Practice (fic)
Title: Practice
Characters: Sunsinger, Chromia, Nighthawk, OFC
Rating: G
Word Count: 2022
Disclaimer: The idea is mine, the twins are mine, the other sparkling belongs to ilyena_sylph; everything else belongs to someone with a lot more money and influence.
A/N: Written for trunks_angel, who asked for a point somewhere in the future of the Hawk and Singer series in a timestamp meme I posted a while back. Hope this works, hon. Thanks go to ilyena_sylph for letting me post this even though we never intended for it to be seen in public.
Summary: As any good spy knows, you have to practice your sneaking. And if you want to live up to your parents' names, you have to practice a lot.
Sunsinger stuck to the shadows, while her twin went for the more direct route as they tried to creep up on the weapon's specialist's spark mate. They were practicing their yellow creator's trade by trying to sneak up on anyone and everyone, and sometimes - like this time - they let the youngest member of the team come along. She was generally the distraction.
Chromia - this run's target - was carburetor-deep in an intelligence problem, processor running at almost full speed on the situation, but that didn't mean she was completely oblivious to the rest of the world. Nighthawk slipped into the comm. network of the base, clumsy still but getting better, and he tried to redirect Chromia's attention through the mainframe so that his twin could get close enough the tag her with a washable spray-paint that their father's partner Sam had given them. Sunsinger crept closer, gesturing for Steelheart to head towards Chromia's left side.
Chromia noticed the attempt at the push, and shoved back at it, growling through the net at whoever was hassling her.
Nighthawk squeaked softly at the unexpected push and tried to push back. Sunsinger glared at her brother when he made a sound, and pulled the can of paint from a pocket in her armor where her weapons would later rest. She flipped the cap back and crossed the last few feet to start spraying the acid purple paint at Chromia's aft. Chromia heard the noise behind her and moved, twisting sideways and forward to drop to the ground, optics and sensors searching as her forearm changed to one of her smaller cannons.
Sunsinger squawked and flipped to the side, dropping herself down as small as she could in the shadows. The can of paint bounced across the floor towards Nighthawk and he scrambled for it, shaking it and hitting the spray button while Chromia was focused on his twin. Steel dove for cover right behind Sunsinger, tucking close, while Chromia went to upright in another heartbeat, optics trained back on the noise. "Nighthawk."
Sunsinger rose to her feet slowly, keeping Steelheart behind her, while her twin quickly tucked the spray can behind his back and gave Chromia his best innocent expression. "Yes?"
"Don't think I don't hear you, Nighthawk," Chromia said, just as sternly, then cracked a slight smile. "Not bad work. If you hadn't made a sound, I might not have heard you."
Sunsinger made a disappointed noise, and then beamed. "So we're getting better?"
Nighthawk dropped the spray paint into an armor pocket. "What noise tipped you off?"
"You," and Chromia copied the noise Nighthawk had made. "And then, Sunsinger, you cried out when I moved."
Sunsinger glanced at her twin, and then back up at the femme. "So he shouldn't have made any noise, but if he hadn't, would you have known he was there when I squeaked and moved?" She was trying to figure out how to take advantage if she ended up making noise again.
Meanwhile, Steelheart was moving as quietly as she possibly could, slow and careful... and tapped at Chromia's ankle lightly. Nighthawk made a rude gesture at his twin, then snickered when Steel tapped Chromia's ankle joint.
Chromia had, literally, jumped half a foot at the tap to her ankle, and looked down with a laugh. "Oh, very good work, little one."
Sunsinger snickered softly when Chromia jumped, and bounced a little. "She's learing from us." Nighthawk skittered over to scoop up Steel and swing her around, clicking congratulations at the tag-a-long they'd only just recently started actually playing with instead of avoiding.
Steelheart cuddled into him, cooing her glee softly, burbling up.
"Apparently she is, Sunsinger. And I might have heard you on your own, I might not have."
Nighthawk held Steel against him, even though he wasn't that much bigger than she was.
Sunsinger nodded. "We'll work on it. What are you doing, anyway?"
"We've got intel on a possible Decepticon landing, but it's in our allies' enemies' territory, so it's not solid. And you all need to let me get back to it. Go on."
Nighthawk pouted. "Can't I help? I mean, Singer's no good with codes, but I am..."
Singer looked at her twin and made an irritated noise before looking back at Chromia. "I could go look. Bee said he'd start training me for real soon..."
"You are not going into that kind of territory. No. But all right, Hawk. We'll have a look."
Sunsinger crossed her arms over her chassis. "I'd be with Bee-dad. And I can take care of myself..."
