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“Mind the wings,” Thundercracker snapped, his tone and the warning rumble in his engines sounding far more threatening than his irritated amusement seeping into his field and across the trinebond.
“Sorry, TC!” Skywarp chirped, before going back to wrestling Starscream behind and partially on top of him, Bumblebee giggling as he fought to maintain his balance atop the pair. Thundercracker was on the edge of the pile, which would usually mean he had a good chance of escape, but this time escape was complicated by his need to keep his outer arm fully braced to keep from squishing the smaller spy caught under him. Mirage was outwardly pouting, but TC was close enough to his field to feel the ripples of apprehension. The ex-noble hadn’t wanted to get caught in this pile, but Skywarp’s mad plan of seeing how many Autobots would catch him if he unexpectedly teleported into their arms had made one thing lead to another, and now they were all in one giant pile, including Jazz perching on top of Thundercracker like he did so every day.
“I must admit, I had hoped that the first time I ended up in this situation would be the last,” Mirage remarked dryly.
“Warp’s good at getting mecha into situations they’d rather not be in,” TC said, grunting as his trinemates bumped his wings again. “Can’t tell you how many times I’d just be sitting there reading when suddenly I’d be dragged into something like this.”
As the trinemate who often got dragged into shenanigans by the other two, TC could sympathize with Mirage, and had decided he’d feel kinda bad if he just left the spy to be squished. Plus, he and Warp had already beat up and squished Mirage when the Bot really hadn’t deserved it, since all he was doing was trying to protect Bee. So yeah. Any escape Thundercracker made needed to include Mirage as well. Which made things more complicated.
“Yes, it’s amazing how fast minding one’s own business in civilized pursuits can turn into something chaotic with the addition of the right mecha,” Mirage sighed. “Or perhaps the wrong mecha, depending on how you look at it.”
Thundercracker chuckled. “What ‘civilized pursuits’ have survived this war?” he asked.
“Well, literature, of course,” Mirage answered. “I managed to save a decently large collection of poetry and art from Cybertron as well. Jazz saved a large collection of music, and has been adding to it of his favorites from the other species we’ve come in contact with. I do enjoy learning about them as well, though I might be the only one of my frame-kin who would consider that civilized,” he added with a slightly rueful smile.
“Yeah, Prime picked a human book for our next book club book,” Thundercracker said.
“Book club?” Mirage asked, field broadcasting surprised interest.
“Yeah, apparently Prime was an archivist before becoming Prime? So when he found out I liked to read a bunch we started trading titles and talking about them,” TC hesitated for a moment, but hey, the worst the spy could do would be to say no. “It’s not like it’s a closed group. You could come to if you’d want to.”
“I’d love to,” Mirage replied with a surprised, happy smile. His smile turned rueful again as TC jolted as Starscream and Skywarp fell into him again. “It would certainly be an improvement over being in this pile.”
“Getting out’s a bit difficult with your boss on my back,” TC groused.
“Ah, it’s good for ya both!” Jazz commented from his place on top of the pile. “Just look at you makin’ new friends!”
TC really wanted to see if he could knock the chuckling saboteur off his back, and it seemed like Mirage might share the sentiment. But there was something of a difference between trusting Ratchet that Jazz wasn’t actually a demon of the Pit, and actually getting into a physical fight - even a play one - with the Autobot’s head of Special Operations.
Mirage must have read his conflicting emotions off his face and field, which wouldn’t be hard considering he wasn’t really trying to hide them. With a sudden, absolutely wicked smirk, he pushed himself against Thundercracker’s braced arm so he could get a good grip on the back of Jazz’s pede and push him backwards. TC caught on respectably quickly, and pushed himself up to help throw Jazz back onto the pile of Bee, Starscream, and Skywarp. Then Mirage was rolling up, and Thundercracker pushed himself free with a bit less grace, but efficiently enough to manage to get out before someone could pull him back.
“Now’s our chance!” Mirage cried, grabbing TC’s hand and hauling him down a hallway. The blue Seeker had no way of knowing where the spy was leading him, but followed along gamely. Mirage was fast even on pedes instead of wheels, and the heavier, bulkier Thundercracker was a bit hard pressed to keep up. Of course, in alt-mode TC could leave Mirage in the dust, but he wasn’t going to try to fly down the hallways of the Ark. Starscream might manage to pull that off, insane flyer that he was, but TC wasn’t willing to risk it. Plus, he didn’t know where they were going.
Not far, as it turned out, as Mirage skidded to a halt before a door TC thought was probably an office, and with practiced efficiency set to picking the lock. Thundercracker only managed a frown of confusion at why Mirage was hacking the door before he’d managed it, and the ex-noble was pulling the Seeker - into the office of Optimus Prime, apparently.
The Prime looked up in surprise at the two mecha, and Mirage clamped his servo back on Thundercracker’s wrist, pulling him into the room.
“We’re hiding,” Mirage informed the Prime as he towed the Seeker into the room, heading to a space behind the Prime. TC gave a confused shrug, as the Prime’s optics creased into what had to be a smile behind that mask.
