After their movie night, hiding from the dust storm, Hiyori woke up on the mattress. She was tucked in neatly and completely reeked of sweat. After being throughly disgusted, she noticed a very old cup of instant noodles, luke warm, and a half full water bottle. Along with a dirty note paper on the covers. Her screen translated the neat handwriting. The note read:
"Good morning Hiyori Iki!
I went out to work for the day and will try to be back before sunset. I know you need to eat so I cooked you some good-old-fashioned Earth food! (Hope you don't mind I got the water from your trunk of yummies and had some). I also brought over your pod thingy, in case you were still sleepy from our time last night ;)
See you for dinner!
-Yato"
Hiyori's face burned at the last sentence, causing her to crumple up the note and shove it in her pocket. She'll force him to compact it later. After trying the noodles and gagging, Hiyori made her way out the open door, seeing that he did in fact bring her pod over. She didn't even want to know how he found it, especially after she thought she hid it, but there it hovered. The Eve just sighed, ordering her boots to take off. If Yato was going to go to work, then so would she.
Miles into the city, Yato found himself at the old dump working the giant compactor. The fridge he found the plant in, now being crushed into a much larger cube, mingled with old cars. As he pushed buttons and pulled levers, the air moved again, this time with the soft engines of flight-boots.
"Yato!" Hiyori screeched. Yato kicked the control pad and let the chair spin him around.
"Yes?"
"Yato, I told you to stop taking stuff out of my food supply! It's not for you!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about!"
"You leave dirty finger prints all over the container!"
Yato crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. He had gotten better at faking nonchalance.
"And how do you know those are mine?"
"You're the only other person on this planet!"
"Besides you."
"I wear gloves!"
Hiyori wiggled her covered fingers, still perfectly white. They stared at each other again, one cool and collected, the other heaving though a flushed face. Yato stood up and dusted off his pants.
"Well then, I guess we've reached an impasse." He did a double take at the stance Hiyori shifted into. The 'Eve Battle Stance'. It was a sign that he was going to meet pain, usually curtsy of being kicked or bent like a pretzel.
"Wait. Wait, Hiyori. Let's talk about this. I offered to share my earth food but you said-" Yato yelped as a boot came wizzing by his nose. Yato's self defense training had all been self taught. Or by a little something called experience. He evaded her more dangerous techniques, the ones that had him kissing dirt, before he misstepped.
Normally, his miscalculations would have him bruised for a couple hours. But this time her steel toe met his chin, hard, and he heard a crack. Not the crack of bone, most of his skeleton was some sort of metal, but the crack of an electronic. Yato stumbled back clutching under his chin, feeling static crackle along his finger tips. His speaker was busted.
"Ha! I gotcha! Maybe next time you'll know not to- hey are you okay? Oh my stars, I broke your face!" Hiyori came closer and tried to bring Yato to look her without touching him.
"You didn't 'break my face', I'm still just as handsome." Yato's voice came out breathy, air gurgling in his mouth. She had cracked the dust cap and pulled at some skin that surrounded it. His systems tried to alert him of the problem, but the speaker could only crackle in response.
"I'm sorry. I have to go back." Yato shuffled around Hiyori.
"Wait! Let me take you!" Hiyori followed after the Wall-E. He stopped to give her a questioning look, holding his bottom jaw so no dirt would get in his mouth.
"Huh? What are you doing?" Yato asked. He looked down at his feet, where Hiyori had crouched facing away.
"Just get on my back I'll carry you. It will be much faster." Hiyori looked over her shoulder with hard eyes. Yato supposed there was no room for arguing, he meekly mentioned he was rather heavy, but she brushed him off. As they flew through the air at a slower than normal speed, Yato remembered this was the second time he got to wrap his arms around her.
It ended all too soon once Hiyori made a clumsy landing in front of the semi-trailer. Yato got off with a quick thank you before making his way to the shelves. Hiyori followed after him, mumbling something over his system's alerts. His eyes scanned for the extra parts scavenged over the years. Finally the rows of extra pointer-fingers, wires, motherboards, and of course speakers.
