Rusted Gears

Regulars Now, I Guess

He could see her.

He could see her standing at the very back of the room, partially obscured by boxes and loose tangles of wires hanging down from the ceiling. Completely unsuspecting and unaware of the predatory animal creeping up on her.

He moved towards her on all fours, managing not to brush against any of the many objects that littered the room even slightly.

When he was right behind her, inches away from her, he stood up fully. His faceplates opened up slowly as he did so.

And then he grabbed onto her shoulders.

A loud and grating mechanical shriek reverberated from the silver speaker on his chest, filling the entire room.

"Hello, Fox. Nice to see you."

Foxy groaned, letting go of Baby.

"How did that not scare you?"

"You're not as silent as you think you are, you know. I can literally hear the gears in you turning. Plus I could see Bidy staring at you from over my shoulder, you dork."

"You always ruin my fun."

"Sorry. Actually, I'm not."

Foxy let out a rather unconvincing gasp. "How dare you. You're gonna find a strongly worded letter in your Gallery tonight."

"Oh dear Scott no."

"Oh yes." Foxy casually sat on the desk where Baby was trying to fix a Bidybab's broken arm. "But you're gonna have to worry about that later, because I haven't really gotten a chance to speak to you today, since I ended up getting rented for that party."

"Oh, that's why it was quieter."

Foxy lightly punched Baby in the arm.

"Shut up. You're a meanie."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome. But anyway, anything interesting happen while I was gone?"

"Not really. Everything was the same level of chaotic as it usually is."

"Oh, lame. Did your new friend show up again?"

Baby looked Foxy with a bemused expression. "My new friend? Who would that be?"

"That girl with the blue hair and glasses that keeps getting dragged in here by her friends."

Oh, her.

Baby had noticed that girl and her friends had pretty much become regulars over the past few weeks. But after they passed through the front doors, the blue-haired girl really seemed to be the only she saw anywhere in the restaurant. Her friends always disappeared off into the back parts of the establishment, which Baby was not obligated to watch over.

Admittedly, she did think the girl was rather pretty.

Baby snorted. "I don't think I can call her my friend, Fox. I've never even spoken to her."

"Well, I think she wants to be your friend. Every time she's in here she's got her eyes trained on you. Just like, completely 100% staring."

"A lot of people stare at me, Fox. They stare at Fred. They stare at you. They stare at all of us. We're robots. And we spend most of our time on a stage performing, where people watch us even more."

"Well..." Foxy started, drawing out the last two letters for an obnoxiously long period of time. "Looks to me like you look at her too, Miss Ringleader Lady."

"I look at everyone." Baby countered. "I'm supposed to make sure none of our customers break any rules or do something stupid, aren't I?"

"Whatever you say."

"Oh, you don't believe me?"

"No, I don't. That's why I responded with 'whatever you say'."

Before Baby could retort, Foxy spoke again.

"I think you ought talk to her."

"Oh yeah, you know that completely normal situation where an animatronic, who is supposed to perform on stage, free roam around the restaurant giving people directions to the bathroom, saying pre-recorded phrases, or helping parents catch their hyperactive children just comes up and starts a casual conversation with you?"

Foxy rolled his eyes and lightly punched Baby again. "Shut up! You never listen to my advice."

"Probably because the last two times I took advice from you something caught on fire."

"Well, what could possibly catch fire in any situation that this advice could conjure up?"

"I don't know, but last time you said that the ball pit turned into a fire pit. And the ball pit wasn't even involved in the situation before catching fire."

"Then does it really count?" Foxy asked.

Baby gave her a "Yes, yes it does." look before responding. "Look, maybe I'll take your advice. But if I end up being the thing that catches on fire again, I'm gonna be little upset."

"This conversation is making my head hurt." Bidybab commented.

"Hush, you." There was a loud click as Bidybab's arm was finally pushed back into its socket. "There, does that feel right?"

Bidybab flexed her arm and fingers. "Yeah, thanks, Circus."

"Oh wow, you actually succeeded in fixing the little demon."

"Hey! I am not a little demon. If anything, I'm a little satan."

"That isn't any better."

"I know." Bidybab giggled, jumping off the table and knocking the toolbox off.

The ringleader stared at the fallen tools and sighed, rolling her eyes before bending down to pick all that shit up.

Foxy hopped off the table to help.

It only took Foxy about... three whole seconds? Maybe less, to start making somewhat vague comments about how they could pick up the tools faster if they had another friend to help.

Baby simply rolled her eyes at his failed attempts at being subtle.

But who knows?

Maybe she would actually listen to Foxy's advice for once.