I Don't Own Fnaf

The weeks moved by faster than Mike wanted them to, but the march of time didn't really care about what he wanted, so he just sucked it up and keep making sure everything didn't burst into pieces or something. It was the middle of summer, June was rushing by at an almost alarming pace.

It was a bit uncomfortable with how quickly they had gotten here, like a blink from one month to the next, events rushing by faster than Mike himself could really keep track of. The Cove was swamped with kids still, to the point that by the third week of Summer everyone had agreed Mike had made a good choice in hiring someone, even if Devon looked about as dead on his feet when he left as the rest of the crew at the end of every day.

Honestly, Mike was sure the others were debating more the merits of hiring new staff, even if it would calm down soon, this was only their second year open, if it got more busy next Summer... Well god help them.

That was a worry meant for the future however, though Mike had plenty of those also at hand, instead, he was currently busying himself through his morning activities, he had woken up fairly early, in spite of his own body's protests, and had been able to slip out of bed without waking the puppet at his side up, an extraordinary feat if he was being honest with himself.

So he was being a bit quieter than normal, as he moved through running the coffee pot and ripped open a new box filled with breakfast bars, breakfast the main meal he put the least amount no effort into, he didn't think twice about wolfing three of the things down and then chasing it with an unhealthy amount of coffee. He was pretty sure that caffeine had less of an effect on him nowadays because of his slower heart rate, like, it didn't do as much, but the faint buzz he got from it lasted a bit longer than it used to.

He had no idea if that was really the case, but that's about what it felt like, and frankly he didn't really know how the human body worked, much less how his own zombie body functioned, so it was more one of those vague guesses than anything. He still made himself a second cup while his mind idled over a thought he had rolling around in the back of his head for a while now. It was the seventeenth of June, the date itself didn't really mean anything by itself, it was just another day, another Thursday.

Under normal circumstances for a normal person, it was nothing special. Mike wasn't a normal person, for... so many reasons, but that wasn't the point of his uncertainty.

In two days time, his brother would be turning nineteen.

In two days time, it'll be ten years to the day since Michael Afton killed his little brother.

In two days time, Mike expected that he'd be a wreck of a human being, not exactly a new sensation, but... it was strange as well, normally he'd already be feeling dread, like a weight slowly pushing itself down on his chest and making it harder to breath as the days drew closer. Last year he had been aware of the day as it approached from weeks ahead of time, now?

He hadn't even realized just how quickly the date had been approaching until Evan had complained mildly, in passing, about Foxy trying to plan a party. And then it all came rushing back, and now here he was, thinking about it, what to do, what he was going to do... How he was going to be, if he'd be alright... Unconsciously he felt himself roll his left wrist, feeling the way the thick scars that ran up the arm flexed awkwardly at the smooth skin around it.

The two had talked about it, of course they did, once Mike was aware of just how close it was, and his brother didn't want to celebrate his birthday. Something he had managed to convince the fox of after some effort, but he genuinely had no interest in even thinking about his birthday, much less deal with some kind of celebration or big deal about it. It would be a Saturday, one of their most busy days, they could afford to not have the bear on stage for the day, even if it meant Foxy would probably be playing over time, but Evan had just shook his head and claimed he wanted to work.

It left Mike in a weird situation, as the boss, and frankly, as an older brother, he could just tell the bear to take the day off, take a break, but he had the very real feeling that the animatronic didn't want a break, didn't want to think about what the day was. Mike knew all about needing a distraction to be able to keep going on. As it stood, he wasn't sure if the fact it was going to be such a busy day was going to help him for the day as well.

But that wasn't really what he was thinking about, just because the bear didn't want anything, did that mean Mike shouldn't... get him anything? They were in a much better spot sibling relationship wise since the last one, when the bear had turned eighteen. Mike had been actually forgiven since then... Was it his place to was it just... cruel?

