Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The summer heat raged throughout the city, leaving no place to rest. Unless you were underground that is. Or, in this case, a garage with barely any windows uncovered. Noah had never been so happy for this fact as today, when he’s hunched over Mirage’s open hood, fixing whatever new object had managed to lodge itself stuck between the Autobots parts, after whatever new police chase he had gotten into this time. While he had gotten into less chases since he was rebuild, he wouldn’t be Mirage if he didn’t get into a few more of them (Mirage’s words, not Noah’s).

Fishing out small pebble and some twisted piece of iron (the moron must have driven through some industry warehouse or something), Noah finally could stretch his back and let out a loud sigh.

”Okay Raj, did I get it all? Any more discomfort?”

Mirage seemingly ran whatever scans necessary, judging by the slight humming of the engine, before transforming to his root form.

”No more foreign bodies, Doc! Although can you maybe check under my arm? Not sure if maybe I have something loose” was the answer Mirage gave back. Noah rolled his eyes, both for the request and also for the nickname. Mirage had, for some reason, sometimes started to call Noah Doc or doctor. It all started after Mirage first transformed after being rebuild, and hasn’t stopped since. Stepping up to the Autobot, Noah wiped his forehead and chin.

”Whatever dude. Just show me where”

Sitting down on the concrete floor, Mirage lifted his left arm and pointed to where he felt something might be off. Taking up his flashlight, which he always kept in his pocket whenever he had to fix something on any of the Autobots, he took a closer look. Sure enough, something looked like it might be loose. From what little he had seen of the alien parts of his partner, it looked like some of the protomesh was poking out.

”I can see something poking out here. Am I right in assuming your protomesh is supposed to be snug against the metal inside your casing?”

”Yep, totally correct! Probably had some of the metal moving around so it’s no longer as protected”. Moving the flashlight, Noah could see the metal in question and began moving it into place again.

”Say Mirage, your protomesh… It kinda works like human muscles right? It can shorten and stretch inside of your casing, enabling movement?” Noah asked, gently caressing the black texture. It felt slightly cold to the touch, but it didn’t really feel like metal. It almost felt like a cold thick fabric, with some small small holes evenly spaced. The mesh felt alien, but also strangely soothing to the touch.

”Correct Doc! It also helps protecting our energon lines and base metal, kinda like your skeleton and… what was it called? Blood vessels?” Mirage answered back, seeming to slightly shiver when Noah touched his protmesh. Another thing Noah found fascinating about Cybertonians, in that they are seemingly made out of all metal, and yet seem to have some kind of nervous system, and have close to exactly the same kind of senses as humans. Metal shouldn’t feel touch or pain or any other kind of sensation, and yet here was Mirage actively feeling when Noah touched him, and his metal frame answered to that touch just like Noah would.

Aliens sure are weird, was Noahs conclution.

”Are all Cybertonians the same? With the how your frames work, I mean. Or do you have slight variations? I know some of you look like ground vehicles and some like planes and such, but do you guys have like, base layers that are all the same? Like, do you guys all have base frame, energon lines, protomeshs and then the casing?”

Noah, to some degree, knew he was currently just shooting questions at poor Mirage. He is a curious person, sue him, but even he knew he MAYBE should ask just one question at a time. His mom always said that his curious nature was one of his many good qualities, but that he should still try and controll it, if only to make other people more comfortable. Which both she and Noah agreed shouldn’t have to happen, but hey life is constantly a trackwreck if the slightes of inconveniences happened to anyone.

Mirage raised a, almost non-existing, eyebrow before looking away a bit, almost looking a bit... uncomfortable? Ashamed? Noah was pretty good at this point at to read his bots’ expressions, but there were times that he just didn’t know what was going through the others processors.

”Umm… well… mostly we are the same, with some slight variations depending on our frame types…” he started, looking like he wanted to say more but maybe didn’t know how.

”Raj?”

”Ugh... look dude” Mirage started. ”Before your start getting worried, there was nothing wrong with your questions”. He said, pointing at Noah’s face with his unoccupied hand.

”I wasn’t worried about that, dude” Noah said, his face pouting.

”But you were most like going to be” Mirage teased back, smirking. Taking a deep breath (Cybertonians didn’t need to breath, didn’t they?), he looked back down on his human.

”To answer fully, yes all Cybertonians have the same base parts. Some different frames might need more of one thing compared to other frames, some might need less. Some might need almost completely different parts to suit their frame types, making them almost seem like something non-Cybertonian. And this created some… issues, especially in places where different frame types often mixed. Places like Iacon and Velocitron were mostly inhabited by Grounders, ground based frame types, but they did have a sizeable amount of flying frames, who usually came from other places like Vos. And often... usually because flying frames were not in the majority and because bots be idiots, many medics didn’t want to treat flying frames. Or if they did, they didn’t treat them the way they needed. All care was usually based on problems faced by grounders, and not the actual care needed for someone of a flying frame type. Just another issue caused by the functionalists of the time...”

Noah listened closely, all while finishing putting all metal back in their rightful place and putting the casing back. He took a few moments before answering.

”Huh, who knew aliens had their own type of racism? Or well, racism within their own kind”.

”You guys have something similar?” Mirage said, now looking pretty sad. Noah felt slightly bad for him, his positive picture of humans probably now damaged. But then again, if he would spend any longer amount of time on Earth, he would eventually see humans for who they actually were.

”Yeah, we sadly do. Sounds like me and flying frames would get along just fine”. Mirage lookedat him with a sad smile.

”Knowing you Noah, you would get along with anybot”.

Chapter Text

A few days later, Optimus and the rest of the gang returned to the garage after a long time away on parole. Mirage decided to leave the garage for a short while, partly because he was still slightly on edge whenever the gang was around (especially Arcee and Optimus, Noah noticed), but also because having four big-sized robots in one garage was pushing it. The sun outside was still frying everything it touched, but it looked like some rain was finally starting to roll in. Noah couldn’t wait for it.

Optimus and the rest transformed back to their root-form, no doubt finally getting to stretch after being transformed for a long time. Noah could immediately see a few things:

1. They were all covered in lots of loose dirt, would easily fall of if wiped down. That would give him just even more cleaning work, yaaaay…
2. Arcee seemed to favor her left leg (do Cybertronians still call them legs?), might have something stuck or out of place. Unclear if she was in pain, or if her leg didn’t work properly and thus couldn’t walk on it.
3. Optimus looked like he was holding his stomach, although it was very subtle. He is pretty sure they didn’t feel hunger the same way as humans, so unsure if it was low Energon levels or something else.

First things first, he could at least offer to help them. If they refused, then it wasn’t his problem. At least then he had tried. He was sure Bumblebee would be more than okay with him helping, especially when seen how close he were to Mirage, but Arcee and Optimus was always a hit-or-miss. Especially Optimus, Noah never knew were he stood in the eyes of the bigger mech.

“Hey guys, traveling went well?”

Bumblebee gave a big smile back at him. “It went well! But it’s good to finally be under some roof” the mix of radio audio answered back to him. In the beginning, the weird mix of different radio audio working as Bumblebee’s voice was pretty odd and felt weird to Noah’s ears. But now after some time, he had gotten so used to it that he never thought twice about it. If his voice was ever restored, that would probably make him feel weird all over again because he had never heard it.

Mentioning feeling good to be under some roof did make Noah peek up.

“You guys also feel bothered by the heat?”

Arcee looked down at him. “Well yes we do”. She sounded slightly annoyed, but for some reason Noah got the feeling it wasn’t directed at him personally.

“Is your leg doing alright there Arcee?” He asked. Arcee looked surprised at him, then down at her leg. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe you’re not supposed to walk like that. You got something stuck?”.

Arcee looked away, looking slightly uncomfortable, if Noah had to guess from the expression on her faceplate.

“I’m fine, it will pass” she just said. And for whatever reason, Noah felt like he couldn’t leave it at that. Since rebuilding Mirage, Noah was constantly checking if something was out of place or wrong otherwise. Call it trauma from having a sick brother and then losing Mirage back in Peru, but Noah had issue in leaving something that he knew he could most likely fix.

“Want me to take a look at it? See if it’s anything I can fix?” He offered.

Arcee looked back at him, looking tired but mostly surprised once again. Looking up at Bumblebee and Optimus, probably feeling unsure, Bumblebee kept giving thumbs up and just overall positive vibes (how robots managed to show positive vibes and feelings just like a golden retriever, Noah would never know). Making a slight heavy exhale (ex-vent?) she turned back to Noah.

“Knock yourself out”.

Noah smiled up at her. “Then can you sit down over there by the workbench? Makes it easier for me to see and reach”. Arcee just nodded and sat down by said workbench. Noah himself sat down on his chair by the desk, taking his first proper look at the outside of her leg. Beside being plenty dirty, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong in the first place.

“Any discomfort or pain?” He asked her. Arcee just looked blankly at him.

“Mostly just slight discomfort”. “Just when you walk or even at a standstill?”. “Mostly during movement, even more when transformed”. “Does the actual transformation lift the discomfort or does it cause even more?”. “It starts to lift the more I transform”.

It went on back and forth like that, Arcee answering, but just in short sentences. Even so, Noah called it a win.

“I will need to take a closer look. Are you okay with me looking under the casing?” He asked. Arcee looked at first taken aback, like she hadn’t expected a question like that, but then she looked slightly more uncomfortable. Noah could relate, no one liked going to the doctor and having to then show the issue. And he guessed having someone looking under the casing was probably a bigger deal than just taking a look at your broken arm or leg.

“I’ll only look when the discomfort is. You can point to where it is, and as soon as I’m done we’ll close it up immediately. We can even ask the others to step out if that makes you more comfortable. How does that sound to you?” Noah tried, using some of the methods he knew his mother used on patients. Now that he thought about it, he has been more like his mother ever since Mirage came back from stasis. Does this count as nursing to robots?

The giant robot, somehow, managed to look so small under his gaze. Her eyes looked up at her fellow Cybertronians, and then back again. “Can they stay?”.

Noah tried looking as reassuring as possible. “Of course they can, if that makes you more comfortable”. Arcee then gave a short nod, giving him the okay to continue. Noah hopped off his chair, walked over to her leg and sat down by it.

Looking over her leg up close, he could now see that one of the plating was slightly loose in one corner, looking it might have something poking out from underneath. Touching it lightly, Noah noticed Arcee flinching slightly, before forcing herself to stop.

“That touch hurt?”. That question got himself a nod. “Looks like something might be pressing on the plating from underneath. We’ll take off the plating and see what we can find under it”.

Loosing the plating went by fast, something he learned from all the time working on Mirage. The issue presented itself directly after lifting the plating: what looks like a swollen Energon line pushing out against the protomesh and then the plating. How an Energon line could get swollen, he had no clue. Maybe something’s gotten stuck inside?

“Well I think we have found the problem. This Energon line is swollen. Or do you guys just say it’s expanded?” Noah says, turning up to Arcee.

“Um, most medics say they’ve expanded. I’m guessing this ‘swoollon’ is the human equivalent?” She answers.

“‘Swollen’, and yes it is. Then again, you can’t have something be swollen if you don’t have a living immune response I suppose… Oh well, what’s usually the cause for you to make the line expand like this? Crystallized Energon?”. Arcee looked pleasantly surprised at him.

“Yes, that would be the usual reason. Most have been from too little movement, and from probably not having access to the normal stuff we have back home. Must have been building up for some time now”.

“Well, we’ll use what we got. I’ll check if we got any fluids we can use to flush your system. May not the same as your stuff, but it’s the best shot we got at the moment” Noah says, already on the way to check his cabinet for anything if use. What does one even use for something like this? It’s not the breaks so breaker fluids won’t work. And she doesn’t run of diesel, would diesel exhaust fluids even work even work on Energon? Well, it’s at least worth a shot.

Grabbing the bottle of what little exhaust fluid he’s gotten, he turns back to Arcee.

“Bottoms up, girl. May not have the best taste, but it’ll hopefully do the job” Noah turns the cap off and gives the bottle to Arcee, the bottle looking very tiny in her big hands.

Arcee smells the bottle, shrugs her shoulders, and shugs down the whole thing in one go.

“Didn’t taste too bad” she says, before giving Noah a smug look. “Thanks Doc”.

Noah groaned as he turned around. “Oh my god, not you too!”

Chapter Text

The rain came two days later. Arcee had her leg checked again twice during those two days, and the exhaust fluids seems to work just fine. Which, positive: she could now walk around and transform without any pain; negative: she was now bonding with Mirage over calling him Doc… So much for helping people…

Noah was at home, currently packing a few things to bring along to the garage. He had gotten a few requests from some of his usual customers, so figured he could tinker with them today since the weather wouldn’t allow for anything else. Also it would maybe give him a good excuse to maybe finally get Optimus to let him check that damn stomach plate of his. He has continued to rub his stomach when he thought no one was looking. Seems like unless you were a spy, none of the Cybertronians even seems to know what being subtle was. Optimus included. Mirage could be subtle, but wasn’t very good at it.

Smiling while thinking of "his" Porsche, he closed his bag and went to grab his jacket. No need in getting wetter than he already will be. Mom has taken yet another shift at the hospital, even though she no longer needs to at the moment. Kris is also at school at the moment, so he would be all alone in the apartment if he were to stay. Which is not bad some days, constantly being around robots day in and day out could get pretty taxing at times. However most days Noah felt the loneliness creep in the instant he was left alone, so spending his days at the garage mostly did him good. Also spending more time with Mirage never failed in making him feel good.

Noah never thought the first real "relationship" he would have in his life would be with a big-ass robot, especially one who acts just like a golden retriever and is more than twice his own size. And yet, Mirage somehow managed to sweep him off his feet even though he in actuality haven’t known each other that long. Doesn’t really help that they were of two entirely different races, one fleshly and the other 90% metal. And yet Mirage managed to understand Noah in a way that not even his mom managed to. He knew the struggles of being a soldier, of questioning higher-up and the struggle of having to choose what’s most important to you and people not understanding your choices. And he had the feeling the same thing could be said for Mirage. It broke Noah’s heart when Mirage shared his issues about him and his fellow Autobots. About being constantly questioned, disliked and even distrusted because of his role as a spy. About him even spying on the Decepticons for a longer period of time, just because he felt the need to prove to himself that he chose the right ‘side’.

Even if there never really were a right or wrong side, what with both Autobots and Decepticons killing the other simoly for choosing one side over the other.

Passing through the door and locking the door, he pulled up the hood of the jacket and started walking. The rain wasn’t too hard, but still enough that he would be soaking wet without the jacket. And as good as his garage was, he didn’t have any spare clothes over there. Thankfully the walk wasn’t that terribly long, no more than 15 minutes max.

Opening the garage door, he saw Arcee just chilling while talking with Bumblebee. Mirage was away on patrol, but hopefully he’ll be back later that day (call him clingy but he already missed his big boy, so sue him!). Optimus was standing by the back wall, listening in to the other bots talking. While Noah had a very hard time reading the biggest bot in the group, mostly because he had his lower faceplate constantly covered, but also because he was quite and always looked very serious. They had made some progress during the whole key in Peru fiasco, but that didn’t mean that he was on the others better side. Noah had his own reasons to distrust Optimus, but most of them were linked to Mirage and the other bots rather than anything personal.

And yet again, Noah could see him rubbing his stomach plates and the others were totally oblivious to it. At times like this, Noah was almost grateful for his brother being sick, and his mom teaching him what to look for. Help him develop a bit of his own ‘clinical gaze’, as his mom called it. Apparently something all healthcare workers developed over time. And his clinical gaze was telling him Optimus was either in pain, had some other uncomfortable feeling in his stomach, was hungry or hiding something else.

Having the perfect excuse to walk over to him, as he was standing close to a shelf of stuff Noah needed for the latest fixing of electronics, Noah made eye contact with the bigger mech.

“Heya. What are they on about this time Optimus?” Noah started. Optimus gave him a long and unreadable look, followed by shrugging.

“Beats me at this point Noah. Those two really know how to jump from one subject to another. All I do know is Bee mentioned missing his friend Charlie, who he hasn’t seen for a long time now. Must have been almost close to two years by now…” he answered. Noah nodded at first, only to stop dead in his tracks.

Wait, what?!

