So, there I stood, supposed to powered down while Ollie fixed us all up. But instead of looking for her misplaced stepladder, she decided to jump up on my shoulders. She was so close. Her stomach pressed into my nose, overwhelming me with her perfume, but calming me with her rhythmic breathing and gentle humming. Suddenly, she leant forward even more, her legs tightening around my neck as she shifted. My motors were whirring at top speed, and for once I was glad that I didn't have any muscles to tense so that I wasn't as stiff as a board. She commented on my fans again, but I barely heard her over my concentration. It would be a little embarrassing to short circuit while she was on me. My thoughts were racing.

"How am I getting d-" Her grip loosened and the weight suddenly lightened. Without thinking, I grabbed her out of the air. Our faces were so close that her breath tickled my cheeks.

"That is indeed one way to get down. Are you alright, superstar?" Her skin had gone pale and her eyes were wide.

"Y-you were off-" She stuttered. I paused. I'd exposed our secret, but I didn't regret it. She could have been seriously injured and I'd never forgive myself for letting her get hurt in my presence.

"Oh. Yes." I stalled, trying to think of excuses. "I suppose I just wasn't off properly." Her shocked expression told me that she wasn't buying it. One by one, my friends came back to life, unhappy looks on them. Roxy was the first to speak.

"We might as well come clean."

"Yeah, sorry Ollie." Chica seemed the most upset. "We don't power off."

"What do you mean? Do the other mechanics know this? Why did you pretend?" Monty shuffled his feet slightly.

"We have to pretend so that we can be fixed. Humans don't tend to like touching any electrics while they're on." Ollie looked back at me, and her blue eyes looked less surprised and more... hurt. And that hurt me too. I cast my gaze downwards, unable to handle the stabbing guilt. The music went silent.

"We're finished here." My head snapped back up. I had to explain. I had to apologise!

"Olive! Please!"

"It's no use, babe. She won't listen. Not yet." Monty patted my arm comfortingly.

"I'm so sorry everyone. She slipped and I didn't-"

"You don't have to explain yourself!" Chica chirped. "We would have done the same thing."

"No regrets." Roxy slapped my back in an attempt to be friendly. "Own your actions and work with whatever happens next." She was never one for words, especially not nice ones, but her message came through loud and clear.

"Thank you everyone. We should give Olive some room to think tonight. I'll take my chance to apologise tomorrow."

"We'll all apologise." Monty added. "It'll be difficult to explain without giving her... too much."

"That's true." Chica hummed, putting a finger to her beak thoughtfully. "We have to make sure we're all on the same page."

"Good idea." So Roxy could compliment Chica with no problems, huh? "Let's go to someone's green room and work it out. Not mine though." We laughed at her. Roxy hated anyone coming into her room, and even Chica had limited access. Chica smiled widely, gesturing for us to follow her.

"Come on everyone. Let's get planning!"

~

"Oh, cool! I've never been here before." I looked around the daycare in awe. It was a huge place with party rooms and an oversized play area. I recalled Freddy telling me about the daycare assistants and wondered if they were about. I pushed open the wooden gates, calling out.

"Daycare assistant? Sundrop? Hello?" As soon as I entered the play area, two incredibly skinny yet incredibly strong arms picked me up and brought me over to a table covered in art supplies and surrounded by soft building blocks and climbing equipment. Those two arms were attached to a fairly tall and lanky body that was wearing some sort of jester-like outfit. On top of the body was a big round face shaped like a sun, complete with two wide eyes and an even wider smile. They were chanting as we walked.

"New friend, new friend, new friend, new friend!"

"Hey dude. I'm Olive but my friends call me Ollie." I introduced myself when I was put back on my feet.

"I'll call you Ollie then because we're going to be best friends!" They twirled around in a circle. "We can play games and drink lots of Fizzy Faz and play games!"

"Sure thing, buddy. What game should we start off with?"

