Chapter 14

Party

Prowl is not terribly looking forward to being at a big party, I know. His wings are telling this to me as I get ready to put a flame design on them with clear glimmering polish. They will be subtle flames, only showing up when the light catches them. They will be splendid, I know, and he'll like it and Auri, of course will like it.

"You don't have to stay to whole time, you know," I tell him. "Be still now."

He freezes perfectly. He's so good at freezing that it sometimes worries me, but for now it is convenient.

"I'm Starlight's guardian," he answers as I start putting down the design with careful brushstrokes. "I love and care for her; thus, I am going to be there for her."

"She knows you don't love parties, though," I say. "I think she'll be happy enough will all the other bots around her."

Prowl halfway sighs. "Ironhide and Streamline were always there for me when I was little, Praxus; whether it was a big event or a small one, they supported and loved me by being there to share those moments with me. It meant a great deal to me for them to be there, and it still does. Besides, my social anxiety is not so bad that I can't bear it for several hours so Starlight can have the same delight that I had when I was a sparkling, knowing that my grownups were there to celebrate and cheer with me."

I hadn't thought about this, and I stop painting on the polish for a moment. I realize I would want Ratchet to be at a special event for me if I had one. I want would to share it with him. "I guess I didn't think… think about it that way," I say softly.

"I had good guardians to learn from." Prowl's tone is humble and gentle and understanding.

"You're the best, Prowl,"' I said, wanting to scoop my arms around him in a hug, but the fancy polish on the rest of his frame still needs to cure.

"I try," he halfway laughs, somewhat abashed by such praise.

"You know how to try," I say, making a smooth swipe with the polish. "I try, but I don't always know how to try, you know."

"You don't do too badly, though," Prowl tells me gently. "You are simply still learning."

"I'll turn out okay, I think," I say, which is somewhat silly, as if I'm some sort of painting. But then I guess I really am sort of like a work in progress, always needed a little fix here and a tweak there and a redo now and then.

Prowl chuckles gently, that fond low chuckle. "I think you will turn out quite okay, too."

"And your wings will turn out okay as well," I add, moving the topic over so I don't have to think about myself too much.

"Oh, merely 'okay'?" Prowl teases lightly, and this makes me laugh, mirth bubbling up from my spark.

"No, no," I say, still laughing a bit; I feel the laughter in my frame and dancing in my wings even if I'm not laughing aloud. "Your wings will turn out fabulous," I revise.

"That's more along the lines of what I was thinking." Prowl's tone is content and fond as he teases me just a little, and I'm happy.

Starlight is beyond happy when we meet her and Auri at Ironhide and Chromia's quarters a bit later. Auri opens the door after Prowl knocks, and I notice for a moment how gorgeous and glowing and happy she is. Then Starlight scampers up beside her and eclipses her in my attention.

"Lookie!" my little sister says, optics glowing with delight as she turns around so quickly that she nearly topples herself. "Auri polished my wings just so fo me!"

I crouch to really look at the glittery ocean wave pattern that Auri has dabbed on with a stencil. "That looks so good!" I say, and Starlight dances to turn around.

"An look! Look at these!" She's so very excited, almost bouncing on her pedes with joy. The rest of her armor is prettily polished with the glittery polish as well, and she has a delicate scattering of seashells on her armor. It's the seashells that she so excited about. I have ornaments of precious stones, and Prowl and Auri have ones with jewels; my sweet Star has seashells. "We made them! Chromia an Auri an I made them!" She pulls one off to show me the magnet hidden behind the shell. "We stuck em 'gether so they'd stick on me just like yo rocks and jewels!"

"They're wonderful," I say because they are. The magnets don't show, and the effect is delightful. I can't exactly picture Chromia gluing magnets and seashells, though, so I'll have to ask her about it when I see her. She can be patient when it comes to putting little gun pieces back together after cleaning them, but pretty craft projects…? Auri chuckles as she sees my confusion.

"We didn't think we would finish them in time," Auri explains, optics twinkling, "So she lent a hand to rescue us."

"Okay." I can see Chromia doing that. "I'm glad she did. They turned out perfect."

"Now I jus need a tiara of seaweeds," Starlight teases, putting a hand to her helm. "But Prowl wouldnint dance wi me then."