“Charlie? That sounds like a human name. Have you met other humans before you met me?” He asked, confused. As far as he knew, he was the first human they had actual contact with.

“You were the first human me and Arcee met. Bumblebee met Charlie way before we met up. Apparently they had quite the adventure of their own, as she was the one to fix Bee’s radio after he got his voice box damaged beyond repair”. Optimus shook his head, but Noah could swear he saw something that looked like a small smile on his face plate. Okay, so Bumblebee is most likely his favorite. Noted.

“Well damn, sounds like quite the gal to manage that. Hope I get the chance to meet her one day, would be fun to meet another human who has also met amd worked on Cybertronians. And if it has been that long, it doesn’t surprise me if Bumblebee misses her. Two years is a long time for humans” Noah said, looking over at the other bots. He wasn’t surprised Bumblebee had managed to befriend another human before him, given his lively personality and kind nature. Also he was really lucky to have met one who also sounds to be a mechanic, since she managed to fix his voice issue.

Optimus continued to stay quiet, face turned to the other group. Oh, how Noah disliked stoic people. Another reason he had such a hard time in the military. You can never read them properly.

“How is he doing now, bu the way? He hasn’t said anything about any issue with his voice or anything else?” Noah tried.

“Isn’t that a question you should ask him?”.

“Normally yes. But I know enough that some people will say ‘everything is fine’ to most others, but share their troubles with some others. And since he came back to life, I’ve gotten the feeling he is one such individual” Noah countered. Optimus, finally, looked down on him. Almost as if he’s searching for something either on his face or in his words. After a short while, he released a heavy ex-vent.

“That is unfortunate very true, Bumblebee is one such individual to hide things but sharesthem with me privately. But rest assured, he has yet to come with any complaints regarding his frame or voice” he answered. Noah almost released a heavy breath of his own (who knew talking with Optimus could feel so taxing?).

“Good to hear, I hope he trusts me enough to come forward if anything troubles him…” Noah said almost absentmindedly.

“I am sure he will. You have already proven to be helpful after helping Arcee the other day, and after fully restoring Mirage’s frame”.

Oh, how Noah hope he doesn’t dig his own grave now.

“Then what about you Optimus? Do you trust me to help you with your issues?” Not looking up, he tried looking as calm and collected as possible, while emptying his bag om the shelf.

Optimus raised an eyebrow (do robots have eyebrows?). “What do you mean by that?”.

“Do you trust me to help you? Don’t think I haven’t seen you rubbing your stomach for the last two days” Noah talked with a voice that sounded confident, but on the inside he was a nervous wreck. He really wanted Optimus to like and trust him, but he was also a stubborn idiot who seems to rather wanting to die than accepting help.

Come to think of it, he had a feeling his mom and Mirage would say he himself were the exact same way. Huh. Another problem for another day.

Finishing putting everything on the shelf, he dared to look one last time at Optimus. If he didn’t like what Noah was saying, then he could just walk over to his work desk and not having to bother the mech for the rest of the day. It would be awkward as fuck, but at the very least he knew Optimus wouldn’t hurt him. At least not physically.

The look Optimus had, has not really what Noah had expected. He looked… shocked, and also slightly uncomfortable. Like when you caught a kid doing something they were explicitly told not to do. Like the fact someones attention were directed towards him was something that wasn’t supposed to happen. Noah started to think either the other autobots didn’t care as much and thus didn’t ask him anymore, or they weren’t allowed to care for him and now when someone suddenly does, he doesn’t know how to handle it. And Noah doesn’t know what to feel about any of those possibilities.

The poor mech suddenly almost looked smaller under Noah’s gaze. Yeah, the man definitely didn’t know how to handle someone caring for him. A stranger caring for him probably didn’t help the situation.

“Look, Optimus” Noah said, trying to get the other’s attention. “We both know you have something going on. If you’re going to continue protecting this group, you can’t walk around with a possible injury. Just let me help you this once, and we can then pretend it never happened”. He just hoped the other let him fix whatever the issue was, so he didn’t have to think about it anymore. Because he might not like him like the rest, but he still cared about him damn it.

Optimus looked up again at the group, who was now laughing hard at something they had been talking about. His face seemed to soften somewhat, like when a parent looked at their kids. He then turned his face down to face Noah.

“Just this once” was all he said. And all Noah did in return was nodding. He walked other to his work bench, put down the now empty bag and instead took out a flashlight and a tool belt, before walking back to the big mech.

“Then you know the drill big guy. Sit down and try explaining the issue we have going on” Noah said. Optimus complied immediately, and sat down on the concrete floor. Being on the bigger side, his stomach ended up being almost at chest height for Noah. An unintentional upside in Niah’s book. “Well, what do we have going on?”.

Optimus started rubbing his stomach again. “It’s not really any pain issue, or anything damaged. If anything… there is a lack of sensation in the area. I can feel a dull sensation when I rub it, but otherwise I can’t really feel anything” he tried to explain.

Noah had to blink a few times. He had had a number of injuries himself before and after his time in the military, and any loss of sensation usually meant one thing: nerve damage. 

And Noah had no idea how nerve damage worked on a robot. Well fuck.

“Okay… May I take a look under the plates? See if anything is loose or damaged” he said, trying to sound calm. Optimus just nodded, before giving Noah room to more the plates out of the way. The entire situation reminded Noah of when he treated Arcee the other day. He hoped it would end the same way, and not with him potentially making the leader of the autobots paralyzed because he had no idea what to do.

The plates were slightly harder to move, mostly because they all overlapped each other on all sides. But eventually Noah could see the protomesh underneath. A sudden thought popped into his head.

“Say, Optimus? This protomesh looks different than the one I’ve seen on the arms and legs on Mirage and Arcee. Does the mesh look different depending on where it’s located? That different types of mesh gives more or less movement and or protection?”.

Optimus looked amused, no doubt remembering how he asked similar questions two day earlier to Arcee. “I’ll be honest and say I don’t know. The workings of the frame were never my area, I always left things like that to Ratchet. If he comes around, you’ll have to ask him” he answered.

“Ratchet, huh? He’s your medic back home?”

“The Autobots medic, yes” Optimus answered with a fond look on his face. “He’s a very dear friend of mine, and I hope we can meet him again soon”.

Noah smiled back. “Hope he sticks around long enough then for me to ask him” he said before taking a closer look under the plates. “The mesh at least looks intact, if a bit worn in a few places. Nothing too bad”.

Moving around the flashlight, he could slightly see the energon lines just underneath the protomesh, as well as the base frame and the- 

Huh, would you look at that?

“Optimus, are you okay with me looking under the protomesh? I think I can see something underneath it” he asked. Knowing how Mirage reacted to him touching the protomesh on his arm, touching the protomesh on the stomach mist be a whole other ballgame. Maybe it is too intimate for Noah to do on Optimus at this point in time…

Thankfully Optimus gave, if slightly timidly, a nod of approval. Parting two sheets of protomesh (they reminded him of how feathers were folded on top of each other), he could finally see the issue:

Damaged and worn electrical wires. A thankfully very easy fix.

“Good news, I found the source of your numbness. Your wires are worn and have taken one too many punches. Thankfully I have a number of new wires to replace it. I’ll just cut on the damaged part, and then weld on the new one. Maybe get some protection over the new weldings, just as a precaution” he proclaimed to the autobot, voice finally with a confidence that was genuine.

Optimus probably noticed, as he ex-vented softly (nervously awaiting the verdict maybe?) and nodded.

The change took Noah only about 20 minutes, and after that he spend the rest of the day fixing his requested items. He didn’t miss however how Optimus seemed to be more relaxed after the procedure, and looked over at him from time to time. As nighttime rolled around and Mirage returned, he drove Noah back. Of course taking a longer way home just because he could.

After eating dinner, Noah still couldn’t get the new facts about the autobots out of his head. The treatment of Arcee, and the welding he did today for Optimus… it was all fascinating and he just couldn’t stop thinking about it. But it also felt all so familiar…

“Hey mom? Do you have any of your old anatomy books laying around? From back in medical school?” He asked as they were doing the dishes. Breanne looked up at her son.

“Anatomy books? Sure, I still got them all left. Why are you asking?” She asked with a confused look. Why would her son need her anatomy books?

“May I borrow them a little? I just want to look at something” he asked. Breanne smiled warmly at him.

“Of course you can, just be careful with them. Would be fun to have another healthcare worker in the family” she said with a laugh.

‘Oh, if you had any idea’, Noah thought in amusement. “Thank you mom”.

As mom and Kris went to bed, Noah took one of moms anatomy books with him to his room. Looking over the pages, he analyzed every image and pieces if text he saw. Looking into one of the drawers, he found an old journal that he never wrote anything in.

Putting a pen to the first page, he started writing the night away

Chapter Text

Optimus prided himself on being a patient and most often calm mech. Even in stressful situations, he was able to keep a cool helm and direct his fellow mechs. Being a leader for a rebellion against a military movement made such qualities a necessity, or you wouldn’t survive long. Not only wouldn’t you survive yourself, but the loss of mechs could break even the toughest individual if you weren’t able to keep cool and calm at times. During all these millions of years, he had lost so many he was unable to remember them all. Any other would have broken under all the pressure and sparkbreak, but Optimus has continued to stand tall. He couldn’t allow himself to fall into despair or fail, his fellow mechs needed him. Cybertron needed him, as the only prime still alive.

Despite this, he knew he wasn’t himself without fault. He knew many of his decisions had caused harm or even death to many under his command, a fact he would never be able to live down or forget. He wouldn’t be able to shake it off and be constantly positive like Bumblebee, Mirage or even Hot Rod; and he knew he wouldn’t be as helpful to others like Ratchet, but he still tried his best to not seem too affected by everything that has happened during this long war. Even if he knew he could come across as stoic and cold to some, he tried his best to seem approachable and open to everyone. Even to Deceptions, especially those who genuinely wanted to change. Drift especially came to mind, never failing to bring a smile to his faceplate at the thought of one of Ratchet’s sparkmates.

Which brought him to his current problem: humans. Especially this one human called Noah.

Optimus was incredibly weary of involving humans in the first place. Not only did he not want to get another innocent race involved in his war, but it was also questionable if humans could be trusted. The Autobots had spent seven years on Earth at this point, and while they had seen limited interactions with this race due to them mostly staying hidden, it didn’t erase the few they did see. The humans they had seen would constantly backstab each other, lie, steal and overall act very untrustworthy. Not to mention they were much smaller than them, even smaller mechs like Mirage or even Tailgate were taller than them. Not to mention they weren’t made the same way as them, and also probably didn’t work or think like them.

Simply put, humans and Cybertronians weren’t the same, and thus these others couldn’t be trusted.

At least he used to think like this. He stood firm by this, for seven years straight. But then Mirage just had to show up one day to one of their meetings together with a human. This human even held a metal pipe when Optimus showed up, looking ready to pounce. Easy to say, meeting Noah didn’t change his views of humans at all.

But actively working with Noah to first get the key, and then traveling to Peru to fight Scourge and stop Unicron, he started to see that not all humans were the same. Not only did the relationship between Noah and Elena surprise him of how similar humans and Cybertronians could be, but getting to see the soldier in Noah reminded him so much of not only his fellow mechs, but also himself. Being ready to go into dangerous situations to help save his planet, and then risking his own life was something Optimus was too familiar with. And now, months after the incident in Peru, Noah kept proving him wrong. He shared stories about his family (especially his little brother Kris, who Optimus couldn’t help but compare to Bumblebee), but also very few of himself.

That, in turn, led into his current predicament. Noah had been taking care of the Autobots, ever since he managed to rebuild Mirage’s frame from the ground up. Not only did this earn him Optimus’ respect, but also a bit of his worry. Because he was starting to see how things were taking a toll on the smaller man. Not only had he started to look more tired than usual the last couple of days, but Optimus had started to see how all the things in the young man's life had changed or even damaged him. The few stories Noah had shared more than proved it.

Being a veteran himself, Optimus knew to some degree what Noah had gone through, even if he didn’t exactly know what kind of war he had been involved in. The few stories he had shared showed Optimus how little Noah actually valued himself, and he also didn’t seem to have the best self-esteem. He dared to speak his mind, but always seemed to shrink back immediately afterwards, as if expecting someone clapping back at him for doing so. Optimus sadly realised that the poor man was probably broken down from his time on the force, and his reactions seem to indicate that he didn’t have the best commanding officer. Thankfully he wasn’t totally broken down, or he wouldn’t have the courage at all.

That was his first worry, the partly broken down state after the army and his need for better self-esteem. His other worry was the man's own health. Noah was very good at taking care of the Autobots, but his own health had taken a nosedive recently. He always seemed to have issues with overworking himself (if Mirage’s complaints were to be believed), but ever since he fixed Optimus’ wiring he seemed even more tired every single day that passed. He went home late, and always came in with dark circles around his eyes. Mirage was always worried, not only noticeable in his body language, but also from his EM field that always put out his worried feelings. Putting feelings out in this fashion was normal for Cybertronians, but as Noah was sadly human he couldn’t feel their EM fields.

Another change was the notebook he had started carrying around. It was a simple dark brown book, with no other noticeable features. Even so, Noah was carrying it everywhere, and was often seen taking notes in it. Sometimes he had another much thicker book with him, one that looked much more worn out. When he had that one with him, he often sat by his work desk and wrote in his notebook while reading from the thicker book, all while tinkering with his other work on the side.

Currently Noah was sitting on the couch writing again, having recently checked Mirage over (very likely checking over any recent repairs. Primus knows Mirage can’t stay still in one place for too long if not needed). Arcee had recently returned from a short drive, and Bumblebee had stayed inside with Optimus all day. Looking over at the young man, he could see how he was slightly nodding his head to whatever Mirage was saying. Optimus was unsure if Noah was even listening to what Mirage was saying.

“I’m telling you man, you need to recharge more! Or take a nap at least. You’re barely staying awake right now” Mirage said in a slightly whiny tone. While not exactly said in the best way, Optimus couldn’t say he didn’t agree.

“I’m fine ‘Raj, I’m soon finished here anyway…” Noah answered, rubbing his eyes slightly in an attempted unassuming way. It backfired immediately, as Mirage frowned in response. Mirage seemed to at least know when not to press something too far with him, as he didn’t say much more back at him. Instead he used his servos to gently lift the human into his lap, with his back leaning back against his chassis. Normally Noah would most likely have protested against such actions (humans sometimes had weird ways and customs regarding showing affection), but he instead seemed to melt against him and continued to write.

“You know Mirage, one of these days you are going to probably harm him with the way you’re moving him around” Arcee said. Optimus could hear the teasing tone in her voice, but the look Mirage gave seems to indicate he didn’t. For whatever reason Arcee and Mirage didn’t seem to get along very well. Bumblebee and Mirage got along pretty good, but even then Mirage almost seemed… guarded at times. Another thing to look into later on.

“Ah, come on man! I’m always careful with my boy here, there’s no way I’d hurt him intentionally! Right Noah?” Mirage responded sharply. However, instead of getting a reply he was met with silence.

“Noah?”

Arcee knelt down to take a look at the young man.

“Ah, he seems to be in recharge” she said with a knowing smile. And indeed, in Mirage’s lap sat a still Noah deep in recharge, notebook and pen still in his own lap. Mirage looked down fondly at the man, before carefully putting away the pen and notebook in the small coffee table. After that he reached for the blanket on the couch and covered his human in it, making himself into Noah’s own private berth. Observing the two, Optimus had to wonder how the two hadn’t gotten together yet. While maybe not exactly promoting Cybertronian-Human romances, this was quite plainly getting ridiculous (maybe he should send Arcee in to “help” them if things continued to stagnate?).

“Poor guy, but at least he’s recharging now… Why is this guy so bad at taking care of himself?” Mirage asked no one in particular.

“Well his constant writing doesn’t seem to make it his first priority. What is he writing anyway?” Arcee said, her optics staying the entire time on the small book on the table. “Aren’t you curious about what it says?”.

Mirage looked uncomfortable away from her and down on Noah. “Of course I’m curious, but it’s not our place to look through it. It’s Noah’s property and we have no business looking into it” he tried reasonably. Normally he would be all in on looking through others stuff, but this was Noah. His human. He couldn’t break his trust like that. If Noah wanted to show him, he would wait until he did. He didn’t want to screw up this friendship they had.

