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Noah laid lounging on his new couch, eyes closed and basking in the quiet silence of his new studio apartment. The air conditioner droned on and provided a focal point to concentrate on. Moving to adjust his head, Noah could feel the muscles in his shoulders pull painfully taught. Running drills for G.I had been more intensive than army BMT and Noah was glad for the day off.
The small radio transceiver resting on the coffee table in front of Noah began blaring, disrupting the silence of the calm afternoon. Noah squinted his eyes shut harder, thinking for a brief moment he could tune the call out and go back to sleep. The noise soon grew too grating on his ears and he shot an arm out to blindly grope at the table's surface.
Once his fingers enclosed around the small radio, he dragged it back up to his face, not bothering to look at which frequency the call was coming from. Noah already knew.
“What’s up?”
“No-ah, My man!” Mirage’s enthusiastic voice choked with fuzz came blaring way too loud from the radio speaker. Noah flinched, rapidly squeezing the volume button down.
“Yo, no names over the airwaves.” Noah reminded Mirage.
“Oh scrap, right. You free?”
Mirage tried to keep his voice light and nonchalant but the eagerness made its way into his tone despite his best efforts. Noah snorted light through his nose, rolling over on his side with the radio still close to his face. His eyes remained closed as he squeezed the button to reply.
“Mhm. I’m in my apartment.”
“Mind if I come over?” Mirage asked in a bubbly, sing-song type of way..
“Mh. Do you have to?” Noah smiled, already amused at the response still yet to come.
“Excuse me?” Mirage demanded. The offence made his voice high pitched and sharp– especially over the static. “I am your sparkmate— asking at all is a courtesy.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Noah yawns. “You’ve told me.”
“I’m coming over.” Mirage decides, the radio falling silent. Noah sits up, tossing the radio back onto the table and sitting in his spot for a long moment. For a moment he thought about rolling over and continuing his nap. Mirage would wake him up then, and probably demand a ride to ‘get his blood pumping.’
Noah got up onto his feet once more. Stretching his sore arms over his head as his back popped segment by segment. He shuffled over to the kitchen, turning his back towards the door to rummage around the fridge. After pulling out some takeout he tossed the container into the microwave and was wholly startled when Mirage threw open the living room window.
Mirage had gotten the hang of mass-shifting at this point. Shrinking his form in on itself until he was tall enough to comfortably stand taller than Noah but still small enough to fit through windows and pass through doorways. Noah stood, hands crossed over his chest, as Mirage tumbled into the living room and sprang back to his feet.
“You forgot to mention you were already on your way before you radioed me.” Noah pointed out dryly.
Mirage only offered him a sheepish smile, dusting off his chassis. He crossed the living room to press a kiss to Noah’s forehead, the latter of whom bore it good-heartedly despite his aversion to most affection. Mirage was very physically affectionate while Noah preferred to be untouched but around him.
“Sorry about that, I just wanted to see you.” Mirage hovered over Noah, his EMF field buzzing with affection.
“Uh-huh.” Noah grunted noncommittally.
Noah couldn’t feel Mirage’s EMF usually, and often it sounded the same as a buzzing fluorescent light. Right now, he could feel the warm buzzing bubble pressing against him and he had to slip away and attend to the shrieking microwave. Noah pulled out his steaming take out and made a mental note of Mirage flopping down on his couch— of which that gave a pitiful groan from the mech's weight.
“Don’t break my couch.” Noah warned, grabbing a spoon from one of the drawers in the kitchen and heading over to join him.
“I won’t, see? real gentle.” Mirage kicked his pedes up on the arm of the couch and Noah swatted them away instantly. He was reminded, then, of how much he’d come to be like his mother. He didn’t mind too much, he loved his mom, but some habits embarrassed him.
Why should he care about feet up on the arms of the couch?
Well, because it was slobbish. A voice that sounded too much like his mother replied.
Mirage sat up a bit straighter so Noah could sit down with his food. Mirage huddled closer, throwing his arm over the top of the couch behind Noah. Noah ate his takeout mindlessly as Mirage began talking. He hadn’t really been paying too much attention, only offering a grunt or a head nod until the words “Netflix and chill,” were uttered by Mirage.
Noah choked on his rice, spitting the half eaten mush into his takeout box. Mirage, taken back, patted on Noah’s back as he'd seen other humans do when someone was choking. Noah swatted him away, putting the takeout on the coffee table in front of them and twisting himself to face Mirage.
“What?”
“What?” Mirage asked.
“Don’t what me I’m what-ing you. What did you just say?”
“I figured we could Netflix and chill while we’re both off work?” Mirage repeated.
Noah’s face began burning hot— much to Mirage’s fascination. He’d seen humans turn red, wasn’t entirely sure why or how they did it, but it was mostly on TV or if they were hot. Did Noah suddenly grow hot? It was pretty cool in the apartment, but Mirage’s spark panged with concern anyway.
“Are you okay—?”
Noah scrubbed a hand down his face, trying to physically rub off the shock.
“I-I ain’t ready for that yet, Mirage.”
Mirage frowned, confusion spreading across his face. “What?”
Noah gave him a dirty look. “We haven’t been dating for that long, that's not something I wanna rush into.”
Mirage reeled back. “But we do it all the time!”
Noah sputtered. “No we do not. What the hell are you talking about?”
“Netflix and chill! You know, sit back and watch a movie!”
Noah stared at mirage for a long time. His eyes bored into Mirages’ own optics until a boyish grin split his face and he began to laugh. Mirage was utterly bewildered, watching Noah crack up laughing out of seemingly nowhere.
“What? What's so funny?”
“Oh dude…” Noah dried his eyes. “D’you know what Netflix and chill means?”
“You watch Netflix and chill.” Mirage replied. “We do it all the time, I don’t get it.”
“Nah, nah, It has a different meaning. You know, culturally.”
“Oh…kay.” Mirage sat back, narrowing his optics at Noah. “So what does it mean, then?”
“It means… you know, turning on Netflix before you… get it on.”
“On what?”
“No,” Noah sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Like, fuck. It means you turn netflix on and fuck.”
“Oh— ohhhh- oh no.” Mirage barked out an embarrassed laugh. “Holy primus, that's embarrassing! Slag, no… no I didn’t mean that at all-”
“Yeah I figured.” Noah interrupted him, giving Mirage that callow smile that made his intake do flips. “We can watch that movie though.”
Mirage nodded, feeling energon pool in his faceplate. He brought both servos to his faceplate to hide behind.
“Don’t say shit you don’t know the meaning too.” Noah chided, grabbing the remote from the coffee table.
“Oh shut up.” Mirage grumbled, leaning back on the couch and folding his arms over his chassis.