This A/N is important, but all of this info can also be found on my profile.
Pairings: Goldie/Spring(trap), Foxy/Mike, Freddy/Chica/Bonnie, Alfred(Toy Freddy)/Bonsai(Toy Bonnie), Marion/Jeremy, Endie(the attached endoskeleton)/Vixy (Mangle), Paul(PG)/Patrick("Purple Guy")
Further notes are on my profile. If you have any questions that are answered there, I will direct you there. If you have any questions not answered there, I will add it to my profile.
Warnings: Anthro AU, college AU, Human/Non-human pairing, homosexuality, polygamy/polyamory, transexual/transgender, transphobia, PG/PG (although "Purple Guy" is not a murderer in this story), mentions of illnesses, physical & mental abuse, suicidal thoughts/self harm, etc. IN THIS STORY, "Purple Guy" is not a bad person, he's just one of those people who hate people as a collective group.
I write the full arc before posting the first part. However, Arc I is the only arc I'll be posting together.
Disclaimer: I own NONE of these characters.
"Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies."
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
-Arc 1, Part I: Moving In-
"For the record, this year I do not want to room with Foxy. His mess invaded my side of the room last year and I could've sworn it was going to eat me in my sleep!"
The group in the silver Sienna laughed at the golden bear's declaration. The red fox in question, Foxy, nudged his friend a bit and said with a grin, "To be fair, I don't want to room with you either. I nearly killed myself tripping on your music stand at least once a week!"
"You were the one always coming in after I went to sleep," the bear shot back with a smug grin. "Besides, you're the one who dropped one of your props- and refused to move it- right where I stored my stand. You know, on my side of the room."
"Goldie, give him a break," a purple rabbit laughed at his friends' 'argument.' "This is Foxy we're talking about. He's a pirate!"
The group began laughing even more as the driver, Goldie, pulled onto the college campus. All five beings in the car were returning for their second year, all of them determined to be the best they could be and still have fun. Honestly none of them were really looking to make new friends; they had everything they could need already.
"You could always room with me," one of Goldie's brothers told him with a chuckle, to which Goldie immediately responded with,
"Oh no, I am not rooming with you or Alfred. You two would drive me insane, Freddy!" The group laughed even more.
"Like I'll even be in your dorm room," the youngest bear laughed, opening the door and hopping out as they parked. He went around to the back of Goldie's silver Sienna and opened the trunk to grab his suitcases and bags. "Knowing me I'll be stuck with complete strangers again. The guy last year was way too upbeat and friendly, I swore he was going to smother me while I slept."
"How do you get "smother me while I sleep" from "upbeat and friendly"?" The rabbit asked his younger friend, also grabbing his own belongings. Alfred looked at the rabbit with a very flat expression.
"I was pretty sure he was a sociopath, Bonnie."
Bonnie chuckled and shook his head. "I don't think upbeat and friendly is exactly sociopathic behavior, Al."
"I'm pretty sure it was," Alfred replied simply, waiting for his brothers and friends to gather their belongings. Once they had everything, Goldie reached up and pulled the trunk shut, listening as it latched in place.
"Don't be so paranoid, Alfred," Freddy chuckled.
"I'm not paranoid!"
Goldie shook his head at his younger brothers' antics. "Chica and Vixy will be here soon," he called over their voices. "Let's go get our room numbers and get settled in, I'd like to be done before lunch. Chica will be annoyed if we're late again and make them wait longer than necessary."
"Very true," Bonnie agreed and began walking towards the school's boys' dorm. The other four were quick to follow the tall rabbit, not wanting to be left behind.
They reached the dorm soon enough and went to the front desk in the ground floor office to sign in and get their room keys. Before signing in, as there was a bit of a line, the group decided to look at the list of names and dorms that was posted on the wall. Goldie's eyes scanned the list before laughing. "We're all on the third floor," he said. "I'm in the same room as last year. 2B."
"Really? I'm in 2A," Freddy mused. "With Foxy, Bonnie, and someone named... Mike Schmidt? Huh..."
"I'm with Goldie," Alfred noted. "And more strangers. Marion Strings and Durrell Franks. Hey, Marion- that name's familiar. I think he was one of my roommates who was in the other bedroom with some guy named Fritz. Never actually saw the guy, I think he was taking night classes..."
