Shell Shock

Writers: Denny and Leila
Rating: PG-RG
Warnings: Ratchet/Azimuth. Violence.
Disclaimer: We value our lives too much to even dare think about claiming Ratchet and Alister as our own. We borrow them for an RP, so don't worry. [Put the Wargroks back into your cage!]
Summary: Everyone's nightmare is to wake up in a cold, dark place without a clue where one is. Sadly, that's what's happened to us. What's even better, we have monsters and weird encounters to endure as well. And then there's them…
Lucky, right? If I ever get out of here, I will need some therapy sessions.

Chapter 9

-

The light was dancing in pulses and shifts, ripples and waves like an electric ocean. Ratchet watched it for minutes as it was the only thing he could perceive at the moment. His eyes were darting back and forth as if being hypnotized by the different colors of blue and their patterns in which they moved.

Somewhen his head lolled to the side, his eyes blinking at the new view that presented itself to him. Being so close, he could only see a white blur, so he reached up with his hand.

A look of annoyance along with a frown crept on his face as his arm wouldn't budge, seemingly stuck in something invisible. Damn you, get up! This couldn't be that hard, he felt it resting in his lap and the way up was shorter than himself. Concentrating seemed to help although his annoyance grew at the tremors that went through the limb as it finally lifted.
Hah. There. So he could move his arm after all. A satisfied grin cracked on his lips, but soon vanished as a disquieting sensation crept out from the back of his mind. What was it, though? He couldn't remember, especially if his head felt like floating off without taking his body with it.

At the touch of Ratchet's fingers the elder flinched slightly, frowning as the sensation was about to pull him out of his sleep. He refused to give up on the soothing numbness that was holding him still – too cozy the situation was. His body, too, was aching to get more rest.
Again the other reached out for Azimuth's cheek, this time really waking him up. With a low groan he frowned, still clinging to the cozy numbness holding him.

Ratchet froze at the groan, his mind not yet comprehending the sound. Since he didn't feel in danger, he touched the white blur again, marveling at the soft texture he could make out through the tips of his gloves.

The initial discontent dissolved as the Lombax got used to it. He even leant into Ratchet's palm, almost returning back into partial sleep. Pulling the other closer to him a bit, he held the younger without pressing him too much.

Ratchet sighed lowly. Hm, cozy it was, cozy indeed. Slowly his hand stroked over the elder's cheek, trailing along the bone. Then, as he lowered his limb once more, tired of this short action, he tilted Azimuth's head against his and nuzzled against the other's face.

The discontented groan turned into a low purr. The warmth spreading over one half of his face was calming the elder, making him rub his cheek slightly against the other's.

As Azimuth nuzzled against his cheek, a content chuckle, faint as it was, left the younger. His vision might have been blurry, but not the soothing warmth. Turning around slightly, Ratchet reached out with one hand and rested it on Alister's lower arm. Pulling his legs a little closer, he nuzzled against the elder and buried his face in the other's neck.

The steady breathing of Ratchet rustled Alister's fur. While he did notice the feeling, he did not find it uncomfortable. The hand holding onto the younger at his waist curled slightly before it slid to the other side and moved the other's body into a more comfortable position. Then he bent Ratchet's legs by pulling one of his own closer.

The younger purred lowly as he found it now more comfortable. In an attempt to reach out for the general's shoulder, he stretched out his hand, only to find the action too strenuous to complete. Instead he decided to leave his hand half-raised and leant it against the other's upper arm.

Alister nearly opened one of his eyes at the touch, but decided against it. Too cozy their current situation was, making him reluctant to break the calm atmosphere. Instead he reached out, closing his fingers around the other's hand and holding the younger tightly.

That was nice. Really, really nice. Maybe it would even get better when he... Shifting with his eyes closed - it began hurting his head when he kept trying to see and focus - he pressed closer to the warmth, pleased to find a tall body against which he could rest.

As Ratchet clung to him, Azimuth found himself at ease. His arm wrapped a bit more around the other as the grip around Ratchet's hand grew tighter. Then he relaxed and slid down the console behind him, still holding onto the younger who now rested on him.
He really could get used to that, just drifting in half-sleep and enjoying the tranquility of the situation.

