Jeremy hissed as the stove's flame leapt to his fingertips, retracting his hands as quickly as could. He bit his tongue as he observed the burnt skin, the tip of fingers darkening into a unhealthy shade of purple. The worst part wasn't that it was still stinging, but that it was on both of his hands. He sighed; this was going to be difficult to bandage.

Startled by the distressed cat noise, Mike appeared from the living room, coming to stare over the night watch's shoulder. He spotted the burns and frowned, prying open a drawer as he searched for a first aid kid.

Although unspoken, their communication was flawless. Jeremy silently leaned against the counter, sucking on one hand's fingers to relieve the pain. He inwardly groaned as he realized there was nothing he could do but to let his other hand singe, like little needles sparking through his finger's nerves.

Suddenly, his wrist was gently taken and held away from him. Jeremy raised a brow at the action, going red when an neutral-faced Mike promptly stuck his fingers between his lips, the sting fading by the second. Blue eyes were glued to his own occupation, working to tear open a small pack of burn cream while the brunette stilled in front of him. Awkward as it was, he made no move to remove himself.

Jeremy felt his own cheeks beginning to burn as Mike casually wetted the sting away.

Mike was careful as the blade glided just above the brunette's forehead, snipping strands from his bangs. The night watch sat still in front of him, huffing as the security guard cut his hair. "I don't see why you have to d-do this...."

The older man simply snipped another piece, blowing the cut strands clean from Jeremy's face. The brunette pouts as breath hit his skin, only for Mike to playfully swipe his forehead. "I wanted to see your eyes, dork"

The first time they went to a movie together, Fritz had invited them. It was a mixed genre film, an action horror thriller or something. Mike wasn't too enthusiastic about the idea, but when he figured Jeremy was excited to attend, he grumpily tagged along.

Fritz ended up chickening out at the last minute, leaving the two of them alone. Though, his absence was hardly an issue; Jeremy was clutching Mike's arm in fear too much to notice and the guard was laughing too hard to care.

Jeremy could see them every now and then; the children, he means. Sometimes they would ignore him complety, hovering around the animatronics as the clock ticked towards midnight. Other nights they would acknowledge his presence, surprised that he could see them, but pleased noneless. The animatronics never stopped trying to stuff him,but they were certainly lighter in their efforts to do so. On some rare nights, they would make harmless playfully gestures to one another, their responses the only only thing convincing him that he wasn't really crazy.

Mike raises a brow as Jeremy giggles, a transparent figure making silly faces just above the security guard's head.

The sky had darkened much quicker than any of them had anticipated, but it wasn't such a negative tonight. Fritz worked to light the fireworks while Jeremy unstrung the sparklers. Mike was busy tuning his watch, ready for the new year's countdown.

"Mike, look!" Blue lazily roamed over to green, raising a brow at the nightwatch's actions. Jeremy smiles as he waves the sparkler's light around. "T-this is you!" With a warm glow casting glee on his face, Mike watches as he draws a picture in the air.

He guides the light to make a circle, swirling two eyes and sharp smirking teeth for the mouth. The grumpy looking face lingers for moment before fading in the wind. Jeremy giggles as Mike's expression remains neutral, seemingly unimpressed. "I can do better" The guard mutters, "This is you"

Mike leans over, takes the sparkler from Jeremy's hand and draws a big, glowing heart between them.

The surprise on Jeremy's turned comical as he spotted the familer truck parked out I front of his school building. Glancing around nervously, he quickly steps to the vehicle, avoiding other students scattered around the campus yard as the final dismissal bell rang.

Mike casually leaned against his truck, smirking as the night watch scuttered up to him. "W-what are you doing here?" The brunette questioned, grasping tightly into his backpack's straps. "My shift isn't for a few more hours..."

The guard shrugged. "Yeah, I know that. I'm just taking you home, is all" Bafflement runs across the teen's features. "But I walk-"

"I don't want you walking home anymore. I'll drive ya"

"B-but shouldn't you be at w-work-?"

