Work Text:
It was the winter holiday season, and the decoy pizzeria was pretty busy. Sure, the only reason Mike and Link opened this place was to lure William Afton in and destroy him once and for all, but in the meantime they still had to run it like it was a real pizzeria, because it kind of was, and it was making decent money. Mike half wondered if there was a way to keep this place going without burning it down to get rid of William, but... it was still a Freddy's. It was still a glaring reminder of all the tragedy so many people had faced. Even if it made money, it needed to go up in flames. Still, right now...
Link was busy cleaning tables when Mike pulled him aside.
"Where's the pu--um, Charlie?" Mike asked in a hushed voice.
"On the stage, singing songs for the kids," Link said, nodding in that direction. "Why?"
"Because I need to talk to you about something without her hearing. Let's go in the kitchen."
"Okay, but we better make it fast, because I think the poor kid's running out of ideas for songs to sing. I swear I've heard her sing the jingle bells one twice." Link shook his head as he followed Mike into the kitchen.
"Okay, so, um..." Mike fidgeted. "Do you remember everything I told you about Santa?"
"I've been in Utah for seven years," Link said. "I still struggle with some things, but I think I'd remember Santa."
"Yeah, so, like, kids believe in Santa, right? But Santa isn't real, so their moms and dads buy them stuff to put under the tree at night like yeah, look what Santa brought--"
"I said I remember," Link said. Mike ignored him.
"But anyway, Charlie is a kid, right? The ghost of a kid, but still. And her mom and dad... I never knew her mom, and who the hell knows where Henry is?"
Link bit down on his lower lip. He and Charlie did in fact know a little bit about where Henry was, and Charlie was hiding her existence as a ghost from him as best as she could. She didn't want him to realize she was still stuck on this mortal plane. It would break his heart all over again. But still, he thought he knew what Mike was getting at.
"Yeah, so if Charlie still believes in Santa, it's up to us to get her something?" he said.
"Exactly." Mike nodded. "You talk to her more than I do. Do you know what she likes? We can get her a couple decent things, or maybe one really nice thing, but I want it to be something she likes."
"Wow, you went from being terrified she was going to kill you, to wanting to get her a good Christmas present," Link said, grinning. "I'm impressed."
"Is that sarcasm?" Mike asked.
"No, genuinely not. I'm happy to see it. But, um, I don't even know what she likes, like in terms of toys and hobbies. And she's spent so long being an entertainment animatronic all day and a vengeful spirit all night, that does she even remember what she likes? She hasn't had time to have fun in forever, until she moved in with us."
"True," Mike said. "But now she has time to do some fun stuff in our apartment sometimes, when she's not pretending to be a normal animatronic at the pizzeria. So, like, what do you notice she does when she doesn't have anything she has to do?"
"Hmm. She'll watch whatever we're watching on TV. I think she's gotten vaguely invested in your vampire soap opera show. Or she'll clean in an almost obsessive compulsive way, like she's so anxious and full of trauma that she has to do something like that to keep her mind off the bad thoughts." Link sighed. "Been there myself."
"True. Our apartment is cleaner than it's ever been with just the two of us living in it..." Mike sighed too.
"Didn't you used to babysit her along with your two younger siblings when you were a teenager?" Link asked. "What did she like to do then?"
"Hmm. Well, she and Elizabeth played together all the time then. It was crazy because they were both super bossy and the kind of person who always has to be in charge, so half the time they were yelling at each other. I'm not sure what was worse, when they weren't getting along or when they were, because when they were then they would gang up on me to make me do things."
"Things like?"
"Paint their nails, get them extra junk food, play with them in whatever play-pretend game they were making up, where I had to do exactly what they said anyway. They did play a lot of Barbies..."
"Those dolls?"
"Yeah. Elizabeth had so many, and even though the vast majority of them were the blonde one, both girls could tell them apart by minute differences in makeup and earrings. They were like, no, that one's not Barbie, that's Angela and she's the doctor. No, that one isn't the same as Angela. That one's Megan and she's the bus driver. You can tell she's different because Angela has purple earrings and Megan has blue ones. Obviously." Mike shook his head, then paused. "We could get her some of those?"
"I don't think so," Link said. "I think when she was seven or eight and you babysat her was when she liked dolls, and by the time she was in fifth grade she was over that. I don't think she'd still have fun if you gave her them now, especially since there's no one to play with her except, like, us."
