I Don't Own Fnaf
Goldie wasn't heavy, he wasn't made to weigh that much, sure, he was incredibly bulky, but he didn't even weigh someone his size should, heck he probably was lighter than Mike himself given he was mostly hollow. Marionette as well, the puppet was incredibly long and skinny, his metal endo was light weight, made to be moved around on nothing more than a cross and metal wires. Mike could pick up Marionette and carry him around all day without breaking too much of a sweat.
Foxy on the other hand was closer to a Goldie, a Mike, and a Mari when it came to weight. It made Mike worried about the back of his car's suspension as he brought the car around the back to load the animatronics in. Goldie and Foxy in the back, while Mari simply folded himself up in the space in the front where the passenger's legs and feet were supposed to go, and as such the only one that was even remotely covered.
Mike decided he didn't care that much to go looking around for a tarp or blanket to cover them, the sun was setting and he was exhausted already, even though sleeping was the last thing on his mind, so he didn't bother trying to cover the two and instead just made a straight line to the diner. It was closer than his house and he'd rather make sure his car would survive more than a few days of him driving it.
The ride itself was silent, Mike wasn't saying anything mostly because he was too busy trying both really hard to not think about what happened today, and to think of what all he had to do now because today had happened. It was a weird paradox of trying hard not to be swallowed up by his feelings of the three who didn't make it, the murder he witnessed, and the sudden extra responsibilities placed on his shoulders before he was ready for them, while trying to make sure he could still be able to handle that last one.
While for the others, Mike had no idea if the silence was just out of awkwardness of the four of them being piled in the same car, or for them all to think about what had just happened for themselves, or if it was just because none of the three in the car were all that talkative. Two up until today Mike had thought just couldn't talk, or hadn't wanted to enough that Mike wasn't going to push it, and Goldie was never much of a talker either, so it really could have been any of the three options or something else entirely.
Either way, he was grateful for when they pulled up to the diner, Mike quickly pulled around to the side, getting out just long enough to open up the back door and usher his brother and Foxy in, Marionette had vanished off to somewhere inside. Goldie quickly retreated back into the backroom while Foxy took more time, looking and poking around for a while, even moving over to the old, and frankly barely stable stage and jumping on top of it to get a scope of the diner.
Mike felt something close to a smile pull on his face once again for the first time in about half an hour as he called out to the animatronic.
"Liking the view captain? It'll have to do for a bit" Mike mostly meant for a day, maybe two, while he finished up the legal side of things, making sure it all went through so in case the police got interested, he wouldn't have to explain why he hadn't actually stolen a fox robot from a closed down restaurant. Technically he now owned the diner as well, he had managed to get most of the things that his father had majority of ownership of, given most of the people who would fight against it weren't around anymore, this being one of them along with the house and car and whatever else his lawyer would be able to find on the records that his father had signed for, but he doubted anyone was going to poke around here.
All that to be said, he really did mean to get Foxy to his house... just maybe after enough time had passed that he knew he wouldn't be charged for murder or stealing, and maybe enough time to get the power turned back on. So he was quite surprised when Foxy said suddenly to the open air.
"Aye! A bit dusty but it'll make a good ship! The kiddies will be lining up soon enough!" Mike... blinked before saying quickly.
"H-Hey now Foxy, I didn't say anything about getting this place up and running. You'll just be crashing here until I get somethings set up at the house. I'd pawn Mari off here to if I didn't think he's just pop over to beat me with a feather duster" Mike was expecting a chime or some wise crack from the puppet at that, but the silence informed him Marionette wasn't as around the diner as he thought given how empty it was, his voice carried across the building. Foxy didn't seem all that concerned with Mike's words though.
"What's a fox without a cove eh? I'll stay!" Mike... had a feeling he wasn't going to be able to get anywhere with the fox on this, but at least Foxy seemed to be in much better spirits than he had been not even an hour ago, it was better than Mike was faring at least, so he let it be. He was too tired to try and fight the fox more than he already had today, and instead just said back.
"I'll let you decide once the house is in better condition. It's hardly like I'll be running out of room" That had been a worry of Mike's before, why he had asked Ricket to get the diner in his name at all, cause his place wasn't suited for more than a few animatronics, or, well, mostly because he knew he wouldn't be safe if Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie moved in with him. He hadn't had that problem with Marionette, and he knew he wouldn't with Foxy or his brother, but for them?
