#‘you gave megatron more of a chance than you did me’ really hurts deep

[grimxark]

I’m so obsessed with Prowl because by all means he is kind of a tragic character. He’s a bit of a jerk and has questionable morals but he’s very much all that because he was unable to escape a war he wanted no part in. Ultimately everything he did was selfless under the guise of selfish. Sure it hurt a shit ton of ppl but he was truly going “either I do this or a shit ton more people die” . Like even the g9 incident is somewhat explainable bc they were stuck on earth with 18492 other things going on and no real way of helping. Even the thing with tarantulas can be explained as a sudden guilt and regaining consciousness. He gets beat up by the people he trusts the most and gets violated over and over again. People are more sympathetic to megatron than they are to him. More sympathetic to shockwave than they are to him. ‘Oh but they were victims of a flawed system’ and so was he! He was constructed cold. He lived in a functionist neighborhood while having been constructed cold. How fucked is that

[local-spoon-does-a-thing]

Sickness

[(Bayverse) Optimus Prime x Reader]

A/N: Here’s some more Papa Bot fic. Should I make a bonus ending/part about them arriving at the gas station or some shit like that? Also this fic got out of hand and idk how it ended up like this. Hope you enjoy!

“Ugh...hey, Optimus? Can you roll down the window? I need some fresh air.” You mumbled out and leaned your head against the door. For some reason, you felt sick to the core. That’s probably because you were, in fact, sick. Perhaps it was something you ate for dinner yesterday? You did have a rough night trying to sleep. But at this moment, you just wanted to jump out of the moving vehicle, lay on the side of the road, and perish. Your stomach was not agreeing with you at all and begged you to purge out whatever was in it. Once the window was rolled down, you immediately poked your head out and took in a deep breath. Ah, that was much better. But that still didn’t get that sickening feeling out of your stomach. Maybe a nice bottle of water would help cure you. Your hand moved towards where the cup holders would be located and attempted to grab a bottle of water. Though, there was nothing. Looking back, you saw that you didn’t even bring water with you. Oh, right, you’ve forgotten. Earlier when Ratchet had suggested that you bring a couple bottles of water for the trip, you refused and reassured him that you were fine when in reality, you were just too lazy to carry them. In defeat, your hand flopped back down and you poked your head out once more.

Currently, you and the team were traveling to another city in a different state, as it was stated that there were some Decepticon sightings located there. This was going to be your first mission with them and after countless of merciless begging to go with them, they finally agreed to let you travel with them. Ratchet and Ironhide thought that it was a horrible idea, Bumblebee was simply ecstatic that you would get to go with them, and Optimus was just too tired to deal with your tantrums like a tired father. Who would’ve thought that out of all the members of the team, you seemed to be the closest with the Autobot leader himself. Anyone else would’ve thought that you two were polar opposites. You were a simple person that liked to joke a lot and showed some signs of arrogance while Optimus was more on the serious and wise side. Little did anyone know that you two balanced each other out. He kept you grounded to reality while you made sure that he would have fun during his time on Earth. Though your adventures with them have just merely started, you can tell that you’ve made an impact on the team. Everyone seemed more on the bright side, even the grumpy medic. They were happy and that was all you’ve ever wanted. However, your stubbornness and pride proved you not to be the easiest person to handle, like now.

“Hey, Optimus? Is there by any chance that you have some water on you? Not that I need it or anything like that. Buuuut... I might need it later.”

The old ‘Bot let out a heavy sigh and the whole truck rumbled along with him. “Didn’t Ratchet tell you earlier in the morning to bring your bottles of water? We’ve said it repeatedly that this would be a long trip-”

“Okay, okay! I get it, I was just asking in case you did have them. No need to go full on mother-mode.” You cut him off mid-sentence before crossing your arms across your chest and slumping into the seat. Moments passed by and your hands dropped down to your stomach and clutched the fabric that was in the way. Okay, you seriously needed to do something about this. You felt nauseous and each second that passed by was torturous. You wanted to tell Optimus about your condition, but c’mon, this was your first mission! You had a feeling that if you were to tell him about this, the team wouldn’t bring you to anymore future missions. And the main course hasn’t even started yet since you were still traveling to the destination. But was this really worth the trouble? I mean, even outside of these missions, you would still be seeing them.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you like that, it’s just- I don’t think I’m doing too well. I think I might have the stomach bug or something ‘cause I feel like I’m gonna throw up at any moment.” You half heartedly confessed to him.

At this statement, Optimus had wanted to stop the trip abruptly and check if you were okay. Guess you could say that this was his “mother-mode” or at least close to it. Worried thoughts bubbled into his metal head that he had almost forgotten to respond to you, almost giving you an indication that he was irritated and ignoring you. He would have Ratchet check up on you but then again, he only knew about Cybertronian biology, not human.

“Hang in there, [Y/N]. There’s a gas station approximately three miles from here. We’ll take a rest there and examine you.”

He then went on to accelerate his speed and over the radio, went on to report the other members of the team about your condition. You could hear Bee’s worried buzzing, Ironhide’s sigh, and Ratchet’s grumpy  grumbling of “I told you so” that was directed towards you. In response, you rolled your eyes and laid down across the seats, staring at the truck ceiling. The slight bumpiness on the road was somehow a bit soothing, but it wasn’t enough to put you to sleep. What you needed right now was a distraction. And what distraction was better than you annoying your guardian?

“Oppy.” No response.

“Timus.” No response.

“Hey, Boss Bot!” Finally, you got a response. He let out a surprised sound and you can practically hear the gears in his head turn. 

“What is it?”

“I need you to distract me.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

You were met with silence once again. He was confused with what you wanted. What did you need to be distracted from? You weren’t really doing much other than trying to refrain yourself from puking on him. It didn’t take long for you to notice that he was confused by your request.

“Just...just ask me questions. They can be stupid or not or whatever. I don’t want to focus too much on my nausea.”

“I understand. Very well then. How are your grades in school?”

You groaned and smacked the palms of your hands onto your face. You wanted to answer any other question BUT that one. Okay, so maybe you were lagging a little behind on your subjects than the rest of your classmates, but you could fix it up with a snap of your fingers! Or, that was what you thought. You’ve been so caught up with your alien friends that you didn’t think that school wasn’t as important as saving civilian lives and all that. 

“[Y/N]?” His deep voice pulled you away from your thoughts and you slid your hands down your face.

“It’s uh, it’s going...decent.” Wow, way to make yourself sound believable.

“[Y/N]...” Now there was a stern and serious tone in his voice.

“Don’t worry about it! I got it all under control. Go ahead and ask another question that’s not related at all to school.”

Once again, he let out another heavy sigh. He had a feeling that your reasoning for your grades being “decent” as you say, was because of him. He didn’t want to be the reasoning for you failing classes. What kind of guardian does that? Yes, he has the most fun spending time on you and picking up on your witty jokes, but he knew that if it ever came down to it, he would have to step back and let you focus on things that would matter in the long run. Even when it does break him.

“You need to take your school more seriously, please. You know what will happen if your parents were to find out about your grades dropping, correct? We won’t be able to see each other as much anymore. And as much as I want to be with you, I won’t hesitate to take a couple of steps back.”

That...hurt. You didn’t want to be constantly reminded of the consequences, but that wasn’t what hurt you. The fact that he said that he wouldn’t hesitate gave you a wake up call. You sat up from your lying position and looked at his radio with a panicked and disbelief look. You didn’t know what or how to respond to that. He was serious and you knew that. You looked away in shame and clutched your stomach once more. Optimus then moved his rearview mirror towards your face and saw how you looked. It broke his spark and he wanted to comfort you, but decided not to push further on the subject and change it.

“Is there anything you would like to ask that relates to me?”

You perked up at his question and had a surprised look. Honestly, you didn’t expect that at all and you didn’t even consider asking him questions. If you were to, you had wanted to try to avoid the more sensitive topics that related to the war on his planet and such questions like that.

“Hmm, you know how the Matrix-thingy chooses who the next Prime will be or something like that? Well, what were you like before you became a Prime?”

Like you were, he was caught off-guard by the question. It’s been a long while since he had spoken of his previous life. He felt a faint sense of nostalgia as he reflected on his past self. My, how much he has changed over time. Going from having a simple life to being one of the biggest roles in Cybertron history. If he were not in his vehicle form, he would’ve smiled fondly.

“My previous name was Orion Pax. At certain angles, you could say that I was more like Bumblebee: young and free-spirited. I used to work as a data clerk in Cybertron. My life was quite simple and ordinary before I heard of Megatron and came to a realization that I was not satisfied with what I was doing. That...is all I will tell for now.”

“Aww, what?! Come on, you can’t leave me hanging like that! What happened with you and Megatron? Pleaaase!”

“Some other time, tiny girl. Now, it is my turn to ask a question. Do you know what my favorite color is?”

Okay, now you were confused. Why would he go from asking a serious question to suddenly asking about his favorite color. Out of all the things he could’ve asked, he went for that one. Of course, it’s not like you were going to back down from something as simple as that. However, you had to take a moment to think. Did robots have favorite colors? Did they even have time to consider what color was their favorite? You couldn’t figure out what the answer was until suddenly, it hit you!

“Wait a minute, that’s a trick question! You’ve never told me what your favorite color was! You can’t fool me!” You accused as you pointed your finger at his radio. A deep chuckle came from the radio as you guessed right. 

“Clever girl. Well in that case, I might as well tell what my favorite color is. It’s autumn orange. It gives off a warm feeling along with joy whenever I look at it. Just like whenever I look at you. It reminds me of you.”

Your eyes lit up at his words and your cheeks flushed. That...may or may not be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to you. Plus, it sounded very genuine. A warm feeling swirled your insides and a sincere smile danced across your lips. Who knew that an alien from outer space could be one of the most caring people (er- robot) you knew.

“Whoa, I definitely wasn’t expecting that answer. I didn’t know you had a sappy side.” You lightly joke. “But, thank you. That was really nice of you to say. And you should show your sappy side more often.”

“Heh, I’ll think about it.”

You then raised a hand to your mouth and let out a yawn. Optimus was able to catch it and moved his rear view mirror towards you once more.

“Am I boring you already?” He asked in a fake yet barely noticeable betrayed voice. There was a hint of amusement sprinkled onto there.

And you snapped out of your sleepy trance and sat up straight, all alerted. “Wha- no no no! It was just a yawn! I’m not-”

Your words were cut off when you heard laughter from him. Yeah sure, you’ve heard him chuckle before, but an actual laugh coming from him was quite rare. You laughed along with him until it died down.

“Alright, little one. Go on and get some rest. I’ll wake you up once we get to the gas station.”

You lied down along the seats on your back and closed your eyes. As your drowsiness was pulling you into slumber, you heard the radio turn on as lofi music played on a soft volume. Now this was most definitely making you sleepy. Soon enough, you were knocked out. Optimus silently hoped that they could stay like this for at least a very long time. With the both of you in peace, traveling in the middle of nowhere while relaxing lofi hip hop was playing in the background. Yet another moment that he gets to cherish for as long as he gets to live.

[the-odd-job]

Up in Flames chapter 22 - My Roots, My Roots (Ashes Part 2)

Rating: Explicit Warnings: Major Character Death, Chose Not to Use Category: Other Fandom: Transformers Relationships: Megatron/Sunstreaker, Megatron/Sideswipe, Sideswipe & Sunstreaker Characters: Sunstreaker, Megatron, Sideswipe, Shockwave, Flatline, Original Character Additional Tags: Dubcon, Mechpreg, Sticky Words: 4065

( Previous )

Alright, so. Having a sparkling sawing itself off your spark? Hurt like all pit. Now he knew and could never do that again.

Not that he would’ve really done it the first time either, if there hadn’t been an… Accident. And yet, he could have entirely avoided the whole ordeal by snuffing that accident when it was still so small he would’ve barely felt it.

He hadn’t, though. Clearly he was as insane as everyone thought he was.

Granted, he hadn’t exactly foreseen how far off tracks his life was going to go just because of that one tiny decision: to keep or to not keep. Maybe he should’ve seen it coming, all things considered. What had he expected? That he could just carry and deliver the sparkling without anything changing? Maybe hand it over to Megatron at the other end and be done with the whole thing?

Chances were he never had thought any of it through and had just acted, reacting to situations as they came without many considerations for the consequences. Just as long as things worked out in the moment, no? Never to worry about how the future was going to work, until it suddenly didn’t work at all anymore. Megatron dropping a nuke on his old life the way he had he could’ve taken. Oh, he wasn’t happy about it, but he could take it.

