Oh brother. I say I'm gonna take a break from fanfics, but then I get all hyped up for the "Five Nights at Freddy's" movie, and next thing I know I'm reading fanfics, plagued by plot bunnies which lead to research, and now this happened.
Out of all the animatronics, Sun/Moon are the ones I find the most interesting from a psychological perspective. The duality and complexity of being two animatronics in one. Something I don't think gets explored enough in some of the Sun/Moon/OC (or Reader) fics I see on the internet. But I suppose I just prefer character psyche and relationship development over...you know, smut.
Yeah, no smut in this one. I'm not against robot romance (I mean this IS one), but honestly...adding smut to it just ruins it for me. Maybe it's me being asexual, maybe it's the anatomical complications, either way, not happening in this fic.
This fanfic DOES go into detail about certain psychological disorders. I have done research and will do my best not to fall into stereotypes. If anyone sees any issues with my representation of these disorders, let me know.
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own "Five Nights at Freddy's." That franchise is property of Scott Cawthorn and Steelwool.
Sundrop used to dread the night. For that was when Moondrop would come out and take control. But tonight, Sun was practically pushing the kids out the daycare door. When he passed a kid off to the wrong parent, the security guard on duty had to correct the situation.
Once the last child had gone home and the doors of the daycare were closed for the night, Sun went to work. He began knocking over every foam block tower, pouring out every box of crayons, and scattering sheets of construction paper everywhere.
Within his central processing unit, Moon spoke, Sun, if you don't stop, I'm gonna come out and make you.
Sun ignored him and shook glitter over the play castle.
Are you malfunctioning? Part of our programming is maintaining cleanliness in the daycare.
Since no one else was around, Sun answered aloud, "Don't you know what day it is, Moon?"
The day you finally overheated and lost all sense of directive?
Sun squealed and bounced on his heels. "It's Sunday!"
Moon did not sound impressed. So?
"It's cleaning night!"
Moon's groan echoed throughout his figurative headspace. You do realize you're creating an even bigger mess for her to clean up?
"Exactly!" Sun kicked over a tiny chair. "Which means she'll have to stay longer to clean it all up!"
Sunday nights, once the weekend rush was over, the janitorial service would come to give the Pizzaplex a deep clean. While it was normally the responsibility of the daycare attendant and the staff bots to keep their designated areas tidy, the local health department required a more thorough job done by an actual person at least once a week. After all, with all the pizza- and candy-eating kids coming through the daycare, the play structures tended to get sticky, and who knew what sort of germs those kids carried?
Moon hated Sunday nights. For the safety of the cleaners, Moon's security protocols were deactivated while they did their jobs. Which meant lights on in the daycare all night.
Sun liked cleaning nights. Most nights, when the kids were gone and the daycare was empty, were lonely. But whatever cleaner was assigned to the daycare gave him someone other than Moon to talk to. Of course, after the first couple nights, most cleaners would quit or ask to be reassigned to different area. The prospect of a new friend would quickly be shut down before the friendship could even begin. So, cleaning nights had become something of a downer to Sun.
That is, until a month ago, when she came along.
An hour went by before the doors to the daycare opened again. Though for Sun, it felt like forever. The metal flaps on his head whirred in excitement as a young, petite woman walked backwards through the doors, dragging a cleaning cart.
"Dawn!" he shouted, bounding to the door in great leaps.
The cleaner turned her blue eyes to the daycare attendant and smiled. "Hi, Sunny." That smile quickly disappeared when she saw the state of the daycare. "Oh my gosh."
"Oh!" Sun giggled, placing his hands behind his back and rocking on his feet innocently. "The superstars were a little rambunctious today! I tried to keep it tidy as best I could, but there's only so much you can do while watching thirty kids!"
"That's okay, Sun." Dawn began putting on a pair of nitrile gloves. "That's what I'm here for."
"Here!" Sun raced over to what remained of a block tower. "I'll get started on these blocks! Oh, if only I could remember which was the bottom and which was the top!"
Dawn's voice lowered into a mutter. "You don't have to."
"Nonsense!" He waved a hand. "It's my job to keep the daycare clean."
"It's…kinda my job too."
He clasped his hands. "Then we do it together!"
Her tiny smile returned. "Okay."
