That being said, I'm uploading chapters 10 and 11 together because they're two of my favorites lol. I love to show the developing bonds between characters.

"Honestly, Lea," Abby was saying as she watched Lea fiddling with the unfinished face plates. "I don't get how you're so relaxed when you're alone with Monty or Moon. Especially Moon. Have you noticed how they've all been getting worse?"

"It's not their fault," Lea told her.

"I know, but still. It's not safe. If I were you, I'd be terrified."

"Well, you're not me. And I'm not you. And although I may get a little uneasy sometimes, I'm not terrified of them." Lea checked the time. "Speaking of. It's time for me to go check on Moon. If I'm not back in a few hours, I guess you'll know why."

"Hey! Don't make jokes like that!"

Lea smiled to herself as she walked away and waved her hand over her shoulder at Abby. "Later, Abby."

…

When she got to the Daycare, Lea could not seem to find Moon anywhere. As she walked around looking for him, she heard a crash from his room up above. That must be where he was. She exited through the double doors and made her way up and around to his room. At the sound of another crash, she threw open the door. "Oh?"

Moon froze, staring at her. The only lights on in the room were the strung-up fairy lights hanging over the curtains to the balcony, but they lit up the room enough for her to see everything. Moon was crouched on top of an unresponsive S.T.A.F.F. bot that appeared to have taken some serious damage. His eyes were glowing red and he rotated his head completely around clockwise before continuing to dismantle the other bot by ripping off one of its arms.

"What're you doing there?" Lea asked. "No response, huh? Right then." She stepped into the room and closed the door behind herself. "…You know it's dead, right?"

He paused, not looking at her, then started to tear the other arm off. He could hear his counterpart in the back of his mind begging him to stop, but he ignored him.

Lea watched him rip the other arm off then asked, "Okay. What next?"

"The head."

Lea placed her hands on her hips as he snapped the S.T.A.F.F. bot's neck and tore the head off before tossing it aside like a broken toy. "Hm. Are you going to let me clean you up tonight?"

"Don't touch me," he hissed.

"Come on." It had been far too long since she was able to clean or touch him up with paint. He was rather moody when it came to allowing her to work on him. "I know it doesn't feel good to be all filthy like that."

He did not respond and only ripped a handful of wires from the S.T.A.F.F. bot before roughly kicking it away from himself.

Lea sighed and sat down on the floor.

Moon noticed her sit out the corner of his eye and stopped, cocking his head to the side to look at her. He was conflicted about her presence right now. He wanted her to leave, but at the same time found her presence soothing. "Why won't you leave?" he asked.

"Do you want me to? I'll leave if you let me clean you up first."

He suddenly snapped his head around fully to look at her. "Why aren't you afraid?"

"Of you?" She noticed that he was trembling. "Why should I be?" She saw him glance quickly at the ruined S.T.A.F.F. bot. "What? Do you intend to do that to me?"

"…No. But I do a lot of things I do not intend to do…"

"Hm. Hey, did I ever tell you about what Monty did to my left arm that he didn't intend? Well, after he suplexed a security bot and cracked it in half, he went feral and lunged at me. He bit and tore open my arm. Of course, since my left arm is mechanical, it was nothing I couldn't fix."

Moon's head twitched to the side but he said nothing.

"Anyways, he didn't want to hurt me, and it's because of that virus that he did. So, why should I be mad or even scared of him for it?"

"…" His trembling seemed to settle a bit. "…No one understands."

"Hm?"

"But you do…"

"Oh. Well, that's probably because no one else tries to understand you guys."

"Even Abby is afraid of me."

Lea snorted with a grin. "Pfft! Abby? Aw, she's a big scaredy cat! She pretends to like scary stuff but clings onto me whenever we watch scary movies and stuff. I like to scare her sometimes, too."

"You enjoy scaring your friend?"

"It's all fun and games," Lea told him. "She knows that. Heck, sometimes she gets me back. Last time she got me so good that after I screamed, I laughed so hard that I had tears in my eyes."

Moon found this amusing. The red glow in his eyes had faded into a soft white as his trembling ceased and he crossed his legs to sit down. "…I think a clean-up would be nice."

"Yeah? Okay then." Lea moved closer and dragged her bag over with her. She made sure that he could see what she was doing while she opened it to remove a clean cloth and liquid cleaning solution. "Let's start with your hands and arms then."

He held out a hand and allowed her to take it in her own so she could begin cleaning it. The attention and care were pleasant; Lea was gentle and kind. The feeling of the damp cloth was soothing. Even in the poor lighting, Lea thoroughly cleaned the exterior casing with ease. After cleaning both hands and arms, she moved on to the pants, shoes, and the bit of leg that was exposed between them. When she moved on to the torso, she was careful around the midsection after recalling that he did not like being tickled. As she cleaned, Moon sat quietly, swaying ever so slightly as if he was dozing.

"Okay," Lea said quietly so that she would not startle him. "Last thing we need to clean is your face."

He hesitated a moment but gave in and lowered his head to let her touch his face. She lightly pressed her left-hand fingertips under his head to hold him up while she gently wiped the damp cloth over his face. Lea carefully ran the cloth over every tiny detail until she was satisfied with the job. When she finished, she noticed that he was swaying again. Unlike the others, the Daycare attendant did not have a moving mouth or eyelids, but she somehow got the feeling that he was falling asleep. A few moments after she had stopped, he jerked slightly, as if waking up.

