Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Waking up in a bed was pretty strange, to say the least. Gregory hadn’t had one in a long time, so it was like some sort of foreign concept to him. Like highschool or something.

Gregory looked around his new room, and cuddled back into the blankets. Moon had shown him where they kept all of the naptime stuff, in a back room in the Daycare, and that included a whole mattress. There were a couple, actually, but completely unused. When Gregory had asked why they were there, Moon had responded that it was a scrapped overnight-stay-in-the-Daycare idea.

“Why was it scrapped?” he had questioned the animatronic.

Moon hesitated. “Some of the younger children find me… off-putting.”

Oh.

Well, whatever, Gregory liked Moon, and he was safer without that whole idea, so it was ultimately for the best.

Moon and Gregory had collected a star-themed comforter and a couple of yellow and blue pillows to really make the bed as cozy as possible. They set up the bed, and with a quick transformation, Sun was in the place of Moon. The yellow animatronic had then brought Gregory to a different room in the back of the Daycare, which turned out to be more of a storage closet. Sun had rummaged through some drawers and boxes, and urged Gregory to do the same to decorate some of his area.

Gregory had found some lights that he could hang up. They resembled Christmas lights, but they were more shaped like circles and only glowed in an off-white color. He liked them, though. Sun had found some miscellaneous plushies, as well as a large star-shaped pillow, and Gregory really liked it. The pillow was soft and fluffy, but he only took two plushies; a Sun and a Moon. He had set them up on the bed, and overall, he thought it looked pretty good. His past bedrooms had been pretty bare, mostly because he didn’t exactly stay in those rooms for long. The foster system sucked.

Sun had stated that he could get more from the giftshop, but it would have to be at night. Gregory didn’t really care in particular, since he had no attachment to any of the other characters and the franchise in general, but he thought the walls could have more on them. Like a poster, or a drawing. He’d figure it out.

Gregory was comfortable under the blankets, but he knew he had to get up. The Daycare was open again today, and it would be his first day as an official daycare attendee. So, he reluctantly got out of his blanket cocoon, and finally noticed Sun sitting on the ground near the charging station, his back turned away from him.

Awkwardly walking over, Gregory greeted the animatronic. “Morning.”

“Good morning, sunshine!” Sun’s head rotated to look at him. It wasn’t a full 180, but definitely enough to be owl-like. “How was your sleep?”

“Good.” Gregory said. “Um, what time does the Daycare open?”

“It opens at seven, an hour after the doors open for employees! We’re about a half hour away, if you want to go get dressed and all ready for the day!” Sun beamed, standing up.

Gregory nodded. That sounded like a good idea, he loved having that shower yesterday morning. “Will the employees be in there?”

Sun shook his head. “That’s not the main employee locker room, that’s downstairs, so there shouldn’t be!” Gregory was glad. He didn’t want to have to avoid random people that knew he wasn’t supposed to be there. “Oh!” Sun exclaimed all of a sudden, raced towards the balcony, then jumped off.

Gregory stared at where Sun took the dive. That was certainly random.

Sun came back very quickly, and dashed back over to Gregory. “Here, I forgot about this!”

He handed the boy a flashlight. Gregory stared at it confused, looking back up at the animatronic. “What’s this for?”

“The vents! I know it isn’t the safest place to be, but that’s the best we can do right now, and they can get pretty dark! It’s for safety.” Sun smiled, starting his bouncing.

“Oh. Alright.”

“Aaaaand~” Sun sang, going for some boxes off to the side. Gregory watched as he pulled out some more clothes, and he held out his arms to accept them. “Ta-da!” He did little jazz hands. ”I promise we’ll find some less branded clothes if you prefer that, sunbeam!”

“No, these are, uh, fine,” Gregory said, looking at the clothes in his arms. They looked pretty similar to what he got previously, the main change being that the shirt was light orange with a picture of… candy? “What’s the candy?”

“Ah, those are my candies, sundrops and moondrops!” Sun grinned, kneeling down and putting a hand on the chin area of his faceplate. “In fact, I can see one right now!”

“What?” Gregory’s eyebrows furrowed. “On the shirt?”

“Oh no, not there!” Sun shook his head, reaching his hand behind Gregory’s ear. “It’s riiiiiiight there!” He pulled it back, and to the boy’s surprise, there was a wrapped piece of candy in Sun’s hands that wasn't there previously.

“Woah!” Gregory gasped. He knew it was a magic trick, but it was still cool!

“It must be a special occasion if you had candy behind your ear!” Sun declared, happily handing the piece to Gregory by placing it on the pile of clothes in his arms. “Here ya go, kiddo! I’ll get you breakfast while you shower, okay? Any requests?”

“No, anything is fine.”

“Something quick, then. Now go, we are opening soon! I need to do some tidying up, so I’ll be in the Daycare when you’re finished.”

Gregory nodded and dashed off to the vent, but dropped off the piece of candy on his bed. He could eat it later. Clothes in hand as well as the flashlight turned on, he crouched down and headed off. He was lucky that he was small enough to not have to bend down that far.

The vent didn’t have many changes in direction, so Gregory quickly navigated his way through. After about a minute of walking, he spotted light, so he turned off his flashlight and walked a bit faster. He reached the end of the vent, which is the end right next to the bathroom and locker room. Perfect.

Fifteen minutes later, Gregory was all clean, but he had to throw his bandages out. His knee still stung a bit without the wrap, so hopefully Sun could get more. But, just as Sun had said, there were no employees that had been in the locker room, so he simply just walked out with his clothes in hand. He headed over to the slide that was the second and more fun entrance to the Daycare, excited to finally be able to use it. Although he had spent the entirety of his day yesterday with the daycare attendant, he had used his wire to bring him to the bathroom just in case an employee or manager of some sort had found him out.

Gregory eagerly sat at the beginning of the slide, then pushed his way down as best he could with his old clothes in hand. The slide turned and twisted, and a laugh escaped the boy. He landed in the ballpit, grinning as the balls went flying.

His stomach grumbled, so Gregory quickly made his way to the ballpit’s exit. He wished he had long legs like the attendant, he would have climbed out way easier. Gregory noticed Sun setting something up at one of the plastic tables in the corner, so he made his way over.

Sun had a box of some sort of food, Gregory could smell it. “Hi, Sun.”

