Author's Note: This is another collaboration with my good friend TheEvilestOfTwins and as such part 3 to the "Part of You" series. This is a sequel to Singed Fur which you can find here or on Ao3. I drew the cover. Hope you guys like and please check out Evil's work if you like Ratchet and Clank stuff.
Rivet wondered if she had dreamt up last night, her mind still hazy from sleep. A bliss shared between her and the guy she loved more than she had ever thought possible. A night of passion that was so great, she dared not think it had actually happened. But soon the blessed reality of it all became clear.
She was curled around Ratchet, his lean, familiar shape feeling very soft and warm against her chest. Sighing, she just nestled closer towards Ratchet, her arm pinned beneath his body and a leg thrown lazily over his hip. She was sure her tail had entwined itself around his somewhere in the night, hidden beneath the covers. There wasn't a time in her life she could ever remember feeling this satisfied, perhaps finally whamming her omnihammer against the Emperor's headcase was pretty close.
This felt different though and it made her limbs feel like jello just thinking about it. Again she sighed, hearing Ratchet echo it as they cuddled. His breathing was slow and steady, Rivet feeling the rise and fall of it from where she was pressed into him.
Softly, she nuzzled the peak of his shoulder and peppered a kiss there. His breath hitched, Rivet feeling him lazily arch his back as if to nestle closer to her touch. She managed to wrap her arm around him, fingers brushing through the flame colored fur of his chest and belly. She traced the rough skin of his scar, gentle and tender as she mapped it once more.
For a long moment after she just breathed him in, face nestled into the nape of his neck. She didn't know what paradise felt like but this felt close enough. Rivet knew if she died today she wouldn't regret a single thing, not after him.
Safe. That was what she felt while she closed her eyes once more. She felt the steady rise and fall of his breathing against her chest, the warmth of his body, everything. His heart was tattooed against hers and Rivet sighed. She wasn't one to swoon but last night… Her tail curled tighter around his, entwined.
It wasn't like her to be so exposed, so vulnerable. She felt an urge to scold herself over not putting up more of a fight. It wasn't like her spirit matched the singe marks in her fur and the scars that split her pelt; it wasn't battered and bruised. No, she herself from long before the Dimensional Cataclysm would have never thought of inviting someone to get so close to her with such ease.
But this was Ratchet. Who was more special to her? More gentle, unjudging and kind? It was hard to not want to let him into her protective little bubble and well… It felt very rewarding. Every part felt like its own reward for finally, finally, finding someone to open herself to. Every smell, twitch, heartbeat, and soft stroke of fur.
Her finger raked their way through the thicker tuft of his chest, and even through her closed eyes she could see the cream colored fur parting way for her while her thumb idly traced the edges of that scar. She knew what he had meant now, talking about a scar from another timeline. It felt like it was only half real, faded edges of a frayed part of the universe localized at her fingertips. She pressed into it, drawing another hitch from his mouth.
She knew he was awake, merely pretending that he was still sleeping. Rivet hummed in thought, cracking open her eye to gaze at him curiously with a smirk on her face.
So many tempting ways to take advantage of this, she mused. Rivet leaned her weight on her elbow so she could look down over him.
His eyes were shut but the way his muzzle struggled to suppress a grin spoke volumes. Rivet nuzzled her nose against his cheek, lips ghosting gently on the spot. She felt him tense up beneath her touch but stubborn as always kept up his act. She lingered, pressing her lips against his temple before finally reaching his ear.
She felt him tremble slightly at the gentle grazing of her teeth against it. So that was when she sucked in a breath and blew hard.
Ratchet wiggled free of her, clasping a hand over his ear as he rolled away. Rivet lost her balance but it hardly mattered, she laughed as he cast her a pitiful look.
"My ear! That tickles!" Ratchet exclaimed with a pout, though it was cracked by a grin. His one ear was pinned against the side of his head by his hand, the other perked comically still.
"Good morning to you too," Rivet merely said with a wink, now at last sitting up with the blanket pooling around her waist.
"Morning," he said back, there was a warmth to the word that made Rivet feel special.
He seemed to struggle with keeping his eyes in the appropriate places, gaze meeting hers as he caught his bearings. His throat trembled as he swallowed the lump there, Ratchet slowly letting go of his ear. As if to distract himself from the lovesick jitters he felt, he stretched out his kinked muscles, arms reaching above his head.
