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It wasn’t until Rumble and Frenzy had given him a look that Soundwave considered that, perhaps, he had misunderstood Cosmos’ request.
“It’s just refueling together.”
“It’s never just refueling,” Rumble insisted as he crossed his arms over his chest. Frenzy nodded his agreement.
“Cosmos doesn’t ask just anyone to refuel with him around here. When you told us to make nice with him, we had to literally drag him to share some engex with us.”
“I think he’s just mad that we tell better jokes than he does.”
“And hold our engex better.”
“Jealousy is so ugly.”
“Sharing engex is not the same as sharing energon,” Soundwave argued.
Rumble and Frenzy shared a look.
“You got us there.”
“Last I checked, friends get engex together.”
“Dates get energon together.”
That gave Soundwave pause. A date? That – that simply wasn’t possible. Dates were an activity that other mechs engaged in. Not Soundwave. Never Soundwave. There was never time or reason to, between his early years and Ratbat, the Decepticons and the War, and now Sanctuary Station and trying to maintain some fraction of peace and equality.
Dates were frivolous and largely unnecessary. Domestic and performative. Cutesy even.
No one would ever ask Soundwave out on a date.
But he also knew Rumble and Frenzy well enough to realize they were not joking.
“Cosmos didn’t say it would be a date,” Soundwave said, clinging to that logic to ignore the way his spark was warming up to the idea rapidly in a decidedly illogical way.
Frenzy looked unimpressed as he asked, “You just grabbing a cube together, or are you hitting up that new restaurant place?”
“The restaurant,” Soundwave admitted, and the silent exchange that passed between Frenzy and Rumble made it perfectly clear that’s what they had expected.
“Congrats, Soundwave,” Rumble said as he reached up to pat Soundwave on the arm. “You have a dinner date tonight.”
Soundwave wasn’t oblivious to what had been forming between himself and Cosmos. He had recognized the way he had been drawn to the Autobot from the very beginning, and it seemed to Soundwave that Cosmos was reciprocating that. That something could form between them had been a regular line of thought for a while now. When Soundwave was honest with himself, he knew it was not just a thought, but a want, a desire. Cosmos was at once sweet and fiery; hopeful and jaded; longing for purpose and tired of being used like a tool.
There was so much potential in Cosmos.
And Soundwave was so completely and utterly charmed.
But, perhaps due to the company Soundwave had held most of his life, he had assumed it would simply happen. One of them would give in and say or do something and the relationship would either shift to something non-platonic or stay the way it was.
That was something that Soundwave knew how to handle.
Soundwave didn’t have any experience with dates.
The possibility that Soundwave could ruin this potential because he didn’t know what to do on a date was at once irritating and terrifying.
It had to go perfectly. Soundwave had to prove that he was fully capable of engaging in this potential relationship the way that Cosmos was apparently accustomed to. It was a hurdle, certainly, but Soundwave had managed to overcome new challenges before.
He could do it for Cosmos.
“Oh, Soundwave! I didn’t think you would be here already,” Cosmos said, jogging down the hallway once he noticed Soundwave standing against the wall by the restaurant’s entrance. Cosmos’s chuckle was easy despite the way his servos twitched nervously at his sides. “And here I thought I was going to seem overeager for getting here so early.”
It was only fourteen minutes before the settled upon time. Still, Soundwave waved a servo to dismiss the concern.
“It’s better to be early than late,” Soundwave said, meaning for it to be a compliment. And fortunately Cosmos’ visor brightened happily as he nodded.
“That’s true. You weren’t waiting for too long, were you?”
Forty-seven minutes, to be exact.
“No,” Soundwave said as he led Cosmos towards the restaurant’s door.
“Oh, good. Well, next time you can just let me know if you get done early so you don’t have to wait at all, ok?”
Soundwave noticed his spark skipping a pulse at the idea of a next time. Maybe this wouldn’t be so difficult after all if Cosmos was already thinking about a second date.
“I’ll keep that in mind. Shall we?”
The restaurant was rather busy, no doubt because it was new and the first of its kind in Sanctuary Station. It was the sort of decadence that Soundwave doubted any of the Decepticons had been able to indulge in during the war, and even afterwards it would have been hard for any Decepticon to really enjoy peacetime pleasantries under Autobot rule.
Soundwave’s arrival had a mech rushing right over, asking if they wanted a table and then apologizing profusely that it would be a couple more minutes, but they would make up for it, no worries.
“It’s fine. We will wait our turn,” Soundwave assured the nervous mech. Even now, after creating Sanctuary Station for the explicit purpose of creating a commune where Decepticons could enjoy equality, there were mechs who still saw Soundwave as someone they had to show deference to or else face dire consequences. But it was growing better with every day and every interaction.
