You Are a Gift to Me
Sopheezel
Summary:
"Hey, hey hey hey, Gregory, it's just me. You're here, you're home, and Freddy and I will always protect you."
"H-help m-me," the boy whispered so quietly, only the animatronic could hear it.
"Shh, shh," Vanessa says softly. "We will always keep you safe, I promise. All you need to do is keep breathing in and out for me. Can you do that?"
It's been 3 months since Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex has burned to ashes. Vanessa, finally free from the evil entity that has cursed her for years, can return to a healthy and normal life working as a computer engineer.
She also decided to adopt Gregory.
Although it's taking time, the boy is starting to warm up to both her and his new home more and more with each day, even if the main reason why was because Freddy lived there too. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that things will always be easy for him.
(Including: 5 times Gregory opened presents, and the 1 time he did not. Please enjoy~)
AN: Hello, welcome to my first fanfic for one of the best videogame franchises ever :D
I'm a bit new to the world of fnaf and the lore is pretty expansive (even for a person like me), so if there's anything you think I should change/add feel free to let me know in the comments :)
Anyways, prepare for one hot mess of an attempted 5+1 fic that got way too out of hand :D
TWs include mentions of being homeless, PTSD, implied/referenced child abuse, and panic attacks! :,) That being said, I hope you enjoy.
The room is blue, and there are little yellow stars painted on the ceiling of Gregory's bedroom.
There's also a small bed, a table, and a chair; all of which being luxuries the boy had never experienced before.
"It's not much, but it's home," he remembers Vanessa humming a long time ago, back when she invited the child inside her apartment to live with her for the first time.
The saying makes him want to pout.
What really is home?
Home was a new concept to him. Was 'home' merely a source of shelter, anywhere warm and dry enough to be able to get through the night, or was it something more, something that required sacrifices the boy wasn't ready to make yet? Sure, this place was a lot cozier than the last living situation he had, sleeping on the streets with trash bags for pillows and newspapers for blankets was… uncomfortable, to say the least, but it was what the boy was used to. Now that Gregory was here, he had lost part of the one thing that mattered to him most: His freedom. He couldn't climb to the tops of buildings anymore, he couldn't lie on the roofs just to watch stars anymore, the list goes on.
Frustrated, Gregory flopped backwards on his bed and sighed, finding himself looking at the ceiling.
"And this constellation is called Ursa Major," Vanessa had smiled softly, sitting on the floor next to where the boy was laying in bed one night as she pointed to the stars she painted. "It's Latin for the 'Great Bear.'
"Like Freddy?"
"Yeah."
There's purposefully no moon or sun drawn on the mural. A silence ensues.
"Well, it looks more like a spoon to me." Gregory ends up saying, and Vanessa laughs instantly.
Well, maybe these stars are enough. The boy decides.
(The frown on his face lifts into a small smile.)
KNOCK, KNOCK
Any happiness from the previous moment now gone, Gregory shot up instantly at the sudden noise, backing up towards the headboard of the bed instinctively and keeping his eyes on the door.
"...Who is it?" He asked apprehensively.
"It is me. May I enter?" the other asked, and the boy felt a small sense of relief after recognizing Freddy's voice. How polite of him to knock.
"Sure."
"It is raining cold styrofoam outside," the animatronic observes after taking one look through the bedroom window.
"No, Freddy, that's just snow."
(1)
The two friends, one human and one not, kept talking for a while until Freddy realized something peculiar.
"Gregory, why are you still wearing the Fazwatch?"
The boy looked at his wrist, and sure enough, there it was. He was able to see his own reflection through the blackness of its screen for a moment.
"It was a present from you, remember? I promised myself never to take it off," the boy murmured quietly.
"Why? The battery has been depleted and most of its functions are ineffective now."
"That doesn't matter." Gregory answers immediately. "It was the first present I had ever opened in my entire life, and I probably wouldn't be alive without it."
"I see."
There's a short pause, and Gregory's just about to say something when Freddy asks,
"Did you keep any other presents?"
"Yeah, maybe a few," the boy smirked mischievously. "You wanna see?"
Freddy watches as Gregory pulls a beaten and tattered backpack out from underneath his bed. He recognizes it instantly, as well as the contents inside soon after.
(2)
"Your flashlight."
"Yep, this thing definitely got me through some tough times," Gregory sighed, remembering how often it had protected him from the horrors darkness presented, back at that… place.
All the times he had reason to believe that someone, no, something, would attack him from the darkness, the blackness, the evil, never failed to send a chill down his spine. (Voices and sounds could only be so helpful when it came to deciphering where the others were at, and they were only the half of it.)