A similar thought went through Ratchet's still foggy mind – if all hugs or whatever this was felt so nice, why hadn't he done this before?
Oh, right. Because it embarrassed him. Or rather he thought it wasn't manly.
He sneered faintly. Manliness. Something about which he didn't care at all in the moment. For once he ignored the consequences of this if he was seen by others.

After sitting for a few seconds, Ratchet began shifting. Brow furrowing, fingers twitching, legs and arms moving; he was as comfortable as he could get and yet something was amiss…Restlessness came over him. Just what the HELL did it annoy him for.

The elder frowned and hissed lowly. Some parts started to throb uncomfortably inside - he couldn't exactly recall why it was like this; only that it hurt. And that was not a pleasant feeling.
As the uneasy sensation grew stronger, he clung to Ratchet a bit more. One said that holding onto something while being in pain helped a lot to ease the pain, and so he did. Curling up himself a bit more around the younger, he was now really lying on the ground, only his head resting against the consoles by now. Bending and raising both his injured and unharmed leg, his grip grew tighter. At the same time, the hand around Ratchet's waist traveled up and rested between the other's shoulder blades, rubbing the back slowly.

Something was off. Something which he didn't want to acknowledge in order to keep this easy peace for a little longer.
Eyes shut tightly, Ratchet tried to ignore the rising pressure in the back of his mind and the bottom of his stomach. He felt the trembling of the arms his hands curled around and winced at the hiss so close against his ears; the heart-beat against his cheek changed from an adagio to hammer with a presto through his skull to his own heart which started up, adapting to the frantic speed.

A huff left the elder as the pain was growing awfully strong now. The numbness was fading away, letting him feel the several stings inside his body. By Orvus… He wondered what had inflicted so much -
His eyes snapped open as his memories returned. Damn… Damn! How could he rest right now? He had to make sure that those guards would not suddenly enter this room while -

A sudden gasp escaped Azimuth when he froze. His body tensed up in surprise, pressing a pained yelp out of him. Yet the pain was quickly shoved into the back of his mind. Actually, everything else suddenly seemed unimportant - too much was he surprised about Ratchet lying on him and -

God damnit, Azimuth! Get your hands off him!

Yanking away his own arms and putting them on the ground instead, his fingers helplessly tried to find something to hold onto; since he didn't find anything, they scratched over the ground repeatedly as he attempted to crawl away. Too bad, though, that what had surprised him was lying so comfortably on him. And so, to much to his dislike, he felt suspicious heat originated from utter embarrassment and confusion appear on his face.

God. This was almost as bad as THAT time.

When the hands left him like burned, Ratchet made a noise as the person he was lying on apparently tried to throw him off on top of it. Disturbed and annoyed that even his partner tried to stop his rest he sat up, not noticing he was straddling Alister's chest who gasped at this. His eyes were sticky and stuck together as he blinked them open again – how long had he slept actually? Apparently not enough. He would go back to napping as soon as he got this here sorted out.

He thought wrong. That one question started a chain reaction of another question which increased his worry and lessened his fatigue, leading to more questions. With every question he couldn't answer his restlessness grew; his mind's awareness grew with every second of struggling to make sense of everything. It was hard to concentrate but the fog in his head slowly cleared to the point it didn't numb or distort the sensations of his senses anymore.

It came thus as a surprise as he suddenly blinked into two familiar eyes.

"Alister? What are we doing here?"

"… Uh…"

Smart answer, Alister. Smart answer. He stared into Ratchet's eyes, his gaze no less confused than the other's. Blinking repeatedly and inhaling audibly, he tried to look away - but as that did not succeed, he just kept staring at the other, glad about every bit of fur he had right now. His fingers scratched over the ground as he bit his lip.

Oh the joys of being caught off guard.

"Alister? Come on." Scooting closer he noticed the other stiffening though it only heightened little his confusion. He had no idea at all where they were in the moment, what they were both doing on the floor and what they were supposed to do here.

