This story is a sequel to one of my other fics, which is titled Idiosyncrasy.

Warning: this story contains explicit language, blood, violence, slight gore, & other sensitive topics.

"Hm… I think this one is the right shade."

"I'm pretty sure it's not. Do you not know what color the walls are?"

"Do you not know what color the walls are? This is clearly the exact same color! The other one is way off. Way, way off!"

"You know what? You're completely right."

"Really?"

"Yes."

Foxy groaned, "I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not!"

Baby laughed. "Fox, both cans of paint are the same color. It won't matter which one we grab."

Currently, Foxy's place of work was closed, so he and Riley were finally going to take the opportunity to repaint a wall in one of the party rooms. It had been looking pretty bad for quite a while.

"What?!" Foxy brought both cans very close to his face, carefully scanning over the labels. "Crap, you're right."

He picked up a rather large paintbrush and pointed it at his boss, putting on a look of feigned irritation. "I can't believe you let me argue with you for like, five minutes when you knew they were the same color."

A smile crossed the redhead's face. "Sorry, it was funny how worked up you were getting over it."

Foxy was a bit taken aback. "Wow, you're actually smiling."

"Do I not usually smile?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Not really. At least not like that, you don't."

It was true. Despite being a clown, Riley hardly ever smiled. Her usual facial expression was one of disinterest. Or some slight variation of that. And on rare occasions where she did smile, the one she usually gave was a sort of lazy, playful, half-smile. But never a full smile.

It almost made her look like a different person entirely.

Foxy had never really noticed how round and cartoonish Riley's eyes actually were since they were almost always half-lidded. They gave her a weird look of innocence and curiosity that didn't match her personality even slightly. The actual smile itself was stupidly symmetrical and perfect. It looked like something he would see on a doll.

It was very strange.

"Are you okay? Are you sure you're not sick?" Foxy lowered his voice, "Or high?"

"Not since I last checked. Just in a good mood, I suppose."

"You're about to repaint a wall and you're in a good mood about it?"

Foxy received an eye roll in response.

"No, Fox. I'm happy because I can be around you all without the feeling of constant paranoia looming over me. I'm happy I'm not… you know, dead and I actually made it back here in one piece. I am in no way excited to paint the wall. Actually, I'd like to get it over with as soon as possible. So let's get on with it, yeah?"

Riley started to leave the upstairs storage room, grabbing herself a brush and taking the paint can from Foxy so he didn't have to carry it. As per usual, she walked faster than necessary and he had to practically jog to keep up with her.

"I find it kind of difficult to imagine you being paranoid. Or scared, for that matter. Seeing visible fear on your face is like… Freddy not pouring milk straight into the box of Nightmare Puffs instead of using a bowl."

"Just because I don't display those emotions doesn't mean I don't feel them. It just means I'm good at masking them with disinterest."

"I wish I could do that. I've screamed so much in the past month that my throat is still sore."

Baby carelessly dropped the can of paint next to the wall that they needed to paint, popping the lid off with a flathead screwdriver. "That all better be a joke or you're gonna be in trouble."

Foxy jokingly raised his hands up in front of himself and backed away a little. "It was, I swear!"

"Good." The lid was discarded onto the tarp they had put down earlier. "Now let's paint this so we can get it over with."

"Yes, sir." Foxy saluted before nearly dropping his entire brush into the paint.

Sure, he may have attempted to make fun of Baby earlier for being excited to paint a wall, but he had to admit that he wasn't having the worst time. The task itself still wasn't exciting but he had missed things being the way they were before Afton had appeared. The atmosphere was genuinely pleasant. He wasn't afraid to enter the rooms by himself, and he wasn't seeing odd sides of his friends that he never knew existed.

Well, actually, Foxy still felt like he was seeing sides of his friends he wasn't used to. Mostly just with Riley, though. Despite her seemingly unfriendly exterior, she was typically pretty enjoyable to be around. And now it seemed her usual front was slowly but surely fading away, allowing the nice qualities that strangers never really saw in her to better shine through.

"Are we done now?"

"No, we still have to do a second coat."

"Can we do that now?"

"Uh, well, this is latex paint so it should take around… four hours to dry. I think."

Foxy groaned, "What are we gonna do for four hours?"

"I don't know." Baby shrugged. "I'm sure we'll find something."

As if on cue, someone began to sprint down the hallway leading to the party room they both stood in.

There was a flash of purplish-pink and white.

And then, as if capable of leaping inhumanly high, Freddy practically pounced onto Baby. He landed on her back and she barely managed to keep upright.

Freddy must've eaten his cereal out of an actual bowl in the morning because a look of surprise crossed Baby's face for about a solid three seconds.

"Baby! Th-there's an emergency!"

She didn't respond until she managed to regain her composure. "What? What's wrong?"

"I desperately n-need to play Pogs but I can't g-get to them because they're out of m-m-my reach! And Bon-Bon r-refuses to play with me so I kinda need s-someone to do that."

Both Foxy and Baby let out sighs of relief.

"Fred, that is not an emergency."

Nearly tearing up, Freddy shouted, "It is t-to me!" And since he was still clinging onto Riley, he shouted it right into her ear.

She made a face to indicate that this wasn't very pleasant before looking to Foxy. "Okay, well, we'll help you get your Pogs, right?"

"Yeah, of course."

With that, the three of them started heading towards the storage room in the basement. For once, Foxy wasn't terrified to go down there.

Freddy finally let go of Baby when they reached their destination.

"Okay, where are they?"

"Up th-there!" He pointed to a shoebox at the very top of a shelf near the door.

Baby, being ridiculously tall, easily reached up and grabbed it. "Here you go, Fred."

"Yay! Thank you!" Then, without warning, Freddy glanced at the floor and jumped onto Baby once more, climbing up her like she was a tree."There's another sp-sp-spider!"

"That wasn't a spider, that was a ball of fuzz," she told him, her voice muffled by his sweater.

"...Are y-you sure?"

Foxy crouched down to inspect whatever had been spotted on the floor. "Yep, that's fuzz."

"Oh… n-nevermind then!" Freddy let go of Baby and grabbed his Pogs, running out the door. "C'mon, g-guys!"

Baby sighed, shouting something about how he was going to hurt himself running up the stairs as she followed after him.

Normally, Foxy wouldn't have stayed behind, but something caught his eye. He glanced over his shoulder at the door before crouching back down near the ball of fuzz.

A little bit past it, partially hidden underneath an old desk, was something circular. He reached out and grabbed it.

It was a little disc about the size of a half-dollar coin.

Foxy was immediately struck with some sort of unpleasant feeling that he couldn't quite explain. He frowned.

The disc must have fallen out of that box Afton stole when he broke in for a second time.

"Stupid thing." Foxy dropped the disc back onto the floor and stood up. "You helped nearly get me and all of my friends killed."

The disc obviously couldn't hear him because it was an inanimate object, but that was how he felt.

Without a second thought, Foxy crushed the disc beneath the heel of his boot and left the room to find where Freddy and Baby went.