Just wanted to wish you all a Happy New Years!! I hope you have an amazing year!

Also, I know the chapters have been a little slow, but it really picks up a bit in the next one. Really excited to post that one haha, I'll see you guys tomorrow :,)

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It's day three of your job.

You're coming to work an hour early, but you can barely help it. You and Sundrop are now... friends? Something like that. Anyways, it doesn't matter. You're excited to see him, so you're going early. And, you tell yourself, you're going down the slide this time.

You leave your bag behind the front desk upstairs and sit at the entrance of the slide. You push yourself down, excitement tearing through you as you zip left and right, finally landing with a crash into a world of color.

You trudge through the ballpit, though this time nobody comes to your rescue to give you a hand. Shame. Maybe you even feel a little... disappointed? Surely not.

With a grunt, you pull yourself up and out of the pit, twisting around so you're sitting at the edge and your legs are dangling in. You glance around uncertainly. 'Am I too early?' , You wonder, 'Is he sleeping? Do robots even sleep? Charging, then?'

With a trilling screech, Sundrop flings himself out of the ballpit and into the air, his arms outstretched to the ceiling. 'Was he in there the whole time?' You think in a panic, crawling back in retaliation.

"Wait, come back!" Sundrop shouts, reaching out and grabbing your ankles, pulling you back towards him so that you sit on the edge of the pit once again. He lifts himself up just enough for his elbows to rest bewteen your legs, holding the sides of his own face as he smiles up at you. He'd probably be kicking his legs back in forth in pure joy if he weren't half-submerged in a ballpit.

"Good morning, friend! What brings you here so early?" Before you can reply, he gasps, grabbing your legs and lifting himself higher and closer so his face is level with yours. "Are you here to HANG OUT? With ME? Oh this is amazing, friend! What are we going to DO?"

You smile slightly, his excitement intoxicating. "Well first, maybe we- you, should get out of the ballpit. Also your hands are going to leave imprints on my thighs if you keep pressing down so hard." Sundrop gasps at this and lets go immediately, toppling back into the ballpit with the loss of support.

Brushing yourself off, you stand up, the missing weight of his hands noticeable as you wait for him to resurface. Part of you wishes you hadn't said anything. A part of you that you immediately burn and throw away, because why the hell would you want his hands on your legs.

Before your thoughts can wander to dangerous topics, he pops out of the pit again, and you help him out.

He does a funky twirl before turning to you, grabbing your elbows. "I really hope I didn't hurt you, friend! I just got so excited!"

You smile slightly, grabbing his elbows back. "It's okay, Sundrop, I don't mind."

He draws back for a moment, seemingly shocked- was it something you said?- but he doesn't say anything about it, and neither do you.

He turns on his heels, one of his hands dropping and the other sliding its way down your arm to find your hand. "Let's go, friend!"

"Where?" You ask, following him as he skips towards the center of the playground.

"To wherever you want!" He replies merrily, smiling back at you.

You tug on his hand suddenly, turning a different direction. "Okay, then let's go this way!" He squeaks at the sudden misdirection, but doesn't say anything as he chases after you.

You lead him to one of the playplaces, and his hand falls from yours as you crawl inside. You turn to see if he's following you, and are a little surprised to see himself cradling his face and slouching as he watches you.

"What are you waiting for?" You ask him, a laugh playing on your lips, "You scared?"

"No," He groans into his hands, "My programming does not allow me to enter the playplaces."

You tilt your head. "It doesn't? That's stupid, why not?"

Sundrop looks around nervously, "I can't tell you, it's awful."

With sudden interest, you sit upright, your legs crossing. "Well, now you have to tell me."

Sundrop stares at you for a moment, his hands slightly dropping. "Okay, but it's truly horrible."

You nod expectantly, "I promise not to be... uh, horrified." You watch with curiosity as he fiddles with two ribbons tied around either of his wrists. What could be so awful?

"This happened almost a year ago," Sundrop begins, his voice twinged with nervousness, "But I was playing hide and seek tag with a group of kids." He sucks in a breath- Wait, do robots even breath?- and continues, "I found the last boy, the smallest and most diligent hider. I started chasing him around the playplace, because, well, it was tag. We got to a slide and he started climbing up, though he tripped for a moment and looked back to see how close I was."