He assured the worrying girl he would be fine, but it was important to seal his mouth and skin from the dirt that laced the air. Hiyori kept closer in fascination, watching him click the speaker out of the circular indent. He took the new one and plugged in the wire first, then clicked it into place.
"See! I keep all of my backup stuff here! Pretty much everything I need, and it all just clicks into place!" Yato showed off, letting the shelves roll through once.
"Yato. What is that." Hiyori's voice cut through the air with the same authority as when she first arrived.
"I told you, it's extra parts. Just got to pop this one out, put in the new one, then pop this one in-"
"No. Not that. That on the shelf above."
Yato looked up at the lone object.
"Oh. That's a plant. You want see it?" He didn't wait for a response, wrapping his fingers carefully around the glass bottle, and plucked it off the shelf. He had made a little area for it, equipped with a light and some water bottles he snatched from the food pod. Hiyori's wide glassy eyes didn't leave it's green leafs. Yato thought her sudden aura was strange, but pressed the bottle to her outstretched hands.
"Wha-hey!" Yato was yanked forward by Hiyori when she ripped the plant from his grasp.
"This is!" Hiyori finally gasped in air. Even before her scanner met the object in question, Yato figured what she meant. He felt time stop, his heart beating itself over and over, wondering where all his blood went.
Proving his suspicions, a new sound made itself known. A happy chime sounded from Hiyori's helmet, signaling the object she was looking for has been found. Yato's mouth worked uselessly. He reached a shaking hand out, for what or why, he didn't know. The trash-collector's hand jerked back when the pretty young woman cheered with joy.
"This is it! This is proof! Oh, oh my stars! I did it! I found it! I'll be the first Eve to bring back- oh geez- I can't, I can't even, I don't even know-" her words jumbled together and her eyes became moist. The plant kept getting jostled back and forth as her hands alternated to touch parts of her helmet. Suddenly, the young woman whipped her head to face him.
"I have to get this back to the ship!" This time Hiyori was the one to come excitedly close to Yato, who took a step back. She turned on her toes, loose hair fluttering behind her, casting shadows across Yato's eyes. Hiyori stepped lively down the ramp, clicking the hidden buttons on her hip to unlock the pod. At the foot end, a large circle with a leaf symbol sat.
"Hiyori, wait." Yato stepped down the ramp after her, face desperate. Paused when the symbol glowed green and the circle opened. It was a smaller pod, a rounded drawer that held the bottle- and all it's contents- suspended in air. Hiyori pushed it in, stilling with her palms against he flat surface. Yato made his way behind her.
"Hiyori?"
The Eve cheered again. When she turned to face Yato, her dark eyes shined like stars, some of them slipping down her cheeks when she blinked. He couldn't think about it too long, because she leaped onto him, wrapping her arms around his neck. This wasn't a fight-move. This was happiness. Happiness through human contact. When did it become so foreign?
"I did it! We did it! Yato! I'll be the first Eve to find and bring back a living native of Earth! This is amazing! I'm so happy! My brother, my mother, and dad! They'll be so shocked, and proud, and, and happy." She leaned back and held the Wall-E's face in her hands. His electric-blue eyes wide and flickering, heat trailing after her fingers, she thanked him from the bottom of her heart.
"I really couldn't have done it without you. Really. And I'm sorry if I was mean to you." Hiyori said.
Yato was pulled in for a second hug. He tried to work his mouth and vocal cords again. Does this make them friends now? Would she come back? Would humanity? Her eyes were erasers, what's on his mind disappears when he looks into them, leaving only her. His sensors notified him she was speaking.
"You got it? The signal won't send to the ship until it knows I'm safely asleep inside and locked. So I have to go in there and you can't touch it! You won't be able to get me out, the trip won't be long so I'll be fine. I'll be sleeping but I won't wake up till someone puts in the code and opens it." Hiyori explained. Like she was talking to a child about a dead goldfish. She was trying to placate him. Something old and buried roared from deep in his chest. It dug it's nails into his shoulders and hissed in his ear. With empty eyes, the Wall-E smiled all the same.
