#sun fic

The words aren't clear enough to make out, so you push yourself away from the desk and leave the office, then out of the hallway into the main daycare area.

It doesn't take more than a breath of time to realize who is making all the noise--a parent. They're standing near the front of the daycare, but not where they're supposed to be.

The check-out desk was located in the small room overlooking the daycare's main play area, separated by plexiglass and rope netting. Not only was it supposed to be an easier way to get kids comfortable in being away from their parents (they literally arrive in the daycare by way of a slide into a ball pit), but it also served as a form of security--nobody could enter the daycare without proper credentials, and there was always someone posted up there to greet anyone coming to drop off or pick up their child.

But this one? Somehow, this one came through an employee-only entrance. That audacity alone would make your blood boil, but the fact that you recognized the woman only made it worse.

Her shrill screaming filled the room with venom while she clutched her son against her hip, as if trying to shield him from the poor daycare attendant animatronic who was, as best as he could, diffuse the situation.

It doesn't take long to get an idea of what she's going off about either--the woman is not particularly quiet about it.

"When I leave my son here, I expect that he will be safe!" she hisses, brushing her son's hair as if trying to soothe the child. "And what do I find when I come to pick him up? That he's been manhandled and tossed around like a toy--you're lucky he didn't break a bone!"

The young boy doesn't look injured, and if anything he seems more scared of his mother.

Travis, you recall his name--a rather quiet boy, didn't always like to play with other kids. His mother, Sarah, worked in one of the back offices as a programmer. Her hours were always odd, so his father tended to be the one to drop the boy off. Now you understand why.

The thing was, Travis really liked playing with Sun. Since he was shy, the daytime bot often took it upon himself to try and encourage the boy to take part in craftime or storytime--he'd recently been able to get him to play in the ball pit with the other kids his age.

"This kind of behavior is completely inexcusable," she finally seethes, a look of one-note rage in her eyes that seemed to burn the longer she looks at the animatronic. "I will make sure to put in a complaint about this--"

"I-I am sorry that you think your son was h-harmed, Miss Martin. I assure you that h-he was just playing with the other kids." Sun lifts his hands up in a passive way, trying desperately to keep her from screaming more. People were starting to stare at the unfolding scene, and it was quickly coming undone at the seams. "I am incapable of doing anything that w-would put any little superstars in danger!"

Sarah's eyes gleam with poison as she seems to catch her claws on a hook. "Oh, so you're saying you're defecting from your programing?"

"N-no! Not at all! My programming is clean as a whistle, I have it debugged at r-regular intervals!"

"I work in the programming department," she says, voice going quiet. "With the glamrock series code. Directly down the hall from the man who makes decisions about every machine in this facility. All it would take is for me to walk right down to his office and let him know that the daycare is turning into a severe liability for the company." You are already hurrying over, not missing the way Sunny's fists start to clench tight, tight enough for his joints to squeal under the pressure as he restrains himself. He's trying so hard to keep his professionalism under the abuse--and Sarah seems to know exactly what to say.

"Your model is old. Your code is old. It's a shoddy piece of work that should be scrapped and redone, I've been telling them that for months now. They'd be better of scrapping you so we can finally have room for another glamrock and-"

You waste no time in immediately stepping directly into the line of fire, forcing yourself into the space between Sun and Sarah who has, until that moment, been encroaching closer and closer into his personal space. Was she trying to set him off? To see how far he would take the abuse before saying something wrong?

Probably. You wouldn't put it past a cruel woman like her at this point.

"What seems to be the problem here?" you say, fake smile wide and tone forcibly friendly. "I sure heard you all the way from my office!"

"Oh no dear, don't worry, it's nothing you need to concern yourself about," the woman says, waving her hand at you as if expecting her words to be like an order. "Though you can be a dear and go fetch the manager?"

You don't move, but clench your jaw tight and force the words through your teeth, "I happen to be the manager of the daycare, so if there is an issue or complaint, then I need to know about it! So please," the fake smile drops and you stare at her hard. "What is the problem here?"

Sarah's expression twitches with annoyance, but she tries to immediately save face by gesturing to her son and acting as if she was the one getting yelled at.

"Well, I didn't want to make a big deal of it, but my son has been injured because of your animatronic!"

You glance over at Travis. The poor kid is no older than eight, and he's trying to stare down at his shoes, his face flushed red with embarrassment and shame.

"Hey, little buddy," you kneel down to be closer to eye-level with him. "Did something happen to get you hurt?"

He shakes his head before his mother can try to interject. When you try to ask him another question she finally puts a hand between his gaze and yours, breaking it and forcing you to look back at her.