No matter how curious he got. Or how much he wanted to be closer to Noah, and perhaps become more than friends.

“Aw, come on! He has never done this before, ever right after he re-build you. I for one am dying to find out what he writes in it. What if it’s something important? We don’t know him that well after all”.

Mirage could feel his energon boiling. “YOU don’t know him that well. I do. And he would NEVER write and then hide something that would be dangerous to us. Hasn’t him repairing us for the last couple of weeks proved that to you?” He asked in an accusatory tone. Arcee for her part, either in shock from his tone or his choice of words, looked kinda shocked. With all right to be.

“I... I know you two are much closer than the rest of us, and he has treated us very well despite having very little reason to. But don’t you want to be on the safe side? One little peak won’t hurt. And if it’s really nothing, then we just don’t have to mention it to him, and he’ll be none the wiser” Arcee argued.

Mirage was really uncomfortable with the idea, but even more so he was uncomfortable with the fact that she made some really good points. Not about distrusting Noah, that would never happen, but that just doing a quick check and then never having to mention it again was something they should maybe do. If maybe only to prove her wrong. Even still, Mirage really hated how Arcee never seemed to trust his judgment. Or just trust him at all.

Releasing a heavy ex-vent, he looked over at the book again. “All right, you win this one. But just a quick peak, there’s no need for more”.

Arcee, now looking far too delighted for Mirage’s taste, walked over to them with a slight skip in her steps. Mirage could also hear the much more heavy pedsteps of Optimus, indicating he was also walking over to take a look.

‘Always acting like the bigger bot, but you are just as curious and interested in gossip as the rest of us, aren’t you Prime?’ He thought. Still having Noah comfortably laying on his lap, he took the book in his way to big servos and opened up the first pages.

The first few pages weren't anything too noteworthy. It detailed the procedures he did on Arcee and Optimus recently, the findings he saw and how he fixed them. There were even small doodles next to the text to visually describe what he was writing, with small notes and arrows around them. The writing reminded Mirage of the few medical reports he had seen Ratchet write, being very detailed but not too gruesome.

It went on for the first few pages, making Mirage relax. Noah hadn’t written anything too weird or concerning. He thought about closing the book and calling it a day... But then he turned the page he was holding to a new one. And the two new pages before him were mostly blank, except for the bold letters spanning over both pages.

Cybertronian Anatomy And Treatments

Now THAT peaked even his interest. Noah had, after all, spent so much time writing in this book. He couldn’t possibly have spent all those days and nights writing only those few pages. Looking up slightly, he could see that both Arcee and Optimus both looked very intrigued. Letting his curiosity get the better of him, he flipped the page.

What he saw was a full frame illustration of... himself. The illusion of him was facing forward with his normal grin. On the sides were more arrows and texts, but this time naming the different frame parts of him. Helm, chassis, arms, legs, servos, pedes… It just went on and on. The page beside it had the illusion of a human in the same pose, with the same arrows and text. On this side though, it named all the human body parts. The whole widespread was showing similarities and differences between a human and a Cybertronian.

Flipping over again to the next page, it showed this time an arm and servo on one page and an arm and hand on the other. The arm and servo were shown with all the different layers that made them up clearly visible. It was very easy to find the base framework, the energon lines, the wiring, the protomesh and finally some of the outer casing. The text beside the illustrations were written in boxes and described the workings of each component, comparing them to their human counterparts. The next continued this trend, but this time showing Arcee’s leg and ped. The next page after that showed Optimus’ upper and lower torso on one page, followed by a human version on the page beside it. This didn’t have as much information at the moment (it was clearly a work still in progress), but it still mentioned all the essential parts like the location of the spark chamber and all the different platings that made up the different frame sizes. It was made clear that Noah intended to return to these pages later on as he got more information, as at the moment the human version had more information and details than the Cybertronian one.

Flipping page showed Optimus again, but just his back this time. The human version on the opposite page clearly had much more information written down again, as along the spine were countless arrows and names, seemingly naming each individual little thing in there. Seems humans call different parts of the spine different letters and numbers, for some reason… Mirage has to ask Noah about that later at some point.

Mirage couldn’t help but smile brightly. This was Noah’s ‘big secret’: a very detailed medical text about Cybertronians, with all the information he had gathered over time. Taking a quick look over at Noah’s work desk, he could just about see the spine of the old and worn textbook: Anatomy And Physiology. Had Noah used human medical texts to cross reference his new knowledge? No wonder he hasn’t been recharging! The guy had been too occupied reading medical texts and writing!

Deciding to do one last page flip, what greeted him was… a very unassuming list. Feeling almost a bit disappointed, he read through the list. And quickly his disappointment changed, yet again. It was still a boring list alright, but it was a list of different frame parts and their human equivalent, kinda like a dictionary. There was however one line that stood out immediately; helm. Not only did it say ‘helm - head’, but beside it was a peculiar scribble. Mirage almost had to offline and online his optics a few times.

Beside the word helm, was a scribble that very much looked like standard Cybertronian. Even more so, it looked like the standard Cybertronian word for helm. Written in a thicker pen than the rest of the text, the alien symbol stood out pretty much on the white sheet of paper. The thick lines and smaller dots connected together very well, almost looking like a Cybertronian had written it and not a human.

Mirages, Arcee and Optimus stared at the page, all of them in deep shock. Arcee and Optimus were shocked how a human could possibly know words in the standard Cybertronian language, while Mirage was very surprised that Noah still remembered it considering he only showed it once.

“Uh, okay. Most of this I can understand if he knew, but how in Primus’ name does he know Cybertronian?” Arcee said almost frantically. Optimus himself looked almost too shocked to speak.

“I- I showed him. However I showed it only once, and it wasn’t long after I came out of my stasis… So how could he have possibly remembered it?” Mirage said absentmindedly.

“In what scenario would you possibly have to show him anything written in Cybertronian? It’s not like he can learn to speak it” Arcee argued. Feeling almost pissed all over again, he turned to her.

“Just because he can’t learn to speak any of the Cybertronian languages, doesn’t mean he can’t learn to read and write!” He argued back.

Optimus finally snapped out of his stupor and turned to the younger two.

“Both of you, calm down. Arcee, while I understand you in this, Mirage has a point. Mirage, can you tell me why you showed him this particular word?” He said. Both Mirage and Arcee stopped to look at him, before looking away like little sparklings who had gotten scolded.

“Some time after I came out of my stasis, I got a pretty bad ache in my processors. I had trouble explaining myself and where the pain came from, so Noah gave me a pipe and tried to have me write it down on the ground. Unfortunately at the time I could only come up with standard Cybertronian or Iaconian words, so I only wrote down helm. In the end he told me to point to where the pain came from. It was probably from then on that he started checking me over routinely, so nothing similar would happen again…” Mirage explained.

Optimus looked thoughtfully for a while, like he was deep in thought about the situation. He raised his helm, looking around for a bit.

“Have you tried writing with a human pen before Mirage?” He suddenly asked. Mirage, now very confused, just nodded. Optimus walked over to Noah’s workbench, looking it over. Very carefully, he picked up a pen and a sheet of paper and walked back to the group.

“How about we help finish the list for him?”

Waking up, Noah was very confused for a moment. He knew he wasn’t home at the moment, but he also had just had the best sleep in a very long time. Looking around, he noticed he was laid down on the couch again, which confused him even more. Because if he remembered correctly, the last thing he did was sitting on-

Oh.

Oh, noo…

Oh, fuck him.

He fell asleep on Mirage’s lap.

His face started burning in embarrassment, which he quickly tried to cover up with his hands. Sure, he very much liked the mech (a whole other can of worms for later-Noah to deal with), but falling asleep on his lap was a bit too much. It’s not even like they’re dating or anything, no matter how much Noah wanted that.

Quickly looking around, he saw all three mechs sleeping in their alt-form. Releasing a sigh of relief, he looked down on the coffee table. As he correctly had guessed, his notebook was safely laid down together with his pen. Mirage must have put them down after he had fallen asleep.

Although he didn’t remember another loose paper laying there too.

Sitting up, he grabbed the paper laying beside the book. He also noticed another pen on the table, one with a thicker nub compared to the one he wrote with normally. He usually used this one for marking things. He looked over the paper, now much calmer than before.

It was a list, written in crudely written words in English and some better ones in-

Cybertronian?

Shocked, he read the list over and over again. It was a list of body parts, written both in English and Cybertronian. Feeling like he knew this list, he picked up his notebook and flipped to his latest written page. Holding the notebook with one hand and the new note in the other, he started comparing the text. A new warmth filled his chest with each new word, and after finishing he looked up at the trio again.

Obviously, this proved they had read the notebook. But instead of disliking it and telling him to stop, they had instead seemed to want to help him finish it instead.

With a big smile firmly etched onto his face, he picked up his pen and started filling in the new information.

Chapter Text

Optimus was getting worried. Scratch that, he was getting really worried here. Ever since the day the group found out about Noah and his journal, he had been paying close attention to Mirage. Especially his interaction with the other bots. He was ashamed to admit it, but he hadn’t paid as much attention to Mirage as he had with the others. Wheeljack was barely around nowadays, but had been someone he could always lean on when it mattered; Arcee was always one of his most trusted, and had somewhat become like a daughter to him over the years. And then there was Bumblebee, his closest friend and someone he treated as his son. No one wanted to admit that they had a favourite person or child, but everyone had one. And in his case, Bumblebee was that one. But Mirage always was a special one. He was trustworthy, and sometimes loyal to a fault. However his personality often left much to be desired, being often way too cherry for the situations. He had his moments when it came in handy or actually lifted everyone’s spirits in a grim situation, but often many found it out of place or even irritating.

But after that day, and seeing the interaction between him and Arcee, Optimus couldn’t help but start to wonder about the other bot. No matter how friendly he seemed, he never seemed to be close to anyone specific. He got along with Bumblebee just fine, but even then he seemed tense and some of their interactions felt somewhat forced. Arcee and Mirage had their moments of being somewhat friendly, very few but they were still there. Which made the friendship (or whatever they had) between him and Noah so noteworthy. It never felt forced, and he had never seen Mirage so genuinely relaxed like when he was with Noah. And Noah gave the same in return, seemingly enjoying every single moment spent with the Autobot. If nothing else, him saving Mirage by spending all those months rebuilding him proved as much.

All of this only made him feel more perplexed. What was the difference? Why was he getting along so well with a human who had only known him for a short time, meanwhile he was guarded and didn’t get along with other bots who had known him for a much much longer time. Was it that they were simply so alike that they got along better? Had something happened during their time on Earth, and that had changed Mirage? Or was it something about themselves? Optimus dreaded that last one, hoping to Primus nothing had happened to make him actually dislike his fellow Autobots.

Feeling worried about the younger one, he had started observing the other almost every day, looking for anything that could answer his questions. Mirage had most likely caught on that Optimus was up to something, as he had been stealing glances at him and made questionable faces whenever they locked optic with each other. The times Optimus had his sight on Mirage for a longer period of time, it didn't become uncommon to see Mirage either look more irritating or more withdrawn the longer it went on.

Optimus pinched his optic ridge, feeling like he was at crossroad. He didn't want to confront Mirage, but at the same time he couldn’t just let this go on. He needed to get this resolved, and hopefully fast.

Mirage and Noah had been spending the day together again, and he heard something about taking Kris with them for a ride while the boys’ mom was still working. The two fit so well together, sharing ideas, sending looks that seemingly only the other could understand, and even when they disagreed they got over it pretty fast. With Kris currently being pretty stable (something that peaked his interest sometimes. From what he gathered, Kris was apparently pretty sick), he had been spending more time at the garage. The other bots had been formally introduced to the little one, and Optimus can't lie that the little one was very cute in his own way. Mirage and Noah had almost acted like overprotective parents at times, making sure he didn’t get hurt on anything in the garage that could send him back to the hospital. Optimus already knew Mirage loved that boy and would never forgive himself if something happened to him. With tension running high the last few days, Optimus felt like this was a perfect opportunity to talk about the situation with the other bots.

“Righty then! We'll be off then! Gotta take my boys and hit the streets” Mirage called out, announcing their leave.

Optimus nodded to him. “Make sure you stay under radar” he said.

“Of course we will, Prime. You have no need to doubt us” Mirage answered in his normally cheeky tone. 

Noah fondly shook his head. “Same goes for you guys. Play nice and don't destroy my garage while we’re gone” he said, rolling his eyes in Mirage’s direction. Transforming into his alt-mode, Noah got into the driver's seat, and off they went to pick up Kris for their outing.

Releasing an ex-vent he didn’t know he had been holding, Optimus turned towards the rest.

“Okay, everyone. I have something to discuss while it’s only us” he said. Peeking up at the bigger mechs voice, both Bumblebee and Arcee turned to face him.

“About what, boss?” The radio voice of Bumblebee rang out in the mostly quiet garage.

“About Mirage” the answer came. Both Bumblebee and Arcee froze.

“Mirage? What has he done this time?” Arcee asked, crossing her arms. Whatever he had done, it couldn’t be anything good if Optimus has to bring it up.

“It’s not about anything he has done, but something about how he has been acting”.

Bumblebee raises an eye ridge. “Has he been acting differently? Can’t say I’ve noticed anything”.

“Me neither. Are you really sure he just isn’t up to something stupid like always?” Arcee added. Optimus ex-vented heavily.

“No, this is something new. Or at least it seems to be new. I believe something has been up with him for a long time, but no one has noticed anything until now” he said. Bumblebee and Arcee started to look more unsure. While Arcee looked unsure and skeptical, Bumblebee was unsure and worried.

“Can you elaborate on this?” Arcee asked.

“Ever since the other day when we discovered that journal belonging to Noah, I’ve noticed how Mirage seems more guarded and tense when interacting with us Cybertronians, but he seems more relaxed when with Noah. Not only just now, but I’ve also realised he’s been like this even before we left Cybertron”.

Arcee blinked, her faceplate changing from skeptical to surprised, before changing again to something weary.

“I mean… he’s always been like that, even since he joined the Autobots. He’s always been a jokester, never really fitted with the rest of us. I know many felt like he didn’t take anything seriously, but we all just assumed it had to do with him being a tower bot…”

Bumblebee nodded. “I’ve heard similar things. Even if me and some others interacted more with him, even then he felt… out of place of sorts”.

Arcee looked up at Optimus. “Optimus, what do you think is going on?” She asked.

Optimus looked over at the workbench by the wall, loads of tools still being out after being recently used. Mirage would often willingly help Noah by handing over tools or fetching something, or other times lift something that was too heavy for the smaller human.

Looking back at the other Autobots, his faceplate morphed into a sad look.

“I’m starting to think Mirage has experienced something during his time with us, which has made him feel either weary of us, or like he can’t trust us anymore…”

Coming to a screeching halt, Mirage opened the door to the driver’s seat and the passenger seat. Kris jumped out, a big smile on his face. Noah stepped out on the other side, with a smile almost equally as big.

“That was awesome, Knuckles! We gotta do it again soon!” Kris almost shouted.

“You got it, Tails! Gotta do it before it gets too cold though. I’ve heard your roads can be pretty slippery when winter comes around” Mirage answered back, his entire frame feeling warm and content after their day together.

“Alright, I’ll be right back ‘Raj. Gotta let Kris in and let momma know we’re off again to the garage” Noah called out before walking Kris to their front door.

Mirage didn’t complain but waited by the sidewalk. He felt like the day just couldn’t get any better. First he got to spend most of the day with his favourite person in the whole world, followed by spending time with said person and his little brother. He loved Kris so dearly, even if it was in a different way than he loved Noah. He tried not to think about how different they were as species, and that Noah and Kris would be long gone before Mirage would consider himself old, but tried to live in the here and now. And now, he wanted to spend as much time with these humans as he could. 

He wished to meet their ‘mom’ one day, because she was an important person in their life. She had created these two boys and raised them into the amazing people they were now, and in his optics such a person needed to be met and respected. Not to mention he felt kinda bad when Noah had to sneak around when he left for the garage. Even Reek knew about them by now! He had seen when Mirage emerged from his stasis after the battle in Peru, and had then met up with Noah and Mirage a few times. He knew about the rest of the Autobots, but hadn’t met them.

