William might've been dead and the Fazbear franchise might've been over, but neither Michael nor Elizabeth had been able to wake up from the nightmare. Not yet, at least, because both of them had been forced to endure the fallout of what William's death and the franchise's ending had caused, and then of course, there were the demons that stood on their shoulders and in between the two of them as well, an ever-present issue. Michael and Elizabeth had, of course, both tried to rekindle their relationship, but bonding wasn't as easy as one might've thought.
Even though both sibling had saved the other, Elizabeth was still pretty distrustful of Michael, too afraid to trust anyone again in case it led to her being hurt or abandoned once more (it had happened far too many times for her to forgive or forget) and, to top it off, Elizabeth's desire for blood hadn't been entirely sated yet either. It wasn't like she could just flip a switch and turn off her vengeful desires. Instead, those were inner battles she fought daily, torn between just killing Michael in his sleep and continuing her revenge-fueled rampage or sparing Michael and trying to reform, just like he'd said she could. And Michael had a lot of issues to work out too, like being a good brother to the little sister he hadn't seen in years, dealing with all of his mental and emotional issues and fallout, not just wanting to set fire to himself and Elizabeth again just to take the easy way out, and more. In short, neither of the surviving Afton children were getting very far in terms of a full recovery...
"Hey Elizabeth," Michael murmured one night about three weeks after the night the pizzeria burned down and the day he and Elizabeth had been reunited again against all odds.
"Hey Michael," she replied, voice soft and almost resigned. It had sounded this way ever since the day after he'd taken her home, after the afterglow of their reunion had finally worn off.
"How are you doing?" he asked awkwardly, having no clue how else to start up a conversation or how to bond with his sister.
"I'm alive," she sighed again. She was, presently, sitting on the living room floor, staring at the TV, though it wasn't even on.
"That's good," Michael said awkwardly, walking cautiously over to his big little sister, sitting on the couch cushion closest to her.
"How are you?" Elizabeth replied, pitying Michael's horrible conversation skills.
"I'm doing good," he tried to sound upbeat, but it just came off as way too forced.
"That's good," Elizabeth echoed hollowly. She was spinning one of the wheels of her roller skates mindlessly.
A painful silence reigned between the two until Elizabeth finally asked the question.
"What do you want, Michael?" she asked, finally sighing in defeat.
"What do you mean?" Michael replied, genuinely confused.
"Why are you here?" Elizabeth clarified. "Why are you talking to me?"
"Can't a man talk to his own sister?" Michael replied, trying again to sound upbeat. It didn't work this time either.
"Of course he can, but when that man is you, it doesn't usually happen without a purpose," Elizabeth muttered darkly, but she wasn't wrong.
The only time Michael really talked to her was when he had a need to. He never "just" talked to her, for the fun of it. Although, initially, Elizabeth hadn't minded, after about two weeks of it, it became quite disheartening, like he didn't really want her around anymore. And to think! He had been the one to insist that William had been toxic to her! Well, how was Michael any better at this point? Hardly even looking at her? At least William had interacted with her. Elizabeth almost missed him and began to regret ever choosing to side with Michael, though she still could not bring herself to harm him. As mad as she was at him and all he had done to her and their father, every time Elizabeth tried to imagine herself avenging herself and killing, or even hurting, Michael, almost made her feel ill. After all, she really did feel bad for hurting him. Not because he was her brother or her savior or because he was Michael Afton, but because he was human, and like he had said, killing was not in Elizabeth's nature. Maybe it was in Circus Baby's, but she was not Circus Baby. She was only trapped in Circus Baby's body.
Though thanks to some repair work from Michael, that body was a bit cleaner and sturdier. He'd straightened and polished all of her metal plates and replaced the ones that were missing or in total disrepair and he'd done likewise with all of her wires, circuits, buttons, gears, diodes and everything else on her endoskeleton that hid behind those metal plates. That had been the closest they'd ever been to genuine bonding. And the only reason Michael hadn't just made her a new body altogether was because he didn't have the money for it. And Elizabeth knew this was true because Michael had been working at a Fazbear pizzeria. Everyone knew that franchise only ever paid minimum wage to any of its employees.
"Well, I was just wondering, you know..." Michael began awkwardly. "If you might've just wanted to, well, maybe just... try bonding?"
"Bonding?" Elizabeth echoed, restored facial plates shifting in something like amusement as she spoke the word like one who did not understand.
"Yeah, hang out. You know, watch a movie, play a board game, something like that. Do what normal siblings do," Michael gave her a pathetic, terrified smile. Elizabeth wondered if he realized he was twiddling his thumbs or shaking his legs. It was obvious how hard and terrifying and awkward it was for him to talk to her like this, especially after all they'd been through. Elizabeth even had half a mind to scoff at such a childish, foolish offer and then rebuff him for being such a simplistic, idealistic idiot, to think that a movie and a board game could ever be shared between the two of them! But no, instead, Elizabeth surprised even herself and she nodded.
In the end, the duo settled upon watching the 1951 Disney film "Alice in Wonderland". It was ancient by then, but a classic nonetheless. It was almost comedic, a slouchy, grouchy man sitting on a couch with a massive hunk of metal at his side, both of them staring expressionlessly at the screen as a blond girl in a blue dress ran after a white rabbit with a pocket watch, a tiny red kitten following after.