Well, the house had a lot of rooms, it had three floors, including the attic, a decent sized kitchen, garage, four bedrooms, a laundry room, and even a spare room, that being the office, along with the living room and the bathrooms, it was a big house to say the least. He could have made room if he needed to... He just... didn't need to anymore.
Ah, there was the guilt, back in time for him to rethink he was ever going to accomplish anything in life.
"Yaar! We need new boards! These aren't even fitting to have someone walk the plank!" Mike snorted as he watched as Foxy nearly tripped as one of the loose boards on the small stage nearly snapped up and hit him in the shins. Ok, maybe he did manage a few things.
"Whatever you say buddy. Uh, careful with the stage, the building itself is in fine condition, but that flooring's the same as it's been since I was four when it was put in. I'm going to go talk with Goldie for a bit" The fox just waved him off while continuing to move back and forth along the raised wooden floor, seemingly soaking up being on the 'main stage' and not behind a curtain for once.
Mike chose to not find it both kind of cute and kind of sad to watch, instead making the decision to not watch at all, following through on his word as he moved into the back of the diner. Finding his brother half slumped against the back wall, just sitting there, staring ahead at nothing.
The tension already felt like it was back again, Mike felt the faint amusement he had gotten from his talk with Foxy fading away as he slowly frowned, taking an extra moment, away from the situation to give himself more time from confronting it as he looked around the room in search of Mari. He wasn't here, meaning he was either hiding out in the kitchen, to prove Mike wrong about his ability to bake, hiding out in the bathrooms for some reason, in one of the small private rooms that Mike mostly forgot were even there, or... Mari wasn't here at all.
He had a suspicion as to which of those options was the most likely, but instead of focusing on them, he instead turned back to his brother, who was staring up at him with those red dots for eyes. Mike really needed Fritz to get on that, this was way too much like a horror movie scene for him after the day he's already had. The thought almost made him smile... but he found himself saying something much more serious.
"Hey, glad you're alright. You doing ok after what Purple Guy did to you? Fritz said he fixed it, but it might be good to get him back in a few days to make sure you're alright, and to replace that panel on your back that you're missing. And Foxy to now that I'm thinking about it, he's suit is a travesty"
"You came back" Mike... Blinked, before nodding.
"Uh, yeah... Of course I did buddy, I told you I would. Sorry about going missing for a while, things got... tense, got kidnapped, found a puppet, had to go to the hos-" Goldie cut him off.
"Marionette told me everything that happened" Mike just paused before nodding, as he slowly felt something tense up in his chest in a painful way that made his next words come out choked.
"Uh, right, cool... I-... I'm sorry Goldie, I'm really sorry. I really wanted to save them, and if I had just... If I just handled Dave when I was attacked then..." He tried, Mike tried his damn best to hold it back, but the guilt once more surged ahead and it hurt like nothing else. He expected some cold word, some passive rebuke on Mike for breaking his word, something about the situation, and he honestly deserved it, he broke another promise to his brother and he felt horrible.
But instead, the bear asked something else.
"Why did you do it?" Mike frowned, unsure exactly what he was being asked, but knew instantly from the tone it was something serious, something more than his guilt, so he once more quashed it with as much force as he could manage, for his brother, and asked.
"Do what?"
"Kill me" It was like the air was pressed out of Mike's lungs, the way the teenager said it so simply, so bluntly, like it was just that simple of a matter. Why did Mike kill him, a horribly simple sounding sentence. Barely two words said and yet...
"I- I didn't mea-" A harsh static broke out from his brother as he said sharply to Mike.
"Tell me the real reason. Don't apologize or make excuses" After a long moment, Goldie said more quietly, "Just... tell me why you did it" Mike took a moment, just to stand there, before moving, not bothering to grab a chair, instead just simply sitting down in front of his brother's also sitting form and, after another moment of trying to prepare himself for this, he began to speak.
"I... Do you remember the week leading up to your birthday?" The bear's entire body tensed, but he still answered.
"I remember parts of it... I remember you locking me away and me begging you to let me out" Mike... frowned, slightly confused at that being one of the big things.
"Uh, I mean, I guess that did happen, happened a few times thinking about it that week. I was more talking about, you know, with... Dad" Goldie still seemed tense, clearly thinking of something given how long he took to answer, but after a moment he said.
