Song Meme (fic)
Title: Ten Song Meme
Rating: G to PG-13
Continuity: G1
Characters: Beachcomber, Sunstreaker/Tracks, Trailbreaker, Prowl, Jazz (mentioned)
Notes: Originally posted July 2008 here.
1. Bleed, Anna Nalick
(Sunstreaker/Tracks)
Sunstreaker looked stunning. It didn't cause Tracks any pride to admit that. Hadn't for a remarkably long time.
As he stood in the doorway, watching the mech go through his daily routine, Tracks' spark ached.
“I'm leaving.”
The golden head lifted. “What?”
This isn't healthy, he wanted to say. I tell you I love you, and I mean it, and sometimes I think you mean it, so why don't you ever return the favor? There was so much he wanted to say, could have said, but all that came out was:
“I'm sorry, Sunstreaker.”
2. Tom's Diner, Suzanne Vega
(Beachcomber, Trailbreaker, Hound)
“Heya, Beachcomber.”
Beachcomber lifted his head from his comfortable pillow of grass. Trailbreaker and Hound were approaching from the direction of the Ark, headed towards one of their favorite wilderness roads.
“Yo, dudes.”
“Enjoying the weather?” Hound asked kindly.
“Mm hm.”
“Have a good morning, then.” Hound added as he and Trailbreaker continued past without stopping.
“You too, dudes.”
Stillness again. Tree leaves rustling. Birds chirping. Himself, and only himself, for company.
3. Kingdom, VNV Nation
(Trailbreaker)
“Primus.”
These days, most mechs used it as nothing more than a curse. Just another way of saying frag! or slaggit!
Not Trailbreaker.
Most wouldn't take him for the religious type. Hound gave him gentle ribbing over it. Beachcomber understood it. (Maybe. In a way.) Few others knew. It wasn't like he made a point to advertise the fact.
Sometimes, Trailbreaker wondered why he still bothered. He wondered if their home was dead in every sense of the word. Useless, to believe in a god that slept even as his children destroyed themselves. What was the point in active religion? Mechs died all the same. Their sparks all went to the same place, no matter how they lived, how often they prayed, when was the last time they'd left an offering at one of Primus' temples, whether or not they switched out profanity for an emphatic “hexagonal nuts!” when they accidentally knocked over Wheeljack's latest invention.
4. Drunk with the Thought of You, Sheryl Crow
(Sunstreaker/Tracks, Sideswipe)
“Quit that.” Sideswipe nudged his brother with an elbow. Sunstreaker jolted as the bump jostled his cube of energon and no doubt marred his paint, moving his arm pointedly away.
“What?”
“You're grinning. It's making the mini's nervous. Not that I mind the mini's being nervous, but Prowl's giving us a look.”
Sunstreaker scowled at his brother and went straight back to delightful thoughts of Tracks and what they'd been up to last night.
5. Shakedown, Bob Seger
(Sunstreaker/Tracks)
Tracks smiled flirtatiously, brushing a hand across one of his rockets. He stood by Blaster near the far wall, chatting with his friend as Blaster provided music for the party.
He'd been avoiding Sunstreaker all evening.
The blatant shift of posture, meant to flash the room's lights off the most provocative angles on Tracks' body, was finally enough to send Sunstreaker over the edge. He stalked across the room.
Tracks didn't seem at all perturbed when Sunstreaker wrapped a possessive arm around his waist and pulled him onto the dance floor, only smiling a smile of pure satisfaction.
Fragging tease.
6. Lullaby for Wyatt, Sheryl Crow
(Prowl, Jazz)
Prowl was lucky enough to never have had to adjust to the unpleasant sensation of sending a lover out on the kind of dangerous missions Jazz took so often. The first time he'd ordered Jazz into the field, they'd been all but complete strangers. The friendship that grew between them over time came with equal parts increased intimacy and increased knowledge that Jazz could handle himself. No, what Prowl had to adjust to was not the thought what others might do to Jazz, but what Jazz consistently did to himself.
They weren't lovers. It was too dangerous, and Prowl wasn't sure if they would be even if it weren't. They were friends of the sort that were closer than life-long lovers and yet so very, very isolated from each other in that one way that might have helped.
In some ways, Prowl thought the possibility of losing a brother was far worse than that of losing a lover. A lover could bring a mech's spark back to himself when the mech it belonged to buried himself beyond reach of all others. Such was not the place of a brother.
7. Consider This, Anna Nalick
(Sunstreaker/Tracks)
Sunstreaker wasn't the type to expect commitments from. He was far more... choosy... than Sideswipe. Not likely to sleep with someone else when he and Tracks had been exclusive to each other for some time now.
It was also far harder to ever get a concrete commitment out of him than Sideswipe.
They'd had no end of arguments over the subject.
Tracks was surprised at himself for wanting one. He'd never had any trouble with such things before. Previous relationships, temporary or long term, had never been counted on to last. He himself had been the one impossible to pin down.
What changed?
8. Assassin's Tango, Mr. and Mrs. Smith Soundtrack
(Beachcomber, unnamed mech that might be Perceptor. Have a feeling I totally screwed up Beachcomber's hippie-talk for Jazz's slang on this one...)
“Uh. Beachcomber?”
“Yeah, dude?”
“What are you doing?”
“Dancing, man.”
“Ah. Okay. Um. What kind of music is that?”
“Tango.”
“Tango. Ah. That doesn't look like a tango.”
“Nah, man. I'm just feelin' it.”
“Oh. Well, I'll just leave you to it, then...”
“Here, dude, you gotta try.”
“No, that's really okay!”
9. Houses in Motion, Talking Heads
(This was supposed to be Beachcomber, but I'm really not sure.)
They couldn't afford to question. They couldn't afford to look back. There wasn't time to regret, to question, to waste on might-have-beens.
They couldn't afford not to.
With every decision made, he kept his doubts to himself. He took the time to contemplate now, and if that meant occasionally he thought about then, no one knew. He regretted often; the lives lost, the beauty destroyed. And still he supported the Autobot cause as best he could, always walking the line.
10. What Sarah Said, Death Cab for Cutie
(Sunstreaker/Tracks.)
“There's nothing we can do.”
The words replayed themselves over and over in his processor. He couldn't shut them out, not even with his fellow Autobots talking in low tones in the background, conversations all around that any other day he would have been listening in on.
He didn't want to be here.
Sunstreaker approached, closed and cold but with a question in his optics. He wouldn't understand Tracks' decision, but that wouldn't change it.
“I need to go to New York.”