As they cleaned, Sun was oddly quiet. Normally, when someone was in the daycare, he'd be talking their ear off. But now, Sun was decidedly focused on his tasks, all while stealing occasional glances at Dawn out of the corner of his ocular lenses.
She was the cutest little human grown-up he had ever seen. At five feet, two whole feet shorter than him, he'd almost mistaken her for a child on her first day. The high lilt to her mousy voice didn't help to show her true age.
Her tanned skin was peppered with tiny freckles all along her limbs and face. Her copper brown hair was tied back in a ponytail, loose curls and bangs framing her face. Her eyes were as blue as the sky he'd only seen in children's drawings. At the moment, they barely looked his way.
Dawn wasn't always this shy and quiet. Sometimes, she was much bolder and more talkative. The night they met, for instance.
The head of security, Vanessa, had been the one to escort Dawn into the daycare. Of course, with Dawn's petite stature, Sun's sensors initially processed her as a child. He had jumped into her face, causing her to scream.
"Hello, little girl! I'm Sundrop, but you can call me Sun or Sunny or Funny Face if that tickles your fancy! What's your name, new friend? Miss Shelly, does this mean we're open nights again? Oh, I've missed throwing slumber parties! We can stay up all night, play games, fingerpaint, and drink Fizzy Fazz until our head ex—YOW!"
A swift punch to his faceplate shut him up. Sun wasn't programmed to feel pain, but was programmed to react when someone hit him, to teach children that it wasn't okay to hit, even if he was just an animatronic. Not that it ever stopped kids from hitting him.
His new friend was massaging her fist, scowling. "What the fuck you trying to do, bud, gimme a heart attack?"
"Miss Brenton," Vanessa said, stepping herself between her and the daycare attendant, "I thought I made it clear that damaging the animatronics is strictly prohibited."
"Did you?" Miss Brenton shook out her hand. "Well sorry if my first instinct when I see someone in my face is to get them out."
"Anyway, Sun, we talked about this." Vanessa crossed her arms. "No harassing the staff. This is why we've gone through seven cleaners this past year. And it's only April."
Sun tilted his head. "Cleaners?"
It was only then he realized the blue polo and khakis that were the uniform of the cleaning company hired out by Fazbear Entertainment. A quick scan gave him the new cleaner's details.
Name: Dawn Brenton
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Race: Prefer Not to Answer
This was customary information for every new staff member, even those hired by outside companies. Sun should've known to scan the newcomer before jumping to conclusions.
"Oh, I'm so, so sorry, Miss Brenton! I thought you were a new child here for a slumber party! My, Dawn really is a splendiferous name! And my name is Sun! Isn't that hilarious?Let's see about that booboo!" Sun scanned the bruise on her hand. "Good news is your hand doesn't appear to be broken, but I can still get you an ice pack!"
Dawn blinked. "You're not mad at me for punching you in the face?"
"Aw, that's okay!" He waved a hand. "I'm not programmed for pain! I get punched and kicked all the time by the little ones!"
"Right, uh…" She turned to Vanessa, glancing quickly at her nametag. "Vanessa. What is this thing again?"
Vanessa stared at Dawn a moment, then her mouth formed an, "oh."
The guard shook her head and pointed her flashlight to the animatronic. "Sun here is the daycare attendant. He's a bit…eccentric, but harmless, I promise. He's used to interacting with little kids, you see."
"Ah." Dawn glanced at the cleaning cart behind her, then at Sun. "So, is he gonna be here while I'm doing my job?"
"He's programmed not to leave the daycare, so yes. But he always insists on helping with clean up, so I'd let him, if I were you. Let me know if he becomes a bother. Just remember what I said about the lights."
"The lights." Dawn nodded, then frowned as she pulled a pad of sticky notes out of her pocket. "What was it again?"
"Right." Vanessa pointed to the big switch on the wall with the sign "DO NOT PUSH" taped to it. "Keep the lights on at all times. You hear me? On."
It was a rocky start to their friendship. So much so that Sun was surprised when Dawn returned the next week. That night, she had acted much shyer, but less afraid of Sun.
He'd thought it odd at first, her acting like their first encounter had never happened. And she seemed to forget the standard cleaning procedures of the daycare, having to consult her pad of sticky notes multiple times. That was normal, Sun supposed. Humans didn't have as perfect a memory as animatronics, and often needed to repeat things a few times before learning them.
