The days spent learning to coexist eventually transitioned into a fortnight.
Logan made appearances here and there, intent on assuring that Ayala was recovering properly. He would check in to see what she might need help with during her recovery period. He was the one to take her car to the mechanic for repairs. He was the one to do the bulk of the grocery shopping. The pantry was kept stocked. While Sun and Moon would have happily accepted any food available as fuel, they had not yet had the chance to discuss such anything with Ayala.
She was the one paying for the food that Logan brought home. Though she had agreed to provide them with shelter and security in exchange for their assistance, she had never explicitly agreed to feed them.
Primarily because she had not yet been made aware of the fact that the animatronics could eat.
The technology used to convert matter into fuel was generally unheard of on such a small scale. The converters were usually used in larger facilities, such as grocery stores or power plants.
The difference was that Sun and Moon were not converting large amounts of matter into energy to be stored in external cells for later use. Consumed matter was immediately converted into energy. They had limited room to store extra power.
Fazbear Entertainment had most definitely pulled some strings in order to arrange for certain animatronics to be equipped with this advanced fuel converting technology.
Ergo, the odds of either Ayala or Logan guessing that the animatronics had such complicated equipment installed was laughably low.
Sun had taken to keeping himself charged by plugging into the nearest outlet for a few minutes at a time. The process itself wasn't complicated, considering he would effectively jam the tip of his finger into the socket. He wasn't able to charge much over such a brief period of time, but he was able to keep himself in a functional state.
Moon, on the other hand, had taken a different route. He didn't ask for permission to eat. He readily ate anything suitable to provide a charge. Namely because he wasn't eating anything suitable for human consumption.
He and Sun had been given this special upgrade in order to allow them to function as walking trash disposals. So he was able to comfortably maintain a charge by eating the things that would otherwise be thrown away during meal prep. Egg shells, plastic, paper, and inedible fruit and vegetable scraps; all were examples of things he would consume.
The only real rule was simple. No metal and no glass. He could not break those things down to convert them into fuel.
It wasn't exactly a pleasant way to maintain a charge, but it was easier. Easier and more efficient than jamming his fingers into a power outlet multiple times a day.
Besides that, he was acting as a trash disposal. So he was fulfilling his end of the deal with Ayala and benefiting from it in the process.
But as it were, the arrangement would not be suitable long term. Today would likely be the day that Ayala was informed about their unique situation.
Given the amount of time that had passed, her shoulder had finally healed. So she was over and done with bed rest.
In other words, she no longer needed to be taken care of.
For the most part, Logan had been the one preparing meals in advance. He had started doing so after Sun's sub-par cooking abilities were revealed. Something which he was rightly annoyed about, given that Sun was supposed to be able to take care of her.
He was given a convincing enough excuse.
Sun was still a relatively new animatronic. His AI hadn't been properly calibrated yet. Sun was programmed to be able to take care of both children and adults. He just needed some help in differentiating between "child care" and "adult care". The process would take time. Logan accepted that explanation as the truth.
The reality was that Sun had no idea how to care for an adult. He didn't know how to cook. He didn't know how to interact with an adult as an adult. His only experience with adults had revolved around childcare. He was genuinely lost and needed to learn how to behave now that he had escaped Fazbear.
So watching Logan cook became one of the ways that the daytime attendant learned. He learned how to prepare meals that were more befitting of adult tastes.
As an AI, he was very smart. He could effectively recreate anything that he watched the man prepare, with minimal practice.
Unfortunately, though, it was looking as though Sun would have no use for this knowledge. Not right now, at least.
Now that Ayala was able to get up and safely cook for herself, he had no reason to cook.
The idea alone admittedly made him sad. He had now realized that all of his recent efforts would never have any sort of payoff. Ultimately, he had wasted his time. He had missed his opportunity to prove himself.
All he wanted was to give her a meal that she wouldn't laugh at.
In the few times that he had made her a snack while she was recovering, she had always laughed at it. She laughed at it before commenting on how cute it was. She always took a long time to eat it, regardless of how small and simple the snack was.
All of her reactions had driven the animatronic to try and better himself. It made him want to try and learn how to cater to adult tastes.
But now that she was better, she had no need for his cooking. That was the realization that had hit him.
That was the realization that hit him when Ayala came down to the kitchen to prepare herself a meal.
His efforts had been unneeded. His recently acquired skills were now useless.
Despite this, he still watched her as she cooked. He studied her every action.
If nothing else, then he could prepare. He could take what he learned now and use it to prepare for the future. Should she ever get hurt again, she would need him. Then he would be able to prepare food for her that she would actually want to eat.
Logan had prepared more balanced meals. Something that always contained portions of meat with sides of vegetables. Ayala had always eaten it without complaint. So Sun would have assumed that she enjoyed such meals.
But what she chose to prepare for herself was something distinctly different.
At first, he hadn't the slightest clue what she was making. He only recognized what seemed to be the primary component.
Potatoes.