Nighthawk clicked at his twin disapprovingly and then scooted closer to Chromia's side, setting Steel down so that he could scramble up onto the console the big gray femme was working at.
"Bumblebee is not going. Not until we have something truly solid. Once, if, we do, he may. You can talk to him about going at that point."
Sunsinger scooped up Steel and clicked in annoyance. "Whatever."
Nighthawk settled on the console and looked at Singer. "You sound like Annabelle."
Chromia ran a quick comparison, and didn't disagree with Nighthawk's judgment as she made room for him beside her.
Steel chirred and nuzzled into Sunsinger's body, still bouncing a little. Singer made a rude gesture at her brother, then looked down at Steel. "Wanna go sneak up on Arcee? Bet she doesn't think we'll get her again so soon..."
Steel chirred delightedly, bouncing, and a clear "yes" came from her voice processor.
Sunsinger chirred in surprise and nearly dropped the sparkling in her arms. "What did you say?"
Nighthawk bounced a little on the console. "Oh, Elita's gonna be jealous!"
Chromia laughed softly, looking at the little sparkling. "Can you do it again?"
"Yes, yes. Yesyesyes..."
Sunsinger giggled, and Nighthawk buzzed through the base's comm. network to find Elita and Optimus and request their presence at the location he gave.
Elita looked at her sparkmate from where she'd been going over similar reports to the ones Chromia had been studying, and then got up to go to the location, with Optimus hot on her aft.
Chromia looked up from her spot with the sparklings as they came in, and nudged Sunsinger with a toe. Not that she had to, as Steel squealed at seeing her parents and chattered. "Yes, yes, yesyes..."
Sunsinger scooted forward at the nudge, and then set the sparkling down when she started chanting her new word.
Elita knelt down and held her arms out to her offspring. "Steelheart!" Optimus couldn't look any happier if he'd tried, and he beamed at his little femme.
Steel skittered across the floor to her mother, bouncing up into her arms. "Yes, yes, yesyes... got!" as she pointed back at Chromia.
Elita straightened up as she caught Steel, and looked at Optimus with bright optics before looking at Chromia with one brow tilted curiously. "Got, little one?"
Sunsinger grinned. "She's learning from the best!"
"Got! Got got yes yes yes."
Chromia shook her head. "The twins distracted me enough for her to sneak right up and tap me in the ankle."
Both twins beamed while Optimus reached over to stroke a big finger over his femme's tiny skull. "Very good, little one. Very good."
Elita turned a smile on Chromia. "You do know that Ironhide will never let you live this down, yes?"
"Unfortunately," she agreed darkly.
Nighthawk looked up at Chromia. "Could always get him before you tell him..."
Sunsinger bounced. "Yes!"
"Yesyesyesyesyes..." Steelheart chattered, nodding, bouncing in her mother's arms.
Elita and Optimus both laughed. "One chance, Steelheart, and then it's time for you to take a recharge." Elita informed her offspring.
Optimus looked at Sunsinger and Nighthawk, and had started to speak when Nighthawk chirped a negative. "I'm not going. Gonna help Chromia. You'll be okay without me, right Singer?"
Singer scowled at her brother, and then nodded. "Steel and I make a great team."
Steel frowned up at her mother, shaking her head back and forth, trying to remember, and "No, nonononono."
Elita blew air through her vents in faint frustration, and looked at Optimus. He made an amused sound. "We should've expected it sooner or later, Elita. And yes, Steelheart, you will recharge after you make an attempt at Ironhide."
"No...." it was a plaintive word, looking with widened blue optics up at her father.
Optimus had to blink at the expression on the little femme's face, and then looked rather accusingly at Sunsinger, who was trying for innocent. "Did you teach my femme to 'pout'?"
Sunsinger shook her head quickly. "No! She learned it on her own!"
Chromia chuckled, "If anyone, blame Arcee, Prime."
Optimus blinked at Chromia. "She would... Sunsinger, bring her back once you have made one - and I mean one - attempt at tagging Ironhide."
Sunsinger attempted to pout at the Prime, but it didn't have the same effect, and she gave up after a moment. "All right... Hawk, gimme back the paint." The green mech nodded and tossed his twin the can of paint before turning to look expectantly at Chromia.
Elita gave Steelheart a stern look as Optimus spoke to Sunsinger. "Be good." After stroking Steel's skull, the big blue femme set the sparkling on the ground gently.
Steelheart bounced against her mother's hand, then reached up for Sunsinger's, grinning. Sunsinger laughed, and took Steelheart's hand before heading down the hall. "Lets get him good. I think he's still in the rec room." She grinned at her partner in crime.
Steelheart nodded, "yes."