"All done," she told him.

Moon studied her for a minute before leaning forward to press his face against her shoulder and lightly hugging her. Lea had been surprised by this action from him, but she hugged him back and spoke softly to him as he dozed off against her.

"You're okay, Moony. I promise, I'll look after you. All of you."

Later in the night, Lea reunited with Abby in Rockstar Row and the two sat together on a bench to eat a small meal. "Hey, Lea. Have you heard about how they fired nearly all the nighttime employees and replaced them with S.T.A.F.F. bots?"

"No, but that doesn't surprise me."

"Well, they did. Mr. Stanley didn't make the decision. It came from higher up. I don't know about me and Vanessa, but I'm sure you'll be fine. They wouldn't dream of firing the best mechanic they've ever known. Besides, you can't have mechanic robots. Who fixes them if they break?"

"Have you found anything more useful to what we've been investigating?" Lea asked.

"Sheesh. Kind of. I mean, I found a security report related to Bonnie."

Lea looked at her. "Oh?"

"Hold on." Abby opened something on her Fazwatch. "Uh, yeah. It's titled 'Missing' and says '12:24 am – Bonnie is seen leaving his green room in Rockstar Row heading East towards the atrium. 2:40 am – Bonnie enters the East Arcade. 4:12 am – Bonnie enters Monty Golf.'" She lowered her arm. "This report is before the one where we saw Bonnie go into the bowling alley and not come out. Do you think he and Monty had some kind of argument?"

Lea shrugged. "Monty says he doesn't know what happened to Bonnie."

"Do you believe him?"

Lea was quiet and took a sip of the grape Fizzy Faz she had in her hand. She wanted to believe Monty, but she had her suspicions.

…

"Okay kids," Sun said cheerily. "It's time for – paint by numbers!"

The children quickly took their places at the short tables that had been set up and eagerly waited for the Daycare attendant to come by and give them their supplies. "I don't want to do that," said a new kid with a grumpy attitude. He had just joined the Daycare for the first time that day and had been putting up a fuss over everything so far. For a four-year-old, he was irritatingly stubborn.

"Well, why not?" Sun asked, trying to keep up his cheerful demeanor.

"Because it's stupid."

"Oh, well that's not something you should say. Besides! Painting is fun!" He flinched when the boy threw the paint brush and hit him in the face with it. The other children immediately stopped and stared in shock. Sun let out a fake chuckle before leaning closer to the boy with a darkened tone. "Do that again… and I'll make sure you're put down for an early nap. Are we clear?"

The boy looked frightened and leaned away from him. "S-Sorry…"

Sun suddenly stood up straight, his friendly tone returning. "Gooood! Okay everybody, where were we?"

As Sun moved on, an older girl nearby giggled at the boy. "You got in troublllle." After craft time was over, the girl approached the Daycare attendant and smiled up at him. "Hi Sunny."

"Oh! Harper! Hello! Did you need something?" Sun quite liked Harper. She was a friendly seven-year-old that liked to wear brightly-colored dresses and clean white shoes that clicked against the floor as she walked. Her light brown hair was always half up and half down with a braid on either side that wrapped around to meet in the back with a bow that always matched her dress. She seemed to have taken quite a liking to him as well and often followed him around.

"I just wanted to ask if you knew what ever happened to that boy Rodney?"

He flinched. "R-Rodney?"

"He hasn't been here in a while."

"Oh, you're as…observant as ever, I see."

"Did he become one of those missing kids on the newspaper?"

He flinched again. "What?! No! Er, he just, well… He just doesn't come to the Daycare anymore. That's all. H-How do you know about those kids anyway?"

"My big brother was talking about it with his friends."

"I see… Um, how about we change the subject, hm?"

"Okay. What do you like to do when we're all gone?"

"Hm? Oh, well really I just clean up the Daycare and put everything away before the lights turn off."

"The lights? Does Moon come out when we're not here?"

He was beginning to get uncomfortable with her questions. "Well, yes… He does."

"My brother said that they won't let Moon out during the day anymore because of those missing kids. He says it was probably Moon who took them away. Is that true?"

Sun was tapping his fingertips together now. "I, er, that's…" Truthfully, neither he nor Moon could recall if the virus had ever forced them to harm or take away any children. But going by what Lea's friend Todd had come up with, it was very likely they had. "Er, oh! Look at this!" He grabbed a pop-up book that was sitting nearby. "A pop-up book about the circus!" He handed it to her.

Harper took the book. "I've already read this one. There's a big clown on page seven. Look." She flung open the book and a pop-up clown suddenly burst from the book, causing Sun to yelp in surprise. Harper giggled at his reaction. "You're silly," she told him as she closed the book. "Hey, Sunny? Do you have any friends?"

"Friends?" He brushed himself off.

"Are you friends with Ms. Abby?"

"Abby? Oh, well… I guess we're friends. In a way."

"Do you have a best friend?"

"I…don't know." He thought about it. "Hm… I guess it would be Leanne."

"Who's that?"

"Oh, she's the mechanic."

"The what?"

"Oh, um… She's like…a doctor! For machines."

"She takes care of you?"

