00.10

I LOOK OVER at Liz curiously. "So, what was all that about, anyway?" She asks me.

I sigh with unease, and shrug my shoulders. "Honestly . .? I don't even know."

"Uh, okay? Who turned the lights off?" She tried to gather more information out of me, but I'm having a hard time letting it all out for some reason.

"I did. Moon told me to, I guess. He wanted to talk to me or whatever." I shrug it off. Her eyes look me over. "So . . Moon isn't trying to hurt you?"

"No. I doing think so . . But, I think Sun is mad at me." I state, twisting a straw wrapper around my finger anxiously. I was going to keep what he said to me, a secret for now.

Liz looks at me with curiosity. Or, maybe she thinks I'm crazy. How could Sun be mad at me? Why, would Sun be mad at me?  Plus, they were just animatronics.

But, I knew she'd probably understand better than anyone else. Since, she was pretty close with Monty and Roxy.

"Why would he be mad?"

"He didn't want me to talk to Moon. Liz, I think they might, uh, like me?" Why was that so hard to get out?

"I mean, who wouldn't." She laughs. I smile, taking a sip of my drink. "I'm serious."

"Okay, but, like, it's not impossible. I'm pretty sure Monty has a thing for me." Her shoulders shrug. "I couldn't be with an animatronic though . . That'd be so weird. Right?" She asks.

It seemed like she was questioning my approval of it all. I hadn't a clue on how to respond to that.

I shrug. "Girl, I don't even know anymore. It's weird being around them so often— they act just like us."

She nods her head with understanding. "I know! It's hard to realize that they aren't even real people, sometimes."

I keep my voice low, "Yeah. Like, Sun started overheating the other day when I was in the storage closet with him. He was helping me pick up a box that fell over."

I watch her expression change into amusement. Her big eyes staring me down. "Really?" A giggle escapes her lips. "Like, a system warning came up?"

I nod. "Yes! Exactly that."

Leaning forward on the table, she laughs again. "Yeah, I think he's down bad for you, girl." Her lips curl to a smirk.

Sun and Moon being in love with me? How the hell was I supposed to manage the both of them?

"Oh god," I sink in my chair. "You know who else fell in love with me? Jason."

"Bitch!" Liz smacks a hand down on the table getting excited about the topic. A few people around the dining room look our way. She was always one to over exaggerate her movements, and I loved it."I know! He talks about you all the freaking time to me." She waves at me. " 'When's Y/N gonna get here? I think she left me on read, Liz, can we all go out tonight?' " She mimics him, then we both start laughing.

"Oh no, that's so embarrassing." My head pounds on the table.

"Honestly, it is." Liz rolls her eyes. "It's all I have to listen to." I watch, as she tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. She reveals diamond studded earrings as she does so.

"Shit, that's really annoying. Sun and Moon think that I like him or something. They get really annoyed whenever him, or someone else is talking to me." I feel my cheeks heat up.

"Really?" Her voice drips with curiosity. "No shit."

My hands cover my face. "Yeah. It's bad. I feel like I can't get away from drama in this place anymore."

"It'll be fine! Maybe one of these days you can profess your love for the two, and everything will be okay." She giggles over at me. "Who knows, maybe being with an animatronic will actually be better?"

I couldn't tell if she was joking or not, but a part of me is thinking she's serious.

"I don't like Sun and Moon like that," I mumble awkwardly.

"Are you sure, though? You spend allot of time up there with them . . Some of the other workers have been asking about it." She looks down and shrugs.

Something in me feels sick. Others were talking about me? Did they think I was weird for doing that? My pulse heightens in speed.

"Really?"

She nods, standing up. Liz brushes off her uniform of any crumbs, and I do the same. "Yeah. I mean, we all know you got transferred over there for a while, but still. They think it's a little suss."

I roll my eyes. "Whatever. They can screw off. I just enjoy spending time up there, that's all."

"I know you do! I always tell them to fuck off if they ask about you. I'm not saying shit to them." She swings an arm around my shoulder and smiles.

I smile back. "And that's why you're my favorite friend."

We laugh, then head upstairs to the daycare. It was a bit of a far walk, but we made it in one piece. Taking the stairs down to the room, we head inside of the daycare.

"Sun! Where you at," Liz calls out.

He pokes his head up, and trots over to us. "Oh, hello! What are you doing here with Y/N?" He asks, taking my wrist and pulling me over to his side. I furrow a brow slightly, and notice Liz's reaction to it.

"Uh, just walking her over here from break. I wanted to say hi, anyway." She gave him a soft smile.

"Well great, you can leave now." Sun wraps his arms around my neck from behind me. I stand there awkwardly with a smile.

"Wow, someone's in a sour mood." She crosses her arms over her chest. "Did you get enough sleep last night? You might need to be charged up." Liz looks him over curiously.

"I'm fine." He replies with a shrug.

I frown up at him. "Sun, what's wrong?"