“I see,” the Prime answered. “May I ask what you’re hiding from, so I can know what I may be called upon to do in your defense?”
“Skywarp managed to create a mech-pile that Jazz decided Mirage wasn’t allowed to escape,” Thundercracker answered with another shrug.
“Yes, and you’ll be an effective distraction to Skywarp, Bumblebee, and Jazz, and I doubt Starscream will be pursuing us, so we should be safe here,” Mirage contributed. He settled gracefully into a space behind Prime’s desk, TC joining him.
“Oh, and I invited Mirage to the book club,” Thundercracker added after a second of trying to find something to say, something the other two mecha in the room also seemed to find a tad difficult. “It’s a human book next, yeah? Do you have another copy other than the one you gave me?”
“Of course,” Prime answered with another smile. “I think you’ll enjoy this one too, Mirage. And getting another copy will be no issue at all.”
“Thank you,” Mirage answered politely and sincerely.
“That’s good,” TC said. “So far we’ve just been picking off those datapads Ratchet keeps for bored patients, but we’ve already discussed most of those.”
“Yes, I’m well aquatinted with those works,” Mirage said with a chuckle. “Ratchet does not trust anyone in Spec Ops to act the way he deems patients should in his medbay.”
The Prime chuckled at that. “I’m not sure anyone acts the way Ratchet thinks they should in his medbay.”
“Well, you definitely made the list of unruly patients,” Thundercracker chuckled as well. “I think I’ve stayed off, but I have the advantage of being part of a set. It’s easy to be the well-behaved one when the comparison is Starscream and Skywarp.”
“I’d imagine so,” Mirage laughed. “Considering the amount of chaos Skywarp’s managed to create since he’s recovered.”
“Oh, this is nothing yet,” Thundercracker said sagely. “Wait until he manages to convince Starscream to start helping him again. Warp tends to miss something he needs to think about to pull off his plan. Star doesn’t.”
Mirage stared at him. “And you think that’s likely to happen?” TC considered it for a minute.
“Probably, yeah,” TC admitted. “It’s not all a bad thing, though, as Starscream’s gonna think through the implications of running the prank to begin with. Not that Star telling Warp it’s a bad idea always stops him, but Warp’s been listening to Bee decently well, so he might.”
“Thank Primus for Bumblebee, then,” Mirage said dryly.
“Indeed, for more than that,” Prime said a bit seriously.
“Yeah,” TC added, thinking back to when they had the scout blindfolded and bound, and he still offered a way for them to save Star’s life. “We didn’t think anyone was left who was like that. Glad we were wrong.”
“Bumblebee has always had a good spark. I’m glad he was able to keep that despite this war,” Prime said. “He’s always had a knack for getting himself adopted, so matter how he protests it now that he’s actually an adult.”
Thundercracker chuckled. “Yeah, Warp’s definitely adopted him. And Starscream might be suspicious about everyone and everything, but saving his life twice with absolutely no reward goes a long way to win even him over.”
“At least Bumblebee isn’t about to use his new Seeker protection squad for anything more nefarious than some amusing pranks,” Mirage commented dryly. TC waved a servo airily.
“Eh, we’re not trying to cause trouble,” he assured the other two. “Most of you turned out surprisingly tolerable, so we’re happy with our agreement.”
“We’ll take ‘surprisingly tolerable’,” the Prime said with a chuckle.
“More than I usually get,” Mirage said with a self-deprecating smile, but TC was close enough to catch the well-hidden bitterness in his field.
“Too few get past the ‘richbot’ thing and actually pay enough attention to figure you out?” TC asked, making Mirage stare at him for a few nano-klicks in honest surprise.
“Yes, actually,” he answered. “How did you guess?” TC shrugged.
“Starscream had a lot of the same problem,” he said. “From what little he’s said about his academy days, it seems Iaconian and Vosian nobility was fairly close in how they acted - just different enough to make it even worse for Starscream. Warp and me had to figure out how to read him and see what he actually meant. Figured you were probably the same.”
“Yes, probably exactly that,” Mirage said with a rueful smile. “Plenty have, of course, and I’ve made friends with mecha my creators would have been absolutely horrified to learn I even knew. That’s the only good part to come out of what I’ve been through. But I’m glad to have met the mecha and made the friends I have. Including new ones,” he added, with a small pat to TC’s arm.
“So,” Mirage continued, “Do you have a favorite from those datapads Ratchet keeps?”
As the talk turned back to books, Jazz silently strolled away from Optimus’s office door. He’d left the Seeker-wrestling match when Starscream had managed to pin Skywarp down and start tickling him mercilessly, with Bee safely against a wall still giggling. The Seekers had done very well to not hurt the much smaller minibot they were both clearly fond of (even if Starscream was still trying to hide it). And now with Mirage and Thundercracker both gaining a new friend in each other, and OP getting to have a time and space where he didn’t have to worry about the war without feeling guilty about it…yes, it was all coming together very nicely. Jazz grinned. He’d known nabbing those Seekers was a good idea.