"Knock, knock. Anybody home?"

He stirred only after the fifth or sixth tap to his chest, reluctantly onlining his optics to see one huge heel hovering half in his face. Sideswipe reached out without much coordination, trying to push it away while he stared up towards the two blurry shapes standing above him. As his optics came into focus, he recognized their colors before anything else. "Funny…"

Hound smirked down at the younger mech, pulling his foot back as Sideswipe proved he wasn't entirely dead to the world after all. "Well, you sure weren't moving. We thought poor Arcee was going to have to lug your chassis all the way back."

The blue and white mech lingering beside the Jeep tried to lessen his own culpability with a light chuckle. "I suggested we just let you sleep, but Hound believed that you may end up snoring and call out the Decepticons."

As if mechs were even capable of that function. Even Mirage seemed willing to make a joke at his expense today. Sideswipe couldn't help but smirk tiredly up at the two familiar faces however, forcing himself back to sitting before taking Hound's offered hand to be pulled up onto his feet. "Well thanks for the consideration. But at least tell me I can still have my own trash pile to recharge in back at HQ then…"

"Plenty of it," Mirage noted far less enthusiastically, drawing a not so hidden smirk from his partner.

The current state of the spy's paint job easily explained that unhappy tone. Besides the scattered fractures and dents throughout his metal, Mirage's frame wasn't exactly whiteany longer now that Sideswipe actually noticed. The upper-crust mech may not have been as fanatical about his exterior as some specific individuals, but they all knew this was still another 'bot that didn't quite appreciate the value of a little filth.

There was a shortage of clean, drinkable water in this area for the humans as was. So the Autobots certainly wouldn't be wasting any more of that resource just to wash off their own forms. Everyone's plating was caked with dried dirt and smears of energon by now. And with no large bodies of water in the immediate area for any of them to wade into for some relief, this was pretty much just how things were going to remain.

But Sideswipe couldn't care less about getting washed off himself. The discomfort of dirty joints and the particles grating between each hinge could go ignored indefinitely. Those smaller problems weren't all that painful in comparison to everything else, and any fixation on appearance would only be for 'bots much better looking than him to begin with. The Lamborghini knew he just needed to start walking before he collapsed down into stasis again. The faded look of his once vibrant, red paint was hardly worth thinking of. "So what are the orders, sergeant?"

Hound subtly kept his arm out a bit as if ready to catch Sideswipe should the other's body indeed decide to buckle. He ignored the human ranking term that could have only been another joke towards his army inspired alt mode, but Sideswipe's insistence on levity kept a light smile on the Jeep's face regardless. "Not much. We're taking over for this sector. You guys can go on and head back to recharge and get some fuel. There's still been no more 'con activity since that last report. The others can fill you in about everybody else if they've gotten any more information since we checked in. But they hadn't heard from Prime's group the last time I asked."

Sideswipe nodded, knowing that was all he was going to get for now then. Sunny and Tracks should still be with Optimus. He'd definitely make sure to ask whoever was stationed at the makeshift command post for another update before promptly passing the slag out whenever they got there though.

But he wasn't even too sure that he could transform to drive all the way back. It had hurt like the Pit the last time he had tried. But most the roads were blocked with big chunks of buildings anyhow. Ruins from months before, just like the small mountain they were now walking down together as they headed back towards street level.

Sideswipe abruptly noted that Arcee was already standing there waiting for them as well, and couldn't help but wonder why she hadn't just left on her own already. Though he knew that he wouldn't have been too thrilled about limping back through these abandoned streets by himself if changing back to his alt mode did prove less than possible. He reasoned that maybe she just hadn't wanted to make the trek alone either. Or worse, that they might all have thought that he was going to need the help to make it. But he really hoped that wasn't it.

"Well have fun on the oh so exciting patrol, guys. Don't overwork yourselves or anything in all that action," Sideswipe spoke up again despite himself, giving a joking little salute to his friends.

"Don't sleep too hard," Hound quipped back, patting the younger mech on one dented shoulder before stepping back to transform into his Jeep form.

"Arcee will just be glad to be rid of him," Mirage added with that refined smile of his, nodding to the femme. "Call us if you need a tow truck. I'm sure we could arrange for something."

"Hey!" Sideswipe protested weakly, watching the spy slip away into his own vehicular mode.

"Bye, guys," Arcee only chuckled, waving casually, "I think I can manage."

Sideswipe crossed his scuffed up arms to the best of his ability, watching the scout and the spy give a flash of their headlights as their own last wave before they turned onto another block and their engine noise faded off into the distance. "Since when did those two become a tag team against me?" He huffed, looking over to Arcee, though ruining his own pretense of being highly offended as he'd already began to smirk when they made eye contact. "And you were in on it!"

"Uh huh. And how many times have you pranked us all, Sideswipe?" The femme responded calmly, already beginning to walk. "I think a little teasing is more than fair."

