Mike sighed and ushered everybody in, looking around outside before closing the door. All eyes were on Marionette, who was on the couch completely frozen by their stares, and despite their staring Mike went to the couch and grabbed his hand to comfort him. He felt Marionette's muscles begin to relax slightly, but he stayed still, either by force or by reflex.

"Yes, I am courting a sock monkey." Mike said sarcastically. "I'm dating an inanimate object who likes to stare at me while I sleep. No of course I'm dating an animatronic! Though inside of this animatronic, a human is trapped. That human is who I love." Mike finished off, and people began to get it. At least he was dating a human, technically. But that couldn't last.

"I'm not a human trapped inside of an animatronic body!" Mari said hotly, and heads whipped back to the striped animatronic. "What do you mean, you're actually just programming? I knew it! That's just creepy Mike, not gonna lie." Isaac butted in, and Mike let his head fall into his free hand. "Mari, I was trying to not make you tell them about... you know." Marionette looked over to him in alarm.

"Do I have to?" Mike nodded slowly. "Agh, fine. So I used to be a human, blahdeblahdeblah. Then I died, yipikayay! I turned into a Puppet. I'm not necessarily trapped, and I'm not human anymore technically... I act like a human and have human emotions, but... being human makes you have flesh and bones. Instead I'm metal and fabric... but I was human. I'm just not human anymore." Marionette explained quickly, gripping Mike's hand tighter. Their reaction was unexpected.

"Welcome to the family then Mari! This calls for a celebration!" Lisa said as she stepped closer to the animatronic and smiled softly at him. He gave a shy wave of his hand to the woman, his movements slightly jerky as he wanted to stay frozen but he forced himself through it.

"I'll go grab the alcohol!" Bryce yelled and practically dashed to the kitchen, being closely followed by Isaac and Grace. They gave cheers when they found Fredrick's old collection of wines and scotch, Mike never touching them. Isabelle gave a disappointed sigh and walked towards Mike from the doorway to the kitchen. "You okay Mari?" Mari gave a short nod and Mike squeezed his hand. They heard a glass shatter and Isabelle turned around, quickly going back to the kitchen to see what happened. Mike brought Marionette's hand to his lips and gave it a soft his before he lead him to the kitchen so he could grab the snacks. He wasn't gonna argue with getting his family so drunk they wouldn't ask questions.

He took a few bags of chips into the living room and took down some wine glasses, grabbing one himself to pour himself a little bit of wine. He didn't want to be left out.

As soon as he set the wine bottle down, Marionette grabbed the hand holding the glass, but Mike wasn't expecting it and the drink fell from his hand, shattering the glass and spilling the red liquid on the ground. Mike opened and closed his mouth a few times, not quite sure how to react. "Don't get drunk Mike! Don't leave me with your weird family!" Mari said, hearing a call of 'I heard that' from someone. "Besides, what about the kids? Please though, Mike... don't drink. Not tonight." Mari pleaded, but Mike realized something important.

"Crap! Aunt Lisa, do you want me to go grab the kids?" He asked his aunt from across the room. She shook her head. "Nah! Isabelle already is on that."

He sighed and looked back down to the shattered glass before looking up to his Puppet. "You're cleaning that up y'know." Mari only chimed in response before wrapping an arm around his human and dragging him out of the kitchen, pushing his mask lovingly into the crook of his neck. "I'm bored Mike~"

"You can play with the kids. They'll be bored too." Mike replied, but Mari only pushed him lightly down on the couch and curled up on his lap, lightly kissing the side of his head.

Mike and Mari just sat on the couch silently, unabashedly holding each other knowing that most of the others would be too drunk to remember it, and Isabelle took the kids upstairs to play some game.

Patrick stumbled over to the couch and gave a hiccup, sploshing a small amount of liquid from his cup as he set it down and quickly grabbed the Marionette and held him like a baby.

