"Ugh! Who does he think he is?!" Sari yelled.

We had just ran into Sentinel. Needless to say he had a few rude comments for me and disgust for Sari.

"Calm down Sari," I said soothingly.

She didn't seem soothed, instead she turned her anger on me.

"And you!" She growled as she stabbed a finger at me. "You need to learn to speak up for yourself. Why do you let him treat you like that?"

She continued to rant but I wasn't listening anymore. Her question had stirred some memories from long ago.

…

"Come on Optimus, hurry up," Elita 1 ordered as she almost ran forward.

"I'm coming," I called after her.

Today was orientation for the Autobot Academy and Elita didn't want to be late, not that there was any chance of that happening when she insisted we leave two hours early. Still her enthusiasm was infectious. I grinned as I quickened my pace.

I had been looking forward to joining the academy for years. Since I haven't bonded to anyone yet I was becoming antsy. The Ossessian side of me was almost constantly screaming at me. That is the bad thing about being an Ossessian, until we find our bonded our instincts will urge us to fix the problems of those around us, to mixed results. We have to suppress our inst, causing us to become fidgety, needing to move, to do something. It's like an itch you can't scratch and it builds until you want to scream in frustration.

To alleviate some of the pressure we need to find something to devote ourselves to that will take up, most of our time. That's where the academy comes in. The military academy is strict, involved, and, best of all, demanding. It helps satisfy our ingrained need to make someone happy because we are constantly catering to someone's will.

I was jarred out of my thoughts when I ran into someone, knocking us both to the ground.

"I'm sorry," I groaned, rubbing my head.

I looked up and the world froze. The mech I ran into was blue and orange with a prominent chin, but none of that mattered to me. All I could focus on was the one thought running through my head. He was the one. I could almost feel my world shifting, molding around the dazed mech in front of me. My instincts purred.

"Watch where you're going," my bonded growled.

"I'm sorry," I repeated with a shy grin, much more courteously than I would have anyone else.

"So he enjoys feeling above everyone," I mused as I stood up and held out my hand to help him up. He accepted with a glower.

"I'm so sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going," I said again.

"Obviously," he muttered.

If it had been anyone else my mood would have taken a dive and my temper would have heated to a boil, but I couldn't help but feel elated.

"Are you going to the academy orientation?" I asked.

"Yes," he answered.

"Me too," I said enthusiastically. "Oh, I'm Optimus by the way."

"Sentinel," he grunted.

Sentinel, huh? At first glance he seems rude, arrogant, and all out unpleasant to be around. Perfect. I love a challenge.

"I have a friend who is going to orientation too. Come on, I'll introduce you to her," I said, grabbing his arm and pulling him behind me.

For all of the grumbling and complaining he did as I dragged him, he never did try to pull away.

…

"We need to go back for Elita!" Sentinel screamed.

I did a quick scan of the area, the energon cubes were about to explode. If we tried to go back we would get caught in the explosion.

"I can't detect her life sign," I lied.

I could see her signal, right in the middle of a teeming mass of organics on the other side of the unstable energon. We could get to her in time, sure, but by the time we fought off the organics we would never make it out before the energon exploded. Elita may be my friend, but Sentinel's safety is my first priority. If she has to die for him to live, so be it.

"Come on," I yelled over the noise of the first cube exploding. "We have to go, now!"

I pulled him away from the edge of the cliff we were standing on as he struggled against me, shouting Elita's name. I managed to get us far enough away that when the rest of the cubes ignite the ground below us was stable enough to hold our weight, even with the aftershocks running through it.

Sentinel went limp in my arms. I picked him up and carried him to the ship. He didn't make a sound the whole way there, no doubt in shock over what had happened.

Once inside the ship I set him down gently. He curled in on himself and started to slowly rock back and forth. I ignored that for a moment and scanned for injuries. Luckily he was relatively unharmed by our little adventure, just a few scrapes here and there.

"It's my fault," Sentinel whispered softly after i finished checking him over. "I decided to come here, I ignored your warnings, it's my fault Elita 1 is dead."

This was going to destroy him, I could tell. He had had a major crush on her for a while now. The main reason he insisted on coming here was to impress her. For him to be the reason she was killed? He would never recover, not with what is to come. He would be kicked out of the academy, homeless, jobless, broke, no family, and without the will to continue. He would curl up in an alley and die of starvation if nothing else got to him first. He would believe he deserved to die, and by that time nothing I could say would convince him otherwise.

I couldn't let that happen. I need to act now, while he's still in shock.

"No," I whispered in his audiel. "It was my fault."

He paused in confusion. I had never lied to him before and he knows it. When he regains his senses he will think of this as a confession of a guilty conscience, and his fear will keep him from looking any closer.

"B-but," he started.

"No," I cut him off firmly. "It was my fault. We could have saved her. It was my decision to leave he behind. I was a coward."

He scrunched his optic ridges together.

"Your fault?" he asked like the scared kid he was.

"Yes, my fault," I assured him. "It was all my fault."

"It was your fault," he said more confidently.

He said it a few more times, sounding more sure and resentful each time. Eventually his grief and sorrow caught up with him as the adrenaline faded, and he cried himself into a restless recharge.

I shook my head as I made my way to the cockpit. The things I do for him.