"Sure Hiyori, I got it. Don't worry, the ship will pick you and the plant up, safe and sound."
She seemed to glow just as she did when she first stepped off the ship. But instead of it being because of flashing lights and fancy suits, it was an all natural warmth. The Eve nodded and let her arms fall off him. She practically skipped away, taking her warmth with her. With the pod open and waiting, Hiyori Iki turned and gave him one final 'You'll be just fine' nod, before stepping in.
Yato watched from where he was, the curved glass smoothly sliding into place, locking with a light clunk. The air hissed inside as white clouds filled the container. They cleared quickly, reveling a sound asleep Hiyori. He stared at her for a little while longer before he came to a decision. His own decision, one that was what he wanted to do. The cyborg glanced at Hiyori once more time, his solemn expression reflecting back at him.
Hiyori's ship arrived the very next day around noon. Yato was working not too far from the trailer. He had been staring at a poorly-pressed cube for an hour, numb. Like before, the sky trembled and the sun roared. Even though he had prepped himself, over and over, he practically leaped out of his skin. The fire from the exhaust gleamed off of Yato's blue eyes like the sun did against the blue sky in history books. He dropped the trash cube he was holding and whipped around to face Nora. The cockroach faced him too. Her antennas drooped as she let out a low whine.
"I have to go," Yato announced, "I'm sorry."
Without a second thought, the Wall-E turned and ran. He crossed the Earth with clunky speed, jumping over piles and squares of the leftovers of humans. Left behind him, Nora sat perfectly still, watching her only friend run far away.
The silver exterior was completely in view. Even with it's massive size it fell at an alarming rate. Yato gasped in air as his heart kicked into high gear. The ship reached out a giant claw and secured it around the pod. Yato was grateful he left her on the roof to better see her, but he wasn't running nearly as fast as he needed too.
"Hiyori!" Yato called out and reached out his hand. Why didn't he stay closer? He assumed because it hadn't come in the middle of the night- or this morning- he had more time. He had gotten comfortable and strayed farther away. Now, Hiyori was almost in the ship. Yato felt the burning heat on his face, his feet brought him just past the random semi-trailers. The ship began to whirl as the robotic arms did a final scan of the occupant. Once the system observed she, and the plant, were safely inside, it's massive doors slid shut. The pure white clouds that cooled the mechanics filled the small space
The inside was hot at first but quickly and unnaturally cooled down. Sunlight from a round window level with Hiyori's face illuminated the complicated insides. Specks of colored lights from different buttons and panels blinked and flickered before takeoff. Hiyori's pod was locked into the small chamber, almost embedded in the wall. One of many, Eves of all shapes and sizes were lined up horizontally. But she was placed on the very bottom, the end of the vertical row.
The chamber the Wall-E now found himself in rumbled furoisusly. His hands had to slam on the walls to keep steady as they left the atmosphere, crashing through the smog and garbage that surrounded the planet. The temperature then dropped and Yato's internal heater had kicked in, but he barley noticed as he floated there gently. How long has it been since he'd seen the stars?The sky had been covered for so long. Perhaps in books? His father had said he was named after something with the stars.
Space was beautiful. As the ship passed the local sun- bright and untinted- he charged up faster than any Wall-E ever. It felt like they weren't moving at all, drifting past stars and entire galaxies. As Yato gazed through the glass- the blue and white crystals of Satarn's rings swirled by- he thought about how Hiyori saw this every day. All of mankind knew every star out the window like he knew every empty can. If he had gone with them, he knew he would never get bored.
Time didn't matter in the empty vastness the ship flew through. Yato was glued to the window for what could have been three hours or three years. But the rocket had a destination in mind, and so did he. From somewhere inside, Yato heard a rapid beeping. The mother-ship was in sight.
Heaven's Sun sat anchored just up ahead; at the very edge of the remains of a dead star. It seemed much larger than the ports it took off from on Earth, easily capable of encasing every occupant of Tokyo. But no, he didn't need Hiyori to tell him that this ship only held the elite. Yato swalled thickly, the graceful letters of the ship's name looming into view of the window.
