Not by the Strings, Please.

BB's Tour of Friendship

"Marionette! Psst! Marionette! Wake up!" A voice whispered, waking me from my sleep. I poked my head out of my box, only to see Balloon Boy standing in the doorway of the Prize Corner, every so often glancing behind him. I rubbed my eyes groggily and searched about for the clock. It couldn't be tomorrow night already, could it?

"Wh-what time is it?" I asked, blinking.

"Not important. But I can tell you this, we're the only two animatronics active right now! So come on, let's go on an adventure!" Balloon Boy giggled, practically bouncing with excitement. I tilted my head.

"Won't we get ourselves into trouble?" I asked nervously. Balloon Boy shook his head.

"Naw, the place is closed today. Now come on! Let's go take a walk!" Balloon Boy said, bounding out the door. I sighed, rubbing my eyes one last time before following after him. When I caught up with him, he was standing in front of a small, narrow passageway.

"See this? It's called the tube of wonder! You crawl through it, and sometimes you get to see a thingy with a red laser on it blink a light right in your face, then you get to go back or keep going. If you make it to the end, the prize is some more light in your face, then you see Freddy! It's super cool, but then you go back." Balloon Boy explained the whole thing to me, and it was like hearing Einstein's theory of relativity in under thirty seconds.

"Oh, and sometimes, the light won't come on at all, so you get in there and there's a person standing in there. It's the weirdest thing, but I still end up seeing Freddy after a few seconds. So it's okay." Balloon Boy grinned, before crouching into the crawl space. Then I caught on. This was one of the vents leading into the security office. Did he think harassing the night guard was a game?

"Oh, brother." I sighed out loud.

"Oh, brother," Balloon Boy parroted. "Oh, maybe you should shove it up yours and quit being a stick in the mud! It's supposed to be fun!" He groaned as he made his way down the air vent. I shook my head, trying to understand his insult. Shove it up yours? I've never heard that before. What could it mean?

Dismissing the taunt without any offense, I crawled down the vent, following behind the balloon vendor.

"Oh boy, oh boy. We're here! We won the game! WOOOOO!" Balloon Boy cheered loudly as he reached the end of the vent. I winced at the sound. Hopefully he wouldn't wake any other animatronics.

"Alright, what do we do now, BB?" I asked, rising to my full height in the security office. I kept my gaze away from the farthest corner of the room, not wanting to see what was left of the night guard. I had already done my crying for him, and I didn't want to do any more. Instead, I looked back at Balloon Boy, who had a goofy grin stuck on his face.

"Well, what we do is-" He cut himself off as soon as he turned his head around. "Wh-wh-WHAT?! WHERE'S FREDDY?!" He screamed, obviously thrown off by the absence of the night guard.

"Hush! We don't want to wake up the others!" I instinctively tried to quiet the aghast balloon vendor down.

"THIS IS STUPID! HE'S NOT HERE!" Balloon Boy ignored my warning and continued to rant with a much louder volume. "DANG IT! YA KNOW, WHY CAN'T I EVER DO ANYTHING COOL FOR MY FRIENDS WITHOUT HAVING EVERYONE MESS IT UP! STUPID STUPID STUPID!" Balloon Boy growled, kicking a leg of the table, causing the whole thing to shudder. I stopped to think about his ranting. Friend? He saw me as a friend? My spirits rose, but immediately fell as soon as the sound of sorrow replaced that of rage.

In the time it took me to realize that I was something to the short animatronic, the balloon vendor had plopped down on the floor and began to sob.

"Oh, er, BB? Are you...quite alright?" I asked, stepping forward so I was standing over the huddled up figure.

"NO!" He snapped, looking up at me, then shoving his face back into his knees. I tilted my head. I had to say something. I mean, sure the reason why he was sad was rather ridiculous, but he was trying to do something nice for me, and if I said nothing, I'd come off as a major idiot. Or a bad friend at the least.

"Er...BB? For what it's worth, I still had fun in your...what was it called...tube of wonder?" I stumbled on my words. And in the end, I still managed to come off as a major idiot. I mentally kicked myself, preparing for the consequences of my obtuse actions. Instead, Balloon Boy suddenly leaped from the floor and locked me into a tight embrace.

"Thanks so much, Marionette." He sniffled into my skinny body. I glanced down at him, thrown off guard by his sudden act of kindness.

"Oh, er...of course." I stammered. Balloon Boy let go, then took a step backwards, grinning the same as always.

"Alrighty. That was stop one, we've still got a bunch more. Follow me!" Balloon Boy exclaimed, waddling out the door. I smiled, then followed. After just a few moments of walking down the hallway, I lost track of where Balloon Boy had gone, and all that was in front of me was empty darkness.

"Oh dear. Um...BB?" I called out into the dark hallway.

"Yeah, Marrie?" Balloon Boy teasingly nicknamed me. I stopped to consider the name, then instinctively tilted my head out of confusion.

"E-excuse me?" I asked. An din of childlike giggles arose.

"That's a funny nickname. I'm gonna call you that from now on. Hey, where'd ya go?" Balloon Boy finally realized that I had fallen behind.

"Oh, I'm just behind you, I think. May I ask, where are we going?" I finally managed to keep my tone steady, despite the rising fear of something undesirable jumping out at me.

"The Show Stage, dummy! I wanna go visit the Toys!" Balloon Boy giggled mischievously. I felt the need to object, but for some reason, I could not. He must have sounded too excited for me to go and ruin his fun. Just one of my entertainer instincts, I suppose.

When we finally reached the Show Stage, it was rather lit up. Well, lit up enough to see the sentient mascots of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza standing on the stage with their casual, friendly stares. I stalled behind the balloon vendor in the doorway to examine the area before making my way inside. Just to be safe. Balloon Boy on the other hand, bounded right up on the stage in front of Toy Freddy, waving his hands in the air.

"Hey! Hey you guys! Check it out!" Balloon Boy exclaimed, starting to jump about and dance. "I can moOoOoOoOove!" He teased. I immediately saw what was wrong with his actions.

"BB! No! No, no, no! Stop, stop everything you're doing!" I scolded, darting inside the room without even thinking about it.

"Awwwwwww! Whyyyyyyyy!?" Balloon Boy whined. I shook my head, glancing between the Toy animatronics and Balloon Boy several times.

"Just because they're not active doesn't mean you get to make fun of them for it. It's not their fault they're programmed this way!" I chided. Balloon Boy pouted.

"Marrie, you just blew it." He said in a disappointed tone. I sighed, immediately realizing that I could have potentially damaged our friendship.

"Look, all I'm trying to say is that we should have fun in other ways besides making others feel like they're less important than someone else. Or in other words, don't bully. Alright?" I explained, kneeling so I could be at eye level with the balloon vendor. Balloon Boy sniffled, then nodded.

"Okay." He sighed, sulking slightly. I nodded once with approval.

"Good. Now, do you have something you want to say to these animatronics?" It was a request rather than a question, and I made sure my point was heard by gently pushing the balloon vendor forward a few inches.

"I am sorry." Balloon Boy said, making the apology an overexaggerated amount of sincerity. I smiled, patting him on the back.

"I'm really proud of you. Now, what do you want us to do now? Lead the way." I pointed towards the exit. Balloon Boy's smile returned.

"Oh man, I gotta show you my room! It's so cool! There's a carousel and a bunch of balloons and all kinds of stuff! C'mon, slow poke!" Balloon Boy leapt into action, running out the door. As I left to follow him, I could have sworn I heard a raspy voice whisper in a quiet tone;

"Thank you."