Caught Red-Handed

Arcee has retired for the evening at her home-away-from-home, the Xerohostel, unwinding a bit as she peers out the window toward the Assembly campus. She's had an eventful evening in the Rust Narrows with a personal project...a 'hobby' of sorts. Something non-war related, in an attempt to keep her sane.

The lights are out? They must have all burned out, or /someone/ jacked the power cables to only /her/ flat. But it won't matter all that much, right? Since Arcee is planning to crash for the evening, she might as well just call the maintenance people and have them fix it in the morning...

As the lights turn out, Arcee groans. "/Great/. Whatever, right? Whatever." This is not exactly a condo in the Tagan Heights. Sometimes, the power DOES go out. She figures someone else will call it in, and in the meantime she just trudges off in the direction of her recharge bed, because she's in no mood to go fiddle with lights -- not after changing about half a dozen stadium lights all by herself.

A pair of crimson optics are lurking underneath her recharge berth, but she won't see them, because as soon as she nears, they dim into invisibility.

Typically, Arcee is a bit more cautious. Tonight, she's just enough off-guard to not care, she just flops right down and settles in. However, she doesn't power down completely...she's the sort to wait up a bit and let thoughts run their course before completely disengaging from them. And right now, she has a half-dozen ideas for the stadium project all running simultaneously, so she just relaxes and mulls them over.

And that's when he'll surprise her. (Un)pleasantly. Once she's laid down, the seeker silently moves out from under her berth and jettisons upward, landing on the recharge berth next to her, his bright crimson optics flashing in the abysmal blackness.

 His arms curl around her waist. "Miss me?"

 But before she can even answer that, his mouth is covering hers.

It's probably a good thing for Starscream that he said something right after giving her the fright of her life, because reactions tend to be fight-or-flight. Most femmes go for scream-and-flight, but Arcee' the kind of femme who responds to a scary surprise by attacking. Once she realizes who's there, she manages to somehow stop herself from clocking him in the head, because she had that punch wound up, fist closed, and servos ready to deliver it.

"Mmph," Arcee manages, kissing him fiercely. "Why do you have to make everything a horror show?!" she exclaims when she finally has the chance.

Starscream relishes it, pressing her harder into the recharge berth, one of his hands sliding down to her thigh while the other traces under her chin lightly.

 When he finally pulls away, he just smirks, leaning into her. "You weren't scared, if it was."

"N...no, but really, if you had knocked like a normal person...and not cut the power and hid out like a serial killer, it would have been a little less weird," Arcee admits. Even so, she's staying put, not pounding on Starscream with both fists like she probably should. There's some measure of resignation there. "I guess I don't need to ask what you want, do I."

His hand runs up and down her thigh gently, his smirk widening. The thrum of his engines vibrate against her softly while his other arm wraps around her waist again and pulls her closer. "Oh, but what do /you/ want? If I properly recall, I was the one making an offer," Starscream says.

Prowl isn't the sort to go visiting people at their private residences, not even in their habsuites at the Decagon or somewhere. If he needs to speak with them, he typically orders them to come to his office whenever he saw fit.

        But this time...it's different. Maybe, it's because -Arcee- is different to him. And maybe, it's because he's a bit concerned about her. The situation with Starscream, and now that she is no longer living at the Decagon, he can't keep an optic on her all the time any more.

        Thus, right at that moment, there is a signal indicating that someone is at the door.

For a moment, Arcee really doesn't want to deal with any of this. Not the emotional blackmail, or the fact her crazy, creeper not-boyfriend has just taken things to the worst possible level by breaking into her habsuite. And climbing into her recharge berth with her. On some very base level, she sort of enjoyed this. But...now she had to worry about what he was going to do if she admitted that she had no intention of EVER giving him the door codes?? She'd take the nookie, certainly, but no way would she give him the door codes to the Decagon. /Ever./

She stares right at Starscream, looking pensive, and is just about to say something when the door signal chimes. Rather automatically, she moves to go toward the door (but she really isn't thinking too much about the fact that the sneaky Seeker has his arms curled around her; he could very well stop her if he wanted).

"...." She doesn't answer him, so he gives her a dissatisfied look, but doesn't release his hold on her. "<Don't you want to know where the Forge is? I could tell you...>"

 And stop her does. His arms curl tighter around her waist and his lips brush her neck softly. "C'mon, it can wait..."

Prowl stands there at the door, frowning when Arcee doesn't answer. He peers in through a window panel, seeing that the hallway lights appear to be on, indicating that she must be inside. But why isn't she coming to the door? This worries him. He waits a few moments longer, then glances down at the security on the door...

        And finds that it's been hacked. "Damn it," he curses, and quickly opens the door, striding down the hallway in search of the fembot. "Arcee? Arcee what's going on here?" The first place he looks is, of course, the personal quarters. "Ar--" He stops, speechless as he stares at the two of them.

Arcee seems fairly cozy on the recharge berth, but perhaps everything is not what it seems. For one, the power is definitely OUT in here, it's very dark. Secondly, Arcee's doesn't seem to be in an unpleasant situation, but knowing who's involved, there's probably several layers of explanation here. She gives Prowl a look that's all at once surprised and worried. Definitely worried. Things were about to take a turn for the much-worse, now. And she was right in the clutches of the very mech who had a way of making things much, much worse.

