They were winning.
Against all odds, they were winning. The Decepticon warship was practically a flying fortress as it was, regardless of the various Vehicons milling about making life harder for them. The phase shifter, of course, made things far easier for the Autobots, and as Smokescreen raced to find the Star Sabre that was one of the many thoughts racing through his mind. They actually, finally had a chance to end this once and for all!
It all changed when Bee fell.
The yellow scout had managed to take three shots to the chest before the Omega Lock claimed him, and all the bots were left in shock because...well, it was Bumblebee! He'd managed to survive Tyger Pax and Unicron and Earth, there was no way he could be gone!
And then everything started to fade to grey and he understood.
You see, when you meet your soulmate, the change isn't an instantaneous thing. It isn't like the movies where you make eye contact with 'the One' and the world explodes into light and colour that you've never seen before.
The brightness doesn't develop all of a sudden – it's like falling in love. A slow, gentle thing that isn't really distinguishable until it hits you with the force of a truck.
The variety of colour on earth didn't really sink in until later, when he could fully appreciate the range in which the flowers came and the ridiculously fast cars were painted in (because damn wouldn't he look good in that shade of blue). He didn't appreciate the paint of his intended until he saw Optimus slowly fading away and oh gods he shouldn't be turning that colour what was happening.He only noticed the change when he went up to the surface, and when the gang got back together he started to wonder about who.
It couldn't be Optimus – he died for a solid few seconds and the flare from the Forge was bright enough to blind him. Plus, you know, he was the Prime. He already had a bondmate.
Ratchet was a definite no, as were Ultra Magnus and Wheeljack – they showed up too late for it to be either of them.
Humans? Probably not.
So he had it narrowed down to three bots (because after the Omega key incident there was no way in hell he was going near a 'con). Arcee, Bulkhead and Bumblebee. Brushing it off as the scavenger hunt dragged on and their battles grew more intense.
He'd picked the brightest alt he could just because he could, and pretended not to notice how Bee' optics flickered over his frame.
He pretended not to notice Arcee's concerned, almost sisterly look, or Bulkhead's short, sharp bark of laughter.
He left the room more confused than he'd ever been, determined to bury it down deep until the war was over.
It wasn't uncommon for bots from the younger generation of Cybertronians to...explore how they felt with one another, and because most were about as observant as a pile of bricks, attempts at flirting with one another often went unnoticed.
Or so Smokescreen hoped.
Gods, he really should have kept his mouth shut in Texas.
He found himself saying that again after he managed to not only put his foot in his mouth but managed to spectacularly fuck up whatever friendship he may have had with Bee.
After apologising profusely for what he'd said, he might've managed to earn his way into Bumblebee's good graces again (he was smiling again, that had to mean something, right?) and then messed up.
Again.
By losing their only medic to Soundwave of all people.
It all came to a head faster than he could manage or process. The madness of the battle practically washed him away, and all thoughts of connecting with whoever he was meant to spend the rest of his life with were forgotten.
But the second Bee made contact with the lock, he knew.
Hey! This is my first sorta shippy fic here, and my first oneshot, so maybe leave some reviews? This pairing needs all the love it can get (and from far more talented writers than me, I threw this together in like half an hour so please ignore all errors). I haven't forgotten about Eye of the Storm! It's exam season now so I'm using writing for stress relief but I'm not sure where that fits in (it is a priority though)