First proper Jazz/Prowl fick!

Jazz was greeted with a cheer when he entered the common room of the precinct. His rather extended stay in medbay had not gone unnoticed. Closest coworkers and friends had come by to visit him but the 'Welcome back Jazz!' party was the absolute rust stick on top.

-"Hey Blaster!" Jazz grinned at the tapedeck and clapped his shoulder strut. -"Great party! Ah bet all this had nothin' ta do with ya."

The tapedeck chuckled but did not respond to that.

-"Jazzman! How's your side?"

-"Good as new, how's office been in my absence? How's the newbies?"

Blaster motioned Jazz to follow him to the refreshments table. Jazz was already tracing the outline of black and white doorwings in the back, following their movement with interest.

-"Two Praxies, Bluestreak - Sniper and Prowl - forensics." Blaster tilted his helm to the side, while plucking a cube of energon off the table.

-"Any Blaster insights?" Jazz leant his hip strut against the table to invade Blaster's personal space just a little, causing the tapedeck to snort.

-"Do your own work, investigator."

Jazz chose a cube of his own, glowing in iridescent purple, his absolute favourite as far as party drinks went.

-"Aw c'mon, don't keep meh guessin', Ah'm still offic'lly on sick leave, and ah can't wait 'till tomorrow, so spill!"

Blaster tilted his helm as if he was about to decline but then yielded.

-"Blue's cute."

Jazz mentioned him to come sit at one of the less occupied tables, pushing a bunch of empty cubes to the side to clear some space for them.

-"Cute or 'cute'?"

-"The 'twins adopted him' cute." Blaster clarified with a chuckle, seeing the two mechs in question make their way through the crowd.

That earned a visor flash from Jazz.

-"No way, even Sunny?"

-"Especially Sunny."

Jazz released a low whistle. -"Mech, there seems ta be some truth th'rumor 'bout Praxies."

-"I would not get your hopes up about that."

-"Ah take it tha' t'forensics s'less cute then?"

Blaster hummed and tilted his helm. -"Eh… Prowl is… Prowl, I guess?"

Jazz's expression turned curious.

-"Did he spit in ya' energon or somethin'?"

-"Nope, but he sure looks like someone is constantly spitting into his." Blaster shrugged. -"Either way I have seen them both around at some point this evening so you might just bump into them."

Jazz smirked and was off the bar stool already.

-"Well then ah will 'ave t'go make some introductions."

-"You do that mech!"

Jazz first made a beeline towards the doorwings he'd been observing for a while already. Black and white, twitching slightly in a manner that Jazz found rather appealing. Blaster had been right, the mech Was cute though to be more exact - he was a bit more than that, no surprize that the twins were sharing his table. Sides was chatting in an animated manner and even Sunny looked pleased.

-"Jazz! Come over, we want you to meet someone!" the red riot control waved him over.

-"Don' mind if ah do!"

Jazz slid in seat nearest to their Praxian guest and beamed.

-"This is our mentor, he helped us in the enforcer academy."

-"More like prevented us from being expelled." Sunstreaker amended

They both had been of a remiss to mention the name so Jazz took that task upon himself.

-"'M' Jazz, pleased to meet'ya, an' you mus' be Bluestreak? Certain tapedeck told me ya're quite good wit' guns."

Silence fell over the table. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker grinned in amusement, slag.

The Praxian dimmed his optics and paused, then cleared his intake softly, doorwings canting forward gently, effectively drawing attention to himself.

-"Prowl, actually, but I've been told Bluestreak and I look alike. And you are right in that Bluestreak indeed is very skilled with arms, thought I suggest you ask him in person."

Prowl... Of course, Jazz should have expected this...OK, he had messed up but this was not something he could not remedy. Change of modes.

-"Ah, mech, ma' bad! I'ave not met Blueastreak yet and ya both are Praxian..."

Jazz stopped abruptly. Oh, great, now he was implying that all Praxians looked the same.

