[3484 words!]

I know there are lots of fics with Laserbeak, but I can honestly say I haven't read any of them remotely like the monstrosity below... This was so hard to write... and I'm not really sure I managed to have everyone acting like themselves (damn Autobots) and why is it I can write endless snappy, witty, intelligent(ish) pages of dialogue between Rumble, Frenzy, Ravage, and Buzzsaw without really trying, but not a few of a dangerous adventure involving Laserbeak despite fragtons of effort? Gah...

Anyways...

[bot]: bond talk:

"normal, spoken Cybertronian"

bot: comm talk

Warning Message

(slightly relevant and story enhancing comment, not necessarily made by Laserbeak)

Her creator was Soundwave.

Out of all the TIC's cassettes she was Megatron's favourite.

Chances of her being sentient were small, and she was undoubtedly a mech.

That was about it. Few knew she was not a mere drone, and even fewer knew she was a femme. Laserbeak liked it that way. She was content to watch everything, always hanging back and never participating. That was her way. She learned so much by standing back. It was part of what made her such a good intelligence agent during the war.

She knew several of the Autobots had stated relationships now that the war was over.

Prowl, Wheeljack, Ratchet, Perceptor... quite a few of them had managed to find counterparts (be they temporary of permanent) to spend time with.

She knew about Frenzy's infatuation with his tutor, and Rumble's dislike of his existence in general.

Of course, any normal mech would accept beging rejected and move on. Not Frenzy. He insisted that Impact was infatuated with his "mechliness" and was only going out with the other guy (whom Franzy had yet to figure out the identity of) because she felt sorry for him.

Rumble, of course, was still pouting about being sent to school. Now though, he could also pout about Frenzy's incessant pestering and questions about how to get Impact away from her mech.

She knew of Ravage's deep seated (but never spoken) fondness for her siblings and Soundwave.

It had become almost glaringly obvious after she'd been attacked. Her new favourite habit was lounging in the game center where the family usually hung out and stretching out across the unfortunate sibling she wanted to snuggle with. She did the same to Soudnwave, but she'd had that habit for as long as any of her siblings could remember.

She knew Optimus Prime and Elita One were expecting a sparkling.

Of course, the fact that Jazz had been dancing through the med-bay singing "Oppy and Lita have a bun in the oven!" wasn't exactly inconspicuous, but few bots knew what it meant to have a bun in the oven. Those that did know weren't saying anything (Megatron and Optimus' orders) so the "secret" was staying quiet.

She knew Megatron was desperately lonely, even if he'd never admit it.

She often saw him brooding after meeting with Optimus Prime and his officers, all his officers. That meant the femmes too. Megatron actually seemed to get slightly depressed after those meetings. Not very noticeable to those that didn't know him, but Laserbeak and her family had been working with him since before the war and knew his moods almost like they knew their own.

She knew that everyone desperately wanted the alliance to work out, but that at the same time everyone was having a very hard time working together. Except, apparently, for Sideswip and Skywarp. But most bots were of the opinion that neither of those two had ever really been sane and that their friendship was expected and to be avoided at all costs, lest you be unfortunate enough to draw their attention.

How Buzzsaw had managed to befriend Skywarp, Laserbeak doubted she'd ever really figure out.

Though bringing him and his Trine a youngling probably helped a lot.

The one bot she had a feeling she'd never understand was, ironically, herself.

Sure, she had her own personality and quirks, but sometimes she completely surprised herself. After the war ended, she had learned she like dancing.

Her, the dreaded Laserbeak, liked to dance.

There were many other occasions that had resulted in an unexpected facet in her personality being revealed, and they unnerved her. The other bots? She could figure them out, watch them, learn who they were. Unfortunately, she had yet to managed to observe herself with the same detachment she could apply to others.

One such facet was causing a few more problems than the others, however, and as she flew to the pre-arranged meeting site she wondered, as she always did before these meetings, what she was doing.

If Soundwave or her siblings ever found out there would be the Pit to pay, especially if they found out how long it'd been going on.

So focused on her internal conundrum was she, that she actually shrieked when something tore through her wing, agony blinding her and causing her to spin out of control towards the distant ground.

She struggled to stop her downward spiral, but the pain coming from her wing was making ever movement excruciating.

[Soundwave]: Laserbeak! Status?

She could feel the surprise and concern emanating from Soundwave.

[Soundwave]: Laserbeak! Status!?

[Laserbeak]: Damaged. Impact unavoidable. Sorry, Soundwave.:

Desperately she commed the one mech she knew would be nearby.

Laserbeak: Bluestreak. Status. Damaged. Wing. Shot. Requireassistanceplease...

She could feel alarm over the comm. line.

Bluestreak: Hang on Laserbeak I'm on my way.

