#i keep goin back and forth on how sun and moons body looks when their separated

[heyimanowl]

WOAH MAMA!

[ticklish-touch]

Five Nights At Sunny’s Ch4: Bedtime Story

Nate gets to see Sun and Moon at their day jobs... And finally learns a bit about their past. (This chapter is much less tk-centric than the last. Time for a tiny bit of sads c’:  )

Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four (You are here!) Chapter Five

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

         It took a bit of convincing, but Nate was able to get permission to go to the daycare during the day, as the jester duo had requested. One of the other staff members was required to escort him there, and he was allowed to stay for two hours.        Inside, there were many rambunctious children, from toddlers to preteens; screaming, laughing, running about and playing in the different play structures. And towering above them, the sunny jester could be seen monitoring all of them.

         He eventually spotted Nate, gasping and waving frantically in his direction. "NOOT-NOOT!!" He pranced over to the brunette, some of the kids following him out of curiosity. "Guys!! Come here, c'mere!! This is my friend Nate that I was telling you all about!" More kids gathered, some shyly waving up at Nate, others looking disinterested. "Everyone, say hi to mister Nate!"           Nate was met with a chorus of kids saying hi, and couldn’t help but feel himself smile. "Well hey there, everyone!”         “Noot-Noot gets to stay up with me and Moony aaalll night!!” Sunny explained. “He has a SUPER important job of helping me watch over the Daycare at night and make sure all the locks are secure and the important papers are done! He even gets to play video games with me!”         “Wow, really??” One of the kids excitedly piped in.        “I wanna be a security guard when I grow up!”          Sunny nodded fast. “I totally kick his butt in DDR, though~” he gave Nate finger-guns.           Nate rolled his eyes. “Yeah yeah, well, I totally mop the floor with him in Mario Kart.”          “Nuh-UH!!” Sunny folded his arms in a huff.         “Can Nate dance wif us?” One small child looked up to Sun expectantly.         “Yeah, he should play with us!!”         “Oh- Sorry, kids, but I’m not allowed,” Nate gave them a polite smile. “I’m supposed to go sit with my coworkers.”         Sunny's attention was quickly drawn back to some of the kids that had started wandering off, waving at Nate again before following a group of them over to the TV, where one of the employees was now setting up some Wii games. "OkaygottagoseeyoutonightBYE!"

       After he left, the other staff gestured for Nate to join them over at the security desk, where they could keep an eye on the whole area from their seats and from the surveillance monitors.        The bot seemed right at home here. It was moving to see how wonderful he was with the kids. He played games of tag, he put on improv skits and LARPed with them, he chased them playfully int he ballpit, he built block towers and had gentle plushie fights. He hardly even seemed to mind some of the smallest children hanging off of his arms or clinging to his poofy pants. He tried to climb into the jungle gym with them at times, but he wasn’t quite as agile inside the structures as his other half. ...Despite having literally the same body.

       Not all of the kids warmed up to him, though; A decent handful kept him at a wide berth, stepping away if he attempted to approach them with toys or crafts. The slump in his body language told Nate that he was saddened by their reactions, but he didn't let it deter him from keeping up his cheery demeanor.         Nate noticed, too, that he could use sign language. He signed back and forth with a couple of the kids, and showed a couple curious ones how to do certain signs in order to communicate with their peers.

       It wasn’t all just playtime with no limits, though. Sunny watched the kids like a hawk, never hesitating to gently scold them if they misbehaved or risked getting into danger.

         “Please don’t climb up there, children! You could get hurt!!”           “No no no!! Throwing things at other people is not nice!”           “RICHIE!!” He gasped. “That is a BIG no-no word!! You’re goin’ to time out!”           Most of the kids were cooperative, no doubt because having such a boisterous, slightly uncanny robot looming over them was a bit intimidating.

         “Man, how is he not a nervous wreck dealing with this all day?” Nate questioned his coworkers.          “I mean, he is kinda neurotic,” one of them shrugged. “But he says he likes the energy and commotion. I think he understands better than some adults that kids just aren’t fully developed yet and need a lot of patience.”          “He also doesn’t process stress the same way that people do. At least, that’s what the higher-ups told us. I think he’s still relieved to get charging breaks.”

         It seemed true; since how, right after reprimanding a child, he would bounce right back to his regular manic, happy-go-lucky self. The only time he showed genuine stress was when a sister and her big brother took a running charge at a tower of the squeaky barrels, both kicking them over at the same time.          He shrieked and ran over, frantically restacking them, before scolding them. "P-Please don't do that, children!! It's very important that these stay upright!! They, uhh- have important radios in them that signal the other staff around the Pizzaplex and let your parents know that you're okay! They can't work right if they're knocked down!"          Thankfully, the siblings seemed to believe him, and didn't attempt it again. ...Or maybe they were just a bit too unnerved by him to want to get on his bad side. It was hard to say.          "So uh...Why does he do that?" Nate questioned one of the other employees.          They shrugged. "No-one knows. We think it's a fault in his 'clean-up' mode. He doesn't really care about being messy during the day, but he's programmed to make sure everything's tidy after the daycare's closed. For some reason it's just those barrels that he wants to be perfect at all times."          The other security guard nodded. "Yeah, sometimes we gotta put the towers way up high where no kids can get to them. We tried getting rid of 'em completely, but he begged us not to. We've actually had the chance to educate some of the young ones about obsessive-compulsive and other similar disorders that way."

         Before long, jester’s battery had soon been depleted. In the middle of a round of Red Rover, his body suddenly slumped and his voice slowed down. “Red Rover, Red Roooooo-o-o-o....”          Some kids burst into laughter. But Sunny just went along with it. “S-S-Send Haaaaaaa-- right overrrrr-r-r....” His arms turned into limp noodle in two other kids’ grip.        The kids laughed again and the two holding his hand on either side of him started trying to pull him over to his charging station. “Sunnyyy, go charge, go charge!!”        “Oookkaayyy-y-y-y,” Sunny whined. “Behaaaave yours-s-selvesss!”

            As Sunny took some time to get a quick recharge, one of the staff members took a turn looking after everyone. And as the hour drew to an end, the kids were starting to slow down, tuckered out from playing all afternoon. Sunny took this as his cue to rally everybody up with a loud whistle and wave, and he led the way with the Clean-Up song. He made sure everyone did their part in cleaning up their messes, getting a little particular in making sure all the crayons were put away in the right holders and having chairs lined up with the eges of the padded floor tiles.          “I had SO much fun with you all today!” He projected out to the daycare. “But now it’s time for the sun to set, and the Moon and stars to come out~! If you have any arts and crafts that you want us to hold for you, bring ‘em to the security desk then come right back here, please!”           A good handful of children went over to the desk, occasionally waving up at Nate and the other security guards, putting their art in one of two piles: Take-home art, and art they wanted Sunny or the daycare to keep. After they went back over to Sunny and sat around him in a big circle, the jester waved over at the staff and gave them a thumbs-up.

           Though, once the lights were turned off, the robot gasped and quickly covered his eyes, letting out the smallest whine.            When Moon emerged, his demeanor was...completely different. He remained standing upright, instead of hunching over like a cave goblin. He slowly slid his hands down to reveal that his eyes weren’t vivid red, but a soft yellow.          “Poor Sunny... Still afraid of the dark...” he chuckled softly. His voice was different too. It was still deeper than Sun’s, and gravelly, but not nearly as harsh or sinister. It almost had an ASMR quality. “But the dark isn’t something that you need to fear, children... Nighttime brings serenity, sweet dreams, a sense of wonder as you peer up at the vast starry sky...” He gestured toward the ‘stars’ on the ceiling with a theatrical flourish of his arms. “Doesn’t that sound nice? Come, now, let’s get you all to bed,” he gestured toward the area with cots and sleeping bags.            Some of the children started heading there without much hesitation, yawning and rubbing their eyes, getting settled in. A good majority of them, though, whined in protest.          “Noooo, we don’t wannaaaa!”          “I wanna stay up ALL night!!”          “We want Sunny baaack!!”          “I don’t want to hear it,” Moon huffed, putting his hands on his hips. “Little starlights like you need more sleep than the grown-ups. Especially after romping around with Sunspot all day. If you waaant, we can make a game out of it," He chuckled playfully. "I'm a master of hide-and-seek~"          "Yeah, you don't say," Nate muttered under his breath.

         For the next half hour or so, Nate watched him wrangle up the other kids. He chased them, scooped them up and gave them quick playful tickles before tossing them - gently - into the area full of cots and sleeping bags. He summoned the overhead rope to soar around the daycare, performing like a ballet dancer in the air, much to the wonder and delight of some of the youngest children. He humored a couple of them that had toy flashlights, making shadow puppets on the walls, telling them that if they went to sleep, they would get to see their favorite critters and imaginary friends in their dreams.

         For the ones that were more insistent on misbehaving and trying to escape, though, he became more persistent, starting to spider his way through and around the jungle gym. He let out his familiar gremlin-ish snickering.          "Naughty naughty children, you should know you can't hide from the moon~!"          "It's past your bedtime!"          “Don’t make me put you in time-out!!”

         The kids in the jungle gym would scream and attempt to flee faster, followed by a laugh of joy; most of them weren't truly afraid of him; they were having fun playfully getting on the jester's nerves.          As with Sun, there were a few of them that were genuinely unnerved by his proximity. But he disn't instigate, or try to worsen their fear; he just took a gentle approach, bribing them with his Moondrop candies with crescent-moon wrappers.

           At one point, he stopped dead in his tracks during one of his chases, zipping over to the security desk, landing on the edge with a THUD.             “WAH--!” Nate and the other guards jumped back.             “What time is it?” Moon asked casually.             “Jeez, can’t you ask normally??” One of them gave an exasperated sigh. “It’s 6pm.”

           “Then it’s time for Tyson’s medication,” he held out his hand.            One of the staff opened a desk drawer and took out a small handful of Moondrop candies; these ones, however, had full-moon wrappers. “You can see in the dark, you could’ve just looked over at the clock yourself!” They grumbled.            Moon gave a mischievous snicker. “Juuust double-checking~” He took the candies, leaping into the air with his pulley rope, scanning the play area until he found the little boy named Tyson.            Just in time, too. He had just thrown himself down onto the floor, screaming, kicking, throwing a fit and attempting to lash out at any other kids that came close by.             “Good heavens...” Moon knelt down by him, attempting to reach a hand out to pat him on the shoulder, unfazed by the small boy reflexively reaching out to kick him in the arm. When the boy realized what he’d done, he froze like a deer in headlights. “So naughty... You should be put in time-out for that behavior,” he growled sternly. “But... I know you can’t really help it. You aren’t choosing to misbehave.” He held out one of the full-moon candies. “If I give you a little drop of moonlight for your troubles, will you settle down and go to bed?”

           Tyson grabbed the candy and popped it in his mouth without a word. The sedative took hold quickly.          Moon gently patted his hair. "There we go. See? Nice and calm now."            There were a couple other children he gave this medicated candy to: A young girl diagnosed with anxiety, and a preteen insomniac. After they grew drowsy, he carried them over to their beds.

          Nate watched him through the monitors and from across the room. "He's... wonderful with them," He commented, a little dumbfounded.          "Surprising, isn't it? He's a totally different person...robot...thing during the day."          "Wasn't like that for a while though," The other chimed in. To which they were quickly elbow-jabbed. "What?? It's been a year, we should be allowed to talk about it."           Nate's attention was immediately laser-focused on his two co-workers. He'd been trying for three nights straight to get this bot to fess up; he didn't think to just ask the other staff!          The other saw Nate staring expectantly, and sighed. "Alright, just don't bring this up to anyone else, got it?

         "For almost a full month, Moon's programming was a little... faulty. That intense Security mode of his wouldn't turn off even during the day. He wouldn't like...Tickle the shit out of the kids or anything, he only saved that for the adults."          "Clearly that never went away," the other employee scoffed.         "Tell me about it..." Nate blushed a little. But he listened closely.          "He still scared the hell out of most of the kids, started getting way too rough with 'em, ended up getting complaints and lawsuit threats. Sun started doing everything to make sure he wouldn't switch into Moon anymore, but would have a nervous breakdown whenever the higher-ups talked about taking out Moon's software completely. And the kids liked Sunny too much to totally scrap him. But they ended up shutting the daycare down completely during that month while they tried to figure out what to do from there."          "The other bots were acting weird around the same time, weren't they?"          "Yeah. All of them were getting more and more aggressive to the staff and customers. The smart thing would've been to scrap every one of 'em. Or at least get into their metal brains and re-wire shit in there."          "No-one knows if it was a glitch in the system. Some staff here think they were all hacked somehow. Robot uprising; It's happening, man, I'm tellin' you."          The two employees laughed among themselves. "Yeah, and then it just... Stopped. Moon went back to normal right after one of the newer security guards quit. Sun became real clingy to night staff and made them promise they wouldn't shut the down daycare again. The first model of our Freddy went missing around that time too, and the other bots were smashed to bits. Just all seems like an awfully weird coincidence. I'm surprised the place is still around at all with how much money they had to shell out for new STAFF bots and parts."

         Nate felt a pang of sympathy overcome him as he listened to their explanation. No wonder the poor jesters had a few screws loose, dealing with the aftermath of something that was totally out of their control...

         Moon eventually overheard what they were talking about, his eyes flashing red for just a moment, out of view of the cameras. Had he not been busy trying to get the children into their beds, he would’ve zipped over to the desk and promptly shoved a medicated Moondrop down their throats. But...he mulled over what Nate had said to him the previous night. Perhaps he had the right to know.          After they finished their recap, the robot looked in their direction, and beckoned toward Nate. The young man quietly headed over to him, and Moon gestured for him to take a seat next to him.            "All right, children, it's time for your bedtime story."           His body started to emanate a strange, low buzzing, like a radio on the wrong station. Which, in turn, caused the audio feed to cut out on the security cameras, only giving off an eerie low garbled noise.          "Ah, shit, not again," One guard started fiddling with the audio settings. "We really gotta get this fixed."          "Ah well, it's just storytime. Probably gonna read "Goodnight, Moon" to them for the hundredth time," they chuckled among themselves.          "Nate's over there with them, he'll keep an eye out. Can't believe he's ballsy enough to sit right next to that thing."

         Moon glanced over at Nate, as if making sure he had his attention, before turning back to the kids. "I have a new story to tell you tonight. I call it, A Tale of Two Kitties."          "Where's your book?" One child piped up curiously.          Moon shook his head. "This isn't a story that you can find in a book. It's one that I've carried in my...imagination for a long time now.

