Disclaimer: I do not own "Five Nights at Freddy's" or its characters.


A loud sneeze was heard coming from the living room. Slightly startled by it, Claire peeked out the kitchen to look at the couch where her boyfriend was sitting in.

"God bless you," she said.

"Yeah, I wouldn't count on it…"

Mike rubbed his nose roughly, staring at the TV. Someone was talking about him… and it didn't feel like it was a good thing.

He wasn't actually paying attention to the movie that was playing on TV – something about a group of animals returning home? – so he was simply staring at the screen absent-mindedly while he thought about all the things he had gone through in the last couple of weeks.

His shoulder gets injured, he almost gets killed by Shadow Bonnie, he has weird dreams and hallucinations about dead kids and other dubious clues he still had to figure out the meaning of… and then he goes back to work at the pizzeria that caused it all with a partner who somehow managed to convince him to change the robots' AI, which almost got them both killed. No one should have to go through all that shit is just two weeks… The least they could do is give him a goddamn raise!

Though, Mike knew that he was lucky to even have his job still. Lawrence could not be happy about the animatronics' AI being tampered with… Stupid Fritz. What was he thinking? On that note, what was Mike thinking agreeing with that ridiculous plan? But, oh well, not use mourning about it now. For sure Lawrence would be able to get the robots back to normal… hopefully… That last night had been the most stressful night ever.

With their AIs set to maximum, the robots were relentless in their pursuits of the night guards. Sure, they had Golden Freddy to help them out, but even he could not keep the power from going down every time they had to close the doors. They somehow managed to not run out of power – Mike was sure there had been some miracle going on there – but even the ghostly bear was quite unimpressed with the two night guards.

"Why did you think that changing their AI was ever a good idea?" the bear asked, narrowing his eyes. "Just stay in the office, where you should be"

Even though he did not appreciate getting scolded by the ghost of a ten year old girl (since he now knew that Golden Freddy was actually this Rika he had seen in his dreams), he had to admit they had been pretty stupid. Lesson learned – do not mess with things you don't know how to mess with, even if you're being guided by someone who supposedly knows what he's doing. Especially if it had anything to do with the pizzeria.

Despite having a rough first day on the job, Fritz showed no intention of quitting. He wanted to help Mike, more now that he knew everything that was happening. Upon having seen Golden Freddy, it was not hard to convince the former technician that there was some serious haunting going on at the pizzeria. The golden ghost did not stick around to listen to Mike's long detailed explanation of all the clues he had gotten via "hallucinations" and dreams, instead keeping an eye on the elusive brown bear that was still very much capable of avoiding being caught on camera while Mike told Fritz all he knew. Or rather, all the things he was yet to know.

Mike sighed. It would all be so much easier if whoever was giving him those clues would just outright tell him the truth. Why make it harder by forcing him to figure it out on his own? Well, now he had Fritz's help, but all the new night guard could really help him on was with information regarding the pizzeria from 1987, where he worked at. As for the first pizzeria, the one from 1977 where "that tragedy" took place, he didn't have much information going on. They would have to do some serious digging…

But not today. Because today Mike was going to face something else before going to work. Something that would get most men quivering in fear – dinner with his girlfriend's family.

Not that he hadn't met them before – in five years of dating that would be quite a feat. But he dreaded the inevitable questions that they would make, like how is work, how much money he makes, is he intending on proposing to her anytime soon…

'…I think I'd rather take my chances with the robots…' he thought, gulping.

Well, it could be worse. If Claire was Lawrence's daughter, for example. That would be awful…Imagine having him as a father-in-law! That would be the end of Mike Schmidt for sure…

"You are not panicking over dinner tonight again, are you?" Claire inquired sharply, appearing next to him as if out of thin air.

He looked at her and blinked. "Of course not…!" He coughed, trying to appear at ease. "Why would I, it's not like they're going to eat me alive. Heh… Heh…"

Claire snorted. "C'mon, you make it sound worse than it is. My parents adore you."

"No, my parents adore you," the night guard corrected. "Your parents just… do their best to deal with it…" He could not imagine any parents being happy with their daughter dating someone who makes minimum wage and is somehow always involved in trouble.

"Oh you are such a drama queen," Claire accused, which got Mike to look at her with an offended expression. "Everything is going to be fine."

They didn't notice there was something watching them from the window, tilting its head. Something with shimmering feathers, that had gone unnoticed for the last couple of minutes.

Chirp chirp~


"Claire, sweetie!"

