With the many times she had dreamed being there, the Fredbear diner was becoming a place that Lizzy was very well acquainted with. Even if it was nothing but burnt rubble in the past (if not that, than just an empty patch of land or maybe some other building that was built in the last forty years), Lizzy could still remember the details of diner. Not exact details, such as which poster was where and what was on the menu and for what price. But enough to make it seem that she herself had been there forty years ago in real life, and no a dream.
Lizzy was surprised to find herself here a little earlier than previous dreams. Christmas decorations were up and after looking at a calendar, Lizzy saw that the date was December 21st 1976.
It seemed to be closed for the night, and there was a rather thick layer of snow inside. But there was at least one occupant inside. A black haired man in his forties at least with a stubbly beard wearing chef clothes (a white shirt with sleeves rolled up above his elbows and apron over black pants) and had a somewhat gruff appearance. He was currently sitting at one of the stools at the counter with his back to it, hand resting on the counter next to a mug which had ash inside it, while the other held onto a cigarette he was smoking. On his right arm, Lizzy saw that there was a Celtic style tattoo that started around the middle of his forearms and continued up until it was covered by his shirt sleeves.
The bell on the door rang as another person came in. Lizzy looked at the slightly lanky young man, and after a brief moment she recognised him. He was older now than in that picture in that newspaper article (about early twenties now instead of late teens), and he now wore glasses that had currently slid down the bridge of his nose and close to the tip, and his hair was such a dark shade of brown it looked close to being black. He looked at the man smoking and quirked a brow as he took off his coat.
"Is Angela not here yet? I wouldn't imagine she would be too pleased with you smoking inside."
"What she doesn't know won't hurt anyone, Jack," the smoker shrugged and took another puff of his cigarette.
"Dad won't be too happy either, Patrick."
"Oh, come on. We're supposed to be having our little Christmas party in a little bit. We're not working, now." Patrick gave Jack a crooked grin. "Or have you forgotten what it means to not listen to forget about rules for a moment?"
"If I ever want to break rules, I'll do them in my own time," Jack said dryly. "But right now, putting that thing out wouldn't do you any harm either."
"I have smokaitis," Patrick said bluntly. "I need to smoke at least once a day or I'll lose my mind." Jack simply stared at him.
"… If that's meant to be a joke, it's worse than Will's jokes."
"Oh, don't remind me," Patrick groaned before bringing his cigarette back to his mouth again, just as the kitchen door opened and tensed.
"Are you smoking?" Angela questioned, eyes narrowed at the back of Patrick's head as she saw the light trail of grey smoke rising up. She was carrying a tray filled with some hot mince pies that looked fresh out of the oven.
"J-just finishing," Patrick muttered as he snatched the mug and put his cigarette out in it. "Wasn't smoking! Not too long at least. Just lit up for a quick puff!" Angela didn't look in anyway convinced but didn't try to press any further.
"Well maybe you could go check on the mini- pizzas in the oven, now? I've let you have a break long enough."
"Sure. On it." Pushing the mug to the side, Patrick put his hands on the counter and pushed himself up so he was sitting on it and spun himself around, got off on the other side and went through the kitchen doors.
While Patrick moved over the counter, Lizzy noticed the Freddy, Bonnie and Chica on the stage (all wearing Christmas jumpers), along with Foxy, Golden Freddy, or Fredbear (who had blue eyes when there was an actually endoskeleton inside him) and Balloon Boy.
No sign of the Marionette. Probably wasn't here at this point of time.
Angela shook her head lightly, though a small smile came to her face before she looked over to Jack.
"Are your father and sister on the way?"
"Just outside," Jack answered as he went to open the doors again and looking outside. "They're just taking the cake out."
"I can't wait to see what Hilary made." Angela put the tray down on the counter.
"Is Will here yet? Or Felix?" Jack questioned as he looked back to the older woman.
"They went out to get the drinks a while ago," Angela answered as she opened the kitchen door for a moment and took a plate out from close by counter inside. "Shouldn't be too long now," she added as she put the counter down and tilted the tray over it to let the mince pies fall onto it.
"Ah, Angela," a smooth voice sounded out, and Lizzy looked back to the door along with the other people in the memory to see the speaker. Like Jack, he was a bit older in this year than the year the picture for that article was taken as some age showed in his face. His hair wasn't as curly and was greying a bit at the roots, and he had shaved off the stubble off his face sometime between 1969 and 1976. But there was no mistaken it was Theodore Sweeney. Smiling cheerfully as he held a cake tin covered in tinfoil. "Good to see you here. Are Felix and Will on the way."
"With the alcohol, yes."
"Good, good," said Theodore as he came inside and placed the cake tin on the table and took off his coat. "Hopefully they won't be stuck in the cold weather for long. Roads are a bit tricky."
"We nearly slid into a wall," Jack mumbled quietly to himself, but Theodore heard him.
"I still managed to get all of us here in one piece." Theodore was still smiling. "Now how about you go make sure Hilary is-."
"Already here," Hilary called from the door as she came in, Jack shutting the door behind her. She was holding onto a box filled with Christmas crackers and was smiling brightly as she placed them on the counter. "I hope the cake's good. Made it from scratch."
"I'm sure we'll all love it, Hilary," Angela said with a smile as Patrick came in in holding a plate filled with mini-pizzas.
"Here's some more food for our little party," Patrick said as he put the plate down on the counter. Some lights filtered in through the windows and he looked out, squinting his eyes a bit.
"Looks like Felix and Will are back now. God timing too. I could do with some eggnog and Irish coffee."
"Don't overdo it. We don't want a repeat of last year," Angela chided him as she walked around the counter.
