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sakon76And, having been a good girl and translated an episode of UM today, I yield to prodding and to seasonality and present the following next chapter. Merry Christmas, all.
Twin Terrors, part four
by K. Stonham
prereleased 25th December 2007
Okay, their cars were not Reventons. Hikaru could deal with that. He could even deal with the fact that whatever they were, they turned into giant robots. Which was actually kind of cool, and he wondered who had been developing that technology and why they'd built it into Lamborghinis and why again said Lamborghinis had been given to him and Kaoru. And then there was the cop car robot to consider too, which was nifty in its own Gundam or Patlabor type way, but....
But what he was finding irritating was that all three of the robots seemed to have no problem having a conversation literally over his and Kaoru's heads, totally ignoring the two other people present in the process. Tono would be appalled.
"Hey," he said loudly, his brother's hand held in his. The robots ignored him. He and Kaoru glanced at one another, the same thought going through both their minds.
Hitachiin twins powers, activate!
With identical smirks of determination, they looked up at the arguing robots. "HEY!" they yelled together.
All three robots stopped and looked down at them.
"It's not polite to have conversations in front of other people without including them, you know," Hikaru informed them.
"Especially in other languages," Kaoru added. "You can speak Japanese, can't you?"
"Of course we can," "Akane" retorted. "Especially after listening to you two for weeks." "Kinki" elbowed him. "What?" he demanded.
"I apologize for the actions of my insubordinate subordinates," the police-robot told them. "They were out of line to impersonate your vehicles."
"Hey, I'd like to see you come up with a better plan--" the yellow one said before being cut off, the red one elbowing him this time.
Hikaru studied the police-bot for a second. "I'm Hitachiin Hikaru," he introduced himself. "This is my younger twin Kaoru."
The police-bot nodded. "My name is Prowl," he said. "These are Sunstreaker," he said with a gesture at the yellow one, "and Sideswipe," he finished, indicating the red one. "Also twins."
"Twin robots?" Kaoru asked skeptically.
"No weirder than twin humans," Sunstreaker snapped back.
*
"Puraoru. Sansutoriika. Saidosuaipu," Hikaru tried the names out. "Those sound English. Do they mean anything?"
Why English? Sunstreaker asked Prowl on a private comm.
Because it's the international language on this planet, and the one everyone else has chosen to use for their names, Prowl answered.
"Urotsuku," Prowl answered the human aloud. A verb, stalking silently in the hunt. "Hisujisha." A noun, one who was an arrow-straight line blazing directly from a sun. "Gawabutsu." A verb, to strike unexpectedly on an exposed flank.
Once, long ago, all their names had been more innocuous things, with more innocent meanings.
That had been a long time ago.
"They will take you to your home and return the original vehicles that were to be delivered to you," Prowl assured the human twins.
The pair of genetically identical teenagers exchanged a glance with each other. As one, they crossed their arms, cocked their heads to opposite sides, and shifted their weight back. It was a deliberately judgmental stance. "Kaoru," one asked the other, "did he just say we would get the other cars back? With a complete lack of giving us any explanation?"
His twin nodded solemnly. "Yes, Hikaru," he replied, "that's what the giant robot said."
The first one snorted. "That's high handed of him, isn't it?" he asked almost rhetorically.
The second human looked critically up at Prowl, eyes assessing his height. "Well," he judged aloud, "he is rather tall. Maybe it's affected his logic?"
Sideswipe badly stifled a chortle of amusement. Prowl glared at him and his brother, then switched his attention back to the shorter pair of twin annoyances. "We are from another planet. There is an interstellar war going on and your world has become a new battleground. Is that satisfactory?" he asked them.
"Not by a long shot," the slightly pushier twin answered him. His gaze drifted to the Autobot twins. "So why hide as our cars?"
"They were just about the only decent vehicles I found in this country," Sunstreaker replied flatly.
"Besides, there was all that lovely waxing and polishing involved with being your cars," Sideswipe added more cheerfully, poking at his brother's gleaming yellow armor.
Sunstreaker growled and swatted his brother's hand away. "Stop it or lose a hand."
"You stayed at our place for the wax?" the quieter human asked incredulously.
