"Isn't it great to be back?" The question wasn't directed to anyone in specific.
"Definitely. It has been a while since our last visit." The police bot smiled at his green friend.
"I can't wait to go sightseeing! Last time we couldn't because of the mission." The orange copter added, excitedly snapping pictures of his surroundings.
"Where should we go first?" The copter bot turned his helm every which way, deciding on where to go first.
"Ooh, how about..we ditch Cybertron and go to Velocitron instead?" The purple speedster chimed in. "Hear the races are pretty good this time of year." He grinned excitedly.
"Blurr, we went over this..we stick together, it's the whole point of a team vacation." Salvage placed a servo on his purple friend's shoulder plate to calm him down.
"Ugh! Fine. I'll spare you all the humiliation of losing." His disappointment was eminent in his tone but he covered it with one of his signature, annoying smirks.
His small 'glory moment', however, was short-lived as his optics darted to the back of the group and a sudden wave of regret washed over his entire system when he remembered the agent bot had come with them as well.
"Overconfident as ever." She rolled her optics, finally looking up from the built-in monitor on her arm.
"O-oh yeah...Quickshadow.." he nervously scratched his neck cables.
Blades raised an optic ridge at the Blurr's sudden change in behavior. He noticed the sarcasm in Quickshadow's tone and was intrigued by what she was hinting at.
"Why the long face, Blurr?"
"N-nothing! It's nothing." Blurr stammered, not wanting the entire team to find out the outcome of the little race he and Quickshadow had back at the opening of the training center.
The special ops femme had practically handed him his aft on a silver platter.
The other bots looked at Blurr with dubious faces.
'You talkin' 'bout the race you had with Quickshadow?' Salvage asked, a small chuckle followed his question.
"How did you-" The speedster was cut off by a storm of laughter from the other mechs.
"You raced Quickshadow?" Blades asked in between laughs.
Blurr furrowed his optics brows and crossed his arms over his chassis. "Yeah." He muttered.
"I was watchin' playback of the security camera's after Elma went haywire 'n saw the race. By the way Quickshadow, nice finish, you were holdin' back some weren't you?" He turned to face the femme who let out one of her rare, halfhearted laughs as she nodded her helm.
Heatwave trailed behind the others. He was beginning to regret agreeing to come along on this little trip but the whole team was well overdue for a vacation.
Their human partners convinced him to go.
"Go have fun Heatwave, everything will be fine. We'll handle things here." Cody had said, ever the optimist.
"Yeah, we can take care of ourselves." Kade had 'said'. No one was able to understand his muffled words with all that pizza in his mouth, but Heatwave was able to translate his gibberish just fine.
Heatwave had rolled his eyes at his partner's statement. He kept quiet, deciding it was best not to start another long, pointless argument with the redhead.
'3 days- only three days.' He reminded himself, silently praying something went wrong back on Griffin Rock so he could go back.
"Lighten up love." A familiar accent filled his audials. 'Ignore them, try to enjoy yourself.'
He looked to his left and found Quickshadow typing something on the small monitor.
"It's not often you get to take a break, I know how stressful these past few months were on you, loosen up a bit." She finally looked up, her blue optics met his amber ones.
The mech gave her a small nod as her gaze returned to the files displayed on her screen.
She was right. Preparations for the opening of the academy hadn't been easy, and with most of the other bots surveilling the new Scrubber technology undergoing production on different parts of the globe, he, Chase, and the Burnses were often the only ones available to respond to all the rescue calls on Griffin Rock.
If any bot needed a break, it was him. But being the stubborn workaholic he is, it isn't easy to sit back and relax when there was still so much to get done.
"So, Hive city?" Boulder pleaded. "Okay fine, but we're going straight to Cybercity right after." Blades reluctantly agreed.
"I have to meet up with someone in Cybercity in half an hour, you mechs go on without me," Quickshadow announced, getting ready to leave.
"But..Team vacation remember?' Blades pouted.
"Need I remind you, I only tagged along this far because you wouldn't stop bothering me and I needed to tend to some matters in Cybercity anyway." She slightly rolled her optics in annoyance.
"Who are you meeting up with?" Blurr asked out of curiosity.
Quickshadow crossed her arms over her chassis, "That's classified-" She saw Heatwave giving her a suspicious look from the corner of her optics.
