Chapter 10
Chromia Quality Time
"Miiiiiaaaaah-!" Auri burst through the reception room doors with a squeal of welcome, dashing to Chromia and throwing her arms around her. "I missed you!"
Chromia knelt and put her arms around her femme-ling, hugging her with unusual tenderness.
"I missed you." Auri said again, snuggling against her femme guardian, hiding her face against her neck.
"I'm sorry wasn't around when you needed me." Chromia said quietly. She couldn't count how many times she'd needed someone as a youngling and no one had been there for her. "Life's rough, but it's double rough when…" she faltered as the trilph craving hit her, "When…" she wished she'd never even heard of the drug.
"It's okay, Chromia." Auri told her in a comforting tone, "You mean a whole lot to me, and I understand if staying away from Med-Bay yesterday was better for you. I want what's best for you. I wouldn't want you to be upset or suffer because you came."
The guilt rolled over Chromia and made her feel like puking. Little Auri was standing there and being brave, putting her first, and she, Chromia, had skipped out on her yesterday because she'd been weak and couldn't deal with herself.
"You wanna know something funny?" Auri asked coaxingly, "About Magnus?"
Chromia felt worse. She'd supposed to be comforting Auri, but here Auri was trying to cheer her up. The little femme knew Chromia always liked a good laugh at any of the superior officers.
"What about Magnus?" Chromia asked, managing to not sound as nauseous as she felt. She sat on the floor, and Auri sat next to her, cuddling.
"Prowl and I had a little debate practice while we had breakfast, but Magnus didn't know what we were doing. Our words sounded like an argument, but our actions didn't. He lifted up his hand, and was like, 'Um, just a question?' He was just so confused!"
"Oh, Magnus." Chromia said. She thought her chuckle sounded forced, but Auri didn't seem to notice.
"And Prowl had made me a yummy Energon mix. I think if he wasn't Second in Command, he should work at the pub."
Chromia couldn't help but smile at that. "He'd be good at it."
"If he didn't argue with the customers." Auri added.
Chromia nodded. They sat in companionable silence then for a little while, Auri a warm little cuddly thing in Chromia's arms. Chromia ended up galaxies away in her thoughts, thinking about family and not-being-there. She'd lost track of how many times her familial assemblage had moved by the time she was Auri's age. – The word "family" didn't seem to fit very well so she always thought of it as a "familial assemblage." She would come home from school or somewhere every day and the dwelling place was usually empty. She'd call 'I'm home' every time, and listen to the echo. Then she'd gone through a phase where she would call, 'I'm home, as if anyone cares.' After a while, though, she had quit calling and would just mutter, 'I'm home, whatever' or 'I'm home, what the hell' or something equally sarcastic. That, acutalyy, was quite a while before she'd ever reached Auri's age. At Auri's age… Where had she been at Auri's age?
"Hey, isn' this kin'a rough neighborhood f' a femme like yh'?"
Chromia turned and eyed the young mech's body. He was her age. He was fairly heavily built, but he was a just tiny bit slighter than the mechs she liked to eye at school… on the odd occasions she went to school. She never hooked up with mechs, but she liked to look at them.
"What's that supposed to mean, 'a femme like you'; yah don' even know me." She retorted. Never talk nicely to anybody you've never met before was the first rule. She kicked carelessly at a bit of rubbish to tell him she wasn't interested. She liked his lilting accent, though. She'd like to hear him talk more.
He smiled, an amiable smile, and it was then that she noticed that he had purple optics.
"No, I don' know yh'," he said, "But I'd like t'." Oddly enough, it didn't sound like he was hitting on her; something in his tone hinted that he just wanted a little friendship. And the lilt was charming.
"You new in town or something?" She asked, tossing her head dismissively.
"Compared t' some. I've been here half year. Yh'?"
"Dang, mech. You don't know anything." She decided to walk some, to see if he'd follow.
