Chapter Text
Alice was the first one to hear the car pull into the driveway. She looked outside and jumped up quickly. "Henry's home!" She shouted to her two brothers. "And he's carrying something inside with him!"
"Really?" Boris asked, rushing over to the window to look. "It looks like some kind of really long board."
"I want to see!" Bendy was the last one to the window, trying to peer over it but finding he was too short. By the time he managed to jump up to look, Henry was already out of view. He frowned, then smiled again once he heard the front door open.
"I'm home!" Henry called out.
The toons raced down the stairs, Bendy nearly tumbling down some stairs from how fast he was going. He got to the bottom, and he and the others crowded around Henry.
"How was town? Did you find any pretty dresses there?" Alice asked.
"What about food? Oh! Or bones? Did you find any bones?" Boris wanted to know. "Or maybe hamburgers, sandwiches, tater tots, brownies, cookies, cupcakes, candy…"
"What's that thing?" Bendy interrupted Boris as he kept naming foods, pointing at this strange object. It looked like a ruler. Like a really tall ruler that could nearly reach the ceiling. He wasn't sure what in the world it was for, though. What could Henry possibly measure that was that huge?
"Now, now, let's step back and let Henry through. He probably wants to sit down for a little." Linda said, chuckling at the toons crowding around her husband.
"Right!" Alice spoke, and the three stepped back, letting Henry through.
"I will answer all of your questions in a moment once I have everything carried in." Henry assured them with a chuckle. He propped the ruler against the wall, then went back out to grab the other bags. When he was finished, he kissed Linda on the cheek before sitting down at the table.
"I did get you some snacks, Boris." Henry handed Boris a paper bag. Bendy tried to peek in, but the bag was held a bit too high. He thought he could smell cookies, but he couldn't be sure. Whatever it was though, Boris seemed pretty happy with it.
"Thank you, Henry!" The wolf said, tail wagging happily.
"What about me?" Alice asked. "Were there any dresses?"
"No, I'm afraid there weren't, Alice." Henry spoke, then reached into the bag. "Unless...this is a dress!" He pulled out this sparkly purple dress. Alice squealed in delight, taking the dress and looking it over.
"It's beautiful!!! I love it so much!" The angel ran off to immediately change into her new dress, too excited to wait another second.
"I got something for you too, Bendy." Henry said. "I noticed how you've been drawing, so I bought you some art supplies." Henry gave Bendy a bag. The demon took it and looked inside, smiling at all of the colorful markers, colored pencils, and pens.
"Thank you, Henry!!" Bendy was delighted, but was still curious about that ruler. "What's that?"
"It's a growth chart."
"A growth chart?" Alice asked, now back and in her beautiful dress.
"It measures how tall you are. Parents usually measure and marks their children's heights, and it shows how much they've grown over time. It's a special little keepsake." Linda explained. "Henry and I had been talking about them. We thought it would be cute to measure and mark your height."
"Do you think we're gonna grow?" Boris was kind of hard to understand with the brownie in his mouth, but they were all used to it. Boris almost always had something that he was munching on.
"I think so. I'm not entirely sure, but we can mark and see. We might all be surprised by what we find." Henry smiled before standing up. He opened a drawer, getting out a black marker. "Who wants to go first?"
"Me!!!" Bendy cried. He was the most excited about this. He was tired of being so short. He hoped he'd grow taller. He wanted to be able to see himself in the bathroom mirror, or to look out windows without having to jump up. Reaching the top shelf would be amazing, but even Alice couldn't do that, so he wasn't holding his breath.
"Alright. Come here, and stand up as straight as you can." Bendy obeyed, barely able to contain himself from bouncing in excitement. Once Henry marked his height, Bendy stepped away, looking at the chart excitedly. "What is it? How tall am I?" He asked.
"Four feet tall exactly," Henry answered.
Four feet tall. Bendy repeated those numbers to himself as his siblings were measured. Alice was five feet and three inches, and Boris's height was five feet and eleven inches. Boris was definitely the tallest of the three, but they had already known that.
"How often do we check it?" Bendy asked, looking at the chart and wondering how long it would take before he grew.
"How about every three months?" Linda suggested.
"Three whole months?"
"Well, growing takes time. Would checking every month make you happy, Bendy?" Henry asked with a small laugh.
"That sounds a lot better." The little toon nodded, satisfied. Now, to wait. Surely in a month he'd be taller, right?
Wrong. Like Henry said, growing did take a long time, and it seemed like it took the longest for Bendy. Boris and Alice grew, Boris reaching six feet and Alice getting to five foot five. Bendy stayed the same, right at four feet exactly. He didn't even grow a millimeter. He didn't understand it. Why couldn't he get taller? Why was he stuck at four feet? Would things ever change, or would he always be the tiny demon forever? Bendy the Tiny Demon didn't have a nice ring to it, the toon thought. He wished something would change, but it didn't. Until...it did.
It was an ordinary day. Bendy woke up and wiped his eyes, when he noticed that his legs were hanging off his bed by quite a bit. That had never happened before. When he got up, he noticed that he could touch the top of the doorframe with his hand. Was he taller? It couldn't be, right? He ran into the bathroom, and the sight to greet him in the mirror was surprising. He was taller!
He was tall and a bit thinner. There was ink seemingly over his eyes too, but he could see just fine. He looked awesome, and tall! He was so excited that he let out a cry, running down the stairs. "HENRY, LINDA!!!!" He shouted, running into the kitchen where they were getting breakfast ready. "I'M TALL!!!"
Henry dropped his coffee cup in complete surprise, his face something Bendy wanted to remember forever. Linda nearly dropped her plate that she was taking to the table. "Bendy! You're...you're giant!" She said at last.
"I know! Isn't it amazing? I woke up and I was tall!"
"Talk about a growth spurt." Henry chuckled. "I guess that's why you weren't growing. Your body was preparing to do it all at once."
"Can you measure me now?"
"Sure, but I may need to stand on a chair for it!"
Turns out, Henry did need to stand on a kitchen chair. Bendy was eight feet and two inches tall. He was taller than everyone in the house, even Boris! He did a little victory dance to celebrate.
"I can't wait for Al and Bo to see!" Bendy exclaimed.
"Oh, I'm sure they'll be surprised." Henry commented.
"They might even faint." Linda joked.
Bendy grinned. That would be pretty funny, though he hoped that they wouldn't be so surprised that they'd fall over and get hurt. He was more than ready for their reactions, and it seemed he wouldn't have to wait long. He could hear them coming down the stairs. "Boris, Alice! I have a surprise for you!" Bendy called up to them, and couldn't help the mischievous grin that formed on his face. This was going to be great.