"Well, at least he's not a total stranger then," Foxy chuckled. "I'm probably stuck with this Mike guy, since Freddy likes Bonnie more."
"Hey, I do not like any of my friends better than the other," Freddy immediately denied. Foxy smirked.
"So I can room with you?"
"I already claimed Freddy," Bonnie jumped in, nudging Foxy. "Besides, Freddy would probably murder you in your sleep if he had to room with you." The group all laughed because they knew it was absolutely true. Freddy was a neat freak. Not quite OCD neat freak, but everything had a place with Freddy, and one speck of dust on something of his, including his floor, was unacceptable. Foxy, on the other hand, was more of a "where it lands it stays" kind of guy...
"Aye, that's a good point. I don't know how you can survive, Bonnie!" The others laughed a bit while Freddy rolled his eyes. "C'mon, lads, looks like the line has shortened a bit. Let's go get signed in."
When Goldie and Alfred arrived at 2B, right across from Freddy, Bonnie, and Foxy's room, the golden bear unlocked the door and walked inside, glancing around. It was exactly as he remembered it. There was a sitting area with two couches- one against the left wall and the other caddy corner-, a round coffee table, and a television that was a few years old stationed against the opposite wall. There were four doors from this common room; two next to each other leading into two decent-sized bedrooms where there were two decently-sized twin beds and two small desks at the foot of each, and two more doors across from each other. They lead to two bathrooms, since one bathroom for four people wasn't a good setup. It was hard enough with two people per bathroom...
The golden bear took a closer glance at the TV and grinned as he saw a shallow gouge mark in the side. It had been caused by Foxy when he tripped, instinctively trying to grab the television to save himself from falling. Foxy, however, had been wearing a prop hook instead of his usual prosthetic hand, and instead of saving himself he simply left a noticeable mark on the television's side. They had joked that until the school replaced the TVs, they had left their mark and their "legacy" would go on. Even Freddy had eventually come to accept the scratch as a proper part of it instead of as damage.
Alfred's voice yanked him out of his memory. "I'll take the room on the left," Alfred told him. "Hopefully this Marion and Durrell don't actually know each other and chose separate rooms, I so don't want to be stuck rooming with you."
"Aww, why not baby brother?"
"Goldie, I'm only about twenty minutes younger than you. Besides, you said you don't want to room with me first!"
"Closer to thirty, and still the youngest," Goldie laughed cheekily. "That makes you the baby. And so what if I said it first?" He grinned at the younger bear.
"And this is why I can't share a room with you," Alfred sighed overdramatically, giving a knock on the left door before opening it in case someone was inside.
"Wouldn't matter, I think both rooms have already been claimed anyway," Goldie called as he stepped inside the right door. The bed and desk on the right side of the room had already been claimed. The dresser-drawers underneath the bed were slightly opened, but a single suitcase still lay on the bed with some shirts and pants neatly stacked up next to it. It was as if the owner had realized halfway through unpacking that he was missing something and ran off to get it. At the end of the bed, in the gap between it and the desk, lay something covered in a blue blanket with either notebooks or sketchbooks piled up on top. Goldie assumed it was simply another suitcase because, seriously, who only packs one suitcase to travel somewhere you'll be living for more than half a year? The desk also had several stacks of sketchbooks, many looking old and worn, as well as pencils and strange drawing utensils Goldie had neither seen before nor had any interest in learning about. The storage shelf/rack above the desk was empty.
Goldie turned his attention to his own side of the room and began quickly unpacking, making sure to be neat but not exactly meticulous. He wanted to get it over with so he could go get some food and finally meet Bonnie's younger brother. He honestly had no interest in meeting his roommate- he was just a studio art student, if the sketchbooks were anything to go by- but Bonnie had mentioned his brother being another musician so Goldie was at least somewhat interested in talking to him. Plus, it was Bonnie's brother they had heard so much about since middle school...
Once he was finished, he stacked his suitcases carefully on the shelf, not wanting them to come crashing down on him while he was writing an essay as they had done the year before. Then he headed out of the bedroom and over to Alfred's. He knocked on the door. "Al, you ready to go? Hurry up or we'll be late." The bear then opened the door to see how far his brother was in unpacking; like Freddy, Alfred was almost obsessive about every object having its own place.