"That's why I'm starting school nex' week." He said, following a little.
"Which school?" she asked, keeping him engaged. Now they were walking together. She liked how he walked.
He named the school that she attended from time to time. She paused then stopped and looked at him again, looking at his face closely this time. He was good-looking, and there was something candid and honest about him. He seemed confident and secure, but he didn't come off too cocky. Cocky herself, she didn't like it when others were.
"I go there." She said, looking at his purple optics. "They don't really like lavvies." Lavvies was short for 'lavender,' slang for a purple-opticked bot. It was mildly derogative, but everybody used it.
He didn't flinch at the word but smirked self-deprecatingly. "They didn' like them at m' last school either."
"Get beat up much?" she asked off-handedly, starting to walk again.
"Nope. I spent t' much time in detention f' defending myself f' th' sparklets t' hit me much."
Chromia snorted. "Sissy school."
"Differen' here?"
"Hell, yeah. The staff'll bust your aft and send you back to class. We don't have detention around here until you try to knife someone or beat them unconscious."
"I'll just ha' t' remember t' pack a couple knives then." He said as if he was discussing napkins for his lunch. "An' m' knuckle guards."
Chromia snorted derisively to hide her amused delight. "Don't try bringing a gun."
"I don' have one yet."
"You planning to get one?"
"Some day." He said, looking thoughtfully at her. "It is a red-optic dominant school?"
She shrugged. "Half 'n' half, about." She said, "No one gives a glitch if you've got blue optics or red optics, basically. There are clicks, of course, and they go by optics, but most of the time optic color doesn't matter if it's a primary color. The few yellows do fine. It's just the mixed ones that get tormented."
"So…?" his hand moved towards her face.
She turned it away. "None of your business."
"If yh've got a boyfriend who hits yh, yh need t' get help." There was a seriousness in his tone that sent a chill up her spine.
"I don't have a boyfriend."
He was quiet.
"Seriously, I don't." she said, and it was true.
"Some mech's missing out then." He said, and it was just a complement, no hitting on.
"Don't you have something else to be doing? Chores or something?"
"Mm, now that yh' mention it, I was supposed t' wash the windows on orr house." He said, rubbing his neck. He paused. "Yh wanna help? I c'n guarantee snacks afterwards."
She raised an optic-ridge. She didn't have anything to lose. "Sure."
"Chromia?" Auri asked,
"Yeah-?" Chromia focused on the femme-ling, feeling like she'd been gone a long time. The visuals of the scummy area were so vivid in her mind that the pristine Med-Bay seemed almost strange.
"Can we go to the playground?" Auri asked, "I think it would fun." She sounded a little vulnerable.
Chromia looked at her gently and nodded. She'd never been Auri's age, she realized. Getting up, she pulled Auri up gently, and smiled when Auri held onto her hand.
"Should I tell Ratchet I'm leaving?" Auri asked, "I think maybe I should…"
"Go ahead." Chromia told her. She watched as Auri went through the doors then let her thoughts slip back to the mech she'd met so long ago. She'd actually had fun that afternoon that she met him; she remembered laughing, really laughing, for the first time in months with him. And the promised snacks had been marvelous, better than what she usually had for dinner. Then the two of them had sprawled on the couch and talked for several hours. They'd been friends until she'd left town.
"Okay," Auri said, skipping through the doors to take Chromia's hand again. "I think Ironhide was lecturing Ratchet and First Aid."
Chromia raised an optic-ridge. "Maybe." She said speculatively, and the subject dropped. Auri talked about her morning as they walked to the 'playground,' telling Chromia about the virus, and breakfasting with Prowl, and helping First Aid out with his reports. It was all lighthearted, Chromia noticed.
They got out of the city and left the road after a little bit, then walked up the path to the playground. It was the metal frame of a building that had never been completed. Bee had gotten Hoist to help him hang a swing from it when he'd found out that Auri had never gotten to swing on a swing. Then a couple more swings had been added, and Wheeljack had happily added a force-field slide at one end of the frame.
