#fucking triggered what’s up with this unnecessary comment. what decade are we at

[ghcstao3]

hi again, hope school isn't being too hard on you :( I figured I'd send a few ideas in & you can answer whenever!

IT'S COLD! so how about the 141 during the summer, doing some of your favorite activities! Or maybe a teeny ramble about what each likes doing the most...?

if it's not triggering...SoapGhost in uni. The class they share is for 1 of their majors & the other's minor (or maybe just for extra credits). The extra credit assignment involves taking a day trip somewhere & they're the only 2 who go.

Soap's 2nd job happens to be helping out his local unicorn community, who have all but gone extinct. He comes across the fabled Simon Riley, the Ghost of Soap's hometown, as the poor guy wanders around after being held captive by fey for decades.

school’s just been busy more than anything thankfully!! it’s a lot of work but certainly not too difficult:)

and ahh it was hard to choose from one of these i might have to return to the others. but honestly writing about them in uni is like therapy

-

Simon and John meet in an upper level English literature course.

Well—Simon never really had much say in the matter, not when John had plopped himself down in the seat beside him on the first day even in spite of all the other empty desks in the small classroom. Apparently it’s what John’s heart had desired, and never having been one for unnecessary confrontation, Simon never says anything of it.

He could never really pinpoint when their friendship began, maybe forged through general interest in the topic and whispered comments and jokes about some of the contents during lectures, or maybe through necessity when they’re not familiar with many others in the class, but either way—John ends up becoming one of the better friends Simon’s made in all his years of university.

The thing is, though, with majors that don’t overlap in the slightest—be it Simon’s English major and John’s own in chemistry—they don’t really see much of each other outside of class, unless it means working on a group project. Simon thinks—believes—they’d both like to be friends outside of the course, but… for whatever reason, they each have difficulty initiating anything.

Simon, personally, would like something more. But he doesn’t need it. Just wants John’s company regardless.

But they have their difficulties throughout the semester, that is, until their professor—a sweet old woman, who endures far too much from the few immature students in her class—announces that she had received funding from the department to take interested students to a professional production of Macbeth in a town an hour over. It’s without hesitation that Simon and John both agree to go.

But since it’s so close to finals season, they end up being the only two to go through with attending.

Not that Simon’s complaining—it just means more time spent with John alone. Sort of.

And not to mention he gets to see how nicely John cleans up for the event.

“I’m so glad you boys still came,” their professor says in greeting. “I was afraid no one wanted to go anymore.”

John smiles that stupidly charming smile at her, and Simon’s really beginning to feel the extent of his growing crush on his friend.

“We wouldn’t miss it,” he says.

“Oh, thank you, John.” She glances between them both, some knowing expression appearing briefly on her face before she ushers them inside the theatre. She hands them their tickets, tells them to go ahead, she has some friends from the local university she wants to meet with before the performance starts.

As they settle into their seats, John leans into Simon’s space—closer than he could ever manage at a desk. Simon hopes the theatre’s dark enough that John can’t see the way his ears burn red.

“Warning you now,” John whispers. “I know fuck all about Shakespeare language, so you’re gonna have a lot of explainin’ to do.”

Simon huffs, trying to dispel some of the heat of his blush. “Maybe you should’ve paid more attention in class, then, Johnny.”

John laughs, knocking his shoulder against Simon’s. “Maybe you shouldn’t have been telling me so many jokes during lectures, Mr. English major.”

Simon rolls his eyes but doesn’t bother retaliating. Instead they fall into meaningless conversation until the play begins, quieting only slightly when their professor arrives and sits on the other side of Simon.

The lights dim in the audience, and the performance starts. Simon watches with rapt attention, but true to his word, John asks him far too many questions.

He doesn’t particularly mind, though, when he can feel John’s knee press against his all the while.

John rambles when it’s over, and despite the interrogation, he seemed to understand and enjoy it as much as Simon and their professor had. Simon’s more than content to listen as their professor bids them goodnight, and they both head to the train station while she heads to her car.

Simon isn’t sure what it is that causes it—but the entire ride back, John seems to encroach in his space more than usual, stuck to Simon like glue. Simon does notice his eyes drooping and his head nodding off every once in a while, so he has the excuse of writing it off as exhaustion.

Particularly when John is resting his head on Simon’s shoulder.