The first thing he noticed, however, were the thick black curtains over the window blocking out all of the sunlight. Sitting on the bed to the far left was a pale human with dark black hair. He was sitting against the wall and seemed to be sketching something. He only glanced up briefly to acknowledge the elder bear's entrance before turning his attention back to his sketchbook. He seemed to be wearing a black and white cloak with the hood pulled down... honestly, he was kind of creepy in Goldie's opinion, but Alfred didn't seem too bothered at all.
Alfred rolled his eyes at his brother. "Be patient, Gold," he mock-scolded. "I'm straightening up my desk."
"You can do that later," Goldie told him. "If you keep doing that we'll miss meeting Bonnie's brother."
"Woah wait, Bonnie's brother?"
Goldie gave Alfred a look that clearly read 'are you kidding me?' "Yeah, Bonnie's brother. Remember?"
"I... totally forgot we were supposed to meet him," Alfred admitted sheepishly.
"Idiot... Well come on, the room looks fine," Goldie laughed a bit while rolling his eyes. "Let's go meet up with Bonnie, Freddy, and Foxy and go get the girls."
"Right, right, coming," Alfred nodded, setting his desk lamp down before going over. Alfred gave a small polite wave to his roommate as they shut the door.
As soon as they left the common room, Goldie couldn't help but blurt out, "He's kinda creepy."
"Aw, Goldie, don't judge based on appearance," Alfred scolded for real this time. "He's a real nice guy. He was polite to me. Though he did tell me if I opened the curtains during the daytime he would strangle me..."
"What?!"
"Kidding!" Alfred laughed at Goldie's expression. "He simply asked if I'd be considerate enough to not open the curtains so long as he was in the room and to leave a note on the door when they were open. I guess he has photosensitivity."
Goldie sighed a bit. "Don't freak me out like that," he muttered. "Anyway, looks like we both have artists for roomies. I didn't see my roommate but he had like fifty sketchbooks on and around his desk." He glared at Freddy's door. "They're not done?" he sighed and knocked loudly. It was the fox who opened, looking highly amused.
"Hey there, laddies," Foxy laughed, letting the brothers in. "For once it's not Freddy holding us up."
"That's a shocker," Alfred laughed, watching as Bonnie walked all around the dorm room with his guitar and guitar stand. "What's Bonnie doing?"
"Apparently looking for the perfect place for his guitar," Freddy cut in with a chuckle. "You'd think seeing his brother for the first time in six years would be more important than that thing."
"Is Bonnie's brother a freshman?" Alfred asked curiously. Sometimes Goldie forgot Alfred wasn't as close to Bonnie as he was to Foxy's sister, and as such Alfred wasn't likely to have been present when Bonnie told them the story.
"No," Freddy answered, shaking his head. "Transferring from another arts college."
"Be right back, lads, I'm gonna leave a note for that Mike boy to let him know which room is still available," Foxy interrupted, heading back to his own room.
"That was random," Goldie muttered to himself.
"So why did Bonnie's brother start at a different college...?"
"Well," Freddy started, but Bonnie interrupted.
"If his caretakers found out he was trying to meet back up with me again, they'd try to throw him into a correctional facility again." Alfred's eyes widened slightly- correctional facility?
"Why would he be in a correctional facility?"
"Traditional family. You'll understand when you meet him," Bonnie answered simply. "Also, Chica texted me saying to meet them at Cynder's, she found Bonsai." Foxy then returned with the note in hand, taping it to the wall between both doors.
"Alright then, lads, let's go!"
When they reached Cynder's Cafe, there were four people waiting for them; two yellow chickens, one "curvier" than the other but quite obviously related, a white fox with a jagged scar across her right eye, and a rabbit who was taller than the girls, minus Chica, but a lot shorter than Bonnie. Despite the baggy shirt and cargo pants, it was easy to tell that this rabbit was actually female.
"Hey, Bonnie!" Chica called happily, hurrying over to her boyfriend. The other three followed, the blue rabbit seeming unsure how to react to them.
"Hey Chica," Bonnie greeted her with a sweet kiss, then turned to look at the rabbit. "Bonsai!"
Bonsai grinned a bit and crossed his- her?- arms. "What's up, big bro?"
