Author's Notes: I love Skyfire/Starscream, and I love Transformers: Prime. Naturally, I therefore love the TFP Skyfire/Starscream fanart I've seen here and there. The designs fans come up with for TFP Skyfire are amazing. (I wish I could draw, as I'd do one myself.) This story is inspired by those lovely pictures.

This is my fourth piece of Transformers fanfiction, yet only the first to take place in standard canon. The other three were all Shattered Glass AUs.

I own nothing, blah blah.

Seeking a Seeker
By Annie-chan

Night.

A bright streak of fiery light crossed the clear, starry sky. If a person looked up at it from the planet's surface, they might assume it was a comet, but those who knew what they were looking at would disagree.

A large object was entering the atmosphere.

Anyone close enough to see it—not that humans usually flew this high in their ungainly contraptions—would perceive a space shuttle. It was of a design that no nation on Earth used, however. It was more an approximation of a space shuttle, something that humans would give that designation to for lack of a better one, as that was the closest thing to it that they had a name for.

The large craft finally broke through the upper layers of the atmosphere, and the halo of fire around it vanished, engulfing it in the frigid temperatures of the mesosphere. As it quickly descended toward the ground, the increasing density of the air did nothing to slow it down. It actually sped up as it got closer to the planet's surface.

The landscape below seemed barren, composed of broken rocks, jagged canyons, and vast expanses of bare dirt and sand. Whoever was piloting the shuttle seemed to know where they were going, however, as it flew forward on a straight, unwavering course.

Without warning, the shuttle veered off from its path, tilting sideways as it turned. It kept turning, flying in a wide circle above one of the canyons below, dropping down until it entered the canyon itself, the gash in the earth just barely wide enough in some places to let it pass. Now it flew slower, though still much faster than was advisable in such a narrow passageway.

After a few minutes, a rock arch came into view not far ahead. The shuttle continued forward, passing through the arch in a matter of seconds.

Now something happened that, if anyone had been around to see it, they would have thought they were losing their mind. The shuttle suddenly pulled up sharply, starting what appeared to be a loop-the-loop, an extremely dangerous stunt for such a large craft to execute at such speed. When it was upside down at the top of the loop, however, that's when the strange part happened. The entire shuttle shifted and changed shape, until it could no longer be called a shuttle anymore. In addition to its wings, which were now jutting out at an entirely different angle, it had what looked suspiciously like two arms and two legs. It was in this form that the now unidentifiable object dropped to the ground, landing with a substantial impact. The sound was of metal hitting rock, and a cloud of dust rose up around it, momentarily obscuring it from view.

Skyfire stood up from the crouch the landing had forced him into, waiting for the dust cloud to settle before he started forward. He had no idea where he was. All he knew was that he was somewhere on this planet's northern hemisphere, right about in the middle of the night side, the lines of sunset and sunrise almost equidistant from his location. His scanners told him that there were no significant settlements in the immediate area, at least not of any forms of life that he had encountered before. For once, however, he really didn't care if there was. He was here for a specific purpose, and nothing short of a planet-changing disaster would deter him from that purpose.

The light sensitivity of his optics was at maximum. This planet had but a single moon, which was currently in a crescent phase, not providing much light to the landscape below. Despite this, he knew exactly what stood before him as the dust settled.

There, embedded in the canyon wall, almost invisible to those not knowing what to look for, was a massive Cybertronian ship. Or part of one, at least. Though warped by its no doubt violent meeting with the ground untold ages ago, Skyfire could tell that a substantial part of the ship was missing. It had probably been broken into pieces in the crash. Perhaps the other part, or parts, was nearby, or perhaps what Skyfire was looking at was the only surviving remnant of the once mighty ship.

In all honesty, Skyfire didn't care right now.

He started toward the ship. It was rather cold according to his temperature sensors, but he paid it no mind. Cybertronians were much less susceptible to temperature extremes than organic life tended to be, and it appeared that that was the dominant type of life supported by this tiny planet.

When he reached the ship, he stopped. His spark was spinning rapidly in his chest, and a shiver rattled his chassis that had nothing to do with the cold. His fuel tank churned, making him feel vaguely nauseous, and he realized that he was trembling.

He was nervous. Extremely nervous. He had waited so long for this chance, had all but given up hope that he would ever get this chance. Now that it had presented itself, he felt about ready to quite literally fall into pieces. He ached to see the mech who had apparently taken up residence in this ancient shipwreck; he missed him so much…

Cycling a deep breath, Skyfire willed himself forward into the unknown.

Starscream jerked out of recharge. His proximity sensors were screaming at him, bringing all of his systems online at once. The programmed reaction was designed to bring a mech to full alertness all at once, but he was still momentarily disoriented, his processor scrambling to comprehend what was happening. When he finally did realize what was going on, a bolt of fear lanced through him.

