FIC: Flourish

[wicked3659]

 Title: Flourish

Verse: G1 (Contrary Motion verse)

Pairing/Prompt: Prowl/Sunstreaker: pride goeth before a fall

Rating: PG 13

A/N: Written for an old rare pairing prompt, bit late. Kinda been busy moving to the other side of the world. Now to finish everything else ^_^;;

 

 

Prowl glowered at the screen as the numbers changed. Why the mech didn’t listen to him he could not fathom but once again Prowl was left recalculating their odds as the twins carried out their jet judo on the unsuspecting seekers. Leading the last group out onto the battle field, Prowl barked commands into their net comms system, creating cover so the special ops team could plant their bombs behind enemy lines, hopefully sending them into disarray.

Some distance away, Sideswipe nodded to his brother as they received their orders and with a loud rev of their engines the twins shot up, slamming into the Thundercracker as he flew overhead, firing onto the mechs below.

Sideswipe laughed as they worked together and quickly got the upper hand over the seeker, when suddenly the balance changed and everything was thrown into a dizzying blur as they plummeted to the ground, spinning wildly a mass of limbs and metal. Something was very wrong.

****

Prowl’s optics shot up as someone hollered warning across the chaos of the fight and he could only watch as Thundercracker, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker tumbled to the ground. The seeker was obviously trying to shake them off it was a standard manoeuvre when faced with the onslaught of the twins. Prowl continued sending out commands as they managed to force the decepticons back into a retreat, Optimus landing a glancing blow onto Megatron sending the warlord flying off a steep rocky ridge.

Hearing commotion further afield, Prowl rushed over, his spark lurching in his chest when Thundercracker zipped over their heads at break neck speed leaving a cloud of dust in his wake and frantic hollers of Sideswipe as he yelled for Ratchet.

The medic was on the scene in a flash and Prowl ordered the mechs to disperse and return to the Ark to have their wounds tended to by First Aid while Ratchet tended the more critically injured.

“How is he?” Optimus asked quietly as Ratchet crouched down beside the golden prone frame of Sunstreaker.

“Not good, there’s internal damage. I need to get him back to medbay immediately. Sideswipe can you transform?” Ratchet glared at the red mech kneeling opposite him.

“I can.”

“Alright, Optimus put Sunstreaker in the back of your trailer, Sideswipe you follow me, I want to check you over as well.” Optimus transformed and waited for a klik as Ratchet and Prowl gently lifted the unconscious mech and laid him in the back of the trailer. “Let’s go.” Ratchet ordered, zooming off across the desert with Sideswipe following close behind as Prowl escorted Optimus back to the Ark.

//You’re quiet my friend// Optimus rumbled over their private comms.

//Concerned, Sir.// Prowl replied tersely.

//About Sunstreaker?//

//In part.//

//He’ll be alright, Prowl try not to worry too much.//

//I do not doubt Ratchet’s abilities…//

Optimus heard the subtle sigh over the comm. and waited patiently for his second to continue.

//It is more Sunstreaker’s tendency to take unnecessary risks that concerns me. If he followed commands directly when I gave them then he would not end up in the medbay quite so often. His stubbornness and pride make him foolhardy.//

//Have you spoken to him about this?//

//I have tried. He becomes defensive, sullen… does not listen.// Prowl’s engine revved as they approached the Ark. //I’m sorry, Sir, you did not ask to listen to my domestic complaints.//

Waiting for a klik as Prowl and the waiting Ratchet lifted Sunstreaker out of his trailer; Optimus transformed and placed a hand on Prowl’s shoulder, stopping him from following Ratchet and his patient inside the Ark. “Prowl, my audio and door is always open regardless of the issue. Perhaps this incident will be the catalyst to finally breach that communication rift between you and Sunstreaker. He maybe a foolhardy mech at times but you know as well as I do, he does not have a death wish.”

Bowing his helm, Prowl nodded. “Thank you, Sir. I hope you’re right.”

****

“No!” Sideswipe pushed off the berth, ignoring the complaint of his injuries as he marched towards the black and white who had just entered the medbay. “You’re not welcome here, stay away from my brother.” He jabbed an angry finger into Prowl’s chest who for a change looked completely confused.

“Sideswipe I know you’re angry, but this wasn’t Prowl’s fault.” Optimus chided with a slight frown as the mech marched over to Sunstreaker’s berth.

“No? It’s because of his orders that Sunny is lying there right now!” Sideswipe fumed, glaring at Prowl. “You are responsible for this.”

