I Don't Own Fnaf

"Uh, hello, hello?" Mike really wondered for a moment if Phone Guy always answered the phone like that, before moving on and saying casually into the line to hide how... potentially unpleasant he knew this conversation was going to be.

"Hey, it's Mike" He could practically hear the way the man stiffened over the line. It was clear that neither man was that big of a fan of the other, but that was fine, as long as Phone Guy was still willing to help him out and give him the answer to a question he's had for a while, then it was fine, plus... He honestly had been really helpful.

"O-Oh, hey. I wasn't expecting any calls, did you need something?" Mike paused, before taking a deep breath.

"Uh, yeah. I know you know what happened to my father, but I don't suppose you know whatever happened with Henry? I've been meaning to try and find the man again, but... I have no idea where he went" The phone line was silent for a long moment before speaking up.

"Uh, right, I don't know to be honest, he just packed up with his kid after the, uh, the thing with Jeremy and the business went under. Changed his number last I checked which was a long time ago now" Mike sighed, leaning against a nearby wall before saying.

"Right, well, sorry for the wasted call then"

"No, no, I get it, he was... he was about as good as a boss could get at Freddy's"

"Yeah, that checks out, thanks anyways" It was disappointing, but nothing that unexpected, he honestly wasn't sure if he really wanted to speak to Henry again, the man was... He was a good guy, more compassionate than his father at the very least, helped him out sometimes, and given the amount of times Mike had babysat the man's kids along with his own siblings, well... He wasn't sure if he wanted to see the man to show him what all he had been up to.

He didn't really have a lot of people left in his life that were in a position to be disappointed in him. His parents were gone, and while he had a number of extended family, they were either across the pond or on his mom's side, the side that hadn't really talked to any Afton after she passed away, they tried for a while but eventually just stopped. It had been... Hell, it's been nearly seventeen years since Mike could remember the last time speaking to one of his aunts or uncles.

Henry though, he was almost like an uncle, kind of, more a close family friend than that looking back on it, but still, an older authority figure in his past that he had respected. There were a number of things in Mike's life that he knew he'll never forget, the look on Henry's face when he stepped on the man's front porch at fifteen begging for a place to stay, only to be turned down, would be one of them. He wasn't sure he wanted to see that look again, because he knew if anything would, the past few years of his life would be more than enough to be disappointed about, but it still just felt wrong to not at least try.

At least, at this point, where he was helping run his own business based on what the man, the only founder left, had helped create. Still, if the man didn't want to be found, then Mike guessed it wasn't on him to find Henry. With that he measured his own disappointment about the situation before finally saying down the line he was still connected to.

"Whelp, I don't really have anything else to ask" The call ended quickly enough from there, Mike took a moment to get himself back into order before finally pulling himself out from where he was sitting in his car outside of the warehouse. He hadn't wanted to make the call at home, he didn't mind talking around the puppet, but... Something about the idea of Marionette being there and then asking questions about it made him feel a bit more than uncomfortable.

Because he knew he'd probably answer whatever Marionette asked, the puppet had a way of getting him to say things that were a lot more touchy feely than he was usually comfortable with admitting out loud. And there was enough buried with his feelings about his past that he didn't want to get into ever if he could help it.

Heading into the warehouse, he just let the feelings go about as best as he could, and instead made his way towards the back where Goldie would probably be found. It had been a bit since he had talked to his brother, and he wanted to catch up. A phone still hadn't been installed at the warehouse, but it was being put in the works as Mike knocked on the office room, waited a moment, before being told to come in.

Stepping inside, the place looked a bit different than the last time Mike had been there, two arcade machines had been moved in and were running in the corner, the high scores on both machines flashing the same three letters down in a row GLD, which Mike took stood for Goldie. Along with a large number of books that were just scattered about, Mike had brought most of them over and it seemed most had been read through already. He remembered Evan used to love to have stories read to him, Mike smiled a bit at the memories it brought back, before finally glancing at the bear himself.