"That thing is running on severely old, broken code," she says, tone low and voice slow, as if trying to communicate an unspoken threat. "It's only a matter of time before something happens. Before someone gets hurt. I don't understand why they haven't just decommissioned the abhorrent thing. Doesn't even look as cute as the glamrocks."

Oh. So she's chosen death?

No. Breathe. Slowly. Remember how things work. Remember to play it smart. She wants you to get angry, needs to get a response out of you just so she can use it to cry to upper management.

Be smart about this. Be smart and unyielding. It takes every ounce of restraint not to deck the woman in the nose right there--but you at least have an upper hand.

"Who is your direct manager?"

"Huh?"

You stare at her expectantly, letting the silence fill the room before finally clarifying and repeating yourself. "Who. Is. Your. Direct. Manager?"

"I-I don't know how that's relevant to the current problem we're trying to solve."

"Well," you finally say, pulling out your company-assigned mini pad and scrolling through the employee database. "I need to get into contact with them about your behavior. Obviously you've forgotten several very important policies and I want to make sure you're educated on them as need be."

"Wh-what policies?" Sarah demands. "I haven't broken anything--that thing is what we're talking about right now."

You shake your head, proud of the even tone to your voice even though you want nothing more than to scream and yell at her in kind.

"First, you enter the daycare using an unapproved door-"

"I am an employee for the company-!"

"-and even employees are not allowed to use that door. It is for daycare attendants and handlers only. It is an active security measure to ensure the safety of little superstars like your son, whom you obviously seem to care for the safety of, right?"

She is silent, sputtering, taken aback by your confidence or simple knowledge of how to play the system correctly.

"Second, I have you on record actively harassing a coworker. Not only are you specifically not using his preferred pronouns, you are also belittling and demeaning him and his ability to do his job correctly. A job which I will remind you is difficult and stressful and comes with a wide variety of nuance."

You take the opportunity to step forward. Not too far, just a little idle step. Enough to take control and apply pressure to the situation.

"I'm sorry that you can't seem to understand the subtlety of how kids tend to play around Travis' age, and I'm sorry that you don't seem to care about the fact that he has been making very good progress in getting to know the other kids--specifically because of Sun's hard work with him."

Another small, calculated step. Sarah retreats from how she's looming forward, and you can see the tension in her jaw.

"Harassing a coworker? I haven't said anything to-"

"Sun? You mean one of my employees? The very one I heard you screaming at?" You shrug, managing to seem coldly nonchalant with surprising ease--maybe it's the adrenaline coursing through your veins. Between the heat of your words, you feel one of Sun's hand gently grabbing the back of your shirt. Not tugging, just holding on. "I mean, if you like we can go into my office and I can pull the cameras--if I misunderstood something then surely we can go over the recording and find out where I'm not getting that right."

That's the final push. Sarah knows she can't win the argument or force you to back down from a legitimate, honest-to-god threat. Despite being in a different department, technically you are still above her; you already know her manager. Marcus was a pretty easy-going guy that had a lot of sympathy for the animatronics, so it wouldn't take much for him to write her up from your word alone.

"I... well, maybe I just misunderstood," the woman finally says, her smile cold and not reaching her eyes. "No need to make this a big deal or anything! I will make sure to use the right door next time, my mistake."

Your mouth moves faster than your brain can stop them--it's edging on the line of being appropriate for someone of your position, but you need to make sure this woman understands that you are willing to hold your ground.

"Please do, because if I hear of something like this happening again? I will ban you outright from the daycare facility."

Her eyes widen and she opens her mouth as if to say something, but she's already lost. You have the authority to decline service to anyone, and at least with this situation you were grateful to have that power.

Sarah hurries out of the room without another word. You feel bad for Travis--the kid really didn't deserve to be in the middle of all that--but he offers some assurance by turning around to try and wave before the two of them disappear beyond the door.

You barely get a chance to let out a held breath before a pair of hurried footsteps approach you.

"Is everything okay?" one of the attendants ask. She's normally so soft spoken, but you can hear the genuine concern leaking through the words. "I knew as soon as I saw Sarah things would be bad--she always tries to find something to yell about when she picks Travis up."

"Yeah," the other worker echoes, then turns to speak to Sun. "I am so sorry you ended up with her, Sunny. If I knew she had used the door down here I would have immediately left the intake room."

The two of them started to crowd around you and Sun a bit more than you liked. Jesus, how was Sun even doing?

"We're okay, it's fine just-" another sigh spills from your lips, exhaustion taking the space where adrenaline had kept you so still and composed. "You two go make sure the other kids are okay? That was a lot of screaming for them to hear."

With only a little more consoling they finally move away to check on the few kids still waiting to get picked up. It leaves you and Sun alone at least, a vague amount of privacy.

