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“Alright, who are you seeing?”
“What?” Optimus shot up from the sickbay bed, causing sparks to descend from his half-severed arm, causing him to groan as pain shot throughout his body.
“Careful!” Ratchet scolded.
“Sorry…” Optimus offered, unsure of what to say next, “What do you mean who I am seeing?”
“Have you not heard it? It’s a human phrase, just means who’s got your spark.”
“No that’s- I meant why would you ask if I’m seeing anyone?” Optimus’ voice raised by a small percentage before Ratchet’s brow furrowed, reminding Optimus who was his medic.
“Because I want to know who it is. Look Optimus, I get it: you don’t always want to talk about your personal life, but I’ve known you long enough.”
“No, Ratchet, I- I’m not seeing anyone is what I meant.”
The medic silently got back to work piecing his leader back together. Well, near silently as the only noise that emanated from Ratchet was a soft “hm.”
Optimus fought to leave the conversation where it stood, then proceeded to lose the battle, “What does ‘hm’ mean. And don’t tell me it’s a human thing.”
“No need to get snippy, Prime.”
“I’m not being snippy!” He said snippily before sighing and continuing, “I want to know what idea you’ve gotten into your head. And it seems that you believe I have a sparkmate.”
“Mhm.”
“Okay… Well can I ask where you got this idea from?”
“If you stop squirming, I’ll tell you.”
Optimus hadn’t even noticed that he’d been moving around much but he consciously stayed still until Ratchet began speaking.
“Well, I first noticed a difference in you when we got back from the fight at the hydropower plant. I thought that you would be in a pretty terrible mood as you got separated from the rest of us and had to deal with Megatron alone and especially as when we got back to the base, we found out that the Dinobots had accidentally broken part of Teletraan I. But then when we saw the state of the base, you just laughed and said our work wasn’t done.”
“Wait, but that doesn’t mean-”
“What did I say?” Optimus ceased squirming once more begrudgingly. “Anyways, then I kept catching you just staring off into space, caught up in your own little world. It was sometimes when someone was talking to you, during battle, or actually some of the past few times I’ve had to patch you up. It’s not like you to stare off like that. You know, if it was Bumblebee I wouldn’t think too much about it. You sure do look like you’re lost in thought about someone.”
Optimus wanted to protest that he just needed to recharge or that he might have been lost in thought, but it wasn’t about anyone in particular but he really needed his frame to get fixed and perhaps he was even intrigued by how perceptive Ratchet was.
“And, to be honest, you’ve been smiling more, Optimus,” Prime’s optics shifted to Ratchet’s, who had momentarily stopped working, “you wear that mask most of the damn time but I can see it in your optics when you smile, hear it in your voice. I mean, I haven’t seen you this happy since before the war, back when you and Elita had each other's sparks.” Ratchet picked his tools back up and returned to work.
Optimus had been planning to lie through his teeth. Swear that there was nobody, he was as solitary as before, and that Ratchet was reading too much into things. But instead, he lay still.
He cleared his throat, then in a quieter tone than usual spoke, “Gee, nothing gets past you does it?” Optimus expected to next hear Ratchet rejoice with how he was correct, maybe even rub it in a little.
“Nope.” Ratchet huffed.
Then Optimus thought back to how this conversation started: Ratchet asked him who he was seeing. If the medic wasn’t currently right next to him, he would’ve let out a massive sigh of relief. He hadn’t figured it out. After all, Ratchet seemed happy for Optimus now but he reckons his support would drop if he learned that the mech he was seeing was Megatron.
Ratchet noticed how rigid his patient was. Smiling, he added “Someday I’ll figure out who it is.” Optimus didn’t know what to say so he joined in with Ratchet’s laughter and aimed to change the topic of conversation swiftly.