"Hey bud" Goldie's silver eyes had already been on Mike as he walked in, the bear himself had just been relaxing, though, admittedly a tad bored. Once you got to spend most of your time awake and able to do things again, the idea of sitting around and doing nothing quickly got stale. Hence the machines he had moved in that hadn't been brought over to the new pizzeria and the many books he had read through. It was almost relieving to have a visitor, or at least, one he knew, as he said back quickly.

"Hello Michael" Goldie watched as his brother moved around a bit, glancing around before moving over to the arcade cabinet labeled Faz-Frontier Fighters.

"I remember this one! When did you get these moved in?"

"I moved them in and Fritz did something so they don't require tokens to play. I've been getting better but my fingers aren't the best for the small controls" Mike just hummed, leaning in, a small look of nostalgia on his face as he looked over the screen before saying.

"I used to have a high score on this thing, it was back at Juniors, one of the first arcades that Dad had messed with and 'rebranded' to be more pizzeria and animal robot themed" Goldie just slowly shifted before standing as he moved behind Mike, who was half hunched over to be able to see the screen properly as he moved around the controls until finding himself at the character selector, there was only three options, Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie. "Ah, Foxy isn't unlocked"

"You can unlock more characters?" Suddenly intrigued, Goldie moved a bit closer, Mike shot his brother a small look at the willing closeness, before quickly nodding.

"Kind of, there are secret goals where you can unlock more cosmetics, this was one of those games that weren't really meant for arcades, dad just made it into a machine anyways without looking too close. There are a few secret paths you can go down while you're doing the side scroller section for a bunch of mini bosses that you can kill for the unlocks. Most of them are just different colored ships or changing the image of your character in the top left. Foxy is technically just a reskin of Bonnie.'' Goldie just let out a static hum before asking.

"Think you could unlock him?" Mike just huffed, leaning in a bit more, a small smile on his face as he selected Bonnie, before saying.

"I know I'd be a bit rusty, but I spent most of my free time on these machines when I wasn't looking after you and Liz, hell half the time this was my way of looking after you two, if I tried I could probably get the high scores on all the arcade games at Foxy's in a few hours" He had a confident smugness to his voice that usually wasn't there, Goldie just found himself watching, wondering briefly how many of those high scores he had been around to see his brother get, and... How many of them his sister had been there for.

His memories weren't perfect, but he had constant reminders now, and it was much harder to forget when he didn't spend nearly as much time barely functioning and forcefully keeping the memories at bay as he used to. Not... Not all of those memories were great ones, a fair portion weren't nice, but he could remember parts and highlights of his childhood now, most had Michael in them, but recently...

"What was Lizzy like?" Goldie could see the way Mike froze for a moment, the way his hands tensed on the controls for a moment as on the screen the spaceship Mike had been controlling slammed into a large pizza shaped meteorite, losing him one of his lives in the process, before he regained control of himself, saying back a bit too casually to be genuine.

"Any reason you want to know?" Goldie wasn't sure what to say, so he decided on the honest answer, knowing it was probably his best bet to not have his brother close up on him about whatever this sore subject was that he had walked into. He wanted to know.

"I've been remembering things, more and more have been coming back to me now that I'm letting myself instead of it just coming back in dreams I couldn't control. My memory of her and dad are... fuzzy though. I don't remember Mom" Mike kept staring at the screen, his hands moving the controls, and for a moment Goldie was actually concerned he said something wrong, before his brother spoke up.

"I... It's probably best to not try too hard to remember dad, he had good and bad moments, and I'd hate it if you remembered them in a bad order, better just let it rest... Mom... You wouldn't remember her, I'll bring a picture by tomorrow though, of all of us. Lizzy though... She looked a lot like Mom, like, I'm basically a copy of dad, same height, hair, face, the only things I got from mom was being more on the lean side, I didn't even get her eyes, the blue is from one of our grandparents, Lizzy though got everything. Bright red hair, even brighter green eyes... you'll see the resemblance when I get those pictures"

"But what was she like?" Goldie could tell Mike was stalling, not wanting to get into it, and it just made Goldie more curious, as the man finally said.

