Chapter Text
It all comes back to that day… that day that he had wished to redo a thousand times, the day he had thought of a million ways that he could have done better… maybe he wouldn’t be standing in the middle of a hospital waiting room, hoping and praying to a god he didn’t believe in that the man he was convinced he didn't have any feelings for was on the brink of death. Pacing the white tile floors of the sickeningly clean hallways feeling almost suffocating as he waited for any sort of updates on his friend’s condition
He could hear the sounds of announcements and names coming over the intercom but none of them registered in his mind. He nervously waved off several nurses passing by, pretending like he wasn’t on the brink of a mental breakdown in the middle of the ER.
He slumped exhaustedly against the nearby wall, a weight bumping against his side from the pocket of his sunflower yellow coat. Grabbing onto it, he pulled out a glitter pink diary. It was covered in stickers and drawings of dogs and cats, it looked like something out of a child’s fever dream. It was one of the few gifts he still had from his brother… he kept all his post important notes and stories inside the rough yellow pages of the age worn book. childhood memories, random memories and facts he’d gained… and the most important was the day he met HIM.
—
The man sat on a long bench, staring at the black and white TV hung on a pedestal attached to the company breakroom. He was the only person there, making the room feel even more empty and oppressive. In his hands he held a tape that his boss had handed him before walking away. He looked it over multiple times before placing it in the cassette slot.
He leaned back against the wall behind him, the grain of the bench digging into his hands, his hands digging into the wood hard enough to pull splinters.
The tv clicked to life, a wall of static sputtering to life before the image of a woman appeared on the screen, giving a forced smile and wave to the camera before beginning the company spiel
“Congratulations on your new position as a dispatch operator for the fazbear entertainment Hurricane district!”
The VHS wirred monotonously as Andrew looked at the screen, a glaze of boredom formed over his eyes, showing his clear and obvious boredom and his lack of desire to be here at all.
“With your new and exciting position, you will oversee a team of five fazbear technicians, making sure they finish their tasks and keep them on track during the duration of your shift.”
Did he really have to listen to all of this? It was barely even a job and more just a place for them to shove him after his last failed company assessment. He already knew what management though of him, they didn’t have to shove salt in the wound by isolating him from his coworkers as well.
“The troubles you may run into include : team members breaking the code of conduct, incomplete work or poorly completed tasks, technical difficulties that may require immediate intervention—“
Of course there would be technically issues the man sighed, Fazbear had cut all funding down to the bare minimum for all departments. It was like they WANTED their employees to quit. If he had to guess the tech was probably as old as he was, if not older.
“If any issues arise, please report them immediately to your supervisor or to tech support. Remember! Employee safety is our top priority!”
Now THAT was definitely bullshit he thought while rubbing the long faded scars that ran the length of his upper arm. All they cared about was making money, he knew that all too well. He’d worked for the company long enough to see people he considered friends forced to leave, either willingly or …less so. It was best to not trust any of the PR bullshit they tried to throw at him, he knew at the end of the day it was all smoke and mirrors.
“You will get the chance to meet your new team shortly! Be sure to make a good first impression, it’s always good to start off on the right food! Above all else, remember to always wear that Fazbear smile!”
Oh god, he forgot that the point of a communication job was… well, communication… it couldn’t be THAT bad, he’d survive just a few minutes of social interaction.
His mind, however, had other ideas. Thinking of every possible way it could go wrong… what if he forgot their names? Or tripped? Or make a fool of himself? He wasn’t prepared for this! He wasn’t ready!
But reality didn’t really care whether he was ready or not, he would just have to push through anyways. Just for a little while… then he can dissapear back into his dark cubicle and pretend the world didn’t exist once again. He was always good at that.
Walking out onto the front lawn, there stood 4 men in front of him, noted the noticeable absence of one of his team members. He thought about making a comment on it, but thought better of it. He instead looked at the figures standing before him. In front of him stood three tall white men with broad shoulders and work uniforms, their names didn’t really stick in his mind… Adam… Mark… Rick… they weren’t the ones he was interested in. The man that caught his eye was the figure leaning against a tree in the back. He had dark tanned skin that was noticeably covered in dirt, oil, and sweat. His messy brunette curls covered most of his face and leaving only his deep hazel eyes showing. He wore the company uniform of a yellow shirt and dark green jacket that seemed to be at least one or two sizes too big that hung limply over his lithe form. He had a look of deep exhaustion etched into his face like he hadn’t had a good and proper nights rest in months. Dispatch reached out a hand, holding it out for a handshake to the strange figure.
“Hello! My name is Andrew Fisher! I will be your new Dispatch leader! What is your name?”
The younger man looked up at him, his face a mix of annoyance and exhaustion. He had a distinct look of disgust, his teeth showing slightly as he stared at Andrew. Without even responding he simply bat the open hand away, before turning back around and walking towards his van
“Call me Arnold… or don’t. whatever, I don’t care. I have work to do.”
