Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You just couldn't resist sneaking down to look at your presents. You were so excited thinking about them that you couldn't get to sleep. You slunk out of bed and grabbed your flashlight. You tiptoed past mom's room, more out of habit than anything else. She never woke up when you made noise at night, anyway. You had to shake her really hard to wake her up to take you to school in the morning. It was Christmas break though, so she would probably sleep until noon. You don't know why she did that, she missed all the good cartoons. You shook up your flashlight while you walked and opened the basement door. You tried to take the steps one foot per step but it was dark and your footie pajamas slipped a lot so you put both feet on a step before going to the next one. You finally got to the basement and looked around. The presents would probably be in plane sight. You weren't aloud in the basement during the day so she wouldn't need to hide them. You looked in the laundry room and through your sister's old toys before you spotted it. Bright and shiny on the table behind dad's chair. You wanted to rip it open but you knew you had to unwrap it carefully so you could wrap it back up after. You set the flashlight down and slowly started to peel the tape away. It crumpled in a few places but you didn't think mom would notice. It was a Tattletail!

You grinned widely and opened the box to get at your new toy. It was soft fur over hard plastic and it made a clacking sound when you moved it around. “Me Tattletail! Me loooooove you!” You giggled softly. “Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrush me!” You reached into the box and pulled out the small plastic doll brush it seemed to come with. The twistie ties were hard to undo in the low light, but you managed it eventually. The Tattletail purred softly as you brushed it. It soon spoke up again. “Give me a TREAT!” You tried to think of what you had in your fridge you could give it. Did Tattletails like carrots? Maybe it could have some of your fruit snacks? You kept thinking when you noticed a detail on the box. ‘Comes with 10 TATTLETREATS™!’

You think that's quite handy, and you reach in to pull out a packet of them. They look like graham crackers. They taste like graham crackers to. Well at least you know you'll still be able to feed it after the first ten treats are gone. You give it a fresh one as you finish the one you nibbled and start wandering around the house with your new friend. It pipes up every so often with some random phrase before seeming to look at you and say something new. “Mamas looking for youuu.” Your heart stopped for a second thinking that your own mom had woken up before you realized the Tattletail meant its own mom. You must have gotten the Mama Tattletail to but it was to big to wrap, so it must've gotten shoved somewhere. You looked around a while before you went in your sister's old room and saw a suspicious blanket covering something in the corner. You whipped it off like a magician, and underneath was a large, furry Mama Tattletail with a slot in it for a tape. You looked around and found the tapes for it hidden in the closet. You popped in the one labeled ‘Story Time 1’ and the head began to spin as it talked.

“The little ones liked to hide from Mama but Mama could tell where they were by listening closely with her biiiiiiiig ears. Mama will always find her children and keep them safe and warm.” With that, it seemed like the tape stopped and needed to be prompted if you wanted it to say something else. You were tempted to listen to all the tapes tonight but your eyes were already drooping, and wanted something to do on Christmas day.

You were about to leave but you looked at your Tattletail and then back at the Mama. You put the smaller toy snuggled up to the bigger one and then covered it with the blanket again. “Happy family.” You whispered as you closed to the door behind you to re-wrap the empty box. You didn't notice the glowing eyes and whispers behind you.

“Goodnight Mama.”

“Goodnight Dear.”

Chapter Text

This went on for several more nights as you woke up to play with Tattletail and listen to Mama's stories. More and more Tattletails seemed to show up, too. Every color you could think of. You could hardly hide them all under the blanket anymore, but Mom didn't go into Sister's bedroom much anyway. She hadn't been going a lot of places the past few days. She just watched TV and drank her pop that you weren't aloud to have. You sipped it once and it tasted sour anyway. You didn't know how she drank so much of it.

It was Christmas Eve and you stayed up even later than normal, too excited to sleep. You were beginning to doze off surrounded by all your Tattletails and listening to one of Mamas stories. You felt a blanket being pulled over you and you tried to get up. “No I gotta go to bed or Mom'll be mad.”

A soothing voice tucked you in as you snuggled closer to the furballs all around you. “Don't worry dear, Mama’s here. Mama will keep you safe and warm.” With that you dozed off and didn't wake up again until sun streamed through the window and hit you in the eye.

You rolled around on the carpeted floor for a few seconds before bolting up and scrambling out into the hallway. You breathed a sigh of relief. It looked like Mom hadn't woken up yet. You had time to prepare everything. You went to the living room and found the suspiciously light box the was supposed to be carrying your Tattletail. You ripped it open and left it haphazardly open on the floor. You went back to your sister's room to find all the Tattletails except for the purple one (Confetti, the box said) hidden. You covered Mama up with the blanket and rushed back out to the living room with your friend. You set him down on top of the open box. You looked back to survey your work and it looked exactly like you got too excited and opened one present early (but not nearly as early as you really did). Patting yourself on your back for your genius, you went to go wake up your Mom. You knocked on the door and listened for the sound of movement inside. You didn't hear anything. You knocked even harder. Nothing. You finally went all out on the door, shaking it and pulling it and yelling. “Moooooooom wake up wake up wake up!!!” Not even a snore. She must be really sleepy.

Mom said you weren't supposed to go in her room but this was important. It was Christmas! You stretched to pull down the handle and almost fell as the door swung open. There were pop cans and glass bottles everywhere. No fair, you weren't aloud to keep your room this messy! Your mom's bed was all messy and you could see her hair flying everywhere. She always looked funny when she got out of bed in the morning. You crawled up on the bed with a flop and started to jump up and down. “Wake” Jump. “Up.” Jump. “Mom.” Jump. “It’s.” Jump. “Christmas.” She didn't move but she slumped over like a ragdoll towards you, looking uncomfortable. You giggled slightly at the funny pose. You knelt down next to her and started to rock her back and forth. You let out your most annoying whine. “MoooooOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOOOOOOoooom!” You kept shaking her. She was really cold. Maybe she needs more blankets on her bed? You saw a lot of cartoons where people got slapped awake. Her face was turned over onto her pillow so you turned it towards you, and that's when you noticed something was wrong. Her eyes were open. You were so scared you backed up off the bed and fell onto the floor. Could Mom sleep with her eyes open? She looked like she was...dead.

Your eyes started to tear up from the pain of hitting your head on the floor and from fear. No, Mom couldn't be dead, she didn't get into a car accident, or go to the hospital, or get stabbed or anything. You couldn't think, you were too scared. You ran out of the room and into your room and hid underneath your covers. You were having a bad dream. Mom was okay. She was fine. It would be fine. You didn't know how long you had been crying when you felt something sit on your bed. You uncovered your head and it was Confetti, along with the other Tattletails on the floor. It chirped quietly. “Why sad?”

You started a new wave of crying and could barely talk through your hiccups. “Mo-hic-ms not wa-hic-ing up. She won-hic-t wake up. She wont wa-hic up.” You grabbed your friend and started hugging it in a death grip while repeating that yourself over and over.

You heard gears whirring and looked up to see Mama beside your bed. You practically fell onto her as she became the target of your next death grip hug. You were promptly surrounded by the other Tattletails. “Hush dear. Mamas here. Mama will take care of you.” You couldn't do anything but cry yourself to sleep, surrounded by warmth and your new Mama that had sworn to take care of you.