At least EVE was kind enough to let Wall-E have his much needed solar recharge. He noticed EVE's face slightly changed when his charge meter didn't go all the way to the top. This time, there wasn't any inquiry from her for she already knew why.
Wall-E sighed and took a deep breath. He hoped that more of his panels broke so that he could just spend the entire day out there and not confront her.
Once they were back inside their home, the tension in the air was thick. In fact, it was so thick that neither of them could come close to each other nor face each other even. Wall-E was at the far back corner of the truck, trembling a little. He had his back towards EVE, not daring to face her. Turning around felt like a death sentence.
If he was about to be executed, he'd rather not see it coming. He waited for her to say something... Anything.
EVE hovered at the doorway, just watching him, waiting for him to talk, to 'fake'.
After what seemed like ages, EVE shut the door.
They were going to have a day off today.
Another eternity seemed to pass between the two before EVE began to hover towards the empty spare part shelves. EVE knew that Wall-E sensed her approach as he folded himself into a cube. She began to examine the empty shelves, brushing her hand in the crevasses that once housed Wall-E's parts.
There was no use getting angry at him. With Wall-E, she learned that her laser cannon was not always the best solution. In this particular moment, her commitment told her that resorting to anger will not help at all.
Yes, Wall-E had hurt her. Yes, it was logical for her programming to blast him into pieces.
However, she understood.
"Wall-E" she said as gently as she could.
He did not respond. Wall-E knew that he hurt EVE. He had failed in his commitment. If he talked or did anything, it might make things even worse.
EVE knew what Wall-E was feeling right now. He had locked himself in his shell, heartbroken for hurting her. She had to show him that she was okay, to show him that she understood. Any violent action, any form that would register her as hostile towards his systems would further close him up. This Wall-E in front of her was not the exact same Wall-E she had met a century and a half ago. He had changed- a lot.
That meant that she had to change too, just to keep up with him. She felt it to be uncomfortable but she had to.
So, she had to 'fake'. Again, pondering on this word, she understood why Wall-E learned it so well. She understood him and now, she was about to use whatever he learned on him. In order to do that, she had to throw away her original plan of going up to him and directly asking him. Instead, she processed every possibility, every reason behind Wall-E's actions and planned to start from there.
Then she realized that 'fake' wasn't really too bad after all. In fact, it seemed easy for her to do since, as she thought about it further, after realizing what Wall-E had done for her- the reason why he hurt her, the reason why he used 'fake', she didn't have to 'fake' as much anymore. She kept it real and it proved to be way easier.
She lifted her hand and gently placed it on top of Wall-E's retracted head, "Wall-E" she spoke tenderly.
Wall-E did not say a word ever since he first saw EVE that morning. He was grateful though, that EVE wasn't intent on obliterating him and he showed that appreciation by slowly detracting his head, arms, and wheels. Feeling no form of hostility from EVE, he slowly turned around to face her. Much to his surprise, her eyes were contorted in concern more than in pain.
And strangely, this 'pained' Wall-E. He was expecting her to show him all the hurt, all the pain he had caused her, but she didn't. Yes, it would 'pain' him if she showed all that hurt, but now it's paining him more when she was showing him concern. It unsettled him. He suddenly found it difficult to keep his gaze to her, as if her expression had an invisible force of its own, trying to push him away.
It's funny, how 'pain' works... So unpredictable and weird.
But then again, so is 'love'.
Maybe EVE was 'faking' it, but a gentle hand squeeze from EVE told him otherwise.
"Wall-E", EVE said once again.
Once again, she waited for a reply.
He didn't. Maybe he was too afraid...
EVE sighed, expressing her sadness, which consequently moved Wall-E. She watched as he looked away,
And emit the most horrible sound she had ever heard, "Ssso-ree"
EVE gasped. The sound was not his. That was not his regular, high-pitched voice; this voice was lower and was infested with static. This troubled her but she did not want to show him her discomfort. This new defect was difficult for both EVE's hearing and her heart to comprehend, but she took comfort in the fact that at least she could understand.