"She was... a bit spoiled and kind of a brat to be honest, dad gave most of his attention to her when he remembered we were around, and it went to her head. Always whining if things weren't just how she liked it. I got roped into more than a few tea parties with her just so she'd leave me alone for a while. But she was also pretty sweet, even if she could scream your ears off if she got worked up. I bet you don't remember, but one time when I came by to pick you two up from school, she was just there, screaming her lungs out at these two bullies who had been pushing you around. I don't think I'll ever forget it, I think they were relieved to see me of all people come up to get you two, and I was pissed as well! Imagine that, two bullies more scared of a little girl in pigtails than the big bad towering teenager?"

Mike let out a huff, a smile now more easily playing across his face and Goldie himself could feel a not so faint warmth pulling through his metal chest at the story, he didn't remember it, but it still invoked something in his chest that made him feel... Safe. It was a nice feeling, Goldie found himself looking at Micheal a bit closer before quietly mentioning.

"She sounds a bit like you" Michael rolled his eyes at that before shaking his head, the smile still in place as he recounted it.

"Nah, not really, we both got dad's temper, you were the only one who was like mom personality wise, but she was much better at channeling that into getting what she wanted, Liz was tricky like that, great at pretending everything is fine until the rug gets pulled out from under you and suddenly you're having to bribe her with ice cream to keep her mouth shut. She was a little devil at times, always getting me into things because I had to follow her around to make sure she was safe..." Michael trailed off at that, looking at the screen, his hands had stopped moving, and quickly his character's sprite had died, flashing on the screen about reaching the top ten and asking for him to put in his three initials.

Instead Michael's hands just slowly moved to grip the sides of the machine, his head lowering, just enough that Goldie couldn't see the man's eyes as he quietly croaked out, seemingly without noticing.

"I miss her... I miss them all" Goldie wasn't sure what to say, a sudden cold feeling of guilt pulling somewhere in his hollow chest, he hadn't really thought about what it would be like for Michael to talk about her, he knew she wasn't around anymore, his brother was the only one left alive, unlike Goldie, who was just around. For a brief, strange, moment, Goldie was almost relieved that he had been the first one to go and not the last one to remain, before the thought lost itself quickly as he tried to find something to say.

"You died before you could unlock the Foxy skin" It... wasn't what he wanted to say, but Goldie had no idea what he could say, he didn't know how to do comfort, even if he suddenly wanted to know how, uncomfortable at the sight of his brother's sudden depressive moment, the sudden dark look in the man's eyes, it... It reminded him too much of that first night, when they had seen each other again for the first time in years, a memory that the more Goldie thought about it, the more and more it made him feel sick to recall.

About how close it could have been, of what would have happened if he hadn't... He was broken out of his thoughts as Michael picked himself up, giving Goldie a pat on the shoulder, shocking the bear out of his thoughts, as he looked to his brother, who had managed to pull himself together in record him and was back to staring at the screen, saying with a hint of the confidence from earlier. Bouncing back faster than Goldie knew the man actually could as he spoke.

"Well, that can't stand, Foxy would throw a fit if he found out I was defending his honor, keep this between us ok bud? I got to redeem my arcade legend status quickly" Michael glanced up, giving a quick wink to his brother, before looking back at the machine, focusing on it while Goldie just felt something tighten in his chest before quickly loosening as he said back with a similar ease.

"You gotta beat my scores first Mikey" This time, when Michael lost a life out of shock, Goldie found himself more amused than concerned.

