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Before Jeremy moved in, Mike always seemed to be cold. His bed was cold, the apartment was cold, his food was cold, everywhere was cold. His normal day would consist of getting coffee before his morning through evening shift, working, driving home, eating whatever shit he had in his fridge that was convenient, and then passing out on either his couch or his bed. Most of the time, people say when you find your soulmate, your life completely and utterly changes. Mike, would disagree. His routine was the same, just with a little more warmth.
The same loud beeping noise flooded the room, signaling it was 7:45, and they needed to get up. Jeremy started stirring in Mike’s arms, attempting to roll over and get out of bed but was constricted by a half-asleep Mike.
“Mikey, we have to,” Jeremy mumbled, not finishing his sentence and being constricted by a yawn. Barely awake, Mike pulled Jeremy closer to him, desperate to stay asleep just a little longer. The brunette mumbled a few incoherent words and tried to remove Mike’s arms off of him. After a few seconds of trying to escape, he defeatedly sunk back into his boyfriend’s embrace. Letting Mike’s arms loosen after a while, Jeremy moved out of his hold and swung his legs to stand up and stretch his arms out. The older man grumbled in response and flipped off the area Jeremy was standing. Giving a small laugh, the brunette moved towards his dresser and started flipping through to find his Freddy Fabear’s Pizza button down. His eyes were half-lidded, and all he wanted to do was climb back into bed and not do anything, but both of them had work and they desperately needed money. Mike always was stubborn with getting up, but with enough coaxing from his Doll, he’d eventually cave. Changing out of whatever one of Mike’s shirts he had on him into the button down, he let out another small yawn, rubbing his eyes.
“You’re yawning, come back to sleep,” Mike mumbled, rolling towards him and opening his eyes.
“Mikey, we ne-need to get read-ready,”
He moved to sit down on the bed, reaching for Mike’s hand to hold. Gently stroking his hand using his thumb, he spoke softly.
“C’mon, I promised you-you last ni-night we’d get cof-coffee today,”
Rolling his eyes, Mike sat up properly holding his hand, and using the other to rub his eyes. Sleepily, he looked towards the brunette and leaned forward to kiss him. Jeremy’s hands cupped his face and enjoyed the tender kiss. When they pulled away, Mike stood up and started getting changed himself.
After twenty minutes of grumbling, the pair was almost out the door, both throwing on heavy jackets and locking the small apartment’s door. Mike reached for Jeremy’s hand and interlocked their hands. Jeremy gave him a small smile, gently kissing his cheek in response. They walked through the hallway and down the elevator into the parking garage.
The Starbucks was somehow warm, despite the bitter cold snowing outside. Mike always loved seeing Jeremy in the snow, he loved the snowflakes that would line his hair and face, and he loved how Jeremy would lean into him for warmth. Which, was exactly what was happening. Jeremy had already gotten his drink and was waiting for Mike’s and he was curled in on Mike’s arm, intermittently closing his eyes and soaking in the smell of the place.
“Mike, your venti caffe mocha?”
Removing himself from Jeremy’s embrace, he stepped forward and grabbed the drink before making a beeline for the door.
“Wa-Wait for me next time-time,” Jeremy laughed, grabbing his hand again and walking back to their car. The pair sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, holding each other’s hand over the center console.
“I like winter,”
“Yeah?”
“It-It’s cold, but I lov-love the feeling of be-being warm when it’s cold out,”
Mike turned to him and gave a half-smile in response, leading Jeremy’s face to flush and laugh slightly.
“That-That probably doesn’t make any sens-sense-”
“-You’re so cute, you know that?”
The pink in the brunette’s cheeks grew more vibrant but his sheepishness disappeared, as he leaned forward and pinched one of his significant other’s cheeks.
“You are too-too, your che-cheeks are always chubby even-even though yo-you try to deny it-it,”
Mike playfully swatted the hand away and flipped him off, moving to start the car.
“Get fucked,”
“It’s like, 8:40 in the-the mor-morn-morning,”
“Oh my fucking god , Doll,”
The pair was sent into laughter again, as they drove to the pizzeria.
