[Fic] Unseen Illusions: Caring Mirage
Title: Unseen Illusions: Caring Mirage (Featuring Hound)
Author: BitterEloquence
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,855
Pairings: Hound/Mirage mentioned Ratchet/Wheeljack and one-sided Trailbreaker/Hound
Summary: A series of vignettes and fics about the Autobot spy Mirage. Written for the 28 characters meme. Slash, various pairings and ratings abound.
Claim Notes: This is a belated fic for shafau and was claimed by trunks_angel in their name. I am SO sorry I didn't get to post this yesterday, real-life has been racking me over the coals lately.
Warnings: Un'beta'd for now. Sorry. T_T
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters within, nor am I making any money off of this story. All I own are the twisted ideas floating around in my head.
Caring Mirage: Featuring Hound
Hound had been in the med-bay for almost a deca-cycle now as Ratchet and the medics worked on cleaning out the last traces of a nasty virus he'd gotten when one of Bombshell's newest cerebral shells had been implanted on the scout during a battle. At first, everything had seemed fine, just a routine removal but then Hound's systems had started to crash one by one until Ratchet had to put him into stasis lock before his laser-core lost power.
It took orns to clear out all the code and to write up new anti-virus software that would have to be standardized for the entire army. Ratchet spent those orns snappish and short of temper as he worked on Hound between patients that always came in and out of the med-bay.
In a war, he couldn't just concentrate exclusively on one mech. This just added to Ratchet's strain and ill humor as he railed and cursed the 'cons and Bombshell especially. To make up for time, he worked long into the night to get the sweet-natured green Jeep back online.
This did not go over well with a certain engineer.
"Ratchet, it's late, you need to get some recharge." Wheeljack prompted wearily. It had been a long day for all of them and the engineer hated to recharge knowing his lover wasn't there beside him.
"In a breem or two." Ratchet muttered. They were in his office going over the line of code for Hound's new anti-virus update.
"Ratch…" Wheeljack rumbled warningly.
"No, 'Jack, I have to finish this line."
"Primus, must you be so stubborn?"
"Yes," the red and white medic drawled with a deadpan expression.
Wheeljack shook his head in disgust and looked out the doorway to study the medbay. His optics widened when he watched Hound's hand just rise up from beside him and hover in the air. "What. The. Slag?"
"Hmn?" Curious and a little wary of the borderline horrified tone in Wheeljack's voice, Ratchet looked up from the screen and peered around Wheeljack to look at Hound whom he'd placed within easy optic sight from his office. "What's wrong?"
"He's offline, right? How the frag is he moving !?"
"Oh, that's probably Mirage."
"Mirage!?"
"Yeah, he comes in here every night to sit with Hound. He probably went invisible when he heard you coming."
"Wait you mean…?" Wheeljack was having a little trouble wrapping the concept around his processors.
"They're lovers? Yes." He said it so calm and matter of fact like. Never mind the fact that he'd been just as floored that first night when he came into med-bay to see a vulnerable and scared looking Mirage sitting at Hound's bedside.
"That makes no fragging sense. Why's he hiding like that?" Confusion and irritation colored Wheeljack's voice.
"Don't ask me. Knowing Mirage it's probably something to do with that stupid sense of pride of his. Probably not 'proper' for him to fall sobbing at even his lover's berthside." Ratchet shook his head in disgust and climbed to his feet with a grimace. "Okay, I give up. Two cycles of recharge, okay?"
"You gonna come back to the quarters to get it?" Wheeljack countered with a gimlet stare.
Ratchet frowned and looked outside once again.
"He'll be fine, Ratch. You need some proper recharge if you're planning on staying up with him all night tomorrow installing those security features." The Lancia wheedled slyly.
"Hrmph, fine, two cycles only, remember?"
"Trust me." Wheeljack's vocal indicators flashed a cheery yellow color and he led his lover out of the office and into their quarters across the hall from med-bay.
Two orns later, Hound was finally online and smiling happily at the various 'bots who stopped by his berth once the news was out that he was okay and would be released later that day.
"I'm fine, really, 'Breaker." Hound reassured his friend with a bright smile. The solemn looking black mech nodded but the subdued glow of his optic band betrayed his still depressed mood.
"You had us worried there, Hound." Trailbreaker informed his friend as he tried to put some false cheer into his voice.
"I know, I'm sorry and I promise not to go near that slagging bug ever again."