Marionette was not anxious, really... No, that was a lie, he was incredibly anxious, and nervous, and a few other things that he didn't really want to think too hard about, but he still found himself getting himself as ready as he could for what he was about to do. Mike had left earlier, he had finished his side of things up and after making sure neither Fritz nor Jeremy wanted any help, had decided to head off to the warehouse to visit his brother.

He had offered to bring Marionette with him, or just drop the puppet off at the house, but instead Mari had found himself saying he'd just pop over later once he was done in his prize corner. The puppet was sure the man knew something was a bit off with the puppet, but didn't push the matter, instead just saying that he would see him at home before leaving the pizzeria for the evening. He kind of wished Mike was here, or that he had told the man, but he also knew he wouldn't have and would have just waited until another time where he could do this.

It had been something Mike had said not too long ago that had stuck with him, and he needed to prove to himself that he could handle this much. Instead, moving forwards, leaving his corner, he moved around, simply floating, leaving his track behind, as he watched as the two men worked on getting a stain on the ground clean from where a child had managed to slip with a plate full of ice cream and cake. They had cleaned up most of it, but it had left an impact on the ground at the same time that Fritz was now working at while Jeremy stood to the side, seemingly done with his own closing parts and was there to just hold the conversation. Foxy was somewhere behind his curtain, he liked to spend some time to himself right after closing though usually gave a goodbye before everyone was out of the building for the night.

Floating up to the two, Jeremy just finished saying something, before sending a side glance to the puppet, probably feeling just how mixed up his thoughts and feelings were, as he frowned for a second before asking.

"Oh, hey Mari, you doing good? Didn't get any cake on you right?" Mari was already half way through shaking his head, before he forcefully made his body do what he wanted it to.

"N-no, I'm fine!" Marionette felt ashamed to say that his voice came out so high pitched and strung out that if he was here Mike would have had a field day with the puns. Suddenly he was much more glad that the man was missing than here to witness this as Jeremy's head snapped to look at the puppet in shock, while Fritz nearly fell onto the ground as he spun around his arms nearly falling out beneath, which he had been using to balance himself hunch over on the floor as he was, to look up at the puppet as well.

"Wait, did-" Marionette cut off Fritz as he said quickly and with more energy than needed.

"Yep! So what were you guys talking about?" Marionette did his best from fidgeting but he really wanted to wring his hands together or move around or do anything as the two simply looked at him for a long moment before Jeremy looked away and said like nothing was happening.

"We were actually talking about the merch we're expecting to come in, after the prototypes are confirmed to be what we're looking for. I think it'd be good to just send it straight to the diner, and Fritz was wondering if it should go to the warehouse instead since that's where we're keeping everything" Marionette let out a chime of interest, the merch had been one of the few things he had been looking forwards to the most. It was almost easy to slip into the topic, god knows just how often he found himself raving about the subject at Mike, it wasn't that different.

"Oh, well, I think it should head to the warehouse as well, then we can just bring it over in loads when the prize corner is getting low on stock, that way I don't have to cram everything in the back office. We're getting a lot of merch after all" Fritz piqued up now, easily falling into the conversation.

"That's what I thought, we were going to ask you, or, well, ask Mike to ask you, given it's your show over there, but this works too" Marionette nodded.

"Figured it was about time to break silence" Fritz got a smirk before saying.

"Yeah, real silent, hearing you and Mike tease each other every time the two of you are so much in the same room" Jeremy elbowed Fritz as the man got to his feet, the stain slain, saying to the man.

"Don't tease him" Before turning to give Marionette a smile, "Nice to talk to you Mari" Marionette just nodded.

"Thanks! It's, uh, nice to talk as well" It still felt a bit awkward, bordering on uncomfortable, but surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly given how long he had thought about doing this, even before Mike had brought it up, it felt good as well, to be able to freely talk to the two, they were his friends, and talking to them was just something he should have long since gotten used to. The three talked for a bit, Foxy joining in eventually, making a grand deal about the puppet's broken silence, but Marionette simply just accepted it as it was, and managed to not stutter over himself quite as badly as he had his first words to Fritz and Jeremy.