Working was Mike’s only highlight before Jeremy was his boyfriend. It was his only escape to a world with someone who didn’t run from him immediately or feel afraid or intimidated by him. Now, that escape was permanent, either physically or metaphorically at times. They pushed open the doors just five minutes before their clock in a time of nine and walked towards the back to find Fritz or Chris. Entering the Employee’s Only room, Jeremy set down his jacket on his backpack while Mike flipped on the lights.
“Where the hell is Fritz, he’s always fucking late,”
“Isn’t he-he supposed to be here at-at eight thir-thir-thir-thirt, fuck! ”
Jeremy hit a hand against his forehead and glanced at the ceiling. Mike moved his hand off of his face and gently put it at his side. Trying to lighten the mood as he always did when Jeremy’s stutter worsened, he said.
“Watch your language, we’re at a kid’s place,”
“N-No,” He responded back with a smile, crossing his arms.
“For fuck’s sake, shut up,” Mike’s smile grew bigger as he stepped closer.
“Ma-Mak-Make me,”
He was cut off by Mike’s lips on his, gently kissing him, while his hands moved to Jeremy’s neck and waist. Jeremy’s own found their way onto his forearms and kissed back. Not caring about who may be around Mike pulled him closer and attempted to deepen their kiss. Jeremy laughed into it and let his mouth hang slightly more open. The two relished in each other’s presence, as Mike moved his hand to the nape of Jeremy’s neck, pulling on his hair slightly. The brunette gasped and Mike pressed his body flush against him, moving him against the wall. Mike’s hands moved to his waist and they were kissing harder and fast now when-
“Oh my fucking god, can you guys like not for five minutes?” Fritz mumbled, flinging the door open. Mike pulled away laughing, and Jeremy flipped him off before getting on his tiptoes and planting a final kiss onto Mike.
“What time is it?” Mike mumbled reaching for his phone.
“9:02,”
“ Fuck !” Jeremy said, frantically moving to clock in his card, Mike following shortly by.
“You think Afton’s gonna let it slide?”
Fritz snorted in response.
“He’ll care if you’re 30 seconds late, you two are in for something,”
“He scares the-the shi-shit out of me, something’s shif-shifty about him-him,”
Mike threw his card and jacket on Jeremy’s bag, before grabbing his hat and nametag. He placed a kiss of Jeremy’s head and ruffled his hair.
“If there is, I’ll beat the shit out of him before he ever touches you,”
Chris walked in, grabbing his own hat and a box of cups and plates and picking it up to move out.
“Jere, can you help me with these? Fritz you and Mike fix the ticket counter to look decent, I think we got a restock of plushies yesterday,”
The group seemed to let out an unheard collective sigh, as they went on with their day.
Most days Mike and Jeremy worked together, and the few their shifts were separate, they somehow always managed to sneak into back rooms to text, call, or even meet with each other. They managed to make it work, though, even when they were working. Standing behind the small glass counter, the morning started slow so they could mess around before actually having to answer to grimy kids. A few families walked in here and there, but most of them were concerned with the shows and the party areas rather than the arcades. It was true they had gotten a new set of plushies, and the pair had gotten their thorough fun of putting them on display.
“Why did we get new Golden Freddy plushies? He hasn’t been an attraction in years,”
“Dunno,”
“Whatever, I’m gonna steal one,”
“Mi-Mike anything and every-everything in th-this place cou-could be haunted,”
“What’s a plushie gonna do? Threaten to throw itself at me?”
“You don-don’t know!”
“Fine, whatever, just know you’re boring,”
“You lov-love m-me-me,”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t hold it to me,”
A few more families started filing in and the banter couldn’t continue until later. Nothing too strange happened, most of the parents were actually decent people and kept their kids out of too much trouble. After trading a tall lanky teen boy’s tickets for a Foxy plushie, Chris walked over to the counter.
“Can you come behind the showstage with me? I need to unload new repair parts but you know how fucking creepy that shit is,”
Jeremy leaned his head onto his arms that were resting on the glass. Mike smirked in response.
