Disclaimer: Not mine.
- Stairway to Heaven : Chapter Four -
Mirage showed up at Prowl's door the next morning, saying that Hound had sent him to get Prowl while he 'kept the incompetents away from his baby', in the spy's words. Apparently the other Autobots had been curious about Hound's guitar and had tried to play it before Hound had gotten there to 'rescue' it. He was now impressing upon them the fact that none of them were allowed to touch it without his express permission.
"I believe the majority of them are listening to him mostly because they had no idea he could be so scary, to be honest." Mirage commented with amusement.
"Oh?" Prowl asked.
"Indeed. He wasn't even using his holograms to enhance the image when I left." Mirage replied with a chuckle. Prowl smiled faintly as they continued walking. Whatever commotion had been in the rec room as Hound scared the other Autobots away from his guitar was over by the time they got there, though. Hound was apparently tuning the guitar now, and Mirage led Prowl over before excusing himself to get some energon.
"Mornin' Prowl!" Hound said cheerfully as Prowl took his seat, the same one from yesterday.
"Good morning Hound." Prowl said. "I heard you had some excitement this morning."
"Ya, well, I think I underestimated the curiosity of certain mechs." Hound said with a laugh. "I made sure they knew better now, though." Prowl nodded and there was silence for a few moments as Hound tuned the guitar, only stopping and setting it down when Mirage came back with energon for all three of them.
"So how're ya liking the guitar?" Hound asked.
"It's interesting." Prowl responded. "Complex and yet simple...much easier than Cybertronian instruments."
"And yet also harder." Hound said with a laugh.
"Quite." Mirage said bitingly, and Prowl suspected the spy - who, like most Towers mechs, would have had extensive training in the arts - had attempted to play the instrument and failed miserably.
"Aw, don't feel bad 'Raj. It's a different kind of instrument, with a different purpose behind it and a different source." Hound said reassuringly. "Besides, you can't be good at everything."
"Speak for yourself." Mirage said haughtily, though from Hound's laughter, Prowl suspected the spy was joking. The two of them bantered back and forth for the next little while over their energon, often pulling Prowl in, but the tactician felt like he was intruding more than anything else - as sociable as the two mechs usually were, they'd made a point since they'd gotten together to have their morning energon together, separate from the others. They did their best to help Prowl feel included, but the tactician knew they wouldn't be back the next morning. Hound would check up on his guitar and Prowl's progress at a different time in the day.
Prowl didn't really mind, finding himself looking forward to spending the day trying to figure out the musical instrument. He barely waited for Hound and Mirage to leave before picking up where he'd left off, his almost-empty cube of energon forgotten quickly as he became absorbed in the datapads of instructions that Hound had brought him. The scout had been kind enough to organize them by skill level, so Prowl just started right in on the top one and set to work.
By mid-afternoon Prowl was playing some simple tunes, and gradually, as he played, he became aware of a steady back-and-forth between various mechs as they challenged one another to name the tune he was playing. As most of the ones he was playing now were simple and obscure human tunes, most mechs failed the challenge, but no one seemed to mind, all taking part in good fun. Prowl just smiled faintly, enjoying how he was both involved and yet separate from those in the rec room. This, he could definitely tolerate for however long it took Jazz to give in and show up.
Ironically enough, the next time Prowl encountered Jazz, it wasn't in the rec room, though. Prowl, distracted by the guitar, hadn't noticed the rec room was emptying out and had been left alone again. He knew the path between his quarters and the rec room fairly well now, so he didn't bother to comm Sideswipe - who had sworn to show up, or get someone else to show up, no matter what he was doing at the time - instead making his own way back. He was half-way back when he heard steady footsteps from around the corner, and Prowl paused at the corner, waiting for whoever it was to pass.
The mech in question stopped short at the corner, however, presumably as soon as Prowl came into view, and the tactician waited for the inevitable question as to what he was doing walking the corridors alone. When it didn't come, he frowned.
"Hello?" he asked, tilting his head to the side to express curiosity.
"Hi." even that short word was enough for Prowl to recognize Jazz's voice, and he straightened in surprise.
"Jazz." he said.
"Prowl." the saboteur replied, seeming nervous. Awkward silence fell. "So, uh, how ya been?" Prowl considered his answer for several long moments - for all he'd been trying to talk to Jazz, he'd never actually thought about what he'd say. Now, he chose quickly, but carefully.
"Confused." he said.
"What?" Jazz seemed confused himself.
