Someone Matt didn't expect to cross paths with so soon shows up out of nowhere.


I'm not scared, if anything I'm embarrassed- Inherit these skills and where the hell are your parents?

The dim light of the workshop softly buzzed, illuminating the room, being the only noise outside of William's tinkering. Blueprints and sketches, along with yet to be done paperwork lay scattered across the desk. An opened toolbox revealed a multitude of utensils, many of which had been used in the past few hours. William was about to finish a collapsible servo joint, a device that would later be added to the prototype robotic performers. The mechanism consisted of two disks, each with a couple of small rings on either side. The idea the two business partners had come up with for their upcoming restaurant entertainers was quite genius, if Afton was being honest, although, most of it- even if the man didn't acknowledge it- had come from Henry. The robots that would perform for children would act as stationary units as well as be able to be worn by employees for child interactivity. The "Springlock Animatronics", as they were called, were robot suits that would also be worn by staff.

They worked by having a retractable motorized frame that could collapse and compress to the sides of the suit to allow for a person to climb inside. Each suit would consist of a springlock mechanism attached to the endoskeleton that, once wound up via a hand crank, would pull back all the metallic parts. Once activated, the hooks at the end of the springlocks would crab onto the rings that were on every part of the frame while the springs themselves would retract back, pulling with them all of the components and crossbeams that made up said frame. Thus, each costume would have two modes; an animatronic mode, where the robots would remain on stage, singing and dancing, albeit with limited movement, and a suit mode that offered enough mobility where a staff member could carefully climb inside the mascot and play with kids.

Despite the obvious danger of wearing such a piece of equipment, both Emily and Afton agreed that it was better to have a suit that doubled as both animatronic and suit as opposed to the alternative of having two separate mascots, one made out of fur and foam with no metallic parts and one mechanized. By having a hybrid of the two, the restaurant could avoid the problem of having a costume that looked strikingly different to the one on stage. This way, a child's immersion would not be broken upon seeing a man wearing said costume and the robot performing on stage. All employees would have to do to get inside them is pull the curtains at the end of a show, wind up the hand cranks, put on the suits then reopen the curtains and voila! It'd be the same characters moving around, only this time off stage and capable of actual interaction.

Because of this, the two friends had decided that was the best course of action. Obviously, they would have to take care of all the safety features first before actually wearing the mascots, but that was something both men were dead set on doing. In any case, the restaurant was planned to have two main characters. Both yellow in color, they'd be a bear named Fredbear, Henry's creation, and a rabbit called Springbonnie, made by William. So far, things were looking great for the family restaurant. If all went accordingly, the place would be open at the beginning of next year.

Afton would've liked for it to open sooner, but he was the only one stuck doing paperwork. Henry had no talent in that sort of field, so the two men had agreed early on that William would be the one foreseeing the company's finances while Henry dealt with the practical stuff like maintenance and what not. The process of creating a place where people of all ages could come and enjoy a nice meal while being witness to memorable robotic performances was slow and tedious, but it'd be well worth it in the end. Fredbear's Family Diner would open one way or another. After all, it was William's, as well as Henry's dream, and if those two put their minds to something they could accomplish anything. The rewards would wash away all of the pain and suffering, so to speak, Afton had gone through and would go through in order to make his dream a reality.

He could see it so clearly. The fame, the social status, the fortune he'd make, just barely out of his reach. But not for long. William could taste the success on the tip of his tongue. Thinking of it only served to steel his resolve, amplifying his determination. That's all he needed to make his dream come true, determination and perseverance, both of which he had vast amounts of. After all, William Afton was nothing if not a calculated and focused individual who could do anything if he so wished.

Ah, well… He should remain concentrated on the present. There were still many things left to do before Fredbear's could see the light of day. Like the little component William had just finished. He closely inspected his work, seemingly satisfied with the end result. To an ordinary person, this device would look uninteresting, but to William it was art. His guilty pleasure, robotics had always interested him from a young age. When he was but a child, there were few people who could admire the beauty of technology, of progress and advancement, at least in his hometown. One of the reasons he had opted for a career in engineering was to show people the wonders metal was capable of, what men like him could do. Thankfully, times had changed and society became more open minded. There were many people that shared his passion, but even so, he still felt out of touch every now and then, the reason for that being that his mind could conceive things decades ahead of current tech. William Afton's only limitation was the technology of his time and the available resources.

He set the contraption down, looking at the mess of papers that was his desk. So much paperwork… Still, that didn't mean he couldn't lend his old pal a helping hand in designing the springlock animatronics. Henry tended to get quite sidetracked when building things, and William simply couldn't resist tinkering with their creations. Their creations, as in his also.

