"Ratchet… Ratch…" Ratchet was pulled from his thoughts by Alice, the very same human femme that he'd been thinking of, who was now standing before him.
"Ah! Sorry for that; my thoughts were elsewhere," the Autobot medic stated as he scooped Alice up and placed her on his desk.
"What are you doing, Ratchet?" Alice asked, smiling up at him.
He couldn't help but crack a smile in response. "I'm working on the Ground Bridge. It needs a little bit of work."
Alice nodded at his statement then, much to his surprise, she climbed up his arm and onto his shoulder, where she sat. Ratchet nervously cleared his throat, his fans whirring. Then he moved away from the Ground Bridge and placed Alice on the ground as he kneeled down to complete his work on the control panel. Alice didn't move away immediately; instead, she stayed beside him while he worked for hours, only moving over to the nearby wall when she began to doze off. She sat down and leaned against said wall before nodding off.
When Ratchet was finally done, he looked around, noticing that Alice was no longer beside him. His search was quick and soon yielded results; he found her propped against the wall, fast asleep. A smile appearing on his face, he walked over and scooped her up before carrying her over to his medical berth. Before he set her down, however, he grabbed a folded blanket off of the nearby couch and placed in on the berth, then placed Alice down on it so that she could sleep comfortably. Then he sat down next to the berth and fell asleep himself, exhausted after his work on the Ground Bridge.
When Alice finally awoke, it was quite early in the morning; the other Autobots were still recharging, and the other humans were nowhere to be found. She looked around to see Ratchet sleeping nearby, then smiled as she crawled over. "Ratchet," she whispered, attempting to wake him, although her efforts were fruitless. "Ratch," she repeated as she stroked his cheek.
When she finally became aware that it was just her and Ratchet, Alice took a deep breath. She steeled herself, then leaned over and kissed his cheek. He remained completely unperturbed by her action and did not move. She blushed, realising that her action had probably been one of the stupider things she'd ever done. "I can't… I can't tell you how I feel," she whispered, turning her head away. All of the confidence that she had managed to muster had deserted her, and she felt rather silly.
As soon as she turned her head back, she noticed that Ratchet's optics were open, washing her in a soft blue glow and causing her to squeak in alarm.
He frowned. "What are you doing up?" he asked, his voice quiet. Alice gulped nervously and shook her head quickly.
"Oh, it's, uh, nothing!" she stammered. "I just had a bad dream, that's all." She scratched the back of her head nervously. "I'm… just going back to sleep now." She crawled away from the confused medic, then laid back down on the blanket, closing her eyes and turning her back.
Ratchet smiled as he readjusted his arms and reached a servo out, using a single digit to stroke Alice's soft human cheek, completely unaware that one of her eyes was open. "I heard you," he whispered to the supposedly asleep human femme, "And I feel the same way." He felt himself blush as Alice quickly rolled back over to face him, and he sheepishly looked away as she examined his face. "Oh… you, uh, heard me," he stammered. "I, uh, thought you'd gone back to sleep."
Alice giggled softly. "Don't worry about it," she breathed, sitting up. "It's actually kind of nice, knowing that you feel the same way." She smiled, and he returned the smile before shifting himself so that he was sitting and facing her, his face just touching the very tip of her nose. Alice's heart skipped a beat; she wondered if this was actually happening or if it was simply another dream. At the same time, Ratchet was thinking the exact same thing…
So it was with great reluctance that he actually pulled his face away, although he hid this reluctance with a small chuckle. Alice pouted unhappily, causing Ratchet to grin.
"What's with the big pout?" he asked jokingly, knowing full well why she was pouting… and knowing equally well that he'd just teased her.
"You big tease!" she complained, earning nothing more than another chuckle as he stood.
"I know I am," he said, "But I can be a lot worse… and you don't really want to see that." He winked at her, making her blush again. "Also, there is the issue of the others walking out and seeing us, if we did end up kissing." He shrugged. "I'd hate to find out what the result of that would be, and it's almost time for them to wake up. Sorry," he said, causing Alice to pout again.
The sound of a footfall caused Alice to stop pouting and look over at the nearby door to notice someone standing there. It was Optimus Prime, the leader of the Earth-based Autobots, and she found herself panicking. She desperately hoped that he hadn't noticed anything amiss… but, of course, it was too good to be true.
A small, knowing smile appeared on the Prime's face as he looked between Alice and Ratchet. Then he placed a finger to his lips and said, "I will not say anything."
Ratchet and Alice glanced at each other before the medic looked back and nervously asked, "Uh… how much did you actually see…?"
Optimus shrugged. "You teasing the young human," he merely stated, walking over to one of the monitors and starting to type away.
Ratchet grunted. "Well," he muttered, "If you say anything, I will stab you in the optic with my blow torch." As this was under his breath, only Alice heard it, and it caused her to attempt to suppress her giggles.
Ratchet wandered over to where Optimus was working, and the two began working together. They worked until the remainder of the Autobots – Arcee, Bulkhead and Bumblebee – walked out, only for Optimus to immediately turn to them and motion to the Ground Bridge with an inclination of his head. Ratchet opened it, understanding that Optimus was taking the others on a mission, and the three other Autobots turned to face their leader.
