It was curious the first times it happened.
It was way too curious when the two looked so similar.
“You are carbon copy of your mentor”
“Eh, no, I mean adult Sideswipe”
And it was starting to get old way too soon, and he was only seven and a half Earth years old.
“Why do you have the same name as your father?”
Until it became a constant topic that scratched wrong in his audials.
“It took the same name as his father, how cute!”
And suddenly he had had enough when his teacher called attendance list.
And he shouldn't be surprised when he was called upon to detention since the principal was right at the door and he scared Millie in the front seat row to the point of crying.
“All right”, his teacher for detention did a double-take when he came into the room, both eyebrows going up in surprise, the only one in the whole room, sitting there in silence, “what happened Sideswipe?”
He noticed him flinching, of course he did.
“I want to say sorry to Mrs. Flores”.
The teacher had to do a double take, because pure cybertronians can't cry, but the kiddo in front of him looked like he was about to defy natural cybertronian law and give it a chance, “Sides you already did, I just-”.
“And Millie and Sophie because I know they don't like loud noises, and Jeb cause he likes my designation but I don't know-”.
“All right, all right, Sides, calm down”.
His teacher approaches, calm and slow, the wheels of his chair a familiar sound that makes him comfortable, “I’m sorry Mr. Chase”.
Detention ended sooner than later, Mr. Chase even helped him end his homework, and he was soon walking back home, not confident enough to go back in car mode, also having the perk to get by the park in the middle of his way, noticing his friend EMF already there.
As soon as he called for him, Javier’s head popped out of the bidding spot in the playground, looking around until he found him, “Sides!”
He couldn't blame Javi when his engines growled heavily and he ducked down again, “no no, I’m sorry! Javi, surface!
A pair of juice boxes later, orange punch for Javi and a Kremzeek explosion for Sides, they could finally sit down in peace.
“What was that?”, Javi was easily sitting over his crossed leg struts, “the shouting, I’ve never heard you scream like that before, or ever”, another sip on his juice, long, almost judging in silence, “you good?”
“Don't know”, a bite down onto his curly straw, but he did know, in a way, “maybe I was too young when I chose my designation”.
“Ah, right, you guys pick your own names”
Then again, he did pick it, but someone else said it for him.
He still remembers it, like everything in his life, Arcee was so scary back then, and he was so scared and mad with her, she was damaging his friends and then she tried to fight him, his birth guardian, Trypticon, defended him and he had never heard or felt him be so terrified in his short life.
Arcee was so warm once she settled, she was forgiving, she was kind, she still is even in the classroom, she gave him a name and he clung to it because it was said with so much care.
At the moment he didn't know it was because she was grieving someone at the edge of the Allspark.
When he finally got to know the original Sideswipe, well, he admits to feeling jealous in a way he didn't understand right away, he was still developing, his plating was still changing, and even the original Sideswipe seemed taken aback when Arcee made the two meet, he was closed off, in a way, but also easy to reach, trying to make him comfortable even if he didn't have to, maybe that was a reason for his faceplate to finally settle, to look so similar, because Sideswipe and the idea of him felt safe.
Trypticon was benevolent and mighty.
Arcee was warmth and strong.
Sideswipe felt secure and formidable.
His parent was affable and willed.
Sunstreaker was powerful and appealing.
All of them called him Sideswipe Jr., mostly because his human mentor called him that once when both he and his mentor turned around to watch you, he doesn't feel it as a bad thing all around, as he notices the way his parent holds his faceplate tenderly, saying: “You look just like your dads and me”.
He doesn't, he really doesn't, his olfactory ridge is more globular at the edge and the outline of his optics is more rounded he may be red and black, his helm may look alike, but that's because they are of the same frame type, he doesn't have an ounce of your DNA or his mentor’s CNA in his systems, not like Sol does as her faceplate now shows the same outline of your eyes, she looks more like his mentors too, the forming finials on her helm prove so.
“I did, and now it feels weird”.
That he looks so much like his mentor, but has never been him, and he gets it, at the moment, his designation was more a tribute than anything else, but he knows the real Sideswipe, and while his mentor is a soldier, no fear, no anxiety, just pure unadulterated will to fight, then there is him, who likes to play with the neighbor's dog and eat his parent’s recently made energon goodies and is still scared of Child’s Play.
“I just feel that it doesn't fit me anymore”.
Javi looks at him, judging again, “You should talk with Mr. Chip about it, feels way outta my liege”.
“Cut me some, okay?” a final sip, and his box is done, “and even if my designation isn't one I want anymore, what am I even supposed to do about that?”
Another heavy moment of those fierce eyes until he presents the answer like it is nothing, “why?”