"It's good to see you again, Bonsai," Bonnie chuckled. "Oh, right, introductions. Guys, this is my brother." The small stress on 'brother' didn't go unnoticed. A quick glance at Alfred told him that Alfred did, in fact, understand now why Bonnie's super conservative family sent Bonsai away.
"Just call me Bonsai," Bonsai greeted with a wave.
"I'm Frederick Fazbear, but the gang calls me Gold or Goldie," Goldie introduced himself, offering the rabbit his hand to shake. "These are my younger brothers, Freddy and Alfred Fazbear."
"Aiden Fox here, laddie," Foxy introduced with a grin, holding out his right hand. "Just call me Foxy, though."
"Foxy, I swear if you're trying to scare my brother with that stupid prosthetic arm..."
Foxy simply grinned at Bonnie while Bonsai rolled his eyes. "Wouldn't have worked, Bonnie sent me messages about all of you guys, remember? Hell, you guys sent me a message once."
"I didn't," Alfred muttered to himself.
"That's because you were hanging out with Endie and me," Vixy, the white vixen, laughed a bit. "Bonsai's our roommate, so we've already been introduced."
"We should probably go in the cafe before someone thinks we're a gang," Goldie chuckled, heading inside.
"A gang? Have you seen how brightly coloured we all are? And not to mention our clothes- you three Fazbears are practically dressed for church." Laughter followed Foxy's comment, and the group gathered around two tables they pushed together. It was a usual occurrence when the group was on campus, so the cafe owner didn't bat an eye. "So not a gang. But you three do look like freakin mafia bosses." Freddy rolled his eyes at his friend's assessment.
"So where is Endie, anyway?" Goldie asked Vixy, not used to seeing her without the human nearby.
"His car broke down yesterday morning, he won't be here until tomorrow," Vixy answered with a quiet laugh. "His car's in shop right now."
"How exactly did all of you guys meet?" Bonsai questioned suddenly. "Bonnie never told me. Of course, he wasn't able to contact me until a year or two after I was sent away, but still."
"Well," Freddy immediately began to explain. "Goldie, Alfred, and I are triplets. There weren't many twins in our school and when we were younger people kept getting Alfred and I mixed up. This was before my fur darkened..."
"And people kept calling me 'Golden Freddy' for some stupid reason, even though I'm the oldest," Goldie added as a complaint.
"Yes. Anyway," Freddy continued, waving his brother's complaint off, "in fourth grade or so we moved to a new city where we met Foxy, Vixy, and Endie. We bonded with Foxy and Vixy pretty fast over the fact that we all had twins."
"Triplets in our case," Alfred added, "But close enough."
"When we started middle school, Chica joined us," Freddy continued. "She had come from a different elementary school, and she had just discovered she was adopted and that she had a twin sister. They somehow found each other on the internet, probably with one of their mothers' helps, I can't remember the details, and connected there."
"Actually it was my dad's help, but yeah."
Freddy once again ignored the interruption. "Bonnie moved to our district about halfway through the first semester of seventh grade. He also had a twin- which of course you know since you're his twin- but he was really upset when he moved and started school because he had just been separated from his twin and taken away from all of his friends. We easily welcomed him into our group."
"He was so sweet," Chica giggled happily. "Even when he was upset and didn't want to talk to anyone."
"I think you already know that Bonnie asked Chica out in freshman year of high school, and what do you know, they're still together," Freddy chuckled. "Fast forward to college and we all agreed to come here, and Chica somehow convinced her sister to come here too despite it being nearly a thousand miles away from her family, and beginning of last year we all met Chick for the very first time in person. And that's pretty much it."
"Aww, that's not a very funny story," Bonsai said with a mock pout, earning a playful punch from her brother.
"So Bonsai, what program are you in? "Alfred asked. Bonsai gave him a grin.
"Music, of course! Let's be real, ain't nothing better than music," he laughed. Alfred grinned in response.
"Totally! So you play guitar like Bonnie?"
"Of course. I started learning right alongside Bon after all," Bonsai confirmed with a sly grin towards his older brother. "And I am totally better."
"Is that a challenge?" Bonnie asked, eyeing Bonsai critically.
"Duh. We haven't been able to play together for nearly seven years, I'm dying for some real competition." They all began laughing again at the pure tortured look on Bonsai's face. "Oh, you laugh now, but I was surrounded by those people who only wanted me to learn freakin' hymns."
