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Jazz woke up to the sound of his bedroom door opening. There was a soft click of the systems locks unlocking, followed by the faint scrape of metal sliding back.
His optics snapped open instantly. For one sharp, disoriented second he almost wanted to blast the visitors head off, before remembering he didn’t have a blaster anymore. There was no one supposed to know the code to his room, even less people who knew how to hack into his room. Whoever was here, wasn't supposed to be here.
The current peace hadn't taken away all instincts from the war. Jazz moved before he was fully online, one servo already reaching for the thin energon blade he kept in a hidden compartment. His instinct already put him halfway upright with his weapons ready.
A tall figure stood in the doorway. Jazz had his blade drawn, ready to subdue, before he recognized the figure. ''Soundwave?'' It didn't improve the situation. Soundwave never appeared in people's room at night like a recharge paralysis demon. At least not since the war had ended. ''What are ya doing ?''
Soundwave didn't react to him. He didn't look up or answer why. Jazz flinched again as Soundwave slowly started to walk towards his berth. Unlike normal, Soundwave almost wobbled clumsily and aimlessly. It was like he had forgotten how his legs worked.
The sight was so absurd that he began to question is he wasn't dreaming. He had seen Soundwave move with steady precision even when damaged and running low on energon. Whatever was happening was not something he had ever dealt with.
Jazz sat up straight immediately. ''Whoa hey man.'' Still no acknowledgement. The door slid shut behind Soundwave. The quiet hiss of it sealing didn't earn a twitch of Soundwave's sensitive audials. The sound didn't snap Soundwave out of whatever was going on.
Jazz lowered the blade slightly but didn't put it away yet. Something was still wrong.
Soundwave reached the side of the berth and stopped there for a hot second, staring down at Jazz like he was trying to remember something. Hopefully the thing he broke into his quarters for, for example. Or why he was moving so strange was also nice to know.
After Soundwave had solved the mystery in his mind, he climbed in. His berth dipped a little bit beside him. Jazz could do little more then stare in complete disbelief as Soundwave clumsily climbed over him to lay down.
''Soundwave?''
Jazz felt his systems lock up when Soundwave pressed against his side, servo's clinging to his waist. Soundwave had pressed himself into Jazz's personal space without pardon. Soundwave tucked his facemask into Jazz's shoulder and made himself home. Soundwave let out a soft sound of contentment, before his entire body relaxed. Asleep in seconds.
Jazz stared at the ceiling trying to process everything. Soundwave, who didn't speak, stared at people instead of conversed and reacted to being touched by outsiders like they had rust…
Soundwave shifted closer in his recharge. One leg nudged itself between Jazz's legs. The other was out over them, their legs now a tangle of limbs.
Something had to be wrong. Jazz had to wiggle a little bit in Soundwave's grip to get on his side. His legs were trapped and he had to remove Soundwave's servo at his waist for more movement to grab him by the shoulders to shake him awake. ''Soundwave.''
Nothing.
''Soundwave.''
Soundwave made a quiet whining sound and pressed his facemask deeper into Jazz's shoulder.
Jazz's systems almost short circuited trying to decipher that noise. He had know Soundwave for almost four million years and he had never heard him make this kind of sound. What the frag is going on? ''Soundwave, wake up.''
Another noise left Soundwave. Even through his voice modifier, it sounded rough, sleepy and distinctly annoyed. Oh Primus save him.
Still nothing. Jazz was genuinely alarmed. Soundwave should have been awake by the first unusual noise, if not the foreign touch. He shook a little harder. ''Soundwave!'' He hissed.
What could be wrong? Helm injury could explain the loopy-ness. Maybe poison that instilled sleepiness. A virus could explain maybe explain the clingyness. Soundwave could even have recharge walking tendencies. Or of course work himself into fried overworked systems. Honestly, now that he though about it, the last one felt most likely. Soundwave and self-care didn't go servo in servo. The mech could monitor the whole Decepticon army and the Autobot's too, but he couldn't manage his own recharge schedule.
