Chapter Text
When you wake up from your alarm clock, you still feel the memory of tender metal fingers stroking through your hair. Confused, you sit up.
You´re alone in your bed – but why does it feel like somebody patted your head just a minute ago, when you were still half asleep? Must be a dream, you think to yourself. You don´t remember anything after Moon started playing his music box. Other than that, you feel really great. It´s a miracle you´re able to function this well again. This magical shooting star chaos really pulled you out of your misery. Just in time when you had to get back to work, too.
You stretch, stand up and change into the clothes someone suspiciously laid down on your chair for you. It is a bit of an interesting outfit choice, and obvious who picked it, with the only yellow shirt you have and bright blue pair of jeans, but you didn´t care too much about your outfit anyways. If it saved you time having Sun deciding what you wore to work, you would take it.
When you come into the kitchen, a bowl of cereal and a cup of tea is waiting for you. But Sun is not there. You sigh. What part of you telling Sun you don´t normally eat breakfast doesn´t he understand?
“Sun? Good morning.”, you call towards the living room while sitting down. The laundry is gone from the dryer, you notice. And the kitchen is absolutely spotless, as well as the floor. Looks like Sun cleaned up everything again.
“Good morning sunshine!”, you hear Sun´s bubbly voice from behind you. You turn around and smile, as he offers you a hug first thing in the morning. You stay put on your bar stool as he hugs you, this way you´re almost as tall as him.
“Are you feeling better?”, he asks, sounding worried again.
You nod. “I slept pretty well. Moon really knows what he`s doing, I gotta admit that.”
Sun´s rays spin happily at the praise. “That´s so nice of you to say. But you can tell him that yourself, you know.”
You look at him doubtful as you dig in your cereals. You can´t let the food go to waste, can you?
“I see you found your clean clothes.”, you change the subject as you eye the familiar jester outfit he wears again.
Sun nods enthusiastically. “Yes! All clean and dried, thanks to you. Next time, we will wash them ourselves, don´t worry.”
You raise an eyebrow. “I don´t mind washing them. But you won´t wear them outside, like we talked about it?”, you clarify.
“Right, right.”, he chimes innocently. “But as long as we´re at home, we can wear it!”
You smile. He´s right about that. You think about his wording. At home. It really sounds like he lives here with you, now. Well, in a way, he does. The universe really has a weird way of making your dream of a domestic live with your favourite fictional animatronic come true.
You have to leave for work in two hours, and by then he has to change again, but if he really feels so much better wearing his own clothes…
“Anyways… Are you ready for your big day? Today my boss will be back. And I can introduce you to her and to the costumers, finally!”, you excitedly announce. Sun beams.
“Oh, we are so ready! I will be my very best, I pinky-promise you!” He holds out his finger and you link your pinky with his. It´s been years since someone pinky-swore to you.
You still smile goofily as you pull out your phone from your pocket and open up Facebook. “Well now I have no doubt about it, Sun. Just don´t forget our robot training. Speak slowly and move choppily… Today I will contact Alex. Moon is right, Sun. We have to take precautions for cloudy days. And a check-up won´t hurt you either.”
Sun sighs as he takes your already empty tea cup and washes it in the sink.
“Do we have to?”, he complains softly. “I mean, we can always go into rest mode when there´s not enough sun to charge… Yes, Moon, I know! – And anyways, there´s no need for maintenance that soon. We´ve been to Parts and Service just before we came into your universe.” He chuckles. “I like how this sounds, like we chose to just pay you a little visit in your world, you know?”, he giggles, just like the silly jester he was, completely losing track of the subject.
You tilt your head. Sun really seemed to have no problem adapting to another universe. You wondered why that was the case. Maybe it was just like he said – it was like a little vacation for him. No need to overthink this. But you really had to talk about Alex.
“You´re avoiding the conversation about you not being able to charge probably. Sun, I know it´s scary having to trust a random stranger with your mechanics and stuff, but Alex is really friendly. I´ve known him for at least six years, he´s a regular at the library. I will contact him, okay?”
You examine Sun, who still got his back turned to you. “Sun? Is everything okay? I´m only trying to help you, you know. Moon encouraged me to contact Alex, why are you so against it?”
Sun sighs again. Slowly, he turns around and looks at you, puppy-eyed.
“I guess, I´m just worried… I don´t mean to sound arrogant, but your world really isn´t that advanced as ours. Just like you said! We´ve checked online.” You smile and put your hands on your hips, looking at him expectantly. “But Alex still can have a look at you, right?”
Sun avoids looking at you, fidgeting with his hands and the bells tied to his wrists. You briefly wonder how he tied them all by himself this morning.
“What if this Alex messes something up with our mechanics… And then he can´t fix it? What if he wants to have a look at our personality chips and accidentally breaks them? What if he makes Moon or me just disappear?” Sun begins to sound more and more panicked. You frown, laying a hand on his shoulder to make him stop, but he continues rambling: “What if he gives us the wrong charging cable and we short-circuit? What if he wants to show us to his colleagues and then they find out we´re from a different universe and we´re getting locked up? What if-“
“Sun!”, you interrupt him, standing up and squeezing his shoulders, which just hurts your hand, because you forgot he´s an animatronic for a second. “Look at me.”
