I'm Not Dead, and Fic
Yeah. Not dead. Mostly.
Difficult Things: Personality Conflicts
Series: Transformers (G1)
Pairings/Characters: HoundxTwins (starting with HoundxSunstreaker, so bear with me here.) Hound, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Bumblebee, others.
Ratings/Warnings: T for safety so far, some of the later chapters jumping to M for mechxmech. Technically slash. Psuedo-incestuous. Threesome, both as a relationship and in sex scenes.
Summary: G1. Hound's realized Sunstreaker is watching him, which is kind of unnerving, really. Sunstreaker is convinced he wants absolutely positively nothing to do with Hound. Sideswipe's amused. Bumblebee's bemused. Everyone else is clueless--so far, at least. Love is not an easy thing.
Author's Notes: Many thanks to my beta, mmouse15! Further thanks to dairokkan for pointing a few minor errors!
Chapter 1: Absolutely Not in Love
Chapter 2: Personality Conflicts
Chapter 3: In the Dark
Chapter 4: Little Details
Chapter 5: Patience
Chapter 6: Helplessly
FFnet link
Hound looked up in surprise as someone-as Sideswipe-sat down next to him, followed momentarily by Sunstreaker, on the other side, so he was sandwiched in-between. Why had he sat down in the middle of the couch, again? Sunstreaker glanced briefly over at him before directing his attention to the TV; Sideswipe just ignored him.
A documentary was playing, one about lions; he’d seen it before, and Hound glanced briefly at the remote before deciding to head things off at the pass. It wasn’t even worth considering, really. Wordlessly, he held the clicker out to Sideswipe, who looked at it and then at him with (almost definitely faked) confusion.
“What?” Sunstreaker said at last, unable to keep the words from sounding at least slightly challenging.
Sideswipe cut in smoothly before Hound could reply. “What Sunny means is, is there a reason you’re handing me the remote?”
“Not in particular,” Hound said, stalling. The twins weren’t known for their patience, or their love of nature documentaries. Since there was a good chance Sunstreaker was already angry with him, he hadn’t wanted to give them an excuse to jump him. Not that any reasonable mech would consider that a reason to start a fight.
“Well. Okay, then,” Sideswipe said, at his most irritating and obtuse, and he shoved the remote back into Hound’s hands.
Slag, Hound thought. That put the ball back into his court. He was getting nervous-what fresh hell had the two of them come up with? “Is there something in particular you’d like to see?” It wasn’t like the potential-possibly unavoidable-fight would be worth watching a mediocre documentary. And he’d seen this one already.
“Weren’t you watching this, though?” Sideswipe said, gesturing expansively at the video screen, and this time Hound knew he was faking the curiosity and slight concern. He felt an uncharacteristic surge of anger, but forced it down. Trying to get someone to attack them would be a new strategy for the pair, as far as he knew, but that didn’t mean much. They were by no means stupid. Certainly Sideswipe was devious enough to come up with something like that, especially as Prowl’s glacial temper continued to fray.
“Yes,” he said, vaguely, calming down a little. He did not add a sarcastic ‘And your point is…? Since when has that stopped you? Or, more to the point, your brother?’
“We’ll watch the lions, then,” Sideswipe said, turning to face the TV again and settling back. He clearly thought the conversation was over.
“Oh,” Hound said, honestly confused, before he turned away as well.
Hound realized that they’d gained something of an audience. Probably because Sideswipe had started cheering on the lions, who were hunting. Jazz had decided to join in, on the side of the hyenas. Things had snowballed from there.
Bumblebee caught Hound’s eye from across the small crowd of mechs, his expression a question.
Hound shrugged in reply. He had no idea what the twins were up to, either.
When he looked away again he thought he caught Sunstreaker watching the two of them, a slightly strange-or maybe just hard to decipher-look on his face. Hound wasn’t sure, though, and he put it out of his mind.
“Hey, Hound, wait up a sec,” Jazz called after him, jogging over. “Prowl says to tell you your shift request went through-you’re on night patrol now, sure enough. Have to say, man, I’m glad I don’t have your shift-but I guess if it floats your boat. Catch you later!”
And then he was gone, leaving a smiling Hound in his wake. He left, too-he’d been on his way out of the rec room when Jazz had stopped him.
Sunstreaker left just minutes after him.
Sideswipe didn’t bother looking up as his brother stalked towards him, instead loosing another shot at the target he was focusing on.
