Title: Puppy Love, Chapter 24
Fandom: Transformers G1 AU
Author: FuziPenguin
Pairing/Characters: Ratchet, Sunstreaker/Sideswipe
Rating: PG13
Word Count: Sunstreaker practices his softer, more sensible side; also independence from Sideswipe. Ratchet realizes that its a good thing he spent the last chapter thinking about what to tell the twins.
Summary/Warnings:
Disclaimer: This is a piece of fiction. No harm was intended in the creation of this work. All rights belong to the original creators.

"No," Sideswipe announced.

His voice was indistinct, muffled beneath the berth cover. Only the top of his helm was visible. Sunstreaker glared at the lump that was his brother, resisting the urge to physically pick him up out of bed and dump him on to the floor.

Sunstreaker had been the first to get out of bed; he had thought Sideswipe was just being lazy when he hadn't followed, rolling himself up in the bedding instead.

Sunstreaker had quickly realized however, that this wasn't a languorous lie-in; Sideswipe was absolutely adamant about not leaving bed for the indefinite future. The offer of a clean-up in the washracks or energon to fill the tanks that Sunstreaker knew were empty, was refused. Sideswipe's snappish reply was that he wasn't 'feeling well'.-

His glitch of a brother had injuries, sure. But Sideswipe had suffered much worse in the past and had functioned just fine. No, Sunstreaker suspected Sideswipe was doing his best to avoid Ratchet as it was nearly the time that their guardian normally woke up.

"Yes," Sunstreaker replied. He leaned down and yanked on the bedding, gradually unrolling Sideswipe out of it, despite his brother's clutch on the material. "You can't hide in here forever."

"Can too," Sideswipe stubbornly said, one blue optic squinting up at Sunstreaker as his faceplates were revealed. "I'm not going anywhere."

Sunstreaker dropped the covers, studying his twin. Small spikes of unease and fear were starting to trickle past Sideswipe's blocks.

"Sides…what is it?" he asked softly, trying a different tack. He sent a pulse of reassurance along their link, letting it lap at the walls that Sideswipe had erected between them. "You can tell me. You know you always feel better after you talk it over."

Sideswipe flipped to his side, facing Sunstreaker. He winced as his injured cheek pressed against the berth surface. "It's nothing," he muttered, yanking the blanket back up over his shoulders.

Sitting on the edge of the berth, Sunstreaker reached out and stroked the uninjured side of Sideswipe's face. "It's not 'nothing'. Normally, you're the one dragging me out of bed. You're not hurt that badly. What's wrong, Sides?"

Sunstreaker knew exactly what was bothering his brother; Pit, it was bothering him too! But Sideswipe obviously wasn't working through it on his own, despite how accepting he had seemed last night while in Ratchet's arms. Sunstreaker should have figured that Sideswipe would be revisiting this topic as soon as he had had some recharge and slept away the effects of the pain meds.

"I did a lot of stupid things last night," Sideswipe finally blurted out, giving into to Sunstreaker's gentle insistence. "Even for me! What if Ratchet…"

Sunstreaker gently slapped Sideswipe upside the head, ignoring the annoyed growl from his brother. "You do stupid things every day, and Ratchet hasn't kicked us out yet." He very carefully hid his own worry from his twin. Sideswipe had a point; they had to be pushing Ratchet's limits by now.

"I tried to kill his lover!" Sideswipe exclaimed, jerking upwards a few inches from the bed surface in his vehemence. Then he fell back down, hand sweeping up to cover his own mouth as he looked wide-opticked at the wall that separated the two berth rooms. After a few moments of silence, Sunstreaker felt his shoulders relax.

"Well… you didn't," Sunstreaker pointed out reasonably. "You just got your aft kicked." Sideswipe glared at him.

"Look," Sunstreaker added, "I probably would have done the exact same thing if I had walked in when you did. How we were supposed to know they've been seeing each other? It's not like Ratchet told us," he said, his voice turning bitter.

"Why do you think he didn't?" Sideswipe asked. His expression was hurt as he asked the question, and he squirmed until he was sitting up, knee knocking against Sunstreaker's.

"I don't know," Sunstreaker replied. He felt just as hurt as his brother did that Ratchet hadn't entrusted them with such important information.

Then Sunstreaker sighed as his ever-so-helpful memory banks supplied his processor with another pertinent recollection.

"… I think he tried," Sunstreaker admitted. "Remember that morning… when we thought he had found out about us training with Ironhide?"

