I Don't Own Fnaf


Fritz had slowly pulled Mike further away from the entrance of the kitchen so he was further away from where Phone Guy had been, as he quietly asked.

"Are you... doing ok?" Mike... took a deep breath before answering.

"Yeah, I'm good. Sorry about that, I honestly didn't expect to get that worked up" He really hadn't, but he had been on edge, and something about the idea of not doing anything when you knew there was something wrong... It just struck something a bit too close to home for Mike that it bypassed his normally much higher trained patience and skipped straight to him becoming way angrier than he could handle.

That also struck a nerve, the fact that he could still lose his cool so easily like that, it made him... uncomfortable to remember that was still just as much a part of him as it ever was.

"It's fine, I get it, I really get it" Fritz seemed uncomfortable and Mike was put in the uncomfortable situation himself of remembering that Fritz had basically done the same thing as Phone Guy had, shoving his head under the sand and pretended nothing was wrong, at least until Mike came around and forced him to help out.

"You didn't run, that already puts you a lot higher than him... Though I probably shouldn't be too harsh. Think he got in contact to help out or just to check and see if he should report us to the police?" Fritz grimaced, glancing back towards the front of the kitchen where the two could hear Jeremy and the man talking to each other before saying.

"It... could be either, I think he knew I was on staff, he already asked a few not so subtle questions about if my boss made me sign any shady paperwork. I think I made him more at ease when I told him nothing was going on" Mike just hummed, maybe he was just over reacting...

"Glad to hear you didn't see the clause I had Jeremy put in about signing away your soul" Fritz just rolled his eyes at the quip, but Mike went back to being serious soon enough, "I have a bad feeling about this, but it might just be me not trusting anything to do with upper management at Freddy's. We'll ask Jeremy about the man when we leave, I doubt anyone's going to be able to slip something past his radar"

"Yeah, I guess... I hope we can trust him though, it would be nice to know another person made it out of Freddy's alive that we don't have bad blood with. I bet he knows a bunch of things as well we can use for the pizzeria" Fritz said probably to incite Mike... and honestly it was working.

"I suppose... Let's see how much we can get out of him then" Fritz seemed to think that was understandable if a bit crass, though Mike thought of something just then, asking, "Oh, by the way, what's his n-"

He didn't get to finish his question, instead having to stop as Jeremy and Phone Guy walked back into the room, the two awkwardly looking at each other, letting Mike know all about what kind of conversation the two survivors of animatronic attacks had. Mike just chose to get right to it.

"The gang's all here, so, what did you want to talk about anyways? I don't think any of us are all that interested in the good old days given I think I was the only one there who could remember them before everything fell apart" Phone Guy coughed, giving Mike a short look, probably wondering if he was going to get back in the man's face. Mike didn't feel all that guilty about it, about him losing control for a second? Sure, but not if he scared the man any.

"I- well, you know, wanted to see what all was happening at the knew location, I was able to tell that it wasn't under the Fazbear company, I would have seen way more logos on just about everything, but well, the building was the same one that the old diner was in, and from when I looked around, it was clear a lot of things were being reused, not just Foxy, so I thought... Well, to be honest, I thought it was your, uh, Dad, Mike. Starting from the ground up with a new branding"

Mike himself frowned, he glanced at Jeremy who looked a bit confused for a moment about something the man had said, but answered all the same, knowing, or more like feeling, something was off with the way that Phone Guy had spoken those words.

"Well, a lot of it was in my father's holdings, or estate I guess, but he's dead, and since it wasn't being used..." Phone Guy nodded quickly enough.

"Yeah, I know that now, just... If it was him, then I, well, that's why I only left a number, but Fritz answered and we started talking and now here we are. I figured if it was your old man, then any mention of any past rumors about the place would get his attention pretty quickly" That... Made sense, Mike just hummed for a moment, before continuing his questioning.

"And now that you know it's his son?"

