EDITED: 4.12.22

A/N: Hi guys! Although it hasn't been that long, I'm here with another chapter! I'm reconsidering the whole "following the plot" thing... Heavily! No spoilers, of course, but there are some ideas that I'd like exploring, which go a bit off-track when it comes to the main storyline of the games. I really don't want to dive into details when it comes to them, because I think you're really going to enjoy them!

Anyhow, this chapter contains... more Spring Bonnie sentience! That's going to be a key element of this fic so I really want that to be prevalent in the first chapters... Then we'll shift to William's perspective, most likely. There's no telling how many chapters this fic will have, I'm counting about 10-20 as of yet, we'll see how all of this advances.

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to leave me a review to tell me your thoughts! :)


Five Nights at Freddy's: Dearest Friend


Chapter I: A Bunny's Promise


Was it the hardest step, all thoughts considered?

Spring Bonnie held back a profound sigh when she bent down to Evan's level. The child had run inside of the building a couple minutes prior, fell to his knees and limped under a table so that no guest would be tempted to ask about what was wrong. While Spring Bonnie questioned the reason the child kept on coming back to the establishment if he was that scared of the robots, she decided to take things slow with him. After all, William had described his son to be an emotional wreck whenever he walked back from school— supposed harassment that William was working on proving. Since her intention was not to torment the crying child with interrogations regarding his time in class, Spring Bonnie only placed a hand on his shoulder.

He jerked back as though she had burned his skin to the bone.

Spring Bonnie's right ear twitched at the sudden gesture, wondering what she had done wrong, but before she could address the situation and reason with Evan, the latter screamed and cried harder, pulling his legs closer. He denied her a glance when her voice box creaked, only glaring at the blue carpet spread out all across the diner. He stared, specifically, at the white star with sparkly elements inside of its center.

Glancing back at the stage on which Fredbear was performing, Spring Bonnie considered giving up. She had no wish to traumatize William's son— he would probably dismantle her if she attempted to do so. Thus, maybe giving him some time alone would help him come back to his senses? Insisting was not a wise option... But part of her felt for the kid, and she wanted to give him all the support that he needed.

Even more so if he was actually harassed.

If William had not lied to her, which was… somewhat doubtful.

When she stood up, the joints in her knees cracking with the weight they supported, Evan glanced up with tearful eyes and pulled at her hand. Although he had been scared by a mere brush of it a minute earlier, he almost begged her to stay, looking up at her and sniffling in his sleeve. He closed his eyes for a short second, sighing through the nostrils before he wiped his nose again, his bottom lip trembling.

Was he about to say something?

Evan cleared his throat— was he?— and before Spring Bonnie had time to blink her eyes twice in surprise, sounds, although scrambled, came past the child's parted lips. "It's... It's Mike," he said, answering a question that she did not recall asking, though the familiarity of that name caught her attention.

Her left ear twitched. "Mike?" she asked, and the boy nodded before cowering further under the table, though he would not let go of her hand. Spring Bonnie bent down again, sitting down in front of Evan and opening her arms for him, but he took no notice of the friendly gesture, and instead glared toward the bright, red doors of the diner. Spring Bonnie followed his gaze as she asked, "I've heard that name somewhere, who is he?"

Evan dipped his head. "My brother... Michael Afton... He's horrible with me..."

"Horrible? Aren't siblings always fun?" Spring Bonnie asked, confused. She focused her green orbs on the child ahead of her, who turned back in her direction, though that was only so that he could shake his head. While Evan pulled his legs up to his chin, Spring Bonnie tilted her head to the side and blinked. "Aren't they like best friends?"

Evan shook his head again. "No... Mike hates me..."

Spring Bonnie frowned.

"He just wants to scare me... All the time, and that's why I'm hiding..."

"Hiding?" Spring Bonnie blinked again— really, she could not believe what she was hearing. Firstly, she did not remember William mentioning he had several children, unless he had said it in the middle of another conversation and she skipped over that detail. And secondly... hiding from a brother? Why did that sound so unnatural to her?

