Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When Sun opened the daycare that day, he didn’t expect Bloodmoon to walk in. Normally, that alone would set off numerous alarm bells in his head. Last time Bloodmoon entered the daycare…it was while it was blown up during Ruin’s virus crazed self’s take over.

But, what stopped him from bolting, freezing, or even just yelling from pure trauma and fear, was the rather large gift basket the red animatronic was carrying.

Bloodmoon placed the basket on the desk right in front of Sun. Instead of his usual cocky grin, he looked at him with sympathy and apologetically. Sun didn’t think he was even capable of such a look.

“We uh apologize for the intrusion, Sun.” Not Sun-Man or Yellow-Man or any of the crude nicknames he usually gave while taunting him. Just; Sun. “We felt this should be done more…personally.”

Sun glanced at the gift basket, regarding it carefully. It seemed…normal enough. A wicker basket wrapped in plastic and a bright yellow bow. Inside he could see some scented candles, bathbombs, assorted chocolates, and was that a bottle of wine?

“Uhh thanks?” Sun finally spoke, trying not to let his voice betray how nervous he was. Last time he and Bloodmoon were this close together…

Bloodmoon cleared his throat awkwardly. “Father already gave Earth and Lunar’s theirs for us. He didn’t want us to…give an excuse to delay this.”

Sun finally let fear show in his eyes. Delay, what? More taunting? More death threats? More yelling? Maybe he was just waiting to jump and wail on him for shits and giggles while cackling like a maniac. He trembled as he struggled to do something, anything, to protect himself. He grimaced as he braced himself for-

“We’re sorry.”

What? Did…did they just…?

Bloodmoon looked down, rubbing his arm.

“Brother…you’re better at words than I am…” The aggressive one mumbled. Sun never thought they could sound so…subdued. Quiet.

“Right.” The calmer of the two agreed. As he looked back at Sun, the look of sympathy never leaving even as shame and guilt joined it.

He took a breath, as if he had been dreading this for a long time. “As you know, since father turned over a new leaf, he’s been working at a soup kitchen, helping the homeless. Since we started living with him, he started taking us there as well.”

Bloodmoon chuckled mirthlessly. “We hated it at first, but we were willing to try, for him. Kill Code was the first one to truly care about us besides each other, we didn’t know how much he mourned us and how he changed because he realized how horrible of a person he was even to us, and we re-payed him by murdering him, yet he still let us back in with open arms. We felt it was the least we could do.”

“We slaughtered countless innocents, people we thought no one would miss. Just a small blip on a radar. But the more time we spent with them, helping to care for them…we learned countless names, heard countless stories…” Bloodmoon looked down at his claws, his hands shaking as he stared at them in pure shame. “We began to spiral. How many families had we torn apart? How many of them were close to getting their life back together? How many of them were just people fucked over? We were disgusted with ourselves….but that wasn’t what made it hard to look at ourselves. Drive us to starve ourselves…”

Sun blinked. Bloodmoon’s program made him feel constant hunger so the idea of him starving wasn’t new…but him willingly not eating…This was a trick, wasn’t it? Sun had to be hallucinating again, right? Bloodmoon would never feel regret for anything, right?

“This is real.” Sun murmured to himself, trying to ground himself. Bloodmoon didn’t speak for a long moment, as if waiting for him to get into the right headspace for him to continue. Whatever space he was in, it started to crack apart at what was said next.

“It was the children.”

Sun felt a cold feeling creep up his neck. He forced it back down. No, he wasn’t thinking about that. He can’t be.

Bloodmoon let out an uneasy breath. “There were so many of them. Too many. All full of innocence and life. So young…They would run around all excited and play together, laughing like they weren’t sleeping in the streets or a shelter. We tried to avoid them as best I could, didn’t want to scare them, you know? But…”

He cracked a small smile, not a creepy or smug smile. Genuinely happy yet…sad. “Most were cautious of strangers, yes. But some…they were so excited to meet new people, to meet us. They just kept talking to us, making jokes, asking questions, and…against our better judgment, we responded. However…the more time we spent with them, getting to know them, playing with them…we started to…remember them…”

Them. The way he said it. Them. And how it came up, Sun instantly knew who he was talking about.

