Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Nathan Arch remembered when he first met Joey Drew. It was the first day of kindergarten, they had been sat next to each other.

"Hi," Nathan had said with a smile toward the other boy,

"Hey, I'm Joey! What's your name?" The other boy had given him a smile, the smile he would learn to cherish when it was for him.

"I'm Nathan, but call me Nate!" He remembered how happy he had felt talking to Joey, "so what do you like to do?" 

"I like playing with toy soldiers and drawing, what about you?"

"Oooooo! I like playing with toy soldiers too!" He had also liked drawing just a little bit but, toy soldiers were more fun for him. 

"Wanna go and play?"

"Yes!" So, that's what they did, every school day for the next few months, until one day...

"Hello, everyone," the teacher said to the class one morning, "today, we have a new student."

The new student came into the class room, and gave a shy smile, "h-hey, everyone my n-name is Henry Stein, I'd really l-like to get to know you."

The teacher gave the boy, Henry, a soft smile, urging him to sit next to Joey on the opposite side that Nathan was on.

Joey turned to the new boy, Nathan couldn't see but he knew his friend had the same smile he had had when he'd first greeted Nathan, "hi, your name's Henry?" After a shy nod from the brunette Joey continued, "I'm Joey, and this is Nathan," he said motioning to said boy,

"H-hi, it's nice to m-meet you both," Henry said quietly 

"You too," Nathan smiled a bit, Henry seemed alright... for now.

"So, Henry," Joey started, "What do you like to do?"

"I like to draw."

"Oh, us too, right Nate?" Joey asked Nathan

"Yeah... a bit."

"C-cool, I a-also like watching c-cartoons, I hope to be an a-animator when I grow up!"

"Ooooo!" Joey said, "me too!"

That was when it started... Joey slowly started to drift away from Nathan and towards Henry... that best friend thief! Nathan grew a strong disdain for Henry over the years...

Then, 5 years later, the game called 'Bendy and The Ink Machine' came out, it had the main character with the same name as the one person he hated the most and the villain with the same name as the best friend who was stolen from him.

Chapter Text

Joey was watching a YouTube channel he recently found by the name of 'The Shephard of the Demon', despite the username, the guy seemed cool, if a bit eccentric. Joey enjoyed the subject of the video, the Occult and demon summoning for many reasons. Joey felt a tap on his shoulder and looked up, oh right, he'd been waiting for Henry in the cafeteria, guess he'd gottem to engrossed in the video on his phone.

"Hey, Hen," Joey said as he saw his friend looking at him.

"Hey, Joey," Henry replied with a glance towards Joey's phone, he asked, "whatcha watching?"

"Oh, it's uh, it's nothing," he said before trying to pocket his phone.

"C'mon you know you can tell me anything," Henry said.

"I know... it's just, not important...":

"Whatever you say," the brunette sighed, "anyway, we should get some food."

"Yeah, let's go," Joey stood up and started to go to the cafeteria counter, they saw another student buying food, he seemed to be in their grade, and as Joey stood looking for something good he could make out the boy humming softly, it sounded kinda familiar, Joey couldn't quite place why, and then he looked up to see the kid looking at him.

"Hi, uh," Joey trailed off, the guy seemed a little weird, staring weirdly, but he seemed okay.

"My name's Sammy Lawrence what about ya?"

Joey blinked, "wow, didn't expect to find someone else after this long."

"What do ya mean?" Sammy asked

"Oh, sorry, my name is Joey Drew and my friend is Henry Stein." Joey answered, motioning to Henry who just waved with a small smile.

"Ohhhhhh, that makes sense, do you guys wanna sit with me and my friend?" Sammy asked.

"We wouldn't mind, right Hen'?" Joey asked

Henry nodded, "yeah, that would be nice," he said softly.

 They get their food and Joey and Henry followed Sammy to the table where there was a blond girl sitting there,

"Hey Susie!" Sammy called which made the girl, Susie, look up.

"Oh, Sammy! Who are they?" Susie asked motioning to Joey and Henry.

"Oh! This is Joey and Henry," Sammy said

"Wait... as in...?"

"Yup! We've now got a group!"

"Cool."

"So," Joey said as he sat next to Sammy, "what do you you like to do?"

"We like doing Occult stuff, y'know summoning demons 'n' stuff."

Joey couldn't help but grin, "me too, honestly," he replied

Henry sighed, "Joey, why didn't you tell me?"

"It never came up," Joey shrugged

"I've literally asked you about a pentagram on the floor of your bedroom."

"Oh yeah, sorry..."

"Anyway," Sammy started, "Henry, what do you like to do?"

"I like drawing and animation."

"Shoulda guessed, well I like making music."

"Wow, that makes sense."

"What does that mean?"

"We are basically modern versions of out counterparts from the game, except Joey."

"Oh, right,"

They talked for the rest of lunch until it was time to go back to their next classes.