Author's Note:
Just a heads-up. I'm going to be taking down the Ask a Character story. We ended up having an entire channel dedicated to answering questions in character on Discord so it made the one here redundant. It will probably be removed by next week Monday.
If you are interested in joining us on Discord, add b9kAt2m to the end of the normal invite link.
Chapter 96
Operation: Locked in the Closet
Spring's recovery was slow going. He was always anxious and nervous, jumping and flinching at the slightest sounds. He didn't even "sleep" properly like the other animatronics did. Ruby had outright shut down Fazbear's Fright for the time being.
Goldy was rarely far from her old friend and kept him company during the day as well. He found some comfort in her, even if he couldn't remember her.
Puppet was also uncharacteristically gentle with the bot and Hedy was suspicious he'd given the Toys a lecture about their attitude since they'd been more open to Spring recently. The Originals tried to give the rabbit space while also helping where they could, telling him stories of the past.
Now however, they had another problem.
Hedy was just gathering her tools for the night in the back room, while Goldy spoke softly with Spring in the main room with Puppet subtly hovering, when Ruby stalked up with a truly terrifying scowl in place.
"Imma lock them in a closet."
Hedy blinked. "What?"
"The bots. Well, Freddy, Chica, Bonnie, Teddy, Chi and Toby. I'm going to lock them in the closet."
They heard a crash outside and Freddy lecturing Toby in that tight tone of voice that told them he was extremely close to snapping. Bonnie yelled at Chi in the distance, they couldn't hear what but the chicken yelled right back.
Ruby's scowl darkened further. "Chica dumped a bag of flour on Teddy a minute after you left."
That explained the normally calm bear's incoherent yelling. That was going to be a pain to clean out of his joints. There was a reason Ruby cut down on using flour.
Ever since Spring woke up without his memories, the tension in the pizzeria had skyrocketed. Much to Foxy and Mangle's confusion.
Goldy and Puppet were too focused on Spring to notice but the foxes definitely did. The two groups were snapping at each other more over the smallest of things. The animosity that had somewhat simmered down after "Springtrap's" arrival was announced, had sprung back up with a vengeance, leaving the foxes wondering if they'd just missed something.
They'd noticed right along with Hedy and Ruby how the fighting had Spring flinching and cowering away so they'd tried to play mediators. Tried.
Suddenly Foxy was being accused of siding with the Toys while Mangle was accused of hanging around the 'rust buckets' too much. The two were floored by the antagonism from their own groups and were a bit lost.
Bonnie wasn't speaking to Foxy and Teddy kept lecturing Mangle which was trying her patience.
BB had been hiding away from the arguing a lot after Toby kicked him.
"They won't fit in the closet," Hedy noted after the silence stretched between her and Ruby. The teen was still carrying around a lot of guilt regarding Spring's condition so her overprotective behaviour made sense at least.
"I'll make them," Ruby muttered darkly as another crash sounded, closer to the door this time. Her eye twitched.
Hedy didn't respond for another moment. "They'd fit in your guard office. It would be tight though. I can rig the doors to lock from the outside."
Ruby's gaze snapped back to her from where it had drifted to the door.
"You're not going to try and talk me out of it?" she asked curiously.
Hedy slammed down a spool of wire she had been trying to untangle and turned to Ruby. "Fuck no!" she snapped, swearing for once just because it was only Ruby there. "You think I'm not pissed about them acting like this either? Spring just asked me a little while ago if it was his fault they're fighting. You know how hard it was not to go smack both your bots and mine in the heads after hearing that? Spring doesn't need to be dealing with this. He already doesn't know where he's supposed to fit in."
Ruby's expression twisted again in anger after hearing that.
"You get the doors set up and I'll talk to Mangle and Foxy," she told Hedy tightly. With their help, she'd be able to get all six into the office pretty easily.
"I need five minutes," Hedy replied with an irritated but stiff nod, taking out her tablet. She set down her stuff and went out the door, heading toward the generator in the very back of the building.
Ruby headed straight to the two foxes. Foxy was rubbing his forehead while the others argued viciously. Mangle was next to him looking frustrated, gaze darting to Spring who had his head ducked down, Goldy talking softly to him.
