Soft ped steps echoed through the silent corridors as Quickshadow made her way through the academy.
She was tired of the 'situation' between herself and a certain red mech.
It had been a couple weeks since Dani, Cody and other mechs had tried to set them up.
Things were awkward between the femme and mech. He barely talked to her except for the occasional updates on preparations for the academy or the Scrubber tech.
She decided to take action for herself and go talk to him, so now here she was- walking towards his office whilst being deep in thought.
"..Sorry if this whole afternoon was uncomfortable."
"It was..uncalled for.." she admitted. "..but I enjoyed myself, thank you for spending your time with me."
"..I guess I did too."
His words played over and over in her helm.
He said he enjoyed that afternoon, but then began to sort of avoid her.
She saw the gray door come into view.
"..I guess I did too."
Being lost in thought, knocking completely slipped her mind. The large door slid open when its motion sensors sensed her frame approaching it. He had forgotten to lock it.
She finally snapped back into reality when her optics caught sight of the shiny red mech before her.
It took her a few seconds to register what she was seeing but once she did, everything she had been thinking about instantly vanished.
Heatwave had his back facing her, optics closed in concentration as his left ped balanced nicely on his right kneepad, one servo made contact with the large foam mat beneath him while the other extended in the opposite direction; towards the ceiling, all while he ex-vented with even breaths.
Quickshadow was utterly stunned by the sight, part of her wishing she had knocked rather than have barged in on accident.
The silent void was shattered when she cleared her voice box.
Heatwave's optics snapped open, startled by the sound. He quickly lost his balance and fell on the floor with a loud thud.
His servo cradled the side of his helm as his optics trailed up to look at the intruder.
He felt his spark drop to the pit of his torso at the sight of the metallic white femme towering above him, a stunned face gazing back down at him.
"Q-Quickshadow?.."
His faceplates immediately went blue in sheer embarrassment. How had he forgotten to lock the door? He internally facepalmed.
Both Cybertronians eyed each other for a brief second, one attempting to make sense of the current situation, while the other wished to simply vanish from existence.
"..Don't tell anyone..about this...please." He met her optics for a split second before shifting to get up.
A smile broke through Quickshadow's shocked demeanor, leaving Heatwave with more energon spilling on his cheek plates.
"Are you..blushing?" Her smile grew, much to his dismay.
As per-usual, the firebot tilted his helm down, not that it did much to hide his practically glowing cheeks anyways.
"..Not a word to the rest of the team." If Blades or Blurr found out- he wouldn't hear the end of their teasing.
With a grin still visible, she extended her servo to him, offering to help him up.
She stifled a small giggle and simply nodded her helm at his request.
Heatwave took her smaller servo in his and pulled himself up, mumbling a barely audible 'thanks' in the process.
"What are you doing here?" He did his best to hold his composure as he desperately tried to change the subject. But of course, Quickshadow saw this and ignored his question altogether.
"I wasn't aware you did yoga." her tone didn't hold any hints of teasing or jokes, unlike what Heatwave had expected.
The mech gazed over at the mat on the floor and back at the femme.
"..It- uh..was a failed attempt at managing my anger issues.." his shoulder pads lifted into a half shrug, optics not meeting the femme's optics.
"I figured I'd give it another try but no matter how hard I concentrate, I can't clear my processor enough to do it properly.."
Quickshadow was impressed at his efforts, however, she was able to pinpoint his areas of difficulty. She noted that he gave up too easily and lacked motivation.
Heatwave had rolled up his mat and went to placed it behind a filing cabinet in the far corner of the room.
"Self improvement is nothing to be ashamed of Heatwave." She began. "I do yoga from time to time as well." Quickshadow watched him push the filing cabinet in front of the yoga mat to hide it better.
"For a different reason of course, but I could give you some pointers if you'd like." She offered.
His fiery amber optics met her gaze as he walked back towards her. He was caught off guard by her proposal and mulled over the offer for a moment.
He had originally started doing yoga to better control his temper but he gave up once he saw nothing was really changing.
That was a few years ago. Ever since the whole 'set up' thing that happened a few weeks ago, thoughts of the femme had begun to constantly cloud his thinking to the point where he couldn't get any work done. He was using yoga as a last resort because nothing else he did to clear his processor of her seemed to work.
He had secretly been doing yoga for the past few days and noticed he was able to concentrate a lot better and actually get stuff done rather then sit at his desk and subconsciously think of her all day long.
