Weekly Oneshot #3: (No Need To) Wish Upon a Star

Ratchet's tail flicked off a few pieces of dirt as he sat down on a large rock. He looked up at the Vedin sky: cloudless, the stars studded the sky like tiny diamonds, and several planets laid in the distance. A tiny breeze blew through the rocky terrain, making the Lombax's fur blow gracefully to the side, then settled back to its original positions. Ratchet gave a great big sigh of relief. It was over. It was all finally over. Dr. Nefarious had been finally stopped and the Great Clock was safe from falling into evil hands. But most important of all, he had his best friend back. Whenever he felt the satisfaction of having Clank back, he had the urge to pull the robot into a hug, but he was unable to do that at the moment. After the whole Great Clock ordeal, Clank's system had end up overworking itself, forcing the little robot to fall into a deep sleep so it could take a break. So when Ratchet had landed the ship on Veldin, he had put Clank to bed. Of course, the Lombax wanted to spend time with him because he had just gotten him back, but the little robot deserved some rest. Ratchet would be resting as well, but there was just too much on his mind at the moment.

The death of his father-figure, Alister Azimuth, was one of the main reasons for his insomnia. It had been so sudden. One moment, the elder was had been trying to kill Ratchet, the next he was saving him by giving his own life to stop the time shift. And then in one blast of white and blue light, Alister was gone. Ratchet was so caught off guard that he hardly knew how to feel about the general's death. But now that everything's over, he felt pretty sad. But, luckily, that sadness was buried by the happiness of seeing Clank jump into the passenger seat of Aphelion when he was about to leave the Great Clock. He still couldn't believe that he was willing to risk the erasing of his and the robot's friendship just to attempt to travel back in time. Sometimes he felt bad thinking about it.

All this thinking about Clank really made Ratchet want to see him. They had been separated for two years after all, he wanted to see his pal as much as he could. And Ratchet unexpectedly got his wish.

"Ratchet?"

"AH!" Ratchet placed a hand on his chest as he nearly jumped out of his fur. He looked over his shoulder and at the tiny robot, who was also looking at him. "Don't sneak up on me like that, pal. Nearly gave me a heart attack."

"Sorry," Clank said, walking up beside the Lombax. "What are you doing out here?"

"Nothing, really. I just...couldn't get to sleep. Too much stuff has happened in the past few hours, I'm still trying to wrap my head around all of it. And what are you doing out here? Last time I checked, your exhausted systems knocked you out."

"I managed to reboot myself. When I noticed that you were not in the area, I set out to look for you. By the way, I must ask, why did you bring us to Veldin? I thought that your first intention would be to go see Talwyn at her space station."

"Eh, I dunno. I guess I wanted a little break from it all. Plus, I haven't been here in years, I guess that I was feeling a little homesick."

"That is understandable."

The two sat in silence for a few moments. The only sound that could be heard was the tiny clicks of Heliogrub claws hitting the ground as the tiny luminous creatures walked about the hard ground. A few shooting stars soared across the dark sky. Ratchet looked up at them, his large pupils reflecting the streaks of light that the stars left behind. Suddenly, he spoke.

"Say something confusing."

"Beg pardon?" Clank had a confused look on his face.

"I want you to say something that I wouldn't understand."

"Like what?"

"I dunno, anything!"

"Okay, um...oh! How about I talk about an element from the periodic table? Ooh, but which one to talk about? I am a fan of the element Xenon. It is known that the element was found shortly after their discovery of the elements krypton and neon. Like krypton and neon, xenon was discovered through the study of liquefied air. A neat fact about that element is that scientists believed that xenon and other noble gases were unable to form compounds. However, evidence shows that xenon can form some compounds including sodium perxenate, xenon deuterate, xenon hydrate, difluoride, tetrafluoride and hexafluoride-"

Ratchet quickly pulled Clank into a hug, startling the robot a little bit. The Lombax leaned back a bit and let out a huge sigh of satisfaction. His tail swished back and forth, moving around small piles of dirt.

"You have no idea how nice it is to be confused by your nerd language again." Clank tried to tell Ratchet something, but his face was being shoved into the Lombax's shirt by said Lombax. Ratchet's ears twitched and he took his hand off of Clank's head. The little robot looked up, wiping one of his eyes for a moment. "Oh, sorry, pal. Now what were you saying?"

"I said that if you ever want to hear my so called 'nerd language' just introduce any kind of science as a discussion topic and I will go on talking for as long as you like."

Ratchet gave a decent sized grin and placed a hand on the little robot's head. Then he glanced back at the sky, remember the shooting stars that had passed by a minute ago. But there were no more now. The Lombax shook his head.

"Screw shooting stars."

"What?" Clank asked, looking up at his friend.

"Screw shooting stars. I don't need them anymore."

"Is this the part where you say things that I do not understand?"

"No, pal. I'm saying that I don't need shooting stars because...w-well, you know the thing when people see a shooting star and make a wish?"

"Yes."

"Well, that's why I don't need them. I don't have anything to wish for, there's nothing that I want. This," Ratchet spread out his arms and looked around, Clank was looking around as well, "is everything that I have ever wanted. A home, a great job, peacefulness, and, of course, a best friend to stand by me and protect me from doing stupid stuff. I've always had everything I ever wanted...and I was willing to give it all away for a crazy plan that involved committing a crime against Orvus."

