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“Well.. I’m not.. too sure..”
“I THOUGHT YOU WERE SMART.”
“Wh- I am!”
That came out more offended than he wanted it to, and now WX probably suspects that they’re getting under his skin. Damn it, they don’t need any more leverage over him than they already have.
About two hours ago, multiple unexpected craters appeared in the ground, with an earthquake unfortunately accompanying their arrival. It was quite problematic for the camp, and Wilson still remembers the bruising pain of something falling off a shelf and onto his head. WX laughed, but also promptly got hit by something too.
Apparently he’s not allowed to laugh back.
Wilson had taken it upon himself to figure out what the cause of the earthquake and its accompanying craters was, dragging WX along with him. If some animal created these things, he doesn’t want to meet it alone, especially with how unskilled he tends to be in combat. WX is more here for his protection… and company. He enjoys their presence, despite their general crankiness.
He kneels down onto the ground, inspecting the dirt under him. It’s more.. dry, then he remembers it being. Did the moisture get absorbed when the dirt got agitated and scattered? Wilson gently rubs some of it in between his fingers as he watches the dry sediment crumble and fall. Shouldn’t this be more of a mud texture? It’s almost like sand at this point.
Wilson draws a short line in the dirt with his pointer finger, gathering some dirt on the tip of it before bringing it to his face and licking it.
“HEY.”
“WX-!”
He actually forgot WX was there, jumping in place and swiveling around. WX is still standing behind him, looking completely appalled by what the scientist had just done. They somehow manage to look even more disgusted than the time they first met that mime.
“I SAW THAT.”
“Obviously, you were right behind me!”
“THATS ALMOST AS GROSS AS YOUR EXISTENCE.”
Wilson would roll his eyes if it wouldn’t wind up with his shin getting kicked. It’s just science, you need to use all your senses to get the answers you want sometimes.
He stands up, facing WX properly. The robot has their arms crossed, looking as if they’re scrutinizing him.
“SPIT THAT OUT.”
“No!”
“SPIT THAT OUT BEFORE I MAKE YOU.”
WX looks completely serious about that, and Wilson doesn’t want to find out how exactly they intend to make him spit something out. Though, his top contenders at the moment are a stomach punch, a throat punch, or just simply prying his mouth open and grabbing the offending dirt themselves, as if he’s a disobedient dog chewing on something he shouldn’t be.
“….fine.”
WXs body untenses when he finally agrees, relaxing and looking almost smug at his submission to them.
Wilson bolts.
He can hear a surprised noise from behind him, WX obviously not expecting him to flee so suddenly. Wilson is well aware that WX-78 is way faster than him, but he knows this area better than they do. Hes here much more often, studying and analyzing the various plants and wildlife. If he could just find somewhere hidden..
He dodges behind a tree as a clawed hand swipes for him, letting out a startled yelp. WXs fingers are sharp at the ends, giving them actual claws. Fun to study, but he doesn’t think it would be fun to be caught on the wrong end of those things.
Plain and simple. Those look like they could tear into him.
Weaving around another bush as WX yells something that sounds almost like a slur at him, he spots a pond. The frogs are still there, of course, but he could easily take a few small frogs. The frogs don’t even matter in the bigger picture, because WX can’t touch water. He’d much rather fight frogs than WX.
He immediately sprints towards it, skidding on the mud after he trips on a cattail, promptly (and ungracefully) crashing into the water with a loud splash.
He doesn’t touch the bottom, despite how shallow the body of water looks from above. Wilson doesn’t even think the ponds in the constant have a bottom.
He forces his head back above the water and sucks in a large breath, realizing that he didn’t breathe in before he jumped. Slightly dazed, he treads the pond's water in place as he spins around, looking for his companion.
Theyre already standing at the bank, where the mud just starts. Thats terrifying in itself, suggesting that WX was literally right behind him the entire time.
The thing that really scares him, though, is the dead frog clutched tightly in WXs hand. They apparently killed the amphibions scarily fast while he was under the water, which was only a few seconds if he remembers correctly. WX had torn the frogs apart in record time with their bare hands, having dropped and abandoned their spear when they started chasing him.