He frantically looked around for a hiding spot. The LED lights of the indoor terminal blinding him, as the ship made it's way into the massive interior side port. Yato felt the ship turn and smaller tug-spaceships pushed the carrier inside. He hid as massive holders emerged from the floor and held the Eve transport ship in place. Someone shut off the gravity and Yato fell from his hiding spot.
His groan blended in with the sirens of the outside room. The transport ship's doors opened and light flooded in. Yato squinted as the row of Eves was unlocked, and slid out the ship with ease. Yato squeaked and scrambled to the door, peaking around the corner. He ordered his eyes to scan for any sign of cyborgs or humans. When there were none, he took a couple steps back, then threw his body out of the ship.
Yato's hands caught the edge of a suspended bridge that stood a couple meters away from the door. His feet dangled over the hard floor that was at least three stories below, if his system's calculations were anything to go by. The Wall-E heaved himself onto the bridge just as the Eve pod holder glided to a stop on the other side.
"Hiyori," Yato gasped. His finger tips touched the glass that separated them. The room focused on cleaning the ship behind him, while Yato worked to unlock her. Suddenly, the massive holder lurched to the side. He clung to Hiyori's pod like a starfish as they whizzed towards the back wall. The back of the carrier connected to a thick white line that stretched from the ceiling to the floor, and then dropped the three meters.
Light-up lines seemed to be the theme of the ship. They weaved around the room in precise and simple patterns. Most of them leading from doors to different parts of the ship. Yato jumped off his ride once it slowed down. The pods followed one of the paths to an empty section of the terminal. It halted under a hovering lamp. Within this massive rectangle, one blue light bulb shone over each sleeping Eve like a spot light. Another mechanic claw came to remove each pod from the holder, leaving them hovering under their lights. The holder was then sent careening down the line, out of sight.
Yato stood awkwardly on the end, right of Hiyori. His brown wearalls stood out against the blacks and whites of the room. He twisted his fingers and glanced from Hiyori to different parts of the room. Behind them, off to the left, a door slid open and a floor line lit up, webbing out to in front of each pod. Yato hid as best his could, deciding to crouch behind the hovering pod that Hiyori slept in. The Wall-E began to panic, frantically looking for a better hiding spot, when three cyborgs stepped down the line.
Something stopped him at the sight of the other cyborgs. They were cleaners. Workers that gave up their humanity for the betterment of all. Or had it stripped from them but Hiyori had described a more advanced, safe, human society. So perhaps it wasn't painful anymore. He also noticed none of them had any sort of oxygen ventilation, so Yato pocketed his.
The leader, the smallest of the three, was a blonde with the appearance of being in his early teens. He carried what looked to be one of those long paint rollers, but the actual rolling part was a strange material. Behind him was a brown-haired girl with a scar over her eye, carrying a bottle of polish. Following them was a stocky boy, with black hair and a vacuum cleaner.
The blonde lead them to the end of the line and started cleaning the first pod. He gazed down at his roller and it began spinning. He then made quick work, dragging it up and down the length of the entire pod. His eyes were unfocused as he moved to the next one, looking it up and down. The cleaner's scanner must have told him something, causing him to skip it and move to the next one. The other cleaners didn't do the same, working one after the other.
Once the blonde finished with Hiyori's, having spent the most amount of time on her, he stopped. Yato stood straight with his arms at his side just like in training. He met the kid's utterly bewildered expression with a blank face. The younger's mouth working uselessly as he openly stared from less than a foot away. This close, Yato could see the kid had amber eyes and a round pale face. They still labeled the workers on their uniform, but no longer sewed on the names. Apparently, this type of cleaner was called a 'Mo'.
"Hey Mo? Where'd that bastard run off too?" The girl further down the line called.
