Work Text:
Your daily routine consisted of playing with kids all day while still keeping them in line. Making sure no one fell off the jungle gyms and counting heads before and after both lunch time and nap time. It was a fairly simple job, and you loved it. Considering your spunky personality and love for - well - not doing actual work, it was the perfect job. You wouldn’t want yourself to be anywhere else. There wasn’t a single time throughout your life where you could see yourself sitting in a cubical working a 9-5 every day. The idea practically made you shutter.
If you had to choose, your favorite part about your job was most definitely getting to play with the kids in the main play area. Of course, Sun was always right there by your side to join in on the fun. Your relationship with your animatronic coworker was quite a strange one. When first starting out, you had no idea how advanced the AI would be. Fazbear Entertainment made Chucky Cheese look like fucking chumps. All of the animatronics were so human-like, with fast responding AI that could hold a conversation with you just as fluently as a real human. This made getting to know Sun quite interesting. You were quick to find out how much of a talker he was. His constant energy had you looking like a zombie nearly halfway through your shifts. It was incredible though. Sun was an amazing character and you really got along with him.
In turn, Sun also wanted to know everything about you as well. It had taken a couple of weeks before he really started to understand you as a person. One thing Sun picked up about you was all the funny quotes you’d say that most of the kids seemed to know as well. He noticed you would say ‘It is Wednesday my dudes’ on Wednesdays, or singing ‘it’s about drive, it’s about power, we stay hungry, we devour’ whenever you were frantically cleaning up messes courtesy of the kids. Naturally, Sun didn’t know these inside jokes and desperately wanted in on them.
“Oh please, oh please, pretty please teach me all the fun jokes you know!” he nearly begged one day after you had made all the kids laugh during lunch by going ‘mm mm mm! The flavors are melting on my tongue.’
You knew a lot about internet culture and memes considering you grew up on it. You knew what video games the kids liked to play, the artists they listened to, and which shows they watched. Sun, obviously having no connection to the outside world or internet access, had absolutely no idea about the things kids were into these days. He could only ask them questions about what they liked or let them ramble to him. You sort of felt bad for him, since he really only knew the jokes that were planted in his programming. Well, it’s not like it would hurt to teach him a meme or two.
“Okay, okay, Sun! Calm down, I’ll teach you all the funny internet jokes,” you said trying to reassure him.
“Yaaaay!” he cheered. “Thank you so much, starlight!”
You let out a small laugh as you watch Sun bounce up and down on his heels, clearly trying to contain his excitement.
“When when when are you going to teach me?” He gave his head a spin.
You hummed in thought, “maybe a couple days from now? I’ll need some time to plan something out. Maybe I could make a presentation. Geez, I don’t even know where I would start, to be honest. There’s just so much.”
“That is perfectly fine with me, friend! Take alllll the time you need.~ You’re doing me a huge favor after all!”
Smiling up at him, you raised yourself up on your tippy-toes, and patted the top of his head. “No worries, Sunny. I’d be glad to teach you what I know. Though I miiight not be able to cover everything. I’m definitely not going to be able to remember all the memes or recite every vine. Well…” worry painted across your features, “there are some you would probably be better off not knowing about.”
Sun tilted his head to the side. “Hmm, whatever you think is best, I’ll trust you!”
“How about this, Sun. I promise to make you a presentation in a few days. Then after hours, we can go into one of the party rooms and I’ll present it there. Sound good?”
Sun nodded his head vigorously. “Yes yes yes, I would loooove to do that!”
You couldn’t stop the smile that spread across your face. He was just so cute when he was excited about something. Even though his faceplate had a permanent smile, you could always tell when he was genuinely happy or upset. And he seemed thrilled.
———
Several days pass after you had promised Sun a rundown on internet culture. You spent that time digging in your memory to find old memes, watching ‘rip vine compilations,’ remembering old TikTok trends, and compiling it all together onto one PowerPoint in chronological order. To be honest, you were a little anxious to present in front of Sun. There was the possibility that he might not understand the humor or he’d have trouble keeping up with all the new information you were about to bomb him with. It made you nervous. Like there were butterflies in your stomach. Though, that might have been just because you’d get to spend so much alone time with him.