"Our dad? What about him?" Now... Now Mike was really confused.
"You... You don't remember?" If anything, Mike figured that would be a hard thing to forget, he knew he certainly couldn't, but once more he had to be confronted with the concept that animatronics clearly didn't have the best memories of the times when they were still breathing. If anything that fact and Mike's accidental vagueness on the situation just made the animatronic more annoyed, the static returned as he said.
"Obviously, that's why I'm asking for you to tell me, get on with it"
"Right, sorry, just... Makes things harder on me to explain" Not that Mike had a right to complain, "Um, to start with Dad got... bad usually around the time of your birthday, sometimes it was before, sometimes it was after, but it wasn't... pretty. He drank sometimes, I guess you wouldn't know that, but he drank a lot during that time and he wasn't much of a happy drunk" That... was putting it about mildly.
"Why?" That question made Mike flinch like nothing else. That was a memory, a set of memories that Mike refused to dig up right now. He couldn't handle that on top of this.
"It's... unimportant, for right now, just know it happened and, well, Dad wouldn't hurt you. You, uh, you cried too much, he hated the sound and it got a lot of looks, and he'd never hurt Lizzy cause she was the golden kid, but me? I was the oldest, I could get smacked around a bit without it being out of place, I got into a lot of fights back then so bruises were just normal" Mike was too busy being caught up in his thoughts, in the memories, that he didn't notice the way Goldie stiffened in confusion at the name Lizzy being mentioned, and instead just continued on talking.
"So I got hit a lot during those weeks, and even if he wasn't looking to swing at you or Lizzy, if he was in a... bad mood, then he'd yell, he liked yelling, especially at home. It was usually just easier if I put you to in your rooms for a bit while I let him get it out of his system" Mike ignored the faint shaking in his hands, the words were spilling out now, "That week, it was bad, it was really bad, he did a lot of yelling and a lot of... Anyways, I took it out on you when he wasn't around. You know I bullied you some times, too much, way too much really, I thought it was some fucked up way of getting even back then, I protected you so I got to vent at you when I needed it. Scare you by popping out behind things mostly, sometimes I sent you up to your room when I needed a break and put something in front of the room afterwards, teased you, a lot but... But I never hurt you, I never hit you"
Mike knew his voice sounded bordering on desperate near the end, but he needed to make that clear, more than anything, Mike needed his brother to know he never hit him, he never touched Evan ever. Even back then Mike would have rather killed himself than actually hurt his little brother... He just hadn't realized just how much he already had been until later on without having to raise a single fist to the younger man.
It wasn't much of a consolation, but it was something, and Mike really needed that something right now as he managed to clear his throat and said.
"B-but the week kept getting worse, so I kept trying to vent all that on you when I could but it wasn't working, and dad was... Anyways, I was angry, I was just... I was so, so angry Evan, I don't know how else to explain it, it's like this twisted boiling mass in your chest, that just sticks to everything you do until you just... explode. I didn't even mean to do it, one of my friends suggested lifting you up to see the suits up close, I thought it'd just be a joke, it'd get a laugh from everyone, expect you, but I figured you were getting a whole party, I should at least get a laugh for throwing the damn thing together right?"
Mike just shook his head, looking down at the ground with a tension filling his entire body as he likely shook from nerves.
"What a joke right? One laugh, that's... that's why I did it. I wanted to feel better about myself after a shitty week. And what did it get us?" Mike let out a bitter huff, "I went to jail for four years, got out and wasted my life away while you were locked in hell" Mike quieted down after that, not sure what else to say, there was nothing he could say really, he had no interest in defending himself or his actions, they were stupid and they were cruel, and he accepted that he'd never be able to forgive himself.
"You threw the party?" Mike focused back onto the situation as he glanced back up at Goldie before managing a quirked eyebrow.
"That's the part you're hung up about? Yeah, I threw everything together, dad wasn't much for partying, he loved dressing up as Spring Bonnie for another kid's party if it was held at the diner, but for us? Unless it was a milestone year, like turning ten or something then forget it, Henry once or twice put something small together when I mentioned it, but usually it was me blackmailing the employees at the diner to hold a party pack for free for you or Liz. Did it a few times, though I usually had to be the one to make the cake, or well, I did with some help, but the diner never really did much more than pizza in those later years, Juniors was practically already a pizzeria at that point thinking about it"
It got a small smile out of Mike, thinking about past memories that weren't fully tainted with age.
