Chapter Text
"Hey Percy, what do you think of her?" Brainstorm canted his head minutely, motioning to the little blue minibot youngling across the way that had taken to following the waiter drone around Swerve's in an effort to help her creator out in running his bar. Perceptor glanced the way Brainstorm directed for a long moment before turning back to his drink.
"Her creation was irresponsible." He replied in turn. His voice slowly took on a scornful bend behind a facial expression meant to feign indifference. "Sparklings are a nuisance, and inefficient. They're clumsy little things that take up time and energy that could have been used for useful endeavors, had they been forged or constructed." Across the bar, as if to prove his point, the little bot stumbled and crashed to the ground, breaking the glasses she had been trying to carry.
Brainstorm's tone remained light and airy, with a tiny edge of teasing that made Perceptor hum a chuckle. "So no tiny lab assistants for you then? Have you ever considered mentoring?" The ex-Wrecker in question relaxed some, looking thoughtful.
"I have actually. Once things are more rebuilt and stable. I'd be glad to take in a newly forged mind that shows promise. No sparklings though. Too many unknown variables there..." Brainstorm watched his companion in silence as his optics darted about a moment before landing on the datapad he was holding. "What do you have there, Brainstorm? It's not like you to write down much in public." It was a most blatant subject change.
"Oh, this old thing?" He replied, his face-mask and smooth tone easily rolled out the lie. "I was actually considering some frame redesign is all, nothing work-related about it." Perceptor's expression turned incredulous, and he cycled his optics at Brainstorm a couple times.
"Was that what you wanted me here for? Redesign help?" He began to reach across the table for the datapad, but just as quickly, Brainstorm had it stowed in his subspace. He missed the flash of a pained expression Brainstorm couldn't suppress for a split second.
"Nah, I had something else to talk to you about." Brainstorm's tone got softer, and Perceptor sat up straight as the overall mood in their booth seemed to shift.
"Brainstorm?" He asked, but the jet in turn raised his hand to silence his companion.
"I just wanted to spend some time with you before I said this. You're like one of my favorite people after all." He took hold of his drink - something lower-energy and bubbly - to fidget with it. He stared down into it for a few moments before glancing up at Perceptor.
"This thing we do." He motioned for a moment between the two of them to indicate exactly what 'thing' he was talking about. "We gotta stop, Perc. I think we should stop...seeing... each other as we do."
Perceptor was silent a few kliks, taking in Brainstorm's words and rolling them over in his processor again and again. "...May I ask why?" he questioned, tone softening to Brainstorm's level. He didn't bother hiding the disappointment in his voice. "If... there is a reason?"
"There is." Brainstorm answered, and Perceptor found his vents hitched in awaiting the verdict. "If I'm to be perfectly honest with you, I've found myself more attached lately." His hand came up again, indicating that he didn't want to be interrupted, even with this confession. "But I know you don't feel the same way. I knew when we started this."
He shifted a little to let his winglets gain more comfort. "We both know I like attention, but I know I don't have yours." His voice had a little more mirth for a moment and his winglet flicked to where a sporty white bot was sitting at the big middle table, laughing boisterously.
Perceptor's expression shifted minutely into guilt, likely just the surface of what he was really feeling. "I'm not gonna be someone's second Perc. Not even yours." Brainstorm reached out and patted one of Perceptor's hand for a moment. "I want to remain your friend, though- and your colleague, of course." He pushed his drink away.
"Go get 'im." Brainstorm stood up-; smooth, calculating.
Perceptor watched as Brainstorm left - fled really - and Perceptor felt that perhaps he had missed something very important along with the fact that he had hurt someone dear to him. He decided to allow Brainstorm some time before deciding to speak to him about this again.
When he got to his quarters, Brainstorm triple locked himself in and withdrew his datapad right away. Sinking down to sit with his back at the door, he activated it and opened the first blueprint. His spark hurt at looking at the plans for a frame he had been working on for the newspark orbiting his own.
This was stupid. He felt stupid. He had walked into Swerve's intending to tell Perceptor about their impending offspring, but after some troubling observations prior to the meeting, he needed to know for certain.
Now that he did, it was hard to halt the self-loathing roiling up and making his fuel tanks churn. Brainstorm withdrew the stylus from his datapad to begin editing the blueprints. He changed the face shape, shapes of the body, coding for color nanites and tentative alt-mode coding until only traces of the unborn mech's sire remained. When he finished building the frame and decanted the newspark into it, his offspring would do the rest.
He deleted the spark images on the datapad he had planned to show Perceptor earlier and quadruple encrypted it before stowing it back in his subspace.
It took weeks upon weeks of convincing, calling in favors and outright begging for Brainstorm to convince First Aid to come in for a house call. It wasn't a moment too soon, as he was valiantly trying to keep his chestplates closed by hand as he was coming in. It sent the protectorbot into a panic at first but when he realized to what extent Brainstorm had planned this, the rest of the scientist's emergence was spent with First Aid angry enough to spit between orders. When newspark had fully emerged and been guided into the frame Brainstorm had built, there was no negotiating with the medic. He dragged the both of them through the ship to the medbay in his altmode with sirens screaming all the way there.
Once his spark had been stabilized (who even knew emergence could be that dangerous? not Brainstorm), and his sparkling had been properly taken through his first on-lining protocols, Brainstorm was treated to an earful on two ends from both First Aid and Ratchet and they harped on forever about safety this and you almost died that until he managed to look properly cowed and the medics were calm enough to even ask him what he wanted to name his offspring.
The offspring in question was cradled partially set up in Brainstorm's arms, happily experimenting with chewing on his brand-new fingers. "His designation is 'Fission'." Brainstorm announced proudly, and the mechlet looked up at him for a moment before screwing up the smugest expression a newborn could before clapping clumsily a few times.
"And the sire?" Ratchet asked sounding like he wasn't exactly keen on hearing the answer.
"Is not in the picture." Brainstorm said, idly testing the bond between himself and his creation under the direction of First Aid and with the help of a machine hooked to his chest plates.
"That's not what I asked." Ratchet replied, entirely unamused. "That much was obvious from how weak your spark is right now. Fission's been living solely off your spark energy for a long time. Now tell me so I can finish filling this out: which dumbaft left you high and dry after sparking you up?"
"I'm not telling." Brainstorm replied indignantly in turn. "If something happens to Fission that requires something of his sire then I will, but until then: my vocalizer is muted. You can put down that I didn't tell, I know you can." The look Ratchet gave him for that could've stripped paint, but he continued. "While I'm at it, I'm requesting that his files go under your highest medical encryption until he's at the point where he's in his final upgrades and no longer under my care." Ratchet grumbled, but assented. In retaliation, Ratchet kept Brainstorm confined to the medbay for a full day longer than he needed for his spark to gain strength.