"I'm simply filing in a report, and if it makes you all feel any better, we can meet up in the city later." She sighed in defeat.
"Alright. We'll contact you in about 2 hours" Boulder smiled.
The femme only nodded before she transformed and drove off in the direction of Cybercity.
"If I remember correctly- Hive City should be..that way." Salvage pointed towards his right.
"Nu-uh. It's that way." Blurr pointed in the opposite direction.
"No no, Hive city is that way." Blades pointed in a different direction altogether.
Irritated, Heatwave let out a low growl loud enough for the others to hear, his optics glaring at them with a firey amber glow.
"How about we use the GPS?" Chase suggested. "Good thinking Chase." Boulder quickly nodded, not wanting to enrage Heatwave anymore.
"It's that way." Boulder pointed in a completely new direction than the other mechs. "What?! I could've sworn it was this way." Blurr mumbled.
"Hmph..let's just go.." Blades huffed in defeat and began to walk behind Boulder with the others following behind him.
Heatwave ex-vented for what seemed like the millionth time that day. He was just about to follow the other mechs when he caught a glimpse of a small piece of paper on the floor where Quickshadow stood a few minutes ago.
Curious, he picked it up and saw that it was a business card, belonging to some bot named 'Umbra'.
His optic brows furrowed in confusion. He felt an unfamiliar feeling wash over him.
Who was this mech?
Was Quickshadow going to see him?
How long had she been keeping this from him?
He was stunned by his thoughts. He wasn't dating Quickshadow, therefore he had no right to question who she contacted or where she went.
Still- he couldn't shake off this foreign feeling that had crept into his processor.
'Did she come here to file her report, or was that just a cover story?'
He contemplated this new theory, he knew the femme was good with words- too good.
Over the years, he learned to read her more clearly. When they had first met her, she had waved off the idea of her being an actress when Kade brought it up. Ironically, Heatwave soon found she was really good at acting.
"Heatwave? You coming?"
The red mech slightly flinched at the green mech's voice. The others were well ahead of him, looking back at him with confused looks.
"You guys go ahead, I'll meet you in Cybercity."
"What for? Where are you going?" Chase called back at him.
"I..need to take care of something." He uncharacteristically stuttered.
The other mechs exchanged dubious glances as the fire bot transformed and drove off.
"Hm..wonder what's up with him.." Salvage thought out loud as he continued to walk with the others.
"Isn't It obvious? He's going back for Quickshadow." Blades replied with a slight grin.
"Maybe he'll finally mech up and confess his feelings to her." Blurr rolled his optics playfully.
"I don't think he even realizes that he likes her." Boulder shook his helm.
"Really? But it's soo obvious! The way he looks at her and talks to her.." Blades went on and on.
"Do you think she likes him back?" Salvage asked.
The others pondered over his question for a few seconds.
"Truthfully, I don't know. Quickshadow doesn't open up very much." Chase gave the first response.
"Quickshadow's pretty reserved about her emotions, but I think she might." Boulder smiled hopefully.
"I think she does. Remember when she came for Early-ween?" Blades asked
The other mechs, excluding Blurr and Salvage, nodded.
Blades began going on and on about all the times Quickshadow had supposedly flirted with Heatwave and the others had begun to get irritated.
"Okay, okay we get it!" Blurr interrupted the Copter bot.
"Hm..She might've been teasing him." Boulder shrugged once more.
"I re-call Quickshadow complimenting Heatwave after their sparring match.' Chase added.
"I remember that too." Boulder nodded
"Guys..we should set them up!" Blades said enthusiastically.
"You sure that's a good idea?' Boulder asked.
"I'm in, sounds fun." Salvage smiled.
"Sure, got nothing better to do." Blurr shrugged.
"Is it mandatory to intervene?" Chase asked, not wanting to force things between the Red mech and femme.
"Come on Chase. Do it for Heatwave!" Blades pleaded.
"...Fine." he sighed with a nod.
They all turned to Boulder.
"Alright! But if they get mad, this was not my idea" He frowned.
"I second that." Chase finished.
With that, the five of them continued walking in direction towards Hive city, discussing how they were going to pull off their little plan.
A cool breeze blew past Quickshadow as she leaned against a tall blue 'office-like' building, watching as other bots walked past her from both directions.
