Chapter Text
The day had been filled with exceedingly boring paperwork and Blurr was itching to be done with it. Yes, he was an Intelligence Agent working with some of the highest code access that you could possibly get, but no, that didn’t mean he got off easy with the red tape. Honestly it was the opposite, he might actually have been struggling more under all the datapads. Every line that required his signature or serial number had to be cross examined and put side by side with the regulations book to make sure it wasn’t a proposal from a ‘Decepticon spy.’ Like any of those could get past him and is crew.
He’d kill for a mission right about now. Anything from a serious stakeout to a simple ticket citation. Unicron below, he’d even take the drunk and disorderly. Anything so he didn’t have to stare at these datapads.
Across the hall, the door to Longarm Prime’s office clicked open, his hand distracted as he fumbled with the knob. Blurr glanced up only momentarily, a surge of sympathy for the other bot. Door handles made no sense, but as a quick replacement they… soft of worked.
At least until the new sensor door got in, and by the Allspark was that a funny story to remember.
Poor Misfire, he’d never live that botched assassination attempt down. No matter how understanding Longarm had been, everyone was going to bring that mishap up for millennia. Blurr sighed and squinted at some of the fine print on his current work screen.
‘Reoccurring Error or Failure to file subsection E72AB, clause 27T6, in accordance with the Tyrest Appeal Law in Chapter 213, subsection 42B-’
“Agent Blurr, may I see you in my office?” Longarm Prime asked as he finally looked up from his datapad. Blurr dropped his work in a nano-klik and stood up far too quckly from his desk, the chair clattering to the floor. Longarm gave a short chuckle, cutting himself off as the rest of the office snickered. He gave them all reprimanding looks and waited politely for Blurr to right his chair.
Hotwire beat him to it as he got up. “Go on.” He nudged Blurr with the back of his hand. Rotary smirked from his desk and wiggled his eyebrows ridges at Blurr while their commander was distracted. Blurr tried not to swat at him on the way.
Longarm kept the door open with a hand resting at the top, and Blurr found it easy enough to run through under his arm.
The movement was a practice he’d grown accustomed to over the cycles, having spent a couple of them getting used to weaving in and out of the office and around his co-workers. Still, none of them were as comfortable with his speed as Longarm seemed to be. In fact, Longarm didn’t even look up from his pad as Blurr ran passed him, he simply ticked a box and walked into the office. The door creaked closed behind them, Blurr already standing at attention in front of Longarm’s desk and waiting for the ‘crash thump’ of displaced air as it connected.
Longarm said nothing at first, simply kept his optics focused on his pad as he made a slow meander back to his desk. He held one hand out, patting the air until his servo slapped against his chair back, then he eased himself down and pried his optics away from the pad.
“Oh, where are my manners? The chair is where it always is, feel free to sit.” He smiled and Blurr had to fight not to chuckle.
“Yes sir.” He hurried to the closet and sidestepped the hastily put away pads and office equipment. Longarm was a wonderful boss, really, but sometimes Blurr thought he didn’t really understand the concept of ‘No thank you that’s too much work.’ He was constantly doing something, a never ending workaholic.
Shaking his head, Blurr reached in and grabbed the fold out chair before his processor went off on a tangent. When he set it down, Longarm was fiddling with a holo-screen and squinting at the words. He seemed frustrated. Blurr watched as he closed one eye, then switched to the other and huffed.
“I can’t read this receptionists handwriting.” Longarm grumbled, voice lower and more frustrated than normal. “It’s avian scratch. Can you…?” he turned the screen and Blurr couldn’t help but smile.
“Honestly sir there’s no shame in ordering optic enhancers at your age.” Blurr teased before leaning in to read the note.
“Quite rude of you.” Longarm muttered. “I’m not much older than you.” The Prime shook his helm and reached out to tap the holo-screen. Blurr quickly flicked his optics back and forth between the screen and his commander and smirked.
“From what I can tell,” he let the last word drag out slightly, “it says Code Terra Earth, class restriction beta Y, this word I can’t really decipher, but after that it says former Prime, Optimus.” He leaned back and beamed happily.
Longarm Prime was silent. When Blurr opened his optics his commander was frowning and looking at his folded over fingers. He seemed sad, maybe a bit disappointed.
“… Sir?” Blurr’s voice seemed to snap him out of his revere.
Longarm tilted his head. “I apologize, Agent, those are just... orders I never wanted to receive.” He let out a heavy sigh and fiddled with the mess of datapads on his desk. “This means I have to send one of my trusted to Earth, it means I have to send them somewhere I can’t reach.” Blurr saw the signs of sadness and regret all over his commander and reached out before he could think better of it.
“It’s not so bad, Sir. You know all of us would do anything to return to you.” He lifted one side of his mouth in a smile and Longarm laughed, loud and boisterous before he squeezed Blurr’s hand. They shared a moment before Longarm released his servo and stood. He walked toward the dry erase board he had tucked snuggly in the corner of his office and frowned at it.
He seemed resigned as he picked up a pen and uncapped it, then began scribbling names and drawing a circle in the center. He tapped the board and looked back at Blurr, nodding to the position next to him.
“I called you in here for help, I thought that the transmission was a mission to Earth, but I wanted a second opinion.” He explained. “These are the candidates I’m thinking of sending on this mission. Now this is top secret and I trust you explicitly to keep it under wraps. You and your team have never failed me.” Longarm said as Blurr stood up. He quickly made an ‘X’ marking over his spark and came to stand at his commanders side, looking at the names on the board.
After a few kliks he frowned. “My name isn’t on the board, Sir.” He commented. Longarm nodded, stiff as he kept his optics trained on the names.
