Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sulley taps the tip of his pen against the quarterly report copy sprawled across his desk. He’s not really paying attention to it, so late into the day, but he makes an effort to look engrossed as Mike drones on about his latest date with Silvia that he’s going on tonight. It’s not that he doesn’t care. He’s been trying to throw SIlvia a bone and push Mike into making things more official between them. But he’s also anxiously aware of the clock on his desk and how late it’s getting in his office compared to how early it will be in her -

“Sulley!”

“Huh?” He glances up, aware of Mike standing at the doorway with an exasperated grin, “What?”

“I said -” Mike breathes, exasperated but not too judgmental, “Are you gonna work late again tonight?”

Oh. Sulley looks down at the quarterly reports and attempts to move them around to look busier than he actually is, “Uh - Yeah, there’s a lot to get through today.”

“Uh-huh…” he hears Mike grin, before seeing it across his face when he glances up again, “Sure, bud.”

Sulley swallows a frown.

“Don’t forget the last maintenance crew leaves around 8,” Mike says, knowingly, and with that, he closes their shared office door behind him. It’s enough to make Sulley feel resentful. If he knows, then why does he ask?

Probably to keep tabs on how often he goes. More likely to make sure Sulley doesn’t get caught between the euphoria of sneaking in and his usual irresponsibility when it comes to doing things that aren’t life and unemployment. Like running the company.

Even so. Sulley waits an allotted two minutes before he scrambles up from his desk into the hidden back room of their office. He had assumed, a bit unfairly, that Mike was going to put the Vacation Door in the space, and had begrudgingly put up with the remodeling of it.

In reality. Mike had made it so that Sulley could safely keep the restored and fragile entrance of Boo’s door, and go there when he wanted.

Sulley sees it now. Almost immediately upon entering the secret space.

It takes his breath away. The way it had when he first saw it again over a month ago now. A whole 30 days prior when the possibility of seeing her again had been an impossibility that only spurred him forward in the knowing that no other monster on this planet would ever get to scare her again.

No monster would scare her.

But one monster would finally get to see her whenever they both liked.

Though Sulley rushes to the door. His hand pauses briefly above the handle.

Not quite in hesitation. But in a continued disbelief that he will be able to see her with a turn of the knob. He still can’t wrap his mind that it’s real. A momentary fear that when he tries this time (as he had done last time, and the time before that) that this time will be the one where his heart breaks and the door will cease to glow red.

But it doesn’t. Hasn’t, yet. And his urge to see her outweighs his own fear of rejection.

Sullivan musters up his courage and steps through the door.

“Kitty!”

He falls to his knees almost in immediate worship.

The smell of her. The softness of her hair hits him first as he buries his face in the top of her head. Boo giggles as she buries her little body further into his over eager embrace. His arms could wrap around her twice, but he never tries to envelope her more than her small frame can take.

“Kitty -!” She says again, before devolving into her strange human babbling as she pulls away. Just enough to see his face, rather than escape his embrace. Explaining something to him in her excited, angelic voice he had missed so dearly.

Despite his desire to simply given in and listen to her, Sulley makes the effort to sound responsible, “Now, Boo, what did i say?”

She blanks. Before grinning her mischievous grin and pushing a finger against her lips, “Shhh…”

“That’s right,” Sulley smiles, endeared, “we gotta be quiet when I’m around.”

Boo nods. Comically serious. Before her face brightens again and she pulls his arm to lead him further into her room.

Some part of him is distressed at the idea that he’s teaching her to be deceitful. Secretive. But a larger. More selfish part that makes up the majority of his self gives way to the feeling of joy that only exists when he sees her.

Boo leads him to her bed. Excitedly trying to jump up while being quiet to boot. He watches her adorably before scooping her up and plopping her effortlessly against her bed’s head frame. She giggles. A bit loudly. But before he can admonish her, she pats the space beside her and gives him an expectant look.

Sulley smiles. Infinitely endeared.

“Alright, move over,” he says, chuckling himself as she wiggles to the far end. He practically takes up the entire mattress. But he’s loathe to let the space between them get too wide. And as such he drags her back once he settles, firmly keeping her at his side as she snuggles into him.

Fishing under her pillow, Boo takes out a large picture book and begins flipping through the pages as she talks her childish words.

“Oh, you got a new book,” Sulley muses, entirely too engrossed by the fact that she nods happily and places the hardcover over his lap. She begins pointing at several things that pop out to her within the artwork, things she likes, and even tries to read some of the words aloud for him.

‘Moon’ she says. Near enough. It comes out as ‘s’moo’ but he understands her well enough. Pointing at an admittedly gorgeous rendition of the nightly moon. Before devolving into a serious of made up words that he knows she means to describe her thoughts on the matter.

Sullivan feels himself seep into her bed with a contented sigh.

It wasn’t until he had confessed it to Tyler at the front of the Monsters Inc doors that Sulley had even realized the depth of the depression he had suffered without her. Remembering her - being reminded of what he was before her - had caused the truth of it to come rushing into him.

The ever-growing power outages at the start, Mike taking the reigns more often than not (always re-calibrating in the face of a change in their plan), even whatever had been going on with the MIFT department that he had been curiously aware of but not motivated enough to properly give attention to. Sullivan had been a ghost. Slightly off center and not as engaged with the goings on as he should’ve been.

And he should’ve been. Guilt gnaws at him now, with Boo in his arms and the clarity she gives him. The peace.

“I’m going to be on TV tomorrow,” he says. Suddenly.