What the Autobots had done after? That he wasn’t willing to just take. Why? Was he that concerned over the sparkling’s safety? Wasn’t he supposed to be too selfish for things like that?

But for Primus’ sake, it was his. What else was he meant to do, say, and think?

It was his.

Which was, admittedly, more than a little weird. Becoming a creator, or a commissioner, or a mentor had never really been something he had had an interest in. He couldn’t avoid the creator part now, but…

He could still walk away. No one was holding him. Megatron had made it clear enough that they were free to do what they liked to, now. Or were in theory—who actually knew how the Decepticons might react to their decisions in practice. 

But he was yet to even try to go and leave it all behind—the Decepticons, the sparkling. Megatron.

Megatron the absolute slagturd. Who the frag did he think he was? The wannabe leader of Cybertron, sure, already commandeering an entire army, sure, one of the most powerful mecha anywhere in the galaxy no matter which way you looked at it, fragging sure–

But that didn’t give him the right to just… Just… Take control of his life to the extent he had, do all the things he had, then throw that all away because they’d reached the end of their agreement. 

Megatron hadn’t left Cybertron yet, but neither had he… Invited either him or Sideswipe into his quarters. Had he done so to Sunstreaker, and oh, he would’ve torn the damn mech a new one. Or tried to. That tended to work out so well, but the point wasn’t to succeed, it was to give Megatron an undeniable piece of his mind. 

But noooo, he couldn’t be given the chance. Instead they were in the quarters they’d had since their arrival here, him and Sideswipe… And the sparkling, now. It was cuddled against his side, and that was… Going to take some getting used to. 

Sideswipe was infinitely amused by him right then, and Sunstreaker glared off to the side where his twin frame’s optics were glowing on the other side of the sparkling. Neither of them was recharging, mostly because Sunstreaker couldn’t chill out enough to not kick himself straight out of any recharge cycle he initiated. Part of that was probably the sparkling, its presence so foreign that his entirely overactive self-defense protocols didn’t know what the fuck they were supposed to do about it. 

Or maybe it was unfair to blame his problems on it and not place them directly at his own pedes and the spark deep aggravation Megatron had seated in him. He was damn offended!

And Sideswipe found that absolutely hilarious, as much as he kept quiet about it for the sparkling’s sake. It was very much recharging, and if he had to guess, pressed against him in part to keep itself warm. Cybertron was far on the cooler side of things even inside the compound—not enough so to make it impossible for their species to function, but it could get uncomfortable. Larger frames like theirs could create enough heat on their own that it didn’t really become an issue, but he imagined that for something as small as the sparkling, things got a bit chilly. Its fans weren’t running and all of the vents it could close it had closed.

The sound of its frame was so… Diminutive, too. It wasn’t the quiet rumble like those of his and Sideswipe’s, but he couldn’t rightly call it just a whine, either.

Whatever it was, Sideswipe thought it was cute, but then he thought practically everything about the sparkling was cute.  

It was an odd little creature, Sunstreaker had to admit that much. Very… Intense, despite its small size. There was calculation in its optics, and Sunstreaker couldn’t tell what for. Was it just heavily judging everyone without any proper reference point to judge others based on, or was its battle programming already at work despite the fact it was a threat to absolutely no one? Because oh, it had inherited a few too many things related to combat from its creators.

To its credit, it did already bite Shockwave when the scientist got a little too handsy without a proper warning. Harmless, but delightful. Even Shockwave had commended it for that act of bravery and stupidity.

Just wait until it got bigger.

And its field? It was calm, but only in the way weather was before a storm. He liked to think it wasn’t dumb enough to unleash whatever it was holding back because indeed, it was absolutely defenseless and could’ve gotten crushed beneath a carelessly placed pede, but clearly it already had… Spirit.

Not that he had ever doubted that, after carrying the damn thing. He’d gotten quite up close and personal with it over the course of that process. But even so, he wasn’t in a position to predict how having a physical shell would affect how its spark’s qualities would manifest—especially considering Flatline had already stated the obvious, that its programming was non-standard.

And a little messed up on top of it all. 

Such a special bundle.

But it was small. Too proud to agree to be carried anywhere, but the fact it didn’t even come up to his knee meant it had to jog to keep up with them even when they were walking slowly. At least it was smart enough to stick close to the walls, and to always keep either himself or Sideswipe between it and anyone else who might not be so aware of their surroundings that they wouldn’t accidentally kick it.

Although it looked like everyone was keeping a pretty close watch of their pedes, likely because of who the little thing’s creators were. If Sunstreaker hadn’t slagged them, Megatron certainly would have.

They got to the rec room without incidents at the end of that very poorly recharged recharge cycle, despite passing a couple of Seekers on the way. Sideswipe picked a table after a detour to the energon dispenser and the sparkling, with great difficulty, hauled itself up on the seat next to him, but Sunstreaker had his attention elsewhere.

Megatron was present in the room as well, speaking with Shockwave by the furthest wall. Sunstreaker didn’t give too many thoughts to why the tyrant would be present, if it was to fuel or for something else—all he cared about was that the damn mech was around, and he immediately beelined for him.

His rather furious field announced him before anything else and both Megatron and Shockwave turned to look, both as unimpressed. If that wasn’t the perfect thing to make him even angrier. He hadn’t expected anything else from Shockwave, naturally, but fragging Megatron…

“I see you haven’t left yet,” Megatron commented once he was a couple of steps away–

And fragging pits but that was it. Sue him but he was done with this bullshit. Megatron knew slagging well he hadn’t gone anywhere, that he was still with the warlord’s fucking sparkling–

Consequences? Who gave a fuck about those. There was a table next to Megatron, and now, it wouldn’t do to underestimate Megatron’s reflexes–

But Sunstreaker wasn’t exactly slow himself. He couldn’t reach the tyrant’s faceplates from the ground, but quick as they came, Sunstreaker had jumped against the table, using it as base to jump just that bit higher–

And ah, his fist connecting squarely with Megatron’s stupid face was so intensely satisfying.

Sunstreaker dropped back to the ground afterwards, but even his attempt to backpedal out of harm’s immediate way wasn’t quite quick enough. Megatron might not have seen that coming enough to block it, but he was very aware and very angry now. 

Just like Sunstreaker.

He dodged, but not fast enough. Megatron caught him by the shoulder and with all of his considerable strength–

Slammed him into the wall. He couldn’t silence his grunt as his backplates ground against his protoform, which in turn ground against his spinal strut. Rather uncomfortable, to say the least.

But just who had the bastard’s attention now, hm?  

“What,” Sunstreaker snarled even as he kicked up and hit Megatron somewhere in the leg, he didn’t care where, “you’ll let me get away with stabbing you, but punching’s a no-go?”

“Not in front of everyone, dear,” Megatron growled right back at him. Sunstreaker fought to suppress his grin, sneering instead and wrenching himself free and out of the way just in time for Megatron’s fist to connect with the wall where his helm had been.

That would’ve hurt.

But he wasn’t a coward or wont to quit things just because they got a bit rough. Before Megatron could stop him, he’d sank his claws into his side, as relatively little damage as he could do the tyrant’s impossibly thick armor.

Megatron made a grab at him again. He dodged with not an inch to spare.

Sideswipe didn’t have a cube to sip right then, but he would’ve really felt like sipping one when he watched Megatron and Sunstreaker once again go at it. If you asked him, Sunstreaker had every right to be pissed, though of course his brother was going to take his emotions and their unleashing to an extreme, no questions asked.

There was also no question about who was going to win this particular brawl, but that didn’t mean Megatron wouldn’t get to hurt quite a bit before they were done. Shockwave had moved well out of the way and everyone else kept their distance too, the occupants of the room watching the show with varying reactions. Some were shocked by Sunstreaker’s audacity, others just entertained, and a few took their cues from Sideswipe and didn’t show much reaction at all.

The sparkling was looking at him too, a bit of askance in its optics.

“That,” Sideswipe grinned, pointing at the quite vicious pair, “is called flirting.”

The sparkling considered him for a moment, probably integrated what the fuck the word even referred to–

And then nodded at him in full understanding before it went back to watching its creators slag each other, calm as they came.

Charming little thing, honestly. 

Megatron and Sunstreaker were about as charmed with each other, right then. There was growling, cussing and insults from Sunstreaker’s side as he worked through his grudge, Megatron meeting it all with a snarl and sometimes a question clearly aimed to chart what the pit had gotten into Sunstreaker this time. Sunstreaker sort of but not really answered those. See, communication! Make the other guess what they’d done wrong.

And just beat them up until they got the answer right. Though in all fairness and as expected, Sunstreaker was getting a little more beat up than Megatron. Not to say Megatron wasn’t gaining an impressive collection of claw marks and dents on him, but without going berserk, Sunstreaker wasn’t really a match to him. 

And he wasn’t going to risk it around the sparkling, knowing he became a threat to everyone and everything once he let go like that.

So, on the schedule was Sunstreaker getting royally messed up by one slightly confused and mostly angry Megatron. And was that blood? Oh, that was definitely blood.

Sideswipe might not have had a cube, but the sparkling sure was sipping from the little one it had while watching the show.

--------------------------------------------------

Megatron didn't even bother getting repairs before storming off the entire planet. The twins had no such luxury, or rather, they didn't know if they wanted to do the same. Going back to Earth would've required Megatron's permission, else they'd scarcely have the ability to use the space bridge, but the rest of Cybertron? Supposedly free for them to roam as they pleased, if they wanted to.

Did they want to? That was what Sunstreaker considered long and hard while suffering through Flatline's repairs. Megatron was absolutely infuriating and it wasn't as if the sparkling needed them.

So what the fuck kept them here?

The sparkling was entertaining Sideswipe on the neighboring berth, the two of them plugged into the same datapad and playing some sort of competitive shooter. Sideswipe was winning so far by a rather wide margin, but that was slowly growing smaller as the sparkling figured out the game mechanics and the use of its own battle programming. It wouldn't threaten Sideswipe's skills anytime soon, but more important than that was its determination. It wasn't discouraged by the constant losses and only focused on the game all the harder because of them, the little optical ridges of its protoform scrunched down in utter concentration. It had undeniable tenacity, a quality that would serve it well.

But tenacity alone wouldn't keep it alive. "When can it be upgraded?" he halfway demanded from Flatline as the medic replaced some of the last of his armor pieces. He'd taken the fact his work on restoring their armors had gotten damaged in such a short order surprisingly well. Ratchet, or Hook for that matter, wouldn't have had an end to their complaints.

"The sparkling?" Flatline glanced up from his work, first at him, then at the sparkling itself, that had looked up too now that it was being discussed. "Anytime, really. If you want anything more experimental, Shockwave will have to do it, but I can handle the rest."

"Are there any limits?" Sideswipe asked, his mind already swirling with possibilities, each more outlandish than the previous. 

"Not really. If it's something that hasn't been done before, Shockwave and I will enjoy the challenge."

Had to wonder to what extent that actually held true, but at least they could work with mostly free hands. Sunstreaker turned to look at the sparkling. "Do you want to be upgraded?"

The sparkling considered him for a moment before nodding, carefully and deliberately. "I don't want to be small and helpless."

Sunstreaker nodded back, but when he was already going to say that settles it–

"I'll have someone contact Lord Megatron and make sure he agrees," Flatline said, and at the fragging reminder of that mech's existence and general influence levels, Sunstreaker went right back to ugly snarling. 

"Sire and carrier don't get along very well, do they?" the sparkling asked from his brother as they returned to their game.

"They're funny like that," came Sideswipe's flippant response. The sparkling thought about that for a moment like it tended to think about everything for a moment, before it took the answer and shrugged. 

They went to go back to their quarters once Flatline finished his repairs and gave the sparkling a checkup for good measure, not that there was anything wrong with it. The little thing trotted next to them as they walked the dark halls until they’d come to their room, without incident once again.

But preferably they wouldn’t need to worry about incidents quite so much soon enough.

Sunstreaker stopped once they were inside and turned to the sparkling. “I don’t see why your slagging sire wouldn’t say yes to your upgrades,” growl growl snarl, “so would you like to get started on designing them?”

The sparkling stared at him, but nodded after a bit of a delay. “Yes. Can I decide?”

Sunstreaker shrugged, but it was Sideswipe who answered. “It’s your frame, so, your call.”

