Archive of Our Own

Gregory paced back and forth outside of the Pizzaplex, feeling the cold Winter air against his skin. He began to wonder if Cassie had forgotten about their plan to meet up there - she had promised to be there by 12:00 a.m., and it was currently 12:45. Did they actually agree to meet there at that time, or had he just imagined it?

“Hi, hi! I’m here! Sorry I’m late!” Cassie finally called out to him, as she began frantically running over to where he was standing. Her curls bounced in all directions as she sprinted over to Gregory, before she finally slowed down and stood next to him.

Gregory looked over at her as she had to catch her breath, as well as brush away some strands of hair that had fallen into her face. Her frazzled appearance was amusing to him, but he was mostly just grateful that she had remembered after all.

“There you are-!” He exclaimed. “I was worried you weren’t coming.”

“Sorry, sorry!” Cassie apologized again, brushing herself off. “I would’ve been here sooner, but it took forever for me to have the chance to leave without my dad noticing. How’d you manage to get here without having the same problem?”

“It’s fine, no worries,” Gregory replied, completely dodging her question. “I’m just glad you’re here now, I’ve been really excited about this!”

A cool breeze blew by, causing both of the kids to shiver a bit. Cassie had gone out of her way to wear warm clothes that day, but even with her coat on, she still felt a bit cold. She wasn’t sure why Gregory had not done the same, instead opting to wear the same clothes that she always saw him wear. A t-shirt and cargo shorts weren’t exactly ideal for cold weather, and she could tell that he was just as freezing as she was, but she also knew that he was a pretty stubborn kid, so he was probably just trying to tough it out. Meanwhile, Cassie had to hold her arms to try and preserve her own body heat - she really wished she had some coffee or hot chocolate right now. She was leaning more towards coffee.

“So, uh, what are we doing here, exactly-?” She asked. While she and Gregory had discussed meeting up together the day before, he hadn’t explained to her what they were going to do. “Kinda weird to be hanging out here when the Pizzaplex’s already closed.”

“Here, follow me,” Gregory responded, making his way around the building. Cassie gladly followed, despite how confused she was about his lack of a straight answer.

He led her to the back of the building, where the dumpsters, as well as a door marked “EMPLOYEES ONLY” were. Sure enough, when Gregory tried the door, it quickly opened with no issue. His face lit up, and he excitedly gestured for Cassie to enter it.

“Wait, wait- are we breaking in-?” She asked, finally catching on to the situation.

“Don’t worry, I’ve done this a million times, I know what I’m doing,” Gregory tried to assure her.

“Why, though-?” Cassie asked, more confused than upset. “I mean, I love hanging out with you and all, Gregory, but do we really have to break and enter? Can’t we just ask our parents to take us here when it’s open?”

“This is different though, Cassie!” Gregory replied. “This is gonna be fun, I promise! Just think of all the things we could do here with nobody else around!”

“I dunno…” She glanced at the door, then at Gregory again.

He sighed, before nodding in understanding. “It’s fine, I get it. I just wanted to invite you, but if you wanna go back home, that’s okay.”

“Well, I don’t wanna leave you here by yourself…” Cassie responded. “But… ugh, I don’t know! I can’t decide what I wanna do!”

The cold winds became a bit stronger, causing Gregory to also hold his own arms for warmth.

“Well, uh… Could you make your decision a bit quicker-? It’s freezing out here,” he sheepishly asked.

Cassie thought for a few more seconds, before finally letting out a short sigh. “Alright, I’ll follow you in.”

Gregory’s face lit up again, before he excitedly walked through the door. He turned around and gestured for Cassie to follow him in, which she hesitantly did.

After shutting the door behind them, Gregory walked ahead of Cassie, making sure that she was following close behind as the two of them made their way into the atrium. Cassie couldn’t help but feel a slight sense of wonder as she looked around; while the Pizzaplex should have been less interesting now that all of the attractions were closed, something about the fact that the two of them were seeing it in a way that they weren’t supposed to, made it feel more exciting for her. Her heart raced a bit as she thought of the things that she and Gregory could do together with no other kids around; maybe she could even see Roxy.

“Do you think we could see the animatronics? Or would they be mad at us for being here after hours?” She asked.

“Depends which one,” Gregory replied. “Freddy’s not gonna be thrilled about it, but I’ve done this enough times that he’s kinda come to expect it. Chica’s usually pretty happy to see me, Roxy gets annoyed but doesn’t care too much, and I’m not gonna touch Monty with a ten foot pole. I haven’t bothered trying to interact with anyone else.”

“Doesn’t it kinda get boring breaking in here after a few times?” In Cassie’s mind, once the thrill of breaking the rules wore off, it probably wouldn’t be as exciting to be there after hours anymore. Yet, Gregory had apparently done it enough times for the Glamrock animatronics to seemingly expect it of him. “Also, haven’t your parents caught on at all? Have they seriously not noticed anything?”

“You could say that,” Gregory shrugged, not giving more of an answer than that. “So, what do you wanna do first?”

Cassie thought for a moment, before also shrugging. “I dunno- I mean, I’ve never done this before. What do you wanna do first? I’ll just follow your lead.”

There was an excited smile on Gregory’s face as he had basically been given permission to do whatever he wanted. Not that he needed it, but he was glad that Cassie seemingly trusted him enough to give him that power. “Ok, cool! Come on, I’ve been waiting all day to do this!”

He ran ahead, leaving Cassie to have to try and match his speed - seriously, how was he always so full of energy? “Hey, wait up!” She called out after him.

