#id core

Original pic:

He is??? The cutest??? And I love the fluffy side hair <3! (I wish I could have done it more justice,,,) Anywho, happy new year m8!!!

Messy drawing is messy:

spACE!!!

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(Merry Christmas/ Happy Holidays everyone! I am a part of @portal-secret-santa ! Who's my present for? @mean-and-gay is the blog's name! They said some warm homey stuff would be something they would like. I assumed platonic sibling is OK? Anywho, but as someone who thrives off of found familial AUs, I decided on something like this between little Spacey and Wheats was a good idea! Also spinkled in Virgil and Rainbow core from Portal Stories:Mel for good measure, don't know if you know it but might as well include them, hope you like it either way buddy! ^^)

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Craig sighed as he felt two pairs of eyes burn holes into the bag of chocolate chips he was currently trying to add to the bowl in front of him. "I've put eggs in here you two," he huffed turning around to the honey and blue eyed boys, "Eating raw cookie dough with eggs in it is how you get sick."

"Oh c'mon, mate," Wheatley huffed coming out from the 'hiding spot' of his and Kevin's, "Just a little nibble? I'm sure Santa wouldn't mind, yeah?"

"No!" Craig growled, "A nibble with you two will turn into a bite, then a handful, then next thing you know, there's no dough for anyone-!" Rick had walked into the kitchen as Craig was rambling and what ended it was his attention latching onto Rick holding the bowl up into the air, out of Kevin’s reach.

"Oh cra-"

"WHEATLEY! KEVIN!" Craig roared, Wheatley turning onto his heels.

"KEV! RETREAT! RETREAT!" Wheatley called out, panicked.

"RETREAT!" Kevin echoed, squealing and narrowly missing Craig's attempt to catch the much younger male. Craig growled, face growing heated.

"Easy there, Pinky," Rick chuckled, setting the bowl down again, "We might end up usin' your face to bake them cookies." Craig snapped his head towards Rick, making him jump a little.

"Shut up before I kill you too," Craig huffed, "Why do those two do what they do?! I swear, if I end up finding grey hairs come Christmas morning, I can and will-"

"Let me guess, tried to steal the cookie dough?" Virgil’s voice rung out. Criag sighed, turning to the Norwegian machanic and a familiar multi colored sweater right behind him.

"Yes..." Craig sighed in defeat.

"Kevin is a kid, and Wheatley has a sweet tooth, Craig," Rainbow added, "Of course they'd pull something to get a bite. Besides, those cookies you make are pretty good to top it off."

"Well, thank you, Jade," Craig softly smiled from the compliment, "I just wish that they would actually let the cookies be baked."

"Well no matter how you slice it, they're havin' quite the ball bonding," Rick smirked, "'member how, what, two, three years ago round this time that Wheats and Kev first were showin' signs of getting along?"

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Snow crunched and kicked up under little boots. Kevin had been playing in the snow with Rick and Virgil, Virgil had helped the little guy build a snowman, complete with a screwdriver handle nose. Rick had then proceeded to throw a snowball, hitting a bullseye on poor Virgil’s face, making Spacey laugh giddly.

Laughter kept echoing in the small yard and a snowball fight broke out, mainly between Rick and Virgil, but Kevin joined the fun and was occasionally thrown little, not very packed snowballs, as to not be hit with anything to much that would result in tears. Craig would kill both of them for that.

Speaking of, Craig was watching from the window with Jade. While Virgil was used to colder areas of Aperture and he spent most of his time in the garage tickering, and Rick just loved getting his blood pumping outside, Craig and Jade happily stayed inside, content to watching. While Craig also liked the cooler weather along with Virgil, and if Rick didn't like outside so much, he was sure he would have helped with the snowman. But alas, his books were not water, or in this case, snow proof. Jade was the one other than Rick that didn't like the cold much.

Wheatley was also watching, he didn't care much for the scene unfolding, but he did at least like the snowman... Until he saw Spacey, in the mist of trying to hit Rick, aciddently hit the snowmans head, making it crumple to the ground. The yard was deadly silent in shock, and even the little chatter Fact and Rainbow were having halted.

