28 meme - Happy Red Alert (G1) - PG
Title: Through Fire and Flame (28 Red Alerts)
Chapter: Happy Red Alert
Rating: PG
Warning: implied slash
Pairing: Red Alert/Inferno
Summary: Red Alert pulls monitor duty while the Autobots celebrate.
Red Alert leaned back in his chair, optics on the monitors. The screens flipped from empty hallway to moonlit exterior and back, panning over nearly every surface of the Ark and its surrounding countryside. One screen, however, remained fixed.
Laughing Autobots filled this screen, crowding the common room and celebrating. What exactly they were celebrating, Red Alert wasn’t sure. Being alive, perhaps.
Red Alert smiled as he watched some of the younger Autobots jostle and poke each other. They might not realize it, but he cared deeply for every one of them. He enjoyed seeing them happy and healthy.
What they didn’t understand was that seeing them healthy took precedence over seeing them happy. It caused a lot of friction between him and the rest of the Autobots. They didn’t want to think about Decepticons in their off hours, or consider how much danger their new friends among the humans could be. They saw Red Alert’s constant vigilance as nothing more than obsessive paranoia.
Except one, he thought fondly, his smile softening as he watched Inferno duck out of the common room. The fire engine waved over his shoulder, laughing at some comment Jazz shouted at his back.
The cameras followed the grinning Inferno up the hallway. One of the best parts of Red Alert’s job was being able to find his Inferno on the screens, whether it was to see what he was doing, reassure himself that Inferno was alright, or just to spend a few minutes watching him.
“How’re things goin’ up here?” Inferno stuck his head into the security center.
“They’re going,” Red Alert replied noncommittally.
Inferno crossed the room in two strides, wrapping his arms around Red Alert from behind. “Havin’ fun?” he asked.
“Mm.”
“Y’know, you coulda had someone else up here, if you wanted to join us,” Inferno commented, glancing at the party still visible on one screen.
“Whoever I would have had watching the monitors is having more fun down there than I would. Besides, I would have spent the entire night wondering if they were actually paying attention to the monitors,” Red Alert said dryly.
“Aw, Red, that’s so sweet,” Inferno teased.
“Oh, be quiet. I’m trying to work,” Red Alert mock-grumbled, leaning back into Inferno’s arms with a contented little half-smile.
The Master List of Doom