Work Text:
The car ride was pretty boring. Virgil found himself having mainly one-sided conversations, if none at all. Mel couldn’t respond in more than the most basic of body language, seeing as her hands needed to remain on the wheel. There wasn’t exactly much to see either, just wheat, wheat, wheat, maybe a bird or two, and some wheat on the side for good measure. Oh, and the sun. That one was really nice to look at, actually.
The radio’s snow faded into the background, the two of them almost forgetting it was even on as nothing had been received. Until Virgil absantly fiddled with it, his hands needing something to do, and through the static music could be heard.
One song was fading out, and another was fading in. It was faint, but Mel hit the brakes of the car when she recognised it.
“Why are we slowing down?” The android asked, but Mel just opened the door of the car and beckoned him to come out too, to which he reluctantly did. She turned the volume up, grabbed his hand and waist, and started to lead him into a dance.
”We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when,”
Neither of them were professionals, he had 0 idea what he was supposed to be doing, but tried to follow her movements. It was simple, there were plenty of mishaps, but it was a break from the monotony of the car.
”But I know we’ll meet again, some sunny day."
Virgil briefly did the cliche item of leaning back into a dip, pretending to let Mel hold him. He had to really pretend to lean back, keeping himself balanced. Mel’s arm hurt a little after that, she was having the weight of a heavy-duty vault door push on her arm, but was just a mere strain on the limbs and relaxed quickly afterwards.
He wondered why she decided to get so excited over this, they’d gotten contact with the radio very early on in their drive, with the turrets. Maybe it was the humanity in it. The proof that something else was out here. Someone had to man the radio station after all, and keep the towers in check. Somewhere outside of this wheatfield, there was society. Or maybe it was the song itself? It was something completely unrelated to Aperture. Even the singing turrets were still turrets. This was all human, from the world Mel actually came from and deserved to stay in.
”Keep smiling through, just like you always do, until the blue skies chase those dark clouds far away.”
He caught the way she smiled in the minimal light. The sun had nearly finished setting by now, if he looked high into the sky, he could see the first stars begin to twinkle. He nearly tripped when a stray rock hit the back of Mel’s leg, but she got back up, just like she always did.
”And I will just say hello, to the folks that you know, tell them you won’t be long.”
Mel’s lips whistled along once more. Deep down, he wanted to hear her ‘sing’ like this more often. The radio had started fizzling out again, as if the quality couldn’t get any worse.
”They’ll be happy to know, that as I saw you go, you were singing this song.”
Thankfully, they did get to the end of the song, but when they tried to tune it to see if any other signals could be received, the two of them ended up empty handed. Mel would appreciate what they had though. Once they’d started to sit down again, Virgil spoke up.
“You never told me you could dance, you never fail to surprise, Mel.” He complimented, “That was…That was nice.”
Mel scribbled a note.
”You weren’t too bad yourself.”
“Thanks.”
Virgil found himself unconsciously humming until the car ran out of gas.