Chapter Text
Yellow
A yellow hand was pressed against the top of Poppy's head as the soft pressure awakened the small doll. She swiftly raised her head to see her very close companion and only friend she had back in the factory. Back when nobody believed in her or protected her from the PROTOTYPE. The very toy was none other than Kissy Missy.
“...Kissy? I-is that you?”
The tall, long-limbed pink monster toy could only pat Poppy's head as Kissy grumbled softly. Poppy didn’t stop herself from launching off of Dogdays back into Kissy as she emotionally called out.
“Kissy! I’m so sorry-”
Kissy stopped Poppy from blubbering anymore apologies she's made all day by gently putting her yellow hand on her shoulder as she rumbles to the porcelain doll in hopes that the little doll would understand the pink monster. ‘It's okay. I’m okay. Safe. We are safe.’ was etched in Kissy Missy's expression for Poppy to understand, even if she can’t say it out loud. Poppy couldn’t help but chuckle wearily.
“You're right. Haha, we're okay…right? You don’t hate me, right?”
Kissy shook her head as she put Poppy down, before getting up and brushing her blue bow on her neck. Poppy whipped her eyes as she tried to calm herself from bawling once more. Dogday crawled over to them as he sat himself down in front of them. Despite not wanting to interrupt their sweet moment, He cleared his throat to gain their attention. Both turned to him as Kissy got up while still bending enough to hear them as Dogday spoke.
“I’m sorry to interrupt your reunion, but we still need to get out of this place and figure out where we are and how we got here. Poppy, can you ask Kissy if she knows anything? I get the feeling that you two know how to communicate with each other.”
“Oh, right…Kissy. Do you know where we are? And is there any way we can get out of here?”
Kissy chirrups at Poppy as she straightens her tall posture to look around her before stalking her way towards one of the many large piles of garbage. She leaned her pinky fuzzy body on the edge of it as she began to crawl up. As soon as she reached the top, she looked back at the two toys and made a hand movement for them to follow her. Poppy, confused, but followed as Dogday grabbed her and put her back on his back. He crawled over to the pile and climbed up as well, following Kissy. Kissy jumped from one pile to another, keeping a steady pace for the legless stuffed dog toy. As they walked, or more like crawled in Dogday's case, Poppy couldn’t help but look around her. Despite the large mountain of trash blocking her view, she could see silhouettes of tall buildings in the distance. It made her question if they were near a city. It made her feel frightened by the possibility of being seen by other humans, who would immediately view them as a threat. Soon, she felt Dogday stop as she looked down at him briefly before facing forward toward her friend. Kissy had stopped at what looked like a make-shift tunnel that seemed to have been made recently. She crouched and crawled into the tube, beckoning Dogday to keep following.
“I don’t know about this Poppy. She where exactly is she taking us?”
“I don’t know. But I trust Kissy. So trust me, Dogday. She wouldn’t hurt us if we didn’t give her a good reason to. She isn’t Huggy…”
Dogday flinched at the name, but he gruffly sighed. Poppy watched as he made his way towards the tunnel and began to crouch with his arms as he wormed himself into the small tunnel. Once they reached the other side, Poppy was met with the sight of a half-haphazardly made tent fort that had large patched blankets and metal poles that had signs with three letter V’s on them to hold it up. Along with a small fence-like border around it, but it seemed to be falling apart, with how rushed it looked. Kissy stopped near the small fence and turned to Dogday and Poppy before moving aside so they could come closer. There was a small bell hanging on a wooden stand. Puzzled Dogday looked behind at Poppy, wondering how to proceed. The red-haired doll nodded after a moment, prompting Dogday to move towards the bell, raise one hand, and grip the small rope dangling beneath it to ring it.
There was a brief silence as the bell rang throughout the small area. All of a sudden, there was a small yet firm voice that came out from on top of the tent.
“Who goes there? I have a weapon, so I wouldn’t try anything, friends.”
All three looked up to see the speaker. It was a hooded figure who held onto one of the metal poles while holding what seemed to be a rusty pipe too big for its body. Poppy looked worried but tried to offer a peaceful greeting to the hooded stranger.
“We don’t mean any harm. We came with Kissy, and we’re pretty lost, so we could really use some help. I’m Poppy, and this is Dogday.”
The figure suddenly loses grip on the pole they were holding onto. They regain some balance, staring at the group for a long time before immediately sliding down the tent and grunting before grabbing onto a loose rope and swinging themselves down. They appeared much shorter as they got closer to the group. They stopped at the edge of the fence on the other side, and there was something familiar about this person to Poppy. She has been getting that feeling a lot lately. It almost made her feel like her arrival at this place was more purposeful than she thought. Who else could this be that she knew but can’t recall?
Before her mind could be riddled with questions, the hooded figure removed their dark brown hood to reveal a peach-and-patchy-skinned face, with brown fur poking out of their skin from their head, ears, and body. She felt lightheaded when her gaze met this shorter toy's four-petaled purple eyes. She recognized him. She would know exactly what he looked like despite years of separation, even after he was turned inside out by the PROTOTYPE, and now, when they are together in this strange place, she could still pinpoint who he is. With wide-eyed bewilderment, the fox toy called out her name, almost not believing what he was saying, but it felt so real to him that he couldn't stop himself from stepping toward her from the other side of the fence.
“...Poppy?”
Poppy replied in the same manner as she walked closer to the fence, arm's length from the mishaped foxed toy, with only the wired fence keeping them from fully connecting.
“Giblet.”