“I withhold veto rights if it’s something ugly, though,” Sunstreaker tagged on as both him and Sideswipe sat on the berth, the sparkling doing some mountain climbing to follow them.

“I don’t want to be ugly,” it said with a little growl, managing to deposit itself onto the berth between them. They scooted back until they’d formed a circle and Sunstreaker pulled out his drawing pad, placing it in the middle, within his reach.

“Fear not, we won’t let you pick anything ugly,” Sideswipe laughed. Sunstreaker pulled up a basic skeleton he could start designing the frame features on, the sparkling watching the process raptly. “So, what would you like as general guidance?” his brother asked. “You’ve got files on standard upgrade processes somewhere in your helm, see if you can’t find them.”

The sparkling focused inward for a moment, by all appearances digging through its base education. They waited patiently until it nodded. “Found ‘em.”

“Awesome. Where do you wanna start?”

“Size,” it responded immediately and Sunstreaker deftly pulled images of both himself and Megatron onto the screen, positioning them next to the empty skeleton. The sparkling considered it for a moment—its files would have informed it that the larger the jump in size, the more difficult and time consuming it’d be to adjust to its newly upgraded frame.

Despite that, it eventually pointed, “I want to come up to sire’s hip.”

Sunstreaker increased the skeleton’s size until it was almost shoulder height to him and Sideswipe before he cocked an optical ridge at the little one. The sparkling nodded resolutely. “Like that.”

“No point in going slow, eh? What else?”

“I want to be spiky, like you and sire.”

Sideswipe laughed. “Now that’s the right aesthetic! Okay, let’s work Sunny’s magic and see what we get.”

There was an uptick to the corner of Sunstreaker’s mouth too, but he brought the stylus back to the screen and began to quickly sketch features onto the skeleton, adding sharp points here and there. Shoulders, hips, knees—and claws, naturally, the sparkling was adamant on getting those and they had no reason to argue it. It wanted pedes like its sire’s, but helm fins like Sunstreaker’s, only smaller. A sharp chin guard also came to the list of must have items. 

Sunstreaker refined the image as they went and as the sparkling became more certain of what it wanted after seeing it on the canvas. Before long they had something that did a perfect job of getting across what it wanted, and then repeated the process on its backside.

“That good?” Sideswipe asked once they had a clean image. The sparkling stared at it with a frown for a good while before it nodded, certain.

“Yes. That’s what I want.”

“Cool. Should we do colors next?”

“I want grey, black, and… Red, I think.”

“What amount of color coverage?” Sunstreaker asked as he messed around with the palette until he had starting points for each of the colors.

The sparkling thought about that for a moment, too. “Can I see equal amounts of black and grey and accents of red, first?”

Sideswipe nodded and Sunstreaker set to work on the color placement, giving the sparkling chances to offer its input as they went. Eventually they opted to mix in lighter grey as well, bringing the frame’s color count to four.

They tweaked until the sparkling was nodding in satisfaction at that too. “Are the looks done, now?”

Sunstreaker cast a critical optic over the drawing before he gave a nod of his own. “I believe they are. Let’s see what’s next… Your voice and any modifications you want.”

“Voice, first.”

Sideswipe fished out a datapad from his subspace and navigated to the vocal emulator, quickly setting the limits generated by its to-be frame’s physical dimensions before he set it down in front of the sparkling. “Play around with that and find what you like.”

The sparkling’s optics brightened in excitement and it set to work without hesitation, testing the various vocalizer qualities. Soon enough it abandoned the higher voice ranges entirely, gravitating instead towards the deeper, rougher tones.

…Very deep. Very, very deep. As deep as things would go, in fact.

Which was deep. He didn’t add particularly much roughness to it, though, thus setting his voice aside from both Sunstreaker and Megatron’s, but, “That’s gotta be deeper than either your carrier’s or your sire’s,” Sideswipe laughed once it looked like the sparkling was satisfied with what it had.

His brother got a flat look for his trouble. “It’s what I want.”

“And it’s what you’ll get,” Sideswipe promised even as Sunstreaker connected the datapad to his drawing tablet and downloaded the vocal specs to bundle them together with the frame design.

In the middle of that he was interrupted by a comm. call that he accepted before looking at who was even calling him.

It turned out to be Flatline. ::Just letting you know that Lord Megatron agreed to the upgrade, although he wants to see and approve the design first.::

Sunstreaker growled, but fraggit, if that’s what it took to get the sparkling its upgrades… ::We’re near finished with the design. I’ll send it to you once we’re done so you can get Megabastard’s approval.::

It almost sounded like Flatline was holding back laughter, but he answered with as even of a voice as he managed, ::Very well. I’ll be waiting.::

With that the connection was cut and Sunstreaker focused back on the task at hand. Sideswipe and the sparkling were already debating the pros and cons of possible and some impossible modifications. “I wouldn’t get any weapons inserted at this stage. You could try handheld ones first, see what you like, and have them applied in your next upgrade. That way you won’t be stuck with anything you won’t like, even just for a while.”

The sparkling nodded its acceptance of that logic. “Can I get a proper battle computer, at least?”

“Oh yeah, no reason why not. Anything else?”

“Priority mods on my senses to make them play better with a battle computer.”

“Deal.”

“And combat reroutes to my engines so I have better control over them.”

“Can do.”

“Limited redline overrides?”

Sideswipe laughed. “You’ll be giving Autobots some woe in no time. Yes on that too.”

“I can’t think of anything else.”

Sunstreaker rumbled. “You can always add them to later upgrades,” he promised as he listed the desired mods in with all the other design features they’d already agreed on. Then he placed the drawing pad in front of the sparkling. “Final review. Do you approve of everything or would you like something more added, removed, or edited?”

The sparkling took a good moment to browse through everything, focused on the task and so clearly serious about getting just the frame it wanted. Only after it had gone through everything four times did it nod and push the tablet back towards Sunstreaker. “It’s good.”

Both of the twins nodded and Sunstreaker jacked into the drawing tablet, downloaded the bundle, then pinged it to Flatline. Flatline pinged back that he’d received it, and then it was just about waiting for Megatron’s go ahead, followed by Flatline getting everything ready for the upgrade itself.

That in mind, Sunstreaker followed the ping with the question of how long that was going to take, and Flatline promised no longer than an orn, looking at everything they’d decided on. He relayed that information to the sparkling, who huffed in disappointment at things taking that long.

It was just a matter of time and Megatron’s approval, though, and Sunstreaker was quite certain the latter would be easy enough to get. 

Bastard.

( Next )

[primergon]

i’m searching low in the night , starscream/fem!reader

Summary : What could he possibly want from an organic? A filthy, weak, and incompetent organic? An organic whose tears he could not stop imagining, an organic whose eyes follow him everywhere he goes, an organic whose laughter crowded every space of his silence.An organic, who is out there, unknowingly waiting for him.

( Starscream meets shattered glass! Starscream and discovers somethings better left unknown)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Category: F/M

Fandoms: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime

Relationships: Starscream / reader, Starscream (Transformers)/You

THE locks hissed, latching themselves in place. Shockwave remained unperturbed by the whole scenario, mulling about as if it was nothing short of a usual day in the lab. If this couldn’t shake the stoic Mech, then Starscream doesn’t want to know what will. Knockout seemed much more hesitant, shooting glances at him every now and then – Starscream would have found it comical if it wasn’t for the look everyone’s giving him.

Starscream marched to his counterpart, peeling himself off the wall. “ You’re an Autobot.”

His doppelganger shot him a no slag look. The Autobot insignia gleamed above his armor, a stark difference to the walls that held him prisoner. Starscream took the chance to observe him – or himself, up close. Aside from the minor scratches he got upon entering the portal, he seemed unharmed. The color scheme of his plating was enough to make Starscream nauseous. It was white down to his claws – no, fingers. It was white down to his fingers.

Starscream scowled.

“ Pathetic,” He scoffed, “ I expected better from myself.”

“ Makes the two of us.”

The vehicons left once their work was done, ushered out by Knockout. There was comfort in knowing that Megatron won’t be around to witness this himself, even if a field report was inevitably going to inform him of it, considering that Shockwave was with them – yet his temporary absence gave Starscream the closure he needed to let his curiosity wander.

Mirror-Starscream – as Knockout has dubbed, looked uncharacteristically calm, which only serves to agitate him even more. Deep down he was rooting for him to resist, to fight back – to even beg. Where was his cunningness? Where were his shrewd quips and witty reasoning? Why isn’t he trying to talk his way out? Was he that much of a coward? Yet the look in his eyes stated otherwise. It was one of determination. One of courage and loyalty and – bah! It makes him sick.

Pathetic.

Shockwave can toss his words to the Pit – there was no way he was staring at his alternate self. Whatever failed science experiment the one-eyed slagger had conjured, it couldn’t have possibly brought back anything that resembled him. This must be some sort of trick, a curse, a bad omen.

“ Mind sharing to us how this all came to be?” Knockout hummed, attaching the very last wires into the system. The computer whirred to life, the noise enough to set him on edge – again Mirror-Starscream was almost unresponsive, merely glancing around as if he’s laying on a human beach rather than the torture chamber of a Decepticon warship.

“ You’re going to pry it from my head anyways.” He tugged on the restraints. “Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter – you won’t get any information that you can use against my friends, because I don’t know how the slag this happened either.”

Starscream scoffed. “ We’ll see about that.”

Starscream slid onto the opposite berth, letting the doctor ease a cable around the back of his helm. His double regarded him silently, confusion in his eyes – as if he couldn’t picture what they’ve become. “Why ?”

“ Why not?”

Knockout gave him the signal and at the count of three, Shockwave activated the cortical psychic patch. His double gave him a horrified look, before falling into his memories, pulling Starscream with him.

He shouldn’t be surprised – no. He’d seen many things throughout this war. He’d seen Vos crumble at his feet, he’d seen flyers getting their wings ripped out by blasters mid-air, he’d seen Megatron on his worst days. He’d seen it all, nothing could catch him off-guard.

Except maybe this.

“ W-what is this?”

His double raised a brow at him. “ This is the part that surprises you?”

Starscream recoiled. “ Why am I touching that organic?”

His double searched his gaze. “ That organic is our – my Conjunx.”

Starscream swore he could hear Knockout’s gasp, or perhaps it was his own. The seeker retreated, looking back and forth. “ I would rather go to the Pit than admit that-that creature is my – “

“You don’t recognize her?”

His double moved forward, walking past Megatron – a parallel Megatron, where he wasn’t a bloodthirsty warlord, but instead, a scientist whose driving force is to protect humanity and take down Orion Pax. Orion Pax, Optimus, for short - who is supposedly a gladiator of Kaon. Starscream could barely picture the red and blue Mech even taking down a vehicon before the primacy, what more Megatron? Then again, the silver Mech didn’t even look threatening – with no claws and blue optics. Primus, what happened to his optics?

Starscream pretended to be nauseated, insulted, infuriated – yet he couldn’t bring himself to pry his eyes away from the sight. The scene had melted into another one, the once vibrant colors peeling into a dark room. He could hear the sound of rain, and the roof above his head suggested that he was inside a human home. He flinched when the wood creaked below his feet, only to realize that it came from the memory.

He could walk only to where his double stood, not daring to reach out any further. In his double’s memory, he was hugging – hugging? Yes, hugging the organic. They were laying down on a human berth, limbs tangled. He was nearly lost in the intimacy, watching as she dragged her fingers across his wings. This would imply that – Primus, they really are Conjux Endurae. Watching himself being courted is weird enough, watching him being courted by a fleshling is even worse. Then again, she was being extremely careful, reaching out to cover the expanse of his wing with her faint caress.

“ Are you falling asleep?” She asked, whispering into the dark. Their bodies were illuminated by the half-light pouring through the window, shielded from the ongoing storm. It was quiet, so quiet, that he could hear her breathing.

“ I am.” He murmured, burying his head deeper against her clothed stomach. Starscream wanted to flinch at that, to rage at the idea that he would give himself to something so –

She laughed. The noise faint and brief, yet enough to send something through his spark. He retreated, watching as she pulled him closer. “ That’s good to hear. You’ve been working so hard, and I’ve been worried. I can’t imagine anything happening to you.”

Outside he could hear the roll of thunder. His double raised a finger, tracing it across her cheek. “ I should be the one that’s worried.” He pulled himself up, sitting upright. “ What did the doctor say?”

