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radioproto · 30 days ago

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Merry Christmas, @goopi-e! I was your @portal-secret-santa this year! As much as I had hoped to do an art piece again this year, I was unable to due to a massive load of personal projects on my shoulders, so I went with a WheatDOS fic instead! This is my first time every working with this ship, so it was mostly experimental with writing and all. I hope you like it ^^ best wishes!

Skipping Stones (human!WheatDOS)

Word Count: 1,950

Peaceful, one might have called it. A day so still and quiet one might have assumed the earth had stopped spinning. Not even a breath of wind stirred the tree’s leaves, and few birds sang that afternoon, all feeling drowsy in the sun’s warm rays. A lovely day, s- oh. Never mind. Hard footsteps thumped the path, and fast.

"Bet I can beat you, old lady!" Wheatley chortled as he ran. Glados, not far behind despite not making an effort to catch him, only scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I never confirmed it was a race, moron," she retorted lightheartedly.

"First off, not a moron," he quickly stopped and whipped around to correct her, panting lightly. "Second, you said 'yeah, okay.' Sounds like a confirmation to me." He pointed a finger to her chest once she walked up to him. Glados only shook her head. "Not what I meant…" She sighed and gave Wheatley a firm pat on the shoulder, letting her hand linger for a moment before sliding it off as she walked forward to stand at the riverside. Wheatley ran up to join her, his clumsy feet knocking a few pebbles into the water and creating ripples in the stillness.

"I beat you." Glados said with a smug grin. Wheatley groaned. "Oh come on, you just said it wasn’t a race!" He faced her, seemingly frustrated. "I did. But that was before I won. I changed my mind." She chuckled as Wheatley groaned again.

"So, why was it you wanted to bring me out here again? I mean, not that I didn’t want to it’s just, you know, I don’t think you ever made that clear. Maybe you did, I don’t know. Probably forgot, actually. But hey, I-" Wheatley’s rambling was quickly cut off by Glados’ hand. "I saw a deer here yesterday." She turned her head to look at him. "I thought maybe it would travel through here again, and I wanted you to see it." Wheatley’s expression turned to one of curiosity and perhaps slight excitement. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d seen a deer. "Really? A deer? Here??" He gestured to the area around them. "Mhm. A deer. Here. Really." Wheatley turned to look out over the river. "Wow…do you think it will show up here?" Glados half scoffed again. "With all the ruckus you’re making, probably not anymore."

Wheatley let out a frustrated grumble, turning away and putting his hands over his head in an irritated manner. He hated his clumsy nature; he knew he was a klutz, and he so wished he was more attentive and keen, but he knew he couldn’t help it. He sighed, shaking it off and facing Glados as she crouched down and picked up a stone at her feet. Wheatley peered at her curiously as she stood back up and studied it in silence for a moment before she suddenly hurled it over the river and across the water.

The stone seemed to jump on top of the water, like a frog jumping across lily pads at lightning speed. Wheatley’s eyes widened as he watched the rock skip the water several times before it finally skidded to a halt and sank below the surface. He stared at the tidal wave for a moment before looking back at the taller lady, eyes still shining in awe. "How did you do that? Wait, wait, don’t tell me. I can do that, easy." Deep down, Wheatley wasn’t entirely confident he could do it, but it seemed easy enough that he was determined to try and succeed anyway.

He picked up a random rock near his feet and studied it in his hand for a moment before winding up and throwing it across the water. He grunted as it left his hand, putting in a good bit of effort just to see it sink the moment it touched the water. "Aw, what? That was supposed to work!" He grumbled frustratedly, immediately leaning back over and scanning for another stone to try again. He picked up another one next to Glados. "I just have to…" Wheatley yelped, startled as she suddenly grabbed his wrist before he could wind up to throw the rock.

"You’re not doing it right," she said. "There’s a certain way you have to do this. You don’t even have a flat stone." Wheatley looked down at the awkwardly shaped rock in his palm. "You know you have to use a flat skipping stone, don’t you?" He quickly looked up and nodded at her. "Of course I knew that!" He lied. "I was just…warming up! Yeah."

Wheatley studied the rock for a moment longer before dropping it and crouching down to find something more flat. He found one he thought would do, standing back up to face the white-haired woman. "Like this?" His eyes widened slightly when she shook her head and held up a perfectly smooth, flat stone. "No. Like this." Glados took his hand with her free one and placed the stone in it. Wheatley ran his thumb over it, impressed by how perfect it was and how quickly she’d been able to find something like it so easily. Perhaps she’d already had it on hand?

Wheatley stood back and began to raise his arm, but was immediately stopped again as Glados grabbed his arm and lowered it, stepping partially behind him. "You’re not even holding it right. You don’t know how to do this, do you?" The blonde looked up to face her, opening his mouth to say something and quickly shutting it as he realized he didn’t know what to say. He didn’t want to admit that he didn’t know how; it was embarrassing to fail like that in front of her. Glados cut in again before he could come up with something. "I didn’t think so. I just wanted to see how long it took before you realized you’d need my help."

