(Please see all previous disclaimers)

The next morning, Lancex woke and felt a lot of pressure on him as well as increased warmth. Lancex onlined his optics and saw that Optimus was snuggled up to Lancex. It weirded Lancex out a bit, but the bot figured the Prime's systems must have been running cool and Prime needed the heat. Whether that was the truth or not, Lancex carefully slipped out of Optimus' grip and headed out to the rec room to grab some badly needed energon.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Grimlock woke up from his recharge and groaned. He felt wet and sticky under his groin plating from the intense dream he had the night before. He silently swore to himself as this was going to be a pain to clean up, and so Grimlock hauled his big aft out of bed and headed for the showers before he would go to get energon.

Back in the Prime's quarters, Optimus woke shortly after Lancex left. Optimus took longer to get going this morning as his systems had run cool, though Optimus couldn't understand why as he was not super low on recharge and he had just had his yearly maintenance check. This didn't make any sense to the leader. Regardless, he felt his tanks rumble and knew it was time for more energon. He carefully got himself out of the bed, washed himself in his own shower, and then headed out having no idea what was going to happen once he made it to the rec room.

Without realizing it, Grimlock and Optimus made their way to the rec room from two different directions yet arrived at the same time. Grimlock, respecting Optimus, let the Prime in the room first and then quickly followed. Both spotted Lancex across the room, sitting at a table alone and checking over his sword. Both Optimus and Grimlock approached Lancex. "May we join you?" Optimus asked politely.

Lancex looked up and was a bit surprised to see the Prime and Grimlock, but thinking little of it, Lancex granted their request. "Please, join me" Lancex answered, thinking that the pair wanted to talk and talk strategies regarding the war.

They did talk about that for a bit before the talk turned to other matters – mainly what Lancex wanted once the war was over. Lancex was quiet for a minute before he softly told them he wanted a family and to be loved for who he was once the war was over. Optimus nodded, while studying Grimlock carefully, though Optimus wasn't quite sure why he was studying Grimlock like Optimus studied Megatron's movements. Grimlock, on the other hand, seemed to glare at Optimus, though most figured Grimlock was going to go on a tirade about not wanting to listen to Optimus yet again. Grimlock we t off and did that every so often when he felt like no longer listening to the Prime.

Just then, Wheeljack came in and called for Lancex to come with him. Lancex excused himself and went with Jack. Neither Jack nor Lancex realized it, but both Optimus and Grimlock seemed to be shooting jealousy daggers at Jack with their optics. Lancex thought he felt something, but he was too busy being chatted up by Jack to turn around and see what was going on. it was probably for the best, at least for now.