Boo’s head flicks upwards. Instantly interested. Maybe she knows by now what TV is supposed to be.

“Yup,” he says, soft smile, “Jack and Jill’s morning program. I’m going to try to talk about how better laugh energy is.”

Boo grins, toothily.

Sulley returns it, “You gonna wish me luck?”

“Yes!” Boo says. Jumping up. She’s learned the word ‘yes’ as of late. And uses it enthusiastically whenever she can.

Boo turns to face him. Reaching up for his face with grabby hands.

“Not so loud, Boo…” Sulley says, yet despite his words, he laughs.

He lets his face down to be cradled by the palms of her hands. Working against nature that the weight of his skull is bearable for her to carry.

She’s babbling again. Very seriously. Peering at his face as if to discern how he should clean up before his big interview. Readily. She smooths over his eyebrows and pulls some of the fur of his cheek back in a sleek and sophisticated way.

Henpecked by a child.

“C’mere -” Sulley pulls her into his arms again. Boo shrieking into a laugh as he snuggles his face into hers again. Making a mess of her work.

There isn’t a laugh canister plugged outside her door. Sulley never wants the monster world to ever use her for energy or profit again.

Once he’s properly disheveled. Boo kisses his jaw.

Good Luck.

Chapter Text

“I don’t know, I feel like I’m putting a lot of pressure on Tyler…”

By now, Boo is more than caught up w the goings on in Monster’s incorporated. Sulley has spent many a night muttering away his worries and fears into the crown of her head as she snuggles up next to him in her bed.

She insists on being tucked in with him firmly next to her. And he would be remiss to deny her anything - if he would deny her at all - and usually acts as her mattress and pillow as a result. Her tiny perched perfectly in the crook of his underarm. Head laying gently on his furry shoulder as he leans his face into her hair to kiss the top of her scalp.

He always ends up lingering over her that way. Nose picking up the scent of her shampoo. Strawberry. Cherry blossom. Breathing her in as he presses his lips against her tiny head and not having the strength of conviction to pull away entirely.

As such. His mouth hovers over where he smooched her. Mumbling the days events as he can recall them.

“It’s not that he isn’t funny…” he says, before reconsidering his point, “okay, maybe he isn’t…that funny. At all. But he’s a hard worker and I think if he really tried to apply himself to being a jokester it wouldn’t be so hard for him to -“

Boo’s entire little body seems to breathe in all at once. Briefly, Sulley seizes, before realizing she’s starting to snore.

He can feel his body relax as he tips his head over to see her eyes have dropped close. The tip of her button nose and the slightly parted, shiny pink lips breathing in perfect synchronicity.

“…or maybe he just needs to realize how precious you can be,” Sulley smiles, leaning his head back to settle on her headboard. He’ll give himself a drink in his neck like this, but he doesn’t care.

Whenever Boo eventually falls asleep in his arms, Sulley can’t help but lay there with her. For a moment. Several. Basking in the comfort she brings him. He can almost fall asleep himself, this way. And fights the impulse with all the might he can muster.

He knows it’s dangerous.

Part of him regrets that he hadn’t dared to share his bed with her when she was over in Monstropolis. His was massive. And she’d been such a tiny speck in his sea is sheets that he often replays the moment in his head. Imagining himself curling up at her feet like a dog. He feels like one around her. Sometimes. He’s her kitty but whatever scraps of affections he can gather, he hordes like a sad puppy before he has to leave her again.

Separation anxiety.

Thinking back to when she had been in his world rather than he in hers. Sulley pretends that he had left Mike to make her costume on his own while he had stayed with her in his room. Standing watch. Keeping gaurd.

Or maybe he would’ve had the nerve to properly lay beside her as he is now. Only w the benefit of space and time and no fear of getting caught. Well. They were being hunted by the CDA at the time, but the point still stands.

Boo lets out a sleepy sigh and burrows herself further into his fur. Sulley’s heart aches. Hoping against reason that maybe he can stay this time. Leave before morning light.

But he knows he can’t.

Knows he shouldn’t.

Sulley shifts. Away. Slowly. Painfully, even. As he tries to gently dislodge himself from underneath Boo’s limp body.

Her face scrunches. Body shifting only to find her bed missing the comfort of his warm body.

“Kitty…” she grumbles, grabby hands as she tries blindly to reach for him.

“Shhh,” Sulley smiles. He lets her fingers wrap around his index finger as he watches her vainly trying to pull her back into bed.

But she’s so small. Compared to him. That it would be like trying to move a mountain.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he says instead. Reassuring. Using his other hand to mush her bangs back, “try to get some sleep, Boo…”

He kisses her forehead. Gently. Slowly.

He can feel Boo relax underneath him into a deep. Sweet, sleep.

Sulley keeps his eyes close. Squeezed shut. Close and pressed into her skin. He wonders why he can’t stay. She obviously needs him. To sleep as much as he needs her to breathe.

But that wouldn’t be fair.

Instead. Sulley lets his chin down and presses his forehead into hers instead. Eyes still shut. Pretending. Imagining. If she lived with him, he’d never have to leave. He could watch over her until he fell asleep long after she did.

His nose nuzzles against hers. Bunny kisses. His doglike snout rough and wet compared to her snooty little button nose. He can’t stay.

Sulley pulls away. Knelt beside her bed now that he’s utterly untangled from her. He watches her for a few more moments before his eyes wander to her bedroom door. Not her closet. The door that leads out to what he knows is a hallway.

