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The temperature was blistering. The cloudless skies and asphalt that shimmered with rising heat kept the city park devoid of life, animal and human. Whatever insects and birds that had stuck around were in hiding, seeking shade in the treetops or under park benches.
It was enough to keep most everyone home, but not all.
Switching from alt to bi-pedal mode with a swiftness and silence that befitted his demeanor, Drift tromped from parking lot to the carefully manicured grass in search of a certain sharpshooter who refused to answer his comm. link.
Crosshairs wasn’t the best at hiding, his emerald paint job making him stick out in a crowd. But as the sword-wielding bot rounded a band of trees, he saw that Crosshairs had made no attempt to evade detection. His back was to the blue-paneled mech, upper body resting against the stone basin wall of the park fountain. A coattail was draped over the side and just barely touched the grass; the other was submerged like the rest of Crosshairs from the waist down.
“Any particular reason you shut off your communication link?” Drift asked as he approached, taking note of how shamelessly the green bot was sprawled in the public fountain, his legs stretched to either side of the center statue. Crosshairs flinched at the unexpected voice, his shoulders rising.
He growled in annoyance.
“Peace an’ quiet,” was the curt response. Crosshairs mumbled under his breath. “Not that it matters much anymore.”
“And solitude was something you could not find back at the Yeager farm?” Drift swung his legs over the stone wall and into the water, taking a seat on the rim.
“Tch, were it not for Optimus’ direct order to protect Cade, I’d be outta there. Shit always blowing up in the barn, like we got another damn Wheeljack. Hound’s war stories that never seem to end. And that Primus damned couple with their pet names! What in the universe is a ‘smoochykins’?!
“Bah! I had to leave before I lost my mind.”
The black and blue mech nodded and he kicked lightly at the water’s surface.
“I understand. It is near impossible to achieve a meditative state at times. I wish to hear the wind and focus my own thoughts, but Cade’s onslaught of obscenities is distracting.” Drift fell silent for a moment, attention falling on the water that rippled around his feet. But a smirk slowly crept across his lips.
“You do not appreciate Tessa and Shane’s pet names for each other? Then why do you put up with my assortment of pet names for you, Sweetspark?”
Crosshairs grimaced.
“Please, not in public. If half the things we called or said to each other were found out by the others…” the emerald green mech visibly shuddered.
Drift laughed, a clear, hearty laugh that even had Crosshairs smirking.
“Is there any other reason you wished to get away? It would not happen to be because of me, would it?”
“Hell no. Why the slag would you think that?”
Drift shrugged and gave another kick to the water, a little stronger this time, sending up a spray.
“We are opposites, in weaponry and personality. Some aspects of myself might rub you in the wrong way.”
“Believe me, you rub me in all the right ways. All the right ways. Nah, it’s just bloody hot otherwise. Thought my tires would melt if I drove any further.”
“But a fountain? There is a lake not too far from here. Perhaps it is because you enjoy the sensation of gushing fluids between your legs?”
Drift did not expect to be so suddenly and forcefully shoved in the water by the sharpshooter. He crashed down hard, head just barely exposed. When he began to rise, a full spray of water swept across his face, kicked in his direction by a now visibly irritated Crosshairs.
“I said that one time! The shit we say stays in the berth. I hardly think you’d enjoy if the other bots learned how much you like eating val-!”
Surprising Crosshairs much the same as the sword-wielding mech had been, Drift lunged forward, effectively cutting the green mech off as he was dragged fully into the pooled water.