Chapter Text
Mike shifted and stretched out himself as he moved through the motions of opening, walking around and just doing the rounds, his uniform felt a bit heavy on his shoulders, it was a new one. Jeremy's idea, a harsh line of separation he had said from the most recent tragedy. Mari had been delighted over the idea of a proper uniform and had done much of the job in designing them, while Foxy just loudly demanded it happen before the Summer rush.
They had managed as such, it being the last day of March, and the uniforms having come in on the last day, nearly a half a month early before their busiest time of the year. It made everything feel just a bit more official, as professional as a primarily children's pizza restaurant with entertainment provided by animal robots could be, though Mike still found himself tugging and pulling at the ends occasionally, the thing was stiff and he hadn't managed to work it all out yet in the joints.
The main uniforms were fairly standard, to his, Jeremy, and Fritz's relief, they now had, after over a year, finally got those aprons with the pockets to hold notepads, pens, and everything else they kind of just had dealt with shoving into pockets before now. It was very nice. The thing was just a standard black, but the point of having more than one, which was always held in the kitchen, was just nice.
Because then there was the uniform itself, based mostly on the curtains of the main stage, meaning the shirts were a rich purple with a starry pattern going up the sides, with a little patch over the breast pocket with a little cartoon fox logo. The pants were... honestly just pants, black slacks that would hide stains well and from what Mike had been told from Jeremy, who had been the one who ended up looking into the materials, were easier to clean. Along with name tags, which were metal magnet things that stuck to the shirts.
Mike's was a bit different, by that, he had two different ones, a normal uniform for helping with waiting on the less busy days that he was wearing under the other, which of course was made up of a new security jacket, no longer just a reused old one from a box that he had found in the warehouse from Freddy's, a proper one made with him in mind.
The jacket wasn't quite the same shade of purple, not as bright or consequentially as faded from time and a year of constant use, more a darker shade, made of a slightly thicker material than the last one which was taking some adjustment, with a new redesigned security patch on the shoulder with the Cove logo on proud display as a stick on patch. Which was a highly suggested idea from Mari, who as the one who, somehow, ended up being the one keeping up with the laundry, had said it would make it easier to clean. Mike knew better than to argue.
The marker that put the jacket as one for security wasn't quite as obvious anymore either, by that there wasn't one, but he did get a fancy little faux gold badge in the design of a ship's steering wheel with a black block in the center for the yellow text, just to continue to pretend the Cove actually held true to the pirate theme, that proclaimed him as 'Mike: Cove Security' on it, which like the others was easily removable, so he could actually wear the thing outside of work without looking weird.
He may or may not have found himself slightly enamored with the badge, but that wasn't anyone else's knowledge but his own, and any ribbing he got from the others about the subject was completely unrelated.
And of course there was the mask, which was still a fixture, because he wasn't looking to scare the kids anymore with his face's most recent disfigurement. The scar was honestly not that bad, barely noticeable unless you were close enough to see it properly, apparently skin that was unhealthily grey meant even new scars were hard to see. It wasn't large, but it was fairly deep, so it looked like a line running across his cheek in a short slightly curved line with it ending honestly scarily close to under his right eye, in a weird almost crescent kind of shape.
Mike didn't like it.
He had a matching cut scar on his arm and side now, but frankly he had scars on one of his arms that he hated so much more that a new one didn't really register there, and his body... He didn't like to think about what his chest and back looked like, the gnarled and twisted scared up patches from where a metal claw had stabbed itself through him weren't exactly small, so in comparison he barely even noticed that one.
Now that he was thinking about it though, he absently shifted and rolled his shoulders a bit, feeling the way the tightness in the scarred skin flexed just a bit awkwardly under the still too stiff jacket and the shirt underneath. He really should have done some stretches or something before leaving the house, but Mari had been in a rush, excited to see everyone in their uniforms, after gushing an admittedly pleasing amount of time on Mike in his own outfit. Sue him, he liked the compliments.
Still, as he was shifting, trying to figure out just how he could bend his arms without being tossed looks by the others, on the direct other side of the Cove stood Fritz and Jeremy, the two moving around, back and forth over the tables, just making sure everything was ready to go. Jeremy himself was mostly just messing with his newest bucket hat, opening was usually the easy part for his daily role, the kitchen usually was the one that required actual effort and occasionally one of them would help, but Janet had just waved them off.
His own mind was somewhere else, at least for the few moments of silence he had before Fritz more or less dropped into a seat next to him, a seat he had just taken off the table, with a low, tired, groan. Jeremy's eyes just blinked a few times before asking.
