"Morning everyone." The animatronics chorused back a greeting. "Why does it seem like you guys are teasing Freddy?"

"Because we are?" Roxanne replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "He was super excited to see you tonight." She elbowed him as she spoke, the grin never leaving her face.

"W-well they word it badly!" For some reason, the fact that an animatronic could stutter was amusing. "I was just looking forward to seeing if your mood had improved, and , well, we all consider you a friend and-" I held up my hand to silence him.

"You don't have to explain yourself to me. I get what you mean. Unfortunately, my mood is still kind of sour. But you didn't tell me to come back happy, you told me to come back in one piece. Et voila. One singular Olive." My dry tone elicited a high pitched giggle from Chica, and Monty snorted.

"You're like the world's worst cheese board."

"Hey, good one." I fist bumped the alligator before powering him off. When I reached Freddy, he tried to stop me to ask a question, but remembering the way he said my name that morning put me back in a tizz, and I turned his power off before he could finish whatever he was asking me.

The knowledge that it was pretty much a month since I'd started doing mechanic work was thrust upon me when I realised that another under 10's day had happened. A sigh on my lips, I grabbed a rag and slowly started wiping away the grime and cake frosting from each of the animatronics, letting the silence overwhelm me. By the time I'd gotten through most of the repairs, I was feeling antsy. Maybe music would have helped, but I was almost done, so no point in turning the speaker on now. I flicked my step ladder open and made my way up to Monty's face. One of his eyes was slightly wonky, giving him the impression of a lazy eye. As I fiddled around, trying to center it again, the small tool I was holding slipped out of my hand and rolled halfway across the room. I slowly got off of the step, walked over to the wall, and punched it hard.

"FUCK! Stupid! This is all stupid!" Okay, I know it was pretty dramatic, but it was the straw that broke the camel's back, and all the anger I had been storing up came flooding out. I turned towards the animatronics, too heated up to remember that they couldn't hear me. "Can you guys believe that this fucking monster had the audacity to plead not guilty? And then that stupid judge delayed the trial so that some evidence can be reviewed? There's plenty of fucking evidence!" If it wasn't for how painful my knuckle was already, I'd have punched the wall again. Instead, I gripped my hair and tugged at it. "I want to scream! This is so fucking- I just want it all to be over! I just want my little brother to finally rest peacefully! Is that too much to ask?" After a few moments of heavy breathing, I could redo my ponytail and get back to what I was doing, much calmer than before and feeling a little sheepish at my outburst. I did kind of need it though. Before I switched them all back on, I quickly checked my hand mirror, making sure that all traces of my earlier emotional state were gone. I plastered a smile on my face as they one by one turned on.

"Did everything go well?" Chica asked, almost tentatively.

"Uh, yeah? When have I ever done something wrong with your repairs?" I replied.

"What happened to your hand?" Roxanne asked, her voice oddly caring. When I looked down, my knuckle was red and slightly swollen.

"Oh. Nothing happened. I just, well, accidentally hurt it slightly."

"I didn't notice it before. And I spend a lot of time looking at you." Monty winked playfully, but he sounded concerned.

"I only just did it. But seriously, guys, it'll go down in a minute."

"Maybe Freddy should take you to a first aid booth." Chica suggested. I looked over to Freddy, who had been uncharacteristically quiet this whole time. His brows were furrowed. "And you seemed to have fun yesterday, so maybe you could cheer up again!"

"I'm perfectly cheery." I lied, my voice falling flat.

"Will you let me take you anyway?" Freddy spoke gently, holding his hand out to me. I looked at his glowing blue eyes, then looked down at the paw he'd extended to me.

Get back to me in one piece, Ollie.

"No. I'm good." My words were quick and a little jittery, as if I'd drank six cups of coffee. "I'm going to be in the cameras tonight so be nice to Alex. Okay, bye everyone!" Laughing nervously, I practically sprinted out of the room. As the door swung shut behind me, I could have sworn I heard Freddy's voice asking the others.

"Have I done something wrong?"

~

"Have I done something wrong?" My friends looked away from me, not having an answer.

"I wonder what happened to her... To her brother..." Chica sighed heavily, watching as Montry brushed his claws against the chip in the wall from Ollie's fist. We were silent for a while.

"I don't think you did anything wrong." Monty finally spoke up. "But whoever she keeps mentioning did. There's nothing we can do except continue to be her friend."

"A surprisingly good point." Roxy started to leave the room. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but Monty's right. Let's just be there for her." We all made a noise of agreement before leaving the repairs room. Something deep within me hurt more than I knew how to explain. I just wanted Ollie to talk to me, to let me try to help. But if she asked to be left alone, I would reluctantly give her space.

The next night, I waited impatiently for Ollie to arrive for her shift. As I shuffled from foot to foot, ignoring the smirks of my friends, Marcus walked in. He was another one of our mechanics and was the one who always played pranks on the other two mechanics.

