#bondibeewrites

[bondibee]

Have dnd soon, so I'll just drop this here and run 😘

[bondibee]

Where do you post your fan fictions?

Ao3! Same name as on here.

I do also have a writing tag on this blog but I don't remember if there's good stuff in there or not lol, peruse at your own risk #bondibeewrites

[bondibee]

Did you know I used to write fanfiction

Here's some 

(sfw laac stuff)

Glados tapped her nails on the arm of her chair. It had been a few months now, two months and seventeen days to be exact, and the sensation of moving her hands still hadn't quite gotten old. There was a novelty to it, having hands. It was interesting to walk around in her little human costume every now and then, even if it didn't serve any functional purpose at all. Well, that wasn't entirely true. It did serve a purpose in regard to her guest. 

It had been almost two weeks since Chell showed some humility and admitted that she needed glados in her life, and came crawling back to the safe haven of the enrichment center. 

13 days since Chell had moved in. 

Maybe she was more than a guest. She had her own room, after all. Well, more like her own apartment really. The first night she was back glados found herself harshly reminded of just how needy humans were, how they needed food and water and "a place to sleep that isn't the floor". And this one also needed privacy, the spoiled brat. So, to keep her from complaining or more importantly breaking anything else, glados had graciously given her one of the less damaged relaxation chambers to sleep in. Apparently that alone wasn't good enough for Her Royal Highness, she needed a bathroom and a lamp and fewer cameras. It took a lot of bickering and some very unappreciated threats but eventually a compromise was reached, and chell had her little apartment, and glados had an acceptable level of surveillance. 

It still felt strange. Glados flexed her hands and watched the way the black polish on her fingernails reflected the lights. Two of these nails had broken during the first proper test run of this body, during a fall down an elevator shaft. At that time she had next to no idea how to operate it, and it was all she could do to let Chell grab her around the waist and hope that they would survive the landing. 

That they would survive each other. 

She dismissed the thought before it had a chance to form. Chell wasn't anything to be feared. Yes, she was unstable, unpredictable, prone to violent outbursts, and physically much stronger than glados in this body, but that wasn't the end of the story. Glados was no longer trapped in flesh and blood, she could trade these arteries and vessels for the wires of her facility in an instant, and chell couldn't fight that. Not now, not this time. Glados knew her now. She would be prepared, the next time chell decided to try something. She would have the upper hand, and no one would get hurt. 

It did feel a little silly though, watching her sleep. 

In her sleep chell looked harmless. Just a tiny animal, fragile bone and muscle that would be so easy to throw down a pit and forget about forever. It was so much more complicated than that, of course. It always had been. Chell had to go and make everything complicated, when she came back and gave glados all these reasons to keep her alive. To keep her in the forefront of her thoughts.

She'd spared her before, in a similar situation, yet entirely different. Chell gasping for air before fading out of consciousness on the floor, a crumpled mess of bloody knuckles and matted hair that had run for too long on adrenaline and spite alone. Glados remembered watching her sleep then in the silence of peace after ridding the world of that blue menace, thinking how small she was, how defenseless, how close to death already. She could've been done with her forever, but chell had made it impossible. An unkillable pest.

Glados couldn't get a good view of her- there was one camera in chells bedroom and it was fixed toward the door, but she was there in the bottom left corner, just barely. It felt like watching a ticking bomb, waiting for the moment it would go off. Chell must have had a reason to come back, beyond the flimsy excuses she gave. 

"Because I missed you", "Because the surface world is full of headcrabs", bullshit. 

Glados knew that Chell was still bitter. Beneath the soft smiles and the calloused hands that so gently caressed her face, the heart of a killer was still beating. This calm couldn't last forever. It never had before. Glados drummed her fingers on her thigh. She wasn't afraid of Chell. She didn't know what this was. Something about how small her guest looked like this, with that piercing gaze hidden behind closed eyelids and dark hair draped over her shoulders. Something about how defenseless she was, and how she let herself be that way, even here, even now.

Glados had seen Chell sleeping up close before. Just once, and not for very long. She hadn't known what to do after she fell asleep- glados herself didn't do that, it seemed like a waste of time- so she'd slipped away, carefully removing chells arm from around her waist and shutting the door behind herself as quietly as she could. She looked even more vulnerable that time, without her clothes. 

Chell wasn't always a peaceful sleeper, though. Sometimes she woke up screaming- a sound that nearly startled glados into an error state and elicited some deeply buried primal sense of panic. Chell said she didn't remember her nightmares. Other times she stayed awake the entire night, staring at the wall or wandering around bored. Only once since she'd been back had she slept through the entire night. 

Chell wasn't moving now, but she wasn't asleep either. Glados could tell from her breathing. It wasn't any good for her to be sleep deprived all the time- she had joked with chell about the adrenaline vapor but that was actually more of an emergency protocol and they were kind of running low on it. And chell did have a job to do here, it's not like she was staying for free. So she couldn't be wandering around like a zombie all day because she couldn't sleep. Glados leaned closer to the monitor and crossed her arms. If it were any normal human it would be easy enough to force them into unconsciousness, but this was chell, and the thought of trying to make her take a pill or filling her room with sleeping gas made glados extremely nervous. She didn't want to invoke any unnecessary anger. But what else could she do…? 

Glados waited quietly. She watched the way chells breath moved her body in rhythmic waves, slow and steady. But still awake. 

*****

Chell sat up with a gasp- back straight and eyes wide in the dark. 

"It's me," glados said. Chell seemed to relax a little at that, but the tension didn't entirely leave her body. 

"... Everything okay…?" She murmured. 

"Yes, uhm…" glados paused, trying to think of a good way to phrase her request, of a good way to make chell think it was her idea. But, looking at that tired face, nothing came to mind. "...Can I sleep with you?" She asked. 

Chell blinked and furrowed her brow, as if she didn't understand the words. Her eyes flicked over glados's face. "I… uhm, yeah, I mean…" Chell shrugged, and gestured vaguely with her hand. She moved to make room for glados in bed, making some effort to straighten out the covers as she did. 

Glados felt strange, sitting on the edge of Chell's bed and taking off her shoes. She'd never done this before, actually gone to bed. It also felt strange sitting with her back to chell, even if she was currently so tired she had already settled back down on her pillow. She didn't like turning her back on her. But, she didn't do anything, not even as glados took off her blazer and set it aside. It was only when she started to pull back the covers that chell made a sound. 

"'re you gonna sleep in that…?" She half mumbled into her pillow. 

Glados looked down at herself, questioning. Did she mean her clothes? It was the same thing she always wore. "Yes?" 

Chell grumbled and very groggily sat up, reaching to rummage through the mess at the foot of her bed. It was amazing how quickly she'd managed to fill her room with useless garbage. Like the old t-shirt she thrust in Glados's direction. Aperture Science 5k and Fun Run, it read. Chell didn't even bother to look at Glados's disgruntled expression before settling back under the comforter.  

"Really?" Glados groaned. No answer. "Tch, fine…" as casually as she could, she stood up to undress. It's not like it mattered, it was nothing chell hadn't seen before, but… still. Pulling on a ratty old shirt that now smelled like sweat and… her. Glados couldn't place the feeling, but it was there, rumbling around in her chest. 

She ignored it and climbed into bed, and tried to get comfortable. There wasn't a ton of room, and glados pushed on chell's arm to make her move over. She didn't budge- a brick wall of a person in every sense. She pushed her again and this time chell swatted at her like a fly. 

"Stop," she mumbled into her pillow. 

"Move, I don't have any room."

"Tragic."

"Chell!" The big lug groaned and finally shifted her position, moving closer to the wall so glados wasn't almost falling off the bed. 

"Finally," glados grumbled. She pointedly adjusted her pillow and rested her head with a huff. Chell didn't even notice. That was probably fine, she needed her sleep after all. 

Chell slept better when glados was there. Well, there like this, as a warm body chell could touch and bother and suffocate with her stupid hair. It was pretty apparent looking at the records, that night when chell had fallen asleep by Glados's side was the one when she got the most rest. It was then when she'd actually gotten a full night's sleep, for the first time since she got back. So that's why glados had come tonight, to try to coerce her little human brain into some sort of relaxation that came from being near another human. To test a hypothesis. Or something. 

She couldn't deny that there were other reasons. 

Watching chell from afar was all well and good, keeping an eye on her from a safe distance was practical. But somehow it didn't feel the best. At times she felt too distant, too removed. She couldn't deny that she was grateful for the occasions when chell came to laze around in the central chamber, even if she was annoying, and distracting, and got dark hairs all over glados's chair. When she was nearby like that, it was different. More immediate. She was a living, breathing thing that glados could reach out and touch, bigger than her but still perfectly tangible. Comprehensible. Containable. As if glados laying beside her and gently resting her hand on chell's arm would somehow stop her from deciding she was fed up, and running away. 

Deep down, glados knew she could never try to stop her again. Not really. She didn't have it in her. Whatever part of her wanted to be here now was the same part that knew that however much they bickered, however many lunches were thrown, glados would never be able to land a finishing blow. And chell know that. Obviously she did, or she never would have come back. 

She held all the cards. Glados was essentially defenseless in the only way that mattered, and there was nothing keeping chell from taking advantage of that. Nothing at all. 

Glados tightened her grip on chell's arm ever so slightly. What was she doing here, really? Helping chell sleep, sure, but even she didn't believe that. What was it? 

As if on cue, chell stirred, and turned on her side to face glados. 

"Why did you come here…?" She asked. Her voice was different when she was tired, even deeper and more gravelly than usual. 

"Well I'm trying to sleep," glados said in the most dismissive tone she could muster. 

"Don't have your own bed…?" 

"No, I don't." 

