Fic: Ups and Downs
TITLE: Ups and Downs
SERIES: Imperfection Deviation - Off Balance
VERSE: movie
CHARCTERS: Scavenger, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe/Scavenger on-screen
AUTHOR: Macx
RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: None of the characters belong to me, sadly. They are owned by people with a lot more money :)
FEEDBACK: Loved
prior fics in this series:
Wrong
Awkward
Malum in Se - Wrong in Itself
Compensating
Can of Worms
Mutual Understanding
Split Complications
Past the Point of No Return
Bruises
Fragile Tensions
Sunstreaker’s arrival on Earth should have stopped it all. With his twin back, Sideswipe’s spark -- their spark -- was complete. While Sunstreaker was suffering what humans called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - the mech version of it anyway - he was still the same mech Sideswipe had always known. A bit harsher, a bit harder, but still his brother.
But Sideswipe returned to Scavenger. He had sought out the engineer in Yuma and when he had stepped into the small lab at the end of a complicated web of lab section, he had known that he had truly missed this. Red optics had regarded him curiously, but there had been no protests. Scavenger had welcomed him and given Sideswipe what he had been looking for.
Scavenger looked at him oddly when they separated. “I feel the difference in you. You’re… complete.” He sounded almost amused.
Sideswipe’s optics flared, then he stepped back. Scavenger chuckled.
“Your brother is back, your spark is complete, but still you’re here.”
Sideswipe heard the unspoken question. He was here… why? Yes, his twin was back; he should be whole. He was whole. Just not complete.
Feeling Scavenger’s energy push against his spark made him feel more than anything else before. And he felt it so much more intensely because the darkness of Sunstreaker’s loss was gone. With his spark stronger, the sensations were stronger.
He wasn’t an addict.
He didn’t need it.
He just wanted the feeling to return. And he wouldn’t ask any of the others. Scavenger was known, familiar…
The Constructicon didn’t get an answer as Sideswipe left.
He returned a week later, on a standard patrol, and he was trailed by a yellow Spyker C8 Aileron. Sunstreaker made his name all honor and while he looked different from his twin in car mode, he had features that strongly resembled his brother in his bipedal form.
Scavenger felt a trickle of unease when the twins found him in his lab. The danger that radiated off the yellow mech was almost palpable. Sure, Sideswipe wasn’t one to take lightly. He was a warrior who had ruthlessly killed and would kill without remorse again. Sideswipe had been a frontliner, one of those mechs who were first into a battle and left death in their wake. He had taken sparks without reserve and so had others.
Scavenger didn’t feel threatened, though. He knew his own abilities matched those of either twin. It was simply the presence the Sunstreaker had.
He was there. Simply there. Powerful and no-nonsense.
The Constructicon felt no intimidation, just… respect. And curiosity.
“So you’re Sunstreaker,” the engineer said slowly.
Blue optics studied him like he was some alien life form. “Sides told me about you guys,” Sunstreaker said, voice cool and unemotional.
‘You guys’. The Constructicons? Scavenger wondered how deeply Sunstreaker had been briefed. Probably enough to know the corner points of this alliance. Enough that the Primes would let him accompany his twin.
Or was the ‘you guys’ related to him and Sideswipe. Most likely.
“Can’t do anything about it,” Sunstreaker added, but he sounded like he would like to.
“Your brother made a choice and it is his choice to continue or to stop it. We’re not bonded.”
The yellow mech snorted. His optics seemed to want to drill a hole into Scavenger’s processor. Finally he turned and walked away.
“Sunstreaker?” Sideswipe called, sounding confused.
“See you later, bro,” was the only answer he got.
“It was your idea to come with me and meet Scavenger!”
“And I met him.”
“What the Pits is wrong with you?!”
Sideswipe got no answer. Sunstreaker transformed and shot off, engine howling angrily.
“He’s got a problem,” Scavenger stated.
Sideswipe sighed.
“With us.”
Another electronic sigh. “Yeah.”
“There is an easy way out of that.”
Almost similar blue optics now bore into him, but this time with a different kind of anger. “No.”
“Sideswipe…”
“Sunstreaker’s an ass. My brother, but an ass. I might share a spark with him, but that’s no reason to do as he does, to think the same thoughts. I’m my own person and I stand by my decision.”