Then came the sound chocked sobs, making Craig rush to the door and outside, only putting on some shoes. Wheatley and Jade also followed the panic. Rick and Virgil already were on their knees trying to comfort him, but the sight of a panicked Craig quickly made them back off so he could try his luck. Kevin, knowing that Craig only softens this much when he wanted to comfort him, immediately buried his face into his chest. Wheatley and Jade caught up and since Craig was already holding Kev, proceed to the damaged snowman.

"Oooh," Rainbow hissed, seeing the assortment of rocks, sticks and the screwdriver all over the ground. Wheatley had stared at it, and almost subconsciously tried to mend the pieces together, only for them to not stick. Wheatley looked at the little guy behind him and nodded to himself, taking out the decor and slowly building up the head again, grabbing snow from the sides of it and trying to use it like glue.

Kevin sniffled and turned around to him getting the main two halfs to stick to each other. It was crooked, but they stuck, and nothing more snow couldn’t round out. As he slowly build up the head, Craig noticed that Wheatley was not wearing gloves, and his hands were red, but he seemed to not be affected by that or the water seeping up his pants.

Wheatley’s knees shaked in his trousers, but he was so close to being done. He just had to force the rocks and sticks in until they were burried into the face. Wheatley picked up the screwdriver and finally snabbed it in place before settling it on top of the body, slowly removing his hands, to make sure it didn’t wobble as he finally, finally stoon up, his legs shaking like a newborn baby deer. Rick, made sure to keep his arms wrapped around his waist to support his body from falling over. Kevin smiled and hugged his leg.

"Thank you, Wheatley." Kevin giggled. Wheatley looked down, surprised. None of the other guys really complimented him, at least, out loud. Actually hearing the praise instead of guessing if what he did was good was comforting.

"Y-Yeah, no problem, Kev." Wheatley smiled. He got a cold the next day, but it was worth it in the moment.

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"It was definitely something to see, and it gave us a hint that verbal reassurence would really make him thrive," Rainbow nodded, "He's kinda warmed up to everyone, but I think being the first to compliment him has it's perks."

"If I'm honest, the only thing besides that that I remember is feeling really bad for Kevin," Virgil recalled, "Oh, and the snowball Rick threw at me, that's pretty vivid."

"I suppose you do have a point then Rick-" Craig was going to turn around to him, but everyone in the room noticed that him and the bowl were nowhere to be seen. Craig's eyes twiched with rage and Virgil and Jade both backed away from a very angry Fact.

Rick hummed happily taking his own little portions of his deal and biting into it, "Gotta hand it to ya' I'd didn't think that you two would think out a plan like this."

"We had a whole year to learn from our mistakes and plan it out," Wheatley sighed putting his spoon in the now empty bowl, ruffling Spacey’s hair while said boy was enjoying the cookie dough left on his own spoon. "Give us some credit."

"OK, OK, true," Rick stretched, "Three. Two. Onnneee-"

"RICHARD!"

Wheatley and Rick high fived, knowing that they had pulled off the plan without a hitch. After all, Wheatley had a sweet tooth, and Kevin was just a kid... 

(For @bonesaw-cowboy whom I am a pitch hitter for in @portal-secret-santa ! Sorry, it’s late, Writer’s block hit me like a freight train on this one. So I can only hope I did something acceptable.^^; Let’s start with our story: Pre-Bring Your Daughter to Work Day, a Christmas hang out edition!)

What would be your first response to being snowed in at your job? Probably very similar to the three males currently in said situation, looking at the harsh weather. Craig’s mouth had dropped agape, Wheatley had turned paler, and Rick could only groan at the predicament.

“Whelp. There goes goin’ home.” Rick sighed, shuffling his bag off… Though the sight of Craig trying to climb said giant pile of snow through the door was enough to draw him back to the entrance to hold back his co-worker.

