Work Text:
Warmth.
That was the first thing Noah noticed when he woke up, warmth and the feeling of something smooth and hard beneath his cheek. The second thing he noticed was that he was laying down, which saying as last he remembered he was hunched over his desk working on some project or another, was a bit odd. He had been elbows deep into tampering with a comm that the Joes had given him, trying to see if he could extend the range, and definitely not waiting for Mirage to come back. As more awareness slowly seeped into his brain as he woke, he noticed that the surface his head was laying on... was humming?
With a groan he slowly opened his eyes, blinking to try and clear his sleep blurry vision. The detail-less gray mass beneath him shifted into focus revealing familiar silver plating.
“Mirage?” Noah rasped, voice scratchy from disuse, “what’re you doing?”
Now more awake Noah was able to take stock of his position, though he almost wished he hadn’t. He was being held, bridal style his torturous brain pointed out, in the arms of his giant alien best friend, who he’d definitely not been harboring a crush on. The humming he noted earlier, was coming from the core of Mirage’s chest which his head resting upon and was now accompanied by a shaking chuckle.
“Aw man,” Mirage whined, “I was hoping you wouldn’t wake up! You fell asleep at your workbench again.”
“And? That ain’t exactly explaining why you uh...” Noah trailed off, not exactly wanting to directly acknowledge his position, choosing to instead just gesture vaguely with his hand.
“Awww Noah! Are you blushing? I was just trying to move you to the couch man! Your human backs don’t appreciate being all hunched up like that.” Mirage was looking down at him now, and Noah was captivated, as he frequently was, by the swirling blue light of his eyes, or rather, optics. “Anyways, someone's gotta take care of you cause primus knows you won’t. What were you doing here so late anyways? It’s way past your bedtime man.”
“Bedtime? What am I 9? And anyways its only...” Noah trailed off, seeing the bright red numbers of the clock on the wall, cheerily showing that it was rapidly approaching 5 in the morning, way past when he normally makes his way back to the apartment, “... oh, I guess I didn’t realize how late it had gotten.” Noah reached up to scratch the back of his neck, and froze as he realized Mirage was still holding him gently, feeling himself flush from embarrassment.
“Hey uh, you wanna put me down now man?” Noah looked up at Mirage and blinked, not expecting the bot to already be looking down at him. With, was that softness in his optics?
“Oh!” Mirage startled and averted his eyes, and there was an uptick of fan noise and a noticeable increase of warmth in the plating against Noah’s side. “Yeah, of course!”
Noah always admired how Mirage moved, and even with the embarrassment of his crush holding him like a baby, he was fascinated by the ways the gears and pistons that made up his friend moved so smoothly as he placed Noah on the ground oh so gently. Mirage was always always so gentle with him, so careful with his greater size and much more dangerous body while at the same time never making Noah feel helpless or weak, just safe.
With Noah now mostly stable and standing on his own two feet, his embarrassment faded just enough for his tiredness to come back ten-fold. There was a loud cracking sound as he yawned and stretched his arms above his head, his back making its protests against the abuse it endured hunched over his workbench known. The sound caused Mirage, who was crouched down to mostly eye level, to raise his... whatever the not eyebrow above his eyes were,
“See! I knew that wasn’t good for your back! You gotta be careful man, else you’re gonna be achy and cracking all the time.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Noah huffed, waving a hand dismissively, “And since when were you and expert in humans Mr. ‘almost rushed me to the hospital the first time you heard me crack my knuckles’?”
“I care about you Noah, you think I wouldn’t try to learn what I can about humans to try and help?” Mirage rolled his eyes and Noah blinked, taken aback slightly by the sincerity in the bot’s tone, “And anyways! It sounded like your bones were breaking! All of them at once! How was I supposed to know that was normal??”
Noah laughed, bright and loud, his head thrown back and his teeth bared. It had been very quiet in the garage without Mirage, and he had missed his friend. No matter what other feelings Noah may feel for him, and he did feel many feelings, he was always first and foremost glad that Mirage was his friend.
“Hah man,” Noah wheezed, wiping his watering eyes still smiling hugely, “Yeah I get it, human bones are weird and scary, it's okay man I’ll protect you from them.” Noah lifted his head to give Mirage a teasing grin, only to find him already staring back at him, wearing that soft expression that always made Noah’s heart skip a beat.
“Here I am, trying to be nice and caring, and you’re laughing at me.” Mirage huffed, the softness never leaving his expressive face.
“Yeah okay, I know I know” Noah smiled softly back, “You’re the best friend a man could ask for.”
There was a pause after that, warm silence taking over the room broken intermediately by the quiet whirring of Mirage’s internals. The peace redoubled Noah’s tiredness, and he swayed slightly on his feet, holding back another yawn. There was a clicking sound as Mirage focused his optics on Noah again, their gentle blue glow was comforting in their familiarity.
“You should go to sleep Noah,” He said softly, “get some rest.”
Noah couldn’t stop the next yawn, “Yeah okay,” he paused and look back at the clock, “you mind if I crash here tonight? Don’t want to wake up Ma and Kris.”
“Of course man!” Mirage said brightly, before speaking a little softer, “Anytime.”
Noah smiles back and walks over to the slightly ratty couch they dragged in here for movie nights. He frowned slightly realizing that he had taken all the blankets out to wash and hadn’t brought them back yet, which would be fine, but it had been getting colder at night with fall getting closer. Noah brushed off the worries ‘It’ll be fine,’ he thought laying down and hearing Mirage shift into car mode behind him, ‘it's not that cold.’
It kind of was that cold. He hadn’t noticed earlier at his workbench, warmed by his lamp, or when he was being held by Mirage whose natural warmth (paired with Noah’s flushed embarrassment) kept away the cold. Now though, with none of that the cold air of the night seeped into his bones, keeping him awake. He rolled over and curled in on himself willing his exhaustion to override the cold and let him sleep; yet it no matter what, rest seemed to escape him.
“Noah,” Mirage’s lowered voice broke the silence of the garage, and there was a pause before it came again, “Noah.”
Noah sat up, and rubbed his eyes “yeah?”
“Come here,” there was the sound of a car door opening, and looking over Noah saw that Mirage’s passenger door was open.
“Hmm?”
“You’re cold, I can hear you shivering, and you need to sleep man. I promise I’ll keep you nice and warm.” Mirage’s voice was only a little teasing at the end, and still oh so gentle.
Any other time, Noah may have protested using his best friend as a bed, but he was cold, and he was tired, and Mirage was warm and soft, and he was offering. Slowly Noah pulled himself off the couch and made his way over, all but collapsing in the proffered seat.
Almost immediately he was much warmer, Mirage turning on the heater and reclining the seat. He was once again surrounded by Mirage’s warmth, and the gentle humming noise worked almost as a lullaby pulling him into a half-asleep state.
“Thanks man” Noah mumbled, hoping Mirage could hear him.
“Anytime Noah” Mirage said, softly “anytime.”
Noah relaxed further into the soft leather, feeling comfortable and cozy and safe. He was rapidly falling deeper asleep and losing the battle against consciousness. Through the garage windows, the light of the sun began to show, and Mirage carefully tinted his windows to block the light, hoping to let Noah rest easier.
“Good night, Noah” Mirage whispered.
“‘Night, Rage” Noah muttered, “Love you.”
With that he fell asleep, missing the way Mirage’s heater stuttered then picked up louder.
“Love you too, Noah” came the barest whisper, and they both slipped into sleep.