It was a line of thought he had admittedly been cycling through for more than a few days now, and the reason he was up so early now. He didn't know what he wanted to do, but he was determined to make a decision on it before the day was out, so in spite of his exhausted body, he was up at six thinking over the situation for what felt like the millionth time. Maybe since he was up earlier than normal he could go to the gym, work out a bit, it would help clear his mind and he hadn't had much energy to work out as much as he wanted to recently.

That idea rolled around for a long second before being dismissed for the moment. He healed slowly nowadays, working out was reserved for when he wouldn't ache like hell for a few days afterwards during one of the busiest rushes his business had ever had.

The point of this all rolled around to the front of his mind again, this time in a bit of a different direction, what would he give Evan as a gift if he did go through with the idea that it wouldn't be unwanted? The bear didn't really ask for much, he never had really. Mike wasn't really the best with gifts, that was much more his better half's department, but he also didn't really want to bring it up with Mari either, it felt like something he should be able to handle on his own.

Besides, he didn't want the puppet to worry about him about all this, frankly he felt guilty about the fact that Mari and Charlie's birthday had gone by with barely any fanfare. Mari hadn't complained, frankly they had been to busy to think about it then either, and Mike did do something, went through the whole thing about worrying about flowers to get, got a card, and a new plush that he knew the puppet would adore that was penguin shaped, but it still felt like it wasn't enough.

That's what it felt like now as well, not enough, or maybe to much?

Maybe he should just get a card or something, but that felt... lazy, and frankly at that point Mike could just say what he wanted to the bear... Ugh, this whole thing was such a mess on his brain.

"You're up early" Mike blinked, his head tilting around to see Mari floating sleepily into the kitchen, a hand moving up and rubbing over his mask, as Mike just smiled a bit at the sight, before saying with a shrug.

"Couldn't sleep" It was a familiar excuse, neither got the best sleep anymore, it had slowly been getting better, but he couldn't lie and say it was perfect. Mari just let out a short little chime, moving over and leaning against Mike, muttering.

"Should have woken me up then" Mike just shrugged, he wouldn't have, he made a point if he woke up from an nightmare, and he managed by some miracle to not wake Mari up at the same time, then he'd let the puppet have his rest. He had a suspicion in the back of his head that Mari did the same back right back to him. Still, he wasn't going to say that, so instead just mentioned.

"You need your rest Stripes, you still sound tired" A light buzzing noise came from the puppet.

"Hmm" Mike just smiled, pulling an arm around the puppet before saying lightly, unable to help himself.

"Want to go back to bed?" The puppet more or less muttered the word into his chest in answer.

"Please?" God, he was weak.

"Alright, let's go back to bed"

He doubted he was going to get any sleep, he was to awake now and with way to much coffee to manage that, but being in bed with a puppet laying over him didn't sound like it would be a bad way to keep his thoughts from getting to down while he worked over the thoughts in his head.

Going to the mall was not on Mike's list of things he liked to do.

Before it just made him a bit paranoid, there was so much that happened in a place like this, so many small crimes that you could see if you paid attention, so many crimes you could get away with if you paid that attention to the ones who weren't. It set him on edge in a certain kind of way before that sense of doing something wrong with so many witnesses around who could see it happen, now it just reminded him of what he used to do.

He kept his hands in his pockets, but could still see the way as he walked through the crowd, the way that certain items were just hanging out of purses or pockets, easy to snatch as he brushed on by, he didn't, of course he didn't. There wasn't even any kind of impulse to try, there wasn't a need to, it wasn't about having enough to eat next week, it was just... hard to break the habits he had built in places like this.

Hard to not notice watching someone lift something out of a lady's purse, hard to not notice she had a number of jewelry items on her, her skin was artificially tan, and her hands had next to no callous, she wouldn't miss it. She'd get upset, rant and rave to someone later, but in a week she'd be back here without a second thought.

Hard to not notice the way the teen who snatched it had bony fingers and a skinny wrist from where their hand darted out from their hoodie to grab the item in the first place.

Hard to look away when you weren't the one trying to get away.

