Author's Note: Thanks to Boop for the help with editing through this chapter!
Chapter 188
Mike's Adventures in Babysitting
Earlier that Night
Mike stepped into the building, it giving him a mild welcoming creak that he might have explained away as random building settling noises a year ago. It was still kinda creepy, but he had gotten used to it. Mostly.
"BONNIE IF YOU TURN THE STAGE SPEAKERS ON ONE MORE TIME I'M PUTTING YOUR GUITAR IN TIME-OUT!"
"If you touch my guitar, I'm putting your microphone in the freezer and telling Ruby!"
"Touch the speakers and I'm not going to care anymore!"
"Toby and I need to practice!"
"GO TO THE TOYS' ROOM!"
"THEIR ACOUSTICS SUCK BALLS!"
"LANGUAGE!"
"Bonnie!" That was Chica's horrified gasp that time.
"BALLS IS NOT A BAD WORD!"
"IN THAT CONTEXT IT IS!"
Mike stopped in the lobby and hung his head with a heavy sigh.
He'd never actually heard Freddy snap like that before, much less to any of the other Originals, which didn't bode well for the night.
Mike was so damn tired. He wasn't sure how Hedy did it. Or even Ruby. He had severely underestimated how reliant the bots were on the girls. It was like herding toddlers at a daycare who missed their parents. Well, for the Toys' at least. But the Originals were still clearly missing Ruby and being anxious messes about it.
The last time Ruby had been gone for so long was during her coma. That fact was enough to put the bots on edge. With Hedy gone too, most of them weren't sure what to do with themselves. Except stress and start fights.
Unfortunately, Mike found himself being the one trying to keep some semblance of calm for the night shift.
His attempt to prepare himself for the drama was interrupted by Puppet appearing in the entryway of the Main Room.
"You're late," the lanky bot snapped, glaring at Mike.
"Sorry," Mike said with a wince.
Puppet continued to stare.
Mike spoke again. "Sorry."
"It's 12:05. You can't be late for a shift," Puppet reiterated, refusing to move out of the way.
Mike looked up from putting his keys away and met Puppet's unblinking pinprick white eyes. "I'm sorry, Puppet," Mike said, shoving down whatever anxiety Puppet was trying to tease out of him. He didn't have a trauma-caused thread of fear toward Puppet and the Toys, unlike Jeremy, since he had never been on the wrong end of a game with them as the aggressors. He wondered if it annoyed Puppet that he had to work harder to intimidate the man.
Puppet still refused to move out of his way, ignoring the noise of arguing from inside the room behind him.
Mike didn't back down. "Look. My car had trouble starting. It does that sometimes," he said, a little sterner. "It's not a life or death situation-me being a little late. You aren't trying to kill me and there aren't any deals tied to me showing up on time. It is not a big deal if I'm a little late occasionally."
"It's careless."
"It was an accident."
They stared at each other for another second before Puppet stepped out of the way, still glaring at Mike. Maybe. Sometimes Mike still had a little trouble reading the older bot's expressions. He'd take the tiny win though. He was going to need the confidence boost, as small as it was.
"Alright what's goin-"
"MIKE'S HERE!" BB announced as obnoxiously loud as he possibly could, making Mike and a few bots who hadn't noticed the man jump in fright. The smaller bot spun back around on his heel to unsettlingly lock eyes with Mike. "BATTERIES."
Mike squeaked out a yelp and chucked a pair of AA batteries at BB to pay the "door tax" and scooted past before the little bot got too nosey about his bag.
BB disappeared into the darkened hallway with an ominous giggle echoing behind him.
He got some greetings and a nod from Jeremy, who hadn't even looked up from the book he was reading. If Mike squinted he could see the title. Looked like the cop was in the middle of the Hobbit. Prime 'forget my panic' material.
"Evening Mike," Freddy said, his tone far too casual and putting the man on edge immediately. "I have a question. Do you think it's inconsiderate to practice loud music while we're watching a movie?" Freddy didn't even stop his pointed stare at both Bonnie and Toby, not even looking at Mike to greet him.
Toby had his arms tightly crossed and was rolling his eyes so hard his head tilted back while Bonnie groaned.
"Did Hedy call?" Mangle asked impatiently before Mike could respond. She didn't give a shit about the argument.
"What did you do today, Mike?" Chica asked, also not caring about the argument. She was more polite than any of the others at least.
"You should have come to the day shift," Teddy scoffed. "It was crazy."
"There was a fight," Chica corrected.
"Puppet yelled at a customer," Spring reported from where he was sitting next to Jeremy while petting his cat. That almost sounded like glee from him.
Chica squinted her eyes at him but the rabbit pretended not to notice as he grinned past Mike.
He vaguely heard Puppet stiffen behind him and winced. Damn, the stickman was loud. He really should let Hedy check him over.
"Spring."
Spring continued, unbothered. "The police were called. Not for him yelling." He said it so calmly that Mike almost didn't process those sentences.
"Wait what?" Mike asked as he walked through the room and set down his bag, kicking it under a table and out of the way.
Goldy explained what happened, making Mike jump when her voice came from right above him. How the hell did the girls keep track of her and not get periodic heart attacks when she appeared like that? "Some parents got into a fight because Toby caught a kid eating cake from a birthday party he wasn't a part of. His mom yelled at Toby for saying no to her son and tried to guilt the birthday mom into sharing even though they were complete strangers. Puppet got snappy with the entitled lady. I think the staff were a little surprised he did that and didn't know what to do." She actually sounded proud.
Puppet was refusing to look at anyone.
"Uh... did everything turn out okay?" Mike asked, a little surprised that they hadn't called him. That sounded like something they would have called Ruby in for. The teenager made a damn good night guard despite everything. A violent one that had too much blackmail on everyone, but a good one. She dealt with people like that very well and considered 'Karens' free game.
Goldy waved him off. "It was fine. Olivia handled it. It was her shift."
"Oh. Okay good."
He was glad they didn't call him. He needed what little sleep he'd been getting this week.
A few of the bots regaled Mike with the incidents of the workday. They had been doing that a lot over the week. It was usually the first thing when he walked through the door unless they were already playing a game and demanded he join. Mike was a little confused by the routine.
He was making a list. It was one of the few things keeping him sane while he waited for the nights to go by and for the phone calls from his girlfriend and her pseudo-sister. (Maybe his pseudo-sister, but he didn't think Ruby was ready for him to say that out loud yet.) But the list was helping to keep him busy. He'd started writing down every new thing he found that the girls did to keep this place running.
Number one. Ruby patted the wall as she came in and Hedy always paused to greet the Building. Just a simple hello or even a nod at the ceiling would do. It was in a sour mood if both of these things weren't done. Specifically in the front room. Goldy had to explain that one to him and the sentient pizzeria seemed to grudgingly accept him doing it the next night.
Number two. Ruby actually did a run around the place every night to check that the cleaners did their job and there was a starboard he'd never known existed where she put star stickers on the nights they did really well. That meant... a surprising amount to the cleaners. He got Jeremy to do that whenever he was in. After living with his roommates, Mike had a low bar of what 'clean' entailed.