Whenever she heard children speaking about their siblings, they always described positive experiences; affection, games, fun and overall innocent sibling love, as she liked to see it. The fact that Evan was telling her about the opposite was strange and unexpected.

Was William aware?

Spring Bonnie's right ear fluttered as she made eye contact with Evan. She placed a hand on his shoulder again, and this time, he did not move away. He stared into her eyes with a semblance of trust. Something close to it at least, she recognized the light twinkle in his father's typical gray orbs.

"Well, if Mike is being mean to you, then you can count on Spring Bonnie's protection!" she exclaimed, much to the child's bewilderment; protection? She would help him escape from his brother's claws?

Yes, if that happened to be as bad as Evan made it seem, that was.

Evan wiped his tears and his breathing stabilized. His tremble had not yet stopped, only decreasing in intensity while he stared at Spring Bonnie's glowing eyes for support and understanding. She was his father's creation; if anyone knew what it was like to belong to the Afton family, it was her, was it not? Evan did not doubt that his father spoke to her about their problems...

But if he did, Evan thought, why would she not know about Michael?

Does she know that Father has three children?

As though to answer his question, Spring Bonnie tilted her head to the side and grinned. "I thought all families were like the ones coming to the diner!"

"Y-You mean… happy and… laughing together, right?..." Evan asked, clutching his Fredbear plush and dipping his head. For a minute, he wanted it to talk to him, though he did not want Spring Bonnie to feel uncomfortable.

The bunny animatronic nodded and looked up as the door to Henry Emily's office opened. He seemed in a bad mood, though she did not pay him more attention than he deserved, focusing her green, illuminated eyes on Evan. "Yes! Why is Mike mean to you? He doesn't like to play?"

"He's old…" Evan sniffled, though his lips distorted in a smirk. "Old people are mean."

"He can't be that old, and that's not true! Your father is very nice!"

"With you…"

Now that Evan was more comfortable in her presence, Spring Bonnie bounced to her feet to invite him to take a walk around with her, though she stumbled backward due to a small, yet annoying springlock failure still expecting a fix. She arched her back and gritted her bunny teeth, shaking her head to refrain from cursing.

She was not allowed to swear, Henry had made that very clear, although he was the first one to do so when he was lost repairing Fredbear's various failures.

It was as though he kept forgetting that she could hear everything from a mile away.

Even the familiar brakes of a purple car parking outside, and the violent closing of a door. William Afton made his way inside the building, glaring at everything and everyone that came in his path— his day off had, once again, been interrupted. She knew that face, those burning, smoldering gray eyes by heart.

He was pissed.

Evan quickly hid behind the Spring Bonnie animatronic, though he did not release her hand. He made sure to be as silent as possible while the bunny lady interacted with his father.

William walked up to Spring Bonnie and threw his tool box across the table next to her in a loud clang that echoed through the diner's walls. Although it caught everyone's attention, including the guests, he took no notice of their concern and pried it open, since the lock of it had broken when he slammed it shut last time. Snorting, William looked at her disapprovingly. As though she was responsible for the bad, unprofessional fastening of her springlock mechanism, performed the previous day by an employee who had little to no knowledge or experience with the suits.

Spring Bonnie smiled anyhow.

The man rummaged through the tool box, seeking the ones he would need to fix the problem, and pressed a few buttons on her face to open up the mechanism and reveal her endoskeleton beneath all the golden and brown fur that covered her body.

Yes, in the middle of the dining area.

In front of children.

Spring Bonnie would have complained if she had not caught Afton's warning glance. Don't say anything, she thought to herself, straightening her back. He's not in the mood.

William smiled to himself and began to work through the numerous springlocks which had been dislocated with their sudden deploying. He pulled out the crank from his service jacket's pocket, and began winding up the springlocks per section, to see how well they were responding to the security gesture. While the right arm's springlocks retracted with almost no problem, William gritted his teeth when the left arm's mechanism refused to move an inch.

"Bloody Hell, Spring Bonnie," William complained, shaking his head to himself. "What even happened, you threw yourself into a wall?"