Perhaps doing yoga with her could benefit him some how. He could gain some new insight and some tips that could prove to be useful.
Finally, he gave a short nod, accepting the offer.
Quickshadow expected him to immediately turn down her offer and pondered if he was dealing with something more than just 'anger issues'.
"..when do we start?" His voice prevented the lingering silence form enveloping them again.
The femme recalled her schedule, coincidentally finding that she had the next couple of hours off.
"How about now? I'm free for a few more hours."
"Keep your ped straight. Good, now follow my lead."
Heatwave mimicked the femme's servo-movement as best he could, remembering to keep his breathing steady as she had instructed.
"I find it helps to imagine you're in a dark room or someplace peaceful." Her optics closed as she held the 'tree' pose she was in.
Heatwave glanced at her relaxed features for a moment longer before closing his optics.
He tried to imagine a black room but an image of her kept clouding his focus. His jaw clenched and he opted to try and imagine himself on the beach, but her rare smile manifested in his helm instead.
Maybe doing yoga with the one bot you're trying to get off your mind was a bad idea.
He sighed internally and opened his optics, catching Quickshadow looking at him.
"Are you alright? You were scrunching your face." Her optic brow creased in slight concern.
"Huh? Y-yeah, I'm good.." he gave a small nod and the femme shrugged it off.
"You up for trying some harder poses?" Her peds and servos abandoned their previous positions.
Heatwave shrugged and nodded.
And once again, Quickshadow began to instruct him, telling him where and how to stand until he somehow ended up in a weird hand stand pose.
He quickly realized he didn't have good balance and fell out of the position- knocking over a stack of papers from his desk.
"Never mind the papers, this time spread your arms a little more- it should help even out your body mass."
He nodded and lifted his frame into the previous position he had been in.
He held himself up longer this time. It would have been longer hadn't there been a knock at the door.
He toppled over in surprise, noticing Quickshadow tense up as well.
"Heatwave?" A familiar rotary called from the other side of the large slab of metal.
Quickshadow motioned for him to open the door as she hid the yoga mats under his desk.
He was so glad he remembered to lock the door.
The door slid open to reveal Blades standing patiently on the other side.
The orange creamsicle met his leader's gaze with a smile. "Hey Heatwave. Have you seen-" his attention was shifted to the femme behind the firebot.
"-Quickshadow..?" His brow cocked.
That was when he got a better look at the room and noticed its current condition.
Papers were scattered everywhere.
Blades shot Heatwave a sly smirk.
"Did I interrupt something?"
Heatwave's optics widened, Energon immediately staining his cheek plates a deep shade of blue.
"What?! N-no!...Why would you even say something like that?" He was utterly shocked the rotary had gone that far.
"Well- with your office this messy..and Quickshadow here..-uh.. " he felt his words get caught in his voicebox when he saw the mentioned femme slightly glaring at him.
"We were discussing a few matters concerning the preparations for the academy." Her servo moved to rest on her hip plate, discreetly nudging Heatwave to follow up on her cover story.
"Exactly what 'matters'?" Blades eyed the messy room behind them once more, smirk returning to his mouth plates.
Heatwave's face was priceless at the moment- he figured he could endure a bent tail rotor for teasing his teammate a little.
"Why are you here Blades?" Heatwave dodged the question, hoping Blades would shut his trap and cut to the point of his sudden visit.
Thankfully, the rotary obliged and decided he would tease his leader later.
"Dr. Szeto and Doc sent me to get Quickshadow because neither of you was answering your coms. They finished assembling the first Scrubbers for testing." He didn't push the part of their coms being off, partly because the mentioned Doctors were waiting for the femme and because he wanted to confront Heatwave about that small detail with the other mechs later on.
Quickshadow nodded at the orange bot and walked out the room, shooting Heatwave a small smile in the process.
"I'll be seeing you Heatwave."
The mech nodded and watched as she disappeared down the long corridor.
"So..you and Quickshadow huh?" He wiggled his metallic brows, nudging Heatwave with his 'elbow'.
"It's not like that!" Heatwave's brows furrowed in defense as he shoved the creamsicle's arm off him in annoyance.
"Mhm, and I'mMegatron." He rolled his optics with a small pout.
Heatwave's jaw clenched as he tried to maintain his composure in front of Blades- he was already failing horribly.
"Then..why is your office messy?"
Heatwave steadied his breathing as Quickshadow had taught him a few minutes ago, knowing that if he didn't- Blades would have more than just a few bent rotors to worry about.