Sideswipe slowly nodded. "Yeah. You're right. He had sat us down to talk, and Prowl knocked on the door. That was days ago, though; I wonder how long this has been going on."

"I don't know; Ironhide's been sniffing around him since the day we moved in," Sunstreaker added, engine growling in remembrance.

"Do you think… do you think they're in love?" Sideswipe ventured, hand dropping to clutch at the berth cover. "What if Ratchet wants to spend all his time with 'Hide? What if they bond? What if…"

This time, Sunstreaker was the one to clap a hand over Sideswipe's mouth components. "Calm down," Sunstreaker instructed. His brother's chest was rising and falling too quickly as his frame tried to ventilate air to cool down stressed systems.

"There's no use getting worked up over it," Sunstreaker said. Wise words, but he could feel anxiety running through his own frame, unpleasantly tightening cables and wires.

He dropped his hand away from Sideswipe's mouth. "It's not really our business anyway."

"How could it not be our business?" Sideswipe said, his arms gesturing wildly. "He's ours! Not Ironhide's!" he exclaimed, a snarl lifting his lipplates.

"Sideswipe…" Sunstreaker trailed off helplessly. He was experiencing a lot of the same turmoil that Sideswipe was, but a small part of him was trying to stay reasonable. And when did that happen? Sideswipe was supposed to be the sensible one.

"Look… he doesn't… he doesn't belong to us. If anything, we belong to him. We can't just keep him locked away from the rest of the world. Pit, that's what TopNotch did to us and look how much we ended up hating him!"

Sideswipe's expression turned stricken. "But…"

Sunstreaker's shoulders suddenly slumped; he was tired of the whole situation, but most importantly, he was tired of the uncertainty.

"Sides… I don't really know what's going to happen. Ratchet sounded pretty intent on continuing to see Ironhide if they worked things out. And if something happens, then it happens. We're not going to be able to stop it. And we don't have the right to stop it. Not if Ratchet's happy."

Sideswipe's optics dropped to stare at the berth cover as it wrinkled beneath his twitching fingers. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess you're right. Ratchet deserves to be happy. He's put up with a lot from us. I just wish… I just wish it didn't take another mech to make him happy," Sideswipe murmured.

Snorting, Sunstreaker shook his head, recalling Sideswipe's words from last night. "I can't believe you were about to offer us up last night in place of Ironhide. That was stupid thing number two."

"I know… it just kind of popped out of my mouth. I wasn't really thinking."

"Obviously," Sunstreaker replied. He felt a strange mixture of relief and disappointment that Sideswipe agreed with him the idea was ridiculous. He pushed the odd reaction to the side, vowing to revisit it later.

"Ratchet would never want us like that. It's a miracle that he even liked us enough to adopt us," Sunstreaker continued, knowing how lucky they were to have found Ratchet.

"And hey… he could have chosen worse than Ironhide. At least Ironhide can protect Ratchet," Sunstreaker added, grateful for that small mercy. "What if Ratch had ended up with Smokescreen? Mech knows his history, but he'd be a pushover in a fight."

"Or Bluestreak," Sideswipe added, the ghost of a smile on his lipplates as they both shuddered at the thought. "All that babble…"

They both fell silent, lost in their thoughts. Then Sideswipe gave a subtle shake, his shoulders straightening.

"All right. All right," he firmly repeated, sharply nodding once. "Ratchet's fragging Ironhide. Ok. I can handle that as long as Ratchet's happy. We can share Ratchet. But there's gonna be rules."

Sunstreaker nodded in agreement. "I have a feeling Ratchet will make you apologize to Ironhide later today. We can talk to him more then." He paused for a moment.

"What are you going to say to him? To apologize?"

Huffing, Sideswipe loosened his grip on his grip on the bedding. "Sorry I didn't rip your spark out while I had the chance?"

Sunstreaker chuckled softly. "Mmm. Maybe we should keep that one to ourselves."

The next morning arrived far too quickly. Ratchet awoke to his alarm and silenced it, staring at the ceiling for several long moments before leveraging himself to a seated position. His recharge had been deep, but once an hour he had interrupted it to peek in on Sideswipe. Each time, he had been relieved to see the twins recharging comfortably.

He pushed himself upright, groaning as several of his cables protested the movement. He spent a moment twisting and bending, loosening himself up into wakefulness. Once his frame had warmed up a bit, he moved across the room. It was time to check on Sideswipe again and see what a new morning brought to his relationship with the twins.

