Author's note: I am not abandoning this story but I don't have a super amount of time to write it so i will be posting it as I write it. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Arianna had finished all of the major repairs over the next week according to Sideswipe. He said that his brother's nanites would integrate her repairs and fix the more minor damages. Though she had been convinced that James had been the one smoothing out the Lambo's welds, according to Sideswipe it was Sunstreaker's nanites flattening and accepting the repairs.

She had learned a lot of things from Sideswipe about his planet. He was a pretty good conversationalist. He described a lot of Cybertron's customs, sights, and words, but by far his favorite topic was his brother. By the time Sunstreaker woke, Ari was sure that she would know so much about him that he would be super weirded out. He told her about the mech's, which is what Sunstreaker and Sideswipe's frame, kinda a gender thing, type is, borderline obsession with painting and his body paint. Which reminded her that his Alt form was still the dull metallic grey of metal.

"Hey Sides," Arianna called as she walked into the garage that morning. She was wearing a white shirt that seemed to have paint in large random splotches and jeans that looked no better. In her hands were a pair of large paintbrushes and a large lidded bucket. She motioned him over and when he got there he looked into the bucket she was opening. Inside was a slimy sparkling gold substance. "So the people I used didn't have a good golden shade of yellow in regular paint so I got a metallic gold, do you think your brother would like this or…"

"This is the paint?" Sideswipe dipped his holoform finger into the substance to find that it wasn't a ball of goo like it had looked but a liquid. "I mean…" He scratched the back of his head and let it tilt to the side for a moment. "He might if it dried smooth."

Arianna pulled something out of her back pocket and handed it to him. It was a gold metal that shimmered magnificently in the sun. "It'll look like this when it's dried if that helps."

The hyper twin took the piece of metal and felt the texture was smooth and even as if the metal was a golden coin. "Sunny will love this."

"I know it's different from the original, and if I knew he... was a he. I would have tried harder to find the right color."

Sideswipe laughed and handed the woman back the piece of metal. "Well, Sunny will wake up in a way better mood with this color than no paint at all. There will be much less energon shed."

In response, Ari held a big brush out to the mech's holoform. "Well, paint him with me so at least he won't be mad at just me."

Sides grinned and took the brush. "Partners in crime." It was a strange change from the usual avoidance everybot had to being dragged into pranks and the like with him. The two set to work taping up the parts of Sunstreaker that couldn't get paint on, much to Sideswipe's initial horror. A swift explanation that the tape would not leave any residue and a show of it on a mirror quickly calmed the mech down. Sides may like to mess with his brother but he had no desire to be offlined.

Arianna and Sides worked swiftly to lay down the base coat. The woman was surprised to find that Sides was actually pretty good at painting. He had said that his brother liked to paint but said nothing about being a painter himself.

"I thought Sunstreaker liked to paint," Ari said casually. "Do you also paint?"

"I mean it is something Sunny enjoys, so I do it on occasion. To bond, ya know. I care about him so I wanna do things he likes."

Arianna looked over at him, appreciatively. "I bet you pull in all the ladies with that attitude." She had turned back to the job of painting his twin without registering the pensive look on the usual cheery mech's face.

He swiftly schooled his features and went back to painting his brother's paint job. "Not sure what you mean, clearly it's my stunning features that pull in the femmes."

Ari's laugh was cut off by a sharp tone. "Sides." It greeted before the woman looked up to see Starr standing at the opened garage. She hadn't been too pleased with Sideswipe since moving in but she did take the time to acknowledge him. It didn't help that when she was starting to accept the red mech that he doused her in the old silly string he had found in the junk drawer. So the tension between the two was still going strong. Sideswipe had apologized but Starr had yet to forgive him for it. "Ari, I need you to do me a favor."

"What up?" The dark-haired woman paused in her painting to look up at the woman. She pushed her bangs out of her face smearing a small amount of gold paint on her forehead.

"I need you to pick up a few things when you next go to the store. I have a list here." She handed out the paper trying not to get too close to Sides in case the man decided to fling the paint at her. Almost as if she didn't want the mech to see the paper, Ari unfolded the paper and raised an eyebrow hand tightening around the paper and crushing it. She pocketed the ball before the man could see anything.

"I will be going Thursday. Do you need it sooner?" Starr shook her head and exited the room without another word.

"She really doesn't like me." Sideswipe sighed moving towards the left side of his brother. He noted how Ari's body was more tense on the subtle side of things but chose not to ask what was so bad that her friend asked her to get at the store. He figured that if she needed any help with the list that she would say something.

"Don't worry. She is just peeved that you messed up her hair. If there is one thing a woman hates Sideswipe, it's someone messing with their hair. It takes a very long time to fix"

The red mech nodded and went back to painting. "So do you know this is Sunny's favorite color?" He asked to fill the silence that had fallen between the two.

"What? It is? How could I ever tell?" She grinned over the hood of the Lamborghini that was slowly going from greyish-silver to metallic gold.

"Yeah, he wasn't always yellow. When we are young we can't choose our color and we have to keep whatever color our original armor is until our systems are developed enough to handle the coding and stress of a recolor." He said, taking a crab sidestep.

"So what was his original color?"

Sides pulled a face and commented. "I think he would rip my armor off if I told you. He hated that color so much."

Ari listened as Sides once again regaled her of his brother, making her feel as if she knew the golden mech much more than she really should. At this point, she couldn't wait until the mech woke and they could have a proper conversation. Whenever that would be.

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Systems Powering On