He reluctantly does so. You smile. “None of this will happen. We won´t tell him you´re from a different universe. You´re just going to pretend to be a… fairly advanced robot from our world, who needs a check-up. You´ll have some experience with acting more robotic from being at the library by then. I don´t think Alex will have time for us to come to his workshop for another week, at least. So don´t worry. And he will definitely not touch your headplate or anything with your personality chips! I´m giving you my word. No, wait. I´ll pinky-promise, just like you did. That´s the ultimate sign of confidence, right?”
You offer him your pinky, which he takes hesitantly. “I´m just worried what will happen if you run out of battery, you know? We don´t really have that much possibilities. I can´t fix you! Unfortunately. But Alex really knows what he does. He even won a prize for building his own robot when he was like 15.”, you try to reassure him.
Sun seems impressed by that. “What could his robot do?”, he asks quietly.
“Uh…”, you look to the ceiling, trying to remember the story Alex told you years ago. “I think he was able to solve a Rubik’s Cube or something like that. We´ll have to ask him when we visit him.” You shrug. “Alright. Feeling better about me contacting him?”
Sun stares into the nothingness, as if debating this with Moon. He slumps his shoulders and finally says: “Okay. Sorry for being so scared, sunshine.”
“Please don´t apologize for being scared. You´re in a different universe, it´s totally normal if you feel confused or anxious. You just have to trust me.”
“…We trust you.”, Sun assures you after a moment.
You smile. “Okay.” You notice how Sun said we again. Does that mean Moon trusts you already, too? You somehow doubt that.
Then, you search for Alex on Facebook and write him a short message about the robot-project you´re doing at work, and that you would like him to take a look at this robot you have at your library for a few months. Or weeks. Or however long it takes to see a shooting star again and wish the two of them back. But this you don´t write Alex, obviously.
It doesn´t take long for him to answer. After you hugged Sun goodbye and drove to the supermarket to finally buy groceries, while standing in the noodle aisle, being completely overwhelmed by the task of picking out which kind of noodles you should buy, your phone dings.
Alex writes back, that he would absolutely be done to look at the robot. But he was wondering why the robot-company who lend you this robot didn´t do any maintenance on him before you got him.
You chew your lip. Good question. At least he didn´t ask you about your fiancée’s accident. Instead, he just completely ignored the fact that you weren´t at the library for four months. Does he even know your fiancée died? Or did your colleagues just tell him you were sick? You stare at your phone screen for a few minutes, trying to come up with an answer.
It´s a bit complicated, you finally write him, I have to ask you to just don´t ask that many questions, if that´s possible.
It was a risk asking Alex this. But you had no choice. After a while, you since moved on to the refrigerated goods and frown at the shopping list Sun gave you – who would ever need this much butter? – Alex writes back:
No questions? Alright. But you have to do me a favour then.
You take a deep breath, putting the sticks of butter in your basket with one hand, while typing an answer with your other hand.
Anything., you write back. I can even pay you for the maintenance, if you want to. Can I come next weekend?
This time, Alex needs a bit more time to write you back. It´s not until you´re back at your car, loading your groceries into the trunk, when the message arrives.
Go out with me. Next Friday night. On Saturday, I will have a look at your robot. Sounds good?
You stare at the phone with an open mouth. So he did know your fiancée died. And he decided he waited long enough to make his move.
You couldn´t believe this guy.
He always liked talking to you for hours while you worked, standing at the side of the counter to wait for you to handle other costumers, and immediately picking up the conversation where you two last left it, when they were gone. He could be a bit much, you had to admit, when Susanne asked you about a year ago if he didn´t go on your nerves.
Even if you weren´t happily engaged to your fiancée back then, you never would be interesting in him. Your fiancée always told you, from what you told about Alex, that he got the hots for you, but you never asked Alex about it. Why would you, if he only came to the library like, once a month, anyways. You could handle his overbearing attention and interest in your persona, even when Susanne and Kim teased you about it to no end.
As you drive home to Sun, who is probably waiting eagerly for you to return, you start to feel more and more irritated by the favour Alex asked for. It was really tactless, asking you out after only four months of mourning your dead fiancée.
But you know nobody else except him who works with robots. He is your only shot in getting Sun and Moon this cable they needed to charge. And maintenance, if they ever got hurt somehow. You couldn´t risk posting their power outlet on Reddit and having dozens of FNAF-Fans discovering that one of the most beloved characters got isekai´d into this universe and are living with you.
When you arrive at home and drag the heavy bags from the parking lot to your apartment, you made a decision. Now you just have to tell Sun and Moon about the arrangement. Still in the elevator, you write Alex back, so there would be no turning back:
Deal. Pick me up at 7:30? I have to work that long, as you know.
His only response is a thumbs up.
You sigh. It feels completely wrong that you´re doing this, but you remind yourself, you have no choice. You´re doing it for Sun and Moon. Your fiancée would understand that, right?
When you open the door, Sun immediately takes the grocery bags from your hands and complains how he´s not able to carry them all the way from the car to the apartment.
“You poor thing, having to carry all this heavy stuff. Did you get the remoulade I told you about? I need that for the Caesar´s salad I´m going to make you today. And the curd cheese, did you get it as well? Ohhh, I can´t wait to try all these new recipes I found online! Don´t worry, they are all really healthy and good for your body!”
You laugh at Sun´s enthusiasm, as you close the door behind you and start putting away the groceries. “I think I got everything, but it was really difficult finding some of those things. And are you sure you really need five sticks of butter?”
