Okay, so like, who's ready for weird story time? XD Iris and I had the hardest time getting a name for the story, and we were completely stumped for like..a day...or so. But then, I'm sleeping in bed, freezing cold and shivering, and sis wakes me up in the middle of the night, throws a sweater in my face, tosses a big thick sleeping bag over the whole bed and is like, "Prin, Prin, I got it! Robots and Trees!" I stared at her, gave her a goofy grin and said, "Yeah, I like tree houses, why?"
I know, I'm half insane in the middle of the night. Anyway, I went back to sleep, and I had this weird dream where the world was at war, and like, there was the electronic, advanced side of civilization, and the mythic...like hippy people that wanted to live in harmony with nature instead of plowing it down for progress. Anyway, so Zach was a cyborg and McKenzie was a Tree Nymph, and they fell in love, and they went against all traditions and restrictions and beyond the fence and found that both sides have their perks, and they wanted to bring about a new era of Techs and Nymphs living in harmony with everything. Oh and then there was an awesome poster inside my head, that I would SOOO love to be able to show you but I can't. DX Anyway, I'm done, so read, rite review! ^^
McKenzie's green eyes flitted across the huge mansion that was to be her home and she gasped. When she had gotten married, she had a basic idea of how rich her husband was; she hadn't really cared for it, and had mostly put it out of mind. But now, staring at the huge area the house took up, she began to grasp at the strings of how much he actually had. It worried her slightly, but as she felt a tentative pair of arms weakly wrap themselves around her, she smiled and pulled the arms down strongly, pulling the man closer to her. He seemed surprised at first, but relaxed into it and rested his chin on her shoulder.
"So what do you think?" he asked, his voice soft and gentle, as it only was for her. She giggled and patted his arms.
"I think you overdid it. You know, I though we went over this on our first month of dating," she spun around in his arms, facing his surprised face and wrapping her arms around his middle and resting her cheek on his collarbone, "You don't buy my love with expensive gifts."
He pulled back, his pastel green eyes glittering with emotion.
"Wha-you don't like it? I-I can get a better one if you-"
She quieted him with a prompt kiss on his lips, which shocked him, as it always had, and she pulled back, watching with amusement as a red blush covered his cheeks. Zach gave her a lopsided grin.
"It's fine, Zach. I just wasn't expecting it."
He seemed relieved, and pulled away from her.
"But how am I going to clean it?"
"Clean it?" he scoffed, "My robots will do that for you!"
She stared at him, trying to imagine his bulky robots doing delicate chores like dusting the furniture and washing fragile plates. She giggled, imagining them in pink, frilly aprons.
"Let's throw a housewarming party!" Zach slipped his hand into hers, interlacing their fingers tentatively, almost as if he was afraid she'd reject it.
"But we haven't even moved in yet!" McKenzie's green eyes flew open.
"We have too!" he grinned and tightening his grip on her hand, ran up the lawn to the front door, "I had my robots move all of our stuff while we were on the honeymoon."
She blushed, remembering the expensive hotel he had taken her to, and her eventually dragging him out to the woods to enjoy the days better.
"Hey, wait, your robots moved my stuff?"
Noticing the slight worry in her voice he paused a moment to reassure her with a nervous chuckle, "Oh, no, I made sure they were programmed to be gentle with the stuff."
McKenzie frowned slightly for a second, knowing she'd have to rearrange most of the stuff to her liking, but smiled at him, her brown hair flying as she turned to look at him.
"Okay. How about that tour?"
He grinned happily, a love struck look coming over his face as she wrapped one of his arms over her shoulder and wrapped hers around his waist as they walked in.
This is only the beginning, they both thought to themselves.
McKenzie knew that Zach was trying to show how much he loved her by making life easier for her and having the robots do everything, but she really did enjoy housework. There was just something about sweeping the rooms every day that made her feel at home, and something about washing her own dishes that made her love them more, and appreciate the finely painted details on the expensive china ware her mother had given her. But most of all she loved the garden that made up her back yard.
She loved to go out and weed the plants, talking to them and giving them a certain love that no robot could ever give them. She loved to water the rose bushed and lilac flowers and watch the tiny birds flit around in the tall ornamental grass, eating the tiny seeds from their stalks.
It would take forever, though, to convince Zach to come out with her, and she would sit in the garden alone at times, saddened that he couldn't share her joy. She never stayed down for long though.
"Zach?"
He muttered something as he gently placed another robotic piece on top of his most recent invention. She raised an eyebrow when she noticed that it seemed completely decorated with spikes.
