A/N: Sorry everyone. Took me quite a long time, but Christmas really tried to kill me. Also I've been too busy playing with my Henkei Ratchet. 8D I like putting him and the Universe Ironhide into suggestive postitions which makes people give me curious looks.
Thanks for the countless favs and alerts. Special thanks for the kind people who review my stuff. Just say honestly what you think I don't mind - actually quite the opposite harsh crit makes me try harder. Also mega ueber huge thanks to Gixxer Pilot who still hasn't grown tired of my blatant comma abusing. :D Anyway, enjoy the chapter 9.
Ironhide finally made it to the academy after spreading chaos with his rash actions. Ironhide was almost hit by bots, many of them in their alt forms, during his rush to secure medical help for Ratchet. As soon as he reached the place the white mech was taken away from him instantly; loaded to a carts and transported to one of the many medical bays in the academy.
Ironhide was feeling unreasonable anxiety over the situation. He didn't want them to take away Ratchet from him although he knew that without the medics the white mech was as good as deactivated. He followed the medical crew, but was stopped in front of doors leading to the medbay. Ironhide knew that there was no way a bot like him would be allowed to the medical bay in a situation like this, but it still didn't stop him from worrying. He stood in front of med bay's doors while clenching his fists.
Ironhide backed against the wall. He let himself slide to a sitting position when the feeling of guilt hit him. He hugged his legs while trying to figure out why Ratchet had been slagged. 'Am I so incompetent that this happened? I want to protect him, so things like this wouldn't happen. Yet it happened.' Ironhide didn't want to lose Ratchet. The white mech was the only thing he loved so much in the whole universe. He didn't know what to do if the chance to tell his feelings would never come. Ironhide leaned on his knees while burying his head to his arms.
After a while that seemed like an eternity the medbay's door slid open. A medic coloured mostly blue stepped out wearing an expression that didn't promise anything good. Ironhide stood up quickly and tried to regain his composure.
"You do realise he's in a very bad condition?" the medic asked with unreadable expression.
"I do. I don't think you need to be a medic to tell that," Ironhide answered, annoyed. Of course he knew Ratchet was slagged, the white mech barely intook any air when Ironhide had brought him here.
"How is he?" Ironhide asked, concerned.
"He's still unstable. He has damage all over his plating and chassis. His circuitry is a mess and major energon lines have been damaged. Also, his processor has taken a huge impact and is currently undergoing going self-repair, if the system is still functioning. If the self-repair system doesn't work, he'll either deactivate or will malfunction the rest of his life. He also needs new shoulder joints. I've never seen a bot messed up as badly as he is."
The explanation made Ironhide feel even worse. He knew it wasn't his fault, but still he had a bad feeling that he had overlooked something.
"How did it happen?" the medic asked this time there was some anger echoing from his voice.
"I don't know. When I found him he was like this. I swear I would never hurt him," Ironhide said with hurt in his voice.
"He was probably ambushed by a slum gang and-"
"Ambushed by what?!" the medic disturbed Ironhide's explanation. Obviously the medic wasn't familiar with the situation in the 3rd Disrict. Well, to be honest very few bots were, and if they knew there was something wrong, they chose to ignore it.
"The 3rd District. Both of us live in there. It's filled with those slaggers. They deactivate bots for fun and nobody gives a slag, because everybody just ignores the whole place. Nobody should be living in there, but yet we are." Ironhide was feeling very emotional at the moment and was half yelling at the medic.
The medic looked surprised at the sudden outburst. He commed somewhere while turning his back to the red mech, making Ironhide unable to hear what he was speaking. The medic stopped speaking into the comlink and turned to face Ironhide again.
"I didn't know our best med student lived in such a place," the medic said with sympathetic tone.
"Well now you know," Ironhide defended. He was so used to being treated badly after the revealing his living place that the defensive tone appeared automatically to his voice. Instead of insults or weird looks, Ironhide received very different kind of treatment.
"Why? Why are you living in such conditions?" the medic asked with concerned tone. The place obviously wasn't a good place for mechs like Ratchet and Ironhide, who could be just barely considered adults.
"Because we don't have any other choice," was Ironhide's desperate answer. It was true, too. Ratchet's creators had decided to move in there so they could keep supporting themselves and to keep Ratchet. Ironhide on the other hand, had been shoved in there without anyone to turn for help. Neither had chosen it themselves, but it didn't make them any less capable bots than others. This was a concept that was usually very hard to grasp for bots living outside the 3rd district. There was an awkward silence between Ironhide and the medic.
