When Arcee came out of recharge, she transformed and turned to see how Jack was doing; only she didn't find him on the couch. She looked around and saw Smokescreen must have woken up during the night, as his servo was lying on his chest plate. She narrowed her optics at the odd way it was elevated though, and she glanced at the couch, her thoughts going incredulous as she made her way over to the berth.

Arcee saw that lying under his hand, was Jack. He didn't look like he was being crushed, and he was smiling. Arcee looked between the two of them, and wondered what had happened during the night. She glanced up as she heard the heavy footsteps coming down the hall, and a moment later Optimus walked in. She saw him look down at Smokescreen and Jack before she shrugged. "I guess they were closer than we thought."

Jack stirred and blinked, but they grew wide when he caught sight of Optimus and Arcee looking at him. He looked down at the chest he was lying on, and the hand covering him up. "I can explain this." He said nervously and Arcee crossed her arms expectantly. "I had a talk with Smokescreen, and he offered to let me use his chest as a bed."

"And that's all you talked about?" Arcee questioned.

Jack nodded; his expression still nervous. "Uh, yeah, it was." He said and tried to push the hand away.

Smokescreen stirred behind him, groaning lightly. "Stop pushing, Jack. What's the matter, you want another kiss?" he asked and opened his optics, and they grew wide as well when he saw who was standing before them.

Arcee stared at them both in disbelief before she glowered at them. "Another?" she repeated. "If you weren't on a berth I'd-"

"Arcee." Optimus interrupted calmly. "Perhaps we should let them explain themselves."

Jack bit his lip, and nodded rapidly. "Nothing happened; I was just so glad that when Smokescreen woke up, I gave him a kiss on the cheek." He paused, and then added forcefully, "As friends of course." He said with an odd tone and Smokescreen smirked down at him.

"Well then you must really like your friends." He added and pulled his hand away from Jack.

"Ignore him." Jack muttered. "Can you get me down from here?" he asked sheepishly.

Arcee rolled her optics before she grabbed Jack and set him on the floor. "Ready to go?"

Jack looked back up at Smokescreen. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Of course." Smokescreen said loftily.

Jack grinned slightly. "I can see you're getting better already." He said shaking his head. "Yeah, I'm ready to go."

Arcee nodded and transformed. "Let's go then, Smokescreen will still be here when you come back." She said and paused. "You definitely need a shower."

Jack pulled his collar up and sniffed. He grimaced and looked up at Smokescreen. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't mind, having you close was worth it." Smokescreen replied. "Plus, I just got unthawed; there was no way I was going to pass up some extra heat." He said smirking.

Jack scowled at him, though he caught the playful look in the mech's optics. "Well, you were really cold." He huffed and he and Arcee drove off.

Smokescreen looked at Optimus sheepishly. "I guess you want to know what I was doing out there?"

"You can explain to me what happened, with Jack and what you were thinking, after you are fit for duty." Optimus said.

Smokescreen wanted to sigh in relief, but he knew he couldn't with the Prime right there. "Yes, sir."

"Well, you're certainly looking better." Miko said as she saw Jack walking up the steps of the school.

Jack smirked. "Smokescreen woke up; of course I'm feeling great."

"No, I mean you don't look like someone ran over your dog." Miko retorted and looked at him suspiciously. "Did something happen?" she questioned and Jack involuntarily flushed. "I knew it! What did you two do?"

"Nothing really." Jack replied quietly. "I talked to him mostly, and he let me sleep…next to him." he said as he wasn't going to give Miko anymore fuel than that tidbit.

Miko smirked triumphantly. "You confessed your love for him, didn't you?"

"Whoa, wait a minute, how did you come to that conclusion? We just slept on the same berth." Jack replied, though he silently admitted she wasn't far off the mark. Not that he was going to tell her that.

Miko crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "You two just slept on the same berth? Yeah right, what else happened?"

"Are you going to bug me until I tell you?" Jack asked dryly.

Miko smirked once more. "Only if you don't say anything."

Jack was about to reply when the bell rang. "Oh look, it's time to go to class." He said stiltedly and continued up the steps.

Miko followed after him. "How do you think the 'Bots are going to take this?"

"Why would they care? It's not like we're actually together." Jack retorted. 'At the moment.'

"But you want to be, don't you?" Miko shot back, but Jack didn't answer. "Bumblebee already knows, and he didn't freak out."

"We can't understand Bumblebee, so we don't know what he would have said." Jack retorted.

Miko huffed, but she grinned slyly at him. "Now that your hickey's gone, maybe Smokescreen will give you another one."

Jack blushed as the girl brushed past him. "Miko!"

"So how do things look, doc?" Smokescreen questioned more upbeat than before. He was certainly feeling much better, and he wanted nothing more than to move around on his own. The only downsides being he was sure he was in trouble and that the rule about him and Jack was still in effect.

"Physically your vitals check out, but I can't do anything about that processor of yours." Ratchet retorted as he began to unhook Smokescreen from the monitor.

"Hey!" Smokescreen exclaimed indignantly. He quieted down when Optimus came into the room and he smiled tentatively. "So, can I go?"

"Go where?" Ratchet muttered and Smokescreen frowned.

Optimus was silent for a moment, as if he was trying to gather his thoughts. "Smokescreen, we will discuss your punishment when you have explained why you went out, and what you were doing with Jack."

Smokescreen glanced at Ratchet, but groaned silently when he realized the mech wasn't going to leave. "I wanted to prove myself, that I could be useful. I might have miscalculated just a little bit."

