[FoF] Scars of Yesterday 4/???
Sep. 20th, 2021 07:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dracoqueen22a/n: CONTENT WARNING: Sunstreaker and Sideswipe misgender Laserbeak for a good portion of this chapter, not because they are cruel and rude, but because they do not know any better. Once they are corrected, they immediately change their language, though some of their internal dialogue is a bit transphobic. Please read with caution if this is the sort of thing that may upset you, or skip this chapter altogether.
Scars of Yesterday
Chapter Four
Sideswipe woke with a splitting headache, a pain so bright and acute it left spots dancing behind his eyes. He whimpered and turned into a fluffy warmth, the familiar scent of his twin surrounding him. Sunstreaker’s arms immediately came up around him, his bony chin resting on Sideswipe’s head.
“Head hurts,” Sideswipe slurred because talking was hard and nausea had settled heavy in his stomach. It would be nice, too, if the world would stop spinning.
"Here. Drink this." Sunny's familiar voice washed over him as a cup pressed to his lips, an herbal smell rising from the liquid.
"Don't wanna." Sideswipe wrinkled his nose and tried to turn away from it.
"It's supposed to help, I think." Sunstreaker nudged it against his lips. "Please, Sides. I promise it's not poison. I drank some, too."
Sunny pleading with him was always a surefire way to get Sideswipe to agree.
He grimaced but obediently opened his mouth, letting Sunstreaker tip the cup so that the cold liquid spilled over his tongue. It was water, maybe, but it was gritty, too. There was an acrid taste to it, sharp, like the medicines they'd shoved down his throat from time to time.
His stomach clenched, trying to recoil, but Sideswipe fought the urge down and obediently emptied the cup.
"That's disgusting," he grumbled before he finally peeled open his eyes. The world was a mass of hazy shapes and color, noise trickling in beyond the awareness of the scent and warmth of his twin. "What happened?"
"Don't you remember?"
Sideswipe sat up with Sunstreaker’s help. He’d been lying sprawled in his brother’s lap apparently, and they were... outside? His nose twitched at the scent of dirt and grass and fresh air, so rare for them as to be a treat.
He blinked to clear his vision, taking in the shadows pockmarked with the shapes of others around him, human and harpy alike. Most stood chatting in small clumps.
"Y’okay, kiddo?"
Sideswipe turned toward the voice, saw Vortex on the ground nearby, sitting propped up against the wall, a blanket draped over his legs. He looked swollen and bruised, the scar across his lips thin and shiny.
"Better than you probably," Sideswipe croaked.
Vortex laughed, though it sounded like crushed gravel. "Apparently we've been rescued. So I'm doing just fine." He dragged out the last word and giggled, and maybe he'd been hitting that sharp-sweetness they were given sometimes. He sounded drunk.
"Funny how rescue looks like a cage," Sunstreaker muttered and pulled Sideswipe back into the shelter of his arms. "They knocked us out."
Sideswipe kind of remembered attacking someone, thinking they were going to hurt him and Sunny. It had been dark, and he only remembered flashes of movement. It happened too quickly, and he'd been in so much pain it had been hard to focus.
There was another harpy on his and Sunny's other side. Sideswipe squinted at him, asleep as he was and snoring loudly, curled up under a blanket. Glimpses of bright red and blue feathers stuck out amid the grass. He looked gaunt, and vaguely familiar.
Hadn't they brought him in like a month ago? Sideswipe figured he'd been sold, since he'd vanished and no one had seen him again. That's what usually happened to the harpies who weren't tossed in the ring or kept for other reasons.
"Sides?"
"Let me think," Sideswipe sighed.
He settled more firmly against his twin, resting one ear over Sunny's corebeat for reassurance. He looked beyond the little alcove where they and the other "rescued" slaves had been stashed -- presumably the tall harpy nearby was their guard. He was thin and vaguely familiar, the white of his feathers stark against the dark blue. He wasn't looking at them, but instead looking outward to the clumps of talking persons.
There were lots of humans milling around, different than the ones Sideswipe knew. These wore matching uniforms, and their clothes seemed better quality and their faces more pleasant.
There were a half-dozen unfamiliar harpies scattered about, maybe more. A very tall, imposing gray one stood in a clump with a slightly shorter dark blue one who wore a mask of some kind and had a fledgeling on his shoulder. He had his arm around another, even smaller harpy. Maybe still a youngling?
Off to the side, a solid black harpy stood in conversation with a harpy of red and white and black, the latter carrying a weapon strapped around his waist.