"I hated you" That... was a great way to ruin the almost alright mood Mike had stumbled into, as he flinched a bit at the factual way his brother said that.
"Well, I can't really blame you there"
"I'm still trying to hate you, but... it's been harder. You're not the same anymore" Mike found himself nodding.
"I'm trying to be better, none of us are the same anymore Goldie, I think we're both great examples of that bud" Mike waited a long moment for something to be said at that, before finally Goldie answered back.
"Yeah... I don't want to go back to that place, not yet, maybe not ever" Mike knew immediately the subject was changing, and was honestly relieved for it, as he simply nodded again.
"I get it, it was hard being there at first for me as well, there's still a lot for me to unpack and deal with at the house. Mari's probably going to throw a fit once he realizes I haven't even opened up some of those rooms at all. I can't imagine the amount of dust" It would probably be a funny visual though.
"You really trust the puppet to let him live with you?"
"Yeah, I don't know why really myself, given he nearly killed me on an already pretty bad day, but I trust him. And... And I think it would do him some good, he was stuck in a crate of all things, I want to be able to give him freedom and a sense of normalcy, or as much of one as I can at least. I think he needs it more than the rest. Foxy's already looking to get back in the performing game and you already said you wanted to stay here" It was simple enough in Mike's mind, Mari needed help, so Mike would provide it.
Goldie went back to being silent for a long moment as Mike was getting himself mentally ready to leave to chase down the puppet in question, before speaking up once more.
"I think Marionette might have been right about you" Mike... had no idea about just what the two had been talking about, but he could hear the emotions in his brother's voice, whatever it was, it was important, and Mike had already dealt with a bit to much emotional talk at the moment, so instead of delving into whatever was built in those words, he simply smirked as he got back up to his feet and said with his typical humor.
"Ah, my brother and roommate are talking behind my back, I'll have to sleep with one eye open" Mike waited a moment to see if he would get a response to the quip, he didn't, it was expected, as he continued on without issue, "Either way, it's late, I'm going to head back to the house and try and get some sleep so I can deal with the conversation fall out I'll no doubt have soon with Fritz and Jeremy about where I've been. See you tomorrow Goldie"
He had thought that would be the end of it, but of course there just had to be more, because this day wasn't allowed to end just yet.
"Michael... They know, Cassidy told them about how I became Golden Freddy" The words had Mike frozen in the frame of the doorway just long enough for him to understand the weight to them before quickly moving, leaving the diner, barely giving time to give a wave to the pirate still playing on his stage, and getting into the car with an unnecessarily forceful slam of the door.
He didn't bother turning it on yet, instead just simply sat there and gave himself a second to calm down before he did something incredibly stupid. It took a moment, but soon after he was peeling out of the drive of the diner to get back to the house. Making the decision to simply not think about it for the time being, refusing to acknowledge quite yet the death of his friendships with the two men.
It wasn't working that well, Mike was really bad at not thinking about things as it turned out, but he managed to get back to the house without panicking to hard, so he counted that as a win as he managed to get the car in the garage before stumbling into the kitchen to the living room, dropping himself onto the couch with a huff. A chiming sound let out from somewhere behind him, as Mike craned his head back to look up to see in the darkness of the house, Marionette half blending into the darkness, only his white mask being partially visible.
"You're trying to hard Strips" The faint tune of "Pop Goes the Weasel" echoed out from the animatronic, but Mike was too tired to even attempt to act scared. He just sighed, glancing back up at the ceiling before saying, "Did you find a dust bunny or something that decided to fight back? Because let me tell you, I am done with bunnies today"
The tuning song cut off with a sharp chime and a soft sounding snort that made Mike smirk, just a bit, before Marionette floated around to the front of the couch, the light from outside being the only light as the two stared at each other for a moment before Mike broke it.
"So, are you going back to the silent treatment? I know you can talk now, or did you just like making me think I was talking to myself?" Another soft chime, but it did finally get him an answer.
"I'm not used to talking yet, not really, it's been a long time" Mike just hummed.
"How long?"
"I was alive probably" Mike felt his brows raise at that in surprise.
