Heatwave was angry.
No, scratch that, he was furious.
He was furious with the universe for sending him to this pit-forsaken mud ball, furious with the Decepticons for destroying his home planet, furious with himself for letting things come to this. Barely a decacycle in this Primus-forsaken place and he already hated it. It was nothing like his home and yet everything seemed so achingly familiar- the people, the buildings, even the rescues were all the same. The only difference was how fragging small and soft everything was.
He was used to harsh metal, to energon lakes and acid rain, to the thrum of his planet's core beneath his pedes. He was used to the towering white skyscrapers in Iacon and the bruising sunsets that would settle over Praxus, to the violet light bouncing off the Helix gardens and steel city streets filled with electronic laughter and idle chatter. His fist curled as he struck the dummy again and again, growling as it spun and dug its splintered arm into his shoulder.
Scrap, given any other situation he probably wouldn't have even minded the company of the humans all that much- the rest of his team certainly seemed to find them interesting. But pretending to be a mindless machine? Forced to obey Kade's commands? Ordered to keep quiet as others took credit for his rescues? What a joke!
He snarled.
The wood gave an unsatisfying crunch under his knuckles and he drew back his fist, shaking splinters from between his joints. The mark of his labour had been left behind as an indent on the pillar's surface. The make-shift punch bag tilted dangerously.
Primus, this was so fragging stupid. Even the training dummies on this planet couldn't measure up to-
"Heatwave?"
The intruding voice made him start and the rescue bot turned, a snarl of irritation already leaving him. The pair of big fleshy optics that stared up at him made him stop mid-snap and the anger flooded from him, replaced by a sudden bitter exhaustion.
"Hey, uh, Cody..."
Even the language felt odd and unnatural in his mouth; wet, fleshy sounds that scraped off his glossa, so much unlike Cybertron's clicky vernacular.
"Is... everything okay?" Cody asked. "You seem kind of stressed out." Below him, the young human frowned, glancing curiously at the discarded punching bag. It looked less like a bot-sized pillar now and more like a rotting tree trunk that someone had taken a giant hammer to. In an attempt to avoid cracking under the boy's watchful concern, Heatwave turned away.
"I'm fine," he grumbled. "I've just... got a lot on my processor."
Rather than push it, Cody drew back and nodded carefully as if sensing Heatwave's deflection. The bot and the human stood there in awkward silence for a few seconds- the former starting to square up once more- before the latter spoke again.
"Well, if you ever need to talk about anything, you know where I am, I guess..."
"Thanks, Cody. I appreciate it."
Heatwave watched as the boy wandered away to the couch where he pulled himself up and became submerged in the cushions. Cody, thinking that he'd wandered out of the bot's view, instantly dropped his smile and pulled his knees his chest. A troubled shadow fell across his childish brow and disconcertment overturned his lips. It was an expression that Heatwave found unnervingly familiar; anger.
The fire-bot paused, a sudden sense of befuddlement dipping into his chest. Something seemed... wrong. Cody was unnaturally quiet.
The Rescue Bots may not have spent a lot of time on the planet Earth but they had begun to understand their charges and Heatwave understood that this... was not normal Cody behaviour. By this point normally, the kid should have been bouncing around, either clamouring for an impromptu game of Burns' Ball or happily rattling off his day into the nearest autobot's audial. Today, he was hushed and withdrawn, nowhere near the eager youngling that the bots had waved goodbye to this morning. Honestly, it was more unsettling than Heatwave was willing to admit.
The only issue now was, what exactly was he supposed to do it about it? Heatwave may have been the team leader, but he wasn't really good when it came to dealing with all this... emotional stuff. He just wasn't wired that way. Normally, his version of comfort included a gruff comment and a sharp look- not something that would work for this situation.
Eventually, Heatwave cleared the static from his voice box with an awkward cough. "Cody, are you okay?"
The boy in question glanced up quizzically and quickly rearranged his features into something less dejected. "I- Yeah, I'm fine," he started hurriedly, offering a smile, "Why are you asking?"
"You just seemed depressed today. Bad day at, uhhh... what's that place called again? Scoof?"
"School, and it wasn't that bad. It was just kind of average, actually." Though Cody shrugged, it was paired with a tiny tremor of hesitation. Heatwave glanced at his HUD's chronometer and frowned warily.
