The Game of Love [Prequel]

Racing or Education?

"So this is what you've been sneaking out at night to do?! Street racing?!"

Knockout flinched at his carrier's tone, shrinking back when she glared at him. She was holding a note that the medical school he was going to had sent home, explaining what he had been doing off school property. "Y-Yes.... but it was o-only for fun!" He tried to defend himself, but his carrier was having none of it.

"Do you even care about your education?! The education that we spent a fortune on making sure you got! You're supposed to be learning so you can get a good job, not going out at night and racing with those bums!"

"I do care about my education! I'm passing all of my classes! Is that not good enough for you?!" Knockout finally snapped, his scarlet optics glaring at his carrier. "I work my aft off at school! Don't I at least deserve to have some fun every once and a while?!"

"Not while we still watch over you! We only want the best for you, how is that so hard to understand?!"

"I'm old enough to make my own decisions! You don't have a say in what I choose to do because I don't live under your roof anymore! You have so many expectations of what you want me to be that I'm being crushed by stress and anxiety!" Knockout rose his voice along with his carrier's, his entire frame going rigid. "If you care so much about my education, why can't you care that much about how I actually feel for once?"

He stifled a yelp when his carrier grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved him up against a wall, her gaze seeming to burn into his soul.

"Because no matter what you do, you'll never be good enough for us. I expected you to be better than this."

Those words stung like he had just been slapped across the face. He stared at his carrier for a moment with hate-filled optics before pushing her away and running out the door.

———

Knockout fought back tears as he stormed down the sidewalk, his spark pounding within his chassis. It felt like everything was caving in on him and there was no way out.

He walked until he reached the Iacon town center, looking up at the beautiful fountain that decorated the center of the courtyard. He stared at it for a moment before walking over to a bench and slumping down into it. There, he just held his head in his hands and cried as quiet as he could.

After crying for a few minutes, a voice startled him slightly.

"Hey... are you okay?"

He quickly tried to compose himself to the best of his ability and looked up to see a burly navy blue mech standing in front of him. He suddenly felt quite small in this mech's presence and shrank back a bit, but he stopped when he saw the hurt look in the mech's optics. 'That's probably what everyone does to him....' he thought to himself, feeling terrible that he even did that.

He swallowed hard and cleared his throat, wiping the tears from his optics. "Yeah... I'm okay.." he mumbled, a pathetic excuse to cover up what he really felt like.

The mech tilted his head and narrowed his optics slightly, slowly kneeling down in front of Knockout to be level with him. "No you aren't. I can see it in your optics." He replied, his voice deep and strangely  calming. "I know we don't know each other, but I just couldn't stand by and watch a bot cry like that."

Knockout was too embarrassed to look at the mech any longer, averting his gaze in favor of the fountain. He fiddled with his fingers for a moment before the mech spoke again.

"Hey.... it's okay to be upset sometimes."

Knockout glanced at the mech and gave him a perplexed look, raising an optic ridge. "But won't everyone make fun of you for being upset?"

"Sure, but that's just because they're secretly insecure about themselves. Sometimes you just need to let it out." The mech replied, shifting his weight a bit and offering Knockout a kind smile. "You know, I once heard a saying that went a little like this: crying cleans the window to your soul, which is why you feel better after doing so. I like to live by that saying. If you don't cry every once and a while, the window to your soul gets dirty and then you can't see it anymore. But I can see yours clear as day."

Knockout couldn't help but smile at the mech's kind words and his charming smile, feeling a little blush forming on his cheeks. "I like that. That's a good saying to live by." He said, feeling a bit more comfortable with looking at the mech. "Thank you."

"No problem." The mech replied, nodding slightly as he pushed himself back up.

Knockout sheepishly looked away and his smile grew before he looked back at the mech, wiping away a few stray tears from his optics. "What's your name? I believe it's a good thing to know the name of the kind bot who comforted you."

"It's Breakdown. What about yours?" The mech, who Knockout now knew as Breakdown, said cheerfully.

"Knockout. Pleasure to meet you, Breakdown. You really do have a kind spark." Knockout replied with a smile, hesitating before holding his hand out for Breakdown to shake.

Breakdown looked down at Knockout's small hand, a bit scared because it looked so fragile that he might break it with his large hands. He gently took Knockout's hand in his and shook it, his smile growing immensely. "Thanks, no one's ever said that to me before."

Knockout was baffled. "What? How could that be? Are they blind?" He said a bit jokingly, laughing a bit and sighing. He noticed Breakdown was looking at him with a fond gleam in his optics and he blushed, quickly looking away.

"I love your laugh. It's adorable."

"No it's not... it's terrible.." Knockout mumbled, blushing harder out of embarrassment now.

"Oh please, you should hear mine. I sound like Sentinel Prime but ten times worse."

Knockout couldn't help but snicker at the thought of that, glancing at Breakdown out of the corner of his optics. "It couldn't possibly be that bad."

"Believe me, it is." Breakdown chuckled, putting a hand on his hip.

"Then do it right now. Go."

"I can't just laugh upon request!"

"Okay then, I'll tell you a joke. What do you call a situation where all the energon is gone?"

"Uh... I don't know. What?"

"Ener-gone!"

"..."

"Okay, that was a bad joke—" Knockout was interrupted when Breakdown started busting out laughing, pretty much on the verge of crying. A big smile crossed his face and he started laughing as well. Once both Breakdown and himself stopped laughing, he rubbed his optics and sighed. "See? Your laugh isn't that bad!"

Breakdown sheepishly rubbed the back of his helm, a grin on his face. "I guess not... That wasn't that bad of a joke either."

"Oh yes it was, it was incredibly cheesy." Knockout snickered, shaking his head.

"Alright, Whatever you say."