“What do you want, Sunny? I’m trying to practice, here.”
Sunstreaker ignored him, instead just elbowing his way closer until he was pressing against his brother-not a hug, exactly, but physical proximity. Closeness.
Sideswipe made an almost annoyed sound and subspaced his gun. “What? What is it?” When there was no immediate answer, he pressed further. “Did Hound loudly and convincingly declare that he finds you physically repulsive?”
He stumbled as Sunstreaker pushed him violently.
“So-I was in the right ballpark, then?”
Sunstreaker glared, but didn’t bother denying it.
There was a long silence. For once, Sideswipe decided not to goad his brother into talking, letting the silence do it for him.
“-Hound got switched to the night patrol.”
“C’mon, Sunshine, live up to your name for once. Hound’s kind of a freak: he’s totally devoted to this planet. And he doesn’t really seem to care much about you either way, so-That’s not helping, is it. Look-I really don’t think this is because of you. Or at least it’s not entirely because of you. I don’t see Hound as the type to go through all this trouble to get away from you. -Although I guess he did kind of try to hand control of the TV over to me that one time because he didn’t think we wanted to watch the lions. I think we might’ve kind of freaked him out when that happened, but that’s kind of normal, right? Because we’re not usually decent-well, I am, sometimes-”
“Just-shut up,” snarled Sunstreaker, voice ugly. “Shut up!”
“Whoa! Calm down, bit-brain. Look-he just wants to see new weird animals. Trust me on this. He’s not that sort. He’d be upfront if it wasn’t about that, especially since I don’t really think he’s all that scared of you. Sure, you kind of make him nervous, but you do that to me, too! Sometimes, at least. …Not often, but you can get freaky. Like that stare you’re giving me right now? Not cool. Anyways, he doesn’t think you’re too bad. Or at least not totally psychotic. Or at least not psychotic and out of control-Okay, okay. I’ll stop.”
There was a long silence, a long pause. Neither moved. After a full two minutes had ticked by, Sunstreaker turned violently away. Sideswipe waited another moment, then edged closer, sidling up to his brother until they were flush against each other again, metal pressing against metal hard enough to squeal when they moved, shifting a little. Neither broke away for a long, long time.
Sunstreaker had been avoiding Hound for the past week, and he’d been remarkably successful. Now they no longer shared a patrol-he’d been replaced by Swoop, who was barely tolerable because he was quiet, even if he was a Dinobot-it was easy. And his off hours were Hound’s on-duty hours, so they weren’t even going to run into each other in the rec room.
Good. It was what Sunstreaker wanted.
He’d almost half-convinced himself of that, at least.
Sideswipe kept on pointing out that his mood had gone straight downhill. Sunstreaker snarled whenever he did and then stomped away to find a new place to sulk. He was also trying to avoid any mech on the Ark that spoke to him. That was harder, although they’d picked up on his moodiness, too, and were mostly staying away.
Jazz wasn’t. Jazz was immune to things like bad attitudes and warning growls. He was also Sunstreaker’s superior.
“-So that’s how it all happened. Sorry, ’Streaker, I got to run, but-oh, yeah! Prowl says to tell you that your patrol’s flip-flopped because he needs your brother on either the day or night shift that you have now, and he’s got punishment detail for half the night one. So, same patrol, but you’ll be with Hound on the other time frame. I should tell him, too-I think he was getting sick of Huffer. So, uh, catch you later?”
And then he was gone, leaving a poleaxed Sunstreaker in his wake, petrified.
What had just happened…?
Sunstreaker pulled to a screeching, annoyed halt a short ways away from Hound, who hid a flinch and bit back a sigh, simultaneously.
The yellow mech transformed, stalking over to peer over the other’s shoulder; Hound was kneeling, staring at what looked like any other patch of dirt to Sunstreaker.
The both tried to start speaking simultaneously.
“What are you-”
“Sorry, I’ll get-”
Hound fell silent, and after a few seconds Sunstreaker started speaking again. “What are you looking at?” he said, voice not as violent and accusatory as it usually was. He tried to make the tone softer than he usually did, even gentler than he’d started out with. That was good, at least: he needed to think before he started accusing others-
“Frogs,” Hound replied easily, hiding the thread of nervousness in his tone without much difficulty. And Sunstreaker never had been good at picking up on subtle social cues. “I’m sorry-I’ll get moving again.”