"Okay, so not Barbies." Mike sighed loudly. "What are the cool toys any kid would like, then? Maybe we get her one of those, so she can feel normal, and have something to do besides TV and cleaning."
"I don't know that either," Link said. "Maybe we need to look at a toy store catalog."
"I think we have one at home, in our pile of junk mail we have and keep saying we're going to throw out eventually but we just keep adding to it instead," Mike said. "I'll hide it in my backpack and bring it here tomorrow, and we can look at it while hiding in the kitchen during Charlie performing on stage again. We don't want her to see us with it at home, though. It'll ruin everything."
"Understood." Link nodded firmly.
The next day, it was exactly as they'd said. Charlie was singing Christmas songs on stage for the kids, and Link and Mike were in the kitchen with the Toys R Us catalog they'd found in their junk mail pile. Link gave it a quick flip through before dropping it on the table with a wide eyed look.
"This was a bad idea," he said.
"Why? What is it?" Mike asked.
"I'm going to have an existential crisis." Link cautiously opened it back up to the page that showed the Super Nintendo and the games for it. "The game I'm from specifically doesn't come out for a few more years, but this... these games are about an alternate timeline where I'm from that happens when I die. Or, would happen if I died. Like, in some parallel universe I died instead of managing to save the kingdom and then this is what future incarnations of me have to do because I failed and died."
"Oh my God." Mike's jaw dropped. "That's... that's terrifying. Also that's a huge fourth wall break. I thought the rule was that only Charlie could break the fourth wall, and that was only because she was a ghost." He shivered. "I'm glad I don't have a fourth wall--"
"Well, I know because I saw the ad for it and Charlie used her bizarre future sight fourth wall break to explain it to me. And you... you and her have a fourth wall too, you know. I can't believe she didn't tell you."
"Really?" Mike's jaw dropped again, even wider. "I'm scared to ask, but... what are we in?"
"Another video game series, and to make it worse, the video game series you're in also exists inside the video game series. Like, inside the game, the tragedies at Freddy's happen, and Fazbear Entertainment tries to discredit them by making the video games that exist outside the game, inside the game."
"That's... fucked up."
"We both have timeline issues too, you and I. People argue all the time about what order the games happen in, because it isn't the order they come out in..." Link shivered. "Anyway! Let's ignore the existential terror and look at a different page of the toy catalog, because we're not buying Charlie a Super Nintendo." He turned the page all too quickly.
"They have art supplies here," Mike said, looking at the new page. "Art supplies are still a good gift for kids that are almost tweens, right? There's a Crayola art desk, with, like, stencils and stickers and stuff. She can draw?"
"Yeah, that's probably good." Link nodded. "That, and the big box of crayons?"
"Yeah, the 96 crayon box with the sharpener," Mike said. "I'll go get it right now, and wrap it, and hide it somewhere in the apartment until Christmas morning."
"Okay, great. Glad we got that sorted out."
They did indeed get the present and keep it hidden until Christmas Eve. They waited until late at night, and got it out to put it under their little tabletop tree in the living room. The only problem was that was exactly where the puppet was, slumped over on the couch.
"She's asleep, right?" Mike asked. "Do ghosts sleep?"
"We could put on a music box," Link said.
"I don't exactly have one of those just lying around," Mike said with a sigh. "We'll just have to chance it."
He held the present behind his back as he snuck into the living room and slipped it under the tabletop tree. He pretended to fiddle with the ornaments for a moment before he left. Then he tried to walk away as naturally as possible, sighing with relief once he got back out into the hallway. The puppet hadn't moved at all.
"If she wasn't sleeping, she definitely noticed you doing that, because you looked really weird and suspicious," Link said with a sigh.
"Shush. Like you could've done better. Hell, you should have done it. You probably have something in your weird weapon and magic item arsenal that makes you temporarily undetectable."
"Oh, yeah, I do have a mask I can wear that makes me undetectable," Link said, pressing his face into his palm. "I'm so used to being normal for Utah that I forgot." He shrugged. "Well, whatever. We'll hope for the best and see if she's happy in the morning."
Morning came soon enough. The two guys had both gotten up and gotten ready for the day, and Mike had started cooking breakfast, but Charlie still hadn't stirred. Link went into the living room and gently poked the forehead of her mask where she was still slumped over. She let out a whine and swatted him away with her soft clawed hand.