"Honestly? I'm relieved, but, uh, I guess that's pretty obvious? You weren't much of a bad kid, and it's nice to see that you're trying to keep to the spirit of what your family started instead of, uh, well, the spirits that came into it later" It was a bad joke, one Mike wasn't sure was made out of an attempt of humor or just the man's natural kind of awkward fumbling way of speaking, he decided he didn't really care, instead speaking blandly.

"Well, a few are still around for the ride, but that's neither here nor there, I don't suppose you're going to make a big fuss about Foxy's? We've already had to work to keep our press good after a few people saw the connections between us and Freddy's, mainly the star of the show if I had to guess" Phone Guy's eyes widened for a moment before quickly shaking his head.

"No, not at all. I'm trying to stay as far away from anything relating to animatronics as possible for as long as I can. I, uh, well to be honest, I wasn't even sure I wanted to drop off that note in the first place. I'm not looking to cause any messes any time soon, I just... I just want to move on from it all, most of my adult life has been wrapped up in Freddy's, and I, frankly, want to do something that isn't life threatening or even adjacent to it" Mike could understand that, and judging by the look on Fritz's face, the man really understood that, Mike glanced at Jeremy next, the man just looked contemplative, before noticing Mike's look before nodding.

Right, well, at least they didn't have to worry about him.

"That's good to hear, still... Mind if one of us calls you up every now and again to talk about a few things? Given you were with the company so long, you probably know at least some things that we've been meaning to get sorted out. Like the merchandise producers, you got a number we can bum off you?" Phone Guy seemed surprised at the sudden request, clearly frowning for a moment in thought before saying.

"Well, as long as none of you give out my name then I suppose that's hardly much of an ask. I have two, the original one and the one that the company started using when production costs got a bit to high for Freddy's... quality control" Mike grimaced, he had seen some of the things that the Freddy's he worked at used and counted as merchandise to buy, it wasn't... great.

"We'll take the original one, I don't need any kids coming in complaining about their Foxy plush being destroyed in the wash, or the parents complaining about it dying everything red. I'd rather not deal with any angry parents for as long as possible" That got a faint, if slightly strained smile from the Phone Guy.

"Yeah, I think William had the same reason for picking this company originally... I'll find the number, it's... somewhere, I can call Fritz once I have it" Mike gave an easy nod, before glancing away for a moment, as Jeremy pipped up to talk about something else, his mind drifting to other things. Maybe this wouldn't be too bad? He wasn't much of a fan of the man, just from how he felt about people who did nothing, but... Mike could admit to himself that he was glad the man was alright, or at least alive, those shaking hands and constantly flickering about eyes told Mike all he needed to know about the man's mental state. You don't nearly die like that without side effects, the two of them shared the experience of surviving being stuffed after all.

Still, Mike had seen and heard enough death in his life time to not be relieved that someone had made it out, and while Mike doubted he'd ever really get over that phone call on his fourth night, and all the many thoughts and feeling that single night brought back to him, he could say that he would be dead if it wasn't for Phone Guy's advice on those first few nights when he didn't know what the hell he was doing. If it was anything, he did owe the man, in a way, his life.

And the man did risk his own recently rebuilt safety away from Freddy's to make sure Foxy's wasn't having anything nefarious going on with it, and that... was something. Not a lot, but still something. Mike still didn't particularly like him, but if Jeremy vouched for the man after this then they could use some occasional help with getting their ducks in order where they had been struggling in getting the right contacts.

They talked for a bit longer, mostly about nothing, Mike stayed out of it for the most part, instead just half lost in thought while the other three men sort of caught up with each other while dancing around their own respective traumas. He wasn't really thinking of much, just... lost in memories more than anything. it wasn't all that fun, thankfully they left before long, and the second they were out the front door, Mike turned to look at Jeremy, asking straight up.

"How much of that was bull?" Jeremy paused, looking uncomfortable for a moment, probably thinking something nice like how it was an invasion of privacy, and it was, and if Jeremy did it to Mike, the man would probably be pretty annoyed, but as it stood... Jeremy sighed after a moment before saying.