Even now, the mech before him eased, nodding his helm and thanking Soundwave for his patience before running off to serve the current customers.
“Wow, it sure is busy, huh?” Cosmos commented, looking across the busy room. “Guess we should have seen if they take reservations or something.”
Soundwave stilled as he realized his oversight. How had he not considered this variable? Not taken the initiative to make certain the simple act of even getting a seat at dinner was assured? A foolish mistake, and so early on in the date–
“My apologies. I should have checked beforehand.”
Cosmos made a snorting noise, elbowing Soundwave when he didn’t look at him at first.
“I’m the one who asked you, remember? And we are both technically early, so really, this is perfect. At this rate, we’ll be refueling right on time.”
Soundwave looked down at Cosmos’s brightened visor.
“Is that a joke?”
“More like trying put a funny slant on an otherwise mundane situation,” Cosmos admitted with a shrug.
Soundwave could feel his own visor brighten at that, his concealed lips curling slightly. Cosmos was, in a word, cute.
“Consider it a success then.”
Cosmos’s helm tilted up to look at him.
“Really? It was kind of a stretch, and you had to ask if it was a joke.”
“I liked it,” Soundwave insisted sincerely.
After a couple seconds, another snort escaped Cosmos followed by snickering, his visor flashing with amusement. Soundwave’s helm tilted, unsure what he had done to trigger such a reaction.
“What?”
“Nothing, nothing! I just—you’re kind of a weirdo, you know that?” Cosmos said. And his tone was pleasant and amused, but Soundwave couldn’t help the way his visor dimmed and his back stiffened. Just as quickly, though, Cosmos was tugging on his elbow, stammering, “In a good way! I don’t mean – that came out bad, sorry, I meant it in a good way. Really.” Cosmos pulled harder, practically yanking Soundwave sideways until he would look at Cosmos. “I really do mean it. You’re a weirdo, but a good weirdo. I like it.”
Flustered heat burned across Soundwave’s circuits, leaving him speechless.
After a moment, when Cosmos continued to look concerned that he had offended, Soundwave managed to saying, softer than he had meant to, “Thank you.”
It was hard to say if it was fortunate or not that that was the moment when the mech from before returned to usher them to a table. But Cosmos’s servo had stayed on his elbow. It might have been just so he could keep up as they threaded their way through the crowded tables, but it was warm and comforting nonetheless.
Soundwave still wasn’t sure how well he was doing. He didn’t know the criteria of what made for a good or bad date. There was no checklist he could go through in his processor to reassure himself.
At the very least it didn’t seem to be going badly. Once they had sat down, Cosmos had asked about his day, and they had settled into easy conversation. It was certainly pleasant. Incredibly enjoyable, even.
But, at the same time, it didn’t seem all that different from normal. The environment had changed, certainly, and their conversation was occasionally interrupted when the server came by with their menus and then another time to ask for their order. Cosmos had had to lean in closer to be able to hear Soundwave over the din of the restaurant.
Which, for Soundwave, was a pleasant turn of events. But nevertheless it was technically a hassle.
But still, truthfully, it didn’t seem all that different from the time they usually spent together. If anything, all the trappings of the date seemed to just be distracting.
Was Soundwave doing this wrong?
The thought never really left the back of his processor. Soundwave’s understanding was that dates were special, something more than the typical, extravagant in some way or another. Performative. And Soundwave was quite sure he was failing in that respect.
“Soundwave? Are you ok?”
Soundwave snapped from his thoughts, and then nodded, saying, “Yes, I’m fine.”
“Ok. You just seem, uh.” Cosmos’s helm tilted to one side, the light of his visor narrowing as he considered Soundwave. “I can’t believe I’m about to accuse Soundwave of having nerves, but here we are. You seem kinda nervous.”
Soundwave’s digits twitched where they lay on his knees under the table.
“I’m fine,” Soundwave repeated. And this time he was definitely thankful for the interruption when the server returned with their meal. A large tray of energon goods was placed between them followed by two glasses of flavored energon. It was a more extravagant meal than Soundwave had had for quite a while, and given the brightness of Cosmos’s visor, the sentiment was shared.
Soundwave picked up his drink as he silently scolded himself. He needed to pull himself together. Nerves or not, he couldn’t show weakness or discomfort if he was going to succeed. This had to be a purely pleasant experience, and Soundwave was going to make certain of that, and see to it that Cosmos see the worth in pursuing something with him—
The thoughts came to a screeching halt as the rim of the glass clanked against his mask, tipping further than he had intended, and the entire glass of energon spilled down his front in one large deluge.
His mask.
He had forgotten to remove his mask.