"Damn, consider me special then"
"You should, I don't talk to just anyone. You're the first adult who's ever earned my trust" Mike... wasn't sure what to do with that, but he just nodded all the same, looking away for a moment before saying quietly.
"Are you doing ok Mari?" He seemed to take the puppet off guard as they let out some new sound that was clearly one of surprise. It was more like a tight jingling kind of tone. The puppet tried to play it off, a playful tone pulling on their voice as they spoke.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that? I saw how Foxy landed on you, and you weren't doing well even before that" Mike knew what Marionette was trying to do, he was moving away from the topic of feeling while distracting Mike with something about himself to keep him from finding out what was going on beneath the surface. Mike knew, he could recognize it from a mile away, it was exactly what Mike himself did constantly.
"Mari, you know that's not what I'm asking about... You lost three friends today, how are you doing?" The puppet stilled for a moment, the two continuing to just stare at each other, and just when Mike thought that he crossed a line, he watched instead with shock as lines of purple began to slowly drip down Marionette's face. The puppet was crying... paint. Suddenly Mike remembered faintly that Marionette hadn't had those purple strips when Mike knew the puppet was an empty robot.
"I-... Heh, sorry Mike, give me a moment?" Mike simply nodded as Marionette moved to sit at his side on the couch, the two simply sitting there for a moment, one silently letting his emotions pour out of him while the other waited for them to talk about it.
Finally after a few minutes Marionette finally spoke.
"It's hard, I wasn't close to any of them, not like I was to the toys, but losing those three... It brought back memories and it... It made me feel powerless, I should have been there" It was surprisingly honest of an answer, if it had been him, Mari would have had to bring out the cat battery by now just to get Mike to open his mouth. At least, normally, he found himself speaking anyway.
"You can't blame yourself for that, you got there as soon as you could. And if I'm not allowed to blame myself then you aren't either ok?" That got a quiet chime from the animatronic.
"Yeah right, you actually managed to do everything, you brought them back, you got Foxy safe, you found out who Purple Guy was... Comparatively, I just happened to be around"
"Comparatively, I'm a guy who's half made of bruises right now because he got chased around by a fox. I did next to nothing there, you're the one that saved Jeremy's life, you talked to my brother, you're the reason we headed to the diner... We both can talk all night about how everything went bad and we could have done more, but... But we should just focus on what we managed to accomplish, I'm pretty sure we both know just how useless it is to want to have the ability to change the past"
"I guess you're right"
"It does happen on occasion"
"Oh hush" Mike just let out a small huff as the two returned to silence for a long moment before- "Thanks Mike"
"No problem, I'm pretty sure I still owe you at least one more comfort session before we're even" Marionette personally was pretty sure it would be a long, long time, before he thought he could be considered even with Mike, but he didn't say anything about it, instead just watching the man, the hidden eyes of the puppet tracing along the bruises he could see from there.
Mostly the ones around Mike's throat, Mike liked to keep himself covered so it was the most obvious injury beyond the cast.
"You should get some rest" Mike seemed ready to wave Marionette off, but the puppet put his foot down, "No, you really need it, you're still healing, you've already put way to much stress on your body than I'm sure the doctor recommended as it is" Mike on the other hand instead of being sensible just let out a grumble.
"I feel like all that I've been doing is sleeping" Marionette could more than relate well to just how that felt, but Mike was still in a human body, and as such needed his rest, especially when hurt like he was.
"Probably because you need it" Mike sighed, looking ready to argue before suddenly deflating a bit, sinking into the couch a tad before saying finally.
"Yeah... I think I'll turn in for the night then, want me to wind your box?" Marionette simply shook his head.
"I want some time to think about some things, I can miss a night of sleep" Mike gave Mari a long look, and the puppet had a feeling the man knew exactly just what he was doing. But instead of calling him out on it like Marionette had been expecting, he just smirked and said.
"This is just some ploy to keep cleaning isn't it? We can wait until it's daylight at least you know?" Marionette was more than happy to play along as Mike stood up to head to his old bedroom.
"Who is this 'we' you're talking about? All you've done is move trash bags around" That got a small laugh as Mike left the living room, calling out a good night which Marionette returned, waiting just long enough to hear the door of the bedroom close before the animatronic slowly dipped back down onto the couch.
