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In a weird way, you start to take it for granted when rescues go right. Of course every emergency is servo-biting and makes your spark jump high into your intake. Energy thrums through every circuit and it's too hot but too cold at the same time. Sometimes it even stings slightly on the plating, some psychodynamic effect of confused signals in the processor.
But still, after a while it falls into a pattern.
The rescue bots were good at their jobs. Really good. And though there were ups and downs, they always “saved the day” in the end. This was all fine, better than fine even, for most of the day to day rescues (because really, when did Griffin Rock not need rescuing?) but as was the way with everything, it wouldn’t last. Sometimes, rescues went awry. And in those cases it could be terrifying.
Or, in this particular case, give our heroes a lot of down time and nothing much to do.
x-x-x
Boulder slammed his palms together with a crack and drew them out again slowly. Sonar rings emanated from his digits and bounced off of the rock walls in front of him. He shuttered his optics in concentration, then his engine rumbled in displeasure. “It’s just rock, kliks in all directions.”
Heatwave sighed heavily and lent back against the cave wall. “So the cave-in really did some damage, huh? Wonderful.”
Chase just watched them all coolly. “Sir, what are your orders?”
The fire engine dug his pede into the dirt that covered the cave floor. “We’ll fly out.” He snarked.
Blades squeaked.
“Sir! I do not believe that is a wise course of action, considering we are currently trapped and this room has no space for rotors much less-”
“-I know, Chase. I know. It was sarcasm.” Heatwave tried to put his usual fire behind his words but found himself too tired. “We’ll just have to wait.”
“W-wait?” Blades stammered. “Down here? In the dark? What if the roof collapses again?!”
“It won’t.” Boulder sat down on the ground, arranging his massive pedes into a slightly more comfortable position. He patted the ground beside him. “The rock above is stable, for now. Just relax and the others will find us eventually, then we can figure out another exit plan.”
x-x-x
Hour 2.
Blades shuffled his rotors nervously. The walls of the small cavern still rose imposingly above them, lit just with the light from their optics and headlights was kind of eerie.
Silently, he thanked Primus that Cybertronians didn't need to breathe, because he didn’t want to think about how fast the air in this little pocket would run out.
That didn’t stop the boredom though.
Boulder was humming quietly to himself as Blades leant on his shoulder. Chase sat across from them with his backstrut straight and optics glazed over, reorganising his HUD files for the umpteenth time in a row. Heatwave sat on the other side of boulder, leant against the wall and glaring as hard as he could at the ceiling. As if by will alone he could bring it down.
Blades processor began to itch. He’d never been very good at sitting still and he apparently wasn't going to start now. Deep lines within him, maybe his flyer half, compelled him to do something. Anything. Just to move.
It started with one pedes. Tapping the servo up and down rhythmically, the noise steadily growing in his processor faded.
But eventually, he got bored of that too.
The tapping graduated to full blown bopping, and moved up his leg. His knee plating clattered slightly as his leg jiggled until suddenly an engine across the room growled in warning.
Blades jerked up from Boulder’s shoulder to catch Heatwave’s glare, now trained on him. He shrank back and pushed apology in his field.
Sensing the tension, Boulder raised his hands placatingly. “Maybe we could try singing? It sucks to be stuck for so long but I find that helps take my processor off of things.”
Well, Blades was keen. Anything to get rid of the itch in his mind that was slowly spreading over his plating. “What did you have in mind?” he asked his friend over Heatwave’s muffled groan.
x-x-x
Hour 4.
So it turns out none of them were particularly good singers, with the exception of Boulder. But even with someone who can carry a tune, they can’t carry the whole song. And Chase was decidedly tone deaf, thoroughly undoing any good the others could do.
Heatwave, of course, opted not to participate. Instead resigning himself to looking impossibly more miserable than before.
AFter they’d exhausted their repertoire of drinking songs, they moved onto word games. Then just regular games. Blades excitedly supplied some of the ones he’d picked up from Cody, and Boulder joined in readily enough, but they’d soon exhausted those too.
It didn’t take long for them to sink right back into boredom as they all tried to think of what to do, and the itch in Blades’ processor got worse.
Suddenly, he jolted upright. “Wait! I’ve got one! I saw it in a human movie! It’s a party game, for humans!.”
“This is not exactly a party, Blades,” Chase said.
“But it could be worth a try?” Boulder gave him a playful shove. “Go on buddy, what is it?”
The copter grinned back at him and shuffled forward, making the little circle on the cave floor complete. “Okay, well, I don’t really remember exactly how to play it - but in the movie the human teenagers had a bit of old glass that they placed on the ground in the center.”
He looked around the cave quickly and frowned. Everything in sight was just rocks, rocks, and more rocks. “...which I don’t think we have,” he said, deflating.
“Oh well,” Heatwave folded his arms. “Whoops, guess we can’t play.”
“Not so fast,” Chase reached into his subspace and began to rifle through it. “Could something else not substitute?” He pulled out a small glass cylinder, what looked to be a larger than normal lightbulb.
The enforcer handed it to Blades, who took it excitedly. “Hey, yeah! This could work!”
“You keep spare headlights in your subspace?” Boulder asked, bemused.
“It always pays to be prepared.”
“Okay so then, in the film, they took the glass and placed it in the center of the circle-” Blades did just that, resting it lightly on the rocky ground. “-Then they spun it, and whoever it landed on they had to kiss!”
The rest of the rescue bots jolted in surprise, but by that time it was too late. The glass spun and spun on its axis, a shiny arrow in the light of their biolights.
It spun.
And spun.
Until finally, it came to rest on Heatwave.
Instantly, the mech balked. “You did not tell us that was part of the game!” His voice was a little strangled. He quickly composed himself, flattening his plating down with obvious effort. “And aren’t sparkling games a little… immature for us?”