But Sun nods, rays spinning excitedly. “Yep! Don´t worry, I got it all planned out. I´m going to make you your lunch before we go to work. I still have 45 minutes, better start cooking now~“, he sing-songs, and you leave the kitchen to him, being a bit overwhelmed by the speed in which he starts cooking while simultaneously putting away the groceries in his own, new and probably improved system.
You can´t even recognize how the inside of your cupboards and refrigerator look. He even sorted out a small pile of things he either didn´t know what to use them for, like a pizza cutter in the shape of a bicycle, or he didn´t approve of – like your fiancée’s espresso machine, which you never used anyways as you didn´t drink coffee. You snatch the little machine from the counter, holding it close to your heart, as if the object holds some remnant of your fiancée’s soul.
You stay at the doorway of the kitchen, watching Sun. You have to tell him about Alex, but somehow, you´re weirdly nervous about doing so.
“Um… So, Alex wrote back.”, you finally manage to get out.
Sun stops in the middle of washing the lettuce you bought, pivoting his faceplate around to look at you. “What did he say?”, he asks, sounding equally as nervous as you feel.
You look at the ground. “Well, he´s doing it! So, that´s good.” You clear your throat. “He just wants… a little favour of me.”
Sun stares at you, impressively not even having to look at the lettuce to cut it.
“What favour, sunshine?”
Your heart starts beating fast again. Why are you so nervous about telling him, damn it?
“I have to go out with him. Next Friday night. On Saturday, we can visit him at the workshop. Then he will have a look at you and hopefully get you that cable you need.” Your kitchen tiles on the floor never looked more interesting, as you´re unable to look up from them.
“What?”, Sun asks in a monotone voice. So different than his usual, bubbly voice. You flinch, drawing circles with your food on the floor. “Yep. It´s not a big deal. Don´t worry about it. I can handle it.”, you mutter.
A minute passes. Nobody says a word. The water from the faucet running is the only sound in your small kitchen.
Then, Sun speaks up.
“With all due respect, sunshine – I don´t think you’re in the condition to go out so soon. No, no, no. Moon and I agree on that, you won´t do it. Tell him, you´re not interested! We can find another solution. Write him this, right now!” He points to your phone and you raise a brow. Sun sounds really outraged.
You look up from the floor to stare at him. Even though he has an unmoveable faceplate, you can see how angry he is about Alex’ ‘favour’.
You take a deep breath. “I already said yes.”, you admit in a firm voice. “I will do it. I have to. It´s my fault you´re here in the first place. Moon knows that, and you know it too!”
Sun crosses his arms, lettuce forgotten in the sink. “No. No! You just wanted someone to take care of you! Something that´s completely understandable in your situation! So stop saying it´s your fault that we´re here.” He sounds more upset than you ever thought possible. And he´s really stubborn.
But so are you.
You cross your arms as well. “Sun, I really like you and you´ve been nothing but kind to me these past few days. But you don´t have any saying in this. It´s my decision, and I already made it. It´s just a date! Alex and I talked at the library for days if I add up the hours. How different can it be when we are eating at a restaurant?” You shrug.
“It´s not like I´m interesting in him or something like that.”, you mutter, when Sun doesn´t respond anything. You blush, and don´t really know why you added that last part. It´s not like Sun cares about that, right?
He stares at you with his big, round eyes.
“Fine.”, he finally mumbles, then he turns around and continues to cut the lettuce. Maybe with a little more force than needed.
You raise an eyebrow. Is Sun okay? What was the matter with him? You didn´t think it would hit him this hard that you´re going out with Alex. Strange.
You sigh silently and decide to let Sun sulk for a moment.
While he prepares your lunch, you sit down at your desk, Momo on your lap, check your emails and read one from your boss, writing you that Daniel won´t be at work for another week. You roll your eyes. Of course he won´t. Oh, how you would love to fire him already. But you as team manager didn´t have the power to do that, so he wasn´t going anywhere.
Alright, thanks for letting me know. When will you be at the library today?, you write back.
As usual, your boss needs forever to answer. She is a very busy person, always working on four different projects at once, and didn´t really care for the library, as long as the statistics were right at the end of the year. You and your colleagues sometimes joked about what she did in her big office in the building next door all day – definitely nothing to improve the short staff situation in the library.
It´s not until Sun made your salad and put it into a big lunch box, got dressed for ‘work’ and arrived at the library with you – everything while still sulking and not talking to you at all – that you receive her answer.
“My boss will be here at 10:45.”, you inform Sun, avoiding to look at him while you turn on the lights and prepare the library for the day.
“Do you want me to wait in your office or can I organize upstairs?”, he asks, sounding just as formal as you. Your chest tightens. You don´t want things to be so awkward just because you were going on a date with Alex. Which wasn´t even a real date at all. But for some reason, Sun really seemed devastated about it.
“You can organize the non-fiction section. Just stay put in my office when my boss arrives, so she won´t see you doing it. I´ll ask Kim to attend to the children´s section, so only Susanne will be upstairs with you.”, you tell him.
Sun takes the book cart upstairs with him, while you clean out the dishwasher and restock the cups and spoons at the coffee machine.
You have a pit in your stomach. It´s not until next week till you have your ‘date’. Will Sun be like this the whole time? You suddenly wish you could talk to Moon about this, strangely suspecting that Moon is not as opposed to the idea of doing Alex this favour, as Sun is.