As Cassie ran after her friend, her mind raced with all of the possibilities of what he wanted to do. What had he been planning that was so exciting that he had been anticipating it all day? With no other people around, neither of them would need to wait in line to do what they wanted. Was Gregory taking her to one of the arcades? Fazer Blast? Roxy Raceway?!

All of Cassie’s hopes were immediately dashed away when the two of them stopped in front of… the kitchen.

“Uh…” she stared up at the door in slight disbelief. “Is this really what you wanna-“

“Be careful, okay? There might still be some Chef Bots in there,” Gregory interrupted, before energetically swinging the door open and rushing inside. Cassie followed after him, still a bit confused by how overly excited he was about the whole thing.

“Oh hey, it’s just us here! Perfect!” Gregory made his way to the back of the kitchen, where there were piles of untouched food sitting on a counter. Plates of cold, uneaten pizza, birthday cake, and other foods that were set to be thrown out in the morning, just sitting there, waiting to be taken. At least, that was how he saw it.

Cassie, on the other hand, didn’t exactly get the appeal. “Uh… No offense, Gregory, but what’s so exciting about this…? I mean, I’m pretty sure the cake here is store bought, you could probably just go to the Walmart down the street and go get one that hasn’t been half eaten…”

She was seemingly ignored, as Gregory quickly walked over to the counter, trying to decide what to take. Turning over to Cassie, he asked, “Hey, what’ll help me grow taller?”

“Uh… Calcium, I think?” She responded.

“What has calcium in it?”

“…Dairy?” Cassie very rarely judged her dear friend Gregory, but it was pretty hard not to judge him when he didn’t know such a basic fact.

He simply nodded, before grabbing a plate with some pizza slices on it, as well as one with a piece of cake. He then gestured for her to do the same. Not wanting to be left out, Cassie hesitantly grabbed a piece of cake, before following him out of the kitchen.

The two of them sat down together at a nearby table, Gregory ravenously eating his pizza with no hesitation. Cassie picked up her cake with her hands and took a small bite, regretting not having gotten a fork, or at least a napkin.

She was usually a pretty slow eater, but she felt like she had to slow down even more, due to the slight nausea that she had been feeling in her stomach all day. It had been easy for her to ignore for quite a while, but it only continued gradually building up, to the point where it was pretty much impossible not to notice. She wasn’t sure why she felt that way - she wasn’t getting sick or anything, at least, she didn’t think she was. The thing that confused her was that, in addition to the bubbling nausea, she could feel a slight, stabbing pain in her lower stomach. Again, she had mostly been able to ignore it, but it only became more prominent as the day went on. Was she actually coming down with something? She hoped she wasn’t going to get Gregory sick.

Speaking of Gregory, despite the fact that Cassie had still barely made a dent in her cake, he had just finished all of his pizza, as well as his own piece of cake.

“Jeez, someone was hungry,” she teased him, to which Gregory pouted and stuck his tongue out at her. He glanced down at her mostly uneaten cake, then back up at her.

“Can I have some?” He asked, giving Cassie his best puppy eyes.

“Do you just want the rest? I dunno if I can finish it,” she responded. Gregory’s eyes lit up at the offer, but he tried to contain his enthusiasm.

“Ya sure?” He asked. Cassie nodded, pushing her plate over to him. He gladly took it, shoving it into his mouth about as delicately as he had eaten the rest of the food, which was to say, not delicately at all.

Meanwhile, it became increasingly difficult for Cassie to ignore how off she felt. She was unable to keep her mind off of her stomach pain, and she had also noticed that she was beginning to develop a headache. Maybe she was just dehydrated-?

“I’ll be right back, I’m gonna go get some water,” she said, sliding out from her seat.

“Lemme go with you, I’m done, anyway,” Gregory replied, gesturing to the three empty plates in front of him. Seriously, how’d he always eat so fast?

Once he got up, Gregory began walking ahead of Cassie like he had been doing all day, leaving her to have to catch up with him once again. She hadn’t minded needing to follow after him like that before, but now that she wasn’t feeling well, she really wished he would slow down a bit.

“You sure you just want water?” Gregory asked, upon reaching one of the soda machines in the kitchen. Cassie nodded, unsure if she would be able to stomach any of the more sugary drinks. After pouring some water from the soda machine into a cup for her, Gregory grabbed a cup for himself and poured some grape flavored Fizzy Faz. How anybody could enjoy grape soda was beyond Cassie, but she felt too unwell to even make fun of him for it.

She sipped her water very slowly, the feeling of the cold liquid sliding into her stomach doing little to alleviate her nausea. She must have looked visibly sick, since Gregory cast a worried glance at her as he chugged down his drink.

“Hey, are you okay-?” He asked, reaching a hand out over her shoulder.

“Yeah, I’m fine, I think I’m just still nervous about this,” Cassie replied, trying to figure out a reason for how cruddy she was feeling. If she wasn’t getting sick or dehydrated, then it probably was just anxiety. She had never done anything like this before, after all.

Gregory hummed in understanding, remembering how anxious he had been the first time that he ever broke into the Pizzaplex, and that hadn’t even been after hours! He felt a bit guilty for convincing her to go through with it now - he had just wanted to have some fun with her, but that would be hard to do if she was so scared that she wasn’t feeling well. He tried to think of what he could do to make her feel better, remembering that she had asked something about the animatronics earlier.

“Oh hey, wanna see if we can find Roxy?” He asked, noticing the excitement that immediately entered Cassie’s eyes.

