Chapter Text
“A large comes with three shots, ma’am. How many extra would you like?” I knew the answer already, based on the exhausted expression she wore and the pair of toddlers hanging off her belt and chattering up at her. Still, I wanted her to feel like she had agency here.
“How many can you fit in a cup?”
I smiled politely. “Seven, with nothing else inside.”
“Perfect.” She handed me a twenty and walked off without waiting for change. Poor woman , I thought, and was tempted to buy her a daycare pass out of pity. The FazPad was frequented by many such parents, located conveniently in the lobby outside the main ‘plex areas. That way, tired parents could dump their children and find solace in a cup of overpriced caffeine. My job? To give them what they needed.
I was also the only one who worked here.
Because coffee-biz is an already stressful job, and Fazbear attracted particularly stressful customers, I was the only person management could keep on staff for any amount of time here. I did everything; without me, there was no FazPad, and without the Pad, no coffee for anyone - including management. So, I was unfireable barring legal felonies.
My employer-assigned fazwatch beeped. The screen read ‘AMBER: P+S’. Huh. I almost never went anywhere past the lobby, and I’d certainly never been to Parts and Service. I glanced around and, finding no customers to attend to, opened up the message.
‘Hey, you’re the barista right? I need a large americano with an extra shot + vanilla. Soon as you’re off you shift. I’ll pay you back.’
“Oh, that’s what it is,” I said aloud to myself, glancing at the clock. Half an hour until close. Well, even if I didn’t get my money back, I wouldn’t mind helping out an exhausted engineer.
# #
I’d had to look at two separate maps to find parts and service, but I managed it, somehow. The pizzaplex was very confusing to get around in. I frowned down the long hallway, the lights fizzling in a way a corporation as big as Fazbear Entertainment had no excuse to allow. Ahem. I took a few steps forward.
“Oh, fuck off, you hunk of metal. You and I both know this needs to be done. You’re making it more difficult than it has to be!” The woman’s voice echoed down the hall from the only lit room, and I paused. She groaned in frustration. “Oh for- I need to patch bugs for your own good. You wanna go on the fritz while onstage? Huh?”
The answer back was a low growl, deep and rumbling, and a bolt of adrenaline shot through me. I continued forward dutifully, determined to deliver much-needed caffeine to its rightful owner. But I did so with trembling steps.
Right as I reached the door, the growling was replaced with a deep drawl coming from an animatronic’s voice box. “Maybe try bein’ gentler with the cables, huh?” I flushed, now aware that there were two in the room I was headed. Taking a deep breath, I steeled myself, though I couldn’t get rid of the pink in my cheeks.
I pushed the door open with my hip, holding two cups. “Coffee delivery!” I chirped in my best customer service voice.
“Oh thank god.” The woman slumped against the wall where she was seated on the floor in a position that could not have been good for her back. She reached out with grabby-hands. “Gimme. I’m running on two hours of sleep and dealing with an oversized toddler, here.”
“Oy!” Said toddler was none other than Montgomery Gator, the bassist of the Fazbear band. He was strapped to a large metal chair at his hands and feet, and his chest plate was removed, replaced by thick wires hooked up to his insides. He looked unamused at the entire situation, and with a pang of empathy I understood; it was like going to the dentist, if they strapped you in every time. “I’m not a fuckin’ kid!” He tilted his head to look my way, and he might’ve been glaring, but I couldn’t tell through the shades. “Who are ya, anyway, pipsqueak?”
I flushed again, smiling nervously as I set down both cups for Amber- there was her name tag! “I work up at the FazPad,” I said, nodding when Amber pointed at both drinks in delight. To her- “Someone didn’t claim an order.” To Monty again- “it’s in the lobby, so I’m never really back here.”
“Well, you came in clutch today!” Amber took a swig of the americano. “How much do I owe ya?”
“Don’t worry about it. I do all the inventory for the shop, and Fazbear Entertain won’t miss the espresso shots that much.” I looked over at Monty, smiling again. “Uh. Don’t tell management?”
He stared at me for a beat, then shrugged. “Hey, I don’t give a shit.”
