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Clang! Clang!
Swords hitting against each other rings out in the almost empty facility. Three strikes, then four, five, and six in quick succession. At seven, the strike rings out and the scrape of swords replace it as the fighters are locked in position. They break apart and eight seems to be the strike to resume the dance until Arcee is flung to the ground.
“You’re improving.” Drift remarks, offering her a servo with a smile.
She takes it gladly, before sighing. “I know I am, but it just doesn’t feel like it.”
“You’ve been out of commission for a while, the fact that you’re able to keep up with me at all, even at this speed, is still incredibly impressive. You should be proud of yourself.”
“...I’m working on it.” Arcee says ruefully.
Drift seems to want to say something else before something behind Arcee catches his attention. “Red Alert,” he calls out “she’s all yours!”
“After this, one more round?” She doesn’t want to sound too helpful, but at the same time…
Drift sighs. “One more round—Hey, Blurr! Don’t—” the sound of someone crashing into a wall makes him pause and groan. “It might take me a while to get him unstuck. Work on some stretches once you’re cleared for it.”
Arcee waves him off before turning for her informal checkup with Red Alert. There’s not much glory to be found in the low-demand field of physical therapy, but Drift manages to always have an endless amount of energy and enthusiasm with the few patients he does see. Currently, it’s herself, Blurr, and Rodimus—the latter two being dubbed Drift’s “problem children” with how little they seem to respect their own healing processes at times. Case in point: Blurr stuck in a wall.
Red Alert beckons her over and Arcee goes, it’s not like she’s in any way a problem child herself, honest!
“Any aches or pains?” Red Alert asks, already scanning Arcee over with a wry smile.
“Just my pride. I’m beginning to think I’ll never improve.” Arcee quietly admits.
“In my professional opinion? You have. You haven’t had full mobility for some time, yet you’re improving rapidly. Soon you won’t even need me around for checkups.”
“That’d be a shame.” It just slips out of her mouth, making her freeze suddenly, eyeing Red Alert cautiously.
“It would be.” Red Alert says smoothly, running a hand over Arcee’s frame. She didn’t know if this was a medical check-up or something else. Her fans kick on as her faceplates heat up suddenly. Red Alert gives her a knowing look before tapping Arcee’s frame with a digit contemplatively.
“A-are you busy later? There’s been so many changes to Cybertron since I was last here that I feel a little overwhelmed. Ratchet hasn’t been able to take me to see everything yet, so I was wondering…” Arcee stumbles over her words, growing more flustered when there’s no immediate reply.
“Sorry, I don’t date patients. They tend to try to get out of their checkups.” Red Alert says sternly, but with a smile blossoming across her face.
Arcee’s fans kick on again. She tries to get them to shut off as Red Alert’s smile turns into an all out sneaky grin.
What is it with pretty medics wreaking havoc on her?
After a second longer, Red Alert walks over to where Blurr is being chewed out by Drift still. Arcee eyes Rodimus, practicing slowly notching a bow and then lowering it, and gets an idea.
“Rodimus? Can I talk to you for a second?” She pulls him to the side and whispers her plan. Though he’d matured significantly, there was still more than just a spark of mischief in the Prime, evident in the gleam in his optics as he agreed without hesitation.
Drift makes his way back over to Arcee, giving Rodimus a friendly pat on the shoulder and directions for his next stretches as he passes. “Ready for another round?”
Arcee smirks. “If you think you can handle it.”
Drift laughs and brings up his sword.
Their dance begins. She focuses mostly on dodging and blocking rather than striking this time. She has to last as long as possible.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
A close call makes her hiss, what’s taking Rodimus so long? A few more hits and she’ll be out for the round again.
“Hey Blurr! CATCH!” Rodimus yells, catching Drift’s attention. It’s almost hilarious with the look of absolute horror on Drift’s faceplate as Rodimus notches five arrows and promptly shoots them all at Blurr. The still somewhat dazed Autobot jerks to attention and rushes to run backwards, fractions of a second away from tripping over a bench he couldn’t see.
In Drift’s moment of distraction, this utter weakness, Arcee crushes her opponent. She disarms Drift and slams her full weight into him, taking advantage of his surprise to make up for her smaller frame. He falls to the ground in shock, actually yelping as he does so. Arcee makes sure that she’s pointing his own sword at him when he gets his bearings.
“Yield?” She challenges.
“Yeah, I yield.” Drift shakes his head, looking ruefully at the mess Rodimus and Blurr had made, the two Autobots chattering excitedly as Blurr holds all five arrows in his servo. “You’re good to go for the day, go get some rest. You’ve earned it.”
The ex-Decepticon looks sheepish at his own mistakes, causing Arcee to smile innocently. “See you tomorrow?”
“Depends if you’re going to give me my sword back.” Drift holds his servo out expectantly.
“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t realize I still had it.” She hands it over with a smile, Drift rolling his optics fondly as he takes it.
Arcee positively struts over to Red Alert. “So, I don’t need any medical care, does that still make me a patient?”
Red Alert eyes her up and down. “I think you make the cut. You said you wanted to see more of Cybertron?”
“Absolutely! I’d love to have you as my guide, call it my victory prize.”
Red Alert rolls her eyes and offers Arcee her servo. Arcee takes it and holds it tightly.
Red Alert’s fans kick on, surprising them both. Arcee snickers as Red Alert flushes and positively drags her out of the clinic, Drift’s scolding words echoing behind them.