Harriette in the morning wrapped in the warmth and safety of the daycare. Joy blooms warm and soft in her heart as she snuggles deeper into the cocoon of blankets for a second. Then she remembered what Mr. Moon said. Harriette shot up.
"Oh? Good Morning, Sweetie," Mr. Sun said. "I grabbed you some breakfast. I'm glad you woke up now. I was hoping we could talk before the daycare opens." Harriette noted there were a few items sitting on the other side of the balcony area, and an added table. Mr. Sun and the food he mentioned were waiting there. Harriette hopped up and joined Mr. Sun at the table. Harriette waited for Mr. Sun to say what he wanted. "You can go ahead and eat, Pumpkin," He said. He leaned on his elbows which he put on the table. Aunt Petunia and Vernon didn't let Harriette or Dudley do that at home. Harriette took a bite, and made sure to chew and swallow. Then looked to Mr. Sun.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" Harriette asked. Mr. Sun snorted amusedly.
"Alright, alright," Mr. Sun said. "I was wondering if you wanted to stay here, or join us at the daycare?" Harriette perked up, then deflated.
"Aren't we supposed to keep me living here a secret?"
"Well, yeah, but lots of kids come to the daycare, and you've been a regular for a week," Mr. Sun shrugged. "We could come up with a story as to what happened with your f-relatives." Mr. Sun said relatives like it was a dirty word. Harriette wasn't sure she was entirely against that assessment.
"Dudley wasn't so bad by the end," Harriette commented.
"Dudley?"
"My cousin," Harriette explained, taking another bite. "Maybe we should wait a little bit first. We can tell everyone that my uncle's job moved him here. I remember him mentioning that happening and he sounded like it could be good or bad." Harriette shrugged. "Anyway, it takes some time to move. And it might take time for them to sign me up, so you could tell them I get to come back so it won't be a surprise, maybe?"
"Oh, that's actually smart," Mr. Sun nodded. "A year subscription can take a little time for approval." Harriette nodded along with him. "I can make the arrangements too, and it'd make it believable." Sun nodded.
"It'll also give us time to set up," Harriette gestured to the boxes by the desk and the balcony entrance. "I'd feel better if I didn't have to worry about needing to get our home cleaned up. It's… A little hard for me to feel okay playing when I know work needs to get done." Harriette admitted, fiddling with her hands.
"That makes sense," Mr. Sun said. "Thanks for letting me know."
"Your welcome," Harriette said. "It's-" She paused, fiddling with her hands. Mr. Sun waited patiently. "It's not easy." Harriette admitted.
"I know," Mr. Sun said. "I'm glad you feel safe to tell me these things. I want you to feel safe and happy here." Harriette smiled, nodding.
"I do," Harriette admitted.
"Alright." Mr. Sun nodded. "I don't want you doing too much without me here though. I don't want you to get hurt." Mr. Sun said. Harriette nodded. Mr. Sun paused, looking at his wrist like he had a watch there. Harriette giggled. "Well, I have a little time before the daycare opens. I can set aside a few boxes that you could go through while we're out, but…." Harriette tilted her head. "I'm only giving you two boxes. After that we printed out some worksheets. I'm going to have to be your teacher as well as care giver so I'll need to know where you're at. They shouldn't take long, so you'll have the majority of the day to yourself. Do you want me to bring up some paper and colored pencils to draw." Harriette nodded excitedly. "Alright, if you get bored of that you can always play with the toys you brought." Harriette nodded, but she doubted she'd get bored.
"I'll go get you some art stuff kay." Harriette nodded. Mr. Sun got up. "Finish your breakfast okay." Harriette munched another bite. The food was yummy and Harriette didn't have to worry about getting kicked out. She should have come sooner. Harriette shook her head.
She looked around. The walls were painted red, the walls were scratched and dented in places. Harriette thought that was a little sad. The space was huge. Was she really allowed to live in such a big place? Even if she was sharing with Mr. Sun and Mr. Moon. She'd try not to take up too much space.