Auri got on a swing and kicked her feet, smiling at Chromia.
Chromia sat on one of the horizontal beams, watching as Auri got her swing going. It was a distraction, she knew. Only, she wondered, was the distraction for Auri or for her? Auri always tried to please. There was nothing wrong with trying to be nice, Chromia knew, but being too nice could get a femme in a stinking lot of trouble. That's why she was never very nice to any mech beside Ironhide.
"Watch me jump 'n' flip." Auri called,
"Careful," Chromia called back despite knowing that Auri had it down and could do it quite well. Auri jumped and flipped neatly, landing on her feet like a little gymnast. She posed for a second and then came over to Chromia and climbed up and sat beside her.
Chromia put an arm around the femme-ling. She doubted herself, mainly her candidacy for guardianship. She was a good guardian most of the time, but Ironhide was much better. Plus, now that they were in a crisis of sorts, Auri was being the comforting one. Auri knew what to say to comfort those around her. Chromia didn't. She never did, and she never had. She'd always said, 'tough it out,' or something of that nature to anybody who'd tried to get sympathy from her. She could dispense a little sympathy Elita's way and had an occasional bit for Flareup, but nothing like what Auri might need.
She could try, though. She could at least listen. Then she could intercom Ironhide for help if she got stumped. She hesitated. "Do you want to talk about… something?" she ventured to ask.
Auri shrugged reluctantly. She didn't want Chromia to get upset.
"Are… are you scared?" Chromia asked softly.
Auri looked up at her. "A little…" she admitted, her lip starting to quiver. "I don't want you and Ironhide to… to… to love me less because it was Soundwave." She managed to keep the whimper from her tone, but her optics filled with tears.
"Oh… Auri, sparkling…" Chromia felt like someone had punched Auri, "No." she said, working to keep a defensive tone out of her voice. "No." she said firmly, "Neither Hide nor me would ever love you less because Soundwave looked after you when you were a little sparkling."
"Are you sure?" Auri asked.
"Absolutely." Chromia said, "Besides, it's not like you crawled out into the street and asked the first D'con you saw to be your guardian. You were a helpless little thing, and he happened by and picked you up. It coulda been any other Con or any other sparkling."
Auri nodded slowly.
"We were supportive when we found out that a Decepticon had been you guardian." Chromia reminded her softly, "Remember? That's not changed. We just have a name for him now."
"And an identity." Auri said in a little voice. "I've read about things he's done. He has a reputation of… of…" she trailed off and whimpered, "'Mia, it's all so confusing!"
Chromia paused. "'So confusing' as in, 'How does an evil war criminal tenderly look after a tiny sparkling?'" she asked, and she knew it was Auri's question by the way the femme-ling nodded quickly and looked up questioningly.
Chromia paused. That was a good question. Now she needed to come up with a good answer. Ha!
"It is pretty confusing." She said sympathetically, gently stroking Auri's side in a way that relaxed the young femme. "Maybe he can explain it when he wakes up, eh?"
"Guess so…" Auri said softly. "I wish I knew when he would wake, though."
"I'm sure ol' Ratchet will tell you once he has an estimate."
Auri nodded. "He will." She said, and she seemed to be content.
Chromia was slightly pleased with herself. She had brought up a topic she thought she couldn't handle, but she had handled it and made it through. She'd settled one of Auri's concerns and comforted her to some degree. It was good progress.
She felt emotionally tired now, though. She needed some… some… –time in the workout room. She needed to look after Auri's needs right now, though. She'd done well; now wasn't the time to give up. She fought back the haze of trilph cravings that were trying to cloud up her mind and looked at the young femme. "Anything you want to do right now?" she asked.
Auri looked up at her thoughtfully. "Mm…" she looked like she was trying to guess something.
"'You,' I said 'you.'" Chromia told her, "Not what I want to do."