Time seemed to fly by and soon came the day where you were presenting. When you had told Sun that you were finished, he nearly bounced up to the ceiling. For the whole day, he was more energetic than he already was. Which was essentially like if you had programmed a robot to act as if they just did several lines of cocaine. And though it was entertaining, Sun was starting to play a little more rough with the kids than he usually did. It had gotten to the point where you had to warn him several times to be gentle and remind him that human children had very fragile bodies.
As 6pm rolled around, pick-up for the kids was mostly completed. Both of your jobs during that time were mostly spent away from each other, as you had to go on separate man-hunts to find different children. By the time the pick-up rush had settled down, you and Sun reconvened at a table in the daycare, deciding to take a small break. Having noticed him tapping his feet with impatience, you placed a hand on his arm and looked up at him.
“Hun, you’ll loosen your bolts if you keep doing that.”
He let out a small whine and looked around, trying to count how many kids were left.
“Ohhh I’m sorry, I’m just really really excited!!”
“I didn’t know you had such an interest in memes. I mean, I guess it makes sense since your job-“
“That’s not why I’m excited silly! I’m excited to spend time with you!”
You laughed at that. “But we just spent the whole day together! You always get to spend time with me.”
“I mean alone!”
Oh.
“Oh.” Trying to stop yourself from blushing, you reached your free hand around and pinched the back of your thigh. Sensing something was suddenly off, Sun bent down lower to your level.
“Is something wrong, sunshine?”
You shook your head aggressively, trying to get rid of your thoughts.
“No, no I’m okay. I guess … I’m just excited to spend alone time with … you … too.”
Your hand slid down his arm and shyly hooked your fingers between his. This time it was Sun’s turn to say “oh.”
The mechanical whirs of his fingers moving to press into your hand could be softly heard. You stayed like that with your hands holding each other as you watched the last couple of kids run up to their parents for pick-up. No conversation was needed as you happily watched the kids file out, eventually leaving only the two of you and a couple of security guards at the front desk packing up to leave.
You sighed and looked over to Sun.
“You ready?” You smirk as he slowly turns his head towards you. He suddenly explodes into his energetic self again.
“Yes! Very much yes!!”
“Okay, let's go!”
The first stop you needed to make was at your work locker where you kept all your belongings. Inside was your laptop, mini projector, and the cable that connects the two. Both of you made your way to the party room where you place your belongings on a table and Sun sits down. He waited as you open your laptop and hook it up to the projector. You dim the lights slightly and the PowerPoint you made pops up on the wall.
“Well first,” you start, tapping a ruler you brought from home against the title slide, “I’m going to need you to settle down a little.”
The jubilant animatronic jingled with excitement as he bounced up and down in his seat.
“I’m sorry sorrysorry!” He beamed. “This is all just so exciting! Gosh, this really feels like I’m a student in a classroom~”
You sigh with a smile and shake your head lightly. Without giving a response, you readied yourself to give this poor animatronic sun man a full two-hour lecture on the history of memes. Clearing your throat and straightening your posture, you recounted all the important rules about giving the perfect PowerPoint presentation.
“We shall start … at the very beginning.” You announced while pushing the button to forward the PowerPoint to the next slide. Sun gave a little applause at the dramatics but went back to eagerly paying attention when you started back up again.
“This right here is grumpy cat!” The ruler you held circled the cat’s face.
“She is basically the beginning of all meme culture. She is an icon, and will always be remembered as such!” You take a short pause to make a cross on your body with your hand and look up to the ceiling in memory of her. “Please take note of how grumpy her face looks. She has been the center for hundreds of thousands of memes because of her unique face, (which most cats obviously do not have)” you quickly add.
Sun nods, understanding.
Forwarding the slides revealed two different examples of grumpy cat memes. Sun took a moment to read the screen and process the jokes. He suddenly burst out laughing, making you jump in surprise.
“I- hahah! I get it..!” He says through what seemed like the equivalent of a human laughing so hard they cry. It wasn’t the response you anticipated but we’re glad to see him happy. You explained rage comics which also got a laugh out of him. Then came troll face, Rickrolling, and Llamas With Hats.
