Hot Shot's Childhood
Chapter 12
Through Another's Optics
By: DarkAnimus
Hot Shot woke up the next morning, feeling unexpectedly content. There was no presense nagging in the back of his mind, which meant that Cold Gaze was going to play it low for a while. This suited Hot Shot just fine. He was just starting his second school year. He could not start cracking now.
It took a bit effort but Hot Shot finally maganed to drag himself out of bed. His joints kracked as they popped back to their right positions. "Guhh..." Hot Shot groaned, gritting his teeth in displeasure. And for some reason he was not feeling hungry, even though it would be breakfast time soon.
Hot Shot shook his head to get rid of the tiredness still in his systems. Maybe he would start feeling hungry after he woke up properly. He was not going to try and load himself when he was not feeling up to it. He had tried that last year. His head had almost exploded off. ComCom said he still had nightmares about that one.
1.
Alarie could not concentrate.
Alarie was a quiet student who always did what the teachers told her to. Actually, she did what pretty much everyone told her to. She was the type that would stay in the sidelines, listen and do as she was instructed by older and stronger transformers. And many transformers were stronger than her.
Since Alarie would never do anything that was against the school rules her grades were always a bit over average. But today she could not just sit quietly and listen to the teacher. Her eyes were locked on a fellow classmate sitting on the other side of the classroom. A classmate with bright yellow armor.
Something was wrong with Hot Shot, had been all day. The bright-eyed bot had been fidgeting in class, as if unable to stay still. He was also very jumpy, avoiding others whenever he could.
This was very strange. Usually Hot Shot would play with his pen or some computer chips and occasionally take notes. It was typical of Hot Shot to search for company, even if he did not take part in the conversation going on. Hot Shot did not like being alone.
And how did Alarie know so much about Hot Shot? It was not like the two of them talked with each other often, if at all. Even though Alarie kept her distance it did not stop her from listening and watching.
Alarie often found herself watching Hot Shot. She knew which color of energon he enjoyed the most, she knew how fast he could drive and his favorite and least favorite subjects. She also knew that Hot Shot had not eaten much that morning. 'He should', the violet transformer decided to herself. 'He doesn't eat enough for it to be healthy to skip meals.'
It was true, that a transformer could go even weeks without energon refills. But the transformer in question would have to have consumed large amounts of energon regularly. This way the transformer would have gathered a so-called emergency energy supply. And Hot Shot always ate irregularly.
It made Alarie sad sometimes, the way she watched the yellow bot. She would really like to talk to him but she could never gather the courage. It was very likely that Hot Shot did not even remember her name. It would be embarrasing to ask if the boy wanted to study together sometime, and get: "what's your name again?" as a response.
The worst thing of it was that Hot Shot did not like strangers. They were outsiders, he did not trust them. That was why he did not talk with anyone else than ComCom and Sparky. He was paranoid that way. Alarie knew this for sure. She watched.
2.
Hot Shot tapped the top of his desk with the tip of his pen. Someone was watching him, he could feel it. But it was not Cold Gaze, he would feel an eerie cold shiver if it was. But it was still distracting!
Hot Shot hated when people stared at him. That was why he did not talk so much, so that others did not have a reason to look at him. That was also the reason the searched crowds in between classes; to hide.
Another jolt went down Hot Shot's spine. He was already feeling faint because of Cold Gaze and now someone just had to keep staring at him. For once he would be happy if he could just take notes in peace.
3.
Sparkly was a lot like her brother in many ways. She always enjoyed a good race, she could gobble up energon like there was no tomorrow, she did not let anyone mess with her and she liked the same people her brother did. Sometimes.
Hot Shot was one topic Sparkly was not sure she agreed with. Sparky was good with people, Sparkly knew this, but she was not sure if befriending Hot Shot had been such a good idea.
In Sparkly's eyes Hot Shot was too quiet for a boy his age. He was not shy, that much Sparkly was sure of. Why did Hot Shot not keep a lot of rucus on hallways like everyone else did? Why was he so different?
Sparkly gritted her teeth as she watched Hot Shot fidget in his chair. She did not like it when something was out of the ordinary and everything about Hot Shot was out of the ordinary. The yellow bot smelled of exception, another thing Sparkly despised.
Sparkly also noticed Alarie watch the yellow transformer intently. Apparently Sparkly was not the only one interested in PlainGreen's lecture on The Third Civil War.
Alarie was the one transformer Sparkly found even stranger than Hot Shot. Sparkly turned back to her notes. Maybe those two were the type you could understand only if you knew them.