A tall and slender blonde woman opened her arms with a happy smile. She held her daughter tightly.

"Hi, mom," Claire greeted, hugging back her mother.

Claire's father, a bulky man with short brown hair, smiled at the two blondes from a wheel chair. "Good to see you again, dear. Now where is the boy? He didn't run away did he?" he chuckled.

"No, I'm here…" Mike muttered, awkwardly stepping inside the living room of the Shepherd family.

Even though they were not rich, Claire's parents could not complain of lack of money. Neither of them was working anymore: Claire's father, Owen, had been in a wheel chair for nearly a decade after a bad accident at work got him to lose movement in his legs; as for his wife, Melissa, she dropped her job to attend to her husband and be her fulltime caretaker. They did get a nice amount of money from insurances though, so they were well-off as far as money went.

After an awkward handshake with Owen (who refused to allow Mike to call him 'sir' or 'Mr. Shepherd', assuring that just 'Owen' was fine), they were led to the dining room, where the table was already set and the food was ready.

Mike spent most of the dinner exchanging small talk with Claire and her parents and acting like his mind wasn't elsewhere. Even though he was supposed to try and get to know Claire's parents better at the moment, he felt so awkward and uncomfortable that the only way for him to not look like he was sitting on needles was to focus on something else. Unfortunately for him, the only other thing that was going on in his life other than Claire was the pizzeria – as much as it hurt to admit.

He felt like he was getting obsessed with it. There was a hardly a time when he didn't think about all the things that were going on at Freddy Fazbear's. There were too many weird things going on, and it could not be a coincidence that it befell on him to figure it all out. Especially considering he had to "remember" something, whatever that was. Something happened to him that related to the pizzeria… but what? He looked at the hand where that mysterious scar was. Up until that point he had never given it that much thought – it was just a scar – but now he was questioning everything. He now at least knew the exact date of when he got the scar: 26th June of 1977. His parents had told him, both seeming quite bewildered at him making them questions about something that had taken place so long ago. Not that it gave him that much information until he researched that day and figured out if anything strange had happened.

The night guard sighed and looked up from his meal, realizing he hadn't eaten much yet. He adjusted himself on his seat and motioned to get a drink, when he noticed something on the window. Right behind Claire, staring at him. A bird. The golden bird that had visited him at the hospital.

"Goldie?" he muttered, the hand holding his glass twitching.

"What?" Claire asked, looking at him quizzically.

Mike blinked and looked at her. "Uh…"

"Right you are, son," Owen said, smiling in approval as he picked up the bottle of wine from which everyone save for Claire was drinking. "'Golden's Ram', often called 'Goldie'. Good to see someone still appreciates the classics."

"Oh y-yeah, it's uh, a great wine," Mike stammered, nodding at Owen awkwardly. He glanced at the window again. The bird was gone.

Claire frowned and followed his gaze towards the window.

"Now to you, Mike," Melissa started, smiling.

"Sorry, what?"

"We've been talking about Claire's work for a while. Why don't you tell us more about your job?" Claire's mother clarified."Our daughter told us you're a security guard now."

Ah crap – one of the very issues he wanted to avoid talking about…

He scratched his neck. "Yeah…" he confirmed, while Claire's frowned slightly. "Um, I work the night shift at, uh, Freddy Fazbear's. You must have heard of it…"

For a second, it looked to Mike as if both Owen and Melissa were stunned by hearing the name of the place he worked at, and their expressions darkened slightly. It only lasted for a second, however, as they went back to their normal, pleasant dispositions exceptionally fast.

"A-ah, I see… Yes, I've heard quite a bit about that place," Melissa admitted, whilst Claire went back to eating, apparently preferring to not take place in the conversation anymore.

This was all very weird, but Mike assumed they were just apprehensive because of all the rumors that surrounded that place. He had gotten a similar reaction from his own parents when he told them where he'd start working after all.

"And do you, um, do you enjoy working there?" Melissa wanted to know.

"Well… Yeah, I guess." Mike shrugged, looking at the window again, just to make sure Goldie wasn't back there looking at him. "It's not that bad… Not a lot of money, but it's good for now."

Owen nodded. "We gotta start somewhere, don't we son?" He drank a bit of his wine and smiled at Mike. "I remember my first job was as a paperboy for old Ackerford," he informed, shivering slightly. "Scary old man, that one. Gave you this stare… How's your boss? Heard he's quite something himself."

