Back To You

Chapter 21: Vacation

Hotshot tossed and turned, pulling his sheets up over his helm, optics heavy and closed, but recharge wasn't coming easy. Shadowy figures haunted his dreams—flashes from the recent break-in. He awoke every few hours to phantom pounding on the door, breathing heavily before realizing it was all in his head.

It was exhausting, but fortunately, his insomnia was getting better. He's only woken up three times tonight and wasn't as tired as yesterday. His optics closed again, and he turned over on his right side, hoping to recharge a while more. However, with the sun seeping through his blinds and shining right on his faceplates, the youngling knew trying to sleep would be pointless.

He eventually sat up and rubbed the sleep from his optics as best he could. As he stretched, he heard his door slide open and slowly registered his Carrier walking into the room.

"Morning—" he yawned mid-stretch, hearing her laugh. "It's past noon, love," she said, sitting at the edge of his berth. "How did you sleep?"

Another yawn answered for him, not that his response wasn't already obvious by his dull and barely open optics. He'd hardly gotten five non-consistent hours of recharge; still, it was better than the previous nights when he couldn't even close his optics without seeing the intruders' silhouettes in his mind.

"Not great." came his groggy reply, and he tensed a little when he felt his Carrier's analyzing stare on him, assessing his state. "But better than yesterday," he amended, immediately fixing his posture and forcing himself to look awake.

Quickshadow shook her helm, disapproving of his acting. "Don't pretend for me, Sweetspark. It's my job to worry about your well-being." She lightly squeezed his shoulder pad, feeling him start to relax his frame. He swallowed another yawn, optics continuously dulling with exhaustion, but before they fully closed, his Carrier stood and started for the door.

"You need to eat. I made lunch; I'll bring up your plate." She was halfway out the door when Hotshot called after her, throwing his covers off. "No, that's okay. I can go downstairs."

He followed her to the kitchen, holding onto the stair rail like a lifeline. His stabilizing servos felt like jelly from the lack of decent recharge, and he kept having to recalibrate his optics to make everything stop spinning.

Lunch was silent. Nothing but the light clinking of tableware on metal bowls filled the void. Hotshot was stuck in a weird position between being half asleep and deep in thought, while Quickshadow was stuck only in the latter, processor trying to figure out where to go from here.

"Have you decided where you wanted to go this weekend yet?" she broke the silence, startling him awake and making him drop the bite of food on his fork. "Hm?" he slowly blinked, mind working twice as hard to process the question. "..Weekend- uhh, oh right, the trip!" his optics widened and lost every ounce of exhaustion they held for a split second. "I was thinking Velocitron!" he grinned. "Racing, smooth tracks, no speed limits-" a yawn cut him off, "Can't think of a better vacation spot."

Quickshadow found herself smiling at his excitement; she hadn't seen him so lively since that happening. "Sounds perfect." she agreed but noticed how Hotshot tossed his food around his plate with his fork, barely having taken four or five bites. "Eat a few more bites, go to your room, and try to rest; we'll start planning after you've gotten at least 8 hours of recharge." Hotshot nodded and guided his fork to his intake.

After managing to clean up most of his plate, he excused himself from the table and hauled himself back up the stairs to his chambers. Concern creased his Carrier's features as she watched him stumble out of the dining room. Venting sharply, she set her mug down and rubbed small circles at the sides of her helm, trying to soothe her growing migraine enough to think straight.