"Yes, that's right!"

"Oh." Harper smiled. "Sunny has someone to take care of him? That's good." Her smile faded. "My best friend was Allie, but she's one of the missing kids now."

Sun remembered Allie. Allie was a kindhearted girl, Harper's age, that was always following her around. If ever one of them was upset, the other would be as well. "Oh, yes, I remember that…" Considering that Allie was a child whose last known location was the Daycare, Sun had a horrible feeling that he and Moon may be responsible for her disappearance four months ago. "I…miss her."

"I miss her, too," Harper said. "I still have this bracelet." She raised her left wrist to show him the tiny chain with half a heart charm hanging from it.

"Oh… Um, hey, Harper? Why don't we go look for a book you haven't read yet, okay?"

"Okay."

He scooped her up in his arms, happy to hear her laugh as he did.

…

That day, Lea had gone into work two hours early to deal with the DJ. A misbehaving bunch of teenagers had decided to try and enter the tunnels in the west arcade, setting off the DJ's bouncer mode. Luckily, the worst they got out of the ordeal was a fright and a lesson on following rules. Once she had dealt with that and sent the teens on their way, she decided to make her way over to the Daycare while it was still open.

Since it was almost five and the Daycare closed at six, most of the children had already gone home for the day, save a few whose parents worked later. When she entered the Daycare, Lea made her way over to Abby at the security desk.

"Okay," Abby grinned at her. "How hilarious was it?"

"What?"

"The look on those kids' faces while the DJ went all crazy on them."

Lea rolled her eyes but was smiling. "Not that hilarious. It was the looks they made when they were being scolded by their parents that was funny."

"Nice."

"Oh, Leanne!" Sun had gone over to meet her. "You're here early."

"Hi, Sunny. I was called in to tend to the DJ." Lea glanced down at the little girl following him. "Hello."

"Hi! I'm Harper! Are you the best friend that takes care of Sunny?"

Sun winced when Lea looked at him. She smiled. "Yup! I sure am. Nice to meet you, Harper."

Harper stepped closer to her, smiling. "Does that mean you've met Moon?"

"I have."

"Wow! I've never met Moon. He's not allowed out while we're here."

"That's because he's crazy," Abby muttered.

Harper glanced at her for a moment but was too interested in the new face to bother questioning her. "Are you friends with Moon, too?"

"Yes, I am," Lea replied.

"Really?" She was amazed. "My brother told me that Moon is bad and will make us go missing."

"Oh, wow," Lea said. "Moon isn't bad."

"Then why can't we see him?"

"Er, well… He's…sick."

"Sick?"

"Uh, yeah. He's got a virus, of sorts. It makes him act…different from what he's supposed to."

"Oh. Okay."

"Harper!"

The girl spun around at the sound of her mother's voice. "Mom's here. Okay, bye!" She waved and ran off.

Lea watched her leave then noticed that Sun had gone off without saying anything. Not thinking much of it, she joined Abby at the desk to talk to her while she began to type her report early. By the time six o'clock rolled around, all of the children had gone and Sun had finished cleaning everything. As Lea went over to turn off the lights, Sun appeared nearby the desk looking nervous.

"Um, maybe we could leave the lights on tonight?"

She looked at him curiously. "Huh? Why?"

He tapped his fingers together. "Oh, no reason really. Moon is just a little…irritable right now."

"That's never made much of a difference before," Abby said.

"Yes, well… Wait!"

Lea stopped. She had reached for the lights again. "Sun, seriously. He deserves some time out too." She turned off the lights and placed her hands on her hips as she watched him dramatically struggle against himself. "Would you stop that," she said with a sigh.

Once Moon had gained control, he suddenly began to kick and throw small plastic chairs and flipped over a table. When Abby made a remark on his behavior after having just cleaned up, he bent backwards and twisted his arms and head around to crawl after her. With a startled shout, Abby ran behind Lea at the desk. "What the fuck man!? He just Grudge crawled after me!"

Lea made a face. "Moon, stop that."

He chuckled, turned his body parts around until he was right-side-up, then returned to anger and started attacking a nearby playhouse.

"The fuck is his problem!?" Abby yelped. "I told you they're getting worse!"

"Shut up Abby." Lea said and stepped out from behind the desk. Abby watched with horrified disbelief as Lea approached Moon. "Moon, knock it off." She grabbed his wrist, apparently scaring him, as he shouted and fell over trying to pull away from her. "Hey, hey, Moony," Lea soothed. "It's just me. Calm down."

"Why should I?" he growled.

"Why? Well, you don't feel very good right now, do you?"

"…"

Lea moved closer, stopping a moment when he flinched, then carefully reached out to stroke his face with her fingers, tracing along the crescent moon shape. "There you go. What's got you so worked up?"

"I…don't like the children knowing about my…predicament."

"Oh, so you're mad at me?" she said in an understanding way rather than an offended one. "Why didn't you just say so? If you're upset about something then say so. Especially if it's something I did. I should have asked first if it was okay. I'm sorry."

"…I'm not mad at you," he said. "But Abigail on the other hand!"

"What'd I do!?" Abby shouted from behind the desk then cowered when he snarled at her. "Okay, so I called you crazy in front of the kid! Big deal! Harper is a little crazy herself!"

