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Flare let out a heavy sigh, his arms crossed over his chest while he quietly watched over the daycare. A handful of giggling, screeching children darted past him, and he arched an eyebrow in mild amusement at the sight of Lunar chasing after them, doing his best to imitate Moon. Moon would argue that he wasn't nearly as goofy as Lunar painted him to be, but that was something that Flare and Sun had to disagree with. Moon really was that goofy, and he acted like he wasn't even aware of it.

The jester leaned back against the side of a play structure and looked down at one of his hands, idly flexing his fingers; it felt odd to be at the front on a normal day, when there were no threats or intruders to deal with. Ever since Moon had gotten invested in learning how to tinker with technology, he'd used his brothers as guinea pigs, altering their codes ever so slightly over time until he'd successfully bypassed the programming that was set in place by Fazbear’s. Now, instead of only emerging when Moon's homicide code was accidentally tripped, Flare and Lunar had the option to switch out with their brothers and take over their shared bodies whenever they pleased.

Flare couldn't help but smile slightly to himself, recalling the way Lunar had practically been vibrating with excitement the first time he'd successfully switched out with Moon. Lunar was overjoyed, and it didn't take a genius to realize that.

There was a soft tug on his pant leg, accompanied by the voice of a small child, calling out to him and snapping him out of his thoughts, "Mr. Sun, can you walk me to the bathroom? I gotta go potty."

As Flare's bright, rust-colored gaze met the child's own, the child withdrew his small hand from the animatronic's pant leg and he shrunk back a little, his blue eyes widening in realization. Flare crouched down, making sure he was at eye level with the boy and offering a small smile, doing his best to reassure him, "It's ok, Ash. Lots of kids think I'm Mr. Sun. He's taking a nap right now, but I can still walk with you, if you'd like me to."

Ash seemed to relax a bit, nodding his head and mumbling, "Yes, please."

Standing up, Flare hummed, "Alright, buddy. Let's get going then, shall we?"

The child nodded, taking the hand that Flare offered him before they exited the daycare. The walk to the bathroom was quick and as simple as could be, with Flare waiting patiently for Ash to do his business once they arrived. Afterward, he checked in, making sure the boy had properly washed his hands before guiding him back to the daycare. Inside, the employee at the security desk, Nicole, was talking to a man. Upon doing a quick scan of the man, Flare made a face; this man wasn't in the database.

A feeling of unease bubbled up inside him, but he ignored it, opting to let Nicole do her job. He would step in if necessary, but for now, he would watch over the daycare and sit with Ash. Ash had insisted that they drew pictures together, so that's what Flare agreed to do. He sat at the plastic table, his long, lanky legs bent at an angle to accommodate his height in comparison to the height of the table itself while he doodled mindlessly on a piece of blank paper.

Noticing a messy, stick figure woman in the picture that Ash was working on, Flare leaned a tiny bit closer and tilted his head, "Who's that, Ash?"

Ash peeked up at Flare, giving the jester a small smile, "It's Miss Nicole. She's nice to me, and she always gives me one extra candy after snack time."

The jester gave a small smile in return, humming softly, "Oh yeah? It sounds like you like her a lot."

"Uh huh!" Ash's smile widened slightly and he nodded, "I do!"

Flare chuckled softly, planting an elbow on the tabletop and resting his head on his hand, "I can tell. I like her, too."

The boy stared at him for a few seconds in silence, before his expression turned positively devious. Hunching over his drawing and trying to hide it with one arm, he started scribbling something else into the picture, and Flare arched an eyebrow, "What are you up to now, short stack?"

Ash giggled when Flare attempted to peek at his drawing, trying extra hard to keep it concealed, "Nothing! I'm not doing anything, Mr. Flare!"

Mimicking the playful, teasing tone that he’d heard his brothers use so many times before, Flare wiggled his fingers at Ash, as if preparing to tickle him, “Hmmm… I’m not sure how much I believe that, little spark. Maybe you’ll tell me if I tickle you enough.”

The child’s giggling grew louder and he shook his head, squirming away from the jester as his wiggly fingers drew nearer, “Nuh uh! I’ll never tell you my secrets!”

The jester couldn’t help but chuckle again, his fingers finding the crook of Ash’s neck, “I hope you’re ready to be tickle tortured then, tough guy.”

Ash’s body jerked and he nearly shrieked with laughter, his cheeks reddening as he tried squirming away from Flare again. After a moment of pretend torture, Flare withdrew his hands from the child, allowing him a minute to catch his breath and come down from the giggle fit he’d gone into. With Ash distracted, Flare snuck a quick peek at his drawing, finding a hastily drawn stick figure that resembled himself, holding hands with the stick figure of Nicole. Around both figures were numerous hearts, scribbled in pink crayon, and Flare immediately pieced together what Ash had done. He let out an exaggerated gasp, his rays spinning around his head, “Oh my goodness gracious, Ash, what is this? What is this utter blasphemy?”

Ash burst into giggles again, practically throwing himself on top of his drawing, “You said you liked Miss Nicole, so I drew you holding her hand!”