"The man's a wreck, he looks composed, but he's barely holding himself together. I think nearly getting killed woke him up to everything that was happening, both to the other workers at Freddy's and as well to the kids who all got killed. He's beyond feeling guilty and he's... not doing well. I think he was mostly genuine really, just… awkward" Mike slowly nodded, that... checked out with his own thoughts really, but having a way to get a concrete confirmation was nice. Still, he was sure something was being looked over by the two, but as it stood, it wasn't anything they could just learn by thinking about it hard enough, so he didn't bother, instead saying.

"Then we'll trust the number he gives us isn't one that connects us straight to CPS then... This is such a weird day... And we need to open our doors in about an hour" Fritz grimaced at that, realizing Mike was right as he checked his own watch.

"Shoot, you're right... We should probably set a few closing days in the future, seven day work weeks are going to get us killed if we try to keep this up for long" Mike snorted, the man wasn't wrong.

"Or make us want to kill ourselves by the end of it, I'm already exhausted. Probably one of the middle weekdays would be good, Wednesdays or Thursdays, we can't really give up the weekends, those were the days we were the most swamped, so maybe a day off before the weekly rush would be good" Mike had kept walking, not thinking much of it beyond actually wondering if those days would be good for Foxy's to be closed, when he glanced back to get any input, he paused as he noticed both Jeremy and Fritz had... looks on their faces, "What?"

"Ah, well... Nothing" Mike raised an eyebrow before frowning, thinking over what he just said before feeling his own eyes widen for just a second before he slammed his expression shut back as he managed to just roll his eyes and manage to say with his normal dryness.

"It was a joke, I'm pretty sure with how overworked we are, if any of us died, we'd come back in one of the arcade machines at this point to keep at the grind" The joke came off stale, doing nothing for the small tension he had of course created without thinking, he really needed to keep a hold on what he said. He really hadn't meant anything about it, those kinds of jokes were literally just in his humor's wheelhouse. Thankfully Jeremy seemed to realize that first and chose the method of bulldozing through the subject as a way to get away from the awkwardness.

"Right, well, I think Thursdays would be the best, Fridays school is let out normally so we're busy then too, and Wednesdays are like the halfway point of the week, so maybe that could work or maybe a lot of people would want a break because of that... We might have to try a few things out or just work on a rotating schedule until we see which days are the most popular" Fritz managed to get back on topic at that thankfully, adding his own two cents in as they all arrived and were now just talking around each other's cars.

"Mondays and maybe Tuesdays are definitely going to be our slow days, at Freddy's the later in the week it is, usually there are more people, at least back when the place was actually popular. And if we do close on those days, then we can use that time to recover from the weekend rush, sort of like what Mike said" Mike hummed at that, it made sense, though they probably would have to just try things out until they got the right idea for their business. Jeremy seemed to perk up at the idea a lot though, an idea coming to him.

"That might work well, and we could probably use those days to schedule private birthday parties, like instead of just using one of the rooms, they could have the entire main floor, rent the place out kind of thing. I bet a lot of people with really big parties would like that to be an option, and since it's only one or two parties for the entire day, we get to go home early, or at least work not nearly as much" Mike... actually really liked that idea.

"That sounds good, we'll have to try it out, maybe on the first and last weeks we can do that, save the middle two of the month for actual days off or something... We can think more about it later and try this stuff out over time, but one of us should probably write this down so we don't forget" Fritz piqued up at that.

"Already on it" Mike glanced back and sure enough he was scribbling away in a small notepad he had pulled from... somewhere. With that settled, Mike grimaced as he looked down at his old and kind of beaten up watch.

"Right, well, we got about fifty minutes, and given the drive here..." He didn't need to say more as the other two quickly rushed to their own cars as Mike got in his, ready to speed just a little bit to be able to pick up Marionette, given he couldn't really call to the house to let the puppet know to teleport over... Though, thinking about it, that might be a good idea to get the home line reconnected... Or it would be if it wasn't a third phone bill he'd have to stay on top of... Being an adult was a pain.

