Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Ooh,” Susie hummed, her eyes wide. A grin stretched across her face as she held up the next movie she wanted to watch. “She’s so pretty! Can we watch this one?” 

“You got to pick last week!” Fritz pouted at her. Jeremy shoved him, half-playfully, half-protectively. 

“You got to pick two weeks in a row last month!” He gave his old friend a light glare. “At least be fair about it.” 

“I did not!” 

“You did too!” 

“Guys,” Gabriel groaned, dragging his hands down his face. “Could you shut up?” 

“Can they?” Charlie sat down next to him, stretching her arms above her head and already shoving three of the chocolate chip cookies Susie had baked into her mouth. “If-ought chu iked-em?” 

“I do like them,” Gabriel glared in his friends’ direction, making the three giggle. “I just don’t like it when they fight.” 

“You should have thought of that before you became friends,” Elizabeth plopped herself on Gabriel’s other side, reaching over him to get to Charlie’s cookies. The brown-haired girl gave her a dirty look that Elizabeth only grinned at. “It comes with the territory, I’m afraid.” 

“That’s siblings,” Evan gave her a deadpan look, reaching over Charlie’s shoulder to grab a cookie, too, before taking his seat on the couch. Gabriel and Elizabeth snickered at Charlie’s look of offense. 

“Dude! Guys! Stop stealing my cookies!” 

“I baked them for everyone,” Susie reminded her. Charlie shoved another one in her mouth, swallowing it without hardly chewing. 

“Everyone knows chocolate chip cookies are exclusively my cookies.”

“Not one of us agreed to that!” Fritz shot back. Evan looked around, tapping his fingers nervously against his leg. 

“Are we sure about this?” He asked no one in particular. He glanced down to see that, somehow, Jeremy, Fritz, and Susie were practically on top of Charlie, trying to grab some cookies. Poor Gabriel was practically squished under them and Elizabeth was doing her best to get them off of him. “I mean, they’re still kind of…” 

He trailed off. Elizabeth finally managed to pop Gabriel free of the multifaceted attack on Charlie, giving him a dumbfounded look. 

“Well, yeah, I don’t see why not,” she looked to Gabriel for his opinion. He nodded slowly. 

“Well… Mrs. Carson might still be weird around Mike,” he hummed. “But everyone else seems alright, so… I guess I’m with Liz on this.” 

Evan circled his thumbs around each other. 

“Well, obviously, mum and Uncle Henry are alright with him…” he practically mumbled. “And Mr. and Mrs. Granin seem to like him-“ 

“Yeah, I’m gonna be honest, I don’t know how that happened,” Fritz admitted. He pulled away from the Charlie-pile, triumphant, a cookie in hand. “One second my dad is all weird with him, next thing I know they’re kinda protective of him.” 

“Mikey is very adoptable,” Elizabeth said. Evan blinked at her. 

“What…? Does that even mean?” 

“I mean if he acts pathetic enough- which he does- every adult he comes across will want to take care of him out of pity,” Elizabeth nodded to herself. “I’ve seen it happen plenty of times.” 

“When? With the Funtimes?” 

Evan smirked as her face flushed red, offense making her jaw drop. 

“Hey, if momma tries to start something, I’ll stop her,” Susie piped in, rolling away with two cookies in her hands. Charlie let out a small gasp of horror at her diminishing pile of cookies. “I like Mike. He’s like a better version of my dad.” 

“Well… ok,” Evan’s smirk dropped as he started worrying about the night all over again. It was true, every time Mrs. Carson had tried to start something, either Mum or Susie stepped in and stopped things before they could escalate. That still didn’t make it right, though, Mike didn’t deserve that. 

“And don’t worry about mom and dad,” Jeremy was the last person to back away from Charlie, half a cookie already in his mouth. Charlie glared around at all of them, aside from Evan. “I think they like Mike, too. I dunno, they don’t really talk about it.” 