Number three. Greet Toby. Of course, he greeted all the bots. That was just polite. But specifically Toby. If Toby wasn't greeted within the first half an hour, he tended to throw a tantrum. Which usually started a fight with Bonnie. Which started a fight with an overprotective Foxy. Which resulted in a moody blue bunny for the rest of the night being passive-aggressive for the entire shift while Foxy went the entire time wound up and likely to snap at anyone.
Number four. Give BB batteries. Admittedly, he'd folded in this case. He'd messaged Ruby after the first night since he couldn't tell how many he was supposed to give out every night and they could add up in costs. Ruby had sent him a schedule. A schedule. One that she and Hedy had worked together on to work out when they should give him a battery, which batteries were the most cost-effective and what behaviour resulted in BB losing a battery. Both Jeremy and Mike had stared at it for a good long while as they processed the work put into it and the fact that it honestly worked. Jeremy had been on the phone with Amelia wondering if he should ask them to draw one up for the twins while his wife was asking when he'd last slept properly. To be fair, she hadn't seen it. Mike would want one for his kids… If/When he had them. Given how Hedy helped make the schedule in the first place, maybe he shouldn't worry about asking for it if she…
Mike quickly chased the thought away before anyone caught him smiling too much at the whisper of an idea.
Number five. Everything had a schedule. Both stages had scheduled nights for various bots. There was a scheduled 'quiet' time for the Prize Corner and arcade, which was most of the time except on Wednesdays when the bots could play the games for once. Fazbear's Fright was only 'open' three times a week, giving Spring some peaceful time but also making sure he couldn't stay there all week since he still wanted to see the others. There was a tight and non-negotiable schedule of maintenance and check-ups, which had been thrown out by this whole thing. Puppet was unusually pissed off about that. But anyway, everything had a schedule. They were all neatly filed in a perfectly ordered and tidy shelf in Parts and Services that he'd never even looked at before.
Number six. When all else failed, guilt them into doing whatever they didn't want to do with a quiet mutter of 'Hedy/Ruby would be so disappointed'.
It was low. But desperate times called for desperate measures. And Jeremy was being completely useless, so guilt it was! It was the only thing that had stopped a few impending physical fights so he was standing by that decision.
It had already stopped one argument involving Freddy, of all bots. Although it seemed more like he was being representative of all the other bots against Bonnie and Toby (except Foxy). The rabbits really wanted to practice a new song and have it ready for the girls when they came home. It was very sweet of them, especially since it seemed to be a rare partner effort with Toby and Bonnie. It was probably a competition between them.
However, using the main stage for music practice was only allowed at 5 am three days a week unless the entire group agreed otherwise. The bots didn't need practice for their usual work songs but they greatly enjoyed the occasional jam session.
All the bots loved music. Even Puppet. He'd sway a bit and tap his fingers while the younger bots played.
Even BB thought it taboo to be obnoxious at those times.
Ruby "knew a guy" and a drum set and an electric keyboard that were sized to the Originals-and therefore playable for the Toys too-were on their way. It was a custom job, of course, so it was taking a long while.
However, tonight was Movie Night and the guitarists had to follow the rules. It was Freddy's turn to pick and Jeremy had found the bear a director's cut of the Hobbit so that was probably why he was so defensive of Movie Night.
Mike found it odd how strict the routine seemed to be. He hadn't even noticed there was a conscious routine until suddenly he was the one who had to run it, despite being part of it for the better part of the past year.
Surprisingly, it was Jeremy who had an explanation for him when Mike wasn't sure he wanted to call Hedy with his question. The bots were all still a little too emotionally or mentally fragile to be able to function without some kind of routine.
For the Originals, the certainty gave them comfort. They weren't being forced to kill night guards every night but that routine had painfully etched its groves into their minds. They had their freedom but apparently being suddenly offered too much choice after Ruby won her first Game was hard to adjust to in those early days. Somehow Ruby had noticed, but her efforts were subtle, with strategic choices when it came to breaking the routine so that her bots didn't become dependent on it. That wasn't really a surprise. Mike learned pretty early on that Ruby was more observant than she let on.
For the Toys, the traumatic monotony of being trapped in the Warehouse left them anxious and hungry for contact if there wasn't something happening or something to do. Puppet liked his personal time but the Toys still struggled with quiet moments, probably because of how young they were when sent to storage. Boredom sent them sliding toward panic, although most of them weren't aware of it. Not even Mangle, despite being the most self-aware of the Toys. Boredom and being alone scared them, but they were learning that moments of quiet weren't something to fear. Slowly.
So Ruby and Hedy's schedules offered the older bots consistency and peace of mind while keeping the younger bots busy enough to manage their anxiety.
He wondered how they made it together. It didn't look like they'd put two separate schedules together. It worked too seamlessly. They had to have worked on this together.
Sometimes it threw him off to realise how well Ruby and Hedy worked together, especially when no one was watching. Ruby tended to be a bit more difficult when there were others around. Was she different when she was just with Hedy? Was Hedy different with her?
Mike had been dating Hedy for nearly a year and he was still learning more things about her. It was hard for her to truly open up at times so when she shared pieces with him, he didn't take it for granted.
Ruby was similar in that way. Hedy was better at connecting with people compared to Ruby, but that wasn't saying much given how vicious Ruby could be about her vulnerabilities.
Mike sometimes felt like he missed parts of their relationship because of how private they were.
He was rudely interrupted from his thoughts by a plastic ball being chucked at his head.
"Ow. The heck was that for!" he demanded.
Foxy looked completely unapologetic. He had elected to do some work on Pirates Cove instead of watching the movie. He liked cleaning it himself, even if the cleaners did their job acceptably. He also wanted to refresh the paint on his ship, although Ruby said she wanted to do it with him when she got back.
"That light you fixed yesterday is going out again. Shoddy work, Schmidt," the fox snapped.
Mike blinked owlishly at the fox as he tried to shift his thought process.
"What?"
"It's not even the right light. It's a different shade from all the others and looks ridiculous."
"Really? I'm pretty sure I got the right temperature. It's a new LED bulb. Can you tell the difference?" He often wondered how different the world looked to the bots.
"The hell did I just say?" Foxy snapped while Freddy tried to shush him, everyone else looking amused at the exchange. "Of course it's different!"
Mike yelped as Mangle suddenly dropped something heavy in his lap with a sigh, seeming to appear from nowhere. Mike thought it was Goldy at first.
"You're gonna need it," she sing-songed before sitting back down next to Chi.
"Don't kill him," Jeremy deadpanned. The jerk didn't even look up from his book.
Then Mike realized he was holding a sword and paled. "Woah woah woah, hold on a second! AH!" He shrieked and scrambled out of the way.
Foxy's sword crashed into Mike's former seat and the fox kicked the poor chair away while ignoring Freddy's complaints.
"Face me like a man, ye yellow-bellied land lubber!" Foxy demanded while grinning.
"Foxy! What the fuck!?" Mike pleaded.
Foxy broke character for a second. "I dunno. I'm bored."
"What?!"
"Now git yer blade up, ye dog! I'll show you what happens when deckhands disrespect Captain Foxy with shoddy work, Mr. Schmidt!"
Bonnie glared at Freddy. "How come Foxy gets to interrupt Movie night?!"
"He can't! Foxy! Take your Ruby withdrawal somewhere else!"
Puppet snorted. He remained unhelpful though.
