Bitter Brown, Harsh Hazel, Bright Blue

It had caught them off-guard, no pun intended, when Gregory first climbed into Freddy’s chest cavity.

It had happened when Gregory began to fall behind, his feet were smaller and so was his stamina. Freddy had been the first to notice, of course, the boy’s tired expression and how his sneakers dragged against the carpet as they walked along. The bear offered the strange spot to the boy, who accepted after a moment of contemplation. Clay had been left reeling once again, but after assurance from both of them, they decided not to question it further. They clearly had a system going that Clay didn’t want to interrupt.

As if walking next to their favourite animatronic wasn’t surreal enough, the knowledge that there was a boy hidden inside of his chest as they moved along was enough to make them even further weirded out. Yet, it seemed to come in handy when they encountered Officer Vanessa.

“Freddy!” She called as soon as she spotted the tall animatronic, sounding displeased. She faltered though when she noticed the other night guard by the bear’s side, taking a step back with a surprised expression. “Hawthorne?”

“Nessa?” They feigned surprise, as soon as they saw the blonde woman, pretending that they had only just found out that she was even in the building. “What are you doing here? I’m on shift today.” They had been itching to ask her that since Gregory revealed she was here.

“Got called in, some kid snuck into the building.” She explained vaguely, waving her hand dismissively.

“Why didn’t they contact me?”

“Communications have gone down.”

“How did they contact you then?” Their brown eyes narrowed, to which Vanessa gave a snort of unamusement.

“They did it before the servers went out! Obviously!” She shook her head, pinching the bridge of her nose and gesturing to Freddy with her other hand. “What’s he doing out? You know he’s meant to stay in lockdown after what happened today.”

Freddy opened his mouth to respond, but Clay stepped forward to cut him off, knowing the bear would blow their cover with his lack of an ability to lie. “That’s exactly it, I’m taking him back to his room right now.” They lied easily, making it sound nonchalant enough that Vanessa seemed to believe them.

“Wandering again, Freddy?” Vanessa cast a stern look toward Freddy, who’s ears whirred as they flattened guiltily. “I am sorry Officer Vanessa…” He apologised, sounding genuinely sorry much to their surprise.

“Whatever, it’s fine. You’re just lucky Hawthorne caught you instead of me.” It sounded like a threat and made Clay’s fists clench, though the action went unnoticed as Vanessa left them be. Clay ended up scoffing, she was always like that. Another reason they were glad to be out of this job after tonight.

“She’s so rude!” Gregory’s voice brought them back to reality, looking over to see the boy’s eyes peering out from a gap in Freddy’s chest plating.

Clay couldn’t help but give a grunt of agreement, putting their hands on their hips. “Imagine working with her.”

“No thanks!” Gregory responded, retreating back into the chest cavity and earning a chuckle from Clay.

“She is just doing her job.” Freddy defended lightly, but Clay just shrugged at him and gestured for them to keep walking.

It wasn’t long before they reached the daycare, it was hard to miss the giant sign that said ‘SUPERSTAR DAYCARE PICK-UP’, or the giant golden statue featuring both halves of the Daycare Attendant. They weren’t a huge fan, finding them a bit creepy, but they knew that the noodle-esc animatronic knew how to care for children. Which is exactly what they needed right now.

Freddy’s chest cavity opened, and Gregory clambered out, struggling for a moment with his legs kicking below him, before his feet found the floor and he settled there. His hazel eyes trailed around the entirety of the room, taking in the size of it before his face quickly became unimpressed and he crossed his arms angrily.

“It looks like you are supposed to go in through there.” Freddy pointed a claw at the vibrant and colourful slide, the entrance of it surrounded by a rainbow with the words ‘SLIDE INTO FUN!’. Clay gave it a skeptical look, suddenly understanding why Gregory didn’t appear happy.

“I don’t want to go here.” Gregory repeated what he had mentioned a few times on their way over, though he seemed more worried than angry now, his fingernails digging into his blue sleeves as he stared warily at the long and twisty entrance to the daycare.