"You as sick of their arguing as I am?" she asked softly, getting the two bots' attention.
Mangle stared for a second before a tiny delighted, and somewhat vicious, smirk broke her expression. "I smell a plan," she whispered.
Jeremy looked up from where he was sitting reading a manual Hedy gave him. He'd come by to try and help but this was all a completely foreign language to him. "You guys can smell?" He looked interested and confused.
Both foxes gave him a deadpanned 'seriously?' look before turning back to Ruby. It made the night guard snicker a bit.
"Operation Locked in the Closet. Hedy's setting the doors up at the office at the moment. We give her five minutes, and then get those six in that room. I don't care how. You can use any of my weapons. But they are staying in that damn room until they reach a truce."
Foxy was also smirking now, lighting up. They were sick of the bickering.
Mangle giggled. "This will be fun." She tilted her head, looking fairly insane in her glee.
Foxy looked a little concerned about her enjoyment but mostly amused as he nodded with his own smile. "About time they figured this out."
Ruby quietly handed over weapons to the foxes, abruptly getting the attention of Puppet. He narrowed his eyes at them and noticed how they were eyeing the others who were still fighting.
The teen gave Betty an experimental swing while she counted down the time.
Hedy hadn't mentioned any signal Ruby should wait for but it was very hard to miss. The building obliged and plunged them into darkness as the distinct sound of the generator groaned.
Spring startled, his glowing white eyes, that were almost exactly the same as Puppet and Goldy's, darted around in confusion and anxiety while Puppet's own pinpricks narrowed even more as the yellow and orange eyes of the foxes moved. Quickly.
The angry fighting turned confused for a moment before they were yelling in shock and surprise.
Ruby and the foxes had a lot of pent up frustration and anger and used every drop of it to drive the six towards the office.
Goldy grabbed hold of Spring to hold him close, also confused. "What the heck?"
Puppet continued to watch the multicolored pairs of dots scramble away with the shouting, tilting his head a bit.
The shouting was abruptly cut off with the slamming of the office doors. Moments later the lights came back and Ruby, Hedy, and the foxes came back looking much more relaxed.
"Ah peace and quiet," Ruby sighed, ignoring him.
"You love chaos," Mangle pointed out.
"I live with kids. They bicker like siblings and I prefer to not have to spend my nights listening to the same thing."
"What just happened?" Jeremy asked, wary of the satisfied expression on his sister's face.
Hedy chuckled, looking very pleased with herself. "An intervention."
Jeremy stared for a moment longer. "Actually I don't think I want to know," he admitted.
Goldy eyed them all before apparently deciding the same thing and turning back to Spring to hug him comfortingly.
Ruby just grinned smugly. She'd yelled through the door that they'd be let out when they could get along. Or at least fake it well enough to fool most people.
"Ruby! Ruby!" Bonnie banged his fist on the door while Chica kept trying the buttons with increasing frustration.
"You're doing it wrong," Toby complained, rolling his eyes as he ducked under the chicken's arm.
Chica glared at him. "How." She hit the button again. "Can. I. Be. Pushing. A BUTTON. Wrong?!"
Toby huffed and pushed the button himself, growling when it didn't work."...Stupid... little."
Teddy eyed the doors for a second. "...Hedy," he muttered.
Chi looked over at him from where she'd been glaring holes into Bonnie's back. "What? What about Hedy? This was the stupid night guard and the foxes."
Bonnie groaned. "You really are kinda of dumb aren't you..." he said, turning his head. "Ruby, doesn't know how to bypass the generator."
"What did you just call me?!"
"Hey!" Toby snapped, quick to defend his best friend.
"If you spent more than two seconds outside that stupid chattering featherbrain of yours-" Bonnie growled.
"Excuse me?!"
"You might have noticed Ruby keeps asking Hedy if she could use her mechanic stuff to do something about the low power the generator gives us at night."
"Why should we care about the stupid night guard?" Chi sneered back at them.
"Would you all just shut up," Freddy growled, rubbing his forehead.