The two other cleaners finished with Hiyori's pod then continued their way down the line. Standing with his back to the pod, Yato huffed as the blonde Mo struggled in his grip. The Mo tried to curse at the Wall-E but the older's sweaty palm was clamped on tight. The kid's shoe scuffed the floor and Yato picked him up more, grunting when he was repeatedly kicked in the shins. Once the coast was clear, Yato dropped the kid like a hot potato. These cleaners must not get training, cause the kid fell flat on his rump.
"Ugh! Blegh! What the- ew- what's on your hand?" The boy trailed off as he looked Yato up and down with eyes glossed over. The Wall-E waited patiently for him to be scanned, the cleaner's system most likely to identify him as-
"Stars! You're disgusting!" Without a thought the roller was switched on and spinning along his torso. Yato barked out a laugh and hopped back a step.
"Stop, that tickles!" Yato snickered. The Mo looked far less amused, taking a step after him, further from the line.
"Hold still, Yato." The roller was on his hip before the brat could even sneer out the Wall-E's name. Yato rolled his eyes and stuck out his shoe, his nose playfully in the air. The Mo's tool was jabbed into his rips and grinded up and down. Yato laughed and danced around the kid, using Hiyori's pod as a hiding spot as the roller angrily scrubbed his foot prints off the shiny black floor.
"Now. Stay right there till the next Mo is on duty. I'll get in trouble if the floor has your tacky boot marks." The kid tapped the floor with his roller. His eyes narrowed suspiciously as Yato looked blankly at the clean floor, then back at him. The Wall-E grinned like he was about to steal Christmas.
"What. Why are you looking at me like that? What ever your thinking." His amber eyes followed the slow, deliberate movement of Yato's hand. Yato let his palm hover in front of his face, both off to the side so the kid can watch his tongue drag from the bottom of his hand up to his finger tips. It was too easy. The Mo's eyes followed with great revulsion when Yato moved his hand to the side. He couldn't see Yato's smile widen, before the hand suddenly got bigger. The man's drool and dirt covered palm met the boy's face with an wet slap.
The Wall-E howled in laughter as the Mo used his roller on high speed to scrub his face raw. Yato's hand had totally covered the kid's face from top to bottom. Said kid let out a string of foreign words, but the context made Yato laughed harder, he stored them away for later. The Wall-E's cheeks twindged from the strain, having not used to the muscles in so long.
Yato felt a pole whack his heels and he was suddenly on the ground. When he turned to glare, the clean-faced Mo feigned a look of innocence. The blonde twirled his roller and tapping the end on the ground with a smug smile. Yato smirked as the kid rubbed his nails against his breast pocket. The Wall-E's blue eyes stayed on the pocket as the kid blew air across his fingers. In retaliation, Yato stood and smeared the dirt from his fall around. The kid practically roared, shoving Yato back behind towards the line to clean.
"I don't see your name on your uniform." Yato said. The pole stopped moving.
"Wow. You must be all sorts of genius." The brat continued cleaning.
"What is it?"
"Does it matter?"
"Why would it?" The Wall-E asked. Yato's eyes widened when the short cyborg gave a nasty look from under his brow. Something in Yato's heart squeezed, just under the stitching of his own name. The kid gave him a malicious, deprived smile.
"It was taken away with my humanity, that's how it works for low level workers. When he gave me these robotic parts he erased my memories, including my name." The Mo spat at the floor. The word 'he' echoed in the very essence of Yato's being. It surely couldn't be. What were the chances? But here Yato stood, looking in a mirror that reflected the past. Something else clawed at his thoughts. His sensors-still on the look out for beating hearts- caught three across the room.
The Mo caught on and immediately looked towards his door. Yato quickly followed, and saw two cyborgs in the same black military uniform. They followed behind a man in a white pancho, looking all around bored. They moved quickly down the line, a woman with long brown hair in second, being followed by a light-haired man with a beard. The floor-line lit up again and connect to where the cleaners were standing.
"Wait no! Not again! mff-!" Despite his best efforts, the Mo's pleas were silenced by a sweaty hand over his mouth. He didn't fight as much, even when Yato picked him up and dashed behind the pile of food crates to their right. The three newcomers approached the first pod. The man in the poncho and beads opened the first pod and examined the unconscious Eve. The woman wrote whatever he said on the clip board while the other uniform man handed back and forth medical supplies.
