Title: In Passing
Fandom: Transformers G1
Characters/Pairings: Flattop, Pursuit. Appearance by Acer and Patrol
Prompt: #076 Who.
Rating: G
Genre: relationships - strangers
Word Count: 713
Summary: He never thought well of out-of-towners, until he met her.
Author Notes: Takes place when both bots are still rather young.

He sat on a bench in the middle of the city by himself, waiting for his best friend and his best friend's creator to show up. He really didn't want to be here, in this city, at all, but his friend's creator had to do a spot of work here and had no choice but to bring both younglings along with him since he couldn't find anyone to look after them at such short notice. They'd waited together a while, then his friend had gone off to look for his creator.

He was actually surprised his own creator hadn't thrown a fit, and had let him go.

"Go and see what cities like Praxus are like, and you'll be grateful to me for keeping you in Iacon," he had said.

Then again, maybe not all that surprised.

He looked around his surroundings. It was true. Praxus wasn't as vibrant and developed as Iacon was. In fact it looked downright boring. Was his creator right then? Was it a result of bots being too lazy and weak to bring up their city?

He watched the mechs and femmes as they went about their business. Even the inhabitants looked plain and dull, not as colorful as the Iaconians. Well it was no wonder then that their city was in such a state. If the bots couldn't take care of themselves, how could they maintain a whole city?

A couple walked passed him and he watched them go. They held hands and walked close to each other. A bonded pair perhaps. At one point they stopped and the mech leaned and kissed the femme, who responded by touching his cheek, before resuming their walk.

He snorted. Bonded indeed. He'd studied about it a little and knew the basic concept of course, but why on Cybertron would he want to give up his wings and his freedom to be tied down to another bot? He couldn't understand it at all, and no way was he ever going to let anyone hold him back like that. He'd rather be burned in a smelter than have that happen to him.

Loud, raucous laughter caught his attention then and he looked up to see a bunch of younglings around his age go charging down the street. As he followed them with his optics, he spotted another, younger femme coming up the street in the opposite direction holding a silver crystal carefully in her hands.

Neither party saw the other until it was too late. There were shouts of confusion, but it was the cry that came from the femme that made him stand quickly.

He walked towards them as the mechs moved off and left the femme sitting on the ground. She looked around frantically, most likely for the crystal she had been carrying that had fallen and been knocked further away. He picked it up and went over to her, crouching down in front of her.

"Here, you dropped this." He held out the crystal to her.

She looked at him. "Um… thank you."

He smiled at her. She was cute, despite her rather plain black and grey colors. "You're welcome. Are you alright?"

She nodded, starting to pick herself up. "I'm okay."

He helped her stand and looked her over for any injury. "Yeah, you don't look hurt."

She smiled a bit. "Yeah. Thanks again."

"Anytime."

"Hey Topper!" He looked up to see Acer and his creator standing a little further away. "C'mon, lets go."

"Yeah, coming!" he called back. He looked at the femme. "Well, gotta go. Nice meeting you."

"You too."

"Who was that, Topper?" Acer asked him when he caught up.

"I don't know. Just some local femme. She fell down, I just helped her up."

"Well that was nice of you."

He shrugged.

She watched the blue-and-red mech join his companions and head off, as her own creator came over to her.

"Who was that, Pursuit?" he asked.

"I don't know," she replied. "Just some mech from out of town. Iacon I think."

Patrol grunted. "I see. Well, let's get you home, little."

They headed off together in the opposite direction so she never noticed when the mech turned back one last time to look at her before he transformed and flew off.

END.