Everyone knew that Jeremy often pulled away from his parents to play with Fritz and Susie, or to ramble on about random things with Mike. It was too weird, he’d said once, having so much time with them. He needed to adjust. 

That was a few months ago, or as close to a few months ago as he could figure. Time was weird, here. Time probably didn’t actually matter, here. 

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, Ev,” Charlie reassured him once she’d had her fill of stink-eye towards the others. “Mike may have the shittiest mental health I've ever seen, but he knows us. He trusts us, and he knows we’ll be louder than every other voice he’s ever come across.” 

“Yeah,” Elizabeth agreed. “There’s only so much sibling idiocy I can deal with before I have to step in, you know.” 

“Yeah, I’m sure,” but Evan found himself relaxing, anyway, watching Fritz and Susie get into an argument about the next movie they would watch, about what their parents might like to watch on their first official Movie Night, what they might enjoy most. 

He took and released a deep breath. 

Things would be fine… it was fine. 

Things were not fine, and they never would be again. 

Cassidy had her arms crossed, foot tapping restlessly against the ground- or whatever this might constitute as- her anger growing, dimming, growing again, becoming impatience, then dimming. 

She hated this. She hated everything about this. 

“You realize I could’ve done this myself, right?” She turned her attention to Mike, who was sitting down next to her, his legs crossed. He was tapping rhythmically on the ground, humming something to himself. 

“Yeah, I know,” that was all he said. For some reason, the response made the tension in her shoulders loosen. 

“You might miss all the snacks,” she tried. Mike shrugged. 

“It’s chocolate chip cookies tonight,” he gave her a grin. “They were gone before they left the oven.” 

Cassidy heard a soft snort from behind them. She smiled and turned to see the adults and Gabriel’s brother, every single one of them, gathered in a small crowd. 

The explanation had been simple, and straight to the point: Cassidy was dumb. She bonded her soul to William, and every once in a while, he would have to come up here for a couple short minutes so that their souls didn’t like, dissipate or whatever. This wasn’t the first time they’d had to meet up for this, but it was the first time Cassidy had an entourage this big. 

Sometimes, one or two (or all, depending on everyone’s moods) of her friends would be here. They’d bully him, tease him, mock him, sometimes, they’d straight-up just attack. Mike had joined her for every one of these trips, never failing to be by her side, but this was the very first time any of the parents had joined them. 

And, just her luck, it was all the parents here today. Hooray. 

“What exactly should we expect?” Mrs. Harris asked. “Will he… you know, attack us?” 

Cassidy snorted. 

“Like he’d be dumb enough to try that,” she gestured to Mike, who was still humming to himself. “Mike can still make his afterlife an unliving hell, remember?” 

“So much DD,” he supplied helpfully. “Every run, for a straight week. He’d lose whatever sense of sanity he has left.” 

“Besides,” Mrs. A stepped forward, cracking her knuckles. “I’ll be here this time. If he tries anything, I pour boiling water down his pants.” 

“Have I ever told you how much I like you?” This was big for her, because Cassidy didn’t usually like much of anyone, especially adults. “Because I could sit down and watch you torture him over and over again for all eternity.” 

“You could sit down and watch him be tortured by anyone for all eternity,” Mike mumbled. He turned around to address Mrs. Harris before Cassidy could come up with a response. Bitch. “It’s usually pretty quick. He comes here, Cassidy and William stare at each other, sometimes one of the kids takes out their anger on him, he goes back, and we call it a day. Just… try not to say anything, for now, and we’ll see how it goes.” 

There was more to it, of course. The more time Cassidy was forced to spend around William, the better she got to know him. She thinks he might have cared about his family, once, and she’s a bit horrified that a part of him might still be convinced that he cares about them, but he did it in such a fundamentally fucked up way that she could barely entertain the thought. 

She also realized just how fucked up his relationship with Mike was, beyond what they already knew. Once upon a time, Mike told them everything he had been through, everything he had sacrificed and everything William had done. She hadn’t fully grasped just how much of a hold William had had on Mike, but their awful three man visits had left her feeling queasy more than once. 

