Work Text:
The room was unusually dark, the lights cut low as the five mechs spoke quietly in a tight huddle. Green and purple plating pressed together with EM fields fully meshed and their gestalt bond muted. One frame shifted, getting closer to the other four and all their voices dropped lower.
“Look, you all know what needs to be done, right?” Hook asked.
“Of course we do,” Mixmaster hissed.
“This might be a new thing, but it’s not like we haven’t thought about it before, Hook.” Bonecrusher mumbled and shifted closer to fill in the slight gap the medic had made.
“Fine, fine,” Hook grumbled. “That means you’ve got the goods, right Mix?”
“Course it does.”
“And Scav, you know what to do when he walks in, yeah?”
“Of course! We just told you we have everything ready to go, we just have to wait for him to get back.”
“If he ever decides to leave,” Longhaul muttered.
“He will, I made sure he’ll be off at least close to his actual shift end and not five hours later like he was the other day. It’ll all be fine, we just have to do everything perfectly.”
…
“Go home, mech. Don’t you have mechs waiting on you?” Prowl’s doorwings twitched at the familiar voice. He didn’t turn away from his work station and only grumbled in response. “I’m serious. You need to go home. You’ve already amassed too much overtime, Prowl. Anymore and they might force you to leave for a few days of rest.”
“They wouldn’t,” Prowl said. His focus was still on the screen in front of him, but he was paying a little more attention to the mech standing in his office doorway. He couldn’t remember their designation.
“They will. They’ve already started talking about it. We aren’t fighting a war anymore, so just go home already. Nothing’s gonna change by morning.”
With a loud sigh through his vents, Prowl finally paused in his work and turned to face the slim black mech behind him. “You aren’t going to leave until I put everything away for the night, are you?”
“Nope,” they popped the p and Prowl felt his optical ridge twitch.
“Fine,” he muttered and quickly saved and shut everything down. “Happy?”
“Over the moon,” they grinned at him before leaving and Prowl grudgingly followed after.
His entire frame ached. Struts sore and joints stiff as he walked out of the administration building and into the brisk night air. He thought briefly about transforming and driving back, but his shared home wasn’t that far away and the walk sounded better than a drive. Probably quicker too even if it wasn’t the main traffic time. The roadways were still packed with mecha trying to get places and Prowl didn’t want to deal with any of that at the moment.
The walk didn’t take him too long and he was in front of his home before he knew it. The front light was on, but no light poured from any of the windows. Prowl frowned. The rest of his team should’ve been home. They actually left work on time and Prowl hadn’t been aware of any plans to go out after work. Then again, they didn’t exactly plan for things like that. He was also reminded of the other week, when they’d been even later home than him and Prowl had found out they’d started a brawl because some mech had said a project Prowl had spent months on was dumb. Bonecrusher had muttered something about defending him but Prowl had been too upset to really listen to any of it.
The black and white mech shoved the thoughts aside along with the feeling of being forgotten and the creeping dread of yet another incident . It wasn’t all that important anyways. He hoped it wasn’t at any rate.
He keyed in his code and pushed the door open, trying not to let his doorwings sink at the obviously empty and dark living room. If they’d been home, they would’ve been waiting for him here and would’ve greeted him with loud shouts and at least one tackle/hug courtesy of Scavenger.
Prowl wasn’t expecting to feel a familiar EMF curl around him at the same time a strong pair of arms scooped him off his pedes. He definitely did not let out a startled noise, but he did cling to Hook’s chest plates just a little. Hook shifted his grip and started walking off, carrying Prowl toward the wash racks. Normally, Prowl would have protested such a thing. He could walk just fine on his pedes, but they ached and the rest of his frame ached, but that ache was significantly less while Hook gently cradled his frame against his chest plates.
Light and heat spilled out from the wash racks as they approached it and Prowl shifted minutely so he could get a better look. Steam curled out from the doorway and a fragrant scent wafted towards them. It was something sweet but not overpowering and Prowl felt himself relax just a touch more. And then they were walking through the entryway and Prowl blinked his optics slowly.
The wash racks looked completely different. He didn’t know how they managed to pull off an entire remodel in a day, but they had. The whole area had been rearranged to fit a large oil pool in the very center and Prowl barely registered anything else about the space. His optics were locked on the dark liquid lightly bubbling in the center of the room, which also happened to be where Hook was carrying him to.
The medic stepped carefully into the oil and lowered Prowl to one of the six benches set up inside the pool. The Praxian settled back against the side with a sigh. Someone had cut the edge to accommodate doorwings. He hadn’t been in an oil pool with that kind of feature since his time in Praxis. He relit his optics when oil splashed and watched Scavenger walk forward. Prowl didn’t move at all as Scavenger started to gently sponge down his frame, carefully getting at the grime in his transformation seams.