Foxy, of course, didn't listen. Mangle was cheering him on and enjoying it too much. The rabbits got louder as they tried to make their argument heard. Freddy looked moments away from screaming and the others were all the shades in between.
He hadn't thought that he'd need to use it, but now he was glad that Ruby gave it to him before she left. He quickly fumbled the air horn out of his pocket and pressed it. Everyone immediately dropped what they were doing to cover their ears. Or pull them down in the rabbits' cases.
"Mike!" Chi complained when the sound cut off.
"Why'd you do that?" Bonnie whined.
"No!" He said firmly to Foxy. "Freddy, pause the movie. I need to say something. No non-consenting sword fights." He stood his ground even when Foxy blinked at him in surprise and looked frustrated.
He was stiff and his hand was a little shaky from stress. Staring Foxy down would probably always make him a little anxious. Trauma doesn't go away that easily. "Foxy, you don't get to bully me to play with you! I'll play, but I need some rules. And a safe word! I'm not Ruby!" He kicked the sword away to make a point.
"Got that right..." Bonnie muttered petulantly.
Jeremy let out a deep sigh and shook his head.
"You guys do not want me to be Ruby! Or Hedy! Or anyone else besides myself!" Mike snapped. Not unkindly, but Bonnie was still a little startled by the tone.
It was quiet for a moment.
Mike sighed. "Foxy," he said, calmer. He said it again. "Do not bully me into playing with you just because you're bored and you're grumpy because you miss Ruby. Ruby is okay with impromptu sword fights. I'm not. Understand?"
The fox scowled and looked away, arms crossed. He really was in a foul mood since Ruby had to leave. He'd noticed a lot of negativity come out when the girls headed out. Mangle was also more prone to snap and was meaner than usual. It was the most obvious with those two but the others showed signs too. Their tempers were shorter, they were grumpy or quieter most of the time and all of them were quick to argue.
They missed Hedy and Ruby so much it almost physically hurt to see. And Mike did get that. Beyond missing the girls, the bots were also scared. They didn't like that the pair were around Afton, they didn't like that there were potentially dangerous bots and they didn't like being too far away to help. And Ruby's coma would also forever haunt them in the sense that not seeing her for a while sent their anxiety through the roof.
If they didn't pull their behaviour under control though, someone was going to get hurt and he didn't want to be that someone or the person who had to tell the girls about the someone.
He was a little surprised Foxy didn't immediately start arguing with him. Small miracles.
"Look. I'll have a sword fight with you." He was so going to regret this. "Don't make up reasons to be mad with me as an excuse!"
"I didn't make it up," Foxy snapped. "The light looks stupid."
Mike ignored him trying to pick a verbal fight. "We need to leave and keep the Main Room off-limits so we don't disturb the others. And we need a safe word."
"Safe word?" Foxy grumbled.
Mike hoped none of the bots would ask someone else about the context. It was a common practice in acting so it wasn't too weird. "If I say...uh..." He struggled to think of something. "Pineapple, then that means I don't feel safe anymore and we need to stop immediately."
"That sounds stupid," Toby complained. "Why don't you just say 'stop'?"
"Well if we're acting and the pirates yell at each other to stop but the fight needs to continue, then it could get confusing."
"So there's no misunderstandings," Goldy nodded. "That makes sense."
Well, that seemed to solve the issue at least. Maybe things would calm down now-
"They're still trying to interrupt the movie," Freddy said with a glare at the rabbits.
"We need to practice!"
"I'll be waiting in the cove," Foxy said, apparently accepting the rules. "You've got five minutes."
"I wanna cook," Chi complained.
"I don't," Chica snapped. "And you're not allowed there without supervision. And Mike sucks at cooking."
"But I wanna cook!"
Puppet looked skywards as the arguments blew up again. Solve one problem, gain five more...
Mike looked to Jeremy for help but the man continued to read his book unbothered.
"Jeremy," he pleaded.
"If you think you can't handle them, call the girls," the older man deadpanned. Utterly useless tonight apparently. He had kids! Where were the wrangling grumpy children tips?!
Mangle perked up at that and Mike internally screamed. He wouldn't put it past some of them to cause chaos on purpose to get Mike to call Ruby and Hedy.
"No," Puppet cut in surprisingly. "He can text but don't call. We have to consider they are...in an unsafe situation."
Playing a game, everyone else heard.
The bots winced, but he had a point. The girls would have turned their phones off or on silent during work just in case. But they couldn't risk either of them forgetting, as unlikely as that was. They were less worried about Mike sending a text. Hedy and Ruby kept their text notifications to a soft vibrate by default.
"How about this?" Mike said quickly before anyone started to spiral in worry. "I'll go have a sword fight with Foxy for about an hour."
There were a few chuckles at the doubt he could keep up for an hour. He ignored them.
"You two," he looked at Bonnie and Toby. "Go set up in the Toys room to practice."
"But-!"
"The acoustics are not that bad and it's better than nothing, which is your only other option."
Toby snapped his mouth shut while Bonnie looked surprised at the tone.
Mike looked at Freddy. "If you can still hear them...I dunno...can't you ask the Building to muffle the sound between the rooms?"
"Uh..." Freddy didn't look so sure and glanced at the wall.
"I can," Goldy said, amused.
Mike huffed. "Good. Chi, find a recipe. I can cook decently if there's actual instructions to follow. Hedy's the one whose reading comprehension goes out the window when she sees 'tsp'."
"Tsp?" Spring asked with a chuckle.
"Teaspoon," Chica explained. "Mike, it's still my kitchen and I don't want to cook tonight. Or supervise."
Chi groaned loudly.
"Jeremy can supervise."
"The hell I can."
"You can read your book at the cook's table!" Mike said.
Jeremy sighed, but grudgingly nodded.
Honestly, Mike was pretty sure Jeremy just didn't want to get involved because reading distracted him the best. If he was busy with anything else, his stress and worry started to spiral. And Mike got that, but he still needed help. Hedy and Ruby ran this place efficiently and as a team. There was no way that was happening without the girls, but Mike would appreciate some help to at least try.
"That's the plan we're running with tonight," he said firmly.
He rubbed his face as he reluctantly started to head to Pirate's Cove.
"You're all being jerks," Goldy said once Mike was gone.
Everyone's heads whipped around to the floating bear in offence.
"Mike's just as worried and stressed and none of you even try to help. I get Jeremy. He's one bad move away from a breakdown even if he's hiding it pretty well. But you're all just being jerks and as unhelpful and difficult as possible. Foxy too, but I think Mike snapping made him aware of that which is why he gave that five minute window. Probably needed to make himself calm down a bit as well."
Jeremy only grunted, nose back in his book. He wasn't defending himself either since Goldy was right. He didn't read unless he was trying not to think at all. He should try to help at least though. Mike was trying damn hard to keep everything running.
Bonnie muttered to himself as he gathered his guitar and some cables. He shot Toby a look when the other rabbit dragged his feet, pouting and not wanting to do what Mike said without a suitable period of resistance.
"He didn't need to be snappy," Teddy complained.