Sunstreaker shifted, almost as if he wanted to say something, glaring at Hound as he did so.
“I can wait,” he announced at last-they weren’t supposed to be too far apart when they were on patrol-and he stalked a little ways away.
Hound stared after him, not sure what to think at all. It just didn’t make sense!
He still didn’t linger: he waited just long enough to grab a few image captures, then transformed. Sunstreaker took off even before he was fully in vehicle mode, and Hound followed after him, at a more reasonable speed.
They still didn’t end up finishing the patrol at the same time. Sunstreaker spent most of the trip moving at speeds Hound couldn’t even manage, let alone consider using when he was supposed to be paying attention to their surroundings-not that he thought that Sunstreaker was doing that. Hound had no idea why Sunstreaker had bothered waiting for him at all-it just didn’t make sense.
None of this did.
When Hound pulled up in front of the Ark, Sunstreaker was there, waiting. So was Prowl.
“Regulation states that patrol is to be undertaken in pairs,” he said, crisply.
Hound didn’t know what to say. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly, at last, as he transformed and stood. “It won’t happen again, sir.” He didn’t say a word about not having the sort of speed it would take to keep up with Sunstreaker when he was in a hurry. Not that he needed to: Prowl didn’t need reminding of something like that.
He nodded, dismissing him, and Hound headed indoors at a good clip; no doubt it was Sunstreaker’s turn to get told off, and the odds weren’t good that he’d have as easy a time as Hound had. Or that he’d be as accepting of the reprimand. Neither of the twins reacted well to authority figures. And Prowl was probably the definition of one.
He paused, just inside the Ark. Something in him felt almost-guilty. He snuck a look back over his shoulder. He couldn’t see much, with his vision limited by the dark, but…
Prowl’s posture was as stiff as always, doorwings held high and formal. Sunstreaker almost looked like he was slumping, uncharacteristically unaggressive with his body language..
Feeling uncomfortable, confused and almost a little resigned, Hound turned around. He figured he probably owed Sunstreaker something for… For whatever it was that he’d pulled that night, what with waiting for Hound and everything. He took a few steps, then called over to the other two. “Prowl? Uh-I guess I should tell you that I was looking at some of the wildlife out there tonight. It slowed me down.” That was good-not an actual lie, but it did imply that Sunstreaker shouldn’t get all the blame.
And hey, if he was lucky, maybe Sunstreaker would stop treating him like some sort of bizarre threat, or a Decepticon traitor, or-or whatever it was he was doing. He kept on staring at him. But Hound was almost certain that he wouldn’t wait this long if he was just going to beat him into scrap metal. Maybe. Maybe Sideswipe had just blackmailed him into helping with a prank again, although that didn’t usually involve Hound. He wasn’t a good target: he’d made sure of that. He’d purposefully kept his reactions as neutral and uninteresting as possible, the first time around. It had done him good.
Prowl wavered, momentarily and barely noticeably, before speaking. “Thank you, Hound. Although I will expect promptness with such information in the future. Dismissed.”
Hound turned back around and smiled to himself. That was Prowl all over, good old reliable Prowl: taking the information as it was made available, weighing everything in the balance and sticking to both the letter and the spirit of the law.
And about as emotive as paint, but everyone had their little flaws. Primus knew half the Ark had some sort of diagnosable social problem. The other half ranged from mildly quirky to highly weird.
“I don’t get it, I don’t get him, I don’t want to deal with any of this!”
“Hey! Calm down, Sunny. -You know, I find myself saying that far more often than I should have to. Seeing how you’re not supposed to be going into homicidal rages. I mean, you’re even worse than you normally are. If either of us were any worse at our jobs-and if we weren’t a package deal-you’d probably get drummed out of the army. For your normal behavior. But you’ve been ridiculously moody for a while now, and it’s getting old, let me tell you. Now: calm down, stop pacing, don’t hit me and tell me what happened.”
“He-argh!”
“Which ‘he’ are we talking about here? This slagging better well not be about Hound again…”
Sunstreaker fell silent, slumping moodily against the wall instead. He brushed at a dried-on splash of mud on his leg, and Sideswipe started as he realized that that meant that Sunstreaker hadn’t headed straight for the washracks after his patrol, even though it had been rainy, recently, and all the roads were mud. And the way he hadn’t argued back meant that it was about Hound. Slag.