Prowl chuckles mildly. "Indeed I would not," he answers, but his optics twinkle. I think he probably would, though. He loves her enough that I think he would if she really wanted him to. "The shells are perfect, though. Are you ready to go now?"

Starlight looks up to Auri. "Are we?"

Auri grins happily, her optics sparkling just as much as her armor jewels. "Yes, we are!" she says, and Starlight scampers over for me to pick her as Auri comes out and closes the door. I lift her carefully, watching out for her seashell ornaments and my precious stones. "I guess I could walk part way, but I not sure," she said, settling comfortably in my arms. "Is it really far?"

"It's a bit of a walk, and you'll want to save your energy for the party," I tell her.

"Oh, yeah, that's good thinking," she giggles a little as she realizes this. "You such a good brother fo me," she says, rubbing my cheek, and it's the best compliment I could ever ask for. "An pretty, too," she adds as she pats the swirling polish designs that I'd coaxed Sunstreaker to do on my armor.

"Well, thank you very much and thank you again," I say, grinning because everything is good right now and my spark feels like it could float with the stars in a painting. "You're a wonderful sister yourself and very pretty, too."

"Everybody's pretty today," Starlight says with contentment, smiling over at Auri and Prowl, and there is no disagreeing with that sentiment. Of course, anyone can tell that Prowl thinks Auri is just a bit more than just pretty, but he's not going to say that loud enough for Starlight to hear. He'll probably whisper it to Auri, or they'll sneak away once we get to the party so they can hide in a corner and admire each other and continue planning their future together.

I end up being right, of course, and I'm amused, not surprised. When we get to the square, all decorated with streamers and lights, Starlight is all excited –even more excited, I mean– and wants to go find Elita to tell her how much she loves it, since Elita helped arrange this. Then as soon as Starlight is scampering off and no longer in need of Prowl and Auri's company, the two are ready to slip away. Auri says they're going to get some energon, but I can guess that they're going to hide away to drink it. I chuckle at them and wave them away. Then I go to find Sunstreaker.

The way to find Sideswipe is to go to the middle of a party, but the way to find Sunstreaker (or Prowl, for that matter) is to go to the edge and sweep the perimeter. Prowl and Sunstreaker both are watchers, not partiers. And Sunstreaker will want a good vantage point where he can sit and watch and sketch bots. Knowing this, I look in the right areas and find the golden mech pretty quickly. He's sitting on a short semi-decorative wall, one leg drawn up, and sketching quietly on a data-pad. He notices me approaching when he glances up to look at the scene again. He slightly halfway smiles.

"Hi, mechling," he says.

"Hello!" I climb onto the wall beside him, not too close, of course, since he wants his personal space, but close enough. He tilts his data-pad over for me to see, like he's read my processor about wanting to see the work in progress.

It's pretty abstract at the moment, just the forms of the square sketched lightly with some tints and shading. The banners and lights seem full of life already, though, waving and glowing even with just a few stylus strokes. And the bots are barely detailed, hardly more than a dozen lines or curves for each one, but I can tell who they are and how they're feeling. It's a joyful and happy atmosphere, full of gladness for life.

"So far so good," I say, copying his way of giving compliments. He shrugs at being gushed over, but a slight bit of praise will make him smile somewhat, a genuine smile. I don't exactly understand that, but I go along with it.

"How are the hands?" he asks, looking away from me as he takes his work back.

"Mostly better now," I answer, looking my knuckles. "There's a little ache now and then, but usually not."

"Good." He starts sketching again.

"And you?" I've asked him every day since I beat him up, and he always tells me not to worry about it. Or, if I try to get more of an answer he'll say that he's recovering fine.

He makes a dry amused sound. "I would have to be paid handsomely before I would intentionally cross you and your fists." He reaches over and taps the back of his hand, just his knuckles, lightly against my arm. "I'm still very sore in many places, but not in my spark."

I blink and look at my arm. This is the only time Sunstreaker has ever touched me outside of the studio, aside from the long-ago time when he was hurting me. And the studio touches were only ever because he'd had to shown me how to pose or hold something, or something like that. And a couple times when I had badly needed a hug for comfort. He only gave touches that absolutely had to be made, but he hadn't needed to touch me just now.

This is super confusing and very odd. I stare at him instead of at my arm, but he's intent on his sketching.

"Are… were you drinking high-grade?" I ask. It's the only thing I could think of that would make Sunstreaker do something unlike himself.