Flick! For no reason in particular, Gregory tries to turn the flashlight on again. The beam of the light falters a bit at first, but then works perfectly a moment afterwards. The wall in front of him is illuminated yellow, even in the broad daylight. Flick. Flick! Flick.
"Wow…" Gregory mutters to himself. To Freddy's surprise, he chuckles a bit.
"I'm surprised it still works at all, even after all this time," The child smiled quietly.
"Maybe it's because of all the times you charged it," Freddy suggests.
(3)
"Here, catch."
"The Fazer Blaster!" Freddy exclaims, holding the small laser gun Gregory had tossed him in his paws. It had a few scratches, and the yellow metallic paint that made it look golden was chipping off in a few places, but other than that it still looked the same. There's also a short fin on top of, and a red fire design that ornaments the barrel.
"Gregory, I do not recommend doing that again. It is against safety protocol to throw weapons." Freddy chastises, his ears tilting down as the robot bear kneeled down and gently handed it back to the boy.
"Oh please, it's not even a real gun." Gregory rolls his eyes, but takes it back anyways. The child eventually finds himself staring at the flame-like decorations the blaster had. They were something that would have meant nothing to him (Gregory was never one who cared too much for details), but that was before everything else that happened.
Freddy's finger reveals a lighter. Warmth, love, pain. Everything burns down in the end.
(4)
"Gregory, are you alright? You appear pale."
The human-in-question jolts back into reality at Freddy's concerned voice, looking away from the laser gun and dropping like it had burned him.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Gregory said, his tone unclear. The look in his eyes was covered by his long brown hair.
"Are you sur-"
"There's one more present." Gregory interrupted, quickly grabbing something square from his bag before the animatronic could continue. "...Remember this?"
It's the Faz-Cam.
"How could I not?" Freddy asks, shifting tone at the change of conversation. The instant camera was just as dangerous, if not more than the Blaster, since it could temporarily blind an animatronic's sensitive eyes.
"Say cheese."
"Wait!"
Before the animatronic has a chance to protect himself, Gregory snaps a photo.
But much to Freddy's surprise, no blinding beam ever comes.
"Ha ha, did I scare you?" Gregory asks, smirking. "I found a way to turn the flash off."
A sheet of paper ejects from the camera's exit slot, and the boy BURSTS out laughing at what it shows.
(5)
"Oh my God, you have to show Vanessa this," Gregory says, wiping a tear from his eye after he finally stopped rolling on the floor. "You look absolutely ridiculous."
Freddy took the photograph, and sure enough: His mouth was wide open, his tongue was sticking out, and his hands covered his face like he was doing the Batusi. (The only reason he even knew what that dance was called was because he had done it on stage countless times.)
"Fine," he grumbles, "But only because you asked me to."
The animatronic stomps out of the room, slower than he normally did, and Gregory is left alone in his room once again.
The humor of the moment gradually dies down, and the child remembers something:
He still had one more present.
Slowly, quietly, he crept up to the side of his bed.
Under the pillowcase, under the sheets, under the stars.
It's a screwdriver.
(Gregory grips it's red handle until his knuckles whiten. Memories he would have much rather lost forever begin to surface once again.)
"You're in big trouble! This is not the night to be wasting my time. You are going to wait right there until your parents or the police arrive."
"̷A̴r̶e̴ ̶y̸o̴u̴ ̶h̶a̸v̸i̷n̷g̷ ̷f̴u̵n̴ ̴y̴e̴t̵?̵"
"N-n-no!" Gregory instantly dropped the wrench and clutched his head with his hands. "She's not like THAT anymore!"
Are you sure?
He's locked inside the room, and tries to open the door to escape. It won't budge.
Are you sure?
Someone's coming, he can feel it. He winds up the gift box as fast as he can, but the tears are starting to blur his vision.
A̸r̶e̶ ̴y̷o̴u̷ ̸s̸u̷r̷e̵?̵
The woman in the bunny mask, always smiling, always bloodthirsty, sends a friendly wave. He barely escapes through the vents, but not before she tries to kill him first.
Vanessa hears a scream.
She shoots out of the chair she's working at in her office, and instantly recognizes it as Gregory's. Freddy seems to be walking towards her down the hallway when he hears it too, so they both sprint up the staircase and towards Gregory's room as fast as they can.
To the woman's horror, when she opens the door the first thing she sees is that the boy was curled into a little ball on his bed, crying. Tears were streaming down his face, and he was mumbling things only he could hear under his breath.
"Freddy, let's try to calm him down," she says strongly.
"Yes ma'am," the other answers immediately. While the animatronic goes to the right side of the bed and starts rubbing small circles on the boy's back, Vanessa kneeled beside the left, making sure not to invade the boy's space while talking to him.