Wheatley’s cheeks turned a light pink in embarrassment. He didn’t necessarily NEED her help; he could toy around with it and figure it out on his own soon enough. But, as much as he didn’t want to admit it, he could’ve probably really used her help. He didn’t say anything else, instead sighing slightly and handing her the flat stone. "I mean, it’s not that I need your help or anything, I would just appreciate seeing your own effort too, you know? You teach me your technique and all…huh?"

Glados prompted him to take the stone back, half shoving it back in his hand. "I’ll show you. Here." Wheatley took it, but hesitated. "But, don’t you need to…?" She cut him off, putting her hands on his shoulders as she stepped behind him. "You need to hold it. I’m going to show you and you’re going to do it." She explained. Wheatley tensed under her touch, a nervous chuckle escaping him and the blush never leaving his face. "Right, right."

Glados reached over the shorter man’s shoulders and placed both of her hands on one of his, the one that held the stone. "Now, to hold it, you want to grab it between your thumb and middle finger. Use your index finger…" She went on explaining how to hold the stone, but Wheatley was starting to zone out. He only caught the first part, watching her hands bend his own to hold it properly. For some reason, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from her busy hands, nor could he hear what she was trying to tell him. Should he have been paying attention? He didn’t know nor care; she was doing most of this for him anyway. She was strangely gentle with him, like if she pulled on his fingers too hard they would snap off. Her touch was almost nice, he thought, and it was endearing that she obviously knew what she was doing, not to mention she…

"Hey, moron, are you listening?" Wheatley was immediately pulled back into reality, a startling awakening when he realized Glados was slightly bent over staring at him with her bright yellow-orange eyes. He gasped slightly, shaking the daydreams out of his head. "Yes! Yes! Listening." She lightly rolled her eyes. Wheatley looked down at his hand, which was now holding the stone in what he assumed was the proper way. "Ready to throw it?" Glados asked, resting her hands on his shoulders. He nodded, a little reluctant to fail again but more confident now that he was at least holding it right. "Now, when you throw it," she continued, "make sure you throw it at an angle. Don’t just raise your arm and throw it." She stepped back. "Pull back and let it leave your hand as flat as possible."

Wheatley took a deep breath, holding his arm up behind him slightly at an angle like Glados had advised. He hesitated for a moment before swinging his arm and letting go of the stone, watching as it darted across the water. It bounced off the surface about four times before it finally sank.

Wheatley put his hands up triumphantly. "Hah! It worked! It bloody worked!" He gave a sort of exasperated laugh, glancing over at Glados as he lowered his arms. She stood back with her arms crossed, a hint of a genuine smile on her face. "Congratulations," she said in her usual monotone voice. "You managed to complete a simple task with my help."

Wheatley puffed out his chest slightly with pride as he turned more to face her. "Well, you know, I don’t like to pat myself on the back or anything, but…" He chuckled resting his hands on his hips, a content smile on his face. What he didn’t realize was that Glados had already approached him and was bending down to plant a light kiss on his cheek. His eyes shot open and his cheeks flushed a deeper red than earlier. Flustered, he looked up at her, stuttering like an idiot. "Huh? Wha- f- I-" he stammered, not able to form anything coherent after having been caught completely off guard. Glados stood up straight and looked at him. "Consider it your 'task completion award.'"

Wheatley’s hand came up to cover the spot on his cheek where Glados had kissed him, trying to remember and relish that feeling. It was warm, comforting, and it made him feel like she genuinely cared, an attribute she rarely showed. He managed a weak squeaky chuckle in response, and a quiet "yeah…thanks."

For the rest of that quiet evening, they walked the riverside, finding perfect skipping stones and making them glide across the water together. It took some time for Wheatley to perfect the skill, but he eventually got the hang of it. As the sun was setting, the two returned to the trail they had taken earlier to walk back to Aperture’s living quarters.

"You know," Glados began as they started the trek back home. "That deer I mentioned I saw? I saw it again today, just before you skipped your first stone. Then you scared it off." Wheatley glared up at her in slight frustration and disbelief. "What? Why didn’t you tell me?! You could have told me before I threw the bloody rock!" Glados laughed. "I’m only joking."

She smirked over at Wheatley, who gave an over-dramatic exasperated sigh. "Don’t worry," she added. "I’ll tell you when I see it again. Or perhaps I can just bring you out here every day."

Wheatley sort of beamed at her. "You know what, I think I’d like that actually. Sounds pretty nice. I’d like to see this deer. And NOT scare it off this time, preferably." Glados chuckled under her breath. "We’ll see."

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