He scratched the back of his head. The last several hours spent sitting at the desk were begging to take their toll on him. He should call it a night soon. As long as Henry did his part as they'd agreed to, he wouldn't hear any complaint from William, who'd be more than happy to help in finalizing their animatronic mascots. Speaking of Henry, that boy he had brought over had plagued his mind for the past few days. He was… different, to put it plainly. A boy very much unlike others his age. He knew that from the moment he laid his eyes on him.

Henry had called the Afton household, informing him of what had transpired, how he'd found a boy in the middle of the road, how he'd brought him home and what he'd learned about said boy's family, which albeit wasn't much, but it was enough. William would have shed a tear for the child had he cared. Henry went on to say how he planned on adopting the kid since the poor boy didn't have anywhere else to go. That wasn't what William expected but after knowing Henry for so long he shouldn't have been surprised, that was simply how kind- weak- his old pal was. After the lengthy explanation Henry asked if it was alright to bring the boy over to "meet with some kids his age, God knows it he needs the company" and William agreed, having his interest piqued.

Being able to observe a child's reaction to tragedy was something Afton just couldn't pass up, not because he was going to enjoy that reaction, no, but because he would have to deal with all types of children when Fredbear's would inevitably come into fruition and this was a great opportunity to further learn how to read those little things like open books. So, William informed his family of the upcoming visit and patiently waited for the Emilys and the stray child to arrive.

And then he had seen the child's eyes. They weren't stricken with grief as much as he had expected. He could almost call them glassy. Almost. There was something else hidden behind them, however… They were observing, judging even, Afton concluded. The boy's face showed no micro expressions that William was able to interpret, for whatever reason. Perhaps the unknown tragedy that had befallen his family had made the boy apathetic, so instead William changed what he was going to say and mentioned the boy's loss and the child just… smiled. He smiled, for half a second, but still. Never in a million years would William have anticipated that sort of response. And then the boy said he'd get over it. Oh, William suspected that he had already done so.

He had struck a goldmine with this child. Afton didn't believe in God, or fate, or destiny, but he was sure this boy, Matthew, was placed before him for a reason. When the boy's eyes scanned him, William could see himself in the child. His face was a mask, similar to William's own, although radically different. Where Afton pretended to be the nicest man on Earth, the boy was a polite, silent child who looked like he didn't want to be there, but was in reality inspecting all of his surroundings and memorized every single piece of information about everyone he met, much like William himself. Such a talent could never be allowed to go to waste, an endless well of potential waiting to be unleashed. What he wouldn't give for his own children to be that way, to be like him.

It was clear to him that Matthew was not an innocent fool, blissfully unaware of the true state of the world and how it worked. He wasn't a shy, naïve idiot like most children were. He was a child with infinite potential. But… he was still a child. And children needed guidance, they needed to have a role model, someone that could cultivate them, a person to correct their mistakes and shape them into their best possible selves. It was unfortunate that he wasn't the one to find the boy. Well, you can't have everything right away, he reckoned. Granted, even if he was the one to find the boy, unlike Henry, the most he would've done, if anything at all, would've been to drop him off at the hospital and then leave. It certainly wouldn't have stained Afton's conscience as the child wouldn't have been his responsibility.

Nevertheless, after that point the rest of the visit had been what he expected. Matthew obviously wasn't comfortable around the two girls, though not because he didn't know how to play with them, but because playing with them would've accomplished nothing. It would've been boring to participate in an activity that was hosted by less intelligent people. Now, William loved his dearest Elizabeth, he wasn't calling her stupid, and he didn't despise Charlotte, she was a very mature and clever girl for only being seven, she certainly acted infinitely better than any of his kids, but the girls were similar in how they acted and perceived things to other children their age. And so, the boy reserved his interaction with his daughter to simply joking around and barely being present in the activity so as to not appear insulting.

Shockingly, Matthew seemed to get along better with Evan. He was unable to see what the two had done while alone upstairs but, in the end, his youngest came rushing out of his room, happily presenting to the whole house the toy he and Matthew had constructed together. William couldn't remember the last time Evan had been so excited. It was pleasing to see him act so differently from his normal crybaby self. That would need to change soon enough, Afton couldn't allow his son to remain a scared little boy forever. He was five, for Christ's sake. If Evan refused to grow up William would make him grow up.

