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Everything was so dark and quiet. When it was afterhours, Moon could hear so, so much more than he could during the day: Whirrs and clicks of fellow animatronics, rain falling on the roof of the Pizzaplex, the hum of the arcade machines...
Such sounds usually lulled him to sleep. Sun always found them relaxing, and because of that, Moon usually did too. Their programming was made for sharing experiences like this, and he relished in it. It was nice to know at least some of what his friend was thinking.
... He missed it dearly, really.
Things had felt off lately. Heck, he’d even go as far to say he felt hollowed out; Moon couldn’t put it into words beyond that. There were gaps in his head that seemed too large. Things he swore he could think about yesterday, as vague as that idea was, seemed impossible to recall today. Wayward memory banks and code made it impossible to access any of it, and the technicians didn’t seem to care when he brought it up.
The resulting emptiness left Moon exhausted. It seemed so silly to be exhausted; he wasn’t doing anything! There weren’t any kids in the Daycare tonight, so he didn’t have much of anything to do. All the cleaning was done, all the nightly checks were finished...
So why did he feel so tired?
The footsteps from outside his room sounded louder than they should. Moon wondered if it was something to worry about, and managed to lift his head just before he heard:
“Hello! Are you up there, Mr. Attendant?”
Moon’s head tilted to the side, his mask swiveling down towards his neck. He should have expected Freddy to come by--he usually did. A part of him wanted to curl up and just not answer, but it would be good to have company tonight.
It was lonely without Sun right there with him.
It took too much time to drag himself out of bed. His joints twitched oddly from strain, and Moon let out a small, confused sound. He’d barely moved today! This didn’t make sense!
“Mr. Attendant!” Freddy called again.
This time, Moon forced an answer. “I’ll be right there, don’t you worry.”
He eventually reached the dark red curtain and pushed it open. Moon’s movements were slow and delicate, hesitant as he climbed down the wall towards the ball pit.
“Hi there, Freddy.”
“Hello, Moon!” He sounded as cheerful as ever. If only it was contagious. “It’s really peaceful tonight, isn’t it? All the rain usually helps me get into sleep mode.”
Did he not feel the same aches and fatigue everyone else did? Moon felt something flicker in his system as he crawled away from the ball pit, but he didn’t understand it. He couldn’t focus on it. All of his leftover energy had to go into this.
“I wish sleep mode felt more restful than it did lately,” he said, not quite able to hide the effort it took to do so. “Every time I wake up, I always feel so strange.”
Freddy blinked at that, wiggled his ears, and then tilted his own head like a curious little puppy. It looked rather silly on a big old rockstar bear.
“Oh, no, that’s not good!”
Moon perked up, hopeful.
“Have you tried talking to a technician? If we’re not at 100%, we can’t give 100%!”
He immediately deflated and looked away. While his red eyes flickered, Moon decided to not say anything about that. Freddy really was trying to help in his own way--he knew that-- but even so...
“I did get checked a few times.” Moon let his head droop. “They kept saying everything looked fine.”
Moon was pretty good at reading expressions. He had to be, just to make sure a child wouldn’t act out or cry or be upset during naptime. Freddy looked just like one of those confused children, really--like what he’d just said just didn’t compute to him.
“That doesn’t make sense,” Freddy eventually said. “They’re so good at their jobs, I know they’d find out what’s wrong. I can talk to them if you want--”
“No!”
Moon immediately reeled himself back in, took a breath, and forced the chipper tone that Freddy was probably hoping for.
“Don’t worry, it probably is just the rain!” It sounded strained and forced, but Moon persevered. “Maybe a nice long nap will help me wake up! There weren’t a lot of kids today, so it threw me off!”
And, to cap it off, he did that little giggle that always made Freddy smile. He didn’t this time, though, which just made something in Moon’s system spark in distress. No, no, he had to stop Freddy from doing that, he had to, he had to--
“Are you sure?” Freddy asked, timid as a mouse. “I don’t feel comfortable leaving you like this if you’re not...”
“Not at all! I’m perfectly fine!”
Moon snapped up his head, swiveled it to the side, and shot Freddy the biggest grin he could muster.
“Don’t worry about me, Freddy. I promise!”
If nothing else, Moon’s friend seemed to stand down after that. His ears wiggled in that way they did when he was trying to think of what to say. It didn’t seem fair that Freddy could be so very dense and just get away with it.
He didn’t understand something? Oh, no one could be mad at him! It was fine! Of course the technicians loved Freddy Fazbear: He was the one who brought in all the people! Moon, though? Sun? No, no, they were castoffs. They didn’t matter as much compared to the stars of the show.
Of course they’d do a better job looking after Freddy and the band. Of course the stupid technicians would let him and Sun rot since they didn’t matter as much. He’d just... deal with this, Moon decided. It was easier to try and figure it out himself than reach out to someone who didn’t get it.
“Okay, Moon. I trust you.”
Moon wanted to scream. Instead, he just nodded and began his strenuous, quick climb back to his room.