"She isn't the one punished and locked away!" He suddenly jerked his head away and stared at the floor. "Not allowed to interact with them anymore…" he added with a hint of sadness in his tone. "The reason some of them have disappeared…"

"I know," Lea said calmly. "Todd is working on it, but it's taking a while. It'll be okay though."

He did not respond. Moon was not very hopeful.

"Hey, it's a good sign that you still worry about them and their opinion of you," Lea continued.

"Only for this moment," he told her. "It won't last long."

"Yeah. This is the first time I've heard you speak without growling."

"Don't get used to it…"

Lea shrugged. "I'll have plenty of time to get used to it once you're fixed up." Although his face was fixed into a permanent smile, she could tell that he was doubtful. She grabbed his hand. "Hey. No matter what, no matter what you do, or how you behave, I'll always be there for you. I promise."

He gripped her hand back. "…Thank you, Leanne. For everything. …I should clean up my mess now."

"Okay. I have to go check on the others anyway, but I'll come back later."

She leaned forward and he expected her usual behavior of snuggling up to his face, so he was thoroughly surprised when she gave him a kiss on the cheek instead.

…

A young sixteen-year-old part-time worker had been scheduled to work some nights from 6:00 to 10:00, cleaning in parts of the Daycare where the attendant animatronic was not programed to clean. These things included the pick-up lobby, bathrooms, and security desk. Normally, it was the job of S.T.A.F.F. bots to clean these areas, but seeing as every bot they sent would mysteriously vanish, management had decided it would now be the boy's job instead. His coworker friends had warned him that he should quit before he ended up missing as well, but he was determined to save up money as early as possible for college.

On his first night working in the Daycare area, he entered to find the lights off everywhere except for the lobby and the spot just above the security desk. He glanced around at the darkness, not seeing anyone – or anything – and placed his backpack and keys on the top ledge of the desk. After gathering up what he would need from the list he had been given, he made his way up to the lobby to start there. When he had finished all his cleaning and other tasks, he returned to the desk and found that his keys had disappeared.

"What the?" Although he was sure he had put them on the desk, he checked around in his bag just in case. Nowhere. He began to check around the floor near the desk until he heard a chuckle from the darkness. "Huh? Hello?" The jingling sound of keys attracted his attention over to the animatronic jester crouched atop one of the playpens. "Hey! Give me back my keys!"

Moon tilted his head then dropped the keys, letting them fall somewhere into the playpen with a sound that echoed through the darkness.

The boy made a face. "Bruh, be for real. I need those to get in my house! If my mom finds out I lost my keys…"

"Come and get them."

"Aw naw, that's a trap," he said. "No way I'm goin' in there." He pulled his backpack over his shoulder and pushed open the big double doors. "I'm just gonna tell her I'm sleeping over at John's tonight. Later, Moondrop."

Moon chuckled to himself as the boy left. Either way, he was entertained.

The next day, Sun had given the keys to Abby when she came in for her dayshift. She had been highly amused to learn whose keys they were and did not need to ask why they were there. Later, when the boy came in at six, she met up with him outside of the double doors and handed them to him. "I believe these are yours."

"My keys!" He took them. "Wait… Where's my keychain?"

"Keychain? Oh, Moon probably stole it."

He clicked his tongue. "Ah well. Thanks anyway. He took my keys off the desk and dropped them in a playpen. Ain't no way I was going in there."

"Ha! Smart choice. Anyways, Lea – the mechanic – will be here at seven tonight. The Daycare is usually her first stop. If ol' Moony gives you trouble, just ask her for help."

While she left, he entered the dark Daycare. Almost immediately, he heard the soft clickety-clack sounds of Moon scurrying around and caught a glimpse of his glowering eyes.

"Well, look who is… Keith came back to play…"

"You know my name?" He moved over to the security desk, trying to see the animatronic clearly.

"Of course I do… You're in the employee database. I know your name…how old you are… where you live…"

"Bro, that's weird."

Moon chuckled.

"Look man, I just wanna do my job so I can go home and study before bed. Are you going to let me?"

"Depends how fast you can run away from me…"

"Dude, for real, stop that." He glanced over where he thought Moon had just been and noticed that there was now a stack of foam blocks. Was he cleaning while he taunted him? Keith had heard from his little brother that the Daycare attendant was a clean freak. He spotted a plastic ball from the ball pit resting on the floor behind the desk and picked it up, announcing clearly, "Aw man, look. This ball is supposed to be in the ball pit alllll the way on the other side." He jumped as Moon suddenly appeared, slamming his hands on the ledge above the desk and leaning over it.

"Give me that!" Moon snapped.

Keith quickly moved out of his reach, knowing full-well that the animatronic was programmed not to go behind the desk. "Ah-ah. I'll give it to you, but only if you let me do my job in peace. And don't take my stuff again!"

"Grrrrrr fine! Do your stupid little job, just give me the ball!"

"No way." He tossed the ball up and caught it before stashing it in his pocket. "I'll give it to you after I've done my job." He flicked his wrist in a shooing manner.

