"Woah."

"Woah" was right. The penthouse that was their designated place of residence stretched out before them. The floor-to-ceiling windows made it seem as if the entire sky was their home. No building near theirs came even close to as high as the one they were in. And it was beautifully theirs.

The lounge area, with enough couches for three more sets of Skywarps and Nexi- theirs. The glorified bar that the diagram labelled the "refueling station"- theirs. The exorbitant washracks and berthroom, though he had yet to see them yet- theirs. Nexus would even dare to claim the sunlight spreading across the floor as their own. Their own little piece of heaven.

Skywarp was the first to run in and start touching everything. Which was fine and all. It's pretty hard to hurt yourself on a couch. Unless, of course, you're Skywarp. He decided it was a good idea to take a running jump at it. His brilliant idea ended with a sore aft and a shattered table.

"Note to self," Skywarp said. "Less speed next time."

"Or you could do the sensible thing and walk around the couch and sit on it properly." Nexus did just that, crossing one leg over the other. He didn't bother to help his trinemate up. He wouldn't learn anything if he did.

"But that's no fun."

"It's not going to be as fun if you break every piece of furniture we have," Nexus scolded him. "We've barely been here five cycles and we already need a new table."

"Yeah, but, if we just leave the broken one here we won't have to worry about me breaking it again, now will we?"

Nexus rolled his optics. "Sound logic."

He picked himself up off the floor and brushed away the shards, stopping when he found a piece embedded in his mesh. "Huh." He poked at it. "This doesn't hurt as much as it should."

"Primus, Skywarp!" Nexus jumped up and then knelt down, careful to avoid the glass on the floor. He held Skywarp's hips steady as he inspected it.

"I'm okay. I said it doesn't hurt."

"You need to be more careful, Skywarp." Nexus gently tugged on the shard, and it came free. It hadn't stuck in very deep, but he still started leaking. "Let me get you a bandage for that." He made his way over to the supply cabinet.

"I'm fine," Skywarp insisted.

"No. You were fine. Then you did something stupid and hurt yourself. Now I'm going to patch you up and then you'll be fine again. So long as you don't do another stupid thing after that."

"Yeah, yeah." Skywarp's voice was muffled, so Nexus turned to find out why.

Skywarp was right up against the window, really mashing his frame into it, trying to look down. Which is why he didn't have a chance to catch himself when he accidentally hit the button that opened it. The pane slid aside and Skywarp tumbled down, a scream ripping out of his vocalizer.

Nexus was at the window in a nanoklik. He gripped the edge and frantically searched for his trinemate. He expected to find him as a blue puddle far down on the ground. His spark ached as he feared the worst, when a flying form with Skywarp's colourings whipped by. He was letting out half-scared half-excited cheers as he cut through the air.

Nexus wanted to join him, or at the very least reign him back in, but he wasn't really sure how. He understood the biology and the physics of it, but to put in into actual practice was different. And to take his first flight from fifty stories up seemed like the quickest way to make it his last flight. He would much prefer falling on his faceplate over falling on his faceplate so hard it shattered it and the rest of his frame. So he ended up yelling at him, "Skywarp get back in here this instant!"

"You'll have to catch me first!" He flew right by the window, so his first and last words were harder to make out, while "catch" was screamed.

"You need training!" Nexus yelled, voice strained with worry. He watched his trinemate tumble about as the fear of watching him fall to his death grew. "Please, Skywarp! I'll take you out again. We'll start from the ground!"

"I don't ever want to land!" Skywarp said gleefully.

"I don't want to lose you!" The desperation made his voice crack.

That seemed to work. But now there was a jet roaring straight towards him. Nexus tried to duck out of the way, but Skywarp transformed and used him to slow his descent. They slid along the floor, stopping with a thud against the far wall.

Nexus rubbed the back of his throbbing helm as his trinemate's arms laced around his waist. His helm nestled comfortably into his lap. Beyond his cut from before, he seemed no worse for wear.

"I'm sorry I worried you," Skywarp said.

"It's alright," he murmured. "But let's look over the floor plan before we encounter any more 'surprises.'"

