Jazz watched as Prowl unchained him from the berth. From the way it sounded when they were discussing what should be done with him after he had agreed to prove himself, Barricade had wanted him to remain tied to the berth. But then Skids and Nightbeat had pointed out he would have a hard time proving himself if he remained locked up in this room.

And so, Jazz was now being untied from the berth and let out of the room. Although Barricade was standing near the door with a dark scowl on his faceplate as Prowl untied him. Jazz shifted nervously as he watched Barricade watch him.

Jazz had a funny feeling that Barricade didn't like him very much.

Jazz was a friendly mech, and he could always tell when someone didn't like him. It had been a very rare occurrence, at least until now. Barricade just glared at him as Prowl finished the job of untying him and lead the way to the door out of the room.

Jazz followed after him, curious about the rest of the building he was in. And also, rather curious about what he could glean about a beastformer pack's dynamics during the next three vorns.

As Jazz passed by Barricade, the large mech turned and followed him out of the room. Jazz could hear the beastformer beginning to growl softly.

Jazz tensed. His instincts had begun to scream at him to run. The sound Barricade was making was hitting the primal part of him that knew that Jazz was in the same room as a predator.

Jazz took a deep intake of air, trying to calm down his racing spark as he moved behind Prowl. He was still frazzled by Barricade's growling, but he tried to focus on the fact that Prowl wouldn't let Barricade hurt him. Most likely.

Barricade was still growling though. And that kept setting off the primal part of Jazz in a never-ending circle.

It was in the middle of that circle that Prowl spoke up, "Barricade, stop growling. You're scaring him."

A soft huff came from behind Barricade, "He should be scared. He's all alone with us."

Prowl sighed, "Leave him be."

"Yes, Alpha," Barricade grumbled.

Jazz began to soothe his fragged-up nerves and tried to make himself relax. Well as much as he could when he was surrounded by beastformers who were still suspicious of his intentions. He took a deep intake of air and tried to soothe himself by wrapping his arms around himself tightly, giving himself a hug.

Behind him, Barricade had stopped growling but was now muttering under his breath. Jazz turned his attention to Prowl in front of him.

Prowl was still moving mostly silently down the hallway, leading him to what Jazz was certain would either be the communal space or his own berthroom that is if the room they had come from wasn't Jazz's for the time being.

Jazz stared at Prowl's back for a moment and then flinched when Prowl turned to face him. He took a small step back in surprise, bumping into Barricade behind him. That caused him to jump a little, especially as the bigger mech's servos fell down on his shoulder plating.

"Barricade," Prowl said, tartly. "Stop scaring him."

Barricade released Jazz with a short huff before walking past Jazz and Prowl into the room that Prowl was about to enter. Jazz watched him go for a moment before turning to look up at Prowl.

The canis beastformer was watching him with narrowed ice-blue optics. There wasn't any suspicion in them though. This time Prowl seemed almost concerned.

"Are you alright?" Prowl questioned softly. "I know it can be overwhelming when a normal is being growled at."

Jazz gave a quick answer, "Ah'm fine! A little keyed up from it, but fine!"

Prowl hummed softly and then said, "Follow me. This is the communal room, where the pack spends time together."

Jazz nodded, slowly, "Is it really important fer the pack to spend time together?"

Prow smiled and opened up the door that had slammed shut behind Barricade, "Naturally. Beastformer's require close contact with other beastformers to remain sane."

Jazz hesitated for a moment, wanting to ask about the beastformers that had been hunted for attacking mechs. Prowl, though, seemed to know what he was going to ask, "Beastformers who wind up alone don't do well. They are more likely to attack anyone that steps foot in their territory than we are. Being alone drives them to near insanity."

Prowl gestured for Jazz to go into the communal room. Jazz didn't even pause before he entered the room and took a quick look around.

The other members of Prowl's pack were lounging around on the couches or on the floor. They all turned from their conversation to look at him when he entered. Jazz froze right in front of the doorway, a little uncomfortable with the attention on him.

He could hear Prowl entering the room behind him.

When Prowl set his servos on Jazz's shoulders he twitched minutely in surprise. Prowl merely squeezed them in a comforting way before, saying smoothly, "This is Jazz. Jazz, I'm certain you know who everybody is."

Jazz nodded quickly as he tried to calm himself down a little.

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Jazz sat down next to Prowl and watched as the pack kept watching him. Prowl didn't really seem that bothered by the attention Jazz was getting. Maybe it was normal. Or maybe he thought Jazz wouldn't be bothered by the attention.

Well truthfully, Jazz usually wasn't bothered by attention on him.

But this time, there was just something in the way that the pack was looking at him that told him that they were judging him. Or weighing him up. Or something like that.

It didn't matter.

He turned to face Prowl as the mech calmly started a conversation with Bluestreak, "Tell me, how did your presentation go, Blue?"

That caused the little gray and red mech to snap his gaze away from Jazz to Prowl. The young mech seemed to pause for a moment before he opened his mouth and started talking.

"Oh, it was great, Prowl! The professor was really impressed with my arguments about the liberties taken by the high class and he gave me an outstanding grade on it. Vale then called me a lying pipsqueak 'cause he didn't like how I talked about the noble classes. He was going to start something but then Sunny and Sides told him to mute it and hit the road. They're really great mechs, even though they're, you know. They've been really helpful in helping me find all my classes and. . ."