"Yeeeeah he did," Spring retorted. He was proudly maintaining his position of being the most unproblematic, so long as he didn't accidentally snap a lock before Hedy got back. She had shown Mike how to reset Spring's springlocks and Spring could trust the man to do it if truly necessary, but Mike was clearly uncomfortable with the idea and Spring didn't want to stress the man out any more than necessary. So long as he didn't catch a lock in his legs, he could probably get away with hiding it until Hedy got back. "You ignore him when he's nice. He wasn't even being mean just then. Just stern."
Mangle looked offended. "I don't ignore him."
Puppet scoffed. "You're being just as much of a brat as Foxy."
Mangle turned to glare at him in rage. "I don't listen to traitors who get me torn apart," she spat.
The other Toys flinched.
Puppet was silent and it was hard to read his expression, except for Goldy and even Spring, who could do so intuitively without his memories somehow. It had been a good while since Mangle had genuinely used that against Puppet. She occasionally teased him (although with a note of viciousness), just to remind him that she hadn't forgotten what he did. But the teasing had led him to believe she had shifted a little closer to eventually forgiving him. His mistake, he knew. He should never have expected forgiveness for that.
Spring's amusement was gone as he looked at Mangle in disappointment. He could see Puppet shut down, which he had to assume meant Puppet was hurt. But Spring could also understand that Mangle had every right to still be angry. He knew what happened during Ruby's game against the Toys. He also knew Mangle wasn't necessarily paying attention to the subtleness of Puppet's body language, especially if Puppet was actively trying to not give anything away.
Goldy rubbed a hand over her face with a soft sigh. They didn't scold Mangle, because they couldn't. It was her trauma and her right to be angry. It only seemed to be showing up lately when she was angry and wanted an easy target to lash out at though. Goldy wished she'd be somewhat consistent about it sometimes. Moments like this threw everyone and they honestly weren't sure how she viewed Puppet anymore. It seemed to change from day to day.
"You are being just as mean as Foxy," Goldy spoke up. "Foxy is self-aware of it at least. But you can't claim innocence Mangle. You're making his life harder too."
She doubted the fox would listen, especially since Goldy was agreeing with Puppet about something she didn't want to hear.
Sure enough, Mangle scowled and crossed her arms with a glare at Goldy.
"I can be angry all I want!" she shouted. "Hedy and Ruby are out there with the man who made us then abandoned us!"
"So how is that Mike's fault?"
You could hear a pin drop as everyone turned to look at BB who didn't bother acknowledging them as he sat on the stage sorting a bunch of batteries by size. They hadn't noticed him move there.
"I'm pretty mad at Pops too," he said.
Mangle suddenly let out a hissing staticky snarl that she hadn't made since her voice had been fixed.
There was a dramatic reaction from the others, Goldy flinching and floating away sharply while the others mostly froze.
Toby nearly dropped his guitar. Nearly.
Spring looked confused at the word and that actually made it hurt more for the older bots.
Jeremy's eyes widened to the size of saucers, suddenly aware he just heard something way more private about the bots than he (or they) were prepared for.
BB did not care for the sudden discomfort and shock in the room. "I miss him a little too. But I'm still mad. You don't see me terrorizing Mike or Jeremy more than usual though."
Jeremy decided that he was really uncomfortable with BB sounding reasonable. He preferred when the small bot pretended to be illiterate and unable to hold a thought more complicated than "batteries."
BB definitely said that word on purpose, given the others' reactions.
"He's not-" Freddy started tersely.
"Not your decision," BB said cheerfully. "It's mine. And I'll still call him Pops. Even when I'm mad at him. But me calling him that doesn't mean anyone else has to. Just like you can't decide anything for anyone else. And why Mangle shouldn't get to be a bitch to Mike just cause she's mad."
"You're just saying that to provoke us," Puppet said dryly.
BB glared at the oldest bot. "So? That doesn't mean I'm wrong. Mike is the best person in the building right now and what does he get for it? Grow up."
Jeremy buried his nose in his book but still glanced over the edge to see how shocked the other bots looked. He wasn't sure what to make of this.
BB decided to say what he wanted since he had everyone's attention for once. Except Foxy. "And frankly, I'm getting really sick and tired of us pretending like we aren't siblings." He shot a look at Toby and Bonnie.
The two still hadn't left yet, standing there in shock with the sound equipment.
"He's probably coming back with Ruby and Hedy so it's going to come up one way or other." BB frowned. This was the most he had probably spoken in years. He hated it. "I learned a new term recently. Emotional regulation? I think that's it. If you're going to lash out at Mike like this before Pops comes back, then I'm worried how you're going to act when he's here. If you can't handle it, then you probably shouldn't be working with kids while he's here. Can't be teaching kids to hate their parents when they don't even deserve it. Kids aren't going to be able to tell the difference. And we all know they pick up on a lot of stuff. Hedy and Ruby got a lot of habits from us."
Abruptly, BB started gathering his batteries, his movements jerky. He was done talking and he clearly didn't want to be there any longer.
Most of the bots were outright gaping by that point so they didn't stop him. He did pause at the doorway though.
"Hedy and Ruby are going to be so disappointed. Mike won't tell them, but I will."
He was gone before anyone could say anything.
Mangle's ears folded back a bit at the threat but she was too stubborn to march to Mike right that moment and apologize, especially when she wasn't entirely convinced she was in the wrong.
Jeremy opened his mouth to ask something but Spring nudged him and shook his head warningly.
"Uh..." he still said, the bot's eyes turning to him and daring him to comment. "Chi, let's go. I'll help you find a recipe on the Manager's computer."
The smaller chicken was shocked by the offer. "O-oh. Okay..."
The mood was dampened in the room after BB's words. Goldy snatched Puppet by the back of his suit and dragged him over to Spring, ignoring his offended squawking at the sudden movement. She said something about wanting him to check something in Spring's arm that she was sure was bothering him. Spring looked confused for a brief moment before just going with it.
Bonnie and Toby grabbed their things and hurried from the room. Freddy turned back to the TV.
No one complained when the music from the Toy's room echoed softly into the main room.
"My arm is fine," Spring said, still confused as he, Goldy, and Puppet sat down, stood, and floated on the other side of the room from where the rest continued their movie night with tension. He spoke softly so as not to bother the others."I mean," he admitted shyly. "Something is a little tight, but I've not popped anything. I promise."
"What face would Hedy pull if you told her that 'something is a little tight'?" Goldy asked in a deadpan.
Spring froze and grimaced sheepishly. "I don't want to stress out Mike more," he said. "And well...he's the only one whose hands are small enough." He looked at Goldy apologetically.
Puppet grunted. "I can do it." He seemed a little miffed that he wasn't considered. "I don't see why Hedy bothered teaching Mike."
"Because your arm is still broken and you won't let her look," Spring deadpanned, echoing Goldy a moment ago as he glared at Puppet.
"I can straighten your locks with one hand," Puppet said dryly. He didn't bother denying he was injured. He had done what he could so that he could at least move his arm that he had slammed against the wall when Will had called. However, the wood skeleton was still shattered and he didn't have much movement in his hand. He was confident he could fix it himself, it would just be slow going with one hand and he had been too busy to allow himself to sit still so wood glue had time to dry.
Goldy and Spring looked equally unimpressed with him and it briefly threw him back to decades ago when he tried to get out of routine maintenance.
He squashed that memory ruthlessly and only gestured for Spring to let him look.
