[A/N: If you have an interpretation of AUTO hating WALL-E, then this ain't the right fic for you. Bc I'M writing it, and i want them to be FREMS c:
I tried to not make it sad, but like gdi WALL-E is one sad-living mf. Like bruh. This fic isn't good. I just kept rambling.
I honestly didn't know which fic to put this in bc it doesn't really have story or background stuff in it, but it's also not completely a oneshot. I hope you don't mind.
TW/CW: how tf this one gonna get sad too???!!! nerves/awkwardness, apologies, having a friend over, excitement, exploring, asking questions, teaching/learning, enthusiasm, kindness, understanding, deep thinking, remembering loneliness, trying to cheer up a friend, light embarrassment, worry, reassurance, FRIENDSHIP!!!]
The two of them had become actual friends only recently. There had been 'history:' an incident where one was maybe a little bit too aggressive towards the other; but that was all in the past now. When they had met six months after that, many, many things had changed for both of them. Apologies were given and accepted, and understanding was exchanged equally. They didn't have very much time to spend together, as one was a very busy robot that was currently learning very, very many new things daily in order to do his job. But when they did have the opportunity to come together, both were happy to.
The little orange rover guided his new friend to his equally orange mobile home. He pulled the lever to open the door, and they waited side-by-side for the ramp to land for them. He excitedly rolled inside. "Here we are!!!" He held up his hands and spun around in place.
AUTO looked around the cluttered environment that WALL-E had created, having a hard time distinguishing one tattered, dirty item from another. It was difficult to see anything clearly, as the truck had no windows to speak of and the sun was not in a place to illuminate the interior. He glanced up when WALL-E turned on the colorful strings of fairy lights above them. "This is your home???"
"Yup!! I've got all of my favorite things here! I've found so many nice things hidden in all of the piles of stuff that i've been through, but these are the very best!" He picked up a rubber duck and handed it to him. "That thing makes a funny noise when you squeeze it!" He pointed and nodded, insisting that AUTO give it a try himself.
AUTO turned it about in his hand to inspect it, noting the color of the item underneath all of the grime. He gave it a gentle squeeze, and it let out a tired squeaky noise as the air escaped the little plastic toy. He glanced back up at WALL-E.
"Isn't that so fun?!" He clapped.
AUTO studied it again, taking in the softness of the rubber and how there was still paint on it from when it was originally manufactured. The integrity of the toy was still very impressive for how old it was, and AUTO considered that everything in this trailer, and in fact, everything that had been abandoned on the planet when he left it, had that same durability sewn into it. "It is interesting. I do not know if this was meant to last forever, and yet it has endured a very long time." He offered it back. "You must have kept very good care of it."
"I found it last week! And i have kept good care of it!" He took it back and pat it on its tiny head before replacing it.
AUTO was surprised because it seemed like such a relic. But then, he hadn't seen toys like that in a very long time. "May i see something that you found before we had returned???"
"Of course!!!" WALL-E slid over to another shelf and picked up a short cylindrical object. "I got this i think 150 years ago. Something like that." He placed it flat on the ground. "I'm pretty sure it's called a 'drum.' It's an instrument! People used these to make music." He tapped on the flat side and it made a quiet thumping noise. "Uh. I'm not very good at it. I don't really have the right kind of movement to do it."
AUTO had never seen a real instrument before. "This is a drum???" He silently examined it and considered. "I understand why they refer to certain mechanical parts with that same designation."
"Try it!" WALL-E tapped it again.
AUTO held his hand above it and paused, and nervously touched his fingers to it. It didn't make a sound, so he pulled his hand back and looked at it again. "You have to do it kind of quickly." WALL-E demonstated again.
He made a tone. "I am frightened of damaging it."
"That's okay! I usually find a few of these at once. This one was just in really good condition, but i know that i can find another if i look for it." He motioned for him to try again.
AUTO tried again, this time touching the top with a quicker motion. He was still careful with it, so it made a very faint noise. AUTO jolted when it happened, and he glanced at WALL-E before he did it once more. "Hmm…"
"People usually use wooden sticks on drums like these. They also sometimes use things that look like mallets on them! The ones that they use just their hands on don't really look like this." He motioned. "Those ones seem kind of tall."
AUTO was curious. "Intriguing. There are different types of drums???"
"Sure, plenty! A lot of instruments have variants to them. Some are really big, and some are teeny tiny! They all make different noises from one another. I wonder if the size does that to them."
"Might you have any other instruments???"
"Not… really…" WALL-E glanced around and spotted something on a different shelf. "Oh, well, this is kind of like an instrument." He picked up a clear plastic jar with some little colorful spheres in it and held it up so that AUTO could see it. "Do you see those things??? They're really hard! They're almost impossible for me to crush. But i usually find them in jars like this. They're really fun to shake!!" He waved it up and down, and it made a rattling noise. He offered it to AUTO, "try it!"
AUTO took the jar from him and examined this too. He slowly lifted his hand to start shaking it, but some tiny thing started moving all over the jar and AUTO'S hand. He panicked when he saw it and accidentally dropped the jar and the creature. "Ah, a pest!!!" He beeped a couple of times in an attempt to call a cleaner bot, but quickly realized that there wasn't a cleaner bot to come take care of this pest, that was not in the cabin of his starliner. It was here, on Earth, where it was supposed to be. He looked down at it shamefully.
