Chapter Text
The afternoon ticked by slowly as it usually did. Swerve mourned the fact that he’d already watched every human sitcom he could possibly find. He missed the distraction. He stood at the bar spaced out, cleaning glasses instead, his processor a pool of random thoughts.
He had no idea how long he was staring at one spot on his bar before he was shaken out of it by the sound of footsteps entering the room. Ah finally the rush hour was beginning. He put the glass he was cleaning down and glanced back up to see Rung seated across from him. Not who he’d usually expect first in but he was a customer nonetheless.
“Rung! What can I get for you?” He leaned theatrically on the bar with a smile. “Just a…uh…” the therapist’s mind seemed to wander briefly, staring past Swerve before snapping back. “An energon spritzer if you don’t mind.” He cleared his throat with a vaguely embarrassed look on his faceplate.
Swerve nodded and turned to prepare the drink. That was weird. It was very uncharacteristic of Rung to act like this. The minibot figured he’d just had a bad session with someone and put it out of his processor.
Soon enough more bots began to pour in. Tailgate yapping enthusiastically to Cyclonus, Drift and a very tired looking Ratchet, Whirl looking like he wanted to knock every bot’s glass to the floor for fun. Swerve busied himself with preparing the numerous orders.
He couldn’t help but keep glancing at the door hoping to see Skids. It was odd that he hadn’t shown up yet. Usually he was one of the first in to see his favourite bartender and best friend (at least that’s what Swerve hoped he saw him as) but tonight there was no sign of him.
He tried his best to keep any worries out of his mind but he couldn’t help but picture him in Visages with that slagger Getaway or just doing anything else to avoid seeing the minibot. A sensation clutched at his spark as the minutes ticked by.
“Oi, Swervy!” Came a hushed voice from somewhere on the very edge of the bar. Swerve whipped around to see the mech he was waiting on. Relief whisked all his concern away as he glided over to Skids.
“Where the frag did you come from?” Swerve chuckled. He had certainly not seen him come through the front door.
“The ceiling in the store room,” Skids replied like it was obvious. Swerve gestured a ‘why?!’ at him but his friend just waved him off. “You won’t believe what just happened, well not ‘just’ more like a good few hours ago.”
The minibot was beyond curious as to why it had taken him so long to get to the bar. He stared expectantly at the blue mech as he waved him closer.
“I fragged Rung!” Skids whispered into Swerve’s audial. The bartender reeled back, having slap a servo over his intake to silence an over exaggerated gasp. Skids shushed him hurriedly and glanced over to where Rung was sat. Thankfully he was thoroughly occupied with talking Whirl out of doing something.
Swerve leaned back in. “What!!” He whisper-yelled. “How was it?” He was curious now. Skids bit his lip as he reminisced. “Frag he is so hot and Primus he’s good with his fingers and spike,” the blue mech had taken to just staring at the therapist as he talked. “I was just up in the ceiling, ya know as I do, and I thought why not pay him a visit. One thing led to another and we were just…”
Swerve stared at him for a moment. He felt guilty for the stab of jealousy that struck his spark. Skids was a handsome mech, he could have anyone he wanted. Even Swerve had found himself thinking about his friend that way. So why couldn’t he be the same…. He shook himself out of it. He had to just be a supportive friend.
“Wait were you two in his office??” Swerve questioned. It was like everything he’d ever speculated about the sensible orange mech was being uprooted before his very eyes. And he couldn’t wait to learn more.
Skids shook his head. “No no no I visited him in his habsuite, which actually come to think of it could be part of the reason he came on to me-“
“Woah he came on to you!?” Swerve interrupted. He had to admit he was shocked. He couldn’t picture Rung as anything other than the level headed ship’s therapist, always helping others. But with how he was acting earlier that evening…
Swerve laughed. So he wasn’t imagining things when he thought he saw Rung’s armour steaming with condensation.
“He fragged me so damn hard I short circuited and it took me forever to reboot. I think I went into recharge for an hour or so. When I woke up he was gone.” Skids looked away as if wondering if he did anything wrong to warrant being left alone like that.
“I wouldn’t worry about it bud, he came over here a couple of hours ago to get a drink,” Swerve realised a little too late that this may not have been the best thing to say to provide comfort. “But uh maybe he just needed something to give him some fuel for the rest of the night since you two had such a good time.” Came his rather feeble attempt to salvage the situation.