Wall-E's eyes closed in sadness when he heard her gasp. That was what he was afraid of. Now, he was losing his communication box and through EVE's hand that was still intertwined with his, he could feel that she was deeply unsettled by this new gap in fixing him and their relationship.
"Eevah?" with that, she let go of his hand and turned away.
"Parts?" was all she said. If that was the only problem, then it wasn't really that big of a problem. They could have some made for him in the Axiom, it's as simple as that.
However, it was the way that Wall-E's been acting that told her that parts were not the only problem. She turned back to face him.
Wall-E shook his head, "Mmmooore. M-more." He then reached out for EVE's hand. Taking it, he slowly began, "Eevah.. Looove.. Paaain.. Faa-kaah.. Overtime.. Co-meet-ment.."
"Wall-E..", EVE began, then slowly and gently, she brushed her hands on her partner. She started with Wall-E's broken wheel, ".. worry.." then up to his broken arm, ".. miss.." to the speaker on his head, ".. pain.." to his broken left eye, ".. fake.."
Then she laid her hand to rest on Wall-E's energy meter, ".. love.."
Wall-E still shook his head, "Eevah." He then proceded to detach his left eye- the one that was broken, the one he had tried to fix in the graveyard the night before, "More" and he gave the eye to her.
EVE gingerly took the eye with her fins and scanned it. Then she nearly dropped it in shock...
The eye was perfectly working. But why couldn't Wall-E see... EVE returned her gaze at him. Wall-E nodded sadly at her. It wasn't just his mechanical parts that were breaking down... The most important ones...
Then her beloved began to speak, "Wall-E... D-daa-daa-yee-"
"No!" she cut him off. It may be nice that they were learning new words, but that was one word that he will not learn nor will she learn herself. It was a small, five letter word that dealt too much pain. "No!" she may understand and continue to understand Wall-E, but that word, she will never understand.
Humans have a better way of expressing or rephrasing that word which EVE had somewhat accepted: It was, as humans said it, when somebody 'forgets to breathe'. EVE would never understand, learn, comprehend that word- that term. That... Thing. Because she knew that Wall-E will never 'forget'. She was Wall-E's breath- she was his life. She made him live. Even if she almost lost him three times before, Wall-E never 'forgot'.
"Eevah?"
EVE did not say a word. She turned and reached down the secret compartment, and retrieved Wall-E's broken, but original arm. She hovered towards him and presented him the arm, ".. commitment.."
Wall-E stared at the arm, slowly comprehending what EVE was telling him. He did not have to hide it and go about his problem alone. He may have been alone for seven centuries, but now that was not the case. Now EVE was in the picture and they were in it together. And the manner EVE confronted him just now, how she did not express any form of anger told him that no matter what happened, he was not alone. She was a part of him and he, a part of her. Never again would they be alone.
Technically, the memories that span seven hundred years were a lot more than the memories that span only a hundred and fifty years. Because of that technicality, Wall-E had returned to his seven hundred year memories. However, EVE reminded him that his one hundred and fifty year memories were what mattered at this day and age.
It was what was new and better; not what was old and outdated.
It wasn't technicality; it was relativity- A human term.
Finally, Wall-E broke his shell and slowly took his old arm. Together, the two detached the arm he's been using and installed his original one. Then, EVE held her hand out for Wall-E to hold, which he did. The arm was still broken but now, he was no longer afraid to hide it. They will fix the problem together.
"Commitment" he replied.
EVE's eyes turned upwards to reflect a genuine smile. Then, with a "whoa!" from her beloved, she picked him up and left their home.
"Eevah?"
And one simple word escaped EVE:
"Overtime."
Now, it was Wall-E's turn to smile. He felt healed.
Heal... Now that was a new word he could get used to. He was beginning to like it.
