Carry You - A Cuphead X Bendy Fanfic

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Cuphead tried to keep himself awake as the demons dragged him and Mugman back to their cell. His head was spinning and almost every inch of him was in pain, but he had to stay awake. He and Mugman had already been humiliated enough today - he was sure as hell not going to black out while bound and being marched through hell.
Once they had been roughly tossed into their cage again and the guards had left, Cuphead immediately ran to Mugman, who looked even worse than him.
"Mugsy?"
Mugman had sustained one too many hits during the fight earlier, and been knocked unconscious. He had seemed to wake up once, but had fallen back into unconsciousness since and now lay on the floor limp, an extremely prominent crack on his cheek bleeding milk quite heavily - that must be where he'd been struck.
Cuphead gasped and recoiled. "M-Mugsy?!" he whispered in a panic. He rolled Mugman over onto his side to keep any more milk from leaking out, leaning him against the bars. "Oh, Mugsy, no... ya gotta stay with me..."
Cuphead quickly tore off a piece of his sleeve and held it against the crack, hoping to keep it uncontaminated.
The red cup sighed shakily. This might be their worst day in hell yet.
But that might be the smallest problem the brothers would have for a long time...

Bendy and his family walked back to their residence together, all silent but for one. The Devil couldn't stop gushing about the fight - about how exciting it had been, and how well his plan for his two "special prisoners" was going, and how excited he was for the next battle.
Nobody else said a word - Alice Angel, the eldest sister, was reapplying her makeup as usual (not that it hid her facial deformities very well); Allison, the second-eldest of them, was staring off into space looking pensive and vaguely stressed; Tom, Bendy's only brother, looked bored and was vaguely nodding and mumbling "yes" to their father; and Bendy was thinking.
He hadn't paid much attention to the fight, given that he had been recovering from the scare of his father nearly discovering his plants, but he knew from his father's ramblings and rants that the two new contestants were two children of Bendy's age, Cuphead and Mugman. He had been hearing a lot about them over the past few months, given that they were the first people to escape the Devil since Bendy's Creator.
But something felt wrong about this. Those kids were the same age as Bendy, and one of them had been full-on carried away unconscious - and, from the looks of it, the other hadn't been doing too well either.
Could Bendy have survived that fight?
Suddenly, a thought entered his head. They were prisoners in hell somewhere, right? Bendy could sneak out tonight and make sure those boys were okay!
It was undoubtedly a bad idea that was likely to end with the Devil very, very angry at Bendy, and Bendy sporting a few bad burns.
He was gonna do it.

Cuphead had dozed off next to Mugman. Well, almost. In fact, although he was trying to rest, he hadn't dared truly fall asleep until Mugman woke up.
Suddenly, he heard movement. The red cup immediately sprung to his feet. "Who's there?!" Cuphead yelled.
No answer.
"You ain't takin' us back to that- that place!" he continued, his voice wavering a bit.
Behind him, Mugman groaned. "What's goin' on?"
"I don't know," Cuphead said quietly, squinting out through the flames surrounding the cage. "I think someone's there..."
A shape moved.
"Hey! I see it!"
The demon was small, and quite young-looking too - maybe 13 years old, same age as them. He wore a cream-colored bowtie, a pair of scuffed-up penny loafers and was standing still watching them from about 20 feet away, leaning against a boulder.
"Oh, it was just that demon kid over there. Hey, wait a minute...I think he's watchin' us."
Mugman got up with some difficulty and came over to look. His eyes widened in fear. "You don't think he's gonna drag us back... th-there?"
Cuphead knew where he meant. "I hope not."
The demon seemed to notice them looking at him and jumped slightly in surprise. Then, he came... towards them? The demon looked strangely nervous, glancing around fearfully.
Cuphead stood in front of Mugman, wary. "If yer right I'll protect ya," he whispered to his brother.
The young demon came right up to the cage and studied the two cups. Now that he was close, Cuphead could get a better look at him as well. He had strangely-colored skin - it looked almost like aged paper. He was definitely their age, and had large, black eyes with dark circles under them.
The demon finally spoke.
"So, you're my dad's prize prisoners?" he said, so quiet they could barely hear. He had a cute Georgia accent that made something feel very strange in Cuphead's chest.
"Uh, I dunno... are we?" Mugman asked timidly from behind Cuphead.
"W-well, y'all were in the fight earlier, weren't ya?" the demon boy stuttered nervously. "C-cause... I wanted to make sure y'all are okay," he added quickly, stumbling over his words as he blushed a light gray in embarrassment. "I-I ain't gonna drag ya back out there."
By now, Mugman had come out from behind Cuphead, and both brothers were staring at him in mild confusion. The demon seemed to notice this, his unnaturally colorless skin turning an even darker gray.
"Look, m-my name's Bendy. What are yours?" The young demon looked like he'd rather not exist anymore by this point, but still managed to force a smile.
Cuphead ignored how fast his heart was going and cleared his throat. "Well, hello, Bendy. I'm Cuphead. And this here's my lil brother, Mugman." He shoved Mugman forward.
"Hi," Mugman said uncertainly, fidgeting with the healing crack on his face. "N-nice to meetcha, Bendy..."
Bendy nodded. "Well, guess my Dad lied..." He paused. "Y'all don't seem too bad so far."
"Well, you don't seem too bad for a demon, but we don't really know each other," Cuphead said, narrowing his eyes. "Now do we?"
"Well, if ya like I could stay a while," said Bendy eagerly, leaning against the bars of the cage. "It's mighty lonely down here, ya know."
The boys looked at each other and shrugged. "All right then," Cuphead said, eyes still narrowed suspiciously. "You can stay for a lil while, long as ya don't try anythin'."
And so Bendy stayed.

