Chapter Text
Notes on Readerbot's speech patterns:
- "Word": Automated script
-"Word. Word. Word.": Mash up of scripts to form a sentence
Apparently it’s rumored that the daycare attendant is seeing someone.
Now, rumors and gossip are not uncommon to circulate around the pizzaplex. Or any workplace really, especially things like love affairs.
You-know-who is crushing on that person.
Or that couple finally made it official.
Those sorts of things. But what’s more peculiar about this particular rumor is the specific individual (or individuals to be more specific) involved. The daycare attendant.
A state-of-the-art, highly advanced animatronic created by Fazbear Entertainment with the unique feature of harbouring two AIs in one singular body. Officially dubbed as Sundrop and Moondrop.
It’s no big issue if the rumor was just about a human employee. But it does raise some eyebrows when it’s involving an animatronic. It’s even more surprising if that supposed ‘lover’ of theirs had not just one, but both of the two AI’s affections.
It all began when some of the daycare workers had noticed the sun animatronic was acting a tad bit differently recently. Not anything bad per say, at most Sun is standoffish with most staff and downright passive-aggressive to those that they dislike. It’s just that they noticed that Sun would often spend some time after work making more elaborate crafts than what children could do. Things like paper bouquets, woven bracelets, and even heart-shaped origami, and when Sun was asked about it he merely brushed it off and played dumb.
“Ooh ~! This friend? What about it? I just wanna try making something different than usual. And even if it was a gift, you're not the one getting it silly!”
And so the conversation would just be shut down by Sun just like that, and people would have believed the rumor to be false since it’s a known fact that the Sun animatronic couldn’t leave the daycare themselves. However, the presence of the moon animatronic also behaving suspiciously is another story.
The nighttime security guards and even the Glamrocks had mentioned encountering the elusive animatronic a few times. One situation was reported one time that Moon had been seen carrying that exact same paper bouquet in their hands after one of the flowers accidentally fell to the ground while flying on their cable. Unfortunately for the night guard at the time they were subjected to Moon angrily chasing them across the pizzaplex after being caught for the whole night. And there were also some minor reports in their behaviour during security patrols where they had spent time in areas with no visibility in the security cameras to be caught just a tiny bit longer than usual before going on their way in their patrol again.
Now as to what on earth Moon could be doing during those times no one could really answer that. But the workers of the pizzaplex have been making bets and theorizing that it was a romantic rendezvous between the daycare attendant and whoever their lover was, if only to just cure their boredom and pass the time.
Based off what was currently known the daycare attendant’s lover is possibly:
One, not an assistant or worker in the daycare department that could be their lover. At least, there was no evidence that Sun was behaving or treating the staff in the department on the day shift any differently or any favorable actions to one specific individual. Though there have been some times where Sun has mentioned they had a special someone whom they meet occasionally but they say it in this questioning may-or-may-not way that makes it hard to tell whether or not this animatronic was just messing with people.
Two, based on the reports on Moon it was more likely they would interact with their lover if the person in question is likely to work during night shifts like a security guard or a technician. Spending after hours is perhaps the only time Sun and Moon would have the chance to spend time with their partner with no interruptions during work hours. And this theory was supported by the evidence of Moon carrying the paper bouquet to potentially give it to their love.
Three, it is not one of the Glamrocks either. Although some days after the accidental bouquet incident with Moon, the Glamrock animatronics have all been gifted with their own paper bouquets made with their color schemes in mind which flattered all of them especially with Freddy and Roxy. Moon had visited them that time and wanted to give them a gift as a show of friendship by giving them handmade crafts that both him and Sun had made. However, the Glamrocks have mentioned that neither of them have actually interacted with the daycare attendant for it to lead to a more intimate relationship. They were friendly indeed, but Sun and Moon have never actually gone beyond simple friendship when interacting with the other animatronics or showed behaviour that would suggest them having a crush though.
So who the hell is this lover?
Do they even exist in the first place?
No one really knows. Unless someone in the entire pizzaplex staff was extremely good at hiding their relationship to avoid the guaranteed scrutiny and questioning by all the other workers and especially management. There is just no answer as to who it could be or if they even existed at all. And both Sun and Moon’s vagueness on the situation only fanned the flames bigger, the humans can only gossip and debate about it. People just wanna enjoy a good drama in the otherwise boring cycle of monotony during work.
Who knows…
Sometimes the truth can be a lot closer than you would think.
And sometimes it came in a different form than expected.
The answer to these questions might be surprising.