One of the humans broke away from a clump of other humans and stomped toward the big gray harpy's group and started talking.
Vehicles loitered nearby, flashing blue and white lights against the growing dawn. The sky was getting brighter, the black starry night giving way to the rising sun. The forest made dark shadows. Sideswipe's ankle twinged in remembrance of the clawed trap which had ended their first escape attempt. It still ached on the colder days, and the scar refused to grow new feathers.
"Maybe we're safe," Sideswipe murmured.
"Or maybe we're just being sold to new owners." Sunstreaker tightened his embrace, as if trying to shield Sideswipe. It was how Sunstreaker coped, by protecting all the fiercer. "Other harpies aren't any safer than humans. Remember?"
Sideswipe sucked in a shuddery breath. "I remember."
The fledgeling on the harpy's shoulder suddenly took off, flapping high into the sky before wheeling around and heading their direction. Sideswipe blinked as he went into a dive and then landed with a skillful little tap-tap right in front of Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.
"Hi!" he chirped, his feathers a bright, cherry-red and his eyes an even brighter, welcoming blue. "I'm one, too!"
"Uh," Sunstreaker stiffened. "One what?"
The red harpy said something, but it was in that harpy language neither he nor Sunstreaker understood. Too many chirps and whistles and too much like singing. They understood the human language better.
"Try again," Sideswipe said, like a human. "One what?"
The harpy cocked his head to the side. Blue eyes narrowed. He said something else, again in that language, and the cant on the end suggested it was a question.
Sideswipe and Sunstreaker shook their heads in tandem.
"Oh, no." He cooed, and his feathers rustled. His face fell with disappointment. "Uhhh. Sorry?" This time in English, though words carefully picked like he was unfamiliar with the language.
"You speak human?" Sideswipe asked.
The little harpy shrugged. It was too coherent to be a child, Sideswipe reasoned, not that he'd met many fledgelings. "Little bit." He turned and pointed to the tall blue harpy he'd been sitting on. "Brother do better."
As if summoned by the gesture, her apparent brother turned and looked their direction, or at least the mask and visor he wore did.
"Laserbeak!" he called, not sharp and chastising, but warning maybe. He said something else, but it was lost to that harpy language.
"I'm Laserbeak," he said with a giggle and turned back to Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, feathers ruffling a bit around his neck before settling again. "You?"
"Sideswipe." He pointed a thumb at himself and then tilted toward his twin. "Sunstreaker. My brother."
Laserbeak's eyes shone. "I know." He moved closer with a big, welcoming smile, and it was impossible not to be disarmed by it. "Happy to meet you!"
"Same," Sideswipe said. He grinned. He couldn't help it. There was something innocent in Laserbeak's eyes. "You helped us?"
"We did!" Laserbeak spread his hands and gestured to the other harpies behind him. "My family. Me. Our flock."
"Laserbeak!"
He ducked, feathers ruffling, looking guilty this time. He glanced over his shoulder, fingers tangling together. The brother headed toward them, and his mask made it impossible to tell his emotions.
They spoke, Laserbeak’s tone suggesting apology and excitement. The feathers of his crest rose and flared out, trailing tail swishing across the ground.
His brother, and the smaller harpy beside him, listened. Closer now, Sideswipe could better see their colors -- solid blue with a bit of a beetle-shine cast to the underfeathers for the masked one, and a darker scarlet for the shorter one.
Laserbeak chattered, and Sideswipe caught none of it, except a few words here and there, including their names. He also said "they're one of us" with a little excited bounce.
Tall-blue’s voice turned a soft as he crouched, head tilted. "I know," he said, and his voice was raspy and rough, like he was ill or had spent a long time coughing. "Later."
He lifted his head, and despite the visor, Sideswipe felt the weight of his gaze. He shifted backward, better into Sunstreaker's embrace, and Sunny's chin hooked over his shoulder.
"Where is home?" Tall-blue rasped. Or at least, that's what the question seemed to be.
Sideswipe shook his head. "No home."
For him, home was wherever Sunstreaker was, because Sunstreaker was the only thing he knew who had always been there and never changed. But as for a family? A place that had once been theirs? All they ever knew were the humans, and they certainly weren’t home.
Small-red harpy frowned. He leaned in over Tall-blue’s shoulder. "Bro?"
Tall-blue's head moved in a negative motion. He looked at Vortex and the harpy Sideswipe didn’t know, asking the same question.
"No home," Vortex answered, just as the twins had. The blue and red harpy didn't answer. Apparently, he was still sleeping.
"Everyone has a home," Small-red said.
