Chapter Text
Gregory had expected to be grounded or at least punished severely in some way, after he confessed all the things he had done to Freddy and the others, but nothing too dire had occurred since that night. The Glamrocks had agreed that a stern scolding and two weeks of no arcade games, golf or racing would be enough to teach their little gremlin a lesson.
The little boy was grateful for the leniency, especially since Monty’s scalding words were still resounding in the back of his brain. The message had been clear and he knew that he would never ever disobey by uttering the murder bunny’s name ever again.
During his two weeks of lost privileges, the little boy had had a lot of time to think about Vanessa and just how badly his plan would have scarred her. Sure, they had cried it out and forgiven each other, but they had barely communicated since the incident. He remembered that Sun had told him to do something grand for her and he was yet to act on that.
After mulling over it, Gregory decided to approach Freddy for a very special request. He and the animatronic bear had been in the middle of some cuddles when the little boy finally mustered up the courage to bring up the subject.
“Hey, Freddy?” asked Gregory timidly.
“Yes, superstar?”
“Are you still upset with me, for what I did to Vanessa?”
“Not at all, Gregory”, replied Freddy, whilst gently patting Gregory’s head. “Why do you ask?”
“Umm, I wanted to ask you something.”
“Go on”, encouraged Freddy, fearing that Gregory was about to admit to committing more secret crimes.
“Please may I go to Vanessa’s house for the weekend? I really want to spend time with her now that we aren’t fighting anymore. Pretty please?”
Freddy found himself surprised by Gregory’s sudden request. Although he trusted Vanessa, and wanted her to properly bond with his son, the idea of Gregory leaving the Pizzaplex without him made him feel strange, almost scared in a way. He had kept Gregory by his side since that fateful night when he had been trapped and alone, so he was not very keen on him leaving. What if he left and did not return?
Sensing Freddy’s hesitance, Gregory hugged the robot bear’s neck tight for emphasis. “It’ll be okay, I promise.”
Freddy tried to be strong in the face of Gregory’s pleas, but in the end, he caved and laughed softly.
“Well then, I guess I am alright with you going to spend the weekend with her. In fact, some time outside of the Pizzaplex might actually be great for you.”
“Thank you so much!”
“Did you ask officer Vanessa if she was okay with you coming over?”
“No, not yet, I wanted you to agree, first! I will ask her as soon as she gets in for her shift.”
+++
Vanessa had just come in for her Thursday shift when she saw Gregory sitting by the giant Freddy statue near the entrance doors, seemingly waiting for her to arrive.
“Hey, little man”, she said cheerfully, happy that he was the one approaching her for once.
“Hey Vanessa, I was wondering if I could come spend the weekend with you? Maybe we could get to know each other better now that we are cool?”
Vanessa was taken aback. She had not expected Gregory to be the one to initiate them spending actual quality time together, but she was not going to complain.
“I think that’s a great idea, Gregory”, responded Vanessa with a big smile. “Did Freddy say it was okay for you to come over?”
“Yeah, I made sure to ask him first.”
“Then that’s totally fine by me. Make sure that you are all set by tomorrow evening. I will do my best to make it fun for both of us.”
+++
On Friday night, Gregory happily waved goodbye to the Glamrocks before leaving to join Vanessa at the front doors, where they both boarded the bus back to her apartment together. As the massive Pizzaplex became smaller and smaller behind them, Gregory felt his nerves creeping up on him. His hands shook slightly as he realised he had left the safety of what had come to be home for him.
Vanessa, upon noticing this, took his hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze, causing Gregory to snap out of it and smile softly.
After getting to Vanessa’s place, the human duo was quite tired so they went to sleep almost immediately. Vanessa let Gregory sleep in her bed for the night, whilst she slept on the living room couch. Gregory would never admit it, but it was so nice to sleep in a real bed, in a real house with no amusement park music or mechanical noises sounding in the background. Freddy’s couch had been a huge upgrade from his cold and damp alley box, but this was something else entirely.
On Saturday, Vanessa took Gregory to go play in a park and then took him to watch a movie that he had wanted to see. When they got home, Vanessa ordered a mountain of delicious Chinese food for them to eat. Vanessa used all her might to stop herself from laughing, as she watched Gregory wolf down the rice and noodles on his plate.
The food made him so happy and he made sure to let Vanessa know. As much as he loved his robot dad, Freddy could not really enjoy food, so it was always awkward when he would just watch Gregory while he was eating. Being able to eat a meal with another person was something else that he had missed.