“I wouldn’t benefit from loosing you here, I would only suffer.” His voice was almost cold as he said it and Blurr shivered. There was that thin line again, the one that popped up sometimes when they were together.
Were they flirting, were they just really good friends? Was Longarm into him? Was he into Longarm? Should they just frag one out and get it over with?
“I would be best suited for this job.” Blurr admitted. “You know I’m the fastest bot on your team.” Longarm snorted.
“And the quietest?”
“In terms of stealth.” Blurr insisted. “Next to Quickstep, who is a dancer and not a special agent even though I think he should be. I’m the lightest on my feet on all of Cybertron next to him. I’m a great pick for this mission Sir, please trust me.” Longarm glanced at Blurr and then looked back at the board. His optics dimmed in thought, his shoulders tense like support beams. Blurr reached out and slipped his hand into Longarm’s, watching him flinch in surprise but never move away. “I’ll be okay.” He whispered reassuringly.
Longarm hesitated. “I… won’t be there to protect you. Neither will our team.” The way he said it made Blurr’s spark flutter. “Without you, I will no longer have a leading commander. My agents will be a fumbling mess, who do you think will lead them in the field if you don’t?” Blurr couldn’t help but chuckle.
“They’ll pick a leader if you don’t assign them one. They aren’t sparklets, they’re full grown mecha. They can take care of themselves without my help for a few… however long I’ll be on Earth.” He smiled and squeezed Longarm’s hand again.
Longarm squeezed back, then looked away from the board. There was a flicker of light in the jewel on his forehead, a sign Blurr had learned was a tell tale spark of deep emotion.
“… I don’t want you to go. Things will change too much if you leave.” It was a last ditch effort, but Blurr had made up his mind. Even if he wanted to buckle under Longarm’s gaze, he knew he couldn’t. He was far stronger than that, far tougher. Even if he didn’t want to be.
Taking a chance, he slowly lifted Longarm’s hand in his own and pressed his lips to the back of Longarm’s wrist. “Trust me as much as I trust you.” Blurr whispered. Longarm swallowed and pulled Blurr into an unexpected hug.
“You shouldn’t put so much trust in me, Blurr. One of these days I’m going to let you down. You’re going to hate me forever after that, then what will I do? One day I’m going to hurt you in irreparable ways for the sake of this job, I just know it.” Longarm let go of a deprecated laugh as he pulled away, turning toward his desk. Blurr caught the warble in his voice, the way the tones shifted and changed.
Sometimes odd things like that happened to Longarm, it was as if he wasn’t one to handle himself, almost like emotions were foreign to him and he was surprised every time he had one. If you stuck around the commander long enough you would recognize his ticks, each little click that showed off his surprise or confusion. He was generally so enthusiastic that many thought him fake, but Blurr always saw the flickers of emotions or the forced sadness of certain smiles or laughs.
Longarm was peculiar, but Blurr liked that about him.
“Right,” Longarm pulled up a few files onto the whiteboard via datapad and smiled, “if you’re going to Earth you’ll need a temporary altmode and a holo avatar to ‘Drive’ you.” He dragged the selected files and images onto the board and hurried over to wipe it clean.
Blurr watched as species after species of human flicked across screen. They all seemed the same to him, short helms, flat chests, bulky yet squishy frames.
Suddenly something completely different flicked on screen and he scrambled forward. “Wait!” Longarm looked up in surprise. “Go back.” His commander nodded and flipped back through the clips until Blurr pointed. “That one.”
Longarm nodded. “The female of the species, I hear they’re very strong. My holo avatar is also female, though not this… skinny by any means, and her hair isn’t blue.” He quickly pulled up the specs of the avatar and held out a small plug.
Blurr took it and hesitated. Plugging things into his neck always made him uncomfortable.
“I didn’t know you’d traveled to Earth, Sir.” Blurr grimaced at the plug and quickly reached up to the back of his neck before sliding the cable in. The whole thing made him give a full body shudder and as soon as the information settled he yanked the cord out and pushed it away.
Longarm only looked up for a second as he continued to type away at his desktop. “A little while ago on a recon mission, I took a small sabbatical if you recall?”
“Oh, about one hundred, one hundred and fifty stellar cycles ago?” Blurr asked as he reached out and tapped the top of Longarm’s computer. “Can I see it? Your avatar I mean?” He waited until Longarm looked up and flashed him a smile. Longatm nodded over at the dry erase board and an avatar popped up. Blurr could have sworn Longarm was flushing under the collar in embarrassment.
The human was labeled female, though of a much bigger build than Blurr’s recently picked avatar. She had the massive unruly curls that were similar to Blurr’s avatar, though they were a dark black compared to Blurr’s vibrant cyan. She was also wearing a dress that had a tag line next to it. Blurr, curious as always, walked toward it and flicked open the tab.
‘Flapper dress. 1927. Possibly outdated, Fashion is an ever flowing hit apparently.’
The small snarky comment in Longarm’s twisty handwriting made him chuckle and he tabbed it down to look back at his commander. “Does this mean you also have an Earth altmode, or do you only have a Cybertronian one?” Longarm shrugged his shoulders and finally moved away from the keyboard. He sidled next to Blurr and put a hand on his own hip, looking at the avatar.
“I reverted to Cybertronian once I came home. It just didn’t feel right on the road.” he offered Blurr a smile and then nudged him gently. “Alright, let’s get you properly debriefed, then we’ll break the news to the team and they can properly throw you a going away party before you actually leave.” Blurr laughed and gave his commander a gently shove back, his spark throbbing in his chest.
“You’ll have to give me a private going away party too.” He said, smirking.
“Obviously.”