Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It’s quiet. The Mega Pizzaplex had reopened its doors barely a month ago so it was normal for the place to not be buzzing with activity like before. Plus there’s still a couple more minutes till the place opens its doors to today's guests. Which meant you were on your own.

You take a deep but slow breath, an effort to steady your running heart, making as little noise as possible even if you know it’s useless, the animatronic hearing was sharp, designed to pick up on far away crying children and trouble makers. At least he is not the sneakiest, if you pay close attention you can hear the soft thumps of his steps going around the front of the ship.

He starts to hum as he patrols. Cocky bastard…

You tighten the grip on the mop handle that is your weapon, back pressed against the wall of the ship, making yourself as tiny as possible. His shadow peeks from around the corner, if you want the upper hand you have to do it now or never.

“Gotcha!”

Thump.

The mop handle gets stopped by the edge of a sword, the wielder grinning with a line of white and golden fangs.

“Too slow, bucko”

The pirate animatronic pushes effortlessly, and you have to go back a couple of steps to recover your balance. He gives you no time to think, sword swinging down as you barely manage to lift the mop in time to deflect it.

Cutlass swings again, and another, and one more, the pirate merciless in his attack.

You grunt, struggling to keep up the pace, however, you deflect every swing and sweep, not too shabby if you can say so yourself. Smiling you feel a tiny ray of hope, a chance to fight back, a turn of the tides. But then you see him smirk out from the corner of your eye.

The animatronic movements speed up till the point they are a blur, sweat forms on your forehead, sword gracing your clothes closer and closer. 

He chuckles. 

It’s then you realize the bastard had been moving slower than he was able to on purpose, he is just playing with you.

A step back and you lose your footing. Panicking, you drop the mop, swinging arms erratically like a chicken trying to raise flight, except you are struggling to not fall. Which you do not so graciously at all, leaving you fully defenseless…

Bonk.

A tiny pat to the head, not enough to hurt but enough to be annoying and make you shrink your head between your shoulders in a bad imitation of a turtle.

“Yar har har! Good try but you still have a lot to learn!”

The pirate animatronic laughs loudly, hands on hips after sheathing his plastic sword, inflating his chest proudly while you pout.

“Listen, not all of us can just connect into the Matrix and learn how to do stuff.”

You complain with your best offended tone of voice, which is not very credible, it’s hard to hide the smile from taking your lips. That’s just how working as Foxy handler went, it was impossible to be mad at him for long, even after just a month of knowing him, you wouldn’t leave this job for all the gold in the world.

He lays his hand on top of your head and ruffles your hair, making a mess of it before you playfully swat it away, where did your cap end up anyway?

“It was a good try, ye didn't stumble into the sea this time”

“You are never going to let me forget that one huh?”

His grin widens. Of course he will never let you live that one down. In one of your previous battles, you had thought it would be a cool move to jump back to avoid one of his swings, which resulted in you falling back into the foam chunks pool that surrounded the pirate ship as a makeup sea if a kid decided to actually walk the plank down, that way they wouldn’t end up with a broken anything, clever precaution. 

You had spent an embarrassing amount of minutes trying to get yourself out while Foxy laughed at your expense, eventually deciding to help you out of your suffering by fishing you effortlessly by the neck of your jacket.

Groaning loudly, you opt to drop the topic before you end up starting another battle for your honor, opening time will happen at any moment now and you are very likely already behind schedule, all because you didn’t want to mop so early a suspiciously looking Fizzy Fazz soda stain a kid spilled on the ship and somehow managed to go unnoticed by the cleaning crew.

Trying to escape your duties, you had challenged the pirate animatronic to a duel, loser would have to mop the sticky mess, it was a mystery why you thought you could beat him, honestly, you didn’t have the best track record.

Picking up the discarded mop, you proceed to drag your feet all the way to the ladder going up a couple of steps onto the pirate ship deck. A big, bright, radioactive green Sour Lime flavor soda sits in the middle, already dry but with a quite disgusting consistency of melted candy. Did this kid just spill the whole can?

“What a waste…” Mumbling to yourself you tentatively step on the puddle with the tip of your shoe. You groan after confirming that yes, it’s sticky as fuck, this will need more water and chemicals. After a quick trip to the supply closet in Kid’s Cove you stand once again in front of the puddle, sighing dramatically.

“Can a bot really not take care of it? Babysitting you and the twins is already a handful”

Foxy scowls, stopping whatever he is doing to look in your direction, lifting his eyepatch with his hook so he can glare at you with both eyes, an unnecessary measure since you know full well he could lift the patch without touching it, although he mostly did it for comedic purposes or when truly shocked.

“I be not be needin’ babysitting, can’t say the same about them two jesters, an’ I ain’t the one currently throwin’ a tantrum o’er spilled soda when there are 15 more minutes till openin’ time” As in cue, your Fazzwatch starts beeping, an alarm that you programmed signaling the Pizzaplex opening, giving you a 15-minute warning to make sure everything was ready for the visitors, a preventive measure after a couple of times that you lost track of time. Foxy gives you a cocky smile of ‘I told you so’ before letting his eyepatch drop, scowl back in place “Now get to swabbin’!”.

“…Aye aye captain” 

Defeated, you submerge the mop head into the watery soapy substance, unable to delay the task any further.

You are deeply concentrated in your scrubbing before Foxy gruff voices catch your attention, lifting your gaze from the no longer sticky but still very green spill.

“Tell me, what be the schedule today me first mate?”

Foxy asks from below as he walks around the play area with both hands behind his back, posing straight and proud, making sure everything in Kids Cove is ready to receive the wee ones.

“Let me see..”

Clicking a couple of times on your Fazzwatch screen you open up today's schedule, giving it a quick read before closing it, and going back to the task at hand.

“Today we got: Start the day helping Sun receive the early kids arriving at the daycare. Afterward, the first half of the day we will have a meet and greet in the closet- I mean, ‘Captain Quarters’.“ If Foxy noticed your mocking tone trying to get a reaction out of him, he didn’t show it. ”Once that’s done it’s either Play time or Storytime in Kids Cove. Next is lunch break, which means battery charging for you and food for me while I supervise Naptime at the castle.“

Foxy grumbles something you can’t quite catch, too preoccupied making sure the stain is really gone before slowly carrying to the edge of the ship the bucket with now bright green water. The animatronic approaches and effortlessly lowers the heavy bucket to the floor, walking next to you to the supply closet.

“As soon as Naptime is over I’m coming back to take you to our walk of shame, ‘cause Management still thinks that all the posters and promos going around aren’t enough to let people know of the big event next week. On the bright side, that means we can take it easy the rest of the day and you get to help me and Sun clean the Daycare, you know, to promote you guys build a good friendship.“

The pirate makes what sounds like blowing air through the nose, which was physically impossible in his case, but didn’t stop him from imitating the sound effect.

“Is that there really necessary? I hate these playdates…”

You shrug, sliding your security card on the door lock, giving it a few pulls afterward to make sure it can’t be opened, wouldn’t want a kid snooping around all the cleaning chemicals.

“Stop being a grumpy man, I agree the bosses do push a bit too much… but you need to show them you can get along with other animatronics before the Glams come back.”

“Jolly well, only because we ‘ave a long day together, I’ll agree to those terms.”

He might not say it, not directly, but by the slow wagging of his crooked tail, you can tell he is happy to know you’ll spend most of your schedule today together.

The intercom comes to life with a loud pitch and some static before the automated voice message starts its daily announcement, the forced friendliness welcoming its guests to the establishment. This also meant you were now officially late.

“Shit, see you in a bit Foxy!”

“Language!”

“Ye ye I’ll walk the plank later!”

Making a run for your discarded hat by the fake campfire, you adjust it on your head without slowing down, already picturing inside your head the scolding the celestial animatronic would give you. Taking a sharp turn you climb the stair steps two by two, taking the long way up to the Daycare since the shortcut doors are again being fixed.

Your job at the Pizzaplex was that of animatronic Dayshift handler, this meant you were the only human tasked with taking care of all the animatronics, which ok there were currently only 3, well 2 of them were a package deal, but with the crazy amount of work they gave you, 3 might as well be 6.

After the incident almost a year ago, Fazbear Mega Pizzaplex was left with only one functioning animatronic. You didn’t have all the details, starting your work here afterward, when they announced the Daycare Attendants had been upgraded and reintroduced to the attractions with a brand new Glamrock animatronic, Foxy the pirate. The only thing you knew was the news about a part of the Plex sinking into the ground, which caused some serious damage to the rest of the building, and some rumors about a cyber attack that made the animatronics act out of their programming and destroy each other and themselves.

But hey. Fazbear's Entertainment always came back. And the plex opened its doors once again and seemingly stronger than ever. 

There are already excited shouts of children running around and playing in the structures when you arrive at the Daycare, early kids already ‘sliding into fun’.

Giving yourself a quick look to make sure you don’t look like a mess, you unlock the huge doors, fingers crossed you made it in time, otherwise-

“COMET!” A loud robotic voice calls in a mix of relief and anxiety as soon as you step inside the Daycare play area and you spot the lanky, incredibly tall, sun themed jester looking in your direction, smiling forcedly up.

“Good morning Su-“ Approaching in a slow jog, you greet the animatronic before getting interrupted, the jester visibly agitated, swinging from side to side while he moves his hands all over the place as he starts rambling in a cacophony of jingling bells. 

“Comet… you are late, late, LATE! The kids ARRIVED and you weren’t here to supervise if I was doing a good job. Wh–what if I did it WRONG? Or or or a kid got hurt, that would have been TERRIBLE. I know you had to attend a last minute mishap at the Cove, but this is SERIOUS. We can’t have any accidents, accidents, they could close the Daycare, or WORSE, they could, they could, they could-” Gently but firmly, you grasp Sun's hands, a couple of fingers of each hand if you want to be more precise, seriously the size of his hands were ridiculous. At least it was enough to catch his attention and stop his worried rant.

“I’m sorry I was late, I lost track of time cleaning Kids Cove. But I am now here, ok Sunny?” Sun nods energetically, then looks down after feeling a tug on one leg. "I’m ready to help you in whichever way you need, but I think you are doing much better than you believe!” You smile at Sun and then the kid pulling at the animatronic pants fabric to get his attention.

Sun immediately changes to a more jovial expression and crouches down in one swift motion to greet the kid, still a head above their height due the absurd size difference.

“Hello there new friend! I’m so happy to see you! Would you want a hug greeting, a high five greet, or a waving greet?” 

The kid makes a thinking face, brows frowned in deep concentration before opening his arms wide and exclaiming with a big smile 

“Huggg!”