"Zach, honey," she reached out and gently touched his shoulder.
"One sec," he reached up from his seat, placing a pair of goggles on her eyes that she couldn't see out of, and placed a matching pair on his own face. She winced as the loud sound of a welder powering up assaulted her ears. Some white light penetrated her black goggles, before the welder powered down.
"Done!" he pulled off her goggles and threw them at a nearby robot along with his own, grinning giddily at his new invention.
"What is it?" McKenzie gently touched one of the spikes of the odd-looking sphere.
"It's a time dilator!" he grinned.
"Time dilator?"
"Yeah, it's a step towards time travel!" Zach giggled and placed it on his shelf, "Oh, were you saying something?"
She sighed and hugged him, "I just wanted to ask you to come with me somewhere."
"Where to?"
"It's a surprise," she looked up at him through her eyelashes. He practically melted and hugged her back.
"Oh, alright. No blindfolds?"
"Aw, hon!"
"Okay, fine! I'll put up with you and your crazy blindfolds again for today," he jabbed his tongue out at her for a moment, and she giggled, giving him a quick kiss before blindfolding him.
"Only because I love you."
He felt her hug him again, clinging close for a second, "I love you too."
As he felt himself be led around, he began to think he knew where she was leading him. He could feel the air around him heating up, surrounding him, swallowing him...he subconciously clutched her hand tighter.
"M-McKenzie?"
"We're almost there!"
"We've been walking forever!"
"Only a couple of minutes, Zach. Wait a few more," she pulled him a little faster, and he could feel the atmosphere around him change, cooling down and letting go of him.
Here she stopped, and he felt her take the blindfold off. Opening his eyes, he winced at the light attacking them, and blinking a few times, he found himself surrounded by trees.
"McKenzie-"
"Just give it a chance," she whispered, smiling up at him serenely with her green eyes full of hope. He felt that now familiar pounding of his heart in his chest, and felt a sort of joy at knowing that it still existed.
"Okay."
McKenzie had brought him life again. With her happy, smiling ways, her stubborn streak and big green eyes, she had given him more than he could ever dream of repaying her for. He'd put up with any amount of boring, dead-as-rocks trees for her. Looking around, he noticed that she had set up a picnic under one of the trees. She pulled him over and sat down.
"What's this?"
"I wanted to do something special, and, well," she shrugged, grinning as she tucked her coppery brown hair behind her ears and pulled out a pie, "I made this. My mom used to always make rubharb pie every Saturday."
"What's ru-har-bab pie?" half of his face was pulled up in an expression of sheer confusion.
She laughed, and he noticed how the little bit of sunlight filtering through the trees caught on her hair, lighting up the coppery tones.
"Here, taste it," she pulled out a fork and positioned a piece on the tines, holding it out to him. With some aprehension, he took the bite. It had an odd texture, not a little unlike apple pie, but tasted much, much more sugary.
"Not bad," he praised, pulling out another fork and taking another bite. In fact it was "not bad" to the point that he nearly ate the entire thing himself.
They spent a couple hours laughing and talking, taking their time with eating their lunch.
"Zach?" McKenzie spoke up as they laid on the cloth together, her head on his chest.
"Hmm?"
"Was it so bad out here?"
"Well...no..." he ignored the fact that he currently had a rock poking his back and a root was pressing itself into his neck uncomfortably.
"Can we do this again?" she murmured, slowly falling asleep.
Silence. He thought over it.
"S-sure. It'll be nice."
"Ever think of having a family?"
He hoped she was still half asleep, because he wasn't sure he wanted her to see the absolutely horrified look on his face. He thought back to his own family.
His older brother had run off to become a photographer at fifteen.
His mom died.
He got a stepmom that in some ways had been a much better mom, but had frankly freaked him out beyond belief.
He got a half brother that followed him around treating him like a god whenever he saw him, including offering him any and all things the young boy deemed worthy for him...including a dead frog, a weird painting that looked like someone drove over it on a mudroad after a rainstorm and a couple of other assorted "offerings".
His dad died in a horrible manner.
The step mom disappeared with the half brother.
In all honesty, he didn't believe families worked out. They either died off, lied about everything in an attempt to get to the end, or split up.
But he knew McKenzie had grown up in a happy home, and that she wanted a family. A good, healthy, working family.
Could he give that to her? Could he be a father to a kid?
"Zach?"
"Huh?"
"Ever think of having a family?"
"No," he answered honestly, "But...I'd think about it...now..."
Maybe they could work it out.