Scavenger regarded him long and hard. “As I said: we’re not bonded, Sideswipe. This is…”
“…what I want, Scavenger. He accepts it or he doesn’t. End of discussion.”
The Constructicon nodded his acceptance. It wasn’t his fight to fight.
* * *
Scavenger came to with a start; it had been the first time he had actually off-lined. Sideswipe was stirring next to him with weakly glowing optics.
“You okay?” the silver mech asked, voice soft.
Scavenger nodded and sat up. “How about yourself?”
“Kinda… overwhelmed. In a good way. This was… intense.”
Scavenger got up, very much aware of it. Sideswipe had come in after another argument with his brother, which had resulted in Sideswipe leaving the base and driving through the night to get to Yuma. Their connection had been fast and furious, leaving both mechs stunned by the intensity.
Sideswipe got up, brushing over the open sockets along Scavenger’s arms and reminding him to close them. It was a private little gesture that astounded the other mech.
“Sunstreaker’s left me an apology,” he now said.
Scavenger hummed softly.
“I’m not sure what he wants. On one side he wants to get to know you, then when he does, he’s his usual sociopathic self. He goes on patrols with me, then starts bitching about what we share. Then he starts spouting earth slang. Bros before hos, and things like that.”
“Jealousy?” Scavenger hazarded a guess as he accessed the data bank to get a translation of the human phrase.
It got him a humorless snort of laughter. “Of what? Sunyn and I, never shared. We share a split spark, but we’re not the same person and never will be. What I do he has and never had control over, and vice versa. As much as I love him, I also want to kick his aft for being such a hardhead! He has no right judging me!”
Scavenger nodded slowly. “You are an individual and as such are allowed to make mistakes yourself.”
Blue optics flared. “This is not a mistake!” was the harsh growl. “This is what I want! And don’t tell me you’d just step back and forget what we have!”
Scavenger was torn. He knew he wanted to continue this, but if it meant destroying the twin connection…
Sideswipe pushed him hard against the wall, rattling a few subsystems. “I won’t stop. Never,” he said, voice hard and final. “Not for Sunstreaker, not for anyone. He has no power of command over me!”
“All right,” Scavenger accepted, gently nudging the hand off his chest armor.
The silver Autobot nodded sharply. “I’ll talk to him, again, if he lets me, but if he stays as contrary as he has so far, he can go frag himself.”
Scavenger felt amusement rise. “Had arguments like these in the past?”
“Always. Ask Prime. Terror of his command.” Sideswipe smirked. “Terror Twins, that was us. But it was never over a partner in sharing.” Sideswipe slumped against the wall next to the other mech. “Usually over harmless stuff. Or inane things. Sometimes over commanding officers.” He grinned. “Prowl was always good for such stuff. Fragger. He was so easy to annoy. It was fun! Really a lot of fun. We came straight from the Academy, which was probably glad to be rid of us, and under his tutelage. I think he thanked Primus when we were transferred somewhere else, and cursed his bad luck when we came back into his team.”
“Now it’s more personal.”
“Yeah.”
“And only concerns you.”
A nod.
Scavenger silently waited for Sideswipe to make up his mind. His partner finally did. Silver fingers trailed over the closed interface nodes, stroking the armor, almost caressing it.
“He’ll learn to live with it,” the Autobot stated.
Scavenger smiled slightly. “Will he?”
“Give him a century of two.” Sideswipe chuckled and shrugged. “He said he wants to see how this plays out, wants to give it a chance. That he’s also such a jerk… gotta deal with it when it happens. If he wants to be an ass about it half of the time, so be it. I’m not stopping him. By tomorrow he’ll be his obnoxious self again, before he finds another reason to run off his mouth and be a sociopath.”
“Just another day?”
“Yeah. Kinda. You’d think I opted on Megatron as a partner for all the things he’s sometimes spouting.”
Scavenger chuckled. “I guess I’m not rating that badly.”
Intense blue optics focused on the Constructicon. “I stand by my decision, Scavenger. Sunny’s the one who has to get his head out of his aft and start accepting what has changed.”
“Until then…?”
“Nothing changes with us. Nothing at all,” Sideswipe stated seriously.
Scavenger nodded. “I can live with that.”
