Liam slept soundly on the couch, enjoying the nap he was happening. It felt like he hadn't slept in years.. which, is somewhat true. For someone who'd spent his existence as a lost spirit—roaming awake both day and night as an animatronic—such deep sleep as a human again felt like peace.
Eventually, Liam stirred awake, roused by the persistent rumbling of his stomach—which reminded him about the Pizza Tae said about ordering. The rumble vibrated through his midsection, a painful, insistent grumbling. "Oww..." he mumbled.
"Urgh..." Liam groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. He found himself lying on his side, his gaze fixed on the back of the couch. With a sigh, he turned over, eager to drift back into sleep for just a few more minutes, despite the hunger pains vibrating his belly. But, Instead, he was met by the face of one of the other band members who was practically inches from his once he reopend his eyes. The sudden intrusion startled him.
"AHHH?!" Liam yelped, recoiling and pressing himself firmly against the couch cushion.
"WHAA?!" came the mirrored scream from the band member.
Liam blinked rapidly, his back still pressed into the couch, trying to process why this guy was so close to his face.
"W-What?!" the guy stuttered.
"What do you mean, 'what'?" Liam snapped, his tone edged with irritation. "Why were you up in my face?!"
The band member shifted awkwardly. "S-Sorry... I just wanted to see you a bit closer! Tae told us that you're, um... a ghost or something. Well, you were—or are... Maybe.. um, you know-." He trailed off, glancing down before looking back at Liam.
Liam narrowed his eyes. While he wasn't bothered by Tae sharing his secret, he wished he had told him first that he was going to. Not even Liam himself understands how he is what he is right now.
The band member hesitated. "Um... did you not want Tae to tell us?"
"I— Well, um..." Liam stammered.
Then the band member brightened suddenly. "Oh! I almost forgot—Tae told me to come get you. The pizza's here."
Liam sat up and stretched. "Oh... well," he murmured, pausing mid-stretch. "I guess I'll go with you then."
"Alright, you can walk with me if you want!" the band member said, opening the door to leave the dressing room.
Liam rose from the couch and ambled over to the door. Before leaving, he glanced back at the room—its walls marked with dark, unsettling stains. The eerie atmosphere made him wonder how he could sleep amid such horrible markings. "Well, I am a ghost. I can sleep anywhere now I guess," he mumbled to himself. But then the band member's voice broke his thoughts.
"You coming or what?"
"Y-Yeah," Liam replied quickly, closing the door behind him.
Hurrying down the hallway to catch up, he asked, "So... uh... what's your name again?"
The band member turned around with a friendly grin. "I'm Aaron T, yo! But you can just call me T if you want!" he said cheerfully.
"O-Oh, alright," Liam responded with a small smile.
"I'm really so sorry that I was up in your face like that," Aaron T apologized. "I was just really intrigued after Tae mentioned you're, you know... a ghost. Or, well, you were,"
"Well, I-," Liam opened his mouth to reply when Aaron T continued without missing a beat. "So what's it like? Being a ghost, I mean? Do you feel cold or hot? And wait, you're that rabbit thing too, right? Tae said you're a robot—what's it like being that? Do you break down a lot? Do people fix you? Do—,"
"A-Aaron..." Liaminterjected, overwhelmed by the cascade of questions. He wasn't sure how to answer everything; it had been so long since he'd held a proper conversation with anybody.
"Oh—I'm sorry,"Aaron T said with a slight gasp."That... was way too many personal questions..." He looked away apologetically, and embarrassed.
Liam managed a light giggle. "It's not that it's too personal; I just haven't really talked like this with anyone in ages. Not since... well, you know."
Aaron T nodded in understanding. "Yeah. I'm here to chat, though I might talk a bit too much—I promise I'm a good listener, and so is Tae."
Liam smiled, grateful to finally have someone to talk to about the mess his existence had become.
"4 Town is gonna perform here again next week, so we've been getting ready," Aaron T said. He pointed in front of him, to a few chairs, that looked like school chairs, that were scattered around. All of the rest of 4 Town, was sitting there, stuffing some pizza in their mouths.
As Liam and Aaron T joined the group, Aaron T greeted, "Hey guys! Here's—"
"AHHH?!" Robaire suddenly screamed, toppling over along with his chair.