"Well…" Auri looked doubtful, "What I really want to do is hit the racetrack."
"We can do that."
One of Auri's optic-ridges went up. "I've never seen you race on the track."
"Uhh… Elita and I race sometimes." She said, "We don't usually invite any audience, but we do race from time to time."
Auri didn't look entirely convinced.
"I'll race you. Then you'll see." Chromia said.
"Okay. No bets, though." Auri said, smiling as she climbed off the beam.
"Oh, hey now," Chromia said, starting to grin as she jumped off the beam, "Last time we made a bet, you ended up having to kiss the next mech who entered the room and that happened to be Prowl."
"Exactly." Auri said, looking like she was fighting a blush.
"You don't wanna kiss Prowl again?" Chromia teased as they sauntered away from the playground.
Auri spluttered a bit. "It wouldn't be appropriate." She finally managed to say. "He wouldn't like it anyway."
"Huh! Never met a mech who didn't like a kiss." Chromia half-drawled, smirking.
Auri shot a dismayed look the other way. She seriously needed her mech-crazy femme-guardian to get off the subject of her and Prowl.
"Well, who was the first mech you kissed?" Auri asked then blinked at herself. She should have thought twice before speaking that time, but she hadn't.
"Ummm…" Chromia frowned slightly, "Who I kissed, or who I let kiss me?"
"Who you kissed." Auri said, optics widening at the thought of Chromia letting anybody kissing her. Chromia didn't let nobody do nothing to her. (Triple negatives for emphasis).
"A mech from my high-school." Chromia said. Then she repressed a bit of a smile. "It was a rough school, and we always had each others' backs. He was an A-plus scholar, and I got C's when I didn't get D's. Bots harassed him because he had purple optics, and they harassed me because I had a chip on my shoulder. He didn't look for any fights, but he rarely ran from them, and he usually won them. Good naturedly. And I helped. We made a good team."
"Why did you two break up then?"
"We weren't romantic. And things in my exact neighborhood were rather bad, so I decided to leave. He tried to talk me into staying and finishing school, but I was set, and he understood. I kissed him good-bye."
Auri was quiet for a few steps. "Did you ever see him again?" She sounded almost wistful. That was something that always concerned her: seeing someone again.
"Yeah." Chromia said quietly. "We met again sometime after the war was on. He tried to convince me to join the Autobot forces. He'd joined them and was climbing ranks. He couldn't convince me that I'd do well, though; I was still too headstrong and rebellious. Even recruiters looked away when I eyed them in the street. They knew I wouldn't listen."
"You listened to Elita later, though." Auri said confidently.
"Yep. After I'd nearly been beat to death in the street after nearly dying after nearly getting killed."
"You're lucky to be alive." Auri said, grinning up at her.
"Got that right."
"You're special." Auri told her lovingly.
"Maybe, but saying that won't keep me from licking your little behind on this track." Chromia sidestepped the sentiment, motioning to the track that they'd come to.
"Huh!" Auri tossed her head, "The only thing you'll be doing is eating my dust." She'd learned by example to trash-talk (albeit mildly) her opponent. She grinned happily.
"You wanna put your money where your mouth is?" Chromia challenged.
"No-oh." Auri dragged the negative out, "I know better than to bet against you."
"S-oh. You mean to say you know I'm gonna beat you." Chromia was grinning.
Auri paused. She had Chromia back to normal now, all bragging and talking it up like she was everything in competition. Chromia always enjoyed things more if there was a bet on. She almost always won her bets, and she enjoyed that immensely. Auri hadn't ever seen her race, though, and she didn't seem like a racer. And Auri was pretty good at racing, so she thought. She had a decent chance.
"I'm saying nothing of the sort." Auri said, "You're on."
"Done!" Chromia said, smirking, "Loser kisses Prowl."
Auri found herself staring at the grass in the field. Of all the things…!