“…Did you attack Hound and end up confined to quarters?” he asked, warily.
“What? No!”
“You know, it’s not that unreasonable a question. I mean, considering who you are.”
Sunstreaker slumped even lower, if that was possible. “Yeah,” he muttered. “I know. No, I didn’t jump him. I… He stood up for me! To Prowl.”
“What? Really?”
“Don’t sound so surprised,” Sunstreaker hissed, optics narrowed aggressively, but Sideswipe could feel the lack of real anger there. That worried him too, actually. It said too much about Sunstreaker’s mindset. “-Yeah. He did. I don’t know. I just… Slag this!”
Sideswipe walked over to sit next to his brother, shoulder bumping against shoulder and hip against hip, their backs to the wall. “Alright,” he said slowly, voice gentling. “Tell me everything that happened. Everything. I don’t trust you to not miss something important.”
Sunstreaker let him get away with that last jab. It was true, and Sideswipe was his brother. He couldn’t really protest. Still, he didn’t speak.
“Come on. Sunshine!”
“Give me a single slagging minute, would you?”
“Whatever. Aren’t you touchy today?”
“We…
"…We were on patrol. Night patrol. You know that. It was in the woods. I picked up an unidentified heat signature a short ways off the track, but it was deer. Some stupid Earth animal. When I catch back up to Hound he’s looking at something. So I start to speak, but he starts to, too, so he stops. I think he thought I was going to get angry at him if he kept on going. -Slag it. He does think I’m going to attack him, I can’t… But whatever-
“So I ask him what he’s doing. …I tried to not sound too angry. Or ‘accusatory.’ And I am not slagging accusatory, afthead. And he says he’s watching frogs. Frods? Something like that. So I tell him I’ll wait because that slag’s important to him and if I’d kept on going he’d have felt obligated to follow me because he’s an idiot. And he still finished really quickly. -Because he thinks I’m going to attack him. I head off when he finishes and he leaves but-But I’m speeding. It was boring and I just wanted to clean off and get some recharge. That’s simple, at least. He stayed behind. He didn’t even try to keep up.”
“Okay so far,” Sideswipe says, slowly. “Good job, waiting for him. Keep that up and you’ll almost seem like a functional member of society! Seriously, though, that was a good idea. -On the downside, though, Hound’s not going to be able to keep up with you when you’re determined. I mean, he’s no Trailbreaker, but he isn’t made for speed. Which means more than just the speeds he is capable of reaching, Sunstreaker.”
“Whatever. Prowl’s there when I get to the Ark, so I pull up. He asks me where Hound is, and I say I don’t know. That just pisses him off. He tells me to wait, and I do. And Hound takes his own sweet time getting there. When he does Prowl just gives him a few words of warning and lets him walk off, damn him-”
“He probably figured out you were speeding, and he knows Hound can’t keep up with you,” Sideswipe interjected.
“And he starts lighting into me. I think he was going to give me time in the brig, a punishment detail at the very least, but then Hound comes back and tells him that he was-What did he say? ‘I guess I should tell you that I was looking at some of the wildlife out there tonight. It slowed me down.’ Prowl dismisses him, and then tells me to keep to speeds Hound can manage tomorrow night, but that’s it. And-Hound did that for me. It wasn’t… He was going to come out of the whole slagging thing smelling like roses! He had no reason- He was taking the blame!”
“Well, I don’t see why you’re so angry. Tell you what-next time, tell him he can come up with excuses for me.”
Sunstreaker growled, expression filled with smoldering fury.
There was no other conversation. Slowly, Sunstreaker’s racing engine slowed, calmed. He settled in, straightening a little. He edged a little closer to Sideswipe, who oh-so-casually let his hand fall against his brother’s hand, an extra anchor.
Sideswipe had almost fallen into recharge when Sunstreaker spoke again.
“Sides?” He sounded almost painfully vulnerable.
“Yeah, Sunny?”
“…Do you think he was just trying to buy me off? Because he thinks I’m going to…” He trailed off, almost ominously, not wanting to say the words. It was far too plausible.
Sideswipe’s spark contracted, painfully. He sounded so… Something. Like he might actually need someone else, someone who wasn't his twin. Or want to need it. He needed that, himself. He usually tried to forget that. Maybe he should attack Hound-
“-No. I don’t think so.”
There was a long silence.