Skywarp gave a little sigh of disappointment, but said, "Okay."

"What does transforming feel like?" Nexus asked, curiosity getting the best of him.

His trinemate shrugged. "Not as weird as you'd think. I sort of did it instinctively. Like, one moment I was falling, and the next, I wasn't." He rolled over onto his back to look up at Nexus. "Flying feels amazing."

"I bet it does. I'd much rather try after I get some training, though. I don't even know how to activate my t-cog."

Skywarp sat up, joy brightening his optics to a near-white. "It's super easy. All ya gotta do is feel it right here." He poked the place on Nexus where Skywarp had cut himself. "And then you just, transform."

He made it sound so easy. So he focused on that area, but all he did was shift his external plating a bit.

"No, no," Skywarp said. He dug his digits beneath Nexus' plating, who did his best not to squirm away. "You got to feel it riiiiight..." He was knocked away by one of Nexus' legs as he suddenly became a jet. "Yeah. There."

"What the frag?" Nexus the jet said. "I didn't do anything!"

Skywarp laughed. "Oh Primus. I must have manually activated it."

"Well deactivate it!"

"Nah, babe. That's all on you. Your t-cog's right in the middle of that- behind solid plating." He gave Nexus' nosecone an awkward stroke. "You can do it. Just think about everything shifting back into your root mode."

The sounds of struggling came from Nexus. For a nanoklik, his wings came down and what looked like his leg stuck out of his alt mode. He started to get frustrated when an incessant beep started up. He squeaked and sort of scared himself into his root form, rubbing his helm as he stood. It was as if the beeping was coming from inside of his helm.

"Shut up!" he complained, smacking a closed fist to his forehelm.

"Oh! That's your commlink," Skywarp explained, holding his servo so he couldn't hit himself again. "It lets you talk to other bots remotely. Here, I'll answer it for you." His trinemate prodded at his collar and the beeping stopped. After a moment of silence, Skywarp hissed, "Say hello."

"Uh, hello?" Nexus said, feeling foolish.

"Ah, Nexus," Auger said.

Nexus looked around wildly, searching for him, while Skywarp giggled.

"I've got some great news to tell you. Is Skywarp there as well?"

"Yes," Skywarp answered, stopping Nexus' search and hugging him from behind.

"Perfect. Well, I'm happy to inform you that we've found who is to be your third member," Auger said. "We had forgotten about a saved seeker spark from a few centuries or so ago, and after running some tests we've found his spark is compatible with yours. We will be implanting his spark in a protoform later on today, and you are welcome to witness the procedure, if you'd like."

"Another trinemate?" Skywarp said excitedly, hugging his present trinemate tightly. "Yes. We want to watch."

"We do?" Nexus asked.

"Yes." Skywarp gave him a look that told Nexus that he had no choice in the matter.

"Yes. We do," Nexus said.

"Excellent. I am transmitting the coordinates to the spark repository he is being held in, as well as the time of the transplant. I will not be there, but you can ask the receptionist if you have any further questions. Now, I have other work to attend to. It was lovely talking to you two again. Good-bye." A click sounded, followed by a low buzzing.

"Augur?" Nexus asked.

"Here." Skywarp pressed the switch on his collar again. "He hung up. You do that when you're done talking. It's a pretty handy device. Oh, and you can activate it yourself with the icon in the top right corner of you HUD." Nexus' optics focused on that while his trinemate spoke, bringing up a new menu. "Then you can select someone from your contacts list or enter the commlink frequency manually. There's also a text option, but it's way slower to use. Personally, I'd rather talk."

"I figured that," Nexus said, giving an amused smile.

"Oh! And that third thing, at least it should be there, will have whatever Augur sent you."

"You mean this box icon?" As soon as his optics hovered over it, it pulled up a set of coordinates.

"Yeah, that thing. Pretty neat, huh?"

"So, wait. He just accessed my processor and dumped this information in there?"

"I know, it's so cool!"

"What's stopping him from uploading an entire encyclopedia to it?"

"Probably the knowledge that you could do exactly the same thing back."

"Ah. So it's a trust thing," Nexus said. "Great."