Her parents never check on her. He’s with her every night and they don’t know. Don’t even care. And though part of him is aware that the only reason he can even stay with her as long as he like is because they’re so apparently negligent. Another part. Violent and jealous. Wants to storm into that hallway and demand to know why they get to keep her when they don’t seem to care.

Not as much as he does.

Why does Boo get to belong with them when she would be more suited to be taken care of by him. In his world. In his life.

But that’s not true.

Wincing as his knees ache while he gets up to stand. Sulley comes to terms with the fact that if Boo stayed with him, he’d have to hide her. Shield her from a world that won’t accept children’s laughter as an energy source, let alone an actual human child.

It wouldn’t be fair to Boo.

And that alone keeps him from stomping into her parents room and demanding they give him the only thing he considers precious.

Sulley would rather be a secret kept than a secret keeper. He couldn’t do it, anyway. Hide her from the world as if he were ashamed of her. He cares about her to much. Adores her with abandon. He knows he’d want to show her off within an hour of having her and damn the consequences.

Mike’s right. He’s kind of irresponsible in that regard.

Sulley looks down at Boo again. Yearning in his chest that feels like poison more than fairness. He wants to scoop her up and take her out a him into her closet door.

But he doesn’t.

“Goodnight, Boo.”

He steps back and watches her until long after he’s passed her threshold. Long after he closes the door, even.

Sulley doesn’t let go of her door handle until he realizes how tired he feels without her.

Chapter Text

On occasion, Sulley has time to see her much earlier than either of their schedules should allow. Or can even be considered safe. In some respects.

Sulley waits just outside her door. Ear pressed against then chipped wood as he hears the mumbled voices of her parents tucking her in for the night.

Mike called an early shift to go on a date with Celia. Technically. Sulley should be in his office as the only active CEO on call in case of emergency. But.

The company can survive a few hours before the last worker leaves the facility.

Sulley hears her door click on the other side. His heart thrums. Leaping out of his chest before he can even process the fact that he’s just swung her closet door wide open.

“Kitty!”

“Boo -“

“Honey!”

Sulley freezes.

The light underneath her bedroom door is still lit, “We said goodnight, sweetie, so you go to sleep now!”

He can’t move.

Isn’t even sure he’s breathing as he eyes the slit of light as the sound - the voice - speaks to Boo from across the wall.

He almost misses how she makes a sound. A confirmation of shorts. That seems to satisfies the disembodied PERSON that exists outside her room.

“Good girl - see you in the morning, honey!”

The light turns off.

The footsteps fade far away.

Sulley keeps eyeing the space underneath her door.

The pitter-patter of Boo’s feet alerts him to kneel. His body on auto pilot as he opens his arms for her. Boo leaps into his arms as he always does. But he can’t help but stare at her door like it’s some sort of monster in its own right.

He feels himself pet the back of her head. Rubbing the side of his face again her.

He could do it. He could get up and take her away right now if he wanted to.

And in the morning. Sulley would be the one who gets to see her.

“Kitty…” she whisper-says into his ear. He has to tear his eyes away to focus on her, finally, and finds that she’s smiling.

“What is it, Boo?” He asks, though he hears his voice from far away. Outside himself.

Boo wiggles out of his arms and jumps onto her floor with flourish. It takes everything within him not to scoop her back up and bolt into the closet. But he manages.

Boo babbles something as she takes his hand. Her entire fist wrapped around a finger he lets her pull until he’s slowly crawling towards the tiny desk on the other side of her room.

He follows her until she lets go and sits into her chair. Gathering some papers that had been thrown about. Sulley watches her with muted amusement. Choosing to sit across from her, sitting on his legs rather than pretending he could possibly fit into one of her chairs without it breaking.

“Mike Wazoski!” She announces, showing him her gathered materials.

“Oh!” He mouths, flipping through the pictures in his hands, “hey, you even got Tyler and Val!”

Boo giggles proudly. Obviously pleased with his appraisal. He’d been describing the crew in great detail, and it had occurred to him recently that he could also show her some pictures and videos from his phone.

Her work was fairly accurate to the snapshots he’d given her.

On the bottom right of her drawings. As always. Sulley noted what looked to be her signature scrawled haphazardly in crayon. He was pleased to see that some of them proudly read “Boo” in lieu of her actual name. Which he knew to be Mary.

Mary Gibbs.

Sulley kept from frowning. Seeing it scribbled in every other portrait. He doesn’t call her Mary. He doesn’t consider that to be her name. Who she is. With him. For him. To him.

Mary sounds like such a thoughtless thing to call the one fixed point in the universe he calls home.

The voices that live outside her room may call her that. But she would always be his Boo.

“Kitty?”

He smiled.

He would always be her kitty.

Sulley let the drawings down. Placing his elbows on her desk with a growing grin which she returned excitedly.

“You wanna help me figure out a problem?” He asks, leaning into her space.

Boo nodded happily.

The baseball game had been a disaster back home. Tyler had won it for the opposing team and now the rest of the crew felt he was in opposition to the company. Mike and him were brainstorming some team building exercises, but it wasn’t remiss to ask Boo for her insight. Despite her limited vocabulary, she was very intuitive and understood him better than he sometimes feels Mike does.

“…so I’m not sure what we can do outside of pushing them into the basement until they make nice with each other.”

Boo nods. Attentive even while she’s engrossed with a new drawing she’s coloring while Sulley has been summarizing the weeks events.

It had been torture. Between planning the game, scheduling the date and finding money in the budget to fund the team outright, Sulley hadn’t seen her for days. He had stumbled into her room twice. Half awake himself only to find she was already sound asleep and he couldn’t bear to wake her even though every fiber of his body screamed at him to do so.

