A/N: ...Yeah, just shoot me now.

I know, I literally haven't updated this story all year! I won't even apologize, since I'm sure you guys are tired of that nonsense.

Still, I finally have a pretty solid gameplan for where the story's going from here, and hopefully that'll make this go a lot faster-before, I knew a couple of points I wanted to hit, but not what was in-between. Now, though, I should know what I want to do every chapter from here on out. I won't PROMISE faster updates, since you see how that's went so far, but I'll try.

Anyway, slight crude humor warning, since this is (mostly) a lighter one with focusing more on character interactions and things... get a little silly.

"Come at me!"

Thomas stared at me from across the room, amused. "Th-this didn't work last time, Mike…"

"Well, try it again! Maybe you just need to move faster! With purpose!" I swear he just about choked on his laughter. "Look, I'll turn away!" I said, spinning around 180 degrees as I did. "Maybe you need to sneak upon me!"

Just an uneventful morning of testing the limits of a ghost's abilities. Bella had been confused by my asking to work longer hours, but she relented. Probably thought that'd give me more time to bleed out before she had to show up. Whatever. At least it gave me another two hours to work out a strategy for defending myself against the animatronics. Right now, Thomas and I were in the dining hall, trying to work out-

"Gahg!" Guess Thomas did try to possess me again. I threw my arms around myself at the sudden chill. "Jesus.."

"Sorry!" I felt two clammy, semi-corporeal hands grab my shoulders, and Thomas rematerialized in front of me. "So, uh, t-that didn't work."

I gave him a death glare. I would've made a snarky comment, but this was my own damn idea, so I held back. "So, what next?"

"I-I don't know. This was, uh, kinda your idea..." Thomas watched as I paced the dining area, running a hand through my hair as I did. "If it's any help, I-I think we got closer this time than we did last time!"

"Nah, probably just wishful thinking." I sat down, drumming my fingers on the table in front of me. Think, Micheal, think... "Hey, wait a sec." I sat up, waving him over. "I think I've heard about ghosts being able to haunt tech-like, I dunno, how you get lights flickering and TV static for no reason? Maybe you could just possess one of the cameras! Then, I could have you relay stuff to me without having to waste power!"

Thomas chuckled. "Where d-did you hear that idea, anyways?"

"Look, I'm pretty sure a movie based on a haunted TV just came out. It could happen!" I stood up, running back to the office, yelling behind me, "Try it out there real quick!"

I slid into the office chair, turning on the tablet and putting it back down. "Alright, see if you can force it to switch over!" I rested my elbows on the desk, staring at the tablet sitting in front of me.

Nothing happened. Maybe I see something interesting if I flipped the view to that camera myself...?

Nope. Just a vaguely-person-shaped blob of static moving in front of the camera. If anything, he was making it worse. I sighed, standing up. Well, there goes another idea. What could we do next?

...And what the hell was Thomas doing?

When I reentered the dining area, he was hopping up and down in front of the camera, apparently trying to reach it. "Thomas, what the crap?"

He jumped in surprise and-good god, I guess we did learn something. Ghosts can blush. Very useful, I'm sure. At least, I ninety percent that's what was happening when he wheeled around to face me, clearly embarrassed. "Uh, w-w-well, y-you see..." He trailed off, eyes gluing themselves to the floor. "I-I-I-I think I-I'm, um, t-too short."

Jesus Christ . Points for commitment, if nothing else. I tried not to laugh-I really did-but a fit of giggles slipped out, and I put a hand over my mouth to hide it.

That seemingly only flustered Thomas more. "I-I-I'm sorry, I-I was j-just trying to help...!" I'd never heard him so indignant. He wrung his hands together, fidgeting in place.

I waved a hand, still grinning. "Don't worry... 'm sorry, just... not what I thought I see when I got out here." I took a deep breath, shaking my head. "Alright, any bright ideas, man? I'm clearly a trainwreck, so-"

Thomas huffed through his nose. "W-well, that seemed, ah, a b-bit obvious to me." He walked past me, seemingly towards the back room.