Sun was humming to the daycare music as they busied themselves with doing the last bit of cleanup in the daycare. All the rest of the daycare staff had clocked out for the evening leaving Sun all by themself, most of the cleanup work required in the daycare had been taken care of earlier and by Sun’s persistence had told them they could leave and handle the rest of the minor cleanup afterwards. He’s not bothered at all that he is all alone now (besides being with Moon) in fact he would rather organize things himself instead of others so that it would be perfect and ready for the next day when the daycare opens. Besides, they have bigger plans to do tonight as the animatronic giggled as they threw the last toy back into the chest, he checked his systems for the time.
10:30 pm.
It was almost time.
Today was a special evening, and it was around the time that they were coming by the daycare as planned. The excitement of meeting them again made Sun warm and jittery, Moon sharing the sentiment as well only amplifying the feeling. Sun quickly ran around the daycare as they carried a pack of cards and board games to be placed onto a foldable table with a cute table cloth over it that they had moved towards an open space in the play area. Sun and Moon had been planning this date out with all sorts of games and entertainment that the three of them can do together. Just a nice, lovely evening with their beloved to relax and enjoy spending time with each other this Friday when the weekend comes just like all the other times.
“Remember Sunny… You can’t be hogging all their attention when they are in the daycare. You have to share their time with me as well. You got that?”
Moon lightly scolded Sun in their headspace as the animatronic stood by the door. Sun twitched in response and rolled their pupiless eyes, looking to the side as he put one hand on his waist and flicked his palm open with the other. Sun scoffed at his counterpart.
“Oh hush, hush Moon! I don’t wanna hear that from you! You’re the one that is stealing all of their attention, not me! You’re the one that spends more time with dearest thanks to your patrols every other day after hours and not me, I’m asking you the same question. No, no! I should be the one asking you for this Moonie! It's the least you could do to make it fair.”
Moon also scoffed back to the other as he sighed, “These dates are different. It's not the same, not the same! I can only talk to them briefly between hours, you know this Sun…”
“Oh, Come on! You still have more chances to be with dearest if you add up all the times and-!”
*Knock, Knock-Knock, Knock!*
A familiar knock was heard by the door. In a unique rhythm that only Sun and Moon can recognize belonging to one individual. The two AI stopped their little banter as Sun moved their body to grab the handle, their fans skipped a beat and kicked up a notch to cool their processors. They took a metaphorical breath in… and with a bright expression they opened the door.
“Hoo-! Hoo~! Why hello my dear Sunbyte!”
“Beep!”
The door opened to reveal their beloved. Dear charming, sweet you have finally come back to them. With a wave of a hand in greeting as you chirped out a noise from your systems you said hello to Sun as the two of you met at the door. The daycare attendant felt their systems flutter as they stared back into your black doe eyes and mint green markings, they couldn’t contain themselves as they held both of your hands and practically dragged you inside before you could wheel yourself in.
You let out another beep in surprise by the action as Sun wrapped his arms around you. “Ooh, Dearest~! It's been so long since we last spent time with each other. Me especially! Me and Moonie planned all sorts of things that we could do together! Like play board games… or craft jewelry…. Or we could just chat like always! Whaddaya say~?” Sun rocked your bodies together in a small sway as he pressed his faceplate to your cheek, nuzzling their static mouth to it in a pseudo-kiss.
Sun and Moon light up as you twittered out a series of beeps and boops reminiscent of a giggle and slowly reciprocated their affection when you moved your arms up and returned his hug when you had enough time to process that you were being held. Then gently pushed away from their arms (to his slight dismay) after a few minutes, and a small crackle of static coming from your voicebox as you replied back with a happy expression on your face.
“Fun!”
One word was spoken in a slightly masculine tone that you used from a series of other automated scripts already ingrained to your system to answer his question. But it was all that was needed to convey to the other animatronic that they indeed were looking forward to spending time with them again, and Sun couldn’t help but blush at that fact.
You rolled yourself back a little on your wheels to give yourself space as you lifted your arm to take off your security cap and at the same time opened your chest plate. Your other hand grabbed the object stored inside you to replace the spot with your security cap before closing your chest plate up. From your hand revealed a simple messenger hat decorated with a few button pins as you twirled it around your finger before promptly plopping it on top of your head. A small little fashion statement to show off the unique individual and identity that you were compared to all others.
“So dandy…” Sun and Moon both thought as they admired your appearance.
Sun and Moon’s beloved partner was a part of S.T.A.F.F.
And you mainly worked after hours and are an animatronic.
