Chapter Text
Why on Earth was he doing this. Out of all the dumb things he'd done in his time on this Earth, this had to be one of his more… well, questionable decisions.
Mike looked up at the illuminated sign as he got out of his car. "Fazbear's Frights" in a big tacky horror font, with a banner hastily attached under it that read "opening soon!" Hm. Not quite. Plans for the building had gone downhill pretty soon after renovation had begun, due to a certain someone. The future of the project was unknown for the time being. Not that he cared. The sound of his car door slamming shut echoed through the desolate parking lot. He was here for one thing, and one thing only.
His keys jingled from his lanyard as he unlocked the only exit in and out of the building. The lock, old and heavy, clunked its resistance at first but let him in all the same. He stepped into the darkness, wrinkling his nose at the smell. Even the faint click of his flashlight turning on reverberated in the stillness. He traced the light over the Foxy mask on the far wall, gold tooth gleaming back at him. Did they really need to drag all this old crap from the other pizzerias here? The mold alone could kill a man. He pushed these thoughts aside as he walked further in, the beam of his flashlight bouncing from wall to wall.
Now the real task began. Firstly, finding him . It would be easy enough– it was hard to miss him after all– but the next part could prove trickier. As he passed the office, he glanced in, his light glinting off the blade of an aged axe. Dull and rusty, leaning against the wall near the vent opening. A bit menacing, but its original purpose was less so. The cleaning crew had used it to break open a door or two in the old building, to see what goodies they could find. He shook his head. Not important.
It wasn't until he got further towards the backroom that he heard movement. The place was eerily quiet, so even the tiniest of noises was easily detectable. He aimed his flashlight higher, gripping it tighter. There was the sound of a single, shuffling footstep inside the room to his left and he saw the outline of a familiar rabbit's ear disappear around the doorframe. Bingo.
"You're here quite early, aren't you?" came a low, grumbly voice from inside, just as bitter as it always was. Or seemed, at least. Michael got closer to the doorway, making sure to keep his flashlight up. More of the rabbit hovering just inside became visible. He really was quite the frightful sight, especially in the dark. Rotting and mangled, at least seven feet tall... Glowing eyes the only thing piercing through the darkness. Springtrap glared when the beam hit them and shrunk back, squinting in the harsh light. "Do you mind?"
"Just a precaution," Mike couldn't help but smirk a little. It wasn't something he'd been 100% certain of, but it seemed to be working well enough. The animatronics had always been sensitive to bright lights, and that included the Spring Bonnie suit. Keeping Spring at bay while they had their little conversation was a definite necessity. He hadn't forgotten the last time he'd let his father get a little too close during the night shift. "I came here to talk to you about something."
Spring huffed out an irritated sigh, stepping further back into the room to shield his eyes behind the door. Mike relented a bit and lowered the flashlight to aim more towards his father's mouth rather than directly in his eyes. "And what could that possibly be? You've done nothing but torment me since you showed up. What happened to all the times I've tried to talk to you, hm?"
Michael rolled his eyes. "Dad…" He really didn't have time for this. Be patient , he urged himself and opened his mouth to continue, but was rudely cut off.
"All the times I tried to come to the office and you'd– you'd trick the stupid suit with an audio cue to send me away. No, I've done my part in trying to speak with you."
" Dad ."
"My efforts are clearly not wanted and I will not participate in whatever game you're play–"
"Dad, I'm getting you out of here," Michael finally managed to interrupt, tired of the droning monologue and guilt-tripping. Spring blinked in surprise, his mouth still hanging open from his tirade. He quickly composed himself, jaw snapping shut as he squinted suspiciously at his son.
"You… what?" There was an air of hopefulness to his tone that he quickly corrected with a growl. "... This is a trap. Don't insult me, Michael. I'm not foolish enough to really believe you'd just…" he trailed off. "... So, what's your plan? Take me to a scrapyard? Have you an incinerator you plan to throw me into? Burn me alive?"
"If you don't want to come, that's fine," Michael snapped back, then tried to regain his composure with a deep breath. Of course his dad would be suspicious. This whole thing was stupid to do on his part, and he knew that. It was becoming less and less justifiable by the moment. "Listen, I just…" Did he want to give his reasoning right away? Not particularly. "You don't have to trust me. But after I leave tonight, I'm not coming back. Not for the night shift, not ever. So this is your only chance." He motioned to the building around them. "If you want to stay and rot here, fine by me."
There was silence. Spring's ears had lowered slightly at the mention of Michael not returning, and he finally glanced away, seeming to weigh his options. Stay here and try to find a way to escape on his own, something he'd been unsuccessful at thus far, or go with Michael and be at his mercy for whatever plans he might have… Neither seemed ideal. But one gave him at least the chance to escape.
"... And where will we go, exactly?" Spring finally looked back to Michael, ears twitching curiously.
"Home," Michael responded, then quickly continued when Spring looked about to interrupt again. "Not the old family house. I… I don't live there anymore." He didn't mention how that house had been torn down years ago in the wake of expansion to the city. The city had wanted a road to go through that area, and Michael was anything but attached to the place. Too many bad memories… "I have my own house now."
"... Hm…" the grip Spring had on the doorframe was slowly tightening, enough to make the rotten wood crumble under his fingers. What he was feeling was indiscernible to Mike, so he didn't even try to guess.
"If you want to come, we need to leave soon," he finally asserted, taking a step away from Spring and jutting his thumb towards the long hall. "They've got a cleaning crew scheduled to come disinfect the old pizzeria artifacts in the morning." Not technically a lie. There was something of the sort scheduled, but it wasn’t due anytime soon. He really just wanted to get out of the creepy place, the sooner the better.