You went down the list further and further as the years passed by and more memes came out. You told him all about musically, vine, and TikTok as well. While all of this was explained, Sun patiently sat and listened, intently watching you as the ramblings got more and more in-depth.
Somewhere near the end of your presentation, you noticed Sun writing things down on a piece of paper. You paused your lecture to watch him. The quietness of the room alerted Sun to look back up at you. Hands on your hips, you raised an eyebrow at his antics.
“That better be you taking notes, mister,” you scolded.
“I- I am!” he retorted. “Really, look!”
He held the paper up and showed you his bulleted list of things you went over.
Oh shit, you thought. I was just joking but damn, okay.
“Hmph,” you huffed, not wanting to let down your front just yet. “Good. Now, back to the PowerPoint.” The next slide came up, showing a link to a Youtube video. You gasped.
“Yay! The vine compilation!”
Zipping over to your laptop, you clicked on the link. Once you made sure the volume was at a good level and the video was full-screen, you plopped down next to Sun.
“Ooo, a video!” Sun cooed. “These are the ‘vines’ you were talking about?
“Yes! Now hush!”
The video played on as you and Sun watched. Most vines you knew by heart and mouthed along to, not wanting to distract Sun from hearing the originals. Trying to get more comfortable, you scooted closer to Sun and wrapped your arms around one of his. Sun didn’t say anything but you could feel him lower his posture to be more at your height. Wanting to give you affection too, Sun placed his hand on your leg. Unaware of how he nearly just made you melt into a puddle on the spot, Sun laughed along as he watched the video. You got lucky that it was nearing its end as he also started to idly run his thumb back and forth along your outer thigh.
The ‘rip vine compilation’ came to an abrupt end and you instantly shot up, scurrying back to your laptop before auto-play started playing something else. You cleared your throat and went back to the light switch to make the room brighter.
“Anyway,” you nervously laughed while pulling your phone out of your back pocket, “How about some TikToks now?”
“Sure!” Sun happily agrees, patting the seat where you were just previously sitting.
Swallowing hard, you sat next to Sun and pulled up your TikTok ‘for you page.’ Holding out the phone to him, you showed Sun how TikTok worked and its algorithm. Most of your fyp was ‘perfectlycutvideos’ or random mixings of fandom content. Sun didn’t seem to mind watching whatever popped up, as he was extremely curious about people from outside of the tiny world he lived in (that being the daycare center). The occasional thirst-trap would pop up, which you scrolled past faster than lightning, earning a groan from Sun, not understanding why you skipped past certain videos. You had to justify your actions with a small “oh you wouldn’t like that one” or a “you probably wouldn’t understand it.”
Eventually losing track of time, you don’t realize how late it is until you get a text from your friend and have to exit the app. Once you do realize how late it’s gotten, you tell Sun that it would be best if you got going now. You didn’t want to run into the night guard, Vanessa, and get yelled at. Though he didn’t want you to go at first, Sun eventually gave in, knowing you’d be back again tomorrow morning.
And just as promised, you were. Bright eyed and bushy tailed, you greeted Sun with your usual “Hi, Sunny!” in which he would always reply with a tight hug that sometimes knocked the breath out of you. While going over your usual morning routine, you set down chairs from tables while Sun lovingly helped. As the kids started to roll in, Sun bombarded every kid he could about all the things you taught him from the PowerPoint. As most kids knew what he was referring to, they started to teach him some of their own favorites. The poor animatronic was practically bouncing off the walls in elation.
Before long, the kids had taught him several Fortnite dances which had you laughing so hard you nearly pissed yourself. One kid even taught him how to do the ‘jerk’ which was just as hilarious considering he was just skipping backwards and getting frustrated. You’d rate it a 4/10. The effort was there but the execution was horrible. Nonetheless, you told him he was doing great.
With how happy he looked engaging with the kids in a whole new way, it made you feel like all that time you spent on the PowerPoint was worth it. Of course, Sun also appreciated your hard work and constantly bragged about you for teaching him so many new things. Many hugs were given to you that day.
Hell, you thought, if making a PowerPoint is all I have to do . . . then maybe I should make another one.