« Is it too late for me to come home? »
Wow, this moment has to hold the record for how fast a mood could be soured.
No, not soured, decimated.
He didn't check who it was before picking it up and giving a greeting, hearted laughter in his tone: « Jetfire here, who's speakin'? » Informal much? Sure, but it was fine with him.
It was a good day in a great week. Who knew one could come back from a meeting feeling like that? He'd parted ways with Hotshot just minutes prior, a pat given to the younger mech's back before leaving. The kid's alright, he'll do fine in this world, he thought. Together, they had a vision in mind, and they shared that vision in the minds of the other mecha in the gathering. There was hope in a future.
It felt good, it felt right.
For a moment, he'd almost forgotten what lava in his circuits felt like.
Then that voice.
Optimus.
Laughter retreated alongside his smile, frozen in his place just inside his office, the door sliding closed behind and barely missing clipping his wings.
Frozen, the cold crept into his plating, travelling up and gripping ahold every edge of his wings and fingertips. The face was numb, optics stared at nothing as the only sound in his processors was the static from the commline filling his burning audials.
« What? »
That's all he could say then, feeling... he wasn't feeling anything.
Then he did. Like a runaway train running him down then derailing. Crushing, burning. A wildfire. He was burning.
« What kind of question is that? » The voice raised up and leaped, demanding.
« You- I spent- you went- » A thousand and one words in conjunction with colorful phrases rushed their way out the exit door, but none made it out wholly. He wanted to say so much, feel so much, all at once.
Jetfire had gone silent again, an aggravated sigh escaping from flared plating before he spoke once again to his commander.
« Tell me where you are. Right now. »