"What a stupid movie," Elizabeth muttered at one point as the two fat boys, Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum, literally came bouncing onto set, emitting weird squeaks whenever they collided, which was quite frequently. But even so, she paid rapt attention to the film.
"It really is," Michael agreed at one point, as Alice wound up growing to the size of a house... while inside the house. He fought the urge to make a remark about how that scene reminded him of Elizabeth herself, it having been quite hard to squeeze her massive form into his own little abode.
But because this was a film that they had watched back when they were still children, hence why they had agreed upon it in the first place, both of them began to smile during the Mad Tea Party scene.
"I remember this scene," Elizabeth whispered, something like nostalgia causing her voice to break. Michael even saw her raise a giant metal hand to her chest right where a heart should've been. Michael smiled then, as he remembered too. Elizabeth and Charlie used to sing that song all the time, pretending to throw their own Un-Birthday parties and Mad Tea Times right there in the living room of the Afton's original house. Back then, Michael had thought that it was stupid and girly, but now, seeing it made something within his old and battered chest pulse just a bit faster.
And then he had the same reaction during the "Painting the Roses Red" scene. He could still remember the day William had come home to find the backyard and his daughter covered in red paint, Elizabeth having taken the song to heart. They hadn't planted roses that year, so Elizabeth chose to paint the sunflowers red instead. It hadn't gone nearly as smoothly as the film showed, but William hadn't done more than roll his eyes before carrying his whining, Red Queen-like daughter in the house, Michael snickering as she, finally, got into at least a bit of trouble with William.
When the film ended, Elizabeth sighed wistfully.
"Wish I could wake up as easily as Alice," she said.
"Well, I still certainly wouldn't want Alice's fate," Michael tried to ease the mood again. "Running around, eating all that weird food on a whim?"
"Well, you pretty much fell down a rabbit hole all your own. We all did," Elizabeth shook her giant head, Michael's attempt to cheer her up failing.
"I guess you're right," he tried again to cheer Elizabeth up, even though the first attempt had failed. "My chasing down the Fazbear legacy was a lot like Alice chasing the white rabbit, both of us wound up with a one-way ticket to Crazy Town!" he laughed weakly.
"The Mad Tea Party did remind me a bit of what some of the animatronics I used to live with were like," Elizabeth agreed with a weak laugh as well. "They were a nutty bunch, just as endless and confused, chasing down a day that would never come. And some of the technicians reminded me a bit of the caterpillar," she added with a nasty grin.
"Same," Michael replied, laughing for real now. "I've met several other Fazbear workers and I bet you most of them were high every single day!"
So at last, the two began genuinely conversating. For once, dialogue was not forced or fake. It didn't feel awkward to talk about their lives or feelings and, without even meaning to, the two finally began to really bond.
"So, what about that game, then?" Michael asked at last, genuinely smiling.
"And what game could I possibly play?" Elizabeth laughed back. "I'm too big to play any board or video game and your house is too small for anything like Hide-n-Seek or Tag!" she said and Michael cringed as he realized she was right.
"Oops," he said, trying to hide the fact that he'd already brought Scrabble, Monopoly, Parcheesi and Life down to offer up to Elizabeth. Elizabeth, however, had since seen the games and, after teasing Michael over it, dared him to a game of her own.
"I bet you could fit a whole board game into my hand, in fact!" she challenged, then she extended a massive palm towards her brother.
"What?" he asked in confusion.
"Pick a game, set it up in my hand," Elizabeth replied and, although he was a bit surprised and amused by such an idea, Michael obeyed.
In the end, he managed to get all four of those games set upon Elizabeth's hand (not all at once, of course). Elizabeth had then tried to play with her other hand (that one being a claw), but even the very tip of the claw was too big to really play with. She ended up crush a die from Parcheesi, breaking several pieces in Life, tearing the money in Monopoly and never being able to pick up the smooth tiles of Scrabble (which were so tiny she needed to hold them right up to her eye to see them in the first place).
"Yeah, never mind that then," Michael grinned sheepishly as Elizabeth broke another handful of game pieces. "Sorry."
"Why don't we just watch another movie again instead?" she suggested hopefully, carefully setting down their latest board game.
"Of course!" Michael replied, just glad to see Elizabeth finally warming up to him. If anything, she seemed to be quite tickled by her inability to play tiny board games anymore, having laughed every single time she broke something. He had been worried she might throw a fit, bitter that her body would not let her live as a normal human, but instead, she seemed amused, as though she had wanted to see not if she could play these games, but how many times she could mess one up. If that were true, then mission accomplished!
"So, what'll it be?" Michael asked as he set the last game away and turned to the tiny movie shelf.
"Well, are there any other "Alice in Wonderland" films?" Elizabeth asked. "It's been quite a few years since the first one was released."
"Oh, so you want to go back down that rabbit hole again?" Michael teased and Elizabeth nodded enthusiastically, so Michael only shrugged and quickly whipped out his phone, looking for other "Alice in Wonderland" films.
AN: Here you go, Darmulzombie! Your little, fluffy sequel! I know I wasn't able to hit on every point you asked, but since I did feel like this was predominantly, fluff, I didn't want to make it too dramatic or emotional (hence why neither of the two Aftons ever really talk about the day they reunited, or anything else serious like that). Besides, I think it's time we give the two a break and let them just have some more light-hearted fun! Don't you agree? LOL