Craig's mouth twitched again, almost smiling, "Idiot, of course I love you."
Rick looked incredibly relieved to hear that and that made Craig equally relieved. This wasn't some conquest, it appeared. Getting Craig to sleep with him wasn't part of some ludicrous bucket list that Rick had put together, but an honest to god attachment and Craig felt so relieved by that on so many levels. Rick gripped Craig's elbows suddenly, with a look of urgency in his eyes.
"I swear, I meant what I said 'bout when we get out, you understan' me?" Rick said, voice intense, "I'm not gonna give a shit if it's fuckin' illegal or we'll get killed or whatever the hell, I wanna be with you."
Craig didn't really want to get too optimistic before they had a plan to get out of here, so he needed a diversion. He thought quickly on his feet for something sarcastic to say that wouldn't completely hurt Rick's now very vulnerable feelings.
"Ah yes, we'll be the picture of domesticity, won't we?" Craig said, shrugging of Rick's hands to pull on his turtleneck, "You, the breadwinner and protector of the household and me your little wife?"
"…I'm pretty damn serious, angel," Rick said, looking dangerously serious.
Craig shouldered his blazer on without meeting Rick's intense gaze, "I know you are."
Craig finally looked up and saw that Rick looked more than a little bothered. Craig reached up and touched his cheek with a half-smile ghosting across his features. It had been awhile since either of them had eaten or slept; they needed to rest. Once they had done that, they could start searching for an escape plan, but they had to recharge first or they would fail no matter what. Craig reached down and squeezed Rick's hand tightly.
"Let's get some rest," he said finally, pulling slightly so Rick would follow.
They had picked the warmest place they could find to sleep: near the control room. Rick rummaged in the room for half a second before emerging with a pitiful, but full box of some kind of spongy cakes. Craig leaned up against the wall and leaned his head against the fading paint. He felt tired for the first time in a long time. Now that they were sitting down and not struggling for their lives, he felt like he might fall asleep right there. Rick sat down next to him and offered him a plastic wrapped cake. They didn't look moldy in the least, which meant they wouldn't starve to death. He didn't eat many sweet things while alive; he was pretty sure these were called Twinkies or something.
He felt his eyes drooping from sheer physical exhaustion and the next thing he remembered was Rick's arm wrapping around his shoulders. Several hours later, he woke with a shiver and tried to get off of the ground, but realized that he and Rick ended up horizontal somehow and Rick was spooning him like his life depended on it. This brute had ridiculous strength, but Craig managed to extricate himself and not wake him. He glanced down at his dark-haired bed mate, finding himself honestly hoping they got out of here. He realized he was getting soft and his icy front was melting again and he quickly steeled himself by reminding himself of the odds. Right now, they had a 12% chance of living and escaping without any major harm and a 34% chance of living and escaping seriously maimed. Yes, that was surely enough to bring back his pessimism.
With Craig's body heat gone, Rick rolled over and wrapped his arms around himself. Craig frowned; he was going to go looking for an exit. Rick could be comfortable for now. There was still this blazer that Craig really didn't need, so he pulled it off and placed it over Rick's arms. Craig left the sentimental part of himself with that jacket and searched around the lobby where he and Rick used to work.
Most of the areas were boarded up, which gave Craig a distinct uneasy feeling. He didn't really want to run into some of the more fabled failed experiments that he'd only had the displeasure of hearing about while working for Aperture as a chemist. He wasn't a biologist or a physicist… so he thought he'd be safe after hearing those stories, but clearly he was wrong. He backed away from all the boarded doors and eventually returned to the security room.
He glanced over the switches and dials, hoping to find something that might assist him when his eyes finally came to rest on the maps of all the testing spheres. There were maybe six or seven all joined to form one testing track and Craig slowly began to realize that if they climbed those spheres, they would be at the highest point in the old facility. This was a semblance of a plan, at least. It was more than he walked into the security room with. There wasn't any AI in here to track them and if Craig managed to miss some of it, it was because it was so low-tech it wouldn't be self-aware. He'd also be willing to be that if the chambers had anything in them, they would have already trekked through them while they were employees. He heard some shuffling behind him and turned around to see Rick standing there, looking bleary eyed and holding Craig's blazer. He blinked heavily a couple of times before saying anything.
"Rick, you're still tired, go back to sleep," Craig said gently as he could.
"Can't," he mumbled, "I'm missin' somethin'."
Craig rolled his eyes, but Rick insisted. They had a plan and Craig was mildly confident in it; though there wasn't anything that was sure in this situation. He allowed Rick to drag him out of the security room to use him as a warmer again. He couldn't sleep again, so he just calculated the likelihood of surviving the same set of test chambers twice while staring at his glasses he'd put away from him. He almost wished they could stay here, but that wasn't possible. Fighting for their lives to get to the surface was better than staying down here and eating Twinkies until they ran out. Those things weren't even good.