It was early Wednesday morning, and Moon had just gotten back to the daycare. After they had made their way out of the sinkhole, everyone had driven home. He and Sun had gotten about an hour of sleep and a change of clothes before coming right back to the Pizzaplex. As usual, Ginger was already sitting at her desk. The place wasn't open for almost an hour, so they were alone. Just the two of them.

"Good morning, Moon."

Oh right, she knew his real name now. The events of last night came flooding back into his head. He had almost killed her, but she had forgiven him. They had eaten cake at the ghost party. They had held hands. He could still feel her gentle fingers intertwined with his. Part of him hoped it would happen again.

"Morning, Ginger. How'd you sleep last night?"

"About as well as I could after that. You think we could get the day off if we told them the undead founder tried to kill us in the basement?"

Moon chuckled. "You can try."

"Yeah, I bet that would work out great. How about you?"

"I slept pretty well, actually. Usually do. I'm used to not moving for hours on end. That, combined with my natural love of naptime and, well, darkness, makes it pretty easy for me to sleep, at least easier than Sun."

"Man is it surreal to hear you say that. I still can't wrap my head around the fact that you're… um, you."

"Me neither."

She silently checked something on her phone before speaking again.

"So, what's it like?"

"What's what like?"

"Being an animatronic."

"Do you mean what's it like 'living' in the Pizzaplex, or what's it like being made out of metal, or… what?"

"All of the above. Or, whatever you want to tell me."

Over the years, a few kids had asked Sun similar questions, but this was the first time an adult had asked either of them.

"Ok. You… really want to know?"

"Of course! You know I'm a huge nerd! Sit down for a sec and tell me about it!"

"Well…" Moon started, sitting in the empty seat right next to her. If he had been asked this question a month ago, his answers would have been purely based on speculation, but now he had a pretty good idea of the similarities and differences between mechanical and organic. "First of all, I wouldn't be able to sit here."

"Why not?"

"Because we weren't allowed behind the desk. If we tried to step into this tiled area, we would get an error message and a little shock right here." He pointed to a spot on the back of his head.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I think this was supposed to be a safe space for the kids in case we ever went haywire. We could stand on top of the desk, though. No idea why, but it was fun for messing with new guards."

"Not a huge fan of security guards, huh?"

"Nnnnnope," said Moon. His eyes widened in fear when he realized what he said. "Other guards. Some other guards don't take their jobs seriously, or they talk down to us or the kids. Those are the ones I don't like. You're not like them. I wouldn't scare you. Not on purpose."

"Good to know," Ginger giggled. "Is it ok if I write this stuff down?"

"Sure."

Ginger pulled out her phone and typed out what he had just told her.

"Ok, cool. I mean, having a built-in shock collar isn't cool, obviously, but it's cool to learn from someone with first-hand experience. If you don't mind me asking, what else gave you shocks?"

"Basically doing anything we weren't supposed to be doing, like trying to leave the daycare during business hours or saying banned words."

"Ok. What kind of words were banned? I mean, obviously swear words and anything too… 'mature,' but was it just single words, or were there specific phrases you couldn't say?"

"Wait, you don't know about the Banned Word List?"

"No?" She was genuinely confused. How could she not know about the list?!

"They told us that all Superstar Daycare employees had to adhere to the list! They said you could get fired if you didn't!"

"Oh. Nobody told me."

"Figures. They've lied about a million other things, why not this? Now it makes more sense why you said some of them."

"I have? Like what?"

"I… I can't tell you. Not here."

"It's ok, the kids aren't here yet. Could you tell me one word? You can whisper it in my ear."

Moon hesitated before looking around to make sure they were really alone, then leaning in toward her. He was really close to her face again.

"Sucks," he whispered. He could barely let out the word before snapping back upright, as if physical distance would reduce its sting, despite it not being able to physically hurt him anymore.

"Oh. When did I say that?"

"You don't remember? It was our second day. You were talking about how disappointed you were that you couldn't find any good pictures of me and Sun."

"That was a month ago. I'm surprised you remembered."

"How could I forget? I couldn't believe that you would say something so vile."

"Vile?" she laughed. "I wouldn't go that far, but I'll make sure not to say it in the daycare again. You don't have to say any more out loud, but do you think you could write them down for me? Y'know, so I know not to say them?"

She handed him her phone with the notes app open.

"I guess. Do you want them listed alphabetically, or by date added?"

"Umm, alphabetically."

"Ok. And I assume you only need the English ones?"

"Uh, yeah. For now, at least."

He wasn't used to typing on a phone, so it took a few minutes, but soon all of the English banned words were written down. They seemed to hold a lot less power when confined to a tiny screen. He handed the phone back.

"That's all of them."

She quickly scanned the list.

"Do you know what all these words mean?"

"We learned a few through context clues, but they didn't tell us directly if that's what you're asking."

"Would you mind if I taught you some of the more tame ones? It might be helpful information. You're going to hear most, if not all of these at some point."