“Hello again!” the animatronic exclaimed, turning to look at the boy. “This is just an egg sandwich. I hope that’s alright!”

“That’s fine,” Gregory shrugged, sitting at the table and placing the clothes and flashlight at his feet. “Thanks.”

“It’s no problemo, sunshine!” Sun smiled, bending down to grab Gregory’s assortment of items. “I’ll put these back in the room, okay?”

“Thanks again,” Gregory said, opening the box and looking at the sandwich. It had bacon on it. Yum.

Sun nodded and was soon ascending, leaving Gregory to eat the sandwich quickly. He didn’t know how long he had until the Daycare opened for other kids, so he ate as fast as he could without making himself sick. Apparently, he ate it in record time, because he was finishing up right as Sun came back.

“You must have been quite hungry, Gregory!” Sun exclaimed, the wire shooting back up towards the ceiling. He looked over the boy, going still for a second, then nodded to himself. “Hold on one moment!”

Gregory watched as Sun dashed towards the security desk, hesitated, then quickly grabbed something. He skipped back over while Gregory closed the now-empty food box.

“I have some bandages in here for you, if you would like them!” Sun explained, showing the boy a first-aid kit, and sitting next to him on the ground. With Gregory in the chair, they actually could look each other in the eyes.

“Um, sure, thanks.” He was glad he didn’t have to ask, but he wondered how Sun just knew that he needed them. “Are you psychic?” He blurted out before slapping a hand over his mouth. What a stupid question.

Sun, who was in the process of unwrapping the bandages, looked up at the boy. “No, not as far as I’m aware! Why?”

Gregory blushed, rubbing his mouth with his hand to stop the embarrassment. “Well, uh, you always seem to know that I need that stuff without askin’.”

Sun looked at Gregory’s knee, then back at the item in his hand. “The bandages?”

“Yeah. That and food, I guess,” the boy shrugged.

“Oh!” Sun smiled, finally on the same page. He started to wrap the knee once more. “I am programmed to be able to handle any medical situation, but in order to know what I need to do, I hafta scan you!” Sun finished the wrap and held it in place while he dug around for medical tape. “The other animatronics can do it too, but they don’t have as much programmed knowledge of pediatrics as me. Their scans are much more surface level, like finding your guest profile, as well as simple scrapes.” He finally pulled out the tape with a little ‘Ah-ha!’

Gregory figured that made sense. “Can you find injuries that we don’t even know about? Like if I didn’t know what was wrong, you would know?”

Sun nodded, finishing off the wrap. “Yes yes! If you had a cold but were not aware, I could tell you!”

Gregory flexed his knee, happy with the bandages. “Neat. Thanks.”

“You are welcome!” Sun beamed, his chest compartment suddenly opening. He pulled out a sticker sheet, and stuck one on Gregory’s bandage. “See? Now we can match!”

The animatronic had put a little yellow star on his wrap. Gregory smiled. He hoped it didn’t fall off.

Sun suddenly stood up. “Well, the Daycare opens in about five minutes, so I need to clean up really fast!”

“I can help,” Gregory offered, looking up at the animatronic. “You’ve been cleaning my stuff this whole time, I can throw my things away.”

Sun seemed to vibrate where he stood. “I’m so glad to hear that, sunshine! I love when the little ones pick up after themselves!”

“I’m not little,” he grumbled, but gathered his stuff nonetheless. “Where’s the trash?”

“There’s a trash can near the cubbies in the corner over there!” Sun pointed. Gregory had watched him bring stuff over there the previous day, so that must have been where he was bringing all of the garbage. He wondered where the pizza box went from yesterday. There was probably a larger dumpster outside of the Daycare, but whatever. It didn’t matter.

Gregory nodded and picked up his stuff, walking over to where Sun said the cubbies were. He threw away the trash, then headed back over to the table, where he saw Sun wipe clean of any crumbs or markings. The animatronic then rushed over to the trash as well and threw away the wipes, seemingly satisfied with the cleaning.

“Okay, Gregory, here’s how the morning usually goes,” Sun started to explain, heading towards the doors. “An employee comes in, logs all of the children on the computers, and stays there for their shift. Or at least, they are supposed to.” Sun huffed. “Usually they log everyone in and then leave, skipping their shift.”

“That doesn’t seem fair,” Gregory commented, walking along with Sun towards the entrance.

“It isn’t, but we’ve asked management to do something about it multiple times, and they’ve done nothing. I can handle the kiddos fine, but it still grinds my gears!” Sun leaned against the brown doors once they arrived at the entrance. He shook his head. “But anyway, enough of that negativity! I scan the children and make sure they have a pass, so the employee really just needs to confirm it on the computer.”

Gregory scoffed. “Even I could do that.”

“I appreciate the offer, but no going behind the security desk,” Sun said. “It’s against the rules!”

“Fiiine,” Gregory pouted. “Just sayin’.”

Sun chuckled a little bit, then eagerly turned around to face the doors. “Time to open! Whoever the worker is usually comes about five minutes after we open the Daycare, so you don’t need to worry about hiding, sunshine!”

Gregory nodded and stood behind the animatronic, just in case something happened. Sun smiled, then easily swung the giant doors open. Gregory looked around Sun’s pants, noticing a bunch of parents and children. His heart rate picked up, nervously looking at the adults.

Sun seemed to notice Gregory’s distress, because he quickly said to him; “Sunshine, go sit at a table if you’re feeling overwhelmed.” Gregory didn’t think twice and bolted back to where he was eating earlier. He heard Sun then start to address everyone else as he sat down. “HELLO, FRIENDS!” He practically shouted, Gregory watching as children ran in like wild animals.

Sun greeted and waved at the kids, some giving Sun a hug before running off with another person. While his nerves had calmed down, Gregory felt some sort of knot in his stomach watching that. He didn’t know what it was, but he knew he didn’t like it.

Some of the parents stuck around for a couple of minutes, and Gregory saw a couple of children enter from the slide at the top. It was suddenly loud, extremely loud. Gregory didn’t mind the noise, but he had a feeling it would take some getting used to.

Finally, a Fazbear employee walked in. Gregory could tell they worked here because of the employee outfit, and just as Sun had said, simply sat down at the desk to look at the computer. Sun closed the doors and hopped to the end of the security desk, giving a greeting to the staff member. Gregory frowned when he saw the employee completely ignore Sun and continue to stare at the computer. Asshole. The animatronic slumped a little bit, but picked himself back up, turning back around with a smile.