"Hrmph. Next time I see him, he's going to be a crushed bug." Trailbreaker rumbled and Hound laughed.
"Not until you've got the latest security update you don't." Ratchet groused and started to shoo mechs out of the medbay. "Now, all of you out. This isn't a petting zoo, I've still got work to do here, mechs."
"Aw, Ratchet, can't 'Breaker stay? I'm kinda bored just waiting for these updates to load."
Ratchet frowned at the scout before an exasperated expression crossed his faceplates. "You're worse than a kicked turbo-pup. Fine, fine. Don't tire him out." The medic grumbled at the large black mech.
Trailbreaker nodded eagerly and settled next to Hound's berth. "So how do you feel? Really?" He asked without preamble when Ratchet wandered back to the Teletraan-1's terminal and started to consult with Perceptor and Wheeljack.
"Am I that obvious?"
"If you know what to look for, yeah."
"Heh, good thing not many people can read me as well as you, huh?" Hound chuckled and settled back onto the berth with a ragged venting of air through his intakes.
"Hmph, you should take it easy, Hound."
"I am taking it easy, 'Breaker. I just spent the better part of a deca-cycle in stasis lock, I don't think you can take it any more easier than that."
Concern darkened the color of Trailbreaker's optic visor. He was mulling something over hesitantly in his processors and was afraid to bring it up. But, the Pit take it, Hound deserved better than this!
"He never once came to see you, Hound." Trailbreaker whispered. "Not once,"
Hound's features tightened fractionally and he shook his head. "You're wrong, 'Breaker. He was here."
"Hound, I was here every slagging day and never once saw him here."
"He was here, Trailbreaker. I could feel it."
Horror flickered through the black SUV. "Hound, please tell me you two didn't…."
"What?" He looked surprised. "Oh, no, nothing like that 'Breaker. No, Mirage is way too skittish to even consider something as intimate as bonding. Heh, I can't even get him to be open about how relationship with the rest of the Autobots so bonding is certainly out of the question." There was a shadow of something akin to regretful bitterness in Hound's optics when he said those words.
Trailbreaker's spark just broke a little bit more. "But you've thought about it, right?" he prompted quietly.
"I dunno, 'Breaker. That's….ugh. It's not something to be rushed, you know? Especially not in a war," Hound shrugged helplessly and rested his head on one folded arm. "Maybe one day though? When the war is over? Sure, I wouldn't mind putting some serious thought into it."
"I…see," Trailbreaker murmured. "It's good that you're taking your time about it, and like you said, it's a war. Better to wait until afterwards before we try and move on with our lives."
"Yeah, right now, I'd just be happy walk down the hall with him and be able to touch him without fear of him pulling away. I envy the likes of Red Alert and Inferno."
"Never thought I'd ever hear anyone say that."
Hound smiled a wryly. "Well, I don't envy Inferno having to put up with Red Alert's bouts of paranoia but you get my drift."
"Yeah I do."
"So what about you, 'Breaker?"
"Hmm?" Trailbreaker made a noncommittal noise.
"When are you going to settle down and find someone? Aren't you lonely?"
Primus, so that was what it was like to feel your Spark shatter into the figurative million pieces? For a moment, Trailbreaker wanted to be angry with Hound. How the frag could he be so clueless? He was one of the most observant mechs Trailbreaker had ever met yet he was so fragging oblivious to the way his best friend felt!
Just as quickly as that resentment welled up, Trailbreaker shoved it back down. He couldn't hate Hound for not noticing. He couldn't even hate Mirage, not when he brought such a happy glow to his friend's optics.
"Me? Eh, not for a while yet, Hound. I'm okay. So long as Mirage doesn't totally take you away I'll be okay." Trailbreaker tried to make a joke of it but it sounded horribly weak even to his own audio sensors. Hound immediately looked guilty. "Hey, it's okay, really." Trailbreaker back-peddled quickly. "I'm happy for ya, Hound. You out of all mechs deserve it." He squeezed the green mech's shoulder to reassure him. "And my personal issues with Mirage aside, he makes you happy and I'm overjoyed for ya."
Hound sent him a relieved look. Guilt had been nibbling at his spark for a while now. He knew Trailbreaker was lonely now that he was spending so much of his time with Mirage. That guilt and Mirage's reluctance to be open about their relationship was the only reason Hound had not moved in with his lover. Hound knew Trailbreaker would be devastated if Hound decided to move out. The tracker made a silent promise to himself to help his friend find someone to make him happy.
