Broken

Leaf looked at all the people around her. It's been so long since she's seen people. She was so excited! She approached a blueish object in the room.

"Hello!" She exclaimed happily. The tall object looked down at her.

"Well hello there! What's your name?" He asked her. She beamed.

"My name's Leaf! What's yours?"

"Balloon! I was just talking to everyone, have you met them all yet?" She looked at the new objects.

"Nope! Who are they?" Balloon took her to a group of boys.

"Hey everyone! This is Leaf!" Everyone greeted her kindly. She looked around and caught Woods's eyes. Her smile widened.

"Wood! I'm so glad we-" Wood backed into the wall as she approached, trembling.

"Wood? Are you okay?" Balloon stopped her.

"Oh he's always like that I guess, he hasn't spoken a word!" He explained to her as if she never meet him. She frowned.

"But he does talk... I know him." She said quietly, almost to reassure herself. It has been a long time, maybe she misremembered. No way...she remembered his voice.

"Wood? Come on! It's me! It's Leaf! Your friend." She said approaching him. He slid to the ground and put his hands out meanly in an attempt to stop her, his body shaking.

"I told you Leaf, he doesn't talk, though... he's never reacted like this." She saw red behind his cowering body.

"Wait why is he defective? He's not defective." Leaf had nothing against defectives, but she knew Wood wasn't defective.

"Well, It's probably the whole being scared and not talking." Leaf wondered why that happened. It's been so long since she's seen him. She missed him. And now she couldn't even talk to him.

- - -

Waking up in my quiet house always made me feel uneasy. Maybe I should get a noise machine. With nice rain noises and whales. Maybe that could calm my nerves. I got dressed in my usual outfit and went to my kitchen to eat breakfast. This would be the second day of the new rooms I assigned. It seemed to be going well, though only Foster used cameras so I couldn't actually see.

I arrived at the office and looked at the bright sky. I've learned to like natural light much more the bright white lights in the lab. I slipped on the usual blue gloves and entered.

I heard crying.

But not the cries of a fully grown object of mine. But a baby. One just made. I pushed my body to the wall and quietly moved towards Foster's office. The cries grew louder. Their office door was open. I peered in.

In his hand was a pencil topper, a bright orange one. They wailed loudly. Foster held the baby with tweezers, his other hand grabbing a medical needle from a tray. I watched them inject the baby.

The baby stopped crying.

Oh. It was just to- they started coughing. The coughs grew more and more violent, the small baby desperately trying to breathe. They started to cough up blood. More and more it kept going. The baby's cries are silenced by the lack of air and the blood that just wouldn't stop. I didn't even know they could bleed! The coughing stopped. The crying stopped. The flailing stopped.

They were dead.

I moved out of the lab as quickly as I could. Once outside the door, I dropped to the floor, crying. That poor thing couldn't have been very old. And he just killed them. I sobbed harder. I should've done something! I just let them die! I'm so weak.

I've contained myself. That meaning I've stopped crying. My eyes were puffy and red and my nose was also red. Very noticeable. I'll just make an excuse if he asks. I don't want him to ask. He's a million times scarier now. My body was still shaky but I entered the lab anyway. More cries. I walked into his office.

"Good morning!" I said in my least shaky voice, which was still very shaky.

"Hello, Xavier. I noticed you were here a little later than usual, did something happen?" They asked.

"T-Traffic." I chocked out. They nodded with understanding. They noticed my glances towards the new pencil topper in their tweezers.

"Oh. These are a bunch I made in my home with inexpensive things. I'm testing the medicine you'll use on the defectives. They all have different variations and I'm just trying to pick the best one." He explained, still sounding calm, almost casual. I leaned and saw a cardboard box next to him on the floor, filled with other supplies. Pencil toppers, pencil sharpeners, and a variety of crayons. All alive and moving. I had to save as many as I could.

"Alright, well I have to get to work!" I said, leaving and moving to where the sleeping rooms were. I shoved onto the button as hard as I possibly could, breaking the button. I watched it fall behind the wall. I put on my best-worried face.

"Dr.Foster! The button in the sleeping rooms broke! I don't know what happened!" Foster groaned and stood up, grabbing tools from under his desk.

"How'd you manage that? Honestly, you should be more careful with the delicate wiring Xavier!" He ranted, walking past me and into the sleeping rooms. Okay, nows my chance. I walked quickly in and kneeled next to his box of little one, shoveling a hand full in my pockets. They were not crying but occasionally squeaked.

I ran out to my car and began finding things to help them. I had a coat in the backseat of my car and formed it into a little nest and laid all... seven into it. Only seven? I thought I saved more. There were two pencil toppers, one pencil sharpener, and four crayons. All either squeaking or sleeping. All adorable, all alive. Now for my other little ones. I walked in calmly as Foster walked out of the sleeping rooms.

"It's fixed, for now, don't know how you broke it but don't do it again." He said sternly. I nodded quickly.

"Of course sir, sorry," I said smiling, happy with my work. The doors to the sleeping rooms were already opened by Foster, but no one dared step out until I arrived. Probably out of fear. Honestly, that's probably good they stay away from him. The first row kids stepped out quietly.

"W-Where were you?" Golfball asked nervously, immediately keeping close to Tennis Ball.

"Sorry guys, I needed to grab something." They all seemed to flock around my feet, still nervous.

"Please don't do that again." She asked quietly.

"I won't. Promise." I told her, still helping out objects from the higher rooms. I ended up walking with them to their rooms, watching everyone go into there rooms. Poor things. Now I should start my busy work, to avoid Foster.

- - -

Egg and Cake stared on at Clock curiously.

"Whys he moving around like that?" Egg whispered to Cake. Clock was traveling around the floor on his back, using his legs to push himself around.

"Well, he IS defective right?" Cake asked her. She scoffed.

"So are we dummy, and we don't move like that."

"Okay, then why don't you ask him!" Egg sighed.

"Fine! I will!" She said, beginning to walk towards him.

"Hey, you! What are you doing?" She asked the boy, who stopped moving around to look at her.

"Alleyvou!" He yelled, smiling. Egg narrowed her eyes.

"What? What's that?" She asked curiously. He smiled again.

"Alleyvou!" He said again, giggling. Egg frowned.

"Stand up why don't you." She told him. He smiled but did nothing.

"Can you hear?" She asked him. He just smiled at her. She sat in front in front of him, studying him.

"Why aren't you saying real words? Say my name. Say Egg." She quizzed him. He thought for a moment.

"A-Ag." He sputtered. Egg groaned.

"No, E-G-G. Egg!" She spat out, getting upset with his lack of knowledge. Clock scrunched up his face, staring at her.

"Egg!" He squealed, immediately falling back onto the grass and repeating the new word, as well as the made-up word he already used.

"So he doesn't know how to talk? Or walk? And he doesn't have arms? Guess that's pretty defective huh?" Cake asked, standing next to Egg.

"We should teach him!" She yelled.

"How come? That seems difficult." Cake complained, watching Clock repeat the same two words repeatedly.

"Even if Cube talks to us, were the only detectives! If we can get him a little more talkative, we can have someone else to hang out with! If we learned everything in like two days, we can definitely teach him!" She explained, getting more excited to teach someone, and get a new friend. Cake looked at Clock again.

"He did learn your name pretty fast. I guess that's a good idea." He said smiling. They had lots to do.

yall that got me a little sad not gonna lie

but um... yeah haha

clocks cute huh??

:*)