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rinusagitora · 5 years ago

Text

All that draws us together

Fandom: BLEACH

Characters: Momo Hinamori, Izuru Kira, Rangiku Matsumoto, Shinji Hirako, Nanao Ise, Roujuurou Outoribashi

Pairings: RenShuuKiraHina, Rannao, ShinRose

Words: 15,000+

Summary: Chapter 01. For Bleach Big Bang 2019. Fanart done by @worksbyweeds. WARNINGS--- smut, referenced abusive relationships, referenced self-injury, alcoholism; Momo knows all the ups and downs from life and love, yet she rides it again and again.

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19946449/chapters/47231944

Dreamwidth: N/A

FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13345338/1/All-that-draws-us-together (sfw)

Momo's ears rang, an alarm may as well have gone off with the volume it blared. She couldn’t begin to comprehend even the simplest statements from the reports on her desk thanks to the phantom noise.

Truthfully, she expected no different. Sousuke Aizen was locked away more than two years ago, yet the fog never lifted. Her memories from the academy onwards were a big, ugly smudge only discernible as anxiety, and so much time had passed, Momo couldn’t begin to name the source of her ill feelings. Was it the taint built up inside of her guts? The sensation Sousuke was just beyond one of the thin walls on all sides of her, back to try again?

Izuru Kira sat before her suddenly. The chair he used scraped against the wood floor and the sound nearly made Momo hop out the window.

“Hello,” he greeted as he twirled a coin between his synthetic fingers. Momo never realized how lifeless his eyes were. Could he blink with such dry eyes?

“Hello, Kira-kun.” Momo wondered how long we watched her sweat. “Your arm is surprisingly functional.” She never cared for small talk, but she didn’t want to give away just how brain dead she felt.

“Kurotsuchi isn’t hailed a genius for no reason,” Izuru replied bitterly. Momo wondered if he wished Mayuri Kurotsuchi never resurrected him. The thought made her teary-eyed. Her and Izuru drifted after graduation. Izuru was transferred to another division, Momo moved up the ranks in gobantai, Sousuke’s plan to use them as pawns never kept them close either. But Momo still regarded Izuru as a dear friend. A symbol simpler days where she wasn’t beaten and he wasn’t dead.

“I hope rehabilitation hasn’t been too hard on you,” Momo said.

“No. It’s a part of me as much as my other arm.”

“What brings you here?” Momo supposed that was enough chitchat. She only saw at their lieutenant meetings, but his back was always to her and his shirt didn’t seem so baggy where the hole in his chest was.

Part of her wondered if he yearned for the years before they were broken too, when Izuru screamed how he didn’t want to die, and when her chest didn’t hurt all the damn time.

“I would like to reconnect.” That answered Momo’s question, at least.

“Me too. I owe you an apology anyways.” She owed him many apologies, him and so many other people.

“I owe you one too. But those can be postponed. I would like to take you to dinner tonight, somewhere nice if you didn’t have any plans.”

Momo never had plans. She was a homebody, always stuck in her dark barracks, where she obsessively cleaned everything in sight. Her bruised knees never healed because she scrubbed her floor every evening. She cooked for everyone under the sun and then washed her dishes twice over. She washed her upholstery twice a week because otherwise it smelled too much like Sousuke if she waited any longer. Momo hadn’t even gone out to eat for twenty years because her chest collapsed whenever she ventured away from her usual routine.

But she owed it to Izuru many things many times over. She needed a start somewhere.

“Tonight works fine. Did you have anywhere in mind?”

“We could meet at The Dragon’s Hoard in the North Rukongai. I could also pick you up at your barracks so you won’t have to walk. I made sure to clean the carriage,” Izuru propositioned.

A carriage was awfully flashy. Momo garnered enough attention after Sousuke Aizen defected. What would her squad think if she suddenly paraded around with another man, and one from money, after her tryst with a traitor and her attacks against her allies? Two years was decent time for her, but for some people, two or three years was a blink of an eye. “No need, I prefer walking,” she answered. “Shall I be there around seven tonight?”

“Splendid. I’ll see you then.” Izuru stood and deposited his coin on her desk. “I’ll get out of your hair now, Hinamori. Take care.”

Momo picked up his coin. He bent it into the shape of a heart and Momo’s heart felt like he bent it too.

He missed her, he loved her, and Momo was scared to love again.

---

It was impossible for Momo to sit still after Izuru’s visit. She needed her mentor, father figure, her monster spray.

“Captain!” Momo called outside of the rice paper door to Shinji and Rose’s barracks, “I need to speak with you momentarily, may I come inside?”

“The door is open, Momo-chan.”

"I hope I'm not intruding." Momo bowed as Rose motioned her to the table where he and Shinji sat.

"Not at all. We just finished supper," Rose said. "Shinji spilled some sauce on his clothes but he should be back momentarily. Sit, my dear."

"Thank you."

Shinji returned from the bathroom. "Just a heads up, you don't wanna go in there for awhile. That kimchi lit my ass on fire."

Momo grimaced. "So much for the sauce spill," Rose muttered.

"What's on your mind?" Shinji asked with a beer in his hand. "You look like you've seen a fuckin' ghost."

Momo bashfully glanced away. "I'm going on a date with Izuru Kira in a couple hours. I'm not sure how I feel about it."

"About him, or dating?" Shinji asked. “Two very different things, Momo.”

Momo frowned. She knew she missed Izuru Kira. Was it just their past she missed, or him? Or had Sousuke Aizen scared romance out of her altogether like a proper boogeyman?

"I… don't know," she confessed. "The history between us is enormous. I loved a man who hated me. I miss being a cadet with Izuru and Renji because nothing was complicated or painful. Maybe I don't miss Izuru, maybe I just miss the past we shared."

"Then maybe you aren't ready for dating again, Momo." Shinji took a swift swig. "It's only been a handful of years since you were betrayed by someone you loved and laid down your life for. That's a scar more permanent than the one on your chest."

"But there's no time like the present," Rose argued. "When was the last time you went out with a friend, Momo-chan?"

She didn't remember.

"Look, even if it doesn't work out between you two, you'll have tried. If your friendship survived through decades of abuse, will one failed date really smear that irreparably?"

"What if it does?" Momo asked.

"And what if not going means you lose out on a lifetime of happiness?” Rose took her hands into his own. He was knobby like a bird, but his hands cupped around her put her at ease. Rose's violet eyes glimmered too, the eyes of a man who made the most of a situation where he lost his humanity, was thrown from his home, lived a century in hiding, only to return home and marry the love of his life at the end of the whole endeavor. “Momo-chan, life isn't easy. If you are content with your life now, then by all means, go on alone. But if you want something new, perhaps happier, you should open that door and go on a date with Izuru."

Momo thought she ought to take a page rom Rose's and Shinji's book. Even as cautious as her captain was, the risks he took were calculated and almost always ended in his favor.

"I… I would like to go. I should get ready." Momo bowed her head. "Thank you, Captains. Enjoy the rest of your evening."

Minutes later, Momo stood before her mirror. She stared at her reflection. With foundation and red lipstick, she looked healthier, younger. Like she didn't smoke religiously and slept uninterrupted for eight hours. Of course, it was all a charade. It was a matter of time until her foundation caked around her crows feet and her red lipstick stained her teeth.

She was nervous. Rose's pep talk only lasted so long. It rubbed off like her makeup rubbed off underneath her nails when she scratched her forehead. Momo knew romance was complicated. God knew she wasn't in her prime anymore. Sousuke soiled her, she aged like milk, her voice was gravelly, and foremost, Momo was a traitor. She turned her sword against her family and friends. She turned against Izuru himself. Not exactly someone to lust for.

But she'd be fine, Rose's voice said. Izuru Kira had his own duressed hand in Sousuke's plot. If anyone let bygones be bygones, it was Izuru.

Momo knew that. Fear was irrational though, she didn't know her way out of it.

A knock came from the door. It just about scared Momo out of her skin. The absence of reiatsu was Izuru's new fingerprint, and so she rushed to the door, smoothed her hair, and then as calmly as humanly possible, she opened her door. Izuru wore a brown yukata decorated with cross-hatching. He was handsome, even with a gaunt face. His throat and his hands were sinewy, and when Momo thought back on it, she was always attracted to that. Her own veins scared her but the lifeless blood in him made him look like marble. Immortal, artful. Handsome.

"Hello," she said, "it's good seeing you."

Izuru nodded, and then he held out his arm for her to take. "Shall we be on our way?"

She held the inside of his elbow with her cupped hand. They walked together slowly, sloppily, like they hadn't ever walked together before. It was kind of cute.

"How's this week treated you?" Momo asked.

"Alright." He shrugged. "Rose says life goes on. If I'm stuck with… with this for awhile," Izuru held up his black arm to demonstrate, "there's no harm in making the most of it."

That was the most optimistic view he had in awhile. She was glad Rose was a good influence on him.

"I'm glad. Paperwork is finally starting to let up, too. The cadets are all registered with my division now. There aren't many transfers or promotions either." She hated when she had nothing to do, but less paperwork meant she had more time for her charcoal drawings. There were so many things to do and just not enough time in the day.

"Yes. It's nice. I have a social life back now. I haven't gone out with Renji and Shuuhei until just recently."

"That must be nice." She was a little jealous of Izuru. Momo long abandoned her social life. Once in awhile she met with Rangiku or Nanao, but since Sousuke Aizen's defeat, she had gone out with them once during New Year's. Otherwise she just saw them at work.

"It was therapeutic," Izuru said. Momo gleaned they drank. A lot.

"So," Izuru began, "what about yourself? Other than work, that is."

She smiled. "I'm uninteresting these days. Work, drawing. I wish I had more to offer you but I'm just... tired."

Izuru sympathetically pet her knuckles. "I understand. It's hard, even so long without them."

Her shoulders felt lighter. "I expected to move on like everyone else, despise them-- no, him, that awful excuse for a man; Sousuke Aizen-- the same as the rest, but I can’t bring myself to. And I expected, with him locked away, that I would sleep easily, but I feel more and more hollow each day, like I’m rotting with him."

Izuru squeezed her fist with his black hand. "I've been without sleep for so long now. Now undead, I wish all of my feelings would vanish, but there is this cavernous negativity that spans more than my body. It's taken over my home. It's taken over me."

"I'm glad we can speak about this,” Momo smiled, “it's hard to do when it's anyone else."

"Yes. I'm scared to speak of it to even Rose. It's a solitary life having to keep all of it bottled up." Izuru turned to her. Even with his dried out eyes, he looked emotional, like they ought to sparkle with melancholy. "I'm glad we can talk about it, though. It hurts talking about it, but it hurts more keeping it bottled up."

"Yes."

She didn't realize how she yearned to complain about her own misery. Momo wouldn’t easily shove her ill feelings back down afterwards.

They made their way to a seafood restaurant in the first district. The establishment had grown on Momo over time. Sousuke didn't like seafood, so its purity of his memory made it her foremost choice on the rare occasion that she wasn't in the mood to cook herself.

Izuru sat across from Momo. Momo folded her legs neatly beneath her, smoothed her hair, and then opened her menu.

"I know you mentioned you don't retain your sense of taste anymore," which was unfortunate, "but if you order the fried shrimp, the server puts on this little demonstration for you. There's fire." Momo was partial to anything which happened to explode.

"We'll be sure to check that out then," Izuru said with a hint of a smile. She couldn't remember the last time he smiled in her presence. He looked positively angelic. "How are you getting along with Captain Hirako?"

Momo thought back to Shinji's visits to her while she was in intensive care for the injuries she received from that monster Ayon. Shinji had that monster within his reach, but he was smart enough to keep Sousuke at arm's reach. The damage would've been gargantuan juxtaposed to hollowfication if he was any closer. Everything Sousuke Aizen touched decayed. Later, when Wandenreich invaded, Shinji was always by Momo’s side like a guardian. Shinji understood her, and he chose to ally himself with her.

"Truthfully, I wasn't sure what to expect at first. Withholding my judgement turned out for the better though, so I'm glad that was the case. Hirako-taichou is very much like a father to me. Our leadership styles mesh very well also. He's not micromanaging us, even when we do something wrong. He's more virtuous than myself."

Izuru nodded. "Good."

After they ordered food, Izuru shamelessly asked for sake (she didn't mind so long as he didn't drink himself into a stupor, she supposed) and she picked at their appetizer. Fried food wasn't her favorite since it laid in her stomach like a rock, but she remembered it fondly from years ago. Afterwards their conversation lulled. It had been so long since anyone courted Momo, she was out of practice and strained to think of something to break the silence. Izuru must have been as uncomfortable as she.

"I'm... sorry, Kira-kun. I'm not very good at this."

Izuru shrugged. "We aren't strangers, Hinamori. There isn't a lot of familiarizing we have to do. Maybe catching up, but we can take that slowly. I feel bad about it as well, but... I don't know, part of me wonders if this is a natural part of us dating."

She smiled sympathetically. "Thank you." At least one of them was rational.

"Hinamori, would you humor me and allow me to read your palm?"

"Since when did you read palms?" she asked as she held out her hand.

"A couple years ago, just out of curiosity." He traced the lines of her hand with his rubbery nail. "Your palms say you've experienced much hardship. Your lifeline is short and branches down. This means you feel weakened by certain negative experiences. Your headline is curious. It's mostly fused with your lifeline, and it's wavy and broken. This means you're creative when it comes to problem-solving, but you can be indecisive when you’re under immense stress. Your heartline begins beneath your index finger. This tells me you're comfortable in long-term relationships, and it's significantly deeper and straighter than the rest of the lines in your palm. Your relationships are incredibly important to you but you can be reserved in your relationships."

Momo realized how close Izuru was to her. Was it a parlor trick to distract her from his proximity so he could steal a kiss? How sweet. Momo wouldn't mind a trick like that. The very thought made her smile like a virgin maiden.

"Kira-kun, are you flirting with me?”

“Is it working?”

“Perhaps.”

Their food interrupted their closeness. Upon the fiery presentation, they clapped and Momo clapped so hard her hands stung. The date was splendid! So splendid, she prayed to muster the courage to cross the threshold and sit in Izuru’s lap. Perhaps it made Momo a whore once again, but couldn’t she enjoy the spare attention handsome men paid her?

“Is it good?” Izuru asked.

“The food? It’s delicious.” Momo pushed her plate to Izuru’s end of the table and made her way to his side. She leaned against him and held up fried shrimp to his head. “I know you can’t taste, but humor me?”

Izuru leaned in and gingerly took a bite of her shrimp. His eyes were half lidded. Momo was so close she caught a whiff of medicated lotion. It wasn’t bad, like peppermint. Despite their proximity, he didn’t lean in for a kiss, or hold her waist, he didn’t dare brush their noses together. Was he gentlemanly or nervous?

She felt ashamed enough to want to apologize. Izuru was as soothing as he was painful. It must hurt him too, like his lungs hurt. She could barely breathe like it was as if her lungs were blown out.

"Did... did I say something, Hinamori? You look upset."

Momo’s breath rattled. “This is just hard. It’s hard keeping up with my thoughts. I just know I’m scared and enjoying myself at the same time, and it’s an overwhelming combination. I want to do the right thing for… you, for us.” Us, like they were already bound together. They were. For forty years, they were within reach, just separated by a chain link fence, where they could touch fingertips but the gate was locked. The lock was broken with Gin and Sousuke’s absence, and they could embrace freely, but the electricity between them, all the history, was too much to simply dive into.

“Let’s get you home. Ma’am, we’d like our check now, please.”

“I-I’m so sorry. It’s not you. I’m just new to all of this, Kira-kun.”

“You don’t have anything to apologize for.” Izuru picked her up by her elbow, handed over a handful of coins to the waitress for their meal, and when they came onto the street, Momo breathed fresh air. It made her eyes sting a little, but it was a relief to be away from the warm lights and her swarm of ponderences. The air was cold and his hand was cold. The cool air burned but it was better than those foreign walls. And when they walked, Izuru walked close, like she was coddled in a blanket of him.

“I understand this night wasn’t perfect,” Izuru said as they came to a stop in front of her barracks, “but I enjoyed myself. Immensely. I want to do this again soon, later this week soon. Can I bring you coffee and lunch tomorrow afternoon?”

The followup scared Momo. Would she always feel like she was squeezed like a balloon when they were together? Could she withstand the pressure? Was she ready? Izuru was. Even without the pulse in his neck, Momo knew he wasn’t nervous. They weren’t in the same stage of the relationship. Izuru was always three steps ahead of her.

“Do you love me? Can you love me?” Momo asked.

“There’s no can. I have loved you for decades. Even though I remember my life before I joined the Gotei, I don’t remember when I didn’t love you.”

Love scared Momo. But Izuru held her so fragilely, like her skin was porcelain, he adored her unceasingly for decades. Love terrified her, life terrified her, but Shinji and Rose told her nothing came from complacency. Nothing came from nothing. Momo risked her wellbeing in the past, what was the worst that could happen? Another flop because he didn’t adore her?

“Noon tomorrow. Come to my barracks, I’ll have lunch ready there. Do you like coffee?” Momo replied.

“I’ll take care of the coffee,” Izuru told her.

Momo smiled. She kissed Izuru’s cheek and said, “I’ll see you then.”

“Goodnight, Hinamori.”

Finally inside her barracks, she breathed a sigh of relief. It was a confusing, scary, nice, and yet it was nice. She would see how his visit over would fare.

---

Gobantai’s break room was well-used and therefore a royal mess since it wasn’t one of Momo’s many projects. She wiped down every surface, disposed of the trash behind the administration office, washed the windows, beat out the rug and the curtains, cleaned the sinks and communal pots, and mopped the floor that morning. She decided it was one of those chores she had to delegate in the future. Perhaps officers from other divisions who needed disciplinary action could be loaned to gobantai and deep clean her division.

Unfortunately, Momo’s work also piled up while she cleaned. She stared at her haphazard piles scattered across her desk from careless subordinates. As efficient as she was, Momo was certain she would have more overtime than usual since there wasn’t nearly enough time to finish it all before her lunch date.

Izuru met her at the door to the breakroom when noon rolled around. He carried a tin of gourmet coffee in his black hand.

“Hello, Hinamori.” He bent over her and kissed her cheek. Momo giggled girlishly.

“Hello there. Right this way,” she said as she motioned inside. “I made miso soup, fish fillets, and veggies. I didn’t know how much you wanted so… I made too much.” Which was fucking silly of her. He didn’t need sustenance, Momo scolded herself.

“I brought some coffee. This was my mother’s favorite, I wanted you to try it.”

Momo chose to ignore the sentimentality behind his statement. It was too soon for something so heartfelt, especially when his parents were dead. “Wow. This looks so… expensive.” The tin was a vibrant cherry red. There was a diamond on one face with the brand’s name in a sleek, sophisticated font. As scary as the sentimentality was, part of her was touched he wanted to share something so luxurious with her. “I’ll put this on the stovetop now. You’re welcome to eat.”

“I… wanted to give these to you first.” Izuru presented Momo with a bouquet of myrtles. “One of my officers is married to one of your officers. She told me there weren’t any real decorations in here, and I remembered you liked flowers, so I decided these were a good idea, I guess.”

“These are beautiful, Kira…. Thank you.” Momo adored flowers. They were the topic of her every drawing. It scared her how well he knew her, and how she actually liked the attention and the gifts. But his shower of gifts made Momo’s lungs tight like she drowned in them. If she wanted it, them, to work, she needed to trust his attention wasn’t a distraction from his ugly side. Trusting was so hard.

Momo methodically placed the bouquet into a pitcher with water and put it on one of the tables in the middle of the room. It melted lifelessly into the white walls and brown tables, like it had been there forever. It terminated her torrent of nervous thoughts with its natural aura.

“I apologize if it’s… unclean in here. I’m not in this room often so I don’t oversee much of the cleaning,” said Momo as she sat across from Izuru.

“If there’s any mess, I haven’t noticed.”

She popped open their lunch canisters and slid one half over to Izuru. “I wanted to make something easy on your stomach. I don’t know what heavy foods do to you.”

“Decadence is below me. I had my fill as a boy.”

“As nobility, you mean?”

“Well… yes. I was an only child of very wealthy merchants, I’m sure you know. They pretty well spoiled me.”

“Merchants?” Momo asked, “I thought you were… regular nobility. Born into superior blood, all that.”

“I was. My father was Kagekiyo Kira. He was an entrepreneur who saved his money farming and bought the silk farm which employed him once the master passed away. My mother’s father hemorrhaged money from his family, so they decided they could keep their lifestyle if my mother married rich, so they arranged their marriage.”

“I was unaware.”

“Of course. The only other people I’ve told are Shuuhei and Rose. I try not to flaunt my elevated status.”

Momo laughed. “You had no problem flaunting your intellect as a cadet. But your bragging was well-deserved there. You were one of the most brilliant cadets in Shinou.” He was the prettiest, too. Was he as pretty as his mother? Momo wanted to pry into his family, but his parents’ deaths was another sore spot, like patches of leprosy. “Did you lose the farm after your parents expired?”

“No. I still profit from it, although I have very little to do with the business now. I only attend to a few things. Quarterly inspections to make sure everything runs efficiently, occasionally scolding foremen when the situation calls for it.”

“What situation would call for your involvement?”

“A foremen or business partner behaving inappropriately with one of our women workers, disease outbreak among our silkworms.”

“I assume it’s… unpleasant.”

Izuru shrugged. “It’s frivolous when I compare it to our wartime experience.”

“Did the Great War do a number on your farm?”

“Due to evacuation protocols, our employees couldn’t work, and our consumers couldn’t buy. Our silkworms were surprisingly untouched. A few died of starvation, but most of them were fine. We’re recovering at a phenomenal pace thanks to an investor’s daughter finally marrying. Our textile company is supplying the marital outfits as well fabric for bedding, furniture, and baby clothes. It was an order which cost more than two million yen.”

Momo choked on her coffee. “How fucking much?”

“I told you it was a huge order,” Izuru laughed. “Of course, I decided to reinvest that money into the business. Equipment, facilities, payroll, et cetera. It’s not like I need any of it.”

“I had no idea. That must have been difficult.”

“I don’t know. There were other things on my mind. After losing friends and my arm, it all just blurred together. The simplest decisions were easiest to conjure and execute. I’m just glad they worked for the better. Losing our farm would’ve been detrimental to the Rukongai’s economy.”

Momo knew all about the poverty in the Rukongai. The best-off were the nobles, of course. But regular souls like herself grew up in two or one-room huts or row houses in less than enviable conditions, and the only reason they could afford homes and food was thanks to employment from nobility. As sleezy as the noble families were, they were integral to the survival of many souls. Izuru had half the brain to acknowledge that at least.

Izuru cleared his throat. “Enough about myself. I’m no businessman…. H-how’re you?”

“That’s quite a loaded question,” Momo remarked. Never okay. She always choked, always overthought, always misty-eyed. She needed out of her head because her hands were sharpened swords. Momo could grow flowers on paper or bleed herself like a pig. Momo could clean the entire barracks in a single evening or bludgeon herself with a meat tenderizer. It all depended on the day.

“I apologize. Do… you have any news with your hobbies?”

“I don’t understand the question.”

“You draw, yes?”

“I do. I use chalk and charcoal to draw flowers and wildlife. Occasionally, I’m commissioned for larger pieces. I haven’t had any customers as of late.” She hadn’t bothered to accept orders in two years, however. It was… all too much for her.

“I haven’t seen any of your artwork, come to think of it.”

“I haven’t shown you any. I used to be very private about my drawings.” Everyone knew Momo was a traitor’s whore, though. Art critics were the least of Momo’s worries. “I’ll show you my sketchbook if you like, though. I have one in my desk I use while I wait for our meetings.”

“Let’s finish lunch first. I’d hate for this to go to waste.”

“Alright,” she agreed. Momo was too proud to admit she speedily finished so she could show off her drawings. She was eager for Izuru’s attention, eager for his praise. He helped her rinse their dishes and pile them into the satchel she carried them in. Momo guided Izuru to her office where she opened her desk and passed him a small, leather bound sketchbook.

“You’re welcome to peruse to your heart’s content,” she told him.

“These are gorgeous,” Izuru complimented. “Your use of color is breathtaking. I feel like they’re glowing.”

Momo’s ears warmed. She covered her mouth with her sleeve to hide her smile. “You think?” Izuru’s validation was intoxicating only two days into their relationship. Would she stumble like a drunkard if she stood next to him? “I just tried to exaggerate the color. Make it richer.”

“Well, you’ve done well. Can I see more of your sketchbooks sometime?”

“Yes. I would like that very much. A-are you free tomorrow evening?”

“Well, if you want to come for a drink with myself, Shuuhei, and Rangiku, you’re welcome to. This weekend would be easier for a private gathering.”

“Friday night, then?”

“I will see you Friday.” Izuru closed her sketchbook and bent over for a kiss. His cold, stiff thumb pet her cheek, like she was priceless and precious. She pressed herself into the curve of his chest and held his clothes in weak fists. It felt like the were light as butterflies, like when she opened her eyes, they’d be suspended by ribbon, puppets of pheromones and loneliness. Momo didn’t want to let go.

He slowly pulled away. Momo’s feet were firmly on the floor. Izuru’s eyes were partially lidded and a beautiful cobalt color. Breathtaking, like the ocean.

“Goodbye, Hinamori,” he said quietly.

“It’s Momo. Just Momo.”

“Okay. Goodbye, Momo.”

“I’ll see you Friday, Izuru.”

Izuru left her office. With every step, Momo felt hollow. He took a piece of her heart with him like the last one. She knew, she just knew, Izuru would put another scar on her heart like Sousuke did. Her scars already ached.

---

Momo tried to talk herself out of her paranoia. Momo knew Izuru for almost fifty years. She shouldn't question his intentions, she shouldn't have to. Izuru was always a friend, even when they were distant and hurting.

She couldn't keep her fears at bay. Eventually, Momo found Rangiku stashed in the corner of a cramped archive office in juubantai with a platoon of sake bottles.

"Miserable, are we?" Momo enquired.

"Yes and no." Rangiku slid Momo a drink. "Have some. You don't look much better."

Momo didn't drink. Alcohol touched her lips maybe once every few months, when she and Rangiku grieved together. She supposed she only drank with Rangiku.

"I think I'm in love with another man," Momo began.

"Izuru Kira?"

"Yes. Who told you?"

"He talks about you a lot." Rangiku lolled into Momo's lap. "Safe to say head over heels. Gets all smiley and talks fast and shit."

"I know…. I keep telling myself he's not Sousuke, but he's so perfect, Rangiku. Just like Sousuke was in the beginning. I feel like I'm freefalling into another trap. I'm fucking petrified."

"I see why. But you gotta take a risk, Momo."

Momo snort. "His captain said the same thing. I took a risk with Sousuke though, and look where that put me." Momo scratched her scar. "I don't know…. He compliments me and my brains drip out my ears. I'm still so juvenile when it comes to romance."