Marionette hadn't been lying when he said he needed time to think about things, but like Mike suspected, there was something more to it. Marionette didn't want to go back to sleep any time soon. He hadn't slept in the motel room Mike and he had shared, and he only showed Mike the trick with his music box to let the man feel safe in his own home with the puppet. A foolish thing thinking about it now given how apparently trusting Mike was with him after only such a short time.
Marionette spent too much of the last few years of his life hounded by his own music to want to sleep now, not when he had the chance to simply exist without it, for as long as he could before he began to feel the repercussions of it at least. But for the time being, Marionette simply sat in the open spaced living room of his new friend's home, and basked in the empty peaceful silence after days of stress and years of... containment.
A while later he did get up and move around, deciding to take a run at getting the kitchen cleaned up, because, honestly, it was such a disaster, he'd be having his hands full tidying up for days at the very least, even if he finally managed to corner Mike into finally helping him!
Marionette chose to ignore how secretly pleased he was to have something of a project on this size to both keep his hands busy and mind occupied.
It had been bit later after everything had happened, and for the first time that all three could manage it, Mike, Jeremy, and Fritz all found themselves in the back room of the diner, Goldie having left to give the three some privacy, while Foxy was somewhere in the main room messing around with something.
Mike was incredibly uncomfortable as he stood across from Fritz and Jeremy, both looking... Fine for the most part, Fritz had some clear swelling along one of his eyes and Jeremy was paler than he should be, but both looked much better than the last time he had seen them. In contrast Mike felt like a mess still as he could practically feel their eyes looking him over, hanging on the most obvious of his injuries. Thankfully Fritz was the first to break, clearing his throat, looking awkward for a moment with how both of the other two's eyes landed on him before saying.
"So... I guess we should catch up on what happened right?" It felt painfully forced, Mike decided he couldn't just run from all of this, and instead of wasting time on recounting everything, he decided to just jump straight into it.
"I've been lying to both of you for a while" Both now were staring at him, in shock mostly, Mike just grimaced, suddenly the words became a bit harder to get out, though once more Fritz spoke up before he could.
"I-, uh, well, we both heard about what happened to Goldie, if, you know, that's what this is about" Mike felt even worse, as he slowly nodded.
"That's... a part of it, I'm not going to excuse what happened, I'm not going to try to make you two understand or anything. I was fifteen, I did something incredibly stupid, Goldie paid the price for it, and I'm never going to stop hating myself for it" Fritz, weirdly enough, simply turned to look at Jeremy for a short moment, only to get a soft nod from the shorter man, seemingly the action made a weight drop off of the older of the three's shoulders as he glanced back at Mike.
"I- I don't know what I can say to that, but we all helped in one murder already... I'm not going to judge you on that Mike, I should, hell knows I really should, but..." Fritz looked more resigned than anything now, "I'm too glad you're alive, that we all are alive and this is over, to really hold onto that for right now. I'll probably have questions later though, but... As long as Goldie is fine with you...?"
"We're... working on it. But it's kind of complicated" Fritz looked like what Mike said was a bit of an understatement, and frankly Mike agreed, but he wasn't really wanting to talk more about it, so he didn't. Instead turning to Jeremy as the man spoke up next.
"What else... What else did you want to say? You said Goldie was just a part of it right?" Fritz suddenly went back to looking worried, Jeremy looked tense, and honestly, Mike knew he shouldn't, but after the murder talk, he found it slipping out anyways.
"Well, for one, I'm actually British" Pulling on his barely even there accent was easy, it never really went away, Mike just preferred to ignore it, it usually only slipped out when he wasn't thinking about it or overly emotional. As it stood, Mike just snickered at the dumbfounded look on both the men's faces at that as Fritz sputtered out.
"What?" Jeremy took a different approach, just looking confused
"Why hide that of all things?" Mike went back to being a bit more serious as he simply shrugged, still pulling hard on his accent just to keep it going only to fade it out the longer he talked.
"Not really hiding, I was born in England, spent a few years there, but my family moved to the states around when I was four or five, can't remember exactly, so I'm technically a dual-citizen. My father had an old friend out here from his time abroad for university, they became business partners and opened this place up. My brother never took to the accent, but I never really lost mine" Mike wasn't mentioning everything of course, he was hardly about to give his whole life story, but it was enough for Jeremy to perk up suddenly, looking slightly alarmed.
"W-wait, this place? As in, this diner?" Now Fritz was looking shocked as Mike just nodded.