"Oh, oh! Let's play with the blocks!" They knocked down the nearby tower then methodically started building it up again, muttering under their breath about 'which one is the bottom again? Does this one go next?' Huh, they seemed pretty nice. With a shrug, I copied their action, knocking down the tower next to them then sitting on the floor and slowly building it back up again. When the tower had fallen, Sundrop stopped what they were doing and watched me for a moment. Once they realised I was fixing it, their smile grew even wider.

"So, Sundrop. Why do you never come and play with the other animatronics?" I asked, having a surprising amount of fun playing such a simple 'baby' game.

"They don't like us much. It's because of Moonrise." They shook their head.

"Oh, is that their name?"

"It's my brother. They're bad."

"Where are they now? Maybe they can join our game."

"Inside me. Moon can't join in anyway because they're BAD! There's one rule here and that's don't turn off the lights! Keep them ON! They always want the lights off but I want them ON! Keep them ON!" Sundrop seemed to be getting distressed about the lights, so I put a gentle hand on their shoulder, rubbing small circles as I hushed them.

"It's okay, buddy. I won't touch the lights."

"Promise?"

"Promise." This seemed to calm them down. "So your brother and you are the same animatronic then? Two in one?"

"Yes. They only come out when it's dark."

"I see. And why do they attack me and Alex and the other animatronics?"

"Don't know. Because they're bad?" They guessed. I hummed, satisfied with the answer. "I'm good." It sounded a little more like a question than a statement so I responded.

"You're good, yeah. We're having a great time. This is fun." The answer seemed to make them ecstatic, and they even did a little happy jig as they finished placing the last building block. "Should we play another game?"

"Yes, yes!" They grabbed my hand and led me over to the table, singing in time with the jingling of the bells on their wrists. "Ollie friend, Ollie friend! Gonna do drawings with Ollie friend!" I couldn't help but smile. They were like a small, excitable child and it was very endearing. I'd only had Sundrop for an hour at most, but if anything happened to them, I'd kill everyone and then myself.

"What are we drawing? Each other?" I suggested. They nodded, picking up a pencil and lightly sketching a face. Their hands were different from the other animatronics. The other four have big strong hands for putting up with lots of movement and use. Sundrop's were lithe and much more human. I followed suit, picking up a yellow crayon and drawing a big circle. Half way through, I asked.

"Hey, Sunny. I'm the mechanic for the other animatronics. How come I don't work with you? I don't ever see you." Pausing their drawing, they looked up to me with confusion.

"Sunny?"

"Yeah. I shortened Sundrop to Sunny. Like how you call me Ollie instead of Olive."

"It means we're friends!" They gasped, putting their hands against their cheeks. So adorable! "We have to have special mechanic people because we're different. Lots of soft, squishy bits. But they leave so soon! They say we're scary..." I noted that they used 'we' now. It must be strange to share your body.

"I'm not scared of you. Or Moonrise, really." They cocked their head as if thinking of a response for a moment before deciding to just carry on drawing. "I have one more question."

"I'll answer any number of questions for my new friend."

"Can you... switch off? Like, when you're being repaired, does your mechanic push a button and then you power down?"

"No. It's only pretend. You shouldn't know that, mechanic." I sighed.

"I know I shouldn't. But I accidentally found out today, which is why I'm here. But at least I have a new friend to cheer me up." We shared a smile. After a few more minutes of comfortable quiet - well, as quiet as it could be with Sunny muttering under their breath doing a running commentary of everything they were doing - we finished our pictures.

"Thank you!" Sunny squealed as I handed it over. I took a look at their drawing. It wasn't the Mona Lisa, but I could recognise it as me, and they'd done a fairly good job. For some reason I felt like a proud parent.

"Hey, this is super good Sunny! I'll put it up in my apartment when I go home. I'll keep it forever!" This seemed to make them very happy and they pulled me up to standing then started dancing around with me, making up a tune of 'la's as we spun around.

After a while of playing different games such as hide and seek and tag, I knew I had to take my leave. Sunny clung to leg, refusing to budge.