"I'm on lunch break" Mike pulls himself into the driver's seat, starting the engine. Reaching over to unlock the passenger door, he pats the seat. "C'mon"

Jeremy wants to protest, but he can't find a reason to. So he simply sighs, climbs into the passenger seat and throws his book bag into the back. He blinks when a grinning Mike holds his seat belt out for him, silently demanding him to buckle himself. "...you're going to show off, aren't you?"

"Yep"

High school students across the school yard whip around to hear a loud screech and truck pulling violently out of the parking lot, leaving skid marks as it narrowly misses a stop sign.

Last week, Mike lent Jeremy his favorite hoodie. It happened to be especially cold, and for some reason Fazbear's heater decided to half-ass itself that night, sending chills all through out the building. Mike wasn't bothered by it, but took one at Jeremy's purple lips and immediately shrugged off his hoodie, throwing to the nightwatch. It was too big for him, engulfing the smaller male once he put it on, but it was warm regardless.

Jeremy refuses to give it back.

He's been keeping it ever since, only ever letting the security guard touch it one morning a week after he's stolen it. Mike raises a brow as the brunette shuffles out of the clothing, blushing pink as he held it out for the man to take. "You've been keeping that since last Friday" He chuckles, "Why give it back to me now?"

"....it s-stopped smelling like you"

The way Mike was gushing over and smooching the toddler was so uncharacteristic, it was almost alien nature. Jeremy watches as the man snuggles the giggling child, hoisting them up into the air and catching them again. It was nearly comical to watch, considering Mike claimed to despise kids. Especially this one in particular.

But as the man squishes her nose, Jeremy can't deny the pride and glee emitting from the security guard. "Look at you..." Mike cooes, rocking the toddler in his arms. "Do you know who I am?"

She grins at him. "Mikey!"

The brunette watches as the older man shakes his head, putting on a playful pout. "Nope! It's 'Daddy' now, ok?" The little girl burst into a fit of giggles, Mike smiling as the nightwatch rolled his eyes.

Rotating her in his grasp, he points the younger male out to her. "Do you know who that is?" He asks, Jeremy blinking in surprise as he's observed thoughtfully. Two sets of green eyes meet and the child thinks for a moment. "Jeremy?"

"Nah..." Mike chuckles. "That's Mommy"

It's just another one of Fazbear's boring monthly meeting, the one's every employee, no matter what hours or shift they worked, were required to attend to.

Management has a diagram of current work hours and profit in a neat sheet posted up on the wall, often pointing back to the data in the midst of his speech to further a point. The cashier, janitor and supply manager are quietly listening to his rambling, not too enthusiastic about the lecture but not willing to be rude about it either.

Further back in the room, Fritz is stealthily sleeping, his hand and head propped up at an angle just perfect enough to hide him behind another employee, softly snoring as the lecture continue. Beside him is Jeremy, and in front of him is Mike, both of them equally bored.

Jeremy's honestly trying to listen when he spots movement out of the corner of his eye. His vision darts to the security guard, narrowing when he catches a glimpse of something mischievous before Mike fixes himself.

Frowning, he returns his attention to the Manager, only to whip back around and glare at the older man as he quickly drops his face to neutral.

Mike quietly chuckles to himself as he acts innocent, keeping his view directly ahead of him. It was fun to mess with Jere, especially at serious times like this. Sure, the whole 'silly face' deal wasn't really his style, but that's exactly why it would catch the nightwatch off guard. A grin forms on his face as he sneakily glances towards the brunette once more.

He pales, blinking as Jeremy scrunched up his nose, crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue. Two could play at this game.

Mike slumped over on his bed, shoes discarded to the other side of the room, hanging upside down and staring thoughtfully at a flip phone was certainly something Jeremy did not expect to see when he came home.

Furrowing his brows, he tosses his school bag to the side before giving the security guard an expectant stare, the older man simply blinking up at him. "....How did you get in my h-house?"

"You're mom let me in"

"....But why are you here?"

"I'm bored as fuck"

"...S-so you came here!?"

"Yes"

"What for?"