Either way, he rushed home, grabbed his jacket and mask while telling Marionette a simple recounting of the whole rushing about thing. Mostly that it was just an old employee that got in contact and that Mike was pretty sure he could guilt trip some help from the man. Mari didn't seem all that enthused at the idea until Mike mentioned there was no way in hell the man would be working with them, just that he had some contacts that might come in handy. The puppet took that much better all things considered than the idea of having to adjust to a whole new person now that he knew he wouldn't ever have to deal with the man.

The work day itself went by quickly enough, Mike spent most of it in the kitchen, though he did get called out to help take orders during a strange lunch rush that was mostly just adults. It was a bit weird, but Mike figured they either were confused about the place being only a restaurant and not a child's entertainment place as well, or they were here to make sure the place was safe for their kids.

If the second one was true, it made him fix his mask a bit more securely to his face before taking their orders with his best foot forwards... Though he did spend a minute between moving around in the Prize Corner just to check in and properly see just how Marionette was doing. The two didn't really interact much while working. It was nice to see the puppet happily doting on the kids while acting like he was doing something sneaky by passing along an extra play token or two to them.

He wasn't really trying to hide, and given his figure, it would have been a fool's errand anyways really, but as he stood in the doorway, he figured for a minute that Mari simply didn't notice him, that was until after the puppet was done entertaining a few kids and handing out a normal foxy plush before turning to give Mike a wave and a bit more of a genuine beaming smile on his face before it settled back into his default grin. Mike just shot a wave back before heading back to the kitchen, and figured being a few orders behind was worth it, even if he did have to spend more than a little while in the kitchen trying to catch up for a while.

After the day ended and everyone had filed out, Mike went back to the warehouse, just to talk to his brother for a while, it was awkward, kind of hard, but that's usually how it was. The two were getting better at talking to each other at least so that was something, even if they often didn't really have anything to talk about.

And now, he was home, absentmindedly eating dinner while Marionette more or less bounced around in his version of pacing, just, you know, without the steps involved, a nervous energy to the animatronic that Mike was slightly confused about and finally asking as his episode of his drama ended.

"So, any reason why you went from happy to burning a hole in the air? You've been circling around like a shark" Marionette paused, his head craning in a way to hurt Mike's neck, to stare at the grandfather clock against the back wall of the living room, before saying.

"I'm nervous about sleeping" Mike raised an eyebrow before keeping himself from saying anything to teasing, instead focusing on the situation at hand, remembering last night, and said.

"Worried about more nightmares?" That would be understandable, Mike had a ton of nightmares of his own, he usually had at least one or two a week, on bad weeks it could even be nightly, and he wasn't really used to them. He never really got the hang of figuring out when he was dreaming or not, so it always was just... too real for him in the moment, recently he had just been too tired to dream, but they still happened occasionally. Thankfully though, Marionette shook his head.

"No, I'm not worried about that, just... concerned that last night was a fluke and I really do need the music box to sleep" Oh, right, Mike admittedly forgot about that with all his thoughts throughout the day about Phone Guy, he had thought about a few more questions he could ask the man now that he had a connection to someone who had been there the entire time. He had a few last things he needed to know, just... wasn't going to ask just yet, he wanted to make sure the man would go through with the connection to the merch company they could use before then.

"I don't think it's a fluke, I think it's just a reliance, Foxy and Goldie both can sleep normally, so I see no reason why you can't without the music box playing" Marionette seemed to slow down before slowly nodding.

"You're right, nothing to worry about!" He seemed to be trying a bit too hard to convince himself about that, Mike tilted his head to the side before saying.

"You didn't think about it last night, you were just tired and comfortable, so you went to sleep, don't worry about it too much" The puppet waved him off.

"Of course, comfortable, that's me, comfy as can be!" Yeah, definitely trying too hard.

"Are you going to sleep in the bed tonight or going to stay in your box? If you do then I think you're going to think about the music all night and just get no sleep at all" Marionette paused again, and it seemed a bit of excitement came back to him, even as he dismissed Mike's words.