Sulley had nearly lost his cool during the baseball game. Snapping towards the end at the thought of losing. It served him right to experience that defeat. It had humbled him to confess the team had failed, but Boo had reacted with sympathy and a soft little frown. Patting his paw in comfort.

It was almost a blessing to have lost.

Boo makes a satisfied sound. Pulling him from his thoughts. She lifts the drawing she’d been working on and shows him an image of some huge, scary monster - only it appeared as if he and Mike had been eaten by it.

“What?” Sulley tilts his head, peering at the picture until he realizes what he’s seeing, “is that the Shrieker?”

Boo nods. An aborted “yes” manifesting for like a “ye” as she smiles at him.

“Oh - you want us to dress up as the Shrieker and?” Sulley looks at her, “scare them?”

Boo’s smile widens as she pulls up another drawing of she, he, and Miley fighting Randal.

Realization dawns on him as he grins, “You think they’ll work together to stop him!”

She giggles an affirmative.

Sulley nearly swoons with appreciation. Boo was capable of providing the best advice with what tools she had to express them, and he couldn’t be more grateful for her opinion when it mattered. And it did. Often. To him.

“Thank you, Boo,” he breathed, leaning in completely to push their foreheads together, she giggled again as he closed his eyes to feel her voice reverberated between them, “what would I do without you?”

Forget to breathe. Probably.

Become distant, again. A ghost in the factory worse than the actual Shrieker. It was so different now. He’d gone from hiding her drawing of them under his clipboard to proudly displaying it over his desk. Framed and pristine and protected.

After all. He didn’t need to have it constantly with him to remind him of what he’d sacrificed. What he’d done for her sake. Not anymore.

Now that he could see her as often as he was able. Which was near daily when he wasn’t losing his mind arranging company events. He only needed to see her drawing at his desk as a reminder that if he wanted to. She was not that out of reach anymore.

Not unless the VOICE outside her door was near.

Sulley pushed those thoughts away. This time was for him and Boo. Only they existed in this vacuum of space and time where Boo wasn’t even tired. Where she drew for him and listened to him and gave him ideas for problems he really ought to be solving on his own.

But who would he be, if he did not need her?

And he needed her.

“Do you want to come back to the Monster World with me?”

Sulley blurts it out before he can really think of it. And regrets it almost as soon as he sees Boo’s face light up, glancing quickly at her closet door before hoping off her chair in record time.

“W-wait, wait!” He reaches out with an open palm to stop her, “Maybe not right now -!”

Boo stops. Pouts as her shoulder slumps forward, “Kitty…”

Oh, that sounded like a reprimand.

Sulley feels the weight of it too. Scratching behind his ear sheepishly, “Sorry, but…i haven’t really planned it out yet.”

Boo lets out a grumble as she sinks back into her baby chair. Cheeks flushed and frown on her pretty pink lips.

“I’m sorry, Boo,” he says again, though endeared by her petulant behavior, “I haven’t even told Mike yet, you want to see him dont you?”

Not that he has to run his life by Mike or anything, as he so frequently makes decisions without him. Especially regarding Cecilia. But his point still stands. Mike would probably think of things like making sure the factory is closed off. Or making sure what day is best, with less people around after hours. Things like that.

Boo looks up at him pensively, but nods in the end. If only because she does genuinely want to see Mike. Which is sweet enough in her own right. But it doesn’t take away the pout and Sulley feels compelled to disappear it from her face.

“…maybe, just the office?”

Boo perks up immediately.

Chapter Text

It’s a stupid idea.

In the future. Sulley might want to look into why he feels so beholden to a toddler that he agreed to take her back to his office without so much as an argument. What little she can articulate, in any case.

“Careful, Boo…”

Sulley whispers just as she hops over her door’s line. Loud enough for her to hear, but not so much to alert her paren —- The Voices. Humans. It doesn’t matter. Sulley looks back one final time into Boo’s room. Just in case. Before stepping out and bringing her door to close behind him.

What matters is. Once they both cross that door line.

Sulley doesn’t have to whisper anymore.

“Kitty!”

Boo laughs. Loud. Bright. Sulley can’t help but laugh deeply alongside with her as he lifts her up in his arms and twirls her around. He happily closes his eyes and holds her close to him. Basking in the late afternoon light seeping through the hidden door leading into his office.

In his arms, Boo excitedly points in the direction of his office, “Kitty!”

He grins, despite himself, “That’s my office. You gotta promise that you’ll stay inside for now, okay?”

She nods, very seriously as is her custom when she wants her way. Sulley can’t help but nuzzle his snout against her cheek.

“Good girl.”

He carries her over and into his office with a slight thrill. More than slight. If he’s honest with himself. There’s something that tugs at the back of his mind as they cross the threshold and are immediately wrapped by the warmth provided by his office windows.

Boo shrieks in delight. Eyes dancing and head turning every which way as she takes in what truly is a mundane corporate office with the same enthusiasm as any other child would an amusement park.

“Mike’s desk is waaaay over there,” Sulley explains, pointing, in a way, her little body forward as he shows her Mike’s half of the office (he notes absently that it’s very messy).

“Mike Wazowski!”

He chuckles, letting her down, “Yes, Boo.”

Almost immediately she waddles towards Mike’s space. Opening drawers. Rummaging through his Jokester props and what he assumes is his lesson plans. He’ll have to explain what happened later. Maybe.

Currently, Sulley is struck with the paranoid assumption that he hasn’t locked his office door. He goes to make sure of it as Boo plops down into the carpet. Having purloined a piece of paper that is hopefully nothing important. Like a tax form.