"So I can annoy you"

Mike swears under his breath as he observes the clothing in his hands, frowning at the large tear in the fabric. He can hear someone approach from behind him, but he's fuming too much to care. "Mike?" A voice calls out to him. "W-what's wrong-?"

Jeremy blinks in surprise when the guard whips around and violently throws the hat in his direction. He fumbles to catch it before watching the man angrly stalk away from him, muttering a multitude of curses under his breath. "Keep it" He snarls, "It's fucking worthless now"

He digs a baseball cap out from his locker and leaves the room, leaving Jeremy to stare thoughtfully at his favorite torn beanie.

Later that evening, there's a knock on the Schmidt resident's door. MIke mummbles something crude as he sits up from the couch, throwing on a shirt. He must have taken too long to find the baseball cap again, because when he finally opens the front door, there's no one to greet him.

Instead, there's something hanging on his door knob. Ice eyes narrow as he takes it into his hands, looking it over it closely. Right where there had been long gash in the cloth, now was a thin line of neatly sewn stitches.

Jeremy had a binder of his favorite photos he's taken tucked neatly away in his bookshelf at home, something he held dearly and never hardly let anyone see. One could say it was a diary, 'A picture is worth a thousand words', they say.

Mike felt a little betrayed when he was able to sneak a peek at the collection, finding no evidence of himself among the pages.

Jeremy finds him hastily flipping through the book, an irritated look on his face. Instead of trying to hide the fact he invaded the nightwatch's privacy, Mike boldly confronts the lack of himself in the scrapbook, trying to mask the hurt in his accusal.

Instead of getting upset or embarrassed like Mike had expected him to, Jeremy simply smiled, pulled out a tiny notebook from his backpack. It was small, around the size of his hand, but it was full. The guard blinks as the brunette leans it towards him, quickly running over the pages.

It was them: pictures of them on all their mis-adventures. Posing in front of the animatronics, one of Mike trying to scoff down a humongous hamburger, a shot of that one time Jeremy got a hairbrush stuck in his hair; just tidbits and moments of their shenanigans.

Mike takes the notebook, thoughtfully scanning over the photos. He remains oblivious as Jeremy raises his camera, shoots a quick shot and wrings the photo dry. The security guard is at lost for words when the brunette calmy stuffs it into the cover of the notebook.

The older man bites his lip. "...How come none of those are in your 'special' scrapbook?" he asks, "None of me?"

Jeremy giggles to himself, taking a sharpie and marking the date on the page. "I like to keep the best ones to myself"

It's not a secret that Mike had the tendency to get a little angry. But it wasn't his fault, was it?

Even in a world where he's seen as a freak, he knows what he's capable of, that even others saw him as dangerous. He doesn't blame them, hell, he's not even offended by it. If anything, it prevented anyone from getting too close, from being an annoyance. No one wanted to be associated with a scar-ran, cold eyed mistake. And he grew to be perfectly ok with that.

Then Jeremy came along; someone who didn't care he had stitches running from his forehead to his neck, someone who didn't get chills when green met an icy glare, someone who didn't flinch when Mike got angry, only sighing and reaching to hold his hand as an effort to calm the man down. For the record, it worked, mostly.

The guard doesn't know how to deal with someone who isn't afraid of him, and it takes him a while to fully understand that the brunette isn't mocking him, that every smile sent in his direction was truly meant for him, and only him. Little by little, he finds it very difficult to be angry at anything anymore with a pair of bright green eyes staring at him, a small hand holding his own.

When he realizes he can't get mad anymore, he starts to feel something else: Fear. Funny, how someone so insignificant could turn a stone-skinned man weak. Jeremy remains oblivious to the guard's inner debate, oblivious to his turmoil.

The animatronics are fully aware of the change inside the cold man, even the spirits that lingered inside the metal were aware of the shift. There's a certain soul in particular, sitting thoughtfully in the prize box as he listens to the music box, mind wandering back to memory once shared with the nightwatch:

"If you beat a dog and put it in a kennel, and you will surely find it aggressive..." The puppets smile seemed to widen. "But give it a love that will ease it's wounds, you will soon find it protective"

He knows Jeremy has yet to understand his words. But as he slides into the office, watching the wolf grab hold of his little clover protectively; Marionette knows Mike is fully aware of what the nightwatch has done to him.

