Gregory sighed, staring up at the ceiling, his body strewn over the top of the couch. He wormed back so his head fell off the edge of the couch and he could look at the shut door near him. He couldn't hear anything from here, but he knew the room was occupied. As she was in her office rather than the garage, she probably wasn't at work, right? Or maybe she was. But it was late. Surely, she didn't need to work that late.

Okay, sure Gregory could go find one of the others. Chica was currently out picking up some remote ordered groceries. Monty and Roxy were out in the backyard in their DIY minigolf course, which still needed work. For that reason, Freddy and Sun were out there, volunteering to help them build it. Gregory was a little surprised when he spotted Sun outside through the dining room window. Despite the daycare attendant literally being named after celestial bodies, he'd never gone outside in the sunlight or moonlight in the few months they were out, save for the car rides to Vanessa's apartment and then to their new house.

Now, the house was quiet.

Gregory rolled over so he landed on the couch cushions with a soft huff. He lay his chin on the arm rest for a few seconds before making up his mind and getting up. He knocked on the door but entered anyway.

Vanessa looked up from her computer, ringed with so many sticky notes he wondered how she could decipher what was on the monitor. Despite her insistence on Gregory keeping his room clean, her notebooks and loose papers piled haphazardly on the table, many of which were pushed to the corner to make room for a large empty mug. "Gregory, what are you doing in here?"

Ah, she's in that mood.

Gregory shrugged and rocked on his heels. "I dunno. I'm bored."

"Go play with Freddy. I'm sure he'd love it." Vanessa turned back to her computer. The screen was black with green numbers and letters strewn in randomly sized lines.

Gregory approached her so he hovered over her shoulder. "What's that?"

"Some code I'm working on for a client. They want to modify their bot to learn more recipes without needing to pay Fazbear Entertainment for an upgrade."

"Isn't that kind of dangerous?"

"It's paying for this house and the food we had for dinner."

Touché. Besides, what was a little danger? After a short few seconds of silence, Gregory asked, "How long have you been working on that?"

Vanessa sighed and looked back at him with dull green eyes. "Quite a while. Gregory, I need to finish my work. Go play, okay?"

"But you've been in here all day!" Gregory groaned. "Come on, you never play. Or get out of your office."

"I have gotten out of my office," Vanessa countered.

"Really?"

"I helped you with your homework two nights ago."

"At, like, nine. Moon got really huffy at you, remember?"

Vanessa rolled her eyes. "Good intentions, but still annoying."

"Come on, can't we go play something? Please? Like, just a board game or video game or something." Gregory rocked on his heels again and watched her with big, round eyes.

Vanessa looked back at her computer and then at him. "I'm immune to puppy eyes, you know that." She sighed. "But, fine. Let me finish this up and we can play a game together."

Gregory grinned. "Really? Promise?"

"Promise. But I need to get this in tonight. You pick out whatever game you want to play or story you want to read and get it set up."

"Any game?"

"Yeah." Vanessa turned back to her work. "I'll come out when I'm done, Gregory."

Gregory stifled a giggle as he ran out of her office and to the living room. Beneath their TV sat a gaming console found on sale, and in a cabinet beside it, board and card games of varying ages and wear stacked up on top of each other. He opened the cabinet and shuffled through it. Most of the games in here for multiplayer. A large number of those were party games that could hold more than the usual three or four players. Hmm… maybe he should get their input after all…?

Nah, they were busy. Besides, he and Vanessa never actually hung out together before. The most they had was when Vanessa helped him with homework he pretended not to get. Any other time, they were with someone else because of a hard and fast goal, like a parent teacher conference with Freddy, a shopping trip he begged to go on with Chica or Roxy, or the skate park where Gregory spent most of his time learning "sick moves" from Monty, tempered with Vanessa's insistence that he be careful and not break anything. Then there was the occasional game or movie night. One could never go wrong with a fam–house game or movie night. Even if someone got frustrated because someone else won more often than certain others.

Gregory pulled out a ratty black box. A mysterious mansion melting into the deep blues of the night created the background of the cover. Six colorful characters each wielding a different object potentially turned weapon printed on the front. Although he planned on grabbing the longest possible game they had, this might do. After all, Monopoly got boring after too long.

That and Monty broke the board, and it didn't quite look the same after being duct taped back together.

Wow the fight Vanessa stirred up about breaking her game was fierce. Monty didn't need any encouragement from his friends to look ashamed and apologize.

Gregory shut the cabinet door and walked up to their dining room table. Technically, it was tables, but they'd been pushed together, and a cloth was thrown over it to make it more harmonious. Gregory and Vanessa were the only ones who really needed to eat, though Chica would definitely go for food–that was, if it was part of her diet. Without constant access to maintenance, she cut down on how much she was eating. Strangely, it wasn't that hard. She didn't even go nuts when Gregory brought home a container of mostly eaten birthday cupcakes from school. Vanessa theorized it was probably due to being away from the Mega Pizzaplex.

Vanessa talked in code for her own benefit, but Chica was kind enough to play along.

