"I—hic—I'll be back Zurkie, don't you forget it!" Rivet calls out, sloppily pointing a finger behind her as she stumbles through the door, having had one or three too many drinks.
"It better not be until next week at least, because I'm serious about that ban, Rivet!" He sternly responds, waving a finger as he hovers above a destroyed table and unconscious space pirate. "No violence! That is my number one rule, Rivet!"
"Yeah?!" She yells back. "Well, I have a number one rule against asshole pirates who call me a space rat, and I—hic-don't ban 'em, I beat 'em!" She argues, clumsily throwing up a fist, but almost losing her footing in doing so, making her stumble a bit to regain her balance.
"This ain't over, ye filthy bilge rat!" The unconscious pirate's friend calls out angrily, raising his fist while the rest of his mates try to pick him up from the table's debris.
"A what?!" Rivet calls out as she stops in her place, glaring at him. "Space rat I can handle, but a bilge rat, whatever the hell that is?! That's it, I'm—"
She goes to take a step towards him, but another wave of dizziness from her drunken stupor makes her lose her balance once more, and for a moment, she thinks she's about to fall to the ground until she feels an arm wrap around her side whilst simultaneously grabbing an arm.
"You're going home, is what you're doing, Riv." She hears Ratchet's voice tiredly speak from next to her.
She then glances over to see him look back into the bar with an apologetic look. Don't worry, Zurkie, I'll get her back home, don't you worry! And, erm, sorry about the mess, I'll convince her to pay you back once she's feeling better tomorrow."
"Just get her out of here before she makes a bigger mess out of my pub than it already is!" Zurkie replies.
"Will do." Ratchet says with a nod while Zurkie then goes to chew out the pirate for antagonizing Rivet into almost causing another fight just now, but Rivet only pays half her attention to it as Ratchet, partially carrying her on her feet with her arm wrapped around her shoulders, gently leads her to the door. "Come on, Rivet, you've had way too much to drink tonight."
She doesn't immediately respond however, more than a little distracted by how close she was to Ratchet at this moment, feeling her natural arm hanging onto his broad shoulders, his hand gripping tight onto her own to hold up her weight, and most of all, feeling his other arm wrapped tightly around her, pressing her side up against his, making it almost impossible to get any closer to him.
And even though she was already feeling pretty warm and fuzzy from all the booze she's been slamming down tonight, having Ratchet so close to her cranked it up to a good eleven, making her be able to feel herself blush more than she already was.
"Y-Yeah… I guess I—hic—did…" She mutters, unable to stop staring at his handsome, beautiful face, wearing a look of tired annoyance as he helped her stumble out of the door and out in the parking area.
"Remind me not to let you have more than seven shots of that Fongoidian Fireball cocktail next time we go out again." He says with exasperation, stopping for a moment to readjust his grip onto her. "Last thing I want is to be chewed out by Zurkie again."
"It was fun, though." Rivet comments, now watching the ground as she has to look where she's stepping to keep from falling over too much.
"I'm sure it was, Rivet, beating the hell out of that pirate in a strictly no-violence zone." Ratchet says flatly.
"Mmhmm." She hums with a smile, enjoying the look of surprise on that pirate's face as she leapt off her stool and clocked him in the mouth, realizing that Zurkie's ban wasn't going to protect him from Rivet's wrath.
However, as she reminisces about it, she also remembers glancing over to the bar in the middle of her brawl, and the way Ratchet just stared at her as he was sitting on the stool, eyes wide with astonishment and… desire.
At least, that's what she thought it was—hoped it was. Seeing Ratchet staring at her like that, fueling a flame that burned for him deep inside of her gut, all around the butterflies that were fluttering around in her stomach at that mere thought as well, just like they always did whenever she thought about Ratchet.
And as she chewed on this thought, she glances over to him, still focused on their path to Aphelion as they walked along, wondering if that's what he was truly looking at her with.
And normally, she'd be way too nervous to ask, but thanks to her good friend Mr. Alcohol, her lips managed to have loosened up a bit to voice this question.
"You know… Did… Did you think I looked, I dunno… cool back there?" She meekly asks with a shrug.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Ratchet asks, raising an eyebrow as he glances back to her with those wonderful emerald eyes of his.
"You know… back when I was fighting? I, erm… saw you staring at me in the middle of it." She explains with a coy smile. "Is it because you thought I was… cool?"