         "Once upon a time, there were two kitties living on a farmhouse: Yellow and Blue. Yellow was friendly, cheery, energetic, easily amused. Blue was calm, rational, a bit irritable, but insightful. They were like peas in a pod; two halves of the same whole. They had their differences, of course, but they got along like brothers.          "The farmers gave them a job to look after a pen of little baby chicks, whose parents were so busy during the day that they could not take care of them. Yellow was to keep them entertained all day; playing tag, frolicking in the grass. Blue was to corral them together at night, make sure they were going to bed on time."

         "Kind of like you?" One child spoke up.          "Yes...Kind of like me," Moon chuckled. "Over time... Blue became jealous of Yellow. He grew angry that he wasn't allowed to play games with the chicks all night; that it was his job to ruin their fun. He grew sad that the other farmers and farm animals didn't like him nearly as much as they liked Yellow. And that anger would get the better of him, because he chose not to talk about it. He didn't want to ruin his friendship with Yellow... But by keeping it to himself, he set himself up to be taken advantage of.

         "You see; A spiteful little rabbit was watching them play with the chicks. This rabbit was working for a greedy, hungry coyote, who wanted the chicks all to himself. And not just the chicks; He wanted the ducklings, the piglets, the calves... All the youngest animals that would be an easy meal to him. He told the rabbit that if she didn't obey him, he would eat her too.          "So, she started going to Yellow and Blue late at night. She would whisper evil things to them, tell them... "You know, you could easily eat up all those chicks yourself..." His voice had shifted to the menacing rasp that Nate had grown accustomed to, his eyes flashing red. "They are small, and weak, and they trust you. You could take one little swipe at them and be done with it. Give them to me, and they’ll be out of your hair for good."

         The kids gasped and cowered into their blankets. Moon's voice and eyes returned back to normal. "She could not convince Yellow. He was too kind, and too optimistic, and kept telling her to go away. However... Blue began to take her whispers to heart. 'These stupid little chicks are the reason I'm unhappy in the first place,' he would tell himself. 'If they weren't around, I could do whatever I wanted. I could play games with Yellow, I could play pranks on the farmers and other animals all I want.' It was like her voice was stuck in his head, even when he tried to fight it off...

         "But it was too late. At night, whenever Yellow and all the farmers had gone to bed, Blue began to snatch up the chicks, giving them to the bunny in secret."          Some of the little kids gasped. "No!!"          "The farmers and other animals began to notice the change in Blue's personality. He became mean, sneaky, prone to lashing out. Yellow found out what Blue was doing, but never told anyone. He wanted to believe he could convince Blue to stop; and he didn't want the farmers to take away his best friend. The other farm animals had started to avoid Yellow, simply because he was friends with Blue. Blue and Yellow were not allowed back into the barn. And Yellow... Was too afraid to go near Blue anymore."          "I-I don't like this story..." One little girl piped up.          "Neither do I..." Moon mumbled. "But don't fret, little one. For you see... One night, one little chick named Gregory took a stand. This chick was a rule-breaker through and through, but he was very brave, and very clever. He knew there was something going on.

         "Gregory ran all the way across the other side of the pen, determined to get to the farmhouse. He escaped Blue's swiping claws and gnashing teeth. He made Yellow so angry that he kicked him out...If only to keep him safe from Blue. And soon, he befriended the biggest, toughest, wisest bull in the barn named Freddy."          "Freddy!!"          "Our Freddy??" A child asked in disbelief.          "Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously," he quickly spouted, as if reading off a rehearsed disclaimer. "Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

         "Together, they found the mean little rabbit, and promised her that they could save her from the coyote if she stopped telling Blue to do such terrible things. With her and Freddy's help, they found the evil coyote, and chased him away from the farmhouse for good."          The kids silently cheered and clapped among themselves.          "After the coyote was gone, people started to warm up to Yellow again. Yellow started talking to Blue again. Blue had done some... terrible things, so it was going to take time for Yellow and the rest of the farm to trust him again. Blue understood that it was not the chicks' fault; it never was. He wanted to pin all the blame on the rabbit... But he knew, deep down, that it was his responsibility to make up for his actions."

         He slowly stood up, once again giving that theatrical flourish. "My lesson to you, children: There is no shame in admitting that you're hurting. If you are angry, jealous, or sad, you'll be surprised how much it helps to talk it out with a friend, or a grown-up. Don't keep those feelings bottled up, or you could do something you'll regret. There will always be someone out there who cares about you. Even if you may not realize it."

         The lecture had succeeded in making most of the kids fall asleep. He went around, making sure the children were all tucked in, giving them gentle pats on the head. And, for those that were still shuffling around to get comfortable, he began to softly sing a lullaby.

"Hush now, sleep, all you little ones, Rush now, into the middle of dreamland... Singing and laughter will rise..."

          Nate felt his jaw drop. The bot’s breathy, melodic singing was a far cry different than Sunny’s.         ....Also was that the freaking “Nowhere King”??

"The dreams you seek, follow the Lunar King When his kingdom comes, freedom is nigh...

"Quiet, crawl to the in-between Silent, soft, hopeful feeling Of joyous wonder that reaches the skies...

You will bring joy to the Lunar King When he sees the fear leaving your eyes..."

        After his song, he headed over to sit one of the nearby tables, observing his handiwork.        "You have an awesome singing voice," Nate commented, sitting across from him.        "Thanks. ...I'd never be able to get away with singing the real version of that song," he chuckled darkly. "They already denied me permission to read Brothers Grimm fairy tales."         Nate rolled his eyes and shook his head playfully; then, lowered his voice. "That story you told... It's true, isn't it?"

         Moon slowly nodded, avoiding eye contact. "I took liberties with the ending... I don't actually know what happened to... her. All I know is that, after she, Gregory, and the first Freddy disappeared, things have been better. Children have stopped going missing. People are warming up to me and Sunspot again."          "Oh, we'll that's good!"          "Yes...But Sunny... is still afraid of me. Of what I could become again. I can feel it." He grumbled to himself, looking down at his hand as he flexed it open and closed in a claw-like motion. "I just become so... Frustrated. like I'm hunting for a threat that isn't there anymore... Having to stay on high alert at all costs... Seeing that damn rabbit's face in the back of my mind..." He sighed. "I make up for it by trying to live that same burst of excitement and energy that my other half gets to feel on the daily. Besides... It's the least they deserve," he glared over in the direction of the three security guards. "If the bosses want to insist on making me play the bad guy, then I'll be the bad guy, and play my games however I please~" He chuckled.           Nate reached out to touch his hand gently, unsure of how else to console him.          He, in return, softly closed his large hand around the brunette’s. "I did think that we were better off without any security guards slinking about at night. But...perhaps that isn't the solution either. Sunspot gets... Lonely. Restless. Even with my company. I thought I was protecting him and the little ones. Protecting us. But... Now I realize I've just been isolating us more."

         Nate put his other hand on top. "Well...Thank you for trusting me,” he smiled.            “Eugh... No need to get all sappy about it,” he huffed, eventually pulling his hand away. “I’m still going to make sure you go to sleep at night, you irritating little bedbug~” He narrowed his gaze, his eyes flashing red and his fingers wiggling at him.             Nate gasped and barely held back a yelp. “Y-Yeah?? Well this bedbug will bite back,” he stuck out his tongue.            One of the employees immediately took notice of that small flash of red on the security cameras, coming over to both of them. “Hey, Nate, it’s time to go. I dunno what it is about you, but this one misbehaves more around you,” they shone the flashlight at Moon. “So, better save it for your night shift before he breaks something else.”            Moon let out a hiss and an angry whisper. “Put that light out, you’ll wake the children!!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~            “NATEYYYY!!!”              Nate was greeted by Sunny’s usual spinning hug when he came in at midnight. “Hey, thanks so much for coming over today!! I was SO happy to introduce you to all the little guys!”              Nate smiled and nodded. “Of course, Sunny-Man! It was a lot of fun! You’re super great at your job!!”            “Awww, thank you!!” He playfully ruffled his hair. “And…thank you for talking to Moony.” He wrung his hands together, lowering his head a little. “I… I had no idea he was feeling that way. I tried for so long to get ‘im to talk to me. I tried getting into his memory drive, but he kept blocking me out. I thought he was mad at me, or giving me the cold shoulder, or keeping secrets from me…” The poor bot sounded on the verge of tears. “B-But…Now I think he just didn’t want me to worry. I think he was afraid that I hated him…” He shuffled his feet, looking guilty. "A-And maybe he was right, maybe I was still nervous about him, but... I know that he's trying to be better!!” He gave a sniffling sound.            Nate frowned and went in for another tight hug. “Hey, it’s alright, Sunny...”             The bot seemed to settle down, his body relaxing as he returned the hug. He nodded. “H-He and I talked a lotta stuff out earlier... I'll tell you what I told him: I'm kinda jealous of him, too, y'know."            “Really...?” Nate looked up at him.            "Yeah!! Looking after the little guys all day is a lotta fun, but sometimes it gets to be a bit TOO much, y'know? I can't take care of everyone all the time. Moony gets to see a different side of them; he gets to settle them down, and read bedtime stories and sing lullabies, and help get their sweet sleepy little heads all cozy in their cute little blankets and beds... And I dunno, I thought it'd be kinda nice to trade places with him sometimes,” he shrugged. “But I’m not built to be quiet or sleepy. I GOTTA keep moving, or I go NUTS!! ” He did a little jog in place to accentuate his point. “I-I’d also need to have a flashlight or nightlight handy, haha...” He scratched his cheek nervously. "Anyways, that's all I wanted to say!" He promptly scooped up the brunette to start carrying him to the TV. "Now c'mon, let's play Mario Kart! You promised!!"

           “ACK-! I knooow, but paperwork first, remember?” He tried to tug free from his arms.            “Ughhh, fiiine!” He whirled around and stomped over to the desk.            The jester was even more of a brat than usual while Nate did his paperwork. He loomed over the young man, wiggling his fingers in his direction, giggling whenever he succeeded in making Nate yelp and jump. “H-HEY-!” He blushed, sticking his tongue out at him.             Sun really got to him when he started singing a certain Blondie song.            “One way, or another, I’m gonna find ya, I’m gonna getchagetchagetchagetcha~” He made claw-hands on either side of Nate.           Nate shrieked and shot his rolling chair backwards. “SUNNYY!” he huffed. “If you don’t behave I’m gonna kick over your tower!”

           He let out a loud offended gasp. “RUDE!!” He dramatically turned away from Nate and folded his arms.             Nate snickered. “I’m kiddiiiiing, I won’t do that to you. But if you just hold off long enough to lemme finish, we can do anything you want afterwards.”            “...Aaanythiiing~?” He slowly looked over his shoulder at him with his grinning face.            “Y...Yes??” Welp, he knew he was in for it now.            “YAY Good!! Then I call dibs on Lemmy and we get to play all the tracks that I wanna do!”            When they finally got around to playing the game, Sunny was just as competitive and boisterous as the first night. Some of his favorite tracks were, unsurprisingly, Sunshine Airport, Rainbow Road, Cloudtop Cruise and Electrodome. He seemed to know all the shortcuts for the older Rainbow Road tracks; but so did Nate, so they were, once again, pretty evenly tied. He began to narrate their races like a sports announcer, making it more difficult for Nate to concentrate.              When Nate won again, he only had a short moment to celebrate. One playful, mischievous glance from the robot was all he needed to know his intentions, but he didn’t have time to get up and run; Sunny immediately yanked him over onto his lap, trapping him with his arms and quickly tickling up and down him sides and belly.              ”GAAHH-HAHAHA N-NOOO-HAHAHAHA SUNNYYEEE!!” He whined and wiggled around.              ”Youuu said I get to do anything~” He giggled. “So I wanna make you laugh~! Cooochiecoochiecoochie~!” He cooed playfully, eventually holding one of his arms up to play his ribs up and down like a piano, and spider his fingertips over his armpits in a circle.              ”NYAAAH-HAHAHA!! AH-Hahahaha!!” Nate blushed and shook his head and attempted to squirm out of his grip; to which Sun just pushed him - gently - onto his back and straddled his legs. He narrowed his eyelids down at the brunette and wiggled his fingers above him. “Iiiii’m gonna getcha~!”                 Nate gulped and bit his lip, feeling his cheeks and ears burning. “D-Don’t you DARE use those claws on me again-!!”                But Sunny quickly shook his head. “Naaaah that’s more Moony’s thing, I really don’t like takin’ em out for any reason...”               But Nate pouted. “...What, you think I can’t handle them?”                Seeing his pout, Sunny look conflicted, looking between the night guard and his hand. He sighed. “Okaaaay fine, here,” he uncapped one single claw on his pointer finger, quickly holding it out away from himself as if he was handling fire; he lowered it and used his claw to trace small circles and scritch ever-so-gently at Nate’s belly.                 Nate yelped and whined and let out quiet giggling, sucking in his belly.                Seeing how he reacted to it, the robot relaxed a little, going between using his regular fingers to skitter and squeeze skillfully against his sides and soft belly, and using his claw to quickly trace lines over him like he was playing an invisible connect-the-dots. “Heehee, better beware The Claaaawww~” he droned, unbuttoning his overshirt just enough that he could dip his claw into Nate’s navel, immediately making him squeal loudly. “YIEEE- N-NOOO-HAHAHA!”                ”I said it before, I’ll say it again, you have such a handsome laugh, sunshine~! You’re so cute, you sound like a squeaky toy!!”                  The playful compliments just made him blush brighter and turn to hide his face in his arm. “N-Nooo-hohoho I’m naahahahat!!”                ”Yes you aaaare~!”                   Sunny eventually moved his way down to trap his ankles in place and play ‘This Little Piggy’ with his toes.                ”Thiiis little piggy went to market~” He pinched along his big toe and traced it with his claw.                ”WAGH-!! N-NNheheheh!!”                ”This little piggy stayed home...” He went all the way down the line, increasing the pace of his tickles, occasionally cheating to jump down and tickle his sole and ball of his foot before jumping back up. Finally..                ”And this little piggy went...” He suddenly attacked his foot with both hands, scribbling his fingers wildly, making him shriek and cackle loudly. “YAAAH-HEHEHEHEH!!”                ”Alll the way home~!” He cackled, then switched over to the other foot to do the same, all while cooing and doting on him playfully.                  He kept up his playful tickles for a good long while; not long or intensely enough to warrant Nate saying the magic word, but he was still quite the crumpled, giggly panting heap on the floor after the jester gave thorough tickles and raspberries to his torso, legs and feet. He gently picked Nate up to pull him into his lap again. “Y’know, that’s another reason I’m kinda jealous of Moony... He gets to tickle you aaalll night~!” He snickered, “and after he plays his hide-and-tickle game, he gets to spend the rest of the night with you,” he booped his cheek. “It’d be nice havin’ a cuddle buddy for the night!”                 Nate shrugged. “I mean, if you want to do that, I could sleep with the lights on. I’d just need something to cover my eyes with. ...Or maybe just eat more of Moon’s candy.”                “Haha, I appreciate the offer, Noot-Noot, buuut I don’t think it’ll work... There’s no way I can sit still long enough to let someone sleep and I’d just get booored havin’ to be quiet and not be able to play all night!! That’s why Moony’s the best at what he does. IF my battery was low enough then maybe I could manage, but we gotta make sure to be all charged up for the morning.” He hopped up to his feet, offering his hand to help Nate up. “B’sides, he really wants to talk to you tonight!”              “Oh, okay!” After getting up, he reached up to give him another hug. “I’m really glad I could help you guys out a little.”                  Sunny returned his hug gently. “I’m....Really glad too, Nate. Thank you.”               With that, Nate turned off the lights.