"Alright," he said, his tone of voice calm and serious, "We are heading to an energon mine that has not been entirely stripped." He looked over at Bumblebee and Arcee. "You two will be together," he said, then he looked at Bulkhead and said, "And you, Bulkhead, shall be with me." He turned to look at Ratchet. "Ratchet, you will stay here on Ground Bridge duty," he said, then turned to everyone and asked, "Are there any questions?" When everyone shook their heads, Optimus nodded and said, "Autobots, transform and roll out!" At his words, those who were going to the mine transformed into vehicular mode and drove into the bridge, with Ratchet closing it behind them.
He sighed in relief, thankful that Optimus had said nothing, and turned to face Alice. She was sitting on his medical table, keeping her eyes averted. He walked over and sat down on his chair, leaning close to Alice. She looked up at him as he did this, and their eyes met for the briefest of moments before she stood and walked closer to the medic's face.
He reached his servo up and stroked her face gently with a finger, leaving it to linger on her lips for a few moments before quickly pulling it away, not wanting to do that to Alice. She, however, did not have the same inhibitions as she leaned close to his face and gently pressed her lips to his. His eyes widened, and a small part of him wished that he could pull away, but the rest of him – spark included – prevented him from doing so.
Their lips lingered on each other's for a few moments longer before Ratchet finally regained control of himself and gently pushed Alice away with a finger. He was breathless, and she appeared to be the same way as he turned his head away and refused to look at her.
This confused her. "Is something wrong, Ratch…?" she asked, rubbing her arm nervously.
Ratchet slowly shook his head. "No… that felt… good," he admitted.
Alice's confusion grew. "So… why'd you pull away?" she asked.
The medic turned back to her and smiled. "Because I would have kept kissing you… and I would have lost track of time."
Alice soon had a cheesy grin plastered on her face. "C'mon… just one more?" she asked, holding up her index finger. Ratchet looked around nervously, then faced her again as she said, "Please?"
Ratchet sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine. One more, that's it," he grumbled before moving his face closer to Alice's. She, in turn, reached up to meet him, and when their lips touched again they held the kiss for about ten seconds. Ratchet, yet again, pulled away, but this time it was only for a brief interval so that they could catch their breath.
He was about to kiss her again when the communications suddenly opened. Both human and bot straightened and pulled their faces away, and Ratchet stood and walked over to the hub to notice that it was only Optimus.
"Optimus!" he exclaimed, and Optimus nodded.
"We are in need of a Ground Bridge," he said. "We have completed our survey, and we retrieved the other children." Then he cocked his head to the side. "Is Alice still at base with you?" he asked.
Ratchet nodded. "Yeah, she is," he confirmed. "Alright, one Ground Bridge coming up. See you shortly," he replied before shutting off the communication line. Then he turned back to Alice and shrugged before walking over to the control mechanism for the Ground Bridge and opened it. Optimus and the rest of Team Prime, humans included, walked in, and as soon as the bridge was closed they all looked the medic up and down. Optimus' eyes glowed, and Ratchet could see that Optimus knew that something had happened while they'd been gone. This caused the medic to scowl. "What?!" he demanded. "Stop staring at me!" he yelled defensively, causing the others (minus Optimus) to laugh.
"Someone sounds defensive today," Arcee jokingly stated, making Ratchet recoil in horror. Alice struggled to suppress a laugh until Arcee glanced at her curiously, silencing her and making her straighten up. Arcee shook her head before turning back to Ratchet, shrugging, and said, "Well, I suppose that you always sound like that."
"So," Optimus said, "Old friend, did you and Alice have fun?" A few nanoseconds later the Prime clapped his servos over his mouth, realising what he'd just said… and the implications of his words. Ratchet and Alice looked at each other for a few moments, an expression of shock and rage on Ratchet's face, and a nervous one on Alice's.
The other Autobots looked at their leader, confused, as Alice jumped off of the medical table and walked over to the other children. Every single one of the group watched as Ratchet transformed his servo into a blow torch, and Alice only then remembered the threat that Ratchet had made towards Optimus in case he ever mentioned anything.
"Uh…," Optimus said as he took a few steps back. "Old friend… what are you doing?" he asked, even though he knew full well what was about to happen.
Ratchet didn't answer Optimus' question. Instead, he gritted his teeth in anger and roared, "Come here, Optimus Prime!" as he charged. Optimus only had precious few seconds to jump out of the way, and even so, Ratchet came dangerously close to burning out his left optic. As soon as he'd dodged Ratchet's initial assault, Optimus fled down the hallway – humorously screaming like a little girl – with Ratchet giving chase and shouting profanities of the Cybertronian kind at the poor Prime. The others began to laugh, although none of them really understood what was going on, and Alice rolled her eyes as she followed after them. She soon found herself at the door of Ratchet's room and slipped inside, preparing to wait however long it took for Ratchet to finally calm down and stop chasing poor Optimus.
The medic didn't return until a few hours later, and by then she had climbed onto his berth and was sitting there twiddling her thumbs. When he finally did decide to grace Alice with his presence he initially didn't notice her, and almost turned the lights off before he actually noticed her sitting there.
He grinned. "You just could not resist, could you?" he asked.
Alice smiled sweetly and shook her head. "Nope. After all, you did rescue me that day from Decepticons…" Then she smiled. "And that day was also our first – if not one-sided – kiss… remember?" she explained, her hands on her knees.