Chapter Text
You did NOT want to be here today, amidst all the bustling throngs of kids yelling and screaming, trying to navigate around all the strollers and unaware toddlers. It was hard enough on a good day, but two days prior, you went swimming, slipped, and sprained your ankle. it wasn't like you could just cancel the trip your baby cousin had been looking forward to for months, so you took some pain meds, stuck a boot on it, and prepared to grin and bear it through her birthday party at Freddy Fazbear's Pizzaplex and Fazcade.
The lights were too bright, your legs were aching, and you were desperate for a place to sit down. The place was huge and wide open, like Dave and Buster's on steroids, and navigation clearly did not favor the injured. You shifted your weight more onto your crutches, precariously balancing your phone against your arm with a map of the Pizzaplex pulled up, along with a marker for where the party was supposed to be held. Beside you, your baby cousin, Natalie ( Nattie for short) was trying with all her strength to pull free of the leash your cousin, best friend, and her mom had wrapped around her hand.
“Nattie, girl, you have to chill. Me and your auntie are tryna find out where we are goin. We can look around at all this *after* cake, ok sweetie?” divine, your cousin, said with an exasperated eye roll. Natalie was a great kid, honestly, but wow could she be a lot sometimes. She merely pouted and only very slightly lessened her pull on her Freddy Fazbear branded backpack.
“so, y/n, you figure out where this daycare is yet?” Yes indeed, you were the auntie in question. Despite not really being a girl, both you and divine felt like it would be easier to call you that, for now. It was a “working up to it” kind of thing. Besides, you weren’t really sure what other word their *could* be, quite frankly.
“uhhh, maybe? It says it's over here on the second floor, but I can't find any elevators.” you click the phone off, and in a feat of true athleticism, manage to get your phone back in your pocket without dropping the crutches again. “if you guys wanna take the stairs, I'll meet you up there?” you gesture over to Natalie, who was only getting more antsy. Divine gives you an ‘are you sure?’ look, obviously referencing your injury, but you shake your head.
“I will be fine, seriously. If y’all are more than ten minutes late they'll give the room to someone else. You know how long she’s been waiting for this.'' Besides, you really needed to sit down somewhere, stat. Your legs were killing you, and you did not feel like having them give out in front of a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds. Divine shrugs, agreeing to meet you at “birthday room 4” in the daycare, and then is promptly dragged off by Natalie, ignoring the very loud protests from her mother. Who could blame her, she does kind of get to meet her favorite person today. Well, bear. Robot? Bear robot? One of those things.
With the pressure to act normal mercifully lessened for now, you hobble over to the closest wall and sink down to the floor, breathing a sigh of relief. You didn’t expect it to be so much, both the walking and the crowds, and you were more than a little overwhelmed. It didn’t help that you were… in between places at the moment, staying with divine and her family. They were great, but you didn’t have a lot of privacy there at the best of times, and with your limited mobility as of late, having a moment to yourself, even if it was in the middle of a crowd, felt great.
Across the hallway was one of those robots Natalie was so excited about, you think...the chicken or duck, whatever it is. She's taking pictures with kids and it's kind of scary how lifelike she is, her movements so fluid you might have thought it was just someone in a costume if you weren’t able to see the gaps in her limbs where her ...inner workings were. Skeleton, maybe. FazEnt had always been pretty famous because of their seemingly hyper advanced technology, especially since it was used in children's entertainment instead of some kind of weapon, but 2 years ago the news hit that they had a “new look” for their beloved mascots, and it feels like people have been buzzing since, even people wholly uninterested in characters made for kids.
You even sort of hopped on the craze when it first happened, or at least got really into watching video essays about it. Chica, whose name you now recall, finishes signing an autograph for a kid and suddenly locks eyes with you. It's a little scary, but she must've seen you beforehand or something. You give a little wave, hoping to seem nonchalant and not like you're in immense pain. Oh god she's coming over here keep smiling-
“Hi there friend! You look a bit troubled, can I help with anything? Do you require medical attention?”
ah. clearly you did not do a good job being nonchalant. She towers over you, and since you're sitting on the ground you have to crane your neck to lock eyes.
