughing as Oswald fell into the water. 

A little bit later, Y/n was dripping with water as she stood on Mugman’s shoulders and was reaching up to a tree to get to the branch to grab onto a stick she was trying to pull off. The water from her shorts were leaking onto Mugman and he stumbled at the water and Y/n wobbled before looking down at Mugman who had stumbled and fell to the ground with her on his shoulders. 

Later on—Y/n was staring down at a fish hiding in sea grass. The grass touched the tip of Y/n’s nose with close she was, the fish swam away and Y/n swam back up to the surface of the water and her eyes landed on Felix who had Cuphead by his head and was shoving him harshly into the water—that must have been what the fish ran away from. 

Cuphead let out a garbled laugh as he had a hand sticking out of the water but no amount of kicking and shouting was saving him from the wrath of Felix. If anyone walked by they would have thought Felix was truly trying to drown the poor guy. 

Later on, Spunk had barked at Panchito who was busy moving the sand around—which he was actually digging in the sand and Spunk wanted to join, Panchito looks at Spunk and takes a step back so the pup could see the hole he dug, and Spunk’s tail wagged as he looked up and Panchito who smiled before Spunk quickly placed his two front paws in the hole and started to dig hastily. 

Panchito’s smile soon turned into confusion before Spunk lifted his head up towards him and showed the bone in his mouth. Oh! Well…he didn’t expect that. 

Y/n was copying Donald’s movement with swimming as he was teaching her how to swim the proper way. 

“No! Not like that!” Donald shouts as he watches the human doggy peddle around him. Y/n smiled widely as her hands and legs frantically waved around in the water, Donald gave a confused expression before slowly shaking his head. 

But soon—the fun died down—well it was still there, but swimming in the heat, exploring the waters and jumping off the cliff into the water and climbing back up said cliff a good few times sure can make anyone tired. 

Now, Y/n held the bow in her grasp. The day had almost passed by within minutes she forgot her real objective at hand. The others were a few yards away exhausted—Mugman and Panchito falling asleep in the grass under the sun as Cuphead, Donald and Oswald spoke to one another, Felix and Y/n on the other hand were yards away—where the trees were. 

Y/n had dried off in the sun a while ago and right when she finished drying off—Felix had her right back up to start practicing her archery. The boring part as she may say. 

“Don’t square your shoulders.” Felix placed a hand on Y/n shoulder blade and gently pushed it in—she felt her chest puff out—she didn’t have the arrow yet as Felix was really just reaching her the proper way to hold a bow. 

“You don’t want to hold on too hard.” He noticed her tight grip on the bow. When he mentioned it, she loosened her grip around it and he nodded. 

As Felix guided her through the correct way to hold onto the bow—the same way as Ruck had explained before—but a lot less stern and stoic, she latched onto his words and nodded as he fixed her elbow. 

“When you pull back you want it to be right next to your cheekbone, make sure you clear your arm before releasing or else the string will come back and hit you.” 

Nodding as he spoke, Felix noticed Y/n was lowering her arm and he placed a hand under her elbow to stop her. 

“Good job.” When he said that she released her hold and he took the bow from her as he examined it and walked in front of her. 

“When you’re loading the arrow, you’ll place it on this  small cliff right here.” He points a claw at the divot on the bow

“That’s called an arrow rest, and the back of the arrow is called a nock, that’s where you’ll slip it on this metal nub right here.” He points at the thin small piece of metal in the middle of the string of the bow. 

“That’s called the nocking point—with the arrow rest and that clip—“ he reached behind Y/n’s back and grabbed one of the arrows from the quiver, placing the nock of the arrow to the clip and placing it on the arrows rest he lets go and the arrow stayed put. 

“You can already have one loaded and ready to release, okay?” 

“Yeah.” Y/n nods her head and he nods his head as well seeing she was following along. Felix had a very different way of teaching Y/n what Ruck did. Ruck waited to see what she would do, waiting to see if you would find the error, backtrack and try again on her own even though the human had never touched a bow ever in her life—whereas Felix took his time, she spoke to her in a calm tone, to help her understand in detail how to properly work a bow. That was one thing she noticed differently of the two. 

Felix points to the three feathers on the bow. One black feather, one white, and one yellow

“These are called your vanes. Or—fletching. Whichever, the odd color always faces up—or to you, many people usually point it up—either way, it never faces you. The colored vane is called an index.”  Felix beckoned Y/n closer to him as he spoke, she walked over to him—the grass crunching under her feet as she stood beside him. 

“You need to always keep in mind when you release the arrow, you need to stay clear of the bow when releasing or you’ll deflect in and just send it flying everywhere but what you’re aiming, or it just won’t send out properly at all.” 

There were so many rules to archery that Y/n didn’t even know, she just thought they picked up the arrow and shot it and that was the end of it, looking more into it was leaving her with surprises, no wonder why Ruck suggested it. It would leave her with her mind thinking and calculating always. And Felix was really going into detail about it as she stared at him. 

“Which most of the time won’t have too often as the arrow will arch when it’s released due to the tension in it—“

His voice became muffled and Y/n slowly nodded and he could tell she had zoned off for a second before he stopped talking and smiled. 

“Sorry I got off track.” 

“You major in science too?” Y/n jokes and Felix’s tail wagged slightly as he fixed his posture and lifted the bow. 

“Wanted to at one point.” 

Going back to teaching her to handle the bow, Felix drew the arrow back. 

“When you’re bracing you want to make sure your form with your shoulders are matching your feet, the tip of your toes should be together and you’re releasing your collar bone to avoid any further injuries.”

He then points his index finger out to use it to aim at a tree a few feet away. He was silent for a moment before his pupils closed in sharp—like an actual cat would do when they were focused on something—she didn’t even know it was possible for Felix to do that, but what did she expect? He was literally a walking feline. 

“Then you’ll focus on what you’re looking at, and release.” He released the arrow and it flew over to the tree, embedding in its bark with a study; ‘thud!’

Y/n perked up seeing that, and she looked at Felix who handed the bow back to her, his pupils expanding back to its normal size, Y/n took the bow and Felix nodded for her to go on. She reached back and takes the arrow from the quiver and loads it onto the nocking point and the small shelf, seeing it stay there she glanced at the tree with the arrow still embedded in it, she drew the bow and fixed her posture and placed her fingers on the nock before drawing back, pulling the arrow back she extends her index finger and zoned in on the tree, releasing the arrow—it flew off and lands onto the ground—sticking up a few feet away, the string coming back and hitting Y/n’s forearm yet again in the same spot from earlier, Y/n flinched and hissed in pain before rubbing at her arm. 

“It’s alright, you did good!” Felix smiled at Y/n and she looked at him.

“I keep hitting my arm.” She tells him and Felix motioned for her to draw the bow back. Doing so she reached back and grabbed another arrow and loaded it yet again and pulled away on the arrow and Felix’s arm came into her view as he reached over and gently moved her shoulder over in a straighter position. And his other hand yet again fixed the elbow holding the arrow before taking a step back. 

“Alright, now try.”

She released the arrow and it flew off and hit the bottom of the tree—it wasn’t much but it wasn’t the ground! Y/n immediately smiled and looked at Felix and he looked away from the tree to Y/n. 

“I did it!” 

For the next hour or two, Y/n felt like perfected her stance to the point where the bow string would slap her arm, she didn’t entirely have the best of aim—but she got better to the point where the arrow wouldn’t just land in the grass, The sun was starting to set and Y/n had just gotten started with her newfound achievements. Felix would point off to different trees for her to make an attempt to hit and Y/n would aim and the arrow would go flying in its general direction—not entirely the target—but she was getting better at shooting. 

Y/n released the arrow once more and the arrow flies across the air and embeds itself in the middle of the tree—a smile erupts on her face and Felix shakes his hands in glee. 

“Wooo! Good job!” He praised and outstretched his hand to give her a high five in which Y/n smacked her hand against his. 

“We’ll work some more tomorrow, let’s head back to town, it’s getting late.” Felix said and Y/n nods and walks over to the arrows littering the ground, picking them up and placing them back in the quiver. 

Once finishing, Y/n turned to see Felix waiting for her and she jogged over and the two left off back to the others. 

-

“If I would have known you guys went tombstoning I would have joined!” Meek whines from the background. Y/n had a towel laying her damp shirt on if—changing into some new clothes that was very similar to her outdoor clothes, she slipped her shoes back on and straightened her posture before looking over at Meek.

“Spent half my time sleeping.” He then grumbled. 

“Bendy’s still with the chick?” Cuphead asks and Don nods. 

“Last I checked on them—some constructor was teaching them to slow dance for the wedding.” He informed them. 

“Perfect, I get to embarrass him right in front of her, let’s go.” Oswald opens the door to leave the room and Y/n immediately scampers over the exact same thought in her head.

Ruck, Meek and Don decided to just stay behind in the rooms as the others ventured off to the lower floor of the castle in search of Bendy—which they were certain was the ballroom where the actual venue would take place in a few days. 

“I remember when me and Daisy had our first slow dance.” Donald sighed dreamily at the thought of Daisy, Y/n grins and placed a hand on Donald’s shoulder. 

“You know maybe we should meet Daisy.”

“Oh please, you guys’ll probably make her run off.” Donald quickly grumbled and Y/n laughed at the statement Oswald moves and walks nexts to Donald. 

“How is she by the way, last I talked to her was some time ago.” Oswald asks and Donald slowly smiles. 

“Good, we recently visited her parents a month ago—now thinking about it—I hadn’t told her I left town.” Donald replied—surely if Daisy found him missing there were two things she would do. Not giving a damn until he came back around or cry pathetically about a week or two before getting angry that Donald went missing. 

“Maybe you should tell her you’re out of town?” Mugman brings up and Donald shrugs.

“You kiddin? She’ll climb through the phone and choke me out for leaving without her, best to just wait it out.” Y/n could see a sweat drop rolled down Donald’s temple at the thought of awaiting the fierce love hold of Daisy whenever they get back home. Y/n could only imagine how her mother would react when returning home for being on ‘vacation’ for 2 weeks. 

“She has always been worried about you—no doubt because of your luck.” Oswald chuckled and Donald rolled his eyes at Oswald’s statement. 

“Oh! That Daisy!” Panchito perks up after being silent for a moment as he tries to track down who Daisy was before finally remembering. 

“I remember she threw a pan at my face because I told her she couldn’t pronounce la sartén the right way.” Panchito brings up and Donald snorts at his friend's statement. 

Once making it to an open room, Y/n could see Lucy standing in front of Bendy, he was speaking to her quietly and had his left hand up as Lucy nodded before taking his left hand in hers and placing her other hand on his shoulder as he placed a hand on her back. 

“Hmm..seems to be gettin’ quite close if you ask meee.” Cuphead sings as he rocked back and forth on his feet. 

“They’re just dancing.” Mugman deadpans as they stand in the corridor of the room—right as he said so, Bendy’s face erupts in a small smile and he nods at whatever Lucy was telling him—there was—a glint in his eye that Y/n had never really seen before, which that caused her to think twice as she blinks blankly at the two. She couldn’t entirely say she was jealous as is—like so many stories the person wouldn’t even know they were jealous—the cliché trope, but Y/n knew that Bendy never truly really cared to speak to other people, maybe Lucy wasn’t so bad and he finally came to terms with that. Y/n gave a quick glance to her side to see Donald giving her a teasing expression as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. 

Y/n stared at him silently. 

“Oh what do you k-“ 

She quickly latched her hand into his beak and locked it close. 

“Shut up.” She muttered and Donald laughed—even with his mouth clipped close. 

“I see the love birds got a thing goin’ on here!” Cuphead clapped his hands and walked ahead into the room. Bendy slowly looks away from Lucy and his eyes lands on Cuphead and soon his optics flickered behind him to see everyone else as Lucy looked over her shoulder to everyone as well and smiled. 

“About time you guys came back.” Bendy states. Slowly lowering his hands away from Lucy who pulled away from him as well with a smile. 

Cuphead raised an eyebrow. “Dunno why, you seem to be doin’ fine with—“ Cuphead glanced at Lucy. 

“Your majesty.” He bows playfully and Lucy lets out a soft laugh. 

“I’m glad you all are back! I was wondering where you all went off to.” Lucy states as she claps her hands together. “I wanted you all to join our dance!” 

Y/n released Donald’s mouth that she hardly knew she still had a grip on, he shook his head once she released his beak and looked at her. 

“Somebody’s in a bad mood.” Donald joked and nudged Y/n, and she nudged him back and grunted. 

“Not in a bad mood. Just tired.” She quickly brings up the fact she was tired—which she was with all the activities they had done today. 

“Or perhaps I was thinking an outing with all of us would be grand!” Lucy smiled at everyone and then looked back at Bendy who gave her a silent nod and she looked back at the group. 

“I’ve never had an outing with a group of friends before, I’ve been meaning to ask.” Lucy brings up and Oswald nods. 

“Sounds nice—“ he then looks back at Donald and Y/n—mostly to Y/n. “She needs a break anyway—had you pent up all day.” 

-

Walking into the shack of a bar in town—the chattering voices had paused when the doors opened and Lucy and Bendy stood in the doorway, Lucy bows her head in a greeting but Bendy just stood beside her and nonchalantly glanced around until Lucy peeked at him and gently nudged his arm in which he glanced down at her and she repeated the action for Bendy to follow as well, in which he did and gently bowed his head. 

“Princess Lucille! It’s nice to see you! This must be the man of the hour.” The bartender shouts with glee. A scrawny man with an apron and a white shirt greets as the patrons go back to talking and some greet the princess as she and Bendy walk further into the bar and over to the counter. Right behind them was the others trailing after—a few whispers here and there ushered around the bar. 

“If nice to see you too Finwick.” The patrons that were seated in the stools had got up for the group and moved out of the way and over to some other tables in the bar. 

As Lucy spoke to Finwick—Ruck walked passed Y/n and over to the bar and sat down—he only tagged along to get a drink and she was certain she was the reason of him needing a drink he just didn’t say it—well actually he would say it but just didn’t care to. 

Y/n walked over to Ruck and stood behind his seated form facing her before she took the stool beside him and sat down, Meek and Don had gone off somewhere in the bar once they heard some arm wrestling match going on. Another bartender had walked off to get Ruck a drink when she sat down and looked at him. 

“I actually shot the arrow correctly—Felix helped me.” She tells him and Ruck glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. 

“Really now?” He says and Y/n gives him an all winning smile before she starts to take the bow from around her chest. 

“Yeah wanna see me shoot?” The minute she said that Ruck flicked her hand away from the bow and she immediately placed her hands on the table. 

“Not now dammit. The hell are you gonna shoot in here?” He grumbled and Y/n let out a small laugh as Ruck stared at her with a stern expression before a chuckle left his mouth and he shook his head, taking the glass of whatever liquor he ordered off the table and sipping it. 

“Where do you live, kid?” He asks. 

“West coast. Near L.A. in California.” She answered and he nodded.

“You live in Hollywood?” Y/n turned her gaze to her other side to see Cuphead leaning his arm on the counter, between the empty stool behind him and her—which she was already seated. 

“No, just a few ways ahead, Bendy does though.” She answered and Cuphead raised his eyebrows. 

“Heard that was the dream city, no wonder a dame like yerself is as gorgeous as a midnight flower.” Y/n couldn’t tell his reason for asking her that to begin with was just so he could say that pick up line—but she slowly shook her head and smiled and Ruck grumbled from behind her. 

“Jesus, take that kiss and tell shit over there.” He points his index finger that was holding the cup quickly into some random direction that wasn’t where he was. Y/n laughs at his statement before looking back at Cuphead who was still looking at her. 

“Want me to teach you how to play craps?” Cuphead asks, his other hand holding onto his wrist that was leaning on the top of the counter. 

“The card game?” She asks and Cuphead nods. 

“Yeah. I’ve got a got bet ta’ make with ya.” He smiled and Y/n raised her eyebrows. 

“Hm, I dunno. Mugman said not to make any bets with you.” She laughs and Cuphead shrugs as if saying: ‘your loss’ before he digs in his pockets and places something on the table. When he removed his hand away, crumbled up bills fell onto the table. 

“Bills don’t mean nothin’ here on the offlands, they go by gold, I got 250 for you, you beat me in a game of craps, the money’s all yours for when you hit the mainlands again.” His index finger tapped the counter, Y/n stared at the messily crumbled up pile of money before looking back at Cuphead. 

“Where the hell did you get this money?” She asks—she vaguely remembered Cuphead having money on him back in the mainlands as well—and couldn’t remember if she asked him about it or not, but she didn’t didn’t know he was walking around with this much money. 

“Took it.” He answered and she moved to grab at the money to examine it but Cuphead quickly grabbed her wrist gently. “Hey, hey, hey—my bills, they ain’t yours yet.” He says hastily and Y/n retracted her hand with a smile. 

“What’s the deal?” She asks. 

“You win, you walk away with 250, if I win on the other hand.” He stopped talking for a brief moment as he stared down at her his foot gently tapping the floor, there was a long silence between the two as Cuphead’s eyes stared into Y/n.

“I get a kiss.” 

Y/n stared at Cuphead for a moment—her heart thumping into her chest and she felt like butterflies were in her stomach—he..sure did have a way with talking to people. Y/n felt her hands become clammy as she rubbed them against her pants, she didn’t even know how to play craps and certainly with him teaching her she wouldn’t adapt that fast—that’s if the game was hard. But either way Cuphead knew how to play any game there was—she had to beat the system somehow or else she would be signing herself up for failure. 

“I want to pick the game though.” Y/n says and Cuphead juts his head in a motion for her to go on. 

“Tic tac toe.” 

“I can finish that game with my eyes closed.” He states. 

“Chess.”

“Sorta Mugman’s forte, but when I watch em’ play I take his tactics.”

“Hangman.”

“I can tell you right now, I can think of any word that starts with any vowel and that was probably what you planned on doing.” Cuphead spits back. And Y/n..gasps. Damn he was right. Who the hell played hangman and didn’t play fairly—because she sure didn’t.

“Checkers.”

“Won by a tooth.” 

It was like Cuphead purposely made the bed because he knew he would excel in any brain game—despite not having much he had a thing for making bets and standing behind that bet. He could walk away with almost any money out there

There was really only one game Y/n was good at. “Go fish.”

“Go fish.” Cuphead quickly confirms and waits a moment before tilting his eyebrow in a condescending manner. “Ya’ sure?” 

“Go fish.” She repeats. 

“Your game.” He says before straightening his posture and taking the money and shoving it back into his pocket and nudging his head to the side for her to follow him before he turns and walks off, and Y/n stands up and follows after him where Cuphead found a small table for the two, he gave her a mischievous smile as his eyes followed her over to the seat where she kept her eyes locked on his. 

“I’ll kick your ass in this game.” She tells him before pulling her chair out and sitting down, Cuphead sits across from her and chuckles. 

“That’s what they all say. I had people twice my age walk away cryin’ for their mama, 3 bags of fine money all mine after only 2 games—got so desperate they put their life savings on the table.” He laughs at the fine memory of the man storming off as Cuphead laughed with Mugman beside him watching the man with a worrisome expression.

Cuphead placed his hands on the table and a stack of cards was within his hold—he must have had those on him as well. 

“Didn’t know you had money and cards on you.” Y/n points out. 

“Quick way to get money.” He says and lazily shifts the cards in his grasp. Y/n rested her chin on the heels of her hands as she rested her elbows on the table watching as Cuphead shuffled the cards, he watched her as he did so with a smile she couldn’t even comprehend. 

“What..” she muttered and he shook his head before looking at the cards.  “Nothin.” 

Splitting the deck in half he then placed the spare cards to the side of the table. “Don’t cheat me out.” Y/n barked and Cuphead quickly raised his hands to show he didn’t have anything on him.

“Hey, hey, don’t worry, I’m a fair player, I ain’t gonna cheat you out.” He said cautiously before he started to serve the cards facing down. 

“See?” He proves as he did so, Y/n’s eyes hardened on his with a squint before slowly nodding. 

“I’ll kick your ass if you’re cheating Cuphead, that’s a promise.” 

“I ain’t. Look at the cards.” 

When he finished the two picked up the cards and Y/n saw what she had. 

Over the course of 5 minutes—Y/n only had 2 jokers and 3 hearts—Cuphead had already cleared 2 sets—2 points for him..

“You..got any threes?” She asks and Cuphead removes a card from his hand and hands it to Y/n, she quickly grabs it and places the three hearts on the table along with the 4th one—one set. 

“You got any jokers?” Cuphead asks and Y/n hands him her last two cards and he sets his 2 jokers on the table along with the ones Y/n handed him. 3 points. Great. 

Y/n drew 5 more cards to see she had 2 hearts, 1 king and 1 ace.

“You have any hearts?” She asks. Cuphead didn’t answer before he drew another card. 

“Any kings?” 

She handed him her king. 

The process went back and forth until the deck finished and they were on their last hand. Y/n had 4 sets and Cuphead had 4 too. Was it possible to tie in Go Fish?

Y/n saw she had 3 hearts and Cuphead didn’t say anything yet as he held one card in his hand. His hand tapped the table slowly. She hoped he wouldn’t say what she thought he was going to say, his eyes moved away from the last card and over to Y/n was sitting stiffly in her seat. 

“Ya’ got any hearts?” He asks. Y/n’s eyes flickered down to her last heart and then to Cuphead. 

“Nope.” 

Yeah, she was gonna lie her way through this one.  

Cuphead fell in silence as his pupils searched her face. If possible a sweat drop would have slid down Y/n’s temple with how she fidgeted under his gaze. 

“Don’t be cheatin’ out on me.” 

“I’m serious, I don’t have any hearts.” 

“King.”

“No.”

“Joker.”

“Nah.”

“Ace.”

Y/n grew silent and she rubbed the back of her neck and sniffed and glanced back down to her card. 

Looking at Cuphead he still had his gaze on her and Y/n rubbed her forehead and sighed before flicking the card in his direction where as he grinned and took the heart and placed the four cards on the table. 5 sets. 

“Gotta give it to ya’ you’re good at go fish. Maybe hitch off on the lyin’ part.” Cuphead laughs and Y/n looks down at their sets and it was obvious Cuphead won. 

“5 over 4, I won!” He slams his hand on the table and laughs and Y/n leaned back in her chair and sighed heavily. 250 tossed out the window just that easily.

She had to admit her heart was pounding nervously in her chest at what the bet had to offer, she watched as Cuphead stood up from his seat and nudged his head for Y/n to follow. 

“Alright, stop poutin’ c’mon,” he says and Y/n stood up and walked beside Cuphead over to the entrance of the bar, he opened the door and held it open for her and she walked out in the chill air with Cuphead following behind her. She hardly notice that Cuphead left the cards on the table. 

“Where are we going? You actually plan on killing me this time?” She jokes and Cuphead gives her a sideways glance. 

“Jeez, I thought we left that behind us.” He tells as the two wandered down the path of the two. 

“Just takin’ ya’ somewhere more comfortable—ya know, gotta work up the charm.” Cuphead grinned and Y/n slowly shook her head. 

“What’s that supposed to mean.” She states but it was still a question despite the way she said it. 

Cuphead didn’t respond immediately, instead glancing at her and looking forward. 

Making it over to the path where they had been when they all went swimming earlier. Following the path over to the cliff, Y/n a tree a few feet from the cliff—showing off the stars reflecting from the water below—the mountains in the background becoming dark silhouettes. Taking off the bow and quiver and setting them down on the ground before she sat down and leaned her back on the tree, she heard Cuphead catch up to her and sit down next to her as well. 

The two were silent for a moment as they watched the serene atmosphere. 

“I still could have beaten you in Go Fish.” Y/n abruptly says and Cuphead turns his head to look at her. 

“Probably could have.” He admits before looking back out to the opening. 

Y/n then faked a heavy sigh. “Man..I wonder where that money would go.” Her voice feigning disappointment dramatically, she looks at Cuphead who was looking at her with an unamused expression.

“Yeah I wonder too.” He states and Y/n rolls her eyes and looks away. 

“I got a question.” He starts. 

“And I probably don’t have a question to it.” Y/n deadpans. 

“Hypothetically. If for some odd reason—you don’t so happen to have anyone to go to the wedding with. If I’d ask to go with you, would you go?” He asks.

Y/n raised an eyebrow. “Well, we’re technically all going..because it’s in the same area?” 

“I meant as in a date.” 

Y/n stared at Cuphead and felt her hands start to sweat again at the question, well hypothetical question. 

She stared at him as he awaited an answer, he..truly was an odd guy, and Y/n liked that. Sure he had shit for brains at times Cuphead really was an odd guy. 

She felt her index finger as her eyes traveled around his face. 

“I would go.” She answered with a nod. 

“With me?” He points to his chest. 

“With you.” She laughs. 

Cuphead made a face where he seemed oddly surprised and he looked back out to the opening. “Hm.”  He hums. 

“I ain’t never really been stuck in the chest before.” He states and Y/n gave him a confused expression as to what he meant. 

“What does that mean?” She asks. And Cuphead grins. “A fine gal like yourself ain’t anything I came across before.”  

Y/n laughs and gently shoves Cuphead’s shoulder where he gently takes her hand before she could retract it. 

“I’m serious.” He tells her. 

“So, this is what you meant when you said turn on the charm?” She asks and Cuphead shrugs before smiling. 

“Maybe.” 

She started to get nervous. As she gently leaned away from Cuphead almost unconsciously leaned forward which he noticed as his smile then lowered in confusion.

“What..?” He asks and Y/n opens her mouth to speak but couldn’t seem to find the words. “I..uh…”

She was anxious—as nervous as a schoolgirl standing in front of her crush, the feathers in her stomach fluttering around rapidly as Cuphead’s grip on her hand tightened on hers. 

She fell into a deep silence as Cuphead watched her—almost waiting for her to do something but she was waiting for him.

His index finger twitched on her hand impatiently and soon he started to lean forward but Y/n had quickly leaned back and Cuphead stopped before giving her a confused expression. 

“What’s wrong?” He asks. Y/n fixed her position to face him. 

“Sorry dude, reflex. Just nervous is all.” She gave a strained grin and Cuphead chuckled. 

“You’re nervous? I’ve been waitin’ all this time for this moment.” He started and Y/n rolled her eyes. 

“Wow, I’m some girl you wanted to hitch with?” Y/n grumbled, but she didn’t mean much of it. 

“What? No! That’s not what I’m saying! I ain’t that type of guy, if I wanted to kiss you, it’s because I wanted to, not because I just wanted to just because—“ that statement made Cuphead speak frantically in an attempt to get her to understand before he stops and inhaled before opening his eyes to look at Y/n—a serious expression written on his face was evident.

“Look, I’m not too knowledgeable with human customs—I’m learnin’ I am,  I didn’t know anythin’ when me and Mugs came to the mainlands, but..you..” he stopped for a moment as he stared at her. 

“When I saw you that day back in town—you..made me a lot more aware of things and how different they were back at home. I’m not tryna play any sort of games on you, I’m not. Just a friendly friend to friend mutual agreement that we made on back in the bar.” He was silent for a moment and Y/n stared at him and placed her arms on his forearms and smiled. 

“I…just…” He trailed off as he stared at her as a lovesick smile spread across his face. “Man…you just truly are somethin’ special..” 

Y/n felt her heart beat faster with the look he was giving her, Cuphead gently grabbed her hands in his and she felt him near her face—so close the tip of his nose touched hers. He placed his forehead against hers and she almost jumped out her skin when she felt his lips brush against hers.  “C’mon..” he muttered.

Closing the gap, Y/n closed her eyes and immediately smiled, she felt Cuphead smile as well to the point where their teeth touched when they broke out into fits of laughs. Gently pulling away Y/n calmed down with her laughing as Cuphead did as well. Before he leaned back and pressed his lips to hers once more, his arms hastily wrapping around her waist to pull her to him, Y/n felt her nose heat up as her hands fell to her lap. 

Cuphead pressed a kiss to the corner of her lips harshly and she sputtered and laughed before placing her hands on his chest and gently pushed him away—he pulled away and looked at her with a wide smile and the two laughed once more. 

“You know we can go the whole night doin’ this.” Cuphead whispered as his arms around her tightened—Y/n was thinking as she stared at him—her eyebrows twitched before stitching together as if thinking heavily. Cuphead was excited—like a kid being given candy for dinner and all the wish he could ever dream for—it made her heart race for a moment—Cuphead saw the expression she made and he slowly nodded. 

“Nothin’ gotta change between us.” He says weakly—almost like it pained him to say it. 

Y/n hadn’t seen him this desperate ever—not even in the circumstances with the Devil. He seemed tired and almost stressed and that made her think, was it because of the recent events with him and Mugman leaving Inkwell looking for their caretaker? 

Cuphead had been so focused on all these things when he first saw Y/n he saw her as a serene peace offering of some kind for him. His index finger tapped her back patiently.

“It’s nothin’ bad, Y/n.” He adds as he neared her face again, his nose pressed up against hers, she shivered under his touch and smiled before he pressed her into a tight warm kiss, his hand raised to place it on the back of her head.

Throughout the night the two stayed by the cliff—it was like all their worries had gone—who would have thought with just a few minor kisses to the face it would open more trust between the two. 

Cuphead would stand in front if Y/n and dramatically explaining how he got into his first fight with the devil when he was younger back then, and it sure was a story—fighting for contracts back inkwell and restoring hope back to their hometown when the Devil too reigns over it, it was also a shocker to hear the Devil ran his own casino as well. 

They also spent their time looking up at the stars and pointing out the brightest ones, which in that moment Cuphead always tried to steal in a quick kiss as Y/n was busy explaining what an actual star is—it was like he would do that to refuel to courage to open up more to her about his life on Inkwell. And frankly it did the same for her. 

“I dunno, I just feel sometimes Ruck sees me as some screw up or something just because I never been out on an adventure before.” She complained as Cuphead nodded his head.

“Man, who’re you tellin? My elder Kettle used to be the same way when me and Mugs were kids. I uh…sorta always got us in trouble—he used to tell me I thought too much my feet started running before my brain.” Cuphead stops speaking for a moment as he stared out into the sky as Y/n looked at him. 

“Can’t help it sometimes.”

It started to get cold out and that’s when the two called it a night. Stand up and place the quiver back on along with the bow Cuphead spoke.

“We uh..” he starts as he stands in front of her. 

“Sorry about the whole…kissin’ thing..it was..just the heat of the moment—you know..boy things and all that. We don’t have to bring it back up or anything.” He rubbed the back of his neck nervously and Y/n cracked a smile and slowly nodded. 