"Says the one who implied the animatronics would shove a robot up my ass."

I had never seen someone double-take so hard in my life. He wheeled around, blabbering incoherently for a second, there finally got out, his voice an octave higher than usual, "W-w-what?!"

"Look, all I'm saying is there if the animatronics went to stuff an endoskeleton into me, they'd have a limited number of places to do so." Thomas still stared at me, horrified and confused, and I elaborated, "Third night? Mine at least, not sure about you. You mentioned playing dead so they'd think you were an empty costume, but then you recommended against it, since they might try to put one of those spare skeletons inside me instead. Where the hell could it have gone?"

Thomas shuddered, then massaged his forehead with one fist. "I-I-That's not w-what-"

"Either through the mouth, or they'd sit it where the sun don't shine."

"P-please stop talking."

This time, I doubled over laughing. "Oh, god. Sorry, Thomas, I should probably just stop-"

"Then stop." He sounded so angry, so serious, which only served to make the whole situation even funnier to me. "I-I-Good lord, Mike." Despite his attempts to hide it, I overheard quiet giggles coming from him.

That only drove me further. Probably a little too far, in hindsight, but thankfully, it didn't end up biting me in the ass. "Oh, holy crap, please tell me that's not what happened to you, was it?"

Thomas cracked. He burst into an all-out laughing fit. I walked up to him, wondering if he was alright, and I could see something shiny on his face. The guy was laughing himself to tears. The whole thing just made me start to chuckle again, and I sat down at one of the tables, resting my head in one hand and failing to fight back my own laughter.

After a moment of both of us laughing our asses off, Thomas sat down next to me. "Agh, M-Mike, really? How old are you, thirteen?" He smiled, then furrowed his brow. "Y-you know what I just, uh, j-just realized?"

I sat up. "What?"

He hummed thoughtfully, then said, "I don't... exactly remember how I died. I-I mean, I sort of remember, uh, that last call I left for you, b-but nothing after that..." He stared off into the distance. "I-I just... woke up back there." I felt like this was the part where I need to comfort him, but then he was giggling again, and he said, "S-so, for, uh, for all I know, I might've actually..." He pressed both hands over his face.

"Died from having a metal endoskeleton shoved up your-"

"Sh-shut up!" Suddenly, I felt a strong force shove me in the shoulder, and I was knocked to the floor. I heard a gasp, and Thomas dropped to his knees next to me. "M-M-Mike! I'm sorry, I-I'm so so-sorry!" He grabbed my shirt, trying to pull me upright.

I was struggling a bit to catch my breath, but I waved him off. "Nah, I'm fine." I paused, looking him over, than asked, "How're you doing that?"

"Hm? D-doing what?"

"Y'know." I flailed my hands, vaguely gesturing at his hands on my shirt. "Touching me. Didn't you go through me once or twice?"

"Oh." He let go of my shirt, pursing his lips. "I-I don't know. I just-i-it's kinda happens whenever I want it to."

"Huh." So, if that means he can just make himself corporeal whenever he wants, and he seems stronger than he looks, then I wonder... "Hey."

"W-what?"

"Do me a favor?"

"O-of course!" Thomas sat back on his heels, smiling expectedly.

"Punch me."

"...W-w-what?" He tilted his head to the side. I could imagine what he was thinking: 'He's joking right? There's no way he's that stupid, right?'

"Seriously. Do it." I raised an eyebrow, wondering if he'd go for it.

"N-no? Mike-"

"Alright, you're right, that was a dumb plan." You're clearly too smart for that. But what about... "Hey, I think I dropped something behind you. Can you get it?"

Thomas bit his lower lip, then nodded. "A-alright." He turned around. Well, shit, didn't think it'd work. What about part two...?

While he was turned away from me, looking for the imaginary item I'd lost, I lunched at him, trying to make my best impression of one of the animatronics. Not very good, in my opinion, but good enough to-

YEAH HOLY SHIT HE FELL FOR IT.