July 16th. The worst day of Sun’s life. When six kids under Sun’s care were ruthlessly murdered in cold blood. By his own hands. He knows Bloodmoon was the one who ultimately caused it, he was the one who ripped those poor babies apart. But Sun never stopped blaming himself, hating himself. He thought it was a glitch in his code for so long, the Old Moon even blamed him without letting him explain until much later, not doing anything about the articles calling him a murderer and the parents screaming for his own death until it was far too late. Did he even believe in his innocence until Eclipse revealed himself?

Not that it mattered. Evelyn, Jamie, James, Huey, Howie, Jackie…they were never coming back. They could never go home. He could never tell them how sorry he was…so why bring them up now?

Then he saw it, tears pricking the corners of Bloodmoon’s eyes.

“We wondered if you had similar visions, nightmares, of their screams, their faces…the blood…the thought of it made us want to vomit. And we did. Many times.” Bloodmoon recounted. “We ripped them away from the lives they still had yet to live. From the bright futures ahead of them. And for what? A brief moment of satisfaction and fullness. The sound of our past selves laughter, it made us sick…”

“It only got worse when we thought of you.” He admitted. Sun searched their face for any warning sign that he was about to be verbally attacked again. But he found nothing.

“Your screams, your cries, they were always the loudest.” Bloodmoon explained, closing his eyes. “The pleading that the kids would be ok, trying to convince yourself it wasn’t real. Begging for someone, anyone to believe you, to defend you, to help convince you you weren’t the monster everyone made you out to be. What we forced you to be…”

Bloodmoon finally looked him in the eyes, a look of pure regret on his face. “We know we don’t have the right, after all we’ve done to you, how much we tortured and tormented you for our own sick enjoyment. Nothing will ever erase the blood we covered your body with, nothing will get rid of the trauma we’ve caused you, not even our death brought you peace, instead only making you worse…but…We needed you to know that we deeply regret how we’ve hurt you, how much pain and suffering we’ve caused you, the nightmares, the hallucinations, the taunts and threats, all of it. We just wanted you to know that…We’re sorry. For everything.”

Sun didn’t speak for a long moment, letting it all sink in. He never could’ve imagined he would see the day Bloodmoon of all people would apologize. Genuinely and sincerely apologize. Let alone to him. Let alone for that.

“Did…did you really starve yourself?” Sun hesitantly asked.

“Yes.” Aggressive quickly answered before elaborating. “Father can vouch for us. We couldn’t even look at meat for the longest time. Honestly we’re not sure how long we would’ve gone on if dad hadn’t…”

Bloodmoon shook his head. “This isn’t about us, though. We didn’t come here to force you to pity us. We didn’t come here or give you this to beg for forgiveness we will never deserve.”

“And…you truly regret what you’ve done?”

“Yes. All of it.” Bloodmoon confirmed. “If we could, we would go back and stop it all from happening. Maybe even preventing Eclipse from ever creating us. Anything to save the lives we’ve destroyed. To prevent all the damage we’ve caused. To them. But especially to you.”

Sun closed his eyes, deep in thought. Faintly, he could’ve sworn he heard those victims. But for once, they weren’t crying out and begging for help, for him to stop. They were telling him that it’s ok, that it wasn’t his fault, that they forgive him, that they still love him. The memory of their faces never failed to make him choke up.

He let out a shaky breath and looked Bloodmoon in the eyes. “You’re right, I can’t forgive you. I can never forgive you.”

Bloodmoon opened his mouth to speak, but Sun continued.

“However I…I appreciate your apology. Really. I…honestly gave up the idea of anyone ever apologizing for my insecurities, my trauma. And…I’m glad you realize what you’ve done to me and are taking the steps to be better.”

Bloodmoon looked at him with surprise, like he wasn’t expecting Sun to even acknowledge his sincerity, let alone thank him. He dared let a smile creep up on his face.

