Chapter 26

"Okay what are we missing?"

Mike was anxiously waiting for Chica to be ready to go, Foxy was all set but she had a bag full of items for the boat ride today. It would be his first time away from land, Foxy told great tales of the ocean and Mike was ready to see it for himself.

"Can you help me Mike? Tell me what I need." Chica spoke.

Mike turned to her, she was wearing a yellow shirt with a green skirt, she had a big white bag full of items.

"Sunscreen." He told her.

"Sunscreen, check."

"Sun glasses."

"Sun glasses, yes."

"Hat."

"Hat, yes." She took out her big blue and white striped hat and sat it on her head.

"Snacks?"

"Of course."

"Water bottle?"

"Yup."

"Keys?" He asked.

"Car keys, let's go Mike." She spoke picking him up into her arms. It felt more natural now to have a child and look after him for Chica, she seemed a lot chirper over the last few months, especially after Mike called her "Mommy".

"Have a nice day." Freddy told her.

Chica chuckled and smiled looking at Mike then back at him, "You too Freddy and Bonnie. Just don't leave a big mess for me to clean up." She then opened the front door and left the building, she put Mike in the back of the car in the child's seat booster.

She gently placed her bag in the seat next to her as she started up the engine.

"Mommy!" Mike exclaimed.

"What is it?" She began to reverse out of the pizzeria.

"You forgot something!"

She shook his head, in her mind nothing had been left behind,"I don't think I did."

"You forgot Daddy!" Mike yelled sounding rather urgent, Chica slammed on the brake and did actually realise she didn't wait for Foxy. She literally had a blank enough mind to forget Foxy.

Another human.

She looked back over her shoulder and saw Foxy shoved aside the doors to exit the pizzeria, he had a scowl on his face with his eyes lowered, he was mumbling for sure. He then walked to the car and opened the door without a word.

"Sorry." Chica said.

"Daddy, Mommy nearly forgot you." Mike told him.

"Oh I'm aware she did. Seriously. I was in the bathroom for two minutes." Foxy scoffed, "Ye forget the father of course."

Chica looked away guilty, "I'm sorry."

"Tis okay I guess. At lease Mike reminded you that you have a partner. Which is why he's a good little sailor, first mate potential, we'll ask Felix if he can be the first mate."

"Remind me whose there again?"

"Us, Felix, Nigel, Ennard, Terrance and Felix's girlfriend."

"Whose Terrance?" Mike asked.

"Terrance is Felix's cousin, he's older, he has a wife and children of his own, I've met them. They often call Felix their "Uncle" despite he's not. He's very nice." Foxy explained.

Mike was absolutely excited to out on the water, Felix was steering the boat out to sea, Chica readjusted Mike's life jacket as he fussed from being handled and restricted to movement, she released him and he looked around. They were seats to the side, where Chica just sat calmly next to Foxy, a few inches away was Nigel, who was again wearing his sunglasses and the big rimmed black sunhat, he was wearing a dark grey shirt with black pants that ended at his knees, next to him was Vanessa, her hair was put into a fat bun with a blue sunhat firmly on her head, she was setting up expensive camera equipment, Chica explained she wanted to take pictures.

Ennard was sitting by himself, he a life jacket fasten against his light blue coloured shirt with dark green shorts, in the sun, his scars seemed to almost reappear from him using makeup to cover up the imperfections in his skin, it was at a point where the half of his face that was burnt was faintly showing, in fact, it looked like a deep red glow that extended from his right ear to his jaw line, covering over where his empty eye socket was, going away from his nose and just barely touching the corner of his mouth. He wore his white medical eyepatch today because he couldn't find his fake eye anywhere and Mike seemed to remind Ennard he looked like a pirate with his eyepatch and his usual bandana tied into his hair, the yellow and blue striped one he didn't really wear but Stephan picked it out for him in his pile when he asked for one.

There was a man standing up and looking as they passed the waves. Chica told Mike this was Marionette, Nigel's younger brother. He was younger by roughly a few years, both seemed to be quiet, kept to themselves kind of people. He did look similar, but he wasn't wearing sunglasses, so his silver eyes were looking around, it was different to see Silver eyes for Mike, Chica said it was often common in their family. Marionette did have short black hair that blew behind him above his neck, he tugged aside a blowing lock in his face and tucked it behind his ear, pale skin seemed to be common in their family also. He wore a dark blue shirt and baggy black shorts, he had flat black shoes with no socks on.

Next to them was a man who like Nigel had pale skin, with dark brown hair that was layered until it ended at his neck, not even touching his shoulders, he smiled at the man and waved.

The man waved back. He had on a sleeveless red shirt which had a black silhouette of a fox, his right hand had been bandaged completely from his wrist to his fingertips. He wore dark blue shorts that ended at his knees, he had dark green sandals on his feet, he had very pale feet, to the point where he saw blue veins on the surfaces of his skin.

"You're Mike?" He asked.

"Yup."

"I'm Terrance. It's nice to finally meet the boy who told my cousin to get off his butt and marry his girlfriend. If they get engaged before Christmas, I'll buy you a burger."

"Come 'ere lad." Foxy lifted Mike up in the air and placed him behind on his neck, "Smell the salty air?"

"Yup."

"It's nice just being here with friends." Chica spoke.