Singer giggled. "You can shock him with words, if nothing else." She led Steel towards the rec room, and crept as quietly as possible towards the table the big black mech was sitting at with cleaning supplies, going over one of his already-spotless canons
Steelheart crept along beside her, then went off to the side and moved as sneakily as she could, looking up when she got within a few body-lengths of Ironhide. She waited a moment, then chirped, "Yes?"
Singer had to clamp down on the laughter that wanted to escape when Ironhide jumped at the word from a voice he was only used to hearing clicks and chirps from. "Steelheart?!" Singer took advantage of his distraction to creep even closer, unspacing the can of paint and flicking the cap off as quietly as possible.
"Yes, yes, yes." Steelheart bounced at making him jump, and her hands clapped together, watching Sunsinger only from the corner of one eye.
"Primus, Steelheart, you can speak!" Attention focused on the sparkling for the moment, he didn't notice Sunsinger behind him until the cool moisture of paint hit his aft and sent him into the air in shock. He scooped Steelheart up with the arm that had the disassembled cannon, and spun around with the other cannon fired up and focused on the culprit. "... Sunsinger..."
Singer giggled, unfazed. "Chromia did the same thing! 'Cept Steelheart tagged her, not me."
"YesYesYes, GotGotGot!" Steelheart cheered happily.
Ironhide blinked repeatedly before subspacing his cannon and shifting his hold on the sparkling to something a little more comfortable for them both. "Yes, you did get me." He shook his head. "And what's this about Chromia?"
Sunsinger grinned. "She caught me'n Hawk, but missed Steel, and Steel made her jump. And then bounced and said yes and we called her creators and they were happy. 'Cept they said that Steelheart has to go recharge now." she pouted.
Steelheart pouted with her, looking up at Ironhide with wide optics. "No..."
Ironhide shook faintly - he was a sucker for sparklings, even if his mate didn't want one. "Steelheart..."
Singer held her arms out for Steel. "We'll get Arcee tomorrow morning, okay?"
The little femme pouted, but it didn't work on Singer as well as it did on the older mechs, and she clicked mournfully when Ironhide set her into the little purple youngling's arms.
"No…"
"I know. I don' like it either, but I have to go recharge soon too." That seemed to mollify the younger femme somewhat, and she didn't complain anymore as Sunsinger carried her back to her parent's quarters.
Characters: Sunsinger, Chromia, Nighthawk, OFC
Rating: G
Word Count: 2022
Disclaimer: The idea is mine, the twins are mine, the other sparkling belongs to ilyena_sylph; everything else belongs to someone with a lot more money and influence.
A/N: Written for trunks_angel, who asked for a point somewhere in the future of the Hawk and Singer series in a timestamp meme I posted a while back. Hope this works, hon. Thanks go to ilyena_sylph for letting me post this even though we never intended for it to be seen in public.
Summary: As any good spy knows, you have to practice your sneaking. And if you want to live up to your parents' names, you have to practice a lot.
Sunsinger stuck to the shadows, while her twin went for the more direct route as they tried to creep up on the weapon's specialist's spark mate. They were practicing their yellow creator's trade by trying to sneak up on anyone and everyone, and sometimes - like this time - they let the youngest member of the team come along. She was generally the distraction.
Chromia - this run's target - was carburetor-deep in an intelligence problem, processor running at almost full speed on the situation, but that didn't mean she was completely oblivious to the rest of the world. Nighthawk slipped into the comm. network of the base, clumsy still but getting better, and he tried to redirect Chromia's attention through the mainframe so that his twin could get close enough the tag her with a washable spray-paint that their father's partner Sam had given them. Sunsinger crept closer, gesturing for Steelheart to head towards Chromia's left side.
Chromia noticed the attempt at the push, and shoved back at it, growling through the net at whoever was hassling her.
Nighthawk squeaked softly at the unexpected push and tried to push back. Sunsinger glared at her brother when he made a sound, and pulled the can of paint from a pocket in her armor where her weapons would later rest. She flipped the cap back and crossed the last few feet to start spraying the acid purple paint at Chromia's aft. Chromia heard the noise behind her and moved, twisting sideways and forward to drop to the ground, optics and sensors searching as her forearm changed to one of her smaller cannons.
Sunsinger squawked and flipped to the side, dropping herself down as small as she could in the shadows. The can of paint bounced across the floor towards Nighthawk and he scrambled for it, shaking it and hitting the spray button while Chromia was focused on his twin. Steel dove for cover right behind Sunsinger, tucking close, while Chromia went to upright in another heartbeat, optics trained back on the noise. "Nighthawk."