“If Sunstreaker was more inclined to follow orders then he—“

The red mech snarled and rushed for tactician, only for Ratchet and Optimus to hold him back “—Don’t you dare finish that sentence!” Sideswipe growled. “It’s because of your orders that he’s in this mess! You lecturing him to take fewer risks, to not embellish when in hand to hand combat! That’s what left him open, that’s what gave that ‘con the upper hand.” Shaking off Ratchet and Optimus, Sideswipe allowed the medic to guide him back to his berth as he slumped on its surface, sending a withering look at the black and white. “All he ever wanted was for you to listen to him, just once.” Sideswipe bowed his helm, optics dimming wearily. “If he doesn’t get through this, it’s on you, Prowl.” He shook his helm, looking up at the astonished Praxian, his blue optics hard and cold. “Get out, you’re not welcome here.”

Optimus gently laid a hand on Prowl’s shoulder. “Maybe it would be best to give him some space for a while, Sunstreaker is in good hands.” He murmured.

Faceplates stilling into an impassive stern mask, Prowl gave Optimus a curt nod and turned on his heel, sweeping out of the medbay without a second glance at the twins.

****

“How long as he been holed up in there?” 

Optimus glanced up at Jazz who slid into the chair opposite and shrugged. “Red Alert said last he checked it was 14 earth hours. He hasn’t even left to refuel.”

Jazz frowned and hummed softly. “He won’t let me enter, even when I hack his door he just ignores me, I’m worried about him.”

“Isn’t this what Prowl does though?” Optimus asked, sipping his energon.  “Isolates himself when he’s trying to solve a problem? You know him better than most, Jazz, should I be concerned?”

Jazz shook his helm and pursed his lip components. “This is different. When he’s tackling work issues it’s a different sort of focus this is… deeper.”

“What do you mean?” Optimus canted his helm slightly.

“When Prowl sees a problem, he devotes his whole battle computer and logic centre to providing a solution if not multiple solutions but when it comes to something he doesn’t understand, he can get… obsessed.”

Optimus sat back in his seat and sighed. “I’ve heard mechs call him a drone, unemotional.” Folding his arms, Optimus shook his helm. “The more I come to know of him the more I realise that this isn’t true.”

Humming in agreement, Jazz nodded. “If anything I’d say it was the exact opposite.”

Frowning slightly, Optimus met Jazz’s worried gaze. “The incident in the medbay—“

“—It’ll have affected him a lot more than he’s letting on.”

“How can we help him?”

Giving his commander a wry, humourless grin, Jazz shrugged and leaned on the table wearily, his visor glancing over to the door as the twins entered. “Until he’s ready to listen, we can’t.”

“Their relationship from what I’ve heard was quite a dysfunctional one.” Optimus mused thoughtfully as his optics followed Jazz’s gaze to the twins, Sunstreaker in particular.

Quirking an optic ridge at the larger mech, Jazz snorted with faint humour. “What do you mean was?”

****

Prowl sat at his desk with a scowl. He'd studied video files of the twins fighting style from numerous battles, in an attempt to figure out their tactics. He'd been unable to define it. It was frustrating, their methods were raw, reactionary rather than premeditated. By all rights they shouldn't be as proficient fighters as they were. Sighing he pinched his nasal bridge. He had been right to order them to hold back, Sunstreaker had indeed followed his orders for once. In comparing the footage obtained from Teletraan, Prowl had learned only one thing, when his orders were followed to the letter, Sunstreaker got hurt. It made no sense, his tactics weren't flawed that was his job, why had Sunstreaker fallen, almost been killed? None of it was adding up.

At that moment, his office door swished open and Prowl snapped his helm up to meet the angry optics of Ratchet. The medic marched over to his desk and planted an emerging cube in front of him. "Drink it, now. Or I'll haul your aft to medbay and force feed you intravenously until such time that I can trust you to take care of yourself."

Having no energy to argue, Prowl simply picked up the cube and downed its contents. "Thank you," he murmured, handing the cube back.

"Thank you? That's all you've got to say?"

Looking at him blankly, Prowl canted his helm at the obviously irate medic. Anything he said would only serve to rile him up further and so he waited. Ratchet was not known for his patience.

"Slag it, Prowl!" Ratchet cursed and sat in the opposite chair without waiting for an invitation, he knew wasn't going to come. "You are second in command of the entire Autobot army, what sort of example do you think you're setting for the rest of us when you're holed up in your office for days at a time, sulking?"

Remaining impassive at Ratchet' s lecture, Prowl laced his fingers together in front of him. "I am well aware of my position and I can assure you I am not sulking."

"What do you call this then? A fraggin' vacation?"

"Research." Prowl stated simply.

Ratchet cast him a bland look and snorted ungainly. "All the research in the 'verse isn't going to fix things between you and the twins."

"That is--"

"--Don't..." Ratchet held up his hand and gave Prowl a warning glower. "Don't insult me by pretending it isn't about them and like slag it isn't my business when it gets you like this."

