One-Shot 6

Beaks

It was a quiet night and Hedy was catching up on her maintenance on the Toys. She'd finally got the Originals into a decent condition so she felt comfortable with leaving them for now.

Besides, Foxy was getting really twitchy with the repeated maintenance sessions. She was expecting him to bolt outside if she didn't give him a break.

"Hedy?" Chi sounded petulant as she spoke and Hedy bit back a sigh as she looked away from Teddy's arm.

"Yeah?"

"I didn't do it," Ruby automatically cut in without looking up from the card game she was playing with the Originals. Hedy was fifty percent sure they were gambling going from Freddy's disapproving expression.

Chi rolled her eyes. "I got paint stuck in my beak," she complained. "A paint bomb went off in my face and I got most of it off but I can't get at the rest."

Well that wasn't anywhere near what Hedy was expecting. That was a quick fix. "Okay, I'll clean it when I'm finished with Teddy's arm."

"Thanks," Chi said.

Then she pulled her beak off. It was still annoying to Hedy, but she was used to it by now. The Toys didn't even twitch, and neither did the Originals or Spring and Goldy. Puppet was in his box.

Ruby, however...

"WHAT THE FUCK?!"

Chi looked startled at the night guard's reaction while Hedy jerked, accidentally slicing a wire, making Teddy yelp in pain.

The Originals jerked in surprise too. Ruby was staring at Chi in something pretty close to horror while the chicken held her beak out to Hedy.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Ruby demanded again, looking disturbed. "Your beak?!"

Her voice went up a few octaves.

Chi's eyes were wide as she froze, her gaping mouth with a hint of the endoskeleton teeth in the darkness behind the opening. It looked a slight bit like Puppet's mouth.

Everyone was silent for a moment.

"Demon chicken!" Ruby squeaked.

Chi looked aghast. "What'd you just call me?!"

"It comes off, Ruby," Hedy groaned.

Ruby was practically scaling Foxy now, who looked resigned to being her climbing post. She did this when freaked out.

"Demon chicken!" she repeated insistently.

Toby snorted. "Jeez, Chi. How come you didn't do this during our week? That and popping your eyes out."

'Oh yeah, that's fun,' BB said using sign language and Toby translating with a pretty accurate tone of voice.

Hedy was still working on BB's voice but the parts were coming soon. It wasn't as difficult a fix as Mangle thankfully.

"I think we might have needed a funeral for Chi if she did..." Teddy pointed out, wincing from the fiery pain of a cut wire as he stared at Ruby.

"I'm not a demon chicken!" Chi nearly screeched.

"Not helping your case," Hedy said, rubbing her ear. She took the beak before Chi threw it at Ruby or something.

Ruby was basically hiding behind Foxy now. "Your eyes pop out?! What the hell is wrong with you?! That's not normal, you are a demon robot!"

"Hey!" Chi whined. "Everyone's eyes can pop out! Tell her, Hedy!"

"They can," Hedy said, now a bit amused. She gestured at the bot Ruby was hiding behind. "For maintenance. Even Foxy's."

Ruby stared at Hedy in absolute horror.

"But my bots love me. They wouldn't do something like that to me. Not like the way she inappropriately removed her beak."

"I took it off because your paint bomb gummed it up!"

"YOU TOOK OFF YOUR BEAK AND LEFT BEHIND A GAPING HOLE WITH TEETH!" Ruby yelled back, voice hitting a pitch that made them all flinch.

"I feel like you're overreacting," Hedy admitted.

"It's not actually teeth," Puppet said absently.

"DEMON CHICKEN!" Ruby howled.

"I'M NOT A DEMON CHICKEN!" Chi screeched back, still beak-less. "That's not fair! Everyone can take off pieces of their face!"

Hedy muttered something about it not being locked in correctly.

"But do they?!" Ruby demanded. "They've got the public decency not to!"

Mangle smirked.

"Public decency?!" Chi squeaked, stamping her foot like a child, the hole in her face still there

Puppet shifted, looking amused.

"Hey, Ruby," Mangle said.

Hedy looked very unamused as she turned to tell Mangle not to add to the drama.

Too late.

Hedy let out a small scream in shock at the endoskeleton head with yellow-orange eyes, smiling at them all. Two metallic ears sat on top.

Mangle cackled while Hedy covered her face and groaned.

