Jazz quickly shut off the robotic voice of his text-to-speech generator as he heard a knock on his door.
He wasn't expecting anyone. And the past few times that someone had turned up unexpectedly at his door hadn't exactly bode good news so he went to answer it with caution.
Even with all the scenarios he was imaging, Jazz was still surprised to find Prowl standing behind his door.
"Hey Commander." Jazz greeted, leaning against the doorway. "You got more paperwork for me?"
"No." Prowl stated. His expression gave nothing awayway but judging by his long pause he was clearly gathering his thoughts to say something. "Would you like to... hang out with me?"
Jazz nearly slid off the doorframe. Honestly he'd been starting to worry that Prowl was about to tell him that somebody else had died. So it was a bit of a relief. If no less confusing. But frankly Jazz didn't really care about the reasonings behind Prowl's change of heart. As whilst Jazz wasn't currently the Praxian's biggest fan, that didn't mean that he didn't want Prowl to like him back.
"Alright." He shrugged, not wanting to appear too eager. "Do you want to meet up in the rec-room for lunch?"
"The recreational room is very loud." Prowl stated.
"Well most people's shifts don't start ending for another hour so it should be pretty quite right now. I'll just finish this then we can head down if you want?"
Prowl paused, that breifly blank look crossing his eyes that Jazz had begun to recognise as when he was assessing all possible probabilities with that big battle computer brain of his. Whatever conclusion he'd come too must have been acceptable as a moment later Prowl nodded.
Jazz tried his best to finish his work as quick as possible. He avoided Prowl's gaze as he turned the text to speak generator back on but thankfully the commander didn't make any comment on it.
As soon as he was done, Jazz lead the way towards the rec room, not wanting to give Prowl time to change his mind.
Thankfully Jazz had been right in his guess that it wouldn't be busy. Besides the clashing green and red forms of Inferno and Hound taking up one of the central tables with a cyber-chess match, the place was empty.
Jazz poured a cube of energon for himself then one for Prowl, trying the get it to the same shade of pink that he remembered Sideswipe previously making for the commander. It must've been close enough as Prowl took one inspecting glance at cube before taking a sip. Jazz mentally tallied that as a win.
Despite the place being practically empty, Prowl took them to the right corner booth which would let them survey the room whilst keeping an eye on the exit. Whether Prowl was aware that he'd done this on purpose, Jazz wasn't sure but he wasn't about to complain when he would have done that same.
As soon as he sat down, Prowl sharply turned his whole body towards him.
"The weather is terrible today." Prowl stated. He then proceeded to stare at Jazz expectantly.
"Err yeah sure is." Jazz replied.
There was then an awkward silence as Prowl apparently had no idea what to say after that. Whatever was happening here, the guy was at least trying, so Jazz decided to throw him a bone.
"So how's Bluestreak settling back in?" He asked, guessing that would be a safe subject.
Sure enough, that got Prowl to brighten up.
"She is settling in well. And I am glad that she has found a friend in Bumblebee."
"Me too." Jazz said. Primus knows the kid could do with better influences than the twins. "Hey If this is too personal then you can tell me to frag off but if you don't mind me asking, what did Bluestreak mean that you weren't biologically brother and sister? Because you could've fooled me! And believe me, that aint an easy thing to do."
"As the only other known Praxian still alive, I believed that it was my duty to become her gaurdian after the destruction of Praxus."
Shit. Jazz had been stationed in Iacon at the time but like everyone else left on their planet, he had heard of the Battle of Praxus. Although calling it a battle was a bit disingenuous. A slaughter would be more acurate. Praxus had been a Neutral State up until that point so most of the casualties had been civilian. Many of the remaining neutral cities had joined the Autobots after that but in Jazz's opinion the loss of life hadn't been worth it.
"Well from what I've seen from her records she's grown into a resilient young bot." Jazz told him.
"She should not have needed to become so resilient." Prowl stated, a slight edge to his voice. "She has been through so much for such a young age. Loosing her family, deciding to transition and growing up during a war."
"Still, you must be proud of her?"
"I claim no responsibility for her strength of character. That is all her. But yes I am proud." A rare smile crossed Prowl's face. It soon vanished however when he turned his attention back to Jazz. "Do you have any siblings?"
"I did." Jazz stated before smoothly moving the subject back to Bluestreak. "Is she the reason you're doing... whatever this is?"
"Yes." Prowl sighed. "She is worried I do not talk to anyone whilst she is away and I cannot have her worrying about me whilst on a mission when a distraction could cost her life."
Okay that made sense. What didn't make sense was- "Why did you pick me? I thought you hated me!"
"I do." Prowl replied without hesitation. "But you are the only one interested in talking to me."
"Well how do ya know that for certain? When was the last time you actually tried to make friends with someone?" Jazz asked.
Prowl's eyes took on that blank look once again and judging by the fact that it was taking him this long and he hadn't come up with an answer yet told Jazz that it had probably been a long time.
"Listen if you genuinely to be my friend then I'm more than happy to be! But I don't want you to feel like you have to settle for me because you think I'm you're only option." Jazz told him.
