FNaF1-era. Foxes are well-known as having excellent hearing and eyesight, being the efficient little predators they are. However, sometimes that can work to their disadvantage… and, in the case of a haunted robot, deep emotional pain. Easing that pain is what friends and a song are for, though.

A/N: If you saw the characters involved in the fic and your first hopes were for shipping, sorry! This is a platonic fic. Another simple fic, but more serious than the Chica one from last year. Worth note here is that this version of events has Mangle as Foxy's child- like, father/child-type child. Since I can't decide on my headcanon for Mangle's gender I'm going to use neutral terms, so apply your own headcanon as you please.

Even from all the way out in the hallway by the office, Foxy could still hear the static.

Blazing, unending static; like a child's screams in his ears as the pirate tried to block out the sound. It wasn't generic, typical voice-box-feedback static, either. It was loud, with unintelligible voices in the track compiled into a mangled sound that was unfortunately oh, so recognizable. It had been even worse when he'd been sitting alone in Pirate's Cove; as if the source of the noise had been hanging right above him, yet whenever he turned his eyes to the ceiling the wires and support beams were empty of life. It was driving him mad.

He had been tempted to find Freddy and talk to him about it. After all, he knew Freddy heard voices, too. Saw things. He'd decided against it, however; it wasn't a big enough deal to bug the leader about, anyway. For the same reason, he hadn't sought Chica's comfort, either; nor Bonnie's. He could handle this himself, right? It was just noise. Annoying, ceaseless noise. By the time it hit six it would be gone, anyway, so it was fine. This was fine. He was fine.

Besides, half of the time he preferred this to silence, anyway. Like the silence that plagued the Cove during the day. Well, no- it wasn't really silent in the sense that there was no activity he could hear. He could hear the kids having fun with the band. He could hear the adults groaning and complaining and nagging. He could hear the music being played by the others. But… the Cove itself was silent. No show of his own to perform, no song to sing with the kids. He really missed them.

At least this way he could hear a kid. Even if that kid was one of his own, and very plainly and evidently not really there. Good heavens, maybe he had just lost his mind somewhere down the line. Not as if he'd ever had a stable one to begin with, according to the mechanics.

A hand suddenly placed itself on his shoulder and Foxy let out a startled yelp. He got down on all fours and turned himself around, backing up as if preparing to lunge, only to see that his company was a familiar purple rabbit. Bonnie looked surprised at the moment, which shifted into slight amusement crossed with concern.

"Jumpy tonight, huh, Captain?" Bonnie asked. "You look like you just had your tail pulled or something."

Foxy's ears twitched. He collected himself and stood up, putting on a defensive face. "Ye snuck up on me, Bunny Boy. Yer bloody quiet, ye know that?"

"Sure, if by 'quiet' you mean 'has heavier footsteps than you and said your name a second before touching you'." Bonnie's expression softened further. "Seriously, though- are you alright, bud? You didn't look too good while we were hunting earlier tonight."

Foxy couldn't decide if he wanted to get annoyed at Bonnie's sass or realize that the static had blocked out all other sound in hearing range. In the end, he clenched his metallic teeth shut and said nothing, avoiding Bonnie's eyes. Of course, that was all the answer that the rabbit needed.

"…Is it back?" Bonnie asked gently.

Foxy held silent for a moment before letting out a sigh. "It comes back every night, Bonnie. Some nights are just louder than others, and 'tis hard to focus on the hunt when it gets too loud. That's all."

"Hm." Bonnie put a hand to his face. "You know how I know it's more serious than you're telling me? You used my actual name."

The pirate shot him a look. Bonnie gave him one of his own, now making the gesture to keep talking. Foxy tried for a moment to be stubborn, but ended up caving quickly; he didn't have Freddy's ego, nor Chica's persistence. Or Bonnie's conviction.

"I almost thought Mangle was back tonight, lad," he admitted. "Like I had to do was look up, an' me baby would be on the ceiling, waitin' to tell me to 'git movin', Papa! No prey, no pay'! But I know Mangle was brought to the gallows long ago with the others." Though most of the pirate phrases used were metaphorical, the meaning still came across.

Bonnie lowered his ears. "You don't still blame yourself for how the poor thing was treated by the kids, do you?"

"No… not anymore. Now I just blame those useless bilge rat mechanics who marooned our lot. I wish I could have given 'em no quarter! I ought to have torn 'em out from the inside like me baby was!" Foxy clenched his hand in a fist, his hooked arm shaking in his anger. "Mangle was me child and me first mate. Now I've not even a crew to sail with; how am I to be a pirate with no one by me side?! I'm no bloody captain; I'm now little more than a madman with a hook!"

