A/N: Woohoo, thanks for the reviews and suggestions dear readers I'm gonna get to them as soon as I can. For now, here's a very belated Valentines-inspired chap. I couldn't post it time cause of work. But anyways, enjoy! :D Oh, and this story has slash and Alpha Trion going a little ooc, I honestly don't think he'd react this bad but it's a fluff fic so….I can do what I want XD Grammar mistakes are all mine.

3: Love Bugs…Everyone

With a good chuckle, the Archivist studied the tiny writing tablets littered over Orion's desk. There were several of them, each one with a scribble of two little sparklings holding hands and a short message above them. One of the drawn sparklings was small, red, blue, with his trademark audios messily sticking of his helm.

The writing tablets had some of the most cliché and eye-rolling phrases of affection. There were simple things like "Be Mine," "You are the light of my life," "You are beautiful," and "You are special." And then there were silly ones like "You are fun. You make my spark jump," and "If I had a credit for each mech as cute as you. I'd have one credit," and "You like books. I like you. Can I check you out?"

Alpha Trion was amused by that last one. There weren't many students in Orion's class that seemed to find joy in books. But perhaps that is why Orion liked him enough to try his servo at writing correspondences of affection. In all honesty, Trion wasn't one to encourage such frivolous crushes, having seen enough of young love to know that it wouldn't last past sparkling-hood. He was a serious mech when it came to matters of the spark, but reading Orion's attempts to woo another made him smile from the sheer silliness of it.

And the fact that Orion already had a difficult time speaking up in his class gave these little love notes a measure of comfort to Trion. At least now, Orion had someone to look forward to each day in his class, and someone he'd be willing to express himself to. Besides, it was a harmless crush and he didn't want to (no pun intended) crush the little mech's spark by saying that his love letters weren't exactly masterpieces of romance.

"Grandsire?" A tiny voice peeped up from the doorway.

"Ah, Orion," The Archivist said, "Come over here. I wish to talk to you about these writings."

If Trion hadn't been busy gathering up the writing tablets, he would have seen the color drain from Orion's face. The sparkling had the look of unmasked horror and embarrassment. The sparkling approached the Archivist slowly, shuffling his pedals and trying to look anywhere else besides those cringe-worthy letters.

"These letters you've written," Trion began, reminding himself to be sensitive and not laugh, "Are very….sweet. Now, I don't want you to think that I'm mad at you for liking someone. It's very normal and I'm actually happy you liked someone enough to write to them. But remember, little spark, that you're still very young for anything remotely serious. You're just a sparkling and studies comes first. Inspiration is a wonderful thing but –-"

"But grandsire—" Orion tried to speak up, but he couldn't speak loudly enough for Trion to actually stop his sermon about the joys of first love and the perils of getting distracted by said love, or the necessity to keep one's focus on completing schoolwork.

"You're at the top of your advanced class, and a model student. Like I said before, inspiration is good but your responsibilities come first. Now, I think these letters are perfectly fine, but if you want me to help you come up with….more eloquent ones, I can certainly do that. After you finish your assigned reading for tonight of course—"

"Oh grandsire," Orion said, distressed by all the information. His optics wide and fearful, "Can you…can you just throw those letters away? I don't wanna see them ever….ever again!"

"What do you mean, little one?" The Archivist knelt down as close as he could to the sparkling's level.

Orion threw himself at his grandsire's chest, hiding against the metal and almost crying.

"What is this about?" Alpha Trion asked, rubbing Orion's back to soothe him. The sparkling's sudden outburst was unlike him, and Orion never wanted to throw any sort of data-pad out, no matter how bad the material was.

"Just throw them away." Orion begged, sniffling and sobbing, "Please? I don't wanna look at them. My insides are twisting. Make it stop."

Alpha Trion tried to understand why Orion was acting so strangely, but the sparkling was too distressed to even speak properly. The Archivist hushed the mechling, bouncing the crying form until the sobs ceased.

"There now, my brave one," Trion said softly, "Why are you so upset?"

Orion frowned, giving death glares to the inanimate writing pads. He groaned, little coughs breaking out as another fleet of tears gushed down his silvery face.

"Make it stop grandsire. Please," Orion pushed something against his grandsire's armor. It was a crumpled up data pad covered all over with smiling faces and phrases saying 'you make me happy' and 'I like the funny faces you make.'