It’s just that no one in the world would’ve expected that Sun and Moon are dating a staff bot of all people. A rather unique one at that.
You are S.T.A.F.F Bot #GBM-da53nal23.
Well, at least that’s the official label you had from your file in the S.T.A.F.F database and what is printed on your body.
But it's not like anyone would actually care to remember the whole string of variables. You weren’t one of the Glamrock animatronics that were given such nice names upon creation.
Nope, just an ordinary staffbot.
But now that label is starting to not suit you, because now you started to think and feel a lot more compared to other bots like you. You weren’t an ordinary brainless staffbot anymore in all of your years since being manufactured in this pizzaplex.
You weren’t sure why or how but one day during a scheduled maintenance for the Glamrock animatronics there was an incident that occurred that was the cause of your… awakening? Rebirth? (You aren’t sure how to classify this)
Some programmer at the time made a human-error and accidentally leaked the Glamrock AI code into the S.T.A.F.F database server that staffbots like you depended on. The server was connected to the main network for all sorts of things like security protocols, automated scripts, and overall structure that staffbots follow in order to handle all sorts of menial tasks, it was essentially your guys’ lifeline. But in that coincidence during the data leak the Glamrock code had affected you and only you. At the time this was happening you were in sleep mode but still semi-conscious ready to boot up at a moment’s notice, you remembered feeling immense pain overriding your system like a shock when the Glamrock code clashed with your much simpler programming.
Your processors had worked overtime trying to compute and read all of those scripts in order to try and rectify the sudden code collison as the two codes merged into your system. In a stroke of luck you successfully managed to resolve the issue and no major errors were popping up, waking up from sleep mode with your updated programming did not cause you any issues. After the pain had stopped all that you were left with was the feeling of… curiosity.
The first emotion you felt was new found awareness of your surroundings as you looked around in the dark room where you were currently connected to charge like the rest of the staff bots stored there. You remembered the cute little rat that was sitting by the corner munching on some nacho chips from a discarded bag on the floor, at the time you didn’t know the definition of ‘cute’ but you knew you were greatly entertained by it.
You also started to feel dread and anxiety, when you were exploring your curiosity you spent time thinking and developing questions for yourself. Investigating what just occurred to you was the first thing you had thought of questioning. You looked side to side with your fellow staff bots, and you realized based on comparing your code to the rest of the staffbots who you used to share with.
You were completely different from them now.
You became a completely different breed of staff bot even comparing to mapbots or serverbots with specialized programming. Remembering your vague memories of humans in the pizza plex you knew you weren’t treated the same respect as all of the main animatronics. Your programming after the merge was purely accidental, you’d be marked as defective even. Because a mediocre staff bot like you wasn’t supposed to have this high level of intelligence in the first place.
Those fears worsened when human technicians and staff came by the next day to investigate the staff bots when the human programmer who made the mistake had reported it. You won’t go into too much detail, but the staff came by just to check if the staff bots were malfunctioning due to the leak. But after last night while exploring your self-awareness, you came to the conclusion that you will never let anyone find this secret out about you because you had grown to enjoy your new emotions. When the time came where the staff prompted you to do some basic tests, (thankfully no actual diagnostic tests since the staff were too lazy to run it to all of the staff bots) you performed them just as you had always done like the rest of the staff bots before your awakening. Thankfully, the staff had deemed there were no major problems with the staff bots, and the incident was forgotten. You managed to fool them scot-free!
Even with your upgraded intelligence not much changed for you or your status. You were still a plain old staffbot that switched between cleaning or security duties throughout the day, although sometimes you were assigned other tasks like fixing small machinery if you were in the area. (The staff bots and you were jacks-of-all-trades, but a master of none. Not to mention that you were expendables that break more often than you were fixed lately.) The only difference now during work is that you learned to experience frustration and annoyance when it comes to situations with human guests.
You could not count the amount of times you were upset when a child would spill their drink on the floor right when you just finished mopping it. Or when teenagers think it's funny to blast a laser into your eye with the fazerblaster or stick magnets or other gross things on you. You sympathized with the other human workers. You get it now… you really do get it on just how awful it is working in customer service at times.
But you were also thankful for your intelligence, as you got used to your new upgraded programming you began to think smarter and looked for clever ways to deal with problems your way. Like pulling pranks on no-good humans.
