Chromia was only gone for about five klicks, but Windblade knew of galactic cataclysms that took place in the space of just nanoklicks. The look of amusement in her blue friend's optics didn't ease her suspicion that something was awry. At least she'd gotten some weaker drinks as well as the infamous Supernovaes, something that wouldn't floor Windblade as soon as she sipped it.
"What're those?" She hadn't even noticed Skywarp's return until he was practically underneath her; peering curiously at the assorted purples, blues and greens of Caminus' most well known party starters (or enders- it depended on who you asked).
"Nebuloes," Chromia said as she set them down on the table, pulling the three green glasses close to her. "They're for us though, yours are the Supernovaes." She indicated the remaining two drinks, filled to the brim with something that looked like a condensed galaxy, complete with tiny stars winking in the thick liquid.
Skywarp was immediately enamored with them, but Thundercracker raised an eyeridge. "I've never heard of those."
"They're very popular on Caminus," Nautica added, helpful as always just before she planned on getting drunk. TC's doubts were instantly lifted away by her voice, and he happily swiped up the nearest Supernovae glass.
Skywarp took in a healthy swig and swished it around his mouth, clicking his glossa thoughtfully after finally gulping the drink down. "Sweet. Like blended energel," he concluded with slightly puckered lips. All three femmes raised an eyeridge, but didn't say anything about the opinion.
Though he had a secret sweet denta, Thundercracker took a more tentative sip of his own glass, tasting it like his brother, before spluttering it right back out. "Warp, you aft, this is more sour than a lemon!" he yelled through dribbles as the rest dripped down his chin, giving him a liquid beard that only made Skywarp and the femmes laugh harder. Anyone with a glossa not used to Caminus flavourings was never fond of the infamously strong Supernovae taste at first.
"I was thinking it was more sour than Starscream being woken up early," Skywarp offered, braving the rest of his glass and giving a side-glance over to their bar space, only just noticing their trine leader's return. "Speaking of which, we should make sure he isn't bankrupting himself on shots," he said with a nod over to Starscream, expertly diverting the rest of TC's lingering annoyance at the prank. They bid farewell, with special attention to Nautica as usual. She watched them departing with a wistful gaze, then a more intense look over at Starscream before turning to Windblade with a nudge in her side.
"He has a point, Windy. Isn't your jack of hearts going a little heavy on the drink?"
Windblade almost choked on her first sip of her Nebuloe, giving an accurate impersonation of Thundercracker's splutters. "He's not my 'jack of hearts'!" she protested with very liberal use of air quotes around Nautica's assumption. The purple femme rolled her optics in an overhead tease from the rim of her drink.
"Whatever you say, I'm just saying it looks like someone's gotten him hooked on Hypernovae." Her optics flicked down, then back up in Chromia's direction as she gulped. Chromia frowned just a nanoklick too late to look confused, and hid her face behind her glass just one too early to look innocent.
"Mia!" Windblade scowled, still dabbing some high-grade drops off her chin.
Chromia gave her a sideglance behind the shield of her glass. "What?"
"You know exactly what." Windblade flung a servo towards the bar, where Starscream was slumped over and practically drowning in drink. Bad enough when the drink wasn't the strongest one in the galaxy... "How could you?"
Chromia neglected to feign remorse. "Oh, lighten up, Windblade." She kicked back her peds and tipped back her glass. "For once the 'chosen one' is doing something good for us."
"What, embarrassing himself just so we can have some cheap laughs?"
"Exactly." Chromia finished off her drink with a content sigh. "Happy sparkday to me."
While Windblade looked like she was on the verge of a spark meltdown, Nautica laid her helm in her hands with narrow optics on Chromia. "Ooh, Mia! I hope someone brought a camera!" She twisted her helm around for a better view of the heap of wings and surliness that had become of Starscream, but only bought more of Windblade's wrath on herself.
"Nautica, you too?!"
Chromia hiccuped through a smirk. "She's got the right idea, Windblade. When Primus gives you lemons, make lemonade. And when Primus gives you a drunk afthole in a pit of a bar, make it go viral." But before she could root around her subspace for anything to remember the night by, a flash of light winked out where Skywarp used to be. All he left behind were one drunk and two derelict-faced trinemates.
"Oh, boo," Chromia said with a passing attempt at sympathy. "Looks like the chosen one and his buddies haven't had such a great evening."
