Chapter Text
"Ow!" Gregory falls flat on his face once again, "I hate these stupid things!" He kicks against the roller blades, trying to shove them off.
Vanessa walks over, trying to stifle her giggles, "Hey, hey, you'll get it. I had trouble first time I tried roller skates too." She picks him up and holds him up by his hands.
His legs wobble and slide as the roller blades refuse to sit under him. Vanessa winces sympathetically. Learning how to skate was hard; she can't imagine what it's like with thin roller blades.
"You can do it!" Freddy cheers from the sidelines. Gregory gets his feet under him and pulls away from Vanessa, clinging to the railing. Freddy holds out his hand like he's beckoning a toddler.
Gregory slides over, "Whoa, whoa…" His legs carefully stay under him.
"You got this," Vanessa whispers, "We're right here."
"I don't need your help," He grumbles, inching his way across. In a burst of courage, he pushes himself off the railing and rolls over to Freddy, his feet twisting in too many directions.
"Whaa!" One leg slides out from under him and he lands flat on his back.
"Gregory!" Freddy gasps, running over to him.
Gregory rips off his skates and throws them in Freddy's face, "These things are STUPID! And I HATE THEM!" He picks himself up and runs off before Vanessa could stop him.
Vanessa sighs. He's long gone by now. "I am sorry Gregory does not like his gift." Freddy says, holding the old skates gently.
"It's fine. I'll just… tell Michael." She has a feeling he won't be too heart broken. It was kinda a spur of the moment idea. She looks back at the white skates with sky blue accents. What was the little girl who used to love them like? "Keep those safe, okay?"
Freddy nods. Vanessa runs a hand down her face and walks to the break room.
Thank God they decided to close on Mondays. Vanessa honestly doesn't know what she was thinking, keeping them open all week. She saw herself and one other guy and though "Yeah, this is the crew to run a mall for 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. No problem!"
Freddy proposed the new schedule after Michael came back, covered in dirt with at least 5 stolen mattresses. The bear took one look at him and declared one day off was mandatory from now on. Who is Vanessa to deny him?
While walking to her new bedroom —one of the old security offices that they refurbished— she checks the cameras for Michael. She's pretty sure he's in there, but he might be just wander around the Pizzaplex again. This place is massive, and Michael's determined to have the whole thing mapped out in his head by the end of the month. But he's equally determined to figure out how a computer works, so it's a real 50/50 these days.
She was right the first time. Checking the camera's show he's playing some game on her computer. She puts on some music and power walks over.
"Gregory didn't like your gift." She says, setting her hat on her dresser.
Michael stops what he's doing, "He didn't?" He asks, genuinely hurt.
"Nope, couldn't figure out how to not fall every five seconds."
"Aw man." Michael turns back to the computer, "That sucks." He continues to mess around with cool math games.
Except when she looks over, he's not playing cool math games. It almost looks like he's checking his inbox, "What'cha doing?" She asks, sitting on her bed, just the king mattress and some old metal crates for the frame.
"Looking through your emails." He answers, "This Luis guy is real persistent."
Maybe Vanessa didn't hear that correctly, "You're what?"
"Looking through your emails." Michael says again, like it's a normal thing to do on a Monday morning, "What? It's not like—
She lunges, fighting Michael to shut the PC off. Michael defends it with his stupid, bendy limbs, "I'm still reading here!"
She frowns at him, reaching for the off button, "You don't see me prying into your personal life."
"That's literally all you did when we first met." She grumbles at the fair point, giving up her attack, "It's only fair that I get to pry some."
She sighs and rolls her eyes. Michael continues to look through her email, "This guy's kinda creepy."
"No, he's nice. He was nice."
He looks at her with a raised eyebrow, "Really? He seems a little…" He opens up another email, "Stalkerish to me."
"He worked in IT, it was literally his job to check what I was doing."
"I don't know what IT means." He looks through the emails, "Like, you've never replied to him once."
"Well, I was going through a lot at the time."
"Uh-huh, sure." He opens up another email, reading it's contents, "Maybe she would have replied if you used a subject line, Ca— Cabrera." He squints to read the name.
Vanessa crosses her arms, "I don't think that would have helped."
"Would have at least been proper." He says, "I think. That's how email's work, right?"
"Eh, maybe." He glares at her. She gives a shit eating grin, "I'm not telling you."
"I hate you." He goes back to her inbox, "Oh hey, Mr. Stalker emailed again."