Prowl sighed, optics dimming a bit as he sunk more into the warm oil. It caressed his plating and slid along his protoform. Hook waited long enough for Scavenger to gently scrub off one side of his frame before the medic was pressing in close, placing a soft kiss to the side of his helm. Prowl made a noncommittal noise at the medic, optic shudders flickering as he fought to keep them open. Hook wasn’t the cuddliest of mechs and Prowl always enjoyed it whenever the mech decided to join their piles. Then Hook picked up Prowl’s servo and started to massage it. A moan left Prowl’s vocalized unbidden, but he couldn’t seem to care in the least bit. It felt too good.
Loud pede steps sounded from behind him and Prowl tilted his helm until Mixmaster’s pedes came into view. The massive mech knelt down next to him and Prowl turned his optics to the plate of goodies in his servos. The Praxian’s tanks rumbled at him and Prowl started to shift so he could grab one when Mixmaster plucked a silver treat off the try. It was offered to him and Prowl slowly opened his mouth, letting his gestaltmate place it on his glossa. Prowl sighed as the rich flavors light up the chemoreceptors on his glossa, optics fluttering shut again.
He went to say something as soon as the treat had fully dissolved on his glossa and he’d swallowed it, but Mixmaster had held up another delicious looking treat and Prowl nodded, letting Mix place it in his mouth again. Another sigh left Prowl's vocalizer and he snuggled into Hooks side.
It was then when Bonecrusher lowered himself into the oil carefully and waded over to where Prowl was lounging. The Praxian raised an optical ridge, wondering what the massive mech was about to do and was only slightly startled when the mech plucked one of his pedes out of the oil and settled in to clean and massage his pede and calf. Prowl moaned again, helm flopping back against a soft pillow he didn’t remember being there. He blinked up at Longhaul, who was kneeling next to the pillow. The mech grinned down at him.
“Sit up and I’ll get your back and wings. And Mix will keep giving you those treats too.” Longhaul said gently and Prowl followed the suggestion without even thinking about it.
He slowly opened up his side of the gestalt bond and felt five other sparks shiver with happiness. Prowl was thankful that they still gave him his space, simply opening up the bond a bit more and letting emotions flow over slowly instead of the rush they used to do. It could be overwhelming for him at times, especially since he was so new to being in a gestalt.
“I thought you were all up to something again,” Prowl murmured after swallowing another treat from Mix. They’d been awfully quiet and sneaky lately, which they hadn’t done since they’d sabotaged the water supply to the council's main building in the hopes of getting them to agree to Prowl’s plans for the building maintenance and upgrades. It hadn’t worked out at all like they’d planned, but Prowl’s plans had ended up being used for that particular project so his team had called it a win.
“We were, but it was just this.” Bonecrusher said and started massaging a kink out of Prowl’s ankle.
The Praxian’s optics dimmed again and then further when Longhaul started working out the kinked wires around his doorwings’ connectors. It took him a moment to respond. “And what exactly is this?”
“An apology,” Hook’s field offered up the sentiment to back up his words. “We’ve been causing you an awful lot of trouble lately and we wanted to apologize for that and let you know we’ll try to be better.”
“We just want to be here for you,” Scavenger murmured.
“And we want to do what we can to support you in everything you do.” Mixmaster cupped Prowl’s cheek and leaned forward, turning the Praxian’s face toward his own to place a gentle kiss on his chevron.
“Hmm,” Prowl basked in the attention, thoughts scattering a bit and he took a minute to collect them before he responded with actual words. “So this was all you were planning then?”
“Yes. It’s not our usual antics, but we’re going to try to do things differently now. For you,” Hook sounded sincere and the feelings coming down from them all over the gestalt bond seemed to reinforce that sentiment.
“I’m glad you’ll be trying to stay out of trouble more often. I don’t mind if you do things like this again. It’s preferable to getting a call asking to bail you out for blowing up a building for ‘needed materials’.”
“That happened once and we apologized.” Scavenger pouted. Prowl didn’t need to open his optics to know what his face looked like at that moment. He had a very distinctive pout. “We don’t want to keep causing trouble for you, so we’re gonna try to do other things from now on.”
“That’s good,” Prowl muttered, slurring his words only a little as his optics dimmed further. Longhaul had started in on one of his doorwings and Prowl found focusing on anything but relaxing difficult.
“We might still pick some fights if mechs are badmouthing you, but it’s not gonna be all the time and we’ll make sure not to cause too much property damage. But we also aren’t gonna promise not to. At least not yet.” Bonecrusher informed him and Prowl tried to work up more of a reply than a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat.
“Yeah, they’ll regret being mean to you.” Longhaul said.
“Mmm,” Prowl started, fluttering his optics open. He didn’t know when they’d shut. “Try not to maim or kill anyone and absolutely no property damage even if it’s something you can fix.” He was quite proud of himself for getting that all out but then Hook did something to his servo and Prowl went strutless, sinking into the oil a bit more while his optics slid closed.
“That’s a promise we can definitely keep,” Mix soothed. The chemist placed a quick kiss on Prowl’s chevron before offering him a small cube of mid-grade. “Know you haven’t eaten since this morning and those treats will only do so much.”
“Just relax and let us take care of you.” Hook murmured, snuggling closer to Prowl as the Praxian drifted off toward recharge with the knowledge that his team would always be there to help him even if they did occasionally make trouble for him.