Toby jerked up to get in Freddy's face. "You shut up! All you ever say is 'do this,' 'don't do that', 'stop that.' Your stupid name is on the building but you're not actually in charge you scrap heap!"
"Do you and Toy Chica ever shut up?" Chica hissed with fake sweetness. "At least Toy Freddy knows how to talk less."
"Don't call me that!" Teddy said, already a bit prickly. He tried not to wince at his own snap. Besides Mangle, he was the only Toy that actually hated his old name.
"Why? Because it reminds you of being a second rate knock off?" Bonnie snipped.
"Well, you're nothing but outdated scrap!" Chi yelled shrilly.
"And you're a cheap second attempt," Chica snapped back. "Not even very well done."
Freddy buried his face in his hands and tried to scramble for some semblance of self-control. Ruby had done this for a reason and she was very pissed off if she hadn't stuck around to yell at them through the door.
Well, maybe she had yelled something at them but they hadn't heard it clearly.
The doors were pretty thick and there was an awful lot of yelling to drown out whatever she might have said.
"Well maybe he was just sick and tired of you taking up too much space," Chi retorted. "Why else would he send us to replace you!"
"Maybe he just got sick of dealing with your obnoxiousness and shipped you off before he finished your processor. That would explain everything," Bonnie said, harshly tapping Toby's head.
Toby angrily swiped his hand off. "Don't touch me!"
The arguing between the four got louder and louder again, vicious insults being flung around in the small room.
Freddy glanced at Teddy when he realised the other bear was quiet.
Teddy caught his glance but didn't get a chance to say anything, if he planned to.
The phone on the desk rang.
They stared.
There was a flash of horror before logic took over.
Freddy was about to pick it up but the answering machine got it first.
"Hello hel-" Hedy cut herself off from the habit and cleared her throat, noticing how awkward that might have been. "...Eh...Given all the loud muffled yelling I can hear from the camera right outside the doors, I'm guessing you didn't hear Ruby."
"What's she doing now?" Chi complained.
"Shut up," Bonnie hissed at her.
Hedy sighed but Freddy was fairly sure she couldn't actually hear them with the receiver on its hook.
"Part of me wants you idiots to figure why we did this on your own. But basically Ruby and I aren't letting you out until you can at least mimic some version of decent civility. And I'm not just threatening tonight. If you can't come to some agreement by morning, we're still leaving you in there for the day shift and I'm not explaining to the kids where their favorite characters went."
There was a click.
"She's bluffing..." Bonnie muttered, staring at the phone.
"..." Teddy didn't look like he believed that as he looked at the doors.
Chica looked anxious now.
Freddy sighed. "But Ruby's involved and Ruby never bluffs."
Bonnie deflated at that truth. Then he glanced around. "Why didn't Foxy and Mangle get stuck in here with us?"
Toby scoffed. "Probably because Mangle's getting all chummy with you scrap heaps. Why don't you ask Foxy. They hang out for some reason."
Bonnie glared at him while the metaphorical light bulb went on above Freddy's head.
"Oh..."
It obviously hadn't been on purpose, but Toby had hit the nail on the head ironically.
They all looked at him at the sound of realisation.
"It's the fighting. Foxy and Mangle don't fight."
The dull silence took a hot second to process.
Toby glared at the phone.
"It's Spring too..." Teddy spoke up.
Chi squinted at him. "What?"
"Well...Goldy hasn't yelled at us when we're...arguing. I mean, she's called me out before. But hasn't recently. She's been busy with Spring..."
Freddy closed his eyes and covered them with his hand. "That explains why Ruby got involved."
Bonnie completely deflated. "She feels guilty over what happened to Spring and gets overprotective when anything upsets him," he murmured.
Toby's ears dropped and folded in guilt but he wasn't quite ready to back down.
"If you outdated jerks would stop nitpicking every little thing we do, maybe we wouldn't be fighting." He forced out, probably gritting both sets of his teeth.
"That! That right there is why we fight," Bonnie said. "You're just so nasty. You keep calling us names all the time."
"You do too!" Chi snapped back at Bonnie. "You don't even give us a chance." She pointed at Chica. "You won't let me touch anything in the kitchen."