When Mike returned home, he was in a good mood, of course that meant of course something had to happen to ruin said mood, or at least confuse it. A card had been pressed into the door wedge to his front door. Moving forwards, he plucked it off and looked it over with a frown before flipping it over to look at it properly to see just what it was about. It was a bright blue, with a large font that was clearly made to pop up and catch the attention of kids more than an adult, that was made doubly clear with what was on the card itself.

On the right side of it looked like the outline of a large bouncy castle of all things, and on the left read the text 'BBBP' while underneath it was the name 'Owner; Richard Gasper' with a number next to it. Mike just raised an eyebrow, was this some kind of weird house to house advertisement thing? Because if so, then it was incredibly out of place, the address, which was also on the card, under the name and number, said it was a whole city over, just outside of St. George, which was well over an hour away from his place in Hurricane.

Opening the front door, Mike stepped inside, looking around for a moment before Marionette simply appeared in front of him. Mike just raised an eyebrow at the dramatic entrance before saying.

"Hey, how was closing?" Marionette let out a happy trilling sound, so Mike suspected that meant a good thing, he was about to say something, when the puppet instead just moved forwards and pulled Mike into a hug. He just let out a confused sound before deciding to just roll with it, hugging back while asking, "So, does that mean really good or really bad?"

"Good! But don't worry about it for right now" Mike... wasn't sure he was all that excited to see what that mischievous tone meant, but he decided he liked a happy plotting puppet more than a grumpy one, which was how the Marionette had woken up today, having tried to sleep like normal again only to fail, and as such let it rest. Besides, he was in a good mood as well, and a hug was nice no matter what the circumstances were.

"Glad to see closing was eventful. Goldie's doing well, we talked for a bit, he's got some of the arcade cabinets we couldn't use set up now and is playing them. Maybe one day I can get Fritz, Jeremy, and Foxy over there and get a few more working and do some kind of game night. We all don't hang out much as one group" Marionette let out a chime of interest.

"That could be interesting, I haven't played any games in a long time, but I think I remember liking them" Mike was ready to make a joke about Mari remembering anything when the puppet noticed the card in his hand as the two separated, "Oh? What's that?" Mike just held it up, before handing it over so Mari could see the front of the card, as the puppet looked it over, before Mike suddenly realized there was something on the back as well, it was what the BBBP stood for, though...

"What the hell is a Balloon Boy?" Marionette let out a sharp chime, his eyes suddenly lighting up into those silver dots of an animatronic in a very heightened emotional state, as his head snapped up to look at Mike.

"Wh-What about BB?" Mike just was confused.

"What's a BB, oh, wait, Balloon Boy? It's on the back" Marionette turned the card around and let out a startled sound at the sight of it, as in swooping font was the words 'Balloon Boy's Bounce Palace', Marionette just stared at it, his white eyes scanning the card back and forth for a long moment before with a distorted static dial tone he vanished from in front of Mike as he was just... left there very confused and incredibly concerned as the card fluttered to the ground.

Right, well, he could either run out the door, get back in his car, and run around the city like a chicken with his head cut off, or assume that Marionette could handle himself just fine and wouldn't have done anything rash without telling him...

Mike had to take a long deep breath before moving to hang his keys up purposefully to make sure he wouldn't do anything stupid. Running around would do nothing to actually help, instead reaching into his pocket and called the phone in the back office at the pizzeria. After a long moment it connected to-

"Ahoy, 'tis Foxy's Pirate Cove Pizzeria, we be closed currently but feel free t' leave a mess-" Mike didn't feel like waiting until the end before saying down the line.

"Foxy, it's me, is Marionette over there?" The voice over the line that had sounded like a prerecorded line quickly cut off as Foxy spoke back, in a slightly less exaggerated and energetic tone.