She had peeled them and thrown them into a pot of water to boil before setting out to get the rest of the ingredients prepped. After having studied Logan's cooking, none of the ingredients that Ayala pulled out made a lick of sense to the animatronic. At least not when grouped together.
First, he thought she might be making some sort of hash when she diced and cooked some bacon and onion.
Then she began to grate cheese.
Long story short, Sun was left confused. Confused and curious. At least Ayala began to mash the potatoes she had boiled. At which point, he began to make guesses. He assumed that she would add her prepped ingredients to the potatoes to make some sort of hearty mash. Something dense in carbs and protein.
That was exactly what she did. And it confused him to some degree. Mostly because the dish seemed to be so unbalanced.
He would classify mashed potatoes as more of a side dish than an entire meal.
She made herself a rather large bowl of these hearty mashed potatoes. So Sun assumed that she must have been incredibly hungry.
The portion size was at least double anything that Logan would have put on a plate for her. Much larger than anything Sun had managed to put together for her in the past couple of weeks.
"Golly, that's a lot~" Sun commented, admittedly a bit confused by how much food Ayala had thrown into the bowl.
The woman responded with something of a quiet laugh.
"Eh, it'll take me all day to get through this." Ayala replied, before lazily licking a bit of mashed potato from her finger. She had made a slight mess on the rim of the bowl while mixing everything together.
Sun, meanwhile, began to tilt his head curiously.
"Why's that?" Sun inquired, confused as to why the woman would knowingly make herself food that she wouldn't want to eat. Why else would she take all day to eat it?
"I'm a slow eater." Ayala responded, before casually taking a bite of her food.
The animatronic was obviously confused by her response. So he just stood there quietly as he watched her eat.
She had eaten her food rather quickly whenever Logan was over to make sure she ate. So how was she a slow eater?
"What's the term…" The woman mumbled to herself, clearly realizing that she needed to explain the situation to Sun.
"Grazer! Unless someone pressures me to scarf everything down, I like to take my time." She explained, stepping around the animatronic so that she could start towards the living room.
A desk had been set up there a few days prior. Complete with a chair and a laptop.
According to Logan, it was all essential for her work. Whatever her work was.
Still, Sun was left confused.
Why would someone let their food sit out all day? He and Moon could get away with it because their bodies were not susceptible to foodborne illness. Humans were not so fortunate.
Beyond that, he had another curious thought. With this information taken into account, did that mean Ayala didn't dislike the food that he had been giving her?
There was really only one way to get the actual answer at this point, as nervous as it made him.
"H-hey, uh… Can I ask you one more teeny tiny little question?" Sun inquired, sort of peeking his head into the living room to watch as Ayala began to get herself situated. She put her bowl of food down on the corner of the desk furthest from her laptop.
"Excluding the question you just asked~? Sure." Ayala replied, taking a moment to tease the animatronic ever so slightly.
This admittedly flustered Sun a fair bit.
"Did you uh… Did you l-like the food I made?" Sun questioned, rather hesitantly at that. He very obviously feared that he was about to get a negative reaction.
The woman, meanwhile, continued to get herself situated at her work station.
"Well, yeah. Sort of. I don't really like carrots and apples much, but the peanut butter helped. The little toast shapes were fine." Ayala stated, summarizing her overall perception of what Sun had made for her.
The animatronic couldn't help but rotate his head to the side in thought. So it wasn't that she disliked how he prepared the food, it was just that he didn't like the food itself. That made a lot of sense, actually. If you didn't like apples and carrots, then you wouldn't want to eat food made from them. It made perfect sense. He hadn't really done anything wrong in that regard.
Still, the animatronic couldn't help but deflate a bit.
"Oh. Okay… Uhm. One more question." Sun replied, sadness clear in his tone.
"Why did you always… Laugh, when I gave you something to eat?" He inquired. Despite having been informed why Ayala wasn't interested in eating his cooking, he was still insecure about that. The laughter.
The woman seemed to pause upon hearing this question. She went so far as to turn around in her chair to face him.
"Well, because it was cute, I guess?" Ayala replied, sounding a bit unsure of herself.
"I've never really had anyone make me stuff like that. I mean, even when my parents were still around, their idea of a snack was something like cheese and crackers. Not cute little hearts made out of toast. Not butterflies made out of peanut butter and apple slices. Nothing like that." She explained, sort of awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck as she spoke. She struggled to maintain eye contact with the animatronic as she responded to his question. He naturally noticed this, but did not comment on it. His focus was more preoccupied with what she was saying.
"I felt weird having to eat it, because it was so cute. But looking at it made me… Kinda happy? It's hard to explain." She added, clearly trying to establish how she had been feeling whenever Sun brought her a plate of food.
The reality of the situation was that she had been abruptly introduced to a new childhood experience as an adult. The resulting sense of uncertain happiness just made her laugh. It was one of those weird human traits where someone would react in an unusual way because their brain wasn't quite sure what to do with the new information.