       When Moon came out tonight, his eyes weren't red; They were yellow. "Ahh, hello Nate," he gave a polite bow. His voice, too, was as calm as it had been during the day.          Nate blinked, taken by surprise. “Oh! You’re... Back to normal?”        “Something like that, yes~”        “Is your Security mode not active, or...?”        ”Of course it is, silly boy. I’m never going to let any miscreants get away with whatever they please. I just think it’s fair to say that you needn’t worry about setting off my alarms anymore.” He reached out to gently pat Nate’s shoulder. “I...was wrong about you. Sunspot and I are both grateful for your incessant nosing about. I see now that you were only trying to help us. And for that... you have my respect.”        “Oh... Well, that’s... great!” Nate smiled. “I’m glad you’re feeling better. And I appreciate that.”          He tilted his head quizzically. "...You sound disappointed about that."        "Wha-! Noo nono, of course not!! I really am glad I could help you! It’s just gonna take some time getting used to seeing you like this now, that’s all...”

           As the young man stammered, Moon's gaze slowly narrowed, a low chuckle escaping him. "Hmhmh...I only came out like this to show you gratitude for helping me...” his eyes shifted from yellow to bright red again, his voice taking on that devilish rasp. “But I should have figured you would prefer the side of me that wants nothing more than to make you scream with laughter~” He cackled wickedly, his finger caps flipping back to ‘unsheathe’ his claws, wiggling them at the night guard.        And with that, their nightly game of chase began again. It felt a little different this time around, though; He wasn’t just a target, or an annoying hooligan that needed to be reminded of just how powerless he was to stop this wicked robot. He was a proper playmate; Daresay, even, a friend.

         Things were going to be different for the Daycare attendants from here on out.

[muffindaddystyles]

After all, Moon is just a rock without Sun.

Trigger warning: Mentions of failed attempt suicide, blood and hospital, Angst.

It’s a chirpy day. Though, there are grey murky clouds in Y/N's apartment and she doesn’t know from where all of it came from, but this is the end.

She badly wants this to be an end.

She stares the brown envelope sitting at her nightstand and all of it comes crashing upon her tiny head and drowning her into depths and sorrows and guilt and agony of her past and present, reminiscing the cracks of happiness she got here and there.

Her breath shudders. The excitement of valentines day glittery outside and she smiles, happy for everyone out there getting to be loved and cherished and pampered.

She gets all of that too – with Harry she gets to pool into all of the giddiness but —- there always buts with Harry because she isn’t his person, she never was.

He’s always gonna be her true bezzy as he describes in true Harry fashion.

She’s grateful for that.

But, she thinks it’s enough for her. She has reached where everyone human wants to – getting to feel loved after many hardships and now when she has enjoyed it and got to know what it feels like to have it all -- she thinks it’s time for her to go.

To get rid of the loneliness that resides inside her, she was never able to overcome and she pinches the blade in between her fingertips and bunches Harry’s hoodie towards her nose smelling it and it warms her heart, it warms every part of her and she really really thinks that the apology in that letter will be enough for him to move on.

She whimpers. Staring blankly as the blade inches into the thin skin of her wrist slowly and painfully and to make it less painfully she tears her delicate skin apart in one swipe and bites down a cry, putting the blood coated life taking thing on the couch and stands up a bit wobbly letting the thick dark droplets fall on the carpet.

She walks towards her bed and flumps into white sheets. Eyelids fluttering and lips parted shallow and they snap open upon the beep of her notifications and when she looks at it – a sad sob tugs out of her lungs.

She lays on her side not focusing the way blood seeps into white sheets and spreads like roots, making a horrific past of her tragedy. Instead, she keeps on watching the video Harry sent to her with hooded tired eyes and a beautiful peaceful smile.

Snuggles into sheets that smells like sunnies and peonies and the cinnamon musk he wears.

His skin soft and curls bouncy and everywhere, his gorgeous face on display and his dimples coveting adorably as he tries to hover the camera at the tray of red velvet cupcakes just as she likes, “Look ducky made cupcakes f'you – two batch in total —--,” She really wants to know for whom the other batch is for but she just shakes her head and giggles wetly, letting her tear tickle her nose when he pouts and shows her the frosting, “Ruined the tops – tried to make frogs on it —-- remember you asked me to? I still’ve some naked ones we could try some froggies on it later —---- .....” His words spins soothingly in her brain and her blurry gaze fills with panicked tears; because she just realised that this isn’t what she wants.

What did she do?

Oh my goodness what did I do?

It’s late and I can’t go back and I’m really gonna miss Sparkly and he'll be so sad to see me like this, but it’s too late Y/N – her heart thumped and it jumps when something pounded loudly and it’s her head maybe.

Harry waits at the door. His grin big and gleeful. He jumps on his toes a bit and he couldn’t believe he's about to do it today, but no matter what happens he’s gonna confess to her and he frowns a tad when no response comes from inside – not even the hum of her sweetness and the prattle of her steps --- there's eerie silence and Harry doesn’t like that.

He waits and ponders over. Then sighs and was about to retreat back but he knows that he’s too lazy to walk all the way back and come back again, so he shimmies her door's key from under her lavender pot.

When he stumbles inside he grins seeing his sleepy head –-- snoring in broad daylight, his ears perking at his own voice echoing through the speaker of her phone and it makes his heart flutter and he has this evil plan to bounce on her mattress and annoy the shit out of her.

But.

When he comes to stand over her and his eyes falls over the bloody sheets and her wrist cut open, her body limp and lifeless – her cheeks soaked with tears and her mouth gasping for oxygen his grin falls drastically into a frown as he went blank for a moment.

Nothing.

Just pitch darkness.

His heartbeat drops.

His breath getting sucked out of his lungs and he feels like fainting.

The white noise that stings his ears and the heart that stopped working a second ago revives back and he wished it didn’t – the tray falls from his trembling hand onto the floor and he’s turning her over and his tears are falling from his throat down to her skin and he’s tripping on his knees and cradling her face trying to jostle her unconscious body.

“Baby ---.. wake up please ....” He weeps and tries to shake her with all the frailness he was left with and he's despising how her usual glowy skin is getting paler by every moment.

She isn’t his Y/N. She'd never do it without giving a second thought for him because she cares about him and he screams hoarsely trying to lift her up and into his chest to hug her – but everything has got so heavy for him.

He's feeling so small.

So helpless and vulnerable.

“Baby!!! I said wake up, pet --- s'not fair ---... y’ve to —- y've t'.... brought – brought you yer favourites .. now don’t be mean and open yer eyes, I know you’re teasin’ me.” He has officially lost it. He thinks he’s going crazy and hallucinating things – trying to avoid the reality.

He cries patting her cheek and his breath hitches in his throat when he plants his ear to her chest and there’s feeble thump of her heart.

He’s lunging quick and picking her up in his arms and squeezing her protectively to himself, slipping outside through her door in rush and panic – her head bobs and her wrist dangles from his forearm as he doesn’t wait for elevator and flies down the stairs with shouts for people to fuck themselves away and breaking every speed limit to reach hospital.

His grip on her hoodie loosens with each step they take towards the ER and he pleads them to let him in but the doctors pushes him out of the flapping doors and he’s tumbling back and onto the tiled floor, almost straining his ankle in attempt.

They told him she’s okay. But, needs a good rest since she lost alot of blood and visitors aren’t allowed –-- before five hours so he waits – he waits alone and with dire pain just to get a single glimpse of her and asking the doctors again and again if she’s okay.

Next he knows the sun is leaving him and he’s left in company of darkness before his friends are surrounding him – comforting and consoling him.

He doesn’t need it. Because, he isn’t feeling anything. He’s numb to his stomach and when they look down at him in sympathy – everything comes churning in his throat and he’s pushing everyone away and tumbling towards the washroom sliding against the floor knees first and throwing inside the bidet with loud groany noises.

He feels like all of his organs will come out and spurt infront of him at this point.

He tries to grab onto something and almost falls back, walks on his wobbly legs towards the sink and splashes water harshly on his face that it hurts.

His eyes struck at himself in the mirror and he can’t recognize himself ... his eyes hollow and his skin crumbled and his flimsy shirt sticking to his chest from dried blood and he doesn’t give a fuck unless his baby is alright and he’s griping the edges of the sink hunching forward as more cries squelches out of him.

He doesn’t wipe the tears away and when walks outside Sarah is rushing to help him but he’s gesturing her to stop and falling on the bench. Throwing his head against the wall and his chest heaves as he mutters gaining everyone's attention, “She almost died ...”

“She’s okay now, H.” Luna tells him but he kisses his teeth and grunts angrily.

“No. No, you don't get it!! She. Is. Not.” He pushes the heels of his palms against his sockets and rubs them in frustration, “I was the only one she got ‘n –-- I wanted to make her feel loved not — fuck, I failed her. I failed the only person that matters to me, ‘course I lacked somethin’ s'why she didn’t tell me what was goin' on with her.” Fresh tears brims at his lashes and Sarah squeezes his shoulder.

“When I saw her all blue ‘n bloody, was so scared to even touch her ---... thought I died at that mo' ‘s worse than dyin' Sarah ... watchin' ye’loved one slip from yer life ‘n – ‘n that you’ll never have ‘em again —--...” He stutters and runs his palms down his face.

“I’m in so much pain watchin' her suffer on that ventilator ...” His bottom lip wobbles and he rocks back and forth on the bench, hair falling in his eyes but he doesn’t do anything to push them back.

Luna doesn’t have a heart to give him that letter. Not knowing how he’ll take it considering he’s already broken to pieces and dust, lingering on bit of a hope.

But, when the nurse comes and tells them their time is over and only one person could stay with Y/N, Luna's handing the letter to Harry leaving him confused and frowning.

Though, he’s glad when they let him inside the room and a shiver runs down his spine upon seeing thick tubes pricking and poking the delicate skin of his ducky.

Her unconscious body looks peaceful and halo like and it’s scary.

He doesn’t make a noise. Tries to be as quite as possible and bites down at his lip to avoid from tearing up but he ends up so, caressing her flushed cheek and kisses her temple feeling her light breath hit his neck.

“’M so sorry, ducklin'. I’m baby. Fo' being late in everythin’ ....---” He sniffles. Wiping at his nose and sits beside her as close as he could – feathering his finger pads at her knuckles and flinches back when the finger she has a heart rate monitor on twitches and he’s afraid that he hurt her.

He keeps on watching her not blinking an eye and when he couldn’t sleep he takes a look at the letter sitting in his lap.

He shakes his head and ignores it. Then his trembly fingers are opening it and raising it infront of his eyes and he recognizes the writing right away and it makes him whimper pathetically.

He recites the words. Not able to feel the moisture ticking down his throat, the pet name she used to call him rattling in his brain and he remember the night they met – he can never forget that night.

Dear Sparkly, I know you’ll be very grumpy and angry with me when you’ll get this letter -- but, it’s okay. Yeah? I’ll be looking at you from above don’t worry —-- so you better not be silly with yourself.

And he could imagine her sweet eyes getting all big and concerned.

I just wanted to let you know that I love you. I’ve loved you .... since that night when you were sitting at those steel stairs opposite to the rooftop of the vacant building I was sitting at and you eyed me peculiarly when I stood at the edge waving at you – just because you had your earphones plugged but you weren't wearing them --- it was cute because you were too engulfed, staring at the moon.

He’s baffled that she remembers the smallest detail. Harry wasn’t feeling very well and came to that empty rooftop to relax, only to get interrupted by a cute girl.

She trailed behind him like a ducklin' after that -- as if she got the cute orange beak to chatter his anxiousness away.

I want you to be careless and free and never feel like you’re struck inside your own body and I want you to love -– to make sure you feel loved.

I hope that you’ll have someone with whom you could gaze at moon for hours, listening to Beatles together sharing one headphone (I hated them by the way) and when they sit beside you, it feels like they’re the moon -– like they glimmer your insides, when you touch them it’s all heavenly and pretty and it makes you feel loved and jittery.

His heart clenches into fist and clots at that and he bites the inside of his cheek.

Heartbroken.

Sad.

Terribly sick.

He isn’t liking it reading it. He’s hating it infact. He was about to stop. Tear it in pieces and dump it in trash. But, then again he couldn’t.

Because Harry. I’m not your moon. I’m the sun. That’d irritate you and you’d never be able to look at it with full heart eyes –-- I’m too hot for you, pun right there. My touch will burn you instead of filling you with jitteriness. You’d wait for me to go and yearn for the moon to come back --- Always on your toes because everything becomes too much of a heat for you and I don’t want that –- I love you but that doesn’t mean I’ll take you down with me.

I’m not that selfish, Harry.

I love you and I was too embarrassed to tell you this in person.

I hope you forgive me.

Yours Sun.

He’s cornered up and sobbing into his elbow, as the paper written with her whole soul hangs from the tips of his fingers and he takes a look at her with cloudy eyes and digs his nails into his knees.

He hiccups jumping forward and towering her when she stirs with a whine and Harry’s cupping her cheeks, “Oh my ...,” He’s pressing the button to call the nurses and doctors and gives her an eskimo kiss before pulling away and examining her closely.

Her eyes are pink floods of tears and humiliation. Even though they’re unaware of her presence and exhausted.