Rivet's eyes couldn't help but be pulled towards his lean body, face burning as she watched his muscles ripple beneath his shiney golden coat.
She still remembered how they'd felt beneath her hand, as if the sensation was now imprinted into her palm. The way they'd felt pressed against her though too, she'd gotten very, well, intimately acquainted with them… her mouth ran dry as memories of the night before flooded her mind and she was reminded the reality of what they'd done together.
She doubted she'd ever forget how Ratchet had made her name sound like the most beautiful thing in the world, voice breathless and heady and teetering on the edge of—
"—Rivet?" That definitely was not memory, her name lacked that desperate edge it had previously. It sounded much more timbre, wrapped in a lazy sleepy tone fitting of the morning. His voice wrapped around her like a blanket, warm and gentle. "You okay?"
When Ratchet finally at last felt he'd been all stretched out, he'd swung his head around to look at her and their eyes met again. Rivet's breath caught. It was her turn to look away, attempting to play it cool when really her heart was pounding in her chest.
"Yeah!" She all but squeaked out, running her hand across one of her massive ears. Rivet fiddled with an earring between her index and thumb. "I'm good."
It wasn't a lie but it was just Rivet wasn't sure what a couple was supposed to do after well… that. Her heart fluttered when she peeked a glance at him, the fur on his face and head messed up and skewed. Ratchet looked equally contemplative, fiddling with the blanket. So for a long moment the two just sat together in silence.
Her head was swimming. Was last night okay? Was it good? Did we go too fast? Ugh, what are the rules for this kind of thing? She pinned her ears with a sigh. She was a gun wielding interdimensional hero, this was hardly difficult after all she'd faced and yet…
Their eyes locked and Rivet felt the fur down her spine rise at the warmth in them, a new look to them she couldn't quite remember seeing before. He was smiling, his gaze gentle.
She swallowed hard before finally she bit the bullet. Rivet opened her mouth—
—only for Ratchet to beat her to it. "So… last night was…"
"You, uh… got a way with your hands, Hotshot," Rivet replied, a slow smile split her snout in half. The look in her eyes must have surprised him because now he looked flustered. "A real sharp shooter, aren't ya?" She added, just to further see him blush and squirm.
A dorky grin tugged at his muzzle, exposing the edges of his fangs. He ruffled the bird's nest worth of bed head further with his hand, sheepishly looking down at his lap.
"Really? I mean, that's what I thought but…" He scrubbed his fingers down his neck to relieve the tension he felt there. "Not to um… toot my own horn." He added in nervous relief, chuckling. "Just feels good hearing you say that too."
"Felt good for me too." She teased with a trill of laughter. Where he couldn't see though, her hand massaged her covered knee, still chewing on her thoughts. "Did… did I—?"
"You were great Riv, really." He assured her, the sureness in voice firming her grip on her heart. And the warm, steady smile assured her he wasn't lying.
She looked away, off towards her metallic arm lying discarded on the floor. For a moment, she contemplated getting up and retrieving it, longing for the sense of control it could give her.
Such an urge melted away though as she felt arms lace their way around her sides. Ratchet had shifted on the limited sized bed and embraced her from behind, nestling his chin into her neck. She hummed as he nuzzled into her, feeling him renew the mark of his scent on her. Her left hand rose and cupped his face, pulling him in closer and grinding his chin into her collar all the harder. She turned and kissed the side of his face while he returned the favor across her shoulder.
Her finger danced and played across his head and ears, pinching, rolling and playing with him as they exchanged smiling and cuddly kisses. She was surprised though when a rumbling began to underrun the moment. Deep and odd, but comforting in a way she had never experienced.
She sought the rumbling at its source, feeling it through her lips as she trailed kisses down the side of Ratchet's face. She reached his neck, and then soon his throat thereafter while he was putty in her hands. Her fingers worked her own kind of magic on his head while she did her exploring. When she found his adam's apple, she found the source of the rumbling.
Rivet felt his pulse quicken under her lips as she pressed a kiss there. She hummed gently herself at the sounds he made. His fingers clenched into her hips, feeling the firm muscle and plush fur rub against his seeking hands.
He purred loudly, needy as he pulled away from her peppering kisses to push his lips into the soft curve of her neck. He turned her to face him, Rivet tried finding it within her to complain over him escaping her kisses.
