Everybody learns from *somebody*

[lordmegatron]

Passing the doors into the library, Megatron was pleased he had gotten the schedule correct as he saw who was sitting at the desk. If it had been completely necessary due to his own schedule, he'd have come here when he could. But since he didn't have to...

Ignoring the faint itch interfacing hadn't properly gotten rid off, Megatron approached the librarian at a lazy, casual walk. It was a pity he hadn't seen any signs at all that the surprisingly fine-lined truck-alted mech had the inclination he was looking for. Things would have been a lot easier (and, really, pleasing) if he had.

As it was, since there was no one left in the current arena circuit that he trusted with what he had to hand over, perhaps he would have to avail himself of one of the clubs. It made an irritable twitch slither down the treads on his shoulders, the thought that he'd have to do that.

It was ages since he'd had to go to an open venue like that to simply get his needs properly taken care of.

And he really would have preferred the librarian. Orion Pax - it hadn't taken anything to find out the designation when to found the schedule - was witty, somehow diplomatically argumentative and didn't give in if he knew he was right or wanted to stand for his opinion, actually had some smarts to go with said use of words and Megatron wanted to know more.

More, and more personally (most of the earlier he'd simply learned over the few times he'd been in the library when the mech was, but hadn't actually approached him). So this time, he decided to actually use the librarian's assistance in what he was looking for... and perhaps get something more out of it.

"Excuse me?"

Comments

[lordmegatron]

He could've dug his weight in and countered the grapple, of course, but he let Orion pull him partly around even as Orion moved himself. The only move he did do was to catch Orion's wrist, feeling the heat of the energon-based weapon and the parts shifting to allow it to emerge... and then it froze as Orion actually saw who it was that had accosted him.

"Testing you," he said, smiling sharply and with a chuckle in his voice. "Not bad, Orion. We need to work on your reaction time and following through properly, whether with a defensive or offensive move, but not... bad."

He smirked, absolutely shamelessly, for a moment and then straightened up a little and let go of Orion's wrist.

"Also taking you out. You've been buried in your records for too long."

[ichooseboth]

"Testing me? Testing me!?" He yelped, jerking his arm back to smack Megatron with the stump.

"What if I hadn't- ugh!" He stepped back, bristling; the gears in his half-transformed arm ground for a moment, before he managed to retract the aborted transformation process.

"Your methods of asking someone out leave a lot to be desired," he grumbled, shaking out his now sore hand.

[lordmegatron]

"What if you hadn't what?" Megatron asked, having taken the hit without moving or flinching, and grasped Orion's elbow to steer him out of the alley.

"Not defended yourself? In that case you're lucky I wasn't actually someone ready to do real violence on you for whatever my purpose was to be ambushing you in an alley."

Shaking his helm, Megatron snorted.

"And if you meant 'not stopped yourself', I'm going to have to point out your reaction time is abysmal and I'd have had you against the wall or down on the ground by the time you got that axe out. For example."

He almost, almost felt regret for puncturing Orion's belief he'd actually pose any potential danger to him, but better he realise it like this rather than when faced with someone who was actually out to injure or take advantage of him.

"And my decision to test you are completely removed from taking you out, Orion."

[ichooseboth]

"Oh, I am, as ever, perfectly aware that my odd of actually landing a blow on you are infinitesimal at best!"

Orion growled sourly, spinning on his heel to glare up at the gladiator, straining up to his fullest height. His field rippled in his carefully-crafted hold, itching to spread out and held back only by iron will.

"But that doesn't change the fact that I fear what this weapon can do- and so I do not appreciate being startled into using a weapon I am not yet proficient at, or even comfortable with!"

He gave Megatron a solid prod in the ventral plates, punctuating his point.

[lordmegatron]

"We'll get to the second point soon enough, under more controlled circumstances," Megatron said, waving Orion off, "if you knew I was planning on doing this, you wouldn't have reacted in any way that'd have given me a fair assessment of your abilities."

Glancing down at Orion and pretending he didn't feel those twitches of his impressive EM field, trying to slip Orion's control, Megatron arched an optic ridge.

"And while you may not be capable of landing a blow on me, you would probably have gotten free from a random thug, Orion. I, after all, am a gladiator and champion several times over... thugs, usually, are not."

Which, really, was a good enough proof of Orion's reaction time and ability, even if Megatron didn't deem it good enough yet.

