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16 years ago, Michael made a promise to himself to never let his child know about Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria or anything about William Afton.
Unfortunately, kids - especially teenagers - are quite curious and getting into robotics paired with unrestrained internet access doesn't exactly make things easier.
So, when Evan brought home kids from school talking about the pizzeria, Michael nearly choked on his latte. Great, his son's hanging out with people curious about it and from the look of it, some of them liked true crime.
Great.
He kept scrubbing the kitchen counter as he heard bits and pieces of their conversation from the living room.
"Are you sure, Ev? It's gonna be no fun without you," one said.
"I'm sure, I'll be busy with homework anyway. Besides, that sounds like a recipe for getting arrested."
What the hell kind of things were kids into nowadays that would get them arrested? Sure, Michael wasn't great during his teen years, but he's never done anything illegal.
He dried the counter and hung around in the kitchen, curious about the kind of crowd his son's gotten mixed in with.
"You think you can fix my flashlight before we go? It's pretty inconsistent."
"Oh please, I could make a whole robot with my skills," Evan sounded proud, teen boys and their egos. "I'll get it fixed in no time."
Michael tried to not let that comment get to him. It was just a teenager's ego, Evan couldn't actually make a whole robot, right?
He probably could though, that kid knew machines and Michael wasn't one to doubt his kid too much. It's probably where his dad went wrong with him, after all, and he's nothing like William.
He'd be damned if he were anything like that monster who dared to call himself a father and husband.
•°•°•°•°•
They had spaghetti for dinner, they didn't sit at the dining room table but instead in the living room with the TV going. The blue light from the TV shone on the light flooring and the warm yellow from the lamp beside Michael casted onto the walls.
Evan sat in the loveseat with his sketchbook beside him and his plate of spaghetti with 3 pieces of garlic bread on the TV tray.
The kid ate as he sketched, barely paying attention to the show. That didn't stop Michael from fast forwarding past the more.... Explicit scenes though.
He could see in the corner of his eye a sketch in the book with little scribbles of words here and there. Looked pretty damn close to some of William's rough drafts for animatronics.
He shook his head lightly and ate another forkful of spaghetti, washing it down with some soda. He was just imagining that. That prick probably fucked him up more than initially thought.
Yeah...that's it, his son was just doodling and making a project for school. Nothing nefarious about it.
He glanced over at the book for a couple more scenes before swallowing the lump in his throat, "what're you drawing, kiddo?"
"Rough draft for a robot, trying to impress a boy in my class."
An amused smirk came onto Michael's face, his worries temporarily dissolved, "a boy? It wouldn't happen to be this Lucas kid you never shut up about, would it?"
Evan's face looked as red as the pasta sauce. He covered his face from his father's view with the sketchbook, "shut up..."
Michael chuckled at his son's embarrassment, "he's a good kid, you should bring him by more often."
Evan peeked out from behind the sketchbook, "I might."
"Good."
The next afternoon, Evan sat in the school's cafeteria and his friends, talking about where they went last night.
"That pizza place was so creepy, and the animatronics were just...ew," his friend, Matthew, said.
"I saw blood on one of them," Gabriel piped up.
"No wonder that place shut down," Evan said into his can of soda.
"Eh. It was only really creepy since it had so much moss everywhere, and some mold. It would've been a lot more fun with you there, Ev," Lucas said with a smile.
Lucas had gone?
"You didn't tell me you were going," Evan set the soda can on the table.
Lucas rested his head in his hand on the table, "guess you'll have to come next time."
A slight smile pulled at Evan's lips, "yeah, I guess I will."