“Sides?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks.”
--End chapter 3--
Difficult Things: Personality Conflicts
Series: Transformers (G1)
Pairings/Characters: HoundxTwins (starting with HoundxSunstreaker, so bear with me here.) Hound, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Bumblebee, others.
Ratings/Warnings: T for safety so far, some of the later chapters jumping to M for mechxmech. Technically slash. Psuedo-incestuous. Threesome, both as a relationship and in sex scenes.
Summary: G1. Hound's realized Sunstreaker is watching him, which is kind of unnerving, really. Sunstreaker is convinced he wants absolutely positively nothing to do with Hound. Sideswipe's amused. Bumblebee's bemused. Everyone else is clueless--so far, at least. Love is not an easy thing.
Author's Notes: Many thanks to my beta, mmouse15! Further thanks to dairokkan for pointing a few minor errors!
Chapter 1: Absolutely Not in Love
Chapter 2: Personality Conflicts
Chapter 3: In the Dark
Chapter 4: Little Details
Chapter 5: Patience
Chapter 6: Helplessly
FFnet link
Hound looked up in surprise as someone-as Sideswipe-sat down next to him, followed momentarily by Sunstreaker, on the other side, so he was sandwiched in-between. Why had he sat down in the middle of the couch, again? Sunstreaker glanced briefly over at him before directing his attention to the TV; Sideswipe just ignored him.
A documentary was playing, one about lions; he’d seen it before, and Hound glanced briefly at the remote before deciding to head things off at the pass. It wasn’t even worth considering, really. Wordlessly, he held the clicker out to Sideswipe, who looked at it and then at him with (almost definitely faked) confusion.
“What?” Sunstreaker said at last, unable to keep the words from sounding at least slightly challenging.
Sideswipe cut in smoothly before Hound could reply. “What Sunny means is, is there a reason you’re handing me the remote?”
“Not in particular,” Hound said, stalling. The twins weren’t known for their patience, or their love of nature documentaries. Since there was a good chance Sunstreaker was already angry with him, he hadn’t wanted to give them an excuse to jump him. Not that any reasonable mech would consider that a reason to start a fight.
“Well. Okay, then,” Sideswipe said, at his most irritating and obtuse, and he shoved the remote back into Hound’s hands.
Slag, Hound thought. That put the ball back into his court. He was getting nervous-what fresh hell had the two of them come up with? “Is there something in particular you’d like to see?” It wasn’t like the potential-possibly unavoidable-fight would be worth watching a mediocre documentary. And he’d seen this one already.
“Weren’t you watching this, though?” Sideswipe said, gesturing expansively at the video screen, and this time Hound knew he was faking the curiosity and slight concern. He felt an uncharacteristic surge of anger, but forced it down. Trying to get someone to attack them would be a new strategy for the pair, as far as he knew, but that didn’t mean much. They were by no means stupid. Certainly Sideswipe was devious enough to come up with something like that, especially as Prowl’s glacial temper continued to fray.
“Yes,” he said, vaguely, calming down a little. He did not add a sarcastic ‘And your point is…? Since when has that stopped you? Or, more to the point, your brother?’
“We’ll watch the lions, then,” Sideswipe said, turning to face the TV again and settling back. He clearly thought the conversation was over.
“Oh,” Hound said, honestly confused, before he turned away as well.
Hound realized that they’d gained something of an audience. Probably because Sideswipe had started cheering on the lions, who were hunting. Jazz had decided to join in, on the side of the hyenas. Things had snowballed from there.
Bumblebee caught Hound’s eye from across the small crowd of mechs, his expression a question.
Hound shrugged in reply. He had no idea what the twins were up to, either.
When he looked away again he thought he caught Sunstreaker watching the two of them, a slightly strange-or maybe just hard to decipher-look on his face. Hound wasn’t sure, though, and he put it out of his mind.
“Hey, Hound, wait up a sec,” Jazz called after him, jogging over. “Prowl says to tell you your shift request went through-you’re on night patrol now, sure enough. Have to say, man, I’m glad I don’t have your shift-but I guess if it floats your boat. Catch you later!”
And then he was gone, leaving a smiling Hound in his wake. He left, too-he’d been on his way out of the rec room when Jazz had stopped him.
Sunstreaker left just minutes after him.
Sideswipe didn’t bother looking up as his brother stalked towards him, instead loosing another shot at the target he was focusing on.
