Ring Around the Rosie
Chapter 2
This was supposed to be a one shot. How didn't that happen?
Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers; I'm just prostituting it for my amusement.
Summary: Cliffjumper wants to make it up to Mirage for acting like an aft. He notices that Mirage is not fairing so well after his run in with the Insecticons.
Warning: M/M robot slashy goodness.
Pairings: Mirage/ Cliffjumper
"The hack would have driven him mad," Ratchet said while he and Optimus sat in the latter's office. "Or into a self-destructive spiral that would have likely led to his suicide. Bombshell set it up so it would only appear on scans when active. I could have missed it entirely if Cliffjumper hadn't gotten him back to the medbay. He instinctively knew something was medically wrong. Kid's got a good head."
"It's seems we all underestimate the vulnerability of our processors," Optimus replied.
"Bodies can be repaired far more easily than processors," Ratchet added. "Mirage is recovering rather quickly now that his memories aren't cycling in front of his processors every time he shutters his optics. That doesn't mean that he doesn't have a little ways to go. The experience itself was traumatic and I don't entirely trust him to actually say if he's having a hard time."
"You said Cliffjumper has latched on to him?" Optimus asked.
"Yes, I'm releasing Mirage when I return to my medbay," Ratchet said. "Cliffjumper has been with him since he brought Mirage in."
"Well then let's trust Cliffjumper to know if Mirage flounders again," Optimus suggested.
"I need to apologize to Hound," Mirage said. He was sitting on the medical berth Ratchet had deposited him on the previous evening. Cliffjumper was sitting on it with him. His optics were bright and steady now. The long recharge had done him a world of good.
"Kind of yeah," Cliffjumper replied. "I think he'll be relieved that you're feeling better."
"I have you, and Ratchet, to thank for that," Mirage said. "Especially you."
"Keep in mind that it's my fault you got hurt in the first place," Cliffjumper replied. "I owe you a lot of apologies."
"You have apologized and I have forgiven you," Mirage reminded him.
"You forgive too easily," Cliffjumper replied.
"I don't think so," Mirage said. "I would like you to promise me one thing, if you will."
"Anything," Cliffjumper replied.
"Once in a while, would you refuel with me?" Mirage asked. "My patrols don't often line up with Hound's and it gets lonely refuelling in my room."
"I'll refuel with you more than just once in a while," Cliffjumper promised. "You should have slagging smacked me on the back of the head a long time ago for acting like an aft for nothing."
"It would have been rude," Mirage replied. "I won't deny the thought passed through my processor though."
"Softspark," Cliffjumper teased.
Mirage chuckled. His father had called him that. It hadn't been a compliment. Coming from Cliffjumper, the nickname made his spark jump. He didn't forgive as easily as Cliffjumper thought. No, Mirage forgave Cliffjumper most anything because that pesky infatuation he had developed for Cliffjumper back on Cybertron had not faded yet. It should have, Mirage had really never believed himself to be masochistic. But then things like this happened and Cliffjumper showed his friendlier self to him and Mirage only felt that infatuation grow stronger.
"I've got a patrol in an hour but I'd like to refuel with you when I get back," Cliffjumper said.
"I'll meet you in the common room," Mirage replied. "You should get ready for your patrol."
"Yeah," Cliffjumper said, jumping off the berth. "See you later."
"Later," Mirage said. Mirage was very grateful Ratchet was not in the medbay. The way his spark was trying to pulse out of its casing would must surely be displaying on the readouts.
Ratchet returned as Cliffjumper was leaving. Mirage hoped he wouldn't look at the readouts, and Primus must have been feeling charitable because he didn't. Instead, Ratchet led him off to his office so that they could have a truly private talk.
"You're looking a lot better, Mirage," Ratchet said after sitting down at his desk. Mirage sat across from him. "Now that I know the full extent of what happened to you I have a more realistic idea of when I want to put you back on the duty roster. Tentatively, I'm going to say three more days of leave before you can go back out on patrol. I say tentatively because there is a condition to this. You need to be recharging properly these next three nights and be free from waking fluxes."