Sun beams, smile wider if possible.

“Excellent choice friend! Here comes the hug.” 

Careful but swift, the animatronic wraps his hands around the kid and picks them up in a hug accompanied by the delighted giggles of the little one, thankfully, you wince a bit at the speed Sun actions are, you still need to work on that to help him stop startling the shyer kids.

Once the hug is over, Sun puts the kid down gently and ushers them towards the play structures, going back to fiddle with his hands. Before he can get stuck again in his worries, you pat the tall animatronic lower back, which is as high as you could reach without straining by yourself and looking ridiculous, effectively catching his attention.

“That was great Sunny! I’m proud of you, you have improved lots since last week."

Upon hearing your encouraging words, Sun’s rays start to spin around his head, pale yellow pupils shifting to look at your face instead of the kids.

“You think so?” Twirling his fingers he asks in a soft voice, which was still loud, but soft for his usual loud volume.

“Yeah! The new greeting system is working great, kids look happy and more comfortable too." You reassure him again, giving two thumbs up with a genuine smile.

It felt a bit exaggerated, but after a month of being Sun's handler, you knew he needed the extra boost in confidence whenever he did things right, the more you encouraged the positive interactions, the more he visibly relaxed and acted more like he was probably initially supposed to act like, instead of the mood swings, bundle of anxiety he was. Who knew robots could also get anxiety, you didn’t know if you should be amazed or mad at Fazbear Entertainment for designing artificial intelligence able to develop insecurities.

Long arms wrap around you and the floor vanishes from under your feet as you yelp in surprise, automatically grabbing the animatronic shoulders and holding for dear life, the world becoming a blur as the animatronic spins his upper half while holding you tight.

“Suuuuunnnnnnnnn!”

“Sorry, sorry, sorry”

Is this what being a small dog feels like? Picked up at random? Maybe you should already be used to getting manhandled, but despite the huge size of the animatronics, you tended to forget their equally big strength, especially with Sun and Moon, they looked like stick men, stick men that could pick an adult man with ease according to the stories a couple of the mechanics have told you. 

Sun puts you down as gently as he is able, the soft floor still moving under your feet as you regain your balance, the jester holding your hand until he is certain you won’t fall on your face, it’s too early to clean bloody noses from the floor. 

“Alright Sunny, lets go welcome these kids.” 

The first hour of the morning goes by in a flash, early kids arriving while you supervise Sun, encouraging his progress and nudging him in a better direction now and then; “Remember your inner voice Sun”, “That was good, how about you try moving a bit slower next time?”, “It’s ok Sunny, here, why don’t you go help the kids over the castle while I take this kid to the drawing tables?”. 

Before you started your work as Sun handler, you had never been to the Daycare because you didn’t have a reason to. With no younger siblings or friends with baby siblings, the couple times you visited the plex before being employed, you’d stick to the other areas. Because of this, you had no idea of how the Daycare attendants used to act with guests before the plex closed its doors after the cyber attack. You had been briefly told the Daycare had actually closed months before the incident due to some ‘programming adjustments’… it was something you still fully believed to be a lie, more so after your first meeting with the Daycare attendants once they had gone through their “glamrockification”, they both acted like they hadn’t interacted with another being in months, much less a kid.

Even so, you had at most one week getting to know your work associates before the plex opened its doors and you had to accompany Sun into behaving accordingly with the kids as it went. 

Now that first day was not fun. Despite being designed to take care of kids, the sun animatronic acted like he didn’t know what to do, jumping between overly excited to extremely worried about anything going awry, with random outbursts of anger followed by panic of being left alone again. Once the dayshift was handled and things started to look like it would work out just fine, Naptime was reintroduced… 

“Comet! Could you please pass me that box of crayons?”

Sun is standing by the edge of the security area, hands behind his back as he bounces slightly from side to side in front of the tall desk. 

“Oh sure, gimme a sec.”

You stand up from the ground where you have been helping a small kid re-tie their hair bow, making your way towards the security desk currently empty aside from the staff bot full of stickers and several googly eyes whom you had lovingly nicknamed ´Dab´ aka Daycare Attendant Bot. Muttering an “excuse me” that Dab replies with a short series of “Beeps”, you open one of the lockers and pull out a box of crayons. Locking behind, you side step Dab and hand the box to Sun, who does with both hands despite one being big enough to fully hide the thing. 

“Here you go Sunny, do you need anything else? I should start heading back to the cove now”

Sun lifts his head, taking his attention away from the box of crayons he was making sure had all the much-needed colors. Spikes wiggling a bit in thought, a habit you were starting to associate with him wanting something but unsure if he should name it.

“Can I get a hug before you leave?...”

How could you refuse that petition, despite not being a fan of the animatronic hugs when you started, he kept startling you, you could not deny him when he asked so politely. Opening your arms wide, you see the sun perk up hopeful. 

“You can, just, not spinning… please”

“Can do!”

Noodle arms wrap tight around your body in an awkward hug. Big noodle boy. You pat his back awkwardly before getting released, giving him your best reassuring smile. 

“Remember, the notification system is still a bit broken, but if you got any problem go to Dab and they’ll send me a notification to come to check things out.” 

Originally, the animatronics were supposed to be able to contact you, their handler, bia the Fazwatch, and the other way around for any logistics or emergency should arise. But the chat system had been continuously delayed, the big heads of Fazco worried that having all the animatronics in a big online chat room would make them vulnerable to another cyber attack, which meant they kept delaying the feature, gotta make sure it was hyper safe. 

“And I will be back for Naptime with my lunch.” 

Sun rays do a spin around his head before shrinking a bit, a soft ‘oh’ leaving his mouth as he starts fidgeting with the bell around his neck. He doesn’t add anything else, but based on how his pupils shift around makes you think his body buddy has something to say about the matter.

“Good! That is very good, yes good, don’t be LATE… please.” 

The plex is buzzing with energy once you walk out of the Daycare area. Kids run around followed by their guardians, teens flood the game attractions, the place is full of energy and excited shouting and conversations. Admittedly, it was overwhelming your first weeks, now it could get annoying on bad days, but you have a better understanding of how to move through crowds now than before. 

You wave and throw a friendly smile to the bots camping in front of the shortcut passway between Daycare and Kids Cove, signaling guests to go the long way around. They don’t wave back, just stare at you with blank eyes, but you’d feel weirder by not acknowledging them, they were your coworkers after all, sort of, the ones you saw the most since so far there were no more handlers and the mechanics hanged around the tunnels or Parts and Service unless something urgent made them go up to the main areas. 

You walk past one of the food stalls and make a mental note to come back later, you forgot to make your lunch today so you would have to get something from the available food places before Naptime. If you entered your lunch break empty handed again Sun would give you another scolding and no one wanted to see that again.

A couple of minutes walking and you find yourself back at Kids Cove, you can already hear the animatronic loud antics accompanied by loud cheering of kids. Upon entering, Foxy is on the top of the Lighthouse waiting for your return as per usual, he is yet not allowed to be alone with the visitors due FazEnt being a bit paranoid still, plus there was still that issue with parents' concerns about his hook hand. Which ok, valid, that thing was pointy, but it’s not like Foxy didn’t have an alternate hand, he just refused to use it because having two hands was not pirate enough and kids liked the hook. 

For now, Sun was really the only one allowed to be alone with the kids, being a daycare attendant and all that, you didn’t fully support that idea the first weeks but he was doing better now. 

“Avast ye! I spy me first mate 'as came back!” 

Foxy stood above on the lighthouse top with a spyglass aimed at you, although with his high technology vision, you were pretty sure he didn’t need it.

“Ahoy Foxy! I have returned from the Daycare Castle.”

“It be Cap'n Foxy, scallywag!” 

Foxy barks back, hearing a couple of the kids currently playing in the cove giggle.

“Ah my apologies Captain! Are you ready to meet your tiny fans?” 

There are several audible gasps, a couple of kids stopping their games to run and surround the Lighthouse. Foxy makes a huge deal of pulling his spyglass away, adjusting his hat with big movements. 

“I be always ready to meet me crew!” 

“Then come down and- Don’t you DARE!” 

There was a hidden door Foxy was meant to use to get inside the lighthouse and climb down safely, one he most of the time agreed to use but would decide to ignore now and then, always giving you a small panic attack because you did not want him breaking anything, especially not while you are supposed to be watching over him and make sure ‘company property’ is not harmed. Today the damn pirate decided to ignore the stairs. 

He grabbed a rope that you swore was not there the day before, grasp it tightly, and proceeded to jump down, jumping on the outside of the lighthouse slide, half sliding half running on top of it and around the structure until he reached the bottom with a perfect landing between a chorus of beyond excited kid screams.

The animatronic beams at the attention, taking his hat off and doing an exaggerated bow before putting his hat back in place and grinning your way.

“Youuuuuu…sly pirate…” 

Admittedly not your best insult, but you were currently surrounded by tiny ones and couldn’t risk it, the animatronic grin widening if possible. 

“Aye, an´ a sly fox too mate.” 

You playfully shove him, which does nothing because super strong animatronic, and start walking to his back room.

“C’mon or we’ll be late to your meet and greet.”  

The sound of loud footsteps and kids talking lets you know he is right behind you, but you still throw a glance behind. He was walking with his full attention on the kids, laughing and answering their questions as best as he could at the same time he started playful banter with the older ones. It made you smile, see him so happy, almost made you feel bad he wasn’t allowed to be with kids on his own and needed you to babysit him constantly. 

Once out of the only staff door or ‘Captain Quarters’ as he preferred to call it, Foxy instructs the kids that those with passes should form an organized line and wait for his signal, before walking past you and inside the backroom. It was not really his Green Room, more like a maintenance closet where he had a recharge module, basic tools for small repairs, and an extra outfit in case something happened to this one. He did have a proper Greenroom that had been one of the new additions to the plex when you were hired, with Foxy’s introduction, management considered he needed his own room like the Glamrocks did previously, not only to be able to recharge and hang out at night time but also be able to sell passes for the kids to take a picture with said pirate. But since the Rockstar row was currently empty with no Glamrocks, management decided it was pointless to have you two walk all the way over there, thank god, and then all the way back to Kids Cove. So until the Glams were back, Foxy only used the Captain Quarters to spend the night. Which meant the greets took place currently at the Cove, in a tiny area surrounded by those cord divisions. 

You smack Foxy’s arm with a rolled poster, you now knew better than to smack him hard with your hand, just because he had a new squishy, fluffy casing, didn’t mean hitting him hard wouldn’t hurt you more than him. 

“Ouch! Davy Jones locket what be that for?”