Moon considered it. He had always been curious… but he couldn't ask her to say those things. Not in the daycare.

"Maybe later."

"Cool. What else?"

"This one's probably obvious, but daily maintenance is a lot different. We used to wipe ourselves down, get a quick recharge, and be good to go for the next 24 hours. But now, there's sooo much to do! First, there's breathing, which isn't too bad, but somehow gets harder when you think about it? How does that work? And we have to eat at least three times a day, and sleep for so many hours. And then there's all the liquids, going in, and out, and through, water and spit and blood. And wet hair takes forever to dry! Is there any way to avoid all of that?"

"No, not really."

"That's what Vanessa said, too," he sighed.

"But, I will say that you don't need to wash your hair every single day."

"I don't?"

"Nope. There's this thing called a shower cap that you can use to keep your hair dry in the shower. Vanessa might have an extra, but if she doesn't, you could always buy one. They're pretty cheap."

"Huh. I'll make sure to ask her about that. Thanks."

"No problem."

"Let's see, what else? This doesn't apply to all animatronics, but we were a lot more flexible."

"No kidding! You were twisting every which way like it was nothing!"

"Because it felt like nothing. We were made to do that. Us twisting our torso around backwards felt just as natural as if you raised your arm. The night after Vanessa brought us in, I did the splits and she acted like she'd seen a ghost."

He paused, regretting his choice of words. For all he knew, Vanessa had seen many ghosts by that point, since they were apparently real.

"I thought it was funny until I tried to do it again last week, and could only get down to an inch and a half off the ground. An inch and a half, Ginger. That's pitiful. Before that, I didn't know you could get less flexible. I stretch every day now."

"To be fair, only an inch and a half off the ground is still pretty impressive. I couldn't do that."

"I bet you could, if you worked up to it."

"Maybe." She smiled in a way that suggested she wasn't too confident in her athletic abilities.

"But just flexibility won't get you very far without strength. All of the animatronics here were over-engineered to be far stronger than anyone would need to be."

"That sounds like it would come in handy."

"You would think that. Humans seem to think that stronger equals better, no matter the situation, but it's not. Sure, it can come in handy sometimes, but… imagine living in a world made of paper." Moon grabbed a sheet of paper and folded it into an origami bear head. "One wrong move, one slightly too-excited hug-" he crumpled the bear almost beyond recognition "or handshake-" he tore off one of its ears and about a quarter of its face "…and you have, as some employees call it, an accident."

"Oh…"

"Yeah."

Moon stared at it for a second. He could have done that to Ginger. If the Rabbit—Afton—had his way, he probably would have done worse. But he didn't. He didn't kill her. By some miracle, he hadn't killed anyone. Unless you counted Afton himself, but that was mostly the souls inside that huge amalgam, and a little bit of Sun. He did manage to land that one good hit, though. The pain from breaking through the virus and Sun's control had been worth it. Still, that thing had used him to cause so much pain… He shuddered.

"It's over now," he reminded himself.

He took a deep breath and kept going.

"And then… there's Sun. We've been best friends almost as long as I can remember. We would've gone insane by now if we weren't. Sharing a body brings a certain kind of… closeness, I guess is what you'd call it, that you can't really replicate. We had our own secret jokes and games, a whole language all to ourselves, traveling at the speed of thought. We could tell each other anything we wanted, because the Faztechs couldn't decipher it. I'm not sure how often they checked, actually. They probably didn't expect us to use it much. But, as you saw last night, it isn't all Sunnydrops and rainbow sherbet. We were usually at peace, but you can only take so much time in the backseat before getting restless. And guess how often the lights were on?"

"Pretty often?"

Moon nodded. "For most of my life, I was a spectator. He would talk to the kids, feed them, play with them, do all that stuff, and I would just kinda… watch."

"That must've been hard."

"It was at first, but with time, I learned to deal with it. Even though he was in control, he was looking at them with my eyes, holding them with my arms. I pretended I was playing with the kids, too. That helped sometimes. Plus, I got to come out during naptime whenever it wasn't canceled, and we would take turns after-hours. Sometimes our friends would turn out the lights at other attractions so we could play together. I can't tell you how many times Monty and I have tied at Gator Golf."

"You're both just that good, huh?"

"I guess. I don't know how it keeps happening. Anyway, having our own bodies was a big adjustment. The first thing I remember the night it happened was that the lights were bright, they looked so bright, but I was able to move my arm. Before I could think about it for too long, Sun pounced on me and started telling me how worried he was. You know how he is. I didn't recognize him at first, obviously, so I pushed him away, and I saw my hands, and… and… and they weren't… mine…"

He stared at his very human hands. They were his now, they would be forever. He had agreed to this. Sun had technically lost the bet, but he couldn't bring himself to rip them away from their new life. Even he had to admit that some things were better now, but that didn't mean he was used to it.

"Do you want a hug?"

