Chapter Text
She smiled down at him, her eyes sparkling like emeralds. Her teeth were as pure and as beautiful as diamonds, her hair flowing behind her in a graceful arc, following the rest of her movements.
Her name was long lost to time. Perhaps her husband remembered it. Their oldest son certainly didn’t… but he remembered how playful she had been, how full of life and joy she was. How she loved to tease her husband at every opportunity, reminding him that he was a human, too, and that he had a family and was capable of smiling and laughing, of feeling things.
He’d forgotten he could do all of that when she finally moved on. But her smile, her radiance… her charm and grace had all left a place in her oldest son’s heart.
Her warm, gentle hands guided his hands where they needed to be. She snuck in some tickling, making him laugh. She laughed, too, the sound pure and beautiful enough to clear away the clouds on a rainy day. Perhaps it was just a child remembering the brightest spot in his life- perhaps that’s the way she really was. Regardless, he loved it, and he loved her. And he loved the fluid, graceful movements that she taught him, that they would perform together. And her husband loved it, too, watching them.
It was rare that he remembered he was once human. That they both did. But when they did remember, she was there. She was at the center of their former human existences.
A loud, excited scream echoed throughout the Hellspace. Mike shot up from the couch, bolting out the door before it even registered in his brain that he was moving. He followed the scream all the way to the kitchen. He burst through the door, searching for the source of the scream.
His eyes landed on Susie, Charlie, and Elizabeth. They were all sitting at the table together, Elizabeth and Charlie with their hands covering their ears. Susie was practically bouncing in her seat, an excited look on her face.
“MikeMikeMikeMikeMike- “ she burst out. Mike carefully walked into the room, eyes darting around for something that could have potentially harmed or frightened her. He inwardly shook his head. Susie wouldn’t look so happy and excited if she had screamed over something dangerous or terrifying.
Regardless, his eyes swept over her, looking for any sign of injuries. Satisfied that she was alright, he knelt down in front of her. “Everything alright, Sue?” he asked. She nodded excitedly.
“I just got the bestest idea ever!” she said. Mike let out a small chuckle, partly out of relief and partly to tell her that he was interested in whatever idea she had come up with now. “Mike! You know how there was that ball in Cinderella? And that other one in Beauty and the Beast at the end?”
Mike nodded. He’d watched those movies so many times that he had the songs memorized.
“Yeah… what about them?” he asked. Susie’s grin widened.
“What if we threw a ball?” she asked. Mike blinked at her a couple of times. Susie didn’t sense his shock, instead going into a rant about her ideas for it. “We could wear fancy dresses and suits and you could host the party because you once ran your own Freddy Fazbear’s place and you probably know how to organize that kind of thing and we can drink wine- “
“You’re not drinking wine,” Mike interrupted. Susie didn’t miss a beat, jumping back into her rant as though he hadn’t spoken.
“- we could drink applejuice and we could dance and it’ll be so cool!”
Mike smiled a bit nervously at her, hoping that his eyes weren’t purple. It wasn’t that he disliked her idea- quite the opposite, actually, it sounded like a lot of fun- but there were a couple problems that it seemed Susie hadn’t quite thought of.
“Well, we could try that,” he said. “But there are a couple things that we’ll need to think about first.”
Susie tilted her head to the side.
“Like what?”
“First of all, I can’t set up a whole ball on my own,” he said. “I’d need a secondary planner and a team to help set everything up. Second, we’d need someone to teach everyone to dance- there are certain dances that people have to know for a ball. And third of all, we would need a caterer to take care of drinks and snacks, not to mention we’d need the costumes and all that other stuff.”
Susie frowned for a moment, thinking. Mike really hoped he hadn’t shot her idea down too much… she seemed really excited-
“I could be a secondary planner, since this was my idea,” she said. Mike sat back a little in shock. Was she really about to- ?
“I could also cater and, if I’m too busy to do that, we could always leave the planning to Gabriel and Cassidy since we’re the better cooks. Elizabeth and Charlie could work on costumes, and Fritz and Evan could help Gabriel and Cassidy set everything up.
“I just can’t think of anyone to teach us to dance,” she said. Elizabeth sat up at the table now, a smile on her face.
“We could ask Ballora!” she suggested. Charlie nodded.
“Yeah, but wouldn’t we need a second person too?” she asked. “I mean, a lot of those ballroom dances require two people, so having two people teach us how to dance would be easier…”
Susie deflated slightly at that.
“Oh, yeah…”
Elizabeth just smiled around at everyone. Mike froze slightly, his face going a little pale. She wasn’t about to suggest what he thought she was going to suggest, was she?
“Mike knows how to dance,” she said. “He could be the second person!”
Charlie and Susie turned to him in shock.
“You know how to dance?” Charlie asked him. Mike cleared his throat, looking down at the floor.
“I… well, saying I ‘know’ how to dance is a bit strong- “
“Yeah, he used to dance a lot!” Elizabeth said. “He would never dance in front of anyone, though, Evan and I have to sneak up the stairs and peek through the door to watch him.”
“...ok, that’s kind of creepy,” Mike told her. Elizabeth shrugged, grinning at him.
“We liked watching you dance,” she said. “We always hoped that you would show us, but…”
Mike bit his lip. He hadn’t realized that his siblings were stalking him while he danced… they could certainly be quiet when they wanted to be.
Elizabeth turned her smile to Susie and Charlie.
“Anyway, yeah, he can dance,” she said. “He and Ballora could both teach us.”
Mike knew for a fact that his eyes had turned purple at that. He didn’t want to work with Ballora! Heck, he was surprised that he hadn’t broken into a full-blown panic attack every time he saw one of the kids turn into an animatronic! And dancing with someone required contact, no matter how you looked at it, which meant he would have to hold Ballora’s hands and twirl. As if dancing in front of the kids wasn’t bad enough, it had to be with BALLORA?!
He took a deep breath, getting himself under control. No, that was panic talking… Ballora and the other Funtimes were turned strictly against William. They wouldn’t hurt him. Elizabeth would never allow it.
Then again, Circus Baby could always-
Nope. No, no, no. Bad Michael. Elizabeth wouldn’t allow the Funtimes to hurt him. Besides, Susie was back to being excited about this idea. And since she’d already picked out solutions for all the problems he’d informed her of, he couldn’t exactly back out of doing it.
It’s just for a little bit. You’ll be fine.
He was not gonna be fine.