She ex-vented in annoyance as she checked her internal clock to see just how long she had been waiting for this bot.
30 minutes
She scoffed and rubbed her temples.
She was currently waiting on a mech namedUmbra, a spy-bot who had run into her the last time she had come to file a report to one of her bases.
He offered to exchange contacts with her.
The femme was in a bit of a rush that day so she accepted without thinking much of it.
She had forgotten about him altogether until he messaged her a few days later.
It started off where he would ask a few questions about her, she answered a few of them, but left the one's she felt were too personal unanswered.
Then he started messaging her daily, asking what she was up to and what she did on this 'other planet'.
She felt as if she was back at the espionage academy she had attended, taking a multiple answer choice test.
After a few weeks of 'getting to know each other', Umbra asked if she was free the following weekend.
Quickshadow knew exactly where this was going.
When she confirmed that she was, he invited her to some cafe in Cybercity.
She was going to turn down his offer, she tried, but the mech was very insisting.
'Come on, it could help you get your mind off of work for a while.'
She reluctantly agreed, after all, she was scheduled to go file another report anyways, and so now here she was, standing next to the building they agreed upon meeting at.
She checked her clock again-40 minutes.
She internally facepalmed at how gullible she had been, how- why did she let herself get played like this?
She knew this would be the outcome yet she still went with it, hoping that maybe, just maybe, this mech would be different.
Nope.
'And he wondered why I didn't open up easily.' She let out a small chuckle in spite of herself.
A slight vibration on her left servo jolted her out of her thoughts.
She opened the monitor, fully knowing the contents of the message.
'Hey, sorry for the short notice; I just got a new mission I need to complete; I'm going to have to cancel.'She raised an optic brow at this and saw right through his lie. How convenient for him to be assigned when his entire unit had the day off.
Her processor immediately began to occupy itself with other thoughts, bottling up all the negative as she had done countless times before. At this point, it was simply second nature to her.
Heatwave transformed into his robot form just as he reached the street that was on the small piece of paper.
Upon further inspection of the business card, he found a street name and building number written in cursive, no doubt the femme's handwriting.
He didn't exactly know why he had gone after her in the first place.
The unfamiliar emotion compelled him to find her.
Why? He didn't know, but he found himself wandering through an unfamiliar street- optics scanning the area for any sign of the femme.
He walked down the sidewalk deep in thought;
Why was he doing this?
What did the others think of him suddenly going after her?
What would he even say to her if he found her?'Hey Quickshadow, I came all the way here because you dropped your boyfriend's business card?'
There was that strange feeling again.
That mech couldn't possibly be her mechfriend, right? Surely Quickshadow wasn't that good at keeping secrets- right?
His optics widened at his own thoughts.
Who was he to question her love life?
But yet- he felt a small ache in his spark at the thought of her having a lover.
'What's wrong with me?'His optic brows furrowed together.
He wasn't sure he would be able to face the femme anymore. He knew he would lose it if he saw the so called 'Umbra' with her.
He shook his helm, unsure of what to do.
As he kept walking aimlessly, his optics caught sight of the femme leaning against the tall blue building.
His spark beat sped up. He vented, trying not to overheat in embarrassment.
He glanced back at her, a slight frown visible on her mouth plates.
Concern weaved its way into his processor and he unknowingly began to walk over to her.
The next thing he knew, his digits had made contact with her shoulderpads.
She flinched at his touch, making him draw his servo back.
"..Heatwave?"
"Awe, do we have to go?" Boulder pouted. He reached his servo out to the entrance of the city as Blurr and Salvage pulled him along.
"Yep," Blurr replied as he pulled Boulder by his left arm.
"But- all those marks on the walls and- and the pillars! The data!"
"We get it big fella, but we agreed to meet up with Quickshadow and Heatwave in Cybercity remember?" Salvage reminded.
Boulder frowned as the city's entrance for smaller and smaller.
The two hours they were given had felt like 5 minutes.
He would make sure to come back someday and take more pictures and samples for Doc Greene and Graham.
*click*The flash on Blade's camera illuminated Boulder's faceplates.
"Haha, look." Blades turned the camera so Boulder could see the image he had captured of him.
"Haha, hey!" Boulder grinned at the picture. "Send that to me." He chuckled.