[ichooseboth]

Orion backfired his engine in a rude snort.

"Oh yes, because I might have lopped of some random thug's head makes me feel so much better..." he grumbled, backing down but not releasing his irritation just yet. Megatron's dismissive attitude was rubbing him the wrong way. That, coupled with his interruption to his translations left him as a rather irritable mech.

"And even if you don't think you could tell me this, you couldn't properly ask me out first, either?"

[lordmegatron]

Eyeing Orion side-long, Megatron cocked his head.

"You have been a singularly difficult mech to get a hold of since we came back, Orion," he said, surprisingly mildly, if a bit dry, "it was this or ambushing you at home. I've pinged you no less than six times."

There was no recrimination, just dry amusement. Even if he was a little annoyed at the lack of even awareness of his previous attempts at getting Orion's attention, no harm done.

[ichooseboth]

"Oh don't be ridiculous! I've simply been busy. You can't have possibly-" Orion objected with a frown.

Only for him to check his message inbox and found that yes he could have.

Orion's field went wobbly with embarrassment.

"...hnnn. Alright. Fine then." He coughed, surrendering at last.

[lordmegatron]

"Indeed," Megatron said dryly, almost not able to keep his snort or a toothy grin to himself. "Not that I didn't suspect something like this might happen, but..."

Pausing, he gave Orion a side-long glance.

"I didn't expect it to be quite this bad. I hope you've had some progress, at least?"

Both for Orion's sake and his, and he didn't even (mostly) mean that he sure was interested in Orion's finds for his own reasons, but because he suspected that Orion might get cranky if he got no results.

[ichooseboth]

Orion gave Megatron a look, before sighing.

Of course Megatron expected it. Orion himself should have expected it.

"Well yes, of course!" Je admitted, perking back up. "It is all so very fascinating, but terribly difficult to translate, as you might expect. The codex it is written in seems designed to be purposely difficult to translate. But what I have managed so far is fascinating..."

[lordmegatron]

"Good," Megatron nodded, his smile this time softer, more appreciative... and then he held up a hand, "but while I'd love to hear what you have gotten, perhaps later, Orion. Not tonight."

While he was absolutely interested, Megatron found (partly to his own surprise) that he didn't actually want to hear anything of that right now. No, what he wanted was Orion, and to relax a little.

If Orion started to tell him what he'd found out, he would end up doing anything but relaxing, or focusing on Orion, which would defeat the purpose of even ambushing the mech at all.

"Do you have any ideas, or should we go to one of the places I am familiar with?" he asked, helm cocked.

[ichooseboth]

Orion huffed a little, excited train of thought derailed.

"If you insist, I suppose." He thought about continuing later anyway - and he might slip up and bring it up anyway - but he could understand Megatron's desire to speak of other things.

Orion would prefer to translate more thoroughly before he talked it over with Megatron, anyway, now that he thought about it. He wanted to do this properly, after all.

"Er. Maybe you should pick. I have no real ideas in this case. My mind is still...elsewhere, for now."

[lordmegatron]

"I do. I'll make it up to you," Megatron said with a half-smirk, and either way, considering the way Orion's expression went a little distant, he was sure Orion was actually preferring it this way.

"Hm," he smiled wryly and nodded, steering them through the streets. There were a few options available, though on the whole it might simply be better and simpler to go back to a place they'd been before.

"The one I took you to before," he said, thinking back quickly over what he knew about scheduled events, but nothing too 'wild' for Orion should be going on, "would you be willing to go back there?"

[ichooseboth]

"I should hope so!" Orion laughed, optics taking on a teasing glint briefly. Then he could only shrug at the suggestion, audial numbs twitching at the memory of the last time they were there.

"And I suppose that should be alright. Though if that one unpleasant mech is there again I would rather not be stuck running into him."

He wouldn't be able to keep his temper, after all.

[lordmegatron]

"If he is, we will leave," Megatron said, shaking his helm. The point he wanted was to make the club a more pleasant place for Orion, not building it up with unpleasant associations.

"But hopefully he won't he and we can perhaps enjoy a quiet evening."

And perhaps blow off some steam too, without having to go back to either Orion's apartment or his own rooms at the arena, indulging immediately if the mood hit. Glancing sideways at Orion, Megatron grinned faintly.

