This was alot of fun to write! Difficult, but fun! Too bad it didn't fit. :(
The Card Game.
Natty stood against the bars of the softly swaying prison, grapsing one in her right hand and lifting the other hand gracefully above her head. Bending backwards at the waist, she lowered her self into an inverted "L" shape singing out, "I need a hero! I'm holding out for a hero till the end of time!" Raising herself again, she switched hands and stretched backward in the opposite direction, repeating the move, "He's gotta be fast, and he's gotta be strong, and he's gotta be larger than life!"
Jazz chuckled, "You'll need more than that to get out of there."
Turning her head in his direction, she scrunched her face and crossed her eyes at him.
"Huh," was all he said, but his expression was mildly suprised confusion.
Letting her free arm go slack she cried out, "I'm so bored! It's so terribly boring in here!" She straightened again, holding the bars with both hands and using them to jerk her body lazily back and forth, "At least the Decepticons torture their prisoners with activity." Smirking, "They keep it interesting."
"I could put ya to work."
She scrunched her face once more, this time in distaste. "No thanks. I'll just stay bored." She plunked down on the floor and slipped her legs between the bars to dangle in the air.
Jazz shook his head, "I just may do it anyway."
"Nah," she grinned wickedly out at him and sung, "Falls, apart, from the very start, It falls, apart, seems like everything I touch, Falls, apart, everything around me!"
"We'll see 'bout that," he returned with a wistful smile, eliciting a fake pout from the little cyborg.
Settling down in the grass where he could easily keep an eye on the prisoner, the silver mech pulled a deck of oversized cards from his subspace. Natty watched intently as he set up for a game of solitaire. "You play spades?"
He looked up with a sly smile, "I've heard of it."
"It's kinda like hearts. But opposite."
"Last time I played spades with a human, let's just say, she ended up gettin' carried out of the room."
"That a challenge?" Natty grinned with mischeif.
"Well... we only got two players."
"That's okay, we throw away half the deck. Makes it more interesting 'cause you can't count the cards."
"Hmmm." He cocked his head to the side as he considered this. "You're on."
"You are so goin' down!"
The silver mech chuckled as he stood and walked toward the swinging cage. Unhooking it from its captivity in the tree branches, he returned, "I'm the Autobot's second in command, in case you forgot. Tactician by necessity."
"I'm an ex-Air Force crew cheif, 'non-er.' You're goin' down!"
He set the prison on the ground, then took his previous place in the grass. "We'll see 'bout that, sparkling."
"Shuffle the cards, can opener."
Skillfully separating and joining the cards in a graceful dance despite his large hands, he returned in a wicked tone, "This can opener 'bout to open a can of whoop-aft on your little Decepticon... " he glanced over at her, "... butt."
She laughed out right at his obvious word change. "What. Ever. Eimsl!"
Scowling playfully at her, "Girl! What kinda nonsense you talkin' over there?"
"Eimsl. English is my second language."
"More like my four hundredth," he shot back.
"Various Cybertronian dialects don't count as separate languages," she returned lightly.
He brushed off the jab. "How do we deal this."
"You draw two cards. Look at the first one. Keep it and discard the second without looking at it, or discard it and keep the second. That way, we don't know for sure what's in play."
He nodded setting the deck of cards easily within her reach. "You first."
"Ladies before trash compactors."
"I was thinking ugly before style," he smirked gesturing to his glittering silver paint.
"Ooooo," she moaned with a wince, drawing a card. "Ouch." Discarding the second card, she looked up, "Go, Eimsl."
"That all you got?" he said reaching for a card.
"That's all I need."
" 'At's what you think," with a devilish smirk.
Approaching the ongoing verbal battle, Wheeljack cheerily piped, "Oh, card game. Whatcha playin'?"
Without looking up, Natty rapidly fired off, "Stupid-say-what?"
Jazz shook his head laughing, "Damn, ain't nobody safe!" Natty grinned up at the silver mech with a wink.
Dumbfounded at the exchange, Wheeljack fell for the line, "What?" eliciting racous laughter from the two already engaged in the heated game.
Sidling up behind Jazz and peering over his shoulder, Bumblebee excitedly said, "Looks like two-handed spades. Wanna make it four?"
"Boy!" Natty shot at him, "We just divided up the deck, you come in here all "wanna make it four?' " she mocked him in a whiny high pitched voice. " 'Sides, you don't want in on this. Get your ass mopped all over the floor!"
"I can hold my own," he narrowed his optics at her, "Jack's the one that needs to be afraid," inclining his head to the inventor.
"Who Sparky?" The other two mechs chuckcled at that, "Yeah, this is way outta his league. But then there's always the danger the deck might explode in his presence, so I guess it's even."
This caused more chuckles and sidelong looks toward Wheeljack, who huffed back, "I only blow up things I invent. Playing cards are a purely human thing!"
"Ah-ight," Jazz quipped, "You think you're mech enough... "
"I'm mech enough. Deal me in."
"Bring it!" the yellow scout clapped his three fingered hands together in anticipation, as Jazz collected the cards and reshuffled the deck.
Natty glared at Jazz a moment, "Who you wit?" quoting a famous comedian.
"I got Jack, you take Bee."
"Fine," she shrugged, "any subsequent explosions can stay on that end then."
Picking up the cards tossed to him, Wheeljack shot a devious look at the little cyborg, "You know, you're gonna need repairs one of these days," under his breath, "ya little glitch!"