Mall's were full of crime, the perk of being a big guy was no one was willing to try it on him, the perk of it being so populated was that you could go every day for a year and never have something happen to you.

No one thinks something could happen to them until it did.

Needless to say, he didn't like it, but he had no idea where else to go where there'd be as many options as here, and as such had been set to wandering around for the last twenty or so minutes, taking his time and doing his best to ignore everything and everyone around him.

He still had no idea just what to get his brother, but he only had a day to figure it out after making the very difficult decision to at the very least get something for the bear. Now he just needed to figure out what the hell he was going to get the animatronic... Which wasn't easy, he had admittedly used the puppet's innate skill in picking out gifts to help him out last Christmas to know what to get... honestly most of the people around him.

Mike wasn't really good at picking out gifts if he was being honest, and the few ideas of gifts that he knew he'd like, such as a new jacket or another such study piece of clothing, wasn't really... Viable when you were an animatronic bear.

Hence being at the mall, if he couldn't figure out anything himself, then maybe he could just wander around for the very limited time he had free in the early hours of the morning, and be able to window shop until he found something that just... clicked.

It wasn't going that was unfortunately, he had already covered almost everything on the first floor only a few store fronts left and then he'd be going up a level to see if there was anything there, and if now... Well, he guessed he'd have to think of something when that happened, because right now he still didn't have the faintest clue as to what to do.

In the mean time, he just wandered over to a trash can and with as much dignity as one could when spitting, got rid of the gum in his mouth, which had gone tasteless about twenty minutes ago out, before wandering off in a new direction while dragging out the pack from his pocket to toss a few more pieces in. Chewing on something was quickly becoming a habit, thankfully he wasn't running out of gum any time soon.

It was something, just wandering about without a clear goal in sight, he had managed to avoid going in anywhere and buying something he didn't need, but Mike had to admit, this window shopping thing was effective at making someone want to go inside and get something. He had already passed by an art store that he probably could have gotten lost in for a while if it hadn't been for his own self control. Though, he still had to admit the idea of getting a set of brushes and try his hand at painting was an inciting one. He might have to come back later or find an actual art store instead of getting his supplies from whenever he was out in that small barely section of them that were at the convenience store.

As Mike began to go up a flight of stairs to get to the second floor, he wondered just what he would paint, he mostly did cartoonish versions of the animatronics and random assortments of party supplies nowadays. Not exactly what he had cut his teeth on artistic style wise, not that he was particularly planning on showing those designs off to anyone, even if he could find any of those old art books... There might still be one somewhere in the house from when he was first learning to draw, but he had gotten good at it during his time behind bars, when there wasn't really much else to do.

...Right, not thinking about his time in prison anymore, that wasn't good for his brain.

Thankfully a distraction came in the form of his phone, in his pocket, suddenly buzzing against his leg as he blinked down at the thing before reaching in and grabbing it. Flipping it over to see the name on square display on the top of the phone, he was some what surprised to see who it was before quickly flipping the phone open, as he moved to find a quieter spot to stand while taking the call.

"Hey?" The familiar voice of Phone Guy came over the line.

"Uh, hey, Mike?" Mike wasn't... overly sure just why Scott sounded nervous, but it didn't make him feel good about it, as he asked back casually.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Uh, nothing important. Just... Recently I got told by Fritz that he was talked to by the police a while ago and... Well, I was wondering if you could tell me more about that?" Mike grimaced at that. He had kind of hoped that Scott would be left out of the loop about everything that was happening when it came to Burke, the man had seemed to pull back after the tongue lashing that he had apparently gotten from Janet, which Mike made sure to give her congrats for.

Not because he didn't think the man wouldn't be able to handle it, he probably had as much experience talking around law enforcement as Mike did, but the man wasn't really related to anything going on in the Cove, so he had kind of hoped to just... separate him from it all. Scott had to deal with Ennard after all, which in Mike's own opinion, was effort enough without having to worry about this mess as well.

"It's Burke, you remember him?"

