Chapter 3

Once again, Mike was caught in a situation that he never thought he would ever, ever be in: his face pressed tightly against the endowment of a woman, let alone the endowment of a robotic humanoid bunny.

"…or is she a robotic human with bunny attributes," he wondered as he felt his air supply running thin.

"I just can't get over how lucky I am to hang out with such a cute night guard!" Spring-Bonnie gushed as she tightened her grip.

Mike tried his best to escape the grip of his captor, but the abnormal strength that the animatronic possessed made such a feat impossible. All he could do was accept his fate and wait until he finally lost the vital thing Spring-Bonnie affectionate gesture was robbing him of. Everything faded to black was until a bright light arrived to reveal the slightly stained white ceiling of his bed room.

Now firmly back in the land of the living, Mike instantly sat up and took a deep breath, pondering the dream he just had.

"I can't tell if that dream is a sign of attraction or a sign that I'm traumatized over the thought that I could have died that way on my second night on the job," Mike thought aloud. He then crossed his arms and thought of a third option that he found horrifying. "…Or if it's a sign of both…"

Mike shuddered over the possibility of the third option being true. He was already under the belief that he had a lot of issues and did not need a new one. Desperately trying to avoid riding that train of thought any further, the young man reached for his phone and, to his surprise, found that he had received a text message from an unknown number. His surprise would soon be turned into shock after reading the message, realizing that it was sent from Charlie.

"How does Charlie have my number? I never gave it to her…" he pondered aloud. "… Granted, I probably should have by now."

Mike wasted no time in getting dressed and leaving his house earlier than usual. Even thought it was late into the day, his job was still just as festive as it was when he first arrived. Before heading to his boss' office, he decided to make his way to the main dining area. It was a strange feeling watching Freddy, Bonnie and Chica sing to the customers. He has always been kept in the dark when it came to big secrets, so he couldn't help but feel weird over the fact that he was the only one in the room that knew the truth behind the "lifelike" attractions.

As he continued to watch the show, he noticed Bonnie quickly glance in his direction and wink before just as quickly turning her attention to the rest of the crowd.

"You're cheeks are red."

"Huh?" Mike immediately glanced to his right and was shocked to find Charlie standing right beside him. "How…?"

"I figured you would want to come in here after the fact, given the chance," Charlie casually answered. "Anyway, let's continue this in my office."

Mike nodded his head in agreement and followed Charlie to her office.

"So… why did you need me to come in early?" Mike asked. Charlie opened her mouth to answer before immediately getting cut off by another question, "Actually, how do you have my number in the first place? I never gave it to you."

"BB gave it to me," she answered in the most casual, matter-of-fact tone Mike has ever heard.

"How did she get my numb- Wait a minute…"

Mike immediately thought back to the events of the previous night. As he was tearfully eating the cake Chica had made for him, BB had suggested that everyone gather around for a picture. He didn't think much of the idea until he realized that BB planned on using his phone to take the picture.

"BB, when did you get my phone?" he exclaimed.

"I found it on the floor," BB answered.

"Why was it on the fl- Wait a minute…"

Mike immediately thought back to when he first arrived to his office. He remembered having his phone in hand as he was checking the cameras until Spring-Bonnie ambushed and tightly hugged him.

"Did you just flashback to you having a flashback?" Charlie asked, perplexed.

"That's not weird, is it? He questioned.

"Not really. But now I'm a little surprised you didn't go for a longer loop. Anyway, the reason I called you in early is because we need to do the official legal job hiring process that we didn't do on your first day."

"Why didn't we do that on the first day?"

Charlie blankly stared at Mike.

"Oh right… Night guards always leaving on Night 1…" he sheepishly mumbled. "But then why didn't we do this on yesterday?"

"Because you didn't meet everyone and you still seemed unsure about staying here," his boss answered. "For all I knew, Spring-Bonnie could have been the make-it or break-it decision."

"I was very close to a variation of 'break-it', but it wasn't much of a choice."