“Can Jeremy and I do it instead?”
Chris rolled his eyes and Jeremy covered his face with his hands, leading Mike to start laughing.
“Will you ever dro-drop that?”
“It’s burned in my vision, I don’t think I ever will forget it,” Chris said, covering his face with his hand.
Sometimes their meetups would escalate, specifically when they were in the back rooms. Nothing too crazy, but enough to where Chris would walk in trying to unbox new shipments and drop the box he was holding.
“Answering your question, no , you and Jeremy can not sort the new repair parts,”
“Damn, thought it’d work that time,”
Mike smiled and glanced around the restaurant to see who was around before sneakily kissing Jeremy’s head.
“Bye Doll,”
“By-Bye,”
Jeremy could always manage on his own, he grew used to the stares after he’d speak from 19 years of his life, and he learned to not take offense. As frail as he sounded, he wasn’t weak and knew when he had to stand up for himself to people. His eyes wandered to Mike walking away and quickly zoned out staring at him and his features.
How the hell did I get so lucky?
He really is-
“Excuse me!”
Jeremy shook his head out of his trance and glanced down at the blonde girl in front of him.
“Sor-Sorry, what do you ne-need?”
The lights flipped on in the backroom and already a chill ran over both of their backs.
“Fucking creepy shit dude,” Chris muttered, moving towards the boxes of suit and endoskeleton parts.
“Yeah,”
Mike was always cautious around the restaurants, pushing back old, dark memories. He still somehow found light in working, though, both at the current reopened restaurant, and the last one that claimed a “Grand Reopening”. He’d forever be grateful he took that job offer, for the reason being that he met Jeremy nine months after starting work in the “New and Improved” hell hole. In all honesty, he preferred the old location they refurbished they were working in now than the other one with all the plastic pink cheeks.
“I didn’t know it was possible for you to laugh,”
Mike turned around from the box of endoskeleton parts he was opening to look at the blonde.
“What?”
“You never used to smile let alone laugh,”
Mike considered himself a cold person, for his entire life it’d been that way. He assumed that image stayed the same.
“Yeah, I’m not exactly the image of joy,”
“No, I mean, I’ve seen how he changed you,”
“He?”
“Jeremy,”
There was a pause, and Mike tried to think of a time without him in his life somehow. The only memories were dark and traumatizing blips.
“Dude, I remember when you started working at the other place, you were fucking scary,”
Mike opened his mouth to say something along the lines of ‘and?’ but he was cut off before he was able to.
“I don’t know how he did it, but Jeremy like, unlocked something inside of you. Hell, I even saw the difference when you were working together and when you weren’t,”
Chris smiled, walking towards him. Mike’s eyebrows only furrowed.
“I’m glad he made such a difference to you,”
Mike glanced around the room, realizing all of the memories he’d had of being cold and heartless, and how around Jeremy everything faded away. He was learning to laugh and smile just by knowing he was always there. No matter what. Mike looked back at Chris and smiled softly.
“Yeah, me too,”
It was a Thursday, so the mid-afternoon was slow, but that still didn’t keep some parents, kids, and even teens away from the Fazbear restaurants. The arcade became busier, and more and more families started moving through. Fritz was being lectured by a dad with his two kids on something, and all Jeremy could do was pray they didn’t go anywhere near the arcade. He became busy with helping other teens and kids he forgot about the particular family giving his coworkers a hard time. That forgetfulness was utterly crushed when a blonde young boy walked up to the counter and placed his slip of paper with his ticket number on it.
“I want that Foxy toy,” He said, standing on his tiptoes and pointing to one of the bigger Foxy plushies they had. Jeremy picked up the slip and read the number.
127 tickets
Jeremy was the nice attendant, if kids were short a few tickets, or sometimes even a hundred, he’d still give the kid what they wanted. The problems only came when they wanted the biggest items they had with practically nothing. If Jeremy gave away anything big, William would notice and he did not need to be on his creepy boss’ bad side.
