Years Gone By

Two years was a long time.

A lot can happen in two years. New hobbies can form, new interests can be discovered, and new friendships can bloom. At the same time old friends could be lost, an interest could be fleeting, and a hobby could fall to the wayside. New life can be given and a restaurant can rise to new heights. Two years is two whole birthdays, plenty of children both smiling and crying, and far too much screaming.

Life can have a lot of ups and downs in two years.

In the darkness of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, Withered Freddy and Toy Freddy were both carrying a table across the main hall. They strained with every step they took. In the first place, Toy Freddy wasn't exactly built for heavy moving. He was an entertainer, not a forklift. Withered Freddy, on the other hand, may as well have been. He was as large as a fridge and twice as mobile. Unfortunately the years had not been kind to him, and the rust made his joints loudly protest with every movement.

So, both animatronics struggled.

Once they left the main hall and entered the hallway, it only took a few more minutes of trudging to reach the second Party Room. Both rabbit animatronics were already there, arguing about something or another. Both Freddys ignored them with the ease of practice. Withered and Toy Bonnie's bickering was regular, prone to both break out and end at a moment's notice, and rarely had any real heat behind it. All the other animatronics knew to leave well enough alone by now, although Withered Foxy usually egged them on whenever he had the opportunity.

Speaking of the pirate, Foxy was sitting in a chair in one corner peering down at a book in his lap. BB and JJ sat cross-legged on the floor in front of him, bouncing in place and hardly able to stifle their giggles. Withered Foxy flipped up his eye-patch, realized he had the book upside-down, hastily rotated it, squinted, and tossed it to the side in favor of launching into yet another tale of nautical adventure.

Withered and Toy Freddy finally reached the end of their long journey once they reached the far wall of the room, where two other tables had been arranged. They dropped theirs, which resulted in a loud crash. The other animatronics in the room went silent and spun around to face the noise, but relaxed when they realized what had happened and quickly resumed what they were doing.

"So," Withered Freddy said. "That's the last of them, isn't it?"

Toy Freddy nodded his head. "Yep, that's it! All we've got to do now is rearrange the furniture a bit and hang up some decorations and everything will be finished."

Withered Freddy sighed and sat down in a chair. It groaned under his considerable weight but held steady. "You know," he started after a pause, "I think this is really good what you're doing." He held up a hand when a flustered Toy Freddy tried to cut in. "I mean it. You like relaxing with a nice book more than anyone, and trying to pass that onto the children is wonderful. Besides, I bet the parents will really love your new book club."

The LEDs in Toy Freddy's cheek lit up bright. He bashfully turned his head to the side, unable to meet his predecessor's heavy gaze. "Yes, well, what kind of Freddy would I be if I wasn't a role model for the kids?"

"Better than the last couple," Withered Freddy said drily," considering past events." They both chuckled at that. It was still painful to think of, but it was an old wound. Time had a tendency to turn anything into a scar. So, they laughed, and with every laugh the pain faded just a little bit more.

Withered Bonnie and Toy Bonnie's argument was getting even more loud and heated. Snippets of it were drifting over to both bears from across the room. "-telling you, you're definitely blue!" Toy Bonnie said. "Why would you even think you're purple?"

Withered Bonnie snorted, as loudly as an animatronic missing not just its snout but its entire nose could. "You're just saying that because it's dark in here," The rabbit said icily. "If I was under the proper lighting-"

Toy Bonnie threw their hands up. "The proper lighting! Oh, of course, that's what it is. Listen here, you-" Whatever they said next was too quiet to hear, as both animatronics had gotten into each others personal space and were heatedly muttering.

All the other animatronics ignored them.

Both Freddys were interrupted in their observation of some particularly passionate flailing from Withered Foxy by the arrival of two chickens and a fox. Withered and Toy Chica stumbled into the room, arms full of decorations and snacks. Mangle coiled along the ground right behind them, both heads giggling and blushing and whispering conspiratorially to each other.

Toy Freddy went to help both Chicas unload. Withered Freddy, unable to get off his chair without struggling and taking so much time that they'd already be done, instead called out to Mangle.

"So what's got you so giddy?"

Mangle turned to face Freddy. "Oh, nothing. Just enjoying watching them."

Freddy grunted. "I swear, you're lazier than my Fox. You really like watching other people do all the work that much?"

Mangle smiled sweetly at him. "Something like that." The animatronic wandered underneath one of the tables, where both heads could keep an eye on the chickens. Freddy sighed and, out of a lack of anything better to do, slowly pushed himself standing and plodded over to the rabbit duo.

They were silently glaring at each other when he got there, apparently mutually trying to give the other the cold shoulder and not quite managing to succeed.

"You know," Freddy said, drawing both of their attentions. "I think this argument about color might be even dumber than the one about what gender you two were."

"Of course you'd say that," Toy Bonnie said, nose in the air. Withered Bonnie, lacking a nose, made due with a harrumph. "After all," Toy Bonnie continued, "there was never any doubt about you. We, on the other hand-"

"Are robots," Freddy interrupted. "Why do you guys even argue so much, anyways?"

Toy Bonnie and Withered Bonnie stared blankly at each other. Then they simultaneously shrugged. "It's fun," they echoed.

Freddy didn't have anything to say to that, so he shrugged as well. "Either of you want some pizza? The birds brought a couple of boxes."

"Nah, I'm fine," Withered Bonnie said, before turning to face their younger counterpart. "You want any?"

"Nope," Withered Bonnie said, putting a pop at the end of the word.

Freddy tipped his hat and turned to leave. Both rabbits sent him away with a good-natured fuck off and started griping about how poorly thought out the plots of some of the books in Toy Freddy's reading club were. Freddy walked over to his Toy counterpart, who was just finishing up supervising Withered and Toy Chica.

"So, we've got the decorations and the books and the tables are all where they need to be. Anything else?"

Toy Freddy rubbed his chin and tugged on his bow tie. "I think that's everything..." he said, frowning and hesitation. His eyes wandered around the room in thought and then lit up. Toy Freddy snapped his finger. "Actually, there's just one more thing. Balloon Boy!"

BB, who seemed to have been waiting for this, shot to his feet and gleefully ran over. He fiddled with his sign for a few moments, then triumphantly planted it on the ground.

'Freddy's Reading Corner'

All the animatronics clapped, some more politely than others. Foxy even gave a loud whoop. Toy Freddy looked proudly on at the book-laden tables, and at the chair in the middle where he would sit to read to the kids.

"So, where's the Marionette?" Withered Freddy asked, and Toy Freddy deflated.

"Not coming. Too busy moping in the box about how much worse this place is than it was during its heyday. When I asked they said that it'd just end up a failure."

Withered Freddy patted Toy Freddy on the shoulder. "You know, stuff always ends up going wrong at Freddy Fazbear's. This place might as well be under some sort of aboriginal curse."

"Yeah," Toy Freddy muttered. "I know. But just because we expect things to get worse doesn't mean they actually will." The bear shrugged, and Withered Freddy's hand fell away from his shoulder. "I think good things come from keeping a positive outlook. Tomorrow's another day, after all. Besides, why be cynical and realistic and miserable all the time? That doesn't sound very fun."

Withered Freddy smiled and laughed.