A/N: Does anyone even read this?
-{[(•)]}-
The blonde almost dropped Mike in surprise, just barely catching himself in time to tighten his hold instead of loosen it. He reigned in his shock and internal screaming enough to follow Fred to somewhere better for the brunette in his arms.
If they were back at Freddy's, then they were back in his hometown. It was a little over a year and a half since he left, Mike's eighth birthday having been about three months ago. His dad probably still lived here, in that same old house on Doloroso Drive. Jeremy knew the exact way to the old toy store from here, and his school, and the ancient lady's house, and his mom's grave in the cemetery. This was the place Jeremy spent this first decade of his life, and he couldn't be more terrified.
Fred took the boys to the security office. All the furniture had been shoved haphazardly in one corner, and a nest of blankets and other soft things had been crafted in the other. Jeremy noticed the two air vents on the ground but didn't comment. Instead, he carefully laid Mike down in the middle of the blankets and arranged them around him.
The blonde took a deep breath. He had to get his emotions under control. His boys needed him, and now was not the time to be having a breakdown about his dad. He looked to little six year old Fritz, who was watching him with those same big, trusting eyes Mike had about a year ago. He turned to Mike, who was woefully unaware and burning a hundred and three degree fever.
"Medicine," Jeremy said, "You said you had medicine." He looked over his shoulder at the plastic bear. He could have sworn he saw a deep sadness in the robot's eyes, but that was impossible.
The bear just nodded and disappeared for a moment. He came back with a white plastic box. Jeremy rummaged through it for a moment before he found what he wanted. Even in sleep, Mike was as gentle as ever, and he quietly accepted the medicine without stirring. The eleven year old packed away the little bottle and handed it back to the bear.
"Now that that's taken care of, we should probably eat," he declared. The animatronic nodded and turned to leave once more. "Oh, a-and Fred?" The bear paused. "Thank you." Something about the machine's mechanics loosened, and the bear seemed almost lighter as he exited the room.
There was a gentle tug on his arm.
Jeremy met Fritz's worried eyes, and the redhead led him over to the blankets beside Mike. He gently pushed the taller boy down.
"You need to sleep, too," Fritz muttered. He slipped into Jeremy's lap and laid his head against his chest. "You always take care of everybody, but you need to have someone take care of you too."
"I've got you and Mike," Jeremy smiled warmly. He wrapped his arms around the boy and settled against the blankets. "You guys take pretty good care of me, especially when I'm being an idiot."
"So you admit it," Mike whispered, barely awake. Jeremy snorted.
"Go back to sleep, dork."
The brunette nodded faintly before his breathing evened out once more. Jeremy stared at him for a long moment. The eight year old somehow wouldn't wake up through the visits of all the animatronics or being carried to a completely different location, but as soon as Jeremy and Fritz were next to him, he was suddenly awake. It was sweet.
It took a while for the animatronics to come back with food. Jeremy drifted in and out of consciousness during the wait, but Fritz was wide awake after his little nap. The brown eyed child woke him up fully when the robots came with a pizza and a bowl of soup.
The two boys stared at the pizza for a long moment, neither having had something warm, much less with so much flavor, since they came to live on the streets. Cheese, sauce, toppings... It seemed like a long gone and forgotten memory until now.
The children eagerly dug into the food while it was still hot, missing the worried and saddened looks of the animatronics. The robots took seats in different locations around the room. Bon Bon leaned against the desk in the corner. Mangle settled on the ceiling above the kids. The yellow bird sat across from them, watching them enjoy their meal. Fred knelt behind them.
"May I..." The bear hesitated, one paw outstretched towards the sleeping brunette. Jeremy slowly turned to look over shoulder at him. "May I hold him?" The other animatronics went still. Mangle and the bird looked almost wistful, while Bon Bon turned his face away. "We haven't seen children in so... so long. 'M sorry."
Green eyes searched the bear. Even at eleven, he was a master of reading body language. Even as an animatronic, the bear showed very human gestures. The blonde figured they must be pretty advanced. From what he could see, all the bear felt was intense desire and hopelessness.
Jeremy could remember what that felt like.
"Sure, I guess. He might flip out if he wakes up, though," the eleven year old intoned wisely. He quickly turned back to the pizza.
Fred was very careful when picking up Mike. He cradled the boy's head in the crook of his arm, just like he saw mothers do with their babies. He used his other hand to carefully shift the boy into his lap and layer a few blankets around him. Finally, he turned on his internal heater, the one they were supposed to use to keep their circuits from frosting.