“What do you think? Stop jumping off the Lighthouse!”

Foxy huffs offended, refusing to look at you as you walk around him adjusting details of his outfit, pulling random pieces of dust off the fabric random that stuck to it, along straightening other parts absentmindedly. 

“Hey the jester gets to dive from their balcony.”

He mutters, set on having the last word. You roll your eyes, tapping some stuff on your Fazwatch. 

“Yeah but ‘the jester’ was made for that and has a ball pit under them. You are going to get me in trouble.”

“Ye know I would ne’er get ye in trouble, not on purpose.”

He adds removing his hat in the worst puppy eyes act ever, mainly because he isn’t even trying to look remorseful, aside from the dropped ears, but you can still peek a small grin.

“Oh sure, where did you get the rope anyway?”

Satisfied with the animatronic looks, you nod to yourself and walk to the door, Foxy close behind.

“Ah don’t worry yer pretty head o’er it.”

And with that he passes by you an out, grin wide to greet the excited shouts and “Foxy is back!” from his tiny fans. With a loud sigh, you adjust your cap and walk out behind him.

Meet and Greet was most of the time easy, just a bit tedious. If there were no problematic parents that is. Kids would line up and wait for a Staff bot to check their tickets, then they would pass to greet Foxy while you stood to the side at a moderate distance, mostly there to make sure they didn’t climb over the animatronic nor broke him. Foxy did most of the work, saying hi to the little ones, striking small conversations with them, posing for pictures, and signing posters and merch here and there before saying goodbye and repeat. It was busy and his full attention was on his fans, so you two used to keep the banter to a minimum, there was no time for much.

Time comes and goes, you stretch your arms over your head and hear a pop somewhere, groaning at your already tired body. You decided to take a five minute breather, back in the small room. Lunchtime couldn’t arrive faster.

“So have you decided what it's gonna be today?” 

You ask from your spot on the floor due to the lack of chairs, fidgeting around with the brim of your cap. Foxy is playing around with his toy cutlass, throwing it into the air and catching it, ears twitching in your direction to signal he heard your question.

“I will go with Storytime, don’t want to tire ye much before our patrol later today.”

“Oh how considerate, hashtag best captain ever.” 

You reply mockingly, but inside you are grateful, running around little kids could be a real workout. Standing up, you stretch your back one more time before adjusting your uniform and dusting the dirt from your butt.

“Also as much fun as I have with the ‘creative freedom’ you add to the stories, management got mad you killed the Kraken last week.” 

Foxy rolls his eyes, sheathing his sword on his belt.

“What be the point o’ fightin’ a giant sea monster if I cannot kill it?”

“The point is friendship”

You add with your own eye roll. To be fair it was a stupid reason, Fazco insistence to be kid-friendly in every single area felt a bit forced. You’d never admit it out loud but Foxy versions of the stories tended to be more engaging than the revised ones he was meant to tell.  

“Very well, in that case, me sword name be friendship an’ I will be stabbin’ the Kraken with it.”

You try to hide your laugh, no need to encourage his antics. You pat his back and make a small jump to tip his hat off his head, giggling when you hear him grumble and complain as he adjusts the clothing again.

“C’mon Foxy, I’ll get the seats ready.”

You pick up a stack of mats that are semi piled up in one of the corners and make your way out of the small staff room. Careful to not stumble with any discarded toy or running kid, you walk to the front of the pirate ship and start placing the mats in some sort of order so the kids can sit down comfortably. Some of the regular kids run to you immediately, already knowing what this means, making sure to take the best spots.

Foxy walks out shortly after but doesn’t announce his presence yet, not like he needs to, kids run towards him immediately and follow around until he arrives at the back of the pirate ship, where he gently ushers them to go to the front and wait there. Once he is up the ship, you climb after, and once up, roll up the ladder and secure it in place so no kids can climb up during the story.

“AHOY ME LADS! Who be ready fer a story full o’ adventure an’ treasures?” 

The animatronic boisterous laugh fills the cove and catches the attention of any kid that wasn’t aware of his presence yet, and even from some walking outside. 

You step to the side and make yourself comfortable on top of one of the fake barrels, there’s not much to do during story time aside sit down and make sure no kid tried to climb the ship, it was one of those activities you thought Foxy was perfectly able to do on his own without babysitting, but management was still unsure. Maybe in the future.

“Listen carefully, fer I will tell ye the story o’ when I, the mighty Cap’n Foxy, stole The Golden Cupcake” 

You raise an eyebrow, you were pretty sure it was supposed to be The Pink Cupcake special treat of Chica’s Bakery, to encourage kids to go consume the Gigaplex products, but they did have a golden cupcake so you guessed it wasn’t that bad of a change. 

Foxy starts his story, using his whole body to act out what he is narrating, walking around the ship, all the kids quiet and attentive to his every move. You, however, start to nod off, it’s been only a month but there weren't many stories written for Foxy Adventures yet, so by now you knew them all and have even started memorizing some of them. 

“-and then there I be, fightin’ by meself the starvin’ cupcake zombies.”

Now that brings you back to reality. You turn to look at the pirate, who is too wrapped in his own story to notice your amused but slightly mortified expression. 

“One arm tied to the back an’ cutlass in the other. There were ten, no, twenty o’ them!”

You snort, you try so hard not to laugh, covering your face with your uniform hat, pressing your lips in a straight line. 

“Is there somethin’ ye want to add, scallywag?” 

You jolt from your spot to turn to look at the pirate, who has effectively paused his story to address you. Taking a quick glance at the audience, you can see a sea of tiny heads looking in your direction, expectantly. This was new.

“…Well I…”

Your voice is barely there. You look towards Foxy, trying not to panic, and notice that despite his upset tone, there is a small smirk on his face… was he expecting you to argue with him? In the middle of the story? Your confused stare seems to amuse him, doing an exaggerated hand motion in your direction, encouraging you to speak.

“Well?…”

He repeats, and you take a deep breath.

“Ah well, I only remember five zombies, I-I think you need to practice your numbers, Captain.”

You add at the end for good measure, heart beating like crazy inside your chest. One thing was to friendly argue with the pirate while working, and a very different thing with an audience attentive of your every word. 

Foxy puts a fake surprised expression, eyepatch lifting up and all before composing himself, which earns small giggles from the kids.

“Twenty, five, twenty five, who is keepin’ count.”

He continues counting with his fingers and hook, which earns him more giggles from the audience. 

“But they were very hungry cupcake zombies! ‘ungry fer pirate flesh.”

You bite your tongue and decide to risk it, making a show of fake coughing to interrupt Foxy again.

“I don’t know Captain, I’m pretty sure Cupcake Zombies eat… Pizza…?”

You hesitate towards the end, but to your surprise, Foxy grins loud and continues from where you left it.

“Aha! That be right! I ‘ad one of me delicious pizzas with me, which I threw to the twenty-“

“Five”

“-To the five cupcake zombies! Usin’ the distraction to sneak by them.”

You smile as Foxy continues the story, even more excited than before, or maybe that was just your imagination. 

“And that be the story o’ how I, the mighty Cap’n Foxy stole the delicious Golden Cupcake, an’ ate it all with my pirate crew.”

He does a deep bow and the kids clapp, jumping excitedly in place, talking among each other about the story while others ran to their parents to probably go get some cupcakes, not that you blame them, you were craving some cupcakes yourself now. 

You stand up and go to unroll the ship ladder, allowing Foxy to pass before you.

“Well done bucko! I knew ye had it in ye.”

He pats your back, grinning wide showing his white and golden fangs before climbing down the ship where some kids are already expecting him. You smile a bit sheepishly before climbing down, where to your surprise, the kids start swarming around you too.

“Do you go on adventures with Foxy too?”

“Please tell us more!”

“Did he really kill the Kraken?”

Foxy starts laughing, probably at your shocked face, you were used to kids ignoring you most of the time, unless one needed something in the Daycare, you were not usually someone of interest.

“Woah one at a time, what’s up?”

“The sky!”

One kid giggles like he just told the best joke ever and it takes all your willpower to not facepalm. You are not used to dealing with kids, so you throw Foxy a pleading look you hope he will catch. Which he thankfully does.

“Alright alright, let me first mate breath ye rascals” 

The kids laugh and some even reply with an ‘aye aye captain’.

“I would uh, love to tell you more stories but sadly I must go to the Castle now, and Foxy here needs to recharge, even pirate Captains need a nap.”

There is a chorus of disappointed awhs, but it doesn’t last long as the kids are already distracted with something else, and you take this chance to start walking back to the staff room followed by a very slow Foxy. He is dilly-dallying on purpose, of that you are certain, there is no way his battery is close to empty so early and after so little activity. 

You open the door and start tapping your feet anxiously, looking at the time on your Fazwatch.

“C’monnnnn I can’t be late for naptime, Sunny will fry his circuits.”

You press him, even going as far as to try to push him in once he is close to the door, which just barely makes him move faster and only probably because he is trying to amuse you. 

Finally in, you close the door and open the charging station and turn to look at the pirate. 

“Ye say that like its a bad thin'” You don’t bother replying, the frown on your face is answer enough “-Alright I guess the caffeinated one isn't that bad, but do ye really 'ave to be there alone with the Sandman?”

Suddenly the air is heavy. So this is what he has been worrying about. 

“Foxy, I know you don’t trust Moon yet, but I’m their handler as much as I’m yours…” 

Foxy lingers, lifting his hand before hesitating and putting it down again. You know what he is thinking, you instinctively touch your arm above the almost faded bruise that eerily resembles a hand. You try not to think too much about it, it was almost a month ago, things were changing, albeit at a slow pace, but it was progress.

“I’ll be fine, I promise Cap’n, have some faith in me”

You force a smile, patting his arm and nudging him again towards the interior of the charging station. With a sigh, Foxy finally moves, taking off his hat and walking in the tube, but before you can close the door, he stops it with his clawed hand.

“Don’t be doin’ anythin’ stupid.”

“Now you know I can’t promise that, I am your handler after all.”

He frowns but doesn’t fight you further, allowing the door to close.

“See ya later Foxy, have a good rest.”

You wave through the small window and see him nod in reply. What you don’t see is how he follows you with his gaze as you make sure you have your things with you and leave the tiny room. 

After a quick detour to buy a sandwich and soda, you arrive at the Daycare doors. They felt so big, ominous even. You shake your head and place a hand on top of your heart as if that action could make it relax and take the worries away.

“It’s going to be ok.”

You mutter to yourself as you slide your security badge on the lock and push open the big doors. 

