19. Drinking Energon

Forwards time skip - Ark 22

It would be funny if it were any other mech. Sideswipe is not small; very few present would be able to hold him up with any remaining shred of dignity, though Sunstreaker thinks he's fast losing even that. No one is saying anything but that's only because they're too busy wondering if it's safe to keep laughing. Sunstreaker can only glare at them as Sideswipe shifts against him and rumbles in contentment.

No, Sunstreaker decides, if it was any other mech, they'd be dead.

Not everyone is in on the merriment, however. He can spot them dotting the rec. room, sullen glares in a sea of laughter.

"Really, really missed you," Sideswipe murmurs. Sunstreaker can barely pick it out of the garbled static. His brother's vocalizer has been getting worse and for the last four breems he's mostly been making noises.

Embarrassing noises.

Sideswipe's fans are running and Sunstreaker swears that if he could just move his arm, he'd stab him in the optic.

Someone outright snickers and Sunstreaker's head whips around so fast he can hear the air displacement. It's kind of hard to get a good look at that angle, but when he does, he sneers.

"What are you laughing at?" he says.

Special Operations Head "Jazz" just grins and lifts his cube of high-grade in a mock salute.

"Just thought I'd congratulate you," he says. "We've been trying to get him to 'relax' for vorns."

This causes a whole new round of suppressed laughter. Sunstreaker clenches his fists so hard he can hear his joints grinding. Sideswipe has somehow managed to not only hook one arm around him in such a way that his torso has pinned both of Sunstreaker's arms to his sides, but also to twist himself, one leg wrapped around and hooked with the legs of the table. Sunstreaker can't even reach around to slug some sense into him.

It had happened so suddenly. They'd been in the rec. room for the better part of a joor. Sideswipe had gone straight for the high-grade; Sunstreaker had grabbed his own cube and by the time he was on his third, Sideswipe had accumulated a small pile of empty containers. The room had started to fill up as patrols came back and, like usual, Sunstreaker had tensed up. Sideswipe had already been starting to slur and prod at him; it had been little things, the sort he always did. But then, just as Sunstreaker was getting ready to get up and leave, Sideswipe had pounced. Sunstreaker froze for one moment out of sheer surprise and that one moment had spelled the death of his dignity as Sideswipe scooted across his lap and pinned him to the chair.

And then Sideswipe had started to paw at him. In front of the entire rec. room.

Sunstreaker had snarled and tried to push him off but only managed to tip the chair over. Which was how he found himself on the floor, legs tangled with Sideswipe's and the chair, with his overcharged brother curled around his frame, nuzzling his shoulder and making little crooning noises.

He is going to kill someone before this is over and that mech's name starts with and "s" and ends with "ideswipe."

Speaking of…

"—and those fins. Makes you… your head… ummngh."

"Sideswipe, get off."

Sideswipe just makes an inarticulate noise and starts nipping at the exposed energon lines around Sunstreaker's neck. Sunstreaker bites back a hiss and thrashes again. Sideswipe giggles—giggles!—and wraps himself tighter.

"Get. Off," he says.

He's never seen Sideswipe like this. Part of him suspects that this is a ploy, some trick or prank that Sideswipe always had a flare for. He almost never gets this 'charged and the few times he had he got serious, not… not…

"I really did miss you," his twin says, his vocalizer clear and static-free.

Sunstreaker knows what his brother means by that. But he's gotten so accustomed to it that he doesn't feel the ache anymore. Not really. It's just another dull pain lurking in the back of his processor with the other unnamed, unmentionable things.

"Sideswipe," quieter now so their spectators can't hear. "Off."

"Please, Sunny. I'm tired of this. I know you're not doing any better and if we just… if we just… it'll make it all okay! And everything will be okay. And we won't have to keep going on like this."

Sunstreaker is starting to panic. He knows it's panic as Sideswipe pulls himself closer and his fingers fumble around his neck. Sunstreaker's energon pump is accelerating, backup power cells are priming for action as more power bleeds into his optics.

"Sideswipe."

"Come on, Sunny. You're my fragging brother! We're the fragging same. There's nothing in there that I can't handle, nothing I haven't already seen."

The laughter around them has died down, replaced with a peculiar tension. Sunstreaker is motionless for a nano-klik.

"We can't keep doing this. You can't keep doing this," Sideswipe says.

"Sideswipe—"

Sideswipe draws back, opens his mouth and starts to say," No, you sorry, glitching pile of scrap! Not until—"

It's the opening Sunstreaker is waiting for. He twists his right arm—now free without Sideswipe laying on it—and punches his brother in the face. It's not hard. He's not trying to hurt him and Sideswipe reels back more from surprise than pain. Sunstreaker kicks his way free, scrambling to his feet and whirling to see Sideswipe still crouched on the floor, staring straight down. Without a word he turns away and marches towards the door.

To be continued…

Holy cahones, Batman! It's an actual story arc!

So I've been thinking, and in celebration of hitting the 100 review marker (unless I manage to spectacularly jinx myself), I'm going to post a special side story. Or something like that. But I'm leaving the topic up to you readers. So if there's anything in particular you want to read (preferably involving the Duo of Doom), please pm or email suggestions. Do not respond to this in the reviews. So, yeah.

Thanks for the R & R!

Next chapter: Greedy