“Sure-! Uh, you’re sure she won’t be mad at us, though-?” Out of all of the people that Cassie hoped to never disappoint, Roxanne Wolf was definitely near the top of that list. She knew it was probably childish of her to worry about what a robot mascot thought of her, but if the folks at Fazbear Entertainment didn’t want her to care so much, then they shouldn’t have given the animatronics such impressive AI. It wasn’t her fault that she felt so attached to Roxy.

“Like I said, she gets annoyed, but she won’t care all that much,” Gregory assured her. “Besides, she probably knows she’s your favorite, I’m sure she’ll give you a pass.”

Cassie didn’t see any reason to argue with his logic, so she happily nodded and followed Gregory out of the kitchen once again. She was so thrilled at the idea of getting to see Roxy again, she could feel the excitement pricking at her stomach as she followed her friend around the atrium.

At least, she thought it had been excitement, but she quickly realized that it had actually just been more nausea. She pressed a hand to her stomach as she tried to ignore the queasy feeling, along with the uncomfortable stabbing sensation that she could still feel in her lower abdomen. Despite how sick to her stomach she felt, she still found herself really wanting coffee for some reason. Considering how drinking some would probably just make her feel worse, she wasn’t sure why she suddenly wanted some so badly - she figured she probably just wanted something hot because of the weather. Maybe once she felt better she could go grab something from Faz-Pad.

Her thoughts were cut off when she suddenly crashed into Gregory, causing him to land flat on his back on the floor, with Cassie falling down on top of him. They both groaned in pain, with Cassie feeling beyond embarrassed about her own clumsiness. She tried to push herself back up, but her arms were too shaky, so she quickly ended up falling back down onto Gregory.

“Ow-! Jeez, are you okay-?” He asked, too worried to be even slightly upset at her.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry-!” Cassie was so busy apologizing that she didn’t even answer his question, scrambling to stand up again so that Gregory could finally get off of the floor. 

The two of them quickly stood back up, and Cassie internally hoped that he would soon forget about the fact that she had accidentally made an absolute fool of herself. He had seen her trip and fall before, but that day, she felt even more embarrassed about it than usual. Gregory wasn’t the type to judge her for making small mistakes like that, but suddenly her brain was telling her that he was probably super upset with her right now. There was the slight feeling of tears forming in her eyes as she worried that she had just royally messed up - god, why was she getting so emotional about it? She knew that it wasn’t a big deal, so why did it suddenly feel like it was?

Come on, Cassie! Don’t be a crybaby! You’re 10 years old, you can handle this!

“Sorry,” she apologized again, looking over at Gregory. “I didn’t see that you stopped - why did you stop, anyway?”

“It’s fine, I should’ve warned you,” he replied, seemingly not upset with her at all. “I just stopped because I thought I heard someone coming.”

While Cassie would have been glad that he wasn’t mad at her for crashing into him, now she was terrified at the possibility that a security guard, or S.T.A.F.F. Bot, or somebody had been passing through, because if so, she had definitely alerted them to the fact that she and Gregory were there, considering how much noise her sudden fall had caused. Oh god, they were both going to get caught now, they were going to get in so much trouble. She wanted to run away, but she felt anchored to the ground, and the horrible anxiety that she was feeling only added to the building nausea in her stomach and pain in her head.

“Cassie-? Cassie, are you okay-?” Gregory’s words of concern seemingly went unnoticed, as she was too preoccupied by fear to even hear him, nor was she able to hear the heavy footsteps that were coming towards the both of them.

What she did hear, however, was the voice that followed.

“Wait, what the heck are you doing here?”

Cassie was far too panicked to recognize the voice, or even look up at who it had come from. However, she managed to find the courage to finally move - she could have ran, but she wasn’t sure if she had the stamina to get away in time. Still, if she was going to get caught, she refused to go down without a fight. Acting on impulse, she ran in front of Gregory and punched at the air in front of her with all of her strength.

…This turned out to be a huge mistake on her part, as her hand immediately made contact with something hard and metallic, and dear god did it hurt.

“Ow ow ow ow ow-!” She pulled her hand away and yelped at the pain, still not having seen who exactly she had just tried to defend herself against.

“Why would you do that?!” Gregory asked in a hushed voice, unsure whether to be impressed by or judgemental of her hubris.

“I don’t know! I didn’t wanna get in trouble by whoever caught us, so I panicked!” She replied, her hand still stinging as she held it.

“I think assaulting them would have gotten you in more trouble than just being here would!” Gregory pointed out. “You’re lucky Roxy couldn’t feel that!”

“Well I didn’t know what else to-“ Wait. Did he say Roxy?

Sure enough, when Cassie finally looked up, she saw none other than Roxanne Wolf standing in front of the both of them. Cassie was so shocked by the fact that they were standing right in front of her that she couldn’t even process the fact that she had just punched her favorite animatronic.

“Cassie, what are you doing here?” Roxy repeated, her tone sounding… annoyed? Confused? It was hard to identify. “I mean, I would’ve expected this from Gregory, but I didn’t think you were the type of kid to break into here.”

Oh my gosh, she remembers me?! I mean, I know I’ve been here a few times, but I can’t believe Roxy actually remembers my name!

Oh wait, it’s probably just in her database… Don’t get too excited, Cassie.

“It’s her first time seeing this place after closing, I wanted to show her what it was like,” Gregory explained. He stood next to Cassie so that she was no longer in front of him, the both of them still looking up at Roxy. Cassie sheepishly nodded, too nervous to break eye contact.

