Difficult Things 5: Patience
Difficult Things: Patience
By Dreaming of Everything/dreams_of_all/dream_it_all, betaed by mmouse15.
Series: Transformers (G1)
Pairings/Characters: HoundxTwins (starting with HoundxSunstreaker, so bear with me here.) Hound, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Bumblebee, others.
Ratings/Warnings: T for safety so far, some of the later chapters jumping to M for mech/mech(/mech). Technically slash. Psuedo-incestuous. Threesome, both as a relationship and in sex scenes.
Author's Notes: Thanks to anon_decepticon!
Summary: G1. Hound's realized Sunstreaker is watching him, which is kind of unnerving, really. Sunstreaker is convinced he wants absolutely positively nothing to do with Hound. Sideswipe's amused. Bumblebee's bemused. Everyone else is clueless--so far, at least. Love is not an easy thing.
Chapter 1: Absolutely Not in Love
Chapter 2: Personality Conflicts
Chapter 3: In the Dark
Chapter 4: Little Details
Chapter 5: Patience
Chapter 6: Helplessly
FFnet link
Difficult Things: Patience
Hound kind of thought that there was some gossip going around. Well, he knew that: there was always some gossip going around. But this time, unusually, he thought that it might be about him. Normally, he was too boring for the attention-his love affair with biology long since faded into the general background weirdness that characterized life on the Ark-and too much a part of the status quo. He did kind of guess that that had changed.
He certainly seemed to be spending a fair amount of time with Sunstreaker.
Some conversations seemed to fade, or change directions suddenly, when he entered the room. And he'd caught one or two mechs looking him over, like they were looking for unexpected depths of the sort it would take to catch Sunstreaker's interest-not that it was like that. But he could see how they could misunderstand.
It was all a little bit confusing.
But rumors were, in the end, essentially harmless-mostly, anyway. Close enough for him, at least. They'd fade, and that would be that. If anything got out of line-it usually didn't-he'd talk to the mech in question about it, or maybe talk to one of the officers. He really didn't think it would come to that. His life just didn't have that much drama in it.
Sunstreaker pulled up short as he realized that it wasn't Hound waiting for him outside the Ark. He hadn't been smiling before-not quite-but his face darkened, a scowl forming as he stalked forward.
Bumblebee. It could have been worse, but-still. He was a minibot.
“Sorry for the surprise,” Bumblebee said calmly as they pulled away from the base. Sunstreaker sped up, realizing that he'd-force of habit-fallen into the speeds he kept to for Hound's sake. 'It was a last-minute thing. Hound was needed for a mission.'
Which was normal. Hound was a valuable addition to the Autobots, Sunstreaker knew that. Sometimes he was useless-not a good fighter, slow-but he could do things nobody else could. His tracking abilities were unparalleled. ...Sideswipe had told him that, a while ago. At first he'd just written off the mech. And for a while afterwards.
He wasn't very showy. But...
A silence fell. Bumblebee was working hard to keep up with Sunstreaker, but was keeping a reasonably close distance. It only served to irritate him further. Slagging mech.
There was a long period of silence.
'...There's some rumors going around the Ark,' Bumblebee radioed, after a while. Not unkindly.
Sunstreaker swerved a little to the left, unable to keep himself from flinching. When he straightened himself out he returned to chilly ambivalence. No recognition of what had been said at all.
Bumblebee, fearless but maybe a little hesitant, continued. 'Certain mechs think that you're toying with Hound.' In several senses of the word, depending on the inclinations of the mech doing to the thinking.
Sunstreaker snarled out loud, fury curling through him.
'-It's only natural to worry about a friend.'
Something snapped. Sunstreaker wheeled around, transforming as he went, one foot coming forward to crunch down, mercilessly, on Bumblebee's hood. Metal crumpled and the ozone-energy smell of volatile energon vaporizing filled the air. The smaller mech didn't scream, but made an indeterminate, pained noise.
Too damaged to transform, Sunstreaker analyzed with long familiarity. Bumblebee struggled to get away from him, but he was still pinned. It made a terrible rasping noise, where the plates of Bumblebee's armor has been bent out of place by Sunstreaker's foot, the metal scraping. The damage to the attacking mech was mostly superficial.
Sunstreaker wasn't fighting any longer, not even lashing out-just waiting, dumb. Bumblebee pulled himself free, transforming-he'd had been wrong, he was more resilient than he'd thought-and pulling his blaster, pointing it steadily at Sunstreaker. His expression was unreadable.
