"Is this really necessary?" Michael sighed in exasperation and amusement as Henry guided him, blindfolded, through his own pizzeria.
"Come on, Michael, life's just been so depressing lately that it's high time we had a bit of a party! It'll give us something worth celebrating, something to enjoy and take away life's pains for a little while, something worth living for! If only for an extra day!" Henry insisted as he continued to guide the younger man through the pizzeria. Michael wanted to say more, but he decided to just let it go for then.
At last, the duo reached the main dining room.
"Almost there!" Henry promised as he sat the younger man down in a seat.
"Can I take off-?" Michael began, reaching upward.
"Not yet!" Henry interrupted quickly, pushing his hand back down. "Give me just another minute to get the cake!"
"The cake?! Henry!" Michael sighed, but he could hear the sound of Henry's retreating feet.
Once even those sounds died down, Michael only sighed and rolled his eyes affectionately. He was still tempted to remove his blindfold, but he figured he could indulge in Henry just this once. It must've been decades since the poor man had had an excuse to celebrate, and to celebrate a birthday no less! Michael's heart then went out to the older man in sympathy. That poor guy! Michael wondered, then, how long Henry had been waiting to throw this party just for the sake of getting to celebrate a child again. To celebrate his child again. Michael may not have been a kid, but did Henry perhaps see him as a son? The thought warmed his heart.
And then, he could feel something warm his skin. Michael realized, then, that Henry had come back and was now setting the cake back down in front of him. He just hadn't even noticed because he had been so lost in thought.
"Can I-?" Michael began again.
"Not yet! We have to sing for you!" Henry interrupted. For a moment, Michael was only exasperated that Henry still wouldn't let him remove the blindfold, but then he realized what Henry had said.
"Wait. 'We'? Who else is-?" Michael was interrupted for a third time by the sound of human, robotic and ghostly voices all at once, singing to him.
"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!"
They didn't get much further than that before Michael had ripped off the blindfold out of reflex.
"What in Fazbear?!" he demanded, then he nearly fell backwards out of his seat. Even though it was dark in the room, the light from the candles illuminated the area just enough for Michael to see that there were several giant robots sitting at his birthday table.
"Don't worry Michael! Don't be afraid!" Henry reached out to the other man consolingly, grabbing the chair before he could totally hit the ground.
"Don't be afraid!" Michael mocked, voice impossibly shrill, heart pounding.
"No! I mean it, Michael! They all promised a truce! Just for this one day, your birthday," Henry promised, still trying to calm Michael.
"And how did you manage to do that?!" Michael demanded in disbelief, shaking.
"Keep in mind, I designed these bots and they were all created to be party entertainers," Henry reminded. "All I had to do was fix the programming a bit before you salvaged them each night and now, even if any of them want to kill you, they literally can't because it's your birthday and, as we all know, birthdays are one of their biggest purposes. It is their ultimate calling to make their birthday boy as happy as he can be and I'm pretty sure that won't happen if they're trying to kill," Henry grinned and Michael began to wonder if Henry hadn't totally snapped...
"Come on, you two! Blow out the candles and let's eat some cake!" one of the robots at the table finally demanded. It was Elizabeth, body so large that her face could not be seen because the radius of the light from the candles was not large enough to capture her entire body.
"You're a robot! You can't even eat!" Michael frowned.
"What a party pooper!" Elizabeth replied, crossing her arms, her metal arm plates grating painfully against one another as she did this.
"That's my line!" the robot to her right cried. He was a spidery-looking creature, save for the white bear-head resting atop his neck.
"Oh, whatever, Funtime Freddy!" Elizabeth told him. "It's not my fault Daddy built me with a functioning nose but not a functioning mouth!"
"Sorry, honey," William replied, shrugging his metal shoulders in reply to her accusatory stare. Because his metal frame was so old and decrepit, that simple shrug caused everyone to cringe in pain in response of the sound, just like when Elizabeth had crossed her giant arms.
"I don't know, I think your mouth functions just fine," Michael deadpanned, shooting a glare at their father. Elizabeth's response was to throw a noisemaker at him. "Ouch!" he whined as it bounced right off his forehead.