The last thing she saw was a dull flash before pain enveloped her and everything went black.

-_-Ominous Transition-_-

The first thing she noticed was the lack of things to be noticed.

There were no ruins.

No toppled buildings.

No clouds of dust or pollution.

Nothing.

Just sky.

What the frag?

Warnings started scrolling across her line of vision, and she did her best to ignore them. Surely someone would be able to find her before those became a concern?

Then her audios came online.

"-ver wake the frag up? It's been ages! Think something important got busted?"

Oh yeah. She'd been shot. Why didn't anything hurt? The distinct lack of pain either meant she'd been repaired, or she'd lost so much energon her pain receptors had shut off.

"Of course not you glitch-helm! My shot was perfect! You were the frag-tard that didn't catch it like you were supposed to!"

Chances of it being the first option were rapidly dwindling. It didn't seem like any of her captors were smart enough to repair a light bulb much less a Cybertronian.

"Why don't you shut the frag up and focus on getting it back online?"

At least they didn't know she was a femme.

A shadow fell across her vision, and it took a moment for her optics to focus on the figure above her.

The fact that they were both cracked didn't really help.

The mech was, perhaps, larger then Soundwave, and far less friendly looking. (Considering her creator's reputation and appearance, that was really saying something.) From what she could tell, his alt-mode was some kind of construction vehicle. His paint was faded and covered in scratches, dents, and rust.

"It's awake."

He sounded surprised.

[Soundwave]: Laserbeak! Status?

Soundwave's voice broke through her still muddled thoughts.

[Laserbeak]: Severely damaged. Position. Unknown. My PPS is broken. There are two mech with me. They seem like scavengers.

"Hey. Spy-Bot. Get up." A pede to her side quickly drew her attention back to the present as her pain receptors flared weakly before going back offline.

The mech glared down at her, servos on his hips.

Laserbeak decided to call him Loomer. All he seemed to do was loom over her.

The other mech peered down at her from his precarious perch on Loomer's shoulder. He didn't appear to be much bigger than a minibot.

"You sure it ain't broken?" His voice grated at her audials, and Laserbeak dubbed him Shriek.

She briefly contemplated her sparkling-like tendency to assign random nick-names to mechs before pushing the wayward thought to the back of her processor.

Loomer was doing his best to loom even more, even with Shriek on his shoulder to screw with his equilibrium sensors.

"It's not," Loomer said with a surprising amount of confidence. "And," he crouched down next to Laserbeak causing Shriek to squawk and topple off of Loomer, "if it wants to remain un-broken, it will get up. Now." He was doing a good job ignoring Shriek, who was flailing about, trying to right himself and somehow failing spectacularly.

Prowl: Laserbeak. Soundwave and Bluestreak have informed us of your situation. We're closing in on your position. Please don't move.

"I said move, Spy-Bot."

Prowl: Repeat. We are closing in on your position. Do not move, Laserbeak.

"Last chance, Spy-Bot. You move now, or you never move again."

Before her processor could overheat trying to decide who she should listen to, Loomer staggered backwards with a bellow as a hole was ripped through his shoulder.

She saw Shriek glance at Loomer before trying to run away. A shot ripped through his leg, and he fell to the ground screaming.

A small black blurr leaped over her followed quickly by two larger red and yellow blurs. She managed to see Ravage and Sideswipe rip into Loomer and Shriek. Ravage savagely tore into Shriek when he made a pathetic attempt to crawl away, and Sideswipe easily took down Loomer by dismembering him.

Looking up Laserbeak saw three seekers in the sky above her, and then Bluestreak, Soundwave, Ratchet, and Prowl came into view around her just as another set of warnings came up and started flashing red.

*Warning. Coolant Loss- Critical. Systems- Melting.*

*Warning. Energon loss- Critical. Stasis Lock- Initiated.*

*Warning. Spark Chamber- Breached. Contaminants- Detected.*

Stasis Lock- Initiated.

She caught a brief glimpse of Bluestreak's horrified expression before everything once again went black.

-_-Ominous Transition Número Dos-_-

Laserbeak decided she hated the med-bay. Aside from the brig in Decepticon Headquarters (that the Autobots were currently unaware of) the med-bay was the most depressing place in all of Iacon. Even the ruins were better than the med-bay, because if you looked hard enough you could see a special beauty in the looming structures and twisted metal. The med-bay though? Nope. It was all dull colours and painfully clean smells punctuated by the moans of injured bots, muttering and orders of grumpy medics, and incessant beeping of terrifying medical machines with screens full of meaningless information that was somehow related to a bot's state of well-being.

Horrible.

Laerbeak just lay on the med berth for a while, going through her emotions and memories, trying to figure out what exactly had happened.

