Pairing: Past and present Soundwave/Glyph

Warnings: Mentions of torture.

Rating: T

When Glyph first onlined, she'd expected to be greeted by an onslaught of pain raging through every sensor unit in her frame. Instead, she felt a dull throbbing numbness. Drugs, she instantly assessed. That or she really had been left battered beyond sensation…

A searing light from above drilled into her visor when it onlined. It left her processor ringing and she was tempted to offline her visual sensors. She quashed the urge. Assessing her current status was more important at that moment. Slowly, she let her optics online to full power. The blinding light from above gradually dulled to a more bearable glare. She couldn't be certain whether that was her optics adapting, or if someone had adjusted the room brightness.

Except there's no one here to-

Glyph instantly tensed when a dark shadow suddenly rose up and blocked out the above light – it's form completely shrouded in black. The only feature she was able to acknowledge was the dim red visor peering down at her. They lifted a single hand to her neck and she offlined her optics. If she were going to die now, it wouldn't be staring into the face of a 'Con.

A pinprick to her neck cables prompted a small squeak from her. One she instantly regretted. A dignified way to for one to meet their end indeed, she sardonically thought.

But rather than a cold darkness encompassing her spark and processor, Glyph felt small prickles of feeling begin to seep back into her joints and sensor-net. Her visor flickered and she twitched her fingers. They stung, no doubt still sporting scars from her interrogation. A nice reminder for the next time she thinks of leaving Tap Out's watch…

She shifted on the berth and a quiet groan built up behind her vocaliser, audibly escaping as a static-laced hiss. As feeling began to return, so did pain. It flared up slowly, but soon made itself familiar with every inch of her damaged frame. She bit down on a whine, optics shuttered tight behind her visor.

"Glyph?"

That voice… It seemed… familiar. Where had she heard it before? It had a unique quality to it that left her processor ticking with intrigue.

A cold servo to her inflamed faceplates caused her to flinch. Glyph's visor rebooted with a flash and the mech's torso filled her hazy visuals. A surprised noise clicked from her vocals and on instinct she tried to sit up. A strong hand on her shoulder helped her.

"S-… Soundwave?" she effectively coughed out. The lip of an energon cube touched off her mask. She promptly retracted it, drinking up the refreshing cool liquid without hesitation.

"Affirmative."

The cube was gently pulled back once she'd drained half its contents, a single servo trailing across her chin where some had dribbled. Glyph stared up at him dubiously.

"Why… why are you.. Have you…?"

Soundwave's red band drilled into her own yellow one for a moment before he droned, "Your processor has not been probed."

A small relief, though it did little to settle her confusion as to why he… and why she was here.

"Interrogation methods: unnecessary and unproductive" Soundwave's monotone provided after another moment of silent tension.

Glyph stared up at him for a moment more before glazing her optics over the room. Too small and ill equipped to be a med-bay. Too barren of any personal items to be a sane bot's living environment.

She lifted her helm to fix him with an unreadable look: "Your quarters? Could that not prove risky if you had company spending the night?"

The attempt at humour fell flat and Soundwave stared at her for a moment more before setting the cube down and moving over to the console across the room. Glyph sighed.

"Thank you Soundwave. I'm grateful for your help. Really. But why not just leave me in the med-bay? Or even the brig? I'm essentially recovered now."

"Negative."

Her visor flickered in surprise and she echoed, "..Negative?"

"Autobot Glyph went offline during interrogation. Body was disposed of by incineration precisely 4.249 dega-cycles ago. Autobot coding she possessed: no longer relevant. Interrogation: no longer necessary."

Glyph remained stock-still, processor whirring.

"…You said I died."

"Affirmative."

"You... saved my life."

Silence greeted her. She stared at his back for a moment more before tremulously shifting her way off the berth and limping over to him.

"…Why?"

A weighty silence fell before Soundwave tilted his helm to look at her, "You know why."

Glyph met his gaze briefly, then lowered her helm.

"Yes."

Another bout of silence followed and she shifted on the spot. After a klik passed, Soundwave finally turned to properly face her.

"Decepticon shuttle beta-3 shall dock for refuel and maintenance at space port 102087 in roughly two cycles." She instinctively looked up when he stooped down, no longer towering over her so blatantly. "There, you shall depart shuttle and proceed to rendezvous with fellow Autobots. Affirmative?"

She hesitated before offering a silent nod, not really sure what else she could add on at this point… Not really sure whether there was anything she wanted to add on. Other than…

"Thank you Soundwave…"

Glyph probably should have left the matter at that and just walked back over to the berth. The smart thing to do would have been to ignore the soft weight of Soundwave's hand around hers. The gentle tug that brought her that much closer to him. The familiar brush of his lip plating melding against her own..

She should have ignored it, and probably could have, but didn't. After all he'd done for her… and in spite of everything between them, she knew she would have been just as angry with herself if she had ignored it, than if she hadn't.

With odds like those, and if all they had were these two short cycles to embrace a brief respite, she could afford to throw things like logic and worry out the window for that long. The future is never concrete.

AN: Done for the tf_rare_pairing com on LJ :D Crack? Lol, what's that?