WOLF'S BEST FRIEND
3RD POV
Boris was in the kitchen about to start making some bacon soup for Henry and himself. He grabbed his apron, tying it gently around his lower back and going over to a set of cabinets that were above the stove. He winced as he reached upwards for a small cooking pot, his wound making itself very noticeable as he retrieved the pot and put it on the stove. After pouring the soup in and turning on the stove all he had to do was stir and wait.
As Boris waited by the stove occasionally stirring the pot he looked at his bandaged chest. 'I hope this gets better soon, or at least less sensitive.' He looked over at Henry who had gone back to watching the TV while huddled inside of a blanket with his head poking out. 'Huh that's cute.' He shook his head and focused back on the now done pot of soup. He was careful as he prepared two bowls of soup, not wanting to aggravate his injury any further and brought them over to the couch and set them on the coffee table.
"Here you go one bacon soup, the house special." Boris said as he sat on the other side of the couch and started gently blowing on his own soup. Henry grabbed his own bowl looking at it for a moment before looking at Boris, his eyebrows raised in an amused expression. "Does the house serve anything else?" He asked lighty. Boris let out a small chuckle. "Not really, all I can ever seem to find is soup so unless there's a hidden cafeteria I haven't found yet then soup is all we got." He responded, a slight smile on his face before turning back to the TV.
Henry turned back to the TV and noticed what episode this was. "Hey you're in this episode Boris! I remember this one!" Henry pointed at the TV. As soon as cartoon Boris was on screen Henry again noticed that Boris's tail began to wag slightly before pausing and going limp. Henry looked up to see what happened and noticed that cartoon Boris was currently getting his face slammed into a banana creampie and being laughed at by the other characters, and while the cartoon Boris started laughing along with them the real life one did not. Boris's face was expressionless for a moment before switching back to its previous look. He turned to Henry "Ha ha these jokes are really somethin huh? Everyone loves the old pie in the face gag." Henry noticed the forced cheerfulness in Boris's words, He knew that Boris didn't really find the joke very funny, it was at his expense after all so Henry tried to lighten the mood.
"Eh I-I was never really one for those kinds of jokes. I-I tried to have some different ones put in b-but they got turned down, something about not being as funny as the others." Henry finished, now focusing on his hands as he twiddled his thumbs nervously, hoping that his comment had made Boris feel a little better.
"Tried? Whaddya mean?" Boris looked at him, his head tilted slightly and his eyebrow raised in question.
"W-well I used to work here a long time ago. I was one of the original animators and designers b-before the studio made it big and hired a bunch of people, but I quit soon after that." Henry explained, a little nervous as to how well Boris would handle learning that Henry used to work at Joey Drew Studios. Boris's eyes widened slightly and his body stiffened. He looked away from Henry and found himself lost in thought 'He worked here? He's one of THEM? It's his fault? No, he said he quit.' Boris relaxed his body trying to look as normal as possible and turned over to look Henry right in his eyes. "You quit? Why? It sounds like things were goin well, I mean you said it yourself that the studio made it big so that would mean more money and work for you right? Maybe even a promotion." Boris questioned trying to sound as innocent in his intentions as possible.
"W-well yeah that is true b-but there were lots of decisions made by Joey about the show that I-I didn't agree with, and when I went to talk to Joey about them h-he would always brush me off with some speech about dreams a-and magic." Henry held his hands up in front of him as he said the word 'Magic' for extra flare. "Like what kind of decisions?" Boris leaned forward a little. "I-I mentioned I was an animator and designer right?" Boris nodded. "W-well back in the early stages of the show I-I was also the writer for some of the early episodes, b-but Joey didn't like how I wrote some of the characters so after my first few episodes were done h-he told me I would mainly be animating now a-and hired a new writer." Boris was listening intently as Henry finished the story.
"So wait, did they actually air your episodes? Which ones were they?" Boris asked, now fully focused on Henry. "O-Oh uh just the first three were written by me I think." Boris sunk back into his spot on the end of the couch, he needed a moment to think about everything he just heard. 'So he was one of the original creators, or at least that's what he's saying, and he didn't agree with how things were going. I want to believe him but I just can't shake this feeling I'm getting from him. I have to be sure.'