"Oh, no, Jeremy did that," Spring Bonnie replied, though the motion of her lower mechanical jaw without her facemask on was too much for little Evan to handle. Although he was in her back, he began sobbing and buried his face in his hands to muffle the sound of his own cries, as not to alert his father of his presence, since he was not supposed to come to Fredbear's Family Diner without supervision.

William cursed under his breath and searched for more tools. "I told Henry to let me teach him before this type of shit happened. Glad everyone listens to me."

"It wouldn't be the first time he doesn't listen to you," Spring Bonnie stated, shrugging her right shoulder.

The only one that responded to the motion.

William rolled his eyes, and subsequently his sleeves in order to set up to work. "Why don't you sit on the table next to you, I'm not that tall."

Spring Bonnie thought about Evan hiding behind her, and quickly squeezed his hand before she sat up on the table. Fortunately, the child had understood the message, and snuck under the table again before his father could spot him, with his Fredbear plush which he held close to his chest.

William sighed and plunged his entire arm in Spring Bonnie's springlocked arm, between the wires and endoskeleton. He tampered with the locks to loosen them a bit, before he settled to work on the mechanism at the origin of the issue.

Spring Bonnie tilted her head to the side. "Now I no longer wonder where those scars on your arms come from."

"Ha."

"What happened?" Spring Bonnie asked, blinking her eyes at William's unamused expression. She flinched when he inserted the crank in her chest area, in order to reconnect some wires that had been torn away by the springlocks jumping back into place a little too brutally.

Although he kept silent for a minute, focused on the repairs, he sighed through the nose when he caught her staring at him. "Why is it important? You know, someone had to test… well, you."

"Did I do this to you?"

"Yes."

"Is it just the arms or…"

"Spring," William groaned, and he pulled his sleeve up to his shoulder, to reveal additional scars that covered all of his shoulder. She could only assume that his chest had also suffered from the incident, though she would not ask to see it; whether she dreaded the extent of the scars or the mere appearance of them, she was not sure, but she refused to take a closer look. She glanced away from his arm, shudders running down her endoskeleton's spine.

William sighed through the nose and returned to the repairs. When the silence weighing between them became too heavy, he spoke with a snort. "To think I believed I'd enjoy a day home... Henry never gives me a break, does he?"

"Maybe I'm doing this to make you come back," Spring Bonnie suggested.

William glared, though he tilted his head to the side with a flattered smile. Damn Afton and his inflated ego. "You must be missing me a lot then. I haven't caught a breath in months."

Spring Bonnie remained silent this time, though eventually, before William could take his arm out of the mousetrap that the springlocks represented to a human limb, she asked the one and only question that crossed her mind. "Did you ever mention Mike in the past?"

William froze.

"I don't remember doing so," he said, frowning. "I don't talk about my children often, you should know that."

"He's your oldest son or there's another?"

William squinted his eyes, though after a moment of consideration, he ended up sighing through the nose— but answering! "He's my oldest. He wants to be a technician when he grows up, or at least that's what he's trying to make me believe. Kid is very... clumsy, but he's learning with the best."

Spring Bonnie's left ear jerked at the last word, wanting to ask more questions, though she glanced up when Henry slammed the doors of his office open. Without a word for anybody, he approached hurriedly; he had noticed William fixing up a robot in the middle of the show area. The primary owner of the restaurant's face turned bright red, and he glared up at William when the latter folded his arms against his chest, before he raised up his hand to halt him.

After a short minute of heavy breathing exercise and sweating, Henry pulled himself back together and shook his head at William and Spring Bonnie. It appeared both of them were the targets of his temporary burst of anger. "We have a back room made especially for fixing up faulty wiring and springlock failures, and you're telling me you couldn't be asked to walk Bonnie to it."

William raised an eyebrow.

Henry examined his friend, frowning when he noticed the scars displayed, in the open, on William's arms. Some coiled around his wrists, leaving white marks biting directly into his hands. Henry sighed through the nose, suddenly tense. "A-And you should wear something on your arms, I told you."

"Henry."

"Will!" Henry reacted in apparent surprise, before he began tapping his foot on the ground. "Even besides t-tha-t… You can't fix up a robot in front of the guests! It breaks the magic!"