"How many hair and skin care products do you use?" Sunstreaker sniped back.
"The robots like wax," Kaoru informed his brother. Both human twins looked back up at their counterparts. "Which I bet means they really liked the washing and hand-buffing," he said consideringly.
Sideswipe snorted. "Maybe, but you have no idea how horrible that petroleum fuel your kind use tastes," he said with a shudder.
"As fascinating as this discussion of mutual grooming habits may be," Prowl broke in, "Ratchet will be waiting for us at the United States military base. I suggest we get moving--unless you want to annoy him?" he asked the Cybertronian twins. They both shook their heads furiously, optics dilated. "Good. Then you will return the humans to their domicile--"
"We're coming with you," Kaoru broke in.
"No, you're not," Prowl disagreed.
"Yes, we are," Kaoru argued. "You said your war is on our planet now, right? You're going to need allies with money and influence in the native population, aren't you? The Hitachiin family has both."
"Kaoru--"
"Trust me, Hikaru," one twin told the other, looking at his brother. By the look in their eyes, a silent communication almost seemed to pass between the two, even though that was impossible for humans given their lack of comm lines. Both mouths curved into identical smiles as they looked back up at Prowl.
"We're coming with you," they said together in a tone that brooked no argument.
An unexpected pang shot through Prowl's core as he remembered--
"Fine," he said shortly. He glanced at Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. You're still taking them home and returning their vehicles once Ratchet's done with you, he sent over the comm, and folded into his alternate shape, indicating the discussion was over. He didn't miss how Sideswipe looked at Sunstreaker and shrugged expressively--apparently they'd been picking up human mannerisms during their time on the planet, which was all to the best--before the both of them folded themselves into the sleek, expensive alternate forms they'd chosen, driver's doors open in invitation to the humans.
With a look at one another, Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin walked over to the seeming cars, and got in.
*
"So," Hikaru asked, leaning back into the butter-soft leather seat, "what's this?" He tapped an index finger against the face-symbol on the steering wheel that took the place of the Lamborghini bull. The wheel slid under his fingers as Sideswipe turned back onto the freeway. He wasn't even pretending to drive, giving up all semblance of control in favor of talking with the alien who'd been pretending to be his car for the last several weeks.
"One of the faces of Primus," Sideswipe readily answered. "Our god. Some say our creator. It's also the symbol of the Autobots--our side of the war."
*
"Thank you for saving my life," Kaoru said quietly to the sentient car.
"That wreck would have ruined my finish," Sunstreaker replied. "Not to mention, the last thing I want to deal with is organic mess all over my interior."
"Most people would say 'you're welcome'," Kaoru pointed out mildly, more amused than offended.
"I'm not most people," Sunstreaker shot back.
"That much," Kaoru said feelingly, "is obvious." He traced a finger along a seam in the leather seat and blinked as Sunstreaker shuddered around him. "I should stop touching you?" he asked.
*
"So, that classmate of yours," Sideswipe started. "The girl who dresses like a boy. Why's she do that?"
Hikaru blinked. "Haruhi?" he asked, and of course Sideswipe would know about her--she'd been inside the robot. Car. Alien. Whatever; Hikaru was not going to think about that too closely. "She's a girl, but we didn't know that when she joined our club at school two years back. So the club bought her a guy's uniform, and everyone else thought she was a boy, since she hadn't really interacted with anyone else before." Curiosity struck him. "How could you tell?"
A laugh, and the voice coming through the speakers was distinctly amused. "You think I couldn't tell? She was sitting inside me!"
Hikaru nodded. "Mori-sempai was able to tell just by picking her up, so I guess that makes sense." He glanced out the window, at the police car cruising ahead of them. "Is your superior always such a prick?"
Sideswipe decelerated slightly, and was it Hikaru's imagination or did the vehicle hug the ground just a tad lower. "These days? Yeah."
*
Sunstreaker growled just a little. He wasn't about to admit he liked the feeling of the human in him, liked the implicit trust given in the way Kaoru hadn't even hesitated to enter his cabin, knowing what he was. There was no point. He and Sides were only going to be leaving anyway, to rejoin the rest of the contingent on the North American continent. "So," he said, changing the subject, "you're not surprised or scared."