After Kim arrived and complained a solid ten minutes about Daniel and how your boss doesn´t care about any of you except him, you begin sorting the fiction department, as Susanne arrives too.
She eyes Sun, still suspicious, but as they begin to work along to clean up the non-fiction department they start to talk – and she can´t resist Sun´s charm for long, even though he is a robot from another universe and she shakes her head while talking to him constantly, as if she still can´t believe who she`s talking to. You smile as you listen to them talking about cooking recipes, happy that Sun´s mood got better.
But the peace doesn´t last, because not even twenty minutes later, you hear suspicious whispering behind the shelve they organize and suddenly, Susanne shouts: “No way. Nope. No. Alex did what?!”
You gasp as she storms up to you and put both her hands on your shoulder, Sun following her with fidgety hands.
“You told her?!”, you hiss, but Susanne doesn´t let Sun answer, instead, she lets off a whole tirade how you should look after yourself, and that Alex always was an idiot with a big crush on you, and that it was an absolute no-go that he takes the first opportunity he sees and asks you out this soon after the accident, and you can do nothing but stand there and listen to her, while shooting Sun angry looks.
You really ain´t in the mood to justify again why you decided to go out with Alex.
“Susanne, listen.”, you finally manage to interrupt her after five minutes of her rambling, “I know what I do! You both just have to trust me.”
Susanne looks as doubtful as Sun, who plays with the zipper on his sweatshirt, looking also a little remorseful that he chose to tell Susanne.
“We do trust you, we just think you don´t know what´s good for you and what´s not.”, Susanne states, speaking for both of them.
You put your hands on your hips and look at Sun. “Do you really think so?”
Sun simulates taking a breath. “I-I just noticed that… well, you really didn´t take much care of yourself these past months. Which is absolutely understandable. But now you want to go out with this Alex just to help us- I mean me! I think you´re being irresponsible towards yourself.”, he admits, opening and closing his hoodie zipper nonstop.
You stare at him. Then, you sigh. “We´ll talk about this tonight. With Moon.”
Susanne looks at you quizzingly. “Who is Moon? Don´t tell me you have another one of those animatronics at home?!” But before you can answer, you hear the sliding doors downstairs. You recognize the sound of those stilettos walking over the library´s wooden floor right away.
“It´s my boss. Get in the office, Sun! We´ll discuss this later. Now, act like a robot, like we practised!”, you hiss, while you drag Sun towards the door.
Susanne sighs and shakes her head disapprovingly. “Hope you know what you do, work bestie.”, she mutters while pushing the empty book cart into the elevator. “Good luck with the big boss!”
You grimace as you give Sun a thumbs up and close the door behind him. You straighten your yellow shirt nervously, heart beating fast. You don´t know why, but you´re boss always intimates you, no matter how seldomly she actually is at the library.
When she climbs the stairs and approaches you, as always wearing a tight costume and hiding her hair in a firm bun, her mouth is a thin line. That is not a good sign. You begin to sweat.
“Good morning. Welcome back, I suppose.”, she tells you, as she eyes you up and down, obviously not impressed with your outfit. You sigh inwardly. As if librarians still were to be expected to wear a blouse and a pair of glasses on their nose. The only one´s appearance your boss found even more scandalous, was Kim’s, to no one´s surprise.
“Thank you.”, you reply formally, shaking her hand wearily. “It´s good to be back. I´ve really missed the library.”
Your boss raises an eyebrow. She smiles, but it´s stiff, and she´s staring at you with icy blue eyes.
“It was very messy without you.” She informs you about what you missed in the last few months, and you nod and try to follow her, but it´s hard concentrating with Sun waiting in your office behind you.
Finally, she´s done updating you. Harshly, she concludes: “I expect nothing but 100% from you until now, you understand me? And no more days where you call in sick. You´ve had four months now to mourn after the… accident. That surely is enough, right?”
You gulp, tightening your hands into fists. Your boss always was very hard to everyone. Except Daniel of course. But even for her, this was brutal.
“A-Absolutely.”, you mutter, staring at the ground. “I will not disappoint you. … In fact…” You try to sound sincere, straightening your posture and looking your boss in the eyes, no matter how hard it was for you to maintain eye contact, “I already have a new project up my sleeve. I wanted to talk to you about it now, if you have some time.”
Your boss crosses her arms, looking uninterested. She never cared much for your projects, even when they were successes in the past – she only cared about them, if people would give praise to the major about the library`s work.
“What project? You have five minutes to explain.”, she snaps.
You take a deep breath. Then, you tell her the same story you told Marlene – that night, when Sun and Moon first arrived, which already feels like it was months ago by this point. You elaborate the story, of course, telling your boss in all the details how you contacted the robot company months ago, before the accident, and how they reached out to you spontaneously last week, telling you the robot was now ready.
“We could start with the robot spending time at the counter, greeting the costumers and answering basic question. He is… programmed with the necessary information about the library, the company made sure of that. He could help with the kindergarten groups, too. And… I also planned an event where kids can stay overnight at the library.”, you fib. It´s astonishing to you, how easy this comes to you. The lengths you´re willing to go for Sun and Moon, too.
You´re boss starts to look more and more irritated by your explanation. She seems to think about everything you said for a second, then asks the ultimate question: “And what does this project cost the library?” Her mouth is now barely visible at all.
