Author's Note: After much thought and careful consideration, I think everyone's ready for this chapter. At least I hope.
Chap. 15: Bitter Sweet
Guard duty, I though angrily. It wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been so late at night, and it was a three-hour shift. Thundercracker's guarding hours were from midnight until three o'clock in the morning. Tonight his hours were my hours. At midnight I walked tiredly to my—his post. Once there I stood and did nothing. The autobots weren't coming, no one was coming.
"This is pointless," I breathed, "I feel bad for Thundercracker having to do this every night."
Three hours was going to take forever. I was wasting three hours of precious sleeping time. Crossing my arms I slumped back against a wall. Sitting there, I figured the decepticons weren't going to come around either. There was no reason why I couldn't sleep. I got as comfortable as I could on the rock surfaces and fell asleep.
Sometime later I slowly awoke to a voice calling me. After not hearing it for a few long seconds I checked the time and saw I had an hour and a half left. I tried to go back to sleep.
"Sleeping while on duty? There's a punishment for that too Astrid,"
My optics came online to see Megatron's silhouette.
Too tired to stand up I said, "Sorry Megatron, these were bad hours."
"Obviously," he said coming over to me.
"Sir, what are you doing up?"
"You said sir again,"
"I don't know why it's such a big deal to you. Now answer my question please,"
He sat down next to me and it was quite apparent he was just as tired as I was.
"I'm awake because I wanted to see if you actually came or not, which you did. Plus I wanted to warn you about something,"
"What?"
"Starscream's shift is next, perhaps you might want to leave a little early," he said suppressing a yawn.
"Well how about I just leave now, I'm exhausted,"
"No, you need to carry out your punishment in full, even though you've already slept through half of it,"
"So what? Nobody is gonna come,"
"Someone could've, but you wouldn't know since you were asleep,"
"No one came,"
"I did,"
"Well…besides you Megatron," then I asked, "When do you have guard duty?"
"I don't. All my subordinates do it for me,"
"That's why they all suck at fighting,"
"What?"
"Um, nothing,"
"Yeah, I'm sure,"
"So…why'd you warn me about Starscream?"
"Because I don't want him getting his way with you,"
"Is that the only reason?"
"Well…no,"
"Oh?" I asked interested, "Why else?"
"It's not important,"
"But sir," I said and he smiled again, "I'm curious, I want to know."
"You want to know a lot of things,"
"Is it because you care?"
He frowned and went silent while I smirked, "You do care about me, don't you?"
"Y…yes," he admitted slowly.
"How much?"
"Not that much, so don't get your hopes up,"
"You're lying,"
"Why do you care if I care for you or not?"
This time I was the one to go silent and Megatron was the one to smirk.
"Unless it is you care for me too,"
"No,"
"You're the one lying,"
"Alright," I admitted sourly, "I care."
"How much?"
"Enough to stay here," I said quietly.
"So I'm your reason for staying here?"
"I guess,"
"Let me ask this then, do you like me?"
"Well if I care for you a bit wouldn't that mean I liked you a bit?"
"I suppose. I just want to hear you say you like me,"
"Why? Do you like me too?"
"Maybe, now do you like me?"
"I'll tell you this, I won't like you if you keep asking if I like you,"
"So you like me?"
"Yes," I hissed, "But not that much."
"Good," he said putting his arm around me, "Because I don't like you that much either."
"Then get your arm off me,"
"No, my arm is comfortable where it is,"
"Fine then," I said resting against him.
"Get your body off me,"
"No, my body is comfortable where it is,"
We were silent for a couple minutes trying to realize what we were doing currently. When it sank in we shrugged it off. It didn't matter what we were doing, no one would see, and we didn't care.
Suddenly I asked, "Who did you want me to replace?"
He sounded shocked, "Who told you I wanted you to replace someone?"
"Nobody," I said in Thundercracker's defense, "Just forget I asked."
"No, it's alright. Whoever told you that told you wrong. I don't want you to replace this person, you just remind me a lot of her,"
"Her?"
"Don't ask,"
I didn't say anything; I was unsure what to say. Megatron rested his head on top of mine and he massaged my hip where his hand was.
"I'll tell you something Astrid," he said slowly and hesitantly, "I don't want to…lose you like I lost her. I can't."
"So is this another reason why you don't want Starscream to get me?"
"Yes," he said.
"Quite honestly sir, if I lost you, not only would I be unable to get my weapons back, but I'd lose my protection from Starscream, so don't let anything happen to you in that war,"
He smiled, "I won't."
"Just how is the war going?"
"Not good. The autobots have the omega lock and one of the cyber planet keys. I'm trying to get the second key from Scourge, but so far, nothing,"
"Scourge?" I asked yawning.
"The leader of Jungle Planet,"
"Oh," I said, my optics going offline.
He chuckled knowing I was trying to stay awake and not succeeding. His own optics went offline, and I heard his breathing rhythms relax not too long before I dozed off myself.
About an hour later I woke up in my quarters on my bed covered up with a blanket. I looked to see Megatron walking out of the room.
"Thanks…sir,"
I knew he left the room smiling.
Author's Note: Yes, Megatron managed to wake up and bring Astrid back to her quarters before the evil menace Starscream showed up.