Sunsinger rose to her feet slowly, keeping Steelheart behind her, while her twin quickly tucked the spray can behind his back and gave Chromia his best innocent expression. "Yes?"
"Don't think I don't hear you, Nighthawk," Chromia said, just as sternly, then cracked a slight smile. "Not bad work. If you hadn't made a sound, I might not have heard you."
Sunsinger made a disappointed noise, and then beamed. "So we're getting better?"
Nighthawk dropped the spray paint into an armor pocket. "What noise tipped you off?"
"You," and Chromia copied the noise Nighthawk had made. "And then, Sunsinger, you cried out when I moved."
Sunsinger glanced at her twin, and then back up at the femme. "So he shouldn't have made any noise, but if he hadn't, would you have known he was there when I squeaked and moved?" She was trying to figure out how to take advantage if she ended up making noise again.
Meanwhile, Steelheart was moving as quietly as she possibly could, slow and careful... and tapped at Chromia's ankle lightly. Nighthawk made a rude gesture at his twin, then snickered when Steel tapped Chromia's ankle joint.
Chromia had, literally, jumped half a foot at the tap to her ankle, and looked down with a laugh. "Oh, very good work, little one."
Sunsinger snickered softly when Chromia jumped, and bounced a little. "She's learing from us." Nighthawk skittered over to scoop up Steel and swing her around, clicking congratulations at the tag-a-long they'd only just recently started actually playing with instead of avoiding.
Steelheart cuddled into him, cooing her glee softly, burbling up.
"Apparently she is, Sunsinger. And I might have heard you on your own, I might not have."
Nighthawk held Steel against him, even though he wasn't that much bigger than she was.
Sunsinger nodded. "We'll work on it. What are you doing, anyway?"
"We've got intel on a possible Decepticon landing, but it's in our allies' enemies' territory, so it's not solid. And you all need to let me get back to it. Go on."
Nighthawk pouted. "Can't I help? I mean, Singer's no good with codes, but I am..."
Singer looked at her twin and made an irritated noise before looking back at Chromia. "I could go look. Bee said he'd start training me for real soon..."
"You are not going into that kind of territory. No. But all right, Hawk. We'll have a look."
Sunsinger crossed her arms over her chassis. "I'd be with Bee-dad. And I can take care of myself..."
Nighthawk clicked at his twin disapprovingly and then scooted closer to Chromia's side, setting Steel down so that he could scramble up onto the console the big gray femme was working at.
"Bumblebee is not going. Not until we have something truly solid. Once, if, we do, he may. You can talk to him about going at that point."
Sunsinger scooped up Steel and clicked in annoyance. "Whatever."
Nighthawk settled on the console and looked at Singer. "You sound like Annabelle."
Chromia ran a quick comparison, and didn't disagree with Nighthawk's judgment as she made room for him beside her.
Steel chirred and nuzzled into Sunsinger's body, still bouncing a little. Singer made a rude gesture at her brother, then looked down at Steel. "Wanna go sneak up on Arcee? Bet she doesn't think we'll get her again so soon..."
Steel chirred delightedly, bouncing, and a clear "yes" came from her voice processor.
Sunsinger chirred in surprise and nearly dropped the sparkling in her arms. "What did you say?"
Nighthawk bounced a little on the console. "Oh, Elita's gonna be jealous!"
Chromia laughed softly, looking at the little sparkling. "Can you do it again?"
"Yes, yes. Yesyesyes..."
Sunsinger giggled, and Nighthawk buzzed through the base's comm. network to find Elita and Optimus and request their presence at the location he gave.
Elita looked at her sparkmate from where she'd been going over similar reports to the ones Chromia had been studying, and then got up to go to the location, with Optimus hot on her aft.
Chromia looked up from her spot with the sparklings as they came in, and nudged Sunsinger with a toe. Not that she had to, as Steel squealed at seeing her parents and chattered. "Yes, yes, yesyes..."
Sunsinger scooted forward at the nudge, and then set the sparkling down when she started chanting her new word.
Elita knelt down and held her arms out to her offspring. "Steelheart!" Optimus couldn't look any happier if he'd tried, and he beamed at his little femme.
Steel skittered across the floor to her mother, bouncing up into her arms. "Yes, yes, yesyes... got!" as she pointed back at Chromia.
Elita straightened up as she caught Steel, and looked at Optimus with bright optics before looking at Chromia with one brow tilted curiously. "Got, little one?"
Sunsinger grinned. "She's learning from the best!"
"Got! Got got yes yes yes."
Chromia shook her head. "The twins distracted me enough for her to sneak right up and tap me in the ankle."
