Exactly on Valentine's day! My greatest accomplishment yet, guys! Sorry it's been months since I updated but I have exams, work, and projects beyond compare right now, and I'm hoping for a little sympathy... :I

But I am not the one who needs help in this fanfiction! :D

Transformers © IDW and all their artists and comic man, Hasbro, and Takara.

I'd rather drink the punch and die poor

than bite the apple and die rich.

I'm just trying to find a way to get by and meet people

with out having to take my clothes off.

Or write rape me in sharpie all over my forehead.

No matter how it happens,

there needs to be a redistribution of wealth in a way that isn't stealing, like taxes do to us.

If the people got together and built an empire,

then together they would rule it and take care of all that needs to be done.

Like business that actually works,

like a friendship,

not a one night stand.

Y'all know what I mean?

I just turned 20.

43 minutes ago, I'm excited.

~Hunter ( )

He was tired of the creaking, the groaning, and the hiss of frames letting the stress of being stiff as they walked and stretched when they left. He'd fixed them, he'd hear their story out, he'd lecture or complain, they'd leave. That's how its always been and he didn't feel any difference in the way they left. Silent and disregarded him.

He was just a medic, he must not have feelings. Feeling didn't get anyone anywhere. He had a good reason for his no emotion quota and how he would just scowl rather then have a straight face, but he guessed it was pathetic so he just dismissed his thoughts. He wasn't very fond of how First Aid was jumpy and constantly looked for his sticker of approval. First Aid was going to be the heir to the medical bay soon (or at least that's what he felt like) and he needed to learn that that one opinion doesn't matter to a medic. Pit, even he didn't care if Rodimus or Ultra Magnus liked his treatments.

He was just a medic, huh?

Soon, he began to clean everything up as his internal clock practically said, "QUITTING TIME!" He about punched his own helm about that too. In space, you couldn't look out a window and expect to go, "Hey, the suns out! It's noon!" because you saw moons and suns ever so often and after some time, you'd see an occasional lonely dead planet out of nowhere. He was never able to have a quitting time, he was the cleaner and datapad mech for the medical bay, even with First Aid and Ambulon fixing the other side of the med bay.

This time was different though. He suddenly felt something in his back pop and his wrist practically exploded in mixtures of pain and freezing numbness. He had to lean against a berth and to not get everything in his body to fall out in pain or nausea. He felt First Aid and Ambulom try and help him but he dismissed them as he just sat on the medical berth behind him. That stopped his spinning and nausea but the pain was indeed spacing out in his wrist and upper waist.

He was about to get up again but he fought again it, his back was on fire worse then his servos. And he just got these servos from his trip with Drift and Pipes to Delphi, where he meet First Aid, Ambulom, and Fortress Maximus.

He almost gave up on trying to numb his sensors in his body when a tall but lithe frame tried to get past the crowd of two medics in front of him.

"Hurting through the new appendages?" The smooth voice said, "Well, I didn't cut them off Pharma cleanly so I expected you to have small problems with 'em."

He looked up to see the white and red frame he had seen in here not to long ago. Drift. The ex-Decepticon was very lean as he stood over top of the sitting medic. The TiC of the Lost Light was watching him with knowing optics and a small smile that could have almost been counted as a frown if you didn't have very good sight. And for him, he was giving himself a little bit too much credit, he did have some good eyesight left.

"No, I leveled your handiwork off and I'm glad to say, there was no evidence you even cut them off another living Autobot." He said and looked up a little at the superior officer, "Even if it was in an attempt to save my hide."

First Aid and Ambulom didn't move. Usually, any Autobot whom would of heard of a ex-Decepticon cutting off limbs from a fellow Autobot would have made them run, but everyone in here knew Pharma. Some more then others. Everyone in here was glad Drift had cut off Pharma's servos, that means that mad doctor is either dead from his fall or unable to harm another poor sparked mech or femme that crossed his path. After the disease was passed out by Pharma to everyone, only First Aid and Ambulom were left alive because of their failure to transform and start the disease within themselves.

Smart mechs, even if Ambulom didn't have a good alt mode at all.

"Well, I was hoping to see at least some of my work pass on." Drift said and chuckled, "The fruits of a labor?"

"Well," He said and said sarcastically, "your labors are over and I hope you like that I am enjoying these new servos."

"No." Drift said and just chuckled again.

"Stubborn child." Was all he said to the white mech after that.