There was an intruder on the Harbinger.

Oh no…no, no, no, this can't happen now. He was starving. He hadn't refueled in days. There was no way he could spare the energy to fight, and he couldn't run away with any kind of speed, as he was missing his T-cog. If he was found, he was doomed. He would be either killed or captured, and neither of those things was anything that he wanted.

This was not good.

Trying to fight down the panic, he leapt off his makeshift berth and stumbled over to the computer terminal. He brought up the overall schematic of the ship, punching in the commands to display the locations of Cybertronian life signals. There was his own in the laboratory he had claimed as his home, which would ideally be the only one on the ship. But there was one other, its steady green blip burning into his widened optics.

It was moving in his direction. His spark fluttered in fear, wings hiking up in alarm. He was shaking, his talons tapping a staccato rhythm on the command pad. Fate had never been kind to him, and now it seemed his luck had gone from bad to worse.

Even through his terror, he noticed something strange. The signal wasn't labeled as either Autobot or Decepticon. He very, very rarely saw that since the war broke out on Cybertron, and not at all since both factions were forced to abandon their homeworld. There were neutrals at the beginning of the war, but no one had any choice but to choose a side as the conflict wore on. There was just nowhere on Cybertron that neutrals could reside anymore. Any place that wasn't being actively fought over had already been made uninhabitable. By the time of the exodus, the entire population had been divided into either Autobots or Decepticons.

Starscream didn't let himself wonder about this anomaly for long. Just a few klicks later, the ominous sound of pedefalls outside in the corridor reached his audials. His fear flared up again, panic swelling in his spark. He couldn't fight, he couldn't run. What could he do?

Hide. That's the only thing he could do.

Almost whimpering in terror, he ran to the far end of the lab, as far away from the door as he could get. He had piled all the debris and broken equipment in this corner when he had set up house, clearing the space so he could walk about his home without fear of tripping or damaging his delicate pedes. He threw himself upon the heap, burrowing in as quickly as he could, hoping against hope that he could hide himself well enough to escape the intruder's notice.

When he could go no further, he turned and pressed his back against the wall, grabbing what he could and piling it over himself, trying to hide as completely as possible.

After that, all he could do was wait. He huddled in his hiding place, trembling violently, trying desperately not to cycle air too loudly.

Please let them pass by, please let them pass by, please let them pass by, please—

The pedefalls stopped right outside the laboratory door. Starscream tried to stifle a squeal of terror, and only partially succeeded. The door was unlocked. The locking mechanism had been damaged in the crash, and no longer worked properly.

Why, oh why couldn't he have picked a place with a locking door?!

He heard the swish of a door opening, and a few klicks later, pedefalls entering the laboratory. Whoever they belonged to was walking slowly, moving cautiously into the room.

Who could it be? Who could be looking for him? It wasn't Megatron, he knew that. The pedefalls didn't sound right, and Megatron wouldn't be moving quite so warily. The silver tyrant rarely showed hesitation like this.

Even though he was literally quaking in fear, Starscream's curiosity got the better of him. He moved a piece of debris aside very slightly, just enough that he could look through the junk covering him and hopefully see the intruder.

The mech he saw was huge, taller than Megatron by at least a helm. He could easily lift Starscream with one servo and throw him a considerable distance. Or rend him limb from limb with barely any effort. Or crush him under his pedes, flattening his spark chamber with ease.

Despite the intruder's spark-stopping size, Starscream's fear was quickly replaced with utter shock. He hadn't seen this mech in so long, so long. Not since the early cycles of the war. He didn't know what had happened; he had assumed that this mech had been offlined somehow, his final resting place unknown to the sparkbroken seeker.

Skyfire.

It couldn't be him, could it? Was Starscream seeing things? Was his fuel deficiency worse than he thought?

A hallucination. It had to be.

"Starscream…?" Skyfire called, looking around the lab. His optics were searching every inch of the room, a look of anxiety on his faceplates. "Starscream, are you here?"

Pit with it. As soon as he heard that voice—that dearly beloved voice—he knew he couldn't stay hidden any longer. He burst into motion, shoving debris aside as he emerged from his hiding place, scrambling to his pedes. After he was out, he all but froze again, unable to approach the specter of his long lost love.

"Starscream!" Skyfire gasped, optics widening.

For a klick or two, they just stared at each other.

"Skyfire," Starscream finally managed to choke out, his vocalizer refusing to work properly. "Are you…are you real? Is that really you…?"

Skyfire surged forward, moving alarmingly fast for a mech of his size, and Starscream was swept up into a crushing embrace, his lip-plates taken in a bruising kiss.

This was no hallucination, his spinning processor realized. This was real. This was Skyfire.

