A World Beyond Our Own | TFP AU

16 || Growth

It had been a few weeks since Ratchet and Taylor had escaped Megatron's clutches. Ratchet's wounds were healing up rather nicely, though it would take a while for the scales that had been ripped off to grow back.

There was now a biting chill to the air, signaling that Fall had finally arrived. The leaves of every tree in the forest, aside from the pine trees since they had needles, had changed colors. Their fiery displays of red, orange, and yellow illuminated the forest. Leaves that had already fallen littered the ground. The shrubs and bushes had since lost their leaves, their scraggly branches being the only reminder of their presence. Soon enough, the forest would be covered in a blanket of snow, but not yet.

During this time, Ratchet and the others had been spending their time gathering materials in order to make their dens more cozy. While their scales mostly did the job of protecting them from the elements, there was still a need for a warm shelter in case the temperatures took a nosedive quicker than they expected. Taylor had a jacket and sweatpants to keep herself warm, but Ratchet still brought it upon himself to make sure she would be warm when Winter did show itself.

Today was a day of leisure for the old medic. The cold made his joints sore, so he preferred to lounge in the sunlight and keep watch over the younglings instead of being dragged into their antics.

At the moment, Taylor was teaching them how to make a leaf pile. Ratchet watched as the silver-haired girl swept leaves together with her arms in order to group them into a huge pile.

He sighed and rolled his eyes a bit, not understanding what was so fun about making a pile a leaves. If anything, that was considered a chore for him since he needed to clear up the leaves every once and a while so the camp wouldn't be overrun with them. But she was having fun, so he let her do her thing.

Taylor giggled, watching as Bumblebee used his tail to sweep more leaves towards the pile. It was much taller than her now. "There you go, Bee! Great idea!" She praised.

"How much bigger are we gonna make it? I wanna jump in!" Smokescreen exclaimed, his tail flicking excitedly. Anything that had to do with making a mess excited him.

"You never told me you were going to jump in it!" Ratchet called from where he was laying down, frowning a bit. "You're just going to get leaves everywhere. What's the point of making a mess when you will only have to clean it up again?"

Smokescreen let out a dramatic groan, throwing his head back. "You're such a party pooper, Ratchet!" He huffed.

Taylor looked over at the medic, giggling when she saw the expression on his face. "Okay, let's play a different game then! I'll hide in the leaf pile, and Ratchet has to find me!"

"What? I never said—"

The words had barely left Ratchet's mouth before Taylor dove into the pile of multicolored leaves. His heart leapt into his throat when she disappeared and he was immediately up on his paws.

What if she suffocated?

What if one of the younglings accidentally jumped on her without knowing? She could be crushed!

"Taylor!" He said with a slight huff, an edge of concern to his voice as he padded over to the leaf pile.

How was he supposed to find her in there? To his right, he could hear Bumblebee and Smokescreen giggling and snickering. He shook his head and returned his focus to the pile, trying to figure out how he was going to do this. He could scoop away some of the leaves with his paw, but what if he accidentally hit her?

"Why must this be so difficult..." He muttered to himself.

After a few minutes, Ratchet decided there was no right way to approach the problem. He would just have to do whatever he had to in order to find her, no matter how idiotic it made him look.

The old medic let out a heavy sigh and pushed his head into the pile, shaking it a bit so he could see better. It wasn't long until nearly half of his body was covered in leaves and he still hadn't found Taylor. Where was she?

A sudden touch to his tail made him yelp and he lost his balance, falling into the pile of leaves. They scattered everywhere, his huge frame causing the pile to basically explode outwards. Once he got a hold of himself, he poked his head out from what remained of the pile to see who had touched his tail, expecting it to be one of the younglings. But, upon hearing her uncontrollable laughter, Ratchet knew exactly who it was.

It was Taylor.

She was standing behind him, bent over on her knees. She was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down her face.

Ratchet's face flushed in embarrassment as he tried to comprehend what just happened. Though, he found it hard to be mad at her when she was laughing so hard. He hadn't heard her laugh like that before, it made his heart flutter. He couldn't help but smile a little and chuckle.

"Okay. You got me, you little trickster." He said as he shook the leaves off of him.

"I'm sorry, I just had to! Your reaction was priceless!" Taylor exclaimed while wiping tears from her eyes. It felt good to laugh that hard. It also made her happy to see Ratchet smiling as well, since he didn't smile very often.

Ratchet shook his head, his smile growing. Then, he got an idea. "You're going to pay for that."

He swiftly turned around, sweeping Taylor's feet from underneath her with his tail. He had carefully calculated the action so that her fall would be cushioned by the leaves that had scattered when he fell. Before she could get up, he quickly pressed his snout against her belly and began tickling her with it like he would with Bumblebee or Smokescreen when they were younger.

Taylor shrieked, not expecting that at all, before bursting into laughter again. She tried to push against Ratchet's snout with her hands, but it was no use.

"Ratchet, you meanie! Stooop! That tickles!" She cried out of joy.

She could hear him laughing as well and her heart swelled with happiness. She'd never heard him laugh, especially as hard as he was at the moment. That meant he was truly relaxed and happy, which made her happy.

———

Sorry about the long wait, but I have finally updated this book! I think I'm gonna keep updating it since I've fallen in love with the story again lol

Hope you enjoyed reading this chapter!