Gregory stood up from his chair, wanting to get back Sun. He didn’t really know what to do, especially with, like, thirty kids running around. As he walked towards the animatronic, Sun was suddenly tackled by three kids. He laughed and scooped them up, twirling around and giving them a hug.

“Hello, little ones! I’m glad to see you all today!” He beamed, putting them back down on the ground. Gregory continued his way towards them, ending up in the little group.

“Sunny!” One of the girls that Sun had picked up squealed, looking at him with big eyes. Gregory noticed that every kid here was younger than him. He wondered if there was an age limit. “We wanna play!”

“Ooh, that’s a great idea, kiddo!” Sun grinned, looking around as more children wandered over to see what the commotion was about. Sun seemed to lock eyes with Gregory, who was awkwardly standing around in the back. “I have a fantastic idea, friends!”

“What is it?!” Came a call from a small boy next to Sun.

“Well, only the bestest game that was ever made, yes indeed!” Sun spun in place, which hyped the children up even more. “Hide and seek!” 

The crowd of kids cheered, and Gregory watched as the rest of the children who weren’t in the group come over to play once they heard the announcement. “We are gonna have a big group hide and seek, all of us!” Sun continued. “But I’m going to need a helper seeker if we are all playing!”

Hands started raising while the children were shouting for their name to be called. Sun made a show of scanning the crowd and making a ‘hmm’ noise, his gaze eventually landing on Gregory. “How about you, sunshine?”

Gregory was very much aware that he was chosen intentionally, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t grateful. He wasn’t really sure what to do with himself, and he’d rather be with Sun than hiding somewhere all alone. Gregory made his way to the front of the crowd, ignoring the whining of the kids who weren’t picked. He gave a small, thankful smile to the animatronic, which Sun returned eagerly.

“Okay, friends!” Sun stood up straight to address the crowd, clapping his hands together. “Gregory and I will be looking for all of you! You have two minutes to hide, and we will be counting by the big brown doors!” Sun pointed behind him to the area he just acknowledged. “We do have some rules, however!”

A kid made a raspberry noise.

“No going behind the security desk!” Gregory looked back at the desk and noticed that the employee was gone. Sun wasn’t lying when he said that they skipped their shifts. “Don’t hide in the slides! Another friend could accidentally run into you, and you could get boo-boos! And last but not least, have fun!” Sun grinned. “Now go! We are going to go count!”

The kids dispersed, and Gregory once again followed Sun towards the entrance. “Thanks for picking me,” Gregory said. “I, uh, didn’t really know what to do.”

“I understand, sunbeam!” Sun smiled down at him. “Usually we have the big games a little later, but they won’t mind!” They reached the doors, Sun sitting down to look away from the Daycare. Gregory sat next to him, assuming that they were looking away so the other kids could hide.

Gregory awkwardly sat there, trying to think of a conversation starter. He didn’t have much to say, but then he looked to his right at the security desk, right where the staff member should have been. “Do they always treat you like that?”

“Huh?” Sun’s rays spun around as he looked at Gregory. He genuinely looked confused, despite his faceplate not moving.

“Like-” Gregory gestured with his hands at the desk, unable to find the words. “I dunno. That guy ignored you.”

Something seemed to click in Sun’s mind. “Oh. Ah, well, yes, that does usually happen, but I don’t mind!” Sun laughed without much mirth. “I’m used to it, plus the kids really brighten my day, and now you do too, sunshine!” He reached over and ruffled Gregory’s hair, which made him giggle a little.

“Still,” he replied, swatting away Sun’s hands after a couple seconds, “they should be nicer.”

“They should be,” Sun hummed in agreement. He shook his head, suddenly standing up. “Two minutes have passed, and we even gave them a liiittle extra time, because they are going to need it!”

Gregory nodded and stood up too, ready to find the kids hiding. Sun mimicked a deep breath, and placed his hands on his hips. “Three, two, one! READY OR NOT, HERE WE COME, KIDDOS!” he shouted, voice echoing throughout the Daycare. Gregory heard some giggling, and he had no doubt that Sun also heard it.

Sun took off, signaling Gregory to check the play structures. The boy nodded, eagerly running towards the ramps. He watched as Sun dramatically looked around, especially near the ballpit. Gregory realized that the animatronic most likely knew where everyone was, but he still wanted to find some people. He ran around the play structures, and once he got to the top of one of them, he found someone at the beginning of the slide.

Gregory tapped the boy on the shoulders. “Found you!” he grinned. The boy groaned, but got up. Gregory continued his search, and found three more kids scattered across the play structures. He was back on the ground again, and saw some movement behind a giant bear plush. Right, that was Freddy, the mascot.

He caught two girls shushing each other behind it. He was on a roll! He wondered how many Sun had found. He looked around for the animatronic, and noticed that he was holding five kids with his arms and laughing in the ballpit. God, he was strong.

It only took ten minutes for the duo to find all of the hiding kids. Sun had caught one trying to sneak his way behind the security desk, and Gregory watched in amusement as he was placed in time-out.

Gregory was pretty proud of himself. He had found around ten kids all on his own, and even though Sun did most of the work, he still found himself laughing along with the other children as they ran around. He hadn’t had this much fun in a long time, especially with other kids. A lot of the foster families he went to had their own kids, and they never particularly liked him. Plenty of his clothes and what little toys he had usually ended up broken or ‘missing’. He wasn’t stupid, he knew that they had stolen them, but it didn’t matter now. He was having a good time.

“Aaaaand that’s everyone!” Sun declared, looking around the room with tuckered out children. “Are you all ready for round two?”

Gregory ended up hiding that round. Sun sent an apologetic look to him, since the last kid who was found asked to be the new helper. He shrugged in response. He was good at hiding, he had a lot of experience with it. And, since he was more comfortable, he would be fine.

Sun and the new helper walked off, and the daycare attendant starting his counting loudly.

Gregory ran towards the ballpit, remembering something about it from when he hid from the crazy taser lady. Sure, he was tired and scared, but he noticed something about the rainbow bridges. He climbed in, and noticed that there was enough space for someone to hide under them. He grinned and easily squeezed himself under the bridge, then simply waited.