Moving on from that, it was disappointing that Matthew didn't get to meet Michael. The oldest Afton sibling was busy throwing temper tantrums. Just thinking of how his son acted made William's blood boil. The nerve of that boy, acting as if he had switched places with his younger brother, although Evan to his credit would never talk like that. What else did he want from William? Were the sacrifices he made for his family not enough for Michael? Was he behaving this way to get his attention? William had to stop himself from making a scene in front of his guests. Disciplining Michael could wait. Only after Henry and his kids had left did William make sure his oldest son perfectly understood what would happen if he continued being a disrespectful, ungrateful brat.

The man rubbed his temples and got up from his chair, stretching as he did so.

Enough of that for tonight, he thought.

He walked over and opened the door to his workshop, flickering off the light, an amused smile plastered on his face. He locked the door then shoved the keys in his pocket, making his way upstairs. By now, his wife should be asleep.

Tomorrow is another day, he chuckled to himself.

o0o

Having a ton of free time on his hands, Matt finished up writing down all important lore in his notebook. He had stopped at Ultimate Custom Night, having no need to go any further as any game after that was irrelevant to his end goal. He could've probably stopped even earlier, but later games also provided important lore bits that he would definitely require in order to complete a timeline of events. He also took the liberty of writing a bunch of FNaF songs as they were very important to him. It was fun going down this particular memory lane, humming along to his favorite songs. Besides fanart, songs were the only media that he could replicate from his original universe. By having the lyrics noted he could memorize the instrumentals to make sure he didn't forget any of them. Most of 80s music just wasn't for him and no FNaF fan could deny that the songs weren't absolute bangers rivaling what good radio stations broadcasted.

A lot of modern songs belong to a middle class of mediocrity where the theme of the songs is the same, the almost identical lyrics are garbage or lacking and the instrumentals are devoid of creativity, whereas FNaF songs are their own separate genre, in his opinion. And they could work with anything; rock, rap, metal, pop, even jazz. Everything fit the games if the artists were innovative enough, which they were. That wasn't to say that there weren't great songs out there, but what most people listened to on the radio did not even come close to what the fans of the franchise created. Scott wasn't lying when he said he had the most creative, talented communities out there.

So that was how he spent most of his time, noting lore and singing when no one was looking. The reason for his spare time was that because he didn't have a legal guardian yet he couldn't be enrolled into school, which meant that only Charlie had to wake up in the morning to leave and do homework and all of the terrible activities that involved that cursed place. He got to stay at home and do whatever he liked since Henry couldn't take him to work or have someone supervise him. The man had suggested getting a babysitter but Matthew assured him that he was fine being on his own for a couple of hours, it wasn't like Charlie would be gone for long, only being a first grader, and, he didn't want Henry to spend even more money on him than he already had. On top of that, he did not want to deal with a babysitter. At all.

Given that he couldn't go to school, they had made an agreement that Charlie would explain to him what she learned in class and Matthew would practice what she was taught so he didn't get left behind, to his immense boredom. Henry would, of course, also help them if they- Charlie- didn't understand something when he got home from work. Matt sadly had to play along and act like he didn't go through all of it already, a downside of having a seven-year-old body. At least he enjoyed helping Charlie with her homework, a fact which she was very grateful for, since it was all laughably easy to him. On the subject of being enrolled into school, Henry had brought up the fact that he planned on adopting Matthew, news that shocked both kids, Charlie being surprised at first but then swiftly being overjoyed at the prospect of Matt becoming an official member of her family, while the boy continued to be even more amazed by Henry's limitless kindness. He knew he wasn't going to get kicked out, but he never expected the man to have his mind made up so quickly about adopting him after only knowing Matt for a couple of days. And adoption was a complicated matter that could take multiple months, would cost a lot of money depending on how it was done and would not guarantee success.

Adoption would involve his existence being made known to the state, which could very well decide that Henry wasn't a fit person to take him in. It involved people coming over to Henry's house, asking him a bunch of questions like what happened to his parents, what his last name is and where did he previously live? All of them questions he didn't have answers to. He couldn't tell anyone what his last name was or where he was from lest they search for a family and find out it doesn't exist in this time, nor could he go into detail about a supposed entire family death since that many people dying at the same time in his birth city would be a widespread piece of information that could be very easily verified false. He would have to keep up the act of having memory loss from the "traumatic event in which every person he held close died" and simply assure every social worker that he just knew everyone dear to him was gone and that he didn't remember much about his life before that.

