Not sparkmates...right? | A Heatshadow fanfic

The Sparring One

For the first time in a while, Heatwave had gotten a full nights worth of recharge. He was feeling...better than usual, and he'd gotten a satisfactory amount of work done in a few hours that morning, which seemed like a sign today wouldn't be that bad.

However, he suspected a certain femme hadn't followed what he said about recharging and energon refill. He was walking to her berthroom now to check.

He knocked on Quickshadow's door, and she answered with the most deadpan expression he'd ever seen on her faceplate.

"What."

Heatwave studied her body language in silence for a minute until she started to get annoyed.

"What do you want, Heatwave?"

"...you didn't recharge or drink energon like I told you to."

"Heatwave, I'm fine."

"No, you're not. Or you wouldn't be this upset over me just knocking on your berthroom door."

"I'm just busy."

"Too busy to properly take care of yourself?"

"I'm fine!"

"No, you're not!"

"Yes I am!"

"Ok then, sparring match."

"...What?"

"You said you're fine, so prove it. Let's go spar."

Quickshadow groaned in annoyance. "Fine."

They walked to the Academy's training area together in silence, Quickshadow visibly angry and Heatwave slightly scared for himself.

Heatwave was also thinking about how Quickshadow appeared to be...spiraling to some extent? She had seemed fine before the trip, but then while they were on the road, and the night they had all watched shooting stars, she'd been more tired than he'd ever seen her. And now she was getting snappy and fed up with everything immediately, with barely any reason.

Of course he was concerned, Quickshadow was his cru– t e a m m a t e , but he didn't know how he could really comfort her or get her to open up to him. Heatwave wasn't good with emotions or talking or...verbally communicating. And neither was Quickshadow, now that he thought about it.

Which made sense.

The two of them stood at either end of the training room, in starting position for a sparring match. Quickshadow nearly forgot the stance, but muscle memory kicked in after a while.

She made the first move (which was unlike her), stepping forward and throwing a sloppy punch to Heatwave's shoulder, which he blocked easily, and immediately mirrored the move before Quickshadow realized he'd blocked her fist, knocking her back a bit.

She was more shook then usual, but it was fine. As she was calculating her next move, her low fuel indicator went off inside her helm for what must have been the 10th time that day. She paused to turn it off, but failed to comprehend that Heatwave was stepping forward to send another hit at her again. He aimed a servo for her other shoulder, not realizing she wasn't paying attention.

She stumbled and fell to the ground, both from getting knocked back by Heatwave & from her pedes suddenly giving out.

"Quickshadow? Are – you didn't – are you ok?"

The femme nodded, covering her helm with her servos in pain. "Yeah," she (reluctantly) took Heatwave's servo when he extended it to help her get up, the sound of her low fuel indicator ringing in her audials. "just...um..."

"...tired?"

"...maybe."

Quickshadow blushed a bit when Heatwave wrapped her into a hug, seemingly becoming protective all of a sudden.

"...c'mon, you need to recharge before you pass out."

/////////

Quickshadow woke up in her own berth, unaware of what time it was. She was alone in her berthroom, and honestly had to take a minute to remember how she had gotten from the training room to here.

Heatwave had taken her back to her berthroom and insisted once again that she recharge, and this time she hadn't had literally anything in her to say no, or even wait until he left and continue the work she'd been doing before.

Quickshadow looked around herself again and noticed a tray on her desk with several cubes of energon atop it, once again having no memory of how it got there. She got up and walked over to the cubes, taking one and sipping it without thinking. She immediately felt much better, granted she'd already felt somewhat less lighthelmed when she'd woken up.

When she looked back down at the tray to set down the cube of energon she'd picked up, she noticed a little note in the middle, servowritten with a servowriting she recognized as soon as her optics caught it.

>Figured you might want something to drink once you woke up.<

There was no signature, but the femme had known who it must've been from upon reading the first word.

Quickshadow smiled absentmindedly, the topics of work and recharge & energon refill getting blocked off for once as her processor just felt...calm. There was nothing she was worried about in that moment, which was something that rarely happened. In fact, she couldn't remember the last time that had happened.

Under any normal circumstances, Quickshadow would've scolded herself for thinking anything along such lines, but right now she just couldn't be bothered, and she was happy with herself about that for once.

She took some time to drink the remaining energon in the cube she'd opened before checking her comm to make sure she hadn't missed anything important, then turning and going right back to the berth she'd just woken up on to hopefully go back into recharge. Sure, she didn't feel like she was about to pass out on the spot anymore, but she was still a bit tired.

There was the voice in her head that said she should work instead, that she was being lazy, but this time around she didn't bother listening to it. After all, she couldn't ever be too busy to take care of herself.

>I mentioned a ton of stuff about not burning out in this one but as I am typing this, it is 9:30 pm and I have several pages of homework to do and extensions to take out before I can sleep lol<