"That's not true, Frenzy, and you know it." Laserbeak put his hands on his hips and stomped across the ground. He whirled back toward Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. "You. Home. Us." He made big gestures from Sideswipe to himself and to the ones he'd indicated were family earlier.
Sideswipe cocked his head. Sunstreaker growled. “You’re taking us home?” Sideswipe asked, and Sunstreaker hissed. A wee bit protective, he was.
“If you would like,” Tall-blue’s head turned toward them, though his eyes were impossible to see behind the mask. “Choice, yours.”
Sunstreaker tilted his head against Sideswipe’s. “Where else would we go?” he murmured.
“We could try again for the forest.”
“No.” Sunstreaker’s hand splayed against his chest, pinning him in place. “No forest. I hated seeing your blood.”
Sideswipe tucked his face against Sunstreaker’s. “You want to go with them?”
“They seem nice,” Sunstreaker murmured. “But I go where you go. If you want to go to the forest, I’ll go.”
And bitch about it the whole time, no doubt.
Laserbeak shuffled closer, his eyes still bright and happy. “Please come with us.”
The tallest of them shifted to a crouch in front of Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, while Laserbeak and Frenzy stood to either side of him.
“You’re welcome in Kaon,” Tall-blue said. “You will have food, shelter, and comfort. You would be among your own kind.”
Sideswipe stared back at him. “We could be with our kind in any aerie, why is Kaon better?”
“Sides!” Sunstreaker hissed.
“Shh. Lemme handle this.” Sideswipe straightened to look a little more imposing.
“Soundwave,” Laserbeak said, his tone better a pleading whine as he tugged on his brother’s feathers. “Ask them!”
“Peace, Laserbeak. I will.” Soundwave, apparently, drew in a slow breath. “All harpies are kin, yes, but I meant something else.” He tilted his head first to Laserbeak and then to Frenzy. “They are twins.”
Twins.
Sideswipe rolled the unfamiliar word around on his tongue. He’d heard the humans say it a couple times in reference to him and Sunstreaker. He thought it was a fancy word for brother, but maybe he was wrong.
“Twins,” Sunstreaker repeated aloud. “You mean brothers?”
“Yes and no. Brothers definitely, but matched. Of one egg or a double birth.” Soundwave’s voice was harsh, and he rasped on the last, one hand rising to rub at his throat, where Sideswipe noticed old scars.
Sideswipe’s eyes widened. “Humans, too?” He pointed to Soundwave’s throat.
“Yes.” Soundwave dropped his hand, giving Sideswipe a better look at the scars. They were old, maybe a couple years, and familiar in a way. Not like someone had tried to slit Soundwave’s throat, too thick to be a collar scar. Rope burn maybe?
Sideswipe was all too familiar with rope burn.
"You're not friends with humans," Sideswipe observed. Or assumed rather. After all, he knew better than most that not all injuries came from humans. Other harpies could be monsters, too.
Sunstreaker's arms tightened around him as if he, too, remembered. A lot of their memories were like that, fuzzy images of blood and pain.
Soundwave nodded slowly, his eye-visor catching gleams of other lights and flashing oddly. Beside him, Frenzy looked angry, his hands pulling into fists and baring his teeth.
"Some dangerous," Soundwave said, his voice turning raspier. "Not all."
"Like Mikaela!" Laserbeak chirped, bouncing on his heels. He tipped in against Soundwave's side, resting his head on Soundwave's shoulder. "She's nice."
Mikaela?
"I think he means the human giving orders," Sunstreaker whispered into Sideswipe's ear. "I saw it earlier walking between groups of humans and groups of harpies. It's standing beside the big, gray one right now."
Sideswipe followed Sunstreaker's directions and spied the human female, dressed in dark clothes compared to the other humans wearing variations of the same uniform. She had her hair pulled up, and her face was painted like most of the females Sideswipe had met. He couldn't tell if she looked kind or not.
"You'd be safe with us." Soundwave coughed into his hand, mouth twisting into a grimace.
Frenzy rested his hand on Soundwave's shoulder, giving it a squeeze. "Safe," he repeated with a long nod. "Very safe."
Sideswipe chewed on his bottom lip. Sunstreaker trembled, but it wasn't fear. Sideswipe turned, nuzzling into Sunstreaker's throat, breathing in his brother's scent. Sunstreaker's arms tightened around him, until all Sideswipe could smell was Sunstreaker, and all he could hear was Sunstreaker's corebeat. He felt the vibration of Sunstreaker talking, but not the words.