“oh, uh nah I'm afraid you're about two days late for that.” you shake one of the crutches. “It's just a sprain, I'm here for my baby cousin's birthday. She's turning 5.”
if a static metal face could be described as “lighting up”, then chica would fit the bill. She screeches in excitement, putting her hands (claws? Talons? What is she) to her face. “That's so exciting! 5 is the *best* age, after Four of course! And three and two and one and, maybe all of them? We *love* birthdays here! Let's see….” her eyes go a little unfocused, like she's thinking about something, and some sort of fan in her head whirs softly. “then she’ll be in the daycare! That's where our under 13’s usually are for parties.” Chica somehow smiles with a beak, then holds a hand out to you. “I can take you there, if you'd like!”
your face floods with red. Accepting help is probably one of your least favorite things, along with “feeling weak” and “being dependent on people.” Unfortunately for you, these were feelings you were forced to get really cozy with in the last couple of months, so after a moment of hesitation, you bite down your instincts, put on your best ‘everything is fine’ smile, and take the help.
“I don’t mean to take you away from your job or anything, I was kinda just catching your breath before looking for some elevators. It's really uhh,,, fine?” and she's already walking away. Guess you’ll follow her?
As she walks (being surprisingly considerate considering there's no way she usually walks as slow as you are right now) she continues her excited ramble about how the Pizzaplex does birthdays.
“At first it was just the daycare attendant who did the 12 and unders, but after, uh- well it just got too popular and they brought us in to pick up the slack! Good thing too, cuz now the kiddos get to pick who they want to show up!”
the way she said that was a little weird, but you don’t think much of it. With chica leading the way, you two managed to get to an elevator much quicker than you would’ve on your own, and she hums as she presses the button. “Of course, there's never a guarantee, and it's always sad when we can’t go to someone's special day because of our other duties, but we try! What did you say the birthday girl's name is?” she's doing it again, the blank staring. You've decided that means she's looking something up, or connecting to the database, or something else equally futuristic. You're leaning against the wall of the elevator, legs hurting only marginally less. You really thought you could get through the day with minimal resting, and it was kicking you in the ass now.
Wait, what did she say? Names? “oh, uh, her names natalie. My cousin I mean.” apparently that was the correct answer because chica does a little ‘bwok!’ (definitely chicken then) as the elevator doors open. “oh, yea! Ok so just follow me then, hehe!”
The two of you continue walking, now down a significantly less crowded hallway with lots of celestial theming, this was apparently the entrance to the “super star daycare”.
“if miss Natalie's your cousin, then you must be y/n, correct? We have you as the second emergency contact.” you almost roll your eyes at that. Divine has always had more faith in your ability to be an adult than you have, but would good would you do in an emergency like this? If you could hazard a guess, Malachai, Divine’s husband, is probably the first contact, and good for it, as he's the most responsible person you think you've ever met.
“uh, yea, yea I am. I think I can find it the rest of the way on my own, but thank you, uh, chica.” you keep spacing out, distracted by the pain in your legs, and besides, having to be led to the party room by one of the mascots? Talk about embarrassing. Besides, the daycare is right there, it would be hard to get lost from this point. Hopefully.
“Happy to help!”
If chica doubts you, she doesn’t show it, and gives you a mock salute before turning off, almost immediately being accosted by a child and their parent wanting a picture.
Ok, you can do this. There's only, what, hundred more steps til the party room? Perfectly doable. Pain is a mindset, you've got this. You begin your pretty artfully perfected walk-shuffle, ignoring the voices in your head telling you to be self conscious, that people are staring at you, that this was a horrible idea, up until you pull open the doors for the daycare and see the sign down the walkway for “coleman 5 bday” and throw caution out the wind, hobbling down there with the speed of something….not that fast. But determined! And isn't it worth it when you get to the doorway and Natalie, now off her leash, screeches and runs over to you, clearly forgetting divines lecture earlier about ‘being gentle to auntie y/n”.
