"Ha! Take that!" Ratchet cries out triumphantly, setting his controller down as he crosses his arms proudly, turning to a disgruntled Rivet, looking at the 'Player 1 wins!' written across the screen.
"Hey, this isn't fair, you know!" She argues, pointing at him. "You already said that you've played this game before, so you already know all the combos!"
He scoffs. "Oh, as if! They're like, literally the same exact combos as the last game."
"But that's still cheating, because my copy of Combo-Clashers has completely different combos in my dimension!" She argues, crossing her arms with a huff. "I don't think this should count, you have the homefield advantage."
"Oh, well, doesn't that sound familiar?" Ratchet asks with a smug smile. "What was it that you said? Oh yeah; If you were really that great, Miss I-Can-Kick-Your-Ass-at-Combo-Clashers, then surely you'd have no problem figuring out the combos on the fly and wiping the floor with me." He says with an all-too-amused grin.
Rivet raises an eyebrow with an unimpressed frown. "Do you want me to wipe the floor with you for real, Ratchet? Because I might not be able to kick your ass at this bogus holovid game, but I know I can kick your ass right here and now." She says gesturing to the holodisplay and then over to him.
"Sounds like you're just a sore loser, Rivet." He snickers. "I'm disappointed in you."
"Not as sore as you'll be if I get off this couch and—"
"Why must you two always be so competitive?" Clank interjects, shaking his head with a sigh. "I swear, you two sometimes act like the most weaponized children in the galaxy."
"I concur." Kit adds from beside Rivet.
"Hey, am I not entitled to defend my honor once this cheater brings it into question?" Rivet argues, sneering up at Ratchet.
"Implying you had any to begin with, sore loser." He returns with a playful sneer of his own. "So, you wanna go for a rematch, then?" He offers, reaching over to pick up her controller, holding it up to him.
"And have you make even more fun of me because I still don't know that combos? As if." She returns with a roll of her eyes.
"Then, with your forfeit, I guess I can now officially proclaim myself the King of Combo-Clasher!" Ratchet announces in a formal tone, straightening his posture with a fist placed on his chest as he wears a firm look of resolution.
Rivet, however, can't help but laugh as she gives him a small punch to the shoulder, making him crack his royal façade as he too begins to laugh.
"Shut up, you dork." She chuckles. "At least I'm better at hoverbooting than you."
"Oh, that little debate isn't over yet!" He counters. "In fact… Why don't we go out and have a race right now? The sun's going down, so we have enough light to navigate, and it's cool enough to keep from baking alive out there, too."
"Well… if you're game, then I'm in, too!" Rivet says eagerly, hopping up from the couch with a smile. "And I'll make sure to show you that last time wasn't a fluke, either!"
"That's going to be really awkward for when you're going to be spitting out all of my dust after I smoke you." Ratchet returns with a grin as well, with that competitive fire in his eyes that matched the one brightly burning in Rivet's own.
But even as Rivet stared back at him, beneath the whirlwind of competitive spirits and a motivation to make him eat his words for such trash-talk… she couldn't help but admire just how pretty those green eyes of his were, filled with such a playful eagerness that always made her feel warm and fuzzy deep down inside.
But then, she shakes her head slightly, trying to wave away that thought, threatening to make her intensely smug expression of haughty self-assurance that she'd win falter. Now wasn't the time to be ogling him like an idiot; now was the time to whoop his ass at another hoverbooting race.
And luckily for her, Ratchet tears away his gaze from hers as he glances back to Clank, still sitting on the couch with Kit, thumbing to his back. "Well, go ahead and hop on, pal, and we can start—"
"No, you two can go out by yourselves, do not worry." Clank assures him with a wave of his hand. "Me and Kit will stay behind."
"Wait, what?" Rivet asks confusedly, also turning her head to them. "Why?"
"So that we can cook dinner together!" Kit answers enthusiastically, raising a finger. "Clank told me that he was going to teach me one of his recipes so that I could cook it for you, too, Rivet."
"Well, you're definitely in good hands, then, Clank is one of the best chefs I know." Ratchet comments amusedly. "I can't wait to see what you guys'll whip up for tonight!"
"And I can only hope that it will be worth the wait." Clank replies. "But until then, you two go on ahead by yourselves and spend some time alone together."
"That's… a weird way to say it, but sure." Ratchet agrees, giving him an odd glance before shrugging and turning towards Rivet with a smirk. "So, ready to race?"
Rivet, however, is still looking back at Clank, also finding something… peculiar about the way he said that. And as she does, Clank looks back to her, and with a smile, quickly winks at her, while Kit gives a small thumbs-up from beside him, making Rivet's eyes widen as she realizes what they were doing; giving her and Ratchet alone time so that she could confess to him.
