Archive of Our Own

The estimated time of arrival was wrong for about 800 years. A mere nothing usually, except that right there there were only ruins on Earth. Humanity hadn't come back yet and there would be practically no life outside. There was no reason for the Doctor to stay. Yet, the gray of the devastated landscape suited his mood rather well, so he went to take a walk through the empty streets.

The Doctor, even though lost in thought, noticed the oddness of the buildings that surrounded him. Several of them were made of blocks that, upon further inspection, proved to be compacted garbage. Also, those buildings weren't hollow; it was impossible for anyone bigger than an insect to live in there. It was still rather peculiar, and there were so many of them that it couldn't be some eccentric artistic manifestation. He was about to say it out loud, but he remembered in time that there was no one with him to listen. The Doctor shrugged off this insignificant fact and kept on walking.

He also refrained himself from doing some social commentary about how the huge advertisements still played when their sensors detected movement. Yet, the weirdest thing was how Hello Dolly! kept playing in the background.

~*~

After a while, the Doctor got to the end of a highway where there were a couple warehouses scattered around. He picked one and opened it. Inside, there were all kind of things, classified and placed carefully on shelves.

Dolls, bowling pines, plastic gnomes, wrist watches, robotic spare parts. The Doctor examined them all. They weren't arranged following a logical pattern; this was a collection that could had only been made by a being with a little conscience and a lot of nostalgia.

There was also little dust covering them, and thus the Doctor decided to wait.

~*~

A few hours later, the Doctor went outside to stretch his legs and to look at the sunset. He hadn't taken the third step yet when he felt his trousers being tugged. He stopped his foot mid-air and looked down to a little trash-compactor robot, like the ones in the advertisements back there in the city. "What is it?" he asked.

Right then, a cockroach came out from the exact spot where the Doctor's foot was about to land. It wen all the way to the robot's upper body, who then released the trousers.

The Doctor frowned. "Hm. An interesting transferal of the laws of robotics--oh!" he exclaimed when the robot patted the cockroach's head.

The robot directed its cameras at the Doctor. It moved them in a way that made it seem like if he was looking at him with curiosity.

The Doctor knelt down. "I'm the Doctor."

"WALL-E," the robot replied.

"Everything in there," the Doctor said pointing at the warehouse, "is it yours?"

WALL-E nodded. Shyly. Next, it spun around a couple of times and tapped his fingers. Then, he went toward the warehouse, gesturing to the Doctor to follow it. As he did, the Doctor took notice of the small cool box hanging on the robot's back.

"You pick them during the day, don't you?"

WALL-E nodded again.

Once inside, the robot turned the lights on and began taking out the new objects of his collection. It raised each one of them for the Doctor to see before placing them on the shelves.

"Do you know which are probabilities for a robot with such simple circuitry like yourself to behave like this?"

WALL-E tilted his head. Most likely, he didn't have any idea of how low they were.

"Are there more like you?"

After thoughtfully tapping its cameras, WALL-E moved the shelves until the spared parts showed up.

"I see..." the Doctor mumbled. Perhaps this robot wasn't as evolved as he'd thought. Then again, it was taking care of a cockroach, so it was likely the other robots hadn't been active when this one took them apart. After all, the Doctor hadn't seen any other during his exploration of the city.

The robot tugged the Doctor's trousers again. It was pointing at the far end of the room, where there was an iPod.

"On top of your previous behaviors, you are are also manifesting an obvious pleasure about listening harmonically-arranged sounds. How interesting."

As the Doctor spoke, Hello Dolly! began to play.

WALL-E had put a magnifying glass on the screen and was asking the Doctor to come and see. It was actually jumping in happiness.

"And you can finally share it with someone, don't you?" the Doctor whispered, placing a hand on top of WALL-E's cameras.

After a short, silent pause, the Doctor began to dance the movie's musical numbers alongside WALL-E.

~*~

The next morning, the Doctor came back to the TARDIS followed by WALL-E, who was in turn being followed by the cockroach. The robot was also carrying its cool box.

"You'll need one bigger," the Doctor said. But then, he added, "Oh, forget that! We'll get you many more!"

WALL-E clapped.

The Doctor opened his ship's door. "Well, here we are."

WALL-E looked inside and said something similar to "Wow!"

The Doctor beamed. "Yes, I know."

WALL-E entered carefully, looking around.

The Doctor was about to close the door but WALL-E stopped him and began playing with its fingers, glancing outside.

The Doctor snorted. "Fine! Fine! Your friend can come too! But I don't want it chewing my wires, understood?"

WALL-E dashed to pick up its cockroach.

"One day," the Doctor said scratching his head, "I will become immune to puppy eyes."

Right then, he heard a loud noise coming from outside. He ran to see what it was and he discovered a space ship approaching. "Well, wouldn't you look at that," he said to WALL-E, who was scared and hugging the cockroach. "I'd say we could afford to stay here for a little longer."

And so they did.