Chapter Text
You squint, forcing your eyes to adjust to the outlandishly gaudy mass of neon that was Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizzaplex, sighing heavily as you trudge forward, willing yourself through the set of double doors that lead inside the massive complex.
All in all, you’ve made some less than stellar decisions in your life, but responding to an ad for a daycare assistant at Freddy Fazbears was arguably one of your shittier ones.
Why, you ask?
Because your tolerance for children was practically non-existent ( you trusted them about as far as you could throw them) and not only that, but you were about as painfully awkward as a grown adult could be.
Not to mention your very, very irrational fear of animatronics.
Karma apparently has a pretty messed up sense of humor, because you’d somehow landed the job without so much as an interview, and now, here you were, waiting for the security guard to arrive and give you a tour, and hopefully a brief rundown of your expected work duties.
You find it a tad bit odd that you're expected to work the night shift on your very first day, but you figure they might want to limit your interaction with the actual customers until they have a sense of whether or not you can actually handle the job, which is perfectly fine by you.
The less interaction you had with the kids, the better.
You hear a set of heavy footsteps in the distance, along with the faint jangle of keys, and you try to prepare yourself as a blonde security guard approaches you, hand extended in offering.
You shake it briefly, but the gesture is stiff and awkward, which for once is not your doing, and you do your best to force a polite smile as she introduces herself.
“I’m Vanessa, the night time security guard.” She states flatly, giving you a very blatant once over, and by the looks of it, she isn’t very impressed. “You must be the new hire.”
You introduce yourself in kind, and the blonde merely clicks her tongue in response, gesturing vaguely for you to follow her as she starts walking away without so much as another word.
“As I’m sure you can gather from the outside, this place is massive. Your job will only require you to be familiar with the Daycare area, so if you want to explore the rest of the Pizzaria, do it on your own time. This is the quickest way to get there, so try to remember it.”
If you thought your initial impression of Vanessa was bad, you’re seriously starting to wonder what crawled up her ass and died to make her such a bitch.
If she could get away with having this kind of attitude, maybe your odds of maintaining your employment were better than you thought, and you don’t quite know how to feel about that.
You follow close behind Vanessa as she makes her way toward the second level balcony, the sound of a cheery soundtrack gradually growing louder as you approach what you rightfully assume to be the Daycare.
You take one brief glance at the gold statue at the entrance and immediately avert your gaze to the green carpet at your feet, wiping your suddenly sweaty palms on the material of your pants, trying to keep your anxiety at bay.
That thing couldn’t be the animatronic you were supposed to work with, right?!
What kind of sadistic bastard thought basing an animatronics design off of a jester would somehow make it more kid-friendly?
You’re so swept up in your internal monolog that you almost stumble right into Vanessa, not realizing that she’d come to a stop at the entrance to a brightly neon colored slide. The sign above it read, ‘Slide into Fun’ but you have some serious doubts about that.
“You go on ahead and get yourself acquainted with Sun, I need to get you some codes and issue you a security badge from the office. I’ll be right back.”
You feel the color drain from your face at her words.
No.
No way.
The sudden knot in your throat leaves you unable to form an audible response, but maybe that’s for the best, since you don’t trust yourself not to outright beg her not to leave you here alone.
A meek nod is all you manage, but in her typical disinterested manner, she simply brushes past you, either not picking up on, or not giving shit about your apprehension, quickly retreating in the direction from which you’d originally came.
You bite your lip, silently weighing your options, eyeing the slide as if it were the entrance to hell itself, which for you, it might as well be pretty damn close to it.
Deep down, you know that you desperately need this job, and the hourly rate was far better than you were going to get anywhere else.
Just think of it as some sort of really intense exposure therapy, you rationalize.
Steeling yourself, you slip your legs into the slide, eyes clenched tightly shut as you lean forward, letting gravity take over.
Your body is jostled this way and that with each curve of tubing, and after what seems like an eternity, the slide spits you out into the ball pit below.
You open your eyes, eager to escape the pit as hastily as possible. You don’t want to know how many kids must have puked or peed in here, and you seriously doubt someone goes through the trouble of disinfecting it on a regular basis.
You hope that's not going to be one of your expected duties.
Somewhere above you, a gleeful laughter rings out, your vision reeling with the speed at which you whip around to follow the direction of the sound.
You catch only a brief glimpse of color and a flash of movement as something quite literally dives into the ball pit with you.
Absolute panic sets in as you scramble to get out before it reaches you, grasping desperately onto the ledge of the ball pit. You start to hoist yourself up over the edge, and for a split second you think you're home free, before a pair of very non-human arms wind around your waist, dragging you right back in with it.
A pitiful shriek escapes you as your body collides with something solid, something warm… and not quite the cold unyielding feel of harsh metal like you'd anticipated.
That revelation gives you pause, and you remain completely still as the animatronic releases you from it’s embrace, effortlessly lifting you out of the ball pit, swinging you around gleefully before gingerly setting you on your feet..
"Hellooo! New friend. You're sure up late! Are we having a slumber party?! We’re going to have so much fun, we can fingerprint and tell stories and-"
You try to blink them back, but you can't seem to stop them, and before you know it, big fat tears are streaming down your face, falling onto the brightly colored play mat under your feet.