Getting caught on Kissing Cam was probably one of the most unfortunate things to ever happen to a good set of friends at a sporting event. Why do I state this? Well, our very own king of douchebaggery and lil' dweeb happened to experience this situation.

The chanting of the crowd around them is overbearing, but Jeremy seems like the only one affected by the pressure, since Mike sat nonchalantly in his seat, raising a brow as his view darts from the big screen to the brunette.

The cheers are getting louder and it takes all the courage Jeremy can muster up to lean over and give a quick peck to the security guard's cheek. He sits back and slumps down, face going red. Mike is somewhat frozen and there's an array of 'aws' and disappointed 'boos' coming from around them. All the nightwatch wants to do is bury himself in his hands.

Suddenly, his face is yanked upwards and he's barely able to let out a little squeal as Mike strongly kisses him. The crowd goes ballistic.

When Mike's electricity decides to go absolutely nuts and fail him completely, Mrs. Fitzgerald is kind enough to offer him a roof over his head until the landlord can fix his apartment. He'd be sleeping on the couch, of course. But it was better than sleeping on the street.

Now imagine Mrs. Fitzgerald's face when she walks in from work one late evening, only to find her son and that estranged man curled up on the couch together, both of them fast asleep. She smiles, silently creeping by and turning off the movie they had playing.

She spares them another glance as she turns the living room lights off, sighing at the sight of her son held so tightly, as if he was a child's beloved blanket. She knows she shouldn't be allowing this, but the soft smile on her son's sleeping face convinces her to let the notion slide.

Only when she leaves the room does Mike peek an eye open, yawning as he clutches the smaller male closer to him. Jeremy makes some sort of disgruntled noise before falling back to sleep.

Mike's growling as he rounded the corner, visually upset. Yet, there was no denying the worry that nagged him in the back of his mind.

Earlier, Jeremy and him had gotten into one of their infamous bickering sessions again, only this time it advanced. At one point, the guard violently gestured outwards to make a point when the nightwatch took the opening and snatched the front of his security cap, quickly pulling it off the older man's head and running out of the locker room.

It takes a moment for Mike to recover from the shock of such a childish action before bolting after the teen, both a little irritated and amused.

Now, it's been half an hour and he still has yet to find him.

Sighing, he stops in the middle of the party room, dramatically raising his hands up in surrender. "You know what? Fine, you win..." He snarls, "Will you please just come out now?"

Something drops from above and lands on the floor in front of him. Blue eyes grow wide, staring dumbfounded at his security cap before trailing upwards, mouth gaping as he spots Jeremy casually hanging from the ceiling fan. The brunette gives a soft smile and a small wave. "H-hi..."

"....What the fuck, Jeremy"

.

Mike has always been a bully, the bite didn't change that.

Even as a child, he was always the pushy one on the play ground. The one all the other children would run to their mother's crying about whenever he repelled them away from his jungle gym or claimed the sandbox as his own pirate's bay. None of the children would want to play with him, and while it seemed sad, he was too engrossed by his own pirate nature to care. They weren't worthy of him, anyway.

But then there was this new kid, a tiny, shy, fidgety boy who stole all of the attention. Not because he was easy to get along with, but because he was so incredibly easy to fling around. He briefly notes the boy's name when his mother calls out to him.

Mike would watch from a corner of his claimed territory as kids his age picked on the younger toddler, childish jealousy rising up inside of him. It's only when the boldest of the group, a child clad in purple, roughly grabs the boy by his hair does Mike decide to take action.

The pirate stalks up to the other children, reaching out and taking hold of the toddler's hand. He makes sure the sobbing boy is hidden behind him before turning back to angrily stare at the culprits.

"Jeremy's my hostage now!" He sneers, "So leave him alone, or I'll make ya walk the plank!"