“y/n!!! where'd you go? We got pizza and feddys gonna be here REAL soon mama said!”
you smile despite the child trying to climb up you. “That's great! Are you having fun with your friends?” you manage to get her back on the ground and look around the room. More kids than you thought, but as your surveying the area you notice some kids from the next over room running in and out. Ah, kids. You wish you could make friends that easily.
“It's great do you wanna see my new friend Austin, he's turning 5 too!” before you can say anything, she runs off to the room next door. You give a wave to divine, then hop on after her.
Whereas Natalie's party was plastered in the main bear freddy Fazbears face, mostly using decorations that came from the store at the front of the pizzaplex, this one seemed way more lowkey. For one, the lights were dimmed, and small star shaped string lights were hung around the room. There were lots of celestial themed décor, actually, specifically a lot of blue, moons, and stars. On the cake in the center of the main table was what looked like a plastic figure of some sort of clown animatronic they have here, you're pretty sure that it's the daycare attendant, but could've sworn it looked ...different, on the pictures you saw.
Natalie had promptly forgotten she drug you in here and was preoccupied playing some sort of restaurant game with a few other kids, so you took that as a blessed opportunity to sit down. Normally you'd be worried about Nattie getting herself into trouble, but there were about ten adults milling about and you were exhausted.
You were pushing yourself too hard, and you knew it. Even before getting injured, the last year almost, it seemed like every bad thing that could happen had. When Divine offered to let you stay with her at the beginning of the year, you were determined not to be a drain on them, that it was temporary, just until you could get back on your feet. Keeping the house clean, along with working as much as possible seemed a given, but it's been months by now, and you aren't anywhere closer to stability. Now you were forced to miss work because of a stupid mistake, and everything just seemed too much.
You keep telling yourself to just get through this party, but then what? You cannot see any future at all for yourself like this, pushing a rock up a hill just to see it roll back down again. Suddenly everything seemed so far away and distant, the kids running around you muffled, you could barely feel the chair you were sitting on. You vaguely noticed yourself breathing heavily, but for the life of you could not remember what to do about it. You had to...get out of here. Just for a moment.
Powered by pure panic, you pull yourself up on your crutches and head...anywhere. Somewhere quiet maybe, you just need to move. You are vaguely aware of someone calling your name as you leave, but apparently it wasn't that urgent because no one follows you. Past the kids, and the noise, aimlessly wandering for...maybe a bathroom? After making it down stairs, you are forced to stop, opening the first door you see and closing it behind you, falling to the ground almost immediately in a mix of pain both physical and mental. Tears well up in your eyes, and you feel like screaming.
“why can't I do anything! I just want….” what do you want, exactly. You falter, still struggling to breathe and hyper aware of how loud you are. “I don’t want to hurt! I want to actually make enough money and I want to be *good* at *something*, for once.” you've felt so bad for so long, but you still don’t know what to do about it. How do you keep going when you never feel like your making progress?
“oh, you've got to be good at something.”
you shriek and immediately look around for the source of the voice, face heating up as you realize someone just heard your whole little freakout.
“Can you wiggle your toes? That's something to be good at. Or how about crossing your tongue? There's so many things, it would just be silly to be bad at all of them.”
The voice is close behind you now, and you whip around to see two red pricks of light face to face with you. An animatronic then? Oh god you are in a dark room with a hyper realistic robot-
just as you were about to pull yourself up and apologize, attempt to leave, it continues.
“These tunnels are not safe for customers, no no,,,,but, hmmm, you seem in pretty bad shape, how'd you make it down here, starlight?” the lights rotate, and you realize that the animatronic was on the ceiling, which somehow makes it less scary, more a little silly.
“uhm, I could ask the same thing. Were you just….hanging on the ceiling? In the dark?”