“You’re a bad influence, you know that?” Roxy looked over at Gregory as she lightly scolded him. However, they then looked over at Cassie and asked, in a much lighter tone, “But hey, how are you liking it so far?”

“Oh, uh- it’s pretty cool,” Cassie replied, unable to hide her shyness. Sure, she had talked to Roxy before, but never under this type of circumstance. She was just glad that they really weren’t mad at her. “It’s nice to be one of the only people here, I guess.”

She probably would have been having more fun if she didn’t feel so ill, not that she was going to bring that up. Every time she hoped that her sickness would go away, or at least become easier to deal with, the discomfort only intensified. At this rate, she was worried that she would feel too unwell to walk back home.

“So, what have you guys done so far?” Roxy asked.

“Uh… Not much yet,” Gregory admitted. “We got some food, but that’s about it. We were actually just looking for you.”

“You guys wanted to see me-?” She seemed genuinely touched for a moment, before continuing, “Well, I know I shouldn’t be encouraging you, but I don’t wanna leave Cassie all alone with you-“

“Hey-!”

“Let me finish!” Roxy rolled her eyes at Gregory’s interruption. “Anyways, I’ll hang out with you guys so I can make sure you don’t do something stupid and end up dying or whatever. So, what do you two wanna do next?”

They bent down to better reach Gregory and Cassie’s level; their voice sounded much warmer and calmer than it usually was. Cassie struggled to contain her excitement as she processed the fact that she and Gregory were going to be hanging out with Roxy all by themselves!

“Oh hey-! Can we see Freddy?” Gregory asked. Roxy stood up straight again, seeming a bit annoyed by his question.

“You always hang out with Freddy when you come here! If you’re gonna be breaking the law to be in here, you might as well make it worth my time!” She said, before glancing over to Cassie. “Besides, have you asked her what she wants to do yet?”

“Oh-! Uh…” Cassie was a bit caught off guard by the sudden attention, as Roxy and Gregory were both looking at her now. What did she want to do, anyway? She hadn’t even known that she was going to be there.

She thought about it for a few moments, the pressure of having both pairs of eyes on her momentarily making her forget about how sick she felt. Well, it wasn’t a very exciting idea, but there was still one thing that she had been wanting to do…

“Oh! Could we go to Faz-Pad?” She finally asked, trying to speak a bit more confidently.

“To… Faz…” Roxy muttered under her breath. “You know that’s the coffee place, right?”

Cassie nodded. “Yeah, I’ve been wanting some. It’s nearby here, isn’t it?”

“Ooh, good idea!” Gregory piped up, seeming excited by such a simple thing. “Man, I haven’t had coffee in ages, I forgot about that area!”

“I- You guys are like ten, right? Do ten year olds drink coffee nowadays? Aren’t you guys kinda young for that?” Roxy asked, briefly looking through their database just to see if there was something that she had missed.

“There’s an age limit?” The two kids practically spoke in unison, both equally confused by Roxy’s confusion. As someone who had been drinking coffee since she was 4, Cassie didn’t understand what the big deal was, and judging by Gregory’s reaction, he was in the same boat as her.

Just as Roxy seemed like she was about to say no to the idea, she paused. “…Whatever, I’m not your parents. Alright, let’s go.”

Gregory and Cassie giggled to each other as they followed Roxy - again, it wasn’t the most exciting thing that they could have been doing at that moment, but Cassie was happy nonetheless.

“Alright, knock yourselves out,” Roxy stated, after giving Cassie and Gregory the drinks that they had asked for. The two of them were once again sitting together at one of the tables, with Roxy simply standing near it.

“Thanks-!” Cassie replied, taking a small sip of her drink. Gregory showed no such caution, going to chug his coffee just like he had with the soda earlier, only to immediately burn his tongue.

“Jeez, slow down-!” Cassie lightly scolded him, as he winced at the pain. “No one’s gonna take it from you!”

“I’m impatient, okay?” Gregory pouted, placing his cup back down on the table. Cassie let out a small laugh, only causing him to grow more annoyed.

“Sorry, sorry, it’s not funny!” She apologized, still giggling a bit as she spoke. She took another small sip of her drink, noticing the stabbing pain in her lower stomach that still hadn’t gone away. Why was she still feeling that way? What was causing that sharp pain?

She held her drink against her stomach, hoping that the heat would help ease the discomfort. Thankfully that seemed to work a bit - the relief it provided wasn’t much, but it was still something. If only she could do something about her headache as well.

“I dunno, I think it was funny,” Roxy chimed in.

“Hey-!” Gregory glared up at them, causing Roxy to chuckle a bit.

“I mean, Cassie’s right, I don’t know why you couldn’t have waited a bit before trying to drink something that would obviously be hot,” she shrugged.

“Why do you care?! You can’t even drink coffee!” Gregory pointed out.

“Like I said, I’m here to make sure that you guys don’t get hurt or kill yourselves,” Roxy replied. “It’s in my programming to care.”

“Whatever! I burnt my tongue, so what?”

Roxy simply continued to tease Gregory, who continued to argue back with her, but their voices quickly blended together as Cassie had started tuning the both of them out after a while. She wasn’t trying to ignore them, it was just difficult for her to focus on anything other than the awful combination of pain that she was feeling. The heat from her coffee no longer helped much at all, and every time she tried to drink more of it, she felt her stomach protest more and more intensely. As she sat there, trying not to make it apparent how terrible she felt, she suddenly noticed another strange feeling.