"Oh little one," Alpha Trion began. Judging from Orion's sensitive state and his insistence on destroying the letters, the Archivist came up with one conclusion.

Orion just had his very first rejection.

"I just want it to stop." Orion mumbled. He hiccupped between the words. He tried to wipe his optics clean but new tears seemed to gush out each time he moved.

"You will be alright," Alpha Trion said, gently stroking the quaking helm. He lifted up Orion's chin so their eyes met, "It hurts to have your spark so disappointed, but have faith brave one that there will be many others out there who'll line up to simply speak to you. Many others you haven't even met yet. First love may hurt, but it isn't the end at all."

"Really?"

"Yes, youngling"

"How…how many are lining up?" The sparkling said timidly, "Is it a lot?"

The Archivist laughed

"When you are older, I'm certain you'll have half of Iacon at the door begging to see you."

Instead of providing the comfort Trion thought it would, his words just made Orion cry and scream like never before.

"Don't let them grandsire! Don't them!"

"Orion, what is going on? I thought you'd be happy to know that so many will admire you."

"But I already have four that already do that," Orion sobbed, "And…and I don't like it at all. They bother me and send me these…these letters and I can't listen in class cause they're always poking me and trying to pass me notes, and I…I don't want half of Iacon to do the same thing!"

"Wait, so these letters aren't written by you?" Trion said, "You weren't writing to someone?"

"No. I didn't write one thing for anyone. All those came from other students in the class." Orion explained. He pointed to the offending notes, "They keep asking me stuff and I don't wanna talk to them. I just wanna hide."

Alpha Trion was stumped for a moment, but quickly regained his composure. He decided to laugh, pat the sparkling's back, and settle the fussy child against his shoulder.

"Oh Orion, forgive me. I thought all this while it was you who was composing these notes for someone you admire. Now I know it is the other way around."

For some odd, unexplainable reason the fact that Orion was the one being pursued made the Archivist's spark twist. With Orion writing them, the letters seemed adorable. Orion was a sweet, innocent child; any notes from him would never offend or harm anyone. But now the knowledge that not only one but four strange mechlings had their optics on his darling grandchild suddenly changed the nature of those notes.

They were no longer sweet and harmless. No. Now they were notes of harassment brimming with malicious ulterior motives and cruel intent.

'If I had a credit for each mech as cute as you. I'd have one credit,' If Alpha Trion had one credit for each homicidal thought bogging down his processor at the notion of someone harassing Orion he'd be the wealthiest, most energon-stained mech in Cybertron.

'You like books. I like you. Can I check you out?' The Archivist could literally feel is energon boiling over. How dare this writer even suggest—

'Be Mine'—And what did this sparkling think of Orion? Some toy he could say was his own? He didn't raise Orion to be some trinket for just anyone to possess.

'You are fun. You make my spark jump,' …

The implication of that statement, as innocent as they were coming from a sparkling, was the worst of the lot.

What in the name of all things scared was meant by "fun?" And why in the entire damn universe would sparks be jumping at any point? Paranoia gripped him, and the Archivist quickly glanced at his grandchild's body, his anger easing a bit when he saw the chest-plates still wonderfully sealed. The momentary relief was almost immediately squashed. Somewhere, out there, were sparklings who were giving Orion far too much unwanted attention. And by all the power at his disposal, Alpha Trion was determined to hunt them down, talk to them mech to mech, investigate their entire familes if need be and—

"Um….Grandsire?"

Orion's timid voice barely got through to Trion, who was too busy composing the most intimating 'do not even look at my grandchild' threats in his processor to even notice that Orion was now worried for him.

"Grandsire, are you ok?"

"What?" The Archivist snapped out of his thoughts as Orion began to giggle softly, "I see nothing funny about this situation."

"Grandsire, your face….it looks weird," Orion smiled, "I think the metal's melting!"

"Now you're just being silly."

"But it is! Look, your face is turning a funny color."

"Just never mind it," Alpha Trion shook his helm. With a sigh he set Orion down, trying his best to be calm and collected for the child's sake, "I'll put these notes away. Right now, I just want you to get yourself cleaned up. Then afterwards, we'll have some energon treats together. How does that sound little one?"