"…s-sure."

She got up from her chair and leaned over to hug him. It wasn't painfully tight like Sun's hugs, but it wasn't loose either. It was a perfect Goldilocks hug, just for him. He wasn't at a good angle to hug her back, but he reached up and grabbed her arm. She laid her head on top of his, her breathing muffled by his beanie. He didn't want her to leave.

"We don't have to talk about this right now if it makes you uncomfortable."

"I'll be fine. S-so, as I was saying, this whole month has been a huge learning experience. I actually have to… do things, all the time, and they're a lot different than the things I would normally do. And everything feels different, and I look so different. I can't even stand looking at myself in the mirror." He let out a hoarse chuckle. "That's probably silly, isn't it?"

"Not at all. Everybody feels insecure about their bodies sometimes, including me. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to wake up looking like a complete stranger, and then just having to deal with it for the rest of your life. But, you know what?"

"What?"

"I like the way you look."

Butterflies.

"You do? Why?"

She stopped hugging him, but kept a hand on his arm.

"Why not? You're very… um… you have a nice… jawline. And… very blue eyes. Kind of matches your… everything else that's blue. And, to be honest, you look as much like yourself as any human could. You even have that cute little crescent moon on your face. NO! Not cute! Very, very masculine and, um… h-handsome? Sorry."

Ginger's entire face turned bright red, her eyes squeezed shut from embarrassment. After being so bold in every other situation, this was what finally made her nervous? She was clearly the cute one here. It still felt odd to think that, but it was true. Moon wished he knew how to compliment her back.

"About what? I'd rather be cute than most of the things people call me. So, I've told you some things about being an animatronic, but I'm sure you're tired of my voice by now, so why don't you tell me what's it like being a human?"

"You already told me that, too."

"No, I mean… what was it like growing up… in a house… with parents and… stuff?"

They had heard bits and pieces of various Starshines' home lives, but the younger ones usually got distracted or started babbling incoherently halfway through. Adults, with all their faults, tended to do that much less.

"Oh. I guess you don't know that. Do you want to hear about anything in particular?"

"Whatever you want to tell me."

"Ok. So, I grew up in Santa Clara, a little ways northwest of here. My dad worked for a nearby gas station, and my mom was a receptionist at the veterinarian's office. I would hang out in the lobby with her sometimes, doing homework, playing video games, or petting the patients. One time, there was this ferret named Sock, and she sat on my shoulder for an entire hour! I caught a furret in Pokémon Black later that day, and named it Sock after her."

"What's a furret?"

"It's a pokémon that looks a lot like a ferret. Have you heard of Pokémon?"

"Yeah, some of the kids talk about it. It's a video game, right?"

"Many video games. Also a card game, tv shows, movies, and any type of merch you can think of. But that's getting off topic. Where was I?"

"Your mom worked at the veterinarian's office."

"Oh yeah. She loved animals, but she never got a degree, so she got a desk job just to be near them."

"I'm glad she got the chance to do something she liked. What about your dad?"

"My dad? Well… like I said, he worked at the gas station, and I think he liked it well enough. I didn't visit him at work as often as my mom, but we were still close. He had this huge truck, and he always let me sit shotgun—in the front seat—when she wasn't there. When I was old enough, he taught me how to drive in that truck."

She stopped and checked the monitor.

"That sounds fun."

"Yeah, it was."

"How are they doing now?"

Ginger looked down and pushed up her glasses. She looked back up sightly, avoiding eye contact. Moon wished he hadn't said anything.

"I don't know. My dad and I, we… don't really talk anymore. And my mom…" she trailed off.

Oh.

"…She met up with Michael and Henry after the party?" That sounded better in his head. He had meant to convey the obvious question in a lighthearted and hopeful way. "Is she meeting new friends while she waits for you?" vs "Is she lost to the void, never to be seen or heard from again?" They had all remembered the party, so those had to be real ghosts. That meant that death wasn't the end, at least for humans, which Ginger's mother had most likely been.

She nodded. Moon fiddled with the mangled origami bear, struggling to find the right words.

"If they ever actually meet her, I hope they'll tell her I'm in good hands."

Ginger's hand slid into Moon's and gave it a squeeze. They were holding hands again. Skin-to-skin contact. Warmth, pressure, electricity. So simple, yet it set his heart ablaze. Was she trying to do that? If she wasn't, would she want to? Did he want her to?

Maybe.

But those were questions for another time.

"We still have plenty of time left. Can you teach me how to make origami bears?"

Moon smiled, giving her hand a final squeeze. "Sure."

They continued talking as Moon grabbed some more paper and demonstrated the proper folds. Ginger was so proud of her lopsided bear that Moon continued to teach her more animals. When the children arrived, they wanted to make paper animals, too, so Moon taught them some of the simpler ones. The day went smoothly, as if the night before had never occurred at all. After closing, he and Ginger walked up the stairs together, hand in hand.