It was the naïve hope of someone newly in love. They thought everyone around them should know and experience the warm blossom of love in their lives. Trailbreaker understood this and fought back an exasperated sigh. "I'm okay, Hound, really. You just rest, okay?"
"Alright, thanks, 'Breaker."
"You're welcome,"
As promised, Hound was released from the med-bay later that evening. Tension coils and servos creaked in protest as he walked the distance back to his and Trailbreaker's quarters. The green mech was surprised at how tired he was just from walking. He sagged against the wall next to his door and punched in his security code with shaking hands. Hound jumped when an invisible hand brushed his fingers away to finish typing in the sequence. "Mirage?"
"Shh, let's get you inside," Mirage whispered softly and wrapped an unseen arm around Hound's waist to help support him as the door opened. The tracker could have protested but he simply nodded and let himself be lead into his quarters.
"How long were you following me?"
Once the door slid shut, Mirage disengaged his electro-disruptor and shot his lover a wary look. "Since med-bay?"
Instead of being annoyed or insulted, Hound just smiled and shook his head in amusement. "Thanks for watching out for me."
Mirage had the grace to look abashed. "I'm sorry I didn't come see you--"
"Don't," Hound interrupted. "I knew you were there even if you couldn't let anyone else know."
"You....did?" Understandably confused, Mirage just looked at him warily. "How did you know?"
"I know you, Mirage," the green mech chuckled and tugged his lover towards his recharge berth. "Now come here, I want to lay down and you're coming with me." Hound didn't have it in him to tell Mirage that he looked like slag. The normally immaculate spy's paint job was dull and lusterless. There was a tension to his face-plates and frame that bespoke of too little recharge and too much anxiety.
"I shouldn't, Trailbreaker-"
"Is on communications duty for the rest of the night," Hound interrupted and crawled stiffly onto his recharge berth. "Now, any other objections or am I going to have to physically pull you down onto this recharge berth?"
"Like you could in your current condition?" Mirage teased with a mock-arrogant look. Despite his protests, the Ligier willingly crawled onto the plate beside Hound and settled into his arms with a tired cycle of air through his vents. He snuggled into Hound and wrapped his arms tightly around his lover as his face came to nestle into the crook of the Jeep's neck.
Hound shifted on his side and drew Mirage close. He felt tiny, minute little shivers were vibrating through the spy's frame and he pulled away enough to look down at Mirage with open concern. "Mirage? What's wrong?"
"Nothing, I'm fine," Mirage murmured against the metal of Hound's throat.
"Like slag, you're shaking." Frowning now, Hound brought one of his hands to rest against Mirage's jaw so that he could gently pull the spy's face back enough to look him in the optics. "What's wrong, seriously?"
"Nothing, I just…want to lay here and just hold onto you for a vorn or two. Is that so wrong of me?"
Touched on some inexplicable level, Hound kissed the top of Mirage's head. "No, Mirage, though I'm a little confused about what brought this on."
"Primus, Hound. I thought I'd lost you, and it scares the spark clean out of me to think I might loose you yet." It came out in a torrent of unplanned words and a desperate confession.
The green mech just pulled his lover closer and kissed him softly. "I'm right here, Mirage. Shhh, I'm right here."
"I'm sorry, Hound, I wish I knew how to show you how much I cared. Primus, I wish we could walk down the fragging hallway together and everyone else be damned." It was the first time he'd admitted that desire and it filled Hound with an unnamed hope.
"Then let's do it," Hound pressured. "Frag 'em all, let's just be together."
Mirage recoiled like always. The fear of Hound having to face the jeers and mockery of his fellow Autobots just because he had the ill-grace to be involved with the hated Special Ops agent was just too painful. Mirage wanted to protect Hound from his own horrible reputation.
The tracker watched him recoil with saddened, solemn optics but Hound didn't press. Mirage could be so skittish at times and so amazingly stubborn that it was like trying to talk to a brick wall.
"I don't care what the others say, I know the truth and that's all that matters." One blunt-fingered hand pressed against Mirage's chest above his spark-chamber. "I know what's in here. And I'm willing to wait for you, no matter how long it takes. Because I…" Primus but he almost let it slip out right then and there. Just three small words "I care about you. This isn't just a careless fling for me, I'm here for the long haul. And I'm not going anywhere."
