A/N: I ought to be writing on my other fic, but I felt like writing something light and fluffy. Thus this little thing.

Disclaimer: No, I don't own anything. Not making a profit, sadly.

"All right, you're finished. Now see how it feels."

Ratchet put down the welder in his hand and watched as Mirage got up from the berth, walking to and fro on the floor somewhat gingerly.

"Perfect," he said, smiling. "Thanks, Ratchet."

"Yeah, well, no problem," Ratchet replied, somewhat distracted as he wiped the tools he had used to replace Mirage's knee joint and put them back in their respective places. "Now get out." He waved half-heartily towards the door.

Mirage seemed happy to comply and quickly left the med bay, leaving Ratchet alone to clear up. Sighing softly he picked up yet another tool and started to wipe it off with the cleansing solution and put it down in its rack with far greater gentleness than he usually showed his patients. He was feeling somewhat disappointed and distracted, and it made him feel annoyed. Get over it, he thought, he's got a very busy schedule. He can't be expected to remember everything. It's not that important anyway. What is a stupid human year, after all?

But he did think it was important, in a way, and he did expect Prowl to remember it. The whole notion of anniversaries, while initially dismissed as another human peculiarity, had sort of slowly rubbed off on them, and even the 'bots who weren't usually into human things had started to observe certain anniversaries. It had spread, osmosis-like, until most of the Ark thought it natural that a couple would want to celebrate their first year together.

So why had Prowl just run off to work first thing in the morning, without even waiting for him to wake up?

Closing the soft bag around the tools and putting it away on a shelf he pondered the question. It wasn't unusual for one of them to go off without waking the other; it was seen as a gesture of care and not of ignorance. Neither of them got as much recharge as they should, so to wake their partner would be rather... egoistical. But he had thought that Prowl would still be there when he woke up. He had thought that today would be special enough for the tactician to stay a little bit longer and not rush off to work first thing in the morning. Primus, he already worked more than any other 'bot on the Ark (except maybe for Optimus), surely he could take half an hour off his schedule to enjoy a quiet morning with his partner?

With that in mind he grabbed a cloth and started to clean the berth. It didn't really help his pondering mood that he had precious little to distract him with. There hadn't been a battle for days, and for some unfathomable reason most of the Ark's resident were keeping calm. No pranks, no brawls in the corridors, no weird accidents. Ergo, not much for him to do. The only person who'd come to see him all day had been Mirage, who'd managed to twist his leg in a weird way, tearing the struts in his knee joint. He refused to say how he'd gotten hurt, and Ratchet was not in a mood to ask.

So, when Jazz suddenly burst into the room, filling the room with his rather exuberant personality, Ratchet was both relieved and a bit annoyed. The saboteur jumped onto a berth and looked at Ratchet, a large smile plastered on his face. The medic looked at him, somewhat perplexed that the cheerful 'bot wasn't saying anything, just kept smiling at him. Well, grinning was probably a more apt description. Like he knew something that Ratchet didn't...

"What?" he finally barked, tired of the scrutinising. Jazz's smile got even wider, if possible.

"Nuthin'", he said, and before Ratchet could ask him why then was he grinning like an idiot, his comlink beeped.

"Yes?" he said, somewhat grouchingly, as he saw Jazz slide off the berth and disappear out of the door. Not that he had any time to ponder the strange visit, as Optimus's voice cut through the silence.

"Ratchet? I apologise for the inconvenience, but I got a call from the Saint Mary's Hospital, they were going to have a lecture from this famous surgeon, but now it turns out that he's sick, and they desperately need a replacement. Someone special, because apparently doctors from all over the country have been travelling there for the lecture and the organisers would hate to disappoint them. I know you were supposed to have the night off, but..." he trailed off, and Ratchet sighed heavily.

"I understand, Prime. Just give me the coordinates for the place; I'm sure I can find something to talk about."

Not that he looked forward to it. Spending the entire evening talking to human doctors... well, it could be interesting, certainly, but this night... he shook his head. Sure, Prowl would understand. Pit, he would probably not even notice it, submerged in his work as he seemed today. But still...

He received the coordinates and the time from Optimus, and leaved the med bay. At the entrance to the Ark he transformed and rolled out towards the coordinates, some 15 miles away. It was already early evening, and soon the sun would set in its usual show of deep red and vibrant pink. Not that he was watching the sky. He was barely watching the road; instead he was deep in thought, thinking of what to talk about during the lecture (finally settling on how certain surgical equipment could be improved), and also about the stupidness of the whole day, from the morning until now. It truly felt like a day wasted, he'd done nothing important, and he hadn't had the chance to see his lover all day. What a worthless anniversary.

He was so deep in thought he barely noticed as he came up on his coordinates, and it wasn't until his HUD started blinking that he was there that he actually looked around. He frowned. There was no hospital in sight, only a long stretch of rocky beach. He moaned softly, just what he needed, he'd gotten the wrong coordinates and now he was somewhere else entirely. Cursing he double-checked them, just in case, but nope, this was the spot Optimus had indicated. He had started opening a line to Optimus as he noticed something, hidden halfway behind a protruding cliff. Curiosity getting the better of him he started towards it. The call could wait a few minutes.

Turning around the cliff he almost jumped in surprise. There was a fire burning, large by human measurements but the size of an ordinary campfire to him, as well as a large blanket; and strangest of all, several cubes of energon. He stared at the sight for a moment, not sure of what he was seeing. Clearly no human had arranged this. He took another step toward the fire, feeling the gentle warmth of it, and then he actually did jump as he heard a voice behind him.

"Please, sit down."

He knew that voice. He knew that voice so well, and he turned around, a surprised smile on his face.

"Prowl...?"

The tactician was standing behind him, white armour glowing almost orange in the light of the fire, smiling almost shyly at him.

"I'm glad you came," he said.

Ratchet just stared at him for several moments.

"You... you arranged this? Wait a minute. So there is no hospital? No lecture? No sick doctor?" Suddenly he understood what Jazz's strange visit had been about, surely he knew about this. And Prowl had dragged Prime into it as well... that sneaky little thing!

Prowl just shook his head, still smiling.

"I wanted to surprise you. You do remember what day it is today, don't you?" Ratchet just nodded, to stunned to talk, as Prowl took a step forward, taking his hand in his, guiding him down to sit on the blanket by the fire. "Here, I brought some energon," he said, handling Ratchet a cube.

"I– uh, thank you."

"They say it's going to be a beautiful sunset tonight. I've never really looked at one properly, but I thought that if I'm going to do that, I want to do it with you."

Ratchet looked out over the ocean, and sure, the sun was beginning to set, colouring the sky in various shades of pink, orange, blue and red.

"It's pretty," he agreed. "Not as pretty as you, though," he added, grinning sideways at his partner who just bowed his head coyly.

They sat in silence for a while, just enjoying the gentle touch of their hands in each other's, watching the sun slowly dip below the surface of the ocean.

"You know," Ratchet said as the last of the light had died away and they were left in the glow of the fire, "I almost thought you'd forgotten about today."

Prowl looked at him, a surprised look passing over his face.

"Ratchet..." he said. "I would never forget."