There was a moment. He should’ve taken this as a chance to break the vision – they should be looking for information. One related to winning this war, yet he felt anchored to the ground, unable to move. The fact that they haven’t shifted to another memory meant that Shockwave no longer has control over the psychic patch, leaving them with no room to argue.

The human woman hesitated. He waited, combing her hair. “ Tell me, please.”

There it was, begging. Starscream stole a glance at his counterpart, who was leaning by the wall, looking away. She rose to sit, placing both her hands across his cheeks. She leaned in, brushing her lips against his own. He felt appalled, but the feeling ebbed away when she started crying. Liquid leaked from her optics – eyes, humans called them.

“ Starscream.” There was something in the way she uttered his name. He’d heard people shout his name, scream his name, belittle and butcher his name. He was used to the anger dripping from their voices when his name was called, he had grown to the cruel and sneering way everyone would refer him to.

That’s why hearing his name uttered so gently was enough to shock him into flinching.

He couldn't remember the last time someone did that.

“ We both know I…my life is finite compared to yours. We both know I will leave you much sooner than you want me to. I wished we had more time, but if this is all that the universe is going to allow me, then I want to spend it with you.” The tears continued to spill, even if she’d buried her face on his shoulder. “ I’m sorry…I’m sorry that we’re so unlucky in this lifetime. I’m sorry, I had to get sick, I’m sorry I’ll – “

His double shushed her. She was hiccupping, spilling her tears all over his armor – yet he didn’t seem to care. All he did was hold her, rocking her sideways. Warmly, tenderly, intimately. “ Don’t apologize for something you cannot control.”

He laid her back down on the bed, the two of them facing one another. It was at this point that Starscream felt as if he had interrupted something private, something he shouldn’t see – but the rain outside was growing stronger. The wind howling and shaking the trees.

Once she’d calm down, she raised a hand above the pillow. “ I didn’t know I was sick. But, if you had known earlier – will you still stay?”

“ I would.” He answered.

She narrowed her eyes.“ Even if it would hurt you?”

“ I would.”

His mirrored-self embraced her in a way that seemed so foreign – could he do that? Was he capable of really giving her that kind of security? That kind of comfort? Here, within these four walls, the war couldn't reach them. Here, in this far, distant memory coming from a life he could have had, she laid next to him as if she trusted him more than anyone.

She could have never done the same with him – yet this was him, wasn't it?

“ I wish we are luckier in another life.”

She murmured, eyes struggling to keep themselves open. He – his double, continued to rub comforting circles around her back. Under his metal fingers, her skin looked so pliant, so inviting. He nuzzled the column of her neck, arching into her touch.

He could crush her, hurt her – yet he didn’t.

Why? Starscream didn’t understand. Why, why, why, why –

“ Why?”

Once again, the scenery before them started to blur, fading into the next one. His mirrored-self ex-vented.

“ Why not ?”

Even after they’ve severed the psychic link, Starscream still finds himself going back to the memory. He could never forget the look Knockout had offered him. He could have handled the gloating or the disgust in his face. Yet everything about the medic screamed pity, and Starscream had to walk out of the room to stop himself from getting angry.

At what, he didn’t know.

His double had managed to escape. After three days of captivity, Mirror-Starscream was rescued by his team – Starscream scoffed bitterly, all that hassle, all that trouble, just to rescue one Mech? In this world, Megatron would have left him for scrap.

He let his hands fall to his sides.

He would have left him for scrap.

The warlord was indifferent to the incident, if not a little agitated with how they’ve managed to still return empty-handed. The Vehicons had initially gossiped about it, whispering to one another whenever he would pass down the halls. After a week, however, it died down – any talk about his second life vaporizing into thin air. Disappearing without a trace.

Starscream wished it was the same for his memories.

Yet, here he lay – awake at night in his berth, staring at the ceiling. If he closes his optics, he could hear the pitter-patter of the rain above the roof. He could hear her breathing, the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest. He could imagine her hands against his skin – warm. They would be very warm. Initially, whenever the thought would arise, he would push them away. He’d spent weeks running from it, only to find that he’s been going in circles – haunted by a memory that wasn’t even his to begin with.

What made it so appealing?

What could he possibly want from an organic? A filthy, weak, and incompetent organic? An organic whose tears he could not stop imagining, an organic whose eyes follow him everywhere he goes, an organic whose laughter crowded every space of his silence.

An organic, who is out there, unknowingly waiting for him.

“ I wish we are luckier in another life.”

He clenched his fists.

He stared at the datapad. At that time, he had caught a glance of her name written above what seemed to be a medical report. He had entered the syllables into a humans search engine, scrolling through the world wide web for her identity. He stared at her picture on a social platform – social media, they call it.

He groaned. What am I doing?

She was smiling. He noted. She looked healthy here.

But will it stay that way?

“ Even if it would hurt you?”

He stood by the roof of the Nemesis, feeling the clouds cluster oppressively around him. The onslaught of rain did nothing to deter his stance. He watched the storm below, observing the flash of lighting. Thunder followed not long after. The wind strong enough to faintly rock the ship.

 Just one look to quench your curiosity, he reasoned, just one look so you will stop thinking about her.

He turned off his comm-link, severing all communication with Soundwave. This should buy him some time, how long ? He doesn't know. Hopefully, it will be enough.

All he needed to do was jump, and somewhere below – inside a human home, you were waiting for him.

Pathetic. He thought - leaping off the platform.

A/N :  I hope this isn't too OOC, you can set the timeline anywhere you want - but I'd like to think it's somewhere around season 2. Don't hesitate to tell me what you guys think and correct my mistakes <3

AO3 Link : I’m searching low in the night 

[the-energon-hole]

May I also have headcannons of TFP Megatron, Knockout and Predaking with female reader who never experienced genuine romance? She is usually confident and suave, but when it comes to romance, she is not. She quietly confesses that her previous exes never appreciated her nor made her feel beautiful, safe and warm: only wanting to use her. Then the mechs do what her exes failed to do, making the reader feel loved from their compliments, gentle caresses and telling her why they love her.

((A/N - I went a little slow with this one because I didn’t want to mess it up- it took me awhile to think about it so I hope you like it ))

Megatron

-To say that Megatron has never experienced genuine love would be a bold face lie probably told by the Autobot propaganda committee to make him look like some kind of unfeeling monster. He felt a deep love for all his fellow Cybertronians to the point he would overthrow an entire government in order to get them the freedom of choice they so truly deserved, he loved his position as a gladiator in the pits of Kaon as he was big on entertaining the masses with his bulk and combative wit, and he somehow found himself in some kind of romantically love with a squishy little human that managed to charm and seduce him in a way no one before her had ever accomplished, he was sure many have tried as he was quite the catch back in the days of his youth, but as time went on and he became a battle hardened and deeply scarred warlord- well, the prospect of bonding became a thing of the past. Yet, here you were, simply leaking regality while still possessing such a flirty and sensual attitude that it was hard to resist any command you threw at him. You could snap your fingers and demand he serve you his soldiers head’s on a spike and he would do it if it gave him any kind of chance of winning over your seemingly cold and unfeeling heart. It was actually kind of dangerous if you look at it objectively, the great and powerful Megatron becoming an enamoured slave to an insignificant and feeble little human, but really when has playing it safe and staying in one’s lane ever actually accomplished anything meaningful or significant. It was the risk takers and the trend setters who would always be remembered and always be kept in histories light as the ones who have made an impact to the way society was run, and he was hoping that maybe by being a said trend setter that maybe you would keep him in your radiant light that he has been craving to be in since you began to prove your worth to him in a way no other Cybertronian ever had before.

-You had him wrapped up around your little finger and the power was beginning to go to your head as you noticed so many vehicons refused to look you in the eye as you passed them by them in the halls of the ship, and you also noticed all of Megatron’s subordinates showing such great respect by offering up their frames as a way of pleasing you to get into your good graces so many times that it made your heart flutter a little with delight to know you can basically do whatever you wanted and get away with it because you were the favorite of the biggest and baddest bot in all of Cybertronian history. Truthfully however, at times, you felt like all of this attention and doting on should be given to someone who is more deserving of it than you. You were never seen as the most prime specimen of beauty in your culture and a long streak of messy and bad break ups seems to only continue to taunt and emphasize that to you. Lovable as never something you thought yourself to be as time and again you have been shown that every single one of your partners had to be that constant reminder that you were far from perfect and that you deserved to be alone forever because you were not their ideal woman. It was depressing honestly, and you sometimes had bad days where you couldn’t function because of those taunting and dark thoughts, they were there to remind you time and again that you were the embodiment of bitter energy and that romantic love will always be something that is unattainable by you- no one understood that as they would spout some fairy tale nonsense about everyone having their proverbial prince charming and how everyone will experience this amazing euphoric feeling in their lifetime. It was a load of crock, which was why you stopped sharing your secret affinity for things like finding your one true love amongst so many individuals- it was like trying to find the sheep amongst a pack of wolves, impossible and something you cannot foresee yourself being able to do. It hurt, but you know what, life goes on and you have to go along with it.

-This wasn’t a conversation you were really that willing to have, as it all started when Megatron expressed his “undying devotion” to you and exclaimed how he wished to hold you in his spark as someone who was more than just his dear little human spy and that he would do anything to keep you happy and safe so long as he is living and functioning, you got angry as you didn’t believe him. You yelled and screamed and called him a liar- and it seems this wasn’t the reaction he was expecting, it wasn’t that the feelings were not mutual, you actually felt great attraction towards Megatron, you just can’t trust yourself to know a difference between romantic attraction or sexual desires. The not being able to distinct between the two has gotten you in so many bad situations that you just decided completely to ignore those feelings. You broke down just thinking about it as you told this magnificent mech that it wasn’t him it was you- so many before have tricked and lied to you to manipulating you into thinking your romantic feelings were real, but really it was just them taking advantage of you and abusing you to the point you still question your emotions to this day. It frustrated and angered you more than it did make you cry, but all of these emotions surfacing, well it was hard to not become a little emotional remembering all of the bad shit you had to go through to get to this point. That was when Megatron stopped speaking words as you felt him grip your face to look at him from your position on a countertop- you had no idea what was reflecting in those normally cold optics, but you could have sworn in that moment there was a shimmering sparkle that was present that made you stop feeling so anxious and feel some kind of comfort that you never have before. That was all this moment was, just staring into one another’s eyes- his reflecting genuine love and compassion while you were sure yours reflected fear and anxiety but also a little bit of a new emotion that was a mix of hesitant understanding and a little bit of longing. You wanted to kiss him in that tender moment, so you reached up and he lifted you so you can nuzzle and plant a small tender kiss on his faceplate. Is this what love was, real romantic love? It felt good- and it felt better knowing Megatron was a mech of his word and would love you with his whole being without anger or an ounce of mistreatment.

Knockout

-You two had a whole lot in common, considering your personalities were almost one in the same. He enjoyed being the shiny and outstanding mech who was colored a deep and enticing color that it made others stop and admire his appearance whether eti was the mindless vehicons or some humans who noticed his alt mode parked outside somewhere- you liked to dress up and show off your appearance while wearing designer and beautiful clothing that made people stop and stare because they were admirable and jealous while wishing they could too look like that. You both also enjoyed having laughs and trading quips back and forth that others might interpret as hurtful exchanges but really were just sweet and innocent words that indicated you both were playing a long standing game that was only reserved for the two of you to know the rules and partake in. It could be constituted as flirting as you weren’t afraid to admit that this mech was most definitely the most attractive of all the Cybertronians you have come to witness- true he was rather a bit of a coward, but he was good looking so he had a pass to be just that. You were a little afraid of dying as well, and really, who in their right mind wasn’t afraid of a premature death so when things get to hot for you two to handle you are always the first ones to bail and retreat back to the sanctum of his lab on The Nemesis ship. It was fine though, as he was always there to check you for wounds and you were always there to buff his finish and vacuum his interior should anything happen to his appearance- it was nice to have someone to fall back on like this, and though you have thought that so many times before you had someone to “ride or die” with, maybe Knockout was the real deal this time? You hoped so, he is a good friend and the best being in the universe- you hope nothing can spoil this fun and fulfilling relationship. You two were one half of the same person after all, which was why the friendship was soon beginning to bud into another thing- it was there, but you didn’t know really what that thing was. Knockout has an idea of what this relationship was slowly stepping into but he didn’t want to rush you into anything, he knows your past and he wants to handle this with as much finesse as possible. That was a good thing, as finesse was his middle name so to speak, and there was no way he can screw this up… Right?