"What the heck are you doing? He's my doll!" Mike asked but made to attempt to grab Marionette back. "She's so light... even lighter than I expected!" Mari's mask morphed into a flatter look as he turned his head up to Patrick. Mike rolled his eyes. "Mari is a he, Patrick."

"Well, he looks very feminine. Why would a boy need red lips?" Patrick defended and Isabelle, who had come down to get something to eat for the kids, laughed before replying to the almost identical answer she'd given to Mike. "According to Mike, that made the transition easier." Mari's head turned to the human's and he gave him an unamused look, but Mike only smiled and raised his voice like talking to a baby. "Oh my gosh, he's so adorable! Can I hold him?"

Patrick, who was so drunk he seemed to now believe he was holding a baby, handed the puppet back to Mike, who kept him in his grasp and got real close to his face in a teasing way.

Isabelle and his Aunt Grace watched in interest as Mari leaned up and caught Mike's lips, taking his arms from their folded state to grab Mike's face. Mike readjusted his hold on Mari so one hand was free and he could grab Mari's mask to keep them together. Isaac began to cheer, which made everyone else begin to cheer confusedly, and Mike and Marionette embarrassedly pulled away from each other, Mike letting Mari out of his grasp but kept a hold of his hand.

"You never answered me Mikey." Mari whispered softly and grabbing his other hand, holding them both against Mike's chest. "And that was...?"

"You aren't going to drink tonight, right? Please don't, Mikey." Mari pleaded and teased. Mike sighed and shook his head. "If you really don't want me intoxicated tonight, I won't." Marionette gave a chime of delight and wrapped his arms around the man's torso happily. "Besides, I don't really want to wake up with a hammer pounding into my skull, that doesn't sound fun when we probably are having a ton of guests spending the night. Let's go make sure that the sheets are clean and the beds are made. We can make the couches into beds too and we have a blowup mattress somewhere..."

"Sure Mikey!" The two split up, Mari washing the sheets and beginning to make the couches into makeshift beds as Patrick and Bryce had a drinking contest and Mike searching for the blow up mattress.

Mike woke up with a Puppet curled up in his grasp and smiled. He felt happy he didn't drink anything last night, and was ready to laugh at his family with his mom for being so sick. If anybody had thrown up last night he was making them clean it up, he was not going to clean that up.

Marionette felt his human shifting and wearily opened his eyes, seeing a frozen Mike staring at him guiltily. "Sorry Doll, I didn't mean to wake you." He whispered and pet over his head. "Go back to sleep, my love."

That one was new. Mari uncurled himself and laid parallel to Mike on the bed before pulling the man against his body and crashing his lips against the human's. Mike kissed back with equal fervor, immediately taking back his request for him to go back to sleep.

As Mike pulled away, gasping for air, Mari laid his mask on Mike's neck and laid gentle kisses, making Mike's breath hitch. Mari smirked as he kissed his jaw and the corner of his mouth. "I love you so much Mike...y."

"I love you too... ugh, I guess that's our call." Mike closed his eyes in disgust as he heard somebody retching. He only hoped they were in the bathroom doing it. "This won't be pretty."
Mari led Mike out of the door and he saw his mom up and innocently drinking coffee, hiding a smile behind her cup as Isaac staggered towards the kitchen for some medicine and Patrick groaned on the couch.

"I'm so glad I don't drink anymore." Isabelle admitted to her son and Mike dropped his hand to find Mari's and gave it a squeeze of thanks, Mari giving a loving trill to his lover.

"Yeah.. I'm glad I have a Sock Monkey to keep me in line." It was almost hilarious how fast his chiming turned to playful static.

Special thanks to Lonecl0ud for inspiring me to write this and giving me ideas. XD Beautifulness at it's finest.

Don't drink kids! Especially if you're underage! I've been told it doesn't even taste good and just makes you sick and addicted. Like I won't judge you if you do, but just trying to help you. Don't even start.