Jazz and Prowl stood in the hanger in silence as they waited for Hound and Bluestreak to return. The silence wasn't comfortable but it wasn't awkward either. Prowl just had no need for small talk which Jazz was actually grateful for.
Jazz would say that their relationship over the past few weeks could be categorised as colleges which in of itself wasn't activity negative or positive. Which again could be a pretty good description of their dynamic. They would do their work together when needed and that would be it.
It had been a bit of a relief actually, to not have to put on a persona for every single in person interaction. Jazz no longer went to bed feeling exhausted every night. Plus he was actually on top of his paperwork for the first time since joining the Autobots.
Jazz rocked back and forth on his heels as he counted down the seconds until Hound and Bluestreak were due to return from their missions. Jazz wasn't entirely sure why Prowl was also waiting but whatever, he didn't want to rock the tentative peace they'd managed to make by asking.
The atmosphere only turned slightly awkward as Mirage arrived, giving Prowl a pointed glare as he stood between them.
Before Jazz could intervene, their first agent arrived home.
Hound strolled through the hanger door, seemingly unbothered by the layer of grime he was covered in. Hound was the only spy Jazz knew that actually enjoyed sitting in ditches for hours.
Hound waved at Jazz, but when he noticed the other spy besides him, Jazz watched with a thinly hidden smile as he started to hastily tried to scrub some of the dirt off his green chasis to little avail.
Mirage bowed in the old fashioned Tower's way of welcoming someone home. Hound tried to miming the gesture, over extending himself and bonking Mirage on the head.
This time Jazz didn't bother to hold back a smirk as the pair blushed.
"Welcome home mech!" Jazz said deciding to save the pair from further embarrassment and clasped a strategically placed servo on Hound's back so as to not spoil his own finish. "So, what did you make of Devcon's intel?"
Devcon was a bounty hunter that Blackout had occasionally hired for some of their even more off the books type missions. After their last assignment, Devcon had mentioned that he'd noticed Lockdown behaving strange, well stranger than usual for the homicidal maniac. In that he had been teaming up with different people recently, which was odd for a notorious loner.
Hound shook his head.
"No I didn't see Lockdown working with anyone. He was mostly guarding the Vos base from the top of the remaining towers. I think they'd had some kind of break in recently."
"Oh really?" Jazz said nonchalantly.
Hound shrugged before perking up. "Oh yeah, I did actually meet up with Devcon on my way back! He told me to pass on his condolences for Blackout but that he was looking forward to working with you."
Whilst technically nobody in the Bounty Hunters Guild were allowed to align themselves with either side, it was a pretty open secret that Lockdown only took jobs for the Decepticons whilst Devcon only worked with the Autobots. Although to be frank, Jazz thought that their personal pissing contest had nothing to do with the either cause. But whatever, Devcon was a decent enough guy for a bounty hunter.
"I'll tell him my thanks. Now go get some fuel down ya before you keel over!" Jazz ordered.
"Will you be joining us?" Mirage asked as they started to head towards the rec room.
Jazz shook his head.
"As much as I know you will miss my presence, I have still got other agents to wait for."
Besides, it would give those two an excuse to be alone.
Almost having forgotten that he was there, Jazz turned his attention back to Prowl who had shifted off to the side and had been pointedly looking in the opposite direction of their conversation.
To some people the reaction might've come across as anti-social but Jazz appreciated the guy giving them space to catch up.
There was something else in that look as well. While Jazz hid behind smiles and laughter, he'd noticed that Prowl preferred to hide behind neutrality. He wondered what emotion their Head Tactician was trying to cover up.
Jazz's thought were interrupted when the hanger door opened once again, this tine for the speeding force of Blustreak. The young bot barely gave herself any time to transform to robot mode before crashing into Prowl.
Jazz leapt forward on instinct, not that he would've been able to protect Prowl in time but still. It wasn't until he'd jumped forward with arms out stretched that he realised that Bluestreak hadn't flattened their commander into an energon flat-cake. Instead her arms had wrapped around Prowl's midsection in a metal crushing hug. Perhaps what was even more surprising was that Prowl was hugging her back.
Momentarily startled, it took Jazz a second to also realise that he had hear the screeched of metal from above. He looked up to see Bumblebee's arm also reaching out from the vent above them because of course the little shit hadn't listened to him.
Prowl and Bluestreak hadn't noticed Bumblebee. And Bumblebee hadn't noticed that Jazz had noticed him. So for the sake of Jazz's momentary sanity, he decided to keep it that way.
"So I'm guess you two know each other?" Jazz drawled as Bluestreak finally let Prowl breathe again.
"Yes! He's my brother! Well not biologically, but that doesn't matter! He's still awesome!" She beamed.
Huh, the not biologically part was surprising. Even beyond the pair both being Praxian they looked incredibly similar with their red chevrons and matching doorwings. Not that it was any of his business.
"And you must be Jazz! Congratulations on your promotion! It's so cool to finally meet you in person! I've heard so much about you!" Bluestreak cried, jumped towards him but managing to bounce back on her feet before she could crush him into a hug as well. Her bubbly personality wasn't what Jazz was expecting of their new sniper. But he couldn't deny that her enthusiasm wasn't infectious.
"And congratulations to you for completing your first mission!" Jazz said, wrapping his arm around her, tugging her closer when she didn't hesitate to lean into his side. "And listen, I know that the first mission is always the hardest so as your new commanding officer, I want you to know that you can always talk to me okay?"
"Oh I'm okay! When I shot them through the scope I pretend it's a video game and that they weren't real people!" She stated, smiling up at him with big blue optics.
Okay... well... Jazz did not have the phycology skills to unpack that. That was going to have to be something for Rung to deal with.
"Should I write up my report now?" Bluestreak asked.
"Nah! Why don't you head down to the rec room? I'm sure there's a lot of bots your age who would love yo get to know you!" Jazz made sure to say that last part extra loud. Hopefully Bumblebee would get the message.
Bluestreak glanced back at Prowl who nodded in return.
"We will talk later. For now I will walk you to the recreation room." Prowl told her.
"Okay! See you later!" Bluestreak finally letting go of Jazz with a wave.
He waved back as she trotted alongside Prowl, talking his ear off about this, that and everything.
Jazz watched as Prowl listened to her babble on, one hand on her back as though to assure himself that she was really here. His mask of neutrality slipping enough for Jazz to see the relief in Prowl's eyes.
Jazz's spark burned with the sting of jealously at seeing the pair interact. But he pushed it down. It wasn't their fault that the only family he'd ever had, had either abandoned or betrayed him. He was happy that the pair still had each other in the nightmare of a war they'd been forced into.
At least that's what Jazz told himself as he stood alone in an empty corridor.
A/N: Yay Bluestreak is finally here! Also yay it's my birthday! So I hope that you enjoy this gift to you guys of a new chapter! Xxxxxx