"Should I be?" Kaoru asked.
"Slag yes!" Sunstreaker retorted. "We're bigger than you, stronger than you, certainly better made than you, and you've just gotten told our war is taking place on your planet."
Kaoru shrugged minutely, a ripple against the faux-leather of the seat. "I figured out weeks ago that you weren't a normal car." He turned his head, glancing out the passenger side window at the red car that raced by Sunstreaker's side. "How can robots be twins?"
"It's not too different from the way humans can be," Sunstreaker replied. "Sides and I are one spark, but we took root in two bodies."
"A spark is a... soul?" the human asked slowly, and Sunstreaker compared the word he'd used, tama, with its definitions on the human internet. It... actually fit quite well, he thought, for a human concept.
"Close enough," he answered. "What you and your brother pretend to be, my brother and I actually are."
*
Listening to the two conversations taking place behind him, Prowl resolutely stamped flat any personal feelings he had about either conversation, and just concentrated on doing his job. On getting them to Ratchet, and then to Optimus. He refused to let himself think further ahead than that.
He couldn't process the thought of the future. That ability had been ripped from him. All that mattered was now. All that existed was now. If he started to think about the future, about a day past today, then the tightrope he was treading would snap beneath him and he would fall. And from that fall there would be no return.
Before them, at the far end of the paved roads they took, beckoning like a star from far away, Yokosuka Naval Base drew closer.
*~*~*
Author's note: Mad props have to go to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
therhoda for helping me with Hikaru and Kaoru's dialogue and okami_myrrhibis for asking for more story.
Twin Terrors, part four
by K. Stonham
prereleased 25th December 2007
Okay, their cars were not Reventons. Hikaru could deal with that. He could even deal with the fact that whatever they were, they turned into giant robots. Which was actually kind of cool, and he wondered who had been developing that technology and why they'd built it into Lamborghinis and why again said Lamborghinis had been given to him and Kaoru. And then there was the cop car robot to consider too, which was nifty in its own Gundam or Patlabor type way, but....
But what he was finding irritating was that all three of the robots seemed to have no problem having a conversation literally over his and Kaoru's heads, totally ignoring the two other people present in the process. Tono would be appalled.
"Hey," he said loudly, his brother's hand held in his. The robots ignored him. He and Kaoru glanced at one another, the same thought going through both their minds.
Hitachiin twins powers, activate!
With identical smirks of determination, they looked up at the arguing robots. "HEY!" they yelled together.
All three robots stopped and looked down at them.
"It's not polite to have conversations in front of other people without including them, you know," Hikaru informed them.
"Especially in other languages," Kaoru added. "You can speak Japanese, can't you?"
"Of course we can," "Akane" retorted. "Especially after listening to you two for weeks." "Kinki" elbowed him. "What?" he demanded.
"I apologize for the actions of my insubordinate subordinates," the police-robot told them. "They were out of line to impersonate your vehicles."
"Hey, I'd like to see you come up with a better plan--" the yellow one said before being cut off, the red one elbowing him this time.
Hikaru studied the police-bot for a second. "I'm Hitachiin Hikaru," he introduced himself. "This is my younger twin Kaoru."
The police-bot nodded. "My name is Prowl," he said. "These are Sunstreaker," he said with a gesture at the yellow one, "and Sideswipe," he finished, indicating the red one. "Also twins."
"Twin robots?" Kaoru asked skeptically.
"No weirder than twin humans," Sunstreaker snapped back.
"Puraoru. Sansutoriika. Saidosuaipu," Hikaru tried the names out. "Those sound English. Do they mean anything?"
Why English? Sunstreaker asked Prowl on a private comm.
Because it's the international language on this planet, and the one everyone else has chosen to use for their names, Prowl answered.
"Urotsuku," Prowl answered the human aloud. A verb, stalking silently in the hunt. "Hisujisha." A noun, one who was an arrow-straight line blazing directly from a sun. "Gawabutsu." A verb, to strike unexpectedly on an exposed flank.
Once, long ago, all their names had been more innocuous things, with more innocent meanings.
That had been a long time ago.