"Yes, please don't. We don't need to see you in your birthday suit trying to do naked snow angels in the snow," Jack said as Hilary giggled a bit while Theodore cringed. Lizzy snorted a laugh since that was definitely one of the more unique 'what-I-did-while-drunk' story she had heard so far in her life.
"Could have been worse. There could have been people passing by to see my bare ass and dick."
"I swear, Patrick, I'm going to-."
"We bring alcohol!" Will said happily as he pushed the door open, carrying one bag as he grinned and held the door open for Felix. This being the first time Lizzy saw Felix's actual face, Lizzy made a quick note of it. Noticing bright blue eye that were half-lidded despite him note looking tired. Felix smiled at Angela and leaned down to kiss her lips for a moment before holding up the bag he was holding.
"We have the glasses as well."
"Excellent!" Theodore clapped his hands together happily. "Now how about I pop us a bottle?"
"Be our guest, Teddy," Felix said as he put the bag on the counter and took his coat off.
"Gladly."
Lizzy watched as Theodore (after picking up a bottle of white wine) briefly excused himself to get the corkscrew from the kitchen while Angela took the glasses out and handed them to everyone present in the room. A few minutes later, Theodore walked out of the kitchen, bottle in one hand and corkscrew in the other and currently trying to screw out what may have been a very stubborn cork.
"Just a little… Come on, get out you little-."
POP!
Theodore smiled, looking very triumphant as he managed to force the cork out. He smiled to everyone and held up the bottle up.
"I know this isn't meant to be said until it's in the glasses, but cheers everyone."
Everyone murmured cheers before Theodore began to pour a little wine into everyone's glasses. Starting with Felix who was holding a glass for himself and Theodore.
"Oh, we nearly forgot the music!" Will put his glass down and pulled himself over the counter and rushed into the kitchen. Much to Angela's annoyance.
"Oh for goodness sake, walk around the counter! This isn't gym."
"But we NEED music Angela!" Will called out from the kitchen. "What sort of horrible, heartless monsters would we be if we denied ourselves the joys of music? And at CHIRSTMAS?!" Will questioned as he opened the door in a somewhat dramatic fashion, a radio tucked under one arm. He actually walked around the counter this time as he gave a somewhat playful look. "And I thought you were the only person close to my little lamb in sweetness?"
"Hey, what about me?" Hilary asked teasingly. "Aren't I sweet?"
"Both of you lovely ladies are sweet," Will said quickly, but not allowing his smile to falter. "But sadly, Mary won my heart long time ago. If it was different, I would easily woo you both away from your lives and take you to Vegas with me!"
"You have a lot of guts to say that while I'm present," Theodore noted as he rose an eyebrow, while Hilary just shuck her head and laughed. Felix softly scoffed and wrapped an arm around his wife's shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Will. But I'm happily married," Angela told Will. "Besides, I prefer mature men." Felix didn't stop himself from giving a small smirk as Will pouted.
"Aw, I can be mature when I want to," he said as he put the radio down on the counter and turned it on before he started adjusting the frequency. Only stopping when 'Step into Christmas' by Elton John began to play out into the diner.
"There's something to get this party started," Will said happily as he rubbed his hands and grabbed his glass.
"All I have to say is this though." Theodore raised his glass and gave a charming smile to everyone. "As I've said at our previous six pre-Christmas parties, when our actual Christmas comes around, and New Year's, I hope we all have a wonderful time with our families, loved ones and friends. And of course, let's wish a Merry Christmas to our stars," Theodore said as he turned around and raised his glass in the direction of the animatronics, smiling a little wider now.
"Hey, Liz?"
Lizzy groaned and squirmed in her spot a little before looking up at Phil. He was frowning a bit.
"Hey, you okay? Didn't wake you too early, did I?"
"N-no. Just one of those moments where you're too comfortable sleeping to want to wake up," Lizzy mumbled as she sat up and rubbed her face before throwing him a smile. Phil's hair was tussled, looking more uncombed than usually so he probably hadn't woken up too long ago. He was also wearing a loose grey t-shirt and boxers.
"Thanks again for letting me borrow your shirt and shorts," Lizzy said, rubbing one hand up the white sleeve of the shirt lent to her by Phil.
"No prob. I couldn't have you freezing, now could I?"
"No, but you were warm enough for me," Lizzy told him before pecking his cheek. "So it's Sunday. You want to do something today?"
"I kinda feel like having a bit of a lazy day," said Phil as he brushed a hand though his hair. "Do you want to play co-op on 'Portal 2'?"
"Sounds fun. I call P-Body!" Lizzy said as she pulled the sheets off and got out of bed. "You can start the game up while I make us some breakfast."
"Fair deal. But aren't you going to get changed?" asked Phil as Lizzy walked to the door. Lizzy gripped the handle and looked back at him, and looked back to Phil.
"Nah, I feel a bit lazy myself. Besides…" Lizzy threw Phil a playful smirk.
"I think you like seeing me dressed in your clothes~."
Just need to make a note that I corrected two very noticeable mistakes.
I altered a small part of chapter forty where Lizzy was wondering about Hilary because it contradicted to what was mentioned to have happened in chapter twenty-five. A bit late, but better late than never.
Also, a guest reviewer (thank you very much) pointed out that I accidently wrote Hilary's name before the actual reveal last chapter. I guess I missed it since I was also finishing up writing a proposal for an essay/presentation I'll be doing for one of my classes. This has also been corrected.
I also want to once more thank everyone for the reviews. They're always a delight to read when I do :) You all deserve hugs and cookies! And cake. And chicken burgers. Oh, and whatever your favourite meal/drink is! :D
