Disclaimer: I do not own Ratchet and Clank or any of its characters. This is with Ratchet and Rivet as friends; this is NOT a shipfic for them.

HHH, time to make them use that one braincell between them.

For a Wrench and a Bolt

Games (Rivet & Ratchet)

Chapter Summary: Never put two highly competitive Lombaxes in the same room for more than two minutes. In fact, Clank was better off blowing up the room before he left to find Talwyn.

Boredom was a murderer, and Rivet was no stranger to being its victim.

The Lombax groaned, flopping an arm over her face. Her body squirmed on the couch, pent up with unspent energy. Every minute of pure silence that filled her ears was a moment of utter torture. "Ughhh, when is Bolts coming back with that Tal girl?! It's been forever since he left!"

"It's been ten minutes."

Rivet pushed her back off the couch, looking to the yellow-furred Lombax leaning against the far arm of the furniture. "No way! It's been way longer than that since Clank left!"

Ratchet rolled his eyes, chuckling under his breath as he crossed his arms over his chest. "The Apogee Space Station's a pretty big place, and Tal mentioned that she was in one of the higher atriums cleaning up one of the habitats. It's not going to take two seconds for her to warp down here."

A loud, overdramatic sigh blew through Rivet's mouth. "Still, Clank knows how to navigate this place, and knows how to cut corners to make sure everything's efficient and stuff." She sat up, ramming her back against the throw pillow by the couch's arm Ratchet wasn't leaning on. "He'd be here by now."

Ratchet continued laughing under his breath. "Heh, now I know how Clank feels…"

Rivet glared at him, raising an eyebrow. "You know I have heightened hearing like you do, right?"

"Eeyup," Ratchet drawled, pulling out the vowels. He smirked, tilting his head to the side. "Said it cause Clank's name is enough to settle you down… Any reason as to why that might be?"

It was Rivet's turn to roll her eyes. She sighed, pushing herself off the couch and stretching out her arms. "Alright, hotshot, I'm too bored to do these mind games. This sitting room have any games or magazines that I can look at to pretend like something interesting's happening?"

"Nope." Ratchet stayed where he was, the smile starting to fall from his face and sincerity replacing it. "Come on, Rivet, it's only gunna be a few more minutes before they come back. We can wait a little longer."

She huffed, rolling her eyes and pulling out one of her weapons. Even if she couldn't do anything, she could at least fiddle with her weapons while she wait-

Wait.

Rivet's eyes studied the Bomb Glove in her hand. Fingers twitched as she lifted her hand up, calling a bomb up from the glove.

"Hey, Ratchet… I got a game we could play while we wait…"

She heard him make a humming sound behind her. "Oh?"

Mischief slipped into her grin, and she whirled on the tips of her toes to face him. "Well, I figured I'd fiddle with my weapons if anything else, and it got me thinking-"

Ratchet narrowed his eyes. "We can't do target practice in here. Trust me. I know from experience."

"No! No!" Rivet bounced the bomb in her hand, catching it again by the tips of her fingers. "I mean, a bomb doesn't go off unless it hits the ground, right?"

"Yeaaahh?"

Rivet grinned so broadly a dull ache throbbed in her cheeks.

It took Ratchet a quarter of a second to understand where she was going with the proposition.

"Ohhhhh no!" he yelped, breaking from his pose. The Lombax took a step toward Rivet, waving his hands back-and-forth. "We're not playing 'Keep Up' in here! What if that bomb hits the ground and we actually cause damage to the room?!"

Rivet scoffed, puffing out her chest and crossing her arms. She took a step towards Ratchet, and an evil euphoria filled her chest. "What'sa matter, Ratchet? You can't keep something from hitting the floor?"

"I'm not scared, Rivet," he said. Frustration rang out in the tone of his words. "I just don't want to risk causing property damage."

"You wouldn't be worried if you weren't afraid of losing."

"I'm not scared of losing!"

She laughed, throwing back her head and pouring in a condescending tone into the sound. Her eyes squeeze shut, just to add extra aggravation to the other Lombax. When she opened her eyes, she leaned in close to his face. "Seems like someone's a little-"

"Don't. Say it."

Rivet's eyes were nothing but slits. "-scaredy-cat…"

And with that, Ratchet's mouth morphed into a snarl. He stepped away, backpedaling a few steps back. "Alright," he challenged, holding up his hands. "You think you're so good… I've been handling heavy weaponry longer than you have. So go on, let's watch you make a fool of yourself."

Rivet backed up, lowering herself into a pitching pose. With a tiny tail wiggle, she whipped the bomb at Ratchet.

Ratchet snatched it out of the air. He twirled on his feet, hurling the bomb back toward Rivet, aiming for the space over her head.

It took only a simple backflip to pluck the bomb out of the air.

She threw it back, roaring with evil laughter. Ratchet leaned over and deftly stopped it from hitting the spot on the floor that was right in front of his boots. His next throw was even higher, and Rivet leapt high into the air before the bomb reached the top of its arc.

That was about when both Lombaxes lost the competitive feeling.

Rivet held onto the bomb. She stalled, sighing as her eyes roamed over the bomb's surface. "Something about this doesn't feel right… What's the fun in just throwing a bomb to each other?"

Across from her, Ratchet lost the competitive posture he held and straightened up. The grin fell from his face. "Yeah… something just isn't right about this…"

Both of them paused.

"Wanna see about using some of the furniture as obstacles to throw from and around?"