"Nothing!" He shoots a smile down at me. "Everything is fine, Sunflower." He hugs me tighter.

"You're not mad at me anymore?" I ask him, trying to breathe through his hug. It was practically crushing my bones.

"No, would should I be?" He asks.

Liz and I look at each other curiously before I slip out of his grasp. "I mean, you seemed pretty mad the other day. I'm sorry about turning off the lights on you." My voice lowers.

He smiles all the same, waving me off. "It's okay. Just don't do it again." His finger boops my nose, eyes narrowed.

"Right . . Well, I gotta go before Dave starts yelling at me. Are we still all hanging out tonight?" She asks me. I nod, smiling. "Yeah! I told Jason to meet us at the diner after work. He said to just text him whenever we're ready."

I feel Sun's eyes burn into the back of me.

"Cool. I'll see you later," she waves at us then walks off.

"So . . You have plans tonight?" Sun didn't bother hesitating to ask.

"Mhmm!" I nod with a soft hum. "We're all just grabbing dinner together. I need a night away from home. My mom is really starting to piss me the fuck off." I roll my eyes.

"Language, gumdrop." Sunrise follows behind me, rounding the corner of the play area.

"Sorry." I mumble under my breath. "I just can't wait to move out. Hopefully it'll be this year, if this job keeps paying me." A sour laugh lets out, and I frown softly down at the desk I'm now standing behind.

There's papers cluttering it up, and I already know my list is full of tasks to do.

"Move in here, with Moon and I!" Sun beams.

I laugh up at him."You know, I wish I could."

My fazwatch starts going off. It's my manager. He's been eyeing the amount of work I've been half assing this week, and I can tell it's starting to get on his nerves. Usually, I'm a great worker. But lately, these two animatronics have been keeping me a little preoccupied.

"Shit, my manager is really pissed. Look, I'd love to talk more, but I really gotta focus on this task sheet, today. We can talk more later!" I smile at Sun. His mouth turned to a frown, but it faltered back to its original smile. "Sounds good."

Quickly grabbing the list from off the desk, I begin my chores for the day.

Back into the storage closet I go, unboxing, and reboxing things that didn't end up working out for this daycare. Certain types of glitter glue, sheets of colored paper that hadn't been used, little things like those, to get money back for the company.

This place was weird. Something about it just gave me the creeps deep down, if I was being honest.

Freddy was nice. In this building, anyway. I've heard all of the horror stories on the news about the past and previous owners, and all the disappearing children that seemed to never be found in one piece, at the old factories.

I had no idea why these new people even wanted to try and open back up again. If I was being honest, I thought they were all crazy.

And yet, here I am, working for the lunatics.

It was a really quiet day, today, in the daycare, mostly. My tasks had ordered me a bit around the pizzaplex today, though, So I hadn't been around Sun or Moon much.

I had to pick up different orders for different animatronics, and put them all in certain areas of the building. I ran down to parts and services, almost got trampled by kids in the process, then back to the dining area, where I was most familiar with.

I want to make a stink to the managers about all these extra jobs they have moved me to doing. I should be getting paid more if I was going to be running all over the damn place.

"Y/N? What are you doing in here?" Freddy asks.I jump, slightly frazzled by him. He had been in rest mode, while I was putting some new parts in his room. I wasn't expecting him to turn back on yet.

"Oh, shit." My breath hitches, and I place a hand on my chest. "You scared the hell out of me, Freddy."

"I am sorry. I was disrupted from my rest mode." He spoke briefly.

I offer him a sympathetic smile. "Sorry bud. I was trying to be quiet." Unboxing the new tools and parts, I set it all out on the floor, trying my best to organize them for the techs that would come in.

"It's alright. I haven't seen you in a while, so I suppose I can't be that upset with you." The bear offers a slight smile in return.

"I know, right?" I say, "They moved me up to the daycare for a little while. I guess someone in the dinning area was complaining they didn't have enough hours down there, so I got switched to doing whatever the hell this is."

Crushing up the now emptied box, I toss it into a nearby garbage. Freddy watches, then turns back to me. "How has the daycare been treating you? I know the daycare attendant can be a bit . . quirky at night." His voice shows concern.

I shrug, a slight, tense smile, rising to my features. "Honestly, Moon isn't all that bad with me. I have a past with the two of them, so they'd never hurt me." My lips form a bigger smile.

He smiles in relief back. "Oh, good. Still, I'd just keep an eye out to be careful. We don't want you getting hurt by anyone here. Even though none of us are programmed to do that."

I wasn't so sure how much I believed that statement. Not after the way Chica had been acting towards me.

"Right," I begin to back out of the room. "Well, it was good seeing you, but I gotta head down to Roxanne's room now. I'm on a time schedule. See ya!" I give him a soft wave and a smile, hoping the bit of communication between us lightened his own mood. He mirrored my actions before heading back into his rest mode.

"Stay safe, superstar."

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did y'all see the lil ref I threw in there? I'm sure you did 🌚

(no, it's not the superstar)