“Yeah uh..” she trailed off and the two genuinely didn’t know what else to say 

“Here..” Cuphead dug in his pocket and pulled out the money from earlier. “You might need this later on, you humans use it back in the mainlands right?” 

Y/n quickly snatches the money out of Cuphead’s hands and stuffs it into her pocket as if he would quickly change his mind. She smiled at him and he smiled back and opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something. 

“Listen I…uh…” his eyes trailed off to the side and back to her. 

“You…are..I..we..” he motioned between himself and her but he still couldn’t seem to latch onto what he was saying. 

“I wanna..if that’s…see where…” he trailed off as his eyes stared at Y/n who had her eyes glued on him—waiting for him to finish his statement that he soon decided to just toss away. 

“nevermind..” he whispered.

“What were you going to say?” Y/n asks and Cuphead quickly shakes his head. “Nothin’ important, like I said, nothin happened between us.” He quickly ends it a tad bit harsher than what he wanted it to come out as. 

Y/n placed a hand on the strap of the quiver and slowly nods. “Right..” she muttered and Cuphead looked at her. 

“Sorry I didn’t mean t—“ 

“Come on, the others are probably worrying.” She claps her hands together and turns around  and walks down the path back into town. Cuphead jogs to catch up to her.

“No really, sorry, I didn’t mean to say it like that.” 

“You’re fine, Cuphead.” Y/n calls out as she pushes through the twigs in the dark area as she hears Cuphead trail behind her. 

“I’m se-“

“You said nothing will be awkward around us, you’re making this awkward.” Y/n sighs and Cuphead immediately zips his mouth closed…as long as he could atleast.

“I’m not awkward..” he muttered to himself like a child and Y/n shook her head slowly as they trailed off. 

“You seriously aren’t going to talk to me? I apologized.” Cuphead calls out from behind her.  “I’m not mad, just tryna find the way out because it’s dark as hell.” 

“I can translate that to you making this awkward.”  Cuphead said as he finally hopped next to her. 

“This is why we shouldn’t have done that.” Y/n looks at him and Cuphead looks at her and gives her a confused gaze. 

“Kiss, kiss, tell, tell, forget. We can do that.”

He was silent for a moment as Y/n suspected he would stop talking. But he soon smiled; “Felt good, didn’t it?”

And Y/n could only roll her eyes at his statement.

The two were quiet for a moment as they stared at each other before nodding in unison. “Alright, it’s tossed away under lock and key?“ she asked him. 

“You ain’t gonna ever hear me mention or bring it back up again.” Cuphead confirms and Y/n nods. 

“Alright, pleasure doing business with you.”

“I’ll rate it a 10 outta 10, out of this word service, might come back.” 

“Sorry because we’re out of business, and just filed for bankruptcy.” Y/n turned and continued walking. 

“I loved the way she held onto me.” Cuphead sangs.

“LOCK AND KEY!!” Y/n’s voice echoed and Cuphead howled with laughter. 

“Alright! Alright!”

-

Walking into the room—Y/n spotted Panchito seated on the floor with Spunk between his legs, when the door opened and Cuphead and Y/n walked into the room, Panchito smiled. 

“Ah! Y/n look at what he can do!” Panchito called out and Y/n immediately walked over to Panchito as Cuphead trailed behind her. 

“What is it?” She asked and looked down at Spunk, who stood on all fours and hopped into the air and quickly did a backflip. Y/n opened her mouth in shock as Spunk barked at the praise Panchito gave him. 

“He is rather smart, he can understand just about anything.” Panchito says and Y/n sat down next to Panchito as the pup had his tongue lolled out of his mouth. 

“Bummer, I thought you got lost and never came back.” Y/n looked over to see Donald sitting on the couch looking at Cuphead. 

Cuphead grinned and shrugged. “Hard to get rid of a guy like me.” 

“Trust me, I tried.” Mugman muttered as he was still busy reading whatever book had him intrigued…whatever that was supposed to mean.

Standing up from the floor and walking over to the bench near the window where her bag was, Y/n opened it to retrieve her night clothes. 

Soon the door opened and in walking Bendy and Felix, Y/n hardly noticed Oswald sitting on the bench when she saw his ear move. 

“Oh, there goes the Prince.” Oswald points out. Felix closed the door and Bendy rolled his eyes. 

“Hilarious.” He said. 

“I dunno, it seems you were getting real close to the princess to me.” Donald takes a jab to tease and Bendy seems just about ready to throw a dresser at the duck. 

“You do not have to be embarrassed, my friend. It is okay to admit you may have some blossoming feelings for her.” Panchito adds on and Bendy grunts. 

“I DON— I don’t like her.” He deadpans. 

“Come on guys, it’s getting late, we need to head to bed, tomorrow is a busy day,” Felix calls and Panchito stands up from the floor to retrieve the blanket. 

Bendy sauntered over to Y/n and his eyes examined the bow she had on her back, she had placed her clothes on the bench and made sure her clothes for tomorrow were ready. 

“You got a bow?” 

She heard him behind her and turned around to face Bendy, smiling as she nods before removing it from her and placing the quiver on the bench. 

“Yeah, Ruck wanted me to learn to use it, I thought it would be stupid but, it’s sorta cool to use.” She explained and Bendy nodded. 

“How was your day with Lucy? Seemed like it was better than yesterday.” She smiled clearly, also teasing him as well, and Bendy sighed and furrowed his eyebrows. 

“It’s..not like that, and you of all people should know that.” He deadpans and Y/n shrugs. 

“If you say so—“

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Her words didn't even come out of her mouth fully before he questioned her, Y/n laughed at that and shook her head. 

“Nothing.” She says and Bendy stared at her for a moment before nodding. 

“Can you shoot?” He asks, referring to the bow.

“A little. Not an expert at it, just got it today.” She replied as Bendy reached a hand over behind her to fiddled with the feather of the arrow. 

“But I bet I can shoot an apple from off your head.” She boasts and Bendy grimaced and pulled his hand away. 

“Absolutely not—ruin a face like this?” He motioned to himself with a grin and Y/n laughed before shoving him away to walk past him so she could go change in the nearest restroom. He moved to follow after her but soon stopped when he realized she was leaving to go change. 

In a matter in minutes the room was in pure bliss, silence as everyone had changed and dozed off to sleep—thankfully with Bendy laying on the couch with no problem unlike his earlier run from last night when he was sick—which was odd when Y/n thought about it considering he was walking around just fine—but that was good atleast, it showed that he was better. 

Same as before—Spunk was fast asleep on Y/n’s back as she laid flat on her stomach with the blankets coddling her like warm arms. 

Just pure silence—no noise, no dreams out to take her life, no worries, nothing. 

Y/n felt something vibrate on the bed—and it took her a moment to adjust to that before her eyes slowly opened—her eyes landing on her phone laying beside her pillow that she left out—her first plan was to make an alarm to wake her up so she could leave out with Ruck in the morning but she really didn’t want to be bothered with the sound of an alarm blaring in her ears. 

The small chip that Puck gave them flashed a dim green light, it was stuck into her charger port in her phone—and when Y/n’s eyes read the name on the screen who was calling her—Y/n slowly grabbed the phone and pressed the button to accept and brought the phone to her ear. 

“Hello?” She muttered lowly so she wouldn’t wake anyone up. 

“Hey!” The sound of her mothers voice entered her ears and Y/n immediately woke up. 

-

M/n ushered a worker away who was handing her something—on the other end the sun was out bright—the day had started in the mainlands. M/n held the phone to her ear as she placed the portfolio down on the counter—Annie was busy writing away on a form. 

“Just checking up on you—sounds like you were asleep, were you napping?” She asks. She heard the other side go quiet. 

“No, I’m up, I was just watching TV with Bendy.” The tired voice quickly left her daughter's system .

“Wow, watching Tv on vacation? With how much Bendy’s been working I was thinking he would be dragging you to the nearest beach or something.” M/n jokes and she heard a soft laugh leave Y/n’s mouth on the other end. 

“So, you guys take any pictures? I wanna see them!” M/n exclaims excitedly.

-

Y/n was seated upright in the bed—they didn’t take a single photo, how the hell could she forget?! Scratching her head, Y/n flattened her lips and shook her head. 

“No, not yet—you know we’ve been so busy with having fun and stuff.” Y/n lied through her teeth and she felt her mother sigh on the other end. 

-

M/n slowly shook her head on the other end but a small smile erupts on her face. “Well you should start doing so—pictures are always good to take when you’re out with family and friends.” M/n wasn’t entirely scolding but moreso telling Y/n to take some pictures. 

“You might wanna look back at them someday.” 

“We’ll take some.”

M/n nods and smiles before sitting down in her chair. “Now, let me tell you what I’ve been up to!” 

-

Over the course of 3 hours—her mother was on the other end talking about her days at work and how Henry was stressed to the point he forgot to lock his doors to his house and didn’t know until he woke up the next to see it unlocked. 

She had a filled week surely and Y/n tiredly listened to her mother with her phone laying on her ear as she laid on her side slowly drifting off to sleep, humming every once in a while in agreement with her mothers statement. Her mother almost worked her entire shift with Y/n on the phone—and it wasn’t until when her mother finally made it home—with Y/n still on the phone mind you—did she hear the soft breathing from the other end. 

“Y/n.” M/n called out but her daughter didn’t reply back.

On the other end Y/n had drifted off to sleep, the phone still laying on her face as a soft snore escaped her mouth. 

Back on the other end M/n stared at the phone and noted the snoring—which Y/n rarely ever did unless she was exhausted—like terribly exhausted. Maybe the last few days spent with activities truly made her tired.

M/n lets out a small laugh.

“Talk to you later, hun. Get some sleep.” 

#toon quest #bendyxreader #cuphead x reader #panchito pistoles #oswald the lucky rabbit #bendy and the ink machine #felix the cat

[toontails]

Toon Quest

Chapter 8: He's Royalty!?

The sound of the voice speaking was muffled in the background, clearly someone was speaking..but to Y/n’s ears, it was was blocked out entirely, she held a thin flexible stick in her grasps, she was crouching behind the tall green grass, she held her breath as she edged forward, the leaves and sticks crackling under the soles of her shoes, the sound of birds chirping echoed in the hot humid air, the jungle like environment with all the creatures hiding in it was the only thing that Y/n focused on. 

The dark puddle that formed behind her went unnoticed to the human as she had her back facing towards it, she leaned against the tree as she heard something moving on the other side of it, she smiled as she slowly peeked from behind it. 

A head slowly popped out from inside the ink like puddle. Two eyes opened up and focused on Y/n, Bendy slowly crawled out of the puddle and slowly stood up and picked up a willow branch in the process, he slowly edged towards Y/n in a silent manner—she couldn’t hear a thing. 

Soon, a figure jumped up and tackled Bendy, he fell to the ground with a ‘oof!’ And looked up to see Cuphead. 

“Gotcha!” Cuphead shouts and Bendy shoves the cup off him and stands ups. 

“Dammit, how come you get to just appear wherever you want!” Y/n complained as she walked over. 

Panchito laughed as he stumbled from the bush he was hiding in. “¡Esto es muy gracioso!” He states before walking over. 

“Well, I woulda had you if Cuphead learned ta’ stop jumpin’ on people.” Bendy fixed his shirt and dusted off the leaves and Cuphead laughed and fixed his straw in his head. 

“See? I told you we can bond.” Cuphead placed a hand on Bendy’s shoulder and Bendy shook his hand off him. “Don’t touch me.” Bendy quickly says. 

Y/n felt the stinging pain on her shoulder and she immediately jumps and turns around to see Ruck holding a willow branch in his hand, which he had dropped when she looked at him in confusion. 

“Pay attention, nut head.” Ruck scolds. Meek and Don were a few feet away walking down the path, Y/n almost forgot Ruck was telling them various vegetation around the land, what was poisonous, what wasn’t, what could kill you, what could leave you deaf or missing a finger—stuff she should have been listening too. 

“Sorry.” Y/n immediately apologized and Ruck slowly shook his head before turning around and motioning for everyone to follow him. 

“Come on, you knuckle heads are already a pain in my back, Felix is the only one I can tolerate.” Ruck complained as he walked past Felix who was holding something behind his back, when Ruck was far enough Felix quickly tossed a stick to his side and Y/n let out a laugh as Felix smiled motioning her to keep quiet. 

“Alright, alright. Come on, enough playing guys.” Felix says as he motioned everyone to follow Ruck, Cuphead groans before trudging his feet forward and follows after as well as everyone else. 

“So, your uncle, huh?” Bendy questioned as he moved to walk next to Y/n. Y/n watched Ruck’s back as he walked down the trail and Y/n slowly nodded. 

“In a way.” She answered. 

“Well he sure does have a thing for authority.” Bendy grumbled—like a child that was scolded for talking in class. 

“Yeah, at first I thought he was some drill sergeant or something. But I’m sure he means well.” 

“So. Tell me about these guys.” Ruck pipes up, grabbing their attention.

Meek stops in his tracks before turning around and walking backwards. 

“Oh yeah! I wanna hear about these villains, ya know, they’re always the dogs.” Meek smiled and Cuphead grumbled. 

“They’re terrible.” Was his simple answer but Mugman seemed to shiver at the thought of the guys that were..now after them as well. Jeez, if the Devil gets anywhere near them, Mugman was for sure dead. 

“They’re a bunch of goons that chase, but the real threat is the Angel, and whoever those other two were.” Oswald pipes up. Y/n grimaced for a moment at the mention of the three—her mind specifically moving towards Pib, a feeling in her stomach churned and she furrowed her eyebrows. 

“Yeah..” she muttered. 

“An Angel?” Ruck asks as he looks over his shoulder slightly—his demeanor changed for a moment in confusion and a light surprisement. 

“Yes, his name is Abel, and if it weren’t for a gem that we have—I’m certain he would have had us by now.” Felix explained. Y/n was curious who Abel was—it seemed for toons, he wasn’t anything to be reckoned with, and she thought the Devil was something they would shiver in terror for, but for Abel, it were as if someone was speaking of a boogeyman to a group of kids. 

“What exactly is Abel?” Y/n asks.

“He’s an archangel, not a literal one, but one with remarkable powers that can kill a toon with no problem. He’s..an odd thing if you ask me as archangels aren’t entirely…frequent to say the least.” 

Well that was something new. 

“Well, in the book it did explain something about an Angel—I think it was referring to Abel.” Mugman brings up and Donald tilts his head. 

“Great, does it tell us how to kill him?” 

Mugman was silent for a moment as he rubbed the back of his neck. “N..no.”

Donald deadpans before looking away. “Then it’s not useful for us.”

“This Abel guy is something you all should take seriously then.” Ruck sternly voiced. 

“You mess up one time, you all will be done for, and trust that would be a big disappointment dying before understanding what that book is trying to tell you.” Meek laughs at Ruck’s statement. 

“Like Hector.” He cackled and Ruck looked at Meek who then immediately stopped laughing. 

“It’s already bad you have one human who can’t even tie a knot the right way.” Ruck brings up Y/n, who earlier was tying a knot with a rope Ruck handed her and..let’s just say Y/n was a lot worse at doing simple things than she thought. 

“So who’s the other two?” Don asks.

“Their names are Slicer and Pib.” Mugman uttered and Cuphead perked up gently. 

“Yeah, the weirdo Pib, she’s nice one minute and then out to snap someone’s neck the next.” He complained and Y/n furrowed her eyebrows. 

“Whatever and whoever they are, all three of them are dangerous and should be avoided, you guys did good with Bettigan and the others, but I..actually think it would be best to steer clear from Abel and the other two.” Felix acknowledged that fighting those three head on would result in…results he didn’t want to face and didn’t want the others to as well. Ruck seemed to have the right idea with At Least teaching the others to defend themselves to an extent, but as of now? There was no way they could go against those three or any other scenario in the future, which was good to have Ruck, he was certain the former explorer was going to teach everyone some valuable lessons even if they were hard, they couldn’t do much than adapt if they even wanted to remotely survive. 

“Oh trust, I’m not going anywhere near Pib.” Y/n grumbled. 

“Don’t worry, you’ll kill this Pib person..” Ruck muttered under his breath. 

“As of now, listen to Felix. Those three have the power of a god..” 

-

“I say we just go find them, I’m sure they didn’t flee off too far.” Slicer voiced as she followed the man in the trenchcoat who had walked into the room, the thorn in his side known as Slicer nagging away about finding the group of toons alongside with the human. 

“You three did fantastic last night.” Slicer looks over to see Susie sitting on the couch in the room, a smile edged onto her face and Slicer slowly places her hands to her side. 

“I ain’t nevah seen that kid get put through the wringer, but Pib did the due!” Susie laughs as she stands up from the couch and pats Pib on the back. Pib remained still before looking at Susie.

“That doesn't matter, those buffoons have that shielded stone!” The Devil shouts In disbelief before he points at Abel. 

“Even he can’t attack them when they have it!” 

“Hey, hey, take a chill pill.” Susie calms the Devil down—which was odd as she seemed to be the one that was always in a bad mood. 

“When they come back, they won’t have that stone.” Susie brings up which causes Slicer to look back at her. 

“They’ll be leaving to the offlands, couple a’ bears will do the trick, next thing you know they’ll be coming back empty handed.” Susie shows her hands which were empty. 

“Jesus, if I knew we have inside eyes, I wouldn’t have tried to drown Mango in the water last night for him to go after them.” Bettigan cried out and Mango deadpans from in the background. 

“These three, got the power of a god, we don’t gotta worry too much.” Susie places a hand on Pib’s chest and smiles. “And she couldn’t get a hand on them, you saw how the kid laid there, she was gonna cry.” Susie laughs before pulling away from Pib and walking back over to the couch. 

“Pib is not a toy.” Abel pipes up. Pib looks over to him and Susie lets out a small laugh before nodding. 

“Alright..you need to send a message. Down by the docks.” Susie brings up and Slicer grunts. 

“To say?” 

“When they reach the island, destroy that stone. You might gotta knock some sense into the guy, he’s stubborn, but I’m pretty sure you’ll do just fine.” Susie gave them a new quest.

“Devil needs the guy to sign a contract too, he owes, reason why you’re going to him instead of some other person.” She adds and Slicer was silent before nodding. 

“Alright..” 

-

Abel, Slicer and Pib stood next to each other as they stared at the boat docks, many people looking for boats, docking and even fishing, a man was seated on the edge of the docked boat, holding a cigarette in his hands. 

“You know I’ve never seen a boat dock before.” Slicer curiously looks over the edge of the dock and into the water. 

“Not the best of places I would spend my time.” Abel responds as his sharp gaze lands back on the man. 

“I wanna speak to him.” Slicer gently nudged Abel’s arm as she started down the dock and over to the boat, where a woman had soon walked out. 

“Gene, come on, breakfast is ready.” The woman announced, two children had been sitting on the floor of the boat—arguing stubbornly, the woman looked over to see Slicer, who stopped near the entrance of the boat, near the ramp. Abel and Pib slowly walked over as well. 

“Oh..hello.” The woman greets and Slicer nods her head in greeting. 

“We’re looking for Gene?” Slicer asks and the man looks at her and raises an eyebrow. 

“That’s me.” He answered as Slice pulled a sack from her pocket—money. “We have a job offer, a delivery.” 

“What is it?” Gene asks and the woman motioned to the door. “Please, come in.” She calls out before walking in, Gene stands up before motioning his head towards the door before walking in as well, the mother called for the children to come eat, and the two children stood up and scampered in as well, Slicer was about to follow after but Abel placed a hand in front of her as he stared at the boat. 

“Intrare prudenter.” He spoke and Slicer was still for a tad bit before she nodded. “Noted.” She understood before he slowly removed his hand away from her and Slicer walked up to the boat with Abel and Pib following after.

The three walked into the boat, it creaked under their weight, once walking into the room—where they could see a kitchen table with food set down, the mother was sitting down at the table with the two children, who were busy now focused on the new guests. 

“Who sent you?” Gene immediately asks. Though his question sounded more harsh than what he was trying to put out. 

“Big horns, you know, he said you owe him a contract.” Slicer looks over at Abel who removed hand from behind him to reveal the rolled up contract in hand, Gene’s expression hardened.

“I ain’t signing that.” He refused, Slicer took the contract in her hand and looked at Gene. 

“I don’t know much about contracts, but he said you owed him—“

“I ain’t signing that damn thing!” Gene repeats in a more harsh tone. The mother placed her hand on her children's head.

“Here, go play.” She tells them, the children hesitated before slowly slipping from the chair and scurrying over to the door, but Pib moved both their arms out and caught the two children running off. With no harm, she gently turns them around and guides them back over to the table with a hand on either of the kids shoulders.

There was silence in the room before Slicer started to speak again. 

“Our offer—“ she starts but Gene starts talking again, interrupting Slicer. 

“I’m not doing anything for you freaks..tell him I said our deal is off, I don’t give a damn if you try to kill me!” He shouts and the woman lets out a shaky sigh before she quickly grabs her children and pushes them behind her back.

Slicer gently tilts her head as she tries to think of something. But the man quickly stands up from the seat and pulls something from out of his pocket, a pistol and points it at the three, but they didn’t flinch, nor shy away from the sight, instead, Pib quickly raises a hand towards the man, which lifts him from the ground and pressed him against the wall, which ultimately made him release the gun, the woman gasps and the children did as well. 

“Papa!”

“Father!” The children cried out in unison.

The man lets out a strained noise for oxygen, the yellow glow from Pib’s hand glows dimly. 

Pib moves her other hand and one of the children moved away from the mother as if they were shoved away, they were picked up from the ground as well, they let out a shout as Pib’s fingers slowly curled in, in a motion to slowly make a fist, the child kicked their leg frantically and Slicer looks at Abel as she then hands him the contract, which he delicately takes it before slowly walking over to the man. 

“Release, please.” Abel tells Pib, in which they released the man, he was slowly set onto the ground, his back glued to the wall as Abel walked over to him so close he felt the angel's hair touch his forehead. A sense of fear waved over Gene as Abel’s stoic yet harden gaze was casted down on him, a sharp look that could cut through anything 

“My love for the human world is that but a grain of salt..” Abel’s voice was low for the two to hear, the man silently stared up at Abel in fear yet anger, has stern and empty Abel’s word felt—a clear sign of threatening—yet his facial expression remained neutral, eyes fixed dead set in the man’s.

“If not you, I will take your child.” 

The man looks over to see the child still struggling in the air—with the heart of Pib letting the child breathe. 

“You will deliver this message, and you will sign the contract…or I will kill everyone in this room. That. I can promise.” Was all Abel said, he slowly handed the contract to the man, the rolled up contract being held between his index and middle finger, the man shakily took it, beads of sweat dripping from his head as Abel backs away from him, the man walks over to the table and silently sat down, Pib places the child onto the ground who immediately ran over to the mother who was in tears. 

The man picks up a pen laying on the table before signing the contract. Slicer places the bag of money onto the table. 

“Here’s the message.” Slicer placed a small paper onto the table and takes the signed contract away from the man, the door opens up without anyone touching it and Slicer nodded her head in a bid of farewell. 

“We’re gone!” She smiled behind the mask before quickly leaving the boat, Abel followed after without another word and Pib looked over at the children at the mother. Who flinched when she looked at him. Pib raised a fist to their chest and moved her fist in a circular motion before turning around and leaving. 

Returning to the docks, Slicer walked down the wooden platform with a pep in her step, Abel and Pib walking alongside her. “This is why I do the talking..” Abel states, Slicer shrugged her shoulders and a chuckle emitted from her. “See that’s the thing about you Abel, I’m just trying to get to the point without scaring the humans—which you have the tendency to do might I remind you.”

Abel slowly stopped walking before he turned to look at the two, Slicer and Pib slowly stopped in their steps as they stood before Abel. “I vouch for you two to be responsible to not make a mess, to not scare off the people.” When Abel started to speak—Slicer’s shoulders sank and she tossed her head back as if being scolded by a mother, but Abel still continued to speak;

“They can and will take us away. And there is nothing I can do if they succeed in doing that. That is something I don’t want for us. Not now, not ever.” 

“Well—how’s about we just blame it on Pib, she went rabid tryna chase that girl around.” Slicer’s statement was meant to be a joke, Pib adjusted to turn their head to Slicer before looking back at Abel who was looking at Pib. 

Slicer slowly took off her mask and ran a hand through her hair and sighed, fiddling with the mask in the palms of her hands in anticipation. “I was just joking Pib..” Slicer’s gaze then flickered to Abel. 

“Besides, the guy needed to be roughed up anyway, glad you stepped in to talk to him, I would’ve killed the guy.” Slicer tried to rid the sudden tension away with a short joke but Abel only shook his head and Slicer rolled her eyes at his action. 

“Oh please, you bit my head off because of a minor inconvenience with the family and suddenly I’m the bad guy?” Slicer moves and walks past Abel, the Angel turns around to watch as Slicer starts to walk off down the dock and back over to the grass. 

“Says the Angel who despises humans.”

“Carley..” Abel calls out but Slicer turns and points her pointed expression to Abel. “When I get my hands on the Butcher gang, I’m personally going to strangle all three of them, and you aren’t going to be there to stop me.” Slicer turns to walk away—leaving her last statement to the two. “I’ll be back at home,” 

When she disappeared off around the corner, Abel slowly shook his head before turning his gaze to Pib. “Come, let us go back home. You need rest..” He ushered Pib before turning and walking off, Pib following after in his footsteps.

-

Y/n stared up at the tall trees, stretching and reaching towards the sky, the leaves were various colors, like pink, green, purple, red! 

They reminded her of those cherry blossom trees, but they were so much more vibrant, the leaves blew and danced in the winds in all its glory, the sun rays peeked through the cracks of the leaves, it looked like stained glass. A leaf gracefully flew down, swaying back and forth as it landed on Y/n’s forehead, she smiled before gently taking the leaf and examining it, the color changed from red to a baby blue, she whispered in awe and placed the leaf into her pocket. 

Spunk rolled around in the pile of colorful leaves, making happy grunting sounds as he stretched his small body.

“This place is called; Happy Isle.” Felix informs as he carefully picks up a leaf from the ground and examines it. “They get their pigmentation from not only the sun, but from the earth's energy.”  He placed the leaf on Panchito’s arm and it turned a bright purple. He worked up a smile before taking the leaf and examining it. 

“They take in the emotions from the earth, and change its colors depending on who it is.” Felix adds on and Y/n perks up.

“So, this is everyone’s emotions on earth right now?” She asks and Felix smiles before nodding, Y/n looks up at the trees again—millions of leaves, some changing colors and some remaining the same, some having neutral colors and some a bright color. Yet it all blended it together. 

Y/n picks up another leaf before spotting Oswald curiously looking up at the trees, she placed the leaf on his arm, which caused him to look away from the tree and to the human, the leave turned green—not that she knew what that meant, she removed the leaf and bent down and placed it on Spunk, which it immediately turned yellow. Spunk barks and Y/n smiled before pulling away. 

“Ay! Get a load of this!” Meek calls out, Y/n looks over to see Cuphead holding a leaf which was sporadically changing colors that Y/n couldn’t even name them off. 

“I guess you truly are weird.” Bendy points out as Cuphead drops the leaf. “That one must be broken or somethin.” He grumbled. 

“These trees are awesome, I never seen anything like this before.” Y/n calls out and Ruck nods before walking over and standing next to a tree. 

“And you guys are gonna climb em.”  Ruck calls out, points up at the top of the tree. 

“Up there you’ll get a glimpse of miles of nature, we can camp out here for the night before continuing on.” He says. 

“He’s kiddin’ right?” Donald squinted and Y/n was silent for a moment. It was getting dark, the sun was starting to set. 

“First thing out here is, you need to be able to climb, bears might be chasin’ you and you’ll never know.” Ruck chuckled. 

“In a world with magical creatures and clearly bears still exist out here.” Bendy grumbled before standing next to Y/n and she slowly shrugged. 

“Just hope we don’t run into one, I heard you can’t outrun bears.” 

“I love climbing trees, used to do it all the time back in Inkwell, can we camp in the trees tonight?” Cuphead asks Felix who then nods. 

“Yeah, these trees can hold a lot—make a hammock and it’ll be fine.” 

That did strike Y/n’s interest and she shuffled on her feet. “Oh I wanna hammock!” She calls out which Ruck noticed that seemed to be the kicker, he glanced at Y/n and then at the tree. 

“You climb up that tree, you get your own hammock for the night kid. I’ll even throw in some sweets for you that I packed before we left.” Ruck offered, Y/n looked over at the tree, it was tall and..intimidating to say the least. There was no way she could physically climb up that thing. 

“What if I don’t make it?” She asks. 

“Then you’ll be sleepin’ down here.” He finished it off. Y/n deadpans and inwardly groans. 

“Fine..” she grumbled and Hector nodded. 

“We’ll go find some firewood!” Meek calls out as he and Don wandered off to find the wood. 

“It’s not that hard, me and Cuphead’ll show you.” Mugman slowly eased by Y/n before grabbing her arm and walking over to the tree. 

Cuphead takes hold of a branch before lifting himself up, once doing so he looked up the second branch was too far, which he placed his hands onto the branch and lifted himself up before placing his feet onto it as well and..stood up…

He walks up to the branch—sideways on the tree and grabs onto it. 

“I can’t do that—how can you even do that?” She asks, appalled. Mugman gives her a confused expression before he opens his mouth in realization. 

“Oh! Right..haha..sorry..” he says nervously. Toon logic. Something Y/n didn’t have. 

“You guys can climb walls?” She asks. “Well—not for too long, not more than maybe..I’d say..10 seconds? Cuphead tried climbing a house one time and thought he could just walk in until he reached the top..he broke his handle that day.” 

Y/n stared at Mugman for a moment before slowly furrowing her eyebrows. 

“Which! Doesn't make us any different! We still have to climb too!” Mugman quickly stammers as he places his hands onto Y/n’s shoulders. 

“It’ll just take you more time, which isn’t a bad thing.” He gave her a big nervous smile and Y/n slowly nodded. 

“I can do it.” Y/n states before Mugman released her, she placed her hands on the branch and heaved herself up, once on the branch, she looked up at the second branch to see Cuphead looking down at her, Y/n examined the branch at first before jumping up, her hands grasping onto it and she tried to pull herself up, but failed and fell off of the branch and landed onto the ground with a loud thud. 

Panchito had wandered over and helped Y/n off of the ground. “Maybe let us try to help you.” Panchito brings up, but Ruck interferes. 

