Skyfire's resolve ran out before the rockets. Mirage supposed Soundwave could have ordered the shuttle to remain inside. Thundercracker had ordered him and he had resentfully complied. But the 3IC just stared when the scientist insisted he needed to speak with Starscream then turned back to the security screen. He could of course physically prevent his parolee from leaving. He didn't.
They watched Skyfire circle around the block, approaching slowly as though war-grade proximity detection wouldn't pick him out immediately he entered range. Starscream turned with a loaded rocket launcher, his finger tightening on the trigger. At the last moment, he jerked the weapon upright so the explosion burst over their helms like a firework.
The Air Commander rasped something at his former companion. Mirage expected his vocaliser was near smoking with overuse. It could be a manufacturing defect or the Seeker simply was shouty. Perhaps he felt he was not heard unless he cranked the volume. Awkwardly sympathetic, the noble watched Skyfire tentatively walk forward until he was at a polite distance for conversation.
Starscream started gesticulating with the unloaded launcher using it to punctuate his irate Vosian. Skywarp whistled a rising sound evidently impressed, whereas Thundercracker covered Tempest's audials. Mirage looked to Soundwave for a translation and was surprised at himself for doing so; they weren't comrades and certainly not friends.
"An antiquated frame-slur." The Host translated without actually repeating the insult.
"He is rather free with those." The noble remarked, thinking of Starscream's interaction with Gyre.
"Starscream learned bad habits in Iacon." Thundercracker came to his trine-mate's defence. "It's not something we are supposed to say." He met Mirage's polite scepticism with a grimace. "I know it was said, I'm not saying it wasn't. But manners were important. The high caste were supposed to be the diplomats. We could think it, just not say it."
"Military caste could call someone a dirt-kissing, axle-licking glitch all we liked." Skywarp added helpfully, clearly untroubled by crassness or his sparkling's potential vocabulary.
"Skyfire is a shuttle." Mirage reminded them, sounding like his governess.
"It's not about the fake wings or the asphalt debasement or whatever." The black and purple Seeker twirled his wrist servo airily as though cycling hydraulic fluid, a very low intensity maintenance task one tier up from complete inactivity and a common gesture for boredom or irrelevance. "'Screamer wants the Big Guy to know how upset he is about stuff he doesn't want to admit he's upset about. Cue for some groveling. That usually works."
Mirage turned to the screen in time to see Skyfire drop to his knees apparently to begin the supplication only for the scientist to lean forward to kiss Starscream now they were more of a height. Kiss deeply and sweetly and lingeringly and so much more it quickly became awkward to watch. They were intruding on an intimate moment.
"Wow! He's got some balls." Skywarp whistled again.
"Wow!" Tempest said and echoed the whistle. "Wow! Wow! Wow!"
"Praise Primus." Mirage murmured. He was not prepared to explain to a seekerling why he shouldn't use that other loanword. Thundercracker glared at the teleporter.
"Are you even trying?" He snapped. He was NOT going to explain organic genitals EVER to Tempest. If possible, he was going to avoid the subject of Earth entirely until his bitlet could order his own engex. You needed to be drunk to understand humans.
"I'm trying real hard not to target lock that fragging pacifist who's gonna steal our trine-mate." Skywarp retorted. "What do you want, TC? Not gonna fake being happy about this." He waved at the screen, which was now showing an exterior view of the tops of two pairs of wings. Very fluttery wings.
Thundercracker cut power to his vox-box. The glyphs he had been about to say aborted with a loud, grinding click. He vented, optics very red then reengaged his vocaliser. There was a delay; a moment to further edit his response.
"What I want right now is to go for a fly." He looked to Mirage, standing quietly entirely aware he was not going to be invited. "Alone." Thundercracker added, turning back to his trine-mate. "Mirage is in charge of Tempest, it's time for some enrichment activity that doesn't involve Earthen profanity."
"He's my bitlet." Skywarp snapped.
"So guard his foster-carrier while I'm out." The blue Seeker handed over the sparkling and left with a flick of his wings, storming out of the bunker before he could fret himself into staying.
Mirage kept his gaze on Tempest most assuredly not even glancing in the black and purple Seeker's direction. The baby jet was still murmuring 'wow' to himself and making whistling noises interspersed with 'vroom' and 'whoosh' which were firm favourites. Enrichment activity would likely involve more sound effects.
"I should go after him." Skywarp said generally though he didn't move towards the door. His statement earned a cascade of derision from the deployers present. Soundwave made no comment as comms bounced back and forth between the Seeker and the peanut gallery, the air almost buzzing.
"If you want Tempest to have Vosian as his first language, we will need to play glyph games with him." Mirage suggested, not wishing Skywarp's company or to be guarded but feeling obliged not to add to the drama this shift. Starscream alone had enough for an opera company. The noble was very glad he was not bonded to the entire trine.
"Yeah, okay." The teleporter conceded then glared at the 'Bot as though remembering he didn't like him then reset his optics because he remembered to remember this 'Bot was on their side and he didn't not like him. "You want to play a game, winglet?"
"Truck!" Tempest said in English enthusiastically. Mirage pivoted slowly to meet the suddenly shifty gazes of Rumble and Frenzy. He did not think they were solely responsible for teaching the sparkling interesting words but they were certainly ringleaders.
"Truck is an unexpected addition to Tempest's vocabulary." The former spy remarked airily. You did not need to be a telepath to know what he really wanted to say. He did not for an instant credit the possibility 'truck' had been the word in question.
"It was a rhyming game!" Rumble asserted as inspiration struck.
"It's funny." Skywarp chuckled, clearly not channelling Mirage's late governess. He joggled his wings to distract the sparkling and dismiss the issue. "We going or you gonna nag?"
Mirage went. He would not tell tales to Thundercracker later. In due time, they would have a civilised discussion to agree on parenting strategies. However, right now he was going to pretend to be unruffled and placid. He needed to build a rapport with Skywarp, who was crass but upper middle caste. They might now have the leisure to forcefeed him some manners. The war had tought everyone bad habits.
Thundercracker was gone for less than a quarter of a shift, as long as he could bear to be away from Tempest. He had needed to clear his helm as well as get a grip on his temper. Now things were better, all the half-stalled thought processes he'd archived were relaunching. His emotions were a maelstrom. Yes, that meant he was sorting them as he should be, logging and running them to completion. But it was a smelter to work through.
Journaling might help to get everything out. You could resolve stuff that way, not-quite tricking your cache into clearing because an action had been taken start-to-finish. He had time. He could vent. Everything would probably be okay. Better, anyway. Good, even eventually.
He returned to find Mirage, Skywarp, Tempest, and a selection of the more responsible cassettes on the floor in the lounge. They had flimsies with large form glyphs printed on them to hold up when they used the word.
"Sky." Skywarp warbled, handing the card to Rewind, who repeated the word as he had Vosian integrated since before the war then passed the card on around the circle. By the time the round got to Tempest, he grabbed the flimsy and flapped it happily.
"Sky, sky sky sky. Sky!" The little jet chanted. He looked up as Thundercracker sat down beside him, Mirage shifting over so the two Seekers could sit either side of their sparkling. Tempest waved the card but pulled it away when his Carrier reached for it. They had not reached 'sharing' yet. While the bitlet was distracted with the glyph he had, Skywarp surreptitiously slipped two from the bottom of the pile next to him.
"Sky." Thundercracker confirmed, petting the little helm.
"Mine." Tempest added, putting the flimsy firmly on HIS stack. He was winning this game.