Energon spattered to the ground, leaving oily dark patches on the dry dust. It had been a while since it had rained. Hound had been talking about it-something about frogs. He talked to him, sometimes, even though Sunstreaker didn't really care. There wasn't much else to do on patrol or delivery, or any of the other low-skill tasks Sunstreaker was assigned to.
...Hound. Who everyone was worried about. Because of him-because of course he'd-
Attack him. Leave him bleeding, with armor plates crumpled until they impeded mobility, prevented transformation. Unexpectedly, when the mech crossed some line he probably wasn't even aware of in the first place.
“I was trying to give you the benefit of doubt,” Bumblebee told him, remarkably sober. It wasn't-expected. And he was still threatening him, gun leveled squarely-unerringly-at a weak spot in his armor. “I thought I could do that much.”
They waited until another mech arrived. Sunstreaker was cuffed-a formality, he wasn't fighting-and marched back to the Ark. Bumblebee needed assistance getting that far.
Sunstreaker was jailed until the next major battle, when he was released on probation. They needed him to fight.
Sideswipe was his only visitor during his incarceration.
Rumors ran rampant around the Ark. They never stopped, really, but the gossip wasn't always so juicy.
Sunstreaker paused as he entered the rec room. Hound was there, close by the door, talking to Trailbreaker and Mirage. He was easy, relaxed and laughing, obviously happ- At ease in a way he'd never been with Sunstreaker.
He wasn't losing anything, because there hadn't been any damn thing in the first place. Nothing to lose, so no loss.
He was a yellow mass, a blur at the periphery of Hound's vision. Unmistakable.
“I think the mission went pretty well,” Trailbreaker said, a comforting hand on Hound's arm. Sunstreaker bristled.
“You did an excellent job,” Mirage told him, looking over. “You can't account for everything.”
Hound sighed. “I guess it worked out in the end, and that's the most important thing, right? -And now we have a few days off. Do you want to go out to the mountains, maybe...?”
“I don't know,” Trailbreaker said, looking hesitant.
“It'll be fun! We can spare that much energon-you need to get off the Ark more. Please?”
“Okay,” Trailbreaker said, capitulating. Even though he sounded resigned he smiled.
“I'll come too,” Mirage said, his own smile quieter.
Sunstreaker stalked away, face curling into a sneer. Mechs muttered, but he ignored them. And left as quickly as he was able. Hound looked up as he exited the room, but his face stayed blank, neutral. Disapproving. Nothing that... Sunstreaker wasn't used to seeing. But not from Hound. He'd gotten used to-something else. And he had. He had lost something.
“Hey, Hound!” Sideswipe said, face bright with an almost too-wide grin.
“Yes?”
“I was wondering about this little animal I found outside-”
“Teletraan has some good data files,” Hound said, turning back to his previous task. He was helping the science team sort some rock samples Beachcomber had brought back from a recent expedition, and it required a fair amount of concentration.
He wasn't particularly interested in being helpful.
“Oh,” Sideswipe said, grin not wavering but the quality of it changing. “I guess-but that's boring.”
Hound made a neutral noise that could be taken as agreement. He bent closer to look at a rock, examining crystalline structures and banding.
“It's little, kind of hairy-”
Hound looked up. “I'm not here for your amusement,” he said, flatly.
“Oh,” Sideswipe repeated, and this time he did look kind of serious. Kind of-strange. “I guess you're busy. Maybe someone else will know.”
“Probably,” Hound said tightly, looking back down at his sample. He ran his finger down the list of potential rocks. He'd been-short with Sideswipe, unnecessarily so. He wasn't even really at fault. True, he'd never been friendly with the mech, but... He didn't antagonize others. He wasn't supposed to be aggressive like that-defensive, maybe, if he had reason to be, but he'd been rude. Unfair, maybe, but it was Sideswipe...
But it wasn't Sunstreaker. Who was really the dangerous one of the pair-the one Hound really wanted to avoid.
If he was honest, he felt betrayed. Because....
He had no reason to. Sunstreaker was always unreliable, potentially dangerous, confusing at best. Even when they'd talked, it had felt like he'd been missing a lot-like he couldn't translate half of what he said. Or was mistranslating it, worse-more dangerously.
...Sunstreaker, who had threatened him. Who had waited for him, gone driving with him. Sunstreaker, who he'd spoken up for and talked to and been unnerved by-and who'd sometimes surprised him. Not because of violence, which wasn't, truly speaking, all that unexpected...