He continues to stare at her with a questioning look, making her heart race as she begins to wonder if she asked a stupid question, making him think that she was stupid, making her then think that she was stupid too, and now wondering why the hell she even asked that in the first place if it just made her look like some kind of weird idiot for asking that!
However, before her thoughts could spiral deeper into this sudden rabbit hole of self-doubt, Ratchet rolls his eyes as he gives a small smile, looking back ahead. "Alright, yeah, I thought you looked a little cool, Rivet, I'll admit it." He says.
"R-Really?" She asks hopefully, a smile beginning to stretch across her own lips as well.
"Yeah. You know that I always think you look cool when you fight, it's one of my favorite things about you." He explains pointedly, as if he was simply stating that grass is green and water is wet.
Her smile then grows into a stupid grin as that warm fuzziness inside of her boils up once more upon hearing him say that, feeling even better than the buzz of the drinks. "Thanks." She says joyfully.
"No problem." He simply replies.
Eventually, they reach Aphelion, which initiates a small struggle of Ratchet helping Rivet into Aphelion, the booze finally really hitting her as she tries to climb inside, until she just tumbles into the passenger seat by having Ratchet boost her up by pushing on her butt—an experience that was surprising but far from unwelcome.
And as Rivet is finished making herself right side up into her seat, Ratchet effortlessly plops into his own and turns on Aphelion, her engines starting and the canopy closing until he glances over to her, and promptly leans over, his face right next to hers as he reaches over.
"W-What are you doing?" Rivet asks in surprise, unconsciously holding her breath as her heart races.
"Putting your seatbelt on for you." He responds indifferently, wearing a neutral expression despite how intimately close to her he was, seemingly oblivious to how stiff she was, looking right into his eyes as he focused on pulling the seatbelt across her body.
And as he was pulling on the belt, uttering a small sound of exertion before fiddling with the buckle, Rivet suddenly began to wonder if he always smelled this good, or if tonight there was just… something more alluring about him.
But before she could answer that question, she suddenly hears a 'click', and Ratchet (disappointingly) then retracts himself back into his own seat with a satisfied nod. "There." He states.
Rivet blinks, snapping out of her daze as she looks at the seatbelt she was now strapped in, and then back at Ratchet, crossing her arms. "Hey, I don't need a—hic—seatbelt, you know." She pouts with a small frown.
"You nearly faceplanted just walking to the ship, Riv. Yes, you do." Ratchet simply replies as he flicks buttons and switches, initiating preflight checks and procedures.
"No I don't!" She argues.
"Yes you do."
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do."
"I don't!" She states, now reaching down to fumble with the buckle—made harder by her dampened dexterity and reflexes from her drunkenness, but she manages to click the button, making the seatbelt retract back into its original position, to which she them crosses her arms with a smug, victorious smile.
"See? Don't need one." She says.
Ratchet looks over to her, and groans with a roll of his eyes. "Seriously, Rivet? Come on, stop acting like a kid." He says as he leans over once more, getting in her face again as he reaches for the seatbelt once more, allowing Rivet to get another whiff of his really nice smell, enjoying his close presence once more as he clicks the seatbelt into place back onto her body.
"You need one, the last thing I need is you just flopping down onto the floor because you can't even sit straight or something." He says as he backs away once more, Rivet unable to notice as her eyes were closed, enjoying the blissful sensation of feeling his breath on her while he was strapping her in.
However, her eyes open as he returns back to the pilot's seat, making her frown once more, but this time, not because she was forced to wear a seatbelt, but because she wanting him close to her again.
But then, a smirk crosses her lips once again as an idea pops into her mind, and while still looking at him, she reaches down and clicks the buckle, retracting the seatbelt once more, prompting him to snap over to her as she gives a small shrug.
"Oops." She says innocently.
"Rivet, I swear on the stars that I'm not in the mood for this game right now." He says annoyedly as he begrudgingly leans back in once more to buckle her in for a third time, but this time, Rivet solely focusing on enjoying every moment of his close presence on her, humming lightly in satisfaction.
"Well, I am, hotshot. Too bad." She says pleasantly, still wearing a smile.
"Oh yeah?" He asks, raising an eyebrow at her as he clicks her in again. "Well if you wanna act like a kid, then let's treat you like one. Aphelion, activate child-proof locks." He announces smugly.
Rivet's bliss is broken as she looks to him with confusion. "Wait, what?"