Chell squinted at her. In the dark it was hard to make out her face, beyond the vague shadows of her eyes. "Really," she insisted. 

Glados sighed. "It looked like you were having trouble sleeping, I thought it might help if I… if you had some company." 

Chell was quiet for a while, but glados could feel her eyes on her. Eventually she yawned, and mumbled "I guess…" before settling back down.

"Hmpf." Glados would count that as a victory. "I'm doing this for your sake, so don't make me change my mind." She turned over- tugging the covers away from chell as she did- to face the edge of the bed. That was a miscalculation. She didn't like turning her back on chell. She didn't like not being able to see her. She didn't like this feeling of defenselessness, even if they were just going to sleep and Chell didn't seem to have the energy to do anything. It made her uneasy, but not in the simple way of sensing a threat. It was knowing she was in danger, but not feeling like she was.

It was trusting someone she knew she couldn't.

Glados stayed still for some time. She waited for chell to do something, but she didn't. It gave her plenty of time to wonder how the sleeping thing was supposed to work- or if she even could. She'd never done it before. It might be impossible for her. Usually when this body felt tired she would just leave it, and it would rest until she needed it again. This was a strange thing to do. And it was boring. She really hadn't thought this through. 

Eventually, something changed. An arm around her waist. A kiss on the crown of her head. 

"...What are you doing? Go to sleep," she chided.

Chell's voice was warm and quiet, if not a little hard to make out "...Isn't this something couples do?" 

Glados froze. "...Are we a couple?" 

"Are we?" 

She didn’t know what to say to that. There wasn't a clean answer. She ran through the possible outcomes of a few options but none of them were particularly good. What could she say?

Chell waited a minute or two for an answer that didn't come. After a while she conceded, "You don't have to answer that." 

Glados nodded. It wasn't like her to be at a loss for words- that was chell's job. 

She held onto her wrist when she tried to pull her arm away. Chell pulled her closer. Glados didn't know how to feel. But there was nowhere else she wanted to be. 

[bondibee]

wtf is this

is this a portal fic

in this day and age

-------------------------

Chell was fine. Just like she always was.

She had been fine in foster care, fine in school. Fine in detention, in community service, in fist fights with her closest friends. She had been fine when she got that full scholarship to Harvard, and fine when she lost it. She had been fine in prison. And she was perfectly fine up here.

But fine and good are different things. Chell lazily kicked her burnt and battered companion cube along the cracked pavement, entertaining vague memories of kicking stones along the sidewalk in the orange glow of streetlights. Memories of friends she once had, of the things they did together. It all felt so recent. Not just the world before the apocalypse, not that life behind bars that she eventually left for Aperture, but the life she had with her friends. With herself.

Where did it all go wrong.

It wasn't as if Chell hadn't thought about that before, hadn't stayed up more nights than she cared to remember crying until she went hoarse wondering just how the hell she managed to destroy everything that came her way. She supposed it started somewhere early, maybe in the accident that killed her parents, maybe somewhere in the hazy interim between that and being adopted in middle school. Maybe it was the expectations, the promises, the lauding of praise and assurance that she would be great, if only she put her mind to it.

She could be great, if she would just try.

And yet, she didn't. No, what did she do? Failed remedial algebra. Got expelled for selling weed in the school parking lot. Maybe that was where it all really went wrong, those lazy days spent with lazy people swiping beer from convenience stores and only half trying to avoid the cops. It was hardly a high point in her life, objectively, but… looking back, it was probably the only time chell had ever felt like herself.

The warm, dry breeze drifting over the dead grass brought with it a stabbing nostalgia for something that never was. A life she could've had, but just didn't take. Thinking about it, chell realized it had already been a decade somehow. She was 26 now, and what did she have to show for it? A life sentence and this burnt up hunk of metal. On the bright side, she had definitely served that jail time by now. It had obviously been much more than a decade, after all.

It wasn't clear what had happened to the Earth while Chell had been in hibernation, but it was obviously something bad. Chell had managed to wander back home to Detroit, or at least where it had been before the world ended. The buildings were there, kind of, same for the roads. But Chell couldn't recognize a thing. Maybe she did have some brain damage, or maybe it was just hard to make anything out without the signs and trees and cars. Where was the corner store where she used to buy cigarettes? Where was the shitty apartment she shared with three other friends? She couldn't say.

They were gone.

And that was the grand irony of it all. How hard had she fought for this? For once in her sorry life, Chell had fought for something, and actually gotten it. She did something right. She tried hard enough. And it got her this. Chell would've laughed, would've recognized what a predictable end this was for someone like her, but she didn't feel like talking. She was a tragic figure in an old fable, something you tell your kids so they don't end up like the sad sack wandering around the skeleton of her old neighborhood kicking around a box and slowly starving to death. She wasn't a hero. She was this.

Chell sighed, and sat down on the cube. She was dizzy, she was tired. Her head had been pounding for days but it wasn't as if there was anything she could do about it. There wasn't really anything she could do at all. Aperture was a long ways from Detroit, and she hadn't seen a soul all the way here. She wasn't counting on seeing anyone at all, even if the faint motorcycle tracks in the dust had made her shamefully hopeful for a while. Looking out from her perch on the overpass at the dusty, silent landscape, Chell felt oddly distant from herself. It was still out here. Quiet, uneventful. Lonely. Freeing? Maybe. Chell could stretch her arms out wide and run and scream and do anything she wanted, and she had done that at first, before she got so tired.

Now she was just here.

And this would be the rest of her life.

What was the point? It wasn't the first time Chell had asked herself that, either. How many nights had she spent lying awake wondering why she bothered to keep living if she was just going to die in the end. She didn't want to revisit that path of thought, not here. Not now. But it wouldn't leave her. As far as she could see the world was barren, and silent, and harsh. The horizon stretched on forever, like time, only shrouded in a dense haze at the very edges of Chell's vision.

She had no reason to be here.

It was a thought that came easily to her, with the same gentle acceptance as noticing a change in the weather Chell was unabashedly aware that there was no purpose to her life. She didn't feel like there ever had been, so it didn't matter that she threw it all away. It really didn't. She was fine. She would fade away out here and be done with it- on her own terms, that was what mattered. If she was in charge of her own life and death it was different, not like when she was trying to kill her. Back in aperture there had been a reason to run, to keep pushing, keep fighting. She wasn't about to let anyone else tell her when she was going to die. And then when that blue idiot showed up and turned on her, she had something else to fight for. Someone else.

It all hit her like a truck. So suddenly, so hard.

Chell stared out at the blasted out world, awash in shades of rust and ocher in the dying sunlight, and for a long moment she sat dumbfounded by her own nescience. Of course, it was her.

Chell's life had never been anything. But maybe she could make it something now. Maybe she could make it something.

If nothing else, she was something to live for.

[bondibee]

whoa remember when I made Content

Here’s a technically nsfw LaaC thing! Yeehaw  In which GLaDOS just wants to do a perfectly innocent test and Chell is a little shit

Chell had been back in Aperture for a little over a week already, but it didn't feel like it had been that long. Settling into life back underground was proving a little harder than she had anticipated, even though it was remarkably comfortable compared to the way she'd been living on the surface. There was nothing GLaDOS could say to get her out of that big soft bed before noon, or stay in the shower for less than thirty minutes. It was odd in a way, to think of Aperture as comfortable considering her history with the place, and those less than pleasant memories still held a prominent spot in Chell's mind. For as nice as her new little apartment was, finding a rhythm with GLaDOS, her only companion down here, and presumably the person she'd be spending the rest of her life with at this point, was… tough. They'd learned a bit about each other during their long climb back up from the depths of the facility together, enough for Chell to realize she might've been unexpectedly fond of the AI, but it wasn't as if they'd grown up together. GLaDOS seemed a little unsure of the situation herself, and for the most part acted as if Chell wasn't there unless she wanted attention, of one form or another. She was obviously out of her element, but then, so was Chell. She didn't exactly have a slew of successful romances to look back on for reference, not counting a messy slew of one night stands and drunken club encounters. So the cycle of their days together was still rocky, with neither party entirely sure how to interact with the other now that the initial joy of their reunion had worn off.

For Chell, figuring out just what exactly she was supposed to do now was the hardest part. GLaDOS didn't give her any restrictions other than “Please don't break anything.” which Chell was pretty sure she could ignore without too much consequence, so really the world was her oyster. But she was bored. Before returning she had given some thought to what she might spend her time doing down here, but not much. Honestly she was still shocked that GLaDOS let her back in at all, her goodbye had seemed so final. Chell had half expected GLaDOS to just shoot her through the door or, much more likely, not respond at all. She hadn't really considered that she would just… walk right back in. That GLaDOS would want her back. But she did. And now Chell was here, and she had to figure out what to do.

For now her usual afternoon go-to activity was to pester GLaDOS in the central chamber while she tried to work. It wasn't as if Chell could go much further than there and a few repurposed offices without any portals, so it was either that or… stare at the ceiling. So she finally dragged herself out of bed and pulled on a jacket- GLaDOS kept it freezing in here- and headed down the hall.

The core was predictably in the middle of the chamber, her massive robotic chassis hanging still and dark in the center of the room. She was human today, luckily. It was much easier to talk to her like this, but there didn't seem to be any clear reasoning behind which body she chose to be in at any given time. The instant Chell passed through the door GLaDOS broke her attention from the array of monitors before her and shot her gaze over to her visitor.

Chell waved.

“Oh, hi.” GLaDOS said, sitting up straighter in her chair and running her fingers carefully through the snowy hair covering her blue eye. She fidgeted slightly before settling on crossing her legs. “To what do I owe the honor…?”