Bendy and the boys hit it off pretty quickly. He discovered that Cuphead loved pranks just like he did (albeit less-safe ones) and that he and Mugman had the same favorite book, among other things. And there were likely a thousand more things, he knew, but the little demon needed to get back home before somebody realized he'd snuck out.
Bendy pulled the covers up over his head, excited for the next night.
He visited nearly every night over the next month, often bringing them bandages or extra food. Once, he even brought them two of his books - a romance novel for Mugman and an adventure story for Cuphead. Mugman appreciated the gift - Cuphead less so, but something made him apprehensive to the idea of saying so to Bendy's face. He didn't know exactly what it was, but the idea of upsetting Bendy made his stomach churn.

Bendy, meanwhile, was feeling worse than ever about the boys' imprisonment. They had been forced to fight twice more, and neither was in good shape.
He knew it wasn't his fault, but somehow it seemed unfair that he was able to eat well while they weren't even fed every day, and that he was able to go home to a soft bed every night after their encounters and they had nothing but the hard ground.
"What's it like, being the Devil's son?" Cuphead asked one night, when Mugman had fallen asleep before Bendy came. "Is he a... good poppa?"
Bendy paused. "Well..."
He found himself facing a decision. His father had never threatened him seriously. Sure, he'd given him bumps, bruises and burns from time to time, but those didn't matter. After all, hadn't the Devil shown him and his siblings the surface? Hadn't he let them all live in the manor with him? Hadn't he given their souls to the Creator so that they could be made? Hadn't he made sure all four of his children had everything they could possibly wish for?
Bendy sighed.
But hadn't he also confiscated Allison's swords because he didn't want her armed? Hadn't he threatened Tom with losing his soul when he didn't want to leave the Surface? Hadn't he shattered Alice's halo after she sassed him and refused to apologize? Hadn't he incinerated Bendy's art books when he found them a year ago?
"It's... complicated."
"How complicated can it be?" Cuphead asked, shrugging. "Either ya like him or ya don't. Easy-peasy."
Bendy contemplated.
This was a huge question.
He took a deep breath before answering it.
"...No. I... don't think I do."
There was a long pause.
Cuphead suddenly realized that there were prisoners on both sides of the bars tonight.
"But... I do like you..."
Another pause. Bendy sighed. "No... what am I thinking?"
Cuphead narrowed his eyes. "All right. Spit it out. What are ya tryna say here?"
Bendy exhaled sharply. "Well... for a lil sec, I thought maybe I could help y'all break outta here, and we could escape. But then I thought no, that ain't gonna work - I can't leave, I'm a demon! We're made for hell, for torturin', not for- for friends, and the surface, and happy places... I shouldn't even be talkin' to you! Because I'm not made to be kind! And I'd just mess up, and get us all caught..."
Cuphead stared at him. "Oh, Bendy..." He smiled and reached through the bars to touch Bendy's shoulder. "You got it all wrong, pal! Listen, I know you, and yer the nicest person I ever saw."
Bendy gave a small smile back, his eyes filling with tears.
"Listen," Cuphead said, looking him straight in the eye. "I ain't gonna ask you to break us out. But if ya really wanna help us leave - hey, I ain't saying no to freedom for me, my brother, and my best friend."
Bendy laughed. "You are so inelegant, aintcha?"
Cuphead's face turned a shade of red similar to his straw. "Look, that was as sensitive as I could get, and half o' that was baloney anyway, are we breaking out or not?"
Bendy laughed. "Course."