Mangle kind of regretted it a moment later when a glitter bomb smacked her right in the face. She was going to have glitter in all the nooks and crannies of her endoskeleton head for days.

Ruby looked a little manic. She looked up at Foxy. "You wouldn't do that to me right?"

"Suit," he answered simply.

"The Originals are the best," Ruby declared. "And Mangle, you're on the list next to Toby for that."

"Aw," Mangle said, trying to shake the glitter out of her endo face as the others grimaced at her. Her fox head/casing rested in her lap as she snickered.

"Hey..." Toby whined.

"Mangle put your face back on!" Hedy snapped.

Mangle turned to look at her. She smiled.

Dammit that's a little creepy, Hedy lamented as she froze. She wasn't nearly as bothered as Ruby was, but most other purely robotic things she looked at, like at the university, weren't alive.

"Scared Hedy?" Mandle snickered.

"Stop," Hedy warned. "Uncanny valley, Mags."

"Doesn't that apply to human-looking things?"

"You're alive and you look human enough with the mannerisms and eye expressions."

"Put your face back on Mangle," Ruby's voice was eerily calm. "Or I side with Puppet next time you have an argument."

Everyone stared at her. Okay, she was more freaked out than they thought.

"I don't want to see inside your head! It's disturbing and creepy and makes me feel like you're broken!" she twitched and Foxy watched her in concern. Ruby grimaced. "You kind of remind me of the Nightmares..." she finally admitted,

Mangle froze. Wordlessly, she picked up her face and slid it back over her endoskeleton. She clicked the locks and devices into place and quietly checked that her face could move properly, staring at Ruby with wide eyes, ears twitching.

"Sorry," she murmured.

Ruby gave an uncomfortable shrug, looking away at the floor. She hated admitting weakness of any kind.

"Sorry," Mangle said again, quieter.

Chi shifted, her fingers twitching a little as she subconsciously turned her face away from Ruby.

Ruby fidgeted with her shirt sleeves, still not looking at them. "It's stupid," she muttered.

She hated this. She should be laughing along with Mangle at freaking Hedy out like that. But instead her heart started to pound and she just remembered teeth and fear.

Chi hesitated, then moved before Mangle could or she could talk herself out of it and jogged the couple feet between them to pull Ruby into a hug. She didn't stop to put her beak on, but hid her face over Ruby's shoulder.

"Please don't hit me," Chi said quickly without letting go, well aware Ruby probably wouldn't have the best instinctual reaction in this state, "I just want to say sorry..."

The teen tensed up immediately. It was odd. Chi was used to kids who usually reached out first for a hug. Sure Ruby was a tactile person, but that normally showed through the way she playfully shoved people or stood right up in their personal spaces. According to Ruby, Hedy had no personal bubble. The only ones she really hugged were the Originals and Goldy and then still a bit rarely. Foxy was the one who got regular hugs from her.

"I'm sorry," Chi said.

Toby glanced away.

"I'm sorry for being a jerk all the time," Chi mumbled, embarrassed everyone was watching. "I really wasn't trying to upset you this time. Honest."

It was actually a little funny to Hedy to watch the teen flounder for something to say. She wasn't exactly used to people apologising to her.

"It's fine," he awkwardly patted the bot's back. "I'm a natural bitch too."

Chi wasn't used to apologizing either. Now she didn't know what to do.

Hedy knew Ruby's coma had been tough on everyone, including the Toys.

She watched Toby care about Bonnie's wellbeing (even if he didn't really want to talk about it still). She watched Teddy break her rules multiple times to save someone.

And yet, she was still surprised to see Chi being so open to apologizing for upsetting someone, especially Ruby.

Foxy's ear twitched. "She's still mine."

Chica sighed. "You just had to ruin the moment, Foxy..."

Luckily, Chi was grateful for the excuse to awkwardly let go of Ruby.

Ruby stared at her. "I'm going to go put a sticker on Puppet's box somewhere."

And she left, ignoring that Puppet and his box were right there.

"I think you broke her," Bonnie snickered.

Chi mumbled something uncomfortable and wouldn't look at anyone.

Hedy watched her as she cleaned out the beak without looking down. "Good girl."

Chi perked up a little at the praise, but deflated in embarrassment right after.

"Look on the bright side," Mangle pointed out. "You're ahead of Toby in gold star stickers after this."

"Ah shut up," Chi mumbled quietly.