On One Hand, It'd Be Really Stupid To Go To Some Unknown Location With Someone He Barely Knows And Really,

★ — On one hand, it'd be really stupid to go to some unknown location with someone he barely knows — and really, Gregory knows next to nothing about Ollie.

On the other, if Ollie had wanted to hurt him, she'd certainly had plenty of chances to do so. Like right now, it was the middle of the night with no one around and only the two of them were behind a large, solitary building. And the last person he'd followed away from the pizzaplex despite knowing next to nothing about them had given him an escape from the foster system. So.

"You'd seriously take me with you?" ( a pause ). "Wait — if you've got a show tonight, why're you here instead of there?"

@braveburned from here

Her hands are on her hips, but Ollie doesn't plan on lecturing him. She's well aware of her own history of impulsive choices, and she's well aware of how little lectures did to stop any of that. If anything, she knew it could make that sort of thing worse. So hey, maybe a distraction would work better. It certainly couldn't be any worse.

"Well, I drum for a band, and the show tonight's probably chill enough for a kid." Doesn't mean a kid should be there, but that's neither here nor there. "I could probably get you in."

my love language is bothering

❛ See, this is why no one lets you make the plans. ❜ ( from cassidy in her SB AU who is absolutely about to come up with a worse one ( said jokingly obv ) / @ladyseidr )

inbox spring cleaning

★ — "Hey ——!"

Quickly shouted in slight - offense, his brows furrowed and mouth forming a small ' o '. He manages to pull himself together before continuing, pulling his volume into a hissed - whisper.

"Screw you, I'm great at plans!" ( highly debatable, if their current predicament were anything to judge ). "Like you could come up with anything better."

vanessa doesn't try and do anything fancy. she &. freddy at the table, (or vanessa fluttering around the table) with a birthday bag (of whatever she could afford, some snacks he liked -- she'd been taking note -- &. one more expensive gift). she'd also found a book on coding for them to work together on, &. almost shamefully, a glamrock freddy themed pair of nice sneakers to replace... well, those. there was also a boxed cake still in the pan so as to not entirely ruin the shape, with icing and a few blue candles stuck into it. she didn't bother writing on it. "hey, kiddo --" she tries when he enters. "happy birthday!" freddy chimes in with a chipper 'happy birthday superstar' - vanessa's head whipping around with a nervous smile. "i know it's not exactly a fazbear party, but it's better than most kids are gonna get nowadays."

★ — It's been years since Gregory has considered his birthday something worth celebrating. Years since someone has cared to make the day anything more than a mental tally mark to be made within the kid's own head.

Which is why he freezes upon entering ; a deer in the headlights when faced with the small set - up, Freddy waiting for him and Vanessa anxiously flittering about, both clearly waiting for him to get home ( to their home, his home, for real ). It's enough to make his chest feel tight, pressure pin - pricking behind his eyes. The threat of crying is enough to move him into action — quickly lifting a hand to press at his eyes, refusing to let any tears fall.

How fucking long has it been since someone gave a shit?

He hadn't thought Vanessa would remember his birthday, same as all his other guardians who knew the date for paperwork purposes but never bothered to commit it to memory — Freddy, maybe, only because the bear is programmed to do so for guests, but he had never expected this. A tentative step forward is taken, glancing over the small arrangement.

"Y'didn't — it woulda' been fine ——."

If you didn't do anything lingers in the air, but he can't bring himself to say it. Gregory's happy, even if he's struggling to parse through all the emotions the gesture is pulling at. A weak chuckle pushes past his lips at Vanessa's comment about a fazbear birthday.

"Thanks. It's great."

( and he really, really means it ).

[ FORT ]: sender builds a blanket fort for the receiver following a long and difficult day. (let gregory have a normal kid moment!!)

this has been in my inbox for almost an entire year

★ — The living room is torn to pieces when he gets home, and all Gregory can do is stare from the doorway.

It's the last thing he expects ; he hadn't been sent home early from school, but it had been a near thing after a fight had broken out. The teacher who caught the incident had refused to hear Gregory out, and had sent him straight to the front office, where they had .... at least sort of listened, agreeing to talk to the other students that had been verbally harassing him until he had finally gotten fed up. But the office had also insisted on calling his parent— his guardian— to inform them of the situation.

So Gregory knows Michael knows. And he also knows that drawing attention to himself is putting their arrangement at risk. So he's steeled himself for the oncoming lecture, for the disappointment, half - preparing to be yelled at the moment he opens the door. ( all his foster parents would yell, they'd never listen ). But that doesn't come.

Instead, the living room is in shambles — and for a split second Gregory wonders if he'd made Michael that mad. It's too structured to be that, though, and that makes it all the more confusing.

He sees Michael poke his head out from underneath the cushions and blankets, obviously having heard the door open. Gregory's brows furrow. There's an invitation to come closer, but Gregory doesn't move from his place in the wide open doorway.

( he's still not entirely sure if he should bolt or not ).

"What'd you do?"

WHAT'S CHILDHOOD LIKE? IT'S A LITTLE LIKE DYING, A LITTLE LIKE BEING BORN. WHICH IS TO SAY, IT'S NOTHING YOU CAN REMEMBER, BUT YOU KNOW THERE WAS BLOOD.

independent gregory of five nights at freddy's: security breach. canon divergent and heavily headcanon based. as adored by lune. ©