Author notes: Yet another quick break…I have been working on Alone and Rhapsody in Blue- both are about half done. But then I was going through some of my old stuff and thought I'd go back and rewrite pieces of it. This one was one of my favorites. Thanks again for the reviews and I'll answer them with the next two chapters. Oh and Sunstreaker, Ratchet and all that Jazz are not mine. I only own Rhapsody, Offbeat and Jynx. Thanks!
Yellow Seeing Red
Chapter one
Thunk
Thunk...
Thunk...
"OFFBEAT!" Rhapsody looked up from the datapad in his hand to scowl at his younger brother. "Stop hitting me with those stupid...whatever you call them!"
Offbeat, as if oblivious to his brother's wrath, calmly folded another piece of paper, tossed it and again hit the invisible target between Rhapsody's optics. Why it was so incredibly fun to annoy the slag out of your brother, Offbeat didn't know. What he did know was that when he did get Rhapsody good and angry, it gave him something to do. Exercise I guess you could call it, since once Rhapsody was ruffled enough, it usually ended up in a chase throughout the hallways of the Ark.
"Paper airplanes you mean."
"I don't give a slag what you call those things just stop hitting me with them! I'm trying to get a report done for Optimus." Rhapsody growled, putting the pad in front of his face as if it were a newspaper and Rhapsody was a old rich man with slippers and a pipe sticking out of his mouth. The thought alone made Offbeat snicker.
"You work to much bro!" Offbeat glanced back down at his paper stack and continued to make the fragile jets, a large pile of folded jets littered the desk. "Why do ya gotta always work? I mean I never work an' I'm just fine aint I? Its like we aint related at all."
The oldest brother still had his face buried like a bookworm in the text. "It is like we are not related at all. Use proper English." Rhapsody replied, his voice deadpan.
"I are usin' proper English."
The oldest shook his head, "you're an idiot, you know that, right?"
"Must travel in the family, huh?"
"You are not in my family at all. You were adopted from a trading post or something."
Offbeat threw his head back, laughing, "I look more like Dad than you do! You must be the one adopted, not me."
"Just shut up will you? I'm trying to think!"
"Is that what that burning smell is?"
"Shut up." Rhapsody snarled and slid deeper into the couch, clenching his teeth to keep from getting up and decking his brother right then and there. Maybe all little brothers were this annoying…maybe it wasn't limited to just human brothers. Based off of his brother, Rhapsody had to conclude that his hypothesis was correct. Yes, Rhapsody mentally nodded. All little brothers, no matter the species were annoying and irritating. Or perhaps it was just Offbeat who was annoying and many other Autobots seemed to agree on that. Rhapsody added "Survey on Brother" to his calendar in his datapad and continued the report.
Offbeat silently worked on his airplanes, smirking to himself while taking a slight glance at his brother as he punched in memos. Angry slouch, knees drawn up, door wings straight back…Oh he knew full and well that Rhap was near his breaking. All he needed now was the coup de grace...
"Hey Rhap?"
"What?" Rhapsody sighed, humoring the younger.
...Thunk...
"OFFBEAT!"
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
"I swear to Primus below, I'm going to shoot you Offbeat!" Rhapsody shouted, his tires screeching as he turned another sharp. The smell of burning rubber was apparent.
"You're not supposed to swear ya know, Rhap. It's bad karma," the Porsche teased, swerving to miss a cursing Ironhide. The old red mech said something about young punks but for some reason, Offbeat's audios turned themselves off around Ironhide. Much to Ironhide's chagrin…
"You are bad karma! How much more bad luck can I get?"
"So ya mean you think you're jinxed?"
"Is that a play on words or did you mean that as a question?"
"Take your pick!" Offbeat said, turning another sharp turn and leaving new black skid marks on the yellow floor. One fender clipped the wall unnoticed.
Rhapsody turned to follow his brother down the residency quarters hallway, which as both of them knew was the longest uninterrupted hallway. And better yet, most of the other Autobots were on patrol at this hour, so hardly anyone came in and out of the rooms and therefore there were less hurtles and obstacles to block the way. You just couldn't pick up too much speed if you had to swerve to miss people and turn for corners...It wasn't nearly as much fun either.
Rhapsody floored the accelerator, coming so close to Offbeat that he was only a few centimeters away from his bumper. "I got you now, 'Beat! Give up!"
"Never!" Offbeat pushed his engine harder. He was approaching fast approaching 120 miles per hour when he noticed a familiar yellow streak in his vision. Yellow…oh slag that meant-
Sunstreaker-
"Oh slag," Offbeat muttered and slammed on his breaks. He distinctly heard the squealing of Rhapsody's breaks and cursing- but after that...it was all a blur of golden paint.