In the Manager's office, the tension was thick as Jeremy logged into the computer with Chi leaning over him from behind. It was a miracle he figured the password out. Ruby changed it every other week just to make the man's life a little bit more difficult. She always left a riddle on the desk and he'd thankfully already known this one. Hedy liked using it to make people feel stupid when she was younger.
He was overly aware of the chicken animatronic right behind him though, catching the bright yellow of her casing in his peripheral vision.
"Could…you not do that?" Jeremy asked as he pulled up the internet browser.
"Do what?" Chi asked.
"...loom over me?"
"Oh. Sorry." The chicken stepped back quickly.
Jeremy cleared his throat. "So…do you know what you want to cook?"
"Something interesting," Chi said, perking up a bit and taking a step closer.
Jeremy didn't ask her to back up again although he did tense up a little. "You gotta be a little more specific," he said patiently.
Chi huffed and rolled her eyes. "Whatever looks good!"
"Well." Jeremy looked at her after moving the curser around a little, "What kind of things look good to you?"
"Some of the stuff we ate at the buffet when we were humans," she said. "But Ricky mentioned that kind of food is pretty normal and boring stuff."
"That's a matter of opinion," he said. Mike liked the buffet. Ruby would have probably nitpicked the food choices to death. It depended on the person's experience. But how did he explain that to a chicken robot whose attention span seemed to barely beat out BB's. (When it wasn't about batteries of course).
"Well it's not like I've had many opportunities to make more opinions about food," Chi said, a little snappishly. She looked guilty a moment later. "Sorry…"
Briefly, Jeremy wondered if Chi, or the rest of the bots, were…jealous? Did they wish they were humans? He didn't really get that feeling from most of them. Or from the Originals at least. Were the Toys different?
He was interrupted from his vicarious existential questions by Teddy cracking open the door with a knock, peeking his head in.
"What?" Chi asked.
"Nothing," Teddy said. "Just wondering if you wanted any help?"
"Aren't you watching the movie?" Jeremy asked.
Teddy looked a little miffed. "Freddy likes the Tolkien stuff. I don't," he said in a tone that said he didn't like the assumed comparison.
"Ah…right," Jeremy said, deciding that apologizing would just irritate the younger bear more. Could they really blame him though? He didn't know the nuances between the groups. He just knew that the rabbits liked their guitars too much. The chickens cooked. The foxes were menaces and the bears were the (usually) responsible ones. He wasn't really around them enough to know that Teddy didn't like Tolkien.
He'd bet Hedy knew every single one of those differences. He really was failing at this helping thing, wasn't he?
"What are you doing?"
Chi huffed. "Trying to look for recipes but Jeremy wants me to be specific!"
"Hey, I'm trying to help. You want to use the computer yourself?"
Chi shifted. The Toy's fingers were smaller than the Originals but not enough. They still mispressed a lot of keys when attempting to use any keyboard. Hedy got an extra one with the biggest keys she could find so that they could use her laptop but it was still difficult. Mangle had the most practice.
Teddy shot the chicken a look that basically said "be nice." He came around the desk and looked at the screen which just showed whatever popped up after Jeremy simply searched "recipes."
Jeremy stiffened a little, now basically trapped on either side by two animatronics. He tried not to make his discomfort obvious though. Logically he knew that they wouldn't kill him anymore. Purely because it would upset Hedy but also because they'd grown past that.
Allegedly.
What Jeremy didn't know was that Teddy and Chi had already noticed his behaviour. Maybe they had trouble understanding human behaviour and cultural things sometimes, but they were very good at reading body language. They had to. Children, especially little ones, communicated way more with body language than their words, especially if they simply didn't have the vocabulary to express all their feelings yet. They also had to mimic human mannerism perfectly so that they looked alive and didn't freak people out.
All the little things like shifting when nervous, blinking, or even using their outside mouths to talk were all little things they learned to do in the early days because people responded better to it. Afton had coded the basics in to give them a head start. Luckily most of it was natural now.
Still, it hurt a little to see the man nervous around them. They wouldn't hurt him. Not anymore. They understood how much Hedy loved him now. Besides, they liked him. Besides that, they didn't think they could easily hurt someone again, now that they understood.
Chi and Teddy shared a guilty glance over Jeremy's head.
They sometimes had to be reminded that people didn't just get over what happened to them. Not even animatronics did. Bonnie still avoided that closet. All the bots except for Foxy and Mangle still covered their heads protectively when Betty was unexpectedly pulled into view.
BB still didn't go near the craft box.
Just because they wanted something to be gone didn't mean that it would be. They didn't like that the man was still afraid of them but they didn't really know what to do about it.
Without Hedy to explain, they were afraid of making things worse if they tried anything.
Of the two of them though, Teddy had a little more desire to do things "right" and do what he was supposed to. He also had a little less pride than either Chi, Toby, or even Mangle. And one of the things he was supposed to do was make friends with their humans.
"What's your favorite food?" he asked the man.
Jeremy stilled and Teddy panicked a little. Did he mess up already? It was possible. They were really bad with adults. It was the one thing they couldn't even argue. The Originals were better with adults than they were and they didn't know how since they didn't even like adults for the most part.
Adults lied so much, just in normal daily interactions. They didn't always say what they meant and there always seemed to be so much subtext that it was dizzying. Children at least were usually blunt and said what they meant, rarely with ulterior motives.
Even Hedy talked like an adult. It was painfully obvious how she was gauging their emotions with a simple question of what they did that day while she was gone, instead of just asking how they felt at the moment, which was really what she was asking. They didn't mind too much. It was just how humans were.
Ruby did it too, of course. But she preferred to be blunt and didn't care too much about the subtext that Hedy navigated in order to deal with people in her everyday life. Ruby's bluntness was really refreshing most of the time. She said what she meant more than Hedy. Other times it wasn't as refreshing since she liked calling them all out when they did something wrong. And then she told Hedy… After Betty made an appearance usually.
Teddy had been pretty good about avoiding Betty the last few months. The last time was when he made a comment about Freddy's suit looking shabby and that it was probably time to put a new one on, forgetting that Freddy only had one spare suit that no one wanted to really touch for very particular reasons.
For whatever reason, Hedy and Ruby hadn't decided to throw out the thing yet.
"What about Marcus and Mercy?" Teddy asked quickly.
Jeremy chuckled. "Anything with sugar or cheese," he said. "Mercy is easily pleased but Marcus is a bit more picky. He'd eat nothing but chicken nuggets if we let him."
"What kind of things does Amelia like to cook?" Chi asked.
"She likes baking the most. Mostly because she can walk away while the oven does the work at the end. But she's a good cook for a lot of things. Most of what I know, I learned from her."
"I think Ruby likes baking," Chi reported. She hummed. "Is Hedy really as bad a cook as Ruby and Chica say? She just left the water boiling and forgot about it that one time when she was making tea."
Jeremy chuckled. "Er… we didn't really experiment with cooking much while Hedy was growing up. We used boxed stuff mostly."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"She didn't really learn how to handle fresh food," Jeremy admitted with a grimace. "She's a really bad cook, but it's mostly because she's impatient and leaves to do something instead of paying attention. Then whatever she's working on burns."
"When she gets back, Chica and I should make her practice. Ruby might help," Chi said.