Flare playfully nudged the boy and scoffed, “Eww, holding hands? Gross, Ash! What’s next, a drawing of us kissing?”

More laughter escaped the boy and he shrugged, “Maybe!”

The jester rolled his eyes, attempting to very carefully slip the paper away from Ash, and Ash noticed immediately, tugging his paper away from Flare and holding it close to himself, “You’re tryna steal my drawing! I should go tell Miss Nicole on you!”

Flare couldn’t help the snicker that left him, “Oh no, I’m so scared, Ash. Please don’t tell on me! What if I get in trouble?”

Ash puffed up a little, a wide, mischievous grin on his face as he stood up from his seat, “Then good! I hope she spanks your butt!”

The jester froze for a split second, his programming stalling at Ash’s particular choice of wording, and in the headspace, he could hear Sun, laughing so hard that he was all but wheezing.

When he finally blipped back into the current moment, Ash was already darting towards the security desk where Nicole was, still speaking with the man from before. Not wanting the child to distract her too much from whatever she was doing, Flare stood and followed after Ash. Trotting up to the desk, Ash slapped the drawing down and slid it towards Nicole, “Miss Nicole, I made you a drawing!”

Pulled from her conversation with the unidentified man, Nicole looked from Ash to the drawing, momentarily surprised by the child’s sudden appearance, “Oh, thank you, buddy, it looks great! Who’s that standing next to me, though? It looks like it’s either Mr. Sun or Mr. Flare.”

Ash gave her a big, bright smile and chirped, “It’s Mr. Flare! He said he likes you, so I drew you guys holding hands.”

The employee’s face flushed a very soft shade of pink and she gave Ash a lopsided smile, clearing her throat, “Awe, that’s very sweet. How come there are hearts around Mr. Flare and I?”

The boy continued smiling, not even an ounce of hesitation behind his words, “There’s hearts because you guys are in love.”

Nicole’s faint blush grew a few shades brighter, and she floundered for a moment, trying desperately to get her bearings when Flare approached the desk and sighed, “Apologies, Nicole. I hope Ash isn’t keeping you from your work.”

She cleared her throat again, this time louder than before, before shaking her head and looking up at the jester, “No, no, it’s alright! I’m just waiting for the computer to load some forms right now, so it’s not a big deal.”

Flare hummed, glancing down at the desk and taking notice of the drawing. Arching a brow, he tilted his head, an amused edge to his tone as he met her gaze, “Ah. I see he’s already shown you his wonderful artwork.”

By this point, Nicole’s entire face burned a vivid shade of red, and she gave an awkward laugh, “Yep, he sure has. He also mentioned something about you and me being in love.”

Once again, the jester’s programming stalled, and the swirls in his rays began to glow significantly brighter. Before he could get in a single word, Ash decided to chime in again, pointing a small, accusatory finger at the jester, “He tried to steal my drawing too, Miss Nicole! And then when I said I’d tell on him, he dared me to do it!”

Flare’s internal fans booted up, producing a soft whirring sound, and he halfheartedly scoffed, “Excuse you, little spark, you’re the one who said you hoped she spanked my butt.”

A split second passed before it dawned on him what words had just left his mouth, and his ray swirls began to glow even brighter. Registering what had been said, Nicole wasn’t faring any better; her face reddened to a nearly impossible degree, almost making her vaguely resemble a tomato or a stop sign. She and Flare stared at each other in silence for a moment, before Flare gently grasped Ash’s shoulders, turning the child to face one of the daycare’s play structures and then gently patting his back, “I think it’s time for you to go play with your friends now, Ash. Wouldn’t that be more fun than standing around and listening to the adults talking?”

Ash puffed his cheeks out, clearly pouting, “Nuh uh! I’m having lots of fun over here with you guys!”

Flare let out a heavy sigh, “Fine, fine. You can stay here, but you need to be good, alright? No more teasing Miss Nicole. If you tease her too much, that could make her uncomfortable, and that wouldn’t be a very nice thing to do, would it?”

The boy shook his head and made a face, “No, I guess not. Can I sit at the desk and draw pictures with her, Mr. Flare?”

The jester hummed, “You can’t go behind the desk where she is, but sitting across from her where we are right now might be ok. Why don’t you ask her about it and make sure she’s alright with you hanging out with her, first?”

Ash’s wide blue eyes turned their focus to the employee, and he mumbled, “Can I sit at the desk and draw with you, Miss Nicole? Pretty please?”

Nicole pretended to consider it for a moment, before she gave him a small smile and made a sound in confirmation, “Sure, I guess that’d be alright. Why don’t you go ahead and get some paper and crayons for us to draw with?”

The boy’s face lit up with a bright smile and he nodded, giggling and trotting off to retrieve the drawing supplies. Nicole’s attention refocused itself on Flare, and she hesitated for a few seconds before speaking, “Hey, uh… later when the daycare closes, do you think wー”

A shrill scream cut off her words, and both her and Flare looked to the source. The child who’d screamed was Ash, and he was currently in the arms of the unidentified man from before. Seeing that he’d been spotted, the man took off running, exiting the daycare with the kicking, screaming, and borderline sobbing child. Nicole’s eyes widened and she froze, panicking and reaching for the walkie-talkie on her belt. Flare’s ray swirls dimmed, and this time, his eyes began to glow instead.

