Work Text:
It’s been roughly a year since you’ve started working at the Mega Pizzaplex, and you’ve started getting closer to many of the animatronics. You enjoy their company, with Roxy being ready to knock some sense into you when you need it, Chica letting you in on the latest gossip, Monty always up to mess around and playing games, and Freddy who comforts you and gives advice during hard times. You’ve even become friends with Sun and Moon in the 12 months you’ve been working at the plex. Sun is energetic and fun, though he can be best described as an anxious ball of sunshine. Moon’s more reserved in his actions, but he’s a good guy, even if he purposely scared the shit out of you during your first few months.
You breathe in the city air as you step out of your car. It’s old and a little out of shape, but you love her too much to let her go. You remember working on it with grandpa when you were only little. It’s thanks to him and this shabby little vehicle that you gained your love for machines and the like, leading to you getting a job at Freddy’s. You’ve heard the rumors and read all the articles about the company’s shady past, but your passion and curiosity around robotics was stronger than the initial anxiety those things brought. You smile thinking about how scared you were on your first day. It was silly, really. All the anxiety practically melted away when you met the glamrocks. That bunch had made you smile from the very beginning. You decided to stay because of them, and eventually met the daycare attendants.
Sun was ever the sweetheart when you first met him, always cautious about picking you up too quickly or hugging you too rough. Moon on the other hand was a downright menace. He made it clear that he thought you weren’t going to last five minutes, purposely scaring you away from the tasks you needed to get done when he wasn’t in the daycare. You eventually got used to it, and even started making little jokes back to him.
Locking up and pushing through the doors of the plex, you see kids running around, dragging their parents off to Roxy Raceway and Fazer Blast. You dodge through the crowds as you make your way to the daycare. Today you got put on the dayshift, so you’ll be helping out around the play area and making sure all of the kids are happy and safe. You feel a little sour coming into work today, though. It’s not like you don’t like the kids, you absolutely adore them! You had just hoped you wouldn’t be working on your birthday, that’s all.
You sigh as you lug the heavy doors to the play area open, making your way over to the security desk and dumping your bag before getting started on some paperwork that another employee had left for you to do. Figures. You groan and grab a paper from the stack and begin typing out random reports on the keyboard. You don’t even notice when Sun walks up to the desk. “Friend! What a pleasant surprise! We thought you had the day off!.” Sun’s rays spin cheerfully as you slowly look up at him.
“Hey Sunny. I thought I did, too, but management sent me an email saying the daycare was short-staffed today.” You plop your head on one of your hands, gaze still lingering on the sunny animatronic before you. His rays seem to slow in disapproval. “Why on earth would they say that? We can handle the kids on our own, we would’ve been fine!” Sun whines and you feel your face soften.
“Yeah, I know you guys can, but I had to come in. I mean, I’m getting paid a little more than usual today, so I guess that’s alright. Though it’s probably because they’re making me work on my birthday…” You mutter the last part under your breath, but Sun still perks up at the mention of a birthday. “Friend! You didn’t tell me it was your birthday! Oh, me and Moony would’ve gotten you something!”.
You smile at his kind words. “You guys are too good to me, you know? And honestly, don’t even worry about it, I don’t usually celebrate my birthday these days, so it’s not all that different.”
Sun would be frowning right now if he could. “But we always celebrate birthdays here!”. He seems intent on making you celebrate your birthday. The bot pauses for a moment, before nodding to himself in what seems to be agreement. “Even Moony agrees with me!”. You playfully roll your eyes and look back down at the work you had yet to fill out. “Seriously, it’s fine. You should be worrying about the children, not me.” You move your hands back over the keyboard and start typing when Sun finally decides to back off and go back to playing with the kids.
You can’t help but think about his words. Would he and Moon really do something for your birthday, or are they just trying to be nice and save face? You know they wouldn’t do something like that, but the thoughts still nag at the back of your head. It’s probably better to just forget and get some work done…
You don’t get tomorrow off, either. You once again push through the crowds of the plex in order to get to the daycare, ignoring screaming children and angry parents dragging their kids out the front doors. You definitely prefer night shifts since there aren’t any customers during then. Making your way down to the daycare, you take note of how quiet it seems to be, which is definitely off considering how you got another report of the whole place being short-staffed again. Why would they call you in if nobody was going to be here? You push the sour thoughts to the side and sigh, opening the large wooden doors to the main area.
