Chapter Text
His eyes followed every movement of the dancing form; high above in the rafters where no one would be able to see him. Ratchet was cleaning the gigantic garage, lip-syncing, dancing and jumping about all over the place to some holo-record of a band long forgotten. Nefarious had simply been passing by when he had heard wailing and something falling to the floor. He had stayed with the sole intent to laugh at the squishy’s ungraceful moves and tease him about it later, but had ended up staying and watching him for an hour.
The robot sat cross-legged on the glass pathway, chin in his hand, simply staring at the Lombax. There were times the songs turned into emotional ballads, and Ratchet crooned vocally along with the singer. The broom he was using turned into his microphone and he stopped to swing his hips back and forth. Thats when Ratchet had Nefarious’ full attention. Nefarious knew Ratchet was a little acrobatic, but he never knew the Lombax could move in such a sensuous way.
Ratchet went back to sweeping when the ballad turned into an upbeat song, bouncing around with a stupid grin on his face. Nefarious growled a little. He couldn’t believe the nerve of the little fuzzball. Being that cute should’ve been illegal.
“Aah, creepin on Ratchet’s clean-up concert too Nefarious?”
Nefarious swore he felt whatever soul he had left leave his body. Gods help him if his sisterboard crashed and he stared broadcasting Lance and Janice and gave away his hiding spot to Ratchet. A hand clapped him on the shoulder and someone sat down next to him. Nefarious shot a dirty look to the cretin who dared disturb him AND invade his personal space, and of course it was none other than Captain friggin Qwark.
“Qwark?!” Nefarious hissed, careful to keep his voice down. “What are you doing here?!”
“Oh I’m always here to watch Ratchet’s cleaning concert, he does this every month!” Qwark grinned. He pushed a bucket of popcorn into Nefarious’ face. “Want some? I got extra~!”
Nefarious frowned and pushed the food out of his face. He fully intended on leaving the vicinity now that his entire day had been interrupted, when he suddenly remembered Qwark’s earlier words. The robot growled and stuck a claw in the other’s face.
“I do NOT creep. I OBSERVE, you blithering idiot. And what do you mean every month? If anyone is creeping on him, its you!”
“Watch where you point that thing, you can take an eye out for Zoni’s sake!” Qwark tried to push the offending, very deadly, appendage out of the way but the robot stubbornly kept it there. Oh how he hated Nefarious’ freaky robot strength sometimes. He sighed and moved his head out of the way.
Nefarious simply pushed the flat end of his claw into his cheek. So much for personal space.
“You’re not creeping, yeah right! And I’m the queen of the tyhrranoids!”
“Keep it DOWN you buffoon! We don’t need Ratchet knowing we’re both up here!”
Qwark pouted and huffed. He ignored Nefarious and went back to Ratchet’s “clean up concert”. Another ballad had come on while the two were bickering and Ratchet was back to swaying his lithe form. His back was facing them and his tail wrapped around his waist. Qwark’s blue eyes drank in the whole thing and Nefarious wasn’t having any of it.
“Don’t tell me you have a crush on Ratchet. Cause thats just gross.” Nefarious laughed. He needed to get Qwark’s attention away from Ratchet and back on him. No one needed to be looking at the Lombax like that. Well…no one apart from himself.
“Pot calling the kettle black much?! And would you move your finger already?! Jeeze!” Qwark was so predictable. Nefarious removed his claw and continued glaring at his current headache.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Who wouldn’t enjoy seeing the little guy move around like that?” Qwark continued on, totally ignoring Nefarious’ question. “Like, seriously, I thought Courtney Gears pulled off some moves, but Ratchet blows her right out the water. Your crush on him is totally justified Neffy. Hell I think I have one on him!”
“I do not have a crush on a stupid SQUISHY.” Qwark spared the robot a knowing glance at this and pointed to Ratchet.
“Tell me that again when this song is over.”
Nefarious turned his attention back to Ratchet. The two man sat and stared as the Lombax continued to sing into his broom, reaching out to an audience that wasn’t there. He dragged a hand through the fur on top of his head and gripped his chest. Ratchet continued sweeping the last of the bullet casings one-handed as the song continued on. Seeing the emotions play across Ratchet’s face, Nefarious knew he was completely enraptured and he hated it. He hated that Qwark was right but he would never admit to that to him. He hated that he had some weird emotional connection to a SQUISHY. A squishy who was supposed to be his nemesis! Of all the things in this dimension, why did it have to be a squishy he was supposed to hate?
“See Nefarious?” Qwark piped up when the song was over. “Its not so bad to admit your feelings from time to time. Why I-”
“HEY! YOU TWO ENJOYING THE SHOW?!”
Qwark froze and Nefarious nearly fell over from the shock. They both looked down into the garage and saw Ratchet smiling up and waving at them.
“Wha-?”
“When did he-?”
“Just so you know, you have to pay to see my next clean up concert!” Ratchet laughed. He continued laughing as he saw his “audience” scramble up from their spots and shove each other through the door.
“Those two are so predictable.” He mumbled as he put away all his cleaning supplies.
-
Nefarious made a bee-line for…well he didn’t know exactly where but he knew he needed to get away from here. He heard Qwark calling his name but ignored him. He didn’t need that idiot lecturing him on crushes and he definitely didn’t need Ratchet finding them and teasing them even more. He stopped when he felt he had gotten far enough away and leaned against the wall, already feeling his sisterboard starting to freeze up.
What in Zoni’s name was he going to do with a crush on a squishy?