Neath the halo of a street lamp
"Prowl?"
The darkness called to him. Strange it had never done that before.
"Prowl!"
Even more strange was that the darkness sounded rather concerned. He was shaking, trembling violently. He only needed to open his optics. This was getting dangerous, he almost did not have the energy to online his optics.
He couldn't bring himself to care.
The first thing that came into view was Jazz's visored face. Though the Praxian could not see the optics of the other mech, he looked and acted decidedly frantic.
In a moment of strange emotion, Prowl reached up his servo and took Jazz's face in his hand. He stroked his thumb across the cheek. While he did this, Jazz had frozen in place, not moving, not even breathing.
He was almost glad he had put his visor down. He could imagine Prowl's face if he could see Jazz's wide almost hopeful optics.
They were both there, frozen in time.
Suddenly, Prowl's optics widened and his mouth opened and closed like a fish. His servo snapped back as if Jazz had burned him and he sprang up.
He cleared his throat and scooted away from the other mech and schooled his features.
"Jazz, what are you doing in my quarters?" He asked, his voice passive.
The other mech frowned at the loss of warmth but answered anyway, "I tried comming you but you didn't answer, so I overrode your lock to check up on you. You were in recharge but when I tried to wake you up, you wouldn't online. I called your name like fifty times and I was about to call Ratch when you onlined and...yeah," He said uncomfortably remembering what had happened moments before.
"What is it that you needed Jazz?" Prowl's voice could almost be described as annoyed.
Jazz crossed his arms and stood back, "It's almost time to go on the mission, remember?"
Prowl nodded, "Alright, I shall meet you outside the base in three joor."
Jazz took that as a dismissal, but just before he left he turned back to the other mech, "Prowl... about what happened..."
Prowl did not need to hear anymore,"I do not wish to speak of it," He gently pushed Jazz the rest of the way out of his room, "Ever."
The door closed with a final snap and Jazz stood back, wondering what the frag had just happened.
/?/
The warm water ran down his plates in a steady stream.
Prowl had been standing in the washroom for almost half a joor now, still thinking about the same thing.
It was strange, not just his actions, but while he was in recharge.
Nothing had been able to penetrate the darkness before. No voice, no sound, no feeling, nothing. Yet he had heard Jazz, he had heard the voice and how worried it had sounded, and he had certainly felt something.
Prowl leaned back on the wall and let the water run over his face plate.
He had felt warm and comfortable.
He had felt safe. This had not happened since her...
Memories of pain and helplessness consumed him. Despite his protest, energon fell down his faceplate and mixed with the water as it flowed down the drain.
He was glad he had closed the bond between him and his brothers, or they would be burdened by this pain too.
He wiped the energon away and shut off the water and stepped into the dryer. The hot air blew on him from all directions.
He leaned his head back and decided he would simply ignore his developing feelings for the kind and beautiful mech.
His optics flashed.
Beautiful?
He shut off the dryer and stepped out of the washroom and checked his internal supply.
He was only at sixty-five percent, he would need more energon for the journey. Prowl hated to admit it but he would have to go to the rec-room, even if he was loath to return there, especially after what had happened yesterday with Smokescreen.
He check the time and saw, with an annoyed grimace that he still had a joor to kill.
With a sigh he walked out of his room and into the mostly empty hall way. Just before he entered the rec-room, Mirage stopped him.
"Hey, Prowl, I just wanted to say thanks for the orn off tomorrow," he said and continued past.
Prowl stared after him in surprise.
No one had ever thanked him for what he did before.
Prowl frowned and realized that today was just going to be awful.
He had no idea about how right he was.
/?/
The drive with Jazz was filled with silence from both ends.
Prowl could tell that Jazz was hesitant and uncomfortable about mentioning what had happened that morning and Prowl was just fine with that. He would much rather ignore what had happened and say it did not happen at all.
He should have known that would not last.
"So...about this morning...?" There was a question but Jazz couldn't decide if he wanted to ask it.
"I do not wish to discuss it," Prowl voice was final.
Jazz would have none of it. He spun and parked himself in front of the police car and transformed, his arms crossed.
Prowl was forced to slam on his brakes and transform. He skid some, stopping only inches from Jazz.
"I said I did not want to talk about it," Prowl insisted.
Jazz leaned in closer, "Too fraggin' bad, we need to talk about it. Look, just tell me what-"
He stopped when he heard the sound of a jet engine roaring towards them.
Prowl's optics widened and he grabbed Jazz and threw him to the ground, quickly following, just as a bomb exploded, mere feet from where they were.
Another engine joined the first.
Prowl's battle computer was going into overdrive as he surveyed their surroundings for somewhere to hide. He saw an outcropping a quarter of a mile away and hoped that there would be somewhere to hide.
Prowl gestured to it and Jazz understood.
They both transformed and sped off that way. The two Decepticon jets followed them, still dropping bombs on them, causing the cars to have to swerve to get out of the way.
On occasion they would dive down at the Autobots and would force them to turn sharply.
One jet got lucky, and dragged his claws down Prowl's roof. He cried out and nearly stopped but he ignored the pain and continued.
"Prowl?!" Jazz cried. He had reached the outcropping first and as Prowl reached him, the other mech transformed and pushed him over.
There was a whistle from behind and then an explosion.
Prowl was thrown backwards, shards of rocks hitting him in all directions. He felt himself tumbling over the cliff face and down the side.
There was pain on his back, his side and his wings, but as he landed and rocks came rolling into his vision from above, his only thought was that he hoped Jazz was alright.
He fell into the darkness again.