Chapter Text
His face collided with a palm tree and all he saw was black.
His hearing was but a dull static. The infuriated yells and blame from his master fell on dull ears. It was all about the same subject. Failure. Failure. Failure.
He felt a harsh kick against his metal cranium, further hammering in his master’s disappointment and outrage. Then, in a final fit of anger, muffled stomps against the grass grew quieter and quieter, leaving him all alone with the whistle of the wind against his body.
Some illogical force kept him pinned down to the grassy terrain, preventing him from catching up to his master. Not one of his circuits would budge, even with all his effort. Damage reports weren’t favourable, but certainly not enough to prevent him from moving. So, what was stopping him from getting up?
He lost the will to know.
So, there he remained. Face down in the grimy earth. He didn’t know how long he stayed there. The only indicator being his still-functioning external diagnostics, detecting a gradual but consistent decrease in environmental temperature. His hearing also grew worse, with every chirp of an insect or tweet of a bird being drowned out by rushing winds and storms, until his only companion was the swirling static in his mind.
But then he felt something. Something that wasn’t his tomb. A trip against his head.
Identifying the source of the accident, he turned his head with the pain of rusty nails to see a startled and frightened girl, shuffling away from him on her behind. He knew the girl. He had met her before. But he saw no point in interacting with her, so he returned to the blackness.
A loud crack, a falling of many leaves, a hard shove, and a thunderous crash.
He found himself staring down at his mechanical blue arms, dented and rusted in several places with time. His hands had sunk into what appeared to be snow, so deep that he couldn’t see past his wrists. Craning his head to the side once more, he surveyed the source of the noise. The same palm tree that he had collided with prior had snapped at the trunk and fallen, directly into where he was lying face-down just seconds prior. And drowning out his peripheral vision was the pink visage of the girl. In place of her usual fear was a different expression. It was still one of worry and concern, but with an air of relief as her facial muscles relaxed. It had appeared that she had attempted to rescue him from the tree’s collision.
Only for her initial fear to return seconds later as a giant hammer brought him back down to the snow. It was ineffective, of course, and his sustained damages hadn’t worsened more than they already have. Even if they did, his defensive measures didn’t operate. He expected this to be the end of the brief encounter, with him scaring the girl into hiding and him returning to the earth and letting the snow consume him.
But something happened that day that all the calculations in the world couldn’t have seen coming. The girl proceeded to grab him by his foot and drag his body through the white frost. His metal frame clinked and clanked against every accidental stone or twig, and the crunch of each of the girl’s footprints distracted him from the static in his ears. He digital eyes moved up to the girl, watching her wipe sweat from her brow as her arms and legs strained against the uphill route she had decided to take. But even through the struggle, she seemed determined to press on. It was nonsensical in his eyes, but he didn’t seem ready to resist.
The girl’s arduous trek continued, pushing through hills of colossal mushrooms and towering crystalline structures. The winds were growing ever stronger, determined to stop her in her tracks and send the two careening back down. But through gritted teeth and an even scarier scowl, she fought back against the forces of nature and pushed through successfully.
He had lost track of the time of how long they had been travelling, but as they finally began to slow, he could see the girl panting and heaving, eventually stopping to lean forward and catch her breath. He looked up and recognised their location all too well. The smoky grey building resembling his master’s moustached appearance loomed over them like insects. She had brought him back home.
Heaving him up from the snowy terrain and carefully standing him up on his own two feet, the girl proceeded to reach into her puffy green coat and rummage around for something. A gentle thump on his forehead, and she had adorned him with what appeared to be a bright pink ribbon bow. While typically used for decorating gifts, it helped bring new life into his rusted and dented appearance. The girl shuffled past him, and he turned his head to see her moving up to the large door of the towering base. Stretching up on the tips of her toes, she prodded the door buzzer and the bell chimed. Questions continued to run through his mind as the girl was quick to scurry off, likely attempting to hide before the host answered the door. But she stopped in her tracks as she had one more idea.
The girl slowly walked back up to him, a gentle smile on her face. She reached into her coat one more time, pulled something out, and slowly took his hand and closed his claws around it. It was a small blooming flower, glowing with a vibrant yellow and orange. He looked into the girl’s eyes, and against the cold of their surroundings, her warm and bubbly demeanour was all he could focus on. And, with her gloved hands still around his, the words she spoke that night would stick with him longer than he could have anticipated.
“It’s going to be okay, Metal.”
She gently turned him to face the door, and the frantic crunching of feet on snow signalled her farewell. And as he looked down at the flower nestled gently in his hand, a second set of feet slowly approached the door.