“I know Gregory.” Freddy murmured, patting the boy on the back gently. “But the last thing I want is for you to get hurt, you will be safe here. I promise that if I find any way for you to leave earlier, I will let you know.” His voice was soft as he ducked his head down to be closer to Gregory’s level, speaking to him reassuringly. This seemed to put Gregory at more ease, as his shoulders slumped in surrender and he gave a small sigh. “...Fine…” He stepped away from them, feet dragging against the ground.

“I will see you soon, Superstar! Have fun!” Freddy waved to him when he gave one last look toward the two of them, his eyes lingering on Freddy before he sulked the rest of the way to the slide. He settled himself at the mouth of it, before pushing his hands against the sides and descending into the striped tube.

“Officer Hawthorne.” Freddy addressed them once Gregory was out of sight, causing them to tear their eyes away from where the boy had disappeared less than a moment ago. Their heart began to thump nervously against their ribcage as they faced the much taller animatronic.

“I would appreciate it if you could go with Gregory.” He requested, his metallic hands fiddling against each other as he looked to Clay hopefully, his artificial blue gaze bright with hope.

Clay’s head turned to the side, their hand raising and resting against their neck in an awkward motion. “He… uh… I don’t think he likes me very much.” They gave a hollow chuckle, sure that Gregory would much rather have Freddy enter the daycare if it was possible for the animatronic to fit down the small slide.

“He has been through a lot tonight,” Freddy explained slowly, one of his ears twitching as he cast a brief glance behind himself, as if expecting someone to be there. He turned back, fixing Clay with a smile, despite the fact that he was made of metal, it seemed so soft. “And it would bring me comfort knowing that one of our trusted staff was watching over him.”

Clay’s voice got stuck in their throat, leaving them to just pathetically open their mouth and close it again. They felt conflicted, but finally being recognised by someone for their work in this place tipped whatever options they were weighing over in his favour. They gave a sigh, pinching the bridge of their nose before their fingers slowly rubbed along the length of their eyes. They finally faced Freddy, giving a small nod of reluctant agreement. “Alright, fine.”

Freddy’s gentle smile quickly turned to one of bright joy, giving the guard a big infectious grin that caused them to give a small smile back. “Thank you Officer Hawthorne! I appreciate it.”

“It’s alright.” They waved a hand dismissively, embarrassed by the gratitude the bear expressed toward them. They made sure to turn away from Freddy before they began grimacing at the fact they would have to go down the slide, slowly approaching the tube and setting themself at the threshold of the colourful plastic.

“I will see you later!” Freddy said, giving a large goodbye wave to Clay as they prepared to go down. They returned the gesture, though at a much smaller scale, before pushing against the sides of the slide and descending down into the cramped tube.

—

The ride down the slide was uncomfortable to say the least, it was clearly not created with a lanky adult sliding down it in mind. They grunted whenever they encountered a turn, having to deal with their skin bumping up against the sticky plastic walls. Whenever this happened, the sliding would come to a stop and they were forced to awkwardly shuffle themself along until they began moving again. After repeating this a few times, they finally slid out of the tube, flailing for a moment as they descended straight into the ballpit that awaited them. They shot up as soon as they made contact with the pit, their nose wrinkled at the plastic orbs that fell away from them once they stood. The ballpit was extremely unsanitary, and they felt sticky from just spending a mere moment inside of it. They stuck their tongue out in disgust and wiped their hands along their pale gray uniform.

Their brown gaze flickered over to the new area that greeted them, only to have to shield them as they were overwhelmed by the sheer amount of colour. Even at the end of the day when the lights were dimmed, this place was too far too bright. They couldn’t help but curl their lip into a scowl as they tried to recover from the assault on their eyes, though that thought was quickly discarded as they heard something. It was a very shrill voice off in the distance, they could tell that it definitely wasn’t Gregory’s, even though his voice was just as grating when he was angry. They turned in the direction of the sound and began to wade through the sea of colourful balls, unable to repress a relieved sigh as they reached one of the rainbow bridges leading out of the germ breeding grounds.

