All's Fair In Love And War.
Chapter Two.
Back in his room, Barricade drew out the case containing his instrument. He almost reverently opened the case, for this was not an instrument he had used in some time.
He had practised for a joor or so on his usual practice instrument, a relatively new one, purchased just before the conflict that ended up on Earth, but the one he gazed upon now was far, far older, and dated from the First Golden Age, millennia ago.
The pieces nestled in the spaces made for them, light chasing in rainbows and shimmers off its highly polished edges and surfaces. This was his performance instrument, and it was made by a master craftsmech for a master musician. It had been gifted to Barricade by his teacher when he began to regularly outperform his teacher on the instrument Barricade had himself crafted. "If you can perform that way on an instrument of your own creation, think how you can perform on an instrument made by one who has a lifetime's experience in making them," his teacher had said as he'd slid the case over to him.
Barricade had tried to refuse it, but his teacher had insisted, and in the end, Barricade had taken it. Its crafter had been dead by then, his teacher had told him, and so had the mech it was originally made for, killed in the conflict that marked the end of the First Golden Age. It had passed since then, his teacher told him, from teacher to student just as he was now passing it on. Barricade wondered if he might have a student one day to pass it on to, then broke his revere and began removing the pieces to slot them together as per design.
His fingers brushed against the one imperfection in the instrument and anger at the careless Autobot who had trodden on this piece flared up briefly. Fortunately, it was not a flaw that would be reflected in the music made, but Barricade had to feel it every time he held it, for even the most careful repair had left a hairline scar, and knowing it was there spoiled some of the joy he felt when playing it.
He dismissed the anger from his mind, the Autobot in question had been on the end of Barricade's wrath that day, and had not survived the experience. Instead he began to carefully tune the instrument, one string or key at a time. He had not used it in so long that the simple act of tuning broke one key and two strings, but such parts were replaceable because they were so easily broken, and the act of rekeying and restringing, and then retuning, calmed him from the agitation he felt over the break. Eventually, every key and string played true, and he began picking out a simple popular Cybertronian tune to warm his fingers up.
He played several tunes on the instrument, some simple slow tunes, others quick and martial, others that started slowly but then swelled into an exultation, or an exciting climax. He played several pieces by Cybertron's most well known composers, several more that were, he felt, oddly obscure, because they were masterworks. He played a couple of his own compositions, finished with a medley of snippets from all he'd played, till he was overeager on a chord, and all the strings broke. It was a rude awakening from his musical trance, and as he carefully took the strings off and examined them, he saw the breaks were too clean to be snapped, it looked more like they had been cut. He took the instrument apart to store it once again in its case, and reflected that if he was going to get as carried away as he had been then, as he had often become before the recent conflict had started, he should get the edges of his claws blunted again.
oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo
oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo
Barricade examined the five sites he had thought of when first thinking of using the ancient Decepticon custom with Sam. Two were no longer an option, as humans were using them, or were too close, whilst a third was not able to be made as secure as Barricade would need, so that one was out, too. He was just making relevant adaptations to one of the two that remained suitable when he had a surprise com from Sam.
"Um, hi Barricade, I've been given a free evening so I though if you wanted to come over, you could? If you can't I understand, cause it's kind of short notice and I can ask someone else-" He got no further because Barricade cut him off.
"I don't have any plans this evening, so I'd like to. I'll bring my instrument. When do you want to meet?"
"In about two hours?" Sam asked.
"I'll be there," Barricade said, calculating that he could do a bit more here first, then head off for a quick polish before picking up his instrument and going to Sam's room. It seemed that things were looking up.
oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo
oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo
Barricade had decided, for two reasons, to take his usual practice instrument with him when he went to see Sam. Firstly, it did not need any pre-assembly, and secondly, it was relatively plain compared to his special instrument. Tonight's date would likely only take an hour, an hour Barricade did not want eaten up by Sam admiring and asking questions about the ornate decorations on his performance piece. When he had more time with Sam, it would be a pleasure to explain them and answer her questions, but that time was not now.
He sent a polite com to announce his presence, and walked in slowly, settling himself in one of the chairs that had been assembled by humans to support the Cybertronian frame in a seated position. He allowed Sam to approach at her own pace. She was still wary, he noticed, but sat in a chair not too far away.
