#tf sludge

• Croaking as he nips at your backpack, tempted to fly to a perch with you where the others can’t easily reach, Swoop rumbles when you obligingly run those wonderfully soft hands over his head. And he can feel the others glaring at him. Every day a competition to see who you greet first. Who gets washed first, because that’s your favorite for the day. It has to be. “Swoop is dirty,” he says, hearing Slag growl at him when he almost whines the words, stretching out a wing to show the dirt. “Neglected. Sad.”

• Stalking over, Grimlock’s tempted to put a massive ped on the flyer. “Swoop dirty,” he growls and you smile up at him, momentarily derailing his thoughts because you’re pleased to see him. “Swoop rolled in dirt,” he accuses and you laugh as Swoop hisses a denial even though they’d all seen him do it. ‘You wouldn’t do that would you?’ You ask Swoop and the other dinobot can’t meet your eyes as Snarl and Sludge both snarl ‘would.’ Though Grimlock supposes the others might just be annoyed that it didn’t occur to them first.

• “Slag is favorite,” he rumbles as he tries to nudge you away from Grimlock and Swoop with his head. Hearing your laughter as you let him and the other two snarl in protest. “Slag not roll in dirt. Brought present for little conjunx.” Hears your confused ‘conjunx,’ as his head turns, casting about before carefully picking up a bucket in his jaws and setting it down by your foot. “Present.”

• That’s your bucket, but you thank him anyway, reaching out to rub his head as his optics shutter. And you suck in a breath when Sludge uses his tail to pull you his way so it feels like they’re playing tug of war with you, the big bot rumbling a warning. Even if you didn’t have to go through them squabbling over you every single day, it’d still take forever to wash them when you have five and they’re huge. Know you’ll end up washing Grimlock first because as he likes to point out ‘he’s king’ and the others usually back down before it becomes an all out brawl to challenge Grim. Turning over that strange word, conjunx, you wonder what it means as Sludge’s head lowers on that long neck to nose against you, nearly knocking you on your butt.

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