"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?" Olive? I rushed to my door, throwing it open to see Olive frozen in fear, her eyes fixed on Moondrop, who was slowly advancing. Without thinking, I picked her up and got to my charging station in record time, hoping we'd both fit. Once the door was closed, I realised that I had basically trapped her in here with me. At a very close proximity. I wanted to say something, but the way she leant into my touch and the way my large arms swamped her kept me from breaking the silence. My motors picked up speed, a slightly painful reminder of the difference between us. When the pesky assistant left the room, Olive seemed to have gained the courage to speak.

"Who was that?"

"That is the daycare assistant. Well, one of them."

"I thought that Sundrop was the only one." I explained the situation with the daycare assistants as best I could. She seemed to accept my brief overview, nodding slightly as the lights came back to life.

"It is safe to leave now." I stayed still. So did Olive. Was she as comfortable as I was?

"Thanks for helping me." She finally said in a low voice.

"Any time, superstar. Are you alright?" I added when I realised that she had tensed under my touch.

"Yes. I'm just not used to being called a nickname like that." How sad. She is a superstar! She took to the task of being our mechanic so quickly and easily. She even talks to us and treats us well. And she gives me a fuzzy feeling in my stomach area so she must be great.

"Then I shall call you it all of the time! You deserve it, superstar." After reluctantly agreeing, she left the charging station and took the hat that I held out to her. She was still trembling a lot. As I watched, I noticed how small and dainty her hands were. The other mechanics were both males, big and brutish. Their hands were big and rough and calloused. But hers were little, and her nails were painted with chipped black varnish. Were they soft? What would it be like to hold them? She glanced up at me and realised I was staring.

"Am I being off putting?"

"Slightly. But it's okay. I'm just antsy from that power cut."

"I'm afraid that happens from time to time. The power generators need to reboot occasionally."

"Well, it is a super big place. I guess it uses a lot of electricity. All done."

"Thank you, superstar." I bowed down, letting her replace my hat. Her fingers brushed against my ears, making them wiggle slightly. "Will you be going back to your office or would you like to g-"

"Olive! Oh my fucking God, Olive! You weren't answering me on the walkie-talkies and I thought that Moon thing had gotten to you and- I think I'm going to cry!" A skinny young man with ginger hair and freckles burst in, sweeping Olive up into a big hug. For some reason, the action took me by surprise. I knew that her and Alex were friends, of course. But I didn't realise they were so... close. I took a slight step back to not impose. She hugged him back and I frowned. When Alex pulled back slightly, I attempted to get their attention. I was in the middle of asking Olive if she wanted to do something with me tonight, after all.

"Oh, sorry Freddy! We'll leave you in peace now." Olive looked startled, as if she realised she was overstaying her welcome. Which wasn't true. I started to protest.

"That's not-"

"Come on, Alex."

"What? I wanna stay! I've never seen the green rooms before!"

"The bear wants some privacy." No, don't leave before I get to ask you!

"You don't- See you tomorrow, superstar."

"Yep."

When the pair had gone, I sat down on my sofa heavily. It's fine. I didn't even feel like going to the arcades tonight anyway. I glumly fiddled with a plushie that was resting beside me, running my fingers up and down it's long floppy ears. My hands were so large. I could easily break almost everything I touched with these cold metal digits. Olive's hand wouldn't lace through mine like they did with the sets of parents I saw each and every day.

I put the doll back in place, shaking my head. Why did I even want to hold her hand? Where were such silly thoughts coming from?

I'm an animatronic. I've been built out of metal and wires. I've been programmed to entertain children.

Even as a human, I'm not alive. Not anymore.

Nothing I did in my past life changes that.

~

Another day in the office! I had been feeling happier and happier to go into work each day since becoming the night mechanic. I sauntered into the room, instantly turning on some music and greeting everyone. Four chirpy responses came back to me. I switched them all off and started on repairs, singing along to the song playing from the speaker behind me, using my office chair to push myself around the room quickly. I needed to paint over a piece of chipped paint on Freddy's chest. Just as I was finishing up, I shuddered, getting the feeling of being watched yet again. I looked around. All of the animatronics were off. Me and Alex were the only two people here.

"Guess I'm imagining it. But I'm not imagining the rage at having to constantly tighten these fucking ears. Seriously, I mean, how do they come loose so often? Now, where the hell is my stepladder?" After searching for a while, I grabbed the new screw and a screwdriver with a sigh.