"He's not a stalk— wait what?" She leans over his shoulder, holding the chair for balance.
"Yeah, see?" He circles her newest inbox with his mouse, "Still no subject line." He sighs disappointingly, "What a Casanova."
"Wait, what does it say?" She places her hand over Michael's and drags the mouse to the inbox, clicking it.
"Rude," Her best friend comments. He looks at the message, "That's literally nonsense."
"It's a link." She says, "A Zoom link? There wasn't any meetings today, right?"
Michael shrugs with an 'I dunno' sound. Her inbox gets another notification, "Oh look, he sent another one." Another ping, "and another one. Jeez, he's sending a lot of these." Three more zoom links hit her inbox, "You sure he isn't a stalker?"
"Yes," She grits, as five more emails hit her inbox. She has to admit this does not look good.
One email that's not a Zoom link slips in, "pleasep leasd respon dASAP"
Michael blinks at it in confusion, "What does…"
Vanessa sighs in relief, "It's not a meeting. I'll deal with it later." She has too much of a headache right now.
"I don't believe you." She levels Michael with a look, "You've never responded to this guy once." Michael points out. Honestly, she's not sure if she really was going to circle back. Either way, not her problem right now.
"I'mma click the link." Michael declares when she's halfway out the door.
"Don't you dare!" She charges at him. He burst out laughing as they fight over the keyboard and mouse.
Michael manages to open the Zoom meeting and smash the keyboard for the name. Vanessa dumps him out of the chair and sits down right as the meeting opens, "Hi~ Luis, what a surpr—"
"THANK GOD!" Luis slams his hand on the desk and nearly cries in relief, "Ness, I need to talk to you. The Pizzaplex—" Michael raises an eyebrow from his floor sit, his face peaking into frame, "—WHAT IN GOD'S NAME IS THAT?!"
Vanessa's mouth hangs open uselessly, "Wow, rude." Michael comments, keeping half of his head hidden under the table. He's in a position where he could rest his chin on the table if he craned his neck right.
"New employee?" Vanessa finally says. Michael gives her a look, "Shut up," She mumbles.
Luis stares at the screen in shock, "Did— is that the guy that slept in the grave?! Was that them?"
Vanessa slinks back in embarrassment, "You heard about that?" That's awful. If some IT guy knows it, it's likely the whole department knows. Maybe the whole company. She can never transfer, or leave this building, again.
"Way to make a first impression." Michael comments. Vanessa shoots him a glare.
"Oh my God," Luis grips his head, "Where did you find them?"
Another question Vanessa doesn't have a good answer for.
"Basement." Michael answer for her.
Luis has entire mental crisis condensed in five seconds, "Actually, I don't have time for this. Ness there's a serious—"
"Why do you call her Ness?" Michael asks, squinting at him.
Vanessa pushes him back down, "Ignore him, what do you need?"
"Hey! Don't ignore me!"
"The Pizzaplex is in danger!" Luis interrupts. Michael and Vanessa go silent, "Look, there's—" Something crashes in Luis' background. There's muffled yelling and pounding on the door, "Shit, I don't have much time."
Michael switched from lounging under the desk to hiding under the desk in a crouch, his head still just as visible, "Is IT like a security guard but worse? Are they the people on the phone?"
"I don't work in IT anymore, I got— Wait, how did you know that?!" His face lights up a bit, "Do you talk about me?"
Michael leans up a tad so his shit eating grin's on screen, "Only the bad things."
"Ignore him." Vanessa pushes him back down, "He just read our emails."
Luis blinks, "What? How could he—?"
"I let him use my computer, continue your ominous warning."
Luis frowns, then gasps, "Is he the reason you bought those flowers and—"
"No." She shuts that down immediately, " Tell. Me. What's. Wrong." She claps her hands for emphasis.
"Who are you to judge her purchases anyway?" Michael adds, not helping the situation, "Creep."
"Excuse me?" Luis flinches back.
"Warnings!" Vanessa yells, shoving Michael back under the desk.
Her purple friend does not give up easy, "You can't deny the truth—"
"Why did you call me?" Vanessa interrupts, frustrated with both of them. She shoot Michael a mean glare when he tries to interrupt again.
Luis is blushing profusely, "Well, I—Uh— The Pizzaplex! The Company! Pull yourself together Cabrera!" He slaps his cheeks, "The C.E.O is coming to inspect your building tomorrow."
