THIS WAS MEANT TO BE UP AT CHRISTMAS I'M SO SORRY

ANYWAY Experimental readers will know the deal – everything from this point on will be in 3rd person & I'm working on getting the whole thing in 3rd person also! 1st person versions will still be on my blog but no new chapters will have one.

Units of time as I use them:

Klick – a second

Breem – a minute

Joor – an hour

Cycle – a day

Decacycle – 10 days

Groon – a month

Orn – a decade

Vorn – a century

{bond chatter}

::Comm. chatter::

From the outside, Polyhex looked friendly, calm and relaxed.

This, of course, was the opposite of what Polyhex looked like once you actually got inside.

It was as if the city itself was living and breathing, life spewing from every street corner. Despite it being the middle of the day with the stars high in the sky, relentlessly throwing their rays, there were neon lights on at every corner, not a single inch of the city unlit.

Situated right in the middle upon a mound was a huge building that was nothing short of a monster of a palace, with thick marble pillars and huge windows spanning the entire height of the building.

The house Jazz grew up in.

Everything was quiet up until Jazz pulled up through the gates. The moment the gates clicked shut behind him there was a flurry of activity as all of the unknown mechs and femmes Jazz guessed were reporters rushed up to him. Question after question was thrown at him, and Jazz had no idea what to reply.

"What were your initial impressions of Prowl?"

"Can you tell us about your stay in Praxus?"

"How long have you know about this?"

"What are your thoughts on arranged bonding?"

"What do you think of Prowl?"

Jazz ignored them, and continued to move forwards towards the central courtyard. Jazz knew that the general public – reporters included – weren't allowed past that point unless invited to. And they were most certainly not. Jazz could see the shapes of the armed guards that usually prowled around the perimeter, keeping out unwanted mecha, and couldn't stop the wave of relief that went through him.

He was exhausted. The drive back from Praxus was always long, and although he himself hadn't been doing any driving (He had never driven himself anywhere outside of Polyhex – rules, apparently) it was the journey that took it out of him.

He also couldn't wait to see his creators and siblings. Jazz leaned forwards as he saw a flash of colour among the dark blue of the guards.

When he saw the flash of light blue again, he knew who he was looking at. Melody, Jazz's younger sister, had obviously escaped that cycles lessons in order to welcome her older brother back into Polyhex.

The guards parted, the car pulled up into the courtyard, the door opened and Jazz hopped out to be immediately tackled by a small femme.

"Jazz!" She squeaked, excitedly clinging onto him. "How was it how was it? Oh I've always wanted to go to Praxus, it must be so nice there! I've heard that they've got huuuuge doorwings and the buildings are made of crystal and they've got these huge gardens where the crystals sing!"

"Ah'll tell ya when we get inside." Jazz replied, hugging her back and allowing her to cling to him like a koala. The reporters wouldn't dare take photos with the guards staring them down.

True to his word, Jazz sat down with Melody in one of the drawing rooms. Word had quickly spread that Jazz was back, and his Carrier, Rhythm, and his younger brother, Reggae, soon joined them. His Sire was caught up in an unexpected meeting but had promised to be down as soon as he could.

After being smothered in kisses and his cheeks tingling after being pinched, curtsey of his Carrier, Jazz sat crossed legged on the sofa with Reggae leaning against him. "Praxus is colder than it is here, Ah think Ah'll have ta think of investin' in some internal heatin'." Jazz remarked, absently spinning the dials on Reggaes arm. His younger brother slapped his hand away with a frown, shifting to move them back to how they were. "If Ah accidentally go off, Ah'm aimin' it at ya." He grumbled.

"Fine by me, it's just steam." Jazz replied cheerily. Rhythm glared at them disapprovingly.

"I thought Praxus was situated over a hotspot?" Melody asked, leaning forwards and interrupting the scolding her brothers were about to receive. "So why is it colder? I'd have thought it'd be the same."

"It's in the cold belt, it's quite wet there." Rhythm replied. "It'd be as cold as Tarn if it weren't for the hotspot."

"Anyway!" Melody began. "Praxus. Tell." She leaned closer to Jazz and gave him the puppy eyes expression.

"It's nice there. Ah like it."

"I'd hope so." Rhythm replied under her breath, earning herself a nudge to shut up from Melody. She was listening!

"They have this thing called the Darbietung – Ah think ya'll like it - and it's a huge buildin' fulla entertainment. There's markets, clubs, theatres, the lot. The crystal gardens are my favourite though."

"Do they sing?"

"Some do, some don't. An' that reminds me…" Jazz replied, trailing off as he reached into his subspace and took out four small boxes. He handed one to his Carrier, one to Melody and one to Reggae. "Ah was allowed ta take some little shards back for ya. Ah can show ya how to plant them."