"Ouch," Goldie sympathized, though he couldn't stop laughing. "That sounds like hell."
"You bet your tophat, Fredbear."
Goldie's grin faded, looking perplexed and almost offended. "Fredbear?"
"Yes. Fredbear. Your name is Frederick and your last name is Fazbear. And I find it weird calling you Gold or Goldie. Suck it, loser."
They all began laughing harder at Goldie's expression and Bonsai simply grinned.
"Bonnie, your brother's mean," Goldie whined childishly to the tallest of their friends.
"Hey, I'm not looking to turn him against me," Bonnie said defensively, raising his hands. "Do you even realize how many embarrassing childhood stories Bonsai has about me?"
They all fell silent before Goldie, Alfred, Foxy, Chick, and Bonsai all began to grin wickedly. Bonnie's eyes widened. "What a great idea, brother!" Bonsai laughed at Bonnie's horrified expression. "Now when you tick me off I have the perfect story to tell..."
"You wouldn't..."
"I remember this time when we were seven... with a lego, some crazy glue, and our mother's good yarn..."
"No!" Bonnie quickly put a hand over Bonsai's mouth, causing the others to laugh. "We agreed to never speak of that." Bonsai's laughter was muffled under his older brother's hand.
"Oi, now you got me curious!" Foxy complained through his own laughter. "I wanna know what happened!"
Bonnie brandished a fork at Foxy. "Down, boy."
"Hey!"
Freddy couldn't help but chuckle and shake his head as he watched his closest friends duel with forks. When Chica came to Bonnie's rescue using a spoon, Vixy joined the battle backing her brother up with a butter knife. The whole while, Bonnie had his hand over Bonsai's mouth, which Alfred was not-so-subtly trying to remove so Bonsai would reveal the embarrassing story Bonnie didn't want told. Chick stayed out of the battle, but she was recording it on her phone and laughing at them.
Goldie looked questioningly at Freddy, noticing him shaking his head. "All my friends are crazy," Freddy stated simply in answer to the unasked question. His brother grinned and playfully nudged him.
"Aww, but life would be boring if they weren't."
"True, Fredbear. True."
"Don't call me that!"
"Why? It's totally fitting. Fredbear."
"Argh...!"
"What's your schedule look like?" Goldie asked Freddy, looking over his shoulder at the sheet of paper. It was spread pretty evenly between his writing and music program classes, though he had more classes than Goldie due to this. "Oh cool, we have 8:00 AM Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and 3:30 PM Mondays and Wednesdays together."
"Ha! I'm there with you," Alfred observed. "We also have Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 11:00 AM together, Gold."
"Ha, our schedules are almost perfectly matched. Except for that 5:30 class you have... how'd you end up with that?"
"Bro, I don't even know."
The group of friends were looking at their schedules, comparing them with others in the same program, as they made their way to the campus bookstore. Foxy was the only one among them in the drama program, so he was simply comparing with others to find out what times who had off so they could coordinate hangout times.
Soon, however, they reached the bookstore and split up to get their missing books and not be in each other's way. As Goldie made his way towards the music section, movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention.
He wasn't sure why he turned to look. People passed and moved and objects shifted all the time, after all, there was nothing special about movement from the corner of his eye in a crowded bookstore. But this time he did look, and he nearly froze at what he saw.
It was a golden rabbit. A very scary-looking golden rabbit. The rabbit was covered in scars... he had scars on his cheeks and even across one of his eyes, though it didn't seem to impair his vision in the slightest, and there were several scars tracing up his neck towards his face. A large, jagged scar made its way down the rabbit's arm from under his sleeve to his elbow, very noticeable, surrounded by smaller criss-crossing scars. The rabbit's hands were just as scarred as his arms and face.
Goldie could imagine that the rest of the rabbit's body covered with his clothing was just as scarred... but Goldie's eyes were really drawn to the rabbit's ears. They were long and fluffy, and one ear was scarred similarly to the rabbit's face. The other ear, however, wasn't simply scarred; it abruptly stopped, cut clean off a quarter short of its full length.
Thankfully for Goldie, the rabbit's attention was on the sketchbooks so he didn't notice the bear staring at him. The golden bear was very thankful for that. Despite how lanky and almost frail the rabbit appeared, the scars told a different story to Goldie. Whatever that guy was involved in, he decided, he wanted nothing to do with it.