Mirage's chassis all but vibrated with repressed emotion and Hound could feel the thrum of his laser-core even through the protective layers of metal and armor. "Hound, I-"
One finger pressed against his lips, silencing him with a soft touch. "Shhh, it's okay. This is enough for me, really. You make me the happiest mech on the planet."
In all of his many vorns of living, Mirage had never felt as intensely for another mech as he did for Hound. It scared him with it's intensity and with the potential to hurt. Hound's injury had proven to Mirage just how vulnerable that level of caring made him and logically, he knew he should cut ties before it was too late. A Special Ops agent couldn't afford such a weakness but Primus help him…he couldn't do it.
The thought of breaking it off with Hound, of going back to his lonely life from before, hurt more than the fear of loosing him.
"I don't deserve you," Mirage whispered. It was an old argument of theirs.
His lover just smiled and stroked his cheek. "Be that as it may, you still have me. And you'll always have me. Do you understand me, Mirage?
It was terrifying and yet felt so right. Mirage wanted this more than he'd wanted anything in his long and privileged life. He understood all too well what Hound was promising…and what he was asking for in return. The price was steep and could cost him his very spark.
"Y-Yes…." The aristocrat's hand came to rest on Hound's chest in a mirror of the scout's intimate gesture.
A mischievous smirk curled up the corners of Hound's lips. "You and I, till the wheels fall off."
That startled a laugh out a Mirage and he nodded in bemusement. "I can't believe you just used that line on me."
Hound chuckled good-naturedly and nuzzled his cheek. "Yeah, but did it work?"
"Depends…." Mirage's lips quirked up into a slow smirk.
"On?"
"Whether or not you want me groaning in disgust."
"Okay so maybe that wasn't the reaction I had in mind." He chuckled and continued to nuzzle his way down Mirage's jaw.
"You're suppose to be resting."
"So I am, will you stay with me? You look like you could use the rest too."
"Yes, I'll stay here," Mirage smiled tiredly and let his head fall against Hound's chest with a slow cycle of air.
The tracker continued to cradle his lover close until Mirage's engine finally evened out into the quiet idle of recharge. It was the slow rumble of Mirage's engines that carried him off into recharge as well.
Author: BitterEloquence
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,855
Pairings: Hound/Mirage mentioned Ratchet/Wheeljack and one-sided Trailbreaker/Hound
Summary: A series of vignettes and fics about the Autobot spy Mirage. Written for the 28 characters meme. Slash, various pairings and ratings abound.
Claim Notes: This is a belated fic for shafau and was claimed by trunks_angel in their name. I am SO sorry I didn't get to post this yesterday, real-life has been racking me over the coals lately.
Warnings: Un'beta'd for now. Sorry. T_T
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters within, nor am I making any money off of this story. All I own are the twisted ideas floating around in my head.
Caring Mirage: Featuring Hound
Hound had been in the med-bay for almost a deca-cycle now as Ratchet and the medics worked on cleaning out the last traces of a nasty virus he'd gotten when one of Bombshell's newest cerebral shells had been implanted on the scout during a battle. At first, everything had seemed fine, just a routine removal but then Hound's systems had started to crash one by one until Ratchet had to put him into stasis lock before his laser-core lost power.
It took orns to clear out all the code and to write up new anti-virus software that would have to be standardized for the entire army. Ratchet spent those orns snappish and short of temper as he worked on Hound between patients that always came in and out of the med-bay.
In a war, he couldn't just concentrate exclusively on one mech. This just added to Ratchet's strain and ill humor as he railed and cursed the 'cons and Bombshell especially. To make up for time, he worked long into the night to get the sweet-natured green Jeep back online.
This did not go over well with a certain engineer.
"Ratchet, it's late, you need to get some recharge." Wheeljack prompted wearily. It had been a long day for all of them and the engineer hated to recharge knowing his lover wasn't there beside him.
"In a breem or two." Ratchet muttered. They were in his office going over the line of code for Hound's new anti-virus update.
"Ratch…" Wheeljack rumbled warningly.
"No, 'Jack, I have to finish this line."
"Primus, must you be so stubborn?"
"Yes," the red and white medic drawled with a deadpan expression.
Wheeljack shook his head in disgust and looked out the doorway to study the medbay. His optics widened when he watched Hound's hand just rise up from beside him and hover in the air. "What. The. Slag?"