A couple of minutes passed, and Sun called out that they were searching. Gregory stayed as silent as he could, and when he heard movement in the ballpit, he knew he had to be even quieter. He sunk below the balls, but just enough so that he could see.

“Gotcha!” he heard Sun say, and a girl’s laughter followed. Gregory hoped that Sun would skip out on him, since he was pretty sure Sun knew he was in the ballpit. There was no way he didn’t.

Luck was on Gregory’s side, because the girl that Sun had found quickly ran out of the pit, Sun giving a shout of surprise. Gregory smirked, knowing that he had more time to hide with the Daycare Attendant gone.

Time passed, and Gregory heard multiple kids being found. He heard Sun get the boy out of time-out, but place another one in there while the new offender whined. He wondered what the kid did to get put in there.

Gregory didn’t know how long he was in the ballpit for, but he didn’t need to think for much longer, because Sun’s head suddenly was in his face, upside-down and hanging from the rainbow bridge. “I found ya, sunshine!” he smiled, rays rotating happily.

“Aw man,” Gregory pouted, leaving his cocoon of shade and plastic balls. “I thought it was a good spot.”

“It was!” Sun beamed, offering his hand to Gregory, which he took. The animatronic easily pulled him out, walked out of the pit, and placed him on the ground. “In fact, it was so good that you were the last one found!”

“Really?” his eyes widened, and he looked over to the group of kids, who all stared at him.

“No fair!” a girl in a pink dress whined, sitting down with a frown on her face. “He gets to be a helper again!”

Gregory awkwardly shrugged his shoulders, sending a nervous smile towards Sun. Sun motioned for Gregory to join the group, and stood tall in front of all of the children. 

“Because Gregory here was the last one found, he can choose whether or not to be the seeker again!” Sun clasped his hands together, bells shaking at the motion. “It’s the rules, friends!” Gregory distinctly remembered Sun not mentioning this rule. “We don’t want to be rude to fellow daycare attendees, do we?”

The girl who was upset muttered a no in response. Sun smiled, then looked over to the winner of the round. “So, what would you like, Gregory?”

The boy picked at his shirt. “…I’m fine with hiding again.”

“Alrighty, then it’s settled!” Sun looked over the group of children, who were once again excited to perhaps be picked.

They played multiple rounds of hide and seek, which ended up lasting over two hours. Gregory was pretty shocked when Sun made that announcement, but was even more shocked that he ended up winning three more rounds. He could tell some of the others were getting annoyed with his winning, but whenever he looked at Sun, he saw nothing but a proud, bright smile. It made him strangely happy that he could make Sun happy too.

When the game finally ended, Sun declared free time, in which they could do whatever they wanted. Gregory took this time to sit at a table and draw, three other kids joining him at the same table. He didn’t know if he was comfortable chatting with other kids just yet, or if they were even there to draw, but he didn’t move away from his spot. The only problem was that he didn’t have any drawing supplies.

Sun noticed the group, despite holding a younger girl in his arms who was flailing around. He skipped over, leaning to get the kids to notice him. “Do you kiddos need anything?”

“Yeah, Mr. Sunny!” a boy in a red sweatshirt exclaimed. “We need paper! And looooots of it!” Looks like he was also there to draw.

“Oh, you’re absolutely right!” Sun bonked his faceplate with his open hand. “Silly me, how could I forget?!”

“We never told ya!” Red Sweatshirt replied, laughing at the animatronic.

“Then that was even more silly of me, friend!” Sun exclaimed, putting down the girl in his arms who was struggling to be let go. “I’ll go get you all some fun drawing stuff! That’ll be so much fun, yes yes!”

The kids at the table, sans Gregory, cheered, and the Daycare Attendant dashed off. He came back rather quickly, with colorful paper and some markers. He placed them all down on the table. “Would you like anything else, friends?”

A girl wanted glitter glue, so Sun ran off again. Gregory wasn’t that into glitter, so he just picked up a white piece of paper and a handful of markers. Sun brought a lot over, and just as he was about to start to draw, the animatronic returned with some glitter glue colors.

“Let me know if you need anything else!” Sun smiled, his eyes catching Gregory’s. The boy nodded at him, and turned back around to start his drawing.

He decided to just draw his old home, his box. He didn’t really know what else to do, he wasn’t that artistically creative. He just wanted some peace from running around, so drawing seemed like the best option.

Gregory’s picture was boring. It was just a cube. Frowning, he added some newspapers next to the box. Hopefully some ideas would come to him.

“Hey!”

Gregory looked up, Red Sweatshirt Boy staring at him with wide eyes. The kid was definitely younger than him. “Yeah?” Gregory grumbled in reply, looking back at his drawing.

“How’d you get so good at hide and seek?”

Well that was a loaded question. Gregory shrugged, picking up a blue marker. “Practice,” was all he said in response as he drew a blue circle on his page. A lightbulb went off in his head, and he grabbed a red marker as well.

Red Sweatshirt groaned. “C’monnnnn.”

He shrugged again, drawing blue squiggly lines under the circle. “I don’t know what else to say.”

“How’d you practice?” the boy continued, starting to destroy some paper with a dark green marker.

Gregory didn’t like the questions. So, when in doubt, lie. “We played it a lot at school,” he said, completely untruthful. He hadn’t been to school in a long time.

Red Sweatshirt nodded sagely, as if that made any sense. Gregory didn’t know if it did or not, but he was happy that the lie was bought. He added a rectangle for the body, and used his red marker to make more squiggles.

The other kids at the table, the two girls he had found behind the giant Freddy, were chatting with each other, so he was glad that he didn’t have to talk to them too. Red Sweatshirt continued to talk, but Gregory ended up tuning him out as he concentrated on his drawing. He used his blue and yellow markers to draw some arms and pants with stars, as well as a hat. He didn’t have a brown marker, so he just used a black one for the shoes. Putting the finishing touches on drawing, the red marker was used to draw Moon’s eyes. Proud of his drawing but not yet finished, Gregory looked it over. It was Moon standing next to his box.

“You drew creepy guy?” Red Sweatshirt asked, peeking over his own paper full of green and red scribbles to glance at Gregory’s.

“You mean Moon?” Gregory frowned.

The kid nodded. “Yeah. He’s creepy.”

