Hungover Medical Student

Ratchet has returned from his extended stay away from their part of Iacon and has time to see him again.

Orion is just going to grab on and hug him tight.

Ratchet simply smiles as he returns the hug with just as much gusto. 

leaderofteamprime‌:

“That’s good. Honestly, it took me a while to find my way around too. Didn’t help I had just had my latest frame upgrade right before we arrived, so I couldn’t even trust my wing sensors to help me around for a couple weeks.”

Roselight’s cube filled up quickly and she took it from the dispensor. When she turned to Ratchet, she noticed his look. “What?” she asked, wings dipping down, then up and spread. “Is there something on my wings?” She craned her helm to check but didn’t see anything.

With a slight shake of his helm, Ratchet folded his arms across his chassis. “I’ve noticed you’ve been pretty flighty around me,” he replied, unable to prevent himself from cracking a small smirk at his unintentional pun. “So far, this is the longest you’ve spoken to me without running away.”

“Oh.” Her wings dipped down, and being called out on it, she recognized she was being ridiculous. Yes, she was missing her Ratchet, and would until he came back, but that was no reason to be so rude to his younger self. Time to push aside the emotion, and act logically, like he had taught her.

He dismissively waved his servo as he stepped over to begin filling up his own cube. “I was only teasing, Rose. It’s alright, really,” he said as he looked at her with a reassuring smile. “No offence taken.” After a few moments, he lifted his filled cube up to his intake to take a sip, and was only barely able to repress his almost reflexive grimace. Primus...plain Energon was going to take some getting used to. 

leaderofteamprime‌:

The next two weeks were awkward, to put it nicely. The ‘Bots weren’t sure how to act around Ratchet, and more than once someone would say or do something expecting a certain reaction, then remember when they didn’t get it. Luckily, there were no major con movements, only small scuffles on patrol in which no one was hurt beyond scratched paint, so there was no need to test Ratchet’s medical training. 

Roselight was taking this turn of events the worst, spending more time than usual put flying to avoid running into him at base, and if they found themselves in the same room, she would stare for a moment, as if wishing her uncle-mentor would spontaneously returned. When he didn’t, she turned away and avoided looking at him again, distracting herself with whatever she could. 

But she couldn’t run forever, and so when Ratchet called to her as she was getting her energon, she jumped. Thankfully, she hadn’t started filling her cube, so she didn’t spill anything.

“Oh, hello Ratchet.” She placed her cube in the dispensor, and set it running. Inwardly, she cursed her manners as they had her ask “Coming in for a cube?”

Ratchet’s optics went a tad wide in surprise and he held his servos up in apology when he saw that he’d inadvertently startled her. “Oh, uh-…sorry, heh,” he said sheepishly.

Reaching out, he grabbed one of the empty cubes as he waited for her to finish and nodded his helm. “A well-deserved one, if you ask me. I only wandered aimlessly for five minutes this time.” After a second, he paused and gave her a curious look. “…Huh.”

“That’s good. Honestly, it took me a while to find my way around too. Didn’t help I had just had my latest frame upgrade right before we arrived, so I couldn’t even trust my wing sensors to help me around for a couple weeks.”

leaderofteamprime‌:

“We each have our own quarters. I’ll escort you.” Optimus led the way into the back of the silo, to their personal quarters. He stopped at the second door on the left of the hall. “This is your room. Bumblebee is on your left, while I am on the right. Everyone else is further down the hall.” He put in the door code, slowly so Ratchet could memorize it. “I will leave you to rest.” He turned back to the atrium, sending a message to the rest of the team to come back. This was going to be a long explanation.

As soon as Ratchet was gone, Roselight collapsed against Bumblebee in a hug, her vents hitching with quiet sobs. “He- he doesn’t know us. He doesn’t know me!”

Bumblebee held her, rubbing her back soothingly. “-We’ll figure this out, Rosie. Just like we did for Optimus.-”

“But we had a clue and a plan then. This we have nothing!” 

Bumblebee didn’t have an answer for that.

Ratchet made a mental note of everything they passed as he followed Optimus and made sure to pay careful attention to the directions and the code he was given. However, said task was a tad difficult due to his gaze not wanting to leave the towering form next to him. With a short nod of his helm - that wasn’t at all forced - he moved to step forward and only paused for a moment to watch the other leave before making his way inside.

To say that the room wasn’t much would’ve been a compliment; it was practically barren. There was nothing but a berth that seemed as comfortable as a pile of rocks, a small desk, and a couple crates stacked neatly on the side. At least his future self maintained his organizational skills. 

As much as he wanted to snoop through his own belongings, fatigue was quickly starting to catch up with him. Eventually, he decided to save that for another day and instead made his way to the berth. He did his best to ignore his discomfort and manually forced himself into recharge.

Deep down, he still hoped that this was all just a bad dream.

For the first time in two weeks, he managed to find the refueling station without getting lost. Wich was no small feat, considering that every single corridor in this Primus-forsaken place looked exactly the same. 

His optics scanned the room before landing on the femme he couldn’t help but feel somewhat awkward around. It took him a moment to recall her designation. 

“Hey…Roselight,” he greeted with as much casuality as he could muster as he made his way over to the dispenser. 

The next two weeks were awkward, to put it nicely. The ‘Bots weren’t sure how to act around Ratchet, and more than once someone would say or do something expecting a certain reaction, then remember when they didn’t get it. Luckily, there were no major con movements, only small scuffles on patrol in which no one was hurt beyond scratched paint, so there was no need to test Ratchet’s medical training. 

Roselight was taking this turn of events the worst, spending more time than usual put flying to avoid running into him at base, and if they found themselves in the same room, she would stare for a moment, as if wishing her uncle-mentor would spontaniously returned. When he didn’t, she turned away and avoided looking at him again, distracting herself with whatever she could. 

But she couldn’t run forever, and so when Ratchet called to her as she was getting her energon, she jumped. Thankfully, she hadn’t started filling her cube, so she didn’t spill anything.