"Why are you back so late anyway?"
"I had detention."
"Detention?"
Cody paused.
"It's like... a punishment at school. If you do things that are bad, you have to stay behind for a couple of hours to make up for what you did."
Heatwave raised a curious optic ridge. From what he'd experienced of the Burns family, the words 'punishment' and 'Cody' didn't really seem to fit together all that well. It was something that Cody seemed all too aware of as he avoided the bot's critical stare.
"Punishment for what?" he asked slowly. Cody seemed to know the question was coming but didn't seem sure of how how to answer it. Heatwave watched the conflict ignite in his eyes and waited, curiosity suddenly getting the better of him when he saw the shame that flashed across the boy's expression. It quickly morphed into false sheepishness.
"I was just talking too much in class, I guess." Cody shrugged. Rather than let the conversation continue, he gave a very deliberate yawn and trudged over to the side to grab the remote for the television.
Heatwave watched the boy's progress with a careful optic, noting the slight buckle at the knee and the tiny flinch of the boy's fingers when he moved. To the human eye, it would have been nearly imperceptible; the boy's left leg was off balance. Somewhere unbeknownst to him, a subconscious roil of suppressed programs began to rear its sleepy head. His optics narrowed as his suspicion rolled into mild concern.
"Cody," he called, "why are you limping?"
He would have been blind not to notice the panic that flashed across Cody's face at the question.
"Uhh... I probably just twisted it or something during gym class. Don't worry, it doesn't hurt or anything." The boy shrugged, smiled stiffly and then made to leave again but Heatwave wasn't having it. He grabbed the retreating boy by the back of his shirt and hefted him upwards, ignoring the shout of surprise.
"Cody, I'm not blind. You're hurt and you're trying to hide it. Now tell me what happened before I set Chase on you."
Cody actually winced at the threat, no doubt scenarios of being restrained and tortured via municipal codes causing him to grow considerate. He seemed to do battle with himself for a long moment. Eventually he must have noticed the utter gravity in Heatwave's expression because he caved and threw up his hands in defeat.
"Okay, I'll tell you! But only if you promise not to tell Dad or Kade. And especially not Dani."
Heatwave's expression dipped into amused consternation. Something about this narrative was starting to dissolve into something oddly recognisable, although it wasn't so much a bad thing.
(Memories from his time back at the Rescue Academy began to surface in his processor; first, the girlish shrieks of the class glitch-head as Heatwave poured paint stripper down the mech's backstruts, then the image of Gridlock- the academy coordinator- glaring at him across a desk as a younger Heatwave nursed a leaking energon line in his split cheek. He'd had cleaning duty for three cycles after that particular incident. Chase had not been amused.)
"I won't tell them, Code. I promise."
"Not even my dad?"
"Not even the chief."
The boy paused, shifted uneasily as if weighing his options, and then gave a forlorn sigh of regret. He dug his face into his hands and mumbled something so very unintelligible that even Heatwave's advanced audials could barely pick apart the words.
"Say that again?" he asked warily and this time Cody's face lifted from the safe space of his trembling fingers.
"...I got into a fight..." the boy muttered sullenly. Heatwave jolted and he stared at the little human sitting rigidly amongst his digits, finding himself genuinely surprised when the boy averted his gaze. Cody must have expected some kind of reprimanding because he flinched when the bot swiftly took a seat amongst the bot-sized couch cushions.
"Explain."
"O-One of the boy's in my class was getting bullied by one of the upperclassmen. I saw it happening in the corridor and I- I..." Heatwave's optics shuttered as his charge's expression morphed from one of hesitation frustration. "I couldn't just let it happen. He was calling him names and making fun of him and I know I should have just gotten a teacher but there wasn't any time! I wanted stop it before it got out of hand so I just jumped in between them and, well..." Cody winced as he glanced down to his bruised leg. "It didn't really work out like I hoped it would."
A sudden hot flame of anger rose in Heatwave's chest, so raw and new that his engine stuttered with surprise at the sensation. Oblivious to the 'bot's anger, Cody carried on.
"One of the teachers was coming down the corridor when it happened and... I guess she figured it was just an argument that got out of hand or something so she ended up putting us both in detention for the whole of next week. I'm supposed to write him a letter tomorrow to apologise and-"
"Don't bother," Heatwave jumped in. At the look he received, the cybertronian ground out a huff of annoyance. "What? There's no point in writing him anything. You didn't even do anything wrong. If the guy wants to be a jerk then that's his fault, not yours."