“You swear a lot for a children’s entertainer.” I scooted further into the room, trying to get a good look at him. He was much bigger than I’d imagined, at least a foot taller than me, though he was sitting so it was hard to tell exactly. From here, his teeth looked sharp.
“His censor protocols only activate around kids. Neither of us is that, so,” Amber glared at Monty, a look he returned, “he can swear at me all he wants.”
“Fuck you.”
“Fuck off!”
I hummed, the nervous flutter in my chest starting to abide. If Amber was comfortable enough to cuss him out, he couldn’t be an actual danger. Amber stuck her tongue out in a juvenile display of annoyance, and went back to the laptop in front of her. Monty turned back to me. I smiled again . It’s a habit picked up from customer-facing service jobs. “Well, I’ll be on my way, you two. Try not to eat one another.” I waved at Monty, then at Amber, who nodded without looking up from the screen. “Uhm, bye.”
“See ya,” Monty intoned, and I flushed again, exiting to make my escape back to my car.
# #
Funny thing about social anxiety is that it doesn’t count for customers, but it does count for animatronics. Without a script to follow and an easy out from a conversation, I struggle to think of how to talk in a way that doesn’t seem awkward. So I just avoid it, like how I’d been dodging around Chica’s roamings in the lobby for several months now. I’d gotten good at it too. Lots of practice, opening every day at 6am for weeks at a time.
There was still half an hour before open when I ducked down into the nearby staff tunnels with the mission of retrieving backup cups for the morning. My footsteps echoed off the dank walls, everything dimly lit and almost ominous on purpose. I frowned at the damp spots on the floors, right next to my supply boxes; there was no way this wasn’t a health hazard. Still, the Pad wasn’t built with any storage in mind, so I had no better place to put stuff. Creepy dark tunnel it was.
There was a crash from further down and I yelped, jumping behind stacks of boxes. Peering back out, I watched as Montgomery Gatory fussed in annoyance with a chain put across a chain-link gate, pulling at it until the chain snapped. The fluttering feeling was back, and as he grumpily stalked my direction, I tried to remind myself of the day before when Amber had been scolding him like an ornery toddler. He can’t be too dangerous can he? He was built to entertain kids, so even if he was big, and strong, with sharp teeth and claws… he wouldn’t injure anyone on purpose.
I was frozen in place. All I could do was watch the steady back-and-forth swishing of the giant alligator robot tail as he stomped towards me, my legs jello as the floor rattled.
Now at his full height - still slouching, but standing - Monty was nearly two feet taller than me. For a blissful second I thought he was going to miss me as he walked by the stack of coffee bean boxes I was hiding behind, his glare straight ahead. But right as I was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he glanced sideways, and met my wide-eyed gaze.
Neither of us seemed to know how to react. We sat there, staring at each other, for an impressive amount of time. The fluttering in my stomach was replaced by the pit of anxious awkwardness.
“Do you come here often?” I blurted, and felt my face flush at my pitiful attempt to break the tension. “I’ve never seen you down this way. I have to come down all the time, you know, for the supplies for the FazPad. Which is where I work. Out in the lobby, you know?” Oh, god. This is why I stuck to corporate interactions.
Monty just stared at me for another pause, then shook his head in bewilderment. “Yer kinda weird, huh?”
I felt my entire face heat up in despair, down my neck and up to the tips of my ears. “Sorry! Sorry. You startled me. I’ll just be-” I snatched up a box from the top of the stack. “-going. Have a nice day, Mr. Gator.” I scurried off as soon as I turned, feeling as if a rug had been pulled from underneath me.
It wasn’t until I was back at the safety of the Pad that I realized the latest in a string of blunders. I’d grabbed the box of coffee beans instead of cups - the whole thing I’d gone down for in the first person. “Life is playing games with me,” I bemoaned, sliding down against the bar. “Oh, woe is me.”
