Chapter Text
It was a weekend, which means the daycare was jam packed with kids of all ages, shapes and sizes!
You were happily exploring the play structures, but running around the same small walls was getting boring. You quickly located a slide and let it transport you to the main daycare area. Light blue blurred around you until you landed with a soft ‘oof’ as you were planted into the padded flooring at the bottom. You hastily got up – filled with renewed excitement – as you went to find something else to do.
After a short walk, you saw a group gathered around the arts and crafts tables with Sun. They were making paper pals! You giggled and went to stride over when you felt a tug on your shirt sleeve. Turning to find the source, you came face to face with a kid around your age. He had short blonde hair and bright blue eyes. “Hey, do you want to play with us?” He smiled and turned to look at a group of kids behind him. The group looked to be of a similar age. Three boys and a girl.
They were all staring at you, it sent a shiver of anxiety up your spine. But that went unnoticed as you smiled and nodded “Sure! What are you playing?”
The boy smiled, his buck teeth showing slightly. “We’re playing hide-and-seek tag! But it’s boring with only the five of us.” He led you over as you wondered what ‘hide-and-seek tag’ was. Turned out it was as simple as it sounded. A mix of the two infamous games. The ‘tagger’ has to seek out the other players and tag them. If someone knows they have been spotted, they can run away – making it a chase until they are either caught or the ‘tagger’ loses track of them so they can hide again.
The six of you were crowded in a circle, eagerly deciding who would start counting while the others went to hide. Thankfully, they were kind enough to let you hide first. One of the other boys – light brown hair with green eyes – was chosen as the ‘tagger’. He covered his eyes with his hands and started counting. You scattered along with the others as you all rushed to find a hiding spot.
As you turned around on the spot to locate a good place, you checked on the kid who was counting. He was facing you with his hands still covering his eyes as he smirked.
You could’ve sworn there was a small gap between his fingers…
Your eyes darted around until you decided to hide in the play structures. You just explored them earlier and had the whole thing mapped out in your head. If he went searching for you in there, you would always have a way out. Plus, you would have a bird’s eyes view of the daycare to make it easy to keep track of him.
Within seconds, you were at the top floor of the play structure and watching from one of the plastic bulges in the walls. The boy had finished counting and made a beeline for the play structure you were hiding in.
Damn, you thought he would at least check around the main area before he climbed up. But maybe he had the same idea as you – having a vantage point above everything. Easy to see, hard to spot.
You backed away from the plastic and headed in the opposite direction. He entered through the front, so you would leave through the back. It would be impossible for him to cut you off.
You ran as silently as you could with the constant thumping of pushing air out of the padded floor – due to the sudden pressure of your feet – but had to stop yourself when the girl from the group came running in your direction. “Quick! Turn around, he’s coming!” She called.
You didn’t have time to react before she was pushing you back the way you came.
But wasn’t he in that direction? You watched him enter the front!
She kept pushing you, so you went along with it. Rushing ahead with the intent of not getting caught.
You don’t know when you lost her, but you were alone again. She must’ve taken a different direction during the panic. It was nerve wracking being turned around like that. You now had no idea where the boy was, and the maze-like structure of the place would make it easy to ambush you. You kept moving as staying on your toes would help you escape if he showed up.
But you could never anticipate him lurking around one of the corners. He slapped your arm and yelled “Tag! You’re it!” before running off.
The shock of his suddenness and the stinging pain of his slap had you locked in place. Tears tingled the edges of your eyes, but you wiped them away.
He just got the better of you. That won’t happen next time. He must’ve gone round to the other entrance to spook the girl before continuing his original path to cut her off but caught you instead.
You looked around the daycare, like a hawk scanning the fields for its prey before spying the last boy near the ball pit. You snuck down the play structure to go and tag him, carefully crawling down the slide (something you’ve seen Moon do on occasion to playfully scare kids when he needed to tire them out with games for naptime) and poked your head out the bottom to observe the place. The boy was in the castle area behind the ball pit, standing at the top of one of the towers.