“Don’t wanna walk back to my flat,” John laments once they’re climbing off at their stop. “Too far.”

It’s a fit of impulse that has Simon offering, “You could stay at mine? It’s only five minutes.”

And there’s no hesitation when John accepts with a weary grin.

“You’re a lifesaver, Si,” John sighs. “Could kiss you right now.”

Simon freezes. John doesn’t notice as he ambles further away from the train platform.

“What’d you say?”

John pauses, and his brow furrows. He looks to Simon, simultaneously confused and entirely too casual. “Said I could kiss you,” he repeats. “Why? S’that a problem?”

Simon’s gaze falls to the ground as he quickly shakes his head. “No, no, it’s not—that’s not—“

“Would you like me to kiss you?” John pushes, peeking up at Simon through thick lashes. Simon knows he’d give in immediately, if he were looking into those sapphire-blue eyes.

“I mean—“ Simon shrugs a shoulder. His blush has returned in full force, from the nape of his neck, to his cheeks, to the tips of his ears. “—I wouldn’t say no.”

“Okay,” John hums, like it’s nothing, before grabbing Simon’s face and doing exactly as promised.

It isn’t anything life changing, but it’s still—it’s still everything Simon could hope for, even here as a chill runs through him from the night’s cool temperature, even if their only sources of light are the moon and a flickering streetlamp.

John eventually pulls away first, delivering a hearty pat to Simon’s chest. “Now get me back to your flat and we can do that again, aye? It’s fuckin’ freezing out here.”

Simon can’t help the smile that appears on his face. His face tingles a little less now, though he’s sure it’s still stained a deep pink. “Sure, Johnny.”

And if they hold hands the entire way back—Simon will just claim it was for warmth.

#ask #simon ghost riley #john soap mactavish #soapghost #ghostsoap #ghost x soap #ghoap #writing #alternate universe

[lonelier-version-of-you]

So, a pretty good episode tonight, although actually watching it has me even more convinced that the transphobia stuff with Sah was simply utterly unnecessary and added nothing to the story. Other than that I liked it though. And we finally got to see Arin Smethurst showcase their talent!

So. Seriously. The transphobia stuff with Sah. The revealing of their deadname and assigned gender. WHAT was that about? What did it add to the episode? Scott made it clear by the end of the episode that he didn’t really mean it and was just looking for something to weaponise against Sah - so he could’ve said anything. Scott’s mum didn’t need to make transphobic comments either. We could’ve had the bullying storyline without all that.

I am just so fucking tired of this thing where if trans characters need a problem to come up against, it HAS to involve transphobia. We’re whole entire people and frankly I see enough transphobia on social media on a daily fucking basis, I don’t really want to hear it and get triggered by it on my escapism show just because the writers think they’re sending a ~message~.

It feels like the show just wanted an excuse to hand over Sah’s given name and assigned gender and go “Here you go, cis viewers! Now you can misgender them! :)”. What the fuck. Like, Holby making Louis’s story all about transphobia was frustrating and I’m tired of trans characters’ deadnames always being revealed in general (especially when their deadname and their real name turn out to be really similar: Lily to Louis, Sarah to Sah... look, I’m one to talk here, because I also picked my name based off my deadname, but it is not nearly as common as TV show writers seem to think it is). But at least Louis’s story was a coming out one. Sah turned up already out to everyone they know. Revealing their deadname and assigned gender adds NOTHING to their story. Having people be transphobic to them adds NOTHING to their story. It really only serves to trigger trans viewers.

The worst part is, while Casualty has failed with queer rep in other ways (see: Lev), they HAVE shown an understanding that not every queer character’s story needs to be about queerness... when it comes to cis gay characters. You don’t see Jan and Ffion getting their every story turned into a story about homophobia, now do you?

But somehow they can’t do that for a trans character. Sigh. Sah is still better than Louis because at least Sah actually has a personality, but I hoped Casualty would do better than Holby in the “having a trans character whose stories aren’t all about being trans” department too. But alas.

Other than that, the Sah stuff was alright. It was a bit awkwardly written though. One little talk and suddenly Scott is fully reformed? I get the “hurt people hurt people” idea (and I’m glad Casualty get it too, since Holby didn’t... in fact, Holby felt the need to retcon the entire Henrik and Sahira relationship instead of acknowledging that Henrik treated her the way he did because of his own trauma), but one conversation does not suddenly fix that.