“She can do it.” He says and Panchito releases her and Y/n moves to look up at the tree, Cuphead jumps down from the branch and lands next to Y/n and Ruck motions the toons over to him, which they walked over, Bendy slowly leaving Y/n’s side as they stood in front of Ruck, Y/n was busy still scoping the tree out.

“You all are her eyes and ears, as she is human, she has to learn to be on her own to defend, but you can show her, in this world, she is nothing but a baby learning, as you guys are too, but you have a much more advantage at things than she does.” Ruck starts.

“Move her, through voice. Actions. Not touch.”  He finished. They were silent for a moment as they walked back over to the tree, Cuphead looked at Felix. 

“Are we really gonna listen to him?” He grumbled. 

“He’s helping her, Cuphead.” Felix states and Oswald looks at Y/n who was busy hanging from a tree. 

“Well he is her uncle.” He stated. 

“Great.” Bendy corrects and Oswald nods in agreement. 

“Then, we will show her. Come on!” Panchito calls out before wandering over to the tree and grabbing onto the branch to climb onto it. 

Y/n had rubbed her face—the debri from the bark broke up from her gripping and landed into her eyes. She let out a frustrated huff before moving away from her spot and turning back to the tree to see her friends climbing it. 

“Come on!” Oswald calls out to her, Y/n looked to see Bendy on the tree, a few branches above, he looks away from her before he continued climbing, Donald had shouted at Cuphead when he shook the branch he was on, some leaves falling from the branch as he did so, Felix was busy waiting for Mugman who had climbed onto the branch he was on and Panchito laughed when Bendy almost fell off the branch but continued to climb. 

“Hurry! I want to see the sunset!” Panchito’s voice echoed. Feeling a tad bit left out, Y/n stared up at the tree with her friends, Bendy stood up on the branch and looked down at Y/n, the two locking eyes, Bendy’s expression softened for a moment as he seemed to give an expression of guilt, but he only turned to continue climbing. 

Y/n hardly noticed Ruck in the background watching, she soon rolled her shoulders before taking a big deep breath, filling her lungs with air, she exhaled softly before grabbing onto the branch and heaving herself up, once on the first branch she took a step back and hopped onto the tree, hands hands gripping the bark before pushing herself off the tree and landing onto the second branch that she had trouble getting to before, Y/n lets out a huff of relief and content, she hops up to the third branch and grabs ahold of it before heaving herself up, like she had saw Felix do not that long ago, she crawled onto the branch and wobbled for a moment but she kept a iron grip onto the branch. 

Y/n stands up slowly, her heart beating frantically in her chest from adrenaline and fear of falling, she was up maybe 7 feet in the air only, she neared the tree and placed a hand on it as she stared down at the ground, Spunk’s head staring up at her as he barked and Y/n looks up at the next branch, the tree vibrated from all the moving.

“I can do this..” she said to herself before repeating the same action as before to get to the 4th branch, she reached a hand up to see a branch wasn’t there, but far in front of her. Y/n took a step back on the branch before she quickly ran off the branch and jumped to the next one, with a tad bit of air knocked from her stomach, she crawled on top of the branch and stood up she glanced back down to now see Ruck looking up, he nods his hair before sticking an arm out, giving her a thumbs up. Y/n felt her lips shiver before she smiled and she looked up to see Donald standing on a branch above her. 

“Maybe we should call you sticky fingers.” He teased—referring to how quick Y/n caught on how to properly climb the tree. 

“I can’t climb walls.” She reminds before Donald feigns sadness. “What a tragedy!” He laughs before Y/n laughs along and hops up and grabs onto the branch and pulls herself up. 

“Mija! You are up! I am proud of you!” Panchito claps his hands, keeping perfect balance on the branch, Y/n smiled as she aimed her attention to the rooster and slowly edged over towards the edge of the branch and extended her arms to the branch he was standing on.

“Yeah, I managed to make it past the se-“ the branch snapped and Y/n fell off of it, Panchito gasps and quickly reaches down to try to catch Y/n, but was too late.

Y/n had quickly grabbed ahold of the long vine that was hanging, her hands tightly grasped onto it, her legs dangling in the air and it felt like her heart jumped to her throat. 

Panchito stared down at Y/n in shock as she stared back up at him in shock as well, she looked like a baby koala holding onto the sturdy vine. Y/n glanced back down to see she was various feets from off the ground, if she fell from here—she was bound to break or lose something. 

“Y/n!” Y/n looks over to see Bendy hopped down from the branch he originally was on to check on her. 

“I’m fine!” She quickly says, her ankles wrapping around the vine she looks over to the branch that was close to her. She could make that, Y/n stared at the branch before she moved her body to rock back and forth, she felt like she was on a swing, if only she wasn’t hanging on for dear life. 

“You—“ Felix quickly placed a hand on Mugman’s mouth to silence him. “Wait.” He tells him and Mugman remained quiet as Y/n moved a foot, the tip of her foot touched the branch, she pushed herself off of it, which sent her back then back forward, where she hopped off the vine and lands onto the branch, she stumbled slightly but remained on the branch and smiled to herself, she did it. 

“Good job!” Oswald calls down from the branch above, Y/n looks up at him. 

“Oh yeah, I can finally be like that Tarzan guy.” Cuphead states as he looks for the nearest vine which Mugman furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head. 

“Cuphead don’t do that—“

“Oh! I will join as well!” Panchito hops off of the branch and grabs onto a vine with ease, Cuphead jumps as well his laugh echoing in the air as well as Panchito’s, Y/n smiled at the two before she hopped off the branch and grabbed onto the vine as well, the similar feeling from before when she had held the rope back at home was persistent, but this time she felt no fear, landing onto the next branch she jumps up and pulls herself up to the next branch, Cuphead lands on the branch as well as Panchito, the three had reached higher into the tree now looking down at, Mugman, Bendy, Oswald, Felix and Donald.

“I’m not doing that.” Donald blatantly says.

-

Once reaching the top of the three, the thick branches were almost like a bridge, walking amongst it Y/n hopped across a small gap, the serene environment brought a feeling of comfort to Y/n as she slowly stared out at the vast scenery of land and trees, the clouds were light—as if it were fog, she could see birds from afar flying, and some mountains in the background, the land reached far and wide.

The sun had been beginning to set, the gradient color of purple, orange and red mixed into the sky like cans of paint that had been dropped onto a canvas.

She turns around to see Mugman busy examining the same leaves as before in the ground. Cuphead standing beside him—and had already been looking at Y/n. 

“Look at how big this place is.” Y/n calls out. Felix turns around once helping Donald up onto the platform. 

“Yep, 1 million acres of land.” Felix answered. That was a lot—Y/n wasn’t entirely sure how much that actually would be, but from the sound of it, it sounded a lot. 

Soon, Bendy, Oswald and Panchito crawled up, Oswald landed onto the ground and pants. 

“God! That’s a climb! I don’t even want to think about what it’s like going back down.” Oswald sputtered. Panchito didn’t seem tired at all as he removed the debri of wood from his shirt and found interest in the new environment. 

Y/n walked over to the edge of the platform and sat down, she peered down to see they were feet away from the ground, the area felt like a treehouse, she looked up at the sky to stare out at the nature, the wind blew in her ears, and she shivered at the cool air that now inhabited the area. 

Looking over she spotted her friends seated next to her as they all stared off into the sun as well. 

“I can easily push you.” Bendy leans to quietly tell Cuphead, who slowly blinked. Y/n heard Bendy before shoving her elbow into his side and he grunts and holds onto his side. 

The group just enjoyed the rest of the night basked in the serene atmosphere. 

Ruck, Meek and Don finally climbed up and spotted the group sitting and watching the sunset. Ruck nods in affirmation and Meek sets down the wood and blankets onto the ground.

“Kid, come here, let me show you how to make a fire.” Ruck calls out.

-

Mugman held the book open as he stared off at the trail, closing the book he looked back at everyone who had finished climbing down the tree, which was a headache to do mind you. 

“Hey! The trail is working again.” He announced.

“It’s about time, I thought we’ll just be wandering around aimlessly.” Donald says before walking over to Mugman. Y/n places Spunk on the ground who hops up and down excitedly and Y/n fixes the straps to her book bag before walking over to Mugman. 

“There’s no telling how far it’ll take us.” She said which Ruck decided to finally speak. “Then best to get a move on then.”

It was only an hour of walking and Y/n immediately felt tired, her legs felt like they were going to give out at any moment, but she had been too captivated by the wonders of the offlands, she had spotted a frog hopping around on a tree root on the ground, it was odd, certainly not anything she has seen before, it was purple and had green eyes—almost similar to a tree frog, and had two green antennas—like a moth would have, as she walked past it she kept her eyes on it as she was too taken back by the out of this world look. 

The sound of water crashing hits her ears and the sudden gust of wind hitting her in the face, sprinkles of water hitting her forehead before she finally faced ahead to see an opening, out into an area filled with a vast amount of water, the sand sparkled under the sun, the ocean water creeping up to shore and shying away back into the sea, they were standing at the edge of a cliff—which seemed to have a way down by a man made staircase.

But the trail had gone left—away from the cool beach area, Meek had been talking about something but considering the guy was talking non stop, Y/n was too distracted with the stuff around her.

“This is gonna be a long walk..” Y/n heard Oswald mumble under his breath. Which she had to agree…yes this was going to be a long walk..cue the montage. 

-

Y/n held Spunk above her head as she hopped from one rock to the other, the rocks were in a murky pond that they all had to cross, Spunk’s tail wagged as he curiously stared down at Y/n, the sound of a splash emits in the air and she looks up to see Donald had fell into the water, in which he quickly swims up in a panic, the lily pad on top of his head as he deadpans, Y/n held in a laugh as he crawled back onto a rock—when he heard her laugh he glanced at her before his foot jerked where she was, causing the human to lose balance and fall into the water as well, Spunk lands in Donald’s arms and the pup barks up at him before reaching up to lick at his face. 

Sometime later Panchito had been curiously staring down at a squirrel—which had odd colors, it was brown of course, but it had stripes around its fur of a darker color, it curiously stared up at Panchito, Oswald stood next to Panchito and he slowly grimaced at the odd looking Squirrel. 

“Ah, so cute.” Panchito cooed before he removed himself from the ground to go catch up with everyone, the moment he had said that the squirrel quickly moved back In a defensive stance and growled at Oswald, his ears slowly lowered and he sighed. 

“Great..” 

Oswald shouts as the squirrels jump onto his face and frantically scratch at him.

Later in the day Cuphead had been walking beside Bendy, talking about..lord knows what, Bendy’s express was neutral at first until Cuphead seemed to make a joke and laugh dramatically loud and nudged Bendy, Bendy’s expression slowly soured and he slowly stopped in walking and forcefully shoved Cuphead off to the side, which the cup landed into a body of water, a pond. Bendy slowly grinned and lets out a slow chuckle, Y/n turned around as she could basically feel in her bones what Bendy did, she furrowed her eyebrows at Bendy who was glaring at Cuphead with a mix of mischief had slowly turned his head to look at Y/n and his expression softened and he soon gave her a nervous smile. 

Later on, Felix was teaching Y/n how to tie a monkey knot correctly, he held a half cut nylon rope in his hands as he carefully took Y/n through the steps on how to make the knot. When he glanced at her she had her index finger wedged between the tight knot, she flinched at let out a loud shout and quickly started to fling her hand around as if an animal latched itself onto her hand, Felix quickly moved to help her undo the knot. 

Even later in the day, Mugman was busy throwing a stick for Spunk to go catch as they walked, the pup excitedly walked backwards as Mugman walked towards him with the stick, Mugman tossed the stick and smiled and Spunk shot away to quickly retrieve the stick, the stick fell into a pond and Mugman laughs before quickly changing his expression to that of fear before he dashed off to quickly catch Spunk before he could enter the water. Lucky for Spunk he had gotten distracted by a new stick that was at the edge of the pond and his tail wagged before he bowed his head down to pick the stick up, Mugman flew over his head and fell into the pond, the splashing of the water caused Spunk to quickly look up to see Mugman clutching onto the stick with a edging smile as he slowly trudged from the water, he was soaked head to toe in water.

Spunk tilts his head in confusion and Mugman lets out a heavy sigh of relief. 

A few hours later, Y/n had grown tired, which led to Panchito carrying her on his back, the human had her head rested on top of his as she was sound as sleep, wrapped around Panchito’s back like a koala, the rooster was busy humming to a tune to himself as he carried the human. Ruck turned his head to see the human asleep and sighed before slowly shaking his head..what is he gonna do about this kid..

A few more hours passed and Y/n was jumping up to grab an apple from an apple tree she had spotted, she had grown a tad bit hungry from all the walking and wanted something to eat, she jumped up yet again and grabbed ahold of the apple and pulled it from its stem, once landing back onto the ground she glanced down at the Apple and took a bite from it with and continued walking as she caught up with the others Ruck glanced at the her and spotted her eating away at the apple before he looked ahead but soon looked back at her and furrowed his eyebrows. 

Next thing Y/n knew she was crouched beside a tree, Felix gently patting her back as she regurgitated the last thing she had eaten—which was the apple. Ruck was in the background chastising her about not just picking up anything and putting it in her mouth—very similar to a father scolding a child for putting a bug in their mouth. 

Felix had given Y/n a piggy back ride as vomiting over the place had taken some energy from her, while she was busy fast asleep on his back.

Thankfully it only took an hour for her to feel brand new and back to normal as the apple left her feeling sluggish for about 3 hours, but she was back to walking with Spunk beside Y/n.

And now, 9 hours into walking…the sun had set about an hour ago, and they decided it would be a good pit stop for a small rest. Y/n felt exhausted, from the energy she had used, it was amazing with how far she even made it. 

At the moment Ruck was quizzing her how to make a fire as she gathered the stuff for it. 

“What keeps the fire insulated?” He asks. 

“Rocks.” 

“What can you use to start a fire.” 

“Paper, pine needles or dry grass.” 

“Good job kid.”

Y/n sat down on the ground as she fixed the sticks and pine needles and soon placed the lit match into the pile—as she was making the fire, Spunk found a spot to lay down at, beside Y/n’s bag as he lets out a big yawn and laid his head down onto the ground. Panchito was busy examining a few rocks on the ground, it sparkled like a blanket of snow. 

“Ah geez, my legs feel like sticks.” Mugman whines as he sat down onto the grass, everyone was pretty much exhausted, Panchito was already wrapped up in a blanket leaning on the log drifting off to sleep after leaving the rocks alone he was interested in not too long ago, Cuphead was sitting beside his brother—the air was chili and the fire actually worked wonders besides being a source of light in the dark. Y/n grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around her shoulder before leaning her back onto the log and feeling the warm heat against her skin. She was certain tomorrow morning would be even more walking. 

Meek—oddly enough, just dropped down anywhere to fall asleep—which was a pile of leaves—from the short time she observed Meek, the guy had so much energy—he fell into a hole earlier in the day and crawled out of it like it was some sort of playground—he even taught her how to pop a bone back into its socket—by popping his index finger out of his socket. Which was cool she had to admit. Ruck really spent most of the day following the trail where it needed to be and Felix was telling everyone a few facts about their environment, like the animals—which there was a turtle with wings—some plants that could change colors all on their own..and of course..that damn dreaded apple tree. 

Speaking of which, Felix sat down next to Y/n, holding a spoon with the dark liquid inside of if. She had to take it earlier ever since that Apple made her sick. 

Y/n immediately grimaced and looked at Felix who gave her smile. “Yeah, I know, but you have to take it before bed.”

Earlier when she had to take it, she felt like she had to vomit all over again. “What’s it even for? I feel fine now.” Y/n moved her hands to cover her mouth.

“It’s a detox herb—it was made into a liquid, it’s called Wormwood, it helps stimulate the digestive system—“ he motioned towards her hand to move and Y/n hesitated before removing her hands from her mouth and opening her mouth as Felix placed the spoon in. 

“And it can also kill any unwanted parasites like tapeworms and other stuff.” 

As he spoke, Y/n swallowed the bitter taste and grimaced—it was like her body was fighting to not swallow the medication, but she soon did—forcefully. 

“You’ll feel even better in the morning.” He says before placing a hand on her head and standing up to chasite Cuphead for trying to dig a hole—for whatever reason he needed to do that. 

“So. What’s your plan with this uh..Pib guy.” Y/n heard Ruck’s voice beside her, she looked over at him to see he moved and was sitting on the log which she was leaning on. Y/n slowly looked away from in and back to the fire, her lips tightened and she furrowed her eyebrows ever so softly. 

“…” she couldn’t really find an answer for that, she didn’t want to go anywhere near Pib. 

“I don’t know.” She starts. 

One thing Y/n couldn’t wrap her head around…was the fact that she stared death..right into its eyes that night. 

“She almost killed me—like..5 times.” Y/n admits and Ruck slowly nods.

“So—if you knew Hector—wouldn’t that mean you two were like..born in the 30s?” That was the question that Y/n had been meaning to ask. With no disrespect, despite Ruck being 50 at this day and age, it didn’t entirely add up how he knew Hector—when she gathered that Hector was alive near the 30s—or maybe even the 40s. 

“When that damn witch came and got me, Don and Meek, we've been stuck as cats for the last 60 or so years.” 

Y/n let out a small laugh and Ruck slowly shook his head. “Hadn’t seen Hector since, he disappeared—but we just wrote him off as dead.”

“Was he a cool brother?”

“He annoys the hell out of me most of the time, but, what’s a sibling if they don’t do that?” Ruck chuckled at his statement as if he was reminiscing.

“He sure as hell got into a lot of trouble.” He glanced at Y/n who was staring up at Ruck, yearning for him to go on. 

“No wonder where you got it from.” He jokes and Y/n gives him a large smile.

“The day Hector got that book, he made tons of friends, like you did. He never had much growin’ up because he was always working, sooner or later he ran into that book and he was off tryna fight the world with it.” 

“Did he ever solve the problem?” Asks Y/n. And Ruck shook his head. “Nah. Like I said, vanished before he could. I'll tell ya’ the full story some time.”

Y/n grew silent as she moved to turn her gaze back to the fire. Earlier, Mugman had mentioned if Hector died trying to understand the book—what made them think they would be any different? 

And she had to admit, Y/n was starting to dwell on that statement, more than what she wanted to. 

“Alright, get some rest kid. You all gotta make it to where you need to be for tomorrow.” Ruck placed a hand on Y/n’s shoulder and stood up from the log and walked over to Don and Meek, nudging Meek with his foot to get out of the leaves, Y/n watdhed Ruck and the spark of curiosity only burned brighter, the need to know Hector and who he was. 

Y/n looked over to see Bendy was laying down with the blanket wrapped around him—his back turned to her as he was sound asleep, she stood up and wandered over to him, before plotting down in front of him—where he tiredly opened his eyes and spotted Y/n moved to lay beside him. “You didn’t tell me you were going to sleep.” She tells him and Bendy lets out a tired laugh. 

Laying down Y/n closed her eyes and soon drifted off to sleep. 

-

Y/n was sitting on a bench as she stared down at the book in her hands—she wasn’t reading anything but rather staring down at the drawn picture on the yellow pages, several pictures—one being a hand with a white outline on its palm—it seemed to resemble a spiraling circle, and the other quick sketches seemed to resemble some anatomy chart, Y/n looks away from the book and into the empty streets—a white blanket of fog was present as the street was empty—empty with no life and no motion. The dark sky presents the white stars dotted on its dark canvas, as the moon was also a beacon of light alongside the streetlights. A sensation of familiarity overtook Y/n, as if she knew where she was—it felt like the benches she would sit down at back at home when waiting for the bus or just taking a gander to look around at a park.  

Slowly closing the book, Y/n kept it on her lap as she glanced up at the stars, the street lamp above her flickered, the clicking sound of the light echoed in the air, she looked back to the ground to spot a figure standing in front of her a few feet away. It was Pib. 

Y/n quickly stood up from the bench, the book falling from her lap and onto the ground, Y/n slowly backed away as she rounded the bench and stood behind it without moving an eye from Pib. Who didn’t even move from the spot she stood in. 

Y/n hardly realized she dropped the book before her eyes quickly glanced at the ground to see it laid on the ground helplessly. Y/n’s hands gripped the bench tightly. Pib moves to slowly walk over to Y/n, in which the human quickly takes a step back from the bench, Y/n assumed Pib was moving to take the book that laid on the ground, but she stepped over it and moved her hands up to cover the holes where her eyes would be on the mask she wore, almost like she was moving to countdown during a game of hide and seek.

Y/n furrowed her eyebrows as she stared at Pib, who moved both her hands from the mask quickly to look at Y/n. ‘Peek-a-boo!’ Which caused Y/n to flinch back at the sudden motion—it was like any single muscle that moved Pib—caused Y/n to flee back even further. 

Y/n’s lips slowly yet shakily turned into a frown..Jesus that thing was odd..

Pib then did it again—as if waiting for Y/n to do it, she moved her hands to cover her eyes back up but stopped in motion when Y/n moved her hands to do the same thing, Y/n raised her hands to her eyes to cover them but stopped and stared at Pib—almost suspiciously. Pib stared at Y/n as if waiting for her to close her eyes—but Y/n didn’t budge, Pib covered her eyes first as if sensing Y/n’s anticipation and Y/n did the same exact thing. The darkness covered her eyes but she quickly uncovered her eyes in spite of fear and anxiety. Pib quickly ripped her hands away from her eyes, stopping in the same motion as the human. 

Y/n placed her hands to her side and Pib did the same. 

That caused the human to fall into a heavy silence as she stared at Pib, who stared back at her. Y/n moved her left arm over and Pib did the same exact thing, wiggling her fingers Pib replicated the same action. 

Y/n placed her left arm down and lifted her right arm up, Pib followed Y/n’s actions. 

Y/n placed her right arm down and took a step back, which caused Pib to take a step back—she replicated her moves so smoothly and without a hitch it was like Y/n was looking into a mirror. 

Staring at Pib with a perplexed, and anguished expression, Y/n then moved her hands up to her face—as if she was removing something from her face. Which in this case a tactic to maybe remove the mask from Pib’s face, Pib hands followed Y/n’s movement, the tips of her fingers grabbing onto the mask, as Y/n lifted up but Pib remained still, which caused Y/n to remove her hands from her face as Pib seemed frozen into place before her arms slowly lowered back to her side—it reminded Y/n of a machine losing power and going back to its default pose—which caused a small wave of panic to bubble in Y/n’s stomach. A boiling pot of anxiety and fear as Pib’s intimidating stature towered over hers, she was so close yet so far away. 

Pib’s shoes grazed the ground as she slowly sauntered closer to Y/n, and it wasn’t until then did Y/n take notice of how intimidating Pib was—sure it was already noticeable with her earlier interactions with the person—but she hardly took notice of the details on Pib, considering Y/n was busy running for her life. Something she thought Pib was after. Pib didn’t seem interested in the book, yet Pib wanted to..kill her.

Y/n’s eyes gazed upon Pib, who stopped in front of her. Pib had to be a foot or two taller than Y/n—She couldn’t tell how tall but the height difference was noticeable, reaching around Pib’s shoulder just under their chin. Y/n looked at the dark polo neck sweater—woven with black wool, the off-white mask with little to no detail—the boots. 

“What do you want from me.” Y/n’s statement came out more harsh than what she meant it to be, but she feared Pib and couldn’t control her nerves, Pib gently leaned back as if Y/n’s statement had hurt them in some way, which Y/n almost fell for, despite Pib not speaking their motions seemed genuine. 

“What do you want..” Y/n repeat—finding the courage in her. Pib stared at Y/n before quickly placing a hand on her chest and stumbled, her body convulsing ever so slightly as if she couldn’t breathe, replicating like they were having a heart attack, Y/n flinched at jumped back at that action, like a frightened cat, her back hit the street lamp and a muffled strained sound came from behind the mask, Pib’s legs slowly giving out on her, the strained gagging noise was enough to send Y/n fleeing away but she didn’t know where to go, the sudden feeling of familiarity has fled away long ago when Pib appeared, her surroundings was no more than an area she had no clue of its origin nor did she care to find out, it was also a reminder that running away from Pib would do you no good, her mind could remember no matter how far and fast she ran—Pib was right there��tackling her back down—not tired at all.

The nipping harsh feeling of frozen cold air wisps past Y/n, causing her to hug herself, as if shielding herself away from the cold and harmful things the world threw her way, her hair blowing in the now harsh wind, Y/n’s eyes glossed up as the bubbles of clear tears slowly fell from her eyes as Pib straightened her posture and looked at Y/n—stopping the dramatic act she started and in the blink of an eye, Pib launched towards Y/n’s neck, their hands grabbing ahold and squeezing tightly, it felt real, the cold iron grip on her neck was strong, Y/n grabbed Pib’s wrist and tugged and pulled and pinched but that didn’t stun nor bother Pib, Y/n struggled, she really did. The lack of oxygen got to her—and the air grew colder and colder, her vision becoming blurry and darker as Pib moved back, walking Y/n back to the lamp post and pressing her back against it firmly.

Y/n’s strained voice was muffled in her ears—but Pib could hear. It was like no matter how hard Y/n moved and tried to push herself from the lamp to push Pib away, Pib was too—far too strong to move away. Y/n’s hand at first went to grab ahold of Pib’s sweater, her fingers clutching the fabric of the sweater but no energy was enough to do much of anything. 

Y/n couldn’t see Pib’s face, but not only did she feel fear, but she felt a strong sense of disdain, loath, the way Pib had positioned to push Y/n down as she held a grip on the humans neck with such strength, shoulders tensed up to where Pib’s ears would be, and the sound of unnatural bellowing from behind the mask stunned Y/n as she pathetically let out a fearful and weak whisper. 

“Please..” Y/n whispered, her tears landing on Pib’s hands, her wet face felt cold in the crisp cold air that felt like it was ready to just freeze her to death. 

Y/n’s hands slowly moved away from Pib’s face, the humans eyes slowly closing—her world becoming blurry, Pib’s hands grew shaky around Y/n’s neck before they quickly let go as if the human had burnt their hands—as if an animal had tried to bite their hand off, Y/n fell to the ground as Pib stood above her.

Y/n’s eyes slowly closed.

-

Y/n’s chest jolted as she flinched and quickly opened her eyes, inhaling a shaky breath—gulping in air like a fish out of water. Y/n’s hands dig into the ground by her sides—but she was met with something cold, she quickly sat up and looked down to see a thin blanket of snow. 

Though Y/n was sweating, the cool air made her shiver, placing a hand to her chest to feel her mad thumping heart and then to her neck—she could still feel the phantom touch of Pib’s hands. Y/n didn’t care to worry about the random change in weather. She died..or she felt like she did. The dream felt all too real, she was certain—she thought it was reality, the thin slimmer of glee was there, she was alive..Pib didn’t kill her. But that overtaking sense of worry and inner turmoil spoke to her…it felt like death..and most importantly. Pib can kill you. A being with great power and strength. And here Y/n was—with a book and hope.

Y/n placed a hand on her lap, her heart hadn’t stopped beating and she hardly noticed as she stared at the rock ahead of her—focused on it as Y/n weakly tried to remove the blanket from her legs. 

“Y/n?”

Y/n felt a hand on her shoulder—she quickly flinched away at the sudden gesture and looked to her side to see Panchito who quickly removed a hand from her and gave her a nervous smile. 

“Ah, sorry, I did not mean to frighten you.” He quickly apologized. Seeing Panchito brought her at ease, blinking, she let out a small sigh of relief from what it seemed and Panchito observed her for a moment as she stared at him. 

“Oh…what is wrong? Are you sick again? Are you hungry?” He names off various things—it was clear he could tell something was wrong with the human. But he couldn’t tell what it was. Y/n slowly stood up from the ground, the blanket falling from her before she took Panchito’s arms.

“I had the worst dream ever..that—the—the—Pib was there and then she tried to kill me, and it felt real—I thought it was real—because I felt like I was dying—I was dying and..” Y/n placed a hand on her head and took a breath and exhaled as Panchito slowly nodded his head at her explanation.

Y/n’s lip wobbled and she felt her throat tightened as she let out a sigh. “I’m..scared.” She confessed. She didn’t know what was wrong—up until she said it. She was scared. 

Y/n looks away from Panchito and to a tree where her brain slowed down to take a step back and think..to take in the overall picture of…everything. 

Y/n opened her mouth to speak, her arms hugged and tightened its grip around Panchito’s arm when he turned to see whatever she was looking at—which was just the tree. 

“I..am..afraid…that…” she thought for a moment, but her brain couldn’t piece it together. “I’m afraid of Pib..”

“It..is okay to feel fear.” Y/n looks at Panchito when he starts to speak. 

“My padre used to tell me, without fear, there is no courage, fear is..in a sense..what drives us to either..run from it..or face it, do not be ashamed because you are afraid of something.” Panchito places a hand on Y/n’s head. 

“I can understand—a minor set back when you start to think—this is..how do you say..odd?” He questioned his definition and Y/n slowly nodded as he continued. 

“Odd that—something so delightful—like traveling across the seas to see such a wonderful world that no one has really discovered—“ he motions towards everyone laying in the snow infested ground sound asleep. 

“To meeting new friends along the way.” He looks back at Y/n. 

“But when you look on that other side of the wall—every story has scary moments—which is the real problem, running from people who are out to get you, and though it may sound scary, it is something you can either face or shy away from until death comes to you. But I know you won’t let that happen—we certainly will not let it happen.” 

Y/n slowly nods—a weight being lifted from her shoulders—from the reassurance and comfort that Panchito had brought her.

“It will probably take you more than one talk—but I am certain you will understand.” Panchito placed a finger on the tip of Y/n’s nose and she gave him a smile. Though his words brought her comfort and a tad bit of courage, the lingering thought in her head had been a constant ring—like a bell. 

The sound of sneezing reached their ears and the two looked over to see Oswald had sat up and frantically rubbed his nose. 

“Jeez..what..the hell is going on.” Oswald grumbled as he sat up from the ground, Y/n finally looked up to see the trees were covered in snow—how the hell didn’t they come down with hypothermia was beyond Y/n but she was actually glad that didn’t happen. 

A pile of snow near the log moved and Spunk’s head popped out from under the blanket of snow. The pups tired expression was seen at first before he shook his head and stood up, the rest of the snow flying off of him—which landed on Felix in the process, which caused him to wake up and furrowed his eyebrows, his eyes landed on the snow infested area.

And from the look of it, Felix was just as confused as them. 