In Nexus' short life, there hadn't been many things that annoyed him. Sure, there was a table to clean up once they returned. Not to mention the part where they would have to go out and buy a new table. But nothing had gotten to him like Skywarp's pede tapping. The incessant rapping felt like it was right on the top of Nexus' helm.

"Is that really necessary?" he asked after five cycles of nonstop tapping.

"Is what necessary?" Skywarp genuinely looked like he had no idea what his trinemate was talking about.

Nexus put a servo on his knee to stop the noise. "That."

"Sorry. It's just a thing I do. Apparently."

"Then please do it not around me."

"But I'm booooooored." Skywarp dramatically fell over into Nexus' lap.

"They'll start the surgery soon."

"But it's taking so long," Skywarp complained. He let his helm fall over the edge of Nexus' thigh.

The operating theatre had been relatively quiet. Nexus and Skywarp were the only two who had shown up to observe the surgery. Below, a room was vacant apart from one medic, but the most interesting thing they had done since they had come in was pluck a vial of energon from a cabinet. Now, they were tapping away at a computer. And from this vantage point, you couldn't even see the screen. Only the medic's tired, unchanging expression.

Occasionally, another bot would walk in, either taking something or leaving something. Sometimes, they would bring something in and take something with them. Like some sort of exchange. It only got exciting when, not one, but two bots wheeled a gurney in. On it, a featureless protoform.

Nexus shook Skywarp. "They're bringing him in."

His trinemate shot up and stood, leaning on the glass dome. "Why doesn't he have a faceplate? Or wings, for that matter. Primus, I was hoping he wouldn't be this ugly." He tilted his helm while the medics attached various wires to the protoform. "I suppose the minimalistic look is sort of endearing."

Nexus chuckled. "That's just a protoform. His spark will form his frame around it. You once looked like that."

"Well, that's a relief. I don't know if I'd want to kiss someone without lips... too weird."

The next cart that rolled in glowed. Suspended in a glass tube, was a tiny yellow spark. It didn't flit about or really move much at all. It was so different from the sparks Nexus was used to seeing that he almost didn't believe that it was to be their trinemate. There was another storage capsule, this one opaque, so Nexus couldn't see what was inside of it.

Skywarp pressed his faceplate up against the glass. He scored lines down the dome with his claws, as if he was trying to break through it. "What did they say his name was?"

"Thundercracker."

"Now that's a mouthful," Skywarp said, sitting back down. "I'ma call him TC. No one needs more than two syllables. Four is just excessive. He's greedy."

"I'm pretty sure he received his name the same way we did. It's not something you get to choose."

"Meh. TC is way cuter anyways."

Skywarp's wings quivered as he watched. He grabbed one of Nexus' servos and hugged it to his chest, leaning over onto his trinemate.

Luckily for the clueless seekers, there was an equally clueless medical student among the staff. He followed his teacher in with quick steps, careful to keep up with him but not to overstep him. He was like a smaller, less confident shadow.

"Now, the important part of a spark transplant is not the surgery itself, but rather, the preparation of the protoform," the medic explained, voice coming through the speakers behind the seekers. The student nodded along as he spoke. "The surgery is over in a few cycles, and the recovery is usually quick. But if the protoform is not prepped properly, the spark can die."

Nexus felt Skywarp's grip tighten on his arm.

Thundercracker's capsule was removed from the cart and placed on a stand connected to a computer. The medic typed some commands into it and the stand started to glow and his spark started to beat.

"Sir, his spark is stabilized and on artificial life support. He's ready for the transfer."

"Excellent," the teacher said. Turning to his student, he said, "Sparks can be rather temperamental when being placed in a new frame. They're not big fans of change." He picked up the other capsule from the cart. Inside of it was a small sliver of metal that he held delicately. "So, to help ease it through the transfer, we take a piece of their original spark chamber. Makes them feel more at home." He nodded to the medic working the computer. "Open the protoform's chest, will you?"

A few strokes on the keyboard and the protoform responded. It opened slowly and mechanically, as if it were rusted shut. Then, the medic deposited the sliver inside of the cavity. His optics checked the half empty energon cylinder still dripping into the protoform's veins.