“I don’t know mech,” Boulder gave him a sly grin. “It’s pretty boring down here, so I’d say any entertainment goes.”
“Indeed.” Chase agreed, his carefully neutral expression betrayed by the slight quirk of his derma.
“No, no.” Blades pouted a bit. “Guys, really, if Heatwave doesn’t want to play he doesn’t have to. But…” He couldn’t help a little smirk himself. “I’ll admit I’m surprised.”
Heatwave’s optics narrowed suspiciously. “Surprised?”
“Oh, well, it’s just,” the copter waved his servos in the air dismissively. “I didn’t think you’d be scared. That’s usually my thing.”
The firetruck froze for a nanoklik, as Blades looked back at him. His smirk growing into a full, all out, daring grin. Heatwave scowled.
“Who says I’m scared?”
“Sir please, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Some mechs just aren’t as confident as others, I understand completely.” The copter faked a sympathetic look, which Boulder and Chase (to a lesser degree) echoed.
Heatwave almost couldn’t believe it. The cheek. He wasn’t the kind of mech who liked things sprung on him. And he preferred more privacy for anything like that, but then again… With his three teammates ganging up on him. With time to kill. With nothing better to do.
When in Rome, as the Humans said.
“I’ll have you know, I’m just fine with all that charming stuff.” Heatwave said, his own grin snaking onto his face plates. “Mechs would kill back on Cybertron just to get a smile from me.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Blades’ grin widened, “Prove it.”
Heatwave rose quickly from where he was sitting, and Blades stood too. The firetruck moved into the center of the circle and in front of the copter. Much, much closer than normal. Close enough to feel the heat of his engine on his own plating.
Blades internally steeled himself for the forceful crash of their derma but it didn’t come. He cracked open on optic (when had he closed them?) to find himself standing level with Heatwave’s chassis. This close, their height difference was made all the more obvious, and he had to swallow back a burst of nervous static. Suddenly, all the bravado from before. The teasing, the taunting of his leader deserted him and his knees felt weak.
Heatwave rumbled his engine powerfully and it sent a shiver down Blades’ backstrut. The firemech leaned in close and brought one servo up to cup Blades’ cheek gently. His touch was gentle, but his plating radiated heat.
Blades couldn’t tear his optics away from the other’s gaze. His red optics half closed and that same grin as before tweaking his dermas. But still, maybe it was the thrum of his engines, or the swell of his field around the cavern that blanketed the copter’s own. Heavy. Promising.
He leaned forwards and growled into Blades’ audial, tracing his cheek slowly. “I promise you won’t be bored.”
And then his lips were on his, their derma pressed together softly but firmly. Blades startled just a little, then melted into the kiss. It was so.... Warm.
But Heatwave didn’t stop, instead he deepened the kiss, pulling Blades into him and pushing their frames together. His derma was soft but with just the right amount of roughness that it caught on Blades’ own as he moved. Working their lips together cleverly and smoothly, knowing exactly where to push.
Blades broke from the kiss with a gasp, but barely had time to invent before his dermae were seized again. This time, he opened his mouth eagerly, welcoming the slide of Heatwave’s glossa over his own.
He felt, more than heard his fans click on with a rush. Along with two other sets of fans in the small froom.
The firetruck’s glossa kept moving deliciously against his own, but now his hands began to wander. Gentle digits trailed down the sides of Blades’ cockpit, tweaking at the transformation seams. They traced the edges of his plating and he shuddered under the touch.
Against his mouth, he felt Heatwave smile and he rumbled his engines again. The vibration pushing deep into the copter’s frame and making his rotors shake. He moaned breathlessly into the kiss.
The grip around his waist tightened, and Blades found himself being lifted. He leaned back with a startled squeak as Heatwave picked him up effortlessly and with a few quick steps, pushed him up against the wall. Instinctively, the copter fought to steady himself and his legs wrapped around the larger mech’s hips.
Heatwave chuckled, and tilted his head up to recapture Blades’ lips.
The cool of the wall behind him clashed with the heat assaulting his frame, and Blades’ kissed back fiercely. After all, he knew a thing or two as well.
Large rough digits trailed down the length of his rotors as he grasped at Heatwave’s chassis. Running his servos along the edges of the firetruck’s windscreen and eliciting a delightful shiver from the other mech. The copter traced the outline of his grill, tucking his digits inside the seams briefly and rubbing at some of the more delicate circuit clusters he knew grounders often had there.
Heatwave ‘s engine rumbled again, and he nipped at the copter’s lips. Blades shuddered against him, bringing their frames closer as the firemech lowered his helm to the copter’s neck and flicked his glossa over the sensitive cabling. Blades couldn’t help the growl of his own engine, and he tipped his helm back with a breathy moan.
The warmth of each kiss against his neck filled his plating with more of that delicious heat, and had him squirming. Heatwave growled and firmly sucked on one of the cables, sending Blades’ field whipping out in surprise and pleasure.
Something outside the cavern hit the wall and it shook. Small rocks fell down from the ceiling, bouncing off of the mech’s helms with a small clatter. From not so far away, a muffled voice broke through the sound of heavy vents and swirling fields.
“Hello? Guys? Are you down here?”
At once, Heatwave released Blades, letting him slide unceremoniously to the floor where the copter just managed to get his legs underneath himself. The firemech pulled away and faced the direction of the muffled voices. “Guess we weren’t waiting much longer after all,” he said. His voice was more gravelly than before, and he turned and winked back at Blades. “And that game wasn’t so bad either.”
With that, he turned and strode to the other end of the cavern. Leaving behind a copter tentatively touching the energon bleeding from his lip and two other rescue bots desperately trying to stifle their fans. All three of them avoiding eye contact with burning faceplates.