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The grand re-opening of the Superstar Daycare counted as an all-around success.
After a virus in Moon’s code and a following incident had led to its closing for nearly a year, people had treated the daycare with a general distrust, which meant there weren’t too many people excited to have the ‘dangerous’ animatronics watching their children again.
But for the few people who did show up on the first day, everything went smoothly.
Parents and children were greeted at the large front doors by Sun and a human staff member, Sun welcoming the child in while the staff member helped their parent with anything they needed. During the first six months staff members were required to look over the daycare, to make sure the parents felt safe with leaving their children there.
Sun bounced anxiously on their feet as the doors opened for the first day, repeating their list of rules to themself.
Excited, friendly, but not desperate.
Don’t crouch over the kids, kneel next to them.
Don’t wave your arms so much.
Give the kids space.
“Calm down.”
Sun winced as the voice sounded a little louder than normal in their head. “Sorry Moony!”
“You’re making me dizzy with your worrying. We’ve been over all of this before, you don’t need to remind yourself thirty eight times!”
“Sorry. It hasn’t been that many, has it?”
“It has.”
But the two were both distracted as the first of the guests arrived, and Sun rushed over to greet them.
“Heeeeeello, new friend!
The first week went without incident, to Sun and Moon’s utter relief. The two had to put up distrusting remarks from the parents and the occasional question about their past from the kids, but they could handle it. Always assuring the kids that they were safe here, and letting the staff walk the adults through the safety precautions in place with the animatronics. How they were always being monitored, and their codes almost constantly scanned.
The first time a child got hurt they fell hard while running and badly bruised their knee.
“Oh no oh no oh no-” Inwardly, Sun was panicking as they rushed to the crying child. A little girl in a large pink tutu and a purple shirt. “Are you alright, friend?”
The girl just cried, and Sun scooped her up and cradled her in one arm, leaving the other free to hold her leg and inspect her knee. “It’s okay!” They assured her. “We can get this taken care of.”
“I want my mom!” The girl wailed through her tears. Sun winced.
“Your mom will be back soon!” They assured her, carrying her over to a small first-aid station. “For now I can take care of you! Does it hurt anywhere else?”
“Where’s my mom?” The girl cried as Sun crouched down, setting her down on the edge of one of the small tables near the wall. The other kids watched with concern on their faces for their injured friend.
“She wants her mom! I’m not doing this right!” Internally, Sun’s panic continued. “We’re going to get blamed for this and they’ll close this place again and I’ll be all alone again!”
“Sun. Calm down. Plenty of children had gotten hurt like this before the… incident, and nothing came out of that. Kids get hurt while playing sometimes, this was bound to happen. And you’re not alone, I’m here now.”
Sun momentarily didn’t have time to answer Moon as they continued helping the girl. “Hey, what about a plushie?” They asked, holding up a little stuffed Moon. “Look, it’s Moon! You can hold them until it feels better, alright?”
The girl took it, her sobs quieting slightly. Tears still ran down her face.
“Where else does it hurt, friend?” Sun asked again.
She reluctantly held out her skinned hands.
Sun gently held them in their much larger ones, looking them over. “Oh, you’ll need a band-aid for this! What kind would you like?”
The girl calmed down more as Sun showed her the options, and her tears had stopped by the time she chose two, a Moon-themed one and a Roxy-themed one. “It matches!” she exclaimed happily as she held up her Moon plushie.
“It does!” Sun said. “How wonderful! And I know Moon would be happy to know that they helped you feel better!” They peeled the band-aids open, before carefully sticking them to each of her palms. “There! All better?”
The girl wiped away her tears. “All better!”
“How about a snack, and then you can get back to playing!”
“Yay!”
Sun stood as the little girl ran off, rejoining the rest of the kids in their game of tag. “Be careful!” Sun called after them. “We don’t want anyone else to get hurt!”
“But we’re on such thin ice now,” Sun picked up their conversation with Moon once more, keeping a closer eye on the running children.
“Well, look how you handled that!” Moon pointed out. “Just like we used to, tending to her and helping her feel better… she’ll forget all about it by the time her mother comes to pick her up!”
“We’ll still have to tell her what happened.” Sun reminded them.
“Yes, but there’s no way anyone could blame you.” Moon said. “You did exactly what you were supposed to do, and did it better than anyone could.”
“Thanks, Moony.”
“Can’t catch me!”
Moon scowled as the kid they were trying to get to sleep suddenly jumped to his feet, dashing off towards the playscape. With an annoyed grumble they ran after him. “It’s time for bed, naughty boy!”