"R-Robaire!" another band member cried, clearly concerned.
"Z... why did he just fall?" Aaron T asked.
Robaire quickly scrambled to his feet and fixed his wide eyes on Liam. "Y-You said he's that r-r-robot... r-r-rabbit, right?!" he managed to stammer, before darting his gaze to Tae, who was nonchalantly biting into his pizza.
"Uhh... yes...?" Tae replied softly.
Jesse sighed. "I forgot... Robaire has Automatonophobia," he explained.
"Automaton-whata?" Liam asked, clearly confused.
Robaire hid behind his chair, muttering, "Yeah! And it doesn't help that it's literally possessed!"
Tae rolled his eyes. "Robaire, he's not even in 'robot mode' at the moment!" He stood next to Liam.
Robaire continued from his hiding spot, "But what if he plans to kill us all?!"
"Liam would never do that," Tae said firmly, glancing at him.
"You barely know him!" Robaire snapped.
Feeling awkward, Liam asked, "Uh... what's that auto thing?"
"It's the fear of realistic robots and animatronics," Jesse explained. "I guess that rabbit triggered Robaire's phobia."
Robaire, still peeking from behind his chair, shouted, "I just don't like giant animals either!"
"Is this all because of Mei's mom two years ago?" Jesse snorted.
"Shut up!" Robaire snapped. "I genuinely don't like robots. Even Thomas... I was still creeped out around him."
"Oh, come on, Thomas isn't even a robot!" Tae argued.
"Yeah, but still!" Robaire insisted. "It was a train with a metal face!"
Liam was utterly lost at what they were even talking about, but then his stomach rumbled again—loud enough for Tae, who was right next to him, to notice.
"Oh, right," Tae said. While the others continued chatting, he walked over to a small cardboard box on the floor holding three pizzas, set apart from the chair circle.
"So... you want cheese or pepperoni?" Tae asked with a soft smile. "That entire third box is Aaron T's—he got pineapple, ugh, gross..."
"Hey!" Aaron T objected. "Pineapple pizza is amazing!" he retorted, pointing playfully at Tae. "You don't know what you're missing!"
Liam glanced down at the pizza boxes. "Um... I'll have the pepperoni," he said.
"Finally, someone normal," Tae teased, smirking at Aaron T, who just grunted and rolled his eyes.
Tae took a napkin, grabbed a slice of pizza, and handed it to Liam. "Here you go!" he said warmly.
Liam looked down at the slice in his hands—He hasn't seen pizza this close up in so long. Slowly, he took it from Tae.
"You can sit over there—in the empty chair next to mine," Tae directed. "Or.. you can stand... whatever you'd like,"
Liam noticed one chair filled with Tae's belongings and an adjacent empty seat. Aaron T occupied the next one over. Liam made his way to the vacant seat, holding onto his pizza, which was still surprisingly warm.
Soon after, Aaron T started chatting. "Tae wanted you right next to him, so he saved that seat for you," he said with a mischievous giggle.
Liam blushed at that, but he was sure Tae just wanted him near him to help him out with whatever.
As he stared at his pizza, he raised it to his mouth—but then a sudden realization struck...
He had forgotten how to eat.
Nervously, he hesitated, uncertain how to proceed. "You okay there?" Tae asked, noticing Liam's indecision. Liam turned his head, meeting Tae's concerned gaze.
"Are you alright? What's wrong?"
"I..." Liam stammered before leaning in closer to whisper, "Dude... I literally forgot how to eat food..."
Tae blinked for a moment before responding, "Oh... That's... oh my, uh, well, you remember the basics, right? Open your mouth, chew, then swallow?"
Liam shrugged, uncertain.
"Okay," Tae continued gently. "Just open your mouth slowly and take a bite of the pizza."
"Um...," Liam looked at his slice again, hesitated, then watched as Tae moved closer and gently took the slice from his hands. "Here," Tae said, turning the slice so that the cheesy goodness was aligned with Liam's open mouth. "Just open your mouth slowly."
Although a bit hesitant at first, Liam complied, opening his mouth. Tae carefully fed him the pizza, guiding him, "Okay, just bite it off slowly, and chew it."
