Chapter Text
You feel like your having deja vu. The pounding headache, and his voice distant but calling for you. The headache passes, but the pain through your body doesn’t. You twitch a bit, moving your body a bit to make sure you havent broken anything. Thankfully, all is well.
“Oh thank goodness!” You hear, and you look over. Wheatley managed to land in a dirt pile. His voice is a mixture of fear and relief. “You had me really worried there, though I’d lost you!”
“How long was I out?” You groan.
“Not long actually, a few minutes. Very impressive! That was quite the fall. How are you feeling?” He asks, looking down at you from the dirt pile. You rub your head.
“Shitty.” You simply say. “That hurt, a lot.”
“We should rest then, till you get feeling better.” He says, you nod and unwrap the pillow and jacket. You lay your head down, feeling stings of pain in your body. Though suddenly, you hear the sound of metal moving and Wheatley letting out a yell before thunking into you. “Aah! Sorry about that, I didn’t want to leave you er- down here by yourself.” He says, you look at him, smiling slightly.
“Is it okay if I hold onto you? Your pretty warm. But if it makes you uncomfortable-” Before you can finish trying to be reassuring, he chimes in quickly.
“Of course not! Er- I mean, you let me rest on you, so why not return the favor? Plus, humans do need their warmth! Don’t want you catching… frostbite?” He says, seeming to gauge your reaction. You give him a short nod to let him know that was a correct worry. “Right! So, hold on to me all you want!” He says, and you put your arms around him carefully, pulling him close. His warmth radiating into you, it's nice. Then, something pops in your mind.
“Oh man I still smell, I’m sorry Wheatley.” You say, realizing you hadn’t gotten to the showers yet.
“It’s fine, really! Not your fault. Just get some rest for now, we’ll worry about that when your feeling better.” He says, and you nod and close your eyes. The pain shooting your joints, but you manage to fall back asleep.
You awake to the feeling of warm metal against your face. You move your head back as you groggily wake up, looking at Wheatley. “Oh- I was just uhm, trying to er- adjust myself. Did I wake you?”
“No no, your fine bud.” You sit up, there's still stinging in your body but it's much better. “I feel better, though If it's okay I’d like to just take a breather before I get moving.” You say, leaning on a nearby wall. You set him on your lap again, this floor looks pretty uncomfortable too.
“Of course! I meant to ask before, but now that we have this time… What is it about the surface you like?” He asks, looking up at you. You close your eyes and think. You can’t help but focus on the things that this place lacks that you miss so much.
“Warmth for one, standing in a sunbeam is nice. The sound of birds in the day and crickets at night. Being able to dance and listen to music.” You say, and let out a sigh. “And being able to run around, especially without having to worry about falling through the floor.”
“That all does sound nice…” He says. You feel bad for him, a lot of the things that make the surface so nice are things he can't experience. You pet his head gently.
“I’ll try to help you find things that make you happy too bud.” You say with a smile.
He’s quiet for once, but you appreciate the silence. The pain fades enough that you can deal with it, and you stand and hold him up with your portal gun. “Alright, let’s get that neurotoxin off. …And find me that shower.” You say. Honestly, climbing around the old dusty facility made your skin crawl of wanting to clean up.
The toxic chemical area takes a lot of navigation, but eventually you find old consoles and computers. You hook Wheatley up to the nearest port. He thinks for a moment as he goes through the systems, and you hear the machinery begin to work. “Well! Good news and bad news. The bad news is I can’t entirely turn off the neurotoxin, seems either she or the scientists made sure of that. But, good news! We can disable it for her for atleast a couple days. But it will take atleast a day to drain it all out from her area. So once I’ve got this all going we’ll have to bunker down for a little while.”
“That’s alright. Taking a rest day sounds nice. Though it does suck having to be stuck down here a little longer.” You say, looking out at all the machinery. Atleast you can have time to take it all in, one last time. There’s the quiet sound of beeps and machines humming before he speaks again.
“Alright! I’ve done all I can do for now, everything is working on draining. I think I can get you to that shower too! Just pop me out.” He says, and you go over and gently pull him out of the socket, before having him lead you to the shower. “Ah! Here it is, you can do whatever it is humans do in those.”
You look around, it isn’t exactly a normal bedroom shower. It’s clearly one meant to be used to decontaminate yourself, but it’ll work fine all the same. You look at Wheatley. “Do you want me to uh- leave you outside the door? I know humans are gross, so if you don’t want to be in the same room while I’m doing this I understand.”
He shakes his ball-head side to side. “I’ve worked with enough humans to be able to handle this! Besides, you’ll need someone to watch your back!” He says. He is right, it would be nice to have someone keep lookout while your in a place like this. You carefully set him on the floor outside the shower, facing the door to the room.
“Alright, let me know if danger comes around or something.” You say, before undressing and turning on the water. It’s pretty cold at first, though does slowly warm up. Doesn’t get as warm as you’d like it to get, but it's not meant for recreationally showering so you suppose it's as good as your going to get until your on the surface. Your cleaning the grime off of yourself when you get that feeling. That feeling of someone watching.