“Yeah maybe you’re right…” Skids didn’t look any less worried.
“Why not talk to him? It’s not like you two don’t talk, it wouldn’t look suspicious if you’re trying to keep it under wraps,” Swerve turned to pour Skids something to steel his nerves. “Plus he’s a therapist I’m sure he can be mature and talk about it.” He slid his friend the engex shot.
Skids threw it back into his intake and nodded. “Ok here I go…”
“Be good be cool, go get ‘im,” with that, the minibot gave a salute to his friend as he sauntered to the other side of the bar and slid up to Rung.
Swerve looked on for a few seconds before realising maybe he shouldn’t stare and busying himself with something else. He gazed around the rest of the bar. From first glance it seemed like everyone had someone, friend or conjunx. He had to think of something else, anything else. Anything other than the fact he had one friend, the loneliest damn bot on the ship. Not even a roommate to keep him company on his off time.
The beginnings of a spiral threatened to become a tornado in his mind. He lifted a servo and watched it shake for a brief moment before heading into the store room. He closed the door and shuttered his optics, even though the room was pitch black. Standing up straight he invented deep, exvented slowly and ran his servos over his faceplate.
He took up some bottles from their crates, popping the lid off one and downing a few gulps before making his way back out. He paused to ready himself with his fake smile. How much longer could he keep this up. He opened the door and glanced at the clock he’d put behind the bar. Only three more hours until closing.
An hour or so passed by as usual, mechs ordered, he made the drinks, some chit chat here and there but nothing special, a glance at Skids and Rung every now and then. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, at least from Swerve’s vantage point. The pair had moved to a booth further away from the bar with more comfortable seating.
Skids would say something and Rung would laugh or blush. Every now and then Skids came up to order another round and Rung would be looking down at the table or over at Skids with a smile. Swerve felt like he was watching some sort of romcom playing out right in front of him. It almost made him angry that some people could make it work so perfectly.
Ah well at least his friend was happy, he shouldn’t let jealousy get in the way of that.
Another hour gone and Swerve looked up to see Skids and Rung had left. Granted the majority of bots had left. It was late now, just a few mechs remained, leaving one by one until closing time rolled around. An empty bar gaped in front of the minibot.
He’d had time to clean all the glasses and wipe down the bar as the evening had wound down. Now there was nothing left for him to do but switch the lights off and lock up. He grabbed a bottle of something for himself and did just that.
As he went on his way down to his habsuite, sounds drifted up the hall. As he got closer he began to recognise a voice. Two voices. And a lot of heavy venting and smacking of derma. A groan? Was he about to see something he would regret?
He turned a corner to see the blue and orange of a certain Rung and Skids pressed together against a wall, making out. Loudly.
Swerve uncapped his bottle of engex and took a swig before either of them noticed he was there. A good few seconds went by and neither of them noticed. He cleared his throat. Both heads snapped towards him, it took them a moment to register before their intakes separated with a jolt.
“Primus! How long were you standing there?” Skids asked, face flushed with…embarrassment? Lust? Engex? Maybe all three. Swerve couldn’t help but laugh.
“How long is it gonna take for you to notice where you are?” He countered. “Couldn’t even wait until you got into your hab?” He pointed to the door beside the two bots, sporting Skids’ habsuite number. Both entangled mechs glanced at the door, followed by an awkward silence.
“….ah. I see. I knew that.” Came Skids’ witty and convincing response. He clumsily keyed in the code, getting it wrong the first two times, a difficult spectacle to watch, before finally getting the door open. He stepped back to release Rung and gestured for him to go inside.
And with a good night salute to Swerve, he shut the door.
Swerve was unsure if that whole affair just happened. Primus, he never wanted to have to live through that second hand embarrassment again. Maybe he’d just walk past them next time. Here’s hoping there was no next time. It had almost taken his mind off everything, but of course good things never last right.
He strode down the hall just that little bit further to his own habsuite, opening the door to an empty room. It felt as though it had always been empty. Primus knows he had tried to get a new roommate after Red Alert.
Why had he been so disappointed when everyone he asked had all rejected his proposals. Who was he kidding. Of course no one wanted to room with him. The loud mouthed bother, the dumb obnoxious annoying loser.
Suddenly the room felt so much bigger, and so much more empty. Swerve uncapped his engex. He had a feeling the bottle wouldn’t last, and he was in for a long night.