Chapter Text
The restaurant is always eerie after closing. The room once full of laughing children and the smell of greasy pizza is now silent. The only sounds being the ticking of a clock and the occasional rev of a car going by outside. Toy Bonnie’s arms cramped from holding that guitar all day. He set it down on the stage next to him and stretched out his arms, twisting his body in every which way. He groaned as he finished stretching and looked over towards Kids Cove. It was dark as it usually was. There was caution tape in front of the entrance as there had been for a few years.
He turned back to the stage and saw Toy Freddy and Toy Chica still powered down. He was always the first one to turn on at night. He didn’t enjoy it. Life’s boring without someone to talk to. He went to sit down on the edge of the stage, but before his butt touched the stage, he heard the whirring of an engine. He stood back up and looked over to see Toy Freddy blinking and moving his fingers around his microphone. Perfect, just what Toy Bonnie needed: to deal with an idiot. Toy Freddy set his microphone in its stand in front of him and looked around before his eyes landed on Toy Bonnie. Toy Bonnie felt himself already get frustrated from that look Toy Freddy gave him. He always knew just how to set him off, didn’t he?
“Bon! You’re already awake!” Toy Freddy exclaimed in his usual happy tone.
Toy Bonnie wanted to throw something at him. He gritted his teeth and turned to him with a scowl. “Stop calling me that, if you would. We aren’t friends.”
Toy Freddy’s smile turned to a frown and he seemed a bit upset by this. “But we aren’t enemies either, are we?” Toy Freddy asked hopefully.
He wasn’t wrong, Toy Bonnie thought. Toy Bonnie didn’t think of him as a friend at all. But they weren’t enemies. Sure, he didn’t particularly like him, but he didn’t hate him entirely. After a moment, Toy Bonnie sighed. “No. We aren’t enemies.” Toy Bonnie admitted, and that seemed to cool Toy Freddy’s nervousness easier than it would have cooled anyone else’s. That bear was so easy to read.
Toy Freddy smiled slightly and looked around slowly. “So if we aren’t friends…and we aren’t enemies—what are we…?” Toy Freddy muttered under his breath, sounding very uncertain.
Toy Bonnie wracked his brain, trying to think of what exactly they were. They were just forced to live with each other. They weren’t anything more. He shrugged and settled on a term. “Co-workers.”
That was true. They were co-workers. But do co-workers usually live together? He guessed some might. There was nothing odd about their relationship. You didn't have to be friends with your co-workers and you didn’t have to hate them either.
As Toy Freddy was about to speak, Toy Chica began to blink, stretching her arms out and opening her beak with a yawn. “Hey, boys, what are you up to?” She said in her usual mean-girl-like voice. She didn’t mean it that way, it was just in her programming. Toy Bonnie had grown to enjoy her voice. She wasn’t soft like Toy Freddy, but she wasn’t downright cruel either.
“We were just chatting, Chica,” Toy Bonnie said, his demeanor changing from defensive to more relaxed. He walked past Toy Freddy to embrace Toy Chica like an old friend.
She squeezed him back and patted his shoulder before pulling away. Toy Freddy frowned slightly at the sight. Toy Chica looked at him with a grin.
“Oh, come on, Fredster, don’t leave me hangin’!” She giggled, holding her arms out for a hug. Toy Freddy seemed happy to take the invitation, immediately wrapping her in a bear hug. She chirped slightly at the intensity and laughed. “Freddy, loosen up! Loosen up!” She squealed through laughs. He eventually listened and set her down.
Toy Bonnie couldn’t help the small smile that crept onto his face. Seeing the two happy together always got him to crack. They had a good friendship, something him and Toy Freddy would never have. He paused, trying to figure out why that thought made something in his robotic heart ache. Before he could let himself process it, he turned away from them and headed for Kids Cove.
When he ducked under the caution tape into the darkened room, he heard soft whimpers, accompanied by quiet hushes. He roamed over the wall to find the light switch. “Mangle?” He asked quietly as he flipped the light switch, the light was weak and flickered. In the flickering light, he saw Mangle holding their extra head, hushing it as it whimpered and whined in an oddly realistic way. None of the Toys could speak so humanly as that head did. It confused them.
Mangle took their eyes away from their other head to look at Toy Bonnie with droopy eyes. “The poor baby’s been crying and whimpering all day…” Their choppy and static-like voice sighed. Their voice box was damaged from the year they had spent untouched by a repairman.
Toy Bonnie looked on sadly and approached slowly, not wanting to scare the extra head. He gently touched the top of it, petting it lightly. It blinked to look up at him, still letting out those soft whimpers and whines. Mangle sniffled and looked up at Toy Bonnie helplessly. Toy Bonnie sighed and helped Mangle to their feet.
“Maybe it’s hungry? Let’s get it to the kitchen.” Toy Bonnie said gently, leading Mangle out of Kids Cove, ducking under the caution tape.
Once in the kitchen, the two found Toy Chica, pulling tater tots out of the oven with a grin. “Just on time, fellas!” She said eagerly, setting the hot tray down on the island.
It always amazed Toy Bonnie how she could just hold a hot tray without the need for oven mitts. Mangle walked over and picked up a tater tot, blowing on it before feeding it to the extra head. The head immediately chomped down on it and whined for more.
Toy Chica giggled at the sight before turning towards Toy Bonnie. “Freddy seemed upset earlier,” She began, putting her hands on her hips. “What happened before I woke up?”
Toy Bonnie seemed unsettled by this topic. Did his words hurt Toy Freddy that badly? “Not that I can recall,” Toy Bonnie lied through his teeth. “Did he mention anything to you about what might’ve happened?”
Toy Chica shook her head. “No. Just seemed upset.”
Toy Bonnie sighed and crossed his arms. This was going to spiral quickly if he didn’t handle it now. He didn’t need that idiot being mopey and costing him his friendship with the other two(three?). Without so much as a goodbye, he left the kitchen to go on a hunt for Toy Freddy and settle this.