"Something on your mind, GLaDOS?"
The former A.I. looked up from her cup of coffee, which she had previously been staring at with a miserable expression. She was aware she must look awful, sagging against Craig's kitchen table with her hands buried in her lap, shoulders hunched and her head down. She didn't much present like the entity that once controlled the finest laboratory in the history of man.
But then again, there was the keyword: once controlled. Now she was stuck in this wretched human body.
They stared at each other for a moment, before GLaDOS rubbed at the dark circles that stained her pale skin and hung around her eyes. "I... haven't been sleeping well."
Craig dropped a cube of sugar into his coffee and began stirring it with a few quiet clicks of metal against porcelain. "Have you been having nightmares? Or has there been some sort of disturbance that has been keeping you up?"
GLaDOS watched as Craig continued stirring, before he tapped the spoon against the lid of the mug three times and set it down on a napkin. "I thought this was only supposed to get easier."
"Have they not? It's been almost eight months," he sipped at the liquid, pulling back a bit as the heat stung his tongue. "I would say you should be accustomed to humanity by now."
GLaDOS' hand tightened around her mug and she shot him a hateful glare. "I'm sorry, I didn't have the chance to shove myself into a human body and get some experience. I was too busy maintaining a facility."
"What about Caroline's experience?" Craig raised an eyebrow.
Her eyes narrowed even further and the corner of her mouth twitched into a snarl. Craig recoiled slightly; Caroline was still a very touchy subject.
"You and the other cores had years of humanity before your transfers. You all willfully chose humanity again. I never chose it; I was forced." GLaDOS nearly spat out each word, her voice dripping with bitterness.
Craig's slender fingers gently traced the lid of the mug, coming to a rest as GLaDOS finished her little rant. He glanced at her calmly. "You never answered my question."
He half expected her to get even angrier, but GLaDOS' features actually relaxed quite a bit. She gave a quiet sigh. "Nightmares."
"Of what?"
"A person."
"Who?"
GLaDOS visibly tensed again, and the glare returned, but it was accompanied by a light blush that spread across her cheeks.
"...Chell," she finally said, as if it pained her to even say her name.
Craig shrugged and took another sip of his now-cooler coffee. "Understandable. You live with her. You see her every day."
GLaDOS hunched even more, wrapping her arms around herself in a sudden fit of discomfort. "It's not... that simple."
"What do these dreams concern?"
She swallowed hard and pulled her white hair out of her face with one hand. "Things I-I simply should not be dreaming about."
Craig's brow furrowed. "Are you dreaming about killing her again?"
GLaDOS shook her head. "Quite the opposite," she nearly whispered.
Craig stared at her for a moment longer before the meaning hit him. He chuckled lightly under his breath.
She growled and slammed her hand onto the table. "Do not laugh at me, Fact Core."
He smiled almost apologetically and took another drink. "It's nothing to worry about, GLaDOS. It's actually quite normal. Embarrassing, yes, but nonetheless normal. Dreams are the mind's way of expressing subconscious thoughts, after all."
GLaDOS sighed.
"Chell is an attractive woman," Craig folded one leg over the other.
The corner of her mouth pulled up into a sarcastic smile. "As if you would know."
"I can appreciate feminine beauty without being attracted to it," he rolled his pink eyes.
"Well, I..." GLaDOS paused for a moment, searching for the right way to phrase it. "I do not disagree with you, that Chell is attractive. By human standards."
Craig nodded towards her. "And you are human now."
She took a breath to say something, and then released it, realizing that she had been caught. This was happening more and more often as her time in a human body wore on, and she chalked it up to this bag of water brain not being able to accommodate her intellect.
"Have you talked to her about it?" he said in a more hushed tone as he leaned forward slightly.
"No," GLaDOS folded her arms over her chest. "I've been avoiding her."
"You shouldn't avoid her. It will only worry Chell and make her cling to you further, which definitely will not make the problem go away."
"What will make it go away?" GLaDOS looked at Craig, almost pleadingly.
An amused grin spread over his face. "Face the problem head on, of course. Tell her about these dreams."
The color drained from GLaDOS' face and she grew even paler, if that was possible.
"If she has a negative reaction, stop. If she has a positive reaction, however, that's your cue to continue."
She was silent in thought for a moment before tilting her head slightly and quietly asking, "Continue?"
"Yes. What is it that Rick says?" Craig bit his lip in thought, before smiling. "'Put the moves on her.' Or something akin to that." He gestured into the air.
GLaDOS rubbed at her eyes with one hand. "I'm not attracted to her."
"But you just said she was attractive."
She scoffed. "So did you, but you're not attracted to her."
"You're dodging the point, Central Core."
She rolled her eyes and shook her head again, the white hair she had pulled back now coming loose; Craig called her that when he was trying to be as serious as possible. "She'll slap me across the face and kick me out of the apartment. And it's not as though I can threaten her with neurotoxin anymore, and I can't intimidate her because she's a giant."
"If she kicks you out, you're welcome to stay here. I know Rick would have no objections." Actually, he would, as her presence would interfere with, Craig noted as he held back a smirk, a certain activity that often spread outside the bedroom. But GLaDOS needed the encouragement.
GLaDOS stared at her now cold and still full cup of coffee, watching the black liquid ripple as Craig shifted in his chair and bumped the table. She finally looked back up at him, her brow furrowed.
He would have reached over the table and patted her hand, but he knew she hated to be touched so she kept to himself. Instead, he opted for giving her a sympathetic, but not pitying smile. "It is a risk to love. What if it doesn't work out? Ah, but what if it does?"
She smiled back. She would never admit it, but Craig was indeed a good friend.
"I knew you read those ridiculous self-help books."