"Wake up, nerd," he said. "Don't you want to see what Santa brought you?"
She sat up and tilted her head to the side.
"Really?" she asked in a deadpan tone.
"What do you mean really?" Link asked. He picked up the present and thrust them toward her. "You got something."
"You think I believe in Santa?" Charlie pressed her mask into her palm. "I died when I was ten. That's, like, almost a teenager. My dad told me Santa wasn't real when I was, like, eight. It was obvious. When I saw how he worked on the animatronics in his workshop, I knew Freddy and his friends weren't real, so, it's like, Santa and the Easter bunny and stuff are obviously not real either." She sighed. "But it's really nice that you thought of me and wanted to make my holiday special..."
"Actually, Mike thought of it first," Link said. "I would have gotten you something anyway, but credit where credit's due."
"Mike thought of it? Never thought I'd see the day."
"I know, right? I'm proud of him." Link nodded. "Now you gotta open it, though."
"Yeah, yeah..." She slipped a long and narrow finger between the folded edges of the wrapping paper and pulled it open along the seam. She appeared to struggle slightly, what with the soft fabric texture of her fingers, but she got it open. She looked it over, nodding slightly. "Wow. That... that looks fun. I... I can't even say anything sarcastic about this. Thank you." She wrapped an arm around Link's shoulder and gave him an awkward side hug. "Thank you so much."
"Don't forget to thank Mike too."
"I won't," she said as the two of them got up and went into the kitchen. She sat at the table and turned to him as he flipped a pancake. "Hey, Mike. Thanks for the present. I already don't believe in Santa anymore, but I'm really happy you thought of me."
"Oh, you don't?" he said. "Aww... since I knew you since you were born, that makes me feel some kind of way. Even if most of the time you were alive I was a pissy edgy teenager and didn't appreciate you, you're still basically my little cousin."
"Oh, shush, you're embarrassing me now," she said. "Hey, those pancakes look good. Speaking of, fourth wall break, did you know I can possess people now?"
"You can?!" Mike recoiled in horror, despite feeling all sentimental about her not even a minute prior. "And do I want to know how those two topics are related?"
"You should let me possess you and then eat some pancakes. That way I can have some."
"Sorry, squirt. Little cousin or not, I'm drawing the line at letting you use my body to eat pancakes."
"Hmph." She crossed her arms. "Well, I'm going to go color with my art set. See you losers later." And she went back into the living room.
"Why didn't she ask you about the pancakes?" Mike asked Link once she was gone.
"I think her being in my body would be... awkward for her?" he said, shaking his head.
"Why more so than mine? We're both guys."
"Yeah, but I think she... she might have a... um... I don't want to say it because she can still probably hear me..."
"Does it start with a C?" Mike asked.
"Yeah. That. Starts with a C."
"Oh, yeah. Makes sense. Here, have a pancake."
The two guys finished their breakfast and went in the living room to watch TV, only to find Charlie sprawled out comfortably across the floor, leaning on her new art desk and drawing with the crayons. She hunched over it.
"No looking till I'm done," she said.
"Wouldn't dream of it," Mike said, turning his favorite vampire soap opera on for the umpteenth time.
"Do paternity tests work on vampires?" Link asked.
"Shush, you're ruining it."
Awhile later, Charlie sat up from where she was drawing, and wordlessly passed her picture over to Link and Mike. Link took it and looked at it. The tall and spindly figure of the puppet with an oddly genuine looking smile on its mask, next to a medium height brown haired guy with some stubble in a purple t-shirt, and a short blonde guy in a green hoodie. "Merry Christmas weird family" was written across the top in alternating red and green letters.
"I did what I could with three fingers," Charlie said.
"Aww, this is amazing," Link said. "That was really sweet of you. Look, Mike." He passed the picture over. "I'll ignore the fact that you made me really short."
"But you are really short," Charlie said, shrugging.
"I guess." Link sighed. "Still, though, it's really sweet of you."
"Weird family?" Mike said, a laugh in his voice. "I like that. You're right. We are a weird family. This... this is going on the fridge. Even when everything is... when all of this is over... I want to remember this. This weird family."
"Don't be too cheesy about it, geez," Charlie said. "But yeah. Put it on the fridge. Here, I'll make more."
"You're going to completely cover the fridge, aren't you?" Link asked.
"Absolutely," Charlie said. "You're welcome. Merry Christmas.”