"I wasn't done yet, you know," Rivet told him with a pleased breathy voice that didn't help her argument. "I've still got a lot of territory to mark." She decided to instead trace a stripe down his torso, making Ratchet shiver under her touch and press his body against hers.
She felt his smile, feeling a fang gently graze against her skin that made her heart skip a beat. "Sorry, can't help it when it comes to you," Ratchet said, voice full of adoration as he kissed her. "You're just… beautiful."
She couldn't help but look away, the compliment tinged the tip of her ears red. "You aren't half bad yourself," Rivet teased him, smiling.
"Only half?" He sounded amused, arching a brow.
"Mhm," she hummed, turning back to him to affectionately play with the messy fur on his head. "I definitely like this look though."
He grinned and made a comically cute face trying to look up at what she was doing. "You don't like my hat, do you?"
"I do like your hat, Ace," Rivet told him with a cheeky grin, she enjoyed the feeling of his soft fur between her fingers. "I just also like you without it."
"Oh?" He questioned with a smile. "So then maybe I should just stop wearing it?"
She hummed in thought even though she already knew her answer. "Only if you want me drooling after your every step. Something about this scruff up here." Her fingers danced and twirled through it again, relishing in the dragging of the coarser fur against hers. "Pretty sure if you hadn't been wearing that cap when we first met I would've confessed on the spot."
Ratchet chuckled, leaning forward to gently bump her nose to his. "C'mon, you could barely even say hi to me, Riv." He drew away to see her pout making him grin wider.
Rolling her eyes, she huffed with a suppressed little grin. "You're ruining the moment, stop it." Just for good measure, she reached to run her fingers through the soft fur of his belly, tickling his ribs.
He puffed his cheeks out in suppressed laughter as he pulled away the best he could, considering the space of the bed; he'd rather not fall off. "Me? What's this right now then?" Ratchet just earned himself a raspberry as Rivet stuck out her tongue at him.
"Payback!" Rivet told him with a smirk, cheeky as her assault caused Ratchet to take a defensive maneuver. He rolled onto his side, attempting to curl into a ball to guard his ribs as she leaned over him. She used his body for support, making up for the balance she no longer had without her prosthetic. "Teach you to make fun of me." Rivet at last showed him some mercy, chuckling down at him as he craned his neck up to make sure her 'attack' was done.
"You are vicious," was all he said with a breathless but fond sigh.
"Thank you," Rivet chuckled, winking as she awarded his misery with a soft nuzzle against his muzzle with hers. "I'll take that as a compliment."
Their mouths lingered at the contact, like a pair of magnets that refused to let go of each other. Lips grazed lips, leaving her with a distinct feeling of warmth that felt just like him on hers. One that left her licking not only her own lips but his as well.
Ratchet laughed as her tongue tickled its way through his whisper thin whiskers, prompting her to nip and tug at them to elicit more. He cut her playing short, wrapping her in his arms and rolling her beneath him, pinning her to the mattress and paying her back in kind. They repeated this, rolling over each other every minute or so as they laughed and played.
They ended as they started, Ratchet over on top of her and pinning her in place. Now they panted with effort and joy, smiling with all their hearts. Rivet tamped down her laughter long enough to ask a question. "Is this how we plan to spend the whole day?"
"Wasn't planning on it, but I don't have a problem with it." He replied with a smirk. "I can't think of a way I'd rather spend the day after all than cuddling and uhhh, 'rolling around' with my lovely girlfriend."
Rivet lightly tugged on the wispy fur of his chin. "Hmm… that sounds very tempting," she said, only half teasing.
Plans. Something about the word made her thoughtful, Rivet smiling wistfully up at him. She traced her fingers over the scar that flowered across his chest, gentle as she leaned up and pressed a feathering kiss there. She lingered, eyes shut and feeling the steady beat of his heart against her lips.
Rivet drew away, fondly rubbing her palm down his shoulder and arm; as if to memorize him by touch alone. When she looked back up at him again at last Ratchet met her eyes with a curious tilt of his head. She tried to not get distracted by the adorable puppy-like way his oversized ears flopped.
"Bolts for your thoughts?" He asked her.