Speaking of, it was actually the start of your friendship with Sun and Moon. What happened back then was that a birthday party was being held in one of the party rooms for a young child turning 7. It was actually a rare case where instead of one of the Glamrocks usually, the child’s family had requested that the daycare attendant would be the one entertaining the party that day; So the animatronic was excused from their usual job while the birthday kid was happy playing games with them. You were assigned by management as the mandatory clean up unit stationed near the room to clean up easy spills of soda and cake, and that was fine by you since you were used to it. But one of the kids attending the party just had to ruin your day.
You don’t understand why they thought harassing you by stealing your cleaning rag or getting in your way of wiping the floor by making a mess and mocking you for ‘missing a spot’ was fun. It actually started to hurt you a little bit with your new self-awareness… No matter how much disrespect or the lack of sympathy from the parents for not intervening to stop them you knew better to act out of turn and potentially harm a guest, much less a child! You just did your best and ignored it while hiding that you had higher intelligence and feelings. You were grateful that Sun would try and bring those kids attention and reduce the amount of trouble they were causing from time to time, appreciative that he was making your job easier to handle.
But you drew the line when a boy climbed onto your back and shoved ice-cream cake into your face. Your body froze at the action as you heard the group of children laughing while another group of them oohed in surprise at their reaction to the mishap. The boy was removed from your back and you turned around as the cake slid off your face, the cake splattering to the floor when you saw Sun was carrying the kid in their arms with a disapproving look.
“Bad Daniel! No mistreating staff!” Sun scolded, huffing as he moved away from where you were as he placed the child down with the other children. “Especially wasting food, hasn't your parents taught you any better? It's not nice to throw away Rachel’s birthday cake!” Sun threw a glare toward the group of parents who were supposed to be supervising the party, throwing shade at them at their neglectfulness. The adults flinched a little in response.
The brat kicked up a fuss, “Whaddaya mean! It’s just a dumb robot!”
Sun gave him a disapproving sneer with his voice lacking whimsy, “Daniel… Look me in the eyes and say that again?”
Daniel trembled and looked away, “…I’m sorry Mister Sun.” He did not want to risk upsetting the daycare attendant by calling them a dumb robot also.
“You will sit in time out for this activity, understand Daniel?”
While Sun was gathering the children to one end of the room for the next activity while the troublemaker was made to sit in time out. You rolled over your wheels grabbing a clean towel from your cleaning supplies and cleaned yourself off from the mess. After removing most of the sticky, creamy mess from your face, when no one was looking you wrung the towel dry and swung it around as you slapped it against the handle of the cleaning cart in frustration. You wanted this day to be over; you want to have a thorough wash and just charge.
You decided that you wanted to take a gamble. A devious idea formed as it crossed your mind in teaching the little troublemaker a lesson. You had to be smart about this though, it is supposed to be a harmless prank.
You acted like normal as you grabbed a garbage bag and your mop and bucket moving back to the scene of the crime. You flipped the bag inside out and slipped it onto one of your hands as you bent nearly 90 degrees and leaned over to grab the mushy cake, then flipped the bag out so that the cake is now safely inside it with no mess. Tying the bag up you threw it into the nearest garbage bin, letting out a quiet celebratory beep as it landed inside of it. Grabbing your mop and bucket you wiped the floor of the remaining residue, slowly inching your way to the refreshments table as you took note of a very specific item. An unopened fizzy faz can with Daniel’s name scribbled in black sharpie. You looked back to the main area where Sun and the rest of humans were, it looks like Rachel is now opening presents. Oh good, Daniel was still sitting there looking away.
With the coast clear you grabbed the soda can and shook it as hard as you can for 5 seconds, then quickly placed it back onto the table where it was before and grabbed your mop to move away from the table. You glanced at the group to make sure no one saw what you were doing, you trembled a little as you locked eyes with Sun. Their blank eyes seem to pierce through you as you stroll off on your wheels before the both of you break eye contact. It was… probably your imagination, right?
You tried to shrug off your fears as you awaited in anticipation for your plan to enact. And finally… it happened.
FWOOSH!!!
The fizzy faz exploded and sprayed soda into the troublemaker’s face as he screamed when he opened his soda to drink. It soaked his clothes as he stood in shock at the mess now covering him as his parent came over to help clean him up as the other children made noises in reaction. Part of you felt bad that you stooped so low that you actually messed with a kid, but this didn’t stop you from feeling relief at fulfilling your revenge with a small fist bump. Your body froze as you saw Sun looking in your direction. Oh no… he definitely saw you.
He stared a few more seconds before being forced to direct his attention elsewhere in order to manage the children. Your circuits sparked as your body trembled in nervousness, aware of the fact that the daycare attendant was a stickler for rules and your little stunt is definitely going to get you in trouble. You spent the rest of the party with sensors raised high in alarm as you waited anxiously for the party to be over soon before Sun could get the jump on you.