You made haste, ducking as low as you could while sprinting to the castle area and quickly sliding into the small hallway behind it. You stalked your way down to the bottom of the stairs. The two of you came face to face as he froze mid step, trying to leave for a different hiding spot. You smirked as he turned to scale the staircase back to the top.
There was no escape up there. You would tag him.
You cornered him at the top and went to tag him when he suddenly flung his hands up in front of him – making a T shape with them. “Time out!” he squealed.
You paused and frowned at him. “You can’t do that! That’s cheating!” But your complaints went unheard as he jumped the wall and landed into the ball pit, using your hesitation as a means to escape. He laughed as you stood there dumbfounded.
That cheat!
You ran back down the stairs (not wanting to jump the wall like he did and risk hurting yourself. Sun would also not be impressed if he saw, as it was quite the fall) but he was long gone.
You huffed and continued your search for the others.
It took a while, but you managed to tag the girl before running to hide again. She looked pretty mad that you caught her, cheeks puffed up as her face faded to red. Her golden-brown curly hair framed her fury as she stared at you with daggers while you fled.
You were now watching from behind a large pile of foam blocks that Sun constantly kept spotless when not in use. You poked your head out to check on where she was, hoping that you lost her completely and she would move onto someone else. Thankfully, she did as you clocked her slowly moving towards the kid who invited you into this game.
But instead of pouncing to tag him, she simply walked up to him and started a conversation. You frowned and watched them talk.
Who just casually starts talking with the opponent in a game?
You were snapped out of your internal questioning when the boy pointed at you, causing the girl to turn and look at your hiding spot.
What?! Why would he rat you out like that?! That’s not fair!
You ran as she stared to approach, initiating a chase around the daycare.
Sun was sat with a group of younger kids, helping them fill out the blank papers of Faz Co. mascots with colouring pencils. One kid was colouring Glamrock Chica yellow instead of white – to match how the older Chica mascots looked. Another kid was colouring Moon and him with each other’s colour schemes. It made his circuits flutter, even if Moon looked like he would be a mascot of a famous fast-food chain with the yellow and red.
Sun briefly shifted his attention to the group of kids playing what looked to be tag. He saw how much fun they were having. He would see the kids occasionally hide together and chuckle to one another as the kid who was ‘it’ missed their obvious hiding place.
Moon’s voice stirred in their shared headspace, drawing in Sun’s attention.
“Sorry, could you repeat that Moony? I didn’t catch what you said…”
Sun could feel Moon’s sarcastic eye roll before he spoke. “I said, I don’t think that kid over there is having much fun in that game of tag.”
Sun could sense the direction Moon was looking and followed his gaze, his optics landed on you. Sun read your body language and found that you were annoyed. Frustrated and fed up with the game. He felt bad and decided to call you over.
You looked over at Sun, he was energetically waving at you. You figured he wanted your attention for something, so you walked over – much to the dismay of the other kids, who managed to tag you again!
“Hey friend! Would you like to colour with us?” He slid a blank paper with an outline graphic of DJ Music Man across the table towards you. You looked up at him and he winked at you. It clicked what was going on.
Sun saw that you weren’t happy playing with the others.
He was giving you an out…
You nodded and sat at in the free chair next to him, you picked up a colouring pencil from the pot in the middle of the table and started to colour the DJ. You whispered a “Thank you”, but you weren’t sure if he heard you as you never got an obvious response.
Shortly after, the group of kids walked up to your table. Unhappy was an understatement for how peeved they all looked. “What are you doing?!” The girl yelled at you, despite the close proximity. You winced at the volume.
“Now, now. They just got tired from all the running and wanted a break. I’m sure you all can play some rounds without them!” Sun had his hands clasped together on the table, smiling at them. You felt that there was a slight edge to his eagerness, his smile forced with a hint of almost threat in his voice. Like he was daring them to speak up.
They didn’t…
You and Sun missed their snide comments that they mumbled under their breaths as they walked off…
Moon did not…
You quickly formed a small pile of coloured pages. You had filled each one with the accurate colours for all the animatronics. You even did some extra ones of Sun and Moon, as a thank you for helping you escape the unfair game.