"Oi… Sorry, I would have warned you about that, but I was told not to give any warnings," Charlie explained before sliding a manila envelope across her desk to Mike. "So to make it up to you, I'm not going to ask you to complete those admittedly boring forms as soon as possible."

"Thanks…" Mike breathed a sigh of relief as he looked up at the clock. There was still a bit of time before he his job officially began. "Um…"

"Hey, since you have the time, why don't you visit Mangle? I'm sure she could use some company right now," Charlie suggested.

"Uh, sure."

The young manager smiled and tossed a set of keys towards his direction.

"What are these for?" he asked.

"The keys to every room in this place. You can use those to enter Mangle's Cove," Charlie answered. "…Unless you want to use the vents."

"No thank you," Mike answered as if by instinct. "I'll use the keys."

The, technically off-duty, night guard made his way to Mangle's Cove and sorted through the keys.

"Mangle's Cove. Mangle's Cove…" he mumbled as he continued his search.

"What are you doing, mister?"

"Huh?" following the voice, the, still technically off-duty, night guard looked and found himself in the presence of a curious little girl. "Oh, I'm just checking up on Mangle."

"Is she feeling better yet?" the girl asked.

"Hm? What do you mean?" Mike asked.

"She hasn't been seen in awhile. Everyone says she's sick."

"Oh. Well, I can assure you that she isn't sick."

The little girl's curious expression lit up with excitement.

"Does that mean that she'll be coming out today?" she asked.

"I… I can't answer that," Mike answered. "But I'll be sure to let her know you asked about her."

"Okay!" the girl beamed before running down the hall.

"Huh," Mike mumbled as he continued the search for the right key. His eyes were soon drawn to a key with the letters "MC" inscribed on it. "Here we go."

With the right key in hand, Mike unlocked the doors to Mangle's Cove and walked inside. He then locked the doors behind him and approached the stage.

"Mangle," he called.

The eponymous fox timidly peeked from behind the curtain.

"Night Guard? What are you doing here this early?" she asked.

"Charlie asked me to come here to get some documents for the job and asked me to come visit you while I wait for my shift," Mike answered.

"Oh… Well, you don't to wait in here if you don't want to. I'm sure you'll have more fun out there with the others."

"I'm not too sure about that. I've never really been the type of person who enjoys themselves in a crowd."

"Really? Why's that?"

"I don't know. I guess that's just the way I am. Probably the reason why I didn't have any friends as a kid."

"Oh��"

"Actually that's not true. There was this one kid that I was friends with. Think I had a lot of fun with them."

"What was their name?"

"Uhm… I… I can't really recall. It's been a long time after all."

"Oh… Sorry for bringing it up."

"It's no big deal. I already made peace with it. No point in crying over it now."

Silence spliced its way into their conversation until Mike suddenly stepped onto the stage.

"Hey, Mangle, could you come over here for a moment?" he requested.

"Eh? What for?" she asked.

"There's something I want to check," Mike answered.

Mangle silently nodded her head and timidly approached the night guard. She couldn't help but feel a little cautious as Mike glanced down at her chest. That caution quickly turned into fear as he silently raised his hands and watched in horror as they hovered over her breasts. Her face turned bright red and she shut her eyes tight; fearfully waiting for the inevitable result of this transaction.

"There," Mike said.

Mangle opened her eyes and, to her surprise, found Mike tightening her bow.

"Your bow was unfastened," he continued.

"Oh. Thank you, Night Guard," Mangle sighed in relief after expressing her gratitude.

"No problem."

"Mm. Do you… Do you want to sit down?"

"Uh, sure."

The two sat along the edge of the stage, their conversation once again taken over by silence.

"Hey, Mangle…" Mike suddenly said.

"Yes?" she answered.

"Will you be leaving your cove tonight?"

"Huh?" the female fox shot a perplexed look at Mike. "What do you mean?"

"It's just that it seems like you would have stayed here the entire night last night if BB didn't arrive," he explained.

"Well, that was what I was going to do… But I still don't get why you're asking?"

"I just don't want you to feel like you have to stay in here because of me. I know the history of night guards here hasn't been too good."