I am glad they’ve actually given Sah flaws, though. The stuff about their anger issues is really interesting.

I did love the little scene at the end with everyone gathering to celebrate Sah’s birthday. That was really sweet. The Holby reference was cute too - although really I think I was just glad to hear Casualty mention Albie’s, because it’s always been so weird to me that not only do the Casualty characters and Holby characters visit totally different pubs (understandable because Holby was filmed so far away from Casualty), they straight up acted like the pubs each other’s characters went to didn’t exist.

Bit annoyed that Fletch had to be the Holby character who was referenced though. We get it, Casualty, you created him a decade ago. But Holby did have other characters and this feels a bit much when we just had a Fletch appearance recently - Jan could have mentioned a comment that, say, Sacha made about her karaoke instead. It’s not a big deal but I still do think it’s strange.

So where’s this Ollie storyline going then? I’m VERY intrigued now. The writing for it tonight was a lot better than last week and so was the acting (from the lad playing Ollie’s up-to-something “friend”, that is, he’s much better than last week’s cartoon bullies - obviously Harry Collett himself, and Jason Durr for that matter, have not failed me yet).

I’m still thinking it’s most likely to be a mental health story of some sort. Possibly even Ollie having inherited his dad’s bipolar, which could make for a brilliant storyline.

But I’ve seen people speculating, given the amount of emphasis placed on repeating the “I’ve never been with a girl before” line during the last scene, that Ollie could be struggling with his sexuality and turn out to be gay and that would be really interesting too. (Possibly a combination of both? Mental health effects of being closeted/facing homophobia?) Or maybe he’s aro/ace? If it’s a sexuality thing I really hope the writers remember that David himself is bi. (Also, Kian Anon predicted the idea of Ollie coming out to David ages ago, so if that’s where this goes... everybody give it up for Kian Anon!) The thing that really gives this theory credence to me, too, is that Sah’s bullying story was obviously being paralleled with Ollie’s bullying story, and Sah did give a whole speech about how they were scared to come out because of the bullying...

So, yeah. Interesting episode, pretty good script, but I have a lot of criticisms of the Sah stuff. Usually this is where I’d put my “next week...” thing, but unfortunately, it looks like there’s no ep next week! Sigh. I’ll be back with another review post whenever Casualty’s next on, then.

#BBC Casualty #Sah Brockner #Oliver Hide #David Hide #Casualty spoilers

[cienie-isengardu]

Some thoughts about TLJ

I rewatched The Last Jedi, and finally - after getting enough sleep - I’m ready to rant about some things. Spoilers ahead!

In general, I can’t complain about characters itself - actors did really great job, and visual side of movie was pretty awesome. Yet, story wise, there are some things that bothers me badly. In no particular order:

♞ I dislike the whole drama with vice admiral Holdo. Was there even any reason why she couldn’t tell Poe and crew about her plan beside creating an unnecessary conflict? Like, anything beside that?

Because I think that telling people under her command that there is a plan to save them & Rebellion, would benefit everyone. Or, why the hell she didn’t told the plan when Poe tried to overthrow her?? It doesn’t make much sense to me, and it feel so forced, just for the drama’s sake and I hate such moments. Especially since Holdo already made a comment about Poe, how hothead and dangerous he was. So, why not tell anything if not to raise the morale of people on the verge of hopelessness, then at least to make sure that Poe will not take actions that may jeopardize their chance??

Also: if she already decided to sacrifice herself by staying behind on the ship (why there must stay someone at all? couldn’t they programmed the ship or leave a droid in charge??), why it takes so many people to die for her to take any action to save her comrades? She could jump into enemy ship right away, or put the ship between running Rebels and enemy fire, and save so more people. It just, well, irritated me.

( Also, I’m kinda shallow here, but why the hell a fucking officer wear a dress instead of uniform, especially during warfare?? I may forgive general Leia, because well, this is princess Leia, but man, that dress kind of bothered me.)

Okay, so Holdo maybe wanted show Poe his place, but it sill doesn’t make much sense why he was denied simple knowledge that there is a plan that may save them all. It’s no wonder why Poe acted against her. Also, I kind of disagree with blaming Poe for the action against super-powered enemy ship. If Resistance didn’t destroy that ship at the beginning of movie, its canon could probably destroy or at least weaken the shields of their ship much faster, given the chance.