"I don't exactly remember much from right before my visual center crashed." Prowl was only half-lying - he may not remember 'much', but the part he did remember was the important one. Since it was highly likely that Jazz was avoiding him because of that part, he figured it was best to just pretend he couldn't remember it. He knew Jazz had some feelings for him now, after all. He could take his time convincing the other mech he had them, as well, but only so long as Jazz wasn't avoiding him anymore.
"Oh." Jazz was obviously surprised. "I...didn't know."
"Well, you weren't at the briefing." Prowl said dryly. "So what did I say to get you mad at me?"
"Mad at -" Jazz cut his surprised statement off. "I'm not mad at you."
"So am I supposed to be mad at you, then? Because I can't think of any other reason why you'd be avoiding me." Prowl said, silently apologizing for the lie.
"No - well, unless you want to be mad at me about the crash." Jazz said. "I've just been...busy."
"Too busy to respond to my comms or the requests I passed on via Ratchet for you to come visit?" Prowl said blandly. He could practically see Jazz squirming.
"Very busy." Jazz apparently decided to stick with the flimsy lie. "I'm sorry. I'll try and stop by more often."
"Good. I've missed you." Prowl said with a small smile. Jazz didn't seem to know what to say to that. "Anyways, if you're so busy, I'd better let you go."
"Ah - yeah." Jazz said after a beat, and Prowl stepped out, carefully making his way around where he knew Jazz to be standing to the other side of the intersection, where he continued down the hall. "Hey, you need a guide back?" the awkward offer came when he was several feet away, and Prowl paused, looking back over his shoulder, though that was more habit than useful.
"If you have the time." he accepted with a nod, and he knew Jazz did when he heard the saboteur's footsteps coming closer.
"Ya, I think I got the time." he said as Prowl began walking beside him. "Though I'm kinda entertained by how you don't know your way between your quarters and the rec room by now."
"I usually let my navigation center take control." Prowl responded truthfully.
"I thought it was just your visual center that was slagged." Jazz commented.
"It is, but as Ratchet would love to tell you, there's a high degree of interconnectivity in our systems. Certain ones are integrated more fully with each other than others, to the point of being essentially useless if one of them is shut down, and my navigation and visual centers are such a case." Prowl explained. "If I wanted to form a link with the GPS system I could reroute my navigation system to go off that instead, but frankly it's not worth it."
"Ah." was Jazz's response as they kept walking. Prowl wished he could see the saboteur's face, because he suspected many interesting, and probably revealing, expressions had crossed Jazz's faceplate in the last little while. Unfortunately he was unable to see them, and settled for walking in awkward silence beside Jazz. For all that Prowl liked being alone and quiet some times, that had never applied when Jazz was nearby - it was normal, for him, to be talking with Jazz whenever the other mech was nearby, or at least listening to Jazz talk. A silent Jazz was...unnerving.
The saboteur didn't seem inclined to talk, however, murmuring a barely audible 'good night' when they reached Prowl's quarters before leaving even as Prowl returned the sentiment. Shaking his head, Prowl entered his quarters - for being a special ops mech, Jazz certainly wasn't very good at lying or pretending nothing was wrong. At least when his personal life was involved.
Whether he was keeping up the appearance of being busy or he still wasn't sure of Prowl's claims of not remembering anything, Prowl didn't know, but Jazz didn't show up in the rec room until two days later. The saboteur was quiet about it, too, sneaking in during the afternoon shift, when there were few mechs there. Those that weren't on duty were either out and about or recharging during the afternoon.
Fortunately, Bumblebee had been there, and Prowl knew of Jazz's arrival thanks to the yellow minibot calling out to his superior. Prowl raised his head, focusing on the direction of the door long enough to hear Jazz's responding 'hello' before turning back to the guitar. Jazz left several minutes later without coming over to speak with Prowl. From where he was sitting, Prowl could hear Jazz making the excuse that he had a stack of paperwork as tall as himself on his desk. Given the amount of work that regularly crossed Prowl's desk, and the fact that this was Jazz,who was notorious for putting paperwork off to the last minute, that was entirely believable. That didn't stop it from being annoying, though.
Another week passed with Jazz only stopping into the rec room every once and awhile, and rarely stopping to say anything to Prowl. The irritated tactician began hunting through the datapads Hound had given him for appropriately 'annoyed' songs - most of them were above his skill level, but Prowl had found that if he used the voice-interface for Teletraan to look up and listen to the songs ahead of time, he could usually do passably. Besides, he kept on with the lesson datapads...he just switched to the 'annoyed' songs whenever Jazz entered the rec room.
