Not sparkmates...right? | A Heatshadow fanfic

The One Before The First One

Author's note: This "chapter" won't include much actual story, it's just like a briefing on what's happened since end of season 4

Also, this story takes place starting about a year after the end of Rescue Bots

Quickshadow's assignment to stay in China with Blades & Hightide had been a temporary – and short – one. After about a month, the bots (with the exception of Hightide, who had gone back to basically living on the seas) had all returned to the Academy to help Heatwave with preparations. Even though they all knew it would be years before the Academy would accept its first students, it was better to get as much work done as quickly as possible.

They all had something to do, whether it was helping out on Griffin Rock or filing documents at the Academy. Blades, Blurr and Salvage stayed on the island most of the time, as the two rookie bots were still learning a lot about rescue work. Blades couldn't bear the thought of leaving the firehouse again, so he rarely even visited the Academy unless it was for a more official or important matter.

Heatwave, Boulder & Chase had made a bit of a home out of the Academy. Heatwave had been helping with preparations left and right for a while, but now he would lock himself in his office for maybe weeks on end while he filled out paperwork and other files Optimus sent over. Boulder had gotten to work on the outside décor, starting with the garden he'd made for Leafy, a shrub-looking green that had, since being planted, grown into a relatively healthy tree. Chase was noticeably the bot doing most of the work, coding rescue scenarios into the simulator and already planning out some of the school rules and curriculum.

As for Quickshadow... Well, she did spend more time at the Academy than on Griffin Rock. Optimus still sent her reports and missions from time to time, but with the ground bridge working, she would only be gone for a few days. The femme had a room in the building close to her office (all the bots had one), so she spent most of her time in there. There wasn't much to do – all she had was a berth, a shelf for datapads, a desk with a monitor, & a training dummy – so she would fill out any new reports first thing in the morning and then walk around the Academy for the rest of the day.

Sometimes she would find Chase typing in commands for Elma or coding a new rescue scenario. Quickshadow would ask if there was anything she could do to help, but usually the answer was no. Cody and Frankie would usually get dropped off after high school to work on a combination of homework and things for the academy. Although Quickshadow refused to do their schoolwork for them (admittedly she had given them a lot of answers to complex math equations), she did all she could when it came to anything with the academy. She wanted to help, but there wasn't much she could do, given she wasn't one for greenery and Heatwave & Chase were 'handling' all of the paperwork.

Quickshadow knew Chase secretly enjoyed all the file management, it was Heatwave she was worried about. He rarely came out of his office, and when he did it was only for a few hours of recharge. Cody was the only one that could safely talk to him, and on the rare occasion that they bumped into each other in the hallway, Heatwave would hardly acknowledge Cody's presence.

Quickshadow got up from her berth, snapping out of her trance of thought. She pulled the dummy out of its corner of the room and practiced with it, slowly letting her mind wander again.

The last time she herself had seen Heatwave, she could barely recall. Cody and Frankie were bored and had run out of the room they were in with Quickshadow. She had chased after them, not thinking much of it. After realizing how fast the little humans were, she had started to run much faster, until she'd turned a corner and bumped (quite literally) into Heatwave. She fell back onto the floor, and Heatwave stumbled, dropping several datapads he was holding.

"Terribly sorry," The femme got up from the floor and picked up all the datapads.

"...it's fine." Heatwave had mumbled as she handed him back the neat pile. She caught a glimpse of his optics – they were out of focus and duller than she'd ever seen them.

How long ago had that been? Three months? Five?

Too long...

Quickshadow stopped training abruptly. She pushed the dummy back into its corner and left her berthroom, locking it on the way out. She was going to find Heatwave, and help him – whether he liked it or not.