"Hmn?" Curious and a little wary of the borderline horrified tone in Wheeljack's voice, Ratchet looked up from the screen and peered around Wheeljack to look at Hound whom he'd placed within easy optic sight from his office. "What's wrong?"
"He's offline, right? How the frag is he moving !?"
"Oh, that's probably Mirage."
"Mirage!?"
"Yeah, he comes in here every night to sit with Hound. He probably went invisible when he heard you coming."
"Wait you mean…?" Wheeljack was having a little trouble wrapping the concept around his processors.
"They're lovers? Yes." He said it so calm and matter of fact like. Never mind the fact that he'd been just as floored that first night when he came into med-bay to see a vulnerable and scared looking Mirage sitting at Hound's bedside.
"That makes no fragging sense. Why's he hiding like that?" Confusion and irritation colored Wheeljack's voice.
"Don't ask me. Knowing Mirage it's probably something to do with that stupid sense of pride of his. Probably not 'proper' for him to fall sobbing at even his lover's berthside." Ratchet shook his head in disgust and climbed to his feet with a grimace. "Okay, I give up. Two cycles of recharge, okay?"
"You gonna come back to the quarters to get it?" Wheeljack countered with a gimlet stare.
Ratchet frowned and looked outside once again.
"He'll be fine, Ratch. You need some proper recharge if you're planning on staying up with him all night tomorrow installing those security features." The Lancia wheedled slyly.
"Hrmph, fine, two cycles only, remember?"
"Trust me." Wheeljack's vocal indicators flashed a cheery yellow color and he led his lover out of the office and into their quarters across the hall from med-bay.
Two orns later, Hound was finally online and smiling happily at the various 'bots who stopped by his berth once the news was out that he was okay and would be released later that day.
"I'm fine, really, 'Breaker." Hound reassured his friend with a bright smile. The solemn looking black mech nodded but the subdued glow of his optic band betrayed his still depressed mood.
"You had us worried there, Hound." Trailbreaker informed his friend as he tried to put some false cheer into his voice.
"I know, I'm sorry and I promise not to go near that slagging bug ever again."
"Hrmph. Next time I see him, he's going to be a crushed bug." Trailbreaker rumbled and Hound laughed.
"Not until you've got the latest security update you don't." Ratchet groused and started to shoo mechs out of the medbay. "Now, all of you out. This isn't a petting zoo, I've still got work to do here, mechs."
"Aw, Ratchet, can't 'Breaker stay? I'm kinda bored just waiting for these updates to load."
Ratchet frowned at the scout before an exasperated expression crossed his faceplates. "You're worse than a kicked turbo-pup. Fine, fine. Don't tire him out." The medic grumbled at the large black mech.
Trailbreaker nodded eagerly and settled next to Hound's berth. "So how do you feel? Really?" He asked without preamble when Ratchet wandered back to the Teletraan-1's terminal and started to consult with Perceptor and Wheeljack.
"Am I that obvious?"
"If you know what to look for, yeah."
"Heh, good thing not many people can read me as well as you, huh?" Hound chuckled and settled back onto the berth with a ragged venting of air through his intakes.
"Hmph, you should take it easy, Hound."
"I am taking it easy, 'Breaker. I just spent the better part of a deca-cycle in stasis lock, I don't think you can take it any more easier than that."
Concern darkened the color of Trailbreaker's optic visor. He was mulling something over hesitantly in his processors and was afraid to bring it up. But, the Pit take it, Hound deserved better than this!
"He never once came to see you, Hound." Trailbreaker whispered. "Not once,"
Hound's features tightened fractionally and he shook his head. "You're wrong, 'Breaker. He was here."
"Hound, I was here every slagging day and never once saw him here."
"He was here, Trailbreaker. I could feel it."
Horror flickered through the black SUV. "Hound, please tell me you two didn't…."
"What?" He looked surprised. "Oh, no, nothing like that 'Breaker. No, Mirage is way too skittish to even consider something as intimate as bonding. Heh, I can't even get him to be open about how relationship with the rest of the Autobots so bonding is certainly out of the question." There was a shadow of something akin to regretful bitterness in Hound's optics when he said those words.
Trailbreaker's spark just broke a little bit more. "But you've thought about it, right?" he prompted quietly.