Ratchet's hand was outstretched to move his door aside when it abruptly moved on its own. His spark thumped erratically in his chest as the door finished opening.

"Morning!" Sideswipe chirped as his form was revealed. Ratchet took in a draught of air through his vents and slowly released it, trying to calm his systems down. There was no one attacking him; it was just his happily smiling ward.

Except Sideswipe wasn't happily smiling. He was attempting it, but it was coming out more like a grimace instead.

Concerned, Ratchet automatically scanned the red twin's systems for any malfunctions. His scans revealed that Sideswipe's energy levels were still low, and he would need energon sooner rather than later. His spark rate was also a little elevated, and his cooling fans were gently humming.

Suddenly concerned about a myriad of possible complications, Ratchet rushed forward, gripping Sideswipe by the arms and turning him so Ratchet could examine his injured side.

"Ratch?" Sideswipe ventured, raising his arm so that he could peer down his torso as Ratchet poked at the mesh covering the blaster wound. "You ok?"

"I'm fine," Ratchet answered brusquely. "More importantly, are you ok? You weren't running this hot when I last checked on you," he said, mumbling to himself.

"Maybe we should take you back to the hospital. Frag! I knew I should have taken you last night. Slaggin' Ironhide!" Ratchet spat, his hands roaming over Sideswipe's upper torso.

Sideswipe twisted, catching Ratchet's wrists and stilling the vet's motions. He looked at Ratchet with a puzzled expression. "I'm ok. Really."

"Like you would tell me," Ratchet retorted, spying Sunstreaker coming up behind his twin. "Sunstreaker? What are your brother's pain levels?"

Raising an orbital ridge, Sunstreaker nonchalantly lounged against the wall opposite the doorway.

"Well… I can tell you that he's pretty much a permanent pain in my aft," Sunstreaker replied, smirking when Sideswipe shot a glare over his shoulder at his brother.

"Ratchet," Sideswipe said again, this time squeezing the wrists held in his grip. The mild discomfort made Ratchet pause and look into his ward's optics, searching for truth to Sideswipe's words.

"I'm fine. I'm not bleeding out, nothing's gonna fall off. I'm sore, but it's manageable. I'm just a little worked up, is all."

Ratchet's optics spiraled wide in surprise. "Worked up? Surely you two haven't been interfacing with an injury like that?! I didn't think that I needed to tell you…"

"I was slagging nervous!" Sideswipe exclaimed, releasing Ratchet's hands and throwing his own up in the air before defensively crossing his arms over his chest. "I didn't know how you would react this morning. I did a really idiotic thing last night, and I…"

Abruptly, Sideswipe went silent, turning his head to look away. His entire frame was stiff and subtly vibrating.

His wrists still tingling from Sideswipe's grip, Ratchet looked from Sideswipe to Sunstreaker and then back again, realization finally dawning. He was too much of a vet; he always assumed a frame's signs of distress were due to physical trauma; rarely did he ever consider that it could also be due to emotional.

"Oh. Oh!" Ratchet exclaimed in relief. "You were… so you're really fine?"

"And dandy," Sideswipe replied, still refusing to look Ratchet in the optics.

Ratchet glanced over at Sunstreaker to see him equally withdrawn. Ratchet's spark twisted a little. He had hoped that they would be able to move past this, but he should have known better. The twins had needed daily reassurances of his love and commitment to them even before finding out about Ironhide. They would easily see last night's incident as a betrayal; Ratchet would need to be very open with his explanations to gain their trust back.

"Well… I wouldn't necessarily call it an 'idiotic' thing," Ratchet began.

"So what would you call it?" Sideswipe asked, a hint of belligerence in his tone that normally was more at home in Sunstreaker's voice than Sideswipe's.

Snorting, Ratchet rubbed a hand over his faceplates. "Reckless, maybe," Ratchet admitted, hating the flinch to Sideswipe's shoulders.

"But also… just a touch heroic. And sweet." Sideswipe's head shot up, faceplates awash with surprise.

"I must admit… I've ever been rescued from an attacker before," Ratchet said, smiling gently. "The intruder the other night wasn't anywhere near me so he doesn't count."

Sideswipe's lipplates twitched upwards into a small, answering grin. "Yeah? Well, it's only one of many services we offer."

"But Ironhide wasn't really attacking you," Sunstreaker pointed out. Ratchet had to resist the urge to glare at the yellow twin when Sideswipe's smile faded.