# #
I skated by the rush with only a few sleeves left, but it was a Tuesday, so it was slow. Trip number two to the tunnels was uninterrupted as well, so by noon when I had to close I was in a much better mood. My foolishness from the morning nearly forgotten, I was almost pleased when Amber messaged me again, asking for the same drink as yesterday. I responded with a smiley face ‘:)’ and once the Pad was closed, I trotted towards Parts, eager to chat with someone who wasn’t paying to be here.
This time it was just Amber, and she waved when I poked my head through the doorway. “Hey, barista. You’re quick.”
“Tuesdays are slow.” I handed over the coffee and began looking around in interest. The space was littered with discarded endo limbs and a spiraling mess of cords, all of which were tripping hazards. “So, do you always have to rig the animatronics up to work on them?”
Amber looked up and squinted at me, before shrugging. “Yeah, I guess you wouldn’t know, huh? Giving them bluetooth or internet access or whatever would leave them super vulnerable to, y’know, viruses and stuff. The computers we use-” she held up the laptop she was working on- “are proprietary too. It's all contained within the building.”
“Jeez. I knew they were fancy robots, but…”
“Yeah, those glamrocks are something else, huh?” Amber snorted. “Like making a mess of themselves, too.”
I picked up a random tool on a workbench, turning it over in my hands. “Yeah? They seem really lifelike.” It looked to be made to… pry something out of something else?
“That’s on purpose. The AI in the animatronics is state-of-the-art. I don’t know any more than that, though.” Pausing, Amber looked up into space, contemplative. “I only really know how to check for anomalies in the system, none of the fancy coding stuff. That, and fixing staff bots. They don’t let a lot of people work with the star performers.”
“Huh. I guess that makes sense.” I put the tool back down. My good mood from earlier had run out, and I wanted to go back home. “Thanks for answering my question.”
“What? Oh, uh, welcome.” Amber shrugged again. “Would you mind keeping up the coffee runs every day after your shift? I’m not allowed to leave Parts until I clock out.”
“Oh!” I was chuffed that she didn’t mind having me around, at least enough to invite me back. Regularly! “Sure, I don’t mind.”
“Coolio. See you around, barista.”
I was too busy enjoying the glow of a positive social interaction to watch where I was going as I started back down the hall of parts and service. I was (sort of) making a friend! Sure, you don’t need to make friends with your coworkers, but having someone I get along with made work tolerable. Plus-
With a thud I ran right into something solid and metallic. Stumbling back, I struggled to get upright, my ears ringing as I tried to get the view back into focus. “Hey, watch where you’re going, coffee person.”
In dismay, I looked up at Monty once again. He scowled down at me, his lips drawn back in a very convincing snarl. “Sorry! I’m sorry!” My face was hot all over again, and I attempted to duck around his large frame to get past. Instead, I was met with a large, clawed hand grabbing my arm.
“Hey, what’s the deal, huh?” Monty growled, and a jolt of fear shot down my spine. “Been seein’ you a lot all of a sudden.” His teeth flashed in the flickering lights of the empty hallway, and I was close enough to him to hear his fans whirring. “Been following me or somethin’?”
The noise that came out of me was little more than a squeak. “No I- I don’t know why that is!” My chest felt wound up like a spring, and my eyes began to tear up in terror, bubbling out onto my cheeks uncontrollably. “I never leave the Pad, I swear, I don’t usually come back here!”
Monty’s eyes widened, and he let go of my arm. “Shit,” he mumbled. “Fuck. Uh-“
I ducked under his arm and ran, rattling in my own frame from the adrenaline. It wasn’t until the car that I could collapse, curling up in the driver's seat to let myself have a good sob.
# #
I contemplated calling out sick the next day, but I didn’t feel like dealing with passive-aggressive managers, as much as I didn’t feel like going back into the pizzaplex. A sense of nervous dread wrapped around my spine as I walked through the opening security doors. There was nothing inside out of the usual, but I kept my head on a swivel, ready to bolt at the first sign of animatronic footsteps.
In spite of my paranoia I made it to the Pad without incident, heaving a sigh as I slumped across the bar. My nerves were tightrope-taut and my legs were already starting to hurt from how tense I was holding myself. I needed to relax. Also, open up the coffee shop before any of the other staff started showing up. I was halfway through setting up the espresso machines when the ground began to shake in that distinctive, “there's an animatronic coming towards you” way it does. I froze, turning slowly so that my back was to the wall, watching the steps with nervous apprehension.