‘Thank the Allspark’, he thought. ‘Would want to keep at least this for myself for a bit longer. Not have to share with the other Autobots or risk having them take over yet another thing I treasure’.

Shaking his dark thoughts from his processors, he lit up as he saw Noah walk back outside. Jumping into the driver’s seat, they sped away again towards the garage. They didn’t speak much during the ride, a calm and content silence filled the space between them. There was no need to say anything really, they just wanted to spend their time in each other's company.

Soon enough, they reached the garage. Noah jumped out to open up for Mirage, the silver Porsche slowly rolling in. Transforming back into his root form, he stretched after spending so long transformed.

“Man, that was really something! Tell you what Noah, maybe we should take a lap through the industrial area next time” Mirage said with a big grin on his faceplate.

“And risk any police chasing us, again? No thanks man” Noah chuckled. Closing the garage door, he looked over to see the other three Autobots still inside. Although, they almost seemed… tense.

“What’s with the atmosphere guys? You haven’t broken anything, have you?” He asked the bigger three.

Bumblebee quickly looked down at him. “We haven’t broken anything, I promise!” He said, looking like he expected a scolding. Arcee just rolled her optics.

“Nothing’s broken. We’ve barely touched anything”.

Noah narrowed his eyes, not feeling particularly convinced.

“Then what’s up with the tension here? Did something happen?”.

This time there was no immediate answer. The three mechs looked uncomfortably between each other, like they were deciding on whether or not to share their thoughts. Finally, it seems like they decided to share.

“Could we talk with Mirage for a little bit?” Optimus asked. 

Noah was confused. Speaking only with Mirage? About what? He hadn’t done anything to warrant a stern talking to, and there hadn’t been any recent sightings of anything special recently. But maybe- maybe there had just been a sighting? Had a Decepticon suddenly gotten to Earth? Was Scourge maybe back, or something happened to Wheeljack or the Maximals? Maybe something had happened to Elena, he hadn’t heard from her in a while now… Or maybe, maybe they had found a way back to Cybertron? Were they leaving?!

Seeing his human go still and slightly pale, Mirage started to put two and two together. He knew Noah had a tendency to sometimes overthink stuff, and his face and posture proved that he was currently not in a good headspace.

“What is it, Prime? Something that can’t be shared with the rest of the class?” Mirage tried to ask in a joking fashion, hoping it would help ease the tension Noah was currently feeling.

“It sadly can not. It will however not take long, just a few minutes” Optimus answered, trying to look reassuring.

Ex-venting heavily, Mirage turned Noah. “Welp, guess I gotta take this one. But like he said, it shouldn’t take long” he said, laying his servo on Noah’s head. Looking up at his smiling face, Noah tried to make himself relax.

“Yeah… okay. Just don’t take too long, okay?” He said.

Mirage winked back at him. “You got it, Sonic!” He said, and proceeded to follow the rest out of the garage.

Driving a few blocks away to a currently empty storage unit, they all transformed back into their root forms,

“Okay Prime, spill it. What is it that you wanted to talk about so badly?” Mirage said, starting to feel a bit annoyed that his good day was been ruined, and also that Optimus had worried Noah. Mirage hoped for Prime’s own sake that it was for a good reason.

Seemingly collecting his nerves, Optimus locked optics with Mirage.

“During your outing, we have been discussing certain things, and it was mostly about your… recent changes to how you interact with others” he began, feeling fully out of his element.

Mirage raised an optic ridge. “My recent what now?”

“We’ve noticed how differently you act when you talk and act when with humans, especially Noah, compared to when you are with us” Optimus tried again. Verbal confrontations like this wasn’t something he was very comfortable with, especially with his own mechs. He’d rather take multiple rounds against Megatron, back to back, before having to have a confrontation like this.

Looking and feeling more tense himself, Mirage crossed his arms in a self-soothing way. “Well… I mean… Noah and I are very alike, and we just get along pretty good. Not to mention humans are very interesting to talk to…” he tried, trying to deflect anything they might have on their processors so he could return to the garage. He really didn’t want to have whatever this conversation was turning into.

“Just cut the crap, Mirage. We all know you act very differently with us compared to Noah. Even before we came here, you acted all carefree when around others, but never partook in any group missions or partnered with any other mech. And when we then get to Earth, suddenly BOOM you’re partnered instantly with a human and you’re constantly together now” Arcee argued. After the three talked, they had realised that Mirage acted like a mech who got along with anyone, but usually only went on missions alone. Acting outwards one way but behaving in a completely different way…

“Let it be Arcee” Mirage hissed, feeling very annoyed now. “So I get along with humans better right now, big deal! Just because I do, it doesn’t have to mean anything!”.

Optimus frowned. “It becomes a big deal if it will affect you in the future, Mirage”.

Mirage shook his helm and chuckled darkly. Of course, of course that’s the only reason why they worried. All focus on the current and future missions, nothing else ever going through their processors. No worries about how anyone else could possibly be feeling, but only about how useful you could be to the cause.

“Okay then… You know what, okay then” he started. “You want an explanation, fine! You’ll get one!”.

All three mechs all flinched from the sudden outburst from the silver mech. Mirage may have had his moments before, but never like this. Never this sudden outburst, and never this angry.

“The reason why I act the way I do with you lot is because I’ve never been trusted by you! Not a single one has trusted me since I joined the Autobots. First it was because I was a tower bot, there was no way a tower bot could ever understand the struggles everyone else had” Mirage started, spilling all his hidden thoughts and feelings regarding the others. Normally he had a tight hold on his feelings, keeping it all hidden deeply so they never could be exploited or used against him. But now he felt so tired of it all, especially after he finally could be open with his feelings with Noah. 

“And after that, it was because of my abilities. I can’t remember a single bot who didn’t think I was actually some Decepticon spy, and that I would turn everyone over at any given moment! I was never, EVER trusted! Do you guys know what that feels like? Having the mechs you’re supposed to work with never trusting you and never having your back?!”

Mirage was fuming now, shoulders heaving and his faceplate contoured in rage. Some part of him knew it wasn’t really fair of him to explode at them like this. Optimus had never been actively cruel to him, and Bumblebee he truly believed didn’t have a bad gear in him (or bad bone as Noah would say). Arcee and him didn’t really get along, but even so she also wasn’t cruel. But a bigger part of him didn’t care, it just wanted to have somebot finally hear him out. To finally share his hurt and frustration, and hopefully have them answering them.

Bumblebee had almost started curling into himself, arms tight against his chassis and helm down. He knew Mirage had had some issues with some of the others, but he never thought it would actually be this bad. He actually liked Mirage, the spy had a similar sense of humor as him and was easy to talk to. Seeing another bot hurt always hurt him, but knowing they and the rest of the Autobots were the reason he was hurt was even worse.

“But… but you seem so happy all the time… Always joking, and seemingly always in a good mood” Bumblebee tried weakly. 

Mirage huffed before giving a very weak and sad chuckle. “It's called a trauma response, Bee. You yourself do the same thing. And Whirl. And Wheeljack. And Bulkhead. Many of you do, but no one questions it, because most understand that's how we're coping with everything”.

Arcee felt her wires twist in her core. She had never been close to Mirage, finding him off-putting at times and tolerable at others. They had never had a close relationship, but she wouldn't claim to dislike him or even hate him enough to actively hurt him. She had tried for some kind of neutral, while also gossiping and venting at the side with the other bots. She thought they were fine, she thought the feelings were mutual between all bots. But… seeing Mirage so angry - so broken down - that just showed that what they had was FAR from acceptable or mutual. She recognised that face, the face Cliffjumper had the times he felt like he hadn’t done enough, or could have done something better. The self-hatred and utter helplessness, that is what she saw reflected in Mirage’s optics. She had vowed back in the day to do everything she could to make sure Cliffjumper never had to feel like that or make that face again, but instead she had been the cause of someone else having it. And she knew she had been part of the cause, because even if she hadn't been antagonistic against Mirage, she had never defended him or spoken positively about him.

She had been part of the reason why Mirage didn't feel comfortable being in a team with anyone. She had been part of the reason why Mirage didn't feel trusted or seen. And she had definitely been part of the reason why he so desperately clung to Noah, because he was currently the only being who saw him and gave him validation. She may not have liked Mirage, but part of her wondered if that was maybe of her own making.

Mirage shook his helm, feeling numb and defeated. “I never wanted to just fight, you know? It’s not what I’m built for. I just wanted to partake in it all to hopefully make the war shorter. I miss home, but more than that I miss living. And since meeting Noah, I feel like I’m finally doing just that. So sorry if that makes me less of a soldier to you Prime, but that’s my honest truth…”.

Optimus felt like he had failed. No, scratch that - he knew that he had failed! He had known Mirage since he joined the Autobots, a bright individual who just wanted to make Cybertron a safe place again. Being a tower bot had of course made him a bit of a target for teasing, but that was all Optimus had assumed it to be: teasing and uneasiness for being someone new in the group. He had never known about the distrust most of the Autobots had for Mirage, both for being a tower bot and then for becoming a spy. He knew tower bots had a bit of a reputation for being snobbish, and never joining either side of the war, but seeing as Mirage had actually joined Optimus thought he was in the clear. But now he could clearly see, he hadn’t been accepted or integrated into the fold.

The reason why he never had missions with another bot, no one else trusted him and so he had to go on his own. The reason he seemed friendly on the surface but never got close to anyone, no one trusted him not to turn everyone over to the Decepticons, and so he had to keep up a facade to make himself less of a target. And the reason why he volunteered so often for solo missions, no one could look down on him if he was alone, but also for a chance to try and prove himself.

Optimus had failed. As a leader, as a mentor, and as a friend. He couldn’t let this go on anymore. Mirage didn’t deserve this. No one deserved this. And looking over at the other two, he had the feeling they had a similar thought.

Noah was pacing around in the garage. He had already finished what small projects he had laying around for customers, needing something to distract himself with. That had turned into tidying around, and that in turn turned into pacing. He was worried. Worried about Mirage and whatever Option and the gang had in store for him. Noah prayed it wasn't anything too serious, even if the chances of that being very slim. He prayed it wasn’t about them potentially leaving, or about Mirage having to leave him. If that were to happen, Noah didn't think he would be able to deal with it. Mirage had become such an important person in his life, and later on in Kris’ life. He wanted to spend his time together with the quirky silver Porsche, and not having to worry about anything other than what was happening at the moment. It had dawned pretty quickly how fast he had fallen for Mirage, and now he felt like he couldn’t keep it in any longer. 

If Mirage were staying, he would tell him. But if he was leaving… then there was no reason for Mirage to hear about them, because Noah didn't want anything like that weighing over him as he had to leave.

Hearing the soft sounds of engines coming his way, he turned around to see all of them rolling down the street and up to the garage. Allowed Mirage to enter, the rest stayed outside and quickly transformed into their root-form. Bumblebee and Arcee looked worried and also sad, like kids who worried something bad was about to happen. Noah felt the knot in his gut and chest growing. 

“Think about what we've talked about, Mirage. We'll let you be for tonight, maybe we can talk a bit more tomorrow” Optimus said. He too looked concerned, like a worried father almost.

Mirage transformed and just nodded. The other transformed back to their alt-mode and quietly drove away. Turning around, he faced Noah standing just a little bit away from him. He tried showing his usual smirk, but he knew Noah could read him perfectly. Like the damn open datapad he was.

He kneeled down as Noah walked up to him. “Heya big guy… So, how did it go?” Noah tried softly. Mirage's smile became slightly more genuine, it was hard not to when talking to his favourite person.

‘Well, good news: it was nothing about leaving, so you’re stuck with me for a bit longer” he joked, knowing full well that if given the choice of staying vs leaving for Cybertron, he would 10/10 choose Earth and Noah. There was nothing left on Cybertron for him anyway. Maybe the day Noah passed away he could maybe reconsider it.

Noah smiled back at him, seemingly relaxing at the news. “Well, that’s encouraging to hear. But I’m still guessing it still wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Do you wanna talk about it?”.

Mirage looked around a little, feeling slightly claustrophobic by the smaller garage. It wasn’t exactly tiny, but it was smaller than the warehouse they had just been in.

“Do you think… we could take a drive somewhere? I feel I need to get out a bit…” he said. Noah’s smile softened, knowing how the other were feeling.

“Well… I did say earlier we couldn’t race through the industrial area, but we could take a drive to the abandoned eastern side of it. Maybe climb to the roof, the sun will set soon so there won’t be any people there”. That and because sunsets were always seen as romantic to humans. Sue him for being somewhat romantic at heart, but he wanted to treat his favourite bot to something nice at times.

Mirage lit up at the suggestion. “Sounds amazing, let’s go at once!” He said. Not waiting for an answer he transformed to his alt-mode, ready to go. Noah chuckled and climbed into the driver’s seat.

They drove in silence through the city towards the industrial area, for once within the legal speed limit as they didn’t really have to hurry to anything. The sun had started painting everything in its golden orange light, lighting up skyscrapers and bridges alike, almost like everything was on fire. Before long, autumn would roll around, something he looked forward to. He hoped to get some time alone with Mirage, maybe they could drive out outside the city to see the countryside get painted in all its lovely colours.

Reaching the eastern part of the industrial area, they easily got up to the roof of one of the buildings. The sun had started to go down, but it would be a while before it fully set. Mirage sat down slowly, pulling Noah along to sit him down on his lap. Something they had done a lot since Mirage got back from stasis, but still made Noah almost get butterflies in his stomach. It was nothing like when Kris sat on his lap, the size difference was just too big to make it feel any sort of normal to him. He absolutely loved it.

They sat in continued silence for a while, just enjoying the other’s company, before Noah knew he had to get Mirage to open up. While he knew the subject they had discussed hadn’t been that urgent for the others to leave and Mirage said they hadn’t discussed leaving, he knew Mirage had a bad habit of keeping everything inside until he would later burst.

Tracing patterns on Mirage’s arm, he turned up to face the bot. “Mirage, what did they want to talk about? I could see how much it had bothered you and the rest”.

Sighing, Mirage looked down. “They were worried because of how differently I act when together with them or with you…” he admitted.

Noah raised an eyebrow, being very confused. “They what now?”.

“Yeah! Apparently it was an issue that I acted one way with you and another with them! You’d think the world was ending with how worried they were over it”. Mirage shook his helm, like he himself couldn’t believe it. Noah gripped Mirage’s arm tighter, pulling it closer around him. He knew it was more than that.

“Okay… I mean sure, most people act one way at work and another at home, but usually that’s not something to worry about. So when they said “you act differently”, did they mean a huge difference?”.

Instead of giving a verbal answer, Mirage just sighs and nods.

“And did they say anything about why that was an issue?”

Mirage contemplated just giving a half-truth, but he knew Noah would figure it out anyway. Also he hated lying to Noah.

“They said they had seen the way I acted all the way back on Cybertron, but it was only now when meeting you that it became obvious. I… may have vented everything to them. About how I’ve been feeling and been treated by the other Autobots throughout the years. I just wanted them to know it wasn’t just out of the blue, as you guys say it, but that it has been going on for a long while. And if they had noticed all the way back then, then why didn’t they do anything?! I had to suffer for so damn long, and not one of them did anything to support me!”

‘So he has already reached his breaking point’ Noah thought sadly. He was happy Mirage had finally shared his feelings with the other bots, but he was sad because every single one of those feelings were negative.

“I see. And… what did they say you did differently with me than with them?”

“They said that I seemed more open with you. That we team up often while I'd never team up with any other Autobot. That I seemed to get along better with you than with them” Mirage continued. 

“Do you feel like what they said was true?”

“Of course it is true!”

“Did you feel bad about it?”

Mirage stopped at that. That wasn't something he had ever considered. He didn't feel bad about it. He felt good when he was with Noah, like nothing bad could ever happen (even though anything bad could still very much happen). It had the tension between him and his fellow bots feel lesser, like it was something less important.

“... No” He answered.

Noah smiled up at him. “Sometimes, the validation we seek might not be found with the people we originally thought. Sometimes we need to find new people to start getting over something old. If I can help you feel better, then I'm more than happy to. I'm not saying you should forgive the others, but I don't think you should cut them out of your life either. They did seem pretty upset. Maybe give them a chance, and if it doesn't work out then you'll always have me”.