Sun is playing around the ball pool with several kids, with what looks like a hoodie wrapped around his head in a makeshift blindfold, walking around trying to catch the little kids running between and around his legs.

“Hey Sunny! I’m back.”

You greet without the need to shout, knowing he would listen to you perfectly despite being on the other side of the room full of screaming children. Sun perks up, calling your name and waving excitedly in your direction, only to freeze up and start fidgeting with his bells immediately after, probably realizing what time it is. 

“So I’m not the only one anxious…”

You mutter to yourself, closing the door behind you and making a walk to the security desk, dropping your lunch in a safe spot no kid will try to snatch it, you talked from experience. Lunch save, you walk to the pile of sleeping mats and start lining them up on the nap area, also placing the star shaped nightlights nearby so any kid that needed an extra bit of light could take one to their sleeping spot.

“Everyone! It’s nap time. Grab your plushie buddies and get ready to say hi to, to, to Moon…”

Sun straightens up, but hunches back shortly after, the smile on his face more strained than usual as he tries to urge the hesitant children towards the mats, some even looking back to the play structures, maybe calculating if they could run fast enough to fool Sun and play a bit more. 

“Come on, come on sunshines, it’s time to turn the lights off, off…off.”

Sun rays keep shrinking and expanding at random around his head, you should probably give the guy a hand before things escalate. 

Grabbing a box of Moondrop candies, you make your way to the edge of the napping area.

“Alright who wants a candy?” 

Shaking the box like a box of treats, several heads turn your way with a chorus of me and candy. 

“If you want candy, grab a pillow and sit on your mat, if I don’t see you sitting down you get no candy.” 

That convinces most of the kids to collaborate and move to the napping area, some are still not as excited but at least it makes things easier. You pass the box to Sun to give him something to distract himself while you get ready yourself, taking off your hat before walking towards the light switch. 

The celestial animatronic eventually finishes giving candies as slowly as possible, but you can’t blame him, you are also anxious. Naptime had been getting better, but the tension was still there, and Moon was not a fan of you. 

You sigh, if only you knew why the moon animatronic remained hostile towards your mere presence. 

Sun eventually makes his way to you, one of his hands immediately finding yours and holding it tight. You allow him, giving him a couple of hopefully reassuring taps, your hand is too small to be able to hold him back and squish. 

“Good night Sun, see you later.”

“Good night Comet… and Goodnight Kids!”

You rip off the metaphorical bandaid and click the light switch. The happy music turns into a slowdown, music box version, and the lights dim down until it’s fully dark. You hear clicking next to you, the grip on your hand tightening.

You try to keep your attention elsewhere, the dim star lights turning on and submerging the Daycare into a soft glow. The clicking above you stops and you are suddenly illuminated softly by blue light, quite a pretty image if the animatronic behind said light wasn’t so… eerie to put it gently.

“...Handler.”

The voice of the animatronic is much deeper than his bright counterpart. You are expecting him to let go of your hand, but his grip tightens up further, moving up to your wrist and you hold back the urge to pull away.

“Why are you still here?”

He inquires further, face upside down, hunched in front of you and forcing you to look at him.

With your best smile, you point with your free hand towards the lunch bag over the security desk. Moon looks over, a small frown forming on his face.

“I’m on my lunch break, see?”

The grip on your wrist does not lights up, it doesn’t hurt yet, but you can already feel how sweaty your palms are and your heart slowly speeding up. Moon remains quiet, probably going through his inner rulebook for anything that says you are not allowed to do that. 

He can’t find it.

“Fine. But be quiet handler, or I will have to punish you.”

His grin widens up and giggles before finally letting you go. You release a breath you hadn’t noticed holding up. 

As if nothing had happened, Moon straightens up, head right way and walks lazily to the nap area, where the kids are either loud whispering to each other, already yawning, or blankets covering their heads. 

“Goodnight little stars, would you like a naptime story?”

Moon voice is soft, still deep but nothing like the raspy one he uses when talking to you, it is one sweet and calm, reserved for the little ones. You have no idea how he does it, but at least he is softer with the kids, most of the time.

There are some nods and quiet yes please, along with a couple of story suggestions. You let them be and walk to the security desk, sitting down on the chair and getting comfortable. Moon doesn’t look your way until you take your sandwich out of the bag, the plastic creaking too loud for his liking. You smile sheepishly and proceed this time gentler, biting down the temptation to make an angry librarian joke. 

Moon reads to the kids and they start to nod off, when not acting like the boogieman, Moon's presence could be calming, his soft voice reading at a perfect volume that had put you to sleep a couple of times. If only he wasn’t set on hating you. 

It’s suddenly quiet. 

You look up from your lunch, thrown off by the sudden lack of the animatronic voice. You turn to look towards the nap area, where Moon is looking towards the Play structures on the other side of the room. You try to find whatever caught his attention, but it’s too dark and far for your eyes, even with the nightlights. You wonder if maybe he saw a mouse or something when his eyes flicker to red. That can’t be good. 

“Naughty children…”

His eyes are back to blue, the storybook forgotten as he slowly stands up, eyes glued to the play structure. You hear a loud shhhh and suddenly see movement shifting inside the structure along the distinct pitty-pat of tiny feet. 

You stand up in alarm, your sandwich falling to the floor in the process. How did neither you nor Sun notice there were kids hiding still? Panic starts rising inside your chest,

“Bad children hiding from naptime”

His eyes flicker red again before going back to blue, voice back to the raspy one, sleeping children long forgotten. 

“Moon!”

It’s too late, you move too slow. You hear his cable go down and click before Moon vanishes up in the air in a fit of giggles. You were hoping he would stop reacting so poorly against rule breakers, both of them had strong reactions towards them, but at least Sun would listen to you. You need to bring back Sun.

Lunch forgotten, you make a dash towards the light switch next to the exit doors, but don’t push it. Your hand lingers on top of the light switch. Turn the lights on, bring Sun back, easy as that, right?... But…

All the effort of the past month thrown overboard in an instant. If you stopped Moon this harshly, management would start questioning again if the naptime animatronic was safe for the daycare, they would remove naptime again. You remembered how Moon's eyes seemed to light up the day Ness gave him the announcement he would be running Naptime again. 

No, you could still do something else, there must be something you could do. You couldn’t take that from Moon again.

You pick up the flashlight from its spot on the wall and head to the napping area where the remainder of the kids are already sitting up and clutching their plushies, looking around anxiously in the middle of the dark, illuminated only by the night lights shaped as stars in between them.

“It’s ok, don’t worry. Mr. Moon is a bit cranky but I'll go get him.”

You hear some sniffling, tiny scared eyes locked on you before anxiously looking around. You needed to make it look like a game, they didn’t need to know Moon was being serious.

“Now where could Mr. Moon be? Ohh Mr. Moon… please come out!” 

Of course, you weren’t expecting anything to happen, but it would have been a nice surprise. You can only hear the very faint jingle of bells, and the shadow silhouette of Moon seemingly swimming in the air before vanishing. 

“Guess it’s time to play hide and seek with Moon…” 

You really hope the kids are buying this, at least you can’t hear crying, and they are all staying on their mats. 

Unsure of what to do next, you take a deep breath and make a run for one of the play structures, crawling inside and vanishing from view.

Chapter Text

“Ok kids playtime is over! If you come out now I’ll tell Sun not to put you in time out!”

No reply, it was useless, the runaway kids kept refusing to listen to you, somewhere deep inside the game structure. Why are kids like this? You walk up the cushioned ramp, hunched over to be able to fit without your head smacking the top tubes of the structure. The flashlight is not of much help, yes it aids you to see where you are going without constantly stumbling over discarded toys and who knows what else, but it makes moving around weirdly disconcerting.

You have seen these structures from the outside a lot of times, you have even crawled inside once or twice to help clean up or accompany a kid that got scared, but being in complete darkness while looking for kids and avoiding Moon, made it feel like a big maze. 

At least Moon couldn't get in the thigh tunnels, probably… Hopefully? 

“Ah for fucks sake…”

You mutter under your breath, all the way to the top of the smaller structure at the opposite corner of the entrance slide. Moon giggles are not helping your nerves either, and despite the constant jiggling of his bells you can’t spot him, everytime you shine the light in the direction you think he is, there is a blur of blue and empty space. 

There’s movement out of the corner of your eye, and as you turn around, you catch a glimpse of tiny feet darting down the passageway of the big structure.

Oh they were in so much trouble. 

Not wanting to waste more time, you run across the wobbly bridge connecting both structures and as quickly as you can while crouched down, go down the tiny ramp you think you saw the runaways run down before vanishing from sight. In front of you there’s the entrance of a blue plastic tunnel. You hesitate for a moment before crawling in the tight place, it’s not like you had some phobia for tight places but these were made for kids, and there was always the worry of getting stuck. 

Thankfully that doesn’t happen, and once you reach the end you are met with two pairs of shocked eyes. 

“Finally, you two are in big trouble.”

The two kids look at each other before avoiding your gaze, finding the floor much more interesting. You look around their hideout, it’s a small cubicle with no way out aside the one you just crawled in, well aside a shaped hole in one of the walls, but it was a good jump down and you are pretty sure it’s against the rules. 

One of the kids, probably new since you don’t recognize them, a fan of Chica judging by the bright pink shoes, sniffs before discreetly rubbing their face on their hoodie sleeves. The other kid, whom you don’t know the name of but recognize after seeing pretty often at the Cove with his older sibling, looks more angry he got found than scared. And of course he is wearing a Foxy shirt…

You want to scold them badly, stressed over the whole situation, but you stop yourself, taking a deep breath. They are just kids, they don’t know about Moon… finicky protocols, and it should stay that way for the sake of everyone involved. 

“Now no more running around, let’s go back to naptime, also you two are going to have to apologize to Mr. Moon.” 

The kid with Chica shoes nods weakly, sniffing again, while the other kid huffs and mutters something along the lines of “Fiiiiine but I am not saying sorry to that thing”.  

Pretending you didn’t hear that, seriously this place was too cramped to be scolding kids in the middle of the dark, you carefully shuffle around to go back up the way you came. A couple of feet inside the tube, it comes to your attention it’s been a while since you heard Moon giggles, the Daycare's eerie quiet aside from the music box theme playing over the speakers. 

The tube has a curve ahead and when you turn it, you are face to face with some nightmare material. 

“Heeellooo Handleeeer~”

Moon faceplate is mere inches in front of yours, bright, red led eyes piercing into your own. You freeze in place, scream stuck inside your chest before coming out in a choked whine.   

“Hey why did you stop? Are you stuck?”