Moon growled and grumbled to himself as he slunk down from the desk and disappeared into the dark. Keith waited until he spotted him atop one of the playpens before stepping out from the desk and making his way over to the bathrooms. Once he had finished there, he moved on to the lobby waiting area, noticing how Moon was watching him the entire time. At first, he had been unnerved by this, but he quickly realized that the animatronic jester had no intention of going against their deal. Though he was sure that the robot could easily take the ball from him, he was glad that Moon would rather wait than straight up assault him for it. Keith began to wonder if Moon would have tried anything at all without the ball, but he figured that it would be better to be safe than sorry for now. While he was making his way back down to the security desk, the double doors opened and a very pretty woman entered the Daycare.

"Oh, hi there," Keith greeted her in a friendly way. "You must be the mechanic Abby was talking about. Lea, right? I'm Keith."

"That's right." Lea accepted his handshake. "Nice to meet you, Keith. You're working with the lights off?"

"I have no idea how to turn them on," he told her with a shrug. "Besides, the spots I need to clean have their lights on."

"Moon hasn't given you any trouble?"

He shrugged again and smiled. "Ehh, only a little. He stole my keys yesterday, but I got them back from Abby."

"Is that so?" She placed her hands on her hips and looked up at Moon watching them from his favorite perch.

"Hellooo, princess," Moon said.

"Hello, Moony," she replied. "Being a troublemaker for poor Keith, huh?"

"He should have put his keys in the lockers."

"I have a locker?" Keith asked, and Lea laughed at him. "Ah well." He reached in his pocket and pulled out the red ball. "Here you go. Deal's a deal." He tossed the ball up and was surprised when Moon swooped down on a wire and snatched it midair. "Whoa, sweet. Anyways, I gotta go. Finished early tonight, so I'm going home to study. Nice to meet you, Ms. Lea." He jogged over to the double doors and stopped to point up at Moon. "By the way. I know you stole my keychain! But it's okay! I'm not mad!" He grinned and ran out the doors.

"Moon, did you really keep his keychain?" Lea asked.

"It's a tiny sea turtle," he replied.

Lea rolled her eyes. "Right. Well, are you going to let me take a look at that problem your shoulder is having?"

"What problem?"

"Don't play dumb. I saw the way you were keeping it while you were over there, and I heard it when you caught the ball. Come down here."

He dropped down in front of her and stood up, turning his head. "I'm fine."

"Oh yeah? Roll your shoulders then."

"…" He hesitated for a long time before moving his shoulders, cringing and letting out a sound of pain as his left shoulder got stuck for a moment and released with a loud clack.

"Fine, huh?"

He grumbled something inaudible and lowered himself to let her look. Although he fully trusted Lea, he still tended to try and avoid maintenance whenever possible. Old habits die hard, as they say. The sight of certain tools triggered unpleasant memories from the previous mechanic, though he was only curious when he saw her pull a pair of long tweezers from her bag. She used a flashlight to peer into the shoulder and grabbed at something with the tweezers. After lightly jostling the object, she managed to get it free and removed it.

"A crayon? Moon, how did that get in there?"

He looked at it. "Good question… I do not know."

She snorted. "Silly. Okay, see if you can move your shoulder around now." After he rolled his shoulder with no unusual sounds or reactions of pain, she nodded and handed him the crayon. "Good. Now don't lie – is anything else bothering you?"

"No, Leanne," he said calmly and sincerely. "Thank you."

"Okay." She gave him a quick nuzzle. "I have to go look at Chica and Monty now. They've gotten themselves a little damaged. Goodnight for now."

…

"All right you two," Lea said as she entered Chica's room. She had told both animatronics to just meet her in there together. They were both sitting on the floor, and Monty was several feet away from Chica and looking mad at her. "What happened?"

"She pushed me!" Monty said instantly.

Chica looked embarrassed. "Eheh. I…might have been in one of my…moods."

"She pushed me into a wall then started guzzling slushies straight from the machine until her stomach bag broke!"

"Oh Chica," Lea sighed.

She twitched a little as bright blue liquid oozed from her knee joint. "Sorry…"

Lea decided to work on Chica first, considering that internal damage was far more of an issue than external, which was all Monty had. Not that he appeared to have much. It took Lea an entire hour to clean out all of the sticky syrup drink. The stuff had dripped down from Chica's stomach all the way into her hips and legs, sticking to both the interior of the outer shell and the endoskeleton rods and wires. Some of it had begun to caramelize in a way around the parts that naturally got warm as they moved around. Lea actually had to put on her electrical gloves due to the sparks it was causing with some of the wires. While she worked, Chica lay still on the carpeted floor with nearly her entire outer casing wide open, humming the main theme of the band to herself as if this was completely normal routine maintenance. All the while, Monty sat on the other side entertaining himself by repeatedly bouncing a deflating balloon back up into the air and watching it fall.

At some point when Lea was nearly finished with Chica, a loud pop startled her, and she jumped and turned to look at Monty. He looked just as surprised. Apparently, he had accidentally popped the balloon with his claws when he grabbed it after he missed and it landed on the floor. "Oops… My bad."

Lea rolled her eyes and went back to work. Chica had only reacted to the cleaning when Lea got to the area between her legs, at which point the animatronic stopped her and said that she would do that part herself. Lea did not protest. At first, she had been a little confused, but then she remembered that the area was where most of the touch sensory wires' ends were stored and collected in a bundle. It was, ironically, the most sensitive area on their bodies. Lea was not sure if that meant sensitive to pain or…something else, but she was perfectly fine with letting Chica do it herself.