It was a roundabout way of caring about Mike that felt like blatant manipulation, and Mike, as stupid as he was, just chugged along with it, even after spending time with her and her friends. He was getting better about ignoring William and the little voices in his head that told him everything was his fault, but the fact that it was still there made her blood boil. 

She felt a tug deep in her gut and took a deep breath, exhaling and releasing it slowly. She heard more than saw Mike scootch closer to her, bumping her shoulder with his reassuringly. Cassidy nodded and braced herself. 

A wave of dizziness washed over her that was gone as quickly as it had arrived. Something in her soul reached out and reconnected with itself. She spun around, peering past the adults, and there he was: William Afton, in all his purple-suited non-glory. 

When the group finally realized he was there, they backed up and jumped away from him, making a small, loose circle around him, Cassidy, Mike, Mr. Emily, and Mrs. A. Cassidy nodded at him once in the form of a very shrewd greeting. 

“Afton,” William’s face hardened, loosened, as if he were going to roll his eyes. 

“Cassidy,” she hated how he could remember her name, now, but since it was basically all her faul- 

Nope. Bad Cassidy. Don’t be like Mike. Focus on the torture you can still inflict upon him, rather than the fact that you gave him a few moments of brief respite. 

…THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO AVOID THINKING ABOUT, CASSIDY. 

“Michael,” William’s eyes locked onto Mike like a hawk locking onto its prey. Mike’s eyes, to her surprise, didn’t shift away from blue. He stayed in his slouched over, relaxed position, as if William didn’t bother him in the slightest. 

“Hi,” William blinked at him, his eyebrows narrowing. 

“What are you doing over there?” Oh, Cassidy could stand up and strangle the guy. His tone was harsh and demanding, as it always was when he addressed Mike, and she didn’t like it. She glanced around at the group, curious what they might think, and was pleasantly surprised to see that most of them- barring Susie’s mother, of course, though she looked a bit conflicted- had started giving William dirty looks. 

“I’m just sitting,” Mike’s tone was even, not in a controlled sort of way, but naturally so. Cassidy was proud of him. Mike’s eyes moved up and down William and he hummed a bit. “What do you want?” 

She’d need Mike to teach her how to read William. Their soul-bond wasn’t nearly as strong as hers and Evan’s, so she couldn’t really feel anything from him and hopefully vice-versa. She didn’t want William to feel even a small shred of the happiness she felt with her friends. Then again, Mike’s ability to read the bastard likely stemmed from years of abuse and trauma, so it would probably be better if she didn’t ask. 

“Your animatronics are beginning to fall into disrepair,” Mike tapped his fingers on the ground again. 

“You want to fix the animatronics that go to kill you every night?” William’s eyes narrowed. Mike continued tapping on the ground. 

“They’re the only mental stimulation I get, so I think I would have an interest in ensuring they still function.” 

“Especially the Funtimes, right?” 

The area was filled with a sudden tension. Cassidy could almost taste it in the air, felt the exact moment it arrived. Everyone else seemed to feel it, too, as Mrs. A finally stepped forward, her face twisted in barely-controlled rage. 

“What do you really want, Will?” She demanded. “What exactly are you asking Mike for?” 

“Love, I’ve already said what I want,” the tension didn’t leave. In fact, it only felt like it grew. Mike had stopped tapping on the ground, his blue eyes shining, somehow more vibrant, but his body was still as relaxed and unbothered as before. “I only wanted t- “

“I’ve already checked Ballora as thoroughly as possible,” Mike cut him off, leaning back on his hands. William’s head swiveled over to him immediately. “What you’re looking for isn’t there.” 

Cassidy blinked at him. What? William was looking for something… inside of Ballora? Had Mike looked for it too? 

“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about, Michael.” 