"… Chrmm." Oh my, improvement. Now at least he sounded a tad more sophisticated, not like a stone-age member of a pre-evolutionary race. Still, that did not help him in his current situation; neither did the fact that Ratchet was looking at him with such anticipation in his eyes. He had to say something, anything. "… Cuddling?"

… Ingenious. Azimuth was astounded by his intellectually valuable answer.

A distinctive hue of red slowly started to shine through the elder's fur, even more so when the blank stare of the younger directly met his. Flustered, his fingers tapped on the ground as he stuttered.
"I… I mean you have blood on your face."

Well, that certainly cleared things more up. He just wasn't sure which things. "... What did you say first?" He rubbed over his face, not all wondering why blood should be there.

"… Just look at that! The blood has already dried." Sitting up a little, he first supported himself with one arm and used the other to take Ratchet's hand away from his face. Then he crossed his legs - oh why, he could move both - and pulled the other one onto his lap, sitting him upright. He reached up and rubber over the other's cheek, trying hard to get the stain out of the younger's fur. A dissatisfied growl escaped him as he did not succeed. "Persistent blood stain, hmph." Flicking his tongue over his teeth, he then licked over his thumb and rubbed again, focusing at the task at hand as much as he could.

The elder got a perfectly still young Lombax for his efforts. The younger might have raised his hands but he let them hover, each at Alister's sides as if they couldn't decide to rest on Ratchet's thighs again or to do… whatever else the young's mind would decide on.

What it apparently wasn't able to do at the moment.

Or maybe it was as his arms now moved under Alister's, then rose to his shoulders. The elder startled for a second. What was the younger up to now? Would he push him away? Certainly he would, with absolute certainty he would. That was the only possibility for that action.
The younger cupped his cheeks for a moment.

... Maybe not. It was now his turn to look with an 'uh, what' expression as the smaller fingers of both hands began rubbing on his face.
"You have blood there too." Ratchet looked at him heavy-liddedly, a genuinely innocent smile on his lips as he wiped over the other's chin. "It's no good if it's there."

Azimuth froze at the touch, his stare blank as much as his mind. His own hands had stopped rubbing, very likely because the soft, gentle sensation was startling him too much to do anything.

Wipe, wipe, wipe...

"Ya know, if I'm cleaning you up you could kept it up too." Ratchet shot him an annoyed glance. "Those blood blotches are really persistent and I don't wanna run around looking like I'm an axe-crazy or something."

"... Uh... Right." Azimuth blinked and shook his head slightly before he leant forward a little to clear Ratchet's face. Damn, there were quite a lot of small splotches he couldn't quite make out - so he leant forward even more. The only problem was that his helmet was pretty much blocking him. He frowned a bit, hesitating until another dissatisfied sound came from the younger. Then he tilted his head to the side and leant in to the other, still holding Ratchet's face while wiping over the small blood spots.

Ratchet sighed - that was much better. Leaning closer, unaware of what he was actually doing he tilted his head back a bit that his neck was partially visible to Alister.

For another moment, the elder concentrated on cleaning the other's fur. His fingers rustled through Ratchet's fur, and whenever there was a blood stain that refused to vanish, he would lick over his thumb and rub it off.

To his surprise, Azimuth realized that one of the blood splotches was leading down the jaw line to the neck. He frowned. He was aware that he had bled a lot, but he had not expected so much to have dripped on the younger's face. He certainly did not feel like this was the case.

As he opened the collar of Azimuth's armor, part of Ratchet's mind reminded him to be careful with the place he was going now. Alister's neck, usually in a white tone that reminded him of Pokitaru's beaches, was now covered in ugly trails of brown. How did so much blood get even there. He gasped under his breath as that ominous restlessness slammed back into his consciousness, making his heart clench in fear.

But of what?

Azimuth startled when the fingers around his neck curled. It did not hurt, but it made him wonder what caused the sudden tension; even the indigenous happenings were rendered unimportant. For the moment, he stopped cleaning and lowered his hands, placing them between neck and shoulders. Lifting his head a little, his breath brushed past the fur at Ratchet's ear as he whispered. "Ratchet? Are you all right?"

