A/N: Hello and welcome back my dudes.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters.
And a warning, this story will contain slight gore, violence, explicit language, and possible sensitive topics.
"Hm... I think this one is the right shade."
"I'm pretty sure it's not. Do you not know what color the walls are?"
"Do you not know what color the walls are? This is clearly the exact same color! The other one is way off. Way, way off!"
"You know what? You're completely right."
"Really?"
"Yes."
Foxy groaned. "I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not!"
Baby chuckled. "Fox, both cans of paint are the same color. It won't matter which one we grab."
Currently, Foxy's place of work was closed. And that meant him and Riley were finally going to take the opportunity to repaint a wall in the party room that was looking pretty bad.
"What?!" Foxy brought both cans very close to his face, carefully scanning over the labels. "Crud, you're right."
He picked up a rather large paintbrush and pointed it at his boss, putting on a faux scowl.
"I can't believe you let me argue with you for like five minutes when you knew they were the same color."
Riley smiled. "Sorry, it was funny how worked up you were getting over it."
"Oh my Scott, you're actually smiling!" Foxy said in surprise.
She raised an eyebrow at him. "Do I not usually smile?"
"Not really. At least not like that, you don't."
It was true that despite being a clown, Riley wasn't exactly the smiliest person on the planet. Her usual facial expression was one of bored disinterest. Or some slight variation of that.
And on rare occasions where she did smile the one she gave was usually a sort of lazy, playful, half-smile.
But never a full smile.
Which is why her current facial expression seemed very uncharacteristic.
It was so weird that she almost looked like a different person.
Foxy had never really noticed how round and cartoonish her eyes actually were. They were almost always half-lidded. Seeing them fully open gave her a weird look of faux innocence and curiosity.
He also never noticed how stupidly symmetrical and perfect her smile was when she gave an actual full smile.
It was very strange.
"Are you okay? Are you sure you're not like, sick or something? Or high?"
"Not since I last checked. Just in a good mood, I suppose."
"You're about to repaint a wall and you're in a good mood about it?"
Foxy received an eye roll in response.
"No, Fox. I'm happy because I can be around you all without some feeling of constant paranoia looming over me. I'm happy I'm not fucking dead and I actually made it back here in one piece. I am in no way excited to paint the wall. Actually, I'd like to get it over with as soon as possible. So let's get on with it, yeah?"
She started off out of the upstairs storage, grabbing herself a brush and taking the paint can from Foxy so he didn't have to carry it.
As usual, she moved faster than necessary and Foxy had to practically jog to keep up.
"You know, I find it difficult to imagine you being paranoid. Or scared, for that matter. Seeing visible fear on you is like Freddy not pouring milk straight into the box of Nightmare Puffs instead of using a bowl. It's unlikely to happen."
"Just because I don't display those emotions doesn't mean I don't feel them. It just means I'm good at masking them with boredom and disinterest."
"Wish I could do that. I've screamed so much in the past month that my throat is still sore."
Baby carelessly dropped the can of paint next to the wall that needed a redo, popping the lid off with a flathead screwdriver.
"That better be a joke or I'm gonna go into concerned friend mode and you'll be fucked."
Foxy jokingly raised his hands up in front of himself and backed away a little. "It was, I swear!"
"Good." The lid of the paint can was discarded onto the tarp they had put down earlier. "Now let's paint this so we can be finished."
"Yes, sir." Foxy saluted before nearly dropping his entire brush into the paint.
Sure, Foxy may have tried to make fun of Baby earlier for being excited to paint a wall, but he had to admit he wasn't having the worst time.
Well, the task itself still wasn't exciting. But had missed things being this way. The actually pleasant atmosphere, not being afraid to enter the rooms of the building by himself, the situational stress and feeling like he was seeing sides of his friends he didn't know existed.