One of the kids asks from behind you, unaware of how delicate the situation is. You had hoped to get the kids back into the nap area before Moon, that way it would be easy to calm him down and go back to his Daycare attendant protocols, but now, now you were stuck in a tube with two rulebreakers and an animatronic very eager to complete his punishment impulses. 

“Move”

It’s not a question. Before you can argue, his hand moves to your chest and firmly presses, effortlessly pushing you back down the tunnel.  

“Shit! Watch it!”

The loud kid complains when you inevitably push him back all the way back to the tiny room. 

“Naughty boy, no swearing in the Daycare” You can’t take your eyes away from the form of the celestial animatronic, impossible contorted as he creeps his way down the small tunnel “Tsk tsk tsk, skipping naptime, hiding, and swearing? You should be punished~” He giggles, that deep raspy voice he uses all the time to scare you. 

Hearing muffled sobbing, you quickly look behind you, catching a glimpse of both kids pressed against the farthest corner, making themselves as tiny as possible. Think, think think. You can’t let Moon into the tiny space. 

Before he can reach the end of the tube you push yourself forward, getting back into the tunnel before placing your hands and arms against the plastic walls, trying to fill the space as much as possible and block the animatronic path with your body. 

It works, even if for a brief amount of time, the moon animatronic turning his head with curiosity before straightening it up again. 

“Move Handler, I have to punish the naughty kids” 

His smile widens, threatening as he moves forward, expecting you to cave in and retreat as you hold your ground until his faceplate is yet again inches away from your face and he is in your personal space. 

“Moon, stop” 

It’s a miracle you manage to find your voice, although it is shaky and far from as stern as you were hoping. Moon faceplate clicks to the side. Before you can react, one of his hands darts towards your arm and holds tight around the almost faded bruise. 

“Oh? Do you want to be punished too?... Again? ”

A shiver runs down your back as his voice drops even lower, down to a deep, almost static whisper, grip tightening. He tries pushing you again but you stand your ground, clenching your jaw with the effort of holding firm against the plastic surface. 

Moon can’t hurt you during your shift hours. Don’t let him scare you, got it? 

Ness words pop up in your mind. She had told you that after Moon's security system activated against you, it was all a big misunderstanding but how were you supposed to know?  

A low growl echoes against the tube walls before long fingers wrap around your neck and grip tight enough that it’s uncomfortable, but not enough to cut your airflow nor bruise, not yet.

“Moon, I said stop.”

The animatronic fingers twitch, you expect him to close tighter around your windpipes, but he doesn’t.

“Or what?”

“I am telling Vanessa”

Admittedly, that was a lame threat, one could say childish even, however you knew the animatronic respected Vanessa's authority more than yours, you just hoped he respected it enough to stop. 

There’s silence, filled faintly by the whirring of Moon's inner mechanics. After seconds that feel eternal, the animatronic releases both your arm and neck, movements almost strained, as if he was forcing himself to let go. 

“ Fine ”

Moon growls before swiftly retreating up the tunnel with no effort. A tap on your shoulder snaps you back to reality, banging your head against the top of the tube before bending forward and rubbing the now sore spot that was definitely going to grow a bump. 

“Can we get out now?... please”

Oh yeah the kids, you kind of temporarily forgot about them. 

“Ah, sure buddy, c’mon let's go back to the napping area”

You force yourself to smile as you hold down the trembling that insists on running through your body. 

You get back to the nap area without further interruptions. Moon is sat down on the opposite side of the sleeping mats, voice back to a soothing one as he resumes reading the story he interrupted to go chase after the runaway kids. You nudge said kids towards a pair of empty mats, pretending not to notice Moon peeking in your direction, following your every move, at least his eyes are back to shining blue. 

Once the kids are settled you make your way back to behind the security desk where Dab has apparently been kind enough to clean already your discarded lunch, sandwich now in the trash alongside your appetite. What a sad waste of food. 

You drop on the desk chair, the stress finally catching up as you feel your body drained from all energy, shaking like a leaf from head to toe. You lift a hand towards your throat to carefully touch the area, it doesn’t hurt thankfully, but you can still feel the ghost of the cold metal against it. Now your arm is another story. Sure, it doesn’t hurt as bad as when Moon first bruised it, but you can tell it is much tender even without touching it. 

You should write a report for Vanessa, even if no one ended up hurt, Moon intolerance to broken rules is something you both should keep working on apparently.   

Turning the chair around you face one of the computers and open the shared log you have with the Night Guard and Night Handler. Your fingers hover over the keyboard absentmindedly, mind drifting back to the night almost a month ago, when you experience firsthand the dangers of the Nighttime attendant security protocols. 

“Fuuuuuuuck where the hell did I put it?” 

You mutter, taking stuff out of your locker before tossing it back in, searching for your security card, it had to be somewhere.

‘Remember, you have to be out of the building before 12am, not a single minute after that. You are not scheduled for the night shift, if any of the security bots sees you, they’ll think you are an intruder.’

Vanessa had been very clear with her instructions of you being out of the building by midnight, even if you didn’t fully understand what would be the issue with it. Yeah, the security bots did loud noises, but it’s not like you couldn’t outrun their hoverboards if they tried to restrain you. 

Letting out an annoyed sigh, you slam the locker door close. Maybe you dropped it in Pirate Cove? It was almost all the way back from the entrance but it was either that or ask Vanessa to let you out and face her scolding. 

Yeah no, Pirate Cove it is. 

Walking around the Pizzaplex this late at night felt as if you didn’t belong here, that liminal space feeling creeping up on you with every step you took. How the hell did Vanessa managed to do her night rounds every night? This was unnerving, although quite peaceful compared to the open hours, still, you are not sure you could get used to the big empty space even if you did this every night. 

The sound of bells catches your attention, but you don’t have enough time to process it before a shadow drops right in front of you. 

With a startled yelp you take a couple of steps back before falling on your butt. It felt as if your heart could jump out of your chest at any moment. Hand over your chest, you lift your eyes to look what the fuck had almost given you a heart attack.   

“Fucking hell… H-Hi Moon I, I didn’t expect you to see you outside the Daycare…?”

He chuckled, hunched over with his face crooked to the side. Surprisingly he stays quiet, not bothering to scold you for your bad language, instead focused on something else judging by his blank expression, the clicking of his inner workings reaching your ears thanks to the silence around you two. There’s a loud crack and his focus is back on you, head snapping to the right position.  

“Naughty, naughty, breaking the rules, being an intruder.”

What did he just…

“Hey now c’mon, I am your handler remember? I work here.”

You frantically argue, trying and failing to not panic as you stumble to stand up, waving your hands a bit agitated, he had to be joking right? 

“Hmmm that is right, you work here but you are past your shift, aren’t you?~”

He slowly bends forward as you take a step back. Keep your cool, you had to stop letting Moon creep you out, you were his handler.

“I am going home. I am not staying here, I lost my Security card but if you let me go look for-“

Moon interrupted you with another loud crack of his joints, one that you hoped was made on purpose and not because he had some physical malfunction. 

“No. No you are not getting away, you broke the rules and now you need to be punished”

It then downed on you, how could you have been so stupid? Moon was the Daycare attendant true, but he was also a Security Bot during closing hours. 

“Moon… please…”

“It’s ok, don’t worry” His grin grew larger, maniacally, eyes changing from blue to full red “I’ll give you a headstart.”

Shit shit shit shit shit.

“Run.” 

You didn’t need to be told twice. Your survival instinct finally kicks in and you sprint, chased by the sound of raspy laughter closer, closer, closer…

The light of two bright blue eyes brings you back to the present. 

“Snitching is not a nice thing Handler” 

You jump on your seat, Moon is crouched on top of the desk, vent over and trying to peek over the computer screen, too close for comfort. Sneaky bastard.

“Chasing children just because they tried to skip nap time is also not a nice thing to do Moon”

Maybe it was not the wisest idea to poke the animatronic that barely minutes before had you trapped inside a plastic tunnel with a hand wrapped around your throat, but being behind the desk gave you some sort of safety feeling, it was your safe spot. 

Moon doesn’t move from his spot, nor does he takes his eyes away from you, which is annoying but it’s one of the things you were actually getting used to. So you try to ignore him to write that report before naptime is over. Hands back on the keyboard you haven’t even typed a single word when the naptime attendant interrupts you again.   

“Handler…” You peek up and nod once to signal you are listening to him, waiting to see what he wants now “Don’t tell Vanessa” 

You scowl, is he serious? After what he made you go through because of the harmless misbehavior of two kids. On the other hand, this is the first time he asks something from you without resorting to punishment threats. 

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t” 

He remains quiet, he has a blank look for a couple of seconds before blinking and for the first time, adverting his sight from you towards the napping area where the kids either sleep or pretend to do so. 

“...” 

He remains quiet before looking at you again, his smile softer, almost apologetic, but it’s a bit hard to tell with the almost permanent smile. 

“Please”

A single word, but it surprises you. Sliding your hands away from the keyboard, you try to study Moon expressions better. Since the moment you started this job, not once has he asked you anything, only demanded, much less said please. 

You take both hands to your face and groan, rubbing your eyes and then sliding them down in a tired motion. You can’t believe you are considering this, where did your survival instinct go?

“Fine.” The animatronic perks up momentarily surprised, guess you are not the only one that didn’t expect you to agree. “But! This can’t happen again”

You are pretty sure he just rolled his eyes at you, back to his normal jerk self. He straightens his back and turns around to go back to watch over the sleeping children. Without thinking, you stand up.

“Moon I am being serious. I am only doing this because I know how much you enjoy naptime” 

The animatronic barely turns around to throw a nasty glare in your direction, you do your best to ignore it. 

“We don’t have to be friends if you don’t want to, but I truly want to help you keep this”

You point towards the sleeping kids, you know that if you tell Vanessa what happened, she’ll give the instruction to remove Moon from nap time until further notice. Moon seems to hesitate, but doesn’t say anything, choosing to jump down from the desk to go sit as far away as possible from you for the remainder of nap time.  

The rest of the hour goes with no events, the celestial animatronic keeps his distance either humming a low tune while picking up toys, carefully covering again a child that managed to kick their blanket off, collecting balls that got tossed out of the ball pit, random little activities that kept him from paying you any attention. It’s ok, you are too tired to interact too, playing games on your phone till your Fazzwatch buzzes alerting you that naptime is over. 

There’s no need to alert Moon, he is already slowly walking up the children, humming a bit louder but not enough to startle them, jiggling his bells softly as he walks between them with a warm voice.