"Well, Sideswipe didn't know that at the time," Ratchet said, trying to salvage the moment. A thought suddenly occurred to him.

"And you," he said, considering Sunstreaker. "You didn't know that either. But yet you held back. Why was that?"

Sunstreaker ducked his head for a moment before looking up at Ratchet. The yellow twin was very carefully refusing to look in Sideswipe's direction.

"I… well… Ironhide keeps telling us to think before we act; that I'm too impulsive. So I was trying to figure out exactly what was going on. Then you kept yelling at the two of them to stop…" Sunstreaker trailed off, fidgeting in place. "I… there was a part of my processor that kept telling me to listen to you… to obey you…"

"Huh," Ratchet murmured, processor awhirl with that information. "Sparklings online with codes encouraging them to follow their creators' instructions. It's a safety mechanism, mainly centered around certain basic words like 'no'… or 'stop'," Ratchet said slowly.

Sunstreaker's optics met Ratchet's, murky with confusion. "Last month, I would have jumped right in. We would have offlined Ironhide in seconds. Sideswipe had him distracted; it would have been so easy to take him down from behind."

"Well… I guess we're forming a bit of a surrogate creator-creation bond," Ratchet said. He had to reset his vocalizer halfway through; his spark was suddenly trying to expand and fill his frame, giddy with the thought that the twins were truly seeing him as a surrogate Creator.

"I'm glad you didn't join your brother. It's bad enough worrying about one of you. I couldn't imagine if you both of you had been injured."

"If it had been both of us, I wouldn't be injured. We'd have ended the fight with just a few scratches apiece," Sideswipe said, glaring at his twin.

"Sideswipe…" Ratchet began, but Sunstreaker interjected, pushing off from the wall he had been leaning against.

"I don't have to go along with everything you do!" Sunstreaker retorted. "I could tell you weren't thinking straight; you couldn't even tell me why you were going after Ironhide. You just kept demanding that I help!

"And I was going to join in," Sunstreaker admitted, glancing guiltily at Ratchet. "But first I was going to make sure Ratchet didn't hurt himself. Don't think I didn't see you about to wade in there yourself," Sunstreaker said, pointing a finger at their guardian.

Ratchet took a step back in surprise at Sunstreaker's intensity. "I was just going to…"

"You were going to get yourself hurt or killed. Don't ever get in between two fighting dogs; you should know that," Sunstreaker scolded. "Neither one of them would have known you were there until too late."

"Uh, bro, I'm not sure if you've noticed or not, but Ironhide isn't a dog," Sideswipe commented, seemingly content now that Sunstreaker had confessed he would have eventually joined Sideswipe in the fight. Then Sideswipe winced as Sunstreaker stepped forward and whacked him on the back of the helm.

"Close enough. Just another two idiots fighting over a bitch in heat," Sunstreaker said.

Then he froze with his hand in mid air. Ever so slowly, his head turned to stare at Ratchet. Sunstreaker's optics were comically huge as he realized what he had just said.

"Um…"

Ratchet couldn't help it; he burst out laughing, whole frame shaking with the force of his mirth. After a good minute, the laughter tapered off to random chuckles.

"I've also never been called a bitch in heat. And I've been called a lot of things. Primus! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time," he said, still grinning

"Sorry," Sunstreaker muttered. His frame had tensed up again, likely mortified at his own words.

Ratchet stepped forward, reaching out to ensnare the yellow twin in a hug. "I wouldn't repeat that in polite company, but I'm not offended, Sunny. I've seen heat fights; they are pretty similar."

Sunstreaker remained stiff in his arms, refusing to give in to Ratchet's fond squeeze.

"I'm not mad," Ratchet repeated, glancing from one twin to the next. He made sure to hold their optics, hoping they would see his sincerity.

"At any of it. This was all a big misunderstanding. Give it a few more weeks, and we'll be laughing about it."

"Give it a few more weeks, and you might move in with Ironhide," Sideswipe muttered and then ducked his head as Ratchet's focus turned to him. He considered his ward for several long moments before briskly nodding.

"All right. I see that you're worried about some things. We can do this now, but we all need refueling first. Sunstreaker, take your brother to the washracks and get the two of you cleaned up. I'm going to fetch breakfast, and then we'll talk."

Sideswipe's shoulders sagged, and Ratchet reached out to grip his arm. "Hey. Talking. That's all. Nothing bad."

Sideswipe gave him a weak smile and nodded, but Ratchet could tell neither twin believed him.

End chapter