“oh, well excuse me, I don’t think I have to explain myself to a rule breaker.” they don’t sound too upset, however, almost like they are….excited? Interested? “this happens to lead to my recharge station. I was heading from there to a birthday party.” your furrow your brow. Was this one of the mascot animatronics? It can't be Freddy, you remember him having a...distinct, almost paternal voice. This..thing sounds musical, almost like its whispering. You pull your phone out and use the phone's light to see what you're dealing with.
“oh! Your the clown, the nighttime themed party!” you say almost surprised. It's so...on the nose. He looks like some kind of clown, with a comical moon shaped face and jingly star bits on his ankle joints and wrists. His head spins around, and he does an overdramatic bow. “That's right! The daycare attendant, and you are…” he goes slack for a moment, and you realize he was doing the same thing chica did when he says “ah yes, the party next to mine. Hello there, y/n...” and sure his face is plastic, but you could swear he was grinning more *mischievously* than usual.
your face scrunches up, forgetting to hold yourself back. “Do you know how weird that is? Do you all know everyones name?” you can feel tears drying on your face, but that overwhelmed feeling has subsided enough now that you kind of just feel drained. And intrigued, if you're honest with yourself. Everything has felt kind of dull for a while, and here was this...thing, all silly and new. You wanted to keep listening to him.
He shrugs. “is that so strange? Everyone in this building is a guest, and we particularly like to keep an eye on the ones in our area. Don’t want any naughty souls getting themselves in troublee…..” you realize he's talking about you, and you shake your head, preparing to stand up. “no no, I wasn't trying to sneak off somewhere, I just….” you pause, and his eyes are trained on you, like you're the only important thing right now. “needed a second. It's been a rough uh.. year. Hah. I think all the crowds and noise just pushed me over the edge.” you push yourself to your feet, leaning against your crutches. “I need to get back to the party anyway.”
he doesn’t say anything, so you turn to go, opening the door when he very quietly whispers “follow me.” and disappears into the blackness of the maintenance hall the two of you were standing in.
“hey, wait, where are you-” it's a struggle to keep up, you can hardly see anything, just faint pin pricks of red in the distance as he turns to watch you. The hallway-or hallways- are twisting, confusing and dark, and it makes you wonder just what kind of place the pizzaplex is that it needs something like this. It feels erie, liminal. But it's not long before you catch up with the daycare attendant, it's stopped in front of an overly decorated wooden door, unlike all the other employee or staff doors you've seen, and standing out in the brutalist metal hallways.
The daycare attendant opens the door, and the darkness is only lessened somewhat, there being small fairy lights winding up a set of stairs on the other side. You can't tell how far up it goes, or anything really, and only now is the absurdity of the situation hitting you.
“uhm, this has been great, but I cant get up those. I don’t even know where we’re going?” or why you followed them, besides an intense curiosity and need to get away from the party for just a little longer. You take a step back. This had been...interesting, but-
probably the weirdest noise you've ever heard comes from the animatronics voice box. You could almost say it was a laugh, if laughing sounded deliberate, and slow, and lacking all humor whatsoever. “give me your hand.'' His eyes are white dots now, and it's almost like he's trying to be a little less intimidating. That's your hope, at least.
“….why?”
“I have a quiet place. You can take a break. Rest.”
Despite how weird of a turn the afternoon has taken, you still don’t feel too unnerved by this machine's humanity. It seems like he’s trying to make you feel better, and you *could* use a break. Plus, you've already followed him down this weird dark hallway, why not go farther? You hesitantly hold out your hand, and before you can really process what's happening, you are swooped up and basically flown to the top of the stairs and then some, to yet another dimly lit room absolutely covered in ...stuff.
He sets you down on top of a broken racing arcade game chair, and disappears down the stairs. You, on the other hand, are looking around the room-what must be the daycare attendants room, though you didn’t think they even *had* a room, much less a secret one. There are more fairy lights on the walls, tons of plushies, pillows, toys scattered about in seemingly random fashion, and two large nightlights in the corner, one in the shape of a crescent moon, the other a stylized sun. The moon is the one that's currently on, providing more light than anything else in the last, oh twenty minutes of darkness.