Blades nodded and helped his green friend up. "Finally! My arms were beginning to cramp!" Blurr stretched his arms out.
"Sorry guys." Boulder smiled sheepishly.
"No worries." Salvage smiled and continued walking.
"You think Cody'll like the souvenir I got him?" Blurr asked holding up the small rock souvenir shaped like a carved pillar he had bought from a vendor they passed by in the city.
"It's nice, ya' think he'll like my souvenir?" Salvage held up a small necklace he had made as they toured the city.
He had woven thin pieces of leather together and tied a small piece of the broken wall on it.
"Nice necklace." Blurr complimented.
"Looks good, I'm sure he's gonna like it.' Blades smiled and snapped a picture of it.
"Thanks." Salvage smiled and put away the piece of jewelry.
"What did you get Dani?" Blurr questioned the orange heli.
"I got the tiniest keychain I could find." He held out a keychain that was roughly a sixth the size of Dani.
"She could use it as a small statue for her room." Boulder pointed out.
Blades shrugged and nodded at the idea.
"I cannot reach either Heatwave or Quickshadow, their comlinks must be out of range." Chase joined the others.
"I may be able to locate them, give me a minute." The green mech began to track the cybertronians.
After a few minutes, Boulder was finally able to get their coordinates.
"They're in Cybercity, Heatwave is just a few miles away from her, let's go," Boulder announced.
"Of course he is." Blades chuckled and shook his helm.
"Let's just go already." Blurr was about to transform when Blades pulled him back.
"Okay, but first- group selfie!" Blades smiled.
Blurr groaned. The others huddled around him and made goofy faces at the camera, Blades moved the camera to get a full view of Hive City behind them.
"Hey! That's my ped!" Blurr winced.
"Sorry." Salvage scooted to the right.
"Chase, can you move back a little?" Boulder asked.
"Boulder your not in the frame- ow! my arm." Blades hissed.
"Sorry-, Blades, your ped's in the way!" Boulder tried to fit into the frame but accidentally hit Blades' ped and lost his balance.
"Woah!" They crashed on the floor in a messy pile.
Click*
"What are you doing here?"
"..pardon?" Quickshadow's brows furrowed in confusion.
Heatwave finally registered what he had asked.'What are you doing here'?..She should be the one asking him that. She wasn't the one who chased after him.
He shook his helm and scratched his neck cables.
"Sorry, I didn't expect to find you here."
He internally facepalmed at his weird behavior. Something wasdefinitelywrong with him.
Quickshadow dismissed his previous statement and his odd behavior, though she still observed him carefully.
"It's alright, what are you doing here anyway?"
"I asked first." The mech finally composed himself for the time being and gave her a small smirk.
"Stubborn as ever ey?" Quickshadow crossed her arms over her chassis, allowing a half-hearted smile to form on her mouth plates.
"But if you must know, I was simply waiting on-"
"Umbra?" Heatwave's tone turned slightly sour.
"..Yes." Quickshadow gave him a questioning look.
"You dropped this business card." He held out the small paper to the femme.
"Oh..thank you." She took the paper from his servo.
Heatwave felt the tension between them, something was off. Something was bothering her.
"Are you alright?" He asked suddenly.
Quickshadow looked up at him for a brief moment before responding.
She carefully chose her words, relaxing her voice box to calibrate her tone with ease. She was mindful of her body language as she spoke.
"Yes, why do you ask?" She mimicked a confused tone.
The mech frowned.
"Drop the act Quickshadow." He crossed his arms over his chassis. Optics narrowed in slight annoyance.
He wasn't buying one word.
"What are you inquiring at?" Quickshadow raised her guard.
"That may have worked on the others but I'm not so easy to fool." He gave her a stern look.
Frag. He had seen right through her.
"What's bothering you?" His tone softened, much to Quickshadow's surprise.
She was at a loss. She'd never been in this type of scenario before.
Someone had managed to see past her fib and now he was asking her to open up to him?
However, something seemed familiar with this setting, arepeatingconcept.
She couldn't quite put a finger on it, but somehow, his sudden change in tone put her on edge.
She had never heard his voice soften that much, ever.
Her brows suddenly furrowed and she slightly unfolded her servos.
Heatwave cocked an optic brow at her sudden change in expression.
"..What?"
"You're upset over something. What is it?"