"Nah, I don't do fair," he retorted slyly, before returning to his exaggerations as he began to follow behind her, though now wondering why she hadn't yet attempted to transform. "Don't you know who my brother is? He would have run all over me if I had!" Not that that wasn't exactly what had usually happened. But Sunstreaker's constant one-up-manship over him was beside the point, especially now.

Sideswipe was actually very glad that Arcee had so quickly presented a topic he could easily fuss over. He didn't want to give any prolonged silence between them a chance to start. These streets were dead. With every childish response or retort that rambled out, it made that unsettling atmosphere a little easier to ignore. And always thinking of his next stupid thing to say also kept his processors from locking up on him completely when everything in him just wanted to rest.

"Okay, well when was the last time you pranked Sunstreaker?" The femme offered next, perhaps on some level understanding the seemingly Bluestreak like penchant for conversation that Sideswipe had started to develop as of late.

But of course the real difference between he and the Datsun's ramblings, was that for Sideswipe it had everything to do with his audience as well. He loved to just know that she was listening to him now, even if it might only be through pity or her lack of any other choice at this moment. "I never, ever prank Sunny," Sideswipe answered with a purposeful emphasis of seriousness, delighting in the slight look the femme gave over one shoulder that spoke of her thinking him an utter liar.

Like most everyone else, Arcee had assumed that those immature, little tit for tat games were mutual between the brothers. But it was also true that she didn't know Sunstreaker nearly as well as she did Sideswipe. The femme would be hesitant to actually say that the yellow mech had ever been overtly callous to her, but Arcee knew that he had certainly never seemed to appreciate her presence whenever they'd needed to work together for any reason.

"I'm completely serious," Sideswipe only went on to promise smilingly in the face of such understandable skepticism. "He hates being tricked. He'd never speak to me again if I did anything like that to him." Though this was just another half truth of course. Sideswipe had done plenty of not so nice -yet extraordinarily hilarious- things to his twin over the course of their lives and hadn't been eternally forsaken just yet because of it. Though there definitely would always be an extended period of punishment that followed each incident. A length of time whose duration would depend directly on the perceived severity of the offense. Sunstreaker would always repay him tenfold really, with extended games of "ignore the Sideswipe" in response for each of those petty pranks.

Sideswipe wasn't sure though of exactly when things had gotten to the point that he'd actually found it too stressful on himself to purposefully make Sunstreaker angry with him. He already missed his twin enough between Sunny's passing infatuations with other Autobots and all the battles that had spread them out and kept them going longer and longer without contact. He certainly wasn't going to be pulling any stunts to drive the other away even further now.

But eventually realizing that he might have quieted for a little too long in the time it took to think on all this though, Sideswipe went on to speak up again with an abrupt dose of arrogance. He had learned from one of the best after all. "But yeah, I got that jerk good all the time when we were younger! I'm still the best and he knows it. Mr. 'I'm so yellow and thereby the most beautiful thing to ever exist on two stabilizing servos' could never mess with this!"

Arcee smiled oddly, delayed in the couple nano-kliks it took her to really determine a proper response as Sideswipe posed momentarily in some vague gesture of egotism and masculine might. It'd be difficult for her to imagine how Sideswipe really felt. She didn't know what it was like to be born with someone else. And to compete, be jealous, love, or miss them entirely once your lives finally split you in two different directions. Simple friendship probably could never compare to those types of bonds. But she was glad that Sideswipe seemed to have no problem at least talking about Sunstreaker, even if he really said nothing at all between all his jokes and taunting little remarks.

"Unless Optimus wants to run his current team right into the ground, I'm sure there will be another rotation in assignments soon." The femme remarked after a few more thoughtful moments. Certainly the twins would get to cross paths again. Arcee didn't want to believe that the war on this planet could ever rage as long as it had on their own world. Earth wasn't like Cybertron. It would wither and crumble much faster. That process was already happening quite rapidly. So the Cybertronian conflict couldn't drag on for more than a few Earth years at the most she assumed. The Autobots wouldn't have to remain spread out across this foreign world indefinitely. Eventually there'd have to be a conclusion. But to which faction fate would give its favor, still no one knew.

The pair slowed to a stop as they came to the next street corner. They needed to be heading towards the park. It was the most open space available in the city, and thereby where the Autobots in this area had currently stationed their operations.

"Left isn't it? My positioner's glitching up on me," Sideswipe admitted with somewhat surprising honesty as he waited for Arcee to confirm the best route.

"We could get there that way…but I think it'd take longer," she corrected gently, looking to the north. "Right would be faster."

His expression relaxed somewhat at the proof that this might not be something he could have done on his own after all. But Sideswipe managed another smirk at his pretty escort regardless. It wasn't really that bad after all. He'd made a good experience out of even worse situations before. And he was still with Arcee. After they returned to HQ, he doubted he'd be so lucky to get any time alone with the femme again anytime soon. They'd probably just put in him in line for what little maintenance was available and leave him. "You know, humans have a joke about the different genders and their efficiency with directions."

Arcee raised an optic ridge at him with moderate interest at that. They still had quite a distance to go, and there was no point doing it in silence. "Alright, let's hear it."

To be continued.