This is how they do it: Soundwave on the recharge slab, Lazerbeak on his left shoulder, Rumble and Frenzy tucked in the crook of his right arm. Buzzsaw roosts on the corner near Soundwave’s head, while Ravage takes the opposite end, sometimes wrapping around Soundwave’s pedes the nights the ship gets too cold.
See? It’s not so hard. Even though sometimes Rumble and Frenzy are fighting, so one twin takes the crook and the other makes a space down next to Ravage, who doesn’t like to be touched. Ravage moves further up, settling next to Soundwave’s thigh, and Soundwave has to be very careful throughout the night to not move and accidentally push him off.
They’re a team, they can make anything work. Even the times they’ve been underground too long and Buzzsaw gets restless, getting up every hour to do a lap around their room. Most of them can sleep through it, but not Frenzy, who still hasn’t earned his gun privileges back after trying to shoot down the aerial one very late night. Igniting thrusters and rustling ailerons wake him up every time, and he buries his head into the nearest plating to block out the sound. If he’s lucky, it’s Soundwave or Rumble. Otherwise, claws and a bristling felinoid set him straight.
The only time they complain about the arrangement is when one of them gets sick, because then they have to break it up. Ravage will quarantine himself to protect the team, but Lazerbeak can’t sleep unless someone else is nearby. When she’s sick, it’s a matter of deciding who’s going to be miserable with her. It can’t be Rumble, though, because the lucky fragger never realizes when he’s ill and has already been responsible for too many base-wide outbreaks.
They all agree, though, that the absolute worst is when Soundwave gets sick. Like Ravage, he’ll leave for the good of the team, but instead of sequestering in a vent somewhere, the only place he can properly be contained is the medbay. The room is very empty without him. Even for a full roster of five cassettes, the berth is very large. Those are the nights Ravage will curl close to Frenzy while letting Rumble rub behind his ears. Lazerbeak nestles into the center of the pile while Buzzsaw keeps to the edge, wings open and draped over his family.
And after a couple nights of this, Soundwave comes back and they fall back into their places like cogs in a machine. Really, simple.