“Mike Wazowski…” rapt in attention, Boo begins folding various edges, and so Sulley safely makes it to his door without alerting her to the indicting prospect of the outside world.

Sulley twists the handle and finds that he did indeed, lock his office door, as is his custom. And doubly so, makes sure the lock above is firmly placed, only to find that it is also in place.

Part of him wonders what he would’ve done had it not been. Locked. That is.

Open it. Perhaps. With some pretense of it being accidental. A nudge too loud and Boo’s attention would’ve been arrested completely.

But, no.

No, he’s not that irresponsible. Though it’s a tempting idea.

Sulley turns and finds Boo has made a paper airplane.

“Boo!” She says, throwing it towards him.

Its trajectory is impressive. If too low to truly fly to him. Sulley takes a long step to meet it half way as was her intention, and it hits him square in the shins.

Sulley picks it up with an uxorious grin, “Is this for me?”

She giggles. Nodding.

“Thank you, Boo,” he holds it in both hands as if it were a holy relic, for a moment too touched to care about the fact that it looks like she did indeed use a tax form, “C’mere you!’

He crouches low and lunges for her, prompting a loud shriek of delight as she allows herself to be scooped back into his arms.

“My thoughtful girl!” He says, snuggling into her hair. Sulley finds that he’s breathing deeply. Winded. Perhaps because of the physical extortion or more because this is the first time he’s allowed himself to truly breathe without fear that Boo’s bedroom door might open and snatch her away from him forever.

Boo falls into light giggles as she returns the gesture, action that causes his heart to ache, if only for the gentleness of it.

“Here, this is my desk,” he says,
pivoting to his much larger, yet far less interactive, part of the office. Though he feels a certain amount of pride when Boo appears to be even more excited about his than she had been Mike’s.

Sulley sits down in his office chair, at his lavish office desk, and sets Boo on his lap as she immediately reaches for her framed drawing.

His smile softens, almost sheepish as he hands it to her, “I keep it here so I can see it whenever I need you -“ he pauses, “ - to cheer me up.”

Boo coos at the frame, running her round fingers against the glass in awe. Sulley wants to believe that she’s as honored as he feels, with proof that he’s thinking of her nearly as much as he hopes she thinks of him. She must, if all her drawings of him are anything to go by, but he still wonders.

This, though, this is the most important drawing she’s ever done. Of them. Together. It’s what kept him sane for over a month, without her, surrounded by a barely hanging on company, and continued to give him levity after he obtained her door again. Of course he’d give it a place of importance.

She looks up at him with a toothy grin. Hugging the frame tightly in her arms before borrowing into him.

He’s glad Boo understands the significance.

Sulley sighs. Basking in the sun behind them, to be sure, but another warmth is what sets him completely at peace. This is what his office needed. This final piece to make it truly feel like he belongs here. That he’s the rightful CEO of Monster Incorporated.

A company entirely dedicated to making children laugh, and his girl in his arms, happy as can be.

He nearly dozes off, contented, before the sun begins to lower just enough that it reminds him of the one of the better perks of his new job

He turns in his chair, nudging Boo from nearly sleeping herself, “Boo - look!”

She blinks, blearily, before her eyes widen at the overhead view of the city before them.

It’s impressive. Sure. With the orange hues of the sun glistening over the glass of various buildings. But as the horizon cools and ebbs, the city takes to new colors of its own. Brighter. Better.

Nightfall on Monstropolis is wondrous to behold.

Two - three - dozens of towers and buildings begin to twinkle back to life. Proof that his work is right. Evidence that laughter is better than screams could ever be. A whole city powered by goodness and empathy.

Boo is speechless. Smiling to the pretty tips of her glistening eyes.

=

They stay like that for what feel like the entire night but couldn’t be more than an hour or so.

Sulley tells her the names of all the highest buildings. The street corners where he likes to go grab lunch or dinner. Points out his apartment building, which she remembers with a delighted trill.

Boo bounces on his lap but never fusses to be put down or makes demands for him to bring anything to her. Though he gathers how ardently she commits every corner of the city to memory. In a few nights, Sulley is sure he will be treated to full recreations and perhaps even municipal blueprints for all that Boo has the uncanny ability to pen accurate images to paper when she so wants to.

It’s only when Boo begins to doze off again that Sulley figures that he’s overstayed their little trip to his office. The lull of his voice cascading over her until he can hear her soft little snores.

“Boo?” He asks, knowing silence would answer. With Boo in his arms and on his lap, he wants for any excuse to pretend that he hasn’t noticed she’s asleep.

By the light of the city through his window. Energy powered by charming children, but none as charming as she is, Sulley wonders how easy it would be if he simply kept her here.

Wonders if he just allows himself to doze off after her. Blame it on the hour. Losing track of time.

By morning it’ll be to late to bring her back. Unsafe, even. He’d have no choice but to bring her home. Perhaps spend the day with her at the factory, showing her how things have changed.

Maybe something will happen that will cause her to stay until the next morning. And the one after that. It’s never a dull moment at the factory, after all.

Wishful thinking.

Sulley lifts her with ease. Not disturbing her gentle sleep.

He lumbers to his hidden door and into the secret room where her closet entrance lays waiting. Almost mocking. If he allowed himself to feel bitter about it.

But as Boo snuggles into his cradling arms, Sulley suppresses any negative feelings he has and pursues his primary objective of tucking her back in. Safe and sound.