Something buried deep within her programming triggered her to snap at him.
"I'm fine Heatwave." Her tone became stern, her optics narrowed slightly as she looked at him.
"Hey, calm down. I'm only trying to help you." He raised his servos and took a small step back.
"By taking advantage of me being in this vulnerable state?" Her optics glistened with rage.
"W-what?" The red mech stared at her dumbfounded.
"Please. I've played this game far too many times Heatwave. Quit acting as if you cared." She took a step towards him, optics fixed on him. She felt her voice quiver just slightly.
She was loosing control of her emotions.
"Game?..What game?"
He noticed she had turned away from him and was concentrating on calming her breathing so he cautiously walked closer to her and placed a servo on her shoulder pad.
The femme flinched at the sudden contact once more and turned to face him, a bit calmer.
"I'm just concerned, you're upset over something."
"Why do you care?" She questioned, her voice softened to more of a whisper.
Heatwave furrowed his brows at this.
"..You're my teammate, of course I care for your well-being."
Quickshadow fought the warm energon that threatened to stain her cheek-plates.
She felt embarrassed for lashing out at him like that.
How did she let herself lose control that easily?
'Get a hold of yourself, your slipping.'
"..I apologize Heatwave. I don't know why I lashed out like that." Her tone was soft and quiet, she looked up at him apologetically.
"It's alright.." Heatwave turned away from her. He didn't know why seeing her like this affected him so much.
A moment of silence fell upon the two Cybertronians.
"..I was- stood up." She admitted out of the blue.
Heatwave's optics widened for a second before he turned back to face her.
She was looking back at him, with little emotion on her faceplates.
But he heard her hurt tone and it made him clench his fist.
All at once, his previous thoughts replayed in his helm.
'Did she like him?'
'How long has this been going on?'
As if she was reading his thoughts, she continued, "I didn't like him. He, quite literally, ran into me the last time I came to file a report. We exchanged contacts and he hasn't stopped bothering since then. He insisted I meet him here so we could go to a cafe. I tried to turn him down plenty, but the mech was too persistent in his pleading."
She paused, letting Heatwave process everything she had just said.
He urged her to keep going with a small nod, he wanted her to finish venting before he could comfort her.
"I agreed because I was scheduled to turn in another report anyways and it seemed like a good way to distract myself for a little while." She rolled her optics.
"He sent a text a few minutes prior to your arrival, stating he had a new mission and he couldn't come." Hints of rage were evident in her tone, yet her faceplates still held their emotionless expression.
He gave her a confused look. The mech had a mission to take care of. Surely Quickshadow would understand the whole 'The job comes first' scenario.
"The whole fragging unit has the day off. I would've been notified of a pending mission as well." She crossed her arms over her chassis.
With that revelation, he brushed away every sympathetic thought towards the mech he just had and looked down at the hurt femme in front of him.
"..It's his loss." He placed a servo on her shoulder and this time, she didn't shy away. "..I'm sorry for all this Quickshadow. You deserve better"
She swallowed and nodded a small thanks.
"...It was wrong of me to acuse you like that, Heatwave. I'm sorry. I'm not used to mechs being genuine with me. Working solo really messes with one's trust at times." She looked to the ground.
"I understand. But you're one of us now, don't forget that."
He let a small smile form on his faceplates.
QUickshadow only limited herself to nod.
"..Thank you, Heatwave." A small genuine smile graced her dermas.
"If you ever need to vent, I'll always be here to listen." He promised.
"Likewise." Her smile grew a little more.
"How much further?" Blurr groaned.
"Not much, just a few more turns," Boulder replied.
"Can you see them from up there Blades?" Salvage called out to the orange creamsicle.
"Huh?" Blades hadn't heard the mech, he was too busy snapping pictures of the landscape below him.
"Blades, you shouldn't use the camera excessively, save the battery," Chase advised.
Blades didn't listen to him and continued clicking away.
"Why do I bother?" Chase muttered.
"Can you see Heatwave and Quickshadow?" Salvage repeated.
"Oh, um..-" The rotary began to scan the area.
"They should be just another turn up ahead." Boulder appeared on everyone's intercoms.
"I think I see them!" Blades announced. He suddenly gasped and flew down.
"Everyone stop!" He ordered, transforming as soon as he touched down on the ground.