"No, the box is a comfort, I can't get too riled up when I'm in it, but that's a good idea! I can't remember the last time I slept in a bed!"

"You say such sad things sometimes" Marionette just huffed at that playfully, still too caught up with the 'excitement' of being in a bed, which, yeah, that was kind of sad in Mike's opinion.

"Like you're any better, oh, this won't be so bad after all!" Mike let the puppet have this one, and instead just gave a supporting nod. He really didn't get quite just why it was such a big deal, but it clearly was, and so he's continued to treat it as such.

"Sounds good, let me know how it works out" Marionette let out a chime before simply moving around and dropping himself down on the couch across from Mike. Mike himself wondered briefly if he should mention there were other chairs the puppet could sit, given the two both always seemed to just end up on the couch, before deciding there wasn't much of a point, instead finishing up his dinner while turning his attention back to the tv.

Sadly for the puppet, he didn't get much sleep that night, or any at all, instead just found himself laying down staring up at the ceiling in a bed that didn't really feel like his own, probably because it wasn't a box, he was incredibly used to boxes it seemed, and trying to find that same drowsiness he felt when his music box played when not curled up felt almost impossible.

Marionette tried his best to not seem too disappointed or tired the next morning, apparently in the last week getting nightly sleep meant his habits of not getting nearly enough sleep were much harder to fall back into, and it showed if the sympathetic look Mike gave him was any indication.

"I couldn't get myself to be... comfortable enough, thought the whole night about going to sleep instead of actually sleeping" Mike winced.

"Yeah, been there before, going to try again tonight?" Marionette ended up just shrugging, unsure of just what he was going to say, before deciding to not say anything at all, he just didn't know, instead moving to the kitchen to start on the baking that would be required for that day's parties. Mike didn't mention it, instead just going about to get his own breakfast ready.


From there a rhythm was more or less fallen into, business definitely fell a bit in the second week, but they did get a number of more parties reserved, having also performed and held parties for a number of kids from various schools who had parents that were either employed at said schools or were on the PTA, which certainly helped their reputation, and by the start of the next month, classes had been let out and then they hit the ground running.

It wasn't easy to juggle it all, Mike had to quit his job, Jeremy had pulled back from whatever it was he did with his family completely, and Fritz was right on both their heels, they needed as much focus and time they could put into the pizzeria as possible. Jeremy was now often helping Mike in the kitchen and Mike was constantly now having to be out and about on the main floor to keep an eye and give the figure of authority with his uniform, while Fritz had been run ragged.

A number of machines over the last few weeks had been clearing themselves out during the night for seemingly no reason at all, and it was driving the man up the wall, he had tried nearly everything possible to try and get the matter solved from thinking it had something to do with power surges to fully disconnecting them at night, but it didn't always seem to work, Mike and Jeremy could only try and help Fritz through his grief whenever something didn't work out as a solution.

Finally, he just figured it had to be something wrong with all of them from just being older, the motherboards that the machines used to run were just faulty from being left alone and unattended for so long, and he'd have to replace them if they wanted to keep the scores on the screens. It wasn't that big of a deal, though a number of kids had complained about their high scores vanishing, Jeremy had just fed them some line about how they wiped each machine occasionally so that way it wouldn't be just one person holding the high score forever. It seemed to work well enough, though Fritz was still bashing his head against the wall about it.

Business was doing well enough to survive at the very least, though by the end of the month, Mike and Jeremy both cringed at the sight of just how much that they had made was being used for keeping the lights on and other such things, it wasn't... horrible, they were in the green at the very least and the three men would be making enough to keep the lights on in their respective homes for the next month at least, but to say that most profit went into business expenses would only be putting it mildly. Hopefully, if all things worked out, the fact that they were now in the school's summer break should mean they had a constant and much more steady stream of people coming in and out. That was the hope at least, but given they were still very new as a business, the fact that they weren't actively biting anymore overhead at all this early on was apparently a very promising sign according to Jeremy.