Actually, he still felt like he was seeing sides of his friends he wasn't used to. Mostly just with Riley, though. Despite her seemingly not too friendly exterior, she was typically pretty enjoyable to be around. And now it seemed her usual front was slowly but surely ceasing its overshadowing of the nice qualities that outsiders never really saw in her.
It was a little weird, but he wasn't against it.
"Are we done now?"
"Well, we still have to do a second coat."
"Can we do that now?"
"Uh, well, this is latex paint so it should take around... four hours to dry. I think."
Foxy groaned louder than necessary.
"What are we gonna do for four hours?"
Baby shrugged. "I don't know. But I'm sure we'll find something."
As if on cue, the sound of someone sprinting down the hallway started to become very loud very quickly.
There was a flash of purplish-pink and white.
And then, as if capable of leaping inhumanly high, Freddy practically pounced onto Baby.
He landed on her back and she only barely managed to keep upright.
And Freddy must've eaten his cereal out of a bowl this morning because a look of startlement crossed Baby's face for about two solid seconds.
"Baby! Th-there's an e-e-emergency!"
The redhead only half-regained her composure.
"What? What's wrong?"
"I desperately need t-to play Pogs but I can't g-get to them because they're out of m-m-my reach! And Bon-Bon r-refuses to play with me so I k-kinda need s-someone to do that."
Ladies, gentlemen, and everything in between we now introduce Fredward Fisher, apparently the king of false alarms.
Both Foxy and Baby let out heavy sighs of relief.
"Fred, that is not an emergency."
Nearly tearing up, Freddy shouted: "It is t-to me!"
And since he was still practically piggybacking Riley he shouted it right into her ear.
She made a face to indicate that this wasn't very pleasant. Who would've guessed?
"Alright, please turn your volume down a little. Your voice sounds distorted when you shout right in my ear."
"S-s-sorry. I forgot." Freddy apologized at a surprisingly normal tone.
Foxy would never forget how Riley could hardly understand Freddy when she first met him. Due to his consistent shouting - which he still did most of the time, but she'd sort of gotten used to it.
"We'll help you get your Pogs, right?" She looked towards Foxy, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, of course."
With that, the three of them started heading towards the storage room basement - with Freddy still clinging onto Baby and Foxy not feeling terrified for once.
It wasn't until they were actually in storage that Freddy finally let go.
"Okay, where are they?"
"Up th-there!" Freddy pointed to a shoebox at the very top of a shelf near the door.
Baby, being stupidly tall, easily reached up and grabbed it.
"Here you go, Fred."
"Yay! Thank you!"
Then, without warning, he glanced at the floor and leaped back up to cling onto Baby, who struggled to keep her balance yet again.
"Oh no, there's another sp-sp-spider!"
"That wasn't a spider, that was a ball of fuzz." Baby said, her voice muffled by Freddy's chest.
"Oh... are y-you sure?"
Foxy crouched down to inspect what Freddy had looked at.
"Yep, that's fuzz."
"Ohhh... welp, n-nevermind then!" Freddy let go and Baby and grabbed his Pogs, running out the door. "C'mon, g-guys!"
Baby groaned, yelling something about how he was going to hurt himself running up the stairs.
Normally, Foxy wouldn't have hung behind. But this time he simply glanced behind himself at the other two before turning back to the floor.
A little bit past the fuzz, partially hiding underneath an old desk was something circular.
Foxy reached out and grabbed it before standing back up.
It was a little disc about the size of a half dollar coin, an equally small circuit board on the back.
The thing struck him negatively almost immediately.
Must have fallen out of that box Afton stole when he broke in.
"Stupid disc-thing." He frowned and dropped it back onto the floor. "Nearly killed me and all of my friends. I hate you and your brethren."
Sure, the wording was a little dramatic and it couldn't hear him because it was an inanimate object, but that was how he felt.
He hated that stupid thing
Without a second thought, he crushed the disc with the heel of his boot. And then he left the room to find where Freddy and Baby went.