"Wait, that's it?" Michael asks, unfolding from his hiding spot, "Considering how Freddy's works, that's a damn good boon." Vanessa can't help but agree. Fazbear's covering for her sooty work? Sign her up. Maybe they can get her some more employee's while they're at it.
"No, not a boon." Luis corrects, "It's very, very bad." Michael and Vanessa share a disbelieving look, "The inspection is just an excuse to close whatever location he's visiting. I have some past cases here." He pulls out a folder and starts flipping through them, "Fake cheese too real, ball pit too shallow and too deep, Chef's mustache too well groomed, fucking windows too foggy!" He throws the papers all around the office, "He'll close down any location that isn't perfect, so you have to make it perfect!"
Vanessa pales, "Or the Pizzaplex closes for good?" That can't happen. She lives here, her entire life is in here. She can't go back, not after everything that's happened. What if Vanny came back? What if she needs Princess Quest again? What if Gregory gets hurt, and there's no lovable bear thing to patch him back up?
"More than just the Pizzaplex." Luis says, "You're the cornerstone to our current investor pitch. Without that this entire company is gonna go under!"
"Huh," Michael chuckles nervously, "Who knew Freddy was so easy to kill?"
Luis groans into his hands, as if he's been asked that too many times. "Why would the C.E.O sabotage his own company?" Vanessa asks.
"Because he's a drunken fool who hasn't had a good idea in 50 years and wants to make my life a living hell. He doesn't give a shit about this company, and honestly it'd be better for everyone if he just croaked already!" Another muffled yell and charge at the door from Luis' side. He stands and address something else, "I only said what we're all thinking, cowards!" He sits back down, "God, I hate this job."
Her face scrunches, "Then why are you doing it?"
He looks at her with seething rage for a second, and then something else comes over him, "Because it's better than being the latest model of mascot." Michael answers, more familiar with Freddy's violent side than she is. He stands, and leans over the back of her chair, his face deadly serious.
Luis pales, "What do you mean by that?"
"How much time do we have?" Michael asks instead of answering.
Luis scrambles and quickly pulls he's sleeve down, checking his watch, "We'll try to stall as much as we can, but by my clock you've got a little more than 24 hours."
"24 hours?!" Vanessa runs everything possibly wrong with this nightmare of a mall and finds her management nightmare, "Do you really think we can make this place spotless in 24 hours?"
"Not spotless, perfect." Luis says, "and you have to, Fazbears depends on it." More pounding on the door, and wood snapping, "I have to go. If anyone asks, this call never happened, got it?"
"But—"
"We're counting on you, Ness." Then the call ends.
Vanessa stares at the empty screen as Michael starts deleting every Zoom email she received. She looks at him, her eyes empty, "Why are you—?"
"You heard him." He says with a professionalism she's never seen before, "We need to delete the evidence." Every email ends up in the trash. Then Michael goes to close the tab.
"You need to empty the trash can." She says, making Michael look at her confused, "Otherwise they're just sitting there." She moves the mouse and deletes the emails.
Michael scoffs, "Why is the internet so complicated?"
"I don't know," Vanessa slumps down in her chair with a groan, "We can't do this, Mike."
His face hold a determination she doesn't have, "We have to."
Well that makes her feel worse. She rest her arms on the desk and buries her head in them.
Michael places a hand on her shoulder and crouches down, "We will do it?" His attempts at comfort is appreciated, even if they're bad lies. He winces, "We can try?"
"And what if we fail?" She turns to him.
His face scrunches awkwardly. It's kinda funny, "We… kill the C.E.O?"
Vanessa thinks about it for a bit, "Yeah, I'm down for that." Anything to keep the Pizzaplex, her home.
"Yeah…" Michael says, a little uncomfortable she took him seriously, "We can put Luis in charge."
She snorts at that, "And what? Have him run the company like a, a puppet emperor?"
"Exactly." Michael snaps his fingers.
"Oh sir Cabrera, I understand the Ohio Freddy's need more Pizza dough, but our Pizzaplex is the foundation of your empire, if you dare to split the supplies…" Michael burst into giggles before she can finish her scenario.
"Sir Cabrera, the legal department dare to insult us!" He adds, "Have them hanged immediately!"
She laughs at his antics. Michael's right, everything will be okay if they have each other. Nothing can change that. Worse comes to worse, they kill the C.E.O.
"Alright," She cracks her knuckles, "Let's get to work."