"Erm, Rivet? You good?" Ratchet asks with some confusion, shaking her shoulder a little bit, snapping her out of her thoughts.
"O-Oh, me? Y-Yeah, totally fine!" She answers with a small jump, finding his touch to be a bit surprising. "Just… thinking about what I'm going to say when I beat you at our race, is all! It has to be really good, since Clank or Kit aren't going to be there to hear it, too, since it's just going to be you and me, alone, with no one else!" She says with a nervous chuckle.
Ratchet looks back at her with bemused concern, eyebrows furrowed. "Erm… Looking… forward to it, I guess?" He hesitantly replies.
"Yep, me too!" She replies. "And not totally dreading it, either!"
"…Why are you so nervous, exactly?" He questions.
"What? Me? Nervous? Pssh, don't be silly, Ratchet!" She says with a wave of her hand.
"Wait a second… I think I know why, actually." He answers with a sly smile, crossing his arms.
Rivet unconsciously gulps. "Erm… and what do you think it is?"
"You're just scared to race to me because you know I'll win." He says smugly.
"That's—wait, what?" Rivet says, raising a finger, ready to counterpoint his argument before she's caught off guard by his answer, which makes even Clank and Kit give him a surprised look as well.
"You know Clank's not going to be there to rein me in when I start bragging about how awesome I am at hoverbooting after I make you eat my dust." He explains. "But don't worry, Rivet, I won't rub it in your face that much, I know how to be a humble winner."
But as Rivet's looking back at him in disbelief, he then shrugs with a smile. "But, you know, if you're really so scared, then I don't see the harm in just not having this race in the first place, so you can hang onto that little sliver of pride of beating that one time on Sargasso a few days ago. But, I guess we'll have to just accept and know deep down that I'm the best hoverbooter since you're pretty much quitting right now."
"Excuse me?" Rivet asks, placing her hands on her hips, eyebrow raised as her apprehensiveness and internal panic washes away to a fiery motivation to rise up to his completely baseless accusations. "I am not wussing out of this, hotshot!"
He sucks in his teeth. "Doesn't look like it."
"Oh yeah? Well then come on! Let's start right now!" Rivet calls out as she immediately starts walking outside before looking over her shoulder. "Or if you're too scared, then feel free to stay in here so I don't have to hear your whining when I beat you!" She says with a smirk of your own.
He scoffs, following her out the door, but unable to suppress a smile from his lips. "As if. Let's do this." He states, disappearing out of the door, where Clank and Kit can shortly hear the sound of hoverboots blasting off, and the fading sound of their trash talk carrying off into the darkening desert.
"Well, would you look at that!" Ratchet proclaims, shutting off his hoverboots as he lands on top of a mesa, looking back at Rivet while haughtily crossing his arms. "Guess I am the better hoverbooter!"
"Oh, whatever, this just means that we're tied now with my win on Sargasso." Rivet returns with a roll of her eyes, landing next to him.
"Hey, like I said, that one doesn't count!" He counters, raising a finger.
"Why? Because of that 'homefield advantage' excuse? If we're going by that, then this race doesn't count, either, because you're the one with the advantage this time." She counters with a smirk.
"No it doesn't, because Veldin doesn't have stupid Speetles that jump out of bushes and make you smack into a tree." He retorts with a small pout. "This one totally counts!"
"Then so does the last one. Guess that means we're both tied, hotshot, guess we'll have to have a third race sometime." She says with a shrug.
He gives a sigh as he slumps from his tensely defensive posture. "Yeah, I guess so. But our third one has to be somewhere neutral so that neither of us have the advantage."
"Sounds fair to me." She states with a nod.
And with that settled, she turns towards the greater desert before them, now standing high above it from the mesa they were perched on, curious to see if she can spot his garage from up here.
But instead, she takes a pause, mesmerized by the absolutely stunning sunset before them, painting the sky in vivid oranges and purples on the sparse few clouds, washing the desert with a gentle, darkening hue of blue, with no other signs of civilization except for Ratchet's home in the distance, shining yellow from the lights that Clank and Kit have appeared to turn on from inside his home.
"Woah…" She breathes. "It's so…"
"Beautiful?" Ratchet finishes with a light chuckle, glancing to her with a soft smile before gazing over the picturesque landscape before them with her. "Yeah. I'll admit there are times that I hate Veldin, especially early on in my life. It gets stupidly hot, there's nothing to do around here, and horny toads are an annoying pain in the ass whenever you run into them out here. But one of the one things I could never hate was how pretty this place can be sometimes." He says contentedly.
