#and a chance to frag- AH WHO SAID THAT

[steelthroat]

Undercover Optimus: *sucks at being a decepticon but is popular for this exact reason and is having a lot of fun*

Soundwave who can't read his mind and is very nervous about it: Lord Megatron, this mech is suspicious. I advise to-

Megatron glaring at Optimus'aft: I know it's that idiot, I just wanna see where he wants to go with this

[tfp-enthusiast]

Autobots w gn cybertonian reader where they go, "Ah shit, it's my ex." In the middle of the battlefield and on cue fucking Megatron appears

How do they know? They can sense the presence of that warlord for miles away from how much his vibe reeks of dark energon, tyranny, and a fucking mess in general

They weren't his lover for nothing. Despite being exes, reader still has that Megatron radar attached to themselves

Bot's X Bot!GN!Reader who is the ex of Megatron

[lmao, this made me laugh out loud while imagining it]

[Btw. I just threw (almost) everyone in one scenario and then this came out]

[For info, I saw the message that said that it should be scenarios a little later but I hope it still works out okay]

[And don't worry anon, I'm forgetful too]

×××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××

You where on a mission with Wheeljack, Bulkhead, Ultra Magnus and Smokescreen because you got an signal of a large energon source but expected there would be some Cons waiting there.

Those assumptions where, as expected, completely right and there where so many troops who transported the energon towards the entry of the cave so they could bring everything to the Nemesis when their groundbridge opened.

Normally Optimus doesn't take the chances with situations like this, an huge cave that has a lot of energon and vehicons that can result in a soldier getting heavy injured, but the last cycles where stressful and hard for everyone. You where running low on energon, like everyone, and somehow you managed to persuade the prime into sending some out to get at least some of the energon back to base.

It went pretty well, aside from a little bickering between Ultra Magnus and Wheeljack, and you and Smokescreen where told to get as much energon as possible while the others fought so you could leave as soon as possible.

But somehow the fight escalated and Smokescreen joined the fight while you still tried to save some energon cubes for everyone though after getting pulled back by Bulkhead you decided that it was not worth the risk and hoped that it would be enough for a little while.

Now all you had to do was beat the remaining vehicons and then you could get back to base so you could enjoy some energon without feeling bad about it thinking you stole rations from others.

You all expected that there would be coming backup for a mine of this size and prepared yourself that this could go on a little longer then usually but shortly after the third wave came you felt an unusual presence, not really a presence but it felt like something was coming towards your location, after a few nanokliks you recognized the feeling, it felt almost like an instinct to you, you prepared yourself mentally for what, or rather who, was coming.

You soon thought that it would be the best choice to tell the others about it but couldn't help but be afraid that they would find out that something was going on between the Megatron and you.

You realized that there weren't any troops incoming and knew now was the best moment to warn them. Though you couldn't stop the fear that nagged in the back of your processor.

'Frag it, I can regret it later'

"Guys, we should try and retreat, Megatron's coming!"

It seemed like only Wheeljack and Bulkhead heard you and you feared they didn't understand but seeing the way Bulkhead looked at you let you know they heard it.

"How are you so sure about that?"

You could nearly feel Megatron because of the dark energon and almost lost consciousness because the feeling felt so overwhelming which was wierd because you thought you would get used to it considering it was this way for centuries.

Soon enough you could see Megatron land, in a way that seemed a little like a show off to you, and you felt your spark stop when he looked at you in a way you knew from back where he wasn't a war criminal.

It seems like everything was too much for you because the last thing you remember was Megatron starting to talk with.. Ultra Magnus, you think? But then you collapsed to the ground. The damage you took, the fact that you where running on the absolute minimum of energon and being near Megatron was overwhelming and caused you to go into a more or less forced stasis.

×××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××

You woke up in the medbay of the base and saw that only Ratchet, Optimus and Wheeljack where there.

Almost immediately Ratchet's helm turned to you when you opened your optics and reached for your helm out of instinct.

"Optimus, they woke up.."

Unlike Ratchet Optimus' movements where slower and more calm, probably because he knew that once, at the start of the war, you where in a relationship with Megatron, but Wheeljack stayed where he was and just looked at you in a confused/maybe even angry way, chances where high he and Bulkhead told everyone that you knew Megatron was coming before he was in line of sight.

"You passed out because of overheating and because your injuries where too much for you while on that less energon."

Ratchet was acting like always, stern and caring in a way only he was able to, which made you think that maybe everything was forgotten in the heat of the moment back there.

But as soon as you heard Wheeljack walk towards you you knew that those thoughts where wrong.

To your luck you could see Smokescreen and Bulkhead join to hear what was going on.

"So uh.. Care to explain how you knew that bucket head was coming?"

Your processor was a warzone itself after hearing that question and you hoped for a moment that you would once again drift into unconsciousness but you got saved by Optimus speaking up for you.

You just gave him a nod after he asked you for permission to explain it instead of you doing it so Ratchet could look you over while Optimus told the reason of you knowing that Megatron was approaching.

"WAIT A MOMENT- you did it with Megatron?!"

You almost passed out once again at Smokescreen's response to your backstory with Megatron but thankfully Ratchet gave him a glare which made him mutter a small 'sorry'.

You knew and saw that the others had a relatively hard time understanding that but you and Optimus already knew that, they didn't know what Megatron was like before the war, they only knew him as the bot he's become.

"Are you going to pass out every time you get near him? Cause that would be pretty uncomfortable when we're together on a mission."

You vented out of relief after hearing that sentence from Wheeljack, you knew he would've acted entirely different if he didn't like what he heard, and considering that none of the others said anything you assumed that it was more or less accepted.

"Give them time. When they have some time to think about it then they will probably understand your situation."

Nodding you agreed with Optimus and when you looked towards Ratchet you saw him smile for a nanoklik before telling you that you are stable enough to go recharge in your berth.

'Thank Primus that I have such a nice team'

[nevis-the-skeleton]

What if TFP Starscream gets angry at Soundwave for ruining his ‘Let Airachnid have his Job’ Plan… What if Starscream yells this: “YOU COST ME MY FREEDOM FROM MEGATRON! Why did you do that?!… I could’ve still helped the Decepticons with finding Energon! I would’ve still been on your side!… Why did you tell Megatron the truth?” 💔