You smile, hoping it still comes across as confident. “That´s the best part. The company doesn’t charge us anything. We… make free advertisement for their robot, after all.”
Your boss stares at you. You hold your breath. Did she buy it?
After what feels like an eternity, she nods. “Okay. And where is that robot right now?”
She bought it. You can´t believe it worked! You smile, opening up the office door, feeling a bit too confident now. “Right here! He comes home with me in the evening, for insurance reasons.”
Your boss stares at Sun, who waits a few appropriate second, before waving from his charging spot by the window, calling out with a staticky voice: “Hello, costumer! Welcome to your local library. How can I… help you today?”
You laugh nervously. “This is not a costumer, Sun.”, you play-pretend, talking to him like he´s an infant, which makes you feel very stupid. “It´s my boss. Say hi, boss!”
Sun looks at you, then at your boss, who crossed her arms, looking uncharacteristically almost impressed, when he replies: “Hello, boss! Nice to meet you.”
“…And this is the only thing it can do? Can it even move?”, she asks, still pretending to be bored while inspecting her nails.
You grit your teeth. Yet, you were happy Sun was doing such a good job pretending to be a simple robot.
“He can move. I just… need to tell him where he has to go and what to do. He listens to my commands only, for safety reasons. So nobody can tell him to destroy something or run away or the like.”, you lie. You look at Sun, telling him slowly: “You can come downstairs to the counter, now. It´s almost time for your first shift!”
Sun just nods this time, seemingly unsure what to reply in front of your boss, but she already had lost interest.
“Alright, email me the details of the night event when you have them. I think that´s all for now. If you need anything, don´t call me – I´m busy with three different, far more delicate projects, you wouldn´t believe the stress-“ And then she goes on with all the pressure she´s under, complaining about her coworkers at the town hall, and that she actually has to go back to her office right now to tend to more important things than the library.
But before she leaves, she shoots Sun´s feet a strange look and says: “Get that robot some shoes. Those yellow toes are weird.”
You sigh, when she finally leaves, just in time for the library to open.
“This went… better than I expected.”, you mutter.
Sun says nothing, except: “Our feet are not weird. We don´t like your boss.”, he´s looking a bit overwhelmed by the situation, or maybe he´s still moping because of your date with Alex.
“Amen to that. But it still went better than I expected. Come on, Sun.”, you tell him, as he nervously waits at the top of the stairs. “I´m gonna introduce you to Kim now, then we open up and you can greet your first costumers. Are you excited?”
Finally, he speaks to you again, muttering: “Yes. But also, nervous. What if I do something wrong?”
You shake your head. “It´s okay. You won´t mess it up, I believe in you. I trust you. You just have to trust me too, remember?” You stare at him hard, now also implying the date with Alex.
“What about your battery capacity? Is it enough to stay downstairs till 3 pm?” Sun nods, but doesn´t has the chance to answer, as Kim now comes around the corner, pushing another empty book cart back to the counter. When she sees Sun, her jaw drops. “Is that a freaking robot in our library?!”
After explaining the project to her and instructing her to make flyers and posters for the upcoming “robot weeks” (without determining a specific date, as you really don´t know how fast it will be till you see another shooting star and are able to wish the twin animatronics back), you take Sun`s hand and place him next to the swivel chairs behind the counter, so that he will be the first thing the costumers see when they walk through the sliding doors.
Then, you´re whispering near where his ears would be, if he had those: “You can do this. We can do this. You´re doing amazing!” Sun can´t help but give you one last, desperate hug. You let him. Even if you get weird looks from Kim and even Susanne, who sits down at the counter, sipping on her ice tea and watching you like you´re a tv show, with a knowing look on her face you can´t read.
Okay. It´s time. You open up the sliding doors and sit down in the middle, next to Sun and Susanne, waiting for the first costumers to arrive.
It´s a slow morning, like usual. The first costumer, a 75-year old woman, doesn´t notice Sun at all, which makes his rays twitch even more nervously.
For a few minutes, no one enters the library. Kim walks by, arms full of arts and crafts supplies, which she prepares for the kindergarten groups next weeks. She chews gum and pops a bubble. “So, what´s his name? Don´t tell me, it´s ‘Sun’.” She sighs, staring at him almost accusingly, and you grimace. “How´d you guess?”, you sarcastically answer. Sun looks from you to her, then slowly raises his pointer finger at Kim. “Hello, my name is Sun! Nice to meet you… Kim.”
Kim almost drops the box of crayons she has in her hands. “How did it know my name?”
You laugh silently. Susanne takes another sip of her drink, grinning to herself. “And to think how much he´s even holding back right now.”, she mutters to herself.
“He must have heard me calling you Kim.”, you reply innocently. Kim stares at Sun with narrowed eyes, but proceeds to walk into the office.
More and more costumers begin to trickle in. A few elderly people, as the rest of citizens of your small town are mostly still at work. Many just shoot Sun weird looks, but no one talks to him yet. He seems really nervous about this, and you remind him: “Sun, you can greet the costumers. Just talk to them.” Susanne nods at him, adding: “Don´t worry, the old people don´t bite. As long as you don´t bite them, at least.”
Sun fiddles with the zipper of his hoodie, looking – very uncharacteristically – a bit shy.
Finally, an elderly woman, a regular who always comes to the library to read the daily newspaper and drink a cup of coffee, reacts properly to Sun: “Oh my!”, she exclaims, when she comes through the sliding doors. “Who do we have here? Is that a robot?! Oh wow, we´re really living in the future!”