"Oh, um… I guess it would be strange to stay in here after leaving last night. Besides… It's not like I made that decision because of you specifically. I just didn't think you would return after the first night, is all."

"That makes sense. You weren't there when I told Charlie I would come back. By the way, I ran into a little girl while trying to get in her. She was asking about you."

"Really?"

"Asked if you were feeling well and wanted to know whether or not you would come out tonight."

"Ah…" a small smile appeared on the animatronic's face.

Meanwhile, in the Storage Closet, Spring-Bonnie yawned as she casually flipped through the pages of a magazine.

"Why are you reading that 1997 magazine again?" Fredbear asked. "Also, why did you bother to yawn?"

"Cause it's the latest one that I haven't read in a while, not that a 'while' is that long," the withered bunny answered. "And I yawned to show how bored I am right now."

"You could just sleep until the establishment is empty."

"Ugh… Sleeping all the time is just as boring."

"Boredom isn't a concern if you're not conscious."

"That's okay. I'm just killing time until I can finally spend some time with the new night guard."

"The results of yesterday haven't dashed your hopes?"

"Nope."

"Don't you ever think it's pointless to flirt with the night guards?"

"Why would I think that?"

"There are a couple of obstacles to be faced."

"Like what?"

"For one: he's human and you're a highly advanced robotic being under the guise of a lifelike animatronic. Secondly: you're a highly advanced robotic being with the appearance of an animal and humans interacting with animals in a certain way is quite the sensitive subject."

"Hey, other than my ears and nose, I'm pretty human... esque."

"Highly advanced robotic being."

"I'd doubt he'd care about that."

Fredbear blankly stared at her golden companion until as the sound of ringing bells circulated throughout the facility.

"The Night Guard is already here," she suddenly said.

"Huh?" Spring-Bonnie replied, surprised by Fredbear's sudden words.

"He arrived here earlier, presumably under Charlie's request. He's currently with Mangle in her cove."

"Really? Thanks, Sis!"

The gold rabbit eagerly jumped on her feet and rushed through the closet doors.

Not too far away, Mike led Mangle out of her cove, where Charlie was waiting for them.

"Hey, Mangle, another night out of the cove?" she approved.

"Mm-hmm," the fox animatronic nodded her head.

"Alright then," Charlie glanced at Mike. "Guess, I'll leave everything to yo-"

Before she could finish her sentence, Spring-Bonnie rushed past Charlie and tightly hugged Mike.

"Hey, Night Guard," she said with her usual predatory eyes.

"E-Evening, Spring-Bonnie," Mike awkwardly greeted.

"Seriously, sorry for no beforehand warnings," Charlie apologized. "Anyway, see you guys tomorrow."

Mangle watched Charlie disappear into the distance before turning her gaze back to Mike and Spring-Bonnie.

"You miss me?" Spring-Bonnie asked.

"Well…" Mike thought about his earlier dream and the question he presented towards it. Such thoughts made it more awkward to answer such a question than it should have been. "I don't think I've been gone that long for those kinds of feelings to pop up."

"Oh…" the gold rabbit looked away, her excited disposition replaced with one of disappointment.

"Ah… That said… I was looking forward to coming back and seeing everyone," Mike added.

"I'll take it!" she beamed, squeezing Mike even tighter than she already had.

Several grunts of pain shot through his lips as he felt her metallic grip break through his tolerable limit. Mangle could only watch in horror until she finally forced herself to cry out, "Spring-Bonnie, you're hurting him!"

Finally noticing Mike's pained expression, Spring-Bonnie immediately dropped the night guard and backed away from him.

"Sorry," she sheepishly giggled.

As Mike tried to catch his breath, Mangle raised her hands before quickly returning them to her side.

"Are you okay, Night Guard?" Mangle asked.

"Yeah… No broken bones or anything," Mike answered, sighing in relief. As he tried to get his bearings, he thought, "That said, now I'm certain that dream was a sign of trauma. Even so… At least a death from affection would be better than the last possible death… Wait…"

His thoughts were brought to an abrupt end by the sudden appearance of a bright yellow hand. He looked up and was met with a small smile from Chica. Accepting her hand, Mike was effortlessly pulled up onto his feet.

