A long, frustrated sigh rang out in the studio.

Henry was really getting sick of passing out all of the damn time. It was the first thought he had when his eyes blinked open, his vision blurry for a time. As soon as Henry was fully awake and could see well enough, he determined that he was almost the same exact place. The only difference was that he was now propped up against the wall near the door.

That was...a relief.

Henry never knew where he would wake up after passing out. There was always a chance that Sammy might have come across him. Or the Lost Ones attempting to be helpful and dragging Henry to where they thought was a safe area.

This place?

Henry knew it as the area of the studio where Boris would sometimes scare him with a Bendy cut-out. There was none of that this time around, seeing as Henry had been wounded (again) and had fallen unconscious. He could even see where the cut-out was propped up against a nearby wall. Henry quickly looked down at his right arm that the Ink Demon had basically savaged. Henry found that instead of just bandages on his right arm, the limb was also in a makeshift sling. Henry gingerly tested his arm, and felt something pull at his skin beneath the bandages.

Stitches.

Henry figured that he must have been out for some time, for him to not even realize someone had treated his injury. Henry looked away from his arm when a hand tentatively tapped his leg.

It was Bendy.

"Hey." Henry couldn't think of anything else to say as he held still and let Bendy frantically hug him around the middle.

The toon broke down crying into Henry's beat-up sweater, which was now missing a right sleeve.

Boris was seated on a crate nearby, his ears drooping until he saw that Henry was awake. The ears perked up ever so slightly as a worried frown crossed the wolf toon's muzzle.

"I'm sorry..." Henry hugged Bendy to him with his left arm. "I should have been more careful. I...I have had enough of all these endless loops and I..." Henry let go of Bendy to pat the little devil between the horns. "I haven't been as aware of my surroundings as I should have been." Henry attempted to move his right arm but stopped because of the sling. Henry blew out a frustrated breath. "...I don't know why I thought I could get away with punching the Ink Demon again." Henry paused. "Did I mention that the Ink Demon purred?"

Bendy continued to cling to Henry, not seeming to hear the question.

"Why would it do that?" Henry continued on, hand going around Bendy's shoulders. "Why not...just finish me off?"

Bendy must have heard the tail end of Henry's questions, because he hugged Henry even tighter, the toon letting out an unhappy sound over the very idea.

Boris' ears flicked but the toon wolf only shrugged, either uninterested in the inky creature's mannerisms, or perhaps just uncertain why the Ink Demon hadn't killed Henry. The toon wolf perked up and produced a Gent pipe, as if to switch to less uncomfortable topics.

"Sorry, buddy, but I don't think I can use that right now. You keep hold of that, for now." Henry told Boris. "My left arm is pretty sore, so I wouldn't be able to swing very hard without hurting myself. I'll work on stretching, so I don't lock up too much."

Boris nodded in understanding and tucked the Gent pipe in a loop on his belt.

"I do want something to protect myself with but maybe only when I really need it." Henry said, half to himself and half to the toons with him. Henry watched as Bendy let go of him to step, the toon looking deep in thought. "What is it? Think of something?"

Bendy's grin was a little uncertain but he nodded. The little devil scurried off back the way they had come before returning, carrying a bottle of ink, some paper, and a writing utensil.

"Want me to draw?" Henry ventured, as Boris settled on the floor alongside him, seemingly interested in the other toon's actions.

Bendy's grin widened as he set the items in front of Henry before he went to dance around the immediate area in glee.

"Can't say no to all that enthusiasm." Henry said with a smile. "What should I draw? Seems like you have an idea?"

Bendy stopped moving and made motions as if chopping something.

"An axe?" Henry wasn't sure why the toon would want him to draw that.

Bendy nodded and made a show of how big he wanted the axe to be. From the space between Bendy's hands, he wanted a smaller version of the axe Henry had been using until it had broken.

Henry didn't question the toon's request as he uncapped the ink and began to sketch out the design of a smaller axe on a piece of paper. It was about a foot long, before he added the axe head itself. Henry finished fairly quickly, as used as he was to seeing axes around the studio.

Bendy began to bounce around in excitement.

"What's gotten into you?" Henry asked with a laugh as Bendy picked up the piece of paper and put it on the wall. How the toon managed that, Henry didn't know, as he saw nothing holding the paper up. "What're you going to do with a picture of an axe?"

Bendy brought a gloved finger up to his grin, as if asking for silence, or perhaps, to be secretive.

Henry watched curiously, as did Boris, while Bendy turned to the drawing again. Henry gaped as Bendy pulled the drawing of the axe right off the paper.

What.

Henry stared.

What had just happened?

There was only a vague outline of an axe that remained on the page, while Bendy held up the small axe proudly in his hands. The toon wore a great big grin, stepping to one side to let a perplexed Boris inspect the piece of paper.

The toon wolf looked between the page and the axe in Bendy's hands several times, Boris' fur bristling.

"Wow." Henry eventually managed to say. "I don't remember you being able to do that in the cartoons..." Henry trailed off. What he'd just witnessed was different than the toon pulling items out of nowhere. What Bendy had done...it reminded Henry of the printing machines that he put ink inside to get items.

Boris finally made up his mind about how he felt about the axe coming off the piece of paper. Boris turned to Bendy, and clapped enthusiastically, beaming at the other toon.

"What he said." Henry joked, as Bendy turned to him. "That's a neat ability you got there."

Bendy's smile stretched as far as it could, the little devil beaming at the praise. The smile faltered a little as Bendy let out a slow sigh before perking up again.

"Are you...all right?" Henry questioned at the little slip.

Bendy nodded as he slipped his backpack off and tucked the axe inside. Bendy also put the capped ink bottle and other supplies in with axe and plushes before putting it back over his shoulders.

Somehow, the backpack remained more or less the same size. Toon logic seemed to transfer to this studio in some way.

"Ready to keep going, you two?" Henry questioned, as he slowly got to his feet. It was going to take some time to get used to his arm in a sling, but he would make do.

Boris patted the Gent pipe on his belt and gave a firm nod, despite the ears on either side of the hat tucked back.

Bendy looked unhappy about the thought but looked determined to continue on wherever Henry wanted to go.

"Let's press on then." Henry said with a grim smile. As he and the toon's went through the door, Henry knew that he would have to do the best he could to avoid having anything to do with Alice Angel.

Unfortunately, Alice wasn't willing to let Henry's insult slide, which made progressing forward in the studio trickier than Henry had hoped for.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

A/N: Alice will just make things more difficult. Henry has no interest in doing the 'angel's bidding' this time around. More getting manipulated into different areas of the studio Henry didn't intend to go.

In case people are interested, I've been trying to put up chapter updates on my batim-only blog on tumblr:
because-why-not-a-batim-blog-too
(I've also been considering putting up short comic panels as a way to keep track of main points that happen in any given chapter. I have two pages for ch 1 and three for ch 2 in progress).