The Fall of the Aftons

070: William Afton

William chuckled as he watched Michael scramble to his feet and rush out of his room. It was so sweet to see how much he cared for his friends. Though it was more of a bittersweet feeling than anything. It hurt. After having lost one of his closest friends in an impossible decision, the idea of having friends as close as that hurt. William never wanted to experience that deep feeling of guilt and depression ever again.

With a heavy sigh, he stood up from the floor and went over to the dresser. He opened the top drawer where Michael kept his shirts, then started to put away the clean laundry again.

When he was almost at the end of the pile of clothes, Henry came into the room with a hamper full of more clean laundry. Henry set the hamper next to Michael's dresser, then looked up and smiled. "I've got some more clothes for you to fold and put away," he said cheerfully. "Some of them are Michael's and some of them are Evan's." He gave William a small kiss on the cheek before he started to leave, but he paused when both he and William realized something.

He just gave William... a small kiss on the cheek.

A small kiss on the cheek.

A small kiss on the cheek!

William could feel his entire face flame as both he and Henry stumbled away from one another. Henry started apologizing frantically, his own face turning red. "I-I'm so sorry, Will! I didn't mean to do that--whenever Doc and I are doing our laundry and I come to give her more clothes to put away, I usually kiss her on the cheek. I'm so, so, so sorry! It's just habit!" he rambled nervously, looking everywhere except William.

William fidgeted with his thumbs, turning his face away. He tried to tell Henry that it was fine. That he understood it was an accident. But he couldn't quite get his mouth to form the words. Whenever he tried to speak, it was the garbled gibberish of embarrassment.

"Are you feeling well, Will? Your face is red," Henry said worriedly as he placed his cold hands on William's cheeks. "Your cheeks are warm, too. Do you have a fever?"

"Henry, you just bloody kissed me! Am I not allowed to be embarrassed?"

"I said that I was sorry," Henry mumbled, guilt filling his beautiful, green eyes.

"And I forgive you! I just couldn't get the words out the first time, I'm sorry." He laughed nervously, looking away from his friend.

The silence passed awkwardly for minutes later, weighing down on the two like a heavy, suffocating blanket. The silence was ended abruptly when Henry cleared his throat, but it returned just as quickly.

"So..." Henry started, but the sentence quickly faded away.

"So... do we agree to never speak of this again?" William asked quietly.

"Yes. Absolutely."

~ ~ ~

A few months passed by since Terrance had died. Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria finally opened after the delays with Henry's injury and the loss. The place became just as popular as Fredbear's--perhaps even more popular. And soon those few months turned into a year, then another. Michael had just turned nine a few weeks ago and had finished fifth grade almost a month before. Evan was three and was going to turn four later that year. He was also going to start preschool when the school year started back up again. And the little boy had finally figured out how to calm himself down after having a nightmare! Now Michael, William, or Henry didn't need to help him settle down and go back to sleep.

At the moment, William was supervising Noah and Michael at the kitchen table. They weren't doing anything dangerous--they were just chatting and unevenly sharing a snack of apple slices and pretzels. Well, not really sharing. Noah was eating the food. Michael refused to touch any of it--big surprise there.

As he watched the boys enjoy their time with one another, he wondered if Noah had told Michael about the Wright family's future moving away. Mason, Noah's father, was asked about a promotion. But, to take it, it was required that the huge family move to Nebraska, where the job's location resided.

Noah was Mike's closest friend. It was evident. The two boys clearly cared for each other. So how would Michael react to Noah moving away? There was a large chance that they would never see each other again.

A heated bickering match sparked between the boys, snapping William out of his thoughts. He calmly walked over to the boys and managed to get them to quiet down.

"What are you two arguing about?" William asked as he looked back and forth between the two. Noah was watching Michael with careful, worried eyes as he set the pretzel in his hand back down on the plate. Michael, on the other hand, looked anywhere but Noah and William, anxiously squirming in his seat.

"Michael refuses to eat anything--not even a single pretzel or apple slice!" Noah exclaimed, pointing an unintentionally accusatory finger at his friend. "It's starting to worry me. He eats so little, and he's as thin as a twig! That can't be good for his health."

William gave Noah a sad smile. "It's very sweet of you to worry about him. I know that he doesn't eat a lot. I've been keeping an eye on him, though. He ate earlier today."

Noah looked skeptical. "If you say so," he mumbled.

William looked at Michael, who was staring at him with an expression of surprise. Both of them knew that Michael hadn't eaten anything. He knew that Michael would ask him later why he lied to Noah.

It didn't matter what questions Michael had. What did matter was getting directly to the source of the boy's scarce eating. But he couldn't do that now. He would have to wait until Noah left for the day.