"Oh, that's my pet roach!! Isn't he the cutest???" WALL-E gushed and reached down to pick it up. He held his hand up so that they could both look at it.
"That is your pet???" AUTO and the roach looked at one another, and it wiggled its antennae at him.
"Yeah! We've been together for what seems like forever. I love him a lot. His name is 'Hal!'"
AUTO stared at the little beast and processed for a few quiet seconds. "That sounds so familiar somehow."
"I know, right??? I wonder what that's about." He shrugged and put Hal and the candy jar back on the shelf. "Oh oh!" He picked up something else. "Look at this thing!!" He held it flat on his hand and pushed down on the top of the turquoise metal part. "It's all bouncy!" Releasing it made the top part spring back to its original position.
"Oh, i know what this is." He gently retrieved it from WALL-E. "This is a 'stapler.' It is used to attach pieces of paper to one another. You place the paper between the pieces of metal, and press down." He pressed it down all the way, and a tiny bit of wire fell out of it. AUTO motioned for WALL-E to hold out his hand, and he tilted the stapler so that the little folded staple fell into his palm. "The Captains would use them on occasion. Most of our documents were digital, but this was used to help organize paper documents."
"Oh wow!! I didn't know that it did stuff like that!" WALL-E took the stapler and spun around to look through his shelves. "I wonder what else i have here that can do other things!"
"Many of these items have functions. Even the toy that you showed me functioned as entertainment for children. Most things that humans created have a purpose of some kind."
"Just like us!"
"Affirmative. We were created by humans, and we have functions. I find it very interesting that you are able to do so many different things besides that which you were programmed to do."
"D'aaw, really???" He held his hands together and looked up cutely.
"Affirmative, i do. There are few robots that are capable of even thinking about things besides their directives. It is good… but being one that has experienced both a variety of duties as well as down time makes me feel a bit sad that they are not able to."
"I think some of them are able to relax a little down here."
AUTO thought. Robots were supposed to work, in the way that they were programmed; but he did wish that they would sometimes be able to experience more than work. "That is… nice. They deserve a break."
"My friends and i like to watch movies together after work. Can i put one on right now??" WALL-E rolled over to his monitor and started fishing through his selections.
AUTO followed him after a moment. "What kinds of movies do you like???"
"My favorite are musicals! I like that the people sing and dance together. It makes me really happy." He picked one out of his collection.
"I understand. Musicals are not my favorite, but i do prefer them to very stressful movies. I do not understand why people made movies that do not have satisfying resolutions." AUTO glanced at the disk.
"Oh, do you like movies, too???" WALL-E turned all the way around to look at him. Movies were one of his favorite topics.
"To a degree. Sometimes my Captains would takes breaks and watch movies, or simply have them playing in the background whilst we worked. I preferred when they would play music whilst we worked, but i do not dislike movies."
"I always have movies playing in the background. They keep me company when it gets too quiet."
AUTO considered it. "That makes sense. It must have been…" He realized that he was bringing up something that must be very painful for WALL-E to think about. AUTO couldn't begin to imagine all of the people and robots that he must have lost over the years, and how he had been isolated from any other intelligence for centuries. He didn't want to talk about it further, but he knew he had to apologize. "I-i apologize. I d-did not mean to mention..."
"It's okay. It's been a while… I consider the characters in the movies as friends." He made a tone. "Very predictable friends, but friends just the same." WALL-E looked forlornly at the disk in his hands.
They stayed silent for a moment. AUTO tried to speak gently. "I am very happy that you have companions now." WALL-E looked at him. "You deserve to have very many friends. I could not imagine being alone for more than only a few hours, as i have never had to be. I believe i would get very very sad if i had to. You are much stronger than i am for having functioned for this long without."
"It's…" WALL-E popped in the disk. "It's not so bad. I tried not to think about it." He rolled back to look at the screen. "I'm glad i don't have to anymore."
AUTO felt guilty about bringing it up. He turned his eye downward and thought about what he could do to cheer him up again. He scanned through cluttered shelves. "Uhh, what does this do???"
WALL-E glanced over. AUTO was examining a square thing with a tiny crank on it. "Oh, it makes music." He rolled over. "It's a little bit rusty, but it mostly works." WALL-E took the item and carefully turned the crank. It pulled the holey sheet of metal to one end, plucking the teeny hammers at the other. A few of them had fallen off, so some notes didn't play, but it was more or less a segment of 'La Mer.' He handed it to AUTO. "You can make it go faster or slower depending on how quickly you crank it."
AUTO had never seen anything like it before. It seemed so simple: almost archaic in a way; but it was fascinating. He cranked a few more notes. "Human ingenuity can be so intriguing." He looked at the way the hammers gradually became shorter. "It is a very nice song that they chose for this."
"I think so too. I've only seen one other one of them, but that one was too broken to keep. I wonder what song that one had."