Unsurprisingly, the only one who didn't realize what Prowl was doing was Jazz himself. The other mechs in the Ark started out amused, but quickly grew exasperated as Jazz remained clueless. Trying to hint that Jazz should go talk to Prowl did little good - Jazz would say he didn't want to disturb Prowl, and if they pushed, he'd plead work and flee the rec room. So, they decided to try bringing Prowl to Jazz.
"You're sitting over here today." Sideswipe announced out of the blue at Prowl's side, startling the tactician, who had just entered the rec room - he'd learned his way between his quarters and the rec room by now. The red twin was now hauling Prowl off to the middle of the rec room, though, where he all but shoved Prowl into a chair. The tactician was torn between amusement and scolding the other mech, and ended up settling on a frown.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because we pushed all the tables together and moved the guitar and datapads over here." Cliffjumper said smugly from somewhere nearby.
"Again, I find myself asking - why?" Prowl asked dryly.
"We're daring Jazz to try and avoid you now." Slingshot said with a laugh.
"Yeah, he'd have to sit on the floor to get away now!" Air Raid crowed, and the conversation quickly degenerated from there into things Jazz would or would not do after Gears grumpily pointed out that it wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that Jazz would do so. Prowl just shook his head, taking the energon that was pressed into his hands, and drank it while listening as the topic morphed from Jazz to special ops to Cliffjumper's patrol the other day to various events that the mechs at the table were heading off to. It was chaotic, but Prowl clearly wasn't expected to involve himself, and no one said anything when he picked up the guitar - which had been sitting in front of him on the table - and grabbed the datapad he was currently working through. In fact, some of the conversation seemed to quiet a little, and Prowl chuckled inwardly - if only he'd known all these years that the way to get mechs in the rec room to quiet down was to play guitar near them.
Surprisingly, the other mech's plan actually worked - when Jazz came in during the evening, he had no place to go but to the central table, and everyone had been very careful to leave empty chairs next to Prowl. Jazz still tried to get as far away as he could, but two seats away was better than the entire rec room. Prowl decided to forgo the 'annoyed' music this time, instead continuing with the song he was currently learning, some human rock song. It wasn't long before Jazz commented on it.
"So how long has Prowl been playin' th' Beatles?" the saboteur asked with amusement.
"Since this morning." Prowl replied in place of whoever Jazz had been talking to, not pausing in his playing. With half of his systems shut down or at minimal functionality, it wasn't that hard for him to multi-task playing and talking to Jazz, especially since he wasn't connected to the datapad with the music at the moment - he knew the tune, he was just trying to get through it without a mistake.
"Oh. Sounds good." Jazz sounded surprised and uncomfortable at talking directly to Prowl.
"I've had time to practice." Prowl responded mildly. Jazz didn't say anything more for a few moments, and when he spoke again, he'd turned his attention to Mirage, asking what the spy thought about the new type of explosive Wheeljack had produced and if the risks of using a Wheeljack-made explosive were greater than its usefulness. Prowl let him be - it was clear Jazz still wasn't comfortable with him, so he'd try small steps.
Of course, the other mechs at the Ark had declared Jazz and Prowl's four-line conversation at the table a rousing success and decided to leave the rec room furniture the way it was. If anybody explained the sudden change in furniture arrangement to Jazz, Prowl didn't hear it, but he suspected Jazz would figure out something was up eventually, especially when the seats next to him continued to be the only ones left open. Even Ratchet and Wheeljack, coming to update Prowl on the status of his new visual center, sat to one side of him, leaving the other open. The entire Ark had evidently been recruited into the 'get Jazz to actually talk to Prowl again' plan.
Still, Jazz and Prowl's conversations remained short and awkward, mostly thanks to Jazz. Prowl was tempted to go back to his annoyed music - it had worked so well last time - but decided to be a bit more pointed this time. The mechs in the rec room were left baffled as Jazz made hasty excuses to leave, Prowl looking rather smug, after the tactician started playing "Take My Breath Away". They were even more baffled when Prowl stopped the song immediately after Jazz left, and resumed the song he was practicing. Jazz actually came back later that night, having not gotten his energon the first time, and Prowl repeated the performance.
"Alright, what the slag, Prowl?" Sideswipe demanded when Jazz fled the rec room for a second time that day, this time having barely stuck it out long enough to get some energon.
"What?" Prowl asked innocently.
"Oh don't even try. I'm the kingof that look, it will not work on me!" Sideswipe said with annoyance.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Prowl replied calmly.