"God I hope not; it may be the death of me!" her fingers came together in front of her face and then quickly separated, mimicking a bomb's concusion. Much snickering followed from the other two Autobots.
"Besides," Wheeljack went on lightly, "I'm Jazz's partner, I gotta sit next to you!" He leaned close to her with the last word, emphasizing his point, glittering blue optics holding a bit of maliciousness. Giving her a playful wink, he sat back up and arranged his cards.
Tossing her cards in the air, she rolled onto her back from where she sat in the cage, moaning loudly. Jazz picked up one of her cards and threw it at her head with, "Hey! You playin' or not?"
She sat up quickly and gathered her cards, ignoring the trio of impatient optics. "High or low, scout?"
"I can go either way, what about you?"
"I ain't askin' 'bout your sex life, fool. Just wanna know if you're going high or low. I prefer low myself. I work better that way."
"I can see that," Wheeljack muttered.
"You mean you wanna see that!" She shot back with a sideways grin at the white mech.
"Not particularly," he shrugged nonchalantly, ignoring her gaze.
"I wanna see that," Jazz mumbled, getting an elbow jab from Bumblebee. "What? You want in on it?" The camaro shook his head and turned back to his cards, "You really do go either way, don't you?!" The yellow scout gave him a hard shove and nasty look. Chuckling, he shot back, "I can roll like that!"
Natty laughed at the display, "Look at that, their fighting over me!" Running a hand over her braided hair, she went on, "I must be giving Tracks' ego a run for his money!"
"Energon," Wheeljack responded, "Tracks doesn't carry money."
Natty scrunched her face and stared at the green striped white Ferrari. "Keep up with the jokes."
"Go, Natty. Keep up wit da game!" Jazz insisted.
"What the hell is that?!" she yelped looking at the cards played and casting a glare on Bumblebee.
"I didn't have anymore in that suite."
"So throw a spade!" she huffed. He shrugged. "You're supposed to be throwing high! How am I supposed to go under if you throw off like that! Man, Screamer's right! You just can't trust an Autobot!"
There was a sudden stillness in the air, all three Autobots staring in hurt suprise at the cyborg, Bumblebee with wide, stricken optics. Jazz emitted a low whistle. Wheeljack froze, unsure of how to take the spiteful words.
Looking up at the trio, Natty took in the reaction of each in turn. "What?" Not comprehending the offended quiet, she softly prodded Jazz, "It's your turn."
The rest of the game was played in relative silence, and the small prisoner was increasingly confused at her partner's sudden ineptitude, fumbling every hand in a game they had initially been winning. As the last cards were tossed out, she scowled at the yellow scout who refused to look at her, glaring instead at the grass in front of him. "You did that on purpose! You made us lose!" she groused.
Bumblebee said nothing, but his optics narrowed even more, his face hardened with anger and hurt. Swiftly he jumped to his feet and stormed away.
Dumbfounded she turned to Jazz, who just shook his head. "What just happened?"
"Are you that stupid?" The sliver mech snapped gathering the cards, but also refusing to look at her, disgust written all over his face. Wheeljack slowly rose, passed a disdainful look over her, and walked after Bumblebee.
"Stupid?" she sighed. "What did I do?"
"After all he's done for you, you're gonna go an' make a dumb-aft comment like that! You really are stupid."
"Like what? What did I... Oh. Ooh," realization dawned on her. "I didn't even think about it--I mean, the Decepticons... well, I'm just so used to talkin' like that I didn't even... "
"Think," Jazz finished for her, fixing her with a harsh glare. "That was wrong, Natty. Jus' plain wrong."
"I'm sorry. I mean, well, I don't really, but... I... " she clamped her mouth shut to prevent saying anything more damaging as the silver mech's face had hardened increasingly with every stumbling excuse she tried. Exasperated, she gave up. "How do I fix this? How do I make it right, Jazz?"
He vented a weighted sigh turning his attention back to the cards, "You c'n start by apologizin' to me an' Jack. But Bee... he may need some space first. What you said really cut him deep. That one'll take time." He fixed her with a pointed look, "And an apology."
"Tell him I'm sorry, Jazz? Tell him... tell him I didn't mean it? Please?" she pleaded with the second in command.
He seemed to be blinking contemplatively at her behind the silver visor.
"Jazz, please. Talk to him for me. He's... he's been... the only... I... " Natty hung her head unable to get the words out.
"He's not the only friend you've got Natty. We all consider ourselves your friends. But he's like a best friend to you ain't he."
She shrugged at first, but Jazz's no nonsense gaze forced her to admit it with a nod. "He.. his efforts... mean alot... to... to me." She couldn't look up from the ground, couldn't believe she'd managed to say it--out loud! What was that yellow scout doing to her! "I didn't mean to... hurt him."
"What about me?" the silver mech huffed in mock offense. He grinned warmly when she tenatively glanced up at him. Jazz always had a way of breaking a soul out of its misery.
"Ack!" she teased, "You can hurt till your armor rusts off for all I care!"
"Oh, ah'ight! That's the way we gonna play it!" He laughed as he picked up the little prison and hung it back in the tree. He glanced down at his hands and then back up at the little prisoner. With what appeared to be a wink from behind the visor, "I'll talk to him for ya."
As he strolled away, she softly called to him, "Jazz," he paused and gazed at her over his shoulder, "I'm... sorry."
He smiled reassuringly, "I know."