You kept thinking back to how often you were ‘it’ compared to the others. It was almost like they were targeting you. They were all faster than you, so sneaking up on them was your only option to escape being the ‘tagger’ constantly. And that was only if they didn’t have the reflexes to instantly tag you back (despite them insisting that tag backs were against the rules whenever you did it).
You didn’t realise you were crying until a yellow hand entered your view, dangling a tissue in front of your face. You silently took it and wiped your eyes, only hurting more when you saw that your weeping caused your current drawing to run and spoil. The grey and blue you’ve coloured Moon was smudged and faded.
“Hey Sunshine… are you-” Sun was unable to finish his question when the staff member on shift called your name.
The kids that you played with were walking away from her…
You gulped before getting out of your seat, your knees shaking slightly.
She sounded mad, did you do something wrong?
Sun carefully slid his hand into yours. You looked up to him and he just nodded at you. A small, shy smile grew on your face as the two of you headed over to the staff desk.
“I’ve already told off the others, but they weren’t the only ones involved… Care to explain yourself?” The staff member crossed her arms and glared at you. You cowered away from her, averting your gaze to the wall.
What did you do?
“Umm, Jackie… I don’t think my friend knows what you’re talking about… what happened exactly?” Sun intervened, saving you yet again.
Jackie huffed and glared at the attendant before turning to show off the computers and monitors. There were wires scattered all over the floor and table, some of them were broken, small copper bits sticking out.
“The other gremlins messed with the computers! I caught them red handed!” she then glared back at you. “…And they said that you were in on it…”
You quivered under her scrutinizing gaze, looking up at your sunny saviour for help. He frowned and looked down at you before scooping you up into his arms. You buried your head into his puffy shirt, feeling safer as he rubbed your back. “There’s no way that Sunshine here was in on this! They were colouring with me for the last hour!”
You nodded but didn’t lift your head, lest Sun and Jackie saw how tear stained your face was.
The disgruntled staff member huffed and turned away, focusing on her phone to do her work while waiting for replacement wires for the computers. “Whatever you say Sunman… I didn’t technically see them do anything, so just let them off. I have better things to do than scold children.”
You felt Sun simulate a sigh before carrying you back to the table you were drawing at. He gently plopped you down in your chair before occupying the seat next to you. You never lifted your head, instead staring at your ruined picture of Moon. You wished it was naptime so he could sing away your worries as you slipped into sleep.
Sun anxiously watched as you sat there, unmoving and distant. “Moony, I’m worried… why would Jackie think they were a part of that?”
“Not sure… but those troublemakers have gone too far…” He growled into their headspace. Sun knew he was pissed but couldn’t share the sentiment. He was too worried about your messed up state. “Don’t worry Sun. Just try to keep them occupied and happy until naptime. I know just how to deal with the rulebreakers…”
The daycare was casted into darkness. The only sources of light being the moon and stars that decorated the walls and ceiling – they softly glowed to give the room a cozy atmosphere.
Moon gathered the tired kids into the nap corner to settle while he played with the more energetic kids to tire them out.
His little plan was working…
It wasn’t long before the only lively kids left were the five who dared to bully you that morning. Even talking smack behind your back.
Moon doesn’t tolerate bullies…
He crouched down to the group and softly smiled at them, perfectly masking his glee. “Ah, just you five. How about we play tag to tire you out? Sun saw you all playing it this morning.”
The blonde-haired boy nodded. “Sure, but it was hide-and-seek tag! Not just tag!”
The girl added on. “Yeah, it’s more fun with more players! Shame that kid was such a cry baby about losing. It’s not our fault they sucked at playing.” She huffed as if that would make her point more believable.
Moon had to supress a twitch of annoyance.
To think she had the audacity to say that.
In front of him no less!
“Now, now… just tell me the rules and we can play, okay?”
The kids nodded and explained the rules. Moon just needed to hide his enjoyment a little longer.