“Well, Atleast we get a break from the heat.” Panchito tells Y/n who then nods. Yeah, for several hours it was unbearably hot, mostly because of the constant walking and—the apple incident. 

“Is this normal?” Y/n asks Felix when he had stood up to tiredly dust the snow from his clothing, his ears flickered over to Y/n when he heard her. 

“Not entirely.” He answered before looking at Y/n. 

“I’m surprised the cold didn’t wake us up—it probably happened a few minutes before sunrise.” He brings up—which did have Y/n think that was a lot of snow just for it to still be morning if the sun just risen—then again—Y/n couldn’t actually tell what time it was—in fact she hadn’t touched her phone since they left town—even then she was certain there was a different time zone than what it is back at home. Y/n moved her gaze over to the snow and gazed at it as she heard the others speak in the background and she was certain the others were starting to wake up as well.

Y/n felt something nudge her leg—and when she glanced down she spotted Spunk, who had pressed his nose against Y/n’s leg before looking up at her, Y/n smiled before squatting down and gently patting Spunk’s—oddly warm head—did he have a heater or something? Y/n picked up the pup and held him to her chest, in which he laid his head in the crook of her neck, the warmth hitting against her cool skin as she gently let Spunk’s back who had closed his eyes. 

-

Treading through the snow was actually quite fun, despite not having the clothing needed for it—the temperature was oddly soothing—it wasn’t an unnatural skin eating cold, it was..well clearly still cold—but not to the point where the human felt like she needed a coat. 

Spunk was hopping up and down as he dived into the snow headfirst each time—something to distract him with. Cuphead—as always—was trying to make a snow fight with Mugman—which he didn’t want to play as he was still busy reading the book—Mugman was really a bookworm, if he wasn’t reading he was silently walking alongside with Cuphead, he didn’t seem to be like the one up for conversation as much as his brother was, Cuphead would just wander up to just about anyone to speak to them. He seemed to also have a knack for bothering Bendy—and she was certain Bendy would toss Cuphead off a nearest cliff if he could find one. 

Ruck as always was a few ways ahead walking down the path that trail led—which thankfully came back. Y/n was walking beside Oswald and Donald—which Donald seemed to be half asleep as he walked. Y/n silently gazed down at Donald’s webbed feet—he was actually one of the only toons that didn’t wear shoes—not that it was a bad thing or anything. Meek seemed to take his shoes off a few minutes ago for whatever reason—the guy was weird but cool. 

“Your feet aren't cold?” Y/n asks and Donald slowly opens his eyes and looks at the human before shaking his head—already knowing she was referring to his feet. “No.”

“He throws a tantrum when he wears shoes.” Oswald pipes up and Y/n lets out an airy laugh and Donald shrugs—which he didn’t deny Oswald’s statement. 

“This cold is making me sleepy.” Donald drawled before glancing at Panchito who was busy balling something up in his hands—which was a pile of snow. 

“Oh I have the perfect remedy for that.” Panchito quickly says and Donald quickly perked up. “Don’t—nevermind I’m up!” 

When Panchito raised his hand to toss the snowball at Donald—he stopped in motion when a voice in the air echoed. 

“Help!” 

Everyone slowly stopped walking when they heard the voice some distance away. Spunk ears perked up as he titled his head from side to side in an attempt to try to pinpoint where the echoing voice was coming from. 

“Help me! Is anyone there!” The voice echoed now that everyone was still and the snow crunching under their feet was at a halt. 

“Well I be damned.” Ruck grumbled and Mugman looked at him. “Who is it?” He asks. 

“Hell if I know.” Ruck glanced up at the trees as if the suspecting person would be there. 

“It’s comin’ from over there.” Bendy motions his hand to the right where the path split off. 

“How can you tell?” Don asks and Bendy was silent for a moment. “Good hearin, it’s healthy for you.” 

“Well we can’t just leave them asking for help, we hafta’ help them!” Mugman worried, he slowly closed the book in his palms and glanced at everyone. 

“Well..it wouldn’t hurt to at least drop by.” Oswald agrees and Y/n did as well, they couldn’t just leave anyone shouting for help—she just hoped it was someone needing help opening their mayo jar or something of the matter. 

“Well. Let’s go.” Felix walks down the path that Bendy motioned down before and everyone followed—Ruck smacked the back of Meek’s head when he spotted the man trying to tear an ice sickle off a tree branch to lick it. 

-

“Help…” the voice croaks in the cool air. Stuck by the thread of the collar of their dress—was a young woman—hanging helpless on the branch, it creaked under her weight as she just hung there helplessly. Cold to the bone—she shivered as she frowned and slowly closed her eyes—losing hope from what it seemed. She shakily brought her hands up to her arms to try to block away the cold that seemed to be aggravating her bare arms, oh she just wanted to go home! This was such a stupid idea. 

Her gaze quickly looked up to the bush ahead of her that was shaking, slowly lifting her feet up to hall herself up—she heard voices echoing out into the air.

“And the next time you take something from a tree Y/n—I swear I’ll have you down to the ground giving me 40.” A gruff voice scolds out. 

“Whatever you say..” 

“Watch the tail!” Shouts another voice and soon a hushed apology coming from someone else. It sounded like a decently sized group. Soon—someone fell out of the bush and onto the ground. The girl flinched and her eyes widened when she spotted a toon then seemed to resemble an imp. He grimaced and soon pushed himself off of the ground—but his tail got stuck on a logs nubbed branch—causing a short hiss and scoff like noise to quickly shoot from his mouth, he turns around and placed a hand on his lower back and soon quickly cradled the tip of his tail. 

His hard gaze soon moved up to the tree and spotted the girl hanging there.

“Thank goodness!” The girl shouts in glee and Bendy looks at her in confusion as to why she was just hanging there by her dress—in a tree…in the middle of the woods…almost around 30 degrees—but hey—this isn't the only weird thing he’s seen all week. 

“Uh..sure.” Bendy’s statement came off more as awkward than anything. He noticed the girl stopped talking and stared at Bendy with wide sparkling eyes of—admiration, joy, awe? Bendy was certain he could quite literally see stars sparkling in those eyes of hers.

A flush cherry red complexion rises to the bridge of the stranger's nose as she clutches her hands together. 

Bendy ignored it and walked over to the tree before climbing onto it—once reaching the branch he leaned over and grabbed the collar of the girls shirt before sliding her off the branch—holding her like a bag of some sort and with his free hand still clutching into the bark of the tree, he slowly slide down the trunk and lands onto the ground before placing the girl down. 

The girl quickly turns around and looks at Bendy—who was talking—but whatever he was telling her was going through one ear and out the other, yes! This was just what she was waiting for! This very moment! Her moment! 

“Lucy!” She shouts which causes Bendy to immediately stop walking and move his eyes to Lucy who seemed just about ready to fall to the ground, Bendy slowly nods his head. “Lucy..alright. Well, nice ta’ know. Well, I’ll be on my way.” 

“Who’s the chick?” Lucy turns around to see Cuphead. Who raised an eyebrow at the girl who was smiling ear to ear. 

“The gal who was cryin’ help, we can head back to the trail now.” Bendy walks past the two but Lucy quickly latched onto his arm—causing him to stumble and stop in his tracks—quickly looking at Lucy to see she was hugging his arm harshly—her eyes closed in content and Cuphead slowly blinks as he silently stared at the two before doubling over with a windy wheeze and letting out a howl before laughing. Bendy’s confused expression soon soured before he softly shoved Lucy off of his arm and brushed his arm as if it were contaminated by some creature with a thousand diseases. 

“Alright, hands to yourself hotshot, I ain’t some playboy.” Bendy grumbled and Lucy only smiled at him with that lovesick expression, Cuphead laughing grew stronger and soon Lucy latched herself back onto Bendy’s arm. 

“It was just like my father told me! The man of my dreams would come to me! Saving me!” She cried out and Bendy stared down at her and sneered before a voice quickly caught his attention. 

“What..?” He looks over to see Y/n standing beside Cuphead, everyone now finally standing behind her as they just were as confused as her. Y/n’s eyes sliding over to Lucy who noticed the ground and she smiled and gave them a small wave—clearly not letting go of Bendy any time soon. Bendy couldn’t entirely read what expression Y/n made, she seemed confused just as he was. 

“Look—she just started thinkin’ I’m some knight and shiny armor. I saved her from the tree.” He quickly explained and Cuphead laughed soon ceased as he placed hand on his head to calm himself down. 

“Geez, that’s a sight to see right there!”  He adds. 

“Look, let’s just hurry and make tracks so I can get away from this bimbo.” Bendy shook his arm and Lucy surprisingly let go—but not because he moved his arm—but because of his statement towards her as he walked past Cuphead and Y/n—the two looked away from Bendy and to Lucy when they heard sniffing coming from her. 

Her eyes were glazed over as she placed a hand on her heart, her bottom lip wobbled as a tear slowly left her eye. “But…you don’t…you don’t mean that..” she whispered and Bendy turned to look at her with a careless expression, his eyes flickered up and down and form. 

“I’m sorry—I—really I am!” 

Y/n felt like Lucy would be one of those people that would use tears to fake something they truly wanted—but, she truly seemed upset, like something was ripped right from her. Her eyes held a genuine expression of hurt and disdain. 

“My father..I was supposed to get an arranged marriage with another man—but..I didn’t want that—“

“Geez…she’s gonna tell her sob story.” Y/n felt Cuphead mutter to her—which she couldn’t lie it was funny, a muffled laugh erupts from Y/n’s throat, Ruck stepped up and flicked the both of their necks—Y/n flinched and quickly stopped laughing as Cuphead stops laughing and grumbled before rubbing the back of his neck. 

“I was told if I could..bring someone home—I wouldn’t have to marry him.” Lucy held her hands together. 

“You all seem like very fine people! I bet Welkin would be a very nice place for you all to visit! You must be travelers!” Her voice edged as if her words weren’t reaching them. Felix’s eats quickly perked up at the mention of the town. 

“Welkin?” He repeats and Lucy looks at him before nodding. 

“Yes! Welkin—just a few hundred yards from here.” 

Felix’s sharp eyes quickly glanced over to Bendy—who seemed ready to scurry away like some animal. 

“Just—a moment. I need to speak with..my friends.” Felix tells Lucy who slowly nods as she takes a small step back. 

“And I thought this idiot had no brains.” Don nudged Meek who shrugged with a short laugh. 

“I agree, she seems..” Donald quickly glanced at Lucy—who was looking away—giving them privacy as they asked. She was still hugging herself from the cold—despite Y/n and the others not wearing the right clothing for the weather—their traveling clothes was still enough to at least block out the cold to some degree. 

“Welkin is home to a man named Modi, he used to travel himself.” Felix brings up. And Oswald gives him a questioning expression. 

“What does that have to do with us?” He asks. 

“He might know something about Ruby Falls.”

Ruck seems to nod slowly at Felix’s statement. “There could be the possibility—it’ll probably help you all in the long run.”

“We could always ask her.” Mugman glanced at Lucy—clearly referring to her, and Felix’s eyes slowly moved to Bendy, who looked at him and furrowed his eyebrows. 

“Not happenin.”

“Oh come on, she seems to have an eye out for you. Besides, we have to find some shelter. If we walk in this weather any longer, we’ll be freezing corpses in the next 9 hours.” Felix really did have a way with persuading people. But with Bendy—it was hard to read his expression, but Y/n could tell he wasn’t buying it. 

“Then we can just go to Welkin on our own accord.” Bendy brings to the table, yeah he wasn’t budging but Felix seemed to have just the response for that, almost like he knew Bendy’s response.

“But we can’t, it’s a closed off kingdom—we go there, they’ll have us executed right in the heart of the town.” Felix placed a claw on Bendy’s chest and tapped it as it referred to the heart of the town. Felix’s voice was low and persuasive like a teacher speaking to a student to stop talking in class so they could pass. 

Which would have been funny if Y/n wasn’t worried about the execution part. 

“You and her are the ticket there. And the ticket to speak to the king.”

Bendy was silent for a moment as he slowly inhaled and sighed. “…” 

“Or.” Felix straightened his posture and looked off yonder where the unknown was. “We could continue walking around in the cold and possibly not find much of anything—when was the last time the book gave us a trail to follow?” 

“6 hours ago, we’ve been wandering around.” Donald answered—of course he would know exactly when the book was off and on as he was mainly the one complaining about it.  

“All you gotta do is follow along with the girl and we can find out about Ruby Falls, you do the easy work, we’ll do the hard work.” Was Felix’s last statement and Bendy deadpans before sighing slowly, in his head he truly had the hard work to deal with Lucy as the others would spend time gathering some intel, but Felix made some good points..

“Fine…” he spoke through his teeth. 

-

Having Lucy lead them to Welkin was…a sight. She was latched onto Bendy’s arm with pure excitement and joy! 

“Oh! You’ll love my father, I’m sure he’ll love you too! This’ll be the finest wedding of the century!” She exclaims in joy—this must have been something big for her—almost like she was speaking as if she were royalty….wait. 

“So. She’s a Princess?” Y/n asks Felix who was busy holding Spunk who—shockingly grew tired of trudging through the snow, and Felix nods at her question. “Yes, which..means I hope Bendy won’t lose his temper, if anything happens to her I can’t guarantee we’ll even make it out with our skin to our body. Modi from what I’ve heard is a very respectful man, but when it comes to his people it’s something you shouldn’t really mess with, like messing with a lion's litter.” 

That wouldn’t have made Y/n think twice if it weren’t Bendy. Bendy wasn’t..entirely intact with everyone’s emotions but his, that didn’t mean he was some soulless dimwit walking around—he was still wary of others—but he could only stretch the ‘caring’ for so long. 

And from what it seemed—he was on the verge of just ripping Lucy off of his arm and scurrying away. 

Bendy held his eyes closed and his eyebrows pushed together as Lucy continued on talking and when she looked at him to ask a question he slowly opened his eyes and nodded at whatever she asked him. 

“I’d give him about an hour before he loses it.” Oswald bets and Donald seemed to throw in some money as well. 

“I dunno, I think he can make a day at the least.” Donald jokes and the two snickered at that, Cuphead soon slid over as if he knew exactly what they were talking about. 

“Takin’ bets? I bet 100 he’ll drop her by the end of the night, I’ll even throw in my straw.” Cuphead tosses in and Mugman furrowed his eyebrows from the background and shook his head. 

“Guys, c’mon, Atleast have some faith.” He scolds in a disgusted tone. And Oswald slowly shrugs. 

“I mean I guess, Bendy already seems like he’s fetching out.” Oswald looks back ahead to where the two had been walking. Looking ahead, Bendy seemed to be slowly pulling his arm away from Lucy’s grip. But that girl had an iron grip. 

“Aww, how sweet.” Panchito cooes at the two.

“This is gonna be a long walk..” Donald points out and..Y/n actually agreed with him. 

-

Lucy was just a fit of energy from it seemed, pointing out some snow covered flowers she said was her favorite, to even moving along to get to know everyone better. Y/n couldn’t lie, Lucy was a pretty decent person—aside from the love sick affectionate crush she had on Bendy. Ruck noticed how Y/n didn’t entirely seemed too interested in Lucy—from everyone else he’s seen her interact with, she was At Least present for the conversation, but everytime Lucy bounded her way to speak—which was only twice considering Lucy wouldn’t move away from Bendy’s side—but everytime she went over to Y/n to speak, Y/n didn’t seem to active in the conversation, aside from nodding her head at Lucy’s statement. 

Which caused Ruck to chuckle at nature. 

But they had exited the cold environment and entered the now warm area, the trail leading off to an open area where a wooden bridge sat and on the other side stood a town—in the background a large castle sat—it was a village. 

“We’re home.” Lucy calls out. Two guards—who were geared to the teeth with silver armor stools on either side of the bridge's poles, once they spotted Lucy, she greeted them with a movement of her hand and they nodded their heads in unison before moving aside to let them onto the bridge. 

Walking onto the bridge. Y/n looked over it to see a large river running far and wide—she spotted deers standing at the bottom of it, drinking from the river before scurrying off. Looking up at the clear blue skies. The birds spreading their wings and flying amongst the wonders of the world, Y/n was far too invested in nature, her eyes picking up the sound of the village a few feet away, the sound of the rushing water from below and the sound of birds chirping and singing their mid-day songs. She felt hands on her back, gently guiding her forward into the town, she looked over her shoulder to see Lucy had scurried behind her to guide her when the human had gotten distracted with their surroundings. 

“Wonderful, my father is going to be ecstatic to see you all!” Lucy smiled as she made her way over to Bendy who moved his arm out to her to hold onto, which she did as the two continued down the path down the village. 

Y/n took the time to take in Lucy’s detail—blonde curly hair that seemed to reach her shoulders—a pale complexion with freckles dotting along her nose and cheekbones, the dress she wore reached near her ankles—it was white and had a small pendant near her chest. 

“I believe you all will take interest in my father as he used to travel when he was younger, I’m certain he has tons of stories to tell you all!” Lucy tells them, the civilians smiled at the face of Lucy as they waved at her in glee.

“Morning Princess Lucille!” Shouts a bread maker and Lucy bows her head in a respectful greeting before she glances at Bendy. 

“These will be your people.” She tells him softly. Some children standing on the roof of a building hopped from the gap to the others as they tried to get a glance at the newcomers in town. 

Bendy only glanced at everyone before looking ahead—he didn’t seem too fond of that idea and Lucy noticed before patting his chest gently. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing too scary.” 

Spunk had moved to walk under Y/n’s legs once he noticed all of the civilians directing their gaze upon the group, Spunk looked left and right as if he were guarding Y/n—as best as he could atleast, not entirely intimidating, but still cute to see. 

Walking upon another bridge that entered the castle towards the end of town, they were met with two guards standing on either side of a wooden door.

“Alas! I have found him!” Lucy placed a hand on Bendy’s back and the guards turned their gaze to him—he didn’t entirely seem like Royal—at all. With the brown pants and button up with the vest—it was clear he was a traveler rather than anything else. 

“A traveler?” One guard asks and Lucy nods. 

“These are warriors.” Lucy mentioned as she motions to everyone else behind her. Y/n quickly glanced at Oswald who was standing beside her—who also seemed just as confused. But the two didn’t say anything. 

“Just like my father.” Lucy adds and the guards stepped aside the two of them pushing either side of the doors open and Lucy danced on her feet quickly and squealed before she quickly led everyone into the castle. A wide room—with columns as a red carpet the ground was marble. And the walls was a pale white color—royal banners hung on the walls in between then were lanterns that had a soft yellow glow, on the the red banners was a emblem of what it seemed to be to silhouettes standing side by side—it was odd considering most royal banners Y/n seen consisted of some animal—like lions or even mythical creatures. Or some other sort of symbol. 

Ahead of them was a small platform with two thrones, standing in front of it speaking to someone—was a stout man—a white beard and slick hair, despite him being the king he didn’t wear a crown as Y/n so assumed every leader would—then again, she only knew fairy tail kings. He wore a tight red vest with a white undershirt, a light red silky sash across his chest, a livery collar around his neck with different gems m, he had different medals along the sash, as if counting the many achievements he had made. 

Lucy bowed ever so slightly and smiled up at her father. “Father. I return home.” She says. The man stops talking to whoever he was and looks at his daughter—his frustrated expression turns to that of relief and joy. 

“Luicille!” He exclaims as he walks down the three steps that led up to the throne. He stands in front of Lucy who had removed herself from Bendy, the man placed his hands on Lucy’s shoulders and scolds. 

“Now, you know not to just wander off! You left at the altar.” 

“But I found someone else!” Lucy looks over at Bendy, who took a small step back and slowly lifts a hand up to gently wave at the king. 

“They are all wanderers, like you used to be!” Lucy was filled with excitement to banter off about her findings. Presenting them as if they were some prized possession of some kind. 

“He saved me. They all did. I was being chased by a pack of wolves and climbed up a tree and got stuck there for the last 4 hours, until they found me!” Her voice edged as if she were whining to her father, knowing the actual reason why Lucy was up stuck in the tree was actually funny to hear. 

“Please.” Lucy peers up at her father with big eyes, the man looked over to Bendy, who perked up slightly and his tail slowly moved between his legs. 

“What’s your name?” He asks.

Bendy lets out a strained low laugh. “Uh..Bendy.” 

The man was silent—he didn’t seem too interested in Bendy at all. Panchito cleared his throat rather dramatically from the background—a hint for Bendy to do something. Bendy glanced at Lucy before he gently took her arm. 

“I wandered upon your daughter, me and my friends were traveling because we’re looking for an island—called Ruby Falls, that was until I met Lucy.” Bendy’s small act did cause a small laugh to escape Y/n’s mouth.

“She just caught my heart in a matter of seconds.” He let out a dreamy sigh and smiled at Lucy, in which she returned the same expression before Bendy looked at the man. 

“If it’s okay with you, I would like to take her hand in marriage.” He ended, the man’s eyes traveled upon the group of travelers and he smiled. 

“This is wonderful! A group of young people who are productive!” The man chuckled in a proud tone as he clasped his hand on Bendy’s shoulders.

“My son, I used to be a traveler myself. Exploring the world far and wide.” Of course he seemed like a dad telling his tale of woe and what he used to do when he was in his prime. 

“And you all are just what we needed, travelers!” 

“I’m sorry, uh—why us?” Mugman asks—Y/n was questioning the same thing—they weren’t some couriers—they were only here to figure out what Ruby Falls was—which it was evident that the king traveled when he was younger. Clearly. 

“You see, this kingdom is the last empire there is here, which means—“ the king pulls away from Bendy and moves to motion towards the wall—which had renaissance painting—storytelling of what seemed to be war—two opposite sides fighting. 

“Many other threats of this land come to take down what is ours. You all are travelers, surely you know what out there holds.” 

What?

Y/n’s expression soon stirred into one of confusion. 

“Call me Modi. And this is your home.” The man then looks between Bendy and Lucy. “We’ll start making arrangements. Follow me!” Modi turns to walk down a hall that was on the side of the room—it seemed there were multiple halls from what it seemed. Following after, Y/n looks at Felix. 

“So. What does being a traveler mean to them?” She asks and Felix slowly lifts his shoulders up as if debating his explanation. “I’m not too sure on that part. I don’t particularly dwell on stepping foot on any empire’s. That’s someone’s domain that can get you into some trouble.” 

“Well.” Donald starts and the two look at him. “My Uncle Scrooge told me outsiders particularly look at travelers as some warrior—because who else would know the land better than anyone else?” 

Y/n had to think on that for a moment. That—made sense. Travelers know the ups and downs of what the land has to offer—and as biased as it was..King Modi was a traveler himself. 

Walking into a hallway—the windows were big—letting in the nice sunlight in the long hall, a blue carpet under their feet leading them down.

“I myself am honored to have a traveler take my daughter's hand in marriage.” Modi was speaking about something, but Y/n wasn’t paying too much attention to it—her attention was quickly snatched away by the portrait on the wall sitting next to a closed wooden door. It was Hector. 

She slowly stopped in her walk to gaze at the picture, he had a sash across his chest with several medals along it. Wearing a dark blue vest with golden linings—she could see the details on him other than looking at a black and white photo that Puck had given her. 

He had dark silky hair and toned skin—much similar to Ruck. A thin mustache above his lip and a boyish smile—happy to be posing for the photo from what it seemed. Ruck noticed the photo too and stood next to Y/n as he glanced at her staring up at the photo in awe. She glanced at him and then back at the picture. 

“Is that Hector?” She asks him—she knew it had to be—but she just wanted to make sure and Ruck slowly nods. 

“Huh..looks like it is..” Ruck seemed to be curious as to what the photo was doing there—maybe Modi had it because Hector was an adventurer just like himself and wanted to have it on the wall like some idol. Modi noticed the two stopped and turned to look at them gazing upon the photo in which he smiled joyfully. 

“Yes! That is Hector Vendolez L/n. One of the bravest voyagers I know.” Modi smiled as he clasped his hands together. “My grandfather knew him—and I met him when I was just a boy. He was a frequent here in town and I made him his own hall out of gratitude for the help he’s brought to our land.” 

No wonder why Modi saw travelers as something like gods. “Well what do you know.” Donald edges as his eyes flickered over to Y/n—rocking back and forth on the balls of his heels. 

“Well..” Felix starts and he walks over to Y/n and places his hands on her shoulders. “She’s his great granddaughter. In fact..we..would like to know if you could help us.” 

Modi’s eyes flickered over to Y/n, who stood in front of Felix, Modi’s eyebrows slowly raised to the top of his head in shock.

“Well…I be..this is wonderful!” He lets out a joyful laugh before fully turning to Y/n. “Following in your old man’s foot steps I see.” 

“In a way. We actually..” As Y/n spoke she took off her bookbag and unzipped it to reach inside and pulled out the book—in which Modi gave an even more surprised look. 

“We were sent away from home to look for pieces of the heart to get to Ruby Falls and we just need 2 more pieces.” Y/n explained, Modi perks up at that statement—but he mostly seemed astonished that Y/n was holding the book in her hands. 

“We’re still looking for those pieces but—we were curious if maybe you’d know something about it?” When Y/n finished her question Modi seemed ecstatic to reply. 

“I have never been to Ruby Falls before, it’s a very dangerous island, it’s called the Forest of Sorrows.” Modi let out a soft sigh of reminiscent.

“No one ever truly enters Ruby Falls, because it’s a very dangerous island, plenty of travelers go there—but they meet an unfortunate death. That is how Hector had passed.” 

So..he really did die. Well, Y/n didn’t know what to expect, it’s been hinted at for the last several days—but she suspected something different. 

“He had that book once, and I believe it’s in very great hands. I myself am very honored to have you all here, from the new prince..” Modi looks at Bendy and then looks over to Y/n. 

“To the descendent of a magnificent warrior.”

-

Modi had left with Lucy and Bendy to make some arrangements—and leaving off to the castle was actually a pretty good idea, the guards and mistresses and butlers of the castle treated them more than just guests. A maid had led them to a hall with a few doors—it were rooms and all Y/n could think of was sleep—as nice as the outside was and all it had to show—Y/n actually wanted to sleep in a bed more than anything. 

“And this is the residence hall—there’s plenty of rooms to pick from.” The maid daintily motioned towards either side of the hall—Y/n had a sense of deja vu from this similar view when they were back at the church in town with the nuns—man she missed them already. 

“You heard that kid.” Ruck’s voice entered Y/n’s ears and she looked away from the door she was about to open and over to the man. 

“Hear what?” She repeats. 

“You’re Hector’s blood. Word is out now, which means you’ll have people on your back.” He tells and Y/n snorts—almost as if she was brushing her shoulders. 

“I mean I guess—word won’t get around that fast, we’re only here until we can find the next stone, who’s gonna know that qu-“ 

“Excuse me.” A voice cuts Y/n off and she looks behind her to see the maid and another worker of the castle standing beside her—he must have been the butler of some sort, standing next to the maid with his arms behind his back—almost rather nervously. 

“We just wanted to maybe get this signed by you..” the maid removed her hand from her back to reveal a paper and a fountain pen. Y/n stared at the paper and then slowly turned to look at Ruck who only gave her an expression as of saying ‘I told you so’ 

Y/n turns back to the two as she takes the pen and then the paper before placing the paper on the door where she signs it—not entirely used to giving ‘autographs’ she signed it like how she would usually sign a signature on a paper, it was better than nothing. She hands the paper back to the maid who then takes it and smiles at Y/n almost enthusiastically. 

“Thank you!” 

The two left with the paper clutched in the maids hand and started a conversation as they had wandered off to continue the duties around the building. Y/n looks back at Ruck who looks back at Y/n—who then chuckled before pushing the door open for her. 

“We’ll talk later, go explore the town or somethin’ I’ll keep you updated.” 

He placed a hand on the back of Y/n’s head and gently pushed her into the room in which she trudged into the room and was met with the warm presence of her friends around the room—despite there being almost 4 other rooms it was like they all congregated into one room. Mugman was seated next to a window with a book in his hand that he found from the bookshelf, Donald had collapsed on the couch and seemed to have drifted off to sleep—which was no surprise as he mention about how tired he was an hour ago—sleep did seem pretty nice right about now. 

“Donald wake up you sleepy head.” Oswald gently pushed Donald’s shoulder, which caused Donald to grumble and turn to face the couch—his back facing Oswald before he surely drifted off back to sleep. Oswald rolled his eyes—what did he expect—when Donald had his mind made up, that duck wouldn’t back down—even from the simplest of things, like sleep. 

Y/n walked over to the bench that was near the window and sat down next to Mugman—who appeared to actually be skimming through the book rather than reading it. 

“So—what arrangements are being made right now?” Y/n asks Felix, he was busy looking through his Fanny pack for something until he heard Y/n’s questions. 

“Well, I would assume the wedding.” He answered. That made Y/n think, they had to return back to the mainlands within 8 days. Hopefully the wedding would be sometime soon, and not in another month as those took time to plan..well..in the mainlands that is. Being in an entirely different world would have a million different things than what she was used to. 

“We are  already on day 2 though, hopefully the wedding’ll be soon.” Panchito points out exactly what Y/n was thinking, and that statement made Felix smile.

“Actually. Time here is different from on the mainlands.” 

“Like a time zone?” Oswald questioned. 

“In a way, time moves a lot slower here in the offlands. Temporal paradox is what people might put it—me personally I wouldn’t exactly call it that. The 24 hour mark just hit when the sun rose this morning—“ Felix went on a tangent—naming off words Y/n couldn’t even understand herself, Donald—the savior—sat up and glanced over at Felix with his eyebrows furrowed. 

“Geez, will you speak English.” He grumbled. 

“2 days have passed here—but only 14 hours passed over in the mainlands.” Felix cuts to the chase. 

“It’s 2PM.” Cuphead adds—of course Cuphead and Mugman would know the time, they were used to the time changes as they themselves were from the offlands. And that could also explain the sudden fatigue swings Y/n would get as they traveled. 

But that was great—the days would be more lengthy and give them atleast some grace period.

“But still, let’s try not to dawdle around, we’re still on time watch. Find the pieces, go to the island and go home.” Felix brings up and then flickered his sharp gaze to Cuphead. “And stay out of trouble.” 

Cuphead lets out a laugh. “Please! I’m the life of the party in this joint.” 

“Oh you wish.” Oswald voiced and Cuphead took that as a ticket to start a debate—letting the two run each other dry in the background, Mugman’s eyes quickly flickered to Y/n, who had moved to place ther bookbag on the ground, watching Oswald and Cuphead debate who could do the best backflip off of cliff for some..odd reason—she always found herself viewing into their conversation, Donald grew tired of the shouting before slipped off of the couch and trudged out of the room

—more than likely to relocate to a more quiet environment. 