"You are my only option."
Well with that attitude he would be. Still as he had done with Mirage all those years ago now, Jazz decided to give the bot a helping hand.
Glancing around the room, Jazz's gaze landed on Hound and Inferno, two of the friendliest mechs in the entire Autobot army.
Perfect.
"Come on!" Jazz downed the rest of his drink then held out a hand to the commander. After a moment's hesitation, he took it allowing Jazz to lead them over to the central tables.
"Heya mechs! Who's winning?" Jazz asked, dropping Prowl's hand so that he could lean on the comparitivly cooler table.
"Inferno." Hound grumbled.
The bot in question shrugged. "That's only because I've played against my Red so much."
"I've been trying to think outside the box like you're always telling me! But it's hard when you're literally playing with little boxes!" Hound faux whined, pretending to bang his head on the table.
"That's because you're taking it too literally." Jazz explained, patting his friend on the helm. "We ain't confined to black and white boxes in real life!"
Jazz then grabbed one of Inferno's pawns and ate it.
"Well I've gotta admit, I have no idea how to respond to that." Inferno stated whilst Hound banged his head against the table for real.
"I do." Prowl stated, moving another pawn to take its place.
Interested to see where the commander was going with this, Jazz moved Hound's own pawn to steal it back. It wasn't until three moves later that Jazz saw what was about to happen the second before Prowl took his rook.
Jazz grinned.
Oh it was on.
Hound and Inferno had already whittled down each others pieces so it wasn't long until the two commanders were down to two pieces each. Jazz with a knight. Prowl with a rook. And both with their king.
Within that time the lunch hour had truly begun and their little game had drawn quite a crowd. But despite the number of people, the room was oddly quiet. Many of them were probably in shock to see the head of tactics actually in the Rec Room for first time.
Being a spy, Jazz had been aware of the silent swarm starting to form, but Prowl was so engrossed in the game that he hadn't appeared to have noticed.
Jazz smirked to himself, as he placed his knight adjacent to his opponents king.
Prowl paused, looking up to stare at Jazz with those intelligent blue eyes. Jazz gave nothing away, keeping his smirk only for himself.
Sure enough, two moves later, Prowl defeated Jazz's King and the crowd exploded.
Prowl froze as the mechs surrounded him with applause, singing his praises and clasping his shoulders.
Jazz allowd himself a small chuckle at the sight.
Perhaps Prowl wasn't a complete arsehole. Sure he was partly. But more so he was just extremely socially awkward.
Jazz allowed the crowd another minute to shower their congratulations before coming to Prowl's rescue.
"Alright I know most of ya'lls shifts have started again by now so get ya sorry afts back to work!" Jazz ordered. After a few grumbles and quick dashes for energon, most having forgotten to refuel in their engrossment, soon only the original players remained.
"Thanks for letting us joing in." Jazz grinned. "And sorry about your pawn. I'll make ya a new one!"
"Don't worry about it!" Inferno said, waving him off before perking up. "Hey I was thinking of starting a cyber-chess club. I thought it would be fun for the base! Plus it would be a good excuse to get Red out of their room." He then turned to Jazz with a pleading glint to his optics. "Just promise me you won't eat the peices when playing with them? I think it would cause another episode."
"I promise." Jazz said, holding his hand to his spark. Out of the corner of his eye, he snuck a glance at Prowl.
The Head of Tactics had a slightly blank stare on his face as though what Inferno had just asked them didn't logically make sense.
Jazz gave him a subtle nudge.
Prowl blinked, his mind seemingly now back within this realm of reality as he turned to Inferno.
"Yes, I would like to join your club." Prowl said. Jazz thought that he imagined the corners of Prowl's lips twitch in a smile.
"Thank you so much!" Inferno beamed as they started to pack away. "I'll send you both a rota for matches!"
"Can't wait!" Jazz cried, giving him and Hound a wave as he strolled towards the exit. Prowl followed behind him after a polite nod.
As soon as they stepped outside, the blast proof doors slammed shut behind them, leaving the pair in total silence.
"You let me win." Prowl stated.
"Of course. It's the only way you could win against me." Jazz said, finally letting his smirk free.
"I could have beaten you."
"Prove it." Jazz dared, his smirk now a full on grin.
"I will." Prowl told him, that monotone voice of his expressing his calm confidence.
"I'm looking forward to it." Jazz said, turning down the corridor towards his habsuite, surprised that he actually meant it.
He had nearly reached the end of the corridor when caught Prowl's reply.
"Me too."
The next morning stacked on top of Jazz's mounting pile of daily reports, was a datastick.
Curious, he plugged it into his computer where a voice recording tab popped up.
He pressed play, and was surprised yet touched to hear the words of this mornings reports read aloud by Prowl's steady voice.
A/N: So the next chapter that I had planned ended up not being from either Jazz or Prowl's POV so instead I've decided to make that a separate story even though it will still take place between this chapter and the next one. So please don't panic when this fic doesn't update to schedule! Xxxxxxx