“What do you want, Sunny? I’m trying to practice, here.”
Sunstreaker ignored him, instead just elbowing his way closer until he was pressing against his brother-not a hug, exactly, but physical proximity. Closeness.
Sideswipe made an almost annoyed sound and subspaced his gun. “What? What is it?” When there was no immediate answer, he pressed further. “Did Hound loudly and convincingly declare that he finds you physically repulsive?”
He stumbled as Sunstreaker pushed him violently.
“So-I was in the right ballpark, then?”
Sunstreaker glared, but didn’t bother denying it.
There was a long silence. For once, Sideswipe decided not to goad his brother into talking, letting the silence do it for him.
“-Hound got switched to the night patrol.”
“C’mon, Sunshine, live up to your name for once. Hound’s kind of a freak: he’s totally devoted to this planet. And he doesn’t really seem to care much about you either way, so-That’s not helping, is it. Look-I really don’t think this is because of you. Or at least it’s not entirely because of you. I don’t see Hound as the type to go through all this trouble to get away from you. -Although I guess he did kind of try to hand control of the TV over to me that one time because he didn’t think we wanted to watch the lions. I think we might’ve kind of freaked him out when that happened, but that’s kind of normal, right? Because we’re not usually decent-well, I am, sometimes-”
“Just-shut up,” snarled Sunstreaker, voice ugly. “Shut up!”
“Whoa! Calm down, bit-brain. Look-he just wants to see new weird animals. Trust me on this. He’s not that sort. He’d be upfront if it wasn’t about that, especially since I don’t really think he’s all that scared of you. Sure, you kind of make him nervous, but you do that to me, too! Sometimes, at least. …Not often, but you can get freaky. Like that stare you’re giving me right now? Not cool. Anyways, he doesn’t think you’re too bad. Or at least not totally psychotic. Or at least not psychotic and out of control-Okay, okay. I’ll stop.”
There was a long silence, a long pause. Neither moved. After a full two minutes had ticked by, Sunstreaker turned violently away. Sideswipe waited another moment, then edged closer, sidling up to his brother until they were flush against each other again, metal pressing against metal hard enough to squeal when they moved, shifting a little. Neither broke away for a long, long time.
Sunstreaker had been avoiding Hound for the past week, and he’d been remarkably successful. Now they no longer shared a patrol-he’d been replaced by Swoop, who was barely tolerable because he was quiet, even if he was a Dinobot-it was easy. And his off hours were Hound’s on-duty hours, so they weren’t even going to run into each other in the rec room.
Good. It was what Sunstreaker wanted.
He’d almost half-convinced himself of that, at least.
Sideswipe kept on pointing out that his mood had gone straight downhill. Sunstreaker snarled whenever he did and then stomped away to find a new place to sulk. He was also trying to avoid any mech on the Ark that spoke to him. That was harder, although they’d picked up on his moodiness, too, and were mostly staying away.
Jazz wasn’t. Jazz was immune to things like bad attitudes and warning growls. He was also Sunstreaker’s superior.
“-So that’s how it all happened. Sorry, ’Streaker, I got to run, but-oh, yeah! Prowl says to tell you that your patrol’s flip-flopped because he needs your brother on either the day or night shift that you have now, and he’s got punishment detail for half the night one. So, same patrol, but you’ll be with Hound on the other time frame. I should tell him, too-I think he was getting sick of Huffer. So, uh, catch you later?”
And then he was gone, leaving a poleaxed Sunstreaker in his wake, petrified.
What had just happened…?
Sunstreaker pulled to a screeching, annoyed halt a short ways away from Hound, who hid a flinch and bit back a sigh, simultaneously.
The yellow mech transformed, stalking over to peer over the other’s shoulder; Hound was kneeling, staring at what looked like any other patch of dirt to Sunstreaker.
The both tried to start speaking simultaneously.
“What are you-”
“Sorry, I’ll get-”
Hound fell silent, and after a few seconds Sunstreaker started speaking again. “What are you looking at?” he said, voice not as violent and accusatory as it usually was. He tried to make the tone softer than he usually did, even gentler than he’d started out with. That was good, at least: he needed to think before he started accusing others-
“Frogs,” Hound replied easily, hiding the thread of nervousness in his tone without much difficulty. And Sunstreaker never had been good at picking up on subtle social cues. “I’m sorry-I’ll get moving again.”