Once Lea was sure that everything was clean, she moved on to fixing the wires that had gotten damaged. Every now and again, Chica would let out a quiet sound like she was surprised. Lea knew from working on Sun's hand that crimping or twisting wires was apparently painful for them. "Sorry, Chica. We're almost done."

"Okay."

Finally, Lea leaned back and huffed. "Okay, we're done." She took off her gloves while Chica closed herself up. Lea took a moment to watch her walk around then nodded. "Looks good. How do you feel?"

"I feel great! Thanks!"

Lea nodded again and stood up. "Good. All right Monty. Your turn."

"Huh? Oh, okay."

Lea sat beside him to look him over. The only damage appeared to be a kink in the base of his tail that was preventing him from moving it, as well as a long scrape that crossed from his right side of his hip diagonally down to his thigh. Lea checked his tail first. She tapped her fingernail a few times on each section of the tail, starting from the tip. "Can you feel any of this?"

"Mm. Nope."

"Huh…" She tapped on the base of the tail where it was kinked then grabbed it and pushed against it. It made a rough and rapid clicking sound and Monty jumped a little. "Did you feel that?"

"Yeah. That hurt."

"Sorry. I think something's stuck in the ball joint there." She grabbed some tools from her bag then pressed the tiny hidden buttons that were supposed to open the casing around the base of the tail. "Hm." The casing made a sound like it had unlocked, but it had not actually opened. She tried the buttons again but nothing happened. "Uh, hold on. This might pinch a little." Lea wedged the tiny corner of a flathead into the thin line where the casing was supposed to open and levered it. She noticed Monty tense before he let out an involuntary hiss of pain as the casing of the tail base snapped open. "I'm sorry, Monty," Lea said genuinely.

He looked embarrassed. "Uh, it's okay… I'm sorry."

Now that the cover was open, Lea could see the inner mechanisms of the tail trying to work against the object that was wedged between the ball joint and rod. It looked to be a sharp piece of plywood. There was some minor construction going on with part of the wall in El Chip's, which was where Abby had found them earlier. Lea removed the piece of wood and Monty felt an instant relief as his tail swished to the side and feeling returned throughout it.

"Oh!" he exclaimed.

"There we go." Lea studied the joint's movement to ensure that it was not damaged, then tapped on each section of his tail to make sure he could feel it. She replaced the cover back where it belonged and snapped it shut. "All right. Let's see this scrape."

When Lea ran her fingers across the scrape, Monty jolted and tensed. "Whoa. Uh, what did you do?"

"I…just touched it. Did it hurt?"

"No." He looked almost startled. He was not really sure what that feeling was. Monty noticed Chica giving him a suspicious but amused look.

"Well," Lea said. "Luckily, it's just paint damage. It doesn't even need to be buffed." She removed paints and a small brush from her bag, taking a mental note of how she needed more green.

Monty had relaxed just a little but tensed again when she touched the brush to his hip and began to fix the paint. He wanted to growl when he heard Chica giggle at him, but he did not want Lea to think it was directed at her. He was immensely relieved when she had finished, but it had taken a while due to the pattern on the casing there.

"Oh."

Monty was surprised when she touched his chin. He blinked at her as she gently pulled his head down close to her.

"…Looks like you need some paint touch-ups there, too. Hold still."

He remained how he was, watching her pull out a can of purple paint to fix the scuffed lightning bolt on his face. She leaned close and removed his sunglasses before slowly and carefully gliding the brush along the lightning bolt while the tips of her other hand's fingers just barely touched the underneath of his jaw. He shut his eyes, trying not to focus on how close she was, but he could feel the warmth from her body and hear her quiet breaths. The feeling from a few nights ago returned. He felt her begin to gently stroke her fingers along his bottom jawline and nearly shuddered at the strange sensation. The involuntary low growl of contented pleasure began to rise in his throat and he heard her let out a quiet huff of amusement. She had no idea what she was really doing to him. He knew he should not be allowing himself to indulge so deeply into it, but he could not resist her. She was sweet, and soft, and warm, and nice, and pretty, and fun. For a moment, he almost slipped into sleep, he was so wrapped up in her warm touch and flowery scent, but he caught himself and opened his eyes, pulling his head back just as she had finished.

"There," Lea told him. "All done."

"Huh? Oh. Uh, thanks." He had actually forgotten what they were doing for a moment. He spotted Chica watching them with a hand to her beak, grinning. Monty suddenly felt terribly embarrassed. He had completely forgotten she was there, or where they even were.

"All right." Lea packed all her things and stood up. "You two are in peak shape now. Behave yourselves. I've got to go meet up with Abby now."

"Byyyye!" Chica sang as Lea left the room. She looked at Monty as he stood up. "Sooo, Monty…"

"No."

"No? But –"

"I don't want to talk about it," he said quickly, avoiding her gaze. "It's…I can't."

Chica looked a little sad as she watched him leave. "Oh…"

…

Moon turned his head at the sound of the big double doors opening. It had been a few days since he had seen Keith. Then again, the teen only worked part-time. This was the fifth time total that Moon had seen him. Each time the boy entered, he would glance around until he spotted Moon then smile and greet him. If he did not see Moon, he would announce his arrival and say that he was going to start working. Moon supposed the boy was trying not to catch him off-guard. As if he could. Moon always heard the doors open in the Daycare.