"Ready?" Chromia said, placing one foot before the other and crouching a little.
Auri took her place on the track. "Set." she said, mirroring Chromia's stance. They would drop into car mode as part of the race.
"GO!"
Auri transformed quickly, but Chromia was faster when it came to transforming. Chromia was already blasting down the track when Auri's tires hit the pavement.
Auri stepped on it hard. She had a bit to go to catch up with Chromia. Those several seconds had really counted. She realized then, that she had no idea how Chromia raced. She knew basically how the twins and Mirage and Blurr raced. She raced with those mechs and learned from them. She could never beat Blurr, but Mirage and the twins sometimes let her beat them. Sunny raced dirty. Sides raced sneaky, as did Mirage. Blurr coached her and then left her in the dust… she never got close to beating Blurr; he'd been a professional racer before the war.
Chromia would probably race dirty, Auri decided. That was how she fought. How dirty would she race, though? Maybe she would race nice because she was racing to please Auri? Auri tossed that idea aside quickly with a smirk. She knew better. She loved Chromia immensely, and Chromia loved her dearly, but she knew Chromia wouldn't play nice.
::How's the dust?:: Chromia teased over the intercom.
Auri smiled inwardly but didn't reply. Intercom trash-talk was the tip of the racing-dirty iceberg. This was kind of early to be starting that, so she figured that Chromia was going to lay it on thick.
::Too choked up on dust to answer that?:: Chromia taunted cheerfully.
::Nope. I was just busy configuring data on just how many ways you're gonna lose.:: Auri sent back flippantly.
::Ah! So that's why you're poking along back there. Step it up, sparkling, and focus; you're trying to race a big girl here.::
::Well, I hope big girls don't cry when they get beaten. That would be sad.:: After sending that message, Auri giggled to herself. Their words sounded so unkind, but they didn't mean them at all.
::Eh, not quite as sad as seeing a sparkling sniffling over her loses. But it's okay; I brought some tissues.::
::Good. You'll need them when you're crying over your losses.:: Auri grinned. She was doing fairly well with her bantering, she thought.
::Hah!:: there was something especially triumphant about that 'hah,' and Auri wondered why for about three seconds. Then the track speaker system buzzed into life.
Chromia whooped with glee. Rhianna's "Shut-Up and Drive" came blaring over the system.
Auri had mixed feelings about that. The mechs had never done that. She'd just have to tune it out so it wouldn't become a distraction.
After a mile, a fraction of a minute, Auri had to admit to herself that it was hard to focus; too many things were going on. The music. The fact that she didn't know what Chromia was going to do when she caught up to her. That fact that she didn't know what she was going to do when she caught up with Chromia. The fact that she was going to have to kiss Prowl when she lost. He was going to be displeased with her for that. Auri almost slowed as another thought hit her processor. Chromia had said "Loser kisses Prowl'; that meant… that meant that if Chromia lost, then Chromia would have to kiss Prowl. Horrors! Better Chromia than her, though.
Auri accelerated a little and begin recalling evasive maneuvers that Prowl had taught her. She had a feeling that she was going to need them when she caught Chromia. She zipped side to side a little, preparing. Chromia mirrored her movements ahead. 'Mia was watching her. Nothing ever got past that femme.
::Heyyyyy!Iknow it'sa lil late, but can Ijoin?:: a mech asked over the comm., open to both of the femmes.
Auri tilted a mirror and saw Blurr flying towards her and Chromia.
::ShurrBlurr.:: Chromia said cheekily over the comm..
Auri wondered briefly how Chromia and Blurr would get along on the racetrack. Then she accelerated a little; she was close to catching Chromia. She decided it would be better to test the waters before she had Blurr splashing with them. And Blurr would be coming up on them before too long. He'd not started at the starting line but a little ways after it.
Looking up the evasive maneuvers ahead of time proved helpful. Auri managed to not get slammed into the wall. Then she had to swerve hard to keep from getting shoved into the green. Rhianna had shut-up herself, and Linkin Park was rapping to a heavy beat.