"Ya right." Sideswipe responded. "Why the slag did that song chase Jazz out when your others haven't?"
"I have no idea. Maybe he didn't like it?" Prowl suggested.
"A likely story." Sideswipe said with disbelief. "C'mon, Prowl! Spill!"
"Aw, leave him alone, Sides. Jazz has been weird for weeks now." Sunstreaker unexpectedly came to Prowl's rescue, though from the kick he received under the table, Prowl suspected the golden twin had figured things out. He didn't say anything, though, and neither did Prowl. Instead, he kept up with his game, making a mental bet with himself as to how long Jazz could handle being in the rec room as the tactician steadily went through every single one of the love songs on Hound's datapads, and some he acquired himself.
"Died In Your Arms" had Jazz out the door barely after the first few bars were out, the saboteur claiming he'd forgotten something in his office. He managed to stay for almost all of "Addicted to Love", and sat through all of "You Give Love A Bad Name", but fled when Prowl continued on to "Don't You Want Me Baby". "Love Is A Battlefield" had everyone quieting uncomfortably, and once Jazz had fled, Sunstreaker chucked an empty energon cube at Prowl's helm. The tactician actually chuckled as it bounced off, but obligingly switched songs. Amusingly, Mirage actually managed to figure out what was up with "Pour Some Sugar On Me", though Prowl and Sunstreaker claimed innocence when Hound arrived later to find the spy stilllaughing and demanded to know what had set him off.
Ironically, however, it was "Every Breath You Take"that finally made Jazz snap. Prowl had started in on it the instant he realized Jazz was in the rec room, as usual, but the saboteur didn't grow suddenly quiet or make his excuses and leave like he usually did. Instead, Prowl found his notes falling sour as Jazz clapped his hand over the neck of the guitar. As the sour notes faded away, so did the conversation in the rec room as mechs turned their attention to the confrontation that was apparently about to happen.
"You have a very interestin'repertoire, Prowl." Jazz said bitingly.
"I do, don't I?" Prowl replied mildly. "One would almost think it meant something."
"Yes, one would." Jazz said. "So how long've you remembered?"
"Since the second day." Prowl responded truthfully.
"An' th'decision ta mock me 'bout it came from...where?" Jazz asked in annoyance.
"The decision to tease you came from the fact that you've been avoiding me without giving me a chance to explain." Prowl responded, then added as he heard the guitar creak a bit, "Hound will have your spark if you break his guitar." That seemed to remind Jazz of the other mechs in rec room, and he let go of the guitar quickly.
"I think we need t' talk." he said pointedly.
"Finally!" Sunstreaker exclaimed. Prowl couldn't see, but Sunstreaker later gave him a picture - bribed out of Red Alert - of the look Jazz gave the golden twin after that. He claimed Prowl needed it to understand why the mechs that had been in the rec room that afternoon claimed he was no longer the scariest mech around when angry. Not being able to see the venomous look, however, Prowl just set the guitar down on the table and stood, following Jazz when he headed out of the rec room. Prowl didn't bother reminding Jazz that he wasn't supposed to leave the Ark when the saboteur led him outside and up the path to the side, making their way up to a ledge on the eastern side of the dormant volcano.
"So?" Jazz said once they'd stopped.
"So what?" Prowl asked, arching an optic ridge.
"You wanted ta explain, here's yer chance, I'm here, listenin'." Jazz sounded more annoyed than receptive, despite his words. Prowl stayed silent for a few moments, trying to sort out just what he should say.
"Jazz, do you know whyI crashed?" he asked finally.
"Sensory overload an' an aborted disconnect." Jazz responded automatically.
"And why do you think that happened?" Prowl asked. Jazz was silent for a few moments.
"Probably cuz I broke past your lock an'...surprised you." the saboteur was clearly unhappy with having to say even that much.
"Actually...no." Prowl said with a small smile. "I'm used to you breaking past my locks when you feel like it, and being unpredictable. Under other circumstances, I probably could have even handled you kissing me without crashing."
"'Other circumstances'?" Jazz asked after a moment, and Prowl hesitated a moment before continuing, both cursing and glad for the fact that he couldn't see.
"Circumstances such as me nothaving been in love with you for the past several hundred vorns." Prowl found himself tensing more and more each second that Jazz remained silent after his statement. He was going off of very little information here, after all - for all he knew, Jazz had just been...trying to cheer him up or something. Not that Jazz would be so callous, but Prowl really had no idea as to Jazz's motives at this point, and the saboteur's continued silence was unnerving.
