First Chapter of my Fic is Here!!
Here’s the link if you wanna read it on ao3
https://archiveofourown.org/works/83010226
2,300 Degrees
Chapter 1: Wedging
Rating: Mature (for violence, language and sexual themes)
Characters: Reader, Cuphead (Cuphead), Mugman (Cuphead), Bendy (Bendy and the Ink Machine), Boris (Bendy and the Ink Machine), Shelly (Dandy's World), Dandy (Dandy's World), Pebble (Dandy's World)
Pairings: Mugman/reader, Cuphead/reader
Additional Tags: I'll add more characters when they show up, Pebble is the goat, I'm gonna try and follow some of the canon but the comic is still in progress, Bendy is hard to write, this is my first fic, Aroace Cuphead, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, Blood and Violence, Blood and Gore, Tragic Backstory, Reader is not named, reader is technically an oc, but I don't specify physical attributes unless they have plot relevance,breader has tattoos, Cartoon Physics
Fic Summary: Bendy has an old friend that owes him a favor, and they need a place to law low from the Stars
So the the crew hide out in the country with you, an underground fighter who can smell trouble from a mile away
The cup bros are wary of this new companion and both have their own ways of digging for answers
But what they find in return draws them further from their games and deeper into something real
And if a serious relationship with someone is not the scariest thing in the worlds then they don’t know what is
******************
The sky was a dark gray and bled shadows into the surroundings. It pattered down rain in heaps, flooding the street gutters and leaving big puddles in the streets to splash in. The only color coming from windows of establishments still alive with banter.
You sat on an uncomfortable stool in a bar so trashy that you don’t even care to remember its name, beautiful music is playing, further souring your mood.
You’re confident that your gonna lose your act to these bozos.
You tip your glass from side to side, looking tiredly at the stage, a young demon and a colorful flower prance and sing on the stage, audience rapt with attention. All eyes focused on the darling duo. Even with a short look to the back you can plainly see the manager agape in awe.
You’ve been loyal to this bar for months now and the relationship between you was a fruitful one, ie. you offer entertainment for the low life’s and in return they offer you food and drink for the night.
Not the most lucrative business but it’s at least less bruising than your other job.
But by the looks of it you might have to rely further on your second job to get food in the near future. It’s clear to see that these fine gentlemen have actual talent and it’s only a matter of time before management kicks you to the curb to trade in for the fresh meat.
The sounds of clapping—oh wow hollering too, you never get that, echos through the bar and it slowly morphs into excited chattering among the patrons. The piano starts another jaunty tune that fades to background noise, suddenly everything seems a little too noisy for your taste.
it’s seems about time you head home.
Especially before—
“Hey there!”
Who in the..
You slowly turn—you might’ve been more drunk than you thought. You see the young demon who was just on stage in front of you now, with his hand out in front of you.
His skin is black, resembling ink, it holds a bright sheen when he leans into the lighting, a patch of his face is white as a sheet. That didn’t mean he was scared, a lot of toons appeared in black and white, he stood toes pointed outward, confident. He held an aura of like he owned the place, and with a face like that— it felt like he did. a grin that told you friendliness and a body that held talent, and his thin whip-like tail swung lazily behind him.
“My names Bendy, you were the one performing before us right?”
Oh boy conversation, “uhh yea, yea I was” you say as you fumbled introducing yourself. The demon held an air of friendliness that exuded confidence, guess that’s what you get for living the performer life. Compared to your awkwardness and lack of..well everything, he might as well be talking to a clam. As you look his partners absence does not go unnoticed.
“Where’s your flowery friend?”
“Oh you know..” he starts, leaning back on nothing, arms raised behind his head. “..Talking to the big wigs. He’s always been quite the sweet talker”
Hm. They’re probably trying to get a deal from the manager, whether they succeed or not remains to be seen and frankly not your problem.
The demon scoots out a bar stool, “May I join you” looking at you with hooded eyes.
You were about to leave but you’re never one to deny yourself to a drinking buddy, no matter how introverted you may be, so you nod and tilt your head back finishing your drink.
You wave over the bartender, “a drink for me and my buddy here.” You say pointing a thumb to your new companion, “So Bendy mind telling me out of all the patrons, you decide to come sidle up to me?”
