Torn

C'mon, Already

"C'mon, Lori!"

"I know, I know. I was going to say it, but she was looking at me with those eyes and I just...I buckled."

Ennard put his feet up on the newly repaired table in the back room, leaning back in his chair. "Did you at least manage to get something out?"

"I may have awkwardly blurted out that I had feelings for a woman, but that was about it."

"Alright, so you're almost there. Like, 80% there. Now you just gotta do the extra 20 and specify that she's the woman. Maybe you need a little extra push to get there."

"I appreciate the support you're giving me, but please don't do whatever crazy thing I can already tell you're thinking about doing."

"Fine," he grumbled. "But you better tell her the next time you see her."

"I will," Ballora said. "But speaking of Baby, where has she been all day?"

"She's been here, but she's been running all over the place because the Bidybabs decided today was a good day to start chaos. They set the ball pit on fire. Then they wrecked the kitchen. And then after that, they decided to trail cereal and milk all throughout the main halls."

"Oh dear, we should help her."

"I tried to do that earlier. She kept insisting that she could handle it, though. But who knows? Maybe she'll let you help her."

"I think I'll try." Ballora stood up from where she had been sitting on the counter and said goodbye to Ennard, heading out in search of Baby.

For a moment, she worried that it might take her a while to find the ringmaster in the large facility. 

But then she realized that she just had to follow the trail of wet floor signs, which were likely left behind after the milk and cereal had been cleaned up.

Eventually, they led her to the Breaker Room.

Ballora could hear lots of noise before she even fully approached the door. Objects hitting other objects, muffled yelling, and giggling.

She pushed open the heavy metal door and was greeted with an...interesting sight.

There were at least fifteen Bidybabs scurrying around the room like animals. 

Most of them were knocking things to the floor and swinging on the wires that hung from the ceiling. 

And about ten or twelve of them were climbing all over Baby, who was awkwardly trying to keep her balance while she was being tied up with a bunch of cords.

"What is wrong with you all?!" She fell to the floor as the Bidybabs finally managed to tie her legs together. "Fuck!"

Ballora managed to snap out of whatever daze she had entered upon laying eyes on the scene before her. "Oh goodness gracious, are you okay?"

Baby awkwardly craned her neck to look at the older woman. 

"Lor! Hey, uh, this is fucking awkward. I'm fine, I think," she said, sounding rather out of breath. "I uh, hate to ask, but do you think you could untie me? I don't think I can do it myself."

It did indeed seem unlikely that'd she'd be able to do it herself, considering she had one arm awkwardly pinned to the side of her head and the other pinned behind her back.

"Yes, of course." Ballora shooed away some of the Bidybabs before attempting to untie Baby. "I thought the Bidybabs didn't know how to tie knots."

"I thought that too, but I guess they learned from the Minireenas or something."

As if on cue, the Minireenas burst through a vent on the ceiling and started running rampant with a bunch of tools they had grabbed.

"Oh great, now they're joining in!" Baby groaned.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of them." Ballora finally managed to untie Baby (who uttered a thanks as she stood back up) and went to locate the Minireenas.

As she walked through the building in search of them, she found tools weren't the only thing they had grabbed. They grabbed everything they could get their hands on.

She recovered silverware, important papers, Bon-Bon (who Freddy must've left behind when he went out with Foxy), and various other items Ballora didn't even know they had.

Eventually, she found herself in her Gallery. It was one of the only remaining places that she hadn't checked.

She pulled a few Minireenas off some pipes running along the walls.

And then she spotted a few more in the corner of the room. They were busy fighting over a small black book. She sighed, walking over to the robotic dancers.

"Guys, I thought I said no roughhousing. We can't keep repairing you all because you take it too far." She confiscated the book from them. "Go do something productive and stop tormenting everyone."

They giggled and ran away.

Ballora looked at the small book and frowned. 'What even is this?'

She opened it, finding that it was a journal. The first page was decorated with very small, messy, and cramped handwriting that she recognized as Baby's. 

'Oh, this is Baby's journal? I didn't know she had a journal. I should take this back to her.'

Ballora was about to close it when she noticed that the first thing scrawled onto the page was her name. 

She paused. 

'I really shouldn't read this.'