7. In which boredom is dangerous
Air Raid grinned around at the bored faces of his teammates, then at the evening crowd in the lounge. He decided it was time for a game, and he knew just which one. "Alright, guys. I dare y--"
The reactions were immediate.
"Oh, no!"
"Shut up!"
"Absolutely not."
"... But you didn't even let me finish!" His ever-expressive face managed to look both slyly innocent and charmingly disappointed.
"Air Raid," said Skydive, in the tone of someone explaining that head-on collisions really hurt, "every time you start a conversation with the words 'I dare you', we end up spending the next day -- usually the next week -- on punishment duty."
"Or in the repair bay!" Slingshot pointed out. "Remember 'Pin the Tail on the Dinobot'?"
"If I remember right, Sling..." began Air Raid.
"That was your suggestion," Skydive finished.
"Yeah, but I didn't think one of you lunatics would go through with it! I was just trying to get out of dawn patrol."
"Well, it worked out nicely then. You were off patrol duty for three days. Of course, you had to have your wings reattached and your nosecone replaced --"
"Sludge apologized, though," Fireflight added to no one in particular.
"Anyway, the point is, we were drunk then. We're not drunk now. And we're not playing another 'I Dare' game if I have anything to say about it." Skydive sat back decisively and drained his energon cube. Slingshot and Fireflight nodded.
Air Raid gave them all derisive looks. "You're all a bunch of wimps."
"Says the kamikaze jet," Slingshot snorted.
"I'm just trying to have a little fun. Is that a crime?"
"Usually."
"FINE! If you're all going to be such pansies, I'll take the first dare myself. Go on, challenge me!"
"Why not just walk up to Prime, tell him you're about to do something stupid, and ask for punishment in advance?" Fireflight asked reasonably.
Silence fell. The other two Aerialbots looked at one another, then at Air Raid, with growing trepidation.
The F-15 cracked up. It was the laugh of the insane, the I'm-heading-for-that-power-line-and-it's-gonna-feel-so-good cackle of the mentally damned. "That's the coolest dare ever! You're on."
He leaned across the table and gave his wingmate a swift kiss, to Fireflight's great confusion, then dashed out of the lounge before anyone could gather their wits to talk him out of it. Fireflight looked at his half-empty energon cube as if asking it what had just happened. Skydive just stared after Air Raid in mute horror.
After a moment, Slingshot smirked at Fireflight. "I dare you to tell Silverbolt you gave him the idea."
- - - - -
Short! Random! Pointless! I wish more chapters could be like this. That was almost too easy. I'll have to do something long and involved next to make up for it, I guess... oh well.
I haven't had time to get many reviews on last chap yet, but I'll respond to the ones I did get.
VAwitch: About time somebody told him that, really. I think the yelling-cursing-swearing Ratchet is a bit overdone in a lot of fics. Sure, some patients can drive him to that state, but he isn't like that the whole time he works or he'd drive himself insane. Of course, that doesn't stop it from being very funny when it's written well.
blood shifter: I know what you mean. I was in the hospital after giving birth and I wouldn't stop poking at the hole in my hand where the I.V. was. It was creepy but kind of fascinating at the same time.
RoseGad: Crumpled paper airplanes works too.
xXsomeoneelseXx: I'm glad! Yeah, I had to include that line somewhere. It was going to be Slingshot's, but I decided it'd be cuter coming from Flighty. Also, I see him out of all the Aerialbots as having a bit of an artistic side.
Try to keep up, readers! My plot bunnies subsist on feedback, and they're starving!
