Once the daycare closes for the day, Moon tidies up the mess the children made. He stays silent, beside himself over what you did. He wants to lash out and be angry with you, make you understand the severity of what you did to not just yourself, but to them, as well.

He doesn't get it. Why won't you just love them and accept them already? They've done everything for you, right? They get you things, they gave you a room, he's taken you out, they've gotten revenge on your aggressors for you.

They have done everything for you and you still want to leave them. You still want to hurt them. Moon squeezes a toy in his hand too hard, causing the plastic beady eyes to fly out.

A STAFF bot beep alerts the lunar animatronic to the front doors. He opens them to see the little guy. It beeps again, letting him know it cleaned up the restroom you made a mess in. Moon shoos it away but not before the STAFF bot drops an item into his hand.

It's the thing that caused all of this stress.

Moon scans it. A bloody, broken nail file. He decides to pocket it for the time being, turning back to clean the rest of the daycare before tending to you.

~~~

You notice the lunar daycare attendant is taking longer than usual to come up. Usually, he cleans the room quick and joins you in less than an hour after closing. Tonight, he's been down there for over two.

You shiver, figuring he must be furious with you and doesn't want to see you right now. Your thigh itches horribly, but when you try to scratch it, the bandage gets in the way. You tug at it but the thought in the back of your head makes you afraid to remove it completely.

You'll bleed all over again. On the bed, the floor, yourself. They'll be even more angry with you than they already are.

You opt for just shaking your thigh up and down instead, trying to push the itchiness from your mind. The nerves of Moon taking so long gets the better of you but it's not like you can do anything about it.

Your hands are tied and you're immobile because of the leg restraint as well. You're in pain physically and mentally, but really, who else is to blame but yourself?

You chew on your finger tips since your nails are too short to do anything else with. You begin to rock, restlessness and anger seeping through your veins the longer you're sat waiting. "Stupid, stupid, stupid..." you chant to yourself.

With a big rock, you lose your balance and topple over the side of your bed at a weird angle. You're left hanging halfway off the bed, knee bent on top, other out stretched with the rope taut, preventing you from falling completely.

You can feel the blood starting to rush to your skull. You make a noise of concern, trying to pull yourself up, but with your wrists tied together, you can't grab anything. You have no strength to do a sit up without hands and your thigh is starting to burn from the strain.

You cry out as you try again and again to no avail. You're utterly stuck until the daycare attendant comes back.

~~

It feels like hours have gone by when you finally hear the loud thump of a heavy robot landing on the balcony. Moon walks in to find you in your strange position, face red from the blood, but also from embarrassment.

The chuckle your predicament gets out of him causes you to glare back. Moon wants to keep watching you struggle like this, but he knows leaving you like that for too long will cause damage, so he gently lifts you back up onto the bed.

You watch him as he brings out a med-kit, unzipping it to pull out a needle and thread. You gulp, never liking procedures like this. You try to glance over to see if there was anything to numb your thigh, but can't, so you begrudgingly ask.

"Is there anything for the pain...like numbing stuff?" Moon's ruby red eyes acknowledge you for a moment before going back to the supplies.

"No," he finally tells you. "We don't have anything like that. Didn't think we'd need to..." he mumbles at the end. "Besides," he stares at you, eyes half lidded, "s'not like you're not used to any pain in your thighs, hmm?"

You shiver and look away, having no answer to give him. You knew he was pissed. Consider this your punishment for getting caught. Moon notices you lost in thought. Good. He figures you need to think about what you did.

He begins his suture. You flinch, hiss and look away, unable to watch. Moon continues methodically, stopping to trace some older scars with the pads of his fingers and growling at your newer ones.

"How long?" You're startled from the pain and your thoughts by the question. You turn to look at him, confused. "How long have you been doing this under our care?" he growls.

You flinch and twiddle your fingers, unsure on how to answer that. Moon sets down the needle and grabs your hands, the rope rubbing you irritatingly in the process.

