Chapter Text
The room had a dollhouse feel to it. The bed looked tatty and old, kids sheets beneath a thin pillow. Alongside it, a rainbow table made of plastic with a singular chair. It seemed to be the only thing that fit him. In the corner of the room, plushies of the main 4 Pizzaplex animatronics, badly drawn art of them as well as self-portraits.
He seemed eager and excited to bring me here.
Sundrop began to cut cards with the safety shape scissors, gentle and focused. He kept looking up at me to make sure I was watching and learning. I tried to copy him with my piece of green card and failed dramatically. "Sun, I can't do this! This is hard." I whined, dropping my awful paper chain on the table. I bet kids half my age can do this shit.
For a second, he made no sound except his mechanical whirring, almost as if he was processing what to say. He leant towards me and gently placed his cold hand on my shoulder.
"Of course, you can do it! And even if you don't feel like it, that's okay. You can have mine!" He said, handing me the long line of paper people with a huge smile on his face. I smiled weakly back, taking my gift from his hands. He knew nothing about personal space, that's for sure.
"Why aren't you smiling with your teeth, friend?" He said in a tone I'd never really heard before. "Smile for me, sunshine! I wanna see those pearly whites!" He quickly reached to tickle me, and for fucks sake, I wish at that moment I was made of wood and not be the most ticklish on the planet. I erupted in laughter, pushing his hands off me as I kicked and squealed. "O-Okay, okay! Stop now! Jeez..." He stopped, hitting his head on the low ceiling as he stood up. He 'oww'ed and laughed it off awkwardly, embarrassed. I notice his cheeks begin to shine a light pink.
"Ahem, now that I've seen your big, lovely smile. I have to know... Why did you fall through the ceiling? We have doors, silly." He chortled, finding himself hilarious. I rolled my eyes and scoffed with a little laugh before tucking my hair behind my ear.
"Ha, ha... Very funny..." I responded in a sarcastic tone before, "I, uh, basically, well... I don't know if I can talk about it without getting upset." I laughed it off, a feeble attempt to stop the flood gates from opening. Moments later, tears began to well up in my eyes.
"P-Please don't cry, sunshine!" Sundrop hurried towards me, kneeling to be closer to my eye level. I couldn't breathe, it hurt to talk, so to try and get these thoughts and feelings out? Doesn't feel like it would happen in a day. Now that I think about it, I don't think anyone has ever noticed and cared that something felt off with me. Is it cause of his upgrades? Why was he so kind to me?
"Listen, whatever the problem might be, I'm here for you, pal! If you don't want to talk about it, we can just stick googly eyes on everything and cover the computers at the desk with glitter glue, make 'em look pretty. They always tell me no. No idea why!" He sat down, cross-legged and rocking back and forth gently, the spikes on his head retracting every once in a while.
"I came here cause I remember you from when I was a kid. My dad used to just drop me here when he didn't want to deal with me anymore. He randomly stopped bringing me here, I never knew why. Something about a kid going missing here, but that's beside my point." I slumped down and sat cross-legged with him, resting my forehead on his knee. He continued to listen, hearing the whirring again from earlier; it was almost as if I could hear what he was about to say.
"I just wanted a break. I needed time away from the yelling. I couldn't listen to it anymore. It's quiet here. You're here. I wanted to see if you remembered me... Do you?" I asked, looking up at him.
He grew close to me, grabbed me whilst his eyes flickered a bright blue, laser grids formed across my face. I blinked violently at the sudden light in my eyes, attempting to cover them with my hands. "Dude, not cool! Could've given me a warning or something! What are you doing?!"
His eyes flickered off again, lighting up back at their original white. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I do enjoy giving people a fright sometimes..!" The tall robotic sun gently patted me on the head, his whole hand covering the top of my head as he pet me for a second. I continued to blink, still dealing with the aftermath of being almost blind, realising how crazy it is I broke into this place. He tiptoed his fingers on my arm and up my shoulder to boop me on the nose, his oddly creepy head spinning gently. He continued to speak, "Anyway. As it turns out, you were on one of my guest lists 10 or so years ago, so yeah, I do remember ya! My memories work differently from yours though. It's hard to explain." He stood up and grabbed my hand, where we began to take a walk around the daycare.
"I'm real sorry kid. Nobody should have to hear or deal with it, you deserve happiness and kindness only, friend." He sat down beside me and looked at me with big, sad eyes. It felt like he was showing genuine emotion. Before I knew it, my face was cupped in his hands, where he gently wiped the tears from my eyes with his handkerchief over his thumb. He did this a couple of times before tilting my head towards him. "You're deserving of much more, friend. Much, much more. It will come to you, in due time - but for now, let me try my best to help you have a good day." As usual, he kept smiling at me. I nodded gently before giving him a genuine smile. I didn't feel alone at that moment.
Something about his overflowing joy, the encouragement he gave and his big goofy smile made everything feel okay. Well, I say 'okay'; I knew it would help me ignore the negativity in my life. For the first time in a long time, I felt safe. Safe from my feelings and my parents. He had an aura that made me feel whole. A new friend, I guess.