"Hey, Night Guard," Chica greeted.

"Evening, Chica," Mike replied.

"Do you think I could borrow you for a moment?"

"Hm?"

Chica led the three to the main stage area, where they found Freddy and Bonnie conversing.

"So we can't play Goofy Goober Rock?" Bonnie asked.

"Nope," Freddy shook her head.

"Not even an anime girl cover version of it?"

"That sounds so tempting… But we can't. It's not on the list of songs we can cover. Not to mention, I think that one may be even more difficult sense it's a variation of another song. Don't quote me on that though."

"Aww… A lot of my top favorites are being blacklisted."

"You're not the only one who feels that way," Mike interjected.

Bonnie immediately turned around and excitedly waved at the night guard.

"Hey, Night Guard!" Bonnie smiled. "Did you catch my earlier hello?"

"Y-Yeah," Mike sheepishly replied. "You all gave a very nice performance."

"Thank you," Freddy, Bonnie and Chica beamed.

"So, what's this about top favorites being blacklisted?" he asked.

"Oh. Well, basically the songs we're allowed to sing have to be legally approved," Freddy explained.

"Really? I thought you'd be able to cover whatever you want?" Mike replied, confused. "You do give live performances after all."

"That's true, but… To the world, we're being programmed with songs and the company makes some of their money off of our songs. To make a long story short, it's like ripping off songs and reselling them."

"And music companies would definitely not allow something like that."

"Mm-hmm. So instead, we're only allowed to play songs that we gained the rights to play.

"And the people at Nick are stingy with the SpongeBob songs…" Bonnie lamented. "And I practiced a lot of them too."

"And if you think they have it bad, then you should've seen how me and Fredbear fared," Spring-Bonnie interjected. "We had even less options than them."

"Fredbear?" Mike inquired.

"Oh, that's right, you haven't met Fredbear yet," Bonnie realized.

"To answer your curiosity, Fredbear is to Freddy in the same way Spring-Bonnie is to Bonnie," Chica answered.

Mike glanced at the two Bonnies and compared the current state of them.

"Predecessors?" he concluded.

"Yep," Spring-Bonnie stepped towards Bonnie. "It's actually pretty easy to tell that about us if you think about. After all, Bonnie is more of a Bonnie between the two of us."

"I don't think I quite understand," Mike said, perplexed.

"It's simple," Spring-Bonnie turned Bonnie around and did the same herself, exposing their backs. "I never had a tail, while Bonnie has a bright, white fluffy one."

She then turned Bonnie back around and drew attention to the blue bunny's ears.

"Even her bunny ears are more bunny than mine," Spring-Bonnie added. "Sometimes it makes me wonder if the 'Spring' part of the name is just a nice way of saying old. Otherwise, they would have named me Gold-Bonnie."

"You're gold?" Mike questioned, perplexed.

"Huh? Of course, I'm gold. What color did you think I was?"

"I thought you were a shade of green."

"Ah, I get it… That's because I was a dark shade of gold before withering. Even though I look kinda green, I'm still technically a shade of gold."

"Oh… Sorry."

"Heh, No problem. Though if you really want to make it up to me," Spring-Bonnie stretched her arms out.

"Uhm…" Mike nervously looked away.

"Ah… Too soon, huh?"

"So… Are there any noticeable differences between Freddy and Fredbear?"

"Not really. Other than the eyes and the fact that's she's golden, they're pretty much twins," Chica answered. "It actually got to the point where Fredbear was once referred to as 'Golden Freddy.' Funny, huh?"

"Ironic," Mike replied.

"Um…" Bonnie glanced at Freddy and asked, "What about Two Worlds, One Family?"

"Disney," Freddy answered.

"Ugh…" Bonnie moaned. "Copyright rules can be so annoying sometimes."

"Speaking of rules…" Mike aimed his gaze at Freddy. "I've been looking over the rules posted in my office and throughout the building."

"Yeah?" Freddy replied.

"One of them mentions you."