"I won't ask you again...How...long?" Your eyes begin to water but it does not waver Moon in the slightest.

"A...a couple weeks..." you stutter out, biting your tongue from crying. Moon only hums in response and finishes stitching up your wound. He stays silent the entire time after, packing everything up before regarding you.

"And this?" Your eyes widen when he pulls out the broken nail file.

"I uh...found that in the bathroom a while back..." The lunar animatronic shoves it back into his pocket.

"Anything else you want to tell us?"

You hurriedly shake your head. "That's all I was doing, I swear!" Moon laughs dryly, causing you to pale.

"You expect us to believe that?" Your heart drops when he says that. He jumps off the balcony, leaving you alone in darkness once again.

~~

"We are not to let her out of our sight anymore..." Moon snarls as he paces the daycare floor.

"We can't exactly watch her twenty-four seven, Moonie, as much as I'd like to..." Sun says regretfully.

"We'll put a camera up there," Moon suggests. He pulls out the blasted tool that's caused so much pain, spinning it in his fingers.

Sun makes a whining noise, hating to be the voice of reason. "We wouldn't be able to connect to it without the network and then the security guards would notice a new camera."

Moon throws his hands up in the air, furious. "Well we have to do something! She won't stop hurting herself! No matter what we do! And we keep missing it!" Sun doesn't respond, instead, sends calming waves through their connection.

Moon takes a faux deep breath and sighs.

"She'll be okay. She's restrained, can't do anything besides move around in bed." Sun grunts, "She knows about the door now...which is worrisome, but again, she'll be restrained for the time being so that shouldn't be a problem."

Moon glares at nothing. "Oh she'll be tied up for a while if I have anything to say about it..." Sun only hums, not disagreeing at all. You've been so naughty, he has no qualms over this particular punishment.

Moon shakes his head after some thoughts, his bell jingling softly. "No, no that won't do...she's been tied up plenty of times and nothing changes. She needs something more..." Sun makes a noise in the back of their mind, wondering what his brother is thinking. "She needs to learn that we're all she has."

~~

After Moon had left, you stayed up for a while, unable to settle down from the nerves. You waited for a long period of time for him to come back, but when he never did, you attempted to settle in for the night.

Your stitches itch and your wrists burn, leaving you highly uncomfortable. You twist and turn for what feels like forever, your endeavors in getting some rest feel so close, yet it is so far from your grasp just when you think you've reached it.

You shoot up with a gasp, hand to your heart and bangs clinging to your sweaty forehead. As you regain your breath, you notice the figure in the corner of the room on a beanbag chair, their ruby eyes looking up from their book with a raised eyebrow.

"Moon?" you question, eyes squinting to see in the dark. He lowers the hand that holds his book to acknowledge you. "How long have I been asleep for?"

"Mmm, approximately one hour, six minutes," he tells you simply, returning to reading his book.

You sit for a minute, confused. You rapidly blink your eyes and run a hand through your damp hair. You haven't had a nightmare for a while now, so why did you have one tonight? You look back to the occupied animatronic.

Why was he just sitting in the corner, reading in the dark? You're shameful to admit that his lack of presence beside you is highly noticeable. You're also too afraid to ask why he wasn't in bed.

So, you slowly lie back down and get comfortable, curling up on your side and fisting the blanket up to your chin. You toss and turn for a while longer when Moon speaks up, "Having troubles, Starshine?"

You don't turn to answer him, causing your reply to come out as a muffled, "Mhmm..."

Moon crosses his legs, flicking his book to cause the papers to audibly ruffle. "Sorry to hear that..." is all he says. You squeeze your eyes shut tightly, feeling the contempt from his words.

You realize he isn't coming to bed tonight.

~~

You slept horribly. Every hour or so, you'd wake up. Not just from nightmares, though you had a couple more, but just in general. Each time, you'd wake up feeling the emptiness from behind you.

You missed the warmth Moon supplied when he held you from behind. You also noticed he was no longer in the room every time you'd wake. You yawn, only now realizing your wrist restraints were still tied.