She didn't want Mr. Sun and Mr. Moon to get sick of her after all. She'd make herself useful. Maybe she'd fix the chipped paint. The floor was all scuffed up too. Maybe she could fix that too. She'd try her best to be good. She didn't want Mr. Sun to hate her. She could do it. She didn't want to break the rules though so she'd have to wait to start doing stuff without permission. She didn't want to end up doing something that she wasn't allowed. She had to be good. She could do it. She could be good. Even if she'd never managed to do it before.
Mr. Sun came back to the room carrying a small basket. He set it down be the table. Harriette leaned over seeing that it was full of lots of different stuff. Colors and papers, and erasers, mixed together.
"I decided to grab a bunch of other stuff," Mr. Sun said. "I didn't want you to get bored." Mr. Sun said. "We can draw and do some stuff after the daycare closes too." He said setting the things out on the table. Don't worry about using anything up. I'm sure I can get them replaced. Okay?"
"Okay," Harriette said, looking at the options. There were crayons, pencils and pens, and so much more. "Am I really allowed to use all this when I'm not in the daycare?"
"Yup, now you don't have to complete all the classwork all alone," Mr. Sun said. Pulling out more pages. "If you have any questions," He started ruffling her hair. "Any at all you can just save them for when I'm able to help. Don't feel like you have to push yourself beyond what you can do. And don't think that you have to do everything by yourself." Harriette was happy to accept the affectionate touch.
"Promise," Harriette said.
"Promise," Mr. Sun said back. The two of them just quietly enjoyed each other's company for a moment.
"Alright!" Harriette said, rolling up the long sleeves of her pajamas. "We need to get to work!" Harriette said proudly.
"Hmm?" Mr. Sun said.
"You said you were going to set aside two boxes for me to look through to check for anything useful." Harriette said. "So, which boxes? The sooner we get it done the sooner I can join the others in the daycare." Mr. Sun nodded.
"Alright, fair enough," Mr. Sun said, standing. After a moment of silent deliberation, he chose his boxes, making adjustments to the stacks of boxes. "Alright, these two boxes. Pick out what we keep and what gets thrown away."
"Ah, alright," Harriette said. "Will we really be throwing stuff away? That place was super full. Maybe we could give some to Emelia or Mayla or Genni? Ron maybe?"
"Alright, that's fair, we can set some stuff aside for them, since fazbear's probably doesn't remember they're here, they can't sell them anyway because they weren't made right or something. I can't remember what was wrong with all of them, but they can't be sold anyway." Harriette nodded. Harriette finished her food, and then started toward the boxes. "Hold up." Mr. Sun said. Harriette looked up, tilting her head. "You need to get ready for the day first. Sleep clothes are for sleeping." She was even more confused now.
"Huh?" she said. "I thought that was only a rule cause I was at a sleepover."
"Well, it's a rule for here too," he booped her nose, and she looked at him with wide eyes. "So, get dressed, and brush your teeth."
"Okay," Harriette said. "I'll be real quick."
"That'd probably be for the best, the daycare will open soon now," Mr. Sun said.
"Ah," Harriette rushed toward the vent.
"Do you need help?" Mr. Sun asked.
"No, I can do it myself," Harriette said about to climb into the vent.
"I think you're forgetting something," Mr. Sun said. Holding up her toothbrush and toothpaste.
"Ah," Harriette said, rushing to take it.
"And clothes," Mr. Sun said.
"Oh," Harriette said. "Right, ah! What should I wear!" She jugged in place. "I'll change when I get back! 'Kay?"
"That works, be careful, Pumpkin," Mr. Sun said.
"I'm always careful," Harriette said. Just avoiding hitting her head.
"Alright," Mr. Sun said.
