Hello, and welcome to this little collection of short stories/oneshots set in my AU of Lost Time. Obviously, if you haven't read that fic yet, you're likely going to be very confused by, well, nearly everything about this premise.
But, if you've already read it (or just don't care about context I guess, go ahead, I'm not a cop) then I hope you enjoy more of some of our favorite characters!
"Alright… hand me the screwdriver, pal." Ratchet says as he focused on tinkering with one of his weapons, a blaster he recently got from Gadgetron, of which he found was somewhat inaccurate in his enthusiastic testing yesterday, wanting to fire more to the left even if his aim was perfect.
And today, he was visiting his father over in the Lombax dimension, but Kaden said that he needed to go back to the Center to take care of a quick errand and would be back in fifteen minutes, tops. Ratchet didn't mind, though, because it gave him the perfect opportunity to use his workshop to make some tweaks to his blaster.
"Here you go, Ratchet." Clank replies from beside him, placing a screwdriver in his outstretched hand before he twists a few knobs in the internals of the weapon. "But, shouldn't you have at least asked your father before you decided to utilize his workshop?"
"Relax, I'm just making a few adjustments to my gun is all, I'm not trying to make a bomb or anything." He responds, glancing at him for a just second before returning his attention back to his work. "And besides, I'm pretty sure he said I can use it whenever I want, anyway."
"I… do not recall such a statement from Kaden."
He shrugs. "Well, whatever, I'll just ask him next time I have to come down here for whatever reason, then. But until then, toss me that wrench, would ya?"
"Hmm… Very well, then." Clank concedes, rolling his optics as he grabs said tool for Ratchet. "But do not say that I did not warn you if he is displeased to find out you were in here without his permission."
"He's not gonna yell at me or anything, Clank, I'm going to clean up after myself at least!" He argues with a scoff. "And, again, I'm just tweaking this blaster's aim real quick, and that's it. I'm going to be done in like, five minutes, tops. What's the worst that can happen?" He asks, looking back to him with a smirk.
Clank sighs. "You know, I really wish you would get out of the habit of saying that."
"Relax, pal, I'm not gonna jinx—"
"Hey, Ratchet, I'm home!" They suddenly hear Kaden's voice calling from upstairs.
"Gah!" Ratchet cries out, jumping in his seat while also unconsciously firing the weapon in his hand, making it fire a shot into the wall, leaving a giant black scorch mark.
"Ratchet? Was that a gunshot?!" Kaden's worried voice calls, hearing him rush over to the workshop doorway shortly before he races down the steps, appearing in the workshop to find Ratchet shrunk up and frozen with an embarrassed grimace as Clank stares at him with a disapproving look, crossing his arms.
"Now do you understand why I hate it when you say that?" He asks annoyedly.
"Ratchet, Clank? Are you alright?" Kaden asks, brows furrowed in concern as he looks between the both of them, right before noticing the scorch mark on the wall, smoking slightly, and points to it. "Uh… what happened there?"
"Oh, uh… we're fine, dad, don't worry." Ratchet assures him before looking back to the wall as well. "And as for that, well… I got a bit startled." He explains with a nervous chuckle, holding up his partially disassembled blaster for emphasis. "Erm… sorry about that. I'll help wash it off later."
"Oh, well… as long as you weren't hurt then, I don't really mind." Kaden replies a little amusedly, breathing a small sigh of relief at the false alarm. "I built this place with bomb-proofing, after all, so I doubt a little blaster like that could do any real damage in here." He says as he knocks his knuckles on the metal wall beside him.
"Well, that is a relief to hear." Clank comments as Ratchet smiles beside him, sharing the sentiment. "But, anyway, how was your quick trip to the Center, then? Did you take care of that errand?"
"Oh, right, I almost forgot in all the excitement," Kaden responds with a chuckle before he gives a nod. "But, yeah, I did. And I actually was going to come down here anyway, because I wanted to show Ratchet a little something." He states with a smile.
"Wait, really?" Ratchet asks, tilting his head curiously. "What is it?"
"Come upstairs and join me in the living room to find out." He says before turning around and walk up the steps, leaving Ratchet and Clank in the workshop as they each return a puzzled yet intrigued look.
"Well… time to find out what it is, then, I guess." He states with a shrug.
"Yes, I suppose it is. But, seeing as though it sounds like it is intended just for you, I hope you do not mind me taking the opportunity to clean up your mess for Kaden." He says, gesturing to the scorch mark. "But feel free to call me if I am needed up there."