Ooh, I feel it's going to be sad :')… Thank you for your request lovely anon ^^!

~~~

Starscream was devastated… His only chance to escape Megatron had been simply destroyed, all because of his own stupidity… The Seeker hit his head several times, then yelled in rage and despair.

The jet clenched his fists, his wings tightening behind his back, as he felt the anger growing inside him, burning him from within. He wanted to return everything to his room, to externalize the mess in his Spark!

The flyer could feel those horrible feelings running through his circuitry, and the thoughts swirling in his mind kept screaming rabid questions…!

“Why is Megatron keeping me if he thinks I'm so lame?!", "Why would he want to have me as Second in Command?! He spends his time criticizing me!", "Why didn't Airachnid try to insist?!", "Why was I so stupid?!"

It was then that Starscream was hit with a question that only angered him even more: Why did Soundwave feel compelled to intervene?! Why didn't he keep his mouth shut?!

Seriously, why?! Usually he never speaks, he barely uses those cursed recordings, and there he decided to expatiate like a Senator! Why?! For once the Seeker wanted him to be quiet, that damned faceless robot felt compelled to speak!

The jet stood up from his charging table, and felt the searing anger coursing through his body to his processor. The flyer had a couple of things to say to Soundwave, and he didn't give a frag if it hurt! He had every intention of sharing his thoughts with this nosy who was incapable of minding his own business!

~

Soundwave heard a hard knock on his bedroom door, and had a brief moment of hesitation. He finally decided to open, and was suddenly pushed back!

He managed to quickly get back on his feet, before being pushed again, even more brutally! The Communications Commander grabbed Starscream's wrists to stop him shoving him, and the Seeker forced himself free, before pointing a claw full of aggressiveness at the spy plane.

“I didn't ask you anything! the jet suddenly cried out angrily. Couldn't you keep your big mouth shut?!"

Soundwave stood for a moment frozen, a little shocked by the daring of the flyer. Starscream pushed him again, while continuing to endlessly insult the Communications Commander, who was still having trouble understanding what made the Seeker so angry with him.

“Why did you stop Airachnid from getting my job?!"

Oh… That's why… The spy plane wanted to retaliate, but the jet never gave him time to do so, continuing to pour out all his hatred and frustration on Soundwave.

Finally, the Communication Commander decided to push the flyer in his turn, to the great surprise of the latter, who fell backwards. The spy plane leaned towards him, then replied:

“< Didn't > < want > < Airachnid > < as > < Commander > < ! >

- And I don't want to be Commander anymore!

- < Why > < ? >"

Soundwave already had a guess on the answer, but he wanted to hear Starscream's version.

"I don't want to be Commander anymore, that's all! the Seeker replied angrily, standing up.

- < Why > < ? > insisted the spy plane.

- Who cares why? It was my choice, not yours! You didn't have to interfere!"

The Communications Commander pointed at the jet, then said:

“< Important > < for > < the cause > < . >

- Ah really?! Well spread the word to Megatron, because he doesn't seem to agree with you!"

Here we are. Soundwave made a gesture of recognition, and instead of calming the flyer, it only pissed him off even more. That fragger knew it! He knew how bad Starscream felt, he knew Megatron treated him like scrap! And yet, Soundwave forced him to stay close to him, this...

"Slagger!"

The Communications Commander couldn't make any dodging maneuvers when the Seeker punched him directly in his visor! The spy plane knew the jet was impulsive, but he didn't think the flyer would go that far. He had miscalculated the probabilities.

Starscream forcefully grabbed Soundwave's shoulders, wings high in anger, and an enraged expression on his face. The Communications Commander realized that this was the first time he had seen the Seeker really angry, but not only that, there was also grief in that rage-ridden look.

"You cost me my freedom from Megatron! Why?! Why did you do that?! I could always have been useful to the Decepticons, and you know it! No longer being a Commander didn't prevent me from finding energon! No longer being a Commander didn't mean that I was abandoning the cause! I'm still on the side of the Decepticons!! Why did you tell him that…?! Why did you tell him the truth…?!"

The jet's grip became looser on Soundwave's shoulders, who was able to stand, rubbing his shoulders in pain. He could feel energon running down his arms, after the flyer stabbed him with his claws. He then faced the desperate optics of Starscream, who asked with sorrow:

"Why…?!"

The Communications Commander pointed at the jet again, and repeated:

“< Important > < for > < the cause > < . >"

The originally low Seeker's wings grew higher and higher, rising well above his shoulders. The sadness in his eyes was covered again by a curtain of rage, and he screamed:

“Stop telling me that!

- ……

- Leave me alone! Scrap!

- < Stay > < Commander > < in this case > < ! >

- Don't count on me! I fully intend to do everything possible to get rid of this accursed title! And you can't do anything to stop me!"

Starscream hurriedly left Soundwave's room, anger radiating from his being. The spy plane clenched his fists, before replying:

"We will see."

[seeker-of-the-stars]

If you are still taking requests... I require more TFP!Megs getting slightly possessive ao his special enemy and arguing with IDW!Megs... "This-is-my-Prime-go-get-your-own" kinda thing... Thank you in advance-

Sure thing! This kind of ended up being a sequel to this fic if you want to read it first (but if you don't, it's probably not necessary)

***

When Megatron's counterpart made the decision to disband the Decepticons and join forces with the Autobots, things around the base got pretty tense. The Autobots didn't trust the Decepticons, and likewise the (former) Decepticons didn't trust the Autobots. Arguments broke out frequently, and the few moments of peace were filled with awkward, uncomfortable silence.

Normally, Optimus would take on the "motivational leader" role and bring both groups together with talk about "friendship" "forgiveness" and "loving your fellow sentient beings." And if not Optimus, Megatron would scare off any potential bots from fighting by threatening to rip them limb from limb if they were caught.

In reality, however, both of them spent most of their time locked in their shared habsuite. Whenever the topic of the faction leaders' activities was brought up, the surrounding bots would shudder and quickly change the subject. It seemed to be the one thing both Autobot and Decepticon could agree on; to not acknowledge whatever was going on with those two.

Because of the fact that both leaders were... occupied, running the base fell onto Megatron's shoulders.

"Arcee, Starscream, break it up, right now! Or both of you are spending the night in the brig!"

"Tell her to stop!" Starscream cried, vents going wild from the altercation. "All I asked her was if she and Wheeljack were in a relationship, and then she attacked me!"

"That's not what you said! You asked what Cliffjumper would think about me fragging another bot right after he died, and then called me a piece of shareware!"

Starscream shrugged. "Well, if the pede fits."

Arcee lunged at the Seeker and put her hands around his throat. "You were the one who killed him, you glitch!"

"Both of you, calm down!" Megatron bellowed. "Soundwave, take them to the brig and keep them there until they learn to behave themselves."

Wordlessly, Soundwave nodded and grabbed both of their arms. Luckily, both bots had enough self preservation instincts to not put up a fight.

Megatron sighed, and looked down at his datapad. Inside were a list of incident reports, along with reports about energon rationing, job duties, and various other things. He was in charge again, whether he wanted to be or not, which meant that it was his job to break up the lover bots long enough to go over this all with them.

He walked down to their shared habsuite, and knocked on the door. inside he heard one of them mutter scrap followed by scrambling and rustling. He rolled his optics.

His counterpart opened the door, glaring at him. "What do you want? I'm quite busy."

"Megatron," admonished Optimus from outside his line of sight. "Don't be rude."

"I've just come by to go over reports. Your crew seems to be not taking the new living arrangements very well.

"Well, that's their problem," his counterpart looked back towards Optimus's direction and smirked. "I for one love the Autobot base. Much better view than the Nemesis, I can tell you that."

"Megatron," Optimus said, a hint of embarrassment coming through in his normally stoic voice.

Megatron fought the urge to gag. "That's all well and good, but someone needs to run this crew, and I need to get back to my own universe eventually..."

"He's right, Megatron. We're being irresponsible. Please come in, we can go over the reports together."

Megatron walked into the room, ignoring his counterpart who was shooting daggers at him with his optics.

"Orion," his counterpart whined in a way that did not sound unlike a young human child. "You promised we would try that thing, with your glossa-"

"Megatronus!" Optimus snapped. "That is not appropriate talk around guests! Now, if you're not going to cooperate, go downstairs and socialize with the crew while your counterpart and I go over reports.

He narrowed his optics. "Fine! If you'd rather spend time with him, be my guest! This would not be the first time you've chosen someone else over me, and I doubt it will be the last." The former Decepticon warlord stomped out of the room, leaving Megatron alone with Optimus.

"Don't mind him, he's sensitive." Optimus said. "Still, his behavior is unacceptable, and I'll be having a talk with him once he returns."

Megatron sighed, giving him a tired smile. "It's alright, Optimus, you don't have to explain. I know very well how frustrating I can be at times."

***

It was late at night, and for once the base was silent. Megatron and Optimus made great progress in their meeting, and agreed on a plan to increase energon output as well as boost morale. He walked towards his habsuite, a good kind of tired in his joints that came from a productive day.

"Ah!" he cried out as he tripped over something in the hallway and came crashing to the ground. When he checked to see what it was, he was more than a little surprised to see his counterpart sleeping on the ground outside of his and Optimus's habsuite.

"What are you doing here? You thought you could sneak in at night and steal my sparkmate?"

"What?" Megatron asked, confused. "No, I was trying to go to my own habsuite. Why are you sleeping out here?"

"Thanks to you, Orion kicked me out for the night," his counterpart narrowed his optics. "Don't think I don't know what game you're playing. Your act of wanting to talk about reports and all that nonsense might fool him, but I know better."

"It's not nonsense, it's essential to running the base," Megatron defended. "And either way, why would you not just sleep in a different habsuite if you and Optimus had a fight? We have several empty ones."

"And give him the satisfaction?" His counterpart let out a humorless laugh. "No, I'm staying right here. Either he can let me back in or he can deal with me right here, blocking his path and being a general nuisance."

Megatron rolled his optics, not for the first time today. "You're being incredibly petty, but I suppose I wouldn't expect anything less." He said. "You forget that I have my own Optimus in my own universe, if I wanted to date him so badly. You can be rest assured I have no interest in yours."

"If that's the case, then go back to him and leave us alone!" His counterpart said.

"Stop fragging your boyfriend for two seconds and help me find a way to get back home, and I might just do that!"

At this, his counterpart was silent. "I'll speak with Optimus tomorrow. Perhaps Ratchet or Shockwave might have a few ideas about how to go about making a machine capable of interdimensional travel."

Megatron softened. "Thank you, that's all I wanted since I got here. I shudder to think of the kind of shenanigans Rodimus has gotten up to in my absence." He turned to leave for a moment before he stopped himself.

"Megatron?"

His counterpart looked up in question.

"I hope you know how incredibly lucky you are to have gotten a second chance. Don't waste it."

As he walked back to his habsuite, he felt his counterpart's optics on his back, but heard nothing but silence.

[human-do-a-worm]

Ramblings of an Old Soldier Part 3/3

Sorry about the wait. The second dose of COVID vaccine drains you a lot more than the first dose. Anyways here’s part 3, part 1 and part 2 can be found here.

Admiral Sturm sat on the park bench as he always did. Sipping on his coffee and reading the latest news from his datapad. Once again, the Unkall boy approached him and sat beside him on the bench. He noticed that the aging Terran was wearing a strange uniform, with the image of a furred beast embroidered on the chest and upper right arm.

“Good afternoon Mr. Sturm.” “Ah, hello there son. Back for story time again?” “Yes sir. I was wondering what happened after the summit. Almost all traces of you vanished from records 8 cycles ago, and the only mentions of you after that were how the Terran Navy wanted you back.”

“Well, as I said the other day, I became a merc. My crew and I were the best. We took contracts from the Segmentum Norrus, all the way down to the Serectan Void. We didn’t work like most mercenary groups. We sought out our clients, and saw a lot of business. Everything from running escort duty on supply runs to desperate worlds, to taking down entire groups of bandits and pirates. Wherever we went, outlaws and tyrants alike feared the sight of The Wolf’s Den.”

“The Wolf’s Den? I think we heard about a group of people using that ship last cycle in our Galactic History class. Something about taking part in the Gingral war, only a few cycles ago.” “Ah yes, the Gingral war. Some of the bloodiest fighting I’ve ever seen. That was the last contract my crew and I took. We started off in a small role; mostly just escorting supply freighters to the border colonies since most of the supply lines had been cut and the colonists were starving. Our last supply run had been going well, until 6 light cruisers decloaked and opened fire. We did the best we could, but the supply freighter carrying food and civilians was destroyed in only a few minutes.”

“We could have escaped after that. Made a jump to the nearest Unkall station and gotten reinforcements, but My crew and I all knew what had to be done. We knew that the Gingral had to pay. They may have outnumbered us 6 to 1, and they may have had us outgunned, but they didn’t account for us having a mark 7 jump core. We warped around behind them and took down 2 of the light cruisers rather easily, but then we took a hit. The jump core cut out, and we were relying only on engine power.”

“But The Wolf’s Den must have survived somehow. The history logs said that it served through the entirety of the Gingral War.”

“That’s almost right. We knew that we wouldn’t be able to keep her together much longer, so we did what all Terrans do in situations like this. We became unpredictable. We gave all power to weapons and blasted the furthest ship from us, then mustered to the airlocks. We put on EVA gear and as soon as we were close enough to the next ship, we boarded.” “Wasn’t ship boarding added to the prohibited activities of War after the Terran war?” “It was, but targeting civilians has always been among the prohibited activities of War, so we were still committing a lesser infraction. We blasted open the port hangar with a plasma charge, and cleared the first room. Then we cleared the rest of the ship up to the bridge and took out the last remaining light cruiser. Changed the comms channels to the ones we had on The Wolf’s Den, then modified the IFF tag accordingly. When we arrived at the Unkall station we had just left, they demanded an explanation, so we told them what happened.” “And you weren't reprimanded?”

“Oh, we were. There was even a small tribunal held to determine if we could still fight. That’s when the call came in. Rakthis had been attacked, with only a handful of survivors. I immediately got up and started heading to my ship. The Unkall admiral demanded to know where I was going. After calmly telling him that there was now a full scale war, we had work to do. I went to the hangar and got the light cruiser repaired and ready for combat, but not before renaming it. The Wolf’s Den was never destroyed, it just became another ship.”

“What happened next?” the Unkall boy asked. “Weren’t the forces around Rakthis said to be uncounted?”

“They were, that’s why we didn’t go to Rakthis. We went to Waalon instead. Then to Rek’lon, and finally to Scrurros. Everywhere we went, we pushed back the Gingral horde. My first mate, Sarah Callingham, had family on the outer colonies back in the Vrumoid war. Saw most of them killed in front of her when their shuttle was shot down leaving atmosphere on Vrall VII. Scrurros was a tough nut to crack, and she had more crafty ideas than I did. We landed The Wolf’s Den on the uninhabited side of the planet, then bought a grav truck from one of the farmers. It was hard to weld the armor plates on it at the right angle, but mounting the lasguns and mortar was rather simple. I stood in the back, manning two of the lasguns and the mortar while she and two other soldiers were up front in the cab. We got almost to the planetary capital before we faced any resistance.”

“But the history logs said that Scrurros didn’t fall until the later end of the war.” “That’s right. We couldn’t take the planet as easily as we’d taken the others. When the first mortar hit the shield on the planetary governance center, we knew we were in for a fight. We got the truck away with only a few shots on the armor, but we were pursued by the planetary militia. One of the armored gun trucks fired their heavy las gun and took out the rear grav drive. With the back end of the truck along the ground, our speed tanked to a crawl. I was able to keep the militia back for a while by pinning them down with the lasguns, but then another shot hit us, dead center mass.”

“How bad was it? Were you alright?”

“I made it out with only a few scratches, scrapes, and bruises, but Sarah and the others up front weren't so lucky. The shot penetrated the cab and blew up at the steering linkage. Only Sarah, myself, and the one crewman in the back with me made it out of that. We ducked into a nearby building for cover, only to find that it was a school. Not wanting to put the civilians in danger, we lightly dressed Sarah’s wounds and went on into the forest surrounding the city. We came to a cave at the foot of a mountain, and made camp inside.” “Who was the other crewman that was with you? I notice that you haven’t said his name yet.”

“His name was Richard Grumman. He was the newest addition to The Wolfpack, joining us less than a cycle ago. We hadn’t had much time to get to know each other. The Militia found us in the first week, and he was shot to death on the night they raided the cave. Sarah and I managed to get away, but we were far from being safe. The next night we got a transmission from The Wolf’s Den; They had been found, and were wondering what to do. Sarah and I were at least four days away from the ship, so I made the call and told them to leave while they had the chance, to keep fighting and never forget about us.” “So you willingly stranded yourself and an injured crewmate on a hostile planet just to save your crewmates? The stories about the Terrans must be true.” “You’ll learn that those stories don’t even tell half the story if you stick on a Terran ship for even half a cycle. Anyways, there we were, just me and Sarah on Scrurros. I treated her wounds the best I could, but she wasn’t getting much better. Eventually she died, less than half a cycle into our time on that world. I retired with her body to the farmer who sold us the truck, and paid him to let me bury Sarah on his property. Much like with the freighter, the Gingral would pay. I took stock of what I had. Two lasguns, three fragmentation grenades, an energy grenade, and a plasma charge. Not nearly enough to take on the forces of the planet, but maybe enough to make it possible.”