Is that…?

No, no, I’m probably just imagining it - that can’t be happening now!

Right…?

She slowly got up, hoping with every fiber of her being that what she thought was happening, wasn’t actually happening. Sure, it would have explained the god-awful cramping in her stomach, but there was no way that she was actually getting her-

To Cassie’s horror, there was a faint red stain on the chair that she had been sitting in.

The queasiness dramatically increased.

She practically slammed her drink down onto the table, causing Roxy and Gregory to look at her, confused by how much of a rush she seemed to be in.

“S-Sorry, don’t mind me-!” She clumsily stated, failing to hide her panic. “I-I’m just gonna go to the bathro-“

Before Cassie could finish her sentence, there was another violent lurch in her stomach. She shut her mouth and continued trying to rush out of the room, but before she was able to exit the area, she suddenly doubled over and vomited.

“Cassie-?!” Roxy and Gregory called out to her at the same time, both worriedly rushing over to her side.

“I-I’m sorry, I-I-“ She stopped talking, fearing that she might throw up again. She was flooded with so many emotions at once, overwhelmed by the situation that she had found herself in. Too anxious to say another word, she instead rushed off to find the nearest restroom, despite how guilty she felt for leaving Roxy and Gregory behind.

As soon as Cassie found a bathroom, she rushed into the closest stall, hoping that her fears were not about to be confirmed. Unfortunately, her body seemingly had other plans.

She had gotten her first period.

There she was, alone in a bathroom stall at Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizzaplex, at 1 in the morning, unable to turn to her dad for comfort or go to her room to rest. She felt trapped inside of that stall, unsure of what she could possibly even do.

So, she simply started to cry.

Why did I even come here? Why is this happening now?! What the heck do I do?! Oh god, what do I do?!

Once again, Cassie felt frozen in place. Despite the fact that her brain was screaming at her to just run out of the bathroom and go back home before her dad noticed that she had been gone, she felt like she couldn’t move at all. She was scared that any drastic movements would cause her to vomit again - her body felt weak and shaky. The already cramped stall felt like it was closing in on her as she simply sat there and continued to cry, the pain still overwhelming her.

“Cassie-? Cassie, are you okay-?”

She heard Gregory softly knocking on the stall door, causing her to flinch a bit at the sudden noise. She didn’t know how to respond - if she tried to tell him that he was fine, he’d immediately be able to hear that she was crying. What was she going to say to him, though? He would probably ask what was wrong if she admitted to not being okay - was she really going to be fully honest with him? The thought embarrassed her so much, what if he didn’t react well to it? Sure, he was her best friend, and he had usually been there for her when she needed it, but she had never talked to him about anything that felt this personal before.

“Cassie…?” Gregory repeated, the worry apparent in his voice. “Are you crying-? What’s wrong…?”

Cassie took a few seconds to try and collect herself, breathing shakily as she decided that she might as well be upfront about the situation.

“Gregory, I-I…” The words got caught up in her throat; she felt her cheeks heating up in embarrassment as she struggled to articulate.

Get it together, Cassie! He’s your friend, you can tell him what’s wrong! He’s not gonna judge you!

…Right?

“I just got my period…”

Cassie had not been sure what kind of response to expect, but the possibilities sure did make her anxious! There were a lot of different ways that that interaction could have gone, and all of them terrified her! She knew it was probably a stupid thing to be so nervous about, but she could practically hear her heart beating in her ears as she awaited a response.

While she hadn’t been sure what to expect, what Gregory ended up replying with was something that she certainly had not expected.

“What’s that mean-?”

Wait, he doesn’t know what a period is-? I mean, I know he’s a boy, but I feel like most boys my age know what it is-! Maybe he just doesn’t know what it’s called…?

“I’m… bleeding,” she said. It was only two words, but she was sure that he would know what she was talking about.

Her clarification was met with a few seconds of silence, before she heard the sound of Gregory frantically running out of the bathroom. Once again, it wasn’t the type of reaction that Cassie had been expecting, and the fact that he was no longer there worried her. She once again felt helpless as she continued to sit in the stall, hoping that he was going to come back soon.

Sure enough, it must have only taken about a minute for her to hear Gregory re-enter the bathroom, followed by some much more metallic sounding footsteps. She figured it must have been Roxy.

“Cassie?! What happened?!” Roxy asked, her voice overflowing with worry. “Where are you bleeding?!”

It was only two questions, but the rapid-fire way that they had asked them made Cassie feel more overwhelmed- wait, did Roxy seriously just ask that?

“Uh… Do you… not know what a period is…?” She sheepishly responded.

There was a pause, before what sounded like a small sigh of relief coming from Roxy. “Ohhh, okay, okay, got it. Wait here for a sec, okay?”

Cassie nodded, before realizing that they couldn’t actually see her. Not that it really mattered, since she could already hear Roxy walking away from the stall. Cassie was just relieved at how quickly they had understood the situation - knowing about that type of thing was probably in her programming, after all.

“Gregory! Why did you just say she was bleeding?!” Roxy asked, trying and failing to whisper to him. “The way you phrased it made me think she had been horribly injured or something!”

“Well, that’s what I thought was happening-!” Gregory replied. “That’s what she told me!”