Or, no, he'd been surprised by the attack on Bumblebee. It was out of the ordinary, even for Sunstreaker; and he'd... He'd gotten used to him. Somehow, he'd assumed that the strange peace he'd established with the twins was...applicable to others. That it was...
But there was no reason to think that at all. Hound shook his head sharply, expression hard and still. There hadn't been any big surprises, not really. There wasn't much worth saying.
Sideswipe had left. Hound vented a sigh as he looked up at the empty room. He'd need to find someone to go for a drive with later on. He was just feeling-a little isolated, maybe.
“Hound's stopped talking to me,” Sideswipe said, unexpectedly. Sunstreaker looked up and over at him, face going hard.
“He won't even look at me,” he snarled, expression crumpling into something furious. And hurting.
“...He's good friends with Bumblebee,” Sideswipe said. But even Sunstreaker knew that.
And knew what kind of mech Hound was. Sunny knew that better than Sideswipe, even-he'd spent more time with him, unbelievably. That didn't usually happen. Sideswipe was the social one, after all.
“Yeah,” Sunstreaker said, sounding like he understood. Not quite accepting, but-knowing what had happened. How, exactly, he'd fucked up. And he cared.
Sideswipe stared at his brother.
“And-he was already half slagging scared of me, I know. Stupid fragging- Thought I was going to attack him.” A short, bitter laugh. “So then I throw Bumblebee around a little-he can probably talk about how it's all typical. With his friends. Slagger. Talk about how weird I am-how frightening because I-”
“Sunny,” Sideswipe said, moving to sit down next to his brother on his recharge pad. He leaned in close but didn't push up against him, leaving their closeness up to him. “Why did you attack Bumblebee?”
“He was...”
“It's Bumblebee. What could he have done? He's irritating sometimes, sure, but he's not Cliffjumper-slag, he's not even Brawn. What's your malfunction? You hurt him pretty bad and won't say a thing about why. Not even that he pissed you off.”
“He did,” Sunstreaker said, face buried in his hands, muffling the words.
“He couldn't walk back to the Ark. ...He spent most of a day in the med bay.”
“He was-”
Sideswipe sighed, and Sunstreaker deflated again, leaking aggression and self-righteous rage. He leaned against his brother.
“It wasn't worth it, huh?” Sideswipe said. Sunstreaker punched him, mostly gently.
“...He was talking about things he shouldn't.”
“Is there any mech on the Ark who doesn't? Except maybe Optimus-and Prowl. You should be used to it.”
“There were rumors about me. Even before. And Hound.”
“Rumors about Hound...? What, that he's boring? -Oh. Oh. There were rumors about you and him? Already?”
“That I was going to attack him,” Sunstreaker said, voice thin and forlorn. Empty. He huddled in on himself, pulling away from Sideswipe a little. “Bumblebee was so-so slagging worried about him that he talked to me about it. Worried I was-”
“Planning something, yeah,” Sideswipe said with a sigh, pulling himself closer to Sunstreaker, resting a hand across an abdominal armor plate.
“Not even that,” Sunstreaker whispered, soft and anguished. “Just-toying with him.”
“So you lost it?”
“He doesn't understand- Hound gets it, right? That I wasn't-”
“Maybe he did,” Sideswipe said, as nicely as he could.
And now he didn't. Hound didn't get it at all. Or he did understand-because there wasn't much of a way around what Sunstreaker had done. To his good friend. He'd-he'd tolerated Sunstreaker. Been confused, at least. Probably a little afraid. Things had been getting better for a while, maybe, but then-then they'd fucked up again.
Sunstreaker grabbed Sideswipe’s hand, squeezing it until the metal creaked. They'd both have paint streaks from the other. Sides wasn't going to say anything if Sunny didn't. He ignored the discomfort.
“He won't even look at me,” Sunstreaker repeated. Like that was worst of all. “...He'd look if I attacked him.”
“Don't do that, Sunny. It won't be worth more time in the brig, and Optimus is going to lose his temper eventually, and do something more drastic.”
His brother ignored him and snorted instead, bitter. “The gall of him-ignoring me! Slagging mech's obviously been impaired by living so long with a frame like that. We're not even comparable, I'm so obviously his superior.”
“It'll work out,” Sideswipe said, helplessly.
Sunstreaker made a soft, disbelieving noise.