"No," Rangiku disagreed. "You didn't take a risk with Aizen. You were an innocent woman at the time. He took advantage of your trust and your love. There's a difference between him and Izuru."

"How do you know though?"

"What kind of gifts did Aizen give you?"

"Flowers."

"And what about Izuru?"

"Flowers and… and coffee. Expensive coffee. We drank it together, even though he doesn't like coffee. Sousuke never wanted it in the house. He complimented my drawings too. Sousuke never liked them. Izuru reminds me to eat too, and he asks me about my day,” Momo replied. Sousuke's eyes never smiled. Even in death, when Izuru kissed her, he looked so happy.

Momo wiped her eyes. "Why is this so hard?"

"Oh, sweetie, it's not your fault. I wasn't mad at you. I'm never mad at you. I just wanted to show you he's different." Rangiku coiled around Momo. "You're my best friend. I want you at my wedding and I want you to have someone to be so happy with it makes your head spin so I can go to your wedding too."

"I know. Sousuke left his mark all over me. Izuru deserves someone who can cope with their own feelings."

"Like he's any better. You two will make it work though. You're so sweet and he's so loving."

"But I turned my sword on him, Rangiku,” Momo wept. “He was protecting Ichimaru when Sousuke had that corpse doll on the wall. I ignored him for a man who tried to kill us all and now I'm punishing him with my own trauma."

"No you're not. He loves you, Momo.”

“So? He deserves someone more reasonable, someone who can tell when they’re projecting the past onto the present.”

“He’s got his own problems. He hates himself too. Gin left scars on Izuru too. What’s important is that you two love each other and help each other through these episodes,” said Rangiku, surprisingly coherent for someone who drank her way through at least a dozen liters of sake. “I know it’s hard. You don’t think it’s hard with me and Nanao? That I’m scared she’ll abandon me too like Gin? People like us deserve love, and we’ll get it, but we get the journey with it. You and Izuru are no exception.”

Momo buried her soggy, congested face in Rangiku’s shoulder, and she squeezed Rangiku as hard as she could. “I’m sorry for all this. I’m a disaster.”

“It happens to the best of us. Look at me, drinking my pain away.” Sterilizing Gin’s desertion with intemperance, exactly like Momo drowned herself in busywork. Something that kept grief at bay.

“Can I stay a little longer?” Momo asked.

“Of course.” Rangiku gave her another glass. “Drink with me, sweetie. Just exist for awhile.”

---

Momo woke up Rangiku’s couch with an enormous headache. Thankfully, Rangiku’s barracks were dark thanks to the thick curtains installed over the eastern windows, even though it was almost ten in the morning. Momo found her way to the bathroom, hesitantly pilfered the medicine cabinet for pain killers, and washed her sticky mouth with tap water. They drank too much whenever they were together.

She made her way to the kitchen to prepare Rangiku something to eat and a thank-you note. Her stomach was too feeble for anything but Rangiku was rarely hungover.

It was almost lunchtime when Momo walked into her office with another formidable pile she neglected thanks to her hangover. She was about to sit when she noticed Shinji laid across one of her sofas.

“Someone’s late,” he commented.

“I apologize, Captain. I was irresponsible last night. I’ll be more careful.”

“It’s not a big deal,” Shinji waved dismissively, “I’m more curious why. Does that Kira have something to do with it?”

“No, I was catching up with Rangiku-san.” Momo lied infrequently, but she was ashamed of her behavior over the last twelve or so hours. “I supposed we touched on myself and Izuru, but it wasn’t anything bad.”

“Izuru? What happened to the formalities?” Shinji sat up, folded his legs, and watched Momo with a coy smile. “Things going good for you two?”

Momo should’ve known there was no use to hide from Shinji. She was a terrible liar to begin with. “Yes. It’s… weird, sometimes, after having been Sousuke’s possession, but we mesh together well. I missed him. I missed feeling in love.”

“I’m more surprised you two got together. Rose tells me Kira’s been pining forever.”

“Sousuke Aizen swept me off my feet before Izuru could even consider romancing me.”

“So you won?”

“Won? I don’t understand. What did I win?” Momo asked.

“You told me Sousuke wanted to destroy you. To break you down, turn you into mincemeat. To need him so much you would die without him. Look where you are now: you got a man who loves you lots. You’re still alive after two attempts on your life. I think that counts as a win.”

She smiled. “I never saw it like that. Thank you, Shinji.”

“Anything for my baby girl,” he said with a wink. “I’ll catch you around. Take care, Momo.”

“Thank you. I will.”

---

Friday came with ease. Momo's days weren't by any means sluggish, but they weren't a blur either. It felt healthier than when time passed during her dissociative survival episodes.

She was undeniably nervous for reasons unknown as she approached Izuru's barracks. Momo told herself she was just the nervous sort. She was grateful it didn't show when she knocked on his door. Izuru opened his home with a smile.

"Good evening, Izuru. I brought some cooking supplies to fry up takoyaki."

"Come in. Thank you, I look forward to them."

Izuru's barracks were spartan. There was a grey couch, and grey curtains, and a square wooden table with square wooden chairs. There weren't any decorations. The only piece of humanity were his many nonfiction books in many bookshelves. Law, philosophy, medicine, language, history, zoology; Izuru was more scholarly than Momo realized. His brilliance only seemed more phenomenal. Although, Momo supposed his nights were filled with reading if he couldn't sleep.

"Did you want anything to drink, Momo?" Izuru asked.

Momo deposited her carry-on onto the counter. "Just water. Where are your pans?"

Izuru reached into a tall shelf and presented a large pan with tall sides. "Will this do?"

"Yes. Thank you." Momo put it on the stovetop. "I never realized how well-read you are."

"I feel like I'm wasting time when I read fiction. Novels aren't as easily dissected as poetry, so the theme isn't as clear, or as artful. Poetry speaks to the soul in a shorter and more poignant form."

She laughed. "I was talking about everything but your poetry books."

"Oh..." Izuru replied bashfully. "These books actually belonged to my father. He grew up very poor. When he had access to knowledge, he went overboard with it. But he shared the knowledge with me. I read them now. I feel like I'm closer to him and my mother when I read these books."

"You must've been close to your parents," said Momo.

"I adored them. My mother Shizuka was kind and wise, my father Kagekiyo was ambitious and devout. He told me the reason he wanted to buy the farm was so he could raise a family comfortably. They always found time for me. I remember playing with a ball in the garden. My mother taught me a lot about kidou too."

"That explains your advantage in the academy."

"I was certainly privileged." Izuru pulled an onion out of Momo's reach. "How finely do you need this cut?"

"No bigger than half the size of your pinky finger's nail. We'll only need half the onion to go with the breading, though."

Izuru swiftly halved the onion. "You don't talk much about your own family," he said. "I know your brother is Hitsugaya. Is he all the family you have?"

"No. We lived together with our grandmother before we came here. She’s a kindly woman. She's a maid for the Oumaeda family." Momo hadn't visited her grandmother in some time though. She was too ashamed that she attacked her brother to ever face her family and expect anything more than cold shoulders. She was too ashamed that she was brainwashed by a villain like Sousuke Aizen and gave everything to a man who just discarded her. "Unfortunately, my grandmother was unable to teach me like your parents could. Everything I learned in the Rukongai, I learned on my own."

"Momo, for someone self-taught, you are truly impressive. Your use of kidou is revolutionary. Your intrinsic power is sublime. I hope you don't think lowly of yourself because of something so silly."

"I don't. I suppose I'm just jaded because of the stigma against the common folk."

"The Seireitei is classist. There's no arguing that. I've always admired your innovation, however. You make kidou something mystical again."

Momo smiled and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Well, thank you. I never saw it that way."

"Is it true you've invented your own kidou?" Izuru asked. "I heard a rumor from one of my officers who saw you fight during the Great War."

"It is. I have a number of spells I've created."

"I'd very much like to hear about them."

"Shizumu Hebi is my personal favorite. I create these snake-like ropes that slide across the ground and restrains anyone who steps on it. At first, it's nothing to worry about, especially in an open area. What makes them really deadly is when they begin multiplying every half minute. There's no limit to their growth until I cancel the spell, and even if my enemy is already captured, more can constrict them. It's actually how I killed a Jagdarmee. They suffocated from the tightness of my Shizumu Hebi."

"That is a formidable spell. That can't be all, though."

"It's not. I have a spell I call Ryuuzetsu that turns my saliva into a flammable liquid when I spit into water. I came up with it on the spot during the Great War and had access to a puddle. There's also Kijo Yubi, which makes my skin oil acidic. Kanbousu is a subzero kidou web that can peel off limbs or cause frostbite within minutes. Neneki Himo is a green goo that I have a number of uses for, namely support or defense. It's especially effective capturing melee weapons since it's so sticky. My most recent creation is Shinkirou. Sousuke Aizen and Shinji Hirako inspired it. It's a mirage that uses water particles in the air to bend light. When I tested it on myself, my environment refracted like a kaleidoscope. I need more time to tweak it, however. I can't find a way to exclude my allies from its effects."

"Momo, they're incredible. Your creativity is awe-inspiring."

"You know, flattery gets you nothing," Momo said with a teasing bump of her shoulder to his side.

"Not even a kiss?"

"Of course not." Momo puckered her lips and Izuru pecked her playfully.

"These should be done frying though." Momo dumped their takoyaki onto a plate lined with a fresh washcloth to absorb the extra oil. "They need to cool for awhile."

"Care to have a seat?"

"Sure thing."

“Oh, by the way, did Rangiku tell you she’s ring shopping for Ise-san?”

"She didn't...." Although, the last time Momo saw Rangiku was when they were drunk and miserable, when Momo thought it was more important to imagine bitterness in her and Izuru's hearts than check into her friends' personal lives. Nanao and Rangiku were her best friends. Momo wasn't nearly as good of a friend to them if she wasn’t up to speed with their wedding plans. "Has she chosen one?"

"Yes. I'd ask to see it after the ceremony, though. I imagine it’s meant to be seen with Nanao."

"Rangiku does have a soft spot for ceremony, doesn’t she?”

"Speaking of romance, have you heard from your brother?"

"No... what does he have to do with romance?"

"Rangiku tells me he has a girlfriend in the World of the Living. One of the Kurosaki girls, the one who can see us."

Momo frowned. "I didn't even know Kurosaki had siblings." If she wasn't comatose, she lived in solitude, away from current events, away from even her family. Toushirou ought to hate her and he had every right. Momo turned her sword on him, Momo hadn't spoken to him since their battle against Sousuke Aizen, she hadn't even visited him. She was a terrible friend, a terrible sister, and a terrible granddaughter.

"I'm sorry," Izuru said as he wiped her tears away with his thumbs. "I shouldn't gossip.... I think Hitsugaya should've told you himself, but he obviously hasn't reintegrated himself into your life."

Momo argued, "it's not his fault, Izuru. I left him. I attacked him. He's just a boy, he doesn't know how to cope with this."

"If you say so. I'm just livid whenever I think about it. I love you so much. I just want you to be deliriously happy, especially knowing how important your loved ones are to you."

Momo smiled and curled her legs to her chest. “If you don’t mind me prying, why did you join the Gotei? I know it’s a status symbol for most nobility, but you’ve never looked down your nose at anyone.”

“I wanted to get away from the family business so I took on other responsibilities here. I think my parents would have been disappointed, but….”

“We all have to leave the nest sometime. Your parents loved you more than anything, Izuru, I can tell. Even if they disagreed with your decision, I’m sure they would’ve loved you all the same and found a suitable heir to the business elsewhere.” Momo pushed his bangs behind one of his ears. “I want to think it’s for the better. I wouldn’t have met you if you hadn’t joined.” A selfish advantage on Momo’s part, but she was a selfish person.

“You’re right,” Izuru said after he kissed her cheek. “I’m glad I got to meet you, Momo. I’m glad I got to fall in love with you.”

She adoringly smiled at Izuru. He loved her so, and she loved to hear it, so she pressed a kiss to his lips. Izuru kissed her back. He pulled her closer by the back of her neck. Momo felt experimentive. She traced his lips with her tongue, Izuru happily pulled it behind his teeth. Sousuke Aizen was always so detached.... They never made out. He always just turned her over and did as he pleased.

But Izuru laid on his back. He pressed kisses across her jaw and her neck. Momo's cheeks were warm like her loins. He squeezed her breasts. She itched for his skin to scratch her, an itch she didn't realize until he touched her like an adult with fucking needs.

"Here," Momo sat up and eagerly untied her obi. "Undress me, Izuru."

His blue eyes bugged out of their sockets. Were he alive, she was certain his breath would have been ragged from arousal. His hakama bulged instead. He was aroused by her brazen order instead of her pain. It intoxicated Momo.

Izuru grabbed her open top and slowly slipped it down her arms to savor every piece of skin he uncovered. "God," he rasped, "you are gorgeous, Momo, every bit of you."

He kissed the top of her breasts, made way to her cleavage, and worked down to the underside of her breasts. She held fast to the clothes on his back because he was already so sexy and it was so long since anyone touched her so reverently and needily. When he kissed one of her nipples, Momo ground her hips against his. His erection wasn't warm but it was hard and strained against his hakama for freedom.

"I want to eat your pussy, Momo," he whispered against the shell of her ear. "Can I eat your pussy?"

Her brain must have fallen into her crotch because Momo couldn't conjure a verbal yes, only a loud moan and a fervent nod.

Izuru slipped off the couch, kneeled in front of her, and slipped off her hakama. Momo never wore underwear. They were too hot beneath her clothes. Momo guessed Izuru took delight in that by the way he licked his chops. He spread her legs, kissed the inside of her thigh, and kissed up into her groin. His broad tongue tasted her. Momo instinctively covered her mouth and Izuru pried it off. He pinned her hands to her sides and lapped at her moistened lips.

"Sweet god," Momo whined, "you're amazing. This is amazing."

Izuru pulled Momo's legs onto his shoulders. He followed her valleys and peaks with the tip of his tongue, and then he grazed over her clitoris. She gasped, her legs spasmed and closed around his head. He pulled her closer by her rear and enthusiastically writhed against it. "Fuck," Momo cursed. "Oh god, Izuru, fuck me."

Izuru stumbled back. "What?" he said.

"Fuck me," Momo pleaded as she pulled at his belt. "Please, I've never done anything that's felt so good. Please fuck me."

Izuru ripped off his obi, pushed Momo onto her back, and wrapped her legs around his hips.

"Just like that," Momo coaxed his cock's pink head into her, "treat me sweetly like you always do."

He wordlessly slipped inside of her. Momo's eyes fluttered shut. It was so much better when she was wet and needy like a cat in heat. Sousuke never treated her so well. He never pumped her slowly, never thumbed her clitoris for that extra euphoria. "Harder, Izuru, fuck me harder," Momo demanded. He scratched that itch so well and she wanted it more.

Izuru pound into her, the couch they fucked on rocked loudly, like music to her ears, her breasts bounced, Momo’s nails dug into his shoulders, he grunted rhythmically. Momo felt a kind pressure build inside her. It was so fast. Her everything from her chest down spasmed as she moaned. Momo had never orgasmed before but it felt like magic. “Yes. Fuck, yes,” she muttered gutteraly.

His constant piston finally became sloppy. Izuru’s eyes rolled in the back of his head as he orgasmed. His strength finally left him and he toppled on top of Momo.

For a minute, he only breathed. “Sweet mother of god, that was amazing,” he wheezed.

“It was fantastic,” Momo sighed contently. “I never… I never thought I’d actually enjoy it. But you are a stallion.”

Izuru kissed her. She tasted her cum on his lips. “It’s easy with you. You’re so beautiful. You’re classy when you’re like this too.”

Momo smiled. "Thank you."

He slipped off his kosode and draped it around Momo. "I'm sorry your takoyaki went cold. I can reheat them if you like."

"It's okay. I just want to lay with you."

“Okay.” Izuru guided her to his bedroom where he swaddled Momo in his arms. When she breathed, and smelled his medicine and linen, she found peace in what was once a cage.

---

Momo was decades older than what she looked, and as old as she was, the passage of time was always something weird. It crawled like molasses when she was younger. It was altogether surreal when she was depressed. When she was happy, it was a smudge, like she accidentally brushed her hand over one of her charcoal drawings before she sealed it.

Izuru perused her larger sketchbook and admired her flowers and birds. "Beautiful," he complimented. When he stumbled across a drawing she made of him, he smiled bashfully. "I suppose I have to acclimate to being a muse for another artist."

“You will. I plan to draw you every minute I can,” Momo said.

Izuru was found with her by Shinji or Rose every day around lunch or shift change. "My, you two are closer every day. One day we'll find you fused at the hip," Rose commented each time, and Momo always stroked Izuru's arm because it wouldn't have been so bad to be with him every minute of her life.

His uniforms began to turn up in her laundry. Momo cleared a drawer for his clothes in her barracks. She lost her charcoal in Izuru's home a handful of times so he bought an easel with a drawer. Somehow, they even swapped kitchenware. Momo's assortment of gaudy mixing bowls tumbled onto the floor when she looked for a bread pan in Izuru's home. Izuru's cups amassed at the foot of Momo's mug collection.

Momo missed the domesticity. When their homes felt like one, she never before felt so whole, even if it meant more cleaning she had to do.

Beneath where her uniform was piled in his closet, she found an open chest with a young, alabaster-skinned woman who wore a latex mask printed on a glossy page. Her heart fell into her gut and she burst into tears. She tore the chest from the closet and stormed into the common’s where Izuru nurtured another glass of wine.

She dropped the chest on the table. Her nostrils flared. “What the hell is this?”

Izuru normally has a passive if not mildly inconvenienced expression. His eyes were as wide as saucers then.

“Who the fuck are these girls?”

“It’s pornography. Th-they’re like actresses, but instead of performing for movies or plays, they're hired to act out sexual situations and then are photographed.”

Momo's blood boiled. Her chest burned. “Why do you have these? Aren’t I enough?” Was she ever enough?

"Of course you are." Izuru flew to his feet and held her by her arms. "Momo, I know this looks terrible, but I like certain things sexually that I know you're not comfortable with. I-I take care of my own urges so I don't subject you to them in the heat of the moment."

Momo shook her head. She reeled out of Izuru's hold. He lied. "You're lying. I'm not enough for you. You're exactly like Sousuke. I'm just a thing to rub one out in and clean your fucking house." She pushed her hair out of bed face. "I should've fucking known. I’ll never have anything good."

"Momo, that's not true. I love you. I-I know this is terrible, but it's cathartic for me to put myself in these situations---"

"Where girls are just things? Where you can slap them around? Fucking spank them like kids?" Of course Izuru groomed her to fit his fantasies. Sousuke played the long game, a couple years for Izuru to wait for her availability would've been nothing. Why her? Why was she always the object of people's malignance? How long would he have waited to shove her onto the floor with a bag over her head and sodomize her like the girls in his magazines? "Did you think I'd let you get away with this, Izuru? Did you really think I'd just let it slide?"

"Of course, that's why I kept it. You mean everything to me. This stuff is just recreational. There’s no emotional attachment."

Izuru was heartless and she was the fool between them to have let herself grow complacent with another man. They were all the same: they groomed her to be a domestic pet. The monsters were always so nice in the beginning. It was only easier for Izuru since Sousuke did all the work for him, forty years worth.

"You must think I'm stupid." Momo jabbed her finger against his chest. "Did you really think I'd be okay with this depiction of… of slavery? I'm no different than these girls to you! And you're no different than Sousuke. You know, you’re right. I'm so fucking stupid to have ever believed you were any different."

"God, Momo, you're acting like I fucking raped you. I'm not your fucking punching bag."

"This isn't my fucking fault!" Momo screamed. "Don't you pin this on me. I've never been enough for you. You’re selfish and twisted. It was only a matter of time before you wanted me to play like these girls. Fuck you, Izuru!"

Izuru rumbled like a volcano, "can you stop making me into the fucking bad guy? I love you! Something happens that you don't like, and you got to meltdown and you make some poor sod look like an evil bastard. I put up with it because you show progress everyday, but you can't treat me like a fucking fiend."

"This isn't my fault. You are a fucking fiend, apparently, with your sick bullshit. You people always treat me like a fucking blow up doll."

"You're a belligerent fucking martyr!" Izuru loomed over her with fiery eyes. "I love you so much but I will not let you treat me like a doormat!"

"You people are just evil! I am a plaything to you, and I'm a fool to have ever thought otherwise!"

Izuru slapped a vase off an end table. It flew across the room and crashed against the opposite wall. Her vision turned red, red like the blood on her teeth after Sousuke hit her, red like her hands when she picked up broken mugs. Momo shrieked in undilated horror. She scrambled for the door, bleary from her tears, and screamed for help, but the door wouldn't budge. Izuru's detestable black arm curled around her shoulder to pull her away from freedom.

"Shizumu Hebi!" Momo's kidou fell out of her pant leg and apprehended Izuru. She slammed her body against the rice paper door, fell into the porch, and ran for her fucking life.

Momo cowered in a dark, crowded closet somewhere in gobantai. She wasn't sure where else to go. Izuru would look for her at her house. She couldn't stay with Shinij or Nanao, they were too close to Izuru's friends Rose and Rangiku. She hadn't spoken to Shuuhei or Renji in some time, and she was certain Toushirou would've been no different. Izuru was like Sousuke: omnipresent even in his absence.

Izuru and Sousuke were one in the same and Momo hadn't changed one bit.

---

Morning came too soon. Momo only knew because she heard footsteps outside her nook.

She brought herself to her feet. Her throat was dry and she didn't bother to smooth her hair. She had a walk of shame to do, it wasn't her first. Momo saw their eyes in her peripheral. Her scar burned as they stared.

Momo took a seat at her desk and sighed at the stack of paperwork on her desk. It seemed like a mountain, a mountain to bury herself and her pain in like a tomb.

Sometime later, a knock came from Momo’s door. Kokona Honda, a beautiful young woman with blonde hair and dark skin, and a capable officer just a few seats below Momo, entered and placed a manila folder on the corner of her desk.

“Good morning. Here are the reports from the nightguard last night. How about some coffee--- holy shit, are you okay?”

“Yes. Bring me some coffee, if possible. Let everyone know all communications to me are to go through you first. Refill my water for my inkstone too.”

“Yes, Lieutenant…. Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do.”

Momo watched Kokona leave her office. Her fingers combed through her messy hair and returned to her paperwork. Momo worked herself into a familiar routine, just like her routine with Sousuke in charge. There was some comfort she found in that. Momo knew how to cope with dread.

Shinji was never punctual, not like her or Kokona. He was just on time according to his internal clock, but he took a detour from his ordinary route.

“Momo, I’m coming in,” he said. Momo cussed under her breath. "You two were noisy last night from what I heard."

"It's already made its rounds?" Momo asked hoarsely. No. Kokona told him, that fucking gossipmonger. All she really wanted for the time being was to be left alone.

Shinji placed a bottle of iced tea on her desk. “Drink. You sound like shit, and once you finish that, we can talk about what happened.”

Momo shook her head. She refused to drink. "Why does this always happen to me?" she asked. There was no point in hiding it from Shinji. "I'm never enough. My personality is bland, my sex is subpar, my food must be awful."

"Momo, drink," Shinji coaxed her. "Please drink for me."

For Shinji, she swallowed mouthfuls of tea until his bottle was empty. Her throat was sticky from the sugar.

"What makes you think you're not enough, Momo? You guys seemed to be doing just fine before."

Momo's eyes squeezed shut as she cried anew. "I found BDSM pornography stashed in his closet when I was folding laundry. Girls were tied up and smacked around a-and I lost it. We got into a screaming match. Izuru got so mad he hit a vase off a table a-and I got so scared that I ran and hid here all night."

"Oh, Momo," Shinji cooed, "I'm so sorry. You should’ve came to me."

"I couldn’t, your husband would’ve been so mad. I feel so stupid. I should've seen this coming. I should've known I don't get good men."

Shinji pet her hair. "Take the day off. I'll take care of things here. You need to get some rest."

"I don't want to go home," Momo croaked.

"Then you can sleep here. I'll turn off some of the lights, bring my work in here, but I won't leave you alone."

She nodded. "Okay." She wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "I'm sorry."

“It’s all okay, sweetie, just take it easy for a bit. Why don’t we do something together to get your mind off this. Let’s go watch a game. Kyuubantai’s rugby team is playing against juusanbantai tonight.”

“I never pegged you as a jock,” she replied. “I’d like to go though.”

“Well, Kensei is playing and I’d like to support him.”

"Okay. I'll be there."

"I'm glad, Momo. Let me know if you need anything in the meantime."

Momo nodded, albeit physically and emotionally exhausted. She had allies and that was all that mattered. The men she loved were questionable at best, but she was never alone so long as she had her captain.

---

Momo walked alone to the rugby game with hot coco in her hands. It wasn't a cold evening, but she preferred something warm in her when she was upset. She needed it. If Shuuhei's captain played rugby, Shuuhei was sure to be there, and by extension Izuru too since those two did almost everything together.

Shinji met her at the gate with a vest over his colorful kimono. "Hey, darlin', don't look so down! We're here to have fun."

"Okay," Momo nodded. Shinji swept an arm over her shoulders and led her onto the bleachers where Lisa sat with bleacher chairs.

"Hello again, Hinamori," Lisa greeted. "I wasn't aware you drank."

"Hello, Yadomaru-taichou. I don't drink alcohol often. This is hot coco," Momo replied.

"Oh, nice. Have you ever tried it with hazelnut creamer? It's really good."

"No, but I'll keep it in mind for next time."

Suddenly, a whistle went off and each team ran after a pigskin ball. Momo wasn't the sporty sort. She frequently lost the ball and she couldn't make out what the exchanges between the opposite team members were. It looked more like a fistfight than sports. Eventually, she became bored and instead absently scratched her hot coco. She felt Izuru on the other side of the bleacher's, however, his reiatsu was as faint as death. Had he seen her? Did he look for her?

Momo glanced up to check. She could feel his cold eyes upon her like a film of sweat. He was there and she wanted to leave very much. The wound felt like a broken vase, brittle, sharp, raw. It hurt to even be near Izuru.

"I just remembered I have a package I need to pick up," Momo said quietly. She escaped before Shinji could protest. As soon as Momo reached the backside of the bleachers, she burst into tears. She briskly walked in the general direction of her barracks.

"Momo, wait,"

Izuru stood behind her with Shuuhei yards away, and Momo cried out in fright. "God, what the hell are you doing?" she barked.

Shuuhei came to a stop next to Izuru. "I told you she doesn’t want to see you."

"I don't!" Momo spat. "What the fuck do you want with me, Izuru? Come to justify yourself like Sousuke? I've had enough of your guys' speeches."