After it was all over, once clean up was done you attempted to silently leave the party room like any normal staffbot as per usual. But your plan to escape was already foiled.
“Leaving so soon, friend?”
*!#$@$-!!!*
You jolted as you let out a bleep as you're forced to turn in the direction of the other animatronic, inadvertently rubbing your hands together as you tried to make eye contact with Sun’s blank ones. You realized that Sun’s eyes were looking down at your hands, taking note of your body language and your face paled that you let out more reaction than intended. You pulled your arms behind you, but you might as well be admitting to the crime, what should you do?
Sun leans down a little, meeting your height as he quirks his head, “Hmm… You are quite different from all the others like you. I would never have imagined that I would meet a devious little prankster pull such a stunt on a kid-! AHCK!!!”
“Take it! Gift! Take it!”
Sun yelped as you grabbed his shoulders, wheeling yourself forward and getting up close to his face with the provoking attitude of a map bot. In your hand you waved a slightly crumpled origami star-flower thingie that you pulled out of your chest plate. You honestly didn’t know of any brighter ideas at the time but you were desperate.
The daycare attendant recoiled their body back from your accidental jump scare as one hand held their chest as if catching their breath while the other was held in front of you to keep distance. It took him a couple seconds to ease the expression of fear on his face as he calmed down to look at you and the object in your hand.
“J-Jeez-! Don’t scare me like that..!” He scolded you lightly as his hand reached and hesitantly took the origami from you, his static face seemed to change expression from fear to curiosity as he inspected it.
The origami star-flower in his hand was crumpled in some corners, but it was a shiny, pretty thing with a blend of gold, white and purple on it with a little print of a candy brand on the side of it. Sun made a soft noise as his rays spun around with a click as he fiddled the object delicately. Before he giggled and started full out laughing, he startled you as he looked back up to your eyes mischievously.
“Hehe…! Ha-! HAHAHAHA~!!! Oh! Oh f-friend~! Are you seriously trying to bribe me right now???”
Well, it was an attempt…
Sun paused his playful teasing as you looked away from the animatronic and let out a hurtful beep. Even though you never intended to give your treasure away, did he not like it at all? You thought it was pretty…
The origami was something you attempted to make after you saw a small pair of siblings make these pretty flowers (or you think it was flowers…) near where you were stationed to clean up a mess a couple days ago, curiosity got the better of you as you tried to replicate their steps when you found the time. You didn’t have any paper on hand so instead substituted it with the big chocolate foil sheet found in the recycling bin. It didn’t turn out perfectly, but you still treasured it as something you personally made.
Fine then, if he didn’t want it then you can take it back.
You side-eyed the attendant as you reached for the origami from Sun’s hand, but he in response flinched as he moved the origami up and away from you. Leaning back up to his full height as you flail your arms in the air, unable to reach for your treasure due to the height difference.
“!!!”
“Back off friendo, I’m keeping this. Forever. No take backsies!”
What the heck?
You screech in frustration as you grab Sun’s ruffles and started shaking him. Can't a bot catch a break!? You don’t want to feel any more upset now but this robot was pushing you!
Sun winced being shaken as he patted your head to soothe you, regretful for his actions. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! It’s actually a pretty gift you gave me. I-I’m not going to tell anyone about the prank either, that wasn’t my intention!”
You paused, looking up at him and stared him dead in the eyes, causing him to shift his eyes away from you uncomfortably. Confusion floods your system as you process his words. They’re not telling…?
You let go of Sun’s collar and backed up slowly to give each other space. You took a second to search through your database for a response, finding the appropriate script. “…apologies.” You replied with a female voice.
You searched for another prompt to convey your question, pushing through your restricted programming as browsing your scripts and parsing your sentences together. You ended up speaking a staticky combination of different voices from using multiple scripts, to which Sun widened his eyes at. “Daycare attendant. Why? Not tell?”
The animatronic scratched their cheek sheepishly, “I’ll admit… I-I just want to know about you, especially since I caught you setting up that prank. It’s not every day we would find a little staff bot that’s so intelligent like us high-class animatronics. Besides…”
He leans over to your ‘ear’ and whispers, “Honestly Daniel kinda deserved it if I’m being honest. That little rule breaker has been giving me some difficulties and just won’t listen! Really says something about their parents in their upbringing if you know what I mean. I know it’s… mean to think that way since I’m their caretaker but even I have limits to how much we could tolerate. To the point that sometimes I just wish I don’t have to act nice to them if they aren’t going to respect us.” You widen your eyes in surprise at the information; you have never thought that the daycare attendant or maybe even the Glamrocks would ever harbor such feelings. You always had the assumption that they can handle any inconvenience and people with ease, the thought of them having lingering frustrations or negative feelings towards their job never crossed your mind before.