"No kidding." Rivet replies. "Sargasso never gets sunsets like this."
"Perks of living on an empty desert planet, I guess." He responds amusedly, moving past her to take a seat on the edge of the cliff edge of the mesa, dangling one leg over while he rests an arm on the knee of the other. "I like to do this sometimes, honestly. Just get on top of one of these cliffs and watch the sun go down, watching all the pretty colors. Nice place to just kinda think and unwind, you know?"
"Yeah. I like to do that on Sargasso, too." She agrees, also taking a seat next to him, dangling both of her legs over the edge as she rests on her hands behind her. "Especially back when I lost my arm, just trying to deal with… everything afterwards. I had the Morts, sure, but it was nice to just… be by myself and process it. I found it helped a lot when I had a nice and pretty view to do it, too."
"Nice break from the craziness of our lives, huh?"
"That it is." She agrees blissfully, wearing a small smile. "Although, I wish that I could've met you sooner, so I could've used this view back when all of that happened, because seriously, this is pretty." She states, gesturing out to the sunset.
He chuckles. "Well, it's not all that great, honestly. This is still Veldin, you always gotta be watching for scorpions or other bugs wanting to bite you while you're sitting down like this." He says, looking back over to her with a smile.
But as he does, he glances past her, and his eyes widen in fear as he quickly points next to her. "Oh, crap, especially one of those!" He calls out.
"Wait, what?!" Rivet cries out in fear, scrunching up as she quickly shifts over, pressed up against Ratchet as she hurriedly scans the ground next to her, raising her metal arm in preparation to squish whatever creature he pointed to.
However, after a few seconds, she finds nothing in the dirt, making her lower her arm in confusion, right before she hears Ratchet bursting out into laughter.
She snaps back over to him to demand why he did that, but before she opens her mouth, she realizes how they are currently pressed up shoulder-to-shoulder, close enough to knock him over if she tried to scoot any closer to him. Ratchet appeared oblivious to this, too busy cracking up from his gag, but Rivet could feel herself getting hotter upon noticing just how close they were to each other, and quickly shifts herself away from them to open up the space a bit before he comes back to his senses and realizes as well.
However, she also scooted away so that she had enough room to slug him in the shoulder, making sure that she used her metal arm as well.
"Asshole." She pouts.
"Worth it." Ratchet replies, his laughter beginning to taper off as he rubs his shoulder.
Rivet rolls her eyes as she returns her gaze back to the sunset, finding that the sun had lowered a little bit more as she was looking away, and found that the already vivid colors in the wide sky were turning into even deeper shades of themselves, once again making her stop and appreciate the utter beauty of the scene.
But, as pretty as it was, her mind was no longer focusing on the scene before them, and instead onto why she was here with Ratchet right now.
She knew Clank and Kit only told them to go out here by themselves so that she could finally have a chance to tell him her feelings. But don't they realize just how damn hard that is? Have they tried sitting right next to the person they've been thinking about nonstop for months now, and simply decide to ask 'hey, I like you, wanna kiss?' Because, newsflash, it is not as easy as just asking if you want to kiss each other.
What if Ratchet didn't feel the same way? Sure, Clank said in his advice that Rivet was all that he liked in a partner, but was Clank Ratchet? No, he wasn't so she can't be certain that he was even into her like she was him. And if it turned out that he actually wasn't into her, what the hell was she going to do when he turns her down, huh? Is he just going to try and avoid her from now on? And even if he didn't how would they even hang out without that awkwardness hanging over them? She must've thought of every scenario of what would happen if he said no, and in every one of them it was going to be a bad time, with no two ways about it.
She had to wait for the perfect time to finally tell him how she feels in order to eliminate a good majority of those bad scenarios, and so she can finally muster up the guts to actually say those words in the first place. With the right opportunity, and the right words, she can be at least ninety percent certain he wouldn't immediately shoot her down.
But… after everything's that's happened, she wasn't so sure what the perfect time even looks like. She had Clank tell her that she's basically everything that Ratchet likes in a partner. She had the Morts say that Ratchet looks like he's into her just as much, and that she needs to finally take that leap and get it over with. And right now, she has both Clank and Kit basically handing her an opportunity to confess to him on a silver platter, with the only thing stopping her being herself.
In all honesty, she really just wanted to get up and head back to the garage for some dinner, and leave this for another day, where an even better opportunity will be sure to come around.