"No he ain't here, I thought Mar already went home fer the night? Did somethin' happen?" Mike pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment to keep himself calm as he said simply.

"I'm not sure yet, he freaked out and just vanished. I got this card left at our door and it apparently really messed with him. It had something about this mascot called Balloon Boy, Mari called him BB? That ring any bells?" There was a sharp unflattering curse over the line and Mike had a vague wonder if he was supposed to reprime the fox given Foxy was still a kid, before deciding that added too many complicated layers to the two's friendship right now and instead listened to what the fox had to say.

"That bilge rat? He be one of the toys, but I thought ye found 'em all at the warehouse a while back?" Mike was even more confused.

"What? He isn't a toy right? I went in the crate, it was just the four, which I thought was all there was. You know, toy foxy, freddy, chica, and bonnie? There wasn't even a file on a toy boy or whatever he's called" The line was quiet for a long moment before Foxy spoke again

"Nay, thar be others, thar be the Balloon Lad, 'n Marionette too, ye didn't see 'im in the crate?" Foxy suddenly sounded concerned, trying to hide it through his accent growing thicker by the second, but Mike could hear it in his voice, Mike just was trying to get his head around this, he was tired but was soon waking himself up fully. His voice spoke before he knew what he wanted to say.

"Mari isn't a part of the toy line, more a precursor at bes- Unimportant, don't worry about it, it's probably just some place using the image of an old Freddy's property. I'm about to head over to the warehouse to get Mari, I have a feeling that's where he headed off to. I'll call you later alright?"

"Aye... Keep me in the loop ay Michael? I weren't ever a fan of the lad, but he be one of us and if he be missing..." Mike finished the thought easily enough, he was already thinking the same thing, even if he was hoping that they were just blowing all of this out of proportion, a far more cynical part of Mike's mind was just wondering if this would be what broke his streak of being put in a dangerous situation.

"Then we'll get him back, I'll call soon" Mike pretended there wasn't a faint buzz of energy that came to him at the idea of it, before hanging up, grabbing onto his keys and rushing back out the door to head on back to the warehouse.

The drive was familiar and barely took as much time as he was sure it normally would, he chose to not think about the fact he was probably speeding, and instead just hopped out of his car and half rushed himself into the warehouse, before heading back to the area that he knew the crate where the toys were held. He spotted Goldie standing off to the side, probably confused. Mike just waved him off with a look that said he'd explain later, you know, once he knew what he was supposed to be explaining.

Moving past that, he found the crate, which had been opened up and Marionette frantically looking around. Mike paused, if only for a second, at the sound of the distressed dial tone echoing from the puppet's chest.

"Mari, you doing ok there?" The faintly distorted voice of his friend echoed back at him.

"He's not here Mike!" Right, ok then, fuck.

"It's ok Mari, look, he's probably somewhere"

"N-no! We're already looked at everything else here! He's not here!" It had been a while, but Mike found himself slipping back into the mind space he needed when there was a crisis... Honestly, it hadn't been that long, just nowadays it mostly involved more business types of crisis instead of missing robotic hosts for child spirits. Moving besides Mari, he reached out and grabbed onto the puppet's shoulders to stop him from floating around, searching for something that wasn't there, instead pulling him out as he spoke.

"Hey, come on, just... Take a second, focus on me ok?" He spun the puppet around so he had to look at Mike, as Mike himself gave a look over the puppet's mask, to say it was set in an expression of anguish would be an understatement. And as such he just pulled the puppet into a tight hug which was returned in a second as in a slightly less distorted voice, Mari said with guilt wracking his voice.

"I- I didn't even notice he wasn't here!"

"None of us did, it's fine Mari, it'll be fine"

"H-How! I- Who knows where his body could be! I just... I didn't... Mike!" He sounded like he was in genuine pain, almost desperate for some sort of answer, it made something in Mike's stomach twist and hurt worse than he thought possible as he said.