-There were so few things that Knockout had a genuine love for besides himself- he loved Breakdown as much as any mech could as they have been long time companions and long time brothers, he has a real love for the practice of medicine even if that practice is more for the dissection in order to learn and understand things first hand from the source material, and now he can say he has a genuine love for you and all of your quirky and interesting habits. He gets all star opticted when you laugh with that angelic tone and he has to stop himself from swooning when you make a bad joke directed at someone like Starscream and Soundwave because you were just so genuinely unafraid of them- it was a flex of your strength and power of them as an asset to Megatron and he loved it. You were just a human, but you were such an important key to their victory, it was intoxicating knowing not only where you attractive to look at (even if you deny it) but you were also intelligent and witty. You truly were the best rival to have when it came to having your little conversations to where you were so snarky that it made his spark swell with a new kind of emotion that he has never really experienced before. Breakdown told him it must be love but he doubted it, mechs like Knockout don’t fall in love and get tied down by some femme, no matter how amazing he thinks that femme is. Breakdown laughed at him after that, saying how similar the two of you really were, as unbeknownst to Knockout you also asked Breakdown what was going on. Wow, you guys even go to him for the same advise- it was so amusing watching you two just be so blissfully unaware of what was there that sometimes Breakdown wants to just smush your faces together until you kiss and have that “electrical shock” moment that you get when you share a moment with the one you love. You both have had a bad string of relationships however, so he will not pry or force anything and let the two of you figure it out on your own, because really that is what it comes down to. He can’t tell you both anything because you are both equally as stubborn and have to learn your lessons the hard way.

-Knockout knows your hard past and your ex lovers, Breakdown knows your hard past and your ex lovers, and you hated comparing what you have to the cherry red mech to what you used to ahve with those asshoels who made you feel so bad for having any kind of emotions towards them. You were experiencing new feelings you couldn’t describe, but you were also experiencing some old one that you wish would just go away so you never have to worry about them again. Your guts would get all funny and fluttery when you were in the same room as the Decepticon medic just like it had with some of your exs before you, but you felt so calm in his presences that it made you second guess the things your heart was trying to convey to your stubborn and angry brain- why did your body and soul literally have to ruin such an enriching and quality friendship by making you feel like this?! It must have been Knockout who said something, because you were so tight lipped about how you felt that it must have been him to bring it up, but there it was out in the open after one of your famous quip battles was stopped dead after he (or maybe it was you, no one really remembered) uttered the words “you say that you hate me, but in reality My Dear, we all know you love me as much as I love you”. You got a little panicky as you apologized for something, you are not sure what but you just kept repeating it as the good doctor could swear his breath was caught in his vent systems- well, this was not the finesse he normally had and you made him so damn nervous that the beans were spilled before he could even come up with a game plan. Here it was tough out in the open, and once you were done apologizing Knckout decided tha titwas going to be now or never to open up and try to have a for real moment with you. He stroked the top of your head with his claw as he tousled your hair a little while twirling it a little around his digit, he just let instinct take over as he has never done something like this before as he was just a broken as you were when it came to love, he went from stroking your hair to touching your face to which you froze and looked p at him with concern- there was something else plastered on your face however, it was complete trust for the mech before you. He wasn’t like all the others before him, he actually took the time to call you beautiful and he actually liked to listen to your sass and your slightly harsh words and he could meet your challenge when it came to all of these conversations you were having. You saw nothing but relaxed content and a warm disposition as he stroked your face gently with his claw that was really sharp enough he could rip you to ribbons if he wanted, but he wont, and you knew he wouldn’t- and that it what love must feel like, because you trusted him completely with anything and everything, and it was nice to feel so free instead of so caged so you couldn’t help but start laughing and giggling at how nice this situation turned out to be. He laughed too out of solidarity, and in that moment, you knew everything was going to be ok.

Predaking

-He was still very new to this world only being created and imprinted with whatever that mech wanted him to know and he has only known the kindness and compassion you have shown to him- you were not like all the others aboard this floating hell hole whom were fearful and angry at him for who he really was. He actually found himself getting excited and his spark will hammer inside of its case as he anticipated you stopping by daily and telling him all the different kinds of stories you had to speak about. He has learned so much about you in such a short time like how you weren’t particularly being forced to stay on the ship against your will, but you weren’t exactly aloud to leave it either- you were an asset to Megatron’s plan and that kind of made you a prisoner in this cage just like him. Humans weren’t all that interesting to him, but it gave you a reason to speak to him and it was enough for him as he wanted to hear what you had to say when it came to all different kinds of subject matter. You told him all kinds of fascinating tales from the human world from things about human history to things about fantasy and fiction- he found himself entranced as you spoke to him about yourself more than he was enticed by tales of heroism and politics. You for some unknown reason were an ire for his fascination, and you for some reason cause all of these strange and primal instincts to bubble up inside of him that give him the urge to just hold you close to his body so that he can bask in your warmth and maybe get a chance to get drunk on and inhale the scent in which he is teased with whenever you get up close to him and touch his body in a friendly way- you were fascinated by his tail and wings and it made him a little proud and vain to know his physical appearance impressed you in any kind of way. He thought you were a rather attractive human even if the only comparison he can make were to those of the Prime’s ally, either way however, your aesthetic pleased him and ignited all kinds of wonder and emotions he has yet to actually sit and ponder upon. Once you were comfortable enough around him and you ran out of stories to tell, you told him all about you and who you were as a person and all of the thoughts and opinions you had buzzing around inside of that small but cute head of yours. He was so enamoured with you and he has no idea why, but he made it is job to protect you whenever he can, so long as he is around no one will ever hurt you again- and whomever these “exes” were, they better watch their backs.

-He can list all day the things he likes about you, but one thing he can claim was his favorite quirks he saw in you was your need to name everyone on the ship- you gave designations to all the Vehicons to which you listed to him any time they passed by the cage while they were slaving away under Megatron’s laws. They didn’t seem to mind as you always had good names to give based on everyone’s forged frame numbers, but the one you gave to him made him feel even more vain and attractive than when you were stroke and touching his skin absentmindedly as you sat with him during those quiet nights to just talk about anything and everything. You called him a “King” and he felt himself melt a little as he purred unintentionally as you laughed a sweet laugh that made his spark sputter with content comfort and slight nervousness. You rambled sometimes when you just sat there and talked about nothing in particular but that’s ok, because it gave him a chance to sit here with you and just  quietly contemplate his new upcoming emotions- which was not allowed in the current political rule in which you both live, when it was just the two of you however alone in his cage he was allowed to think and to feel however he wanted and it was the best moments he has ever had in his short and hard life. He thought about all kinds of things when he had the chance from all things ranging  between the best ways to get away from Megatron to what it would mean for him if he just stayed and stuck through that overzealous mech’s stupid orders of violence and anger, but his favorite thoughts, the ones he finds himself having even now as you lay against him sleeping because you too have had an exhausting day and even rambling quietly to him was tiring- the thoughts most pleasing were the ones of him taking you away form this place and stashing you somewhere safe until he can figure out what is really going on in this world and what his best options for survival were. It hits him every now and again that he doesn’t really belong anywhere as there were not others like him that existed in his world, but yet he felt right at home when you two were curled up in his cage awaiting the next day of forced labor and agonizing moralistic dilemmas. He didn’t think he could ever be poetic but being in your presence and anytime you graced him with your company he felt as if the sun itself manifested into the form of a beautiful femme that preferred his company over all others.

-Another thing that always caught his attention about you was the way you always were able to stand up for yourself even if the situation was dangerous and no one was around to protect you. It was a sign of your unwavering confidence and stubborn knowledge of knowing you are right in your moralistic actions against those known as the Autobots, you were so amazing to watch as you yelled at Starscream for pushing his luck by trying to mess with you and “not really kill you but injury you a little” because he felt like flexing his imaginary power hold over you- you were having none of his nonsense that day and you weren’t afraid to tell him where he can go shove a rusty pipe. Starscream wasn’t very amused by it and in a moment of weakness on Predaking’s part he jumped into action to stop that annoying mech’s hand from hitting you off your position on a console on the outside of his cage by transforming into his alt mode to loom over the offending mech with his own sheer height and prescns. Predaking uttered words along the lines of “if you so much as touch my beloved one, I will rip the spark right out of your chest and make you regret the day you were ever created”. It worked as Starscream laughed nervously as he does when he is threatened by ones bigger than him and excused himself spouting some nonsense about his daily duties recalling his attention elsewhere, and Predaking knew he was going to go tattle to Megatron in hoping he would dole out a punishment. He wouldn’t however and would just scold Starscream for starting a situation he couldn’t really finish and for distracting others from doing their everyday jobs. He noticed a shift in your personality after that- you were unbearably quiet and you did not sit close with him in beast form as you normally would have and that made him so nervous and a little scared. Did he do something wrong earlier by protecting you from Starscream? Were you offended that he stepped in to stop a physical attack on your form because you had some plan to make him look a fool instead? His mind was so busy buzzing with all that he thought he could do wrong when you took it upon yourself, as you always do, to be the one to break the silence and address the problem in the room. You told him that it was kind of him to protect you but you couldn’t possibly be his beloved because a King like him deserved someone so much better than what you could offer- you beartted yourself as being bland and unkind and he almost balked at the sheer idea that you thought yourself to weak to be his most beloved. He just huffed in his beast form and dragged you closer to him  with his tail while he nuzzled his face against your body- and he was blown away by how good you smelled and how warm you felt, yes, if you would have him than he would try his best to prove to you that you were worthy of his love.

(05/07/18)

[writeyouin]

Swerve X Reader – A Human Crewmate - Chapter 8

Chapter 8 – Recovering Together

A/N – Based on a lot of head-canons from @rocksinmuffin and @straightouttacybertron so extra special thanks to them for that. I really like this chapter ^_^

Warnings – Mentions of self-harm.

Rating – T

Swerve sat on the floor in his hab-suite, despondent over the way he’d hurt you. His optics welled with lubricant at the thought of your visits with Ratchet and Rung. Prior to the accident, he’d thought ‘eyebrows’ had been wrong and that he could be good for you – with you – but intellectuals were rarely wrong, and the truth often hurt. All Swerve had intended to do was share the beauty of space with you as you often shared amazing things with him, however, he may as well have thrown you out of the ship’s air-lock for all the good it had done.

Another glance at the room he’d prepared for you was enough to start the coolant flowing. Swerve’s shoulders wracked with sobs, his vocaliser crackled, and he had his first rational thought of the day; he had to let you go.

Tipping his helm to the side, Swerve saw a sharp piece of metal under the desk which held your ‘house’, something he must have missed whilst cleaning. Slowly, he picked it up, fat drops of coolant fell on it as he twirled it around in his servos. Shakily, he held it over his forearm, ready to puncture until all the energon left his body.

“This is what you deserve!” He cried, thrusting down.

He dropped the metal with a clatter before it touched him, hating himself all the more for failing.

“Unicron take me, I can’t even do this for her…”

Crumpling to the floor, Swerve opted to let himself waste away; he’d almost done it before, this time he would succeed.

On the walk back from Rung’s, you felt lighter, like a weight had been lifted off your shoulders. It was obvious that you weren’t fully recovered yet but addressing the problem was a start. You wondered briefly what you’d tell everyone about the ‘incident’; it was a secret between Rung, Ratchet, Swerve, and Rodimus, which meant that by now, the entire ship knew about it.

“(Y/N)! Are you going to die?! Can we stop it? What do we do?” Tailgate, a small, blue bot you’d grown rather fond of panicked upon seeing you; his optics filled up with unshed coolant.

“They can cry?” You were taken back by the revelation.

Cyclonus, a somewhat intimidating, larger, purple bot pulled Tailgate back slightly, “Give her some room.”

You smiled at the small exchange between the two, “No guys, I’m not dying; that’s been greatly exaggerated. I just had a human problem, no big deal.”

“So, you’re okay?” Tailgate whimpered.

“At the top of my game.”

He hugged you tightly; despite the inability to breathe properly, you noticed the hug was much lighter than his first attempt which had almost bruised several bones. “Good, I don’t want you to go anywhere. Do you- do you want to come to “Visages” with us?”

If there was any air left in you, you would have laughed at how fast the bot had recovered. “Another time maybe,” You breathed, “I have to see Swerve about something. See you later?”