"Wait, really? Um, thanks, pal! Will do!" Ratchet says pleasantly.
And with a nod, Clank turns around to find a rag in Kaden's workshop as Ratchet heads over to the stairs and ascends them, exiting out into the living room, where he sees Kaden just finishing inserting something into the holovision's video player slot right before glancing over his shoulder to see him standing there.
"So… what is it that you wanted to show me, then?" Ratchet asks, looking around. "I don't see anything up here so far."
"Well, that's because it's not some kind of gizmo I whipped up, if that's what you're thinking." He responds amusedly, standing up from his kneeling position to walk up to him. "I wanted to give you something more special for this occasion."
"Occasion? What occasion?"
"Well… you might not know this since I left you at Ms. Perigee's, but your real birthday was last month." Kaden begins. "And even though I know it's a little late, I still wanted to do a little something to celebrate it. And, well, also to kind of celebrate the fact that we finally reunited last week, too." He says with a smile.
"Wait, so, you're giving me a… late birthday present, then?" Ratchet asks with surprise.
"Yep." He confirms with a nod. "Although, granted, I know that it'd probably be best if I waited until your actual birthday, but I'm a little too impatient to wait a whole year for that." He explains amusedly.
"I mean… I can't say I'm really complaining." Ratchet replies with an eager smile. "What's my gift, then?"
Kaden returns an adoring look with a beaming smile, enjoying how excited he looked, but then simply reaches into his pocket before holding it out to Ratchet. "I want you to have this." He says blissfully.
Ratchet instead stares at it in shocked surprise, seeing that it was his father's photo of their family, the one that he said was the only picture of them he had for the last twenty years, signified by the worn crease in the center, the slightly torn edges, and the fading colors of the image. The one that depicted him as a baby, with his father holding him with a beaming smile, and his mother standing right next to him, resting a hand on his shoulder as she too gives an elated grin.
"Wait… really?" He asks hesitantly, looking back up to him. "Are… are you sure? I mean… you've had this picture with you for years, I know how important it is to you."
"And that's exactly why I want you to have it instead." Kaden assures him with a nod. "When you were gone in the other dimension, I had to go through a lot of dark times in my life, almost giving up all hope that I'd ever see you again, especially on appeal days where I failed to convince the Council to go back to save you. It's… tough to keep going when you have to go through month after month of having them tell you that it's all pointless if you were likely just dead with Tachyon running around over there, and there were some times that I almost started to believe them, too."
He gives a small sigh, but then retracts his hand to look at the picture himself, where the frown that grew on his face falls instead to a fond smile as he stares at it.
"But then, I'd just look at this picture, and it'd remind me why I was putting myself through that hell." He says contentedly. "I'd look at your face, and remember all the fun and happy memories that we spent in our short time together. Trying to get you to eat your food, playing with you and your little toy blocks, and how I tried really hard to get you to say 'dada' so I could win the bet I made with your mom on whose name you'd say first." He explains with a chuckle.
"And then, I'd look at her face, and remember just how damn elated she was when you were finally born, and how she was finally a mother. Watching her care for you was the happiest that I'd ever seen her in my entire life, and it was clear that she put her heart and soul into being a good mother to you. And remembering all of that also made me remember the promise that I made to her in her last moments, about how I swore to do everything I possibly could to protect you and keep you safe for her sake."
He then looks back up from the photo to Ratchet's intently listening face, and still wearing a smile, he holds the picture out to him once more.
"This picture has brought me an endless amount of happiness and comfort over the last twenty years, and that's why I want to give it to you, Ratchet. So that you too can have something to look at whenever you're feeling down, to remember that no matter what life throws your way, you'll always still have a family that loves you no matter what, be it me just over here in this dimension, or in your heart when I'm eventually long gone and with your mother." He says happily.
Ratchet is simply speechless as he looks back down to the picture, stunned by his father's words. And for a few more seconds, he doesn't do anything, just standing there, but as Kaden waits patiently for him to respond, Ratchet slowly reaches out and carefully takes it out of his hand, gingerly holding it in his own before he returns a wide smile.
"Thanks, dad." He says earnestly. "I love it."
Kaden grins as he moves closer to wrap his arm around his shoulders for a hug, being mindful of the picture he was holding so as to not accidentally smother it. "You're very welcome, Ratchet. All I ask is that you just make sure to take good care of it, it's getting a little old."