“-drink Fizzy Faz until our heads exPLODE! And stay up all night!!” They were finally able to pinpoint the source of the voice that radiated manic glee, finding that it was Sun, the daycare attendant. The thin and wiry animatronic was currently waving and dancing around the small form of Gregory, his young face wearing an expression of startled fear.

When they noticed Clay, who was standing off to the side due to not knowing how to approach the situation, he began to move toward them in relief. But as soon as the young boy began to leave Sun on their lonesome, they grabbed him under the armpits and placed him back in the same spot, ignoring his panicked shout at being suddenly picked up by the admittedly kind of creepy looking animatronic.

“There’s only one rule!” They continued as if the kid they were talking to hadn’t just tried to escape the conversation “Keep the lights on. On. ON.” Sun’s tone grew creepily serious, to which Gregory’s shoulders began to shiver, finally giving Clay enough courage to step over and intervene.

“Hey, Sun,” they began to address the attendant, who’s head snapped in the direction of the voice as soon as it sounded. They moved between the animatronic and the boy, not breaking their gaze away from Sun’s blank eyes as Gregory moved behind them, they could tell that he was trying to hide the fact he had been scared by rubbing at his face without even having to turn around.

“Officer Hawthorne! Hello, hello, hello!” Sun greeted in their high-pitched voice, their head doing a full-rotation to express their joy, though all it did was make Clay grow increasingly nervous. They tried not to let their feelings creep into their body language as they forced a smile.

“I couldn’t help but overhear that you wanted to do some activities, do you think we could get some colouring stuff? Gregory’s a great colour… er.” They lied. Betrayal radiated off of Gregory so much that Clay could feel it harshly against their back.

“Oooooh! A colourer! Of course! Of course! I’ll be right back!” Sun clapped their hands together happily, the bells around their thin wrists giving a jingle before they sprung away, doing a backflip before jumping back up to the ledge leading into their room. Show-off.

“What are you doing here?” Gregory asked coldly as soon as the lanky animatronic was out of sight, one hand on his hip as he narrowed his eyes at the guard. “I thought you wanted to get rid of me.”

“Freddy asked me to come watch you.” They responded honestly, to which Gregory gave an irritated sigh. “Don’t worry, I’m just gonna go and keep doing my job, you have fun with Sun, alright?” They shot him a thumbs up before they turned and beelined toward the reception desk sitting at the other end of the daycare, they had personally never used it before but maybe the change in location would stop them from falling asleep while watching the cameras.

They glanced to the side to check the tablet they had tucked under one arm, only to find Gregory trailing after them, he kept casting looks behind him as if watching out for Sun’s return. “How can I have fun with him? He’s creepy!”

Clay had to resist giving a nod of agreement, shrugging instead to try and cover it up. “I dunno why they designed them like that, but they’re good at their job.” They put out a hand in a ‘stop’ motion to try and get Gregory to cease following them as they entered the office, reaching to one of the keyboards and tapping on it to bring the screen out of its screensaver and into one that prompted their log-in details. Their other hand moved to the top of one of the red swivel chairs, pulling it out and promptly collapsing into it. They then followed the law of the spinny chair, doing a small spin in it. They didn’t make the rules.

When they came to a stop, they found that Gregory had occupied the chair next to them, kneeling on the red fabric so that he could actually reach the desk like Clay was. They opened their mouth to send him away, but ended up just deciding to just leave it, not wanting to make the kid hate them even more by bossing him around.

“N-New friend!” Sun called in a panicky way, making their way nimbly over to the two humans. Their thin arms were occupied with colouring supplies in the form of pencils, crayons and some books. “This- This area is off-limits!” Their pupilless eyes turned toward Clay, their permanently smiling face somehow managed to convey apologetic guilt.