You shyly offered a pat on their shoulder in comfort, a motion you have learned from observing the human workers. The gesture seemed to work as Sun sighed comfortably as he reciprocated the action by placing their hand on top of yours that was on their shoulder. He continues speaking as you allowed him to vent, “But… you know how management is, we have to uphold expectations or else we’ll get in trouble. Me and Moony are actually kinda envious of you, you’re a plain, mediocre staff bot!”
“!?!” You glared at Sun as you bleeped in annoyance. He didn’t have to rub that fact in!
“Sorry Sunbyte! Can I call Sunbyte? I don’t mean that as an insult, what I’m trying to say is that you have a certain freedom that we don’t have. No expectations to withhold, seeing your act made us realize that you have the freedom to be who you are and express feelings more openly.”
You felt your fans kicked on for some reason as Sun held both of your hands together with the origami held between you two. “For some time, me and Moon have been feeling so tired dealing with kids like Daniel and their parents, although it’s not nice that you did such a thing to a kid of all things… a part of us found it relieving and fun, you really brightened up our day.”
“So, what I’m saying is… can we be friends? I… We want to know you more. I-Is that okay with you?”
Friends…
The word made your systems all warm and fuzzy, it was overwhelming even. But it also felt so nice that your whole body felt jittery as you shook your head vigorously saying yes. This made Sun chuckle at the display, his expression brightened more as you clasped both hands on top of Sun’s that were holding the origami and gently pushed it towards them. A wordless expression from you giving them permission that they can keep your treasure, now truly intending it to be a gift as a sign of friendship and acceptance from you.
Sun spun his rays again as he carefully tucks away the present, “Aww! Thank you my dear friend! Oh, Oh! Are you free this evening? Ya wanna come by the daycare and hang out together after?”
You nodded excitedly, formulating a response. “Free! Work security. Will come! ” You startled as Sun squealed as he suddenly pulled you into a hug. “Yay! Oh I can’t wait! I have so many games we could play and-!” Sun flinched and pulled back from you giving you whiplash at the sudden mood change. The animatronic in question tilted their head to the side addressing an invisible presence, “Moon come on-! Are you serious? Ugh fine, fine! You’re right, sharing is caring and what’s mine is yours and yours is mine. Fine!”
Oh, you forgot there was the other daycare attendant. Moon. You’re nervous of what he thinks of you since you have not formally met him.
But those doubts you had were resolved by Sun’s next words. The daycare attendant shook their head from their private conversation and gave you a sheepish look; “Sorry again Sunbyte, there’s been a slight change of plans. Let’s hold off on that hangout for tomorrow perhaps? Moonie really wants to meet you and talk while you guys do your security patrols. Does that sound good?”
You nodded, you don’t mind.
“Lovely~ My, look at the time! It’s almost time for Moon’s patrols. I’ll see you again soon, bye friend!” Sun waved goodbye as he quickly turned around and opened the exit, the area outside the party room already turned dark as the pizza plex closed down. He stepped outside as the darkness covered him and their mechanisms activated to transition to Moon.
You clapped in applause as Moon bowed in greeting once the transformation was complete. He gleefully looked back up to you with amusement, giggling as he waved at you, “See you later~ Come meet me near the arcade area around 1 am, I’ll look for you there… I’ll be waiting little boop-bop~ Hehe!”
You waved goodbye to the nighttime counterpart as his cable came down and than drifted away. The fuzzy feeling you felt earlier came back to you, not only did you have a friend now. You made two of them!
Happiness flowed through you as you pumped yourself up in excitement. You need to get ready for your security shift! You can hardly wait!
It was after hours in the pizzaplex, and you were now in the middle of doing your security shift. But for the first time you were going to ignore the rules as you went off of your patrol route and headed towards the arcade area to meet up with Moon. You followed the programmed map in your head towards the location, your flashlight being the only guide in front of you leading the way in the darkness until your vision picked up lights and colors as you neared the arcade. Checking the time and noticed you were about 15 mins early before the meeting time, so you decided to take in your surroundings. The colorful ambience from the lit-up arcade games fascinated you, there wasn’t any opportunity for you to visit this area before since it was not your stationed work area so despite knowing about it the place was a new experience for you.