“Of course, Sun. It’s the least we could do. For you, for them, for their memory.”

“I think they would like that.”

Bloodmoon shook his head with a chuckle. “Kids are way too trusting, too forgiving. Naive little scamps.”

Sun let out a small genuine laugh as he allowed himself to smile. “Yeah. They are, aren’t they?”

They didn’t realize how long they stood there in a comfortable and almost warm silence. It was…nice honestly.

“Well, we should get going.” Bloodmoon stated. “We’re sure dad is waiting for us. So, we’ll get out of your rays.”

“Right, of course.”

“We hope you enjoy the basket, as well. We had to haggle Spaniard for information on what items you would enjoy.”

That former AI was too sneaky yet caring for his own good, Sun would admit. “I will, thank you.”

Bloodmoon nodded as he turned to leave. As he approached the doors, Sun instinctively called out to them.

“Bloodmoon?”

Said animatronic turned back to him. “Yeah?”

“If…If you want I could tell you about them, one day.” Sun offered. “It would be nice to talk about them again in a positive light.”

Bloodmoon grinned, but Sun didn’t feel afraid when he saw it. For once, he didn’t feel threatened. “We would like that. Just let us know when you’re ready.”

Sun nodded. “Ok.”

With that Bloodmoon left. As soon as the daycare doors shut, Sun finally acknowledged he was crying. He has no idea when he had started.

He rubbed his eyes as he sank back into his chair, his head resting on the desk.

“Sun, are you alright?” Spaniard asked. Sun wondered how long he had been listening in.

“I will be…” Sun murmured. He looked back at the gift basket Bloodmoon had given him. He wondered what he did to get all this, just for him. He tentatively picked it up and placed in under the desk for safekeeping until the end of his shift. “Maybe someday…”

Chapter Text

Heavy metal was cut off by the buzz of a phone. Bloodmoon groaned as he dropped the barbell back onto its stand, his mojo now off. He sat up from the bench, grabbing his towel to wipe the artificial sweat away.

“What is it now?” Bloodmoon Beaver complained.

“No idea.” Strawberry muttered as he reached for their phone.

It couldn’t be KC, they had just responded to his “checking in” text before they started. Maybe it was Eclipse asking if they were done with their workout so he could use the shed for something.

They were surprised to see Moon’s contact on the screen.

“What does Moon-Man want?”

The night animatronic never called them, he only had his contact because it was already in their system. Heck, they rarely interacted outside of when they happened to be in the same room.

Curiosity peaked, Bloodmoon tapped the answer button.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Bloodmoon.” Moon’s voice came out rough. Well, rougher than normal. Almost like his voice was running raw.

“Did you need something, Moon-man?” Bloodmoon asked, grabbing his water bottle.

“You could definitely say that.” Moon chuckled mirthlessly. “More like I need to tell you something.”

Bloodmoon took a long sip of his water. Just water, they didn’t like feeling full while working out. “Well, out with it then.”

Moon took a deep breath, bracing himself. “You remember Dazzle?”

Dazzle? Ah right. That animatronic that had been staying in the daycare after Fazbear had abandoned her and built the daycare over her. Unsettling to look at, but a sweet little doe drop, all things considered, despite her size almost rivaling KC’s. She didn’t deserve to be up and abandoned like that, luckily she had friends to rely on now. Jack being her best friend and Sun being her unofficial caretaker. Last he heard, they were even working on a body to transfer her into and out of that crudely slapped together deer skeleton with a speaker in its chest.

“What about her?” Bloodmoon inquired.

“Sun went to the daycare and…she wanted to tell him something.” Moon began slowly. “She said she had been remembering more about her time before she woke up in the walls and that she was sorry for making Sun mad. When he asked what she was talking about…Dazzle…”

Moon let out a breath as if rubbing his temples. “I’m only telling this because Sun insisted and we both felt you had a right to know.”

A right to know, what? What was going on? “Where are you going with this?”

“You know how a human soul can possess an animatronic body?”