“Hello!” It was Chica, popping around the corner in cheerleader-delight. My legs crumbled underneath me as I took a shaking breath, my cheeks heating up at my own irrationality. I had never seen Monty outside of the Pizzaplex proper, and based on the reason he got mad at me in the first place yesterday, there was no reason he’d show up today of all days. Chica hopped noisily over to the bar, grinning down at me. “Hey, gurl! You doing okay over here?”
I smiled back up at her sheepishly. “Oh, I’m alright. On edge. You scared me. Oh, but-” I bounced back up, alert now that I wasn’t in danger. “-not your fault, you didn’t do anything, I’m scared of someone else right now.” I brushed off my uniform, glad I hadn’t put on an apron yet. “Nice to see you this morning, Chica. You’re normally elsewhere, can I do something for you?”
“Oh, no, I was just worried, cuz like, you seemed suuuuuper on-edge this morning. I mean, you’re usually kinda timid looking anyway, but today you were jumping at shadows! No offense.”
“It’s okay.” I turned back to finish checking over the last espresso machine. “You’re right, though. I guess I was sort of hiding this morning. Not that I needed to,” I added with an eye roll. “I’m just being paranoid.”
Chica easily vaulted the bar, it coming only up to her mid-thighs anyway, and watched me pull test shots with interest. “Did something spooky happen here? Ooooh, like a ghost? No, wait, you said someone.” I flinched at my own wording flub. “Having issues with a coworker, then?”
“Kind… of?” Did Monty count as a coworker? We both technically worked here, but it’s not like he was staff, or even got paid. Huh. That seems… wrong.
Leaning in close with a conspiratory giggle, Chica prodded, “Oooh, tell me! I love hearing the drama you guys all get into.”
I snorted. “Are people telling you their personal issues regularly? That has to be against policy.”
“I’m good at keeping secrets!” Chica’s voice box was good, however it worked. It was like I was back in highschool, talking to a girl in my Math class. “Besides, management is so uber lame. They don’t let us do anything fun.”
I couldn’t argue there. I hummed, debating on whether Chica would enjoy gossip if it was about a bandmate. “I’ll give you a hint. It’s not with a human staff member.”
Her eyes widened comically, and her voice dropped to an impressively quiet whisper. “Ohmigosh. It’s Monty isn’t it?” She sounded both distraught and resigned.
“Yeah.” I felt bad, and I smiled back at her, trying to be casual. “Don’t worry, I don’t want him to get in trouble or anything, so I won’t report him. But he did… scare me pretty bad, yesterday.” I shivered at the memory of his iron grip around my arm.
Chica popped back up with an annoyed huff. “Ugh. He is such a pain. Can’t he go a day without picking stupid fights?” She rolled her eyes, and I marveled at how her metal face accommodated such a vibrant expression. “Seriously, why is he even picking a fight with you? You like, never go anywhere. No offense.”
“It’s okay. Well, what basically happened was- actually, do you know Amber?”
“From Parts? Yeah, she does all the software testing.”
“Well, she messaged me two days ago to ask for coffee, so I brought her some.” Chica opened her beak in exaggerated surprise, and I laughed. “Yes, I was briefly inside the Pizzaplex proper. Anyway, she was working on Monty at the time, so I said hi, because it felt rude to just ignore him , yknow?” I could feel myself rambling, so I paused to start making myself a latte. “Then yesterday morning I ran into him in the tunnels and made myself look like an idiot. And again that afternoon I ran into him while taking Amber her coffee, again, and he got kind of - upset? I don’t know. He accused me of following him. Boy, he can get scary, huh?” I giggled nervously. “Oof. Sorry, word vomit.”
“You’re fine, babe.” Chica stood back at her full height, snapping her hands to her hips, looking marvelously cheerleader-like. “I’ll talk to him. Sounds like he’s being extra dumb, and I’m not letting him bully my favorite barista!”