After Keith's second shift there, Moon had stopped trying to mess with him. Instead, he would merely observe Keith from a safe distance. Quite frankly, he was curious about Keith. Keith had been cautious and wary of Moon at first, but was not afraid of Moon like other people were. He seemed to be more interested than afraid. Although he used a lot of silly slang when he spoke, Keith was polite and never swore or spoke poorly of anyone. The boy was also insistent on getting home in time to study for school before bed.

As Keith entered the Daycare, he looked around, spotting Moon perched atop the jutting ledge of a playpen. As usual, he said hello and waved, and, as usual, Moon's only response was to tilt his head to the side curiously. As he placed his bag down by the security desk, Keith spotted something small running over to him and looked to see the little purple and white bear. "Oh, Helpy! Hey little guy!" He crouched to pick him up.

Moon lurched forward a moment. He was going to snap at Keith and tell him not to touch the bear, but he realized that Helpy was excited and happy to see the teenager. Normally, Helpy did his best to avoid teens, due to their destructive tendencies and disregard for rules. Helpy was small and vulnerable. Moon felt protective of the little bear. He watched silently as Keith tickled the teddy-sized bear and laughed with him before gently placing him back down.

"Okay, buddy. I have to get to work." Keith went over to the bathrooms.

Moon watched Helpy run over to the double doors then turn to look at him. He climbed down from the playpen and calmly walked over to open the doors for the little bear. Chattering a happy "thanks!" in his weird little language, Helpy ran off. As Moon closed the doors, he heard Keith calling from the bathrooms.

"Uh, hey, Moondrop? Are the kids allowed to bring markers in the bathroom?"

"Absolutely not." Moon suddenly flinched. "Wait. Why?"

"Uh… Well, one of them did."

Moon hurried over and Keith quickly stepped out of the way. There was green marker all over the wall and one of the sinks. Moon let out a yelp. "Messy, messy, messy… Tch! Which one of you…" He started searching around for the marker.

Keith had gone off somewhere and returned with a container of cleaning wipes. "Good thing it's washable anyway," he said and began to clean the scribbles.

Moon crouched low under one of the stalls and snatched up something. "Ah-hah!" He looked at the marker. "Six? Jacob…" he growled.

"Jacob? That's probably my little brother. My mom just started bringing him here."

"That little monster is your sibling?" That was the child who had thrown a paint brush at them.

Keith snorted, amused. "Yeah. He's a terror. He's the reason I study for school later in the night after he's gone to bed."

"My condolences," Moon said and Keith laughed. "…What is school like?"

"School? I guess that depends who you ask. It's boring, mostly. But I like literature and science. Biology is my favorite. Oh, uh, you go there and learn all kinds of stuff. Most of it I think is pretty useless honestly. Not sure why I need to know about the Holocaust…"

"The what?"

"Oh, you don't…uh, never mind that one. There's lots of other kids at school, too. Some of them are jerks, some of them are cool." He shrugged.

"What have you been studying recently?"

Keith had not expected Moon to stay and have a conversation with him. It was a pleasant surprise. "Well, in history class we're learning about Egypt. Math is math. I'm taking a chemistry class right now. Oh, and in my literature class we're reading Fahrenheit 451. Well, I already finished it. Great book. Do you ever read novels?"

"Novels? No. I have never considered it. Not that I have access to any anyway."

"Aw, you should totally try reading some. Fantasy novels are my favorite. Sci-fi is cool too, though."

"What is that book about?"

"Fahrenheit 451? It's about censorship, to put it simply. It takes place in a fictional society where books are banned and these guys called 'firemen' burn all the books under order of the government."

"Why?"

"To control the people. Not let them get any ideas or whatever. Anyways, the story follows Guy Montag. He's one of the firemen but he starts questioning what they're doing and ends up having to choose between his beliefs and loyalty to his corrupt government."

"What does he choose?"

Keith smiled. "Hey, I have an idea. How about I let you borrow my book and you can find out for yourself? It's in my backpack."

Moon tilted his head. "…Is that okay?"

"Sure. It's my book, so I can do whatever I want with it. I paid for it." He laughed. After he finished up the bathrooms, he threw away the disposable gloves he had been wearing and washed his hands. "Come on." He led Moon over to the security desk, where Moon stopped a few feet away. Keith unzipped his bag and pulled out the book, offering it to him. "Go on," he said after Moon hesitated. "Give it a try. If you don't like it, that's fine."

Moon carefully took the book and examined the cover. There was a drawn image of a man with thin arms covering his face. Instead of clothes, he was wrapped in folded printed papers while standing atop a pile of books. Both the pile and the man himself had orange flames atop them. The image was a bit morbid but intriguing nonetheless. "…I will try."

"Great! Oh, dang! I gotta go!" He hurried over to the doors. "Uh, see you the night after tomorrow!"

...

Lea's first stop that night had been to run some routine maintenance on Helpy, who had eagerly met her in the room where she always clocked in. She was glad that he trusted her and was so excited to see her, even if it was for maintenance work. Everything was running and working as needed in the little bear. All he needed was a good wash, which he seemed to greatly enjoy. Lea made sure to always have a treat for him when she worked on him. His favorites seemed to be lollipops and small hard candies.

