Chapter Text
"Monty, I'm boredddd." Gregory whined as he dropped his club. It had been what felt like an hour since they had arrived at the golf course, and they still haven't gone to go look for his mom.
Don't get him wrong, he loved playing golf with Monty. But he couldn't exactly see what he was doing and if he was actually hitting it. Not to mention he was getting a bit hungry. His mom didn't exactly feed him before he got here, they planned on getting food on the way home.
All in all, Gregory just wanted to go home and take a nap.
"Quiet kid, I'm trying to get the ball in the hole." He obliged and stayed quiet in hopes that Monty would get bored and feed him. It was a pretty slim chance that a human and alligator would be on the same wavelength, but not impossible.
It was nearly silent besides a few S.T.A.F.F bots running around the place getting ready for closing time, or whatever was happening for everyone to leave. Gregory just assumed that it was closing time, but he might be wrong. It might have just been a fire drill, they do those in school.
Gregory figured that it would be the same, the pizzaplex seemed like a school, they were both large. He could tell because he hasn't run into any walls yet, along with the echo. The echo says more than what he hasn't run into yet.
His stomach rumbled.
It seemed that his mind decided that an enviormental check was needed after he had something to eat.
But he didn't want to tell Monty that he was hungry. Gregory didn't like asking for stuff that he should be able to get himself. It made him feel embarrassed.
His stomach rumbled again, only much louder this time.
"Gregory I swear to g-"
Gregory was now sitting on Monty's shoulders.
"Where are you taking me?"
"While you wait for your mother I thought it would be a good idea to take you to the daycare. Love the guy in there, he's a real nice pal. I know you'll love him." Gregory didn't like the sound of this.
He must have frowned because he felt his hair being ruffled before he was gently set down by Monty.
"Now I have to go, just tell him that Monty sent you and you need food. I'll see you later kid."
He heard a noise and the clattering of plastic and bells, he carefully walked towards it holding his arms out like he could fall over any second, he felt a metallic hand on his back.
Gregory jumped and fell into the ball pit, he couldn’t tell what he was in and started to panic. He heard the bells again and was soon picked up by the same metallic hands.
“Put me down, put me down!” Gregory shrieked.
“Helloooo! New Friend! Don’t worry I won’t hurt you everything will be okay pal!”
Gregory continued strugling.
“How do I know I can trust you?” The person just stood there for a moment, “Well for starters I pulled you out of a ball pit you thought you were drowning in.”
“Wait it was just a ball pit?”
“Yeah I don’t understand why you were so terrified, how didn’t you know it was a ball pit?” Gregory pointed at his eyes.
He was facing the wrong way and the person turned him around.
Meanwhile, Gregory kept pointing at his eyes. Unable to do anything else in this situation.
“Oh oh my gosh I’m so sorry! I didn’t know you were blind! Do you have a cane?”
“My mom has it.”
“Oh who’s your mother? And would you mind giving me your name?”
“Uh, Vanessa is my mom and I'm Gregory." Gregory muttered.
“Alright I'll go ahead and search the database for your mom’s ticket location Gregory! I’m Sundrop!”
So this was the person that Monty had told him about. He held out his hand for Gregory to shake it… oh wait he's blind uh.
“Here shake my hand” Gregory reached out and missed Sundrop’s hand.
“To the left a little more.”
Gregory moved his hand to the right.
“No that's right, I'm to the left pal.” Gregory managed to find Sundrops hand and shake it.
“There you go new friend! Alright, don’t worry pal we’ll get you home in no time! Oh uh, here I’ll give you a temporary cane, a rental free of charge from me!”
Gregory felt oddly comforted knowing he’d finally find his mom again but he was also really sad. He was having fun.
“Uh it says that someone named Vanessa left before she had also purchased a children's pass, that can't be right…I’m going to check again.” Sun muttered to himself.
Gregory was too scared to walk anywhere as he was sure he would fall into something again, so he just shifted in place while he waited for Sun.