Blurr was closing the distance between himself and the femmes. Suddenly, though, Auri realized that Chromia was letting him close the distance. She wasn't going as fast as she had been.
"Front to the back and the side to side." Linkin Park rapped. Chromia zigzagged a little, almost tauntingly, to the music. "Front to the back and the side to side." Then she accelerated.
Auri accelerated after her. Tease. Chromia had been teasing Blurr. Blurr probably didn't care, though. He loved a good race.
::Okay, Auri,:: he intercommed, friendly competition in his tone. ::Give me your best block.:: He never trash-talked her like the Twins, and he always treated her gently, never gloating when she lost to him.
Auri put Chromia out of her processor and focused on blocking Blurr.
::Good!:: he encouraged when her first tactic worked. She could tell he was smiling, pleased with her progress. ::See if you can hold it now.:: He usually coached her when they raced. ::Steady does it.::
He didn't press her too hard, and she managed to hold her position in front of him until they came to one of the tighter curves. Then he passed her. She tried too late to block him and ended up swerving a little, not quite losing control but coming close.
::Youokay?:: he asked,
::I'm fine.:: Auri replied as she steadied herself.
Then she kept up but hung back a little, curious to see how he and Chromia would tangle.
And, did they ever tangle. Auri cringed mentally when Chromia pinned Blurr against the outer concrete wall. Sparks flew and paint came off, leaving bluish streaks on the wall. Blurr dropped behind Chromia. Then she tried to spin him out. He slammed into her bumper hard, and Auri began speculating on whether Chromia would kill him after the race or not. She swerved to avoid some bits of debris.
Blurr managed to pass Chromia after a brutal while, and Auri gusted a sigh of relief as she accelerated to catch up with Chromia.
The three of them bore down on the finish line; Blurr crossed it, and then Auri opened up a final burst of speed. She hadn't fought as hard as Chromia had; she hoped that Chromia would be a little tired and not have extra energy for a final sprint. She inched up alongside Chromia and didn't get any resistance. They were front bumper to front bumper then, and Auri was gaining steadily on Chromia. They were mere yards from the finish when Chromia jumped forwards.
Auri yelped as she lost. That had been so last second. She transformed, and Chromia and Blurr were congratulating each other.
"You should race more often." Blurr was saying exuberantly. Nobody had given him that rough of a time it a long time. "Really!"
"Eh." Chromia said, shrugging it off.
Auri eyed them. They were going to need to repaint a bit, and there were some dings in both bots' armor that would have to be pounded out. She didn't think Chromia should race more often at all; it wouldn't be safe for the other bots.
"Auri," Blurr said, "Good job." He praised, "I can really tell that you've been listening to my coaching. It's nice to see."
"Thank-you, Blurr." Auri said, smiling up at him.
"I'll see you." He said, patting her shoulder briefly, "I've got patrol in a couple minutes."
Chromia chuckled as he left. "Had patrol and couldn't pass up a race." She said, watching him go.
"It was quite a race." Auri said, still feeling amazed at all that she'd seen. It had been wonderful to blast down the pavement, and seeing Chromia and Blurr race had been breath-taking… and scary.
"And you raced well." Chromia said.
"Thank-you."
"But you still lost." Chromia said, chuckling.
"You lost as well." Auri said. Chromia's left optic-ridge went up as Auri continued. "You said loser kisses Prowl. We both lost to Blurr. We both…" Auri trailed off as Chromia choked with laughter.
Chromia chortled then managed to contain her laughter. "Auri, love" she said, optics twinkling in delight, "Blurr wasn't in on our bet. It was only between me and you, and between the two of us, you lost. I'm not kissing Prowl."
Auri thought about it a second. It was better that way, actually. Prowl would be displeased about getting kissed once; he'd probably revolt if he had to get kissed twice. "Okay." She said amiably.