"Why is there so much blood?" There wasn't any curiosity in his voice, all the more shaking in the tone instead. Swallowing, he noticed for the first time how dry his throat was. He licked his lips as they had suddenly started to tingle slightly, not in a comfortable way, but in an disquieting one. His voice was quivering, fear shaking the words.

The fingers curled around Ratchet's shoulders. "... I wasn't cautious enough. That is all." For a moment the elder leant back, only to show a small, but reassuring smile to the younger. "It's nothing big."

Why didn't the other's words help him feel better? Why did the sinking feeling plummet even more as he looked into the other's eyes, hearing the unspoken facts out of the words? He licked his lips again to get off the tingling feeling but it made it only worse. The touch, and suddenly two bright, red lights glinted at him from the fog of his memory, countless glowing yellow teeth showing in a manic grin.

He fell forward with a gasp, catching himself on Alister's shoulders. Shuddering, he tried to speak but it just wouldn't get out right, instead the jumbled mess from his mind jumping on his tongue and out did. "Some-something's wrong. There's something in my mouth, on my lips, it's cold on my lips but alive somehow but it isn't, it crawls through my throat like it wants to get everywhere inside me-"

Ratchet was cut off as he felt arms wrapping around his body, holding him tightly. One hand reached up to his head, stroking slowly over it.
"You are safe." The stroking grew stronger, but stayed as soothing as it was. Azimuth had his eyes closed, his voice as calming as it could be. "It is gone."

"... Really?" The young Lombax wanted to believe it. But deep down in his mind, those red eyes continued staring at him with that grin of them, making the tingle spread from his lips to his face.
And then the the giggling came.

"Really." Pressing the younger slightly against his own body, Azimuth's eyes narrowed as he felt that he didn't help Ratchet at all. All the reassurance in the world would have not sufficed either at the moment. But still… He had to try. "It is gone. It won't come back." His fingers curled. "Try to forget."

"What really happened? I know something did." He mumbled into Alister's chest as if he didn't want to move - yet he pushed himself up only seconds later, his expression much clearer and more coherent now. "And I don't think I can forget such a hideously wide grin, with so many teeth and that creepy giggling. This stuff had something to do with it, right?"

The elder returned the gaze, frowning as he bit his lip. Should he tell him again and remind him of what had happened?
No. At least not yet.
"This isn't of importance right now, Ratchet." He looked firmly into the other's eyes. "All that matters is that we are safe."

"Somehow I doubt that." He looked around them, expecting to see hundreds of pairs of red optics any time - weren't it eyes before to him - appear out of the surface of the consoles, the ceiling, the floor and walls and everything else that was in the computer room. He blinked. "Uh, how did we even get here?"

"I've brought us here. To our luck this part of the facility is safe now." The elder lifted a hand and pointed around them. "Can you see the blue shimmer? That is the barrier that will keep them all away."

"Damn it, who is 'them'? Stop avoiding the topic, Al-aAH!" Clutching his head suddenly, Ratchet fell off the other Lombax and to the side.

"Ratchet?" Before the Lombax reached the ground, Azimuth caught him. "Ratchet! What's wrong?"

"My head..." His groan was barely above a whisper. Everything inside his head was throbbing, like a volcano had been suddenly warped in the middle of his brain and had decided to break out. Short bursts of hot pain behind his forehead made him pinch his face, while the rest of him felt strangely cold and numb.

"What?" The elder had barely caught Ratchet's voice. Fear crept into Azimuth's stare as he was unable to think of a solution. What was happening now? Was it an aftershock of the guard's examination? His grip grew tighter as his anxiety grew with each second passing. What should he do, what should he do?

The tingling spread from Ratchet's lips into a burning fire that began freezing the surrounding muscles of his face, the inside of his mouth. He gasped as the sensation caused to tear a hole into his subconsciousness, dragging the first thought up. Said thought kicked and screamed to be let go but there was no mercy. He gagged, hands pressing on his mouth as the memory of the guard's… 'kiss' ridiculed him as it had insisted Ratchet had wanted this.

At the unfocused stare Azimuth trembled. He could but only watch how Ratchet struggled with the memories from before, offering seemingly useless comfort by holding the other. He grimaced, angered by his helplessness. Was there really nothing he could do? Not at all. He could just try to offer more comfort, more reassurance.