Jazz had get a good look at Soundwave's face, just to make sure everything was alright. One servo searched the side of Soundwave's helm for the manual release. His digits brushed against the seams. He found it eventually. One small push made the mask hiss back into its holsters.
Jazz couldn't help but glance at Soundwave for any movement. Removing the mask might have done enough to wake him up. Tall, dark and silent never removed his mask around people, even after the war. But Soundwave didn't seem to notice at all.
One servo began to unhook Soundwave's visor while the other touched the side of Soundwave's face. It was warm, not sick. That was at least one worry less.
The sight underneath made Jazz's spark stutter. Soundwave's expression had, unlike the very few times he had seen beneath the mask, no tension. He looked exhausted down to the frame. The deep line of concentration usually fixed on his face was gone. His face looked softer without it. Too pretty for Jazz's own good. Dear Primus, Jazz was not prepared enough for sleepy Soundwave in his berth.
''Soundwave.'' Jazz said more firmly. ''Wake up right now.''
Soundwave's face crunched up in displeasure. After several painful seconds, his optics onlined dimly with visible reluctance. ''Hmm.''
''Thank Primus.'' Step one completed. ''Okay, stay awake now.''
Soundwave stared at him with unfocused hostility. It was hardly the scariest way Soundwave had looked at him. His optics shone so dim they were on the brink of offlining again. His face was faintly creased from exhaustion. Soundwave looked so profoundly tired that Jazz almost felt guilty. Almost.
His optics kept drifting shut every few second before jerking open again with a lot of effort.
''I need a little bit of your time Sounders. Just need to know that you're not offlining on me. What is my designation?''
Soundwave looked at him kind of stupidly. Jazz had to watch him get the answer through several layers of fog before finally getting it. ''Jazz.'' Soundwave's voice sounded different without the mask, more harmonic and a lot less unemotional. The vibrations of Soundwave's voice sent shivers down his doorwings. Primus must have either cursed him or blessed him with this encounter. And he didn’t know which one it was yet.
''Good. Good.'' Jazz held up three digits. ''How many?''
Soundwave squinted at him and then his servo. ''Three.''
''Do you know where you are?''
Soundwave's optics shut down again. ''Your room.''
''Why are you in my room?''
There was a long pause. Soundwave was visibly losing the fight to stay awake for a moment, before dragging himself back just enough to mumble an answer. ''Recharge.''
''With me?''
Another pause.
''Hm.'' Soundwave moved his head back into Jazz's plating and shifted closer, the crest of his helm nudging against Jazz's chin. Soundwave let out another sleepy sigh as he dozed off again.
Soundwave moved even closer. One arm slid back again around Jazz's middle and he pulled himself closer against Jazz's chestplating. It was like Soundwave had decided to become his oversized blanket.
Soundwave's ventilation ran still a little bit to cool off his overworked systems. His face relaxed into something soft and unguarded. Jazz had never had the privilege to see that before. Without the mask and without Soundwave's crazy poker face he had under it, he looked free somehow. Finally peaceful.
Jazz felt his spark warm a bit as he connected the dots. He finally understood what was going on. ''You don't usually recharge alone, do you?'' Jazz murmured quietly to no one. The entire situation rearranged itself in his head.
Soundwave had been working overtime, as usual. Normally, the cassettes would drag him away from work when he went to far. Only Soundwave had no cassettes with him. With Ravage on the Lost Light, Rumble and Frenzy on Cybertron making their own trouble and Laserbeak and Buzzsaw stayed back on Sanctuary Station, Soundwave worked even more overtime.
There was no one to full him away from his console, no one to bully him into recharge and no one to crowd into his berth afterward.
Somehow, half asleep and overtired, Soundwave had for some reason come to him to recharge. It made his systems warm thinking about it. Not Megatron or any other former Decepticons or Autobot, but to him.