Noah could feel his face start to heat up. Thank God the sunset was still going on, because he damn well knew he was blushing right now. He turned his head down, trying to shield away and not embarrass himself too much.

Mirage, instead of letting Noah do that, just pulled him closer to his chassis.

“Thank you. Thank you Noah”. He said. “Then, if the rest no longer accepts me, may I stay by your side?”

Mirage’s words made Noah’s inside turn to mush, and heat filling both his face and chest. Somehow, it no longer felt like a gamble to him

“You may stay by my side even if it does work out. You’ll always have a place with me”

“What if it extends your entire lifespan?”

“Then you can stay with me for the rest of my mortal life”. Noah relaxed against Mirage’s chassis, closing his eyes.

“What role would I have then?” Mirage rubbed one of his digits along Noah’s back.

“What role do you want to have?”

Almost feeling like the bot was taking a deep breath, Noah waited.

“Whatever you got left for me. I just… I don't want to leave you, Noah. You matter too much for me, and whatever you need me to be I can be that!”

Looking up from their embrace, Noah reached up slightly with his hand to start tracing his hand along the glowing plate on the centre. 

“In that case… you can start by being yourself. I wouldn't want you any other way, because this Mirage is the one I've come to care about. This Mirage is the one I want to spend time with, and the Mirage who never fails to make me the happiest guy on earth”.

The plate under his fingers starts glowing even brighter, and the slow and steady humming starts picking up a notch. Leaning down, Mirage leaned the lower part of his forhelm against Noah’s forehead.

“In that case, then… may I get to be yours?” Mirage asked softly.

Noah’s smile brightened.

“Only if I get to be yours”

Chapter Text

Almost two weeks went by. Mirage and Noah were more or less inseparable after their little visit on that roof. Kris has definitely noticed, and had started teasing Noah relentlessly after he accidentally walked in on Noah and Mirage having a goodbye kiss one night on the fire escape. Turns out Kris had had a very good suspicion that the two liked each other, and had apparently been making a bet with Reek behind their backs. That had in turn made Noah give his little brother a stern lecture about betting, partially failing because of his own embarrassment from being found out by his brother.

Like the other Autobots had promised, the day after they had come back to continue their discussion. What made them pause however was seeing Noah sitting on Mirage’s lap while writing, and Mirage had a constant lovely dovely expression on his faceplate while looking down at the human. Noah was also looking up at him more often than usual, and he had a light blush on his cheeks.

Figuring out what had happened since their last meeting, Optimus muttered a “thank primus it happened” under his breath, but looking back at the two showed that Noah had heard him, because the human had a shit-eating grin on his face.

Gathering together, the four Cybertronians continued their previous discussion, with Noah sitting on the side listening with one ear. During their talk, it turned out Bumblebee had similarly been reserved with talking about certain subjects like Mirage had been. In Bumblebee’s case, it was about his Charlie. He hadn’t seen the woman for almost four years by this point, and he missed her terribly but had been reluctant to bring it up with Optimus.

To make their group feel better and to promote better communication and teamwork between all bots, Bumblebee was permitted to visit Charlie, while Mirage would stay with his Noah during which Optimus and Arcee would take a scouting mission a bit away. One that didn’t require more than two mechs. Bumblebee and Mirage would get to spend time with their humans for a while, and then the group would get together again and hopefully be in a better place to start mending.

Bumblebee had left the city later that same day, while Optimus and Arcee were leaving early the next day. Mirage was very happy with this new arrangement, especially after having more time to talk things through. He felt better knowing Bumblebee had never had a negative thought about him, and that both Arcee and Optimus were truly seeing how much damage the two of them had, unintentionally, done to Mirage, and now working on how to fix it.

Mirage sat on the floor again, his beloved human on his lap tinkering with some tech that was due in a few days. Optimus and Arcee had already gone into recharge, seeing as it was getting late and they had plans to leave early in the morning. Noah would also need to leave soon, as Kris had a follow-up appointment the next morning. The hospital was short-staffed, yet again, so mom had been called to cover a double shift and thus couldn’t take him to the appointment herself. Mirage and Noah would take him there, and then drop him off at school afterwards. 

The bot already had his processors buzzing with ideas; he really wanted to take Noah somewhere, take him somewhere outside of the city for just a day. Autumn would roll in soon enough, and he wanted to have some nice outing before the summer heat disappeared. He had kept his audials open whenever they went, listening to everything in search of something interesting or nice to explore with Noah. Leaving the city centre would give them some much needed fresh air and change in scenery, and Mirage also wanted to travel a longer route to really get his wheels going. There were apparently loads of nature reserves, forests and hiking trails not too far outside New York's city center, and that's what Mirage placed his bets on.

Since Noah’s mom didn’t know about him or any other Cybertronians, it wasn’t wise to make their trip longer than a day, since any longer would make her worried or suspicious of him being so long away from home. So for now, his optics was currently set on taking his boy down south to Staten Island; it had a bunch of forests and reserves, and it was still close to Brooklyn.

Noah twisted the mechanical object in his hands, what looked like some kind of smaller monitor of sorts, seemingly deep in thought. Mirage loved seeing Noah like this, seeing Noah putting his skills and knowledge to use. Turning something trash into something working, so matter how hard it is. He never backed out from a challenge, no matter how hard it seemed to be. When Mirage had been “killed off” by Scourge, Noah had never worked with cars before. He knew some basic stuff, but nothing about key car compartments, nevermind how to custom-build a car from scratch. Even then, Noah had never given up and dove head first into learning. Build his new frame up piece by piece, learning from books in the library and from Reek and some of his associates. In the end, he managed to perfectly rebuild him, and gained so much more knowledge too along the way. He never had any problem fixing any issues Mirage might get, and could then even translate his knowledge over to motorcycles like Arcee, and big trucks like Prime.

Mirage simply couldn’t believe how lucky he had been, to have someone like Noah in his life.

“What are we thinking about, sweetspark?” Mirage asked.

Noah didn’t look up at him, he simply kept twisting the monitor in his hands.

“Been thinking about… cords and connectors…”

Seemingly losing his train of thought, he put the monitor down on his lap.

“Maybe more accurately, I’ve just been thinking about back when I rebuilt your frame. I remember I had your spark stored in your old armor, separate from your new main frame, and when I plugged in your spark it felt more like shoving it under the hood and into the engine. I never made any specific casing for it, or created a designated spark chamber for it, but somehow you just created one yourself. It just made me curious on how sparks work and how you guys create and choose your frames” Noah rambled. Mirage looked thoughtful for a moment.

“Back on Cybertron, there were three main ways for a new mech to be created. Two of those were that sparks first came to existence from the Well of the Allspark, all created by Primus himself. Optimus, Arcee and Bumblebee all are created that way. From there, two types of emergence occurred. Either you became forged, or you were cold constructed”.

“Were you forged or cold constructed Raj?” Noah asked. Mirage turned his helm away slightly, blushing lightly.

“No… I was made the third way: I was sparked from two existing mechs. I believe it’s the same way you and your brother were made” he said.

“Anyway! If you were forged, the newly created spark would travel out of the Well and more or less sentient and precious metals would gather around it to create the frame, finally making a newly emerged mech. The first original primes were all created this way. Now cold construction… -sigh- Cold construction is a whole ‘nother beast. It is pretty controversial, even if it’s very common. It’s just as common as forging, and in some places even more common”.

Noah looked up at him, his face scrunched up in worry.

“Why is cold construction so controversial?” He asked, slightly dreading the answer.

“Because… because it isn’t really… normal, so to say. It means the spark was born from the Well like the rest, but they don’t get a frame the same way. The spark is frozen down, and then given an already finished frame. Usually these frames are made in bulk, creating multiple of the same types. When the spark is placed into the new frame, it takes a while for the new frame to warm up and become properly usable. Thus, cold construction”.

Noah could feel a shiver run down his spine. Sure, he could see how the first emergence was a big deal, but then again these were robots! Their frames changed all the time, from what he’s been told by the gang, so surely having multiple of the same type was all that bad. Right? Like, by that logic Mirage was right now a cold construction, due to Noah creating his new frame and putting the spark into it.

“I… I see. But that doesn’t mean they are inherently unnatural, right? I mean you guys have told me how you can upgrade your frames whenever, and even change your whole frame if it doesn’t suit you anymore! Surely that is just natural to you guys? They all have the same base structure and body parts like you guys, right? They aren’t that different… right?” He asked, suddenly feeling very unsure and weary.

Mirage looked back at him, a small sad smile on his dermas. “No, I don’t think they are any different than the rest of us. I have met many cold constructions, and they are just the same as us. It’s just… many mechs believe that they ARE different. That they are… lesser, because they didn’t emerge from the Well fully like they were. Many believe that because their frames were constructed in factories, and often looked just the same to each other, with the difference mostly being just paint jobs, they were worth less and could easily be discarded. They shouldn’t have resources wasted on, or even have the same rights” he continued. “Although their entire frames are made in factories, they still have the same base structure as any other mech, born from the Well or sparked. They still need energon to live, have the same type of energon coursing through their lines and spark”.

“Are there any cold constructed mechs with the Autobots?”

“Yes! There are a bunch of cold constructed mechs within the Autobots ranks, and if no one says anything no one would figure it out. In fact, the mech with the brightest processors and greated intelligence, Prowl, is in fact cold constructed and I bet no one has even thought about it unless it is brought up. Sadly though, many already created cold constructed mechs joined the Decepticons because of the discrimination they faced…”

Noah looked up to where he could see Arcee and Optimus recharging, blissfully unaware of the discussion happening right next to them.

“Do they… do they believe in it? Does Optimus, Arcee and Bee believe that all Cybertronians are the same, or do they also believe in cold constructed mechs being lesser than others?” Noah asked, feeling worried that the mechs he hung around were actually racists.

Mirage made a thoughtful hum. “Bee is safe, he doesn’t see any difference between mechs besides factions. Same with Prime, he has spoken openly against the discrimination, just a shame many don’t listen to him. Arcee however… I actually don’t know, she hasn’t spoken much about it that I’ve heard about” he answered. “If she would believe in there being a difference between mechs, she would not voice it out loud as long as she’s around Prime”.

Noah hummed, and snuggled closer to Mirage.

“Let’s hope she doesn’t share those beliefs…”

Mischievously, he glanced up at his boyfriend's faceplate.

“Sooo… You mentioned your existence came about a different way than the rest of the gang” he teased, smirk firmly placed on his lips. Mirage smirked back, knowing exactly what his boy was indicating.

“Well yes, yours truly were not born from the Well or cold constructed. I was sparked from two mechs, similar to how your humans were born. My creators were so-called tower bots, meaning they had a pretty high standing in Cybertronian society. I believe you called some people in your society aristocrats? That would probably be the closest I can think of what my creators were” Mirage explained. He could still remember them, his carrier who loved teaching him everything about politics in Iacon and the rest of Cybertron, and his sire who seemed to know everything that had ever happened in their very long history. They would teach him the importance of being neutral as much as possible, and that nothing in life came for free but had to be fought for. Didn’t really help that they didn’t really like the Senate that was around at the time. They knew an uprising would one day happen, long before a certain big grey warframe would begin to create his own following.

“Are they… are they still around? Your creators I mean”

Mirage gave a sad smile once more. “No, they are both gone. They both offlined some time before the civil war began”

“Oh, I see… If- if it were my mom, I think that'd be for the better. I wouldn't want her to witness anything like that ever” Noah said, imagining my mom witness what he'd been through during his time in the army.

“I agree” Mirage said softly, placing a soft kiss on top of Noah’s head.

“Come on now, you should head home. We have a little Kris to drive tomorrow morning!” Mirage said, his usual cheerful personality back in his voice. Usually Noah would worry at such a quick change in tone, but he could tell by now that Mirage actually wasn't masking or anything like that. He felt sad but also better after talking about it, so he could bounce back more easily.

Getting down from Mirage’s lap, he went and placed the monitor on his work bench, intending on continuing tomorrow. He shut all the lights off, before opening the garage door for Mirage.

Driving home in a comfortable silence, Noah could almost feel himself starting to nod off. But before long, they arrived outside Noah’s apartment complex. Transforming back to his root form, Mirage carefully helped Noah get up on the fire escape, a little higher than usual since it was slightly wet from the small rainfall they had earlier in the day.

Getting up, Noah smiled softly down at his robot.

“See you tomorrow then Raj”

“You bet. I'll be waiting for you two out front” Mirage said, before leaning upwards to give his human a quick goodbye kiss. The feeling never got old, no matter how many times they have kissed. The feeling of warm soft lips on smooth and surprisingly warm dermas was something they both could get lost in.

Pulling back, Mirage stepped back from the fire escape, waved back to Noah before transforming and driving back to the garage. Smiling, Noah watched him leave before getting back inside through the window.

Getting inside, he could smell the dinner his mother had made. He feels kinda bad, cooking is something he really struggles with. Doesn’t matter how much he tries, he always either burns his food or underseason or doesn't cook it enough. If it weren't for his mom being their only parent, he would have given up a long time ago.

Getting to the kitchen, he saw his mom in full swing with the dinner, while Kris was doing homework. Deciding to setting the table, he walked up to the cabinets right by the stove.

“Oh good, you're home sweetheart. Everything went well today?” Breanna asked.

“Decent enough, still have a few tweaks to fix, but after that most of the current customers should be done” Noah answered.

“Huge thank you for taking Kris tomorrow, they sure were short staffed tomorrow and had to call in on such a short notice” Breanna said.

“Why did they have to call in you though? You worked extra last weekend, don't they have more people to call?” Noah asked, worried his mom is overworking herself again.

“It’s the end of summer buddy, so many are still on vacation. They are scraping together what they can find. Not overly thrilled at working so much either, but it also pays better. It's all give and take Noah” Breanna said, turning off the stove.

Noah hummed in response. He knew it paid better to work extra shifts, but she was hurting herself in the long run.

“Mom… Does it all feel… worth it in the end? All these 12 hour shifts, constantly being asked to come in extra, running around crazy on the ward. Is it even worth it?”

Breanna took a moment, seemingly thinking about the right things to say.

“Yeah, I would say it is” She decided on, her voice filled with determination and no room for doubt.

“Why though? So you can have a boss that is constantly screaming or criticising you? Or having ungrateful patients who are nothing but mean? Why do you like it so much?”

Breanna smiled at him, she understood him like no other. And she knew his scepticism and criticism came from a place of worry. So she tried a different approach. 

“Why do you like working with other people's electronics so much, Noah?” She asked.

Noah was taken aback, that was not a question he had considered.

“Because I'm good at it? And because I feel good when I can help people. Kinda like when I started in the army”.

And oh. Now he got it.

Breanna smiled even bigger when she saw her son have his eureka moment.

“It is the same for me. I love being a nurse because I get to help people. There are more grateful and happy patients out there than mean ones, and those are worth suffering through the bad ones for. When I see someone I know I can help, I won't let anyone or anything stop me from doing so. Because even the smallest thing for you can mean the world to another. Being a nurse to me means being able to make a difference, and that’s my main driving force” she said.

Noah understood her to some degree. He understood that she wanted to make a difference, and that she really did. He was the same with the Autobots, he wanted to be useful and make some kind of difference for them. Whenever that was removing loose pieces of metal, or any more invasive type of procedure. He just wasn’t sure if he understood the part about putting himself into harm's way.

”I think I understand. I understand the drive, but I’m still not sure about you going through all that anyway” He finally said.

Breanna’s smile turned slightly more somber. ”Maybe one day you will. Anyway, time for dinner boys! Kris, put away your homework. And Noah I sure hope you’ve washed your hands”.

The three ate dinner together, both Breanna and Noah questioning Kris about what he’s currently doing in school. Breanna couldn’t really talk about her workplace or her patients because of confidentiality, and while Noah also couldn’t talk much about what he’s doing at the garage because of alien robots, he could talk about his customers. After dinner they actually had some time left for some card games before Kris had to go to bed, which both Noah and Breanna also followed through with because of their own early morning the next day.

The next day, just like he promised, Mirage was waiting outside their apartment. Like always, Kris was ecstatic that he could spend some time with Mirage. Mirage was equally ecstatic, because although Noah was his favourite human by a long shot, he really really liked his little brother too.