It's kind of cozy. The far left side is covered up by a curtain, the stage kind, and the walls are covered in all sorts of fun shapes, clouds, circles, diamonds. The daycare attendant comes back up a moment later, holding your crutches. He seems almost hesitant, standing a few feet back from you, bouncing back and forth on his slippers where before he was always so still, like, well, a robot.
“where are we?”
“our room.” They begin gathering up various pillows and blankets scattered around the room, stacking them in a pile and muttering to himself.
“messy messy….ngh….no good..”
“your room? What, like for sleeping?” you watch as he starts constructing a fort, stringing up some blankets from a hook on the ceiling, precariously balancing things on stools. It seems like the daycare attendant is ignoring you, and you wave your hand to get its attention, shifting on the chair.
“hey. Hey, uh...daycare attendant? Are you ok? What are we doing here?” It finished building, the final construction looking surprisingly sturdy for something made of blankets. It turns to you, pausing its nervous bouncing.
“moon. Daycare attendant is my job. I am the moon.” he gestures over to you, beckoning you to get into the fort. Let's take a second to remember how surreal this whole thing is. it feels like some sort of dream, and you still don’t feel like waking up yet. Slowly, you take his hand and he helps you down.
“relax, rest.” he sits down as well, limbs tangled into a pretzel. You do your best to get comfortable, which is hard because the boot keeps getting caught on the softness around you. You keep trying, but the thick layers make for good snags on the boots' scratchy velcro. It's getting frustrating, and you groan.
“I'm sorry, I just can't seem to get this stupid thing, I've been trying all day to just, ugh, be normal and I'll trip, or stumble, and I have to just-ugh!” you flop back into the cushions behind you, making a weird incoherent mess of sounds that cause moon to make his own weird little laugh.
You look over at him. “what are you giggling at? This isn't fun, y’know!” moon shakes his head.
“It's hard, but you will get better. You need to rest.” this causes a frustrated growl to work its way out of your throat, he's not even listening! “*everything* has been hard, for so long, how can you say that? How could you see anything good coming my way when I can't, and its *my* life! You think *this* is all I have to deal with? Of course not, I'm not a baby. My dad died and left me with all of his problems. Now I have to live with my cousin and take care of the baby, and even though I'm working all the time it's not enough! I know I'm being a burden on them but bad shit is just always happening, I feel like I can't win.” you take a breath, realizing you had just been yelling, at a stranger no less. In its home! You open your mouth to apologize when moon ran a finger down the bridge of your nose, like you would do to a child to help it get to sleep.
“shhh, shhh...you've been working too hard, take a break. Sleep, rest. How are you supposed to heal this,” he taps your leg, “or this,” he taps your forehead, “without any energy?”
you bat his hand away. “I can't afford to rest right now, there's so much to do.”
“Have you asked for help?”
“who would I ask! Everyone I know is dealing with their own shit, divine has a kid!” you know you're grasping at straws now, but really, what are you supposed to do? You were always the one who handled things well, it doesn’t make sense that you just can't, after all this. Moon's eyes have turned back to red, and you might be worried you've pissed off the first person (robot) you've talked about this to, except he just. Wraps his arms around you.
“it is my opinion you need to talk to this divine. But not now. Now you rest.” hes released you, and now gone back to that weird soothing motion.
For some reason, it seems to be helping. Why is that? Why are you listening to a...fucking chucky cheese rip off more than your own family! You know that he's right though. You just don’t have the energy to be pissed about it right now. You let out another sigh, then give in, closing your eyes and leaning against him. He doesn’t seem to mind, and in fact adjusts himself to better hold you. His body is cold and metal, but it doesn’t bother you. It feels...nice. You can't remember the last time you've been held like that. Everything feels so quiet, your mind finally getting a chance to rest. The motor in Moon’s chest is kind of like the air conditioner in your room, and before you realize it, you've fallen asleep.