Chromia reached over and gave Auri's shoulder a rub. "Now whatchya wanna do?" she asked.
"Go to the beach." Auri said without hesitation, smiling up at her guardian.
"To the beach it is then." Chromia said, and she was happy when Auri reached over to hold her hand as they walked.
"Where did you learn to race?" Auri asked.
"Eh, lots of us liked to race after school." Chromia said. She didn't add that half of it had been illegal drag-racing. Auri heard the withholding tone and knew to change the subject. She did so, and they talked as they walked to the beach.
Once they got to the sand, they ran to the water. Chromia slowed and stopped when she got to the damp sand, but Auri kept going. She ran after a receding wave, and then she squealed and ran to Chromia when the next wave came curling towards her.
"Save me!" she squealed happily, throwing herself at her guardian so hard that Chromia stumbled backwards, laughing at the femme-ling's antics. Then Chromia fell, landing on her backside with Auri beside her.
"You tripped me, you little stinker." Chromia scolded playfully, hauling Auri across her lap.
"Oh, no, no, no!" Auri tried to sound dismayed, but she was giggling too much.
Chromia smacked her behind ever so lightly once then twice, and then she yelped as a handful of damp sand was slopped firmly into the small of her back. "Eew!" She let go of the squirming, giggling femme-ling to brush the sand off, and Auri scampered away to stand a little ways off with a big grin.
"Can't get me," Auri teased, prancing a little in the sand.
"Oh, we'll see about that," Chromia said, picking herself up slowly with a smile. Then she sprinted for Auri and, catching up with her quickly, she scooped the smaller femme off her pedes, making her squeal. She spun her around a little then put her back on her pedes to let her try to run again. Auri ran, and Chromia let her get a little ways away, and then she gave chase.
Auri laughed and dropped to the ground the next time Chromia grabbed for her. She rolled and came up quite covered with sand.
Chromia stopped and just stood laughing at the sight. Her spark finally didn't feel so heavy now. It was good to play.
Auri looked down at herself. "Well." She said.
"Into the ocean with you," Chromia said, grinning.
"No one's going to put me in the ocean!" Auri decreed, "I am…" she looked at herself. "I'm Mega-Sand." She made a grandiose gesture. "All fear me. And those who don't fear me suffer the penalties."
"Oh, oh, I'm quaking in my special-issue pede-guards."
"As you should! Now kneel, or suffer."
Chromia put her hands on her hips. "Suffer what?" she sassed, still laughing at Auri's appearance.
"Um…." Mega-Sand looked around, "The seaweed treatment." She decided, trotting over to a pile of kelp and dragging out a long strand. "It's very torturous." She added, "You will beg for mercy after one minute, and scream for it after two. At three, you will become inarticulate, and at four-" Mega-Sand paused dramatically, "Well, no one's ever made it to four, so we don't know."
Chromia stood thinking; she'd encouraged the game initially, but she disliked the turn that it had taken.
Mega-Sand approached with the seaweed. "And now you choose." Mega-Sand said,
"How about, we play a game where nobody suffers."
"I don't recall that being one of the options," Mega-sand began loftily. Chromia raised an optic-ridge warningly. "But I don't see why it couldn't be." Mega-Sand quickly amended. "Anyway. Moving on. First off, we must have a fortress. It wouldn't be a proper dictatorship without a fortress."
Chromia paused meaningfully. Dictatorships meant suffering.
Mega-Sand's wings lifted questioningly. "No dictatorship?"
"No dictatorship."
Auri looked around. "Let's just build a sandcastle." She said.
"We can do that." Chromia said, giving her a nod and smile of approval. Auri looked happy and tossed away the seaweed. Then they went down to the damp sand together and began planning out their sandcastle.
