Work Text:
Mirage had a lot of responsibilities. As second in command of the Spec Ops unit, it was natural. He would always do the paperwork, file his own reports, as well as some of his comrades on occasion. He planned missions, partook in them. He was always training to be the best he can be. On top of all that, he still made sure to find time for leisure. His schedule was perfectly crafted to his liking.
Something he sometimes did in his off-time is translations. He would request books from his human comrades, which he then would translate to Cybertronian and put it on a datapad. It started when they first arrived on Earth, and Prowl was lamenting about how he wish he had the laws readily available, but most human writing was too small for Cybertronians to read efficiently. Mirage's eyesight was sharper than most, meaning he could read human text better, so he took it upon himself to translate the local laws for Prowl. That certainly put him in his good graces for a few months, at least (Not that Mirage got in trouble often).
From there, he'd get the occasional request to translate human text to Cybertronian on datapads for easier reading. It didn't take too long assuming there wasn't any language barriers, like words that existed in English but not Cybertronian. But Mirage never translated anything for himself.
Today, he was doing just that.
Sat at his personal computer in his office, Mirage had some enertea to one side of him and a stack of books to the other. He asked Carly to pick them up from the library after her classes. He had one of the books open in front of his keyboard, and he glanced down between it and his screen, copying what he saw and translating it to Cybertronian. Well...half of it, anyway. The English words were translated to Cybertronian.
He glanced up as his door beeped, indicating someone was entering. He liked his privacy, but he never locked his office door. There was no need to. And he was glad, because the person who walked in was Hound.
Seeing Hound, even after millions of years of knowing him, always made Mirage feel calmer. Every time his optics laid on him, it felt like every tense cable he didn't know he had in his frame relaxed, and a weight he didn't know he was carrying was lifted from his spark. Hound was a ray of sunshine, through and through.
Hound was carrying two cubes of energon. Mirage feels slightly guilty for already having a drink, but he doesn't say anything.
"Workin'?" Hound asks, as he strolls up to Mirage's desk.
Mirage hums. "Not on anything important, really."
Hound goes to place one cube down on his desk, but notices Mirage's enertea already there. A slightly-embarrassed chuckle escapes him. "Sorry, didn't realize you already had a drink."
Mirage smiles softly. "Leave it there, I'll drink it after I've finished my enertea." Hound does just that. Mirage would never deny something Hound had for him. It was a thoughtful gesture, one Mirage rarely experienced, and he wasn't about to turn it away.
Hound circles to the other side of his desk and picks up a book from his stack. Hound brought it in close to his faceplate and squinted at the writing on there. "French?" He asks. "Why do you have books about french?"
"I want to learn it," Mirage says plainly, going back to typing. But out of the corner of his optics, he could see Hound's optics widen.
"You...you wanna learn an Earth language besides English?" He asks, slightly mystified.
Mirage nods. "It's a beautiful language. Almost as much so as Cybertronian," He explains. He turns his helm to properly look at Hound. "And very romantic, I've heard."
Hound let's out an amused huff, leaning one servo on the back of Mirage's chair. "You don't gotta learn a fancy language to be romantic with me, 'Raj."
"I know, but I want to. It's been so long since I've done something for myself." He states, going back to typing. It was true. Mirage loved himself, but he loved his fellow Autobots more. He wanted to do anything for them, and that often left little time to truly devote to himself. "...The whole country fascinates me, too."
"France?"
"Yes," Mirage nods. "Again, not as great as say, Iacon, but I'd certainly place it above some cities like Kaon or Tarn."
Hound leans down to place a gentle kiss on top of Mirage's helm. He feels warmth blossom from that point, and he can't help but twitch the corners of his intake upward in a smile. "It warms my spark to see you engagin' with Earth culture, dear. It really does." Hound's voice was filled with love and pride.
Mirage may have been doing it for himself, but he knew Hound would appreciate it far beyond words. Mirage's disdain for the planet was obvious, but there were its nice aspects. But Hound loved Earth through and through, every bit of it. He always tried to include Mirage in it, and Mirage was happy to do so, but quite frankly, he was there for Hound, not to truly learn more about Earth out of curiosity. So Mirage going out of his way to learn an Earth language for himself, it must mean a lot to Hound.
"Mm. It will take me a while to learn. But I think it will be fun."
"You're a quick learner, my love. And hey, feel free to practice any time."
"How about right now?" Mirage asks, scrolling up in his draft document. He had already gone over some terms of endearment, and he couldn't wait to use them on Hound. "How aboouuutt...Hound, you're mon amour."
Hound pulls away from the chair and hides his faceplate in his servos. Mirage quirks an optical ridge. "What? Did I say it wrong?"
"No, no, 's just-" Hound's voice is muffled until he pulls his servos away, and Mirage can see the blue blush dusting his faceplate, along with a dazed smile. "You got me all flustered."
"I call you 'my love' all the time." Mirage points out, but the smile doesn't leave his faceplate.
"I know! But, it's different...jeez, that really is a romantic language. Able to give me butterflies just with two words."
Mirage laughs. He doesn't laugh often, but with Hound, it's almost a guarantee. "You're adorable. I can't wait to learn more and see your reaction to all the cute little names I can call you."
Hound steps in closer to Mirage, leaning down slightly. "You're gonna be the death of me, bluebell."
"Mmm. A shame for the Autobots to lose you." Mirage lifts a servo and wraps it around the back of Hound's neck.
"You ain't even sorry?"
"Not when it's so satisfying watching you blush from my words."
"You're evil."
"Maybe. But I do it out of love, you know." Mirage's optics lifted in a loving gaze. "Je t'aime."
Hound smiles wide, creasing the edges of his optics. "I love ya too."
Mirage leans up further out of his chair to capture Hound's derma in a kiss. Hound happily returns it.