It wasn't like Goldie didn't have friends with scars- quite the contrary, as Foxy and Vixy both had plenty of scars and even a prosthetic limb each. But even those two put together couldn't match the amount of scars the rabbit had that were just visible.
Goldie was almost ashamed to admit that the rabbit's appearance freaked him out. Almost. He quickly moved on, not wanting to be caught staring at the freaky-looking rabbit.
'Don't judge based on appearance,' Alfred's words echoed in his mind. 'Ha, I think this is an exception to that rule. Doesn't matter, anyway... he's clearly a studio art student. Not my problem.'
He chose two books he had been missing and headed to the counter to pay, pretending not to notice as he passed right by the scarred rabbit. He paid the fees and went outside to join his friends and brothers. "So," he started with a grin, "Videogames?"
The others all shrugged. "Sure," Foxy agreed.
"We should go to your room," Alfred told Freddy. "Our other roommate is probably asleep by now, since I think he sleeps during the day."
"Alright," Freddy nodded, and together the group headed to the boy's dorm.
Technically girls weren't allowed in the boys' dorm, but the college never actually enforced the rule so Chica, Chick, Vixy, and Bonsai were able to go inside easily enough. Alfred and Goldie quickly dropped their books off in their rooms, confirming Alfred's belief that Marion was asleep, and headed over to Freddy's.
Alfred claimed a couch, sitting between Bonsai and Chick, while Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica sat on the other couch. Vixy was perched on the armrest of Freddy's couch, and Foxy sat on the floor in front of her. Goldie joined Foxy on the floor. There was a brief argument over what to play and how they'd switch off between nine people and four controllers, but soon enough they were all happily playing.
Goldie wasn't sure how much time had passed, but he was in the middle of beating Freddy, Foxy, and Bonnie when the door unlocked and opened. Freddy paused the game to look at the newcomer, and the others followed suit.
Standing in front of the door, blinking owlishly at them, was a blue-eyed, brown-haired human. He obviously hadn't expected there to be such a large crowd in the room, and most likely hadn't expected them to be a bunch of Animals...
Foxy grinned a bit. "You must be Mike Schmidt!" The human nodded a bit. "Awesome, you're my new roomie." He pointed towards the door on the right. "That room right there."
Mike nodded a bit, as though saying thanks, headed across the room- stepping carefully so as not to upset any of their wires- and into the room Foxy had directed him to. Freddy pressed "continue" in the game- immediately causing Bonnie to crash his character's car- and soon it was like they were never interrupted.
It was some time later when Bonsai said, "Hey guys, I think we should go get dinner."
"Good idea," Bonnie agreed, looking at his brother, then towards a clock on the wall that read 10:00. "Damn, I didn't realize it was that late..."
"I'm not hungry," Goldie said honestly, ignoring the look Freddy gave him. "Really! I ate too much earlier." He stood up. "But I am tired, so I think I'm going to go shower and head to bed."
"You should really eat something," Chick told Goldie with a frown, setting the controller down while Bonnie turned the system off. "Eating regularly is important to your health, Gold."
Goldie waved his hand dismissively. "I'll eat in the morning. Goodnight, guys," he called over his shoulder as he left. Crossing the hall, he unlocked his dorm room and went inside, making a beeline for his bedroom door in order to get his sleeping clothes to shower.
When he opened the door, however, he couldn't help but freeze.
The rabbit from the bookstore was his roommate.
Upon hearing the door open, the rabbit looked up from what he was doing- sketching- on his bed. Goldie's blue eyes met the rabbit's- Durrell Frank's?- green eyes for a very brief moment, but the rabbit quickly averted his eyes back down to his sketchbook.
There was an awkward tension in the air. Part of Goldie wanted to say something to break the tension, but another part of him felt really afraid of the rabbit despite his seemingly-skittish behaviorism. Instead, he opened one of his dresser-drawers, grabbed his clothes, and scurried out to the bathroom.
When he returned, the rabbit and his sketchbook were gone. Goldie wondered briefly where he disappeared to but pushed the thought aside. The rabbit would return from doing... whatever when he was ready. He turned off the light and climbed into bed. Within minutes, he was sound asleep.
Unknown to him, the rabbit didn't return until almost midnight.