"Yeah, should probably have lead with that" Mike honestly did it to keep the tension from getting to bad, they all had enough stress as it was on them the last few days, "To make this a bit easier, my original name was Michael Afton, my father, William Afton, and his partner Henry, founded Fredbear's Family Diner, later they would open Juniors, then... both would leave and Fazbear Entertainment was born, from my count, there's been three pizzerias since my family pulled out of the business. But, I was around for the start"
To say that Fritz and Jeremy looked stunned would be an understatement, Mike just gave them a moment to think it through before Fritz suddenly said.
"Wait! Then the thing you were doing to get the animatronics-" Mike cut him off with an answer.
"My father was always bad at sharing, I figured there was some clause somewhere to give ownership of the robots back into the Afton name somewhere, just had to find it, I did. I technically own the rights to some of the cast, Foxy and Bonnie mostly, Chica was Henry's and the remains of Fazbear Entertainment was looking to fight for Freddy's rights if I tried, so I just settled on getting the bots themselves along with whatever else the company was too lazy to change out of my father's name"
"And did William just let this happen?" Mike frowned at that. His mixed feelings in regards to his dad was at an all time high at the moment, after years of not thinking about the man, he sure was having to talk a lot about him recently.
"Ah, he uh... he died a few years back, I don't know how, I thought he vanished for a while, but my lawyer found a death certificate dating around five years back recently so..." Mike hadn't thought much about the news except for the mournfulness that came from knowing another one of his family was dead, but he wouldn't lie to himself and say that seeing that had hurt nearly as bad as seeing the one for Elizabeth's death.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that... You weren't close?" That was Jeremy's question, but it sounded more like a statement to Mike's ears for some reason, but he just answered with a shrug.
"No, we didn't keep in contact after... everything with Goldie, I was nineteen when I got out of jail and didn't even think about visiting anyone so I only found out a few weeks ago now" Neither seemed all that shocked about the prison comment, Mike instead decided he was talking way too much about himself now, and had covered most of the big topics about himself, and was more than willing to move on to something more important.
"Anyways! I own a lot more than I ever figured I would, and I have no idea what to do with it. But everything is done now, four out of five souls at rest, Foxy happy to hang around, Marionette acting like a maid, and a very dead Purple Guy sealed away in a now abandoned building. I'd say we've done our jobs at least somewhat well... What are you two's plans now? I mean, I know Fritz that you're leaving but what about you Jere?"
Both looked startled, but Mike gave something of an understanding smile.
"What? I get it, I'm kind of stuck here, family and friends alike are machine bound, I'm... I'm never abandoning my brother again, and Foxy's pretty cool as well so I'm staying in the haunted animatronic business, but Fritz, you've been talking about getting away since I first dragged you into this, and I know Jeremy that you're only here because you wanted to help the kids, and we've done that so... What's up next for you two?" Mike knew they wouldn't be staying around, but that didn't mean he wanted one of their last conversations to be only depressing stuff.
He trusted them, he trusted them both surprisingly, given just how hard it was normally for people to earn that and now he had almost felt like too many people had it, it was a strange feeling. One he was going to miss, but he didn't want to hold them here either, that was hardly fair given he was the reason both had been forced back into helping him during all this hell in the first place.
So he was honestly surprised to find neither looked all that interested in giving him an answer. A small part of Mike's head wondered if they were worried they just didn't trust him with anything outside of the animatronic business, which would have been understandable, sure, it would have hurt, but they did just talk about how he killed his brother. It was honestly astounding just how well the two were seemingly taking that in his opinion.
"What?" Fritz cleared his throat... again, and instead of answering asked a question of his own.
"I mean, mind me asking what you're planning on doing?" Mike paused at that, before slowly shaking his head, he didn't mind, but he honestly didn't have that much of a plan... Well... That was something of a lie. Something had been planted in the back of his mind a few days ago by a certain fox, and he hadn't been able to get it out of his head since.
It was a dumb idea, but it grew in the back of his mind all the same, especially after everything that had been twisted and distorted from what they were supposed to have been. What his family had made them for. And now that he was being asked about it directly, for some reason the more the thought of it appealed to him. It was once more Mike's naturally impulsive nature that made the decision for him in this moment though more than anything else, as he spoke after a second.