That made it easier to think. Cocooned in his twin's arms, Sideswipe could concentrate.
They couldn't make it on their own. Sideswipe had no idea where they were, except he was pretty sure they were surrounded by humans. They'd always been surrounded by humans.
They didn't have a place to call home. Home was wherever Sunstreaker was. Sideswipe wanted to be safe with Sunstreaker somewhere. He would do whatever it took to make sure Sunstreaker was safe and protected.
He never wanted to see Sunstreaker's blood again.
He didn't understand the significance of what it meant to be twins. It was important to Soundwave apparently, and to Frenzy and Laserbeak. Sunstreaker was his brother, that was all that mattered. Sunstreaker was his.
Did he trust them?
No, Sideswipe didn't trust anyone.
Did he want to?
Yes. By whatever god had abandoned them, yes. Sideswipe wanted to be safe, and there was something trustworthy in Laserbeak's eyes. He seemed genuine. He seemed sweet.
They'd been fooled by kindness before. But what choice did they have?
Sunstreaker's hand smoothed down his back. The underside of his chin rubbed over Sideswipe's head. He purred, and the rumbles of it soothed Sideswipe's core.
He would do this. To keep Sunstreaker safe, he'd do this. Whatever they wanted, whatever price they had to pay, Sideswipe would pay it.
He lifted his head in time to hear Sunstreaker say, "--supposed to know?"
"Know what?" Sideswipe asked as he turned to eye the other harpies, a little disoriented as he always was when he surfaced from the comfort of Sunstreaker's arms.
He looked up, but Sunstreaker had set his jaw and was glaring at Frenzy. Laserbeak had moved to Soundwave's shoulder and perched there, legs swinging, a big smile still curving his lips.
"I'm a girl," Laserbeak chirped.
Sideswipe crinkled his forehead. "Harpies aren't girls." He didn't know much about things, but he knew this. He'd never met a harpy girl. Not like the way humans had females.
Maybe it was a translation thing? He'd mostly been able to figure out what they were saying, though some things didn't make sense.
Laserbeak shrugged and swung his -- hers? -- legs all the harder. "Well, I am. So there." She stuck out her tongue.
Soundwave sighed.
Whatever. Laserbeak wanted to be a female, who was Sideswipe to judge? He wanted to have a home and a family. They all wanted seemingly impossible things.
"We'll go with you," Sideswipe said. He pulled himself further out of Sunstreaker's arms, though his head spun, and his limbs trembled with weakness.
Laserbeak's eyes shone. "Really?"
"You are welcome," Soundwave rasped. "You will be cared for. You will be safe."
Yeah. Safe. They'd see about that.
"Are you sure?" Sunstreaker whispered, urgent and concerned, his fingers curving around Sideswipe's right elbow.
Sideswipe nodded without taking his eyes from Laserbeak's excitement or Frenzy's unreadable face or the measured calm in what he could see of Soundwave's. "No chains. No cells."
"None," Soundwave confirmed. "You will be free."
Freedom was a matter of perspective.
"And we won't be separated," Sideswipe added, tensing, readying for a fight.
"Never," Soundwave promised.
Sideswipe didn't relax. He didn't know if he could with so much unknown waiting for them. But he wanted to believe Soundwave and the kindness in Laserbeak's eyes.
"Then we'll try." Sideswipe sank back into Sunstreaker's arms, pretending to relax. He tucked his head under Sunstreaker's chin and patted Sunstreaker's thigh.
"I trust you," Sunstreaker murmured, though he held himself with tension. He wouldn’t relax, not while knowing Sideswipe was injured and needed to be protected.
Sunny was sweet like that.
Soundwave nodded and stood, lifting Laserbeak with him. "We will protect you," he said, and then he turned and walked away, leaving Frenzy behind. It was a bit abrupt.
Sideswipe blinked and burrowed into Sunstreaker's embrace. He was exhausted, physically and mentally.
Frenzy shot them a grin and then strutted over to Vortex. "What about you?" he asked, only to drop into that harpy language Sideswipe didn't know anything about.
Vortex laughed, and Sideswipe was surprised by how genuine it sounded. He smirked back at Frenzy, and they chattered at each other, Sideswipe only able to pluck out a few words here and there. He got the gist of it.
Vortex was going with them to this Kaon.
"You think we made the right choice?" Sunstreaker asked.
"I think we made the only choice we could make right now." Sideswipe drew in a slow breath. "We can always run away."
Sunstreaker started to pet him. "I just want you to be safe."
"Right back at you, bro."
