The lights switched on, illuminating the entire daycare. I squinted my eyes to let them adjust to the brightness. I turned around to see Moon now bent over standing right next to me.
"Fucking christ dude, don't do that. You scared the shit out of me."
He didn't say anything, he examined every part of my body closely. Moon being so close felt very...odd.
"Let me guess, you're wondering why I'm half human and half animatronic?"
"Yeah...why are you like this?...uh..whatever your name is."
"My name is Y/n, and I had an...accident...that's all."
He looked back up and stared directly into my eyes. We held eye contact for a few seconds before I heard another robotic voice yell from far.
"Moon! Why are the lights on?"
He turned his head to the little balcony on the other end of the daycare. A yellow animatronic that looked almost identical to Moon poked his body out behind the curtain. He saw us and fully came out of the curtain. Obviously, that must be Sun.
"Who is that? Why are they here so late? Is there something wrong?" Sun jumped down from the balcony into the ball pit and scrambled out. He hurried over towards us. He seems very...frantic.
Moon, who now looks very bothered, sighed.
"Relax, Sun, they're just a friend of Davie. Nothing is wrong."
"Oh okay," Sun shifted his gaze to me, "Oh...Oh dear what happened-"
I didn't really want to get on the topic of my appearance, so I just cut him off with another question, "Uh, so, I know you two are both the daycare attendants but, why do you two look almost identical?"
Moon stood up straight, which proved I was right that he was super tall, he had to be at least 8 feet. "Because we used to be the same animatronic. Sun would be present when the lights were on. Then when the lights went off I'd take over. The humans here thought that I was an "issue," so they made us into separate animatronics to have sun "babysit" me."
He looked annoyed.
"So...you two don't like being separate?" I asked.
Sun waved his hands, "No no! We like being separate. It's more convenient, but, Moon doesn't like the reason why we were separated."
"Oh, I see. But why would he be-"
"I accidentally killed a kid," Moon said bluntly, avoiding my eye contact.
I looked over at Sun, who had a solemn expression on his face, "It's...It's not like he meant to...I knew he didn't do it on purpose and tried to convince them that it was an accident. But they thought Moon was somehow forcing me to cover for him...It really was unfair. B-But, let's get off this topic! How do you like the Pizza Plex so far?"
I felt a bit bad for calling Moon a jackass earlier. It seems he has a bit of a bad reputation around here.
"Oh well," I walked over to the desk and sat down on it. "I like it, I haven't seen all of it yet but, I think it's really neat. I used to absolutely love robotics and all that, so seeing how advanced you two are is really cool to me."
"Yeah, so advanced that I could eat you if I wanted to." Moon perked up and grinned.
"...What..."
Sun took a step towards Moon, "Don't scare them like that!"
Moon snickered, "Too late for that, I already scared them shitless earlier. Your face was priceless Y/n."
"I told you, I wasn't scared. It was just unexpected. You're the most non-scary thing I've ever seen."
"Uh-huh~"
"Shut up you're literally just a pile of steel and wires, plus...your neck looks like a fucking bendy straw."
He walked back over to me and got real close, his face only inches away from mine, "Yeah? And you remind me of half-and-half coffee creamer, you look as if the words "half-assed" were a person. You gonna keep talking?"
I take it back, I don't feel bad for this guy, he's a jackass.
"Sure half-assed maybe, but at least I at least have some "half-assed" hair. Without that hat you're completely bald, you a whole ass circle. I could use pi on your fucking face dude, 3.14 looking motherfucker."
"Hah-" Sun quickly covered his mouth and looked at the very irritated Moon.
I swear Moon's eyes were staring right into my fucking soul. He had this big smile on his face that made me so uneasy. Maybe insulting an 8 foot tall, probably pretty strong animatronic with sharp teeth and claws wasn't the best idea. But I wasn't going to let him see that I was kind of regretting it. I stood tall and didn't change my expression. He slowly stood up and looked down at me, I had to look up to still look him in the eyes.
He placed a hand on my head and smiled, "I'll punish you for that later."
What the hell does that mean?!
"Ahem," Sun butted in, "Now now, Let's stop bickering, but I'm glad you two get along well."
I turned to look at Sun in utter confusion, "Get along? I wouldn't call this getting along-"
I was cut off by the sound of the metal door opening. Moon put his finger up to my lips, motioning me to be quiet. A few seconds later, we hear a female voice call out.
"Sun? Why are the daycare lights on? Is someone else here?"
"Shit. It's that fucking night guard." Moon whispered. He looked at Sun and then grabbed me by the waist and picked me up. It caught me off guard but it seemed like this "nightguard" was bad news, so I didn't make any noise. He rushed to the other side of the daycare, jumped onto the play structure, and got up to the tiny balcony. We went through the curtain into a messy, run-down room with a bunch of junk scattered everywhere. He put me down on a pile of pillows, sat down in front of me, and sighed in relief.
"Who is that? Why did you have to hide me?" I whispered to him.
"That's the new night guard. She's a stuck-up bitch, if she saw you were here she would take you to her office and probably kick you out. Even if you explained that you were here with Davie she would still probably get mad at both you and us. We can't do anything to her either, our programing won't let us harm employees or customers. None of us trust her, there is something extremely off about her, but I don't know what."
"That much of a shit show, huh?"
"Yeah, but don't worry you're safe up here. She shouldn't suspect a thing."
"Aww, you're protecting me."
He flinched hearing my teasing, "For my own sake...I don't feel like dealing with her. I could care less about what happens to you."
