Now This is An Upgrade (Ratchet x Rodney)

The Bigweld Ball

The annual Bigweld Ball was on its way once again, and the workers of Bigweld Industries were working their butts off to make it the biggest party of the year. Banners and streamers were made and ready to hang up and drinks and refreshments were being made to be ready to be served at the big day. Ratchet helped alongside the rest of the workers, and Bigweld and Rodney went around to help as well as to check and make sure that things were going well and up to shape. Whenever Rodney moved past, Ratchet found himself staring at the rusty robot, his thoughts wandering.

"Phineas!"

He shook himself out of his thoughts and turned to a coworker beside him holding something heavy. "Mind helping out here?"

"Oh, right," he said, picking up the other side of the table and moving it down to a good spot.

"Looking good everybody," Rodney said, passing around again with a clipboard checklist. "Keep this up and we'll have it all set for tonight!"

Ratchet turned to the blue and white robot, instantly drawn in by his smile and overall happy demeanor. Which was odd, because he'd normally be annoyed by it. But today, he was oddly comforted by it.

Rodney went over to Ratchet to see how he was doing. "Are you getting the hang of everything?"

"Yeah. No problem here." Although, now that he was seeing Rodney, he stumbled a little bit with his footing and didn't see where he was going. He accidentally tripped over a ledge and crashed onto the smaller bot, though thankfully he catched him. Rodney had a small look of surprise before laughing. "The dance hasn't even started yet and you're already trying to dance with me!"

Ratchet blushed, about to deny this, but then he stopped. Why would Rodney say that, anyway? Was this him trying to flirt with him? Ratchet saw this as an opportunity, and despite his embarrassment on tripping over, he smirked. "Who knows? Maybe I'll save you a dance, too."

Rodney chuckled, making Ratchet feel warm inside again. "I'll be looking forward to it, then."

Rodney struck his pen on his clipboard amd walked away, and Ratchet stared after him. Was this going to be a date? Well, whatever it was, Ratchet was excited. Maybe a little too excited...

"Ratchet, stop daydreaming and come hang up these banners!

Shaking his head, Ratchet went over to help put of the banner, still thinking about Rodney and the ball tonight. He couldn't wait.

---

"Come on guys, it's time for the ball to start!" Fender shouted from downstairs.

"In a minute!" Piper shouted back.

Fender grumbled a little and then turned to Rodney. They were both all dressed up and ready for the ball, while everyone else was still getting ready. Gradually Diesel and Lug came downstairs, but there was still not sign of Ratchet or Piper. Fender asked them, "Where's the other two? We need to get going!"

"They're just getting ready," Lug said.

"Well can they get ready any faster?"

Meanwhile, upstairs Piper was already ready for the ball. It was Ratchet who she was helping. He asked her to assist him, much to her surprise, but she did so anyway. He looked to have gone to the cleaners earlier that day to make him shine and glisteny. He kind of looked like his old self again, except there was something new there. Was it empathy? Compassion?

After doing a few finishing touches, Piper stepped back. "There. You look great."

Ratchet looked at himself in the mirror of the bathroom. His suit was clean and everything about him looked great. He turned to Piper and smiled at her. "Thank you."

"No problem! Let's go downstairs to the others."

Ratchet followed Piper downstairs, to which Fender groaned "Finally!" upon seeing them. Rodney's eyes immediately shot to Ratchet and he smiled. Fender continued to ramble on about the ball.

"Okay, now, where is Crank?"

"Oh, leave him be, Fender," Piper said. "He probably doesn't even want to go, anyway."

Aunt Fanny came out from the shadows of the room all dressed up as well. She looked so happy. "I'm ready to go, kids!"

"Okay, let's go!" Fender said.

After doing a double check around the house, the robots left Aunt Fanny's and made their way to the Bigweld Ball.