You turn around, not sure what to expect from the animatronic--but it's a surprise all the same to find him staring at you with wide, as if unbelieving eyes. There's a sense of tension hidden somewhere in his expression, but its overshadowed by something else. Something hard to read.

"... Are you okay, Sunny?" you finally ask in a soft, gentle voice. He looks down, peering at the multicolored carpet silently. All it takes is the soft touch of your hand gently touching the side of his faceplate to make him twitch, listening but still not looking at you. "Don't you worry about anything, okay? She's just a cruel nobody who likes making other people feel bad. I will make sure she's not allowed anywhere beyond the intake room and make a recommendation that Travis' dad be the only one who can pick him up."

He is still silent, but you're relieved to see his body loosen. All that tension, all that heartache and anger, almost all gone in an instant.

"Sunny...?"

After a moment, the animatronic finally tilts his face into your touch. Before you can ask or say anything else, however, he sweeps you into his arms in a tight hug. So tight in fact that he begins to spin you around in a circle, stopping only when he's done sputtering.

"You didn't have to do all that for little ol' me! Someone so busybusy like you shouldn't need to deal with parents at all--you're so silly, starlight!"

Despite the fact that his words try to sound casual, you saw every sign in the book that Sun had barely been taking the woman's verbal abuse. You can't imagine what would have happened if you hadn't shown up--would he have snapped? Would she have threatened something worse?

"Oh goodness please put me down Sunny-" you lean into his arms as the room slowly stops spinning around you. Then, when you collect yourself, you offer him a warm and genuine smile. "Sunshine, you are one of my employees, and nobody deserves to be talked down to like that at all. It's not fair for her to treat you like that-" you catch a look of worry somewhere in his eyes, and so you quickly add, "-and I will never let you be decommissioned. There isn't anything wrong with you, so don't let her empty threats put a rain cloud over you."

It's only in that moment that you realize how tightly his hands are grasping at your uniform.

"... you... promise?"

He's more scared of that then he ever lets on.

"I promise," you say with complete confidence. "Nobody will ever hurt you on my watch, Sun. You and Moon both. They'll have to go through my stubborn ass first--and I actually memorized most of the employee handbook anyway."

"Starlight!" he says, sounding shocked.

"Wh-what?"

"Language."

You chuckle, the sound rumbling through your chest as you bring a hand over your face. You'll have to touch base with Sun again once the other kids and employees have left for the night, but at least he's doing better.

Honestly, the job was quite a nice change of pace from the constant busybody work you were used to outside of the winter-themed antics, mostly office work that largely involved schedule and personnel management for the few human workers in the daycare. You’d almost like to call yourself a manager some days, but there was very little to actually manage—much of the facility was almost fully automated, hence your willingness to take on the extra responsibilities of seeing the entire room looking like a 'winter wonderland'.

So you find yourself standing at the center of the main area, between both the two huge jungle gyms and several decisions on what type of decorations looked best on them. The choices were a bit limited since you could only use what the supply department, but varied enough that the choice was important.

"Classic red and green?" you murmur to yourself, tilting your head to the side as if that would give you mental clarity. "Maybe blues? They sent over a lot of ice and snowflake decals..."

Another tilt of the head offered no greater revelation, leaving you more annoyed than anything else. Snowflakes? Candy canes?

Maybe you could work the decorating into some of the daily craft activities with the older kids... They could decorate trees or houses perhaps, or make paper snowflakes? It's not like most of the regular drop-offs didn't like to help out in some way, even if it was often pretend or made-up little jobs they could parade around like 'keep watch at the top of the jungle gym for monsters' or 'build the tallest lego mountain before mom and dad come to pick you up'.

A gentle hand on your shoulder is more than enough to startle you from your thoughts. A quick and slightly surprised glance reveals that it's only one of the daycare employees coming to tell you that their shift is almost done, so they were getting ready to head out for the evening.

"You're not staying late are ya boss?"

"Sure am," you say with a soft chuckle, rubbing the back of your head. "We need to have most of these decorations up before the start of next week, so I want to get a head start."

"Just yourself?"

You simply offer a noncommittal shrug, but the young worker simply takes it at face value and leaves to go grab his things in the back employee storage office. Soon after he leaves the daycare with a wave and a half-hearted joke about not being a salaried employee.

A few minutes pass, silence gently enveloping the daycare as other parts of the facility are powered down for the night. Normally it would feel just a bit surreal, given you were used to constant noise of music and screaming children echoing about, but there's something oddly warm about the half-done winter decorations already strewn up around you, even if you know that the initiative was hardly out of the goodwill alone of the CEO's heart.