The bigger mech eventually, reluctantly, broke the kiss, and instead held Starscream tightly against him.

"It's you!" he sobbed, his vents cycling deeply. "Starscream! I finally found you! I thought I'd never see you again!" His words trailed off, and he shamelessly wept, so overcome with emotion that he didn't care what kind of scene he was making.

Starscream had been utterly stunned, unable to react when Skyfire grabbed him. But now he shook off his daze, winding his arms and legs tightly around his beloved shuttle, burying his faceplates in Skyfire's neck cables. He shook with the force of his emotion, processor still trying to fully grasp what was happening.

Skyfire. Skyfire had come back to him. Skyfire was here.

Warmth…touch…need…

Servos trailed along his wings, around his waist, down his thighs. Lip-plates were on his, glossa buried deep in his mouth, dentals nipping just the way he liked. Another chassis moved against his own, static building between them, electricity arcing as they ground together.

His cooling fans were on full blast, expelling hot air as fast as they could, desperately trying to dispel the mounting heat.

Charge was building rapidly along his circuits, racing through his sensornet, making his chassis shudder and writhe as his limits were strained and broken.

The other's lip-plates were against his audial, whispering endearments and naughty promises in a low growl-purr that could only be described as delectable. The only response he could manage was a high, staticky whimper.

Oh Primus, he was ready. His interface panel opened unconsciously, and he shivered as his most sensitive parts were bared, aching to be pushed into, stretched, completed.

His legs were nudged apart, and then there was a spike piercing him. He threw his helm back and cried out. It had been so long since he felt this spike, and it hurt, but oh frag it felt so good.

Don't stop, keep going…

Two servos wrapped around his slim waist, large enough to go all the way around, and moved him up and down over the throbbing, twitching spike. It was slow going at first, but they gradually picked up speed, going faster and faster until he could do nothing but clutch at the other's arms and ride it out. He fairly sang his pleasure to the ceiling, rendered incoherent with the sensations he was experiencing.

He hadn't felt so good in vorns.

It felt like his spark was growing bigger, whirling behind his chestplates, its chamber too small to contain so much raw energy. The charge grew and grew and grew until his chestplates split apart of their own accord, baring the core of his being to the mech who had him in thrall, wordlessly begging for the other's spark.

The other's chestplates thudded apart, and then their chambers were thrust together, sparks colliding with near explosive force.

He screamed, chassis arching and shaking as overload crashed over him. His systems redlined; some were even knocked offline, static obscuring his vision and hearing. Far away, he heard his partner cry out as well, strong arms crushing him against a much larger frame, their plating rattling together as they trembled.

He collapsed, audials sputtering back on, optics remaining offline as he teetered on the edge of unconsciousness. All he could hear was heavy breath cycling and the whir of cooling fans. He felt his chestplates fall back into place, his spark humming contentedly in its chamber.

Servos were once again stroking his wings, and he lazily drifted off into recharge, a smile settling on his lip-plates.

"Here."

Starscream lifted his helm when Skyfire spoke, onlining his optics to see what the other mech had for him.

"Drink," Skyfire said, offering a small cube of energon to the seeker, who lay curled in his lap as he sat on the floor, backplates against the lab's central computer terminal.

Starscream's optics widened, and he snatched at the cube, drinking greedily. His fuel tank was almost dry, and he was starving. For weeks, he had been surviving on what little scraps he could find in a stripped energon mine nearby. This cube Skyfire offered, small as it was, was a boon that Starscream could hardly dare to hope for. He downed the whole thing in just a few klicks. It was simple mid-grade, but the seeker could swear it was the best energon he had ever tasted.

"Careful," Skyfire said gently, his servo on the back of Starscream's neck. His optics softened, looking at his lover with pity. "You're starving, aren't you?"

Starscream didn't answer. Skyfire would have seen as much when they merged sparks. He crushed the empty cube, the superlight material dispersing into the air as its cell structure was disrupted. His hunger was far from sated, but at least the edge had been taken off.

Plip

Starscream jumped. A drop of liquid had come down from above and landed on the back of his servo. He looked up, and felt his optics widening again when he saw where the drop had come from.

Skyfire was crying.

"Lovemate…?" Starscream asked tentatively, reaching up to brush at the other mech's tears.

"I…I had all but given up hope of ever finding you again," Skyfire said quietly, stroking Starscream's wing. "Every star system, every planet we came to, I looked for you, but my hope slowly waned as the vorns went on. But I couldn't give up, I just couldn't not look for you. When your life signal showed up on my scan of this tiny little world, I just couldn't believe it. All those vorns of searching, and I finally found you."

Starscream smiled, purring as Skyfire continued to fondle his wing. His smile slowly faded, however, when he realized just how deeply sorrowful Skyfire's expression was.