"Don't worry, I will." Ratchet replies as he gives a quick squeeze in return before breaking away from it. "But… isn't this one of the only pictures of mom that you have? I still feel a little bad for taking it." He asks a little worriedly.
"Don't worry, I already made a copy of that picture for myself, and we got a bunch more of her when we stopped by our old home in the other dimension." He says with a wave of his hand. "And besides… I got something a little better than a picture of her, too." He remarks with a smirk.
Ratchet furrows his brows. "Erm, what is it?"
"Your other present. Come on, take a seat." He says, nodding his head over to the couch as he steps over to sit down, which Ratchet obliges him with a bemused expression.
Kaden reaches over and grabs the holovision remote from the table next to him, and uses it to turn on the monitor in front of them. It shows nothing but blackness at first, but a few moments later, a picture starts to form on the screen, which is of what appears to be a CryoMine glove, albeit half-built and very rudimentary looking.
It confuses Ratchet at first, but then, he notices how there are hands currently working on it, splicing a few wires together, but from a perspective that can only come from a first-person point of view. And as his eyes widen in realization of what this is, a voice speaks up, confirming his suspicions.
"Yep, great idea, Kaden." The monitor mutters in a sarcastic tone. "Make it a glove so that you're forced to work with the tiniest, most pain-in-the-ass wires to deal with. Maybe Alister was right in making this thing just a gun instead so that I could have more room to work with."
And as he then gives a tired groan as the wires he's working with slips apart in his fingers, Ratchet turns to an amused Kaden with a shocked look, pointing to the screen. "Is… is this your memory?"
Kaden returns a nod with a smirk. "Yep. That's why I had to go to the Center real quick, so I could use a MemoReader to record this for you."
"…Huh." Ratchet remarks, looking back to the screen. "But… what is this a memory of, then?"
He chuckles. "Just watch." He says as he rests an arm around his shoulder.
As Kaden on the screen once again tries to twist the pair of finicky wires together, a door is heard opening followed shortly by a voice that made Ratchet's fur stand on end.
"Alright, Kaden, dinner's finally ready!" An eager female voice calls, making Kaden look up and turn his head to find Marie standing at the top of a short flight of stairs, wearing an excited grin that Ratchet saw her wear in many of the photos depicting her.
"Are you finally going to tell me what it is after you banished me down here while you were cooking?" His amused voice returns.
"Nope! You'll just have to come up here and see for yourself!" She returns with a smug look. "Now, hurry up before it gets cold, I even managed to get our son to settle down in his highchair!"
"Alright, alright, calm down." He chuckles, pushing away from the workbench before standing up with a quick stretch as Marie walks away, where Kaden then begins walking over to the stairs.
Ratchet meanwhile, glances back over to his father sitting next to him, watching it with a blissful smile and pure adoration in his eyes before he notices Ratchet's gaze on him, turning his head.
"Is… is that mom?" He breathes.
Kaden huffs a small laugh through his nose as he gives a nod, squeezing onto him a little tighter in their embrace. "It sure is. I wanted my other gift to you to be the chance to see what your mother was like for yourself, through my memories of her. And I thought that this was a good one to show."
"I… that's…"
Ratchet pauses in trying to formulate a response, as he realizes he doesn't really have one, too stunned and speechless to find one.
Well… that wasn't entirely true, as he knows one thing he can say in return, looking back to Kaden with a grin.
"Thanks, dad." He says quietly. "I love it."
"I'm happy to hear it, Ratchet." He replies with a smile as they both turn back to the screen, finding Kaden having ascended the stairs and currently walking through the living room of their old home, where he finds Marie standing happily in the doorway of the kitchen, clearly eager to show Kaden whatever this dinner was.
"Someone looks excited." He comments with a chuckle.
"Well, can you blame me? I've always wanted to try and make it!" She replies with a small laugh.
"Alright, so what is it, then?" He asks curiously, walking up to the door.
She then moves out of the way while broadly gesturing out to the table in a grandiose fashion, where Ratchet could see a very familiar dish sitting on top of it, but also, a small baby that appeared to be messily enjoying some kind of pureed food.
"Ta-da!" She announces. "Homemade Fulgra Beetles!"
Kaden is heard inhaling a deep breath while looking at the steaming beetles sitting at the table before looking back to her expectant face, anticipating for his response. "Wow, that smells amazing, Marie, thanks!" He says as he gives her a peck on the lips, taking her into a quick side-hug as she giggles.