"The magic, hm?" William asked, his arms folded against his bright purple vest. "Don't be ridiculous, they're machines."

"Think of the children!" Henry countered, though William scoffed.

"My kids know they're robots, I'm sure other kids aren't stupid either."

"William, good Lord!"

Spring Bonnie looked back and forth between the two men, closing up the front of her suit and picking up the mask that William had left to her right. She struggled to slide it on until she heard a familiar click!, and turned to Evan with a finger over her snout. She lured him to the stage, pulling him by the wrist while she listened to the ongoing argument.

William passed a hand over his face— again, that man was exhausted— before he replied, "You're lucky I even came here. I was supposed to spend time with my family today."

"I mean, I could've fixed it but you told me not to," Henry said, keeping his eyes shut to regain control of his emotions.

Henry was nice, Spring Bonnie had to give him that, however... She suspected that he had underlying anger issues, that he firmly refused to address with anyone. Although she had hinted toward the fact that she knew better, Henry Emily had always kept his composure in front of her; he was only occasionally losing his temper whenever he was around Afton. Perhaps because, since they were friends, he allowed himself to be more honest?

Then, if that was the case... then should he not behave the same way with Fredbear? His 'best friend,' in his own words?

Before Spring Bonnie's thoughts trailed off too far from the argument, she heard Henry speak again. He sounded frustrated. "You told me not to touch it unless you were in the room with me, remember?"

"So what, you've never fixed a springlock failure in your life?"

"Well, I followed what you said and I told everyone not to touch it," Henry stated, dodging the accusatory question William had asked him.

Annoyed because it had been one of his prerogatives, William sighed in defeat and listened to Henry's scoldering as though he was a child caught stealing cookies. Which was, admittedly, a funny sight to Spring Bonnie; William's face was discolored, red, and his eyes seeped with tears of frustration. Spring Bonnie could tell that he was keeping his anger inside, locked under a mask of mere annoyance and defeat.

She knew the look in those gray eyes better than anyone else.

Evan squeezed Spring Bonnie's hand and smiled in spite of the argument unveiling in front of their eyes. "Dad isn't watching..." the boy muttered under his breath, though that alone caused William to glare up at Spring Bonnie, and inevitably catch sight of his youngest son behind her.

William raised his hand, which interrupted Henry in the middle of his speech. "Wait here."

Spring Bonnie placed Evan on her lap, sitting on the edge of the stage, while Fredbear took a few steps back. Natural reaction for him whenever William was drawing near, she no longer questioned why he was doing it.

She just assumed it was dread.

William walked up to Evan and ripped him out of Spring Bonnie's arms. She showed no resistance— she could not, she was not the child's mother. She had no right to fight against the authority William had on his children, though she would have wanted to explain what Evan had told her. She would have wanted to explore the complicated relationship that Evan and Michael seemed to share, express its nature with their father to see if there was any way of fixing it, or even of addressing it with the teen.

But before she had time to stutter a word, under the menace of the man's wrath, William took his son to the front doors of the establishment and forced him outside, to the car, where he told him to 'wait until I come back, or you'll regret this, Evan Afton.'

Spring Bonnie ignored the threatening tone of her creator, only turning her face to Henry who was pacing in the dining area, as though he was expecting the conclude his argument with William before he could walk back to his office.

Fredbear sank by Spring Bonnie's side. "His name is...?"

"Evan."

"That's the birthday kid next Friday... correct?" Fredbear asked, although his mutilated voice box kept going on and off with static muffling half of the words he was saying.

Spring Bonnie nodded to herself, and clenched her fist. "The one you have a bad feeling about. I know, but it's probably okay."

Fredbear hummed in response, and the robots went back to contemplating the owners of the place argue. Spring Bonnie thought back to the promise she had made to Evan; even if the bad feeling Fredbear had been having was... somehow justified, she had assured Evan that she would keep him safe. And she would no matter the consequences and circumstances.

Only time would tell if she would be able to help him with his brother problem. And, also, the school problems, if it turned out that Afton was right about them.

