Chapter Text
Wheatley floated through space, looking around at the gentle glow of the stars as his own blue 'eye' glowed slightly along with him. He was periodically shaking his head as he thought about time.
How long had it been... How long since he'd been launched into space for his crimes...
It was hard to tell, even if he did have an internal clock that had begun the minute he was completed.
..It was a bit dinky, alright? He wasn't even completely sure if it was set to the right time. Was it daylight savings already? What month was it when he was thrown out here? June, July? Somewhere around that time, probably.
Going off of that, he'd been in space for... what, seven months? Huh. Felt like just yesterda-
[REQUESTED TRANSMISSION INCOMING]
"Dammit, him again? Who knows, maybe this time he actually learned a few words besides "Space" and "Oh my god!"." The core said to himself, almost chuckling at the thought of that orange bastard learning any new bits of speech.
[TRANSMISSION ACCEPTED]
Wheatley had to do everything he could to hold in sighing. "What's up, mate?"
"I'M IN SPAAACE!!!"
Nope. Same ol' Space Core as always.
"Alright, well, if that's all you wanted to tell me I'll just be hanging up n-"
"WAAAAAAIT! Wait. Wait wait wait. Wait! Wait."
Wheatley internally bet half of his OS that Space Core was going to talk about space. "Okay, calm down. What?" He knew Space Core wasn't going to calm down but hey, it was worth a shot, right?
Space Core started, "Name? You- have a name. Right? Right. Right right right."
...Did- Did he just say a sentence that didn't include space in it?
"Since we're in space- Oh my god! We're in SPACE!! SPAAAACE!!!" The orange core quickly went back to starting to yell about space excitedly, and was making what appeared to be hyperventilation noises? No idea how that was happening.
Wheatley snapped out of his state of momentary shock. Dammit, right, okay. Gotta keep him on track here. Maybe he'll start to try to think about ways to get back home. Maybe.
"Yeah, yeah, mate, I know we're in space! This is not new news!" Wheatley tried very hard to pull Space Core back on track. But it is kind of hard to pull things when everything is weightless in space and- stop floating away from the topic!
"What-"
"STARS!!! SPACE!!"
"What were you saying about names?!" Wheatley practically shouted.
"Oooh! Oh! Right! Right right right. Names. Uh. Um." Space Core trailed off.
Wheatley didn't even try to hold in a sigh for this. Of course. Oooof course. Every time he finds an entrance to a better situation it just- just has to be ruined. Happened when he trapped GLaDOS in a potato. Happened in the evil lair. Happened here, in literal space, for crying out loud.
Space Core suddenly perked back up, both vocally and physically. Wheatley could tell, since they were only about 15 feet away or so. "What's yours? Your name. What name is- OH!!! ASTEROID!!! OH MY GOD!!!!"
... Oh!
Okay, maybe he wasn't... too bright. But that made sense. He just wanted to know what Wheatley's name was. Which, made sense, he guessed. They had been up there for seven months (according to his very correct and true calculations), and Wheatley not once introduced himself. However, he thought it was kind of fair, since their first meeting was getting attached to one another and then being violently ejected into space-via portal.
"Oh, right. Call me Wheatley!" He tried to do a gentlemanly bow, but he ended up just throwing himself into a slow-motion summersault headed slowly but surely straight for Space Core, that is, if the fool would stay in one place.
Space Core somehow managed to move slightly fast through space, despite having no limbs and just as much opportunity for moving as Wheatley did, which was slim to none. Maybe it was just the amount of sheer energy inside of his small, metal core body that made him able to move around so quickly. Wheatley wouldn't doubt that as a possibility, his life had already gotten weird enough.
Space Core perked up once more when he finally registered Wheatley's response, which he thought took longer than it should have. If they were on different rotations of Earth, he'd probably been a bit more forgiving. But he was like, what, 10 feet away from him now?! Come on, dude.
"Oh!!!" Space Core hummed a little tune before half-singing, "Wheatley and Spacey hangin in space. Bein' best buds. Because we're in space. Space space space! Star space space! Spaaaaace!!!"
Wheatley began to chuckle a little bit before forcefully turning it into a cough. "Oh- uh- um-" He said, fake coughing a bit more just for good measure. "God, is that all you wanted my name for?"
Space Core enthusiastically nodded while humming the tune to his brand new, very good song.
Hey, wait. Did he call himself 'Spacey'?