Drift frowned and he had the happy look in his optics go to the defensive type. Drift hated being called a "kid," "child," or even "childish." Anything that had to do with being ignorant or less then what he is. And if remembered what Drift told him, he was "diligent and spiritual." Whatever...

"I don't like being called that." Drift said and he stepped in front of the old medic.

"Well, then stop being it. Your almost as bad as Swerve or Rodimus, maybe even Tailgate." The old medic said and groaned as he heard that Primus forsaken pop noise again, this time amplified by the silence.

Drift sucked in air through his teeth and looked down again, but he didn't say an remark to the harsh gear noises. He just stood there and that was all he needed to do.

No words.

No actions.

No direct attention to the old timer.

Just his presence was good enough to be there. A nice aura and spark to be around. Ratchet cursed, he was turning into a spiritual mech himself with Drift just standing there. But who was complaining...?

Drift would have dragged the medic out of the med bay had it not been for the sickly noise of breaking wires and snapping gears. He was a very sensitive mech, he knew when to leave well enough alone. But when he saw First Aid and Ambulom circling Ratchet, he just had to intervene because it was past Ratchet's shift hours. He should know, he and Ultra Magnus were shift directors. He was going to ask the old medic if he wanted to join him at Swerve's bar, it should be abandoned other then a few occasionally bots.

Now, he wasn't so sure that it was a good idea inviting Ratchet there anymore. Drift had asked Ratchet if he would join him but Ratchet looked up at him with defiance and rejection before shutting all emotions out, but cheers to the younger medics when they said that Ratchet would definitely join him sooner or later. He knew he could count on them to somehow get Ratchet to chill with the rest of the crew.

Now, he was kind of regretting it.

He was right, the bar had been practically empty when he arrived but for some reason, Swerve had turned the lights so dim that the lowest grade engex could even glow bright and pink, red, and violet lights were rotating around the room. It was too romantic a setting for an empty bar. He had ordered a drink of high grade and sat in a seat at the end of the bar, just off the center of the room. Drift wasn't that big an alcoholic anymore, but he could stand a few eight cubes before he even got the feeling of falling over. He had noticed mechs were piling in when music started to play, thick heavy bass music that was a little out of his taste and the room could have vibrated with the bass. Mechs came in in pairs and he made a noise in his throat, he could see all groups were anxious (or annoyed) by being here with the other beside them. Cyclonus and Tailgate. Skids came by himself but eventually stood by Swerve behind the bar. Fortress Maximus and Rung, somehow Rung must have gotten the unstable mech to agree. Trailbreaker and Pipes. Blaster dragging Red Alert. And even Rodimus whom was being tailed by Ultra Magnus. The frag did Rodimus do that? And soon, the whole crew packed in the bar.

And suddenly it all made sense to Drift, it was a romantic theme tonight. Swerve chose themes for his bar and what he called "Friday Night shindig." And he regretted inviting the medic here, it would look like he had planned this and be seriously didn't.

This was going to be a long night...

Drift had spaced out, when he came to, the music had changed to a softer but more speedy romantic song as he looked around. The party had escalated from mechs walking in to mechs actually hopping on their partners or gambling on things he'd rather not share. He looked down at his servo and found his energon had been stolen and that made him feel bad, had he been so out of it that he hadn't heard a intoxicated oaf steal his energon clumsily?

But what made him jump was there was someone sitting next to him. He was surprised because he had put his swords in the chair next to him. He may have regretted inviting the medic, but he was not going to invite him and not save the medic a seat. He was gonna snap that the mech better move when he was a familiar boxy frame next to him.

Ratchet had actually come.

"I was wondering if you were ever going to acknowledge me." Ratchet said And drank his engex he must have gotten in his wait for Drift.

"I..." Drift couldn't come up with anything and he was about to to ask Ratchet why he had come here even if First Aid was the one to say he would come, but he said something stupid instead. "Who... who toke my energon?"

Ratchet chuckled with his lips softly brushing the edge of the cube he had and pointed into a crowd of party dancers who were hogging the dance floor, "Well, I may have seen a red and yellow mech take it and try to dump it on you until a giant blue mech stopped him and take him away to the opposite side of the bar."

Rodimus? Why would Rodimus have a reason to dump energon on him other then the fact he was drunk or wanted to just mess around with him?

"Don't think about it much, kid. We all have that one little niche everyone seems to want to pick at, and Rodimus must wanted to ruin your paint." Ratchet said and toke a tiny sip of his energon.