“So what did you do? The Gingral don’t just let prisoners get away. Especially not in the middle of a war.” “Well, I couldn't just storm the Planetary Governance Center. That would accomplish nothing but my own death. Instead I went for something better. Three grids away from the Governance Center was the Defense Center. The plan was simple. Get inside, break as much stuff as I could, and hope that was enough to take down their defenses. It took me ten days to reach the capital again, and another three to figure out how to get inside. Turns out the Gringal didn’t make their roof as secure as they should have. I opened up the ventilation system and got inside. From there it was a short trip to the bunker exterior.”

“Aren’t Gingral bunkers some of the hardest to break open in the entire galaxy? How did you get inside?” “Simple; I didn’t break in; I snuck in. I kicked out the vent and got inside the bunker, then closed and locked the door behind me and smashed the controls. There were only technicians and a few soldiers inside, who were easy enough to dispatch. The harder part was accessing the communications room. Aside from the door of the bunker itself, the communications room was the most secure place in the facility. The door was half a meter thick, and barred at six points. That would prove to be a great challenge, so I left it for later. I quickly found the controls to the weapons system, and took it down. The planet was now mostly defenseless against ships in orbit and low atmosphere.”

“So you took down the guns, but how did you get in?”

“The door was too hard to get through, so I made my own instead. I went above the room and opened up the three fragmentation grenades. Terrna frag grenades use a pressure sensitive explosive to detonate, so I poured it out above the room, then placed the plasma charge on top of it. I ducked out of the room and waited for the explosion. When that charge went off, it was as if the whole planet shook. When I went in to check on the hole, the charge had only just broken through the floor. It took hours for me to get the hole wide enough for me to wriggle inside, but it was worth it. I contacted the Unkall fleet, and they were there within the week. The planet fell and I was pulled from the bunker before the food and water stores were even dented.”

“So that’s why taking Scrurros was so easy for the fleet. There wasn’t as much resistance as the planet originally had. And you were the one to take it down?”

“That’s right. After the war, I was broken. My knees were all but useless for fighting, and I could barely stand without swaying. The Unkall empire never forgot what my crew and I did. We were paid many times more than what was written in our contract, and they even got me a home right here on Unkall Prime. Now I sit here, enjoying retirement in my old age. Though the Terran lifespan is almost 50 cycles, we’re usually out of our working years after only 30 cycles. Our bodies are too old and weak to do most of the hard tasks that we normally would.”

“So what do you do now? Surely after a life like yours you want to do something just as exciting after you’re done working.”

“I mostly just read now. When you spend your life as a soldier, you miss out on so much. I never settled down and had kids, and my time for that is even drawing to a close. I did take up a few hobbies here and there, but nothing really stuck. I still work part time for the Unkall empire, training their soldiers in virtual reality simulations is about all I can do, but I’ve given the Unkall the strength to protect their planets, and given their generals and admirals the knowledge not to go on any missions they will regret. I’m happy with the contributions I’ve made in my life, and if I had the chance, I’d do it all over again. By the way, I never did catch your name.”

“My name is Ruthal Nerzak, and I’m slotted to be a soldier in the Unkall Defense Force.”

“Well Ruthal, I hope we will meet again someday.”

With that, Ruthal stopped recording and went home, finishing his final report.

A few days later, Ukall prime came under attack. A colonial independence group made numerous strikes around the city, and Ruthal had been caught outside on his way home from class. He tried to run away, but was chased by one of the insurgents down an alleyway, when suddenly two lasgun shots rang out. Ruthal though he was dead, but he slowly opened his four eyes and saw that the terrorist was dead on the ground in front of him. Looking up, he was me with a familiar face

“Thank you Mr. Sturm, I thought I was surely dead.”

“Don’t thank me yet, we’re seven grids away from the nearest shelter, and there’s enemies all around us. You said you wanted to be a soldier, well your training just started early.”

Sturm handed Ruthal the lasgun from the dead insurgent, and after showing him how to fire and teaching him how to make sure it doesn’t overheat, he led the Unkall boy out of the alley and down the street. Two blocks later, Sturm pulled the Unkall boy into an alley.

“Alright son, listen up. There’s about fifty armed and angry people between us and shelter. Our espace routes have been mostly cut off, so I need you to listen to me and listen well. When I tell you to run, you run as fast as you can. We should be able to get past most of them by taking the alleys across the street. I picked up some kit off one of these guys. The flashbang should buy us enough time to cross the street, but I’ll have to think of something after we get to our next crossing.”

Sturm threw the flashbang far into the crowd of terrorists, blinding a dozen of them and allowing them to cross the street. After seeing how many insurgents were at their crossing point, Sturm and Ruthal entered a tall residence building across from a big shootout between the insurgent and Unkall forces.

“Alright, we don’t stand a chance of crossing that. Here’s the plan. We’ll get up high, and then open fire on them. If nothing else, we’ll draw their attention away from the defense forces and allow them to break through.”

“I can’t. They’re people, just like us.” “Look around you kid. There’s men, women, and children all gunned down by these guys. I’m not sure what that makes them in Unkall society, but to us Terrans, they’re no longer people; they’re monsters. As a soldier, our job is to get rid of the monsters, so that everyone can sleep soundly at night knowing they’re safe. Taking a life isn’t something one does lightly, but it’s still something that has to be done. It’s better that we take them out, because if we don’t, who knows how many more people they’ll kill. We don’t do this because we like killing, we do this because we love the people we protect, and we’d give anything to keep them safe.”

“But I don’t want to hurt them.”

“I understand. I’m not sure if the Unkall have a saying like this, but Terrans sure do. You have a big heart. You want to keep people safe, not put them in the ground. But sometimes the best way to keep people safe is to put bad people in the ground. We’re between a rock and a hard place. If we sit here and do nothing, they will continue to hold this street, but if we can take them down, even just one or two of them, we can make them fight on two sides, which is the easiest way to break through an enemy line. I recognize a few of the soldiers I can see from up here. I trained them myself. They’ll realize what’s going on and they’ll do the heavy lifting; we just need to give them a helping hand. So, are you ready?”

The young Unkall nodded, then Sturm and Ruthal braced their lasguns on the windowsill, and opened fire on the street below. As Sturm said, the insurgents shifted their position, attempting to defend against incoming fire from two directions. As the Unkall defense forces broke the lines, a single shot came from the street and hit Sturm in the neck

Bleeding badly, Sturm stumbled back, Ruthall catching him in his arms. As he was losing his grasp on consciousness, Sturm held Ruthalls hand

“Never forget what happened here. Never forget the atrocities you saw with your own eyes, and never be afraid to rise up against the monsters who make things like this happen.”

With that, Sturm closed his eyes. Unkall security forces soon burst into the room, seeing the state of the old Terran, they gave him the best aid they could, and sent him off to the hospital, with Ruthall at his side.

After a lengthy surgery and two pints of blood, Sturm woke up in his hospital room, Ruthall asleep on his lap. Colonel Rengar, a soldier in the Unkall defense forces entered the room.

“So Admiral, I see your retirement is going well.”

“Can the crap Colonel. How many did we lose?”

“Casualties are still being counted, but even one is too many.”

“And what about the boy, Ruthall. Why is he still here?"

"His family were among those killed in the attack. We haven’t told him yet, just that we’re still looking for them.”

“So what will happen to him?”

“We don’t know. He doesn’t have any living family, and in our culture friend’s do not step in for situations like these. He will likely be left to become an adoptee for some family here, but after this, I’m not sure who would adopt him.”

“I will.”

“What? You can’t be serious. The looks he would get, especially here in the capital. I’m not sure if he can take it.”

“He knows my story. He knows that I take care of the ones I call family. He didn’t hesitate to pick up a rifle and follow me through the streets today, and he only barely hesitated to fight beside me. He’ll make a fine soldier, and he’ll make a damn good son. Get me the documents dammit.”

“Very well.”

Ruthall woke up, and was told about what happened. He didn’t take his family dying too well, but was glad that he would not be alone. The next day that school was in session, Admiral Sturm put on his old Terran uniform, and walked his son into class. It was not easy adjusting to caring for a young Unkall child, but it was a change that Sturm was happy to make. He had known what it was like to be alone, and now he could keep Ruthall from knowing that pain.

The End

Let me know if you guys want a follow up series about Sturm and Ruthall on Unkall Prime, and how they live their lives together.

[writeyouin]

Whirl X Reader – My Human - (COMMISSION)

Commission Request – IDW Whirl X Reader. A relationship that turns from Rocky to Love based off the Human Crewmate story. And some smut at the end please.

Word Count – 1884

A/N – Hey, @cyansadgirl​ I hope this is exactly what you’re looking for. Thank you so much for commissioning me. Happy holidays.

RATING – M

WARNINGS – NSFW/SMUT

You stood patiently outside Whirl’s hab-suite, playing a game on your communicator whilst ignoring the crashes and roars from inside. Ultra Magnus had just informed Whirl that you were to be his new roommate, and Whirl was not taking it well.

It had actually been Rung’s idea, and he had held a meeting with you, requesting that you be Whirl’s first room-mate aboard the Lost Light. You, as the only human, would benefit from the company, and Whirl in turn would hopefully learn to control his temper with someone so delicate living with him.

Nobody really knew if it was a good idea but you had agreed all the same and now all that was left to do was wait until Whirl had calmed down long enough for you to move in. Finally, Ultra Magnus stepped out, looking as grim as ever. He gave you a curt nod and left without another word, hoping that he wouldn’t have to come and correct Whirl’s behaviour again later.

Picking up your bag with the very few possessions you had, you headed into Whirl’s room, noticing that the area that you were supposed to inhabit had been thoroughly destroyed.

Whirl glared at you, “DON’T THINK YOU’RE STAYING HERE FLESH-BAG. ALL YOUR KIND ARE FRAGGERS.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way,” You sympathised. “I hope you’ll find that I’m not like that.”

You walked to your destroyed corner, fishing out a torn blanket and a pillow that had somehow survived.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING? GET OUT OR I’LL THROW YOU OUT. YOU THINK YOU CAN STAND UP TO WHIRL? I’M THE TOUGHEST BOT ON THIS FLYING SCRAP-HEAP. I’LL KILL YOU.”

“Yes, I have no doubt to your strength,” You replied calmly, trying to hide your fear at his words; Rung wouldn’t have suggested this if he thought you would get hurt. “But I was thinking maybe you could give me a chance?”

Whirl narrowed his optic, glaring as you pulled the destroyed furniture towards the door, never once asking for help. He considered throwing you out, but Ultra Magnus had already given you the lock-code, so there would be little point unless he barricaded the door.

“Hah, good luck recharging,” Whirl spat spitefully. “I wrecked that stupid bed of yours.”

“I’ll manage fine with what I’ve got.”

Whirl wondered why you were even bothering. It was already clear that he was going to make your life hell but there you were, stubborn as ever. Well then, he would make a delightful little game of it; if he was going to torture you, he might as well enjoy it.

Whirl glowered on his side of the room. He shouldn’t have to be stuck with you, it was all Ring’s fault for even suggesting you move in with him, and those two dumb captains who were clearly too weak to say no to the eyebrowed freak.

No matter how much Whirl destroyed your stuff or how many insults he threw at you, nothing would get rid of you. You always reacted the same way, with a comment on how you hoped things would change and with that loathsome sympathetic smile that made his spark flutter; HE DIDN’T WANT YOUR SYMPATHY, DAMN IT!

Well, he could outlast you no problem, and he would make sure that he was victorious. Whirl looked for every opportunity to break you mentally, knowing that it would be far too easy to damage you physically; he told himself that there would be no challenge in that and that it wouldn’t do him any good anyway. How could he gloat if you were dead?

It was on a day when you were high up on a custom-made window seat that Whirl finally went too far. He’d had an extremely bad day with some arrogant fragger in “Visage’s” and worst of all, he’d had his aft handed to him in front of everybody. It was rare that Whirl was beat in combat, but he had been a little too overcharged to fight off that other mech, and then he had to return to his hab-suite with a bruised ego. Sure enough, you were there, gazing out at the stars and distant planets with a drink in hand; why did you always have to be there?

“Get the frag outta here,” Whirl slurred angrily.

“Whirl,” You gazed at him with sad eyes, “Did something happen? You look ups-”

You gasped as Whirl punched your window seat. He’d only meant to shake you up, or make you trip over. He’d never intended to hurt you, yet as you fell, you instinctively pushed out your hands to protect yourself and instead, your hand crushed your glass. You cried out in pain, glass embedded in your hand.

“Oh frag!” Whirl exclaimed, “WHAT DO I DO?”

He wanted to grab you and rush to med-bay, but he was afraid of hurting you further, so he called First-Aid to come to him instead. Whirl waited outside while you received stitches on your hand. He felt sick, and the common feeling of self-loathing began to consume him, as it usually did when he had regrets. Why was he such a piece of scrap? You hadn’t done anything to hurt him, not that you could. You were actually the nicest person he’d ever met. Why did he always have to destroy everything good in his life? It wasn’t your fault that you were roommates, it was Reng’s and yet there you were, paying the price. Whirl sat down on the floor, pulled his legs into his arms, and waited for the inevitable moment where you would move out and leave him alone once again.

Much to Whirl’s surprise, you didn’t hate him for the pain he’d caused you. In fact, your first concern was to ask him if he was okay. Whirl scoffed and told you not to be so stupid, but he lacked his usual bite. All he wanted to do was make things right, and since you had evidently decided to stay, he supposed he would get that chance.

His optic lingered on your bandaged hand as he made a gruff apology, unable to meet your eyes. Once you accepted his apology, Whirl felt a weight lift off his chassis. He knew he wasn’t out of the woods yet, but he would do everything he could to make it up to you.

From that day on, Whirl made a constant effort to talk to you, even in public, though he acted much tougher when there were others around, only dropping his guard when you were alone. He answered your questions about his life, even when the truth hurt, and slowly but surely, he found himself lowering his defences.

Most of the time, Whirl found that he had come to enjoy your company. He taught you all he knew about making clocks, even though you were completely awful at it. Whirl was glad that he didn’t have a mouth you could see him smiling with; it was just too damn funny when you got your tiny hands stuck in the springs.

It was one night while you were asleep, and Whirl wide awake that he looked over at you, his spark racing. True, you were no Cybertronian but maybe that was a good thing. After all, look at the damage that Cybertronians had knowingly caused, not only against each-other, but towards other innocent planets too. You would never hurt anyone. You were far too kind to. You were sweet, patient, sympathetic, sensitive, and Whirl was in love with you.

His claw rested despondently against his helm. The simple fact of the matter was that Whirl wasn’t good enough for you. He had already hurt you once. What was to stop him from doing so again? Was it selfish to keep you in his life whilst harbouring such feelings? He didn’t believe so; however self-destructive it would be to him, it wouldn’t affect you, so long as he never told you how he felt.

So, Whirl suffered in silence, his spark aching for what he couldn’t have, until the fateful day that you confessed your own blossoming feelings to him.

Whirl couldn’t believe his audials. He stared at you in a stunned silence, struggling to find his voice.

“You… what?” He choked out.

“I love you,” You said calmly, saddened by the knowledge that he probably didn’t feel the same; interspecies love was usually one-sided.

“You- No. Uh-uh. That’s scrap,” he shook his head disbelievingly.

“I know… You don’t have to feel the same back. I just thought it was better to tell you, in case things changed between us. You… You don’t have to keep me as your roommate if you don’t want to. I’ll understand if-”

“NO! YOU DON’T GET IT. I’M WHIRL. I WAS A WRECKER. I WAS NEVER MADE TO BE IN A RELATIONSHIP. IF YOU’VE EVER THOUGHT OF ME THAT WAY, THEN YOU’RE EVEN MORE DYSFUNCTIONAL THAN I AM. WHAT THE FRAG IS WRONG WITH YOU THAT YOU WOULD EVEN CONSIDER A MONSTER LIKE ME?”

Whirl abruptly ended his rant at the sight of tears in your eyes; once again, without even trying to, he had hurt you.

“I’m sorry I upset you,” You apologised, leaving Whirl feeling worse than ever when he felt that it should have been him saying sorry.

“I LIKE YOU TOO,” Whirl exploded, lacking eloquence as usual. “I’m no good at this stuff but… we could try talking about this, I guess.”

You cried out Whirl’s name, panting heavily as he thrust into you, working off months of pent up sexual frustration.

For once, Whirl was eerily quiet, his processor overloaded by how tiny, soft, and different you were. He had planned to be gentle with you but seeing you naked beneath him with your cheeks flushed and your head lolling proved to be too much for him. Every time you called out his name, he was reminded just how lucky he was; he couldn’t remember ever being loved, and yet here you were proving that he was worth your affections.

His spike pushed between the wetness of your legs, repeatedly hitting your G-Spot, edging you ever closer to your climax. Your every nerve seemed to tingle, alight with passion. All too soon, you felt yourself clamping around Whirl’s spike.