When Prowl just barges in unexpectedly, the seeker blinks in confusion and surprise. Then he sighs, looking irritated. He sits up but doesn't remove the hand that's resting on Arcee's thigh. "I'm sorry, but what the /hell/ are you doing here?" Starscream asks, one of his wings twitching in annoyance.

Hah, what is -Prowl- doing here? "Excuse -me-, but what the hell are YOU doing here?" Prowl demands, glaring fiercely. No -he- gets to ask the questions. The officer also gives Arcee a stern look. "Arcee, I -told- you to stay away from Starscream. Didn't I? And didn't you say you would? You'll forgive me if I was a bit -concerned- when not only did you not answer the door, but I found that your security had been -hacked-." Oh, he is absolutely -livid-. Now if this had been just about any -other- femme, he likely would have been concerned, but not -this- angry.

"I...he...uh..." Arcee is a bit beside herself; she's never really seen Prowl quite this emotional before, about...well, anything, really. Is this the same mech from the station?? She's not used to seeing his pissed-off side, and her surprise is fairly evident. "I didn't let him in, he let himself in," she insists, her gaze turning back to Starscream. "In fact...hey, I never even told you where this place /was/," she suddenly realizes. Whoah, that was possibly a little bit creepy!

Starscream suddenly seems amused. Prowl is angry, but uncharacteristically so. Is it possible that... oh my! The seeker grins and leans into Arcee, his arms curling around her waist even tighter. "Well, that's simple, information exchange," the seeker says in answer to Prowl's question. He plants a kiss on the side of Arcee's faceplates, then turns to look at Prowl. "Your turn now. Answer my question."

Prowl glares at Starscream. Of course he broke in here. What a creep. But why wasn't she resisting? "Oh, -right-. Of -course-, this looks like a -simple- information exchange." he says wryly, folding his arms and ignoring the seeker's demand for him to answer the question. "I -see- that he broke in, but why aren't you telling him to leave then? Why aren't you resisting? If I hadn't seen the hack job, then I would have almost thought you -invited- him here."

Arcee sighs. "But I didn't," she insists. Starscream hugs her closer, and she decides...well, why not? Prowl has a point; she could just ask him to leave, it /might/ be that simple. She just doesn't want the place shot up. "Look, could you leave?" she asks Starscream hopefully.

Starscream shrugs callously. "Fine," he says, "Though I don't really see what that proves," he says, "because she didn't resist simply because she didn't /want/ to. You can ask her. She won't be able to deny it." The seeker gets up.

 "< i'll be back, later, when Prowl isn't bothering you>" he radios Arcee privately. He smirks deviously and leans in to steal one more kiss from her, his hand tracing under her chin lightly.

Prowl glares after Starscream as he leaves, then continues to glare at the door, standing in silence for a long while. For whatever reason, this appeared to have upset him moreso than one might have expected...

Arcee looks considerably less than thrilled, herself, watching Starscream as he slinks out the door, then looking toward Prowl. "I'm telling you the truth, he broke in here, cut the power and I didn't know he was in my room," she insists. "I'm /not/ lying. And before I came home I was in the Rust Narrows. And think about this -- why would I have asked for your help in the first place?? Or Sky Lynx's help?? Because he's blackmailing me!"

"You didn't even look -distressed-." Prowl states. "Nor were you even trying to resist. Telling him to leave should have been the -first- thing on your mind. So why wasn't it?"

"...Okay, now you're not even asking rational questions," Arcee says, looking slightly suspicious. "I'll answer anything you want, and truthfully, but you're not even asking quantifiable questions, really...? 'Looking distressed'? How distressed was I supposed to 'look' when he had his arm-guns wrapped around me and I couldn't draw weapons on him? You know I can't even answer that. Why are you asking me questions that I can't even answer??"

"It was almost as if you didn't -mind- it." Prowl observes, his arms still folded. Then he sighs, shaking his head. "Whatever. This is clearly a pointless discussion." Excuses, that's all they are. "You will return to the Decagon, it's not safe out here any more."

"Yeah, I agree, I don't have the slightest idea how he found out about this place...I never told anyone where it was, so he must have done some digging," Arcee admits in a softer tone, although her annoyance is still right there just under the surface. "I am \*very\* glad that, for whatever reason, you decided to stop by, because I'm not sure this would have ended quite as well otherwise. So I do thank you for...for at least coming this way to check on me. I'm not really pleased about you blaming ME for all of this, but whatever. I am going to return to the Decagon, regardless."

"While it might not have been -entirely- your fault, I can't exculpate you -completely-." Prowl replies sharply. "Now return to the Decagon immediately. I will send a transport here to pick up your belongings." And with that, he's out the door.

Arcee needs to vent. She NEEDS to vent. Desperately. But she's good enough to wait until Prowl has left and is long gone down the road. THEN, she starts bitching angrily as she packs up her belongings. "Like I'm to blame for that jerk breaking in here!! Whatever!! And speaking of THAT JERK, I'm not his convenience store where he can visit and get what he wants anytime he wants! <CENSORED> this <CENSORED>...I'm getting both hands replaced with...I don't know, SAWS or something...damn it...idiot mechs. I just hate all of them now. I just HATE THEM."