Harriette rushed up through the vent to brush her teeth. She made it. She brushed her teeth quickly. She finished just in time to avoid being spotted by Adriana and Emelia's parents. She carefully slipped into the vent behind them while they talked. She overheard them talking, Mr. Sun joined them over the fence to talk with them too. She slipped down into her bed. She had her own bed! She slid out and looked at it. She had her own bed! It was hers! Mr. Sun and Mr. Moon had set it up just for her! She smiled.
She let out a little breath. She couldn't get too excited. She didn't want to make Mr. Sun and Mr. Moon uncomfortable.
She was going to be the best at looking through the boxes that Mr. Sun and Mr. Moon would trust her with more, and she'd be useful to them. She could do it.
She opened the first box and saw a bunch of smaller boxes. Those boxes had pictures and words. Harriette read them the best she could and learned that they were lights, with different colors and shapes. Oh! These could look really pretty on the wall. Harriette looked around, she could hang some up over Mr. Sun, and Mr. Moon's desk, or maybe that was rude. She checked to see if they could be turned off. They could. Alright, she could try it out. If he didn't like them she could always just put them back away. She could give some to the TinyMusic-men. They liked stuff like this. Oh, but how would she get them to work in the vents. She'd have to work that out. Mr. Sun said they could give stuff to others, so Harriette was pretty sure he wouldn't mind letting her give them to the TinyMusic-men. She picked out the best ones for the desk, the ones she thought were best for the TinyMusic-men who liked that stuff. She also found that some of the lights were actually smaller and had battery packs, so she kept a few for some of her staff-bot friends. She looked to her area and decided that she'd like some of the lights too. Though she really wanted stick-on-stars. She also thought maybe painting the area might also be nice, but they didn't have that, so she'd just decorate with the lights.
How am I gonna get them up? Harriette thought she checked the boxes to see if they came with hooks, then the rest of the big box they came in. It turned out there were in fact some at the bottom. She set those aside too. She looked to the box, and then the learning work she needed to do. Then the lights. She didn't want to do it without Mr. Sun or Mr. Moon's okay. They might not have known what was in all the boxes. Though he chose those boxes specifically. She shook her head. She'd see what her homework was first. She looked to the page. There was a little vocabulary, and some math. Harriette knew the answers to most of it, and there wasn't that much. There was a color worksheet too, and she was pretty confident in that. There was a short story and a worksheet asking about it. Harriette didn't struggle with it that much. She was pretty sure she'd gotten most of it right, except the vocabulary. She didn't like math so she had a hard time with it, even with it being the really easy stuff. She felt embarrassed that she didn't know the answers, but Mr. Sun said she could ask for help. But what if he was disappointed and didn't like her cause she was dumb. She shook her head. She'd be okay. She'd lived on her own for almost a week. It would be okay. She'd just go live by the restaurants instead. She'd be okay. She sniffed. She couldn't count on Mr. Sun and Mr. Moon for forever.
But they said they wanted me, Harriette said. Mr. Moon said he thought of me as family. That he wanted to be family with me.
Maybe I'm reading too much into it, he only said that they don't 'let robots adopt kids' not that he wanted to. Harriette shook her head. She'd be fine even if she was thrown away. It had already happened and she'd figured it out. She would be okay. That didn't stop her from sniffling. She'd get the other box done and show that she could at least do that much.
The next box was way harder. How was Harriette supposed to deal with this problem? It was just a bunch of stuffed animals. They were all really cute so Harriette wasn't sure what could be so 'wrong' with them that they couldn't at least be played with at the daycare. Harriette felt bad for them. They'd been stuck in a box for years. Unwanted and unneeded; discarded. Somebody decided that they were wrong and weren't worthy. Just like her.
"It's okay," Harriette said. "I don't know what's bad about me either." Harriette said, picking up two of the stuffed toys. She wasn't sure what characters they were supposed to be, but they looked fine to her. She looked over them, trying to find the flaws. Maybe if she could find and fix it they could be loveable. Unlike her.