“Uh kid, she left like an hour ago and it’s almost closing ti-”
He heard distant switches shutting off. No wonder it was so silent, everyone picked up their kids.
“Oh no oh no uh… I guess we’ll have a slumber party! Aren’t slumber party’s fun? Ya like glitter glue? Googly eyes? We can stay up all night long a-”
Gregory spaced out, he was going to be stuck in a daycare all night without his mom.
“-I also have so many stories to tell! And we can finger paint! And we can drink Fizzy Faz until our heads ex-PLODE!”
Gregory decided he had no other choice than to do activities with Sundrop, maybe it could be nice.
Gregory started using his new cane, it felt a whole lot better than the last one, he followed the bells on Sundrops arms and navigated through the daycare.
“Here sit down!” Sundrop pat a spot on a cushion and Gregory found it and sat.
“We can finger paint! Everyone love finger painting!”
Gregory stared blankly into the distance, this person was either stupid or didn't care that he had no enjoyment over things he couldn't see.
“I’m blind I can’t see what I paint, I would get it everywhere other than the paper.” Sundrop sat in thought and suddenly had an idea.
Hey, here's a thought! What if you drew something with like… Crayons! And I describe how it makes me feel!”
This didn’t sound too bad to Gregory so he obliged as he heard Sun shifting around before he felt something being placed into his hand.
"This is the color yellow, it's warm and cheery. I personally like to draw with it because it's my favorite color!" Sundrop chirped before taping a piece of paper to the table. He wouldn't want Gregory to lose the paper now did he?
"Thanks I guess." He mumbled before placing the crayon onto the paper. Gregory took a deep breath and made his first stroke.
After a while of sitting in silence while Gregory drew Sundrop scribbled down something for Moondrop. It was a list of sorts, mostly reminding him about all the safety precautions they had for children like Gregory.
Sundrop pondered this thought before he had noticed Gregory had been talking.
“-I tried to draw a smiley face the way my mom taught me, I can’t see it though so I can only wonder how it looks.”
Sundrop stared at the artwork, it was sloppy but full of energy, it seemed that Gregory put his whole heart into it never to actually see it.
“This is wonderful! It just has such a nice feeling to it, it’s just full of energy! You should be proud!”
Sundrop ruffled Gregory’s hair and this time Gregory didn’t feel a cold metallic hand, he swore felt warmth to it.
Gregory wondered how he lost his hands.
“So new friend what do you want to do next?” Gregory thought for a moment. “We should…tell stories!”
Sundrop jumped up and down in glee making a loud ringing with his bells.
“That's the spirit!” Sundrop cheered.
A few moments later and they were bundled up in spare blankets by a heating unit where children would usually nap. Gregory had just explained how he had gotten here, leaving out how he wanted to go back to his mom.
Sundrop was silent for the most part, only a comment here and there. Until that is, when Gregory had explained that Monty left him here.
"So instead of doing the rational thing and helping you out, he sent you here to me?"
"No, it's because my stomach rumbled too loud"
Sun's voice sounded a bit annoyed at the fact that he clarified that Monty sent him here because he didn't want to deal with his needs. Even more so after the fact that he told Sun that it was because his stomach was rumbling too loud and he couldn't see where he was going.
"I'm sorry about Monty, he's a bit..." Sun had paused before Gregory finished off his sentence.
"Forgetful?"
Sun paused before answering.
"Not quite, he's just not used to kids hanging around him for long."
"Oh."
Gregory could relate to that, that happens a lot at school. Nobody ever stays for long.
It was a long silence before Sun piped up.
"You still hungry new best friend?"
"Yeah, I'm still hungry Sun."
Gregory felt himself being picked up before he was enveloped in a hug.
"Let's go then!"
Gregory liked the daycare so far.
Especially Sun, Sun was nice.
That was the last thing on his mind before he drifted off to sleep in Sun's arms.