At 5AM things seemed to calm down in preparation for the 6AM chime.

By this point everyone had gone their separate ways, most back to hover near their spots for during the day. Ina had followed suit, leisurely wheeling the office chair back to its rightful spot behind the desk to idly flick through the cameras. She could almost doze off, if not for the sudden ringing of the phone startling her as she snapped back into a sitting position to eye it warily. If she was due a call it was at the beginning of her shift, and any day staff knew to call from 6AM and onward if they needed to call in for anything. Even so she picked it up, continuing to flick through the cameras once more as she held the phone to her ear.

“Uh, Freddy’s?”

There was an amused huff of air before a voice replied much too cheerily for the time. “Is that really your best Fazbear greeting?”

Ina relaxed immediately, recognising the familiar voice of Robert. “I can work on it, but I don’t really see myself doing too well as the Fazbear receptionist,” she joked in response before frowning. “You don’t sound sick.”

“Good observation. I’m just needing you to open the back doors, I’m bringing a truck.”

“Well… alright. Should I move everyone?”

Robert hummed. “Nah, s’just me. Eira’s watching the kids for me. I’m the delivery boy today.”

At that Ina raised a brow, getting to her feet and grabbing her keys. A glance into the darkened hall in front of her told her there were at least three sets of curious animatronics eavesdropping. “And what exactly are you delivering?”

“It’s a surprise. Just have those doors open.”

Robert abruptly hung up, leaving Ina to listen to the droning tone of the phone before she placed it back in the holder and stepped back from the desk, swinging the set of keys around a finger before walking down the hall with a confused frown.

“What is it?” One of the pairs of blue eyes, the shorter pair, spoke up with a tilt of the head. Toy Freddy. Ina simply replied with a shrug.

“Just stay here. We’ll find out once I let him in.”

Ina picked up the pace at the sound of tires crunching against gravel as she approached the double doors, slipping the keys in and unhooking the bolts at the top and bottom of the door before unlocking and pushing the doors wide. She didn’t expect the white van of all vehicles to be sitting there, Robert already exiting to pull open the sliding door at the side.

She also didn’t expect to come face to face with what looked to be an animatronic. Not an animal, but she could see the seams at the joints. The head was definitely neither human nor animal.

Robert seemed ready to move things along, holding out a hand to seemingly assist the stranger down before they instead hopped down with ease, rocking the van in the process. They didn’t even seem to notice the two humans before they bounced on into the restaurant with what Ina assumed was curious eyes. Aside from the two long antennae where ears usually sprouted from and a long seam that seemed to be a functioning mouth, said mouth opening eerily wide as the animatronic spun in possibly silent awe, their face didn’t seem to have much in the way of expressions.

Things seemed to fall silent as the animatronic continued spinning, examining the small area before they seemed to emit a series of squeaks, as if imitating speech, before they skipped deeper into the restaurant, the large black and pink bow at their waist bouncing behind them, leaving the two staff members staring, one much more confused than the other.

“Who or...what did you just bring?” Ina asked softly once Robert had slid the van’s door closed and approached, arms crossed as he watched with a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.

“That would be Oakley! New kind of animatronic they’re trying out. Supposed to be some instrument; otamatone or something? Can’t talk, but they can...make that sound,” Robert explained with a shrug as if not entirely sure himself. “They’re only here until the rest of the line-up's done and their own restaurant opens. As a sort of promotion.”

Ina nodded slowly before they fell into silence. Robert quickly broke it with a clap of his hands as he began to back up.

“Anyway, I gotta take this van back and pick up some tired kids from a very patient co-worker. I’ll see you in about an hour and a half,” Robert quickly excused himself as he hurriedly hopped back in the van and drove off, leaving Ina to secure the doors once more and leave to locate the temporary addition to the restaurant. It didn’t take long.

Ina had barely taken a few steps before a loud shriek rang out through the pizzeria, followed by an almost exact copy with a much less familiar voice. The night guard silently cursed Robert before she hurriedly moved to catch up to the energetic new addition.

She had to take a moment to compose herself as she turned into the main dining area and locked eyes with the stage. Oakley stood in front of it, bouncing lightly on their feet in barely contained excitement as they seemed to blankly stare at the four animatronics crowded together, ears low and eyes wary until Mangle locked eyes with Ina barely holding herself together at the sight. The fox wordlessly tried to ask for assistance which Ina was happy to give.

“Hey, guys! I see you’ve met Oakley! They’re gonna be hanging out with us until their location opens, so be nice.”

Four more heads snapped to look in her direction; three a mix of confusion and curiosity, one still unreadable save from the mouth wide open in a grin and the antenna – shaped like the little stems on music notes, Ina could tell from this angle now – lifted high. Toy Freddy was the first to break the silence, gently pushing Toy Bonnie away who had taken to gripping the shorter bear’s shoulders as if he were a shield from the stranger.

“So they’re going to perform?” Ina nodded in reply. Toy Bonnie rose to their full height once more as he was detached from the bear, hands clenched into fists. He seemed to be the most aggravated at this sudden change in animatronic performers with no prior warning.

“Where will they perform? This is my- our stage,” he shrieked, barely correcting himself at the loud sound of Toy Chica clearing her throat. Ina could only shrug in reply, not phased by his outburst.

“I’ve told you all I know. They’re here until the rest of their group is done and their location’s open. There’s probably plans.”

The four Toys fell silent once more, seemingly thinking between themselves.

Mangle was first to approach Oakley, static soft as they approached the new figure and held out a hand. Oakley didn’t even seem to have cared, or maybe even registered, the cold and confused welcome they had initially received, squeaking out an excited squeal as their pair of rubber hands clasped the fox’s single one and...stood there, bouncing on the balls of their feet once more as if happy to just stand there holding hands.

Mangle quickly began to turn their head, begging eyes seeking out someone to drag them out of this suddenly awkward greeting.

“So! This is Mangle,” Ina cut in suddenly, gently patting Mangle’s head as she pried Oakley’s from the fox’s and took them into her own, guiding the animatronic closer to the stage where the main trio continued to stand together. “And this is Toy Chica, Toy Freddy, and Toy Bonnie,” she continued, waving one hand to indicate each. “I hope we can all be friends?”

Oakley seemed to perk up even more, somehow, at the mention of ‘friends’, meeting the eyes of night guard and animatronics before yelling out once more – Ina would admit it sounded maybe like a cheer – and leaping onto the stage with ease. None of them seemed to expect the animatronic to be so light on their feet, scrambling to put space between themselves and Oakley. Toy Freddy wasn’t built for such sudden movements unfortunately, stumbling enough for the instrument-themed animatronic to quickly close the gap and, with a shriek from the surprised bear, pull the much smaller one into a hug, lifting Freddy just enough to twirl the now limp bear a little before setting their sights on the rest of the team and easily grabbing them and repeating the motion, slowly babbling more in their odd wavering tones.