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“hello? Now what are you doing here!”
you're pulled from sleep by a loud, bright yellow shape. Lots of them, actually, since the room is no longer dark. Your head is groggy, and it takes you a second to realize where you are, how you got there. The yellow shape continues talking to you, and you rub the sleep out of your eyes to find that its….moons brother? He looks like if Moon was themed for daytime instead.
“uh. Where did moon go.”
the yellow shape doesn’t stop moving, the rays on its head twist around and its hands fidget and jingle. “oh, well that sure is a silly one! Moons not around right now, we had a job to do!” he crouches in front of you, hands on his knees like hes talking to a child. “im sunny! The daycare attendant! Now, mx. y/n, how about we get you back to miss natalie? I’m sure she missed you very much!”
panic. You completely, somehow, forgot about the party. You throw yourself upright before also remembering your leg injury, and almost fall back down. Luckily, Sunny catches you, already holding your crutches. “oops! Don’t want to get hurt! You gotta be careful, how else will you heal?” he tsks, helping you back up and handing your crutches to you.
“oh goddd, how long was I asleep? Did I miss her party?” your eyes widen in fear. “Did they leave??!!” All this happening while sunny gently helps you down the stairs.
“you were out for 2 hours and 7 minutes! But not to worry, no no, we had a little chat with Mrs divine! Everything is a-ok! She said you deserve a break, and I’d have to agree with her! You were very cute sleeping in our fort, but I have to say, you look much cuter well rested!” he pats your head as the both of you reach the bottom of the stairs, beginning the trek back to the door you originally came in. you feel a little foolish for just falling asleep like that, but sunny’s right, you do feel a lot...better. Like you actually could handle working through all the horrible shit life has been throwing at you lately. You don’t have anything to say to him, still a bit tired and disoriented, so the walk back is quiet. The lights are on in the hallways now, and they just look bare as opposed to gloomy and threatening.
“Uhm, when you see Moon, can you tell him thank you? You too, I think...I needed this.” your face is burning, and sunny’s rays do a little twist as he opens the door for you.
“Of course! And Moon says he was glad to help!” he winks (you weren’t aware he had eyelids, so that was a bit unnerving) and you hobble out of the hallways and back into the real world.
You don’t look behind you, but if you did, you'd see sunny waving.
Once you make it back up to the party room, Natalie wastes no time in climbing up you, asking where you went and telling you all the cool things you missed. You're more relieved than you thought at how not upset she seems, you didn’t ruin anything after all. All the party decorations have been put up, Natalie’s presents sitting in a neat pile next to the door. Divine walks over to you after you detach her daughter from your arms, and she doesn't seem upset either.
“Hey baby, how you been? The party was a hit, so don’t worry about that.” you frown, the two of you hugging.
“Divine, seriously i'm so sorry, i've been so tired lately but this was super important to natty, im gonna do better, I promise.”
divine rolls her eyes. “are you kidding me? You watch natty all the time, you've never missed helping out, and I KNOW you aint doing ok after that shit with your dad, plus that yellow animatronic told me what happened. Promise we don’t hold it against you, but you gotttta fuckin take a break, ok? You think we don’t love you?” she bumps her shoulder against yours, and you thought you couldn’t feel dumber.
Another sigh.the idea of divine knowing how hard you were struggling when you didn’t is kind of sad, but to hear her say that she's got you,that you don’t have to try so hard all the time, that you can rest. A tear slips down your face, and you wipe it away before anyone can notice.
“thanks, divine. I love you.” you wish you could articulate the gratefulness you feel for her being there, though she seems to get it anyway.
“No problem, anytime.” She then notices Natalie trying to run off with one of her presents. “oh shit, I gotta deal with this. You just sit down, we’re waiting for malachai to get here so we can load up the van. Natty get back here!”
sitting down is still kind of a problem. Eventually you get set up however, and finally get time to think about what you're going to do next. Moon was right, you think, it will be ok. Your leg will heal, and your family will help you. The fact that the daycare attendant helped you in the first place is still curious to you, though. It felt like he knew more about you than he let on, and who was sunny? It almost makes you want to come back, see if they will talk to you again.