“Is this really a game you want to play right now?” Mike’s eyes narrowed, too, his mouth pulling into a frown. “I know what you want. You’re not getting it.” 

“Try not to throw a tantrum or anything,” Cassidy cut in, wanting to take at least some of William’s attention off her old guard. With the way Mike was staring at him, she had to assume that William was trying to psych him out in some way, or manipulate him, or just… something that she disapproved of. 

Some of the vibrancy in Mike’s eyes dimmed at her words, which she would count as a win. She wasn’t sure what it meant, having only seen it a few times before, but she decided she didn’t like it. William’s face twisted slightly, but Mike didn’t move. 

“I want to work on the animatronics.”

“And as the person who was in charge of their maintenance before, I say no.” 

“Michael,” William’s voice was bordering on threatening. Cassidy moved closer to him with a glare on her face. 

“Don’t go there, Afton,” she felt her voice grow deeper, more dangerous, unnatural. An angry, restless spirit ready to be unleashed. “You’re not in charge of anything.” 

William actually paused for a moment, taking her in. He sighed and held his hands up in surrender, backing down. Cassidy stepped back, being careful that she was standing perfectly between him and Mike. 

“I apologize, I got carried away for a moment,” Cassidy’s glare hardened, but she didn’t say anything. “I won’t do so again.” 

“Damn right you won’t,” she growled at him. “Time for you to go. Our souls are done recharging.” 

William only looked like he wanted to argue about it for a moment. He nodded, instead, there was a tug at her gut, and William was gone. Cassidy breathed out harsher than she’d intended. 

She looked around at everyone present. Mr. Emily had made his way next to Mike, his hand just short of brushing against his shoulder. Mrs. A was pacing just behind them, looking for all the world like a caged animal. Mr. Granin walked over, hesitated, then pat Mike’s other shoulder twice. 

“Well, he’s… certainly a piece of work,” he tried. Mrs. Granin pressed her hand to her head. 

“Roger.” 

“What? He is!” 

Mike smiled at that. Cassidy would count it as a win. 

What the two of them missed, however, were the meaningful looks shared between the adults. 

Chapter Text

“Anastasia, huh?” Mike nodded to himself. “That’s a good one.” 

“Her hair matches Cassidy’s, sort of,” Susie beamed at him and Cassidy rolled her eyes. As the two had predicted, the cookies were long gone. Charlie didn’t look even the slightest bit remorseful. 

“It’s still mostly black, you know,” she ran her hand through her much shorter hair. Mike had cut it at chin level, then, at her request, had tried dying streaks of it blonde. Neither of them had accounted for the fact that Cassidy’s hair had never been dyed before, so the streaks were more of a red towards the bottom, where the bleach hadn’t been layered as heavily, and closer to the blonde she’d wanted near the top. 

“Why would you ask Mike to dye your hair?!” Elizabeth had exclaimed when she saw it. “He’s never once dyed it himself for this exact reason!” 

Evan had sighed and shaken his head in amusement. 

“Leave it to Mikey to make someone’s hair look like fire.” 

“Hey!” 

Cassidy liked it, honestly. She liked it way more than she liked the pigtails. 

“That doesn’t matter!” Susie bounced back over to her seat, spinning around to point at her mom, then gesturing to the couch. “Sit there! I’ll sit down here.” 

Honey blinked at her and did as she was told. The other kids directed their parents where they wanted them all seated- most of them on the couch and various chairs that had been pulled from the kitchen- while the kids and Mike all settled into their usual spots on the floor, blankets and pillows laid out. 

Cassidy felt Evan take his seat next to her while Mike popped in the tape. 

“How’d it go?” He breathed out. “You seemed pretty angry today.” 

“I’m always angry,” Cassidy shot back. “You know this.” 

“Cass.” 

“It’s William and Mike, how do you think it went?” 

Evan sighed, falling into silence at that. He was almost radiating annoyance, but Cassidy could feel a block on it, like he was trying to keep himself under control. She bumped into his shoulder. 