"Well, I'd hope it would, I spent a good two hours cooking all of this up!"
"Yeah, I noticed that when I was starting to get bored being stuck in the workshop like you told me to. But, if this is anything like the kind we had at our wedding, then this will be so worth it."
"Then let's dig in already, so we can see if it's the case for ourselves!" She says as she breaks away from his embrace to walk to her own seat across from Kaden's, but not before pausing for a moment to wipe away a bit of food that Ratchet's baby self managed to smear across his cheek. "Wow, you're almost as messy at eating as your father is messy with his workspace." She comments amusedly as they both sit down.
"Hey, it's not a mess, Marie, it's an organized chaos." He astutely corrects her. "There's a big difference, you know!" He says, raising a finger.
She rolls her eyes. "Well, to the person who cleans this place up after you and our little monster over there, I'm not seeing it." She replies with a smirk, thumbing over to Ratchet, resuming at scooping small handfuls of the food into his tiny mouth as he curiously glacnes between his two parents on either side of the table from him. "Which, you're welcome for that, by the way."
Kaden sighs, knowing that to argue any further on this topic with a rebuttal like that is nothing short of a death sentence. "Yeah, yeah, I know, thanks for cleaning the house today, Marie, you did a good job. Love you."
"Love you, too, Kay." She answers back astutely with a smug grin before she picks up her fork alongside Kaden as they begin to crack open their respective beetles.
But as they do, Ratchet can't help but chuckle a little bit, watching the exchange. "Wow, seems like she was good at being a smartass right back at you. I like her already." He tells Kaden beside him with a grin.
He scoffs. "Wow, so you're saying you like it when you see your mom bully me like that?"
"Yep." He returns without skipping a beat.
Kaden chuckles lightly as he rolls his eyes. "You really are your mother's son, then."
And as Ratchet chuckles along, he returns his attention back to the screen, just in time to see his father finish cracking open his beetle to observe a forkful of the white meat, shortly before it disappears off-screen as he puts it in his mouth.
"Damn, that is tasty, Marie." He states, impressed, as she too takes a bite, making her grin in satisfaction and pride as she chews and swallows her own.
"Thanks, Kaden." She replies gladly. "But mind your language, our son's right there, you know." She says, pointing to baby Ratchet with her fork.
"Oh, come on, Marie, you know that he's way too young to remember anything we say right now." He replies with a roll of his eyes. "I can say whatever I want around him and he's just going to forget it in like, a week. Isn't that right, you hellish little creature that's stolen so much sleep from us with all your crying?" He coos in a baby-like voice as he leans over to Ratchet, who begins to giggle at his father, all the while his mother returns a disapproving look. "Who's always a noisy little bastard at three in the morning? That's right, you are!" He says sweetly, pointing to him with his finger.
"Kaden." Marie says sternly.
"Hey, you can't say I'm wrong, at least." He responds with a shrug before returning to his meal, picking up his fork as Marie rolls her own eyes before resuming eating her own beetle as well.
But as she does, she can't help but stare at with slightly furrowed brows, chewing slowly on her own bite. "You know… this tastes a little different than the kind we had at our wedding." She comments skeptically. "Did I mess something up?"
"Ah, calm down, you're just being nitpicky about your own cooking like you always are." Kaden assures her. "I think this is one of the best things I've ever tasted, so I think you can deserve to cut yourself some slack."
She grins, placing a hand on her chest. "Thanks, Kay. You're probably right, I must've just used different spices from the recipe or something. I'm just glad that I didn't mess it up completely, though, it's not often we can get our hands on Fulgra, you know!"
"You're telling me." Kaden replies with a full mouth. "How'd you even get this, anyway? You… didn't just drop a ton of bolts at the store, did you?"
"Oh, no, not at all. Lorna did." She replies pointedly with a smirk. "I was telling her all about how I wanted to try and learn to make it myself, and she offered to get me some on the condition that I cook it for her again sometime, too. On my own dime, of course."
"Oh, well, that was nice of her." Kaden responds pleasantly. "But… why didn't you invite her over so she could have some right now if she wants to eat it so bad?"
"Because she wanted to make sure that hers is actually good on the off chance that my first attempt would suck." She replies amusedly.
"Wow, what a supportive and caring friend she is. Glad to see she has faith in your cooking despite you two knowing each other for years now." He says with a small laugh, taking another bite of his Fulgra.
"She is a good friend, because she's giving me the opportunity to improve myself with a trial run first." She retorts astutely.