Roxy said something else that Cassie wasn’t able to catch, but it didn’t really matter. Now, Cassie was mainly preoccupied by the fact that a literal animatronic seemingly knew more about the situation that she was in than her human friend did. Considering how Gregory and Cassie were the exact same age, she didn’t really understand why he was so clueless about it, but she figured that he probably just wasn’t learning about those types of things at school yet. He had never mentioned having any siblings or anything either, so in his defense, he really had no reason to understand. She appreciated his concern for her, at least; even if it had come from a place of misunderstanding.

After hearing some shuffling and what sounded like Roxy struggling with a lock, Cassie could hear them walking back over to the stall that she was sitting in.

“Hey, can you reach this?” Roxy asked. She was reaching her hand over the door of the stall, and holding out a pad.

“Uh, yeah- hold on-“ Cassie reached her hand out under Roxy’s, having to lean forward a bit. “Alright, you can just drop it.”

Roxy dropped the pad into Cassie’s hand, and the young girl suddenly realized that she did not actually know how to use one. She felt far too flustered to ask for help, though, so she simply unwrapped it and decided that she could figure it out on her own.

It was a bit crooked once she finished applying it, but she figured it was good enough. She finally stood back up from the toilet, the awful cramping increasing as she did so. She flinched and held her lower stomach, unlocking the stall door and finally walking out.

“Thanks…” she quietly said to Roxy, as she went to wash her hands.

“No problem,” Roxy replied. “Is there anything you need? Anything else I can help with?”

Cassie shook her head, wiping her hands off on her sweater. “No, I’m fine… I think I’m just gonna go hom-“

She cut herself off with a small whine as the pain in her stomach suddenly increased tenfold. She pressed her hands deep against her abdomen, fearing that she was about to throw up again.

“Are you okay-?” Gregory asked, holding his arms out in concern. He knew that the answer was obvious, but he didn’t know how he could possibly help her.

“No-!” Cassie cried out, nearly doubled over in agony. She knew that period cramps were a thing that happened, but why hadn’t anybody warned her how much it was going to hurt?

She heard the faint sound of Roxy doing a scan on her, presumably to get a better understanding of her pain. “Jeez, is it always this bad for you-?” They asked, their tone a mixture of disbelief and sympathy.

“I-I don’t know,” Cassie replied, trying to choke back tears. “Th-This is m-my f-first one…” She used one of her hands to hold herself up against the sink, her legs feeling too weak for her to stand on her own.

“Oh, Cassie…” Roxy’s voice was warm and gentle, as she held out a hand to help support the girl. Cassie grabbed onto her arm, finally bursting into tears once again.

Roxy admittedly did not have the best track record with kids. For someone who spent pretty much all of her time around children, they had never exactly been the greatest at knowing how to comfort a child in distress. Still, she was rather fond of Cassie, and she wanted to help her as best as she could.

On the other hand, Gregory had usually been there for Cassie whenever she needed him. Normally, he knew exactly what to do or say to help her feel better when she was upset, but now, he had no idea what to do. He still wasn’t really sure if he fully understood the situation - he had gathered that she seemed to be sick, but whatever she had come down with seemed to be pretty unbearable. He desperately wanted to support her, but he had no idea how.

“Is… there anything I can do…?” He finally asked, as Cassie wiped some tears away from her face.

“N-No, it’s f-fine…” Cassie replied, only making him feel more concerned. “I-It just… really hurts…”

“Heat usually helps with this type of thing,” Roxy stated. “Is it okay if I touch your stomach, Cassie-?”

Cassie nodded, feeling too drained to speak very much. Roxy gently placed a hand against her abdomen, using their other arm to continue supporting her body. The heat that their body produced was working wonders for Cassie’s pain, and she actually felt like she might be able to walk without feeling like she was about to puke!

“You wanna go to my room-?” Roxy asked. “You might feel better if you laid down…”

The offer was tempting, but there had still been something else on Cassie’s mind that she had been worried about.

“Actually, I should probably go back home…” she said, hesitantly loosening her grip on Roxy’s arm. “I don’t want my dad to find out that I’ve been gone…”

She finally let go of Roxy, and attempted to start walking out of the bathroom. However, now that she no longer had Roxy’s warmth to help alleviate the cramping, the pain returned with a vengeance, causing her to stumble forward and nearly fall onto the floor.

Thankfully, Gregory had been standing in front of her, so he was able to grab her arm and pull her back up in time before she fell. He allowed her to hold onto his arm to support herself; she felt a bit embarrassed that she was in so much pain that she needed his help just to stand, but she appreciated the help.

“I know you don’t wanna make your dad worry, but it doesn’t seem like you’re ready to walk home,” Roxy pointed out. “Especially all by yourself…”

“It’s fine…” Cassie repeated, clearly not even believing herself. “I can manage… I should get going before it gets more late.”

“You live kinda close by here, right-?” Gregory asked. “I could walk home with you if you want.”

“You sure-?” Cassie asked. “I-I mean, I’d appreciate it, but…”

“Neither of you should even be walking around alone this late at night!” Roxy piped up. “I mean, you guys are like, what? Nine?”

“Ten,” Gregory corrected her, rolling his eyes. “Besides, we’re not doing it alone if it’s the both of us! I know this area super well, we’ll be fine.”

Roxy huffed, too annoyed with him to come up with a proper counter-argument. She really wished she could just leave the Pizzaplex for a few minutes so that she could make sure that they both made it home safely. Though, considering how many times she had seen Gregory hanging out around the premises after closing, she supposed he was capable of walking home by himself.

“Anyway, you want me to go with you, Cass-?” Gregory asked again.

“Sure, if you don’t mind-!” Cassie replied. Gregory gave a small nod, so she turned over to look at Roxy again.