"Sunny, I need to go!"

"No! Me and you are best friends! You can't leave me here!"

"The Plex will open soon and all the children will come to play." They looked up at me suspiciously.

"Is it?"

"Yes. And I'll come back to play again soon."

"You promise?"

"I promise!" Reluctantly, they unfurled himself and opened the door.

"Bye best friend Ollie. See you soon." They waved cheerily, hopping from one foot to the other. I laughed at their antics, making a mental note to keep my promise of returning soon.

"See you later, Sundrop. Tell Moonrise I said not to scare the jelly beans out of me next time they're around so we can meet properly." We waved and I made my way down to the kitchens, hoping to grab a quick snack before I left. As I approached, the noise of eating told me someone was already there.

"Hey, Alex. If you have a pizza can I have a couple slices?" I turned the corner to see not Alex, but Chica.

"You can have some if you'd like." She offered regardless. For a moment, I considered turning my back on her, but something about the pleading look she had on made me reach out and take a slice.

"Why are you eating?"

"We all have tongues that have something like taste buds. It's so we can taste the food we bring out and eat with any children that request it. Kids love sharing their birthday cakes with us."

"And why are you eating now specifically?"

"I just enjoy it." She shrugged, wolfing down another slice. As I nibbled on my own, she looked over to me and paused. "We're all sorry, you know. I'll let the others apologise for themselves, but I want to do it now. I know it was technically lying to you, but it wasn't meant to be a real lie. Not one that hurt you. Our own safety was involved when we made the decision to pretend when we first discovered we couldn't." My gaze held hers for a few moments. This was the first time I'd seen Chica speak so seriously, and it was a little strange that she wasn't her usual preppy self,

"I understand. And you have to realise how embarrassed it made me. I'd sing badly and dance around and say whatever was on my mind because I didn't think I'd be heard. I said some things I wish you didn't know. And I mean... I was really up in your business while fixing you all." I said 'you all' but I really just meant Freddy. My stomach tightened as I remembered pressing into him and sitting on his shoulders as I fixed his ears. And the fact that he was aware I was doing it.

"We never ever judged you for anything. Never would, never will. I promise. We didn't reveal that we knew the... sensitive things you said because we were trying to protect your feelings. And it would be super easy for us four to just pretend it never happened and that we didn't hear a thing. If that's what you want."

"I would like that, actually." I nodded as I took the second pizza slice that was held out to me.

"That's fine. And also, if you think about it, you did things that you think made you look silly and it never changed the way we see you or feel about you. You're our friend, bad dance moves or not." Okay why was this metal chicken about to make me cry? "Plus, some of us liked the show." She added, half under her breath.

"What? What does that mean?"

"Nothing!" She giggled.

"Who liked-"

"Isn't it time for you to go?"

"Shit!" I grabbed one last slice before running out of the room.

"Thank you for being our friend!" Chica added, just before I was out of earshot. I sent her back a wide smile before leaving.

My apartment seemed extra cold and empty when I arrived home. So many thoughts were going through my mind. I didn't even bother to get changed before I flopped into my bed and instantly fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

(A/N)

Hello guys! I'm pretty much over my illness now, so I'll be back to posting regularly! It's quite funny that, at first, I assumed I'd barely update, but now I'm writing a new chapter every day.

Also, I've got a few new followers and stuff lately, so I just wanted to remind you all that I have an Instagram and Ko-fi for you to check out if you'd like.

My Instagrm is Lnsanitycipher (yes, with an L) and I don't post much other than reels showing off cosplays but I do often use my story to give updates on both my books and stuff like that.

My Ko-fi is where you can leave a tip or commission some writing from me. Tips just show some extra appreciation and you're absolutely NOT obligated to give me anything! I do post quite often on there as I've found that I quite enjoy the blog-type posts you can make on there. At the moment, it's all access, but I'll probably start making some 'members only' posts soon if anyone is interested in that. The link can be found in my bio or on my Instagram.