"Because you get whiny and won't listen to any instructions!" Chica retorted.
"No, I just don't listen to you. And you can't stand that," Chi said right back. "Why should I even want to listen to you? Frank lets me try stuff even if he's weird about it. He's an adult. A human. And he's nicer than you."
"Why should I want you in my kitchen if you're just going to talk all the time and call me scrap?!" Chica said incredulously.
"Would you shut up?" Teddy snapped. "We're in here because of this. We start one place and then end up fighting again. If we just stay on track and figure out a plan for how we can convince Hedy and Ru-..."
"I swear if you try to lay down some stupid negotiation rules I'm going to clock you," Bonnie said, his temper spiking.
"See that? That I can agree with," Toby said sarcastically. He turned around and kicked the door harshly. "There! We agree on something. Is that good enough for you Ruby! What do you want?!"
"That's not what they want..." Teddy complained.
"I KNOW!"
Abruptly Ruby's voice came from behind the door and they hadn't heard her sound this murderous since Puppet hurt Mangle.
"Either you figure this out or I FUCKING SOLVE IT FOR YOU!" she snarled before her voice dropped. "And you really really don't want that."
Foxy cut in before anyone could say anything. "And now we put the axe down lass, yup, give it to Mangle like a good sane night guard."
"Put me down Foxy!"
"Nope, you're getting that look in your eye again lass. You, me, and my sister are going to go play paintball on the other side of the building."
"Calling Mangle your sister is unfair because you know it makes me happy," she muttered petulantly.
"Yup," Mangle piped up as Foxy's metal footsteps retreated along with Ruby's grumbling. Then she leaned closer to the door and hissed through it. "You seriously need to sort yourselves out because she was standing here ready to reenact the Shining."
With that they heard her stomp off too, her footsteps lighter than Foxy's..
It was silent again before they could gather themselves.
Toby remained squeezed into the corner furthest away from the door as he stared in terror.
"...what's the Shining?" Chi wondered.
Teddy didn't know and was more concerned with the apparent fact that they had an axe somewhere in the building. Or did Ruby bring it tonight? Which was worse?
"Did Foxy just call Mangle his..." Bonnie asked, a little weirded out, but still mostly startled by Ruby.
Freddy was blinking rapidly. Ruby tended to joke that they were a messed up little family...but she sounded really serious there. So did Foxy actually.
"When...when did Foxy and Mangle start getting along so well?" Bonnie asked, sounding curious more than accusing this time.
"I don't think...I think he got along with her since the Toys arrived," Freddy admitted after a moment, thinking back on it.
Foxy hadn't ever treated Mangle badly. He'd been careful with her when she was still fragile but he'd been the one to invite her to work in the Cove instead of staying in the Toys room all the time.
Mangle hadn't been cruel to Foxy either. Or any of the Originals. She didn't bring up the past very often. But she wasn't shy about calling anyone out either. It didn't matter if they were one of her own set or Foxy's, she was quick to scold and quicker to make her opinion known.
"Suck ups," Toby muttered.
"Can you say one positive thing about anyone that's not yourself?" Chica snapped at him.
Toby scowled at her. "Yeah! But why should I?"
"You make everyone around you feel terrible!" she crossed her arms and glared at him.
"How is that my problem!? No one cares how I feel!"
"I care..." Chi mumbled, the quiet tone sounding loud in contrast to her usual chatter and the shouting.
"You even say nasty stuff about the other Toys," Chica looked away. "They're supposed to be your friends."
"I... I do not!"
"You do. We're just used to it," Teddy said.
"It makes everyone else uncomfortable," Chica crossed her arms.
Toby made some noises as he tried to find a response. "W-well maybe if you didn't-!" He struggled for a moment. "Shut up!"
"See! You can't say anything nice!" Bonnie snapped.
"What? Like you ever say anything nice either?" Chi sneered at him.
"Not to you all. You're always nasty to us!"
"Maybe we wouldn't be so 'nasty' if you weren't such a jerk!"
"I'm a jerk? For a chicken who likes to talk all the time, you don't really listen to yourself, do you?"