“Oh God- God- It’s- AH~” You keened as Whirl continued through your climax, completely aroused by your orgasm.

After four more orgasms on your behalf, Whirl finally felt the onset of his own.

“(Y/N), THIS- IS FOR YOU!” He cried out through the static in his vocaliser.

His overload finally hit, filling you up with his transfluid that dripped down your soaked pussy.

Once the two of you had come down from your highs, Whirl swaddled you in a blanket, hooking his arm around you and clutching you into his side.

“This is nice,” You yawned, snuggling into his heat.

“Yeah,” Whirl agreed, having never felt something so intimate. “It really is.”

With that, you both fell into a peaceful silence, safe in each other’s embrace. As you drifted off to sleep, Whirl wondered if he was right to have hopes of a successful relationship. He knew he would talk to Cyclonus about it as soon as he could, but that was a problem for later.

Like my work? Buy me a coffee and earn preview of the next fic, or commission me on the commissions page.

[sparklingpax]

TFP Group Chat Stories - Autobots (#2)

The more popular request was for me to do another one of these, this time with the Autobots; here goes! I’ll be doing that rlly cool Decepticon idea sometime soon as well tho dw ;) Thanks y’all! ^^’’

So I’d like to note that after much talk, Optimus has at last dropped his habit of making an email out of every text, but still refuses to text casually 😹😹

Also also! The humans have their own groupchat (the kids) which I may or may not do a chat thing for as well ^w^’’ But this gc is for “all Autobots,” so the humans are a part of this one as well~ 

Except for Agent Fowler because he adamantly refused and was not swayed on that verdict. 

Ah, so with that aside, hopefully I can at least make you smile :’D 

Enjoy! <3

🔥✨���� *Tragic Hero Noises* 🚚✨🔥

Matrix-Bearer: Good afternoon, Autobots. I have been given lengthy instruction as to how this “group-chat” is supposed to function. You may thank the human children for our....suitable chat name. I have started this “group-chat” so we may better communicate as a team, coordinate plans, and altogether bond more deeply. I pray this marks the beginning of a new era in the midst of this bleak war, and that this shall bring a greater hope and chance for success against the Decepticons. Thank you, and please follow the rules posted on the fridge. Optimus out. 

DestinysBoi: 

_Wrench_Wrath_: SMOKESCREEN FOR THE LOVE OF PRIMUS

_Wrench_Wrath_: Thank you, Optimus, but a speech was not necessary. Just text normally, like we talked about ok? 

MikoMikoNii: 

DestinysBoi: @ MikoMikoNii you get me ;)

MikoMikoNii: BRO OFC ;)) 

DestinysBoi: *finger guns*

Its_Jack_: it’s bee two minutes and this chat is already cursed 

Its_Jack: @ Whizkid @ Cee_HowULikeMe_Now help me out please 

Bumbleowo: Hes studying for a test! Sorry if we mute you for now ^~^’’ 

_Wrench_Wrath_ : What material is he going over, Bumblebee? 

DestinysBoi: oop ok then 

MikoMikoNii: Later Bee!! Tell Raf I said good luck!! 

Bumbleowo: Will do! :)

Its_Jack: oh shoot my mom wants me for chores bye!

MikoMikoNii: later chump~

Its_Jack: and you wonder Why I never like being part of your groupchats 

MikoMikoNii: U_U

Cee_HowULikeMe_Now: wHO PINGED ME IM BUSY 

Cee_HowULikeMe_Now: OH NO JACK MY CAPS LOCK IS STUCK I’M NOT MAD SORRY

_Wrench_Wrath_ : Can someone answer my question??

Cee_HowULikeMe_Now: I’M SORRY I PROMISE I’M NOT MAD

BladesandGrenades: lol

MikoMikoNii: OOF 

DestinysBoi: Rip 😔👊🔥

Cee_HowULikeMe_Now: WHAT DOES THAT MEAN

DestinysBoi: only old people get their caps lock stuck 😂😂

MikoMikoNii: oo bulkhead should see this 🤣 @ Gentle-Giant get your metal hide over here!!! 

Cee_HowULikeMe_Now: OK NOW IM A LITTLE MAD 🤬🔥

DestinysBoi: 😳😳😳

BladesandGrenades: our definitions of “a little” seem to be at odds 

_Wrench_Wrath_: WHY ISNT ANYONE ANSWERING ME??!!1!

Cee_HowULikeMe_Now: Oh hey awesome I got my regular keyboard back! I’m still mad though 🙃

MikoMikoNii: think happy things arcee!! 😳

Cee_HowULikeMe_Now: No 🙃💙

Cee_HowULikeMe_Now: You have five minutes smokescreen 🙃🙃

DestinysBoi: wait why me??!

BladesandGrenades: Oh that reminds me; @ _Wrench_Wrath_ just an fyi, bulky broke his tablet again so hes gonna need a lil help

Shoulderpads: Wheeljack, all of you, it is not professional to use improper grammar and punctuation in any form of communication. Take that to your private chats please. 

BladesandGrenades: lol 

BladesandGrenades: how bout 

BladesandGrenades: shove it up your tailpipe ;)

_Wrench_Wrath_: HE DID WHAT

_Wrench_Wrath_: PRIMUS GIVE ME PATIENCE I BEG OF YOU

Matrix-Bearer: Ratchet, I understand you are upset. Could you perhaps calm down? You are scaring certain residents of this base. 

_Wrench_Wrath_: YOU KNOW WHAT. IM TOO OLD FOR THIS SCRAP.

<  _Wrench_Wrath_ has left the chat >

BladesandGrenades: Well then

MikoMikoNii: OOF WOAH

DestinysBoi: u think hes coming back??

MikoMikoNii: Nah 

BladesandGrenades: nope lol 

BladesandGrenades: and ig @ Shoulderpads decided to actually shove it up his tailpipe ;) mission accomplished

DestinysBoi: ...ahah o///o’‘

DestinysBoi: Wouldnt be too sure of that one Jackie..

BladesandGrenades: wh

MikoMikoNii: 🙊😳

BladesandGrenades: Whats going on what happening 

Matrix-Bearer: Good afternoon, all. This announcement pertains only to one of you. Wheeljack, please take a moment to head to Ultra Magnus’s quarters. He is requesting your assistance in the matter of....something involving his ship and something in its tailpipes. He informed me that the matter is urgent and requires immediate assistance. Thank you kindly. Signed, Optimus. 

MikoMikoNii: guess

MikoMikoNii: guess you’ll be the one shoving it 

BladesandGrenades: frag this mf 

BladesandGrenades: k boss I’ll be there in a sec 

DestinysBoi: lmao nice one Miko 😂😎🔥

Bumbleowo: Hey everyone! What’d we miss? 

Whizkid: Hello, Optimus! Thank you for the kind greeting! I hope this chat can be utilized for good as well! :) Thanks for letting me join!!

Matrix-Bearer: Hell, Rafael!  

Matrix-Bearer: I...I meant ‘hello.’ 

MikoMikoNii: HOLY SCRAP

Cee_HowULikeMe_Now: oh wow Optimus woah--

MikoMikoNii: I SJSDHD IM CRIGN 

DestinysBoi: Guys dont be so mean :( hes just expressing the reality of what this chat actually is :))

WhizKid: I--

Bumbleowo: lololol oh wow 😅😂

MikoMikoNii: 

Cee_HowULikeMe_Now: ok smokescreen I,,I actually have to agree with you on this one--

Cee_HowULikeMe_Now: Youre off the hook 

DestinysBoi: thank you, my queen 😭😭

Cee_HowULikeMe_Now: 🙂

Matrix-Bearer: Apologies for the sheer informalities in this message, however I must express my deepest regrets for even starting this chat. 

Matrix-Bearer: I’m beginning to think this was a mistake.

MikoMikoNii: YOU GOT THAT RIGHT 😎👊🔥

DestinysBoi: 

Matrix-Bearer: I...have never before felt such fear for my life...

Shoulderpads: What in the good name of Primus is wrong with you people?? What is that? Why is it so....unnerving? 

MikoMikoNii: 👌

///

And so that’s that! Sorry it took so long!! I was busy and it got stuck in my drafts for much longer than intended! But I hope there arent too many mistakes or anything, and I hope you could at least find it interesting, if not funny ^^’’ 

I enjoyed making this one too~

Lmk if you want me to do some more! Drop ideas! I’ll most likely be doing a Decepticon one next if I do another~ 

:) 

[elindae-writes]

I feel like Knockout also got a bad deal in redemption arcs except his was kinda like... badly written? Like he had so much potential for an emotive storyline and they kind of just rushed it and were like “yeah lol he’s good now” and he deserved better than that.

He really did. I always got the sense that deep down he’s a very angry mech and that his sassy attitude was just his exterior, yknow? Both him and Breakdown were handled so lazily. I really do think that the writer’s decision to “redeem” him was a very last minute decision that they only made due to Knock Out’s popularity with the fans.

His redemption arc wasn’t even really a redemption. He literally said that he “just wants to be on the winning team.” A redemption arc is when you join the other side because you’ve recognized that they’re genuinely heroic, it’s not when you jump ship and flounder over to theirs when you realize that theirs has a smaller chance of sinking.

“ah yes, we could plan his redemption arc ahead of time and give him an emotional storyline--or we could have him bonk Starscream over the head with a stick. stick bonks are good.”

And then it’s immediately followed up by that awful shot of Starscream cowering under Knock Out and Bumblebee’s shadows while in the brig and it’s just??? I really really do not like Knock Out at all and this is mainly the reason why.

Not only that but Breakdown was a former Autobot. Knock Out joined the faction his deceased husband left behind. Sure, we don’t know why Breakdown left the ‘Bots, but I suspect it was for a personal and painful reason. “Oh, these people hurt my now dead husband, but I’ll go on and join them anyway!”

if I were Bumblebee I wouldn’t have accepted Knock Out, especially after he’d said that he only helped me just because he wanted to be on the winning side. Stick bonks do not make up for war crimes. Thanks for the help, now go into the brig with Starscream, I’m sure you’ll both get along like peas in a pod, byeeeee

I think they did him a disservice by having him become an Autobot. No, really, imagine if they’d implied that he ran off and escaped at the end of the show the same way they implied Shockwave had. (I know that in the final scene we see him in he’s being buried under Predacons, but I think he could’ve survived that)

KO’s implied survival and escape could have been so much fun and he could’ve been used as an interesting villain later on in RID. This arrogant and overly-sarcastic bot who fled in the moment of defeat and who has come back after surviving in the bones of a dead world, angry as frag and more sarcastic and brutal than ever.

To be honest I really wanted the Autobots to lose in Predacons Rising. Yes, I hate Megatron, but at that point I was just so fed up with the ‘Bots.

(I also find it very funny how in the final climactic battle of the show where Megatron dies Starscream just keeps beating the scrap out of Arcee. His leader is dying and he’s just like no, I have a two-wheeler to smack around, motorcycles first and warlord deaths later)

[yes-i-write-fanfiction]

Swindle X Human Reader? Maybe Lockdown gets a bit jealous until he falls for Reader too?

Lockdown didn’t understand what Swindle saw in you. Honestly, a human? Now, Lockdown didn’t really have that big of a problem with this species of fleshbags, he couldn’t really care less to be honest, but conjuxing one? Had Swindle taken a cannonball to the helmet and lost his mind? Sure, he could understand being curious and all that but actually tying the knot? Humans were small, weak and short-lived. Getting attached to one was practically signing up for getting your spark broken and Lockdown didn’t want that to happen to Swindle.

As much as he loathed to admit it, Lockdown liked the sleazy bastard and didn’t particularly like the thought of some organic nobody swooping in like they owned the place and messed things up. Their relationship had been perfect before that fleshbag showed up but now Swindle just had to bring them along to every business transaction! If you just sat there quiet then Lockdown might not have felt as mad but of course you and Swindle just HAD to act all lovely dovely in front of him! Whenever you spoke it infuriated him. Lockdown had never actually talked to you but he could tell from your interactions with Swindle what kind of person you were. Naive, gullible and with an ever smaller brain than the rest of your species. Frag, you made Lugnut look like a damn genius in comparison! And Swindle loved it! Anyone could see that the merchant was head over heels in love with you! It made him feel sick to his tanks!

Tonight was not any different. Swindle had contacted him about a new weapon he had acquired and wondered if he’d like to come take a look. Of course Lockdown said yes, even if he wasn’t particularly interested in spending his hard earned shanix. Mostly he just went to see the greedy glitch himself.

The weapon itself was good and actually managed to pique Lockdown’s interest. Not to mention, the price wasn’t half bad. Still expensive but totally worth it. Usually, something like this would have him in high spirits but your presence on the counter had him forcing down a snarl in his throat. You looked so damn smug even though you hadn’t done anything but watch Swindle present the gun to him. You were wearing some expensive looking clothing, undoubtedly something Swindle had given you as a gift. He might be greedy but he liked having his stuff looking the best and this seemed to extend to his, ugh, conjux. Switching your attention from Swindle you happened to meet Lockdown’s optics. For a second you simply stared back at him but then the corners of your lips started to twitch and suddenly you were smiling at him, eyes dark and filled with what Lockdown could only assume was “look at me, getting the real goods while you have to resort to simply business”. Lockdown wanted to wipe that grin off your face with a blaster.

Swindle, who took his unusually quiet and brooding attitude for disinterest, started to try and sell and add other stuff that might interest the bounty hunter. When that garned no further reaction from the other mech he started to get nervous. That’s when you decided to chime in.

“Oh babe, didn’t you mention earlier that new stun-mod you just knew would make mister Lockdown so excited.” Immediately Swindle perked up, remembering that he did indeed say that, and hastily excused himself so he could go to the storage to get the mod. It would take couple of minutes to find it. This left you alone with Lockdown. You looked him up and down, eyes traveling over his body and your smile only grew bigger as you did. Lockdown wondered if he could break your neck before Swindle came back and blame it on you falling off the counter. He didn’t have much time to ponder this however as you started speaking again. “Wares not to your liking, honey?”

Lockdown finally let out that snarl he’d been holding in, baring his sharp denta. “Do not call me honey and the wares aren’t the problem.” He expected his aggression would frighten you as most people, cybertronians and human alike, found him to be quite frightening. But you didn’t so much as flinch under his heated glare. No, instead you seemed to grow bolder.

“I am happy to hear that’s the case” you responded, an easy-going smile revealing your white teeth. “You see, Swindle was so excited to do business with you and he prepared all this stuff to show you. He even practiced his sales pitch to me before you arrived! Oh you should have seen the smile on his face when you said you were interested in purchasing from him.” The tone of your voice turned dramatically melancholy at the end, as if you were disappointed. Lockdown narrowed him optics as he heard what you had to say. It... confused him, why you told him this. What was your goal? Before he could ask however, you continued to talk. This time, however, your smile was nowhere to be seen, instead you gazed upon him with cold eyes.

“I will be frank with you since you seem like the kind of mech to appreciate honesty. I know you’ve been wanting to turn me into a bloody smear on the floor ever since you met me. Now, I don’t need you to like me, fuck, I couldn’t care less that you hate me.” You sneered at him as if he was some shit that had gotten stuck to your shoes. “But your shitty attitude and bad acting skills are making Swindle feel bad and now I know from how you’ve been staring at him all lovestruck that you hate that as much as I do. So hate me as much as you fucking want but keep it to yourself and act natural or I’ll make sure this is the last business transaction you’ll ever have with him. Understood?”

Stunned, Lockdown didn’t have the chance to answer as Swindle appeared, business smile on his face and a mod in his hands. “Sorry for taking so long, I really need to upgrade my storage unit! Ah, but it seems the two of you had a conversation while I was gone. Did my dear conjux prove to be an entertaining conversationalist?”

For a fraction of a second Lockdown remained silent before slowly a big grin split his face open. “Oh yes Swindle, you can easily say that. In fact, we both came to an agreement while you were gone.” Lockdown looked upon you with new optics and you smiled back innocently. His spark felt oddly warm as he looked back at Swindle. “I’ll have the gun, it’s just what I need for my next hunt. Now about that mod, tell me about it.” Swindle lit up like a Christmas tree and immediately started to explain just how great this mod was and how Lockdown definitely needed it. The bounty hunter half listened, mind busy churning over this new revelation. Ah, it seems he made a mistake, thinking of you as prey. You were clearly a hunter, just like him. A feisty little thing. Well, he looked forward to learning more sides of you, definitely. Wasn’t Swindle a lucky one?

[anon-e-miss]

Primus Help the Outcasts

“Geni, can we ask  you somethin’?” Sideswipe tugged at Jazz’s servo as his progenitor stood up after folding away the last mat. There would be no more classes until after the Festival. The Twins had just finished hugging their favourite classmate goodbye before the two orn break.

“‘Course, Sides, what’s up?” Jazz brushed his servos against his thighs as he turned to see what they needed. They glanced at each other and looked back to him.

“Blue ‘n Smokey aren’t havin’ a Feast-cycle,” Sideswipe revealed. “Blue said since they’re Ori got fired they had to move into the shelter they don’t have credits enough for anythin’.”

“Oh bitlets,” Jazz crooned. “I didn’t know they’d lost their habsuite. It’s sweet o’ ya to think o’ yer friends.”

“Does that mean no?” Sunstreaker asked, glowering a little.

“No, Sunny, it don’t,” Jazz replied. “Lemme talk to yer grandcreators ‘n see if we can’t give yer friends a Feast-cycle.”

Smokey, or more formally, Smokescreen, helped Jazz with the younger classes as a means of paying for his own lessons. Though it was not Circuit-Su he was learning, but the cyber-violin. He had practised the martial art since he had been his little brother’s age and helping in the classes was helping him remember his lessons, though his training was not advancing. Jazz had offered him a spot in the advanced class and he had only shaken his helm. He nudged his creations from the Dojo he had inherited from Master Yoketron. Smokescreen had not said a thing about losing their habsuite.

Fragging Pit, if he had Jazz would have... he would have given them a place to stay. The options for shelters in Simfur were poor. Most were connected to the temples. Stories of abuse were common. Jazz had given fuel to a guttermech who had said he preferred to stay outside than to go to any of the shelters. That was only one mech’s opinion but Jazz did not think Bubblebee was a paranoid sort. In any case he had been a stellar employee thus far, and so far as Jazz knew there had been no problems at his habsuite. The minibot was a cheerful and good natured mech. Not the sort to pick fights or to find trouble, but he had found trouble in the shelters, or trouble had found him. Prowl had two mechlings to think of. The thought made Jazz shudder.

While the Twins were at school the next mega-cycle, Jazz went to the homeless shelter Sideswipe had said they were staying at. It had been founded by the Temple of Primus. Jazz looked up at the statues set above the door. This temple had a reputation for abuse, but it was one of the few that allowed procreators and sparklings to stay together. This must have been for Prowl a last ditch effort to keep his creations from being seized by SPS, a gamble meant to buy him enough time to find a new job, and a new home.

“Is Prowl around?” Jazz asked one of the residents who was sprawled on a couch, already over-charged the the joor was so early. Jazz would not judge. Everyone had their struggles.

“Prowl? The Praxian?” The mech asked.

“Yeah.”