Rivet put her free hand to her hip. "Now you're talkin' my language…"

"Ugh, gosh, I really hope she doesn't mind me meeting her like this."

Clank tilted his head, looking up to Talwyn as they walked. "Is there any particular reason you are nervous about meeting another Lombax while wearing a gardening outfit? I know Rivet will not mind in the slightest."

"Yeah, I know." Talwyn sighed, keeping her pace slow so Clank could keep up. She ran the back of her arm over her forehead, smearing a bit of soil over her skin and headband. "It's just… making good first impressions is all. It's not everyday you meet a new Lombax, and you know… I just don't wanna look like I crawled through the dirt the first time I meet her."

Clank giggled. "Well, she spent most of her life growing and maturing on planet Sargasso, so I doubt that she would be one to judge."

A sigh left the Markazian as they came up to the door of the sitting room. "You're right, you're right…" She stopped before the door, smoothing down her overalls and tucking back any loose hair that fell from her low bun behind her ear. Pink smoothed over her lips, and as she took a deep breath in, she looked down to Clank. "Okie dokie… let's make a good first impression."

She opened the door.

"HEADS UP!"

The world slowed to nothing.

Ratchet froze completely in place as he and Talwyn immediately looked to each other. A grin, so relieved and happy, spread across the Lombax's face. His arms that had been raised over his head fell down, and he took a step towards his long-time girlfriend.

The explosion that ruptured the ground behind him threw him into the air.

Both Talwyn and Clank yelped and ducked as Ratchet slammed into the wall just to their left. He plummeted to the floor, flopping onto his back and groaning with pain. Clank instantly went to Ratchet's side, laying his hands on Ratchet's upper arm and studying him for any major injuries.

A shaky thumbs-up came from the Lombax on the floor before it dropped back down.

Talwyn blinked back surprise and, with utter confusion, looked toward the person that had thrown the bomb.

The white-furred Lombax's pupils were so shrunken with terror they were nearly slitted lines. "I'M SORRY!" she shouted. She winced, shifting from foot-to-foot and looking between Talwyn and the destroyed half of the sitting room. "I-I promise I don't usually commit property damage this casually."

Talwyn had no idea what to say to that.

The Lombax stepped closer to her, clapping her hands together nervously. "Um… right, so…" Fangs sank into her bottom lip, and her eyes looked everywhere but at Talwyn's. When she got close enough to Talwyn, she threw out her hand in a horribly awkward handshake pose. "I'm Rivet."

Talwyn extended out her hand. Slowly, she clasped her hand with Rivet's, moving their hands up-and-down.

Rivet laughed; a strangled giggle that sounded more nervous than anything else. "So… you're the Tal girl. I gotta say, you're one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen. …You wouldn't happen to be single… would you?"

Ratchet's voice piped up from the floor. "She's actually my long-time girlfriend."

Silence echoed in the space between the four of them.

Rivet's expression got more strained with every moment she looked up to Talwyn, and a strangled, dying squeak left the white-furred Lombax as she kept shaking Talwyn's hand. "…So much for good first impressions…" she murmured.

Talwyn had no idea why that did it, but it drew up a stuttering laugh from her throat.

Her hand dropped from Rivet's, and the Markazian bent double to try and contain the fit of laughter that overwhelmed her. It overpowered her, flooding her with the hilarity of the irony and leaving her light in the head.

She caught Rivet flicking her eyes over to Ratchet, clear confusion in her eyes.

Talwyn coughed into her gloved hands, slowing the fit of laughter to something she could talk around. "Actually, that was pretty good," the Markazian said. Her head swiveled to Ratchet, who was just getting back on his feet. "She's an alternate dimensional counterpart of you, isn't she?"

Both Ratchet and Clank looked at each other, shock plastered all over their faces. "How'd you guess that so fast?" Ratchet asked.

Another loud laugh left Talwyn. "There's only one other person who blew up a part of my space station and then hit on me nearly right after."

Offence slipped onto Ratchet's face. "Hey, I didn't hit on you right after!"

Talwyn lifted a brow. "You don't think I caught that jealous look you gave Clank when I guessed he was the smarter one out of the two of you?"

Ratchet raised a finger to argue, then dropped his hand back to his side before he said anything.

Talwyn turned back to Rivet, cupping the Lombax's hand in between her own. "It's an honor to meet you, Rivet," the Markazian said, a laugh just behind her words. "I would love to get to know you more, and I know me and Ratchet's other friends are here to welcome you in with open arms."

Relief spread across Rivet's face and body language, and the white-furred Lombax winked to the taller woman. "It's a mutual feeling, Miss Tal. Kit is my partner, and she wasn't able to come because she had some business to finish up, but I know you and her will also get along really well when you finally meet her."

Both the girls shared a soft laugh, and as their hands dropped, matching smiles grew on both their faces.

At least, until a loud groan came from the destroyed part of the room. With no other warning, the ceiling on that half of the room caved in, and a mountain of dirt from one of the terrariums poured into the sitting room.

Rivet blanched, keeping her eyes to Talwyn. A nervous laugh left the Lombax. "Um… I can fix that."

Song Inspo: "Step on Up/Gimme More Mashup" by Martin Alexander (Britney Spears and Ariana Grande as the original artists).

I plan on doing a couple different "Rivet meets Talwyn" fics in the future because the possibilities are endless and Talwyn and Rivet deserve to be good friends GHJK. Nonetheless, I hope you all enjoyed, and thank you all for reading and supporting! :D