"What's wrong?" The others transformed as the orange rotary sprinted towards them.
"Shh, their right around the corner, Heatwave's talking to her." He grinned excitedly and ran to the corner, the other hot on his tracks.
"What are they saying?" Boulder whisper-yelled.
"I'm not sure, though I believe Quickshadow just yelling at him," Chase replied, not making an effort to lower his voice.
"That's harsh, poor Cap'n." Fake pity was eminent in Blurr's tone.
The other mechs glared at him, excluding Chase- who, quite frankly, didn't understand why his teammates were making such a big fuss over their leader and newest member talking to one another.
"What? It's kinda funny if you think abou-" He stopped talking once he noticed their glares had intensified more.
"Okay okay, jeez." He huffed in annoyance.
"Chase, whisper." Boulder reminded the police bot.
The blue mech, still a little confused, simply nodded his helm and kept quiet.
"Oh my Primus- he's holding her servo!" Blades almost yelled.
"What?" Boulder peaked around the corner, and much to his surprise found that the copter bot was right.
Quickshadow seemed a little confused as well.
He was suddenly pulled back by Blades who had taken out his camera.
He quickly adjusted the camera to fit both Cybertronians into the frame.
*clic—*
"Huh?!" Blades shook his camera, and saw the screen fade to black.
A red exclamation mark lit up the screen, a notice to charge the device.
"Nooo!" Blades slid down to his knees.
The others rolled their optics, annoyed by how dramatic the rotary could be at times.
"Tsk. Tsk. I told you to save the battery." Chase shook his helm, amplifying the 'tsk' in his sentence.
"Uh, guys? We've been spotted."
"Can I see you arm?"
"What for?" Quickshadow lifted her arm to him.
"You'll see." He took her servo, earning him a curious glance from the femme.
He opened her built-in monitor and moved down her contact list, looking for the mech's name.
She watched as he silently deleted the spy from her contacts.
Having finished deleting the contact, he finally let go of her servo.
The femme looked back at him with a full smile.
He found himself awestruck by her smile, what was she doing to him?!
He managed a small smile in return.
Unfortunately, the small moment was short-lived.
The femme suddenly turned around. Something caught her attention.
He followed her gaze to the corner behind them.
"What is it?" He asked co fused.
"The rest of the team." She seemed unfazed.
Heatwave looked once more and saw a green ped slightly locking out from the edge of the corner.
Boulder
They had been watching them.
Energon quickly rose to his cheek plates and he tilted his helmet down in an attempt to hide his blue faceplates.
"Uh, guys? We've been spotted." Salvage's voice was heard from behind the wall.
"Scrap!" Blurr muttered under his breath.
Heatwave desperately tried to get himself together and act casually.
Quickshadow cast the 5 mechs a stern look, pushing them to explain themselves.
"H-hey Quickshadow! Crazy bumping into you guys here don't you think?" Blurr nervously laughed.
"Yes, what acoincidence." Sarcasm drenched her words.
"Well? Aren't you going to explain yourselves?" She crossed her arms over her chassis.
"Explain w-what?" Blades asked, with few stutters.
"Why you lot where watching us from behind that wall for the past 7 minutes." She pinched the bridge of her ol' factory sensors.
She turned to Blurr who began to shake under her glare.
"It wasn't my idea, honest!" He pleaded his innocence. Last time he had crossed Quickshadow, she didn't let him race for a month.
"I- we um.." Blades looked to the others for help.
"Boulder managed to track you his GPS and we came to find you two. Blades insisted we hide behind the wall and watch yo—mmph". Boulder slapped his servo over Chase's mouth, cutting him off.
"We were just comin' to meet up with you guys." Salvage spoke up.
Heatwave, finally having gotten hold of his weird emotions, chuckled at the scene before him.
5 mechs trembling and pleading before the femme.
He was surprised and amused when Blurr stated his innocence to the femme, fear evident in his faceplates.
Quickshadow certainly had a him on a tight leash.
"Don't let it happen again." Her gaze softened.
"Yes ma'am." The mechs, relieved, straightened their posture.
"So..where to now?" Boulder asked.
They all turned to Heatwave.
"Uh.." he looked to Quickshadow.
She thought for a small moment and a small smile appeared on her faceplates.
The other mechs looked to her curiously.
"...There's a cafe down the street.."