That main bit of that dip in net income had been from Mike, Mari, and Jeremy all talking over and discussing prices and designs to be put into effect once they got in touch with the merchandise company they could use, getting a contact that Mike had immediately labeled Merch Girl mentally. It took a bit of time and some discussion on the trio's part, mostly given Mike was basically the only one who knew anything about making designs, which Mari would then sign off on for his prize corner being the main idea guy, which Jeremy would then bring to Merch Girl to discuss production costs and business discounts, given the blonde was basically Foxy's accountant, not to mention anyone trying to get one over on Jeremy was a fool's errand. The man was a literal lie detector.

They hadn't gotten the first shipment in yet, they were still in the process of making prototypes to make sure the designs were being made to the way that the pizzeria staff, or rather, Marionette would be satisfied with, but those still costed what felt like an arm and a leg, though apparently from what he was being told, it would get a lot more cheaper when they actually ordered in bulk and got on a proper discount for continued service to the company. Mike didn't really get most of it, but he just nodded whenever Jeremy talked numbers at him while doing his best to understand anyways.

While on a more personal front, not much had happened, Marionette tried a few more times to sleep normally, but in the end just went back to using the music box with a frustration that wasn't normal for the puppet. Mike felt bad about it, but he couldn't really do anything either, he couldn't sleep for the puppet or anything. So he just tried to do his best to help distract the puppet from the issue with mostly just talk about the new merch. Unfortunately it seemed the puppet also happened to start having almost consistent nightmares of his own, it was worrying. But whenever he asked, he just got brushed off, still, Mike was concerned, but he let the puppet have the problem to himself for the time being.

As it stood, he had his own 'issue' to deal with, as he gave an awkward smile to Janet, Carol's daughter, as she opened the front door. She just gave an awkward smile back, at least the feeling was mutual.

"Sorry about this" She just waved him off.

"Don't be, I get it, anything for the business right? I'm just sorry you're being blackmailed into getting coffee of all things" She gave a teasing grin, and Mike found himself smiling, saying right back.

"I guess you're right, one must suffer for success" Janet made a faux gasp of offense, smacking Mike in the side.

"How rude! And to think I mistook you for a gentleman!"

"Oh, well there was your first mistake, I'm no gentlemen"

"What are you then hmm? A pirate?" That actually got Mike to laugh, he had been leading to making that joke himself, given his business right now was ninety percent of his personality it felt like given how much time he put in and on it, but she beat him to it. Still, he took the bait, even if the situation was awkward, there wasn't any reason to not at least have fun on the date and get to be a bit more silly without any strings being attached. Janet didn't know him any, and in a surprising way, now that they were talking, it was honestly nice to not be held down by any past actions or worry about messing something up.

"Yarr, I'd say I be after your booty, but I wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong impression" Now she was laughing, it was a nice laugh, as Mike just let himself grin as she shot him a look.

"Ok, that was just bad, and I thought you were paying" He just shrugged.

"Oh right, I was hoping you hadn't heard about that part"

"Wow! You really are nothing but a scoundrel then! Using my family's connections and leaving me with the bill, so mean" Mike chose to look not the least bit guilty.

"I mean, I can go fifty-fifty for the coffee? I mean, Arr we could go halves?" That got a bit more of an ugly snort, but it was surprisingly endearing, either that or he was just enjoying another person finding him funny as the two finally loaded up in his car as she said.

"You're a dork!" Mike just gave a nod.

"I run a pirate fox themed pizzeria, I'm pretty sure that was one of the prerequisites for me to get my business license" She just hummed, before nodding.

"I guess that would make sense. I really have to come by at some point, just feels a bit weird without having a kid, but I've heard plenty about it at this point" Mike thought it over for about half a second before shooting out.

"I mean, feel free, we've had plenty of teens come by just to use it as a hang out spot already, and a single adult isn't going to be that out of place when you know the owner if you just want to watch one of the shows. Might as well see what I'm letting myself be blackmailed for right?" That got a giggle from her as they drove down the road to a nice enough smaller cafe that Mike knew about, the conversation continued from there easily though. Easier than he thought it would be, but he and Janet had already been on friendly enough terms, just hadn't exactly hung out much.