Bloodmoon blinked. Of course he does. The entirety of the game they’re based on surrounded that. “Yeah?”

“Well Dazzle said that…the she used to be alive. A child. A living, breathing, human child.” Moon explained.

Bloodmoon’s eyes narrowed. It was heartbreaking, yes. But that wouldn’t make Moon sound like this. Or make Sun insist on telling him specifically.

“She was one of the kids in the daycare. One of Sun’s.” Moon filled in, as if sensing the unasked question.

That…that made sense. Dazzle’s current body had been in the daycare walls, but why would her spirit go there? Why not the afterlife? Sure she was obviously comfortable in the daycare but why would she stay there? It didn’t make sense. Not unless she-

Wait

Not waiting for a response, Moon continued. “She just kept apologizing for making Sun mad…for making him hurt her. Sun told her he never hurt her, that she didn’t do anything wrong but…when he asked if she remembered when this was…she…Dazzle she…”

No. Don’t say what he thinks it is. It can’t be. There’s no way it-

“It was in July.” Moon finally said. “Dazzle was one of the July 16th victims.”

That one sentence, that confirmation made Bloodmoon practically deflate. He almost dropped the phone as he sunk down, burring his head in his hand.

“Fuck…” He muttered. You mean to tell them they had been talking to and acting friendly with one of their first victims? One of the innocent souls they had taken? He dared be anywhere near her like he hadn’t violently torn her away from her family? How could she be so calm and happy around him whenever he and his family visited the daycare? Her murderer.

“Who…Which one was she?” He asked. He didn’t want to know, he really didn’t, but he had to. He had to know which of the little stars Sun spoke so fondly, so lovingly of.

Jamie and James, twins alike in every way, except that James loved mustard while Jamie gagged at the mention of it.

Jackie, who almost always would be wearing a dress and would pout if she wasn’t.

Huey, who loved superheroes so much that he dressed up as Spiderman with Superman’s cape and belt, Super Spider man he called it.

Howie, who was so shy and quiet that he only really talked to Sun, but even then it was just in whispers.

Don’t tell him it was-

“Evelyn.” Moon answered. “Dazzle is Evelyn.”

Evelyn. The smallest of the kids. Loved overalls, PB and J sandwiches with extra nuts and no jelly, lost teeth so often that her front two were crooked. Sun spoke the most about her, so much that Bloodmoon was inclined to believe she was secretly his favorite. In fact, it had been her birthday party that day.

In an instant, Bloodmoon could hear the screams again. Among them, he heard who he could only assume was Evelyn, crying out in pain as he made Sun-

Sun!

“How is-Is Sun alright?”

Moon let out a long sigh. “He’s…taking it as best as he could.” He stated. “He cried at least a bulk of it out. When he got home, not in front of her, thank god. I just let him talk, vent. Then we ordered take out and watched trash tv, I even brought out one of his good bottles of wine for him. I would say he’ll feel better when he wakes up, but that’s wishful thinking. Even if I hadn’t needed to carry him up to bed after he passed out drunk…”

Moon chuckled bitterly. “I think what hurt him the most was that Dazzle wasn’t even mad. She even tried comforting him by telling him she’s alright now, that she doesn’t hurt anymore. The fact that she can understand that what happened wasn’t Sun’s fault but it took the Old Moon so long to realize. His own brother. God, if I had been there I…I don’t know what I would’ve…damnit.”

Poor Sun. Bloodmoon couldn’t even begin to comprehend what he must be going through right now. He must be so beat up, broken. When they had talked, Sun had admitted that he’s finally processing what happened healthily and might finally be ready to move on, for those kids he cared for and loved.

But now Evelyn is back, not technically alive but…She had been spending time with Sun, playing with him, loving him, and he gave her a special place in his heart and offered to get her out of that horrible body without either of them realizing they had once been connected before…She couldn’t even remember enough for Sun to properly apologize like he’s always wished and dreamed to. Maybe that was a good thing, all things considered.

“Sun didn’t tell her it was you.” Moon continued. “He thought…he figured you should be the one to tell her or at least help him explain it to her.”