Cody relaxed slightly, although the startled tension in his shoulders didn't let up as he moved to scuff the air with his foot. "Maybe... But I did hit him, so..."
"What? Wait, you did?" The fire-bot gazed at his charge with new-found surprise. "Why? And since when did you know how to punch?"
"Uhh, me and Blades did a three day marathon of 'Ninja Rough-Housing' last week. And... I didn't really mean to do it, it just sort of... happened. Ashton's not normally that bad, but something must have set him off that day since he was way worse than usual. He said this thing about Frankie and I was just really angry all of a sudden and I just- well..." Cody trailed off, turning to brandish a shameful fistful of reddened knuckles. "I hurt my hand doing it, though."
As gentle as he could manage, Heatwave lifted Cody's proffered hand using the tip of his finger. A quick scan told him that the damage was superficial- a light dusting of greyed contusions gathered beneath the epidermis layer. Bruises, according to the internet. The leg injury was much the same and Heatwave's high-strung coding drew back slightly.
"Well hey, no-one punches right on the first try," he tried but his attempt at comfort only seemed to fall flat.
"...I shouldn't have hit him at all." Cody didn't seem to want to look at him as he said it. The boy's remorse was practically palpable.
After a long moment, Heatwave sighed. He glanced down to the forgotten wooden dummy laying overturned in the corner- an example of how violently impulsive he himself could be. In that respect, maybe he and the little human weren't so different after all.
"No," he agreed. "You probably shouldn't have. Look, I won't condone getting into fights-" He could almost hear Blades laughing now. "-but it sounds like you tried to do the right thing. You were just defending your friend. The most important thing here is: do you regret it?"
"I- yes? I... No?" " Cody startled, almost as if insulted. He screwed up his face into an adorably blustered expression, so child-like that Heatwave felt his lips almost twitch involuntarily. "I mean, I regret hitting him obviously, but I don't regret getting involved. I can't call myself part of the rescue team if I can't rescue a boy in my class from getting bullied, right?"
It was a far better answer than the one he'd been looking for- a 'yes' would have been good enough- and it summoned a begrudgingly charmed smirk out of the bot.
"Then, there you go. You've learnt your lesson, so stop looking so ashamed of yourself." He poked the youngling with his finger; a gesture of affection he'd never really put into practice before. It was awkward and disjointed but Cody didn't seem to notice, gripping the finger in a wide approximation of a hug. "Just remember, if it happens again you go find one of your instructors first so you don't get in trouble, then you come talk to me and the chief. We'll handle that jerk for you, even if that means I have to go marching up to your school myself."
Cody actually smiled at that. The image of the giant red cybertronian trying to squeeze himself through the flimsy front doors of Griffin Rock Middle School was a ridiculous but funny one.
"I don't think Principal Harrington would like that very much."
"Too bad. If he taught his students to be less like afts, it wouldn't happen."
"Afts?"
Heatwave paused. "You didn't hear that word from me."
The sound of Cody's surprised laughter seemed to bring a little more life back into the firehouse. Heatwave felt the angry tension ease off his back like an oiled weight and straightened, any previous ire at the world having been shunted aside entirely for the little creature sat in his palm.
He felt... relaxed. It was a weird and jarring sensation- especially considering how angry he'd been just a few breems ago. Now he felt kind of tired, listening to a human child rattling off about the rest of his day without a care in the world. Maybe he was going soft, or maybe the universe had just put him through too many ringers, but suddenly this whole Earth deal didn't seem all that bad. Rescue duties aside, there was only so much time a bot could spend with their crew in an air-locked cabin before they started to get a little crazy. Cody was a nice kid- even if his older brother was an utter aft- and Chief Burns didn't seem too bad, either. Maybe things would work out, after all.
They must have sat there for a while, Cody moving onto lighter, more arbitrary topics while Heatwave listened with bemused patience. Eventually though, the human's newfound vigour began to fade.
"Heatwave?" Cody asked suddenly.
"Yeah?"
The kid paused for a long second and then lunged forward, wrapping his twig-thin arms around the bot's neck panels. Heatwave froze. An involuntary purr rattled in his engines as the fragile warmth wrapped beneath his jaw and his optics shuttered in surprise. What, uh, was he supposed to do here?