--End chapter 5--
By Dreaming of Everything/dreams_of_all/dream_it_all, betaed by mmouse15.
Series: Transformers (G1)
Pairings/Characters: HoundxTwins (starting with HoundxSunstreaker, so bear with me here.) Hound, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Bumblebee, others.
Ratings/Warnings: T for safety so far, some of the later chapters jumping to M for mech/mech(/mech). Technically slash. Psuedo-incestuous. Threesome, both as a relationship and in sex scenes.
Author's Notes: Thanks to anon_decepticon!
Summary: G1. Hound's realized Sunstreaker is watching him, which is kind of unnerving, really. Sunstreaker is convinced he wants absolutely positively nothing to do with Hound. Sideswipe's amused. Bumblebee's bemused. Everyone else is clueless--so far, at least. Love is not an easy thing.
Chapter 1: Absolutely Not in Love
Chapter 2: Personality Conflicts
Chapter 3: In the Dark
Chapter 4: Little Details
Chapter 5: Patience
Chapter 6: Helplessly
FFnet link
Difficult Things: Patience
Hound kind of thought that there was some gossip going around. Well, he knew that: there was always some gossip going around. But this time, unusually, he thought that it might be about him. Normally, he was too boring for the attention-his love affair with biology long since faded into the general background weirdness that characterized life on the Ark-and too much a part of the status quo. He did kind of guess that that had changed.
He certainly seemed to be spending a fair amount of time with Sunstreaker.
Some conversations seemed to fade, or change directions suddenly, when he entered the room. And he'd caught one or two mechs looking him over, like they were looking for unexpected depths of the sort it would take to catch Sunstreaker's interest-not that it was like that. But he could see how they could misunderstand.
It was all a little bit confusing.
But rumors were, in the end, essentially harmless-mostly, anyway. Close enough for him, at least. They'd fade, and that would be that. If anything got out of line-it usually didn't-he'd talk to the mech in question about it, or maybe talk to one of the officers. He really didn't think it would come to that. His life just didn't have that much drama in it.
Sunstreaker pulled up short as he realized that it wasn't Hound waiting for him outside the Ark. He hadn't been smiling before-not quite-but his face darkened, a scowl forming as he stalked forward.
Bumblebee. It could have been worse, but-still. He was a minibot.
“Sorry for the surprise,” Bumblebee said calmly as they pulled away from the base. Sunstreaker sped up, realizing that he'd-force of habit-fallen into the speeds he kept to for Hound's sake. 'It was a last-minute thing. Hound was needed for a mission.'
Which was normal. Hound was a valuable addition to the Autobots, Sunstreaker knew that. Sometimes he was useless-not a good fighter, slow-but he could do things nobody else could. His tracking abilities were unparalleled. ...Sideswipe had told him that, a while ago. At first he'd just written off the mech. And for a while afterwards.
He wasn't very showy. But...
A silence fell. Bumblebee was working hard to keep up with Sunstreaker, but was keeping a reasonably close distance. It only served to irritate him further. Slagging mech.
There was a long period of silence.
'...There's some rumors going around the Ark,' Bumblebee radioed, after a while. Not unkindly.
Sunstreaker swerved a little to the left, unable to keep himself from flinching. When he straightened himself out he returned to chilly ambivalence. No recognition of what had been said at all.
Bumblebee, fearless but maybe a little hesitant, continued. 'Certain mechs think that you're toying with Hound.' In several senses of the word, depending on the inclinations of the mech doing to the thinking.
Sunstreaker snarled out loud, fury curling through him.
'-It's only natural to worry about a friend.'
Something snapped. Sunstreaker wheeled around, transforming as he went, one foot coming forward to crunch down, mercilessly, on Bumblebee's hood. Metal crumpled and the ozone-energy smell of volatile energon vaporizing filled the air. The smaller mech didn't scream, but made an indeterminate, pained noise.
Too damaged to transform, Sunstreaker analyzed with long familiarity. Bumblebee struggled to get away from him, but he was still pinned. It made a terrible rasping noise, where the plates of Bumblebee's armor has been bent out of place by Sunstreaker's foot, the metal scraping. The damage to the attacking mech was mostly superficial.
Sunstreaker wasn't fighting any longer, not even lashing out-just waiting, dumb. Bumblebee pulled himself free, transforming-he'd had been wrong, he was more resilient than he'd thought-and pulling his blaster, pointing it steadily at Sunstreaker. His expression was unreadable.
