Moment off duty

Amethyst put down the last one of the datapads she had just gone through and let out a relieved sigh. It had taken hours to get the medbay database in order and all the files and reports rearranged, but she was finally done. All the files were in their rightful places and the datapads on her desk were nicely arranged in categorized piles.

The medic leaned backwards in her chair, relaxed and offlined her optics – letting her audio receptors enjoy the sound of something quite unusual on board their ship.

She listened to the sound of silence.

Kron was outside training with Piper, who had insisted upon joining him, and Razerlight who always stuck close to the Decepticon mech was there too, to make sure Kron played fair. They had left few hours ago to take a walk deeper into the woods to find a place better suited for combat training practice than a small meadow their ship was currently residing on.  

So, for once their home was filled with peace and quiet that allowed Amethyst and their team leader Speedwind to get the reports dated and the databases rearranged on their ship's computers. A chance like this was not something that happened every day.  

The medic personally enjoyed every moment spent with their whole crew, but there was no chance for anyone to get any chores done whenever Razerlight and Kron were present. The duo always quarreled whenever they happened to end up in the same room, and in a small spaceship like theirs it happened more than often. Though two fighting hotheaded bots were not enough to cause notable noise, Piper also happened to have a habit of talking non-stop whenever she was awake.

So, every now and then even Amethyst welcomed a moment of peace without any interruptions of crashing walls, fierce arguments or lectures of organic flowers.

She stretched her limbs. On a whim she decided to go check how Speedwind was doing. The team leader had stated that he would first get the files in the main computer of the ship organized and then join the rest of the crew on the training field.

So Amethyst stood up and took few of the datapads with her and left the medbay making her way through the corridors to the command center that most often served as a general living room for the whole crew. As she stepped inside the round room with large windows, she spotted the mech with red and blue armor sitting in front of a computer with easily more than ten files open on the screen.

Amethyst went to him and was just about to call for the mech who was leaning above the computer keyboard but then halted.

For Speedwind was deep in recharge.

He was leaning on the control table and had his face pressed on the keyboard. Speedwind's usually upward figure was curled down and his optical ridges were in frown. Amethyst could hear his systems whirring quietly. A few datapads had fallen off the table and were lying on the floor.

For a moment the medic just stood there looking at the team leader sleeping and a smile made its way to her faceplating. On the table there was a cube of energon that had apparently spilled over the keyboard – and Speedwind's faceplating. Almost all his right cheek was covered in bright blue liquid. He looked funny, but even with his face clashed on the keyboard with energon stains on it Amethyst could not help but find him handsome.

From the very first time they met Amethyst had considered the team leader the most handsome mech she had ever met. Speedwind had won her over not only with his looks but also with his politeness and his amazing sense of humor. And the warmth that flooded her circuitry every time Speedwind smiled at her hadn't faded even a bit during the time they've spent as teammates and friends.

First it had only been a little fluttering feeling of warmth whenever he smiled at her, but as they had gotten to know each other, the feeling had only grown stronger.  And soon only even thinking about him made shivers run through her systems. Every moment spent with him only made it harder for her to not do anything rash, to not to do the first move.  Amethyst knew she needed to curb it and remain formal; Speedwind had enough to think about without any more love-drama on board. Her feelings for him could wait.  

It was quite unusual for Speedwind to fall asleep in the middle of his duties like that. The team leader never showed any signs of exhaustion or tiredness – he was always full of life and never seemed to run out of energy.

The team medic knew better though.  

Amethyst was sure the rest of the crew was unaware of the amount of stress that bothered their leader. Though Speedwind never showed it, the medic knew he had tons of things to worry about- they had a countless number of Decepticons on their heels and every single move they made had to be considered carefully or they might end up as scrap metal. It was up to Speedwind to make sure it would not happen. He was not only responsible for the missions but also of the safety of two almost defenseless femmes, Amethyst being one of them. Not to mention that he also had to deal with an uncooperative, capricious Decepticon on board and prevent his second in command of blasting all the ship to pieces whenever she got mad.  

The team leader was tired, Amethyst knew he was. She would have wanted to let him sleep, let him get some rest, but on the other hand she knew Speedwind wanted to get things done and would never forgive himself if something happened and he was not alert.