"Okay, now that's just low, Hinamori." Shuuhei groaned with his head in his hands. "If you two wanna duke it out, we can take it somewhere private. We’re lieutenants. We can’t just cause a scene."

"I'm not here to fight," Izuru complained indignantly. He took a step forward. Momo took a step back. "I… I just want to talk about the other day, Momo."

"I think we know each other's stances on that subject. I'm not your fucking blow up doll."

"You're not. I'd never make you into something cheap and two dimensional. You're like your flowers. You're full of vibrance and beauty."

"Izuru, you threw a fucking vase at me!"

"This is a private fucking matter!" Shuuhei took them both by the crook of their arms and guided them into the equipment room nearby.

"You threw a vase at me!" Momo resumed only seconds after they were thrown into the equipment room. "You were so mad you threw a heavy vase at me so fucking hard it shattered. It scratched my wall and my floor."

"I'll fix them myself."

"I don't want them fixed. I want to stay the hell away from me. I'm not going to be wrapping my ribs again because you get fired up about your porn."

"I'm willing to give it up, Momo. I'd do anything for you."

Momo stilled. "Really?"

"Yes, of course." Izuru held Momo by her upper arms and pet her arms with his thumbs. "I love you so much."

She was conflicted how to respond. On one hand, Momo wanted to trust Izuru. Rangiku and Rose told her to take the plunge. On the other hand, how many times would she have to plunge? How many times would she have to compromise? What abyss would she sink deeper in with each plunge of faith? On the other hand, Izuru loved her. Even without his reiatsu, she could see his adoration in his angel blue eyes. Momo hungered for that adoration. She wanted someone to compliment her, take her into their arms and adorn her with kisses, someone to let her know how much she meant for the rest of her life.

Momo had forgiven worse sins in the past. Even though there was a pit in her stomach, she chose to ignore it and forgive him. Izuru was a man of his word. Her pain was sure to be impermanent.

"Okay. I believe you." Momo wrapped Izuru in her arms and laid her head against his chest. Izuru sighed in relief. Old habits never died, she guessed. "I love you, Izuru."

"I love you too. I love you so much."

Momo's gaze discreetly turned to Shuuhei. He watched with an indistinguishable expression. She hoped he was happy for them.

"Can I take you back to Hirako-taichou and Yadomaru-taichou? I hear we're having a celebration dinner for kyuubantai if they win. We can meet up at the restaurant after the game," Izuru said.

"Sounds like a plan. I'll see you then."

Izuru and Momo walked hand-in-hand back to the rugby game with Shuuhei behind them. Izuru kissed her goodbye. Momo returned to her seat next to her captain who greeted her with an inquisitive look. "I'll tell you later," she said. "Where were we going to for the celebration dinner?"

"A hibachi restaurant called Monkey's Nest. Are you up for going?"

"Yes, of course."

Finally, the whistle blew. The referee announced kyuubantai as the victor and Momo watched them celebrate on the field. The audience shuffled out of the bleachers. Momo collected the bleacher chairs for Lisa and they rushed to meet Kensei's supporters outside the field for dinner. Izuru met her again. He grabbed her hand in his own and they waited for their party to be completed. When Kensei and Mashiro arrived with wet hair from their shower, their gaggle made way to the Monkey's Nest.

"Have you ever been here before?" Izuru asked Momo.

"No, but I am excited to try it out. I've never seen teppanyaki before this. Are they going to have a table big enough for all of us?"

"Of course. There are only eight of us. Shuuhei and I made sure to reserve a full table too."

Despite their easy banter, Momo sensed the tension in their group. She was certain gossip about her and Izuru's fight had spread among their little family, and Momo cursed those gossip mongers. She hoped Shinji knew better than to divulge her personal matters to anyone but his spouse. When she glanced over her shoulder with one eye, she saw her captain and Rose sandwich Kensei. Shinji was visibly concerned by her proximity to Izuru, and she didn't blame him when just that morning, she was in tears and told him she had to run away after their fight. He must have thought poorly of her. In his shoes, Momo wouldn't have any different of a woman who went back to a man that terrorized her only twenty-four hours ago.

When they arrived at Monkey's Nest, Shinji cut between her and Izuru. "Looks like we'll be sitting together," he said, "seating arrangements and all that."

"Oh... alright," Izuru said.

"We're sitting next to each other, Izuru. Gonna get in some real bonding time by the looks of it."

Izuru remained sullen. Momo was ashamed that she was relieved to see Shinji let Izuru know he was happy to intervene next time.

"Right this way," their hostess said, who guided them to their respective tables. Shinji sat between her and Izuru.

"I'm in the mood for something new, Izuru, got any suggestions?"

"I'm not the person you should ask. I don't taste anything unless it's very spicy."

"Aw, c'mon, you gotta have something you liked."

"Beef yakisoba."

"Beef yakisoba? That's unoriginal."

"I'm a creature of habit."

Shinji groaned. "That's a shame. I thought you liked playing around."

"You heard wrong."

Momo worried they would devolve into a screaming match. Rather, Shinji would scream at Izuru and he would sit there and take it like a miserable sod because he thought he deserved it. Izuru wasn't an alpha by any means. While Momo was grateful for Shinji's support, she didn't want him to steamroll Izuru like Gin did. "Captain... please stop. We're here for your friend Muguruma-taichou, not to bully my boyfriend. Let's talk about this later."

Shinji frowned. "Alright, hun,” he conceded, “I'll drop it for now."

"Can I sit next to my boyfriend?"

"Can't say no to my daughter, can I?"

Momo sat next to Izuru and he gratefully held her hand on the countertop. She smiled at him.

"The duck yakitori is great," Izuru whispered.

Momo nodded. "I'll give it a shot. How're we dividing the check, by the way?"

"There's a maximum of three checks per reservation. I'll cover you, Hirako-taichou, Muguruma-taichou, and myself."

"I can pay for myself."

"Nonsense. I want to pay for your supper," Izuru told her and pet her back.

"Okay."

"How'd you like the game?"

"I was lost the entire time, truthfully. I don't know anything about sports."

"Me neither, I just like watching buff guys run around."

Momo giggled. "Well, I won't deny there were a couple of very good-looking gentlemen playing."

Their chef came and took their orders. When he spread oil on the grill and lit it with a match, Momo squealed in delight. She adored fire shows, and it stoked nostalgia for their first date only two months ago. It felt so long ago. Simpler and sweeter. Izuru was bittersweet.

Her food was dumped on her plate with a knock against its ceramic body. Momo tasted it and hummed contentedly. It was delicious. Momo's stomach actually rumbled gratuitously for the first time in decades.

Of course, all things came to an end. They covered the party's cost and dispersed outside.

"Can I hug you before you go, Momo?" Shinji asked.

She nodded. Her captain swept her into his arms. His embrace was fatherly. Momo rarely hugged anyone, but Shinji's embrace was reprieve. Like a fortress.

"Let me know if you need anything at all. I'm on your side and I always will be."

She held Shinji's clothes in her tight fists. That was all she ever wanted, someone ceaselessly loyal. Someone she was enough for.

"I'll take you home," Izuru said. She wrapped herself around Izuru's arm and waved farewell to her captain. When they reached her barracks, Izuru gave her a shy kiss.

"Can I stay here tonight?" he asked. "I know you're still hurt, but I don't feel right if I'm not with you after hours."

"Yes," Momo answered eagerly, "stay the night."

They were pulled like toys into her bedroom, where they stripped into more comfortable clothes and cuddled beneath her purple quilt. Momo knew moments like that, like true love, weren’t fleeting. They could be bruised but always healed.

---

Momo juggled unease and glee the days that followed. A cloud of doom followed her like she had it on a leash, but she told herself Izuru apologized, she told herself he treasured her enough to change his ways.

Kokona minded her own business. Momo was sure her keen subordinate picked up on the lump in her throat, but if Kokona noticed, she said nothing, only gossiped about her new friend from juunibantai when they accidentally melted something heavy through the floor of the monitor room. Her captain was the same. Shinji's poker face was convincing in most cases, but Momo got the sense Shinji itched to meddle like a father. Nonetheless, she was grateful for the space they gave her and Izuru.

She only saw Shuuhei one afternoon in a lieutenant's meeting. Perhaps it was her pet doom cloud, but Momo swore his jaw was tense and he talked quietly when he presented the emergency protocol in case of a large spread fire in the Seireitei. Momo had pretty keen hearing, but even she struggled to hear him. What had him so upset?

Momo and Izuru never returned to normal. Her need for affection was peppered with a chest ache, like there was a knife stuck in her ribs whenever Izuru kissed her. She promised all was forgiven. The doom cloud was just paranoia.

Of course, it stung worse when Izuru undressed her and tried to make love to her. Momo always ended up on her belly and dry by the time he finished, and then he rolled over onto his own side of whosoever bed they happened to use, and a horrible, vindictive part of her hoped it was shame that sequestered and silenced him.

In the past, Momo just floated through existence. She never slept, never enjoyed food or friendship, she hunkered down ten hours a day on paperwork. Momo was convinced even if their happiness was punctuated with misery, it was worth it.

Something in Momo told her it wasn't worth it. Her conflicted feelings were getting old, especially when she was distracted from the biweekly lieutenant's meeting. Iemura was sure to yell at her if she was caught.

When Momo came back, she saw Rangiku laze with her arms crossed, legs outstretched, eyes glazed over. Shuuhei was her antithesis when it came to work. He was always attentive and efficient. But he was distracted that meeting. His eyes were glazed over, they darted side to side. Momo knew he rest even less than herself, but come to think of it... Rangiku and Shuuhei were good friends. Rangiku divulged a lot to him. Something had to have happened to one of them for both of them to be distracted. Come to think of it, Rangiku normally braided her hair by that point. She was sullen comparatively.

But Rangiku was getting married, Nanao fret over a venue. They were happy. They couldn't have broken up. Had something happened to Shuuhei? Momo wasn't ever close to him. He wouldn't have shared anything with her that he shared with Rangiku.

When the meeting ended, Nanao and Rangiku caught up with her.

"Hello there," Nanao said. "I just finished the Yobanashi Mountain saga. It's a great series," Nanao told Momo. "Nawaka is long-winded when it comes to politics, but the world-building is worth it. Can you really believe he's an uneducated pauper when his grasp of economy, diplomacy, and language is so complete?"

Momo reluctantly fed into the distraction. If no one wanted to talk about it, she wouldn’t bring it up. "Is this really only the first book though? You could make a sturdy wall out of a couple copies of these."

"It is. The size is definitely daunting, but give the first chapter a try. You'll know you'll like it if it just sucks you in."

"I'll give it a read."

"Nonono. Momo, what you really need to read is the latest bulletin news section. Apparently, the Kuchiki clan's Ashitchi Kuchiki is being charged with the premediated murder of a sex worker in the upper Rukon. He, like, beheaded her or some shit. It was pretty gnarly. It's a shame they didn't include pictures of the body though."

"Oh god, beheaded her?" Nanao squawked. "Wow. Y'know, those upper nobles got some sick bastards in their families."

"Yeah, but will he be charged?" Momo asked.

"I don't know. The investigator for the bulletin, I think her name is Misaki Tomushiya, last talked to the family a week before the bulletin was published. Your guess is as good as mine."

"I hope they charge that creep. I'm tired of boys like that getting away with everything. Why do they get to live comfortably when they terrorized some poor, innocent girl. That's not right," Nanao said.

"It's not, but..." Momo shrugged. "Let's be real for a minute. She's a sex worker. No one cares about sex workers. Everyone reveres the noble families, especially Central Forty-Six. He'll get away with it. I bet Central Forty-Six will even pay him for his trouble."

Nanao shuddered. "I hate to think about it like that."

"Unfortunately, that's reality."

"It is. It doesn't mean it's right. We need a judicial body that completely ignores class, gender, occupation, all that."

"Or make sure Central Forty-six has middle to lower class individuals in it so the rich won't be let off scott-free."

"That's if the poor folks of Central Forty-Six are unsympathetic to the rich. You come across virtual cults worshipping the Kuchiki and Shihouin especially," Rangiku chimed. "In the lower districts, they either love the rich or loathe them."

"I didn't think of it like that." Nanao frowned.

"Speaking of the rich, though.... Momo, I hate prying, but I've heard down the grapevine that you and Izuru are in a bit of a rough patch," Rangiku said.

Momo's heart fucking stopped. Oh god, was it so bad? Was she fooled again?

"Look... Shuuhei told me about the game and the porno thing with Izuru.... I'm worried about you, Momo," Rangiku explained. It cleared up her brooding episode at least. "I tried to ignore it, but you've been off for the last two weeks sweetie. I'm just super worried a-and I know it's not my business, but you're one of my best friends and I want you to be happy."

Momo sighed. "I don't know, Rangiku. It's all confusing. I'm trying to sort it all out, but it's so... messy."

"God, I'm so glad I'm lesbian," Nanao grumbled.

"Have you guys even fucking talked about it, Momo?"

"Well... no. I don't really want to talk about it. Every time I think about it, all those girls being tied up and---"

"Hey now... sweetie, you don't have to describe it. Just talk about it. Humor me, please. All I want is your happiness."

Momo's brow furrowed. "Okay. I'll talk to Izuru about the pornography."

"And you won't yell?"

"I won't yell. We'll talk like civil adults."

Rangiku embraced Momo. "I'm glad. I love you both so much."

"I love you too, Rangiku."

Momo hugged Nanao as well. "I didn't want to leave you out. You're an amazing friend, Nanao."

"I know, and I love you too. Will you help me put together wedding invitations tonight?"

"Of course. I'd love to. I just need to send a message to Izuru to let him know I'll be late tonight," Momo said.

"Thank you."

---

Momo returned to Izuru's barracks well after midnight. He worked at his desk with red ink and his student's poetry.

"Welcome home," he said with an audible smile. "I made miso soup for you. I hope it tastes alright. I can reheat it for you, if you like."

"Yes, please," Momo said. Her heart pounded as she sat at the dining table. "Rangiku advised me we needed to discuss the... the pornography," she said. “Can we talk?”

Izuru dropped his ladle. "Momo, I-I'm sorry. I promise I'm not looking at it. I just want you, I want to make you happy."

"I... I know. Just... let’s posture that I am enough for you emotionally and physically. Why did you have the pornography?"

“I…” Izuru swallowed nervously, “I like it because I hate myself. When I picture myself in these situations where I’m being smacked around, I feel less hollow because I have external pain to concentrate on,” he explained. “It was never about you. I just needed an escape.”

“Oh.” Like how Momo craved to be hit. “Why did you have pornography of it?”

“Well… there isn’t porn of men getting smacked around, so I have to resort to BDSM on women. There’s a weird crossover of sexual stimulation and self-injury.”

So it wasn’t that he wanted to make her into a blow up doll. Momo was enough, but Izuru was already in pain and she only made it worse. “Oh, Izuru.” Momo threw her arms around him. “Izuru, I’m so sorry. I never even imagined.” She was so sorry, her heart broke. Momo was so cruel to the people she was supposed to love. "I never meant to hurt you. I was blinded by panic. Please, can you forgive me?"

"I forgave you long ago, Momo. I can never stay angry you."

"I'm so glad," Momo said tearfully. "I love you, Izuru. More than I could have ever imagined loving Sousuke or any other man."

"And I have forever, and will always love you," Izuru said.

Momo couldn’t hold back her grin. She pulled Izuru into the bedroom, her supper forgotten, and she pushed him onto his back. "I'll make you feel so good tonight. Show you how much you mean to me."

"Holy shit," he cursed as she pushed open his top layers. "You are gorgeous, baby."

"Yeah?" Momo pulled down Izuru's hakama. "I'm gorgeous?"

"God, yes." Izuru squeezed her breasts. Momo shrugged off her top to give him better access to her chest. Breathlessly, he said as he played with her nipples, "please fuck me.... Punish me for keeping secrets."

Momo's mouth went dry. The power was magnificent. It flooded her loins like a warm tidal wave. "You want me to punish you?" she said. Her fingers wrapped around his windpipe like bird talons. "I'm gonna fuck you sore. I'll milk you for every drop you have."

He groaned. Momo pushed down his pants and licked his partial erection with her flat tongue. Izuru's hips rolled forward with hopes to push himself into her waiting mouth. She repeatedly licked the opening of his head. Momo wanted to build up before she altogether blew him. She wanted him to be right on the edge, she wanted him to hurt for her softness to surround him.

"You're a naughty creature," she cooed. She licked the underside of his scrotum, and up and up she went until she reached the tip, where she circled it. Momo returned to the base, where his balls met his hips, and lapped at the flesh.

"Yes," Izuru whined, "I'm so naughty. Please punish me."

Momo mercilessly pinched one of his nipples. "I’ll make you fucking hurt, baby."

"Thank you, Momo."

Momo swallowed his cock and sunk her teeth into his wood. He gasped and tensed from the neck down. It throbbed and twitched in her mouth. Up and down she went, her teeth grazed his flesh. Izuru couldn’t feel pain, but she could tell he was delighted by her administrations.

Her nails dug into his testicles. He sucked in air between his teeth and moaned. “Sweet god,” he whined. Momo pulled his hands into her hair. His fingers happily entangled in her loosened hair. She reached the head of his erection and bit down into his engorged flesh. With her teeth and her soft cheeks around him, the contrast must have been delightful for Izuru because he bit his lip to stifle his moans.

Momo moved town to swallow his testicles and stroked his wettened wood with her hand.

“M-Momo, I’m so close,” Izuru whined. Momo immediately pulled away and sat on his sto mach.

“Well, that’s too bad. I can’t have you coming when I’m not even finished with you yet." She pushed down her own pants and slid down his thickened mast. She rode him like a toy. He squirmed beneath her. Momo kept her promise. With her newfound power gone to her head, she withheld her orgasm to draw out his again and again. Izuru's eyes crossed, he could barely move.

When Momo couldn't draw another out, she pushed off of his cock and sat on his lips. She was surprised and delighted to find he still had the motivation to lap at her soaked vulva. He reached inside of her with his tongue and enthusiastically stroke that special place he played with draw every bit of misery out of her and let her know how much he loved her.

Momo combed her fingers through Izuru's hair and pulled him harder into her. "Fuck.... That's right. You're a good cum-gargler, baby. I love your mouth." His groan vibrated against her and she shuddered. "Baby, harder, I'm so close...."

His head shook back and forth to increase stimulation. It was incredibly efficient. Momo moaned and bit her lip in bliss. She came on his lips. He gripped himself and stroked himself, and he lapped and lapped as she came. He came again just after her, like her pleasure was his, and the thought made her heat travel from her loins to her chest.

Momo fell off Izuru. Izuru sleepily kissed her.

"Thank you, my love," Izuru said. "That was… wow. I knew you would make a fantastic dominant, but that was mind-blowing."

She smiled. "I'm glad I'm good for you, baby."

"You've always been great, Momo. Always."

Momo kissed Izuru's cheeks, and he rubbed his nose against her like a sweet little boy. Momo turned onto her other side so she could fit her back side against Izuru. He wordlessly cuddled her.

"I love you, Izuru," Momo said. Perhaps she loved him more after that stint. He trusted her so much, he loved her so much he wanted her to hurt him. Wanted her in a way where he was her toy one minute and her partner the next.

---

Momo felt different in the weeks that followed. Braver, happier, she dared to conceive. Momo had an outlet for her anger, Izuru had an outlet for his self-loathing, and they fit together like snug jigsaw pieces outside the bedroom. Momo couldn't contain the news from Rangiku, of course. It was all thanks to Rangiku that her and Izuru's relationship reached their newest high.

On weekends, Rangiku was easily found in gross, skeevy bars. She was in a pub which swam with tobacco smoke and the smell of vomit. Rangiku was at the bar with another woman from juuichibantai, and Momo sat next to her and waved down the bartender for a mojito.

"You're the last person I expected to see here. Delightful, don't get me wrong." Rangiku swept her into a hug. "This is my friend Satochi Ganbe. He's our newest seated officer."

Oh dear... a man with breasts. Momo should've known better than to guess. She needed to change the subject before she made a fool of herself.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Satochi. I trust you know me. I just needed to speak to Rangiku real quick, I'll be out of your guys' hair soon enough."

"Oh my god, is everything okay?" Rangiku asked.

"Of course. I just wanted to thank you for your advice a couple weeks ago. I know it's well overdue, but I wanted to make sure Izuru and I were... well, okay, I suppose." Momo smiled. "And we are. Really, we're better than ever. He seems comfortable too."

"Oh shit," Rangiku cursed. "Oh my god. Okay, we need to go outside. Uh, Satochi, can you just... just meet me back at mine and Nanao's?"

Satochi blinked like a cat. "Sure. I'll see you there, Rangiku," he said, and then downed his drink and left for the door. Rangiku and Momo waited a minute for Satochi to get some distance between them. Momo's heart pounded in the meantime. What the hell was the problem? Her and Izuru talked about the pornography. Their relationship was fantastic. Izuru promised there wasn't anything else he kept from her. Had he lied?

"Momo, please know that I love you and I love Izuru too, a-and this isn't my place to tell you, but... clearly you guys aren't being forthright. Has Izuru told you about Shuuhei and Abarai?" Rangiku said.

Her mouth went dry. "What about them?" she asked grimly. Momo's thoughts raced and yet she couldn't think of anything that had to do with them.

"Izuru is in love with them."

Izuru was in love with them. Izuru was in love with other people. People that weren't her. And he lied to her about it.

Momo fell against the bar's facade and dropped onto the packed dirt ground. She still wasn't enough. She gave him love, and that wasn't enough. He had to resort to pornography to please himself. She gave him her domination in the bedroom, and that wasn't enough either because he was in love with other people.

Momo wasn't enough to keep Sousuke.

Momo wasn't enough to keep Izuru.

Momo wasn't enough to keep anyone.

"Sweetie, I know this is just... awful. He should have told you. But you're my friend, I-I couldn't keep the wool over your eyes too," Rangiku said.

"Is he fucking them?" Momo asked.

"No. They know how he feels, but they haven’t acted on anything."

Momo felt like her heart was scooped out like she scooped seeds out of a gourd. Her head was so foggy. She was duped again. Momo was duped again and she felt so stupid. She didn't want to feel anymore.

"I want to go home," she said. She just wanted to go home and draw, anything to get her mind off the news.

"Okay. I'll get you home, sweetie."

Rangiku helped Momo to her feet. She couldn't remember the walk back to her barracks. All she remembered was Izuru was on the couch with a book and she just felt dead inside.

"Was I not enough?" Momo asked. "Is that why you're in love with Shuuhei and Renji?"

Izuru was very much dead. Nonetheless, Momo could almost see him blanch like she caught him red-handed. "Rangiku, you told her?" he said indignantly. "I told you that in confidence!"

"And you haven't told your fucking girlfriend. What did you expect from me? She's my friend too. I-I can't just stand idly by while you fucking lie to her."

"We haven't done anything!" Izuru spat. "Please, Momo, you have to believe me. I love you so much. I know I've made mistakes, but you keep me on the straight and narrow path. All I want is you."

Momo refused to be fooled again. Izuru was like Sousuke, pathological. Everything that came out of his mouth, however sweet, however much Momo yearned to have faith in him, it was a blatant lie. It tainted every memory. Every time Momo kissed Izuru, every meal they shared, every time they slept together, every time they made love. It was all a lie.

"I can't believe you. Do you think I'm a fucking moron? A fucking thing you can just play with?"

"No, not in a million years, Momo. Never. You are everything. God, you are the very reason I get up in the morning anymore. Yes, I’m in love with Shuuhei and Renji, but I was so drunk and it just slipped out. I promise I was trying to tell you, I just couldn’t find how."

"Get out," Momo said. "I can't bear to listen to your drivel anymore. Get the fuck out."

Izuru stood statuesque with his eyes wide open and his mouth agape. It was like something was caught in his throat; tears, a plea to let him stay. But he said nothing, and he could no longer cry.

"I'll get my things tomorrow morning," he croaked. And then he left. His footsteps didn't make a sound as he walked out the front door.

Momo hobbled to her easel. She sat on her legs, she picked up a stick of pink chalk, and she scribbled some kind of flower on the coarse paper. The sound of the universe completely escaped Momo. Anything she could have felt walked out the door with Izuru.

"Momo... is this really the time to draw?" she asked. "Please, come sit with me.... I'll call Nanao over. We'll stay here tonight."

"I'd like for you to go home," Momo replied. "I would rather be on my own."

“Momo---”

“Rangiku, please. Just… go. I don’t want to be around anyone right now.”

Rangiku waited only a moment before she left too, with a sniffle that rang in Momo’s ears.

#bleach #bleachbigbang2019 #renshuukirahina #momo hinamori #izuru kira #rangiku matsumoto #nanao ise #shinji hirako #rannao #shinigami karin au

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multimxsings · 6 years ago

Text

The Price for Great Powers

Inspired by @chachacharlieco, who makes by far the best and most precious kh fanarts I ever saw. More specifically this and this.

But now that I really know who draw all these precious arts, I don’t think my fanfic is worthy enough anymore. But I guess here it is. Rip it apart all you want, ‘cause I know it’s not as good as their arts or other fanfics who might use Soranort. Even though I technically didn’t use Soranort.

It even has a lame end, hehe...

Also on Ao3 and ff.net

The Price for Great Powers

Sora’s been acting...strange lately. Kairi had no idea what it was, but something about Sora was different. He’s getting into fights with everyone, especially all the guys in school. It felt like she wasn’t ‘allowed’ to talk with other guys. He even attacked Riku verbally.

The only time she heard him talk with a gentle voice when he talked with her. To her, he was still the caring and slightly overprotective guy she loved, always telling her he’ll keep her save even though the big battle with Xehanort was long over.

“Kairi.” Said redhead turned to her best friend calling her. “Riku?” The older boy put a hand on her back and guided her somewhere. “We need to talk.”

“About Sora?” He just nodded as an answer and Kairi let him bring to a place where they could talk in private. “So, you noticed, too.” It wasn’t a question. “Of course. I know Sora's protective of me, but this is too much now...”

“That’s not him being protective anymore, Kairi. That’s possessiveness.” That’s not really the word she’d use, but it hit closer to the truth. “When did all this start?” Kairi thought for a while, trying to remember when she noticed the first change in him. “I guess...A few days after we returned.” Riku hummed and leaned against the wall.

“It could be a side effect of him using the power of waking to track down your heart.” He mumbled thoughtfully and unknowingly made her feel bad. “You mean it’s my fault he’s like this now?”

“No! No, god no, of course not.” He said quickly, trying to make her feel better. “Sora wanted to do it and he knew he’s abusing his powers. Mickey said he might not come back...” Kairi tried to make sense of his words. “What do you mean?”

“Hey!” Before Riku could explain it to her a familiar voice was calling them. And he sounded very angry. The two friends turned to the source of the voice and saw Sora glaring at them. “What are you doing here?!” He yelled, coming closer to them. “Sora, we just—“ Kairi tried to explain, but he just pushed her away gently and glared at Riku. “I asked you something!”