She clings to him only once. Proof that she would rather stay with him. Before Sulley suppresses that, too, and pulls her comforter over her body.

“Next time, I’ll tell Mike and we’ll give you a tour of the factory, okay?” He says, mostly to the silence of her room, given her closed eyes.

But she does nod, mumbling, “m’wazowski…”

Sulley chuckles.

He pulls away. But finds he cannot move. Knelt beside her bed. Watching her. The infinitesimal urge to remain by her side a constant adversary that tonight he has not strength to fight.

If she can’t stay with him. Maybe he can stay with her.

Tonight. Tomorrow.

He watches Boo sleep and imagines himself cutting ties with the monster world. So resistant to change that they would rather scare children younger than Boo for creature comforts they can do without.

Mike could handle the company. He’s always been more adaptable than Sulley. Charismatic in the face of opposition.

That way. Sulley won’t have to worry about bias news anchors. Quarterly reports. Losing his temper because he never really got over that competitive edge and was missing his girl.

This way. He can always be with his Boo.

But.

No.

No, it’s yet another fantasy he lets play in his head a little too long to be healthy. After all. Where would he hide? Her closet. He’ll creep around her room after she leaves. Her house when her - the other humans go to wherever it is they do in the morning. He’ll miss her terribly and wait for her to come back like a sad puppy. Bad kitty.

But logic can be cruel. And tonight he doesn’t want to be responsible. Wants to pretend that one of these nights, he won’t ever have to leave Boo again.

So. Against his better judgement. He stays. Sitting by her bed. Watching her. Half awake. Until the light of her bedroom window creeps over his back while he shields her eyes from the waking sun of the human world.

It’s warm. But not as warm as she ever will be.

It’s bright. But not a bright as she is.

It beckons him to leave before he is caught and taken from Boo forever.

Sulley heeds that call as he does most everything that doesn’t involve her. With great reluctance and personal pain.

He makes sure not to wake her. Pads gently to her closet door. Glancing one last time to the only person who truly makes him feel like himself again. Now that his world has changed.

It isn’t until he drags himself back into his office that he notices that Boo’s tiny hand print is still pressed sweetly on the glass of her framed drawing. Proof she was here. Proof she existed.

Proof that she cared about him, too.

Chapter Text

In hindsight.

The fact that Boo’s freshly placed handprint had been burglarized and shattered. With her drawing of them missing to boot. Was probably why Sulley had been so hard on Tyler in the first place.

His judgement had been impaired. Both by the accusation that he hadn’t known about Waternoose’s son (he had) and the mounting amount of evidence against Tyler in the first place.

He’s not proud of it. To be sure.

Even after the drawing is returned to him. Even after realizing how he should be grateful that Randall had only stolen that , and apparently not noticed that Sulley had a secret doorway to Boo’s room again, Sulley still found himself lamenting the shiny, new glass that separated her art from his hands.

Her tiny handprint was lost to time now. And it wouldn’t quite be the same to replicate it after the fact. The profound, earth moving truth of what it represented to him would not hit the same way.

Or something. Mike insisted he was being overly dramatic.

And perhaps that was true. Perhaps that was why Sulley still wanted to make amends with Tyler in some way. Having him and Val become a duo had been an easy accommodation. All things considered. If, at one point in his life, Sulley had needed help scaring children, then he could not discount that making children laugh also necessitated some level of support.

Sulley couldn’t rightfully put down anyone who needed a competent partner to keep him in check. He had Mikey, after all. And he had spent years adjusting, always adjusting, to whatever new reality Sulley thrust upon them both.

And now he had Boo.

“So, what do you think?” Sulley peered at Boo’s rapt expression, her attention entirely on the backlogged footage of Tyler and Val thrown across the various screens of the try out room, “They make a good team, huh?”

Boo looked up at him with a toothy grin.

Apparently, having Boo meant that having her opinion on most everything was fast becoming a necessity to Sulley. He was starting to run his entire day planner by her, and it would make him feel slightly pathetic if she weren’t so darn great at making her opinion known.

She points at Val, who seems to be her favorite of the two.

Sulley has to concede to her point, “Val is naturally comedic, I think she bounces off Tyler in a way that compliments his usual awkwardness. Mikey calls him a ‘straight man archetype’ - it’s a…comedy trope, i think.”

Boo makes a face as he rewinds to Tyler’s solo-stint at being a Jokester. He really was rather terrible at it on his own. But it makes Sulley laugh to see her usually sunny disposition sour.

“You’re a tough critic, Boo,” he said, ruffling her hair with his muzzle.

The last time she’d been here. It was Sulley’s face on these very monitors. Terrifying her.

But that was the past. At the present, Sulley had been leading Boo on various tours of the factory. Going further and further every chance he had, as his fear dissipated and his audacity grew.

He no longer cared if someone walked in on them. Not that anyone had in all this time (which furthered his resolve, unfortunately). And after being held for questioning for 24 hours, there wasn’t much else barring actual jail time that he bothered concerning himself with at this point.

Tyler had help prove to the monster world that human children were deserving of empathy. Of compassion. And with that brain worm wiggling inside the minds of everyone at large, Sulley felt less like a recluse pushing his luck, and more like someone who had every right to be with Boo.

A dangerous thought in an of itself, but he felt too vindicated to care.

Yes, it was his right. To show her all the work he’s put into the factory since she’d been away. To inform her of all the ways her kindness and joy had reshaped the world he had lived in for countless years.

If not for her very presence. None of this would have happened. The power of alternative laugh energy would have never been known, especially during such an energy crisis. And generations of human children would have continued to suffer fear and alarm for no other reason than to provide monsters basic necessities.

