Title: Bad Touch of Time
Pairings/Characters: Optimus/Prowl; mention of Ratchet, Perceptor, Wheeljack.
Verse: G1
Words: 1291
Warnings: Implied youngling abuse.
Summary: A one-shot of Optimus comforting his bondmate from his nightmares.
Disclaimer: Do not own Transformers.
Notes: A cute but angsty idea that popped in my head a while back.
Enjoy!
Optimus woke up abruptly, optics shuttering open.
Blinking his optics in his dark quarters he tried to puzzle out through the lingering recharge haze in his processors, what had woke him up. A whimper and quiet shuddering gasp brought his gaze from the ceiling to the mech laying curled up next to him. The warm haze dissipated in the face of his silently crying bondmate, locked in the terror of a nightmare. Optimus knew from past experiences it was best to coax Prowl out of the nightmare and into a calmer state of recharge before waking him up. Something he had, had to learn the hard way.
Reaching over, he clasped a gentle hand on a white shoulder and whispered soothingly, "Calm down, dear one. Everything is okay, I'm right here." He wrapped his arms around the slight figure of his bondmate and pulled him close to secure the feeling of safety to him, even in the depths of recharge.
Optimus recalled the conversation many vorns ago with Ratchet, back when the war had been at its climax on Earth. Optimus and Prowl had begun a tentative and slow relationship built primarily from comfort. It had grown into strong affection and eventually, love. The gentle and completing relationship with his Second in Command however had been hindered by terrible bouts of mysterious nightmares Prowl had received nightly.
At first Optimus thought they were just regular nightmares as he only saw Prowl in recharging distress when they managed to meet each other through their busy schedules and share a berth for the night. He had discovered it was not the case as whenever Optimus had questioned Prowl about it, his second in command had looked confused and said there were no nightmares he could recall having; for vorns.
At Optimus' insistence, Prowl had bemusedly allowed an appointment be made for the 'problem'. It had turned out to be far more serious than both of them had imagined. Ratchet had quickly cleared up the cause of these forgetful nightmares with a deep probe processor scan. He had found a bundle of memory codes locked securely in the back of Prowl's memory bank. It dated back vorns; all the way from the time Prowl had been a youngling.
According to Ratchet the memories locked within the bundle were few but intense. When Prowl recharged, the memory bundle was activated and unlocked, completely flooding what should have been a peaceful rest with violent episodes of his creator mentally and physically abusing him as a youngling. Ratchet had been able to get some sort of device into the coding bundle, with Prowl's willing permission, and recorded what was held within.
"What the Pit do you think you're doing?" His Creator hissed and Prowl looked up fearfully, fumbling with his small cube of low-grade energon. It slipped from his fingers and clattered onto the floor, splattering the neon pink fluid all over the floor. Terror filled Prowl's features, doorwings shrinking to his back as his father began to swear loudly and suddenly his face was being shoved into the floor and the spilled energon.
"Go on you filthy waste of metal! You wanted energon? Then drink it! Clean it up!" Trembling and feeling his Creator's knee digging into his back harshly, he was forced to lick up the energon covering the, thankfully, pristine floor. Nonetheless, Prowl could feel shame and embarrassment filling his pulsating spark as he held back cleanser fluid from reaching his optics.
Prowl whimpered as he heard his Carrier plead to his Creator. There was a loud sound of metal hitting metal and Prowl curled up on his berth, shaking in his ragged thermal blanket that no longer produced heat even when fully charged, and holding a tattered, grungy bundle of knotted rags that made something of a bunny looking doll. His Creator slammed open his door and then shut it in his nervous Carrier's face-plates. Prowl whimpered as his Creator stalked with him, an empty high-grade cube in his hands. The hand raised upward and Prowl shuttered his optics tightly, curling closer around his makeshift toy, and screamed in pain as glass smashed over his helm.
Prowl had woken from the drug induced recharge with no idea what terrible memories he had experienced during his recharge. Optimus had been horrified by the memories themselves and the fact Prowl was not ever aware of them, no chance to cope with what was and had happened and pleaded with the medic to do something.
Optimus clutched Prowl in the present, cupping the back of Prowl's head to nestle it into his shoulder.
Ratchet couldn't have done anything; no medic could. The memory bundle was tightly intertwined with different memory strings and it was too late to remove them without possibly harming Prowl's memory banks overall.
In the end Wheeljack, Perceptor, and Ratchet made an attempt to loosen the codes and the recharge activated lock on them so with each recharge session, Prowl would remember more and more until his processor dumped the code as unimportant and begin treating it like any other memory again. It had killed Optimus to know that Prowl would have no choice but to keep experiencing such a bad touch of time, the abuse that had carved his life unknowingly, until such a time as that came.
Now, in the vorns after the war, Optimus had been thoroughly ecstatic to see Prowl go through a week of recharging without a single nightmare. The second in command too, rejoiced the occasion of getting a full nights rest. The week had been heaven for his bondmate and it was strongly felt through his spark.
Slowly Prowl was reaching larger spaces between the nightmares and just as Ratchet predicted, unlike the inconsolable mech Optimus used to waken after the memory bundle was unlocked, Prowl was letting the memories go with nothing more than a disdainful frown directed toward his Creator before sinking back into recharge without a care in the world.
It had been so long, though, that Prowl had cried during a nightmare. Optimus feared that the progress might be stopping or worse, reversing.
"It's alright Prowl." He whispered over and over again, murmuring reassurances and love to him as he wiped away the cleanser fluid tears.
The whimpers and sobs and fitful movements eventually slowed before completely settling and Optimus cradled Prowl to him, waiting for him to wake up. When the elegant doorwings arched upwards then slowly eased back into a lax state Optimus released his hold on Prowl's helm and felt Prowl shift. Cobalt blue optics met his, misted over from the tears he had been shedding in recharge.
"…I'm sorry for waking you... again." Prowl murmured, looking at him with an odd mix of relief and frustration.
Optimus shook his head pressing a gentle kiss to Prowl's chevron, receiving a small contented sigh from his bondmate, "Don't apologize for waking me, Prowl. I only want to help you."
"It is not fair to you." Prowl mumbled into his neck cables.
Optimus smiled sadly. Prowl never quite let go of his protective self-sacrificing tendencies toward him or the former Autobots. Using a suspiciously playful tone, aiming to bring Prowl from his melancholy state, he questioned, "Prowl are you... pouting?"
He got the expected, and desired, result. Prowl lifted his head with indignant expression, "What? Of course I am not!"
Optimus continued to tease and cuddle his flustered bondmate until Prowl's engine hitched in a yawn and his systems began to drift into recharge again. Half-shuttered cobalt looked at him warmly. "Thank you, Optimus."
Optimus sent love across the bond and murmured through the strong connection in their sparks, -I will always be here to make the nightmares disappear, dear one.-
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