After, she carried him over to a tiny charging station just outside of Mr. Stanley's office. It was a station made specially for Helpy, and was like a little cubby in the wall with a light blue cushion inside. When she placed him inside, he stretched his little arms with a yawn and curled up on his side to go to sleep. Lea smiled. "Goodnight Helpy."

When she entered the Daycare, Lea found Moon leaning back on a big soft cushion that had a face and round ears. It resembled a very round mouse and was a pale pink color. Lea liked that cushion. She walked over and noticed that he was reading a book. "Fahrenheit 451? Where did you get that?"

"Keith loaned it to me."

"Oh? What do you think so far?"

"It is admittedly interesting."

She noticed that his voice was calm and there was no trace of a growl. It was what she was sure was his true 'normal' voice. Similar to Sun's, but lower and calmer. "Keith's a nice kid," Lea said thoughtfully. "The other day he was telling me how he wants to be a marine biologist. He went on and on about the ocean and the animals in it before he got embarrassed and apologized." She laughed. "I guess he thought he was bothering me. He seems to especially like the sea turtles."

Moon had closed the book to give her his attention. At the mention of sea turtles, he thought of the keychain he had taken. "…I…always wished to see the ocean. And the real stars."

Lea felt a slight twinge in her heart. She knew they could have wants, but she did not realize until that moment that they also had wishes like that. "Have you ever at least seen pictures of the ocean?"

He shook his head. "Only the cartoons in children's books."

"Ah, well." She pulled out her phone and joined him on the big mouse cushion. He seemed a bit surprised but did not move away from her when she pressed against his side. "Look. It's not the same as seeing it in person, but the internet does have its uses." She pulled up images of online photos of the beach and ocean and rocky coasts. Many of them were pictures of the sunrise or sunset on the ocean horizon. "So, this is the surface of the ocean. People love seeing the sunset on it, as you can tell."

"It's beautiful…"

"Yeah. It is. Oh, look." She typed something else in and began to show him underwater images taken of sea life. Coral reefs, colorful fish of all shapes and sizes, dolphins, orcas, stingrays, sharks, seals, starfish, whales, seahorses, jellyfish, and sea turtles. He liked the sea turtles. They had small round heads with big squinty eyes and pretty shells. The image of a blue whale dwarfing a Scooba diver made him let out a sound almost like a small gasp. "Blue whales are the biggest animal on the planet." Lea told him. "Actually, I think they're the biggest animals that have ever existed. Up to a hundred feet long."

"One-hundred feet?" he sounded amazed. "That's absurd!"

She laughed. "It's true though! And they eat some of the tiniest critters out there, called krill. Nature is weird. A little gross and scary too." She laughed again. "Look at how big the sea turtles get compared to humans. But look at their newly-hatched babies in comparison."

"It's cute."

"The baby turtle? Heh, yeah, they're super cute. Oh! Let me show you sea otters."

Lea had lost track of time sitting there showing him so many pictures of sea creatures and telling him what she knew about them. Moon was highly attentive the entire time and remarked on the appearances of the animals. He seemed to favor the sea turtles, orcas, seahorses, and octopuses. A colorful mantis shrimp also piqued his interest. Sometimes her remarks or excitement over a cute baby animal would cause him to laugh. It was a different laugh that she had not heard from him before now. A real, happy laugh. Lea loved seeing her friend this way. Happy and relaxed.

They had spent nearly two hours looking at pictures of sea animals and even reading some facts about some of them. A message from Abby caused Lea to notice how long it had been. "Oh jeez! It's been almost two hours!" She sighed. "Time always goes by so quickly when you're having fun. I should go see what Abby wants. Then I need to check on Roxy." She struggled a moment trying to escape the mouse cushion, causing Moon to chuckle at her. "Ah, whatever," she said with a smirk after she had gotten to her feet.

"Thank you, Leanne," Moon told her. "I…that was fun."

Her smile widened. "Yeah. Maybe one day I'll sneak you out to see the real ocean."

"That is a major violation of rules."

She laughed. "Most of what I do here is!"

"…I won't tell."

With another laugh she waved to him. "Okay, Moony. See you later."

"Goodnight, Lea."

…

When Keith returned two days later, he had been delighted to learn that not only did Moon actually read the book, but he also enjoyed it. They spent some time discussing it while Keith worked. When it was time for Keith to go, Moon returned the book to him. "I'm glad you liked it. It's honestly one of my favorites."

"…Leanne said that you are wanting to study marine life."

"Oh, yeah, totally! I really want to study sea turtles. They're my favorite animal. It's kinda silly, but I have them all over my room. Haha!"

Moon held out something to him. "You…will be wanting this back then."

"Hm? My keychain!" It was a tiny sea turtle, about the size of a penny, made of metal with a green enamel back. He had gotten it when he was four and kept it ever since. "You know what… You keep it."

"What?"

Keith grinned at him. "Consider it a gift from a friend. Oh! I gotta go. See ya!"

Moon watched him run out of the Daycare then looked down at the little turtle. A friend? He did not know he had any besides Lea. Moon attached it to one of the tiny loops where the bells on his left wrist were then covered it with the red ribbon he wore. It was nice to have friends.

To be continued…