Fanfic: Courting Flight
Title: Courting
Verse: G1 AU
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Characters/pairing: Silverbolt/ Windrush (OC), Impact (OC), Moonbright (OC), Fireflight
Authors Notes: This is from the same ‘verse as Presentation, just a little scene that was dancing around in my head and wouldn’t leave me alone.
Silverbolt was quivering in place, shaking with fear. Flying terrified him. He was better now, with practice and time he had gotten better. Something to focus on outside of himself had helped as well, the leadership of his brothers was more important to him than his fear.
But what was he supposed to do when he was already afraid, and his fear required him to fly?
Alone.
That might be the most trying factor.
He wanted to do this. He wanted to do this so badly. He wanted the completion, the stability in his life.
But he was already afraid to fly. And if he was rejected he wasn't so sure that he wouldn't just find the nearest cliff and plant himself in its face. And make sure he did it hard enough that there wasn't enough left recognizable for Ratchet to put him back together.
Warmth spread across his wings, and Silverbolt found himself accepting the comfort his brother offered without really thinking about it as his smaller brother snuggled against him.
Fireflight was always like that- caring and for all of his flightiness and scatterbrained tendencies, and very perceptive of his sibling emotions and mental states.
"But you don't have to go flying today."
"What?" He craned his head around to look at the smaller jet.
Fireflight blinked up at him with gentle optics, so different from his brothers. Despite Silverbolts fears, Fireflight was the only one with complete faith in Silverbolt. Granted the young flyer seemed to have complete faith in all of his siblings, seemingly always willing to follow whichever one was the loudest at the moment, but it was that faith and trust that had gotten Silverbolt through more than one battle when his processor had threatened to lock from fear.
"The sky is clear. The sun is out. It is a nice day for flying." Fireflight commented serenely, looking up at the sky above them. "But the schedule has no training today. No patrols today. But you are still tense-tense like when you HAVE to fly."
Fireflight was much more observant than his brothers gave him credit for. Silverbolt put an arm around his brother, pulling him close. "Fireflight?"
"Hmmm?" The smaller jet snuggled into his brothers side, looking up at him.
"What do you think of Windrush?"
"She's good for you."
Silverbolt stared at his brother, the answer he was given not what he had been expecting. "What?"
"She's good for you." Fireflight repeated, arranging himself so that he was comfortable. "When you're with her you're happy. When you fly with her you aren't scared." Fireflight frowned. "That makes Slingshot and Air Raid mad sometimes, and then Skydive tells them that they are just being stupid. That you'll always be our brother but that Windrush just makes you better."
"And what do you think of Windrush?" Silverbolt pushed again, refocusing his brothers attention gently.
"I like her." Fireflight smiled. "She's nice to me. She'll answer my questions and doesn't sound mad. And she'll sit and talk to Skydive about interesting stuff and not tell me I have to leave. And she and Moonbright and Impact will let me fly with them sometimes when they are flying and it's really fun because they've shown me some really neat tricks and, even a few that Skydive is trying to change so they work for five instead of three and -"
Silverbolt relaxed against the warm rock, looking up at the sky and planning as he let his brother ramble.
____________
Windrush transformed just as she touched down, jogging a couple of steps to bleed off the last of her momentum. It had been a nice break, flying with her wingmates again, renewing the connection between the three of them. It was rare they were called upon to perform as a trine anymore, but there was no reason to not keep in practice.
Impact nodded to them and headed inside. Her wingmates might have the rest of the day off, but there was no rest for a medic, and she was due for her shift in the medbay soon.
"Nice day." Moonbright sighed, the general comment sort of directed to her sister but mostly directed to no one in particular.
"Mmmmmmm." Windrush hummed in agreement, turning to face the brilliant yellow sun of this world and bask in it's strange warmth as she offlined her optics, so different but strangely pleasing in comparison to their homeworld of Cybertron.
Later she would need to go over their performance, analyze their weaknesses and plan for improvement, but for the moment she was just going to enjoy herself. It was almost nice enough that she might be able to coax a reluctant mech into the air…
"What is he doing?"
"What is who doing?" Windrush grumbled good naturedly, not wanting her moment of peace to end just yet.
"'Rush." Moonbright called, then prodded her sister impatiently. "'Rush- you need to see this."
Irritated and growling, Windrush obeyed, her jaw dropping in shock and words dying at the sight.
-----------------------
There, she was finally watching. Gathering his courage, Silverbolt swerved in the air, drawing on everything he had learned as he soared higher. This was it- his chance. He had done all of his homework, and this was how a flyer proposed to the one they were interested into, the aerial version of asking permission to speak for someone.
He had done his homework, determined to do this right. He messed up often enough along the way that he needed to get something right. Trying to focus and sort of forget how high he was above the ground, Silverbolt launched into the routine he had planned out- the routine designed to convince his prospective mate that he was the best.
Moonbright watched the display with the gathering 'bots, thoroughly impressed. When they had arrived on Earth the trine had found the large aerials fear of heights odd. With practice and support he had improved dramatically, shaping into a fine air commander as his potential was realized. Now if only her sister would act like she had the processor she was sparked with…
"He's proposing, you idiot. Are you going to answer him or not?"
Windrush stared at her trinemate, momentarily convinced that Impact had been replaced by a processor damaged clone behind her back. Right until the moment that a white hand reached out and smacked her upside the helm.
"Yes or no? He deserves an answer."
Windrush's head snapped around, optics focusing on the mech in the sky. Right when he began to falter, and she knew what was happening. "Moon-."
Her sister pushed her roughly. "I didn't wait on you. You want this. Go."
Momentarily fearful optics turned on Impact, who raised her hand to smack the younger femme again. A movement in the corner of her optic caught her attention and Windrush suddenly noticed Fireflight. The smaller areialbot was not watching his brother, he was looking at her, pleading for his brothers sake to bring this to an end one way or another.
Silverbolt fought the terror welling up inside of him, his world swiftly narrowing as his sensors. His brothers- his brothers could-
::Fly::
Gentle pressure on his left wing sensor. A familiar, comforting pressure and with it a familiar, comforting voice.
::Windrush.::
Embarrassment rippled through him. Shame. Failure. This was supposed to have been something serious and he had fallen apart again-
::Yes.::
::What?::
::Keep flying. Yes.:: There was a gentle undercurrent of amusement in the femme’s comm.. ::At least everyone else, including me, is taking this as a courting proposition. And you stalled out.::
Realizing the truth of her words Silverbolt kicked his systems, his sensors coming back online as his world slowly expanded again.
::Yes?:: He repeated, it taking a moment to sink before joy flooded him and he laughed.
::Yes.:: The tone over the commline was amusement now tinged with exasperation. :Land?:
Silverbolt contemplated that idea, one that he normally pounced on as quickly as possible. But the giddy energy running through him, the safety of having Windrush with him- ::Fly with me?::
::Always.::