“The Priest is uhh... helping him in  the kitchen,” the mech said with a mirthless chortle.

“Helpin’...” Jazz dimmed his optics behind his visor and scowled. “Ya think he wants his help?”

“Probably not.”

Yet this mech was just lounging on the couch, utterly unbothered. Jazz told himself not to judge, but in this moment, he judged. He stalked through the great room in search of the kitchen. There were no signs but there was the smell of fuel cooking, and Jazz followed them to their source. When he opened the door Jazz arrive just in time to see Prowl pushing a spindly mech away from himself. His broad doorwings were canted straight up in a pose Jazz knew to mean outrage. Smokescreen, typical of a youngling, used it often. The Priest was not deterred. He murmured that it was so important that Prowl get into a proper habsuite, before SPS got wind of the situation. Jazz snarled when he saw the Priest reach for Prowl’s aft as he assured the Praxian he could pull some strings. Prowl caught his servo with an effortless swipe and squeezed it hard, so hard the Priest made a high pitched whine and sank to the ground.

“I think y’re forgettin’ yer vows,” Jazz said as he crossed the threshold. “Pretty sure blackmail ‘n molestation are sins.”

“Jazz,” Prowl said, dipping his doorwings lightly.

“How ‘bout we take a walk?” Jazz suggested. Prowl released the Priest’s servo, and inclined his helm.

“Lead on.”

They stopped at an energon bar and Jazz ordered two cubes before Prowl could offer more than a weak protest. He looked slagged, still proud but in a brittle way. From Smokescreen, Jazz knew Prowl had been an enforcer in Praxus, and he knew they had been pulled from the ruins unharmed and then been reunited with Bluestreak... Bluestreak who had been made to watch the slaughter of Praxus by Vosian goons. The destruction had been total. There had been precious few survivors. Most had gone to Iacon, but for some reason Prowl had taken his creations to Simfur.

“How ya holdin’ up?” Jazz asked as they walked along the quiet path in  Jazz’s favourite park.

“Fine,” Prowl replied. It might even have been the truth. He sipped at the cube, savouring the pressed energon.

“The Twins told me ya lost yer habsuite, ‘n yer job,” Jazz explained his presence though Prowl had not bothered to ask. “I wanted to make sure ya were all a’ight.”

“We are managing.”

“Any chance ya feel like tellin’ me what happened? Ya were workin’ in private security?”

“I was working for a mech called Lockdown. He rented us a habsuite as part of my wages. When I refused his advances, I was fired, and evicted.”

“That fraggin’ sack o’ scrap,” Jazz hissed. “That’s just like Lockdown.”

“You are familiar with him?”

“We trained at the Dojo together.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah... Ya refused the Priest’s advances too.”

“Yes. I imagine I will be needing to move us to a different shelter before the mega-cycle is done. If SPS does not come by first.”

“Listen. I don’t wanna overstep, but I am, let’s be real. The habsuite ‘bove mine is empty. It’s yers if ya want it.”

“I appreciate the offer,” Prowl replied. “I do not have the credits to pay rent.”

“The landlord’s a good mech. He’ll give ya some time. He’ll just be happy a sweet pair o’ mechlings got a roof over their helms.”

“That is naive.”

“Nah.”

“Nah?”

“My procreators own the whole buildin’, Prowl. They got the shop on the bottom floor, ‘n the live above it. Me ‘n the Twins are ‘bove them, ‘n my brother used to be above me but he’s moved into the habsuite ‘bove the bar he’s fixin’ up so it’s empty. We were talkin’ ‘bout findin’ a tenant after the Feast o’ Mortilus.”

“A tenant pays rent.”

“‘N ya will, once yer back on yer peds.”

“Your procreators will not agree to this.”

“Sure they will.”

“No, Jazz, they will not. You have no idea who I am, do you?”

“No?”

“Perhaps you should look back at the coverage surrounding mine and Smokescreen’s rescue.”

“Why?”

“So you understand why your procreators will not want to rent to me, let alone offer charity, and why I am highly unlikely to find a job in Simfur, or Iacon or anywhere else on this planet unless I serve it on my back.”

[my-own-oracle]

Cultural Misunderstandings

Shore leave on the planet SN34 had been exciting. A planet-wide celebration was occurring, and in the city nearest the main spaceport, a festival was in full swing.

 You walked among the peddlers, swaying back and forth in time with the music drifting to your ears. You watched the native people dancing and laughing. You tried to mimic some of the dance catching the eyes of some of the dancers. A small tap on your shoulder snapped your attention to your side.

“Would you care for a dance?” A young female Nerae asked as she grabbed your hand and led you into the crowd. All the women danced on one side, and you were passed from one individual to another. While the males danced on the other side and only with each other.  As you danced and the music changed to spotted Rodimus and Ultra Magnus.

The music picked up again, “Rodimus!” you handed your current partner off, making your way to the edge of the dancers. The red mech looked over as you ran up, your hand grabbing his servo.

You were thankful at this moment for brainstorm and his experiments. His most recent one had the spectacular byproduct of enlarging you to only a few feet smaller than an average cybertronian, and almost just as tall as the Nerae. Effectively making your mission of dragging your captain out of the crowd to dance a lot easier then it would have been before.

Rodimus laughed as you pulled him towards the center. You didn't know any festival dances, so you took to repeating the dance from earlier throwing in some spins and hops to keep the energy alive. People began to stop and watch, the circle around the two of you growing smaller in radius but larger in spectators as the song progressed. Rodimus seemed to enjoy the attention, becoming bolder with his dancing and at some points taking the lead of guiding you through steps.

The music ended as Rodimus pulled you into his chassis. You were breathing hard, a smile plastered on your face. Hands fly around you both. In moments a red cape is fastened on your shoulders and a crown of exotic flowers perched on your head. Rodimus was still holding you close, the joy from the dance was being overtaken my embarrassment. Your heart sped up, Rodimus was keeping you so close. A flash of bravery told you to kiss him, but the thought fled as quickly as it came.

“You're as red as that cape” Rodimus chuckled. Primus, you loved his laugh.

The crowd began chanting, pulling you back to the reality around you.

“(Y/N) what's happening?” Rodimus pulled you closer you could feel the warmth radiating through your shirt. A strong arm was looped around your back to keep you with him.

“I don't know, The crowd seems excited and happy.” You squeeze his servo, though he probably doesn't notice. “But it's putting me on edge.”

The crowd begins to part as an older Nerae male came forward. He walks right up to the two of you. His red clothing set him apart from the rest of the crowd. With a simple raise of a hand silence fell.

“Young love is to be celebrated. We gather to celebrate the joining of these two lives” the older Nerae announced.  You and Rodimus looked at each other you could feel the heat on your face. The old gentleman's voice was echoing across the crowd. “May the gods bless them, and their lives be fruitful and plentiful by each other's side.” Rodimus fans kicked on blowing hot air onto you.

“Wait-”

“Were not-”

The two of you tried to interject, but nobody was listening.

The crowd cheered, music started up once more. People danced around the two of you careful not to step on your capes. And the market place became busy.

You were at a loss for words. How had this happened? What specific events before this moment led here? You looked up to Rodimus, you couldn't describe the look on his face, surprised, maybe also hurt.

“Please tell me that didn't just happen”  you tilted your head forward hiding in his chassis. “Rodimus, tell me I didn't just get married to my captain” the word married triggered his fans to a higher setting.

“I- we-” he was at a loss for words. “Let's go somewhere more private and cool off before we fix this.” You two scurried off, not knowing the three sets of optics watching your retreat.

The two of you hid on a small side street, you took note of Rodimus, he wore a black cape with what looked like stars embroidered in gold on it. It was actually a little similar to the earth custom of a black suit in a way. You looked him over. Other than being distressed he seemed fine.

How ironic. The mech you had a thing for accidentally becomes your husband. It was almost something out of a lousy rom-com, this Mech becoming your husband and-

No. He's not your husband. You basically had a shotgun wedding with an unwilling participant. That means none of this is real. You decide to focus on the captain part of Rodimus and not everything else. Captain first, FRIEND second.

“I just got married-”  The words slipped past your lips. “To my best friend.” Rodimus hadn't let go of your hand, in fact, it seems like he was holding it even tighter. Your mind began spinning a little. “They didn't even give you a chance to back out, the just married us. What if someone saw, your reputation would be,” your voice was switched on, every thought flowing out, “well it wouldn't be ruined, but it wouldn't help it-”

“Hey,” Rodimus interrupted your thoughts wrapping himself around you in a bear hug “I don't back down from anything.”

You chuckled “it's not a fight Rodimus, it was a wedding. You back out of those when you don't love the person your marrying, besides-”

“Who said I didn't want to marry you?” You felt your heart stop for a moment.

“Rodimus, you're the captain I'm basically a glorified stowaway. You don't want to marry me.” the words fall from your lips. They feel like fire, “Besides you have to love someone before you marry them.” You felt his metal lips gently brush your forehead.

“Let's take this slow then,” You could hear his spark beating in his Chassis. “I'll try and make you fall in love with me,-.”

“I'm already in love with you.” a murmur, more like a breath, slips out at a volume no human could hear. A cybertronian, on the other hand with their audio receptors, could pick it up it just fine. He chuckled again, kissing the crown of your head.

“Then we’ll keep this all between us until we're ready to be more open about it,” another kiss

 Landed on your head “Besides, what's the worst that could happen?”

“What happened out there!” Ultra Magnus voice sounded from behind you and caused you and Rodimus to freeze. You turned in Rodimus’ arms. There stood Ultra Magnus, Chromedome, and rewind. Frag and a half.

“Hi guys,” You smiled shyly, “We-ah..” Rewind ran over to you. Had he recorded the whole thing?

“If you were planning on marrying Rodimus, you should have told us.” Rewind grabbed your hands “We would have talked you out of it.” His teasing was light making you laugh. Rodimus squeeze you a little, but you could tell he was still happy.

“I hadn't planned on getting married today, but I promise you would have been the first to know about it. You looked over to Chromedome “Besides, some good came out of it...” Ultra Magnus stepped forward.

“We will have to discuss this more on the ship, I don't want any more cultural misunderstandings.”

“Good idea,” Rodimus released you, spinning you around to face him. “After you Sweetspark,” Another kiss to seal the deal brushes against your lips.

[mylifeisfruk4ever]

Primus created The Matrix of Leadership and gave it to Solus to guide Cybertron in his stead.

The god said, “You won't be alone in the darkest times, I will be your guide. Through you, I will speak, and you will be the only one to hear the voice of your God until my return. "

(From the Book of the Primes, Genesis of the Primes, chap.1)

"Ah, this was not expected."

Alpha Trion looked troubled as he stared at the screen in front of him. Not that Rodimus could usually tell much from his face, the old mech always had the same expression.

But he had the look of when he was unhappy, the one he usually reserved for Rodimus when he didn't want to study or read the Book of the Primes.

It was so boring! Rodimus wanted to see the world out of the Hall of Records, not read about mechs that had been deactivated for centuries.

He had tried to sneak away many times, but Alpha Trion had always found out. frustrating to be stopped every single time.

“It's not safe for you out there. It's not your time yet. ”

That was what Alpha Trion told him every time. Well, he didn't exactly say that, he gave him a long speech about responsibility, duty, and tantra other good things, but Rodimus didn't listen to him beyond the no, you can't go out.

But that was the gist. Rodimus was not ready to see the outside world.

And it was extremely unfair! Rodimus wasn't a sparkling anymore, and even though he wasn't quite an adult, he could make his own decisions!

“I have to take advantage now that he's distracted. This time he won't be able to stop me. "

Rodimus put the datapads on the table and was about to leave, when Alpha Trion stopped him," Where are you going? "

" Um ... well, you're busy, so ... "

“You thought you could hang around instead of studying,” the mech ended.

“Um… maybe…”

A sigh, “Rodimus, you have duties. You can't overlook them for frivolity. ”

“ I know, ”he said unhappily, ready to take one of the usual Alpha Trion lectures. He just needed a talk about responsibility to ease the day!

But surprisingly, Alpha Trion didn't. Instead, he said, “But I guess you're going to have to put the study aside for a while.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The Matrix of leadership has decided to ditch its current Prime, and it's disappeared. “

“ Disappeared? How is that possible? ”

How could a powerful artifact vanish into thin air? It was not possible. Someone must have stolen it or something.

The mech explained, “I assume it hid to preserve itself. It's unusual, but not impossible. ”

“ Why did the Matrix want to hide? Didn't it like the Prime? ”

He saw a grimace on the older mech's face,“ The Prime is dead. And ha had a terrible enemy who, if he could, would not hesitate to destroy the Matrix. "

Rodimus widened his eyes," Who is the fool who would do that? Frag, the Matrix is a gift from Primus! ”

“ Rodimus, language. ”

“ Well, it doesn't change the fact that it's crazy. “

“ You're right - Alpha Trion admitted - But it's not just madness, it's heresy. There are no limits to what Megatron would do for power."

" Who is Megatron? " Rodimus asked.

His gaze hardened, “Megatron is an enemy of the Prime, and also your enemy. He has manipulated many good mechs into believing in his ideas. And the consequences ... "

Alpha Trion did not continue. It was as if there was a malfunction in his voice server.

“Unfortunately, you will soon see the consequences of what Megatron did.”

Holy Primus. Had he heard right? Did that mean what Rodimus hoped?

"Do you want to let me out?" Rodimus asked, quivering with emotion.

Alpha Trion nodded, “You have to retrieve the Matrix. It is the reason you were created. You must ascend as the new Prime. ”

He knew It. Alpha Trion had told him this for hundreds of irons, ever since Rodimus was old enough to understand what it meant to be a Prime.

Well, to be honest, he wasn't eager to become Prime. Rodimus didn't want the power or rule Cybertron.

The problem was that Rodimus had no idea what he wanted to do.

I want to get out of here. This is my chance to do it.

He could have started with that. Then he'll see.

[limited-practice]

Unstable Structure

I was talking with @jet-teeth about this post https://jet-teeth.tumblr.com/post/190467330915/starstruckswordsmech-autobots-the-reason-why and the great art she drew of it, and I got such a clear image of Intense Sunder on the left poking out a block with his needle tipped finger, Horrified Hubcap on the right, and Fed up Ambulon in the middle, and just had to write something. It was a great excuse to think about my favorites and to write something silly and fun.

2757 words of Sunder, Ambulon and Hubcap playing Jenga are under the cut.

Ambulon looked balefully at the tower of rectangular wooden blocks on the table in front of him. “Remind me why we have to play this again?”

“Well,” Hubcap said slowly, “It’s because Swerve- you know, the owner of the bar we’re all in? The metallurgist that likes Earth a lot?”

“I’m well aware of who our alt-mode curious barkeep is.”

“Ha, yeah, right. So. This is one of his favourite games and- and I think it was his birthday the other day and he wanted us all to celebrate it with him, so he told us to get into teams so we could play it together? In teams and compete with one another? Or maybe it was the anniversary of his bar opening. Or was it because it was the beginning of the week and he liked the name of the day?”

Ambulon tipped his head back and stared at the stained ceiling.

>he desires the company of others because he is lonely.

Sunder lent forward over the table and looked intently at the stack of blocks he’d finished building.

>there is a gaping chasm of nothingness circling his spark, and he’s sacred that it will pull him into its black depths and drown him by soft degrees. But he should not fear the darkness. He should learn to embrace it. He should learn how to hold it close and kiss it with the softness it deserves. 

Ambulon swiveled his eyes to his teammate on his right. 

Sunder’s hollow eye sockets bored into Ambulon’s face. 

>you are never lonely in the dark. 

Ambulon swiveled his eyes to his teammate on his left. 

“Remind me why I got stuck on this table again?”

“That’s…” Hubcap bristled. “I don’t think you’re one to talk. Much.” 

Ambulon raised his head and sat up straight. “And what’s that supposed to mean?” 

“Out of everyone on this table you’re, well, the only Decepticon. Ex-Decepticon. Teamwork isn’t exactly your, uh, strength.” 

Ambulon lent forward and pointed a sharp finger at Hubcap’s Autobot badge. “Out of everyone on this table, I’m the only one who hasn’t murdered someone I worked with.” 

“That’s-…true. So. Well. Right.” Hubcap grimaced. “Sorry. Um. Didn’t mean to cause offence there, and-” 

“Yes you did.”

 >yes you did. 

“Look, can we just play? Please? I-…the two of you are looking at me and…and you haven’t even gone yet Sunder. You need to take your turn first because you built the tower.” 

>the first to make their move is ahead of those who allow the insidious vines of doubt and decay to wrap their oily lengths around them and s q u e e z e out the light that never had a chance to breed.

“So…you’re thinking about it?” 

Streams of dark air vented out of Sunder’s facial pipes and hung heavily around him, like a halo of corrupted smoke. 

>I am not like the others. 

Hubcap and Ambulon exchanged a look. 

>I was born to build by taking away. 

“Alright,” Ambulon said, in the weary tone of voice he used with a patient who thought they knew better but didn’t. “Let’s get this show on the road. If I lose to First Aid’s table then I’ve got deep cleaning duty for a month and I do not, I repeat do not, want that. So take a block away Sunder and let’s get going. Let’s get building. Let’s get winning!” 

Ambulon looked at Hubcap. “See, I can be a team player. I am a team player.” 

Hubcap’s eyes fixated on the peeling paint on Ambulon’s thumbs up. “…uh-huh. 

“I was part of a combiner you know. I’m the very definition of a team player, so don’t accuse me of not being one again.” 

“I won’t.” 

“I know what it’s like to not be supported or appreciated, and I won’t do that to others. I won’t do it to you, my teammates, who I trust and respect and- SUNDER YOU SLAGGING MORON WHAT THE FRAG DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON’T DO THAT YOU’LL- OH SHIT YOU JUST DID IT, YOU JUST DID IT.” 

Ambulon covered his eyes and Hubcap looked at the Jenga stack in horror.

One of Sunder’s needle tipped fingers was pushing a block at the very bottom.

“Why?” Hubcap whispered. 

>it is burdened by the sins of those crushing it from above. I am here to relieve its suffering. 