What a pain in the ass. Matt would have to be as helpful as possible while also sabotaging his chances by concealing the truth. For everyone's sake, Henry just had to win the upcoming battle of adopting him. Getting sent to some random foster home or an orphanage was the absolute worst-case scenario. But it would take a while before the verdict would be given. This whole ordeal wasn't even started yet.

To clear his head, Matthew decided he'd take a walk around town to get himself familiarized with the place. Charlie wouldn't be back for another hour or so. Now, a seven-year-old probably shouldn't walk on his own in broad daylight, but if he was being honest, the boredom he felt stopped him from caring. The only real danger in Hurricane was William Afton, but the man lived a few miles outside of town and worked who knows where. There also were no interesting cartoons on the TV and frankly speaking he didn't feel like watching any movies. Matt just had to get out of the house and do something otherwise his head would explode. He'd left a note saying he had gone out for a quick walk just in case Henry brought Charlie home early.

o0o

The neighborhood was quiet at this time of day, barely any cars passed by. The suburban houses of Utah were cozy and quaint. Not one house looked like the other, although all of them shared a sort of similarity. Each one had its own unique story to tell, its own personality and feel to it. Background noises of day-to-day activities blended together into a calm symphony of chatter, barking and chirping. The town lacked the obnoxious ear bursting sounds of big cities. Despite the world around him poking at his being, telling his subconscious that he wasn't supposed to be here, Matthew found himself relaxing as he walked down the streets of Hurricane. His mind was clear and the tenseness he had felt for the past week had dissipated. Occasionally, pedestrians would walk past the boy as he strolled around, giving him funny looks. He paid them no mind.

His peaceful zoning out was broken when a football passed by in front of him, about to enter the road just as a car was approaching. Instinctively, he reached out and caught the ball with his foot just before it could get flattened beneath a wheel. He paused then looked to the right where the ball had come from. A girl around his body's age with long black hair had watched the whole ordeal and appeared relieved at the sight of him saving her toy.

"Oh my God, thank you! I thought it was going to get squished."

"It's cool, here." The boy replied as he passed her the football. He was about to continue his dawdle when she interrupted him.

"Are you new around here? I haven't seen you before." the wonders of social anxiety. He'd rather not speak with anyone he didn't absolutely have to, but he wasn't about to be rude to a girl that hadn't wronged him.

"I am, actually. We moved here a week ago. Thought it was nice to take a walk and check out the neighborhood." the girl hummed in response.

"There aren't a lot of interesting places, sadly, it's a small town. Anyway, I'm Cassidy."

Matthew almost chocked on his spit at the mention of that name. His eyes widened as he stared at the girl. What were the odds? Well, now he absolutely had to speak with the girl. He took a second to compose himself before answering.

"Matthew. So uh…" he looked around attempting to find a topic of conversation. "What're doing out here? Shouldn't you be like, in school?" he asked, to which she gave a sly smile.

"I should, but I didn't feel like it so I pretended to be sick this morning." her smile disappeared and she glared at him, eyes seeming to stare into his soul. "And if you tell anyone about this, I'll kill you." Matt snorted.

"Don't worry, I won't tell on you." she smiled again, this time more genuine.

"What's your excuse, though?"

"Since we just came here my uh, my father" it felt wrong calling Henry that. He did appreciate the man for all that had done for him, but calling him his father, even as a lie, just felt wrong, and Matt had to suppress the shiver that ran down his spine. "-didn't have time to enroll me into school, so until that gets sorted out, I'll keep being a free kid." he joked, although the attempt at humor didn't stop the unbearable emotions from resurfacing. He tried to shove them back down, being only partially successful. His body visibly stiffened as he bit the inside of his cheek, Cassidy didn't notice, however. She giggled to his earlier statement.

"Yeah, I guess that does make sense. Who knows, maybe we'll be classmates." the boy shrugged.

"Anything's possible." he knew that better than most people.

Most likely I'll be put in Charlie's class, but why do I get the feeling that all of the MCI kids are all in the same class? Eh, I suppose it'd be logical from a storytelling standpoint for them to know each other.

"You talk a little weird, did anyone ever tell you that? Where are you from?" he raised a brow. She probably meant his accent, which wasn't strong or anything but to a person from the 80s it would sound peculiar.

If I'm going to be lying to social workers then I'm going to lie to you too, Cassidy. Sorry, not sorry.

"Meh, I'm from a lot of places, and you're the first person to tell me that. My folks are used to moving around a lot" look at him lying to Cassidy's face, with no remorse whatsoever. "I really hope this is the place where we settle down, so to speak. I'm tired of going from place to place so often. It's hard to… make friends, you know?" he didn't even know what he was trying to do. Was he trying to guilt trip her into befriending him? He had no idea where that had come from.