"Thank you... you know, for listening..." the boy murmured gratefully. Heatwave was struck to silence, bewildered by the alien flutter of affection that emerged beneath his chest plates as the human youngling pressed his head into the cybertronian's neck joints. Then suddenly the embrace was over and Cody was pulling away, scaling down his arms and lap like an energised glitch mouse- with surprising dexterity considering his injury.
"I need to go talk to Dad really quick," Cody called as he hit the floor. "I'll see you later, okay?"
And before the bot could even answer, the kid shot him a wide, glittering grin and then vanished into the firehouse lift as if nothing had happened at all. Heatwave stared after him, so caught up in the odd immeasurable feeling gathered by his spark that he didn't even notice the sounds of Blades' shuffling into the firehouse.
"Woah, Heatwave, are you actually smiling? Did someone we know offline?"
"Oh, shut up." But the light jab wasn't enough to squander the warmth in his tanks, nor the undeniable quirk of his lips.
In the corner, the splintered wooden dummy lay forgotten.
"C'mon," Kade said suddenly as he slapped Heatwave's hood. "We've got 10 minutes before we've gotta pick up Cody from school."
Heatwave gave a grunt of assent as his partner hauled himself into the driver's seat. Much to his chagrin, a wave of hot food followed close behind, spilling across the firefighter's lap in a wave of paper bags and loose fries. The Autobot groaned as they pulled out of the parking lot.
"Are you serious?" he grunted. "I don't want that scrap stinking up my cabin again."
Kade rolled his eyes and swallowed noisily. "Calm down, drama queen. It's only 'til we get back to the firehouse. Besides, some of this is for Cody too." When Heatwave begrudgingly quietened down, Kade smirked in triumph. "Guess you really do have a soft spot for him."
"Shut up." A snicker followed. As they began to near the gates of Cody's school, Heatwave began to notice something was amiss.
There was a small crowd gathering just outside. Kids from all years were flooding down the steps, all trying not to look interested in something yet failing as their attention was caught. Heatwave, equally curious, rolled a little further forwards to get a closer look.
A boy was stood just beyond the front steps, a backpack dangling from a whitened fist. He wore an expression of sour distaste, much like the kind of expression Kade would pull when his burger was soggy. The only difference here was that this boy's disdain was not aimed at a food item, but rather at the person standing opposite him; a dark-skinned younger boy who's hunched shoulders and lowered head seemed to spell unease.
The first child stepped forwards, sneering out a few words that Heatwave couldn't catch over the mindless thrum of road traffic. They seemed to have some sort of effect, because several bystanders flinched back as if stung. Then, completely unprovoked, the boy- or rather, the bully stepped forwards and pushed the other kid so hard that he went tumbling to the ground. The latter's bag hit the road beside him and burst open, books and pens spilling out across the sidewalk in a clatter of plastic.
A few crowd-goers instantly sprung into action, assisting the kid back to his feet and firing glares and looks of confusion towards his attacker. They had no effect. The bully only seemed to thrive on the attention.
Then a shock of blond hair caught Heatwave's attention- a newcomer had entered the fray and was now stood between the fallen child and the bully with his arms outstretched. His brown military jacket was oddly familiar, as was his stature as he stood down the other boy's glare with a worried frown of his own. Cody? A sense of perverse pride emerged in Heatwave's spark-chamber. It was a warm and foreign feeling, and his codes rolled pleasantly as he settled on his axels with a huff of surprise.
The bully seemed less impressed. He fronted on Cody, brandishing the hanging backpack like some sort of weapon. The rescue recruit's lack of reaction only seemed to embolden him and he began to spit words once again, earning no reaction from his target save for the casual tapping of fingers. Suddenly, he lunged at Cody, entwining his fingers in the other boy's lapel and hauling him from the ground in a surprising show of strength. Cody, paler but face set in determination, reached his toes to the floor and held strong under the other boy's glower.
"-st leave him alone, Ashton," Heatwave heard the boy say arduously. "He hasn't done anything to you." Ashton seemed to falter under the blond's disapproval. For a second, Heatwave wondered whether he was actually going to back down but then the heat returned with a vengeance.
"Shut up, Burns," came the hissed reply. In a movement venturing on bitterness, Ashton released Cody's collar by pushing him backwards, staggering the young rescue trainee and sending him to the ground with a yelp of pain.