"Oh come on! That didn't hurt!" Elizabeth insisted.
"Nice shot, sweetheart," William leaned across the table to fist-bump his daughter and, despite her early irritation with him about her design, her broken facial place shifted into something of a smile as she returned the fist-bump.
"Thanks Daddy!" she grinned, and he reached out a rotting hand to pat her cracked white cheek. She giggled in reply. Michael rolled his eyes.
"Father, why are you encouraging her?" he despaired. It felt so strange to talk to his father like this again after all that had happened between them, but with Henry's words about reprogramming the man in the back of his mind, Michael decided to humor himself and William both and speak to William as though he weren't a mass-murderer whose corpse was entombed in a metal bunny suit that was literally falling apart at the seams.
"Oh, come on, son! My birthday boy! Lighten up a little! This is the one and only night I'm ever going to go easy on you. Why not enjoy the father-child bonding while it lasts, am I right?" the yellow-green bunny's skeleton-like teeth seemed to stretch into a wider grin, it was terrifying. Almost as much as his jolly demeanor was. Seriously, Michael never thought he would've lived to see a day where he and his father would be sitting almost side by side (only Henry between them, which was a miracle all its own) in peace and laughter instead of bitter rivalry and hatred and vengeance, and all for the sake of a birthday, his birthday. How old was he now? He'd certainly lost count!
"Alright, Papa, calm down, you're scaring him," a new voice said, and this one made Michael's eyes widen. Why? Because although the voice was coming from another animatronic, this one was literally only its head. It was the Golden Freddy head. And that voice...
"Scott?" Michael could hardly believe it. His little brother? Alive again? Or at least, having come back as a ghost?
"Hey Michael," the head managed to rotate itself around until it was looking at Michael instead of their father, a little boy's voice coming from its moving jaw. Michael felt his heart twist in his chest with pain, regret and memory, but it was almost as though Scott could read his mind. "Don't worry, brother, I can forgive you, just for this one day. This is supposed to be your happiest day, after all! And I want you to be happy for it. My birthday didn't go so well remember," he said, and Michael cringed at the reminder. "So I want yours to go well in my place," he finished and Michael felt his heart twist again as Golden Freddy's jaw twisted in a feeble attempt at a friendly smile.
"Ok! Ok! Come on! Hurry up and blow out the candles before the cake melts!" Funtime Freddy interrupted the brotherly bonding. Michael glared at him, the first time he'd ever gotten truly angry at the stupid-sounding white bear, but before he could speak, Henry silenced him.
"Listen to him, son," the older man touched the younger man's arm reassuringly. "I know he was being a bit insensitive, but he's right. Your cake is going to get a layer of wax icing if you aren't careful," he advised, gesturing to the cake. Michael reluctantly looked away from his little brother back to the cake and realized that Henry and Funtime Freddy were right. The candles were really low. With a reluctant huff, Michael extinguished all the candles in a single blow. The moment the room went totally dark, all the bots began to hoot and holler in excitement, like little children. Despite himself, Michael smiled, and that happy expression was still on his face even when the overhead lights came back on.
"Ow! Hey! Too bright!" both Elizabeth and Freddy cringed against the sudden bright light, Freddy wagging his head in irritation while Elizabeth raised her hands (or rather, her one hand and one claw) up to cover her flickering green eyes.
"Oh, grow up!" the Golden Freddy head sighed and Michael's smile grew bigger.
"Did you want some cake?" he asked his baby brother.
"Hey! Why didn't you ask me first?!" Elizabeth complained, but Michael ignored her, having eyes only for Scott.
"No, I'm ok. It would just go right through me anyway," Scott replied. "Remember, I'm just a head."
"Well, can't we build you a new body, or something?" Michael was feverish, wanting dearly to make up for Scott's last birthday.
"You could," the Golden Freddy head admitted. "But that would take too long, and I want to celebrate now! So go on, eat your cake! It's just as fun to watch," and scarcely had he finished speaking when two claws shot forward, one from Elizabeth and one from Freddy.
"CAKE!" both of them sang in unison.