In the end, Jazz didn't bother speaking, instead stepping up to Prowl, and the tactician found himself being kissed again. This time, without the impending systems crash, Prowl was able to enjoy it, and respond, wrapping his arms around the other black and white to pull him closer. When they finally broke away, Jazz laughed lightly.
"Primus, aren't we a pair!" he said, resting his forehead against Prowl's. "I wanted ta jump you from th'moment we met. A few vorns down th'road I realized that I'd gone an' fallen for ya." Prowl smirked as he recalled that Optimus had actually had order them both to his office to get them to meet - they'd been so busy helping keep the Autobots together back then, that meeting their fellow officers hadn't been much of a priority. Optimus had disagreed.
"You wanted to jump me in front of Optimus?" he asked.
"Well I figured he could leave if he wanted." Jazz replied with a snicker, and Prowl chuckled, his grip on Jazz tightening when the saboteur lifted his head. He wasn't ready to let go of Jazz yet. Fortunately, Jazz didn't even try to move away, apparently quite happy where he was. "So I'm guessin' this is why Raj burst inta laughter."
"I haven't actually asked him, but I'm fairly sure he figured it out then." Prowl confirmed.
"Mmm." Jazz murmured. "So where we goin' from here?"
"Back inside before Ratchet finds out I'm up here?" Prowl suggested, and Jazz smacked his chassis with one hand.
"Smartaft." the saboteur accused.
"Yoursmartaft." Prowl corrected pleasantly, then sobered. "We go wherever we feel like, Jazz."
"Can we do that? I mean, considerin' our positions." Jazz asked curiously.
"I could comm Optimus and ask if you like, but I suspect he'd just tell us not to bother him with stupid questions." Prowl said dryly. "Ironhide and Chromia thoroughly beat any objection to officers having relationships into the ground a long, long time ago back on Cybertron."
"Heh. Yeah, they did, didn't they?" Jazz said with a snicker. "Well, there goes my last objection!"
"You had objections to start with?" Prowl asked incredulously.
"Well, ok, more like reasons to stop myself from jumping you. Which means now I'm free to act on my impulses." Jazz was clearly leering as he spoke, and finished up with a sloppy kiss that had Prowl actually pushing him away, chucking. He was about to respond when his comm suddenly came to life.
"Prowl...where are you?"the dangerous tone in Ratchet's voice was unmistakable, and Prowl considered his response for a few moments as he quietly pulled Jazz into the comm link.
"Defiling a storage closet with Jazz."he finally responded, and in front of him, Jazz snorted with laughter.
"I had no idea we had storage closets outside the Ark where I clearly told you not to go."Ratchet responded without missing a beat.
"My fault, Ratch', I'll bring him back in."Jazz piped up with a chuckle.
"You'd better, or I'm coming out there with my wrench and bringing you both in. The hard way."Ratchet said threateningly.
"Yessir!"Jazz said laughingly, and backed out of the comm link.
"We're heading down now." Prowl assured Ratchet as Jazz took his hand and pulled him down the path, back to the Ark entrance. Ratchet was actually waiting for them at the entrance, but headed off with a simple "And stayinside!" before Jazz could get any sort of witty remark out. The saboteur was probably disappointed a bit at that, but didn't say anything, instead pulling Prowl along the corridors until, to the tactician's surprise, they were back at the rec room.
"I badly need some energon." Jazz said by way of explanation. "I haven't exactly had many opportunities for - hey! Did you guys seriously rearrange th' rec room just ta get me ta talk ta him?" the last part was called out indignantly as they entered the rec room, and Prowl realized the noise of talking mechs was spread out again - the tables and chairs had evidently been returned to their previous positions.
"Yep!" several mechs chorused, and Prowl smirked as Jazz huffed indifferently.
"I thought you said Raj only figured it out when you were playin' Pour Some Sugar On Me?"Jazz asked grouchily as he pulled Prowl through the rec room to the energon dispenser.
"One doesn't need to know the details to be concerned that two officers that are usually very good friends suddenly aren't talking to one another." Prowl responded easily.
"And since it wasn't detrimental to your plans, you just went along with it?" Jazz guessed, chuckling.
"Indeed." Prowl said pleasantly as Jazz got some energon before pulling him towards the door again. At the threshold, however, Jazz paused and looked back.
"Y'all are a bunch of nosey layabouts!" he called out, then before the objections started, amended in a more cheerful tone, "Thanks!" and he hauled Prowl out of the rec room to laughter.
- TBC -