"You alright?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, sorry, just... Tired" Jeremy knew that tone, as he said with sympathy.
"Lolbit?" Fritz just nodded.
"Lolbit"
"How's that been going"
"They don't sleep!" Jeremy could only wince in understanding as Fritz let out a long exhale, before shaking his head, "I mean, don't get me wrong, they're incredibly tech savvy for being out of the game for a few years, and I think we're starting to make progress on the Funtime protocols, but they hardly ever actually want to work on that, my tv has practically been stolen from me, and when I try to use it, it just doesn't work right! I think they've done something to it because I can never change the channel, and they have, just... so much energy"
"Welcome to the life of having an animatronic living with you"
"At least Bonnie had an excuse, he's a kid. Lolbit's older than you are!" But not older than Fritz? That put them probably around twenty-seven, which was... interesting from just how Jeremy had seen the new fox interact with everything, and he did mean everything. The one time they had been at the warehouse they had gone through and touched everything.
"They told you that?"
"No, I... Uh, maybe looked into Brookes' employee records, didn't help, but, you know, thought it couldn't hurt"
"Is, uh... Nothing" Jeremy didn't want to imply that was creepy, but Fritz seemed to know what he was going to say anyways, as he just let out humorless huff anyways.
"No, no I know that's kind of creepy, I realized that right after I did it. The lack of sleep is getting to me" Well, Jeremy really couldn't hold that against the man, he knew all too well what it was like to deal with an excitable animatronic who wasn't totally inclined with the same sleep schedule as others. Jeremy was pretty sure it was a minor miracle that none of the animatronics were nocturnal, or at least hadn't suffered too badly in having to completely switch around their sleeping habits.
"I get that, I think during the first month or so with Bonnie; I was trying to make some coffee and ended up standing in front of the pot for, like, ten minutes before realizing I never put water into it... or coffee, just hit the button and hoped" That got a laugh from Fritz and a bit of a grin from Jeremy as well. Yeah, those weren't exactly his favorite memories to look back on, but he had to admit, some parts of it had been kind of funny in retrospect.
"How are things currently with the rabbit?" Jeremy paused at that, mostly to take a second to think about how to answer. Moreover, how the rabbit had reacted when he had returned back to the warehouse after everything had happened. He had been practically dragged aside and yanked down into a hug tight enough he felt like his spine and ribs were being compressed, before pulling back and stomping away like nothing had happened until it had been time to leave.
Jeremy had been caught up with everything else that had happened that night, from the grief the entire group felt that was so strong it nearly left him stumbling even with his now muted senses, to having to recover from the heat, and watching a morbid sense of disgust as Janet had practically forced Mike on a table to do his stitches, which she had apparently learned from her mom. While Fritz had been busy working on Mari who... hadn't taken to the idea of being asleep for the repairs well.
That whole night was burned into his memory in ways he never wanted to think about, but that part of it, with Bonnie, even if the rabbit spent the rest of the night either mostly alone in a corner looking out at where Mari was being worked on, or at Jeremy, he felt it was something important to remember. And in recent weeks... He liked to think that something had changed, like after Christmas and then again after Jeremy's... Less than stellar breakdown.
He... still wasn't really sure where they stood, but frankly Jeremy never knew that to begin with so it wasn't like it was new, just now Bonnie would occasionally be the one who actually started the conversations and he never bothered to complain anymore when Jeremy sat down to watch whatever it was that had grabbed the rabbit's attention. He had even asked for advice at one point! Just a minor bit, asking how to start a conversation, and as much as Jeremy wanted to pry into that, he didn't, just said what he was pretty sure what the rabbit needed to hear and did his best to not think twice about handing Bonnie his phone when he had requested it from the older man a few days later.
He was pretty sure the kid had appreciated it.
"Better, I think we're in something of a good place... I'm going to try and bring him over to the warehouse some more, maybe get him to see if Plushtrap would like to hang out"
"Cause... they're both rabbits?"
"No, I think they're around the same age... I'm not sure about the Renas, but Plustrap is... kind of obviously a kid with how they act, and I think it would do him some good to have another kid to interact with"
"I guess that makes sense... We don't really have anyone around his age here" Which was true, a surprising amount of the animatronics were adults, the Minineras were up in the air until one of the group could convince them to actually talk to someone about who they were or if they even remembered that, but out of the plenty around, only Bonnie and most likely Plushtrap were proper kids.
Everyone else just weren't, only Foxy of them all wasn't an adult yet, and even that would be changing in a few months, which was... Honestly pretty weird to think about. Shaking the thought off, he continued the conversation.