"Ah, yeah, he... made a point to be around during Freddy's open days for a while"

"Well he thinks I'm up to something and had something to do with that fire in the Spring"

"Well... You did, I did... Shouldn't we be concerned about that?" Scott already sounded a lot more than a little concerned, so Mike tried to quickly put the man's fears at rest.

"Yeah, but he can't prove that, and anything that might have been evidence was cremated. You weren't even working there officially, there's nothing you have to worry about"

"Right... I suppose that makes sense... Just, if you hear anything, could you tell me? I don't have...Good memories when it comes to Burke" Mike huffed at that a bit as he said back.

"Trust me, I'm not a fan either. Don't worry, with how poorly built and gathered everything was at that freddy's, I'm pretty sure there's nothing around that could put us in any danger. It was being run by a dead man after all, and that alone would make it almost impossible to track back to any of us. Just think about how well it worked for William" Mike didn't really want to bring up his father, but, well, the Dave Miller had been practically a ghost as far s he could tell, and his father had only faked his death, unlike Henry who had gone the extra mile.

"Right, I suppose that makes sense..."

"Did you have anything else you want to talk about? I'm kind of in the middle of shopping at the moment"

"Oh! I-uh, I was kind of wondering what that sound in the background was, sorry. I called your home line first, but..." Oh... Oh! Mike had to hold back a laugh as he asked.

"Did Mari pick up?"

"Y-yeah" He couldn't help but ask, humor lacing his voice before he could help holding it back.

"How'd that go?"

"Err... It didn't? I mean, I thought I dialed the wrong number at first and then I said something, and then there was a loud music sound and then i- um. He, hung up" Mike just hummed, that certainly sounded like the puppet, he wasn't still... willing to talk to 'strangers', or people outside of his ring of trust. It took him months before he started to speak with Fritz and Jeremy, and it was only because Janet was tagging along in a group effort exploration of AR that she heard the puppet's voice which had helped Mari open up a bit faster to her.

Scott had heard him before, in very faint passing, but that didn't mean that the two had ever actually talked. He doubted either had any interest in such a thing to be honest, Mari still had some hang ups about the man for all his helpfulness in the last year, and Scott... Well, frankly Mike was pretty sure Scott was scared of Mari more than any other animatronic bar, maybe, his brother. Which Mike... never really understood how those two were the scariest, then again he was probably a bit to close to the two to see that.

"Right, I can't wait to here his side when I get home then"

"Why are you shopping anyways? It's a bit early"

"Gift shopping... I don't suppose you have any ideas on what to get a big golden bear?"

"Erm... Not really?"

"Yeah, I figured not, good talk though If anything happens, let me know, but I think we'll be alright"

"Got it... Right, thanks Mike"

"No problem" He hung up at that point, before sighing as he looked around for a long second before picking a random spot and wandering off in that direction.

The conversation had been a surprisingly good break in the boredom that had slowly been building up in the back of his mind, but that did nothing to actually help him find something that would be a good gift... Honestly, he was finding things that he thought would honestly be better for practically everyone else expect his brother.

Jeremy would appreciate a new hat, even though the man had plenty, Fritz would laugh at a few shirts he had seen hung up with horrible engineering puns on them. There had been a whole toy shop filled with bead filled plushies that Mike would have had to pry Mari away from if he was here, and the costume store he had passed he was sure Foxy would love for all the props he could find in it. But his brother? It was like the second that he was focused on trying to find something for someone, his ability to figure something out with them in mind just went out of his brain.

It was kind of irritating.

Wandering around though he did end up stopping for a moment at one of those stalls that was kept on the main floor for people walking by. Usually the things in Mike's opinion were just scams. You stand ready by them so when a person walks by you can talk their ear off and try your best to get someone to buy some cheap thing off the hanging rack. It wasn't always like that, and if it made a person the money they needed then whatever, but he never really paid much attention to them.