Frowning, Prowl looked down at his hands. "I'm fine..." He muttered with a scowl.

Leaning forward, Ratchet sighed, his voice softening. "Prowl, I know you wouldn't consider me a friend, but whether you like it or not, it's my job to know you. Just like it's yours to know everyone's skills, strengths and weaknesses, it's my job to know YOU."

"What is your point?"

"You're not fine. Why won't you speak to him?"

"You're saw how well it went the last time we spoke."

"That was Sideswipe. He doesn't speak for them both."

"Then why hasn't he sought me out?"

"Perhaps it's your infernal need to always have to be right," Ratchet replied sardonically. "Primus, Prowl, do you have to be so stubborn?"

Meeting Ratchet's gaze, Prowl curled his mouth in disagreement. "It's not a matter of being stubborn, it's a matter of maintaining order so lives aren't needlessly risked. My job as you say is to know their skills, this is so I can keep them alive. Yet they incessantly disregard my orders, without considering the consequences to themselves or others." He vented air through his vents. "I can't afford to be wrong."

Ratchet at back in his chair and folded his arms as he regarded Prowl with shrewd optics. "You and me both." He gave Prowl a wan smile as the mech looked at him sharply. "There's one thing I've learned in my line of work, and that's we all have limitations. Even you and me who are pretty much responsible for every mech that follows Prime. You guide them against the 'cons and I patch them up when the 'cons get lucky," he sighed and shook his helm, a shadow crossing his face. "But we can't save everyone... sometimes we have to trust that they can take care of themselves."

Prowl raised a single optic ridge at Ratchet, his mouth quirking up at the corner slightly. "Yet you are incapable of doing this yourself."

Hand waving at Prowl's statement, Ratchet snorted and huffed. "We're talking about you here, don't change the subject."

Smirking despite himself, Prowl chanted his helm at the medic. "Please do continue."

Ratchet grunted and pointed a finger at Prowl. "Your problem is you're too damn proud. Those mechs trust you, they rely on you but mechs like the twins, they were born to fight. They've been fighting before there even was a war. They hear you, they trust you but they rely on each other, they rely on their instincts and your pride can't accept that."

"The risks they take--"

"--They're aware of them all, they've accepted them, they have to in order to do what they do. We need them, as much as I hate seeing them in my medbay, I have to trust that they know what they're doing even if I don't understand it or like it."

Prowl pressed his lips together tightly. "They're risks I cannot accept. Prime relies on me."

"Prime needs everyone of us, Prowl." Ratchet sighed and pushed out of the chair. "You don't have to understand everything for it to work. Look at you and Sunny... none of us understands that and yet up until his injuries he spent every night in your quarters." He have Prowl a wry grin. "Those two have a passion for the fight just as you have a penchant for tactics, you need to swallow your pride and trust them...Just think about it." With that he left Prowl alone to mull it over, not that he thought it would do any good. Some mechs were too set in their ways, inflexible.

****

Sunstreaker scowled deeply and tossed his waxing solutions into his case with more venom than necessary, prompting Sideswipe to look up from his book file. "What's got under your plating?"

"Nothing," Sunstreaker muttered sullenly.

"Yeah, sounds like a lot of nothing," Sideswipe quipped with a slight smirk, earning a dark look from his brother. Smile fading, Sideswipe sat up on his berth. "It's about Prowl isn't it?" At the lack of response, Sideswipe shook his helm and sighed. "He's no good for you, Sunny. You were more unhappy than not."

"And what do you know of it!?" Sunstreaker snapped suddenly. "You never liked him," he finished sullenly.

"Can you blame me?" Sideswipe shot back. "The more time you spent with him the less you were yourself. You became moodier because you were trying to be who he wanted you to be," he growled lowly. "And that almost got you killed in case you'd forgotten." Throwing his book file on the berth he headed for the door. "There's nothing wrong with who you are Sunny and if he can't see that..." He glared at his brother. "I did you a fraggin favour."

Sunstreaker glared at the wall, hating that Sideswipe's words hit deep in his spark.

"...The frag...?"

He glanced at the door, optics brightening in surprise at the sight of black and white, partially hidden by red on the other side of the door.

"No you can't fraggin come in, what do you want?"

Sunstreaker grimaced at his brother's tone, Prowl if nothing else was still second in command and that alone earned him a small amount of respect, no matter Sideswipe's personal feelings on the matter. Getting to his feet he approached the door, standing slightly behind and to the side of his brother so Prowl could see him.

"I came to offer my..." Prowl paused as his optics fell onto Sunstreaker and his doorwings rose minutely on his back. "Offer my apologies." He finished quietly. "I have--"

"--been an aft," Sideswipe interrupted, glaring down at the slightly smaller mech.