Energon spattered to the ground, leaving oily dark patches on the dry dust. It had been a while since it had rained. Hound had been talking about it-something about frogs. He talked to him, sometimes, even though Sunstreaker didn't really care. There wasn't much else to do on patrol or delivery, or any of the other low-skill tasks Sunstreaker was assigned to.
...Hound. Who everyone was worried about. Because of him-because of course he'd-
Attack him. Leave him bleeding, with armor plates crumpled until they impeded mobility, prevented transformation. Unexpectedly, when the mech crossed some line he probably wasn't even aware of in the first place.
“I was trying to give you the benefit of doubt,” Bumblebee told him, remarkably sober. It wasn't-expected. And he was still threatening him, gun leveled squarely-unerringly-at a weak spot in his armor. “I thought I could do that much.”
They waited until another mech arrived. Sunstreaker was cuffed-a formality, he wasn't fighting-and marched back to the Ark. Bumblebee needed assistance getting that far.
Sunstreaker was jailed until the next major battle, when he was released on probation. They needed him to fight.
Sideswipe was his only visitor during his incarceration.
Rumors ran rampant around the Ark. They never stopped, really, but the gossip wasn't always so juicy.
Sunstreaker paused as he entered the rec room. Hound was there, close by the door, talking to Trailbreaker and Mirage. He was easy, relaxed and laughing, obviously happ- At ease in a way he'd never been with Sunstreaker.
He wasn't losing anything, because there hadn't been any damn thing in the first place. Nothing to lose, so no loss.
He was a yellow mass, a blur at the periphery of Hound's vision. Unmistakable.
“I think the mission went pretty well,” Trailbreaker said, a comforting hand on Hound's arm. Sunstreaker bristled.
“You did an excellent job,” Mirage told him, looking over. “You can't account for everything.”
Hound sighed. “I guess it worked out in the end, and that's the most important thing, right? -And now we have a few days off. Do you want to go out to the mountains, maybe...?”
“I don't know,” Trailbreaker said, looking hesitant.
“It'll be fun! We can spare that much energon-you need to get off the Ark more. Please?”
“Okay,” Trailbreaker said, capitulating. Even though he sounded resigned he smiled.
“I'll come too,” Mirage said, his own smile quieter.
Sunstreaker stalked away, face curling into a sneer. Mechs muttered, but he ignored them. And left as quickly as he was able. Hound looked up as he exited the room, but his face stayed blank, neutral. Disapproving. Nothing that... Sunstreaker wasn't used to seeing. But not from Hound. He'd gotten used to-something else. And he had. He had lost something.
“Hey, Hound!” Sideswipe said, face bright with an almost too-wide grin.
“Yes?”
“I was wondering about this little animal I found outside-”
“Teletraan has some good data files,” Hound said, turning back to his previous task. He was helping the science team sort some rock samples Beachcomber had brought back from a recent expedition, and it required a fair amount of concentration.
He wasn't particularly interested in being helpful.
“Oh,” Sideswipe said, grin not wavering but the quality of it changing. “I guess-but that's boring.”
Hound made a neutral noise that could be taken as agreement. He bent closer to look at a rock, examining crystalline structures and banding.
“It's little, kind of hairy-”
Hound looked up. “I'm not here for your amusement,” he said, flatly.
“Oh,” Sideswipe repeated, and this time he did look kind of serious. Kind of-strange. “I guess you're busy. Maybe someone else will know.”
“Probably,” Hound said tightly, looking back down at his sample. He ran his finger down the list of potential rocks. He'd been-short with Sideswipe, unnecessarily so. He wasn't even really at fault. True, he'd never been friendly with the mech, but... He didn't antagonize others. He wasn't supposed to be aggressive like that-defensive, maybe, if he had reason to be, but he'd been rude. Unfair, maybe, but it was Sideswipe...
But it wasn't Sunstreaker. Who was really the dangerous one of the pair-the one Hound really wanted to avoid.
If he was honest, he felt betrayed. Because....
He had no reason to. Sunstreaker was always unreliable, potentially dangerous, confusing at best. Even when they'd talked, it had felt like he'd been missing a lot-like he couldn't translate half of what he said. Or was mistranslating it, worse-more dangerously.
...Sunstreaker, who had threatened him. Who had waited for him, gone driving with him. Sunstreaker, who he'd spoken up for and talked to and been unnerved by-and who'd sometimes surprised him. Not because of violence, which wasn't, truly speaking, all that unexpected...