William sighed in defeat when Henry rushed back to his office, and jumped when the door slammed behind him. He let himself sink and leaned against the side of the table Spring Bonnie had sat on, giving off the 'I just got a good scolding and I hate life' look better than usual. He shut his eyes tightly, focused on his breathing, and thus did not notice that Spring Bonnie had, once again, snuck up to him and was standing in front of him.

He did not startle, only glared.

Spring Bonnie tilted her head to the side, those knowing green eyes glowing from within her endoskeleton head. "Was it that bad?" was all that she found to ask, after the whole dispute that he knew she heard from beginning to end.

William's eyes flared up. "Since when is Evan in the building, and why didn't you tell me?"

"He was here all along."

"Now answer the second question," William insisted, his hand reaching for a wrench. "I have no patience today, don't test me."

Spring Bonnie's ears jerked up, and she took a step back. She noticed what he was holding, but did not appear scared of the message he implied with it. Instead, she raised her head proudly as she said, "I thought he could come here if he wanted to, I saw no problem with it."

"Are you his mother?"

"I did not know that you told him not to come here, to my defense," Spring Bonnie shrugged, and William relaxed. "I thought he was always coming to the diner on his own accord."

William shook his head, though his coil around the wrench loosened. It was just a conversation, there was no need to threaten her. Or, at least, he tried to convince himself of that fact— Spring Bonnie could tell from the light shimmer of his eyes that he was still hesitating, like a trapped animal searching for an escape.

Maybe he truly did not want to dive into family matters in the middle of a crowded restaurant, which... after thought, she could understand. Hurricane was not that big of a city... Rumors spread rapidly, and perhaps William wanted to avoid turmoil with his neighbors because of one word he could have said wrong in the midst of a personal discussion.

William shook his head. "He only comes if his brother is with him. Or, of course, if I'm with him. Otherwise, he's meant to head home as soon as he finishes school."

"Speaking of Mike... William—"

"I know."

"Will—"

"He bullies him, I know," William repeated, his face blemishing. He began fiddling with his hands, awkward because he was suddenly rather conscious of the glances cast in their direction, although he doubted they had just turned to them. He bit his lower lip and looked away from the animatronic rabbit in front of him. "What am I supposed to do?"

Spring Bonnie tilted her head to the side. "I'm not... a parent, so I can't help you, b—"

"I thought so... No word of advice from you."

"BUT," Spring Bonnie insisted, which caught William's attention and brought it back to herself. She beamed a smile and clasped her hands together. "Henry has a daughter. Why don't you ask him how he would handle it?"

William raised an eyebrow. "I just argued with him?"

"Excuses!"

"They're n—" William stammered, though he stopped himself when his gaze was captured within the green eyes in front of him. Of course she was not going to accept that. For whatever reason, Evan had spoken about his problems with his brother to her, and now she made it her personal problem to solve.

As though she was... an Afton.

Sentience for you.

Spring Bonnie smiled when she understood what he was thinking, and bounced on her feet. "Great! I told Evan that he was under my protection; so if you can do anything about Michael, let me know!"

"And what?" William asked. "You'll give me advice?"

"No," Spring Bonnie responded, before she turned her back to him and waved at a couple children who were looking at her. That seemed to be enough to make them overly excited, and thus send them running across the building toward the arcades. When they were out of sight, and thus no longer listening to the words of the all-too-aware animatronic bunny, Spring Bonnie continued, "I'll just ask Henry what he thinks of it."

William rolled his eyes but muttered under his breath that he could do that himself.

Spring Bonnie walked up to the stage again, leaving William to sulk— and think!— about what they had just talked about. Spring Bonnie only had one word: when she made a promise to a child, she made sure to keep it!

Fredbear placed a hand on her shoulder, sighing through his voice box.

Spring Bonnie turned to him and patted his shoulder. Don't worry, she thought as she smiled at her bear friend, that birthday party is going to be perfect, because Evan is under my protection!


To be continued...


A/N: The next chapter is most likely going to be Evan's birthday party... We all know how that went.