Having a robot to cater to her every whim was fantastic and all, but Chell still had a huge problem regardless: GLaDOS's Christmas present! She considered asking GLaDOS to get her own present and just have Chell give it to her, to save Chell a lot of hassle, but that in itself would be a hassle so she decided against it.

"What can I possibly give her? I can't go outside and get something and she already owns everything within a hundred kilometres! And GLaDOS herself was of no help at all, laughing off any of her impassioned pleas for ideas with, "Whatever you come up with will be fine, cara mia." That didn't answer her question, but was sufficiently adorable enough that Chell always had to hug her after that, like the pathetic clingy human she was.

Chell decided to head down into Aperture to see if she could locate something GLaDOS had forgotten she owned. Such a thing was not likely to be special or significant, and was regifting in the highest degree, but as long as she had something to give her it should be good enough, right?

Chell rummaged through old drawers and boxes and bags, hoping in a very disgruntled fashion that GLaDOS would be suitably amazed by her gift, since she'd gone through all this trouble to dig through GLaDOS's things to find it. If she had found it, that would have been applicable. But she didn't find it, so it wasn't.

She stormed back upstairs and pouted and waited for GLaDOS to come and fix her problem, which she did five minutes later. However, Chell had wanted her right then and there so because GLaDOS was so late she made her comfort her and wheedle the truth out of her. GLaDOS loved spending great gobs of time cheering Chell up and did it at least on a weekly basis. It wasn't like she had anything better to do, after all; the facility didn't need overseeing! Automation could take care of the millions of programs running all at once!

After Chell made GLaDOS reassure her of her adequacy and unwavering position in the android's life, which took approximately half an hour in which Chell cried piteously just to make sure GLaDOS was being serious about her repeated reassurances of affection. Chell had to admit (privately, of course) that she made GLaDOS's job a lot harder by not actually telling her what she was wailing about.

The days went along as usual, though you'd think it'd get boring to do the exact same things every day with zero variation, but since Chell was a simple girl and GLaDOS perfectly willing to do whatever Chell wanted, bar none, they continued. The only thing that changed is that Chell whined more often because she just could not find GLaDOS a present, but GLaDOS was always happy to cheer her up in whatever way she wanted. Which was usually a certain, predictable way, a way that did not need explanation.

T'was the night before Christmas, and all through the… well, it's not really a house, but it can be called it that for the sake of the rhyme. All through the house, yes, and not a creature was stirring, not even a… rat that can serve as a mouse. But the next line of the poem definitely not being shoehorned into something it isn't for no particular reason other than to make things festive was not applicable, and so Chell stopped imagining an Aperture-themed rewrite and brought her attention back to the dinner table. GLaDOS had made a lovely Christmas turkey with all the trimmings, and though Chell was a fat, murderous orphan, even she was sure she couldn't eat that much. And leftovers? Forget about it. Not when all she had to do was ask GLaDOS to toss them in the incinerator. After all, GLaDOS herself threw everything in the incinerator. Including Chell on one occasion, but she had reassured Chell that it was only a joke and that she really did want to be her humanoid love slave and official waifu for all of eternity. That sounded reasonable to Chell and they went on with their evening.

"Tonight," GLaDOS told her demurely as she set a glass of red wine in front of Chell even though white wine probably would have complemented the meal much better, "I will be dining with you."

"But GLaDOS!" Chell exclaimed, not having seen this coming even though she should have. "You're an android and you don't require food! Your power source is questionable, since you would require mass amounts of energy and you never plug yourself in so I don't know why your battery lasts so long, but you don't eat."

"I am an Aperture Science Supercallifragilisticexpialidocious Hyper Extraordinary More Realistic Than the Real Thing Homo Sapien Sapien Likeness Humanoid Construct Made of Materials of Questionable Origin Android, Chell," GLaDOS said without a hitch, sitting down as she smoothed down her bodysuit, even though it was wrinkle-free, being made of some sort of plastic that felt like fabric. "Of course I can eat."

"But GLaDOS, what happens when you –"

"Science," GLaDOS interrupted, because the question was so obvious it didn't even need asking.

"But what happens – "

"I said it was science, Chell," GLaDOS interrupted a second time, turning a pleasant smile on her and holding up the carving knife. Chell realised she was preventing GLaDOS from cutting up the turkey and shut up. And of course no horrible thoughts about Chell were running through GLaDOS' perfectly coiffured head because GLaDOS was and had always been infinitely patient and not at all temperamental over the tiniest things.

GLaDOS, as usual, made everything perfectly, and when dinner was done she sent Chell to recover on the black leather sofa while GLaDOS made her way through the mountain of dishes. Chell really should have helped her with that, seeing as she had been of no help making the meal at all, but GLaDOS insisted she wanted to do one hundred percent of the work by herself. GLaDOS always insisted on doing all the work herself and never, ever complained about it. Ever.

She finished the dishes an hour later and joined Chell on the couch, where they pretended to watch a movie as usual, though this time it was because Chell was falling asleep and GLaDOS was enjoying Chell's half-conscious presence far too much to pay attention to the television. She was too terribly busy to do that. The movie had been over for quite a while before it occurred to either of them to go to bed, at which time GLaDOS lovingly gathered Chell into her arms and carried her off to bed, wedding style. And Chell was perfectly asleep until she got there. But something about being in bed made her think of teh android booty, and as it so happened, the mistletoe was still on the ceiling…

It was only after that fun was over that Chell remembered it was Christmas morning and she still did not have a present for GLaDOS. And then GLaDOS had to comfort her for another hour before they could finally go to sleep. And actually sleep that time. Not the other kind of sleeping. They'd already done that. Though they probably would have been up for it again.