“I’m the only barista here,” I reminded her. “Plus, you’ve never even talked to me before now.”
“I didn’t want to, you know, scare you off! But I assure you, you are essential to the early-morning vibes of the lobby.”
I couldn’t help but smile at that. “Well, glad to be of service.”
After the chat with Chica, I felt much better, and was able to relax (as much as you can, while working). Even still, I felt a pang of apprehension when Amber messaged me her coffee order, but I was determined to power through. And Chica had said she’d talk to Monty, so hopefully I’d be left alone now.
Amber was swamped this time- apparently a whole bunch of staff bots had gone haywire in the basement from a leaky pipe- so we didn’t get to chat, but it was still nice to pop around and see the building. I was just exiting the staff tunnels when the ground began to rumble impressively hard. I tensed up, crouching down in preparation to sprint as I peaked around the corner-
-and smacked my face right into Monty’s chest plate.
He gave a surprised yelp, and I muttered a muffled “Fuck!” as I stumbled back, my head ringing. Slipping back towards the stairs, unable to find my footing, I began to panic. Instead of hitting my head, however, I was scooped up by a pair of large arms. In the rush of adrenaline I threw my arms up, curling them around Monty’s neck in an effort to find myself some stability.
“Oy- hey!” Monty sputtered, floundering back away from the stairs. His glasses had been jostled askew by my scrambling. “What do ya think yer doin’?”
“Sorry!” Overcorrecting, I pushed back, but I pushed too hard and started falling again. “Shit! I’m sorry!”
Monty leaned over to compensate, and there was a brief moment of relief as my feet hit the floor. It was washed away as soon as I looked up, staring right up the snout of Montgomery Gator, whose arms were still wrapped around me. I flushed, my cheeks burning hard. “Oh my god, I’m so-”
“What’s with you an’ apologizing?” Monty interrupted, leaning down so his snout almost bumped my nose. “I come up here to apologize cuz Chica makes a whole fuss, then you beat me to it. You did the same thing yesterday.”
“Oh. I- huh.” I blinked up at him in bewilderment, frozen in both fear and shock. “I don’t know. I feel bad.”
“Well, knock it off. Yer makin’ me feel worse.” Finally Monty leaned back, bringing his arms with him, and I let off a shaky breath I’d been holding. “I’m apologizing for scaring you yesterday. Didn’t realize you’d spook so bad.”
Now I frowned, in spite of the rattle in my bones. “It kind of seems like you’re insulting me at the same time.”
“‘S not my fault yer such a nervous thing,” Monty huffed back. “If ya hadn’t ran off so quickly I would’ve told ya I was joking.”
“Not a very funny joke, though, was it?” The tension of fear was waning, and was being replaced with bewildered annoyance. Chica had said he was a pain, but she hadn’t mentioned what an ass he was. “Do you talk like this to everyone who works here?”
Monty paused, then grinned, all sharp teeth. “Only the ones I like.”
“Sure.” Prick. His glasses were still askew, and it looked a little silly. I waved him down. “Hey, commere.”
The grin slipped back off Monty’s face as he looked down at me quizzically. “Huh.”
“Lean down again. I can’t reach your face from here.”
“My face?” He began leaning down. “What about my-”
As soon as he was within reaching distance, I plucked the glasses from his face and put them back on, this time correctly. “There. Your glasses were off-kilter.” I took a step back, frowning up at him. “Call us even, then. Just don’t scare me like that again, I don’t like crying.” I spun on my heel, exhausted, ignoring the heat still simmering on my cheeks, and marched back towards the exit without waiting for a reply.
# #
Something was bugging me.
I’d been going through the motions of opening for a few mornings, each without incident or unusual encounter. Chica now made a habit of saying hi, but she could never stay long, having to go get ready for the day. Opening had returned to normal. And yet…
…I felt like I was missing something. Huh.
I ended up down in the maintenance tunnels after my shift one day, running errands for Amber and pacing mindlessly at the same time. It was that distinct feeling of forgetting something, or having lost something without yet knowing. I was perplexed: hadn’t everything exciting worked itself out? I hadn’t seen a lick of Monty since our disastrous encounter a week before, so I certainly didn’t have any reason to be thinking about him. And yet.