Ambulon dragged his fingers down his face. “We’ve lost. That’s it, we’ve lost. I’ve now got deep cleaning duty for a month thanks to you, you idiot.” 

Sunder tilted his head and looked at Ambulon in a way that lowered the room’s temperature by ten degrees. 

Several bots dotted around the room shivered and looked around in confusion. 

Ambulon glared right back at Sunder. “Don’t think you can intimidate me you self-important smoke stack, because you can’t. I was a Decepticon medic don’t forget. A Decepticon. Medic. I’ve seen things that would make your eyes jump back into your sockets and fall out again. In fact they’d melt out of your face. They’d run down your front and stain your plating and seep into your vents and cause a build-up of optical rust that would require seven separate surgeries to fix. And I know all of this because it happened to a senior ‘Con who’s name I won’t mention, and because I assisted with surgeries two, three and four and took charge of number six.” 

>the blocks are screaming. 

Ambulon shook his head and Hubcap twisted his fingers together. 

“I’m going to scream,” Ambulon said. “I’m going to scream out loud.” 

“I’m going to scream silently,” Hubcap said. “Very silently and very loudly inside my head. If that makes sense. Ha. I don’t want to make too much of a scene.” 

Ambulon gave him a curious sort of look. “Yeah you can do that, can’t you? Make things happen just by thinking about them?” 

“Well it’s not- ha, it’s not that straightforward. I mean it’s easy for me to block or boost a signal because it’s part of who I am and comes as easily as breathing. Not that we breathe anyway, since we don’t have lungs and aren’t exposed to an oxygen rich atmosphere a lot of the time, and I just mean that as an Outlier I can do the things that…yeah.” 

Ambulon tapped a world weary finger on top of the table. “As eloquent as ever, thank you.” 

Hubcap’s blue eyes darkened. “What’s your problem?” 

“What’s my problem? You want to know what my problem is? My problem is you and him and being on the losing team for this stupid game I didn’t want to play in the first place.” 

“That’s more than one problem.” 

“Have you always been the most popular bot in the room, or is this a recent development?” 

>quiet. Both of you. I can’t hear the blocks. 

“Because they’re talking to you?” Ambulon asked flatly. “Because they’re whispering sweet words of longing into your ear and begging for your tender touch?” 

>you can hear them too? 

“For the love of-” 

“You could, ah, move that block back?” Hubcap suggested. “And choose another one?” 

>no. 

“Right. No. Of course not. But.” 

>there is no space for doubt or time to dwell on it. It is a deceitful trick, and we must ignore it. We are moving forward, and cannot look back. 

Sunder pushed the block a tiny bit more. The entire structure wobbled. 

“You can’t look at it anyway,” Ambulon said, sitting back in his chair and folding his arms across his chest. “since you don’t have any eyes.” 

Sunder made a noise that could dissolve metal and evaporate acid. 

“Hey,” Ambulon said, looking sharply at Hubcap, who involuntarily flinched. “You could use you mind moving powers! Push that block back into place where it belongs, and allow needle-fingers here to rethink one of his life choices and to do the right thing.  

“Woah! That, urr, might be…” Hubcap glanced around nervously and lowered his voice to a hissing whisper. “Against the rules. It might be cheating. You want me to cheat?”

“Show me where it says so in the rules.” 

“I, ha, judging by the tone of your voice already know you know it’s not in the rule book, but- but we shouldn’t do it. I won’t do it. It’s wrong.” 

“It’s wrong of me to suffer deep cleaning duty because of the two of you.” 

“How is this my fault?” As always when he got pissed off and geared himself up to deliver a speech, Hubcap’s voice thickened and steadied and all his self-doubt and stuttering vanished. “I didn’t build the structure and didn’t make the first move, Sunder did. I didn’t even get the chance to build the structure and, depending on your outlook, therefore be awarded or burdened with the first move. I’m not at fault here! I’m innocent! I’m just trying my best to do the right thing and get into the spirit of the evening and I keep getting dragged down by your miserable attitude and I won’t, I won’t, be sent to prison again for committing the crime of cheating! It’s fair enough I got a long sentence because I was a traitor and a killer and was one push of a button away from re-starting the war, but I won’t go back to that modified solitary containment cell with no windows and bad smells just because you don’t want to do some cleaning in what sounds like a filthy medical facility!” 

Sunder trapped his tongue between his teeth in concentration and pushed the bottom block out further. 

“Are you done?” Ambulon asked Hubcap flatly. “Have you got all that out of your system now? Or are you going to work yourself up even more and have a spark attack and short circuit all the electrics and turn off the ship’s anti-gravity pumps?” 

“No,” Hubcap sulked. 

Ambulon’s face lightened. “Because if you did, then we wouldn’t have to play anymore! Every structure would get knocked over in the dark or come apart and fly away!” 

“You do…know that’s still cheating, don’t you? Or do I need to edit my speech and deliver it again?” 

>the cold shadow is almost lifted and our friend is nearly free.

Sunder poked his chosen block again, and the entire tower shifted. 

Ambulon sighed. 

“And it doesn’t work like that,” Hubcap continued, not quite ready and not quite willing to wind himself back down. “I can’t manipulate an electromagnetic signal unless I’ve been in contact with it first. And I haven’t had cause to study and absorb the ship’s gravitational system, so. No.” 

“What about the lights?” 

“What about them?” 

“Could you turn them off?” 

“I…yes. That would be an easy block. But I’m not going to.” 

“You could say it was an accident,” Ambulon pressed him. By now First Aid had seen the state of Ambulon’s table and was pointing and laughing at him. “You’ve blocked things by accident before, right?” 

“I…yeah. Yeah I have.” 

“Like what?”

>like what?

 Hubcap blinked at the sudden interest from both of them.

 “Uh, well, this one time I…accidentally blocked the signal to an energon refueling system and, um, racked up a six figure repair bill for it.”

“Why?”

>how?

 “Ha, that- well I was, um, in my room one morning and…having a good time and…finished, and…”

 “Please stop.”

>who were you with?

“Both of you can just stop.” 

“Uh, just myself. Yeah. It was intense.” 

Sunder leaned forward in interest. 

>what exactly were you doing?

“I’m not going to say this again.” Ambulon said, raising his voice. “I’m not! And I don’t want to. So for one last time just Stop. Both of you. Let’s veer away from this unpleasant diversion and focus on this stupid game instead.”

“Oh,” Hubcap said, his eyes narrowing in his flushed face, “I see. You’re only interested in this stupid game when it suits you, and when you want me to shut up. That’s rude. And unprofessional. I have nothing to be ashamed about!”

“Except you clearly are.”

“Yes, well, that’s my choice. Sort of. The point is that you shouldn’t make someone uncomfortable for something that happens naturally to their body. I thought you were a medic? And that you’ve seen things no mortal bot should ever have to see?” 

“Seeing is far better than imagining, believe me,” Ambulon said. “And just because I can cope with something doesn’t mean I want to expose myself to it.”

>talking of exposing…

The tower trembled and tilted as Sunder continued to push the center bottom block out.

>look. It’s nearly free.

“And we’ve nearly lost.” 

“Yeah,” Hubcap agreed miserably. 

Ambulon and Hubcap watched in shared fatalism as Sunder pushed the block further and further out, and the tower tilted and trembled more and more and more. But didn’t fall. It didn’t collapse. The block was sliding out and against all odds the structure was holding. 

They both lifted themselves up from their seats and braced themselves on the table with flat splayed hands, and watched the miracle unfold in front of them with wide eyes and open mouths. 

They were going to win. 

Despite everything, they were going to win. Sunder was going to do the impossible and build the magnificent and not lose and they’d all be hailed as heroes and- 

SMASH!

The tower collapsed instantly.

Sunder plucked out his chosen block from the pile of rubble.  

>you’re free now. 

Ambulon and Hubcap slumped back into their seats. 

“That was terrible,” Ambulon muttered. 

“It was a very poor choice,” Hubcap agreed. 

First Aid made a loud noise, and once he got Ambulon’s attention, he made mopping and sweeping and cleaning and vomiting gestures. Pharma laughed out loud and Ratchet rolled his eyes. 

Ambulon glanced down at the table. 

“I, err,” Hubcap began. “Sorry you have to do that. Go back to them. I know what it’s like to do something you don’t want to do in front of people you don’t want to be watching.” 

“Whatever. It’s fine.” 

“I’ll help you.” 

Ambulon looked up and narrowed his golden eyes, which were now burning brighter. “You don’t have to do that. I’ve already lost one bet, and I don’t want to be in debt to another person.” 

“It’s unconditional. I just…want to. For a teammate. For you.” 

A flurry of emotions blew across Ambulon’s face. “OK.” He looked down and away and back up. “Thank you.” 

Hubcap nodded. “And if…something gets blocked, like the codes to Pharma’s favourite food and drink orders out of every single dispenser machine there is, then, well, accidents do happen.” 

Ambulon smiled, and the flurry settled warmly. “Many accidents happen on this ship. It’s a chaotic place at times.” 

Hubcap nodded again. “So do we…start work now?” 

“Hell no.” Ambulon stood up and pushed his chair back. “We drink now. We’re the first team out of this contest, which means we get the pick of seats and don’t have to wait to be served. Let’s get that table over there and start a tab.” 

Hubcap stood up as well, and neatly pushed his chair back under the table. 

Sunder looked up at them, and a shadow crawled across his sunken face.

>you are both going. You are both leaving me in the debris of my unexpected failure. 

Ambulon tutted. “Stop sulking. We’re going to the table and you’re going to the bar to start the tab. You’re buying all of our drinks tonight.” 

Sunder stood up and smiled a smile that could carve through planets.

>what do you enjoy consuming, my medic friend? 

“The tears of my enemies.” 

>me too. 

“I thought you were more into memories and the reeking remnants of brain modules?” 

>I enjoy variety every now and again.

“Fair play to you. Come on team, let’s retire and drink and pass amusing judgement on others who think they know better.” 

>agreed. 

“Hell yes. I mean heck yes. I mean-” 

“And you’re buying the drinks the next time we play a group game and lose within seconds.” 

“Agreed,” Hubcap said immediately. “But…” 

“But that implies we’re going to lose again?” Ambulon supplied. 

“But that…implies you want us both as your teammates again.” 

Sunder took Ambulon’s hand, opened it, put the chosen block in his palm, and carefully wrapped his fingers around it to form a fist. 

>a momentum of our first time together. 

Ambulon glanced down at his fist. The small wooden block felt warm within in. “Thanks. I think.” 

>you are welcome. 

“Yeah. Yeah I guess I am.”

[starjack]

Thank you, @pixeledpurple for finally giving this starjack writing request blog a starjack writing request. It’s not totally exact, but I hope you still enjoy it. 

Quarantined 

Wheeljack was working in the lab, his head hunched over a circuit board. Wisps of smoke curled up from the tip of the soldering iron. He sniffled against the smoke and rolled his shoulders to banish the ache. After a couple more connections he sat up and stretched, pulling his arms above his head until his shoulders cracked. 

“Oof,” he sighed. He checked his chrono and kept at it. 

The door to the lab slid open. The grating voice that followed was unmistakable. “Wheeljack, do you have a moment?”

Wheeljack didn’t look away from his work. “Give me a sec.” He burned another wire into place then sat up. “Whataya need?”

Starscream sauntered around the work bench and made himself at home atop it, crossing one leg over the other so his foot nearly brushed Wheeljack’s shoulder. “I want you to decide where we’re going on our date. You never gave me an answer.”

Wheeljack’s fins blinked. He clicked off the soldering iron and put it down. “Our date?”

“Yes, last week. You asked me on a date, and I haven't heard anything since, so I thought I’d take the initiative.”  

Wheeljack’s face began to warm, he swallowed the lump in his throat and held his hands tightly together. “Must’a been some mistake. I don’t remember asking you to go on a date.”

“Yes, you did, after you gave me the report,” Starscream pointed in the air from one event to the other. “You were about to walk out and then you stopped and haphazardly asked me if I wanted to go out sometime, and I said yes, and you haven’t spoken to me since.”

“You said yes?”

Starscream furrowed his brow and sneered. “Yes,” he snapped. He hopped off the table and turned to walk away. “But if it was just some stupid prank-”

Wheeljack sprung out of his seat. “No no-” he reached forward and brushed Starscream’s shoulder, but quickly drew back. Once the steely red eyes landed on him, Wheeljack felt a weight hit his chest. “Uh, no. It wasn’t a prank.”

“Then how come you haven’t been answering my comms?”

“Just been workin’, that’s all.”

Starscream stared past his nose, his lips pulled into a loose purse. “Alright,” he said, narrowing his eyes. “So where are we going?” He asked slowly.

“Going,” Wheeljack clapped his hands together. “Uh-” he shrugged, smiling behind the mask. “We can go wherever you want.”

Starscream cocked a brow. “Wherever I want?”

“Yup."

“Are you sure about that?”

Wheeljack opened his mouth, but no words came out. Instead he nodded. “Yup.” He croaked. “Anywhere.”

“Hm,” Starscream flashed his smirk. “Okay. I’m sure I’ll think of something.”

“I bet you will.” 

“When?”

“What?”

“When is the date.” 

“When?”

Starscream rolled his eyes. “Do you need a reboot. Yes, when, give me a day and time. I do have a life.”

“Uhh-” Wheeljack glanced at the work on his table. “Uhhhhh-” he looked back at Starscream. “Tomorrow?”

“Is that a question?”

“Yes?”

Starscream shook his head. “Sure,” he flicked a hand. “Tomorrow.” He turned on a heel and made to leave. 

Wheeljack’s fingers fiddled at his sides. “H-hey,” he called. 

Starscream stopped but didn’t turn around. 

Wheeljack took a deep vent. “How about tonight?” He proposed. 

Starscream turned halfway around. “You’re busy.”

“I don’t gotta be.” Wheeljack flapped his hand at the workbench. “That can wait.”

Starscream hummed. “No,” he checked his talons. “I’d rather our romantic evening not be a rush job. I’ll just see you tomorrow.” 

As soon as Starscream took a step, the door slid shut in his face. A red light began to dance through the room. “What?” He muttered to himself, still staring at the closed door he hadn’t touched. He whipped around. “Wheeljack!”

Wheeljack put both of his hands up. “Not me.”

“Primus help me,” Starscream snarled, hoping on his comm. He opened a channel to anyone working in the basement. “Someone tell me what the frag is going on,” he demanded. 

An unfamiliar voice came over the comm. “There’s been a rust leak, the entire floor is being quarantined.”

“A what!” Starscream screeched. 

“Rust,” Wheeljack piped up. “We keep less potent samples of Cosmic rust in the biolab to study.”

Starscream turned off his comm. “Oh that’s just peachy,” he grumbled. “How long are we stuck down here?”

Wheeljack shrugged. “Dunno. Could be minutes, could be hours.”

“Great. Just great,” Starscream kicked the door. He growled, his wings going to full height. His hand shot out and pointed to the red flashing light. “How long does that stay on?”

“Till the lockdown is over.”

“Good to know.” 

Starscream marched to one of the work benches. He found a large wrench in one of the drawers, hauled it over to the wall and smashed the red flashing light to pieces. 

“Okay, now that that’s taken care of,” he turned around and tossed the wrench aside. “Got a deck of cards or something?”

Starscream beat Wheeljack at six games of War and three games of Spit, when asked to play blackjack, Wheeljack wholeheartedly refused, citing Starscream’s history of cheating and sneaking. 

“Oh, Wheeljack,” Starscream purred, cleaning up their last game. “I would never. Now is the perfect time to establish a basis of trust,” he snorted a brief laugh but quickly collected himself. “Since we’re potentially entering a relationship. I'd hate to go into that thinking you can’t trust me.”

“You cheated at War.”

“Is putting my aces at the bottom and drawing from the bottom really cheating?” 

“Yes.”

“I disagree. But anyways,” Starscream smiled. “As much as I hate everything about this, at least now you have the time to think about where you’re taking me.”

“When?”

Starscream smile dropped. “On our date.”

“Oh, right,” Wheeljack nodded wide. “That.”

Starscream reshuffled the cards in his hands. “I think you should pick.”

“Why?”

Starscream shrugged, staring at the cards. “Well, you asked me. You should be the one who plans it.”

“But you're a participant, so you should participate.”

“I want to be treated, Wheeljack. I don’t want to have to do anything.”

“Is that why you said yes?” Wheeljack tried to swallow the dryness in his mouth. “Thought you were gonna get a nice dinner outta me?” He spoke a little louder. “Not to start a fight, but if that’s all you wanted then I don’t think I wanna do it.”

Starscream furrowed his brow, placing the cards down on the table but keeping his hand on top of the deck. “No.” There was no bite to his words. “I said yes because I wanted to go on a date with you.”

Wheeljack’s shoulders relaxed. “Oh.”

“You thought I didn’t.”

“Well, I mean. I mean you’re,” Wheeljack gestured him. “Ya know. You’re. Ya know.”

Starscream leaned forward, folding his arms on the table. “I’m what?”

“Ya know. You. You’re you.”

“And that is?”

“Don’t make me play this game, Starscream, you know what that is.”

“Ah, yes,” Starscream nodded, sitting up straight. “The cold, calculating, manipulative, unliked, Me. That’s it.” 

“I didn’t mean that-”

“Then what did you mean?”

Wheeljack’s mouth snapped shut. “That’s what I meant,” he admitted weakly. 

“That’s what I thought.” Starscream’s eyes became sharp. “You know, Wheeljack, I try really hard not to lie to you. I would appreciate it if you showed me the same courtesy.”

Wheeljack scoffed. “Please.”

“And I know you find that hard to believe, but it’s true.” Starscream sneered to himself. “I-” he spoke slowly. “Value your companionship. You’ve been a good friend.”

Wheeljack thumbed his fingers atop the table. “Well, thanks. I didn’t expect to hear that from you.”

“Tell me honestly. Did you ask me out because you wanted to?”

Wheeljack took a deep vent. “No,” he admitted. “Ironhide dared me.”

Starscream’s wings went all the way down. “Thanks.” He said, his voice tight. He stood from his stool and walked to the other side of the room. He sat down, took a datapad out of his subspace and started reading. 

Wheeljack slid the deck of cards across the table and tucked it under his hands. He clenched his jaw, moving his tongue around his mouth. Ironhide had dared him two weeks ago to ask “The Screamer,” on a date to see if Wheeljack got ripped to shreds or, better yet, laughed at. But when Starscream said yes, Ironhide told Wheeljack that the last thing he should do was go on that date. He said that Starscream probably said yes out of boredom or as a joke in return. As if it were so far fetched that Starscream would genuinely want to go on a date with him. 

Now Wheeljack wasn’t so sure. 

Ironhide probably didn’t mean anything by it, telling Wheeljack that Starscream would never want to go on a date with him. As surprised as he was, Wheeljack was admittedly looking forward to going on a real date. His first real date in millions of years, even if it was with Starscream, it was something normal. Something leisurely, after not being able to do anything for leisure almost the entire time he was alive. 