Or worse. If Randal and his array of corrupt CEOs had had their way.

Missing human children. Boo among the first of them. Used and abused until the worst happened, and Monstropolis would have turned a blind eye, if only to keep the lights on.

He couldn’t bear the thought. Pulling Boo closer to himself, even though she was already comfortably sitting on his lap.

Boo looks up at him, a bit of warm concern on her face.

“It’s nothing,” Sulley replies, planting another kiss on the top of her head, “Bad memories…”

Boo allows herself to be adored. She’s been enjoying these trips into the factory. Likely missing running around its halls the same way Sulley has missed chasing her through them. But now, neither of them have much to fear, have no reason to look around every corner.

James P. Sullivan is now the co-CEO of the most lucrative and monopolized method of laugh energy in all of the monster world. Boo was under his protection. And though he would never abuse his power like Waternoose or Worthington. He would do anything and everything to ensure her safety.

Boo goes back to pointing at Tyler’s horns. One of the monitors is showing security footage of what he had done at Fear Co.

Technically, he shouldn’t be in possession of it, seeing that it is evidence in an ongoing investigation, but the MIFT crew has a reputation of…unethical technical practices, and they wanted some proof of how heroic everyone had been.

It certainly filled in the blanks for Mike and him, after they’d been released. And looking at it now, with Boo on his lap, Sulley allows his mind to wander on a specific thought.

“Do you think Tyler would be happier back at MIFT?”

He cringes at his own words. Aware that they sound a bit unfair after everything the kid went through to find himself. Tyler had gone out of his way to be a Jokester, after spending a lifetime training to be a Scarer. And after a bit of floundering on his own, he still chose to go back to it, knowing that scaring was fast becoming an unethical energy gathering practice.

But really, he seemed to have just been getting used to MIFT when he was approved for Jokester duty. And for all that Scaring had been his dream, Sullivan also knew of Tyler’s family background with using tools and being handymen.

Even Boo seemed to agree, as she bounced on his knee at his words. She seemed to like watching Tyler tinker away. And he definitely had a knack for it, once he got out of his own way.

But the same could be said for his Jokester capabilities.

“He tries really hard,” Sulley finds himself saying, “And he’s proven himself over and over again -”

Boo makes a sound almost akin to her telling him to relax about it. She’s moved on to playing with the various panels of the buttons.

Maybe the real reason he feels so responsible for Tyler was precisely because the kid made it possible for him to finally feel safe with Boo. That the weight on Sulley’s shoulders as dissipated almost entirely, replaced with her own wait over his lap.

And that had to warrant its own reward. His own gratitude. But was that really fair, if he knew Tyler would be able to truly thrive outside of the laugh floor?

Sulley rubbed his paw over his face, it was something to consider. Maybe not right now, as with Val he was finally finding his footing, but in the future perhaps.

At present he would rather focus on Boo.

“Hey are you getting hungry?” He asked her, nonplused, “Cuz i could really go for a bite to eat!”

Her enthusiasm was instantaneous.

He chuckled at her joy, lifting her up in one go as she squealed in his arms and flew about as if she were a super hero and he her wings.

“Let’s go back upstairs! Celia packed us a picnic dinner!” It was really just his own dinner, but it was enough to feed them both, and no one really had to know.

Boo laughed as he carried her all the way back.

It was almost laughable how much Sulley would plan these nights out, nowadays. Now - without the anvil of Monsters Inc’s closure hovering over him, now - without fear of ridicule or anger at the prospect of respecting human children’s autonomy, now - that he was riding the high of being a successful laugh fuel tycoon.

Boo happily ran into his office, now outfitted with various odds and ends that suited a child her age. A lot of fancy toys littered his side of the office, curtesy of being a newfound top per-center.

One gala where he let slip that he had a kid he wanted to shower with presents, and suddenly he had CEOs of toy companies galore sending him pre-orders, care packages.

Mike had raised his one brow when the prototypes and other children’s gadgets had become fumbling in, but as ever, his friend of years simply allowed him what little indulgence Sulley asked for. Though he did get the feeling that Mikey was preparing to move into his own, less cluttered office.

More room for Boo, in any case.

She sat across from him, insisting as ever to emulate a nice little tea party, curtesy of a fine porcelain shop that made tea party sets for very wealthy, pampered little girls.

Sulley smiled as Boo offered him a scone, babble on in her way what he assumed was princess decorum.

Some fashion houses had even sent over adorable little outfits for James P Sullivan’s sister’s cousin’s niece, twice removed. And some part of him was smug about how the hand-tailored outfits were probably much nicer, and much more expensive than anything Boo’s human parents could give. Not that he could compare. She was often in her pajamas when he went to get her.

Right now, she had on a fetching, cream-colored jacket over her PJ’s, and Sulley had put a matching headband in her hair. She looked ever the part of his doted-on little Boo, and he allowed himself to imagine the Monstropolis outside his window not in the nighttime, but in broad daylight. He allowed himself to create a world where he had brought her over for work, and that this was his lunch break, and that no one was to disturb him while he had tea time with Boo.

She lifted the play-teapot and hovered it over Sulley’s teeny tiny teacup.

“Why thank you, Princess Boo,” he smiled, allowing her to pour what amounted to juice into the tiny cup. Boo was so pleased with her perfect serving that she giggled. Loud and openly.

Sullivan had long since stopped telling her to lower her voice or whisper while they were in his office.