Boris got up from his spot on the couch and started to rummage through the box of tapes next to the TV and pulled out tapes for the first three episodes of the show. He inserted the first episode in and went back to the couch. Henry noticed that the tapes Boris pulled out were labeled episodes 1-3 the episodes he just said he wrote and animated. "Oh y-you want to watch them? I hope you like them, even though the animation is a bit rough, I was still learning back then." Henry thought that Boris just wanted to see his work, he didn't know that Boris was also checking to see if he was lying.
Boris stared at the screen as the intro played and sure enough underneath the title card was 'Written by Henry Stein' in bold lettering. 'He was telling the truth.' He looked over to Henry who was too focused on the TV to notice Boris. 'He really is Henry, THE Henry. He was there in the beginning and now I know why he left, but why does it feel like he's not telling me somethi-' Boris was snapped out of his thoughts by a sudden noise from the TV. He turned to see what the noise was when he noticed that he was currently on screen. He appeared to be fixing a car with Bendy who was sitting on top of a box in the driver's seat. Cartoon Boris shut the hood and gave Bendy a thumbs up. When Bendy started the car it shook and started making mechanical sputtering noises along with a chicken screech before oil shot up into Bendy's face leaving him covered in it. Cartoon Boris scratched his head saying "I'm sure I hooked up the chicken right." before going back to work on the car as Bendy wrung himself dry.
Boris continued to watch the episode, stopping only after it ended to put the next one in. Even though he had a box full of all the episodes he had never seen these episodes before. Most of the time he just picked one at random not really seeing a reason to start at the beginning since everything went back to normal by the end of each episode so that a new adventure could happen in the next one. These first three episodes were slightly different. They followed a similar formula except you could see elements from the previous episode carry over into the next. In episode two the car was fixed and now had a 'Boris's installation and repair' logo slapped on the side of it.
Another thing Boris noticed was how different the dynamic between Cartoon Boris and Bendy was. Cartoon Boris would be called in to fix something and Bendy would accidentally mess it up in some goofy way and together they would try and fix it before the client came back. The episodes always ended with Bendy learning a small lesson and apologizing to Boris before both of them hugged as the credits rolled and then faded to black.
Boris couldn't believe how different the feeling of the show was. It was lighter, more friendly, in a way that made it feel more like you were hanging out with close friends who cared about each other. In all the other episodes of the show most of the jokes were Bendy pulling pranks at other peoples expense, mainly Boris's, but here it was mostly Bendy who got hurt or sprayed with something only to have Cartoon Boris quickly wring him out or patch him up making him good as new a moment later. Boris didn't get it, these episodes were amazing, why change the show? As the third episode ended Henry turned to Boris "You know even after all this time those episodes still make me laugh." Henry chuckled "Even after I left I still kept watching the show, even though I didn't like what they did with it. They made the show all about Bendy, probably because he was Joey's favorite character." Henry guessed.
"Every episode is the same, Bendy goes out and messes with someone he knows and everyone laughs at them, no lesson, no nice moments between friends, just cruel jokes." Henry looked down at the floor, his eyes seeming almost empty as he spoke. "But the worst part was what they did to Boris." Real Boris looked at Henry in confusion as he continued. "He was the first character I ever made for the show. It was originally supposed to just be about Boris but Joey wanted me to put in another character he'd just come up with, Bendy…" There was a few seconds of silence before Henry spoke again. "They made him an idiot… They took my most treasured creation and turned him into a goofball whose always the butt of the joke…"
Boris was speechless. He was the first? Before Bendy? And Henry, he cared about Boris, really cared, he was his most treasured creation, his favorite… Boris felt his face flush with red as he turned away. 'Even though I know he's just talking about the character Boris it still feels really personal.' They sat there in silence until Boris made a small cough which pulled Henry back to reality. Henry looked around and when he noticed Boris facing away from him he realized all the things he'd just said.
"I-I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to say all that! You're very smart and great, I just got stuck in my head and forgot where I was! I'm really really sorry!" Henry looked around until he saw the now empty bowls. "I'I'll just go clean these and put them away!" he said, quickly grabbing the bowls and making his way to the sink. As he began washing the bowls he looked back at the couch to see Boris still sitting facing away from him. 'Great, the guy lets you stay in his home and you probably just insulted him. I really hope I didn't offend him. I need to watch my mouth.' Henry sighed. Boris however was still trying to hide his very red face until it went away.