"Don't Mess with Ratchet's Tools"—A TFP COMMISSION Story

Summary: Eclipse decides to pester Ratchet while staying at the base by playing around with his tools and making a bit of a mess, so Ratchet gives her a suitable punishment.

TFP © Hasbro

Eclipse © EclipsePrime1 of deviantART

~Don't Mess with Ratchet's Tools~

It was another day in Jasper, Nevada for the Autobots of Team Prime, but to Eclipse—the newest member of the team—it was as boring as it could possibly be. Bulkhead was out at a monster-truck rally with Miko, Bumblebee and Rafael were ground-bridged to a location in China—something about a history project he needed to complete—Arcee was out riding with Jack, and Optimus Prime was out on patrol, leaving Eclipse alone with Ratchet, who was busying himself in his lab.

Ratchet was always a surrogate father to Eclipse, considering her horrific past; being experimented and tortured by her wicked Sire, Scorpio. Having been cut open and toyed with, even forced to bear a sparkling, the only comfort Eclipse knew was from her mother Shadow, from Ratchet, and a small mechling named Orion Pax. Whenever Eclipse would go for her monthly check-up like any youngling did on Cybertron, she would always greet Ratchet by hugging his leg and ceasing to let go. She also liked chewing on his tools, especially the shiny ones, even though it aggravated him something awful. When she first arrived on Earth and learned Ratchet was among the teammates, she clung to him a for one earth hour long and purred loudly in his audio receptor. He sometimes calls her annoying or a bother, but he cares for her very much because he knew of the suffering she had to endure as a sparkling; he knew because he had to treat her wounds.

Bored out of her mind, Eclipse laid about on the floor of the main hangar, flicking her tail and lightly slapping it against the floor, groaning as the boredom became too much to bear with each passing second. She heard Ratchet tinkering in his lab, but he always told her not to disturb him when he's working. But with the fact she had absolutely nothing to do, she decided to take the chance. She sprung to her feet and scampered to the lab, bursting through the door, screeching "DADDY!" and glomping him in a hug, even wrapping her tail around his waist.

Ratchet jumped, startled, and nearly dropped his lab equipment and found himself being squeezed with something warm and thin coiling around him. "E-Eclipse...!" he grunted, unable to move. "Get...down!" He eventually managed to pry her off, placed her on the floor, and brushed himself off. "Eclipse, how many times do I have to tell you," he said, "not to enter my lab while I am working?!"

Eclipse whined like a puppy and gave him cute, wet optics. "But Daddy," she whimpered, "I'm all alone out there and I have nothing to do. Please let me stay in here for a bit? Pleeeeeease?" She began hugging his leg and nuzzling.

Ratchet frowned down at her, but he always had a soft-spot when she called him Daddy with that face. He finally gave him and exhaled an exasperated sigh. "Fine," he said, pinching the ridge between his optics. "You can stay. But...please...try not to break anything?"

Eclipse squealed and glomped again, kissing him all over. "THANK YOU DADDY THANK YOU THANK YOU!"

Ratchet pried her off again and resumed his work while she sat on the examination berth in his lab, swinging her legs and swishing her tail happily. "What are you working on, Daddy?" she asked.

"I am trying to perfect the Synthetic Energon formula," he said, peering through his microscope. "Even though Bulkhead managed to complete a majority of the formula after coming into the contact with the cylinder a few weeks ago, it's still a struggle figuring out the rest."

"You must work hard a lot, Daddy," Eclipse said.

"I have to," Ratchet told her, "with everything that has been happening. We are all busy."

Eclipse pouted and folded her arms over her chest plate. "Well Bulkhead, Arcee and Bumblebee seem to be having fun with their human friends," she grumbled jealously.

"They have to protect their human allies, Eclipse. And not everything is fun and games. If you had one of your own, you'd understand."

Eclipse huffed and flicked her tail, then glanced around the lab until something gleaming in the light caught her attention. Her tail twitched as her optics grew to huge orbs. "Shiny," she whispered. She got into a crouching position, flicked her tail anxiously, then lunged towards the shiny object.

Ratchet perked up when he heard a loud crash and saw a bunch of pieces fly from a box he had on a shelf, and he heard gnawing and grinding sounds. Looking over the edge of a counter, he saw Eclipse curled up on the floor chewing on one of his wrenches. "Eclipse!" he barked. "I needed that!"

"Shiny!" she muffled.

"Give it here!"

"No! My shiny!"

"Eclipse...!"

"Miiine!" Eclipse then took off out of the lab with her shiny, and Ratchet chased after her.

"Eclipse, give that wrench back now! I am sick and tired of you ruining my tools!" Ratchet ordered, racing after her all around the base; luckily everyone else was gone, or else there would be an even bigger mess than in the lab. This always happened, according to Ratchet. Eclipse was always attracted to his shiny tools and made them her chew toys; why she was fantasized by them was still a mystery. But his tools always ended up a slobbery, grinded mess, and he always had to fix them up. He was lucky to have to do it only once a week. "Get back here!" he shouted.

Eclipse only giggled and ran off, trying to elude him by knocking things into his path with her tail. Some he nearly stumbled over, others he managed to leap over in time; and once he was close enough to her, he lunged, tackling her and pinning her to the floor.