Dawn fully crested the horizon, turning the dark sky into a brilliant splash of oranges and pinks and pale blues. Sideswipe couldn't remember the last time he saw a sunrise. It was appropriate, he thought, for them to witness one on a day that might equal their freedom.
They would just have to wait and see.
***
Chapter Four
Sideswipe woke with a splitting headache, a pain so bright and acute it left spots dancing behind his eyes. He whimpered and turned into a fluffy warmth, the familiar scent of his twin surrounding him. Sunstreaker’s arms immediately came up around him, his bony chin resting on Sideswipe’s head.
“Head hurts,” Sideswipe slurred because talking was hard and nausea had settled heavy in his stomach. It would be nice, too, if the world would stop spinning.
"Here. Drink this." Sunny's familiar voice washed over him as a cup pressed to his lips, an herbal smell rising from the liquid.
"Don't wanna." Sideswipe wrinkled his nose and tried to turn away from it.
"It's supposed to help, I think." Sunstreaker nudged it against his lips. "Please, Sides. I promise it's not poison. I drank some, too."
Sunny pleading with him was always a surefire way to get Sideswipe to agree.
He grimaced but obediently opened his mouth, letting Sunstreaker tip the cup so that the cold liquid spilled over his tongue. It was water, maybe, but it was gritty, too. There was an acrid taste to it, sharp, like the medicines they'd shoved down his throat from time to time.
His stomach clenched, trying to recoil, but Sideswipe fought the urge down and obediently emptied the cup.
"That's disgusting," he grumbled before he finally peeled open his eyes. The world was a mass of hazy shapes and color, noise trickling in beyond the awareness of the scent and warmth of his twin. "What happened?"
"Don't you remember?"
Sideswipe sat up with Sunstreaker’s help. He’d been lying sprawled in his brother’s lap apparently, and they were... outside? His nose twitched at the scent of dirt and grass and fresh air, so rare for them as to be a treat.
He blinked to clear his vision, taking in the shadows pockmarked with the shapes of others around him, human and harpy alike. Most stood chatting in small clumps.
"Y’okay, kiddo?"
Sideswipe turned toward the voice, saw Vortex on the ground nearby, sitting propped up against the wall, a blanket draped over his legs. He looked swollen and bruised, the scar across his lips thin and shiny.
"Better than you probably," Sideswipe croaked.
Vortex laughed, though it sounded like crushed gravel. "Apparently we've been rescued. So I'm doing just fine." He dragged out the last word and giggled, and maybe he'd been hitting that sharp-sweetness they were given sometimes. He sounded drunk.
"Funny how rescue looks like a cage," Sunstreaker muttered and pulled Sideswipe back into the shelter of his arms. "They knocked us out."
Sideswipe kind of remembered attacking someone, thinking they were going to hurt him and Sunny. It had been dark, and he only remembered flashes of movement. It happened too quickly, and he'd been in so much pain it had been hard to focus.
There was another harpy on his and Sunny's other side. Sideswipe squinted at him, asleep as he was and snoring loudly, curled up under a blanket. Glimpses of bright red and blue feathers stuck out amid the grass. He looked gaunt, and vaguely familiar.
Hadn't they brought him in like a month ago? Sideswipe figured he'd been sold, since he'd vanished and no one had seen him again. That's what usually happened to the harpies who weren't tossed in the ring or kept for other reasons.
"Sides?"
"Let me think," Sideswipe sighed.
He settled more firmly against his twin, resting one ear over Sunny's corebeat for reassurance. He looked beyond the little alcove where they and the other "rescued" slaves had been stashed -- presumably the tall harpy nearby was their guard. He was thin and vaguely familiar, the white of his feathers stark against the dark blue. He wasn't looking at them, but instead looking outward to the clumps of talking persons.
There were lots of humans milling around, different than the ones Sideswipe knew. These wore matching uniforms, and their clothes seemed better quality and their faces more pleasant.
There were a half-dozen unfamiliar harpies scattered about, maybe more. A very tall, imposing gray one stood in a clump with a slightly shorter dark blue one who wore a mask of some kind and had a fledgeling on his shoulder. He had his arm around another, even smaller harpy. Maybe still a youngling?
Off to the side, a solid black harpy stood in conversation with a harpy of red and white and black, the latter carrying a weapon strapped around his waist.
One of the humans broke away from a clump of other humans and stomped toward the big gray harpy's group and started talking.
Vehicles loitered nearby, flashing blue and white lights against the growing dawn. The sky was getting brighter, the black starry night giving way to the rising sun. The forest made dark shadows. Sideswipe's ankle twinged in remembrance of the clawed trap which had ended their first escape attempt. It still ached on the colder days, and the scar refused to grow new feathers.
