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Hound frowned as their transport ship flew lower than it was supposed to at this part of their journey. If he had calculated it right, they should be right above Praxus right now, so still far away from Ankmor, where he was supposed to exterminate an overgrown Kremzeek population with his two protégés.
"What's wrong?" Sideswipe wanted to know and as Hound looked to the twins he could see them both addressing him with questioning glances. "I don’t know yet. We seem to go down, but we are only in Praxus, and we are on a flight with no stops in-between" the older mech explained and got up, signalizing the other two to stay seated. „You wait and keep our luggage safe, I'll ask the crew. It probably won't take me too long"
And it really didn't since he wasn't the first who noticed and the poor, clearly stressed out crew member explained to him that they had problems with some overflight permits and had to land for a checkup in Praxus. But he promised that it would only delay them an hour or two. So the trio decided to stay in their cabin and wait for the paperwork to be handled. After nothing seemed to happen for longer than expected the crew members voice suddenly boomed out of the internal speaker system, explaining that the flight would not continue right now and every mech on board had to exist the transport.
Everything after that was pure chaos. In the end they found out two things: they were stranded in Praxus until the transport company had worked out the paperwork - which would at least take them a week, so something really had to be wrong. And that they got two rooms on the companies expenses in a hotel that belonged to said company, in one of the few tourist districts the city had, which was at least something.
The only problem for their particular group was, that neither Hound, nor the twins should even be in the vampire reigned city. If one of the resident beings noticed them they were in serious trouble. So their first duty for this unplanned stay was to head to the nearest 'official representative' and announce their stay and the reasoning behind it. Hound made sure to get some paperwork from the transport company that backed up that they really were stranded and not here intentionally. After checking his resources Hound sighed. Of course the nearest representative was stationed at the Main Praxian Police Department. What meant they had to go in the city first. With his job as Hunter Hound did have a permit to enter restricted cities and placed... so running into a control would not be the problem. But as clearly visible outsiders they would be controlled a lot. Something that would considerably slow them down.
Eight controlls and five hours later they finally arrived at the station, where many curious doorwingers openly stared at them. "All right you two, I know the day was stressing and your patience is as thin as copper wavers, but Praxians rank very high and have quite some leverage. So stay quiet and calm. Don't fidget around and keep your emf as close as possible to your plating. Don't do anything that could be seen as a threat - I mean that Sunstreaker - the smoother this works out the sooner we can go to our hotel and rest."
With all instructions out Hound lead the trio inside the station where he looked around a moment before walking over to a counter. After a short chat he gave the enforcer a datapad. The mech studied it for a moment, looked up suspicious and told them to follow, which the group did without hesitation. They were led into an empty office and told to sit down and wait. A few minutes passed, as the door opened again and a black and white Praxian entered the room followed by a grey and red Praxian both decorated with a red chevron. They sat down across the desk from Hound and the twins, looking them up and down for a brief moment.
"I am Prowl of Praxus, current head representative of the central clan of Crystal Gardens, and this is Bluestreak of Praxus also a clan member of Crystal Gardens. It surprises me to see that a Hunter is in our City without any preliminary notice. How do you justify this significant breach of protocol?" Prowl asked calm, while his perked up doorwings and lightly flared plating indicated that he was clearly upset.
Hound gave the twins a warning flare with his emf before he focused his control back to Prowl. "I am Hound of Uraya, Hunter by trade, sworn to the protocols of Nova Prime. I am traveling with my two officially taken and sworn protégés Sunstreaker and Sideswipe of Kaon, cyberwolfes, unaffiliated to any shifter clan there is" he introduced and pulled out the datapad he had gotten from the transports company and placed it on the desk. "We were on the way to a hunt in Ankmore but our transport made an unplanned stop here in Praxus and won't continue until it's paperwork is updated, which will take at least a week from now on. Details on the problems and our housing are on the datapad." He explained.
Prowl took the datapad and carefully looked it over, his posture slowly relaxing a little. Then he showed it to Bluestreak, clearly communicating with the younger mech through comm. The datapad was handed back and Prowl in-vented slowly. "This explains your unannounced arrival and due to the circumstance your stay in the city will be granted for as long as it takes for the company to accomplish getting the needed permits. That does not mean that I like the fact that a Hunter and two stray shifters are in the city. It must be perfectly clear for all three of you that the smallest problem caused by any of you will have dire consequences for all of you"
Hound had to remind both cyberwolfs via comm to smooth their plating and stay calm. "It is. We won't cause any problems nor will we hunt on your territory" he promised and meant it.