"We can be friends, if you want."

"Sure, that'd be nice…" he smiled slightly. That had worked, and he was such a good friend, already deceiving her by lying about where he's from. "But my accent is nothing compared to gen z humor in terms of weirdness."

"What's gen z humor?" he shook his head at her curiosity. Blurting that out wasn't the brightest thing to do. This whole interaction was strange, if Matthew was being honest. He always had trouble talking to people, but it hadn't been this bad when he'd spoken with Charlie, Henry or the Aftons. Or was he just overthinking things like always and in reality it was going great? Yeah, that was the problem here. Overthinking always ruined it for Matt. That's what made him socially awkward.

"Ah, never mind. Forget about it. Want to see something cool?" she perked up, nodding. "Give me that, please." he gestured to the soccer ball, to which she obliged, passing it to him. He raised the ball in the air with his foot, then brought that leg all the way around it, before kicking it again in the air and catching it on his thigh, doing the "Around the world" trick, commonly used by jerks to flex on lesser skilled players, which he wasn't doing as he only meant to impress Cassidy. The girl's eyes widened at the display.

"Woah, that was so cool! How'd you do that? Can you show me, please?"

"Alright. So, what you want to do is-" and that's how they spent the next 20 minutes, with Matt explaining the trick and Cassidy attempting to replicate it. This brought him back to a time when older players would constantly ask newbies if they could do this trick and if they couldn't they'd get mocked. The same thing had happened to Matthew, which led to him learning the trick better than anyone else on the team just to spite the older guys. The fucking assholes.

As she practiced, Cassidy grew more and more annoyed at the fact that she couldn't do it. The boy wanted to say something but the glare he received telling him to shut up was all he needed as proof that she didn't need any further help. All that was left was for her to keep doing it until she succeeded. It took another five minutes for her to get it right and when she did, she couldn't be happier.

"Yes! See? I did it! Let's go!" she cheered, her mood doing a 180.

"Nice. I told you you'd get it right eventually. All you had to do was be patient." oh yeah, he totally wasn't jealous of her at the fact that she just did a trick that had took him months to learn and perfect in less than half an hour. Totally.

"Patience sucks. If you want to get something you have to go ahead and take it. You can't just wait around for it to happen." She exclaimed proudly.

"Maybe." He wasn't going to argue with her, and he only half agreed with her statement. "You're pretty talented if you were able to learn it so fast." he complimented.

"Thanks for showing me how to do it. You're pretty good at this stuff too."

"Oh, yes, but my skills do not compare to those of Miss Cassidy, the queen of sports herself." she gave him a cheeky grin.

"Obviously, no one is better than me, dummy." she rested a hand on her hip then one on her chest. "You should be grateful for being allowed to bear witness to my greatness." the two were silent for a few seconds before they both started crackling with laughter. It took them a while to calm down.

"But really, thank you for the help." she said, wiping a tear from her eye.

"No prob… Anyway, I'm sorry to cut this short but uh, I need to get going. Dad's going to wonder where I've gone. Don't want to keep him waiting in case he's home." he hoped Henry wasn't home. It wasn't a good thing to up and leave out of nowhere and he rather not explain it to the man. But for that he needed to hurry.

"It's alright. It was nice meeting you."

"You too, Cass. Uh, I'm sorry, can I call you Cass?" she brought a finger to her chin, pondering his question.

"Only if I can call you Matt." she looked at him and spoke.

"Yeah, that's okay. Well, I'll see you around."

"Take care."

"Bye." the two waved at one another.

He didn't have a watch on him. Matthew was really hoping Henry hadn't made it back with Charlie. He was practically running back in hopes of beating them by being the first one home, that's how stressed he was. He'd have to get rid of the note he left if they weren't already there.

He definitely hadn't expected to meet anyone lore related but he was glad he did. And Cassidy, no less. Getting acquainted with the vengeful spirit was a good first step in the long road that he'd have to walk. But he was going to see this through to the end. Still, that didn't mean he couldn't make a couple of friendships on the way.

With strengthened resolve and an appeased smile on his face, despite the possible impending doom, Matthew ran back home.

Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad. If he put in the effort of making connections, he'd be able to surround himself with people he cared about that also cared for him. They'd never replace his family, but they didn't have to. They could just… be his family.

A new one for him to love. One to remind him not of what he had lost, but of what he can and will have.

That was a nice thought to reflect on.


Chapter title from "After Hours" by JT Music.