"They will take you to your home and return the original vehicles that were to be delivered to you," Prowl assured the human twins.
The pair of genetically identical teenagers exchanged a glance with each other. As one, they crossed their arms, cocked their heads to opposite sides, and shifted their weight back. It was a deliberately judgmental stance. "Kaoru," one asked the other, "did he just say we would get the other cars back? With a complete lack of giving us any explanation?"
His twin nodded solemnly. "Yes, Hikaru," he replied, "that's what the giant robot said."
The first one snorted. "That's high handed of him, isn't it?" he asked almost rhetorically.
The second human looked critically up at Prowl, eyes assessing his height. "Well," he judged aloud, "he is rather tall. Maybe it's affected his logic?"
Sideswipe badly stifled a chortle of amusement. Prowl glared at him and his brother, then switched his attention back to the shorter pair of twin annoyances. "We are from another planet. There is an interstellar war going on and your world has become a new battleground. Is that satisfactory?" he asked them.
"Not by a long shot," the slightly pushier twin answered him. His gaze drifted to the Autobot twins. "So why hide as our cars?"
"They were just about the only decent vehicles I found in this country," Sunstreaker replied flatly.
"Besides, there was all that lovely waxing and polishing involved with being your cars," Sideswipe added more cheerfully, poking at his brother's gleaming yellow armor.
Sunstreaker growled and swatted his brother's hand away. "Stop it or lose a hand."
"You stayed at our place for the wax?" the quieter human asked incredulously.
"How many hair and skin care products do you use?" Sunstreaker sniped back.
"The robots like wax," Kaoru informed his brother. Both human twins looked back up at their counterparts. "Which I bet means they really liked the washing and hand-buffing," he said consideringly.
Sideswipe snorted. "Maybe, but you have no idea how horrible that petroleum fuel your kind use tastes," he said with a shudder.
"As fascinating as this discussion of mutual grooming habits may be," Prowl broke in, "Ratchet will be waiting for us at the United States military base. I suggest we get moving--unless you want to annoy him?" he asked the Cybertronian twins. They both shook their heads furiously, optics dilated. "Good. Then you will return the humans to their domicile--"
"We're coming with you," Kaoru broke in.
"No, you're not," Prowl disagreed.
"Yes, we are," Kaoru argued. "You said your war is on our planet now, right? You're going to need allies with money and influence in the native population, aren't you? The Hitachiin family has both."
"Kaoru--"
"Trust me, Hikaru," one twin told the other, looking at his brother. By the look in their eyes, a silent communication almost seemed to pass between the two, even though that was impossible for humans given their lack of comm lines. Both mouths curved into identical smiles as they looked back up at Prowl.
"We're coming with you," they said together in a tone that brooked no argument.
An unexpected pang shot through Prowl's core as he remembered--
"Fine," he said shortly. He glanced at Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. You're still taking them home and returning their vehicles once Ratchet's done with you, he sent over the comm, and folded into his alternate shape, indicating the discussion was over. He didn't miss how Sideswipe looked at Sunstreaker and shrugged expressively--apparently they'd been picking up human mannerisms during their time on the planet, which was all to the best--before the both of them folded themselves into the sleek, expensive alternate forms they'd chosen, driver's doors open in invitation to the humans.
With a look at one another, Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin walked over to the seeming cars, and got in.
"So," Hikaru asked, leaning back into the butter-soft leather seat, "what's this?" He tapped an index finger against the face-symbol on the steering wheel that took the place of the Lamborghini bull. The wheel slid under his fingers as Sideswipe turned back onto the freeway. He wasn't even pretending to drive, giving up all semblance of control in favor of talking with the alien who'd been pretending to be his car for the last several weeks.
"One of the faces of Primus," Sideswipe readily answered. "Our god. Some say our creator. It's also the symbol of the Autobots--our side of the war."
"Thank you for saving my life," Kaoru said quietly to the sentient car.
"That wreck would have ruined my finish," Sunstreaker replied. "Not to mention, the last thing I want to deal with is organic mess all over my interior."
"Most people would say 'you're welcome'," Kaoru pointed out mildly, more amused than offended.
"I'm not most people," Sunstreaker shot back.