"Yeah, I hope it'll be good for him after everything. He apparently helped Mike and Mari out a lot during the whole mess... Thinking of, how's Janet been doing, we haven't talked much recently" Fritz got a bit of a dopey smile on his face before that quickly shifted into an almost humorous huff.
"I-... Honestly? I think she's better at handling all of this then the rest of us put together"
"Really? Are you sure? I mean, I know it wasn't as... tense on your end, but you still ran into a burning building that you had no idea if you'd be able to get out of"
"Trust me, I still can't believe I did that, and I've been doing this longer than nearly anyone else... Janet on the other hand... I'm starting to think the only reason she didn't tackle Foxy when we first introduced her to the animatronics was because he wasn't close enough" Jeremy let out a small laugh, but got the impression that Fritz was more than a little serious. As he finally just shrugged.
"I mean, some people are just built for stress or ridiculous stuff. I mean... Mike for example" Fritz couldn't say anything tot that, the man had a really good point there, Mike was about as fearless as Fritz was pretty sure a person could be. He was also scary when he wanted to be, something he was personally thankful that Janet seemed to not have any of that going on... Unless he hadn't seen that side of her yet. He pretended the thought wasn't as inciting as it actually was for his own sake.
"Yeah, that must be nice, just starting off without a working sense of danger. Bet Scott would have appreciated something like that right about now" Fritz had done his best to keep in contact with the man over the last few days.
"He probably wouldn't have made it as long as he had if he did, we kind of have a fear response for a reason" Fritz... had to agree to that, it's probably the reason why he survived Freddy's as well, being terrified for his life every single night had been great for keeping him on his toes and aware of what was happening outside his doors and on the cameras.
"True, I think he's... mostly gotten over it though" Scott was... adapting, and Fritz couldn't imagine the man was getting much more sleep than Fritz himself was at the moment, less he could imagine, Fritz was much more comfortable around animatronics than Scott was, even now, and Ennard was... Well, frankly they were a lot creepier than Lolbit was, even with the fox in question still not having eyes. Still, he hadn't gotten any panicked calls in the middle of the night about something going horribly wrong, so... He thought the man was doing well, he'd have to go over at some point though.
"That's good, he- I think Ennard might be good for him, in the long run I mean, I know there's probably going to be growing pains in the meantime" Fritz hummed, saying before he could really think about it.
"Think he'll sink into this parenting thing as well as you have?" Fritz watched as Jeremy shifted a bit uncomfortably at that, and decided he probably shouldn't have teased that subject.
"I- Well... He's got more to look after than I do" Fritz was mostly just surprised that Jeremy wasn't denying it.
"I mean, if you're going to be collecting another rabbit and the two get along... I'm sure Goldie wouldn't mind having less roommates to look after"
"I'm... not sure I'm qualified to look after more kids"
"Jeremy, out of all of us, I can say with certainty, you're the only one I think could be qualified, you're doing a good enough job with Bonnie right?"
"Don't tell him that, he gets... Testy on the idea. We're just roommates" Jeremy shifted again, showing just how clearly while that might be what Bonnie was fine with thinking, Jeremy was definitely the kid's dad at this point, at least from where Fritz's point of view was concerned. The man was literally arranging playdates to get the kid to be more social, and if Jeremy ever looked weary it was usually because he was worrying about said kid. So Fritz just bumped into his shoulder and said in a hopefully casual tone.
"Well I think you're doing a pretty good job" Jeremy was quiet for a long moment before finally huffing, as he said with a lower volume.
"Thanks" Jeremy looked a bit relieved, and just a bit more confident, after all they had plenty of time to continue to work things out. Before Fritz could respond with a 'no problem', something else caught his eye, as Mike suddenly called out for everyone's attention. Jeremy and Fritz just shared a glance before Fritz just shrugged, moving over towards the man who had stopped along to the Prize Corner, where the puppet had just floated out of, looking a bit confused as well, as everyone more or less put their attention on the man who, waited just until Janet had stepped out, shooting a glance at Fritz as well, before settling in to hear what the man had to say.
Mike seemed to take a second, gathering himself as he looked around at the many eyes on him, before apparently steadying himself, which made something in Fritz's lower gut tense up, that kind of look usually came before big news, and in their world big news usually wasn't good news.
"Right, sorry, this will only take a second. I just wanted to get something off my chest, then we can go back to opening" Fritz shot a nervous glance to Jeremy who just tilted his head, just as confused as Fritz was but not as nervous, which was... Something. But there were still a lot of things that it could be, with the events of what happened earlier in the month, and the questions he honestly still had around the event, it could have been anything... Oh God, Fritz was going to have to cover for another crime wasn't he?