Freddy sighed. "We're getting off topic. And I'm starting to realise why Ruby was so mad." he rubbed his forehead where a headache was forming. Why did they even get headaches?
Toby growled. "Fine."
"Toby," Teddy started.
"Shut up, you're not an angel. You're in here too," Toby snapped.
Teddy huffed. "What are we supposed to do?"
"Get along?" Chica muttered, squinting at him.
Teddy glared back and picked at flour in his joints.
"I don't think that's possible," Bonnie muttered.
"How about a truce then? At the very least we need to be civil," Freddy suggested.
"Are you ki-"
"For Spring's sake?" Teddy cut in to ask hesitantly, ignoring Toby.
Toby cut off sharply and his ears folded a little.
They were all silent for a long moment.
"I hate that we're upsetting Spring," Chica murmured.
Bonnie looked down, ears dropping in guilt.
"Me too," Chi admitted, looking away from the rest of them. "I'm still not sure about..." she trailed off and shook her head. "But he is... nicer than I thought." She grimaced a little.
It wasn't a secret that the Toys were more distrustful of Spring after most of their memories of him were soured by the murders. But it was impossible not to see how hard he was trying to figure out his place among them. Mangle especially was kind to him, and she had been rather cold right after he woke up.
"Well, that's something we can agree on at least," Freddy sighed. "We can start there then."
Thankfully there was a round of mumbled agreements and they finally seemed to make some progress.
"Maybe we should just, you know, avoid each other," Chica suggested after a moment.
"You're just trying to keep me out of the kitchen again," Chi said.
"Chi, come on," Teddy groaned. "But you kind of pointed it out. We can't really avoid each other during the day. I mean, we can try?"
"At night, both Ruby and Hedy like us all hanging out in our... the main room," Bonnie said.
"If we've got to talk to each other we can try and keep it polite. You know, if you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all?" Chica suggested hesitantly.
The groups tended to keep to themselves anyway except for the foxes.
Toby fidgeted at the injustice of the suggestion but for once kept his mouth shut. Chica quoted something they had all said to children at one point or another.
Both groups eyed each other in the confined space.
"I don't think we've got a choice if we don't want Ruby and Hedy getting angry again.
Teddy shot Toby and Chi a pointed look as the rabbit shuddered while the rest of them winced.
Chica, Bonnie and Freddy shared a glance.
"We can do that," Bonnie was looking at his feet.
"Yeah..." Chi murmured while Teddy and Toby forced their nods.
There wasn't a camera inside the guard office and Ruby was probably with the foxes on the other side of the building still.
After a minute, Toby spoke up awkwardly. "So...uh...How do we ask Hedy and Ruby to let us out?"
"I'm pretty sure we've got to wait until at least Hedy calms down," Freddy admitted. "She's the one who locked the doors."
The Toys might have paled if they could. Toby moaned.
Hedy had a well of patience but if she was pushed, like now, she could hold a grudge for a long time.
Her budding friendship with Spring didn't bode well for a quick escape either.
"So what do we do now?" Bonnie asked. "You know Ruby's going to be mad for the rest of the night."
"I'm not going out there if she's still mad," Toby insisted, sitting down on the floor.
"There's a difference between 'she's going to make the night a living hell' mad and 'she's going to glare at you all night' mad," Chica pointed out.
There was an explosion on the other side of the building.
"Definitely the first," Freddy sighed.
"Wait...are we stuck in here then?" Chi complained.
Toby groaned and buried his head in his hands.
Bonnie rolled his eyes with a grunt and went poking in the desk drawers.
He jerked back, narrowly avoiding a glitter explosion. He didn't even look surprised though and just continued with his poking around.
"Seems like it," Freddy sighed, eyeing the new mess.
"Ah ha!" Bonnie dramatically said, pulling out an old deck of playing cards.
Teddy blinked. "How'd you know those were there?"
Bonnie stilled in the middle of shaking some glitter off the little box. He spoke civilly despite the awkward strain in his voice. "Uh...They were Scott's. Figured no one would have cleaned them out."
Chica and Freddy flinched at the mention of the man. The Toys just looked uncomfortable.