-"Not ta' say that all Praxians look tha' same, jus'..."

Jazz rubbed his visor, where did all his suave talk-skill go?

-"Tha' didna come out well. Can ah' start over?"

Sideswipe was having trouble suppressing laughter. Sunstreaker looked like he was having some prime entertainment.

Prowl, however, remained perfectly poised though Jazz did notice him looking at his intake more intently than one normally would. Was the mech lipreading?

-"Please do not feel embarrassed on my account also I believe Sideswipe wanted to add something..."

Was that polite or condescending? The tone was so neutral it was impossible to tell. Jazz shot them a bright smile.

-"Sorry Prowl, but we gotta cut it short, Blue's looking for us and we better not make him wait."

The Praxian vented softly and dimmed his optics before pinning the twins with an icy stare.

-"Do not do anything I would not."

-"That would be boring as slag!"

-"If you did not want my advice you should not have asked for it."

Within this short exchange Jazz learned a few crucial things.

1 - Praxians were magical creatures of the lore whenever the twins were involved

2 - Praxians also happened to be Jazz's ultimate undoing

The cruel twins had left Jazz one on one with Prowl whom he might have just insulted. Who probably thought Jazz was just another ignorant 'hexie. And Jazz had Totally contributed to this…

Nervously he dangled his knee-strut, searching for something not-awkward to say. Suddenly all confidence and light flirty manner were gone. Jazz briefly contemplated catching up with the twins to greet Bluestreak. Then decided against it. Leaving Prowl at the table on his own after such a short moment would be impolite.

So Jazz remained, smiling stiffly. The Praxian sipped his energon, then set his cube down and addressed Jazz.

-"I apologize for making you uncomfortable, was it something I said?"

What? If anyone, it was Jazz who'd messed up.

-"Na, mech, ya good. Ah'm usually better at conversatin' than that. Guess ah' lost mah touch loungin' 'round medbay."

Prowl briefly furrowed his brow, he still looked at Jazz's lips, what was it with the mech?

-"I heard you were badly injured."

-"Line 'a duty." Jazz shrugged.

-"The report said your aim was to observe and not to confront."

Slag, the mech had actually Read the scratch Jazz managed putting down while half-conscious with pain blockers?.

-"Yea, initially."

-"Initially?"

Prowl's optics brightened in surprise. He canted his doorwings forward in display of interest and Jazz suddenly felt put on spot.

-"Ah improvised when ah saw there were mo' big bots at the gatherin' than expected. Who knows when we'd see them in incriminatin' settin' again."

-"The probability of you being offlined was 67.4%, that was a high risk to take."

Jazz just shrugged, writing off the Praxian as one of those detail-oriented mecha. Adding stats to his observation was an interesting touch though.

-"Ya know, it happens sometimes."

Prowl's mouth opened in what Jazz could only interpret was mild astonishment. He stayed pensive for a moment before resuming what he wanted to say.

-"I am impressed." Jazz could feel his confidence returning slightly at seeing the pretty Praxian looking at him in wide-opticked amazement. -"You managed keeping your position after a gross insubordination on your behalf."

Jazz could have sworn he heard a noise of a record scratching. Prowl's sudden twist of conversation made him do a double-take on the Praxian to make sure he heard him right.

Ok, so Prowl was the 'by-the-book' type of mech.

-"Lessay field ops get sum' leeway."

Jazz stretched in his seat, wincing slightly at a healing seam that was still somewhat tender. Time to divert attention from him lest they start a fight before they even got a chance of working together.

-"How did ya come up with that probability anyway?"

Prowl contemplated his cube for a moment.

-"Weighing out probabilities is what I do for my line of duty; call it a mental exercise."

-"So, y'asess th'success rate o' enforcers?" Jazz somehow did not like where this was going either. Evaluating enforcer productivity was a touchy subject. It was necessary but if applied superficially, it had a potential of undervaluing some officers who had tougher cases to solve.