Melody clapped her hands to her face as she looked at the shard Jazz had gotten her. It was incredibly reminiscent of a musical note, what with a straight edge and a bulbed bottom. "Is it the kind that sings?" She asked, optics glittering.

"They all are. Ah would'a gotten the kind that just light up, but they hadn't released any shards an' ya not allowed ta chip away at them."

"Thank you Jazz!" Rhythm said as she jumped up and started hugging Jazz again. Jazz accepted it and hugged back. "Is there any way to know what sound they'll make?"

"Their colour's usually an indication." Jazz replied, trying to remember what Prowl had told him that morning as they collected them. "It also depends on how well ya nurture them. The deeper the hum the better they are, although some colours are just naturally high pitched."

"Ah wonder why they do that." Reggae mumbled, carefully taking his crystal out of its box to inspect it. His was a dark blue and in the shape of a tear drop. Jazz absently noticed that when it grew up, it would likely match his paint.

"Now. Juicy gossip, Jazz. I've been reading some… interesting articles." Rhythm said, leaning forwards and leaning her elbows on her knees, resting her chin on her interlocked fingers. "By Erythrite, I believe? Something about you and Prowl being seen in public together, and, the most scandalous of all, you made him smile."

At this point Reggae had excused himself from the room, not really interested in what Jazz had to say about Prowl or any gossip. He'd want to hear if Jazz was annoyed or angry so he knew who to unleash his ability on – vector sigma abilities are bizarre, by the way – and not what someone said about someone else. Reggae knew that if Jazz had anything to say that Reggae would be interested in, he would have said it already.

"That femme had us cornered in Prax." Jazz grumbled. "I was there with Smokescreen and she came outta nowhere. No idea how she got in."

"Apparently anyone with enough credits can get in there now, not just the nobles, governors and celebrities. Reporters are finding it easier and easier to get into those kinds of places." Rhythm replied, pouring herself a cube of energon from the decanter on the table. "Would you like some too, Jazz?"

"Please." Jazz replied, resettling himself on the sofa to compensate for the loss of Reggae. He would have liked to spend more time with his younger brother before he had to go, but Reggae would always be Reggae. He wasn't a huge fan of socialising, preferring to keep his hands and head occupied rather than his mouth.

Melody quietly chewed on the gummy energon goodie that she had swiped from the table, watching Jazz carefully. "Aren't you nervous at all?"

"Ah'm incredibly nervous, Melody, Ah'm just good at hidin' it." Jazz replied with a wink, accepting the energon from his Carrier.

::We'll talk later:: Rhythm pinged him, her tone leaving no room for debate.

"Well, we still have to go over what you should expect. We could do that tomorrow, if you'd like?" Rhythm replied, allowing Melody to tuck herself under her Carriers arm.

"Sure thing. Ah could use a reminder."

The only thing that could be heard were the quiet pedefalls of a mech as they made their way down the hall. They knocked three times on an elaborately decorated door and waited until the one inside called them in.

"I wondered when you'd be coming." The black and red femme said, moving to stand. "Please, do enter."

"Do you have the time?" The mech asked, entering the room and closing the door behind them.

"Always for you. Now, what was it you wanted? Are you going to tell me about that mech? They look most intriguing. I regret that I was unable to meet them."

"Thank you. And yes, I was. I am curious as to what your opinion of them was." The other replied, taking a seat as the femme gracefully sat in the armchair closest to the fire that was happily burning away.

"They appear to be very… cheerful." The femme began, tapping her finger on her bottom lip. "He also gets on well with your twin, I saw them numerous times together. I believe you may want to have a word with your twin, however, for he was corrupting your intended."

The mechs doorwings bristled. "I believe I will." He tightly replied.

The femme laughed. "Oh, do loosen up, sweetspark! It was simply a few card tricks. They did catch on rather quickly, however. Is he a fast learner?"

"Yes. I showed him how to plant crystal shards and he was able to do it himself very quickly."

"Ooh! Has he started his own garden? That sounds most delightful! I must see it!"

"I believe he has. He has left the few he has already planted in my care until he returns."

The femme frowned. "Ah, yes. The decacycle period. Oh how aggravating. I've never felt you so cheerful. I love it."

The other mech blushed, shuffling awkwardly. "I find his company most enjoyable. Most are not so eager to spend time in mine."

"Oh, yes they do darling! Don't you put yourself down so!"

"It is the truth and you know it."

"Oh darling please don't do this-"

"No, it's the truth. I'm not even trined yet. Everyone else did vorns ago – pit, even my brother has one."