"Maybe we're safe," Sideswipe murmured.
"Or maybe we're just being sold to new owners." Sunstreaker tightened his embrace, as if trying to shield Sideswipe. It was how Sunstreaker coped, by protecting all the fiercer. "Other harpies aren't any safer than humans. Remember?"
Sideswipe sucked in a shuddery breath. "I remember."
The fledgeling on the harpy's shoulder suddenly took off, flapping high into the sky before wheeling around and heading their direction. Sideswipe blinked as he went into a dive and then landed with a skillful little tap-tap right in front of Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.
"Hi!" he chirped, his feathers a bright, cherry-red and his eyes an even brighter, welcoming blue. "I'm one, too!"
"Uh," Sunstreaker stiffened. "One what?"
The red harpy said something, but it was in that harpy language neither he nor Sunstreaker understood. Too many chirps and whistles and too much like singing. They understood the human language better.
"Try again," Sideswipe said, like a human. "One what?"
The harpy cocked his head to the side. Blue eyes narrowed. He said something else, again in that language, and the cant on the end suggested it was a question.
Sideswipe and Sunstreaker shook their heads in tandem.
"Oh, no." He cooed, and his feathers rustled. His face fell with disappointment. "Uhhh. Sorry?" This time in English, though words carefully picked like he was unfamiliar with the language.
"You speak human?" Sideswipe asked.
The little harpy shrugged. It was too coherent to be a child, Sideswipe reasoned, not that he'd met many fledgelings. "Little bit." He turned and pointed to the tall blue harpy he'd been sitting on. "Brother do better."
As if summoned by the gesture, her apparent brother turned and looked their direction, or at least the mask and visor he wore did.
"Laserbeak!" he called, not sharp and chastising, but warning maybe. He said something else, but it was lost to that harpy language.
"I'm Laserbeak," he said with a giggle and turned back to Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, feathers ruffling a bit around his neck before settling again. "You?"
"Sideswipe." He pointed a thumb at himself and then tilted toward his twin. "Sunstreaker. My brother."
Laserbeak's eyes shone. "I know." He moved closer with a big, welcoming smile, and it was impossible not to be disarmed by it. "Happy to meet you!"
"Same," Sideswipe said. He grinned. He couldn't help it. There was something innocent in Laserbeak's eyes. "You helped us?"
"We did!" Laserbeak spread his hands and gestured to the other harpies behind him. "My family. Me. Our flock."
"Laserbeak!"
He ducked, feathers ruffling, looking guilty this time. He glanced over his shoulder, fingers tangling together. The brother headed toward them, and his mask made it impossible to tell his emotions.
They spoke, Laserbeak’s tone suggesting apology and excitement. The feathers of his crest rose and flared out, trailing tail swishing across the ground.
His brother, and the smaller harpy beside him, listened. Closer now, Sideswipe could better see their colors -- solid blue with a bit of a beetle-shine cast to the underfeathers for the masked one, and a darker scarlet for the shorter one.
Laserbeak chattered, and Sideswipe caught none of it, except a few words here and there, including their names. He also said "they're one of us" with a little excited bounce.
Tall-blue’s voice turned a soft as he crouched, head tilted. "I know," he said, and his voice was raspy and rough, like he was ill or had spent a long time coughing. "Later."
He lifted his head, and despite the visor, Sideswipe felt the weight of his gaze. He shifted backward, better into Sunstreaker's embrace, and Sunny's chin hooked over his shoulder.
"Where is home?" Tall-blue rasped. Or at least, that's what the question seemed to be.
Sideswipe shook his head. "No home."
For him, home was wherever Sunstreaker was, because Sunstreaker was the only thing he knew who had always been there and never changed. But as for a family? A place that had once been theirs? All they ever knew were the humans, and they certainly weren’t home.
Small-red harpy frowned. He leaned in over Tall-blue’s shoulder. "Bro?"
Tall-blue's head moved in a negative motion. He looked at Vortex and the harpy Sideswipe didn’t know, asking the same question.
"No home," Vortex answered, just as the twins had. The blue and red harpy didn't answer. Apparently, he was still sleeping.
"Everyone has a home," Small-red said.
"That's not true, Frenzy, and you know it." Laserbeak put his hands on his hips and stomped across the ground. He whirled back toward Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. "You. Home. Us." He made big gestures from Sideswipe to himself and to the ones he'd indicated were family earlier.