The fox toy shook his head as he placed a palm to his forehead to check his temperature. He wanted to make sure this wasn’t a feverish dream. The doll, he had been wondering if he would ever see again or find her once he finished his setup. The very porcelain girl who had saved his world and accepted his every flaw, even when he felt he didn’t deserve it. He wasn’t a hero. The number of times he had told himself and others that very fact wasn’t something he took lightly as he accepted this about himself. That he wasn’t someone who would save the day, but even at his last moments, when the factory was on the brink of exploding, he had tried to save her. Maybe the Playtime Butcher as well, but he had to choose someone to save. It would have been Poppy. He could have been her hero if he had the chance again. Maybe he could now.
“Poppy. I can’t believe it! It’s you! Oh, thank God you're okay! I thought-I thought you didn’t make it when the docs bomb went off. I thought Kissy and I were the only ones who woke up here in this red place. Oh, sorry, I should let you in. Kissy opens the gate for them.”
He loudly exclaimed in relief as he motioned for Kissy to open the fence gate before going into the tent hastily. Kissy growls softly as she pushes the gate open. All of them slowly entered as Kissy opened the flaps of the tent for them to enter the small fort. It was a lot larger inside the rushed-made fort than Poppy had thought when she saw Giblet coming out from behind a grimy white curtain that hid another small room in the fort. Dogday lowered his chest to let Poppy off his back. She rushed over to him as he froze when he finally got a closer look at her. Hastily, she reached for his patched-glove hand, almost to prove to him and herself that this was real. Her blue eyes looked at his one single purple eye. Despite her left eye seemingly fixed, that wasn’t the case for Giblet, as he still had his black eye patch over his left eye. He didn’t respond to her touch at first, but slowly held her hand up before overlapping it with his other hand.
She shuddered so softly that it surprised her by how much she had actually missed him and Kissy after reuniting with her not that long ago. There was so much she wanted to say to him. So many pleas for forgiveness and pleas for him to never leave her side again. But she felt like her words wouldn’t be enough to show how much she wanted to make up to him for everything that happened in Playtime Co., with the Ollie, with the PROTOTYPE. Now they ended up in this weird place after dying due to the same poppy bomb the Doctor made because her angle followed her instructions after getting captured by the PROTOTYPE. All of their problems, of the pain and torture, were because of her-
“Hey-hey, whatever you're thinking inside that big head of your doll face, Imma need you to stop that right now.”
She snapped out of it as she hadn’t realized how long she had stood in front of him without saying anything to him.
“Huh? I-I’m sorry, I just-I wish I could say something that would make up for everything that had happened to us. I feel really responsible for everything terrible that has happened to us. To everyone. I should’ve stopped him from the beginning. I should’ve believed you when you said that there was something wrong with Ollie-I mean Prototype. I mean, you know, they made this company because of me…Everyone suffered because of me-We all died because of me-”
Her guilty rambling was stopped when she was pulled into a sudden embrace by the eye-patch fox. Giblet held Poppy tightly, rubbing her back as he spoke calmly to her.
“Poppy. You need to stop blaming yourself. You gotta stop thinking that every bad thing that's happened to us is all your fault. What he did to me was not your fault. Playcare and Safe Haven were not your fault. The whole fucking factory and the sick experiment they performed on all of us was not your fault. None of it was because of you, Poppy. I want to believe that everything happens for a reason, even the bad things. We all did bad things, doll face. Don’t shoulder all that guilt just because you don’t want us to feel bad. We all participated in the Hour of Joy, remember. So give yourself some grace for Christ's sake. If you want to make it up to me, start by giving yourself a break. At least do that for me.”
Poppy nodded as she wiped the small droplets of tears that fell at his words. Even though she knew that he was right in what he said, she still couldn’t help but feel culpable for how their life had turned out and how their fate had ended with them all dying from the explosion. Maybe they were dead and living a sort of purgatory limbo where she had to make amends with everyone she had hurt.
But for now, she didn’t want to dwell on those for long, as she felt exhausted after the series of events that led her to be able to meet her own allies once more in such a strange new reality.
Giblet could see she was swaying softly from sheer exhaustion. He wrapped his arm around her small body before he turned to Kissy and Dogday, who were standing on the sidelines, witnessing the touching moments between the small toys.
“I’m gonna take Poppy and let her rest somewhere in here. Uh, you guys can make yourselves at home. We don’t have much, but I’m sure I’ll be able to salvage something when I get back. Kissy, make sure uh…Sorry, I completely forgot to get your name. I think I know, but my memory has been out of sorts.”
Dogday chuckles softly as he holds his hand up to wave off Giblet's worries.
“It’s okay. We haven't seen each other often, if at all, since the Hour of Joy. We’ll do a proper greeting once everything is settled. And it’s Dogday.”
“Dogday…Yeah. I think I remember you. I hope we can catch, but I gotta get her to rest. Thanks for bringing her.”
“Don’t mention it. Kissy led us here. All the thanks should go to her. We’d be lost for a while if it weren’t for her.”
Dogday said, looking up at Kissy with a thankful smile. Kissy grumbles lowly as she follows Giblet to the resting area. Poppy let Giblet take her to a small area in the fort that held a large old mattress with ripped pillows and a dirty blanket spilling off the edge. Tenderly, he laid Poppy down, placing her head on one of the pillows as he tucked her in. She cuddles the surprisingly soft blanket as she peeks at the corner of her eye to see Kissy crawling on the mattress after her while curling herself around the tiny porcelain doll protectively. She could feel the soft rumbling from behind as Kissy purrs.
Giblet made sure that Poppy was comfortable on the mattress before he left the area. Not before he heard Poppy whisper to him one last time before slumber took her.
“Thank you, Giblet…You say you're not a hero, but when it mattered, you always acted like one. To me at least.”
“.......Heh, you have no idea, Doll face. Sleep tight.”