The rest of the summit had practically fallen into disaster. There was shouting, arguing, and many people hadn't bothered to show up for the final day. Optimus seemed to feel pretty defeated after the whole thing. Ratchet wasn't sure if it was general depression about the state of the political atmosphere or it was closer to sulking because he felt like he failed. Either way, he hadn't been seen aside from the small glimpses he got of him sneaking downstairs for the occasional cube.

Ratchet wandered through the hall and downstairs to the kitchen going to pour himself some coffee.

It was starting to thunder outside. Acid storms were scheduled. There wasn't any going outside today. He sighed, glancing at the time. It was already past ten and he'd been sulking for a week now. He would be lying if he said he wasn't at least a little worried…It wasn't like him to be so downtrodden for so long.

He sipped on the mug looking outside again. Optimus was very intelligent, but lacked wisdom. He was also very deeply caring… No doubt he blamed himself for the actions of others.

Ratchet sighed, putting the mug down. He himself had plenty of experience. Perhaps he just needed a little nudge to pick himself up…

Enough was enough, he decided. He stood back up and made another cup of coffee with the sickening amount of sweetener Optimus liked before heading upstairs.

A moment later he was standing at the master bedroom's door. He knocked gently holding the mug in hand. "Optimus?"

Silence was his answer. Ratchet narrowed his optics knocking on the door again, more firmly this time. "Optimus, I'd like to speak with you."

A very muffled and gruff, "Go away," answered him. Although, it lacked any bite behind it.

Ratchet sighed, turning the handle and pushing the door open. He had been in this room a few times before over the past few months. It still felt odd walking into it but it wasn't a strange place by any means. The room was very dark, the curtains covering the windows were to blame. They were drawn shut. The room itself wasn't exactly in it's typical tidy nature, but it wasn't a mess by any means. A pile of armor that Ratchet recognized as the more formal set that he wore at the summit lay in a pile in front of the closet. A few half finished cubes set on the top of the bedside tables. The trash can that was set in the corner of the room filled to the brim with crumpled paper with a few pieces having fallen out of the bin. Books had been pulled from the shelves in the room and laid haphazardly around.

Upon looking close enough, he found the Prime laid sprawled out on his silk sheets buried under a comforter and half a dozen pillows. He laid face down, turned away from the door.

"I know you're awake." Ratchet deadpanned at him.

The pile didn't move.

Ratchet sighed, setting the mug down on the bedside table before walking over and drawing the curtains to let what little light was outside, in. Optimus flinched away from the light covering his helm with a pillow.

He walked over, sitting down on the edge of the ridiculously large berth. "I get the inclination you're upset."

"So what if I am?" He replied with a cantankerous tone after realizing that Ratchet wasn't going to leave.

"It's fine that you are, but you're going to make it any better by sitting in here and sulking," he replied, lifting a pillow off of his face. "If you think I'm going to let you just waste away in your room until you get your shit together then you're wrong.

Optimus didn't have an answer for him, merely pulling the pillow back over his face.

He sighed, shaking his helm. "The summit didn't go very well. That isn't your fault, but hey. At least you tried. How other people reacted was out of your control. This might not have worked as a solution, but if you give up you aren't going to find anything that works." Ratchet said. "You aren't going to get everything perfect, you know…"

Optimus didn't seem to want to reply to this, so Ratchet continued. "You know, getting myself to the Senate didn't work for what I wanted to do. Trying to get people to share their opinions with each other didn't work either. Look at where I ended up falling off at. I ended up giving up any independent power I had, but now I'm closer than ever to achieving what I wanted."

"What are you trying to accomplish with this?" Optimus asked with a sigh, peeking up at him from under the pillow.

"My job. I'm your consort and your friend. I'm supposed to support and advise you, so here I am, trying to support and advise you." Ratchet reached for the coffee on the table beside him. "So are you going to drink the coffee I made for you or are you going to wallow some more?"

A little more silence followed and Ratchet added in. "If you continue to wallow, I'm not going away. I'll just continue being a nuisance."

After a moment he sighed, rolling over and sitting up. He looked about just as Ratchet expected. Dishelfed, tired and dull optics, dark circles under his optics, and paint looking chipped, worn, and dull.

