Author's note: I apologize to those reading my story for the long wait. Candy456, thank you for commenting about how long it was taking. Not rude, by the way. It helped. The next chapter may take longer. The death mix of being unable to get a hold of my editor (NOT her fault) and trying to sift through an decently large work load, created a almost impossibility of working on this. I'm sorry. But, enough of this sad talk. I got a new chapter for you!
Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter, especially AgirlKILLEDu14 and sonicxjones for their ideas. I have used one of them in this chapter and all the others will be found in the next chapter….The Magic Chapter! Which reminds me to remind you to please send in ideas if you have them. A super special thanks to my editor who is kind enough to go through the story when she clearly has a busy life and my lovely giver and bouncer of my ideas, Fubeck. The last bit in the chapter can not be complained about. I wrote it as a special gift for Fubeck. Now a quote before you can go and read the story!
Lets have a toast,
because we put bread in our wine.-Fubeck
When Soundwave enters Raf's room, he is surprised by the smallness and simplicity of it. He looks to the computer that sits quietly on the desk. With this piece of inferior technology Raf had been able to do amazing things. The revelation makes a half smile form on Soundwave's face. Stepping forward slightly, Soundwave senses Raf behind him nervously shifting on his feet. Slowly turning, he directs his half smile at him.
"You have a very nice room."
"Thanks Hack, er, Simon."
"You can call me Hack if I can call you Raf."
Raf nods his head while walking a spot in front of his colored TV. Bouncing on the balls of his feet, he turns back to Soundwave.
"What do you want to do?"
"Got any good games?"
Soundwave walks over to Raf and sits down. He watches with interest and curiosity as the younger boy pulls out two controllers. After setting the game up, Raf hands one controler to Soundwave. The game boots up and they begin to play. It is only a simple racing game, but it requires no small amount of skill to win and not crash. Raf cheers as his car crosses the finish line first, making sure to congratulate his friend on his low number of crashes. They play again, then again, each game seeing a exponential growth in Soundwaves skill. When Soundwave finally wins their fifteenth race, Raf cheers, clapping his hands wildly. This action confuses Soundwave.
"Why are you cheering? You lost."
"Winning or losing doesn't really matter to me. Its all in how you play the game. You played it really well Hack. "
Raf shrugs slightly while smiling. Soundwave nods his head and looks out the small window. Night has fallen, bringing with it a shining moon and a host of stars. Soundwave silently thinks of the Nemesis, ponderingg if anyone really cared that he is less active than usall. Raf also looks out the small window, unknown thoughts swirling through his mind. A loud ringing startles them both.
"What is that noise for?"
"Thats to tell us that food is ready. Now come on, my siblings won't wait for us and then all the food will be gone."
Soundwave watches the gathering of Raf's family members, intrigued. All were really nice to him, forcing him to go first in getting his food since he is the guest. The sheer number of siblings his small friend had is surprising to Soundwave. In most families before the war, Cybertrons only had one to three children at a time in the home. He eats carefully, thanking Raf's parents for the food. Loud conversation and laughter fill the room. Normally he would have left the situation, annoyed by the noise levels. But this situation is very different, bringing with it feelings of comfort and family. Something stirs deep within Soundwave. For first time in centuries, his spark aches to see his parents once again, to hold their servos in his. They were long gone, killed early on in the war even though they were neutrals. Soundwave had never been able to find out who had done it. His holoform's face takes on a frown without his knowledge.
Seeing the confusion on his sparkling friend's face, he draws back his emotions. He switches from a frown to a comforting smile. Internally he questions why he continues to compare Raf to a sparkling. Digging into the chicken potpie on the plate in front of him, Soundwave turns his focus to his friend.
"Is it always like this?"
Raf nods, smiling.
"More or less. It can be overwhelming sometimes"
One of Raf's older brothers looks at Soundwave's partially empty plate. He scoops out more pie, forcing Soundwave to take it. When the Decepticon hacker tries to stop him, the boy looks him over and forces even more onto his plate.
"You, senor, are way too skinny."
Soundwave figures it's not worth fighting over and continues eating the food. The meal is not energon, but it is undeniably good.
-Raf, human-
Raf mentally sighs in relief as he sees his friend adjusting to the environment. At first Raf had been worried by his friend's unreadable emotions, but the other boy seemed to be enjoying himself. Hack had been eating the potpie rather quickly and happily, until his brother had practically force fed his new friend and insultingly called him skinny. Luckily Hack had taken it well and no fight had broken out. Another mental sigh of relief curls through his mind.
