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Ratchet gently caressed Orion's finials as they cuddled on the berth, lost in thought to the past, the future, and everything felt between them. A small smile pulled at his derma as he remembered the first time they'd met, in the Iacon hall of records.
He'd felt himself bump into a mech while perusing the aisles, accidentally knocking a stack of datapads out of their arms in the process.
"Oh, I'm sorry-" He'd began, bending over to try and gather the scattered mess of datapads, before looking up to meet the other bot's gaze, now kneeling before him to try and help.
"No, no, it's okay! i wasn't looking where i was going, that's all," The mech replies, gathering the datapads in his arms and straightening up with them held in the crook of an elbow, with a smoothness that suggested he was used to this happening. He reaches out his other servo, introducing himself. "I'm Orion Pax. What's your name?"
"Ratchet." Ratchet replies, still a little star-struck by how soothing the mech's voice was, how it permeated his spark in the subtlest of ways. Orion tilts his helm a little at Ratchet in curiosity as they begin to walk through the aisles and aisles of books together.
"So, what brings you here to the hall of records?" Orion asks, paying attention to Ratchet's expression all the while.
"Looking for some medical books, Wheelja- a friend told me this would be the best place to find some good ones." Ratchet replies, undecided on whether to gaze up at the tall shelves of books in awe, at Orion in intrigue. There was something about him Ratchet couldn't quite put a digit on, but from the first moment of their meeting, it drew him in either way.
Ratchet places a soft, barely-there kiss to Orion's helm, voice tender and nostalgic as he speaks. "Do you remember when we first met?"
Orion, sleepy but still half-out of recharge, lets out a teasing chuckle. "Yeah, i remember you accidentally knocking over that stack of datapads i was carrying. First thing i remember, actually."
Ratchet leans over with a chuckle of his own, taking the edge of Orion's right finial between his denta and nibbling on it to tease the other mech right back. "Oh, shush, you."
Orion blushes, squirming but letting out a soft laugh. "Stop! Thats ticklish!"
It washes over Ratchet like an oil bath over rough armour, like the first rays of sunlight that hit his faceplate in the morning, lighting up his spark with a warm glow.
He can't help but smile, shifting to softly kiss the still-giggling Orion, tilting his helm to get just the right angle, pouring his spark into the tender touch in a way that even Unicron himself couldn't ever deny.
"What i meant, sweetspark," He begins, a slight grin still on his face, "Is the way it felt."
Orion looks up at Ratchet again, and in that moment he knows. Knows exactly what his sparkmate is referencing.
"First year med student then?" Orion had hummed in thought as they walked side by side, periodically glancing over to Ratchet as he walked up to a desk and placed the stack of datapads on top of it, leaning against it for a moment. "We get a lot of those here. Iacon medical school?"
"Yeah." Ratchet nods, but Orion only hears the beating of his spark in his audials, the way it almost claws it's way out of his chestplate just watching the other mech, almost drawn to him by sheer force of destiny, and something else Orion struggled to understand. "You work here, then?"
"Yep! Head archivist, actually!" Orion grins with pride, and Ratchet can't help but grin along with him, dermas ticking up into a subtle smile. "Got promoted recently."
"Well, congratulations in that case," Ratchet lays a servo on the other mech's shoulder, and immediately he feels it.
The crackling in his lines, the way his spark practically does a backflip in his chestplate, the full frame shudder he barely manages to supress. Judging by Orion's expression, he feels it too, and for a beat they both just stare at each other, dumbstruck by the shared feeling, the sudden certainty in both their sparks, a phenomena that was so rare in their era, yet not impossible.
"I knew, you know." Orion whispers softly, pressing his helm to Ratchet's own. "I knew in that moment, that it'd be you. That all the things I'd read about on sparkmates, they were finally true."
Ratchet feels coolant start to gather in his optics, and wipes it away with the back of a servo.
"I'm glad it was."
Another kiss, shared between them as sparkmates, and Ratchet thinks he could stay here forever, gently embracing his love, his sweetspark, until the end of their lives.
"Me too."