Her lips chapped as she rolls her tongue to mumble some words, “’m sorry ...” She whimpers as her arm shoots with pain and Harry’s shaking his head, pressing his forehead against hers.

“Shhh. Shh. Baby ducky, ‘s okay. Tell me you’re okay, please tell me you’re not leavin’ me again.” She slip shuts her eyes and nods. She’s weak and frail. Even if the doctors checked her and made her drink some fluids she’s still not able to move without Harry’s assistance.

She has her eyes closed. Head sunk into pillow and they flutter when Harry speaks, in the most softest voice and draws circles on her knee while doing so.

“I love you.” He croaks out. Gulping down the bulk choking him alive and she stares him, her heart pausing for a bit and his eyes widen seeing the monitor going weird and it makes her cheeks heat up.

Embarrassed she looks away and Harry takes her chin between his fingers and gazes her with profound intensity and fondness.

“You’re my sun. You’re. I bask in yer warmth and y’make me feel warm everywhere, it oozes from me every pore in adoration and love. Even when you don’t appear I feel your presence and the clouds could never be pink without ye' ‘n my skies would never be cherubic if it’s not you my darling —... I gaze moon only for Sun to peek from the hues and I always wait fo’ ye’ —-- always gonna be there on that rooftop counting the seconds you shine up my world.” His fingers shaky as he slips it between her palms lingering to get relief from her touch and she sniffs, blinking the tears away accepting him and kissing the inside of his palm.

“After all, Moon is just a rock without Sun.” He whispers and that was enough for her to close the distance between them and place her cold lips against his and he embraces her tenderly -- pecking her upper lip twice then kissing her whole mouth to whisk out all his love into it and her fingers brushes over his jaw muttering against his taffy lips.

“I love you. Even when I was dying all I could think about was ye'sparkly -- but it was too late and I was aware of how much pain you were in but it felt like I was struck inside a cage —---...” She rambles. Coughing when it hurts her throat and Harry shushes her kissing her hair gently and mutters against them – smoothing his palm down her back to calm her down.

“You’re ‘ere. In me arms is what matters.” He keeps her face tucked under his chin and keeps on pecking her skin.

“’M g'na take care of you, baby.”

[ratcarney]

wordless

on top of his normal wakachi duties, raikou struggles to find a way to communicate with gau without the use of his voice. gau takes on more responsibility. yukimi is playfully homophobic, but not to a worrying extent.

based on this post and my newfound obsession with the wakachi monologue.

———

“you’ve heard me do it a million times, gau.” raikou whispered. “you’ve got this.”

“stop talking.” gau murmured as he paced back and forth, repeating raikou’s infamous wakachi speech to himself in his head.

raikou sighed and adjusted his scarf. “i can do it if you’re too nervous.”

gau looked pointedly at him. “no way. and i said stop talking.” he stopped pacing to take a breath, then turned his attention back to raikou. “drink some tea.”

raikou rolled his eyes, but obeyed the order. he sipped from one of gau’s teacups and winced as he swallowed.

if he was being honest with himself, while losing his voice was probably the least of his problems, it was the problem that frustrated him the most. so much of wakachi work depended on him being able to communicate with gau. they needed to be on the same page if they had a chance at succeeding in their field. success meant trust from hattori, and trust from hattori meant everything.

“i hate that we have to go out when you’re feeling like this.” gau fretted. “you’re sure you can’t ask the boss to reschedule?”

raikou shook his head. “i won’t make excuses for myself, especially not now when we’ve made it this far.” he held his teacup with both hands, savoring the warmth of the porcelain. gau frowned and walked over to where raikou was sitting. gently, he touched the palm of his hand to raikou’s forehead.

“do you feel warm?” gau asked, the pitch of his voice rising the way it did when he was anxious.

“not at all.” raikou exhaled. “stop worrying, gau, i’m fine.” he set his teacup down and crossed his arms over his chest. outside, the sun was setting, sending orange-tinted light spilling from the windows.

gau took his hand back. “stop talking.” his tone was firm, but raikou heard the concern in it.

raikou nodded and let his head tilt back slightly so it rested against the wall. he closed his eyes, trying to stave off a brewing headache by sheer force of will alone. the stubborn brightness of the setting sun certainly wasn’t doing his head any favors. asking gau for a painkiller would have been easier, but now, talking also seemed like a lot of work. the only appealing option was to fall asleep until they needed to go out and find a traitor, but raikou wasn’t in the habit of falling asleep before at least midnight.

—

“raikou.” gau whispered, touching his shoulder. “wake up. it’s time.”

raikou blinked in surprise. looking out the window, he saw the sun had disappeared, leaving a cloudy darkness in its wake. he opened his mouth, but a withering look from gau made him close it again.

“please don’t talk.” gau stepped back and shrugged his coat on. he carefully handed shirogamon over to raikou. “how do you feel?”

raikou tried to smile, but judging by the look on gau’s face, it probably looked more like a grimace.

“we’ll make it quick. yukimi’s driving us.”

raikou raised an eyebrow.

“i asked him about ten thousand times and he finally agreed.” gau smiled. “but he made it clear that he was doing it for you, not for me.”

they walked in silence down to the elevator and rode it to the basement level. yukimi was waiting for them, leaning up against his car and jotting something down in a notebook.

“it’s about time.” he growled, but upon making eye contact with raikou, he softened. “damn, look at you.” yukimi looked him up and down with something a shade darker than pity. before raikou could enter the car, he rolled up his sleeve and touched the inside of his wrist to raikou’s forehead.

raikou tried to dodge it, but yukimi stopped him by gripping his shoulder. unable to say anything, he opted to roll his eyes in lieu of a defiant comment. concern from gau was one thing, but pity from yukimi made him want to scream.

“not too bad.” yukimi sighed and loosened his grip on raikou’s shoulder. “you shouldn’t be out for too long, though. and don’t try anything fancy, just get in and out, you hear?”

raikou nodded, trying valiantly to make a face that accurately communicated the phrase “shut up, yukimi” with equal parts annoyance and begrudging affection.

“i’m serious, raikou. no showing off.” yukimi narrowed his eyes. “save the flashy shit for when you can talk.” then his glare fell upon gau. “get him back in one piece. then we’ll have kazuho take a look at him.”

“yes, sir.”

“alright.” yukimi moved so that raikou could get in the front seat. “you’re goin’ downtown, yeah?” gau rattled off the address, and yukimi pulled out of the parking lot and into the street.

raikou sighed and tightened his scarf. yukimi glanced at him and snickered. clearly he was amused.

“you’ve got a goddamn accessory for everything.” yukimi snickered, trying in vain to suppress his schadenfreude. “fucking ridiculous.”

unable to do anything else, raikou glared at him. he was thinking quite a few choice words, but after reminding himself that yukimi was doing him a favor, he let his sullen thoughts fade away. he would get yukimi back later. raikou contented himself with silently scheming for the rest of the car ride.

“this is it.” gau said from the backseat, and raikou snapped back to reality. yukimi parked the car and stared into raikou’s eyes.

“look at me. keep it simple.” he growled. “and come right back.”

raikou nodded and signed “yes,” which was more or less the extent of his japanese sign language knowledge. he knew yukimi knew more than he did. he had been trying to find ways to talk with the kira technique kid who was holed up in his apartment all the time.

yukimi chuckled, a rare moment of genuine amusement without a trace of sadism. “go, kid.”

raikou stepped out of the car to join gau on the sidewalk. he kept a cautious hand on shirogamon as they walked through a back alley.

finally, after about ten minutes, raikou heard faint footsteps around the corner, the trained kind that could only belong to an iga ninja.

he felt gau tense up next to him, and touched his shoulder to put him at ease. gau looked at him expectantly.

the wordless tilt of raikou’s chin said “well, go on.”

gau nodded and stepped out from around the corner. raikou casually followed, knowing that his presence was a lot more threatening than gau’s, and it was better to be fashionably late than directly on gau’s heels.

the traitor, a tall, grizzled man, eventually said the words raikou and gau knew to be inevitable: “who the hell are you?”

to raikou’s surprise, gau smiled.

“we are the wakachi.” he said coolly.

they raised their right hands to show their identical bracelets at an angle that perfectly caught the light of the moon. the metal shone, sinister in the dim light of late evening.

“treason control officers of the kairoshu. meanwhile…”

raikou stopped listening to the words he knew by heart and observed gau from the corner of his eye. he was standing tall and confident in a way that he had never stood before. the infamous wakachi speech was comprised of words he had heard a million times before, but it was evident that the words didn’t control him. he controlled them.

in the light of the moon, gau’s eyes glittered with a certain delight. he was taking pleasure in having power, raikou realized with pride. gau deserved this power, and until now, raikou hadn’t seen it from him. raikou took some more pride in hearing gau emphasize the same words and syllables as he did when he did the speech himself, mirroring his own cadence and tone, but making the speech uniquely his nonetheless. the change in his attitude was mesmerizing, and raikou almost missed his cue.

“...you are to be severely punished.” gau stepped back of his own accord, not needing raikou to remind him.

raikou narrowed his eyes and ran towards the traitor, keeping his head low in case he had a weapon. sure enough, raikou heard the familiar click of a gun before thrusting shirogamon into the traitor’s chest. he removed his blade quickly before looking back to see the man hit the ground. his gun clattered against the pavement and slid a few feet away.

the traitor was suitably punished, having paid for his disloyalty with his life, and raikou raised shirogamon a final time. he hesitated, and yukimi’s words echoed in his head.

don’t try anything fancy, just get in and out, you hear?

keep it simple.

raikou sighed and sheathed shirogamon, feeling exhaustion setting into his body. the adrenaline of the kill was draining away.

gau knelt and cut a lock of dark hair from the body. he sealed it in a plastic bag and pocketed it before approaching raikou.

“your scarf.” he tilted his head, a worried expression on his face replacing the confident one he had worn a few minutes earlier.

raikou looked down. blood had spattered onto it and dark red stains bloomed on the fabric. gau inspected it closely.

“i can probably get those out.” he mused, looking up at raikou. he swiped at raikou’s cheek, attempting to remove some blood from his face. “you’re usually more careful. we should get you home.”

raikou dipped his head in agreement. gau stepped over the body and looked back to wait for raikou, who had walked around it. they made their way back to the main street side by side. after a minute, gau looked up at raikou.

“did i do okay?” he asked. “with talking, i mean…”

i’m proud beyond belief, raikou wanted to say. you impressed me. you did amazingly, and i am so lucky to have you by my side, gau.

but he couldn’t.

gau looked at him with bated breath.

raikou stopped and did the only thing he could think to do.

he hugged gau.

physical affection wasn’t usually his ideal avenue for expressing his feelings, but taking gau in his arms was easy, like he belonged there.

gau had tensed up at the contact, but relaxed after the shock wore off. he hugged raikou back, his chin resting on raikou’s shoulder.

raikou felt gau’s hands on his back. they were still a little shaky from doing the wakachi speech by himself. his adrenaline hadn’t worn off yet.

slowly, gently, raikou reached up and cupped the back of gau’s head with his hand, bringing him even closer. he swallowed hard. “you did so well.” the words were barely audible, but the weight they held made up for the lack of volume. in that moment, hattori didn’t matter. the traitor didn’t matter. earning trust and advancing the ranks of the kairoshu didn’t matter. what mattered was how tight gau was holding him, like raikou would fade away if he wasn’t careful. communication didn’t have to be through words, raikou realized, suddenly hyper-aware of gau’s arms wrapped around him. through his touch, gau conveyed the honor, the gratefulness, and all the pride he felt not only to have done the wakachi speech correctly, but to have done it by raikou’s side.

gau pulled away and raikou noticed with concern that his eyes were shining with tears. before he could apologize, gau smiled brightly and wiped them away. “you don’t know how much that means to me, raikou.” he said softly. “and please stop talking.”

raikou nodded. he tousled gau’s hair, hoping that the little gesture conveyed his pride the way gau’s touch had. by the look on gau’s face, he knew that it did.

“are you done?”

gau and raikou’s heads whipped toward the opening of the alley. yukimi stood there, leaning against the wall and pointedly checking his watch.

gau jumped back from raikou, his cheeks reddening. “sorry, yukimi.” he squeaked.

“gayass.” yukimi muttered, just loud enough for raikou to register that he was addressing both of them.

raikou looked up at yukimi, adjusting his scarf and daring yukimi to say something about it. to his confusion, yukimi’s eyes widened.

“raikou…”

before raikou could do anything, gau piped up. “it’s not his.” he assured yukimi. raikou looked down and saw the traitor’s blood stained on his scarf, vest, and sleeves.

yukimi sighed, the tension leaving his shoulders. “scared the hell out of me, kid. get in the car, i’m sure you’re tired.” as raikou walked to the car, yukimi’s eyes narrowed. “you’re usually more careful.”

“that’s what i said.” gau said, already sitting in the backseat.

“pipe down.” yukimi rolled his eyes. “get in, raikou.”

raikou nodded and walked around the car to get in the passenger seat. he sank into the seat, only then realizing how tired he was. yukimi noticed.

“just hang on ‘til we get to your place.”

raikou’s eyelashes fluttered, his eyes threatening to close completely, but before they could do so, he felt gau’s hand on his shoulder. he didn’t have the energy to turn his head, but he could tell that gau was smiling. his touch conveyed affection beyond the likes of what could be said aloud.

raikou’s pride for gau and his wakachi performance was still coursing through the air between the two of them, speaking volumes in its electric silence. they had created a form of communication that was all their own. raikou exhaled and let himself get lost in gau’s gentle touch.

there were no words needed.

[possibilistfanfiction]

stardust brought to life (we have only just begun)

[museum au part 1/2—lexa works at the museum of natural history & clarke works at the hayden planetarium. lexa’s seen some shit but yknow they get to fall in love, all that jazz. v hap, v gay]

//

stardust brought to life (we have only just begun)

.

what we do know, and what we can assert without further hesitation, is that the universe had a beginning. the universe continues to evolve. and yes, every one of our body’s atoms is traceable to the big bang and to the thermonuclear furnaces within high-mass stars that exploded more than five billion years ago.

– neil degrasse tyson, astrophysics for people in a hurry

//

your shoulder still aches.

you try not to think about that, though, especially right now, because it’s the first snow of the year and it’s beautiful, and clarke waves to you, her cheeks flushed pink from the cold. it almost knocks you off your feet, how pretty she is, so you casually lean against the railing so you don’t fall down the stairs.

