William Afton held his head in his hands as he lurked in his office. Dust settled around him as he began to drift off. For what seemed like forever, he'd barely been able to keep up with his own company. Files lay strewn across the scratched mahogany of his desk, detailing layouts and other plans for a restaurant he'd been waiting ages to see.

The door to the office creaked open. A short, thin man looking to be barely out of college stepped in and took a seat in the chair across from William. The young man ruffled his blonde hair and straightened his tie haphazardly. "You asked for me, boss?" he muttered, his scrawny muscles tensing. William took one glance at his name tag, which read 'Sean' in rushed handwriting.

"Yes." William blankly said, locking eyes with the man in front of him. "I wanted to ask you one question and one only, Sean."

Shaking, Sean managed to mutter a response.. "And t-that question is?"

"It's been two weeks since I brought the new bots in. When are you and the others putting them up on the damn stage so we can open that restaurant?" he growled.

On the other side of the desk, Sean cleared his throat awkwardly. "U-Um, boss, we're doing that today."

William's scornful frown suddenly flipped to become a thin, tight smile. "Oh. Good. Be on your way, then. I'll meet with you and the others in a few minutes. Show you how to..." he hesitated, pondering what to say. "...how to handle these robots, per se."

"Y-yes, boss!" Sean stammered as he scrambled out of the room. As soon as he was gone, William let out a sigh of relief, chuckling without even knowing it. Through the cracks in the blinds, sunlight streamed into the room. Fading grey wallpaper glistened even with the feeble slivers of light.

Beside him lay an old, dusty drawer. Without a second thought, William opened it, revealing piles of aged folders and photographs half-sunken in dust and darkness. He pulled some of the contents out, not caring to look at them. He only wanted them to be close to him.

One of the pictures fluttered to the dusty tiled floor. A second one came with it, followed by yet another. The photographs were slipping out of his hands. He scrambled to pick them up, and he couldn't help himself but to take one glance.

The photographs all showed the same people. Two brown-haired boys, one young, the other looking a few years older. A little girl stood beside them with a wide grin on her face. Behind them stood William Afton himself.

For the longest time, he never really cared for them. He may have raised them, but they were just people to him. Nothing more.

Michael, Brendon and Suzy, he reminded himself. I remembered their freaking names for once. Yay, me.

For being his children, he should have loved them. There was one time when he would have considered it, but there was... a certain incident that made him think otherwise.

He remembered little of that day. The only things he could recall clearly were the blood on Michael's hands that day and a skull that was shattered like glass. The whole room was still with the presence of death himself, but it was also alive with the horrified screams of the living.

Go fuck yourself, Michael. William thought, wishing he could scream it louder than he'd ever screamed before. I may not care that much, but you did the worst thing a man can do. But here's the difference between us; I had a reason, you didn't. I would have killed you and drank your blood if I could so there'd be nothing left of you.

He began to realize what he'd thought. Deep down in his heart, he almost felt a pang of regret starting to grow.

William shuddered. Stop thinking about that. Forget it. Forgive him. The man slammed his head on the desk as his anguish got worse. He almost felt tears welling up in his eyes. Why can't I stop thinking about it?!

Hinges creaked almost silently at the entryway of the office. Someone's quivering voice came from the other side of the door. "Erm.. boss?"

William nearly jumped out of his chair, scrambling to place the old memorabilia back in its place. "Yes?"

"We're ready to go, boss. You said you wanted to come with?"

For once in his life, he stumbled over his words. "Y...Yeah. Sure. Get to the parking lot with the other workers." He stood, walking stiffly out of the room. He didn't mind that Sean was practically stepping on his heels.

Behind him, Sean's voice called out to him. "Uh.. Hate to ask, but w-what were you doing in there?"

Growling under his breath, William barely kept himself from snapping. "You don't need to know, Sean. Now shut up."

Falling silent, Sean backed away from the man before him. Before he knew it, they had found his co workers and began rushing off past the doors of the building they stood in. There was a restaurant to give life to, and they didn't want to hesitate any longer.


Author's Note: Hey, y'all!

Yes, I did stick a little Horrifica reference in here - pretty obvious, I know, but hey. I had to! :P

There's gonna be a few mild delays on my stories soon, most likely. I'm going to be extremely busy in the next coming weeks. I apologize.

In the meantime though, stay tuned! I miiight have another AU coming soon! (maybe when I finish this one)

Also: this AU is based off old theories and predictions about SL before its release. If you have any, feel free to tell me!