“Time to wake up little stars, wakey wakey~” 

Man, if only he was this sweet all the time it would save you so much trouble. Slowly you stand up from the chair and stretch, feeling something pop from the uncomfortable position. You walk over the light switch and wait for Moon to be done, letting him enjoy it till the very end as he helps some of the more sleepy kids up.

“Ok kids, say bye to Mr. Moon” 

There is a small chorus of goodbyes, although you can’t help but feel a bit sad when most of the kids are quick to leave his side, not hiding their enthusiasm for naptime to be over. 

  “Good night little stars, play nice” 

The animatronic waves to the few kids still paying attention to him, smiling softly before looking in your direction, expression unreadable. Regardless, you smile back, is weak and probably not your brightest, but you hope he sees it’s sincere. 

“Good night Moon, see you later.”

Moon doesn’t reply, so you flip the switch back on. The Daycare lights are back to full light, the music changing to its cheerful version, and you can see the animatronic head slowly spin as his outfit goes from deep blues to bright reds and the sunny side goes out.  

“Good morning Sun!” 

The kids cheer, quick to hug the lanky jester animatronic, laughing as they go back to playing, running around, an unspoken relief on all of their faces. 

You can’t help but feel sad.

Chapter Text

You take a deep breath, splashing cold water on your face in an effort to pull back your wandering mind into focus.

The moment nap time finished and the lights went back on at the daycare, you felt the tension leave your body at the same time exhaustion washed all over you wholly.

Things had thankfully finished with no big casualties despite it all “I’ll have a serious talk with Moon, you should go back with Foxy before he starts worrying, Comet.” Sun assured you, for once serious as he escorted you out the monumental doors, patting gently your back, the same way he did when comforting one of the kids.

You were risking being late, but you had to collect yourself a bit before going back to the cove, there was no point in worrying Foxy and furthering his animosity towards Moon, especially when one of your jobs is to promote a friendly relationship between them. 

If only it could be as easy as your boss made it sound. 

<<Beep Beep. Time to head down to Kids Cove Superstar!>>

Freddy’s robotic voice rings out of your Fazwatch alarm. The more you dillydally the more the pirate will suspect a bad thing happened. Careful, you slide one arm out of the uniform jacket, is the bruise on your arm more visible than this morning or is it your anxious mind telling you it looks that way? Better not risk it, guess this means you’ll have to keep the jacket on for the rest of the shift.

Adjusting your uniform back in place, you take one last look in the bathroom mirror and force a smile, even going an extra step and placing two fingers against the corners of your mouth and gently pushing them upwards.

The show must go on.

“Ah there ye are, I was startin' to worry ye’d leave me locked in ‘ere the rest of the shift.”

Foxy ears perk up the minute you open the door to the back room he has been charging in. Before you started working here, the animatronics could go out of the charging stations at will, but after the incident, one of the new security measures was the need of assistance of a Security Level 2 or higher to unlock the stations and let them out. The only exceptions for this safety measure were the ones at the back of the Green rooms behind Rockstar Row. 

“Tempting, but alas we still got work to do.”

Pulling your badge against the station lock, it unlocks with a loud beep and opens as the lights inside turn off. 

The fox animatronic loses no time to jump out, making a huge deal of stretching his back and arms, almost “accidentally” smacking you in the process, succeeding in typing your cap forward efficiently shadowing your vision. 

You huff and tilt it back into place absentmindedly, mind already busy planning the next activity, maybe if you stick to the atrium and walk around the bottom floor main stage… but then you’ll miss all the guests at the top food stalls which is where most are currently hanging at, not to mention the ones hanging outside the arcades, Mazercise must be pretty empty this late on the day, ugh you don’t like the crowds but if you only roam around the less populated areas you surely will get called out by your boss, however if you go straight to the upper floors you’ll miss the small crowds going in and out Monty Golf, Fazer Blast and Roxy Raceway, but going to the upper floors means more walking and you still have to help pick up the Daycare once the doors close even if you rather not further interact with the jesters today after what happened at nap time-

“Oi bucko, everythin’ fine inside that lil noggin’ of yers?” 

It’s only now that you feel the soft texture of the animatronic faux fur pressing against your forehead, slowly realizing Foxy must have been poking your head looking for a reaction when you didn’t respond to his words. 

Sheepishly, you look anywhere else before looking back at the fox, softly patting his clawed hand as you gently push it away from your face.

“Ah sorry Cap’n, got a bit lost thinking about the best walk route. What were you saying?”  

Foxy studies your face for a second, seemingly not buying your fake smile, at least he doesn’t seems to be scanning you…yet, even if it was a normal procedure for the animatronics when suspecting any sort of harm in a guest or/and worker, you had named several times before how uncomfortable it made you, which is why Foxy tried to keep it to a minimum. 

“Ye look a tad tired, Jesters gave ye trouble?”

The animatronic tone is neutral, nonetheless it feels like a trap, a trick question. 

“Oh that, well...” You decide the safest option is to distract yourself with your Fazwatch, pushing buttons, looking through the Pizzaplex floor maps as you make your way towards the door. “Nah, no more than usual anyway. The issue this time was a couple of kids refusing to go to naptime, a tiny fan of yours funny enough.”

Unlocking the door you turn around on time to see Foxy straighten up and huff offended as he fixes his coat. 

“Nah me fault me crew members know how dumb nap time be.” 

You sigh half amused, rolling your eyes in an over dramatic way as you hold the door open. 

“Yeah well, dumb or not please avoid mentioning that in front of your crew, I don’t want to deal with further mutinies at the Daycare.”

“No promises bucko.” 

Once both of you are out of the maintenance closet, you lock the door behind and take a quick look around. 

Around this time of the day the Cove is usually empty aside the occasional kid, most families busy eating and the remainder doing their last games round before the place closes for the night. With no Glamrocks show it is odd for anyone to hang out very late, sure the holograms light show could be cool the first time, but it didn’t compare to spectating the real thing. 

Hopefully it will come back soon. 

You had only seen Freddy, Chica, Roxy and Bonnie perform live two or three times a couple years ago in your first visit to the Pizzaplex. Sadly it was always from very far away, getting a pass to the close area to the stage was very pricey, not to mention crowded as hell, which meant you had to enjoy from the sidelines where it was too far to take a good look at the animatronics in all their glory, but at least the music sounded just as good. 

Sigh, there is no point delaying the inevitable. Hands on your hips, you spin around to look at the fox animatronic, mischievous smile on your lips. 

“...Don’t ye dare-”

Too late, you have made up your mind, it was a very bad and definitely overused joke, but it was simply too hard to resist. 

“Now who’s ready for a walk? You wanna go for a walk? Yes you do~”

Hands on your knees you use your best talking to a puppy voice, ignoring the fact that Foxy is way taller than you and this position is straining your neck a bit as you look up at him. 

“Yar har har… mighty funny, I’ll ‘ave ye walk the plank fer that later scallywag” Foxy rolls his eyes unnamused, standing as straight as possible as he walks past your smaller figure, fixing his coat for the umpteenth time, brushing off invisible dust with his clawed hand and rubbing his hook against the fabric to make it shine. “Weigh anchor! We got work to do me bucko!”

You shake your head, fixing your own uniform and cap as you catch up with the animatronic before he gets out of your sight. 

“Aye aye captain”

After the grand reopening of the Pizzaplex with Foxy and Daycare attendants, the executives placed all their money and resources into bringing back Freddy as soon as possible, he was the face of the company after all, and even if the incident had been broadcasted far and wide, there were still multiple of dailies “Where is Freddy?” and after months of hard work, updates, new safety measures and design improvements, Freddy was finally ready to come back to the Pizzaplex. 

All that money spent made it no surprise the higher ups wanted to recover as much as possible, preparing a huge welcome back event where Freddy would be reintroduced to the public. Every single ticket had already been sold out as far as you know, lucky for you, you didn’t need one. 

Despite watching a couple of shows, you never got the opportunity to actually greet the animatronic before, the meet and greet pass was too expensive with an equally unbearable line, plus the few times you visited you had better things to do than stand there waiting for a quick picture, opting for the other attractions.

You smile thinking how now you got to spend time with the animatronics in a way few others did, crazy how things change, and who knows, maybe you can finally get a picture with Freddy and watch a show closer than ever before.

There is only one downside to the whole ordeal… 

“Ejem”

The animatronic fox nudges your side as discreetly as he is able to, which isn’t much, proceeding to lift his eyebrows at you expectantly. Ah right, you turn to look around the Atrium, little kids pointing excitedly in yours and the pirate direction as their parents tiredly acknowledge them. 

Sigh. You take a deep breath and try to force a smile, raising your voice to a higher volume than usual. 

“Oh Foxy… I have been hearing a lot of rumors of a great event Fazbear Entertainment Trademark is planning…”

This is embarrassing, whose idea was this? It’s the worst way to promote anything. You send a glance towards the main stage where a big hologram of Freddy Fazbear himself sings to the music, huge banners hanging behind ‘Freddy welcome back event next week! You cannot miss it!’. 

“Arrr! I ‘ave heard the rumors too. They say the bear cof I meant the oh so amazin’, but nah as charismatic as yers truly, Freddy Fazbear be comin’ back!”

You spot several kids giggling as you let out a snort, trying to remain professional, at least Foxy is enjoying himself, walking around with his chest puffed as he waves his arms in exaggerated motions to accompany his words. 

If only you could be as carefree as the animatronic, out of the corner of your eye you can spot a group of older teens pointing in your general direction and making comments among themselves before laughing. This way of promoting is so dumb and humiliating, not to mention it feels unnatural, but management believes it’s very clever to spread ‘rumors’ despite having official posters of the event all over the place. Everyone knew about it already. 

“Oh wow, no kidding…” You mutter under your breath a bit too sarcastic, earning another friendly shove from the pirate “I mean, ohhhh blimey do you know when is this happening?”

Foxy smiles a toothy grin, he then makes a huge deal of looking around as if surveying for curious ears, even going as far as to lift his eyepatch. Then, in a still very loud voice, bends forward to reach your height. For the sake of playing along, you tip your hat up and lean closer to the animatronic snout, peeking out of the corner of your eye a couple of kids getting closer, interested in the gossip.   

“Aye! Me sharp hearin’ reaches far ‘n wide, Freddy will be showin’ up on the Pizzaplex territory next week.” 

There is a chorus of excited gasps accompanied by high pitched squeals all around you both, kids running back to their parents to ask ‘Can we see Freddy?’ ‘Mom mom mom did you hear?’ ‘I want to see Freddy’. A soft smile escapes your lips, at least the kids enjoy this nonsense.  

“Be sure to visit Kids Cove, fer I, Cap’n Foxy know all that be t’ be known!”