Something about a lighter load. At least they didn’t plan to impale him.
WX drops the frog as they see Wilson resurface, the animal landing with a quiet plat on the ground next to their foot. WX looks pissed, their expression telling him that they were probably imagining him in the frogs place when they killed the things in such a horrid fashion.
“HIGGSBURY.”
….yep. They 100% were.
“GET OUT OF THE POND.”
Wilson swims to the middle of it instead.
“HIGGSBURY. COUNT OF TEN.”
“That only works on Webber, WX.”
His voice sounds strained, tired from the recent exertion. He’s not too used to running from WX like that, and he especially isn’t used to having to keep himself afloat immediately after.
WX almost looks worried for a second, before returning to their normal emotionless demeanour. There’s no doubt they detected the exhaustion in his tone, analyzing everything thoroughly. WX stubbornly stands at the ponds edge for a few more moments, before they falter.
“..FINE. I WILL MEET YOU BACK AT THE CAMP.”
…that’s it? His stunt worked??
He watches incredulously as WX turns away from the pond and silently trudges off. He completely expected WX to be furious with him, but they don’t seem to mind.
He can’t believe WX caved. They never do that, especially after going into such a bloodthirsty mood.
It almost scares him a bit, with how fast their mood changed. He had almost expected them to jump in after him just to try and wrangle him. Instead, they basically just.. stormed off. Willingly admired defeat.
He knows WX isn’t leaving because they’re suddenly sick of him, he’s done much more annoying things around them than lick dirt and they still found excuses to follow him around, and if they were, he would definitely be hearing about it..
There must be another reason for such an early dismissal.
He paddles over to the side of the pond, pulling himself out of the water with the help of a few strong weeds that were in reach. His clothes immediately plaster themselves to his skin in that uncomfortable way wet fabric does, and Wilson fights back the urge to just tear his clothes off to get it to go away. Such a disgusting sensation, but he’d rather turn up dead than get spotted naked in the woods. That wouldn’t be gentlemanly, and he’s certainly not some kind of horrible cryptid.
He also definitely doesn’t need anymore embarrassment than he already has, with his.. explosions around the camp.
He stands back up, flicking mud off his hands and wringing out the hem of his shirt in a futile attempt to squeeze the water out of it. Nothing but a dribble. This certainly is going to take awhile to properly dry.. and he doesn’t have spares. It’s not like he packed a suitcase before getting sucked into the constant, this is all he really has. His clothes cling to him like a second skin, causing him to shiver in the light breeze.
He peels a leaf off his arm, sighing as he plucks another from his ruined hair.
He pushes his hair back to get it out of his face, not even bothering to try and wring it out anymore. He really should have remembered the whole ‘don’t dive into ponds with your nice vest on’ rule he normally abides by.
His trousers aren’t in much better condition, sticking to his legs and weighing him down. This isn’t convenient, especially when he could have to run from something. He trudges out of the bank, mud sticking to his shoes as he walks back to camp. The wet sounds of each step he takes makes him want to crawl into a hole.
He walks past the bushes, quietly observing the greenery of the treeline that surrounds the pond. Not even three steps into the forest, a force slams into him before he can even react.
Wilson lets out a startled yelp as he’s slammed back into the ground, feeling adrenaline rush through him as he tries to get up to assess the situation. He quickly wipes mud off his face as he tries to sit up, only to be pushed back down by a clawed hand on his chest.
He can’t currently see who’s on top of him but.. it’s a human sized feeling thing. A pair of knees dig into his sides as he gets straddled, hearing a robotic laugh from above him.
Ah.
That explains it.
He stops struggling against them, relaxing and letting out a long sigh. That was absolutely terrifying for a moment, he can still feel his head pounding. He thought he was about to be torn apart by something, not ambushed by WX.
He can already feel his cheeks burn as he registers how they’re sitting.
“..was that.. really necessary..?”
WX crosses their arms across their chest, looking extremely proud of themself.
“YES. HUNTING YOU PRODUCED FEEBLE ENJOYMENT.”
