The Diego Diaries: Well, there, Partner (dd6 149)
-0-Home again
Ironhide walked into the apartment, closed the door, then sat in his chair to wait. Leaning back, he considered the hellscape before him for the next 25 or so orns, with him snooping around and Ratchet denying everything and anything. That's when the door opened. Ratchet walked in, went to the kitchen where he stowed his giant frying pan, then opened the fridge. He pulled out two beers, tossed one to Ironhide, then closed the door. Popping the top, he walked to his own chair to sit. Both of them took a drink, then Ironhide grinned. "You really showed everyone how the bond works today, Ratchet. You looked beautiful."
Ratchet smirked. "You can't let them get too complacent," Ratchet agreed. "You big doofus, slagger … buffoon."
"You're really going to make me suffer this time, right?" Ironhide asked as he glanced at Ratchet. He admired the beauty of Ratchet's profile, completely unaware at the moment that humans could and would never view it the same way. Ratchet was a drop dead beauty among his kind and he was one lucky slagger. That Ratchet was such a stand up mech, that he liked to 'play' as much as Ironhide, that he rolled with the punches was the cherry on top. Ironhide considered himself the luckiest mech anywhere that mechs existed.
Ratchet grinned at him. "Oh, yeah ..."
Ironhide laughed, then a rap on the door got him to his peds. He walked over to open it and looked out. Down on the floor, a passel of segways overloaded with individuals sped in. Looking down, he closed the door, walked carefully to his chair and sat. Both of them saluted the humans gathered in front of them with their beers.
:RATCHET! WE HEARD THE NEWS! THIS IS SO AWESOME!: Jessie Landon called upward to the pair. :CAN WE COME!?:
Ratchet grinned. "I'll send the notice when things happen."
Cheering went up among the females and the one or two grinning males who were on the vehicles. :Did you hear about Linda Graham? She's three and a half months pregnant with a girl: Clarice said.
Ratchet leaned forward. "That's great news. Will she have her here or on Earth?"
The humans laughed. :It's so weird hearing that we have a choice now: Lois Morshower-Howell said. :She wants it here:
A moment of rejoicing was had, then everyone grinned at each other. :So … what happened?: Devon asked with her usual sweet nosiness.
Ratchet laughed aloud. "He didn't take his medicine. He didn't take the damned medicine."
Ironhide preened a moment, then saluted them with his beer. "Gonna punish a mech for forgetting."
"Slag right, I am," Ratchet said.
:So, Ironhide … you're on the pill?: Clarice asked with a grin. Everyone of the humans began to chuckle as they smirked up at him.
He frowned at them, then Ratchet. "Uh, yeah. So?"
"Birth control, Ironhide, is still a 'thing' on Earth. You know, Prude Central?" Ratchet explained.
Ironhide stared at Ratchet, then the humans. "Frag that. I AM IRONHIDE! I'M NO ONE'S PRUDE!" he said, then looked at Ratchet. "What's a prude?"
HUGE rolling laughter.
-0-RTR Tools
"Well, that infant is going to be the death of me," Ravel said as he dunked a sword into oil. It flared, then steam rose clouding Ravel a second. "Imagine! Running around town with a frying pan in your servo, then causing a ruckus around the Prime. THE PRIME! We didn't raise that infant to become a public spectacle."
"IT WAS HILARIOUS!" Appa Ratchet said with a chuckle. "I never had so much fun since we came here. I love that infant. He's a good mech and we get another baby. Is life not perfect?"
Ravel smirked at his father. "There is that. I wonder where they're going to put the infant in that rabbit hutch of an apartment?"
-0-In the rabbit hutch
The humans had departed happily, then Ironhide excused himself a moment, disappearing out the door. Ratchet sipped his beer, considered the future and made decisions. The protoform was designed with Ironhide's face, the colors chosen, the 'gender' if it could be called that, and all the other particular attributes that made a baby a baby among their kind in a few moments of reflection. The name was chosen, too. 'Radiant Light' would be its meaning and a perfect one at that, he thought to himself. He was musing on going to The Infant Place and carrying out every kind of infant outfit and toy there when Ironhide opened the door and bumped in.