“No, he isn’t,” Gregory fired back, getting defensive. Moon was calm and relaxing and nice and kind. The boy didn’t know what he was talking about.

“Yuh-huh, he scared me during naptime! His eyes were all red and glowy and he has a weird smile,” the kid continued, not noticing how Gregory got more annoyed as he went on with his ramble.

“I don’t think it was intentional,” he muttered, hands clasping into fists. “Plus, he and Sun have the same smile. They're the same guy.”

Red Sweatshirt made a weird noise. “They are not the same! Mr. Sunny is nice and plays! Mean Moon makes us sleep. I don’t like him.”

“I’ll give you a forever sleep if you keep talking like that,” Gregory grumbled to himself, picking up his stuff. “Whatever. You believe what you want.” Annoyed and a little pissed off, he left the table, opting to find a different place so that he could draw in peace. He wasn’t really a people person anyway, so he wasn’t losing much.

He decided to just draw near the white cubbies. No one seemed to be playing near them, so he gladly sat down, leaning against the cubbies to get comfortable. He placed his drawing on the ground and continued doodling.

Time flew by as he drew. He didn’t know how long he was in the corner, but it was long enough that he readjusted himself multiple times. He added a cruddy caricature of himself sleeping next to Moon in his box, and made a starry sky. Gregory drew little music notes next to the animatronic, indicating that he was singing. He really liked Moon’s singing.

He didn’t hear footsteps approaching him, but he heard bells. He looked up and caught Sun’s gaze. “Whatcha drawing, sunshine?” he asked, crouching down to look at the paper.

Gregory quickly grabbed the paper and held it to his chest. “It’s nothing.” It was kind of embarrassing, honestly. He just thought it would be nice if Moon was with him at his old home. It would’ve been nicer.

Sun startled when he pulled the paper back. “Ohhh, it’s a secret!” he looked like he wanted to wink. Gregory wondered if the attendant could wink. “I gotcha. But what are you doing over here and not at the table?” he asked, looking over to where he brought the art supplies over.

Gregory looked over and glared at the boy he had been talking to. “I got mad at that kid,” he grumbled, pointing to the offending child. Sun tilted his head to the side, thinking.

“Why?”

“He was being mean to you.”

Sun twirled his head around to Gregory. “What did he say?”

Gregory looked up at the animatronic. “He called Moon creepy and mean. I said he was wrong, so I left to draw over here.”

Gregory wondered what Sun would look like if he could frown, because that’s what it looked like he wanted to do. “A lot of the kids think that.” Sun didn't say it out loud, but it looked like it really bothered him.

“I told him that he didn’t know what he was saying,” the boy muttered, his eyes going back to his drawing. Despite having only met Sun and Moon two days ago, he knew that the animatronic would never ever be harmful to him. He had made that abundantly clear, and Gregory couldn’t help but see that and trust him. Red Sweatshirt was full of shit.

Sun’s eyes softened as he looked back at the boy. “I’m glad you defended me, kiddo. I really appreciate it.”

He blushed in response. “…you’re welcome.”

Sun stood up, bells jingling with the sudden movement. “Well, would you prefer to draw here by yourself?” he asked, changing the topic.

“Yeah. I don’t wanna be near anyone else right now,” Gregory nodded. Plus he wanted to do something special.

“Alrighty, come and get me if you need anything at all!” Sun ruffled his hair, then darted off in a random direction. Gregory figured that he had to watch some of the younger kids. That was fine, he had a couple of drawings to do anyway.

Luckily, he had brought extra paper over, as well as markers. All of the supplies he needed. He got to work, pulling out a new piece of paper and an orange marker. He was once again in a trance, drawing to his heart’s content as minutes passed by. He finished his second drawing. He smiled as he looked it over. It was perfect. Now he only had one left to do.

This one took a little longer than the previous drawing, but Gregory didn’t mind. The sounds of children running around and screaming were tuned out as he blissfully scribbled on the paper. He forgot how much he liked it, despite not being all that good. Living on the streets doesn’t give you time to relax and sit down to do things like that. The most artistic thing he could do was go to the park and sometimes make sandcastles in the sandbox, and those never lasted. This was much better.

Gregory finished his second drawing, proud of what he made. He didn’t want them to get ripped or anything, so he looked for an empty cubby. Luckily, there was one on the bottom, so he stuck all three of his drawings in there for safe keeping. He just had to return the extra paper and markers.

He headed back over to the table, and was thankful that the red sweatshirt boy was no longer there. He placed all of the items on the table, and started to put the markers away into the box that they had come in when Sun brought them over.

After finishing putting the markers away, he looked around. Where was Sun? His question was answered when the animatronic started laughing, bouncing into his view with children chasing after him.

“Okay, okay, friends!” Sun smiled, coming to a stop in the middle of the Daycare. “It’s lunchtime!”

The children cheered, all dispersing towards the cubby area.

Well, shit. Gregory didn’t have food. Sun usually just ordered food from the kitchen for him, but that was without everyone else around. He didn’t really know what he was going to do. Maybe he could steal something from one of the kids while they weren’t looking, like a bag of chips. Gregory nodded to himself. A bag of chips could last him a while, especially since he-

“Gregory!” Sun called, skipping over to him. Gregory jumped a little bit, since he was lost in thought.

“Yeah?” he asked, watching as all of the children got out their lunchboxes. His stomach growled.

“Here, I have your lunch!” Sun suddenly had a paper bag in his hands, holding them out to Gregory.

He blinked. “What?”

“I had a bot deliver some snacks and a couple of items to make sandwiches!” he beamed as Gregory took the bag from his hands.

Suddenly feeling dumb that Sun wouldn’t somehow get him food, he opened the bag to look at the contents. There was a sandwich, an apple, a bag of pretzels, and a bottle of lemonade. He smiled. Looks like he didn’t have to steal chips after all. “Thanks,” he said, looking back up at the animatronic.

Sun ruffled his hair. Gregory liked when he did that. “Not a problem, sunshine! Now sit and eat!”

Gregory sat at the table that he had been drawing at previously, now all clean. Sun must have cleaned up while he was thinking of a plan to steal food. He sat and opened the bag again, taking out everything. The sandwich was peanut butter and jelly. He hadn’t had one of those in a while.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t eating alone. Red Sweatshirt Boy came back over and sat down next to him. He resisted the urge to groan and instead stuffed his face with the sandwich, not making eye contact with the kid.