"I mean... I was thinking about getting this place up and running again" Seeing the faces that the two were making, he quickly clarified, "You know, make a pizzeria that my family could have been proud of, instead of all the, you know, murder. The place isn't in bad condition at all, just needs a thorough cleaning and some work on repairs and some stuff added back in, but I already own the building now so..."
Mike was mostly waiting to hear how it was a terrible idea, he was fully expecting it, instead Fritz asked with a familiar resigned tone that didn't sound quite as serious as normal.
"I- uh, I suppose you'd need someone to work on the animatronics in that case huh?" Mike now couldn't help but be the one shocked at just what Fritz seemed to be implying, but he found himself focusing on Jeremy next as the man let out an awkward hum, looking between the two other men before seemingly steeling himself for something as he said.
"And I guess you'd need someone to help out with the accounts and business side of things? I have some experience in that" Mike just stared blankly between the two for a long moment before asking simply.
"You sure? I mean, if I'm being honest, there's a good chance this all is going to crash and burn around us at some point" Fritz huffed.
"Like it wasn't like that constantly when we all were working at Freddy's? At least here I know Foxy isn't going to try and kill me when I give him a tune up, plus if I don't help you, I have no idea how you're planning on getting that suit of his in anything looking complete" Mike... had to give that one to the man, Foxy had both legs showing their entire endoskeleton and was missing more than a few patches of his suit. Plus, if anything went wrong in the future, Mike would be more than a little lost on what to do.
"And as much as I'm sure we'd both like to go back to something normal, let me say from experience, you can't really leave the 'Fazbear family' without taking something with you and leaving something behind. I don't think I can handle going back to what I was doing before when I know I could be helping here" Mike gave a thankful look to Jeremy at that, before finally nodding, after a second just to let what he was being told sink in.
"Right... I guess that settles that. Welcome to the show then you two, now let's just hope the captain doesn't make us walk the plank any time soon" Maybe this wouldn't be too bad after all.
He said the thing! This is another fairly long chapter in comparison to the last ones before chapter eighteen, it was actually suppose to be both chapter's nineteen and twenty, there was another scene or two that I thought about adding in, and it would have led to the last chapter, like I said before, being chapter twenty with the three men's decision to open up their own pizzeria.
But since I've just now decided to keep everything in one place and not split this into two stories, at least not for the time being, I don't have to fill out the words in a rush to make sure the final chapter was long enough, and as such can just cram it all in here. And as such, the story will continue here! This can be considered the end of Act 1, I guess. Everything up to this point is a completed work and can be read as such if the next section sucks, and I honestly don't have much of an idea of where I'm going to go from here at the time of finishing this chapter and writing these notes, but I'm excited because I do have some thoughts, just... don't know how I'm going to get there.
Here's a fun fact, I planned on Mike opening up his own pizzeria since chapter one with the plan of that being the end of the story, in fact, in my files, these chapters are literally labeled 'Fnaf Pizza Sim Chapter #' because the idea of owning your own pizzeria in fnaf 6 was a super cool idea for me. Sure, this isn't going to be the fnaf 6 location, I doubt Mike's planning on burning anything to the ground, but that doesn't mean he hasn't followed his canon counterpart in at least some ways in making a pizzeria for haunted robots. As for just how it's going to work out and if there is any drama involved will have to be seen.
Beyond that, the Afton brothers have finally started to truly mend their bridges, it's been a long time coming, but I think the wait only makes sense. I hope their conversation made sense and invoked the right emotions, it was pretty hard to write because I was trying to nail a certain level of grief while just being real sad, but I don't know how I managed it so here's hoping.
While for Marionette and Mike... Look, I love these two characters, Marionette is my favorite animatronic in the games, and I think the two would be able to relate to each other incredible well. They are alike in a lot of interesting ways, and most importantly both want the best for the other while pretending they, themselves, are completely fine. While for Fritz and Jeremy... I think Jeremy said it the best, neither would truly ever be able to leave Freddy's behind, so they might as well keep going until they can't. I just can't wait to see just what that limit is!
Anyways, I occasionally ask for thoughts, and I do read all reviews, they're great to see what all of you are thinking or feeling about this story, but I genuinely want to know what you've all thought about the story so far. We have a lot more to get through, but as this stands, as a 'completed work' as of right now before we keep going, I want to know what you all are thinking up to this point. Anyways, that's all, so, See ya!