"I was glad to get out personally." Nigel spoke, "Too much bull going on."

"You always have bull in your life brother." Marionette replied, "We've both had bull in our lives... you know how I severely hate what our parents did to us. To you, they practically disowned you after you ran away."

"Don't mention them brother." Nigel snapped with a rising anger in his voice, Marionette was really the only true reminder of his parents, if he never came back to see him, he feared what his parents could have done to the poor boy, he was thankful Terrance or Felix never got to meet his parents.

"Hey Mike, I'll take you to the pool next week for swimming lessons." Chica told him.

Foxy shook his head, "Lassie he's taking in too much water."

"At lease he having fun." Chica argued back.

"Who said water did anyone harm?" Ennard asked.

"So that wicked witch. Who was she?" Marionette asked taking a sip from his water bottle.

"Not who she said she was."

"Is it possible that Schmidt could be Mike's real last name?" Marionette asked, "Nigel, you remember that woman..."

"What woman?" Chica questioned getting curious, Marionette turned his attention back to her.

"We knew a woman about thirty years ago. It was just after Terrance was born but before Felix was born. Her name was Mary Schmidt." Marionette answered.

"She was a beautiful woman. I only met her because she was a friend of... Lila..." Nigel felt weird casually saying the name of his wife whom he hadn't seen for nearly 30 years. He felt something disturb inside him, he didn't have any relationships after Lila walked out all these years ago. He never actually said her name to anyone besides his brother and Felix. Chica had known the brothers for a while and that was the first time she heard the name. She wondered if that meant Nigel trusted her a lot more than he did previously.

"Mommy! Mommy look! Mommy!"

"What is it?" Chica stood up looking out to the sea.

"Look!"

She stared out and saw a distant shape, she then saw a spurt of water being shot up in the air.

"Thar she blows! It's a whale!" Foxy exclaimed, Vanessa suddenly stepped next to them and started to snap some photos, her camera clicking with each image she captured.

"Wow, I've never seen a whale before." Ennard looked outwards standing next to Chica.

"It's beautiful."

"This is the bestest day."

"They'll be more bestest days Michael."

"Chica, your phone ringing." Nigel called over her attention.

Chica broke away from the group to get her phone from her bag.

"Hello?"

"Chica?"

"Paige."

"I have Jeremy here. Can Mike talk to him?"

"Sure. Sweetheart. It's your friend from the orphanage." Chica smiled at Mike, Foxy placed him down and Mike walked over. Chica turned on speakerphone.

"Say hello to Paige."

"Hi Paige!" Mike answered.

"Hello Mikey, do you like your family?"

"Yea, I love my mommy and daddy, my uncle Freddy and Bonnie, I also love Felix, Ennard, Baby.."

Chica had stopped listening, she loved it when she heard Mike actually say he loved both her and Foxy as a mommy and daddy, her heart melted from the mushy cuteness.

"Hi Mike!" She heard Jeremy on the phone.

"Hi Jeremy!"

"Are we still friends?"

"Yup! I wish we could still play, I have lots of friends and family, maybe Mommy will invite you for Christmas."

"That could be something..." Chica muttered, knowing it would be unlikely they would see each other.

"I have to go okay?" Paige said.

"That's fine."

"Bye Paige and Jeremy." Mike smiled.

"Bye bye sweetie, I'm so happy you're okay!" Paige smiled as she hung up, disappointment then rose in her, "Ennard huh...?"

"That's a funny name." Jeremy commented.

"His father gave him that name..." Paige informed him.

"Could we... see Mike for Christmas?"

"Sure why not? Everyone deserves a second chance."

But not William Afton she thought.

Vanessa was taking several photos, one had Mike sitting on Foxy's shoulders as they looked out to sea, other had the family all sitting together, at one point, Mike was actually steering the ship wearing a sailor's hat that Ennard found from a prop box at home.

So many memories had been made, when Felix docked the boat, everyone voted to have Ice Cream.

Foxy felt lucky from the very start to meet Chica but when she was depressed, it was like she was a different woman, not the one he enjoyed waking up and seeing but the one he feared would be gone when he woke up in the morning. Mike had lit up her world, she was smiling and laughing, she beamed each time Mike said the word "Mommy", Foxy remembered the long days, the dark nights, the disappointment, everything seemed like a bad memory now.

No one was aware they were being watched by a certain individual.

*rises from the smoke*

I LIVE!

Work tends to keep me away more now, I only just came back from a shift a few hours ago and took this into a final editing stage. I've also been working on art related stuff like

—A new ID for my Deviant Art account, my current image is serious outdated by a few years and I'm redesigning it to represent some real aspects of me.

—Some Book covers, I still haven't finalised a proper design for this story, I might put some sketches on my profile and I'll let people decide what they like best (Every cover will have Mike and Jeremy as the focus in the centre but I'm debating what other characters to include, if I should, like Chica and Foxy, Nate, Ennard, Nigel, Paige... and even William Afton... I dunno?)

—I am continuing to work on my next FNAF related story by creating character designs that will stand out so they are recognisable.

Next chapter is still in drafting stages, so I say the earliest it may be out is by the 15th of March, I expect it will be later than that. But I will get it out before the 30th of March. From this point, I will update my profile to give rough estimates on when any chapter of my current stories should arrive.

Thank you all for being patient :-)