One of his hands reached out and disengaged his holo-helmet. Then, after some hesitation, he searched for the control panel for Ratchet's armor and did the same. Holding the other's head up, he leant his forehead against the younger's, muttering the same phrases over and over again.
"It's in the past. We are safe now."

"Damn it." Ratchet whispered vehemently, spitting the words out. "DAMN IT." One of his hands with which he had clasped at Alister's forearm for support was jerked to his mouth, rubbing with the back of his glove over his lips. The material was far from rough, but since he instantly switched to rubbing, it wasn't long before his lips began bleeding.

Azimuth grabbed Ratchet's hand and pulled it away. Then he locked his gaze with the other, worry in his eyes. "What are you doing? You are hurting yourself."

"I don't care! I just want this sick feeling to go away!" He jerked at his hand which was held fast, unable to break his wrist free out of the other's grip.

The elder frowned, his gaze growing firm. "Don't do that," he whispered. "I will take care of it."

Ratchet burst out in laughter. He threw his head back, not trying to free his hand anymore. There was no mirth in his voice - he rather sounded desperate and Alister winced at the shrill tones his sensitive ears oh so helpfully picked up. "Take care of it? How?" The laughter died to a chuckle, the younger shoving his face almost into Alister's. "Kiss it better maybe? I'd like to see that."

"Maybe I can do it." A moment of hesitation, then he let go of Ratchet. "Maybe not." With his thumb he cautiously wiped off the drips of blood on the lips, idly licking over his digit as soon as he was done. His thumb rested at at the middle of his mouth while his gaze met the other's. "You will just have to trust me."

"Wha-" Ratchet scrambled away or at least tried to - big arms had circled loosely around his back, holding but not trapping him. "If that is some kind of joke, I'm not in the mood for cheering up." His patience had been worn thin by the memory of the guard, Alister's words not helping. To what part referred the elder? To taking care of him? Or his bitter excuse for a joke about the kiss-
More panic rose at the idea.

"Ssssh." Laying his index finger onto Ratchet's lips, Azimuth refused to hear another word. When he was sure that the other wouldn't speak up anymore, he pulled his hand down little by little, his digit slightly opening the other's mouth by doing so. Remaining like this for a moment, he felt Ratchet's faint breath brushing over his finger.
"Trust me." His eyes were heavy-lidded, but still locked to the other's gaze. He continued his prior action and had his fingertip rest only on the younger's lower lip. Then he slowly trailed along the outlines of Ratchet's mouth until he pulled his hand away. "I'll make you forget."

"How?" Because no matter what, how could he forget that?
The touches were never too much, though. They feathered over his mouth, over his lips as if asking if he really wanted it; the phantom-memory of the numbing sensations from the guard tried to take over, but this here was different that Ratchet found no similarity. The memory sunk again, him relaxing at least a bit.

"You will have to see." For a moment a smile, faint yet genuine, appeared on Azimuth's lips as his hand stroked over Ratchet's ear. To him, this small gesture was not only to calm the younger, but also himself down. After all, this situation was peculiar. The thoughts in his mind as he looked at the other's mouth too. "It was the lips, wasn't it?" He mumbled. Memories of their first encounter with Bar came back, evoking slight embarrassment in him; however, this feeling lasted only that long. For what he recalled, it had scattered their minds for a good while. Exactly what he needed. It would distract both him and the younger. Tilting his head a little, Azimuth approached the Lombax's face bit by bit.

For a moment he halted and reflected upon his action. In this short time he felt the younger's breath brushing over his face, faint and slightly accelerated. Or was it his? Azimuth couldn't tell. He felt the tension rise in his own body, the tingling sensation on his face. However, at the same time something in his mind reminded him of what he was about to do. Something his values could not tolerate.

It's just for distraction. He calmed his conscience. Just to keep Ratchet distracted. He felt both emotions struggle in his mind, for a moment evenly strong. Then, slowly, just slowly the tempting tension grew dominant, gently urging him to continue - and so he did. Cautiously he closed the last bit of distance and placed his lips on Ratchet's.