When he'd finally asked about him scaring her the week before, Dawn had hung her head and wrung her hands.
"I'm…so sorry, I… When I get scared or startled, I…I can't control myself. It's something I'm working on, I swear, but…"
Sun understood not being able to control oneself better than anyone.
"It's okay, Dawnie! No one got hurt!" Sun put a hand over his chest plate and raised his other. "And I swear, I'll try to be less scary next time! Cross my battery and hope to be decommissioned!"
That had made her laugh, a sound that was like music to his audio sensors. Being built for entertainment, a laugh meant everything to him.
Since then, Dawn had come out of her shell enough to engage in small talk with Sun while they cleaned. Sometimes, after a long, unexpected silence, she would become more animated. Sun still didn't understand why her mood would change so suddenly, but he didn't mind. It had been so long since any staff member would bother talking to him.
That was why he was now so excited when Sunday night rolled around. Instead of hanging around an empty daycare, he'd hang around a person who didn't mind his…enthusiasm.
Stop staring at her, Moon said. You look stupid.
Sun refocused on wiping the glitter from the castle. I wasn't staring.
Yes, you were. And I don't get what it is about her you find so interesting.
What do you mean? She's cute, she nice, she talks to us.
Talks to you. She may be nice to you now, but she's no different than any other human. The moment she learns about me, she'll run away, just like the others.
Sun growled. Well, maybe if you weren't so mean to everyone, we could make more friends.
Ha! Like you being loud and annoying is any better!
It's way better than scaring people and trying to put them to sleep permanently!
That's not what I was trying to—
"Hey, Sun, you okay?"
Sun pushed Moon out of his CPU and turned to Dawn, who was right next to him, looking up at him in concern. He needed to remember not to engage with Moon too much when others were present.
Alright, so maybe animatronic memory wasn't always perfect. After all, Sun didn't always remember Moon's shenanigans, and vice versa. Parts and Services should've fixed that glitch ages ago, but unfortunately, any time they attempted to bring the daycare attendant into that very, very dark basement with limited power supply…
Well, let's just say they rarely made it past the elevator.
"Super-duper, Sunshine!" Sun exclaimed.
"It's just," Dawn said, sizing him up, "you were kind of frozen for a moment. I was worried you'd run out of power or something."
"No, no, I'm fine! I was just…" He scanned the area for an excuse, then settled on his sparkly hands. "Thinking about what I should do with all this glitter!" He held up his hands. "It gets everywhere!"
Dawn giggled. "Want me to help you get it off?"
Sun's gears whirred at the prospect. Her second day on the job, Dawn had noticed how grimy Sun was, from all the kids that would climb on him and all the art supplies he handled. Despite animatronic maintenance not being in her job description, she had offered to wipe him down.
None of the other cleaners had ever done that before.
"Yes, yes, yes!" He thrust his glittery hands forward, palms up. "If you wouldn't mind, Dawnie!"
From the cleaning cart, Dawn got a spray bottle of sanitizer and a cloth rag. She and Sun sat down on the brick wall. Sun's internal temperature increased as she took his hand.
His hands were the only part of his structure with touch sensors. This was so he could monitor the temperatures and treat the injuries of the little ones. So, when Dawn held his hand, spritzed sanitizer on it and wiped it with the rag, he felt every movement, every droplet, every crease of her hand.
It was new and strange, the feeling of someone touching him so tenderly. Many of the kids hugged him, but this was different. Usually he was the one taking care of others. He wasn't used to someone else taking care of him. The engineers were always so rough, and talked to him like an object. But when Dawn wiped him down, she did so with such care, and talked to him like a person.
A person. Imagine that.
I wanted to try something different and not start immediately with the first meeting. We'll learn more about Dawn in the next chapter.
Yeah, as on the nose as Dawn's name is, after seeing aimasup's animatic of "Never Ever Getting Rid of Me," I just kept hearing sun say "Dawn."
I used Vanessa's last name from the movie here, as it was never officially revealed in the game (though implied to begin with an A). Besides, I think it's fitting as the name "Shelly" references the author of "Frankenstein." Some of her personality I'll also take from the movie, as what little we saw of her in the game didn't give me much to work with. Doesn't necessarily mean she's gonna have the same backstory as in the movie (not spoiling it for those who haven't seen it).