"So what are you supposed to be?" Jeremy vaguely gestured at the yellow animatronic in front of them.
"I'm a chicken!" The bird informed brightly.
"Never seen a chicken wear booty shorts before," he muttered and took another bite of pizza. "Thought this place was for kids."
"Apologize," Bon Bon snapped. At Jeremy's look, he continued. "Say you're sorry, twerp. We can stop helping you at any time, so don't go riding around on any high horse-" Fritz sent Mike a panicked look and grabbed the eleven year old's sleeve.
"Bon, stop it," Fred sighed. "We offered to help them freely. We can't just pull back our offer. This one needs medicine, and we aren't going to put them back on the streets."
"Jerry wasn't trying to be rude!" Fritz insisted anyway. "He does it to everyone!" The bunny made a haughty noise and pointedly began to ignore them.
"And what's your name, chicken?" The blonde continued his questioning.
"My name's Chi!" She giggled.
"Is that so? And there aren't any more animatronics waiting around to introduce themselves?" He asked sarcastically. He knew there had to be one more. None of these things matched the creature that had abducted them.
"Well, there is Balloon Boy and the Puppet," Chi said thoughtfully, feathery finger to her chin in thought. "But he wanted to take care of some things before he introduced himself." Jeremy snorted and moodily went back to eating.
"I'm full!" Fritz breathed in amazement as he flopped backwards on the ground. "That was so good. Can we have pizza all the time?"
"Of course!" Chi grinned. She clapped her hands. "What's your favorite kind of pizza? I can go make some right now!"
"Don't feed him too much or he'll get sick," Jeremy warned and finished his last bites of pizza. "We probably shouldn't eat too much anyway."
"Why not?" Bon Bon demanded.
"'Cuz we've been eatin' rations for forever!" Fritz whined and rolled around a bit. The blonde swatted at him lightly but didn't protest.
"We haven't eaten much over the past months, so our bodies aren't used to digesting large amounts of food. Eating too much will make us sick. I'm pretty sure I already said that," the older boy deadpanned.
"W-Why don't we play a b-b-board game?" The Mangle finally suggested.
"A game?" Fritz questioned in awe. He finally stopped flopping around and sat up to look at the female animatronic. Jeremy watched him sadly; they hadn't had much time for play on the streets, and the older boys were sad they couldn't let Fritz keep his childhood. "What kind of game?"
"I vote poker," Bon Bon declared, dusting off his suit arms.
"No one asked you, Trix are for kids," Jeremy growled. Internally, he cheered at his clever mocking of the stupid rabbit. Bon Bon just scoffed and rolled his eyes.
"What about Candy Land?" Chi asked.
"That's for babies!" Fritz complained.
"Why don't you play Sorry?" Fred tried. His eyes were still fixed on Mike, but he was clearly paying attention.
"Sorry?" The six year old questioned.
"I haven't played that game in forever," Jeremy said wistfully, mind drifting back to his earlier childhood. He didn't noticed the stares he was receiving, but Fritz and the animatronics seemed to make their decision.
"I love that game!" Chi cried.
"I'll go get it," Mangle agreed.
"You'll teach me, right, Jerry?" The redhead asked hopefully. The green eyed boy jerked out of his thoughts.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure."
-[]-
Mike woke up feeling much better than before. He was pleasantly warm, and his headache had eased a bit. His chest didn't feel so tight either.
He coughed a bit before he finally opened his eyes, but that was usual. His sight was blurry for a long moment. Finally, his bright blue eyes focused on the big brown blob in front of him.
It was a bear.
A giant, robot bear.
Mike blinked.
Where was... Where were Jeremy and Fritz? He turned his head to try and find them, surprised when the motion was difficult because the bear was cradling his head. He coughed weakly again, and he finally found Jeremy and Fritz with some other robots. They were all playing a board game.
"Jeremy," he whispered. The blonde kept playing the game. "Jeremy."
"Hmm? There's those baby blues. I think he's awake," the bear said. The boys instantly perked up and rushed to him.
"Mikey!" Fritz cheered and hugged him. Jeremy just grabbed his hand.
"Jeremy, check my temperature," Mike requested anxiously. The green eyed boy looked over him worriedly.
"Are you okay? You look like you're doing better than before," the eleven year old fretted. Mike squeezed his hand, eyes darting around the room.
"I think I'm seeing things," he admitted. His voice was little more than a squeak; he was clearly terrified. Jeremy glanced around the room and laughed.
