Hunk’s nose always twitches when he’s about to throw up.
It’s something Lance noticed over the years. Inevitably, right before a muffled gag or a hunch in his shoulders, Hunk’s nose would give the slightest twitch. Sometimes Lance thought his nose knew he was about to blow before his brain did.
Of course, the nose twitch wasn’t the only way Lance could see the catastrophe coming. In fact most of Hunk’s tells were pretty dependant on outside factors — some people cracked under pressure but Hunk, in a way, exploded. Hunk’s moms didn’t call on schedule? Lance knew to guide his best friend to the nearest washroom. Exams coming up? Lance kept a bag on him. (He stopped feeling any kind of squeamish about it when they were about 13.) The cafeteria was serving those nasty ass mashed potatoes again? Looks like they’re choosing a table next to a trash can.
The point was that Lance didn’t need some asshole condescending doctor to tell Hunk that most of his stomach bugs were psychosomatic. Anyone with eyes in their fuckin’ head could puzzle that one out.
The problem, fucking obviously, came with solving the issue.
Hunk — and by extension, the people around him — had done everything he could to make himself less prone to upchucking. Back before they head known that a lot of it was caused by anxiety, he’d cycled through a stupid amount of meds and treatments for a shitty immune system he didn’t have. There was a point where he and Lance used to joke that Hunk had experienced every medical side effect known to man.
It was funny in a very, very sad way.
It was almost worse that it all boiled down to mental health, though. It made the whole thing that much easier to dismiss.
Lance lost count of the amount of detentions he got cussing people out for being a dick to Hunk. And the amount of flack Hunk received for low attendance, for class disruption, and whatever other bullshit Garrison admin cooked up, was ridiculous. At the very best, it kind of levelled up to a…tolerance, almost? Over the years the two of them had become so adept with handling Hunk’s anxiety that it became easier and easier to manage.
Thus, the nose twitching. So when they’re at a diplomatic meeting, one dreadfully boring morning, Lance sees Hunk’s nose twitch ever so slightly after a comment on the effectiveness of one or two paladin’s fighting styles — namely, that of the yellow and red paladins, who seemed to be very prone to refusing risk in name of team safety.
Lance pulls out a solution fast.
He admits that turning his blaster to stealth mode and shooting a leg of the meeting table without anyone seeing, causing a the entire table to collapse and halt in anything other than dealing with the New Matter At Hand, might have been the slightest amount of overkill. He probably could have just, like, excused the two of them, or something.
Oh, well.
Instead he hurriedly rushes Hunk down the twisting corridors of the planet’s parliament building, desperately trying to remember where he saw the bathroom on the way in.
“Lance? What’s going on? Why are you —” Hunk interrupts himself with a gag. “Oh,” he says queasily, “that’s why.”
“Just a little longer, buddy,” Lance assures, and luckily he’s proved correct seconds later.
He pulls Hunk into the bathroom in the literal nick of time, the yellow paladin hunched over the toilet mere nanoseconds before the retching begins. Lance crouches beside him, placing a sympathetic hand on his shoulder and digging around his fanny pack pouch thing (Altean uniforms are weird as shit) for a water bottle.
“Why does this happen to me,” Hunk asks miserably.
Lance knows this is rhetorical, so he keeps his mouth shut. Hunk has said this dozens of times before, after all. He doesn’t need Lance’s cajoling, probably.
But Hunk continues, wiping his mouth and accepting the water bottle, sipping slowly. “I haven’t had an anxiety attack in weeks.” He scoffs. “There hasn’t been fuckin’ time for it with all the other shit.” His expression turns somber again, glancing down at his knees. “Why do I keep — I don’t know. Struggling, I guess? It doesn’t make sense.”
That sounds less rhetorical.
“You didn’t just…outgrow you anxiety,” Lance points out. “I mean, yeah, you’ve essentially had to shut off the part of your brain that feels fear to do this job. Not literally, but you know what I mean. We all have. But, man —” he nudges Hunk until he looks up at him, brown eyes meeting brown. He smiles slightly, trying to convince some of the defeatedness out of Hunk’s face. “You’re still a massive worry wart, Hunk. You think about shit. All the time. And unfortunately for you, you’re smart as hell, so all that thinking helps you identify a million and one problems with everything. And that stresses you out.”
Hunk snorts. “I guess so. But you’re smart, too, and you don’t throw up all the time.”
“That’s ‘cause I cry, dude.” Lance hadn’t meant it as a joke — he really does cry all the time, which is endlessly fucking annoying, especially when he’s trying to argue with someone — but Hunk laughs, which makes Lance grin, too. “Anxiety is a bitch. I know. But I’ve got you, dude.” He reaches out and grabs Hunk’s hand, squeezing gently. “Okay?”
Hunk squeezes back, smiling. “Thanks, Lance. I’ve got you too.”
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Starscream has like this, one sided dislike toward Rung because he thinks Rung and Rodimus are dating, and he is inevitably jealous of Rung because Rung has the frame type he kinda desires. Rung and Roddy did date in the past, but Rung broke things off with Rodimus for personal reasons (Rodimus was kinda toxic) and has no interest in him, and Rodiumus has no feelings toward Rung that are romantic, they are just friends.
What Rodimus does do tho, is trap Starscream and Rung in a room together so they can be friends, because he cannot have his ex and his conjunx hating each other. Starscream is insecure about everything, but he and Rung become friends and Rung actually becomes his therapist to help him deal with his insecurities and the need to change his body.
And rung is a good therapist and listens to/validates starscream in a way no one ever has. So those two become close friends and Starscream likes to keep Rung around as an advisor when he can,
meanwhile, Rodimus physically recoils whenever optimus is around starscream because he is actually jealous of optimus.
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