Sundrop covers his face again. "I guess seeing me crawling up after him in the tube was too much for him? Because he... started crying. His mom picked him up and yelled at the manager for letting such a 'horrifying thing chase after the children'. She said her son was traumatized, and it was all because of- because of-" Sondrop lets out a silent sob. "They fixed my programming that night, the next morning I found I couldn't enter the playplace anymore."

A moment of silence. Then you burst out laughing.

"That is the most AMAZING thing EVER! You definitely scared the SHIT out of him!" You cackle, not even feeling bad for Sundrop or the poor kid. Okay, a part of you feels bad. But only for the kid.

Sundrop looks confused, then a mix between frantic and angry. "Hey!" He cries, "It's not funny, it was awful! I felt so bad, that poor boy probably had nightmares! All because of ME!" He starts sobbing again, this time loud and unconcealed as he covers his face.

Trying your best to bite back your grin, you stand and walk over to him, pulling him into a hug and rubbing his back. "It's okay," you say, a giggle hiding in your throat, "I'm sure he was fine, I think the mom was just being... overprotetive."

You feel Sundrop sink into you, his head resting on your shoulder and his arms finding their way around your neck. You stand there with him for a while, absently rubbing his back while pushing the image of Sundrop frightening a child out of your head so you won't start crying laughing. To be fair, when you first met him you nearly crapped your pants at the sight of him scrambling up the green slide, so there wasn't much room for you to poke fun.

He finally pulls away, staring at you with his murderous smile thats constantly shaming his soft personality. You wonder what he would look like if he could make different expressions. 'If he was human, you mean?' A part of you wonders, but you push that away quickly. Being human would mean other things too. Unimportant things.

"Hey," You start, breaking the silence, "Can I call you Sunny instead of Sundrop? Or is that only for-"

"YES!" He cries, throwing himself mercilessly back into your arms. "Yes yes yes yes YES! That would be GREAT!" His arms slide from your neck to wrap around your waist, and he picks you up and spins you around until you start to feel the first traces of dizziness stabbing at your brain.

He drops you and your step falters, but Sundr- Sunny, almost doesn't seem to notice. "Sunny is what all of my friends call me!" He cheers, "Does this mean we're FRIENDS now?!"

You offer a small smile, "Well, yes, I guess it does. But, aren't you always calling me 'friend' anyways? I thought that meant we were already friends."

Sunny freezes for a moment, as if a giant plothole has been revealed in one of his stories. "Well, I call EVERYONE that!" He says, beginning to hop from foot to foot, "But maybe instead I can say BEST FRIEND!"

Grabbing his arm to calm him down a bit, you laugh. "Wow, I'm certainly moving up the ranks quickly, huh?" To your suprise, Sunny starts aggressively nodding at this, and he grabs your elbows again like he did earlier.

"Wow, this is so great!" He praises, and you fear his arms on yours are the only things anchoring him from flying around the room like an untied balloon with air in it.

"Hey!" An unexpected voice suddenly shouts- but it's not coming from you or Sunny; it's coming from your fazwatch. You almost forgot you'd been wearing it.

"Hello...?" You ask uncertainly, glancing down and tapping the screen. You see a blonde ponytail and a security hat.

"Good," Blondie- er, Vanessa, according to Sunny,- says, "I was worrying you might not actually wear this thing."

You glance up at Sunny with a puzzled look, but he's just giving your watch a blank stare. He does that a lot, you notice pointedly.

"I have a question," Vanessa says, "Though it's more of an order. You can't really say no."

"Huh?" You ask, "What's that?"

"I need you for the night shift tonight," Vanessa explains, "I've got somewhere to be and nobody else can do it. I know you're new, but don't worry, it's just a whole lot of making sure there aren't any adults or pesky children still here. Not that there usually are."

You aren't sure if you like Vanessa or not yet, but you figure theres no point in saying no- plus, she's already made it clear you don't have much of a choice. You might get to see Sunny more, and obviously they'll pay you to do extra hours. They'd better.

"Sure," You say, "I can do it."

You see Vanessa nod on the watch. "Great, thanks. I can stop by after the kids are gone to give you a few more instructions, but I really appreciate this. I'll let you go now though, the daycare should be opening in a few minutes."

You offer a quick nod in return, smiling as her face disappears from the screen. You look up, overjoyed- that you get to see Sunny for longer. That's great!

But he isn't smiling.

(If u comment "yes he is, his face is literally a permanent smile", i will beat u with my cat. you know what I mean >:c anyways thanks for reading!! happy merry xmas/new years!)