Sundress
THANK YOU TO ALEXLUKE for your continued support and feedback!
AN: Sorry for the delay in posting but I have been battling severe back issues and been unable to sit and write. I was able to scratch out a little something to tide you over until next week, where I'll do a bigger chapter. PROMISE!
I'm trying to get caught up on all writing projects. Between this fic, Sai-Fi, Vengeance, Not Broken, and some random Ninja turtle ideas, it's been difficult getting the time and ability to sit for an extended period and get some writing done.
Please bear with me. :D
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"That's a horrible color," Sunstreaker said, his olfactory sensor turned up.
"Do you know what this shade cost me?" Sideswipe asked, sounding miffed.
"You were robbed," Sunstreaker quipped.
"Only the best specialist on Cybertron worked on me! Spoilsport!" Sideswipe snapped, his optics glowering. "I had to pay hefty credits and be on the waiting list for a full vorn!"
"You were still robbed," Sunstreaker reaffirmed.
"What's so bad about it?" Sideswipe asked, adopting a defensive posture. He thought he looked dashing.
"Doesn't suit you," Sunstreaker said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Did you miss the designation?" Sideswipe asked. "Spoilsport? As in, the most highest paid design and painter on the entire planet and all it's colonies!"
"Designation doesn't mean a thing to me," Sunstreaker said, having done his own paint job since he could hold a brush.
"Obviously," Sideswipe scoffed, thinking himself superior.
"A bot should be painted in a scheme that not only accents their frame, but reflects their personality," Sunstreaker said, not finding anything of note to the blasé paint job his brother sported. Honestly, mauve, orange, and beige? Was Spoilsport totally blind? "Perhaps this was a joke? Played on you by one of your business 'victims'?"
"After what I paid?" Sideswipe snorted, not seeing how anyone would be so lowly over something as trivial as credits.
"Then perhaps the mech has suffered damage to his optics and processor," Sunstreaker commented. He was getting a headache from Sideswipe's hideous paint scheme. If Cybertronian's were prone to seizures, he was sure Sideswipe's paint would be a direct cause.
Sideswipe riled on the mech's behalf. "They're fine! Top of the line! The BEST! He has to have perfect vision in order to create his masterpieces."
"More like, laughing stocks," Sunstreaker amended, looking away lest he purge his tanks. He was getting dizzy. "I can't believe you actually paid someone to make you look like that!"
Sideswipe's ire died down. Yes, he had spent a fortune on Spoilsports 'artistic genius' but now that he thought about it, and watching his brother cringe and look away, he had encountered similar responses from strangers when he strolled home. He thought they were merely jealous, but upon reflection, maybe they were as sickened as Sunstreaker appeared.
"Do I really look that bad?" Sideswipe asked softly.
Sunstreaker perked, not liking the dark thrum now filtering through their bond.
Sideswipe was upset. More than upset, he was furious and embarrassed and humiliated. He was ugly. Though his ego was usually all fun and games and larger than Unicron's spike, his self-esteem was remarkably thin and fragile.
"I thought he was all the rage," Sideswipe said, all posture and grandeur now gone. The full reality of his situation was settling in his processor and cracking the shell of his unstable ego.
As if in omen, a message came through the community comm.. Sunstreaker answered it, hoping it was good news to bolster Sideswipe's broken spark.
An ugly mech, with a gun metal grey, rounded body and a face only gravel could love, gloated over the line.
"Hope you like your new scheme, fragger! Next time you try to swindle me, you'll get more than a horrible paint job!"
With the mech's grating laughter echoing in the room, Sunstreaker made a note of the mech's locator and turned off the vid. He turned to his twin, asking the obvious.
"Did you swindle him?"
"What? No! It wasn't me! It was that mech I had to fire earlier! He was switching labels and double billing my clients!"
"And you didn't have anything to do with it?" Sunstreaker asked evenly.
Sideswipe held up his hand in a solemn oath.
"I swear by Primus, I didn't swindle him or any of my clients. Happy customers are repeat customers. I'm not going to damage my reputation of being an honest businessbot just to earn a few credits."
Sideswipe had a point. He ran a good business. And he was correct. If he jilted or lied to his customers, he'd develop a bad reputation and no one would do business with him. Honesty kept his business afloat. He wouldn't sully his reputation for a few credits.
Now if high grade was involved, there was no limit to the debauchery and insanity Sideswipe would be responsible for. But that was his personal life, not his business.
"I've never been so humiliated!" Sideswipe growled. He glanced to his freshly redesigned frame and snarled, "Dear, Primus! You're right! This is hideous! How did I ever think otherwise?"
Though Sunstreaker was more of a sculptor, he appraised his brother's lines, his meta working over the best color scheme. His brother had been just about every color imaginable with different colored accents, but nothing seemed to ever sit right with him. He was forever changing his design.
