A/N: Thanks goes to the forum fiends (you know who you are) for the idea. This is just a short little thing, but I hope it turned out well.
2 unshuttered his optics for the first time. The place he saw was cluttered, a myriad of shapes, colours and textures. Words dropped into his mind, seemingly from nowhere, to describe the things he saw: shelf, desk, floor, wall, and a hunched gray shape bundled around the edge of the desk. Through a hole in the wall- window, his mind prompted him- he saw vivid colours; dark blue, almost black at the top, lightening in shade until it met a narrow band of glimmering green at the bottom. Directly in front of him was a small device, suspended by three thin posts of metal. A wire ran from it. Following it with his optics, he realized the wire ran into an opening in his body.
I wonder what that is? he thought, trying to grab it, only to discover that his hands wouldn't move. He looked up. He was suspended by his arms, wrists stuck in bindings of some kind. He kicked his feet instinctively, tugging on the wrist restraints, but met nothing but air.
Well that's inconvenient.
"Don't worry 2, I'm coming," a haggard voice said, and the gray shape stirred. It unfolded into a gray-haired human, whom 2 found he recognized.
That's the scientist. He created me. Why do I know these things?
The Scientist reached over and unhooked the wire from his innards. 2 watched the human's hands as they laced his burlap and leather body shut, fascinated by their deft motions. He pulled on the bonds holding one wrist, wanting to compare his little hands with the much bigger ones in front of him. Could his hands be that agile? 2 could hardly wait to get free and find out.
"You'll be down soon," the old man said. Then the Scientist grasped him with one hand and started freeing his wrists with the other.
That's it, come on, get me down already, he thought. His hands positively itched explore everything he saw. The moment 2 felt his bonds loosed he jumped from the human's light grip. The Scientist gasped in surprise, then 2 landed on his feet but over-balanced and ended up on his hands and knees.
Cool and grooved, he noted, running a hand over the desk's surface, Very different from the Scientist's hands.
The Scientist. The noise he'd made when 2 jumped had sounded scared.
"I didn't mean to frighten you," 2 called over his shoulder as he put his feet under him and stood unsteadily. He touched his throat, wondering where his voice had come from, then followed the cloth up his face. The dual sensation of rough cloth against his hand and smooth warm metal against his face was interesting enough, but he had other things to explore.
"You didn't," the Scientist replied, sounding immeasurably tired. 2 turned around to regard the old man, almost tangling his feet in the process.
"Sit down," he said kindly, walking towards him, each step becoming more and more certain, "You don't look well."
"I'm alright, just tired."
The Scientist sat anyway, reaching for a worn leather journal. 2 walked up to his nearest hand and put both hands on his wrist. The Scientist froze and watched 2 as the stitchpunk studied his hand, then held up his own in comparison.
"Why do you have an extra finger?"
"Humans have four fingers and a thumb. Your hands are too small for that many digits, so I designed them with three fingers instead."
2 nodded, flexing his hand into the same grasping shape as the Scientist's. What about all that clutter he'd seen behind the Scientist on the floor? That had to be interesting.
"Can you put me down there?" he asked, pointing off the edge of the desk. The Scientist flattened his hand on the desk, palm upward. 2 walked onto it, then the Scientist carefully lifted him and lowered him down to the floor. 2 jumped off the outstretched hand six inches above the floor, this time ending up on one knee.
I'm getting better at that, he thought wrying, and then he was off, touching and testing everything he could get his hands on. The majority of the items he studied were a combination of more than one type of stuff, but there were also raw materials scattered across the floor- cloth, wire, bits of metal, even a disk of glass the size of his own optics. 2 picked the disk up and carried it with him as he explored the rest of the room.
Hmm, the Scientist built me using these sorts of things, he thought, I wonder what I could make by combining this stuff?
He smiled. It was time to find out.