Riku frowned, but still talked as normal as ever. “We talked.” Soras glare darkened. She’s never seen him like this before...It was kinda scary. ”Oh, is that so?” He took a step closer and grabbed Riku’s collar. “And why did you drag her out here to ‘talk’?” Kairi couldn’t take it anymore, she had to defuse this situation.

She quickly barged in between the boys, looking at Sora’s furious face still glaring at Riku. “Sora!” She immediately got his attention and his face softened again. “Don’t be like this. Riku just wanted to talk with me.” The younger boy went silent at that, but eventually stepped back after glaring at Riku a last time.

Just as she thought everything’s fine, Riku began to talk. “Do you realize what you’re doing?” He earned himself another glare from Sora. “You’re trying to control Kairi. You keep her away from everyone. I’m her best friend in case you forgot.”

Before Sora could snap at him, Kairi grabbed his arm and pulled him away from Riku. “Come on, Sora! The next lesson starts soon!” Sora let her pull him along, but she saw him glaring at Riku one last time.

“Why are you so angry? It’s not like Riku and I are dating or something.” Sora looked at her apologetical, his expression softened again. “I know. Sorry.”

“Tell that to Riku.” He went silent at this, all the way till they’re in class. Sometime during class, Riku began to text her.

[Riku]: You see what I mean?

[Kairi]: Yeah. So what do you think is wrong with him?

[Riku]: My theories are that this is not Sora at all

[Riku]: or he came back as something else...

[Riku]: Don’t you feel it? The darkness?

[Kairi]: I do, but...I hoped I’m wrong.

[Riku]: Not just you

“Hey, who are you texting with?” Kairi jumped, when she heard Soras hushed voice against her ear. Of course he’d eventually notice her texting with someone. “Oh, uh Riku.” His expression became slightly darker and it made her shudder. “I see.”

Kairi knew he wanted to say more, but he decided not to. And she had more to tell him, too, but they had to wait till school’s over. Which was soon, but it felt like years.

When the last lesson was over, Kairi could tell that he wanted to leave as soon as possible. Since he didn’t tell her anything she took her time as always, but as soon as they’re both ready to go he grabbed her hand and lead her out of the school. “Wait.” Sora didn’t listen to her though and kept walking. “Wait, Sora!”

The redhead stopped and so did he. He looked at her, asking her silently why she stopped. “We should wait for Riku.” She could see that he didn’t like the idea, no matter how much he tried to hide this fact. “To be honest, I...wanted to do something with you. Alone.”

Kairi tilted her head to the side. She wasn’t quite sure if that’s a lie or if he really planned a day just for them. After all they really didn’t have much alone time since they returned. “Okay. Let’s go then.” Sora grinned brightly and it made Kairi think she just imagined the darkness in him.

When he’s with her he’s the same as always. Maybe he reacted the way he did because he’s afraid he’ll lose her again? Or he’s jealous? Even though Kairi never expected him to be the jealous type. But they both did change over the years, it could be a possibility.

Sora brought her to the beach and suggested to go to the play island. Of course she agreed, but she did feel bad that Sora brought them there in one boat and refusing to accept any help from her. “You’re a princess, you don’t have to work.” The redhead blushed at his words. “Don't say that, I'm still the same.” Then she took her phone to tell Riku why they didn't wait for him.

[Kairi]: Sorry we didn't wait. Sora and I are going to the play island

[Riku]: Take care

Kairi wasn't really sure what he meant with this. After all Sora was always very sweet to her and wouldn't ever hurt her. “What are you doing?” Asked Sora and Kairi quickly made up a lie to not make him angry again. “I, uh, I'm just telling my mom we're here.” Sora accepted her answer and before she knew it they already arrived at the little island.

Kairi was watching Sora the whole time they're on the play island. But he was the same for the rest of the day. It's like as if the argument with Riku a few hours ago never happened. Even the weird darkness on him was gone. Or at least shrunk down to the 'normal' size every person had.

“Let's train!” Suggested Kairi at some point, while Sora looked at her shocked. “Huh?” The redhead summoned her keyblade and took a few steps away from him. “Come on! You need to stay in shape. Or I'll become a keyblade master before you.” She wanted to tease him, egg him on to get off his lazy ass and fight with her, but he just smiled. “I wouldn't mind. For me you already are a master.”

“But not a real one!” Kairi pouted. “Come on. Whoever's got hit first wins. Okay?” He kept staring at her and Kairi couldn't help but blush at the loving gaze he gave her. “Okay.” He eventually gave in and summoned his own keyblade. Smiling triumphantly, she got ready for the upcoming battle. “After you, princess.”

It's weird that he kept calling her 'princess', but he surely just wanted to tease her back with this. “Don't hold back.” She said, before running to him and attacked him head-on. As expected he blocked the attack with his keyblade, but it was just a ruse to attack from another side.

Which he parried as well. Actually it didn't matter how she attacked, it's like he knew exactly what she planned and either dodged or blocked her attacks. In the end she was exhausted and he looked like he could do this for hours. “You’re not taking this seriously.” Kairi huffed, trying to catch her breath. “What do you mean?”

“All you do is avoiding my attacks. You haven’t attacked me once.” The spikey haired boy tilted his head to the side. “You want me to attack you?” Kairi nodded and barely blocked his fast attack. And man, he’s strong. She almost fell on her knees when their keyblades clashed. Using all her remaining strength, she pushed him back.

“Good.” His compliment didn’t really help her, though. “Look out.” Kairi looked up at his words and saw his keyblade rushing towards her. She dodged his attack, but he didn’t give her time to compose herself as he kept attacking her. He was fast, too, but maybe it’s because Kairi was doing all the work till now and was exhausted...

Once she had a second, she used a healing spell on herself and felt her strength returning. And now it was slightly easier fighting Sora. But what irritated her the most was that Sora kept warning her when he attacked. Something Axel never did during training.

Yeah, she knew Sora didn’t want to hurt her and went easy on her because she wasn’t as good as him yet, but how was she supposed to learn if he fought like this? It kinda made her wish to train with Axel again, since he actually took things seriously and they actually landed a few hits on one another.

After dodging another attack, Kairi wanted to start a counter attack but was faced with the tip of Soras keyblade. She froze, wondering what he’s gonna do, but then it just touched her cheek gently. “I won.” He announced and grinned at her. Huffing again, she admitted her defeat and sat down on the sand.

Sora sat down next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. “You okay?” Kairi nodded and sighed. “Yeah, fine.” The boy frowned and looked at her concerned. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine, Sora.” She answered, giving him a smile. He was quick to return it and as they both stared at the sea, Sora did something quite unexpected. He leaned his head on her shoulder. And it was quite a bold move for him, since he wasn’t exactly the type to initiate these things. But it did make her happy. But his next words caught her off-guard again. “You smell good.”

“Eeeh? Don’t be ridiculous, I reek of sweat!” Kairi leaned away from him, but he was quick to wrap an arm around her waist and pull her back to him. Sora rubbed his face against her shoulder like a cat. Now he’s weird again...Before she could ask him what’s wrong she suddenly found herself lying on her back with Sora hovering on top of her.

Kairi blushed a deep red that could match her hair, as she stared up at him. “You’re beautiful, Kairi.” All she could do was staring up at him. They knew each other’s feelings. They’ve both seen the drawings in the secret place and they did share a real paopu, but they haven’t really talked about it yet. If it was because they didn’t get the courage to do so yet or if they understood each other without words, she wasn’t sure.

So hearing him actually say anything was...great. And warmed her heart. “So—“ The boy quickly silenced her with his lips against hers. Her body froze at the sudden contact, having not expected this at all, but she eventually melted into the kiss. Maybe it wasn’t perfect, as many first kisses were, but it was for her. She’s dreamed of this for so long...

But something wasn’t right...She just didn’t know what it was. And with him kissing her, she wasn’t really able to think straight. Not even when his lips left hers. Not wanting this to stop yet, she grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him back down without thinking. Sora obeyed and kept kissing her.

Kairi only let him go when they’re both very breathless. They stared into each other’s eyes as Sora leaned his forehead against hers and said the words she always wanted to hear from him. “I love you.” Kairis heart swelled with joy and she could feel herself tearing up. Before she knew it a tear escaped her eyes, but Sora was quick to wipe it away. And the next tear was just kissed away.

“You okay?” Kairi was unable to talk and just nodded. Then he scattered little kisses all over her face. She’s never felt so loved before and it was amazing. Giggling, the redhead wrapped her arms around Soras neck and pulled him down to hug him.

“I love you, too, Sora.” She whispered in his ear and felt him hugging her back tighter. They stayed like that for a while. Actually Kairi lost track of time by now, but she didn’t care. For all she cared they could stay like this for hours. Just lying on the sand and cuddling.

But they had to go back eventually and the sunset reminded her of this fact. “Let’s go back.” Said Kairi eventually, having stalled this moment as long as possible. But Sora just shook his head against her shoulder. “Don’t wanna.” They couldn’t stay there the whole night though and so Kairi reluctantly sat up. “We need to go.”

Before she could get up, though, Sora grabbed her shoulder and pushed her back down roughly. Kairi looked at him in shock and could swear that something flickered in Soras eyes for a second. He glared at her, but as fast as this came from it vanished and he looked at her apologetical. “S-sorry.”

The brunette let her go then. They both got up and went silently back to Soras boat. Kairi had no idea what she should say, this roughness towards her still shocked her. He’s never been like this before. There was really something wrong with him.

Once their back on the main island Sora brought her home. They still didn’t talk to each other, the atmosphere around then was extremely tense. Then they eventually arrived at her home and just as she wanted to say good-bye to Sora, he beat her to it. “Sorry about before. I-Idon’t know what came over me.” Kairi studied his face and saw that he was genuinely sorry about this. “It’s okay. See you tomorrow then.”

Kairi smiled at him, but he didn’t return it this time. “It’s not okay. I could’ve hurt you. Maybe I did. You can’t just forgive me like that. I understand if you’re angry and wanna scream at me, really. I deserve it.” To ease his mind at least a little bit, she pulled him into a hug. “I’m not mad. You said you’re sorry and I believe you. Stop thinking about it. See you tomorrow, okay?”

Sora nodded and hugged her for a while longer, before letting her go. They parted ways and once Sora was out of sight, she texted Riku.

[Kairi]: Something weird happened

And it didn’t take long for Riku to reply.

[Riku]: Tell me everything

It stayed weird for days. Sora kept attacking every guy she’s talking to, even Riku, and tried everything to keep her for himself. He was still sorry about what happened on the play island, she could feel it and even though no accidents like this happened anymore, he was still aggressive towards everyone else.

Maybe Riku was right. Maybe he did come back as ‘something else’. With every fight Sora got himself into with others she felt the darkness inside him growing. But when they’re alone it’s like none of this ever happened.

The whole team of keyblade wielders still kept in touch with each other and since Kairi and Axel became real good friends during their training she asked him to come over and help them. Roxas joined him of course, since he’s a part of Sora. Actually Xion and Isa wanted to come, too, but they sadly couldn’t find the time.

So when the ‘destiny trio’ went to the play island to meet their friends, Soras mood dropped constantly. And when Kairi went to hug Axel he snapped. “Okay, that’s enough!” The brunette yelled and pulled Kairi away from him. Before she could ask what’s wrong with him, he pulled her into a tight hug, as if he wanted to protect her from everyone.

“Okay, this is weird.” Commented Axel, while the blonde nodded in agreement. “Told ya.” Sora glared at Axel, Roxas and Riku, holding her even tighter against him. “What are you talking about?!” The guys just stared at him as if he’s grown a second head. “Maybe you’re right, Riku...”

Kairis eyes widened at the blondes words. If Roxas and Axel could see the difference in such a short time...Was the darkness really spreading in Soras heart? After having glared some big holes into their friends Sora turned away, practically dragging her with him. “Come on, Kairi, let’s get out of here.” But he stopped at Axels next words. “How about you let her decide what she wants to do.”

“How about you shut your mouth?” Quickly, Kairi ducked under his arm and stepped away from him, standing between him and their friends. “Stop that! Why are you always so angry? They’re our friends.” Sora frowned as he looked at the guys behind her. “I don’t know.” Seeing that he began to calm down again, Kairi went back to him.

“Maybe you need some rest.” Sora just nodded and as Kairi led him back to the boats, she looked over her shoulder to the guys. They nodded at her, telling her silently that they’ll try to figure out what’s wrong with him after having seen him.

They thought something like this might happen and they all agreed that if he happened to snap at them that Kairi will bring him away and calm him down. The couple went to Soras place and he was definitely calmer by now.

“What’s wrong with you?” They sat on his bed and Sora’s leaned his head on her shoulder. “Don’t know.” He mumbled and cuddled closer to her. At some point he fell asleep and Kairi used the time to write with the guys.

[Riku]: How’s he?

[Axel]: Back to normal?

[Kairi]: Yep. As if nothing happened. Any ideas?

[Roxas]: Something’s definitely wrong with him and you seem to be the major key

[Axel] Maybe Kai’s light’s preventing from the darkness to spread?

[Riku]: Could be

[Kairi]: But this can’t keep going on like this. Is there anything we can do to help him?

[Riku]: If there’s anyone who can help it’s you. You are the princess of heart

Kairi sighed and put her phone away. Then she absentmindedly run her fingers through Soras spikey hair that lay on her lap. “You can have my light, Sora. Just don’t let the darkness consume you.”

Days passed, but Kairi still didn’t know how to help Sora. His behavior became worse, especially when Kairi wanted to hang out with Riku and Axel. Roxas had to go back to Twilight Town, but they kept him updated.

“You’re not leaving!” Yelled Sora at her and it was the first time he ever did. He was extremely clingy at this point and to be honest, it’s slowly getting on her nerves. “I’m just gonna train with Axel.” They wanted to meet at the play island, but Sora wouldn’t let her get in her little boat.

“I-I’ll train with you! Okay? Come on!” To prove his point, he summoned his keyblade but she wouldn’t just play along today. “No.” Just as she wanted to go, he held her chin and moved her head to look at him. “Don’t go, princess.” What’s up with the ‘princess’ thing though?

“Don’t call me that.” She sighed. “But you are a princess. You’re my princess.” Sora mumbled, face coming closer to hers. “Sora...” Not letting her protest, he silenced her with a kiss. Yep, the darkness clearly made him bold. But also aggressive...She’d rather have her awkward, too-nervous-to-act Sora back.

He knew exactly what to do to make her stop thinking, though and she was almost about to ditch Axel, till said man approached them. “Kairi.” Sora pulled away and glared at Axel for interrupting them. The redhead in question looked quite neutral, despite seeing them kiss like that. “You coming?”

“Ye—“

“She has other plans.” Interrupted Sora, still holding her close to him. “I can’t remember asking you.” Soras glare darkened at that. He looked kinda creepy. “I guess we need to train another time.” The girl frowned, thinking he let Sora have his way, but he looked way too serious. He must’ve planned something. Or just...acting on instinct like he always did.

“The darkness is spreading too fast. Go get Riku.” She couldn’t move, though, as Sora tightened her grip on her. “Are you really believing him, Kairi?” Asked Sora, having noticed that she wanted to leave. “Do you really believe your kidnapper?” That was ages ago and Sora knew they’re friends now! “He’s lying!”

Kairi could clearly hear the slight difference in his voice and also feel the darkness in him becoming bigger and bigger. It was obviously feeding on his —she didn’t dare to say it— jealousy and his normal, not possessive, way of protectiveness over her and turned it into something horrible. This really wasn’t her Sora anymore...

And so she pushed him away, using the moment she caught him off-guard to run to Axel. He stepped in front of her to prevent Sora from grabbing her. “Go, Kairi. I’ll hold him off.” Nodding, she ran off to Rikus place. Yeah, she could’ve just called him, but she couldn’t think straight. Also she needed to get away from Sora for now.

“Give her back, Axel!” She heard Sora yell, before two keyblades clashed together. Trying to ignore the sounds behind her, she ran as fast as she could.

“Riku!” She called desperately, banging on the door the second she arrived. “Riku!” Kairi almost punched him when he opened the door, but he caught her fist. “What’s wrong?”

“Sora! The-the darkness! Axel...!” The silver haired boy nodded, apparently understanding her gibberish. “Are you saying they’re fighting?” The redhead nodded and then they’re both running back to the beach. “It happened faster than I expected.”

“You knew this would happen?” Riku nodded. “Eventually, yes. But I hoped we have more time to figure out what to do before the darkness grew too strong...” Kairi felt tears forming in her eyes. It was all her fault. Was her light not enough? If only she realized this sooner...If only she could fight better...She should’ve tried to defend herself better against Xemnas and Xehanort...

A gentle pat on her shoulder brought her back to reality. Looking up, she saw Rikus worried but determined face, silently telling her that it’s not her fault and that they’ll save Sora. It was hard to believe him, though. At least the first part. Kairi nodded back and wiped the tears away. They will save Sora. They had to.

Back at the beach they saw the two fighting, but that wasn’t even the worst part. There was now darkness surrounding Sora. The tears came back, but now wasn’t the time for that. They had to save him. “That’s...worse than I thought.” Mumbled Riku and Kairi just agreed with a nod. “We should take this fight away from innocent people.”

Kairi was surprised when her best friend suddenly kneeled down, his back facing her. “Hop on. I’ll get us to the play island.” Doing as she’s told, she climbed on Rikus back and held onto him tightly, as he got up again and ran to the shore. “Hold him off till we’re there!” He called to Axel, who’s still fighting Sora. “What do you think I’m doing this whole time?!”

Now Sora saw them. “Kairi!” The redhead glanced back at him, noticing that his hair became...paler? His eyes weren’t the same blue either. But she couldn’t look at him better, because Riku suddenly leaped into the air. Kairi squealed and held onto Riku tighter. He must’ve used aero magic to do this.

When they landed again moments later and Kairi slowly slid off his back, she felt dizzy. That was surely a weird experience, but something she wanted to learn. They didn’t have the time to make a plan, though, because Sora showed up moments later. Now that he’s closer than before, she could see his hair slowly turning silver-ish and his eyes were yellow. “Release her! Right now!”

That was indeed a terrible sight...”Stay back, Kairi.” Said Riku, as he stepped in front of her to shield from anything Sora might throw at them. But Kairi wasn’t really satisfied with his decision. She was a keyblade wielder too! But there wasn’t really much she could do...She lost to Sora and he held himself back, how would things be if he’s serious?

But would he even attack her? She couldn’t tell Riku her idea, though, since Sora began to attack him. Riku blocked his attack and threw him right back, before launching a counterattack. It was really horrible seeing them fight like this. They were both serious, she could tell and she was afraid they’ll hurt each other.

She gritted her teeth as she watched them fight, before finally snapping. “Stop it, you two!” But Kairi instantly regretted it. She did get Rikus attention, but Sora used this moment to attack. Seconds later Riku was thrown back against the rocky wall by the little waterfall. “Riku!”

Kairi was about to run to him, but an arm around her waist prevented her from doing so. She felt a chill going down her spine at the cold feeling of darkness on him. Sora’s other arm wrapped around her waist, too and pulled her against his chest. Then he put his head on her shoulder, now white hair sticking out in every direction.

“Sora...” She mumbled still staring at Riku lying unconscious in the water with teary eyes. There was no time to cry! She had to do something! “Why are you doing all this?”

“I wanna be with you, princess. Forever.” To be honest Kairi had no idea how to feel about this. She wanted to be with him, too, of course but not like this. Not with so much darkness in him. She wanted her Sora back! “Give up already.” Said Sora with a light distorted voice angrily.

The redhead blinked the tears away to clear her vision and saw Riku standing up and ready for round two. Before she could do anything —jeez why was she so slow?— Sora picked her up bridal style. “Back off! She’s mine!” He practically growled at Riku. “What do you want from her?” Sora gritted his teeth angrily, the darkness growing.

“Sora, stop that!” She yelled at him, putting a hand on his chest. Then her hand suddenly began to glow and Sora let out a painful gasp. He let go of her, but instead of falling on the sand aero magic broke her fall. The spikey haired boy fell to his knees, gripping the shirt near his heart tightly. Kairi saw the blue returning to his eyes, but just for a second before it’s yellow again.

Reacting fast for once, Kairi summoned her keyblade and held it up just in time to block Soras. “What did you do?!” No matter how much strength she used to withstand him, she was being pushed down, till she’s lying on the sand. He was hovering above her, still pushing his keyblade against hers.

And then he was gone and on his place stuck Rikus keyblade. Kairi sat up and took Rikus offering hand to stand. The older boy pulled his keyblade out of the sand, eyes staying on their mutual best friend. “Whatever you did, you should do it again.”

“But I don’t know what—“

“He needs your light, Kairi.” Riku interrupted, glancing at her. “You can do it.” He patted her shoulder and Kairi definitely felt more confident now. “Yo!” Axel joined them in the island. He looked exhausted and had quite a few cuts and bruises all over him, but he still looked ready to fight more. “Need some help?”

“Axel, are you okay?” Said redhead grinned at her. “Sure. What did you expect?” Kairi gave him a quick smile, before they turned their attention back to Sora. He was glaring at all three of them and Kairi guessed that maybe this time he’d fight her, too. The darkness surely took full control of him now.

“We need to make an opening for Kairi.” Said Riku, while Axel nodded, grinning. “Let’s do it, then.” The boys went to attack Sora from different angles, while Sora threw a dark ball at Riku and blocked Axels attack with his keyblade. Riku destroyed the dark ball with his weapon and continued his attack, making Sora back away from him.

Axel used the chance and hit him in his stomach, sending him flying. Then he made way for Kairi, who ran past him and tried to get closer to him. But Sora was no fool and landed on his feet and when he did their keyblades clashed. Kairi could feel herself being pushed backwards, the sand wasn’t really helping her to stand her ground.

“You can still switch sides, princess.” The redhead wasn’t backing down and pushed against his weapon. “Funny. I wanted to tell you the same.” She said provokingly, watching as his eyes darkened with anger. No, she wasn’t afraid of him, he was still Sora. Somewhere...deep down. She may be close enough, but there’s no way she could hold him back with just one hand.

He seemed to be perfectly capable of doing it, though, as one hand let go of the weapon and reached to her. Kairi couldn’t move, so he took this opportunity to caress her check, obviously trying with another method to get to her. His eyes softened, turning slightly blue-ish again and it made her tear up again. That’s just a trick from the darkness, she told herself over and over again.

Then he was suddenly frozen solid. But not for too long, since the ice already began to crumble. Once he was free and wanted to attack her again, his arms were held back by Axel and Riku. “Kairi, now!”

Kairi took a step back and raised her keyblade, pointing at his heart. Maybe she could focus her light on her weapon and free him that way? Well, it was worth a shot. She may have never done this again, but she did just shot light out of her hand minutes ago without realizing what she did.

“Okay...” She mumbled, trying to focus all her magic, all her light, all her love for Sora to free him from this terrible darkness. She could practically feel all her energy flowing to her keyblade. “I love you, Sora.” Said Kairi loud enough for him to hear, before shutting her eyes tightly and shot a powerful beam of light straight into his heart. She tried to ignore his painful screaming, after all she’s just doing this to help him.

Just when it stopped, she opened her eyes again. Sora writhed in pain, while Riku and Axel kept holding his arms back. It was terrible seeing him in so much pain...but the darkness —or at least the dangerous part that possessed him— needed to get out of his heart. And that's what it did. Some agonizing minutes later, a big darkness left Soras body and formed its own.

And of course it looked like Soras shadow. After a lot of protest from Sora, he and Riku once told her that the younger boy could use so called 'Drive Forms'. One of those forms made him look like a shadow creature, called Anti-Form. It just happened at the most desperate moments. Was that the part that took control of him?

The creatures eyes glowed bright yellow and were fixed on her. Of course it was. If it behaved like a heartless then she was the most obvious target due to her heart of pure light. She got ready to fight it and it chose this moment to run on all fours to her. It jumped up, ready to slash her with its claws.

Kairi tried to do the same as before, focusing as much light on her weapon as possible. But instead of a beam the keyblade itself glowed brightly and forming a blade of light. Once the creature was close enough, Kairi let out a battle cry and slashed it instead. The blade cut right through it, destroying it in an instant.

The creature and the darkness around it dissolved, leaving nothing behind. Sighing Kairi fell to her knees, spent. She may not have fought as much as Axel and Riku, but using so much energy for two big attacks left her exhausted.

Then she eventually looked to the boys. All three of them were staring at her amazed and awestruck. And the best thing was, Sora seemed to be alright! Riku and Axel were still holding his arms, but more like to steady him. His hair turned back to its brown color and he's staring at her with those deep blue eyes she fell in love with. “Jeez...Remind me to never get on her bad side again.” Mumbled Axel to the guys that were still unable to talk.

“Sora, are you okay?” She asked somewhat hesitant. His only reply were some noises. “He's back to normal.” Riku confirmed, looking quite proud. Despite her tiredness, Kairi was quickly back on her feet and jumped into Soras arms, hugging him as tight as she could.

“You're alright...!” She said more to convince herself. Kairi felt herself crying for the umpteenth time that day, especially when he hugged her back and buried his face in her hair. “Kairi...I-I'm sorry for everything I did. I was horrible to you. Riku's right, I tried to control you. And then I tried to kill you...Gosh, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sor—“

Now it was Kairi who silenced him with a kiss. He was so surprised when she suddenly pulled away that she took advantage of it. When they parted and the redhead saw him staring at her in shock and blushed a deep red, the tears she tried to hold back glided down her cheeks.

Pulling him back into a tight hug, Kairi cried and laughed at the same time. “I'm sorry...that I haven't seen this sooner. I should've realized sooner that you're not yourself.” Sora shook his head against hers. “Don't you dare take the blame. You haven't done anything wrong.”

“But I let Xemnas take me and—“

“Stop it right there!” Interrupted Sora, sounding angry again. “There was noting you could've done. If anything I should apologize for not taking better care of you.” Before she could protest more a cough interrupted her. The couple immediately looked to Axel. “You guys know you're going round in circles, right? It doesn't matter who might be to blame for this or not, fact is everything's fine again so let's celebrate this damn victory with some ice cream.”

The trio laughed at their comrade's words. “Typical Axel.” Said Kairi. “But maybe you're right. At least we were able to save Sora.” Riku shook his head, earning a confused look from the redhead. “You did this all alone, Kairi. Axel and I just gave you some time.”

“Yeah. This time the princess saved the knight.” Agreed Axel and grinned at the couple. Giggling lightly, Kairi hit his arm gently. He knew she didn't like being called princess, since he kept teasing her with it a lot during training. But maybe this time a little nudge was more deserved than magic.