"I understand," Mirage said. "I promise I'll come see you if I have any issues."
"Good," Ratchet said. "Okay, you can go. Take care of yourself."
"I will," Mirage said.
Where would Hound be at this time during the day? He should be back from patrol, but that didn't mean Hound would actually be in the Ark. Mirage avoided the common room for now and tried Hound's room. Hound didn't answer his knock. As he turned away from the door, Mirage saw Hound coming towards him from down the hall.
"'Raj," Hound said. "I heard from Optimus that you were back in the medbay, are you okay?"
"I'm better," Mirage replied. "I came here to find you. Hound, I'm so sorry."
"I understand," Hound said. "You weren't feeling good."
"That's not an excuse for taking it out on you," Mirage replied. "Please don't minimize it."
"I wish you'd have said something to me," Hound sighed.
"I'm sorry," Mirage apologized. "I was ashamed. I thought I was weak and I didn't want anyone to know."
"Let's go inside," Hound said. "Are you ready to talk to me about it? You don't have to, of course. I'd just like to know if I can help."
"Bombshell hacked my processor," Mirage explained. "It made some of my memories play back to me every time I offlined my optics. I couldn't sleep. I have to admit, I'm not entirely comfortable recharging yet. Don't repeat this to anyone, I'm feeling afraid of the dark."
"He kept you in the dark?" Hound asked, he felt sick and angry about what he was only now learning had happened to his friend.
"Exactly," Mirage replied. "Except when he was digging in my memories."
"What memories did he replay for you?" Hound asked.
"Different ones, but the ones he hacked were of Cliffjumper," Mirage explained.
"Oh," Hound said. "Why Cliffjumper, I wonder."
"Because when he dug around in my processor he discovered that I liked Cliffjumper," Mirage said.
"Say what?" Hound said, blinking. "Cliffjumper? Really? When?"
"Back on Cybertron," Mirage said. "I developed a little crush once we started getting along."
"Ah," Hound replied. "Just a crush?"
"My rescue from the Towers kind of bumped it up a notch," Mirage explained.
"Oh," Hound replied. "Oh. Oh. Oh, Cliffjumper the pleasure bot."
"Yes, although I wouldn't have referred to him as such, that didn't help," Mirage said. "He looked... Gorgeous."
"But you never said anything," Hound said.
"He would've slagged me," Mirage said. "You know how he felt about Towers mechs. And how he felt about being mistaken for a pleasure bot."
"You seem to have a masochistic streak," Hound said. "So you still like Cliffjumper?"
"I do," Mirage admitted.
"Oh Raj," Hound said. "When he called you a traitor..."
"I felt like my spark was breaking," Mirage sighed.
"And now?" Hound asked.
"Giddy," Mirage admitted. "We're refuelling together tonight."
"Are you going to tell him how you feel?" Hound asked.
"Pit, no," Mirage replied. "I want to be friends with him. That's not going to happen if I tell him I'm in love with him."
"'Raj," Hound sighed, and rubbed his forehead plate. "You frustrate me sometimes."
"Yeah, I know," Mirage said.
"Wouldn't it feel better if you were honest about your feelings?" Hound asked.
"Not if I got rejected," Mirage answered. "And I would be. Cliffjumper could never like me as more than a friend."
"Do you really think you're unlovable?" Hound asked. "'Raj, your creator was a cruel, self-righteous aft. He shouldn't have ever had a sparkling."
"It isn't that," Mirage replied. "Did you know one of my neighbour's tried to rape him? I don't think he ever told anyone. We said he was attacked. I almost couldn't stop Rollover in time. I killed that mech with my servos. I smashed his head into the floor until he was dead."
Hound just stared at Mirage slack jawed. He couldn't form words. Mirage had killed a mech and he hadn't known. But the attempted rape did explain why Cliffjumper had gone from friendly with Mirage to shunning him in the span of one night. Hound had thought it was strange that an attack would trigger such a visceral reaction.