“Fine then, we can go find a bar in town to arm wrestle, me—“ Cuphead points at his chest. “You.” And then at Oswald. 

“And a couple uh’ glasses. How’s about it.” Cuphead juts his hand out to Oswald who then took Cuphead’s hand and shakes it—probably the worst thing anyone could do in Mugman’s opinion. 

“Fine, you got yourself a deal, doesn't mean you can beat me.” Oswald playfully shoved Cuphead’s hand away—who was wreaking with confidence. Oswald moved and walked over to the door and opened it. “But I bet you 100 bucks I can beat you—“ he dashed off out of the room and Cuphead perked up at that and grumbled—clearly Oswald cut him to the quick, something he wasn’t expecting and trudged out of the room after Oswald and Felix looks at the door. “Well I guess I’ll be the chaperone.” He states, Y/n had gotten up and wandered over to a wardrobe near the window, opening it up she spotted what she was looking for, a blanket nearly folded and placed away with a few other blankets and a few spare pillows. 

Picking up the blanket she unfolded it and wrapped it around her shoulders. 

“I will join you, I want to see who will win.” Panchito skips over to the door and opens it as Felix walks over as well before glancing at Y/n and Mugman. 

“I’ll stay back, I’m tired.” Y/n answered and Felix nods as Mugman slowly closed the book he was holding in his hands before looking at Felix. 

“I’ll stay too. If I see Cuphead bent up, I might lose it.” Mugman states—Y/n didn’t know what that statement meant but clearly Mugman didn’t find it appealing and it was rather hilarious to see his facial expression. Felix nods. 

“Well, we’ll be back!” With Felix and Panchito leaving, Y/n spotted Spunk laying on the foot of the bed fast asleep, which made sense from how quiet the pup had gotten.

Finally engulfed in the silent air—Y/n didn’t know how much she needed some alone time up until they all left the room. Not that she didn’t like her friend's presence, but with how active and busy the days have been, filled to the brim with nonsense and headaches and even more migraines..and poisonous apple trees clearly. But now, she gets to sit back and sleep. For however long her body may needed. 

“You can sit next to me.” Mugman’s voice reached her ears and Y/n turned her gaze to see he was still seated on the bench, the book he was reading was now opened back up in his land, Y/n felt the corner of her mouth twitch up in a smile before she moved and sat down next to Mugman, tossing the blanket over his shoulder, Y/n brings her legs up to her chest as her eyes falls onto the many words in the book. 

“What’s it about?” She asks. Mugman smiled as he scooted closer to Y/n to present the pages of the book. “About some elves trying to hide some bread from a giant.”  As Mugman explained the book—it soon turned into him reading the story to not only to himself, but to Y/n as well. 

Y/n had drifted off into a deep awaited slumber, being on a cushioned area with a warm blanket was more than enough to coax her into the deep sleep she had been yearning for the past several hours. 

Y/n felt like she had been asleep for hours, which was great because she needed it, the door of the room had slowly opened, both Mugman and Y/n were fast asleep, the book was on Mugman’s lap facing down—he clearly drifted off to sleep whilst reading no doubt. Y/n had her back facing to Mugman’s shoulder as she leaned on him as if he were a pillow, her leg hanging off of the bench as her other leg was draped across the cushion and over the arm of the couch. Mugman had his arm wrapped around Y/n’s neck as he seemed to almost be slipping off the couch with his mouth wide open as he lets out a soft snore, Ruck stood in the doorway as he watched the two, he lets out a chuckle and shook his head at the uncomfortable positions the two were in. 

The others soon piled into the room—in a fit of laughter, Cuphead almost tripped over his feet as he tried to dodge Oswald’s grasp of him trying to grab at his straw. 

“You look nice, I don’t see why you’re upset.” Donald’s voice pipes up as he walked into the room, Bendy trudged in after, a sneer ridden on his face, he had on a pristine white vest—with a white undershirt, the vest he was wearing had a tail—that parted into two—a similar look of a penguin suit, over his right right shoulder he had a white satin cloth with a small golden pendent to keep it to his shoulder. 

“Yeah, if you ask, I look like some damn royal pritsy school boy.” Bendy grumbled. Cuphead turns his head to Bendy and wraps an arm around his shoulder. 

“Look, just listen! Yer the talk of the town, you gots women that’s already wantin’ to put a dime down for marriage, for you!” Cuphead lets out a howl before laughing. Bendy’s neutral expression soon turned into a deep sour frown before he bared his sharp teeth at Cuphead which caused the cup to quickly move away from Bendy’s form. 

“Do I look like a joke to you?!” Bendy hisses. 

“Oof, somebody’s angrrryyy.” Cuphead sings and Mugman stirred in his sleep, his eyes clenching closed as he sighs through his nose. “Cuphead, leave ‘em alone..” he garbled—even though Mugman was half asleep, it was like Mugman could sense whenever Cuphead was pissing someone off. 

“Ah, cheer up Bendy, I think this would be a nice experience for you.” Felix says as he walks ahead of him and over to the bench Y/n and Mugman was fast asleep at, the feline had taken the book from Mugman’s lap and Bendy squinted his eyes and slightly tilted his head. 

“What’s that supposed ta’ mean?” Bendy edged. Felix holds the book in his hand as she looks at Bendy before he lets out a strained chuckle and his eyes flicker off to the side and back to the demon. 

“Oh you know..”

“You suck at talking to people.” Donald quips and quickly gets to the point. Bendy rolled his eyes. 

“I don’t suck at talkin’ to people, I can talk to people just fine. I do that for a livin’, I talk, they respond, I give a smile, they faint, and move on, so-so. 50/50, who doesn't wanna talk to me?” He outstretched his arms to showcase himself. 

“If I were a girl, I wouldn’t.” Oswald whispered loudly, and Panchito snorted. 

“Ya’ know, I ain’t never been around toons for too long, you guys are pretty funny.” Meek was sitting at a stool near a small counter in the room as he and Don were busy observing the group bantering back and forth. 

“Of course m’ funny…” Bendy grumbled sourly, Y/n had started to stir and awaken from her deep slumber, the amount of voices reached her ears in the room, when her eyes opened she focused in on the conversation as she sat up, Mugman’s arm slipping off of her as he soon stirred awake as well. 

“So, when is the wedding?” Panchito asked and Bendy fumbled with the golden buttons along his vest. “2 days from now, I was glad to even get away from the broad for even 5 seconds.” Bendy’s pupils flickered over to the door and Panchito shrugs. 

“Hmmmm…I dunno, I think she really really likes you.” As nonchalant at times Panchito was, his statement came off more as sarcastic, and Bendy slowly sneered before shaking his head. 

“You’re doing good though, keep this up she may even want a family.”  Meek adds onto the pile and Cuphead lets out another howl of laughter. 

“What—“ Mugman opened his eyes and grumbled. “What is so funny!” When Mugman’s eyes landed on Bendy to see his outfit, Mugman sat up, Y/n almost falling over in the process but the human sat up and her eyes landed on Bendy as well. 

“Oh wow! You look nice!” Mugman compliments, shooting Bendy a promising smile. Y/n felt her lips tug up in a smile before nodding in agreement. 

“You kiddin’ the gals gonna come in here and start draggin’ him off. Get the last of Bendy, he’s gonna be as busy as some middle aged dad!” Cuphead says slyly and Y/n lets out a laugh. 

“Alright. Real funny.” Bendy grits through his teeth and Y/n stood up from the bench before walking over to Bendy and the others—who were across the room still—aside from Ruck, Meek and Don who were sitting on the far left of the room at the counter, at times speaking to one another or just tuning into the conversation. 

“So, I get to be the flower girl, right?” Y/n asks Bendy. Bendy gives her a half lidded expression that she couldn’t comprehend. “C’mom doll, let’s not joke like that..” his voice softened from his ticked off expression. 

“We got more information in the last couple hours here, I’d say a wedding is just the thing we need.” Donald states and Oswald nods in agreement. 

“Yeah, so hopefully—“ Oswald’s gaze looked over at Bendy who grimaced and then looked at Oswald. “Bendy doesn't give up his position that he’s in right now, and toss it away.” 

“Not my fault—I would be a lot more easy goin’ if the gal didn’t hang onto me like some leech. She is a leech.” Bendy spoke about Lucy with so much disdain and dislike, his fingers spreading out as if he were strangling something in the air. 

“It annoys me! She-she even took me into her room, I never saw so much pink before you woulda thought some unicorn came in and threw up all over the damn place!” Bendy’s shoulders tensed up and soon the door slammed open and there revealed Lucy who had. A bright smile on her face. 

“There you are!” She squeals as she skips over to Bendy who turned to Lucy and gave her a forced smile. 

Lucy pulls Bendy into a tight hug and pressed a firm kiss to his cheek, Bendy clenched his eyes closed at the firm kiss before Lucy pulled away with a loud ‘mwah!’ 

Bendy reached a hand up and rubbed at his cheek as he furrowed his eyebrows before looking at Lucy.

“I wanna take you to the courtyard! That’s where we’ll have the wedding, we get to practice our vows and even test some food out! Oh also that’s where we can pick out the flowers to give each other! I know the exact flower I want to give you, I hope you aren’t allergic to pollen.“ Lucy just kept running her mouth and to Y/n it was a miracle how she could keep talking without taking a single gulp of air, Y/n could have sworn she heard Ruck somewhere from the background say; ‘God Damn..’ 

“Deathly allergic.” Bendy muttered—it was clear that was a lie but then again he could actually be allergic to pollen—but Y/n was going to take the ladder that he wasn’t. 

Lucy deflated slightly at that answer. “Ah man..well don’t worry! There’s tons of other flowers.”

Lucy then turns her eyes over to Y/n and her smile widens. Y/n’s eyes flickered off to the side before looking back at Lucy. 

“And you! The town wants to see you! They’re quite happy to see the descendant of Vendolez.” 

Well that was…not what Y/n was expecting. Y/n slowly nods her head. “Right..” 

“But first, I do hope you all can make it around today to the tailor so you all can get your outfits.” Lucy announced—aside from the puppy crush she got on Bendy when she wasn’t suffocating him to date, she was half decent in the least.

“For the wedding?” Mugman asks.

“That, and your townsmanship uniform, my father already ordered for a tailor to get to work, you all are warriors, Welkin has been yearning to see their hero’s for years, not only for them, but for the world.” 

“Welll..that’s nice to hear.” Donald rocked back and forth on his feet.

“We’ll be sure to visit the town today.” Felix tells Lucy who nods excitedly she then looks at Bendy who looks at her. 

“Now, you and I have to finish arrangements for the ceremony!” 

“Right behind ya..” 

-

Y/n glanced up at the clear skies—the sun was closer to the ground—so it was safe to say it had to be somewhere near noon. Don and Meek had stayed behind at the castle to explore it and speak to some of the people who were helping put the wedding together. 

And clearly Lucy and Bendy were off starting the arrangements. It seemed word got around town quickly as when Y/n passed some of the residents in town she heard them say something along the lines of ‘Prince’ referring to Bendy. 

The people actually seemed to move out of Y/n’s way when she walked down the town—they didn’t move out of fear—but out of respect—some tipping their hats as a greeting and some excitedly waving at her which she returned the action back. 

“This is weird.” Y/n said through her teeth to Felix, who had been walking beside her. 

“Just new to you is all.” Felix answers as they walked down the path to where it would lead them to the markets and hopefully to the tailor store—getting that information from via the directional sign. 

“Yeah, true, but I don’t look anything like some fighter, if anything, I’m the one that gets my ass kicked.” She says and she heard Felix laugh under his breath, which he clearly didn’t want her to hear as he turned his head to another direction. 

“Well I’m certain to an extent you’ll learn a thing or two. You got your Uncle Ruck to help you out.” 

The two glanced back over their shoulders—passed, Cuphead and Mugman who was behind them walking and passed Donald and Oswald who was talking and to Ruck who looked away from something he had been looking at. 

Y/n looks at Felix and deadpans. “He made me do 40 pushups because I didn’t know why bears hibernate, told me to climb an almost 100 foot tree and if I fell, brush it off, told me to man up when I was sick because of the apple incident, and then made me do another 40 push ups because I was sleepy on the way here.” Y/n named off some things—as much as she was ecstatic to know she had an uncle, another piece of family aside from her mother and father, Ruck was…well. He didn’t exactly treat her like some niece. 

But more so like some rookie military boy who needed to know their place in the ranks. Tough Love, as some would put it. You fall to the ground and scab your knee and expect Ruck to kiss your boo boo away? Better luck with some other guy, Ruck would just give you a sideways glance and tell you to suck it up and move on with your day, he didn’t seem to believe in holding hands until we all skip to the finish lines, no. It was hard work. 

But he was a cool guy overall, he didn’t speak too much—unlike Meek who seemed to be a never ending radio of news to tell you. 

“Ah..I see, you want me to hold your hand or something?” Felix jokes and laughs and Y/n rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. 

“I just—you know, you finally get to know some other family aside from your parents and the guy is just..I dunno how to put it. Not too welcoming?” Ruck wasn’t horrible, but he sure wasn’t what Y/n dreamed of having in an uncle. 

She felt Felix place a hand on her head. “You barely gave him a chance, you’ve only been around him for a good day or two.” Despite the stubbornness of Y/n, she had to agree with Felix. She barely given a chance before ridding Ruck off. 

Felix removed his hand from Y/n’s head and Y/n glanced at him—a thought had been ringing in the back of Y/n’s head for some time now, as the two confused on down the path Y/n looked ahead before speaking. 

“What made you want to become an adventurer?” Y/n asks Felix. 

Felix’s pupils expanded as he listened to Y/n ask the question, it was odd as Felix had a few noticeable features of a cat would—well he is a cat, clearly. 

Felix smiled before his eyes flickered to Y/n. “Been traveling since I was young.” 

“How old are you?” She asks.

“Just turned 20 about 3 weeks ago.”

“So you’ve been traveling ever since you were a child?” 

“As long as I can remember.” Felix smiled at the open air—reminiscing the first time he stepped foot out of his comfort zone to explore the unknown. 

“Like, when you were a baby?” Y/n adds on and Felix chuckles under his breath. “No, of course not when I was a kitten, chances of me surviving out in the world like that at that age would be nowhere near possible.” 

Well yeah, that made sense, walking around when you can’t even tie your own shoes yet probably wouldn’t be the best of all ideas. Y/n walked beside Felix as the two stopped talking for just a moment before Felix spoke up again. 

“Wasn’t always the biggest fan of the outside world, I used to be afraid to touch grass—I heard someone refer to it as ‘blades of grass’ and always assumed it was little green knives in the ground.” That memory was bright as day in Felix’s mind, throwing a tantrum as his mother would try to set in him the grass so they could have a picnic but the kitten at the time wouldn’t budge, thrashing around like some rabid animal until he was out of the grasps of his mother. 

Y/n smiled at the statement as she looked at Felix. “Really? 

“Really. In fact..” he gave Y/n a sideways glance. 

“I also used to be afraid to climb trees, I felt like if I climbed them I would be stuck up there forever.” 

A small laugh emitted from Y/n and Felix laughed as well. 

“But, got a little push—a few bruises here and there, and next thing you know, I’m voyaging out in the world, coasting the lands—and meeting different people all over the world.” A warm smile shivered its way onto Felix’s face. 

“You don’t ever get lonely just traveling by yourself—I dunno, I guess it’ll be sorta relaxing to travel by myself now thinking about it.” On cue Y/n glanced over her shoulder to Cuphead and Mugman, Cuphead had his arm wrapped around Mugman’s neck—in a tight lock, Mugman let out a frustrated shout and shoves Cuphead away who let out a laugh at his brothers whining. Panchito had finally made his way back around and was busy trying to hop onto Donald’s back, who almost fell onto the ground and falling into Oswald in the process. 

“I do.” 

Y/n looks back at Felix who had looked away from Cuphead and Mugman as well. “I lost my mother when I was 12, my father had died a few months prior to me being born, so I spent those 12 years with my mother.” He lifts a hand up to his chest and pats at the pockets inside of his jacket, pulling out a photo, he lowered it so Y/n could see, Y/n looks down at the photo to see a small kitten holding onto a teddy bear that was scarred and looked ready to turn to dust, it was Felix, he wore a orange shirt and gray shorts, sitting in the grass was his mother, kneeling on her knees next to Felix smiling at the camera, Felix was smiling as well. 

“She always wanted to travel the world, so I did it for her.”

“So that’s why you travel?” 

“Mmhmm.” Felix confirms as he folded the photo back up and placed it back inside his jacket pocket. 

“And I wouldn’t have it any other way, spending it with you all.” Felix places a hand on Y/n’s head and a smile edged onto her lips. 

“Ever since running into you guys, you guys are like a family to me in sorts.” Felix seemed proud to state that, and Y/n felt a warm feeling in her chest, from someone who grew up with no family, to losing a mother to having to to be out in the world by himself must have been rough, but finally finding a place where people were there for eachother, had to be something genuine and new. 

“I discovered a lot of things Y/n, but discovering this circle we have, is the best thing yet.” 

#toon quest #bendy and the ink machine #cuphead x reader #bendyxreader #felix the cat #panchito pistoles #oswald the lucky rabbit

[deafeningbasementmoon]

Bendy X Reader(One-shots)(slow-Updates) - (2)(Pervy)BendyX(Overprotective,Boris-Sis)Reader (on Wattpad) https://www.wattpad.com/620910559-bendy-x-reader-one-shots-slow-updates-2-pervy?utm_source=web&utm_medium=tumblr&utm_content=share_reading&wp_originator=2px1XPZ8hXmjsdT2uwG6yIJ8%2FcM%2BM%2Ft8BogVkHJkm1dYq5j64roVCPR7qum2VKZDZo44rJ4IFZzJohGnstBJFytqYi%2BOfHlZmqbVqfMsAkEOLsdmEuee4aBecfrQrBnY I'm gonna try to write every week 2 new stories!! have fun reading this! Here are some rules for the requests: -I DON'T do deadlines! -I WON'T write it when it's already written. -I DON'T write (real)animals that get hurt. I can't take that! - just be patience I'm just a person either. -I do write Lemon and everything.

#alice #batim #bendy #bendylemon #bendylove #bendyxreader #boris #bullied #creator #depressed #english #henry #ink #inkmachine #inky #joey #lemon #neko #pregnant #reader #sammy #scared #shortstory #wattys2018 #wedding #short-story #books #wattpad #amreading

[deafeningbasementmoon]

Bendy X Reader(One-shots)(slow-Updates) - Bendy X(Daughter of Joey) Reader (on Wattpad) https://www.wattpad.com/585940314-bendy-x-reader-one-shots-slow-updates-bendy-x?utm_source=web&utm_medium=tumblr&utm_content=share_reading&wp_originator=T%2FIeNIVtEQfBJg%2F9DezX%2BDuAeTy4t0%2BAgU8odW5JgXlLmXa0oYPUMph4RCBin1gd6ZdMAEGaHpgVLmDtiBI33J0ZT2RUzz1xkggLuAmqJmcd%2BgnbHw6IU%2BjOTD1VtVnv I'm gonna try to write every week 2 new stories!! have fun reading this! Here are some rules for the requests: -I DON'T do deadlines! -I WON'T write it when it's already written. -I DON'T write (real)animals that get hurt. I can't take that! - just be patience I'm just a person either. -I do write Lemon and everything.

#alice #batim #bendy #bendylemon #bendylove #bendyxreader #boris #bullied #creator #depressed #english #henry #ink #inkmachine #inky #joey #lemon #neko #pregnant #reader #sammy #scared #shortstory #wattys2018 #wedding #short-story #books #wattpad #amreading

[toontails]

Toon Quest|| Reader Insert

Chapter 3: I'm Here, You're Here, Everybody's Here!

A/n: Hey guys! Sorry I’m late (5 months late) sorry about that. I was busy! I promise! I had to

Split the chapter as this was a lot longer than I wanted it to be. So you’ll be seeing Chapter 4 and possibly chapter 5 real soon! I won’t leave for so long again. Don’t worry.

But I’ll make this note quick. A couple people messaged me and said that this story reminds them of Babqtfim. At the time I didn’t know what that was. Until I did research. And to satisfy some of you. I incorporated some of that in the plot. Don’t worry. It won’t change the plot drastically.

I particularly didn’t wanna publish this chapter as I feel nothing really happened in this chapter. But I couldn’t leave you all waiting for any longer!

Oh! And the next chapter. I’ll introduce to you—musicals! Don’t worry they won’t stay for too long in the story. I know not everyone likes songfics lmao. But it goes with the plot I promise! We’re starting to get rolling again so buckle up.

Enjoy!

-

“Now...where did I put that folder…” M/n searched the desk for a folder she was searching for—for about 4 minutes now. The day has pretty much been frantic—after Henry and M/n left from the board meeting yesterday, work had to be done in all departments. To start the new set of episodes—M/n was in charge of getting the scripts from the writers that were out of town—meaning they had to be shipped into the studio. Which was delayed about a day everyone was supposed to be scheduled to start reading through the script. But that was pushed off because of Bendy now being out of town and the fact that there was a new objective for everyone in the studio to do. Or...more to attend to in that matter.

M/n was silent as she looked under the receptionist desk. Muttering under her breath incoherently. She hardly noticed Charley sauntered over. After pestering Annie for a few minutes M/n so happened to be in his path as he was on his way to go find Edgar. Leaning over the desk he looked as M/n stood back up with a time ticking expression of annoyance slowly etching on her face. That was until she saw Charley standing on the other side of the desk where she flinched slightly, surprised at his sudden appearance.

“God dammit Charley—what did I tell you about sneaking up on me—“ she held a hand to her chest to feel her heart pace slowly slow down after seeing Charley.

“I dunno, I lost track, I think this is the...uh….5th time?” He fakes a thoughtful expression as if he were really counting the many times M/n told him to announce himself before just standing off to the side to be noticed. Which he was known around the studio for.

M/n shook her head and rubbed her forehead. “Did you see my clipboard today? It had stuff on it that I need because Henry wants to have a meeting with everyone in the conference room later on today and I need that.” She said, Charley raised an eyebrow, his eyes slowly sliding away from M/n and to the background where he saw..Edgar! Thank god...Edgar was holding a clipboard as he skipped down the hallway where he left earlier to follow Boris and Alice. He hardly noticed Alice and Boris trailing behind the spider as they talked to each other. The clipboard that Edgar had a grip on was yellow...well from what it seemed from where Charley was standing.

“Is it yellow?” He asks her. M/n perks up, removing her gaze from a stack of paper to look at Charley, In hopes that he had a clue to where her clipboard went. “Yes, it is. Do you know where it is?” She smiled at him. He looks back at her.

“Nope.”

“Then why did you—“

“But, I’ll go find it for ya’, how about that? I got a keen eye, don’t ya’ worry about a thing! You stay right there and I will be back in a jiffy!” He said before turning the other direction and walking off. M/n looked as if she were about to say something...but took his word that Charley would have her clipboard. The only reason Charley was going after it was so he could find out what Edgar wanted to speak to Alice and Boris for.

He, Edgar and Barley rarely talked to Alice and Boris and Bendy—actually they talked a lot because they were a part of the same production. But seeing Edgar seemingly...in a rush to speak to the two? Did raise questions to Charley. But Charley then remembered as he stopped walking.

“Where is Barley..?” He muttered.

“Fer’ the love of—where are ya’ takin’ me? You toss books on my head then expect me to venture off with ya’ to spy on Eddie, so what? Let the guy have a li—“

Charley smacks the back of Barley’s head who wouldn’t stop bantering with him. The eyepatch wearing toon grunts at the impact and rubbed the back of his head.

“Shut up you moron, you sure do love to bicker…” Charley grunts as he and Barley walked

down the hall where Alice, Boris and Edgar once were walking down. “We’re going to see what Ed and the others are talkin’ about, Alice has been rambunctious lately.” Charley said, looking at a door as they passed by, listening to see if anyone was in the room. Barley raised an eyebrow. “And why would that be our problem? Look—Bendy’s outta town. I can finally get a full night's sleep without him somehow having the urge to pull a joke on me at 3 in the morning. And I’d like to say, I slept wonderfully.” Barley said. Bendy was always around the studio doing little jokes and...well being a disruption. Especially to Sammy. It was just that Bendy rarely got out and interacted with other people—other than anyone in the studio. But now that he is gone for a day or two. Barley was glad to get some sleep in and some peace and quiet without having to run into Bendy’s antics.

“Look, I just wanna know what Ed’s got planned. Shut your trap and help me find them.” Charley walked ahead of Barley in search of the three. Barley muttered under his breath.

“Fine..”

-

“Don’t worry about society’s problems, they say, their problem isn’t our problem, they say—“ Y/n mocks. Watching the fields go by. It was still the afternoon and they..obviously were still on the road. Oswald was still seated next to Y/n. His ears flat against his head as he watched her...rather sarcastically bring up the last ‘meeting’ they had at the studio about all that was going on between toons and humans and how—it wasn’t their concern nor responsibility. And;

“Now look at us.” She said, She leaned far back into the car seat. Arms crossed across her chest. Bendy was still looking at the road. But Y/n could see his expression had almost turned sour.

“Are you hintin’ towards somethin’ or talkin’ just to be talkin’?” He asks her. Finally getting a reply from him. Y/n shook her head slowly. Looking at the road as well.

“I didn’t expect a diner to be a place where toons weren’t allowed. I don’t even know when they started doing that.” She said, Oswald opened his mouth to speak. As he did so his ears raised slowly.

“I’m pretty sure there’s other establishments that serve all of us.” Oswald said. Y/n didn’t reply for a second. She silently agreed with Oswald. There’s no way every single establishment or building had a no toons policy.

“Yeah…” she muttered. Everyone fell silent and for the most part the sound of the car's muffled engine was heard. It was nice to have a quiet feeling. Considering what had happened a few minutes ago. Y/n was no longer hungry after the altercation at the diner so for the most part her main focus was no longer on getting food. But figuring out what was in Idaho—or more who was in Idaho and what their next objective was. She felt Oswald sit back next to her. His shoulder touched hers as there wasn’t much room to begin with. But the space was still comfortable to sit with him in. She saw Oswald turn his palm face up and edged it over to Y/n. Y/n looked at his hand, uncurling her hand from her crossed arms hovering it above his and looked over at Oswald who was already looking at her. He must have seen she was maybe upset from not eating—or just the fact that the people at the diner were so...rude and the unexpected turn of events. Was he trying to comfort her somehow?

Soon he lifted his hand and took her hand in his. Y/n smiled and looked back out the window feeling the warmth cascade her hand—touching a toon seemed—odd. She could feel a soft texture from his ‘fur’ but then again it didn’t feel like fur. He was warm and not to mention, odd feeling four fingers instead of five intertwined around her five fingers. But, either way. It did relax her and stop her from bickering she was

Once doing it for about 40 minutes—which was mostly aimed towards Bendy but he didn’t seem to give her a reaction from her constant complaining. But either way, she was calmer and serene.

Soon the car slowed down. They were in a small town—similar to the one they just left in Oregon considering they were now entering Idaho. Y/n blinked momentarily. “What’s wrong?” She asks Bendy.

“The trail is gone.” He said his gaze still focused outside of the window to try and see if he could spot any sort of hint towards their new direction, but to no avail he couldn’t find any sort of trail or subliminal hint anywhere. Y/n looked at the welcome side on the side of the road. A chipped green painted sign with white letters elegantly painted on the wooden sign. ‘Warlington Hillside’

“Warlington Hillside…” Donald read the name, Panchito looking out the window at the sign as well. “Well. A mile back I saw we entered Idaho so..I guess..it’s up to us?” Y/n said. Turning to look at Bendy and then over her shoulder to Panchito and Donald. Donald's expression stirred into utter confusion.

“Why would it drop us off here? It couldn’t just lead us to where we need to be? Or who we’re looking for? For all we know—whatever we’re looking for can be in an entirely different town in this state.” Donald took the book that was on Y/n’s lap. He shook it momentarily as if it would make the book shake to life and get to working again. Panchito tilted his head.

“Ah...Donal—I don’t think it works that way my friend. It would just be best that we start here. After all! We are in a town!” He motions towards the front window of the car towards the town that would have been entering if Bendy kept driving.

“What are we supposed to do? Ask everyone in town if they see any suspicious activity?” Donald sarcastically said as he flipped through the pages of the book. Panchito froze for a moment. And then he shrugged as if to say the idea wasn’t so bad after all.

“Actually, I think that would be a perfect idea!”

“I was kidding—“

-

“I can’t believe we’re actually doing this. This is the dumbest idea ever…” Donald rubs a hand across his face and soon edged his beak. Y/n closed the car door and looked around the town. She actually took notice that the town wasn’t exactly a town? But more of a city. Its twinkling lights from each building caught her eye. The street lamps were now flickering on as it was nearing sunset—but the sun was still out, showcasing its melodious colors in the sky. Her eyes traveled around the area. Watching the cars drive by in the street and watching such...fashionable people walk down the street.

Looking over she saw a man and a woman walking by. Arms intertwined with each other as they both seemed to be in a deep conversation. But what took Y/n’s attention was the clothing. Their clothes seemed—dated back. The vest. The pants. The dress. It seemed tailored. With rich fabrics. Vintage clothing of something straight from a film in the era of the 40s.

Y/n never heard of this place before. In the distance she could hear jazz.

“Now. All we have to do is ask around!” Panchito glanced at the small group as he extended his arms to motion around his surroundings. Bendy had a hand on his hip. Giving Panchito a blank expression. Obviously he thought the idea of going around asking random strangers for any suspicious activity was a horrible idea. What kind of idea is that?!

“Oh lighten up. I like the looks of this place.” Oswald nudged Bendy. Bendy only sneered before moving away from Oswald’s constant nudging.

“This place—I don’t know. I don’t like it.” Donald denied. Crossing his arms and tapping his webbed foot to the pavement. The four turned their gaze to Panchito who caught their attention when he spoke to a random stranger passing by.

“Hola! A quick question.” Panchito says. The man stopped walking and looked at Panchito. A smile appeared on the stranger's face.

“Of course!” He said.

“Do you have any news around town? Anything suspicious? Anything new? Or big?” Panchito asks. The man thought for a moment. Bringing a hand to tap his chin.