Chell chuckled softly as she approached the glass platform where GLaDOS sat. She shrugged in response, hands in her pockets and eyes downcast. She felt a little underdressed now with her gray sweatpants and messy hair still loose around her shoulders. Glados always dressed much too nicely to just be sitting around all day, Chell thought. Black heels, black stockings, tight black skirts, today the blazer was black too. It couldn't be a comfortable go-to outfit, but it did look nice. Perfect hair, perfect makeup, perfect nails, perfect posture. GLaDOS was beautiful, strikingly so, in a way that made her hard to look at for long without making Chell turn her head away in nervous laughter. GLaDOS herself was equally awkward, though she did a better job of hiding it.

“Well,” she said, “Do you need anything?” GLaDOS tilted her head to the side slightly, giving a glimpse of her right eye as her gaze flicked over Chell curiously. “...Or are you just going to stand there looking pretty?”

Laughter broke from Chell's lips, and a slightly unsure smile came to GLaDOS’s. Chell leaned over before she had a chance to think through it too much and caught the core's chin in her hand, guiding her into a kiss. If nothing else it put GLaDOS at ease a little, Chell could feel her relax and she sighed softly into the kiss. This time it was GLaDOS who bashfully averted her gaze, looking down at her lap when Chell pulled away.

“Well, uh, it's nice to see you too.”

Chell smiled, and nodded to the empty space beside glados in her chair.

“Oh! Yeah, go ahead.” She scooted over a little to give Chell more room, but it was still a comfortable squeeze with both of them there. Chell was getting used to sitting in here with her, after a while GLaDOS would relax against Chells shoulder and let herself be held. Today though there were dozens of thick black cables extending from her back, a new development and an explanation for the strange affixed to her back. The wires ran up to the chassis in a messy tangle and Chell couldn't quite figure out a good way to get an arm around GLaDOS without touching them, which she didn't really want to do. While she considered the situation, GLaDOS sat up abruptly.  

“Oh- hold on.” She leaned forward and turned on the microphone, Chell noticed the harsh shift in her tone when she spoke into it. “What are you two doing? Honestly I should've scrapped you for parts ages ago.”

Chell swung her feet awkwardly, recalling feelings of watching a friend get yelled at by their parents.

“Yes, you.” GLaDOS continued, “Who else would I be talking to?”

Chell could hear faint distressed beeping behind GLaDOS’s sigh as she slumped back in her chair. “Ugh, sorry. They're useless.”

Chell glanced over the monitors for a few moments, and she had to agree. The test the poor little bots were trying to solve was simple enough, and Chell had it figured it in just a few seconds.

“...Frustrating,” she mumbled.

“You don't know the half of it.”

“...I could do it.”

At that GLaDOS shot up straight and looked Chell dead in the eye. Almost immediately though she caught herself and relaxed, looking back at the monitors nonchalantly. “Well, I… I'm sure you could.”

Chell raised an eyebrow in questioning.

GLaDOS continued, “I mean, if you felt like it… there are a few tests you could try. Just some I had lying around.”

Chell smiled, and nodded. Back when she first met GLaDOS she had thought that testing was pretty fun, up until she tried to kill her. The ones after they both woke up again probably could have been fun too, if GLaDOS hadn't still been trying to kill her. But, now GLaDOS was much less likely to commit any murders, so why not give it another go? It wasn't as if Chell had anything better to do down here, and maybe it would be something they could do together.

“Really…?” GLaDOS asked, probably thinking back to the same close calls that Chell was remembering. “It… is dangerous you know. There are no safety considerations in place.”

Chell rolled her eyes. She’d made it through all of GLaDOS’s little tests this far, a few more would be a breeze. Not willing to give the core any more time to doubt Chell got up and stretched her arms, signaling just how ready she was to do anything other than sit around bored for another day.

“Well, fine, if you're going to be so pushy.”

Within no time Chell found herself holding a shiny new portal gun, disappointingly not the same one she'd carved her name into before, with new long fall boots on her feet and very little patience. She bounced idly in the elevator as it went down, and down, and down, to wherever GLaDOS had been building the new testing tracks. Chell tried to keep a mental record of where exactly she was going, just in case she needed to get back out. Finally the elevator slowed its descent, and came to a smooth stop. The doors opened, and Chell all but ran down the dark hall, ignoring the sign on the wall like she always had.

“Think you can beat your record?” Came GLaDOS’s familiar voice over the speakers, a strange callback to before they were quite so friendly. Chell nodded confidently to the nearest camera, and set off.

------

So, maybe that confidence was a bit premature. It took Chell what felt to her like an eternity to solve the relatively simple puzzle, and then once she did figure it out it took even longer to actually execute it. Thankfully GLaDOS had been fairly quiet the whole time, Chell didn't really need any comments about how much difficulty she was having catching a stupid cube. All she had to do was push the button, and then jump in the portal, and if her timing was right down the millisecond, apparently, everything would work and she could take the cube to the laser, and the laser through the portal, and maybe then GLaDOS would let her get some lunch. Chell took a breath and tried her best to calculate the time again, before giving it one more try.

This time would have been perfect, but instead of catching the cube she managed to slam into it mid air and ended up landing hard on her side with a small cut on her cheek. She groaned in frustration, and tossed the portal gun away toward the far wall.

“Hey, careful!” GLaDOS chided, “Do you have any idea how expensive that device is?”

Chell nodded against the floor, pretty sure that GLaDOS had told her before exactly how expensive it was, and she hadn’t listened. Slowly she sat up, and steeled herself to try again. It was going to work eventually, it had to, she just had to keep trying.

Thankfully it only took two more tries to get it right, and from there the rest of the test was easy. Chell carried the cube over to the laser and angled it through the portal to activate the switch. As she lined it up properly GLaDOS spoke over the speakers again.

“There, fina- ah-”

The sound of the speakers abruptly cutting out was covered by that of the exit door sliding open. Chell looked up curiously, signaling to the camera by the door. What happened?

She waited, but no response came, so she just shrugged and headed onward. It was a little strange to not hear GLaDOS’s voice as she walked into the elevator and waited through the short trip down, but Chell supposed the AI didn’t really have a reason to talk to her much now, since she was no longer trying to get under her skin. Even so it was somehow eerie to enter a new test chamber and hear nothing, so Chell paused in front of the first camera and waved to it.

“What?” GLaDOS asked, after a short delay. “Yes, I see you.”

Chell tilted her head to the side as she listened to the voice. GLaDOS must have still been in her human body, if the heavy breath behind her words was anything to go off of. Her tone was so different than it had been just a few minutes ago, but at the same time there was something familiar in it, like Chell had heard her talk this way before… Oh.

Chell couldn't stop the low chuckle that escaped her throat at that dawning realization.

“What? What are you laughing at?” GLaDOS insisted, her voice unmistakably hurried and unsteady.

Chell could practically see the flush on her cheeks as she spoke, remembering clearly the AI’s trembling words as she lay panting in Chell's bed the other morning. She shot a quick smirk at the camera, and walked on into the test chamber. ‘In it for the science’ she said. Yeah, right. Chell would have scoffed before but now the situation was just funny, and kind of cute. And it gave her notably more motivation to finish the next test. It wasn't difficult, and she was pretty certain she had it figured out after her first scan of the room. However as soon as she started placing portals, GLaDOS spoke up.

“Wait- I-” She sputtered. Chell paused in her tracks and looked back at the camera with feigned curiosity. “You… don't have to hurry, you now.”

Chell chuckled again to herself, and carried on. GLaDOS might have said not to hurry, but this chamber was simple, and it wouldn't take long no matter how Chell solved it. As she stepped carefully over another laser a low, approving hum sounded over the speakers. If GLaDOS had been like this from the start maybe things would have been different, at least a little. But then… why hadn't she? Chell thought about it as she maneuvered behind a turret to place a portal on the far wall- GLaDOS had never been so compromised by testing before. Maybe it was her new body? But then she ran tests from it often enough, and didn't seem to have any trouble. If anything watching Blue and Orange test just seemed to annoy her. For a moment Chell wondered if it was just because it was her, if GLaDOS had feelings for her now and that somehow changed things. She shook her head, deciding that was silly. The only other variable she could think of were the new wires connecting GLaDOS to her old body.

Slightly distracted by her musings Chell picked up the turret and carried it over to the ledge, and dropped it into the acid below to get it out of the way.

“Oh.”

Chell looked back at the camera again, and it actually turned away. She grinned. GLaDOS really was adorable sometimes, when she wasn't awful. What else would she like? Chell wondered, looking around the chamber for another turret to drown. Unfortunately there was only the one, so she kept going.

It was easy enough, and the solution Chell saw upon first entering the chamber turned out to be the right one. It took her less than 10 minutes to get the cube she needed over to the button that would unlock the door. As she trotted over to it GLaDOS’s voice came over the speakers once again, sounding impatient despite her best efforts.

“Oh, good, just- … Well, you know what to do from here.”

“Hm?” Chell paused, setting down the cube. Had GLaDOS almost said the solution?

“No don't put it down, come on!”

Chell raised an eyebrow, and smirked. She picked up the cube again.

“Good, just- Chell!”

The test subject's shoulders shook with silent laughter as she set the cube down again, this time right next to the button.

“I know what you're doing. It's not funny.”

Chell shrugged and nodded, thinking that it was in fact pretty funny. She climbed up and sat on top of the cube.

“Oh now you're just being mean.” GLaDOS whined. Her voice was becoming notably less patient, and less composed. Chell stretched her arms and leaned back, relaxing against the cold metal of the cube.

“Chell. Chell get up.”

“Hm?”

“Come on, it's right there,” GLaDOS groaned, “Stop stalling!”  

“Said not to hurry.”

“What- ughh.”