Sun wrapped up and sent the last child home. There was still clean up to consider but he could do it after Moon put Harriette to bed.
I can do it, Moon suggested. You've been busy all day.
"Oh, I can't ask you to do that," Sun said. "I'm the one who made some of the mess."
As part of your job, Moon said. You were working.
"I had fun too," Sun said. "Anyways, let's get back to Harriette." Sun, used their cable to fly up. Arriving. "I'm coming in." Sun said. Waiting. Harriette burst open the curtain, grinning.
"Welcome home!" Harriette shouted, hugging his legs. Sun and Moon both sputtered.
So cute! Moon said.
"Agreed!" Sun said, lifting the girl up. She gladly excepted his returned hug and choice the carry her. Sun stepped through the curtain. It wasn't entirely different from how he'd left it that morning, but it wasn't exactly the same either. Harriette had painted over the chipped red paint on one of the walls. There were string lights hung up all over the place. Including round his desk. The places where the wall had broke due to Sun or Moon's own boredom she'd hung pictures. Flowers, Stars, the drawings she'd done of the daycare regulars, the sky made from various parts of the day, including night. The box of toys was left where Sun had put it that morning, but several of the toys were laid out across the table with notes next to or underneath, a few of the smaller ones had them laid on top of them like a blanket.
"What's this?" Sun asked.
"I put the lights up!" Harriette said, waving her hands.
"That wasn't what I was-"
"I covered up all the cracks and chips, and-and other stuff!"
"That wasn't it either, Pumpkin," Sun said.
"I figured out how to fix all the toys in the box so they can be played with at the daycare," Harriette said. Sun sighed. He honestly should have expected that.
"Don't you want any?"
"They'll be fixed up so they can be loved," Harriette said.
"Well, it sounds like you already love them plenty," Sun said. "You can keep them if you want." Harriette fidgetted for a second.
"Oh," she finally managed. "I- I couldn't do the math." She admitted.
"That's alright, Sweetie, we can do it together," Sun said. "I love what you did with the rest of the place by the way." He said pulling out the chair to sit with her.
"Really?"
"Absolutely, you did a great job," Sun said, snuggling her. She snuggled back.
"Thank you," Harriette said.
"You are very welcome," Sun said.
Moon brushed and braided Harriette's hair. They were getting ready to put the shelves up, and Moon wanted her to protect her head and keep dust out of her hair, so the braids were a necessary choice. Once Moon was satisfied that Harriette's Hair would get in her way he put the hard hat he'd borrowed from the Raceway's construction site. She used both hands to put the safety glasses on over her glasses. She looked up to him, and gave him a thumbs up. She grinned.
"Ready!" She said. Moon smiled. She was precious. He stood, grabbing the shelves.
"We'll decorate them with the lights you chose for your area. Maybe we could do some crafts to help make it look nice."
"Mhm," Harriette said, she kept having to fix her glasses. She put on her work gloves that Moon had also grabbed. It was all to big for her. Moon was pretty sure she wouldn't even need it, but he would rather be safe than sorry. Especially with Harriette's safety. "I saw some paint cans, and they still had paint. They were in the dump!"
"Ooh, maybe we could paint the walls a better color," Moon said. "I'm pretty sure red is an angry color. Not good for sleeping." Harriette nodded, almost tipping the hard hat off her head. Moon had to take a picture with his internal camera. He really needed a real one though. He'd ask Monty later. He'd have to come up with a reason.
"I don't know if they have enough for that, but we could probably get enough for most of the walls, maybe we'd have to paint each wall its own color. Shouldn't we paint first though."
"I don't know," Moon admitted. "We'll find a way to paint over the shelves after. We'll put the lights up afterwards too." Harriette nodded.
"What color would you like them to be?" Moon asked. Mentally measuring. Sun was better at this but they'd turned the daycare lights off, and it messed with their systems if they tried to stay out at the 'wrong' times. Besides, Moon liked spending time with Harriette.