Jazz gaped as the younger mech continued on that train of thought for nearly a giga-cycle. He was astonished that any of these mechs were able to listen to what Bluestreak was saying much less what he was saying.

And Jazz could definitely see why he was named Bluestreak now.

He took a quick glance around at everybody else and was quick to spot that nearly all of them seemed to be holding on to Bluestreak's every word. Jazz wondered for a moment how that was even possible when it was taking all of his concentration to follow the younger mechs every word.

Then Prowl calmly interrupted the younger mech, "That's good, Blue. I'm glad to hear that you've been doing well in the Academy."

Bluestreak beamed happily at Prowl before his blue optics flicked over to Jazz again. Jazz shifted and wondered when exactly they were going to tackle the topic that it was pretty clear they all wanted to talk about.

Him.

Finally, after another moment of staring at him Bluestreak asked, timidly, "So. . . you're Jazz?"

Jazz nodded and said, "Yeah, Ah'm Jazz."

That caused Bluestreak to grin and giggle a little, "Your accent's funny!"

"Blue!" Prowl said, looking shocked.

Jazz just smiled back at Bluestreak and said, "Yeah, Ah guess it is."

Prowl still didn't exactly look happy with Bluestreak's comment, but he didn't say anything else.

Bluestreak moved closer to Jazz and said, "So you're the one Prowl likes."

That made Prowl let out a scandalized noise and cry out, "Bluestreak!"

The other members of the pack clearly found this funny as all heck. Barricade was snorting in laughter, smirking deviously in amusement. On the floor Nightbeat was rolling around laughing in sheer amusement and Skids had an amused smirk on his faceplate as he let Nightbeat roll over him. Smokescreen had covered up his mouth with his servo, but it was clear that he was smiling behind it.

Jazz meanwhile could feel a small blush trickle up from his neck to his faceplate. He rubbed at his cheeks in complete embarrassment.

Prowl was still shouting at Bluestreak, sounding completely scandalized, "You shouldn't. . . Bluestreak, listen to me. . . Such comments are inappropriate! It's embarrassing to say such things in front of others!"

Bluestreak was giggling and clearly not listening. It didn't seem like any of them were, as the stalemate that had been going on between Jazz and the pack finally broke from the humor that the other mechs were getting from this situation.

They started chatting casually amongst themselves, not bothered by Jazz's presence anymore. Jazz meanwhile was still blushing in complete embarrassment.

He liked Prowl, too. But he hadn't thought that the mech he had had a crush on since coming to Iacon had liked him too. Clearly, his feelings weren't as unrequited as he had believed.

He shifted nervously in his seat next to Prowl as the beastformer finally gave up trying to lecture Bluestreak. With a huff, Prowl leaned back in his seat on the couch. Then he turned his ice-blue optics to face Jazz.

Jazz shifted in his seat, suddenly uncertain what he should do or say.

But Prowl didn't say anything. He just kept looking at Jazz quietly.

Jazz almost wanted to say that it was a tender, caring look, but it was really hard to tell with Prowl most of the time. Prowl was hard for Jazz to get a read on. Usually Jazz was pretty good at telling what mechs want.

But with Prowl, Jazz was floundering. He just couldn't get anything from the bigger mech.

Jazz jumped and let out a quiet yelp of surprise when Prowl finally spoke, "I apologize for Bluestreak. He speaks without thinking most of the time."

"Oh!" Jazz said, uncertain of how to respond. "That's. . . that's fine, mech. Can' blame 'im fer it. 'e's young."

Prowl gave a small nod and glanced at the rest of his pack to ensure they were all still busy with their own conversations. Then Prowl turned back to Jazz and stared at him for a moment longer.

Jazz shifted under the gaze, looking up at Prowl.

Prowl let out a short sharp huff and stood to his pedes before leaving the room. Jazz watched him go with slight confusion. A soft chuckle came from the other side of the room.

Jazz turned to look over at the other members of the pack. Each of them looked rather amused. Bluestreak was actually giggling again.

Jazz wrapped his arms around himself and asked, "What's so funny?"

Smokescreen settled down next to him on the couch as everyone else went back to their conversations. The psychologist was looking as if he had was a catbot who had just swallowed a mechasparrow. He looked completely smug and quite pleased with himself.

The psychologist finally spoke up, saying in a very smug tone, "Oh, it's nothing Jazz. Just a little inside joke."

Jazz frowned at Smokescreen for a long moment before he said, "Doesn' seem like nothin'. It sounded like ya were makin' fun of Prowl."

"Ahh, how sweet," Smokescreen said in a sickly-sweet tone of voice. "But our Alpha doesn't need your protection, little normal. He is perfectly capable of taking care of himself. Well, mostly. . ."

Those last words were said with a light snicker giving Jazz a little indication of what Smokescreen was implying. Jazz felt his face plates beginning to heat up again in mortification.

Smokescreen laughed at the sight of his blushing face plates and then, thankfully, changed the subject with a, "You want to play Praxus Fold'Em?"

Jazz nearly leapt at the idea of doing something that wasn't going to either embarrass him or scare the crap out of him.

He said, "Sure. Sounds fun."

And tried to ignore the way Smokescreen continued to smirk at him.