"Did he move on?"

"I- I thought so, but if he's not here, then who knows what could have happened!" Yeah, that was what really worried Mike.

"It'll be fine, look, we only know about this because someone probably wants to do business with Foxy's alright? That's what the business card was about, this is just some spin off using similar animatronics from Freddy's, and if they do have the body BB was in, then we can get it back or see if he's still around. We know where it is, we have a number we can call, we can do something alright?" That seemed to finally get through to Marionette, as he stilled for a moment before saying.

"You're right, sorry, I just... I was..." Mike didn't bother needing an answer, just hugging back a bit tighter to get the puppet's attention as he said.

"It's fine, I get it Mari" The puppet just let out a soft chime and sort of went a bit limp in his arms, Mike just held on, letting the puppet get himself under control. Because Mike did know what the puppet was going through, he thought his friends had all moved on, and while Mike remembered the silent hurt that the puppet went through when he saw the four in the crate, it was clear he was also happy to see them again, to know they were gone and their old bodies had been safe. Confirmation to allow himself to start to mourn.

This though? It was one big wound that only began to scab over being ripped open without any time to prepare himself for it, those feelings of grief and mourning turned to guilt for not knowing or noticing, not that Marionette could have, he never really went into the crate, neither had the others, only Mike had been in there, and he hadn't known about anyone else to know that there could have been someone missing from the cast.

It was going from certainty to unknown about someone he clearly had been close to, Marionette had said it himself, he had been closer to the toys than the original four. These were his friends and one was missing and possibly still out there, panic was only more than understandable. Mike... Mike knew all too well about the possibility of someone you thought was long dead coming back.

"Sorry for being a mess, I- I didn't think this would get such a strong reaction out of me" Mike just huffed, slowly moving the puppet further away from the crates while still holding on and giving comfort to the animatronic.

"You're not a mess Mari" That got a huffing chime from the puppet.

"Yes I am, I don't know if I want to be relieved or scared, on one hand, one of my friends could still be here, but on the other... we weren't always treated right, being seen as nothing more than machines, and if he's been alone all this time... I just... I'm confused about what I want and it makes me feel pathetic"

"You want answers, you just don't know which one you want to be the one you find. But whatever it is, you'll get through it, it's better to know than keep wondering, I'll call in the morning and if all goes well we can be there by noon" The puppet seemed to agree with the idea before he suddenly seemed to realize something.

"But we're open tomorrow!" Mike just brushed it off.

"They can handle one day without us, I've been showing Jeremy how to handle the kitchen and tomorrow's a slow day anyways" It was more important that they got this sorted out as quickly as possible than letting it be something that grew and festered, he knew how that went as well, and had no interest in seeing the puppet go through with that. marionette seemed to grab on something else in what he had said than the skipping work part.

"Us?" Mike just nodded, pulling away as he said easily.

"Of course, he's your friend right? I'm not going to go play detective if you aren't with me, besides I'm not really able to tell if a robot's alive or not by just looking at them" That had been proved to him painfully so with all the pain they went through over Spring Bonnie and the girl in it. He had no idea, he just wasn't like the other animatronic's who could tell or Jeremy who could also tell somehow, he was just plain ol' Mike.

"I- I can't! I have to man the prize corner!" Mike just waved that off as well, knowing the puppet was just trying to stall, probably still a bit afraid of finding out the answer, but that never helped anyone out with anything.

"If the kitchen can handle missing me for a day, then one of the two can handle the prize corner as well. And if they mess anything up, I give you permission to strangle one or both of them depending on how many free foxys they give out" That finally got a chiming laugh from Marionette, it was more subdued than before, but it was something and it made some of the worry in Mike's chest unfurl a bit, as Marionette said softly.