Teddy shook his head. "Chica tried that already, remember? Hedy can't taste anything and neither of them can touch the salt."
Jeremy didn't have the heart to tell them that Ruby had pronounced Hedy unteachable when it came to cooking.
"Oh…" Chi sighed. "I didn't think it was too bad. They still made stuff. Mike said the pie wasn't too bad."
Mike had lied.
"Salt is pretty necessary in a lot of cooking. Things taste bland without it," Jeremy said, his tone a little more distant. He didn't like reminders of his little sister's odd ghost-like state. It was too disturbing. He didn't like the idea of something else deciding Hedy should have died.
If the Building was paying attention to his thoughts, it didn't react.
He must have been lost in his thoughts a little too long because he was startled when Teddy spoke.
"I don't think Mike holds it against you."
Jeremy frowned and looked up at the plastic bear in confusion. "What?"
Teddy shifted. "About you being a jerk when it comes to Hedy. He's still mad about you kidnapping him that one time. He says that's not okay. But when you get snappy with him, I think he understands you don't mean it."
Jeremy winced at the memory but he was still confused. "What are you talking about? What brought this up?"
Teddy glanced at the book Jeremy had placed beside him on the desk. "Chi and I can figure this out. You don't need to help us if you don't want to just because Mike yelled at you. We can do it. You can go read your book if you want."
Were they asking him to leave?
Teddy took his silence as a question. "You keep looking at it," he gestured at the book. "It's okay if you want to go."
"Do you want me to?" Jeremy asked, still confused where this conversation was going.
"No," Chi said quickly. "I want your help. The keyboard is annoying. But we don't want you to hang out with us if you don't want to."
The man blinked in a bit of alarm. "Who said I didn't want to hang out with you?"
Both Toys flinched as if they had said something bad.
"N-no one," Teddy said quickly. "You just…" He trailed off and glanced away. "We can tell you don't like it here alone with us. "
"Especially in an enclosed space," Chi said, gesturing at the smallish office.
"Wait a moment–"
"It's okay. It's fair you don't like us."
"Can't really blame ya."
"Both of you, be quiet," Jeremy said sternly.
They did.
Jeremy groaned and rubbed his face. "I just have a little bit of a phobia of you. That's it. It's a bio-chemical reaction that was…" How did he explain this in ways they understood? "It was programmed into my brain all those years ago, okay?"
He lost them. The look of doubt was very obvious.
"Just like that swearing program or Freddy going into the girl's bathroom. For humans, the stronger the emotion, the more stubborn the programming. Fear is a very strong one. It's going to take a really long time to get rid of but that doesn't mean I don't like you. I can work around it, like how Foxy works around bright lights. Understand?"
"I think so," Teddy said hesitantly. "So you'd have to… break that 'programming'?"
"Pretty much…or just…learn how to deal with it," Jeremy said, wishing Hedy was there. She'd be way better at explaining this than he was.
The bots looked at each other, still a little uncertain but understanding a bit more.
"Does it make it harder when we're here?" Chi asked, fingers tapping against each other anxiously.
It made her look much younger, and frankly, adorable.
"Well, a little, but I'd rather get used to you guys," he said. "It's called exposure therapy. I think. I'm sorry you noticed. I'm just more stressed than usual with Hedy and Ruby not here. Okay?" At their nods, Jeremy tried to steer the conversation back to the task at hand. "Uh. I like mac-and-cheese. To answer your first question." But only the way his mom used to make it, but he didn't need to include that detail.
He hoped Chi didn't ask him for the recipe. He could make a pretty good approximation, but it wasn't nostalgic to Hedy like it was to him. Even so, it felt a little private.
The bots eagerly grabbed for the less awkward and confusing topic.
"Okay, so let's start with some mac-and-cheese recipes," Teddy said to Chi.
She nodded quickly, impatient as she was reminded of why they were here in the first place. "Sure."
Jeremy turned back to the computer and started typing. Every time Chi expressed interest in a recipe, he saved it to a file and printed it out. It didn't matter how much paper they used and Jeremy might have printed a few extra just to be spiteful to the man who owned the office.
The mac-and-cheese led to other pasta, which led to Italian food, which circled on pizza for a bit before the three of them agreed to avoid pizza, then they hopped to another food group of deserts, and it continued from there. They eventually had a pile of recipes before Jeremy had them stop. He and Chi headed to the kitchen while Teddy went to do something else.
Meanwhile, Mike was greatly regretting his promise to give Foxy a whole hour of his time. The extravagant game that was turning out to be a two-person combination of tag and capture the flag was taking its toll on the young man. It was admittedly fun, to a point, but Foxy played rough.
Mike leaped off the bow of the ship with a panicked shout just as Foxy was about to snag him. He clutched a small plastic chest full of chocolate coins to his chest as he fell into the ball pit, realizing a moment later that the building probably made it deeper so he didn't break his legs. He hit the foam blocks underneath the balls pretty solidly. Ok so the pit wasn't bottomless at the moment either. That was also good.
"Oi! You're supposed to walk the plank!" Foxy shouted down at him. "Not jump off willy nilly! Where's ye decorum?!"
"Screw decorum! I'm the one with the loot!" Mike retorted in a faltering bad pirate accent as he tried to scramble out of the pit, dragging the treasure chest and the fake sword without hurting himself. It might not have been sharp but it was still metal.
Foxy did have to give him that one. He did get away with the treasure after all. Pretty impressive.
The fox chased after him and the game continued for a while before Mike called it quits at the end of the hour.
It seemed Foxy got his own energy out so that was good but Mike was exhausted. He hadn't needed to run like that in a while and his arm buzzed with soreness after battling Foxy with their fake swords. Mike vaguely hoped Ruby wouldn't be too offended he touched them. Foxy didn't make Mike use Ruby's specific sword after all. That one was sharp.
The fox probably had too much common sense and expected Mike would actually hurt himself on it. He got a gentle-ish clap on the back and a muttered 'thanks' though, so the bot did seem to appreciate it all.
He dragged himself to the kitchen where he heard Jeremy's voice. It was just him and Chi in there at the moment. "Chi?"
Jeremy was looking a bit fed up as he shot down multiple overly complicated dishes that Chi wanted to do.
They had a small pile of papers scattered around (fire hazard) full of printed out recipes Chi had pulled from various websites with or without Jeremy's help.
"You can't do something you don't even have the ingredients for," Jeremy pointed out in exasperation. "I'm not driving around the city in the middle of the night looking for groceries."
The pizzeria kitchen has more variety in its stock than just pizza ingredients, although in smaller quantities, thanks to Hedy, Ruby, and Frank adding things for Chica and Chi's sake. Even if Mike and Jeremy were typically the only ones that could eat, that didn't stop the chickens from making things the girls could take home. Or even things for the day shift employees.
Mike especially was grateful.
And it probably made everyone feel better that Hedy wasn't surviving on instant noodles when she was away from the pizzeria.
"Ruby made a souffle the other day!" Chi complained as Jeremy shot down her next suggestion.
"Ruby is literally the only person I know who can make a souffle. I definitely can't and neither can Mike. So that's a no."
"But then what's the point of me learning!" Chi complained. "I don't want to do something easy."