"Riiight," I mocked as he glared at me, "But, uh, I know this might sound weird but...would it be okay if I got a closer look at your design? I think it's pretty cool and unique. I used to salvage and repair robots. Even made a few little ones myself in my free time. Would it be okay?"
His eyes widened a little, kind of like he didn't really know how to respond to my question. For a second, I swore I saw him blush a bit, which I didn't think was possible for a robot.
"Uh...yeah...I guess that's fine."
I got up and kneeled next to him. I put my hands on his face and tilted it to see how it was attached. I examined his eyes, which were...very expressive, exactly like human eyes. I asked him to open his mouth just so I could see, who knew robots could be designed with long tongues. I looked at his chest plate, shoulders, and arms. When I got to his hands, they were fascinating. Built almost identical to human hands, only his fingers were longer and he had claws attached. I flipped his hand over, had him extend his fingers, and close them. The range of motion and the fluidity of his motion were impeccable. He doesn't even make that much noise, if any it's just very soft clicks or whirs. It truly is unreal how perfectly made he is.
I looked back up at him who was contently watching me, he had a soft expression that I hadn't seen before. But oddly enough, I can feel emotion from him, I could tell something was bothering him.
"What's wrong?" I asked him quietly.
He snapped out of his gaze, "Oh, Nothing, I just...don't know how to deal with someone wanting to look at me. Usually, people come to look and interact with Sun, not me."
I put his hand down and tilted my head a bit, "...you're not really used to getting attention or affection...are you?"
"Not really, the kids love Sun, make him drawings, ask for him all the time...It's a rare occurrence for me if that ever happens. Most of the kids are scared of me anyways, so not like I'm not used to it. Being a freak is kinda just my thing."
I knew how he felt, all too well.
I leaned over and put a hand on the side of his face, "I get it...I know how that feels, trust me. I know firsthand how it feels to be in someone else's shadow. It sucks because you can't blame them, they're great and you like them but you can't help but feel so inferior to them...I was like that with my brother. My mother loved him and praised him more than she ever loved me. She kinda just forgot I existed when he came around."
He just stared at me, maybe I said too much. I did just meet him and I'm over here spilling out my issues. But I just wanted to try to comfort him since I knew how he felt.
He looked down and smiled a bit, "Yeah, thanks, It's nice to know I'm not the only one"
I couldn't help but smile back, Is it weird to feel a connection with a robot?
"But you know," he continued, "We may have just had a nice moment, but I'm still not forgiving you for earlier."
I rolled my eyes, "Fine whatever, you can be butthurt about it all you want. I'm not taking it back."
"Bitch."
"Asshole."
We both laughed, a few moments later Sun flew open the curtain, "Phew! All clear. I didn't think she'd ever leave. So many questions..."
A burnt-out Sun dragged his feet into the room and plopped himself down on another pile of pillows. He turned around on his back to face the ceiling, "I reallllly don't like her, It's hard for me to dislike people. But her, I dislike a LOT."
He tilted up his head to look at me, "Heya Y/n? Are you gonna be staying around for a while? I'd love you to stay. You seem to know how to naturally tame Moon. If you stayed it would take so much work off my hands! Moon is a handful y'know! Plus you seem to have a wonderful spirit, I like it. Also good jokes about Moon, they were funny~"
"You talk so much...Can you shut up?" Moon hissed.
"No. <3," Sun said with a big smile as he popped open a can of..."Fizzy-Faz?"
"Wait, you're gonna drink that? I thought robots couldn't...y'know...eat or drink anything." I questioned the can of soda Sun held in his hand.
"Oh! We're really not supposed to, but we have this compartment in our bodies that are connected to our "throat thingies" if that's what you wanna call it. The inside of that compartment is really hot, so water or soda will just kinda evaporate over time. We can't drink anything combustible though, or we'd...kinda explode."
"That sounds highly unnecessary," I said while looking at the clock on the wall, "Oh shit. It's pretty late. I should go find Davie."
"Aww, you're leaving Y/n? You could stay with us! We don't mind." Sun whined.
"Maybe another time, especially because that night guard can't know I'm here. It's better to play it safe. But...I have no idea where he said he would be. Do you guys know where the repair room in the "Starcade" is?"
"Oh, yeah, I can take you if you want," Moon said, getting off the floor and stretching.
I nodded, "Yeah that would be great, thanks, Moon."
He walked me through the hallway connecting the room to a hidden door in one of the main halls. We talked the entire way there, I really enjoy his and Sun's company. They make me feel comfortable, they make me forget about all my issues. They don't treat me weirdly because of my appearance either. I hope I can visit them more often.
Moon opened the door to the repair room, to reveal Davie still tampering with a bot.
"Ahem."
Davie whipped around in his chair, "Oh! Oh shit, It's that late already huh? My bad, I lost track of time. But I see you found who you were looking for, Y/n."
Moon looked down at me, "Oh? What's that supposed to mean?"
"N-nothing, he's just messing with me," I glared at Davie.
Moon smiled, "Alright whatever you say half n' half, I'm gonna head back to the daycare. You better come back to see us or I'll come to find you myself, got it?"
"Yessir-...wait hey, don't you start calling me half and half you asshole," I snapped.
He smirked as he went to go leave, he hesitated before closing the door, "Hey...Y/n? Just to clarify, we're friends now...right?"
Aww, would you look at that, he wants to be friends, how cute.
"Yeah of course."
"Good."
He closed the door and left me and Davie to ourselves. I couldn't help but keep on smiling.