But they did use the table for dinner gatherings to catch up on each other's days and chat.

Gregory set down the board game and placed the taped together lid aside. He looked through the rules, finding there to be special ones for two players. Four cards were taken from the deck and placed on the board at random before the rest were divided up, which made sense.

Gregory was finished setting up the game–both the board and the pencil and paper and cards for them both. As the game didn't come with pencils, he grabbed a few from his bookbag.

…

Worried about the time but refusing to be discouraged, the boy got up and wandered to the fridge. He poured the last of the orange two-liter of FizzyFaz left in the fridge for himself and searched the pantry. Disappointed, he grabbed a candy studded "granola" bar and went back to his place.

…

Gregory, finished with his snack, set his cheek against his hand as he propped up his head on the table. He poked the empty cup to rock it, each poke being slightly more forceful as he tested it for its limitations. Eventually, he found it as the cup fell over. He sighed and righted the cup again.

He about got up to put away the game when he heard Vanessa's office door shut.

Gregory sat up straight and looked back. "Hey, Vanessa!" Two months and she didn't yet have an appropriate nickname. "I got Clue."

"Clue?" Vanessa walked around so she sat across from him. A warm smile played on her lips. "Oh, I love this game. Alright, who are you playing as?"

"Colonel Mustard."

"You go first, little man. I'm going to be Ms. Peacock."

Gregory fanned out his cards and, blocking his checklist from view, marked down his cards. Hah! He was innocent! Colonel Mustard and Mr. Green were in his hand, as well as the knife, rope, revolver, dagger, and kitchen. Gregory had to recheck his cards. All he didn't have were the dagger and candlestick. Hmm…

Gregory rolled the die. Twelve? Neat. But where…

Gregory liked to think he was good at games, especially ones with skill with other people and with deception. Every suggestion he made, he used the same weapon card–rope–but varied his people and places. By chance, one of the four cards on the table was the candlestick. So, she had no weapons? Did he shuffle this correctly?

Though he thought he was sneaky, making her believe the weapon was a rope, she called his bluff and ended up either guessing or forcing him to reveal his other weapons. Any time they were asked to show a random card from their deck, they both played cards they had already shown. In fact, it quickly became apparent that Gregory should stop being cocky and start focusing more intently or else their game would not be that close by the end.

Vanessa declared, "I would like to make an accusation."

Gregory, confused, set down his cards. "You sure?"

"Yep. I think it's Dr. Orchid with a pipe in the library." She pulled the cards out and laid them out in order. Dr. Orchid indeed killed the victim in the library with a pipe.

Gregory put down his cards. "Huh. You didn't go easy on me."

"Do you want me to?" Vanessa asked.

Gregory shook his head. "Nope! But that's because I'll win next round, anyway."

"You will, huh? Let's see about that."

Gregory was incredibly close to winning the next round. He got confused on which person was the killer–Mr. Green or Ms. Scarlet?–but got both others right.

The third round, because they immediately jumped into it without even needing to ask, Gregory did win.

Their fourth round went a little slower, especially since they took a break in the middle of it so Vanessa could get a glass of water. Gregory discovered he was thirsty, too, so she brought down a cup for him as well.

Just before Gregory could get to the Hall, where he and Vanessa were racing to as they both knew the killer and the weapon, they were interrupted.

"Er, hello, Vanessa! Gregory!" Sun greeted. "Er, isn't it a little late?"

"Late?" Vanessa echoed. She looked back at the microwave, as the hand clock on the wall above had suddenly stopped working last week. 10:13 PM. "Oh. I really lost track of time. Thanks, Sun."

Gregory caught himself pouting and quickly did away with the look. That was sort of Sun's job for most of the time he was "alive" after all. "One more game?"

Vanessa tapped her fingers on the table "Sorry, sport, but it's getting late, and you have school in the morning."

Gregory tapped his pencil on the table. "Okay but think about this: one more game."

Vanessa chuckled. "That's not how it works. Let's finish up this game and I'll take you to bed. Thanks again, Sun. I can handle him from here."

"Oh! Of course, uh, I didn't, uh, mean to say differently. Um, good night. See you two in the morning."

The daycare attendant was gone.

Gregory stared down the hall he'd gone into. "He's kinda wound up today."

Vanessa nodded, her smile gone. "She really did a number on him. I don't know how I'll be able to fix him. But I'll try." She shook her head. "Anyway, let's finish this game, kiddo."

Gregory won. She helped him put away the game and walked him back to his bedroom.

"You have your homework done, right?"

Gregory nodded. Freddy had been eager to help with it that afternoon.

"Good. Wash up, brush your teeth. Go to bed this time; I won't have any of your teachers complaining about you being tired."

"Okay," Gregory sighed heavily with a dramatic roll of his eyes and tilt of his head. "Will do."

"And… tomorrow's Wednesday. Maybe I'll be off work early tomorrow."

Gregory failed to suppress a grin. He got a tired, warm one right back. He ducked his head as she ruffled his hair and sent him off.