"Hey, hey hey hey, Gregory, it's just me. You're here, you're home, and Freddy and I will always protect you."
"H-help m-me," the boy whispered so quietly only the animatronic could hear it.
"Shh, shh," Vanessa says softly. "We will always keep you safe, I promise. All you need to do is keep breathing in and out for me. Can you do that?"
Gregory tries to, but ends up failing miserably. His desperate gasps for air look more like convulsions than anything, and even though he was hyperventilating he was acting as if no oxygen was reaching his lungs at all. Things were only getting worse.
"There there, Gregory, my boy." The animatronic adds, trying to help. He pulls the covers back in an attempt to make the child more comfortable… And time seems to stop.
It is at this moment when Freddy sees the small red tool under the blankets.
No… The sentient bear's eyes sadden at a crushing realization. Everything was starting to fit together: After everything else the boy brought back, it's no surprise Gregory would have kept the screwdriver too. Was it in his backpack as well, or did he keep it under his pillow so he could protect himself?
Freddy shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts.
It doesn't matter, it must have upset him somehow, the robot decided. There was no other reason he would go from laughing, happy, cheerful, to thisin a matter of minutes. Freddy grabbed the object and chose to hide it in his chest cavity.
Vanessa's gaze was too focused on the child next to her to notice, as she tried to help him relax by counting backwards from ten. It was starting to help, but not by much.
Vanessa… Freddy looked at her for a moment in silence, only to be interrupted by Gregory starting to whimper and weep again. This wasn't the first time she had to calm him down like this, but this panic attack was one of the worst ones Freddy had ever seen before.
He realized Vanessa would never be able to pinpoint what was causing the child so much anguish, because she just couldn't, but the fact that she still tried her damned hardest anyways stirs an emotion in Freddy's chest he had never felt before.
(He was witnessing true love, someone who cared for another with all their heart.)
The animatronic knew that the woman had no memories from when she went by the name, Vanny, when her soul was lost to someone else. Back at that cursed place, her body was merely a vessel for evil and corruption to take over, and take over it did.
But now it was gone, everything was gone. After the Pizzaplex burned to the ground, Vanessa was a completely new person. Melancholy, but pure. Broken, but healing. And that was why he gave her a second chance. He likes to think that it's the reason Gregory gave her a second chance too; it's the reason why he trusts the two humans with his life.
Freddy knows exactly what to say.
"Gregory, you're safe now. The place in your mind is gone."
"You're free, Superstar."
( +1 )
He opens his eyes.
The first thing Gregory sees is Ursa Major on his blue bedroom ceiling.
(The sight soothes him; blue was his favorite color, after all.)
The second thing Gregory sees, looking to his left, is Freddy: his favorite friend in the whole world.
"Hello, Gregory!" the bear says, and his ears perk up as he smiles.
(It's known to be contagious, and the boy finds himself smiling too.)
The third thing Gregory sees is Vanessa, with her blonde hair tied up in a messy bun, and her green eyes filled with worry.
"Heya, Kiddo." She smiled softly at him.
(Her tone is tired, but kind, unlike any other adult he's ever heard before.)
After explaining everything that happened, Gregory looked back up at her again, expecting anger, expecting disgust.
What he does not expect, however, is a hug.
"I am so, so sorry, Gregory," Vanessa says as she gently holds him close, "For everything. From now on, there'll be no more 'presents', no more surprises. You're more than enough for me anyways."
Thank you so much for reading, it means a lot. If you want to have the exclusive opportunity or just like, talk and chill with me, feel free to dm me on discord: Sopheezel#4830 ;)
Also, fun but unnecessary fact! Each section of text regarding a 'present', from (1), to (5), as well as the additional ( +1 ) at the end, are exactly 175 words each. All 6 of them together add up to a total of 1050 words, which I thought was a very fitting number, *wink wink* ;D
If anyone wants a prequel to this fic that shows how Vanessa coped after being freed from Glitchtrap's control and started a new life, or a sequel that focuses some more on Freddy and Gregory being just being best friends, let me know and I can make this a series!
Thanks again, I hope that you enjoyed this messy emotional roller coaster :3 Follows, favorites, and comments are deeply appreciated but completely unnecessary ~ just you reading this far is super heart-warming ❤️ Have a good rest of your day! (っ´ω`)っ❤️⊂(´ω`⊂ )
(EDIT: hehe fun fact #2 when i first posted this fic i accidently inserted the wrong document for a different fandom but as you can see its fixed now. Thank you so much for your lovely comment though Guest, youre the goat and i hope you see this message someday)