‘hey lex,’ she says, settling next to you, seemingly happy to stand on the stairs instead of heading to the planetarium where she’s supposed to be.

‘good morning, clarke.’

‘always so formal,’ she says, then tugs on your arm lightly before starting up the stairs. ‘octavia is in the café today, let’s get coffee for free before kane is here and can tell us not to.’

‘clarke—’

she rolls her eyes, tugs on your hand. ‘you can get hot chocolate or tea or whatever if you’re still on your insane kick to give up caffeine.’

‘that’s not—’

she stops and turns toward you, glaring. it’s soft, though, made softer by her tone: ‘it’s the first snow, lexa. live a little.’

you sigh and scuff your boot on the marble stairs once, then nod. ‘whatever. fine.’

clarke laughs and takes off again.

your stomach hurts sometimes too, aches all the way into your chest, into your shoulder, but you try not to think about that either. you think about the size of the universe instead, about how last year there were 23,237 recorded live trees in maine.

clarke doesn’t let go of your hand all the way to the fourth floor, and it maybe hurts a little less.

//

you’re trying to eat your pizza slowly, but you’re sweaty and starving and your hands are barely warming up from the cold but you don’t really care. anya had convinced you to join this stupid intermural hockey league this year—‘you can’t keep making excuses, alexandria, for the things you still love,’ and for a moment you were sure you weren’t talking about hockey’—and you’d wanted to get in a fight right then and there earlier when you’d seen clarke and raven and octavia cheering on the bleachers.

anya had laughed when you’d checked her into the boards, especially because you were on the same team, but the game is over now and you’re at a pizza place near the park that clarke had suggested, and she’s drinking wine and laughing and she’d convinced you to have some too.

you all walk to the subway together, and clarke doesn’t hesitate for a moment before giving you a long, warm hug, the same as always, even though you’re sweaty and probably smell terrible.

you have the impulse to kiss her cheek but you don’t, and when you’re icing your shoulder later that evening with anya, passing a bottle of bourbon back and forth while you watch reruns of game of thrones, she laughs a little when you smile at your phone.

‘is that clarke?’

you debate lying, but you’re really bad at it and you’re also drunk, so there’s no point. ‘yeah.’

‘she’s hot.’

you sigh and anya grins.

‘keep showing her those big hockey muscles,’ anya says, and you roll your eyes when she flexes, ‘and i’m sure she’ll reciprocate.’

‘fuck off.’

‘unbutton that polo every once in a while, lex.’

‘suck my dick, anya.’

she takes a swig of the bourbon and then hands it to you. ‘just take your shirt off during one of those sleepovers you chaperone.’

you cough on your mouthful of alcohol, and it burns all the way down your throat. ‘there are children there.’

anya just laughs, delighted, while you sulk, trying not to cough more.

‘you have abs, lexa, children or not.’

your cheeks burn and you try not to smile. you don’t let her have any more of your bourbon that night.

//

raven invites you to a post-finals party. you think it could either be the best or worst idea you’ve ever had, willfully allowing yourself to get drunk around clarke, who will also be getting drunk, but you really do try to act your age every now and again.

apparently, you’re having this party at clarke’s parents’ apartment, because they’re out of town for a conference her dad is presenting at. as you walk with raven, she tells you all about his work in robotics, because they’re friends, you guess? she keeps rubbing at her hip as you walk and you fish around in your backpack and find your trusty bottle of advil, offer her two without a word. she takes them without pausing, throws them back and swallows them without any water or anything, and then just keeps talking about stem cells and nanorobotics and she’s let you talk her ear off about endemic plant species in south africa, so you smile into your scarf all the way down park avenue.

//

clarke’s parents’ apartment is huge, as far as you’re concerned. you grew up in a little house in a little town on the coast of maine, and you didn’t want for anything—you’d had your tide pools and hockey skates and books, a pretty girl you loved and your uncle who would let you walk to the top of the light house with him at night.

but this is something altogether entirely, and you feel a little out of place in your sweater that has a hole in the sleeve and the same boots you wear everyday to work in the winter. raven doesn’t seem to care at all, though, and clarke skids in from the kitchen wearing a t-shirt (a very tight, lowcut t-shirt that leaves very little to the imagination) and jeans, wool socks with little penguins on them, and she hugs you both at the same time, groaning when octavia changes the music blaring to bodak yellow because ‘i love this song too, guys, but it’s not even 9 and this is the sixth time they’ve put this on.’

clarke takes one look at the little bundt cake you’d brought—you’d made it in your dorm kitchen, it’s full of quinoa and pumpkin and you’d bought real powdered sugar over the top—and seems to kind of melt.

raven laughs. ‘griffin, how drunk are you already?’

clarke shrugs, tugging you both with her to the kitchen where lincoln smiles, so handsome, as he mixes drinks while octavia sits on the counter, swinging their legs and rapping every word to bodak yellow.

‘my parents took me to brunch before they flew out,’ clarke starts to explain.

‘and then we just kept goin,’ octavia says, turning to you with a grin. lincoln seems far more sober, but you think he might just be better at faking it.

‘well i guess we better catch up,’ raven says, and clarke and octavia cheer, handing you both a shot.

it feels like a bad idea, but it also feels like a really good one.

//

clarke’s parents’ apartment has a rooftop garden, and it affords you an entire view of central park and the rest of the city, which you discover because clarke takes you there later, when the place is packed and you’re pretty sure you’ve heard bodak at least twelve times. you know you could call anya if you wanted to go home, but clarke is smiling and you should be cold, because it’s supposed to snow and it’s windy, but you’re warm.

‘anyway, okay, so like, yes, i want to be a surgeon,’ she explains, ‘but also we’re so young, you know, and i want to spend time with my friends and not have my mother breathing down my neck before residency in a billion years, because she’ll probably rig it so that i get matched with her program.’

‘it is one of the best in the country,’ you say, taking a sip of your beer. ‘you said so yourself.’

clarke leans close with a fond huff. ‘you’re supposed to be on my side, lexa.’

you laugh, and the motion brings you close to clarke, closer than you’d really meant to be. you swallow, suddenly far colder and more sober than you’d been seconds ago.

clarke’s eyes dart to your lips, and then your eyes, and then your lips again.

the wind whips your hair around your faces and you credit that for the tears in your eyes as you lean forward and kiss her.

you know that the moon is 1/4000th the size of the sun, but that the moon is 4000 times closer to the earth than the sun, which allows everyone on earth to see them as relatively the same size. it’s the only place in our solar system that this happens, and you think about this as you kiss clarke in the dead of winter, the stars pulled down into streetlamps and headlights.

the city, usually so loud, quiets.

//

you kiss her for a long time, until one of your sniffles snot from being so cold and the other laughs and she leads you back into her parents’ apartment. the party is winding down and you’re getting sleepy and when people start to leave and she invites you to stay the night, you want to say no but then you think of how tired you are and how much you want to be held.

she leads you to her old room, which is full of paintings and sketches and polariods, certificates of awards for a variety of academic achievements, a letterman jacket from her highschool still slung over her desk chair.

you run your fingers over it as she goes shuffles through her drawer for pajamas for you. ‘what’d you letter in?’

she laughs. ‘chess. i was nationally ranked, actually.’

‘wow,’ you say, delighted. ‘that’s—‘

‘—nerdy, i know.’

‘no,’ you say. ‘i was going to say impressive.’

‘sure, sure,’ she says, laughing. she turns and hands you pajamas and you want to ask, maybe, how she can sense you don’t want to have sex, because you’d just kissed her for at least twenty minutes on a rooftop in manhattan and most people would probably get some mixed messages from that.

you’re so drunk you don’t really care about going into a bathroom or whatever at this point to change, because you’re pretty sure clarke doesn’t care at all, so you start to take your pants off while clarke changes too. ‘did you letter in anything?’

‘hockey,’ you say.

‘right,’ clarke says, slightly muffled by her shirt. ‘makes sense.’

‘do not tell anyone this, but i also lettered in jazz band.’

clarke lets out a laugh. and you turn to her as you slip into some of her worn, soft boxers. they’re a little big so you roll them up and she takes a deep breath and then lets it out through her nose. you smile—you’re a little pleased and a little apologetic—and then she starts to ask another question, something about a saxophone or a trumpet, as you pull your sweater over your head. you’re drunk so you’d forgotten, for the first time in years, but when you go to deposit your sweater in a pile on top of your socks and jeans, clarke is quiet and fighting between staring at you and the corner of her room.

‘you’re my same age and you’re from maine,’ she says, things seemingly clicking into place.

you take your sweater and pull it over your head again, and your hands start shaking and your eyes press with tears.

‘lexa,’ she says, stepping toward you quickly, which only makes your heart race more. you’re drunk, you’re drunk, and you know you’re safe but your ears are ringing. ‘i’m sorry i just—i didn’t—god,’ she says. maybe she notices you trembling, maybe she notices the way you’ve seemingly forgot how to button your pants, but she straightens up and says, ‘lexa,’ just firmly enough of your to meet her eyes.

they’re so blue. you want to find comfort in them, and maybe you will, but everything is too loud right now.

‘i have to go,’ you get out, barely, all gritted teeth and you remember what it was like to choke on your own blood.

‘lexa,’ she says again, differently this time, pleading. ‘i’m sorry.’

you shake your head. ‘i’m not mad,’ you say, and you’re surprised you were able to express a thought as coherent as that. ‘it’s not—i have to go.’

she very gently helps you button your pants and then nods. ‘okay.’

you breathe a sigh of relief because clarke is kind, because clarke is fun and young and wild but she’s gentle, and your brain is trying to convince your body that it’s about to die again, but later you’ll remember this moment with such tenderness.

‘let me get your coat. i’ll get you a car too.’

you follow her out, nodding, maybe, and she helps you into your coat, walks you down and makes sure you get into a black towncar, makes sure her driver knows your address.

when you get to your dorm, you knock on anya’s door and she lets you in, mostly asleep, without a word.

‘you’re here,’ she tells you, helping you out of your clothes and into her bed, while she sets up a little nest of blankets on the floor. ‘you’re in new york and it’s winter and—‘ she pauses for a moment, then lets out a laugh— ‘you have a hickey on your neck, for sure.’

it shocks you just enough, happily, that your heart slows down a bit. ‘from clarke,’ you say, and her name feels solid on your tongue, quiet and present.

‘i never would’ve guessed,’ anya drawls from the floor.

it takes you a while to fall asleep and you have nightmares, but you do have a hickey from a very pretty girl when you wake up the next day, so.

there’s that.

//

it’s all very confusing: one minute you’re holding your piece of pizza, walking to the table you always sit at, every day, with your girlfriend and your friends. you’re tired and your hip is sore from hockey, your eyes hurt from reading the same history primary sources over and over again on the shitty library computers. costia is beautiful, though, and the pizza today looked less burnt than usual, and your uncle had promised to take you fishing this weekend.

one minute you’re holding your piece of pizza, and you’re sixteen, and then there’s a very distinct series of pops, a single click, and your pizza is on the floor because you can’t feel your hand. your arm is on fire and it takes you a few moments, but then everyone is screaming and there are so many pops, and it’s loud.

it occurs to you that you were shot, that this is a school shooting, that all of your classmates—your friends—are dying. Dead.

costia is rushing to you and then there’s another pop and you’re doubled over, because you can’t breathe and you can’t see because pain is shooting up from your abdomen and everyone is screaming, everyone won’t stop screaming, and costia is brushing hair out of your eyes but you can’t breathe, and it hurts.

‘lexa,’ costia is saying, ‘lexa.’

you swallow and you nod and costia is crying, and she presses down on your shoulder and then on your stomach, and you think you might pass out from the pain.

‘don’t go to sleep,’ she says, and her tears are falling onto your face. ‘don’t fall asleep, lexa, please,’ she says, chokes out on the edge of a sob.

‘it’s okay,’ you say, taste the copper and iodine of your own blood. you don’t know what drives you to say it, because there are so many gunshots and you know there are so many bodies but you can’t look away from costia’s perfect skin, her dark eyes, her pretty mouth. you don’t know where your friends are, and it registers somewhere that you might die, that you were shot and you have to have massive internal bleeding because you’re coughing up blood and you can’t feel your left hand.

but costia is saying your name and trying to keep your blood in your body. she’s saying your name, over and over again, her hands pressing hard into your skin, your gut. she’s saying your name until she’s not, until she’s slumped over you in a single instant.

you want to scream, and you hadn’t been scared until now. you want to scream but you can’t, and her breathing is ragged and she coughs up blood into the crook of your neck.

‘it’s okay,’ you say again, as clearly as you can, as best as you can, and you feel her nod, just slightly.

one minute ago you were sixteen years old, thinking about pizza and calculus and the federalist papers, walking to a table where you were going to sit with your friends and kiss your girlfriend, tuck your hands into the pockets of your letterman as you walked home.

costia’s breathing stops, you feel it stop, and it’s so loud, but you hear her heart stop. maybe you don’t, maybe that’s not possible, but you’re sure you’re going to die, and costia already has. it makes you feel sick, but she’s on top of you and you can’t move anyway, you can’t feel your hands or your legs and you can’t breathe.

one minute ago you were a child. you think you are going to die.

you will never be a child again.

//

anya tells you that you were asleep for four days. when you wake up in the hospital—in boston, with your shoulder shattered, your arm in a sling, two of your fingers still numb, your stomach cut open and stitched back together, from three different surgeries—when you wake up in the hospital you don’t think you’ll ever breathe again.

anya tells you, solemnly but without crying, that 27 people died. your friends, your classmates, people who have annoyed you since kindergarten.

you don’t have to ask if costia died because you know she died, but you ask anyway. your uncle is slumped over silently on the other side of your bed and you’re shocked you have tears left in you but you do, and the sob that works its way through your body burns.

they send a therapist in to talk to you, and you know you have ptsd and you tell her that you don’t know if you’ll ever feel real again, that you don’t really want to try to fall in love again. that you used to care about calculus and hockey ap us history, that all you wanted to do after school was make out with a very pretty girl in the back of your jeep. that you were excited about pizza.

she sits down and she sighs and she tells you that those things might never go away. but you tell her, a few weeks later, while you’re squeezing a stress ball as hard as you can, even though your hand isn’t working quite right, and your entire abdomen still aches when you try to stand up straight—you tell her that you still love trees. the ocean. your tidepools and all the words that have gone along with them.

you get to go home. it’s not the same—it’s hollow and it’s empty and gustus offers to move so you don’t have to go back to the same school. but you’re better enough now to wander along the craggy cliffs with your arm tucked around his study one. you have to pause a few times climbing to the top of his lighthouse, but you make it.

there’s a meteor shower, and you should’ve died.

you will never be a child again but there are shooting stars. you watch them above your head, and you watch them fall silently into the water below.