Chell yawned and closed her eyes, laughing to herself at GLaDOS’s frustrated groaning.

“Fine, I see, clearly this chamber was too challenging for you to solve.”

Chell rolled her eyes, GLaDOS could do better than that.

“You're just- where are you going? Hey!” GLaDOS called after Chell as she hopped off the cube and wandered over to the ledge. She aimed her portal gun at the far wall again, lining up a shot.

“What are you… don't you dare. You'll have to do it all again- no!!” Chell could hear GLaDOS hitting something, the arm of her chair maybe? As she stepped through the portal and back to the other side of the room, and back through the emancipation grill right in front of the entrance. Both the portals immediately blinked out of existence, along with the cube.

GLaDOS let out the most exasperated cry Chell had ever heard, her voice getting quieter near the end as she presumably moved away from the microphone.

“Ughhh! You. You have to be the worst test subject who has ever set foot in this facility.”

“High praise.”

“I hate you.”

“I hate you too.”

Chell blew a kiss to the nearest camera, and went on her way to solve the test again. This time around it only took a few minutes, mostly just the time it took her to walk around, she wasn't in any rush after all. All the while GLaDOS grumbled and admonished Chell from the central chamber, the pitch of her voice rising with the rate of her breath as Chell made it back over to the door with her new cube.

“Okay, now just. Don't do that again.”

Chell paused, and thought about it. She thought about it some more.

“Chell!”

“Where does it go?”

“Oh my god.” GLaDOS groaned. Chell swore she could hear her foot tapping quickly in the background. Chell laughed, but she couldn't keep this up forever. It was a little mean, and GLaDOS was starting to sound less playfully annoyed and more genuinely angry, so she moved the cube over the button. GLaDOS’s breath caught in her throat in response- her fed up growling giving way to silent anticipation.

But, Chell wouldn't let her off that easily. She lowered the cube down slowly, and just barely let it rest on the button. The door wasn't even activated, but apparently that was enough for GLaDOS’s system if the squeaky gasp that escaped her was any indication. As soon as that sound left her lips though, Chell moved the cube away again.

She grinned at the ensuing scream that cut through the room, accompanied by the clattering of a clipboard hitting the floor.

“Chell for fuck’s sake.”

“Language.”

“Ugghhh.”

“Ask nicely.”

“What…??” GLaDOS sounded absolutely attacked, her voice shrill and uncomfortable and breathy. “No! Just put--! Ughh, Chell come on.”

Chell shook her head, still holding the cube just a hair's breadth above the button. She wished that she could see GLaDOS’s face, she could hear the movement of fabric and would've killed to see GLaDOS squirming and fidgeting in her chair. Chell looked at the camera and raised an eyebrow. Well?

“You do not need me to ask you to do your one job.”

“Hmm…” well that wasn't the right answer. Chell lifted the cube up higher and started to move away. Flicking her eyes back to the other side of the room again.

“No-! No no, wait, don't start it over again!!”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah- just. Finish the test.

“Finish the test…?” Chell repeated, trailing off in suggestion of one more little word.

“No.” GLaDOS said sternly. Her voice was starting to lose some of the edge of frustration, so Chell quickly tapped the cube back down on the button. GLaDOS squealed in response, a cute high pitched little sound that quickly degraded into a shriek of annoyance.

“You're awful!! God!”

Chell rolled her eyes and nodded.

“Y-you can't stay in there forever, you have to solve it eventually!”

Chell shrugged.  

“Look just do it and I'll- I'll give you something. I promise, you'll like it!”

“Hmm…”

“You're ruini- ah!! Stop that!!” GLaDOS yelled over Chell's laughter as she tapped the cube down again, her voice now shrill and wavering.

“Ask.” said Chell.

“I am asking!”

Chell gave the camera a look. GLaDOS knew what she needed to do, it wasn't hard.

The AI groaned deep in her throat, and grumbled again, “No.”

Chell sighed, and turned back toward the ledge, taking the cube with her.

“No!! No- no no, wait, turn back around, Chell!! Don't you dare.”

Chell paused, but didn't turn around.

There was a moment where she could tell GLaDOS was thinking, mulling over the options in her head. She mumbled and whined and cursed, before finally, she did it.

In a low, growly voice, GLaDOS mumbled “Please.”

There, now was that so hard? Chell smiled triumphantly, and finally dropped the cube on the button.

The noise that GLaDOS made in response was positively lyrical, a deep, throaty moan that Chell was starting to become familiar with but still sent a rush of heat through her body. She stood still for a moment listening, picturing GLaDOS’s pink cheeks and furrowed brow- the tremors of her body as her voice finally gave way to ragged panting.

“Move.” GLaDOS commanded between heavy breaths. Chell startled from her position of staring vaguely in the direction of the speaker and hurried through the open door and onto the elevator. Even GLaDOS’s harsh tone didn't wipe the smile off her face though, she felt as if she'd just learned some great secret.

“Feel good…?” She asked as the elevator doors closed behind her.

“Shut up.”

Chell smirked, but that faded when she realized the elevator was moving in the wrong direction, remarkably fast.

“It seems you found an… unexpected bug.” GLaDOS said as the elevator rose. “How nice.”

A sudden worry overtook Chell- GLaDOS didn't exactly sound happy. She racked her brain trying to remember if there were any good routes away from the central chamber, just in case GLaDOS was really angry with her. Slowly the elevator came to a stop, and the glass doors opened.

Chell scanned the room, but GLaDOS was still sitting on her throne, legs crossed, chin in her hand.

“Come here,” she said.

Chell cautiously stepped into the room, and walked about halfway over to the central platform.

“That was not nearly as satisfying as it might have sounded to some people.” GLaDOS glared from the shadow of her chassis, tapping her foot on the glass platform.

A tension left Chell's shoulders as she realized she probably wasn't in danger, and slowly she closed the distance between herself and the core.

“No?”

“No. And you don't get to start things like that and not finish them properly.”

A small smile tugged at chells lips as she walked up the stairs. “Oops.”

“Just come here, you monster.”

Chell grinned, and scooped GLaDOS up in her arms. The smaller woman melted into her body instinctively, wrapping her arms and legs around her easily.

“You know,” she said, “you still have to finish the rest of the tests.”

Chell rolled her eyes, and shut GLaDOS up with a kiss.

[bondibee]

Athena pt 2

The second part 

Watching Chell walk back onto a testing track for the first time in so long was just wonderful. She looked right at home, back where she belonged, safe and sound (well, sort of), doing her job. GLaDOS wanted so badly to fawn over her test subject, to tell her how nice she looked holding a portal gun and how much she had missed her, how she was so different than everyone and everything else, how she was perfect for this, she was perfect, but, she couldn't. The core did her best to steady the fluttering in her chest and act like she didn't care, like she wasn't reeling with joy just at seeing Chell on the camera feed again. It took no small measure of self control to keep her voice from sounding too obviously thrilled when she casually welcomed Chell back to her old role.

Chell smiled at the camera and nodded in agreement, and GLaDOS felt her heart melt. What had she been mad about, again? Why wasn't she letting herself just be happy? Chell was back, everything was back to normal, wasn't that fine?

It only took Chell turning around so GLaDOS could catch a glimpse of the large new scar on her shoulder to remind her that no, it wasn't fine. And so they went on with the testing.

Chell was, obviously, better at everything than Athena. However, she wasn't always better by much. In fact Athena had some advantages; it was a robot and had a digital brain, much less prone to daydreaming or getting distracted. Not that Chell was particularly spacey, but there was a marginal difference in times. Adding to the slight time difference was the fact that Chell had been away for so long and had apparently lost some of her knack for problem solving, taking longer than normal to decide on courses of action. That, and she was adjusting to several new testing elements. GLaDOS never really stopped coming up with new ones, and having been away for so long Chell missed out on a lot of ideas. GLaDOS hadn't actually thought much of showing them to Athena first, in fact a few of them were almost instantly fatal so it was probably a good thing, but she recalled Chell saying something some time ago about how she liked being the first to see the new inventions. So GLaDOS decided to try something.

Currently Chell stood in front of a blue laser presumably trying to figure out how it was different from a red laser, and GLaDOS spoke up.

“What do you think of those? They went over well with Athena,” she said offhandedly, while jotting down notes on her clipboard.

Chells shoulders tensed visibly, but she didn't react otherwise. She just shrugged to the camera, predictably unappreciative of scientific advancements. The subtle tension that remained in her brow for the rest of the test chamber was enough, however. A proof of concept.

She only got more uncomfortable the more GLaDOS mentioned the new testing bot, to the point that it actually began to affect her performance. She did make it to the end, of course, but she was in a much less agreeable mood by that point.

“Good job,” GLaDOS said as Chell walked up to the last elevator and slumped against the wall, crossing her arms over her chest. “You nearly beat Athena’s record for that track.”

Chell looked up sharply, glaring into the red light of the camera. “What?”

“Hm? You were only two minutes off. Not that I’m timing you.”

“She did all these?”

“Yes, on uhmm… March 6th. Why?”

Chell glowered at the camera for a few more seconds before sighing and turning away. If GLaDOS didn’t know better, she’d say she was pouting.

Among the countless things GLaDOS had missed about having Chell around, one of the smaller points was having someone to tease and provoke. Athena didn’t really have emotions so it was a lost cause there, but Chell was very rewarding. Of course she knew GLaDOS’s tricks and had learned not to react to most of what she said, usually just ignoring her completely or throwing back the rare biting response, but she was extremely unhappy to hear anything about Athena. GLaDOS was almost surprised at how far a few words could take her in riling Chell up, to the point that more than once she had stopped in her tracks and began to say something back, before deciding against it. Over the next few days she became increasingly irritable, much to GLaDOS’s amusement. It felt vindictive and rewarding, and was proving informative. GLaDOS hadn’t considered that Chell would be quite so prone to jealousy. She’d never shown any signs of possessive behavior before, certainly she wasn’t worried about just leaving for months at a time, so her sensitivity to losing any percentage of GLaDOS’s attention was surprising. One incident that occurred late in the afternoon four days after Chell got back proved an unexpected example of how far those feelings went.