"Oh, no, you're fine, Mike," he assured. "These are the animatronics of Freddy Fazbear's Fun Palace. Remember earlier, when I said we were kidnapped? Well we were, but it was them."
"But... Why?" The brunette gaped. He coughed gently into his available hand.
"This place got shut down sometime after I left town. They just wanted to take care of kids like they're programmed to do. Plus, we really needed the help," Jeremy explained honestly. Behind him, the animatronics' jaws dropped, surprised at his understanding of the situation. They had been playing Sorry for an hour and getting to know each other, but none of them had directly stated why they wanted the boys to stay.
"I wish they had just asked us instead of grabbing us, but there's nothing we can do about it now," the blonde added grumpily. Mike smiled and weakly squeezed his hand again.
"What about you, Fritz?" The eight year old asked. "What do you think?"
"It's warm here. And they gave you medicine, and we have food and games and new friends-!" The redhead took a deep breath and gave an ecstatic grin. "It's awesome!"
"That's good. As long as everyone agrees..."
A tall, thin figured appeared in the doorway.
"Hello," Mike greeted softly. Fritz turned around, squeaked, and darted behind the bear. Jeremy jumped to his feet and stood protectively in front of his boys.
"You!" He shouted, face reddening.
"Jeremy?" The smallest boy questioned quietly. "I thought they wanted to take care of us, why are you...?"
"He's the one that kidnapped us!" The blonde pointed. "He scared the tar outta Fritz!"
The thing laughed.
But, instead of the menacing laugh they were expecting, it was a light, tinkling sound like notes from a music box. The creature wiped at its face as though it was tearing up, and its other hand rested over its jiggling torso.
"You're so cute!" The lanky animatronic cried. "Look at you! Adorable!" It gave them a long look. "And dirty. Why haven't we given them a bath yet?" It snapped its long, black fingers. "Bon Bon, you take the youngest one to the main bathroom and give him a wash. Fred, take the fiery one to the staff bathroom; give him a real bath, please. And you, sicky poo, get to come with me to my bathroom!"
"What?" Jeremy scowled. "No way! We don't need baths, and even if we did, we can take care of ourselves just fine!"
"Maybe you can, but I don't think I can move very much," Mike whispered. He tried to raise his arm for more than a few seconds and found it exhausting.
"A-and I never really learned, either," Fritz mumbled from behind the bear, twisting his shirt in his hands.
"We don't have any clean clothes," the eleven year old protested quietly.
"I know some clothes you can wear!" the chicken announced. "I'll go get them!" Jeremy huffed, blowing his bangs out of his eyes.
"Fine."
"Excellent!" The black animatronic clapped his hands. "Then let's get a move on!" He was across the room in the blink of an eye and scooped up Mike effortlessly, settling him against his hip.
"Oh," the brunette breathed and clutched at the being's cloth suit. "Not too fast please..."
"Of course," the animatronic nodded and left the room.
"So what's your name?" The blue eyed boy asked softly.
"I'm the Puppet," the creature said. "But most people just call me Marion."
"I'm Mike," the child smiled. The Puppet smiled back.
"Here we go," Marion approached a white box with a shiny red bow.
"That's not a bathroom," the eight year old's eyebrows pinched together.
"No. But it's magic," the animatronic grinned. He opened the lid and stepped inside. "You can't tell anyone else, okay? It'll be our little secret!" Mike nodded quickly, eyes twinkling in the dark.
The Puppet crouched, and the lower he went, the farther into the box they traveled, until they reached a completely different level of the pizzeria. There was a large, warmly-lit room with impossibly high ceilings. There was a charging station and various bookshelves on one end of the room, and on the other was a desk and all kinds of magical equipment. Somewhere along the wall in between was a door, presumably to the Puppet's bathroom.
Mike looked around in awe, trying desperately to keep himself from thinking it was all a dream. He wasn't sure he wanted to wake up if it was.
Marion carried the eight year old to the bathroom and helped him undress. The brunette was wrapped in a big, fluffy towel as the tub filled with warm water. The child's very bones ached at the thought; he hadn't had a real bath since he started his life on the streets. Cold rivers and the hoses behind people's houses really didn't count.
"Mr. Marion?" The blue eyed boy called cautiously. "Why do you need a bathroom?"
"Well, I have to stay clean somehow, don't I?" The animatronic grinned. "The others use the pizzeria's bathrooms, but I like my privacy."
"Okay," Mike agreed. Marion turned off the water.