Both twins beamed while Optimus reached over to stroke a big finger over his femme's tiny skull. "Very good, little one. Very good."
Elita turned a smile on Chromia. "You do know that Ironhide will never let you live this down, yes?"
"Unfortunately," she agreed darkly.
Nighthawk looked up at Chromia. "Could always get him before you tell him..."
Sunsinger bounced. "Yes!"
"Yesyesyesyesyes..." Steelheart chattered, nodding, bouncing in her mother's arms.
Elita and Optimus both laughed. "One chance, Steelheart, and then it's time for you to take a recharge." Elita informed her offspring.
Optimus looked at Sunsinger and Nighthawk, and had started to speak when Nighthawk chirped a negative. "I'm not going. Gonna help Chromia. You'll be okay without me, right Singer?"
Singer scowled at her brother, and then nodded. "Steel and I make a great team."
Steel frowned up at her mother, shaking her head back and forth, trying to remember, and "No, nonononono."
Elita blew air through her vents in faint frustration, and looked at Optimus. He made an amused sound. "We should've expected it sooner or later, Elita. And yes, Steelheart, you will recharge after you make an attempt at Ironhide."
"No...." it was a plaintive word, looking with widened blue optics up at her father.
Optimus had to blink at the expression on the little femme's face, and then looked rather accusingly at Sunsinger, who was trying for innocent. "Did you teach my femme to 'pout'?"
Sunsinger shook her head quickly. "No! She learned it on her own!"
Chromia chuckled, "If anyone, blame Arcee, Prime."
Optimus blinked at Chromia. "She would... Sunsinger, bring her back once you have made one - and I mean one - attempt at tagging Ironhide."
Sunsinger attempted to pout at the Prime, but it didn't have the same effect, and she gave up after a moment. "All right... Hawk, gimme back the paint." The green mech nodded and tossed his twin the can of paint before turning to look expectantly at Chromia.
Elita gave Steelheart a stern look as Optimus spoke to Sunsinger. "Be good." After stroking Steel's skull, the big blue femme set the sparkling on the ground gently.
Steelheart bounced against her mother's hand, then reached up for Sunsinger's, grinning. Sunsinger laughed, and took Steelheart's hand before heading down the hall. "Lets get him good. I think he's still in the rec room." She grinned at her partner in crime.
Steelheart nodded, "yes."
Singer giggled. "You can shock him with words, if nothing else." She led Steel towards the rec room, and crept as quietly as possible towards the table the big black mech was sitting at with cleaning supplies, going over one of his already-spotless canons
Steelheart crept along beside her, then went off to the side and moved as sneakily as she could, looking up when she got within a few body-lengths of Ironhide. She waited a moment, then chirped, "Yes?"
Singer had to clamp down on the laughter that wanted to escape when Ironhide jumped at the word from a voice he was only used to hearing clicks and chirps from. "Steelheart?!" Singer took advantage of his distraction to creep even closer, unspacing the can of paint and flicking the cap off as quietly as possible.
"Yes, yes, yes." Steelheart bounced at making him jump, and her hands clapped together, watching Sunsinger only from the corner of one eye.
"Primus, Steelheart, you can speak!" Attention focused on the sparkling for the moment, he didn't notice Sunsinger behind him until the cool moisture of paint hit his aft and sent him into the air in shock. He scooped Steelheart up with the arm that had the disassembled cannon, and spun around with the other cannon fired up and focused on the culprit. "... Sunsinger..."
Singer giggled, unfazed. "Chromia did the same thing! 'Cept Steelheart tagged her, not me."
"YesYesYes, GotGotGot!" Steelheart cheered happily.
Ironhide blinked repeatedly before subspacing his cannon and shifting his hold on the sparkling to something a little more comfortable for them both. "Yes, you did get me." He shook his head. "And what's this about Chromia?"
Sunsinger grinned. "She caught me'n Hawk, but missed Steel, and Steel made her jump. And then bounced and said yes and we called her creators and they were happy. 'Cept they said that Steelheart has to go recharge now." she pouted.
Steelheart pouted with her, looking up at Ironhide with wide optics. "No..."
Ironhide shook faintly - he was a sucker for sparklings, even if his mate didn't want one. "Steelheart..."
Singer held her arms out for Steel. "We'll get Arcee tomorrow morning, okay?"
The little femme pouted, but it didn't work on Singer as well as it did on the older mechs, and she clicked mournfully when Ironhide set her into the little purple youngling's arms.
"No…"
"I know. I don' like it either, but I have to go recharge soon too." That seemed to mollify the younger femme somewhat, and she didn't complain anymore as Sunsinger carried her back to her parent's quarters.