A/N: Well, I decided to go ahead and continue the story (despite only getting two reviews last time), because I put my webcomic on hold while I'm up here in Columbia, MO, and I need SOME way to express myself creatively, dammit! Don't get too excited though-I'm only going to be updating on weekends, when I have more spare time. I do, however, plan to see this story through to the end, regardless of how stuff in my real life turns out, and when I eventually DO get back to working on the comic. I can't promise how frequent updates will be, or even how long the story is going to be, but I have NO intentions of abandoning this story-I've got a couple fanfics I abandoned, and eventually ended up deleting, in the past, and I just felt really guilty about it.

So yeah, I'm going to see this through, and I hope you guys like the whole story. Now, before I get into the next chapter, wanted to give a shout-out to my reviewers from the prologue.

AlchemyWriter: Well, I'm glad you liked the prologue, hope the rest of the story is just as good! Yeah, Gravity Falls is great, huh? I haven't actually read your fanfic yet...gonna have to give it a look sometime.

Pitch'snieceanddaughterofmew (long name, BTW ^^'): Heh, got that right! Things are going to get even MORE hectic for him and the boys pretty soon...

Well, that's that, on to the fanfic.

Disclaimer: I'm only one person, and neither of those people is TheMeatly or one of the Muldenhouer brothers. Ergo, I don't own either Bendy or Cuphead.

"Awww, why can't we come with you?!"

"Like I said, I'll be busy." King Dice answered, brushing his suit off. "I won't have time to play with you—I'll be working. Besides, you don't want to be there, it's…boring."

Cuphead pouted and crossed his arms.

It had been ten years, and the Cup Brothers were still under King Dice's care. Somehow, in all that time, he'd managed to keep secret the fact that he worked for a casino run by the Devil. He'd just drop the boys at school, head over to the casino, then either head out himself or send someone else out to take them home.

Though since it was summer now, he'd had to find a sitter to watch the boys during the day—a sitter who was running late.

Dang it, where is that girl?!

"It's not fair!" Cuphead whined. "We barely get to see you all day, and after all this time we still don't even know what your job is, anyway!"

"Never you mind!" Dice snapped, a little more harshly than he intended. He sighed, putting a hand to the side of his head. "Look boys, there are just some things I can't tell you right now…all you need to know is that I'm doing all I can to…"

"King Dice?" Mugman piped up. Dice stopped mid-sentence, looking over at the younger of the twins.

"You know you can tell us anything, right? We won't think any less of you-you raised us, after all." He offered an earnest smile, and Dice was surprised at the pang of guilt that struck him. It was brief, but it was there.

Finally, he found his voice again.

"One day, when you're older. But for now;" He grabbed the lapels of his shirt. "I've gotta get going. I think you two can take care of yourselves until the babysitter gets here?"

"Yes, King Dice." The boys answered.

Once the door was closed, Cuphead waited a little bit before turning to his brother.

"Let's follow him!"

"What?!" Mugman looked at his brother, horrified, and a mischievous smirk crossed Cuphead's face.

"Yeah! Better than just staying here waiting for the babysitter!"

"But what if he catches us?!" Mugman asked worriedly.

"Well then, we'll just have to be sneaky, and make sure he doesn't see us!" Cuphead winked.

"Cup…" Mug started, and Cuphead let out a sigh.

"Look, what do we really know about King Dice?" He asked. "He's been raising us all these years, but he always keeps all these secrets. I don't…" He paused for a while. "I don't think he even likes us."

Mugman started to protest, but found himself at a loss for words.

He'd never said it out loud, but he couldn't help but feel the same way. King Dice had looked after them since they were small, but he'd made it clear that that was only because their dead parents were friends of his. Granted, Dice was never outright cruel to them or anything—he kept them clothed, fed, and they had a roof over their heads…but Dice never laughed or even smiled around the boys. He kept a lot from them—what was he hiding?

"…alright." Mugman finally agreed. "But let's be sure to be careful, okay?"

"Well, duh!" Cuphead gave a big, cocky grin before quietly opening the door and slipping out, Mugman following close behind him.

The little demon bounced along the road, a big, happy smile on his face as he hummed to himself.