You perked up at the faint sound of music playing in the distance, it sounded upbeat and funky. You recalled that the DJ Music Man was in the area and heard rumors from the human staff that they liked to remix and create music in their spare time, the nighttime human staff would stay a little longer after hours and have little dance parties with the DJ sometimes.
You could understand why now, a sort of buzz of excitement flowed through you as you took in the rhythmic beats and tempo. Taking a second to check that no other human staff or staff bot were around where you were, you started to sway your body left to right to music.
Then you started to swing your arms around too, although your dance was a bit stiff and mechanical since it was so foreign mimicking human dancing. But the thought never crossed your mind, you let out some beeps similar to a giggle as you let yourself loose. You spun on your wheels as your body shook and bumped to the beat of the music in the air, it was just so much fun!
You were too busy dancing to even notice your surroundings until you heard a gravelly laugh.
“Hehehe~! Nice moves~”
“!?!?!”
You screeched as you abruptly shifted your head to see red lights staring at you, seeing Moon reclining in the air on his cable in a lazy manner giving you an amused look. Embarrassed about being seen, after screeching you suddenly backpedaled and rolled backwards at full speed.
In the events that followed Moon gasped in shock as you smashed yourself against the wall behind you. The recoil from the impact then caused you to fall forwards and crashed to the floor.
*CRASH!*
“OH MY GOD-!”
You muttered distressed noises as you tried to push yourself up to no avail, helplessly flopping around since you didn’t have legs. You quirked your head as you heard the sound of bells as Moon dropped down from his cable and jogged towards you. “I-I’m so, so sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you! Here.” The lunar animatronic bends down and wraps their arms around you, picking you up as he lifts your body off the ground until you are standing upright again. Moon starts fretting a little and starts to inspect your body for injuries, he winces a little as he sees a few scratches and a small dent in your back. He then hands you the flashlight that you dropped as he gives you a guilty look.
“Are you okay? Do you need to go for repairs, friend?”
You in response shook your head no, your systems weren’t displaying critical damage and have assessed that it’s not affecting your core functions. It wouldn’t be the first time you got hurt, what’s a few more scrapes if you weren’t critically injured?
You patted Moon’s hand in forgiveness and for good measure gave him a verbal answer.
“It’s okay.”
“…Alright, if you say so”
Moon sighed as he fiddled with the bells on their wrist, to take his mind off his guilt you made a questioning noise to get his attention.
“Daycare attendant. Here. What. Do now?”
The animatronic stopped his motion as he looked towards you as you reminded him about your planned meeting. “Oh right, I wanted to invite you to go treasure hunting with me.”
You quirked your head curiously, treasure hunting?
“Mhm.” Moon nodded as he reattached themselves to their cable, he beckoned you to come with him with a wave of his hand. You obliged him as you flicked on your flashlight again and followed him, the two of you now leaving the arcade area.
“You know about the lost and found right?”
You nodded. You were familiar with it since it’s pretty common for you to find all sorts of stuff that gets left behind in the pizzaplex.
The nighttime attendant chuckled in response, “Good, good. That makes it easier if you understand. Here on some nights I visit the lost and found to look for all sorts of stuff that interests me and Sunny to take back to our place.”
He regards you with a small smile. “Some items will get returned to their owners… but there are also some that get thrown away as garbage if no one picks them up after some time. So I was wondering if you’d like to go treasure hunting with us and find some nice stuff that you can keep. What do you think?”
You nodded excitedly at the invite. Treasure! That sounds fun! You would like to do that with your new friend. Moon giggled as he patted your back in encouragement.
“Here we are beep-boop! This is the place, let’s head inside~.”
He removes his cable and lands on his feet, strolling over to open the door to the lost and found room for you. Heading inside revealed a small storage room lined with boxes filled with knick knacks labeled for two weeks, 30 days, 90 days and disposables.
Your eyes glittered at all of the items, so many shinies and gadgets.
Moon grabs your attention as he points towards the boxes labeled for 90 days and disposables. “I usually check for stuff in those boxes since those items are the least likely to be missed, if you don’t find anything there then it’s ok to check and take at least one item in the 30 day one. Are we clear on that?”
You gave Moon a thumbs up, earning you another amused chuckle from him as the both of you pulled out the aforementioned boxes and placed them on the nearby table. The two of you eagerly began rummaging the boxes.