"You're awful... But you're right, I should be there, I'm just... Worried"

"Nothing wrong with that" The conversation seemed to stall out at that, before finally Marionette said he'd be out in the car, looking faintly embarrassed for a moment, realizing that Goldie was awkwardly standing off to the side waiting on the two to be done talking. And now he was here, wondering what he was supposed to say, eventually he settled on, "We figured out one of the toys was missing, a Balloon Boy?" Goldie seemed to almost grimace at that.

"I forgot about him, kind of wanted to keep forgetting about him. He was... weird" Mike raised an eyebrow at that.

"So I've been told, what's with the name?"

"It'll make sense when you find him, you're going to be leaving tomorrow then?"

"Yeah, me and Mari will head on up to this Bounce Palace place and get a lay of the land, might have to sneak around a bit to get Mari around, but it shouldn't be that hard. We might have to stay over the night though, it's not a super short drive"

"Guess I won't be seeing you tomorrow then" That... That was like a punch to the gut.

"Oh, uh, right, I mean, if you want I can stop by earlier, drop off those pic-" The bear waved him off.

"Don't bother, I get it this is important, you can show me them when you get back" Mike gave a grateful smile to his brother before looking off to where he knew he had parked his car, finally after a moment saying what was on his mind.

"I'm worried about Mari" Goldie looked in the same direction for a moment before saying simply.

"He's strong, whatever happens, he'll be able to handle it, and you'll be there with him" Mike slowly nodded.

"Of course, I'll always be there, but I'm not the best at comforting people, I think we both know I have a bunch of stuff that hasn't really... been addressed. I feel like I'm being a hypocrite with him if I act like that... Sorry about putting this on you" His brother was... different than Marionette, the bear had seen Mike at his absolute lowest, and while Mike would do anything to protect Goldie as well, even from his own thoughts and feelings, it was those bottled up issues that had lead the two brothers to the situation that they found themselves in now, so he'd rather do his best than to lie or hide something to the bear.

Unlike Marionette who just had a habit of being able to get those things out of Mike without that lesson having been learned, and maybe it was because of that, that Mike still did his best to shield and hide as much as he could from the puppet at times, trying to help him without him getting the chance to really help in back in return. Goldie, ever the one to cut to the quick, simply said something Mike already knew.

"You both try to protect each other too much from your own issues. Marionette's more open about his thoughts though, you could learn something from that... We can help you Mike, you just have to let us" Mike slowly nodded.

"Yeah... But I'm doing better, I think we all are, you already are helping just by being here. I'm going to go get Net and me home now, I don't want him to be waiting too long" As he made to move the conversation he didn't really want to have anymore, or at all really, a strong golden paw grabbed his shoulder as Goldie gave one last piece of advice before leaving to return back to his own room.

"Don't run from your problems Mike, you're better than that now" Mike had to stop, even as Goldie walked away, because he would have felt too much of a hypocrite if he ran out of the warehouse like he wanted to. He was better than that, even if it felt like a pit was growing in his stomach, it didn't matter. He wasn't running anymore, and right now it was pointless to think about it anyways, Marionette was the one in need of help, he could manage just fine, like always.

Ah, good chapter, finally we're getting back to the plot! About time! Seriously though, the first part of this section is done, and now we can move into the second, which finally gets us back into the realm of weird and quirky animatronics, in this case... balloon boy, cause... There wasn't really anyone else I could use, so I made it him. Anyways, yeah, Marionette has had a bad day after having a nice moment of character growth, while on the other side of things Mike and Goldie are doing good, which is real good for them. We even got to learn some Afton Family Lore! That's fun, Elizabeth was apparently quite the spitfire huh? Got a very small drip of more on Miss Afton as well, and William was largely just ignored, like he should be.

Also, names... God they are hard to keep up with. Mike has nicknames for everyone basically in the main cast and occasionally calls them all by them. While Goldie calls Mike, Michael, when no other character does it, for example. It's hard to keep track of what one character would refer to another one as based on the POV that I'm writing in. Anyways, don't have much else to add so, See ya!