He was to busy worrying to notice at first when Mike had turned and begun to move towards the Prize Corner, a small surprised gasp from Janet and a much more overdramatic surprised sound from Foxy brought Fritz back to focus long enough to see in real time, as Mike had reached out, grabbing onto the puppet, who let out a squeaking sound, before giving a short nod, as everyone in the Cove watched as Mike then proceeded to pull Mari up, his hand cupping the back of the puppet's head, and proceeded to press him into one of the more intense kiss's that Fritz had ever seen.
Fritz just felt his mouth slowly drop agape, before letting out a short sound of something, which was covered by the flustered sound of puppet music, as Mari's arms flailed a bit before seemingly moving to hold onto Mike's body for dear life.
Finally, Mike pulled back, a very satisfied look on his face, as he turned to look at everyone, and was it just Fritz or did it feel like the man was burning holes into his head specifically?
"Right! Any questions or concerns?" Fritz just slowly closed his mouth, while Foxy jumped to ask about a million things at once, as he just blinked once, then twice, before deciding he really needed to pay more attention to things, before feeling incredibly out of the loop as Mike turned back to the still flustered puppet, and instead of answering any of Foxy's questions, just said.
"I guess I don't need to fire Fritz after all" Fritz... felt like he was missing out on some context.
A lot of context.
Mike Schmidt has a… complicated life.
To be fair, Mike Schmidt was kind of a complicated person, but still, complicated was the only way to describe it when you were haunted by ghosts. Nowadays there were more than a few spirits floating around and everything was still in a mess that needed to be sorted, so many souls, so much to do, not to mention his own deathly nature.
Mistakes still happened, people messed up, and often other people ended up being the ones to suffer for it.
Mike has suffered a lot and in turn caused a lot of suffering, but that was just the price of being alive in one way of looking at it, probably not the best way, a way that Mike didn't want to see anymore for himself, or how he viewed the world.
It took work, effort.
Going from pain and anger at everything to the need for control of himself for others, to learning lessons and becoming a better person than he thought he could ever be, still not perfect, never perfect. But better, and as such he was able to make the lives of those around him better as well.
Evan, from hopelessly lost and angry, lashing out at the world and people who had hurt him so, to a compassionate if still grumpy young adult doing his best to let go of those anchors and let himself feel and be himself again.
Fritz slowly opened back up to the world, got himself a girlfriend and began to once more realize just what it meant to live among the living, instead of working in a graveyard of horror.
Jeremy connected with people again in a way that his own past made impossible and yet too easy at the same time, gaining friends, and slowly beginning to build the bonds of a family.
Mari… Sam, the man who had saved the souls left abandoned before being left and forgotten himself, now given a new world to explore and exist in, learning to use his voice once more and filling the void of his past by being able to give joy to those who came through the Cove's doors, and even found someone to share his life with fully.
Foxy, who hid behind a mask of bravo and confidence to hide the hurting kid inside, slowly growing more comfortable with who he was and who he had once been, not shedding his mask, but slowly being able to embrace the parts of it that made him strong and his own past to be able to be someone truly brave and courageous.
Scott, a man left destroyed by what he had gone through and what he had let happen, hopelessly cowardly and now playing parent to a set of kids who needed everything he could give them, stability and courage to give everything he could to make up[ for the hurt he had let fester.
Charlie… A woman who discovered a life she knew nothing about but had claimed many from her childhood and only had just begun to truly be able to find her place in such a world, before being forced to be a part of it closer than anyone could have ever wanted, now having to learn what it meant all over again…
But she wasn't alone, none of them were, not any more, not even the many few faces that had joined their little world. New faces that would have to learn their own places and who they would be in this new situation. As well as other things as well, faces that went unaccounted for, left to the wind.
Springtrap, Circus Baby, and who knew what else was left in that building that had managed to escape, there was safety in the world that Mike had helped create, but that didn't mean there wasn't danger on the outside of it too…
They'd just have to be ready for it all, and while it had been hard, and in ways it hadn't gotten any easier, he wasn't facing it alone anymore, and he had the feeling they all would be more than a little help. They would make it through this, just like they had everything else, they would survive.
The show would go on.
But more important than any of that, Mike couldn't wait to get back to life, with his family, in the meantime, to move past the horrors of the past more and more with each passing day.
His life was complicated, but… he liked the idea that he had done an admirable job of putting it back together.
Tomorrow was another day, and Michael was happy to be there to see it.
Welcome to the Show (Tell us your Problems) will return in: With Broken Legs (The Show Goes On).
Expected Date: January 13th, 2025.