“Hey, I thought we weren’t doing that anymore,” she mumbled. Evan gave her a dirty look, but he relaxed, the block on their bond lifting slightly. She nodded. “Better.” 

“Shut up.” 

Brandon shifted around once, glanced over at Roger. He tapped the other man on the shoulder, getting his attention, and earning a raised eyebrow. 

“Do you know if the kids have any snacks?” Roger frowned slightly. 

“Pretty sure Charlotte ate them all,” he whispered back. Fritz, who just happened to be pressed against his dad’s legs, snorted loudly. 

“Yeah, like an animal.” 

He gave Charlie a smug grin, which clued her into the discussion, and she stood up, throwing the pillow she had been sitting on at his face. 

“They were my cookies, everyone knows this!” 

“Those cookies were for everyone!” 

“I’ve staked a legal claim on any and all chocolate chip cookies!” 

Mike paused the movie with a small sigh. Jeremy sat up slightly, pounding his fist into the floor. 

“I didn’t sign any contracts agreeing to this!” 

“You didn’t have to, I did!” 

“Yeah? Well lemme see your papers!” 

“I left them in the Hellspace!” 

“Your contract is null and void then!” 

“That’s not how that works!”

“What do you know about legal paperwork? You’re like 5!” 

Charlie grabbed the pillow Elizabeth was sitting on and yanked it out from under her, making the younger girl yelp and fall over. Charlie chucked the pillow in Jeremy’s direction but he ducked, causing it to hit Susie instead. The room was silent for all of three seconds before Elizabeth shot up, the pillow Gabriel had been sitting on in her hands. 

“Pillow fight!” 

Gabriel made his way over to Luke halfway through the movie, plopping himself down in his lap. The older boy raised an eyebrow at him, but otherwise, didn’t question his brother. 

“If you thought I was dead,” Gabriel started. Elizabeth snorted loudly and Fritz threw up his hands. 

“Dude!” 

“Shut up! I’m trying to ask a question!” Gabriel snapped back. He leaned against Luke’s chest. “Ok, so if you thought I was dead, but then I showed up randomly one day and claimed to be your brother, what would I have to say or do to get you to believe me?” 

Cassidy snorted before Luke could come up with an answer. 

“That’s easy,” she turned with an almost evil grin on her face. “Give him a box of Cheerios.” 

Luke had to hide his bark of laughter behind a very poor-sounding fake cough. Gabriel gave both of them an offended look that didn’t help. 

“Hey! Cheerios are good!” 

“They’re literally the blandest cereal in the world!” 

“Then get the ones with honey!” 

Luke squeezed his brother closer to his chest, humming a bit. 

“No, you know what’d really tell me you were really you?” Gabriel caught onto his tone immediately and went pale. 

“Oh no…” 

“Oh yes,” Cassidy made her way over to them, bouncing a bit. “Spill.” 

Luke grinned and poked Gabriel’s cheek. 

“If you happened to mention the Brownie Incident-“ 

Mike’s eyes widened, realizing immediately where he was going with this. He practically shot out of his seat, slapping his hand over Luke’s mouth as quickly as possible. 

“Oh absolutely not,” Luke couldn’t hold his laughter back anymore and lost it. Mike pressed his other hand to his mouth to try and stop the sound, with no luck. Gabriel pressed his hands to his face in embarrassment, but Cassidy pouted at them. 

“Hey no fair, I wanna hear about the Brownie Incident!” 

“Trust me, you really don’t.” 

“Is this one of those instances where you think we’re ’too young’?” Fritz asked. “Because I’m gonna remind everyone of the Foxy Situation with that one guard.” 

“Why?” Charlie practically demanded. “Why would you ever bring that up again?” 

“Because we went to court over it! I dunno, it seems like if we can handle that, we can handle anything!” 

Elizabeth blinked around at everyone. 

“The Foxy Situation?” 

