Fic - Rumour Mill

[wyntir_knight]

Title: Rumour Mill
Rating: T
Series: G1
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Slingshot, Silverbolt, Air Raid, Fireflight, and Skydive. Mentions of Trailbreaker/Silverbolt
Summary: The Aerialbot’s discuss their thoughts on the new relationship between Trailbreaker and Silverbolt.
Warnings: mentioned slash, language
Prompt: Through Another’s Eyes (January Challenge)
Disclaimer: Transformers belong to Hasbro and Takara, and are licensed to IDW and Dreamworks. My original characters are my own and any similarity between them and any existing characters from canon or fandom is purely coincidental. I claim no ownership by writing this work.

Author's Note: This story follows More Than Friendship and comes before To Have and Not To Hold. As always, special thanks to eloquencelost for betaing!



Slingshot sat in the aerie glaring at the television as he flipped through the channels rapidly.

“Okay, what’s wrong?” Skydive asked as he came to sit beside his brother.

“Nothing,” Slingshot replied tersely, never looking at the strategist.

“Right. Of course. You’re just trying to break the remote because it’s fun.” The Falcon settled in for what was likely going to be a long talk. When his brother got into this kind of mood the option was to either leave him alone or make him talk, and forcing the issue out usually left fewer long term issues to deal with.

“Frag off.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen. I’m going to sit here and you’re going to tell me what’s got you in such a bad mood. Then maybe, if we’re lucky, we can deal with it like mature, adult mechs.”

Neither heard Air Raid come into the room and quietly walk up behind the couch, but the Eagle couldn’t keep silent at the Falcon’s request.

“I’m sorry, have you two not met yet?” he asked, trying to get the words out through his chuckles. “You actually want Slingshot to act like a mature adult?”

“Bite me,” Slingshot spat.

Air Raid vaulted over the couch, barely missing his brothers, and snuggled up to Slingshot. “Oh you’d like that, wouldn’t you? Want me to tie you up while I’m at it?”

Slingshot shoved his brother aside roughly but Air Raid clung on like a barnacle, refusing to be dislodged or allow the Harrier to leave.

“So? What are you two griping about?” the Eagle asked. “And can I play too?”

“I have no idea,” Skydive replied. “Slings refuses to tell me.”

“It’s Bolt, okay?” Slingshot grit out. “He’s supposed to be here tonight and instead he’s off with that damned groundpounder again.”

“Is that it?” Air Raid asked, pulling away from Slingshot’s side. “You do realize this means we can watch Top Gun without him complaining about how stupid the plot is, right?”

“That’s not the point! Tonight is our movie night and he’s abandoned us to spend time with-”

Slingshot’s rant was interrupted as Fireflight came out of his room. “What are you all yelling about? I thought we were going to watch a movie tonight? … Hey, where’s Silverbolt?”

Air Raid groaned dramatically as the Harrier flew back into a barely controlled fury.

“He’s abandoned us! Again! He supposed to be here and instead he’s out with the damned truck!”

“Has it occurred to you that there might be a reason he chooses to go out with Trailbreaker rather than stay here?” Skydive asked calmly.

“You know, it’d be nice if Bolt brought TB here sometimes,” Firefly said a little wistfully as he took up a chair by the television.

“Yeah you would think that,” Slingshot grumbled and Fireflight nodded emphatically, completely missing his brother’s irritation.

Air Raid shrugged before settling back down against the Harrier. “I’d rather he find someone else to play around with, but he could have chosen worse I suppose. Why not let Bolt get this out of his system? I mean, it’s not like this is going to last long. Not with the rumour mill going full blast like it is.”

“What rumours?” Skydive and Fireflight both asked at the same time.

“Oh come on, how can you not have heard them?” Air Raid looked at his brothers, clearly expecting to see that they were joking. When he found no such hint he sighed. “You two really need to get out into the base proper more. Ever since Bolt and TB started in together there’s been talk.”

“Talk about what?” Skydive prompted, ignoring Slingshot’s look of exasperation.

“You know. Talk?” the Eagle asked in a tone that implied something entirely different. When it was clear the point wasn’t getting across he sat up and sighed at his brothers’ obliviousness. “Look, some of the other mechs on base have noticed the huge age difference between Breaker and Bolt. The fact is, back on Cybertron we’d still be kids. We’d still be learning from Ratchet and Wheeljack and Hoist. We’d be children. Get where I’m going with this?”

“But we’re not children,” Fireflight said a little defensively. “We’re just as adult as any of the other mechs in this army! They built us that way and Vector Sigma sparked us as adults.”

“I know that! We all know that, Flight!” Air Raid said. “But what we know isn’t the point!”

“The point is that everyone out there sees us as dumb kids!” Slingshot exclaimed in irritation. “We’re just a bunch of kids until they need us to go out into battle for them! And they all think that Trailbreaker’s a pervert for wanting to swap cables with a sparkling!”

“Yeah, but we’re not sparklings and everyone who matters knows that,” Skydive replied in a surprisingly calm tone in the face of Slingshot’s anger. “Rumours are completely meaningless. After all, if we let the rumour mill dictate how we lived then both Mirage and Sunstreaker would have been kicked out long ago.”

“Yeah, well maybe one of them should be,” Slingshot grumbled in a low voice.

Skydive ignored the muttering, refusing to push Slingshot’s other hot button.

“None of this explains why you hate Trailbreaker so much, Slings,” he prompted.

“Yeah, why are you always so mean to him?” Fireflight asked. “I like him. And so does Dive. Trailbreaker’s nice to all of us and he’s really sweet to Bolt.”

“Yeah, he’s nice and sweet until he gets what he wants and then he’s going to drop Silverbolt like a sack of spanners,” Slingshot replied angrily.

“Oh come off it, Slings,” Skydive said, exasperation colouring his tone. “This isn’t about interfacing. This isn’t some one night stand they’re having. Trailbreaker’s too much of a romantic for that.”

“Got to agree with Dive on that,” Air Raid said. “If you’re theory was right then Breaker would have been out of here long ago. … though, considering how sensitive both of them are, I figure it’s only a matter of time before the rumours get to be too much and one of them jumps ship.”

Slingshot’s optics narrowed as he listened to his brother’s theory. “What do you mean if my theory were right? The two of them haven’t interfaced yet. That’s what the truck’s waiting on.”

Air Raid looked at Slingshot in dumfounded surprise. “Well, you’re half right. They haven’t here, but that’s only because Fireflight keeps on interrupting them. In fact, that’s probably why they’re not here tonight.”

The Phantom’s optics darkened in a furious blush and he did his best to hide in the chair.

“I … what?!” Slingshot demanded.

“Maybe if you didn’t insist on closing off the bond you’d have a better idea of what’s going on here,” Skydive replied with a shrug.

“He’s sleeping with the pit-spawned TRUCK?!”

Air Raid made no attempt to hide the smirk as realization finally dawned on the Harrier. Slingshot glared at the Eagle and his lips thinned to an angry line. Instantly he stood up, pushing his brother off his side with a shove.

“You know what? I don’t need this slag. I’m going out for a flight,” he spat as he stormed from the room.

Skydive sighed then stood up. “I think I’m going to go finish my tactics proposal for Prowl.”

“So … No movie tonight?” Fireflight asked as the tactician’s door closed.

Air Raid smiled at his bother and shifted on the couch to make room. “Come on over here. We can watch Top Gun and then how about The Last Starfighter?”

“Sounds good!” Fireflight practically threw himself at his brother and snuggled in as the opening credits started to roll.