But if she did that, she knew she was just going to put off the inevitable. If Clank and Kit were starting to be this unsubtle about trying to get her and Ratchet together, straight-up winking at her while he's standing right there, then she doesn't doubt they will just start organizing even more opportunities for them to be alone together, and if she blows those off, she wouldn't be surprised if they just out and told Ratchet themselves.
And not only that, but she had the Morts to look forward to putting that fire under her, too, what with their threats to constantly flirt with Ratchet until she grows the guts to do so. She was pretty sure at first they were just joking about that, but after catching wind of a few Morts discussing which flirts were better from a list… she knew they were being serious.
No matter where she turned, it seemed like everyone was dead-set on getting her to finally confess to him.
But, again, it was just so hard to do it with all of that uncertainty of not knowing how he'd respond. Just one small slip-up, and any and all chances with him are up in smoke. Just how would she ever get the guts to do it?
She breaks her gaze from the sunset to subtly turn her head towards Ratchet, biting her lip as she looked at him, completely oblivious to her as he wore a content smile, transfixed onto the sunset before them, its reflection able to be seeing in his emerald eyes.
Seeing him like this made her heart flutter. That soft smile he wore on his lips, something he always had whenever he looked at her. His eyes filled with such care and friendliness, always able to put her at ease whenever she ranted about any problems she was having in her life. And to top it all off, his admittedly handsome physique that always made her question whether her attraction to his appearance was because she really did like him like that, or if it was just because it was her Lombax instincts ringing all the right bells at seeing another Lombax with all his Lombax features.
But that wasn't to say that she liked him just because he was good looking, being bathed in the warm, soft light of the beautiful sunset. She liked him because he was… him.
A funny, caring, selfless, brave, courageous, heroic, humble, friendly, helpful, and supportive person. Someone who just popped into her life out of the blue, and instantly improved it a hundredfold. Without him, she'd still be running around, all alone, vainly trying to stop the Emperor, knowing deep down that she'd never win. She'd never have found such an amazing lifelong friend in Kit or Clank. She wouldn't have known a single thing about the other Lombaxes without him sharing all the things he knew about their culture.
Simply put, she couldn't be able to imagine a life without Ratchet after all he's done for her.
And that's exactly why she wanted to confess to him. So that he could be by her side for the rest of her life, as he was now.
With a deep breath, She tears her gaze away from Ratchet, looking back at the sunset as she shoved down all those little voices in her mind screaming at her to abort mission, don't do this, or you'll ruin everything and the world will end.
"You know… I really did mean it when I said I wish I could've met you sooner." She begins.
"Hm?" Ratchet asks, snapping out of his own thoughts as he glances over to her. "What do you mean?"
"Well… the thing is…" She says, pulling her legs up from the edge of the cliff as she hugs them to her chest. "I… have something that I've been wanting to tell you for a while now, Ratchet." She says softly.
Ratchet looks to her with an unsure expression, one that was unable to communicate just how fast his heart was beating as he gulped. "Y-Yeah?"
"I…" She too gulps. "I like you." She admits, albeit very quietly, as if her vocal cords were physically unable to make those sounds.
"What did you say?"
She sighs, and taking a very deep breath, gathers every last bit of courage and will to finally look back at him, right in his eyes.
"I like you, Ratchet." She states firmly, not allowing herself to back down. "I really, really like you, okay? Just, ever since I met you, I've always wanted to spend time with you. You're a really fun person to hang out with, you're always there to help me out whenever I'm having a bad time with whatever reason, and you're the first person that I've been able to connect to. Like, really connect to." She states.
Ratchet remains frozen, his expression unchanging, but Rivet ignores it, too caught up in her fervent confession, looking away as she gestures with her hands clasped on her legs in front of her.
"And then, as we spent more and more time together, I started thinking about you more and more, and about how much I like being with you." She continues. "You're a really cool guy, and you've done a lot for me—a hell of a lot—and, well, to be honest, it's really hard to picture what my life would be like without you. You're really nice, you're funny, you like the same things I do, and nothing ever seems boring with you around. And most of all, I just feel… safe around you, and that's not something I really felt with anyone else in my life, what with Nefarious and all. And… I want to keep feeling safe and warm like that, and I want you to stay in my life."
She takes another deep breath.
"So… yeah. I like you, Ratchet. A lot. And… I just hope you feel the same way so I don't look like a complete idiot after everything I've said."
Feeling a strange combination of catharsis at finally saying those words to him, along with absolute and utter terror at how everything is now hinging on his response, Rivet finally manages to muster up her courage to look over to Ratchet's direction, and is met with him staring at her, wide-eyed, with absolute shock on his face.
And as she stares at him, and him back at her, she swears her heart is about to beat right out of her chest, both eagerly and dreadfully anticipating for him to say something, anything, as the seconds tick by, feeling like an eternity to her racing mind.
