One-Shot 3

Mangle Can Talk?!

(After chapter 93)

Teddy

After calming her jittery excitement to manageable levels, Mangle forcibly made Ruby and Hedy promise not to say a word to the others. She had plans.

Hedy looked a little worried. Ruby only seemed mildly annoyed that she couldn't participate in whatever Mangle was plotting.

However, Hedy was willing to give Mangle her leeway, especially if the fox was planning on how to surprise the others for weeks, months, or possibly even years.

Her first target was alone in the Toys' room when she found him. The Toys were all feeling off balance after the whole Sally thing so he was pretty much brooding.

He needed a cheer up. He deserved it for sticking up for her over the years. Yeah, he couldn't always do much, but she knew he tried his best. Not to say Toby and Chi always didn't, but they were a little less considerate sometimes. BB always treated her the same. The small bot got credit for that too, but it was Teddy who had the worst anxiety over the years.

Teddy glanced up in surprise as Mangle sat down next to him against the Toys' stage.

Mangle gave him a questioning look.

"Just thinking…" he admitted.

She tilted her head.

"About the whole...Sally thing."

She nudged his shoulder with her snout.

"I know it's not our fault but...it was weird. Seeing Ruby like that. I mean, she almost died."

Mangle mimicked the crackle she used to make perfectly.

"Sorry, just in a weird mood." He slumped a bit.

Mangle poked his arm a little to get his attention. As he watched, she signed slowly.

"It's okay, I'm here," she signed. "It was scary." She smiled.

"You can always talk to me, Teddy," she spoke, cracking a small grin.

Teddy's eyes were focused on her hands as she signed while speaking. It didn't seem to click for a second.

Then his head suddenly snapped up and he stared at her in shock. "Did-did you…?"

"Hi Teddy," Mangle chirped softly.

His voice cut out when he tried to say something for a moment. "You can talk?" he managed when it stopped glitching.

Mangle smirked. "Yep, Hedy fixed it. I've been waiting to properly use all our new nicknames she gave us."

He stared at her for a very long time before abruptly jolting forward and dragging her into a hug. "You can talk." his voice broke slightly.

Mangle jerked in surprise but still smiled. "Heh. Wow, didn't think you missed me this much."

"I always missed your voice Mags," he murmured. "I'm so glad to hear you again."

He didn't let go for a long time.

Goldy

It took a while, but Mangle finally found a moment where she could sneak up on their resident ghost bear. Goldy was focused intently on her Harry Potter book and never noticed what was around her when that happened.

She got right up behind Goldy with a wicked smile before speaking.

"Hey Goldy, guess what?"

"What?" the bear asked, not looking up.

Mangle was momentarily put off but Goldy did get really in the zone when reading.

"Hedy fixed my voice!" she sang.

"That's great, congrats Mags." She still didn't look up.

"...I really can't tell if you're messing with me or just that into your book and you'll freak out a little later."

Goldy turned a page. "Mags, I'm the gossip queen."

"Oh right! About that. I believe I have a suitable tribute to offer as a rival, or possibly co, gossip queen."

Now Goldy looked up and cocked her head curiously. "Oh?" The others were awful at gossiping, and Puppet was no fun anymore.

Mangle smirked. "People say a lot of interesting little things when they think I can't mention it to anyone else. It's rarely intentional. Must be a subconscious thing. Freddy. Hedy quite a lot. The Manager."

Goldy closed her book and smiled. "Tell me more."

Foxy

Hedy and Ruby hadn't yet left for the night when Foxy started setting up Pirate's Cove, as usual. However, they were elsewhere when Mangle came in.

He gave her a quick glance, partly wondering where she had been. Probably with Hedy.

"Morning, Lass," he greeted before turning back to tighten some of the stage ropes that decorated the pirate ship. He leaned over a shorter stretch of ball pit with the hook hand propped up on the ship for support. He tended to avoid actually getting in the ball pit, partly for kids' safety, partly because it took him too damn long to climb out.

If he'd looked at Mangle, he would have been very worried about the Ruby-like grin she was sporting. She sidled up to him. He barely took note of how close she was.

"You should update your stories you know."

Foxy let out a screech that many night guards would recognise.

"What the fuck?!"

He lost his balance and fell head-first into the ball pit.

There was silence for a long moment.

"You've got to be kidding me," Mangle deadpanned.

Foxy twisted in the pit to look at her in stunned shock. "You can bloody well talk!"

"How come you can swear and I can't?" Mangle demanded.

"You can talk!"

"And you can swear!"

Foxy still looked dumbfounded. "You can talk." Then he seemed to finally realise what just happened. He blinked, eyepatch upturned. "You heard nothing."

"How the h-h-hockey stick…" Her face twisted at the failed cuss, "Can you swear? And I can't?! How's that fair! Did you break the programming yourself?"

"Wait don't-"

Mangle jumped into the ball pit and grabbed his snout with her claws to glare at him nose to nose. "Tell me your secrets." She smiled with a sweetness that looked more terrifying than affectionate. "Brother dear."

Foxy groaned. Great. Now they were both stuck in the ball pit. And Mangle had jumped up on the list of people who terrified him. Had she been taking lessons from Ruby?

This interrogation was going to last forever… He didn't even like swearing.