You wince at the rawness on your skin before looking around and wondering where Sun could be. He'd usually, somehow, always know when you're awake and would come check on you. You want to cry out for him, but can't without knowing there's nobody down there.

And since you can't move over and peer over the balcony to check, you're left waiting for him to arrive, lest you want to risk shouting and getting in trouble. Your sense of time has dwindled the longer you've been here, so you don't actually know how long it took to hear the sound of the aerial line.

Sun comes in almost silently. No boisterous greeting, not even a tap in his steps. "Breakfast, Sunshine." You notice the lilt in his voice is gone. He hands you a bowl of cereal. You struggle with your grip on the heavy ceramic bowl because of your bound appendages.

"A little help...?" you hesitantly ask, unsure why he's only staring down at you with his blank eyes.

"Ah...sorry, here!" He swiftly puts the bowl in your lap and forcefully places the spoon within your right hand. You can only stare back, flabbergasted. You wonder if he's pulling a prank but you figured that was more Moon's thing.

"Um..." you awkwardly maneuver the spoon to lift a bite. You huff. Just getting that one bite was aggravating the bones in your wrists. "Could you...untie me, please?"

Sun shakes his head, hand on his hip. "Until further notice, those ropes will not be removed."

You panic, the bite you had painstakingly spooned plopping back into the milk. "H-how long!?"

"We'll let you know." You stare at him, wide eyed, as he leaves without another word.

You start mumbling curse words under your breath. You messed up badly, you know that. But they can't possibly leave you tied to the bed the whole time, right? Your legs will cramp up, you'd need to walk around!

Not to mention the horrible angle your wrists are suffering from. You try to calm your panicked breathing. The spoon almost slips from your now sweaty grip, but you managed to catch yourself.

"Calm down..." you tell yourself. "I'll be good. I'll show them that I won't need these for very long."

Just lie down and take your punishment. It's the least you deserve after your little stunt.

You turn over and curl back up, not even noticing the bowl spilling over. Your neatly clipped nails try to push into your thighs, but are unable to find any purchase. "I can be good..."

~~

Sun comes back up a few minutes before the daycare opens. He finds you to be asleep with a mess on the floor. Sun hums, "Clean up...Poor thing can't eat without us..." Before cleaning up the mess, the sunny bot leans over to look at you.

He moves the hair from your eyes before his own move down to your wrists. He frowns at the irritation climbing up your arms. "We need something more...comfortable. These will only cause more problems the longer we use them..." Moon ponders out loud. Sun nods his head in silent agreement.

After a moment of throwing ideas back and forth mentally, Sun comes up with something. "Instead of having Jenna get us something, we have the solution at our fingertips!" Sun lifts and waggles his fingers.

Moon stays quiet, confused at what his brother is talking about.

"Well, not our fingertips, but our wrists!" Moon finally understands what he's getting at when Sun wiggles his wrists, the ribbon tied on shaking about. The bot gently unties the silky red ribbon and immediately feels naked without them.

"Feels weird," Moon whispers.

"Mhmm, but it's for the best. Hopefully, she won't need these for too long." Sun gets to work at untying the fraying rope from your limbs, making sure you stay asleep in the process. You whimper a couple times, but otherwise don't open your eyes.

Sun wipes his hands comically after a job well done, eyeing his handiwork. "Mm...Sun?" you murmur, rolling over.

"Stars..." Sun grumbles under his breath. "Sorry, to wake you, Sunflower. Go back to sleep, I'll bring you lunch later."

"Wha' time issit?" you ask, slurring your words through your drowsiness.

"Time for the kiddos to be coming down that slide and for you to stay here and be a good girl!" You sit up to look at him, noticing the shorter length of the rope on your ankle. You lift your hands to see that the rope is no longer there, and instead, soft, red ribbon replaces it.

You make the connection immediately, glancing to and from your wrist, to his. He watches you notice and smiles. "Th-thanks..." you shyly tell him. You really shouldn't be thanking him for something like this, but the ribbon is already a million times softer on your already sensitive skin.