He was saved from conversation when others joined the table, thank god. Gregory definitely was not in the mood to talk to the kid who insulted Moon.

Gregory ate in silence, opting to listen to the conversations happening around him. Sun was talking to a separate table, making motions of eating. The red sweatshirt little shit was talking to a girl at the table about someone named Roxy, and there was someone chewing extremely loudly behind Gregory. He rolled his eyes. Kids.

He finished quickly, he had never been one to savor food, but it was slower than he usually ate. He was getting used to having food, and that worried him. What if he had to escape because of crazy taser lady again? He shook his head, he had to get those thoughts out of his mind. He was safe here. Safe.

Lunch wrapped up quickly after, kids leaving to throw away their trash and put things back in their cubbies. Gregory followed suit, throwing away his bag. He didn’t finish the drink yet, so he held onto it.

“Alrighty, friends!” Sun called everyone over. The group of kids ran over to him, Gregory walking behind everyone. “It’s story time, and you know what that means!”

The children excitedly ran off towards the middle of the Daycare. Sun laughed and skipped towards them, motioning for Gregory to follow.

Sun sat right in the middle, his chest compartment opening to reveal a book. The kids sat around him, excitedly looking up to the animatronic. Gregory sat in the back.

Sun dramatically opened the book, humming to himself. “Which one today, friends?”

“A princess story!” a girl shouted. Other voices arose, mostly boys objecting.

“Shh,” Sun said, putting a finger to his teeth. The children fell silent. The kids really listened to Sun well for the most part, Gregory noticed. “I think a princess story sounds wonderful!”

Sun flipped to a page and started the story. It was about a girl with long hair and an evil stepmother who was actually a witch that locked her in a tower. Gregory didn’t… really like it.

Gregory noticed some kids yawning and blinking rapidly as the story continued. So it was a ploy to get the children calmed down, it seemed. He wasn’t necessarily tired, but he had a feeling that he didn’t really have a choice in the matter of whether he wanted to sleep or not. He’d sleep if everyone else was gonna.

The story wrapped up, ending with the girl marrying a prince. Sun closed the book and looked over the children with a kind gaze. “Looks like you’re all getting sleepy, huh?”

“Nuh-uh!” a girl at the front protested right before yawning. “Read another one!”

“Hmm,” Sun said, looking at her. Her eyes were fluttering shut. “I think it’s naptime, friends.”

It was Moon’s turn.

Chapter Text

Sun stood up from the circle, albeit much calmer than usual. The lights in the Daycare dimmed. Some kids whined about not wanting Sun to leave, but Gregory was excited. He liked Moon. He liked Moon a lot.

The lights darkened even more, enough for Moon to come out. Gregory would never get tired of the animatronic’s transformation. It fascinated him. He wanted to know how it worked. He knew the basics, but he needed to know more. Moon’s eyes changed, glowing a bright red.

Gregory looked around the group of kids. The atmosphere was much different than when Sun was in the lead. “Hello, children,” he spoke softly. “Are you ready for naptime?”

A couple of kids complained, but there were a few yawns as well.

Moon chuckled. “I’ll take that as a yes. Stay here, children. I will return.”

Moon walked off, probably to where the sleeping stuff was kept.

“Like I said,” Gregory startled when someone started talking to him. “He’s creepy.” Oh great, it was the red sweatshirt boy. His mortal enemy. That homeless guy that stole his newspapers when he was asleep in his box had been replaced.

“He is not,” he hissed back, glaring at the kid. “You can piss off.” Gregory got up and followed Moon, too annoyed to even sit near the slanderer. He could help him with the stuff, at least. It was good that Moon had shown him where they kept everything, otherwise he’d be completely lost.

He entered the room, eyes still adjusting to the darker tone. Moon was humming to himself, picking up mats and pillows. His eyes landed on the boy, who waved in reply. “Hello, shooting star. I thought I said to stay put.”

“Hi. I wanted to help.”

Moon smiled. “That is thoughtful of you. You can carry some pillows, if you would like.”

With Gregory’s help, it only took one trip to grab all of the supplies. Upon returning, Gregory couldn’t help but glare at Red Sweatshirt Boy. The kid avoided his gaze. Good.

Moon shooed the children out of the middle of the Daycare and started to set up the mats. They were much bigger than Gregory thought, especially since the one he had used when he first got there was much smaller. There were probably different sizes for different amounts of kids.

Moon, despite working quickly and efficiently, was as quiet as a mouse. The sleeping area was finished in no time at all, and a majority of the kids shuffled onto the mats. A few stayed back, including Red Sweatshirt Boy, Gregory, and two other girls.

Moon helped settle the kids, tucking in blankets and fluffing pillows. Gregory didn’t really want to sleep with everyone. He wasn’t really comfortable sleeping with all of the kids near each other. Sure, there were spaces in between each kid, but it wasn’t enough. He wouldn’t be comfortable. So, he grabbed an extra blanket and pillow, and walked a couple feet away from the rest of the children, and made himself a little area for himself. He wished he had the striped blanket that was in his bed.

Gregory laid down, keeping an eye on the kids who weren’t sleeping yet. He saw Moon go over and kneel down to them, whispering something. Gregory wondered if Moon was secretly cussing Red Sweatshirt Boy out for what he said earlier. Moon seemed like the kind of person who’d do that.

The boy looked away from the animatronic and kept his eyes on the ground, but eventually nodded and made his way towards a sleeping mat. The other two girls followed after talking to Moon about something, holding each other’s hands. Gregory didn’t think they looked nervous, so maybe they just asked a question.

Gregory shut his eyes, trying to sleep. He was really trying. He wasn’t used to naps, he always had to be alert on the streets, just in case an animal or some person tried to ruin his area or caught him stealing. His heart started beating faster. What if someone came while he was sleeping? What if an employee figured out that he wasn’t supposed to be there? What if they took him away again? They were irrational thoughts, he knew that, but his mind kept wandering and wandering, deeper and deeper until-

Moon sat down next to him. The animatronic put a hand on Gregory’s back, rubbing it in circles. Gregory took a deep breath, steadying himself. His closed eyes relaxed, less tense than they were before. His heart was no longer beating out of his chest. Moon started to hum a soft lullaby, and the sounds of other kids snoring lulled Gregory into a slumber.