"I dunno, 'Breaker. That's….ugh. It's not something to be rushed, you know? Especially not in a war," Hound shrugged helplessly and rested his head on one folded arm. "Maybe one day though? When the war is over? Sure, I wouldn't mind putting some serious thought into it."
"I…see," Trailbreaker murmured. "It's good that you're taking your time about it, and like you said, it's a war. Better to wait until afterwards before we try and move on with our lives."
"Yeah, right now, I'd just be happy walk down the hall with him and be able to touch him without fear of him pulling away. I envy the likes of Red Alert and Inferno."
"Never thought I'd ever hear anyone say that."
Hound smiled a wryly. "Well, I don't envy Inferno having to put up with Red Alert's bouts of paranoia but you get my drift."
"Yeah I do."
"So what about you, 'Breaker?"
"Hmm?" Trailbreaker made a noncommittal noise.
"When are you going to settle down and find someone? Aren't you lonely?"
Primus, so that was what it was like to feel your Spark shatter into the figurative million pieces? For a moment, Trailbreaker wanted to be angry with Hound. How the frag could he be so clueless? He was one of the most observant mechs Trailbreaker had ever met yet he was so fragging oblivious to the way his best friend felt!
Just as quickly as that resentment welled up, Trailbreaker shoved it back down. He couldn't hate Hound for not noticing. He couldn't even hate Mirage, not when he brought such a happy glow to his friend's optics.
"Me? Eh, not for a while yet, Hound. I'm okay. So long as Mirage doesn't totally take you away I'll be okay." Trailbreaker tried to make a joke of it but it sounded horribly weak even to his own audio sensors. Hound immediately looked guilty. "Hey, it's okay, really." Trailbreaker back-peddled quickly. "I'm happy for ya, Hound. You out of all mechs deserve it." He squeezed the green mech's shoulder to reassure him. "And my personal issues with Mirage aside, he makes you happy and I'm overjoyed for ya."
Hound sent him a relieved look. Guilt had been nibbling at his spark for a while now. He knew Trailbreaker was lonely now that he was spending so much of his time with Mirage. That guilt and Mirage's reluctance to be open about their relationship was the only reason Hound had not moved in with his lover. Hound knew Trailbreaker would be devastated if Hound decided to move out. The tracker made a silent promise to himself to help his friend find someone to make him happy.
It was the naïve hope of someone newly in love. They thought everyone around them should know and experience the warm blossom of love in their lives. Trailbreaker understood this and fought back an exasperated sigh. "I'm okay, Hound, really. You just rest, okay?"
"Alright, thanks, 'Breaker."
"You're welcome,"
As promised, Hound was released from the med-bay later that evening. Tension coils and servos creaked in protest as he walked the distance back to his and Trailbreaker's quarters. The green mech was surprised at how tired he was just from walking. He sagged against the wall next to his door and punched in his security code with shaking hands. Hound jumped when an invisible hand brushed his fingers away to finish typing in the sequence. "Mirage?"
"Shh, let's get you inside," Mirage whispered softly and wrapped an unseen arm around Hound's waist to help support him as the door opened. The tracker could have protested but he simply nodded and let himself be lead into his quarters.
"How long were you following me?"
Once the door slid shut, Mirage disengaged his electro-disruptor and shot his lover a wary look. "Since med-bay?"
Instead of being annoyed or insulted, Hound just smiled and shook his head in amusement. "Thanks for watching out for me."
Mirage had the grace to look abashed. "I'm sorry I didn't come see you--"
"Don't," Hound interrupted. "I knew you were there even if you couldn't let anyone else know."
"You....did?" Understandably confused, Mirage just looked at him warily. "How did you know?"
"I know you, Mirage," the green mech chuckled and tugged his lover towards his recharge berth. "Now come here, I want to lay down and you're coming with me." Hound didn't have it in him to tell Mirage that he looked like slag. The normally immaculate spy's paint job was dull and lusterless. There was a tension to his face-plates and frame that bespoke of too little recharge and too much anxiety.
"I shouldn't, Trailbreaker-"
"Is on communications duty for the rest of the night," Hound interrupted and crawled stiffly onto his recharge berth. "Now, any other objections or am I going to have to physically pull you down onto this recharge berth?"
"Like you could in your current condition?" Mirage teased with a mock-arrogant look. Despite his protests, the Ligier willingly crawled onto the plate beside Hound and settled into his arms with a tired cycle of air through his vents. He snuggled into Hound and wrapped his arms tightly around his lover as his face came to nestle into the crook of the Jeep's neck.