He stares, looking pensive and withdrawn, clearly showing caution into divulging whatever he thought was so secretive. Come on now! He came to you for crying out loud and now he’s nervous?
Maybe not nervous… it’s more.. embarrassed?
“Uh well to be honest my friend wanted me to appraise you and you’re voice and invite you to sit with us, but uh as you can see…” Bendy turns and you follow his gaze to the jaunty flower smiling towards the managers who were smiling and laughing along with him, by the looks of it he had in fact clutched the deal. Bendy clears his throat, “…he got distracted”
He looks exasperated, probably by the fact of having been forced to talk with you himself, but that still begs the question..
“Aaand you’re not over there because…?”
The corner of Bendys mouth ticks down, and his tail whips out from behind him in a fast motion. He grumbles out “I hate talking to managers!”
“Pfft,” you let out an unattractive snort and chuckle lowly, “ we agree on something at least.”
His frown cracks and he’s suddenly laughing, it’s high and melodic, and you can’t help but join in.
Talking came easy with Bendy, while you fumbled and flubbed he had a mystic way with words. Jumping from the weather, “dreary as ever, I’ve never seen it rain so much,” to politics, “ I acquiescence that the current stars are starting to finally care about the entertainment industry“ to even learning about his personal interests, “Have you read the latest book of Felix’s series, he fights a sea monster and finds a temple that has—well, I shouldn’t spoil it, it’s a resplendent piece of literature” most of your responses were along the lines of wow—and cool, and while he did ask about your life you were reluctant to divulge in yourself.
He takes a swig of his glass, after the first one you got for him Bendy ordered himself a drink of his own, whisky it seemed, “ y’know you remind me a lot of my brother, it takes me forever to drag him out of the house”
You smiled, “you have a brother? You seem like the type to be protective of your family.”
He grins and leans forward in his chair. A little too close for comfort, “Actually he’s a lot more protective than I am. He badgers me constantly about not overworking, it’s almost like he forgets that I’m the one that’s supposed to be taking care of him.”
From the sound of it they must not have any parents, from personal experiences it’s probably for the best that you don’t mention it.
“We working on building a place for us to stay but right now we’re moving from place to place.” Bendy
“Well if you need anythiiii—Duck!” Scrambling you hurled yourself over Bendy nearly avoiding the plate of food thrown his direction. It smashed on the wall of the bar shattering into tiny pieces.
The bartender, looking unfazed, pulls a lever that lowers a metal shield around the bar, protecting him from the ongoing fight happening in the bar.
This was what you were worried about..
“Hey! I know I’m quite charming but can you get off me!” While his words were fluent you can hear a tone of anger he hadn’t used with you before.
But there wasn’t time to be shy about close quarters, you grabbed his wrist, pulling him off his seat and sped your way to the nearest cover.
You kept yourself low to the ground, as food and dishware flung across the air. Soon you found a table turned on its side that you and Bendy crouched behind.
The breath you didn’t know you were holding finally released, and went to explain to your unwilling captive—unfortunately he had a few words to say to you first.
“What the hell is going on!?”
“Did you know that would happen?!”
“Is it always like this?!”
“It isn’t polite to grab people you know!—“ he gasped, stopping his train of thought. “I need to find Dandy!”
He got up to do just that but before you could warn him, a glass cup hit him in the back of the head, knocking him down.
You caught him as he fell to his knees, face twisted in pain and from where you can see blood and..something else running down his head.
Wait. He isn’t like…
You grabbed one of the napkins that fell from the table and put pressure on the wound. Bendy, growled and underneath his breath spat. “I knew we shouldn’t have come here, all these people are worthless low life’s.”
He’s understandably mad but you hope he’s not considering you as one of these “low life’s”.
Even if you did call them that before, you knew these people, knew they had families and were just trying to get by, even if that meant getting in with the wrong crowd.
Voices kept getting louder but you kept your voice quiet, “ If we’re gonna get out of here you have to trust me”.
Bendys tail flicked as he hid his face making you unable to discern his feelings. You tried again.
“After I get you out of there I’ll go back in and find your partner, I promise”
He growled and grabbed your hand with a tight grip, “fine, let’s go.”