Now I kind of wonder, how the movie would go, if instead of Poe, Finn and Rose conspiracy, they actually were allowed to take some action to stop / distract  the enemy. I wouldn’t mind to see more team work between them. Or actually some infiltration of First Order by Finn and Rose.

♞  I dislike idea that Kylo is now the Supreme Leader, because that makes little sense. I mean, yeah, he was apprentice of Snoke, but why First Order would care to follow him? If the movie ended with some blowing mind victory thanks to Kylo’s command, sure why not. But there is so little about Kylo and his position or relationship with members of FO, that I don’t see why they would accept Snoke’s death like nothing happened. To be fair, I would prefer if Kylo  persuaded Hux to lie that Snoke is alive and all right, while working together to keep First Order in one piece.  I know they aren’t the biggest fan of each other (though it’s shame we saw so little of their interaction after TFA), but I guess A) not so many people were allowed to see Snoke and B) Supreme Leader’s death (and by hand of some girl from nowhere) wouldn’t have a positive impact on soldiers' morale and soon the fight for power would tore First Order for good. Divided FO wouldn’t last for long, and Hux seems like enough pragmatic person to seize the opportunity to take power for himself. It’s better to rule than being ruled by some asshole that can hurt and humilated you in front of everyone at whim.

Also, it could be fun to see both Kylo and Hux lying to everyone and comming with weirder and weider stuff to say knowing full well the other can’t deny that  otherwise the truth would destroy them all. Because why Hux wouldn’t agree to actually command his troopers the way he wants instead of being humilitated publicly? And to be fair, if Kylo was smart, it would be better to operate from shadows, while letting Hux to deal with political stuff. If only they were capable of working together. I mean, I don’t even need them to like each other, but some kind of Vader-Tarkin interaction would be nice.

To be fair, I would like to know more about Hux - as much as it was funny to see space fascist get pushed into wall or knocked into ground via Force the first time, it makes me wonder how often Hux was a target for Snoke’s anger? How often he was humiliated (and hurt) publicly? Is he glad that Snoke died or if he is so used to be treated like that, it doesn’t bother him anymore? I wonder about it, because as much as movies alone don’t give us much details about his past, he didn’t have much choice to be anyone than imperial /part of FO from what I’m remember from EU, since he was born in very pro-Empire family. I guess it’s easy to dismiss, since Hux is part of the evil regime (and enjoy it??), but in a sense he isn’t that different from Finn (a stolen baby forced to grew up as soldier for FO) or Kylo (a strong in the Force child with special blood line that became target for Snoke). I mean, in the end, the character’s choices are what matters the most, and some, like Finn, had a courage and opportunity to decide about their own life, but some were stuck for too long between forces too powerful to escape. Hux is part of evil regime, sure, but still I don’t enjoy how he became a punching bag for Snoke or Kylo.

(Also, how so pro-Imperial people like members of FO actually accepted Alien as their Supreme Leader??)

♞ And about Skywalker family... I’m not really that much surprised about Luke’s sudden lack of faith in the second chance. Jacen Solo, anyone??? Yeah. What got me really, is that Leia now thinks that too. What is sad, because she felt her son during battle and I assume she knew, he didn’t pull the trigger to kill her when he had a chance. Same with killing Snoke to save Rey. There is still some sparks of Light in him, but yeah, let’s ignore this.

Frankly, I’m so angry that once again there is a child that get trapped in the fight of Light and Dark and the adults, instead of stopping Snoke, blame Ben Solo for his Fall. I know, Kylo isn’t without fault, sure but I mean, Leia admitted in TFA that Snoke influenced / tempted her son since he was a kid (via mind-link or something like that, maybe??). Unless I mixed informations, that’s why she wanted Luke to teach Ben. I’m not sure how Snoke get so close to young Solo, especially since he was with Luke and other padawans, but this is so Jedi thing to fuck up. Why don’t find a way to stop Snoke, instead of blaming a struggling kid because there is darkness in him? Blaming to the point of thinking about killing him in sleep. So, Luke just saw something in Ben that scared him, but did young Solo already killed someone, planned a mass murder? I mean, Luke saw a Light in Darth Vader, full pledged Sith Lord who for two decades committed so many awful crimes and yet gave up so easily with his young nephew, so what the hell he saw in young Solo?  What was so bad about the boy/ teenager? Does Leia even knew that her beloved brother almost killed her son because he decided the boy was too dangerous? That is... fucked up. Jedi-level fucked up. And then Luke, like so wise and great master Yoda, decided the best solution is to hide himself and wait in peace to die. Just... good Force, I’m so glad that Leia is more like Anakin (and Padme) - always ready to fight, to take action instead of sulking somewhere far away from war. To take responsibility, when the legendary Jedi hide and sulk. Bless you, Leia.