So, gently she shook the mech by his shoulder.

"Speedwind…Time to wake up."

The mech flinched and then slowly onlined his optics, sitting up. He blinked a few times and seemed a bit confused over his whereabouts. Then he noticed the femme standing next to his seat.

"Amethyst? What…Oh Primus!" The mech exclaimed as his optics lit up in shock when he remembered where he was. With a frustrated sign he slid off his visor and rubbed his forehead. "I fell asleep didn't I?"

The medic smiled. "To me it seemed more like you were only making a thorough analysis on the level of dust gathered on the keyboard," She replied.  

Speedwind turned to her, his optical ridges frowned but a smile played on his faceplating. His smile was not only amused, but also thankful, for Amethyst did not make any witty comments over his incident. It was also one of those smiles that made her spark skip a beat and her knees go weak.

"You got all the files arranged?" She asked, turning to the screen in hope of hiding the confusion she was sure was obviously seen on her face.

The mech sighed again as he turned to examine the open files as well.

"Apparently not, it seems that I have been sleeping quite a while. Only a few of the files have been put to their places and I should be out there on the training field already. Only Primus knows the magnitude of damage Raze must have managed to cause without proper supervision this long."

As a confirmation to his words, a loud crack was heard not too far away from the woods, followed by some distant yelling that could be identified as a female voice. With a chuckle the medic and the team leader glanced at each other and rolled their optics.

"Well, the kids are coming back," Speedwind said as he stretched his limbs and stood up to head for the door. "Better get to them before they reach the ship, or otherwise I'll have to redo all the repairs that took me hours the other day"

"Umm, Speedwind hold on a nanoklick…"

The mech halted and turned to the medic with a questioning look in his optics. Amethyst put down the pads she was still holding onto and walked to the mech. She reached her servo on Speedwinds face and gently wiped away the splotches of spilled energon on his cheek.

"I think you don't want to go out with your face looking like that, unless you want 'splashface' or 'smutchmug' to be added into your long list of nicknames,"  She said with a smile tugging on her lips, running her fingers down his jawline.

First Speedwind only looked stunned by the unexpected gesture, but then he burst out laughing

"Now Amethyst, how can you be that cruel and ruin all the fun Kron could have had over the team leader having his dinner all over his face!"  He said still laughing and earned himself a playful scowl from the femme.

"If you don't allow yourself more rest every now and then – rest assured that next time I catch you sleeping on duty you will have a Decepticon waking you up."

The idea of letting Kron wake up anyone caused both of them to burst out laughing again.

It felt great to have a laugh together and Amethyst was relieved to see the tiredness on Speedwind's face being replaced by the usual smile of the mech who never had a bad day.  

As his laughter finally ceased, a warm smile remained on Speedwind's faceplating as he looked in Amethysts optics. The medic got the last stains of energon wiped away and she was just about to lower her servo and let the mech go. But much to Amethyst's surprise, Speedwind took her servo in his own, holding it on his cheek.

"Where would I be without you Amethyst?"

The gentle smile he gave her made her spark to pulse double its speed and Amethyst was sure that she would collapse on the floor if the mech let go of her servo.

She could tell him. Primus, how much she wanted to tell him how greatly she enjoyed the humorous exchange of words they so often shared. How she wanted to tell him how much she liked the way he smiled at her. How much she wanted to say that she loved him.  

But not a word came to her. Her CPU was not able to focus on anything else than on the gentle fingers around her own and the bright blue optics that were staring right into hers.

Amethyst was sure she looked quite stupid standing there and just staring back at Speedwind, but as usual none of her confused thoughts could been seen on her face and she simply heard herself answering.

"Most probably, you would be late..."

Speedwind grinned at her answer and at the same moment a tremendous crash shook the ship. Speedwind let go of Amethyst's servo and she woke back up to reality. They could clearly hear Razerlight cursing just outside the ship walls, causing Speedwind's grin to grow even wider.

Another crash followed.

"And there goes the front door…Will you excuse me ma'am?" He said while giving a silly bow to Amethyst and strode to the door.

Just before he disappeared to the hallway the team leader turned to the medic once more.

"Amethyst … Thank you"

And he was gone before Amethyst managed to come up with a reply.