In a dimly lit room deep within the long corridors of the training center stood four mechs and a brunette, all huddled around a rather large and long table, papers scattered everywhere.
"Uh..That's not what her handwriting looks like." Blurr called over a familiar rotary's
shoulder pad.
The orange mech groaned in annoyance and stared at the very messy cursive that covered the paper before him for a brief second before crumpling it up and chucking it over his shoulder.
"I scanned a few samples of her handwriting from some of her reports. I may be able to mimic it a little better." The door slid closed behind Boulder, who had just come in with a few papers in his servo.
"If not, I could write it and have Doc maximize the paper to 'bot size,'" Dani suggested from her spot next to Blades' ped.
Blades nodded to his partner and moved to the side, giving the green mech some space.
After weeks of brainstorming, the mechs and Dani were putting their plan into action.
They had settled on sending Heatwave and Quickshadow a note- supposedly from each other, with an invite to meet somewhere in the forest just beyond the park.
It wasn't their brightest idea, but it would be the simplest to pull off. They suspect Quickshadow would soon catch on due to how often they gathered at the training center these past few weeks.
"How should we word this?" Salvage asked, pointing to the draft they created.
They stared at the piece of paper and tried to come up with something they could add to make it seem more authentic.
Dani took the draft from the table and began to reword it.
"Maybe..something like this?" She held up the paper to the mechs. Blades took it, and the other mechs huddled around him to read it.
"Seems like something she would write." Blurr nodded in approval.
Blades nodded and gave the paper to the green mech so he could write it in the femme's handwriting.
The others looked on as he moved the pen in an intricate pattern, leaving loops and swirls along the blue lines of the white sheet.
After a few minutes, he placed the pen down and examined the final product.
"It almost looks like the real thing." Blades grinned, comparing the fake to an actual paper the femme had written on. The others nodded in approval.
"The loops are a little messy." Boulder drummed his digits on the countertop.
"I doubt Heatwave will notice." Dani shrugged.
"Notice what?" A new voice called from the training center's meeting room entrance.
The mechs and Dani flinched at the sound of peds approaching them.
They looked to the doorway, letting out sighs of relief when they realized it was only Chase and Cody.
"Cody, don't do that!" His older sister scolded, a hand dramatically positioned over her heart.
"Sorry, guys. Chase and I were looking all over the training center for you guys. Why are you all here?" The youngest Burns cast a questioning glance at his sister and the mechs.
"We um.." Dani looked to the mechs, who all nodded, giving her the 'okay' to tell Cody about their little scheme.
It took a few minutes to get Cody up to speed with everything that had been going on with Heatwave and Quickshadow.
Cody stared at the various pictures that were laid out in front of him as the mechs and his sister took turns telling him the backstories of each photograph.
The image Blades had taken of the firebot and femme in Cybertron, a picture of them talking behind the firehouse at one of Chief's Sunday dinners, and the picture from when Heatwave had been turned back into a youngling were all being examined by the blonde-haired boy.
"So..you guys think Heatwave likes her, but he's having a hard time accepting his feelings...so you're trying to set them up?" Cody cocked a brow.
The mechs and brunette before him nodded.
"And you're in on this too, Chase?" He turned to look at the police bot.
He gave a slight defeated nod.
Cody looked back down at the pictures; a slight grin spread on his face.
"So..what's the plan?"
"What're you working on, M'squito?"
Blades looked up from the paper to find the sea bot walking into the lounge room at their base in China.
The blue mech walked over when the orange mech didn't answer and looked for himself.
"Uh..I'm um.." Blades slightly stuttered.
HighTide noticed a few papers lying on the counter.
"..aren't those papers Red's reports to OP?" He raised an optic brow, waiting for the rotary to explain himself.
"..Yeah. I'm trying to mimic his handwriting." He replied sheepishly.
"..C'n I ask what for?" HighTide gave the orange mech a weird look upon seeing the paper he was working on.
"..Is that- an invitation..for Quickshadow?" His optics widened when he noticed the note was addressed to the femme.
"..The other mechs, Dani, Cody, and I are trying to set Heatwave up with Quickshadow." He finally spilled.
HighTide stared at the mech for a long minute.
He went from confused to hysterical in less than five seconds.
"You're trying to set up Red with the lass?" He asked in between laughs.
Blades simply nodded his helm as the blue mech burst into another fit of laughter.
The sound of the door sliding open caught both mechs' attention.
Quickshadow, who had been training in the next room, walked in.
Blades panicked and swiftly stepped in front of the counter.
"Q-Quickshadow? I uh..thought you were out patrolling." The rotary cast her a questioning glance.
The femme nodded. "I got back around 30 minutes ago. I was training."