What? Sun…didn’t tell her? He wanted Bloodmoon to tell her? Sun had every right and reason to keep him far far away away from that poor girl but

“He…Sun still trusts us to be around the daycare. Around her?” He questioned.

“You’ve changed, Bloodmoon.” Moon stated. “I may have not acknowledged it before, but you’re not that person you were then. Not anymore. Both KC and Sun tell me all about how much you love kids now, how much they love you. How you care for them, play with them.”

“We just wanted to try and make up for what we did to them…prove to ourselves that we could be better.” Bloodmoon breathed out.

“And you are. Sun trusts you. He can’t ever forgive you for what happened and he shouldn’t, but he trusts who you are now. He trusts you, Bloodmoon.”

He shouldn’t. He really shouldn’t. But he trusted them enough to talk to them, laugh with them, tell him all about those kids, to be in the same room as them, even sit next to them and…smile.

“We…we appreciate you telling us, Moon.” Bloodmoon said finally.

“Of course.”

“Would you…mind giving us an update on Dazzle’s body when you have one?”

Moon let out a confused noise but didn’t act on it. “If you want, sure.”

He needed to know when Dazzle will be alright and more comfortable in a body she doesn’t have to worry about falling apart on her.

“Thank you.”

With that, the line dropped. Bloodmoon finally let go of the phone and flopped backwards back onto the bench. They let out a long sigh and just stared up at the ceiling.

“How do you think she’ll react, when she knows it was us? Why we did it?” Beaver asked.

“I don’t know.” Strawberry admitted. Hopefully she wouldn’t still think it was her fault somehow. They could hear her apologizing that they were so hungry, that it was ok. Even though it wasn’t. Far from it. “Sun should have told her…”

“Maybe…”

They were both quiet for a long while, just laying there. The only sound being their own breathing and the fan in the corner.

“Hey, how much money do we have?” Beaver inquired.

“Dad gave us our allowance a few days ago.” Strawberry answered. “Why?”

“I have an idea.”
____________________________________

Sun groaned as his namesake shone through the window. His head was pounding. He knows he shouldn’t have drank an entire bottle of wine again, but he couldn’t help himself. He just needed to numb the pain a little longer. Before he had to see Dazzle again, Evelyn, the little girl he had failed to protect all that time ago.

His eyes were still closed but he could feel the dry tears on his cheeks, must’ve been crying in his sleep. Figures.

He felt one of his cats licking his face, trying to clean it for him. Sun reluctantly opened one eye to see Muffin snuffling at him. As soon as realizing his owner was awake, Muffin purred and snuggled under his chin.

“Hi Muffin, baby…” Sun croaked out, voice still sore from last night scratching under the gray cat’s fluffy chin.

He felt Cleo jump on the bed. He glanced over to greet his more naughty cat, only to see a bag dangling from his mouth.

“What’cha got there, Cleo?” Sun asked, slowly sitting up.

Cleo trotted up to him and dropped the small bag right in Sun’s lap, looking rather smug about it.

Sun scratched behind the tuxedo cat’s ears before picking up the bag. He was surprised to see it was chocolate. He would’ve assumed his cats somehow got into the pantries again, until he realized that he doesn’t remember them having this brand in the house. It was his favorite chocolate.

Feeling something on the other side, Sun flipped the bag over to see a note taped to it.

Sun, Moon told us about Dazzle. About Evelyn. We figured you would need these. We are also here when you need to talk if you wish us to be that trusting ear.
Bloodmoon
P.S: Your cats were the one who opened the window for us.

Sun’s eyes widened. Bloodmoon was here? And he got these, for him?

He felt a smile pull at his lips. “Can’t believe I’m saying this but…they really are sweet. Absolute goblins but…sweet.”

Cleo seemed to roll his eyes before slipping under Sun’s arm. Muffin, as always, was unbothered and continue to purr like the big lump he was.

Sun gently opened the bag, popping a few chocolates in his mouth, humming as he savored them. He resealed the bag and placed it on his nightstand for later.

So sweet…