Prompt: Chell wants to buy scented candles. Wheatley spends an hour in the store smelling everything.

In the mall, Chell had decided to try buying something new. When they went to a friend's apartment, Chell had commented on the pleasant cinnamon scent, to which they pointed at a candle, saying that was the cause.

It wouldn't be all bad to have the candle in the house, burning, so long as it was blown out when necessary, right? Especially if it also had a nice scent.

Wheatley walked in behind Chell, and was instantly taken by all the smells around the store.

He wasn't sure exactly what was causing it, but as they went through, it became clear what it was. Candles didn't just smell like cinnamon – they could smell like peppermint, chocolate, spring breeze, cherry blossoms…

Chell said that the smells were most likely exaggerated, especially since there wasn't really a "Sunset Beach" smell, but Wheatley wanted to go on the mission all the same.

He wanted to smell every candle in the store.

As his beloved took to smelling the candles that caught her eye for the sole purpose of eventually purchasing one, Wheatley instead began from a corner of the store and worked his way around. He started with the clearance items from Christmas and Valentine's Day. The Christmas ones smelled like pine sap, similar to their tree, or gingerbread cookies, which was the first smell he knew wasn't right. Some of the candles were called "True Love" and gave a small description of their smells on the bottom, and this was "Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice".

Wheatley couldn't smell the spice and nice. But it certainly did smell like pure sugar. The pink color was also appealing.

He gradually picked favorites as he moved onto the other ones. There were ones that smelled like the countryside, like fresh laundry, like home cooking. Wheatley wondered how they got the smells contained within the candles. Did they have special tools that allowed them to capture the scent in a bottle and move it to place it within the strange, smooth substance that made up the majority of the candle?

"Chell, what is this stuff?" He held out one to her finally when they were at the same shelf, touching the candle inside.

"Wax," she replied, before smelling one labeled "Summer Garden".

Wheatley repeated the word, testing it out. It seemed fitting for the candle, somehow.

By the time he was halfway around the store, Chell was done buying what she wanted and ready to go.

"Wheatley," she said, a laugh in her voice. "Are you trying to smell every candle?"

He nodded, nose stuck in a candle that was supposed to smell like a park after rain.

She chose to not say they were on a schedule, or find a way to escape his plans, because there was no rush that day. Instead, she watched as Wheatley went around, holding out candles to her that he loved the smell of, and thought she would do.

There was one in particular that he smelled, and in was instantly brought back to his first memory of the surface. It smelled like-

Like gold. Like the color of the wheat field he had first seen on the surface. He froze, gripping the glass candle in his hands as he smelled it again. There was another smell, some sort of spice, for obvious touches, but there was the predominant golden smell.

Quietly, without all the pomp and circumstance he had put on other candles, he held it out to Chell, who looked at him curiously.

Motioning for her to smell it, Wheatley couldn't put the smell of this candle into words. She just had to smell it.

Leaning over, she gave one sniff, and instantly understood. It was an earthy smell, one that reminded her of-

There. The wheat field where they had been first thrown out of, where she had first been free, alongside Wheatley, and the place they had run through to just get away from the shed.

It smelled like soil, like the wheat stalks and stems, like that new plethora of sights, sounds, and smells that they had first experienced getting out.

Turning the candle in Wheatley's hands, Chell read the label, which simply stated "Wheat Fields". The picture, albeit small, depicted a familiar sight of waist-high grains and blue sky.

Gently sealing the candle, Chell took it in her hands, as if she was holding a precious treasure, and went to buy one more, joining Wheatley afterwards to finish combing the entire store.