“It’s alright. He’s just gonna sit.” They reassured Sun, extending their hands and clenching and unclenching their fingers. The animatronic caught on, and handed the supplies over the top of the screens, neatly placing them in Clay’s hands to which they gave a smile of gratitude. They used their arm to push back the monitor in front of where Gregory was sitting, making enough room to begin putting down the colouring stuff for the boy. Their attention turned to the colouring book they had been handed, beginning to flip through the pages curiously. Some of the pictures had colourful scribbles already adorning them, messy lines going in and out of the thick black outline of the Pizzaplex’s mascots.

“Freddy’s your favourite, right?” They asked, trying to find a blank picture of the bear was tough, he was so popular that his face had been scribbled over hundreds of times in multiple different colours.

“I can do it myself!” Gregory snapped, to which Clay’s face got hot with embarrassment. Why were they trying to choose a colouring page for this independent kid who already didn’t like them? They just murmured shamefully and held the book out to Gregory who snatched it from them and began turning the pages roughly.

They watched him until he found a picture with minimal markings, of course of the one and only Freddy Fazbear, and began to carefully choose colours from the packet of crayons he had been supplied with. They pulled a cord from behind the monitor in front of them, plugging it in and then attaching the tablet they had brought with them so they could connect to the security network and watch the cameras from this new screen. It took a moment, but soon enough the screen flickered over to the staticky feed that came from the many cameras littered around the Pizzaplex.

Sun was standing not too far away, not daring to enter the receptionist desk but also not daring to leave the two alone. Silence fell over the three of them, as two were focused on their own tasks and the last just wasn’t speaking. Sun seemingly decided to change this though, piping up and calling to Gregory. “New friend! Would you like a juicebox?”

“Um… Okay.” Gregory looked up from his colouring book so he could peer warily at the sun animatronic, he had made ample progress on his colouring, already having finished Freddy’s face with his iconic red and blue markings.

“What flavour would you like? We have apple, apple and blackcurrant or orange!” Sun listed the options cheerfully, seemingly happy that the grumpy boy had accepted their offer.

“Hmmmm….” Gregory hummed in thought, mulling over the choices he had been given “Apple and blackcurrant.” He finally decided, giving a nod to himself at his own choice.

“I’ll be right back!” Sun promised, dancing from one foot to another in a giddy way. They launched themself at the wall, digging into the material before crawling their way along it with precision, like a spider across its web. They soon vanished into the darkness behind their castle-themed ledge.

Clay’s attention was trained on the grainy image of Vanessa that moved across the cameras, she seemingly had a location in mind as she didn’t bother with any of the other animatronics that lurked around her. They removed their cap, setting it on the desk and running their fingers through their messy gray hair with a disgruntled sigh. What was she up to? Her presence bothered them for some reason, her explanation for her being here wasn’t sitting right with them. They leaned closer to the screen, their nose nearly pressing against it, as they watched Vanessa descend to the tunnels beneath the Pizzaplex. Why was she heading down there?

“Can you see Freddy on there?” Their train of thought was ripped away as they became startled by the voice of Gregory, who had leaned over in his chair to peer at the monitor alongside them. They quickly removed their hand from their hair, brushing it against their shirt subconsciously before they scanned over the many tiny feeds, finally spotting the large bear walking close to the entrance of the Pizzaplex that had been covered once midnight had struck. He seemed to be keeping his promise of looking for an exit for Gregory.

They pointed to him with their finger, feeling Gregory’s eyes following over to where they had gestured. “There he is.” They murmured in a rushed way, their attention already switching back to Vanessa, only to find that she had disappeared from the cameras entirely. Weird.

“Is Freddy your favourite too?” They were surprised by the question, looking away from the screen entirely to focus on Gregory. They found that he had taken their black security cap off the table, his attention solely on the Freddy pin that they had decorated the boring hat with.

“Uh- Yeah, he is. He’s pretty cool, right?” They couldn’t help but smile, Freddy had been their favourite since they had first seen him on his TV show as a child. It had been their dream to work at this company since, though after a few years all that naive joy had been crushed.