“Well—nothing too out of place has happened around town! But you all should really go to this jazz band tonight—might not be the place you all are looking for. But it really is a good way to relax and loosen up for the night!” The man informed—not exactly information they were looking for. But then again. It was something.

“Is this some place everyone frequently goes to?” Y/n’s asks. Walking over to Panchito to look at the man. The man shook his head. “Oh no—I assume you all are looking for something? There’s been this toon in town—I can’t remember his name. But he’s looking for two other people? From what I remember he said something about them being on the radar from some other group of men. But anyway! He’s mostly at this bar around sunset after—well I don’t know what he does throughout the day—but either way. He’s always at this bar a few blocks down on Columbus Street. I would go ask if he needs works done if that’s what you all are askin’ for.” He thoroughly explained. Panchito hummed in amusement before glancing at Y/n to see what she had to say. Which—was great. Not only did they get information on the fact someone was kidnapped? Y/n wanted to assume it were toons in the same predicament Oswald was once in. But who was at the bar more than likely on the lookout for the same thing they are.

“Thank you! We’ll certainly give him a visit.” Y/n smiled. The man smiled and nods.

“He’s a toon—he’ll be easy to spot in the bar. I wish you all luck! Bye!” The man then turned around and walked off. Donald still had his arms crossed.

“I wonder who’s the big guy that’s on the same page we’re all on.” Donald said. Y/n turned around and looked at Donald. Bendy and Oswald stood next to Donald. Y/n tapped her fingers on her leg. Was it a good idea to even ask a random stranger that would seemingly have information? Maybe. Maybe not…but—either way.

“It’s worth a shot.” She muttered to herself. Glancing around the city she looked at the group of toons.

“Alright. Let’s go find this guy.”

-

“Okay—“ Alice took the yellow clipboard from Edgar. Edgar scattered into the empty meeting room. Past Alice. Boris walked in shortly after, closing the door as he walked in. Alice read over the list of things that M/n and wrote down—it was more of a to-do list. A series of things that needed to be done—mostly before the week let out. Alice ran a hand through her hair as she tapped her foot to the ground.

Boris stood by the table and then looked at Edgar. “So—what was it that you were trying to tell us? Other than that clipboard.” Boris spoke up. Edgar squeaked as he hopped on a chair. Standing on two legs. He placed his hands together as if he were some sort of pastor. He then pointed over to Alice mostly signaling towards her halo—but she was too busy reading the clipboard to take notice. Boris tilts his head. His gaze moved over to Alice when he took notice of Edgar’s gesture.

What could he be referring to? Looking back at the spider. Boris’s nose twitched. “I need more detail.” He says. Edgar nods before looking around before dashing off to the side of the room. Ripping open a closet and pulling a black throw over blanket from the closet before speeding over to Boris and hopping back in the chair. Edgar placed the black blanket around him as if it were a cloak. Edgar placed his hands together once again. As if he were praying. Boris' ears perked up slowly as his tail slowly swayed side to side.

“Is it someone or a something?” He asks. Edgar points to himself. Alice looked away from the clipboard and focused her attention on Edgar.

“Were you pointing at Alice’s halo?” Boris asked. Edgar nods once again. Finally! They were starting to understand him! What a miracle!

“I’m assuming this someone takes on—something religious?” Boris asks. Edgar once again nods. Alice was about to speak before a familiar voice interrupted. “He’s talking about nuns, you idiot.” Boris and Alice turned around and saw Charley standing in the corridor. Alongside Barley who had his arms in his pockets—as he always had them.

“Where did you two come from?” Alice asks. Turning to face the two. And placing a hand on her hip. Her upper lip twitching in annoyance. Charley motions towards Edgar. “Lookin’ for him! And M/n is looking for her clipboard—which you seem to have and I’m here to retrieve that and Edgar—“ Alice quickly cut Charley off by turning the clipboard around and showing it to Charley.

“July 23rd. A board party for toons and humans. It’s more like an integration celebration.” Was all she said. She practically shoved the clipboard in Charley’s face to show the circled date at the bottom of the list. Charley glared at Alice snatching the clipboard from her grip. He looked down at the clipboard and he felt Barley walk closer to him to read the list as well.

“Wuss so bad about it? It’s just some shindig.” Barley asks before looking at Alice. Instead of Alice explaining. Edgar hopped from the chair. Leaving the black blanket in the chair. He landed in the middle of the circle the four created. He squeaked and squeaked frantically. Waving his arms in the air. Charley furrowed his eyebrows.

“Aye! Calm down! What’s the rush?!” Charley told Edgar. Barley took the clipboard from Charley’s hands and read the list attentively. Alice looked between Edgar and Charley.

“What’s he’s saying?” She asks quickly. Edgar huffed before he went still and composed himself before looking at Charley. Letting out a series of squeaks.

“He’s going to explain from the beginning.” Charley translates. Alice nods before raising a hand. She leaned over and closed the door.

“But first. Charley—Barley. There’s something going on. World wide that is.” Alice said. Charley huffed. “Yeah—obviously we can tell. Sudden flux of toon riots and anti toon lovers are starting to rise.” Charley said. Alice nods—that was one thing that was out of the way that she didn’t have to explain. Thank goodness.

“Yes that. And—the fact that Bendy—and a few others are—I guess you can say are resolving some upcoming problems.” She said. Barley laughed under his breath. “What’d he do? Wreck private property again and get himself in cuffs?” He asks—mostly jokingly but Alice deadpanned for a moment as she shook her head.

“No. This is serious. Long story short. The real reason he’s away and out of town because M/n’s daughter found this book—the—“

“The one on TV.” Boris finished for Alice. Alice nods. Charley furrowed his eyebrows and thought for a moment…when the hell was the last time he looked at TV? He did remember seeing a news segment about some government artifacts being looted from a museum a few days ago. Now that he remembered. He could remember being told that the artifact was a book. And…he did hear Bendy in a room the night fumbling around as if talking to someone—now mentioning he heard more than one voice.

Well…he be damned.

“Now that’s somethin’ new.” Barley absently said—it were as if he read Charley’s mind. They were on the same page. Charley crossed his arms and gave Boris and Alice a look.

“You know I didn’t think Bendy would be this stupid and troublsome enough to steal a book for fun and then run off with M/n’s daughter.” He missed the point.

Smack!

“Ow! What was that for?!” Charley rubbed his forehead where Alice deliberately gave a slap to. Alice had her hands on her hips as she glared at Charley.

“He didn’t steal the book you idiot! There were three of them that night. Edgar knows it all—as well as additional information. Edgar can explain all that—but what I need for you too to know…” Alice looked between Charley and Barley.

“Is that we are now working together to help Bendy and the others—“

“What?! No! I’ve basically been told he had a stolen book with him. I’m not gettin’ involved in this mess. Look at society’s impression on toons right now. You think that when they find out that a group of toons with a young girl are on the run, with a book they are currently lookin’ for would look good on us?” Charley sneered at Alice. Barley on the other hand agreed with Alice.

“I’m agreeing with Alice on this. Bendy wouldn’t just do anythin’ fer just the fun of it. When was Tha’ last time Bendy stole anythin?” Barley asks Charley. And Charley couldn’t name off a single time. Charley’s nose twitched as he sneered yet again. Of course Bendy caused trouble around the studio. But anything revolving anything in public—he was—well. A normal toon. That didn’t cause any trouble. So obviously there had to be a reason why he was traveling around as of now. Alice took note of Charley’s silence and then continued speaking.

“Charley. We know. You hate Bendy—hell. Even at times I get angry at him. But he’s still family. And if we have information that will very much help him and the others he’s with. We should help him as best as we can.” Alice’s halo slowly glimmered the beautiful golden light. Charley silently stared at her before grunting and waving his hand.

“Fine! Tell me the info and let’s get started.” He said. Alice smiled and clasped her hands gently at his participation.

“Edgar. Fill Charley and Barley in first on what’s going on. As well as the book.” Edgar nods at Alice's command before turning to both Charley and Barley. It took only a few minutes to inform and get the two to update them of what was going on. Charley stood in front of Edgar, arms crossed and nodding his head every once in a while as he took in the information. Despite it being a bunch of squeaks and motions. He still could understand the spider—as well as Barley.

“So. He’s in Oregon now?” Barley asks. Alice nods slowly. “From last I checked. He is. I was going to give him a call today to see where he and Y/n are—I believe that’s her name.”

“A magic book…” Charley muttered under his breath. It sounds so—made up. Childish. But if Edgar seemed pretty serious about it. Then Charley was willing to go the distance with the others.

“The night when M/n’s daughter came to the building and when she and Bendy and—a third person That was in the room. Edgar was in there—but you said you had more information. Right?” Boris asks. Edgar nods frantically. Charley motioned Edgar to continue.

“Alright then let’s get to the important stuff.” He said.

Edgar looked at the four before he started explaining.

-

“What are we gonna do now? The brat and those toons got away.”

Edgar peeked from behind the garbage can. A few blocks away from the studio. Edgar was entertained by the action in front of him. The rabbit that he saw as he peered from the ceiling out the window in the room where Bendy and two others were discussing with each other—two when how Bendy and that rooster leaped from the window with a lasso.

He had to follow them to see—what were they up to? Edgar had always mostly been in the studio all his life. And seeing such adventurous actions take place out of nowhere really caught his attention. Unfortunately he was too afraid to wander near the bar. But when he saw Y/n, Bendy, the rooster and the rabbit appeared from the buildings. Edgar could tell that they were after something. Which led to them chasing two people—who he now deemed the bad guys. He followed the car chase—but mainly swinging from building to building by his web. Which was how he kept up. And how he ended up behind the garbage can in the alleyway where the van of the two ‘bad guys’ had crashed near. He saw the man in the trench coat slip off his jacket. The two backs were turned towards him. So he couldn’t take in any facial details. But with the coat off. Edgar could see a black blazer vest. A velvet red undershirt. The man's hair was a familiar dark color slicked back with hair—not a single strand disobeying.

The woman had dark hair as well. Fair skin. And a dark knee length dress. Her hands on her hips as she stared at the wrecked car. The man sighed and rubbed his temple.

“We need someone that can get in there for us to grab the book…” the man muttered. The woman glanced at him as she silently watched him contemplate. The man reached in his pocket slowly before pulling out a device—a phone now that Edgar thought back on it—at first he didn’t know what it was.

“I’ll contact him. You know he’s been practically yearning to join.” The man told the woman. Who had then nodded. The two had abandoned the crashed van and wandered down the sidewalk. Edgar squeezed between people who had checked to see and check on people in the car crash. Followed after the two as they then turned down an alleyway after several minutes of walking. Which only led Edgar further away from the studio—but he knew his way back perfectly. So he didn’t have to worry.

Edgar peeked from around the corner. The alleyway had a few puddles from the rain from earlier. The brick walls glistened from the water and the fluorescent street lights that gave light to the alleyway. Edgar saw that the two slipped into a building from a metal door. But it closed unfortunately so it wasn’t able to make it. Looking up. Edgar could see an exhaust hood near the top of the doorway. Scurrying over. Edgar with ease climbed on the wall and up to the exhaust hood. Edgar placed four hands on the hood and with a strained grunt and groan using all his strength he pulled the exhaust hood from the wall. Anyone would have fallen back from the sudden motion of something being ripped from the wall. But seeing Edgar was a spider and could travel up and down walls. His balance didn’t falter. Edgar tossed the torn metal behind him—a distance; ‘clank!’ Echoing in the hall. He quickly crawled in a dark humid vent. The feeling of dust tickling his form wasn’t his worries.

“You had one job!” A shouted echo was what Edgar followed. It seemed the lady that man was with was the one who was shouting. No doubt there may be more people. Edgar crawled through the vents and absently walked by a vent that peered down into the room. Perfect.

Edgar backtracked and quickly placed his full attention down below.

Despite outside being what seemed to be a worn down warehouse. The inside seemed more of an office building. He could see the features of the woman. But the man stood in blind spot. Standing next to a coffee table as the woman stood in front of the coffee table as well as standing in front of three toons—the beagle boys. Magica was standing off to the side. Arms behind her back.

The beagle boys seemed to flatter at the woman's scolding.

“Was it so hard to catch that girl!? She’s 18 for crying out loud! What damage could she do?! She’s a kid! And that—that damn toon! You couldn’t catch him?!” She shouts. The shortest of the three beagles raised a finger to speak. “They all worked together..Miss..” he said slowly.

The woman’s expression only hardened.

“It seems we can’t depend on you three to take them out and take the book. This isn’t some ordinary schemed show where every episode the plan foils and we say oh well better luck next time—and the same thing happens! We mean business!” She shouts. Soon Magica finally spoke up.

“Miss Susan. Might I remind you that this particular group is indeed chosen by an ancient powerful book. She’s more than just some teenage girl with an absent mind and those toons are more than just toons.” The duck said. The woman—now Susan now that a name had been given sighed as she raised both her hands and slowly rolled her fingers down to lock them both into a fist. Each finger gives a satisfying crack. But before she could say anything. Two figures burst through the front door. Standing around the same height. They both were toons. One had two horns on his head. And black fur—he almost resembled a goat. His yellow optics gleaming at everyone in the room. “Ding dong!” He shouts as he extends his arms. Next to him stood a toon. Dressed in a tailored purple suit. His head was a dice. Arms behind his back as he trailed

Behind the demon like-goat into the room.

“Well. What do you know?” Susan mutters. Edgar felt himself shrink at the sight of the horned toon. It indeed was the Devil! He’s heard of him—not someone to be messed with. His Right Hand Man as most toons know of—King Dice. Was also another toon that meant business.

“We heard the news. They got away? Bummer.” The Devil circled around Susan. His tail brushed under her chin as he then stood by the coffee table. Susan scoffed and shook her head slowly.

“Yes. They got away. With the book—we planned this all out. I don’t see h—“ she was cut off by the man in the trench coat.

“As I said. We need someone to go along with them to get that book.” He said. The Devil placed a hand on his chest. “Which..ladies and gentlemen. Is why I’m here.” He grinned. Showing the sharp rows of piercing teeth that were ready to sink into anything.

“Who do you have?” Magica asks. The Devil glanced over to her and placed his hands behind his back.

“Two hard headed people. And might I say. That can make anyone run for their money. Two toons. They’re brothers and I think they would do this mission just fine. After all, They do owe me their souls. Having them run a small errand for me won’t be a problem.” The Devil said. Susan's interest had been caught with the new way to retrieve the book. But there was a small problem.

“Where are they?” She asks.

“Good question. They got away from me a couple months prior to this entire plan you all manifested. But nevertheless. They still owe me. It should be easy to track them down. After all I have their souls and can do what I please with them at any time.” Susan nods at the Devil’s explanation. “I can track them down if need be.” Magica pipes up.

“That would be perfect.” Susan whispers.

“When we find the brothers. All it would take is for me to tell them their objective. Which is to retrieve the book from those toons. And bring them to me.” The Devil said. The man in the trench coat spoke up yet again.

“They would need to approach the group carefully. Go along with them, not startle them.” The man said. Susan nods.

“Heard you loud and clear.”

“I’ll go and track down these brothers.” Magica straightens her shirt before turning to face the Devil. The dice man had yet to speak. More so standing next to his boss with a calculating expression.

Magica had her eyes closed as she furrowed her eyebrows. She was a powerful force. A witch. With powers so ancient and powerful. It wasn’t a surprise how quick she was able to get the location of their supposed ‘minions’.

“They’re in Idaho. Not too far of a drive.” Magica speaks up. Susan grins.

“Well. Off we go! It’s only a matter of time before those toons and that brat get too far!”

-

“They’re sending hitmans?!” Boris shouts. Tugging at both of his ears. Alice had a hand over her mouth taking in the information that Charley basically had to translate to the group.

“They’re sending someone out to go after the book and kill them…” Alice said slowly. Charley had a hand on his hip as he looked between Boris and Alice.

“Why don’t we just head down there and warn them?” He asks.

“Henry will be looking for us.” Boris answered. And Alice nods. Barley shook his head. “Ah please. The lad is busy gettin’ a headache about that board meetin’ we can leave now maybe make it to Oregon by midnight.” Barley said. Alice raised a finger.

“I have a feeling we should head to Idaho instead. If those brothers are down there, No doubt the others will be.” Alice said. Barley perks up yet again.

“Wait a minute…Charley. Ya’ said somethin’ about nuns?” He asks. Charley looked at Barley and slowly nodded. “Well Eddie did. But yeah. Why?”

“Those boys are in Idaho for a reason. Ed. You said somethin’ about that Devil guy ownin’ their souls. Yeah?”

“Squeak.”

Barley nods at Edgar’s confident answer before looking at the four.

“Well in this city located in the state. There’s this monastery. Filled with nuns. It's an ancient chapel. I remember Wally sayin’ somethin’ about learnin’ in his history class that that monastery has this jewel that can keep away all evil. Spirits and demons. Those boys must have been after that if they’re bein’ chased by the Devil himself.” Barley informed. Alice clasped her hands together. Brilliant! Just the information they needed!

Charley snorts. “Good luck with them thinkin’ anyone would let them inside the sanctuary.” Alice ignored Charley’s statement before she focused her attention on Barley.

“What’s the name of the church?” She asks. But Barley shrugs. “I dunno. Neva’ asked. We could ask Wally. But I doubt he’ll give us an answer without questionin’ why? And I’m pretty sure we should all lay low for now and not run our mouths about all that’s goin’ on.” He said. He was right. Alice wasn’t too upset. At Least they knew that the chapel was in Idaho. That was a start.

“Well..if you think about it. The Devil is also after the others as well…that jewel can come in handy..” Boris said. Charley raised an eyebrow. “You sayin’ Bendy and the others should steal it?”

“Not that!” Boris quickly shook his head. Alice had a look of concentration written on her face. She then furrowed her eyebrows.

“We’re leaving now.” She said. Charley, Barley, Edgar, and Boris all looked at Alice with the same expression. Puzzled and shocked.

“Now?” Charley asks.

“Now.” Alice said. She walked over to the door and opened it. But Charley quickly shot in front of the door and blocked her exit.

“Hey now. Let’s think about this. We have the Devil involved and the government and a witch. Are you sure this is a good idea? Besides. Idaho is hours away from us. And neither of us can leave because everyone will be looking for us.” Charley quickly spilled all of the reality common sense out. But Alice furrowed her eyebrows.

“They need us. I doubt they know those ‘minions’ are after them. Alongside with the Devil himself. This has gotten serious. So everyone let’s go. We have a road ahead of us.” She was serious. A hint of malice dripped in Alice’s voice. Charley stared at Alice. Contemplating. He had no choice. One way or another some sort of altercation would happen.

“Whos car are we takin?” He muttered before moving away from the door.

-

“Thanks Wally! Love you!” Alice sat in the drivers

Seat as Boris sat in the passenger. Wally stood on the sidewalk watching the toons. Charley muttered under his breath as he slipped in the car. Alongside Edgar and Barley. No bags packed. Just them.

“Okay….uh..when will you be back?” Wally asks. Alice smiled innocently. “Soon! Bye!”

And with that. The car pulled out of the parking lot and down the road. Wally blinked—but he never questioned a thing..good thing his apartment was close by.

“Now. Let’s go get our friends…”

-

Pushing the doors open. The sound of various people talking. Cigars. Music—jazz and liquor wafted into the air. Y/n looked around and saw toons and humans together in the bar. All dressed in their Pristine clothing. Some at pool tables and booths interacting with one another.

The floor was made of mahogany wood. The dim golden lights after so lightly lighting the room. It had a warm feeling and not a feeling like that dinner that had that odd feeling of sticking out like a sore thumb.

“Thought the guy said our guy would be easy to find.” Donald said. He crossed his arms and his eyes looked around the area. There were toons in the building. And the person they were looking for could be any one of them.

“We could ask around.” Panchito piped up. But Donald scoffed. “Not that again!”

“Well. We have no other choice.” Bendy said. He looked around the building. At Least to find a hint of their target. Hopefully they would track the guy down more sooner than later.

“Let’s go sit in the meantime.”

The five had wandered over to an empty booth. And sat down. Feeling the tension in Y/n’s leg let go. Y/n relaxed in the booth and sighed in pure relief. “At Least for sure we won’t get kicked out from here.” Y/n told the four. Panchito and Donald sat across from Y/n. As Oswald sat next to her and Bendy sat next to Oswald. Sitting on the outside of the booth.

Taking the menu and opening it. Y/n absently went over what would be served in the bar. “What time is it?” Donald suddenly asked. Y/n took her phone from her pocket and glanced at the time. 8:14PM

“It’s 8PM.” She groaned. It was so late already! Suddenly the thought of where to sleep appeared in her mind. She looked over Bendy who was looking over at a small crowd of people.

“Bendy. Are we sleeping in a hotel tonight or are we still on the road?” She asks. Bendy turned his attention to Y/n. “Well. We hadn’t exactly found out what we needed from here—not to mention. We still need to find that toon that guy was talking about. More than likely we’ll stay in town for tonight.” He replied. Thank goodness. She didn’t think she could stay cramped up in the front seat much longer.

“So! Oswald. Where have you been for these past couple of years?” Donald asks. Turning his attention to the rabbit.

“I could ask the same for you, pal.” Oswald gave Donald a smile. Donald huffs before placing his head in his palm. “Watching my nephews. It was a headache. But they’re good kids.” Y/n perked up and placed her attention on Donald. “Oh? You have nephews?” She asks with a small smile. Donald nodded at her answer.

“They left with their mother a few weeks ago.” He said. To which Donald and Y/n strikes a conversation. First talking about his nephews talking about living in a boathouse. Which Y/n still saw as interesting. Within a few minutes. The sounds of cheering and laughing and clapping were heard. Causing the group to turn their heads over by the bar.

Bendy had been rubbing his temple as if his head was aching. He stopped when he heard the cheering and looked over to the bar. A toon was standing on the bars tops. From what it seemed to Y/n. He was a cat, with a white face and black fur. He had on a brown button up undershirt..an odd color for a button up. He had on a tanned faux leather bomber jacket. The shoulder pads seemed to be tanned like soft cotton. And the collar of his jacket was a sherpa design. Which also had that soft cotton look. He had on brown dress pants and brown loafers. An odd choice for his outfit. But that wasn’t Y/n’s business.

He also had on a brown cloth fedora hat. Which, now she’s thinking about it... He sort of resembles Indiana Jones. On his hip was a wrapped up rope underneath a yellow Fanny pack that was wrapped around his hips.

“It almost killed me! But I was too quick! It quickly tried to grab onto me with its claws—but. As quick as I was, it only nicked me.” The cat reached down and pulled his button up. Untucking it and lifting it up to show his torso. A healing wound was seen on the side of his torso. Three distinct claw marks ripped into his fur. The wound was pink which made it much more noticeable.

“That’s more than a nick!” One person shouts. The cat only smiles wider.

“Tell us more!” Another shouts. They obviously were intrigued by his story. He must have been the guy that was drawing that crowd over by that bar when they first walked in.

“Yes. Another. Let me buy you a drink lad. You must be thirsty from your last journey!” A man states. But the cat shook his head. Waving his hand he turned down the offer.

“Ah. No thank you sir. The only thirst I have. Is the thirst for adventure!” His statement made the crowd cheer loudly.

“Who is that guy?” Y/n asks as the cheering calmed down enough for her group to hear. Donald was the first to reply. “He’s this archeologist. I only know about him because my uncle reads his books. His name is Felix.” Donald explains. Yet seeing a renowned person was in the same building as him. He didn’t seem too excited though.

“I’ve heard of him too. I think he’s a cool guy.” Oswald said. His eyes still planted on the cat toon. Who was now off the counter speaking to someone. But Bendy didn’t seem too interested in the toon as he leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms. “That still doesn't answer our question as to where this person is we’re searching for…” he muttered. Y/n noticed his change in demeanor and energy. She leaned over Oswald slightly and pressed the back of her hand on Bendy’s forehead. The heat coming from his head gave a little warmth to Y/n’s chilled hand.

“Bendy, are you coming down with something?” She asks him. Before he could speak. Y/n removed her hand and spoke once again. “You need to rest. You’ve been up all day. I think it’s best if We all stay in town tonight.” She told the small group. Panchito looked away from the cat and placed his attention on Y/n. “You still have not eaten anything.” He told her. Y/n took in account that she indeed still hadn’t eaten anything. And it would be best to eat before they ventured off to do anything. And now it seemed they had a lot on their plate to get through.

“So. What are you in town for?” One of the patrons of the bar asks the cat. Y/n, Bendy, Oswald, Panchito and Donald looked over back at the bar and saw the cat was sitting on a stool facing a man—most likely no one important but their conversation caught their interest.

“I’m lookin’ for two fellow toons. I ran into them about four days ago because they were looking for something down here—to stop someone—that had something to do with a church I believe. They were talking so quickly I could barely latch onto what they were panicking about. So. I helped them here. Where the church was located. But an hour ago when we got here they were napped. Someone took them when I was off on the street asking for the location of the church.” The cat explained. Despite the sounds of the bar with the clattering dishes and murmured talking from other patrons. The group was able to hear the conversation crystal clear.

The cat must have felt the gaze of the five staring and listening to the conversation. His ear pivoted in the direction of their booth before he turned his head to look at the group. Bendy quickly grabbed the menu and lifted it up towards the end of the table to block his gaze. Using it as some sort of wall. Ducking his head. Y/n, Panchito, Oswald, and Donald followed the same as Bendy as they leaned into the table as if having a group meeting.

“Are we all thinking the same thing?” Y/n asks the toons. Bringing her voice down. Oswald glanced at her before he spoke.

“Well the man down the street did say something about someone looking for kidnapped victims. He might be the person we’re looking for.” Oswald said. Y/n sighed and placed both hands on her face to ease the tension. Why him?

“We can’t have him tag along. He more than certainly knows about the book. He’s a damn archeologist! And if he finds out we have it—lord knows what would happen to us.” She whispered to them. Bendy raised his finger to inject something. “Then again doll, he might know more info about the book than we do.” He said. Donald slowly raised an eyebrow.

“Okay—that’s nice. But what about those kidnapped victims? Are we looking for them..?” He then slowly pivoted his thumb towards Panchito—which he was really motioning towards the direction a few feet away at the bar where Felix was.

“—Or the cat?” He finished.

“Well we can’t look for the people that were taken. We don’t have any information on them. But he does.” Oswald answered Donald’s question. Hinting towards Felix. So making it clear. Felix was the person they were on the search for. And now. Someone they needed to lend a hand maybe for the night.

Bendy sets the menu down and sits properly in his seat. “Well I guess we all can agree that he’s helping us.” Bendy glanced at the group. Which they nodded in agreement. Y/n was about to add something else—about who would go to speak with the cat. But with luck on their side. The cat decided to come around himself.

“Hello!” The five looked at the end of the table and saw Felix was standing by the table. A smile planted on his face as he glanced individually at the group. The group was caught off guard by the cat's sudden appearance—other than Panchito. Who waved in return for his greeting.

Felix continued speaking before he placed his gaze on Bendy. “I notice you’re Bendy, right? From the show?” He asks. And Bendy slowly nods. Odd having someone who travels a lot know about his show—but he didn’t complain.

“I am.”

“Great! Nice to meet you! My name is Felix!” Felix took Bendy’s hand and shook it fiercely. Bendy’s smile twitched before widening. His arm trying to keep pace of the cats shaking.

“Hi, nice ta’ meet you too.” Bendy’s voice wavered and bounced from being shook like a doll. Felix let’s his hand go before digging into his Fanny pack. And pulling out a small notebook—not exactly a big notebook—but one of a size that shouldn’t exactly fit in the Fanny pack.

“I love your show! I find it funny. You know. I watch it from time to time when I’m just lounging around—whenever I get the chance.” As he spoke to Bendy he pulled out a pen from his pack and opened the notebook and passed it to Bendy. “Might I have your autograph if you don’t mind?” He asks.

“I—well—sure.” Bendy didn’t seem to know how to respond. Instead he took the pen and the notebook and wrote it down in the notebook. Felix then looked over and placed his gaze on the three that were staring at the cat.

“I’m assuming you all aren’t from around here?” He asks. Oswald shook his head. “No. Actually. We all aren’t exactly—it’s a long story—“

“We’re on a mission and we’re looking for someone—but we got word they were kidnapped at the last minute and some guy on the streets told us to come to you because you know the people who we are looking for to advance further in our objective. And we didn’t want to really bother you—but we really need to leave town by sunrise because we have a lot to do ahead of us because we’re running from these guys who are out to kill us! And if they find out we’re here—we’re dead a-“ Donald quickly slaps his hand over Panchito’s running mouth. Felix ears perk up—obviously his attention now fully on them.

“Sorry—it’s been a rough day—we..” Donald tried to think of a way to make the group seem less…fugitive-like and…predictable. Y/n could feel herself shrink—she didn’t exactly know what to say. Because either way—with explaining what they needed and who they were looking for a why would result in circling back around to the book—the book that was stolen—and obviously is wanted by various people…for some reason. For all she knows, Felix could potentially be someone that wanted the book like that…man in the trench coat..or. Take them in..either way. There were a lot of options.

Instead of anything hostile. Y/n saw the cat's tail slowly swaying from left to right as a smile appeared on his face.

“Am I glad I ran into you all then.” He said. Oswald lets out a perplexed yet shock noise. “You are..?” He asks slowly. Felix nods. “I’ve been searching for those two for hours. Unfortunately not many people are much help here. But now that I need you and you need me. We can make this easier by finding them. But my question is. What do you need them for? Are they friends?” Y/n knew this question would occur. One way or another. None of them replied. Instead glancing at each other waiting for each other's answer. Donald soon sighed.

“Follow us.”

-

Thump

Y/n placed the book on the counter. After leaving the bar. Felix led the group to a hotel room he was staying in for the time being. It was small—but comforting and out of reach of anyone else so the group—along with Felix. Can safely discuss amongst each other.

Felix's eyes widened when he saw the book Y/n placed on the counter. His tail wagged quickly as he quickly placed his paws on the book.

“Oh my! How did you all get your hands on this?!” He ran a finger over the embroidery on the leather book. He quickly turned around and looked at the five. He didn’t seem angry, too shocked or scared—but more ecstatic with seeing the book. How on earth did they get it? Y/n held her book bag close to her chest as she watched the cat. Standing next to Panchito, Y/n spoke up—for the first time to Felix.

“Well. It's a long story that we constantly had to repeat—which I’m sure we have to repeat many more times but, we promise we aren’t thieves or anything like that. We’re just doing what the book tells us—damn that sounds bad..” Y/n muttered the last part under her breath. Felix shook his head and smiled.