Wheeljack stood up and walked to the workbench that Starscream had claimed. He was staring at his datapad, but his eyes didn’t move around the page. His brow was stuck in a furrow. 

“What do you want.” He said. “I’m busy.”

Wheeljack took a deep vent. “Ya know, I really did want to go on a date with you-”

“Save it,” Starscream spat. He clicked off the datapad. “You don’t need to lie anymore. I know I’m just a joke to you, like I am to everyone else. I don’t want to listen to your bullshit.”

Wheeljack thrummed his fingers atop the table. “I’m sorry I lied-”

“I knew you were lying. You think after a million years I can’t spot a liar. You’re not good at it.”

Wheeljack swallowed the lump in his throat. “Ya know, it’s hard to tell with you.” He waited for a response, but didn’t get one. He went on. “Yer the most notorious liar in the world. How was I supposed to know you weren’t playing me back.”

Starscream’s wing rattled. “What would I have to gain.”

“I dunno-”

“Why would I ever do that?” Starscream finally looked at him. “I’m not allowed to want a little bit of normalcy? Or maybe, potentially, by chance, be attracted to you?”

Wheeljack’s fins blinked. “Yer attracted to me.”

Starscream tapped his claw on the table. “Maybe.”

Wheeljack drew back. “Oh.”

Starscream waded his head back and forth, rolling his eyes. “I guess now you want to date me, huh? What a joke.”

“No no, I was serious before when I said that I was serious about wanting to go on a date with you. Ironhide convinced me not to.”

Starscream scoffed. “Weak.”

“I’m allowed to be cautious.” 

“Whatever.”

Wheeljack turned in his seat. “Hey, listen, I’d still be up for a date if you are.”

“If we ever get out of here.”

“Who says we need to get outta here,” Wheeljack climbed out of his seat and went over to his cot in the corner. He took a bottle of high grade from under the bed, grabbed two freshly cleaned beakers from beside the sink, and returned to the work bench. He smiled at Starscream. “We can make our own date.”

Starscream cocked a brow. “Really?”

Wheeljack poured the high grade. “Listen, I know you didn’t want our romantic encounter to be a rush job, but think about it,” he pushed one glass over to Starscream. “What’s more romantic than being totally alone with high grade?”

Starscream accepted his glass. “No one to bother us.”

“Or interrupt.”

“No annoying onlookers,” Starscream hummed as he brought the high grade to his lips. “Maybe you’ve got a point.”

Wheeljack nodded, retracting his mask to sip his drink. 

Starscream’s eyes dimmed. “So,” he drawled, a smirk slipping onto his lip. “What, exactly, do you think someone would be  interrupting?”

Wheeljack blinked. “Heh,” his fingers tapped the side of the glass. “Just this. Our time together.”

Starscream chuckled. “What, no moves?”

“I already made my move. It’s your turn.”

“Oh, it’s my job now?” Starscream smiled, showing his teeth. “Alright. Let me think, I’m a little rusty.”

“I can wait.”

Starscream stared off into space for a moment. “Hmm. Okay.” He pursed his lips. “So? Come here often?”

Wheeljack broke out into laughter. He held his chest and threw his head back. 

Starscream nearly choked on his engex. He shoved Wheeljack’s shoulder. “Shut up, it wasn’t that funny.”

Wheeljack struggled to catch his breath. “Yo-you’re face,” he laughed. “What the hell was that face?”

“I was trying to be sexy.”

“If ya wanted that, you got it.”

Starscream covered his smile with his cup. “Hm.”

Wheeljack swallowed his next sip in a big gulp. “Too forward?”

“I’m allowed to be attractive just as much as you are.

“Aw, you think I’m attractive?”

“Very.”

“I’m flattered.”

“It’s true.” Starscream hooked his feet on the bar of Wheeljack’s stool. “I find you very attractive.”

Wheeljack put his hand on his chest. “Are you saying? That you’re only going on a date with me? Because I’m attractive?”

Starscream barked a laugh. “You’re sly when you want to be.”

Wheeljack held up his drink. “I got some tricks.”

Starscream finished off his glass in one swig and slammed it back down on the bench. “Pour me another.”

Wheeljack poured another glass. They chatted for a better part of an hour. Starscream was surprisingly talkative with a little bit of engex in him, and not nearly as mean and crude and dismissive as Wheeljack was expecting. Starscream even told the occasional joke, even after he stopped drinking. They shared war stories and work stories, and stories about experiments gone wrong. 

“One time Shockwave was tasked with creating a gun that could turn inanimate things into rust. And of course, being me, I decided to make it infinitely harder on him.”

“Oh, so this one wasn’t an accident,” Wheeljack laughed. 

“Heh, no.”

Wheeljack laughed harder. 

“Listen, that one eyed bolt-for-a-brain was trying to weaponize cosmic rust, and I told him, ‘are you fragging stupid? You’ll get us all killed.’ and of course, being the almighty Shockwave, he didn’t give a frag what I said. So I let loose all of the rust samples in his lab. He had a nasty rust infection under his chassis for a month. Megatron was furious. At me, of course, because I could never keep the smirk off my face.”

“I gotta say, Starscream, if there’s one things the Autobot’s could say good about you, it’s that you certainly are bold.”

“The only way to survive in the cesspit was to be bold. I never got to have anything but a backbone and chafed knees,” he smiled, outlining the edge of the glass with his fingertip. “Part of the reason I was so eager to do something like this.”

“Yeah, same here. Working day-in, day-out, Prime puttting a new project on my table every week, expects it the next day. Sometimes I just wanted to shout, ‘listen buddy, you want this built you can do it yerself.’ They worked me to the bone, I’ll say that much.”

Starscream nodded. “I’m glad it's over.”

“Kinda feels weird. Still feels like yesterday we were tryin’a kill each other.”

“Let’s see what a few more years will do.”

“Or maybe just a few more minutes.”

As soon as the worlds came out of Wheeljack’s mouth, the door of the lab snapped open. Starscream looked over his shoulder at the open threshold. 

“Or not.”

Wheeljack got off his stool, walked over to the door, closed and locked it. He shrugged. “I dunno. Looks like the door’s still closed to me.”

Starscream smiled. 

Wheeljack returned to his seat.

[shenglingyuan]

title: put little trust in tomorrow (1/2) (ao3) pairing: jiang cheng/wei wuxian summary: Jiang Cheng is but a mortal man with long pent-up desires and affection, who was he to deny himself of this chance? friends-with-benefits chengxian in modern day (:3

Chapter 1: carpe diem

   A blast of rock music wakes Jiang Cheng from his deep slumber. No matter how many times he has listened to this, the sudden drop of the bass and the metallic sound of the electric guitar never fails to jolt him awake. However, the same can’t be said of Wei Ying, who at the moment is still soundly snoring next to him. To think that it’s his phone that is blaring so loud…he reaches for Wei Ying’s phone and turns the alarm off.

    “Wei Ying,” he shakes him by the shoulders, “Wei Ying, wake up.”

    He gets a sleepy groan in response.

    “C’mon,” he sits up, pulling the blanket off of him, revealing Wei Ying’s bareness underneath. “Dr. Zhang will be on your case again if you show up late one more time.”

    “Hey!” Wei Ying is startled from the sudden cold, groggily staring at Jiang Cheng’s mocking smile. Then, without warning, he grabs Jiang Cheng by his waist and pulls him back down to bed.

    “You --!”

    “Ah Cheng, you really don’t expect me to go to class this early after last night, do you?” Wei Ying mumbles, happily snuggling Jiang Cheng in is arms. His warmth spreads on Jiang Cheng’s bare back, his breath making the hairs at the back of his neck stand up.

    “Idiot, it’s not even early anymore. I set the alarm to eight forty-five.”

    “Anything before ten is too early.”

    “Your class is at ten.” The walk to the university usually takes them twenty minutes at the earliest, if Wei Ying doesn’t get distracted by the most random things. Jiang Cheng has learned to leave the flat thirty minutes before class starts. In order to do that, he must wake Wei Ying even earlier.

    “Want to sleep.” Wei Ying still doesn’t budge.

    “Fine, I’ll wake you up again after I’ve taken a bath,” Jiang Cheng removes himself from his hold and heads to the bathroom to clean up. It only takes him ten minutes tops.

    Though spring is starting to transition to summer, Jiang Cheng still picks a black turtleneck to wear to class to hide the marks Wei Ying carelessly left on his neck and chest. Many spots are turning to brown now, severely visible against his pale skin. When he finishes getting ready, the other man is still sleeping, returning to his loud snores.

    He lets out a sigh before crouching to wake him up again.

    “Wei Ying. Your turn.”

    He doesn’t respond at all. Jiang Cheng motions to grab his shoulders again --

    Wei Ying suddenly reaches for him first and pulls him down, laughing gleefully, burying his face on the crook of his neck and breathing in, “Mm, kinda want to sleep some more.”

    “Dr. Zhang will drop you from class if you have two more absences, get up!” Jiang Cheng protests, prying his hold off of him, “And let go of me, you haven’t even taken a bath!”

    “Fine, fine,” he finally obliges, getting up from the bed, not caring that the blanket that keeps him covered has now fallen off of him.

    Jiang Cheng instinctively looks away. When he hears the door to the bathroom close, he finally relaxes and lies down back on the bed, covering his eyes with both of his arms. What are we doing? He has been asking himself the same question for months now, but he never seems to arrive at any answer. What’s worse, there seems to sprout even more questions. It is a question that has always been at the tip of his tongue, but never has left his lips. There is the fear that such few words could ruin something that has been and is being built for years.

    “ Quam minimum credula postero ,”  he whispers like a prayer, hoping his heart would listen. Put very little trust in tomorrow. Just revel on what there is today.

__

   “I swear, Dr. Zhang’s face darkened when the two of you actually arrived on time,” Nie Huaisang whispers hurriedly as they made their way to their next class. Thanks to Jiang Cheng’s understanding of Wei Ying’s time management, or lack thereof, they were able to enter the doors one minute shy of the official class hours.

    “Some idiot sleeps like a log,” Jiang Cheng pointedly says, earning a stuck-out tongue from his target.

    “I’m impressed you managed to wake him up. Must be hard being his roommate.”

    “Excuse me, I’m still here,” Wei Ying drapes his arms on his friends’ shoulders, taking advantage of his height, “You know what’s difficult, Huaisang? It’s being Ah Cheng’s roommate. I thought we left Madam Yu in Yunmeng, but it seems she’s living in him!”

    Nie Huaisang laughs, while Wei Ying receives a hit on his side from Jiang Cheng’s elbow.

    “Anyway, I’ll go first now,” Huaisang says, letting Wei Ying’s arm drop, “See you at lunch!”

    Huaisang goes a different way from the two of them. Both Jiang Cheng and Wei Ying are Business Management students while Nie Huaisang is majoring in Economics. Having gone on the same primary school and high schools, they are the closest of friends. Every semester, they make sure that they have at least one similar class and similar break times.

    Jiang Cheng adjusts his collar, suddenly worrying that the hickeys might slip out from view. Wei Ying notices his movement and he reaches out as well, helping him to fix his collar.

    “Sorry,” he says with a smile.

    “No, you’re not,” Jiang Cheng huffs, “You always do this.”

    Wei Ying moves closer to his ear. “You look good in a turtleneck, though.”

    Such blatant flirting in the middle of the day…Jiang Cheng closes his eyes and resists the urge to roll his eyes. Wei Ying laughs heartily, knowing full well the effect he has on him. Thankfully, they finally arrive at their class and Jiang Cheng enjoys almost an hour and a half of peace from Wei Ying. ‘Almost’, because there must have been a cumulative total of seven minutes of disturbance from Wei Ying himself, who despite being terribly unfocused in class, still manages to get respectable marks.

    The class ends right on time and the two make their way to the cafeteria. Huaisang has already been waiting for them on one table and they join him.

    “Ah, you already bought food?” Wei Ying says as he notices the steaming bowl of noodles in front of Huaisang, “Ah Cheng, I’ll buy us food. What do you want?”

    “Whatever you’re getting.”

    “Okay!” Wei Ying leaves and goes to the food stall that sells spicy beef noodles, as expected.

    “You know, Jiang Cheng, if we haven’t been friends for over a decade already, I’d think you and Wei Ying are in a relationship,” Nie Huaisang suddenly comments, looking anything but innocent.

    “What— why did you even think of that?” Jiang Cheng bristles on his seat, pulling up his collar consciously.

    “Ah, don’t mind me,” Huaisang shrugs off his own statement, “Just random musings.”

    “Oi, what are you talking about? How dare you leave me out again?” Wei Ying arrives with the tray of their food. One of the bowls is bright red, obviously his. Jiang Cheng gets the less spicy one.

    “It’s nothing,” Huaisang answers, “Just told Jiang Cheng that if I didn’t know better, I’d mistake the two of you as boyfriends.”

    Jiang Cheng looks at Wei Ying’s face for his reaction, but there is only his usual smile.

    “That’s not the first time I heard that,” he answers, and the topic has never been brought up again throughout their lunch.

    __

   As much as Wei Ying is the one enjoying most out of their arrangement, he’s the most quiet one too when the conversations goes into the direction of a ‘relationship’. Jiang Cheng has learned early on not to pry on the topic anymore, else he risks losing Wei Ying entirely. To be honest, he didn’t think himself to be one to engage in a ‘friends-with-benefits’ type of arrangement. After all, he has been into Wei Ying even before this mess. If given the chance, he’d actually want to be committed to him.

    Yet, during a night of deep conversation about life and whatnots on their shared bed, Wei Ying must have decided out of nowhere that it was a good timing to move for a kiss. Jiang Cheng was initially surprised and Wei Ying almost thought of it as a rejection of his advances. But before the moment could dissipate, Jiang Cheng kissed him back. The kiss led to one thing and another, the two of them getting drunk not in liquor but with each other.

    After revelling in the point of no return, Wei Ying had said, “I hope this doesn’t change anything.”

    With those few words, Jiang Cheng already understood, and the hope that he was just starting to cultivate withers. But he agreed, “Of course.”

      Jiang Cheng is but a mortal man with long pent-up desires and affection, who was he to deny himself of this chance?

    And so they fall into an endless cycle of satisfying each other during nights when they needed to, and treating each other as the close friends that they are in front of everybody else. Some nights, they don’t even do anything, just sleeping with their arms around each other as they have been doing for a long time. These are all but friendship, Jiang Cheng reminds himself everyday.

     Carpe diem. He has started to appreciate the overused Latin phrase. Quam minimum credula postero.

__

   “You know, you can actually date people if you want to.”

    Jiang Cheng is occupied with making his report on his course on taxation. The report is not due in two weeks, but he wanted to make sure everything will flow smoothly. It takes him a while to process what Wei Ying has just said.

    “I know that,” he returns his eyes on his laptop, suddenly feeling his chest tighten up for some reason.

    “Then why aren’t you?”

    “The keyword is ‘can’, not ‘have’. It’s not a requirement. Besides I’m too busy.”

    Wei Ying raises an eyebrow at him, as if to say, then how come you have time here?

    “I’m not dating you.”

    “Point taken.”

    A stretch of silence follows, only filled with Jiang Cheng tapping the keyboard and clicking on the touchpad. Wei Ying is quietly reading his own assigned paper, peeking at his phone from time to time.

    Yet, Jiang Cheng’s mind is suddenly filled with so much noise. The topic of dating has always been a fragile glass between the both of them. For Wei Ying to bring it up himself, Jiang Cheng can only infer that something has made him think about it.

    “Why,” he finally asks, feeling the urgent need to calm down his thoughts, “Are you thinking of dating somebody?”

    “Eh, takes too much effort,” Wei Ying lets out a snort, “I don’t want to waste my time having to know new people all over again.”

    Then he’d rather people he already knows by heart.

  The meaning behind his words just rekindle Jiang Cheng’s frustrations anew. Wei Ying has no shortage of friends, owing to his bright and warm personality that naturally attracts people of all kind. But in the question of who he knows best, of course the answer will be Jiang Cheng. And yet, Wei Ying expects nothing to change between them despite everything they’ve done together.

    Jiang Cheng laughs at himself inside. What a fool he has been. What a fool he is being. What a fool he still will be. For even if it’s Wei Ying himself that tells him he can meet other people, it’s only Wei Ying that can satisfy what his heart is craving for, no matter if he only gets the crumbs.

    Just how long can he keep a blind eye on the inevitable future that is to come?

 ___

   The end of a semester signifies the left and right sem-ender college parties hosted by different organizations in the university. Consequently, the invites are coming from left and right as well. Though not a member of any organization, Wei Ying and Jiang Cheng have received multiple invites already. Since Nie Huaisang’s business-related organization is holding one of their own, the two decide to go there instead.

    As expected, the place is packed with university students wanting to release all the stress they have accumulated from their hell weeks. The moment they arrive, there has been an endless stream of random friends that pull them to a side to converse, or to drink, and much later in the night, to dance. Eventually, Jiang Cheng loses sight of Wei Ying. He settles on a relatively empty corner and leans against the wall. Almost everybody is on the dance floor, swaying with the music and holding drinks in their hand.

    “Jiang Wanyin, right?”

    A familiar voice calls to him just as he is downing his sixth glass of beer. Looking at the source, he finds that it is a classmate in one of their electives. The name has already escaped him though.

    “Hey.”

    “…Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten my name?” The girl looks offended. Upon closer inspection, Jiang Cheng could see the red flush that has already spread from her face to her chest. He raises his eyes immediately.

    “Maybe I have,” he throws her a wry smile, hoping she gets the drift and walks away. Instead, she probably has decided that Jiang Cheng is the best company as of the moment and leans on the wall right next to him. “Do you need anything from me?”

    “Perhaps.”

    Jiang Cheng looks around. Amidst the packed crowd, he sees a group of huddled people side-eyeing them from time to time.

    “Are you here on a dare?”

    The girl just shrugs, chugging the vodka bottle she’s holding.

    “Whatever it is, I’m not giving my consent,” Jiang Cheng says to be safe. He’s not ignorant to the games their peers love to engage in especially during times like this.

    A laugh escapes the girl’s lips, “I didn’t know you could be funny. Don’t worry, it’s not something like that.”

    “Then why are you suddenly here?”

    “A bet.”

    He raises an eyebrow at that. “What is there to bet on?”

    “I suppose you’re already taken then,” she says instead, completely ignoring his question, “With how defensive you’re being?”