Why the medic kept asking him these pointless questions? Ironhide just wanted Ratchet to make it out alive from there. He wanted to tell Ratchet how he felt about him and he wanted to experience more things with the white mech. There were still so many things Ironhide wanted to do with his friend. The slums were a bad place and because of it, Ratchet was in the current situation. It had also made the two bots very close. They had gone through difficulties together while growing strong inside out.
Suddenly Ironhide remembered Ratchet's creators. They needed someone to help them at home, which tore Ironhide apart. On the other hand, he wanted to remain at the academy, but he also wanted to help the two older bots. They couldn't survive on their own for long. The medic noticed the red mech bothered by something. Ironhide was still very bad at hiding his emotions.
"What is it? Something's obviously bothering you?" he asked carefully.
"It's just that I should be going home for something," Ironhide answered anxiously. He didn't want to reveal Ratchet's creators' condition. It had become a touchy subject to the white mech. It wasn't his place to judge Ratchet's decisions, so he tried to keep it down.
"Well whatever it is, I think you should go because Ratchet won't be coming online for a while."
"But what if he comes online while I'm away? I don't want to leave him," Ironhide sounded worried.
"I promise. We'll contact you somehow," the medic smiled warmly. Ratchet may have had the best and most caring friend in the whole universe.
Ironhide took a peek from the window leading to the medbay. He could see various medics working around a medical berth. From here and there he could catch a glimpse of white armoring. The sight made his spark ache. He then reluctantly turned his back to the window and headed out.
Ironhide was back at the academy lessons next day. Ratchet's creators had convinced him to attend them, so he wouldn't fall back in the studying. They had also been worried about Ratchet, but Ironhide didn't have the spark to tell the whole truth about their son's condition. He just couldn't do it for the already burdened pair of bots.
Ironhide was being very distant. He didn't speak much normally either, so nobody noticed anything, except Chromia. She approached the red mech between the lessons. She needed to tell Ironhide the conclusion she had reached earlier, so the situation between the two mechs would be cleared. Ironhide and Ratchet having a fight wasn't a very pleasant situation to Chromia either, because she had to stand the sulky red mech.
"I think you shouldn't be so angry at the Hatchet," Chromia tried to start a conversation.
"I'm not angry at him. How could I be?" Ironhide voiced his opinion a bit more harshly than he had meant.
"Well he angered without any explanation and left even before you had time to answer for him," Chromia added with some sarcasm in his voice: "And your actions speak before you, quite clearly."
"Yes, I was angry at him first. His behaviour was so unreasonable, but-"
"No buts. I know exactly why he did what he did," Chromia interrupted Ironhide's speech. She had to tell this for better or worse, and in the best case scenario, she wouldn't have to tolerate Rachet's venom spitting any more. Ironhide was looking at her with confusion written all over his facial plating. The red mech was so easy to read.
"Ratchet's jealous to me," Chromia said with a lowered tone while winking. Ironhide looked even more confused now.
"In Cybertronian please?" Ironhide demanded.
"For Primus' sake Ironhide! You can't possibly be so oblivious. He's in love with you and thinks I'm going to take you away from him." Chromia was rolling her optics. Ironhide was looking at her with dumbstruck expression, remaining silent.
"How can you be sure?" Ironhide asked carefully.
"Girl instinct. Believe me." Chromia was feeling slighty uneasy over the situation. She folded her arms over her chest while eyeing her friend curiously. She didn't know what to expect from Ironhide at the moment. For once, the red mech had an expression that was unreadable. The truth was that Ironhide was overflowing with emotion inside, but he just didn't know how to express them.
Everything seemed so clear to the red mech at the moment. Everything starting from Ratchet's weird behaviour to the accident. Ironhide felt so guilty that he hadn't noticed it himself. He should have listened to Ratchet when he had something to tell him instead of getting annoyed. 'I'm so going to beat up those fraggers who did that to my Ratchet.' Also, the possibility of his feelings being returned made him feel extremely light for a moment, until he remembered that the object of those feelings was laying offline in a medical berth.
The days kept going. Ironhide took care of Ratchet's creators all alone while visiting Ratchet at every occasion. The white wasn't coming online despite Ratchet being stabilized already which made Ironhide feel more and more depressed. Ironhide started feeling very hopeless while the situation progressed, and it was becoming harder every day to keep the whole truth hidden from Ratchet's creators. The medics kept repeating to him that it was normal for a bot to stay offline a long time after processor damage, but it didn't make Ironhide feel any better about the situation.
Finally when it had been almost a Cybertronian week a medic silently entered the classroom where the enforcer students were training. The medic was scanning the classroom in an attempt to find a specific student among them. His optics fixed on the red mech.
The medic closed the distance between him and Ironhide. He whispered something to the red mech's audio which seemingly lightened up Ironhide. The red mech practically ran out of the classroom with a happy expression plastered to his face plates. Ratchet had come back online.
