Chelley one-shot

"Wow, would you look at all that!" his voice, behind her, and slightly to her right. "It's...um...rain, right? Never seen anything like it before! What makes it move like that, d'you think?"

She couldn't see. Her first steps in the world she'd fought so hard for, and the difference between the dim laboratory lights and the setting sun had blinded her. Chell threw her hands over her eyes, trying to block out the pain.

"What's the...oh, right, human eyes take a while to adjust, don't they? Well, that's... What should we do? Just...wait?"

Chell shook her head. She had no plan for how, exactly, she was supposed to go anywhere in her condition, but knew they couldn't just sit here on Her doorstep and wait for Her to change Her mind.

"No, okay. What then? We need some sort of plan, some way to tell you what's on the ground, where everything is, or...or..." There was a pause. "Um, I've got an idea, but I don't think you're going to like it, so soon after the whole power-mad, scheming thing in there..."

She gestured for him to go on.

"Well, I could always, erm...carry you?" The uncertainty in his voice turned it into a question. "I-I mean, I know I'm a bit smaller than you, but I'm built for strength, right? So I could, technically, carry you as far as we need to go, or at least until your eyes adjust, since mine are fine. Made for things like, well, loosely like this anyway. Not like this, specifically, obviously, because no one knew this was going to happen when they designed me, but-"

She'd been fumbling for his hand, and finally found it. Wheatley was standing a little farther from her than she'd first thought, and he jumped at the touch.

"Right, sorry, should've been paying attention. I'll just shut up now, shall I? Oh, but, are we go on the carrying thing? Because, it occurs to me, that I ought to get your response to that first."

Chell wanted to make a show of putting thought into it, the way she often did for him (it made him feel better if it seemed she wasn't being rash) but couldn't really do it with her hand over her eyes. Besides, his monologue had given her more than enough time to get over her hesitation.

She nodded.

"Oh! Is...is that a yes to the carrying, or-" She started nodding on the first option, not letting him go into a list that would only confuse him, and prolong their escape. "Right! Well...let's see..."

Cool hands wrapped her free arm around his neck. She recognized the piggy-back position she'd used to carry him across some of the larger gaps, and leaned into him. She wrapped one leg around his waist, allowing him to slide an arm under her, taking the weight off her other one. There was a small, startled, exhalation.

"Woah! You're just a bit heavier than I expected...n-not to say you're fat! You're not, really luv, just a bit, a tad heavier than I thought you'd be." His other arm joined his first, allowing her to let her legs hang loose. Chell hesitated for a second before resting chin on his shoulder. The simple, pure surface air was quickly purging her system of the steroid-filled, stale stuff GLaDOS had fed her, and she wasn't sure she had the energy to hold her head up, anyway. Wheatley was still chattering, trying to find a way to explain that she was heavy without either calling himself weak or her fat, as he began to walk.

There was an odd sway to his walk, like the rolling of a ship, or the grain she couldn't see. After a while, Chell uncovered her face to drink in the world around her as best she could through slitted lids.

It wasn't quite what she'd expected, but somehow it was better than she'd ever hoped.