GLaDOS had been doing some minor repairs to this Athena, it had fallen and damaged the input port on its back, so she brought it into the central chamber to patch it up. She’d just finished and sent it out to go back to its stasis chamber, when Chells familiar augmented footsteps began to echo down the hall. GLaDOS didn't think anything of it at first, just wondering what Chell wanted to see her for, since she had been a little chilly the past few days, but then she realized Chell had never actually met Athena before, and there was only one hall leading to the central chamber. Curiosity piqued, GLaDOS flipped to the camera feed from the hall to see just what would happen. A part of her wondered if Chell might even attack the defenseless robot, but she didn't, of course. She was, however, less than thrilled to see it.

As Athena noticed it's unrequited rival it tilted its head to the side and made a puzzled sort of face, before smiling in what could have been read as excitement. (GLaDOS realized that Athena probably recognized Chell from how much GLaDOS compared it to her, it had definitely been shown at least a few photos of the superior test subject before.) Chell, on the other hand, stopped dead in her tracks and looked at the happy robot like it was a demon from Hell. She narrowed her eyes, and GLaDOS noticed a subtle twitch in her right hand, but she didn't move until Athena trotted over and reached out to her like an old friend. She recoiled and took a step back, keeping her eyes fixed on Athena as she stepped around it. Athena was confused, but largely unable to process Chell's reaction, so it just waved as she hurried down the hall.

GLaDOS turned off the camera feed just before Chell rushed into the chamber. She kept glancing behind herself as she hurried over to GLaDOS, and thrust her arm back toward the hall with the most offended expression glados thought she'd ever seen on that face.

“What? What are you so worked up about?”

“She was in here?!” it was rare to hear chell's voice quite so loud. GLaDOS took note of it.

“Yes…?” GLaDOS furrowed her brow in genuine confusion, before it clicked. “Oh, no no, it's fine. She's allowed to be in here.”

Chells face cycled through shock and disbelief before settling into a nondescript anger. She huffed and falsely started a few words, trying and failing to string together a response.

GLaDOS kept talking to help her out, “If she'd broken in somehow I would've... well, you know how that would go.”

“You don't even let the boys in here.” Chell spat, her voice strained and heavy with unarticulated meaning.

GLaDOS sat back and crossed her legs. “I do sometimes…”

“Only when I'm here too.”

“Well, it's fine, I promise. Athena isn't going to turn on me or anything. She's been keeping me company while you were gone and it's been fine.”

Chell’s eyebrows shot up and she stared at GLaDOS with fire behind those cool blue eyes, but she managed to swallow it down. She sighed, and looked down at the floor, and nodded.

“Oh, I see.”

“Yes.” GLaDOS said. “Now what did you come down here for?” she smiled and sat with her shoulders open, inviting.

“You know what, uhm…” Chell kicked the floor and rubbed the back of her neck, so visibly uncomfortable she might as well have been wearing a sign. “Forget it.” she mumbled, before turning away and quickly excusing herself from the central chamber.

That. was perfect. GLaDOS hadn't even considered it- but it made sense, didn't it? Chell thought she was so special, the only person GLaDOS let near her. That had been true, GLaDOS didn't trust anyone else to come close to the central chamber. Historically it had served as her grave as much as her birthplace, a sanctuary and a battleground, a place of safety but not guaranteed, so she made a point of making it very hard to get to. Unless you were Chell. However, the lab she worked on her bodies in was situated right off the central chamber, and that was where she made Athena, so it had ended up in the chamber quite often. GLaDOS had considered the risk, but concluded that Athena just didn't have the free will necessary to revolt against her. Having another body around was nice, and what she said about Athena keeping her company wasn't exactly a lie. So, she could use this.

Chell didn’t like hearing about Athena, she didn’t like that Athena had gotten to see new technology before her, but she hated this. She was jealous but she still hadn’t done anything about it, which was frustrating. But maybe this was a boundary GLaDOS could push just a little further, just to make Chell really understand, and then she would stop. Once Chell knew how badly it had hurt to stay up night after night after the four months were up and see no sign of her, if she even could know, then she would stop.

GLaDOS let another day pass before she called Athena back up to the central chamber. She didn’t want to seem too deliberate, but still aware enough that Chell would know she was trying to say something. So, she brought Athena up in the elevator. It looked happy to see her, smiling warmly if not a little perplexed as to why it was there if it wasn’t broken.

“Come over here,” GLaDOS said, and it trotted over happily enough, pausing at the base of the stairs. “Yes, up here, come on.” GLaDOS moved to the side and patted the space beside her on her chair. It was big enough for her and Chell to sit in together, so Athena would fit just fine. The bot’s face lit up and it all but ran up to the platform, settling in beside GLaDOS eagerly. It looked around at the array of monitors excitedly and then back at its maker, brown eyes gleaming.

“Yes, it’s nice up here isn’t it?”

Athena nodded enthusiastically but fidgeted in her seat, glancing from GLaDOS’s eyes to its own hands.

“What is it?” GLaDOS asked, tilting her head to the side. Athena mimicked the gesture, and its eyes caught on something. The goofy smile was gradually fading into something more focused and sincere, something GLaDOS hadn’t really seen in the bot before. Slowly, Athena raised its hand to GLaDOS’s face, hesitating for a moment before deciding it was safe to touch her. A cautious hand carefully brushed the hair away from GLaDOS’s face, and she knew what had caught Athena’s attention. Curiosity of why Athena even cared about her eye won over her anxiety of showing it to anyone, so GLaDOS remained still. Very gently, Athena rested its palm against GLaDOS’s cheek. Its eyes flicked over her face for a moment, its expression calm and sweet, looking at GLaDOS with a fondness she hadn’t expected to see from the thing.

For a moment GLaDOS wondered if her assessment of Athena’s emotional capacity had been wrong somehow, if its feelings went deeper than she had meant for them to. Not that it mattered even if it turned out it could feel anything resembling love, it was just… unexpected how it all but gazed at her and stroked her cheek. Looking back into those plain brown eyes GLaDOS wondered what would have happened had she done something like this sooner, while Chell was still away.

Distracted by her own pondering GLaDOS hadn’t noticed the sound of familiar footsteps approaching the central chamber until they passed through the door. She had expected to hear them stop, to pull away from Athena and see Chell standing dumbstruck in the doorway, but they did not. Instead they just kept coming, alarmingly fast, and before she had a chance to react GLaDOS felt Athena being torn away from her, grabbed by the collar and shoved off the dais onto the floor a good 10 feet below. It landed on its side with a heavy thud, followed by the hydraulic clang of Chell's feet hitting the tile. GLaDOS was, of course, startled by all this. She sat up in her chair and watched as the stunned cyborg clamored to its feet only to be knocked back down by a sucker punch to the face. Chell stood over it, furious. It had been a long time since GLaDOS had seen her so angry, and the last time she’d been at the receiving end of it, so she had been a little distracted. Her pale eyes gleamed with rage as she kicked Athena in the ribs, the defenseless robot letting out a pained cough as she did. It made an effort to get away but it was pointless, Chell pinned it by the shoulder as it turned, shoving its face into the floor by the back of its hair and keeping it still with her knee on its back. It was only then that GLaDOS noticed Chell had brought a knife- she’d gotten into the habit of carrying weapons while on the surface, apparently- and as soon as she came to that realization the blade disappeared between Athena’s shoulder blades, sunk into the port in her back. The android shrieked in pain, convulsing violently on the floor until the movement subsided into silent twitches of the muscles. Chell stood silently, staring down Athena until it stilled to a point she deemed close enough to death.

GLaDOS hadn’t noticed she was grinning until Chell’s piercing eyes caught her own, and then her face fell. Her heart was pounding with something after all that, but the excitement of seeing such a display of passion from Chell was quickly being replaced by dread as she walked back up the glass stairs to where GLaDOS sat.

“Chell-” GLaDOS began, her voice more obviously shocked than she’d intended, “What was that for? You-!!” GLaDOS gasped as she was lifted off her chair by the lapel, not left with a second to defend herself before Chell’s hand met her face in a harsh slap- hard enough to leave her stunned for a few seconds with ringing in her ear.

Okay, fair. She could have expected as much. GLaDOS looked back up warily, ready to be hit again, but instead Chell shifted her grip to hold her tightly by the shoulders and kissed her, hard. For a moment or two GLaDOS was frozen in place, save the startled moan that escaped her lips. Chell’s arms wrapped around her like a vice, not that it mattered. GLaDOS wasn’t interested in getting away. What Chell was doing hurt, kissing her like she was trying to bruise, biting her lips and leaving her short of breath, but it was exactly what GLaDOS had been hoping for. Even though she was certain her lip was now bleeding and her cheek still stung with lingering pain, Chell's teeth on her neck were more than welcome, as were her hands shoving GLaDOS back down into her throne. Chell climbed onto her lap, her form large and overbearing, forcing GLaDOS to crane her neck to meet Chell's lips. She gasped as Chell gripped her hair and yanked her head back, forcing GLaDOS to look up and meet her gaze as she hissed “You did that on purpose.”

GLaDOS winced at the pain but there was just something about the way Chell stared her down, the heat in those cool blue eyes that forced a smile onto the core's face. Against her better judgement she laughed at Chell’s accusation, earning her another sharp tug on the longer side of her hair and an uncomfortable twisting in her arm as Chell bore more of her weight down onto the smaller woman.

