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Soundwave was a lot of things. Nice was not one of them. Shadow Striker was similar and together a compelling team they did not make. But after a few missions and a few times getting trapped under rubble during skirmishes with the Autobots and they developed a sort of sense of camaraderie aided along by a shared despising of Shockwave. Spite was a hell of a thing to bond over but it was something and that was enough of a foundation for them to begin building a relationship.
Shadow Striker wasn't entirely certain what kind of relationship it was, but it was one where they could turn and trust the other enough not to backstab them and that was probably enough to define them as friends. Or more.
Or just friends.
It would've been easier to figure out if they just talked about it, but that felt like it might break something. Undo whatever it was they had built and Shadow Striker wasn't willing to risk that, risk losing the one person who she could actually rely on.
So she let it lie.
And then Lazerbeak started scuffling through the vents above her quarters on a nightly basis, appearing with sealed bags of gelled energon or pristine shards of energon crystals. Shadow Striker assumed that it was just Lazerbeak hoarding thieved snacks, but it was getting to the point of absurdity.
Tonight it was an entire pitcher of mulled energon wine. How the cassette hadn't spilled it was a mystery.
Shadow Striker scowled up at the creature, who stared back at her, placid and unbothered.
Rations were tight for everyone, but Solus' sake, really??
She reached up and grabbed the pitcher. Lazerbeak had the good sense to let herself down, landing on Shadow Striker's shoulder with a rather self satisfied gleam in her optic.
Shadow Striker just growled in the back of her throat and set off at a march down to Soundwave's quarters. They weren’t far, so fortunately no one spies her with the illicit alcohol.
Upon reaching the spymaster's room, she opted to clunk her knuckles against the door rather than chiming the bell. She didn’t have to wait long before the door slid open.
"You need to take better care of your cassette," she snapped, thrusting bird and pitcher at him before he had time to speak. "She keeps dragging food into my room. I know you get ration allotments for her, are you actually giving them to her?" It would be...out of his character but not wholly implausible he was taking the energon rations for himself.
He bristled, accepting his cassette, whom he transferred to his own shoulder with ease, but he would not take pitcher, pushing it back towards her.
"Lazerbeak has an appropriate amount of rations," he snapped back, "That is for you."
And before she could demand a further explanation, the door slammed closed and he wouldn't reopen it no matter how hard she banged her fist against it.
She gave up a few minutes and a few bruised knuckles later and stalked back to her quarters in a confused huff. She set the pitcher down, angry and still a little more concerned for the cassette than she would ever admit even to herself. What was going on??
# # #
It was frustrating that Shadow Striker hadn't been able to figure out for herself the food Lazerbeak was smuggling through the vents was intended as a gift, yet her anger on behalf of the cassette was undeniably endearing. Soundwave could understand it from a particular point of view, but he'd thought she'd know him better than that, but-
Well, they have been keeping their relationship quite on the down low, a necessity considering their status as higher ranking Decepticons. It wasn’t safe, not when just about any Decepticon, higher or lower might target one to manipulate the other.
But perhaps Soundwave ought to...make more of an effort than unexplained, clandestine gifts appearing out of vents.
Yes. He'd think of something. It would have to be subtle enough for plausible deniability but obvious enough for Shadow Striker to realize it for what it was. Tricky, but hardly impossible.
# # #
Shadow Striker groaned as her senses came back to her. Curse the fool who thought planting land mines along their planned fallback routes was a good idea. Ostensibly it had been to blow up any Autobots who chased them. Practically it probably cost them more casualties than the actual fight. Shadow Striker didn’t know for certain of course, having nearly been one of those casualties herself, but she had a sneaking suspicion.
She could hear approaching footsteps kicking and crunching through the rubble and with a monumental effort pried her eyes open.
Ah. Just Soundwave.
She let her eyes slip back closed and just listened as he approached. Eventually he was right next to her and there was a nudge against her side. She squinted up at him, irate. He hadn’t kicked her but still.
He leaned down, extending a hand and she took it, groaning as he pulled her to her feet. They hadn’t spoken much since she'd accused him of starving Lazerbeak and Shadow Striker had started to...think their alliance might’ve taken a hit from that. Not worry, she didn’t worry about foolish things like that. But, well, he had come looking for her and he hadn't actually kicked and put in the effort of helping her up. So things were probably fine between them.
Probably.
He let her lean against his shoulder as she hobbled back to base. Things were fine.
Or so she thought until they walk down the hall for her quarters and there was smoke pouring out through the cracks in her door.
"What in the Pit," she snarled, slamming in her access code and getting a faceful of acrid pollution as the door slid aside.
"Electrical malfunction," Soundwave noted, unbothered as she wheezed and hacked, "Maintenance has been notified."
He tapped on the access panel, closing the door, and pulled Shadow Striker away, towards his own quarters.
"Hey! Where do you think you're taking me?"
"You have a report to write," he intoned, "Do you want to write it in the infirmary instead?"
She groaned. It wasn't exactly a choice. Shockwave liked to prowl through the hospital wing after particularly bad battles, picking out fresh metal for his experiments. Soundwave helped her down the hall, into his room, and into a chair. Then left her to write her report while he...bustled. Shadow Striker wasn't paying a lot of attention, but it seemed like the best word for it, as he moved from one mundane task to another, seemingly without any real aim. Didn't he have a report to write too?
She paused as she heard the slosh of liquid and glanced up to find him pouring energon into a dish for Lazerbeak. She squinted at him, but he either didn't notice her attention or pretended not to.
Then he poured out a cube and set it next to her. She stared at it. Then at him.
It wasn't a lot but-
"That's your ration."
He tilted his head ever so slightly, "You were damaged. You need the extra."
Shadow Striker was starting to think he was the one who was damaged. In the head.
".........are you trying to poison me?"
He sighed, staticky and tired sounding, "Just drink it."
"No." She said, more out of sheer stubbornness than actual suspicion that he might harm her. "That's half your ration, you don't just give up half your ration for someone."
Even if you were allies. Even if you were maybe friends.
Again with the head tilt. "No," he agreed, "I do not give just anyone anything. So drink it already."
She stared at him for a long second before it finally clicked. "You could've just said you were trying to court me," she muttered before taking a sip.
"Trying..." he echoed, sounding somewhere between shocked and flabbergasted, "We've been courting for a while."
"What!? No we haven't, since when!??"
"The victory at Harmonex. You found a stash of high grade and gifted some to me."
"Well yeah. I couldn’t drink it all myself."
"You could have, over time," he pointed out, "But instead you gave it to me."
She stared at him, genuinely at a loss cause that hadn’t been intended as all that much on her part. There had been more cubes than she could carry so she'd offloaded a few onto him cause she didn’t hate him as much as other people. At the time anyway. She definitely didn’t think she hated him now, stupid as he was being in the moment.
He shifted from one foot to the other, seeming unsettled by her staring and lack of response.
"So then the stuff Lazerbeak was dragging into my room, those were...what, gifts?"
A nod.
"You're crazy," she shook her head and took another sip. "Fine. Yeah. We're courting."
"Have been courting."
"Fine, fine," she wanted to argue that it didn't count if they both weren't aware, but honestly? Who cared if it meant for some unfathomable reason he was going to part with some of his own ration for her sake. If he was going to track through battlefields looking for her, making sure he got to her before anyone else did.
She'd take it.