Liam closed his eyes as he followed Tae's guidance. "There you go," Tae said with an encouraging smile.
In that moment, everything came back to Liam—memories of how to chew, how to swallow. As he swallowed the bite, a rush of nostalgic flavor overwhelmed him; he had forgotten what food, and specifically pizza, truly tasted like. But now, here he was, rediscovering the joy of it.
"Another bite?" Tae asked, holding the pizza slice up again. Liam nodded eagerly, opened his mouth, and took another bite, savoring every moment.
However, when he finally opened his eyes, he noticed the room had quieted. Looking to his right, Liam saw the rest of 4 Town watching him and Tae.
"Pifft, these two lovebirds feeding each other," Aaron T joked.
Tae gasped and quickly pulled the pizza away from Liam's lips. "I-I... Liam just needed a little help!" Tae snapped defensively.
"What? Help with being flustered? His face was turning bright red," Aaron Z snorted.
Liam finished the last bit of his bite, only to suddenly feel a sharp zap in his foot. "Ahh..." he muttered softly. Looking down, he saw his foot had collided with one of the stray ball pit balls hidden under a chair. Almost immediately, his foot and leg began to turn blue, and his entire body started glitching. He vibrated uncontrollably, and his eyes rolled back.
"AHHH WHAT THE FUCK?!" Robaire screamed, leaping back in horror, and his pizza went flying. In his frantic retreat, he tripped over a chair, colliding with Jesse.
Before anyone could react further, Liam transformed back into Toy Bonnie. The blue toy animatronic blinked open pitch-black eyes, which soon glowed with an eerie white light.
"Oh godohgodohgod... Jesse, protect me! PROTECT ME, MAN!" Robaire screeched, dragging Jesse off the floor and hiding behind him.
One by one, the others backed away from Toy Bonnie as the animatronic began glitching wildly. Its head wavered and shook, intermittently fading out and in, exposing the metal endoskeleton beneath.
They all slowly backed away from Toy Bonnie.
The animatronic then started to glitch. His head was moving around, and shaking, and fading in and out, exposing the metal endoskeleton skull.
"JESSE IT'S GLITCHAHAHAHAING!" Robaire cried, shaking Jesse so hard he nearly passed out.
"Guys! Stop freaking out! It's just Liam!" Tae yelled, his voice cutting through the panic as he glanced back at the toy animatronic.
Toy Bonnie's gaze fixed directly on Tae. Taking a deep breath, Tae cautiously stepped forward. "Tae?! What are you doing?! Get away from that thing!" Robaire bellowed.
The animatronic's head slowly tilted downward as Tae approached. "L-Liam..." Tae said softly, almost pleading, "Can you hear me?"
As the animatronic's head shook violently and sparks flew from its neck, Liam could indeed hear Tae—but he was powerless to speak. Although there was a potential method via the voice box embedded in Toy Bonnie's chest, it had long been out of commission, with Fazbear Entertainment yet to repair it. He could not use it if the speaker was broken.
"T-Taaaeeee..." Liam attempted, but all that emerged were garbled, distorted sounds that only made Robaire panic further.
The animatronic glitched more, "Liam... it's me... Tae, just try to calm down..." Tae urged, placing both hands on Toy Bonnie's white rabbit tummy. "Oh damn... Liam, your robot's tall as heck," Tae remarked, his hand barely making it past the belly as he examined the mechanical figure.
"Or maybe you're just short," Aaron T snorted from a distance.
Slowly, Liam felt his frazzled soul begin to settle—Tae's touch seemed to soothe him, transferring a measure of calm from the animatronic form to the spirit within. Tentatively, Liam managed to raise Toy Bonnie's arm and rested it on Tae's head, though it slipped off as he struggled with control.
"It'll be okay, Liam," Tae reassured softly.
After a long, tense while, Liam gradually changed back—transforming back into himself. The animatronic shell faded away completely.
Seeing Liam restored, Tae's face softened with genuine relief as he enveloped him in a warm, welcoming hug.
Liam sighed as he returned the embrace. Though he was accustomed to being Toy Bonnie for so so long, these unpredictable, spastic shifts between human and animatronic left him feeling unmoored, as if he had little control over his true self. He feels like he has no control as Toy Bonnie anymore.