Sammy x Henry: The beginning

Chapter six: Stress

1932
The studio was going through tough times: with Disney's company only growing, viewers were drawn from Sillyvision, and the company was struggling to stay in the running.

Joey was trying his best to save the studio, but his attempts only made matters worse. He for example had an entire amusement park built on one of the lower levels of the building in order to attract visitors and expand their name, but so far it had only cost them money instead of resulting in them making a profit out of it, driving the company's accountant Grant Cohen insane at times.

Joey also had to replace his favourite voice actress and girlfriend, Susie Campbell, since viewers seemed to become uninterested in her character Alice Angel. He had asked Sammy to find a new voice actress for the angelic toon, and the music director had selected a talented, but timid young woman named Allison Pendle for the role.
This of course made Susie go crazy, since she had grown rather attached to the angel over time. She still got to voice some background characters, but simply couldn't cope with the fact that this Allison had taken her spotlight, causing her to frequently run away from recording sessions in tears.

Joey had also become rather moody and sometimes downright aggressive when handeling the workers, a big difference from his cheerful and enthusiastic attitude from before. He was still in a relationship with Susie, but things seemed to be quite toxic between the two of them, with Joey often yelling at Susie or hitting her, and Susie screaming at him and talking about him behind his back.

Meanwhile the project of the ink machine was still in development, and it became Joey's last hope to keep the company running. He said he could achieve great things with it once it would be completed, much to the disbelief of the employees; they just saw pipes leaking everywhere in the studio, and the machine didn't even provide the animation department with any advantages, it was simply a bother to everyone.

In spite of the harsh times and all the stress it was putting on everyone, Sammy and Henry still had a happy relationship. They did talk about leaving the studio though, since the work conditions were getting unbearable, but Henry didn't want to leave his childhood friend; besides, the studio was partly his company as well.

Most of the people at the studio were aware that Sammy and Henry were close, but still nobody knew about them being a couple.
That was until one fateful day however.

After lunch break that afternoon, Henry paced down to the music department, right to Sammy's office. He softly knocked on the door, like he always did, and the musician opened it up, having recognized the animator's knock immediately. His eyes were drawn to Henry's tear-stained face right away. "What's wrong?"

Henry fell right into Samuel's arms, crying quietly. "I can't do this anymore, Joey wants 5 new animations done by tomorrow, it's impossible! But I'm the director of the animation department plus his main animator, I can't let him down, I can't-"

Sammy gently stroked the smaller man's back before taking Henry's face into his hands. "Listen to me darling: this is getting ridiculous. The amount of work being put on your shoulders, or on everyone's for that sake, is simply unreasonable. You should either stand up for yourself, or quit, like we talked about."

The animator nodded slightly. "I suppose you're right Sam."

Samuel smirked a bit. "I'm always right darling." He put his hands on Henry's shoulders, pulling the other man closer as he leaned in to kiss him.

Meanwhile Susie was pacing towards Sammy's office, outraged with jealousy once more. She despised Allison, and the fact that she took everything away from her. Just now miss Pendle had been given Susie's recording booth, driving the blonde woman insane; she would ask, no, demand the music director to give it back to her.

Just as she was about to knock on the door however, a strange scene caught her eye: Samuel was standing close to another man, holding him. It took her a few seconds to realize it was Henry, before mister Lawrence suddenly kissed the smaller man, making Susie's heart stop in shock for a moment as she watched them in disgust.
"I knew it! I knew you were a homosexual!"

Susie's sudden outburst made both men look up at her in suprise before their faces turned to a dismayed expression; this didn't stop the woman though.
"That's why you weren't interested in me, it explains it all! I gotta tell everyone, I got to tell Joey!" Before Sammy could do anything to stop her, she dashed off, waving her arms wildly in the air while calling for Joey at the top of her lungs.

Samuel looked down at Henry as concern flooded his face. "This isn't good..."