"And is he any closer to finding a bondmate?"

"I hardly found my intended-"

"Do not kid yourself, my dear. I've seen the way you look at each other. Now, tell me. I want to know about him. Does he have any talents? I have heard singing recently. It was most certainly not you, nor the staff. Was it him?"

A warm smile grew on the other mech's face, although if you did not know him you would not know it was there. "Yes. It was him. He sang to the crystals as he tended to them, a habit I hope he will keep."

"Polyhex truly is the city of music." The femme remarked, leaning back into the armchair, wincing slightly before shifting to sit forwards again. "Please, do go on. What else is there? That can't be all."

"Are you okay for me to continue?" The mech asked, poising themselves to move if needed. The femme waved him off.

"No, continue. Please."

Slowly nodding, the mech continued. "He can dance too. I caught him a few times, and he always seemed to be embarrassed and refused to continue, even when I said it was okay to."

"Dancing! Most curious! I wonder if he will be willing to teach you? I seem to remember you having a hard time as a youngling."

"Dancing was never my thing. Diffusion was much easier for me."

"It is a shame about your twin. Has he won a match against you yet?"

"No, although he has recently managed to score a few points in his favour."

"Threw your calculations, didn't it?" The femme asked with a giggle.

"Unfortunately, however I now know to factor it in. It is unlikely to throw me again."

"I watched you show off to your intended." The femme cooed, resting her cheek in her palm as she tilted her head at the mech opposite her. "It was most entertaining to watch."

"I was most certainly not showing off." The mech huffed. "Why must you tease me?"

"Oh darling you were! You must tell me why. What makes this one so special? There were thousands of mecha out there who would do anything to catch your eye. Just because your intended happened to be selected, didn't mean you had to stick with it."

"I like him. He is tolerable. Those others who were trying to catch my eye were simply laughable. Too forward, it was obvious they had their optics on the wealth they would inherit."

"And what is it that makes you think your intended is any different?"

"It is not in his personality."

"And you believe his personality will allow him to accept what he will find inside you when you bond?"

"I… would hope so."

"You hesitated. You are unsure. Come here, darling. I have a trick to show you. You can hide yourself away from him."

"I do not want to hide anything from him-"

"But, my dear, you must." The femme weakly stood. "If you wish to succeed, you must. Now, stand up and come here."

The mech stood up.

Jazz could feel his audials burning.

As it was, he was currently in his berth room; absently running his hand over the pillow Prowl had allowed him to take back with him. Jazz had meekly admitted that the smell of Prowl helped him to sleep, and so that was how Jazz ended up with an extra pillow on his berth.

Rhythm was due there any moment now, but Jazz didn't want to hide the pillow away just yet.

A few breem later, when Jazz almost thought she wouldn't be coming, there was a knock on the door. Quickly shoving the pillow into his subspace, Jazz jumped up from his berth to open the door.

Rhythm smiled at him. "I told you I'd be here."

'Thank ya." Jazz replied, stepping to the side to let his carrier in.

"The medical staff have said that they wish to see you tomorrow morning. They originally said that they wanted to see you as soon as they came back, but I know how much the journey drains you. You just can't sit still for any length of time, like your sister." Rhythm said as she waltzed over to the berth and sat down on the corner of it. She patted the space next to her. "Come, sit down next to me. Talk to me Jazz."

Jazz sat down next to her and awkwardly fiddled with his fingers. He had no idea where to even start.

"Ah'm nervous and Ah don't even know where ta start." Jazz mumbled, deciding to flop down onto the berth. Totally undignified and un-noblelike, but there was no one here to see it but his Carrier, and it was Carrier-creation bonding time. This was allowed.

"We should probably begin with the awkward questions to warm up." Rhythm chirped, mischievous glint in her optic. "So, how far did you get with him? Probably not the full mile considering the seals, but-"

"Carrier!" Jazz squeaked, face flushing bright pink.

"What? Honest question! I wont tell anyone, promise!"

"Ah can't answer that!" Jazz felt mortified. This was a terrible thing to be discussing with your creators!

"Well, I'll start then. I know for certain that your Sire and me didn't adhere to the rules, and wow am I glad that we didn't it really broke the ice between us and made it a little less awkward on our bonding night-"

"Ah do not wanna know!" Jazz replied in a significantly higher pitched voice than what was usual for him, rolling away from his Carrier.

"And don't worry, I know it looks scary and mecha always say that it hurts but it wont if you're ready-"

Jazz immediately slapped his hands over his audials and started singing as loudly as he could without drawing attention to his room.

