Okay, now things were getting out of hand. Rick paced in his separate chamber, back and forth, trying to get the gnawing feeling of loneliness to go away. He had heard that humans sought out one another because their emotional states were so vulnerable, but he hadn't anticipated coming across that in his newly picked body! The hell, he expected this body to stand up to being a lone warrior in a vast array of turrets shooting at him while he barrel rolled with the cube to the button. As much as he had done just that, he wanted someone to talk to, just talk to! Cubes weren't exactly great conversationalists, contrary to what he'd heard! He… he needed a damsel in distress, or a spunky sidekick! Someone who would banter with him and compliment his shooting style or his loose-cannon attitude, yeah! Maybe someone to help with his one-liners and adventure music…
Rick paced some more and ran his hands through his hair in a frustrated manner. He hadn't recalled saying a word, except to make a snappy one-liner once he finished a testing sphere. Okay, admittedly, they weren't that good. GLaDOS was more than happy to ignore him every time, he just… Grragh! Rick angrily flopped down in his hibernation unit and tried to sleep as soundly as he could.
The Fact Sphere—Craig had a book in hand with a blanket pulled over his head. It appeared that the body had suffered depression while he was functioning and Craig was feeling the effects of it full force. He hadn't anticipated the empty feeling hitting him right in the gut and the insistent thoughts of death. All of this was deeply disconcerting to Craig on many levels. He dealt with testing spheres quickly and efficiently, but only wanted to retreat back to his quarters where he could curl up with a book and try not to cry. He didn't know where this feeling was coming from and he didn't have the diagnostic programming to try to locate it.
"Fact: Humans are a weak species who often require the presence of others and constant reassurance to maintain their sanity," he muttered in a vain attempt to cheer himself, once again.
It simply made him feel worse that he happened to be one of that weak species right now. Craig dropped his book on the floor and tried to sleep again, but he knew he would fail. Even the required sleep-aids were failing him lately.
Testing was beginning to be a chore considering there was nothing to look forward to afterward. Craig had spent the months reading as much as GLaDOS would allow, but one could only read so many books more than once in a certain amount of time. He was having trouble sleeping now, he couldn't keep his mind off of the fact that he was going to be doing this forever and it had no point, he could barely see the science of it anymore. He could do it for science, but it just seemed repetitive.
He stood in one of the bigger testing chambers with his assigned Aperture Science testing equipment. He could see the solution to this test, very easily. He stood with his toes just over the edge of precipice. He looked down and saw that it was filled with the dark black water that he knew would destroy everything that touched it. How fitting, he thought bitterly. While testing, he did his best to avoid this water to succeed; now he was making a beeline for it. He shut his eyes and prepared himself for exactly what he wanted and started to fall, but he was immediately pulled back by the collar of his jumpsuit, he made a strangled noise out of surprise.
"Now what in the hell are you doin'?" he heard and his eyes snapped open.
Craig hadn't taken a chance to look at himself in the mirror; he hadn't gotten quite accustomed to how he looked, so he was pretty shocked to see the strange sight of another human! Two bright green eyes stared at him with a bit of a twisted grin. Humans looked so strange, he thought immediately. The other human hauled him to his feet with little effort.
"Didn't your momma ever tell you it was impolite to stare?" the human said, clearly not upset, with that grin still on his face.
Craig narrowed his eyes. He recognized that voice and inflection as that horrible blowhard the Adventure Sphere, "I'm a sphere, much like yourself, so my 'mother' didn't teach me anything except what I was programmed," he said in a deadpan.
"Well shoot me outta a damn cannon, another sphere!" Rick said, ignoring Craig's obvious displeasure, "Shoulda guessed, pink eyes aren't terrible common. They're pretty cute though—hey!"
He stumbled backward as Craig pushed him away so he'd let go of his collar. Of all the people he had to run into, it had to be that showy fool, he thought, completely forgetting that he'd just yanked him from the edge of suicide. He forged on through the test, placing a portal right behind Rick and walking through it, ignoring Rick's annoyed complaining. The solution to this test was easy; he should be able to reach it without any assistance or without any distraction from some decidedly unwanted company.
Unfortunately for Craig, it appeared that Rick was following him, unnecessarily yelling loudly at him. Craig squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his forehead, it appeared this specific headache wasn't going to leave quite so easily.
"That's really ungrateful there, son. The hero's supposed to save a damsel in distress, no thanks necessary, but didn't figure ya'd be so… hey! I'm talking to you!" he yelled after Craig as he entered the lift.
Rick shoved into the tiny elevator behind him, effectively crushing the smaller man against the glass as the doors shut behind them. He pressed his back against the shut door so Craig could whip around at him with a glare. There obviously wasn't much space in the elevator, so even with their backs against opposite sides of the tube lift; there was no space between them.
Rick relaxed and put both his hands on the glass on either side of Craig's head, "Now this is more like it," he said with an easy grin.
"I couldn't agree with you more," Craig said with a snarl, pushing Rick out of the now open elevator with all of his might.
Rick fell right out of the open elevator doors and Craig stepped over him with a look of disdain. He set his portal gun in the appropriate safety return hooks and immediately halted when he realized that they were now in Craig's relaxation chamber. Rick picked himself off the floor and grumpily brushed off the front of his jumpsuit. Craig stiffly turned around to face Rick again, who was giving him a scowl. As much as he disliked the brute, he couldn't just leave him out in the rails, knowing the tube lift wouldn't return until the next testing sequence.
Rick turned back to the lift after a moment's dim thought and started banging on the glass doors, "'Ey! This isn't my place, c'mon!" he started yelling.
Craig pressed his hand to his forehead heavily. The brute didn't seem to realize that the lift wasn't coming back, but of course, his stubborn self was more than happy to attempt such a pointless plea. He decided that he'd ignore Rick for a while, until he tired himself out enough to be civil. Then Craig would consider being, god forbid it, nice. It was much warmer in his relaxation chamber, after all. He was simply furthering the cause for science, he reasoned for himself as he wandered back to his room, with the door slightly cracked open.
He began his normal post-testing chamber stretches that he found were much more necessary than he originally thought, due to this fragile human body. He quickly bathed himself as he was prone to do as often as he could, he hated how humans smelled. Once he was in a fresh jumpsuit, he peeked outside of his door. Rick had stubbornly leaned against the glass tube and was snoring softly. Craig rolled his eyes and pulled the blanket off of the bed. He quickly covered Rick with it, hoping he wouldn't be responsible if he died of exposure in the cold railways.
He returned to his room and tried to sleep, but found himself cold and restless. He immediately regretted giving that idiot his blanket. He rose out of bed and peeked out of his door again. Rick was still asleep, seeming much more comfortable than when Craig first looked. He bit his lip and thought about the consequences of this. It wasn't as though he wanted anything from Rick, just his blanket back. He would feel bad if he took it back entirely, but if they shared, that would be the best compromise.
"Fact: I'm a light sleeper, so I will wake up before this fool," he muttered, as he crossed the railway and sat down next to Rick's sleeping form.
Craig carefully tugged the blanket over his shoulders, but found it wasn't big enough to cover the both of them when Craig was trying to lean on the other side of the rail. He frowned, but figured he could explain when they woke. It wasn't as though he was trying to be kind; after all, he just didn't want to be responsible for the stubborn brute's death. Craig carefully angled his body so he was lightly pressing up against Rick's shoulder and successfully covered the both of them. After a moment's thought of how awkward this was going to look, he actually fell asleep. That was the quickest he'd fallen asleep in weeks.