Want to see what a Spyker C8 Aileron looks like? Go here: http://foreverdriven.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/the-spyker-c8-aileron/
SERIES: Imperfection Deviation - Off Balance
VERSE: movie
CHARCTERS: Scavenger, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe/Scavenger on-screen
AUTHOR: Macx
RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: None of the characters belong to me, sadly. They are owned by people with a lot more money :)
FEEDBACK: Loved
prior fics in this series:
Wrong
Awkward
Malum in Se - Wrong in Itself
Compensating
Can of Worms
Mutual Understanding
Split Complications
Past the Point of No Return
Bruises
Fragile Tensions
Sunstreaker’s arrival on Earth should have stopped it all. With his twin back, Sideswipe’s spark -- their spark -- was complete. While Sunstreaker was suffering what humans called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - the mech version of it anyway - he was still the same mech Sideswipe had always known. A bit harsher, a bit harder, but still his brother.
But Sideswipe returned to Scavenger. He had sought out the engineer in Yuma and when he had stepped into the small lab at the end of a complicated web of lab section, he had known that he had truly missed this. Red optics had regarded him curiously, but there had been no protests. Scavenger had welcomed him and given Sideswipe what he had been looking for.
Scavenger looked at him oddly when they separated. “I feel the difference in you. You’re… complete.” He sounded almost amused.
Sideswipe’s optics flared, then he stepped back. Scavenger chuckled.
“Your brother is back, your spark is complete, but still you’re here.”
Sideswipe heard the unspoken question. He was here… why? Yes, his twin was back; he should be whole. He was whole. Just not complete.
Feeling Scavenger’s energy push against his spark made him feel more than anything else before. And he felt it so much more intensely because the darkness of Sunstreaker’s loss was gone. With his spark stronger, the sensations were stronger.
He wasn’t an addict.
He didn’t need it.
He just wanted the feeling to return. And he wouldn’t ask any of the others. Scavenger was known, familiar…
The Constructicon didn’t get an answer as Sideswipe left.
He returned a week later, on a standard patrol, and he was trailed by a yellow Spyker C8 Aileron. Sunstreaker made his name all honor and while he looked different from his twin in car mode, he had features that strongly resembled his brother in his bipedal form.
Scavenger felt a trickle of unease when the twins found him in his lab. The danger that radiated off the yellow mech was almost palpable. Sure, Sideswipe wasn’t one to take lightly. He was a warrior who had ruthlessly killed and would kill without remorse again. Sideswipe had been a frontliner, one of those mechs who were first into a battle and left death in their wake. He had taken sparks without reserve and so had others.
Scavenger didn’t feel threatened, though. He knew his own abilities matched those of either twin. It was simply the presence the Sunstreaker had.
He was there. Simply there. Powerful and no-nonsense.
The Constructicon felt no intimidation, just… respect. And curiosity.
“So you’re Sunstreaker,” the engineer said slowly.
Blue optics studied him like he was some alien life form. “Sides told me about you guys,” Sunstreaker said, voice cool and unemotional.
‘You guys’. The Constructicons? Scavenger wondered how deeply Sunstreaker had been briefed. Probably enough to know the corner points of this alliance. Enough that the Primes would let him accompany his twin.
Or was the ‘you guys’ related to him and Sideswipe. Most likely.
“Can’t do anything about it,” Sunstreaker added, but he sounded like he would like to.
“Your brother made a choice and it is his choice to continue or to stop it. We’re not bonded.”
The yellow mech snorted. His optics seemed to want to drill a hole into Scavenger’s processor. Finally he turned and walked away.
“Sunstreaker?” Sideswipe called, sounding confused.
“See you later, bro,” was the only answer he got.
“It was your idea to come with me and meet Scavenger!”
“And I met him.”
“What the Pits is wrong with you?!”
Sideswipe got no answer. Sunstreaker transformed and shot off, engine howling angrily.
“He’s got a problem,” Scavenger stated.
Sideswipe sighed.
“With us.”
Another electronic sigh. “Yeah.”
“There is an easy way out of that.”
Almost similar blue optics now bore into him, but this time with a different kind of anger. “No.”
“Sideswipe…”
“Sunstreaker’s an ass. My brother, but an ass. I might share a spark with him, but that’s no reason to do as he does, to think the same thoughts. I’m my own person and I stand by my decision.”
