"Okay, one step at a time. The last thing we need is for you to re-open your wounds on your last day of recovery." (Y/n) warned, helping Ratchet to his feet. It had been two months since that first night the two had spent alone together in the garage. The burgundy Lombax was holding his arms out, prepared in case Ratchet suddenly fell. "Relax (Y/n) I'm fine. Just a little sore-- gahh!!" Ratchet tripped and fell into (Y/n)'s outstretched arms while gripping his chest, however the brief moment of warmth they shared was enough to get Ratchet back on his feet again. "Thanks, I'm glad you're here for me." Ratchet smiled up at (Y/n) and the latter blushed a bit sheepishly. "You're welcome, now take it slowly this time." (Y/n) reminded him.

Ratchet slowly got back up and took a few baby steps forward, putting small amounts of pressure on each of his legs. At first they quivered a little under the weight, but after a while they grew accustomed to their usual routine. After a few minutes Ratchet was walking normally, albeit in short distances and almost tripping every couple of steps from the pain his torso. "See, almost good as new. Now let's get back to the Hall of Heroes, the Ranger's need us." Ratchet said walking towards his gear. (Y/n) immediately rushed forward in front of him. "Whoa, what do you think you're doing?!" (Y/n) exclaimed putting a paw on Ratchet's chest. "Going back on duty. The Ranger's need us." Ratchet proclaimed taking a step forward before being interrupted by (Y/n) again.

"Yes, but what they don't need is you getting severly injured again. What use will you be if you can't even get out of bed for more than five seconds again?!" (Y/n) asked glaring at his senior ranger. Ratchet's expression softened as he took (Y/n)'s paws into his own. "I know you're worried, but we need to get back out there. Nefarious isn't going to halt his plans just because one of us in on break, and he certainly wouldn't waste any future opportunity to strike us at our weakest. Please, at least help me get to the Hall of Heroes. I promise I'll stay out of trouble." Ratchet pleaded trying to comfort the other Lombax. (Y/n) sighed and let his shoulders drop. "Fine, but if you get hurt again, I'm making sure you wait until you're properly healed to go back on duty next time." (Y/n) said pointing one of his digits in Ratchet's face warningly.

"Arlight alright, now let's go before Elaris and Clank start getting bored without us." Ratchet joked getting his Protosuit and his Omniwrench. They both hurried to the main garage room where Ratchet's ship was waiting for them. Ratchet started for the cockpit before being suddenly stopped and turned around by a giant hand. "And where do you think you're going?" Grim asked with his usual grimacing frown. "Uh hi Grim. Did you need us for something?" (Y/n) asked walking up next to Ratchet. Grim had never asked anything of them while they had been in the garage for Ratchet's two months of recovery.

"Just wondering why you two are off in such a hurry." Grim said crossing his arms. Ratchet chuckled nervously raising his gloved paws. "Just trying to get back to work is all." Ratchet said backing up a bit. "I tried to tell him to wait a bit longer but he wasn't having it. Besides, I couldn't resist that handsome face." (Y/n) said hugging Ratchet's waist from behind. Ratchet smiled and placed his paws on (Y/n)'s. "Well just keep each other alive. The last thing I need is to hear that you both got blasted to pieces because of Ratchet." Grim said turning around and marching back over to breakfast cereal.

Ratchet and (Y/n) turned to each other and nodded. They quickly separated and sat themselves in the cockpit. The windshield closed above them and Ratchet inputted the coordinates. "Next stop, Hall of Heroes." Ratchet said as the ship powered up. The garage door opened and the ship fired up it's thrusters, speeding out into the sky.

After a few minutes of lightspeed travel their ship arrived at Aleero City, parking in front of the Hall of Heroes. Ratchet jumped out of the cockpit, stumbling a bit. "Woah, guess I need to get used to walking on my own again." Ratchet said stabilizing himself before continuing. "That's why I told you to be careful." (Y/n) said as he jumped out of the cockpit himself. "Relax, I'll be fine. It takes more than a slip on concrete to take me out." Ratchet chuckled with a smile. (Y/n) shook his head. "You may have recovered but right now you're just tempting fate." The Burgundy lombax said rolling his eyes. They got to the door of the Hall of Heroes and it slid open for them.

They walked in looking around for any sign of their fellow rangers and teammates. However the place was strangely empty. No noise could be heard from where they standing which was odd for the ranger base. Surely there's someone doing something that made some noise, unless everyone was being eerily quiet for some random reason. "Maybe they're on a mission?" Ratchet suggested shrugging his shoulders. "I guess so. I mean the only the place eould be this quiet is if everyone left the place empty." (Y/n) said scratching his ear. It's quite odd for the rangers to just leave the place unguarded, perhaps there was an emergency they needed to handle. Perhaps errands in the city. There were tons of things they could be doing right now.

Suddenly the lights brightened tenfold. The two raised their arms to stop the light from hurting their eyes. Popping sounds echoed throughout the room and confetti was falling all around them. "Welcome back!!" Several voices shouted. Their eyes adjusted and they saw the rangers and their teammates standing their with welcoming smiles on their faces. The two lombax's smiled. This surprise they had setup was unexpected but not unwelcome. "You guys, you didn't have to go through all this just for me." Ratchet said a bit sheepishly. "Of course we did! You took a big hit for the team." Drax said as Dickey patted him on the back.