"You guys can't eat that!" Michael repeated as they each literally grabbed a slice and then brought it back towards their mouths.
"Don't be such a party pooper!" Freddy repeated what Elizabeth had said early, sounding quite pleased that he'd gotten to say it this time.
"But I'm just saying-" Michael began, though again, before he could finish, the two bots had began to literally stuff their faces, crumbs falling back through razor teeth that were held in metal mouths by thick wires. Michael could only cringe in disgust as he watched his little sister and the other animatronic that had come from her pizzeria eat, globs of icing sticking to and sliding down fraying wires, crumbs coating the table.
"Oh, come on son, lighten up!" William repeated, laughing, reaching across the table to slap Michael's arm playfully. It was a genuinely gentle touch, but Michael recoiled anyway, earning only another coarse, jolly laugh from the metal bunny, his rotting and fraying ears flopping comically as he chortled, then he grabbed himself a slice and popped open the entire top half of the bunny head. It was a grotesque sight, nothing but a thinly covered skull lying underneath, but the moment William dropped the slice of cake into his mouth, he closed the bunny helmet back up.
"Delicious!" he growled as he forced his jaws to open and close against the metal rods that had impaled them in place.
"I think I lost my appetite," Michael grunted after watching his family continue to stuff themselves on his cake.
"Me too," Henry promised, leaning over to whisper in his ear and laughing as he did so. He hadn't eaten any of the cake either.
"I still think you're off your rocker for doing this," Michael warned the older man.
"He is!" William insisted, shoving another piece of cake into his skull mouth. Henry shot him a glare but didn't deny it.
"I probably am," he confessed. "But why not just enjoy the ride for tonight?"
"Because it's really out of character?" Michael asked sarcastically. In the background, Elizabeth was trying to pick icing out of her wires and it was obvious that having food crammed into her circuits wasn't very good for her. In addition, somehow, Freddy had managed to get hiccups, sparking and jolting every time a high-pitched "Hic" erupted from his snake-like, metal throat. William was still devouring his slice, quite nosily too just because of how hard it was for him to chew.
As Michael continued to watch the ill-mannered scene unfold before him, he finally raised his eyebrows in something of acceptance and allowance. This was still probably the weirdest thing he'd ever done in his life (which was saying an awful lot), but he supposed that if what Henry and William had said was true and that this really was going to be an isolated incident which had a finite ending, he could cope with it just for tonight. If he could survive until 6:00 AM (emotionally and mentally this time instead of physically), then things would go back to normal and it would be him vs. them engaging in camera and vent-based battles again. Things would go back to normal instead of being this fever-dream of a late-night birthday party between him, his slightly crazy boss, and all of his dead family whose bodies and souls were both inhabiting the robots of the pizzeria, and, for once, were being nice to him.
So, with a slight nod of acknowledgement and against his earlier remark, the young man took a small slice of the cake and began to eat, robotic and human cheering echoing him as he did so. Elizabeth started up the birthday song again, Freddy quickly adding in his obnoxious-alto voice, which was matched by William's base and Henry's tenor. Then, even Scott's little Freddy head began to sing, youthful and clacking because every time he opened his mouth, it would fall back shut again due to gravity, the sound of metal hitting metal repeating itself on loop as he sang.
"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!" and Michael decided just to bear it, the loud singing becoming little more than white noise in his crazed mind as he ate his birthday cake. Tonight, he was the birthday boy!
AN: Darmulzombie, I know you wanted a more serious fic, but the whole "Michael saves Elizabeth" is something I've written so many times before that I decided to focus more on the humor of the concept of the Aftons celebrating Michael's birthday as opposed to any potential emotional stuff.
To everyone else, this was inspired off the DeviantArt pic by Springtrap-2021 called "(FNAF6/FFPS) Family Reunion (4K)". It's somewhat of a parody and an AU where the Aftons are actually all getting along for once for the most arbitrary of reasons. Also, the reason Lefty isn't in here is just because I wanted this to be Henry trying to celebrate his child's birthday again and because Charlie is gone, he turns to Michael to be that surrogate son (assume that this takes place before Lefty arrives at the pizzeria).