She smiles from ear to ear, turning to you: “What did you devise this time! And just when you came back to the library, too. I´ve been to the funeral, you know.” She leans down to where you are sitting and gives you an empathic pat on the shoulder. “I´m so sorry, for everything. How are you feeling, dear?” She sounds sincere, and you gulp, trying not to let the sadness take over your body.
You smile sadly, replying with a shaky voice: “I`m okay. I don´t wanna talk about… that… right now. But may I introduce you to our new robot…” – you´d hope Sun would forgive you for calling him that, but people in this world normally really didn´t know what an animatronic was – “He is called Sun and you can talk to him! He´s part of this robot-project we´re doing at the library.”
The elderly woman beams, turning to Sun and clasping her hands excitedly. “Well, welcome then, Sun. It´s nice to meet you!” She looks at him expectedly. Sun waits a moment, then he replies shyly: “Hello there! Nice to meet you too! How can I help you today?” It looks like it´s really hard for him to stay still while talking to the costumer. You bet he would love to sway from side to side and give her one of his signature hugs, but he had to hold back – for his own sake.
The woman gasps anyways. “Wow, he´s so lifelike! He´s impressive. And I love his look – he really looks like a sun, with his rays.” She laughs and coughs simultaneously, and you eye her concerned.
“This cough doesn´t sound too good. Have you been to the doctor lately?”, Susanne asks, but the older woman just weaves her hand dismissively.
“I´m okay! But tell me, Sun. Can you tell me the time, by any chance? I seemed to forgot my watch this morning.” Sun looks from the clock on the wall above the counter to her, tilting his faceplate confused, then he replies: “Of course I can! It´s exactly 11:44 and 47 seconds.”
The woman claps. “Wow, fantastic!” Sun beams, and you chuckle slightly. It was really sweet how the older woman asked Sun something she could have easily checked herself. You appreciated it.
Hopefully, there would be more encounters like that soon.
Sun seems so unlike himself, with him barely moving and speaking in a robotic voice when he addresses the costumers. It was really hard to read his emotions like that, with his unmoving faceplate and none of his usual expressiveness. But you told him to be like this, so this was kind of your own fault.
“Are you okay?”, you whisper to him, when there are no costumers present. Sun shrugs, whispering back as quiet as he can – which is still pretty loud –: “I think so. Battery charge is at 44% though.”
You nod. “Tell me if you need to get back into the sun, okay?”
“Okay.”, he mutters back, and you pat his back reassuringly, accidentally touching his hook – which makes him flinch, hard. You tear your hand away immediately, whispering: “Sorry!” You didn´t know he was that sensitive at this spot. Hopefully that doesn´t has anything to do with the fact that children were pulling his hook while playing with him at the daycare.
After lunchtime, things get better. More and more people start to come into the library. Families too. When Sun spots the first children, he perks up, beaming.
“Well, hello there, little costumer!”, he exclaims when a 6-year-old, funnily enough named Emily, you remember, approaches him curiously.
“Wow! Hello! Are you a robot?”, she asks, grinning at him and looking at you. “Can I shake his hand? Can he do that?” You smile at her. “Yes, you can!”
Sun looks like he finally found his purpose again, when the little girl takes his much bigger hand and shakes it up and down.
“Yes, I am a robot!”, he replies after a short pause. “I am Sun. It´s so nice to meet you, new friend!” You clear your throat, reminding him that this is not the daycare, and he can´t befriend any kid that comes here, but he didn´t seem to notice you.
Emily doesn´t seem to mind. It´s the opposite, she smiles so big you can see her whole set of teeth. “Mom! Dad! Come here, you gotta see this.”, she yells and runs to the non-book section, where her parents browse through the DVDs. “There´s a robot at the counter! A real robot!”
Soon enough, a couple of costumers are standing around the counter, all talking to Sun. There are a lot of kids, which makes Sun obviously happy. He starts to lose his initial shyness and talks a lot, yet still as slow and limited as you practiced. You´re really proud of him and decide to tell him this later.
Only one boy, about three years old, cries when he sees Sun. His mother tries his best to calm him down, but ultimately, they have to leave the library. You can see it by the way Sun slumps his shoulders, that he´s devastated by that. But this was to be expected, honestly. Surely, he was used to it from the beginning days of the daycare as well, you think. Or even nowadays, when new kids enter the daycare for the first time, who are not used to the attendant being a seven-foot-animatronic.
But still, most of the feedback Sun gets, is good. People like him, but are still a bit wary around them, maybe having watched too many creepy robot-movies. Some costumers just straight up ignore the fact, that there is an animatronic standing at the counter. But most of them are very curious about him.
As soon as Kim hangs up the poster and hands out the flyers – which both display a cartoonish, square robot, that doesn´t resemble Sun or Moon in the slightest – more and more costumer come up to Sun and try to talk to him. By 3 pm, when Charly comes to work and is pretty surprised about Sun being here all of a sudden, and he and Kim take over the counter, Sun barely is able to leave and go upstairs with you.
You practically have to drag him up the stairs, reminding him quietly he needs to charge and it´s time for your break. He has a hard time parting with the children, who adore him – which you´ve expected, honestly. “Booo!”, “Nooo! Bring Sun back!”, they begin to chant as you climb the stairs with him, and you turn around and look at the group of maybe 12 kids with an apologetic smile. “I´m sorry, Sun has to get charged before he can come back downstairs. But he will be back soon, don´t you worry about that!”