“Yeah!” Gregory’s agreement was surprisingly enthusiastic for a child who had seemed so jaded, his hazel eyes sparkling with excitement. Clay couldn’t help but chuckle, which caused Gregory to turn away, his pale face becoming pink with embarrassment. “I mean- he’s okay…” He tried to backtrack, but Clay just smirked and nodded along.

“He sure is, do you think you’ll show him what you coloured?” They pointed toward Gregory’s half-finished project, to which the boy cocked his head to the side slightly.

“Do you think he’d care?”

“Of course! He puts those kinda things up in his room, it’s sweet.”

Gregory seemed to be hit with realisation, he must have noticed the papers in Freddy’s room if he had been in there, which was quite likely if the two had been travelling together since midnight. “Yeah, I will. I guess…” He tried to act nonchalant about it, but it was pretty clear how excited he was at the idea.

Gregory held the hat back out to Clay, seemingly wanting to go back to colouring so he could finish the drawing before Freddy came back, whenever he would do so. They happily accepted it, though they paused as they looked at the pin, rubbing their thumb over it once again silently.

“Hey, Gregory.”

“Hm?”

“Do you want this?” They held up the pin, having removed it from the hat carefully. Gregory looked shocked for a brief moment, before his eyebrows furrowed together in uncertainty. “I work here so… I can just get more, ya know?” They quickly added, not letting onto the fact it was a lie, after tonight they wouldn’t step foot in this building again, but Gregory didn’t have to know that.

“... Sure.” Gregory looked away shyly, his hands gripping at the ends of his beige shorts. Clay couldn’t help but smirk at how sheepish the boy suddenly was, unclipping the metal backing of the pin while they gestured for Gregory to scoot closer.

“Where do you want it? Here or here?” They pointed to the front of Gregory’s shirt, before their finger turned toward the collar. Gregory looked down at his striped blue shirt, thinking over the decision before silently pointing a small finger at his collar. They reached a hand, waiting for Gregory to allow it before they began stabbing it through the fabric and clipping it into place. “There!” They pushed back in their chair and admired their handiwork.

Gregory pulled at the collar so he could see it, a smile playing at his lips before he quickly looked away, he was clearly very ecstatic by the new accessory but trying his hardest to keep it hidden. “Thanks…” He said with hushed gratitude, fiddling with his hands.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m sure Freddy will like it too.” They chuckled, finally earning a smile from Gregory that they couldn’t help but return. They turned back to the monitor after being distracted for so long, in a much better mood than when they had started this draining task.

“Heeeeere you are!”

Sun’s shrill voice sounded from in-front of them just as Gregory began to get back into colouring, causing him to jump in his seat and give a startled yelp. They placed a small juicebox on the desk, neatly removing the straw from its plastic and popping it into the box before they nudged it forward with their slender fingers. Gregory quickly scooped up the offering once his panic subsided, his eyes bright in the presence of the juicebox which he quickly began to drink from. Clay watched from the corner of their eye, they kind of wished they had a juice box too.

A bright flash of red on the screen caught their attention, their eyes narrowed as they pushed their chair slowly back in front of the feed, scanning over the grainy footage.

“Woah! New friend! Don’t drink too fast or you might get the hiccups!”

“Thanks…!”

“Oh! That’s okay! Do you like it?”

Freddy was slowly moving away from the main entrance, though Roxy had spotted him and waved him over to where she was. Monty was near the arcade, but leaving, and Chica was eating garbage outside of one of the kitchens. What was that red stuff? Were they so tired they were hallucinating? They rubbed their eyes with their fists before they shuffled closer, only stopping when they were inches away from the screen, brown eyes narrowed in focus.

“Wow! You’ve done a lot of colouring! Look how in-between the lines you are!”

“I wanna try and finish it.”

“Of course! I’m sure you will, you’re so speedy! I’ll go get some glitter glue! It’ll make it sparkle, sparkle, sparkle!”

Clay moved their attention to the bottom of the screen, toward the daycare feed. Someone was standing by the maintenance closet outside of the facility they were currently inside, and they felt their blood begin to run cold in their veins. Vanessa. What was she doing?

Their question was answered when the lights went out.