♞ Frankly, I would prefer if Force-connection between Kylo and Rey didn’t became so tangible. I like the idea of them learning stuff about each other, but I’m not sure if I like the way it was presented in movie. And some memories from their past would be nice too, I guess.

♞ As much as I like Finn and Rose working together, I was kind of meh at the whole saving what we love thing. What partially comes from my general dislike for likely to happens romantic storylines, but also a fear the characters (especially females) will be pitted against each other in the next movie :(

Then again, I wouldn’t mind to see more about Finn’s situation in Resistance. We know he seen as hero - stormtrooper of First Order who run away, saved Poe (a trusted man of general Organa), helped to destroy enemy weapon - but  at the same time, does he really think about himself as one of them? Especially before the final battle? Or how similar and different is/will be his life from the one in First Order. Or how does he feel about his former comrades / other stormtroopers? Sure, Phasma and Hux pretty much hate him (and vice versa?), but I, for one, would like to see if Finn’s betrayal has any effect on other stormtroopers - children kidnapped and shaped by abuse / dehumanization into soldiers for regime that doesn’t care much for their life. The Resistence is the spark of rebellion, right? Wouldn’t be it nice if Finn somehow inspired people like him to fight back the regime for their own freedom?

♞ Still disappointed there weren’t Anakin/Vader!Ghost scene. I wouldn’t mind if he knocked some sense into characters. Starting with Luke.

♞ OKAY, to not make the rant only about negative feelings, I’m really glad that both Resistence (the good side) and FO (the bad side) is much more diverse than original trilogy. I’m also glad there is more female characters on screen, that they have a bigger roles than in previous movies. I hope their importance will not be erased with time. And some team work between female characters would be pretty nice too.

♞ Side note:  Was Yoda so happy to burn the Books of Jedi because these were about Balance and didn’t support his idea of Light as the only right and natural Side of Force? Okay, just my personal joke I made up with my close friend XD

♞ Side note [2]: I’m the only one that think Rey theme sound a bit like Beauty and Beast main theme??? The bells(?) sounds at least?

#star wars #the last jedi #my rants #the last jedi spoilers #poe dameron #vice admiral holdo #general hux #luke skywalker #kylo ren #leia organa #supreme leader snoke

[roseymoseyberry]

First Date (one-shot commish)

After everything I’ve written/posted recently fic wise, I 100% needed to take a break to return to my first love -- fluff. And thankfully Wrai commissioned me to write some sweet sweet Cosmos/Soundwave first date fluff based on a fun idea of theirs, so I had a fucking blast with this.

Title: First Date

Series: TFIDW

Ship: Cosmos/Soundwave

Tags/warnings: Fluff, first date, Soundwave being a dork, Cosmos also being a dork

It wasn’t until Rumble and Frenzy had given him a look that Soundwave considered that, perhaps, he had misunderstood Cosmos’ request.

“It’s just refueling together.”

“It’s never just refueling,” Rumble insisted as he crossed his arms over his chest. Frenzy nodded his agreement.

“Cosmos doesn’t ask just anyone to refuel with him around here. When you told us to make nice with him, we had to literally drag him to share some engex with us.”

“I think he’s just mad that we tell better jokes than he does.”

“And hold our engex better.”

“Jealousy is so ugly.”

“Sharing engex is not the same as sharing energon,” Soundwave argued.

Rumble and Frenzy shared a look.

“You got us there.”

“Last I checked, friends get engex together.”

“Dates get energon together.”

That gave Soundwave pause. A date? That – that simply wasn’t possible. Dates were an activity that other mechs engaged in. Not Soundwave. Never Soundwave. There was never time or reason to, between his early years and Ratbat, the Decepticons and the War, and now Sanctuary Station and trying to maintain some fraction of peace and equality.

Dates were frivolous and largely unnecessary. Domestic and performative. Cutesy even.

No one would ever ask Soundwave out on a date.