Mike gulped. "Yeah, Lawrence – uh, I mean, Mr. Richards is… Well, he's difficult, and let's leave it at that…" Biggest understatement ever.

Owen chuckled. "I hear you, son. Bosses have that effect on us newbies," he said. "Don't worry, once he knows he can rely on you things will get easier."

'… That's never going to happen…' Mike thought to himself sadly.

"Your parents must be very proud," Melissa said, unaware that Mike was laughing at that in his mind. Yeah right… "It's obvious that you're trying hard to earn your own."

'Oh, you have no idea…'

Melissa sighed. "Though, I have to admit… working at Freddy Fazbear's," she started. "Your parents must be concerned. There are a lot of stories surrounding that place…"

Mike knew all of that already, so he said nothing. Instead he looked at Claire, who seemed to be the one feeling uncomfortable now. Figures, even Claire didn't like the idea of Mike working at the pizzeria, so no wonder she didn't look happy.

"… I'm surprised it's even open still," Melissa continued. "Our son loved working th…"

She suddenly stopped talking. Mike looked up at her and saw she now looked slightly startled for some reason.

Claire's expression had gotten strangely dark in just a couple of seconds. She stood up and left the dining room without a word.

Mike looked back-and-forth between Claire's now empty chair and Melissa, who was still trying to regain her composure. What had just happened? Melissa was about to make some comments regarding their son – their deceased son. Mike had heard from Claire that she had an older brother once, but that he had died when she was fourteen. He didn't know the full story behind his death – hell, he didn't even know his name – but he never questioned his girlfriend about it either. He could tell it was a hard subject on her, even though it had been around eight or nine years since he had died. But it was kind of surprising to hear that he had worked at Freddy Fazbear's once – at least that's what Melissa was saying, it seemed. Maybe that was part of why Claire didn't want him working there…

Owen cleared his throat. "Let's not talk about work anymore, uh? Way too boring of a subject during dinner, I think," he asked with fake cheerfulness. "Go check on Claire, Melissa. I'm just going to bother Mike here with some exhilarating life stories of mine. Got plenty to tell."

Mike watched Claire's mother leave the table to go check on her daughter, and was only vaguely aware of what Owen was saying to him. Why did Claire always get so upset and secretive about her brother? Why didn't she tell him that he had worked at Freddy's too once? He could only hope that she wouldn't be somehow involved in the history of the pizzeria too… God, that's just what he needed… His worlds were colliding…


Mike grunted to himself, angrily checking his watch for the fifth time as he stood outside Freddy Fazbear's. He was – yet again – waiting for his partner to get to the pizzeria, and said partner was – yet again – late.

After the most awkward dinner in the history of awkward was over, Mike and Claire returned home, where the blonde's overly cheerful disposition make it clear that she was not going to answer any questions regarding her reaction towards the mention of her brother. Mike swallowed all of the questions he had, as such, and allowed her her space. Didn't mean he wouldn't try and look into it later. He didn't have a lot of time to focus on the mysteries behind Claire's deceased brother, however, as by the time he got out of her parents' house it was already eleven o'clock. It was almost time to go back to work again…

Almost immediately once he checked his watch, a car parked next to his, and a brown-haired grinning man stepped outside, holding something behind his back as he adjusted his tie.

He waved in greeting. "Hey, sorry I'm -"

"Late," Mike hissed to complete his sentence. "Didn't I tell you to be here at half past eleven?"

Fritz finished adjusting his tie as he approached Mike. "I know, I know, sorry. But she was pretty insistent for another…"

"Don't care," Mike interrupted. "Let's just go in, al… right?" He paused, glancing at the hand Fritz had behind his back with a frown. He could have sworn he saw flowers… "Fritz… What is that?"

Fritz' grin got wider as he revealed what he was hiding. A large bouquet of flowers. "For our lovely janitor, Mira," he clarified, to answer Mike's puzzled expression. He then sniffed the flowers, with an expression of glee. "Ah I was unable to find flowers that matched her beauty but I did my best…"

Mike could only stare at the flowers, too dumbfounded to be able to articulate speech properly. Deciding not to make any further comment, he simply turned his back on his partner and opened the door of the pizzeria to get inside.

He did not expect things to turn out like this when he convinced Fritz to take the job offer and become the other night guard. Now he was all over Mira, even though the medium was quite clearly not interested. He even got her flowers…! Then again, he probably got flowers for all his lady friends

Maybe he should get flowers for Claire too…


[A/N - Yes, Mike. Yes you should.

More secrets ~]