Speeding away, they first went to Kris’ appointment, which thankfully went without a hitch or anything needing immediate changing. After that, they send the little one off to school before going back to the garage. Optimus and Arcee hadn’t really gone off just yet, so they had some time to talk before both speeds away for their mission. The rest of the day was spent together in the garage, with Noah continuing fixing the monitor and other electronics. Mirage wasn’t doing much other than mostly talking. He also finally managed to ask Noah out for the outing he had been thinking about. Noah was blushing once he realized it would be a proper date together with the Cybertronian, and he finally understood what the girls were experiencing regarding their crushes asking them out back in school.

So the next day, the pair set out almost as early in order to get as much time out together as possible. They didn’t have a reason to rush though, and Mirage for once drove legally with Noah watching the city around him slowly pass by. Before long, they reached the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, officially leaving Brooklyn and entering Staten Island. The entire drive, the two would repeat Cybertronian frame parts, while Mirage would repeat about human organs which he’d learned about from Noah.

By the time they reached Staten Island, the sun was on its way to reach its highest peak, a bit before lunchtime. Buying some early lunch for Noah, they calmly and quietly drove towards the nature reserve Mirage had in mind visiting.

The nature reserve was way bigger than either of them expected. Loads of various trees, some with small leaves, some with bigger. Lots of small ponds and bigger lakes. The trails went out in the open and also through the trees. As someone who has grown up mostly in Brooklyn, besides his first few years back in Puerto Rico, he had not seen this much greenery in person before. His mother hadn’t been able to afford this kind of trip before for them, so seeing all this was such a new experience for him.

The day passed by, and the two were having a blast. The weather continued to be amazing, with pretty much no clouds in the sky and the later summer heat not being that bad. It was just perfect, and Mirage felt very pleased with himself. They had hiked around the reserve, just enjoying nature and each other’s company. While Mirage had been on Earth for almost eight years now, he really hadn’t learned much about it. So getting to wander around with Noah allowed him to learn more about what the planet had to offer.

The clock was nearing late afternoon, and the two had to soon think about turning back home to avoid any suspicion from Breanna. The two had however already decided to return here again one day. Noah was stretching his back, he wasn’t exactly that old, but working like he had recently didn’t really do his back any favors. They were currently in a more open field-like area, with loads of forests surrounding it and a lake a bit away. It was simply breathtaking, and Noah took a deep breath as he closed his eyes and just listened to the whistling sound of the nature around him.

Whistling?

Noah suddenly opened his eyes again, looking around. All the trees were still, and there was just the slightest breeze in the air, not enough to make the trees make any noticeable noise. The grass was short and only gently swayed with the soft winds. A cold shiver for some reason ran down his spine.

There was nothing around him that should make that noise. Yet for some reason, it only kept getting louder. He kept looking around, looking for any wild animals around, but of course there weren’t any. And he also knew animals don’t make that kind of sound anyway. Not even the birds don’t sound like this. He kept looking around, feeling even more nervous. Mirage was currently not there, wanting to take a closer look at some beautiful flowers and pond in a nearby clearing in the forest. So right now he was all alone.

And maybe it was that fact that made him stop looking around, and instead look up.

In the sky above, there was something hanging in the air far far away. A small blackish dot, too small to be a plane but close enough to see. And the longer he looked at it, the more he could swear it was growing.

Whatever it was, it was making noise, and it was getting closer.

Taking a few steps back towards the nearest trees, he watched as the unknown object grew bigger and clearer. It also started making more noise, a slightly more thundering and rumbling sound echoing through the air. The now more visible shape was also very odd; it wasn’t round like a ball, and it also wasn’t symmetrical in any other way. Could it possibly be a meteor? Not likely, most burned up in the atmosphere, and there hadn’t been anything on the news about any suspected meteors being close to entering Earth. So what the heck was this thing?!

The sounds grew almost deafening at this point, and Noah had reached the tree lines now. Taking a new look up, it was now close enough that he suddenly could see that this thing had colours. Whatever it was, it had specks of white, red and blue in it.

And it was getting closer much faster now. Like impact with the ground real soon fast.

Ducking being the trees and a huge boulder, he covered his ears as best he could while hunkering down to protect the rest of his body. The ground under him shook violently as he felt the unknown object slamming into the field. It sounded heavy, but not overly big like a build would. And it also sounded… somewhat metallic.

When the air had stilled, Noah uncovered his ears and dared look up. A big crater was now etched into the earth, and a cloud of dust and black smoke lingered around it. The metallic sound could still be slightly heard from it. And to Noah, it sounded somehow familiar to him. That metallic scratching and clanking, a sound he had heard many times before.

Before he knew it his feet were dragging him towards the crater, his heart hammering hard in his chest. When he started getting closer, he started running the last bit to the edge. The cloud had started disappearing a bit, so it was easier to see. The sight he saw down there made his blood freeze.

An injured Cybertronian lay in the middle of the crater. The wings on its back made his suspect a flying frame, the first one he had ever seen. It had a mostly pale grey coloured body, with blue coloured arms and red covering the chassis and pelvic plates, as well as a portion of the wings.

But the chassis… it was completely mangled. A huge gauge was opened and loads of bright blue energon was spilling out. It looked like it had been viciously attacked before crashing down. The entire frame looked like it tried to move, but it couldn’t and constantly flinched in obvious pain. But it was enough to let Noah get a better view of the frankly gorgeous looking wings it had.

And then saw the purple marking. He had never seen it in person before, but he knew enough from the others to know exactly what that marking was.

This one was a Decepticon. This was someone Mirage and the gang had been fighting against for millions of years back on Cybertron.

As he stood by the edge of the crater, looking down into its content, he heard Optimus’ words playing on a loop in his head.

As he watched the colourful metal flinch in pain trying to move, he remembered the horror stories shared by Arcee.

As he saw the blue splashes of energon on the arms, he thinks back… to looking at his poor brother every time he was in the hospital.

As he saw the pool of energon under the broken up chassis, he understood.

He had never before understood his mom like he did now.

Against all better judgment he might have, against everything he had been told about from the Autobots-

He stepped down into the crater, towards the injured mech.

Chapter Text

Mirage could feel the sudden rumble in the earth, and after that he picked up the rumbling sound that came with it, being delayed by the supersonic speed this thing had travelled with. Whatever had happened, it had been a big object that had now crash landed extremely fast and somewhere close by. Most likely in another part of the forest, or alternatively out on the nearby field.

Where Noah was, all alone with zero protection. 

Rushing towards the field, he saw the huge crater that steamed from the impact. He knew about meteors crashing into Earth, but those were few and far between. And they also weren't usually this big to create this large a crater. So if it were something intraterrestrial, he was glad it was a long way from nearby civilization.

Seeing Noah just by the edge of the crater, he started jogging up to him. He knew Noah was still wearing the blaster he got way back then, but if this was something bigger and more dangerous, it wouldn't help much.

When he reached the crater, he could see the absolute carnage that had happened here. The spilled energon, the burn marks on the metal from entering Earth's atmosphere and falling right through it to the ground. But there was something else he saw much quicker: the purple Decepticon mark on the wings. That and the colours on this mech could only mean one thing:

This was Starscream laying in the crater. The second in command to Megatron.

Mirage had never met Starscream personally, but he knew many had. And it had not painted a pretty picture. Especially in the early days of the war, Starscream was an absolute unit to be reckoned with, extremely smart and capable as a warrior. Didn't really help when he was made in charge of the Decepticons flying units, and he had led them to many victories.

He also had heard some stories of him being a total pushover, and that most of his schemes ended up in total failure.

No matter which one he decided to believe more, a known Decepticon was now here on Earth, right in front of his human. His little blaster would not hurt someone like Starscream much.

But then… maybe he didn't have to be so scared at the moment. Starscream was clearly currently heavily injured. Not only from the fall, but that huge opening in his chassis looked downright painful. The other was also showing clear signs of being in a lot of pain, barely moving and flinching whenever he did. That wound of his could easily kill him if being left untreated, with the amount of energon he was currently losing.

And for whatever reason, something in his spark didn't want to see that happen.

Maybe it was his time on Earth or just his previous neutral standing that made a resurgence, but he felt that he didn’t want to see this mech's spark snuffed out. Even if it was a Decepticon.

When Noah stepped down into the crater, Mirage’s spark started hammering like crazy in his chassis. Starscream might not be as big of a threat as originally thought, but he was still anxious about Noah being nar anything dangerous. Noah seemed to be on the lookout however, as his steps were pretty cautious and slow. Like he was walking up to a scared and caged animal, and not a humongous metal robot from outer space.

Noah stepped closer, his heart hammering in his chest and his blood felt almost like ice, but still he kept going closer. The mech was more still now in its movements, almost like it had given up on trying to get up anytime soon. It was venting heavily, and small whines came out of its voice box.

Noah felt bad for it, he really did. He almost felt like when Kris had a sickle cell crisis, and he would take him into his arms to give some kind of comfort.

“Noah, be very careful” he heard Mirage’s soft and almost whispering voice behind him.

“Do you know this bot Raj?” He asked.

“He is Starscream, Megatron's second in command. A flying frame and very clever” Mirage answered back. Noah knew Mirage was just as on edge as he himself were, if maybe even more.

“That huge gaping hole, what could have caused that?” Noah said absentmindedly. “Certainly not from the crash, it's in totally the wrong place to be the cause…”

“My bet is he got injured before he started falling down here. But there haven't been any sightings of anything Decepticon ship anywhere, so who knows how he got here on Earth in the first place” Mirage pondered.

Starscream started moving his helm again, almost grinding the right side against the dirt. His optics were closed tightly, looking both like he tried to almost wake up and to shut away any light from hia optics.

“Hey, Starscream?” Noah softly called out to the fallen bot. “Can you hear me?”

Starscream stilled slightly, like he was listening closely.

“H-... who izzss there?” The voice that came out of the voice box was cracking and more like static, but able to get the words out. Hopefully it was only from the huge wound in the chassis and from the energon loss, as Noah couldn't see any injuries to his throat.

“My name is Noah, and I'm a human. You have crash landed on planet Earth, which is my home planet”.

Noah took a few more steps forward. He was currently just shy of five meters from the mech, close enough to get a very good view of his entire frame. Starscream was definitely going to be taller than Mirage, but he's probably way shorter than Optimus. His helm was a dark grey colour, bordering on black. It was also rounder than he first thought.

“I'm not here to hurt you, I'm here to help”. Noah almost held his breath, scared that breathing too loud would set him off.

Starscream turned his helm slightly again, letting his faceplate be more fully turned towards Noah. And then, his optics opened. Not fully, but enough for him to see his surroundings.

Starscream had bright dark red optics, a shade that left Noah almost speechless. It was a deep crimson, with hints of orange gleaming just underneath the surface. His optic colour almost reminded Noah of high value and polished garnets gleaming in the sunlight.

They were absolutely beautiful.

The injured mech took in the sight of Noah, seemingly trying to assess what kind of being he had stumbled upon, and if he was truly not a threat. Seemingly finding nothing, he started to relax slightly.

Until he raised his sight and saw Mirage.

Tension raised in his entire frame and he got a panicked look on his faceplate. Trying even more to move, he looked like he wanted to crawl backward and away from the other bot. However the pain from his injury made it impossible for him to move anywhere, and instead he gave up the fight and just stared at Mirage with a fearful expression.

Noah, seeing the fear on his faceplate, tried calming him down again.

“It's okay Starscream, he's safe! He might be an Autobot, but he is safe! He won't do anything to you”.

Starscream looked down on Noah, and then up at Mirage again. This time, he looked calmer than before.

“You're an Autobot?” He asked timidly.

“Well, yes I am. I am Mirage and I'm an Autobot” Mirage answered back, his voice trying to sound light and welcoming, but Noah could tell he was also still very guarded.

“Are… aaaare you guys with Optimus Prime? Is Optimusszz here on Earth?” Starscream started asking, his voice glitching more the longer he spoke. Noah started getting really worried, this guy needed to get to the garage right now. If he stayed here, he might actually die from either energon loss or from whatever more injuries he might have. He had started hearing a strange clicking but also rattling sound coming from his chassis, and it did not sound natural to him.

His brain was already running through all the different cases that might be at play currently.

1. He is bleeding heavily, so he's got either loads of energon lines that have been damaged, or in the worst case scenario a big major one that has been damaged and is currently leaking loads of energon. Whichever it was, the lines needed to be mended right away
2. His chassis has a huge gauge in it. If it was like Mirage suspected, then there might be even more injuries on his frame
3. The new strange sounds were coming from his chassis. Were they from the same injury as before? Did they occur from the fall? Are any major compartments in his frame now damaged, and if so how bad will they affect him?

So many things ran through his mind, but he wouldn't get any answers right now. First order of business was getting him away from Staten Island, and back to the garage. He had all his tools there, and who knew if anyone would come looking for him after that crash. Human or Decepticon. So trying to convince him to come with them was the best shot they had.

“Yes, yes we are. He's currently not nearby, but he's here on Earth” Noah tried, hoping Starscream asking was a positive thing.

And he seemed to be right, because Starscream actually tried to smile a little, as if he's heard the best news of the century.

“Pleasssse… I need to speak to him. I wish to turn myself over to you Autobots, but I wish for Optimus Prime to save two friends back on the Nemesisss!” Starscream hurried through his words, like he thought he had very little time to get his words across to the others.

His words threw both Noah and Mirage for a loop. Noah because he didn't expect for him to immediately turn himself over, and his words about potential friends being in danger worried him. And Mirage because he'd never expect Starscream to turn himself in.

“Jusst… please. Knockout and Breakdown are still up there, and who knows how long they will stay safe. They need to get away from there”. When Starscream slowed down and talked calmly, the glitches got better. 

“Okay… okay Starscream, I heard ya’. I promise we'll tell Optimus that. But right now we need to get you somewhere safer, where I can start patching you up”.

Mirage quickly turned and crouched down to get closer to Noah.

“Hey woah, Noah! What are you talking about? Are you thinking about taking him to the garage?” He asked worriedly.

Noah turned to face him with a pointed glare.

“We can't just leave him here Raj! He might die of his injuries or any Decepticons looking for him might easily find him!”

“I know Noah. But even so, how do we know we can trust him? He might get better with our help, sure, but what if he attacks you or sends the rest of the Decepticons after us?” Mirage asked, his voice not much higher than a whisper while he glanced over at Starscream. The other was pretty damn out of it, not seemingly aware that they were talking about him. It made Mirage feel bad for doubting him, but then again this was a war. He couldn’t allow Noah or anyone else get hurt because of his lack of judgement.

“Mirage, he is badly hurt. If he truly wanted to betray us, why would he ask us to save someone else before he asked us to save him? He hasn’t even asked to be saved! And if he truly wants to turn himself in and redeem himself, why should we steep down to their level? We're better than that Raj” Noah pleaded.

And Mirage knew he was right. His processors told him Starscream was dangerous to everyone around him, but his spark agreed with Noah that everyone deserves a chance. And Starscream really looked like he wouldn’t survive long without help.

“But how will we get him home? I can't carry him, I'm not a flying frame so I can't fly him home. I don't even have a-”

Mirage stopped in his tracks. Did he really not have one?

He checked through his storage for different forms in his processors, hoping to find something useful.

“It's wiped clean… But that might actually work in our favor”

“”Wh-what? What might work in our favor?”

Mirage gave Noah a determined look, one that didn’t give any room for disagreement.

“Remember when we first met? That I had the ability to change my alt-mode to different car models?”

Noah nodded.

“Back then I had many different models scanned within me, and could change whenever I wanted. But when my old frame broke and you gave me this new one, my new processors were clean of any previous scans. They were not stored in my spark like data in my processors, so they didn't carry over to this new one. Meaning I can scan new ones to use right now!”

Noah’s eyes widened at the realization.

“Raj… There was a construction crew just nearby of the parking lot”

Mirage nodded.