“No—no. I have so little information and notes on this book. There’s so much to learn about it. I only know the bare minimum.” Felix turned towards the book yet again. He was silent for a moment before he continued speaking.

“It’s a book created eons ago. The story seems like a fairytale. But I assure you. This is all real.” He picked up the book. But didn't try to open it. Instead Felix examined the leather casing on the book. After a few moments of silence. Felix continued talking again.

“This book holds a lot of power. Along with knowledge about life—“ He then turned around and faced the five who were looking at the cat. Felix then pressed a finger in the stitched name on the book.

“Hint the name.” He adds.

“So…it’s about the evolution of life..?” Y/n asks. Felix smiled but shook his head? Y/n was left perplexed. If the book wasn’t about life itself. Then what was the purpose of it?

“No. In fact. I don’t even know the meaning of it! No one does!” He laughs. Which only left Y/n more puzzled. Donald furrowed his eyebrows.

“What?! Aren’t you the guy with the brains? I thought you knew about this thing!” Donald shouts as his hands flew to his head to tug at his feathers. He didn’t take it well knowing how mostly everyone was aimlessly traveling around without a thought in their head. Which Y/n couldn’t blame him.

“Well. All I know is that this book has knowledge of people that it chooses—from my understanding. This book only awakens when great danger is near.” Felix explained. That was something Y/n assumed would be the answer. The book acts as some sort of warning. Hearing Felix say it. Was a relief in an odd way.

“When was the last time the book was awakened?” Y/n asks. Felix lifts a paw. And taps his chin with his claw. A look of contemplation ridden on his face.

“I don’t have a clue. Any sort of information on this book was held from the last holders and—-well they’re not here. All I know is that only the holders of the book are able to access it.” Felix said. He glanced down at the book before glancing back at the group. “Which is you all.”

“The people that were kidnapped. What did they come here for? The book led us to this town.” Bendy asks. Cycling back around to the main reason they all needed Felix. Felix nods firmly before passing the book back to Bendy. Who took it and tucked it under his arm.

“Yes! The brothers. Their names are Cuphead and Mugman. They came here because they were looking for a jewel I believe.” Felix reached into his Fanny pack as he spoke. He quickly pulled out a photo. And showed it to the five. The photo was a picture of a red ruby. Or a jewel. It was perfectly placed on a white pillow for display. Around it seemed to be something reflecting it. Like some sort of glass box was encasing it. Which raised the answer. Was the jewel another artifact?

“They were escaping the Devil—big guy—I don’t know if you all know about him.” Felix adds. Oswald nods as well as Bendy. Panchito, Donald and Y/n only stared at Felix for further information. The Devil? As in..

“Satan?” Y/n asks. Felix furrowed his eyebrows and contemplated yet again. “In a way—yes!” He answered.

“Wha—huh? Wait..are we talking about. Big furry guy? Horns. Yellow eyes? The one that runs a Casino on this small island near the Atlantic? That Devil?” Donald asks. Leaning forward slightly in disbelief. Whoever this guy was. He seemed like someone not to mess with. Felix nods at Donald’s statement.

“I…I apologize. I do not understand who this fellow is.” Panchito pipes up. Y/n looked away from the rooster and over to Felix. “Neither do I. I only know one guy who people referred to as the ‘Devil’. And that’s this weird guy that lives on our street that shaves his back in the morning every Sunday and when he shaves you can see this tattoo of a demon—“ Y/n crossed her arms and looked at the ceiling in thought.

“I think he was a biker…” she looked back at Oswald, Panchito, Donald, Bendy and Felix. Who all gave her a questioning look.

“Every Sunday? Jeez. How fast does that guy's hair grow?” Oswald asks before grimacing at the thought. Y/n rolled her eyes. “Tell me about it…” she muttered. Donald quickly got back on track by placing his gaze back on Felix.

“That doesn't matter. Why would they be running around from the Devil?” He asks. Felix placed the picture back into his Fanny pack and zipped the pack up as he started to speak yet again.

“They never told me. But they seemed to really try and get away. So I helped them. And got them here. Our plan was to find that jewel. That jewel comes from an ancient tomb on this island called Ruby Falls. Though the location doesn't matter. The jewel is here in Idaho. And last I checked in. It was in a convent.” Felix informed. Thank goodness he was a help. A church would be the last thing Y/n suspected to be a part of their journey.

“The jewel works as a shield. Keeping all negative spirits away. Which in all. Means. The Devil wouldn’t be able to touch them as long as they had that jewel with them.” Felix finished. Bendy’s grin wavered before he raised an eyebrow. “And how exactly were they going to get this jewel? Steal it from a bunch of nuns?” He asks.

“That’s something I don’t know! Never got to find that out!” Felix laughs.

“How do we even know these brothers are who we’re lookin’ for?” Donald asks. Turning his direction to his group. “For all we know we would be chasin’ people that we don’t even need.”

“It’s worth a shot. We don’t have much to go off of but this information we have here.” Y/n said.

“In the meantime. You all can stay here tonight?” Felix smiled. But his ears quickly perked up—as if he had just remembered something in the nick of time.

“Oh! I didn’t get your guy’s name! Besides Bendy of course.” Felix walked closer to the group. His attention sets on Y/n first as he lifts a paw and gently takes her hand in his to give a soft shake. “My name is Felix.” He introduces—as if by now Y/n didn’t know his name. The silly gesture caused her to smile. As she felt him shake her hand.

“My name is Y/n. Y/n L/n.” Felix smiled once more. “Nice to meet you, pretty lady.” He said softly. The cat took a moment to take in Y/n features. By surprise Y/n’s smile widened at the action when Felix looked over to Panchito. Who had been standing next to Y/n.

Felix spoke to Panchito, Oswald and Donald. Getting their names and striking an interesting conversation with Panchito and his home in Mexico. Where he explained he lived on a family farm owned by his father. The conversation went before Felix told the group to make themselves at home;

“Sorry for the mess—I didn’t expect guests.” Felix quickly tossed a book bag across the room. Where it landed by a couch. There were only two rooms. The living room. Which was connected to a small walk in the kitchen and bedroom. Which had one bed. Enough room for everyone to sleep for the night. Y/n had wandered over to a window that was by the couch seeing it was pressed against a wall. Peering out the window. She saw they were a few floors up. Maybe the 4th floor or so. But it was a nice view out in the street. The bar was actually across the street from the hotel. Peering down she could see people walking down the street—which begged the question.

“So. What’s up with this town? Weird clothes and stuff..” she asks. Turning around and surprisingly Felix was standing behind her—which she didn’t know. He was holding a blanket and pillow balled in his arms. Hearing the question he leaned over and placed the blankets on the couch.

“Well this town isn’t exactly ordinary to say the least.” He said. Moving to stand next to her he glanced out the window.

“This town likes to keep a tradition—well. If you would call it that. Singing is their passion. Ya’ know. Back then a lot of films had musical numbers and all that jazz. Very happy town I do say so.” That was..some odd information that she didn’t know even existed…

“A real life musical?” She asks. Her eyes glued on him. Felix turned to look at her before nodding. “Yeah! Something like that.”

“How come I haven't seen anyone sing yet?” She asks.

A town that spent their time in joy and ..singing? Certainly that was something she would like to see.

“Oh trust me. You’ll hear it sooner or later. You should head to bed. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.” Y/n nods at his statement as Felix turns around to walk off. Still stuck on the fact the town was like a musical film! Certainly she was sure it was down to annoy her friends sooner or later—-mainly hinting towards Donald. But with fatigue now creeping onto her every so slightly. Y/n turned towards the couch. She kicked off her shoes before she placed the book bag down on the floor as well. She sat down on the couch and lifted the blanket and laid it over her shoulders. Looking over she saw Bendy sitting on the floor with a blanket. Along with Oswald, Panchito and Donald. Felix had left his room to give everyone space and quiet.

“What are you guys doing on the floor?” She asks. The four turned their heads away from the TV that was one and held their attention. They looked at Y/n and Bendy spoke up.

“We all can’t fit on the couch.” He said. Y/n glanced at the couch. And he was right. The couch wouldn’t fit five people. Nor was the couch a pullout. But Y/n didn’t want the four to sleep on the floor. Y/n grabbed her blanket and pillow and stood up from the couch before she wandered over to the group and plopped down on the floor as well.

“I guess we’re all sleeping on the floor then.”

“Oh yay! It’s like a slumber party.” Panchito sets his sombrero down away from the group before he nicked Y/n’s blanket and tossed the warm cloth over her and his own form.

“Whatever you all do. Please don’t sleep wild. I don’t need someone’s foot in my face in the mornin’” Donald turned over to lay down. Lifting the blanket to his beak.

And there. They all had their peaceful sleep.

-

“Now stay ya’ asses quiet, my boss’ll be here soon.” Doug fixed his tie on his blazer. Walking away from the cage Cuphead and Mugman were still seated in.

Cuphead seemed to have run out of energy to shout at the two toons. Moving his eyes from Doug who had his back turned to the cage. Fixing his tie and speaking to another toon—or henchman—what Cuphead was now referring to them to. Soon Doug turned around and looked at Jack who was standing around idly.

“Put the cage on the carrier and take it to the next room.” Doug told Jack who had snapped from out of the dazed expression and nodded quickly

Jack stumbled over to the cage picking it up and putting it on the carrier. “Yes sirrrrr!” Jack drawled. Doug then snapped his fingers impatiently. “Hurry! The lady will pay us handsomely when she sees those two!”

Cuphead and Mugman shuffled slightly at the sudden movement of Jack pushing the cart. Cuphead yelped as he tipped over and crashed into Mugman. Causing Mugman to get stuck between the bars of the cage and Cuphead. Mugman wheezes before shoving Cuphead’s form off him with a heavy groan. Cuphead muttered before he watched Jack pushing the carrier to another room in the warehouse.

“Where are you taking us?” Mugman asks, placing his hands on the bar to look at Jack. Who then sniffed and wiped his nose momentarily.

“The garage area. It’s where all my friends are.” Jack replied. Cuphead punched Mugman’s shoulders. Mugman rammed into the cage at the impact. A painful expression written on his face. “Ow! What was that for?!” Mugman hissed at Cuphead.

“Don’t talk to him.” Cuphead nonchalant in response.

“But you talked to him earlier!” Mugman pouts.

“Correction. I was trying to be condescending, you’re tryin’ to make pal-pal with this idiot.” Cuphead whispered to Mugman. Grabbing Mugman by his shoulder to speak to him more closely.

Mugman gasped softly—rather dramatically—and furrowed his eyebrows. “Cuphead...that’s not nice.” He said. Cuphead gave him a blank expression before looking at Jack.

“What’s 2 plus 4 Jack?”

“Negative 7!”

Cuphead looks at Mugman. Who still had his gaze on him. But he didn’t seem to care about the fact that Jack completely got a math question wrong. The two were interrupted by the sound of metal doors flinging open. The two cup brothers faced forward as the cage entered the new room. The fluorescent lights illuminated the room as the cage was placed down. Cuphead and Mugman’s expression immediately deadpanned at the sight of various figures.

“Well—howdy doo!” Zip cackled. Shooting from behind a man cloaked in a trench coat. Cuphead didn’t pay attention to the shadow like toon. And turned his gaze over to a figure he was very familiar with.

“Ah! Dice. Long time no see—is that a new mustache?” Cuphead smiled. Standing up—more crouching in the cage before he wrapped his hands around the bars in front of him to look at Dice. Dice didn’t respond as he held a stoic expression—before rolling his eyes.

“Out of all people…” he mutters.

Mugman looks away from Dice and the odd man in the trench coat to see a woman. She wore a black dress—flats—a sharp gaze settled on the two—next to her was a duck toon. Raven black hair. Dark eyes—and a black dress..what an odd group…

“Country boys…” the duck’s voice was stained with disdain. She sighed before shaking her head. Cuphead could hear the disgust in the ducks before he placed his gaze back on her and sneered.

“Why are we here?” Cuphead skipped the jokes and introduction as he glowered at the group.

“You two have a pretty simple job.” Dice finally speaks up. Mugman shivered slightly. They were dead they were dead they were dead—they are going to die!

“No.” Cuphead responds. Mugman immediately shoots up from his seated position and covers Cuphead’s mouth.

“I—he means—what—what is the—what’s the offer?” Mugman stammered. But Cuphead didn’t budge. He pushed Mugman’s hand away and pointed at Dice.

“And I said no! We—“

“You—“ Mugman quickly added as he nervously grinned at Dice. Cuphead then points his thumb to his chest harshly—pointing to himself.

“I’ve had enough of these games! Just let us go! We want nothing to do with you nor that crybaby Devil either!” He shouts. Susan smiled before looking at King Dice. “That’s one fiesta cup.” She chuckled. King Dice rolled his eyes. “Tell me about it…” he muttered.

“Well. If you won’t listen to me. Listen to him.” King Dice raised a hand. Placing his middle finger to his thumb in a motion of snapping.

“Crap…” Mugman mutters. And with a snap of his fingers. The two felt the ground leave their shoes and into the dark—hot world.

“AAAAAAAH!!!”

Crash!!

Laying flat on his face. Cuphead lets out a heavy yet pain filled groan. His arms sprawled out and his shoes almost beat touching his head. Mugman on the other hand was caught by his shirt by a long appendage. Mugman had his eyes covered. His body curled into himself as if he were cowering from the ground he thought would be his demise. Cuphead’s gaze slowly left the red dusted colored stone ground—he squints as he gazed around his surroundings—almost familiar to a cave—humid—hot—real hot…

Cuphead’s blurred gaze soon landed on Mugman—who had yet to uncover his eyes. Cuphead heaved himself up as he stared up at Mugman. His blurry eyes soon subsided and his eyes trailed over to what had caught Mugman by his shirt. Tracing the long black appendage which soon landed on the imp that stood still—gleaming down at Cuphead with its bright fierce golden eyes. The Devil.

“You gots to be kiddin’ me…” Cuphead whispered to himself. The Devil’s ear twitched and his tail slowly lowered to the ground. Placing Mugman on his feet. Once Mugman felt the ground beneath his shoes he brought his hands down slowly and glanced over at the Devil with frightened furrowed eyebrows.

“Long time no see you two.” The Devil grins widely. Cuphead sneers before he takes several steps to the Devil. Pointing an index finger up at the imp.

“Now you listen here! I have answers that need questions!” He shouts. The Devil immediately deadpans and rolls his eyes.

“I believe you mean questions that need answers…” he corrects the cup. Cuphead sputters before glaring yet again at the Devil.

“What’s the big idea! What do you need from us? We’ve done what you’ve asked the last time—I told ya! Our deal with you—is off. It’s over!” Cuphead shouts. Mugman rubs his forehead in an anxious manner.

“Cuphead—stop.” Mugman grunts. But Cuphead didn’t listen.

“You two still owe me one more deal. That was our agreement. 3 deals. You’ve done two so far. And this shall be your last objective for me. And it is important.” The Devil explained calmly. Placing his hands behind his back. His golden eyes looked at the two in an attentive manner. The corner of Cuphead’s lip twitched as he gleamed up at the imp.

“No more deals.” He repeats. Though the Devil smiled—he’d expected this from the hardheaded cup. The Devil lifts a hand and points at Mugman—who had yet to speak. Mugman felt himself shrink under the Devil’s gaze. “You’ll do this deal—or you’ll lose him. The choice is yours.” He calmly said. Cuphead glanced over at Mugman. Mugman raised his eyebrows.

“Wait—who me? Huh?” Mugman sputters. Placing a hand on his chest. “Death is inevitable for everyone. But I can and will take something precious away from you Cuphead if you don’t comply. As said this is your last deal and you two won’t have to hear or see from me ever again.” The Devil said. Cuphead sighed through his nose harshly.

“But if you don’t. Mugman will die. I do own you both after all—but on the bright side! Haha! Hey! After you two finish this deal. You two won’t be owned by me anymore! This is a win-win deal here!” The Devil lets out an airy laugh. Mugman shuffled under his feet.

“What do we have to do?” Cuphead asks. The devils ears perked up. “All you have to do. Is take and eliminate.” He answers.

“Wait—no! We can’t—no!” Mugman rushes between the Devil and Cuphead. Spreading his arms to intervene. Mugman then looks at the Devil.

“We can not do that! We can’t kill anyone! I apologize—but this is way out of me and Cuphead’s bargain—“

“We’ll do it.” Cuphead replied. The Devil hummed before looking at Mugman. Mugman sighed before shoving Cuphead away and fully facing The Devil.

“I can’t..I can’t do that—I—I can’t just hurt someone.” Mugman pleads.

“Why Mugman I didn’t even tell you if they were even good or not! For all I know I could be sending you two to take out one of the world's most wanted criminals!” The Devil laughs. Mugman frowns. “I can guarantee you that they more than likely aren’t.” Mugman said. The Devil grins before nodding.

“You’re right. They aren’t.” He chuckled. Cuphead soon spoke up. “Like I said. We’ll do it. What do we need to do.” Cuphead went back to the topic at hand. And the Devil wasted no time.

“A book. You two are off to capture a book. You will retrieve that book and bring it back to me. As for the people that are holding the book. You will take someone by the name of Oswald. And kill one person—she’s a useful source that needs to be stopped.”

“And her name is Y/n L/n.”

-

Y/n felt her nose twitch. It felt like something was crawling on her nose. The light touch on the tip of her nose felt soft. But caused her nose to twitch yet again. She furrowed her eyebrows and lifted a hand to rub at her nose. But was met with something soft. Her eyes fluttered open. The smell of something sweet wafted in the air. But her focus was more on touching her nose to see what it was that was bothering it.

To Y/n’s surprise; it was Oswald’s ear. The rabbit was asleep. And his ears must have flopped over in her direction. Y/n places a hand on his ear to gently move it away. The sudden feeling over his ear caused him to awaken. His onyx eyes slowly and heavily opened. He must have been awfully tired. He smiled at her softly and Y/n returned the smile.

“I made breakfast.” Y/n flinched at the sound of Felix’s voice. As well as Oswald. The two glancing above them to see Felix hovering over them. Arms behind his back with a smile.

-

“So. First thing we need to do ask around town if they found any details last night about—“ Y/n ignored Felix and was busy stuffing her mouth with the pancakes he made—she didn’t know if the fluffy pancakes were so delicious because she was yearning for food for the past several hours or if they really were just some really good pancakes. Panchito watched Y/n as he held his fork. A smile stretched on his beak. Boy was she eating fast!

But Felix hadn’t noticed as he was busy going over today’s routine with everyone—which actually mostly consisted of Bendy listening to him. Donald was trying not to drift back off to sleep. As he had the bottle of syrup in his hand. The syrup substance had long over spilt on his plate and was now dripping on the counter. Oswald hadn’t eaten his pancakes—he must not have been hungry. But overall..majority of them were distracted and weren't listening to a damn thing Felix was saying.

“So!” Felix clapped his hands. Causing Donald to jump in his seat and quickly place the syrup bottle upright and put his attention on Felix, Panchito and Y/n to quickly place their attention on Felix and Oswald to snap daydreaming and place his attention on Felix as well. Felix thought he had their attention the whole time. Smiled with glee.

“You all got that? That’s the plan!” He says. Bendy looked at the four. He could tell they didn’t take in a single thing of info.

-

“Okay. I think it would be best if we all would split up.” Felix said as he looked at his wrist watch. He and the group stood on the pavement. In the early hours. It was around Looking away from his wrist watch he looked at the group. Counting before nodding. “Luckily we have an even group.” He says.

“Oh! Can we pick our partners?” Panchito asks. And Felix nods—“well of course.” He said in the background as Panchito hops over to Y/n and hooked his arm around hers. Y/n smiled as she stood next to Panchito as the others took their partners as well. Bendy went with Felix and Oswald went with Donald. An even group—thankfully.

Leaving out Panchito practically was skipping down the sidewalk in joy. Y/n scrolled through her phone for a mere few minutes before she placed it in her pocket and looked over at Panchito.

“You think we’ll even find them in town?” She asks. Panchito took a moment to think. “Ah—a slim chance. We'd have already run into them by now.” He replies.

“But. I’m more on the optimistic side.” He smiled at her and Y/n smiled back—their characteristics should be too hard to see as the brothers—from what Felix explained—literally had cups for heads. So they would be easy to spot. Rounding the corner. As Panchito and Y/n were in a deep conversation—Y/n accidently ran into someone. Not paying attention. Y/n was gladly able to keep her balance, opening her eyes that she didn’t realize she closed on the impact. She looked in front of her to see who she had accidentally ran into. Not before placing a hand on her forehead after feeling the pain starting to travel on her forehead. She must have run into them pretty hard.

Standing in front of her was a toon. Also holding his forehead—his head was as shaped as a ceramic pale gray cup. He had a red nose and wore a black dress shirt with brown shorts. He held his eyes closed as he muttered under his breath—damn. She must have run into him pretty hard.

“Sorry! I wasn’t paying attention.” Y/n sheepishly apologized. Removing her hand from her forehead. The toon slowly opened his eyes and looked at both Panchito and Y/n. He held a sour expression but that was until he took a moment to stare at Y/n.

“Oh—uh—No. I’m sorry—I should have been payin’ attention.” He apologizes, speaking slowly as if he were unsure. As for Y/n it were as if a brick was tossed at her face to bring her back to reality. Wait.

“What’s your name?” They both ask in unison. Both Cuphead and Y/n put on a surprised expression. Cuphead quickly then replied. “My name is Cuphead.” He replied. Y/n felt her heart leap in her throat. Well what do ya know?! Look at how quick they were able to find one of the brothers! How long have they been just wandering around town?

Gasping slightly. Y/n smiled. “Hey! Aren’t we glad we ran into you—me and a couple of friends of mine have been looking for you and your brother.” She explained. And Cuphead couldn’t wipe the look of awe off his face—what is he supposed to do now?! He can’t just kill the poor girl. Not to mention—

“You’re pretty!” He nervously exclaims. Y/n stopped talking slowly as she stared at him before she smiled yet again. “Oh—thank you.”

“Qué nombre tan extraño…” Panchito mumbled under his breath. As he stood beside Y/n and gazed upon Cuphead.

Panchito then softly nudges Y/n’s arm.

“No. No sé de él.” Panchito told her before putting his gaze on Y/n. Y/n looks away from Cuphead and to Panchito.

“What’s wrong?” She asks him. Panchito grabs Y/n by her arms softly and directs her to face the opposite direction of Cuphead. “I don’t know about him.” Panchito lowered his voice for only him and Y/n to hear. The sound of various footsteps and murmured voices of people in the town were seemingly muffled to Y/n’s ears.

Cuphead stood behind the two. His eyes found sight of Y/n’s book bag that she had strapped around her shoulders—more than likely he assumed that’s where she kept the book.

“Why?” Y/n asks Panchito. “Do you think it is odd that we spent hours last night searching for him and his brother and no sight? And seemingly we now run into them?” He asks. Which. Y/n agreed. The town wasn’t that big from the looks of it. They should have ran into the brothers hours ago last night—but then again—seemingly they were kidnapped. And Cuphead didn’t show any sign of stress from being taken—then again she knew nothing about Cuphead nor his brother.

“Yeah…I guess you’re right.” Y/n muttered.

“Hey—sorry to interrupt—“

Y/n and Panchito both flinched at the sight of Cuphead standing in front of them.

“But. Do you two know Felix? The guy we came to town with.”

-

DING!

“OH! Look! Oswald! Look!” Donald points at the game stand in front of the two—Oswald looked away from whatever he was gazing at and looked over to Donald and then the stand his friend had been playing at. The two managed to come across a small fair in town. A few stalls held games and unfortunately Donald grew distracted and started to play the silly game—tossing the baseball in a bucket—much to Oswald's mind it didn’t interest him.

“You’ve played this 3 times already Donald.” Oswald told him. Donald looks at the stall and back at Oswald. “You must be the fun guy at parties.” Donald grunts before he walks past Oswald and down the dirt path. A few people walked by to have fun on their own at the fair. Oswald's ears perked up slowly before looks behind him. He then started walking slowly—following after Donald.

“Is it just me. Or do you have this weird feelin?” Oswald asks. Donald opened his eyes after walking with his eyes closed for a few seconds. He had an expression of contemplation on his face. Before he dismissed the thought. “You think always like that.” He grins triumphantly. Maybe in a way to get back at Oswald’s last remark. Oswald blinks before squinting his eyes. “No I don’t.” Oswald quickly reputed.

“I’m joking..” Donald laughs. The two walked down the fair, the sound of murmured voices and games wafts in the background.

“But really. You hadn’t told me anything about what you’ve had going on.” Donald picks up. Oswald looks at Donald. “Well..nothing too exciting happened lately.” He started before looking ahead of the two again. Oswald’s ears slowly flattened. “Just been hangin’ around.” He finished. Donald’s tail feather flickered as he looked away from Oswald. When he knew Oswald the rabbit was very outgoing and straightforward. But he couldn’t find the sense in himself to keep pestering the rabbit.

Trying to think of another topic to push aside the now awkward silence—before Donald could say anything. Oswald turned his gaze back on Donald. “I’m sorry I left suddenly.” He said abruptly. Donald looks at Oswald as the two slowly start to trail off with their walking before standing still.

“I’ve…been meaning to tell you that for years—and the others of course. But more importantly you because well—you were always there.” His voice was quiet but Donald could still understand and hear every word that came from Oswald’s mouth.

“I feel horrible for what I said and—and I didn’t mean it—Especially not towards you—I was angry and sad and at times I can’t really control that because…” Oswald trailed off. His ears felt flat against his head before reaching a hand up to wringe nervously at his ear. “A lot has happened when you and the others were away that I tried to get myself through and I couldn’t..” he trailed off yet again and Donald felt himself frown.

“Oswald. You don’t need to apologize. I’m always here to talk. What ha—“

Pew!

THUD!

A light blue light of energy whizzed between Donald and Oswald. Oswald’s ears quickly shot up. As Donald quaked in fear before jumping away from Oswald.

“Bettigan! Don’t do that!” Shouts a voice. Oswald and Donald quickly shoot their heads over to see 3 figures. A lanky stack of casino chips. In a western get up outfit holding onto the wrist of a cup headed figure. With a blue nose black sweater and blue shorts. Floating in the air was black 8 ball.

“HAHAHA! THat was funny! You almost got em’ Mugs!” Shouts the 8-ball as he cackled.

“That’s not funny. You almost caused a scene you nut!”

“Is that…?” Oswald whispered. Donald slowly nods. “I think.”

“Should we?—“

“Run!” Donald dashed past Oswald and grabbed onto the rabbit's wrist and dragged him down the fair.

“Hey. They’re gettin’ away!” The 8 ball cried out. Mugman looks away from Bettigan—one of the few partners he was assumed to be before looking over at where Donald and Oswald stood.

“Come on your idiots!” Bettigan laughs before he runs after the two in the general direction they headed. Mugman and Mangosteen followed after Bettigan.

“I thought he was on our side!” Donald shouts as the two run out of the fair and back into town. Oswald huffs before throwing his hands in the air. “I did too!”

“Do we find Felix!?” Donald asks.

“We need to find So—OW!” Oswald’s ears dropped low to steer clear from the blue peashooter that whizzed past them yet again. Donald looks behind them to see the three were indeed after them—the town didn’t seem to take heed that the peashooter was a dangerous weapon as it didn’t seem dangerous at all. So they kept on with their day.

Oswald soon ran into someone knocking the two onto the ground. “Ow! Hey!” That voice! Looking down he saw Y/n who had squinted her eyes from the sudden impact.

“Oh. There you two are.” Panchito stops walking as he turns around to see Oswald quickly shooting from the ground dragging Y/n along with him. Cuphead stopped walking as well but didn’t face the group as he saw Bettigan, Mangosteen and Mugman running over. Mostly Bettigan holding Mugman by his handle and Mugman holding a sour expression.

“Run! Go!” Donald shouts as he shoves Panchito with him. “What’s going on?!” Y/n said as Oswald took her wrist and they jogged off with Panchito and Y/n.

“Hey! You didn’t get the girl?! I just saw her!” Bettigan said as he skids to a stop to stand in front of Cuphead. Cuphead sends a glare to the cowboy. “I was going to you idiot!” Not entirely true.

“They’re gettin’ away. The girl has the book.” Cuphead picked up Mugman from Bettigan and placed his brother on the ground.

“Are ya’ sure?” Bettigan asks. Cuphead nods. “Yes! It’s in her book bag. But I wants the girl. You all stay away from er’” he sneers as he eyed Mangosteen and Bettigan.

“What? Why—“

“I said so! Now go catch that rabbit!”

“Aye aye. Capn’” Mangosteen cackles before In a blink of an eye that magical 8 ball vanished in thin air.

-

The four ran down the sidewalk—that surprisingly didn’t have many people as it was still the early morning.

“Where is Bendy and Felix?!” Y/n shouts as the four rounded the corner. “Don’t know! The town is small, sure we’ll run into them.” Donald shouts.

“Okay! New plan! Forget the last plan! Keep the book safe! And don’t die!” Oswald shouts. Panchito smiled. “Sounds delightful!”

Soon a black dot formed in front of the two. Two eyes rolled around as well as a smile forming an 8 ball with a face?

The 8 ball opened his mouth and a light illuminated within its mouth and a loud vibrating sound hummed as if some sort of weapon was starting up. As the sound got louder the light grew brighter and brighter. The four took wind that they needed to stop running. The four skidded to a stop just as they were about to get too close to the 8 ball. A light of energy soon shot from the 8 balls mouth and landed on the sidewalks creating a small explosion. Unfortunately being too close and not having enough time to react. The impact caused a powerful force and Y/n flew back. Not knowing whenever the others were she felt herself land somewhere soft.

“Hey—I know this is sudden—“ quickly opening her eyes she was face to face with Cuphead who held a nervous grin. Y/n shrieks before swinging her fist and it collides with Cuphead’s temple—unbeknownst of her his cup head was..well actually a cup. And the solid ‘tink!’ Made that known as the pain surged through her hand and through Cuphead’s head. “Ow!” He shouts as his hands fly up to his head. Y/n fell to the ground and immediately scurried away. Tripping over her shoes she ran past Cuphead and across the street where she thankfully didn’t get hit by any passing cars.

“No wait!” Cuphead shouts before groaning heavily in frustration.

Donald quacks in fear as he runs in the opposite direction. Taking Oswald by his ears and Panchito by the collar of his shirt. Dragging the two—more so Oswald. Donald ran the opposite direction to avoid the 8 ball.