"I had hoped," the bigger mech continued, "I had hoped that, wherever you were, you were happy. Or, if you had offlined, that you had found peace within the Allspark. But when we merged sparks…the things I saw! The things he's done to you!"

Starscream looked down, not responding. Skyfire didn't have to specify who he was, or what those things were. Indignity and resentment rose up, tainting his electromagnetic field. He had no doubt that Skyfire could feel the sudden downturn in his mood.

"But's that's not all I saw!" Skyfire ground out, his optics widening as he looked at Starscream. When the seeker looked back up at him, he almost shrank away. Skyfire was glaring at him. Such an accusing look seemed out of place on Skyfire's faceplates. Sweet, gentle, understanding Skyfire never glared at anyone.

"The things you have done!" the shuttle all but shouted. "Starscream! How could you?!" He cycled a shaky breath, and when he spoke again, his volume had lessened once more. "How could you? The mech I knew…he never would have done such things! What happened to you?!"

Starscream ducked his helm down. If anyone else had pointed out how he had changed, he would have merely scoffed and sent them on their way. Since it was Skyfire saying it, however, he couldn't just wave it off. He felt regret, he felt…shame. No one had ever gotten as close to him as Skyfire had, and to have his lovemate looking at him so accusingly struck deep. If there was one person in all the universe that he couldn't stand to disappoint, it was the mech now cradling him in his lap.

Skyfire gripped Starscream's chin and made the seeker meet his optics again. "But I'm willing to forget all that. Come with me, Starscream. I will forgive everything if you just come with me. I live with a colony of neutrals; you'd be welcome there. We have plenty of former Autobots and Decepticons that became disenchanted with the war. We could even get you a new T-cog once you're there. You'll be flying again in no time." He let go of Starscream's chin and took the seeker's servo in his own. "Leave this planet behind. Leave him behind. There's nothing tying you to the Decepticons anymore. You've already thrown away your loyalty to Megatron. Make it final. You can start over again, lovemate, just come with me."

Starscream looked at their joined servos. Skyfire was right. Megatron, and the Decepticons, had changed since the war. Their original objective, the reformation of Cybertron, was long gone. The only discernable reason why they were still fighting was that they had been doing so for so long that no one knew how else to exist anymore. The war had long outlasted the reason for making war in the first place.

Now Starscream's loyalty to Megatron and his cause had been steadily declining over the past several megacycles, and had finally been broken. There was no respect for him anymore, either from his master or his subordinates. All he knew anymore was degradation, humiliation, and even the occasional murder attempt. There was no place for him among the Decepticons now, and the Autobots hadn't been any more welcoming.

He had gone rogue, but hadn't the means to escape Earth and truly strike out on his own. But now Skyfire was offering him asylum in a whole colony of neutrals. He would be among those of like mind again, living with other bots who wanted to leave the war behind. He had caught glimpses of everyday life in the mobile colony during his merge with Skyfire, and his spark ached. It was almost like life back on Cybertron, back before everything went wrong. The fact that Skyfire would be there with him just made it all the more tempting.

"Come with me," Skyfire urged again. "Come to where you can live in peace. Please, lovemate."

Starscream grasped Skyfire's servo with both of his own. "All right," he finally said, nodding rapidly. "I will come with you. I want to start over. I want away from this damned, pointless war. Take me away, Skyfire. Show me how to live in peace again."

A grin split Skyfire's faceplates, and he hugged Starscream tightly. He murmured something that sounded like thank the Allspark, then laid a gentle kiss upon Starscream's helm.

Starscream hugged the shuttle back just as tightly, allowing himself to smile again. This was what he needed, what he had been looking for when he broke with the Decepticons, a chance to live peacefully, a chance to live by his own rules.

A chance to be happy again.

Skyfire rocketed up away from the Harbinger, ascending almost perpendicular to the ground, building speed as he rose so he could break free of the planet's gravity well.

Starscream lay curled up in his hold, lightly recharging. He was not only low on fuel, but missing his T-cog. The only way he could make it to the colony was to rely on Skyfire. The shuttle didn't mind; in fact, protecting his lovemate like this bestowed a feeling of contentment upon him. If he had a face while in vehicle mode, he'd be smiling.

Behind them lay the Decepticons, the Autobots, and their useless, endless war; ahead lay a new life for Starscream, a new life with his beloved Skyfire.

He was ready to start over.

End

Author's Notes: So, how'd I do? I realize very little in this fic jives with how Skyfire and Starscream are in canon, but since there is no Skyfire (or Jetfire) in the TFP continuity—the TV series, anyway—I figured that TFP Sky/Star was pretty much a blank slate to do what I wanted with. Please leave a review telling me how you think I did. I would love to hear from you guys. (Please be nice if you plan on criticizing, though.)