In his servos, the bassinet that had been the first berth of everyone short of Orion was in his tender grip. Orion's little box bed was in their berth room closet in a place of safety and security due to the sentimentality of his father. He closed the door, then turned to Ratchet. "Here we go. We can put this in our room so I … uh, we can take care of him. Her. You won't give me a hint will you, slagger?"
"Oh, frag no," Ratchet said with the biggest, most intensely insincere smile he could manage. He even batted his optical ridges, too.
"Fragger," Ironhide said as he set the bassinet down. He walked to his chair, picked up his beer, then grinned at Ratchet. "I'll have to go to The Storage Place to get all the little outfits and blankets for the bed."
"I wondered what you did with that stuff. It's in storage in town?" Ratchet asked with a smirk.
Ironhide nodded. "That's heirloom stuff. I can't just give it away. Some of that stuff all of them have used. Some of it came from friends from Orion's time. I'll get it when you think we need to get it. We have two empty drawers in the dresser in the berth room and we can put this bassinet by the window and I can use Orion's little box bed at the office."
Ratchet grinned. "We can. Why don't you do that, then we can go to The Infant Center and get stuff that will be for this one alone."
"Okay," Ironhide said as he drained his beer, then stood. "What color stuff?"
Ratchet guffawed. "You need to do better than that," he said. "Nice try."
Ironhide grinned as he picked up the bassinet. "I'll remember that." He walked onward to the berth room, entering to disappear a moment.
Ratchet watched him, then grinned. "Don't ever change, Ironhide. You fragger."
In the berth room, Ironhide walked to the window. He set the bassinet up on his side of the berth so he could do the heavy lifting. Ratchet would be tired. He stared at it as a parade of smiling babies came to him in memory. They were laying in their own particular baby blankets, with their brand new first dollies by their little helms. They were shiny as a new penny, everyone of them, and he loved them madly. Now there would be a new memory to join them. It would be AWESOME!
Ironhide had a new little buddy for his orn.
He walked out, then waited as Ratchet put the bottles down the recycle chute. Walking out together, they headed for the elevator and The City beyond.
-0-Partition, a classroom in the Autobot City Medical Center, Autobot City
He sat in his class for field medics. There were eighteen others, some of them his age and all of them low caste. He startled for a moment. This was the first time he had thought about caste in decaorns. He couldn't remember the last time his optics flickered toward the markings of caste on another person. It astonished him a moment, then he felt his optics mist a little. Glancing at the diagrams on the forward monitor, he blinked his optics, then concentrated again. The moment of surprise, shame and intense gratitude passed by as he listened to the workings of a Cybertronian knee joint.
-0-Morius and Inweld
They worked together on a series of submitted project proposals for the chance to do business here on Mars by companies on Earth. They were part of a private firm that was 'hired' to help Fenix troubleshoot submissions for their viability to be presented to Ultra Magnus for the next step in the process. Before, it was okay and interesting but now it was more, more necessary and absorbing. Now, it was different. Everything was more intense, interesting, unifying, important, and needed. They had seen another world and had fallen into it along with their brother.
Partition had always been a trial. He was selfish, egotistical in the extreme, favored by their father, hard core in his sense of entitlement, and unwilling to understand or accept that both of his younger brothers were made of less stern stuff. It wasn't until they were on the run that the two had begun to change though they were unaware they had and how much until they landed here on Mars. Thayne had been here, a friend from way back and they had become a very close set of friends. Thayne had stood up for them and they were grateful. Now, they had a basis for their happiness and were choosing to do things and be around others who supported their new sense of themselves.
That Partition had changed, that he had become a good mech and a friend, that had been something that was never going to be in the cards before. Their brother had been embarrassing, sometimes mean to them and a mech to avoid most of the time. Now, he was part of their world again in a way they never believed possible. They were in the Home Guard together, Partition was studying to be a field medic, the diplomatic thing was over, and they were making their way forward as brothers and friends. The only hangup was their genitors. They hadn't told them of their decision to become part of the army. That was going to be a hard thing that would await until they graduated basic training and got their tats.