"But hey," Bonnie said awkwardly. "He taught us how to play a bunch of card games. Remember Freddy?"
"I don't remember how to play." Freddy made a face.
"Are you serious..." Teddy said, looking at Bonnie in confusion while Toby shifted and scoffed.
"Got any other ideas for the next four hours?" Bonnie shot back.
"I remember..." Chica looked wistful for a moment.
Chi looked at the cards oddly. "Hedy taught us a few games..."
"Slap jack," Toby said, perking up a bit.
"We are not playing slap jack!" Teddy suddenly straightened up.
Chi giggled and Toby actually cracked a mischievous smile.
"Hedy banned it!"
"Yeah cuz Mangle broke her hand-"
"YOU broke her hand-"
"But Mangle isn't here right now. And she likes to play it anyway."
"I don't want a broken hand," Teddy whined.
"Then don't hit so hard!"
The Originals watched in confusion. They never saw this side of the Toys.
"I do not want to face Hedy if anyone breaks their hand," Freddy muttered. "She might lock us in here the rest of the day anyway."
"It's fine," Toby insisted. "Just don't hit so hard."
Chi snickered. "Teddy's just embarrassed because he gets so into it. He's the one who breaks his hand the most."
"Am not! Hedy banned it because of Mangle."
Toby ignored both of them to explain the game to the Originals, somehow sounding patronizing while he did so, but he was "trying" at least. "We shuffle the cards and divide them all out. You can't look at what cards you have, you just have a little deck. Then we take turns flipping our cards off from the top of our decks. If you see a Jack or an Ace you have to slap the pile and first one gets all the cards in the pile. You lose if you run out of cards and the winner has them all."
Chica looked curious, Bonnie seemed skeptical and Freddy just looked resigned.
"This is going to end badly."
Freddy should know when not to tempt fate because he was right.
Barely a minute in and Chica tossed all her cards into the pile and backed up, silently, begrudgingly, worried about hurting one of the toys with her larger hands if she tried to match the ferocity at which they slammed their hands down on the pile, vying for the bragging rights with what was quickly turning into competitive violence.
The Originals were pretty sure they knew why Hedy banned it.
Bonnie still held his cards but he usually dropped them as quickly as possible on the pile and didn't even bother with the slapping part of the game. Freddy was very good at flicking them onto the pile from a distance as he watched the violence. Bonnie started inching backwards with every slam on the table.
Eventually, the last two Originals had lost all their cards and the three Toys had basically devolved into a hand slap fight.
Teddy had been cautious at first, but Toby was right, the bear really got into it.
Even Chi gave up, whining a little about losing all the time as her cards were eventually sacrificed to the loot as Teddy and Toby kept going.
Freddy was a little concerned about how hard they hit each other's hands. If one was faster, they won the pile but the other's hand slammed down on top.
Hedy would not be happy if either of the younger bots cracked their suits because of this.
Bonnie and Freddy exchanged mildly horrified expressions while Chica just stayed leaning against the wall and wincing at every slam.
Bang!
"Hey! I got it first!" Teddy snapped as Toby tried to take the cards.
"What? I hit it first!" Toby insisted. "Look! Your hand is over mi—" He trailed off and winced.
"What are you—oh shoot!" Teddy said, forgetting the game as he picked up Toby's hand, a thin crack snaking from the palm up to the top of the rabbits hand.
"Aw man... Hedy's going to kill me..." Toby complained but didn't pull away as Teddy passed his hand over to Chi to look.
"You!? She's going to yell at me for breaking it. I told you—"
"Oh shut up you were playing too!"
"You guys are idiots," Chi said.
The Originals all looking at each other. They really sounded like siblings now.
They hadn't been around the Toys enough or, more accurately, listened enough to really take notice.
Freddy knew that a lot of that was because of the past issues they've had with the Toys. Mangle was the only one who'd actively tried to make up for the past. Things were different but he hadn't realised that the old wounds still hurt.
"How about we play something a little less...dramatic..." Chica suggested as Toby inspected his damaged hand, probably trying to figure out how he was going to hide it from Hedy.
Bonnie didn't think he'd have much luck. The mechanic seemed to have a sixth sense for when they were damaged.