Sunstreaker shifted, almost as if he wanted to say something, glaring at Hound as he did so.
“I can wait,” he announced at last-they weren’t supposed to be too far apart when they were on patrol-and he stalked a little ways away.
Hound stared after him, not sure what to think at all. It just didn’t make sense!
He still didn’t linger: he waited just long enough to grab a few image captures, then transformed. Sunstreaker took off even before he was fully in vehicle mode, and Hound followed after him, at a more reasonable speed.
They still didn’t end up finishing the patrol at the same time. Sunstreaker spent most of the trip moving at speeds Hound couldn’t even manage, let alone consider using when he was supposed to be paying attention to their surroundings-not that he thought that Sunstreaker was doing that. Hound had no idea why Sunstreaker had bothered waiting for him at all-it just didn’t make sense.
None of this did.
When Hound pulled up in front of the Ark, Sunstreaker was there, waiting. So was Prowl.
“Regulation states that patrol is to be undertaken in pairs,” he said, crisply.
Hound didn’t know what to say. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly, at last, as he transformed and stood. “It won’t happen again, sir.” He didn’t say a word about not having the sort of speed it would take to keep up with Sunstreaker when he was in a hurry. Not that he needed to: Prowl didn’t need reminding of something like that.
He nodded, dismissing him, and Hound headed indoors at a good clip; no doubt it was Sunstreaker’s turn to get told off, and the odds weren’t good that he’d have as easy a time as Hound had. Or that he’d be as accepting of the reprimand. Neither of the twins reacted well to authority figures. And Prowl was probably the definition of one.
He paused, just inside the Ark. Something in him felt almost-guilty. He snuck a look back over his shoulder. He couldn’t see much, with his vision limited by the dark, but…
Prowl’s posture was as stiff as always, doorwings held high and formal. Sunstreaker almost looked like he was slumping, uncharacteristically unaggressive with his body language..
Feeling uncomfortable, confused and almost a little resigned, Hound turned around. He figured he probably owed Sunstreaker something for… For whatever it was that he’d pulled that night, what with waiting for Hound and everything. He took a few steps, then called over to the other two. “Prowl? Uh-I guess I should tell you that I was looking at some of the wildlife out there tonight. It slowed me down.” That was good-not an actual lie, but it did imply that Sunstreaker shouldn’t get all the blame.
And hey, if he was lucky, maybe Sunstreaker would stop treating him like some sort of bizarre threat, or a Decepticon traitor, or-or whatever it was he was doing. He kept on staring at him. But Hound was almost certain that he wouldn’t wait this long if he was just going to beat him into scrap metal. Maybe. Maybe Sideswipe had just blackmailed him into helping with a prank again, although that didn’t usually involve Hound. He wasn’t a good target: he’d made sure of that. He’d purposefully kept his reactions as neutral and uninteresting as possible, the first time around. It had done him good.
Prowl wavered, momentarily and barely noticeably, before speaking. “Thank you, Hound. Although I will expect promptness with such information in the future. Dismissed.”
Hound turned back around and smiled to himself. That was Prowl all over, good old reliable Prowl: taking the information as it was made available, weighing everything in the balance and sticking to both the letter and the spirit of the law.
And about as emotive as paint, but everyone had their little flaws. Primus knew half the Ark had some sort of diagnosable social problem. The other half ranged from mildly quirky to highly weird.
“I don’t get it, I don’t get him, I don’t want to deal with any of this!”
“Hey! Calm down, Sunny. -You know, I find myself saying that far more often than I should have to. Seeing how you’re not supposed to be going into homicidal rages. I mean, you’re even worse than you normally are. If either of us were any worse at our jobs-and if we weren’t a package deal-you’d probably get drummed out of the army. For your normal behavior. But you’ve been ridiculously moody for a while now, and it’s getting old, let me tell you. Now: calm down, stop pacing, don’t hit me and tell me what happened.”
“He-argh!”
“Which ‘he’ are we talking about here? This slagging better well not be about Hound again…”
Sunstreaker fell silent, slumping moodily against the wall instead. He brushed at a dried-on splash of mud on his leg, and Sideswipe started as he realized that that meant that Sunstreaker hadn’t headed straight for the washracks after his patrol, even though it had been rainy, recently, and all the roads were mud. And the way he hadn’t argued back meant that it was about Hound. Slag.