“Thanks for helping me, Roxy,” she said. “Hope I can see you again soon-! Maybe once I’m feeling better…”

“Feel better soon, okay?” Roxy smiled a bit. Cassie responded with a nod, giving a small wave as she and Gregory made their way out of the bathroom.

The moment that the two kids stepped out of the building, the cold air harshly hit their faces. Cassie shivered once again, feeling Gregory do the same as she held onto his arm. “Why didn’t you bring a jacket?” She asked him, just trying to fill the silence.

“It’s not that cold,” he claimed, despite the fact that he was visibly shaking. Cassie rolled her eyes at his stubbornness, before she was hit with a wave of pain that was so strong that she had to lean against him.

“Sorry, sorry-!” She apologized, lacking the energy to fully pull away from him.

“It’s fine, it’s fine!” He insisted. “I don’t care if you gotta lean against me, you’re literally sick right now.”

“I mean yeah, but- I don’t wanna make you fall!”

“Hey, I’m not that much shorter than you-! I can handle your weight just fine!”

He seemed less annoyed at Cassie needing his help, and more annoyed at the implication of her thinking that he’d fall if she continued leaning on him. The height difference between the two of them wasn’t super drastic, but it was certainly noticeable. While Cassie was of average height for a girl her age, Gregory was short enough to be mistaken for younger than he actually was. It was something that she had lightly teased him for on multiple occasions, but this time she had not even meant anything by her comment; she was just worried that she had been inconveniencing him.

“My house is somewhere around there,” she said, trying to change the subject. “God, I hope my dad’s still asleep…”

“I think you’re worrying too much,” Gregory said. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“Well, sorry that I don’t wanna scare him!” Cassie replied. “I mean, if he realizes that I’m not home, what’s he gonna think? For all he knows, I could’ve been kidnapped or something! Aren’t you worried about the same thing happening with your parents?”

“Cassie, it’ll be fine,” Gregory insisted, just trying to reassure her. “You haven’t been away for that long, and your house isn’t that far. You don’t have to worry about it.”

He clearly didn’t understand why Cassie cared so much, and she didn’t understand why he wasn’t worried at all regarding his own parents. Considering how he had mentioned that he had snuck out multiple times, maybe he was just really confident in his ability to make it back home undetected.

Once they both made it to Cassie’s house, she directed Gregory to the back part where her bedroom window was. It had been left open from when she snuck out through it earlier, and the fact that it had been left that way seemed to imply that nobody had noticed that it had ever been opened, which was a relief to her.

“Do you think you can go in on your own-?” Gregory asked. He admittedly wasn’t sure how he could help her if she couldn’t go back through the window, but he was cautious after knowing how much pain she had been in.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” she replied, slowly letting go of him. She grabbed onto the ledge of the window and climbed back into her room, landing on her feet, albeit pretty clumsily.

Turning to look back through her still-open window, she said, “Thanks for walking me home, Gregory! Sorry that we couldn’t hang out for very long, but… for what it’s worth, I still had a lot of fun-!”

“It’s fine, don’t apologize!” He responded. “It’s not your fault you got sick, I get it.”

“Well hey, I hope we can hang out again soon,” Cassie replied. “Maybe we can get our parents to meet or something, and you can come to my house sometime-!”

Her suggestion was met with silence, which confused her a bit. His expression was completely unreadable - maybe he just hadn’t heard her?

“Gregory?”

“Oh- uh, yeah,” he spoke a bit awkwardly. “Sorry, I kinda zoned out…”

He trailed off, staring down at the ground. What was he thinking about? Cassie didn’t want to pry him, but she was curious.

“Well, uh… I guess I should go home,” he continued. “It was fun hanging out with you…!”

“Oh, uh, right-! See you-!” She replied. There were a few seconds where the two of them just silently stared at each other - there was a strange feeling in the air, as neither of them seemed to know how to end the interaction.

Gregory finally looked away from her, beginning to walk away from the window. Cassie admittedly did not want their time together to end, at least not like that, but she wasn’t sure what to say, especially since he was starting to leave now. She knew it was probably a bad idea, especially since she wasn’t exactly feeling well, but she finally called out to him:

“You wanna see my room?”

He paused, turning back to look at her again. He seemed a bit confused, but not opposed to the idea.

“…Could I-?”

“Yeah-!” Cassie exclaimed. “Come on!” She gestured to her window, which she still had not closed.

Gregory smiled and nodded, before sprinting back over to the window and effortlessly climbing into her room. He looked around curiously, seemingly fascinated by the various things she had strewn about.

“It’s so big-!” He exclaimed.

“Is it-?” Cassie looked around with him. She had never really paid attention to how spacious her bedroom was, especially since she had seen other girls her age with much larger rooms.

Her attention was brought back to the cramping in her stomach; she really wanted to lay down, but she figured that she should probably change first. She grabbed her pajamas from her dresser, before turning to look at Gregory again.

“You can sit on my bed if you want-! I’m gonna go change real quick.”

“Got it,” he nodded. As he sat down, Cassie exited the room so that she could change in the bathroom.

As she went down the hallway, she found herself cautiously checking each room in the house, just so that she could be completely sure that her dad was not up. When she saw no sign of him anywhere, she sighed with relief, before finally heading to the bathroom. She couldn’t remember how long she had heard that periods usually lasted, but at least she’d be able to talk to him about it in the morning. Part of her wished that she had stayed home so that she could have turned to him from the beginning, but at least she had unintentionally gotten practice with talking about it after having to do so with Roxy and Gregory. Mentioning it to her dad was going to be far less embarrassing than it had been with them.