“But I wanna play!” The kid protested, making it to the playscape before Moon could catch him. They scrambled up one of the tubes.
Moon leapt up on top of the tube, following it up to the top. “Playtime is over, now it’s-”
With a squeal of surprise the kid made it to the top, before turning and sliding back down the tube. Moon dove into the slide after them, but didn’t land quite right. By the time they’d scrambled to their feet, the kid had already dashed further into the playscape.
“It’s time for bed!” Moon called after him, scanning around for where the kid had disappeared to. They heard giggles to their left, and immediately spotted the boy running as fast as his little legs could carry him through the multicolored playscape.
Moon immediately went after him, running on all fours. It was faster that way.
It took two minutes for them to catch the kid, cornering them at a dead end and dropping down from above. “Gotcha!”
The kid fell back with a surprised scream, catching himself with one hand as he scrambled back in surprise.
Moon’s red slightly-glowing eyes widened.
“Oh no no- did I scare you?” They asked immediately, dropping to the ground and taking a hesitant step towards the child. “I didn’t mean to- I didn’t think- I promise I’m okay it’s just time for bed- What else was I supposed to do-”
“Moony, it’s alright. He’s not scared, look, he’s laughing! Just startled. You were doing your job. No one would ever think you were trying to hurt him.”
Moon scooped the child up, carrying him in their arms as they made their way out of the playscape to the other sleeping children. Though they weren’t sleeping now, they’d all sat up and were watching the chase excitedly.
“Back to bed, all of you!” Moon said sternly. They set the boy down on his own mat, tucking him in. “It is time for bed!”
“I wanna get chased too, Mr. Moon!” A kid near them piped up.
Moon was taken aback. “What? You wouldn’t be scared?” They knew they’d frightened many people while corrupted, and were trying their hardest not to do so again.
“Why? It’s like a game of tag!” Said another child.
“Oh oh oh! Can we play tag?” Asked a third.
“No, it’s time for bed!” Moon said, their voice as close to a snap as they could allow. “You can play with Mr. Sun when you all wake up, alright? But now it’s time to rest.”
“But we wanna play with yoooooouuu…” Said the little boy that Moon was tucking in. He looked worn out already from his small chase, his eyes drifting shut. “You’re fun, Mr. Moon.”
“Aww see, they love you!”
“Maybe we can play later.” Moon assured them. “But now, again, it’s time to rest. Would anyone like a song?”
Eight hands shot up. “Me!”
“Oh me!”
“I do!”
“Sing to us, Mr. Moon!”
“Gosh this is going to take ages to clean out- you have to be more careful!” The staff member grumbled, looking over Sun’s stiff hand.
They’d been working with glitter glue while crafting with the kids, and the bottle had broken open and spilled all over the place. It’d gotten stuck in the joints in Sun’s hand, and with the following chaos, Sun hadn’t had a chance to clean it out. Now their joints were stiff with the dried sparkly adhesive.
“We are!” Sun said nervously, shifting their position slightly. It was after hours, and they were sitting cross-legged on a tall stool in the daycare. “We promise! We’re doing everything right!”
The staff member- whose name was ‘Kathleen’ according to her name tag- sighed. “I know. But you should’ve cleaned this out earlier before it was this big of a problem!”
Sun winced. “Sorry. I’ll do better next time.”
They watched quietly as Kathleen scrubbed out their joints, getting a q-tip to reach into the smaller places of Sun’s knuckles. “We aren’t in trouble, are we?” They asked quietly, almost like they were afraid to say it. “They’re not going to be mad at us?”
Kathleen looked up at them. “Of course not! Mistakes happen, even if they are avoidable.”
“Okay, friend.” Sun said, sounding a little more hopeful. “You’ll tell them it was an accident? That it won’t happen again?”
“Sun, I don’t think we have to get higher-ups involved in something as small as your hands getting stuck with glitter glue.”
“Y-you’re sure? They said to report everything… we wouldn’t want to break any rules, especially not when we’re still just working things out!” Sun bounced a little, the bells on their feet jingling.
“It’s fine, Sun.” Kathleen assured him, her brows scrunching in concentration as she focused on her task.
“But-”
“How about we play the quiet game?”
“Ohhhh yes! I love that ga- wait.” Sun broke off, slyness in their voice. “I know that one. Am I being too talkative? Sorry, friend.” The last two words were spoken in a hushed whisper.
“It’s alright.” The staff member said. She reached up and patted their arm, not looking up from their hand. “You’re doing great, Sun.”
