Chapter Text
It was three in the morning, and Henry was not a happy man.
Well. Henry hadn't been a happy man ever since his daughter died, but being woken up at three in the goddamn morning made him unhappier.
The shrill ringing of his home phone startled him awake. Henry groaned and reached for his glasses, knocking over the empty bottle of whiskey that he had been nursing the night prior. It fell to the floor with a dull thud and rolled under his bed, but he didn't care enough to root around for it. The headache that was beginning to build up behind his temples was not entirely just from sleep deprivation, but from the killer hangover he knew was going to make his day miserable.
He shuffled out of his room and down the hall, and paused when the ringing stopped. Oh. Well, guess he could just call back in the morning to see what the fuss was about. Henry turned to trudge back to his room, smacking his lips sleepily.
Then the phone rang again. Henry groaned and forced himself to walk to it, not bothering to turn on the lights as he did. He relied on the moonlight that filtered through his blinds, his bear-themed slippers squeaking slightly when he stopped in front of his home phone. He stared at it, debating. Surely if someone was calling him at this time of the night, it must be important. Life or death important. This phone call had the possibility to alter the course of his life forever.
Henry picked up the phone and slammed it back on the receiver.
Just as he turned around, the phone began to ring for a third time.
"Son of a bitch…" he groaned, and, finally, picked it up. "Whoever this is, you better have a damn good reason to be calling me in the middle of the night."
"Henry! I need you!"
Henry grimaced. "I don't care who the IRS sends, I'm not paying my taxes." Seducing him won't work… this time, at least.
"What are you- no! It's me, William!"
Henry had to pause at that. "... look, William, I'm flattered, but I'm still not over my wi-"
"What in the bloody- what is wrong with you! I'm- look, I just need your help, okay? Please, mate, do me a solid and bring the soldering iron and meet me at my house. The garage is open. I'll be in the basement."
The phone clicked before Henry could tell William that there was no fucking way he was driving to his house at 3 in the morning. The bespectacled man listened to the dial tone for a few minutes before he sighed and hung it up.
William was his best friend, and he had been going through a rough few years. They both have. But was Henry really going to go out and sacrifice his precious sleep for this man?
He chewed on the inside of his cheek, idly scratching at his beard in thought. Then again, it wasn't like he really did get much sleep anyways, unless you count the times he drank himself into a stupor. The nightmares kind of ruined sleeping for him.
After a few minutes of deliberation, Henry went to retrieve his keys.
And the soldering iron.
Henry felt a weight settle in his stomach when he parked outside William's house. He stepped out of his car and onto the sidewalk, his boots crunching in the snow.
He looked across the large house in front of him and felt a slight frown cross his face when he noticed that William's car, parked in the middle of the driveway, was practically drowning in snow even though it had only snowed a few inches the other day. He could barely make out the faintest tint of that obnoxious purple paint that William took so much pride in. He probably hadn't left his house in a while, then.
A shiver ran through his body as a bone-deep coldness started to set in, and Henry wanted to smack himself for not bringing a thicker coat. You'd think after living through almost fifty Utah winters- and not the pleasant kind of winters, the kinds that had people snowed in and the I-15 closed down because of multiple car accidents on the highway- you'd get wise enough to the point where you wouldn't forget something that was basic common sense at his point in life.
'Course, Henry's been forgetting to do far more than simply grabbing a coat to keep him from freezing his nards off, so maybe frostbite was the least of his worries. Hell, the only reason he remembers his daughter's face is because he has her picture in his wallet.
Henry did a sort of awkward shuffle-run through the thick snow and into the garage. He wrinkled his nose in distaste at the fact that it was still open at this time of night, in this weather, but William was nothing if not a methodical man and he probably had his reasons. Probably. This was the same man who thought he could completely eradicate the biological need for sleep from his system just by consuming concentrated caffeinated beverages every time he so much as yawned, and that fun train of logic led to Henry driving him to the emergency room.
Suddenly, Henry felt a bit of apprehension at the idea of seeing whatever the hell William was up to. But he was already in too deep, and William knew where he slept, so Henry decided fuck it. Might as well chance himself getting dragged into another mess.