"Yeah…"

"It specifically says not to… Um, well, not to touch your chest…"

"That's right…"

"Why is that?"

"Um… I'm not sure I have it in me to tell you…"

"I can tell you," Spring-Bonnie interjected.

"Spring Bon-Bon?!" Freddy exclaimed.

"Shouldn't the night guard know the meaning behind each of the rules? We wouldn't want a repeat after all," the withered animatronic pointed out.

Freddy nervously diverted her gaze as Spring-Bonnie excitedly turned back to Mike, "Fredbear told me everything. You see what happened was…"

"WAIT!" Out of nowhere, BB's sudden and dramatic appearance was enough of a shock to throw Mike into Spring-Bonnie's arms.

"BB?!" Mike exclaimed.

"Huh," Spring-Bonnie glanced at Mike and giggled. "This is a new one."

"If this story is going to be told, than it should be told right," BB continued with a big, excited grin.

Mike shot the human-like animatronic a confused look until a plush doll of Freddy was dangled in front of his face. Soon a male action figure rose into his cone of vision and approached the Freddy plush as it sung and dance. Once close enough, the male action figure reached up and squeezed the plush doll's breasts. An entire minute of silence passed by until Plush Freddy punched the action figure away.

"And that's why there is now a rule regarding never touching Freddy's chest," Marionette explained.

"Ouch," Mike winced.

"That's not an exaggeration either," Chica added. "Freddy really did sock that guy across the room."

"I thought we would have been scrapped right then and there…" Bonnie shuddered with an awkward chuckle.

"Charlie had to release a public statement that along with being 'life-like', we also had real-life reactions to perversion," Chica giggled. "I really like it when she tells the truth when she doesn't tell the truth."

"She does seem to have a specialty with what to say, what not to say and how to say it…" Mike acknowledged. "By the way, where does Fredbear reside?"

"Oh… She stays in the closet 24/7," Spring-Bonnie answered. "Why?"

Moments later, Mike opened the closet door and found Fredbear sitting inside.

"Fredbear?" he called.

Without even looking up, the gold animatronic replied with a monotone, "Yes."

"Uh…" the new night guard nervously walked into the closet and sat in front of Fredbear. The atmosphere was intimidating to say the least, but even if his instincts told him to leave as soon as he had the chance, he wanted to stay and learn a little about this mysterious animatronic. "I just wanted to know if you were going to come out of the clo- I wanted to know if you intended on having a change of scenery."

"No," Fredbear answered.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Your reasoning wouldn't happen to be related to me, would it?"

There was nothing but silence in that room for five minutes.

"Okay. I'll just go now," Mike stood up and silently left the room.

The moment he closed the door, he was immediately approached by the other resident of the clost.

"She's not really one for extended conversation," Spring-Bonnie said.

"How come?" Mike asked.

"'How come?' Um…" the gold bunny crossed her arms as she pondered that question. "It'd… probably best if you let Fredbear tell you, if she ever does."

"…Okay."

"Ah… But don't let that get you down. She wouldn't want that so…"

Mike glanced at the closet door.

"You're in there all day, right?" he asked.

"Yep," Spring-Bonnie's expression changed once more into her usual predatory face. "It's part of the reason that gets me so excited to spend my free time with the cute night guard."

She raised her hands towards the nervous Mike before immediately stopping herself.

"Oh right…" she sighed.

Relief was all Mike felt until he caught a glimpse of Spring-Bonnie's disappointed face.

"Ah…" he nervisouly gulped and wrapped his arms around the gold animatronic's body.

"Wha…?" her purple eyes darted across the room and her cheeks grew bright red. "Night Guard?"

"I'm fine. Just promise not to try and break my bones."

"Ah…" a smile stretched across her Spring-Bonnie's face as she hugged Mike back. "Deal."

There was nothing but silence for a full minute until the gold bunny asked, "You want to try and escape, don't you?"

"Kinda," Mike admitted.

"Mmm… Not yet," Spring-Bonnie happily denied, squeezing him a little tighter.

"What have I done…?" Mike silently lamented.