“Okay, next time.”

Tailgate skipped away, Cyclonus lingered a moment, gave an acknowledging nod and trailed after him; in his own way, that was as good as staying “you’re a part of the family now.”

Deciding that the excuse ‘human problem,’ was effective in the case of questioning, you continued the journey home. You paused, had you really thought of it as home? Yes, brief as it was; perhaps the odd inhabitants of the Lost Light were slowly becoming family. You entertained the strange thought until you reached the hab-suite. You placed your hand on the scanner, mildly annoyed when it wouldn’t open.

“Swerve, are you in there?”

A shuffling of metal revealed that he was; Swerve cursed himself for the noise.

“Did- did everything go okay with Ratchet and Rung? Are you injured?” Swerve asked from the room, keeping his priorities straight.

“I’m fine Swerve, there’s nothing wrong. Can I come in now please?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“What’re you talking about?” You laughed. “Is this Cybertronian humour?”

“It’s not a joke (Y/N), I think you should leave.”

You frowned, “Alright, I get it, you need time; I’ll be back in ten-”

“No, I mean- I think you should move out.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry (Y/N),” Swerve said solemnly through the door, shutting his vocaliser off afterwards to hide any more pain.

“Swerve, I get it, you’re upset but you need to pull yourself together and let me in to talk this out.”

Nothing happened. “Swerve, you open the door this instant!” You used the tone angry parents often used. “Alright, that’s it young bot, you won’t talk, fine, then listen! I chose you as my roommate because you’re my friend. There wasn’t a moment that I thought things would magically work out perfectly; life isn’t a TV show. There could’ve been a million complications, there probably still will be and that’s alright, you want to know why? Because we’re going to learn from our mistakes. I don’t like Space too much, we know that now and can act accordingly. So, you’re going to let me in and we’re going to move on from this, happier that we learnt something. Now, open the damned door.”

You had to wait a few minutes before Swerve complied, he barrelled out, crying, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. You could’ve died; I’m sorry.”

You hugged him as best you could, “Hey,” You soothed, “I’m made of stronger stuff than that. Come on, where’s my best Swerve? The one who has a joke about everything? I’d tell a space pun to start us off, but I need a bit longer to planet.”

Swerve managed a weak laugh, “That joke was out of this world.”

He held your back lightly, you smiled sympathetically. “Roommates?”

“Roommates,” he agreed.

The next few weeks passed by almost easily; there were many instances where you and Swerve learnt about each-other’s species and had to adjust accordingly. However, after almost a month, the two of you got into a routine. He learnt not to attempt cooking for humans, just as you learnt not to touch the power cables near his side of the room. Sometimes he would recharge when you were sleeping but mostly, he’d leave the room and tend the bar; personally, you liked it when he recharged with you, the two of you would swap stories till you fell asleep.

Since the routine acted like a guide, settling you further into ship life, you didn’t know whether to be concerned or excited when the routine was broken.

A ship-wide announcement woke you from a deep sleep. Rodimus’ voice boomed ecstatically over the speaker, commanding that everyone gather to the main hall for a meeting. Although you were half the size of him, you sat on Swerve’s shoulder, mainly to stop his panicked ramblings about the many, many, many ways you could get hurt.

“Alright, is everyone here?” Rodimus asked, running energetically on the balcony. “Good? Good! We have great news everyone; I know some of us have been going a bit stir-crazy lately, but there is no need to worry; there’s a planet nearby and we’re going to PARTY there.” He banged a gong with his face on it.

Cheers exploded through the hall, echoing wildly until Megatron stepped forward, bringing a hush over the crowd.

“What I believe my co-captain meant to say,” Megatron glared at Rodimus who was looking very impressed with himself, “is that we may visit this planet, not party on it. We will conduct ourselves to our best behaviour, and we will do nothing to offend the locals there. On another note, the planet is hostile towards non-organics, that means holo-forms for everyone. Anyone who misbehaves shall be punished accordingly. We will reach the planet in three cycles. Is everything clear?”

There was a general murmur of agreement, leaving Megatron free to excuse himself.

Swerve had stopped listening halfway through the speech, he was stuck trying to think of how he could ask you to go with him without making things seem like a date. If he could make you see how good he was as a potential boyfriend, then surely your relationship would come together more naturally. Should he ask now? Should he wait a while? Would it be funnier if he made a joke out of it? Would you even want to go?

“Cool,” You said. “A friendly planet? I could use a chance to stretch my legs. You coming too, Swerve? I don’t really want to go on my own.”

“YES!” Swerve shouted elatedly. “I mean- uh- Yeah, I could use some new stuff in the bar, maybe I’ll find something there.”

[black-strike-otp]

part 92

I forgot how to english so I’ll just post I guess??? What are words.

Novastrike regarded the duo with fascination. She’d never seen a femme who, in every way, appeared like a queen of raw, powerful beauty. Blackout’s friend too was interesting; something about him made her intuition feel on edge but he seemed intense. She had to appreciate his dedication to an old friendship. After overhearing bits and pieces of their conversation, Nova could tell that the pair had history.

She looked up to meet Blackout’s gaze. He smiled at her adoringly, turned his faceplate to the couple standing a few yards away talking to each other quietly, and looked back down to her.

“I’m sorry if Barricade agitated you at all,” he stated quietly. “He means well.”

“Yeah, I can tell,” she noted with a slight smile. “He cares about you. Looking out for you. Making sure I’m not a witch trying to hypnotize you and draw you under my spell.”

“Hmm. You’re not a witch, darling, but I can attest you do offer a lethal dose of cute and sweet,” Blackout surmised with a thoughtful grin.

Giggling softly, the small femme reached out to his leg. Her digits strayed fondly over the solid frame of his armor with intimate gentleness. As the tips brushed over him, she could feel a responsive shiver move through his frame.

“Bewitching me with your charm once more?” Blackout joked softly.

“Heh, I’m sorry you’re so susceptible,” Nova teased, tilting her helm towards the other ‘Cons. “So, how did you come to know Venus?”

A curious hum escaped Blackout as he looked to her. His helm cocked to the side slightly as he folded his arms in front of his chassis with a massive grin planted on his faceplate.

“Not jealous, are you dear?”

“Not in the slightest, but if you don’t with to divulge my curiosities, that’s fine.”

“I never had any interest in the femme, if you were wondering,” he chuckled. “Venus is charming, and she’s good at her particular line of work, but she’s not my taste of highgrade if you understand where I’m coming from.”

“Okay, not what I meant,” she insisted with a false smile. “But you could enlighten me on what you taste of highgrade is then- small, feeble, femmes with armor in polar opposite of your own?”

“I would say more along the lines of a package of whoopaft who could bring me to my knees in under three-hundred nanokliks if she so desired, with a generous spark, an essence of pure good, lots of compassion, the most ethereal appearance I’ve ever seen and a smile that could make even the most foul of sinners see a ray of sunshine in the darkest of shadows.”

“I’d say I could bring you to your knees in less than one nanokliks if given the opportunity,” Nova disagreed with a seductive purr as her luminous optics glanced over him.

“We’re in the presence of company, Nova,” Blackout reminded her swiftly.

“They can’t hear us,” she stated, jutting a thumb digit over to the twosome. “But Scorp can. Sorry, buddy.”

To Blackout’s left, the minicon scorpion gave a sickened warble. He grumpily shoved his helm between his arms and offlined his optics. One could assume the ‘hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil’ images of bots had been conjured by a similar situation or pose.

“As for your inquiry, I met Venus through Barricade naturally,” Blackout proclaimed with a nod of his helm in their direction. “He’d met her in some academy they attended together, the details are a bit vague in my processor, I probably wasn’t listening to him fully when he explained it all to me. When I was paired with Barricade I didn’t care for him at first, and his insufferable need to fill the voids and gapes of quiet time with talking drove me insane.”

“But he told me all about this femme he so fondly idolized. Talked about how her armor was glossy and silken, from the highest quality ores Primus could craft he said. Went on and on about how beautiful and illustrious she was. They had their ups and downs, but he never stopped talking about how she was the only femme for him.”

“When times got tough and their missions had them separated for years, he tried to move on,” he explained. “No femme stuck to him though. Kept bringing her up. When she was reassigned to our units, I hadn’t seen him so elated in such a long time.”

Shifting his optics, the light of red in Blackout’s gaze grew more vivid. His small smile only grew as his lips pulled up like he couldn’t resist himself. Novastrike felt her spark beat give an erratic pulse. It felt like it was flipping around inside of her chassis just looking at him.

“I was always so pestered by his nonsense, I don’t even think I honestly realized how resentful I had secretly became of him,” the giant mech scoffed softly. “He had the one thing I didn’t at the time. Venus was close; easily accessible, in the same faction as himself. And there I was, thinking I was frustrated by his antics and lack of professionalism when really I was just hungry for that same chance with a femme far too breath-taking and alluring to be caught with a monster like me.”

Heat crept through Novastrike’s veins as she turned her optics briefly away from Blackout’s. The glow from her audio stacks was radiating off so powerfully that she could see the reflection of light bouncing off nearby metal around them. It gave off bands of bluish-silver that crisscrossed this way and that way at random, pooling around her and against Blackout’s armor.

Releasing a powerful breath, she offered a sentimental smile up to the towering figure of dismal abyss. His optics drew her in; twin fires of beckoning light that brought her home. She looked at the curve of his mouth and the joy written in his face that echoed her own.

“You told Barricade you didn’t even realize you had feelings for me until I pulled you from your untimely ‘death’ floating in space,” she quietly reminded him.

“Were you listening in on our private conversation?”

“Of course I was. Well, some of it. Most of it accidentally. Ears the size of a satellite, hello?”

“They’re not that large,” Blackout laughed quietly. “That was neither a lie nor the truth. It’s difficult to explain where the feelings began and when I simply discovered what they were. But I was always intrigued, and always left longing to see you again, and know that you were still out there.”

“I had you crushing on me hard,” she sniffed proudly, raising her helm up a bit higher.

“I guess you did,” he agreed quietly, grinning.

Letting out a curious ‘hmm’ in the back of her throat, Novastrike raised and dropped her shoulders with a sigh. She felt herself smiling like an idiotic fool, but couldn’t seem to stop herself.

“If you’re interested in knowing, I was intrigued about you for a long time as well,” Novastrike reminisced fondly. “I had to keep telling myself that my interests weren’t any different to you than anyone else because I simply cared for just about any bot I came across. But I knew you were different. The way I couldn’t shake you from my thoughts, the feelings you elicited in me...”

Raising an optic ridge, Blackout growled playfully as he shifted an arm enough to wave his servo to her.

“No no, please do go on. I want to know all about those feelings.”

“You giant dork,” Nova hissed, lightly whacking his leg. “You already know now. I guess I should have been the one to open up to you first; maybe it wouldn’t have taken so long otherwise.”

“I don’t know. I was a pretty stubborn aft,” he mused.

“Was?”

Blackout gave a slight shrug in response, and she snorted trying to hold back her laughter.

“Maybe Scorponok was right about one thing. Maybe I should have went through with... the intimacy we were sharing on Giohizmut,” Blackout muttered. “But it wouldn’t have been right in the end. It wouldn’t have been what you deserved-”

“What, you mean the almost-frag we nearly shared?” Nova bluntly stated, raising an optic ridge. “It’s history now, love. Don’t hold it over yourself that you didn’t bang my processor out that night. You’ve gotten to make up for that already. Multiple, wonderful times I might add.”

Scorponok gave a low groan by Blackout’s pede.

“I was referring to the idea that maybe it would have kickstarted the relationship off a lot sooner... I wasn’t specifically incling towards the fragging. Though the fragging is good!” he hurriedly expressed, watching as she raised her optic ridge a bit higher.

“You didn’t know what you wanted then,” Nova stated with a shrug. “I can’t fault you for that.”

“No, but I know that it hurt you for me to simply run out like that. And I am truly sorry it occurred that way,” he rumbled shamefully, bowing his helm. “I was honestly under the impression that I was only invested in a fling with you, because as Barricade pointed out and as I have informed you before, I never held a great interest in relationships. Friends, lovers, you name it, it never mattered much to me. I wanted to achieve my goals, and then even that no longer mattered at some point as Megatron’s goals became my own goals and all I wanted was to fuel the fires and bring chaos raining down.”