"What's all the commotion about?" Her optics were slightly narrowed at the two mechs before her.
Quickshadow had noticed Blades had jumped in front of the counter, but she was too annoyed at the moment to investigate his motives further.
"Sorry, Quickshadow..we were just um.." the rotary trailed off, trying to think of an excuse.
"Joking around." The sea bot finished.
Blades gave him a side glance and silently thanked him.
The femme quickly noticed their sudden behavior change and questioned what they were up to.
HighTide looked down at the femme with a neutral expression, not wanting to aggravate her further.
"Well, would you please quiet down some? I'm trying to train." She sighed.
The two only nodded, and the femme left.
Blades sighed in relief and began to put away the papers.
"Good luck with your little plan, M'squito; fill me in on how it goes." With that, HighTide retreated to his chambers.
Meanwhile, Quickshadow was fighting solid holograms with the technology Dr. Szeto had provided for them in the training room.
She had a lot on her mind. They had just received word that the Scrubber technology was in its final stages of development and would soon be assembled for testing.
Her presence was required in the testing stage. Dr. Szeto wanted her to test the Scrubbers' resistance should another threat similar to the Morbots cross paths with them.
The femme was surprisingly looking forward to it. The lack of action lately was honestly starting to get to her. She missed hand-to-hand combat. It helped her clear her processor and sort out her thoughts.
The two mechs she was assigned to work with were also the cause of her current frustrations.
She couldn't help, but notice Blades had been acting rather strange recently. He had been visiting the training center way more often than usual.
Come to think of it; all the other mechs had been spending more time at the training center, oddly, when Heatwave was out on patrol.
Knowing them, they were undoubtedly planning something.
She was so deep in thought- she barely noticed Blades come in.
The femme looked in his direction for a split second to let him know she had heard him.
She saw an envelope in his servo and turned back to the solid holograms she was fighting.
"Give me a minute."
The orange mech nodded and watched as the femme swiftly took down the rest of the holograms.
Quickshadow turned off the training simulator and turned her attention to the rotary.
Blades cleared his throat and walked up to her.
"Heatwave sent this over for you." He stretched out the paper to her.
The femme cocked an optic brow as she took the envelope from his servo.
"Thank you, Blades." She cast him a small smile.
The mech nodded and walked out of the training room, pressing a digit to his comlink when he reached the lounge room.
"Did you give it to Heatwave yet?" He asked the mech on the other end.
"Yup, I'm heading over to where we agreed to meet," Blurr replied.
"Alright, I'll head over soon." He turned off his comlink and made his way to the ground bridge.
Quickshadow watched the door to the control room close behind the orange mech as he powered on the ground bridge.
Her optic brow arched.
She was walking towards her room to open the envelope given to her and found Blades whispering to someone over his comlink.
She glanced at the paper in her servo and read its contents.
The first thing she noticed was the handwriting.
It seemed to be Heatwave's, but it was slightly sloppy.
He wanted to meet her in theforestat 5 in the afternoon?
Her brows furrowed in confusion as she re-read the paper.
Something was off; Heatwave rarely sent her letters. He preferred notifying her over video calls or their comlinks.
Blades' behavior earlier came back to her. She strongly felt those mechs were up to something.
After a few minutes of careful consideration, she decided to do what the paper asked.
If it turned out to be a prank or something of that nature, she would beat the other bots into scrap piles.
Back in the mainland training center, Heatwave had just opened the letter Quickshadow supposedly dropped off while he was on patrol.
The note was written in slightly messy cursive. The mech dismissed the small detail, concluding that she might've been in a rush in writing it.
He was surprised by its contents.
Why did she want to meet with him? Was something wrong?
The letter asked for him to meet her at a clearing in the forest at five that afternoon, and despite being unsure about what she might want to discuss, he decided to meet with her anyway.
The mech checked his internal clock; it was almost 4:30.
He decided to quickly buff out the scratches he had obtained from his latest rescue before heading over to the forest.
Quickshadow had powered on the ground bridge and set the coordinates to the ground bridge in the firehouse.
On the other side, Cody was notified that the ground bridge was in use.
"She turned on the ground bridge." He had his finger on his comlink.
"We're not ready yet; try to keep her busy for a few more minutes Cody." His sister replied.
"I'll try." He bit his lip and walked over to the ground bridge to wait for the femme.
Upon walking through the other side, Quickshadow was warmly greeted by Cody.
"Hey, Quickshadow!"
"Good afternoon Cody." She greeted back.
"What brings you here?"
"I got a message from Heatwave, asking me to meet him somewhere." she shrugged slightly.
"You wouldn't happen to know what he wants to see me for, would you?" She questioned the blonde.