//

clarke finds you on sunday morning, far before the museum is open. she has flowers and two coffees and you’re blushing already.

‘first of all, i don’t want to trigger anything,’ she says, in a rush, and it makes you smile, ‘so i just wanted to say i think you’re beautiful and maybe some time you could stay and i promise not to ruin it.’

she kind of thrusts the bouquet in your face and you grin. you’re thrilled, because clarke is usually so confident and sure, and maybe she likes you just as much as you like her.

‘someone shot me and half of my school,’ is what comes out of your mouth, even though you hadn’t intended for it to at all. you hurry to keep talking after that one. ‘you didn’t ruin anything.’

she sighs in relief. ‘okay,’ she says. ‘i’m still—you know.’

‘yeah.’

she waits a beat for you to say anything else, and when she senses that that’s it, she smiles gently and wraps her hand around your arm. you’re holding a bouquet of chrysanthemums in the dinosaur room and a pretty girl is laughing about the compsognathus, and you correct her because they lived during the jurrasic era, not the triassic, and when you’re kissing her again, beside the triceratops skeleton, it doesn’t feel nearly as terrifying as the end of your world, as the end of anything at all.

[zaney-hacknslash]

God From the Machine 8

Past Gojyo

             When I woke up, the world was fuzzy and dim and tilting back and forth, like that ride we went on when Jien took me to the fair last summer. My stomach felt sick. My head pounded and my body ached. Blood oozed down my forehead, along the line of my nose to my chin. The light in the kitchen stung my eyes like staring into the sun.

           I twitched and gagged. My head… Shit… My head…

           Mom and Jien were in the kitchen. He was holding her tight and she was bawling against his shoulder, screaming words I couldn’t make sense of. My brother looked at me, eyes wide with horror as I staggered to my feet. I fell, tried to catch myself on the wall, and landed flat on my face, moaning and writhing. I gagged again.

           My fucking head…

           I lay there, just trying to process the terrible pain in my head.

           Someone called my name. I looked up. Jien was still in the kitchen, yelling at me. Oh no. Was he mad too?

           “I didn’t…do anything…” I whispered at him.

           “Go to your room!” he yelled.

           “I’m sorry…” I murmured.

           “Go!!!”

           Mom pulled away from him and flew at me, screeching like a banshee, reaching for me like she wanted to tear me limb from limb.

           I scrambled up, almost falling down again, but he caught her and held her back, shouting, “Gojyo, get out of here!!!”

           Somehow, I managed to get up and stagger to the door. I stumbled outside and ran. In the house, my brother yelled my name again. I staggered to the road and fell to my knees, hunching over and throwing up.

           The yelling went on, every word like a sharp dagger through my brain. Mom screamed, “Jien! Jien, don’t leave me!”

           I forced myself to stand and turned toward the woods. The moon was rising. How long was I unconscious?

           Blood trickled down my face and neck as I ran into the trees. Jien hollered after me, but his voice faded into the distance, so I knew he wasn’t chasing me. I ran as fast as I could, tripping and ramming against trees every step of the way. Branches whacked me in the face, and I tumbled through bushes. At first I didn’t even know where I was going, but it came to me quickly enough.

           “Hakkai!” I yelled, voice hoarse and aching. I wanted to cry so bad. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. No way. I never had before, and I wouldn’t this time. I shouted as loud as I could, screaming his name as I fumbled through the forest. “Hakkai! Where are you? Hakkai, please! Please! Answer me!”

           I tripped over a branch and fell on my face again. I felt like I might throw up again too. My head hurt so bad. The night was so dark. I didn’t know where to go. I lay there, shuddering and screaming. I sat up on my knees. “Hakkai!”

           Behind me, I heard footsteps.

           Terrified, I whipped around, thinking it would be her, here to kill me in the forest where no one would find me. Everything was dark, and I didn’t see anyone.

           Then I heard a chirp and a soft cry, like a bird singing. In a flutter of wings, Jeep flew down and landed on my shoulder. I stared into his eyes. They were just as red as mine. He nipped at my ear and licked my face, crooning and shaking his wings.

           “Jeep…” I panted. I leaned back against a tree, vision starting to fade again, watching numbly as the forest tilted and spun like a top.

           Strong hands gripped my shoulders, and Hakkai’s face emerged from the dark, right in front of mine. “Gojyo!” He shook me. “Wake up!”

           I jerked my head, trying to clear the fog from my vision. I gripped his shirt, weakly. “Hakkai…”

           He knelt beside me. “Are you all right? What are you doing?”

           Looking at him, hearing how gentle and kind his voice was, I almost couldn’t keep from bursting into tears.

           His hand slid gently over my cheek and he murmured, “It’s all right, I’m right here. Can you stand up?”

           I didn’t know for sure if I could, but I nodded, and he helped me to my feet, supporting me so I didn’t fall again.

           “Easy,” he said. “I’ve got you.” He lifted me up in his arms, and I let my pounding head slump against his shoulder as he carried me through the woods.

           “Where’re we goin’?” I asked, words slurring.

           Hakkai didn’t answer, and I stared dully at the forest around us. Everything was blue and black shadows, spinning and mixing together, and the moon burned white above us, almost as round as the sun. Slowly, out of the dark, an orange glow appeared, starting as a distant point of light and growing stronger, little by little, until I realized it was a campfire. We walked into a clearing where a fire pit burned in the middle. There were a few boulders scattered around the perimeter, but I was too dazed to make out much else.

           Hakkai laid me on the sandy ground, close to the fire, and put his pack under my head for a pillow, and then he sat down beside me, examining the cuts on my face. He sponged at them with a wet cloth that stung, cleaning the blood and puke off my mouth and chin. He put band-aids on me and wrapped a bandage around my aching head, and cleaned and bound the arm Mom scratched, and he whispered as he worked, things like, “Relax, everything’s okay. This will sting a little. It’s not so bad.”

           I watched him sleepily until he was finally done, and then he put a canteen to my mouth and made me drink some metallic-tasting water. I could barely believe anyone other than my brother could be so gentle and so nice to me.

           Finally, he pulled his coat up around my neck like a blanket and sat back, smoothing my hair away from my face.

           “Do you want to tell me what happened?” he asked softly.

           Should I? I’d wanted to all day, and I hadn’t, but maybe I should have. Maybe this wouldn’t have happened if I did. It didn’t seem like I had a choice now that I’d crashed his campsite all beaten up.

           “My mom...” I sputtered. “She broke the window with my head…”

           “She what?”

           I wondered if I didn’t explain well enough. That was the only thing I could think of right now. “She smashed my head against the window…and it broke…”

           He looked away, and I couldn’t make out his expression in the shadows cast by the fire.

           “Hakkai…” I found his wrist and gripped his sleeve. “I’m sorry.”

           “Sorry for what?” He looked at me again, forehead wrinkling.

           “Sorry for crashing your campout.”

           “Shh. Don’t be ridiculous. You shouldn’t be wandering through the forest with a head injury… I’m glad you found me.” He laid his hand on my forehead. It was warm and gentle.

           I closed my eyes. Sleep sounded good now. Long, unending, quiet sleep.

           He shook me lightly. “Don’t fall asleep, Gojyo-chan.”

           Painfully, I opened my eyes again. “How come?”

           “You have a severe concussion. You have to try to stay awake.”

           I nodded even though I didn’t understand.

           He tucked the coat blanket around me tighter. “Why did your mother do that?”

           “I…” my mouth was so dry I could barely speak, I reached for the canteen again, and he helped me drink. “I made her really mad…”

           “I see…” He sat quietly a while.

           I closed my eyes again, still not understanding why I couldn’t sleep when I was so tired.

           “Tell me about home, Gojyo,” he said.

           “Home…” I opened my eyes.

           “Yes, you live with your mother and brother, correct?”

           “Nn, yeah… She’s not really my mom, she’s my stepmom. Jien’s my half-brother.”

           “What happened to your real parents?”

           “They’re dead. I guess they killed themselves… Everyone says they were disgusted by what they did…”

           “What did they do?”

           I shrugged. “Having me, I guess.” I dug out my cigarettes. If I couldn’t sleep I might as well smoke.

           “Do you believe that’s the reason?”

           I looked at him with the cigarette halfway to my mouth. No one had ever asked me anything like that before. “What’dya mean?”

           “Do you think your parents killed themselves because they were ashamed to have brought you into the world?”

           “I dunno… Why else would they do it?”

           “Love,” he suggested simply. “People do things like that sometimes because they feel it’s the only way they can be together. If they thought their neighbors wouldn’t accept their union, or if they were afraid of what your stepmother might do, perhaps they thought being together in eternity was their best option.”

           “Then why didn’t they take me with them?” I wondered, lighting my cigarette. “Then all three of us could be together.”

           “Perhaps they thought your best option was to stay alive and try to make something of yourself, but also…every adult, past the romance, knows better than to believe dying together means you’ll get to be together in eternity. Death is very finite. If they made their choice to take that chance, it was good of them to at least not take every opportunity you would ever have away from you.”

           I drew a long drag from my cigarette. “Hey. Are you just bullshittin’ me to make me feel better?”

           “Why? Is it working?”

           “I’m not sure. I don’t know if anything will ever make shit better for me…”

           “It’s easy to feel that way when you’re a child. It’s hard to imagine the places you’ll go and the things you’ll do…or the people you’ll meet. Childhood feels very permanent, doesn’t it?”

           “I guess,” I murmured, and I remembered what I’d thought this morning about how Mom probably wouldn’t let me get big enough to fight back.

           “What about your brother?” he asked in a little while, just when I was starting to slip off to sleep. “The two of you are close, aren’t you?”

           “Mmm, yeah. He’s my best friend. He helps me.”

           Hakkai didn’t answer for a while. Finally, he muttered, “That’s good.”

           “There isn’t a lot he can do either. Now that he’s older, he’s found some ways to calm her down…”

           “Oh?”

           “Yeah,” I closed my eyes. “When she’s really upset, they go upstairs and fuck, and then she usually passes out.”

           There was the longest silence yet, and then Hakkai said, “Excuse me?”

           “Yeah, yeah,” I mumbled. “Usually, after they fuck she doesn’t feel like beating up on me any more.”

           The pitch of his voice changed. Higher. Tighter. “I must have heard you wrong…”

           Squinting in the firelight, I looked up at him again. “Why?”

           “I thought you just told me the two of them engage in…” He shook his head. “Are you telling me they…that he…fornicates with her?”

           “For-ni-cates…” I echoed slurrily. “Umm. That’s like fucking, isn’t it? Sex?”

           His eyes got really big, and I watched his mouth fall open. He shook his head and muttered something to himself.

           “What’s wrong?”

           “That…happens frequently?” he asked slowly.

           My eyelids fluttered. I wanted to sleep so bad. I didn’t get why he was so interested… “I guess. Any time she goes ballistic.”

           Hakkai released a long sigh and stared into the fire.

           “Maybe some day…” I went on, “when I’m old enough, maybe she’ll let me—”

           He interrupted sternly, but not loudly, “No. No, Gojyo, that isn’t the answer.”

           “If she’d let me touch her though…if I could make her feel better the way he does…” I wasn’t sure how that would help exactly, but Jien thought it helped, and it did calm her down. It just seemed like it must be the thing to do. The only thing we could do.

           Hakkai stared at me a long moment. “Oh. I see.” And then he shook his head again in a way that made me feel like he was really disappointed. “Get some sleep now.”

           “I thought you said I shouldn’t sleep.”

           “I think you’ll be all right. I’ll wake you up periodically to make sure you’re okay.”

           I nodded heavily. “’Kay…” I closed my eyes again. “G’night…”

           His fingers slipped through my hair. “Hush now.”

           A second later, I was out.

[ticklish-touch]

Five Nights At Sunny’s Ch4: Bedtime Story

Mina gets to see Sun and Moon at their day jobs... And finally learns a bit about their past. (This chapter is much less tk-centric than the last. Time for a tiny bit of sads c’:  ) (Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four (You are here!) Chapter Five )

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

          It took a bit of convincing, but Mina was able to get permission to go to the daycare during the day, as the jester duo had requested. One of the other staff members was required to escort her there, and she was allowed to stay for two hours.         Inside, there were many rambunctious children, from toddlers to preteens; screaming, laughing, running about and playing in the different play structures. And towering above them, the sunny jester could be seen monitoring all of them.

          He eventually spotted Mina, gasping and waving frantically in her direction. "BEANIE!!" He pranced over to her, some of the kids following him out of curiosity. "Guys!! Come here, c'mere!! This is my friend Mina that I was telling you all about!" More kids gathered, some shyly waving up at Mina, others looking disinterested. "Everyone, say hi to miss Mina!"           She was met with a chorus of kids saying hi, and couldn’t help but feel herself smile. "Hello everyone!”          “Meeny-Beanie gets to stay up with me and Moony aaalll night!! She has a SUPER important job of helping me watch over the Daycare at night and make sure all the locks are secure and the important papers are done! She even gets to play video games with me!”          “Wow, really??” One of the kids excitedly piped in.         “I wanna be a security guard when I grow up!”           Sunny nodded fast. “I totally kick her butt in Mario Kart races, though~” he gave Mina finger-guns.           Mina rolled her eyes. “Yeah yeah, well, I totally mop the floor with him in our dance-offs.”           “Nuh-UH!!” Sunny folded his arms in a huff.          “Can Mina dance wif us?” One small child looked up to Sun expectantly.          “Yeah, she should play with us!!”          “Oh- Sorry, kids, but I’m not allowed,” Mina gave them a polite smile. “I’m supposed to go sit with my coworkers.”          Sunny's attention was quickly drawn back to some of the kids that had started wandering off, waving at Mina again before following a group of them over to the TV, where one of the employees was now setting up some Wii games. "OkaygottagoseeyoutonightBYE!"

        After he left, the other staff gestured for Mina to join them over at the security desk, where they could keep an eye on the whole area from their seats and from the surveillance monitors.         The bot seemed right at home here. It was moving to see how wonderful he was with the kids. He played games of tag, he put on improv skits and LARPed with them, he chased them playfully int he ballpit, he built block towers and had gentle plushie fights. He hardly even seemed to mind some of the smallest children hanging off of his arms or clinging to his poofy pants. He tried to climb into the jungle gym with them at times, but he wasn’t quite as agile inside the structures as his other half. ...Despite having literally the same body.