“I-I’m sorry, but you-you need eight-eight hundred more tic-tickets. Do you wan-want one of the sma-smaller ones?”
The blonde, puffed out his cheeks and jumped on the ground.
“ No , I want that one!”
“I’m sor-sorry, I-”
“Why are you talking all funny?”
“Well-Well I-”
“Is there a problem here?” A deeper voice cut in. Jeremy glanced up to see the dad from earlier in front of him. He had a tall and muscular build, which only made him more intimidating. Jeremy moved his hands up and started shaking them.
“N-No-”
“-He won’t give me the Foxy I want!”
The dad glanced at his kid and back to Jeremy, which sent a little wave of fear to his body. He glanced at him up and down before speaking.
“Well? Give him the one he wants,”
“I-I-I can’t he is ei-eight hundred tickets of-off, so-”
“Hey, drop the stuttering thing, why are you so nervous?”
“No-No I-I can’t it-it’s-”
“Are you mocking me now?”
Jeremy’s breathing became slightly heavier, as it was already a bad day for his speaking, and he didn’t need it to worsen under stress or threats
“ No ! No-No sir, I-I would nev-nev-”
“If you don’t give my kid the damn stuffed animal and drop whatever charade you’re playing, you’re really gonna regret it,”
“I-I-I can-can’t he, I-”
“Do you want me to knock your fucking teeth ou-”
“ Excuse me, is something going on here?”
The words instantly helped Jeremy let out a breath, as he looked up towards Mike who was standing next to the two in front of the counter.
“Who are you?”
“A frontline manager. Why are you threatening an employee?”
Mike crossed his arms, he was just as tall as the dad, so it was easy to give him some level of intimidation.
“Listen, man, I’m really not trying to start anything with you so-”
“But you would with him?” Mike interrupted, gesturing towards Jeremy who was trying to stay silent and not get punched.
“We are going to ask you to leave,”
“You can’t just do that-”
Mike took two steps forward, before gritting through his teeth.
“Yes, Yes I can. Now out,”
With a huff, the two were towards the door and a third blonde young girl followed after them. Jeremy let out a small breath and Mike walked behind the counter after he left, placing his hands on Jeremy’s arms.
“Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
Jeremy laughed and moved to hold Mike’s hands and hopefully ease the concern off his face.
“Yes, I’m oka-okay he didn’t hur-hurt me, than-thank you,”
The taller man let out a breath and rubbed his thumb over the back of his hands.
“How muc-much did you he-hea-hear?”
“I heard him ask if you were mocking him, and then to ‘drop the charade’. Chris had to hold me back to keep from beating his ass,”
Jeremy laughed and felt his breathing go back to normal. He half-smiled, still wrestling with the fact that Mike had to come in and protect him rather than himself. They didn’t realize they were staring at each other until a girl with a black bob moved her ticket onto the counter.
“Hello?”
She looked to be an older teen with a few friends, but she still startled the pair.
“Oh! Uhm, sor-sorry, what do you wan-want?”
“Fritz, have you seen the two dumbasses?” Chris asked, walking away from the family he had just helped with showtimes.
“They were supposed to get off their break, like, a few minutes ago, so I’m assuming the back room,”
The ginger gestured towards the employee only sign, and Chris in response hurriedly walked over to the door,
We are too understaffed to have them take extra-
The blonde opened the door and his mouth to say something, but stopped short seeing the pair asleep. Jeremy was in Mike’s lap leaning on his chest, and Mike had his arms around his waist. Chris let out a sigh and turned around to close the door. Fritz was moving towards the supply closet when they crossed paths.
“You find ‘em?”
“They’re sleeping again, I never have the heart to wake them up,”
“I’ll give them another five minutes,”
The early afternoon bled into early evening, as Fritz frantically brought a little girl with ginger hair over to the prize counter.
“Hey, you two need to watch her, her mom left without her, so we are trying to get a hold of her. Just- don’t kill her? Okay? Good,”
He spoke quickly and sped away as fast as humanly possible towards the kitchen that had most of the phones. Mike stood confused for a second, while Jeremy jumped into action, walking in front of the counter and kneeling down.
