Chapter Text
Jetfire looked at the pile of materials before him. He had spent most of the past hour just hauling materials from one construction site to another. They weren’t very far from each other, thank Primus, but it was enough to make his arms sore.
Fortunately, he did have other bots helping him around the start, but their shifts had ended a little while ago, leaving Jetfire to finish the job.
Speaking of which, his alarm had gone off.
His shift was over. Just in time too, he had placed the final set of materials.
Over the past few months since the Autobots and Decepticons returned, Jetfire had been tasked with construction projects. He was larger than most, if not all Autobots, and would have an easier time with construction.
Though, most of his job was moving heavy supplies around, and holding beams up for other bots to work on it.
With limited ranks, and some of those limited ranks doing other jobs, any sort of construction was going slow.
For example, this particular project, which was hoping to work more on the old Iacon HQ, had taken up most of those few months. At this point, it would take millions of cycles just to rebuild Iacon.
That…may be a slight exaggeration, but it certainly felt like it would take that long.
He made sure that all of the storage containers had been placed properly before heading back to his original construction site, going into the small tent that had been pitched there. The tent was meant to plan things out, hold those plans, and in this case, clock out of a shift, as Jetfire was doing right now.
Jetfire went to the datapad, and signed himself out. He waved goodbye to the bots working in the tent, and headed out to the streets of Iacon.
Along the streets were other bots just leaving work, or trying to fix up other buildings on their own. Jetfire couldn’t blame them, buildings were in need of repair, and bots were living in them.
It was a miracle that Jetfire and Red Alert had found a house that hadn’t collapsed onto them yet.
He sighed as he made his way to the house, passing bots in their alt mode driving down the road.
He came up to the house, and unlocked the door, something they only recently added in.
The house was dark and empty, indicating that his partner hadn’t returned from his shift at the makeshift medbay.
Jetfire turned on the kitchen lights, and started preparing some energon for when Red Alert would get home.
He chuckled to himself. Only a few months ago, the dynamic was switched. Days on end travelling the empty world, with Red Alert waiting back at home. Now here he was, waiting for Red Alert to come back home.
He set the energon cubes on the kitchen island before going to the couch, the same that they had found with the house. To Red Alert’s disappointment, the autobots returning did not mean they could replace the couch.
As he waited, he stretched out his arms, hoping to work the soreness out. He sighed.
Jetfire wasn’t entirely sure how his arms would do tonight. It was no secret that he was a snuggler, at least to him and Red Alert, and he didn’t know if he would be able to do so tonight with the soreness.
Oh well. If Red Alert needed physical comfort, Jetfire would give it to him regardless.
*
Red Alert slugged back home, his legs tired after standing all day. His mood lifted when he saw the lights turned on in the house, meaning that Jetfire was home.
He opened the door with ease as his optics came to Jetfire, sitting calmly on the couch. Jetfire turned around, his mouth turning into a small smile as a sense of welcome came through their bond.
Red Alert sighed as they walked over to the couch, and crawled into Jetfire's lap, falling against his chassis.
Jetfire set down his data pad, and moved his hand to rub Red's back, a few quiet moments between the two of them.
“Everything okay, Red?”
Red Alert hummed. “Just a long day.”
Jetfire's hand moved from his back to the back of his helm, and the jet's thumb started rubbing the back of it.
“Do you want some energon?”
Red Alert nodded, but didn't do anything further. Jetfire chuckled.
“I can't do anything if you don't get up.”
Red Alert, in turn, wrapped their arms around Jetfire's torso, gripping tightly. “Now you can.”
Jetfire laughed now, his hand returning to Red's back, and he slowly got up, holding onto Red Alert as he made his way to the kitchen island. He repositioned the smaller mech in his lap before grabbing the two cubes of energon.
Red Alert took the energon cube, and started sipping slowly as Jetfire followed.
“Anything interesting happened with construction?”
“No. Nothing interesting. Just…moving materials around all day.
Red Alert’s hand came to one of Jetfire’s arms, rubbing it soothingly.
“Aw, your poor arms…”
Jetfire stretched them out. “Nothing I haven’t been through before.” He settled his arms around Red. “How was the clinic today?”
Red sighed. “A lot of standing around. A couple of bots came in with minor injuries, but that’s about it.”
Jetfire hummed as he placed a hand on top of Red Alert's head, and started rubbing his thumb against the back of it.
“It's funny. I thought more would happen when the autobots returned…but now everything is routine and boring.”
“Like for the past two years?”
Red Alert laughed. “Ya, kind of.”
“At least the war didn’t last long when they came back.”
Red hummed as they leaned further against Jetfire’s chassis. Neither of them wanted to admit it, but this felt nostalgic. Just them, having their energon rations. It was strange, and felt wrong, to feel nostalgic for a time when they thought everyone was dead.
But now that everyone was back, they were getting used to it now. While it certainly was not that long for the Autobots and Decepticons, it was long for Red Alert and Jetfire. Two years could do a lot to a bot.
For example, getting together while they were the last ones left, and staying that way for two years was…likely not the greatest.
Of course, neither of them had any regrets of getting together, they never would, but they had become so used to their own company, and being affectionate so openly that when others came along, they weren’t entirely sure how to do it.
It didn’t help that neither of them had been in a relationship before this one, much less before the war when they could’ve learned how to be a couple in public. If they had seen anything, it had gotten buried under cycles of war.
If they were doing anything right, it was being affectionate in the comfort of their own home.
Which is what Jetfire seemed to be doing as he leaned down and placed a kiss on top of Red Alert’s helm. Red looked up at him, a smile on their face as they tried to reach up for a proper kiss. Jetfire chuckled and leaned down, their lips meeting.
After a few moments, they parted, and Red Alert chuckled as he leaned against Jetfire’s chassis as the jet started rubbing his back again.
”Are you tired?”
Red Alert nodded.
“Do you want to move to the berthroom?”
Red placed his energon cube on the kitchen island as they wrapped their arms around Jetfire. He placed his own energon cube down, and held Red as he moved from the kitchen to the berthroom.
He laid Red Alert down before settling on the berth. Red Alert crawled on top of him, systems shutting down in preparation for recharge.
“Love you…” Red Alert mumbled tiredly.
“Love you too, Red.”