Their sense of humor definitely were aligned, or at least she had enough of one that Mike's more random or out there jokes made her laugh, and she definitely knew how to slip in quips and be able to play along with the jokes, but eventually the two found themselves just sitting down and talking now that both had managed to stumble out of the weird awkwardness of their not-date through a shared humor.

They didn't really talk about anything important, Janet mentioned she had a sister who was living in another state at the moment, and mentioned she really had moved to Hurricane not to long ago because she had broken up with her boyfriend and she was close enough with her family that she didn't mind crashing with her parents until she found work and a place to rent. In turn, while Mike hardly went into too much detail, he mentioned he did have a brother but he wasn't 'around' but both his parents were gone.

It made it a bit awkward, but she didn't make a big deal out of it thankfully, just said that she was sorry for his loss and moved the conversation along. Honestly, it just made Mike realize just how much he had to talk about now, while Janet was basically new in town, given her parents hadn't lived here that long and she had moved out before they came here, she didn't have much in the way of friends currently, which was the main reason why Carol, being the nosey gossip and connection maker she was, basically shoved the two at each other.

She definitely seemed a bit embarrassed about it, so Mike just covered her with his own, highly edited, story of coming back to Hurricane, mentioning his family had lived here once but he had left for a while, and at the end of last year he had come back for various reasons that he'd rather die than get actually into. He didn't say that last part but she didn't push and he most certainly didn't say anything about it. Instead choosing to just mention a few things about the business, about the many hats he was wearing, and about his friends.

It was weird to have friends to talk about, but he found himself doing it anyways, just over the course of a few hours, finding himself talking about Jeremy and Fritz, half because the two were just so tied into his work that he couldn't not talk about them, but also just because he wanted to. He also talked a bit more about Mari, though he only mentioned he was Mike's roommate who was pretty shy and also happened to help with things for the prize corner at Foxy's and not much else. He couldn't mention Foxy of course, or well, he wasn't going to name drop Gabe for no reason, that just felt... wrong, but it was still nice.

For something that he was sure he was going to regret, or at the very least slog through by the time he returned home, he was in a surprisingly good mood.

Marionette greeted him at the door, though judging by the slightly unimpressed look on the puppet's face, he wasn't super pleased.

"You were out for a while" Mike blinked, before just shooting Mari a smile as he moved around the animatronic, tossing his jacket, an old worn light blue one he bought on clearance recently having become too used to having the extra weight on his shoulders, off onto the couch, before saying.

"We got coffee but ended up talking for a while, it was more fun than I was expecting" The puppet just hummed.

"Are you going to do it again?" Mike paused, if only for a second, thinking about it, on if he would want something like that, before finding the answer easily enough.

"Eh, if she wants to hang out again then sure, she might visit the pizzeria in the future, we talked about the place for a bit. So if she wants to, then I don't see a reason why not when I can find the time" A faint dial like sound came from the puppet before he could quash the sound which caused Mike's eyes to glance back at the animatronic, frowning for a moment, before rolling his eyes in faint exasperation. "It's fine Mari, I didn't talk about how the pizzeria was haunted or anything, she just was curious about what I did. I doubt she'll even enter the prize corner, might just grab a slice of pizza before getting run off by the brats"

"I didn't say anything, just wondering if you were going to bring her around" Mike rolled his eyes.

"Nah, I'm pretty sure we've had this talk before Net"

"We did, but apparently you're going on more dates soon so I was just wondering if I should be concerned" Mike paused at that, turning to give Marionette a long look of just pure confusion before rolling his eyes and saying with more exasperation than was required.

"I'm not dating Janet, Mari. She's a friend, or at least she could be if I have the time or social energy to hang out with her some more. Can you be happy I had a good day instead of worrying over if I'm going to bring a stray home? You know I won't do that to you without talking about it" He didn't mean to sound all that bitter, but it came out anyways, it felt like Marionette just hadn't listened to him about his thoughts on the woman already. Thankfully it seemed the puppet realized what he was doing, a look of faint surprise coming on his face before it melted into a bit of a self-abashed look.