The amount of planning Auri put into the sandcastle made Chromia smile. Chromia would have just started mounding up sand for walls and gone from there, but Auri sketched out a plan in the sand with a piece of driftwood and decided how it should be designed before they got started with the construction. Chromia paused in thought. Whenever Prowl was forced to take a day off, Auri would spend it with him, and Chromia knew they always spent a number of hours at the beach. She wondered if Prowl was the one who had put it into Auri's processor to plan out the building first or if Auri had come up with it on her own. It would be amusing to know sometime.
"Okay." Auri said. She was satisfied with her plan now and ready to build. She made up a story for the castle and told it to Chromia as they worked, and Chromia enjoyed it immensely.
After a while, the castle was done, and Auri took some pictures of it. "I photograph all my castles so they'll last forever." She said.
"All of them?" Chromia was sitting on the sand now, leaning back on her hands. She'd seen Auri take pictures of their sandcastles before, but she'd not realized that she'd taken pictures of all of them.
Auri nodded. "Every single last one of them." She said, plopping down beside Chromia, still holding her camera tablet.
Chromia held her hand out for it, and Auri happily gave it to her.
"That's the one Bee and I made last week." Auri said, leaning against Chromia to see her pictures as well.
Chromia scrolled to the next one and blinked at it.
"Prowl designed that one." Auri said. "It took forever to build."
"I'll say." Chromia murmured. It bore a striking resemblance to one of the buildings in the Autobot capitol back on Cybertron.
"He did that one, too." Auri said when Chromia looked at the next one. This one was familiar to Chromia as well. "He smashed it, though, suddenly for no reason." Auri added, looking at it thoughtfully, "He murmured an apology when I stared at him, and then he shook his head and got up and walked away. I thought it was probably best to let him go, but I do wonder why he did that."
Chromia eyed the photo thoughtfully. "Well… it reminds me of some buildings on Cybertron, and it might have reminded him of the same thing. He might have felt upset by the memory."
Auri looked up at her questioningly. "Does it make you upset."
Chromia shook her head. "No. I'm impressed by how well it's made. It makes me a little homesick, but not upset. Prowl's pretty different from me, though."
"That's true." Auri said. "Hey, look at the next one."
Chromia looked at the next one. "Umm…" It wasn't based off anything from Cybertron.
"Lord of the Rings." Auri said, "It's one of the places from the movies, but I don't remember which or where."
"Oh." Chromia said. Prowl didn't watch Lord the Rings, did he?!
"Flareup and I did it."
Chromia paused. "I thought she didn't like the movies…"
"She can't stand the spiders because of something that happened to her with some spider-creatures, but she likes the rest of the movies." Auri explained.
"I see." Chromia was mildly disturbed that Flareup had said something about her run-in with spider-creatures to Auri, but then she reminded herself that Flareup knew to be careful about what she told Auri.
"Here's another one that Prowl designed." Auri said, moving to the next picture.
Chromia looked at it and smiled. Apparently Prowl was going through all the capitol buildings. They looked at sandcastle pictures for a little while, and then Auri looked like she was done with that and put the tablet away.
"Now what?" Chromia asked. She didn't want this time with Auri to end, but she sensed that Auri was wanting to head back to Med-Bay soon.
"A bubble bath." Auri said, wriggling her fingers with a smile, "A super-washy-frothy bubble bath."
Chromia smiled. That sounded perfect.
Hee! That's the most fluff I've written in quite a while! I think we might have needed it, though.
Now… Reviews per chapter on this story have been dropping, and it's bothering me. The first few chapters hit twenty-one reviews at tops and then we were in the teens. Now we're down to single digits. What am I doing that you guys aren't liking? I'm not going to jump around and howl "Flamer! Meanie, meanie flamer!" if you say I need to work on something, like "Hey… Cairi, I'm enjoying your story, but I feel like it needs more work in the area of such and such, and it should have more/less of this or that." I appreciate constructive criticism and take it quite seriously. Let me know, please? I want my writing and story to be as good as possible, but I can't always see them well enough to know what they need.