"Affirmative." Aphelion's voice responds.
"Alright, now we can go." Ratchet says pleasantly as he grips onto the steering controls.
Rivet goes to click the buckle to take off her seatbelt once more, but it doesn't budge, so then she presses hard with fingers on both hands instead. And yet, she's still trapped under the restraint of her safety belt.
"Wha—Hey! That's not fair!" She tells him with a frown while he gently takes off.
"Yes it is." He smugly replies. "Shouldn't have played this game on my home turf. The house always wins, you know!" He states pointedly while raising a finger.
"That's… I don't… You…" She huffs while crossing her arms, slouching in her seat. "Screw you." She mutters.
"Whatever you say, Riv. Now, off to Sargasso." He says, utterly unfazed.
Rivet huffs another pouty breath as she turns her head to the side, staring out the window and all the passing stars, watching Zurkie's pub slowly fade away into the inky black nothingness of space, listening to the gentle hum of Aphelion's thrusters.
But after a minute or so, she chews on her lip, and looks back over to Ratchet, wearing that look of cool focus as he cruises along through space, proud and content, his emerald eyes dotting around as he scans the path ahead, always mindful of nearby ships or asteroids they may come across.
It was a look that Rivet always liked, for some strange reason, seeing him look so… natural. Blissful. And deep down, she knew that he always loved flying, be it in the middle of a stimulating firefight, or a simple cruise such as this one, always filling him with a serene sense of happiness alongside any adrenaline that happens to be present as well.
And seeing him happy like that always made her happy, too, bringing a small smile to her face as that warm fuzziness rises once more, looking at him.
But then, Ratchet glances over, locking eyes with her, and she quickly averts her gaze back out the window, unsubtly humming a random tune, desperately hoping that he didn't just catch her ogling him so openly like that.
However, she hears him huff a quiet laugh out of his nose, and she pretends she didn't hear it, lest she buries herself inside of a hole out of pure embarrassment. So, instead, she focuses all her attention on the twinkling stars and hum of Aphelion's engine, trying to take her mind off Ratchet and her little faux pas as she distantly starts counting all the bright lights as something to do for the ride home, not yet aware of how sleepy was starting to feel doing so.
One, two, three, four, five… six… seven… eight…
Rivet blearily opens her eyes, and the first thing she notices is the wonderful smell of Ratchet and the feeling of hanging onto something furry. But then, she also realizes that she smells the familiar sulfur smell of Sargasso's acid lakes in the air, and the fact that she isn't sitting in a seat anymore.
Still a bit woozy from the booze, her mind wakes up a bit more as she then looks up to see Ratchet's face staring ahead, then behind him, seeing Aphelion parked in front of her hideout, the moonlight dimly reflecting off her shiny red chassis, and back down at her own body, and suddenly realizes that Ratchet must be carrying her, hooking an arm under her knees and hanging on to her back, carrying her to her hideout.
She unconsciously sucks in a sharp breath in surprise and excitement upon waking up to this sight, and it grabs Ratchet's attention as he looks back down at her and her wide eyes, making him smile a bit.
"Sorry, I tried not to wake you up, but I figured all those drinks knocked you out good enough that I thought I didn't have to be as quiet." He says amusedly.
"I… Erm… N-No, you didn't wake me up." She says in a choked whisper, her mind racing as she struggles to fathom that Ratchet is literally carrying her in his arms right now, being nearly as close to him as she can get.
"Oh, well, good!" He says pleasantly. "But, erm, as long as you're awake, mind helping out a bit here? You're honestly kinda heavy." He says amusedly as he gestures to her arm laying in her lap.
"I-I, erm… how?" She asks, her mind going a bit blank.
"Hook your arm around my neck, help pull yourself up a bit!" He explains.
"Wait, really? I, um, y-yeah, sure!" She says, getting over her surprise as she then takes her natural arm and obliges his request, pulling herself up a bit, and assisting herself by holding onto her hand with her robotic one in for support. "Is, um, is that good?" She meekly asks, looking back at him, gulping down how nervous and excited she felt.
"Yeah, that's a lot better, thanks." He says with a warm smile that gave her more of those butterflies, making her speechless as she just stares at him, not ignoring the rest of the world around her as he focused on traversing his way into her hideout proper.