But he also knew Rumble and Frenzy well enough to realize they were not joking.

“Cosmos didn’t say it would be a date,” Soundwave said, clinging to that logic to ignore the way his spark was warming up to the idea rapidly in a decidedly illogical way.

Frenzy looked unimpressed as he asked, “You just grabbing a cube together, or are you hitting up that new restaurant place?”

“The restaurant,” Soundwave admitted, and the silent exchange that passed between Frenzy and Rumble made it perfectly clear that’s what they had expected.

“Congrats, Soundwave,” Rumble said as he reached up to pat Soundwave on the arm. “You have a dinner date tonight.”

Soundwave wasn’t oblivious to what had been forming between himself and Cosmos. He had recognized the way he had been drawn to the Autobot from the very beginning, and it seemed to Soundwave that Cosmos was reciprocating that. That something could form between them had been a regular line of thought for a while now. When Soundwave was honest with himself, he knew it was not just a thought, but a want, a desire. Cosmos was at once sweet and fiery; hopeful and jaded; longing for purpose and tired of being used like a tool.

There was so much potential in Cosmos.

And Soundwave was so completely and utterly charmed.

But, perhaps due to the company Soundwave had held most of his life, he had assumed it would simply happen. One of them would give in and say or do something and the relationship would either shift to something non-platonic or stay the way it was.

That was something that Soundwave knew how to handle.

Soundwave didn’t have any experience with dates.

The possibility that Soundwave could ruin this potential because he didn’t know what to do on a date was at once irritating and terrifying.

It had to go perfectly. Soundwave had to prove that he was fully capable of engaging in this potential relationship the way that Cosmos was apparently accustomed to. It was a hurdle, certainly, but Soundwave had managed to overcome new challenges before.

He could do it for Cosmos.

“Oh, Soundwave! I didn’t think you would be here already,” Cosmos said, jogging down the hallway once he noticed Soundwave standing against the wall by the restaurant’s entrance. Cosmos’s chuckle was easy despite the way his servos twitched nervously at his sides. “And here I thought I was going to seem overeager for getting here so early.”

It was only fourteen minutes before the settled upon time. Still, Soundwave waved a servo to dismiss the concern.

“It’s better to be early than late,” Soundwave said, meaning for it to be a compliment. And fortunately Cosmos’ visor brightened happily as he nodded.

“That’s true. You weren’t waiting for too long, were you?”

Forty-seven minutes, to be exact.

“No,” Soundwave said as he led Cosmos towards the restaurant’s door.

“Oh, good. Well, next time you can just let me know if you get done early so you don’t have to wait at all, ok?”

Soundwave noticed his spark skipping a pulse at the idea of a next time. Maybe this wouldn’t be so difficult after all if Cosmos was already thinking about a second date.

“I’ll keep that in mind. Shall we?”

The restaurant was rather busy, no doubt because it was new and the first of its kind in Sanctuary Station. It was the sort of decadence that Soundwave doubted any of the Decepticons had been able to indulge in during the war, and even afterwards it would have been hard for any Decepticon to really enjoy peacetime pleasantries under Autobot rule.

Soundwave’s arrival had a mech rushing right over, asking if they wanted a table and then apologizing profusely that it would be a couple more minutes, but they would make up for it, no worries.

“It’s fine. We will wait our turn,” Soundwave assured the nervous mech. Even now, after creating Sanctuary Station for the explicit purpose of creating a commune where Decepticons could enjoy equality, there were mechs who still saw Soundwave as someone they had to show deference to or else face dire consequences. But it was growing better with every day and every interaction.

Even now, the mech before him eased, nodding his helm and thanking Soundwave for his patience before running off to serve the current customers.

“Wow, it sure is busy, huh?” Cosmos commented, looking across the busy room. “Guess we should have seen if they take reservations or something.”

Soundwave stilled as he realized his oversight. How had he not considered this variable? Not taken the initiative to make certain the simple act of even getting a seat at dinner was assured? A foolish mistake, and so early on in the date--

“My apologies. I should have checked beforehand.”

Cosmos made a snorting noise, elbowing Soundwave when he didn’t look at him at first.

“I’m the one who asked you, remember? And we are both technically early, so really, this is perfect. At this rate, we’ll be refueling right on time.”

Soundwave looked down at Cosmos’s brightened visor.

“Is that a joke?”