She'd been going to meet Bluestreak, that much wasn't new.

What was new was being shot at and bot-napped on the way to their meeting spot.

Laserbeak winced as a ghost of pain flitted over her wing where she'd been shot.

Then she'd crashed, only to wake up in some Primus forsaken place far from anything remotely resembling civilization, with her captors apparently oblivious to her status and obviously not prepared for a rescue party of the firepower that had come after her.

To be honest, she was incredibly surprised that the mechs she remembered seeing had all come to rescue her.

Bluestreak, Soundwave, and her sibling had been expected.

Prowl, Sideswipe, Ratchet, and the Elite Trine had definitely not been.

Before she could ponder it further Ratchet came in, and he seemed unsurprised to find her online.

He studied her, as if looking for something, before turning away and calling resignedly through the door, "She's online, you can come in now."

All of a sudden mechs were coming into her room, and she fought back a squawk of surprise.

Rumble and Frenzy were first (obviously), followed by Buzzsaw, Soundwave, Ravage, and Bluestreak. She looked past them and managed to see the Elite Trine, Prowl, Jazz, and Sideswipe before the door closed.

There was a brief awkward silence before Rumble and Frenzy jumped onto the berth next to her. "The frag were you thinking Beaky! You know better than to and get yourself shot when we're not nearby! What if those idiot had actually been smart? What if they'd knocked you so far offline we couldn't feel you? What-"

"Enough. Laserbeak. Aware of errors. Does not need you reminding her." Soundwave cut through Frenzy's rant with ease of practice, but it didn't stop her from feeling guilty. She hadn't been thinking. She was one of the few bots that hoped everything was alright now that the war was over, but that was no reason to let her guard down so much. She was getting sloppy, and this whole fiasco was her fault. Laserbeak flinched as the worry, fear, and anger from her family finally made it past her blocks.

"Hey now, it wasn't entirely her fault. She was coming to see me, and if our factions were actually as friendly as we pretended to be for the neutrals and civvies then we wouldn't have felt the need to meet so fragging far away, so don't you go placing all the blame on her!" Bluestreak's angry voice stopped her spiral downwards into the vast pit of remorse and self-pity, and she looked up at him in surprise and gratitude.

Bluestreak smiled down at her and rubbed her head (right on that spot she really liked) and she gently pressed into the freely given comfort.

However she regretfully ducked her head away to peer over the side of the berth when Frenzy fell off it in what she assumed was surprise.

[Laserbeak]: Frenzy... alright?:

Frenzy was looking up at her with a dazed expression, so Rumble answered for him.

"Exactly how long have you been meeting Little Boy Blue, Beaky?" Wincing at the accusation in his voice, Laserbeak moved closer to Bluestreak as his engine rumbled angrily.

"She'd been meeting me since before the war ended, and before you get mad, she never betrayed any of you," he glanced at Ratchet, who was also glaring angrily at the duo, "and I never betrayed the Bots. We met by accident, but I don't regret the times we met afterwards that were most definitely not accidents."

"Inquiry." Laserbeak couldn't bring herself to look up at Soundwave, fearing the disappointed expression she knew was surely adorning his faceplates (despite the battle mask and visor). "Laserbeak and Bluestreak. Happy after meetings?"

What? That wasn't what she expected to hear. She expected orders to stay away from Bluestreak, not if she was happy seeing him.

"Yes." They answered at the same time, and smiled quickly at each other.

"It was nice to be able to talk to someone about things, and not worry about seeing them everyday or telling the others on the Ark. It was also nice to know that Decepticons were just like us, despite the animosity between our factions, and that there might be hope for a peaceful end to the war." At everyone's baffled expressions, Bluestreak seemed to lose some of his confidence, and Laserbeak felt the need to speak up.

"Meetings with Bluestreak, beneficial for both parties, despite the dangers... I know I was always more relaxed and cheerful after them, and Bluestreak, from what I gathered, was too." She glanced up at him when he gently put a hand on her back, and chirred affectionately at him when he winked at her.

"Primus I think I'm gonna purge," Rumble looked rather sick at their familiarity with each other, and quickly hopped off the berth to sit next to Ravage, who, along with Buzzsaw, had yet to voice an opinion.

Ratchet moved a bit, somehow drawing everyone's attention with the simple action. "You're not," he paused, as if the words were painful to say, "together, are you?"

Looking at each other in surprise Laserbeak and Bluestreak started laughing. Despite the pain of her recent repairs flaring up, Laserbeak laughed hysterically right alongside Bluestreak until warnings for overheating systems started popping up.

Bluestreak, reduced to kneeling next to her berth with the force of his laughter, tried to explain that they were merely good friends, but ended up laughing even harder.