“Who are these people?!” Donald shouts. As Panchito ran beside him. “Ow! Let go of my ears!” Oswald cried out as Donald shoved the two in an alleyway—Panchito heaves before turning around.

“Ah! Where is Y/n?!”

-

Y/n ran down an alleyway. Hopping over forgotten garbage and trash bags. She heard footsteps behind her and she felt her heart leaping in her chest. She was going to die! She was going to DIE!

She skids around a corner and sees a dead end. A garbage dump against the brick wall. If she could hop that she could get to the roof!

“Fuck am I thinking?!” She quickly disputed the thought. She couldn’t do that—she wasn’t in a movie. This was real life! She panicked as she heaved out of breath to try and catch her breath. She paced back and forth until she heard the sounds of the footsteps getting closer. Turning around she spotted Cuphead.

He heaved and tried to catch his breath as he frowned. “Jeez—you’re fast—“ he heaved. Y/n quickly stooped down and picked up a few rocks and pebbles. She quickly yet harshly threw one at the toon and it hit him in his face—some landing on him as some didn’t. Cuphead flinched and raised his hands up.

“Ow! Listen! Ow! Stop! I’m not here to hurt y—ow! I don’t wanna hurt you! I’m just here for the book!” He shouts. The minute he mentioned the book. Y/n felt herself jerk backwards. The familiar tug caused her to drop the rocks in shock. Her shoes slightly lifted from the ground from the book now awakening in her book bag and the dumpster vibrated and echoed at the impact of her shoes.

“No—no-no.” Y/n quickly tried to run past Cuphead—but the book dragged her back over to the toon—undoubtedly running into Cuphead sending the two to the ground.

“Ow!”

“What was that?!”

The two shouts. Y/n quickly got up before turning to face the streets and running off yet again. “HEY!” Cuphead shouts.

Y/n almost tripped over a stroller a mother was pushing. Y/n glanced over her shoulder and shouted a quick apology to the mother. “Sorry!”

Looking back ahead. Y/n tried glancing around the town for her friends but to no sight she didn’t see anyone. Breathing heavily through her nose. Y/n looking over on the porch of a house. There sat. Water gun. Not a weapon but she was sure it would come in handy. Her fight or flight mode was kicking and she was desperate for survival and protection. Grabbing the toy gun she ran down the sidewalk and looking around.

“Guys!” She shouts in spite of catching the attention of her friends—but instead. Catching the attention of a certain cowboy.

“Well looksy here!” Bettigan shouts. Y/n stops jogging before turning around and spotting the toon. Bettigan flicks his hat up and grins at Y/n. “Put em up—cow girl—“ he demands. Y/n blinks as she shuffled on her feet. The sidewalk had little to no one to hide behind but she still felt crowded. She quickly lifts the toy gun up and glares at the opposing opponent. “Stay back!” She shouts!

Bettigan stared at Y/n for a moment before reaching to his side and pulling out a pistol—in fact..it was real. Not ever having a weapon pointed at her. Y/n—like a wimp. Dropped the toy gun and raised her hands up in fear.

“Drop the bag.” The gun motioned for Y/n to turn around. But Y/n felt her mind go foggy. HOW WAS NO ONE SEEING THIS?!

“Come on now..drop it.” Y/n slowly took the book bag off her shoulders before placing it on the ground. Bettigan smiled—but before he could talk. Something whizzed in the air and knocked the pistol from his grip.

“Bettigan! I told ya’ don’t kill her! What are y—“

“You idiot I had her right there she has the bag in the ground!” Y/n saw Cuphead walk over pointing his index finger at Bettigan’s chest out of fits of anger.

“She’s right there!” Bettigan motions over to Y/n. Only to find.

“Where did she go?” Bettigan muttered.

-

Y/n tripped over her shoes as she rounded yet another corner. She rushes past a street where a quiet neighborhood resides. On the whim she heard two voices! One she was familiar with.

“Hey! Watch the horns!” It was Bendy!

Y/n skids to a stop and looks down the street. Standing on the side of a building was a tall lanky figure. He was furry, dark and…his horns were large and he had Bendy by his tail. Bendy hung upside down as he gazed up at this creature.

“Where’s the rabbit?” The creature asks. Y/n could only see the back of the creature and see Bendy being held. Y/n wasted no time before she ran over. Picking up a rock from the ground and chucking it in the air.

“Put him down!!!” She shouts. The rock hits the creature at the back of its head. It was a hard hit but not enough to deter the creature. But enough to make him turn around and gaze over his shoulder to the girl. It’s yellow eyes pierced into Y/n’s form.

Yellow eyes, black fur, horns.

“Oh shit…” she whispered.

The Devil drops Bendy before turning to Y/n. Bendy soon scurried away from the creature and over to Y/n. His arm looping around Y/n’s waste and picking the girl up to run from the neighborhood.

“What are you nuts?! You just hit the Devil!” Bendy shouts at her. Y/n frowned as she looks over Bendy’s

Shoulder—not seeing the creature anymore.

“I didn’t know that was him!” She cried out in fear. Bendy slowly stops running as he looks around frantically.

“Do you still have the book?” He asks her. Y/n felt him put her down. “Yeah, where’s Felix?” Y/n asked. Bendy looks back at her. “I dunno. The guy wandered off. No wonder he lost the twins!” Bendy sneered. Y/n breathed heavily trying to grasp onto her breathed as she looked around.

“I can’t find the others.” Y/n huffed

“Me ei—“

“a…a…a…a..” a distant scream echoed in the air.

Y/n and Bendy looked at each other as they heard the distant screaming grow closer.

“aaaaaAAAAAAAAHH!!!” Oswald had soon flown into Bendy and Y/n and the three had unfortunately rammed into a glass pane window of a store; the glass shattered into shards as the three fell into the store. A few screams of the pediatricians pierced the air. And Y/n felt wind get knocked from her lungs. Y/n rolled on the ground. The glass shards sticking to her shirt, pants and bag, Bendy groaned in pain as Oswald did as well. The sound of feet slapping the concrete grew closer.

“Guys! Are you okay?!” It was Donald. Y/n felt her eyes go blurry from the sudden impact. She groaned at the feeling of air not being able to properly cycle around her lungs. Soon Panchito and Donald hopped into the store through the broken glass. Donald reached down and helped Y/n up. Y/n groaned as she stood up slowly. Closing her eyes to help regain her balance.

Oswald slowly got up as Panchito looked down at Oswald. A few cackled and laughs echoed in the air—similar to being surrounded by a pack of hyenas. Y/n opened her eyes to see Bettigan, Mangosteen, Cuphead and she assumed his brother Mugman was standing in front of the broken glass pane. A few imp like creatures with different shades of red fur—there had to be at least 8 imp creatures that stood next to the now villainous people that weren’t on their side.

Mangosteen had yet again opened his mouth—like how he did to throw the energy ball at them earlier—but instead. Y/n felt herself slightly lift from the ground and her book bag unzipped and the book soon slipped from the bag leaving Y/n to tumble to the ground. Bendy had caught her and held her by her waist.

“No!” Y/n protested as the book floated over to the group. “Nice running around. I’ll give you all that.” The western cowboy—Bettigan praised. His voice was deep and husky. The book was an arms length away from him as he reached out to grab the book. But instead;

Whip!

A thick lasso rope embraced around the book. With a tug the book was pulled away from the beam of energy that was pulling it closer to the opposing group—being snatched off the go side where it landed in the hands of Felix. Felix stood in the doorway entrance of the store. A couple of customers cowered behind a shelf that stood next to him.

“I don’t think so.” Felix smiled at Bettigan. Bettigan huffed before pointing at the group. “Get em!”

With a blink of an eye. Donald, Y/n, Panchito, Bendy, Oswald and Felix dashed from the store. Almost tripping over her feet. Y/n ran down the sidewalk with her friends to seemingly nowhere—their main objective was to just get away from their opposing team.

“Where are we going?!” Y/n shouts as she and the others found themselves on the main street of the town once again.

“I don’t know!” Felix shouts—but he didn’t seem to sense the danger they were in. Instead enjoying the cat and mouse chase that ensued. He then grunts before looking down at his hands where he held the book.

“Ow! Hey—it’s burning me!” Felix said curiously. He tossed the book over to Y/n and she caught it. “Maybe it—AH!”

Y/n was dragged back, her arms being tugged harshly by the book. It lifted her from the ground with great strength. Y/n shrieks as she feels herself seemingly get tossed backwards and ramming into someone.

“Ow!” Shouts a voice but she couldn’t match the voice to the face as she and the person fell and rolled on the ground—rolling in a few summersaults from the impact. With adrenaline pumping she didn’t take much time to get up as she did the first couple of times. Sitting up and looking over. She was met face to face with an exhausted looking Mugman.

“Ah!” The two scream before backing away from each other. Her back hits the car that was parked off to the side of the street.

“Gotcha! You brat!” Y/n felt someone take ahold of her hood and lift her up yet again. She sunk into her jacket and aimlessly kicked and tossed her legs. “Ah! Let me go!” She protested. Swinging her arms back, try and hit whoever had her hold by her hood. Looking off to the side she saw the book laid aimlessly on the ground in the middle of the street.

“Mugman! Get the book and take it to Mango! I’ll deal wit’ da girl!” An accented voice shouts. Mugman stared at Y/n momentarily before he slowly backed away and scurried off towards the book. Y/n was dropped to the ground. She fell to her knees and before she had the time to get up and run off. She was grabbed by her shoulders and flipped around onto her back. A foot pressed into her torso. She gazed up at the person to see that they were a toon. A fox toon in a red suit. He looked to be some sort of pimp.

“Alright Noid. Heard ya’ve been givin’ my boss problems.” He sneered. Leaning down as his nose pressed against Y/n’s. Y/n glared at the toon. “I dunno who you’re talking about! I don’t even know what you guys are after us for!” She shouts.

“The book! Where’s the rabbit?” He got to the point. Y/n was silent for a moment as she stared up at him. “Oswald?” She asks.

“Yes, him—“

“What makes you think I’ll tell you!” She tried to swing at the fox. But he backed away before her fist could make an impact on his face. He holds his belly and laughs boisterously. “HAHAHAHA! OH man! You’re too good kid!” He laughs. He reaches behind his back and pulls out a pistol.

“Too bad you gotta be put out da’ picture.” He aims the gun at Y/n. Y/n wheezed slowly as she saw the weapon. Her fingertips running cold. She was going to die! She tried to sink into the concrete road away from the barrel. She could see the black hole pointing at her eye. But before the fox could pull the trigger. A loud thud was heard above Y/n. The creaking off a car and the alarm on the car went off—letting her know something heavy must have landed on it. The fox lowers the gun and looks up.

An animalistic growl rumbled the ground and Y/n shivered at only thinking what creature was there to kill her now?! She slowly moves her head to roll her eyes back to glance behind her. She only could see a large silhouette crouching on the alarmed car. She didn’t wasn’t to move too much in fear of having that fox toon wanting to quickly finish the job and shoot her.

“Let. Her. Go.” It was no one she was too familiar with. It couldn’t be any of her toon friends. Y/n cursed under her breath

But instead the fox's ears lowered as he lifted his foot from Y/n’s torso. “Go on. Take the girl.” He retaliated. Or so what Y/n assumed he did. The creature took a step from the car. And Y/n could feel purgatory chanting her names. She was going to die. She should have listened to her mom! Just stay in the house! This was crazy! She didn’t even know what she was doing! Should she just give them the book?!

“Whoa!”

Thud!

Whoever the big and bad creature was must have taken a step too wide and fell off the car. And fell face first into the ground. Deciding to take a look at this mystery hero. Y/n slowly sat up and saw;

“Boris?” She asks slowly. The wolf had landed on his chin, ears dropped low as he looked at her. His body arched over his head as he gave her a flustered smile.

“Ah…hey Y/n—“

“AAHAHAHA! This?! This is supposed to be the big wolf?!” The fox hurled over and laughed, arms curled over his stomach as he laughed hysterically.

“You—YOU HAD ME THERE FOR A SECOND!” He laughs. Boris’s attempts to try and spook the fox clearly almost had the enemy—but with one silly move caused Boris’s plan to fail.

As the fox laughed. Y/n quickly pushed the fox away from her, causing the toon to fall into the car behind him. She scurried off the ground and rushed over to Boris. Grabbing his arm and tugging him up—with how heavy he was her tugs meant nothing—but Boris thankfully was quick as he stood up and towered over her—she never realized how tall the wolf was—but thinking more on that later. She and Boris ran down the street away from the fox who just then got back up and shouted curses at the two.

“Where did you come from?!” Y/n shouts. She smiled at the wolf who ran next to her with a silly grin. Without taking notice. He closed his eyes and started to explain. “Well! Alice decided it would be best if we—“ Boris was cut short by running smack dead into a light pole. He stood stiff as a board. His ear twitched as his two eyes were replaced with X’s

“Didn’t…see that…sign…” he wheezed. Y/n skids to a stop as she looks forward to seeing that wandered into a construction sight. Looking at the sign that Boris inadvertently ran into she saw it had a black photo of a sewer hole. Boris staggered as he held his head.

“Oh my…” he whimpered. He seemed like he was about to fall.

“Hey! You two can’t be over here.” A construction worker warned. Y/n saw Boris falling back. She gasped and tried to stop the wolf from falling but he was far too heavy. She pressed her back into Boris’s but he already seemed to be knocked out unfortunately when turning the opposite direction to hoist Boris up. She noticed the open sewer hole a toe length away the black darkness was calling her name to just fall in.

“NO!” She shouts.

“Yes!” Y/n quickly looks up to see that flying 8-ball again. Gasping she stiffened at the sigh of the creature.

“Boris! WAKE UP!” Y/n legs gave out as she then fell into the sewer hold. With Boris limply falling in after. His foot had kicked an abandoned street sign and it flew in the air before falling into the sewer hole with Y/n’s descending screams. Mangosteen blinks before reaching a hand up to his chin (?)

“Wow—she’d much rather toss herself in a sewer line then be up here with me?” He seemed hurt genuinely as he frowned.

“…”

“OH WELL! Time for some brutal murder!” He cackled before floating over to the sewer hole and falling in as well. The construction worker blinked slowly and furrowed his eyebrow. Before he rolled his eyes

“I don’t get paid enough for this..”

-

Boris landed on top of the metal street sign shortly Y/n landed between his legs oddly Boris was still sitting up muttering under his breath—eyes closed but he seemed out of it.

“Yes—I’d love to….” He muttered under his breath. Y/n couldn’t see anything in front of her as her shaky breathing echoed in the sewer.

She shakily reached for her phone. Once finishing it she quickly took off her bookbag and placed it in front of her. Mesmerizing where her front zipper was. She unzipped it before turning in the flashlight in her phone and placing the phone in the front zipper. Once the light was on she could see the sewer line. The street sign oddly secures at some sort of boat as in the shallow water kept she and Boris afloat as it floated down the line.

She heard water a few feet ahead but it was so dark she could only see what was really in front of her. She looked over her shoulder and nudged Boris.

“Boris! Wake up—wake up please! We’re—we’re in the sewer and I think we’re lost!” She panicked. She lifts a hand up as she looks infront of her. Her hand softly pats at Boris’s face.

“5 more…minutes…Henry….” He muttered.

Y/n had her focus on the end of the tunnel—where she soon could see that—there was a drop!!

“Nonononono!! No!” She shouts. Pressing herself back into Boris. Boris snores before he snorts and wakes up. He looks around with an alarmed expression.

“What?! What’s going on?! Where am I?! Why is it so dark?!” He cried out. Y/n wrapped her arms around Boris’s arms as if to use them as some sort of restraint.

“Oh my gosh!” Y/n shrieks in fear. Boris shouts as he wraps his arms around Y/n as well. The street sign lurched forward and the two were sent sliding down the steep hill, Y/n felt her stop spinning in circles. Similar to how it felt riding on a rollercoaster. Their screams echoed in the sewer.

“AHHHHHHHH!”

“AAAAAAH!” They both shout in fear yet—excitement.

Suddenly a ball of energy shoots down the tunnel. Lighting the way down the tunnel where Y/n could see for a split second an abrupt turn. Y/n looked over Boris’s shoulder to see the 8 ball had followed them into the sewer line—possibly to make sure they were dead for sure. Y/n hid her face in Boris’s shoulder as she felt the abruptness. The metal street sign that acted as a sled skids the wall. Creating a spark as the tunnel dipped down yet again causing them to go faster.

Another energy ball had been shot and it landed right in front of the two just before the second dip. Y/n shrieks as she flies off the sled—as she deemed it.

Boris yelps and frantically tries to grab onto Y/n but he is separated by going into another direction which is downwards into the sewer. The energy ball had torn off another metal plate which held cables to the sewer lines wall—thankfully with luck on Y/n’s side she lands on the new sled and was separated from Boris when she was led to different tunnel—which was a form as Boris went left and she went right—on the hood side she managed to lose Mangosteen. Y/n had landed in her stomach and was holding onto the metal plate that was curled at the end so she could have something to grasp onto. It really resembles a sled now.

Y/n felt another dip and her legs lifted from the sled and she flipped forwards mid air. Screaming Y/n felt herself free fall as she lost the metal plate she was on. Boris had made it from the tunnel he was separated from Y/n. And he looked up in the direction of Y/n’s screaming. And right when he looked up. She landed back between his legs.

“AH I THOUGHT I LOST YOU!” He shouts with glee. As he hugged Y/n. Rubbing his cheek on top of her head. Y/n felt herself shivering at the thought of maybe landing in the sewer water and scraping herself up pretty bad. She was thankful that Boris was there. The two looked forward and saw at the end of the tunnel a large pipe that led upwards. The pipe had a valve. And spurts of water were spilling from the crevice of the pipe.

“I think that's the way out!” Y/n shouts and smiles. Boris smiled as well before frowning.

“Why aren’t we slowin’ down.”

-

Being tossed through a window of a house that was nearby. Bendy groaned as he laid on the floor limply. The debris of the glass shards and dust particles from the wall wafted in the air. The demon's tail twitched as he sighed…tossed through a wall…again. Bendy glared up at the ceiling in irritation.

“This is not my week…” he grumbled.

Hearing the sudden tiny gasp caused Bendy to snap from his trance before sitting up on his elbows. Looking over he saw two children. One boy—no older than maybe the age of 10 holding a bat over his head in fear that Bendy may have been an intruder. And a little girl who had to have been 8 cowering behind her brother. They both held a fearful expression thinking Bendy would harm them. Bendy blinks before having a nervous smile. “Um—-I can explain—“

Donald was caught off by frantic huffing and puffing. Oswald quickly crawled into the apartment. Crawling over the glass shards and wall pieces. His fur was ruffled as he landed on his stomach to breathe.

“They—are Vicious!” Oswald's voice cracks as he shakily points behind him which leads outside. Bendy was surprised that the rabbit crawled up to the second floor to get away from beagle brothers—who had also shortly after decided to make their appearance after Y/n suddenly vanished.

Oswald looks at Bendy before looking over at the kids. His ears dropped once he saw how alarmed the two kids were. Seeing two toons being thrown through the wall into your home? That would frighten any kid.

“Oh man…” he muttered.

The two kids then screamed in fear and the brother dropped the bat to the ground before he grabbed his sibling and scurried off down the hall. Oswald quickly gets up as well as Bendy.

The faucet in the kitchen trembled and the ground vibrated. Oswald and Bendy look down at their feet before looking at each other. Bendy blinked before the sound of water spraying widely outside caught his attention. Two distinct screams were heard and both Oswald and Bendy were yet again tossed to the ground by Boris and Y/n. The two were soaking wet. The mildew smell of water wafted the air. And the sound of a heavy sew lid smashing onto concrete echoed in the streets.

Y/n coughed up water and crawled off of Bendy. She gasped for air and groaned heavily. Bendy yelped as he quickly wiped the water from him as he looked over to Y/n who were on her hands and knees trying to free her lungs of water. Head to two she was drenched and shivering.

Boris stood up quickly and shook his coat of fur. Splashing water everywhere. Bendy wandered over to Y/n and helped her up.

“Boris! What are you doing here?” Bendy was relieved to see his friend. And Boris wagged his tail quickly, happy to see Bendy as well. “Alice led us here! She had something to tell you! That there’s this group of people trying to kill you all!” He explained before he grunted.

“But it seems you all already got the gist of that.” He muttered under his breath shaking his left foot from any water. Y/n gagged and groaned.

“I’m all wet! With sewer water! And—and they took—-The book!” She shouts. Bendy and Oswald both looked at her.

“They took the book?” Oswald repeats. Y/n looks at him and nods, breathing heavily to catch her breath. “Yes! And we need to get it back!” She looked out towards the hole in the wall and ran a hand through her hair.

“Where’s Alice?” Bendy asks as he turns to look at Boris. Boris thought for a moment. “They’re still in town.” He answered.

“They’re?”

“Oh yeah! Charley, Barley and Edgar are with us too!” Boris nods with a bright smile. Y/n didn’t know who they were other than Alice. But Bendy didn’t seem pleased.

“Come on. We need to find Donald and Panchito.”

-

Rushing down the sidewalk. Y/n could see the water spluttering from the sewer hole that she and Boris had exited from. Water everywhere on the street after busting that pipe they ran into shortly after their victory chase with Mangosteen. Luckily the water damage didn’t floor the street—but surely construction will pull their hair out when they see that.

“How did you two get up there anyway?” Y/n asked Bendy and Oswald before motioning up to the hole in the building on the 2nd floor. The two kids that were in that room peered down at them. Bendy points to himself. “I was tossed.” He then points at Oswald. “He was hiding.” He finished. Oswald looks away down the road to avoid eye contact. Y/n’s clothes felt heavier she sighed and shivered yet again.

“All we need to do is locate that bo—“

“Squeak squeak!!” Two loud echoing squeaks that reminded Y/n of a dog's chew toy echoed in the air. The four turned around and were faced with a spider toon—Edgar. He held the book in his hand and smiled triumphantly.

Bendy smiled.

“Eddie!” He shouts with glee and runs over to the toon. He wrapped his arms around the spider toon and lifted him up to give Edgar a tight crushing hug. Edgar let’s out various squeals of laughter. Y/n didn’t know who the toon was but assumed he was good and that Bendy knew him. She jogged over and once she got closer the spider smiled at her and handed her the book. Y/n smiled before taking ahold of the book. At long last!

“Thank you.” She thanks the toon as Bendy sets Edgar down. Edgar smiled before he looked away with a flustered expression.

“There you guys are!” Y/n glanced up and saw Panchito and Donald running over. Once they were close they skidded to a stop once spotting Boris. His height must have made the two cautious as Donald quacked in a surprised manner before hiding behind Panchito. Boris’s nose twitched before he smiled and waved. “Hi!” He says. Panchito soon smiled and waved at Boris—remembering the face from the studio. As for Donald he cautiously looked at Boris but remained silent.

Bendy took the book from Y/n and smugly grinned.

“And we have the book. You all can thank—“ he then looked at Edgar but—Bendy then points to himself with his thumb as he grinned.

“This guy.” Just as he said that. A black blurry figure ran in between him and Y/n. Snatching the book from Bendy’s grasp. Bendy still held the hand up that was holding the book. He looked at his head before he looked at Y/n whose mouth was agape.

“What the hell Bendy!” She shoved him—for what felt like the 100th time the book was taken from them! Bendy grabbed Y/n’s hands to stop her from shoving him again. “Hey! Hey! Don’t get hostile with me—“

“Hah! Losers!” Everyone looked over to see the shadow like toon that Oswald, Y/n, Panchito and Bendy encountered. The fast shadow toon grinned as he held the book above his head before dashing off reaching behind his back with his free hand. He held a small metal like ball.

“You know out of everyone we’ve encountered—he doesn't make me scared.” Panchito absurdly confessed. Oswald rubbed his eye so that he could start to bruise up. The toon then smashed the ball to the ground like a smoke bomb. Black smoke seeped onto the ground and out popped 4 shadow creatures. All with sharp features their glowing white eyes caused Y/n’s bookbag to fall off her shoulder as everyone stared in awe as the 4 shadows loomed in the air threateningly.

“I take that back.” Panchito said nonchalantly.

“Get them!” Zip shouted before he cackled loudly and rushed away with the book. The four shadows quickly started towards the group and all six of them screamed in fear before scurrying off in different directions.

Edgar tripped over his legs running away as he followed Y/n. With how small he was he sure was fast as he kept up to speed with her. Boris and Bendy had run off into another direction. Boris screams and he tripped over a trash can. But he rolled off the ground and kept running. Oswald, Donald and Panchito found their different paths as well—everyone splitting up yet again.

Y/n held her bookbag as she tripped over her wet and saggy pants that were weighing her down. She had to think big instead of running everywhere! She looks at Edgar hoping he could understand her. “Do you think you can find that book again?!” She asks the spider as the two rounded a corner. Edgar squeaks before he remembered she couldn’t understand him. He nods before he stops running and zips off to another street in hopes of finding the stolen book. Y/n looked behind her and saw that the shadow like creature was quick and series of voices were in her head—she assumed it must have been the effect of the creature she covered her ears and huffed she was running out of breath and her legs urged her to take a rest she was running too much! Y/n ducked under a man's arm as he stood in the way. He almost tripped over and looked at Y/n in confusion but didn’t seem to notice the shadow creature chasing after the girl.

As soon as Y/n thought could outrun the creature. To arms stuck out. And grasped onto her dragging her into an alleyway. Y/n yelps and almost tripped over. Turning around quickly she was met with Cuphead.

“Sh! Quiet! I’m helping you—“ he raised a finger to his mouth to silence her. Y/n huffed and placed her back on the wall opposite of Cuphead. She felt water dripping from her and onto the concrete ground. She tried to contain her hard breathing but she couldn’t as Cuphead peeked from the alleyway. Should she even be standing near him?

As he was busy looking away and out the alley to see if the creature was far off somewhere. Y/n looked over and saw a gate she could hop—would she even be quick enough? She couldn’t even run—her clothes were wet and she felt icky and tired! Y/n looked down at her hands to see the bandage around her hands were loosely coming off.

“Are you okay?” Y/n heard the voice echo in the alleyway. She looks up to see Cuphead had turned around to face Y/n. He was wringing his gloved hands slightly.

Y/n didn’t really know what to respond as she stared at him. “Yeah…” she cautiously said. Cuphead smiled. “Great—“

“So. You’re out to kill me?” She abruptly asked…well she had to know! Cuphead opened his mouth before placing his hands on his chest. “They told me to. But I don’t wa—“

“So you are going to kill me?”

“No! I’m not—I was but until I ran into you today—I made the decision that I wasn’t—“

“So your original plan was to kill me—“

“I don’t think either way I put it—it’ll sound good. Look—let’s start from the beginning.” He wandered over to a trash can and leans his elbow onto it. Before looking at Y/n he then smiled.

“Hey, I’m Cuphead. Cups—whateva’, but you can call me…anytime.” He winks at her. Y/n mouth was agape as she stared at him. Feeling butterflies in her stomach as she saw him lean too far in the trash can and almost fall over. He played it off by reaching a hand out to Y/n to shake.

“And I know you. You’re Y/n—my uh…boss…sorta told me. To kill you.” His words went quieter—as blunt as he was he really didn’t seem like the guy to want to kill anyone. But Y/n couldn’t even form words as she looked at him…what an odd guy..

“Don’t seem too…moved..okay..uh…you're still there?” He moved his hand when he saw Y/n didn’t take the hand shake. He waved his hand in front of her to see if he could snap her from her daze. Y/n blinks before she slowly removes herself off the wall.

“What suddenly made you not want to kill me?” She asks. Cuphead gave her a closed lip smile as he gazed at her with a far off look. “Well…you’re pretty.”

What?

Despite feeling the fluffy feeling of butterflies in her stomach. Y/n didn’t find the reply good enough. She furrowed her eyebrows and Cuphead soon raised his hands.

“I know—that doesn't sound like anything too believable—look. My brother and I aren’t people that go around for fun harmin’ folks. This—our boss—The Devil. He sorta owns our souls for the time being, and he said to release us. We had to take that book from you and your friends and specifically kill you. I don’t know why.” His reply seemed genuine and authentic. Y/n tensed muscles slowly eased as she slowly nodded.

“So you’re not going to kill me?” She asks yet again. Cuphead shook his head. “I’m not. I promise I won’t lay a finger on you..” the two were silent for a moment as Y/n tried to wrap her hand around everything. She doesn't understand.

“I don’t understand…Why would you not kill me if that’s the only way to not be soul bound to the Devil.” Y/n repeats. Cuphead looks off to the side.

“You know Felix..right?” He asks. And Y/n nods.

“Well. Me and Mugs—my brother. Our original plan was to get this jewel that would protect us from the Devil. But as you can see—“ he motions around himself. “We’re here. I was going to let you all go—I hope your friends are still alive.”

“Trust me. They are.”

“Well. If you all can get away safely and find that stone. That can break the string between the Devil and me and my brother.” Cuphead finished. Y/n stared at him for a moment.

“So you want us to help you?”

“If that’s not too much to ask..”

Y/n was silent…the book..something about it from earlier…she ran into both Cuphead and Mugman because of the book. Idaho…wait.

Gasping softly she looks at Cuphead.

“You—you and your brother. The book—okay look. We have this book. And this book is leading us to people that should belong on our team. And you and your brother are two of the few people!” She quickly explains. It all made sense now! Cuphead tilts his head.

“What’s the purpose of it. Everyone on my team—the head honchos as I put it. Want that book. I never really cared to find out why but..what’s so important about it?” He asks. And frankly;

“We don’t have an answer for that yet. It’s—it's a lot to unravel. And we’ll explain that when we get you and your brother out of this mess. All you need to know now. Is that. You need to be on our team. And I’ll make it happen.” She boasts. Y/n gave him a smile and Cuphead then smiled back.

“I like ya’ spunk.” He winks. “Have any boyfriend’s?” He grins. Y/n smiled slowly. “No.”

“Lookin’ for any?”

“We have bigger things to look at right now—“

“Alright, alright. I have a plan for you to get your book back and for your friends to leave town safely.” Cuphead moved on. Y/n nods as the two walks deeper into the alleyway.

“Tell me and let’s put it into action.”

#fanfic #fanfiction #bendyxreader #cuphead x reader #oswald the lucky rabbit #toon quest #jose carioca #panchito pistoles #duck tales x reader #ducktales 2017 #the three caballeros x reader #batim x reader