“More like trying put a funny slant on an otherwise mundane situation,” Cosmos admitted with a shrug.

Soundwave could feel his own visor brighten at that, his concealed lips curling slightly. Cosmos was, in a word, cute.

“Consider it a success then.”

Cosmos’s helm tilted up to look at him.

“Really? It was kind of a stretch, and you had to ask if it was a joke.”

“I liked it,” Soundwave insisted sincerely.

After a couple seconds, another snort escaped Cosmos followed by snickering, his visor flashing with amusement. Soundwave’s helm tilted, unsure what he had done to trigger such a reaction.

“What?”

“Nothing, nothing! I just—you’re kind of a weirdo, you know that?” Cosmos said. And his tone was pleasant and amused, but Soundwave couldn’t help the way his visor dimmed and his back stiffened. Just as quickly, though, Cosmos was tugging on his elbow, stammering, “In a good way! I don’t mean – that came out bad, sorry, I meant it in a good way. Really.” Cosmos pulled harder, practically yanking Soundwave sideways until he would look at Cosmos. “I really do mean it. You’re a weirdo, but a good weirdo. I like it.”

Flustered heat burned across Soundwave’s circuits, leaving him speechless.

After a moment, when Cosmos continued to look concerned that he had offended, Soundwave managed to saying, softer than he had meant to, “Thank you.”

It was hard to say if it was fortunate or not that that was the moment when the mech from before returned to usher them to a table. But Cosmos’s servo had stayed on his elbow. It might have been just so he could keep up as they threaded their way through the crowded tables, but it was warm and comforting nonetheless.

Soundwave still wasn’t sure how well he was doing. He didn’t know the criteria of what made for a good or bad date. There was no checklist he could go through in his processor to reassure himself.

At the very least it didn’t seem to be going badly. Once they had sat down, Cosmos had asked about his day, and they had settled into easy conversation. It was certainly pleasant. Incredibly enjoyable, even.

But, at the same time, it didn’t seem all that different from normal. The environment had changed, certainly, and their conversation was occasionally interrupted when the server came by with their menus and then another time to ask for their order. Cosmos had had to lean in closer to be able to hear Soundwave over the din of the restaurant.

Which, for Soundwave, was a pleasant turn of events. But nevertheless it was technically a hassle.

But still, truthfully, it didn’t seem all that different from the time they usually spent together. If anything, all the trappings of the date seemed to just be distracting.

Was Soundwave doing this wrong?

The thought never really left the back of his processor. Soundwave’s understanding was that dates were special, something more than the typical, extravagant in some way or another. Performative. And Soundwave was quite sure he was failing in that respect.

“Soundwave? Are you ok?”

Soundwave snapped from his thoughts, and then nodded, saying, “Yes, I’m fine.”

“Ok. You just seem, uh.” Cosmos’s helm tilted to one side, the light of his visor narrowing as he considered Soundwave. “I can’t believe I’m about to accuse Soundwave of having nerves, but here we are. You seem kinda nervous.”

Soundwave’s digits twitched where they lay on his knees under the table.

“I’m fine,” Soundwave repeated. And this time he was definitely thankful for the interruption when the server returned with their meal. A large tray of energon goods was placed between them followed by two glasses of flavored energon. It was a more extravagant meal than Soundwave had had for quite a while, and given the brightness of Cosmos’s visor, the sentiment was shared.

Soundwave picked up his drink as he silently scolded himself. He needed to pull himself together. Nerves or not, he couldn’t show weakness or discomfort if he was going to succeed. This had to be a purely pleasant experience, and Soundwave was going to make certain of that, and see to it that Cosmos see the worth in pursuing something with him—

The thoughts came to a screeching halt as the rim of the glass clanked against his mask, tipping further than he had intended, and the entire glass of energon spilled down his front in one large deluge.

His mask.

He had forgotten to remove his mask.

Cosmos stared at him from across the table as the drink dripped from Soundwave’s chest to pool on his thighs and the chair beneath him. Embarrassment bloomed in Soundwave’s spark and burned across circuits and fuel lines alike to fill his frame with the sheer shame of it all.

Soundwave had to make a hasty retreat.

The glass was placed back on the table before Soundwave pushed his chair out. “My apologies, but something has come up so I must leave,” Soundwave announced as he got to his pedes and immediately turned away to start walking towards the door.

“Uh, wait, Soundwave? Wait, hold on!”