"Hey don't forget about me." (Y/n) piped up. "Well of course. It's not like Ratchet would've recovered as fast as he did without his boyfriend on daddy duty." Dickey said laughing his lungs out. Ratchet blushed while covering his mouth. "Dude!" (Y/n) growled blushing. A loud slap could be heard and Dickey was laying the floor, the side of his face now red and smoking with Clawsha standing over him. "Don't listen to him, he's just teasing you as usual." Clawsha said elbowing (Y/n)'s shoulder. (Y/n) scratched the side of his head, smiling a little awkwardly. Dickey's previous comment really got to him, especially considering the time that he and Ratchet spent together was mostly snuggle and cuddle time.

"Okay enough, time to get back to work everyone!" Cora said crossing her arms as Elaris and Clank walked in. "It's good to see you have fully recovered Ratchet." Clank said with what felt like a smile on his metallic face. "Good to see you too pal." Ratchet responded with a wink and a finger gun towards Clank. "Now that everyone is settled in, we need to think of our next plan for getting back at Dr. Nefarious. And I know just where to start." Elaris said with a smirk.

The Ranger's convened in the conference room, everyone taking their respective seats. "Now, after Ratchet had been sent away, Clank, Dickey, and I began scavenging the battle field for anything that might help us find out Nefarious' location." Elaris said as an image of the now even more destroyed Deplanetizer appeared on the screen. "Luckily, despite the massive explosion, we were able to recover a mostly intact communication circuit. On it was a code of sorts. Sadly we only have the first four characters of the code." Clank said as the screen switched to an image of said circuit displaying the characters, NEG3-- with the rest burned off and illegible.

"N, E, G, 3? What does that mean?" Brax asked scratching the back of his head. "Wait, Nebula G34!" Ratchet blurted out. "G34? Drek's old laboratory with that Snagglebeast thing? What would he want with that place? Everything there got torched in the explosion right?" Cora asked raising a brow. "Historically you are correct, but there is a chance some of the data banks may have survived, the information they carry is very enticing for anyone wishing to ensue chaos." Clank explained. The screen switched to show the aftermath of the laboratory explosion. "And we all know Nefarious is crazy enough to take any chance he can to get his hands on it." Ratchet said cracking his knuckles. (Y/n) eyed this curiously, cracking knuckles would be something either Brax or Dickey would do.

"Well now that we have a destination, we can work out our strategy. Ratchet and (Y/n)!" Elaris suddenly called out the two lombax's catching them wide eyed and shock. "We need you two to go in and see what you can find. Well, if there is anything to begin with." Elaris joked. (Y/n) stuttered, "M-me and Ratchet? Surely someone else could go on this mission right? I mean Ratchet has recovered and all but to send him straight back into battle is begging for something bad to happen." The burgundy lombax protested. "I know it is, but you two are the only ones who can safely sneak into the wreckage without drawing unwanted attention." Elaris explained looking away from him. "Besides, Clank can call for backup if we happen to get into trouble." Ratchet said in an upbeat tone.

"Actually I will have to stay here and continue to analyze the chip we found and other residual data we recovered from the Deplanetizer." Clank piped up. "Well, then let's get ready for action." Ratchet exclaimed standing up as everyone dispersed from the conference room. (Y/n) bit his lip. He wasn't ready to do this again. "Hey what's wrong?" Ratchet asked his fellow lombax. "O-oh nothing, let's get ready for the mission." (Y/n) said standing up. Ratchet put his paw on his shoulder. "You don't have to tell me in order for me to know something's wrong. It's all over your face. Now what is it that you're not telling me?" Ratchet asked, his tone a bit firm this time.

"It's just... what happened last time... what if, what if that happens again? What if this time... I lose you for real?" (Y/n) asked looking down at the floor. Ratchet's smile turned to a small frown. Slowly, he grabbed (Y/n) and brought him into a kiss. (Y/n) closed his eyes and melted into the kiss, his fears present bur miniscule now. After a few minutes Ratchet broke the kiss and cupped (Y/n)'s head, looking into his eyes. "Listen, you and I both know, despite only being together for a short time, that I don't die that easily. And if Nefarious wants to use anymore cheap shots to take us out then that means he's nothing more than a coward who can't face us. And if I do die, I wanna die knowing I spent my last moments with you. My beautiful little flower." Ratchet said, a small smile on his face with his eyes half closed.

(Y/n)'s face turned bright red, his muzzle partially open and speechless. "Does this mean we're a thing now?" (Y/n) asked, his breath shaking. Ratchet chuckled, "I thought it was kinda obvious about two months ago." Ratchet pulled him into another kiss, this time pushing his tongue into (Y/n)'s muzzle. Their tongues danced with each other, passionately sharing in each others saliva. "Hey Ratchet, (Y/n), you coming or what?" Dickey called from down the hall. The two slowly broke their kiss staring into each other's eyes. "Shall we?" Ratchet asked. (Y/n)'s bkush darkened and he laughed. "We shall."