After changing into her pajamas, she looked in the mirror as she let her hair down. Despite the fact that she had long since stopped crying, she still looked a bit teary-eyed. She sighed and wiped her eyes with her sleeve, before grabbing her old clothes and exiting the restroom.

As she opened her bedroom door, she saw that Gregory was idly running his hand along her pillow, seemingly transfixed by the satin pillowcase. Cassie didn’t bother announcing her entrance, simply shoving her clothes back in her dresser and practically throwing herself onto her bed. This seemingly caught Gregory off guard, as he suddenly flinched, before looking over at her.

“Sorry, sorry,” she sighed. “I know I’m not supposed to do that, I’m just really tired right now.”

“Oh no, it’s fine, I just didn’t see you coming,” he clarified. “Wait, what do you mean you’re not supposed to do that?”

“My dad doesn’t like when I get on furniture super aggressively,” she explained, not really sure how to phrase it. “He doesn’t get super mad or anything, but he’s always like, ‘mija, you’re gonna break it eventually if you’re not careful.’” She rolled her eyes.

Gregory nodded in understanding, before glancing around her room some more. “Thanks for letting me check this place out, I wish I could come over to your house more…!”

“I’m sure you could-!” She replied. “Like I said, I’m sure our parents wouldn’t mind it if we introduced them to each other! I’ve talked about you to my dad before, and he said he’s glad I made a new friend! I’m sure he’d love to meet you.”

“Wait, really-? Uhh… how much have you told him, exactly…?”

Cassie giggled. “Just that I like hanging out with you at the Pizzaplex and stuff. Don’t worry, he has no idea that you’re a ‘bad influence’. He does think you’re a classmate, though… I haven’t told him that you go to a different school.”

“You don’t have to,” Gregory quickly replied. “It’s probably easier if he just thinks that’s how we know each other.”

“I guess that’s true,” she agreed, before letting out a yawn.

“Oh, I should probably leave now so you could sleep,” he said, getting up. As he walked over to the window again, he looked back at Cassie and said, “Hope to see you later-!”

“Bye…! Get home safe,” she replied, pulling her blanket over herself.

Just as he was about to go through the window, Gregory heard Cassie suddenly jolt up, letting out a pained whine. He turned around to see her holding her stomach once again, her eyes wide with discomfort. Concerned, he rushed to her side, about to put a hand on her shoulder, before realizing that he wasn’t sure if she would want to be touched.

“Hey, are you okay-?” He asked. “Do you feel like you’re gonna throw up again-?”

She shook her head, choking back tears for what felt like the hundredth time that day. “N-No, it just-“ she took a deep breath. “I-It just hurts a lot right now-!”

“I-Is there something I can do-?” Gregory stammered, feeling a slight sense of panic over not knowing how to help her.

“I-I d-don’t know…” Cassie’s voice wavered as she tried not to cry. She was once again unable to stop the tears from flowing out; a part of her felt like she was overreacting to the pain, but she just couldn’t handle it.

After a few moments of her just sitting there and sniffling, both she and Gregory feeling utterly helpless, Cassie spoke up again, her voice soft and shy.

“I-I know th-this m-might be dumb to ask, b-but… C-Could I h-hug you…?”

Despite seeming a bit caught off-guard by the question, Gregory nodded, wrapping her up in a hug and holding her close. He allowed her to lay her head against his shoulder, as she continued to quietly sob. She held his hand as he gently wrapped one of his arms around her stomach; for a while, the room was silent, aside from the occasional sniffle or wavering breath that Cassie would let out.

“Th-Thanks… Sorry, I know I probably seem like a huge crybaby right now,” she said, scoffing out a laugh.

“You’re not, don’t worry-!” Gregory assured her. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but- I can tell how much this sucks for you.”

His response had unintentionally earned him a much more genuine laugh from her, which made him smile a bit. While he didn’t really understand what she was going through, he was glad that he could help comfort her even a little bit. Suddenly, a thought occurred to him.

“…I’m not gonna catch whatever you have, right-?”

Cassie was unable to stop herself from bursting into laughter at his question, his confusion from her reaction only causing her to giggle more.

“N-No, no-!” She assured him. After trying and failing a few times to regain her composure, she continued, “No, you won’t! Don’t worry.”

“Alright, just thought I should ask,” Gregory replied. “You feeling any better-?”

“A little bit, yeah,” Cassie nodded. “Honestly, I kind of just wanna sleep… You should probably get going, now…”

“You sure…?” He asked. “I’m fine with staying a bit longer if you need me to…”

As appealing as the offer was, Cassie shook her head. “It’s fine, Gregory. You should go home, you don’t wanna worry your parents…”

He opened his mouth to say something, but ended up nodding instead. “Alright… Get well soon…”

“Thanks,” she said, as Gregory made his way back over to the window. “See you later, Gregory.”

“Bye, Cass,” he replied. “Hope we can hang out again soon-!”

After exiting her room, Gregory made sure to close the window so that the cold air couldn’t get in. Cassie watched as he walked away; she hoped that he could get back to his house safely.

As she drifted off, she thought about how, although there had been a major setback, she still felt like she had had a pretty good time with Gregory. Neither of them ever knew when they were going to see each other next, but she hoped that she could spend more time with him soon once she was feeling better.

She probably wasn’t going to ever break into the Pizzaplex after-hours again, though.

At least, maybe not for a little while.