A/N: This is a one-shot based on Chapter 3 of Ratchet's Bucket List. Told you it was coming. I was hoping to do this after the whole fic was done, but writer's block stinks... So, here it is...Remember, Ironhide is the G1 Red mech... :P
It had only been four Earth hours and already Ironhide was going out of his processor. He vented very heavy sighs. Ratchet had taken away all of his weapons for one Earth week. He was always careful. He wouldn't be Prime's weapons specialist if he wasn't careful. He was a veteran warrior and he wasn't ready to retire from active duty just yet. He always maintained his weapons properly as well, so it wasn't his fault that four bots had been injured when his weapons misfired. It wasn't like he had been aiming for the bots Ratchet had mentioned. They just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The red mech stood up from the chair he had been sitting in and walked over to his gun cabinet. He opened it up and looked inside the barren cabinet. He shook his helm sadly and closed it. He walked over to his mate Chromia's gun cabinet. He tried the combination - It didn't open.
Chromia had been watching Ironhide the whole time. "I changed the combination for the week, Ironhide. You won't get into my cabinet. You're not allowed to touch any kind of weapon for one Earth week."
"Aw Mia..." Ironhide replied, "Ah'm not as dangerous as Ratchet said. Those who were injured were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"I know that 'Hide, but Ratchet made sure that everybot knows. We're all supposed to make sure that you are nowhere near a weapon."
"Ah'm not a sparklin'," Ironhide complained, "Ratchet's just steamed because I almost injured his spark-mate."
"What if it was reversed and I was almost injured, what would you do?" Chromia challenged.
"Ah would offline him..." Ironhide stated.
"Then can't you understand how he feels? Besides, Flareup was injured before Medic Red Alert. Didn't you care that you could have seriously injured her?"
"Of course Ah care, Mia..." he grumbled, "She's our little Flare. Ah love her..."
~Eight Earth hours later~
Ironhide really wanted to shoot something. He didn't care at this point. He was getting agitated with everything. The slightest thing would set him off. He needed to touch a gun, but there were none in his presence to get ahold of.
A few nanokliks later, Chromia and Flareup entered the quarters together. They were joking about something that had happened in the recreation room earlier, but didn't notice that Ironhide was sitting there when they entered, so when he heard them laughing, he thought they had been laughing at him.
"What are ya two laughin' about?" Ironhide grumbled, "Ya two better not be laughin' at me."
Flareup giggled, headed over to Ironhide and gave him a peck on the cheek-plate. "Nah Ironhide...I would never laugh at ya! I love ya!" She gave him a big hug and gave him a puppy-dog look, which was something she had picked up from Carly a long while back.
Ironhide conceded and said, "Ya know Flare, that look always melts my spark. Yer way too good at that. So what were ya two laughin' about?"
"Something really funny happened in the Recreation room to the twins," Chromia told him, "They tried dancing to some music that Blaster was playing and ended up twisting some joints out of place. They looked like that twisty salty snack that humans like to eat."
"I think the word you're looking for is a pretzel," Flareup giggled.
"That's it!" Chromia exclaimed with a giggle as well.
Ironhide chuckeled. "Serves 'em righ'. Which set of twins were involved? It doesn't matter which. Ah'm jus' curious."
Through a fit of giggles, Flareup said, "Sides and Sunny!" She calmed down long enough to continue. "Sunny was really upset though. He's always worried about scuffing his paint job. I thought Tracks was bad enough back when he decided to play tag on the Demolitions field. That mech still complains about it every chance he has. He's such a femme! There's not a lot of mechly mechs left that aren't taken, are there?"
"That's a sad truth..." Chromia ageed with a sigh.
~Two Earth Days Later~
Ironhide was now half-way through his week of no weapons. It was taking all of Chromia and Flareup's efforts to keep Ironhide away from the firing range and any place else he could get his servos on a weapon.