“…Did you attack Hound and end up confined to quarters?” he asked, warily.
“What? No!”
“You know, it’s not that unreasonable a question. I mean, considering who you are.”
Sunstreaker slumped even lower, if that was possible. “Yeah,” he muttered. “I know. No, I didn’t jump him. I… He stood up for me! To Prowl.”
“What? Really?”
“Don’t sound so surprised,” Sunstreaker hissed, optics narrowed aggressively, but Sideswipe could feel the lack of real anger there. That worried him too, actually. It said too much about Sunstreaker’s mindset. “-Yeah. He did. I don’t know. I just… Slag this!”
Sideswipe walked over to sit next to his brother, shoulder bumping against shoulder and hip against hip, their backs to the wall. “Alright,” he said slowly, voice gentling. “Tell me everything that happened. Everything. I don’t trust you to not miss something important.”
Sunstreaker let him get away with that last jab. It was true, and Sideswipe was his brother. He couldn’t really protest. Still, he didn’t speak.
“Come on. Sunshine!”
“Give me a single slagging minute, would you?”
“Whatever. Aren’t you touchy today?”
“We…
"…We were on patrol. Night patrol. You know that. It was in the woods. I picked up an unidentified heat signature a short ways off the track, but it was deer. Some stupid Earth animal. When I catch back up to Hound he’s looking at something. So I start to speak, but he starts to, too, so he stops. I think he thought I was going to get angry at him if he kept on going. -Slag it. He does think I’m going to attack him, I can’t… But whatever-
“So I ask him what he’s doing. …I tried to not sound too angry. Or ‘accusatory.’ And I am not slagging accusatory, afthead. And he says he’s watching frogs. Frods? Something like that. So I tell him I’ll wait because that slag’s important to him and if I’d kept on going he’d have felt obligated to follow me because he’s an idiot. And he still finished really quickly. -Because he thinks I’m going to attack him. I head off when he finishes and he leaves but-But I’m speeding. It was boring and I just wanted to clean off and get some recharge. That’s simple, at least. He stayed behind. He didn’t even try to keep up.”
“Okay so far,” Sideswipe says, slowly. “Good job, waiting for him. Keep that up and you’ll almost seem like a functional member of society! Seriously, though, that was a good idea. -On the downside, though, Hound’s not going to be able to keep up with you when you’re determined. I mean, he’s no Trailbreaker, but he isn’t made for speed. Which means more than just the speeds he is capable of reaching, Sunstreaker.”
“Whatever. Prowl’s there when I get to the Ark, so I pull up. He asks me where Hound is, and I say I don’t know. That just pisses him off. He tells me to wait, and I do. And Hound takes his own sweet time getting there. When he does Prowl just gives him a few words of warning and lets him walk off, damn him-”
“He probably figured out you were speeding, and he knows Hound can’t keep up with you,” Sideswipe interjected.
“And he starts lighting into me. I think he was going to give me time in the brig, a punishment detail at the very least, but then Hound comes back and tells him that he was-What did he say? ‘I guess I should tell you that I was looking at some of the wildlife out there tonight. It slowed me down.’ Prowl dismisses him, and then tells me to keep to speeds Hound can manage tomorrow night, but that’s it. And-Hound did that for me. It wasn’t… He was going to come out of the whole slagging thing smelling like roses! He had no reason- He was taking the blame!”
“Well, I don’t see why you’re so angry. Tell you what-next time, tell him he can come up with excuses for me.”
Sunstreaker growled, expression filled with smoldering fury.
There was no other conversation. Slowly, Sunstreaker’s racing engine slowed, calmed. He settled in, straightening a little. He edged a little closer to Sideswipe, who oh-so-casually let his hand fall against his brother’s hand, an extra anchor.
Sideswipe had almost fallen into recharge when Sunstreaker spoke again.
“Sides?” He sounded almost painfully vulnerable.
“Yeah, Sunny?”
“…Do you think he was just trying to buy me off? Because he thinks I’m going to…” He trailed off, almost ominously, not wanting to say the words. It was far too plausible.
Sideswipe’s spark contracted, painfully. He sounded so… Something. Like he might actually need someone else, someone who wasn't his twin. Or want to need it. He needed that, himself. He usually tried to forget that. Maybe he should attack Hound-
“-No. I don’t think so.”
There was a long silence.
“Sides?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks.”
--End chapter 3--