EVE landed at the large door entrances to the Axiom. With Wall-E in hand, they moved side by side into the ship. It's been a while since EVE had been back inside the ship and since then, nothing has changed. It wasn't surprising since nearly the entire ship had been relatively untouched.
The world they now know was a much bigger place than this.
EVE was filled with hope. If there was something wrong with any robot around here, the Axiom would always have the answers. The ship held the entire planet's history in its powerful processors, as well as the histories of both the human and robot races. The ship was basically Earth itself, except that it was Earth that was converted into data and stored into a computer- a computer that was now known as the Axiom.
It was originally built with the goal of recolonizing Earth so everything that was needed regarding Earth would be in it. EVE brought Wall-E in the repair ward and hooked him up in the diagnostic machine.
With a few punches on the buttons, the computer should tell her what he needed.
Wall-E, however, knew better. He had been here months ago and knew that it did not work. "Eevah," he began.
But EVE held her fin up for him to stop. Seeing no other opportunity to tell her, Wall-E did as EVE told and let the computer tell her instead.
As he predicted and thanks to prior experience, Wall-E saw the red lighting of the computer screen reflect off EVE's face. He could not see what exactly was written since he could not see the screen but he remembered what was written when that red screen came up.
UNKNOWN OBJECT
NOT IN DATABASE
There was silence. EVE approached him to reattach the wires and the machines before she went back to the computer screen and repunched the buttons.
Red lighting.
Again she tried.
Red lighting.
"Eevah?"
There was silence.
Wall-E sighed. He looked up at EVE's face when she approached him. He was surprised that she still hasn't lost that glimmer of hope even slightly. That meant that there was something else they can do.
She offered her hand, "Come, Wall-E"
He took her hand, "Wwwwhere?"
"Bridge."
Then something clicked in his mind... Of course! Last time he was here, he only visited the diagnostic room! He did not even think about visiting the bridge! The reason why he wasn't found in the Axiom's database was because he was in stage two of "Operation: Cleanup".
Stage one was the evacuation of the human population. Stage two was be the activation of the Wall-E program that would clean up the trash on Earth. If the corporation only wanted the autopilots to have access to classified information regarding the failure of "Operation: Cleanup", then they would make the details of the entire operation inaccessible to anyone but the autopilots.
The data will not be deleted because at the time, humanity was very hopeful of their return to Earth. If the data was deleted then there would be an uprising. Instead, the autopilots figured that by pampering to every human's wants and desires and turning them into 'machines', then they would love staying on the ship instead of going back to Earth.
The only place on the ship that every stored data could be accessed would be in the bridge.
Maybe there's still hope.
Hope. That was one word Wall-E had a hard time learning. The only explanation he could get out of 'hope' would be that feeling he got when he first saw EVE that faithful day one hundred and fifty years ago.
Now as he looked at EVE's hand holding his, dragging him to the bridge with a lot of 'hope' in her electronic blue eyes, Wall-E began to learn that hope came side by side with 'love'.
A/N
Originally, I was thinking about the story ending here. But, it felt that it would leave people wanting to know about what happened next to Wall-E. So, I decided to extend it. In addition, the way the story will be going from here to what I had planned out allowed for more opportunities to develop the characters further, especially EVE who I felt did not experience any significant character development.
So, we're done with the first part of the story, which was centered mostly on Wall-E. I would like to apologize to those who were expecting a pure romance/drama fic. I assure you, the fic is still romance/drama, but there will be a mix of different genres on the second part. (It's good to have some variety. Too much of one thing is bad) The problem still persists but this time, our favorite couple will attempt to really solve it. What was fixed right now was Wall-E's attitude towards EVE regarding the problem. Now it would be kinda EVE-centric, so I had to slightly change the tone and the settings of the story.
I'm just hoping that my decision won't let the story jump the shark... So, just let the reviews come in and let me know how I'm doing. And a big thank you to those who reviewed and/or read the story thus far.