“Let's go back.” Suggested Riku and led the way to the docks. Axel followed silently and the girl guessed it must be their way to give her and Sora a little private time before getting their 'reward'.

“Kairi. Thank you.” Said Sora, once the guys were out of earshot. “If you didn't use your light like that —by the way that was really amazing— I might have turned into something worse. I don't know what I'd do without you...”

“You'd be completely hopeless.”

“That's one way to put it.” Sora chuckled, it was kinda unbelievable that not even ten minutes ago he was consumed by darkness and wanted to destroy them all. Then he surprised her with a kiss on his cheek. And she wouldn't trade this shyness of him for anything in the world. He shot her a bright grin and took her hand in hers, leading the way to the others. “Let's get some ice cream then!”

#sokai #sora #riku #kairi #lea #axel #roxas #kingdom hearts #kh #square enix #fanfics #fanfiction

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obannthepunished · 6 years ago

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uhhhhhh notes HURT WEEK im pains

"They call me eagle-eye fjord where i come from." "maybe raven. i dont know." that theory about Fjord being the Hawker is suspicious rn (Apparently theres a third i missed whoops) sam apparently similar thoughts maybe bc Nott brings it up

Jester finally teaching kiri basic phrases, like "go fuck yourself"

Beau + Fjord taking first watch

Caleb checking out the dodecahedron

(Unrelated odd point: i have a current dislike/distrust for liam, which is bullshit bc... i love liam. and caleb and vax. but apparently smt is wrong.)

Dodecahedron is Very Old, and has been shaped/polished Cay uses the haversack as a pillow

BEAU/FJORD Beau: "I think I messed up. I think I should apologise." I HURT? Oh beauregard. oh marisha. "i wanna try, I guess" F: I think he deserves that. He's been good to us. i regret not writing fic now 8(

"OOH, terrible" "YEP." "five" "five" (collective "ooh")

Nott + Jes second. they roll not great.

Tinkle tinkle "nnhnohfishnott"

Kiri is poofed up asleep aAW

trident goin for FRUMPKIN NOOO (pause whilst they look for range on dismissal)

Kiri wakes up "Go fuck yourself :("

Theyre waiting for fish head they could just reappear Frumpkin tho...

Jester is sacred flaming, Molly has a sword active + stabs, Caleb fire bolt, Nott fires an arrow, Fjord eldritch blast, Yasha stabby

Molly + Nott + Caleb miss Fjord hits, Beau hits, Yasha hits dunno bout jes

frumpkin poofs back but doesn't see anything else.

???? alarm lasts 8 hours, not until triggered yall it should still be up. they need to look up the spells smh

Nott messaging to tell yash to hide the bodies

LAst watch is Yash and Caleb i need to stop shortening names

Caleb asks Yasha for people advice :') He's writing it down... i love him Yashas advice is basically "Fucking Bathe" And cay confirms he keeps himself gross because people ignore him more that way 8( Baby

C: "Do you know what i miss? shaving." Y: "I could shave you right now with my sword. I've done it before, you know, to... not have hair on my arms-" Omg shes doing it omg theyre doing it omg I DONT HAVE TO DRAW FACIAL HAIR IN MY FANART ANY MORE FUCK <3333

cay forgets he has a dagger jesus fucking christ

i love everyone making comments + taliesins just amazed like, borderline heart eye emoji look at this whole scenario

M: (to Caleb) "Well done, she [yasha] likes you!"

Nott is Not Happy About Water N: I'LL STAY WITH KIRI everyone else: Convincing her to come N: I'll stay with kiri, and if there's any trouble... we'll see what happens

Fjord goes first, he sees, with his 60ft darkvision, architeture of room. mistly natural, some bits not.

Fjord botches his stealth roll but matt botches his perception even worse. and my thing crashed im so mad.

Fjord is Not a good swimmer. hes like. 30ft swimming speed. Things being left: Caleb's books (2) Molly's coat

travis willingham going "kiris gotta die" then dragging everyone who gasped through the dirt

beau gets fucking 37 on her stealth check Matt: "That's some vax numbers right there!"

The visual aid is... so extra. lights. smoke. what the fuck matthew. (note: when ur best friend is called matthew this is a phrase you say too much)

Surprise round for erryone but Molly and Yasha (purrsonally, i think they were too busy talking abt how beautiful cay is now ;3c)

everyone rolled shite for initiative tho

Caleb casting haste on molly O:

Fjord is very very adept at everything

everyone on crit role can do maths better than me 8(

the marrow fuck beau and fjord royally

watching call lightning forming + marishas face as she slowly realises :)

jes gets the first hdywtdt + crushes a fish with a lollipop

Caleb is taking blind potshots with the glove of blasting boyy. One even hits!

moll gets 3 attacks i love my beautiful devil child

N: Are you guys alive and do you need anything? you can reply to this message~ C: FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK N: oh,, alright.

Taliesin's relief when ashley actually hits is very good.

Beau goes down! D:

hi unrelated taliesin sticking his tongue out at sam fills me with indescribable joy

NEW: Horny twink gets double penetrated by feisty wet ones.

... which is to say two fish dudes stab molly.

Jes heals Beau, but we all know fine fucking well if she hadn't, Yasha would have done it on her next turn. still might since she's only on 11

Cay using dispel magic O:

Molly gets the second hdywtdt "I'm literally just a windmill at this point"

FJORD gets the third F: "I see Molly loojin' around, give him a little wink-" (murders) M: Fucking arsehole F: (witty comment) PEACE OUT (blinks out again)

"Sevens are scary" - Taliesin

Yash gets the next hdywtdt Xorhasian Neck Tie Jesus christ

I was right tho Yasha was seriously considering healing beau, it just takes her action

Two more fishfucks 8(

More call lightning

Sams flask says "lost my best friend over a bowl" and that hurtie

caleb is boutta die. Yasha is boutta die first lmao oh no. i love taliesin jaffe an inhuman amount. Yash gets pulled OVER beau and marisha makes like grabby hand motions which is VERY cute

ok NOW caleb boutta die. he Shield's, and then fragments "Caleb will remember this"

Beau looks at Yasha, looks at Caleb, and goes to CALEB (sobs) blasts a ki point and everything

Molly gets a nat 20 oh he's such a babe

Nott spending her turn justifying herself to Kiri

Fjord blinks back in and fucks up ANOTHER fishfuck

Yasha casting healing hands on HERSELF good.

"You dont have a printout of your character sheet????" "Oh yeah I do after you asked me nine times" liam wh

both yash and caleb are at ONE hp

B, spening her last ki point: HEYCALEBWESHOULDTALKLATER

Beau gets the HDYWTDT tho

Molly is Very Sick from losing haste

Caleb goes the fuck down Fails his first save

everytime tal says "im gonna try something weird" i heart eyes emoji shame he cant do jack fuck though

Nott Burning Bolt shoots the fishfuck for 24 damage jeeeeez doesnt die but drops lightning

Fjord: (appears, fails, disappears)

if Caleb permadeaths i WILL cry

PLEASE YASHA PLEASE GOD JESTER PLEASE THEY KILL IT IM CRYING SO HARD no like literally i am actually crying bc matt very deliberately did that so that he didnt kill Caleb

Jester uses her pearl of power to regain a slot, and use it to cast prayer of healing for SHIT rolls.

Jester goes back to Kiri <333 baby. baby bird.

Matt mercer keeps using words ive only ever seen written and im ALWAYS ???? about their pronunciation

Fjord finds some L00t Like boxes and longswords and a pool of water with dozens of metallic objects mostly outlawed diety symols. changebringer moonweaver. others i forgot. stormlord. everlight. asmodeus ooh, bane strife emperor. and tiamat.

"a little black bird that's fluttering to try and get dry" fuck thats so damn cute. Marisha has the :D face

Calebs books are dry

wooden box + pool are magic. like. WITHIN.

Enchantment in the box. Molly collecting the moonweaver pieces

JESTER FINDS TWO SYMBOLS FOR THE TRAVELLER? HOLY SHIT Different make, pure silver one, burnished bronze another door arch with the road

Molly gets 12-13 symbols

Nott mage hands just so good even drunk

in the box is a blade, gold, jewel encrusted Molly shoves Nott aside to get it cause its a scimitar style

Caleb finds the arch-heart symbol? Takes one

Yasha takes 4 symbols for the storm god.

Bane/strife emperor symbol Fjord is curious about chained coffin he throws it into the pool. nothing happens.

JEster goes to pll it out and gets a big catseye yellow gem, magical, but not a school of arcane magic. it has a line groove in it, very deliberate, an oval.

"something about that [orb] is very familiar"??? (Matt to Travis)

i was right about the orb being familiar

C: (abt the gold sword) This blade is called Summer's Dance C: "Mr. Mollymauk," M: "Mr. Caleb."

Blade allows user to cast Blink basically, and is stronk

official-europa replied to your post: uhhhhhh notes HURT WEEK im pains “They...

i think its probably misty step and not blink

official-europa replied to your post: uhhhhhh notes HURT WEEK im pains “They...

on the sword i mean

caleb tries to ID the orb

fjord touches it "sky is moonlit + cloudless, clothes not your own, nor body, overcoat + human skin. thick calloused skin. left hand stone. look down, see body of previous owner, dead in blood. natural landmass seawater night. flash. right hand grasps falchion. voice booms. potential. jams the stone into gut, cCONSUME. vanishes into belly. looks into water. REWARD." "Vandrin."

i dont kn ow what the fuck is going on.??? everyone else sees this o shit

oh shit is the eye the symbol of Fjord's patron?

"he was my mentor, a captain of mine. a man named Vandrin." Y: What happened to Vandrin? F: I'm not sure. he captained the ship i worked on for many years, and their was an incident. an explosion, terrible weather, waves, "i was knocked overboard" when f woke up he was back on shore

"how did you survive" "I'm not entirely sure."

explosion was sabotage.

the pool is saltwater.

Molly shoves Fjord's head into the water

comes up "You okay???" "Do it again" "Tap three times when you're done!" Fjord drowns

they take as much as possible up and out and decide to dynamite everything in. dramatic exit..

They take the bodies down and lay them in the swamp to rest and decompose.

Beau tries to pull Caleb aside and he just stonewalls her until she actually apologises.

Caleb "I give beauregard a hug and say 'idont know what im doing. just. go with it." BEau very AWKWARDLY hugs him back Beau consulting Fjord, Caleb consulting Yasha The entire other side of the table clapping.

Beau: UH. GOOD TALK. FRIEND. (awkward silence) Beau: Seriously though. Friend? (pause) Caleb: Uh. Ja. (brb dying)

there is a single yellow eye on the hilt of the falchion.

episode END

#Critical Role #Critical Role Notes

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forebodingowl · 4 years ago

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i really need to get back to writing in here. i dont think i have for an entire month, or at least 3 weeks! every thing has been going okay. i mostly do art or set up streaming stuff on my computer at daytime, and then i read comics and go to sleep. still doing self care. slacking a little bit on it so i need to bring exfoliation back to my daily skin care routine. got almost all my furniture set up now except for my vanity. i can finally put my clothes in the dresser instead of searching through the box. things have been good. i see asa every week. i love him and he is so kind and patient with me and does so much for me. i did a blue diamond makeup test and it came out BEAUTIFUL , i am so proud of it. i also have been making tik toks sometimes and they’re kind of funny, so i like that about me too recently haha. i have like 0 summer clothes and no a/c so i’ve been sweating my fucking ass off. i ordered a bunch of summer clothes off Romwe and i’m waiting for those to ship, they probably wont be here till first of july. and i’m hoping to have an a/c in a week. its going to be in the 90s this weekend tho so i’m just gonna have to suffer through that.

i havent worked out or eaten healthy in a couple weeks. i’ve been eating wayyyyy too much take out and i need to chill with that. i need to save money. my grandpa ken said he’s sending a $500 check to me in the mail so i’m going to use that for the a/c. so random from him because i havent seen him in a long time. i’m going to go back to writing in this every night and morning because it super helped keep me on track. i’ll post my to do list for tomorrow right after i finish this journal. i have to finish cleaning my room tonight and finish filling my dresser with clothes (the dresser asa built and put up for me). i’ve been drawing some fanart of dotflow, a horror game asa showed me, and for a music video Ashnikko and Grimes did together for their song Cry. I loved the early 2000s CgI graphics of it and the little plot about revenge and grief. i’m drawing a scene from it with her floating in 0G in her gundam space ship while crying, and he tears are floating up., i want to make it a gif of the tears going up and maybe move the body up and down so it looks like it’s floating. i am trying to go to bed earlier these days and i am pretty tired tonight from the heat and not much sleep with asa so i thinkk i’m going to rest well, and i’m going to take some sleeping meds to make sure of it.

UGHHHHH i love asa so much he is so GOOD TO MEEEE, i am so so so damn lucky to know him. i want to be better to him so i got him a bunch of gifts off etsy to make him a nice little present. i am sooooo excited because i ordered a bunch of stuff that has to do with his favorite games and stuff. i think he is really really really gonna like it. hmmm. my grandma blocked me on facebook because i dont support police and i do support BLM.

oh thats something new that happened since last time. the BLM protests after the killing of George Floyd. Protests not just here in America, but all over the world. It’s so beautiful i could cry right now thinking about it. people are shouting to defund the police, and to charge police with their unprovoked killings of black people. i want all of that. i want people to get better and i want black people to feel safe and loved. i’m crying lol. it’s just so fucking sad. it’s soooooo sad. i really hope we can start a revolution. i hope this just doesnt fizzle out when people get tired. its hard work.

on top of that, coronavirus is still a thing here thats still killing people and spreading. apparently even if you heal from it, it leaves your body wrecked for the rest of your life. young healthy people who recovered from it now have asthma and extreme exhaustion among other things. this one young healthy girl had to have a double lung transplant, it ruined her lungs so bad. she could have died. i dont understand why the world is like this. i’m sooooo fucking sad. i dont understand why we cant all work to make a society that takes care of everyone and makes sure everyone lives happy comfortable peaceful lives. why is there so much evil? the point of society is to work together to make each other happy. to take care of each other. why havent we ever been able to do that? hasnt the cruelty gone on long enough? i hope i live to see some sort of change. but who knows with the way global warming is doing too, and politicians not taking it seriously and allowing huge corporations to continue polluting the earth. capitalism ruined everything and the money machine is evil and greedy.

i dont want to leave this on too sad of a note. i lov e my friends and hold them dear to my heart. they are my family and all i think about all of the time. i know i am doing good and i am safe and i thank my lucky stars for all the good in my life. i am such a lucky lucky girl. ive been feeling so happy. oh shit i forgot to reschedule with my psychiatrist lmao, i’ll set an alarm to do that and to call my grandpa tomorrow.

i love you sabrina. you deserve all of the love that you receive. everyone loves you because you are such a caring gentle soul, you are so funny and creative and full of life. you are so full of fun and you are clever and adventurous. theres so much good in you and people see that and are drawn to you. take care of yourself beautiful. love yourself. you can do anything. <3

#journal

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ask-the-friendly-ink-demon · 7 years ago

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Bendy In Inky Terrors Chapter 3 New Version [Full]

heyyyy look here it’s chapter 3!~~~ hope you all are ready for more spooks and the feels and the triggered of alice taking away boris. oh and also angruh bendy boy too and haft of this chapter is partly based off of an rp i did with someone of their alice au with modern!bendy in his ink form but i edited an few knots into it to make it seem like an part of the story. and also there are poor feels when henry sees norman as in this au he and norman were like the bestest of friend like brothers nearly too you can guess that when he saw him as…. well the projectionist you can guess that it was more of an heart breaking moment for henry rather then an scared moment

“Alice” and “bendy” and the butcher Gang belongs to themeaty shawn flynn belongs to jacksepticeye grant belongs to DAGAMES (i can’t remember the last name ) Modern BATIM AU belongs to me happy halloween everyone or late halloween depending on what day you all read this on and there may be only one or two flashbacks occurring as we all know how long chapter 3 is too i won’t make it extra long cause I’m not that evil……. yet XD and also anything else can happen at this point make some fan stories of this au if you want or make up some random theory or even draw fanart of this au i don’t mind seeing what you all have.

made on: October 24th

finished on: October 30th

[[P.S you’ll find out why this is an new version since due to the new secret of chapter 3 being released]

————-

Henry’s eyes opened as he got up from the bed after an few days or maybe even an week have gone by since he and bendy met up with Boris. Overtime however the demon and the friendly wolf noticed the scar Henry had on his arm thanks to joey. The rather young but still old animator had just woken up from an restful sleep he needed it due to how tired he and his friend were from fighting and trying to survive in the studio. He looked around the room he was in he sighed “we can’t stay here any longer” he decided that they stayed here long enough it was time for them to leave the saferoom. Henry then noticed that the hooded devil was nowhere in slight in the room “bendy?” he looked around not seeing the hooded devil darling anywhere “must have woken up he walked out seeing another pair of overalls hanging he went to the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror "heh god I look like a mess” he said as he scratched his beard a bit and noticed his clothing still had some stains of ink left but he can barley see it “i’ll have to wash these when I get back home… if I ever make it out with these two that is” he said and walked on to see Boris listening to an rather classy cartoon like tune playing and saw bendy with the cartoon wolf he noticed bendy was not listening to the music as he kept drinking an can of bacon soup in his hand “hey there bud couldn’t sleep?” he asked the cartoon as bendy just nodded “eh to be honest I was just waking up to get something to drink” he said while taking an sip of the can of bacon soup. Henry patted the devil on the head “just try not to drink too fast remember your body hasn’t fully healed yet” bendy blinked before nodding Henry saw an series of numbers on the can which he assumed was the expiration date he looked at bendy and told him “besides you know that bacon soup is expired right?” bendy’s eyes widen so fast they almost fell out of his head as he spitted it out “AUGH WHY DID'INT YA TELL ME BEFORE?!?!?” he said while wiping his mouth trying to get the taste out. Henry held his laughter back and waved at Boris who waved back with a smile “good morning Boris… or good afternoon hard to tell the time down here” Boris pointed to an nearby clock the time on it said 10:00 AM on it "oh thanks" he said to the wolf and went to look around an bit he saw the weird design on the wall he shook his head “whoever was here in this saferoom before did not think of what cartoons look like” he saw Boris and bendy nodding agreeing with him he walked towards the door and saw the lever was missing “not getting out of here that easy the lever’s missin-” Henry looked over to see Boris whistling with an innocence look on his face and Henry had to held back his laughter as he saw bendy doing the same thing only using the banjo just for fun “kid-” bendy started to play the banjo interrupting Henry as he choked an laugh “wellll howdy there deputy Boris! what do ya say we go and find that lever for our good friend Henry partner!” he said in the most funniest Texan accent he could manage and Boris whistled and did an motion of nodding while trying to hide his laugh “welll what do ya say hen? wanna help out old sheriff bendy and my deputy Boris in helping ya find that lever partner?” bendy said and the banjo lost an string hitting the little devil in the face Boris and Henry both covered their mouths trying to stop laughing out loud “pfffff-” Henry was trying his hardest not to laugh “well that was the 20th gosh darn banjo this week” he turned to look at Boris with an fake angry and funny expression on his face “BORIS! I TOLD YA WE NEEDED MORE BANJOS B O I!” Boris was wheezing and banging his fist on the table as Henry was laughing “come on Boris I know you have it or are you holding it hostage until I make you something to eat?” Boris had an innocence puppy look on his face while smiling and his tongue was out as bendy had to hold in his laughter after he and Boris did that little joke. Henry gave in to the wolf as he sighed and smiled “I thought so let’s see what I can find” Henry said as he walked around to find three bacon soup cans as bendy had to release his laughter he and Boris were laughing so hard “ohhh god Boris that was the funniest thing I ever seen in this studio ever since Henry came back” Boris nodded “hey what’s wrong you still don’t feel like talking?” the wolf nodded and bendy shook his friend “Come on pal you were laughing! Your voice has to be fixed now” Boris looked down and bendy patted his head “hey pal come on I promise you your voice will come back to ya maybe not even today but it’ll come back someday” Boris smiled and nodded. Henry came back with three cans of bacon soup “well I think I have enough to make an batch of soup for you Boris” he said and started to make the soup “hey bud how are your injuries holding up?” Henry asked and bendy fell silent “i’m still going strong!! it’ll take more than an ink demon to take me down!” he said trying to look tough but instead fell down from the seat “ow” Boris chuckled “not funny pal” bendy said rubbing his forehead “Hey Henry can I ask you something?” Henry looked at bendy as he putted the bowl of soup down for Boris “I guess so what’s on your mind?” he said as he helped him up “what was your family like?” Henry fell silent he paused and tried to think “well truth be told the only family I do see now a days are my sister and cousin along with their grandkids but I used to visit my other family members like my cousin and aunt and uncle” bendy looked at a picture in Henry’s pocket he noticed it has “what about your mom and dad?” Henry stopped and sighed “my father… well I take after him he was an war hero and a Good guy….. an real good guy I actually miss him..” bendy could see that the old animator did'int like to talk about his family that much because of what happened with his father bendy smiled sadly “hey i’m sorry if that made ya….. well ya know” Henry nodded “it’s fine I needed to get that out of my chest anyway” he said and picked up the lever that was in the box Boris putted “wait why do you need the lever anyway?” he asked and Henry pointed to the door that leads to out of the saferoom “well we’re not staying here forever bendy. At some point we do need to get out and we rest for long enough. are you ready to go?” he asked the little devil and he nodded while pulling out the same gun Henry used that was given to him by his father “you still remember how to shoot like I taught ya during when we were in here” Henry asked the toon and he nodded. Boris got up while he stretched his arms and Henry putted the lever back on and tuned it down while opening the door in the process “let’s see what’s out there don’t wander off” he told them. The three walked as they felt the saferoom door slammed shut. Henry noticed an little station near the corner “why would Joey add confession booths in the studio? since when did he care about religion?” bendy and Boris shrugged. the three saw an dark corridor up ahead Henry grabbed an flashlight that was on an table and he, bendy, and Boris both walked into the darkness they slowly walked keeping an eye out for anything as they walked an clanking sound was heard Henry and Boris and bendy jumped at the noise “it was nothing come on just the pipes you know how this place now is” he told them and they kept walking until they reached an blocked off door and the door behind them closed “shoot…” bendy stated as they were not trapped until they found an way out of this room. Henry looked around trying to see any opening “I don’t see any other way through, got any ideas guys?” Bendy shrugged and Boris pointed to an nearby vent happened to be right near the door “hey wait a minute Boris you think you can open that door for us?” The demon asked and he nodded “well you’re gonna Need this than we do” Henry said while handing Boris the flashlight and opened the vent as the 6’4 foot tall wolf crawled in as the two waited “so bud” bendy looked at Henry “mind tellling me how your able to uh….. well” bendy’s face darkened “you mean how I can transformed into…. that more monsterized version of that other me with the limp do ya….” Henry nodded and bendy sighed “Joey… well let’s say he used an kind of special ink coated on my body… that was only used on me he said it was an test he wanted to see how I can deal with having an special ink this was before you left and all and after an few weeks of Boris and Alice being brought into the real world….“ Henry raised an eyebrow "and why was I not aware of this?” he asked the devil and he shrugged “I honestly have no clue maybe Joey didn’t want you to know or maybe he was planning I don’t know all I know is that how he began his little tests with me he wanted to see if anything changed and it did one day I woke up like….. like what you saw fighting those searchers in the projecter room, only before I did'int even have any control over it when I realized what I became. You see some of that special ink may cause an different affect to certain toons I guess while some makes them tall or changes their appearance there are others tho…. that will give the said toon an increased amount of strength enough to lift a car and….. in order to gain that strength one must….. pay the burden of becoming an monster…..” Henry could see the little devil shaking “I got the worst one…….. I was….. cursed…. to transform….. into an deadly… horriflying…. powerful…. monster version… of myself…… that was only the first form you saw…. yeah….. side effects sometimes can be a real pa-” Henry shushed him “stop, if you don’t wanna talk about it you don’t have to alright pal?” he nodded “it’s fine I just…. wanted to get that out of my head. been bother me for a while…” as they stand there and waited they both got worried that what if something happened to Boris. Then what seem like forever the door finally opened up “there we go come on bo-” bendy stopped when he realized “Henry… I think we’ll have to find Boris when we get into that room” Henry sighed “than we’ll have to meet up with hi-” he stopped “what did ya stop talking fo-” his eyes widen the two saw an massive room with the sign “HEAVENLY TOYS” on top “woah….” bendy said his eyes sparkling with awe and amazement “wow” Henry said shocked at what he was seeing “I don’t remember any of this” he said. the two looked around before going upstairs and seeing an shelf full of toys “huh wonder why none of these didn’t sell” henry asked himself and bendy pressed an button on a tape recorder “this” he pointed and the two listened “I don’t be seeing what the big deal is, so what if I went and painted some of those bendy dolls with a crooked smile? that’s sure no reason for mister drew to be flying all the handle at me” the voice had an slight Irish accent Henry knew only one person with an accent like that “Shawn Flynn?” bendy nodded and they kept listening to the tape “And if he really wants to be so helpful he could be telling me what i’m a suppose to doing with this warehouse full of that angel whatyamacall it. Not a Scrap of that mess be selling, probably have to melt it all down to be rid of it all” the tape stopped “haven’t heard that voice in a long time kinda gave me an surprise” Henry said looked at the wires and an lever “what’s ya thinking about?” Henry looked at the way that was blocking the door “why is there always something blocking the door? gotta be a way th-” he stopped when he felt a light bolt lit up above his head “hey bud I think I have an idea” bendy looked up “I’m listening” 10 minutes later after taking the toys out of the clogged places and turning on the power the door finally opened “well gotta say-” the two’s eyes widen ��al….” bendy said quietly as they looked at the “SHE’S QUITE A GAL” sign Henry could see that bendy’s face was melting bring back some memories to him.

~flashback~ “ohhhh bendy darling!!!~~” Alice said in an cheerful voice. The hooded devil looked up he was busy helping out the old man with an drawing “yeah Al?” he said and she handed him an present “I realized you haven’t gotten an present since today is your birthday so hope ya like it!~” bendy’s eyes blink he forgotten that despite being created on Christmas he was only in the real world for a few weeks and he haven’t yet gotten an welcome he shrugged and opened it and his eyes widen as he saw an necklace locket he opened the pocket watch and an picture of him and Alice and Boris were on it with the words “Greatest Friends Ever” bendy had an dark blush on his face as he smiled at it softly and hugged the angel “thanks Al” he said with the angel hugging back “no problem” bendy looked down “but sorry i did’int give ya anything for ya toots” alice smiled and gave the hooded toon an kiss on the cheek “darling making you happy is all i need to see as an present” she said with an soft smile.