Immediately Heatwave's optics began to burn. A sudden surge of protectiveness gathered in his tanks as his engine rolled into a deafening, thunder-like growl that startled Kade's hands off the wheel. The fireman's yell of surprise went unnoticed as Heatwave seized the controls and swerved to the road side, almost without processing the action at all.
Inside the cabin, Kade's head nearly smacked the edge of the steering wheel. Outside, Heatwave's wheels hit the curb with a bounce and mud kicked up under the rev of the engine, arching up from the road to soak the bystanders- a bewildered Cody included. The bully yelped as the sludge soaked the front of his jeans and splattered through his hair, startled backwards several steps.
"Hey, what the hell is your pr-"
As he turned to shout at the vehicle that had caused the attack, he was suddenly drenched in a gushing stream of ice-cold water. Heatwave's loosened nozzle flicked away the last few droplets of liquid and then righted itself. The image of innocence.
A small shift of silence passed where the boy stared at the firetruck that sat guilelessly by the sidewalk, mud and ice water dripping from his chin. Then someone began to laugh. Then another student followed and another, until a tittering crowd had gathered at the base of the stone steps to stare at the wet and humiliated bully. Heatwave began to grin.
The school's laughter was sickeningly sweet in his audios as the boy, teeth chattering audibly, scrambled to his feet and stomped away, but not before fixing the idle firetruck with a final monstrous glare.
"Heatwave! What the scrap was that?!"
The agitated slap of Kade's hands on his steering wheel turned Heatwave's attention back to his cabin. His human partner was glaring at him through the monitor, teeth grit in an expression that probably would have looked no better on one of Hayley's kindergarteners.
Heatwave scoffed. "Built up oil slicks up the tracks if you don't clean them out, remember? It's not my fault my wheels gave out. I asked you to help me with it last week but you were 'too busy'." It wasn't even a lie, really. Sure, Cody had already helped him to clean out his gears a few days ago but Kade didn't need to know that.
"I- but that doesn't- Heatwave!"
The bot couldn't help but chuckle to himself at his driver's disbelief.
Kade, thank Primus, hadn't seemed to notice the commotion outside. He was too involved in preserving the precious remains of his burger- some of which had apparently rolled under Heatwave's carriage. Ugh.
"Just watch where you're going next time, you big bag o' bolts," the firefighter grumbled and Heatwave tried not to roll his optics into the back of his helm.
"Whatever you say, tough guy."
Still muttering, Kade resumed munching on his food with the pouty vigour of a sparkling with a handful of rusted energon candy. Bemused, Heatwave turned his attention back to the mess he'd left at the curb side.
The crowd had already started to dissipate, save for the occasional puzzled straggler stood staring at the person-shaped outline of mud on the pavement. Cody was chief among them. He was staring bewilderedly after the trail of black puddles that the bully had left behind in his escape. The sight of the dispersing crowd only seemed to make him more confused and it was only after he saw Heatwave's mud-stained bumper at the curb that he seemed to put the pieces together.
Cody was shaking his head as he hauled himself into the passenger seat but the grin on his face gave him away. The rescue bot couldn't help give a slight rumble of affection, more creature than cybertronian as he slid his seatbelt snuggly across Cody's shoulders. He could feel the boy's laughter, part disbelief and part rueful, resonate through his leather seats and stifled a chuckled of his own.
Never one to be left out of the loop, Kade made a noise of confusion and horror.
"Woah, woah, you're getting mud all over the dashboard! What did you do, roll around in the outfield for an hour?" The look he tried to give his younger brother might have been stern if he hadn't been talking around a mouthful of soggy fries. The boy smiled regardless.
"Nope. Sorry about the mess, Heatwave."
Heatwave couldn't help but snort this time. "Nah, you're fine. Just try not to get it on the seats."
As they pulled away from the sidewalk, Kade's suspicious eyes gradually wandered back to the road. Cody glanced towards the monitor and Heatwave felt a small, grateful hand tap the inside of his door lightly. In response, the bot tightened his seatbelt around the boy's shoulders in as close to a real hug as they could ever get.
Sure, things weren't perfect- he grimaced as Kade spat a spray of yellow mush across his dashboard- and Earth would never be Cybertron, but just maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.