"You saved him," Hound said after a few more minutes of gap mouthed staring. "Why would that hurt your chances with him."
"Because a Towers mech pinned him down and tore open his plating," Mirage said. "I'm a Tower mech. Nothing about me could be attractive to him."
"You could be wrong," Hound argued. "I remember Rollover. He was a big mech, heavily armoured for a Towers. Your models couldn't be more different."
"All the same, I'm not saying anything," Mirage said.
"Well I can't make you," Hound replied. "Still, refuelling. You could almost call it a date."
Mirage sat the table farthest from the entrance of the common room. He wanted to see Cliffjumper come in and he wanted to keep his distance from to gang of minibots cloistered by the entrance. They kept looking at him while Mirage tried to focus only on the door. At least he couldn't hear them. Gears and Huffer were the worst for trying to draw Mirage into a confrontation. Mirage hadn't risen to the bait yet and he never would but every time he saw them his faceplates heated up. It reminded him of his sparkhood. He'd dealt with the bullies there the same way.
Cliffjumper flew into the room, a red bundle of energy. Gears tried to draw him over to his table but Cliffjumper blew him off and scanned the room. When he spotted Mirage, and his cubes, he came right over to him. Mirage ignored the death glare Gears levelled at him and smiled warmly at Cliffjumper. He ignored the way his spark jumped in his chassis and offered Cliffjumper a cube once the mech had taken his seat.
"Sorry I'm late," Cliffjumper apologized.
"Patrols have a tendency to run late," Mirage replied. "How was your patrol?"
"Boring," Cliffjumper replied. "Nothing but empty desert."
"Now is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Mirage asked, his optics were glinting with humour.
"Well I would've been really late if it'd been interesting," Cliffjumper laughed. "Mirage, I saw your berth room. You have a lot of datadisks. What's on them?"
"Collections of books," Mirage said. "Hound gives them to me. I've told him that he could just add the collections to one disk but he likes keeping the collections separate."
"And maybe he just wants you to have something," Cliffjumper suggested. "Why don't you have anything? A keepsake, something."
"I haven't collected anything," Mirage replied.
"Why not?" Cliffjumper asked. "You've gotta have some interests."
"I do," Mirage said. "I like music, and illusions. Other things, of course. But I guess you could say those are my passions and they don't lend themselves to decorating a room."
"Illusions, like magic tricks?" Cliffjumper asked
"Exactly," Mirage replied. "Humans have such incredible imaginations and they come up with amazing tricks."
"Can you show me one?" Cliffjumper asked.
"Alright," Mirage said. "Let me get a few empty cubes."
Mirage fetched three empty cubes from the dispenser and returned to the their table. He took a bolt from a compartment in his leg and put it on the table in front of the cubes. Cliffjumper sat forward in his chair.
"Watch the bolt," Mirage said as he lined the three cubes upside down on the table and placed the bolt under the middle cube. He rotated the cubes around each other on the table, slowly, than quickly. Cliffjumper leaned forward on the table, staring intently at the cubes. After a few more rotations, Mirage lined the cubes up again.
"Okay, which cube is the bolt under?" Mirage asked. His hand flat on the table in front of him.
"The left one?" Cliffjumper asked. Mirage lifted the cube on Cliffjumper's left. There was nothing underneath it.
"Which one is it under?" Cliffjumper asked. He was smiling brightly. Mirage lifted up the other two cubes. It wasn't under either of them. Cliffjumper looked up at Mirage's face and back at the cubes.
"Where is it?" Cliffjumper asked.
Mirage lifted his right servo and showed Cliffjumper his palm; he was holding the bolt in his palm between the joints of his servo. Cliffjumper clapped and laughed; Mirage smiled and dropped the cube.
"It's all about slight of hand," Mirage explained.
"Didn't know you could do anything like that," Cliffjumper said. "When did you learn to do that?"
