-1Sweet Child of Mine - 4
It was amazing how fast time moved once Stormfire came online and was integrated into normal, every day life on base. The twins didn't leave her side at all the first two weeks. During that time, the three of them poured through pictures and information about different alt forms and Stormfire finally narrowed it down to three vehicles: a Lamborghini, like her fathers', an Aston Martin and a McLaren F1. Not wanting to outdo her fathers' too much, but enjoying the fact that she would be much flashier, she finally chose the McLaren F1.
The first time she transformed into her alt mode, Prowl thought Sunstreaker was going to offline… not out of jealousy even though Stormfire's alt form was flashy and beautiful, but out of the very idea that his daughter was a sports car that was going to garner more attention than he wanted for the femme. It took a lot of talking down by Prowl and Sideswipe to get Sunstreaker to agree to the alt form and Stormfire got to keep it. The color was a beautiful burnt orange with red flames and dark yellow leather seats. Bits and pieces of her fathers were obvious and that calmed Sunstreaker even more.
Prowl had put the twins back on rotation so that whenever Sideswipe was out on patrol, Sunstreaker was on base and vice versa. Stormfire was allowed off base after about three months and both twins had been with her that day. Luckily, there had been no trouble but when they'd returned, Sunstreaker had taken Stormfire back to their quarters and Sideswipe had disappeared somewhere on base for the rest of the day.
A month later, Prowl was working in his office when he heard a knock on his door. Checking his internal clock he noted that it was just after midnight. He stood, walked over to the door and palmed the keypad to open it. Behind the door stood Stormfire, energon tears drying on her face.
"What's happened?" he demanded calmly, pulling her into the office gently.
"They're… they're fighting again," she whispered softly as Prowl led her to the couch, sitting her down and wrapping an arm around her tightly.
"Who's fighting, Storm?" he asked gently.
"My fathers," she answered, looking up at him. "Red Alert says it's my fault they fight so much now. Is that true? Did I do something wrong?" Prowl slowly shook his head, making a mental note to find something off base for Red Alert to do… soon.
"No, kiddo. You've done nothing wrong. Your fathers are known for their arguments. Don't take it to heart. Tell you what. Why don't you stay here for right now and I'll go see what's causing the problem, okay?" Stormfire nodded slowly and Prowl leaned down, kissing her forehead gently before standing and moving to his desk. He tapped his com and radioed Ratchet.
"Ratchet, could you come to my office please?"
"On my way."
"Thank you." He turned back to Stormfire. "I'm gonna leave Ratchet with you, kiddo. You're fathers would hand me my… head on a platter if I left you alone." Stormfire nodded slowly and the door to Prowl's office opened, admitting Ratchet. Ratchet looked from Prowl to the femme than back to Prowl.
"Who do I have to kill now?" the medic asked quietly.
"I don't know yet. I'm going to go talk to the twins. Can you stay here with her till I get back?"
"Sure," Ratchet answered.
"Thank you." Prowl nodded to him then walked out of the office and down the hall. It didn't take long until he could hear the twins yelling at each other. He turned the corner and stopped short. Bluestreak, Smokescreen and Bumblebee stood in the hallway just outside the twins' room. They turned, having heard Prowl's approach.
"All right. Leave. Now." They slowly walked away but Bluestreak stopped when he reached Prowl and the sub commander looked at him curiously.
"They started arguing when Sideswipe came in… apparently when Storm came online Sunstreaker asked Sideswipe to stop seeing Mirage. Sideswipe said he would, but, apparently he didn't and Sunny found out." Prowl sighed heavily and nodded slowly.
"All right. I'll take care of it. Thanks, Blue." Bluestreak nodded and walked away. Prowl waited a moment longer before overriding the lock on the door and pushing it open angrily.
"Enough!" he yelled, loud enough to be heard over their yelling at each other. The twins stopped and turned, looking at Prowl. Sideswipe looked angry and had one hand raised. Prowl's gaze narrowed slightly and Sideswipe lowered his arm and turned away from his twin. Prowl looked at Sunstreaker who glanced at him briefly then quickly looked away but not before Prowl saw the pain in his optics.
"So, first thing's first," the older mech said quietly. "Your daughter is in my office with Ratchet scared out of her mind that she somehow caused this mess." They both looked at him then. Sideswipe glared at Sunstreaker.
"If you'd kept your damn mouth shut this wouldn't have happened!" he yelled at the yellow mech. Prowl was shocked… even more so when Sunstreaker didn't bother to defend himself from the verbal attack.
"Sunstreaker," Prowl said quietly. Sunstreaker looked at him quickly. "Go to Prime's office and wait there." He sent a private com to their leader telling him that he was sending Sunstreaker and giving him a quick version of what had happened. Prowl worried even more when Sunstreaker didn't object, walking out without a word. Prowl turned to Sideswipe.
"So, let me see if I understand the situation," he said quietly as Sideswipe flung himself into a chair. "When your daughter came online, Sunstreaker asked you to stop your relationship with Mirage to which, I understand, you agreed. And yet, apparently, you lied to your twin and kept seeing Mirage thinking Sunstreaker wouldn't find out."