"Where is Ollie?" I blurted out. He raised his eyebrows.

"So you have favourites, huh?" My eyes followed him as he took Ollie's stepladder and tucked it away on a high up shelf. "She's taking a personal day. Something about a trial for some jerk that ki- Eh, I don't know if she'd want me talking about it."

"We're just animatronics." Chica pointed out. "We won't tell anyone."

"Don't be so intrusive." Roxy huffed. "It's probably a sensitive subject."

"Wow, Rox. You must like her way more than we realised."

"Monty, I will literally maul you." She growled.

"Play nice, you guys." Marcus chuckled, quickly pressing the power off button on Roxy before she could do Monty any damage.

"Will she be back tomorrow?" I asked as he approached me.

"Nah. She booked tomorrow off too."

"But she'll be back after that?" He gave me a sly smile.

"Should be." I smiled in return, allowing him to shut me off. "What's his deal?" He turned to Monty and Chica.

"Oh, just ignore our lover-bear. Him and Ollie are best friends." Chica said pointedly, looking right at me. I bit back a reply.

"Lover-bear? I didn't even know you guys had friends or anything, and now you're implying-"

"You should already know that we have emotions, babe." Monty grinned a toothy grin.

"I know that you guys are weird." He sniffed, quickly powering the other two down. When Marcus' back was turned, I glared at Chica, who grinned cheekily. I had no idea why she was calling me such names. I'm not a lover-bear. Especially not for Ollie.

I think...

~

"I'm back!"

"Ollie!" A chorus of smiles greeted me as I swept back into the room.

"How are you doing?"

"Why did you leave us?"

"Yeah, we kinda like having you around, or something."

"I- We missed you."

"I missed you the most." Monty added.

"No, I did!" Chica frowned.

"I didn't." Roxy huffed, crossing her arms.

"What about you, Freddy? Aren't you going to humour me too?" I laughed.

"Of course I missed you a lot, superstar." He looked into my eyes, his voice sounding much more serious than the others.

"Oh, right-" I stuttered slightly. Why did such a simple phrase make my cheeks feel warm? "Well I missed you all too."

"You seem a lot happier today baby."

"Yep. Things went well yesterday. So let's get you guys fixed up!" I beamed. Once my speakers were cranked to a good volume and the animatronics were switched off, I started on my repairs. It was simple enough; the usual tightening of joints, replacing bolts, fixing Monty's damn feet. Whichever mechanic worked in the day would fix anything major before he left. When I checked the tablet, it let me know that Freddy's ear joint was in need of replacing. John had gotten in a new joint that would hopefully mean less ear tightening. Marcus had already told me that my step ladder was hidden, so I knew I had to scale Freddy again. I took a few steps backwards.

"Sorry, buddy. Just don't topple over." Before I could think about it too much, I ran forward and launched myself in the air, landing neatly around his abdomen. Making sure I kept a tight grip on the replacement, I clambered up him like a little squirrel. Once I was sitting comfortable on his shoulders, I got to work, humming along to the music. It was some explicit song about sex that my mother would definitely scold me for listening to, even as an adult. But my mum isn't here so... I leant forward slightly to get a better look at what I was doing, Freddy's nose pressing into my stomach.

"Why are your fans on again? I really need to get John to look at that. Also, I did a good job getting up here but how am I getting do-" As I leant back to throw the old parts in the spares box, I misjudged how far I could safely lean. My stomach dropped and I suddenly felt weightless. Instead of hitting the concrete floor, two large arms caught me, and when I opened my eyes, I was nose to nose with Freddy.

"That is indeed one way to get down." He asked in an amused tone as his ears twitched and he set me back on my feet. "Are you alright, superstar?" How did he do that?

"Y-you were off-" He froze for a moment, his expression going blank.

"Oh. Yes. I suppose I just wasn't off properly." I stared at him. I did the same thing I always did.

"We might as well come clean." Roxy sighed. My body tensed.

"Yeah, sorry Ollie. We don't power off." Chica frowned.

"What do you mean? Do the other mechanics know this? Why did you pretend?"

"They don't know." Monty admitted. "We have to pretend so that we can be fixed. Humans don't tend to like touching any electrics while they're on." I looked back towards Freddy in disbelief. He looked downwards awkwardly.

They were lying to me this whole time. I'd completely embarrassed myself in front of them all with my cheesy singing and dancing. They'd heard every word I'd spoken to supposed thin-air. They'd seen me crying and they'd seen my outburst.

I felt so... betrayed.

Shaking my head in disgust, I switched my speaker off and wiped the oil from my hands.

"We're finished here."

"Olive-" Freddy called after me, but I'd already walked away.

(A/N)

Not sure how I feel about this chapter but hey we have a little bit of tension and Ollie starts to uncover some of the secrets of the 'animatronics' 👀

By the way, I'm pretty unwell at the moment so I may not post tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be better by then!