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*CRASH*
Fowler shot awake in the dead of night to the sound of- of something. Far too loud to have been raccoons in the garbage. Assuming his procrastination on acquiring a baseball bat had probably finally come back to bite him, Fowler grabbed a mop from the broom closet on his way down the hall to the source of the sound.
Right outside the door, he finally heard it: a quiet whirring the agent had gotten more accustomed to than he would have liked as of late. With a resigned groan, Fowler swung open the door to see Laserbeak rummaging through his desk, and from the looks of it, the rest of the room as well.
“Again-!? Hey! Shoo! Get out of here!” The agent jabbed the end of the mop at the minicon, not really trying to hit her, knowing damn well by now that there wasn’t much damage he could do anyway. Still, it got the message across.
The minicon decided she was done here and zipped back out the open window and disappeared into the night.
“And for the last time, tell your “dad” to stop going through my things! I don’t keep government secrets in my house!” Fowler shouted after her.
Tired and annoyed, the agent looked around to assess the damage. As usual, the entire room had been searched through and the window lock had been picked, but at least Laserbeak had had the decency to not break anything. Except for the desk lamp she’d knocked over. Fowler would have to deal with that in the morning.
Then, the agent noticed a familiar, long strip of fabric hanging from the window the minicon had escaped through.
Thinking back, Fowler realised he’d seen a clump of similar fabrics in Laserbeak’s clutches as she’d retreated.
…She’d stolen his fucking ties.
— — —
Oh the things Laserbeak would say to that human if she could speak. Like politely informing him that her “dad” didn’t care in the slightest about “government secrets”. And much less politely telling him to stop being the object of her “dad’s” weird fixations so they could all go about their lives normally for a change.
She’d spoken highly, in a way, of the agent following their first encounter. Even when helpless in the minicon’s grasp, he’d had attitude in spades and never stopped fighting back. She’d filled Soundwave in on the event after delivering the agent, thinking it was just a funny little story.
What she hadn’t expected was for Soundwave to take a curious peek at the security footage of Fowler’s interrogation. Sure enough, he’d kept up the sass and confident stubbornness right up until his rescue. Again, Laserbeak had simply laughed about it. Jokingly called the agent a “fascinating specimen”.
Now, though? Laserbeak really wished she’d kept her mouth shut as she judgementally plopped the yarn-ball of ties she’d rolled up on the way back to the Nemesis in front of her carrier.
.: I’ve heard you can learn a lot about a human from their fashion sense. Happy? :. Laserbeak snarked through their telepathic link.
~ Yes, it’s perfect. Thank you. ~ Soundwave replied as he took the ball of ties and started unravelling them with a lot more care than Laserbeak had been arsed to give. ~ I’d do this myself, but I’m too big to get into his house. ~
.: I cannot stress enough that that’s not why I despise you for this. :. The minicon grumbled.
~ You said I should get a hobby. This is a hobby. ~ Soundwave began laying the ties neatly on a nearby table, trying to organise them into some pattern or other.
.: I was thinking something more along the lines of not being a complete weirdo. Like knitting. :.
~ You should really adjust your expectations of me. ~
.: Well I know that NOW. :.
Soundwave pulled out a particularly gaudy red and green tie from the ball, decorated in patterns resembling what he’d seen referred to as a “Christmas tree”. He simply stared at it for a while, processing what he was looking at.
.: No. :.
~ You have to admire the confidence- ~
.: NO YOU DO NOT. IT’S ATROCIOUS- DON’T PUT IT ON, YOU IDIOT! :.
Too late, it was now wrapped neatly around Soundwave’s wrist like a bizarre bracelet. Then he noticed the Halloween-themed tie.
The Nemesis was filled with high trilling that only Soundwave knew was actually Laserbeak cussing him out.