Has he always been this handsome? This caring, making sure she wears a seatbelt and wordlessly trying to carry her to bed, all because she had a bit too much to drink. And not only that, but just all the other times in her life that he was there to help her, from the Dimensional Cataclysm, to taking down Nefarious once and for all, telling her what little he knew about the Lombaxes, helping herself and Kit navigate their new partnership, being there as a shoulder to lean on in some gloomy days, and always willing to be friend to hang with on the good ones, too.
Ever since he stepped into her life from another dimension, her life has been the best thing she's ever known, able to live in peace, to actually have fun—to actually have friends, too, all without worry of some tyrannical robot bastard yank it all away from her in mere months like he always seemed to do.
Simply put, without Ratchet… Rivet didn't think she'd be able to live a happy life. But now, here, with him in her arm as he carried her in his own… she could confidently say that he was the greatest thing that ever happened to her, making her give another stupid grin as she stared into those wonderful eyes of his.
"Alright, finally here." Ratchet says contentedly as he lowers her down onto her bed, snapping her out of her thoughts as she was simply too zoned out to notice that he had carried her all the way here. "Now you can finally sleep for real." He says amusedly as he goes to remove his hands out from under herself, giving her a warm smile and looking into her eyes as he does so. "Don't worry, I'll be sure to help you out with that hangover from hell you'll definitely have in the morning, too, but until then, have a good night—"
He tries to stand back up, but he is stopped as Rivet doesn't let go of him, still holding him around her neck, making his eyebrows furrow as he glances to her arm, then back down to her. "Erm, Riv?"
She chews her lip, feeling simultaneously nervous, excited, embarrassed, an anxious to say what she's about to say, chewing on her lip until she takes a deep breath, closing her eyes for a few seconds until she opens them again to lock eyes with his.
"Ratchet, I… I… I love you, okay?" She chokes out. "I love you a lot! There, I said it!"
He simply stares back at her, blinking a few times while still holding his questioning look.
"…What?" He asks confusedly.
"I love you a lot, okay? Like, ever since you came into my life, it's been so much better, then when I think about all the things you do for me, and how you make me feel when you do those things, I just… I can't imagine a life without you, and I love you, okay?" She says, feeling a huge wave of relief as she finally unleashes these words she's been mulling over for the whole night, and distantly thankful for being drunk enough to actually say them at all.
And as she stares back at Ratchet, waiting for a response, he stares back at her, eyebrows still a bit furrowed as he registers her words. But then, his eyes then dart away, then dart back at her, and his look softens up a bit as he huffs another small laugh through his nose.
"Well, alright then. I love you too, Riv." He says as he leans down to plant a quick peck on her lips, sending an electric tingle down her spine. "Thanks for saying all that, I can't imagine my life without you, either."
She giggles, feeling over the moon at receiving a kiss from, however small it was, and she pulls down on her arm to yank him back down a bit more so that she can hug him—much to his surprise.
"Oh, thank the stars! I've been worried about saying that to you all night!" She says happily, grinning with a huge smile.
"E-Erm, good to know?" Ratchet strains as he's awkwardly leaning down. "Riv, can you ease up? You're still hanging onto my neck!"
"Oh, erm, crap, sorry." She says with a nervous chuckle. Obliging him as he lets go and begins rubbing his neck. "I, erm… I got a bit excited there."
"You think?" He asks amusedly, bringing his hand down from his neck. "Well, whatever the case, I hope you get a good rest so you can sleep off as much of this booze as you can. You seem pretty wasted tonight."
"I'm not that drunk, hotshot." She says, waving an arm, right before a large yawn escapes from her mouth, making her unconsciously snuggle tighter onto her wonderfully comfortable and soft bed. "But… I am pretty tired, actually…"
"Great." He says with a smile. "See you in the morning, then."
"Wait!" She says, holding out a hand before she then meekly looks away. "Can you… Can you sleep with me tonight? I also kind've… like the way you smell. And feel. And how warm you are." She whispers nervously.
Once again, she hears him utter a small laugh, right before she then feels the bed shift as he lays down next to her, placing his head beside hers as he holds her hand with a squeeze.
"Of course." He says contentedly, leaning over to plant another peck on her lips.
She smiles as well, and proceeds to snuggle up closer to him, burying her face in his chest now that she has the go-ahead. "Thanks." She saws blissfully.
"No problem, Riv."
"But… Why can't you kiss me for real, instead of a peck?" She asks, glancing back up at him in their snuggling.