Not wanting to annoy her further by talking, Sun decided to talk to Moon as their rays flexed at the praise. “Did you hear that, Moony? Did you? She thinks we’re doing a good job!”
“I already knew you were doing a good job.” Moon told them.
Sun ducked their head slightly, their fans whirring to life. “Thank you.” They said aloud to both of them.
“Alriiiiiight!” Sun sang, walking over to the switch on the wall. “Lights out and it’s time for bed, right?”
“Yes, Mr. Sun!” The kids said in unison, scrambling to claim the sleeping mats they wanted. Thankfully they did so without fighting, two kids had gotten into a heated fight yesterday over the last pink mat.
Sun reached for the switch-
-then hesitated.
There is only one rule…
Keep the lights on. On. On…
Lights on! I warned you!
Moon’s voice cut into their flashbacks. “Sunny, it’s alright, you know I won’t-”
“I can’t do it.” Sun whispered. It was bad when the lights went out. That’s when people got in trouble, when the darkness encased the daycare and Moon roamed free. When Moon hurt people.
“Sun, we’ve been having two nap times a day for the last three weeks, nothing’s going to change now!”
“But the lights have to stay on!” Sun protested. “Bad things happen when they’re off!”
“The virus is gone! You know that!”
“I do, but…” They were panicking, and it was so much worse than their usual stress. Tugging on their rays with shaking hands they looked back at where the kids were settling down, one or two of them sitting up and wondering why the lights hadn’t been turned off yet. “I can’t do it today, Moony! I can’t I can’t I can’t-”
“Is everything alright?” One of the staff members stepped over. “It’s nap time, correct?”
“Y-yes!” Sun exclaimed, trying to pull themself together. “But today we’re having nap time in the Nap Cave!”
The Nap Cave was a new addition to the daycare, it was essentially a large blanket fort put together for the kids to sleep in so they wouldn’t have to turn the lights off. It acted as a precaution against Moon if anything happened again.
The staff member’s eyes narrowed. “There’s nothing wrong with Moon, is there?”
“Oh no no no, Moony’s fine!” Sun exclaimed, hoping their voice wouldn’t betray them. They knew they'd have to explain this to someone sometime, but they couldn't do it right now. “Better than ever! We haven’t used the Nap Cave yet, and I thought it would be fun! Come on, children!”
“But the Nap Cave is only to be used in case of-” Sun tried to ignore the staff member, and thankfully she broke off as they skipped away, over to the kids.
“Sunny, you know I wouldn’t hurt anyone!” Moon protested as Sun helped the kids move their mats into the cave. “You’ve told me so eight times in the past three days!”
“I know, I know, I trust you.” Sun told them as they accepted an armful of pillows from one of the kids. “I just-” their eye twitched. “I can’t have the lights off today.”
Moon gave an eternal sigh. “Alright. But you do trust me?”
“Always.”
A tiny hand, tugging at the bottom of their striped pants. “I don’t wanna go, Mr. Sun! I want to stay with you!”
Sun looked from the child to his parents and back to the kid. Then they knelt down next to the little boy. “But you have to go home!” Sun told him. “You can go home and play more, right now I just have to clean the daycare!” It was closing time, and the last of the parents were coming to pick up their kids.
“But I like cleaning up!” The little boy exclaimed. “It’s fun to clean up!”
Moon snickered. “Your clean-up song has backfired.”
“Hush.” Sun brushed them off and returned their full attention to the child. “I know, but this is more boring cleaning up. And I have to do it for a long time.”
“It could go faster if I helped!” The little boy pointed out.
Sun laughed, patting the kid’s head. “I know. But you won’t like this kind of cleaning, so why do it when you can go home and play? You can come back soon!” Sun knew this particular child visited two times a week. “You’ll be here on Thursday, and then we can play for hours!”
“Hours?!” The boy asked excitedly, his eyes wide. “That’s… a long time! When is Thursday?”
“Two days,” Sun told him.
“Well, that’s not as long as hours!” The kid said, smiling. Sun didn’t bother correcting him. “Okay! I’ll see you then, Mr. Sun!”
Sun stood, and the kid ran over to his parents. “Bye, friend! I’ll see you then!”
“Moooon, they’re loving us!” Sun exclaimed internally to their other half as they happily waved to the departing children. “We’re doing it, we're doing it, we're doing it!”
“I knew we could,” Moon said. Sun detected the happiness in their voice. “This wasn’t so bad, right?”
Sun folded their arms resolutely. “Right. We’ve done it!”
Then they shut up the daycare for the night.