    Jiang Cheng has yet to form the answer on his mouth when Wei Ying suddenly appears by his side, a wide smile on his face, a glass half-filled with a brightly-colored drink on his hand.

    “Heyyy!” Wei Ying drags his greeting, draping an arm over Jiang Cheng’s shoulder, then turns the both of them to face the girl. “Lin Yuhei, am I right?”

    “Glad you remember me, Wei Wuxian,” Yuhei knowingly smiles at both of them, “Anyway, I’ll go first. Thanks for the company, Jiang Wanyin.”

    In no time, she has returned to her group of friends, and a certain amount of money gets passed around.

    “What was that about?” Wei Ying asks confusedly, “I never knew you were friends with her.”

    “I didn’t even know who she was.”

    “Maybe she’s interested in you.”

    “Hah. Funny.”

    “What are you even doing here sulking? Man, we’re at a party!”

    Jiang Cheng swigs the remaining beer, swaying the empty cup in the air afterwards, “I’m too old for this kind of thing.”

    Wei Ying makes a face at him, then he says, “Wanna go home?”

    His arms are still around Jiang Cheng’s shoulder. They are both unusually warm from all the alcohol, and Wei Ying’s breath smell both of smoke and liquor. It seems he has been enjoying before he came over. He doesn’t want to be such a burden and force him to go.

    “I can go by myself, you can stay here if you want.”

    “You sure?”

    “Yeah, I don’t think you’ve had your fill of alcohol.”

    Wei Ying stares at him for a while, then at the end, shrugs, “Alright.”

    “Call me when you’re about to go home.”

    “Yes, mom,” he grins.

    Jiang Cheng books himself a ride and made his way home in silence. Thinking about it, he could have persuaded Wei Ying to go home with him. Most likely than not, it would have ended up again in one of their usual nights, given the alcohol.

    Maybe, it’s precisely why he insisted on going home alone. He could at least tell himself that he’d successfully avoided another temptation.

    Yet upon arriving at their apartment, and even after he has cleaned up and laid himself on bed, he kept on tossing and turning, feeling restless at Wei Ying’s absence. Every other two minutes, he’d check on his phone for any new message. Never mind that he doesn’t turn it on silent mode anyway. His eyes must see for him to believe.

    Unable to sleep, he flips through his Wechat to check updates from the people who’s still in the party. Wei Ying appears in a lot of pictures. One of the stories even had him chugging what remains of a vodka bottle, the surrounding people cheering for him loudly. In the next story posted by Nie Huaisang just seven minutes ago, a person is pushed forward to the center and the people started shouting ‘Kiss him! Kiss him!’. The person comes closer to Wei Ying, too close to be just a friendly distance. The video then ends, leaving the watcher hanging if anything really did happen afterwards. Jiang Cheng freezes for one moment. Slowly, he releases a long breath, willing his heart to stop beating so painfully.

     “It doesn’t concern me,” he repeats at least five times before closing Wechat and throwing his phone far from his reach.

    Not even a minute later, the discarded phone started ringing. Jiang Cheng immediately gets up and reaches for it, answering the call without looking at the screen.

    “Hello?”

    “Jiang Cheng?” It’s Nie Huaisang. “I’m about to drive Wei Ying to your place, just letting you know.”

    “Thanks, is he out?”

    “Nope, but conversation is impossible.” An unintelligible protest comes from the other end of the phone. “As you can hear -- Ah, Wei Ying! Damn, wait, gotta let him puke first before I drive him home. We’ll be there in a few.”

    The call ends, and somehow, Jiang Cheng feels a bit more at peace. At least Wei Ying is with Nie Huaisang now. He had thought the guy would end up sleeping in other people’s place.

    Jiang Cheng waits for twenty minutes in front of their building. A familiar engine sound finally arrives, he sees Nie Huaisang's car pulling over. Standing up abruptly, he rushes to the car as soon as it stops, opening the door to the passenger's seat where Wei Ying is dozing off.

    “Thanks, man,” Jiang Cheng tells Nie Huaisang as he pulls out Wei Ying from the car, “Sorry you had to babysit this bastard in my stead.”

    “It's nothing at all. I'm just gonna warn you of his major hangover when he wakes up. He's too drunk, actually saw him making out with some guy that we don't know. So yeah, really drunk.”

    A needle-like pain stabs at Jiang Cheng's chest.

    “Is it the same guy on your story?”

    “Ah, you saw that already? Different guy.”

    “I see. Thanks again,” he swallows heavily, suddenly finding it hard to breathe for a moment. “Be careful in driving.”

    “Yeah sure, see you around.”

    It isn't until the car's tail lights disappear from his view that Jiang Cheng finds the strength on his legs to walk back into their apartment. Wei Ying is still out, so he bends down and places Wei Ying on his back, carrying him piggy-back style.

    Still, the weight in his heart is much heavier to bear.

 ____

    Wei Ying wakes up as the sun's rays hit his face. This also reminds him that it's way too late as their room faces the west. With his head pounding, he rolls on the bed until he falls on the floor, having no motivation to get up on his own.

    “Ah Cheng!” he calls out. No answer. This time, Wei Ying finally gets up, roaming his eyes around their empty room. “Ah Cheng?”

    He looks for his phone and finds it on the bedside table. There are at least over a dozen notifications in each of his social media accounts. It seems as if he made quite of a mess last night. There is even a chat on his Wechat with six consecutive lines of message. He doesn't know who the person is though, so he ignores it. He flips through his other apps, checking all notifications. None came from Jiang Cheng.

    Feeling worried, he calls his phone. Jiang Cheng picks up after the seventh ring, “Finally awake?”

    “Where are you? You didn't wake me up.”

    “Can't I go out without you?”

    “That’s low, but I’m still your friend and your roommate. What if Madam Yu suddenly calls out of nowhere and looks for you? What am I supposed to say?”

    “She wouldn’t do that.”

    “Oh yeah? Then what if it’s Sis that suddenly looks for you?”

    Jiang Cheng heaves a sigh on the other end of the phone. “Do you need anything?”

    “I…” Wei Ying pauses then, realizing he doesn't really had any reason for looking for him. “I was just worried. When I woke up you're suddenly gone. It's never happened before, you know.”

    “Better get used to it. It's not like we're married.”

    Then Jiang Cheng unexpectedly drops the call.

    Wei Ying is left hanging, frowning at his words. Jiang Cheng sounded as if he's mad at him. The married remark is not a new thing, it's even a running joke between the two of them. But just now, that word seemed to carry a bitter poison.

    He looks at his phone again and checks last night's updates from other people. Not long after, he finds Nie Huaisang's story featuring him and some guy. A blurry memory rises up in Wei Ying's mind.

    “Ah...fuck,” he mutters, going back to the six consecutive lines of messages that be received. This must be the other guy he now vaguely remembers making out with. He calls Nie Huaisang then, and the phone is answered almost immediately.

    “Whoa! You're finally alive.”

    “Did you bring me home last night?”

    “I did, I did. Why?”

    “What did you tell Jiang Cheng?”

    “That I saw you making out with someone because you're too drunk?”

    A light bulb seems to have turned on at the back of Wei Ying's mind. “Ah.”

      “Is there a problem?”

    “Nothing. Thanks by the way.”

    He drops the call then contacts Jiang Cheng once more.

    “What-”

    “That was nothing,” Wei Ying cuts off before Jiang Cheng could say more, “The guy I made out with. It was nothing.”

    “Should I care if it was something or nothing?”

    A frown contorts Wei Ying’s face, “...Right, I just wanted to say.”

    “Nothing ever means something to you, Wei Ying. You and I both know that.”

    Wei Ying suddenly feels lost. Jiang Cheng has never been vocal about his feelings. Always buried underneath his words is his real meaning, but Wei Ying never really spared time to read between the lines. It made their arrangement easier to bear.

    But just now, those resentments seem to surface, displaying themselves in bare sight.

    “What time will you be back?”

    It’s not his style, but Wei Ying thinks he and Jiang Cheng should talk things out.

    “Dinner, maybe. I’ll buy us food, don’t worry.”

    “What are you doing anyway?” The sound of a doorbell can be vaguely heard from the other line, the bark of dogs making Wei Ying irrationally nervous all of a sudden. “Is that someone else’s house?”

    There is a moment of silence, as if Jiang Cheng is still trying to string his thoughts together.

    “Can you come home earlier?” Wei Ying asks.

    At the same time, Jiang Cheng says, “I’m looking for a new place to stay in.”

[sleep-swell]

MTMTE Swerve X reader {how to be failure 101} chapter 3. Grew up

A human? Swerve couldn't be more excited. Since the moment Rodimus mentioned a human, he couldn't concentrate on what was being said to him. Something about a party, that's what he did hear.

He knew all those things about humans, all those shows will finally pay off. He and the human would get along just fine, if they missed earth, they could go to him to get an earth feeling.

Or not. They could also hate Swerve for assuming he knew everything while actually he was just an amateur. Oooh, how Swerve wished you'd like him.

Because Swerve was one of the only ones knowing about the human, almost everyone got to know the secret soon enough. He just wouldn't stop talking about it. Some even asked him about earth stuff so they could could get bigger chances at being your friend. Offcourse that made Swerve more insecure because the more the others knew, the less of a chance he had with you.

After a while, the bar was ready with a big text.

'Welcome to the Lost Light' it said.

It was almost time for Ultra Magnus to come in with the human. Normally Rodimus would do it, but Magnus didn't trust him with it. Instead, Rodimus waited at the bar, preparing his speech and when he was gonna say 'til all are one'.

Meanwhile, you were still at Rung's office, getting some motivation.

"I really hope this won't cause any problems..." You said.

"Everyone will like you, I promise. Having a human on board will make our journey more exiting."

You missed earth. You missed your friends, the shops, internet. Gosh, you missed the internet. Offcourse, Rung noticed.

"Hey," He began. "If you ever miss home, I advise you to talk with a friend of mine. His name is Swerve, he's a barkeeper and knows anything about earth."

"Thanks Rung," you answered.

Rung smiled at you, happy that at least someone says his name right.

"I advise you to come visit me at least one a week (y/n), being so far from your planet and society can have a huge impact, i really hope to see you more," he said softly.

Just as Ultra Magnus came in, you gave out an answer, "okay."

"(Y/n), it's time to go." Stated Magnus.

You nodded, and hopped down from Rung's table, walking a fast as you could behind Ultra Magnus.

You panted a "How far is it?" Out.

In which he answered, "Not so much, you'll manage."

When you arrived at the door, you had to climb on Ultra Magnus's hand, so he could hide you using his other hand. Rodimus persisted that you should be a surprise reveal, and who was he to ignore orders.

The doors opened, all eyes were fixated on Ultra Magnus, Rodimus jumped up from his seat and stood on a table to get all the attention. Swerve's bar was flooding, and only most knew about your existence.

Still, all this was making Swerve anxious. He shifted his balance from one pede to another, and twirled his thumbs around eachother. His face couldn't decide between smiling like a goof or staying serious.

Rodimus fake coughed, "Everyone, listen. Today is a special and oussem day. Because yesterday, we have found not one, but TWO humans on an attacked space ship." He poused, seeing if all the attention was on him.

"One is heavily injured and might die, but we have things under control. The other one, is totally fine, and is now officially part of our crew. Sadly, all the rest of their crew perished on their ship."

Whispers spread around the bar.

"They are very far from home, and have no way of going back. Please, have a bit of perspective and welcome them as an equal. Until all are one!"

"Without further ado," added Ultra Magnus, "we now present you (y/n) (l/n), the human that is perfectly fine."

He opened his hands, and handed you to Rodimus. He put out his hands so you could stand on them and be seen by everyone.

You looked so nervous and cute, Swerve thought he was dreaming. Finally he could meet a human  maybe even befriend them if he were lucky. He was now biting on one of his fingers to keep him from rambling and interrupting.

"Uh..." You spoke.

"Hello everyone, since you already know my name I'll just skip that part... I am really grateful to be able to live here and have a place to stay."

You tried reassuring yourself that everything is fine, when done, you continued.

"I hope we all get along and I'm excited to even be friends with the one who want. I am still a bit in shock, but when I'll get better I am happy to answer any questions asked." You smiled.

When done, Rodimus again shouted, "Til all are one!"

That was the que that the speech was over, and so everyone started talking and trying to ask questions.

Drift tried keeping everyone calm, while Ultra Magnus pushed people away that were getting too close. Rodimus on the other hand, held you up hight so nobody could snatch you away.

He whole place was a chaos, the party had not even begun and Swerve was ordered to close the bar to get some peace.

Only some people were allowed to stay behind, and you got introduced to some others.

"So," you began, "You are Chromedome, you're Rewind, you're Brainstorm, Swerve, Skids, Whirl, Cyclonus, and Tailgate. Damn that's a lot to remember."

"There's a lot more that you'll meet over the time," reminded Skids.

"Who let Whirl stay here again?" Asked Brainstorm.

Whirl his attention switched from you towards Brainstorm. "You wanna fragging go?! Cuz i will mess you up real good!" 

Magnus stood up and quickly grabbed a hold on Whirl to set him down, then he explained to Brainstorm that letting Whirl stay was the only way to calm him down. Brainstorm wanted to talk some sense into them, but your chuckle interrupted him, all eyes were on you now. 

"Sorry, sorry," you laughed.

Oh how lovely your laugh sounded to Swerve, humans were truely amazing.

"Say (y/n), how's recharging in the same room as Rodimus?" Started Tailgate.

"Ah, it's..." You looked over at Rodimus, still pulling on your sentence. Rodimus was practically sitting on the verge of his chair.

"Great. It's great."

Rodimus his grin got bigger, seems like his ego was getting bigger. While Ultra Magnus shook his head, Tailgate gave out a chuckle.

Suddenly, Cyclonus decided to make his presence clear, "If you don't mind me asking (y/n), how did your life look like on earth?"

Your smile faltered. Since you got here, you never had a chance to look back at your life before the launch into space. Nor on the first ship with your crew had you had the chance to do that. Everyone around you was always a distraction.

Cyclonus seemed to notice your change of attitude. "If it's too personal you don't have to answer. It's okay if you-"

"It's fine. I'm fine. I just didn't get  chance to think about it too much."

Everyone listened carefully.

"I.. my life on earth," you started, "Wasn't particularly bad, but also not perfect. I lived on my own in a small apartment, too busy with the internet too find friends, and little on money."

"But I've made it work. I figured things out to find the money I need. And so, here I am." You laughed.

"You came here for money?" Asked Brainstorm, getting a nudge from Chromedome. Glares were shared between both.

"No no, not here specifically. More like send into space with a new gadget."

"You weren't sure you were gonna make it and you took the chance? Not only you but 4 other people too." Asked Rewind.

"They needed one other volunteer."

Whirl butted in, "You just went for a suicide mission for money! That's oussem!"

He got a smack from Ultra Magnus. Then he tried fighting against him but was threatened to leave the room if he didn't behave. Unwilling to leave a chance with a human, he remained... Something like calm.

Deciding to brighten up the mood a bit, you started talking again, "Hey, if it weren't for that, I wouldn't be here now meeting you guys!"

It worked, and it was totally calm again. Until Chromedome spoke again.

"Hey Swerve has been uncharacteristically silent this whole time."

The others decided to join in.

Skids nudged Swerve, "Yeah pal, you've been quiet this whole time. Everything alright?"

"Yeah everything okay there?"

Swerve, who was leaning his head on his hands, put them on his lap, a nervous laugh escaping him.

"Y.. yeah guys. I'm... I'm fine. Just observing. I've never seen a human before, I mean I have but only on screen, never in real life. It's different you know, I mean you're not different, the experience is just different. I'm sorry I'm rambling again aren't I?"

"Good luck with him fleshy, he can talk your ears off asking questions. Won't even give you a chance to answer," said Whirl.

And as fast as Swerve's mood went down, it came up again when you spoke, "I'll be fine, it just means he's excited. That means a lot to me."

You were so nice!! The poor guy couldn't believe what he was seeing! Well... What he was hearing, but that doesn't matter. He was happy.

Suddenly something inside you started to- not hurt but- it was uncomfortable. Not unbearable, easily ignored.

But physical.

It didn't worry you, you've felt plenty of sudden pain in your chest for no reason in the past. Enough to determine that it wasn't anything, say, dangerous.

"Well it's getting rather late. Not like that's bad or anything, since the plan was to just party. But there's no party,"  said Skids.

Chromedome agreed. You could see how he nodded while looking a Rewind sincerely. "It's best me and Rewind go recharge then, its always good to get some extra sleep."

He took Rewind's hand, and they stood up, taking their leave. "Goodbye (y/n), it was nice meeting you!" Waved Rewind.

Slowly, everyone started to leave too. Rodimus left you behind, since you were having a conversation with Swerve.

And then you were left alone with Swerve. After a while he seemed to notice how you yawned, signaling that you were getting sleepy.

"Okay I think that's enough for today. Do you know where Rodimus's hab-suite is?" He asked.

You shook your head no, because how are you supposed to know where someone else's room is in just one day, and don't even get me started on how big this ship is.

"Do you want me to... Bring you there?" Swerve asked unsure.

He hoped you would say yes. This way you could talk more, get to know eachother. He'll get to know more about you. So when you nodded, he practically jumped from his seat and picked you up.

He was so excited, he forgot to slow down to have the chance to talk with you, and ran immediately towards your and Rodimus's hab-suite. Suddenly realising that he messed up his chance.

"So uh... Will you come to my bar tomorrow? Not that you have to offcourse, it would be just nice to see you again. N-not in a weird way," He asked.

"I'll do my best to come over." You smiled.

Swerve smiled back and slowly put you down on the ground so you could ender your shared room with Rodimus. With one final wave, he left.

And you went to sleep.

______________

A/n: Sorry for not posting this chapter first and spoiling the story, also sorry for the way this text is written, I copy pasted it from my wattpad. (Whitch is "Polarvera" btw, I always post the chapters there first so you can get a look. Plus its easier to read my story-)

Tags come later I think?