        Not all of the kids warmed up to him, though; A decent handful kept him at a wide berth, stepping away if he attempted to approach them with toys or crafts. The slump in his body language told Mina that he was saddened by their reactions, but he didn't let it deter him from keeping up his cheery demeanor.         She noticed, too, that he could use sign language. He signed back and forth with a couple of the kids, and showed a couple curious ones how to do certain signs in order to communicate with their peers.

        It wasn’t all just playtime with no limits, though. Sunny watched the kids like a hawk, never hesitating to gently scold them if they misbehaved or risked getting into danger.

          “Please don’t climb up there, children! You could get hurt!!”            “No no no!! Throwing things at other people is not nice!”            “RICHIE!!” He gasped. “That is a BIG no-no word!! You’re goin’ to time out!”            Most of the kids were cooperative, no doubt because having such a boisterous, slightly uncanny robot looming over them was a bit intimidating.

          “Man, how is he not a nervous wreck dealing with this all day?” Mina questioned her coworkers.           “I mean, he is kinda neurotic,” one of them shrugged. “But he says he likes the energy and commotion. I think he understands better than some adults that kids just aren’t fully developed yet and need a lot of patience.”           “He also doesn’t process stress the same way that people do. At least, that’s what the higher-ups told us. I think he’s still relieved to get charging breaks.”

          It seemed true; since how, right after reprimanding a child, he would bounce right back to his regular manic, happy-go-lucky self. The only time he showed genuine stress was when a sister and her big brother took a running charge at a tower of the squeaky barrels, both kicking them over at the same time.           He shrieked and ran over, frantically restacking them, before scolding them. "P-Please don't do that, children!! It's very important that these stay upright!! They, uhh- have important radios in them that signal the other staff around the Pizzaplex and let your parents know that you're okay! They can't work right if they're knocked down!"           Thankfully, the siblings seemed to believe him, and didn't attempt it again. ...Or maybe they were just a bit too unnerved by him to want to get on his bad side. It was hard to say.           "So uh...Why does he do that?" Mina questioned one of the other employees.           They shrugged. "No-one knows. We think it's a fault in his 'clean-up' mode. He doesn't really care about being messy during the day, but he's programmed to make sure everything's tidy after the daycare's closed. For some reason it's just those barrels that he wants to be perfect at all times."           The other security guard nodded. "Yeah, sometimes we gotta put the towers way up high where no kids can get to them. We tried getting rid of 'em completely, but he begged us not to. We've actually had the chance to educate some of the young ones about obsessive-compulsive and other similar disorders that way."

          Before long, jester’s battery had soon been depleted. In the middle of a round of Red Rover, his body suddenly slumped and his voice slowed down. “Red Rover, Red Roooooo-o-o-o....”           Some kids burst into laughter. But Sunny just went along with it. “S-S-Send Haaaaaaa-- right overrrrr-r-r....” His arms turned into limp noodle in two other kids’ grip.         The kids laughed again and the two holding his hand on either side of him started trying to pull him over to his charging station. “Sunnyyy, go charge, go charge!!”         “Oookkaayyy-y-y-y,” Sunny whined. “Behaaaave yours-s-selvesss!”

             As Sunny took some time to get a quick recharge, one of the staff members took a turn looking after everyone. And as the hour drew to an end, the kids were starting to slow down, tuckered out from playing all afternoon. Sunny took this as his cue to rally everybody up with a loud whistle and wave, and he led the way with the Clean-Up song. He made sure everyone did their part in cleaning up their messes, getting a little particular in making sure all the crayons were put away in the right holders and having chairs lined up with the eges of the padded floor tiles.           “I had SO much fun with you all today!” He projected out to the daycare. “But now it’s time for the sun to set, and the Moon and stars to come out~! If you have any arts and crafts that you want us to hold for you, bring ‘em to the security desk then come right back here, please!”            A good handful of children went over to the desk, occasionally waving up at Mina and the other security guards, putting their art in one of two piles: Take-home art, and art they wanted Sunny or the daycare to keep. After they went back over to Sunny and sat around him in a big circle, the jester waved over at the staff and gave them a thumbs-up. 

            Though, once the lights were turned off, the robot gasped and quickly covered his eyes, letting out the smallest whine.             When Moon emerged, his demeanor was...completely different. He remained standing upright, instead of hunching over like a cave goblin. He slowly slid his hands down to reveal that his eyes weren’t vivid red, but a soft yellow.           “Poor Sunny... Still afraid of the dark...” he chuckled softly. His voice was different too. It was still deeper than Sun’s, and gravelly, but not nearly as harsh or sinister. It almost had an ASMR quality. “But the dark isn’t something that you need to fear, children... Nighttime brings serenity, sweet dreams, a sense of wonder as you peer up at the vast starry sky...” He gestured toward the ‘stars’ on the ceiling with a theatrical flourish of his arms. “Doesn’t that sound nice? Come, now, let’s get you all to bed,” he gestured toward the area with cots and sleeping bags.             Some of the children started heading there without much hesitation, yawning and rubbing their eyes, getting settled in. A good majority of them, though, whined in protest.           “Noooo, we don’t wannaaaa!”           “I wanna stay up ALL night!!”           “We want Sunny baaack!!”           “I don’t want to hear it,” Moon huffed, putting his hands on his hips. “Little starlights like you need more sleep than the grown-ups. Especially after romping around with Sunspot all day. If you waaant, we can make a game out of it," He chuckled playfully. "I'm a master of hide-and-seek~"           "Yeah, you don't say," Mina muttered under her breath.

          For the next half hour or so, Mina watched him wrangle up the other kids. He chased them, scooped them up and gave them quick playful tickles before tossing them - gently - into the area full of cots and sleeping bags. He summoned the overhead rope to soar around the daycare, performing like a ballet dancer in the air, much to the wonder and delight of some of the youngest children. He humored a couple of them that had toy flashlights, making shadow puppets on the walls, telling them that if they went to sleep, they would get to see their favorite critters and imaginary friends in their dreams.

          For the ones that were more insistent on misbehaving and trying to escape, though, he became more persistent, starting to spider his way through and around the jungle gym. He let out his familiar gremlin-ish snickering.           "Naughty naughty children, you should know you can't hide from the moon~!"           "It's past your bedtime!"           “Don’t make me put you in time-out!!”

          The kids in the jungle gym would scream and attempt to flee faster, followed by a laugh of joy; most of them weren't truly afraid of him; they were having fun playfully getting on the jester's nerves.           As with Sun, there were a few of them that were genuinely unnerved by his proximity. But he disn't instigate, or try to worsen their fear; he just took a gentle approach, bribing them with his Moondrop candies with crescent-moon wrappers.

            At one point, he stopped dead in his tracks during one of his chases, zipping over to the security desk, landing on the edge with a THUD.              “WAH--!” Mina and the other guards jumped back.              “What time is it?” Moon asked casually.              “Jeez, can’t you ask normally??” One of them gave an exasperated sigh. “It’s 6pm.”

            “Then it’s time for Tyson’s medication,” he held out his hand.             One of the staff opened a desk drawer and took out a small handful of Moondrop candies; these ones, however, had full-moon wrappers. “You can see in the dark, you could’ve just looked over at the clock yourself!” They grumbled.             Moon gave a mischievous snicker. “Juuust double-checking~” He took the candies, leaping into the air with his pulley rope, scanning the play area until he found the little boy named Tyson.             Just in time, too. He had just thrown himself down onto the floor, screaming, kicking, throwing a fit and attempting to lash out at any other kids that came close by.              “Good heavens...” Moon knelt down by him, attempting to reach a hand out to pat him on the shoulder, unfazed by the small boy reflexively reaching out to kick him in the arm. When the boy realized what he’d done, he froze like a deer in headlights. “So naughty... You should be put in time-out for that behavior,” he growled sternly. “But... I know you can’t really help it. You aren’t choosing to misbehave.” He held out one of the full-moon candies. “If I give you a little drop of moonlight for your troubles, will you settle down and go to bed?”

            Tyson grabbed the candy and popped it in his mouth without a word. The sedative took hold quickly.           Moon gently patted his hair. "There we go. See? Nice and calm now."             There were a couple other children he gave this medicated candy to: A young girl diagnosed with anxiety, and a preteen insomniac. After they grew drowsy, he carried them over to their beds.

          Mina watched him through the monitors and from across the room. "He's... wonderful with them," She commented, a little dumbfounded.           "Surprising, isn't it? He's a totally different person...robot...thing during the day."           "Wasn't like that for a while though," The other chimed in. To which they were quickly elbow-jabbed. "What?? It's been a year, we should be allowed to talk about it."           Mina's attention was immediately laser-focused on her two co-workers. She'd been trying for three nights straight to get this bot to fess up; she didn't think to just ask the other staff!           The other saw Mina staring expectantly, and sighed. "Alright, just don't bring this up to anyone else, got it?

          "For almost a full month, Moon's programming was a little... faulty. That intense Security mode of his wouldn't turn off even during the day. He wouldn't like...Tickle the shit out of the kids or anything, he only saved that for the adults."           "Clearly that never went away," the other employee scoffed.          "Tell me about it..." Mina blushed a little. But she listened closely.           "He still scared the hell out of most of the kids, started getting way too rough with 'em, ended up getting complaints and lawsuit threats. Sun started doing everything to make sure he wouldn't switch into Moon anymore, but would have a nervous breakdown whenever the higher-ups talked about taking out Moon's software completely. And the kids liked Sunny too much to totally scrap him. But they ended up shutting the daycare down completely during that month while they tried to figure out what to do from there."           "The other bots were acting weird around the same time, weren't they?"           "Yeah. All of them were getting more and more aggressive to the staff and customers. The smart thing would've been to scrap every one of 'em. Or at least get into their metal brains and re-wire shit in there."           "No-one knows if it was a glitch in the system. Some staff here think they were all hacked somehow. Robot uprising; It's happening, man, I'm tellin' you."           The two employees laughed among themselves. "Yeah, and then it just... Stopped. Moon went back to normal right after one of the newer security guards quit. Sun became real clingy to night staff and made them promise they wouldn't shut the down daycare again. The first model of our Freddy went missing around that time too, and the other bots were smashed to bits. Just all seems like an awfully weird coincidence. I'm surprised the place is still around at all with how much money they had to shell out for new STAFF bots and parts."

          Mina felt a pang of sympathy overcome her as she listened to their explanation. No wonder the poor jesters had a few screws loose, dealing with the aftermath of something that was totally out of their control...

          Moon eventually overheard what they were talking about, his eyes flashing red for just a moment, out of view of the cameras. Had he not been busy trying to get the children into their beds, he would’ve zipped over to the desk and promptly shoved a medicated Moondrop down their throats. But...he mulled over what Mina had said to him the previous night. Perhaps she had the right to know.           After they finished their recap, the robot looked in their direction, and beckoned toward Mina. She quietly headed over to him, and he gestured for her to take a seat next to him.             "All right, children, it's time for your bedtime story."            His body started to emanate a strange, low buzzing, like a radio on the wrong station. Which, in turn, caused the audio feed to cut out on the security cameras, only giving off an eerie low garbled noise.           "Ah, shit, not again," One guard started fiddling with the audio settings. "We really gotta get this fixed."           "Ah well, it's just storytime. Probably gonna read "Goodnight, Moon" to them for the hundredth time," they chuckled among themselves.           "Mina's over there with them, she'll keep an eye out. Can't believe she's ballsy enough to sit right next to that thing."

          Moon glanced over at Mina, as if making sure he had her attention, before turning back to the kids. "I have a new story to tell you tonight. I call it, A Tale of Two Kitties."           "Where's your book?" One child piped up curiously.           Moon shook his head. "This isn't a story that you can find in a book. It's one that I've carried in my...imagination for a long time now.

          "Once upon a time, there were two kitties living on a farmhouse: Yellow and Blue. Yellow was friendly, cheery, energetic, easily amused. Blue was calm, rational, a bit irritable, but insightful. They were like peas in a pod; two halves of the same whole. They had their differences, of course, but they got along like brothers.           "The farmers gave them a job to look after a pen of little baby chicks, whose parents were so busy during the day that they could not take care of them. Yellow was to keep them entertained all day; playing tag, frolicking in the grass. Blue was to corral them together at night, make sure they were going to bed on time."

          "Kind of like you?" One child spoke up.           "Yes...Kind of like me," Moon chuckled. "Over time... Blue became jealous of Yellow. He grew angry that he wasn't allowed to play games with the chicks all night; that it was his job to ruin their fun. He grew sad that the other farmers and farm animals didn't like him nearly as much as they liked Yellow. And that anger would get the better of him, because he chose not to talk about it. He didn't want to ruin his friendship with Yellow... But by keeping it to himself, he set himself up to be taken advantage of.

          "You see; A spiteful little rabbit was watching them play with the chicks. This rabbit was working for a greedy, hungry coyote, who wanted the chicks all to himself. And not just the chicks; He wanted the ducklings, the piglets, the calves... All the youngest animals that would be an easy meal to him. He told the rabbit that if she didn't obey him, he would eat her too.           "So, she started going to Yellow and Blue late at night. She would whisper evil things to them, tell them... "You know, you could easily eat up all those chicks yourself..." His voice had shifted to the menacing rasp that Mina had grown accustomed to, his eyes flashing red. "They are small, and weak, and they trust you. You could take one little swipe at them and be done with it. Give them to me, and they’ll be out of your hair for good."

          The kids gasped and cowered into their blankets. Moon's voice and eyes returned back to normal. "She could not convince Yellow. He was too kind, and too optimistic, and kept telling her to go away. However... Blue began to take her whispers to heart. 'These stupid little chicks are the reason I'm unhappy in the first place,' he would tell himself. 'If they weren't around, I could do whatever I wanted. I could play games with Yellow, I could play pranks on the farmers and other animals all I want.' It was like her voice was stuck in his head, even when he tried to fight it off...

          "But it was too late. At night, whenever Yellow and all the farmers had gone to bed, Blue began to snatch up the chicks, giving them to the bunny in secret."           Some of the little kids gasped. "No!!"           "The farmers and other animals began to notice the change in Blue's personality. He became mean, sneaky, prone to lashing out. Yellow found out what Blue was doing, but never told anyone. He wanted to believe he could convince Blue to stop; and he didn't want the farmers to take away his best friend. The other farm animals had started to avoid Yellow, simply because he was friends with Blue. Blue and Yellow were not allowed back into the barn. And Yellow... Was too afraid to go near Blue anymore."           "I-I don't like this story..." One little girl piped up.           "Neither do I..." Moon mumbled. "But don't fret, little one. For you see... One night, one little chick named Gregory took a stand. This chick was a rule-breaker through and through, but he was very brave, and very clever. He knew there was something going on.

