After my little angst filled oneshot, I decided to go ahead and pull out a really old fic of these two and finish it up, just to balance things out. In fact, I may do a little series of fun little snippets between these two, because snark+cockyness+romance=win.

I own nothing except for the plot.

"...Watchoutfortheledge..."

"...Cliff."

"...Mnndecepticonsgottablaster..."

"...Cliff!"

"...nnnhtakeoutthesniper..."

"...Cliffjumper!"

"Zzz... Wha?" Cliffjumper opened his optics to see two beautiful, but rather unhappy, blue orbs looking down at him. He blinked blearily, only partially awake and not quite aware of what was going on. Natural instinct took over, and he darted his optics about the dark room, making out that he was on a simple recharge berth. Memory came back in flash, and he recalled the reason he was here. He and Arcee had arrived at the Autobot base on earth a few days before, and only a single berth had been available, leaving the two with the very awkward yet unavoidable situation of having to share until a new one could be acquired.

"You were talking in your sleep." she hissed out, drawing him back to their current predicament. Judging by the fact that she appeared more annoyed and less furious, he doubted that his dreams had involved anything too inappropriate, as they occasionally did. "Honestly, it's bad enough having to share a berth with you, but do you have to keep me up all night as well?"

"Heh, sorry..." he apologized, sitting up beside her so she no longer looked down on him. He rubbed a servo behind his neck cables, awkwardly avoiding optic contact with her. "I have a tendency to do that sometimes, should've warned you."

She rolled her optics, but didn't seem to have any further comments save for one reminder. "Fine. Next time you do it though, I'm kicking your aft to the floor." He snickered at the remark, knowing full well that she would carry it out in a sparkbeat.

"Message received." he assured as she lay down once more, keeping her back turned to him. He did the same, though, being less bashful, he settled on his back rather than turning away. "I'll save scrapping cons for the daytime." There was a snort from the femme.

"I didn't think you could do that. After all, what else would you dream about?"

Snickering a little at the comment, he decided to push his luck, if only for a little fun.

"I dunno, you?"

There was a pause, and the air crackled with tension.

"Ugh, you mechs, I swear..." much to his amusement (and slight relief) she sounded far more annoyed than angry with his remark. Smirking, he decided to go even further. Pushing boundaries was in his nature, after all.

"What? Lovely femme like you? I doubt I'm the first mech to see you in my dreams..." turning onto his side, he rested his chin on his servo in an almost relaxed position. She kept her back to him, though he could tell that she was doing so only to keep him from the satisfaction of seeing the very annoyed expression on her faceplate.

"Maybe, but all of the ones stupid enough to tell me no longer have the ability to interface, so I don't worry about them much." it was as much a warning as a comeback, and one a wiser mech certainly would have heeded. But then, he'd never had any fun being wise...

"And what about the handsome ones? You wouldn't even think of denying future generations a faceplate as gorgeous as this..." she turned at that, rolling onto her back and giving him a look that was plastered with sarcasm.

"Really? If anything, I think I'd be doing our race a favor. Trigger happy sparklings are the last thing we need." she said, putting added emphasis on the "trigger happy" just to aggravate the mech. It worked, and she immediately saw the tables turn in their discussion.

"Again with the trigger happy thing?" he repeated, remembering back to her first use of the insult on Cybertron. "Honestly, you're still playing that even after I risked my aft fighting off two of the nastiest cons in the galaxy just to protect your half online hull?" She matched his accusing glare with an unreadable mask, and responded with a dangerously flat voice.

"Of course, you saved me... Only after I busted your sorry aft out of an interrogation chamber..." he opened his mouth to respond, but the femme was quite quick to cut him off, steadily rising her voice as she continued. "And then dragged you away from certain death through an exploding space bridge, leading us, indirectly, to Optimus Prime and the earth base..." Though her voice had been even up to then, she dropped it to a threatening whisper then, leaning in so close that the mech leaned back from the sheer intensity of her gaze. "So unless I'm mistaken, I've rescued you twice, while you've only done the same for me once... Pretty sure that makes us uneven, wouldn't you say, partner?" Much to her chagrin, he grinned from audio receptor to audio receptor at the last word, lifting up one servo to point out what she had already realized.

"And in spite of it all, you still call me partner, partner." she scoffed, crossing her servos and looking away from his glaringly smug faceplate.

"My standards have lowered extensively over the past millennia or so. That, and I took pity on you."

"Pity, huh?" he repeated, looking uncharacteristically thoughtful at the idea. With a curt nod, she turned back to him.

"Yup. Pity." she narrowed her optics, putting emphasis on her next words to discourage any further discussion on the topic. "Nothing else."

"Sure it has nothing to do with my charm?" he asked regardless, and, rather than listen, the femme turned her back to him once more, laying down on the berth as he continued. "Good looks? ... My natural firepower?"

"Good night, Cliff." she clipped sharply.

"Admit it, you dig these guns, don't you? All the femmes do." he teased, though she dared not dignify it with any physical response.

"I said good night, Cliffjumper..." she hissed, her tone an obvious warning that this was his final chance to avoid bodily damage. Knowing he was beat, Cliff relented, lying back on the berth with one further comment.

"Yeah yeah, good night..."

He snickered.

"Partner."

She sighed.

"Fragger."

Fun little fact, this story actually started out with Arcee being... *coff* expecting and therefore very hormonal (and pissed off to the max at being woken up), but I eventually redid the idea simply because the rapid emotional shifting didn't go with the setup. That, and I feel the poor femme is knocked up in my stories often enough as it is...

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