Andrew stood in place for a minute, just trying to process what just happened. Most people would have been viscerally offended by the lack of courtesy and respect, but Andrew simply stared at the odd man, eyes sparkling with intrigue and confusion. He felt a strange new feeling fluttering in his chest, he didn’t have the words to describe it, he simply stood there and watched the man drive away as he muttered the name again.
“Well, Arnold… I’ll be keeping an eye on you.”
—
Andrew looked up for a minute, glancing around the hospital waiting room again, desperately searching for the doctors he had seen earlier… when he didn’t see them he simply sighed and turned the page of the homemade diary
—
6:42 am
He was five days into his new job, Andrew was down his third cup of coffee and his fifth vending machine trip. All the technicians had gone home… well, all except Arnold. He had been working 15 hours straight and didn’t seem to be stopping any time soon. By contract Andrew couldn’t log off until all his technicians did, so he had been stuck all night, internally begging the other man to stop. He had been offering him jobs “just as an extra incentive” but didn’t actually expect Arnold to actually take him up on any of them… to his shock and confusion the man had taken him up on every single one.
“Hey there Arnold, you… you do know you can go home right?”
The line went quiet for a minute, the sound of Arnold humming softly on the other end crackling through the radio. Andrew thought the line was broken again before Arnold let out a sigh.
“Well I mean… if there is work to be done, might as well do it.”
“But… don’t you have a wife?”
The line went quiet for a long while before Arnold muttered
“We’re not really on speaking terms right now.”
Andrew decided to take that as his cue to change the subject.
“……. How’s the weather?” Andrew asked, nervously curling the radio cord around his finger
“….seriously? That’s all you can think of?” Arnold huffed out a laugh
“Well? You’re not exactly giving me much to work with here Arnie—“
The line went dead silent, he could almost feel the stare Arnold must be giving him right now.
“Never call me that nickname. Ever.”
He pulled back from the mic like it had burned him and nodded slightly, a sense of nervous panic settling in his chest as he curled the cord tighter around his finger
“Understood, I apologize.” He tried not to sound fazed by it, the sudden reaction catching him off guard. Arnold also seemed to ease up slightly at the response.
“Thank you… sorry I- I shouldn’t have been so harsh.”
“Of course! I wouldn’t wish to cause any discomfort to any of my techs!”
“Haha… that’s sweet. Anyways, do you have any more jobs for me?”
“Let me see… remember! Don’t overwork yourself, we don’t need another incident!”
—
Ah the good old days… when things weren’t complicated… where it was just him and Arnold on those late nights. Life was simpler back then. Then everything had to get complicated.
Turning the page he found even more memories scratched into the faded diary
Oh he remembered this one… it was one of his favorites
—
4:25 am
Arnold and Andrew had been sitting in silence for hours, the occasional quip or offer for work filling the endless silence. Andrew was fine with this, dosing off several times over the course of his shift. Everyone else had gone home, so it was just him and Arnold in the darkness. After what had probably been hours Andrew finally spoke
“Hey, you’ve been awfully quiet tonight… anything on your mind?”
Arnold sputtered like he had been snapped out of a daze.
“Wh… oh, just- just thinking haha…”
“Mmmm you also seem to be in a surprisingly good mood… any particular reason?”
Arnold let out another nervous laugh at the thought
“Ha…hahaha oh you know…”
“No no, tell me! What made such a stoic man so giddy?”
“Well, if you really want to know I… I’m going to be a father…”
They both sat in silence for another few seconds, Andrew trying to process the news
“I- congratulations! Oh man! I… have you… do you know what you’re going to name them?”
“Weee haven’t really decided… ironically I learned about it through a voicemail so I haven’t exactly gotten to talk to her in person about the news… but the next time I see her I will definitely ask!”
“Well congratulations! I’m sure you will be a great father!”
Arnold let out another dazed laugh at that
“I don’t know… I’m definitely going to have to work on not taking as many late nights… I have to step up and be the father I never really had. I don’t think I told you, but my dad died when I was really young, so I’ve never really had a father figure in my life… but I’m going to change that! I’m going to be the best father I can be!”
“I bet you will be! Even from just talking to you over the past three years I know you’ll make a great father!”
“Ironic that I’ve probably talked to you more over the past three years than my own family. What would that make you…my work wife?”
That got both of them to break down laughing, Deep and genuine laughs. Neither of them had laughed that hard in a long time, and when the mic finally went silent again, Andrew could tell they were both smiling at the thought.
“What? You need another wife? I didn’t think you swung that way” Andrew prodded teasingly.
“I- I mean I don’t! But you know… haha…”
“You’re just jealous. That’s it isn’t it? You’re just jealous of my magnificent voice and my undeniable charm.”
“Charm? Oh please I’ve met you. You can’t charm your way out of a library!”
“I- h… hey!” Andrew covered his face with his hands in embarrassment.
“I’m just stating the facts! Without your looks you probably couldn’t pull anyone that wasn’t fictional.”
“aRNOLD—“ Andrew laid his head on the desk, whining out loud enough the microphone could hear him.
They both devolved into laughter again, then back into silence.
“Dispatch?…”
“Mmh?”
“Thank you…”
“Oh? For what?”