Sun's smile grows wider, almost mirroring the ones Moon makes. "Now, I've got to go, but be good for me and Moonie, okay? I'll bring your lunch later." You nod.

You regret not saying anything as soon as Sun makes his grand entrance for the kids, diving off the balcony into the ball pit. Your books are out of reach. You stare at the staple to Sun and Moon's costumes.

They looked weird without them, you had thought when you saw how bare their wrists looked. No bells, either, since they were tied into them.

You bring the knot up to your teeth. Surely you can loosen them to slip a hand out to reach a book and put it back in, right? Their knot work is professional, so it'll take some force, but you think you can do it.

You grip an end with your teeth and begin to pull. "Ah!" you hiss when, instead of loosening like you expected, the knot got tighter around you. What sort of knot tightens like that?!

You attempt to pull a different end this time, to at least put it back to normal and not have the life squeezed out of your bones, only to have the same exact thing happen. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, oooww!"

Out of frustration for everything, you start repeatedly pounding your wrists into the mattress. "I. Hate. You!" you yell. You freeze up, realizing your mistake from raising your voice.

But no one came.

For some reason, that makes you even more angry. He should be up here reprimanding you for raising your voice during daycare hours! Why would Sun ignore you, because surely, he heard that.

You're finally being put on the back burner. You're not their number one priority anymore. Why would you be? You've been nothing but trouble the moment they saved your life. After this last stunt, surely they're ready to just toss you aside until you're convenient again.

You kick your legs in a tantrum, the blanket getting untucked and disarrayed in the process. You even use your free leg to knock the side table over, causing a loud crash. You sober up immediately after that, realizing what you're doing.

Throwing a tantrum like the kids they take care of do. You bring your knees up to your chest, putting your arms over them and laying your head down. You've really done it now.

Still, hours go by and no one has come to check up on you. Sun never even came by for lunch. Moon didn't check by during nap time. You lay flat, eyes staring up at the blank ceiling.

Surely, the two had forgotten about you. You're going to die up here. Alone. Like you always knew you would.

The sound of the curtains ruffling do nothing to stir you from your mind. Sun looks around the room in displeasure. Moon watches through his brother's eyes in approval. Ignoring you all day had an effect, one the nighttime bot enjoys very much.

Sun huffs and touches your forehead. You startle, eyes coming back into focus and landing on his milky white ones. "Where were you?" you grumble, looking away again.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry to disappoint you, Starbright! But we had a manager here today! He was keeping an eye on everything from above, something about an inspection of all of our performances! Moon and I just couldn't get away to see you today."

You stare at the bot as his rays spin and he smiles at you brightly. Your shoulders relax and you let out a sigh. You supposed you may have been a bit out of line. "R-right... of course." You feel stupid, your thoughts making your mind run through rampant ideas all day and it was something so small and silly.

You shift in place awkwardly after he does nothing. "Um, what do you have planned for tonight?" you ask him.

"Weeelll," he teeters in place, smile now taking on a more mischievous undertone, "After I clean up your mess here, I'll bring your food! Poor thing, must be starving!" You flush and look away, not liking being under his scrutinizing gaze.

You go to scratch your head but are unable to, opting to wring your hands together in your lap sheepishly. "Yeah...um, sorry 'bout that...I don't know what came over me..." 

Sun pats your head from the side of you, causing you to not see his curled eyes and sinister smile. "No worries, Starlight! We're used to cleaning up after temper tantrums!"

Your eyes widen, blinking rapidly as if you didn't hear what he just said. "I-! I never said I had a-!" you begin to defend yourself but he cuts you off with a side hug, cupping your right cheek in his palm.

"Shhh, you're tired, you're hungry..." Sun leans back, seemingly scanning you, "Your hormonal levels are high, too!" You're stunned into silence, unsure what to say to that, and you stay that way while Sun finishes tidying up

You only realize he's gone when the lights dim and you blink to adjust them to the new lighting. "Sorry for the late dinner, little Star. Here." Moon approaches your bed with a plate of food.