"--misjudged you...both of you," Prowl finished, his optics drifting to Sunstreaker, lingering as he spoke. "I will... endeavour to trust your methods in the future."

"You can't actually admit you were wrong and that you almost killed Sunny can you?" Sideswipe scoffed, stepping into Prowl's personal space and jabbed a finger against his chest. "You can apologise all you like, you still won't be good enough for him. You said your piece... You can go now."

Shooting Sunstreaker a questioningly helpless look, Prowl looked ready to protest, before his optics met Sunstreaker's and the golden mech looked away, lowering his gaze. Expression unreadable, Prowl gave a small nod and swept away from them without a second glance, his doorwings held high on his back.

"And good riddance," Sideswipe called after him, turning into the room. "Well that was awkward," he muttered, throwing a side long look at his brother and feeling a pang of regret at the crest fallen sight that met his optics. A glitch Prowl was but for some reason his twin had inexplicable feelings for him, even though he would never admit it out loud. Shoulders slumping, Sideswipe reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You know I'll have your back whatever you decide, Sunny."

Meeting Sideswipe's gaze, Sunstreaker smiled. "Thanks, Sides."

****

Sunstreaker had made up his mind to talk to Prowl just as soon as he could get a hold of the elusive fragger. Prowl was as skilled as Jazz at remaining hidden when he didn't want to be found. It was beyond frustrating. Finally he had employed Sideswipe and Jazz's expertise as master pranksters to sabotage the energon dispenser in Prowl's office. He would get the glitch face to face if it killed him.

In the rec room he sat agitatedly opposite his brother who shared a look with Bluestreak, the Praxian shrugging in return before his doorwings rose slightly on his back and he looked past Sideswipe to the energon dispensers. Both of them looked at the black and white mech who had just entered the rec room, data pad in hand, gaze focused. Looking back they found Sunstreaker's seat empty and looked back towards Prowl with apprehension.

"About time you showed yourself." Sunstreaker folded his arms over his chest and stood deliberately in Prowl's way. The rest of the rec room fell into a quiet murmur as they all watched and waited for the anticipated confrontation.

"Sunstreaker, please step aside." Prowl commanded quietly, obviously in no mood to fight, especially in front of an audience.

"No, Sir," Sunstreaker countered countered with emphasis on his title. "You will talk to me."

"I don't have time for this," Prowl, pushed past the front liner as passively as he could, only for the golden mech to grab his arm and tug him back slightly.

"You will at least listen," he growled. "You owe me that much."

Across the room, Ironhide cursed softly and made to get out of his seat to help Prowl only to be held back by Optimus.

"Wait, my friend," he met Ironhide' s gaze with a knowing look and gestured for him to sit back down.

Prowl glanced sternly at the hand on his arm, prompting Sunstreaker to remove it and take a step back out of his space. "I'm listening," he stated tersely.

Sunstreaker scowled at the tone and vented air in attempt to calm his growing temper. "You need to give me space to... to express myself. Even... especially in battle. It's not something you can just plan all the time. What I do, how I fight, it's from in here," he placed his hand over his chest. "I feel it and I just know what I need to do." He met Prowl's stoic expression and sighed. "It's like painting for me. I can't have somebody in my ear telling me how to do it. You just have to trust me."

"Alright," Prowl stated simply. "But as a tactician I cannot work with unpredictability among our forces. If everyone fought like you, more would die."

"But they don't!" Sunstreaker exclaimed. "Nobody fights like us," he gestured to Sideswipe, glaring at Prowl. "Nobody else can, you need to trust us and let us express ourselves, fight the only way we know how. We don't want to die. We will fight for that."

"I can only give you so much freedom, beyond that it becomes a--"

"--you're not listening." Sunstreaker snapped, turning to walk away. Taking a few steps before turning on his heel and grabbing hold of Prowl, tugging him into a fierce kiss, amidst gasps and murmurs of surprise from their audience.

Everyone stared in stunned amazement as the kiss broke, leaving Prowl standing agape, optics locked with Sunstreaker's as the mech murmured softly, not relinquishing his hold of the gobsmacked tactician. "Do you understand the importance of being allowed to express oneself, now? How important it is to me?"

Visibly composing himself, his tone steady even though he was obviously flustered, Prowl cleared his vocaliser discreetly. "I believe I am open to change..." He replied dryly, raising an optic ridge, his mouth curling subtly at the corner, receiving a few chuckles from around the rec room and a sly smirk from Sunstreaker.

"Stubborn aft," he muttered fondly, curling a hand about Prowl's helm pulling him into a more tender kiss, surrounded by cheers and hollers of encouragement as he promptly dragged the SIC from the rec room.

****