Listen to The Earth Speak

Oh, his hand was still there. It was pretty warm, and not in the disgusting humid way Skull Island was.

With the way Plant looked at him, Top couldn’t help give a sheepish smile and laughed. “Yeah, might not be space minerals but they’re just as important. Why don’t we go take a look then, uh, shall we?”

After thinking about it long enough, he tentatively pulled at Plant to have him follow. Something in him wanted to wander through the greenhouse like a child lost in a store.

“Now that  think of it, I never learned what they were growing in that greenhouse. He simply stationed me there, and told me to set up defenses.” He hummed, “So I did, every little trap set with utmost precision.”

“I never won a damn fight in my life!”

Plant surprisingly didn’t mind getting pulled along and it actually made him smile. He followed as Top wandered, taking note of the conditions of all the plants while listening to him. “Uhuh,” he mumbled once or twice as Top spoke, just to make sure Top knew he was listening.

“O-oh!” Top’s face reddened and he clumsily took back the camera. “R,Right! I’ll hold it then!” He wasn’t a lot taller than Plant, it was still strange to remember that. As tall friend, he had to be the one to hold cameras up high. “Alright, say cheese for some human reason!” He took Plant by the shoulder. No crouching or tip-toes were needed for either.

With a few clicks, they had enough photos to go through and pick out for Jewel. “I think he’ll love it,” Top mused aloud. Going through the camera, he found the one he liked most and showed Plant. Just the two of them all buddy-buddy in such a lovely greenhouse.

The taller bot’s hand was still on his shoulder, not fully realizing it. “I’ll send it to him and then we can look around the greenhouse some more. We can see what’s outside too, right? I haven’t been here in a long time. Maybe tell me what kind of plants grow here? Flora’s not my specialty–minerals are.”

Plant also didn’t immediately recognize that Top’s hand was on his shoulder, though he should have because it was suddenly uncharacteristically warm. Robots did tend to be good at holding onto heat whether they liked to or not but this wasn’t exactly the first thought crossing Plant’s mind.

He nodded at Top after looking at the picture (it was a nice picture, not a perfect one but not terribly ugly and it summed up their little visit quite well,) and smiled. “I can show you whatever you would like to see today, and maybe you can tell me a little about the minerals around here. I know the soil type but not much of the composition. Maybe we can work together.”

“I do?” Top cocked his head to the side, and the rim of his glasses slid down his nose. Blushing, he wanted to say “You too,” but wasn’t sure how Plant would take it.

Growing up with the likes of Gemini, Top felt… ugly. Weird. He just could never be as pretty and elegant as him. Or Plant and Jewel. That was just a fact he had to accept.

He looked “okay” nowadays but something always felt missing.

Exploring the shrubs with both his eyes and hands, Top looked over a couple times to make sure it was okay. He smiled to Plant as he got up.

“I don’t mind if it rains. I’m pretty sturdy.” Realizing he probably meant the rain would kill the mood, the DWN got up to face him. He pushed his glasses up, and noticed the sprinkling system go off. “I’m okay with whatever we do. I was just a little in awe, I’m sorry. I suppose it just…”

Trailing off for a second, he got distracted by the mist from above. He looked amused, at least. “…It brought back old memories and I wanted to get closer. We can go back out too. I just want to do one last thing, if I may have your permission.”

He stepped back and pulled something out from his pocket. It’s a small camera, cheerfully handed it to Plant. “I thought we could take a picture! You know, together. I want to send it to Jewel! He’ll love it!!” If only the mining bot WERE here. His eyes practically sparkled.

Plant shook his head and laughed a bit as he thought of just how silly Top was acting. It wasn’t really silly, not at all, but to most it would be. It was actually the kind of attitude that Plant tended to like and admire in others. “You have nothing to apologize for, and we can stay in here as long as you like.” Then the topic of the picture came up and he blinked, had a look at the camera and grinned. “What, really?” He flipped it over in his hands. “I think he would like it. I wonder if he’s busy right now...”

“My glasses, you say?” Top pulled them off and held them out for Plant to see. Big and round, they covered most of his face. Even when he wasn’t outside, he wore them. “I don’t like to look in a mirror without them on, but it has to look strange. …Ah, I can see but I’ll always be goggles-geek or four-eyes.”

Yep, those were the days. And just like that, he slid them back on.

Once inside, Top just stood back and gawked at every corner of exotic plants and leaves. “Come to think of it,” he murmured. This time his voice grew hushed. “I don’t think I’ve been in a greenhouse since then. I forgot how pretty it looks from the inside.”

He couldn’t imagine losing his memories. Without them, he wouldn’t be him. No quirks, nothing original. He would be a Top Man. Not someone that malfunctioned and rebelled against what Dr. Light ever imagined for him. (If it was even anything.)

If he knew the pain Plant felt, Top would just find himself hating humans more for what they do to their kind. They just reprogram them to suit their own selfish wants.

They caused him to be like this too. His weird, weird self.

It was quiet again. He crouched down and, without even asking, put a hand under one of the budding plants. The texture’s soft, but a little rubbery.

“It’s a nice day out.”

Plant nodded and chuckled a little when the glasses were shown off to him but it faded when he saw Top put them back. “You look wonderful,” he said in an almost uncharacteristically gentle voice. It wasn’t apparent whether or not he meant with or without them on.

As Top looked around Plant sat on the edge of a wooden planter, adjusted his hair and his clothing and simply observed his friend wandering about. “Well now you can remember how pretty it is for a long time.” There was no offense taken at the way Top eased his curiosities about the plants, not even when he dared to touch one. He knew that the gesture was fueled by awe and curiosity and it was refreshing to be around that sort of energy again.

He uncrossed his ankles at the last statement and had a look up and out, judging what must have qualified as a nice day to Top. “It is. It’s very nice. We probably should not spend all of our time in here, so you can enjoy it.” With that he stood, brushed his pants off, came over, and fluffed the leaves of a plant that was near his friend. “It may rain later, and I would hate for you to miss the sunshine. Unless, of course,” he got softer again, “you want a few more minutes.”