Ring of Fire

|12| - Unappreciated

A/N: All I'm gonna say is sorry about the nonexistent update schedule. Other than that, enjoy this chapter!
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Once the rumbling stopped, you relaxed and looked over your shoulder. To your surprise, Heatwave was currently preventing several large boulders from blocking the way out—barely. The pistons in his arms and shoulders groaned under the strain and his golden optics were squinted at you in a look that screamed hurry up before I get crushed!

"Please evacuate the cave. Help is waiting outside." You droned as you stood up and gestured to the exit.

The humans wasted no time running for the exit, their nerves certainly frazzled from what they had just experienced.

"That'll teach them not to venture into places they shouldn't be." You said, pressing a finger to your head. <<Alright, Chief. They should be headed your way now.>>

<<Great work. Get out of there before there's more seismic activity.>>

"Y/N! I can't... hold on.. much longer!" Heatwave growled, his arms starting to fail as he struggled to keep his footing.

Your optics widened as you realized everything that Heatwave was holding up was about to come crashing down on him. There wasn't any time for you to try and help bear the burden, so you quickly rushed forward and yanked him towards your chest.

As the two of you fell backwards, boulders of all shapes and sizes rained down from the ceiling, kicking up a big cloud of dust.

"Heatwave?" You croaked once everything had settled, the dust choking your vents. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Heatwave grumbled. His golden optics illuminated the darkness as he pushed himself off your chest and looked around. "The entrance is blocked, though."

You sat up and confirmed his statement. Great. Now you were both trapped.

"Chief, do you read?" You tried to hail Chief Burns, but only received static on the other end. "Can anyone hear me?"

"Signal's blocked. We're too far underground." Heatwave said as he rose to his pedes. "Let's see if we can dig our way out—ngh!"

Your attention was instantly drawn to him as he growled in pain and hunched over, clutching his arm. He had tried to lift a boulder and appeared to be experiencing serious discomfort in his left arm.

"Hey, hold on a minute!" You exclaimed, already on your pedes. It was too dark to see exactly what had happened. "I can't see shit in here. Come closer so I can shine a light."

"I said I'm fine, Y/N." He insisted in his usual sour tone.

"In case you've forgotten, I'm a medic, which means I know when someone has hurt themselves, so come here!" You retorted, practically grabbing him by the shoulder and forcing him to come closer.

Upon shining a light over Heatwave's arm, the problem became obvious. The strain from holding so much weight had caused a few cords between his upper and lower arm to snap. His plating had also been dented in a few spots as well, pinching the sensitive protoform beneath it. There wasn't any energon leaking from the wound, so that was good.

"How bad is it?" Heatwave impatiently asked.

"Not too bad, but you won't be able to use that arm for a while." You told him, now digging around in your subspace to see what you had available. "I reckon I'll be able to make a sling of some sort with the supplies I have on me."

"I have to wear a cast? You've gotta be kidding me."

"A sling, not a cast. It just holds your arm in place so it can heal properly."

"Why can't you just fix my arm instead?"

"I don't have the tools to do that here."

"Aren't you supposed to be prepared for these kinds of things?"

It took everything you had not to strangle him. Your patience was running thin and being stuck in a stressful situation only made things worse.

Heatwave, I love you, but you're really getting on my fucking nerves...

"I was prepared to treat possible human injuries, not Cybertronian." You muttered through clenched denta, trying to focus on what you were doing so you didn't mess up. "So I apologize if this isn't exactly up to your standards."

Heatwave scowled. "I don't have any standards. We never had a medic until you came along."

"Oh, so I assume you got along just fine without one?" You retorted in a snippy tone.

"Yeah, actually. Nothing Chief and the kids couldn't fix. They certainly did a better job than you."

After tightening the last bolt way harder than you should've out of spite, you shoved everything back into your subspace and walked away.

"Are you gonna help me move these rocks or what?" Heatwave called after you, but you weren't listening.

"Wow. Didn't even get a thank you. Shows how much I'm really appreciated around here." You huffed as you stormed off.

"Oh I'm sorry. Thank you." He responded sarcastically.

"Fuck off!" You snapped, barely restraining yourself.

You sat down in a far corner of the cave and faced the wall, just festering in frustration and anger. You didn't understand how Heatwave could go from being somewhat okay to being a total asshole with no regard for your feelings. What was wrong with him?

More importantly, what was wrong with you? Why couldn't you handle the problem with ease instead of feeding into his behavior by arguing with him? Dealing with him was so frustrating, yet so entertaining at the same time.

How?

Right now, you didn't have the mental strength to think about anything like that. You basically shut down and stared at the ground, trying to reorient yourself before you lost control.

It would be real nice if Chief busted through those rocks right about now...