It was amidst this haze of thought that I was startled clean out of, when the metallic clanging of security doors rang through the halls. I turned just in time to see Monty sauntering my way nonchalantly. “Hey, cher. Long time no see.”
It was a mixture of anxiety and annoyance that made me sputter, but my face flared up in heat as I realized he was exactly what I’d been thinking about. “Monty. Come to bother me again?”
“Just making sure you don’t fall down another set of steps without me.” No longer posturing and glaring, Monty grinned cockily down at me. “Can’t have our favorite barista gettin’ hurt, yeah?”
“Shut up. You startled me.” I brushed off the front of my Chica-themed novelty Halloween sweater, avoiding looking at the smug animatronic in front of me. “You suck. The worst. Don’t you have a show to perform in-“ I looked at my Fazwatch. “Half an hour?”
“Ain’t goin’.”
“What?” I looked back up to where Monty was nonchalantly picking at his teeth. “Gator, you’re the bassist. You have to go to the performance. Won’t you get in trouble?”
“No more than usual. ‘Sides,” he looked back over and grinned again. “I’d rather be here, listening to you tell me how much you like me, rockstar.” Despite the teeth, I had a suspicion he wasn’t as chill about this as he was trying to portray. I frowned up at him, my hands on my hips. “What? Hey, you could always be nicer to me.”
“Start by being tolerable,” I scolded. “Seriously, you need to go perform, or else a bunch of kids will cry and all the parents will complain.” I waved my hands as if to shoo him back up the hallway towards the stage area. It had been here too long after my shift anyway, and I needed to get going, but something told me he wouldn’t just let me leave.
“None of the kids care about me, ” Monty scoffed with bitterness. “They’re there for Freddy.” He wasn’t moving, so I placed my hands on his lower chest and started attempting to push him towards the exit. Monty gave a snort in response, curling clawed fingers around my wrists, absolutely dwarfing them. “Not gonna work, Cher, I’m solid metal and strong as hell.”
“I see a million children a day wearing Monty sunglasses and holding Monty plushies,” I grunted, leaning back to shake his hands off of mine. He let go without resistance. “But if you don’t believe me about that, how about this: you ever heard a song without the bass line? Shit sucks. Go play your damn instrument, and let me go home.”
“Aww, you’re leaving?” Monty shifted his hips, his tail coming around to curl around my feet. “We’re having so much fun.”
“My shift ended an hour ago. Also, didn’t you hate my guts like, three days ago?” I switched to shouldering him in the torso, which had a similarly ineffective outcome. “I’m serious, you really should go. You don’t want to let down your bandmates, do you? Chica will scold you again.”
There was a pause after that. I pulled back, worried I’d angered him again; but Monty was just staring down at me incredulously. “…babe. You ain’t gonna be able to move me.”
I jumped up to swat him in the nose, my blush creeping back into my cheeks . “We are not good enough friends for you to call me ‘babe’!” I puffed out in annoyance. “Come on. Just go to your stupid show. Hate it if you must, but don’t make the poor staff’s jobs harder than they need to be.”
Monty paused again, and then sighed, a strangely breathy noise to hear coming from an animatronic. “Fine. But only cuz you asked so nicely.” I rolled my eyes. “Hey, you should come sometime. You ever been?”
“What? No.” I began walking back towards the staging area, figuring he’d follow me there. “You know I don’t come back here. Well, didn’t.” I rattled an empty coffee cup, tossing it into one of many piles of garbage that had yet to be cleaned. Not my job. “I hear the songs over the speakers, though.”
“It ain’t the same! At the shows ya get to watch me do backflips.”
I tried to picture Monty’s giant mechanical self doing a backflip. “That sounds cool, I guess.”
“You guess??”
“Guess I’ll just have to see it to know.” I opened the doors leading back up to the main level, pausing to grin at him. “Now get out of here, I’m tired and I want to go home and nap with my cat.”