You take it from him and place it in your lap. It's a burrito from El Chips and it smells divine. You look from the hovering Moon back to your food a couple times. "Uhhhh..." you start, fingers trying to maneuver themselves to get a grip around the item.

Instead of eagerly feeding you, Moon turns on his heels and steps away. "Well, you enjoy. I've got security rounds to do." 

"Wait!" you call out. The bot doesn't stop at your command, though. He jumps off the balcony and leaves you alone. Again. You know he heard you. You know how good their hearing is, but you're afraid of the other option. He ignored you. Pointedly.

Like I said. Back. Burner.

You huff, rubbing your increasingly misty eyes with your upper arm. With a sniff, you decide your best bet in getting some food in your stomach is just lifting the plate up to your mouth and munching on the burrito from the side. 

When you finished your food, you place the plate on the floor and roll over, figuring you could get a nap in before Moon comes back. You want to ask him if he could maybe play his music box tonight in hopes it'd help fend off the nightmares like he boasts it does.

Moon never came back from his patrols that night.

~~

Sun woke you up the next morning, apparently late, as he's rushing around to get ready for the day. "You're never late for anything," you yawn, rubbing your eyes.

You hear him huff dramatically. "Yes, well, I'm not as perfect as my manual says!" You giggle at his sass. He straightens his skirt and you figure he's about to jump off as you both hear the laughter of children getting louder and louder.

"Oh! Wait!" This time, the brighter half stops for you. "Are you going to come up later today?" You hope you didn't sound too needy. That's the last thing you want them to think of you.

"Yeppers! Back to normal, Sunshine! Managers only do something like that a few times a year!" Sun reassures you happily. You nod.

"Okay, see you, then." Sun pats your head and hands you a book. You smile down at it after he leaves. They might have been a little distant yesterday, but you're sure it's been for good reason. Moon probably got held up with something during patrol and couldn't come back, that's why Sun was all frazzled this morning.

Today, you'll show them you won't need these restraints for much longer.

~~

Sun doesn't come up for lunch again. You lay down on your bed, lifting your legs to move them around after they started to cramp up. You counted to three thousand six hundred, having learned that's how many seconds are in an hour, twice, and still no Sun.

You busy yourself with your book, refusing to let your thoughts claim you.

Before long, the daycare lights are shut down and the kids have all gone home. You grow discontent, confused and lonely the more hours that go by where Sun and Moon don't check on you.

"Starlight?" Moon's calm voice murmurs. He peeks around the curtains to find you laying on your side, book clutched against your chest. He clicks his tongue. "Aww," he coos, walking over and sitting next to you and begins rubbing your back. "Have you been good?"

You sniff, nodding your head. "Why has Sun been lying to me?"

Moon tsks. "Not lying, Starlight," he tells you softly but firmly, "We've been busy with things going on that you wouldn't understand. We're not ignoring you on purpose."

You sit up to look into his eyes. You see no reason or signs of lying. "Well, I could maybe try to understand?" you try, wanting to feel useful. "You could tell me what's wrong and I could try to help?"

Moon chuckles, "How kind of you. However, it's not much to concern yourself with. We're dealing with it, that's all." You pout and slouch. "Speaking of, I've got to get ready for patrols." Moon stands, brushing himself off.

Your heart falls at the thought of being left alone again for hours at a time. "H-hey! You'll be back this time, right? Maybe we could...watch a movie?" Moon looks you over for a moment.

"Sorry, little Star, no movies for now. But yes, I'll be back tonight. Promise." You want to be upset at no movies, but his promise makes you feel hope. The boys don't promise lightly.

"Y-yeah, okay!" you smile to reassure him. 

Or are you reassuring yourself?

He hops off and you're alone yet again.

~~

"Sorry, my Love. There was a security breach last night."

"Sorry, Sunflower! There was a hazard spill! Had to evacuate the kiddos and bring in the STAFF bots! I had to direct them all day!"

