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Gregory had been living at the Pizzaplex for a month now. Hiding in the walls with ease, sneaking around and playing with other children. While it was incredibly loud sometimes, it was worth it, the only bad thing was with so many people constantly coming in and out, it was far too easy to get sick. He’d had a small cold when he first came to the Pizzaplex but got over it fairly quickly. This cold though was a lot stronger. He could barely keep his coughing down without help from his stolen hard candy pile and he knew he had a fever.
Eventually the Pizzaplex cleared out, Gregory slowly leaving his hiding place feeling even worse than when he woke up initially. His hard candy stash completely depleted meaning he had to get more. The easiest place to get decent candy was surprisingly the Daycare gift shop, so as carefully as he could with his head feeling like it’s stuffed with cotton he made his way to his destination.
The gift shop was empty as he expected, the only problem he was currently facing was the locked door. He hadn’t found many locked doors before here, the Pizzaplex seemed to rely on their bots more than normal measures, but this was not the normal. He weakly tugged on the door before sighing and having to cover his cough up, shivering slightly from the cooler air.
“HEYA KIDDO!” A way too cheery voice suddenly is behind him which makes him screech and back up into the door, coughing hard into his elbow making his already sore throat worse.
“Haha whoops sorry.” The voice belonged to a Sun themed robot that was very close to his face, he spots that a Moon themed one is just behind the other, peering over the Sun’s shoulder. “What’re you doing up so late, friend?”
“He’s trespassing, Sunny.” The moon one says quietly, “We need to take him to security.”
“Aww but he’s not doing anything, Moon.” Sunny leans back letting him see how tall the two bots really are.
“He was literally attempting to break into the gift shop.” Moon says flatly, arms crossed over his chest.
“I just needed to-” He starts coughing hard again with a quiet groan.
“Temperature of 100F. He’s burning up, Moony…” Sunny says a lot quieter than he was before. “He needs help.”
“…Fine, we help him, then we call security.” Moon rolls his eyes before flipping up a small panel near the door of the gift shop and inputs an access code.
“Thanks, Moony!” Sunny grins and takes Gregory’s hand gently. “Let’s get you somewhere a little more comfortable okay? Moon’s gonna grab some stuff to help you out.”
“I’m- I’m fine.” He’s not, he knows he’s not but now they know he’s here and they’re going to call security on him. He curses himself for getting too comfortable. He pulls his hand out of Sunny’s, shuffling uncomfortably.
“You’re not.” Moon says simply before pushing the door open and heading into the gift shop.
“It’s okay kiddo, what’s your name?” Sunny asks.
“…” He falls mute, until another coughing fit hits him.
“Oh boy…” Sunny titters nervously. “Um well, I have a very comfy spot for you if you’d like. Just until you feel better.” Sunny tries.
“…” Gregory weighs his options, which is hard with his brain processing like mud, but he decides that while he hates it he would rather feel better than worse. And he could run once he was recovered enough he reasoned. He gives a slow nod and steps slightly closer to Sunny who stands back up.
“Follow me.” The animatronic says bouncing slightly, leading Gregory through the theater up through a back hallway and into a room that was hidden away. “Oopsie we left such a mess one sec okay?” Sunny quickly cleans up the room, tucking away pictures and toys that he and Moon had snuck away.
“It’s fine.” Gregory says quietly. “I’m used to messy rooms.” The little corner he’d found to sleep in was certainly not the cleanest.
“Yeah but you’re our guest!” Sunny says. “Come here, you can relax on this.” Sunny pats a huge pillow, bigger than any that Gregory had ever seen before. It was longer than Sunny and Moon were standing up and wide enough for both robots to lay comfortably side to side Gregory thinks.
“Are you sure? Isn’t that your bed?” Gregory asks before coughing into his elbow again.
“Moon and I share and you can borrow it for a bit, friend.” Sunny waves him over. “Come on, kick your shoes off and relax.”
Gregory slowly kicks off his sneakers and comes over, crawling onto the huge pillow and sinking down on it slightly, it’s like a cloud, it's so soft.
“Blanket, food, water, cough drops, washcloth.” Moon lists off coming in from the balcony out to the daycare. Shuffling to Sunny’s side as he passes some of the things over and tosses the blanket over Gregory and then the washcloth over Gregory’s forehead.
“Thanks.” Gregory mumbles.
“Why don’t you try and sleep.” Sunny pats his arm gently. “You can have something if you need it if you wake up.”
“Mkay…” Gregory sighs as his eyes slowly close.
Moon looks at the kid with a frown internally, standing awkwardly to the side. He grumbles through his thoughts before connecting to Sunny to have a private conversation.
Sunny, we need to tell security.
We can’t do that! He looked so frightened Moon. He needs help not more stress.
Sunny. You’re letting your programming talk too much.
I am not.
Are too.
Moon. He is sick. He looks like he’s barely eaten properly. He needs someone to care for him!
That’s what the authorities are for Sunny. What happens when we are caught with him! If management finds out we kept him here then we’ll be in trouble! It’s bad enough I took things from the giftshop.