Henry fished out a spare key William had granted him a couple years back and unlocked the door that led to the living room from the garage. He didn't need to be quiet as he closed and locked the door behind himself, but force of habit had him slowly tiptoeing over the floorboards regardless, even if there were three less children left in the house to wake up.
Even the thought crossing his mind left his heart feeling like it was being squeezed in a vice, so Henry moved his focus to the physical. The wet squeak of his snow-covered boots against the dusty floorboards. The weight of the soldering iron in his hands. The clicking of the doorknob as he opened the basement door and turned on the light.
The Afton household was never quiet. Even after everything, there was still always something keeping the house alive whether it be the faint buzz of something electrical, the boiling of a kettle, or the ramblings of William himself.
As Henry walked down the stairs, he was treated to a curious sound, one that he hadn't heard in the house for a while. Laughing. No- giggling. Light, breathy gasps of air from a deep voice, accompanied by hiccups and the occasional sob from laughing too hard.
He felt his skin crawl, and he wished he knew why.
Henry reached the bottom step and looked around. There were the usual things stored down in the basement- boxes upon boxes of antiques from William's family, canned food and bags of grain, even old prototype animatronics for Fredbear's Family Diner. Notably, the prototype for Fredbear itself had a sheet thrown over its head and was positioned so it was facing the corner.
Henry didn't think too hard about it.
He instead swiftly moved to the next room over- the place where the magic happened, as William would have put it. William's workshop.
It was entirely different from the rudimentary workshop in his garage. For one, it had far more room for supplies and material. For another, it was for far more long term projects. The one in his garage was simply for smaller things. Here? William and Henry brought things to life.
William was crouched over near a far off wall in the room, by a slumped… animatronic? Yeah, it was definitely an animatronic. The sight made Henry stop in his tracks, because- that was Spring Bonnie. But also… not.
It was shorter, for one, slightly more closer to the size of a man, if a very big man. It was maybe around five feet and ten inches in height instead of the six and a half feet the original suit was. Additionally, it could not have been a spring lock suit like the original was- it was just… too small for the components to feasibly fit in.
That was aside from the smaller details, like the different material used for the fur, and a few tweaks on its design, and some other such things. For one, it was a completely different color, as were its eyes, and the accessories it had on.
William had somehow made a completely different version of Spring Bonnie over the past however long without telling Henry about it at all… and… for what?
The Fredbear name was dead and in the water, and as far as Henry knew, the Freddy Fazbear brand was in the hands of some slimy company that rebranded themselves to Fazbear Entertainment. What even was the point of making a Spring Bonnie animatronic if there was no audience for it?
Henry swallowed his trepidation and approached William, who's giggles had died down to soft chuckles.
The gaunt man's head twisted around with a crack, and Henry flinched at the sight of those wide, owlish eyes trained on him. William's definitely seen better days, to say the least. He used to be so… jolly looking, and now he was… well, he was like Henry. A shell of the man he once was. Maybe worse, in some regard, because something happened to him some time ago that stripped any trace of humanity from his eyes.
Henry had an inkling, but he hoped it wasn't true. He hoped to the point it was self delusion, because William was all he had left in his life to keep him hanging on.
"Hey," Henry finally said, clearing his throat. "I brought the soldering iron."
William brightened. His unnaturally silver eyes, once a marvel to behold and now something that only highlighted his unnerving and alien nature, seemed to gain a sparkle at the sight of his friend. He stood and approached Henry with great, long strides.
"Oi, Henry! I knew you'd make it, mate, I just knew it," William held his arms out and wrapped Henry in a tight hug. Henry froze, put off by the Brit's strangely jubilant attitude. "You came just at the right time, I'm putting on the finishing touches and you have exactly what I need for them."
"Ah… yeah. About that," Henry watched as William took the soldering iron and quickly returned to the second Spring Bonnie- Spring Bonnie 2.0?- and started to work on it. "Finishing touches on… what, exactly?"