This one mostly just caught his attention because of how much color was on it... Like, someone exploded a dozen cans of paint all over it... Well, not completely, it was just what they were selling was really colorful, everything from braided necklaces, to wrist bands, to bracelets, to gloves and more. It wasn't quite tie-dye, or at least it wasn't all that, but there was a lot of colorful items all over. Mike just hummed as he moved over closer and found himself looking them over.

Mari would like something like this, sure, the puppet didn't really wear clothes, but that was besides the point, something really colorful and bright was right up the black and white puppet's alley... Hmm... Tilting his head a bit, he debated something, quietly to himself, for a moment, mostly trying to figure out what would actually... work.

Mari didn't really have shoulders, so a necklace wouldn't work, and his wrists were incredibly thin compared to a normal person, so a bracelet or wrist band really wouldn't work either... His fingers on the other hand, having three instead of five, meant they were a bit thicker than normal too, and without proper joints, a ring wouldn't fit well either... A head band maybe? It would fit, though Mike would probably have to get a child sized one because Mari's head wasn't really round like a human's was, meaning it took up less space... But with how his mask was shaped, it'd probably fall into his eyes.

Damn, he couldn't really get anything for anyone could he? Because he was pretty sure his brother wouldn't be to into anything here either, without mentioning the fact that his brother was frankly too big for most of any of this to comfortably fit on him either. Well, it's not like he lost anything this anyways, he already knew that clothing wasn't exactly high on the list of things an animatronic needed, he only moved over because he got reminded of Mari.

Getting ready to walk off, he was interrupted suddenly by a voice.

"U-uh... C-can I help you?" Mike blinked, before finally looking down enough to realize he had apparently been ignoring an absolutely tiny teenaged girl who seemed to have been managing the stall, who's neck was bent at a frankly painful looking angle to be able to look up at him, as Mike held back from grimacing as he realized he had been staring at the thing like a weirdo for a solid minute now. The girl couldn't be more than fifteen or so, and looked very uncomfortable.

"Oh, sorry. I was just looking to see if there was anything here my boyfriend would like" Mike honestly hadn't even realized the words he had used until a solid second after, but apparently it didn't matter as it seemed to perk the girl up a bit as she quickly said.

"O-Oh! Uh, well, what do you think he'd like!" Mike just shrugged. Apparently deciding to himself that having this conversation was worth while to let the girl not feel incredibly uncomfortable from having a man twice her size glare at something above her. Mike was sure he used to be a bit more aware of his surroundings to not be in situations like this before... Or maybe he just didn't care enough back then to worry about upsetting others... Could be either realistically.

Now... He had to figure out what to say.

"Well... um... Colors, so you know, I figured he'd like something like this, but, well, nothing here really... fits him, item wise I mean, I'm sure if he could, he'd snatch everything here and look like a spokes person for a paint store if he could manage it" The teen giggled a bit, but nodded, as she hopped off the chair she had been in and stood up as she began to look around for something through the many items, while Mike tried his best to not feel to uncomfortable from talking about Mari with a stranger.

He wasn't, just... It was a new feeling actually discussing Mari as his partner with someone, the others had made a point to give the two the privacy they had clearly wanted from the fact it took them months to tell them about their relationship, but even that was different than some stranger. Even if said stranger was literally some random kid working a summer job at the mall, which, frankly, added a whole other layer to it of awkwardness.

"Here! What about this!" The girl came back from around the other side of the stall with a paper covered in a plastic wrap, as Mike just blinked as he reached out to take it from here as he looked it over. It turned out it wasn't just paper, but it was a thick piece of what seemed to be white cardboard with a number of things sticking out of it. As he glanced to the girl who was explaining her thought process, "They're color pins! That way he can just stick them to whatever he already has on to add a bit of color. I really like them, see!" She turned her jacket out a bit to show off that on the inside of her collar was a pink, white, and orange pin.

Mike... wasn't really sure why she put it there because it was kind of hard to see, but she seemed to almost beam about it, so it probably was the best decision to give a smile and nod, saying back.