“Hello! What-What’s your na-name?”
“I’m Katie,”
“Hi Ka-Katie! I’m Jeremy and th-this is M-Mike,”
Mike gave a short wave and moved towards the pair. Without hesitation, Jeremy swooped the girl up, and onto his hip. She couldn’t have been older than five. He walked towards the arcade, glancing at the machines when his eyes landed on a small claw machine towards the backfilled with generic plushies that weren’t Fazbear licensed. Mike smirked, knowing why he chose that machine rather than the other ones that were designed to hoard more and more stock of merchandise.
“Do you se-see any-anything you li-ike?”
Katie pointed excitedly at a blue bear towards the center of the machine and started bouncing.
“That one! That one! I want that one!”
Jeremy laughed and made mock noises of a bear while shoving tokens in from his arcade worker’s belt. Mike stood back and took in the sight, before moving forward and helping Jeremy align the claw.
“Left, no no more right,”
Katie was babbling along to the generic music playing and bouncing in Jeremy’s arms, only making it harder. The claw dropped and completely missed the bear, which led Katie to sigh a defeated huff. Before Jeremy could, Mike shoveled in more tokens to continue both the music and the game. It took a few more rounds of bouncing Katie on Jeremy’s hip and attempts at winning the bear before Mike finally stepped in and tried.
“Mikey! Mikey! Mikey!” Katie cooed, reaching her arms up while the music kept playing. Jeremy began laughing hard and snorted before joining in on the chorus of “Mikey! Mikey! Mikey!”. Mike’s face only flushed, as he concentrated on getting the dumb stuffed animal. The claw dropped and to his surprise actually held onto the bear and dropped it in the prize shoot. The other two cheered as Mike held out the bear to Katie, who immediately clung to it and held it to her chest.
“Yay! We di-did it-it!” Jeremy said, moving his head against Katie’s and laughing at the young girl’s excitement again. Mike felt a wave of warmth fall over him as he noticed how her hair color was just the same undertones that Jeremy’s had, and her eyes seemed directly ripped from his own head. He had to take a second and restart his breathing because no Katie was not their daughter, they barely even knew her for fifteen minutes. That entire reality was thrown out the door when Jeremy started talking to the bear as Katie spoke for it, complete nonsensical sentences of course. Mike’s face flushed and the words fell out before he could even think about it.
“Marry me,”
Jeremy looked up, startled, only to see Mike’s reddened face. He glanced at the girl in his arms and back at Mike, noticing the eyes, and laughing to himself. He grabbed his hand with his free arm.
“On-One day,”
“Katie!” A woman’s voice called. The pair snapped back into reality and looked at the mom in front of them.
“Thank you for taking care of her, it means the world,” She graciously smiled at the two, before they handed over the girl.
“Mommy! These are my friends Mikey and Jeremy! And-And Mikey said they’re going to get married,”
Both of them felt the hair on the back of their neck stand up as they both started to say something to not get called slurs on their work.
“No, no we just-”
“I-I promise we-we-”
“Oh, that's very sweet of them. I’m sure they’ll have a beautiful wedding,” The lady smiled at them and gave a warm knowing nod. “Maybe you’ll be the flower girl,”
“Yay! Flower girl!”
Jeremy felt like he wanted to cry from the happiness of not having to be terrified of people learning his sexuality, or who he was dating. Small gestures did mean the world to the two of them.
“Now, tell your friends bye-bye, and you’ll see them soon,”
“Bye-Bye Mikey and Jeremy!”
Jeremy laughed at the girl waving and waved back. Mike mouthed a small ‘thank you’ to the mom as they walked out of the building. Mike squeezed Jeremy’s hand he was still holding and opened his mouth to say something, but Jeremy already seemed to have a feeling he knew where it was going.
“One day,”
The last family filed out of the doors while Mike was leaning over the prize counter staring at Jeremy cleaning the party room tables. Fritz was helping clean and Chris was locking the doors. Mike quickly wiped the glass counter and adjusted a few boxes good enough for the next morning and sped over to the brunette’s place in the party room. He grabbed him by the waist and pulled him into a kiss. Jeremy made a small noise at the unexpected contact but still melted into it.