"Can you do something?" Sideswipe asked, near panic stricken. "I can't let anyone see me like this!"
Sunstreaker wasn't too hopeful, but he motioned to Sideswipe.
"Strip down. The plating will have to be sanded and primed properly, then I'll see what I can do."
"Oh, you're a spark saver!" Sideswipe crowed, removing his armor and depositing it on a scouring tray Sunstreaker used to strip down the metals he used in his sculptures.
"No promises," Sunstreaker reiterated, waiting until his brother was stripped to his basic protoform before taking the lurid armor into his studio to be stripped of the beige paint with mauve and orange plaid.
Honestly, how could anyone wear something so horrible?
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The paint took four trips through the scouring bath before it finally disappeared from Sideswipe's armor. Once cleaned down to its most basic, Sunstreaker called his brother in and made him redress, using a measuring laser to mark off certain areas for reconfiguring.
"What are you doing?" Sideswipe asked as Sunstreaker measured across his chest and made two identical marks along his pectoral regions.
"This armor is still too bulky for your build," Sunstreaker said, motioning toward his own sleeker design. "You need a more slimline effect to suit your frame."
"You calling me fat?" Sideswipe grinned, but trusted his brother's judgment.
Once measured, Sideswipe disrobed again, keeping himself hidden in their shared apartment and refusing to allow anyone see him so naked. Through the day and night, and into the next day, Sunstreaker worked on the armor, trimming and polishing and molding it just right.
On the third day he had his brother try the armor on again, and Sideswipe couldn't stop the gawk at his own physique. Why, he looked even better than his previously boxy frame.
"Nice,' he muttered, but Sunstreaker wasn't interested in conversation.
Blue optics scanned the frame and made mental calculations and with a longsuffering bark of orders, Sideswipe was made to strip again. He fussed about being naked so long and being caged up in their apartment. He could have easily adorned a thinner, lighter alloy to leave the apartment and conduct business, but with the current state of unease among the lower classes that was slowly filtering its way up into the high towers, it wasn't safe to leave your home without a high grade armor fitting.
Sunstreaker stayed up all night, priming and painting the newly molded armor. The next day was spent applying layers and finally, near the midnight hour, the sealant to keep the paint immaculate.
By the time Sideswipe dragged his naked carcass out of berth, Sunstreaker was buffing the final wax on the newly minted armor.
"Whoa," Sideswipe muttered upon seeing his new scheme for the first time…a rich deep carmine the shade of spent organic blood, and glossy black.
"Try it on," Sunstreaker said, motioning toward the pile of finished pieces.
Sideswipe didn't need telling twice. Hurriedly he redressed. When he was finished he whistled in appreciation, observing himself in the full length mirror in Sunny's studio.
"Sunshine, you outdid yourself," Sideswipe praised, turning this way and that, admiring his gorgeous reflection.
"Shut up," Sunstreaker snarled without vehemence. "Now, take your new armored aft out of here and let me get some real work done!"
Sideswipe breezed out of the room as silent as a shadow.
Sunstreaker returned to his sculpting, glad to be rid of his twin. The annoying monster kept spark nudging him during his quarantine and the Pit for brains was notoriously destructive when he was bored. He had already trashed his room… twice.
Now Sunstreaker had peace and quiet, in home and in spark, to work on his sculptures.
His work wasn't meant to be though. Within a few moments, his comms was alive with chatter from his twin.
"Sunny, everyone is loving my new look!" Sideswipe said over the comms and flooding their bond with jubilation.
It annoyed Sunstreaker.
"Great."
"Seriously, bro, I've had a dozen mechs ask me who did the work and now they want your info," Sideswipe said, filling their bond with so much love and glee, Sunstreaker nearly hurled. "What would you charge to do a total refit like mine?"
Sunstreaker wasn't really interested in doing such a thing, being more of a studio artist than a model designer, so he threw out the first number that came to mind.
"Hundred thousand credits."
A minute later, Sideswipe answered.
"Do you want me to book appointments? I have three mechs here who are interested."
Sunstreaker's hands fumbled with the arc wielder. He made an inadvertent scar along the sculpture.
"What? Are you serious?" he asked, turning off the flame lest he do more damage.
"Yup," Sideswipe chimed along the link. "I think you found your new job."
Sunstreaker stood in complete shock as Sideswipe opened up the link, allowing him to hear the mechs discuss prices, artist availability, and estimated time for completion. When one offered one million credits to be redesigned and painted a proper color scheme, Sunstreaker's optics rolled back into his head and he fell into an unconscious heap, unaware of his brother happily filling up a schedule for their new (shared) business venture.
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