"So sorry, Sweetheart, a new night guard shadowed me all night."

"Sunshine! My Honeybee! It was awful! The new daycare security guard was on my case all day! Thinking I didn't know how to do my job!" Sun harrumphs with frustration. "Who does he think I am! Incompetent at my job? He wouldn't let me out of his sight all day!"

Each and every day the two animatronics had some sort of excuse as to why they couldn't come up to spend time with you and each and every day you'd feel bad for thinking they hated you. 

Each time you tried harder and harder to get them to stay for just a few minutes more before they'd hug you and leave you alone.

Finally, during midday of regular daycare hours, Sun comes up. You perk up at the noise. "Sun?" you ask, closing your book. The same one you've already read three times through. You haven't had the heart to ask for anything since they've been so busy.

You actually get so excited to see Sun that you go to stand up but fall over from the ribbon holding your ankle down. "Oomf!" you get the air knocked out of you. Sun chuckles at your theatrics, helping you up.

You clear your throat, shaking the embarrassment off. "Wh-what uh, what are you doing up here? It's still midday."

Sun waves his hand. "Oh! Well the Glamrocks are doing a special performance today, so the kiddos were all picked up early!"

"Does that mean...I mean..." your cheeks redden, "Could we do something? Together?"

"Oh!" Sun acts surprised. "You want to do something with me? Of course! I'd love to play with you, Sunflower!" You start to bounce on the bed in excitement. Finally! You've been so bored and alone for almost a week now, you're itching for something to do!

You had really missed the boys.

"Let me go pull out some board games we can play!" Sun giddily tells you before disappearing through the tube. After a few moments, you see the jester's bell jingling shoes back out from within the wall. He pulls out a small stack of games.

"Untie her." Moon suddenly speaks aloud. Sun, sitting criss-cross on your bed, watching you excitedly look through the games, doesn't move.

"You're sure?" Sun whispers, rays going in and out just slightly that you don't notice.

"Do it and watch what happens."

Sun shrugs and does what Moon said. He leans over you and takes your hands. You stay still, unsure what he's doing. When he begins to expertly untie his professional knot, you gasp. You try to take your arms back and put them to your chest. Sun lets you do it albeit confused as you do so.

"I don't deserve to be untied," is all you say.

"Of course you do, Sunshine. You've been so good lately! And we're so sorry we've been too busy to be with you this past week. Let us make it up to you and take your ties off." You're afraid once he does so, they'll go back on after games and he'll leave again.

"You-you're not going to leave me alone tonight are you? And put them back on? 'Cause I've been trying hard even though you're not around! I haven't thought about hurting myself or anything!" Not while you've been too busy thinking and worrying about the boys.

"Nope! You've got me and Moonie all night! All to yourself!" You shyly give your hands to him and watch in wonder as he unties the knot effortlessly. As soon as they're free, you launch yourself into his chest and wrap your arms around him.

Moon growls within the head space, though it's in pleasure not anger. "Perfect." Sun wonders how Moon is so good at this.

You mumble your gratitude into the warm chassis of Sun over and over as he pats your back, his grin never letting up. "We're so sorry, Sweetheart. You must have been so lonely this week."

"It's not your guys' fault you were so busy. I'm just glad it's all over...right?" You almost cry at the thought of them leaving you alone for another week.

"Yes, yes. We promise, no more surprises where we can't come up to you. If anything were to pop up, we'll tell you." You look up at his crescent face.

You remove a hand and bring it up to his nose. His eyes cross to look at what you're doing. "Pinkie-promise?" You stick your pinkie out. You know the boys can't break a promise of this type if you seal it with a pinkie.

Sun chuckles. "We pinkie-promise," he latches his longer appendage around yours and seals the deal.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Or maybe it's forced isolation makes the emotional well-being of your captive more needy for the only source of life and forcing unhealthy attachments to their robotic captor makes the heart grow fonder.

Autophobia - Fear of being alone