"Because I'm going to be honest, your breath reeks after all of those drinks." He states, making her frown before he raises a finger. "But! Once you actually brush your teeth tomorrow morning, I'll give you all the real kisses you want. Okay?"
"Mmm… Promise?" She asks.
"Promise." He replies with a nod.
"Well… Okay, then." She says, burying her face back into his chest with a large smile, hugginh onto him tightly with her robotic arm while he holds onto her natural hand. "Night, Ratchet. I love you." She says quietly.
"I love you, too, Rivet." He says, planting one more kiss on her forehead before hugging her back in return, making Rivet start to drift off into slumber as she listens to his heartbeat, with the last thought she's consciously aware of being that she considered Ratchet to be the best pillow she's ever had.
Ratchet laid there with Rivet, holding onto her and stroking her back as he laid in her bed, admittedly getting more than a bit sleepy, but clearly not as much as her, as it's only about two minutes before he hears and feels her lightly snoring away in his arms, prompting him to glance back down to confirm it by looking at her sleeping face with her mouth slightly agape; a sight that he always thought was cute.
"Damn, that alcohol really knocks you out, huh, Riv?" He whispers to himself in an amused tone. "Makes you act pretty wonky, too."
After looking at her face for another few seconds, he then looks back down to his hand holding hers, a little surprised at how tightly she was holding onto him even in her sleep, making him softly chuckle a bit, knowing just how much she loves holding hands ever since she discovered it.
But then, as he looks back down onto them, he notices that there's a cut on her glove on the finger, and curious, he carefully pries his hand away from hers, making sure not to wake her up in doing so, and inspects it more closely, able to see a shining glint through it.
"Ah, come on, don't tell me?" He mutters as he then goes about taking her glove off, throwing it off to the side as he inspects her finger, uttering a sigh as he confirms his suspicions. "Yep, she dented the ring on that robot's face. Man, I always tell her to take it off before she starts fights, too!" He quietly complains, glancing back down at her innocently sleeping face, now beginning to drool.
He sighs once more, however, knowing that if she was too drunk to walk straight, she was definitely too drunk to remember taking off the wedding ring before she goes ahead and smashes in a space pirate's face. He then carefully slips the ring off of her finger and holds it up, inspecting the damage, but luckily finds that it's pretty superficial, nothing that a little repairing and shining up at a workbench can't fix.
However, as he looks at it, he then glances to his own hand, and promptly takes his own glove off to reveal his own ring, and takes it off as well to inspect I, too, humming thoughtfully.
"Hm. Might as well patch mine up a bit while I'm at it, too. Could use a quick shine."
He then looks back down at Rivet yet again, wearing another smile as he strokes her head. "Well, there's another project for tomorrow, aside from babysitting you as you puke your guts out from your wicked hangover you'll have." He says amusedly.
He takes both of the rings into his hand, then places them onto her nightstand, right next to a photo of their wedding on Savali where they kissed at an altar manned by Gary, then snuggles back up to Rivet as he holds tightly onto her, giving her one more pick on her head.
"Night, Rivet. I love you." He whispers pleasantly before he closes his eyes before drifting off to sleep.
I actually came up with the idea of this story a while ago, making fun of the honestly cheap trope of 'oh, they confessed while they were drunk!', but pondering about making the trope good by then making a twist that they were actually together/married the whole time.
I don't know why, but today I just decided 'Screw it, let's actually write this into a fun little oneshot', and about three hours later, here we are.
Also, a little off-topic, but I actually don't headcanon them wearing rings on their fingers—I just wrote that here because I like the idea that Ratchet finds she damaged it through fist fighting better, lol. I actually believe that Lombaxes wear wedding earrings, because:
- They have giant ears, so why not put jewelry there like Rivet does
- They're a race of engineers, so they're always working on stuff, and one of the number one safety rules about working in workshops is to never wear rings because of degloving incidents (google at your own risk)
- If Lombaxes wear gloves all the time, what's the point of wearing rings if they're just going to be hidden under them?
So, yeah. That's of my belief, and they only wear regular rings in this story because I thought it'd be funnier and more of a twist if they weren't on display until the end, lol.
Also, even more off-topic, but I actually have a Twitter now, so if you already follow me and my stories, I already posted some extra goodies involving my AU of Lost Time, and with more to come, too! And if you aren't already familiar with me, well, I check it out anyway if it suits your fancy. Be sure to check it out at ACleverName_8!