"I brought my instrument," he told her, handing her the instrument, which she examined for a moment, looking at him for permission and upon receiving it, touching the strings and keys with slender, shapely digits.
"I have never seen anything like it on Earth, I cannot imagine how it's played," Sam said. "You have keys and strings? I know human pianos have keys to activate hammers to strike the strings, but this doesn't look like the same thing at all.
"Then allow me to show you, and demonstrate how having keys and strings to cope with is worth the extra effort, although it is less of a problem for Cybertronians then it would be for a human. We can separate our processors to focus on more than one task at a time, I understand some humans do not find it so easy to-" he swiftly accessed the Internet for the human word, found it and added it after just a short pause "-multitask."
Sam gave an odd laugh.
"Most humans would say that men don't multitask," Sam said. "Well, human men anyway." Barricade quickly searched the Internet to find that not only was this true, but the subject was the butt of many jokes. He chuckled accordingly.
"Perhaps it is true of most human males, but you will find many differences between the human and Cybertronian versions of the genders, this being one of them. All Cybertronians, regardless of their gender, can isolate one or more group of processors to do separate tasks."
He had risen while talking, and quietly circled behind Sam, to her increasing disquiet. Noticing her discomfort, he quickly crouched, and placed the instrument on her legs, gently seizing her hands and placing them in the starting positions on the instrument. He sat behind her, using his hands to guide hers over the strings to tease a chord from them. As she realised his intentions, the stiffness of alarm began to leave her frame.
"This instrument is one that is easy to learn, but takes time to master. Do you want to learn, and find out about being able to multitask?"
Sam nodded, in the human fashion, and Barricade set to teaching Sam the placement of fingers on keys and strings.
oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo
oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo
Barricade found teaching Sam to play quite a pleasant experience. She was a quick study and had taken to the instrument easily. He was particularly glad he'd thought of it when Sam agreed to make room for an hour of musical instrument practice under Barricade's tutelage every seventh day. He used the final fifteen minutes of the date to play some of his music to Sam, who seemed enthralled by Barricade's performance.
Sam was jolted out of her reverie by a com.
"Um, Barricade, my next date's waiting?" Sam said gently, and Barricade nodded, finished the musical piece, and picked up his instrument.
"Until next week, Sam, or sooner if you wish," he said, and walked towards the door. As it opened, he almost walked straight into Starscream.
"Excuse me please, Barricade, but Sam and I have some time booked," Starscream said, pleasantly enough to Barricade, but with a narrowing of the eyes and swift obscene gesture with one hand towards Barricade that Sam did not see but that Barricade did. In any other circumstances, the gesture would have been just cause for a fight, but with Sam watching, and not seeing or understanding the gesture, Barricade would have been apparently attacking Starscream without provocation, and quite possibly making himself less attractive in Sam's optics as a result. Swallowing his anger, Barricade smiled back at the Seeker.
"Of course, Starscream, none of us want to monopolise her, but make sure she has some time to herself, we don't want her style cramped by us and our petty little rivalries now, do we?" He decided to keep the weekly lessons Sam had agreed to to himself for now. Starscream would find out soon enough, and although he was sure he'd not be the one to inform the narcissistic Seeker, Barricade hoped he'd be present to see Starscream's reaction to the news.
He was a little less pleased to see Starscream cradling Sam in his arms, with hers around his neck, as he took her for a flight around and over the Autobot Base. Competing with an adversary who could offer flight was a hard proposition. He was glad he was readying the rooms for the traditional kidnap-proposal, perhaps having Sam kept away from Starscream for an orn would improve his chances some, and he could show that although he couldn't outfly a Seeker, couldn't fly at all, even, he could outsmart one.
With that thought, he decided that he could spend the time he now had on either watching Starscream smarm his way into Sam's affections, or to work on making the building he had chosen more comfortable for them both. He decided on the latter action, transforming into car form and driving randomly around the city to put off any possible surveillance, before heading for his chosen site by a roundabout route. Not that he seriously thought he was being tailed, but old habits die hard, particularly ones that had, in the past, saved his life more than once.