A/N: Hello, first WALL-E ficcage here. You'll notice the numbers and title, this is actually part of a bigger, 100-prompt challenge thing I'm doing, spread out over multiple fandoms, so that's why there aren't actually going to be 100 stories here. However, there are at least two, as you can see. Here's the first one.

57. Sacrifice

The air was thin and stale still, but WALL-E had never cared about this- he didn't even know about it. He had no concerns with air quality, being a lungless construct of metal, and so instead of worrying over pollution he just hummed happily as he scooped up the garbage and made it into a cube.

WALL-E liked making cubes. It brought a kind of basic satisfaction. Directive, EVE called it. WALL-E liked that word- he liked most of what EVE said. And he found a lot of fun things in the trash.

Like this little plant.

It was small and straggly, reaching up between a flattened soda can and a chip bag. A lot of new plants had been cropping up (and precious few were actually there because of humans. It was just nature, recovering from distasters as it'd been made to do). He touched it, wondering at its leaves, its emerald green color. Pretty.

He wasn't supposed to touch the little plants, and he started carefully clearing around it.

"WALL-E!"

"EVE!" he said, looking up to see EVE bobbing around in the street, making happy eyes at him. She did a little pirouette.

"Plant!" she said. EVE was always excited about new plants. They weren't quite as earth-shatteringly important as they used to be, because there were so many of them now, but it was part of EVE's directive.

"Plant!" he echoed in agreement. She did another twirl, then returned to what she was doing- she picked up trash too, trying to help out, but she wasn't as good at it. (Not that WALL-E would ever, ever tell her so.)

He cleared away another pile of trash (so rotted it was unidentifiable) and made another cube, then stacked it. Turning back to the garbage heap, he caught sight of an interesting new thing. It was round and hollow and open at one end. (He didn't know this but it was a drinking glass. It was rare for one to survive long enough for him to find it, most of them had broken 700 years ago.)

He dumped some dirt out of it, then put his hand inside. "Oooh..."

Entranced by this new find, he didn't hear the sweeper bot careening down the street behind him. These sweeper bots were gigantic and designed to do the work of a hundred WALL-Es. This one had blown a fuse.

Meanwhile, EVE was capering about, humming and picking up bits of garbage.

Or, occasionally picking up bits of garbage. More often she twirled and danced and sang. Sometimes she got bored and went to talk to WALL-E, or just started blasting the garbage into craters. But right now she was happy.

As she went along her way, she found a ruffly ropey thing made of pieces of plastic. It was pretty and she put it around her neck and started flitting about, pretending she was a person from one of the movies WALL-E liked, 'Singin' in the Rain'.

She didn't hear the sweeper bot at first either, too absorbed in her own antics.

Not ten feet from her, WALL-E had put the glass away, intending to talk to a human about it later. He'd turned back to the garbage and was investigating an old CD when he heard a scream.

He turned and instantly took in the situation- the rampaging machine, the roaring of the engine and EVE huddled against a pile of garbage, right in its path. He didn't think twice. He didn't think at all. He just went for her, screaming her name.

Their bodies collided, sending her careening out of harm's way, and then there was a horrible feeling of shattering.

--

Consciousness returned slowly; the first thing he saw was her face.

"Eeee-vah," he said.

"WALL-E!" she scolded.

Everything hurt, but he didn't care- EVE's beautiful face was intact, and that was worth it. (He actually felt worse about the fact that that garbage pile had probably been knocked over. He'd spent a really. long. time. on that pile.) "Eeeeeeve."

"WALL-E," she sighed, picking him up and carrying him off to be fixed.

He cuddled against her body, purring.