Ratchet gave him a small smile and handed the mug over. He took it and took a sip.

"Thank you…" he muttered.

"You're welcome," Ratchet replied.

Optimus sighed leaning against the pillows pulling himself into a more comfortable sitting position. "Perhaps I am being a little childish… It isn't like it was all bad…" he said.

"No it wasn't all bad," he replied. "There were some good talking points. Have you seen the trending topics among the people?" Ratchet chuckled.

"No, not really…" Optimus replied. "I don't really know how to access any of that stuff."

Ratchet chuckled faintly. "Red showed me the new application that's becoming popular. It's called Chatter. The way it looked it was like a public chat room. People can talk to each other and you can post ideas on your feed. I started one. You should start one too. It might help with our goals."

"I'm no good at any of that junk," he replied. "I can do politics, not people."

"You can't have politics without people. You ought to do it. You can do more with it. You don't have to stick with it but Red thinks you should try it out," he pointed out.

Optimus sighed. "Okay fine, let's say I make an online presence. What would that accomplish?"

"It would put you into contact with more people, you would be where anyone can find you at a convenience, and it would allow people an easy way to reach out to you. Not only would it be a good way to spread some ideas around, but it would be a good way to give an even more convincing performance to the public. They would see photos of us being all 'cute and couple-y.' They see it, they say 'awe,' and they move on. That would put less stress on us to give a good performance. It also would be a good way to discreetly reach out to others you feel inclined to reach out to," Ratchet said, crossing his arms. He watched Optimus take another sip, pondering.

After a moment he added. "Besides. It's likely it's going to become a very widespread thing. Elita's been making a presence. I've started. Magnus has too… Even that gladiator is making a strong impression on people. He's been growing rapidly in popularity since the summit."

"You mean the one from Kaon?" He hummed. "…Megatronus?"

"Yes, actually."

He turned it over in his mind. Ratchet could practically hear the thoughts bouncing around the inside of his helm. "Mmmm fine. You have a solid argument, I'll make an account."

"Good, doing something will help you get out of this slump," Ratchet chuckled.

Optimus rolled his optics at him with a small chuckle.

"Finish your coffee, and go take a shower. You'll feel better after you get up and move around a little bit," he said as he got up and walked over to the door, leaving him alone.

Later on that day, Optimus was sitting in the lounge, scrolling on a datapad. Ratchet slowly approached him with a small smile. "Good to see you up and about," he said.

"I'm feeling a lot better, yes," he chuckled softly. He looked over at him as he sat down next to him.

"What are you doing?" Ratchet asked.

"I'm making a Chatter account, like you asked," he chuckled. "I'm looking around and sending a few friend requests."

Ratchet hummed, leaning over to see. "It looks good so far," he chuckled. "Looks like you got a message," he said pointing to the little red notification.

Optimus hummed, tapping it to see who it was from. "It's from Megatronus," he murmured.

"Megatronus?" He was puzzled by this. "Did you send him a request already?" He asked.

"I mean, yes I did." He replied softly. "I didn't think that there would be a response. I sent requests to other people too."

"Open it, let's see what he sent," Ratchet replied, waving him on.

Optimus eyed him for a moment before tapping on the message to open it.

:I was wondering if I would ever get the chance to see you again. It was very pleasant meeting you at the summit, even if it did go badly. I have you to thank for the swarm of new optics on me and the boost in support I've gotten. I notice that we preach similar ideals and I was wanting to know if you would like to meet sometime in the future to discuss an alignment to work towards a cause?:

Ratchet exchanged looks with Optimus. He seemed excited. "It's just like we talked about, Ratchet. I didn't think it would ever work out this smoothly but this could be a great benefit!"

Ratchet chuckled softly. "Well then go ahead and reply to him."

He paused looking back at the message board. "What do I say?"

"What do you want to say?" Ratchet replied with a chuckle.

He thought for a moment before he slowly began typing. :Megatronus, I'm glad you reached out to me. You caught my attention with your speech and I would be more than happy to discuss with you. I'd be more than happy to invite you to my home where we can speak privately on the matter.:

Optimus looked over at Ratchet for his approval as he read over it. Ratchet gave him a small nod and watched him send it.

Little did either of them know, that message would be the thing that sent forth a furious chain reaction to unfold.