Smiling gently, the small femme patted his leg lightly as she whispered, “Well, you can stop beating yourself up over the past now, because no one’s holding it against you. You found your way back to me- or, fell half offline in my lap and I had to fix you up one way or another. You’ve even gotten lucky enough to rediscover a bot that you can call your best friend. That’s huge.”

“One of my best friends,” he corrected her.

“Okay, right, one of your best friends,” she agreed with a smile.

Shuttering his optic in a wink, Blackout chuckled that profoundly deep laugh that was both frightening as it was sensual.

Nova hitched her breath a moment, before playing it off with a slight cough, waving at the air as if dust had caught in her ventilation system. She looked embarrassingly off to the side, and then back up to her mech’s coy expression.

Hesitating a moment, Nova offhandedly dove into her curiosity as she murmured, “That reminds me... is your friend okay?”

“Why do you ask?” Blackout asked, obviously avoiding the question.

She shrugged slightly in response. “I don’t know, he seems off to me. If he doesn’t know, you might want to ask him to see if he’s sick. He smells... odd.”

“Odd like...?”

“Just, I don’t know, like he’s dead or something. It’s really weird. I’ve never picked up on such an odd scent from someone, especially a bot that’s alive. It’s a mix between that rusty, metallic, tangy, sharp, bitter scent left behind by a bot when they’ve been gone for a while and a pungently sweet odor masking it.”

Nodding slowly, Blackout produced a slight grimace. “I don’t think talking to him about it will help.”

“Why not?” she inquired, bringing one of her audios down slightly with interest.

“Because he probably can’t solve that problem,” he vented. “Barricade’s has a condition. He had it prior to me getting to know him. He’s never told me how it happened, and I never tried to ask him because it makes him so uncomfortable, but he’s not exactly fully alive.”

“Um... explain?”

“He’s got a Terrorcon-like infection. Previously, it didn’t cause him many problems. If he wasn’t refueling regularly, he would grow pretty weak and would have to fight off the urge to get energon from any source to keep himself from fully offlining. Even from comrades.”

“But apparently Shockwave had persuaded him to stay on Cybertron during the exodus, or Megatron demanded it of him,” he went on with a snarl. “Shockwave must have done some nasty experiments in the time he had ‘Cade with him prior to Venus rescuing him. Now he’s... a bit more akin to the more feral Insecticons. Only with a bit more bite.”

“That’s... worrisome. Yeah, worrisome is the word I’ll go with. And a bit queasy on the tanks,” Novastrike whispered quietly.

“You’ve nothing to be afraid of,” the ebony mech spoke gently and with a small smile. “He won’t hurt any of us. I trust him. And I’m asking you to extend the same gesture.”

Looking at the warm smile on Blackout’s face, the pleading light in his gaze, it was enough to just about melt Nova’s spark. He looked so genuinely worried about her reaction. From the shift in his pedes, the tightening of his arms against his chassis, she could tell he was tense and unsure.

Giving a faint impression of a smile, she offered a nod of her helm. “I’ll do my best. I don’t know him yet, but I hope to. Because if he’s important to you, he’s important to me too, and I’d like to meet one of the only bots you’ve ever actually befriended.”

“He didn’t give me much of a choice,” Blackout recalled with a snicker.

Beaming up to the handsome devil, Novastrike’s audios swiveled over to the pair of bots as she heard their pedes shuffle. As she turned her helm to the couple Blackout followed her gesture and did the same, with Scorponok finally begrudgingly raising his helm up and onlining his optics once more as vibrations captured his attention to their approach.

“We’ve been talking about your offer, and your inquiry about this intergalactic transmitter you’re searching for,” Barricade stated as he stepped closer, placing a servo against Venus’ lower back. “We’d be happy to help you in any way we can Blackout, you know that.”

“And we think we might know where to get a lot of the parts you’d be requiring to build a transmitter of the magnitude you’d be looking for,” Venus spoke up in a soothing tone.

“The only problem is-” ‘Cade began.

“-the materials would be in Shockwave’s lair,” Venus finished in a sharp voice, more cutting than a sharp scalpel.

“That would present a problem,” Blackout agreed slowly, nodding his helm.

“Venus, the excellent beauty and discreet collector of things useful, still has what remains of Shockwave’s lab collected in a partially filled out map she created herself and with information received in bargaining tips to save me,” ‘Cade explained.

“The real problem is that it’s only partly filled in though,” the black and magenta toned femme musically added on. “I can continue gathering intel, but that would take time and there’s no guarantee how much more I can pick up. Bots might be desperate, but most aren’t stupid enough to backstab a bot as powerful as Shockwave.”

“We have time,” Blackout muttered unhappily. “Just not the patience.”

“Other than guess work, is there any defining qualities that make you think Shockwave has all the stuff we need?” Nova inquired.

Venus gave a small alluring laugh. “Shockwave’s a hoarder worse than any bot I’ve ever seen. He thinks anything can be salvaged and manufactured into one of his creations later. Trust me, he’ll have what we’re looking for. If memory serves, I do believe I noticed he had the most important part of a transmitter in his call room; a rather large capacitor.”

“Call room?” Nova piped in once more.

“Shockwave has a direct video feed room specifically used for making calls,” Barricade explained. “He used it during the war, but it’s ineffective now. Bots stick solely to private comm channels. It’s too risky and frankly, useless to have call stations now when there’s so few bots on Cybertron now, even less with access to call stations, less still who would even want to bother ringing each other up when they’re just trying to live off the land.”

“Thank Primus it’s that type of call room,” Nova muttered.

“We’ll appreciate any help you can give us,” Blackout loudly spoke up, ignoring the snickering from Barricade.

“Always happy to assist a friend,” Venus chimed sweetly, nudging her counterpart lightly in the side.

Barricade could only nod in agreement, snorting and huffing as he tried to contain himself from busting a seam laughing.

Looking to Blackout, Novastrike offered him a slight nod as he caught her optic. He returned the gesture with a slight gesture of his helm. She turned her helm back to the twosome and cleared her vocalizer.

“We actually have a current residence with some rogue bots. We know we don’t know your current boarding situation-”

“Wherever it doesn’t leak anything on us,” ‘Cade interrupted.

“Where there’s preferably no rust,” Venus tacked on.

“Alright,” Nova exhaled softly. “Although the uh- bots are supposedly supposed to vote you in through some system they have, we’ve sorta won them over with energon gradually over time. So, Blackout and I were wondering if you’d do us the honor in coming with us and we’ll see if we can’t bring you into the fold so there’s less hassle in seeking each other out to exchange information, items, materials... allow Blackout and you two to catch up.”

“I’d certainly be down with that,” Venus eagerly stated, smiling gently down to Nova. “It’d be lovely to get you know you better as well, Nova.”

Sheepishly, the small femme rubbed the back of her helm as she grinned with embarrassment.

Shrugging, ‘Cade gave a slight nod of his helm. “Works for me too. Don’t really want to let your big aft out of my sights again anyway Blackout. Seems you need someone close to make sure you don’t get disassembled again.”

“Gee, thanks,” Blackout drawled sarcastically.

The quadruplets of other bots laughed merrily at the poor largest bot’s irked faceplate. He passed them each a slightly displeased look, grumbling.

“Do you need any help gathering your stock?” Blackout muttered after the others began to quiet themselves.

“No, we can pick up what little we have,” ‘Cade stated with a wide grin. “Where do you want us to meet you?”

“Near Maccadam’s Oil House,” Blackout stated, much to the surprise on the couple’s faceplate. “We’ll show you the way in to the rogue hiding area not far off from there.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Venus chimed in with a nod of her helm.

~

Helping to unload Blackout’s alt-mod of what meager rations of energon they’d picked up after leaving Barricade and Venus, Novastrike slid the shards into the cargo compartment they’d hidden for the time being not far from the rogue base. It had been Blackout’s idea to keep their pile away from the group of bots, just in case anyone got too greedy and went after their loot uninvited or they decided to make a getaway without notice.

Lifting up the energon cubes, Blackout shoved them into their hiding spot as well before closing up all the containers. After securing all the items down, he began camouflaging the area once more with the debris they had been using once again.

“Dear, you left a few energon cubes out,” Nova piped up.

“I know. They were left out for a reason,” he responded.

Shrugging, the little femme went to stand guard beside the valuable product while Blackout busily rearranged the array of metal to make it appear ‘naturally’ messy and not set up. Her optics scanned the horizon, spotting the forms of a sleek black and pink grounder that had all the looks of a racer and the dark-armored police vehicle.

Placing the last of the macabre twisted sculpture together, Blackout walked over to join her just as the pair transformed and walked the last steps over to meet them.

“I haven’t been over here in ages,” Barricade stated with longing as he looked up to the old Oil House. “Man, I wish this place was still up and running.”

“Maybe some day it will again,” Blackout stated. “The great Maccadam, honorary member of the Thirteen Primes, may still live.”

“You never believed in any of those stories,” ‘Cade accused with a flash of derma.

“Neither did you,” Blackout reminded him.

The purple-toned dark charcoal small mech gave a shrug of his shoulders. There was no disagreeing with that one.

“Novastrike will lead the way,” Blackout stated with a nod down to her. “I’ll come up from behind.”

“Must be awfully secretive,” Venus noted quietly.

“They’re a bit finicky about new bots,” Novastrike offered. “But even more finicky about large groups entering at the same time.”

“Five’s a large group?” ‘Cade questioned with a shake of his helm.

“Physically four, with Scorponok docked,” Blackout reminded him. “And yes.”

The bad cop shrugged. “Lead the way, shortie.”

“Shortie,” Novastrike hissed quietly, lashing her tail slightly as she turned away. “You haven’t looked in a mirror recently.”

Quietly, the white-armored femme led the group through the weaving deconstructed city. Most of it had been left in ruins from the warring. She climbed through and under structures that the rest had to step or climb over as they tracked her through the area.

Coming up upon the entrance, in a grotto overhang Clawfist spotted them coming and flung his arms out wildly.

“Halt! No trespassers! What are ye? More Decepticons? We ain’t buyin anything ye be selling! Be gone!”

“They’re not solicitors, Clawfist,” Novastrike sighed heavily. “They’re our guests.”

“Ye not even part of the club! Ye can’t just go makin calls, bringing ye dirty crooked friends here,” fumed the rogue mech.

Coming up from the rear, Blackout was balancing energon cubes carefully in his grasp. He pulled one carefully off of the top, and shoved it over to Clawfist.

The mech ripped it from the titan’s grip in a matter of nanokliks and put it to his maw desperately.

Walking past the cranky bot, Novastrike’s ears flicked back to him as he cried out after them, “Ye ain’t going to get by so easily with the others!”

“Just drink your energon, Clawfist,” she cried back.

“Stay out of our business, and we’ll remain out of yours,” Blackout offered back as well. “Enjoy the energon we so thoughtfully brought back for you.”

Sneering, the older mech stared after the bots with squinted optics. He looked down at his energon then, and decided at the moment he couldn’t be troubled to care. So he went back to chugging down his energon. Ignorance was bliss.

[the-odd-job]

Ashes of Icarus chapter 13 - Falling to Pieces

Rating: Explicit Warnings: Chose Not to Use Category: Other Fandom: Transformers Characters: Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Ratchet Relationships: Megatron/Sunstreaker, Sideswipe & Sunstreaker Additional Tags: Dubcon, Unplanned Pregnancy, Mechpreg, Sticky, Talk of Abortion Words: 2803

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The biggest hurdle would be Ratchet—or really, the whole medical team. When they did a thorough inspection of your frame to make sure they would catch all damage you’d sustained… Sunstreaker wasn’t all too hopeful that they wouldn’t notice there was something extra he was lugging around. 

The sparkling… It was so easy to ignore. He couldn’t feel it in any way, not even when he focused. He wasn’t sure if that was how it was supposed to be at this stage of things, but it almost made everything feel like just one particularly bad dream.

It wasn’t a bad dream, though, because every time the disbelief got the better of him, all Sideswipe needed to do was a visual inspection, and there it was every time. Repeat that enough times and he couldn’t deny it anymore even without physical reminders of its existence. 

But if even he, its carrier, couldn’t tell it was there without going out of his way to confirm that much… At least he could feel comforted that there was really no one else who would be able to tell either. Its signature was so small that it was impossible to detect it unless his chestplates were parted and his spark chamber open, and you really focused on it. They’d tested that out, several times.

So… Unless he needed to go through large repairs… It was likely to remain a secret.

For now.