Cody shook his tiny head.
"Sorry, Quickshadow, I don't know." He suddenly remembered he had to stall her somehow.
"Maybe it's something about the academy or the Scrubber tech." He shrugged.
"Perhaps." The femme nodded and thanked the youngest Burns before turning to leave.
"Uh- wait! I uh.. How's it going in China?" He did his best not to stutter; he knew how observant the femme was.
"It's alright for the most part." She replied.
"How are things here?"
"It's not the same without you bots, but it's okay." He sighed.
"Things will go back to normal soon." Her tone was comforting. "The Scrubber technology is in its last stages of production; once it's finished, everyone will be busy with preparations for the opening of the academy." She smiled down at the blonde.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." He nodded, a small smile on his face.
"I really should get going, Cody; it was nice talking to you."
The small human nodded and watched the special ops femme leave.
"She's on her way, guys." He pressed his comlink, alerting the others.
"We're ready for them." Salvage answered from his end.
Heatwave was next to the bridge over to the firehouse.
A few short greetings were exchanged between him and Cody before he set off for the forest.
It was a relatively short drive from the firehouse. Many townsfolk waved at him as he drove past them. At one point, he even saw Jerry with his delivery truck.
Soon the concrete street turned to a dirt road underneath his tires. The forest was just up ahead.
He transformed and began to walk to the coordinates written out on the paper.
The soft sound of music caught his attention, and he curiously followed the melody to a small clearing.
He was taken aback by the scenery around him.
Small light bulbs hung from the trees, and red rose petals were scattered all over the ground. It looked like a scene from one of Dani's romance movies.
He then noticed the femme sitting on a rather large picnic blanket, back struts against a tree trunk.
She looked just as confused as he did.
The mech cleared his voice box. "I uh- got your letter." He held up the folded piece of paper.
The femme cocked a brow up at him.
"I..got yours as well." She held up her own piece of paper.
Now it was Heatwave's turn to cock a brow at her.
"..I never sent you a letter.." he scratched his neck cables awkwardly.
"Neither did I." The femme glanced at the note in her servos, then extended it to the mech.
Heatwave took it and scanned the message it held.
"This..looks like my handwriting."
"But sloppy." The femme nodded.
He handed her the letter that she had supposedly sent.
The femme scoffed as she read it.
"..this cursive is all over the place...and they overdid the wording." She shook her helm and handed the paper back to the firebot.
"Who did?"
"The other mechs, and judging by the scenery- I'm sure Dani was in on it as well."
The gears began to turn, and Heatwave's faceplates heated up at the realization.
"So..this is supposed to be a..set up?" He felt his cheek plates go warm.
"It seems that way." Her shoulder pads lifted in a slight shrug, cheek plates slightly blue.
Heatwave slightly fidgeted in discomfort.
The femme noticed and patted her palm on the empty spot beside her.
Heatwave slightly hesitated but obeyed her silent command and lowered himself on the checkered blanket next to her.
"..It's quite peaceful out here, isn't it?" Her accent was still there even after all this time.
Heatwave nodded in agreement and looked up to the canopy of trees above them.
The blue sky had melted into warm colors as the sun began to set in the west.
A cool breeze blew past them, slightly moving the lightbulbs that hung from random branches.
A comfortable silence enveloped them as a soft piano piece played from a nearby hidden speaker in the background.
"I'm surprised I didn't figure it out sooner. Blades has been acting quite strange as of late." She shook her helm.
Heatwave nodded. "They've all been hanging around the training center a lot more lately."
"I take it they think we..have feelings for one another?" The femme cocked a brow.
"..yeah. They've been getting ideas ever since that trip to Cybertron we went on."
The femme let a smile spread on her mouth plates.
"Have they been bothering you about it?" Her tone was slightly teasing.
"Every chance they get." He rolled his optics.
"You can't blame them, though. What would you think if one of them suddenly chased after a pretty femme?" A smirk played at the corners of her lip components.
Heatwave couldn't suppress the warm Energon that rose to his faceplates. He tilted his helmet down to hide his glowing cheek plates.
"I..was concerned for you." He mumbled in defense.
Soft laughter erupted from the femme's voicebox.
Heatwave glanced at her, still flustered, but a smile managed to creep onto his faceplates.
It was rare for the special ops femme to show a genuine smile, more so to hear her laugh.
She looked like she was enjoying herself, and it made Heatwave glad to know she enjoyed his company.
Back in the training center, Cody had just tapped into the hidden camera Boulder had planted in a tree near the picnic area they had set up.
"Why isn't there any volume?" Blades asked.
"I didn't have time to set up the mics." Boulder shrugged.
"Awe, I really wanted to hear them." The rotary pouted.