For now, there was their jobs here at the law firm, their training with the army, the friendships of others that they were making, fun times in the colony, and the companionship of their brother at long last. Life had taken a 180 degree turn around since the shunning and the two of them were grateful. Now, the only clouds in their sky were their genitors.
Their father, Lucien, actually.
"Fenix wants this when?" Morius asked as he typed out the last of the brief that would be attached to a firm application assessment that wanted to harness energy through solar wind devices near Earth.
"Tomorrow, if we can," Inweld said as he consulted the database with the entire case law and regulations of every country on Earth loaded up. "I found that citation, Morie. I'm sending it to you. Put it at the end in the footnotes."
"Got it," Morius said. They would work together all afternoon, then join their brother and a number of mutual friends, some theirs, some his, for dinner at The Tower In The Sky in Iacon. After that, the races beckoned.
-0-Raptor and the Fam
"That little mech is going to push his luck too far some fine orn and Ratchet is going to make mufflers out of him," Raptor said as he stood in line to use the bridge to go to his district command on Cybertron. The others laughed, nodding in agreement. "I love that infant. Imagine. Another infant with his face is in the pipeline."
"Ratchet has good taste," Turbine said with a grin.
"He does doesn't he," Blackjack said as he preened.
Hard Drive grinned. "Ironhide will have a new dollie for a while. Prowler and a new dollie. That's a lot of infants to cart around."
"He will," Delphi said with a pride. "He's quite a father, that one."
"Takes after me," Raptor said as he and the others stepped up to go.
What they had to say to that was lost to the bridge.
-0-The Infant Center
"What do you think, Ironhide?" Ratchet said pointing out several Seeker bags for The One.
"Well, its hard to say. A femme might like that. A mech might not," Ironhide said as he peered out of the corner of his optics toward Ratchet.
Ratchet smirked. "Frag you. Pick one or I will."
"You do it, Ratchet. It's your turn," Ironhide said as he prepared to gather intel from what Ratchet chose.
Ratchet looked at all of them critically, then chose a fawn-colored one that had a seal of Mars on it. Ironhide frowned. Nothing to tell there. Ratchet grinned. Ironhide was getting nothing. He moved onward, pausing before a pile of soft beautiful blankets. "What about this?"
"You choose the stuff, Ratchet. I'll carry it," Ironhide said holding out his servo. Ratchet dropped the little Seeker bag onto it, then half a dozen soft white blankets.
Ironhide frowned.
Ratchet grinned.
"Keep up, wuss," Ratchet said. "We have a lot of slag to get if you want this infant to have their own personal kit."
"I do," Ironhide said as he followed. "What sort of genitor would I be otherwise?"
"Don't ask me, Ironhide. You're good at this as it is. I suppose you plan to carry it around along with Prowler when he gets out of school. There's a five joor gap between his school and the others," Ratchet said as he gathered up nice little onesies that ran a gamut of color from light green, to yellow, to light orange.
No intel here either.
"You got that right, Ratchet. A mech has to step up," he said eyeballing something new, padded soft carry hold liners that reminded him of the one Dawg had at the trine's house only softer and prettier. "Look at this." He opened his carry hold, then slid one in. It was a good fit and was a perfect platform for a sleeping infant. "I want this one. I like brown. What about you?"
Ratchet looked at them, then Ironhide. "Get a light purple one. That'll do the trick." Ratchet turned to walk onward to the toy and dollie section.
Ironhide watched him go, then got the light purple one. / … slagger … making this hard? … well, we'll see … maybe …/ He grinned, then ambled along to catch up with Ratchet.
It would go like that.
-0-TBC 10-06-17 edited 10-12-17
ESL:
complacent: (cum-play-cent) to become so comfortable that you don't pay attention and/or adapt to the (changing of) circumstances around you. Example: "He was so complacent, he didn't notice that the tree was ready to fall on his roof until it did." :D