Scavenger regarded him long and hard. “As I said: we’re not bonded, Sideswipe. This is…”
“…what I want, Scavenger. He accepts it or he doesn’t. End of discussion.”
The Constructicon nodded his acceptance. It wasn’t his fight to fight.
* * *
Scavenger came to with a start; it had been the first time he had actually off-lined. Sideswipe was stirring next to him with weakly glowing optics.
“You okay?” the silver mech asked, voice soft.
Scavenger nodded and sat up. “How about yourself?”
“Kinda… overwhelmed. In a good way. This was… intense.”
Scavenger got up, very much aware of it. Sideswipe had come in after another argument with his brother, which had resulted in Sideswipe leaving the base and driving through the night to get to Yuma. Their connection had been fast and furious, leaving both mechs stunned by the intensity.
Sideswipe got up, brushing over the open sockets along Scavenger’s arms and reminding him to close them. It was a private little gesture that astounded the other mech.
“Sunstreaker’s left me an apology,” he now said.
Scavenger hummed softly.
“I’m not sure what he wants. On one side he wants to get to know you, then when he does, he’s his usual sociopathic self. He goes on patrols with me, then starts bitching about what we share. Then he starts spouting earth slang. Bros before hos, and things like that.”
“Jealousy?” Scavenger hazarded a guess as he accessed the data bank to get a translation of the human phrase.
It got him a humorless snort of laughter. “Of what? Sunyn and I, never shared. We share a split spark, but we’re not the same person and never will be. What I do he has and never had control over, and vice versa. As much as I love him, I also want to kick his aft for being such a hardhead! He has no right judging me!”
Scavenger nodded slowly. “You are an individual and as such are allowed to make mistakes yourself.”
Blue optics flared. “This is not a mistake!” was the harsh growl. “This is what I want! And don’t tell me you’d just step back and forget what we have!”
Scavenger was torn. He knew he wanted to continue this, but if it meant destroying the twin connection…
Sideswipe pushed him hard against the wall, rattling a few subsystems. “I won’t stop. Never,” he said, voice hard and final. “Not for Sunstreaker, not for anyone. He has no power of command over me!”
“All right,” Scavenger accepted, gently nudging the hand off his chest armor.
The silver Autobot nodded sharply. “I’ll talk to him, again, if he lets me, but if he stays as contrary as he has so far, he can go frag himself.”
Scavenger felt amusement rise. “Had arguments like these in the past?”
“Always. Ask Prime. Terror of his command.” Sideswipe smirked. “Terror Twins, that was us. But it was never over a partner in sharing.” Sideswipe slumped against the wall next to the other mech. “Usually over harmless stuff. Or inane things. Sometimes over commanding officers.” He grinned. “Prowl was always good for such stuff. Fragger. He was so easy to annoy. It was fun! Really a lot of fun. We came straight from the Academy, which was probably glad to be rid of us, and under his tutelage. I think he thanked Primus when we were transferred somewhere else, and cursed his bad luck when we came back into his team.”
“Now it’s more personal.”
“Yeah.”
“And only concerns you.”
A nod.
Scavenger silently waited for Sideswipe to make up his mind. His partner finally did. Silver fingers trailed over the closed interface nodes, stroking the armor, almost caressing it.
“He’ll learn to live with it,” the Autobot stated.
Scavenger smiled slightly. “Will he?”
“Give him a century of two.” Sideswipe chuckled and shrugged. “He said he wants to see how this plays out, wants to give it a chance. That he’s also such a jerk… gotta deal with it when it happens. If he wants to be an ass about it half of the time, so be it. I’m not stopping him. By tomorrow he’ll be his obnoxious self again, before he finds another reason to run off his mouth and be a sociopath.”
“Just another day?”
“Yeah. Kinda. You’d think I opted on Megatron as a partner for all the things he’s sometimes spouting.”
Scavenger chuckled. “I guess I’m not rating that badly.”
Intense blue optics focused on the Constructicon. “I stand by my decision, Scavenger. Sunny’s the one who has to get his head out of his aft and start accepting what has changed.”
“Until then…?”
“Nothing changes with us. Nothing at all,” Sideswipe stated seriously.
Scavenger nodded. “I can live with that.”
Want to see what a Spyker C8 Aileron looks like? Go here: http://foreverdriven.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/the-spyker-c8-aileron/