"Ouch!" she squeaked.

"Wrench, Eclipse," Ratchet gave a threatening tone. "Now."

Eclipse sighed a whimper and loosened her jaw as Ratchet pulled his wrench free; then he let her up and started to walk off. "Bye bye, shiny," she said sadly, meekly waving. She sniffled and frowned at Ratchet. "You're mean."

"I know," Ratchet said as he was about to enter his lab.

Eclipse huffed as she got to her feet, brushing herself off and muttering, "Old grump."

Ratchet halted in his tracks. "What did you say?"

Eclipse slightly jumped at his suddenly darkened voice and realized her mistake. "N-Nothing," she stammered, "I didn't say anything...!"

"Oh, I definitely heard you say something," Ratchet growled and glared at her from the corner of his optics.

"N-N-No, D-Daddy...!" Eclipse whimpered, her tail between her legs as she trembled.

Ratchet slowly turned towards her and approached; she was too frightened to move. "First, you make a mess of my lab, ruin one of my tools, cause another mess throughout the base...and now you are insulting me?"

"No, Daddy, I wasn't!"

"Well, let me tell you something, Eclipse," Ratchet glared as he stepped closer and closer towards her. "No one...and I mean no one...calls...me...OLD...GRUMP." With that, he tackled her once more, holding her to the floor.

Eclipse cried out as she thrashed around. "Nooooo Daddy! I'm sorry!" she wailed. She expected a whipping, but she felt something else instead of pain. She suddenly found herself giggling bubbly as Ratchet started to tickle under her arms. "Nohohoho Daddy-heeheehee! Heeheeheehee! Hahahahahahaha! S-Stop!"

"Call me 'old grump' huh?!" Ratchet grinned mischievously as he dug his fingers into her armor. "I am not old! You hear me!"

"I hear you I hear yohohohohohou!" Eclipse shrieked between giggles.

"I don't think you can with all this giggling!" Ratchet teased. Once Eclipse was weak from laughter and rolled onto her side, he targeted her abdomen and showed no mercy. "I'm not old, Eclipse!"

Eclipse went into hysterics as Ratchet tickled the most sensitive part of her body, thrashing and wriggling madly while screaming giggles. "NYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEE! D-DAHAHAHADDY-HEEHEEHEEHEEHE! N-N-NOHOHO MOHOHOHOHORE! PLEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEASE! I-I'M SORRYHEEHEE! PLEASE STAHAHAHAHAHAHAP!"

"Do you take back what you said?!" Ratchet hollered over her screams.

"YEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHES!"

Ratchet smiled and slowly stopped the tickling as he pulled his hands away. Eclipse curled up into a tight, trembling ball as the giggles died down. He chuckled to himself; this wasn't the first time she had called him 'old grump', and since he knew she always said it to be playful and not harsh, he punished her by "tickling the snot" out of her, as the humans say. Once she was relaxed, he helped her to her feet, and she snuggled into his chest, yawning. "Yeah, I bet you're tired," he said.

"Want nap..." Eclipse said sleepily. "Daddy nap with me?"

Ratchet sighed. "Wish I could, but I have to clean this up and get back to work. Like I said, we are all busy."

She gave him sleepy puppy twinkling eyes and stuck out her lip. "Pwease, Daddy," she cooed, nuzzling into his chest while purring affectionately.

Ratchet sighed again; he knew Optimus would not be pleased about the mess if he just let it lay around, and he couldn't say no to Eclipse with that face...

Optimus returned to base from his patrol, having discovered no signs of Decepticon activity today, which left him relieved and worried simultaneously. However, when he entered the base, he saw it was a complete mess! Energon cubes were knocked over, data-pads scattered across the floor, and the couch the humans sit on to watch TV or play video games was flipped over. And he saw even more of a clutter in Ratchet's lab. Optimus sighed heavily as he narrowed his optics. He honestly did not expect Ratchet and Eclipse to trash the place...at least not this badly.

But still, the fact they were not here cleaning up worried him a little; where were they? He tried comm. linking Ratchet, but he received no reply. Then he heard a soft groan coming from Ratchet's quarters. Curious, he headed in that direction and looked inside. His frown instantly turned into a gentle smile as he set his optics upon the sight of Ratchet and Eclipse curled up together on the medic's berth, fast asleep and smiling.

While maintaining his stoic appearance and behavior, he thought this was one of the cutest things he had ever seen. He knew how strong their bond was, but the way they show it doesn't even describe exactly how close they were; he knew of their bond ever since he was a small mechling, and every time they met he would see their bond glow and emanate. He was often envious of their relationship at the time because he grew up in an orphanage under the care of Alpha Trion and never knew his carriers, but he tried to never let it show. All that mattered was that the two made each other happy.

Optimus decided disturbing them now would be cruel, so he quietly left them alone and allowed them to sleep and awaken whenever they wished. He would have them clean up their mess then.

THE END.

A/N: I know I threw in some stuff about Eclipse that may seem confusing; if you would like, I could add some stories about her past. She is really an interesting character once you get to know her. I've come to love her, and if I add more stories of her, hopefully you will, too. Please be sure to read and review! Thanks~ 3