Title: Love's Dilemma
Author: odd_stick
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are owned by Hasbro and friends.
Rating: PG
Pairing: Ratchet x Wheeljack (G1)
Prompt: Ratchet/Wheeljack; prompt – What have you done now? For _wilderness_
Summary: While repairing Wheeljack, Ratchet ruminates.
Warnings: A bit of fanon characterization.
A/N: I suck at thinking of titles. :P
"What have you done now?" was the question running through his processor in a repetitive loop. He didn't even know who the question was addressing anymore, himself or the stasis locked patient on the med berth.
He had seen Wheeljack in various states of disrepair so many times over the ages that he was surprised he hadn't lost count yet. This wasn't even the worst shape he had seen the engineer in before either. Growling at himself in frustration, he clamped another cut energon line. Seeing a friend injured always affected him to some degree, but never like this. Never so much that he was torn between screaming in rage and crying in despair to his spark's content, but he wasn't the type of mech to waste time on such outrageous displays of emotion. Except for the screaming and yelling part; he had no qualms about that when his patients decided to do something incredibly stupid and make his job of keeping them alive even more difficult.
But then again, this was the first time he was entrusted with the repair of someone he was…involved with. They hadn't given it a name yet, they hadn't even really talked about it. They had been friends for a long time and very recently, their relationship had evolved. They hadn't even noticed the changes until Bluestreak pointed out the way they acted around one another, and then the pieces fell into place.
There had been no need for courting, not after knowing each other for so long, but Wheeljack still tried to sneak a few miniscule romantic gestures in when he thought he could get away with it. To Ratchet's dismay, the engineer had also developed a thing for seeing him blush profusely when he wasn't sure how to react to such tokens of affection.
The two of them just fit comfortably together. Their personalities, while very different, balanced one another. Their scientifically inclined minds constantly challenged the other's limits and creativity. All in all, it was a wonderful, amazing thing they had between them.
It was also terrifying. So much was on the line for them both and Ratchet was getting his first taste of that. Wheeljack would survive these wounds, but what about next time? What if another invention went horribly wrong and did irreversible damage? What if during the next battle, somebody got a lucky shot in? So many what ifs…was it really worth the worry and sparkache?
After smoothing out the last weld and running a mental checklist, Ratchet finally brought the engineer out of stasis lock. He watched as the tiny pinprick of blue expanded and brightened until Wheeljack's optics were fully online.
Turning his head carefully, Wheeljack met Ratchet's stare. "Hey Doc," he greeted quietly, voice riddled with static from being in stasis. "Guess my new invention isn't user friendly yet."
A rough grinding noise escaped Ratchet as he tried to hold back a laugh. He flicked the closest head fin just enough to sting, before manually retracting his lover's mask. "You stupid genius," he growled right before diving in for a desperate kiss. Maybe he was a bit of a masochist, but he wouldn't give this up for anything.