"Look- Heatwave just showed up." Dani nudged him.
Chase was uncomfortably standing behind the others. "Isn't this a breach of privacy?" He questioned.
Boulder, who had warmed up to the whole idea, placed a servo on his friend's shoulder pad.
"Like Heatwave said that one time, think of it as covert surveillance."
Chase let out a sigh and nodded begrudgingly. "Fine."
They all watched as a flustered Heatwave sat next to the femme and began to make small talk- or at least that's what they seemed to be doing.
Then they exchanged letters.
"They caught on." Blurr blurted from his spot next to Blades and Salvage.
"Knowing Quickshadow, she at least suspected we were up to something." Boulder nodded.
"You think she'll be mad?" Cody asked no one in specific.
"Hopefully not."
This whole situation was supposed to be awkward, yet he found himself enjoying the femme's presence.
Her small fit of laughter died down as she composed herself.
Silence filled the atmosphere once more; both were too deep in thought to talk.
Quickshadow didn't know what to do in this type of situation. It had been cycles since she last experienced any sort of amorous emotions, and she wasn't sure she wanted to let those new feelings flourish anymore.
She knew she still needed time to heal and get over her past, and her habit of bottling up all her problems wasn't making that easier.
Besides, Heatwave most likely didn't have strong feelings for her. She noticed the small glances he snuck at her as well as his blue cheek plates whenever she teased him, but she dismissed it all as a slight crush he had on her at the moment. Nothing more.
She was assigned an important role in overlooking the production of the new tech. She wasn't here to catch feelings.
Heatwave noticed her slightly tense state and took it as a sign that she wasn't comfortable.
"If this is uncomfortable for you, we can go." His voice cut through the lingering silence.
Quickshadow was brought out of her thoughts and glanced up at the mech.
"I'm fine, Heatwave. If you would like to leave, that's perfectly fine."
The mech shook his helm and rested his arm on his knee pad. "As much as I hate to admit it- the others worked pretty hard on this.." he trailed off.
The femme nodded. "I suppose the least we could do is appreciate the effort they put into..um.." she didn't know how to word the atmosphere the mechs had created.
"Yeah.." The firebot nodded, understanding what she meant.
"..If you fully knew what they were planning..would you have still shown up?" He asked a few moments later.
She thought for a brief moment before her arctic blue optics met his amber ones.
"..I would've come for your reaction." Her dermas curled into a half-hearted smile, remembering the confused expression he wore when he first arrived at the enclosed location.
Heatwave rolled his optics, a small chuckle escaping his voice box. He didn't bite his glossa; instead, he shot a remark of his own.
And soon, they were both playfully bickering and teasing one another, only stopping when the pink and yellow sky was replaced with a mixture of dark blues and purples.
"Why did I agree to do this?" The purple speedster yawned from where he sat on the floor, a bored expression plastered on his faceplates.
"Just wait a little more, Blurr. Looks like they're gettin' ready to leave." Salvage cracked a small smile at his friend
Blurr mumbled something inaudible before going quiet
"I think they're saying their goodbyes," Dani called over Cody's shoulder.
"Finally." Blurr groaned into his knee pad before standing up.
"We should go back to our posts before Heatwave gets back," Boulder suggested as he and Cody began turning off the monitors.
"Yeah, he'll thank us later, though." Dani jumped inside Blade's' cabin, a smirk on her face.
The others nodded and began filing out the room.
They split up into their assigned groups and took a different portal back to their designated locations.
"Good luck with Heatwave, Chase." Blades cast a sympathetic smile as he walked towards the swirling green vortex.
"We have Quickshadow to worry about, Blades." Dani reminded.
The creamsicle sighed and nodded. "Maybe she won't be too mad?" He tried to be optimistic.
"It was nice knowing you." Blurr shrugged, knowing well what the femme was capable of.
Blades glared slightly before walking into the portal.
Heatwave and Quickshadow were already in the firehouse's bunker, an open portal swirling before him with their base in China on the other side.
"..Sorry if this whole afternoon was uncomfortable." Heatwave felt the need to apologize for the situation the other mechs put them in.
"It was..uncalled for.." she admitted. "..but I enjoyed myself. Thank you for spending your time with me." A smile formed on her dermas as she stepped towards the green vortex.
Heatwave felt the fluttering sensation intensify in his abdomen and only brought himself to give a small nod. "I guess I did too." The slightest grin slipped onto his usually stoic features.
"Bye." She walked through the portal, leaving Heatwave to tend to his revolting engine.
He stared at the ground bridge before him and let out a sigh; his small smile grew a little more.
His processor finally accepted that maybe, justmaybe,he wasfalling for her.