"That much," Kaoru said feelingly, "is obvious." He traced a finger along a seam in the leather seat and blinked as Sunstreaker shuddered around him. "I should stop touching you?" he asked.
"So, that classmate of yours," Sideswipe started. "The girl who dresses like a boy. Why's she do that?"
Hikaru blinked. "Haruhi?" he asked, and of course Sideswipe would know about her--she'd been inside the robot. Car. Alien. Whatever; Hikaru was not going to think about that too closely. "She's a girl, but we didn't know that when she joined our club at school two years back. So the club bought her a guy's uniform, and everyone else thought she was a boy, since she hadn't really interacted with anyone else before." Curiosity struck him. "How could you tell?"
A laugh, and the voice coming through the speakers was distinctly amused. "You think I couldn't tell? She was sitting inside me!"
Hikaru nodded. "Mori-sempai was able to tell just by picking her up, so I guess that makes sense." He glanced out the window, at the police car cruising ahead of them. "Is your superior always such a prick?"
Sideswipe decelerated slightly, and was it Hikaru's imagination or did the vehicle hug the ground just a tad lower. "These days? Yeah."
Sunstreaker growled just a little. He wasn't about to admit he liked the feeling of the human in him, liked the implicit trust given in the way Kaoru hadn't even hesitated to enter his cabin, knowing what he was. There was no point. He and Sides were only going to be leaving anyway, to rejoin the rest of the contingent on the North American continent. "So," he said, changing the subject, "you're not surprised or scared."
"Should I be?" Kaoru asked.
"Slag yes!" Sunstreaker retorted. "We're bigger than you, stronger than you, certainly better made than you, and you've just gotten told our war is taking place on your planet."
Kaoru shrugged minutely, a ripple against the faux-leather of the seat. "I figured out weeks ago that you weren't a normal car." He turned his head, glancing out the passenger side window at the red car that raced by Sunstreaker's side. "How can robots be twins?"
"It's not too different from the way humans can be," Sunstreaker replied. "Sides and I are one spark, but we took root in two bodies."
"A spark is a... soul?" the human asked slowly, and Sunstreaker compared the word he'd used, tama, with its definitions on the human internet. It... actually fit quite well, he thought, for a human concept.
"Close enough," he answered. "What you and your brother pretend to be, my brother and I actually are."
Listening to the two conversations taking place behind him, Prowl resolutely stamped flat any personal feelings he had about either conversation, and just concentrated on doing his job. On getting them to Ratchet, and then to Optimus. He refused to let himself think further ahead than that.
He couldn't process the thought of the future. That ability had been ripped from him. All that mattered was now. All that existed was now. If he started to think about the future, about a day past today, then the tightrope he was treading would snap beneath him and he would fall. And from that fall there would be no return.
Before them, at the far end of the paved roads they took, beckoning like a star from far away, Yokosuka Naval Base drew closer.
Author's note: Mad props have to go to
therhoda for helping me with Hikaru and Kaoru's dialogue and okami_myrrhibis for asking for more story.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-12-26 05:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-26 05:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-26 06:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-26 07:12 am (UTC)This is wonderfully done, and you've got me wondering what Prowl's got happening.
Well characterized; I like the banter. And Sunstreaker's liking of being trusted. And Prowl heard "Is your superior always such a prick?"!!! LOL!
no subject
Date: 2007-12-26 07:56 am (UTC)Shit, I half-mistranslated my username then.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-26 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-26 06:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-27 08:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-26 08:37 am (UTC)Anyway, I bow before your art.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-26 02:45 pm (UTC)But "Anime" Twins + Lambo Twins needs little translation, IMO.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-26 09:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-26 02:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-26 04:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-26 04:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-26 08:24 pm (UTC)What a subtle/unintentional insult.
Ultimately it made me go 'Boom! Sunstreaker pwnz!!11!' (l33t is not Okami's language ^^;;) and at the same time it's just such a freakin' beautiful line. (Awwwww!!)
no subject
Date: 2007-12-26 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-27 08:28 pm (UTC)Sorry... apart from that, so much LOVE for the twins dynamic - on both sides. :D
no subject
Date: 2008-01-28 12:53 am (UTC)