It was very hurtful. Not the Rodimus thing, he could handle their drunk captain. The kid thing again.

"I'm not a kid." Drift said and went looking for Swerve again, good thing Swerve came to him.

"Hello, my superior officer, may I get you anything?" Swerve asked and he almost dropped a cube of energon when someone made grabby-servos to the plate of high grade.

"What I had before." Drift said and looked at the crowd again, hoping Rodimus wasn't here now.

Swerve grabbed a random cube from his plate and set it on the table. Swerve didn't say anything as he went to serve another customer who was yelling for multiple different energons. Drift was about to drink when he realized that this wasn't his original blend of energon. It was some fancy silver engex mixed with the highest energon in the bar, and the cube size was a little bigger and the crystal glass thicker, showing it was very powerful.

"What the-? I asked for my original energon!" Drift said and was about to get Swerve's attention when Ratchet put a servo on his shoulder.

"While you were out, Swerve opened a little thing were someone can buy energon for someone else anonymously. You know, to match the theme." He explained and toke a sip of his regular energon.

So someone ordered him his ticket back to being an alcoholic? That was appreciative, but it was a little unnerving. Someone wanted him wasted off his aft of course...

"Did you see anyone buy this blend from Swerve?" Drift asked his guest and moved the cube around the table in a way to keep his servos busy.

"The Pit if I know. Everyone is doing it, they're going for the highest and most effective engex to get drunk on." Ratchet made a face. "I don't like it, people drowning in drugs and elixirs as they wait for someone to just strike a conversation that'll end up with them in another mechs berth."

"Well..." That ruled out Ratchet for the sender of the delicious looking blend, "Who would probably do this?"

Ratchet scratched his chin, "Well... a lot of mechs here were buying for another. Swerve set up where he gives ever mech a number and he'd point at someone and call them by their number, like he'd point at... Hound and say, "Number 21?" So it's basically anonymous."

"Any ideas, Ratch?" Drift asked again, a little unnerved again.

"Um..." Ratchet scratched his chin again, "Well, it could be Rodimus because he seemed in the mood to grab your attention. It could have been Trailbreaker, he's just passing energon around and hoping to get lucky. Um..."

Drift wanted to go into hysterics, how could Ratchet just sit there casually and not at least keep an optic out for him!

"I do think I know someone who might have done it..." Ratchet said and made a noise in his throat as he looked at Drift from the corner of his optic, "Someone pointed at you and Swerve smiled, I think it was-."

"OKAY MECHS AND GENTLER MECHS!" Swerved voice literally boomed out over the music and now silent mechs, "BE QUIET-Oh! You already are, sorry!"

Swerve had taken a stand on the stage near the back middle of the bar and he was grinning like he usually did when he had ideas and Drift didn't like it. Swerve was too sneaky and conniving as it is.

"As you know, the room was set to a romantic tone to... mellow you partygoers out for the challenge tonight." That made a lot of the room cheer while the others murmured and look around in anticipation, "The challenge is simple..."

It wasn't going to be easy...

"A few minutes ago, I asked a bunch of anonymous mechs who they'd like to participate in the challenge. And I'm sorry to say, all of you who bought from me were not asked because it was too obvious who you would choose." Half the room groaned and Swerve continued, "The challenge is based on a human phrase, thanks to our local mechs who've been there..."

A lot of optics turned to either Ratchet, Perceptor, or Hound. Drift could understand why to, they were survivors from the Earth battles. But why the people wouldn't look at Sunstreaker, Trailbreaker, or anyone else was weird.

Swerve went into a folder and brought out a few cards that were fancy with little gold trims on the edges, "The rules are that the two mechs must say who they interfaced with, or they kiss. Bot just one mech, both mechs. So the first up is..."

He fiddled with the cards.

"First up, Blaster and Red Alert!" Swerve made his way to the two and Skids moved the lights so they shown on the two friends as Swerve pointed the microphone to the two, "Who was your last interface with?"

Drift felt sorry for Red Alert, he could see the Security Director was going to snap and push someone down to get away from this Primus forsaken game. Drift would have done the same thing as well, he wasn't letting anyone in his personal life. No one needed to know about Wing...

