Log 4: Compromise
Prompt: Be True to Yourself
Episode: Blast from the Past
Notes: Prowl, Ratchet and Bumblebee started it...
There was a bang and the wall went sailing across the entirety of the complex for the fourth time in as many days.
Bumblebee and Prowl were at it again.
Ratchet clenched the tools in his hands (delicate ones that shouldn't be unduly stressed the medic reminded himself) and pressed his face into a very straight line. He was the portrait of patience worn entirely too thin.
Fortunately the charred metal landed in a most opportune place...directly in front of Optimus Prime.
Whose patience hadalso run out.
"Bumblebee! Front and center, now!" his voice echoed across the cavernous space. Every bit the leader he was slowly shaping up to be.
Said yellow bot slunk from where he'd skidded only a few steps ahead of Prowl's chase. The medic caught a distinctive snatch of "he started it" before the Autobot leader fixed Bumblebee with a look and glared the youngster out into the evening air.
"Get over here." Ratchet ordered in the ensuing silence and the medic made sure it wasn't the tone that this team was accustomed to hearing from him. It was short and a little too seriously vicious to be ignored (as Prowl was wont to do when someone's orders didn't suit his plans).
A long pause.
And then.
"This was entirely his fault Ratchet..."
Bright optics pinned Prowl before he could even hope to begin an explanation.
"It takes two bots to fight Prowl. It was both your faults. I'd expect you to at least be old enough to admit that."
"You can't possibly expect us to get along Ratchet. And I will not change my behavior or my beliefs simply because he is too much of an inconsiderate sparkling to respect my space, privacy and life!"
This was not a new argument.
Friction between them had been longstanding--even on the Ark. And despite having made significant strides to work together on the battlefield; on the homefront Bumblebee and Prowl were still oil to water. To compromise on any issue (especially regarding tightly held beliefs) was seen as compromising Prowl's own integrity. Which was unacceptable to the black and gold bot. And only seemed to egg Bumblebee on.
Maybe a change of tactics was in order Ratchet decided.
"Now look Prowl. No one on this team is telling you to change who you are and you slagging know it. Prime expects you two to get along civilly at the bare minimum whether you like it or not. Compromising about this isn't any different than your tree."
"How so?"
"That tree's been around for longer than a lot of things on this planet. It's strong and hasn't moved from that spot since it was planted. But you ever watched it in those things the humans call thunderstorms?"
"Yes," though clearly Prowl wasn't sure where this parable was going.
"The winds can gust over sixty miles an hour. It can't snap the trunk, that's too thick. But it can easily snap the branches to pieces. So trees have developed ways to bend with the wind when necessary. The fact that it bends doesn't threaten the rest of the tree's strength OR its identity."
He passed Prowl on the way towards recharge. Just shy of the doorway before he'd have to shout to be heard he stopped.
"I know you and Bumblebee don't see optic to optic on just about anything. I also know that it won't offline you to try to look at things from his perspective and occasionally compromise. That isn't a defeat."
"...You may have a point," Prowl conceded carefully.
"Finally," Ratchet muttered.