~flashback ended~ “hey, bud you alright?” he said and bendy snapped back to reality “o-oh! y-yeah I’m totally fine old man just remembering some good old times with the gang!” bendy said smiling hoping Henry wouldn’t notice the stutter he made thankfully he didn’t notice and they walked an little bit closer to the big window with the door on it the entire room went black as they heard the voice of Alice angel while seeing images of Alice turned on at the small TV boxes “what… the…. ” he said in pure shock as bendy and he looked both creeped out and confused before he could say anything else suddenly what seems to be Alice angel appeared slamming on the window “I’M ALICE ANGEL!!!!” both bendy and Henry jumped in shock as she screamed and then the sounds of the glass breaking and laughing in a devilish tone was heard the entire room turned off blinding the two in total darkness “I see you there” the voice known as Alice angel spoke as Henry kept the little devil with him as close as he can as the hooded devil hid behind Henry’s leg “a new fly in my endless web” Henry gritted his teeth while keeping an grip on the hunting knife he found when he had first arrived in the studio. Bendy tried his best to keep hidden as he was scared now to even come out from behind he’d never been this scared before of something he saw happen basically every single time Henry felt something touched his cheek “come along now, let’s see if your worthy to walk with angels, hahahahahaha~” the lights turned back on and bendy jumped while screaming onto the ceiling henry blinked and looked up “bud you okay?” bendy realized he didn’t have claws in his normal form and he fell down onto Henry the two falling on eachother “ow! henry why did-” bendy noticed his friend’s eyes were widen so much he was paused for the first time in his life the old animator was terrifed and afraid “henry!” bendy said slapping henry “come on we have to keep going! who knows if that lady won’t come back over here to just kill us!” he said and the two marched on quickly with bendy trying to drag henry. they were stopped at two paths “what the…” bendy said now freaked out “okay when joey said he was gonna remodel the place I did not think he make two paths!” bendy said with ink melting from his head henry finally getting back to his senses patted the demon’s shoulder as he got up “bud calm down we’ve seen weirder things than this” Henry said and he looked at the doors trying to think of which one to go to “looks like there’s only two ways to go but the question is…. which way is the right one?” he said as he looked at the two signs one said “THE DEMON” and the sign had an stained head of bendy colored in fully black as ink seem to drip down and they looked at the other sign which seemed normal with the words “THE ANGEL” on them “well come on let’s get going!” he said as he went the other way but Henry instead walked towards the door that said the demon. Bendy stopped in his tracks noticing that henry did’int follow him in and ran after him tugging his leg “h-hey! why are you going in there that other me could be hiding in there! come on henry you know how tough that thing is!” Henry looked down at him “bendy as much as I would want to deal with that… angel right now I prefer to go this way because-” he stopped as he was trying to think of what to say. bendy walked with him “well?” the toon asked and Henry putted his hands up saying in a calm and stern tone “i’ll tell you about it later alright? right now let’s focus on getting out of here” bendy nodded “okay...” Henry started to walk ahead “come on let’s see if we can find a way out of this room” they walked into the ink filled room and they heard the other door on the right closed “well no going back now it seems” bendy said and Henry noticed an tape recorder. He turned it on and the two were shocked to hear the voice of “Joey?!” Henry said surprised at how young the voice sounded in the tape recorder “there’s nothing wrong with dreaming. wishing for the impossible is just human nature. that’s how I got started just a pencil and a dream. We all want everything without even having to lift a finger. they say you just have to believe. belief can make you succeed, belief can make you rich, belief can make you powerful. why with enough belief you can even cheat death itself! now that…. is a beautiful and positively silly thought” after hearing the message Henry felt creeped out the way joey was talking. He was confused to how cheerful and calm he was in the tape almost like he did'int seem to care about anything at all. bendy got out of the ink shaking it off of his legs and rubbing it off his shoes “come on let’s get out of here this room is giving me the creeps” he said and the old animator followed the toon not knowing that an certain ink demon poked it’s head out of the inky floor as they walked away the ink demon’s unmoving grin grew wider and slowly went back into the ink leaving out an dark chuckle and cackle as it went underneath into the inky depths. The ex-animator and the hooded toon devil kept on walking in the studio listening to the eerie deathly silent in the corridors. It was Rather unsettling ‘it did'int feel right it’s way to quiet’ Henry thought to himself and he looked at bendy and he looked back with an worried look “something should had popped out by now in front of us it’s weird that nothing happened yet Henry” the toon said keeping an grip on the gun while gulping and Henry patted the toon’s back “well let’s not lower our guard yet anything can hap-” they both jumped when they saw an cutout peek from around the corner. Bendy yelled and accidentally fired an bullet from the gun out of fear Henry looked at him with a 'really?’ expression as bendy chuckled and smiled nervously “h-heheheh… s-sorry?” Henry sighed and they heard an seerching noise echoing along with an voice saying “My EyEs!!!!” bendy and henry looked at eachother with confused looks on their face “let’s pretend we did’int hear that” henry said with his friend nodding “that was creepy...” bendy said as the duo turned to see who was around the corner and they saw Boris standing there waving at them with an smile. Bendy ran quickly and hugged his friend the wolf patted the toon’s head “Boris you’re alright! how you get here so fast?” the little devil asked and Henry said “Boris!, you scared us to death I don’t suppose you have anything to protect ourselves with?” Boris nodded and handed him an gent pipe Henry grabbed it “this will do for now” he said and bendy got off of boris “good to see ya alright Boris! now let’s go!” the three marched on arriving in another room with what seems to be filled with toys of bendy, Boris, and Alice all in small and large versions. It did'int make the creepiness go down as there was ink everywhere it made the three looked around an check their surroundings “what happened in here? looks like an warzone happened in here” Henry said while bendy just looked down obvious to what happened here as he sighed “an lot of bad things happened while you were gone for so long hen…” Boris walked over and pointed to an lever while tapping his feet the two walked over “woah nice eye! I forgot your still good at seeing things we can’t!” bendy said and Boris smiled and looked proud of himself “looks like we need to turn on two levers at once you got this one Boris i’ll find the other one” bendy went ahead “oh! I remember those guys!” Henry went over to see what was his friend talking about he saw the butcher gang poster at the end of an corridor “oh, the butcher gang I remember them appearing in your cartoon haft the time they were like uncles to you right bud?” bendy nodded while smiling slowly “yeah…” he said and Henry started to walk over to the lever that happened to be right near the poster he turned around to see bendy not moving “hey bud you okay?” bendy blinked “o-oh s-sorry i’ll just stand here I-I just though I saw something move in there” Henry raised an eyebrow “what do you mean-” before he could say anything he heard something he turned around and got jumpscared by something coming out of the picture it roared at him and Henry backed away and as it got up and walked towards him he wasted no time in bashing it with the pipe it took only two big hits to the head for it to fall down he got an good look of the downed creature bendy saw too and he looked sadden “it’s charlie….” he said sadly and they watched as the inkified piper melted into ink and bendy stared as the ink that was the only remaining thing of piper went into bendy Henry did'int question as he remember in his cartoon piper and the two others were like mentors to bendy and kind of like the three uncles from Casper he sighed and Henry pulled the lever and Boris came running down the corner and saw his toon friend leaning on the wall “hey bud… you okay?” Henry asked the hooded toon devil as he rubbed his tears away “….. i’m fine… let’s keep going…” Henry nodded and the three walked into the room with the lift and they went inside as Henry pressed the number 9 on the wall and the lift went down. they heard the supposed voice of Alice angel speak again “your so interesting so.. different I have to say i’m a instant fan” Henry did'int say anything as bendy looked so emotionless and depressed from hearing Alice��s voice for so long. Boris comforted his toon friend and Henry listened to her speaking “looks like you got a date with a angel!” bendy looked up feeling like his heart just broke into a million pieces Henry took noticed and grunted at the voice of Alice and silently flipped her off even though she did'int see it. he muttered “yeah right lady…..” he looked at bendy and smiled and bendy smiled back with a few tears dripping down “hey don’t worry i know you’ll probably hit me with a mallet if I ever do that” Henry said while chuckling at his own joke and bendy kinda snickered an bit too while Boris smiled and patted the toon’s back. After what seemed like an few minutes of waiting they had reached the floor finally the trio could tell it was Alice’s place because of the sign of the SHE’S QUITE A GAL sign was on there. The door from the lift opened and all three of them walked down “come along there’s a whole twisted world out here~~” Henry noticed another tape recorder as Boris went on ahead and he pressed play on it and listening to Thomas yet again rambling on “kinda shocking that an elevator still works in this place after 30 years… than again it must be my head and mind playing tricks on me and i’m only just imaging all this happening” he said and chuckled when he heard Thomas said “I’m taking the stairs” Henry turned off the tape recorder “I would of done that too Tom” he went over to the platform and he along with Boris stepped on the tile as the door opened and Boris’s ears perked up and he ran ahead of the two “hey Boris wait up!” bendy said and chased after his wolf friend with Henry following “hey what’s the matte-” his eyes widen as he saw what Boris was looking at. an dead body of himself “oh… god…” Henry said and looked around shocked at what he was seeing an ton of bodies of dead v bendy’s eyes widen in pure shock upon seeing the amount of bodies of dead Bories he held his chest where his heart would be and started sobbing while leaning on the wall “nononononNONONONONONNNO!!!!! NOT AGAIN! PLEASE DON’T MAKE ME SEE THIS HORRIBLE IMAGE AGAIN!!!” bendy screamed loudly and ferociously while his clothing started to turn tattern and worn out. Henry knew what was happening to bendy, he was hyperventilating he knew that condition far too well but since the toon wasn’t an human Henry did'int know what else to do. As Bendy kept crying he started to grow claws on his gloves as he was trying not to transform out of pure saddness and anger he digged the claws in his own head trying to make the pain of the flasbacks of boris dying out of his head. He hugged the toon tightly while shushing him as bendy kept breathing quickly and sobbing and coughing harshly “hey hey hey buddy! calm down! it’s gonna be okay just calm down! it’s alright bendy! it’s gonna be alright!” Henry said rubbing the toon’s head as he saw his crying was sounding more demonic “NO NO NO IT’S NOT ALRIGHT! NOT AGAIN NOT AGAIN! WHY! WHY DID JOEY DO THIS!” His eyes turn turned red and purple as he snapped at the retired animator "WHY DID YOU ABANDONED US HENRY?!?!?!“ bendy said while screaming and snarling in a demonic tone and lashed out scratching Henry’s arm on accident he was going to keep lashing out but than Boris hugged the toon. Bendy’s eyes widen and he was now whimpering and he hugged the wolf back crying softly into his shoulder than something came out of his throat he spoke shocking bendy and Henry "i-i-it’s a-alright b-bendy i-i-i-i’m h-here a-and i-im n-n-not l-l-l-leaving!” Boris said wheezing and coughing Henry and bendy looked at shock boris’s voice sounded so weak and tired but bendy sniffed and hugged the toon “i’m not d-d-d-d-dead bendy okay? your b-big b-b-bro is still here” he said coughing and after an few minutes bendy calmed down Henry growled and glared as they heard Alice’s voice again “look around it took so many of them to make me so beautiful” bendy then snarled darkly and was about to transform and beat the living ink tarp out of her body but Boris shook his head “don’t it’s not worth it” he said and bendy grunted but nodded than the three heard something that made all of them confuse of what Alice was saying “I had to do it, she made me” Henry than carefully walked over passing by an tape recorder but did'int press it he did'int want to hear what it had to say as he gripped on his fists and went inside to meet the ink angel face to face. Meanwhile Boris was trying to get bendy to calm down. The hooded toon was furious and angry as he argued on "I CAN’T FREAKING BELIEVE IT! AFTER ALL THESE YEARS ALICE! SHE WAS HERE THIS WHOLE TIME! SHE. SHE. SHE’S GONE COMPLETELY MAD BORIS!“ bendy said hissing and snarling while Boris looked away from his corpse "I….. I know bendy b-but it wasn’t her fault you have to understand-” bendy snapped “I KNOW! IT WAS SUSIE’S DOING BOR!! BUT STILL….” bendy’s growling toned down as he sighed “why did she have to kill you so many times after joey did it to you the first… w-why….. why do I have to keep on seeing you die in front of me every single time!” he knelt down burying himself on Boris’s lap crying as he patted his head “there there buddy…” Boris looked up and noticed something was inside the corpse he pulled it out and saw an spare heart his eyes widen and he hid it in his pocket that he can fit it in thankfully and he picked up bendy “come on we’ll wait for Henry back at the li-” bendy suddenly got out of Boris’s arms as he looked at Boris with an expression that showed no emotion “no…. tell Henry I need to be alone for an bit” he said before walking off putting his hood over his head and putting his hands in his pockets. Boris looked down sadly while sighing deeply and walked off too waiting for Henry by the lift while bendy walked off by himself to gather his thoughts as he hid his anger and kept walking off and finding an shortcut to level 14. Henry came out of the angel’s lair and was going to walk back to the lift but he saw the gate closed in front of him “I’ll make this simple, look for value panels turn the clogs and get the things, please don’t make me regret sparing you I can always change my mind” Henry rolled his eyes and grabbed the plunger he stared at it “........ seriousally? an plunger” he sighed and walked off. He noticed that bendy was not with Boris “hey buddy? where’s bendy?” Boris looked up at him with an tired look “he said he had to be alone for a while needs to gather his thoughts” Henry nodded “I can understand that knowing what the poor little guy saw..” Boris nodded “Henry I… I need to ask ya…. do you think that we’ll ever get out of here?” Henry nodded “I made an promise to bendy Boris and i’m not going to break it I will get him and anyone else that isn’t or wasn’t affected by the ink out of this hell hole” Boris smiled “so should I come with you to uh help out with whatever she asked ya to do?” Henry shook his head “no i’m fine you can wait here if you want. I need to recollect on my thoughts too” Boris nodded letting his friend go off. the old animator sighed while walking as he listened to what Alice was saying as he searched around for the values “there’s so little rules in this world now so very. But there’s one rule we ALL respect down here, BeWaRe ThE iNk DeMoN~ stay out for too long and he will findddd you~~ if you don’t make it, well… I enjoyed seeing you again” Henry raised an eyebrow confused at why she said that but shurgged it off and kept on walking looking for the value cores. After what felt like hours of searching he’d finally found the last one it was in an room where he encountered the second member of the butcher gang. He noticed something strange. he stopped and looked at the creature’s appearance “the hell…?” he nearly vomited when he noticed the camera on the creature’s head he almost felt sorry for the ink creature as it walked off away from his slight “jeeze… wonder if that thing can see anything in there” he muttered to himself and got the last value core and walked back. Henry noticed ink veins appearing in the room and his eyes widen as he felt something whistling “WhAt’S Ya ThInKiNg AbOuT hEnRy?” the ink demon said incing his face closer and henry reacted quickly, by making the plunger stick to the ink demon’s face. “........ huh?” henry saw that the ink demon stopped and he growled “ArE yOu KiDdInG Me?” the ink demon growled while flipping him off and slowly went back down into the inky depts while the plunger was dropped to the ground henry picked it back up and ran out of the room back to where boris was waiting. Henry dropped the vaule cores and the plunger back in the dispenser like machine and the sounds of alice’s speaker turned on “my machines are hungry! gather me some spare parts” Henry groaned and took the wrench like object and walked off. he walked on carrying two gears to room to room he began to see the rooms darkening with ink viens appearing again henry’s eyes widen and he hid quickly in an miracle station and waited for “bendy” to go away. the ink was fading as it looked like the ink demon wandered off to another area and he got out of the booth breathing heavily while holding his chest “damn it! why now this happens just what is up with this place?!” henry ranted while moving on. After 20 minutes he gathered the last one and on his way back noticed an flooded room he felt like he will need to come back here soon “maybe it’s just my head but i feel like there’s something in there” he thought in his head as he walked back and noticed Boris was whistling an tune he heard when he was doing the sheepsongs episode. Henry putted the spare parts into the can and putted the wrench in there and then he blinked with an hopeless look as alice speaked into the speaker again “have you seen them? the swollen ones? there filled with ExTrA tHiCk InK!!! it makes me sick and yet it’s the perfect thing that keeps myself together but an little warning you will have to move quietly if you see one cause they get startled very easily” she said and henry took noticed of that and took the syringe he noticed it looked different than most syringes he saw during his time at the war but he payed no mind to went to work but he could’nt help but groaned “how much freaking stuff do you even need lady?!” he muttered to himself while walking off. Almost an hour and a haft later he found the last one while also listening to an tape on the way back “I don’t get it!” the voice of wally said on the tape “everyone’s walking around like grandma just died I mean hello people! you make cartoons for crying out loud your suppose to make people laugh! i’m telling ya if I don’t see an smile on anyone anytime soon i’m out of here!” Henry chuckled “I sure hope ya did make it out of here wally” he said and went back up during the way back he saw the walls showing spots of ink everywhere again. He hid inside and saw the ink demon once again as it was dragging something and it dropped it he snarled “oKaY ALiCE I KnOw YoUr FrEaKiNg OuT HeRe!” Henry kept quiet but curious ‘why did he said alice instead of me?’ The ink demon’s growling grew more viscous and he jammed his claws onto the inkified person’s back and dropped them and walked off snarling. Henry could see that it was the same person he saw in the closest with the knife and head wound and he was shocked when he saw the person getting up and moaning in an almost zombie like manner before wandering about and Henry waited no more than 3 minutes and started bolting straight back and called the lift and went into it “Henry you okay?” Boris asked as he saw him panting and pressing the 9 button an few times “i-i’m fine” he said ingoring what Alice was saying as he tried to catch his breathe. he did however caught note of one thing she said before they reached floor 9 “dreams come true susie, dreams come true no matter what joey said” Henry shivered remembering on the way back to the lift after Alice had spared him he listened to one of the tape recorders and found out that Joey took Susie on a date and felt creeped out when he heard her said “he even called me Alice, I liked it” Henry again breathed in relif and when he putted the syringe away back in the dispencer like machine she said something that made his heart stop cold “have you seen those grinning demons? let’s remove them shall we? oh i have just the tool to make it more enjoyable~~” meanwhile at all the way down to level 14 bendy looked up while dropping an haft eaten searcher his eyes blinking before he growled and snarled harshly into the air hearing what the 'angel’ said. He was tired of always losing his temper and his friends always getting hurt. He though about how all of this started with Joey than later that changed to him hating Susie even more for becoming too attached to Alice and now they became what he feared, an monster of her former shell. He snarled and banged his fist as his gloved hand slowly faded away revealing his claw he looked at it as the hand was bleeding he made an twisted crooked smile on his face as he started to laugh like an maniac “heheheheheheHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” the ink started to melt from his face as his crooked grin grew even more wider as his entire body and appearance grew taller. his ink like state grabbed the dead searcher’s haft eaten body and slashed it and swallowed it all up “….J O E Y D I D T H I S T O M E!” bendy then climbed up and looked up and was gripping on his fists he snarled darkly while yelling out “I’LL GET YOU JOEY!! AND YOU TOO SUSIE! YOU ALL RUINED ME AND MY FRIENDS! NOW YOUR GONNA SEE THE DEMON YOU ALL WANTED!!! DO YOU HEAR ME JOEY?!?!?! I. WILL.” his voice than turned even more dark and corrupted and demonic “KILL Y O U JOEY DREW!!!!” bendy lifted his head and then released an loud blood curling demonic roar echoing throughout the whole entire studio. Henry was trying not to laugh as the ink demon roared with annoyance “WhO kEePs FUcKiNg BREAKING THESE CUTOUTS?!?!?!” henry had to calm himself down and felt relived when the ink demon finally left the area. he flinced after hearing the angel said “i forgot to mention he hates it when I do that~~. I would hide if I were you~~~” he than heard the roar from bendy’s anger and fury as it echoed throughout the entire studio and so did the ink demon and Boris and Alice as they all heard his demonic roar of rage. The ink demon simply grinned and clapped his hands like an happy child would and simply walked off snapping his fingers while whistling the same tune an certain mouse sang and than an swarm of searchers and members of the butcher gang were heading towards level 9 where Alice was at. Henry came back to floor 9 and was about to put the axe away when he heard the anger in Alice’s voice “those fiflty creatures that have wandered my halls have been left unchecked! they broken in don’t let them take your angel! purge them one by one smash them into bits! KILL THEM!!!!” Henry heard the sounds of the butcher gang and the searchers and he sighed “getting too old already for this and i’m not even 40 yet” he said and watched as the searchers and butcher gang members came down he gripped on his axe and attacked the creatures. Bendy quicken his pace of running on all fours when he sensed his friend was in danger he kept on running and running not stopping he even passed the other version of him as the ink demon watched the angry monsterized toon ran on all fours his grin grew even more and decided to watch the show that was about to unfold. after each blow Henry still couldn’t get the searchers or the butcher gang to die he soon felt he was being outnumbered as they were going to soon finish him off. Than an loud roar broke out and an pissed off ink bendy appeared lunging at the group of searchers and butcher gangs with his claws slashing the butcher gang and searchers one by one. Some of them managed to hit him and bendy simply stabbed them with his tail and threw them aside. Henry watched in horror for once as his hooded friend slaughtered the ink creatures in the most burtal and gruesome way possible. After everything was gone and all that can be heard were bendy’s heavy breathing Henry got up and walked towards the demon his wounds making it kinda difficult to walk “hey… bud…” Henry said touching bendy’s forehead as the hooded ink formed demon turned to look at him “are you alright pal?” he nodded slowly while wincing an bit Henry noticed his wounds on the toon had gotten worst “bendy... you don’t have to it’s alright it’s over” he nodded again and watched as the ink remains of all the creature he’d killed in this room went inside his inky body as he growled and tears starting to stream down his inky face “I’M…… I’M SORRY HENRY… I WAS JUST…. SO….. SO…. ANG-” he stopped when Alice finally spoke “shhhhhh listen there’s nothing, like the sound of a welcoming grave” she said giving an nice sigh and breathe of relief “I like the silence. don’t you?” Henry did'int response but he did nodded slowly “oh I hate leaving work unfinished! but that’s why I have you to do that but you’ll have to go down even deeper into the abyss, take the lift, see an old friend” the word old friend stung Henry as his eyes widen in pure shock “but here’s a little present an extra little firepower, take VERY good care of it, it belonged to someone very special” she said as Henr turned over to see an Tommy gun at the door Henry grabbed it before seeing if it was really real he pulled the trigger and it shot an bullet he could'nt help but smiled at it “now this is what i’m talking about” he said and bendy nodded giving him a thumbs up “alright come on let’s go-” Bendy shook his head “NO… YOU GO ON I…. I NEED TO CHECK UP ON SOMEONE” Henry was confused by this but he nodded and walked away as Bendy went inside to see Alice. As The Demon walked on he saw the door was opened he slowly walked in and saw Alice he saw what was different about her. Her once beautiful blue dress was now stained and tainted with ink and blood. Her halo that shows her emotions was stuck to her head only revealing an black color, Her Gloves were gone revealing sharp fingers almost looking like claws. she turned slowly to face him he could see the toon eye instead of susie’s he smiled lightly “HEY…. AL…” he said and she blinked and replied tirely “hello bendy, what brings you to this parts of the studio?” she asked and he walked up closer “OH… YA KNOW I WAS JUST IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD AND DECIDED TO CHECK UP ON YOU” she turned around revealing the right side of her face that was burnt due to the ink demon slamming an bottle of acetone on her “bendy things have been wonderful thanks to a certain human gathering items for me i’m sure you’ve seen his frighten soul all around the studio” she said smiling that bendy had her on his mind. he noticed the tone of her voice he was sad to see that somehow susie corrupted Alice both physically and mentally “YES…… BUT….” he said as he walked closer to her grabbing her hand “ARE YOU ALRIGHT?” he asked her and she looked up at him and reached up to brush away the ink to look at him in the eye “bendy darling i know i haven’t been the best but everything is going well now with Henry here you’ll see me beautiful again darling just like the old days” Bendy’s eyes were tired as he looked at her he should be angry mad wanted to rip her throat out but he can’t “WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT AL?…. YOUR STILL THE ANGEL I MET THOSE YEARS AGO” he said grabbing her hand gently “WHY IN MY EYES YOUR EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN YOU WERE BEFORE” Alice smiled softly but then noticed the wounds “let me guess, that demon again?” he nodded and she sighed “you gotta learn how to block it’s attacks bendy dear not everything can be destroyed from just your brutal sheer strength” he nodded and sat down as she proceeded to treat his wounds. ~haft an hour later~ Boris and Henry were waiting for bendy to come back from whatever he was doing in the other room. During that time Henry found another boarded up door and chopped down the boards with ease and noticed there was an tape recorder there he pressed play on it and he raised an eyebrow upon hearing an voice he remembered but at the same time did not remember “grant?” he asked himself. he and grant barley knew eachother but he known grant enough to see that he was an mellow relaxed kind of guy for having an fonding of love and hate for music Henry agreed to that as he too had a thing for music as he listened to the tape playing Boris was looking around he admit he was scared coming back here after being killed and brought here too many times it felt like an endless loop he hoped when it finally ended when he saw Henry and his best pal but now he feared his own death was coming back to haunt him he was brought back to reality when Henry snapped his fingers “hey Boris you okay there?” he nodded “y-….yeah i’m fine H-Henry just thinking” he said his throat not sounding that much weaker than before as he was slowly starting to get use to his voice recovering. They look over to See Bendy Walking back in his normal form and he looked like his injuries were not bothering him “well you look fine and dandy guess you got your injuries fix bud?” he nodded “hey why did'int you two go? I would of catch up with ya some other way” he asked “well we were just recovering from what had just happened but if you want to go now we can” he nodded “yep! let’s hurry up and get out of here!” henry nodded “we still have to find joey though I still need some answers out of him” bendy’s face turned from happy to scared but he did'int question him about it. after 10 minutes in the lift they finally reached level 14 henry looked at the amount of ink that was there “this whole place looks like it was flooded on purpose” he commented and henry and bendy both walked down as they noticed an heart on a hand henry picked it up grossed out and then saw something he though he never seen the camere ink creature was there “shhhhhhh there he is, the projectionist sulking in the darkness, stay out of his life if you don’t want trouble just gather the things i need and return to me” the voice of 'Alice’ said but Henry couldn’t believe what he was seeing bendy noticed an tape playing and went over to grab it and walked back to henry and he turned it on and Henry felt tears streaming down his eyes “that’s…… that thing…… it’s Norman……oh god….. why…. why did it have to be him…” he said sadly as he knelt down silently crying inside his head. Bendy never saw Henry like this before it made him sad to see his friend like this he comforted the poor tired old man “Henry…. I… I tried Hen…. I tried so hard to stop Joey from turning him into that…… but……. but i was too late…” Henry sniffed “after all these years… and I did'int know what he was doing to you or the others….. oh god….. Norman i’m so sorry…. I…. I should of never left.. may-” bendy got up grabbing Henry and looking at him “no…. listen even if you did'int leave overtime joey would of done it anyway he’d lost it Henry! he gone and went mad with power he’s not himself anymore!” bendy said to him and letted go “come on we can be quick if you wa-” Henry gripped on the Tommy gun “no…. let’s just…. take our time….” he said and the toon nodded. As they ventured into the flooded ink he noticed an path boarded up he chopped it down and noticed an value panel and turned it not knowing what it could do “why did you do that?” he asked and Henry sighed “I just felt like doing it I don’t know everything is just….. starting to get more and more weirder” after what felt like hours of searching through the maze they walked into and hiding they found only 4 hearts they were now walking carefully looking for the last one and they noticed an shadow they took an closer look to see it was the projectionist/Norman he was just standing there looking at an screen that showed one of the cartoon scenes from bendy’s show he did'int move an single inch problem was the last heart was near him he gulped and carefully took one step as quiet as he could he slowly picked up the heart and backed up but the ink turned Norman did'int move an single inch still Henry then though of something he sighed “Norman…. I don’t know if you can hear me or… if your still in there but…. I wanted to give this to you before I left” he said and silently handing him an photograph seeing the inky hand tighten he and bendy quickly walked off Norman lifted the picture up to his 'face’ looking at the photograph it seem to open up an memory in his head that he kept inside him when he became this projectionist it was the only thing that kept him still mentally sane.

