O is for Only Shot
Within the debriefing hall, there stood the various platoons of the Polaris Defense Force, while their Captain, Talwyn Apogee addressed the crowd of the ongoing cases they had on the board along with the introduction of the new recruits. Ratchet, a newly promoted Lieutenant of the 1st platoon stood amongst the head of his troops, with a couple cadets flanking his sides as they looked towards the podium. The cadets, though promising proved to still have milk behind their ears. Why just the other day he caught some other male cadets from the 3rd platoon looking at a few female cadets while whispering under their breaths with smiles on their faces. He shook his head in shame. Even now in the middle of the debriefing he could see one of his own male cadets to the right of him, eyeing the Captain up and down from afar, and was not too slick about it.
“Eyes up Cadet,” Ratchet stated as he glanced over at the cadet, to which said cadet was caught off guard and fumbled about before standing at attention and looking straight ahead with a nervous sweat on his brow.
“Apologies Lieutenant.”
“I expect everyone to be on their P’s and Q’s when out and about, and to always communicate. That’s all for today. Dismissed!” Talwyn announced.
A chorus of “Yes sir,” rung throughout the hall before everyone filed out in an orderly fashion, with the 1st platoon being last. Ratchet snagged the sleeve of the cadet from earlier to get his attention, “Listen Zanif, I’d appreciate it if my cadets focused their attention on the speech rather than other things during debriefing.” Zanif, with a nervous look twiddled his thumbs as he glanced down at the floor.
“You saw?”
“How could I not.”
“Apologies again Lieutenant. I won’t make that mistake again.”
“Let’s hope you don’t. Would hate to hold a promising cadet back from advancing in his training.” Zanif looked towards his commanding officer with worried eyes.
XXX
Ratchet sat within his office, a modest plus along with his promotion; tired eyes glued to the monitor filled with various reports needing to be finished. Charts and graphs littered the entirety of his desk. Soon, a quiet rapping was heard at the door.
“Come in.”
The door slowly opened before the head of Zanif peeked around it.
“May I enter Lieutenant?”
“Oh Zanif, of course.” Ratchet stated as he made a measly attempt to push aside the towering papers to the corners of his desk; making his line of sight clear to talk to his cadet directly. Zanif slowly entered, taking notice of the scattered papers around Ratchet’s desk. “I’m not disturbing you are I?”
“Hm, oh no no no. I was actually wrapping up, but I have time.” The Lombax pointed at the vacant office chair in front of his desk. “What can I do for you?” Zanif took the seat and placed his hands within his lap as he twiddled his thumbs.
“Well I have a question, concerning someone.”
“Oh.”
“And I wanted to get your opinion on it.”
“Is there anything wrong?
“Oh no, it’s just….well there’s this girl.” Ratchet perked up at that.
“A girl you say.” Zanif nodded his head yes.
“And is she within our ranks?” Another nod yes.
“Y you see sir…”
“Ratchet is fine, no need for formalities.”
“Oh uhm ok. Well Ratchet, I have no clue as to tell her how I feel.”
The Lombax reclined in his chair as he rested his hands behind his head, “Ah girl trouble. You know I used to have that problem within my youth, never really could reel a girl in ya know. But, it took sometime before that cast was able to nibble a beauty, and it took some practice.” Zanif listened in silence as he looked towards his superior.
“Tell me, is it someone I know?”
“Oh yes, I assume very well.” Ratchet raised a curious eyebrow.
“And what is this lovely girl’s name might I ask?”
Zanif gave a nervous glance before he answered, “Well, uhm I’m nervous to say, but her name is..Talwyn.”
At the mention of her name, Ratchet’s expression changed in an instant; now replaced with a more serious expression.
“Zanif, can I tell you something?” Ratchet asked as he brought his elbows to the desktop, with his head gently placed atop his laced gloved fingers.
“As your commanding officer, I appreciate you coming to me with your troubles. But…”
“But?”
“As a fellow man to man, I suggest you stop pursuing this crush of yours, especially if it’s with my fiancée.” A look of shock washed over the cadet’s face.
“Y your fiancée?!”
“Yep.”
“You mean you, a and the Captain?”
“Yep.”
“I’m so sorry sir, I did not know.” Zanif threw his hands up in defense.
Ratchet looked confused. “I’m surprised. It’s no secret we were dating, not to mention engaged amongst everyone in the Force. Where are you from again? The Hixx?”
Zanif vigorously shook his head yes.
“Man, news doesn’t travel far to that quadrant I assume.”
“No sir.”
Amongst the conversation, a knock was heard at the door silencing the two.
“Come in,” Ratchet exclaimed, followed by the door opening and revealing Talwyn, to Zanif’s surprise.
Talwyn slowly opened the door, “I just wanted to see if you were ready to…” she took notice of Zanif still seated in the chair, staring at Talwyn as if the wind got knocked out of him.
“Am I disrupting something?” she questioned.
Ratchet was about to answer, but Zanif quickly interjected. “Uhm no actually, I was just about to uhm, leave. Yes! Leave!” He gestures to the doorway where Talwyn still stood and did his best to shimmy through what little space he managed to get between her and the door frame and making his quick exit. Both the Markazian and Lombax stared at the door with weirded expressions.
“What was that about?” Talwyn asked.
“Eh, nothing too serious. Just had to get some things order. But anyways, you ready to go beautiful?” He quickly rose from his chair and was instantly at his fiancé’s side with her hand in his, holding it in a tight embrace.
“Uhm sure. Ratchet, are you ok? You’re kind of squeezing my hand.”
“Oh sorry, just don’t want anyone to take you from me,” he stated with a cheesy grin on his muzzle. Talwyn looked at her soon to be husband with confusion, but took it as one of his goofy antics. She laughed.
“Ok you, no one is taking me from you. And if they tried, I’m sure you wouldn’t let that happen, Mr. Territorial.”
“Damn straight.”
XXX
I decided to continue with some more oneshots for the Ratchet and Clank series since the first one got such great feedback. And I figured since I used L in the first, and L is the first letter in the word LOVE, why not make a miniseries of oneshots that spell out the word LOVE that may or may not filter into a full fledged story!? *wink wink* X3
Thanks again to @farorest and @zombiy for the inspiration from their comic @stellabris which you should definitely go check out.