They will have a taste of their own medicine soon…
Moon started as the ‘tagger’. Counting down from thirty as they all scattered to hide. He couldn’t hold his grin any longer, he smirked to high heaven as he used his specialised hearing to have constant tabs on the five.
He quickly turned his attention to the nap corner to make sure that you were okay. You sounded happy, tired but happy. Chatting away with the other kids.
Sun did a great job at cheering you up, as he always does with sad kids. That’s why he’s the daycare attendant.
Moon finished his counting and made quick work of tagging the girl. She would get it first from talking so lowly of you to his face. She gasped as he caught her completely unawares before she ran after him.
Moon crawled on all fours to make it easier for her to chase him. His max running speed could give even an Olympic sprinter a run for their money.
She was slowly catching up to him before he suddenly flew up into the air thanks to his wire. “Hey! No fair! That’s cheating!” She yelled at him, stomping her foot into the padded floor.
He chuckled and lowered but stayed just high enough to be out of her reach, even if she jumped. “Not cheating! You never said it was against the rules!” He was using their own twisted logic against them. To see how she felt about it. She just got angrier, and he was flooded with pure bliss.
The other kids came out of their hiding places and joined in on the complaining. After the initial wave of schadenfreude, Moon rolled his eyes and exaggerated a sigh. “Okay, okay… no more wire.” He hopped down and unhooked himself before striding out of sight almost instantly. The kids quickly returned to the game.
Moon spent the entire time annoying the living hell out of the group, hiding in places they couldn’t reach, faking being tired just before they could catch him and calling time out (a nasty trick he saw one of them pull on you at the castle). Anything that they would do to cheat and rig the game in their favor, he turned against them.
And they hated it!
Their constant tantrums and running tired them out one by one. Whenever the one who was ‘it’ was about to retreat to the nap corner, another would willingly take the role of ‘it’ from them. He figured that this evil system they had was a common occurrence to bully the victims they would invite into their twisted game.
After a while, all of them were peeved and knackered. Moon watched as they all pouted in their sleep. Quietly kackling to himself at a job well done. His only hope was that they learned something from the experience.
During pick up, Sun kept you busy while Moon was looking out of their peripheral to watch the five bullies leave daycare. They still looked upset from Moon’s stunt and didn’t try to pester any of the other kids for the rest of the day.
The second the five and their parents left, Sun felt some pings in his systems. “Moon?”
“What? You were thinking the same thing!” Sun felt the utter joy in his counterpart’s voice. Moon filed some forms and got the kids permanently banned from daycare.
Sun chuckled before he sighed into their headspace. “I was, but… is it a little much?”
“No. The daycare has a no bullying policy. Plus, they tampered with company property!” the two went silent for a little bit before Moon spoke up again. “Sun, it’s fine. They are getting what they deserve…”
“Yeah, I know… sorry.” Sun always felt guilty when he or Moon had to ban a kid from daycare, no matter now much they deserved it. Any kid who was banned was devastated by the news, which never helped.
“They are not our problem anymore Sun. Just focus on entertaining the little star until their parents are here.”
Sun instantly perked up and focused back on you as you intensely scribbled on a blank piece of paper. “Of course! Anything for our little friends!”
Sun leaned towards you, elbows on the table. “Soo… what ya making there friend?”
You curled away from him, hiding the paper with your arms. “It’s not finished yet!” You pouted at him.
Sun giggled and relented, leaning back into the chair that was much too small for him as he gave you room. “Okay, okay. But don’t take too long! Your parents will be here soon!” You nodded and quickly finished your drawing.
Jackie called for you as your parents stood outside the large wooden doors. You hastily got up and shoved the finished drawing into Sun’s chest before running to the doors. “Bye Mr. Sun!” You called before you vanished behind the doors.
Sun didn’t have time to wish you a goodbye, but there was always next time. He looked down at the drawing and gasped. Moon ‘oohed’ in their head, staring in awe. It was a drawing of the two with you, all holding hands. Surrounded by scribbled stars and rushed rainbows – bold lettering at the top.
My best friends!