Here on Earth

~Confusion~

From the moment the two met, back on Cybertron, there had been a noticeable tension between Ironhide and Wheeljack. They could hardly remain in the same room with one another without goading words or harsh glares and the catalyst for this behavior was something Ratchet had never been able to discover.

~Jealousy~

Less than two human weeks after the Ark landed on earth, Ratchet walked into Medbay to find Ironhide and Wheeljack a breadth apart. Ironhide's cannons hummed with a low charge and Wheeljack's fingers clenched and loosened as though they longed to tear into something.

Ratchet snapped off a command and when they both turned to look at him, he recognized, in the light of Ironhide's optics and the angle of his mouth, the same feeling so often expressed in Wheeljack's face.

~Taste~

"I remember the form you took a few hundred orns ago...I know you have a sense of taste," Wheeljack said. Ratchet raised his supra orbital ridge, raised a hand holding a particularly vicious looking piece of equipment and replied, "I happen to like my paint job."

~Soft~

It was moments like these—Wheeljack, unaware of Ratchet's presence, sitting cross legged on the floor, trailing a fingertip delicately over the arching back of a stray feline they'd found, that open and innocent look of wonder on his face, engine humming contentedly—that Ratchet had missed most during their long separation.

~Home~

More miles and years away from Cybertron than he cared to recall, he was becoming used to this place with its strange organic life, its many varied creatures and its sky-climbing cities that reminded him at times of what they all had lost.

And now, with data pads scattered across the berth, stray wires and chords decorating every surface, and the presence of this or that human object that Wheeljack found ever-so-fascinating, it was finally starting to feel like home.

~Potatoes~

"I know you've been spending a lot of time with the humans and learning their culture and so it's not surprising that you're picking up on some of their...stranger actions, but Primus help me if I have to clean this organic mess out of your exhaust again...what exactly were you doing?" Ratchet finished, curiosity getting the better of him.

He had to lean close to hear Wheeljack mumble a phrase that included the words "tailpipe" and "potato gun."

~Star~

"...and all the world will be in love with night." Ratchet paused in his reading of the data pad to glance up at the sky, brilliant with pinpoints of light. Wheeljack stirred against him and Ratchet hummed, leaning his head against the other mech's, tracing his fingers down the center of Wheeljack's chest, imagining the spark, pulsing bright, deep inside.

~Rain~

The few rain showers they received on Cybertron were something to be escaped from before the acid could make its way into sensitive neural wiring and Ratchet found it a shame that he'd never before gotten to see Wheeljack under these conditions, head tilted to the sky, water beading on his armor, rolling slowly down his chassis, following every curve, every sharp angle, making his whole body shine.

~Chocolate~

He'd once heard Mikaela say of the confection she was consuming that it was "better than sex." The thought came back to him later, with Wheeljack pinned beneath him, spark not yet recovered from the fervor of merging, sensors half numb with pleasure, and the seams along his armor so sensitive that he could probably go off again with the slightest touch, that if there were a Cybertronian form of chocolate, it might be quite deadly indeed.