More silence.
"... Fine. I will go with you," Spring finally declared, taking a step towards his son. He made a move to poke him in the chest and was rewarded with a flashlight to the eyes instead, so he merely raised his hands in surrender, glaring once again. "But just know that the second you try anything funny…"
"Yeah, yeah," Michael lowered the flashlight again and motioned down the hallway. "Seniors first." He couldn't help another snicker at Spring grumbled grumpily at the name but pushed past him all the same, heading towards the exit. It was slow-going, his dad not exactly being the speediest of corpses, but they made it eventually. He side-stepped his dad to unlock the door again while the rabbit loomed menacingly behind him, fidgeting idly with his mechanical hands. When the door creaked open, Mike stepped aside to let his dad out first. Spring hesitated but stepped out of the building regardless, eyes narrowing as if looking for some unseen threat. Then he glanced back at the building as Michael joined him outside.
“This place really has gone downhill, hasn’t it?” There was an air of bitterness to his tone, almost accusatory. What Mike wanted to say was ‘sorry for not caring about the upkeep of a shitty, doomed business you decided to die in and leave me with’, but what he instead replied with was a simple roll of the eyes.
"Whatever," Michael sighed as he locked the exit door behind him and started for the car. "You'll have to put the front seat down or something so you can stretch out. Car's not very big. Just me at home, you know." He twirled his lanyard on his finger. "Anyway, once we get… back...?" Mike stopped a few feet from his car when he realized his father hadn't followed him. He glanced over his shoulder to where Spring was still standing, only inches from the doorway they'd just left. His head was tilted back, ears down, staring up at the twinkling night sky in an almost dazed way.
"Dad?" Then it occurred to him. Of course. His father hadn't been outside for many, many years. This was his first "breath" of fresh air in a very long time. So he'd frozen there, seeming a little overwhelmed by his sudden taste of freedom. Michael crossed his arms and leaned back against his car, reminding himself to be patient with his old man. This was definitely going to be a process.
After a while, he pressed the button to unlock his car. Spring finally glanced over at the beeping sound, tall ears perking back up as he remembered himself.
"Oh, sorry," he laughed a little, following after his son. "I was just… It's nice outside, isn't it?" The rabbit watched as Mike silently opened the passenger side door and messed with the seat for him. He went back to just looking around. The place looked so different… Not that his memory of the past was the sharpest. Nor his eyesight. "How far off do you live?"
"From here? About a 15 minute drive," Mike finished fixing the seats and gestured inside. "Here, you just gotta find a way to fit. Should be fine if you lay or stretch out." There wasn't really a comfortable way for the seven foot tall rabbit to sit in his small car.
Spring got closer and bent down to look inside. The passenger seat was draped with several towels and had been pushed back as far as it would go. Still, it was going to be a tight fit.
"Hey, come on, just get in, someone's gonna see us," Michael had already gotten into the car and was drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, glancing around to make sure no one else was nearby. The old building was far enough off the road that none of the headlights of passing cars hit them, and there were no street lamps overhead, but he was still nervous.
With a bit of work and repositioning, Spring managed to squeeze inside the passenger seat, slouching down as best as he could to keep from bumping his head on the top of the car. He looked generally miserable, but for once didn’t voice his annoyances, seemingly settling into a general attitude of acceptance.
"Can you put your ears down? They're scraping the hell out of the headliner…" Michael reached over to do so himself and was swatted away.
"Yes yes fine, I can do it," Spring huffed and tried slouching a bit more to see if that would help the situation, and when it didn't, simply reached up and clicked both ragged ears into a down position. It looked silly but it worked.
"Good, thank you," Michael started the car and began the drive home, while Spring distracted himself from his uncomfortable position by looking out the window. It was so strange… Nothing looked the same as it once had. Was there always a highway there? And were those four lanes? Where had all the trees gone? Didn’t there used to be a forest right behind the old restaurant? … And what on Earth was a “Chipotle”? His eyes were drawn back to the inside of the car and just how many lights there were. There was no spot on the radio for cassette tapes, or CDs for that matter. In fact it was mostly just a screen.
“How do you work it?” Spring asked, reaching forward to mess with some of the knobs, and Michael was the one swatting him away this time.
“Hey, don’t touch it, my bluetooth isn’t connected right now, you’ll mess it up.”
“Blue… what?”
“It’s… it’s like, uh… Jesus,” Michael sighed and glanced to the touchscreen as he drove, reaching over to switch the input to radio to find something for them to listen to. “I’ll find an 80’s station, give me a second.”
“They have a separate station for that now?” Spring watched as Michael scrolled through dozens of stations until he finally clicked one that read “Top 80’s Hits 24/7”. Mike didn’t reply and just turned the volume up to a suitable level, focusing back on the road when he was done. Spring recognized the tune immediately and his ears twitched a bit. Good, that should keep him quiet for a bit.
And it did. The rest of the ride passed fairly quietly except for the soft music and occasional readjusting from Spring fighting for an ounce of comfort in the small car. Michael could finally entertain his own thoughts now, which were getting more and more clustered as they got closer to home. Again, the one question he kept asking himself was still there. Why was he even doing this? Was it because he felt bad, seeing his dad alone in the rundown pizzeria every night? He really shouldn’t, given… well, everything. But what could be done at this point? He’d committed, and now had to live with that. Ugh… His head was already starting to hurt.
"Alright…" Michael finally announced to break the silence, and Spring noticed they were pulling into a dimly lit driveway. He shrunk down even more in his seat when he realized it was surrounded by other houses. A quaint little neighbourhood, and one he wasn't keen on being spotted in. But Michael remained calm as he shut the car off and turned off the headlights. "... We're here."