Drift didn't listen, he didn't want to know how it was going, but his audios paid a little bit of attention to the actions. Red Alert went into a crazy sobbing fit and told he had last interfaced with a mech named Inferno. He was sad for the Security mech. And the thing was, Red Alert probably didn't want to kiss his friend, that's probably why he told and Blaster ruined that by not telling and had to kiss Red anyway. And from what he heard, Blaster enjoyed not telling about his last interface. Drift got mad with Blaster, he saw how Red Alert didn't want to kiss him so why did he-?!

"Soundwave." Ratchet said next to him.

"What?" Drift asked as he looked at his friends.

"Blaster's last interface was with Soundwave." Ratchet said and sighed, "Blaster was kidnapped and when he came back, he was pretty banged up. I looked over him and his spike was mangled, he was never the same for a while and he was never happy when the Decepticons or even when Soundwave was mentioned."

Drift didn't feel so mad anymore, when you put two and two together, Blaster actually had a good reason.

Drift didn't want to learn anything else, he didn't want to pry into a mechs love life or past, he already learned too much about Blaster already. He looked at the intoxicating mix and he slowly slid it to him as he heard Swerve move onto Cyclonus and Tailgate. He looked at it, the anonymous giver wasn't going to kiss him, Swerve had clarified it and the best thing was to just drink it. With luck, it might erase the information about Blaster's past. Yeah, those are the reasons he's drinking it...

He drank it with vigour and he instantly regretted it, it burned! He was about to cough but suddenly everything went numb and his face and pelvic area were warm with the feeling of heat he never knew. His body didn't tremble but it twitched every so often. The scary thing was, his body practically made him drink it all at once. He was scared he might over drink himself and crash badly...

All he remembered before he lost himself to a drunken haze was Swerve's voice crying, "Drift and Ratchet!" and a pink lights loomed over them...

Ratchet almost jumped out of his seat as he heard Swerve yell his and Drift's names over the microphone and a pink florescent light landed on them. He was watching Drift when he finished telling Drift about Blaster and he saw how Drift was upset about it but not mad like he was when he probably heard Blaster kiss Red Alert. It was about six-minutes later and a bunch of other couples other spilled their secrets or kissed when Drift (to Ratchet's horror) drank the whole engex intoxication mix in one long, long swig. Drift began to twitch and he let the energon cube just fall to the table as he twitch every second from a different part of his frame. When Swerve yelled their names, he just got mad at anonymous for putting Drift and Ratchet on Swerve's list.

Swerve did a happy little jog to Ratchet and Drift's seats and held the microphone to Ratchet, "Look at who is up next folks! Who was your last interface, Doc' bot?"

Ratchet didn't move and and didn't speak at all. When he looked up, he saw Pipes staring back at him, a sad look. He couldn't bring himself to say anything at first and he kept glancing between Pipes and Drift. The word was right on his glossa, Pharma. The name was right there but he couldn't say it, he kept thinking of what Pharma had done to all three of them...

"Well, Doc'? Your answer?" Swerve whispered to him.

Ratchet looked down at the drunken mess of a mech he called a host and he leaned into the microphone, "No one needs to know..."

Swerve smiled, "Tsh. Tsh. You know the rules, Ratch."

"I know." Ratchet sighed and looked at the intoxicated samurai.

Drift was looking back at him but even through the intoxicated haze, Ratchet could see Drift was very proud of Ratchet for not giving anything up to the crew. Drift leaned up straight and Ratchet was surprised Drift was sitting up without a hunch or falling back over. Drift smiled with a happy upturn of his lips and he leaned over to Ratchet while some of the crowd whistled. Ratchet leaned into Drift and they pressed their lips barely together where they could brush their lips together but soon, Drift closed the distance softly and he savored the taste of Drift on his lips even if he radiated engex.

It was soft, and Ratchet was glad that Drift wasn't giving into the effects of his drink and just jumping him or using force on him while they kissed. Ratchet let Drift run his glossa over his lip softly and Drift retreated slowly, making Ratchet follow him just as slowly but he stopped the connection as well when he realized Drift was ending the kiss. They had tuned out the crowd and just stared at each other for a while before Swerve yelled out over the microphone.

"Looks like we know who's going to show the ol' Doc how to use the berth tonight!" Swerve said and the crowd yelled and cried out erratically in ecstatic.

Ratchet wanted to tell the little mech off but when Drift kissed him his check, Drift got his attention.

"Maybe Swerve is right. Maybe... it's time friends become even more friends."

Ratchet didn't know how to answer Drift but the kisses rained his faceplates and Ratchet found himself against the bar tabletop.

Happy Valentine's Day! I just had too!

R & R