Rivet remembered asking Kit about destiny before, what was supposedly meant to be. The universe was a crazy thing, throwing curveballs and wrenches in everyone's works. If anything though, destiny seemed more like a double edged sword in a way. They both had suffered much, and yet…
Her eyes never left his, enamored with that specific shade of green that was Ratchet's alone. She felt his thumb gently graze the hollow socket of her shoulder, unashamed to touch the blotch of scars. It made her shiver, a small part of her still in disbelief how much he loved her.
"Oh, you know, just thinking about how amazing it is we are together. Seems crazy when you think about it…" Rivet knew it was pure crazy luck they'd ever met, two lost souls on opposite sides of a dimensional tapestry divided by space and time itself. "Really, what are the odds that we ever got to meet at all?"
It should have been impossible and yet all it took was an accident to rock their world apart. She didn't know her life had been missing someone so important, a person she didn't even know existed. In a way that made her heart ache, Rivet wondered what her life would have been like if the Dimensional Cataclysm never happened…
No Ratchet, no Kit, no Clank-
Ratchet looked wistfully at her and his voice chased her thoughts away for the moment. "Heh. I could ask Clank to get us a specific estimate if you want," he told her and it made her snort.
"Yeah," she snickered, feeling a fondness for the little robot who helped her meet Ratchet. "Bolts would get right down to the exact percentage. Ruin all the magic about it."
Her eyes drifted and danced across his fur, following his many small scars. A tapestry of his past before her. She was still learning about everything he had done, all he had accomplished before meeting her. It begged a question in her mind though.
"So… were you happy, yanno, before?" Rivet didn't know why she felt a bit shy asking him that, considering the intimate things they'd already done.
Ratchet just made a thoughtful sound, clicking his tongue. It reminded her of when he first brought up the famous 'Pitstop'. "Well…"
Rivet knew Ratchet didn't need that extra time to gather those thoughts, he just wanted the dramatic build up. Gazing at her softly, he reached a hand up to cup her cheek. They traded little smiles, looking more like lovestruck teenagers than the veteran heroes that they were.
"My life was good to me but then you just made it better," Ratchet told her and the words made Rivet lean into his palm, heart feeling full. "Like, I thought I had everything I needed but then you came and stole my heart away."
"And Clank," Rivet quipped and grinned cheekily.
"And Clank," he agreed with a chuckle. "Having your best friend get kidnapped is a great incentive to go meet a cute girl. You ran right past me, you know."
Rivet arched a brow. "Really?"
"Mhm, it was a great view though, looking back on it now," Ratchet teased her and ran his palm down her thigh playfully as if to emphasize the point.
She rolled her eyes, flushing though the flirtation was hardly unwelcome. Her tail was ruffled, twitching happily. She swatted Ratchet's hip with it, grinning. "My eyes are up here, mister."
"Yeah but everywhere else looks just as good too," Ratchet teased with a wink, grinning roguishly.
She pushed her hand against his head, playfully pushing him to look away, smiling. "You are terrible," Rivet said fondly before she grew a bit more serious. She hadn't realized how she'd edged his name with such emotion. "Ratchet, you uh…"
"Rivet?"
"You made my life better too," she admitted quietly, letting go of Ratchet's face when she felt him trying to turn and look at her.
Ratchet reached a hand to tip her chin up to meet her eyes better. The galaxy didn't change itself in a day and he understood this vulnerability thing would take time. She was smiling though, she would try her best, that was something Rivet always did.
"It's like… you added this spark to it. I believed in things before when I was fighting the Emperor… I mean, belief was all I had but then you showed up and…" She picked up a hint of wonderment in her voice, a childlike innocence when talking about their hero. "I didn't think I could believe in something as much as I did you. For once I knew I could do it."
His eyes softened somehow even more, easing into emerald green pools of boundless love. Love that she recognized because it burned in her chest too.
Spark. She thought the word again as Ratchet lowered himself down onto her, laying his full weight and then rolling as they kissed. A better word than I thought for what he did. What he is. What we are for each other. The sparks that lit the fires in each other's hearts.
Rivet couldn't be sure of what the future would hold for them. Neither of them ever really could. Would they find the lombaxes? Would they do it together? How long could they stay like this? She didn't know, and at that moment didn't really care. She was swaddled in the warm embrace of a young love, freshly blossomed and with sleep's sweet siren call beckoning to her. How alluring it was too, with her nose filled with the safe autumn scent of Ratchet and body brimming with his kind warmth all around her.
Questions of what was to come could wait, their answers could remain a mystery. They'd face them together when they were good and ready.
