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The heating system had been down for two whole cycles, and for a ship traveling through the cold void of space, that was really not conducive to a good time for the passengers on board.
Drift was stuck alone on the bridge, monitoring the meteor storm that had knocked their heating systems off guard in the first place, with a thermal blanket wrapped around him. His plating kept shifting, trying to generate more heat to keep energon coursing through his lines instead of letting it freeze in place. It spoke to how much the cold was affecting him when a servo landed on his shoulder, and he hadn’t heard the mech coming.
This resulted in him nearly decking Rodimus square in the face.
“I THOUGHT YOU HEARD ME I’M SO SORRY!!!” Rodimus yelled while Drift’s fist hovered a plating's width away from his amica’s nose.
Drift quickly moved his fist down as he watched Rodimus hold his own servos up in surrender with his signature cocky grin. “Come on, I thought we were cool again!” Slag, Drift needed to apologize.
“I should be the one apologizing, you just…”
“Surprised you? I didn’t think that was possible. My sneaky skills must be getting better!”
“It’s this cold, makes it hard to think. Everything feels so sluggish.”
“Is it really that cold?” Rodimus tilted his head. “I mean, I guess most mechs weren’t built for it huh?”
“I always forget you used to meteor surf.”
“Me being a literal fire-making machine also doesn’t really hurt.” Drift gave his amica a friendly punch to the shoulder for his sarcasm, and when he did, he felt the warmth of Rodimus’s plating radiating off of him.
Primus, it felt heavenly.
Drift ended up fully wrapping his arms around Rodimus. The blanket fell somewhere behind him.
“Uh, you good?”
“You are so warm.” He knew he should be ashamed about how he practically nuzzled into Rodimus’s neck, causing the mech to jolt slightly before quickly relaxing, but he couldn’t bring himself to care when he was so cold.”
“Aww, you’ve just been stuck up here all alone, haven’t you?” He felt Rodimus sweep him off his pedes and sit down on the captain’s chair. Drift fully curled up in his lap. “Primus, you really are a cat.”
Drift hissed in response, eliciting a laugh from his amica. He was just so warm, and Drift knew he could stay there curled up in his lap forever, but he had work to do. He would just do his meditations like this for a few kliks, then he would get back up and finish his shift.
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His conjunx wasn’t answering his comms. Ratchet knew he wasn’t so busy as to respond, so he must’ve gotten distracted. With nothing better to do besides freeze alone in their room, he decided to see what was keeping Drift.
Stepping onto the bridge, his internal systems registered that it was warmer in here than any other part of the ship. Stepping further in, he saw familiar legs on the arm of the captain’s chair. Upon getting right in front of the chair, he saw that Rodimus was sitting normally, save for Drift curled up in his lap like a, what was it called again? Right, a cat. Both were deep in recharge.
Well, it was warmer here. And who was he to wake either of them up?
As he turned to leave, a servo wrapped around his wrist.
“Ratty..?” His conjunx’s word was muffled by his face being pressed against Rodimus’s neck. Ratchet knew he was well and truly trapped as he sat down next to the chair and continued to hold Drift’s servo.
He would have to get some sort of payback at both of the speedsters for how sore he would be tomorrow after staying in this position for a while.
The warmth was pleasant, though.
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Minimus showed up precisely when he was supposed to relieve Drift of his duties for the cycle, only to see no one on the bridge.
“Drift?” He called out. Surely someone had to be here. “Drift?” He spoke a little louder this time.
“Shhhhh, they’re out cold and it’s warm over there.” The TIC darted around the side of the captain’s chair to see Ratchet resting against the side of the chair with his helm on his and Drift’s servos. Drift was seated in Rodimus’s lap.
“What?”
“Just get over here.” The gruff medic gestured for him to come closer, which Minimus reluctantly did.
He sat at Rodimus’s pedes and pressed himself against the warm metal of his leg.
“The science team will have the heating on soon.” He had meant to deliver that news first, before anything else. Ratchet only grunted in response and was in recharge before any more conversation could be had.
Minimus needed to man the bridge, but the warmth Rodimus produced left him unable to stand again.
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Rodimus was only vaguely aware that more weights were being added around him.
The door kept opening and closing, and every time that happened, he heard the sound of someone sitting down.
He felt a small bot grab onto his leg that wasn’t occupied by Minimus, accompanied by being accidentally poked with a horn, then a larger mech lay next to that small bot. A claw scraped against his plating when an arm wrapped around both his leg and the small bot.
Lofi music calmly echoed through the room after one of the cycles of the door opening and closing.
A flash of a teal wing quickly followed by red plating cuddled together on the side Ratchet wasn’t on, the soft glow of a datapad illuminating their faces.
More small mechs plied near his pedes.
Some more mechs pressed against the back of the chair.
Then he heard the click of a camera.
Onlining his optics, he saw his Co-Captain standing off to the side with an amused expression, and Rewind being held up by Chromedome.
“The heating is fixed, so whenever these leeches awake, you shouldn’t feel bad about kicking them off of you.” Megatron whispered. Rodimus nodded gently so as not to jostle Drift.
“Rewind, you better send that to me.” He whispered as the pair added themselves to the pile.
“Don’t worry cap, the whole ship’s gonna get a copy.”
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Swerve supersized his copy and hung it up for all to see inside his bar.