Sun can´t contain his happiness when he almost bounces the last few steps to your office. As soon as you close your office door behind you, he goes into a handstand, to your surprise, and starts rambling: “Oh my gosh, that was amazing! Have you SEEN the look on their little faces! They liked me! They really liked me, even though I´m not allowed to say too much and move too much and everything, which I know, I know, is for the best – but did you HEAR what Emily said to her parents?? She said, I was the coolest robot she ever saw!”
You blink, carefully sitting down next to Sun in your small office and pull out your lunch box with the salad he made this morning. “That´s amazing Sun! I was kind of worried about your demeanour for a second, you were so silent and still – but you did great!”
You watch as he effortlessly does a little cartwheel to stand back on his two feet, which you didn´t think was possible in this crammed space.
“Thank you, sunshine.” His rays spin, as he sits down criss-cross by the window, where the sun fortunately was shining some light in again. “Now, what do I do? Tell me, what can I do to improve my socials skills with the elderly people and parents? And what did I hear earlier about me helping out with the kindergarten groups?! Tell me everything, please!”
You laugh slightly at his enthusiasm, as you try a fork of Caesar´s salad. It tastes good, maybe a bit too salty, but you weren´t gonna tell Sun this.
“I´m really proud of you. You were amazing, nobody would suspect you´re sentient and all that. About the elderly costumers… I think they´ll warm up to you. You just have to continue being polite and open-minded towards them, and forgive them when they call you a robot or… ‘it’. They don´t know better, and they don´t mean it in a mean way, like the staff at the Pizza Plex does.”, you explain while eating your lunch.
Sun nods, extending his rays all the way to soak up as much sunlight as possible to charge. “And well, the kindergarten groups, they will start coming to the library next Monday. The local daycare visits the library every year with their pre-school groups, so the kids can get to know the library and get a card before they are enrolled. Normally, Kim works with the children, but I don´t think she would mind having a bit of help.”
Sun´s rays are now spinning faster than ever before. “Oh, I would love to help! Can I please start helping Monday morning? Are you sure Kim won´t mind? She doesn´t seem to like us very much.” His rays stop spinning. You reach out to him and pat his shoulder joints reassuringly. “Don´t worry, Kim is like that to everyone. I´m going to talk to her.”
After you finished your salad, Sun asks to bring you some picture books he researched while you were eating. He wants to be prepared for the kindergarten kids on Monday, even though you didn´t even tell him the workflow of the kid´s visit yet.
“You know, sunshine, it would be much easier if you allowed us access to the costumer data base of the library. This way, we could greet anyone with their name and if someone forgot their library card, they could still check out books!”, he complains after skimming through the books while you are writing an email to the local elementary school, inviting them to pay you a visit while the library had their robot weeks.
You sigh. “Absolutely not, Sun. Have you ever heard of data privacy? I can´t have you running around knowing every costumer´s full name, birthday and home address. Sorry, you´ll just have to get to know the children the old-fashioned way.” You smile down to him, where he´s sitting on the ground by the sunlight. Sun looks like he´d love to pout right now, if he was able to move his face.
The rest of the week day is rather peaceful. You plan on talking to Kim after her shift is over, but as soon as you turn around for one second, she grabs her bag and exits the library without saying goodbye. Irritated, you watch her shambling away in the dark.
You would have to have a word with her, if she continued to run away the second the library is closed. There were still some things left to do, even if there were no costumers left. At least, Charly was counting the cash register while you help Susanne clean up the coffee machine and dirty cups. Sun waits at the entrance, holding your bag like he´s your boyfriend, and you blush when Susanne notices that as well and whispers in your ear: “He´s really quite the gentleman, isn´t he?”
You wait until she and Charly left before you turn the lights off. You don´t want your coworkers to witness the unexplainable transformation of Sun becoming Moon. Before that happens though, of course, Sun has to tell you his daily goodbyes. This time, the hug is even longer than last night.
“Take care, best friend. Are you sure it´s not too cloudy today again?”, he asks nervously, but you shake your head. “Clear skies today, I´m afraid. Or should I say I´m happy? We want you to get back into your own universe as soon as possible, right?”
You stare into his big eyes, and he seems so uncertain, you can´t shake the feeling he maybe has gotten used to being with you already. It´s almost like he doesn´t want to go back to his own universe altogether.
It´s a whole different story with Moon, you´re absolutely sure about that. As soon as you turn the lights off and Sun turns into Moon, he exits the library, and for a second you think he won´t even wait for you. But as you lock the doors behind you, you can feel his presence closely behind you. You look up to him, then stare at the real moon behind him in the sky. It´s really pretty.
Moon seems to be in a better mood too. He doesn´t mention Alex, and you´re very grateful for this. Instead, you shortly talk about Sun´s first real day out in the library. Moon seems happy that his brother is able to be around children again.
Eventually, when you reach your apartment and you pop in a microwave dinner while Moon feeds the cats, you feel confident enough to ask him something that’s been on the back of your mind for the whole time he and Sun have been here.
“I know you and Sun miss the daycare and the PizzaPlex. But were you friends with any of the other animatronics? You don´t have to answer, if you´re not feeling up to it.” You´re sitting down on your sofa in the dark, the only source of light is the dim fairy light next to your balcony.
