Chapter Text
“Aren’t there usually four rescue bots? Oh, well. The crowd doesn’t seem to miss him!” Heatwave growled, shutting off the television. He didn’t need them. Any of them. Or their stupid parade.
And until it was over, he was free of Kade.
Heatwave busied himself preparing a wash station. With the whole night to himself, this was the perfect time to wash all of his parts.
It also wouldn’t hurt to wash away all the humiliation.
They were Cybertronians, slag it all, but they had to pretend to be mindless robots. Stupid, puny humans ordering them around. Kade. Always frag-headed Kade barking stupid orders at him. ‘Extend your ladder!’ like Heatwave didn’t already know that. The human fireman was nothing without Heatwave. And he was a glory hog to the point of being dangerous.
The water was gloriously warm when he didn’t have to share it. Heatwave retracted his seals, flowing the water under his plates to loosen grime that had been building up since before they made planet fall.
Just as Heatwave was wiggling off his gorget the alarm sounded. Looking at the mess and the plating in his hand, Heatwave wondered how he was supposed to deal with this.
“Heatwave, I know you can hear me. Get over here you pile of slag!” The last word was oddly garbled, but by Kade himself, not the connection. The redhead had done something similar two weeks previously on the phone. Heatwave had tapped into the conversation, mostly just to see how Earth communications worked. Kade had been talking to a woman, though it wasn’t a voice Heatwave had heard on the island. He had moaned into the phone, ‘I need to get laid so bad.’ Cody had walked by at the same moment. It was still bizarre the way his oldest brother attempted to scratch out the word ‘laid’ in the middle of saying it. ‘What’s that?’ Cody had asked. ‘Can I get you something, Kade?’ Kade had appeared to choke. ‘Your brother there?’ the female voice had asked. Kade had waved Cody away, pointing at the phone by way of explanation. Cody had shrugged and left. With a harsh cough, Kade had replied in a tone that wasn’t quite defensive or indignant, and carried an undercurrent of reverence, ‘Kid’s stainless. I can’t say something like that in front of him.’ The voice snorted. ‘He that age?’ it asked. ‘Just about.’ Kade had sighed heavily, and Heatwave had wondered what it all meant.
“Hello? Heatwave, can you hear me?” Kade asked in an insincerely coaxing tone. The premise slipped away over the next sentence, ending in raging frustration. “It would be so nice if you could drop by, you pile of–” This time Kade cut himself off completely at the sound of Cody indignantly yelling in the background.
At least one human cared about Heatwave’s feelings. Nothing else was said and if all Kade wanted was to yell at him… Heatwave was busy. Besides, his starter was broken, and he’d have to peel off a few more plates to reach it. And it was no use repairing a dirty component, or putting it back into a dirty configuration…