Mike sighed. He had to give the chicken props for being willing to try something she would probably fail at for the sake of learning. But he didn't necessarily want to deal with a distraught Toy when it didn't turn out like she hoped.
"You've got to remember our abilities," Jeremy argued. "Chica has more cooking experience so it's fine to try new things with her. But we're not cooks Chi."
"Chica is being a b-!" the chicken's voice stuttered as she tried to swear. She hadn't broken that programming yet. She froze, looking embarrassed she had even tried. "Chica is being a witch-"
"Language," Mike said with an impish grin as he shuffled through the recipes for something a little more reasonable, wincing as he strained an already-pulled muscle. "Cauliflower pizza?" he mumbled in confusion as he read one.
Chi glared at him. "She hasn't wanted to cook all week!" she complained. She crossed her arms and looked away. "She usually cooks when she's anxious."
"Well...it's nice you noticed," Jeremy commented.
Chi scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Everyone's always known that."
Jeremy frowned, a little confused. "What do you mean 'always'? The Originals were put in storage when you came to the pizzeria."
"Well duh," Chi said, refusing to look him in the eye.
Jeremy sensed he was close to poking something sensitive.
Mike seemed to pick up on it, glancing at Jeremy pleadingly. Could the man stop being a detective for five minutes?!
"How much did you know about the Originals before you were sent to the old place?" Jeremy asked.
Chi distracted herself with the papers and shrugged. She had to know he was prodding. "We were told about them. That they were like older versions of us. That our code was based on theirs so we might have similar habits and personalities, but we'd still be unique. That they were supposed to...teach us how to do stuff. How to be alive." She frowned a little but still refused to look up. "But they were already in storage when we showed up and the Manager said we weren't allowed to talk to them." There was a thread of guilt in there. "She said we didn't need to talk to them. That we were better so there wasn't anything they could teach us. We were told we could trust the Manager so...I guess we didn't question it."
"...was...uh...Mr. Afton the one who told you to trust the Manager?" Jeremy asked suspiciously.
Chi crumpled one of the papers in her hand and it was quiet for a moment. "Yes," she said sharply, trying to smooth out the paper.
"Did he know she was evil?" Jeremy had no qualms about calling that woman evil.
She was. She covered up the murders of little children without a second thought. Only a monster could do that.
Chi scoffed, getting a little touchy about the subject. "I don't know. He said we could trust Scott too. I don't think Scott knew what the Manager was saying to us. Scott got upset when we were...mean to Freddy and the others. I think we tried to be sneakier about it around him so we didn't get in trouble. And Puppet too. But the Manager was...so nice to us all the time so we liked listening to her more. She told us we were special. She said she loved us. Puppet didn't even say that when we arrived. He didn't talk much at all when we arrived... I mean, he said hello. And he said he would look out for us. But he was always so...busy."
Chi paused. When she spoke, her voice was a little softer. "She was lying..." she muttered. "We were really stupid..."
"Yeah," Jeremy agreed absently, deep in thought. It was usually hard to get any of the bots talking about the past.
Mike smacked his arm. "You were a little kid," Mike said decisively to Chi. "You didn't know any better and it sounds like you were easy to manipulate. You had...what? Like a week of life experience at that point?"
"...a year," Chi corrected, embarrassed. "Year and a half maybe..."
"Okay..." Mike said, "But where were you for that year?"
"In the workshop..." the chicken whispered. "We weren't...done. Before we woke up."
"Okay," Mike said, thinking for a second. "But the only interaction you had was with the guy who made you?" he asked, avoiding saying the name for fear she'd shut down.
Chi hesitated.
Mike and Jeremy shared a confused look.
"Is that wrong?" Mike prompted the animatronic.
Chi really considered answering for a long time. She hadn't even told Hedy about this and it wasn't like the Toys were really good about talking with each other about the past, much less with any of the other bots.
"Mum visited. Twice," she admitted, barely a whisper.
The easy use of the word despite the pain in her voice was a little shocking.
Mike and Jeremy shared another look, this one more than a little shocked. Mike snapped out of it long enough to shoot Jeremy a warning look.
Jeremy weighed his options before deciding to go for it. "Clara Afton, right?" He only vaguely remembered Michael's mother. She rarely was at the diner all those years ago.
"Who the heck else would I mean?!" Chi snapped. She abruptly turned and headed to the cabinets. "I'm making a carrot cake!" she said angrily. "I'm going to put Toby's face on it and throw it at him next time he says something stupid!"
"What did Toby do now?" Teddy asked in curiosity as he passed by, poking his head in.
"GET OUT!" Chi screeched at the bear who ducked out with a yelp and ran down the hallway.
"Hey," Mike admonished. "Maybe Teddy wanted to help."
It was odd the bear was wandering around instead of keeping an eye on Toby and Mangle with their moods. Chi was not nearly as volatile as she used to be.
"You shouldn't take your feelings out on him," Jeremy agreed, frowning at the chicken. "Especially after he helped you with all this." He gestured at the papers. "He's just as worried as you are."
Chi deflated a little, though she continued to look for ingredients. "I know," she said, a little guilty. She looked between the two men, about to say something, then thought better of it and turned back to what she was doing.
"What?" Mike sighed.
"I thought you'd be more worried..." she muttered without looking.
Jeremy looked almost offended. "More worried? The heck do you mean 'more worried'? I've been on the edge of a panic attack since they left!" The older man's voice cracked.
"Of course I'm worried," Mike said, more confused than anything. He was a little calmer than Jeremy though, ironically.
Jeremy's crisis management training from his work could only do so much when the situation had to do with Hedy in danger. He'd probably never get past that trauma.
"Chi, what do you mean?" Mike asked before Jeremy could.
Chi didn't speak for a moment. "You guys never actually saw us kill anyone..." she admitted. "It's...still just something you imagined us doing to you... But...you never actually saw...it."
They glanced at each other in confusion.
"Yeah?" Mike said when she didn't say anything more.
That was something he was very grateful for. He couldn't imagine the kind of nightmares he'd have if he'd seen something like that.
Chi shifted. "The others probably won't admit it, but I think we're all having nightma-bad dreams," she said as if reading his mind. "Everyone's grumpy and tired because we're having trouble shutting down after you guys leave for the day."
"What kind of bad dreams?" Mike asked, although he had an idea.
Chi wouldn't look up. "I...keep seeing Hedy dying. Sometimes Ruby. Sometimes you. Mostly Hedy. Getting killed in...different ways," she admitted quietly, her voice shaking. "I don't know about the others. We aren't...we aren't talking about it... Spring tried to say something but..." She shrugged guiltily. She kept talking without looking up, as if afraid of what they would say if she let them cut in.
"I didn't see what happened with the Funtimes," she said quickly, "That was before we were made. But I know it was bad..." She glanced up briefly.
It took Mike and Jeremy a moment to realize she was ashamed. They didn't interrupt though.
"When we...killed someone," Chi explained, the awkwardness making itself known as she did. She was carefully not to look at Jeremy as she spoke. "W-we didn't care about how much it hurt. O-or how...messy it was." The chicken was clearly uncomfortable with the topic, despite being the one to bring it up. "We didn't know how much humans actually... feel. And we didn't care. Well, I guess the Originals cared. They tried to make it fast, at least. Then when we swapped with the day staff..." She hugged herself and shuddered. "You guys feel a lot. Humans." She rubbed her plastic arms a little. "I don't really feel this. It's not like skin."
