The Touch

"Don't touch anything," the hand crept out and she sighed, "Especially not me." As if defeated, the hand slunk back and curled delicately. GLaDOS was quick to turn her attention back to the screens on which her precious test subjects were performing her tests. It made her happy enough to want to give into test euphoria. Except she wouldn't. She was far too smart to give into something so... human.

On that train of thought, she twitched her optic to the side, keeping a careful eye on the currently pouting monster. She was sitting now, legs criss-crossed, arms crossed below her chest. She noticed GLaDOS' small movement, and she smiled smugly. "That's quite enough. Go home to your boyfriend or whatever you have." Again, the stubborn creature shook her head, sticking out her lower lip cheekily. Frustrated, but not willing to give Chell any victory, she returned her attention to the screens. Test subject twenty-three - she had restarted the number system, no need to continue the old list since all the test subjects were gone (until now, anyway) - had just fallen into the electric water.

"Blue, Orange, retrieve number twenty-three's corpse from test chamber thirty. Whoever brings me back the body the quickest gets fifty cooperation points." The two robots, who had been idly sitting to the side watching Chell and GLaDOS interact, hopped up quickly. They didn't seem too terribly interested in the cooperation points, but in making sure their creator didn't get too terribly mad at them. They had been blown up twice since she had arrived, and once had been out of petty anger on GLaDOS' part. Chell had been rather smug at that point, too.

With the bots out of the way, GLaDOS turned herself back towards the pest sitting in her chamber. She was idly scratching the back of her head, left eye twitching slightly. From the tapes that GLaDOS had watched in the past, it seemed to do that whenever she was concentrating. The human was watching her out the corner of her other eye, slowly tensing in case the AI decided to attack.

She didn't. They both just... stared at each other, and after a few minutes Chell relaxed. This just made GLaDOS angrier than she had been before. "Didn't I tell you not to come back? I know you don't like following simple instructions, but I would think that you'd want out of here. Unless you're developing Stockholm Syndrome," Chell didn't respond, only continuing to stare blankly at GLaDOS, "Stockholm syndrome is a term used to describe a paradoxical psychological phenomenon wherein hostages express empathy and have positive feelings towards their captors. These feelings are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, who essentially mistake a lack of abuse from their captors as an act of kindness..." Chell let out a chuckle, shrugging.

"You do have brain damage. Perhaps the little metal moron was right about something. Look, you have- haven't I told you not to touch me? Seriously now." Again the hand drew back, and GLaDOS let out a sigh of relief. In all honesty, Chell's wish to touch her made her feel a bit uncomfortable. She wasn't sure why, but she knew she didn't like the feeling at all. The two fell back into an even more awkward silence, with GLaDOS watching the screens for ATLAS and P-Body. They were attempting to retrieve twenty-three's body out of the water without touching it. It was becoming rather amusing.

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

After two hours, watching the bots struggle had lost its fun factor. The other test subjects seemed to be stumped or sitting on the floor crying, and that didn't help Aperture proceed in any direction. Even backwards would have been preferable to this... nothing-ness.

Chell had fallen asleep on the floor directly beside GLaDOS, curled up into a tiny ball. She looked delicate, really, and for a second the AI actually felt bad for trying to kill her. This thought was quickly erased from her hardware, but she still found herself looking curiously at her enemy. The human was smaller than she had thought initially, her memories filled with collections of an angry, strong woman that barely resembled the one in front of her. That Chell had been ruthless and blood thirsty, willing to rip the cores off of GLaDOS before spitting on them and throwing them into a fire. That Chell had been merciless to her precious turrets, burning them alive with the Discouragement Beams and laughing cruelly as they exploded. This Chell, well...

She looked really easy to kill.

If she just turned on the neurotoxin in her chamber, she would be rid of the pest. It would be the easiest solution... Unlike Caroline, she couldn't directly delete Chell. She was still alive, for now anyway. That could be easily fixed, though. She could have ATLAS or P-Body chuck her into the electric water or the incinerator. She was sure the bots would cooperate for two hundred cooperation points...

Or she could just kill her now. Crush her with a panel and make the death nice and painless. Then she could just recycle the bloody tiles for some new, whiter ones. Yes... it would be a fitting death for Chell, embarrassingly crushed under some panels... GLaDOS hesitated, then began to draw up the plan in her head. The quicker the death, the less time that she would have to regret the action.

Slowly, one of the panels in the ceiling began to lower, stopping right about Chell's speck of a form. It was poised, ready to strike. All she had to do was call the signal and-

What was that?

In her sleep, Chell had rolled to the side, one of her hands landing directly onto GLaDOS' core. A shiver ran through her system at the sudden warmth that spread throughout her. This was different, a lot different than what she was used to. The scientists had been rough and brutal, ripping out wires and jamming the personality cores into her system. This touch, however, was delicate and gentle. Her fingers were slightly curled, the bottom of her palm brushing the cold metal of GLaDOS' skin.

Curious, the AI moved a little closer to the sleeping human. She could feel the heat coming from her body, and she lowered herself a bit closer. For science, she had to remind herself as she brushed against Chell's bare arms. A little, satisfied noise came from GLaDOS's now humming core, and she found herself almost purring like a cat. In exploring this new sensation, however, she didn't notice that Chell had awakened until it was too late. Her optic snapped back to attention and she shied away, looking away from the smirk on the human's face.

"Go away. Seriously. Or I will kill you." As usual, Chell ignored her. Instead, the human drew herself closer, resting her entire body on GLaDOS before falling back asleep.

And this time, she didn't move away.