Teddy fidgeted guiltily.
"Ugh. Fine," Chi said.
"Did Hedy ever teach you Go Fish?" Bonnie asked.
"We know how to play. We play it all the time," Teddy said while crossing his arms, frowning at the fact that Bonnie hadn't noticed that.
Bonnie shrugged. "It's not like we spend any actual time around each other unless it's maintenance, movies or Ruby's games."
They did tend to keep their other activities to their individual rooms. And when they had to share space it usually led to trouble. Like Chica and Chi in the kitchen.
Teddy didn't say much. He just gathered all the cards, glancing at Toby worriedly, and started shuffling them before dealing them out to everyone. Including the Originals.
Chica very hesitantly came back, glancing at Toby's hand occasionally.
Bonnie opened his mouth to say something.
"We're not gambling," Freddy cut him off. He'd been waiting for the rabbit to try that. Bonnie pouted at him. "Why on earth did Ruby even teach you poker?"
"It's fun," Chi insisted. "Well, it looks fun. I haven't quite figured out all the rules. But Spring seems to like playing with Puppet. And Goldy and Ruby and Foxy and Mangle. I heard Ruby say something about strip poker but Puppet tried to smack her."
Freddy covered his face and groaned.
Chica pulled a face. "Spring remembers the rules? Seems unfair that he remembers the rules but forgot Goldy. Then again, he was always great at the game. He can bluff better than Puppet."
Bonnie grumbled softly. He wasn't allowed to play because he and Foxy got too competitive.
"Did he play a lot?" Teddy asked as he held his cards. "Chi, you're first."
"Oh, uh" Chi stared at her cards a moment, "Freddy do you have a two?"
"Go Fish," Freddy said, "Spring liked a lot of different games. Right before you guys showed up, he and Goldy had a bet over how long it would take Puppet to notice a heart sticker someone had put on his mask. We all got into it." Freddy frowned and paused. "He liked gambling a little too much for my tastes."
Bonnie snickered and Feddy scowled at him. "And he was a terrible influence on you and Foxy."
"Goldy helped!" Bonnie protested.
"So did Puppet," Chica muttered into her cards.
Teddy frowned a little while Chi grumbled and took her card from the deck.
"At the Warehouse..."
The other Toys stiffened.
"Puppet wasn't like that. He didn't like to play games with us. We figured it was because he didn't actually like us, even though he promised that he did."
Freddy sighed while Bonnie and Chica shifted uncomfortably.
"He changed, after the kids..." Freddy murmured, not looking up. "He stopped interacting with us and only focused on revenge."
"...we kinda figured he blamed us," Toby said. "Cuz we were supposed to be watching...them. We were working. We should have...noticed. But he just said it was the night guards' faults, not ours. He said we 'just didn't know'."
"Which means it was our fault but it doesn't matter because we didn't know better," Teddy said, voice hiding a bitter tone.
Freddy was shaking his head. "He doesn't blame anyone but himself," he told them matter-of-factly. "So he pushed everyone away."
"That's dumb," Chi said, rolling her eyes. "We were working too. A lot of adults were working too."
"Like Jeremy," Toby muttered, earning a whack on his head from Teddy. "OW!"
"What? Mangle would have hit you harder."
Bonnie snorted. "That's true," he muttered. "She hits harder than Foxy."
"That's because Foxy is a softie when it comes to you," Chica reminded him. "Mangle isn't."
"Mangle's so mean!" Chi complained.
"Well, she's had to put up with a lot and not being able to say anything about it," Freddy pointed out.
"I like her," Chica admitted. "She always says what she means and she's blunt."
"Watch her go off on the manager one day and get us all scrapped..." Toby huffed.
"She wants Hedy to get rid of the censoring thing," Chi mentioned.
Teddy groaned.
Freddy grimaced as well. "Foxy wants Hedy to fix his censoring thing. He hasn't built up the courage to ask yet though."
"Ruby wouldn't let anyone scrap any of us," Chica added. "Even you."
The Toys looked a little uncomfortable at that declaration.
Freddy glanced at the door. It was going to be a long night...