"So, she's just reducing your loving husband and father of your child to a mere lab rat that is to be subjected to your cooking, then? How shallow."
"Oh, shut up, are you grateful that you're eating Fulgra for free right now or not?" She asks, raising an eyebrow.
He laughs. "I know, I know, I am. Make sure to tell Lorna thanks for me for getting us this next time you see her."
"You can tell her yourself, actually." She states, eating another bite. "She's coming over tomorrow so that he and Angie can have a little playdate together." She explains, nodding over to baby Ratchet, who has since once again smeared even more food on his face as he eats along with them. "That is, unless you hole up in your workshop because we apparently bore you to death when we have our little chats."
"I wouldn't call a solid four hour session of gossiping a 'little chat'." Kaden replies as she scoffs, shortly before he refocuses his attention back to baby Ratchet. "But, man, that is a messy kid. Hopefully he grows out of it pretty soon, it's a pain to wash all of that food out of his fur when he always gets so fussy about it."
"Don't worry, Lorna said that Angie eventually learned how to actually eat her food and not paint with it when she was around a year old. Just hang on a little longer, Kay, and it'll all be worth it." She assures him. "Especially when we actually get to call him by his name after his naming ceremony."
Kaden gives a small, blissful sigh as he continues to stare at him, with the baby staring right back at him in return with his curious green eyes, absent-mindedly nibbling on his fingers, still caked with remnants of his meal. And although Ratchet couldn't see it, he could guarantee that his father was wearing a smile on his face at that moment, and his eyes filled with pure love and adoration.
"Yeah. It will." He replies contentedly, before looking back down to his beetle, stabbing into it with his fork.
But as he scoops out another piece of meat, he finds something brownish-black resting right under it. He freezes for a moment, and sliding off the chunk already on his fork, he then stabs into the small sac, where some liquid of the same color begins to slowly leak out of it.
"Uh… Marie?" He asks in a concerned tone.
"Yeah?" She responds casually, perking her head up as she chews her own bite.
He picks up the sac with a fork and lifts it out of the beetle's exoskeleton, presenting it to her. "Isn't this a poison gland?" He asks uneasily. "You know… the thing you're supposed to cut out first so it doesn't make you puke your guts out?"
She too freezes as she stares at it with wide eyes, glancing between it and Kaden, and after reluctantly swallowing her own bite, she hurriedly digs through her own beetle's meat before pausing. And slowly, she brings her fork down, and raises it back up to reveal another poison gland, with dismay written on her features.
She then looks back to Kaden, still holding his own gland up, and after a very tense five seconds—including baby Ratchet between them looking at them with innocent confusion—she finally speaks.
"Shit." She grumbles, dropping her arm in defeat.
"Hey, language, Marie." Kaden replies in a mockingly offended yet smug tone. "Our son is right there." He says, gesturing to him with the fork.
She scoffs. "Screw you, Kaden." She pouts, crossing her arms as he begins to laugh before the image begins to fade to black, ending the memory.
And as the monitor then begins to display 'NO INPUT' and the holotape ejects from the player, Ratchet can still hear his father softly chuckling beside him before he turns his head to look at him with a blissful smile.
"So… what'd you think?" He asks gently. "I know it might not be the most eventful memory of her I have or anything, but it still has a special place in my heart." He answers with a shrug.
Ratchet doesn't immediately answer, instead gazing at him, then over to the holotape, and finally, back to the picture in his hand, and at the smiling image of his mother.
His mother, whose face he could finally put a voice to, and who he had now finally had a chance to see walk and talk, seeing for himself just what the kind of person she was, and how she and his father just simply… lived together. Joking around, clearly loving each other, and just as clearly loving their child as well.
For the first time in his life, he finally got to see his life back when it was just… normal. And normal looked like a very happy, comfortable time, and he was incredibly thankful to actually get a taste of it for himself.
And so, he finally looks back up to Kaden, waiting expectantly, and with a huge grin, he suddenly leans in and embraces him into a tight hug, surprising Kaden.
"I loved it, dad. Thank you." He says happily. "This was the best birthday gift ever."
Kaden too smiles as he relaxes from the surprise, and he fully wraps his arm around him just as tightly as well. "You're very welcome, Ratchet. Happy late birthday to you."
I already have a bunch more ideas lined up, but if you happen to have suggestions for any other possible stories, then feel free to drop them in the comments, and I'll see if any catch my eye. Until next time!