Nautica tilted her helm, pouting under lidded optics. "Aw, too bad! And it was just starting to look promising..." She sighed, snatching her glass up from behind her and swilling it with a servo draped over the back of her seat. "At least TC's stuck around."
Windblade still scowled at Chromia's lackadaisical apathy, soothing herself by following Nautica's gaze over to the remaining Seekers. Starscream collapsing under his own wings and mumbling to the coasters, Thundercracker looking like a petrorabbit praying to be run over. The scene fit the setting but had no place featuring these proud brothers, Starscream especially reduced to a bloated metal slug.
Windblade might have brought herself over to him if Nautica didn't hold her back with a tipsy thought let loose.
"Do you think they're ticklish?"
"What?"
Nautica took another slurp from her glass, rolling her other wrist around. "You know... Seekers, do they all have a ticklish spot'?" Starscream wasn't the only drunk one this evening, it seemed. "I mean you should know, wings and all, is it all the same place for mechs?"
Windblade raised an eyeridge, leaning away from her. "Don't look at me, the only buttons I know are ones not to push." That held true with Starscream at least, and his a thousand and one hair trigger tantrums.
Chromia meanwhile spat out a groan at her musings. "Nautica, where Seekers are concerned, pretty frames don't make up for all the slag in their processors from having their helms so far up their own afts."
The purple femme pouted again with a sigh, cupping her chin and still gazing across. " I'd love to find out where it is..." She showed some glinting denta in a sudden grin. "And some other 'sensitive' places while I'm at it..."
"Nautica!" Chromia threw her peds back down and made a disgusted look while Windblade struggled to hold in laughter. "Primus, they're not all just big walking spikes for you to prod and look at!" She held a hand to her forehelm while Nautica rolled her optics, still sipping and staring at the bar.
"Fine, fine, I won't talk about them anymore!" she swore, throwing one servo up as the other dropped her empty glass back on the table. She leaned them back over the top of her booth seating, idly twitching a knee as her pout refused to fade. A classic sparkling-level sulk. It lasted for all of two klicks before something light her optics up again.
"...D'you think Cybertron has strip clubs?"
Just as she recovered, Windblade was sent laughing all over again while Chromia groaned with the planet's weight in her vocaliser. "You complain about me ruining evenings, but you let Little Miss Nympho here fill her tanks with high-grade and run her processor off like a damn drone!"
Nautica took on a sheepish look, optics swimming away in her sockets. "I'm just saying... might be a good way to find out more about Cybertron mechs. Pure scientific research, I swear!"
Chromia scoffed skeptically, folding her servos over and holding her helm up high. "At least I can control myself around guys, with or without being sober."
Windblade might have questioned that if not for the giant parting the crowd as he approached them, all bristling plates and guns. She tapped Nautica's shoulder, only wrenching her attention away from the Seekers when his shadow started to fall over the table.
Chromia noted the sudden silence with optics blinking back open and a confused look at her friends. "What are you two gawking at now?"
Before either of them could point, a red hand hesitantly tapped Chromia's shoulder. With her helm turned her expression was hidden, but it was all too easy to imagine mouth hanging open and optics going wide as they took in Ironhide's arrival.
"Evenin', Chromia." He drew his hand away as if her shoulder was burning, hiding the other behind his back. "I heard it was your sparkday, and... well, I don't know nothin' about Caminus rituals, but..." His hidden servo appeared bearing crystal flowers and a box of energon pralines. "Every femme likes flowers and candy, right?" He met her optics for the first time with a nervous smile brighter than all the neon signs in Praxus.
Chromia took the gifts mutely, expression still hidden from her friend's greedy gazes. "Y-Yeah, I... thanks, Ironhide." The gratitude was more sincere than anything Chromia would have let slip to anyone else, especially in front of Windblade and Nautica.
They only had to wait a few nanoklicks, a glance down at her laden servos and then back up at Ironhide, before he leaned down to let crimson servos pull Chromia up into the kiss everyone had been waiting for- at least, everyone in the bar taking notice from the cheers that spread around like wildfire. Nautica looked like she might swoon, and Windblade could feel her wings fluttering. Wide blue optics closed slowly as Chromia gladly gave in, pulling Ironhide's face closer with needy digits around his helm. Deaf to the audience of approval, blind to her friend's grins, Chromia only released her lips from him so she could see his face.
The whole experience left her more tipsy than all the drinks of the evening, grinning against the curve of Ironhide's lips and inhaling his content sigh for herself. "Happy sparkday to me..."