Acting on instinct and following the programming that was going absolutely haywire in his head, he took off running after the man, wasting not even a single second to catch up with him. The man weaved through a crowd of people, struggling for a moment to haul Ash up a short flight of stairs due to how much the boy was fighting him, and this was the exact opportunity that Flare needed.

There was a very quick, soft crackling sound as Flare reached out, his hand brushing the man’s back, and the man yelped, his body jerking awkwardly. His grip loosened on Ash just enough for the child to wiggle free, sobbing as he ran back to the daycare, right into Nicole’s waiting arms.

With Ash out of the way, Flare seized the man, roughly driving him down onto his belly on the stairs. There was a crack that Flare chose to ignore as one of the man’s ribs was driven into the edge of a step, and he pressed both hands onto the man’s back, his expression and tone cold and void of any kindness that he’d previously displayed, “You just attempted to abduct a child. For that, I’ll be holding onto you until the proper authorities arrive. If you try to run or get even the tiniest bit violent or hostile with me, then I’ll be forced to shock you.”

The man squirmed and began to protest, “Get off of me, damn robot! You busted my rib! I oughtta sue thー”

A high-pitched buzzing sound could be heard, and the man screamed, his entire body going taut underneath Flare. The buzzing sound cut out and the man shook, looking back over his shoulder at the jester with wide eyes, his breath quickening as the color drained from his face.

Once again, Flare’s programming stalled, and he froze. His vision faltered, everything turning hazy, as an unfamiliar voice rang out, its volume cycling between lower and higher as it warbled, “Do it, Eclipse. Remember what we talked about.”

Flare squinted in confusion, willing his vision to refocus and clarify. He looked down at the man, his systems stalling as he saw a woman in the man’s place instead. The woman was wide-eyed, very blatantly scared out of her mind, sobbing and pleading to be let go, and Flare’s rays began to slowly flatten. The same voice from behind spoke again, sounding much closer this time, “I chose you, Eclipse. Don’t make me regret it.”

One of Flare’s rays twitched and he whirled around, half expecting to find someone standing beside him. There was a burning sensation in his head and he winced, one hand tentatively feeling the panel on the back of his head while the other pressed down harder into the back of whoever he was holding down. His vision glitched, showing an overlay of the woman over top of the man from before, as if he was seeing two pictures becoming aligned.

The burning in his head grew stronger and he gritted his teeth together. Squeezing his eyes shut, he breathed deeply, trying to focus on the sound of Sun’s voice as his brother called out to him in their headspace. Soon enough, Moon and Lunar’s voices joined Sun’s, each of them expressing their concern and asking what was going on. Flare’s systems flipped between anger and remorse, and he shook his head, his synthetic breathing quickening. Right as he began to let go of his surroundings, he heard the faint echo of Nicole’s voice, accompanied by the high-pitched buzzing of electricity.

Some time had passed after that. Flare wasn’t sure how much it’d been, due to being consumed by his thoughts as heavily as he was. He’d opted to let Sun take control of their shared body after the man had been dealt with by the authorities. He was gone, and at the moment, Sun was sitting with a small group of kids, quietly watching as Ash’s father came rushing through the daycare doors, just as frantic as one would expect. Lunar walked Ash to the door, and the child burst into tears, tightly clinging to his dad. Sun smiled sadly to himself, grateful that Ash was alright, but upset by how frightened he’d been by the whole ordeal.

“It’s my fault. If I had run a scan on that guy and done a background check or something, then I wouldn’t have let him anywhere near the daycare.” Flare’s voice was a mumble in their mindscape, and Sun frowned, furrowing his brows.

Keeping his internal volume low, he mumbled back, “You did do a scan though, Flare. He wasn’t in the daycare’s database, so we didn’t have anything to run a background check with. None of this is your fault… you had no way of knowing what’d happen.”

Flare fell silent, and Sun sighed, adding, “If you ask me, I’d say you did good. It’s because of you that Ash is ok, and that he’s still here with us. It’s very unfortunate that he got so scared, but if you hadn’t acted, who knows what would’ve happened? You saved him, brother.”

The moodier of the two let out a sigh of his own, “If I’m so great, then what’s wrong with me? Something happened when I saw the look of fear on that guy’s face, and I don’t know how to even explain it.”

Sun leaned back in his seat, absentmindedly hugging himself, “You can try. I’m here to listen, and you know I won’t judge you or anything.”

Flare hesitated a moment, before speaking slowly, “...I dunno. One minute, everything was fine, then the next, my optics started acting up, and I heard a man talking to me.”

The jester at the front furrowed his brows again, “A guy was talking to you?... What was he saying?”

Flare made a low sound of uncertainty, “He was saying stuff like ‘Remember what we talked about,’ and ‘I chose you, don’t make me regret it.’ It sounded like he was talking to me, but at the same time, I don’t think he was, because he kept saying ‘Eclipse.’”