Hound shifted on his side and drew Mirage close. He felt tiny, minute little shivers were vibrating through the spy's frame and he pulled away enough to look down at Mirage with open concern. "Mirage? What's wrong?"
"Nothing, I'm fine," Mirage murmured against the metal of Hound's throat.
"Like slag, you're shaking." Frowning now, Hound brought one of his hands to rest against Mirage's jaw so that he could gently pull the spy's face back enough to look him in the optics. "What's wrong, seriously?"
"Nothing, I just…want to lay here and just hold onto you for a vorn or two. Is that so wrong of me?"
Touched on some inexplicable level, Hound kissed the top of Mirage's head. "No, Mirage, though I'm a little confused about what brought this on."
"Primus, Hound. I thought I'd lost you, and it scares the spark clean out of me to think I might loose you yet." It came out in a torrent of unplanned words and a desperate confession.
The green mech just pulled his lover closer and kissed him softly. "I'm right here, Mirage. Shhh, I'm right here."
"I'm sorry, Hound, I wish I knew how to show you how much I cared. Primus, I wish we could walk down the fragging hallway together and everyone else be damned." It was the first time he'd admitted that desire and it filled Hound with an unnamed hope.
"Then let's do it," Hound pressured. "Frag 'em all, let's just be together."
Mirage recoiled like always. The fear of Hound having to face the jeers and mockery of his fellow Autobots just because he had the ill-grace to be involved with the hated Special Ops agent was just too painful. Mirage wanted to protect Hound from his own horrible reputation.
The tracker watched him recoil with saddened, solemn optics but Hound didn't press. Mirage could be so skittish at times and so amazingly stubborn that it was like trying to talk to a brick wall.
"I don't care what the others say, I know the truth and that's all that matters." One blunt-fingered hand pressed against Mirage's chest above his spark-chamber. "I know what's in here. And I'm willing to wait for you, no matter how long it takes. Because I…" Primus but he almost let it slip out right then and there. Just three small words "I care about you. This isn't just a careless fling for me, I'm here for the long haul. And I'm not going anywhere."
Mirage's chassis all but vibrated with repressed emotion and Hound could feel the thrum of his laser-core even through the protective layers of metal and armor. "Hound, I-"
One finger pressed against his lips, silencing him with a soft touch. "Shhh, it's okay. This is enough for me, really. You make me the happiest mech on the planet."
In all of his many vorns of living, Mirage had never felt as intensely for another mech as he did for Hound. It scared him with it's intensity and with the potential to hurt. Hound's injury had proven to Mirage just how vulnerable that level of caring made him and logically, he knew he should cut ties before it was too late. A Special Ops agent couldn't afford such a weakness but Primus help him…he couldn't do it.
The thought of breaking it off with Hound, of going back to his lonely life from before, hurt more than the fear of loosing him.
"I don't deserve you," Mirage whispered. It was an old argument of theirs.
His lover just smiled and stroked his cheek. "Be that as it may, you still have me. And you'll always have me. Do you understand me, Mirage?
It was terrifying and yet felt so right. Mirage wanted this more than he'd wanted anything in his long and privileged life. He understood all too well what Hound was promising…and what he was asking for in return. The price was steep and could cost him his very spark.
"Y-Yes…." The aristocrat's hand came to rest on Hound's chest in a mirror of the scout's intimate gesture.
A mischievous smirk curled up the corners of Hound's lips. "You and I, till the wheels fall off."
That startled a laugh out a Mirage and he nodded in bemusement. "I can't believe you just used that line on me."
Hound chuckled good-naturedly and nuzzled his cheek. "Yeah, but did it work?"
"Depends…." Mirage's lips quirked up into a slow smirk.
"On?"
"Whether or not you want me groaning in disgust."
"Okay so maybe that wasn't the reaction I had in mind." He chuckled and continued to nuzzle his way down Mirage's jaw.
"You're suppose to be resting."
"So I am, will you stay with me? You look like you could use the rest too."
"Yes, I'll stay here," Mirage smiled tiredly and let his head fall against Hound's chest with a slow cycle of air.
The tracker continued to cradle his lover close until Mirage's engine finally evened out into the quiet idle of recharge. It was the slow rumble of Mirage's engines that carried him off into recharge as well.