Ironhide had decided to spend the afternoon with Flareup while Chromia went on patrol with the other femmes. He loved spending time with his little Flare, even though she wasn't so little anymore.
After spending a wonderful afternoon together, they were enjoying a can of oil each to keep their joints lubricated. Ironhide was like a Sire to Flareup and Flareup loved him. They were having a very nice conversation, when Skids and Mudflap headed over to them.
"Hey Big Guns! It must suck not bein' able ta shoot anythin'," Skids taunted him.
"Yeah, dat must be awful," Mudflap taunted as well, "We can do anythin' we want an' ya can't threaten to shoot us!"
"Why ya punks...If I was able ta shoot ya there would be nothin' left of ya," Ironhide grumbled, "Ya should be so lucky."
Skids and Mudflap continued to tease and taunt Ironhide. Ironhide was doing his very best to keep his anger under control.
Flareup was getting upset as well. She turned to face them - anger clearly written on her faceplate. "If you two don't get outta here, the femme's will have two new targets for practice and I will make sure none of the medics repair you!"
"Dat's not fair! You an Autobot! Autobot's don' use weapons on otha' Bots...only Cons!" Mudflap exclaimed.
Optimus had been sitting in the Recreation room with a few senior officers, relaxing and drinking oil. He had heard the whole exchange between the four bots. He excused himself from the group, stood up and headed towards the door of the room passing by the aforementioned Bots.
"I will make an exception and allow it to happen," he told the twins, "You know better than to tease others when they are on a break from using weapons for safety reasons. I want the both of you to report to Prowl now for your punishment."
"Aww nuts..." they both complained, then left the room hanging their heads.
Prime turned to Flareup and Ironhide and gave them a rare smile. "I want the both of you to enjoy the rest of your day."
Both Flareup and Ironhide smiled back. "Thank you, Prime," they replied in unison.
Optimus left the room and headed back to his quarters. As he did, he commed Prowl to let him know that Skids and Mudflap were supposed to be on their way to him for punishment. When Prowl had asked Prime what those two had done to deserve being punished, Prime told him the whole thing.
Prowl told him that he would take care of the twins and give them a logical and reasonable punishment.
~The Last Day~
Ironhide was sitting in the quarters he shared with his spark-mate. He thought he had done well the whole week he had no weapons to use, and couldn't wait to get them back tomorrow.
It had been a very long week, but he had been very grateful to have his spark-mate Chromia and favorite femme Flareup to help him through something he never thought would happen.
Chromia entered their quarters and saw her spark-mate sitting there looking at magazine about guns that Sparkplug had brought by to try cheering Ironhide up. she couldn't tell if he was reading the articles in the magazine or just looking at the pictures. Knowing him - he was probably looking at the pictures.
She walked over to him with a seductive look on her face-plate. "Hide..." she said in a seductive voice, "You've been very good...How about we do something fun?"
Ironhide looked up from the magazine and noticed what Chromia was doing. He set the magazine down and stood up slowly. He walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her. He smiled at her and she smiled back.
After making sure that everything was set, they headed into their berthroom and were very intimate with each other. It was a 'reward'. Chromia thought it best to reward him for getting through the week without resorting to violence of any kind.
After their intimacy, they lay on the berth together, (semi-entangled), and just enjoying the sound of their beating sparks. It had been a few weeks since they had been intimate with each other.
They had been trying for a sparkling of their own, but so far they had no luck. They had been to the medics and the medics couldn't find anything wrong. Ironhide and Chromia were disappointed, but hadn't given up hope just yet. Maybe Primus would eventually give them the sparkling they desperately wanted. Thankfully they had Flareup, and she was more than any of them could handle.
Tomorrow Ironhide would have his weapons back and he would be himself again. For now, Chromia was enjoying the quiet side of Ironhide, which he had never shown before.
A/N: To read anything before this one-shot and what happens after you MUST read my chapter 3 of Ratchet's Bucket List.
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