The rabbit listened to the pirate's rant. Troubled were all of the members of Freddy's band; their scripted 'enemy' was no exception. After all, he knew what he meant. He and the others had endured the same, because of the same incident.

Toy Bonnie had been a bratty little bunny, but beyond his stuck-up exterior a sweet kid. In the end, he had wanted the same thing Bonnie had- to entertain kids. He missed the blue rabbit dearly; and Freddy and Chica missed their toy counterparts, too. They had the human kids to distract them from their mourning now, but Foxy- who had already been hearing things even before the Cove was shut down- had nothing anymore.

When he was done, Foxy hung his arms and his head. Bonnie took that as an opportunity to put an arm around Foxy's shoulders, shifting the strap of his guitar so not to accidentally smack him with it. As if he needed any further proof that the pirate had been unhappy, Foxy leaned against him at his touch.

"You said once that it gets quieter the further you are from Pirate's Cove, right?" Bonnie asked. "C'mon. Let's head to the kitchen; it's not like we have to stick to our usual paths, the night guard's already dead."

Foxy let Bonnie lead him across the pizzeria. While passing through the now-empty office, he noticed it was still an hour to six. Maybe it was a good thing Bonnie had found him and gotten him to talk; enduring the static alone for too long tended to strain something in his processors; probably in audio. Or whatever system handled their accidental sentience. It had gotten a bit better when Bonnie showed up, actually… but it was back now that he was thinking about it again, like a corrupted song stuck in his head.

Bonnie got Foxy to sit down on the floor of the kitchen, and sat across from him with his guitar now in his hands rather than strapped to his back. He positioned his hands to start strumming, chords starting to stir Foxy's memory banks. He realized quickly that Bonnie was playing him a sea shanty, confirmed when the rabbit opened his mouth to sing:

"Now rouse 'er right up boys fer Liverpool town
Go way, way, blow th' man down.
We'll blow th' man up and blow th' man down
Oh, give us some time to blow th' man down."

He was even doing the best pirate accent he could muster; which sounded a bit silly in Bonnie's voice. Cracking a smirk, Foxy joined in, taking the next lyric;

"We lay off th' island of Maderdegascar
Hi, ho, blow th' man down.
We lowered two anchors to make 'er hold faster
Oh, give us some time to blow th' man down."

Meanwhile, a curious Freddy and Chica peeked their heads into the kitchen, investigating the sudden song that had started. They took a look at Foxy, shared a look, and came to a decision.

Chica sat down next to Foxy, leaning affectionately against him. Freddy sat on Foxy's other side, passing the pirate his signature microphone (a rarity for the ever-egotistical face of the pizzeria). They too joined in the song, Foxy's skeleton crew that would always have their captain's back.

"All hands—
Then we'll blow th' man up
And we'll blow th' man down.
We'll blow 'im right over to Liverpool Town…"

The next day was more bearable than most. The pirate was still humming the last night's shanty to himself, with a bit of gratitude to the silence he'd go back to condemning soon enough. He could hear a typical day at Freddy's by the main stage; and a busy one, too. Freddy and his band had their hands full again, it seemed. Heh… good. They were a good lot, and they deserved to be doing what they loved and were best at.

However, Foxy's ears twitched when he distantly heard parts of a conversation between Bonnie and one of the kids. The kid… wanted to come to Pirate's Cove? It was shut down, though. It was against the rules for the kids to be out of sight of the day watches, not to mention the parents would get angry…

Footsteps were starting to approach. Foxy found himself standing up, watching through the gap in his curtains as the rabbit brought the child towards him. Heh- he really owed Bonnie one. Two, actually; one for the previous night and one for right now. He was gonna have to repay him soon- maybe if one of the next night watches had an MP3 player, he'd take it off their corpse and give it to him. (…What? Pirates loot.) Normally that stuff was tossed in the lost and found with the rest of the dead guards' things, anyway.

Bonnie had both hands on the child's shoulders, a safe distance away from the closed curtains. "He should be coming out any minute now," he said with a grin. "Our old pal always loves to meet a new crewmember—"

"Yaarr, me matey!"

Foxy tossed open the curtains, making a show of his entrance to the child's unending delight. "Ye called fer yer Great Captain Foxy? Search no more, lads and lasses; weigh anchor and set sail with yer captain, fer the great Fazbear treasure! That ol' bear won't miss it, anyway!"

The child clapped and cheered wildly; and better yet, other kids had wandered off from the main party and saw the fox out and about. They excitedly joined their friend and Bonnie for the unscheduled show, leaving the day crew panicking and wondering what to do about their "out-of-order" animatronic suddenly active as if he'd never been put away to begin with.

Needless to say, this would be difficult to explain to their boss.