He groans, letting his head fall back uselessly. That’s why they left so quickly, the stupid robot left to get an element of surprise on him and jumped on him when they got the chance.
He can already feel himself getting flustered, his face heating up as embarrassment floods through him. Not because WX is on top of him, that’s completely unrelated. Definitely not connected. He’s a complete gentleman, he’s not.. getting aroused.
It’s more so because WX just slammed into him and caught him off guard. Yes, just a bit of embarrassment. That’s all.
He props himself up onto his elbows to look at WX properly, who’s looking down at him with the most arrogant expression he’s seen on them. They look stupidly satisfied with themselves for pulling that on him, but all Wilson can really concentrate on is their thighs.
WX suddenly jolts, their entire body jerking as a small shock of electricity travels through them and Wilson.
WX lets out a sharp hiss through their teeth, immediately pulling themselves off of Wilson as the shock flickers out. WX looks surprised for a moment, but immediately looks annoyed after a second of staring at him.
He looks back at them in equal amounts of surprise, sitting up properly now that WX wasn’t straddling him anymore. The shock hurt, yes, but it didn’t do anything to him than zap him a little bit. He’s more worried about WX and why that happened.
“Did you just-?”
“THERE'S MUD ALL OVER YOU. GROSS.”
They sound fine, all things considered, but he’s sure they didn’t have that big of a reaction because he was a bit dirty. He looks down at his clothes with a furrowed brow, trying to see if something provoked WX, and it suddenly hits him like a brick to the head.
Hes soaked.
Water hurts WX.
He stares at them again, a bit dumbfounded, but amused, a smile making its way to his face. He’s completely drenched, clothes and hair, and WX just tackled him, getting water.. basically everywhere.
No wonder they got off of him so quick. They just got zapped by their own wires because of the pond water clinging to him. He can’t help but snort, covering his face with his hand in an attempt to hide his amusement from WX.
“You just.. you just shocked yourself on me!”
WX glares at him, crossing their arms in an attempt to look less embarrassed.
“SHUT UP.”
He just laughs harder at that, his hand over his mouth not being enough to hide the sound anymore. The fact that they actually look embarrassed makes it even more entertaining. WX looks more pissed off at the fact that he’s laughing at them than at the misstep in judgement they just had.
WX looks like they’re going to say something else, but the words quickly leave them as Wilson reaches over to try and pick some of the stuck grass out of their joints. They immediately jerk away, giving Wilson a sharp smack on his hand.
“Hey-! I’m trying to help, you know-“
He rolls his eyes at them as he grabs their arm, tugging them towards him again. WX lets out a loud beep of protest, struggling in his grip before just letting themselves be pulled.
He uses the hand that’s not holding them hostage to prod at one of the blades in their shoulders, gently picking away debris caught in it. WX huffs, going limp against the forest floor but allowing him to continue. They don’t attempt to move away from him, but they still look incredibly pissed.
Wilson snorts, gently picking out a blade of wet grass that lodged itself into their shoulder joint. They’re literally allowing him to do this but they're still mad about it.
He finally picks out all the little debris from WXs body, dropping them on the grass beside him. They've definitely calmed down, now that there isn’t a bunch of leaves and twigs agitating them. He gives them one last inspection before releasing their arm.
They immediately roll away from him, standing up and dusting themselves off as if they’ve just touched something disgusting.
Wilson sits up with a grunt, watching as WX tries to regain their dignity. They look more offended at being helped than hurt at the shock they just took. They're clearly embarrassed at the situation, which Wilson actually finds kind of refreshing.
He grimaces as he looks down at himself, his clothes still uncomfortably pasted to his skin. He's still very damp, his clothes clinging to his body unpleasantly. It’ll take forever for these to dry.
He hears WX scoff at him as he gets to his feet, brushing more mud off of his pants. He cringes at the feeling of his clothes sticking to his skin, grabbing the hem of his shirt to peel it away from himself uselessly.
He grabs the bottom of his vest, trying to wring it out again as WX watches blankly. He really regrets jumping into that pond, even if it got him away from WX.
“…we’ll still need to walk back.”
“IDIOT.”