"Well, either John put it away somewhere, or Marcus hid it to be funny. Just because I'm the only one who can't reach your faces. I can't help being the smallest mechanic here..." I grumbled, putting an experimental foot on Freddy's slightly protruding knee cap. It could take my weight. Probably. As long as I was quick. I jumped up, using the makeshift foothold to propel myself upwards, the screwdriver and screw resting between my lips as I quickly wrapped my legs around his waist, trying my best to hoist myself high enough that I could comfortably reach his ears. "Please don't topple over." I begged as I finally got into a good position. Keeping my legs tight around Freddy's abdomen, I pressed my upper half against him for extra balance. As soon as I pulled his ear to the side, there was a noise. I paused, listening for a moment before leaning down awkwardly and putting my head to his shoulder.

"Are those your fans? Weird, you should have no power. I must have knocked a wire or something. Why are they so aggressive?" Finishing up on his ear repair without falling or slipping at all, I clumsily slid down to ground level and checked the tablet. "Huh. It doesn't say anything about loose wires on here. I'll go back to Monty then take a look." I usually flicked in between different jobs on all of the animatronics as I went to keep things interesting. By the time I had replaced the lens in Monty's sunglasses and sorted out a wobbly tooth, the fans had stopped. I guessed it was just a weird thing they did sometimes, and my extra body heat had made the system think he was overheating. By the time I was finished up and had switched everyone back on, I had practically forgotten all about it.

~

Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no-

"Are those your fans? Weird, you should have no power. I must have knocked a wire or something. Why are they so aggressive?" If I were able to, I think I'd be sweating right now. She finished tightening the joint of my ear, humming along to the song that was playing.

I tried to focus on the music, I tried to focus on the slightly flickering light in the open door of her office, I tried to focus on how today's performance went. Anything but the feeling of Olive pressed against me. Not the way her sculpted calves clung to me, not the way she moved slightly with each breath, not the way her heartbeat sounded, not the sweet scent of her vanilla and cotton candy perfume, not the slight coffee smell lingering on her lips, and most definitely not the rather large... bosom gently pressed against my face.

Great. Now I was thinking about it again.

What was I supposed to do in this situation? I'd start short circuiting soon! After what felt like an eternity, she uncurled herself and dropped to the ground. As much as I'd wanted her to get off, I almost wished her warmth would remain a little longer. But that wouldn't be possible with my fans on at such a high speed.

"Ah, fuck." She swore quite a lot. "You guys stay here. I need to run to the back room to get Monty's new foot. Because he keeps breaking them." She announced sassily, even though we were supposed to be powered off. As soon as she left the room, Monty started laughing.

"Oh my God! I thought I was going to break, I really did!"

"You're so obvious, Freddy. You couldn't control your fans for two minutes?" Roxanne scoffed.

"It's a good thing she brushed it off so easily. It would have been embarrassing if she found out we don't actually power off just because you got turned on."

"I-I did no such thing! I was simply flustered by suddenly having... a female chest in my face."

"Just say boobs, man." Roxy raised an eyebrow. "And there's nothing wrong with liking them."

"I didn't say there was! My issue was not liking it, it was being... surprised?"

"Your fans are on again, babe!" Monty cackled. "So obvious! You're totally into her!"

"She is our coworker!" I insisted, but they all just laughed again.

"She also has big boobies. That were in your face. That caused your fans to kick in at high speed." Chica smiled.

"Yeah. Super noisy, too. She looked so surprised when they came on. You should have seen her face!"

"I did see her face. I'm not a- a horndog like you are, Monty!" They went silent for a moment before bursting into even louder laughter. It was because I said 'horndog' wasn't it?

"From where I was standing, it looked like you had your eyes fixed elsewhere." Roxy added smugly.

"Hey, guys!" Monty's eyes glinted mischievously. "Do you reckon the vibrations from the fans-"

"Enough!" I bellowed, finally running to the end of my patience. "You are all being incredibly inappropriate towards our coworker and your teasing is not as friendly as you'd like to think. My feelings for Olive are completely professional and I'll hear no more about it. She'll be back in a moment so get back to where you were." They glanced at each other nervously. It wasn't often that I lost my temper, but they really were getting out of hand.

And the more they spoke about it, the more I couldn't forget what had happened.

When Olive reentered the repair room, she stopped short then chuckled.

"Why does it feel really tense in here? I thought I told you all to behave."

(A/N)

Happy New Year everyone!

Freddy starts to get feelings from now on! This will be a slowburn but I'm already getting excited for their romance lol.

Next chapter is more Freddy-based. He has most of the chapter in his POV because I quite like writing for him, but after that I'll try to make it a bit more balanced!