Title: Catch You, Catch Me
Rating: K
Universe: TF:Prime [postwar]
Characters: Ratchet, Wheeljack, Smokescreen, Bulkhead, OCs [Persephone, Phoenix]
Pairings: mentioned Smokescreen/Wheeljack
Content Advisory: past mechpreg [budding], minor spoilers for Predacons Rising
More selfindulgent kidfic, because I needed a break from writing solid Ratchet-feels and Persephone is stuck on my inspiration like a little limpet. A six-foot-four, three-hundred-eighty pound limpet, but a limpet nonetheless. Chapters are not likely to be long, because I'm pretty much freewheeling right now, but let's see what it turns out in the end. :D
Title comes from a song I've had on repeat for the last few days; it's rapidly becoming Persephone's theme.
CATCH YOU, CATCH ME
Just outside of the Protihexi city limits, there was a place where the skyline opened up and became a true horizon, stretching out to infinity beyond the vast flatness of the plains which bordered the city on the south. It reminded Ratchet of Earth.
Naturally, the first time Persephone asked about that Unicron-forsaken mudball – said with a certain fondness that only someone who had known Ratchet for a very long time would pick up on – Ratchet made the resolution that he would take her there. Short of a working space bridge, which they did not have at this stage due to the interference from a nearby pulsar, it was the closest he could give her.
As luck would have it, she went and told Phoenix. Who went home and told his carrier. Who called up Ratchet late one night and somehow managed to wrangle his way into what had been, until that point, looking like a relaxing little family vacation.
With Wheeljack along, the 'relaxing' part got tossed clean out the window.
The 'family' part too, Ratchet supposed, although with the way Persephone seemed to regard the apartment Wheeljack shared with Smokescreen, Bulkhead and their little Pitspawn of a son as a second home – and Phoenix vice versa – one could probably make a convincing argument to the contrary. Perhaps this was why humans had cousins?
By the time the stormy season was over, the road to the south had been repaired all the way out to the third set of city walls. Most supplies were being moved between the colonies via air transport at this stage of the rebuild, so international roading repair hadn't even been on the to-do list, let alone a priority. Past the third ring of walls they had to pick their way between mouldering towers and piles of rusting and corroded rubble, which slowed their cruising speed considerably. Ratchet kept a close eye on the local architecture, as did Bulkhead. Any structure failed their resident construction expert's rigorous standards was given a wide berth.
This happened a lot. On the one hand, the incessant detours satisfied the sparklings' equally insatiable curiosity; on the other, it meant it took them almost half an orn to reach the planned campsite. By the time they finally rolled off the ancient highway, Ratchet's suspension was aching worse than the time he'd been beaten half to death by Predaking.
Well. Perhaps that was a slight exaggeration. Still, as he transformed and fished Persephone out of his cab, the warnings clustering his HUD suggested that now might be a good time – a very good time, in fact – to sit down for a bit.
As soon as his aft hit the ground, Persephone squirmed out of his grip and dashed over to Phoenix, who had just been similarly evicted from Bulkhead's back seat by Smokescreen. A rapid-fire conversation in sparkling binary ensued, too quick for Ratchet's tired mind to follow.
They shared a look, and he'd spent far too long running around after her to not recognise that evil glimmer in the optics. Persephone chittered, Phoenix screebled authoritatively back, and earned a calculated snub for his efforts. A pleading warble coaxed her into forgiveness, at which point he treated her to a decisive nod and then ran off. Persephone followed at a more sedate pace.
Well. Wheeljack could deal with whatever that was, and by Primus Ratchet wished him luck. He was just going to stretch out here in the sun and sleep away his aches.
Just for a while at least…