Soundwave didn’t look back, didn’t dare to as he took the quickest path through the other tables to escape the scene. He held his helm aloft, trying to keep his dignity while also avoiding seeing any of the mechs in the restaurant that might be looking at him or the trail of energon following behind him.

All that work and he had ruined it because he had forgotten to remove his mask to drink his energon.

On top of the embarrassment, Soundwave was furious with himself.

“Hey, Soundwave! C’mon, wait up!”

A servo caught Soundwave by the elbow and brought him to an abrupt halt in the hallway. Once Soundwave had stopped walking, Cosmos turned him around and grasped his other arm too, keeping the Decepticon facing him.

Cosmos’s visor flickered with concern.

“Did something happen? Does it have to do with the humans or--”

“No,” Soundwave admitted. His servos fisted at his sides. “There is no emergency.”

Cosmos’s frame eased a bit as he nodded, and he released one of Soundwave’s arms so he could reach into his subspace. “Ok, that’s good. What happened then? Are you ok? That was all pretty sudden.”

“I’m sorry,” Soundwave said, too caught up in his processor to even know what else to say.

Cosmos’s visor narrowed as he pulled out a rag and, without hesitation, reached out to start wiping away the spilt energon. “What for? You’re not the first mech to spill a drink you know.”

As if Soundwave wasn’t embarrassed enough, his frame further warmed under the strokes of Cosmos’s servo under his chest compartment to catch the droplets of energon there.

“You were right. I was nervous.”

“Really?” Soundwave nodded and Cosmos, of all things, chuckled. “That’s all? You don’t have to apologize for being nervous, Soundwave,” Cosmos said, the shade of his visor warming. “If anything I’m kind of flattered. It’s not every day that someone gets nervous over me of all mechs.”

Soundwave shifted on his pedes as the towel swiped down his abdomen.

“You deserved a good date and I failed to provide that.”

Cosmos’s ventilation hiccupped as he pulled his servo back, visor flickering as he pushed the towel into Soundwave’s servo, likely to finish the cleaning job. “You didn’t fail anything. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure if you knew I meant it as a date, so I didn’t have any expectations beyond, you know. The usual.”

Soundwave’s visor dimmed as he squeezed the towel in his hold.

“I don’t know what the usual entails,” Soundwave admitted bitterly.  

“You know, just talking, hanging out. That kind of stuff.” When Soundwave still didn’t respond, Cosmos’s visor focused on his, searching as he asked, “You have been on a date before, haven’t you?”

Soundwave shook his helm.

“Oh.” Cosmos’s visor brightened until it nearly seemed to grow wider than was possible and his servo tightened where it grasped Soundwave’s arm. “Wait, you mean you’ve never been on a date before?” When Soundwave shook his helm again, Cosmos continued, “So this is your first first date? Ever?”

“Yes.”

And, of all things, Cosmos snorted again, his visor flaring.

“So that’s why you were so nervous?” Cosmos asked, perhaps even teased, but both his servos had found Soundwave’s arms to squeeze reassuringly.

After a moment of battling with himself, Soundwave nodded and admitted, “I have no experience with dates so I didn’t know what to do to assure it would be a success.”

Cosmos tugged at his arms so that Soundwave would bend closer.

“Well, you were a weirdo, and you were nice to the server, and then got so nervous about impressing me that you forgot to remove your mask before drinking and spilled an entire glass of energon down your front and acted like you had killed my pet or something by doing so,” Cosmos said as he shifted up to the fronts of his pedes. “So I think you’re doing a pretty good job so far.”

Soundwave blinked behind his visor.

“What?”

“I told you, you’re a weirdo but I like it. I like you.”

And then Cosmos was bumping his mask against Soundwave’s, sending a little spark where they met that felt as if it had set Soundwave’s frame alight.

Soundwave’s spark pounded in his chest, but oddly it soothed him as the anxiety of before melted away.

“You finish cleaning yourself up and I’ll go pay for the food. Maybe they’ll let me box it up? And then we can eat without a crowd?”

Soundwave’s servos settled on Cosmos’s waist as he leaned in to nuzzle their masks together once more.

“I would like that.”

#fanfiction #tumblr won't let me @ wrai :c #also adskdfa i had to do so much wiki reading for this since i haven't actually read the comics that have them #but they're so good and sweet i love them anyway