Now it’s your turn to nudge the fox, digging your elbow on his side as far as the casing lets you. Of course Foxy would try and turn this around to make it about himself. He simply grins, speeding up and forcing you to keep up, stopping by one of the Freddy cutouts decorating Fazer Blast lobby.

“Perhaps I shall challenge the bear to a duel once he arrives, what do ye think?”

He scratches his chin with the hook, seemingly deep in thought while a couple of kids join him. 

The only perk of the walks is Foxy wholeheartedly enjoying the chance to roam around the Pizzaplex, an activity he could only do while accompanied by either handler or a mechanic in the meantime management decides it’s safe for the animatronics to go around on their own again.

If you look at it from the bright side, the shame won’t repeat ever again once next week arrives and Glamrock Freddy is reintroduced. You are sooo looking forward to that, even if you are sure management will find other ways to publicly embarrass you.

Oh well, could be worse, you could be locked in a tiny security office constantly staring at security cameras, while dealing with limited power during the night shift for minimum wage.

The rest of the walk goes similarly to how it started. Foxy stops now and then to greet kids, at times talking about Freddy and others purposely redirecting the conversation to himself, forcing you to constantly remind him this is all about the oh so super secret event. Still you let him have his fun, there is no harm in going off script now and then.

Shortly after reaching the top floor, you can start to feel the effects of the day on your body, legs aching, lower back in pain, have you drank anything today? Ah right you also couldn’t finish your lunch before.

A quick break should be fine, so you lay against a wall near the decorative plants, letting out a sigh of relief. 

“I think that is going to be enough for today, one more step and I’ll have to crawl all the way back.”

Foxy waves goodbye to a group of kids walking down the escalators, then spins around to join you, laying his back against the wall next to you, he might not need the rest but he still enjoyed joining you in human like activities. 

“I say that be a job well done.”

“Yeah, let’s hope the higher ups are satisfied and don’t ask us to do the walk of shame again.” 

“Ye want a piggyback ride back to the Cove?”

“Ha, not a chance, I’ve already endured enough humiliation for one day.” You playfully push the animatronic away, not bothering to hide your amusement over the idea. “I could use a drink.” You add taking a peek at the nearby soda machines, maybe the sugar could help you get an energy boost, you are really going to need it if you want to be able to at least make the walk to the Cove, and you still have to help Sun pick up along the pirate…

Foxy chuckles at your efforts of shoving him, deciding to let you win this time and opting to instead walk up to one of the soda machines and coming to a halt in front of them. He looks between the different options, as if trying to decide which appeals to him more, tapping his hook against the tip of his nose, eyepatch raised for a better view.

“Any flavor preference?”

You roll your eyes at the animatronic, but sure, why not indulge in his theatrics. 

“Mmm give me a sour lime, that should wake me up enough so I don’t collapse before my shift ends.”

Foxy nods in response, moving to the right to stand up in front of the bright green soda machine with Monty’s image on the front. 

“Big lizard soda comin’ up.”

Before you can start looking for money inside your pockets, Foxy slides his hand inside his coat and when he pulls it out there is a shiny coin between his claws. Then, with a flick of his wrist, slides the coin in the slot and pushes the big option with his knuckles. 

You watch as the machine hums and clanks and finally, the heavy clunk of the soda can dropping. You are too surprised to say anything. Foxy bends down with a bow and stands up with the soda on hand. 

“Foxy where did you get money from?”

You are between impressed, and a bit mortified. If your superiors find out the fox was either taking money out of the vending arcades, borrowing money from employees, or worse, pickpocketing guests…

“I am a pirate, I got me ways of findin’ coin.”

He hands you the soda with a big grin, winking an eye before letting his eyepatch down again. Then without missing a beat, the cocky bastard pulls another coin from who knows where and flips it around his fingers, flicks it in the air and catches it, opening his hand back again to show it to be gone again.

“Foxy, how much you got?”

You place the unopened soda on the edge of the plant pot, your attention now on the animatronic shenanigans. 

You reach for his coat pocket, but you barely graze the fabric before he takes a step back. Letting out a frustrated huff, you reach again but miss. Foxy chuckles amused, of course he is, a grin wide on his face.

“Foxy let me see. Where are you getting the money from?”

The fox side steps you effortlessly, swift with every move despite being a machine that weighs tons. In a desperate attempt, you reach again but change direction last second, but you stumble with your own feet barely managing to recover your footing, a light pull of your clothes hints Foxy pulled you by your jacket to save you from kissing the floor before letting go again. 

“Shit”

“Language”

“Oh shush!”

You go to slide your jacket off to get more freedom of movement, refusing to drop the issue without a proper fight. 

<<Beep, beep, beep, you have a new message.>>

Stopping your movements midway, you turn to look at the blinking screen of your Fazwatch, a bright yellow exclamation point taking the full screen. Adjusting your jacket back on again, you decide to temporarily ignore the pirate in front of you.

“Hold up, it’s from the higher ups.”

One click to the screen opens your messages, where at the top there is a new one marked as priority, surely nothing bad, there was no reason to, unless an extremely overprotective parent had a new complaint concerning Foxy’s hook or “inappropriate” stories.

A couple of clicks and the text opens up.

<<There has been a change of schedule today before closing time. Please skip recreational activity regarding team up cleanup with the animatronics Sun and Foxy, and send the later to Parts and Service.>>

You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding, followed by the weight of the animatronic laying his bigger head on top of yours, probably trying to take a peek at the message you just got.

“Well? What be the news firstmate?”

You can feel him shifting behind you, bending over you until his snout is shadowing your view, clawed hand reaching the wrist where your watch rests.

“Ofmph, that you are heavy, you nosey pirate.”

Foxy laughs at your attempts to push him off, eventually standing up but not before snatching your cap. You stick your tongue out in a childish gesture towards the animatronic, then straighten your uniform as you walk back to where your discarded soda can awaits. 

“Lucky you, your playdate with Sun is canceled, boss wants you to get a checkup instead, I guess they want to make sure everything is working accordingly for next week.”

And lucky you too, this means your only task left for the day has been cut much shorter, not to mention you won’t have to deal with mediating between Sun and Foxy. You open the can and give it a long sip, fighting the urge to frown due the sourness. On the downside, Sun will have to pick up by himself, but hopefully he can use that time to talk to Moon before the Night Shift, you can apologize to him tomorrow, it’s not like you would be of much help right now anyway, Moon had the tendency of getting irritable when he caught you sleepy at the end of a shift. 

“I won’t pretend to be disappointed, ye reckon we can convince the bosses to never do it again?”

Foxy strolls by your side, spinning your cap with his hook. You take another long sip of your drink, you should go for pink lemonade next, it’s going to take hours before you can get rid of the taste of this one. You walk towards the closest trashcan and toss the half empty can, not bothering to wait for the fox as you step on the escalator going down. 

“I wouldn’t hold my hopes high Captain. C’mon, I gotta get you to Parts and Services.”

It’s a shame you are not allowed to use the Main Stage elevator, that would make the trip faster, at this hour before closing time, you are going to need to take the backstage path to Rockstar Row and then use Foxy Greenroom elevator down. 

It’s a calm stroll, the few remaining guests are gathering their things, kids complaining about leaving while others are being carried half asleep in their parents arms. Foxy’s offer to give you a piggy ride is awfully tempting, but in the odd chance you accept you will never hear the end of it. You groan innerly remembering the entrance to the building is all the way back in the opposite direction, there should be hoverboards available for workers, if the staff bots got to wheel their way around, then human staff should be allowed too. 

Couple on minutes later you both finally reach Rockstar Row, empty as far as you can see. You take a quick glance at the four empty rooms, the curtains drawn close with their respective posters ‘Sorry! Come back soon’. The only occupied greenroom is Foxy’s, a cutout of said pirate outside of it with a speech bubble ‘Arrr meet me at Kids Cove ‘till me friends are back’, pointing guests to the other part of the plex. 

There is something sad about it, the big empty rooms with no one around because they are missing what makes that space special. You take a look at Freddy’s room, wondering, maybe hoping a bit, that his return brings new life to the place.

“Oi bucko ye comin’?”

Foxy calls you from the now open door to his green room.

“Yeah coming.”

Not that things are boring as they currently are, both the pirate and jesters are enough of a handful already. 

You both cross the fox's room and walk into the hallway behind, skipping over random equipement boxes, the charging station and shelves with who knows what and finally into the elevator that would take you both down.

The door dings and opens up, the light inviting in the gloomy space. Once inside you push the button, then with a yawn, lay your weight against the animatronic side.

“Do you think if I borrow one of the wet floor bots to use as a skateboard, management would get too mad at me?”

Foxy chuckles, placing the cap on top of your head.

“Not if ye don’t get caught.”

The elevator comes to a stop and dings again, doors opening to a long, dimly illuminated path.

“You are the worst influence.”

It takes some effort but you stand straight again, closing your jacket to prepare for the chill air. Parts and Service was far from being one of your favorites rooms in the Plex, there were a few worse than it, but it was still pretty bad. The weak light, the cold air, spare endos devoid of life waiting on metal tables, a couple standing up with empty stares. You hated the small cells with glass doors, reminding you of a crazy scientist laboratory, but the worst was the big cilindric space in the middle of the room, it looked straight out of a Saw movie with the operation table and robotic arms hanging on top of it. 

“Well, well, well, you brought me a gift? You shouldn’t have.” The chirpy voice pulls your mind back from horror movie gory scenes, from the opposite door enters a man around his forties, coverall uniform so dirty with oil and grime that the original bright blue is barely visible, the nametag reading a very smuged ‘Larry’ on it. “What’s the issue? What did you break?”

The mechanic approaches, shoving inside of his pockets the rag he was previously using to clean his hands. 

Next to you Foxy tenses up, standing as tall as he is with his jaw firmly pressed. Discreetly, you move your arm up and place a hand gently on the animatronic back, giving it soft paths. 

“Nothing broke, bosses asked me to bring him at the end of the shift, I’m guessing for a check up before the big week.”

You might be smiling but you are not happy. You had been hoping one of the other mechanics would be on today's shift, but luck was not on your side with this one today. 

Larry frowns disappointed before smiling excited again, flopping down on a rolling chair in front of an old computer by the cylinder entrance.

“What a shame, oh well, not time like the present! C’mon, step into my office.” 

He says pointing to the center of the room a little bit too eager, proceeding to turn the computer on and start typing, mechanical arms coming to life inside.

You turn around and face the animatronic, whom is busy glaring daggers at the mechanic, you clear your throat to get his attention, pointy ears immediately spinning in your direction, followed up by turning his face fully, not a trace of the hostility he had been aiming to the mechanic seconds ago. 

