[Closed] The bittersweetness...

[alwaysadrift]

Who: Drift and Wing
What: Sparring and...difficult conversations. :'(
When: backdate a few days, after Fort Max's post
Where: The hangar bay


It was the most logical place for sparring: a large open space and nowhere near inhabited areas to disturb people with the noise or endanger the random passersby or onlooker. And well, if Drift got his bearings in line then he'd rather not have an audience for this. There were several subjects he'd been avoiding, all of them connected in a way, mostly unified in his shame. The destruction of Crystal City, the Circle being abducted by Tyrest, Dai Atlas' death at the hands of their betrayer Starsaber. Not to mention the reason he wasn't there for half of that, his exile. And the real kicker: the question of when the gem pulled Wing from his timeline and what the jet has to go back to when this is all over.

It's all been piling up for weeks, seeping into his aura like a subtle taint. He knows he has to face it, so here they are, working through the thing that Drift feels most at home with, and idolizes Wing so readily in: the subtle but fierce dance of combat.

Drift is tense and it shows, his form displaying flaws it hasn't in past battles. And he can't seem to bring to bear as much force against Wing as he should, even in casual sparring. He's distracted, holding back, trying to find the perfect opening to begin a conversation he doesn't really want to have, hoping desperately that Wing doesn't notice the way he wavers...

Comments

[knightoflight]

Wing hadn't noticed, for a while, probably because he's too distracted by this happening at all. He's nearer in time, in memory, to Crystal City, and so his last memories of sparring with Drift are fresh, are of the scowling, truculent Decepticon who resented Wing's skill.

It was a welcome distraction for him, maybe even too welcome, to have to focus on sparring, reading the shift of weight, the anticipations of his partner's moves.

But it does sink in, eventually. Something that's not really sloppiness, but something, nonetheless, off balance, like a note just out of tune. "Are you not having fun?" Because this wasn't for a wager, anymore. If it wasn't fun, he didn't want to do it.