"A while ago," Mirage replied. "I saw a human magician do it on TV, and I started practising it in my spare time."
"I love it, can you do anything else?" Cliffjumper asked.
"I know a few tricks," Mirage replied.
"I'd like to see more," Cliffjumper said.
"I'd be happy to show you them," Mirage replied. "I keep my supplies in my desk."
"Can I come back with you?" Cliffjumper asked.
"Of course," Mirage said. "Let's go then."
At Cliffjumper's behest, Mirage put on some music while he brought out his props. Cliffjumper revved his engine to the beat of the music. He'd heard the song before, it was one of his favourites, Long Way To Go, by the Dan Reed Network. Mirage couldn't have known that it he liked the band, or the song. Rock, Cliffjumper never would have guessed that Mirage was into rock.
"I don't know anything about you," Cliffjumper said to himself. Mirage heard him.
"Oh?" Mirage asked.
"I didn't peg you for liking rock'n roll," Cliffjumper explained. "I just assumed you'd like classical or something. Towers stereotype. I keep forgetting you broke the mold."
"I'm my creator's model," Mirage said. "I was literally created in his image."
"That's sort of weird," Cliffjumper replied.
"I agree," Mirage said. "But I was fond of youthful rebellion, and I suppose I never grew out of it."
"Good thing," Cliffjumper said. "That means we have more in common than I thought. Chess, music and your magic tricks."
Mirage smiled and looked down at his props, his spark was pulsing a little too fast.
Cliffjumper thought best when he was moving so once he left Mirage he went for a drive. He definitely needed to get Mirage a chess board, one that didn't fit the mold. It would cost him some serious credits, but Cliffjumper figured he could get Sunstreaker to make him something interesting. The Twins weren't friendly with Mirage so he wouldn't see the gift while Sunstreaker was working on it. It would cost Cliffjumper extra credits just to bribe them to keep quiet. That covered one new decoration for Mirage's room but Cliffjumper wanted to give him something else, something to do with magic. On his second lap around the desert, the idea came to Cliffjumper and he raced back to the Ark with a tune in his vocalizer.
He had to leave the second gift for later, but he could cover the first just by finding Sunstreaker. Now where would the yellow Lamborghini be? In the training room, or in the common room. The common room was the the first room Cliffjumper would get so it was the logical place to start.
The room was a mess. Energon covered the floor and several tables and chairs were overturned. Pieces of a denta plate were in the energon pool. Cliffjumper wondered over to the few mechs still hanging around the common room, Windcharger and Bumblebee.
"What happened?" He asked.
"Sunstreaker," Bumblebee said. "He took out Smokescreen.
"Slag, why?" Cliffjumper asked.
"Smokescreen was hitting on Sides," Bumblebee explained. "Teasing, you know? Sunstreaker took offence and decided to rearrange his faceplates."
"Ow," Cliffjumper winced. "Stupid, though. Sunny might put up with a little teasing, but tease Sides and you're gonna get hurt."
"Yeah," Windcharger agreed. "I've seen Smokescreen flirt with Sunny, and I guess Smokescreen thought Sides was fair game."
"What an idiot," Cliffjumper shook his head. "Guess Sunny's in the brig?"
"Oh yeah," Bumble replied. "Prowl is not happy."
"So what are you two still doing here?" Cliffjumper asked.
"We lost the lottery and get to clean up," Bumblebee replied. "Don't suppose you want to help out."
"Sorry, busy," Cliffjumper said; he waved. "Have fun."
Cliffjumper considered just waiting until Sunstreaker was released from the brig but he decided it would be easy to get to Sunstreaker in the brig then anywhere else. He looked for Prowl first, just in case Sunstreaker was in solitary. Prowl was in his office, only a few doors from the brig wing. His door wings were raised high on his back, Cliffjumper had been in trouble enough to know that this was one of Prowl's tells for when he was angry. Understandable, Autobot discipline was one of Prowl's responsibilities, Sunstreaker was far from disciplined.