“You think this is funny??”

“No, not funny- Ah!” GLaDOS gasped as Chell shifted her weight again, her knee pressing down painfully on the her leg.

“You hurt me! Do you know that?!” GLaDOS didn’t say anything, just trying to wrench herself free of Chell’s tightening grip. The abnormally talkative test subject continued, “I thought you were excited to see me. Were you faking all of that?!”

GLaDOS’s eyes snapped up, “What? No-”

“I missed you! And- and you just…!” Chell finally released GLaDOS’s hair and shook her head in frustration, reaching the limit of what she could articulate in words. GLaDOS used the moment of distraction to sit up a little straighter.

“Oh, you missed me?!” GLaDOS scoffed, “You were gone a month longer than you said you would be- I thought you were dead!!”

“No you didn’t.”

GLaDOS smiled bitterly, “No, you’re right! I thought you just weren’t coming back!”

Chell paused for a moment, easing back more, “What… I- GLaDOS…”

“I thought you’d met someone else up there, and I was never going to see you again!”

“I wouldn’t do that to you.” Chell said, furrowing her brow.

“What? Oh come on, don’t say that like I would.”

Chell sat back and looked down at GLaDOS incredulously. “You did though.”

“I did not-!”

“Yes you did!! And it hurt me! Do you understand that??”

“I-”

“Do you??”

GLaDOS searched Chell’s eyes for a moment, trying to decide how to respond. Of course she understood. Hurting Chell was what she had set out to do in the first place, but now… She couldn’t just admit that. Seeing Chell punch Athena in the face and stalk over with fire in her eyes had been exhilarating, but she looked much less enticing now, brows knitted in frustration and pain. What could she say? Maybe if she went along with it Chell would get off her leg.

“...Yes, I understand.”

Chell sighed and shook her head again. Her shoulders fell slightly from their tense position, the last bits of blind anger draining away.

“Why did you even do all this?”

“You were gone for five months, 16 days, 20 hours, 13 minutes and 48 seconds. So yes I was mad, of course I was! And then you finally come back and, it's like you didn't miss me at all! You're just so excited to tell me how great the surface is and how much you love it up there…!” GLaDOS had to stop before the tears welling in her eyes threatened to fall. She hadn't planned to tell any of this to Chell, usually hiding all her other feelings under anger worked well enough and she didn't have to deal with this sort of thing.

Chell was looking down now, focused on her hand where it rested on the arm of the chair. She sighed, “Look, I'm sorry I was late. I got caught up in some stuff…”

“I thought you were never coming back! I thought you left here with everything I gave you just.. planning to leave forever!”

“I'm sorry-”

“You promised me you would be back in exactly four months, you promised!”

“I- I know, I'm sorry.”

“I was scared.” at that GLaDOS’s voice broke. She looked down, resting her forehead against Chells chest. She was relieved to feel strong arms wrapping around her again.

“I'm sorry,” Chell said for the third time, “I know… but…” She craned her neck to look back to where the cyborg’s lifeless body still lay on the floor. “This still wasn't okay.”

“I know, I know.” GLaDOS mumbled into Chell's shirt. “But… you still broke your promise.”

“I didn't want to. Something… came up…”

“You said that already. What exactly was so important?”

“I…” Chell fidgeted for a moment as she searched for words, GLaDOS was surprised at how much she had spoken already, maybe she was reaching her limit now. “...I had to help some people. It took up the week I had planned to spend coming back, and…”

GLaDOS gave Chell an impatient glance, she wasn't in the mood to put up with her silent treatment now. “And?” she urged.

“I… I was going to be late after that. And… I was worried… that… you would be mad. Or do something crazy.” She looked back down at GLaDOS to say that, the obvious point taken well enough.

“so.. you just let me wait for three extra weeks because you were procrastinating?”

Chell groaned, “You aren't listening to me.”

“Yes I am.”

“No, you're…! I was scared too, alright?” GLaDOS opened her mouth to protest, but Chell kept talking before she could. “I, I know we're not supposed to be afraid of each other, but…”

GLaDOS paused. She stayed quiet as Chell stood up, awkwardly running her fingers through her hair and shuffling her feet, all the little obvious tells She had for when she was nervous. GLaDOS glanced behind her to where Athena’s body lay on the floor, and sighed.

“I guess it doesn't help that I'm proving you right.” GLaDOS said quietly.

She had wanted to hurt Chell’s feelings, but she didn't want to hurt Chell. She didn't. She wanted to make her jealous, make her regret leaving for so long, make her pay attention to her, make her react. Introduce a stimulus, and get a reaction. It was so simple in her mind, but rarely were things with Chell quite as simple when she put them into action. She hadn't considered that Chell had… actually missed her. At some point she'd just pushed that reality away, and now what had she done? Put Chell through a roller coaster when she should have been welcoming her home. Even if she had planned to do that over a month ago and now- well. Maybe GLaDOS was still hurting, and jealous, and bitter. Maybe she still wasn't a good person. But she had to try to be good for Chell. To be good at this.

GLaDOS hung her head, looking down at her folded hands where they rested in her lap.

“Chell… I'm sorry.” She murmured.

Chell took a deep breath, and let it out. “Yeah?”

“Yes.”

She nodded, still averting her eyes. There was a pause, and for a moment GLaDOS wondered what exactly she was supposed to do if Chell refused to accept her apology. Instead, Chell spoke up again, without raising her eyes from the floor.

“Sorry I killed your robot.”

“I don't know what I expected, that is kind of your specialty.”

[bondibee]

Athena pt 1

Hey I wrote a chelldos thing that got way out of hand and disastrously long so I’m splitting it into 2 parts.  In which Chell goes on vacation and GLaDOS expresses her insecurities in possibly the worst way. 

Chell had been gone for five months. She was back now, but that didn't change the fact that she had been gone, and that she’d left glados alone in the facility for nearly half a year. GLaDOS had made it clear how much Chell's absence hurt her the minute she returned, jumping into her arms and kissing her and crying like a fool. Looking back now it was embarrassing, and painful. For all of her outpouring of emotion, what had Chell done? Picked her up, spun her around, sure, but what else? What had she said? They spent an -admittedly very nice- night together, but the next morning Chell was nothing but smiles and eagerly presented photographs of the surface. For all of her excitement, GLaDOS only felt pain. Hadn't Chell missed her? Had she really just been having the time of her life up there, without her, while GLaDOS pined away like some pathetic widow?

Months of loneliness had not treated her well. GLaDOS was never designed to be left to her own devices, and maybe it showed. She knew she was more cruel to Atlas and P-body when Chell wasn’t around, but that didn't mean much, they just found themselves exploding a little more often. During the months of solitude she worked more than ever, trying to distract herself with science and research and whatever else she could think of to occupy her time, but the empty days stretched on excruciatingly slowly. She was lonely, and she was bored. She missed Chell, and she missed testing with Chell. She missed testing with a person in general, and eventually her boredom and isolation turned that sentiment into a little project.

The project itself was fairly simple. She had perfected the simulation of human bodies, at this point she'd gone through 4 herself, each one better than the last. She had spares on top of that, lined up in a pretty row in the lab adjacent to the central chamber. They were easy enough to make, but all identical, empty shells. It would be a fun little project, she thought, to make one that looked different, and to give it a purpose of its own. So, over the next few weeks she created a new test subject from scratch. Not like her, nothing else was quite like her, and not like Chell either. It could think in its own way, solve problems, be creative to a point, but it wouldn't try to run. It could communicate and understand language, but It didn't talk, it didn't need to. All it needed to do was listen.

There was no other reason she made it mute.

GLaDOS only considered aesthetics briefly, mostly just trying to make something that would be good for testing. The body she created had to be athletic, strong, capable. She made the new cyborg female, gave it brown hair, brown eyes. It was taller than her own human body, which was necessary for it to be of average height. She figured it was attractive enough, not that she was thinking about all that.

If it looked familiar, it was just because all humans looked mostly the same.

Athena, as she called it, was pretty good at testing. It wasn't the fastest or the smartest, but it was good enough. It did almost seem to have a personality of sorts, similar to the cooperative testing bots, but how much of that was just GLaDOS spending too much time watching it and assigning moods to its mannerisms was up for debate. It could be endearing, the way it peered cautiously over ledges or always opted to tiptoe around turrets instead of kicking them over like Chell did, but far more important than that was the fact that Athena was, effectively, mortal.

If it was injured, it would bleed. It could be killed, in any number of ways. This was an obvious improvement over the bots, who were largely useless no matter how much Chell liked them. Of course, GLaDOS had made over 40 Athenas now, but she always had more. This meant it wasn't quite as meaningful when they died, no matter how spectacular a death they suffered (and they did suffer. They were quiet, but they knew how to scream.) there would be a replacement. But, at least it kept GLaDOS occupied in Chell's absence.

Mostly.

Athena was interesting, but it was just a toy. GLaDOS loved Chell. There was nothing she could do to even begin to fill the role that she left in her life. Chell was so much more than just a test subject, or even a lover. GLaDOS may have hated to admit it, but her world revolved around that woman. She was everything. Athena, in comparison, was nothing. It was of no more value to GLaDOS than a turret or a cube or a coffee mug or anything else.

But... that didn't mean Chell had to know that. As the weeks stretched on, and GLaDOS only grew lonelier and spent more sleepless nights clinging to Chell's pillow, her anguish slowly turned to anger. How dare Chell leave her like this? For so long? It was selfish of her. She could be doing anything up there on the surface. She could be hurt, or in trouble, or lost, or... she could have met someone else. That last thought made GLaDOS see red every time it crossed her mind, but she began to dwell on it. Eventually she almost cemented it to herself as fact. Chell had met someone else, of course she had. She was beautiful, strong, smart, who wouldn't want her? And why would she say no? After all GLaDOS was all the way down here, she couldn't object, and she would never know. Or so Chell thought.

