Morning dawned bright and early. Too bright for Inferno who had spent the entire night worrying over what Sideswipe had said. Red would actually contact and talk to other mechs from bases he'd done in the past. Those two must be extra special to him-

Red Alert snickered softly at something that Prowl said, and Inferno could've stopped and screamed his frustrations to the world. What the slag is going on? Was he asked because all four of them are bonded…

A deep, chilling feeling struck Inferno down to the spark as he contemplated what he had just thought. No. There is no slagging way that Red Alert is-

Inferno hurried to catch up to Red Alert, and as they sat down near the rear of the shuttle, Inferno asked lazily, "Red, are ya bonded?"

Red Alert dropped the datapad he had been reading over, given to him by Prowl, staring at Inferno. "No!" He squeaked. Sideswipe and Sunstreakers heads turned, even thought Inferno knew they couldn't hear over the roar of the engine.

"M'kay, just wondering." Inferno drawled in his thick accent. Good. This way I still have a chance of breaking them up before they become bonded. It was a rather cruel thought, but Inferno was determined not to loose. Red's mine.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Jazz looked up as the shuttle landed, nearly toppling out of his seat in relief. Finally, Prowl was coming back, and he could be around the datsun once more. "Hello Jazz." Came the soft, calm reply of Ratchet.

'Ratchet? What are you doing here?'

"Well, if I'm guessing right, theirs only been one security director able to handle the twins. And he's got a paranoia glitch. So that means somewhere on the ride he's probably going to glitch, the twins will come off screeching for me, and I will be forced to fix him in order to keep the twins quiet."

"Who ya talking about Ratch?" Jazz asked curiously.

"Oh, nothing about the glitch?" Ratchet deadpanned, but then suddenly smirked. "Aha! There we go."

Five figures disembarked the shuttle, one clearly a fire truck. Prime, appearing right behind Jazz, remarked dryly, "It looks like Prowl decided to take care of two problems in one go. He got us both a security director and someone to put out Wheeljacks fires."

"As well as Perceptors."

"Of course, how could I forget Perceptor? Ratchet, please tell Wheeljack after he onlines that he is not allowed to be fooling around with nitroglycerin again unless watched."

"I told him that before I put a wrench in his CPU." Ratchet snarled. "It all depends on how well Red Alert can keep Wheeljack from getting it."

The door slid open as the elevator dinged. Prowl stepped out, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker flanking him. Sideswipe jumped, yelping as something rammed into his back, and a smaller Lamborghini stepped around Sideswipe, scowling. "Sideswipe-" It was a warning hiss.

A fire truck followed the Lamborghini, and the Lamborghini saluted Prime, saying, "Red Alert, security director."

The fire truck hastily pulled himself into the same position. "Inferno, fire chief!"

Infernos thick southern accent fell upon Jazzs auditory receptors, and Jazz grinned. "Inferno and Red Alert, huh?"

"Red Alert, the security room is just up the corridor. Go ahead and walk around base to see the security system, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, you two are dismissed. Jazz, please take Inferno give him a tour, and introduce him to our fire expert that we currently have."

Red Alert stalked off, Sideswipe following, and as Prowl moved off, Sunstreaker followed the battle tactician. Jazz and Inferno watched their separate crushes go, envy and jealousy burning in their optics. Ratchet and Prime left, not noticing, and at last Jazz got ahold of his feelings to look at Inferno. To see the feelings seething inside of him burning on Infenros face. "So… who do ya like?"

"Red Alert." Came back the soft grumble. "Stupid twins."

Jazzs smile suddenly grew sharp. "I like Prowler myself."

"You're welcome to him. Now, if only we could get the twins off of Red Alert, I'd be much happier." Inferno grumbled softly. Jazzs optics narrowed behind the visor. "You know, maybe if we worked together to break them up?"

0o0o0o0o0o0

Red Alert flopped down onto his berth, listening to Sideswipe and Sunstreaker settle down for the night nearby. Prowl had arranged the rooms to be close by already, and Red Alert turned over the reason why he didn't want anyone to know in his CPU.

It's kind of odd, We get split up at the beginning of the war, me and the twins meeting each other a lot, but suddenly, once again Prowl is thrown into the mixture. Red Alert smiled slightly as he remembered raising Prowl, often taking him to his job to avoid bay-sitters and to cut back on costs. Red Alert smile faded as he remembered the large amount of debt his creators had been in before they had died. I can't believe that my hospital bills were so much. Red Alert mourned internally. They never did give up on finding a cure for me, did they?

Red Alert sighed, sitting up. He wasn't going to get any recharge tonight. He too clearly recognized the feeling of twitchy nervousness.

With a sigh he slipped off the berth, figuring on wandering around base until he felt even remotely like recharging.