"Would you rather the medics talked to you about it? Come on Jazz, you know the birds and the bees. Why are you so embarrassed about it?" Rhythm asked once Jazz had stopped and had tentatively removed a hand from his audial to check that it was safe.

"Ah just don't really wanna think about ma creators doin' it, s'all." Jazz meekly mumbled, cheeks flushing pink again.

"Just be glad you didn't have my creators doing it." Rhythm shuddered. "They thought it would be a fantastic idea to give me videos to watch. I never did, just five breems of one was enough to traumatise me." The pink femme glanced at her creation, smile on her face. "Just take it easy, okay? Take it easy and you'll be fine. There's no rush."

"Ah get ya. To be honest, Ah wasn't really thinkin' about that aspect, but now that ya mention it…" Jazz sighed, motioning that he wanted his Carrier to join him and as soon as he was able he burrowed into her. "Ah'm just scared 'bout the whole sharin' ma life force thing. What if it doesn't work? Ah know there are some instances of incompatibility-"

"Hush, Jazz. We wouldn't have agreed if your spark signatures were incompatible. Ratchet himself agreed that it was perfectly safe to. You are fine."

"Ah'm just… not sure if Ah'm ready for him ta see everythin'. Everythin' that's me."

"The first time you merge you don't." Rhythm assured her creation, soothingly running her hands over his helm and gently massaging his back. Jazz slowly began to relax, tension leaving his frame. "And once the bond has been established, you don't need to ever merge again. It may fade over time, but nobody will say anything until you do. In fact, you don't even need to merge on your bonding night."

Jazz nodded, exhaling heavily.

"Ah'm just conflicted. Ah mean, Ah like Prowl 'n' all, but Ah don't wanna do it only for him ta suddenly change. The Prowl Ah know seems to be very different to the Prowl everyone else knows."

"Yes, I was wondering about that." Rhythm admitted. "I remember Prowl being a youngling with a stern face. He's the chief enforcer for Praxus too, and whenever I see a video interview for him he just seems so emotionless. Same expression, forever unchanging."

"Not helpin, Carrier."

"Sorry, Jazz. What has he done that's different from that?"

"Well he did tickle me."

Rhythm choked on air.

"He what?"

"He tickled me. Ah have ta say; he knew just the spots to get. Ah think he might have learned them from Smokescreen."

"Wow, I wasn't expecting that one." Rhythm flatly stated. "What else has he done?"

"Well, once we had to run through the crystal gardens together in the dark 'cause we got back too late – it was really fun, we were gasping for air after – he took me to see Blaster performing in the Darbietung... he took me sight seein' too, even though he'd already seen all of them a thousand times before." Jazz replied, counting the things off on his fingers. "He also gave me a music box last night."

"A music box?" Rhythm asked, pulling away to look Jazz in the face. "What song was on it?"

"It was that song ya used to always sing ta meh when Ah was sick. Ah have no idea how he found it, but he did."

Rhythms face broke out into an even bigger smile than before. "I wondered why he had asked that."

Jazz looked confused. "Asked ya what?"

"Prowl had asked me what song I would sing when you were ill as a sparkling. He said it was just curiosity, as you were singing it a lot and he had recognised it, but neither knew what it was called." Rhythm replied. "I had thought it was strange but I didn't think of it again until now."

Jazz didn't reply, and simply hid his face in his Carriers chest. He was glad that nobody could see his face, as he was sure it was close to melting with how hot it was getting.

"I think you'll be just fine, Jazz." Rhythm said, chuckling at her creations antics and resuming her previous actions of petting his back.

She was annoyed.

The black and red femme tried her hardest to pace around the room, but quickly found herself running out of breath, and so had to slump down weakly into the nearest chair and maul her arms instead.

Her creation had learned quickly, and he had once again become a master of disguise. Concealing himself under layer upon layer of ice. He must be weak to no one, no flame hot enough to melt his armour and reveal his true self. She was almost proud of him.

Now, the only thing he had left was to grow a damn backbone and fight back.

Panting heavily, still not recovering from the physical strain she had subjected herself to, she looked out of the window and out over the grounds of her home. The crystals glowed below her, still singing their song. If she had the energy, she would stand up and go closer to the window. As it was, she was stuck in her chair until her bondmate returned to her or when she had mustered up the energy to move.

But still she worried. Her creation was weak, that ice not thick enough. His intended was enough to break it. His intended was his weakness.

This would not do.

She would have to ensure this was not exploited.

I started doing this yonks ago but it somehow got pushed aside in January, and you can kinda… see what happened…

I also have no idea where any of the city states are so I'm just winging it, if anyone knows any different feel free to correct me.

Reviews motivate me hint hint wink wink

~Llama