"Good. Bluestreak here will check on you once a day at the same time. All of you will be in the room assigned to you with the number 3-126 for that checkup. The day you continue your journey you will have to go through a last check before you are allowed to leave the city. This is all" Hound promised that they would meet the Praxian’s requirements and the group was allowed to make their way back to their hotel. This time unbothered by the Praxian patrols. Probably due to Prowl sending a notice to his co-workers
Three days later Hound crossed his arms as he watched the twins which were getting themselves polished up. "You do know that your time and effort is most likely wasted? He's a Praxian, a vampire, probably closely related to Prowl. The chance that he even noticed that you too are interested in him are... Slim at best. And even if he notices, vampires don't have the best facilitation towards shifters like you"
Sideswipe rolled his optics. "And hunters always kill their prey..." Sunstreaker just smirked. Hound shook his head and ex-vented heavy "What I want to say" Sideswipe continued "is that Bluestreak is absolutely not like Prowl. I can sense it. Let us try... The moment he as much as flares his plating we stop" he promise as the door chime rang. "Just, don't get us killed. All right?" Hound gave back and opened the door, stepping aside a second later to let Bluestreak in.
"Good evening. Anything happened that we should know about?" The vampire wanted to know while looking around venting in deep. Taking the rooms scent in. In just a drop of live-energon would have been spilled here freshly he would know.
"Nothing, no. No news from the company neither" Hound answered and Bluestreak nodded, his whole posture relaxing visibly. "All right, thank you for cooperating. I really hope you can at least enjoy the stay a little even with it being the way it is"
”We try. Praxus is a pretty place after all” Sideswipe took over, stepping closer to Bluestreak. “But there are a lot of cultural differences to other cities we would love to understand, it’s just hard to do with all the restrictions our kind has around here…” Bluestreak shifted a little, doorwings twitching up a bit. He thought something over, the red mech could tell. “After this check up I am off shift. I you want I could answer you a few questions, if you wish?” He offered, a small shy smile on his lips. The twins agreed, offered to buy the young enforcer a drink for his help and to Hounds surprise he accepted.
Down at the hotel bar the three mecha had chosen a more private booth at the side of the bar. It didn't have waiter service but Sunstreaker had no problem to walk up to the counter and grab their drinks for them. One cube in Bluestreak told them the story of his turning, at least what he remembered of it. At one point he had explained that he had once overheard how Prowl and his sire Smokescreen had talked about his carrier and how happy they were that the mech had noticed too late that he was carrying to do something against it. It still hurt to know that he had been so unwanted. Even telling the story got his mood down for a moment.
Noticing it the twins told him that they weren't better off, neither. That their own clan had left them behind when they still were too young to survive on their own. It has been a strangely bonding moment that got the three beings closer.
Sunstreaker was the first who dared to make a move by taking the Praxian's servo in his. As Bluestreak allowed it Sideswipe was bold enough to go further, placing his servo on the vampire’s shoulder, stroking the plating lightly. There was a nervous flare in Bluestreak's emf which only smoothed out as Sunstreaker moved closer "Ever tasted a shifter? Or say... two?"
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First it had annoyed the twins that they were divided into two rooms, one for them, with a double bed and one for Hound. Normally they always stayed together. Tonight they were thankful for it as they made their way up with Bluestreak in tow. Getting bitten wasn't something either of them was looking forward too, but they knew from Hound that willing 'donators' were rare and few vamps would refuse a free, easy meal. Or two. So it was no surprise that Bluestreak came with them. Plus they did get along rather well since the very first day the young vampire had checked on them.
Back in their room Sunstreaker was the first to steal a kiss from Bluestreak right after the door closed behind them. Sideswipe was pressed against his back, placed butterfly like kisses on the sensitive doorwings. "You smell so damn good" he growled possessive as they slowly moved towards the bed. There they slowed down a little. One of the twins always kept the grey mech's lips busy, the other kissed and licked various parts his body. It was when Sunstreaker let his servo travel between the Praxian thighs that Bluestreak broke the kiss with Sideswipe. "W-wait please" he grabbed the shifters servo tight. Sunstreaker let him, after exchanging a short look with his brother.
Bluestreak vented, a nervous shiver traveling through his emf. "I-I like you. Both of you... and I want to spend the night with you, it's just. I don't think that I want to go that far, yet?" Sideswipe pulled the Praxian closer to his frame, kissed his neck. "That's fair for me" he agreed, Sunstreaker smiled pulling his hand away just to place both of them at the others chest. "We still owe you a bite though." He whispered and bared his neck. After all there still were a few days left and Bluestreak had said 'yet'. So why not try to treat the mech to get to know the vampire good enough to not be stopped one of these days.