Chapter Text
Orion Pax awoke to the first morning of second year at Iacon University, under the Cybertronian Institute of Learning, with sunlight already cutting warm stripes across the ceiling of the habsuite he and D-16 had shared since first year. Orion stretched an arm up from the top bunk, joints clicking pleasantly, just as the washrack door slid open and his bestfriend stepped out, a towel around his hips and another slung over his nicely solid grey pauldron.
Orion smiled. It seemed he got lucky this morning.
"Morning, Dee!" he chirped.
"It's about time you woke up." D huffed.
"I can be an early riser—"
"You're not. You've never been," D rolled his optics, drying off his helm.
"How about that time—"
"I had to haul your aft out of berth, and we were still nearly late for highschool that day."
"But what about that Saturday at the planetarium?"
"...Fine. I'll grant that one." D sighed. "But get moving, alright? Or I'll leave without you."
Orion chuckled. D could talk all he wanted, but he had never once left without Orion, despite all his threats to. The only time in all these years they didn't leave together was when one of them had club activities that started at a different time.
"I'm going! I'm going!" Orion singsonged, and hopped down from the siderail of his berth—ignoring the ladder again, which earned him a grimace from D.
"One of these rotations you're going to break a leg doing that."
"Oh? Are you supporting me going into theater now?" Orion grinned.
"You suck at theater, and you know it."
"You're always so grumpy in the morning," Orion giggled and pulled the washrack curtain closed behind him for privacy.
"And you're always obnoxiously cheerful in the morning."
"I can't hear youuu—the water's running!"
D huffed, a smile on his dermas despite himself. He slipped on his uniform—black slacks, the white short-sleeved button-up for summer, and the black school jacket, flipping up its perpetually misbehaving collar—and double-checked his bag to make sure he had everything.
By the time he was done, Orion had bounded back out of the washrack, beaming, and was pulling on his own uniform.
"You have five minutes." D crossed his arms, shoes already on his pedes, backpack on his pauldronss, waiting at the door.
"WHAT?!" Orion shrieked, and Primus, D didn't know what to do with him. It was the same routine about eighty percent of the mornings during the week.
Outwardly, it annoyed him. Privately, it amused him to no end.
Orion took seven minutes. D had already calculated that in. Perks of knowing somebot for as long as he had, he supposed.
"You're going to regret not bringing your jacket again," D said as he opened the door for them.
"It's still summer, Dee. I'll be fine!" Orion smiled.
"You always complain about being cold in the evenings," D replied, flat.
"Well—"
"No. I'm not giving you my jacket again. I just washed it."
"Awwww..." Orion pouted, then brightened just as fast. "Whatever, I'll be fine. If we leave together, you're like a furnace anyways—I'll be warm by proxy." He beamed, entirely too pleased with his own logic.
D rolled his optics and didn't dignify that with a response. He couldn't deny what was true, after all.
Orion talked the whole way to the University center. It was about an eight-minute walk when D was alone, but a ten-minute one with Orion, whose walking stride wasn't as long as his—so D adjusted. He always had.
"I bet Unicron's going to go on a twenty-minute speech again this year," Orion grinned, "and half the bots in our year will fall asleep."
"Make it thirty," D said, "and three quarters of the whole student body."
Orion laughed. "Yeah, and Sentinel's speech will be like two minutes, and Unicron will roll his optics and mutter something like—" he dropped his voice into a decently spot-on imitation of Unicron's grave rumble—"'Head Professors should be more prepared.'"
D laughed. "Yeah. And then go on for another fifteen minutes about unity, and the importance of Mathematics in our education system."
"Which I still don't get, by the way," Orion sighed. "Why does Math get an everyday slot, but history class and literature class only get one slot every two weeks!?"
"I think you're partially projecting your dislike of Sentinel Prime right there," D smirked.
Orion squawked. "Hey! That's—okay, fine, you're not COMPLETELY wrong. But I also think Alpha Trion and Prima teach some pretty important lectures—history is what we learn from, right? And literature, well—that's the experience of others, written down so we can understand their time, but in a creative way."
It's at moments like these, D thought, that you remember how thoughtful the idiot actually is. In certain subjects, Orion was genuinely knowledgeable—more than the majority of his grades would ever admit.
"I mean, wouldn't you want Athletics more often?" Orion smirked. "I know you have this 'hero-worship' thing for Megatronus— "
"Hey—I just think he's cool!" D sputtered, faceplates heating, glaring at his bestfriend.
Orion laughed. It was a bright sound, his blue helm catching the morning sunlight.
"I know, I know, buddy," he giggled, placing a servo on D's pauldron to support himself. "But what I'm trying to say is that—"
"—other subjects should be treated the same," D finished. "I know, Pax. And I'm not saying you're entirely wrong."
"There's gotta be records somewhere about why it's like this," Orion muttered.
"Please don't tell me you're going to break into the library again this year," D groaned.
"No! I'm actually going to volunteer this year—I'm finally eligible!" Orion grinned.
"I meant the restricted section, Pax."
Orion just kept smiling. "Well, it is a part of the library— "
"Primus, Pax. You're going to get expelled."
"That's IF they catch me—"
"I'm not going to bail you out as much as last year," D huffed.
"Hey! What happened to 'I've got your back' and 'you've got mine'!" Orion frowned.
D cleared his throat. "I mean—of course it applies. It always will. But Pax, we're in second year now. Things are going to get busier," he explained.
"I know, but—"
"All I'm saying is... please. Just be careful, okay?" D breathed it out, soft. "I don't want to have to share a habsuite with a stranger."
Orion beamed. D looked away.
"Aha! I knew you liked my company! You'd be so bored without me!"
"I'd have less of a grey helm without you."
"Your helm has always been grey!"
"Exactly."
Orion laughed again, and D smiled, a huff of laughter escaping his own dermas. The two continued on to the Iacon University center, then up to the auditorium doors, and stepped inside.
The opening ceremony was about to start.