“I… I don’t know… putting up with me?”
“Of course! That’s what I’m here for!”
“I’m serious! Thank you…”
Before Andrew could respond, Arnold pulled up to his next job, cutting the mic as soon as he got out of the van.
—
Andrew sighed to himself. He always remembered that one because it was one of the few times Arnold was in a genuinely good mood… the next one however?… he could only wish.
—
2:15
Arnold had been completely silent. He had barely spoken a word outside of work related questions for almost a week. Andrew tried to gently prod multiple times, but only ever received grumbles and huffs in response. He also started working long past his hours and late into the night and morning until Andrew had to practically force him to go home. He had worked almost 24 hour shifts multiple times before Andrew had to beg him to stop so neither one of them collapsed from exhaustion.
After 5 days straight of this behavior, Andrew finally decided to confront him, if for nothing else than his own sanity and sleep schedule.
Andrew had tried gently prodding him a few time, but Arnold continued to ignore almost any form of interaction.
“Arnold, please just tell me what’s wrong! This isn’t healthy! You need to at least take a break if you aren’t going to tell me! You’ve been working for the last 12 hours without stopping, I can’t let you keep going like this!”
“I’ll take a break when I need one.”
“Even for you this is excessive!”
“I said, I’ll take a break when I need one.” Arnold snapped back, a low huff echoing over the mic before going silent again for several minutes.
Andrew tried desperately to think of how to approach the situation without somehow making it worse.
“…Arnold…” he pulled the mic closer to his face, dropping his voice to make sure the other man heard him
“As your boss, but also as your friend, I need to make sure you’re okay. Even if I don’t know the specifics I don’t want you working yourself to death—“
Arnold immediately cut off his sentence with a hiss.
“First of all, we’re not friends. We are coworkers at best, and two if you must so BADLY know, my wife cheated on me, admitted our son isn’t even mine, packed up and left, and took everything except divorce papers. There, I said it. Are you HAPPY now?”
The mic went silent once again as Andrew stared in stunned horror. He could hear the faint sound of Arnold’s shuddering breaths as he desperately trying not to cry on the other end of the line.
“I-I’m so sorry… that is…”
“Just drop it. It doesn’t concern you, and I don’t need your sympathy. Now just give me the next job.”
“I- I… alright… as you wish…”
—
That was a month ago, and things had only turned for the worse since then. The latest entry was dated 2 days ago. Andrew didn’t even need the diary entry, he could recall that entire night vividly.
—
5:45 am
Andrew hadn’t heard a word from Arnold in almost eight hours. One minute they were talking (or more accurately, Andrew was talking and Arnold was his tired angry self and only responding in the occasional single word answers or huffs) when the line suddenly went to static. Even if Arnold had wanted some alone time, it was against company policy to cut or tamper with the line in any way, meaning Andrew had to step in.
After several minutes of calling out to him over the air, tweaking the radio, and even resetting the system all together Andrew had only managed to get about five minutes tops of uninterrupted air time.
By the time he had come to accept the radio was a waste of energy, He had managed to keep tabs on the company tracker. That wasn’t a viable solution either since it kept spazzing out every few minutes.
When he saw that Arnold had entered Murray’s costume manor, he managed to do some (not so legal) coding tweaks to get into the security system. With all his backdoor access, it was still like fighting a wall of fire. Any time he would access a camera it was almost like another entity could see him and would cut the feed. It ended up feeling like he was playing a game of firewall hide and seek for several hours.
What Andrew did manage to see shook him to his core. Multiple animatronics, some several stories tall, were chasing Arnold all throughout the costume manor. He remembered he had sent a few of his technicians to the manor before, so he did know about the endoskeleton they were searching for, but the ones he had sent had never come back and had seemed to disappear off the face of the earth… and now he understood why.
Even though the old security cameras, he could make out the distinct shapes of bodies shoved into the different costumes surrounding the manor. The sight made him sick to his stomach, and gave him even more desperation to get Arnold OUT OF THERE but whatever was blocking his access had other plans. Whatever it was managed to cut off his access for over an hour, and when it let him back in the entire manor was on fire. It couldn’t have been more than ten minutes after that he saw Arnold running to his van with a sea of what looked to be different trash cans and inanimate objects with googly eyes chasing right behind him.
That was when he FINALLY managed to gain access to the radio again.
“ARNOLD!!! Oh thank the heavens you’re okay! What happened in there?—“
“SHUT. UP. JUST SHUT UP! You’ve done MORE than enough bossing me around for one night.”
“I- wh… what are you talking about?!”
“Ha! Trying to get me killed, feeding me to that THING. Very funny. Great joke. You know what? I don’t even care. I’m done.”
“Arnold you’re not making any sense!”
“Oh I’m making PERFECT sense. Now if you could just— SHIT!—“
He heard the sounds of a struggle, glass shattering, and tires screaming before the mic suddenly went dead.
“Arnold? Are you okay? Arnold? ARNOLD RESPOND!”
The mic went completely dead for several long seconds before the soft click of the mic activating and the strained voice of Arnold sputtered over the air.
“I….. send… help..”