With that you carefully looked at the chaos of the fight that was going on in the middle of the room, most of the innocent toons who didn’t want to be apart of the tussle have already exited the building, leaving the main nine (maybe more, you couldn’t tell) having their standoff near the billard tables (one table already being broken by a body being flung at it).
You knew these guys were too distracted to notice you and all you had to look out for was collateral damage.
You steeled yourself and returned the type grip Bendy held your hand with and you weaved your way through the chaos.
Bottles, glasses, plates, food, and even a microphone from the stage was thrown through the air, you and Bendy kept yourselves low to prevent anymore head injuries.
The billard tables were next to your exit, so you stayed low and waited for the right moment.
The gang of toons slowly made their way towards the bar looking for more ammo to throw for their match.
You sped towards the exit hearing the screaming turn into muffled noise, and only the ringing in your head remained.
“I didn’t see your partner in the ruckus there’s a possibility that he got out with the others—“ BANG! “—and good thing too..” you whispered as the sound of a gunshot echoed from the bar.
“I gotta get out of here..” Bendy shook out your grip and began to walk away. Much less graceful than when you first met him.
“Hold it!” If your hunch was correct about Bendy, you needed to make sure him and his family got help.
Just like she would’ve done..
Bendy looked back at you, eyes tired and irritated and sweat on his brow. You swiftly took out a pen in your pocket and before you could write you remember that you forgot your notebook at home.
You look towards the bloodied crumpled up napkin in his hand, “can I borrow that?”
Curious he relents the napkin to you and you quickly scribble out your name and address on the sheet.
“If you or your brother are in need of anything, please come to this address. I will assit you in whatever you need whether it’s jobs, medical, food,—anything!” You hand the napkin to the demon, whose frown had deepened to a snarl.
“I can take care of my brother just fine thank you, I don’t need any hand outs.” Bendy shook with anger not taking the napkin, but still you persisted.
“I’m not saying that, just take it and if you want you can throw it away later,” you forced it into his hand, determined to do something right for once.
You needed to at least try.
Bendy huffed and took the wadded up napkin, (probably ready to throw it back in your face) but a call from afar stopped him.
“BENDS!”
The flower you only had seen from a distance came racing towards you, colliding into Bendy (almost tipping him over). The flower seemed to be lucky getting out and only had some tattered clothes.
“Are you okay? You’re bleeding!” The flower holds the demons face, “and I looks like your have another attack—“”-SHHH!” Dandy was quickly shut up by Bendy, who gave a stern look.
“I told you not to talk about that out loud” Bendy scoffed. He took Dandys hand and started walking away from you, “let’s go..”
Dandy looked back at you and whispered something you couldn’t hear to Bendy.
He frowned seeming perplexed by the answer the demon gave him, and before they could step out of sight the Flower turned to you and yelled,
“YOU HAVE A LOVELY SINGING VOICE! THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!” Bendy tugged him along, walking faster to get out of there.
You smiled, hoping that even if Bendy didn’t accept your offer, you did something right by protecting him.
••••••
The large dog beneath your feet shook with fear as another rumble sounded from the heavens. The weather was dreary and in came a chill from the incoming autumn season. The sky’s were grey with dark clouds and you’re reminded you forgot to cover the patio chairs for the rainy night.
“God damnit”
You stir the pot of macaroni noodles slowly, mixing in the shredded cheese you grated minutes prior. Your other hand was occupied giving the poor, scared out of her mind, 65 lb dog scritches. To comfort the poor baby.
“I know, I know, it’ll be over soon..” another thunder rumbled, this time shaking the house, seeming to threaten your statement.
“…maybe”
Mixing in peas and tuna, into your monstrosity you called food your interrupted by a knock at the door, which in turn alerted your alarm system of a dog to start barking in shrill yaps.
“What are you doing out in this weather Dougie?!” You yell making your way over to the door. You assume that your neighbor is in need of some help again like when the last storm blew off his antenna. Not sure why he didn’t want to wait until after the storm though.
You open the door ready to chew out your elderly neighbor for traversing in this weather when you’re stopped by the scene in front of you.
Something you thought you would never see.
“Hey, uh… long time no see?”
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Please Comment and interact with this so I can figure out what you guys want to see in the fic
-Punk
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Edit: I drew something to go with the chapter so here!