"I think that's it! Why don't you start by yourself, and I'll help as needed?" He suggested. The boy nodded shyly and carefully climbed into the water. He seemed impossibly small in the large white tub, and Marion found himself holding in coos.
The brunette began to wash himself while the animatronic occupied his mind with a magazine. Finally the boy came to a part he couldn't complete.
"M-Mr. Marion?" He requested. "I can't hold up my arms long enough to wash my hair." The Puppet nodded and knelt beside the tub.
"Tsk, tsk, little one. You've got quite the fever!" He said even as he smiled reassuringly. His fingers carefully lathered up the child's hair, and he used a cup to rinse out the suds.
"Thank you, Mr. Marion," Mike broke the pleasant silence once he was finally wrapped up in the towel again.
"Oh, please!" The Puppet waved a hand. "You make me blush! Just call me Marion." The eight year old giggled. "Let's see if that plucky little chicken found you some clothing." The porcelain-faced being carried the blue eyed boy back to the main room.
Sure enough, there was a stack of clothes on the floor in the middle of the room. The Puppet gently set Mike down beside them and began to help him get dressed. Each article was a few sizes too large, especially since the clothing Chi had found was apparently a man's security uniform. The shirt alone almost reached Mike's ankles, so they didn't even bother with the pants. Instead, Marion buckled the belt around the boy's waist to hold the button up shirt better.
"We'll figure something better out soon," the animatronic promised with a pout. Mike was just too cute, but he needed proper clothing. The eight year old just nodded.
The magical creature swept the child back into his arms, and they began to rise back into the box on the main floor. The Puppet stepped out and carried Mike back to the security office, where Jeremy and Fritz were waiting.
Jeremy's uniform fit a bit better than Mike's, but Fritz's wrapped around him surprisingly well. The redhead was so tall and had such long limbs, the outfit almost fit. Still, Marion would come up with something.
Mike ended up back in Freddy's lap, and the others picked a few more board games to play. The brunette was tired, but he felt a lot better after the medicine and wanted to have fun like his friends. He hadn't played games or anything like that for a long time...
"M-Mr. Fred?" He called after a while and patted the bear's chest. The animatronic looked down at him, and Mike shrank down a little. "I-I just... C-Could-" He cut himself off, blushing.
"Yes, little one?" The friendly machine prompted.
"Could I d-draw?" The boy whispered. Jeremy made a wistful sound, and Fritz perked up.
"We should draw!" He cried. "Can we? Can we?" He bounded over and tugged at Fred's arm.
"I think we have a bit of paper left in the manager's office," Chi stated. "And there're still boxes of crayons in the supplies cabinets." Mangle scurried off to retrieve the necessary items, and the room burst with energy when she returned.
The boys and even the animatronics began to draw excitedly, chatting and comparing artwork.
"Look, Jeremy, Mangle!" Fritz cried. "It's a puppy!" He held up his drawing for them to admire.
"Good job, kid," the blonde grinned.
"It's l-l-lovely, dear," Mangle patted his head as gently as possible.
"What are you drawing, Mike?" Freddy asked.
"N-nothing much," the boy blushed, trying to cover his paper. It was a drawing of Jeremy, Fritz, and himself holding hands and braving various dangers. It was a talented drawing for an eight year old, but it still showed a level of childishness not usually present.
Bon Bon leaned over Jeremy. "Are you... drawing us?"
The green eyed boy snorted and lightly pushed him away. "I'm cataloguing your weaknesses."
"It's not very smart to tell us that, is it?" The rabbit smirked. The eleven year old scowled and covered his drawing more.
It was about an hour later when Mike was too tired to continue and they were starting to run out of supplies. The animatronics bid them good night and left them once more.
-{[(•)]}-
Jeremy and Mike stayed together in the warehouse and shared supplies. Jeremy gave Mike his warm hat so the younger boy would be protected, and they both gathered orders from office buildings.
Unfortunately, even with the hat, it wasn't long before Mike caught something. They lost half their income, and Jeremy struggled to find cheap medicine. It was just such a fancy place that even the medicine seemed more expensive than normal.
Without the medicine, Mike's condition kept getting worse and worse. One of the older homeless men helped Jeremy get Mike to the bus stop and travel to the next town. They were able to get cheaper medicine there, but when they came back, the police had busted the warehouse.
Once Mike was better, they moved to a new place and tried to rebuild their lives.
A/N: QUESTION OF THE UPDATE: WHAT WOULD YOU DRAW WITH THE BOYS? I WOULD DRAW A DOG ANIMATRONIC SO THEY WOULD FINALLY MAKE ONE.