'What the pit is this? Frag, it hurts like a slag. Now what is this? I can't move my legs or my hands and I think I've got the worst processor ache ever.' Ratchet's vision was still a bit blurry, because his optics needed some time to come fully online after being unused for such a long time. He tried to recall the situation, but still he had no idea how he had ended up to the place where he currently was. Ratchet looked around himself and recognized the place as one of the academy's medbays. His internal chronometer was malfunctioning, and the white mech didn't have the slightest clue on how long he had been offline.
Sudden realisation hit him.
"Oh frag! Who's taking care of my creators?!" Ratchet shouted aloud while trying furiously rise up from the berth. He didn't have the luxury to lay around doing nothing while his creators were helpless at home. The white mech tried to pull every possible stunt he could think of, but he only managed to make it into a sitting position. Ratchet's limbs simply refused to work.
A group of medics hurried into the room. He was pushed down back to the berth, and much to Ratchet's dislike, he couldn't resist them at all. All the power he had had in him was disappearing from his frame. The white mech wasn't a bot who liked to be confined to bed and there were his creators that needed him.
"What in the pit are you doing?! I need to go home to take care of my creators," Ratchet shouted at the medics. His medical training told him the answer which was actually quite obvious. The white mech was still badly injured, but it didn't stop Ratchet from being stubborn.
One of the medics shook his head, amused. Ratchet was currently very well known among the medical staff in the academy for three reasons: Reason one was his natural talent in medical knowledge, the second reason was his temper, and the third reason was his hospitalisation. Those were more than enough reasons to the academy medics be following Ratchet with keen optics.
"You need to rest. You should know yourself that you're in no position to get up for a while yet. Also what it comes to your creators, I believe your red friend Ironhide has been taking care of them the whole time you've been offline," answered the same mech who was being amused by Ratchet's temper tantrum.
Hearing Ironhide's name made Ratchet feel very anxious. They still had things unsettled. The red mech would probably hate him after everything. Ratchet just had to have himself slagged over the stupid nonexistant argument they had had. He felt like purging his fuel tanks. The white mech had no idea what to say to Ironhide if the red mech showed up in the medbay. Ratchet wished that the situation of facing his friend would be postponed as much as possible.
But Ratchet wasn't allowed that luxury; Ironhide rushed to the room soon after the white mech had come online. The red mech's facial plating was full of emotion. Ratchet felt nauseous; he didn't want to deal with this now. The white mech couldn't read if the emotions were of anger, hate or care. He was so afraid that Ironhide would hate him after all this. There was silence between the two mechs. Ironhide just stood in there staring at Ratchet who was laying on the berth. The medics who had been in the room exited, leaving them alone.
Ironhide was the one to break the silence. He bent up over Ratchet and carefully pressed his forehead against Ratchet's helm. The white mech was confused when Ironhide suddenly hugged him affectionately. The red mech was trembling and sobs could be heard. Ratchet didn't understand what was going on anymore. He had never seen Ironhide crying over anything.
"I'm so glad you're alive. I thought I had lost you too, "Ironhide sobbed quietly into Ratchet's audios. Now Ratchet felt even more awful than he had felt before.
"I'm sorry 'Hide. I'm sorry that I made you worry. I'm sorry about everything. I've been so stupid and selfish," Ratchet answered, very apologetic. He wanted Ironhide to forgive him.
"No don't be. I'm sure you have had your reasons."
"Yes, I'm afraid that Chromia might take you away from me and I realised that I love you. I really do and not just some brotherly love, but I really do love you," Ratchet blurted it out in haste, still afraid of ruining their friendship forever and being rejected. The white mech shut down his optics, because he was too afraid to see Ironhide's reaction.
"I love you too. I think I've loved you since the beginning," Ironhide answered with hint of joy in his voice. Despite the tiredness Ratchet had started feeling, he couldn't help but smile. Ironhide noticed the white mech smiling and it made him feel warm inside. He loved when Ratchet smiled and wanted to make the white bot smile often. The circumstances just weren't in their favour which had turned Ratchet cynical.
Ratchet nudged his helm closer to Ironhide's. The warmth that was eminating from the red mech was very soothing. It had been a while since they had been close like this which made Ratchet wish he could move his limbs so he could properly embrace Ironhide. They were in that position for a while, neither one saying anything. Words were not needed. Both of them knew each other throughout already and knew exactly what the other one wanted. They just listened to each other's intakes and enjoyed the closeness.
Little by little Ratchet fell into recharge in Ironhide's arms. A peaceful expression was glued on the white mech's faceplates.