After eating, Hack is the first one to offer to clean up. It seems he really wants to make a good impression on Raf's family. Raf can tell it's working from the large smile on his mothers face. When they finish cleaning up, Raf pulls Hack back to his room. The two boys sit down on furniture; Hack sits on the bed and Raf sits in his swivel chair. Both boys sit there at a loss on what to do. Neither have any ideas. Raf's eyes roam his room, lighting on the small stack of board games on the bottom shelf of his book case. The Clue game seems to call him, begging to be the chosen one of the medium sized pile. He goes over to the shelf and pulls the game away from the others. Quietly he sets it up on the floor, not responding to his friends questioning gaze. Hack moves to sit opposite of him on the floor, curiously staring at the board game laying on the floor before him.
"Have you ever played Clue?"
Hack shakes his head once, looking up to stare Raf in the face. Raf quickly explains the rules and the different characters. He chooses Kernel Mustard, while Hack decides to be Professor Plum. The game begins, but is soon stalled by Hack.
"This is illogical."
"What?"
Raf looks at his friend confused.
"Would we not already know the room in which Mr. Boddy was murdered? And if I'm the murderer, shouldn't I know and be trying to make it seem that another person is responsible?"
"Well, this is a game,Hack. It doesn't have to make sense. Though I've never thought about it in a realistic way."
Hack stares at the board, a fierce frown tugging harshly at the corners of his mouth. Raf thinks hard, trying to figure out a probable situation for the game. If he could come up with a half way decent solution, perhaps his friend would be appeased and would want to continue playing.
"I got it!"
Raf smiles happily as a almost perfect solution pops into his head. Hack looks up from the board, curiosity splashing across his face.
"So the body was found in the pool, but with obvious signs that it had been dragged there. That's why all the clues come from there and why we have no idea what room they were actually killed in. The reason the murder doesn't remember killing is because we all have amnesia due to a drug in the food. Our host knew one of us would kill him and wanted to play a game with our minds. Is that a good enough explanation?"
"Yes. It will work."
"Good. Let's keep playing."
The game continues, both players snatching up clues and making mental notes. Hack guesses first and Raf has no clues that go against his theory. When he looks at the real answer, he finds that he is wrong. This leaves Raf still in the game and he guesses correctly on his next turn.
They play over and over, each time ending with Hack becoming increasingly frustrated. Sensing his friend's bad mood, Raf suggests that they get ready for bed. The clock beside his bed declares the time to be 10:03 in bright, bold, red numbering. Quickly, Raf grabs two sleeping bags while Hack cleans up Clue. Raf changes in the bathroom, leaving Hack to change in the bedroom. Mrs. Esquivel provides some sleep wear for Hack, kindly reminding him not to keep her boy up too late.
Instead of getting into their sleeping bags, the boys sit on top of them. After a few moments of chatting, the two agree to watch a little bit of a TV then go to sleep. Turning it on, Raf turns down the volume and asks what channel Hack would prefer to watch. He shrugs, leaning against the bed frame behind him. Raf starts flipping through the channels. Stalling on a show he recognizes, Raf sits back and grins. The My little pony theme song plays as the episode begins. Raf smiles happily when his friend doesn't comment on his choice. In fact he seems rather enthralled by the show. The marathon streams, interrupted only by commercials. During these breaks the two boys discuss the episodes and the characters. Raf had seen most of them before, but he still has fun discussing them with someone else. Hours later, he quietly slips under the spell of sleep, becoming dead to the world.
-Soundwave, Decepticon-
Soundwave looks to his side where the human sparkling had fallen asleep. Quietly, he notices that his small friend is shivering. Lifting his arm slowly, he pulls a up a blanket to cover Raf. Pooling the sleeping bag around his young friend, Soundwave happily observes that the shivers were dying away. He settles back even further, leaning heavily on the bed he continues watching the interesting show. At about 1:00 am, Raf's mother looks in on them. Soundwave fakes sleep, knowing that it would seem bad if he was seen awake. She smiles happily, gently closing the door with barely a creak. Raf yawns, shifting at the noise, then finally settles down. Soundwave reopens his holoforms eyes and gives the smallest smile.