"Really? Thank you grandsire! You're the best," Orion hugged one of the Archivist's legs. He looked up at the older mech, his silly little grin bright and wide, "I don't ever wanna leave you. Ever."

"Silly mechling, of course you have to leave sometimes. How else will you learn?" Alpha Trion smiled in return, gently pushing the sparkling towards the direction of the wash racks, "Now go on. The sooner you've cleaned up, the sooner we can dine."

"Yes sir," Orion said. Just before he turned the corner to the wash racks he stooped and turned back, his blue optics shining in all their blind innocence.

"Is there anything the matter?"

"Oh, nothing grandsire," Orion shrugged, "I just wanted to make sure you were still there."

"Little one, I will always be here. Now go."

Orion obeyed, and when the sparkling was gone from sight the Archivist wasted no time deactivating the numerous tablets. His anger eased when the messages faded one by one. He gathered up the tablets, making a note to have one of the clerks sanitize the data to prevent the horrid love letters from ever being seen again. It unnerved him, it truly did, to think that at such a young age the mechling already attracted quite a bit of attention. Given the sparkling's reaction, Orion was nowhere near ready for such things. But he would not be sparkling forever, and one day his feelings would change. One day he would be ready to welcome suitors without crying or running to his grandsire for help. Alpha Trion however, couldn't bear to entertain the thought.

But like some horrible wreck, the idea could not leave his processor. As he fed Orion the promised energon treats, he simply watched the youngling. It was strange and comforting all at once to see how easily delighted he was in anything the red and blue youngling would say or do. The child was far from perfect, but even with his faceplates smeared with energon treats the sparkling's smile and laughs were as bright as any gem Cybertron's mines could ever offer. There was a twist in the old mech's spark to think that those smiles and laughs may one belong to someone else. Or worse yet, that they'll be taken from Orion by heartbreak or rejection.

When Orion finally fell asleep on his crib Alpha Trion stayed behind a little bit longer than usual, just to make sure the youngling was truly at peace. As he was rearranging the scattered datapads on the shelves, a solution to his problem finally occurred to him. He immediately scoffed at the idea. It was such a trivial thing to worry about anyways. He wouldn't need to use the Covenant. The Covenant shouldn't be used for that sort of thing. It might not even reveal anything remotely related to Orion's future love life. And why would the Covenant even take interest in his grandchild's future romances anyway? Surely it couldn't be that significant….

Alpha Trion tried to think of excuses not to consult the ancient relic, and he was still trying to think of even more as he was opening the book, searching the pages for any hint of Orion's future suitors.

"My apologizes for this slight misuse," Alpha Trion prayed softly as the glyphs began to form coherent words. He saw Orion's name appear, and his spark were dread when he realized that the relic was going to reveal something he wasn't even sure he was ready for.

The Archivist sighed and kept reading.

"It's just a little glimpse. Just a little. It can't possibly be that bad…"

The next morning Orion was surprised to find that certain data streams were completely blocked from his access. He tried multiple times to connect to the grid, but there were numerous firewalls and security codes that seemed to magically pop up every time he tried to search a particular topic.

Alpha Trion meanwhile, was watching him intently. For an organized, dignified mech, his thoughts were all a clutter. He kept his mouth shut for as long as he could, not knowing which one of the many responses in his mind would come spewing out.

You are never stepping out of these Halls again!

I will weld your pedals to the floor if I have to!

Where did I go wrong?

When will I go wrong?

As soon as your of age I am arranging your marriage!

I'm arranging it today. Right now.

Why Orion? Why must you fancy the bad ones?

A dozen other responses flew through his head.

Finally, a very frustrated Orion asked…

"Grandsire, can you fix this? I can't get any newsfeed from Kaon. When can I hear about the gladiator tournaments again?"

And after an entire night tossing, turning, panicking, reconfiguring the security networks in Orion's room, and stressing over what he'll say to Orion, the Archivist only had two words.

"No" and "Never."

A/N: Imagine how Trion will react years later when a certain gladiator shows up for Orion's affections. Hehehe, headcanon dictates Orion had a flare for bad boys ;) Up next, an attempt at artistry goes horribly, horribly wrong, but then again…it all depends on who you ask.