Chapter Text
“Campeoncito, the races are on!” Joel shouted from across the apartment, the television flickering to life as Noah came barreling down the hallway nearly slipping on the smooth wood floors. “Wait for me Papa!”
The little boy entered the room, his loud padded footsteps as he practically dived onto the couch next to his father. He was fidgeting and bubbling up with excitement.
“Someone is excited, so when are you going to join one of those races?” Joel teased as he pulled his son close to him as he looked down at his eager child. Noah giggled and answered, “One day, I will be number one. I want to be on top and once I get there will you be proud of me?”
“I am always proud of you chamaco,” Joel chuckled as he pushed his son’s curls back to kiss him on the forehead, “No matter what you do and what place you are in, as long as you are happy I am proud.”
“But I haven’t won yet!”
“Winning doesn’t mean anything if you aren’t happy Noah.” Joel mused, he knew that his son has yet to understand the true meaning of winning something. A few years time he knew that Noah would finally come to that epiphany.
Brazil - 26th March, 1994
Noah is just laying in bed, staring up at the ceiling. Tomorrow is the big day, he is going to be out on those tracks and he needed to sleep to have the energy for tomorrow yet here he was. It’s past midnight and he is just staring off. Counting all the bumps on the popcorn ceiling. He was raising in popularity and he was being talked a lot but it isn’t in a good lighting. Mocked by most of the media outlets and he found himself in a loop.
That dull ache in his chest and the whole withdrawal staying in his hotel room was becoming unbearable.
‘I should call ma, see how her and Kris are holding up without me before my race,’ Noah thought to himself, he swung his legs off the bed and began heading to the balcony. The view was beautiful, a good view of Mosteiro De São Bento. He rested his chin against his palm as he leaned on his elbows against the railing. Brazil was peaceful at this time of night.
His body was tired and he knew that he was extremely jet lagged yet, his mind had too many things going on at once. He has worked his ass off to get this far, now he was in the season. A rookie trying to get his name out with the big leagues.
“Fuck,” Noah grumbled, he has gotten this far and now the first season, the night before a big race. “Come on Noah, you got this. You will win and make dad proud.”
He shook his hands and made his way back inside, this room felt like a prison. He paced for a moment before getting back into the bed. Sleep eventually taking over within a few minutes.
On the other side of town, the truck carrying the cars for the race was getting unloading. The workers handling everything getting prepared for the big race. All the cars were laid out neatly, inventory was done and people began leaving for the night.
The garage was empty with nothing but cars, down a few rows a back up white and blue car lay tucked away in the corner. It was an hour till the car began to hum loudly and transformed.
“Primus, why the fuck do they got me in this damn corner.” Mirage grumbled, he walked around the garage. He looked over at the cars that were going to be racing while he was just cooped up per usual. He wandered around looking for anything past his time. He should be used to this already but it didn’t mean that it was an easy. Multiple seasons, no one has yet to put him on the field. All the stupid rookies treated him as if he was some toy, he wanted to be out there on the tracks.
Something that reminded him of back home.
“Another night in an absolute scrapheap!” Mirage kicked his leg out thinking he had more room but he absolutely dented in one of the cars, he froze and began cursing in a panic, “Frag, frag, FRAG!”
He didn’t need to be discovered especially since the last time he was discovered it was clear that the government did want him here. He saw a few movies about how humans viewed aliens as monsters and he preferred not to be placed on such chopping block.
He tried bending the car back into a normal shape but he was making things worse. His servos were scuffing up the paint job and the dent looked worse than it originally did.
“Primus please I can’t run away again!” Mirage was panicking more and more till he stepped back, the car looked like its seen a lot better days. It was five seconds from the front falling apart completely. It was bent all wonky. The cybertronian looked around and noticed a camera, he jogged on over and carefully unplugged it from the wall and plugged himself into the grid system, erasing the footage of himself and fucking up the feed so it wouldn’t see him for the rest of the night.