Gregory didn’t know how much time had passed when he eventually woke up. All he knew is that he was the first one to do so. He didn’t sit up, but he did look around, trying to find Moon. It didn’t take long because Moon was still sitting right next to him. The animatronic looked down, red eyes glowing in the darkness.

“Hello, Gregory,” he whispered. It was the quietest Gregory had ever heard him so far. He gave a little wave in response.

“Hi.” He was very good at being quiet, just like how he was very good at hide and seek.

“You were only asleep for about twenty minutes,” Moon stated, eyes going back to looking at the kids. “Naptime lasts for an hour.”

“Sorry,” Gregory shrugged from his spot on the ground. “I’m not used to naps.”

“It’s okay, shooting star. Some kids simply have more difficulty resting. I do not blame you for it.” Well, that was nice to hear. He didn’t really want to sleep anymore, so he sat up, scooting next to Moon.

“Do you ever get bored?” Gregory asked after a few moments of silence.

Moon hummed. “Not often. I like watching over the children. Sometimes we have days where fewer kids come, so we have less to do. It can drag on.”

Gregory nodded. He had days where he couldn’t leave his foster room or he’d be punished for whatever reason. He had to sit in a bed and stare at a wall. Gregory was not a patient person, so those days drove him crazy. He wondered how the animatronic could stand just sitting down and watching.

Moon looked back at Gregory. “Why do you ask? Are you bored?”

Gregory shrugged. He was just curious.

“Would you like a story?”

The boy looked up at the Daycare Attendant. A story? He thought that was Sun’s job. But he nodded anyway, he liked being with Moon. Even though they were a few feet away from snoring kids, he felt like he was back on the cot from yesterday, eating pancakes and sitting with Moon. It was nice. He nodded.

Moon’s chest compartment opened, and he grabbed the same book that Sun had used. The animatronic showed Gregory the table of contents, prompting him to choose a story. Gregory skimmed the book. It was full of fairytales and other miscellaneous fables. He eventually settled on Jack and the Beanstalk.

Moon nodded and flipped through the book to find the page. Gregory was uncomfortable with the position he was in, since Moon had to lean over to read the story.

“Can I…” Gregory paused, suddenly feeling awkward asking. He rubbed his arms. “Can I sit on your lap?”

The animatronic blinked. “Of course you can, shooting star.”

The boy gave a small smile. He climbed onto Moon’s lap, taking the blanket he had been using to nap with him. He wrapped the blanket around himself, getting ready to hear the story.

Moon finally landed on the page with Jack and the Beanstalk. There were watercolor pictures that Gregory found very pretty, but he’d never say that out loud. That was embarrassing.

“Jack and the Beanstalk,” Moon whispered, beginning the story. “Once upon a time, there lived a boy and his mother. They lived in a small cabin in a small village. They did not own much.”

Damn it, why did Gregory pick a story that he could relate to? It was supposed to be fantasy.

Moon turned the page. “The boy, Jack, and his mother owned a small brown cow. However, they had no more money to care for the cow, so Jack had to go sell the cow to the farmer in the village.” Gregory loved Moon’s voice. His eyes fluttered a bit, still looking at the book.

“Jack brought the cow to the farmer. He traded the cow for three magic beans, or so the farmer claimed.”

Gregory’s eyes shut again. He was still listening, he was just resting his eyes.

“Jack planted the beans in the back of his house,” Moon continued, flipping another page. “He watered them as often as he could. His mother was upset that he traded their only cow for beans, but that did not deter Jack. He believed in the magic in the beans.”

Gregory’s breathing slowed.

“A couple of days after planting the beans, a miracle happened. Jack woke up one morning to find the beans had sprouted into a beanstalk, climbing as high as the sky itself. Jack, the most adventurous boy, climbed it, to see what he could find. He climbed and climbed, reaching the clouds, and finally reached the top of the beanstalk.”

Gregory was asleep. He didn’t see Moon smile softly at him, closing the book, nor did he hear him whisper; “Sleep well, little star.”

He woke up again, this time to noises from other kids. Confused, he looked up. Moon looked back down at the boy. “Hello again, Gregory.”

Embarrassed that he fell asleep on Moon’s lap, he smiled sheepishly up at the animatronic. “Hi. Sorry.”

“No need to apologize,” he said. “Naptime is finished, so I’m glad to see you up again.”

Gregory noticed that a majority of the kids were up, and Red Sweatshirt Boy was staring right at him, eyes flickering between Gregory and Moon. Annoyed, Gregory stuck out his tongue, making the boy look away. If Moon noticed, he didn’t mention it.

Gregory didn’t want to move. He was comfortable in Moon’s lap, but he knew that the animatronic had to do his job, so he reluctantly got off. Moon got up too, ruffling Gregory’s hair before moving towards the still-asleep children.

Gregory stood to the side before starting to organize his sleeping stuff. He could help Moon get everything back in the closet, and it would give him an excuse to hang out with him more. Moon wasn’t shown as often as Sun it seemed, and he wanted to be with him as much as he could.

By the time Gregory had gathered all of his things, Moon had woken up the remaining children and started to pick up the sleeping items. Gregory walked over to help, since he still had some room in his arms.

Just like when they were setting up, it only took one trip to return all of the items. “Thank you, shooting star,” Moon said as they walked back to the group.

“It’s no problem,” Gregory responded. Moon patted his shoulder before walking towards the group of kids who were all still sitting and standing around the middle of the Daycare.

“I am glad you all had a good nap, friends,” the Daycare Attendant said, smiling at the group. “It is now playtime before pick-up.”

Moon gave a little wave, and the lights turned on once again. Sun, now in place of Moon, grinned down at the kids. “Well, we only have a little time left together today, so let’s have some fun!”

The last bit of time they spent was playing dress-up. Sun had brought over a basket full of different items of clothing. The kids decided to play pirate, and even Gregory got into it. He was the lookout, using an empty paper towel roll as his pirate telescope. Sun was the captain, a giant black pirate hat adorned his top spike.

They used one of the play structures as the ship, and a couple of children remained on the floor to play as sea monsters. “Lookout, do you see anything?!” Captain Sun shouted, using a paper plate as the ship’s steering wheel.

“I see some monsters on the bottom of the ship!” Gregory shouted back, looking through his roll at other kids. The kids on the bottom made monster roaring noises, starting to climb the play structure. This was fun.

