Chapter 9: Realization

"Hi Sideswipe," Bluestreak said in his typical friendly manner when the red lamborghini trudged into the practice shooting range.

Sideswipe grumbled something unintelligible back as he drew his weapon and gave it a brief inspection before heading to one of the shooting booths. He proceeded firing several rounds angrily at the targets.

Blue immediately knew something was wrong with Sideswipe - of all the crew members on the Arc besides Sunstreaker, Bluestreak was one of the very few Sideswipe considered to be a true friend. Bluestreak had heard Sides and his brother were having issues lately - the whole Arc knew, and he guessed that was what had Sideswipe in such a foul mood.

The grey and black datsun took the booth next to Sideswipe's. "You and Sunstreaker are still arguing, huh? That's too bad, you two usually get along so well. What's going on this time? I hate to see you two mad at each other like this. Is there anything I could do to help? Maybe I could talk to Sunstreaker for you," true to his name, he could sure talk a blue streak.

Sideswipe paused his firing and looked at Bluestreak. "Thanks Blue, but I don't think there's anything anyone could do to get my brother's head out of his aft this time. We'll all just have to wait for him to come around." He fired a few more shots, then lowered his arm to survey his work.

"Aww, really? It's that bad? What happened?"

Sideswipe did a quick glance around to make sure they were alone before elaborating on the story. Since everyone knew about his brother courting Firestar anyway, he figured it could do no harm to tell Bluestreak the story. He told Bluestreak about Sunstreaker being mad at him for gossiping about him and Firestar - something he absolutely did not do - and how furious Sunstreaker has been ever since this whole thing started.

Bluestreak listened and nodded every so often. His expression slowly morphed from curious, to concerned, to worried - but Sideswipe was unaware. For most of his explanation he stared ahead at the targets or down at the weapon in his hand.

"And so I'm taking the rap for something I didn't even do," the red twin finished as he aimed again, preparing to fire another round. Talking with Bluestreak always managed to calm him down, and his aim was already improving.

"Oh..." Bluestreak was at a loss for words for a moment; something that rarely happened to the talkative datsun, but words found him again soon enough. "Well, I can certainly understand your frustration, especially since I believe you when you say you didn't do it," the end of his sentence trailed off tensely.

Sideswipe lowered his weapon once again and glanced over at Blue, who was looking a bit distressed. "Hey, you okay buddy?"

Bluestreak's optics darted up and around. "Oh, yes! I'm fine, just...I just remembered I have, monitor duty! Yes, I'm supposed to help Red Alter with monitor duty this afternoon." He tried his best to hide the nervousness in his vocalizer, but wasn't sure he was doing a satisfactory job of it. He turned and walked briskly out of the firing booth. "I'll catch up with you later, gotta go!"

A very puzzled Sideswipe was left to himself in the firing range.

The practice firing range was usually empty this time of evening. Most bots preferred to hang around in the refueling lounge or rec room, which gave the perfect opportunity to practice one's aim alone without scrutiny. Bluestreak had been practicing for a while, until his weapon ran out of practice ammunition. Not a big problem; there was a large supply of ammo in the storage room to the left of the entrance to the range.

He walked into the room, heading straight for the shelf where the practice ammo was kept, only to find it empty. "Scrap," he sighed. It was the job of the bot who took the last practice ammo to open a new container and put it on the shelf for easy access for others. Apparently somebot had gotten lazy.

It took him a while moving containers around in the very back of the storage room to find the one containing more ammunition. He took what he needed, reloaded his weapon, and put the rest on the shelf where they should have been in the first place.

He smiled to himself as he made his way back into the main section of the firing range - only to stop dead in his tracks. The smile on his face turned to stunned shock at the scene he came upon. This was...unexpected, to say the least.

Fortunately for him, it seemed both Sunstreaker and Firestar did not notice his presence as they kissed rather heatedly in one of the firing booths.

Bluestreak regained his wits quickly enough to silently exit the firing range undetected, still rather surprised at what he had come upon. Subspacing his weapon, he decided to head to the refueling lounge for a cube of energon. Maybe that would calm his nerves.

After retrieving a cube, Bluestreak was hailed by Hound, Trailbreaker, Smokescreen, and Mirage, who were all sharing the same table. Blue sat down and smiled at his friends.

"Hey guys! How's it going? You'll never guess what I just saw..."