Chapter Text
Hound came out of recharge disoriented, his chronometer cheerfully telling him that he was only one third of the way through his charging period. A blinking symbol on his HUD indicated why he had woken: a message from Meister.
With a groan, he sat up and ran a quick reboot of his systems, trying to think why Meister would want him for a meeting now. Nothing obvious came to mind and he gave up trying: the mercurial saboteur was always hard to predict.
Mirage stirred as he rose, but Hound patted his arm and murmured for him to return to charge. No point both of them being disturbed.
At least the rendezvous point Meister had set was nearby. It only took half a breem to get to the briefing room, and he found Meister staring out the porthole into space.
"What's up?"
"I need a favour done. Personal, not work."
"By me?" Hound was surprised.
Meister usually turned to Mirage for these things when they came up. They had known each other much longer than Hound had been part of the team, after all. On the other hand, there was no reason why he shouldn't help: Meister had certainly done enough to help him in the past, including encouraging Mirage to give him a chance.
"Sure. What do you need?"
"If I get killed out there, would you tell Prowl so he's not waitin' for me t'come back?"
Hound gaped. Ops agents generally avoided ties to non-ops personnel, and Meister was the epitome of an ops agent. In his on-ship role of "Jazz" he had had lovers, certainly, and had plenty of friends too, but none of them were special in any way.
"Does Curveball know you're committed?" he blurted without thinking.
Meister scowled.
"I ain't committed. Prowl's just... Never mind why: I'd like him to know, that's all."
"Well sure, I can do it. But won't he think that's strange, me just coming up to tell him?"
"Nah, he'll be expectin' it." Meister shook his head. "He knows we're friends, an' he knows you'll hear before anyone else."
Hound suddenly understood why he was doing this rather than Mirage. Everyone knew that Mirage worked for Curveball, but most assumed that Hound was just his sparkmate, not an agent too. It would be okay for Prowl to know "Jazz" was friends with Hound, but to know that he was friends with the notoriously unfriendly spy would raise questions.
More interesting, though, and far more worrying, was the thought that Meister might have fallen for someone. Would this make him more cautious for his lover's sake; or more reckless to get through his missions quicker?
"I'll do it." he confirmed. "But I don't want to. You make sure I don't have to, y'hear?"
Meister gave him a slow sardonic smile and headed for the door.
"I'll do my very best, an' y'know my best is very good. Give my regards t'Raj - Jazz's gotta do his exit scene now, headin' off in search o'supplies an' a bolthole t'hide in. I gotta get ready."