As soon as you step in, you’re enveloped into a bone-crushing hug from none other than the Sun himself. “Friend! Oh, we missed you so, so much! How are you?” He loosens his grip and you fall back onto your feet.
“Um, I’m fine- but where is everyone? It’s a little creepy in here with it all empty, especially during open hours, you know?” You gaze back up at Sun, who bounces on the spot at the mention of nobody being here.
“Oh, oh! Before we do anything, I have to show you something!” He grabs your hand and practically bounces over to one of the craft tables, you stumbling along behind him. Man this guy takes huge steps. It’s to be expected since his legs are so long compared to yours, but it’s still a little baffling how far he can get with only a few steps. You break that train of thought and peek down at the craft table before you. It’s covered in blobs of paint and dried up glue, making the surface bumpy when anyone tries to draw on it. In the middle of the table sits a container and a large card. Before you can say or do anything, shouts of ‘Surprise!’ erupt all over the daycare, the sounds of little feet pattering all over the floor following it.
You look around as all the children run out from the play structures and their other various hiding spots, then back to Sun. “Surprise! It’s a little late considering we only found out it was your birthday yesterday, but we still wanted to celebrate with you!”. Sun beams down at you excitedly.
Wow.
They really did all of this for you? It’s almost unbelievable, laughable, even. You feel silly to think you even doubted them at all yesterday as your lip quivers into a small smile. You feel a sob wrack its way through your body. You’re overwhelmed with happiness, so much that it’s spilling from your eyes. Sun panics and cups the side of your face, wiping the few stray tears away. “Friend? What’s wrong, why are you crying? Did you not like the surprise?” His faceplate spins in confusion and worry. He didn’t do anything wrong, right? Moon said he did a good job, but this doesn’t seem right at all. He keeps watching as more tears spill down your face.
“No-! God, no. Sun, I love it! This is so-” You sniff, “This is so sweet!” You’ve broken out into a full on sob now, leaning into the animatronic as he cradles you closer to his chest in a comforting manner. The kids watch you with large eyes, and you turn around to face them “You all did so good, I thought no one was here today!” You laugh, voice still trembling.
You feel a tug on your shirt and look down to see a girl you’ve come to know as Lily, a sweet little thing with shoulder length blond hair and piercing green eyes. “But…why are you crying? People cry when they’re sad.” She looks up at you with her round eyes. You crouch down to her level and put a hand on her head. “Well, sometimes when someone gets super happy, they can start to cry. It’s a silly thing, but I promise me crying is good,” You chuckle and ruffle her hair, only to be swatted away by the girl’s tiny hands as she laughs. “You’re weird!”.
You laugh again. “Yeah, but everyone has their little quirks, even you,” The kid grins before running off to her friends, leaving you and Sun- until she runs back and yells something about cake. This seems to snap Sun out of whatever state he was in and walk over to the table, handing you the card, then opening the container. His grin meets your gaze when he unveils the cake. It’s white with little strawberries decorating the edges, sitting on a dollop of cream each. The cake has ‘Happy Birthday’ written on the top in chocolate icing. You coo at the sight of it. “Oh, man. You guys really went all out, huh?”.
“Of course! Only the best for our friend!” Sun bounces around happily, delighted that you’re enjoying yourself. He puts the container lid down and you jump into his arms, embracing him in the biggest hug you can. He tenses before leaning down and hugging you back.
The entire daycare spent the rest of the day eating cake and playing party games before it’s time to go home. You decided to save the card so you could read it at home. Which was probably a good idea, because between Sun’s and the kid’s doodles of you all holding hands in the card, you would’ve started absolutely bawling your eyes out again, maybe even worse than the last time you did. You sleep well that night, knowing that even despite your own doubts, you still have people who loved and cared for you. You had people you could call family..