"On them, silly," William chided, in a playful tone that made Henry feel like he had been coated in a layer of slime.
"Them… who?"
"Them," William stood back and nodded his head towards Spring Bonnie.
Them…? Oh. Henry almost forgot that William had decided not to settle on making Spring Bonnie either male or female- instead designating them with a different label that 'felt right'. Henry didn't understand it much, but it delighted a few friendly customers who fell in with the less traditional crowd, so he was fine with it. He wasn't as attached to the characters as William was, at least not beyond a fond nostalgia for the old days, but frankly he enjoyed sitting back and watching William frustrate some of their more conservative customers whenever he was asked that same old "Are they a boy or a girl?" question and answering with "They're a rabbit." in return.
Henry returned his gaze to the Spring Bonnie animatronic, stepping a little closer to examine them in more detail. They were in great condition. Despite the basement's overall dusty environment, William had painstakingly kept the animatronic clean over the course of their development.
"So," he began, slightly dreading the answer he'd be getting, "if I may, Will… why?"
William glanced up from where he had been rewiring something. "Why, what?"
"Why this?" Henry gestured to the bunny animatronic.
William blinked. "Oh. This?" He set a calloused and wrinkled hand onto the bunny's head, and just basked in the sensation of the soft fur against his fingers. "Well, that's simple, Henry. After my wife left me, and my children left me, and everyone else left me- I'm hopelessly, pathetically lonely. So I fixed something up to help me with that!"
Understanding began to dawn on Henry- and then a profound uncomfortable feeling. "I didn't leave you," Henry pointed out. "Look, if you were really this lonely, you could've come to me. I'm struggling too, but I'll always make time for you, my friend. You don't need to build yourself a robot friend."
"Ah, but that's where you're wrong. They're not my 'robot friend," William brilliantly smiled at Henry, exposing both his yellowed teeth and his gums. "I've programmed them to do all the things a romantic partner would do."
Henry paused. "... you made yourself a sexbot," he flatly said.
"... a bit crude, but yes," William admitted. "But with enough tweaking in their coding I can get them to facilitate all the romantic stuff with, you know, near-human emotions."
"Oh," Henry said, because what the hell else could he say? He scratched his head. "I. I see. But why make a new one instead of, say, reprogramming the old one?"
"Do I look like I want to springlock my dick, Henry? Besides, this isn't Spring Bonnie. Spring Bonnie represents something else, a different part of my life. This one is something new, though I haven't come up with a name for them yet," William grimaced, but his mood shifted as he changed the subject. "But I'm delighted you understand!"
The other man wrapped his arms around the animatronic and nuzzled the side of his head and oh dear lord Henry has never felt this uncomfortable before in his entire life. "You'll get used to it, I know you will. I even put in a few special features in them so they'll be able to do a variety of other things!"
"Like what?" Henry could feel his morbid curiosity overcome them.
"Oh, cooking, cleaning, and other household tasks. They'll be able to realistically act as a companion," William petted the animatronic. "I could make you one as well if you want, Henry!"
"... no thanks," Henry slowly said.
"But look," William said, turning the animatronic over and peeling back a layer of fur and felt from their back. It revealed not just their endoskeleton, but a panel that flipped open to show a switch inside. "I made it so that you can, uh, put it into 'adult mode', so to speak. Get it?"
Henry felt something curdle in his gut. Disgust, maybe, revulsion, more like. "Yeah I- I get it, William."
"Look, I even added an artificial- well, I had to go to a very interesting store to get this, but with a bit of finagling I even managed to add-" William reached for the animatronic's crotch.
" I get it !" Henry quickly exclaimed, half shielding his eyes. He couldn't help the morbid curiosity that made him want to take a peek. "And I'm fine. Thank you for the offer, but no."
"Oh," William said, and then shrugged. "Well, your loss. Do be a dear and put the soldering iron on that table over there, Henry, I'll get to it later."
Henry quickly complied and practically bolted out of the room afterwards. He wiped the sweat from his brow after he left the basement, letting out a sigh.
Note to self: avoid visiting the Afton residence in the indefinite future.