"Prowl?" Cliffjumper asked when he was called into the room. "I need to talk to Sunny for a minute, would that be okay?"
"Go ahead," Prowl said. "He's alone in the first cell."
"What, Sides didn't join in?" Cliffjumper asked.
"No, he calmed Sunstreaker down," Prowl said. "That's probably why Sunstreaker didn't do more than break Smokescreen's denta."
"Who's stupid enough to tease Sides anyways?" Cliffjumper asked. "Sunny's slagging protective of his brother."
"Indeed," Prowl replied.
Sunstreaker was exactly where Prowl had said he would be. He was sulking against the back wall of the cell. Cliffjumper knocked on the wall next to the force field in order to get his attention. The brooding mech stalked over to the force field and glowered at the smaller mech.
"What do you want?" Sunstreaker asked.
"I'd like you to make something for me," Cliffjumper said. "A chess board. It's a gift for someone."
"A chess board?" Sunstreaker asked, sounding dubious.
"I want it to be different," Cliffjumper explained. "I'm giving you artistic license. It just needs to be a functional chess board."
"Pieces too?" Sunstreaker asked, now sounding intrigued.
"Yeah," Cliffjumper replied.
"You know it'll cost you," Sunstreaker said.
"Yeah," Cliffjumper replied. "Name your price."
"Seriously?" Sunstreaker leaned in close the the force field. "Must be special. Who's this for anyway?"
"I'm only telling you so you can take him into account," Cliffjumper said. "It's for Mirage."
"Mirage?" Sunstreaker asked, surprised. "Thought you hated that mech."
"He's actually my friend," Cliffjumper informed him.
"Seriously?" Sunstreaker laughed. "You sure have a weird way of showing it."
"Well, I'm a slagging bad friend," Cliffjumper replied. "And I want to start making up for it."
"Got it," Sunstreaker said, nodding to himself. An image of the board he would create was beginning to form in his processor. "This is a surprise, right?"
"Yep," Cliffjumper replied. "I know you'll tell Sides but keep it to yourself otherwise."
"I'm sure we can come to an understanding," Sunstreaker said, a smile on his faceplates and credits flashing across his optics.
Cliffjumper did manage to come to an understanding with the Twins, one that set him back a small fortune in credits. He didn't mind, after all he could have just gone to some human game store and purchased a copy of their version of the game but Cliffjumper wanted Mirage to have something of Cybertron so he handed over his credits without even the slightest hesitation. Sunstreaker promised to get to work on it immediately, and to have something to show him in the next week. The only decision Cliffjumper had left to make was whether or not he was going to wait until the chess set was done before presenting Mirage with his other gifts. Patience was not one of Cliffjumper's strong points and he itched to see Mirage's reaction to his other gifts.
Mirage was back on the duty roster and back out on patrol. It left Cliffjumper with the perfect opportunity to install his gifts. Before he broke into Mirage's room, he needed a cube. The common room was packed with mechs; Cliffjumper couldn't avoid the table his friends tended to gather around, and they were most all gathering around it right this second.
"What's up with you Cliffjumper?" Gears asked before Cliffjumper could sneak passed their table.
"Nothing," Cliffjumper replied. "I'm just busy."
"With Mirage," Gears countered with a derisive sniff to his voice.
"Back off," Cliffjumper snapped. "He's never done anything to you. Why do you hate him so much?"
"Towers mechs are all the same," Gears said hotly. "I'm just sorry he wasn't in the Towers when Megatron blew them up. Then there'd be none of them left."
"Aft," Cliffjumper swore. Bumblebee murmured a similar statement and Cliffjumper stalked away from the table.
End Chapter 2
A/N Thanks for reviewing, and favouriting this story. There's so little Mirage/ Cliffjumper out there it's nice to know that there is at least an audience out there that wants to read it. Next update will be in a week or so. I haven't actually finished this fic. I have one final chapter, chapter 6 to write and it's not coming quickly so I'm hoping that if I stretch out the updates I won't leave you hanging at the end.