"Hey, Wil!"
Willow smiled, "V-Gr! Hi!"
V-GR strode over to her excitedly, "I had the day off today! You wanna head down to the gulf?"
"Oh yeah!" Willow headed to her home, "Just let me grab my skateboard, okay?"
Willow and V-GR's favorite hangout was the gulf where ocean water was beginning to fill, creating an odd rapid effect. V-GR had given her a sleek red skateboard for her birthday, and it was Willow's most treasured possession. She used it to go everywhere, even though she was actually faster on foot.
"Dad?" Willow peeked inside the truck, "Have you seen my skateboard?"
WALL-E flinched, a wrench falling on his head and pushing his head into his body.
"Dad!"
"Stand back!" WALL-E seemed nervous as his head popped back out, "Uh, I have no idea where your skateboard is. I don't think it's here."
Willow glared, "Dad. That shelf is empty."
"Is it? Well, uh..." he rapped his knuckles together, "That's because I moved everything to the storehouse."
"No you didn't. My shelf has more shiny silver on one side, I can tell you just spun the shelf. And besides, why would you move my things?"
WALL-E froze.
"Dad. If you threw out my skateboard, I swear, I'll..." she trailed off when she saw the ceiling. The top shelf was sandwiching a bunch of junk just under the roof.
WALL-E bumped the shelf on accident, causing the whole stash to tumble down.
"Willow!" V-GR shielded her from the onslaught of miscellaneous things while WALL-E took the blow head-on.
"Dad!" Willow fished him out of the pile.
"Ow..." his now-broken eye dangled from a thread.
"V-Gr, do you see any of his parts?" Willow asked.
"Um..." V-GR looked over the things, "...riiight...here!"
"Thanks." Willow swiftly replaced the eye.
"Ugh..." WALL-E stood up again, readjusting his optics.
"Oh, here it is." V-GR lifted the skateboard from the things.
Willow stared her father down while he boxed himself slowly.
"Dad, why aren't these things in the storehouse?"
"Um..." he backed away, "It's full..."
"You're kidding me, right?" Willow took the skateboard from V-GR, "Why don't you get rid of some of these things?"
"I can't! They're all important!"
"All of them?" V-GR bent down to grab a blue fleece blanket, "What about this?"
"Aya gave that to us the day Willow was born." WALL-E explained, "It was a great comfort to Eve while she recovered."
"And this?" V-GR grabbed a key chain.
"That's from Nos. He was going to throw it away but gave it to me instead."
"Is this important too?" V-GR opened an engagement ring box with nothing in it.
"I picked that up the day I met Eve. It proved to be useful later."
"Dad, you really feel the need to keep everything?" Willow asked incredulously.
WALL-E hid his head in his body.
"Whatever. Let's go, V-Gr." Willow rolled down the ramp, "You'd better figure out what to do with all of this before Mom gets home."
WALL-E shivered in despair.
V-GR looked back as he walked with his girlfriend, "Do you really think we should just leave him here?"
"I donno." Willow replied, "He's always been a collector, but I don't understand how it got this bad."
"When did he start collecting things?"
"Well, he told me his tape of Hello, Dolly! was the first thing that caught his eye, about forty years before he met my mom, which was almost a hundred years ago...so..."
"Jeez, that's a long time." V-GR said, "No wonder he's got so much stuff."
"Yeah...well..." Willow watched WALL-E fret over his things, "He'll figure something out...hopefully..."
"WOOOOO!" Willow landed on all four wheels of her skateboard, grinding to a halt in the dirt.
"Wait up!" V-GR laughed as he stopped next to her on his roller blades, "You go so fast!"
V-GR rolled over a rock and tripped, falling into Willow's arms, "Ack!"
"Hello!" Willow gave him a quick kiss on the mouth, "Mwah!"
"Ah!" V-GR blushed.
Willow giggled, "Did I surprise you?"
"Mmhmm..." he smiled, "You always surprise me. That's why I love you."
"Mmm..." Willow swooned as V-GR scratched underneath her cheeks.
"At least your reaction to this never changes..."
"Okay...that's enough..." Willow let him stand, "Anyway, I guess I should get going. I have to be at-!"
"AAAAAGGGGGHHH!"
They both froze in shock.
"I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO GET RID OF ALL THIS!"
"Mom." Willow realized, bolting to the ramp behind the truck.
"Why didn't you move these things to the storehouse!?" EVE shouted, "I tried to tell you again and again and again! WHY DID YOU IGNORE ME!? WHY WON'T YOU EVER LISTEN!?"
Willow noticed in horror that EVE's eyes were glowing red. They only did that when she was truly enraged. Willow shrunk back until she bumped into V-GR's shins.
WALL-E was in his box form, shaking hard enough to rattle his compactors.
"Wall-E..." EVE blinked, her eyes returning to their blue color, "I'm sorry for yelling, but I'm just so frustrated. Why did you ignore me for the millionth time?"
Willow could tell that EVE was having trouble keeping her voice even. She was surprised she hadn't pulled her gun yet.
WALL-E still couldn't respond out of fear. He very carefully lifted his eyes enough to look at EVE. Willow had been mistaken. He wasn't afraid at all.
He was ashamed.
EVE frowned, "I'm sorry...I have to go..."
"Huh?" WALL-E unfolded himself, "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to live with Leah and Rose!" EVE turned around, "I'll come back when you clean up that dump we call home!"
WALL-E's optics curved down, "Dump...?"
Willow watched her mother fly away before stepping forward, "Dad!"
"W-Willow..." WALL-E's arms slid down his body until they were resting on the floor, "What have I done?"
"What happened?" Willow felt her eyes widen. The shelf full of lighters had fallen onto EVE's emergency battery - the same one she used when she was pregnant with Willow - and had broken it, the mechanics inside bleeding acid and oil. That wasn't the only thing that had broken either. Several things were either smashed, ripped, or dented. It looked like an actual dump.
"What have I done...?" WALL-E lamented.
"Dad, we can fix this!" Willow said, "Let's just get all of this out of here! Then Mom'll come back!"
"It's not that simple..." WALL-E explained, "Our relationship has been under a lot of strain lately as it is...even before she asked me to clean up..." he took a photo of EVE off a shelf with a vaseline-like lens effect; his favorite photo of his wife, "We've been spending less time together, our conversations shorter, our kisses smaller...I don't even remember what the catalyst was...we just...don't agree anymore..."
"Dad..."
"I'm sorry..." he dropped the picture on the floor, "I just need to be alone..."
He rolled away dejectedly while Willow and V-GR shared a knowing glance. This wasn't going to end well.