"I think that answers the question," came Ratchet's wry response, and Laserbeak could feel tiny threds of relief through the bond.

All of a sudden Ravage, shrugging off Rumble, leapt onto Laserbeak's berth and crouched directly in front of Bluestreak.

For his part, Bluestreak stopped laughing remarkably quickly and stared up at Ravage from his spot on the floor without so much as twitching. Ravage growled at him, snapped at him, hissed at him, even, and still he didn't flinch.

Satisfied, Ravage sat back and nuzzled Laserbeak.

[Ravage]: I like him.

Everyone that could have heard Ravage stared at her incredulously. Laserbeak quickly overcame her shock and returned the nuzzling, happy that at least one of her family was willing to accept her unusual friendship. Of course, out of all her siblings, Ravage was the one who'd spent the most time on the Ark (after Laserbeak), and thus the most likely to understand.

Soundwave stepped forward and held out an arm, and Laserbeak unsteadily hopped onto it, her injuries preventing her from being her usual, graceful self. He slowly raised his arm so that Laserbeak could look him in the optics (for his cassettes, the visor did nothing to hide his emotions and expressions). "Laserbeak. Trusts Autobot Bluestreak?"

Laserbeak stared back without flinching, "Yes."

Soundwave stared at her for a moment more, and while she knew he wasn't completely satisfied, he would allow the answer for now.

"Cassettes. Laserbeak exempt. Return home."

Rumble and Frenzy started protesting, but Soundwave cut them off with a firm look and they slouched out of the room, muttering obscenities under their breath. Ravage followed with a respectful nod to Ratchet, something that surprised him more than any one else. Soundwave carefully lowered his arm, and allowed Laserbeak to hop off before he too left. Buzzsaw flew down and landed next to her on the berth, looking at her thoughtfully.

[Buzzsaw]: So this is why you understand. Good luck, Laserbeak.:

Laserbeak watched him fly out of the room, confusion only leaving her when she saw the mechling sitting on Skywarp's lap. She briefly remembered asking Buzzsaw about that day while he'd been waiting in the med-bay, and his confusion when she'd cut him off before he could explain why he'd felt the need to help the youngling. She smiled, at the look of joy on the mechling's face when Buzzsaw landed on his shoulder.

Looking at the two mechs left in the room, Laserbeak had to laugh at their completely different expressions. Bluestreak, of course, knew of the bond she shared with her family and was looking at her with fond amusement. Ratchet however, was looking a little uneasy at the obviously affectionate interactions between her and her various family members. When he saw her looking at him, however, he shook himself a bit and, with a nod to both of them, started to leave. Then he turned back to her with a glare, "Make sure you don't do anything too strenuous, and if you do anything to aggravate your injuries I will personally reformat you into a cuckoo clock, army of dedicated mechs aside." Then he left with the air of someone who has seen crazy things and was relieved to finally be able to leave.

Bluestreak sat on the end of her berth, and Laserbeak rested her helm on his thigh, "Can you believe they though we were a couple?"

She looked up at him and snorted derisively. "Not that it's not a nice thought, but I'd have figure the whole size difference thing would make it obvious we aren't a couple."

Few would have detected the edge of sorrow to her words, but Bluestreak had become too familiar with her over the vorns to miss it.

He smiled sadly down at her, "Awww, come on now LB. I didn't mean it like that! I'm sure we'll find someone for you. After all," amusement filled his optics, "Blaster does have cassettes of his own."

Laserbeak gave him a horrified look, "Them?! As if! Those immature sparklings would hardly be able to stand someone of my obvious intelligence, and besides, none of the idiots can fly. How am I supposed to leisurely fly around Iacon showing off my partner when they can't get more than double their own height off the ground?"

Bluestreak laughed at her indignant expression and easy dismissal of Blaster's cassettes, "Well," he said slyly, leaving no room for doubt as to what he was going to talk about.

Laserbeak huffed and looked away, her irritated posture not fooling either of them. As Bluestreak laughing babbled on about how sexy Blaster's cassettes were, Laserbeak realized she knew exactly what she was doing when she went to meet Bluestreak once every few cycles.

Primus I hate coming up with endings... that was horrific! Last sentences will be the death of me, I swear.

So, anyways... yeah. This idea has been plaguing me for a while, the whole Bluestreak and Laserbeak being friends thing...

I have outline their meeting/early friendship story, but it's nowhere near finished yet.

Just in case you missed it, Bluestreak and Laserbeak are not romantically involved. They are merely very good friends that can complain about the stupidity of their factions and say ridiculous things to each other without fear of being judged for it or having their secrets spilled.

Comments? Critiques? Favourite moments?

Flames will be used to... warm Ratchet's spark! (poor grumpy Ratchet)