Once again, I was lying on the floor, recovering from-well, to be honest, the best term for it was the world's most brutal bitchslap, received as retribution for (seemingly) trying to kill Thomas. "Sssson of a-"

"M-Mike!" Once again, Thomas was staring at me. As he grabbed my hand to hoist me up, he paused, then said, baffled, "Wh-wh-what was that for?!"

"Science."

Thomas stared down at me, his mouth hanging open slightly. Then he stood up, leaving me on the floor, and walked off to the office.

"Thomas? Hey, what the hell, buddy?" Groaning, I pushed myself off the floor, following Thomas.

When I entered, Thomas was rubbing his forehead, looking away from me. "Look, I'm sorry. I was just- y'know, you seemed like you were stronger than me-not, like, superhuman or anything, but more than I'd thought-and I was testing it if was true."

Thomas turned to face me, but stayed silent. Finally, he said, "How... are you s-still alive?"

That, I had no real answer to. I looked blankly at him. "Huh?"

Thomas bit his lip. "Uh, sorry, this is going to come off as harsh, I-I know it..." He trailed off.

"Dude, just say it. I'm sure whatever it is isn't something I've heard before."

"B-but that just, um, j-just makes it worse!" Thomas yelled. I honestly jumped a bit, and I saw him tense up himself. "I-I'm sorry, it's j-just..." He sighed, then continued, "Y-you just act so... silly and childish sometimes. I-I know this sounds mean, b-but... Either you shouldn't be acting so ridiculous if you're that good, or you should be de-" He shut up suddenly, looking away anxiously.

"Dead. You mean dead." Thomas refused to look at me, and I sighed, saying, "You don't have to bullshit me, alright? I've been working here for almost a month now, I get it-you do realize I'm talking to a dead guy, right?" I sat down at the desk, adding, "Already pretty well disillusioned by now."

Thomas fidgeted, still facing away from me. "I-I'm s-s-sorry," he mumbled.

I stared at the desk, then said, "I'm honestly mostly screwing off to make myself feel better." I thought I felt a change go through the room, but I didn't look up. "Maybe it's the only thing keeping me sane at this point-joking around and trying to make this seem less real." I glanced up at Thomas, and noticed he was finally looking at me, but in that brief glance, I couldn't make out his expression. "Can't be the only one who did that, right?"

I heard Thomas sit down next to me, and he muttered, "I-I guess I did a little. Uh, mostly I didn't want-" he grabbed my shoulder at this point, "-I-I didn't want other people knowing how bad it was."

I looked up at him for real this time, and saw his body facing away from me, ihs eyes trained on the floor between us. "Hey, not like you've fed me that before, right?"

He chuckled. "Heh, g-good point." He looked up from the floor and smiled. "I-I'm sorry, M-Mike. You really are braver than most people would be here."

"Hey, maybe it's 'cause I have my trusty sidekick here!"

Thomas grinned. "Pft, wh-who says I'm the sidekick?" He took a deep breath, then reached over and grabbed my hand, making me jump. "D-don't change, alright? Uh, I-I'm all for growing as a person and all that, b-but your goofing off... i-it's been helping me, too."

The hand holding mine was cold, and felt more like a liquid than a solid, even now. I rolled my eyes at the sentiment, then squeezed his hand back. "Jesus, you're awful touchy-feely, you know that, right?" I curled my free hand into a fist and held it up to his. "Fist-bump?"

Thomas laughed, then let go of my hand and tap his fist with mine. "And y-y-you have a, uh, frankly twisted sense of humor."

"Hey, you laughed."

"O-only because of how weird it was!"

I heard the sound of the front door unlocking, and groaned. "Guess it's time for me to go." I stood up, then saluted Thomas. "See you tonight, man?"

"O-of course!" Thomas stood up, waving to me as I walked down the hallway. "S-stay safe!"

Bella was probably within earshot, so I just flashed Thomas a thumbs-up over my shoulder. Guess we'll continue this adventures tonight…

...And I'd have to ask Thomas why he was heading towards the back room. But that would have to wait.