“They also had some big trucks there. I'll go there, scan one, then I'll carry him to the nearest road and then we'll drive home and hopefully the model I choose have a big enough container to house him in”

Noah nodded. Mirage took off through the forest, and while he was gone Noah inspected as much as he could of Starscream's frame. His wings had thankfully not been too damaged by the fall, just some dent and light scratches from the impact. That could easily be fixed later on when he’s properly healed. The legs were fine, and so was his back. The biggest issue was the hole in his chassis, as well as what looked like claw marks on his abdomen. Hopefully those marks could be welded shut, if everything behind it looks good enough. He started worrying how all the energon lines looked behind the metal. Are they intact? Was he slowly bleeding out?

Noah had to eventually snap himself out of his thoughts. Starscream couldn't be bleeding out, he was entirely made out of metal and no matter how well his plates overlap, eventually the energon would seep through the cracks. For now, he'd focus on inspecting the markings on his abdomen just roughly, making sure nothing is bleeding, before putting all attention on the huge hole in the chassis.

Soon enough, Mirage returned to them, looking calmer and more sure of himself.

“I think this one will work just fine for us. Let's hope Optimus doesn't see me like this, or he'll think I'm stealing his grove” He tried joking, his version of trying to lighten a stressful situation. And for Noah, it certainly was working.

Carefully picking up Starscream, and also noticing how light he actually is, they slowly walked towards the edge of the reserve to get to any sort of bigger road. Thankfully, there wasn’t anyone around when they did reach the edge. Putting the injured mech down carefully, Mirage first training to his normal alt-mode, before shifting to his newly scanned truck mode.

Noah couldn't help but be impressed as instead of seeing the usual silver and blue Porsche Mirage usually looked like, he instead saw a huge, silver coloured and short-nosed semi-truck, with container and all. He couldn’t help but wonder if the newly scanned alt-mode would change his root form. Would he be larger now? Would it change his build? Would he be-

Realising where his thoughts were taking him, he quickly shook his head and walked to the back end of the container. Face burning, he opened the hatch and saw how there were thick lines inside, connected to what looked like a big mooring winch. Not going to question it, he took the lines and went out to wrap around Starscream's entire frame. When he felt it was secure enough, Mirage started the winch himself, slowly pulling Starscream into the container. It was painful for him, judging by the faces he pulled, but he was out of it too much to complain.

Wanting to stay in the container but knowing he couldn't (due to empty self-driving truck being way too suspicious), Noah walked up to Mirage’s new and shiny cab, and got into the driver's seat.

The entire drive home was tense. Mirage at first had to get used to his new build before they could risk getting out on the highway. But after a few tries he took to it like fish in the water.

As they got back to the garage, they realised two things. Good news: the garage was kinda off to the side and hidden away from any heavy traffic, so no one would raise an eye at a truck leaving something in the area. Bad news: they had no idea how to get Starscream out of the container.

“Can you tip the container Raj?”

“I think I can, but I’m not sure if it’s enough of a tilt to get him out all the way…”

Noah nodded, being deep in thought. If they couldn’t tilt him out all the way, then Mirage would need to drive forward to get him out, which could hurt Starscream further. On second thought, even if they could drag him out they would still need to drop him a bit before he was fully out. Complicating things further, was that Mirage would need to transform in order to get him inside. Pulling him with either chains or lines would make too much noise and gain too much suspicion. But Mirage couldn’t just transform right in the open in broad daylight either. Even if they could get hold of Reek, two simple humans and one Cybertronian still transformed wouldn’t be the best way to get him inside. With heavy hearts and sparks, they decided to have Mirage wait together with Starscream just outside of town, then return once it was dark outside. Noah would go home, so mom wouldn’t have to worry about him, but he could sneak out easily to get back to the garage. And Mirage could com him should Starscream get worse.

Thankfully, he didn’t get much worse. And as nighttime fell on Brooklyn, Noah snuck out and met Mirage outside of the garage again. Using a heavy chain from the garage, Mirage tipped his container as far as he could, while Noah used the chain to try and pull Starscream while they still had momentum, to get him out as much as possible. They almost got him out fully, but still not all the way. Driving forward just a little, Starscream slid out fully, and thankfully it wasn’t as far to the ground as they had originally thought. Quickly transforming to his root-form, Mirage picked him up gently and carried him into the garage, which wasn’t that easy as he was bigger than the entrance and Starscream was bigger than him.

Once they finally were inside the garage, Mirage gently laid the injured mech down on the floor, as they had nowhere else to put him. It was also easier for Noah to reach, since he wasn’t as tall as the rest of the group. Noah quickly scanned the injury again, trying to see if the transport had moved anything. Pleased when he couldn’t really see anything new, he went to get all the kinds of tools he would be needing and put them in his tool belt. Feeling nostalgic, because the last time he had used it was when he was rebuilding Mirage, he returned to the other two.

Getting a flashlight out, he stepped up to the Decepticon.

“Mirage, could you move his arm a bit? Either to his side or above his chassis is good” He instructed.

Mirage nodded, and gently moved the arm to lay above his chassis and along the floor. Starscream made a face, but otherwise didn’t say much. Lighting the flashlight, Noah looked up to Starscream's faceplate.

“I’m gonna look into your chassis now, Starscream. If you’re in any pain or suddenly feel uncomfortable, tell us right away okay?”. Waiting until he got a shaky nod, he slowly got up to the huge hole, before slowly putting his head and flashlight inside.

Being inside a transformer was kinda surreal. While he technically had been inside one before, when Mirage merged with him to become a suit of armor, he had never been inside a transformer that was actually awake and conscious. He could fully see what used to be engine parts and other vital parts of a plane, but transformed to fit a huge ass robot instead. He saw energon lines fully torn apart or slightly nicked, all needing instant repairs. There were metal pieces dislocated, or hanging loose from their original placements. Those would need to be welded back into place, but he’d need to know what kind of model of plane he was, to have an idea how everything was supposed to be. Most things could move around during transformations, but crucial structural pieces stayed the way they were even after transforming. He learned that the hard way from Mirage.

He could also see what looked like a soft golden orange light further up in his chassis, but it was far away enough for him to not properly get a good look. If he were to guess, that might be his spark chamber. Thankfully it was too far away to have gotten hurt during the incident.

Needless to say, this would be one of his biggest jobs to date, right after rebuilding Mirage’s frame from scratch.

First order of business was fixing the energon lines so he didn’t bleed to death. Noah of course didn't have any spare parts or brand new pieces of lines on hand to use, so he knew he had to be creative about this. The lines were hardy but still really flexible. Mirage had explained how the Earth materials Noah had used for him had later been converted by his spark to become the same as that created on Cybertron. So he knew he didn’t need to have a one-to-one match, but he still wanted the closest match for Starscream. They still didn't know how energon reacted with most materials, so just anything didn't cut it. If the new lines melted due to not being able to handle the energon, he would start bleeding out again. But being so weak after his injury and crash, they also couldn’t risk using a too stiff and hard line or the spark might not be strong enough to convert it to new energon lines. It really felt like when mom explained transfusion and transplanting organs to him.

So weaker to medium plastic tubes were out of the question. Hard metal pipes were no good either, because they couldn’t move at all. The same could be said for hard plastic pipes from construction, they had zero give and were also usually too big to be used. Feeling the damaged pipe between his fingers, he put the flashlight between his teeth to free his other hand. With both hands free, he pulled out pieces of cords and used them to tie off the damaged energon lines, stopping more energon to flow through and causing more bleeding. The lines had quite the familiar feeling to it, they almost reminded him of-

Rubber. The lines were made of rubber, just like the vehicle hoses Noah used for Mirage when he connected the new engine and all the new systems that were needed. And he had a few over since back then.

Finishing off the cords, he wiped his hands on his shirt before quickly going to the stasch he had stored away, with Mirage hot in his trails. Going through the stuff, he pulled out a long piece of EPDM rubber hose he had left from fixing the radiator hose, as well as adhesive material for adding the new hose.

Returning to Starscream’s side, Noah measured the amount he needed, before cutting everything to size and entering the chassis again. While almost feeling like he was in a cave, he applied the rubber primer to the torn energon lines and then added the new hoses onto each end. Taking a deep breath, he started taking off the cord from the lines further down, the ones that didn’t have any active energon pushing through it. With shaky hands, he started unraveling the cords on the upper lines, the ones currently stopping the energon from flowing through. If the new lines weren’t sealed tight enough, there would be energon slipping through the cracks.

The cords came off, and there wasn’t a single drop on energon dripping from the seams. The repairs had worked! Feeling over the moon but still wanting to be cautious, Noah added some more primer on the seams of the new lines, before adding seam tape to really seal everything up properly. He did NOT want Starscream to return to his “operating table” again, thank you very much. Looking over the other just slightly damaged lines, Noah felt that he didn’t need to do more now than just patch them up a bit.

The whole process took way longer than Noah thought it would. Waiting for the primer to dry before going to the next step was the shortest bit he spent time on. Didn’t really help that he was extremely nervous, and that he would stop every few minutes to listen for any new sounds. He listened for any changes due to pain, or if his venting started to sound weird. When he felt good and finished with his work, he finally stepped out of the chassis. Looking at the clock, he saw that he’d been going on for almost 45 minutes. Outside was pitch black, except for the few street lights shining on the street walks.

Noah was absolutely finished, his back ached from standing with such a weird posture for too long without any breaks. He knew Starscream was not out of the woods yet, but without more information about his plane model, he was at a standstill. He had a few ideas about which plane he could be, due to his earlier years in the military, but he still needed to be sure. For now, the most pressing issue had been fixed, and he was safe in his garage for now. The loose metal shouldn’t do any more damage if he kept staying down on the floor, so that bought him some time. Time to get some sleep, and then go to the library and hopefully find some more information there.

“Okay Mirage, I think we have this under control for now. Can you tell if he’s been stabilized?” Noah asked his partner.

Mirage took a quick look over the now recharging mech. He didn’t have all the scanning features like proper medics, but most bots could do some simple scans.

“He’s stable for now. The energon is no longer leaking, and he’s in recharge right now. He will most likely be fine for the moment”.

Mirage turned to look down on Noah. “You should really go home for now. You’ve been doing a lot of work tonight, and I can see you’re exhausted. I’ll keep watch over him tonight, and you can come back tomorrow when you’ve fully recharged yourself “.

Noah gave a tired smile. “Yeah, was thinking so myself. I need to go to the library first thing in the morning, trying to get more information about his plane model so I can fix the rest of his chassis. If anything happens during the night, you’ll call me right away” Noah said, putting away his toolbelt on the workbench, not bothering putting away the tools themselves as he would use them again tomorrow.

Mirage gave a tired smile himself, stroking a strong digit along Noah’s delicate cheek.

“Of course I will sweetspark”

Doing a quick drive home, the two said goodbye before Mirage drove straight back to the garage, where Starscream was still in deep recharge. 

Noah himself climbed up the fire escape and through the window into his room, before collapsing onto his bed.

Both the exhausted Noah and the watching Mirage were both equally worried, and both had the same thought.

Tomorrows gonna be a long ass day…

Chapter Text

The morning after Noah did just as he said he would. He woke up early, had some breakfast with mom and Kris before leaving for the library just as it opened.

The Brooklyn Public Library really was a special place. A pure concrete slab of a building, not unlike many other buildings in the area. It had nothing special going for it, looking like any other office building. The one thing that made it stand out were those highly decorated doors, being way larger than necessary and painted in black. The decorations were what made them really stand out, as they were absolutely covered in gold colored plates, all looking like either people or animals. Not even the door frame was spared from the decorating. It was something that always intrigued Noah as a kid, and even as an adult he still found them kinda fascinating.

The inside was way more welcoming and fitting for a library. White cold plaster along the walls, mixed with warm and soft brown wood and terracotta tiles on the stairs, banisters and desks. A harmony of materials that never failed to make him feel relaxed.

He spent a long time there that day, longer than he felt he could afford. He knew Mirage would contact him if Starscream were to get worse, but even then he felt like he couldn’t spend too much time away. Time he could use in the garage fixing him.

He looked through all the shelves he could think of, reading through books on airplanes, vehicles in general and of different fighting jets. The nice librarians tried helping him find the books he needed, even when yet another book turned out to be a dead end.

Noah knew what he was looking for. What little he had seen of Starscream's frame hadn’t shown much, but it was enough to get a feeling for how his wings actually looked, as well as the cockpit. Noah might not have been a fighter pilot back in the military, but he had even so seen his fair share of planes. And what he had seen of Starscream made him think of one specific jet: a F-15 Eagle.

He had seen plenty of those planes before, someone he did basic training with flew one, and had shown it to Noah a number of times. He could tell some basic differences between some planes, and many jets and planes had very specific looks. But other than that, most planes and jets were just the same to Noah. Oh, how that came back to bite him now when he actually needed the knowledge.

Back when he was on to rebuild Mirage, he had no idea how cars were built. He was an electronics guy, not a car guy. So he had to learn everything from scratch, thank God he had Reek to help him. He borrowed books from him on car components, and how cars were built. After he got that knowledge down, he had to look into how specifically a Porsche was built and differed from other car brands and builds. He was nothing but thorough, and he'd be damned if he got Mirage’s new frame wrong after all he's done for him. And right now, he was in the same mindset for Starscream. He might just have met the mech, but he was injured and needed help.

His mom would surely laugh at him if she saw him, he was just like her right now. Not that he could deny it, he had always been more like her than his dad. Had the appearance of one, the mind and personality of the other.

After almost two hours of research, he thought he had most facts down. He had at some point gotten paper and a pen, to write down all the things he could find regarding the jet model; the double engines, power output and other interesting facts. He also cross-examined the information with the two closest lookalikes: the F-16 and the F-22. Difference in engines, how powerful they were, and how much they differed from each other.

Had he not been on a time limit, and not having a hurt mech to care for, he could probably stay there for hours learning about different planes. Maybe something to consider once things have settled down. Who knew learning about cars and planes could be so interesting and downright fun?

After putting away all the books correctly, and also thanking the kind librarians, he took his papers and left for the garage. Stopping shortly at a convenience store for a light lunch, he arrived soon at the garage. Opening the door, he saw Mirage sitting on the floor by Starscream's side, almost looking like neither of them had moved an inch since yesterday.

Hearing the door open, Mirage turned his helm to face him. His faceplate screamed exhaustion.

“My god, Raj… Have you been up all night like this?” Noah asked in a worried voice.

Mirage weakly nodded. “I couldn't recharge. It just didn’t feel right, you know? What if something happened and I wasn’t there to help him?” He answered in a tired voice.

Noah walked up to him, patting him on the leg.

“I'm here now Raj, so I'll take over. You get some rest, and should I need you I'll call. But please, get some rest now”

With a final nod, Mirage placed a quick and light kiss on top of Noah’s head, before wandering off to the side to recharge in his root-form.

Giving a sad smile, Noah turned to the bigger mech still in recharge. He didn’t seem to be in any pain, or he might also be so exhausted from whatever happened to him that he couldn’t stay awake. Knowing he'd find out soon enough, he went to grab his toolbelt. It was about time to get this show started.

His first order of business was to make sure his earlier work was still intact and working. A quick look in his chassis with the flashlight proved that it did still work and was all intact. The loose metal hadn’t moved much, maybe just a tiny bit due to gravity and maybe Starscream moving in his sleep. Nothing that was worrying for now.

Moving on he listened to the ventilation. While they did still run alright, there was some kind of sound coming out that he didn’t really like. Sounded like a mix between a metallic ticking sound, and something whistling. It was very odd, and definitely didn’t sound natural. Alien robots or not.

After that he took a look at the limbs he could reach and see. Disregarding the dents and scrapes, he couldn’t see much that needed to be done urgently. Maybe some twigs and rumble that needed to be removed, but he for sure wanted to take a closer look at the energon lines, just to make sure they still ran smoothly. Most dents were on the smaller side, but he for sure had a number of bigger dents, many that covered bigger areas on mostly his arms and surprisingly his legs, which he knew he had looked over once already back on Staten Island, but back then he hadn’t seen anything. Getting the dents fixed should be fairly easy (he definitely remembers smoothing out dented metal pieces when rebuilding Mirage), but the more he thought about it, the more worried he got. What if there were bigger injuries under the dents, just waiting to be released? He remembers how mom would tell stories of people coming in with different objects stuck in them, and the importance of leaving them inside in case they had pierced a big blood vessel.