Or, no, he'd been surprised by the attack on Bumblebee. It was out of the ordinary, even for Sunstreaker; and he'd... He'd gotten used to him. Somehow, he'd assumed that the strange peace he'd established with the twins was...applicable to others. That it was...
But there was no reason to think that at all. Hound shook his head sharply, expression hard and still. There hadn't been any big surprises, not really. There wasn't much worth saying.
Sideswipe had left. Hound vented a sigh as he looked up at the empty room. He'd need to find someone to go for a drive with later on. He was just feeling-a little isolated, maybe.
“Hound's stopped talking to me,” Sideswipe said, unexpectedly. Sunstreaker looked up and over at him, face going hard.
“He won't even look at me,” he snarled, expression crumpling into something furious. And hurting.
“...He's good friends with Bumblebee,” Sideswipe said. But even Sunstreaker knew that.
And knew what kind of mech Hound was. Sunny knew that better than Sideswipe, even-he'd spent more time with him, unbelievably. That didn't usually happen. Sideswipe was the social one, after all.
“Yeah,” Sunstreaker said, sounding like he understood. Not quite accepting, but-knowing what had happened. How, exactly, he'd fucked up. And he cared.
Sideswipe stared at his brother.
“And-he was already half slagging scared of me, I know. Stupid fragging- Thought I was going to attack him.” A short, bitter laugh. “So then I throw Bumblebee around a little-he can probably talk about how it's all typical. With his friends. Slagger. Talk about how weird I am-how frightening because I-”
“Sunny,” Sideswipe said, moving to sit down next to his brother on his recharge pad. He leaned in close but didn't push up against him, leaving their closeness up to him. “Why did you attack Bumblebee?”
“He was...”
“It's Bumblebee. What could he have done? He's irritating sometimes, sure, but he's not Cliffjumper-slag, he's not even Brawn. What's your malfunction? You hurt him pretty bad and won't say a thing about why. Not even that he pissed you off.”
“He did,” Sunstreaker said, face buried in his hands, muffling the words.
“He couldn't walk back to the Ark. ...He spent most of a day in the med bay.”
“He was-”
Sideswipe sighed, and Sunstreaker deflated again, leaking aggression and self-righteous rage. He leaned against his brother.
“It wasn't worth it, huh?” Sideswipe said. Sunstreaker punched him, mostly gently.
“...He was talking about things he shouldn't.”
“Is there any mech on the Ark who doesn't? Except maybe Optimus-and Prowl. You should be used to it.”
“There were rumors about me. Even before. And Hound.”
“Rumors about Hound...? What, that he's boring? -Oh. Oh. There were rumors about you and him? Already?”
“That I was going to attack him,” Sunstreaker said, voice thin and forlorn. Empty. He huddled in on himself, pulling away from Sideswipe a little. “Bumblebee was so-so slagging worried about him that he talked to me about it. Worried I was-”
“Planning something, yeah,” Sideswipe said with a sigh, pulling himself closer to Sunstreaker, resting a hand across an abdominal armor plate.
“Not even that,” Sunstreaker whispered, soft and anguished. “Just-toying with him.”
“So you lost it?”
“He doesn't understand- Hound gets it, right? That I wasn't-”
“Maybe he did,” Sideswipe said, as nicely as he could.
And now he didn't. Hound didn't get it at all. Or he did understand-because there wasn't much of a way around what Sunstreaker had done. To his good friend. He'd-he'd tolerated Sunstreaker. Been confused, at least. Probably a little afraid. Things had been getting better for a while, maybe, but then-then they'd fucked up again.
Sunstreaker grabbed Sideswipe’s hand, squeezing it until the metal creaked. They'd both have paint streaks from the other. Sides wasn't going to say anything if Sunny didn't. He ignored the discomfort.
“He won't even look at me,” Sunstreaker repeated. Like that was worst of all. “...He'd look if I attacked him.”
“Don't do that, Sunny. It won't be worth more time in the brig, and Optimus is going to lose his temper eventually, and do something more drastic.”
His brother ignored him and snorted instead, bitter. “The gall of him-ignoring me! Slagging mech's obviously been impaired by living so long with a frame like that. We're not even comparable, I'm so obviously his superior.”
“It'll work out,” Sideswipe said, helplessly.
Sunstreaker made a soft, disbelieving noise.
--End chapter 5--