As they ate in comfortable silence, Gregory’s mind began to wander, and he remembered the main reason that he had wanted this little sleepover in the first place.
“Vanessa, can I ask you something, a bit personal?”
Vanessa gulped down the shrimp in her mouth nervously. Hopefully these questions would not lead to an emergency visit to Thandi’s office.
“Ask away, Gregory.”
“Thank you so much for taking me out today. It was super fun. But I couldn’t help but think about how things are for you when no one else is with you. Doesn’t it get lonely in here? Like with you just living by yourself?
Vanessa sighed. “I will admit that after being around all the fun and colours and friendship in the Pizzaplex, coming back home to this bland emptiness can be a bummer.”
“I can tell”, stated Gregory, as he looked around the apartment once more. “When I used to sleep in my cardboard box out in the cold, I used to cry a lot because I had nobody to turn to. But then I met Freddy and the gang and everything changed.”
Vanessa looked at the little boy with pity.
“I think that’s the main reason why I did what I did, why I made all those plans”, explained Gregory, his voice laden with remorse. “That horrible lonely feeling, I thought I was going to have to go back to that. I was thinking that, maybe for now I still had shelter, but what if Freddy decided that I wasn’t worth keeping around anymore? If they loved you more than they loved me, wouldn’t they get tired of me eventually?”
Gregory had not realised he was crying, even after he had finished speaking. All the thoughts of being abandoned came back and hit him hard, now that he was actually vocalising his feelings.
Vanessa wiped her mouth, got up from her seat and went over to the other side of the table to give Gregory a comforting hug.
“I know about what happened to you after the fire in Roxy’s Raceway”, blurted Gregory suddenly. Vanessa’s eyes widened in shock.
“How did you find out about it?”
“Sun told me about it”, admitted Gregory.
Vanessa shook her head in disbelief. “Of course, he would be the one to tell you about it. That day-care attendant could talk someone’s head off if given the chance.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me about it?” asked Gregory, with some frustration in his voice. “Why didn’t Freddy tell me? We could have avoided all of this.”
“Gregory, up until recently, would you really have cared about anything Freddy or me would have said about my issues?”
The young boy looked away in shame. “No, not really.”
“Exactly. It was something that I discussed with my therapist, and even she feels that it’s better left in the past. I did not tell you because there was no need to burden you with that kind of information. My guess is Freddy didn’t tell you because he probably did not want to worry you either. Or, maybe he was waiting for me to tell you myself, when I was ready.”
Gregory nodded, understanding things a bit more. With that out of the way, Vanessa could get back to addressing the little boy’s feelings.
“Gregory, I have no idea what it’s like to live on the streets, so I can only imagine what kind of effect that would have had on you and your trust in people or even robots”, began Vanessa, as she wiped away some of his tears with her thumb.
“But if there is one thing that I can understand, it’s the piercing loneliness. I sat in this very apartment, all by myself for months, with no idea how to move on from what I did. But, just like you, I met Freddy, Roxy, Chica and Monty, and they all loved me in their own little way, which helped me to gradually heal myself.”
Gregory sat silent, more tears pooling in his eyes. “I didn’t make healing easy for you, did I?”
The blonde girl giggled softly. “No, you did not, you little brat. But that’s in the past now.”
Gregory wrapped his arms lightly around Vanessa’s neck. “Vanessa, I really am sorry for everything. The jealousy, the lying and just being so mean and awful in general.”
Vanessa smiles wholeheartedly at Gregory’s warm words. “Like I said before Gregory, it is all fine now. I forgive you. I am sorry too, for losing my temper and grabbing you so roughly.”
Gregory had actually forgotten all about that part of the night.
“What?! You don’t have to be sorry”, yelled Gregory as he pulled out of the hug. “Heck, I deserved it to be honest, after running my mouth like that.”
Vanessa smirked. “While I do agree, I did promise the Glamrocks that I wouldn’t hurt you, so that’s a bad on my part. The robots were not happy with me at all. Roxy made that pretty clear.”
“Yeah, they were mad at me too”, said Gregory sadly. “They have never looked at me like that before. I know Monty as a loud and cheeky joker, but when he scolded me, it made me kinda scared.”
A chill went up Vanessa’s spine at the thought of Monty being mad at her. The big gator was intimidating even when he was being fun and poor Gregory had had to deal with him when he was angry.
