"Mx. (y/n)!"
Your head snapped up, seeing a familiar face. It was the paper crane girl, who you learned was named Sophia a few days ago. She would regularly show up at the daycare, hanging around you whenever she could and folding cranes with you. Ever since you had gone back to working on the main daycare floor, she had been by your side with Oliver. She'd hang out with you, tell you about what was going on in her life, updating you on the number of cranes she had, all that stuff. She'd even do the classic child action of telling you stuff about her family you probably weren't supposed to know.
"Hey! What's up?" you said, putting on a smile and walking out from behind the desk, Sophia running up to you and hugging your legs.
"Can we please make more paper cranes? I'm almost at one-thousand!" she exclaimed.
"Yeah, we can make cranes," you said.
Sophia cheered, grabbing your hand and dragging you over to the arts and crafts table. She began talking about all the new paper she had gotten from her mom, how she had been using it for all her newer cranes and showing you some of the scraps she brought. She had even started trying to make different animals, showing you origami foxes, pianos, and butterflies she had made.
"Is Mr. Sun okay? He looks really nervous?" Sophia asked, pointing to where Sun was playing with some kids.
You glanced over, seeing the nervous look she was talking about. It has been a common site for the past few days. Sun's behavior was getting more and more erratic. His cheerfulness seemed to be exaggerated to hell and back and any time you had to turn off the lights for nap time he'd start acting up, usually just asking for "just one more minute" but sometimes having what you could only assume was a full blown panic attack. It never helped that many of the kids would side with him about not wanting the lights to go off. It had gotten to the point where you and Peter kept radios on you at all times, radioing in whenever Sun or Moon were acting up and always letting the other know when nap time was about to start. Sophia was almost never around for nap times anymore, so she never saw these incidents.
"He's gonna be okay. He's just worried about all of you, that's all," you said, not telling her the full truth but making sure you weren't lying either.
Sophia stared at Sun for a few more seconds before getting up and running over to him. You watched her say something to him before handing him one of the origami butterflies she had made. You watched as Sun's worried expression changed into one of pure happiness, bending down and hugging the brunette girl. Once he let go, Sophia smiled and skipped back over, waving at him the whole time.
"Now Mr. Sun has a butterfly just like yours," she said, her grin widening.
"That's very sweet of you. I'm sure that's going to make him feel a lot better," you said.
A few more hours went by. Lunch time came and passed and before you knew it, it was time to get the kids ready for nap time. All of the kids were running around the daycare, all hyped up from whatever sugar they got at lunch. You walked over to Sun, gently placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Alright, Sunny, I'm gonna need you to try and get the kids into a game of tag or something. I'm gonna start setting up the blankets," you said.
"Can we please maybe not do nap time, Sunshine? Moon is acting very, very strange and I don't think he should be around the kids," he said.
"You know we need to do nap time. Most of these kids are still young enough to where they need them," you said.
"I know but we have to keep the lights on. I can't let Moon be near them."
"Sun, please. Just lead a game of tag."
Before he could respond, you walked back over to the closet with the blankets, pulling out your radio and holding down the button.
"Sun's acting up again. He seemed really insistent this time, said Moon was acting strange," you said into the device.
"Great... if he's right, we're probably gonna get hell from the parents later. Just keep an eye on the attendant and if anything happens, radio immediately," Peter said, his voice slightly static-y through the radio.
"Will do. Lights are gonna go off in about thirty minutes."
"Got it. Good luck."
You pulled out the blankets, beginning to lay them out around the floor. You could see many of the kids staring at you, some of them looking scared. You did your best to give them a reassuring smile despite knowing just how little something like that would work.
As soon as you finished setting up all of the blankets, you headed into the center of the daycare.
"Alright, everyone! You guys know what time it is!" you called.
Some of the kids who were new to the daycare cheered, while the rest whined. Almost everyone knew what you meant and you could tell none of them were happy.
"I know, I know, but all of you need your rest. Getting lots of rest will help you grow big and strong," you said.
You watched as all of the kids began slowly descending the jungle gym equipment and forming a semi-circle around you. After working here for over half a year now, and just having experience from babysitting Oliver 24/7, you could tell most of these kids were ready to start throwing a temper tantrum.
"I know all of you are scared and upset, but it's going to be okay. Mr. Sun and I are going to be right here, making sure none of you get hurt," you said.
It was quiet for a moment before Sophia and Oliver both ran up to you giving you a hug.
"We trust you," Oliver said.
Another boy did the same thing, running up, hugging you, and whispering "I trust you" as well. More kids began running over and hugging either you or Sun until all of them were practically piled on top of the two of you.
You smiled, doing your best to hug all of them back. They trusted you, and now you couldn't break that trust.