Jazz tried not to think hard about the implications of that. He failed immediately. Because even exhausted and barley functioning, Soundwave had chosen him. Him. If he wasn’t a professional and worried about waking Soundwave up again, he would be giddy with excitement.
Although he had half of Soundwave's weight on him with the way Soundwave had practically folded on and around him, he couldn't help but drag and rearrange Soundwave a little bit more. He could handle a little weight if it meant Soundwave was more comfortable.
Soundwave practically melted into any contact Jazz made. It made him wonder just how much Soundwave was withholding himself of others. Everytime he shifted away even slightly, Soundwave followed unconsciously. He relaxed further once Jazz wrapped one arm around him properly. All the residual tensioned drained out of his frame at once. It was the most relaxed Jazz had ever seen him.
He wondered if Soundwave even understood this kind of closeness outside of familial context. Outside of his family and outside of the strange little bubble he'd grew up in.
Maybe it meant nothing to him, that it was no different than laying down beside Ravage or one of the other cassettes. All of this shouldn't give Jazz false hope. His spark betrayed him anyway. That thought should have helped. Instead it made his spark arch painfully. Because he couldn't deny that it certainly meant something for him.
He didn't know when his feeling for Soundwave had manifested. During the war, it was suddenly there. Spying on someone gives quite a view into someones personality, even the stoic ones. It took some more time, especially with Soundwave's own interpretation and outings of feelings en acts. But he mad managed to decode them enough. Somewhere in that decoding process he had fallen.
He had already accepted that nothing would ever come from it. Soundwave didn't seem fond of letter people get close. He wasn't even sure if Soundwave fully understood romance outside of observing it in other people.
So Jazz had settled for just befriending the mech after the war. That was enough for him. If things moved past friendship, that was nice, if it didn't then that would to fine too.
This was not on his bingo list at all. His systems were heating up involuntarily and he prayed that Soundwave would not wake up due to his spark pounding in his chest.
Every tiny movement Soundwave made was doing terrible things to him. The sleepy little sound, the unconscious clinginess, the way Soundwave kept pressing closer whenever he touched him…Ah Primus please. The worst part was that Soundwave clearly had no idea he was doing any of this.
''You scared the hell out of me, climbing into my berth in the middle of the night. Thought you were dying.'' Jazz muttered softly. He tilted his head just enough to rest his cheekplates against the top of Soundwave's helm. He stared at his ceiling for a long time, his fluttering spark pounding hard enough to keep him awake.
His digits rubbed a comforting gentle pattern on the upper back part of Soundwave's back he could reach, familiarizing himself with the seems and light scratches of Soundwave's armour.
He hoped to distract himself enough to get his spark beat back to a normal tempo. It had done it's job enough, until Soundwave's engine began to rumble. No that wasn't the right sound. It was kind of like purring. Soundwave was purring!
Nope. That should be illegal. Jazz was doomed. This was a disaster. Soundwave was a disaster.
But maybe this wasn't so bad. He could make it the nice kind of disaster.
He looked down to where Soundwave was sleeping against him. Would it be cheesy to say that is felt like Soundwave fit perfectly against him, despite the long awkwardly folded limbs? That his weight created a warmth across his chassis and made his spark flutter helplessly.
Cheesy or not, it was true.
Despite all his panic earlier, Jazz found himself slowly relaxing too. Better to make the best of the situation while it lasted. It was at least going to be an interesting morning when they will both wake up.
His blade had long since been forgotten somewhere beside the berth. His free servo moved carefully up to Soundwave's face, thumb brushing lightly along his cheek. Soundwave leaned into it in his recharge.
It made Jazz's spark burst with warmth. He couldn't help but turn his head just a little bit to plant a soft good night's kiss on the top of Soundwave's helm, before leaning back against it.
Jazz realized that without a doubt, there was no chance he was going to get over this night.
''Goodnight Sounders.''