“We’re getting back to the movie,” Mike said a little forcefully. He gave Luke a distrustful glance before slowly removing his hands from his mouth and making his way back over to his seat. 

Gabriel stayed put in Luke’s lap. 

“Her dress was so pretty!” Susie exclaimed. “I wish I knew how to make dresses.” 

Jeremy blinked at her. 

“But… you do?” 

“I wish I knew how to make dresses like that.” 

“You could always practice with cake, you know,” Mike hummed. Susie swiveled around to face him so fast that her curls bounced around her face. 

“What.” 

“Yeah,” Mike visibly fought down a snicker at her reaction. “You know, make cake or chocolate sculptures, practice making the dresses that way.” 

Susie was in Mike’s face in seconds, staring him down with her eyes wide. Mike yelped at the sudden closeness, but Susie didn’t move. 

“People do that? And you didn’t TELL ME??!?” 

“Um- “ 

“I’ve gotta do that now!” Susie bent down and grabbed Jeremy and Fritz’s hands, yanking both boys to their feet. She dragged them out the door, Fritz dramatically shouting “Tell my storyyyy!!!” 

Evan turned to Mike, his eyes innocent. 

“Well. Guess we’re never seeing them again.” 

“Evan!” 

Henry waited until he was absolutely certain all the kids were asleep before turning to address the very-much-still-awake adults in the room. 

“We need to talk,” he barely got anything else out of his mouth before Honey was taking charge of the conversation. 

“His eyes were glowing, earlier,” she looked around at everyone, her body tense and expression serious. “Is no one else concerned about this?” 

“Calm down, Honey,” Ki tried. “We all saw it, and yes, it is… mildly concerning-“ 

“‘The more vibrant his eyes are, the more he’s hiding’,” Eleanor made eye contact with Roger, her eyebrows furrowing. “That was what the bear- Helpy, right?- isn’t that what he said?” 

“But you heard William’s tone of voice,” Brandon pointed out. “Michael clearly never grew up in a stable and safe household.” 

“Excuse you, I always made sure my son was loved,” Rachel leaned into the couch cushions, crossing her arms. “Then again, that bastard ruined everything.” 

“A bastard you married,” Honey reminded her. Rachel’s sour look deepened. 

“He wasn’t like this when I married him,” her tone was snappish. 

“But you still- !” 

“Let’s all just calm down,” Henry enunciated the words as much as possible, trying to keep his  voice low enough to not wake the kids. He sighed. “Yes, William… he was something. I don’t know the full story, but I do know that Mike isn’t William. Mike is trying his best. Our kids love him, so we should all make an effort.” 

It was easier said than done. Henry and Rachel were quite literally the ones who knew him the best. 

Well, apart from Luke, seeing as the two had gone to school together at one point. 

Everyone fell silent after that, Henry clearly having more to say but likely not having the patience to say it to them. 

Not that any of them could blame him. Eleanor sat up straighter after a while, letting out a small huff of frustration. 

“I like him,” she admitted. “I’ve seen how well he and the boys get along, we’ve watched them play. I adore my Fritz, and if he says he wants me to trust Michael, then I’ll trust him. I owe my little boy that much, and I owe Michael for my little boy.” 

Brandon nodded slowly. 

“I still don’t trust him very much, but considering what we saw with William today…” he shook his head in what almost looked like disappointment. “Well… I’ll try to make a better effort in the future. 

Kyoko and Roger nodded in agreement, though Roger had a smile on his face. 

“Not that the bear didn’t hurt, of course,” he chuckled a bit. “It’s an adorable bear… but yeah, I’m with my wife on this. I like Michael.” 

Honey looked around at everyone like they were crazy, or like she heavily disagreed, but she was wise enough not to say anything, especially with Rachel glaring at her from across the room. Henry decided he would take what he could get; if they couldn’t stop hating Michael, he figured, then the least he would accept was that they weren’t mean or rude to him. 

“Thank you,” he breathed out. He gave everyone a slightly strained smile. “I really do appreciate it.”