Portal: Love as a Construct

Part 111. The Beach

Part 111. The Beach

When Wheatley woke up he was a little confused. He wasn't next to GLaDOS as usual, and he wasn't attached to the control arm, either. He was on the floor, in fact, inside of Claptrap's elbow, and when he looked up he saw that Claptrap had his other arm raised up in front of GLaDOS's optic. He seemed to be watching the way the flickering played over his hand. That was nice, Wheatley thought. He didn't terribly want to disturb him, but Wheatley did need to know what was going on just then. "Uh... why'm I down here?" he asked, and Claptrap immediately brought his arm back down.

"You fell asleep," he said. "I thought it might wake you up if I tried to put you back on the ceiling. So I just kept you down here. Sorry."

"'s alright," Wheatley told him. He hadn't been worried, just curious. "Don't you um, d'you do this often?"

"Do what?"

"That... that thing you were just doing. With your hand."

"Uh," Claptrap said, and Wheatley got the impression he hadn't really wanted to be seen doing it. "Sometimes."

"Don't you sleep?"

"Well, yeah. But not as much as you guys. Usually I only do it because there's no one else around. I get lonely."

Wheatley suddenly understood why he was really on the floor. He didn't know if Claptrap knew that, but it didn't matter. He was going to stay down here tonight.

"Are you alright, mate?" he asked, as gently as he could.

"I'm doing a little better," Claptrap answered. "I might have a handle on it now."

"A handle on... on what's been bothering you?"

"Yeah." Abruptly he pushed himself to standing and reached down to retrieve Wheatley. "You can go back up there now."

"Ahh," Wheatley told him, trying to stabilise himself, "I can stay down here tonight. Y'know. For a change, and all that."

"Oh," Claptrap said, sounding a little confused. "Well, okay." And he put Wheatley back down and lay on his side again, though he did not put Wheatley inside of his arm. He was just sort of leant back against the other robot's chassis, below his optic, which was alright but made him a bit nervous, since he was totally round and all that and didn't want to tip over. They just sat there for a bit, watching GLaDOS's optic again, when Claptrap asked suddenly, "Wheatley, do you ever feel lonely?"

"No," he answered. "No, not really."

"I just... I've started feeling lonely all the time! Even when you guys are right there talking to me, sometimes. I mean, I've been lonely before, but not with people right in front of me!" His hand gripped the top of Wheatley's chassis for a minute. "It really sucks."

Wheatley struggled to come up with some sort of... something to say about that, but couldn't. And really, when Claptrap wouldn't tell him what all of this was about, what was there for him to say?

"Maybe I should try sleeping," mused Claptrap. "You can't be lonely and asleep at the same time, right?"

"I dunno," answered Wheatley. GLaDOS probably could, but she - hang on. That gave him an idea. "But y'know, if you're um, if you're just here, sometimes, and you'd rather not sleep, or something, there's something you can still do. And she'll listen."

"What's that?"

"You can sing to her," Wheatley answered. He heard Claptrap's optic move towards him.