The party continued for another couple of hours before the children began to disperse.
"I don't even remember getting this much confetti..." Lizbeth muttered as she began attempting to brush up the seemingly endless mound of it.
"Mommy! Mackenzie left her jacket!" Caroline called from the other side of the room, holding up the jacket in question. Lizbeth walked over to her daughter and neatly placed the jacket on the ever-growing mound of items that had been left by the other children an proceeded to continue cleaning the mess.
As Lizbeth was busy cleaning, Aria turned to GLaDOS and spoke.
"GLaDOS. \Will we ever see Lizbeth again?" Aria asked the AI with an amount of authority that even surprised GLaDOS, though she was too prideful to show it.
"That depends entirely. I can't be running up to the surface every other day, I have tests to run and a facility to manage." GLaDOS paused, "You, however, don't have to do any of that." Aria looked at GLaDOS with confusion.
"What do you mean?" Aria asked.
"After you spoke to me before, I had a little conversation with Lizbeth." Upon hearing her name, Lizbeth walked over to the conversing pair.
"You know that you're like my little sister," Lizbeth interrupted GLaDOS, "And you're so good with Caroline. I was wondering, how would you like to leave Aperture and live with me?"
The last sentence echoed around Aria's head for what seemed like an eternity.
"What do you think?" Lizbeth asked with a smile.
"I... Can't..." Aria whispered. "I really do love you Lizbeth, it's just... Aperture is my home."
"Yes, we know, but if you lived with Lizbeth, Aperture wouldn't be your home, so I'm not seeing the issue here." GLaDOS told the small AI cooly.
"You really don't get it, do you?" Aria looked to the floor. A single tear fell from her eyes and followed her teary gaze to the floor.
"I think you're the one not getting things. All you'll have to do is move in with Lizbeth. How are you not understanding-"
"No! That's not how it works!" Aria shouted, looking GLaDOS straight in the eyes, showing the frustration that had surfaced behind her own, catching the older AI by surprise ever so slightly. "I love you Lizbeth, I really do, but I'm an Aperture device. Aperture's where I belong." With the last part, the smaller android calmed down to the point of defeat.
"Aria..." Lizbeth whispered.
"So you're staying at Aperture?" GLaDOS asked impatiently, as she was not too great with human emotions and wanted avoid any more drama. Aria gave a resigned nod of agreement.
"I promise I'll come back here," Aria lifted her pinky finger up to Lizbeth, "Please, promise me that you'll come back to me too." Lizbeth smiled for a moment before linking fingers with the android.
"Deal."
Not long later, the two androids were back on the train, both of them stood in silence.
"GLaDOS." Aria spoke, looking up at the white-haired android. "Do you want to know another reason I decided to stay with you?" She asked.
"What?" GLaDOS replied in a tone that suggested that she didn't care, though, admittedly, she was slightly curious.
"Because if I did, I wouldn't be doing the thing I was originally built to do." Aria explained.
"And that is?" GLaDOS asked the child impatiently.
"Looking after you." Aria smiled.
"I'm the most intelligent being within at least a fifty mile radius, and last time I checked, I'm pretty self sustainable." GLaDOS assured Aria.
"Yes, I agree, but you practically said it yourself." The train came to their station and the doors slid open. "I'm the one who taught you how to love again."
They headed back to Aperture, Aria leading the way for the most part, though relying on GLaDOS for direction when she lost her way in the vast wheat fields on a few occasions. Upon returning to the facility, GLaDOS immediately uploaded herself into her usual body and Aria went to her bedroom to go into sleep mode. After a few minutes of being alone, GLaDOS found herself feeling something strange. Instantly she knew that she would never share the feeling with anyone, in fact, she despised having it at all. However, no matter how much she'd try to deny it, she had to admit this; without Aria, her life wouldn't be the same.
A/N: Hey guys! This chapter was quite hard to write, in a hurry to end the last one in a dramatic way, I didn't think ahead and ended up giving myself writer's block, but I hope it's okay! By the way, 'Mackenzie' is Macmine411, and all of the confetti was most likely left by ThoseRedLights.
On another note, I've rewritten the first two chapters because they were so badly done, so I really hope they're better now!
LuLu-Bot3000 and Razaraga: Aaah thank you! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
ThoseRedLights: Party poppers are life! And Aria was probably too excited to party to think about bringing a cube :p
likekattheboss: Don't worry if you can't review, school work is a pain, why else do you think I'm always slow updating the story? (Also Tumblr, but you know... By the way I'm duckiebubbles there too :p)
Macmine411: I've been watching your videos, they're really good! I think I sent you a message, but youtube messaging sucks a bit so it might have gone thud.
CheezyPortalFan: At this point, GLaDOS has warmed to Lizbeth and Aria, so any sarcastic comments are pretty much just friendly jokes, though GLaDOS would probably deny that completely and totally. Also, you're not an 'evil' critic, your constructive criticism has helped me quite a lot, and I like to think I've improved because of it, so thank you so much!
I swear I'm trying to keep these notes as small as possible... Ah well. Until next time, ~Duckie