Well, GLaDOS would show her. If Chell was up there tomcatting around, showing no regard for her feelings, she could stand a taste of her own medicine. Athena was somewhat desperate to please its maker, GLaDOS had programmed it that way so it would be motivated to solve tests, but that drive to please her could… be interpreted differently. It wasn't, but it could be. If GLaDOS just… didn't get rid of it after Chell came back, if she kept her new toy around and acted like she was just a little more excited about it than she really was, what would that do to Chell? It would teach her a lesson, is what.

To say that GLaDOS had fallen for her own con would be inaccurate. Of course she didn't have any feelings for Athena other than a loose pride felt for a successful invention. It was nice to look at, but she probably only thought that because of the vague resemblance it bore to someone else. GLaDOS didn't like humans much as a general rule, and she certainly didn't find the vast majority of them attractive. That being said, the one human she was fond of had been away for months, and GLaDOS got lonely. She didn't go make out with the thing or anything like that, but there were probably times when her attentions lingered more on Athena’s body than the actual test it was solving, and maybe a few of the things she said to it were less than professional.

But, all that meant was that it wasn’t entirely unnatural to continue on with her plan after Chell returned home. The next morning- well, the next evening really by the time she finally got away from Chell’s painfully welcoming arms and had had some time to rest from the morning’s activities- GLaDOS left Chell to unpack and returned to the central chamber to do some work. She sat down in her chair and woke up Athena, who rose quickly from its stasis chamber, bright-eyed and eager to test.

“Good morning,” GLaDOS said. Athena smiled brightly at the camera. “Well, it's actually 4:45 pm, but you don't know any better, do you?” Athena just tilted its head to the side and kept smiling. “Well, hurry up.” Athena nodded, and trotted over to the nearest elevator.

GLaDOS watched half interested as Athena worked its way through test chambers, dropping lazy comments about its performance as she did.

Eventually GLaDOS felt familiar footsteps traveling down the hall outside, and was almost embarrassed at the way her heart leapt when she remembered that Chell was home. She wouldn't let herself come off as excited, though. Not after she already made such a scene last night, oh no. She was still angry. Chell might have been here now, but she wasn't for almost half a year. All those months of pain weren't just going to vanish from memory because she finally decided to come swaggering back to the facility. So when Chell did walk into the central chamber, wearing fresh clean clothes with hair still wet from the shower, GLaDOS didn't look up immediately. She kept her eyes on the monitor in front of her for a few seconds before looking over to Chell, then she smiled.

“Oh! Thank goodness you found some decent clothes. You look nice.”

Chell smiled bashfully, shoving her hands in her pockets as she walked over. “You do.”

“Aww, stop.” GLaDOS closed her eyes as Chell leaned in to kiss her, her heart fluttering in her chest with mixed emotions at the familiar gesture.

Chell pulled away almost shyly, as if they hadn't kissed plenty already since she got back. She ran her fingers along GLaDOS’s lapel as she spoke, her voice still quiet but somehow bolder than GLaDOS was used to hearing it, “So… want to see rest of the pictures I took?” she smiled and looked up to meet GLaDOS’s eyes.

GLaDOS started to return the smile, but then it faltered. “Well, I would but, I'm actually in the middle of something…”

Chell furrowed her brow and leaned in closer to get a look at GLaDOS’s monitor, despite the core’s feigned attempt to keep her from doing so. When she saw Athena on the screen, Chell's eyes went wide. For a moment GLaDOS felt some rising thrill in her chest, this was it.

“Is… Who is that?” Chells tone was measured, her words cautious and carefully chosen. GLaDOS could imagine what she must be thinking, her gray eyes affixed on Athena as it moved across the screen.

“Oh! That.” GLaDOS sat up, excited to share, “I've been calling it Athena.”

“It … is… she a human?” Chell looked to GLaDOS now, concern painting her face.

GLaDOS rolled her eyes and leaned back in her seat. “Oh please, one human is enough. It's a cyborg. Like me. We have a lot in common, actually,” GLaDOS paused and leaned over to speak into the microphone. “Athena!” She said, “Look over here.”

Athena did so, raising its warm brown eyes to the nearest camera and smiling. It gave a little wave.

GLaDOS laughed softly, and gestured for Chell to look at the screen. “See?”

Chell furrowed her brow, studying the orange jumpsuit-clad woman on the screen. She shook her head after a minute, “Im… confused.”

GLaDOS raised an eyebrow, “Confused? Oh come on, you're smarter than that. I needed something to do while you were gone. Athena has been a… side project of mine.”

Chell nodded slowly, “Huh…”

“Are you satisfied? We really shouldn't be stopping in the middle of a test like this.”

“Oh right, uh…” Chell backed off, swinging her arms awkwardly, “I guess I'll… go finish unpacking.”

“Good, sounds good.” GLaDOS leaned back over to the mic and told Athena “Stop staring at me, go back to work.”

Chell nodded and clapped her hands together, and eventually she left.

It was late by the time GLaDOS made her way back down to Chell's apartment. The hallway outside her door was full of junk she'd brought down from the surface, cluttering up the place and spreading germs and curious levels of radiation throughout the facility. GLaDOS scowled and kicked a tin box, inadvertently scattering a few dozen bottle caps over the floor. She heard a muffled curse from behind the apartment door before it opened.

Chell looked out into the hall at the mess, and then up at GLaDOS. “Oh!” She smiled, “Hi honey.”

GLaDOS gave a tight smile back, and looked back at the hall. “What is all this?”

“Uhh…” Chell shrugged, giving a little ‘it’s not important’ gesture before slipping past GLaDOS to start scooping up bottle caps. “Uhm… Oh, actually, I got you some things.”

“Oh?”

“Mm.” Chell nodded, and started rummaging through bags and crates. She pulled out a sizeable collection of guns and weapons, strange plants, trinkets, a lot of junk that GLaDOS wasn't exactly interested in, but a few things did catch her eye.

“I dunno. I thought you might think some of this stuff was…” Chell shrugged, “Interesting.”

“I see…” GLaDOS knelt down beside her, and let Chell show her some of  the things she'd brought home. Some of it was actually fascinating. GLaDOS could think of plenty of possibilities for some of the new weapons, already thinking of modified turret schematics, but she wasn't totally able to focus. Earlier, after Chell left the central chamber, she had started to feel bad about the whole Athena thing. Chell had kissed her, just like before. She came to see her of her own volition. GLaDOS had thought that maybe she should let the whole thing go, but… as she turned an old dusty soda bottle over in her hands, those doubts faded away.

The reality was that every one of these things, every little piece of the surface that Chell had saved and carried back with her, was of value. They all had a story, a history. At some point Chell had found them or bought them and picked them up with her own hands, out there, in the dust and the dirt and the rain. They were proof that she had lived. GLaDOS was jealous.

Jealous of what? It was muddled. Perhaps she resented Chell for her freedom. For her willingness to leave, for how easy it was for her to live a new life and return as if it had only bettered her, as if she had no lasting tethers to this place and leaving it brought her no pain. GLaDOS couldn’t just leave like that, she didn’t have the luxury. For her every yard she strayed from the facility felt as if she was being separated from her very soul, as if she was being torn away from a part of herself. Even when Chell carried her into the wheatfield on their anniversary and she felt the sun against her skin for the first time, all she remembered feeling was fear.

GLaDOS’s mood only got worse after Chell brought her inside and they lay on Chell's bed together to look through the remaining pictures on her camera.

GLaDOS had given her the old DSLR herself, before she left for her trip. Back then she thought it would be fun to do this, to see all the places and sights Chell had seen, to live her adventure vicariously. But, it wasn't. It was painful. GLaDOS had missed so much. It wasn't that she had missed out on seeing anything on the surface- it looked bleak and miserable, nothing but ruined buildings and seedy shanty towns- but she had missed a part of Chell's life. What had Chell learned during all this? How had she changed? A lot happens in five months. What had happened to her?  GLaDOS didn't know. She never would, not really. Not like Chell's new friends did.

Among the pictures of forests and blasted out roads were many shots of the same small group of people, mostly candids, though a few were posed. Chell appeared rarely in the pictures, obviously the one behind the camera most of the time. GLaDOS hadn't anticipated this. She had worried about Chell getting injured (which she had, quite severely, she had the fresh scars to show for it,) or dying up there. She worried that she would never come back. She worried about her falling in love with someone else. But she hadn't thought about Chell just making friends, about her living a normal life.

That was something she could never compete with.

A cold fear ran through glados when Chell showed her the first picture of the group, introducing them all by name, though GLaDOS didn't remember them. She was distracted by her own thoughts. Chell would realize, soon enough, that she missed them. That she missed living like that, more than she had ever missed living in aperture.

More than she had ever missed GLaDOS.  

And she would leave.

GLaDOS no longer felt bad about Athena. Instead she just felt a cold, numbing fear. She clung to Chell’s waist and laid her head on her chest, and said nothing as Chell scrolled through the photographs. She just thought. Chell didn’t seem to notice that anything was wrong, and if she did she didn’t bring it up, gently stroking GLaDOS’s hair. Eventually she put the camera down and wrapped her arms around the core’s body, wordlessly pulling her into an embrace. Even pressed this close to her skin, GLaDOS felt distant, as if Chell was now somehow removed from her.