Unfortunately there was this little thing called war going on, and him and Sideswipe were at the frontlines of it. He couldn’t suddenly stop fighting with their usual recklessness just to avoid sustaining the kind of injuries that would lead to the uncovering of the sparklet. That’d only make everyone suspicious, and then what? They’d want to know the reason for the change in his behavior.

At that point it wouldn’t just be limited to the medical team anymore.

He had to fight and risk the injuries. 

And hope the fact he was even more irritable on the Ark than what he usually was would go unnoticed, or at least ignored. He had a bad temper to begin with, right? So it wasn’t that unusual for him to be in a bad mood, right? Even if this was extended… He hit those spells sometimes too, even without sparklings. He’d be perpetually annoyed and angry and treated everyone accordingly.

It did have the positive side effect that everyone but Sideswipe started to avoid him and his constant snapping and physical threats. All the better to keep enough distance to lower the already next to nonexistent chances that just anyone would take notice of the little one. 

Sideswipe compensated by being even more friendly than usual, as he always did. That was the good part about Sunstreaker’s moods: it had his other half turning into even better company than he usually was, all in the name of maintaining their balance. Sideswipe acted agreeable with everyone, but the real target of it was Sunstreaker—everything to prevent his brother from setting him off.

It wasn’t that Sideswipe feared his retaliation, but it wasn’t them to just ignore the other’s moods and not respond to them. Sideswipe was the more stable of them as far as his emotional life went, a surface breezer whose emotions never lasted long and that he never felt too strongly. It was Sunstreaker that dipped deep in everything he did and felt with explosive intensity. 

Sideswipe didn’t need his balancing near as often, was the end result. 

But as much as Sideswipe responded to him… It only worked between them. It didn’t save anyone around them, but they had been with this crew long enough that mecha had learned a thing or two about Sunstreaker and his temperament.

Get out of the way, stay out of the way. Don’t engage lest you wanted to risk a thorough slagging.

Really only Cliffjumper never did the smart thing, and he was the one who got sent to the medbay by Sunstreaker this time too.

He enjoyed himself, ripping into the minibot. Sure, it landed him in the brig, but fuck, it was worth it.

There was sparring too, but… He tried to hold back there, at least enough to keep it as sparring instead of something real bloody. He didn’t want to end up with anything worth a proper medbay visit if he could avoid it, sue him.

And for a time he could avoid it. There were two battles, weeks apart from each other, but Sunstreaker managed to make it through both of them mostly unscathed. They weren’t particularly big battles anyway, but rather small and quick clashes to thwart the Decepticons’ plans of the day.

Megatron was present in them, too, but this time there was no one to give him a chance for some alone time with the warlord. Megatron was distracted and busy, both fights, first with directing his troops, then with fighting Optimus, because the motherfucking Prime just couldn’t keep his servos off of him. 

Those battles did nothing to burn the frustrated energy in him, and he was fuming by the end of them. Did Megatron even notice the vicious glares sent his way? Sunstreaker wasn’t sure, but fraggit, he would still get a chance to tear the mech a new one. It was only a matter of time until Megtron found a way to arrange another meeting with him, wasn’t it? He’d want to ‘face again because he had given no indication he was interested in ending their affair.

Oh, he’d be in for one motherfucking surprise. And there’d be no fragging. Sunstreaker was in no mood for any fragging with the goddamn mech who had landed him in this predicament.

Or with anyone else, for that matter. Fuck the lot of them.

With his attitude, he didn’t exactly get any offers either, which worked for him just fine. 

But for as long as they managed to keep things hidden… It was never going to last.

Getting in the way of Devastator? Not his best show ever. In his defense the slagging Constructicons combined right next to him, and then there was no time to get out of the way anymore.

Sunstreaker was good, but he wasn’t ‘takes down combiners on their own’ good. It was really only thanks to Sideswipe that the brain deficient giant didn’t straight up kill him before Superion formed and drew his attention.

The joys of having a twin.

Unfortunately… He ended up scrapped. Thoroughly scrapped. Sideswipe used the mobility afforded to him by his limited flight ability to get him the fuck away from the main fight and behind the Autobot gunners where Ratchet could safely see to him, before his brother zipped back into the fight.

Ratchet was cursing, although that registered pretty distantly through the utter pain that throbbed in his frame. It had really been a while since he’d gotten slagged this badly.

The clouds were pretty, though.

“I’ll put you into stasis, alright? Sunstreaker?”

It took some effort to focus on Ratchet. The medic was looking down at him with a frown.

Right. Stasis. “Ugh, whatever,” was all Sunstreaker had to say to that, letting his gaze slip back to the clouds far above. It’d be nice to not hurt, so that’d be the upside–

Ratchet forced medical stasis on his systems, and everything went dark.

------------------------------------------------------

“–I need to know who the sire is!”

Those were the words his systems onlined to. 

“What does it matter?” Sideswipe, growling.

Sideswipe rarely growled.

Sunstreaker’s optics fluttered open and he proceeded to do just what he’d done before he’d fallen into stasis, which was stare straight up. This time there were no clouds though, only the bright orange ceiling of the Ark’s medical bay. 

And he was fucked. Oh, physically he was in excellent condition. Ratchet had patched him right up. It was like he was never even injured, as was the norm with a medic of Ratchet’s caliber.

But he was fucked.

He was so, so fucked.

“The sire has the right to– Good, Sunstreaker, you’re online.” Ratchet didn’t sound the least bit happy. He stepped into Sunstreaker’s field of view. Sideswipe was standing on the berth’s other side, a deep frown etched on his features.

Ratchet wore a similar expression. “Why didn’t you tell me you’re carrying, Sunstreaker?”

What was he expecting? He’d already asked that from Sideswipe.

The answer Sideswipe had given was the same Sunstreaker gave. He glared at the medic, a growl rising in his engine. “Because it’s no one’s fragging business, alright?”

Ratchet’s frown deepened. “As your physician, it is my fragging business!” the medic said back at him. Primus, he was pissed off. “Have you let the sire know about this? They have a right to the sparkling as well!”

Sunstreaker brought an arm up and dragged his servo down his face. Unicron smite him. “No, I haven’t told the sire.” Wow, he didn’t even need to lie about that.

Their favorite medic growled at him. “Who is the sire? Do you know?”

...It was an option to not know? That was convenient. “No, I don’t even slagging know.”

Unfortunately, Ratchet didn’t buy that, which wasn’t too much of a surprise. “You’re lying,” he said, stated, and Sunstreaker snarled a little harder. His glare was a savage thing, but Ratchet wasn’t any more cowed than he ever was. “Sunstreaker. Who is the sire?” Ratchet demanded, leaning on the berth he was laying on and staring intently down at him, as if he could will Sunstreaker into telling.

Well, that wasn’t going to happen.

Sunstreaker scowled. “None. Of. Your. Business.”  

Ratchet threw his arms up, frustration written all over his expression, body language, and field. “Why won’t you even tell me? Even if you’re so bent on not letting the sire know, I am bound by medical confidentiality, you know that.”

They did know. Sunstreaker huffed and turned his gaze to the side, crossing his arms over his chassis and glaring at nothing in particular. Sideswipe was standing, but otherwise his pose and expression were identical.

Yeah, they weren’t particularly happy to be in this situation right now. 

Ratchet waited a moment, but when neither of them broke the silence, the medic eventually repeated Sunstreaker’s gesture and scrubbed a hand down his face. A deep sigh ran from his vents, but it seemed he was finally ready to give up. He and Sideswipe had had the time to argue for a lengthy amount of time before Sunstreaker even onlined, anyway, with no success on Ratchet’s part.

This was one thing where they couldn’t budge. Medical confidentiality or not… He doubted Ratchet could keep the identity of the sire confidential if he became privy to it, just because of who the sire was. Sure Ratchet would need to let someone know one of their soldiers was dallying with Megatron, of all mecha.

If it just wasn’t Megatron… If it was almost anyone else, then this wouldn’t be such a problem. He’d still get in trouble for sleeping with the enemy, no fragging doubt about that, but with someone else it’d still be a lesser offense. 

At least, he thought so.

He wasn’t really willing to test how right or wrong he was about that.

No, not Ratchet, not anyone could learn who the sire was. Not on this side of the war. 

“Well,” Ratchet broke the silence after what felt like a small eternity, “the sparkling is healthy and developing as it should.”

That was… A relief to hear, at the very least. “I would prefer it if you came for regular checkups to follow the progress of its… Growth.”

Right, because what he wanted to do was spend even more time around Ratchet on the topic of the little surprise he had. But… It would be nice to know the sparkling was developing as it should. Primus knew he himself had no idea what ‘how it should’ entailed. 

Sunstreaker grunted, not saying yay or nay to that. If Ratchet could keep his questions to himself, then sure, why the fuck not, but he wasn’t too willing to get bombarded with more demands to disclose who the slag had ignited him. 

“Unless you want to abort it.”

His optics snapped to Ratchet at that, surprise written all over both twins’ faces—something that quickly morphed back into frowns.

He should have expected that would come up again. It was an option, wasn’t it?

But one they had already discarded. “No,” Sunstreaker responded, averting his gaze again and refusing to fidget. “I don’t want to abort it.”

He probably should’ve done that. It would make all of this go away. It would be the smart thing to do, really, assuming he wanted to not get court martialed at some point—assuming he wanted to keep his life as it had been up to this point. Things didn’t need to change and go so far South there’d be no traveling back North from there. 

But no. He didn’t want to… Harm it. Kill it.

It was slagging his, wasn’t it?

“Very well.” Ratchet didn’t try to convince him in any direction on that front, just threw the option out there. Sunstreaker was grateful for that much, but… Would Ratchet have pressed the issue if he knew who the frag the sire was? How much would that knowledge have changed things?

There was no getting over or around the fucking fact that the sire was the worst possible mech there was.

Yeah, he was fucked. So fucking fucked.

“Can we still merge?” Sideswipe asked. “Without hurting it?”

Sunstreaker glanced back to Ratchet at the inquiry. The medic nodded. “Since you can’t overload each other, it won’t affect the sparkling in any way.”

“‘Kay, cool.”

That was nice, at least. It would’ve sucked to be denied merging for the years the sparkling was going to take to… Frag, was he already thinking about it reaching maturity and separating?

Maybe he should worry about the near future first.

“Are we free to go?” Sunstreaker asked. Ratchet stared at him for a moment longer before the medic reluctantly nodded.

“You’re fully repaired and fit for duty. But I can pull you from active duty if you’d rather stay out of battles for the… Safety of the sparkling.”

And announce it to the whole world that something was up? “No thanks,” Sunstreaker said, and Sideswipe nodded along.

Ratchet sighed, but nodded his acquiescence to that. “Then you’re free to go.”

That was all the prompting they needed. Sunstreaker swung his legs over the edge of the berth and dropped down, and without a backwards glance the brothers hurried out of the medbay.

They needed fuel, so the rec room became their destination despite Sunstreaker’s yearning to just go to their goddamn quarters, out of sight, and… Then what? He had no idea. Enjoy the silence, probably.

The fact he was carrying was turning more and more real by the moment, as were the… Realizations of how much it was bound to change his life. And not really for the better, as far as he could see. 

What a mess they were stuck in.

And now someone knew. Now Ratchet fucking knew, and while the medic would need to keep quiet about it… That was still one mech too many aware of what was happening in his frame.

At least the sparklet was healthy. That was a more comforting thought than he had expected it to be.

They made their way to the corner table they frequented, and Sunstreaker’s scowling kept everyone else at a fair distance despite the fact Sideswipe, the social magnet, was sitting right next to him. They didn’t talk as they sipped their ratios.

Just… Thought.

Was there any chance in hell they could tell Ratchet the truth? They trusted Ratchet more than they trusted any other mech out there, but this… Frag, this was a little too big for even that level of trust. 

He couldn’t believe Ratchet could keep it a secret with them. Just couldn’t. There had to be some sort of protocol he’d have to follow—inform Optimus, or Jazz, or someone, medical confidentiality be damned. How the pit could he be allowed to keep this level of treachery a secret without becoming an accomplice himself? Would Ratchet do that for them?

He wasn’t about to test that out. It was too risky.

This was all… Slag. There was no way to keep it a secret forever. No fucking way.

What would they do when that became impossible?

Would they worry about it later? They had no clue what to do about it now. Maybe… Maybe they should just let things roll under their own weight and see where that took them, under the lack of any better ideas.

And tell Megatron. 

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