"Something like that," Sideswipe answered quietly. Prowl nodded slowly.
"Uh huh… so, explain to me then why you're the one being so aggressive in this fight and Sunstreaker looks like he just got his aft handed to him and why your daughter is in my office crying her optics out thinking she did this." Sideswipe looked up slowly at the older mech. "Oh please… tell me you're not bonded to Mirage."
"Uhm… no… not bonded to him, but, Prowl, you gotta understand. Sunstreaker turned a blind eye to us for so long and it was like… all of a sudden he just wanted me to walk away from Mirage and I can't do it." Prowl nodded slowly.
"Have you noticed anything different about Sunstreaker lately?"
"What do you mean?" Sideswipe asked, frowning slightly.
"I mean, have you noticed what he's done since your daughter came online? Have you even watched him or paid attention to him these last several months? He's stayed out of trouble. He doesn't prank anyone anymore. He spends all his free time taking care of Stormfire. When he's not on patrol or on duty somewhere on base, do you know where he is?"
"No."
"With your daughter. Every waking moment that he's not working or helping someone on base, he spends with her. Don't you get it? When she was created Sunstreaker gave up everything else but you and her. You and Storm are his life, Sideswipe. There is nothing else for him anywhere. There is no one else he'd rather spend his life with."
"And that's fine, Prowl, but Mirage and I have been together since Cybertron. I can't just give that up." Prowl sighed heavily and slowly shook his head.
"Then you're going to lose your brother and quite possibly your daughter…."
Prime was waiting when Sunstreaker arrived at his office. The yellow mech had tear stains on his face and dents along his shoulder. There was a more troubling mark just below his chin, but Sunstreaker didn't seem to notice any of it. Prime sighed softly and stepped aside, letting Sunstreaker inside his office. The door closed behind them and Sunstreaker just stood there, his gaze was clouded, almost as if he didn't understand where he was or what had actually happened. Prime watched him, leaning against his desk, arms crossed over his chest. After a few moments, Sunstreaker put a hand to the side of his face and looked at Prime, dropping the hand quickly and looking away once more. Prime stood and walked over to him.
"Are you okay?" he asked quietly.
"Yeah," Sunstreaker answered softly. "It was just… an argument and I should really learn to just… not say anything. I mean you'd think after all this time I'd just stop trying to change… him and everything else around us because it doesn't work and it only make things worse and…" Prime reached up and rested a hand on Sunstreaker's arm causing the younger mech to stop talking.
"It's okay," Prime said quietly. "I'm not judging you."
"No, I know, I just… I was just trying to explain that… you know it's not his fault. I mean, I turned a blind eye to it for so long that I should have just kept doing it and whatever."
"Sunstreaker, look at me," Prime said softly, turning Sunstreaker towards him. "Please?" Sunstreaker slowly looked up at his leader. "There is no reason for you to have to explain yourself to me or anyone else. But I'm a little confused as to what happened to start the fight."
"When Storm came online, I asked Sides to stop seeing Mirage. I wanted… I wanted him to stay with me and Storm and he said he would… but he didn't and I found out about it earlier tonight. When I confronted him about it, he got angry… and now I'm here."
"He hit you, though," Prime said quietly. Sunstreaker pulled away then and shook his head.
"No, he didn't." Prime gave him a look that clearly stated what he thought of that answer.
"Sunstreaker…"
"Look, I really need to go check on Storm, Prime. I'm okay. Really. I promise you it won't happen again. I'm sorry you and Prowl had to be disturbed with this. Please.. .I just want to go check on my daughter." Prime sighed softly and nodded slowly.
"All right then. But Sunstreaker, I'm serious. If you need… anything… come find me." Sunstreaker nodded quickly then turned and walked out of the office. Prime watched him go and slowly shook his head. Things were getting out of hand…
By the time Sunstreaker returned to quarters with Stormfire, Sideswipe had finished cleaning everything up from the fight and had calmed down considerably. Stormfire pulled away from Sunstreaker to hug her other father and Sideswipe apologized for scaring her, promising her it'd never happen again. Between the twins, they finally got their daughter calmed down enough to go back into recharge once more. Sunstreaker sat with her a little while longer as Sideswipe locked their door and began switching off lights in the rest of the rooms.
When Sideswipe got to his and Sunny's room, Sunstreaker was already lying in the bunk, his back to Sideswipe and as close to the edge as he could get without falling off. Sideswipe sighed softly and just watched him for a moment. He turned off the lights and moved slowly, sliding onto the bunk next to his twin, reaching out and resting a hand on Sunstreaker's back.
"I'm sorry," he whispered softly. When Sunstreaker didn't answer, Sideswipe pulled him closer, wrapping his arm around the yellow twin. "Sunny, please… I'm sorry."
"I just… I don't understand why…"
"I know… and I'm sorry for that too… I'll try… I promise I'll try." Sunstreaker nodded slowly.
"Okay," he whispered quietly. "Okay. Just… go to sleep for now. I can't talk about this right now."
"I love you," Sideswipe whispered softly. Sunstreaker whimpered and his optics dimmed slowly.
"Love you too…"