Wondered how much Orion would be flustered, or take to, interfacing in semi-public. The rooms available were private and locked, of course, but they were still in a club full of people.

[ichooseboth]

"Alright," Orion agreed, nodding slowly. "That should be...acceptable."

He would honestly prefer to leave if they ran into that mech again. He wasn't entirely sure if he could retrain himself. Which would end poorly for everyone involved.

He really hoped that poor mech had left him for good...

As for the other issue...well.

Megatron would simply have to ask.

[lordmegatron]

Megatron took them there by walking; they had the time, and Orion might want to get more familiar with the route as well. And if nothing else, when they got there the mech Orion had taken such issue with wasn't there.

For now, at least, but hopefully he wouldn't make an appearance and ruin the evening.

"Drinks?" Megatron murmured against Orion's audial, leaned over him after they'd found a booth and Orion had sat down.

[ichooseboth]

"Of course."

Orion had been eyeballing the place since they had arrived, and thankfully had yet to see or sense the abrasive field of the mech he had problems with before.

That didn't mean he was free entirely, but it was enough to let him start to relax once that sat down.

"Any specials you recommend that I haven't tried?"

[lordmegatron]

"I could probably find something you'd enjoy," Megatron said thoughtfully as he straightened up and wandered off. The place, as always, made him relax, which, while he was still wound tight and would rather have had Orion tell him outright, let Megatron be a bit patient about this.

And coming back and putting down a squat, wide bowl filled with yellow-tinted energon in front of Orion and a somewhat more modest-seeming cube of dark magenta for himself, Megatron grinned at his companion and slumped in the seat in front of him.

There was no rush; he had Orion here, now, so he could be patient and perhaps they'd both end up in the mood. Or at least some sort of mood which wasn't Orion stuck in research.

[ichooseboth]

Orion wasn't quite ready to get in the right headspace just yet- he was still tense, with his processor still running hot, the files he'd spent the past several days on still working their way through his subroutines.

But the drink certainly looked like it might be able to distract him.

"Huh. What's this one supposed to be?" He eyed the bowl and the color, giving Megatron's own 'innocent' cube a glance.

[lordmegatron]

"Why don't you try it? I think you'll like it," Megatron said with a small grin and a wave of the hand that held his own cube.

"And if you're wondering, mine if far, far stronger than yours," he added, the small grin widening into something toothy. It'd take far more than this single cube to make him white-out overcharged of course, and he wasn't after that anyway.

But he wouldn't hand Orion something he couldn't handle, and Orion would get to decide himself how overcharged to get here, tonight. It was just strong enough to give a pleasant buzz, and hopefully they'd both relax a little.

Megatron knew he certainly needed it.

[ichooseboth]

Orion snorted at Megatron's description of his own drink- not surprisingly, really. He had no intentions of trying to match the larger mech on overcharge consumption.

It didn't answer his question, though.

"Hmm." He gave Megatron a look through the sides of his optics, before picking up the bowl - carefully - and giving it a delicate sniff before bothering to take a sip.

The taste was...surprising. Rough and almost bitter, it had a nice kick to it. Orion wasn't sure if he liked it, but he quickly took another sip to be sure.

[lordmegatron]

Grinning wryly at Orion's reaction to the drink, Megatron took a sip himself and tilted his head.

"My tastes might have influenced the choice," he said, vaguely apologetic, "it's a staple in Kaon, and pretty difficult to get anywhere else... particularly done right."

He didn't even mean 'staple in Kaon for the lower classes', because it was actually pretty popular through all levels - more or less one of the few things that actually was.

[ichooseboth]

"Ah," he said, finishing his second sip with a careful smack of his lips. It was strange- and probably not something he'd drink regularly for pleasure. But it was new and a little exciting, so he would at least finish the bowl.

"It's alright, really. I don't mind trying new things, after all," he grinned, glancing around them pointedly.

This entire thing was a 'new' thing.

[lordmegatron]

"No, that you definitely don't," Megatron agreed with a nod, leaning back in his seat and stretching one leg out, angling it away from his seat and the table since otherwise he'd smack into Orion.

"Which I am very thankful for, since it has led to quite a few pleasant developments." Even with how dubious Orion had been at the start to try things out. Maybe because of it, since it'd been all the more enjoyment for him - for both of them - when it ended up working out.

Even if they were still working on it, but really, that was part of the fun.