4.
Proxim dropped his pens in suprise when Hot Shot dropped himself into the chair next to him. As Proxim leaned down to pick them up he noticed that Hot Shot did not offer to help pick them up like he usually would have done. 'That's odd...'
Proxim had soon gathered all of his lost pens and sat back up. "Is something the matter?" he asked. "You seem preoccupied."
Hot Shot shook his head and offered Proxim a weak smile. "It's nothing", he said. "I'm just a little tired." "You do look a tad exhausted", Proxim admitted. "Thanks." "For what?" "For not saying I look like something that crawled out of an oil swamp."
That had Proxim quiet for a moment. Then he just said: "there isn't a species that could survive in the swamps. Not an organic one, anyway." Hot Shot simply shrugged let out a short and a bit strained laugh. "Tell that to High Voltage."
Proxim shook his head. It would make sense that High Voltage had come up with something like that. Not that Hot Shot himself did not have a sense of humor, Proxim knew he had one. The yellow bot just did not use it.
Hot Shot did not speak durin the lesson, so Proxim kept to himself aswell. Proxim never was the type to strike up a conversation. 'Now that I think about it...' the blue and orange bot thought to himself. 'Neither is Hot Shot.'
Proxim tried not to think about the possibility that Hot Shot might actually want to talk but did not dare to say the first word. It was a more likely possibility that Hot Shot was just antisocial.
5.
Hot Shot took down notes as Bolt Volt went on about the correct way to remove a cracked optic. Every now and then he would glance at Proxim, trying to get his attention and start a conversation. But the other bot would not look his way. It was as if Proxim did not want to talk with him.
Hot Shot sighed, leaning back in his chair. Well, he was not going to force Proxim into talking with him. He could understand perfectly that Proxim just was not the type to chat in class. Some transformers just were antisocial that way.
6.
That evening Hot Shot collapsed on his recharge bed, utterly exhausted. It had taken a lot of effort to concentrate only on studying, trying to keep all thoughts about Cold Gaze at bay.
Hot Shot was sure that his homework had not been done as well as he could have done them but he had not been able to keep his focus long enough to know if Bolt Volt had meant to ask about typical transformer shell analogy, whatever that was, or not. Hot Shot vaguely remembered ComCom say something about anatomy but he was sure it was nothing important.
"Hey, Hot Shot." A sudden call for his name caused Hot Shot to open his optics and focus on a dark room. 'That's strange', he thought. 'It was still bright when I left the library...' Finally Hot Shot's opics located a dark form. He gasped and was fully awake in nanoseconds. "Cold Gaze!" "Huh? Where?"
The question made Hot Shot realize that he was not feeling Cold Gaze's pesense, meaning his brother was still dormant. He willed his night vision to activate. Soon Hot Shot recognized the person standing next to his bed.
"Sparky?" Hot Shot questioned weakly. "You missed dinner pal. Are you feeling ok?" "Weak..." Hot Shot mumbled. "It's only to be expected. Have you gotten enough nergon today?"
Hot Shot was quiet for a long while. Speky let out an irritated sigh. "When was the last time you ate?" he asked. "...this morning..." "You barely ate anything at breakfast! No wonder you fell asleep like that!"
"Asleep?" Hot Shot noticed his voice was slightly off when he croaked the question out. "You were offline when I walked in", Sparky explained. "Apparently you fell asleep soon after you left the library."
Hot Shot nodded an affirmitive. "Right after I got in here, actually", he admitted. His words were barely coherrent and he felt his conciousness slowly start to slip away.
"Don't fall asleep!" Sparky yelled suddenly, startling Hot Shot awake. "But I'm tired!" the yellow bot whined. "I want to sleep!" "You need to eat something first." Hot Shot groaned. "The cafeteria doesn't sereve after dinner time", he growled. Sparky was being unreasonably unfair.
"No worries!" Sparky cheered. "I brought you something to nibble on." With that a chunk of energon was shoved into Hot Shot's face. Hot Shot grabbed the energon and took a bite. It was sweet. It was orange energon. "Thanks", Hot Shot said, truly meaning it. "It was actually ComCom's idea..." "Then I thank you both."
Soon all of the energon was gone and Hot Shot leaned his head back against the smooth surface of his recharge bed. As Hot Shot began to drift into sleep mode he felt Sparky pat him on the shoulder. "Sleep tight", was muttered barely audibly.
Hot Shot could not belp but smile. That was the most affectionate gesture he had ever received from the black transformer. Hot Shot slept well that night.
To be continued...