Sideswipe cocked his head. Sunstreaker growled. “You’re taking us home?” Sideswipe asked, and Sunstreaker hissed. A wee bit protective, he was.
“If you would like,” Tall-blue’s head turned toward them, though his eyes were impossible to see behind the mask. “Choice, yours.”
Sunstreaker tilted his head against Sideswipe’s. “Where else would we go?” he murmured.
“We could try again for the forest.”
“No.” Sunstreaker’s hand splayed against his chest, pinning him in place. “No forest. I hated seeing your blood.”
Sideswipe tucked his face against Sunstreaker’s. “You want to go with them?”
“They seem nice,” Sunstreaker murmured. “But I go where you go. If you want to go to the forest, I’ll go.”
And bitch about it the whole time, no doubt.
Laserbeak shuffled closer, his eyes still bright and happy. “Please come with us.”
The tallest of them shifted to a crouch in front of Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, while Laserbeak and Frenzy stood to either side of him.
“You’re welcome in Kaon,” Tall-blue said. “You will have food, shelter, and comfort. You would be among your own kind.”
Sideswipe stared back at him. “We could be with our kind in any aerie, why is Kaon better?”
“Sides!” Sunstreaker hissed.
“Shh. Lemme handle this.” Sideswipe straightened to look a little more imposing.
“Soundwave,” Laserbeak said, his tone better a pleading whine as he tugged on his brother’s feathers. “Ask them!”
“Peace, Laserbeak. I will.” Soundwave, apparently, drew in a slow breath. “All harpies are kin, yes, but I meant something else.” He tilted his head first to Laserbeak and then to Frenzy. “They are twins.”
Twins.
Sideswipe rolled the unfamiliar word around on his tongue. He’d heard the humans say it a couple times in reference to him and Sunstreaker. He thought it was a fancy word for brother, but maybe he was wrong.
“Twins,” Sunstreaker repeated aloud. “You mean brothers?”
“Yes and no. Brothers definitely, but matched. Of one egg or a double birth.” Soundwave’s voice was harsh, and he rasped on the last, one hand rising to rub at his throat, where Sideswipe noticed old scars.
Sideswipe’s eyes widened. “Humans, too?” He pointed to Soundwave’s throat.
“Yes.” Soundwave dropped his hand, giving Sideswipe a better look at the scars. They were old, maybe a couple years, and familiar in a way. Not like someone had tried to slit Soundwave’s throat, too thick to be a collar scar. Rope burn maybe?
Sideswipe was all too familiar with rope burn.
"You're not friends with humans," Sideswipe observed. Or assumed rather. After all, he knew better than most that not all injuries came from humans. Other harpies could be monsters, too.
Sunstreaker's arms tightened around him as if he, too, remembered. A lot of their memories were like that, fuzzy images of blood and pain.
Soundwave nodded slowly, his eye-visor catching gleams of other lights and flashing oddly. Beside him, Frenzy looked angry, his hands pulling into fists and baring his teeth.
"Some dangerous," Soundwave said, his voice turning raspier. "Not all."
"Like Mikaela!" Laserbeak chirped, bouncing on his heels. He tipped in against Soundwave's side, resting his head on Soundwave's shoulder. "She's nice."
Mikaela?
"I think he means the human giving orders," Sunstreaker whispered into Sideswipe's ear. "I saw it earlier walking between groups of humans and groups of harpies. It's standing beside the big, gray one right now."
Sideswipe followed Sunstreaker's directions and spied the human female, dressed in dark clothes compared to the other humans wearing variations of the same uniform. She had her hair pulled up, and her face was painted like most of the females Sideswipe had met. He couldn't tell if she looked kind or not.
"You'd be safe with us." Soundwave coughed into his hand, mouth twisting into a grimace.
Frenzy rested his hand on Soundwave's shoulder, giving it a squeeze. "Safe," he repeated with a long nod. "Very safe."
Sideswipe chewed on his bottom lip. Sunstreaker trembled, but it wasn't fear. Sideswipe turned, nuzzling into Sunstreaker's throat, breathing in his brother's scent. Sunstreaker's arms tightened around him, until all Sideswipe could smell was Sunstreaker, and all he could hear was Sunstreaker's corebeat. He felt the vibration of Sunstreaker talking, but not the words.
That made it easier to think. Cocooned in his twin's arms, Sideswipe could concentrate.
They couldn't make it on their own. Sideswipe had no idea where they were, except he was pretty sure they were surrounded by humans. They'd always been surrounded by humans.