"Shouldn't be long now," he murmured to himself. Except the microphones made it so everyone heard. At least in the stands, that is. He started to explain the various tools used in the procedure to the student.

"Do you think he'll like me?" Skywarp asked.

"Of course he will." Nexus gave him a reassuring forehelm kiss. "He has to. We will be working together for the rest of our lives."

"But what if he doesn't?"

Nexus turned Skywarp's helm so they were faceplate to faceplate. "Who wouldn't like you?"

Skywarp rolled his optics and nuzzled into Nexus' shoulder. "You have to say that."

"No I don't." Nexus wrapped his arms around his trinemate's waist. "I just can't imagine someone meeting you and not thinking that you were amazing."

"I am pretty awesome," he said with a proud little shake of his frame. "And if you keep talking like that you're going to get such a smooching."

The metal of Skywarp's wing felt warm as Nexus kissed it. "And you're so beautiful. And funny. It should be a crime to be this cute. But no one would dare arrest you after beholding the suns that are your optics."

Whether Skywarp liked the compliments or kissed him to shut him up, Nexus didn't care. Any reason to kiss his trinemate was a good one.

The medic below cleared his throat. Nexus detached from Skywarp, feeling his faceplate flush. The medic was smiling at them, with a knowing look in his optics.

"We're ready to begin," he said.

"Wait, they can see us?" Skywarp asked, sounding genuinely surprised.

Nexus blinked a few times and gave his trinemate a half-worried half-amused look. "It's glass. Of course they can see us."

He held his trinemate close while the medics made the final preparations for the operation. Worry made him chew on one of his knuckles as he looked at Thundercracker's spark. It was so small and vulnerable. One wrong move and their proposed trine would be back to a duo. Not that a life with only Skywarp would be bad. But Nexus already felt something, albeit a little something, for that tiny yellow spark. He sucked in a ventilation as the lights in the seating area dimmed.

Thundercracker's spark was extracted from his tube with tongs. He nearly flickered out during the swift transfer, and for a moment Nexus thought he had rejected the new frame. Then, his yellow glow began to spread through its limbs. For the first few moments of formation, the protoform became a liquid-like substance. It pulled in some places and pushed out in others, spreading considerably at his back where his wings would be. Nexus smiled as the process reached the final steps. Thundercracker was the spitting image of both Skywarp and himself.

His dark, vacant optics opened. All he did for his first cycle of new life was blink tiredly. If he hadn't been offline for the last century or so, Nexus would have thought he needed to recharge. He sat up slowly, his wings sagging as if they were too heavy for him. One of the medics said something to him, and he nodded. His helm swung up slowly, optics cracking open a fraction more. When he lay optics on his trinemates, they brightened and opened fully, shining a brilliant yellow. They were a shade Nexus had yet to experience seeing on a bot. And they were beautiful.

"He sees us!" Skywarp said excitedly, pointing just in case his trinemate hadn't been watching. "He's beautiful. I want to kiss him. A lot."

"You'll get your chance." Nexus put his servo on his eager trinemate's shoulder. "But first they have to make sure that his spark's bonded properly and that he's healthy. And if everything's in order, he'll be coming home with us."

Skywarp's optics glittered. "You mean he gets to live with us too?"

Nexus chuckled. "Of course. We're a trine."

"Well, that's good and all... but I want a kiss now." His pupils sidled over to his trinemate expectantly.

Giving him an amused smile, Nexus opened his arms. Skywarp happily jumped into them, and Nexus spun them around. Their lips met as they celebrated their perfect life.

Thundercracker was escorted into the waiting room, his uncertain optics only briefly meeting with his trinemates' gazes. His wings were only at half their height and he was keeping his limbs tight to his frame.

"I'll leave you three to get acquainted," the medic said as he made his leave.

Nexus didn't really know what to expect from their first real meeting, but it certainly wasn't this thick blanket of awkwardness. He found himself looking away from Thundercracker because Thundercracker was looking away from him and he felt bad for looking at him. Skywarp, apparently, didn't sense this awkwardness as he sprang forward and embraced this perfect stranger.