Moon returns from the kitchen, where your dinner is turning in circles in your microwave, casting a faint glint into the hallway. He thinks about your question for a moment, or maybe he´s debating his answer with his brother, but it´s not until a few minutes later, when he answers, surprisingly sitting next to you on the sofa cushions: “Why do you ask?”
Of course he can´t just give you a straight answer. You dip your head slightly. “Because I want to know. I want to know how you… deal with all this jumping around universes and stuff.” You pet Electra, who jumped onto your lap.
Moon folds up the blanket on your sofa your cats mess up on a daily basis. “You care about us?”, is all he says, with a sharp tone in his raspy voice. You nod, smiling as he hides his eyes behind his night cap as if he´s blushing. “I thought that was already obvious? I told you before but I´ll tell you as many times as you need to hear it: I care about you guys and I want you to feel good while you´re here, in my universe.”
Moon grumbles something you don´t understand. He crosses his arms and stars into the night sky outside your balcony, which you are partly able to see from the sofa as well, but not good enough to look out for shooting stars.
The microwave dings, suggesting that your rather loveless meal is ready, but you can´t have Sun´s homecooked food every time, right? You stand up and carry your dinner to the little table in your living room, next to the sofa where Moon still sits. As you dig in your food, while flipping through a magazine about the newest developments in the library scene you brought from work, Moon still hasn´t answered your question.
It´s not until you´re sitting outside on the bench again, watching the night sky with Moon, that he speaks up suddenly: “It was always just the two of us. Sun and I, together and therefore not alone.”
You shoot him a look, then proceed to watch the night sky, to not scare him into not continue talking, and to not miss any shooting stars.
Moon sighs beside you. “You´re probably thinking, you know how things are at the PizzaPlex after dark, from your stupid video game. But let me ensure you: You do not.”
You nod slowly. “Want to tell me about it?”, you ask quietly.
Moon hesitates. You know it´s hard for him to trust you. You try not to take it personally. “Maybe some other time.”, he mumbles, and you answer: “I understand. Anytime, Moon. I´ll be happy to listen what you have to say.”
“Thank you.”, Moon whispers so quietly you almost cannot hear it.
After a while, you begin to shiver slightly from the cold evening breeze. Moon notices, and without a word, he gets up and brings you the blanket from the sofa. Instead of tossing it onto you, like you´d expect him to, he carefully drapes it around you as if he wants to make sure you´re not cold anymore. It´s really sweet, you think to yourself. These caretaker protocols were still pretty strong, apparently.
This evening, you don´t spot any shooting stars either.
As Moon prepares your bed and you stand in the doorframe, watching him while brushing your teeth, you ask yourself what he thinks about the whole situation with Alex. While originally being relieved he didn´t mention it, you now kind of want to know what his thoughts on the subject are.
“Moon? Can I ask you one last question for today?”, you ask as he tucks you in and expects you to tell him which bedtime story or lullaby you want for today. Moon rotates his faceplate, looking a bit annoyed. “You just did by asking me that.”, he replies with a deadpan voice.
You sigh. Rolling your eyes, you nestle into your cushions and into Momos fur, who already claimed her spot in your arms. “Okay. Another one, please?”
Moon sits down on the edge of the bed, dark blue finger intertwined, impatiently waiting for you to finally ask your question. “Go on. But after that, it´s time to sleep.”
You look up to him with one eye, the other own buried in Momos fur. “Can Sun hear us right now?”
Moon looks at you. “Yes. Was this your question?”
You shake your head. “No. Obviously.”, you scoff. “I was just wondering… what do you think about the whole ordeal with Alex? And can you tell me why Sun is so devasted that I´m going on a date with this idiot? Did I… hurt him by agreeing to go on this ‘date’?”
“These were three questions, my dear.”, Moon notices. “It´s time for bed.”
You close your eyes, pretending to fall asleep on the spot. “I´m almost already asleep, I promise! Just tell me what you know. Please. He won´t talk to me about it.”
You hear Moon shifting on the bed. Then, cold metal fingers touch your forehead and you flinch, eyes opening immediately.
“Noisy… But, alright. I´ll tell you this… You are responsible for your own actions. If you want to get us so desperately that cable and make sure our joints are oiled… then so be it. Just be careful around this guy. I´m afraid I can´t tell you anything about Sun´s opinion on this subject…”
You sigh and close your eyes, already half-excepting a cryptid answer like this.
“But maybe just try to actually ask him what he thinks?”, Moon offers before giving you absolutely no time to think about or answer to this, as he already begins reciting some random bedtime story about a little girl who has trouble sleeping – which reminds you a little bit of yourself, in a way. Though you would love nothing more than have a goodnight´s sleep: It just won´t come to you like you want to.
Today is one of those evenings, were you´re actually not sleeping at all, apart from about an hour after Moon initially brought you to bed. You have another terrible nightmare you wake up from. You listen to the sound of your own weeping and your racing heartbeat, all alone in the dark, while Moon is out for his patrol and your cats hide from you and your night terrors.
It´s not until he comes back at around four in the morning, and he finds you curled up in the corner of your bed, that things become better. Moon takes care of you again and you think it´s so embarrassing how he has to tend to you. He helps you out of the bed, leads you to the balcony to enable to you take a few deep breaths, makes you a hot-water bottle and plays you lullabies, till you fall asleep, absolutely exhausted from all the crying.