… Coming to think of it, they didn’t have any sort of scanners that would work on Cybertronians, to scan after any energon lines or anything similar. Sure, Mirage had a general scanner, but that’s just for a quick general assessment of a mechs health. All Cybertonians had one like that, only proper medics had more advanced ones. Human scanners of different kinds wouldn't be of much use either. Starscream and other Cybertronians were mostly just pure metal, and while in recharge or not in action, energon was surprisingly luke warm, so a heat scanner wasn't much use either.

Noah rubbed his temple, the throbbing behind his forehead making itself known. The entire situation felt more and more stressful. If he didn’t do something, there might be a risk permanent damage if something was hiding underneath the bigger dents. But if he did something, and there was something underneath, he could also be making permanent damage or even make Starscream even more critical than he already was. Whichever option he chose, there was a risk of Noah making more harm than good.

Was he really the person for this job?

Should he really be doing this?

Maybe they should-

No. He couldn’t be thinking like this. Starscream crash landed on Earth, making him his responsibility. He was one of the only humans who knew of the Cybertronians existence, and the only one who had any kind of knowledge about how their race worked (however small that amount was). Starscream was also fleeing from something, and the Autobots didn’t have Ratchet on hand right now.

No matter how he twisted it, he: Noah, a lone human, was Starscream's best chance of getting better. Noah had no choice but to try his best. The injured mech in front of him won't survive otherwise.

Looking the mech over for a final time, Noah had to sit down for a little while to come up with a plan. He knew the small dents could definitely wait, but the bigger ones had to be properly looked over. Optimal healing in humans requires good blood flow, and Cybertronians are surprisingly similar to humans in many regards. So restoring the flow of energon to all limbs should make him heal much faster. Fixing the dents might remove any pressure on any potential injuries, and there lies the problem. But maybe fixing each dent just a little, bit by bit with checks in-between to look for any leaks of energon, would give him enough time to act if something were to happen.

Going over several options, but finding his first idea to be the best, he took out a list to write down everything he had to do over the coming days to help with Starscream's healing. Call it a treatment plan or whatever, but he liked having a proper list and plan to follow. Makes it harder to miss anything. After he felt pleased with his plan, he looked over which dents to start with. The ones on the legs were easier to reach on his own, so he wouldn’t need to unnecessarily wake up Mirage to help him. Hopefully it would also take enough long time so Mirage would wake up in time to start on the arms.

Getting all the tools he could be needing, including some very hot water, he started gently fixing each dent. Warming each up with the hot water, making it more bendable, and using loads of thick metal pieces to stick to the plates, he pulled each dent out bit by bit. After each pull he looked after any potential leaks, and each time he accidentally pulled a dent out all the way his heart would skyrocket with panic. Thankfully, none of the bigger dents were hiding any hidden injuries to any energon lines. Breathing a sigh of relief, Noah walked up to the sleeping mech's arms, repeating the procedures.

By the time afternoon rolled around, most of the bigger dents were fixed, the only ones left were too high up for Noah to reach on his own. Not wanting to wake Mirage just yet, Noah also managed to pull out some debris from underneath the plates on the arms and legs, mostly just pieces of rocks and twigs. So far Noah was feeling good about his progress, while also feeling pretty optimistic about Starscream's prognosis. At this rate, Starscream would maybe make a full recovery in maybe just two weeks, depending on how he reacted to all the procedures. The things currently left were the chassis, the smaller dents and checking over his voice box, just to make sure it too wasn't damaged.

Hearing metal shifting behind him, Noah turned around to see Mirage transforming out of his root-form and standing up. He still looked a bit tired, but much better than before.

“Hey Noah, how's it going right now?” He asked, walking over and placed a kiss on top of Noah’s head.

“Everything's good so far. Managed to fix most of the larger dents, and move some debris. I could however use some help getting up there, I can’t really reach the top of his arm or his legs. Not safely at least”.

Mirage nodded, and after Noah got the stuff he needed, Mirage took him in his hands and picked him up. Standing in Mirage’s hand was way more tricky than he had anticipated, but they somehow made it work. By the end, Mirage didn’t even have to hold onto him anymore.

With Noah still being in Mirage's hands, he could get a better look on the top part of Starscream's helm. He had a few dents, but the metal on the helm was always much thicker than most of the frame, because it needed to protect the processors. He also couldn’t see any outer injuries to the neck or neck cables, any exterior damage to the voice box was looking very unlikely.

Starscream himself had yet to wake up.

Both Mirage and Noah frowned. They both had hoped Starscream would have woken up at this point, he was probably in much worse shape than they had originally imagined. That, or he was sleeping through some serious sleep deprivation. None of them sounded any good to the pair.

Putting Noah down, Mirage took his own look at Starscream. He could see all the places where Noah had fixed all the dents, and all the smaller ones that were left to fix later. Knowing Noah had just fixed major energon line damages and dented plates, filled Mirage with so much pride and joy. His boy had accomplished so much, and all on his own. Mirage knew for sure he wouldn't be able to do it like Noah had. Noah had gone from learning just basic mechanics and Cybertronian words, to being well on his way to become a fully qualified Cybertronian medic. He knew even Ratchet would have a hard time finding any faults in him. Then again, that grumpy old mech did have ridiculously high standards.

Hearing a groan had both the man and mech looking up, towards the face of the injured mech laying down. Soon enough, red glowing eyes slowly opened. Starscream was finally waking up, time to get some answers to what has happened and how he's currently feeling.

Chapter Text

The big mech in front of them groaned, his engines and ventilation kicking to life as he woke up more and more. The sound of the engines sounded really well, from what Noah could tell, and he let out a sigh of relief. No need to worry about that then.

The deep red optics were open, but not fully aware of what was happening just yet. From how deep in recharge he had been, Noah didn't exactly blame him. It was very relatable.

Mirage was right behind him, a protective servo on his shoulder and arm. He wasn’t taking any chances, even if he was on board with taking care of Starscream. Starscream was still too unknown to them, they had no idea how he would react to waking up in some garage which wasn’t where he had crash landed. He could become violent, or he could be subdued. They just had to be cautious and see.

Starscream was slightly moving his helm now, looking like a kid who tried rubbing the sleep out of their eyes. It was a kinda pitiful display, neither Mirage nor Noah could imagine this mech as a big name among the Decepticons.

Laying down like this, he actually looked pretty young. It made Noah start to wonder just how old Starscream actually is. He knew Bumblebee was very young when the war started, could Starscream have been about the same age as him back then?

Managing to fully open his optics, Starscream was starting to fully take in his surroundings, including the human and Autobot standing over him. He seemed to freeze a bit when he fully saw Mirage.

“Hey, Starscream. You're safe, it's me Noah”

Starscream looked down at him.

“Remember me? I'm the human who found you when you crash landed. And this behind me is Mirage, he's an Autobot but means no harm to you” Noah tried reasoning with him, hoping reminding him would calm him down and hopefully be more cooperative.

Mirage tried giving a reassuring smile. “Me and Noah took you away from the crash site, for your safety. We're now in Noah’s garage, where he can help you with your wounds, and you're protected from the harsh weather outside” he said calmly, remembering himself how calm voices had been effective for him whenever he came out of forced recharges due to operations or bad injuries.

Also the weather was pretty decent outside right now, but Starscream didn't really need to know that right now.

Their talking seemed to do the trick, as Starscream slowly seemed to relax a bit, but was still very much on guard. They couldn't really blame him, from what he seemed to have endured.

“Riiiight…” Starscream said, seemingly testing his voice box but also their reaction. "How long was I out for?”

“Not too long. You have been in recharge for less than 24 hours. It was late afternoon when we met you, and now it's right past midday” Noah explained.

Starscream slightly nodded, but looked even more confused. Mirage noticed how he was just barely looking his way, like he was looking to him for something.

Oh. Of course

Starscream has just landed here, he hasn't spent any time on the planet to learn about it.

He had no idea what hours was. Or how humans measured time.

“It’s a human term, it's one of the ways they measure time. 24 hours is about one solar cycle”

Realization dawned onto Noah. Of course that's the reaction. Alien robots from an alien planet will of course use other terms and ways of measuring time. He felt kinda silly now. He has gotten so used to Mirage and the rest knowing human terms he forgot not all Cybertonians know them.

Time for another entry in his journal.

Hearing that familiar term, Starscream seemed to finally fully relax, laying his helm down fully on the cement floor.

“One solar cycle… That wasn’t too bad. Had preferred not to power down at all, or just power down for just a klik or two…”

Klik. Sounded like when humans says ‘a minute or two’. Could maybe be something similar?

“I could imagine. It took several breems for us to get you in here from the crash site, but Noah made quick work of your worst injuries in less than one” Mirage continued explaining.

Noah knew it had taken them hours to get him inside (the transport home from Staten Island included), and the first repairs had taken about 45 minutes. So one breem sounded like about one hour.

Starscream seemed to remember that he had been injured, and started looking down on his frame. He was seemingly still in pain, as he started to make painful expressions whenever he moved.

Noticing the still open plates on his chassis and abdomen, he looked up again, his faceplate sporting a deep frown.

“If he really fixed me then why is my plating still wide open?” He accused.

Getting slightly taken aback but quickly gathering more courage, Noah met his gaze straight on.

“Because I have only been fixing your worst injuries so far, and they were all internal. You had broken and also fully busted energon lines, which have all been replaced. Before you woke up I straightened out most of the bigger dents on your frame, the smaller ones I plan on fixing at a later time. Now, before you have any more accusations, could you please do a full scan and see if they are holding?”

Still very much frowning (unclear if from the pain or from still being annoyed), Starscream didn't say a word. But soon enough, his faceplate shifted to a look of surprise.

“Scans says they are very much holding. They feel brand new…” he said, his voice carrying the slightest touch of surprise and wonder in it. He looked up at Mirage.

“How did you…”

“Oh no I didn't, this was all Noah. He replaced all the broken lines with fresh new ones. Bet these will last for a very long while. He rebuild my entire frame from scratch, and I still have yet to replace any lines or anything major since”

Noah snorted. “With your driving I'm still surprised by that. I expected to need changing your tires every other week, you just can't drive slow to save your life”

“Eyy, what can I say? I'm simply that amazing. Either that, or it is just proof of your superior engineering and repairs” Mirage winked at him

Noah rolled his eyes. “Highly doubt it is my repairs…”

Starscream was now looking right at Noah, his optics wide.

“You rebuilt his entire frame?”

Noah nodded. 

“And you replaced all my broken energon lines? And made them work so smoothly?”

Noah’s eyes softened as he nodded again.

“Did your scan find anything else? Anything broken or that needs to be immediately looked at?”

Still slightly dumbfounded, it took a few seconds for Starscream to register the question. 

“Umm… No more energon lines are broken or in need of repair. All the remaining dents are minor and cause no pain or discomfort. My wings are still functioning, but might need some minor tweaking to close up any exposed wires…”

Noah nodded, already writing down the info on the small pad he carried in his toolbelt. 

“My fuel tank is slightly damaged, there is a possibility of it starting to leak soon. And something in my chassis feels off. My scan can only tell that something is damaged”

Something inside Noah twisted with each word. He was being too quick in giving out the information, and it was too to the point. It gave an impression that he was very used to either being injured, or having to see the medic often and wanting to leave as soon as possible. None of the impressions made Noah feel any better.

“Right! I guess we better start taking a look at that fuel tank then. Don't want my work to be ruined by new problems”

Starscream snorted. Actually snorted at that. 

“You sound just like that Autobot medic Ratchet”

Noah gave him a crooked grin. “Don't know if I should take that as a compliment or a complaint”

Starscream started looking more somber at that.

“Some would say it's definitely a compliment, some a complaint. I will say this: don't try to become like him. You will either end up very alone like him, or insane like his contemporary”

Now it was Mirage's time to grimace.

“You're talking about Pharma, aren't you? Noah would NEVER end up like him. He has already seen war TWICE, and he's still a good and sane person!” he seethed, his servo on Noah tightening slightly.

Taken aback from such a clap back, Starscream narrowed his eyes and looked away.

“Raj, that's not how we should reply. He's our patient now, so there's no need to make him feel worse than he already is” Noah scolded.

He turned around and put his hand on top of Mirage’s servo.

“I appreciate it though…” he smiled.

Mirage smiled back, but Noah could tell it didn’t really reach his optics. He's still too pissed off.

Well, he's gonna have to deal with it now, because they have a patient to help.

“Okay then! Let's take a look at this fuel tank then. I couldn't really see it that well, so I'll need your guidance here Starscream on where it's located”

Looking up very confused (and like he's had an emotional whiplash, poor guy), Starscream slowly raised his hand and pointed to his abdomen. Noah frowned, of course it would be there. Right where he had seemingly been attacked by someone else.

For whatever reason he thought the fuel tank would be higher up, like up in the chassis. Didn’t his mom's anatomy book show that the human stomach is actually up there?

Going over to take a look, Noah realised that he wouldn’t be able to actually see the fuel tanks as long as the plating was still somewhat intact. Also the damage would be very hard to fix if the plating was still mounted onto his frame. It would be best to remove it, fix it and then reattach it.

After talking through his plan, and getting a somewhat reluctant okay from Starscream, Noah carefully removed the damaged plating. What greeted him was indeed the previously unseen fuel tank, and it had indeed been scratched pretty good. Not enough to instantly burst open, but would eventually do so if not fixed. Especially now with the energon lines fixed and no longer leaking, the fuel tank would start filling up more and increase the pressure inside.

Stabilising the tank didn't take too long, as Noah mostly just welded a metal patch over the damaged area, strengthening the entire surface and not allowing any liquid to slip through. While the damage had seemingly been reduced thanks to the outer plating, he could still see faint markings in the tank where something sharp had scratched the bot. The wound on the outer plating was too bluntly created, so it wasn’t very likely made by a sword and too sharp to be a hammer.

A clawed servo maybe? The thought gave him the shivers.

No matter, what had made them wasn’t that important right now. The tank was stabilized, thus leaving fixing the outer plating left. The bot would need some time to rest and heal by himself afterwards, so this was the only thing that mattered at the moment.

Letting Starscream rest for the moment, Noah turned back to the damaged plating. Getting the blowtorch, he heated up the damaged area before using a mallet and anvil to straighten everything out. It took some time, the damage being done right in the middle of the plating, and thus sometimes almost a bit hard to reach. Soon enough, everything was even enough for Noah to start welding shut. While he did try to make them as smooth as possible, he wasn’t too worried about them not being 100% perfect. That could be fixed later when Starscream was fully healed. If Starscream would allow it, he would be in need of a new paint job as well after both the crash and after the different procedures.

Feeling good enough about his work, he returned to Starscream and fastened it back into place.

“Okay, that should do it for now. Are you able to do another self scan Starscream?” Noah asked.

Nodding, Starscream got a look of concentration for a moment.

“The patch on the fuel tank is holding really well. I’m not detecting any more issues that need to be done right this instant. Feels pretty good to have that horrific gash covered up” Starscream sighed in relief.

“I’m glad to hear that. Are you sure there aren’t anything else that needs to be looked over and fixed right now? What about that off feeling in your chassis?” Noah asked.

Starscream, making a face that was close enough to a smile, just shook his helm.

“No. The worst is fixed, the smaller dents and the wings can be fixed later. My scan didn’t say anything specific about my chassis, so it’s probably nothing major. Right now my frame just needs a lot of rest in order for me to heal. My natural healing nanotech can do a lot of things, but it can’t do anything too big or too crazy”

Noah gave a shocked face at that.

“Huh, what do you know? Sounds like the immune system in humans. Can heal a lot, but not the worst of broken bones or damages to muscles and skin. That needs some surgery to heal properly”

“Sounds like it” Starscream chuckled, before a coughing fit came over him.

“Dang mech, you okay there?” Mirage asked.

“I’m fine. There was a lot of smoke on the Nemesis when I tried to escape, most likely inhaled a bunch in my hurry. It is mostly just irritating to my vents” Starscream said, his voice still slightly raspy.

“Understandable, smoke inhalation can truly be a bitch. As long as your scans don't say anything, then let’s hope it clears out quickly on its own” Noah grimaced, remembering his own encounters with inhaling different types of smoke.

“Yeah, let’s hope it does” Starscream acknowledged, before laying his helm down fully on the ground again, looking truly done with everything for now.