Author: gatekat
Pairing: Jazz/Prowl
Rating: PG-13
Codes: AU, Slash
Summary: Prowl is more than a little confused by what his lover does to celebrate the point of no return for his treatments.
klik = 1 minute; joor = 1.2 hours; orn = day/32 joor; metacycle = 6 (5.9285) years; vorn = 83 years/14 vorns
This Winter Won't Last Forever 14
The celebratory party was unlike anything Jazz or Sirenis had ever put on. The music was classic and low, the conversations fairly quiet, the high grade was good quality and flowed freely but no one was getting very rowdy and every mech there was invited from a select list of those who had been important in Prowl's functioning. It was intimate and somber while still being a celebration.
Sirenis called it a wake after the human custom.
Prowl and Bluestreak called it a living funeral, and Prowl was still shaken to have one, though Bluestreak agreed it had much in common with the wake.
Along the walls and all around the private room were all the promotions, awards and indicators important events in Prowl's functioning, good and bad. From his first promotion within the Praxian Defense Force to being branded an Autobot to the destruction of Praxis to the honors Rodimus Prime gave to the certificate of recognition his current department have given him last vorn. Even the important events in his relationship with Optimus Prime and how important Jazz/Sirenis had become in the last ten vorns were on display in some way.
His entire functioning put on display, as seen by those who cared about him.
The guest list was yet another surprise. He'd expected, at most, those who lived in New Crystal City. Sirenis, Bluestreak, possibly Red Alert and Inferno, if the former Security Director was feeling stable that orn. He was not expecting a shuttle worth of mechs, many from before the ARK, and Skyshard from his current work. It was even more shocking to him when he learned that each of them had argued hard for the right to be here, that convincing both Jazz and Bluestreak was required for the invite to be extended.
The frontliner twins greeted him right off the shuttle, all but crushing him in their enthusiasm when they caught up to him outside his office. His coworkers seemed to find it entirely too amusing to watch him try to squirm his way out of the double embrace and excited, rapid-fire Autobot comments and questions he was given no opportunity to answer.
"Twins!" Prowl finally resorted to the voice he'd long used to gain their compliance. It had the desired effect, but also made everyone in audio range focus on him. No one here had heard him use that tone before. It was completely at odds with what they thought of him. Their Prowl did not command. Their Prowl most certainly did not command Autobot frontliners and have them obey almost instantly.
"So are they treating you right?" Sideswipe demanded with a glare into the office where several sets of optics were on him.
"Yes, they are," Prowl drew the red warrior's attention away from the civilians. "It is ... pleasant ... here. Why are you here?"
The twins looked at him with hurt expressions. "For you living funeral," Sunstreaker said.
"You have no idea how much of a fight we had with Blue to convince him we were worthy of being here," Sideswipe added, but both frontliners relaxed when they recognized the look of 'I wasn't told of this event' on Prowl's features.
"I see," Prowl's voice was low, calm, and to the two frontliners, warning that someone was going to pay for their failure to keep his appraised of events. "You may wish to hide from Jazz after my shift is over."
"Right," Sideswipe nodded sharply before grabbing his brother and dashing off.
Smokescreen came by a joor later, sweeping by with a cheery greeting that ended in a long, heated kiss that left Prowl too stunned to react before the other Praxian was gone.
That had generated questions that Prowl found he had no answers for but a growing sense of dread in his spark. That feeling of dread only deepened when Sirenis was there when he got shift and promptly commandeered him for too many joors of pampering and dinner in some of the finest establishments New Crystal City had to offer.
What was his ... lover ... up to?
Still, Prowl allowed himself to be led, finding the evening very pleasant despite his uneasiness.
"Hay, I promised we'd celebrate when you didn't have to worry about being recalled, babe," Sirenis' voice was chipper and playfully with a sultry note; a perfect match for Jazz before his post-war conversion.
"Oh," Prowl murmured. "I ... but why have so many mechs I haven't seen in vorns come?"
"Well, Bluestreak was really insistent on a Praxian custom and the more I looked into it, the more it seemed like a really good idea," he edged around the topic. "It'd mean we won't have to wait the hundred vorns custom demands."
"I never cared about custom, Jazz," Prowl fixed his gaze on the lovely, exotic, mostly-white mech walking next to him. "I was never part of that society."
"But Blue is, and what Blue thinks matters to you," Sirenis sighed. "The thing is after a living funeral he'd be publicly okay with us being an us, cause after that, it's all about indulging and comforting the dying mech. The usual standards don't apply."
"And how does this explains the mechs from the ARK?" Prowl prompted again.
"It's part of the deal. The folks who were important in your life and where you were important in their lives are supposed to be there. It's not just the ARK mechs, though I'm not surprised they're the ones who already visited," Sirenis chuckled, leaning lightly into the small contact he was allowed in public. "And now that it's over, give a special thanks to Mirage, Bee and the Twins. They kept Prime away."
Prowl froze for a nanoklik, staring at his lover. "You're serious."
"Of course," he nodded. "I knew you'd go with him if he'd asked no matter how badly you didn't want it he'd order the treatments to start again, so I asked Mirage to pull a few strings to make sure he didn't until he couldn't. Bee ran Ops interference until the Twins got wind of it, then they ran frontliner interference. Prime never stood a chance," he grinned.
"Thank you," Prowl murmured, pausing to draw Sirenis into his arms and give him a long, chaste kiss.