Chapter Text
Prowl prodded the still form with his baton. Loitering was illegal, and if the mech hadn't already frozen to death, he would in short order.
"G'way, Prowler," Jazz groaned, weakly swatting at the baton. Prowl couldn't help it; his doorwings sagged with relief. The mech wasn't dead. "S'the Feast o' Primus. Jus' let a mech sleep."
"You cannot sleep here."
"Don't got nowhere else t'sleep, mech."
"I thought you would be spending the holiday with your brother Ricochet, at home in Polyhex."
"Train was cancelled. Go away."
Prowl narrowed his optics as Jazz curled back up on himself, plating clamped tight against the cold. Only a thin blanket provided any sort of barrier against the cold. It wouldn't be enough.
Jazz was a street performer, petty thief, pickpocket, gambler, con artist and general pain in Prowl's aft. He knew Jazz pretty well just because he'd filled out the paperwork to arrest him so many times he had all the mech's relevant details saved to his hard drive. There were times Prowl felt like Jazz got in trouble on purpose, just to annoy Prowl. Feeling was mutual. As far as Jazz was concerned, Prowl existed for the sole purpose of making Jazz's life difficult. But that didn't mean Prowl was going to leave him sleeping in the park to die.
He prodded Jazz again. "Sleeping in the park is illegal. Get up."
Jazz groaned again, but pulled himself slowly to his feet, shaking off the icicles that had already gathered on his armor in Praxus' cold air. He shivered as he settled the blanket around his shoulders, then grabbed the case containing his crystal-sax (and his thieves' tools, Prowl knew). "Fine... You wanna spend th' Feast o' Primus filling out paperwork just so I can spend the holiday in jail, let's get started."
That... was exactly what Prowl should do. But he wasn't exactly thrilled by the prospect either. "You're not going to jail."
"Huh..wha?" Jazz looked back at him.
Prowl really couldn't believe he was doing this but, "Promise you won't steal anything, and you can spend the holiday at my apartment."
He watched what he'd said slowly dawn on Jazz. His he-didn't-really-say-that look slowly replaced by wonder. Suddenly excited, he skipped ahead of the officer. Yes he already knew where Prowl lived; Prowl wasn't surprised at all. "Sure! I can promise that!"
"And I'm changing the security code once you're gone."