Like Cuphead and Mugman, the Devil's son, Bendy, had grown too, and was a chipper, happy-go-lucky (though still somewhat mischievous) imp of a child. In fact, he was almost the complete opposite of his father—as hard as the Devil tried, it seemed that Bendy didn't have a bad bone in his body.

However, this didn't stop most Inkwell Isle residents from being scared when they saw him—if, for no other reason, because he was the Devil's son.

Bendy stopped in his tracks as he noticed someone nearby. A six-legged spider was running along, pulling a wooden duck on a string.

Another kid! The demon thought happily. I wonder if he'll want to be friends?

Bendy hopped into the bushes as the spider, Edgar, approached, trying to stifle his giggles as best as he could. Once Edgar was close enough, Bendy jumped out, giving him a big wave.

"Hey there!"

Edgar let out a terrified squeak, tripping over his own feet.

"Whoa, hey, sorry! I didn't mean to scare you that much!" Bendy's smile faded. "Are you okay?" He held out his hand to try and help Edgar up, but the spider didn't take it.

"My uncles told me about you—you're the Devil's son…" His voice was high and squeaky in his fear, and Bendy gave him a confused look.

"Uh…yeah? What's so bad about that?"

"Hey!" An angry voice suddenly shouted. Bendy looked up in alarm to see two men approaching him.

"You bothering our nephew?!" Barley the pirate asked, an accusing look on his face.

"What?! No!" Bendy held up his hands defensively. "I was just…!"

"Why don't you beat it, kid?!" Charley snapped. "Don't let us see you around here again!"

Bendy didn't need to be told twice. He took off running in fear of the two adults, hiding in some more hedges nearby. As soon as he was out of sight, he saw Charley and Barley turn to Edgar, their faces softening as they helped the little spider up.

"You okay there, son?" Barley asked.

"That punk didn't hurt you, did he?" Charley questioned, glaring around the corner as if he could still sense Bendy.

"Hmm-mmm!" Edgar shook his head, picking his duck toy up again. "I was just scared."

"Well, don't let him bother you." Charley gave an encouraging smile, putting a hand on Edgar's shoulder. "Let's get out of here, okay?"

As the trio walked off, Bendy couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy.

"Did you really think that would go any other way?"

Bendy perked up as he heard his father's voice behind him.

"Dad!"

The Devil's figure formed out of the darkness, grinning down at his son.

"Bendy, Bendy, when will you learn?" The Devil shook his head. "You don't need them. You are above all those people—you are my heir, after all."

"Yeah, I know…" Bendy looked down, his smile fading.

"Now then—I have a job for you."

Bendy's tail stuck straight up in excitement.

"Really?!"

"At this moment, there are two young boys heading to the casino." The Devil looked off into the distance, as if he could see Cuphead and Mugman already. "You are to lead them to the casino, tempt them to gamble."

Bendy looked over at Cuphead and Mugman.

"But…they're kids, like me. Can they really come into the casino?"

"Well, of course!" The Devil assured him. "After all, you come to the casino yourself all the time, right? And hey, maybe if you invite them to play some games, they might want to be friends with you!"

That got Bendy excited right away.

"You think so?! Alright!" He bounced a little in his happiness before running off. "I'll get those cups—see you at the casino, Pop!"

The Devil watched until Bendy was out of view, then turned his gaze on the OTHER figure he'd seen; King Dice, on his way to the Inkwell Hell Casino. The cup brothers were following him, the Devil knew it.

He was a lot of things, but he was NOT stupid. He'd long suspected that Dice was hiding something from him, and if those cups were connected to him…

"Did you REALLY think you could keep a secret from me for over ten years, Dice?" He chuckled. "Let's see if you have a heart, old friend."

A/N: Oh boys, you don't know WHAT you're getting yourselves into...and neither, it would seem, does Bendy. Poor, naive little demon...

I just HAD to have that moment with the Butcher Gang-since the short 'Tasty Trio Troubles' seems to confirm that Edgar is the youngest, or at least most immature/childish member of the gang, I now like to imagine that Charley and Barley found him when he was really little and basically just adopted him.

So, what will happen next? You'll just have to see next time-and if you liked the story, leave me a review!