"Oh, right, sorry, I just..." Mike just waved him off.

"You're not comfortable with other people, and aren't all that interested in trying to be all that comfortable either, I'm not going to push you to be, but just... Don't try and force that on me ok?" The puppet frowned, before looking away, suddenly looking uncomfortable.

"I- I mean, I do try?" Mike didn't mean to sound all that rude, he knew it wasn't easy on the puppet, but he wasn't going to hold back on his opinions or thoughts either. Perhaps a small part of it that he didn't really think about was because of how Mari had just been questioning him on something he wasn't really comfortable with that caused it as well.

"Mari, I'm the only person you talk to, you hang around with the others, you never had much of a problem with that but you literally don't talk to anyone else" The puppet continued to frown, thinking it over before suddenly saying with a hint of something in his tone that Mike took as just a tad spiteful mixed if some kind of frustration.

"I didn't know it was that big of a deal!" Now Mike just felt like an ass, and as such managed to overcorrect without meaning to.

"It's not, I don't mind, you know I don't mind, you're kind of my best friend" Which probably said something about his best friend being a dead person, but he ignored that, instead just watching as it seemed the shock of the admission easily knocking the puppet out of his weird spiral which was enough for Mike right now, who was honestly still just confused about what had just happened in the first place that got them to be talking about this.

"I- really? Not, like, Fritz or Jeremy or something?" Mike just raised an eyebrow.

"I don't live with Fritz or Jeremy. I trust those two with making sure everything doesn't crash and burn, and they're honestly some of the best friends I've ever had, but I don't exactly have movie nights with them or spend most of my day and free time around and talking with them" Marionette just looked shocked and it honestly continued to make Mike feel a bit more like shit. He knew he wasn't exactly the best at giving out compliments or speaking about any of his feelings unless he felt it was needed for someone else, but he figured that one should have been a given.

"I- oh... Thanks, you too" Mike raised an eyebrow at that, and tried to break the tension a bit by saying with a bit of a teasing look.

"Yeah, thanks, glad I was at the top spot of all the people you talk to" Marionette just huffed, though seemed to consider something for a moment before suddenly changing the topic.

"Well, anyways, I'm glad you had a good day, even if I think you could use some better company" Mike just rolled his eyes, but moved over and dropped onto the couch without saying anything, baby steps. If it could work on Goldie, then he could handle Marionette's incredibly anti-socialness and weird clinginess to Mike himself that he knew they should probably address at some point.

As it stood, he was already tired of having serious conversations for today, and given he had another one lined up soon with Phone Guy... He let it rest for a bit longer. It was hardly like he minded the attention all that much anyways.


Mike and Mari have a weird friendship, there is definitely some co-dependency going on here. Mari has issues really trusting anyone but Mike and as such refuses to open himself up fully to anyone that isn't Mike, limiting his ability to truly interact with the place he has helped build for himself and the others. While for Mike, he knows things aren't perfect and he knows they need to communicate about some things, but he also is too scared to open up and address any level of feelings or thoughts that might add any level of conflict to their friendship, and as such is just leaving it to fester because he's scared of messing it up on any level. It's why problem solver Mike of all people constantly stops and just skirts around any arguments they have, he's terrified of losing one of, if not, the best friend's he's ever had, unable to see that he doesn't actually cause every problem that's around him. Trauma folks, it has long lasting repercussions, and can have long time influences on how you interact to even the closest people to you.

But they are getting better, if only slowly but surely. This story is about dealing with the horrors of life and recovering from them, and both these idiots haven't been trying to heal for most of their lives, it takes time to get there, and both are really only just starting. Unlike someone like Jeremy, who is incredibly well adjusted for the mountain of continual trauma he's dealt with, because Jeremy is a mentally healthy and stable human being. Be like Jeremy, address your problems and work through them. He's, like, the only honestly stable person in the cast, and that honestly really says something given everything Jeremy's gone through. Anyways, See ya.