          "Gregory ran all the way across the other side of the pen, determined to get to the farmhouse. He escaped Blue's swiping claws and gnashing teeth. He made Yellow so angry that he kicked him out...If only to keep him safe from Blue. And soon, he befriended the biggest, toughest, wisest bull in the barn named Freddy."           "Freddy!!"           "Our Freddy??" A child asked in disbelief.           "Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously," he quickly spouted, as if reading off a rehearsed disclaimer. "Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

          "Together, they found the mean little rabbit, and promised her that they could save her from the coyote if she stopped telling Blue to do such terrible things. With her and Freddy's help, they found the evil coyote, and chased him away from the farmhouse for good."           The kids silently cheered and clapped among themselves.           "After the coyote was gone, people started to warm up to Yellow again. Yellow started talking to Blue again. Blue had done some... terrible things, so it was going to take time for Yellow and the rest of the farm to trust him again. Blue understood that it was not the chicks' fault; it never was. He wanted to pin all the blame on the rabbit... But he knew, deep down, that it was his responsibility to make up for his actions."

          He slowly stood up, once again giving that theatrical flourish. "My lesson to you, children: There is no shame in admitting that you're hurting. If you are angry, jealous, or sad, you'll be surprised how much it helps to talk it out with a friend, or a grown-up. Don't keep those feelings bottled up, or you could do something you'll regret. There will always be someone out there who cares about you. Even if you may not realize it."

          The lecture had succeeded in making most of the kids fall asleep. He went around, making sure the children were all tucked in, giving them gentle pats on the head. And, for those that were still shuffling around to get comfortable, he began to softly sing a lullaby.

"Hush now, sleep, all you little ones, Rush now, into the middle of dreamland... Singing and laughter will rise..."

          Mina felt her jaw drop. His breathy, melodic singing was a far cry different than Sunny’s.           ...Also was that the freaking “Nowhere King”??

"The dreams you seek, follow the Lunar King When his kingdom comes, freedom is nigh...

"Quiet, crawl to the in-between Silent, soft, hopeful feeling Of joyous wonder that reaches the skies...

You will bring joy to the Lunar King When he sees the fear leaving your eyes..."

         After his song, he headed over to sit one of the nearby tables, observing his handiwork.         "You have a really nice singing voice," Mina commented, sitting across from him.         "Thanks. ...I'd never be able to get away with singing the real version of that song," he chuckled darkly. "They already denied me permission to read Brothers Grimm fairy tales."         Mina rolled her eyes and shook her head playfully; then, lowered her voice. "That story you told... It's true, isn't it?"

          Moon slowly nodded, avoiding eye contact. "I took liberties with the ending... I don't actually know what happened to... her. All I know is that, after she, Gregory, and the first Freddy disappeared, things have been better. Children have stopped going missing. People are warming up to me and Sunspot again."           "Oh, we'll that's good!"           "Yes...But Sunny... is still afraid of me. Of what I could become again. I can feel it." He grumbled to himself, looking down at his hand as he flexed it open and closed in a claw-like motion. "I just become so... Frustrated. like I'm hunting for a threat that isn't there anymore... Having to stay on high alert at all costs... Seeing that damn rabbit's face in the back of my mind..." He sighed. "I make up for it by trying to live that same burst of excitement and energy that my other half gets to feel on the daily. Besides... It's the least they deserve," he glared over in the direction of the three security guards. "If the bosses want to insist on making me play the bad guy, then I'll be the bad guy, and play my games however I please~" He chuckled.           Mina reached out to touch his hand gently, unsure of how else to console him.           He, in return, softly closed his large hand around hers. "I did think that we were better off without any security guards slinking about at night. But...perhaps that isn't the solution either. Sunspot gets... Lonely. Restless. Even with my company. I thought I was protecting him and the little ones. Protecting us. But... Now I realize I've just been isolating us more."

          Mina put her other hand on top of his. "Well...Thank you for trusting me,” she smiled. ��           “Eugh... No need to get all sappy about it,” he huffed, eventually pulling his hand away. “I’m still going to make sure you go to sleep at night, you irritating little bedbug~” He narrowed his gaze, his eyes flashing red and his fingers wiggling at her.             She gasped and barely held back a squeak. “Y-Yeah?? Well this bedbug will bite back,” she stuck out her tongue.             One of the employees immediately took notice of that small flash of red on the security cameras, coming over to both of them. “Hey, Mina, it’s time to go. I dunno what it is about you, but this one misbehaves more around you,” they shone the flashlight at Moon. “So, better save it for your night shift before he breaks something else.”             Moon let out a hiss and an angry whisper. “Put that light out, you’ll wake the children!!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~             “BEANIEEE!!!”              Mina was greeted by Sunny’s usual spinning hug when she came in at midnight. “Hey, thanks so much for coming over today!! I was SO happy to introduce you to all the little guys!”               She smiled and nodded. “Of course, Sunshine! It was a lot of fun! You’re super great at your job!!”             “Awww, thank you!!” He playfully ruffled her hair. “And…thank you for talking to Moony.” He wrung his hands together, lowering his head a little. “I… I had no idea he was feeling that way. I tried for so long to get ‘im to talk to me. I tried getting into his memory drive, but he kept blocking me out. I thought he was mad at me, or giving me the cold shoulder, or keeping secrets from me…” The poor bot sounded on the verge of tears. “B-But…Now I think he just didn’t want me to worry. I think he was afraid that I hated him…” He shuffled his feet, looking guilty. "A-And maybe he was right, maybe I was still nervous about him, but... I know that he's trying to be better!!” He gave a sniffling sound.             Mina frowned and went in for another tight hug. “Hey, it’s alright, Sunny...”             The bot seemed to settle down, his body relaxing as he returned her hug. He nodded. “H-He and I talked a lotta stuff out earlier... I'll tell you what I told him: I'm kinda jealous of him, too, y'know."             “Really...?” Mina looked up at him.             "Yeah!! Looking after the little guys all day is a lotta fun, but sometimes it gets to be a bit TOO much, y'know? I can't take care of everyone all the time. Moony gets to see a different side of them; he gets to settle them down, and read bedtime stories and sing lullabies, and help get their sweet sleepy little heads all cozy in their cute little blankets and beds... And I dunno, I thought it'd be kinda nice to trade places with him sometimes,” he shrugged. “But I’m not built to be quiet or sleepy. I GOTTA keep moving, or I go NUTS!! ” He did a little jog in place to accentuate his point. “I-I’d also need to have a flashlight or nightlight handy, haha...” He scratched his cheek nervously. "Anyways, that's all I wanted to say!" He promptly scooped up the brunette to start carrying her to the TV. "Now c'mon, let's play Mario Kart! You promised!!"

            “EEP-! I knooow, but paperwork first, remember?” She tried to tug free from his arms.             “Ughhh, fiiine!” He whirled around and stomped over to the desk.             The jester was even more of a brat than usual while she did her paperwork. He loomed over her, wiggling his fingers in her direction, giggling whenever he succeeded in making her squeak and jump. “H-Heyyy!” She blushed, sticking her tongue out at him.             He really got to her when he started singing a certain Blondie song.             “One way, or another, I’m gonna find ya, I’m gonna getchagetchagetchagetcha~” He made claw-hands on either side of her.             She squealed and shot her rolling chair backwards. “SUNNYY!” she huffed. “If you don’t behave I’m gonna kick over your tower!”

            He let out a loud offended gasp. “RUDE!!” He dramatically turned away from her and folded his arms.             She giggled. “I’m kiddiiiiing, I won’t do that to you. But if you just hold off long enough to lemme finish, we can do anything you want afterwards.”             “...Aaanythiiing~?” He slowly looked over his shoulder at her with his grinning face.             “Y...Yes??” Welp, she knew she was in for it now.             “YAY Good!! Then I call dibs on Lemmy and we get to play all the tracks that I wanna do!”             When they finally got around to playing the game, Sunny was just as competitive and boisterous as the first night. Some of his favorite tracks were, unsurprisingly, Sunshine Airport, Rainbow Road, Cloudtop Cruise and Electrodome. He seemed to know all the shortcuts for the older Rainbow Road tracks, so Mina had to concede defeat for those circuit trophies. He began to narrate their races like a sports announcer, making it more difficult for Mina to concentrate.               When he won again, he took only a short moment to celebrate. One playful, mischievous glance at Mina was all she needed to know his intentions, but she didn’t have time to get up and run; he immediately yanked her over onto his lap, trapping her with his arms and quickly tickling up and down her sides and belly.               ”YIEEE-HEEHEE NUUU-HAHAHA SUNNYY-HEEHEE!!” She whined and wiggled around.               ”Youuu said I get to do anything~” He giggled. “So I wanna make you laugh~! Cooochiecoochiecoochie~!” He cooed playfully, eventually holding one of her arms up to play her ribs up and down like a piano, and spider his fingertips over her armpits in a circle.               ”GYEE-HEEHEE!! AH-Hahahaha!!” Mina blushed and shook her head and attempted to squirm out of his grip; to which he just pushed her - gently - onto her back and straddled her legs. He narrowed his eyelids down at her and wiggled his fingers above her. “Iiiii’m gonna getcha~!”                  She bit her lip, holding back giggles. ”Y-You’d better not use those claws on me-!” She said; obviously not serious.                 But Sunny quickly shook his head. “Naaaah that’s more Moony’s thing, I really don’t like takin’ em out for any reason...”               ”Aw, okayy...” She instantly pouted.                 Seeing her pout, Sunny look conflicted, looking between her and his hand. He sighed. “Okaaaay fine, here,” he uncapped one single claw on his pointer finger, quickly holding it out away from himself as if he was handling fire; he lowered it and used his claw to trace small circles and scitch ever-so-gently at her belly.                  Mina squeaked and whined and let out quiet giggling, sucking in her belly.                 Seeing how she reacted to it, the robot relaxed a little, going between using his regular fingers to skitter and squeeze skillfully against her sides and soft belly, and using his claw to quickly trace lines over her like he was playing an invisible connect-the-dots. “Heehee, better beware The Claaaawww~” he droned, unbuttoning her overshirt just enough that he could dip his claw into her navel, immediately making her squeal loudly. “O-OH NUUU-HEEHEEHEE!”                  ”I said it before, I’ll say it again, you have such a pretty laugh, sunshine~! You’re so cute, you sound like a squeaky toy!!”                   The playful compliments just made her blush brighter and turn to hide her face in her arm. “N-Nuuuu I’m nohohohot!!”                 ”Yes you aaaare~!”                   He eventually moved his way down to trap her ankles in place and play ‘This Little Piggy’ with her toes.                 ”Thiiis little piggy went to market~” He pinched along her big toe and traced it with his claw.                 ”EEP-! NNn-hhehehehe!!”                 ”This little piggy stayed home...” He went all the way down the line, increasing the pace of his tickles, occasionally cheating to jump down and tickle her sole and ball of her foot before jumping back up. Finally..                 ”And this little piggy went...” He suddenly attacked her foot with both hands, scribbling his fingers wildly, making her squeal loudly. “EEEE-HEEHEEE!!”                 ”Alll the way home~!” He cackled, then switched over to the other foot to do the same, all while cooing and doting on her playfully.                   He kept up his playful tickles for a good long while; not long or intensely enough to warrant her saying the magic word, but she was still quite the crumpled, giggly panting heap on the floor after he gave thorough tickles and raspberries to her torso, legs and feet. He gently picked her up to pull her into his lap again. “Y’know, that’s another reason I’m kinda jealous of Moony... He gets to tickle you aaalll night~!” He snickered, “and after he plays his hide-and-tickle game, he gets to spend the rest of the night with you,” he booped her cheek. “It’d be nice havin’ a cuddle buddy for the night!”                 “Hehe, I mean, if you want to do that, I could sleep with the lights on. I’d just need something to cover my eyes with. ...Or maybe just eat more of Moon’s candy.”                 “Haha, I appreciate the offer, Beanie, buuut I don’t think it’ll work... There’s no way I can sit still long enough to let someone sleep and I’d just get booored havin’ to be quiet and not be able to play all night!! That’s why Moony’s the best at what he does. IF my battery was low enough then maybe I could manage, but we gotta make sure to be all charged up for the morning.” He hopped up to his feet, offering his hand to help her up. “B’sides, he really wants to talk to you tonight!”               “Oh, okay!” After getting up, she reached up to give him another hug. “I’m really glad I could help you guys out a little.”                   Sunny returned her hug gently. “I’m....Really glad too, Mina. Thank you.”               With that, Mina turned off the lights.

        When Moon came out tonight, his eyes weren't red; They were yellow. "Ahh, hello Mina," he gave a polite bow. His voice, too, was as calm as it had been during the day.          Mina blinked, taken by surprise. “Oh! You’re... Back to normal?”         “Something like that, yes~”         “Is your Security mode not active, or...?”         ”Of course it is, silly girl. I’m never going to let any miscreants get away with whatever they please. I just think it’s fair to say that you needn’t worry about setting off my alarms anymore.” He reached out to gently pat her shoulder. “I...was wrong about you. Sunspot and I are both grateful for your incessant nosing about. I see now that you were only trying to help us. And for that... you have my respect.”         “Oh... Well, that’s... great!” She smiled. “I’m glad you’re feeling better. And I appreciate that.”           He tilted his head quizzically. "...You sound disappointed about that."         "Wha-! Noo nono, of course not!! I really am glad I could help you! It’s just gonna take some time getting used to seeing you like this now, that’s all...”

            As she stammered, Moon's gaze slowly narrowed, a low chuckle escaping him. "Hmhmh...I only came out like this to show you gratitude for helping me...” his eyes shifted from yellow to bright red again, his voice taking on that devilish rasp. “But I should have figured you would prefer the side of me that wants nothing more than to make you scream with laughter~” He cackled wickedly, his finger caps flipping back to ‘unsheathe’ his claws, wiggling them at her.         And with that, their nightly game of chase began again. It felt a little different this time around, though; She wasn’t just a target, or an annoying hooligan that needed to be reminded of just how powerless she was to stop this wicked robot. She was a proper playmate; Daresay, even, a friend.

          Things were going to be different for the Daycare attendants from here on out.