"I may be an odious meanie, but I'm not heinous enough fragger to show up intoxicated to a sparkling's upgrade party," he answers, his tone a lazy amused one that belies the rather harsh names he's selected to use. Is he offended that I asked…?

"I didn't think- I mean- I don't think you're the sort of bot who would do that," I say. "I just… well, you touched my arm, and …you don't do that kind of thing, so I was… Well, it… it was the only explanation I could think of, that you were a little topped off."

He chuckles drily. "'Sunstreaker acts halfway amicable for a split-second and thus clearly must be drunk,'" he says in a mock-announcer tone. "Nah." He shakes his helm, halfway smiling. "Ratchet just bumped up the painkillers a bit, and they took more of an edge off than we expected. So here I am, not entirely cold."

This seems like a reasonable explanation and better one than high-grade, too.

"Well, I'm glad that they're working," I say. "And I'm glad that you're here."

"Got lotsa bots I can sketch here." He waves a stylus toward the growing number of bots. "Usually, bots don't want to stand around and get drawn, y'know, and since I'm lying fairly low this evening, it's a perfect opportunity to sketch all I want."

I consider this and nod. Even though he does tend to the edges of parties, he still gets involved in games and some dancing. Here, this evening, I guess he wants to keep out of Starlight's view so the sight of him won't distress her on her big night. I wish, though, that he didn't have to do that, that she didn't get so upset at the sight of him. We had made that tiny bit of progress, but we wouldn't have needed it in the first place if-

"Hey, don't look so glum," Sunstreaker says to me. "You want me to draw that look on your face?"

I laugh uncertainly as I look toward him. I think he might be teasing…? There's a small smirk on his face. He is. He really is teasing me. I chuckle.

"No," I say. "Draw my laughing smile instead. I was just wishing…"

"What, that I hadn't made a colossal fraglitch of myself in harassing you? It's not your fault-"

"I was wishing that I hadn't told Starlight about it," I say with a sigh.

Sunstreaker looks over at me. "You didn't know better," he says softly, and he doesn't hide the sincerity of his sympathy like he so often does when talking about anything other than art. "And she was really the only one you were able to talk to at the time."

He has a point, I guess, but I still wish I'd known better what to do then.

"Anyway," dismissive old Sunstreaker is back now, mostly. "You're doing your best for her now, and I did bring her fear of me on myself, so I have to live with that. So get over it."

"Well, I'll try," I say, knowing he'll get bored and annoyed if I linger over the subject any longer. And I guess hanging over my past faults doesn't help the future or the present; I just have to head forward with better understanding. I can do that.

"Now, put that smile back on this face yours and go have some fun," he tells me, giving my cheek a light pat, a slight smile on his own face as he does so. I could fall over with shock at this point, but I act calm.

"Alright," I say, making a courteous motion with my wings to him as I get down from the short wall. "Enjoy the sketching."

"Oh, I will, mechlie." He waves me off, and I go.

I definitely go, but not to have fun and certainly not with a smile. I have to find Ratchet. Or Prowl. Whichever one I can find first. Something is definitely off with Sunstreaker, and someone with skills needs to double-check that he's going to be quite okay.

I pause as I realize belatedly that I should have tried calling him "Sunny" to see how he would respond to that. My playful side appeals to me to go back and try it, but I shake it off. Finding Ratchet or Prowl is first priority.

After a few minutes of searching, I decide Ratchet probably hasn't shown up to the party yet, so I seek out Prowl and find him quickly enough, still with Auri, of course.

He and Auri are taste-testing some kind of cake thing, a very small slice of cake thing on one plate between the two of them. Prowl is holding the plate carefully in his hands, and Auri has the fork in one hand, the fingertips of her other hand softly against Prowl's jaw. His mouth curves just a bit in a smile as he parts his lips to take the bite of cake from Auri, and I halfway look away, feeling just a little bit awkward. Somehow, this… this cake-feeding thing seems just a little bit more intimate than their usual kissing, though I'm not sure why.

When I peek over again, Auri is brushing a little crumb from Prowl's lip, and he's smiling at the touch of her fingers.

I…

I really have to get help for Sunstreaker.

I move forward, determined that I must interrupt these two, no matter if this is some kind of important courting ritual. Auri notices me first and starts to give me a smile of greeting, but then it disappears, replaced with concern, when she reads the worry all over my face.