Cosmos stared at him from across the table as the drink dripped from Soundwave’s chest to pool on his thighs and the chair beneath him. Embarrassment bloomed in Soundwave’s spark and burned across circuits and fuel lines alike to fill his frame with the sheer shame of it all.
Soundwave had to make a hasty retreat.
The glass was placed back on the table before Soundwave pushed his chair out. “My apologies, but something has come up so I must leave,” Soundwave announced as he got to his pedes and immediately turned away to start walking towards the door.
“Uh, wait, Soundwave? Wait, hold on!”
Soundwave didn’t look back, didn’t dare to as he took the quickest path through the other tables to escape the scene. He held his helm aloft, trying to keep his dignity while also avoiding seeing any of the mechs in the restaurant that might be looking at him or the trail of energon following behind him.
All that work and he had ruined it because he had forgotten to remove his mask to drink his energon.
On top of the embarrassment, Soundwave was furious with himself.
“Hey, Soundwave! C’mon, wait up!”
A servo caught Soundwave by the elbow and brought him to an abrupt halt in the hallway. Once Soundwave had stopped walking, Cosmos turned him around and grasped his other arm too, keeping the Decepticon facing him.
Cosmos’s visor flickered with concern.
“Did something happen? Does it have to do with the humans or–”
“No,” Soundwave admitted. His servos fisted at his sides. “There is no emergency.”
Cosmos’s frame eased a bit as he nodded, and he released one of Soundwave’s arms so he could reach into his subspace. “Ok, that’s good. What happened then? Are you ok? That was all pretty sudden.”
“I’m sorry,” Soundwave said, too caught up in his processor to even know what else to say.
Cosmos’s visor narrowed as he pulled out a rag and, without hesitation, reached out to start wiping away the spilt energon. “What for? You’re not the first mech to spill a drink you know.”
As if Soundwave wasn’t embarrassed enough, his frame further warmed under the strokes of Cosmos’s servo under his chest compartment to catch the droplets of energon there.
“You were right. I was nervous.”
“Really?” Soundwave nodded and Cosmos, of all things, chuckled. “That’s all? You don’t have to apologize for being nervous, Soundwave,” Cosmos said, the shade of his visor warming. “If anything I’m kind of flattered. It’s not every day that someone gets nervous over me of all mechs.”
Soundwave shifted on his pedes as the towel swiped down his abdomen.
“You deserved a good date and I failed to provide that.”
Cosmos’s ventilation hiccupped as he pulled his servo back, visor flickering as he pushed the towel into Soundwave’s servo, likely to finish the cleaning job. “You didn’t fail anything. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure if you knew I meant it as a date, so I didn’t have any expectations beyond, you know. The usual.”
Soundwave’s visor dimmed as he squeezed the towel in his hold.
“I don’t know what the usual entails,” Soundwave admitted bitterly.
“You know, just talking, hanging out. That kind of stuff.” When Soundwave still didn’t respond, Cosmos’s visor focused on his, searching as he asked, “You have been on a date before, haven’t you?”
Soundwave shook his helm.
“Oh.” Cosmos’s visor brightened until it nearly seemed to grow wider than was possible and his servo tightened where it grasped Soundwave’s arm. “Wait, you mean you’ve never been on a date before?” When Soundwave shook his helm again, Cosmos continued, “So this is your first first date? Ever?”
“Yes.”
And, of all things, Cosmos snorted again, his visor flaring.
“So that’s why you were so nervous?” Cosmos asked, perhaps even teased, but both his servos had found Soundwave’s arms to squeeze reassuringly.
After a moment of battling with himself, Soundwave nodded and admitted, “I have no experience with dates so I didn’t know what to do to assure it would be a success.”
Cosmos tugged at his arms so that Soundwave would bend closer.
“Well, you were a weirdo, and you were nice to the server, and then got so nervous about impressing me that you forgot to remove your mask before drinking and spilled an entire glass of energon down your front and acted like you had killed my pet or something by doing so,” Cosmos said as he shifted up to the fronts of his pedes. “So I think you’re doing a pretty good job so far.”
Soundwave blinked behind his visor.
“What?”
“I told you, you’re a weirdo but I like it. I like you.”
And then Cosmos was bumping his mask against Soundwave’s, sending a little spark where they met that felt as if it had set Soundwave’s frame alight.
Soundwave’s spark pounded in his chest, but oddly it soothed him as the anxiety of before melted away.
“You finish cleaning yourself up and I’ll go pay for the food. Maybe they’ll let me box it up? And then we can eat without a crowd?”
Soundwave’s servos settled on Cosmos’s waist as he leaned in to nuzzle their masks together once more.
“I would like that.”