“You are a brave little man. I would have been scared too”, said Vanessa. “But let’s be honest with ourselves. What you did was far from okay, and the Glamrocks reacted more than accordingly. We both broke their trust.”
“How?”, asked the little brunet.
“I promised that I would not hurt you or make you feel unsafe, yet I broke that promise when I grabbed you. The animatronics trusted you to tell them if something was wrong or if you were feeling down, but instead you tried to manipulate them and me into thinking that I was crazy. Unless you think that what you did to me was fair.”
“No way”, gasped Gregory. “I should never have done it.”
“There you go”, said Vanessa calmly. “That’s why they reacted the way they did with both of us. We can’t expect them to be all peachy with us when we hurt them and each other.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Plus, I can’t really complain, they haven’t been treating me any differently. I thought that I would get some kind of tough punishment, but all I got was two weeks of essentially no fun.”
“I noticed that too. I was honestly expecting some degree of hostility, but there was none. In their shoes, I don’t think I would have been as lenient with me as they were.”
Gregory pondered on Vanessa’s statement and unhappily recalled some old feelings he had had for Monty, Chica and Roxy when they were still under the murder bunny’s control.
“They get what they deserve.”
“Yeah, me too”, he stated sadly. Vanessa got up and went back to her seat.
“I think it’s good that all of this happened. You were able to fully share your feelings and now everyone can work on paying more attention to you and your needs. You are still a kid after all. The love and attention from the Glamrocks has been great, but I definitely don’t need more attention than a child. At least not anymore.”
“Will you give me attention too?” asked Gregory shyly.
“Sure thing, kid”, answered Vanessa, as she fluffed his soft hair playfully, causing him to laugh.
+++
One Month Later…
Freddy’s two kids laughed as he and Monty argued over which one of them had allowed Chica to win the go-kart race that they had just concluded. After conceding that they were both just too heavy to keep up with her, the whole gang headed towards the day-care.
The animatronics took the stairs, whilst Gregory and Vanessa took turns using the slide to get down to the massive ball pit.
Before Vanessa could wade her way out of the balls, Gregory grabbed her hand and slid a crudely wrapped present into it. Vanessa was shocked at the odd gesture, but she was grateful nonetheless.
Whilst Gregory was being chased by Monty, the night guard carefully unwrapped the present to reveal a hand decorated picture frame with a cute photo that they had taken in one of the photo booths near the main stage, to commemorate their bonding. The frame had the words my sister painted on it, in cute black letters and the sight of it made Vanessa’s heart swell.
“Aww, did you make this by yourself Gregory?” asked Vanessa teasingly, after saving Gregory from the toothy gator.
Gregory blushed lightly.
“Not completely by myself”, he admitted whilst nervously rubbing the back of his head. “I had a ton of help from Sun. He’s a lot better at arts and crafts than I am.”
“Either way, I really appreciate it”, said Vanessa whilst fluffing Gregory’s hair again.
Before she could move on to meet the Glamrocks, Gregory aggressively pulled Vanessa into a hug. “This is going to sound really dumb, but I just wanted to say that I love you and I am really happy to have you in my life.”
Gregory buried his face in Vanessa’s uniform, in order to curb his rising embarrassment. Before Vanessa could respond, Roxy showed up beside her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.
“Gregory’s right, you know? We love you guys so much and we will always be there for you. I know it seemed like we were harsh at times but it was all for your own good.”
“Don’t worry, I understand”, said Vanessa cheerfully.
“Me too”, agreed Gregory.
“I am so happy to hear that, superstars”, added Freddy, as he propped Gregory up on his shoulder.
“We are a weird bunch, aren’t we?” said Monty.
“I think it’s better that way”, added Chica as she walked over with a Fazcam in her hand. “Sun, could you help us with a picture?”
+++++++
“And then we took this together”, said Vanessa whilst holding up the photo that Sun had taken of her, Gregory and the Glamrocks. “Isn’t that the sweetest thing?”
Vanessa continued to go on and on about the new family that she had found over the course of the past few months. Thandi just listened attentively as the young woman gushed over the strange photo.
When Thandi had told Vanessa to find some new friends that she could be physically close to, this is nowhere near what she had imagined or expected. Vanessa had successfully formed a family comprised of four big animal-looking animatronics and a pre-teen boy.
However, she did not say anything and just smiled. Vanessa’s new family loved and cared for her and at the end of the day, that was all that mattered.
THE END