The silence is broken by a sudden sound of heavy footsteps behind you; you turn, half-expecting to see your employee having forgotten one of his personal items and asking you to let him into the back room again, but you're pleased to see the Daycare Attendant animatronic—Sun, to be specific. He was practically radiating with joy as always, with a fresh sheen to his casing and a replacement of his normal outfit to be a bit more winter-adjacent.

"I thought you'd be out of commission for longer," the words are honest but gentle, and you can't help but give the bot a glance up and down. "The kids really did a number on you, I was... a little worried, actually."

Lie. You were actually quite a lot worried (more than was probably reasonable), but he didn't need to know that—not only were things already a tad awkward after the closet debacle a few weeks ago, but he'd also probably feel overly anxious about causing any sort of distress in another person, directly or otherwise.

The animatronic looked a bit bashful for a moment despite lack of facial features, but nonetheless lifted up his hands to wave away your concern.

"It wasn't that bad, I promise! The littlest ones always love to explore after all," he all but chirps in his over-enthusiastic tone, but it trails off after a moment as you stare him down. "... er, I mean, they didn't break anything important. Technically it was a wonderful experience for Jade, the new animatronic caretaker! She says she never realized that case plates could be pried off with a screwdriver, so she made sure to secure them extra-strong this time!"

He thumps a closed fist over his chest as if to prove it... though changes to policy after the incident ensured that the kids couldn't get into the emergency tool bag. All in all, it was just another good example of why little details were always the most important part of the job.

Nonetheless, he's fixed and in one complete piece, so that's enough for a smile to start tugging at your lips. Sun feels like he'd be smiling in kind if the expression wasn't permanent on his face—it wasn't hard to learn how to read his body language and tone of voice after a while.

"So what are you working on, star?"

The nickname is taken from what he calls the kids—little stars, respectively—and it never fails to bring heat to your face, even if you know he's simply acting on the personality he's supposed to have in the first place.

"We're putting up the winter decorations for the holidays." Your face turns back towards the jungle gyms, this time with a renewed sense of direction and a new question on your lips. "Would you like to help me with some of them, Sun?"

The animatronic all but dances in place with giddiness, answer obvious but he answers all the same, "Oh, absolutely! I wouldn't want to do anything else right now, we'll have so much fun doing that!" but he pauses after a moment, finally perching hands on his thin hips in an almost over-dramatic motion of curiosity. "... what holidays happen in winter?"

You blink at first in confusion, but quickly realize that he'd have no reason to know that information, so of course it wouldn't have been programmed or placed into the animatronic's data for reference—really goes to show the priorities of the company, honestly. Despite being a state-of-the-art piece of technology, Sun wasn't inherently connected to the internet; it was a security feature supposedly, both to keep his systems from getting a virus but also because...

Well, it would be quite the news story if one of the animatronics somehow stumbled upon some rather... inappropriate content that could mess with their personality matrices. And not that they haven't tried before; Monty was infamous for trying on multiple occasions to bulldoze through the firewall for clout alone. Sun and Moon, meanwhile, never asked or bothered much about it—though you did have a bad habit of letting them play around with your phone's hotspot data to watch youtube videos for new craft project ideas.

"There's a lot!" you finally reply, excited in a way so rarely felt around anyone else in the facility. "Off the top of my head there's Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Christmas—Diwali is in November, and technically there's the Lunar New Year after January." Your eyes drift off to the side as you try to think a little harder. "I know there's some others too, but there's a lot to celebrate in the winter! I'm actually a bit happy we're able to like, actually do something special for the season."

"Oh my," Sun tilts his head to the side, practically radiating with awe at the information. "That is a lot! I would absolutely love to help you decorate—oh! Are you going to be staying late tonight?"

You nod, and one might think that the bot was told that the entire world had become nothing but sunshine and daisies by the way he jumped in place, clapping his hands together with a sharp metallic noise.

"A slumber party! We haven't had one in so long and— and think of all the fun we can have! We'll get sleeping bags and I can find the fake campfire, and maybe if we're super duper brave then Moon can come out and tell scaaaary stories!"

"Decorating first," you waggle a finger at him, "and then we can have a slumber party. I need to get the jungle gyms finished before tomorrow morning at the very least."

"Affirmative!" Sun gave you a dramatic salute before hurrying off, his voice echoing. "I'm going to get some extra craft supplies—just you wait, we'll have the best holiday decorations in the entire Pizzaplex!"

A sigh escapes your lips after that, though it's oddly not one of annoyance or exhaustion. Salary hours were notoriously horrible, but somehow you never quite felt like you had a bad time with it. Maybe the company is just what you need to keep from getting overwhelmed by it all.

And you know what? Candy canes would be the perfect theme for the daycare—that's definitely something you could make with construction paper and glitter glue... right?