The animatronic freezes instantly.
One second the bubbly animatronic is bouncing around, babbling excitedly about all the fun activities you two could do together, and the next it's gone into a full existential crisis for having made you cry.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, sorry, sorry! I didn't mean to scare you, please don't cry. I didn't mean to make you upset!"
Sun reaches towards you, unsure how to comfort you in this situation, but to his credit, seems to understand that touching you right now wouldn't be such a good idea.
"Do you like glitter glue? I have glitter glue…. What about stickers, or I have Fizzyfaz, would ya like some? Or…. Or…."
You feel a twinge of guilt as you watch him hunch in on himself, trying to make himself appear smaller, less intimidating, desperately trying to find something to make you stop crying.
You needed to get it together.
For god’s sake, he was designed to care for children, he wasn't going to hurt you! You internally berate yourself, using your sleeve to wipe away the remainder of your tears, taking a shuddering breath and then another, until you finally find your voice.
"It's okay, you didn't do anything wrong." You finally mumble, hoping that he doesn’t pick up on the shakiness in your tone. "Just startled me a bit."
The Sun animatronic fishes into his pocket, pulling out a handkerchief with a matching Solar pattern embroidered onto it, extending it to you in offering, which you accept with a small smile.
You don't have the heart to tell the poor thing that he's the embodiment of your deepest rooted fear, not when his programming was so….human.
“A-Are you sure? Your heart rate is still elevated and your pulse is much higher than it should be.”
He seems genuinely concerned, and so you try not to dwell on the fact that he was apparently capable of scanning your vital signs at will.
“Hey! Care to tell me what’s going on here, Sun?!” Vanessa’s impatient tone suddenly cuts in, causing the both of you to startle, the animatronic in question nearly jumping out of his skin, er, exoskeleton? You’re not entirely sure.
One thing you do know is that Vanessa looks absolutely pissed, foot tapping impatiently as she waits expectantly for a response.
“Well…?”
Sun looks about ready to malfunction, wringing his hands together nervously as his gaze darts frantically between you and the security guard, clearly at a loss of what to say, and you decide to interject before the situation can get any worse.
The situation is your fault anyway.
“Um, you see I got stuck in the ballpit. I’ve alway been a little claustrophobic, so I, uh, panicked and Sun here was kind enough to pull me out.” You reply, rubbing at your neck sheepishly. You figure it’s a less humiliating excuse than, ‘hey, I’m terrified of animatronics but I needed a job so I took the position here like an idiot. Please don’t fire me.’
“Sun calmed me down and made sure I was okay. Isn’t that right, Sun?” Vanessa doesn’t look very convinced, so you send him the most pleading look you can manage and hope he plays along.
“T-That’s right! I was sad to see my new friend upset, but everything is fine now!” He snaps right back into his usual jovial self and you breathe a sigh of relief as Vanessa’s posture finally seems to relax.
“Okay, well… Sun, this is the new daycare attendant. She’s here to help you clean up the daycare once the children go home for the day, as well as to keep tabs on you. Show her the ropes, and try not to give her too much trouble.”
The animatronic nods furiously, animatedly babbling about how great it will be to have you around, while on the other hand, you start internally panicking, realizing that you’ll be spending much more one-on-one time with the animatronic than you’d anticipated.
Vanessa ignores him, turning her attention back towards you, impatiently shoving various items into your hands.
“Here’s your security badge, flashlight, and codes for the daycare area. If you have any issues, there’s a radio in the Daycare office, Sun will show you where it is. I’ll come check on you once your shift is over.”
It’s blatantly obvious that Vanessa wants to get you out of her hair as quickly as possible, abandoning you yet again without even so much as a glance back over her shoulder.
You sigh, and decide it’s time to rip off the proverbial band aid, so to speak. You start by freeing up your hands, placing the security badge around your neck and stowing the codes and flashlight away in your pocket, before turning to face Sun.
He freezes in place as soon as you look at him, and before you can decide against it, you extend your hand out to him.
“I don’t think we quite got off on the right foot. I’m Y/N… it looks like you and I will be working together from now on, so go easy on me, okay?” You’re not sure exactly what the proper etiquette is for introducing yourself to an animatronic, and apparently neither does he, if the way Sun is staring at your hand is any indication.
You really shouldn’t consider yourself surprised when he ignores your hand entirely, sweeping you up into a hug instead, your feet dangling uselessly several inches from the ground.
“It’s great to meet you! I just know we’re going to be best friends in no time. You’ll love it here, I promise!”
Your natural instinct is to stiffen, but the familiar warmth that spreads across your skin again piques your interest, and your curiosity starts to outweigh your fear. Tentatively, you slowly wrap your arms around his neck, reciprocating the embrace, and he literally giggles with delight.
Some small part of you is starting to come around to the idea that maybe he wasn’t so scary after all.
Not only was he pleasantly warm to the touch, but he seemed to be made of a more malleable material, like silicone rather than something harsh like metal or alloy. Again, it made sense since he was designed to care for young children.
Still, you weren’t much of the hugging type.
You pat his back awkwardly, signaling that you’d like to be put down now, and Sun complies immediately, setting you back on your feet with as much care as he’d done the first time.
“Alright, Sun. Shall we get started?”