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"If you’ll just read our file–”
“No special treatment,” The quartermaster interrupted before Sideswipe could even finish his sentence. “Especially not for frontliners who think they’re special.”
”What?!” Sunstreaker took an involuntary step forward at the insult.
“Sunny, don’t.” Sidesswipe put a hand on his brother’s chest before anything else could happen. “It’s not worth it right now.”
“Exactly.” The quartermaster tossed the datapad containing their medical exemptions back at Sideswipe, who caught it without even looking. “You’re in Brown 47, where you should be glad you only have one roommate.”
“One roommate too many,” Sunstreaker muttered as the other mech walked away.
“I know, but one night with a roommate isn’t going to kill either of us.” Sideswipe lifted his hand away from Sunstreaker’s chest with a sigh. “And we can get everything straightened out after we’ve all had some recharge. Ratch transferred with us, he’ll get it fixed.”
“Yeah.” Sunstreaker sighed too. “But if I come online with active combat protocols again, someone is going to medbay and it won’t be me.”
“I know, Sun.” Sideswipe laughed once. “I know.”
-_-_-_-
They arrived at room Brown 47 just after evening fuel. They’d spent time training after finalizing their transfer, burning off some of their anger and frustration, before going to the commissary. Sideswipe hadn’t made any new friends during dinner, which was weird, but there would probably be time once they weren’t so stressed out.
“Guess we’ve put it off as long as we can,” the red mech said, staring at the door lock.
“Guess so.” Sunstreaker also stared for a moment, before reaching out and tapping in the code they’d been given.
The door slid open a klik later, revealing a silver and grey mech with doorwings standing in the middle of the room. His wings were drooping low, almost resting flat against his back, and his shoulders were hungched inward like he was afraid of something.
”Sun, he’s a Praxian!” Sideswipe commed.
”I see that, but why’s he scared?” Sunstreaker replied.
”I don’t know, but we should find out.” Sideswipe stepped into the room with a quickly pasted-on smile. “Hey there, you must be the roommate we got stuck with!”
The Praxian’s wings shot upward in alarm and he turned to look at them quickly. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to be a problem, I’ll just go sit on my berth and be quiet as a glitchmouse! I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”
“Hey, no.” Sunstreaker stepped into the room after his twin. “That is not what my idiot brother meant.”
“Oh.” The Praxian’s wings drooped back down, though he didn't hunch inward the way he had before.
“I’m Sunstreaker,” the yellow mech continued, “And he’s Sideswipe. We aren’t supposed to have roommates, for medical reasons, but we’re not taking that out on you.”
“Yeah, sorry I made it sound like we were,” Sideswipe agreed with a wince. “It’s been a long day and my vocalizer got ahead of my processor.”
“Again,” Sunstreaker rolled his optics. “He’s an idiot sometimes. What’s your name?”
“Bluestreak,” the Praxian replied. “I’m not supposed to have roommates either, because I have nightmares that keep them up all night.”
“Oh, that slagger did this on purpose, then.” Sideswipe frowned. “Okay, so, we’re gonna have to recharge in shifts tonight, then. Cause waking us up without warning is bad.”
“Um. Okay.” Bluestreak nodded. “I guess we should work that out before anything else, then.”
-_-_-_-
Sideswipe woke slowly, the benefit of not being on duty for another full day, and looked over to where Sunstreaker was supposed to be sitting and drawing. When Sun wasn’t at the little desk, he sat up and looked around quickly.
”If you wake him up,” Sunstreaker commed from his position on Bluestreak’s berth, where the Praxian was leaning against his shoulder and recharging, ”I will let him shoot you.”
”Uh, okay.” Sideswipe blinked. ”You good, though?”
“Yeah. I’m good. And we tell Ratch we’re keeping him, when we go talk to him.”
”What?”
”We’re keeping him. I’ll explain later, but we talked aobut some stuff when he woke up earlier, and we’re not going to let him keep dealing with it alone.”
Sideswipe took a klik to really study the other two mechs. Bluestreak looked relaxed in his recharge, in a way he hadn’t at any point before they’d gone to recharge. And Sunstreaker had on the fiercely protective face that he only used around people he really cared about.
”Yeah, okay. We’ll have him amend our files. No roommates except Bluestreak.”