Tar, Flowers. Agony, Hope. What's the difference?

Chap 11 -Funtime Freddy apparently does care, oh & he has fur to- |MILLIE|

Millie woke up slowly, the first proper feeling she registered was that she was curled against something, and that that something was soft, like they had fur.

Then she remembered the nightmare, and what happened during the brief span she was awake, who had comforted her?

She didn't quite care right now, the soft fur like thing she was curled against was comfortable to lay against, and she didn't feel like trying to analyze her blurry memories so soon after waking up.

Then she realized she could hear a low rumbling purr, and it wasn't coming from her, rather from the thing she was curled against.

"Probably should get out before she wake up..... I don't think she's going to take my presence nicely" A low voice whispered, and she recognized who it was, it was Funtime Freddy, but why was he here?

Unless..... But he wouldn't sneak into her room to comfort her and he certainly wouldn't stay with her, at least not based on his desire to slit her throat most of the time.

Also he didn't have fur, he had somewhat smooth, hard casing that had odd texture sure but it wasn't the soft fluffy fur she could feel.

She decided to pretend she was just waking up and that she hadn't been awake for like five minutes already.

Millie yawned and tried to blink open her eyes, although her eyes tried to keep themselves glued shut.

She startled slightly when Funtime Freddy carefully stood up, and -carrying her- walked over to her bed and set her down on it before leaving.

So much for hoping to get questions answered.

She sat up and sat there, blinking as she properly processed what happened, then proceeded to curl up into a ball at the memory of the nightmare, shuddering as the fire flared up again.

She eventually forced herself to get up and get dressed however, as she couldn't afford -well technically she could- to stay in bed all day and cry about things she couldn't change.

Even if that was all she wanted to do, and even if the fire disliked her standing, and even if the thought of continuing to work on repairing Funtime Freddy and having to be near the bear and remember her death with every comment he made about it made her want to go right back to curling into a ball on her bed.

She didn't bother looking in the mirror, she already knew she looked like mierda and didn't want to focus on it.

She headed downstairs and headed out to the workshop, determined to lose herself in the busyness of continuing Funtime Freddy's repair, even though the most she needed to do was replace a hinge on one of his faceplates.

She did get the paints she needed out, as the last step was repainting Funtime Freddy and she had grabbed the paints yesterday after she had to go to the store for the replacement hinge for Funtime Freddy's faceplate.

She noticed how the texture on Funtime Freddy's casing seemed different but dismissed it as she didn't really care about that as long as she didn't have to replace any of the casing or something.

She focused on painting until she worked up the courage to replace the hinge, except when she went to get Funtime Freddy's faceplates to open they just wouldn't open for whatever reason.

Millie tried to get Funtime Freddy to open his faceplates for a solid three to four -or even five- minutes and even tried prying the faceplates open herself but ultimately failed.

"I am trying to repair you! Will you just let me!" Millie snapped at Funtime Freddy, looking around for the nearest tool that her Grandfather wouldn't miss so she could smack the animatronic with it.

"You should be resting, you're shaking and you're moving to stiffly for it to be normal" Funtime Freddy commented, she whispered around to glare at him but paused when she saw that he looked..... almost worried.

"What's it to you? Just makes me easier to kill doesn't it? When did it matter to you anyway?" She snapped back, lifting a wrench and inspecting it.

"When I heard you crying and screaming in your sleep last night and you flinched before I even tried to touch you when you weren't even awake enough to realize it was me" Funtime Freddy said, and Millie turned around to stare at him, processing what he said.

"......you care?" She asked softly, sure she had seen the bear express emotion, had seen how hopelessly Bon Bon had him wrapped around his paw, had seen the bear flinch mid repair when he was unable to stop himself but never would've guessed that he cared about her.

"I do..... You remind me of someone I used to know, Someone that I said some things to that I can't take back, I can't make up what I did to her, but maybe whatever cruel gods there are will stop trying to punish me if I try to avoid making the same mistakes, I killed you but please, just let me try to prove I can be different" Funtime Freddy whispered, and Millie saw no sign in his eyes that he was lying.

"I'll give you a chance. Break it and I'll pour oil mixed with black paint on your arm or something" Millie said, carefully setting the wrench down and taking a step toward Funtime Freddy.

For once the bear didn't make a remark about something she'd be better off using ad a threat, even though oil mixed with black paint was literally the least threatening threat she could've though of because apparently she didn't think about making a better threat.

"What's with the texture on your casing anyway?" Millie asked, poking at the casing on Funtime Freddy's arm and yelping when he reached over and slid his hand down his arm.

She yelped again when she realized that he did have fur, it was just packed down enough that it looked like slightly oddly textured casing from afar. "

You should probably go lay down, your still shaking" Funtime Freddy pointed out, Millie huffed and left, walking out of the workshop, no longer fleeing it but actually the tiniest bit reluctant to leave.

She got a text from Dylan on the way back though.

Dylan: 'Hey Millie! Brooke wanted to try meeting up tomorrow, you up for it?'

Millie: 'Yeah, just let me know when I need to get ready and where to go'