“I forget how much I love kissing you until I can’t do it all day,” Mike said, pulling away.
“You’re such a-a ba-baby, you’ve gone lo-longer witho-out, seeing me,” Jeremy replied, pressing a light kiss on Mike’s cheek, before busying himself with tables again.
“Yeah, and it’s fucking torture. Gimme your name tag, I’ll clock you out,”
The brunette reached for his nametag and quickly unpinned it and threw his hand towards his boyfriend. Mike grabbed the pin and kissed his hand before walking towards the back room. Jeremy’s face flushed as he turned back to the table, not realizing Chris and Fritz watching from just below the mainstage.
“They are an odd couple. Who'd've thought such an asshole would end up with a literal angel?”
“If I knew dude, I’d tell you,”
“Ba-Babe look! It’s sn-snow-snowing!” Jeremy bounced around the front of the building, soaking in the snow. Neither of them needed to do nightshift, and they were incredibly grateful. Mike walked towards him rigidly, reaching for his hand and using the other to brush off the white from his shoulders. They walked together towards the car and immediately turned on the heater.
“What do you-you wanna ea-eat?” Jeremy asked, pulling out his phone.
“I know why you’re asking,”
Jeremy glanced at him, slightly flustered, not expecting that response.
“What?”
“You don’t need to feel bad because I stood up for you, Doll,”
Jeremy bit the inside of his cheek and looked out the window at the snow. He always felt like he was weak when Mike stepped in and protected him, as much as he loved feeling protected. He didn’t want to not be able to hold his own. Sometimes he couldn’t, though, and that scared him the most. What if he relied on Mike so heavily that when he needed him he wasn’t there? What if-
“Baby, you don’t need to feel like you owe me anything just because I helped you. Nobody can be completely self-sufficient, you told that to me during one of my breakdowns,”
The car stopped at a red light and Mike reached to interlock Jeremy’s hand with his own.
“Hey, look at me,”
Blue eyes met green.
God I love those eyes
They both thought that every time they looked at each other.
“I’m always going to be here, okay? And I love you so goddamn much I don’t care whose teeth I need to punch in to do it,”
Jeremy giggled in response, and Mike felt the same warmness in his stomach he always did. A loud honk broke their moment.
“ Shit ,” Mike immediately ripped his eye contact back to the road and drove towards the green light, not once letting go of Jeremy’s hand.
“Mi-Mike?”
“Yes Doll,”
Jeremy rolled from his little spoon position towards Mike and looked at his half-lidded eyes.
“I-I lo-lov-lo, fuck ,”
Jeremy winced and pushed his head against Mike’s chest, feeling tears form at the corner of his eyes. It had been a bad day, worse than normal, for his stutter. It was common to have ups and downs with speech impediments, but it hurt when he felt like he couldn’t even tell the person who meant the most to him that he loved him.
“Jer, everyone has bad days, it’s okay. I promise I know how much you love me. You’re my world, Doll,”
Mike moved Jeremy’s chin with his thumb and forefinger and then moved to wipe his tears away.
“Nothing could make me think any less of you. I promise you,”
Jeremy leaned up, closing the gap between them. The kiss was warm and full of love and meaning. After a few seconds, they pulled away.
“I’ll never get tired of kissing you,”
Mike smirked, leading Jeremy to laugh. Both of their hearts seemed to soar together.
“I love you,”
Jeremy let out a small gasp and excitedly reached up to kiss Mike again.
“I di-did it!”
The taller man laughed and pulled his world closer to him, holding him tightly and not intending to let go. He reflected on what Chris had said about him not laughing and smiling before Jeremy, and he realized how true it was.
“I love you too, Jere,”
After Jeremy came into his life, not too much changed. He just seemed to smile, laugh, and feel again. Mike knew he would give everything and anything to keep Jeremy as his forever. And, he most definitely intended on doing just that.