The Start of Something Interesting...

[lastonepercent]

The day was calm, with no recent Decepticon attacks, and none suspected to be incoming for some time.  The cons were too busy licking their wounds from the last battle, one that the Autobots had decidedly come out ahead on.  The celebrations had gone on long into the night and the recreation room was already a mess.

Thus, it was the perfect chance for a lone Autobot to slip casually outside.

Mirage had no shift currently scheduled, so he was free to spend his time as he pleased.  He certainly made no move to hide his departure, greeting his comrades in the halls on the way out, but the box in his hands remained unopened despite any passing curiosity.  It was quietly shifted into subspace before long, and  the former noble shifted into alt mode just as smoothly when he reached the doors.  Despite the completely inappropriate earthen race car mode, the mech had little trouble self-adjusting before driving off into the forest covering the mountain, for business unknown...

Comments

[cliffjumper]

"I don't know," Cliffjumper outright groaned, and loudly, hands still over his faceplates, "clearly this place is messin' with me."

That was the only explanation, because it wasn't like Mirage wasn't fragging capable of taking care of himself and would probably, in some weird, roundabout way, enjoy such an event. And he'd handle it far better than he would.

Peering up at Mirage across the room, without doing more than parting his fingers, Cliffjumper sighed.

"I'll pretend I got sick or something." Probably not, but he felt like he needed to say something.

[lastonepercent]

"Or something like that," Mirage agreed blandly, stepping across the room to stand over Cliffjumper hesitantly, before giving the smaller mech a pat on the shoulder.

"Probably best to come up with a better excuse than that, if you do. Letting it get out that you're 'sick' would send help up here faster than lighting the place on fire, I would think."

[cliffjumper]

Cliffjumper twitched a little at the pat - all too aware of the weight, the sun-warmed metal and slight charged tension that clung there - otherwise he just scrubbed his faceplates again and then dropped his hands to look up at Mirage, swearing.

"Slag. I didn't think about that," shaking his head, Cliffjumper grimaced, "so don't use that unless it's actually true, since they'll find out out it's not." Unless he just locked himself up somewhere and refused to be seen, but even Cliffjumper could tell that was a bad idea.

"Not that I've got another idea...." So maybe he'd just have to suck it up, even when he'd normally wouldn't have had to do this if he hadn't opened his giant, dumb mouth.

[lastonepercent]

"Exactly," Mirage said, hand slowly pulling away from warm, red metal.

"That's why I'm here, after all. To think about things like that." He said with a wry grin. "But unfortunately, this time I can honestly say you volunteered for this one. At least they were rude - if you end up being just as rude in return, it would hardly be held against you."

[cliffjumper]

Despite his conflict over the hand having been on his shoulder at all, Cliffjumper was distinctly disappointed when it was completely removed. On some level it was probably a good thing he knew about his crush on Mirage, because otherwise he'd have been frustrated over feeling like this and not understanding why.

Which was a whole other level of humiliating, really.

"Yeah, I guess so," Cliffjumper muttered, optics flickering in a roll - a human gesture basically the whole Ark had adopted rather soon into their stay. Then he glanced up at Mirage and smirked.

"Did you just give me permission to be rude to these people?"

[lastonepercent]

Mirage leaned away with a low laugh, pressing a long-fingered hand against his own chest over his spark, optics alight with mirth.

"Me? I would neverrr," he chuckled, all faux-denial.

"Of course, given the nature of the 'invitation'...should they continue this rude behavior, it would hardly harm our cause to be rude in turn."

[cliffjumper]

Looking up at Mirage, Cliffjumper looked away almost immediately, swallowing a curse. Why did the fragging mech have to look... well, like that? He hoped he hadn't been blushing, and if he had, that he'd turned away in time.

It was so much easier on the Ark, since aside from when he'd followed Mirage, or having to make up for interrupting the ceremony, it wasn't as if he ended up in Mirage's company a lot. Now, though...

"Uh-huh," Cliffjumper said, still drawn into a smirk despite feeling flustered. "You think whoever this..." a pause and embarrassingly enough he'd already forgotten the name, "whatever, y'think they'd actually risk continuing to be 'rude' now that they've gotten what they wanted?"

Cliffjumper just couldn't see what was rude in the way this has happened, despite Mirage's comments that it had been. Nobles were weird.

[lastonepercent]

"If they want to try and get us in their good graces, yes," Mirage said immediately. He gestured with a hand as he spoke.

"If they are desperate enough to try and blunder their way into such an invitation, they will be desperate enough to try and keep us pleased at this 'event'. It would be social suicide to have ambassadors come from there with poor reviews of their gala."

[cliffjumper]

"I don't get all of this fraggin' maneuvering you're used to, but that's simple enough," snorting, Cliffjumper shook his helm and glanced up at Mirage, "well, the washrack's free, if ya want it."

Obviously it was free, since Cliffjumper was sitting right here, but he had no idea what else to say and making more incredulous noises as he found out more about the ins and outs of the social life of nobles, here or on Cybertron, wasn't very conductive.

[lastonepercent]

"'Maneuvering' is part of my job," Mirage said, amused. "But when little is at stake, it is much more enjoyable. And if we're going to this party, I intend to enjoy it."

He stood up, giving Cliffjumper a nod, before striding toward the washracks.

"Thank you. I might as well take advantage of it."

[cliffjumper]

"Yeah, yeah, I know. This gotta be like comin' home for ya," Cliffjumper, throwing a glance at Mirage's back as he left. Only to catch anything if he said anything more, of course. Not to watch him leave.

At least one of them was having fun, or, at the least, were on familiar ground. This really wasn't Cliffjumper's area of... anything. Just the class differences made this whole this uncomfortable, and he felt like glowering at every single mech he passed.

Even the attendants employed, since they seemed somehow snobby as well - though he supposed that made sense, they were employed at the highest level of government here, after all.