You turn back and see Wheatley staring at you, his blue light a very small dot. But as soon as he registers that your see him, he panics and turns back around. “Sorry! Didn’t mean to gawk I was just- curious! Haven’t ever seen a human do that process and-”
You laugh. It’s weird, had it been some guy or something you would’ve felt terrible. But he’s a friendly AI, his curiosity would make sense. And the fact that he seemed so guilty about it makes it clear he didn’t mean ill-will about it. Or maybe all that time in stasis really did mess with your head. “It’s okay buddy, your fine. Just spooked me is all.” You say, turning back to finish cleaning yourself off. Though everyonce and awhile you get that feeling again.
You step out, drying yourself off and putting back on your dirty clothes. They’ll have to do for now. You pick Wheatley up with your hands and sit down in the main room. “Alright, we’ll rest here for today and then head up there to her. I saw one of those air transport tubes nearby, we can use that to get up there quick.” You say.
He seems to get excited. “Brilliant plan! I’ve always wanted to try one of those, they always tell me it's no fun at all but it seems great fun!” He says happily. You smile. Though, you look away. The nerves are starting to get to you. After all, even with your precautions you don’t know what she's really capable of. Your worried you still might die. You feel that anxiety building up in you, and then his voice rings out. “Are you alright?”
You sigh. “I’m just worried still, that we might not make it.” You say, tearing up a little. You’ve done your best to be brave through all this, but it's a lot. More than anyone should have to go through. He uses his handles to move himself, nuzzling against you. His warm outer chasis a boone in this time. “It’s easy to just say that we’ll make it, but actually doing it… At least you have the benefit that you can be repaired. If something happens, I’m just…”
“Hey, don’t think like that!” He says, trying to sound chipper. “I won’t let that happen. We’ve made it this far, and you only got a few scratches! That’s pretty good for human standards innit?” He says, looking up at you. You can’t help but smile a little. There’s not much he can do, but it's nice to know someones going to try their best for your sake. You sigh slightly, and he speaks again. “Hey! How about a distraction! They told me this would kill me, but it looks like they told me about that for everything and it isnt true.” He says, and he still flinches a bit, but then music kicks on. Another familiar tune of this place, but it's nice.
You lay your head on his sphere for a few minutes, listening to the music to calm yourself down. Before the track switches to another, more upbeat song. You think, and hold him by his handles. “Here, you don’t have legs but we can still dance.” You say, giving him a slightly embarassed smile. It was an idea that you got in the moment, and you’d like to help him experience things as much as you can. You move around happily, holding onto him. Sometimes using your portal gun to move him a bit easier and toss him in the air slightly- always catching him of course. He laughs along, seeming to enjoy the fun.
The two of you spend the day talking and listening to music, until finally the lights dim. You sigh again, sitting down on a chair and setting Wheatley down on a desk as you think. “If we’ve done this all right, then… This time tomorrow we might be out of here.” You say, looking out the glass as some of the automated lights dim or go out. Even in a facility that thinks there’s no humans, it still prepares for them.
“A good way of thinking! But, humans need their rest. Let’s get some sleep before the big day!” He says, and you smile and pick him up, laying on the ground and throwing the old jacket on top of you both. It’ll be nice to have a blanket again.
Though, you still can’t help but feel the nerves building up. “Wheatley?”
“Yes y/n?” He asks, turning so his eye looks at you.
“Do you…” You pause for a moment. “Do you actually like being in a team? Or do you just need my help? If you don’t actually like humans, I’m fine with still helping you out. I just- don’t want you to have to lie to me just because you think it's the only way to get out.” You ask, scratching your arm slightly.
He lowers his upper eye-plate, giving you an almost sad look. “At first I may not have. Afterall, most humans aren’t exactly great. They told me everything was going to kill me. And you’ve heard me talk about all the other stuff before too.” He shakes his head slightly. “But your different. You proved that to me pretty quickly. You actually notice my brilliance!” He says proudly, and you can't help but smile. “So I’d like us to stay a team.”
You let out a happy sigh, before resting your head on the pillow fully. “I’d like us to stay a team too.”
You close your eyes, though after a few minutes he speaks again. “I think I’m still going to miss this place.”
“Yeah?” You ask, holding back a yawn. “Whys that?”
“Well I was built here for one, but the tests really! Seeing you figure out puzzles in order to get through areas, it’s very exciting! I could watch you solve puzzles all day. I’ve had a lot of fun here since I met you. And I know a lot of stuff here isnt in the outside world. Won’t you miss this place?” He asks, looking at you again.
You think for a moment. “Wish I could say I would, but I miss a lot of things on the surface. And the killer robots certainly put a damper on everything. I’ll miss some of the memories, but I don’t think I’d ever want to come back.” You pause, then continue. “Though I understand why you would, and I don’t blame you. I wish there was another way so that you could be happier.” You say, giving a sympathetic smile. He looks away.
“Right right, I understand. Sleep well.”