"If they catch you with me, you'll get in major trouble." The end of Yato's sentence tilted up as a question. After his palm vibrated with the kid's growl, the Mo nodded. Yato's hand slipped off the blonde's face. The smaller cleaner gagged and scrubbed his face with a rag. Peaking over the crates, Yato saw the other cyborgs had two more pods before Hiyori.
"Heaven's stars you are beyond discussing, what the hell is even on you-"
"-Do you want one?" Yato hurriedly interrupted. Speaking in a whisper.
"A new face? Yeah cause I'm gonna burn this one."
"A name."
The boy stilled, his mouth finally clamping shut. The Mo swallowed thickly. He didn't say anything. No snide remark or teenage bite. No nasty snarl or disgusted look. The kid was still while Yato kept frantically looking over their protection, then ducking to look at the kid's face. Hiyori was being inspected now. First her vitals and any report of injury.
"I suppose you want to give me one? I'm not a pet you know. I'm a cyborg." The Mo's voice shook when he emphasized his state of being.
"Another Wall-E once told me how important names are. Especially to cyborgs."
The leader was now much closer. He had long grey hair that matched his poncho and tanned skin. His indigo bug-eyes scanned Hiyori lazily, but his lips quirked up. Already the Wall-E hated him. Yato looked him up and down, zooming in his vision. The bottom edge of his poncho having the word 'Go-4' stitched in black. Luckily, he moved down to let the woman fiddle with the pod. Yato looked closely at the white stitching on hers and the bearded man's uniform. Apparently they were 'Secur-T'.
"You can't name me. Only higher ups and humans can name cyborgs that answer to them. Besides you're not my- we're not family. " Yukine grounded out past clenched teeth.
"We could be." Yato rushed out in response.
The woman Secur-T was checking Hiyori's capsule. The Wall-E subconsiously hugged the child closer. He didn't need to look to know what she was checking for.
"Sir," the woman called for the Go-4, "Sir, this Eve returned positive."
The bearded Secur-T came to take a closer look, and confirmed it. The Go-4 gave a shocked expression before rapidly tapping the keypad on his forearm. Yato and the Mo let out a curse when the terminal blared out sirens, the entire area becoming enveloped in green lighting.
"What's happening?" Yato hissed.
"I don't know!" The boy crouched lower, looking around in awe and confusion.
The Go-4 and Secur-Ts moved further down the line, a transport vehicle following them. From the back of the cart, another robot claw unfolded itself, moving towards Hiyori's closed pod. Despite the Wall-E's pounding heart and itch to latch onto Hiyori's container, the young man looked down at the teen still crouched under his arm.
This Mo was small but definitely a force to be reckoned with. His presence was quiet until you noticed him, in which case he was something to behold. Even if their situations were the same- but Yato was probably just projecting- this cleaner wasn't nearly as dark as Yato was. He was just had a small bite. Just a little frosty.
"Hey, if we don't move soon they're going to see us." The kid said with a half-hearted glare. This description sounded similar to something his father had told him. A type of weather he had found in a book, something his father hadn't seen in years. But he would need a family character. Yato could only think of one.
Well, at the very least, this kid has her spunk.
"I'm adopting you." Yato announced, finally moving off the blonde.
"Wha-What? You can't just-!"
"We're family, and you're my kid now." Yato said with one hand on his hip, the other tossling the kid's blonde hair. The three other cyborgs were mounting the floating vehicle that now had Hiyori's pod latched on it's back.
"I have to go after her but I'll come back and find you." Yato stared intently in the Mo's eyes as he made this promise. He finally stood up from their hiding spot and waited a couple seconds as the vehicle lurched down the white line. Then, Yato took off, turning around just to catch the kid's stunned face.
"Your name is Yukine!" Yato ran backwards with a smile and cupped his hands around his mouth to project.
"And don't you forget it!"