Work Text:
Tick.. tick.. tick.. tick…
The soft clicks of a clock hung over the doorway of the lowly lit room were pretty much the only indicators of life in the otherwise dead room. It was small, the ceiling was low, most likely built originally for smaller rooms to inhabit the space. Other than the clock, sometimes the scratching of a pen on paper sounded from the desk in the corner, or the turning of pages, it was obvious someone was trying to be quiet with how delicate the crinkle of the falling pages were.
Spread along the desk were documents and books of all kinds, but they all had one thing in common. They were all either machinery books or documents on cases of the blot curse. Sitting behind this desk was a tall wolf toon, like most toons in this world he was black and white colored, a sour expression laid across his face. From the looks of it he was stressed, a finger pressing on his temple as his other hand vigorously wrote down information on a sheet of paper. This is Boris.
Most of it was small T charts on the causes and effects of the Blot Curse and any found ailments of it. Medicines, herbs, you name it. On a T chart on a paper pushed to the side there were lists of good medicines and medicines with harsh side effects as well as another listing the same medicines, just basing them off pricing. Now.. why was Boris so fixated on this topic?
A dim light suddenly flickered on from Boris’s doorway, a shorter figure leaning against the doorframe. By his face you could tell he was quite exhausted, wearing what seemed to be spare comfortable clothing for sleep. “Boris.. what are you doing up.??” The male hummed, his voice slightly raspy from the effort of trying to keep his eyes open. “Did you drink coffee again? I swear you’re an addict.” He chuckled, a hand moving up to rub one of his eyes.
Boris shifted in his seat, moving an arm to rest on the desk trying to casually shield his current work on the desk. But honestly there were too many papers to truly hide. And the books stacked in the corner of the desk were a give away, considering they were usually on Boris’s small bookshelf the had in the corner of his room. Bendy’s expressed changed slightly to interest as he stepped away from the door walking into Boris’s room, Boris then spoke up after what seemed like forever “Im just studying, it’s nothing Bends go back to sleep, you’re tired.” The wolf muttered, his voice a low natural hum. Bendy then spoke up brushing his off “Psh, cmon if you can stay up I can stay up.” He paused before walking over to Boris’s desk leaning down to scan the materials “I want to show a lil interest in what my bro is… up to…” his expression shuttered as his eyes scanned along the pages of charts, documents, and records. The demon bit his lip staying silent for a moment.
Boris piped up amidst the silence muttering out a short “Bendy it’s not what it look li-“ he was sharply cut off by Bendy picking up a book reading the title “The machine? Are you kidding me Boris! I told you to drop this.” He huffed, his voice laced with annoyance. Boris opened his moth to speak but Bendy jumped on his sentence “No, I’m not letting you argue this anymore we just have to face the facts Boris. You can’t keep wasting your time on something we’ll never find!” Bendy exclaimed his voice laced with exasperation.
Boris scoffed lightly under his breath, “I can care about you bendy I want to help you, look- just look-“ he huffed picking up a few documents on the ink machine, pointing and tapping on the news cover “It’s out there Bends we can find it and help you.” Bendy cut him off, his voice raising a tad “You need to stop worrying about me and start worrying about yourself you moron! You should be goin’ out and makin’ friends like a normal person our age but here you are, wasting your time on stupid shit that’ll never be found!” He exclaimed, taking the papers from Boris’s hand to toss it onto the floor next to his feet.
Boris’s brows furrowed “Don’t you want to stop suffering like this? Let’s not forget you have the blot curse Bendy, this isn’t me digging to help strangers I’m trying to help you, my brother.” He exclaimed, his hand that rested on the desk balling up into a fist.
Bendy swiftly gripped his hands onto Boris’s shoulders giving him one rough shake “STOP. just stop! We’ve gotta face the fuckin’ facts Boris! I’m not gonna-“ “DONT SAY IT.” Boris barked “Im not gonna be here much longer!” The room fell silent for a moment before Bendy continued. “I know what I have Boris but going out and tryna find something unobtainable isn’t gonna help. I’m dying Boris. You gotta face the facts.”
Tick.. tick.. tick.. tick…
The silence was deafening. Boris’s teeth gritted for a moment before he quietly spoke up, his voice much more of a whisper “okay.. okay I’ll drop it..” he muttered, his eyes drifting away from Bendy’s face. Bendy’s hands let go from Boris’s shoulders as he sighed, turning to leave the room. But Boris spoke up once more,
“Bendy please.. just-“
“You said you’d drop it Boris..”
“But I have lead on the-“
“Drop it Boris.”
Boris’s voice got more desperate, “Bendy I just want to help you!”
“HOW can you help ME if you can’t help YOURSELF.” Bendy suddenly yelled, turning on his heel to face Boris once more. “If you want to help me so bad then FUCKING DROP IT.” He yelled, his voice even causing the soft noises of crickets outside to shutter.
“Give it up, and go to fucking bed. Im done with this conversation.” Bendy grumbled quickly moving to exit his room, slamming the door behind him. Boris sat there staring at the door, his ear twitching from the loud sound of the door rattling as it was slammed. He sat there staring for a moment, simply lost in thought.
A single tear gathered at the corner of his left eye, which he quickly brushed away with his index finger. Boris leaned down to pick up the fallen papers and book Bendy had dropped setting them back down on the desk. Boris let out a shuttered sigh staying silent for a moment before he let out a growl, snatching the book tearing the spine in half. He then tossed the book across his floor standing up to pace.
He couldn’t just give up but he couldn’t get Bendy on board with this.. his eyes then fell on the ripped pages of the book. There on the open page was the bolded words ‘The Map’. Boris treaded over kneeling down to scoop up the half of the book he’d thrown staring at the page skimming through the words. The map.. that’s how.. he needed to find the map. Then he could help Bendy.
—•—
Bendy flopped down onto his bed, the worn springs squeaking as the bed pulsed from the effort. Bendy let out a long drawn out groan, why couldn’t Boris just understand? He wanted him to live an actual life, and stop worrying about him constantly.
From the day they’d found out about Bendy’s curse Boris practically dropped his entire life to go and coddle or Bendy’s needs. And if you couldn’t tell by now, Bendy wasn’t very fond of that. He wanted him to make friends, find people he cares about, and do what he wants to do. But with him worrying all the time there wasn’t any room for that.
Bendy flipped over on to his back, using his legs to push himself up to where his pillow was his eyes staring holes into the ceiling. He bit his lip, his tails wishing angrily at his side. The demon didn’t know what to do.. how to help him anymore. His head flopped to the side staring out at the window. That’s when he got an idea. Town, he could take Boris into town and have him do something, anything other than worry about him.