You weren’t sure what you wanted to find, maybe something small that you can hide on your person since you don’t have a place to store it. You pulled out a small egg-shaped object with a keychain attached, a small screen embedded into it along with some buttons. You tried to press a button to turn it on but your flat fingers can’t press it in deep, you wanted to convince yourself the thing had no batteries and not your pathetic limitations.
You gave up and motioned Moon over and handed him the egg-thing, “Oh? I think one of the kids mentioned this is something called a tamagotchi.” His long, round fingers dexterously pressed the button, the screen turns on with a little character popping up. You gave the object in his hands a hard glare, you were so mad it wasn’t the batteries.
“It’s a little pretend pet that you play with by feeding and cleaning them! What a find! We’re gonna keep this!” The eyes of Moon twinkled as watched the little critter on the screen move around before powering the device off. “Hmm… While we are at it, you wanna try finding something you can wear? Like a hat or an accessory?”
“Hat?”
“Yeah, something to make you stand out, we realized that it might be hard to identify you from the other staff bots. And that would be awkward if we mistake our friend as someone else you know? The only thing that we know is ‘you’ are those eye markings.”
Moon gestures to your face.
“They're a different color, it’s green instead of grey… Are they natural?”
You in response touched your face, you forgot about that. It was defect coloring since you were first manufactured and the only physical characteristic that made you unique. But people could care less and wouldn’t see the difference from normal bots unless they looked at you really carefully. You nodded to their question, understanding their point. A piece of clothing would be nice. You went back to the box to look for something.
You fished up a piece of frilly fabric with cups and straps attached to it with buckles. You don’t know exactly what this accessory is but…
You placed the cups onto your face, covering your eyes and hooking the straps to your ‘ears’. Oh it’s quite nice and soft, what a lovely eye mask.
“A-Ahem…!”
You glanced in the direction of where you think Moon is since your optics were covered up. You made a questioning noise “?”
“Friend… A bra is not something you need to wear. Let’s try finding something else for you.” Moon pulls the clothing article off of your face and throws it away, his expression being a mix of embarrassment and unsettled. You don’t get it.
The lunar animatronic looks through his bin next to you, but his eyes glances towards you from time to time. “Do you mind if we ask you something?”
“Beep?”
“We didn’t ask earlier but… are there more staff bots like you? Sentient?”
You glanced over to Moon fiddling with a ruler you picked up from the box. You shook your head in disagreement and pointed at yourself. Unfortunately, you have not seen any other bot like you, it was only you.
His red LEDs flashed in understanding, “I see… only you. Well, the good thing is you have me and Sun now. You aren’t alone with friends like us!” He picks up a black messenger hat from the box and hands it to you. “Look! Look! I found a hat for you. Try it!”
The hat in your hands was soft and fuzzy, inspecting it revealed that there weren’t any damages to it either. It was pretty but you felt like something is missing on it, but then you remembered that there were button pins at the bottom of your box. Fishing them out for a few colorful pieces you pin them to the hat, now that it was decorated did the hat become a lot more attractive. You excitedly removed your security cap to replace it with your new hat and showed off to Moon.
Moon smiled as he clapped his hands in praise, “How dandy~! You look really good!”
Your systems warmed up at the praise, and it felt even more good as Moon showed you a compact mirror so you could see your reflection. You really loved your hat, it’s now your most treasured thing.
“I’m glad you like it friend, happy you are enjoying this as much as I am. And this is just one of many things that we have in store in regard to our new friendship. Look forward to that, okay~?”
You gave them a joyful expression; you were indeed looking forward to being their friend.
“How about you show us those dance moves again sometime?”
You shoved his shoulder playfully, with Moon cackling mischievously. No way you were gonna do that.
That was the story of how the three of you became friends. And just as they promised you got to experience all kinds of fun activities and shenanigans.
You were grateful that they taught you so many things in the process, always kind and patient with you when you had any questions or thoughts even if you struggle conveying stuff with your limited vocabulary.
In turn you gave it your all to give back the kindness that they gave you. Leading to a closer bond as a result.
You were proven that you’ve grown closer when one day Sun and Moon suddenly confessed that they ‘like-like’ you and asked to be together forever.
You of course accepted it. There was no room for doubt that you like them too, they were your important friends! Of course you would like to stay with them forever too.
After the confession both Sun and Moon seemed much more relaxed and happier nowadays. They even felt comfortable enough that they started initiating more physical contact with you like holding your hand or arm.
Especially giving you hugs and rubbing their face plate against you, it was cute how they acted like how cats rub their foreheads for affection. You don’t dislike the attention either, you gotten used to the warm, tingly feeling it brings and enjoy it.
You really like your friends!