“I guess that is my cue to go, see ya tomorrow Foxy, don’t give your mechanic too much trouble.”

You smile at the animatronic, a mix of genuine and apologetic, you hated leaving him with Larry, but if you didn’t leave soon you would get reprimanded for staying past closing hours and you couldn’t risk that happening again. 

Foxy bends slightly forward placing his hook over his heart before replying. 

“I would never dream of it.” His tone is serious, but his smile betrays his true intentions, he will make the mechanic's life difficult, you can bet on it. “Until tomorrow me heartie, safe trip back home.” 

You smile, then watch as Foxy turns around and begrudgingly approaches the cylinder, taking his sweet time. You initially follow, but then take a peek at the dark tunnel on the other side of the room from where the mechanic had entered minutes before, a shiver running up your spine.

“I still don’t like these tunnels. They give me the creeps.” 

You mutter to yourself. Spinning around you walk back the better lit up hallway and inside the Green room elevator once more. Yeah you can take the long way, even if your feet are killing you tomorrow.

Chapter Text

Foxy scans his surroundings, not a single soul nearby, robotic nor human.

Larry left a couple of minutes ago, his shift over, leaving the animatronic alone in Parts and Services conveniently locked inside the cylinder. 

For what reason? Well first and foremost, because he was a jerk, secondly, the pirate might have managed to annoy the hell out of him during the checkup. 

The animatronic chuckles to himself, he might not be able to cause direct harm to the human thanks to his programming, but he found out a week before that if he was clever, he could manage indirect harm as long as it wasn’t fatal. All he had to do was startle the mechanic at the right times to get him to hurt himself with either tools, any surface around them or even his robotic parts, managing to get the mechanic shocked one too many times during the otherwise simple procedure. 

On the downside, instead of being allowed to go back to his Greenroom once the checkup was finished, he was now locked till someone came around to get him out, preferably a staff bot, he was not in the mood to get an earful from Vanessa.

Foxy huffs, he had better things to do, one of them being paying a visit to the Daycare attendants before lockdown, he had some… words to have with them. 

He taps his hooked hand against the glass on the door, weighing the possibilities of breaking the window, the clicking noise echoing around the room. 

Tempting but he knew the glass was thick, all to avoid harm to anyone outside the cylinder if anything went wrong with repairs, plus if he did manage to crack it, Vanessa would lose her mind, not to mention it was unlikely he could manage such a feat without causing harm to himself in the process.

He frowned, with this last update he should be able to contact someone to get him out, but sadly you were already long gone and the only other human around would be the night handler. He could try to get a staff bot, but he doubted any would have the security level needed to actually open the door. 

Foxy ears perk up. 

He scans the area again and turns to look towards the locked door that leads to the Main Stage and rest of the tunnels under the Plex.

“Ah, speak o' the Devil 'n it shall appear.”

Faint jingle of bells can be heard from the other side of the door, echoing along the hallaways, the muffled steps that humans would struggle to notice but not him. 

The door opens and on the other side is the lanky figure of the Daycare attendant in all it’s sunny glory.

“HellooOOOooo.” His voice is as irritable as usual, the fake excitement piercing the fox ear receptors. “I was told you had been Naughty and needed to be let out. Tsk, tsk, tsk.”

The sun themed animatronic walks up to the cylinder and takes a peek inside as if it was a zoo exhibition, amused at the pirate predicament. Foxy doesn’t even try to disguise his annoyance, rolling his eyes so hard they might have gone to the back of his head if his endo had allowed that amount of mobility. 

“Irrelevant, wha' I do wit' me free time be none o' ye business.” 

He shrugs dismissively, his eye never leaving the lanky animatronic that has started circling his temporary enclosure resembling a hungry shark.

“But now dat ye be here, care to explain why was me friend hurt” 

It’s not really a question, it was a statement, an accusation.

“Our Comet was not harmed, your optics must be broken fox.”

The daycare attendant dismisses, his tone offended at the implication, hand pressed over his own chest in a theatrical expression. He can hide it as much as he wants but the pirate knows, the barely perceivable twitches, how it smile strains a bit more, the hiccup on his steps.   

“I saw the bruise clown, it was darker than before, nah to mention how visibly shaken me first mate was actin'.”

Foxy barks, fangs shining under the dim lights, golden eye piercing the jester before him.

Sun freezes in place, not an inch, resembling a statue with an eerie stillness. 

The pirate had already suspected something was awry the minute you walked in after naptime, you were avoiding his gaze, jumping straight up into the next activity despite knowing how much you hated it and would usually delay it on purpose.

One of the perks of being a robot was he could notice many more details than a regular human, his brain was quite literally a computer able to process thousands of inputs at a time, he didn’t need to scan you to know something was wrong. 

Your smile was strained, the same one you gave parents with dumb complains, you had kept your uniform jacket on during the whole duration on the walk, constantly tugging at your arm, and he only confirmed his suspicions when you tossed the jacket to the side, too enraptured in the moment of play fight him. 

Sun cranks his head sideways, the rest of his body still, rays spinning one full round around his head before stopping in place again.  

“Hm friendly advice, stop, being, NoSeY.”

“Aye well I got me own advice fer ye.” Foxy drops his voice to a gutural low that resembles a growl. “Keep yer evil twin on check… or I will.”

A pause. 

They stare each other, the air turning thick and heavy, only broken by the hum of the fluorescent lights. 

“…Oh?”

The sun animatronic starts to spins his rays fast, smile even wider than before but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes as he cranks his head straight again, rays coming to an abrupt stop. 

“Ho ho ho! You think you can scare me. I could tear you limb by limb and the workers would give up before finding all your pieces.” 

In one blink he is in front of him, hands firmly pressed on the surface separating them, the glass creaking with the pressure. 

The fur on the back of Foxy’s neck stands up on point. He is not intimidated and definitely not afraid of the daycare attendant, but there is something inside his wires telling him there is something deeply wrong with the sunny animatronic. 

Is this what humans call a gut feeling?

Seconds tick in silence until Sun stands back, the air of danger dissipating as he shakes his index finger side to side in a no motion, talking as he would do with the troublemaker toddlers.

“But I will let it pass since you are new and too dumb to know better.” 

He ends his statement pressing his index on the glass, just where Foxy's nose would be if there wasn’t a barrier between them. The pirate is not amused, ignoring the warnings in his circuits and slamming his hooked hand on the metal of the door, making a dent in the metal.

“Listen here ye piece of-“

“Are you two done bickering?” 

The strict female voice pierces the silence in the room, making both animatronics turn to the source of it out of reflex. Walking through the door that leads to the stage and tunnels is Vanessa, head of security of the Pizzaplex, night guard and night shift handler. 

“Oh! Officer Vanessa helloooooo…”

Sun rays shrink temporarily, going back to fidget with his long fingers. Is he playing a role or does Vanessa really intimidate him that much? 

“I told you to come get Foxy out, not to engage in whatever argument you got going on this time.”

Foxy snickers, but shuts up as quickly once the blond glares his way.

“Officer Vanessa” 

The pirate greets with dry courtesy, his attention still on the jester.

“Sun, get Moon to start his rounds by the Main Stage, I’m taking Foxy to his Green room.”

Foxy tries not to flinch, ears pulled back already in annoyance towards the unavoidable lecturing he is about to get from the nightguard, oh jolly. 

“Of course officer Vanessa.” 

The daycare attendant doesn’t even spare a second glance towards the pirate, taking hurried steps towards the door that leads to the rest of the tunnels and main stage. It’s not until his bells can’t be heard anymore than the blond turns to acknowledge Foxy’s presence again.  

“Foxy how many times am I going to have to repeat it.”

Her voice is severe, gaze fixed on the pirate as she presses the code in the computer next to the cylinder, the door opening with a heavy tud. Foxy loses no time stepping out, only now acknowledging how claustrophobic he had been feeling for the last minutes. “You have to stop picking fights with Sun and Moon.”

“Ye ye, friendship 'n rainbows, get along wit' the creeps.”

Unlike when making his rounds with you, Foxy waits till Vanessa starts moving before following suit, there was something about having the nightguard walking behind him that he hated. 

Vanessa sighs before she starts heading in the opposite direction Sun went, up the stairs and back to the elevator that leads to the Green Rooms, not bothering to look back when addressing the animatronic, knowing he is right behind her by the heavy steps.

“I am not trying to patronize you, being the newest addition to the plex… there are things you don’t know about.”

There is something in her eyes, she looks utterly exhausted, her sight lost far away, as if she was not looking the hallways ahead but instead past it, far into somewhere he has no clue about.

She raises a hand and pinches the bridge of her nose between her eyes, closing these for a moment as she comes back from whatever memory she just got almost lost to. 

“Listen, if you won’t do it for your own sake then do it for your ‘firstmate’, I’m sure your handler would hate to see you get scrapped.” 

It is not a threat, it is a warning. 

The animatronic studies the human before him, the subtle expressions on her face and body. Vanessa is one of the hardest workers to read in the whole Plex, but he can see there is no malice behind her words and she isn’t lying either, she is concerned for him. 

It’s unnerving, he starts to question if Sun mocking words had truth behind them.

The silence falls between them with only the sound of his metallic footsteps bouncing on the walls as they reach the elevator. The doors open with a ding and both of them walk in, the silence expanding as they ride the way up. 

As the doors open again, Foxy breaks the silence. 

“...Very well, I’ll leave the jesters alone fer now.”

Slowly he straightens up as tall as he is, peering down at the night shift guard. 

“But, if either o' 'em lay a finger on me friend again, I’ll bite their shared head off 'n throw the rest into the trash compactor.” 

Vanessa doesn’t flinch a single muscle with his remark and effort to look intimidating, holding his glare with no effort whatsoever, he is not the scariest thing she has faced. 

“Get some rest Foxy.” 

An unsaid instruction, the fox enters his room and watches as the door closes and locks with a heavy click. He stays put in place, after a couple minutes he can hear a soft, tired sight before the steps of the night guard fades down the Pizza Plex hallways.

Foxy stays there in silence, surrounded by the pirate merchandise, the plushies resembling his appearance, it feels so lonely after the noisy day constantly surrounded by the company of others. He eventually turns around to stare at the wall that connects to the other green rooms, will it feel less lonely once they are back? 

“there are things you don’t know about”

Vanessa's words repeat inside his head as he lays down on the couch, closing his eyes and for the first time since he was welcomed into the Pizza Plex he wonders about the accident that put everyone but the Daycare attendants out of commission.