It''ll need to be high enough not to have Harriette bump her head on it, and it needs to be clear of the vent, same reason. Sun did his version of muttering in their shared mind. Trying to decide where would be the best spot. Moon spun their head to try and give him the angles he needed. Finally he sent over his estimation. Moon put the shelf against the wall.
"Alright Harriette, can you get to the vent and sit up without hurting yourself?" Moon waited while Harriette experimented. If he was human it would have been a lot of work to do this, instead it was easy and the shelves were positioned perfectly. Above the bed and to the left away from the vent. Harriette handed Moon the tools he'd need to hang the shelves, and the task was done pretty quickly.
Moon went on patrol, taking Harriette with him so they could sort through the paint together. He held her against his chest and held a finger to his painted on mouth, as they waited above the security guard on duty. The girl couldn't help grinning at him as she smiled. The two made their way to the dump.
There Moon learned a valuable lesson about Harriette. She loved animals, and would be friends with just about any animal she came across.
"Hallow, Mrs. Racoon, Hallow Mr. Racoon, Hallow baby racoons," Harriette said, accepting kisses and hand shakes and friendly pattings from the racoon family that she seemed to have befriended in her time living in the dump. "Yes, I'm alright, it's good to see you too." She said, sharing a bit of food with her friends. "Thank you for worrying, I'm fine. Mr. Moon and I are going to do some painting so we must go, but it was lovely seeing you again." She gave the racoons a very deep and theatrical bow. Moon chuckled.
They collected the paint colors they wanted, leaving the rest. It turned out they had plenty to work with. So they chose a calming, but cheerful shade of blue, and a pink for Harriette's shelves. Moon snagged an unopened paint mask, and paint brushes from the construction sight, before they headed back. That had Harriette's shelf and the vent, they moved the bed away from that wall. Then Moon had Harreitte wash up and dress for bed. They decided that it would make the task go by much faster if Moon worked through the night. So Harriette slept in the storage room with all the daycare supplies. Harriette spent that day the day in the vents passing out the lights she'd picked for the TinyMusic-men she knew would like them.
Once the paint was dry they put the lights back up, painted Harriette's shelves and decorated the shelves with pipe cleaner flowers. They put some of Harriette's toys on the shelf, as well as her homemade spider booklet. Moon brought one of the old costume rollers. Harriette hung up the few articles of clothing she had. It wasn't much, and most of it she'd acquired at the pizzaplex. Moon decided that they would have to make her some things. He also added some embroidery to some of her hand-me-downs to make them more hers. She'd been bounced, grinning as she'd worn them.
"It's like they're all brand-new!" Harriette said. Moon hated leaving one outfit as was. But they needed to sell their lie. Nobody could know that she was living at the plex.
"Alright, are you ready?" Sun asked.
"Yup!" Harriette said.
"Got your plushies?" Sun asked, even though he could see her holding them.
"Check!"
"Coat?"
"On!"
"And what do we tell everyone?"
"I arrived just before Emelia and Mayla!"
"Check," Sun said.
So cute, Moon said. Harriette was beaming, bright and excited for her first day back at the daycare. Sun was excited to have her there too. Mayla and Emelia had been looking forward to Harriette coming back too. Genni hadn't been back since, but Fred and George would tell her that she was there. Moon had gotten a camera from Monty to commemorate the moment, as well as show proof that Harriette was in fact back. Harriette bounced up and down.
"I can't wait to see everyone again!" Harriette said.
"I know, I can't wait for you to see everyone again too," Sun said.
"Bye-Bye Ms. Spider," Harriette said waving to the small spider that was now comfortably housed above Sun and Moon's desk.
"Bye-bye Ms. Spider," Sun said.
Sorry, I decided I wanted to add more to the chapter. I'm a mess okay.