"Ratchet, no one blames you for wanting to turn back time and save the Lombax race. I would have most likely done the same thing if I had been in your shoes," Clank said, recalling a certain six minute time shift.

"I just can't believe that it was so close to being over. If Alister had succeeded in turning back time, then our friendship would have never existed. We would have never met."

"I am sure that we could have met in someway..." the little robot said with a hint of doubt in his voice.

"No, Clank, you don't get it. I thought about what would have happened if we hadn't met. Since I would be on Fastoon and not here on Veldin when your ship crashed, then you would have no one to take you to where you needed to go. And a few minutes after I found you, those sentry bots from your robot factory landed by the garage so they could find and kill you. So, since I wouldn't be there to take you off the planet, then those sentry bots would have..." Ratchet trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence. He never liked how his theory ended.

Clank nodded "That is most likely what would have happened if you hadn't been there on that day."

"Alister said that there might be some sort of temporal effect on people in the Great Clock as the time shift happened, but he sounded very doubtful. So, if you think about it...I almost killed you," The Lombax said, his ears lowering.

"Well...I am still here, aren't I? I am alive and we are here, we are home. The whole ordeal is in the past, and we should be thankful for that."

"Yeah...yeah you're right...you're always right."

Another few moments of silence passed by as a stronger breeze blew through the land. This one was colder too. It sent small shivers up the duo's spines, both organic and metallic. Ratchet shook his head, he seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

"I have been a terrible friend lately."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, I'm mainly referring to my attitude before the Zoni kidnapped you. During the whole Tachyon problem, I felt like somewhere along the way, I had reverted back to my other self, the mean and selfish one.

"I am still not following you."

"I was so bent on finding Tachyon and the Dimensionator, that I never stopped to listen to what you had to say. You were trying to tell me about how dangerous that machine was, and you kept telling me about what the Zoni were saying, but I never listened. I always yelled at you whenever you mentioned the Zoni because I thought that you were making things up. I was even about to call you a pain in the ass because of your Zoni stories. And I only started believing you after I thought that you were dead. What kind of person does that make me? What kind of person only believes his friend if he thinks that he's dead?"

"Ratchet, I know that you never meant to say any of those things to me. I did not take any offense from anything that you said."

"Yeah, right," Ratchet said, flopping down onto his back, his arms spread out. "I called you a pain in the ass, Clank. I have never called you that. There's no way that you weren't offended by that."

"True, it did hurt when you denied what I said, and when you called me a pain in the rear-"

"Ass."

"I am not going to say that word. But I knew that you did not mean one word of it. You were blinded by your anger at Tachyon that you...took it out on me...you know, it does actually sound like the Drek-Qwark situation."

"See! What did I tell you? My selfishness and anger caused me to be mean to you, only this time, I was proud to call you my friend. I doubt that my younger self wanted to be called your friend during our first adventure. God...what the heck is wrong with me? It's like, with each enemy, I'm slowly turning back to my old, bitter self."

"You are not turning back to your old, bitter self!" Clank said, raising his voice. "Ratchet, you are not a bad friend. Would the old Ratchet spend two years looking for me, with barely a lead to guide you? Would the old Ratchet be willing to die with me on a self destructing space station? Would the old Ratchet pick me over his own race? No. You are not a bad friend, Ratchet. If anything, I am the bad friend. I was completely prepared to abandon you so I could serve my duties at the Great Clock..." the robot paused, "...but when I saw how miserable you were, I realized how miserable I was as well. Serving as Senior Caretaker would not be nearly as great as travelling around with you. My father told me to do whatever made me feel whole. And...going on life threatening adventures with my best friend is what makes me feel whole. Ratchet, without you, my life cannot be whole. It...it just cannot."

Ratchet stared at the little robot for a moment, completely unsure of what to say. He wasn't sure whether to smile or cry or what. But he knew one thing for sure, he really missed this darn robot. Ratchet never wanted Clank to go away ever again.

So, Ratchet simply pulled Clank into a tight hug, his fuzzy arms wrapping around the robot's cold metal casing. And by cold, he meant cold. The little robot felt like that he was freezing. Veldin was known for having chilly nights, but Ratchet's fur helped him resist the cold. However, Clank only had metal to protect him, and it wasn't very helpful. So Ratchet hoped that this hug would help Clank become warm. The Lombax even turned the robot away from the wind so it wouldn't hit him.

The two sat there on the ground for who knows long with no talking. But, even as the silence went on, they knew exactly what the other was thinking. And their thinking words were: you are my family, never leave my side again. I love you like the brother you are to me.

Though they had been separated for two years, it felt like that no time had passed at all.

I need to go to bed so I need to make this quick.

I have been DYING to make a fic about what happened after A Crack in Time. I thought that they would have to have some sort of heart to heart talk that would have been so sweet that it would make several people pass out due to the adorableness. But Insomniac never gave us that so...yeah, I tried my best to replicate the idea.

Also, I added an Upcoming Story list to my profile page. It's under the Top Tier Swordian list.

And, i have a new profile pic! It's Sinon's ALFheim avatar from Sword Art Online II!

Make sure to leave a review while picking up your complimentary toaster!

This is Amberdiamondswords, Lordess of Diamond Swordness, pledger to Tobuscus, signing off!