AUTO studied the chipped blue paint on the music box. It looked as if there had been designs on it at one point, but it was too rusted to see what they were. He placed it back where he found it and tried to find something else cheerful. He spied something that nearly resembled WALL-E's eye pieces with a small triangle stuck in its side. He examined it carefully, but it seemed like something that might not actually have a proper use. "Does this do anything???"
"Sure." WALL-E took it from the shelf and gripped the triangle. He rotated his hand slowly to wind it, and he held it still until it was flat on the ground. He removed his hands and the toy began taking tiny steps forward.
AUTO instantly became fascinated by it. Besides people and a few animals, he hadn't seen many things walk in his presence. All of the robots that he knew either hovered or used wheels of some kind to move. He beeped excitedly and leaned forward to see it take a few more steps. "Oh wow! That's incredible!!!" He watched it until it stopped moving, and he waited a moment before delicately picking it up to closely study it.
WALL-E made a tone. "It's a toy! Do you like it???"
AUTO glanced at him, and then back to the toy in his hand to gush. "Yeah!! It's so cool!! I've never seen anything move like that before! It's totally amazing, i love it!"
WALL-E giggled. "You're acting so unofficial right now! I didn't know that you could."
AUTO looked up from barely petting it. "Oh!..." He lowered his hands and energy. "Oh. I apologize. I do not mean to offend. I will correct my behavior."
WALL-E shook his head. "No, it's fine! I like it! I just mean that you usually seem so serious about things. It's nice to see that you're comfortable enough to relax a bit."
AUTO bashfully glanced at the ground as he placed the toy back on the shelf. "I-i was… programmed that way. I am an official, and an assistant. I am to speak clearly and completely so that humans can understand me. But i have absorbed many colloquial human speech patterns and behaviors from personal and recorded interactions, as well as media, and they will occasionally slip out."
"That's okay! It's the reason i talk the way that i do. I wasn't built to speak to humans, so saying words out loud is very hard for me. Everything else is from movies, really. I don't think they ever really wanted those to sound so calculated."
"Yes… Humans have always loved being able to relate to one another. They like seeing themselves in things. Even just slightly: our robots are not humanoid at all, but most have a screen with dots that mimic eyes, despite most of us having only one camera installed."
"I have two cameras! Binocular vision. Apparently it helped us do our jobs." He shook and made a noise. "I wish i could talk to humans. I wonder what they would think of me!"
"I believe they would find you very charming." WALL-E looked at him, and AUTO glanced away shyly. "Um, you are very curious. Friendly. Positive. Humans find these qualities very endearing." He looked at him again. "I believe that many already like you. I cannot think of a reason for anyone to dislike you."
"Thank you, AUTO." He tilted his head sincerely.
AUTO tapped his fingers together nervously as he glanced around again. He heard a song start from the movie and looked at the screen. "Um, what is playing???" He hovered over to get a better view and hopefully ease his tension.
WALL-E watched him as he moved and rolled up next to him. "It's 'Singing In The Rain.' I like this one a lot."
AUTO considered. "Rain is precipitation. It was my understanding that people do not like to be outside when there is unfavorable weather."
"The humans that i knew didn't. They usually went inside when it started raining. They were pretty careful about that because the lightning was really frequent. We never had any problems when we were struck, but we are made of different stuff than people are." He shrugged.
AUTO was taken aback. He turned to look at him. "You have been struck by lightning?!"
"Yeah, plenty of times. It's not really a big deal: they made us pretty hardy because of the work we do. My components are well insulated. I haven't had many troubles when i've been struck." He spoke as if it were only the smallest of inconveniences.
"That's astounding! Lightning is incredibly dangerous, especially to electrical beings like us!!! There have been innumerable instances of even household appliances being short circuited because of lightning strikes!"
He chimed. "I guess i'm special, then."
"I certainly hope that you are very cautious when thunderstorms are nearby! Lightning can strike miles away from the main storm system!" He beeped with terrible anxiety. "I would be distraught if your components were struck in the wrong manner! You could get very hurt, WALL-E!!!"
He tilted his head to the side. "AUTO…"
He beeped twice with confusion. After a moment, he remembered why his concern seemed ironic. He made an apologetic tone. "S-sorry. I, um…"
"Water under the bridge, my friend." WALL-E pat his arm.
AUTO tapped his fingers together again. "I really do mean it, though. I hope that nothing bad ever happens to you again. You really deserve the best, WALL-E…"
"I know you mean it, AUTO. And i hope that nothing bad ever happens to you either." He made a tone. "I like spending time with you. I'm really happy that you came over today."
"I greatly enjoy spending time with you as well. You are very kind to me, even though i am not a very gracious guest." He shook his head. "I really did not intend to bring up the bad times so often."
"That's okay, AUTO. I know that i'm still kind of awkward around robots. But we'll get used to it with time. And we could always practice with each other."
AUTO thought about it, and knew that WALL-E was right. "That would be… nice. I look forward to it."
[Post a/n: Did i accidentally make this too shippy??? I'm sorry. I honestly didn't mean to. But tbf i did joke that they were in a polycule, so… i hope you like how these two interact. My version of AUTO is such a dork.]