"Hi. I'm Skywarp," he said, his words coming in quick bursts. "And that's Nexus, if you didn't know. He's awesome. Are you awesome? I bet your awesome."

Nexus was about to save their new trinemate when Thundercracker hugged Skywarp back. He buried his helm in his shoulder, his wings falling with emotion. "It's so great to meet you," he said. "I've waited so long."

"What's that like, anyway?" Skywarp asked.

"Skywarp." Nexus pulled his insensitive trinemate off of Thundercracker.

"No, no, it's alright," Thundercracker said. Turning to Skywarp, he said, "It's like recharging for a really long time. I don't remember much beyond that. But I can tell it's been a long time." He met Nexus' optics. "May I?" he asked, holding his arms open.

Nexus smiled, and opened his arms. Thundercracker fell into them, giving him a crushing-but-still-able-to-ventilate-easily hug. Skywarp gave them both a kiss on the cheek, and Thundercracker's whole faceplate went bright red.

"Skywarp," Nexus reiterated.

But he didn't need to tell him off. Thundercracker wrapped his arms around Skywarp's waist and his optics fell to his lips. Skywarp was the one to lean in first, but they both seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the kiss.

Nexus put his servos to his lips, cheeks tinged pink, partly because he thought it was sweet and partly because he wasn't sure if he should be watching them or not.

A nanoklik after they parted, Thundercracker seemed to remember himself. "Sorry," he said. "I-I was just-"

Skywarp silenced him with another kiss and then interlocked their digits. "Kissing me is not something you should ever feel sorry about. In fact..." He kissed him again. "We're trinemates. This is what we're supposed to do."

"But I wasn't forged with you."

"Do you think I care about that? However it happened, you're meant to be with us."

Thundercracker's gaze softened and he increased his grip on Skywarp's servo.

Skywarp cupped his servo to his new trinemate's audial like it softened his loud whisper. "You should give Nexus a kiss now."

The blue seeker took a half step towards him and then said, "Well, I don't know. I mean, maybe, if he wants, but I..."

Nexus chuckled and shuttered his optics, pursing his lips a little bit. He heard Thundercracker close the couple of steps between them and then his servos were on his waist and his lips were soft against his mouth. As far as introductions go, this one had been his favourite.

"You broke this?" Thundercracker asked, gesturing to what was left of their table. "How did you manage that?"

"Well, there was some running involved," Skywarp answered, looking up like he was thinking hard on it. "And some jumping... and maybe a little missing. As in my target. I was aiming for the couch."

As his trinemate spoke, Thundercracker stalked up, steam fuming from his vents. "How stupid can you be? You could have hurt yourself!"

"Well I did, a little." Skywarp stuck out his hip to show off the cut on his abdomen.

Thundercracker's servo clamped down on it, as if he thought it was gushing energon. "You just missed your main energon line." He gave him a look of anger and sorrow. "You could have killed yourself!"

"Woah, TC, chill." Skywarp raised his servos and gave his trinemate a wary look.

"You think your life is something I should just be 'chill' with?" He pulled Skywarp into a crushing hug. "I don't want to lose you."

"I'm alright. Really. I already promised Nexus I wouldn't do it again." His words were muffled against his trinemate's plating.

"Good. Just don't do anything dangerous. Ever."

"I understand your worry, Thundercracker," Nexus said with a comforting servo on his trinemate's shoulder, "but you can't possibly keep him from all danger."

"I can try!" There was a fire in Thundercracker's optics. It burned Nexus' servo and he flinched away. But behind that, there was a darkness that even the brightest of flames couldn't light. It was ripe with terror and sorrow, and Nexus knew they hadn't been the ones to place it there.

"You should be more careful, Skywarp," Nexus agreed. He gently pried his trinemates apart and said with a smile, "Why don't we refuel? We can sit and get to know each other over a nice glass of energon."

"Alright." Skywarp skipped over to the storage cabinet.

Thundercracker turned to follow him, a smile forming on his lips. But just before that smile surfaced, just for a nanoklik, the darkness overtook his faceplate.