~Flashback~ “hey um Henry?..” Henry looked to see it was Norman “I know your leaving and all soon but can we have a talk?” Henry nodded “sure thing Norman anything for a friend” the two sat down having an drink of coffee “so what did you wanted to talk about?” he asked and Norman took an sip “well I was wondering… how long will you be gone?” Henry though he did'int really know how long he be gone for “I think maybe an few years I reckon but when I get back I better see this place rolling with films or my ghost is gonna haunt you till ya die” he said laughing and Norman chuckled “yeah I get it stay safe pal” he told Henry “hey do you think ya talking to your talking to a guy that’s technically been to war 2 times as of now” Norman nodded “I know you told me but still be careful alright” he nodded “I promise keep being you Norman alright and maybe when I get back we’ll have that drink like I promised or else you’ll knock me out with an hammer” Norman laughed “okay see ya around Henry” he nodded “see ya Norman”

~Flashback ended~ Henry And Bendy went back to the lift and he took one last look to see Norman Walking out and looking at him the two shared an stare at eachother bendy was on his guard he did'int know if he was here to hurt Henry or take him. Norman simply did an impression of Henry saluting and then walked off into the other room of the maze like hallways. Henry was shocked but he smiled “he’s still in there somewhere….” bendy noticed the look of relief on his face and smiled “hey come on we can take one last look around the place before we head back to Alice” he nodded “yeah come on I think that value I drained might had opened up an new area” they went back into the lift and it went back up. after what seem like hours they finally reached floor 9 and Henry and bendy and Boris both went to the room Henry was talking about they saw an lone searcher but Henry was able to put quick use to his new Tommy gun as the searcher went down quickly “why is there an tape here?” Boris asked and Henry walked over and pressed play on it “only 2 weeks into this company and already it’s gotten interesting. Joey is a man of ideas.. and only ideas. When I agreed to start this whole thing with him, I thought there would be a little more give and take. Instead I give and he takes. I haven’t seen My Friend Linda For days now. Still though someone has to make this happen, when ever in doubt just keep drawing Henry. On the plus side though I’ve got a new character That I think people are going to love.” Henry listened to it replaying itself “Henry?” Boris asked and Henry silently turned to look at him but turned around and walked back up bendy could of sworn he saw the old animator frown slightly “come on… let’s just finish this and find joey..” Henry said in a serious tone as the two toons followed him. Henry leaned against the wall in a corner with insturments nearby and a piano “henry you alright?” boris asked him “y-yeah yeah im alright j-just go on wait for me by the lift i’ll catch up i need to... catch my breathe” bendy and boris nodded and walked off Henry was breathing as he accidently hitted an few inturemtns and touched the piano “shit!” he cursed and he did’int see the room going dark. Instead he heard footsteps inside of the wall curious he leaned towards the wall trying to see what was happening behind it and he heard an voice he though he never thought he hear again “we have all been waiting but now he will..... set..... us....... free” Henry ran quickly back to where bendy and boris were waiting they looked at him with worried and concern faces “Henry you alright?” Boris asked him “gee old man you looked like you seen an ghost” bendy said trying to make him laugh but it did’int seem to work. Henry was breathing heavily “it’s n-nothing!” he said and quickly went over and putted the 5 hearts in the box. Boris grabbed henry by the shoulder “hey come on you can tel-” he was interuppted by alice’s speaker turning on again “ahh that should be enough now return to the elevator, it’s time to go home” Henry was breathing still but he glared at the speaker he did'int want to leave just yet but something came up in his head an thought ‘maybe after we all ascend i could find another way to reach joe’ the three sat in the lift Bendy was jumping with joy while hugging boris “hey Boris you hear that bud we finally get to outside! your gonna see the things Henry told us about! the beautiful skies, the nice open fields! and the wonderful amazing ocean! oh man it’s gonna be so great we don’t have to be in the studio anymore! we finally get to go outside for good this time!” Boris smiled kindly at his friend “that’s great b-b-bend-” than all of a sudden the three heard the lift go down very fast Henry’s eyes widen and screamed in an very angry tone “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK LADY?!?!?!?!” he shouted at alice as she screamed into the speaker with an demonic voice “DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN LEAVE THAT EASY?!?!?! NO! I KNOW WHO YOU ARE HENRY! AND I KNOW WHY YOUR HERE!!! YOU WON’T STOP WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE! NOW COME BACK HERE AND BRING ME BACK MY BORIS!!!” bendy’s eyes widen before glaring “HEY HE’S MY PAL NO ONE TAKES MY BROTHER CRAZY LADY!!!” He said now very very angry at the now possessed voice of Alice angel “HE IS THE MOST PERFECT BORIS I HAVE EVER SEEN AND I WANT HIS INSIDES TO MAKE ME BEAUTIFUL AGAIN!! SO GIVE HIM TO ME!” Henry glared and saw Boris was cowering in fear as bendy was getting ready to transform “OR BETTER YET I’LL TAKE HIM!” Bendy growled and Henry did’int know what else to do so he tried to look at the buttons and tried pressing one but it did’int stop going down he silently cursed as it went down even faster and Alice’s voice started to get more demonic “ONCE. YOUR. DEAD!!!!” She said yelling. Than an big loud crash to the ground and the elevator breaking is what sent Henry and bendy to blackness.

~Flashback~

Bendy was watching the others drove off away from the studio he sighed and saw that Henry’s Car was still here he was confused “I don’t see Joey’s car so why is hen still here?” He got off and walked around and noticed someone sleeping he looked to see the young but old looking animator sleeping on his desk again bendy sighed deeply “overworked again I see” he said quietly before going to the closest and grabbing an blanket and putting it over him “Jeeze Henry you gotta learn when to stop overworking yourself” he said knowing the old man couldn’t hear him he looked to see what was he drawing this whole time and raised an eyebrow he picked up the drawing it was an drawing of him and what looked like Henry in it he noticed that in the drawing Henry was showing Bendy what seems to be outside the studio he noticed how happy he himself looked and he noticed the words “happy birthday Bud” was written on it he smiled and putted the drawing back on the desk he smiled at the animator and patted the sleeping Henry while putting an pillow underneath his head “night hen” he said walking off. Bendy heard muttering going about he looked to see Sammy was still here chanting something that bendy couldn’t hear him say he tilted his head to see what was he doing he saw the room he was in darken his eyes widen and quickly slammed the door shut and backed up and ran off surely something did pop out of the pentagram an demonized version of bendy as the ink demon slowly grinned but then it melted back into the pentagram Sammy’s eyes widen and shouted "NO!” bendy could hear him shouting repeadtly he was breathing heavily and quickly ran off to find Boris and Alice “maybe they know whats wrong with Sammy” he said to himself as he kept running.

~flashback ended~

Henry could barley open his eyes as he slowly opened them to find Boris shaking him “B..Boris what are you doing here..? G-get out of here b-before she gets you…” He slowly cough and Boris kept shaking him he slowly turned to see bendy knocked out leaning on the wall with his hood covering most of his face. He turned to see Alice slowly coming towards them he tried to warn Boris but he couldn’t speak Alice grabbed him and pulled him away into the darkness Henry tried to reach out to get him as he heard Boris yell “HENRY!! P..PLEASE SAVE ME!!!!” Henry had tears dripping out of his eyes “Boris… I’m sorry..” He thought in his head as he slowly slipped into darkness As Alice’s Laughter is the last thing he hears as he blacks out before getting two pictures flashing up in his head an vision of boris strapped on an table with Alice’s Shadow looming over him and the second one shows the ink demon with his minions looking like they’re going to plan something to take down The Angel once and for all

~40 minutes later~ Meanwhile in an rather normal looking office, an short black haired man was sitting down on the chair reading some files he hears the door open and turns around to see an rather happy ink demon “well? did you figure out something yet my little devil?” the voice known as Joey Drew said as the tall ink demon nodded while it’s grin was wider than before joey smiled “good susie is no longer useful at this point even though she never was… make sure you finish the job and end both her and that…… AnGeL’s life” he said shivering after saying the word angel The ink demon made an sound that sounded like an happy child and clapped it’s hands repeadtly and ran out Joey smiled as he sat back down and putted on his reading glasses and kept on turning the pages of an book he was reading he then frown as he heard an deeper voice inside his head “S O O N” joey sighed and kept on reading

#My AU #batim au #fanfiction #enjoy

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ask-the-friendly-ink-demon · 7 years ago

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Bendy In Inky Terrors Chapter 3 [FULL]

