Inspired by the episode "The New Recruits" and also the direction they seem to be developing Kade (which i don't have positive feelings for), you get this slightly disjointed thing that was written right before I went to bed last night.

Title: Parallelism
Fandom: Transformers Rescue Bots
Rating: PG-13 for some mild cursing
Word Count: 1508
Characters: Blurr, Kade, Chase, Heatwave
Summary: Blurr has trouble adjusting to his new life.

When he heard the police sirens Blurr very briefly- but very earnestly -considered out running it. He'd done it before and while Chase was fast he wasn't nearly fast enough. Though knowing the roads better helped. And having someone in the sky. And lots of back-up. And it certainly made Heatwave even angrier so Blurr figured it best to just get being yelled at over with and coasted to a stop at the side of the road.

"Alright, Copper," he said, sighing through his vents, "I surrender."

Instead of transforming in order to rattle off all of Blurr's violations for the night, Chase rolled to a halt behind him, door opening and letting Kade Burns out. He'd never seen any of the Rescue Bots switching out their human partners before. For some reason he hadn't actually thought that was a possibility. Kade tapped on the glass and said, "You gonna let me in or what?"

Well, he didn't have an 'or what' ready so Blurr opened up and the human just went and sat in him. Shut the door and strapped in and it was the weirdest damn feeling having a living being sitting in his seat like that. He shuddered on his axles as Kade wriggled to get comfortable before saying into his comm, "We'll see ya back at the firehouse, Chase."

"/Very well. We will be expecting you two shortly./"

Then Chase pulled away and left Blurr with Kade.

A hand settled on his steering wheel and an elbow against his door window. "So? Where you wanna go?"

"Uh... the firehouse?"

"What, you wanna turn in already? We got the whole island to drive around, I'm pretty sure you can cover it all in one night."

Was this a test? It was a test, wasn't it? Blurr pulled up his protocols trying to figure out what exactly was going on.

"Blurr. Dude. Just drive. Heatwave tries to hassle ya, I'll take care of it."

"O...kay?" He pulled up his Earth driving laws. Chase was lurking around somewhere, wasn't he? This was some form of entrapment, wasn't it? Wait- was that actually entrapment? Maybe he needed to study up on protocol after all.

Easing back onto the road they drove for several minutes in silence, paranoia keeping Blurr from going flat out. Eventually Kade said, "This is nice. Real smooth ride. Why don't you stay under the speed limit all the time? Guys wouldn't bother you so much then."

"Just driving isn't always enough. I'm built for speed, you know? It's what I do. Sometimes I get this ache in my engine and the only way to deal with it is to really open up."

"Nah, I know what you mean. Dani can spend hours on the treadmill, but me? When I got energy to burn I need to be out under the sky. Feel the wind, the road, be part of the world."

"Yeah. Training and stuff- I get that's important but it's not me! I stay still too long and I feel like my fans are gonna snap. Nothing gets me focused like speed. The faster things are, the more it feels like it's on my pace."

"Too bad most the roads around here are twisty and cliff-edges. Probably can't get as fast as you wanna go."

"You kidding?" Blurr's engine rumbled hard and it took effort to keep himself under the speed limit. "Most the races I've been in are way more dangerous than this place! It's not bad, though. Lots of technical areas. Helps me with my control." A sigh rippled around Kade. "'Course, not like the others care."

"Yeah, they can be real hardasses at times."

If he weren't driving, Blurr would've thought his processors stalled out. "What?" Was he allowed to agree with that?

"They've been working together a long time so they have a certain way they do things, I get it. But sometimes something happens and you gotta switch it up a bit. But they're just so set in their ways that it's almost impossible to make 'em budge." Kade leaned back in the bucket seat, just barely looking like he was driving. "Used to think Chase was the worst about it, but at least he'll consider other ways if there's logic to it. If you got logic. Heatwave is just... obstinate."

"That's... not something I expected you to say about your own partner."

"Nah, he knows he is. Hell, I know I am, too. Believe me, learning to work together was not easy and that was both our faults because we were too stubborn to compromise. But we figured it out eventually. When you respect each other, the rest will come."

"So you're saying Heatwave doesn't respect me."

"He just doesn't get you."

"And you do?"

"Not like you're the only troublemaker in the galaxy. I was the first born. You know what that means?"

"No."

"It means my parents had no idea what they were doing when they were raising me. Got my mom's temper and energy, too, so I was a little hellion growing up. Drove my parents crazy, drove my teachers crazy- probably woulda had me on medication if I was a kid these days. But I didn't have any learning disability, or attitude problem or anything. I'm just kinda wired differently. I gotta do things. That's how I learn, how I focus. I can't even sit and watch tv for long before I start getting antsy. But nobody knew that when I was a kid. Nobody tried to figure that out. I was just the wild child that wouldn't sit still, that wouldn't obey and I kept getting punished for it. Kinda felt like my parents were ashamed of me because of it. Felt like I was letting them down."

Kade stared out the window, not watching as the trees whipped by them. "Wasn't any good at anything that wasn't physical and when Graham and Dani came around, they had their stuff together, I got kinda jealous of them. Like maybe my parents were the ones that failed me because they didn't raise me right. Didn't even know what I was going to do with my life, just went to college on the mainland because that was what everyone expected me to do. Did a year of that before I realized I wanted to be a firefighter. Wasn't even a big epiphany or anything. Just realized I wanted to help people and next thing I knew, I was taking rescue and EMT courses and volunteering at a firehouse."

"Why are you telling me this?"

Kade turned his attention to Blurr's screen, thumb running almost soothing circles on his steering wheel. "I'm just saying rescue work is something that you have to want to do, not because Optimus ordered you to and if you don't wanna do it, there's nothing wrong with that. Lots of people don't and that's fine. And just because the others don't know how to deal with you doesn't mean there's something wrong with you. You figure out what you wanna do and if that something is to go back into space and race, then we'll find a way to help get you out there. And if you don't know what you want yet," he shrugged, "then I'll do what I can to help make staying here a little easier on you until you do."

Blurr stayed quiet, letting his words sink in between his seams, mixing in with the purr of his engine. Before him the trees parted briefly, Griffin Rock glittering in the encroaching night, stars shining off the sea. Without conscious thought he slowed back down to the speed limit, laying a course back to the firehouse. "Thanks, Kade."

Heatwave was quiet for several long moments. When he looked up at Chase there was a tense edge to an otherwise teasing expression, "I'm surprised. Never thought eavesdropping was your style. Not to mention handing me a recording."

"There was nothing in their conversation that suggested it was to remain strictly private," Chase said promptly but they both knew the truth: neither of them trusted Blurr. Nothing any of them did seemed to get through and their inability to understand his thought process made him a wild card in the worst way. Listening in on a conversation while he was transporting a human was a safety precaution.

Heatwave thumbed the recording in his hand, flipping it over. "You think I need to change how I deal with him."

"I believe we all do. We do not need another incident like with Blades and High Tide."

"Not one of your more dignified moments."

"You know very well that was not what I mean." Chase crossed his arms with a frown, "But no, it wasn't."

With a grunt, Heatwave put the recording in his subspace, trying to plan how he was going to deal with Blurr now that he had a better idea of how he ticked. Still didn't understand him- might not ever -but even this was a start.