“We need to shake them off!” Captain Sun declared, looking at his crew. “Any ideas, mateys?!”

“Open fire!” a girl with an eyepatch screamed, aiming an imaginary canon at the sea monsters. More of the crew aimed, and fired at the monsters on the ship.

“Missed me!”

“No I didn’t!”

Children’s laughter filled the Daycare, and the sea monsters were banished back out into the ocean. The pirate ship landed on an island, and everyone got down to dig for treasure. One kid got sent to time-out for throwing a hat at a girl who was looking for somewhere to dig and accidentally bumped into him.

“I found something!” claimed a child in the ballpit. He was holding a bunch of yellow balls.

“What did ye find?” Sun asked in a faux pirate voice.

“Gold!” he replied, throwing the yellow balls out of the pit and onto the floor.

The kids cheered and ran over to the gold, giving each other high fives. Gregory grinned and took one of the balls, happy to at least get some of the gold before it was all gone.

“Good job, friends! We found the treasure!” Sun said, leaning over the group. “Unfortunately, that brings our Daycare time to a close.”

Gregory watched as the kids started to complain. “But Mr. Sunny, we don’t want to leave!” a girl said, looking at the Attendant with big eyes. “Can’t we stay a little longer?”

“I’m sorry, friends, but it’s pick-up time,” Sun apologized, taking his hat off. “Everyone put their costumes and props away, please!”

The kids raced towards the costume basket, Gregory included. It was just a paper towel roll, but it served him well. He placed it in the basket, and turned around to see Sun quickly cleaning up the yellow balls, then throwing them back in the ballpit. The kids then raced off towards the white cubbies to get their stuff. Gregory suddenly remembered that he stored drawings in there, so he ran off as well.

Hoping that they weren’t taken or ripped somehow, he looked in the bottom cubby where he put them. They were safe and sound, so he grabbed the papers and walked back to the center of the Daycare where everyone was packing up their stuff.

Gregory noticed the same employee from the morning enter the Daycare and slide onto a chair behind the security desk. His nose wrinkled. He didn’t like the worker. The boy jumped when he noticed Sun suddenly in front of him.

“Sunshine, I checked you out,” he whispered. “Go hide somewhere so that the employee doesn’t notice you are not leaving.”

Gregory didn’t think the employee would notice anyway, but he nodded. Holding his papers tightly, he ran towards a play house, and easily hid inside of it. A couple of minutes passed, and he heard the sounds of parents and children alike, running around and packing up.

It took a while for everyone to leave, but Gregory didn’t mind. He needed to calm down from the day anyway, it was all so new to him. He had a great time for the most part, except for that one kid. Gregory knew that this was going to be his daily life, but it was finally sinking in that he had a place that he was cared for, and he couldn’t stop smiling about it.

“Gregory?” came a voice. It was Sun.

“Yeah?” he replied, sticking his head out the fake window.

“Everyone is gone, you can come out now!”

Gregory left the little house, papers in hand. “Thanks.”

“Not an issue, sunshine!” the animatronic beamed, pulling Gregory in for a hug. Gregory hugged back, making sure that his drawings weren’t being crumpled. He didn’t want to ruin them after working so hard on them. Sun pulled away from the hug and sat on the ground, motioning for Gregory to do the same “How’d you like the Daycare?”

“I liked it,” Gregory said. “Sometimes it was a bit much, but I had fun.”

“I’m glad to hear that!” Sun replied, his rays spinning. “You don’t have to be down here every day. You can stay in your room if it’s too much for you!”

“I can?” he asked, looking at the animatronic.

“Sure! You can head up there whenever you want. Just use the bathroom’s vents.” Sun nodded.

“Cool,” Gregory smiled. He was happy with that, that he didn’t always have to be in the Daycare. Sometimes those younger kids got on his nerves. “Was I the oldest here?” he asked, the thought coming to him.

Sun nodded again. “Today you were. The Daycare is open to everyone thirteen and under, but we usually get younger kids. Plus, it was an easy day today! The kids were well behaved, for the most part! It’s normally a little more disorderly.”

“Oh. Okay.” He messed with the papers in his hands, nervous, then quickly handed one over to Sun, face down. Just get it over with. Gregory hoped he liked them. “These are for you.”

Surprised, Sun took the paper from Gregory. He flipped the page over, and a little gasp noise escaped from his voice box. It was a drawing of Sun in the ballpit next to Gregory, who was hiding underneath the cloud bridge, just like during hide and seek.

“This is adorable!” Sun screeched, a large smile on his face. “I love it so much! Thank you, sunshine!”

“You’re welcome,” Gregory smiled back, rubbing his hands together. He was nervous that Sun wouldn’t like it, but he was glad that he was completely wrong. “Can you, um, become Moon for this one?”

Sun nodded enthusiastically. His chest compartment opened and he placed his drawing in there, next to the storybook. “I'm so excited! I'm sure it's going to be just as wonderful!” Sun ruffled Gregory’s hair before the lights dimmed, Moon now out.

Gregory shyly handed the naptime animatronic the other paper. Moon took it and looked at the drawing. His eyes widened. It was a drawing of him and Gregory sitting on Gregory’s mattress in the balcony. Moon was singing to him while he slept on a large pillow. “This is wonderful, shooting star. I love it.” He hugged Gregory, the boy leaning into the touch.

“I originally drew you with my box, but I liked this one more,” Gregory stated, voice muffled by Moon’s clothes. “It’s nicer.”

“It is very nice,” the animatronic agreed, pulling away from the hug to look at the boy. “I will keep these safe. I promise.” He held out his pinky, and Gregory eagerly took it with his own.

“Now,” Moon said, opening his chest compartment, placing the drawing next to Sun’s, and taking out the storybook, “I believe we have a fairytale to finish.”

Gregory grinned and went to sit on Moon’s lap, making himself comfortable. Moon went through the book, landing on the page that they left off on.

“As Jack stood up from the beanstalk, a giant palace in the sky overtook his view,” Moon continued the story. “He was in shock. He couldn’t believe such a place existed. It was large and beautiful, and he felt as though he was in a marvelous dream.”

Gregory agreed with Jack. Being with Sun and Moon certainly felt like a marvelous dream, and he never wanted to wake up.