“RICHARD NORTH, YOU WILL LET ME GO, AND YOU WILL DO IT NOW!” Craig growled, almost feral. “I AM ABSOLUTELY NOT STAYING HERE ON CHRISTMAS EVE!”

“‘YA KINDA DON’T HAVE MUCH OF A CHOICE THERE, FOUR EYES!” Rick snapped right back, pulling the magenta eyed male away. “Wheats, the door.” Wheatley silently obeyed, pushing back the door with as much force as he could, given the snow pile now thinly on top of the carpet. 

Craig wiggled out of his grip and looked at him with disgust, not like it was a new look that was given to Rick, anyways. “I’m sorry, but given that everyone else left, including Mr. Johnson, you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t want to spend hours here.”

“I don’t like Aperture either Craig-”

“-You mean you don’t like working?”

“-Oh, whatever! My point is that I don’t want to stay here any more than you do, but even IF ‘ya make it to yer car, how exactly are you planning to drive said car back to your place?” Craig was silent for a moment, trying to come up with a rebuttal or a plan, but he flushed with embarrassment from his lack of thinking. Rick was unfortunately right, there was no way back home in the weather unless he was somehow willing and able to walk back to his own house. With a sigh, Craig sat down on the floor in defeat. “Exactly my point, Pinky.”

“Can we, just, y’know, NOT add salt to that wound, yeah?” Wheatley piped up, leaning more against the door. “We’re all stuck here, sure, but what exactly are we going to do for those hours? I mean, I’m not going to work any more than I have to ‘kill time.’ Maybe just me.”

“Nah, that’s true. I wouldn’t want to either unless I’m getting extra.” Rick chuckled.

“Well, I suppose it would be productive…” Craig slumped, taking out his laptop.

“Y-Your… Your kidding right?” Wheatley asked. The clicking of the keys was the only answer he got. Wheatley shook his head, annoyed, sitting beside Craig. Rick following suit. The three were now in a sort of makeshift triangle. Or circle? Hard to say.

“Guess not.” Rick stretched his arms above him. “So, Wheatley? What were ‘ya plannin’ on doing tonight and tomorrow?”

“H-Hah? Oh! For the holidays? Uhm.” Wheatley rubbed the hairs on the back of his neck, trying to remember. “Well, not much, if I’m honest. I usually head home to change into somethin’ warm and I just kinda… Walk around downtown? Where all those overhead Christmas lights? Everything is always just kind of alive there, no matter how much snow there is! The bakeries are filled with more cookies and gingerbread than usual, a-and there are a lot of little kids enjoying the snow in the road since weather like this means no cars! So you just see a lot of snowmen and little snowball fights breaking out! Not to mention when you glance up at some of the open apartment windows, you just see families together!”

Rick raised a brow in surprise before grinning. “So you walk around and enjoy downtown, well, I wouldn’t blame you. Being over there in December is the best time to go in and have little nibbles of Snickerdoodle, y’know?”

“Ah! Snickerdoodles! Of course, I’m more of a Gingersnap man, myself.” Wheatley laughed out.

“Ohhhhh my god! It’s been forever since I’ve had a good Gingersnap! Mama always did make the best! That and peanut butter.”

“Really? Sugar cookies were the common one in my house.”

“...Thumbprint cookies.” Craig shyly admitted, making his co-workers look at him in surprise. “My dad even mixed in crushed up peppermint into the dough around the holidays.” It was quiet for a moment.

“...Do you know the recipe?” Wheatley asked.

“H-Huh?” Craig glanced up to the two.

“Yeah! You should totally make it! I think there’s actually candy canes on the tree used for decoration, I mean, trees gonna go down anyways right?” Rick added. “What do you do around this time, anyways? You didn’t answer.”

Craig hesitated but soon replied, “I… Just read the classic Christmas stories around a fireplace while having some coffee… It’s… Nothing special…”

“So you know them by heart?” Rick stood up with his co-workers.

“Yeah…?” Craig questioned.