And because he really was starting to get hungry, Sulley dug into his packed dinner and wondered how much nicer this would be if he didn’t have to bring re-heated food to his office.

They could head over to the cafeteria, one of these nights. He had worked here, after his time in the mail room, and knew how to cook even if Mike complained about it, before Celia had come around.

But eventually, he knew that he would get tired of treating Monsters Inc as his personal domain. As safe and secure as it was. There was so much more in the world he wanted Boo to see, to know.

And truthfully, he’d already been planning on fixing up a room for her back in his apartment.

Delusion.

That’s what it was. That’s what it had to be, even as Sulley was aware of it pressing on the back of his mind. Pure delusion, to be thinking so far ahead, so dangerously close to what he’d never allowed himself to indulge in before.

A precaution, he had told himself at the start. Something waiting for her, just in case. A place for her to relax if only for a few hours, if she ever got tired of the power plant. Maybe he’d even have her door moved. It made more sense, anyway. Better to set it up in a happy home. Than in a cold and empty factory office. Even if she had full run of the place.

Pleasant, reasonable excuses. He knew.

But he also couldn’t help it. Boo was perfectly happy sitting across from him. Dressed to the nines and playing with her toys that he had gotten her. That he had thought to give her. Eating dinner with him. Spending time with him. She had a whole life here, waiting for her. Waiting with him.

It was all enough to absolve him from any self-censor. After all, Mikey was likely about to get his own place. Either moving in with Celia or getting someplace of their own to start a family, now that things were officially serious between them. Mike had been waiting for his own life to start, as anxious as Sulley had been with the company and not knowing where their place in the world would become.

But now they were sure. Now they both had the security of knowing what direction the company was headed towards. Of their standing within it and all the responsibility and influence it afforded them.

So Mike was going to eventually move out and move one. From this office, from their shared apartment. They’d see each other every day at the company and it wasn’t like Sulley’s social life had ever been anything more than hanging out with his college age best friend, so there was no worry of them drifting apart in that end.

And Sulley had no plans to seek out a replacement roommate who wasn’t small, clever, and adorably human.

Boo mumbled between bites as she drew on a piece of thick crayon paper. Sulley had gotten her some proper art supplies the other day.

“Hey, Boo,” he said, his mouth and his words feeling worlds apart, though he could feel himself smile as Boo looked up at him, “Why don’t you draw me a picture of your dream bedroom? Whatever you want, even a unicorn bed, if you like it.”

She smiled toothily, bouncing excitedly on his desk chair, “Kitty!”

Sulley laughed to see her so animated, “Yes, i mean it.”

Boo got to work immediately. Scribbling up a storm.

By tomorrow she’ll likely have an array of blueprints and floor plans. And he, ever her loyal Kitty, will begin coming up with all the ways he would follow her demands to the letter.

By tomorrow, he’ll be in talks with various scream-energy companies, the start of a series of collaborations to convert their technology into better, and safer methods of laugh-based energy gathering.

Power. Is what the monster-world needed. Power to run their homes, their cars, their every waking moment of life. Monster Inc would always be the innovator, the beacon of progress. But they were willing to share their success altruistically. For a slice of the pie. A share of their profits. For a seat at certain tables, which relied on companies like his to keep the people contented.

Entire world-governments calling his office phone nonstop.

Power was what monsters like Waternoose and Worthington grasped at as it slid through their antiquated fingers. But Sullivan was not the type to want it for the reason they did. The concept itself felt abhorrent.

But he knew it was something that made things easier.

To illicit change, that is. To wield for the benefit of the monster world. James was not some hungry and tyrannical energy CEO that would hoard his influence over others for personal gain. He didn’t need anything more than what he had at present.

A nice apartment. A comfortable office. His best friend.

And Boo.

“Kitty!” Her voice cut through his thoughts, a page colored every inch in pinks and purples and little bit of blue held up in her arms.

“Is that supposed to be me?” He asked, noting she had built a space for him in her perfect little dream bedroom.

She nodded, giggling.

It was all the affirmation he needed.

“Finish up your dinner, Boo, and I’ll show you some ideas I had for a company garden,” he smiled as he cut into his own stake.

“Yeah!” She said, enthusiastically, words coming easier to her every day.

Off to the side, the room that led to her door was growing more and more forgotten. Boo would often stay late. Or Sulley would pick her up earlier. And eventually, he feels, he’ll simply forget or give into his ever growing impulses. Perhaps after Mikey moves out and he finishes setting up a room for her. He only has to bring her over to his side once, after all, and the portal between her room and his office doesn’t even have to exist, in time. Back again into the shredder.

It was a lovely thought.

A tangible one. Now.

James P Sullivan was a good man. A benevolent CEO. A supportive friend and affable boss. He’d been an absent son but now his parents reached out to him more often than not to sing his praises.

Now that he was someone with power, money, vision and influence. He could offer protection. He could offer the world. And he’d finally get people to listen. Finally make them see what he did, every time he looked into Boo’s eyes. And even if they didn’t. Who would deny the monster who revolutionized the monster world?

And unlike the monsters he had faced before, James P Sullivan would not wield his position using fear and threat. Would not ask for anything he didn’t actually want or for anyone to put themselves at risk for a bottom line or some misguided family legacy.

He would ask for only one thing.

One person.

After all, what use was there to mourn a little handprint on the glass of his picture frame, when the one who put it there was happily eating just across his desk. Unbothered, not rushed, the perfect picture of contentment. Here in the space he carved out for her.

Now that Sulley had just a little bit of security on his side of Boo’s door, he allowed himself to dream.