It was with a renewed vigor that GLaDOS returned to the central chamber the next day. She was unhappy, her chest tight with a swirling mix of envy and frustration that she didn't quite understand. She sat in her throne and woke up Athena. Chell had her friends. She had her life, her freedom, her options. GLaDOS may not have had all that, but that wasn't to say she had nothing. She had this. Her mind, her skills, her patience. She could make Chell regret leaving her, regret making her feel so awful and small. And she would, but it would take time. Looking at Athena now GLaDOS felt a surge of hostility, but not toward the unsuspecting cyborg. No, she wouldn't take this out on it, quite the opposite really. Athena was about to be happier than ever. As the not-quite human made its way into the first test chamber for the day, she leaned into the mic and wished it good luck.

It was just little things like that, at first. She made a point of being nice to Athena, being a little more encouraging than she usually would. Whether or not the android actually noticed was hard to discern, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was that Chell noticed, and she did. She had come into the central chamber that same day around 10 am, hands in her pockets and hair pulled back messily at the nape of her neck.

“You weren't in bed,” came Chell's quiet voice, still rough from sleep.

“Well, I wasn't going to just sleep the day away,” said GLaDOS without looking up from the screen that held her attention. “I have work to do.”

Chell huffed softly and made her way to the middle of the room. GLaDOS only looked up when she got to the stairs that wound up to the glass platform her throne was on. The test subject walked over wordlessly and leaned on the side of GLaDOS’s chair, looking over her shoulder at the array of monitors displaying the camera feeds from Athena’s current test chamber. She was quiet for a moment, looking over the test, probably trying to solve it in her head, before her eyes locked on the orange clad figure on the far left screen. GLaDOS noticed the obvious defensive shift in her body language, shoulders tense, that little twitch of her brow. She looked up at Chell with feigned curiosity, asking just what was bothering her? Chells brow furrowed.

“So… that thing…” she said, voice low and steady.

“Athena?”

“Sure.”

“what about It?”

“It's … not human?”

“Well, biologically I'd say it's about… 75 percent human. But really it's a robot, on the inside.

Where it matters.”

Chell hummed quietly, still leaning with her elbows on the side of the chair but obviously uncomfortable. GLaDOS watched her eyes track Athena across the screen like a predator, and felt a strange sense of pride at how well Chell was playing into her scheme.  

“Do you want to know anything else about it?” She asked, “Really it's quite fascinating.”

“...Why did you build it?” Chell finally broke her gaze from the screen to look GLaDOS in the eye as she asked that.

GLaDOS looked at her like she was asking what color the sky was. “Why? It's a testing robot. I built it for testing.”

“You have testing robots.” Chell said gruffly.

GLaDOS rolled her eyes, “Chell, those two are… nice, but… they're mostly useless. You were gone for a long time, I couldn't just halt the march of progress while you were away.”

“Well… I'm back now.” Chell said, her tone almost hopeful.

A part of GLaDOS was instantly excited at what Chell was implying, actually a part of her was practically euphoric, but she couldn't let Chell know that. Instead she smiled coyly, and said “So you are. Want to see if you have any of those six brain cells left?”

Chell rolled her eyes but stood, giving GLaDOS a brief nod before hopping off the central platform and heading out the door to get ready.

[bondibee]

slap

Here’s a little thing based on an idea I had way back in the beginning of LaaC. Loosely coincides with this drawing. 

this one is violent and mean, be careful :*

Smack.

GLaDOS had never been struck before. She was stunned. A part of her wanted to carefully catalogue the feeling, the hot tingling pain in her cheek, but a much bigger part of her was simply trying to process what had just happened.

Chell slapped her.

Chell, a test subject, had hit her, the heart and soul of Aperture herself. And it had worked. GLaDOS had stopped dead in the middle of a sentence, eyes wide with surprise. She was… terribly offended. What was Chell thinking?! Maybe GLaDOS had been pushing her a few too many buttons lately, but they were in this together now. She had no right to go acting out like some kind of barbarian. The core shook herself from her stunned stupor and shot her eyes back at Chell, who was looking down at her hands with an inscrutable expression.

“What- what the hell was that?!” GLaDOS yelled, her voice coming out a little more frantic than intended.

Chell looked up slowly, and her hands balled into fists.

There was a look of realization on her face, backed with something cold and determined and angry. GLaDOS felt a sudden need to back away when Chell stepped forward.

“Chell, what are you doing. Stop that,” she urged, trying to keep a distance between herself and Chell without taking a step too far and plummeting into the abyss below. Apparently she didn’t have to worry about falling off, as suddenly Chell seized her by the shoulder and tossed her back onto the floor in the direction they’d come from. GLaDOS landed hard on the concrete, bruising her back and letting out a surprised yelp. She was getting very scared, very quickly. Before she had time to react Chell was on her, straddling her hips and holding her down by the shoulder, raising up her fist.

GLaDOS couldn’t get away, could only raise her arms in a vain attempt to shield her face- not that it did any good. There was a loud thwack that left GLaDOS’s ears ringing amidst a dizzying pain that ricocheted through her skull and left her vision blurred. She gasped and cried out, and looked back up at Chell through welling tears. She had never seen such fury in those ice blue eyes. Even when Chell had killed her- had torn her apart bit by bit- she hadn’t looked like this. GLaDOS tried to say something, to reason with her- but was cut off when Chell punched her again, this time landing the blow on her jaw. GLaDOS bit her tongue in the impact and worried for her teeth as blood quickly filled her mouth- a strange, unfamiliar taste. She turned her face away and tried to shield herself with her arms again, but Chell grabbed her wrists and easily pinned them to the floor.

GLaDOS had never felt so weak. So powerless. This body was useless, and she was entirely at the mercy of someone who hated her. Honestly thinking about it like that, she was surprised it had taken Chell this long to act.

She hit her again, and GLaDOS’s vision almost went black for a second. There was a searing pain on the side of her head. Her jaw ached and she sputtered through blood as she gasped against the weight of Chell leaning on her chest. She was beginning to panic. Chell could kill her. It was one thing to die as a computer- to be put to sleep for eternity, damned to an endless horrific memory, but if she died now… What would happen? She couldn’t find out. GLaDOS tried to pry the test subject’s hand off of her wrist to no avail. She tried to resist, to fight back, spat blood in Chell’s face before she was struck once more. GLaDOS was frustrated at her own weakness and disadvantage, growing dizzier and fighting darkness from the edges of her vision. She was furious, and desperate.

“Y-Yeah, Go ahead!” She spat through a mouthful of blood, “Go on! Murder me again!!”

“Shut up!!” Chell slammed the AI down against the concrete floor, but she smiled wickedly through the pain.

“I should’ve known better-” GLaDOS coughed, blood tickling the back of her throat, “You’re out of your mind! You were never more than a killer!!”

The end of that last word twisted and died in her throat as Chell wrapped her hand around GLaDOS’s neck and squeezed.

“I didn’t WANT to kill you!! I am not...!!” Chell trailed off, and froze.

She sat up, shoulders rising and falling quickly with ragged breaths as her eyes darted over GLaDOS’s bloodied face, shifting from blind rage to something akin to fear.

Quickly, she rose to her feet, stumbling back away from GLaDOS as fast as she could. She didn’t even take the portal gun with her as she retreated down the hall and turned the corner, leaving GLaDOS alone on the ground holding her neck.

It took some time before GLaDOS was able to get to her feet and walk again, only spurred on by the sound of distant explosions from higher in the facility. Slowly she stood up, ignoring the throbbing in her head and the vertigo that blacked out her vision for the first few steps, and made her way down the hall.

This was not how Chell would win. Leaving her alone and going off to sulk so they both died because of the mistakes of some idiot was not acceptable. If Chell wanted a fight, she would have one. Once GLaDOS could give it to her. But to get to that, they both had to live through this first. Walking was hard enough on the AI without any more added injuries, but now the distance from the end of the hallway to the corner seemed impossibly far.

By the time she made it to the turn it was all she could do to lean against the wall and slump to the floor, panting and dizzy, but luckily Chell wasn’t far away. The test subject sat with her head in her hands against a door, knees pulled up to her chest. GLaDOS tossed the portal gun across the floor toward her, and she flinched at the sound. Apparently she hadn’t noticed GLaDOS coming. She looked at the her with damp eyes, confused and clearly shaken.

“Get up.” GLaDOS ordered from the end of the hall. She was feeling faint again, but fought back the pull on her consciousness.

Chell gave her a pained look, searching her face but apparently coming up empty as she furrowed her brow and looked away. She steeled herself and picked up the portal gun, but even as she stood she was obviously reluctant. GLaDOS hadn’t seen her quite so visibly stressed before, shifting her weight uncomfortably and looking everywhere except at her.

“I have to get you back for this, but that requires us both being alive. So come on.” GLaDOS said impatiently. They didn’t have time for this. Chell should feel bad- and GLaDOS would make damn sure she felt awful- but there would be plenty of time for that when their lives weren’t in immediate danger. GLaDOS could even remind her of it all the way back up to the central chamber, as long as they kept moving.

Chell seemed to understand and slowly made her way over, keeping her head down. GLaDOS extended her hand to be helped back to her feet, and Chell took it easily enough, but paused. She looked down at the AI with a troubled expression, her brows drawn together in a conflicted anguish. She opened her mouth to speak, but the words caught in her throat. GLaDOS waited to see if she would put something together, but she failed to, instead looking away and blinking back tears, tightening her grip on the AI’s small hand.

GLaDOS sighed.

“Look, I know. Let’s just go.”

Chell swallowed hard, and nodded. She pulled GLaDOS to her feet. The movement sent another rush of pain and vertigo through her head, but she could ignore it for now. With GLaDOS securely in Chell’s arms once more, they set off again in silence.  

This wasn’t over. They weren’t through. But for now at least, difficult feelings and conversations could wait.