She paused. "I keep thinking about the Funtimes...if they hurt Hedy or Ruby..." She whimpered. "We don't know what was really wrong with them. Will said he fixed them but..."
She continued to rock on her feet and hold herself. "I keep picturing what it would look like if Hedy o-or Ruby..." She trailed off into a whimper, sounding sick of what she was implying.
Mike's stomach dropped at the words but he pushed past what his own fears had done to his nightmares already. If this was happening to everyone, then that explained both how snappy they were and why they were pushing so hard with their usual distractions. He looked at Jeremy, the man looking pained. He didn't handle it well when anyone mentioned the girls in danger of dying. It used to be just Hedy but that had quickly included Ruby too.
"Chi..." What could he say though? Would empty promises even work? He trusted Hedy and Ruby but there was always a chance.
She seemed a little disheartened that he didn't know some magical words that would make her feel better. When neither of the humans spoke for a bit she let loose another terrible thought that plagued her. "If they get hurt, it's going to be our fault."
The guys were quick to deny that but Chi couldn't stop now.
"I keep thinking how we're due for karma after all the people we hurt and killed. I keep thinking that if the universe cares about those people and their loved ones at all, it would get back at us by taking Hedy and Ruby away the same way we took others away."
Mike was lost. "Chi...you can't..."
"That's stupid."
Chi and Mike looked at Jeremy in confusion and a little bit of shock.
"That's not how the world works," the older brother said sternly, the man leaning on a counter to cross his arms and look at the chicken. "Some things just happen. Yes there's cause and effect and things are connected with how fucked up your family is, but that doesn't make whatever Hedy and Ruby go through your fault because you think the universe wants to make you pay for killing people. I think you and the others have taken responsibility and you're going to pay for it for the rest of your life. Maybe those people will get justice one way or another, and you should be prepared to deal with that. But if you think the universe is going to take the girls away out of some imbalances, then that's stupid. What about their 'karma' hmm? They've been through so much. Why not believe the universe, or God, or whoever wouldn't lend them some good? They certainly earned it. Worrying this way does nothing but hurt you unnecessarily. Even if something..." Jeremy swallowed. "...happens. You can't place the blame where it doesn't belong. That's what you did to me and every other Night Guard after me. If you know that logic is faulty now, then you know this is the same."
Mike nodded quickly in agreement. "Hedy and Ruby don't even believe in karma. Ruby especially. She'd get so annoyed because she believes that you make your own luck and destiny. No one else does it for you. You've got to put in the work. And you guys are putting in the work. You're trying to change and be better, and you've come a long way you know? You're miles ahead of where you used to be. Hedy's really proud of you."
"She is?" Chi asked. It was a silly question.
Hedy didn't exactly keep those kinds of thoughts about the Toy's progress to herself.
"Yeah. She's proud of how far you guys have come. She's proud of how much you try."
Jeremy nodded.
Chi smiled a little.
"Let's get this cake finished," Mike suggested. "Then we'll go hang out with the others for movie night, okay? Maybe I'll bring up your nightmares if no one tries to strangle me."
Chi shook her head. "Oh no don't do that! Everyone's going to get prickly," she whined.
Mike scoffed. "Everyone worries about Ruby not talking about her feelings but you all are so much worse! No healthy communication skills!"
"Goldy is the only one who knows how to do it, I think," Chi groaned, not really arguing, surprisingly.
"Probably because she learned it from the other Aftons before things went bad," Jeremy said.
Chi nodded with an irritated sigh and shifted uncomfortably at the mention. "That's probably true..."
"Then how come Puppet and Spring suck at it?" Mike shuffled through the papers looking for a carrot cake recipe.
"Spring doesn't remember anything," Chi reminded, a little defensively. "And Puppet's...Puppet."
"Fair enough. So what else do you need for the cake?" Mike looked at her, checking if she felt better enough to move on from the conversation. He'd rather they talk more, of course, but the topics had been pretty heavy. They needed to digest what Chi had spilled.
Chi nodded, feeling much better though still pretty stressed. "Can you get the carrots?"
Jeremy smiled softly as he watched them move around the kitchen getting ingredients. He never really thought he'd be in this position, comforting any of the animatronics. Things had really changed a lot.
Chi threw the bag of carrots at Jeremy. "Hey! You can't get out of helping! Chop these up!" She paused and grimaced. "Please?"
He let out an amused chuckle at that and moved to join them. With Hedy and Ruby not here, it was up to him and Mike to keep the peace. They weren't fantastic at it, but Mike seemed to be holding it all together just fine. He should probably help out more.
Two hours, and an acceptable and slightly lopsided cake, later and Mike was looking at the whole group in disbelief. "What do you mean you haven't seen Home Alone? I would have thought Ruby would have insisted on it."
"It's a Christmas movie," Jeremy pointed out, a little amused at the bots' offended expressions.
"It's Home Alone!" Mike argued. "It's a classic. I'm disappointed Ruby didn't make you sit through it."
He faintly wondered if Ruby even liked Christmas. The topic had never come up. He shook his head and pushed that thought aside. He had more important things to focus on.
"Have you guys seen any Christmas movies?" he asked, almost begging.
"I don't think so," Teddy admitted.
"A few..." Puppet said, sounding bored of the topic. "Some older black and white ones. Nothing new."
The Toys shook their heads but the Originals nodded in agreement.
Goldy suddenly grinned and looked at him mischievously.
"Don't even think about it," Puppet warned her.
Goldy snickered. "You already said it!"
"I'm sure Mike's too dumb to remember."
"What? That your birthday is around Christmas?" Mike deadpanned with a raised eyebrow.
Puppet crossed his arms and didn't respond as Goldy and Spring snickered.
Mangle ignored them. "What's so special about that movie?"
Mike decided to put the DVD in without trying too hard to convince them anymore. "You'll see exactly what I mean."
It didn't take long. First, it was the outraged sounds of the bots bashing the parents for forgetting their child. Then they split in their reactions. The Toys commented on how the kid's ingenuity with his building was similar to the traps they'd found in the warehouse while the Originals said that he gave them strong 'Ruby in the middle of a game' vibes.
"He's just so happy about causing pain and misery," Chica mused.
"How is that guy not dead?" Chi wondered.
"I think he would be in real life," Toby answered.
"Ruby is not allowed to watch this," Freddy said sternly as they watched Harry and Marv suffer another one of Kevin's traps.
"She definitely already has," Jeremy informed him with a snort.
Foxy squinted. "I think we might have found the inspiration for some of her weapons and traps..."
Mike and Jeremy both laughed loudly as the other bots looked horrified in their realization.
It was an interesting experience and the bots were glad for their inability to feel the same as humans could as they saw exactly how much these kinds of traps hurt.
They were still worried about the girls, but that would probably not change. Mike decided not to bring up the nightmares Chi said everyone had. It was a nice moment right now and they all needed something nice in their lives for a bit.
They needed to work on the bots' ability to communicate with each other though.
But for now, things would be okay. They could hold it together until the girls got back, Jeremy and Mike doing their best as substitute emotional anchors. if something happened to Ruby and Hedy...well, they'd deal with it if the time came.