"I'm sure he'd love them, thank you" Looking down at the pins in his hand, there really were just colored pins, some were just full of one, others were spirally mixes of different colors, one was even a rainbow, "I guess that's one thing I can claim to have gotten done... How much do I owe? Oh... and, I don't suppose you know a good place to get a gift for a moody teenager? I'm kind of here for someone else" Surprisingly, the girl was only to happy to help, now he just needed to figure out where the list of stores he was given were actually located here...

So... next things next, time to find one of those 'you are here maps' and start hunting around a few stores. He was beginning to run out of time, and somehow managed to buy something for someone completely unrelated to the reason why he was here after all, he needed to put a rush in his step.

"Hey Ev, how's it been?" The bear was silent for a moment, as Mike moved over, sitting down next to the bear as Foxy stood around awkwardly for a moment nearby. The three were on stage at the moment, everyone was cleaning up and getting closing done for the night, this was the best time to do it really, at least, in Mike's opinion... And because he wasn't sure he could manage waiting much longer, waiting the day out had been... painful.

The day honestly hadn't been as bad as he thought it would have been, he wasn't... doing great. But it wasn't anything worse than his normal bad days, which had been a surprise to both him, and he thought Mari as well, who seemed to have been more than ready to have Mike wrapped up in blankets for the entire day. Not that he didn't appreciate the puppet's want to care after him, but he was very glad that that hadn't needed to be the case.

In the moment though, Evan just glanced over to Foxy before nodding, as the fox gave an awkward kind of salute before saying as he marched off.

"Righty then! I'mma see if anyone needs any help" Mike tossed the fox a grateful look, he didn't mind if the animatronic stuck around, but at the same time, this suddenly felt a lot more personal as he glanced over to Evan who was still just standing before saying softly.

"It's... strange, being here, standing here, as... This... Today" Mike flinched a bit at that, he couldn't lie and say he had been all that fond of looking up at the stage in general when Goldie was playing his part generally, and today had been a lot worse, knowing... Ten years ago he had lifted his brother up right to that same animatronic and watched as...

"I get the feeling... Sort of" Evan just let out a faint creaking kind of buzz sound that was his version of a hum.

"Was she here? When it... happened" Mike didn't need to ask who she was, he knew. The two brothers had spent a lot of time in the last few months thinking about the same person, wondering and worrying about equal measure.

"Yeah... Elizabeth was here, dad... Dragged her out before she could really figure out what was going on. One of the only good things he probably ever managed to do thinking about it, not letting her see... us like that"

"Us?"

"I was kind of... messy afterwards... You know what my purple looks like" Mike didn't need to explain more after that, Evan understood. Mike himself was just glad he was wearing his gloves at the moment, he wasn't sure he wanted to see purple stained hands right about now.

"Do you think she's still out there?" That was... something they hadn't talked about as much, Mike kind of wished they weren't talking about it now. Circus Baby, Elizabeth Afton... She was there in the fire, but no one knew if she got out like everyone else managed to... Still...

"Yeah, I think so. She's too crafty for that to slow her down, and we both know she knows how to go underground when she needs to. If she's still out there then we won't be able to find her even if we tried to look"

"You sound certain of that" Mike shrugged.

"That's because I have tried, it never goes anywhere, no one's been going around talking about broken down clowns with claw hands"

"...I wish you told me that"

"I didn't want to get your hopes up when there's nothing to mention, we still don't know anything for sure... Same with Spring Bonnie"

"I- I still can't believe Cassidy..." Mike just sighed, though he tried to keep it quiet, Evan was certain it was Cassidy who was in the driver's seat, that the... other option was gone, fully and utterly. Mike though... He didn't know, he just had to hope that whoever it was, burned in that building, because frankly he was fine with both being gone if it meant being sure, as much as he wasn't comfortable with admittedly that ruthless side of him was still kicking. But there had been no reports about a rotten robot rabbit going around either, so in the end, there was nothing they could really do.