They didn't have a place to call home. Home was wherever Sunstreaker was. Sideswipe wanted to be safe with Sunstreaker somewhere. He would do whatever it took to make sure Sunstreaker was safe and protected.
He never wanted to see Sunstreaker's blood again.
He didn't understand the significance of what it meant to be twins. It was important to Soundwave apparently, and to Frenzy and Laserbeak. Sunstreaker was his brother, that was all that mattered. Sunstreaker was his.
Did he trust them?
No, Sideswipe didn't trust anyone.
Did he want to?
Yes. By whatever god had abandoned them, yes. Sideswipe wanted to be safe, and there was something trustworthy in Laserbeak's eyes. He seemed genuine. He seemed sweet.
They'd been fooled by kindness before. But what choice did they have?
Sunstreaker's hand smoothed down his back. The underside of his chin rubbed over Sideswipe's head. He purred, and the rumbles of it soothed Sideswipe's core.
He would do this. To keep Sunstreaker safe, he'd do this. Whatever they wanted, whatever price they had to pay, Sideswipe would pay it.
He lifted his head in time to hear Sunstreaker say, "--supposed to know?"
"Know what?" Sideswipe asked as he turned to eye the other harpies, a little disoriented as he always was when he surfaced from the comfort of Sunstreaker's arms.
He looked up, but Sunstreaker had set his jaw and was glaring at Frenzy. Laserbeak had moved to Soundwave's shoulder and perched there, legs swinging, a big smile still curving his lips.
"I'm a girl," Laserbeak chirped.
Sideswipe crinkled his forehead. "Harpies aren't girls." He didn't know much about things, but he knew this. He'd never met a harpy girl. Not like the way humans had females.
Maybe it was a translation thing? He'd mostly been able to figure out what they were saying, though some things didn't make sense.
Laserbeak shrugged and swung his -- hers? -- legs all the harder. "Well, I am. So there." She stuck out her tongue.
Soundwave sighed.
Whatever. Laserbeak wanted to be a female, who was Sideswipe to judge? He wanted to have a home and a family. They all wanted seemingly impossible things.
"We'll go with you," Sideswipe said. He pulled himself further out of Sunstreaker's arms, though his head spun, and his limbs trembled with weakness.
Laserbeak's eyes shone. "Really?"
"You are welcome," Soundwave rasped. "You will be cared for. You will be safe."
Yeah. Safe. They'd see about that.
"Are you sure?" Sunstreaker whispered, urgent and concerned, his fingers curving around Sideswipe's right elbow.
Sideswipe nodded without taking his eyes from Laserbeak's excitement or Frenzy's unreadable face or the measured calm in what he could see of Soundwave's. "No chains. No cells."
"None," Soundwave confirmed. "You will be free."
Freedom was a matter of perspective.
"And we won't be separated," Sideswipe added, tensing, readying for a fight.
"Never," Soundwave promised.
Sideswipe didn't relax. He didn't know if he could with so much unknown waiting for them. But he wanted to believe Soundwave and the kindness in Laserbeak's eyes.
"Then we'll try." Sideswipe sank back into Sunstreaker's arms, pretending to relax. He tucked his head under Sunstreaker's chin and patted Sunstreaker's thigh.
"I trust you," Sunstreaker murmured, though he held himself with tension. He wouldn’t relax, not while knowing Sideswipe was injured and needed to be protected.
Sunny was sweet like that.
Soundwave nodded and stood, lifting Laserbeak with him. "We will protect you," he said, and then he turned and walked away, leaving Frenzy behind. It was a bit abrupt.
Sideswipe blinked and burrowed into Sunstreaker's embrace. He was exhausted, physically and mentally.
Frenzy shot them a grin and then strutted over to Vortex. "What about you?" he asked, only to drop into that harpy language Sideswipe didn't know anything about.
Vortex laughed, and Sideswipe was surprised by how genuine it sounded. He smirked back at Frenzy, and they chattered at each other, Sideswipe only able to pluck out a few words here and there. He got the gist of it.
Vortex was going with them to this Kaon.
"You think we made the right choice?" Sunstreaker asked.
"I think we made the only choice we could make right now." Sideswipe drew in a slow breath. "We can always run away."
Sunstreaker started to pet him. "I just want you to be safe."
"Right back at you, bro."
Dawn fully crested the horizon, turning the dark sky into a brilliant splash of oranges and pinks and pale blues. Sideswipe couldn't remember the last time he saw a sunrise. It was appropriate, he thought, for them to witness one on a day that might equal their freedom.
They would just have to wait and see.