-"No." Prowl paused, opics shuttering once more. -"As I said, it was a mental exercise. I normally apply this kind of assessment to cases that need to be solved."

There was no need for Prowl to be on defensive but Jazz was somewhat happy he had managed getting under the Praxian's plating, too.

-"So, how's forensics lab work 'n Praxus? Any different fra' 'ere?"

Prowl's optics brightened and doorwings twitched just slightly.

-"In fact, it was one of the subjects I wanted to broach with you, thank you for introducing it first."

Jazz leant back, just what had he done? Also, why were they still engaged in a conversation?

-"Ya sure 't can't wait 'til t'morro'?"

Prowl, for the lack of a better glyph, was staring at Jazz's faceplate once more and Jazz finally felt unnerved enough to say something about it.

-"Can ya stahp tha'?"

-"I beg your pardon?"

-"Couldya stahp doin' whacha doin'?"

Prowl stared more persistently at Jazz's intake now than ever before.

-"Could you repeat that please?"

Jazz shuttered his optics, judging by their previous conversations the mech was not audibly impaired but Jazz had met a handful of creeps in his time and wanted to face it head-on.

-"Can. Ya. Stahp lookin'. At mah. Face-hole?"

Prowl pinched his nasal ridge with a huff.

-"Pardon me, but your accent is giving my processor some trouble."

-"Mech! Rude?" Jazz got off his seat with a fluff of his armor.

It seemed that the Praxian had no trouble understanding That. As he acted adequately flustered at his reaction, doorwings tilting up in distress.

-"I did not mean to…!"

Jazz paused at seemingly earnest display of remorse. He slid back into his chair in a fluid motion, waving off the protests.

-"Y'are fine, mech. Ah sometime fo'get tha' most mechs here are used ta 'hexie accent."

Those doorwings settled in a position that implied Prowl was still wary but at least for now the communication crisis had been averted.

-"I did mean it though. I find your accent difficult to understand sometimes." Prowl stated, letting his doorwings slide lower in a manner that made him less threatening-looking. -"In fact, it gives me a processor ache."

Jazz smirked. -"Ya 'av'nt met many 'hexies b'fore, 'ave ya?"

At Prowl's miserable facial expression Jazz vented and focused. -"Ahye meant that yaou 'ave not met many mecha from Polyhex beefore."

-"Thank you; and no, I have not."

Jazz rubbed his helm now -"Now tha' gives meh a helmache."

Prowl smiled a little -"To be frank this is even worse than your natural accent but I appreciate your effort regardless."

-"Aft." Jazz muttered under his breath.

-"I'm aware." Prowl amended matter of factly. " And I do not expect you to change your manner of speech for me, but then please do not get offended if I try to engage all my sensors to fully understand you."

Realization dawned over Jazz and he laughed. Quickly realizing that probably he was making Prowl think he laughed at Him, Jazz amended.

-"'Scuz' meh, ah'm laughin' at mahself. T'be frank, ah've had a buncha bozos leer at meh in a manner pretteh sim'lar ta what ya're doin' now."

Prowl was doing that weird staring at his intake thing again but this time Jazz did not flinch.

-"Oh…" Prowl paused once more, connecting the input data from all his sensors. -"I am very sorry to hear that. I am at a loss of how to remedy this without making you feel uncomfortable. At least this evening."

-"Ya could start by loomin' less. Just ask meh ta repeat 'till it makes sense ta ya."

-"That is not very efficient."

Jazz had no answer to this so he shrugged instead.

-"I am sorry to bring this up out of the work environment but there was another matter of efficiency which I wanted to bring up though..."

Jazz vented dramatically and slumped over the table. There was no way of evading the subject now. -"Fiiine, lay it on meh."

Notes:

This was somewhat inspired by Brooklyn 99. I get that these two probably were very much OOC here.

But regardless, I might develop this into a proper story when I am done with some of my ongoing multichapter ficks.