TEN MONTHS LATER

I arrived at the new pizza place Bernard was at, All-Stars' Amazing Pizza. The auction profit that Louis and I got was actually about $2,500 dollars for him and me each, despite the numbers for everything reaching past 20 grand. The other $15,000 (ish) went to the auctioneers for "convincing" on Louis' part. Still, it's a profit in my book. I even convinced my friend to spend however much of his into paying my medical bills at the same time as for rigging the auction to a philanthropic entrepreneur. For Lou's sake, it was only about a grand to pay the doctors to fix me up. Anyway, I sat off to the side in a booth watching Bernard holding a microphone and doing what he was designed to do. Entertain kids. The pizza place manager/owner was the guy who bought him, and I'd have to say it was a solid investment, despite Louis' serpentine skills. Ben has been a big hit and the business was booming. While he was stationed with animatronics that weren't nearly as advanced as him, he didn't really mind. He seemed to be just happy that he didn't have some murderous ghost using him as a puppet.

Ben finished his show for the kids and the curtain closed. I walked into the backstage to catch-up with him. Since the auction, Ben had gotten repaired to peak condition. All the internal wiring and frame work was fixed and his rotted fur suit was replaced with brand new nylon fur-suit pieces all over him. His sickly hue was replaced with a yellow-gold color. He even got upgrades to his facial expressions and to his fine-dexterity. Otherwise, all of Bernard was kept the same; even his missing ear segment was still gone, but he seemed to be a lot better now. The kid didn't mind the missing ear bit. I waved at him as he went to put away his mic. "Hey Ben."

He turned around, pleasantly surprised. "Oh! Hey Henry. Long time no see?"

"Heh, yeah. You look a hell of a lot better than when shit went down like our first meet, yeah?"

Ben cringed, "Could you tone down your language? There are kids here!"

I blinked, but then realized what he meant. "Oh shin-digs! I'm sorry. Almost slipped my mind."

The rabbit grinned at my slip of the tongue. "Just try not to forget." Ben and I chuckled. "Anyway, what brings you here? I saw you in the crowd with the parents."

I shrugged. "Y'know. Just checking in on you. Seeing how your new work is treating you."

"Things have actually gotten a lot better since you took me away from the horrible place and tried to fight the horrible man."

I rubbed the back of my head, both out of humility and out of remembering how I got a kick that field-goal kicker couldn't match in the back of my head. "Really? Like what?"

"Well, for starters, this place's night guard and I are best friends now."

"What's his name?"

He opened up with a romantic sigh, looking off at the upper rafters of the stage. "Her name is Julie," said Ben, dreamily.

I snorted a stifled laugh, just imagining how that worked out. I'm a little curious now. "So they're a woman, I see. What's she like?"

"She's real sweet and a cutie to boot! She chose her job because she loved animatronics as a kid, and her seeing me is like a dream come true for her."

I nodded, noticing a wooden chest with what looks like a fox tail hanging out of the open lid. "Does that also explain why there is also people costume pieces of a fox in that box back there?"

Ben snapped out of his love-daze and saw where I was looking. He hastily put away the costume parts into the chest, seeing the lid with the label of "Nite-gard'z" in all the bad spelling and black-sharpie. "Sh-she likes going to costume parties. I thought here was a good place to keep it when she doesn't want to wear it."

I could tell he was bullshitting me, but I didn't have the heart or the allowed vulgarity to point it out to his face. The chick's a Furry, I guess. No harm, no foul. I smirked and put my hands in my pocket. "That's real sweet of you to do. Anything else of late?"

"Not really. What about you? I didn't see you since I got sold to here."

"I got my hospital check on that day, and I was going to be fine. A few weeks after getting a clean bill of health, I went right to this legit job I have at this other pizza place, a rival one."

"Oh, you mean the Freddy and Friend's Pizza. What do you do there?"

"Minimum wage jobs. Currently, I'm a cook, but I burnt the kitchen down twice now and my boss isn't letting me leave. I swear, if I end up causing another fire, I'm just going to quit being a cook."

Ben put his hand to his jaw in thought. He offered, "You can be the door man."

I chuckled, "Yeah, but they wouldn't let me shoot hinges off. But yeah, I know what you mean."

Ben and I laughed and chatted away. It was only until after talking about odd-job working that Ben started to get a little down. "Do you think we'll meet again?"

"I… don't know for sure," I said in a semi-defeated voice. Ben's ears drooped and seemed sad again. "You have Chuck and Julie, right?"

"…right… They are nice, but I guess I missed you for a while."

I nodded, "Yeah. I know." I puzzled in thought.

Reaching into my pockets, I handed him the plastic-metal stogie. "I found this at the warehouse way back and thought I would keep it. You know how to use it?"

"Wireless connection to the device. Light up on command. It's something that only Fredbear could do, but he showed me how to connect to it."

"Well, maybe you should keep it. Just as a souvenir and relic to remember me by. If I do come back, show me the cigar so I recognize you, okay?" Ben nods and puts the fake cigar in his forearm costume piece. "You be good, kid. Alright?"

"I will. And you be you, right?"

I smiled and held my hand up as a show of honor. "I do solemnly swear to still be stubborn jerk who has the best of intentions for as long as I live."

Ben gives me a high five and smiles. "Right! Now, mister Henry. You have work to do."

"Indeed, indeed. Take care, Bernard."

"Goodbye Henry."

With that, I stepped off stage.