Moon rubs at his faceplate in annoyance. They could be reset or decommissioned or any number of horrible things management could do to them if they kept the kid a secret. Sunny knew this so why was he fighting him?
We were made to help kids, Moon. We were made to take care of them. Please Moon.
Sunny takes his hand. Pulling him into a hug.
We can do this, we’re careful. You trust me right?
I do… You goof.
He audibly sighs before looking over at the kid again.
I guess we better make sure that security stays off our backs.
Thanks, Moony!
Sunny hugs him tight before taking one side of the big pillow with Moon slowly taking the other side. Sun monitors the child’s health while Moon watches the security officers and cameras.
Gregory woke up with a grunt, throat feeling just as bad as earlier in the evening, but his stomach was starting to gnaw at him, remembering that he hadn’t eaten for a bit. His eyes land on Sunny first, then on Moon, each laying on their sides on the same pillow he’s on.
Sunny starts shifting first, keeping his voice quiet. “You alright? Need something?”
“S-some food… please.” He whispers back not really sure why the robots were so close to him.
“Cheese crackers okay?” Sunny offers some knock off goldfish that are shaped like suns and moons.
“Yeah that’s great.” Gregory sits up a bit to open the package up. Taking some out and quickly putting them into his mouth.
“No need to eat so quick, kiddo.” Sunny hums getting out a juicebox and poking the straw into it.
“Sorry.” He says quietly, taking it a bit slower as he eats. “So… You two run the daycare?” He asks, figuring he might as well learn a little more about these animatronics, and why they had helped him.
“Mhm!” Sunny replies cheerfully. “Moony and I help keep kiddos happy and play with them and make sure they take naps while their parents or siblings are busy.”
“We do have a few humans that help out, but mostly they man the phones and security desk. Not that we need them on the security desk.” Moon speaks up.
“Yeah? Why not?”
“Because we are more than enough security for this place.” Moon says sitting up. “We connect to the databases for everything within the daycare.”
“Ah.” Gregory nods, feeling a pit form in his stomach, especially with recalling Moon early with reporting to security.
“But don’t you worry! We’ll keep ya safe from security.” Sunny pats Gregory’s knee, causing him to blink at the solar animatronic.
“Huh but-”
“You’re sick so… You’re under our protection.” Moon huffs.
“What?”
“We’ll keep you safe from anybody that’d try and make you go away!” Sunny’s head does a spin. “You can stay here and get better.”
“R-really?” Gregory asks after coughing a bit. Taking the juicebox from Sunny and sucking it down quickly.
“Yup, we wanna help.” Sunny would be grinning if he didn’t have a permanent smile already.
“I… Thank you.” Gregory says softly, “I’ll um, try to get outta your way soon.”
“Not until you’re feeling back to one hundred percent!” Sunny pats his knee again. “Still hungry? Need another blanket?”
“Heh… No thanks… I’m just tired.” Gregory settles back down, finding the two robots both amazingly kind and unsettling. Part of him yelling to run when he has the chance. But for now, sleep sounds nice.
Without prompting, Moon’s speakers start playing a soft lullaby, Gregory quickly falling back to sleep.
Gregory stays hidden up in Sun and Moon’s room for two more days. While they can get him the basics of care they can’t get any medicine, and it’s much harder to help him when the Pizzaplex is open to the public.
Still both Daycare Attendants do their best to get him what he needs to feel better and keep security off his back. Gregory starts perking up a bit more fever broken but sore throat remaining. Sunny had tried to coax him out to go get food at one of the restaurants but Gregory was super wary of that.
Sunny sighs finishing up cleaning up with his brother.
He’s looking a lot better now…
Good. Means we can follow protocol properly.
Moony…
Sunny.
Please don’t scare him off. He needs someone looking out for him.
We aren’t his parents Sunny. We had a hard enough time circumventing security the last couple of days.
I know but he needs us…
We don’t even know his name.
He just needs some time. We get all the other kiddos names from the registry anyway.
Sunny we are talking about a human child, not a pet.
I know! I know that Moon! I know!
Sunny lets out a noise of frustration and rubs at his faceplate wilting as he sighs.
I know that… But he doesn’t seem to have other options…
That’s not for us to decide, Sunny… I’m sorry… I’m not trying to be mean.
I know Moony… I just know we can help and I want to…
… I do too… I just… I don’t want to get in trouble…
The celestial animatronics look at each other for a long moment and do a final pass of the daycare before heading up to their room.
“Kiddo?” Sunny looks around, the kid wasn’t on the pillow, shoes gone.
“Sunny…” Moon picks up a note on the little table in the room.
Sunny and Moon,
Thank you for helping me feel better. I’m going to go now.
Gregory
The handwriting was shaky and unpracticed, but at least they had a name, even if Sunny wilts like a flower without water.
“Well… Seems that we don’t have to worry…” Moon sighs, pulling Sunny to sit with him on the pillow.
“Guess not…” Sunny sighs sadly.
“He’ll be fine, Sunny.”
“I hope so…”