“Why don't you just change it, I mean, even I know that sharing the same name can't be fun all the time”, Javi jumps from his leg struts, “and one of your dads always makes this face when they call you Junior”, Sides barks a laugh at the sudden icky face his friend is making.
“True, true, but what could I call myself now?”
“That’s what the game avatar name generators are for”
Later that day, while returning home as the darkness of the planet arrived, the first thing he feels is the welcoming EMF of his mentors and Bob that is soon run over by the clamorous amplification of Sol’s EMF until it finds his, he can almost hear it: “Late, late! Too late! Where you?” as his mentor comes with his little sister on servos.
“Coming late from time in the bridge, uh? everything good?”, his mentor is grinning, maybe expecting to hear something new and exciting in these peaceful days he seems as boring from time to time, so he grins back at him, more like himself, more timid, more controlled.
“I changed my designation! To Steercharger!” his voice is filled with happiness, because it feels right, it feels like him, “Do you like it, Dad?”
An energon cube broke in the kitchen, tires screeching like the start of a race, someone screamed, Sol cried, making you wake from a power nap, and soon running to the entrance of the house as you could, only to find both your spouses inspecting your first child like someone might have stabbed him, Bob came running to you, Sol in his mandibles while offering her to you before darting back to where they were all fussing over the youngling.
“Did someone do anything to you?!”, Sideswipe lashed out, servos trying to make sure his oldest’s helm was still attached to his frame, “Have they touched you?!”.
“Sides, leave him alone”, Sunstreaker was trying to be calm but he was frantic, with a horrified expression as he couldn't touch the youngling, he just couldn't, horrified.
“Okay, okay, stop, stop it!”, you came on, finally making them let go of your eldest, who took the opportunity and ran to hide at your back.
It was a pitiful attempt, but he was feeling way too crowded, “What was that?”
“He changed his designation!”, both cried out, engines running in outrage, and you understood, calling with your hand, making your eldest follow you until the door of his berthroom closed.
“Got it”, holding Sol over your hip, you could finally see the big optics of your eldest, “can you tell me what has gotten them like that from your perspective?”, he felt attacked, making himself little, “No, no, baby, I didn't mean it like that, I just want to understand before your dad breaks down the door”.
He could still hear them, he surely still felt the mess on their EMF, “I changed my designation”, he was sitting, less on guard, letting you closer to his faceplate, “It’s Steercharger now”.
Took a moment to let it sink in, it has been 7 years, almost eight since his existence, he was born out of Cybertron’s soil and raised in a human community, he wouldn't know deep-rooted cybertronian traditions and such unless he was taught like any other new spark flared and shaped, you arm is still holding your little daughter, and the free one takes hold of his side, “your dads are worried”.
“What for?!” he explodes a little, until he pushes his anger down, “I can change my name any time I want”.
Oh boy, “for cybertronians it isn't so easy, baby”.
You can almost picture it, both your husbands trying to give sense of the matter in a positive way.
“You know why Arcee named you Sideswipe?”
He has heard that old tale all his life, “because I looked like dad and acted like him”.
“Cybertronians are named after things that explain them and they hardly change their designations or never do it”, you ask for his servo and he gives it to you, “Sunstreaker is after the way he is, always so pretty but so detached, you know how he likes to look stunning when punching someone”, he does, in a way, because he has never seen any of them fight, not really, “and Sideswipe since he crashes hard, and fights just as hard with great force”, his digits hold onto your hands, hearing things he has know since the moment he came into your home as an iron apprentice, “Arcee called you like him because you crashed so hard against her when you were hardly a few hours old, you made her remember your dad when he was very hurt”.
The idea is terrible, as even you thought he wouldn't make it, crying at the feet of the CR chamber, like a part of you was being ripped open, as Arcee told you that she wanted you to meet someone, he was a few days old to that point and the similarity almost made you cry again, at first there was rejection, because your Sideswipe was in that medical chamber losing his life and here you were playing with a child that wasn't- “Sideswipe”, he said, with different voice, different way to walk, but it was all he could say as he saw you ugly cry as you held onto him.
“In Kaon, from where your dads are from”, he looked at you with great interest, those two hardly talked about it, saying they would wait until he was older, “one of the few things a mech had in there were a designation and their spark, and sometimes anyone could take the latter”.
“They aren't mad at you, they are worried about something bad or too deep happening to you because that's how it works for cybertronians”.
“I know, but you have to tell them too, slowly”.
Changes are part of human nature, you adapt and if not then you have to, it's earth's nature, the way of life of the planet you choose to raise your children.
It had been years since then and Steer is still growing, still waiting for his friend to come by home to go to school together, “Javi!”
Does it change how your spouses react? Mildly.
“I miss calling him Junior”.
You should make fun of him, make him remember the way he acted when he knew a protoform was running around calling himself with his name.
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