Work Text:
Blurr shifted his weight back and forth between his pedes, bobbing lightly on the bounce of his tires, tapping metal heels against the tiled floor.
“Blurr. Calm down. Give me a minute.”
Blurr whined and cut off the sound, holding his weight steady and ceasing his bounce- still rapidly tapping his pede though, rife with nervous energy.
“I said you didn’t have to come along.”
Blurr shifted his hands behind his back, then back front, twiddling his fingers together, smoothing fingerstips over the seams of his palms and joints of his knuckles, “No! I realize, it’s only that I know you get lonely out here, Rodimus, and it’s really no problem, really, it’s not like I had anything better to do with my time, I’m on leave, remember?”
“Yes,” Rodimus said, leaning against the pharmacy counter, “But you hate lines.”
Blurr’s face heated up energon pink, “That is not so!”
“You look ready to pop like an engex bubble.”
Blurr paced in a tiny circle, “I was built for speed, Rodimus! For locomotion, constant, fast, consistent motion, I’m not designed to stand still for any calculable length of time, Rodimus, it’s simply not within my programming.”
“I know,” Rodimus said, and smiled when the pharmacist reappeared around the corridor, “Which is why I said you didn’t need to come.”
Blurr pouted, “But I like to be there for you.”
“I’m picking up an anticorrosive at the pharmacy. Across from my habblock. I don’t think I need that much emotional support. Ah- thanks, mate, here,” he handed the pharmacist his shanix card, picking up the packet of prescription anti-corrosives.
“I know,” Blurr said, tiptoeing to Rodimus’s side and leaning against the counter next to him, “I just worry. It got so bad last week, you know, for a minute I was worried that-”
Rodimus moved his hand on top of Blurr’s and tugged his fingers to his lips, kissing them gently, “It wasn’t that bad. You don’t need to worry.”
Blurr flushed and softened, voice going quiet. Rodimus took back his card and linked their fingers together as they stepped down the aisle and out of the pharmacy.
“Did you wanna drop by the track?” Rodimus asked, swinging their arms only gently as he subspaced his medication, “We’ve got time.”
Blurr chewed at his lipplates, “Ah, no, it’s fine.”
“You sure? You always wanna go racing.”
“Well, yeah, but you’re not really feeling up to it, are you? I don’t want to make you sit and watch. Not in the sun. It’s hot out today.”
Rodimus rolled his optics, “I’m up for a quick run, at least. And I could use the excersize, I’ve been stagnating all week.”
Blurr made a noncomittal, high pitched noise and shrugged, “I guess I’m just not feeling quite up to it today.”
“If you say so,” Rodimus said, frowning. Cybes sped by in their altmodes on the street, the sidewalk all but empty save for them.
They were silent a moment before Rodimus spoke again, “Do I embarass you?”
Blurr choked, startled, flustered, floundering, “What?”
Rodimus shrugged but didn’t make optic contact, “Every time I say we should go somewhere you shoot it down. That demotion’s only temporary, you know- it- if I get over the rust plague, I get my position back.”
Blurr shook his head a dozen times, “No no no no no no, that’s the absolute worst interpretation of my behaviour you could have possibly made, Rodimus, it’s completely and utterly wrong I assure you, it’s-”
“What is it, then?” Rodimus said, frowning, and stopped, “Is it because I can’t use my alt mode?”
“I’m not embarassed!” Blurr sputtered.
“Then what is it?”
“I-” Blurr started, then huffed and sighed, tapping his pedes, “I just- I don’t want you to push yourself.”
“What?”
“You relapsed last week because of me, Roddy- I brought you out racing, I convinced you you were okay enough to do it and then you weren’t and the rust and you just kept gasping and flaking and I thought you were going to die, and-”
Rodimus shook his head, sharply, “What? Are you kidding? No- no, Blurr, that wasn’t- that wasn’t your fault. It was mine. I stopped taking my anti-corrosive, it would have happened no matter what I was doing.”
“Wh… Why on esrth did you do that, Rodimus??”
It was Rodimus’s turn to bounce guiltily, foot to foot and sigh, scratching the back of his neck, “I thought it was all gone. I figured- I figured if I stopped taking it, then I could prove I was better, and they’d give me my job back.”
“But- cosmic rust is chronic, Roddy, it doesn’t get cured.”
Rodimus shrugged, “Yeah, I know. It was stupid.”
“Yeah- yeah it was, Rodimus!” Blurr cried and moved his hands from Rodimus’ grip, to his face to hold him by the sharp curve of his cheeks, “You almost died! I- I was so worried, I didn’t know what I was going to do-”
“I’m sorry-” Rodimus said, shuttering his optics, “I just- if I’m- Everything I’ve ever done is for- to be- I can’t let everyone down, everyone who’s made sacrifices to get me as far as I’ve come, I can’t-”
“You’re not the Chosen One, Roddy, you’re just a person. Primus didn’t pick you or anyone to lead. No one who helped you get where you are wants to see you push yourself to the grave before you hit four thousand cycles.”
Rodimus swallowed and nodded, “You’re right. I know you’re right.”
Blurr swallowed and ran a thumb over the blunted edge of Rodimus’ finial crown, and sighed, “I’m sorry I’ve been so overprotective.”
“I’m sorry I was so reckless. Are we cool?”
“Yes, Rodimus, we are cool,” Blurr giggled. Rodimus rolled his optics.
“Shut up. That was a serious moment, you’re a moment ruiner.”
“Ah, yes, but you love me anyway,” Blurr songsonged, leaning back off his toepedes and let his wheels spin, carrying him a few feet down the street and swivelling him to face Rodimus.
“Shut up. Yes I do. Let’s go racing.”
Blurr smiled, “Yeah, okay. Let’s go racing.”