"A little?" Ratchet asked disbelievingly.

Smokescreen's faceplate contorted, and he continued on. "I've just been a bit off, and Jack confessed he had feelings for me, that was what we were talking about."

Optimus looked bemused, while Ratchet looked even more disbelieving. Smokescreen felt flustered to having said that, as he was still having some reservations about giving Jack a chance. It had nothing to do with Jack specifically, but there were still some things that would be problematic, though trying to ignore it hadn't worked out well for either of them.

"And your feelings for Jack?" Optimus prodded.

Smokescreen's faceplate felt hot. "I like him." he said honestly. "I care about him; he willingly spent time with me."

"Given the amount of time you both have actually spent together, it seems unlikely your feelings are merely a spontaneous thing." Optimus replied.

Smokescreen froze as he stared in shock at the Prime. He was big trouble now, wasn't he? "What do you mean, sir?" he questioned, but the response was almost automatic, but he had to push past that. "Uh, how much trouble am gonna be in?"

"That remains to be decided on your answer." Optimus replied sternly.

Smokescreen grounded his denta nervously as he thought of how to explain it. In the end he decided to be up front about it, it seemed all their sneaking around had finally come back to bite them, as he was sure Jack was going to get an earful from his mother when she learned of this. "Jack and I have been spending time together, even after you said we couldn't see each other. He asked me to take him on his date, where he later confessed those feeling to me. The talk we had last night was actually about giving this a chance."

"Is that all there is?" Optimus questioned.

Smokescreen racked his processor for a moment. "Yeah, pretty sure it is." He replied, but grimaced. "No, wait, it's not. I went to see Jack the night he was grounded, when he got that black eye," he growled at the memory of not being able to do anything, "and when I saw it, I got angry."

Optimus stood a little straighter as he stared at Smokescreen. "Did you attack the human?"

"What? No, I'll admit that I wanted too," Smokescreen replied, "but Jack stopped me. He said if I did anything, then we'd both get in trouble for it, and I didn't want that, so I backed off." He explained and his expression twisted up nervously. "So what's the verdict?"

"While your honesty is refreshing," Optimus said and Smokescreen grimaced; he'd been keeping a lot back lately, hadn't he? "you both still went against the rules Mrs. Darby and myself set for you both. You will not be permitted to roam around together unsupervised here, and the ban either of you seeing each other will only apply to the outside."

"Optimus, are you sure it's wise to let them roam together at all?" Ratchet questioned. "Smokescreen's influence on Jack has not exactly brought out the best in him."

"Hey!" Smokescreen said offended. "I'll have you know that Jack's not as innocent as he seems." He added, but secretly he was relieved that his 'punishment' wasn't something more severe.

"As for your punishment," Optimus continued and Smokescreen's plating paled, "you will be cleaning the base."

"What, I'll be as old as Ratchet when I'm done." Smokescreen retorted and the medic crossed his arms and scoffed.

"And no doubt you'll still be breaking the rules then too." He added.

Smokescreen pressed his lips together tightly, as in the current situation; he didn't want things to escalate to an even worse reprimand.

When Jack got to the base with Arcee, he was surprised to see that Smokescreen was out of the berth, and scrubbing down the walls. "Uh, Smokescreen, what's going on?"

Smokescreen, grumbling about how it was going to take forever to clean the walls, paused and looked down at Jack, his optics brightening just a bit. "My punishment, I have to clean the base."

"At least it's not house arrest, right?" Jack questioned.

Smokescreen grimaced. "That's not all it is. We're supposed to be supervised, we can't be alone together."

Overhearing this, Miko smirked triumphantly. "I knew you two were together!"

"What? When did this happen?" Bulkhead asked confused as he looked between both Jack and Smokescreen.

Jack sighed exasperatedly. "We're not together, Miko."

"Not yet." Smokescreen added slyly and Jack blushed at the mech's grin.

"Anyway," Jack said and looked at Bulkhead, "not too long ago, it's kind of complicated."

"You two like each other, how's that complicated?" Miko questioned, but Jack didn't have time to reply as Optimus looked away from the monitor screen.

"Autobots, one of the Omega keys locations has been decrypted." He stated gravely. "We depart immediately."

"Even me?" Smokescreen asked hopefully.

Optimus paused only momentarily. "Yes, Smokescreen, you too." He said and Smokescreen looked relieved to be doing something other than cleaning.

Jack gently stopped Smokescreen's walk by placing a hand on his leg to catch his attention. "Uh, be careful." He said unsure of what to say.

Smokescreen smirked and knelt down. "Don't worry, I will." He said loftily and carefully picked Jack up in his servos, a sly grin once more on his lips. "Kiss for the road?"

Jack flushed as Miko's attention snapped to him. "Not in front of everyone." He said awkwardly.

Smokescreen shrugged and set Jack down after ruffling his hair with one digit. "Next time then." He said walked over to the open green portal.

Jack saw Arcee looking at him with a raised optic ridge. "Er, you take care too." He said rubbing the back of his neck, but Arcee just smirked slightly and followed the others into the portal.

Miko raced over to him once it closed. "What was that about a kiss?"

"Nothing, he was just joking." Jack replied tiredly as he knew Miko wasn't going to let it go.

"I saw the way you looked at each other, that was not just nothing." Miko said smugly.

Jack rolled his eyes as he made his way up the platform stairway, trying to stave Miko off for as long as possible.