But then, Ratchet breaks his gaze away from hers, staring at the ground in thought, and a few seconds later, looks back up to her, brows furrowed as he raises a hand.
"So… Mort doesn't have a crush on me?" He asks gravely.
"I… wait, what?" She dumbly replies, having thought she was prepared for any response until she heard that answer.
"So, when you said Mort had a crush on me on Sargasso, and they started flirting with me like that… that wasn't true?" He asks seriously, his focus unwavering.
"I… no?" She responds, dumbstruck, wondering if he just short-circuited somehow. "That was just them trying to get me to hurry up and… well, confess to you. I lied about Mort liking you because… well, it was me who was asking Clank for advice on dating you." She says with a coy shrug, looking away.
"Oh, thank the STARS!" Ratchet responds with a huge sigh of relief, placing a hand on his chest. "Because I was freaking out on how to let them down without hurting their feelings, or hurting your feelings since they're, like, your parents, and you seemed to be supportive of them dating me since you apparently asked Clank for that advice on their behalf, and I thought it'd ruin my chances of asking you out and that things would be really awkward if we had that whole 'Mort has a crush on me' hanging over us, and—"
"Wait," Rivet interjects, making him stop in his fervent rambling, "Did you just say that… you were going to ask me out? You… actually like me back?" She says hopefully, wearing a smile for the first time since she opened her mouth.
"Oh, erm… yeah." He says with a nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of his head. "I like you too, Rivet, and I am beyond happy to hear that you feel the same. And, well… I… probably should've led with that, huh?"
"You think?" She asks with a joyful chuckle, absolutely over the moon with happiness, not caring about whatever the hell he was ranting about Mort's nonexistent crush on him, focusing solely on those four little words; I like you too. To say that was one of the best things she's ever heard in her life was the understatement of the millennium. "But I don't care. I think you've made me the happiest girl in the galaxy."
"And I think that you've made me the happiest guy in the galaxy." He replies blissfully.
And as they sit there, staring into each other's eyes while smiling like complete idiots, lost in the other's gaze, they could both practically feel the joy radiating from either of them, practically making the air between them buzz with electricity.
"So, uh… what exactly do we do now?" Ratchet utters, still transfixed on her sapphire eyes, finding it even more entrancing than the sunset before them.
She grins. "Well, now that we've gotten that out of the way, I know there's one thing I've been dying to do…"
Before he could ask, Rivet leans over, resting her hands over his, and promptly brings her lips to his, making his eyes widen in surprise, but as the wave of pure pleasure takes over, he closes them as he melts into the kiss, returning it with a passion, neither of them wanting this moment to ever end as the beautiful colors of the sunset envelop them atop the mesa they sat upon, the stars beginning to poke through the rapidly darkening sky.
"And once the souffle has risen about halfway out of the dish, that is when you know it is ready to remove from the oven." Clank states as he closes the door, with Kit next to him, placing a hand on her chin.
"I see. And what is a good estimate for the time this should take?" She asks curiously.
"Approximately fifteen minutes or so, which will be the perfect amount of time to cook and prepare the steaks." He answers pointedly.
And as Kit nods in understanding, they hear the door open, followed shortly by the sound of playful giggling, a sound that Clank recognized from Ratchet all too well, putting a smile on his face.
He and Kit walk out of the kitchen to greet them, and find them standing just inside the door, holding hands as they faced each other, wearing wide grins as Ratchet closes the door behind them.
"Just one more." Rivet states.
"Another one?" Ratchet asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Hey, like I said, I've been dreaming of being able to do this for weeks now, let me indulge a bit." She replies with another giggle. "And besides, are you seriously complaining about this?"
He chuckles, shaking his head. "Nope. Not at all."
They then bring their faces closer, and kiss each other, wrapping their arms around each other in a passionate embrace for a good few seconds before the reluctantly break away, staring into each other's eyes once more.
"Yay, you finally did it, Rivet!" Kit exclaims happily, making them jump a bit as they turn to face their companions, wearing happy expressions.
"So, I trust that your 'friend' was satisfied with my advice in the end?" Clank asks playfully, crossing his arms with a smile.
Rivet chuckles as he looks back to Ratchet, still holding her in his arms, wearing a blissful but slightly confused smile at Clank's statement, but she didn't notice it, instead savoring his touch and warmth, still unbelieving that after all this time, they were actually, finally together.
"I'd say so, yeah." Rivet answers him contentedly, getting lost in Ratchet's eyes. "And I'd also say that she is excited for what the future lies in store for her, too."