heyyyy look here it's chapter 3!~~~ hope you all are ready for more spooks and the feels and the triggered of alice taking away boris. oh and also angruh bendy boy too and haft of this chapter is partly based off of an rp i did with someone of their alice au with modern!bendy in his ink form but i edited an few knots into it to make it seem like an part of the story. and also there are poor feels when henry sees norman as in this au he and norman were like the bestest of friend like brothers nearly too you can guess that when he saw him as.... well the projectionist you can guess that it was more of an heart breaking moment for henry rather then an scared moment "Alice" and "bendy" and the butcher Gang belongs to themeaty shawn flynn belongs to jacksepticeye grant belongs to DAGAMES (i can't remember the last name ) Modern BATIM AU belongs to me happy halloween everyone or late halloween depending on what day you all read this on and there may be only one or two flashbacks occurring as we all know how long chapter 3 is too i won't make it extra long cause I'm not that evil....... yet XD and also anything else can happen at this point make some fan stories of this au if you want or make up some random theory or even draw fanart of this au i don't mind seeing what you all have. made on: October 24th finished on: October 30th ------------- Henry's eyes opened as he got up from the bed after an few days or maybe even an week have gone by since he and bendy met up with Boris. Overtime however bendy and the friendly wolf noticed the scar Henry had on his arm thanks to joey. The rather young but still old animator had just woken up he looked around the room he was in he sighed "we can't stay here any longer" he decided that they stayed here long enough it was time for them to leave the saferoom. Henry then noticed that the hooded devil was nowhere in slight in the room "bendy?" he looked around not seeing the hooded devil darling anywhere "must have woken up he walked out seeing another pair of overalls hanging he went to the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror "heh god I look like a mess" he said as he scratched his beard a bit and noticed his clothing still had some stains of ink left but he can barley see it "i'll have to wash these when I get back home... if I ever make it out with these two that is" he said and walked on to see Boris listening to an rather classy cartoon like tune playing and saw bendy with the cartoon wolf he noticed bendy was not listening to the music as he kept drinking an can of bacon soup in his hand "hey there bud couldn't sleep?" he asked the cartoon as bendy just nodded "eh to be honest I was just waking up to get something to drink" he said while taking an sip of the can of bacon soup. Henry patted the devil on the head "just try not to drink too fast remember your body hasn't fully healed yet" bendy blinked before nodding Henry saw an series of numbers on the can which he assumed was the expiration date he looked at bendy and told him "besides you know that bacon soup is expired right?" bendy's eyes widen so fast they almost fell out of his head as he spitted it out "AUGH WHY DID'INT YA TELL ME BEFORE?!?!?" he said while wiping his mouth trying to get the taste out. Henry held his laughter back and waved at Boris who waved back with a smile "good morning Boris... or good afternoon hard to tell the time down here" Boris pointed to an nearby clock the time on it said 10:00 AM on it "oh thanks" he said to the wolf and went to look around an bit he saw the weird design on the wall he shook his head "whoever was here in this saferoom before did not think of what cartoons look like" he saw Boris and bendy nodding agreeing with him he walked towards the door and saw the lever was missing "not getting out of here that easy the lever's missin-" Henry looked over to see Boris whistling with an innocence look on his face and Henry had to held back his laughter as he saw bendy doing the same thing only using the banjo just for fun "kid-" bendy started to play the banjo interrupting Henry as he choked an laugh "wellll howdy there deputy Boris! what do ya say we go and find that lever for our good friend Henry partner!" he said in the most funniest Texan accent he could manage and Boris whistled and did an motion of nodding while trying to hide his laugh "welll what do ya say hen? wanna help out old sheriff bendy and my deputy Boris in helping ya find that lever partner?" bendy said and the banjo lost an string hitting the little devil in the face Boris and Henry both covered their mouths trying to stop laughing out loud "pfffff-" Henry was trying his hardest not to laugh "well that was the 20th gosh darn banjo this week" he turned to look at Boris with an fake angry and funny expression on his face "BORIS! I TOLD YA WE NEEDED MORE BANJOS B O I!" Boris was wheezing and banging his fist on the table as Henry was laughing "come on Boris I know you have it or are you holding it hostage until I make you something to eat?" Boris had an innocence puppy look on his face while smiling and his tongue was out as bendy had to hold in his laughter after he and Boris did that little joke. Henry gave in to the wolf as he sighed and smiled "I thought so let's see what I can find" Henry said as he walked around to find three bacon soup cans as bendy had to release his laughter he and Boris were laughing so hard "ohhh god Boris that was the funniest thing I ever seen in this studio ever since Henry came back" Boris nodded "hey what's wrong you still don't feel like talking?" the wolf nodded and bendy shook his friend "Come on pal you were laughing! Your voice has to be fixed now" Boris looked down and bendy patted his head "hey pal come on I promise you your voice will come back to ya maybe not even today but it'll come back someday" Boris smiled and nodded. Henry came back with three cans of bacon soup "well I think I have enough to make an batch of soup for you Boris" he said and started to make the soup "hey bud how are your injuries holding up?" Henry asked and bendy fell silent "i'm still going strong!! it'll take more than an ink demon to take me down!" he said trying to look tough but instead fell down from the seat "ow" Boris chuckled "not funny pal" bendy said rubbing his forehead "Hey Henry can I ask you something?" Henry looked at bendy as he putted the bowl of soup down for Boris "I guess so what's on your mind?" he said as he helped him up "what was your family like?" Henry fell silent he paused and tried to think "well truth be told the only family I do see now a days are my sister and cousin along with their grandkids but I used to visit my other family members like my cousin and aunt and uncle" bendy looked at a picture in Henry's pocket he noticed it has "what about your mom and dad?" Henry stopped and sighed "my father... well I take after him he was an war hero and a Good guy..... an real good guy I actually miss him.." bendy could see that the old animator did'int like to talk about his family that much because of what happened with his father bendy smiled sadly "hey i'm sorry if that made ya..... well ya know" Henry nodded "it's fine I needed to get that out of my chest anyway" he said and picked up the lever that was in the box Boris putted "wait why do you need the lever anyway?" he asked and Henry pointed to the door that leads to out of the saferoom "well we're not staying here forever bendy. At some point we do need to get out and we rest for long enough. are you ready to go?" he asked the little devil and he nodded while pulling out the same gun Henry used that was given to him by his father "you still remember how to shoot like I taught ya during when we were in here" Henry asked the toon and he nodded. Boris got up while he stretched his arms and Henry putted the lever back on and tuned it down while opening the door in the process "let's see what's out there don't wander off" he told them. The three walked as they felt the saferoom door slammed shut. Henry noticed an little station near the corner "why would Joey add confession booths in the studio? since when did he care about religion?" bendy and Boris shrugged. the three saw an dark corridor up ahead Henry grabbed an flashlight that was on an table and he, bendy, and Boris both walked into the darkness they slowly walked keeping an eye out for anything as they walked an clanking sound was heard Henry and Boris and bendy jumped at the noise "it was nothing come on just the pipes you know how this place now is" he told them and they kept walking until they reached an blocked off door and the door behind them closed “shoot...” bendy stated as they were not trapped until they found an way out of this room. Henry looked around trying to see any opening “I don’t see any other way through, got any ideas guys?” Bendy shrugged and Boris pointed to an nearby vent happened to be right near the door “hey wait a minute Boris you think you can open that door for us?” The demon asked and he nodded “well you’re gonna Need this than we do” Henry said while handing Boris the flashlight and opened the vent as the 6’4 foot tall wolf crawled in as the two waited “so bud” bendy looked at Henry “mind tellling me how your able to uh..... well” bendy’s face darkened “you mean how I can transformed into.... that more monsterized version of that other me with the limp do ya....” Henry nodded and bendy sighed “Joey... well let’s say he used an kind of special ink coated on my body... that was only used on me he said it was an test he wanted to see how I can deal with having an special ink this was before you left and all and after an few weeks of Boris and Alice being brought into the real world...." Henry raised an eyebrow "and why was I not aware of this?" he asked the devil and he shrugged "I honestly have no clue maybe Joey didn't want you to know or maybe he was planning I don't know all I know is that how he began his little tests with me he wanted to see if anything changed and it did one day I woke up like..... like what you saw fighting those searchers in the projecter room, only before I did'int even have any control over it when I realized what I became. You see some of that special ink may cause an different affect to certain toons I guess while some makes them tall or changes their appearance there are others tho.... that will give the said toon an increased amount of strength enough to lift a car and..... in order to gain that strength one must..... pay the burden of becoming an monster....." Henry could see the little devil shaking "I got the worst one........ I was..... cursed.... to transform..... into an deadly... horriflying.... powerful.... monster version... of myself...... that was only the first form you saw.... yeah..... side effects sometimes can be a real pa-" Henry shushed him "stop, if you don't wanna talk about it you don't have to alright pal?" he nodded "it's fine I just.... wanted to get that out of my head. been bother me for a while..." as they stand there and waited they both got worried that what if something happened to Boris. Then what seem like forever the door finally opened up "there we go come on bo-" bendy stopped when he realized "Henry... I think we'll have to find Boris when we get into that room" Henry sighed "than we'll have to meet up with hi-" he stopped "what did ya stop talking fo-" his eyes widen the two saw an massive room with the sign "HEAVENLY TOYS" on top "woah...." bendy said his eyes sparkling with awe and amazement "wow" Henry said shocked at what he was seeing "I don't remember any of this" he said. the two looked around before going upstairs and seeing an shelf full of toys "huh wonder why none of these didn't sell" henry asked himself and bendy pressed an button on a tape recorder "this" he pointed and the two listened "I don't be seeing what the big deal is, so what if I went and painted some of those bendy dolls with a crooked smile? that's sure no reason for mister drew to be flying all the handle at me" the voice had an slight Irish accent Henry knew only one person with an accent like that "Shawn Flynn?" bendy nodded and they kept listening to the tape "And if he really wants to be so helpful he could be telling me what i'm a suppose to doing with this warehouse full of that angel whatyamacall it. Not a Scrap of that mess be selling, probably have to melt it all down to be rid of it all" the tape stopped "haven't heard that voice in a long time kinda gave me an surprise" Henry said looked at the wires and an lever "what's ya thinking about?" Henry looked at the way that was blocking the door "why is there always something blocking the door? gotta be a way th-" he stopped when he felt a light bolt lit up above his head "hey bud I think I have an idea" bendy looked up "I'm listening" 10 minutes later after taking the toys out of the clogged places and turning on the power the door finally opened "well gotta say-" the two's eyes widen "al...." bendy said quietly as they looked at the "SHE'S QUITE A GAL" sign Henry could see that bendy's face was melting bring back some memories to him~flashback~"bendy darling!~" Alice said and the hooded devil looked up he was busy helping out the old man with an drawing "yeah Al?" he said and she handed him an present "I realized you haven't gotten an present since today is your birthday so hope ya like it!~" bendy's eyes blink he forgotten that despite being created on Christmas he was only in the real world for a few weeks and he haven't yet gotten an welcome he shrugged and opened it and his eyes widen as he saw an necklace locket he opened the pocket watch and an picture of him and Alice and Boris were on it with the words "Greatest Friends Ever" bendy had an dark blush on his face as he smiled at it softly and hugged the angel "thanks Al" he said with the angel hugging back "no problem bendy" she said with an soft smile ~flashback ended""hey, bud you alright?" he said and bendy snapped back to reality "o-oh! y-yeah I'm totally fine old man just remembering some good old times with the gang!" bendy said smiling hoping Henry wouldn't notice the stutter he made thankfully he didn't notice and they walked an little bit closer to the big window with the door on it the entire room went black as they heard the voice of Alice angel while seeing images of Alice turned on at the small TV boxes "what... the.... " he said in pure shock as bendy and he looked both creeped out and confused before he could say anything else suddenly what seems to be Alice angel appeared slamming on the window "I'M ALICE ANGEL!!!!" both bendy and Henry jumped in shock as she screamed and then the sounds of the glass breaking and laughing in a devilish tone was heard the entire room turned off blinding the two in total darkness "I see you there" the voice known as Alice angel spoke as Henry kept the little devil with him as close as he can as the hooded devil hid behind Henry's leg "a new fly in my endless web" Henry gritted his teeth while keeping an grip on the hunting knife he found when he had first arrived in the studio. Bendy tried his best to keep hidden as he was scared now to even come out from behind he'd never been this scared before of something he saw happen basically every single time "come along now, let's see if your worthy to walk with angels, hahahahahaha~" the lights turned back on and bendy jumped while screaming onto the ceiling henry blinked and looked up "bud you okay?" bendy realized he didn't have claws in his normal form and he fell down onto Henry But he caught him before that he fell down onto the floor with him "you alright bud?" he nodded and he putted the toon down "come on we have to keep going" he said and the two marched on. they were stopped at two paths "what the..." bendy said now freaked out "okay when joey said he was gonna remodel the place I did not think he make two paths!" bendy said with ink melting from his head "bud calm down we've seen weirder things than this" Henry said and he looked "looks like there's only two ways to go but the question is.... which way is the right one?" he said as he looked at the two signs one said "THE DEMON" and the sign had an stained head of bendy colored in fully black as ink seem to drip down and they looked at the other sign which seemed normal with the words "THE ANGEL" on them "well come on let's get going!" he said as he went the other way but henry turned and walked towards the demon path bendy stopped and ran after him "h-hey! why are you going in there that other me could be hiding in there" Henry looked at him "bendy as much as I would want to deal with that... angel right now I prefer to go this way because-" he stopped as he was trying to think of what to say. bendy walked with him "well?" the toon asked and Henry putted his hands up saying in a calm and stern tone "i'll tell you about it later alright? right now let's focus on getting out of here" bendy nodded "okay" Henry looked and started to walk ahead "come on let's see if we can find a way out of this room" they walked into the ink filled room and they heard the other door on the right closed "well no going back now" bendy said and Henry noticed an tape recorder turned on the tape recorder to hear the voice of "Joey?!" Henry said surprised at how young the voice sounded in the tape recorder "there's nothing wrong with dreaming. wishing for the impossible is just human nature. that's how I got started just a pencil and a dream. We all want everything without even having to lift a finger. they say you just have to believe. belief can make you succeed, belief can make you rich, belief can make you powerful. why with enough belief you can even cheat death itself! now that.... is a beautiful and positively silly thought" after hearing the message Henry felt creeped out the way joey was talking he was confused to how cheerful and calm he was in the tape almost like he did'int seem to care about anything at all bendy got out of the ink "come on let's get out of here this room is giving me the creeps" he said and the old animator followed the toon not knowing that an certain demon poked his head out of the inky floor as they walked away the ink demon's unmoving grin grew wider and larger and slowly went back into the ink leaving out an dark chuckle and cackle as it went underneath into the inky depths. The ex-animator and the hooded toon devil kept on walking in the studio listening to the eerie deathly silent in the studios was an bit unsettling 'it did'int feel right' Henry though to himself and he looked at bendy and he looked back with an worried look "something should had popped out by now in front of us it's weird that nothing happened yet Henry" the toon said keeping an grip on the gun while gulping and Henry patted the toon's back "well let's not lower our guard yet anything can happen-" they both jumped when they saw an cutout peek from around the corner. Bendy yelled and accidentally fired an bullet from the gun out of fear Henry looked at him with a 'really?' expression as bendy chuckled and smiled nervously "h-heheheh... s-sorry?" Henry sighed and they turned to see who was over there and they saw Boris standing there waving at them with an smile. bendy ran and hugged his friend the wolf patted the toon's head "Boris you're alright! how you get here so fast?" the little devil asked and Henry said "Boris, you scared me to death I don't suppose you have anything to protect us with?" Boris nodded and handed him an gent pipe Henry grabbed it "this will do" he said and bendy got off "good to see ya alright Boris! now let's go!" the three marched on arriving in another room with what seems to be filled with toys of bendy, Boris, and Alice all in small and large versions. It did'int make the creepiness go down as there was ink everywhere it made the three looked around an check their surroundings "what happened in here? looks like an warzone in here" Henry said while bendy just looked down obvious to what happened here as he sighed "an lot of bad things happened while you were gone for so long hen..." Boris walked over and pointed to an lever while tapping his feet the two walked over "woah nice eye! I forgot your still good at seeing things we can't!" bendy said and Boris smiled and looked proud of himself "looks like we need to turn on two levers at once you got this one Boris i'll find the other one" bendy went ahead "oh! I remember those guys!" Henry went over to see what was his friend talking about he saw the butcher gang poster at the end of an corridor "oh, the butcher gang I remember them appearing in your cartoon haft the time they were like uncles to you right bud?" bendy nodded while smiling slowly "yeah..." he said and Henry started to walk over to the lever that happened to be right near the poster he turned around to see bendy not moving "hey bud you okay?" bendy blinked "o-oh s-sorry i'll just stand here I-I just though I saw something move in there" Henry raised an eyebrow "what do you mean-" before he could say anything he heard something he turned around and got jumpscared by something coming out of the picture it roared at him and Henry backed away and as it got up and walked towards him he wasted no time in bashing it with the pipe it took only two big hits to the head for it to fall down he got an good look of the downed creature bendy saw too and he looked sadden "it's piper...." he said sadly and they watched as the inkified piper melted into ink and bendy stared as the ink that was the only remaining thing of piper went into bendy Henry did'int question as he remember in his cartoon piper and the two others were like mentors to bendy and kind of like the three uncles from Casper he sighed and Henry pulled the lever and Boris came running down the corner and saw his toon friend leaning on the wall "hey bud... you okay?" Henry asked the hooded toon devil as he rubbed his tears away "..... i'm fine... let's keep going..." Henry nodded and the three walked into the room with the lift and they went inside as Henry pressed the number 9 on the wall and the lift went down. they heard the supposed voice of Alice angel speak again "your so interesting so.. different I have to say i'm a instant fan" Henry did'int say anything as bendy looked so emotionless and depressed from hearing Alice's voice for so long. Boris comforted his toon friend and Henry listened to her speaking "looks like you got a date with a angel!" bendy looked up feeling like his heart just broke into a million pieces Henry took noticed and grunted at the voice of Alice and silently flipped her off even though she did'int see it. he muttered "yeah right lady....." he looked at bendy and smiled and bendy smiled back with a few tears dripping down "hey don't worry i know you'll probably hit me with a mallet if I ever do that" Henry said while chuckling at his own joke and bendy kinda snickered an bit too while Boris smiled and patted the toon's back. After what seemed like an few minutes of waiting they had reached the floor finally the trio could tell it was Alice's place because of the sign of the SHE'S QUITE A GAL sign was on there. The door from the lift opened and all three of them walked down "come along there's a whole twisted world out here" Henry noticed another tape recorder as Boris went on ahead and he pressed play on it and listening to Thomas yet again rambling on "kinda shocking that an elevator still works in this place after 30 years... than again it must be my head and mind playing tricks on me and i'm only just imaging all this happening" he said and chuckled when he heard Thomas said "I'm taking the stairs" Henry turned off the tape recorder "I would of done that too Tom" he went over to the platform and he along with Boris stepped on the tile as the door opened and Boris's ears perked up and he ran ahead of the two "hey Boris wait up!" bendy said and chased after his wolf friend with Henry following "hey what's the matte-" his eyes widen as he saw what Boris was looking at. an dead body of himself "oh... god..." Henry said and looked around shocked at what he was seeing an ton of bodies of dead v bendy's eyes widen in pure shock upon seeing the amount of bodies of dead Bories he held his chest where his heart would be and started sobbing while leaning on the wall "nononononNONONONONONNNO!!!!! NOT AGAIN! PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME SEE THIS HORRIBLE IMAGE AGAIN!!!" bendy screamed while his clothing started to turn tattern and worn out. Henry knew what was happening to bendy, he was hyperventilating he knew that condition far too well but since the toon wasn't an human Henry did'int know what else to do. As Bendy kept crying he started to grow claws on his gloves as he was trying not to transform out of pure saddness and anger. He hugged the toon tightly while shushing him as bendy kept breathing quickly and sobbing and coughing harshly "hey hey hey buddy! calm down! it's gonna be okay just calm down! it's alright bendy! it's gonna be alright!" Henry said rubbing the toon's head as he saw his crying was sounding more demonic "NO NO NO IT'S NOT ALRIGHT! NOT AGAIN NOT AGAIN! WHY! WHY DID JOEY DO THIS!" His eyes turn turned red and purple as he snapped at the retired animator "WHY DID YOU ABANDONED US HENRY?!?!?!" bendy said while screaming and snarling in a demonic tone and lashed out scratching Henry's arm on accident he was going to keep lashing out but than Boris hugged the toon. Bendy's eyes widen and he was now whimpering and he hugged the wolf back crying softly into his shoulder than something came out of his throat he spoke shocking bendy and Henry "i-i-it's a-alright b-bendy i-i-i-i'm h-here a-and i-im n-n-not l-l-l-leaving!" Boris said wheezing and coughing Henry and bendy looked at shock boris's voice sounded so weak and tired but bendy sniffed and hugged the toon "i'm not d-d-d-d-dead bendy okay? your b-big b-b-bro is still here" he said coughing and after an few minutes bendy calmed down Henry growled and glared as they heard Alice's voice again "look around it took so many of them to make me so beautiful" bendy then snarled darkly and was about to transform and beat the living ink tarp out of her body but Boris shook his head "don't it's not worth it" he said and bendy grunted but nodded than the three heard something that made all of them confuse of what Alice was saying "I had to do it, she made me" Henry than carefully walked over passing by an tape recorder but did'int press it he did'int want to hear what it had to say as he gripped on his fists and went inside to see the angel face to face. Meanwhile as Boris was trying to get bendy to calm down the hooded toon was furious and angry as he argued about "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! AFTER ALL THESE YEARS ALICE! SHE WAS HERE THIS WHOLE TIME! SHE. SHE. SHE'S GONE COMPLETELY MAD BORIS!" bendy said hissing and snarling while Boris looked away from his corpse "I..... I know bendy b-but it wasn't her fault you have to understand-" bendy snapped "I KNOW! IT WAS SUSIE'S DOING BOR!! BUT STILL...." bendy's growling toned down as he sighed "why did she have to kill you so many times after joey did it to you the first... w-why..... why do I have to keep on seeing you die in front of me every single time!" he knelt down burying himself on Boris's lap crying as he patted his head "there there buddy..." Boris looked up and noticed something was inside the corpse he pulled it out and saw an spare heart his eyes widen and he hid it in his pocket that he can fit it in thankfully and he picked up bendy "come on we'll wait for Henry back at the li-" bendy suddenly got out of Boris's arms as he looked at Boris with an expression that showed no emotion "no.... tell Henry I need to be alone for an bit" he said before walking off putting his hood over his head and putting his hands in his pockets. Boris looked down sadly while sighing deeply and walked off too waiting for Henry by the lift while bendy walked off by himself to gather his thoughts as he hid his anger and kept walking off and finding an shortcut to level 14. Henry came out of the room after 10 minutes later and was going to walk back to the lift but he saw the gate closed "I'll make this simple, look for value panels turn the clogs and get the things, please don't make me regret sparing you I can always change my mind" Henry rolled his eyes and grabbed the plunger and walked on. He noticed bendy was not with Boris "hey buddy? where's bendy?" Boris looked up at him with an tired look "he said he had to be alone for a while needed to gather his thoughts" Henry nodded "I can understand that knowing what the poor little guy saw.." Boris nodded "Henry I... I need to ask ya.... do you think that we'll ever get out of here?" Henry nodded "I made an promise to bendy Boris and i'm not going to break it I will get him and anyone else that isn't or wasn't affected by the ink out of this hell hole" Boris smiled "so should I come with you?" Henry shook his head "no i'm fine you can wait here if you want. I need to recollect on my thoughts too" Boris nodded letting his friend go off. the old animator sighed while walking as he listened to what Alice was saying as he searched around for the values "there's so little rules in this world now so very. But there's one rule we ALL respect down here, BeWaRe ThE iNk DeMoN~ stay out for too long and he will findddd you~~ if you don't make it, well... I enjoyed our date~" Henry rolled his eyes and kept on walking looking for the value cores. After what felt like hours of searching he'd finally found the last one it was in an room where he encountered the second member of the butcher gang. He noticed something strange. he stopped and looked at the creature's appearance "the hell...?" he nearly vomited when he noticed the camera on the creature's head he almost felt sorry for the ink creature as it walked off away from his slight "jeeze... wonder if that thing can see anything in there" he muttered to himself and got the last value core and walked back to the room and putted it away and while also dumping the plunger in there too "my machines are hungry! gather me some spare parts" Henry groaned and took the wrench like object and walked off as he walked on to room to room he began to see the rooms darkening and he felt his heartbeat thumping he hid quickly in an miracle station and waited to see who it was and his eyes widen it was the other bendy the one with the limp he could see it more clearly now he noticed it had an green glove like his bendy had and an red glove he noticed the bow tie was mixed color of blue and red he saw how it was walking it made him feel sick. The ink demon looked around growling in a confused tone thinking it heard someone walking about he grunted and walked off away from Henry's view and soon the black started to fade from the walls but Henry waited an few more minutes before coming out and went back to finding the spare parts. After 20 minutes he gathered the last one and on his way back noticed an flooded room he felt like he will need to come back here soon "maybe it's just my head but i feel like there's something in there" he thought in his head as he walked back and noticed Boris was whistling an tune he heard when he was doing the sheepsongs episode. Henry putted the spare parts into the can and putted the wrench in there and then he blinked "have you seen them? the swollen one? there filled with ExTrA tHiCk InK!!! it makes me sick and yet it's the perfect thing that keeps myself together but an little warning you will have to move quietly if you see one cause they get startled very easily" she said and henry took noticed of that and took the syringe he noticed it looked different than most syringes he saw during his time at the war but he payed no mind to went to work but he couldnn't help but groaned "how much freaking stuff do you even need lady?!" he muttered to himself while walking off. Almost an hour and a haft later he found the last one while also listening to an tape on the way back "I don't get it!" the voice of wally said on the tape "everyone's walking around like grandma just died I mean hello people! you make cartoons for crying out loud your suppose to make people laugh! i'm telling ya if I don't see an smile on anyone anytime soon i'm out of here!" Henry chuckled "I sure hope ya did make it out of here wally" he said and went back up during the way back he saw the walls showing spots of ink everywhere again. He hid inside and saw the ink demon once again as it was dragging something and it dropped it he snarled "oKaY hEnRy! I KnOw YoUr OuT tHeRe!" Henry kept quiet and still as possible after minutes of growling he jammed his claws onto the inkified person's back and dropped them and walked off Henry could see that it was the same person he saw in the closest with the knife and head wound and he was shocked when he saw the person getting up and moaning in an almost zombie like manner before wandering about and Henry waited no more than 3 minutes and started bolting straight back and called the lift and went into it "Henry you okay?" Boris asked as he saw him panting and pressing the 9 button an few times "i-i'm fine" he said ingoring what Alice was saying as he tried to catch his breathe. he did however caught note of one thing she said before they reached floor 9 "dreams come true susie, dreams come true" Henry shivered remembering on the way back to the lift after Alice had spared him he listened to one of the tape recorders and found out that Joey took Susie on a date and felt creeped out when he heard her said "he even called me Alice, I liked it" Henry again breathed and when he putted the syringe away she said something that made his heart stop cold "have you seen those grinning demons?" meanwhile at all the way down to level 14 bendy looked up while dropping an haft eaten searcher his eyes blinking before he growled and snarled harshly into the air hearing what the 'angel' said. He was tired of always losing his temper and his friends always getting hurt. He though about how all of this started with Joey than later that changed to him hating Susie even more for becoming too attached to Alice and now they became what he feared, an monster of her former shell. He snarled and banged his fist as his gloved hand slowly faded away revealing his claw he looked at it and than he made an twisted crooked smile as he laughed like an maniac "heheheheheheHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" the ink started to melt from his face as his crooked grin grew even more wider as his entire body and appearance grew taller. his ink like state grabbed the dead searcher's haft eaten body and slashed it and swallowed it all up "....J O E Y D I D T H I S T O M E!" bendy then climbed up and looked up and was gripping on his fists he snarled darkly while yelling out "I'LL GET YOU JOEY!! AND YOU TOO SUSIE! YOU ALL RUINED ME AND MY FRIENDS! NOW YOUR GONNA SEE THE DEMON YOU ALL WANTED!!! DO YOU HEAR ME JOEY?!?!?! I. WILL." his voice than turned even more dark and corrupted and demonic "KILL Y O U JOEY DREW!!!!" bendy lifted his head and then released an loud blood curling demonic roar echoing throughout the whole and entire studio making everyone hear his anger. Henry flinced after hearing the angel said "he hates it when I do that~~. I would hide if I were you~~~" he than heard the roar from bendy's anger and fury as it echoed throughout the entire studio and so did the ink demon and Boris and Alice as they all heard his demonic roar of rage. The ink demon simply grinned and clapped his hands like an happy child would and simply walked off snapping his fingers while whistling the same tune an certain mouse sang and than an swarm of searchers and members of the butcher gang were heading towards level 9 where Alice was at. Henry came back to floor 9 and was about to put the axe away when he heard the anger in Alice's voice "those fiflty creatures that have wandered my halls have been left unchecked! they broken in don't let them take your angel! purge them one by one smash them into bits! KILL THEM!!!!" Henry heard the sounds of the butcher gang and the searchers and he sighed "getting too old already for this and i'm not even 40 yet" he said and watched as the searchers and butcher gang members came down he gripped on his axe and attacked the creatures. Bendy quicken his pace of running on all fours when he sensed his friend was in danger he kept on running and running not stopping he even passed the other version of him as the ink demon watched the angry monsterized toon ran on all fours his grin grew even more and decided to watch the show that was about to unfold. after each blow Henry still couldn't get the searchers or the butcher gang to die he soon felt he was being outnumbered as they were going to soon finish him off. Than an loud roar broke out and an pissed off ink bendy appeared lunging at the group of searchers and butcher gangs with his claws slashing the butcher gang and searchers one by one. Some of them managed to hit him and bendy simply stabbed them with his tail and threw them aside. Henry watched in horror for once as his hooded friend slaughtered the ink creatures in the most burtal and gruesome way possible. After everything was gone and all that can be heard were bendy's heavy breathing Henry got up and walked towards the demon his wounds making it kinda difficult to walk "hey... bud..." Henry said touching bendy's forehead as the hooded ink formed demon turned to look at him "are you alright pal?" he nodded slowly while wincing an bit Henry noticed his wounds on the toon had gotten worst "bendy you know your injuries haven't healed themselves yet" he nodded again and watched as the ink remains of all the creature he'd killed in this room went inside his inky body as he growled "I'M...... I'M SORRY HENRY... I WAS JUST.... SO..... SO.... ANG-" he stopped when Alice finally spoke "shhhhhh listen there's nothing, like the sound of a welcoming grave" she said giving an nice sigh and breathe of relief "I like the silence. don't you?" Henry did'int response but he did nodded slowly "oh I hate leaving work unfinished! but that's why I have you to do that but you'll have to go down even deeper into the abyss, take the lift, see an old friend" the word old friend stung Henry as his eyes widen in pure shock "but here's a little present a extra little firepower, take good care of it, it belonged to someone very special" she said as Henry and bendy turned over to see an Tommy gun at the door Henry grabbed it before seeing if it was really real he pulled the trigger and it shot an bullet he could'nt help but smiled at it "now this is what i'm talking about" he said and bendy nodded giving him a thumbs up "alright come on let's go-" Bendy shook his head "NO... YOU GO ON I.... I NEED TO CHECK UP ON SOMEONE" Henry was confused by this but he nodded and walked away as Bendy went inside to see Alice. As The Demon walked on he saw the door was opened he slowly walked in and saw Alice he saw what was different about her. Her once beautiful blue dress was now stained and tainted with ink and blood. Her halo that shows her emotions was stuck to her head only revealing an black color, Her Gloves were gone revealing sharp fingers almost looking like claws. she turned slowly to face him he could see the toon eye instead of susie's he smiled lightly "HEY.... AL..." he said and she blinked and replied tirely "hello bendy, what brings you to this parts of the studio?" she asked and he walked up closer "OH... YA KNOW I WAS JUST IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD AND DECIDED TO CHECK UP ON YOU" she turned around revealing the right side of her face that was burnt due to the ink demon slamming an bottle of acetone on her "bendy things have been wonderful thanks to a certain human gathering items for me i'm sure you've seen his frighten soul all around the studio" she said smiling that bendy had her on his mind. he noticed the tone of her voice he was sad to see that somehow susie corrupted Alice both physically and mentally "YES...... BUT...." he said as he walked closer to her grabbing her hand "ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" he asked her and she looked up at him and reached up to brush away the ink to look at him in the eye "bendy darling i know i haven't been the best but everything is going well now with Henry here you'll see me beautiful again darling just like the old days" Bendy's eyes were tired as he looked at her he should be angry mad wanted to rip her throat out but he can't "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT AL?.... YOUR STILL THE ANGEL I MET THOSE YEARS AGO" he said grabbing her hand gently "WHY IN MY EYES YOUR EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN YOU WERE BEFORE" Alice smiled softly but then noticed the wounds "let me guess, that demon again?" he nodded and she sighed "you gotta learn how to block it's attacks bendy dear not everything can be destroyed from just your brutal sheer strength" he nodded and sat down as she proceeded to treat his wounds. ~haft an hour later~ Boris and Henry were waiting for bendy to come back from whatever he was doing in the other room. During that time Henry found another boarded up door and chopped down the boards with ease and noticed there was an tape recorder there he pressed play on it and he raised an eyebrow upon hearing an voice he remembered but at the same time did not remember "grant?" he asked himself. he and grant barley knew eachother but he known grant enough to see that he was an mellow relaxed kind of guy for having an fonding of love and hate for music Henry agreed to that as he too had a thing for music as he listened to the tape playing Boris was looking around he admit he was scared coming back here after being killed and brought here too many times it felt like an endless loop he hoped when it finally ended when he saw Henry and his best pal but now he feared his own death was coming back to haunt him he was brought back to reality when Henry snapped his fingers "hey Boris you okay there?" he nodded "y-....yeah i'm fine H-Henry just thinking" he said his throat not sounding that much weaker than before as he was slowly starting to get use to his voice recovering. They look over to See Bendy Walking back in his normal form and he looked like his injuries were not bothering him "well you look fine and dandy guess you got your injuries fix bud?" he nodded "hey why did'int you two go? I would of catch up with ya some other way" he asked "well we were just recovering from what had just happened but if you want to go now we can" he nodded "yep! let's hurry up and get out of here!" henry nodded "we still have to find joey though I still need some answers out of him" bendy's face turned from happy to scared but he did'int question him about it. after 10 minutes in the lift they finally reached level 14 henry looked at the amount of ink that was there "this whole place looks like it was flooded on purpose" he commented and henry and bendy both walked down as they noticed an heart on a hand henry picked it up grossed out and then saw something he though he never seen the camere ink creature was there "shhhhhhh there he is, the projectionist sulking in the darkness, stay out of his life if you don't want trouble just gather the things i need and return to me" the voice of 'Alice' said but Henry couldn't believe what he was seeing bendy noticed an tape playing and went over to grab it and walked back to henry and he turned it on and Henry felt tears streaming down his eyes "that's...... that thing...... it's Norman......oh god..... why.... why did it have to be him..." he said sadly as he knelt down silently crying inside his head. Bendy never saw Henry like this before it made him sad to see his friend like this he comforted the poor tired old man "Henry.... I... I tried Hen.... I tried so hard to stop Joey from turning him into that...... but....... but i was too late..." Henry sniffed "after all these years... and I did'int know what he was doing to you or the others..... oh god..... Norman i'm so sorry.... I.... I should of never left.. may-" bendy got up grabbing Henry and looking at him "no.... listen even if you did'int leave overtime joey would of done it anyway he'd lost it Henry! he gone and went mad with power he's not himself anymore!" bendy said to him and letted go "come on we can be quick if you wa-" Henry gripped on the Tommy gun "no.... let's just.... take our time...." he said and the toon nodded. As they ventured into the flooded ink he noticed an path boarded up he chopped it down and noticed an value panel and turned it not knowing what it could do "why did you do that?" he asked and Henry sighed "I just felt like doing it I don't know everything is just..... starting to get more and more weirder" after what felt like hours of searching through the maze they walked into and hiding they found only 4 hearts they were now walking carefully looking for the last one and they noticed an shadow they took an closer look to see it was the projectionist/Norman he was just standing there looking at an screen that showed one of the cartoon scenes from bendy's show he did'int move an single inch problem was the last heart was near him he gulped and carefully took one step as quiet as he could he slowly picked up the heart and backed up but the ink turned Norman did'int move an single inch still Henry then though of something he sighed "Norman.... I don't know if you can hear me or... if your still in there but.... I wanted to give this to you before I left" he said and silently handing him an photograph seeing the inky hand tighten he and bendy quickly walked off Norman lifted the picture up to his 'face' looking at the photograph it seem to open up an memory in his head that he kept inside him when he became this projectionist it was the only thing that kept him still mentally sane. ~Flashback~ "hey Henry" Henry looked to see it was Norman "I know your leaving and all soon but can we have a talk?" Henry nodded "sure thing Norman anything for a friend" the two sat down having an drink of coffee "so what did you wanted to talk about?" he asked and Norman took an sip "well I was wondering... how long will you be gone?" Henry though he did'int really know how long he be gone for "I think maybe an few years I reckon but when I get back I better see this place rolling with films or my ghost is gonna haunt you till ya die" he said laughing and Norman chuckled "yeah I get it stay safe pal" he told Henry "hey do you think ya talking to your talking to a guy that's technically been to war 2 times as of now" Norman nodded "I know you told me but still be careful alright" he nodded "I promise keep being you Norman alright and maybe when I get back we'll have that drink like I promised or else you'll knock me out with an hammer" Norman laughed "okay see ya around Henry" he nodded "see ya Norman" ~Flashback ended~ Henry And Bendy went back to the lift and he took one last look to see Norman Walking out and looking at him the two shared an stare at eachother bendy was on his guard he did'int know if he was here to hurt Henry or take him. Norman simply did an impression of Henry saluting and then walked off into the other room of the maze like hallways. Henry was shocked but he smiled "he's still in there somewhere...." bendy noticed the look of relief on his face and smiled "hey come on we can take one last look around the place before we head back to Alice" he nodded "yeah come on I think that value I drained might had opened up an new area" they went back into the lift and it went back up. after what seem like hours they finally reached floor 9 and Henry and bendy and Boris both went to the room Henry was talking about they saw an lone searcher but Henry was able to put quick use to his new Tommy gun as the searcher went down quickly "why is there an tape here?" Boris asked and Henry walked over and pressed play on it "only 2 weeks into this company and already it's gotten interesting. Joey is a man of ideas.. and only ideas. When I agreed to start this whole thing with him, I thought there would be a little more give and take. Instead I give and he takes. I haven't seen My Friend Linda For days now. Still though someone has to make this happen, when ever in doubt just keep drawing Henry. On the plus side though I've got a new character That I think people are going to love." Henry listened to it replaying itself "Henry?" Boris asked and Henry silently turned to look at him but turned around and walked back up bendy could of sworn he saw the old animator frown slightly "come on... let's just finish this and find joey.." Henry said in a serious tone as the two toons followed him. Henry Putted the 5 hearts in the box "ahh that should be enough now return to the elevator, it's time to go home" Henry grunted he did'int want to leave let but maybe after they ascended he could find another way to reach joey as the three sat in the lift Bendy was looking around "hey Boris you hear that bud we finally get to outside! your gonna see the things Henry told us about! with outside the beautiful skies, the nice open fields! and the wonderful amazing ocean! oh man it's gonna be so great we don't have to be in the studio anymore!" Boris smiled kindly at his friend "that's great b-b-bend-" than all of a sudden the three heard the lift go down very fast Henry's eyes widen and screamed in a angry tone "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK LADY?!?!?!?!" he shouted at alice "DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN LEAVE THAT EASY?!?!?! NO! I KNOW WHO YOU ARE HENRY! AND I KNOW WHY YOUR HERE!!! YOU WON'T STOP WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE! NOW BRING ME BACK MY BORIS!!!" bendy's eyes widen before glaring "HEY HE'S MY PAL NO ONE TAKES MY FRIEND CRAZY LADY!!!” He said angry at the now possessed voice of Alice angel aka Susie campbell “HE IS THE MOST PERFECT BORIS I HAVE EVER SEEN AND I WANT HIS INSIDES TO MAKE ME BEAUTIFUL AGAIN!! SO GIVE HIM TO ME!” Henry glared and saw Boris was cowering in fear as bendy was getting ready to transform “OR BETTER YET I’LL TAKE HIM!” Bendy growled and Henry did’int know what else to do so he tried to look at the buttons and tried pressing one but it did’int stop going down he silently cursed as it went down even faster and Alice’s voice started to get more demonic “ONCE. YOUR. DEAD!!!!” She said yelling. Than an big loud crash to the ground and the elevator breaking is what sent Henry and bendy to blackness. ~Flashback~ Bendy was watching the others drove off away from the studio he sighed and saw that Henry’s Car was still here he was confused “I don’t see Joey’s car so why is hen still here?” He got off and walked around and noticed someone sleeping he looked to see the young but old looking animator sleeping on his desk again bendy sighed deeply “overworked again I see” he said quietly before going to the closest and grabbing an blanket and putting it over him “Jeeze Henry you gotta learn when to stop overworking yourself” he said knowing the old man couldn’t hear him he looked to see what was he drawing this whole time and raised an eyebrow he picked up the drawing it was an drawing of him and what looked like Henry in it he noticed that in the drawing Henry was showing Bendy what seems to be outside the studio he noticed how happy he himself looked and he noticed the words “happy birthday Bud” was written on it he smiled and putted the drawing back on the desk he smiled at the animator and patted the sleeping Henry while putting an pillow underneath his head “night hen” he said walking off. Bendy heard muttering going about he looked to see Sammy was still here chanting something that bendy couldn't hear him say he tilted his head to see what was he doing he saw the room he was in darken his eyes widen and quickly slammed the door shut and backed up and ran off surely something did pop out of the pentagram an demonized version of bendy as the ink demon slowly grinned but then it melted back into the pentagram Sammy's eyes widen and shouted "NO!" bendy could hear him shouting repeadtly he was breathing heavily and quickly ran off to find Boris and Alice "maybe they know whats wrong with Sammy" he said to himself as he kept running. ~flashback ended~ Henry could barley open his eyes as he slowly opened them to find Boris shaking him "B..Boris what are you doing here..? G-get out of here b-before she gets you..." He slowly cough and Boris kept shaking him he slowly turned to see bendy knocked out leaning on the wall with his hood covering most of his face. He turned to see Alice slowly coming towards them he tried to warn Boris but he couldn't speak Alice grabbed him and pulled him away into the darkness Henry tried to reach out to get him as he heard Boris yell "HENRY!! P..PLEASE SAVE ME!!!!" Henry had tears dripping out of his eyes "Boris... I'm sorry.." He thought in his head as he slowly slipped into darkness As Alice's Laughter is the last thing he hears as he blacks out before getting two pictures flashing up in his head an vision of boris strapped on an table with Alice's Shadow looming over him and the second one shows the ink demon with his minions looking like they're going to plan something to take down The Angel once and for all ~40 minutes later~ Meanwhile in an rather normal looking office an short black haired man was sitting down reading some files he hears the door open and turns around "well? did you figure out something yet my little devil?" the voice known as Joey Drew said as the tall ink demon nodded while it's grin was wider than before joey smiled "good susie is no longer useful at this point even though she never was... make sure you finish the job and end both her and that...... AnGeL's life" he said shivering after saying the word angel The ink demon made an sound that sounded like an happy child and clapped it's hands repeadtly and ran out Joey smiled as he sat back down and putted on his reading glasses and kept on turning the pages of an book he was reading.

#ENJOY #FANFICTION #modernbendyandtheinkmachine #my au

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