As he wandered, his thoughts turned to Inferno, and the friendship they shared. Or at least Red Alert hoped it was friendship, because if it was just pity, when he told Inferno how he felt, there was going to be some problems-

Red Alert paused as he spotted Prowl standing next to a barely open doorway. "Pr-"

Prowl quickly made a silencing gesture, pointing inside the room. Red Alert, puzzled, stepped up and peered inside.

Jazz and Inferno were talking and laughing, grinning like little sparklings. Red Alert winced, pulling back from the happy scene. Prowl also looked devastated, and Red Alert could put two and two together to make four.

Silently he tugged Prowl away from the scene, not bothering to listen in. Inferno had steadily been trying to break him of the habit, claiming privacy. Red Alert had grumbled at that, but he was slowly beginning to be able to shift through several conversations at once without listening in on other, non-important information.

0o0o0o0o0o

Red Alert and Prowl sat together quietly, and at last Red Alert said, "This is why I wanted you to learn social skills."

"Why? So I could watch my crush fall in love with another?"

"It's a little early for that-" Red Alert said softly, when the twins came in, Sideswipe still rubbing recharge from his optics.

"Red Alert? We felt you across the bond. Hey Prowl, what's up?"

Prowl muttered something, and Sideswipe and Sunstreaker shook their heads, "Jazz? Something about Jazz?"

Prowl simply glared, door wings drooping dismally. Red Alert explained it through their bond, unable to articulate the words. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker 'listened' intently, "So, you two are afraid you're crushes are falling for each other?"

Red Alert nodded, as Prowl glanced away. Sideswipe said awkwardly, "It happens to a lot of people. Very rarely do first crushes work out. In fact, they've never worked out before-"

Sunstreaker hit Sideswipe upside the head, snarling, "Moron! That isn't what they want to hear!"

"Well at least I'm trying!"

The twins argument quickly escalated to fighting. Red Alert winced each time a blow was landed, and Prowl quickly stood up. "Sideswipe! Sunstreaker!" His voice rang through the hallways impressively, "Enough! Before the brig becomes your second home!"

Neither stopped. Prowl growled, subspacing two handcuffs, handing one to Red Alert. "You get Sideswipe."

Both leaped into the fray, rapidly pulling apart and cuffing the two. Inferno and Jazz burst in just as Red Alert finished snapping on the cuffs, so Red Alert was bent over in the awkward position of half standing, half crouching.

"Red Alert?"

Red Alert twitched, lost his footing, and yelped as he fell forward onto Sideswipes back. For a moment he lay there, stunned, before scrambling off. "Inferno? When did you-"

"We heard Prowl shouting something through the walls, so we came to see what was the matter." Jazz replied, first to recover. Inferno was still inwardly fuming at Sideswipe.

"Sunstreaker, Sideswipe," Red Alert said, catching his vocalizer into working, "You're both to be held under arrest for brawling-"

As Red Alert talked on, Prowl walked over to the two. "What are you doing together?" Prowl voice held nothing of the emotions boiling inside of him.

"Oh, we were just talking and trading tips." Jazz said, grinning. Inferno looked at Jazz, and then grinned as well.

"Trading tips is a little of an understatement Jazz."

Prowl looked at the two, and then nodded. "Very well. Sorry for disturbing you." Prowl glided away, his door wings twitching in the air slightly. Inferno hauled Jazz away before the internal fans could start kicking in, because he knew Red Alert would be able to hear them.

"Jazz, just a warning, Red's auditory receptors can hear your internal fans kicking in."

Jazz looked at Inferno, and swore softly.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Red Alert watched out of the corner of his optics as Jazz was literally dragged away by Inferno, and he paused mid-talk, sighing. "Slag it."

Sideswipe perked up. "Does interrupting your own speech mean we get free time?"

Red Alerts optics narrowed.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Inferno had just been about to settle in his room when Red Alert came storming by, holding Sideswipes foot and dragging the rest of the unfortunate mech behind him. Sunstreaker, following quietly, was laughing at his twins misfortune. "Out of all the stupid things to say to him Sides, you had to say that. You're lucky he hasn't grabbed you by the tail-pipe like he did that one time and drag you down to the brig."

Sideswipe hissed, "Don't give him any ideas! I couldn't sit properly for weeks! The doctors suddenly didn't have time, there was always a meeting or something!"

Red Alert said without looking over his shoulder, "I would, but Ratchet would kill me when you came in with a damaged tail-pipe. Now both of you, shut up."

Inferno watched them pass, arguing, as he silently ran over what he just learned. Red Alert was not a person who liked to be touched for numberless reasons. Primary one was that his paranoia shrieked that if someone touched him, they would leave something behind, thus making him the target of some insane thing that only his glitch could think of.

Inferno stepped back into his room, waited until the door was closed, and then kicked it, venting his frustrations.