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A few indents on his wings here and a couple of scrapes of paint transfer there gave Skywarp away almost immediately to the ever so observant Thundercracker, and he knew this very well too. There was no way in hell that meant Skywarp would be able to get out of this without a lecture or a chat from his trine mate.
His face scrunched up and he pulled his head from side to side as Thundercracker approached and began examining the other seeker’s frame with squinted eyes and furrowed brows.
“You’re not normally the type to be.. up close and personal with the Autobots, Skywarp..”
Oh, was he up close and personal with an Autobot, alright.
Running his fingers over the white paint, mixed with some speckles of green, caused it to smudge into the purple bot’s paint job even more.
“It’s nothin’, Thunder. You drop this, now. You ain’t some detective that has to be up in my business all the time.”
Colder than usual, Skywarp leaned back slightly and rolled his eyes.
He couldn’t let Thundercracker know.
He couldn’t let anyone know. It was going to be a little harder, considering he was practically forcing himself to overcome the pain in his legs from his earlier encounter.
“Well,” the blue seeker started, “I don’t want to assume anything, Skywarp, but those kind of transfers don’t just come from a small kerfuffle with an Autobot..” Gradually, his tone became more skeptical as he started to look at how Skywarp almost refused to make eye contact with him, and how flustered he looked. And, now that he thinks about it, that paint transfer looks.. no. No.. no, there’s no way.
“You’re not-“ This had to be a joke, right? “You’re not involving yourself with an Autobot, are you?!”
“No! No! Well- Maybe- but, no!”
“Saying ‘maybe’, makes it more likely that you are!”
Skywarp huffed and crossed his arms with a scowl, “And, so what if I am? So what if I’m sneakin’ out to see an Autobot?”
This response sounded so stupid to Thundercracker; his jaw dropped with a gasp as he stepped forward and grabbed onto Skywarp’s shoulders.
“So what-? So what!? Sky! This is bad! This is worse than bad, actually! This is basically treason- and all you have to say is ‘so what?’ Are you crazy?”
As much as he really wanted to be angry at Skywarp, he couldn’t help feel slightly more worried than anything.
“Listen, Sky,” his grip loosened at the same time as his expression softened, “You can’t expect to keep doing this and to not get caught! One day, it’s going to get you killed, or even that Autobot you like so much. You’d hate that, wouldn’t you?”
The frown on Skywarp’s face began to alter, becoming more somber.
“I.. I, uh, I guess not.”
“Then stop this. Please.”
After a brief moment of silence, Thundercracker sighed and let go.
“I’ll vouch for you, but you better promise to stop. I don’t want you getting hurt over some.. some Autobot.”