"I know... It'll all work out though, whatever ends up happening"

"You've been saying that a lot... You're not exactly this much of an optimist normally" Mike sighed, looking away as he thought that over. He wasn't really sure just how to explain it in a way that was, well, depressing. In the end, he decided there wasn't really a way to tell his little brother it was because if he focused on being realistic, he would probably have a very harsh depressive spiral and this was his efforts in warding that off in a desperate attempt to not have the passing urge of throwing himself off a cliff come up anytime soon. Instead he said something a bit less... awful.

"It's either that or spend all my time worrying about what's happening next. It kind of nearly killed me last time, so... I'm trying something new" Okay, that wasn't much better, but it was at least a bit more humorous, which seemed to be appreciated, as Evan huffed to himself at that. The bear staring out at the open floor for a moment, before looking away.

"I guess... Just... Keep me in the loop if you find anything" Mike could give an easy nod to that.

"If I had found anything you would have been the first to know, same if I end up finding anything... Now, come on, I got something for you in the office" The bear seemed genuine surprised about that, saying softly.

"You didn't need to get me anything" Mike just hummed, saying back as he moved to walk down and off the stage, the sound of spring filled legs creaking and thudding behind him letting him know that the bear was trailing along.

"Yeah, well, I figured I'm overdue a few" The bear didn't have anything to say to that, instead just following along as they made it into the office, as Mike moved over to the file cabinet that had at some point been recycled into being used as a storage area for the workers, as he grabbed the top handle and pulled it out to reach down and pulled out a small wrapped item. Turning around he just tossed the thing to the bear who caught it fairly easily, before reaching down and slowly pulling it open, being careful with his heavy hands and thick rounded fingers to not accidently break whatever was inside.

It was with that care, that the item was extracted, as the bear let out a soft sound of surprise that was half broken by the sudden almost foreign sound of the bear laughing, his whole body spasming in a way that looked awkward as he literally shook with mirth. Finally after a long moment, his eyes found themselves on Mike, as he just said with a huffing amusement to his voice.

"You're ridiculous... Thank you Michael" Mike just grinned, as he said.

"You're welcome, I had a feeling that you'd like it" The bear just let out an unflattering snort, as he lifted the item out of the wrapping and held it up to the air to properly examine.

As the two stared in joint amusement at the keychain that held a small golden colored plush bear at the end of it, as Mike said with clear amusement.

"I figured since you can't really bring Mini-Goldie around, I could get you a portable version" The bear just huffed again, as he reached up and using the latch on the end of the key chain, managed to snag it on one of the bars in his chest, as he let the golden plush fall and dangle in the empty space inside of his suit.

It was a dumb gift, but it was... nice as well, something he could always keep on his person. Something that he could always keep with him that would remind him of his family.

It was definitely a dumb gift, it was also more special than he was sure he could put into words.

This is a fairly simple chapter, more made for the fact of the time of year in which the events are happening than anything, but it's also an important one in it's own regard as well as a point to show just how different the characters in this story are to the ones we had at this same point last year within the story.

Last time Mike has what could only be described as a sharp depressive spiral mental health wise and was so overwhelmed with guilt he could barely emote at all, to the point the entire week leading up to the day left him in a heavy slump. Evan himself was still only referring to himself as Goldie and honestly hadn't even really started to forgive his brother for what happened. Instead locking himself away and trying to isolate himself from the world.

Here, now a year later, not everything is perfect, but the brothers are alright, both with themselves and each other, or at least as well as they can be. And they have a real honest conversation, instead of hiding away from each other, actually spending a lot of the day together and hanging out and finding things to actually have fond memories over. Sure, it was partially heavy, Elizabeth has finally been brought up, and the things that Mike have been doing over the last few months, doing his best to try to find her with the limited resources he has, but in comparison to what this day had been like for them a year pirior... it's nice to see the sharp contrast in hte characters shown just by how much they've grown. Anyways, my yammering aside, not much else to add really. So, See ya!