I think it was the night I got the call saying we were kicked out of our house and had three days to vacate. It was all a big misunderstanding; and when I called back in the morning trying not to cry, the landlord basically said it had just been a scare-tactic. We sorted everything out and were fine.

But that night, I did not know we'd be fine. I only knew we'd been kicked out of the house that I loved, and hoped to live in for the rest of forever. I'd had to hide my crying from the children – you don't tell kids you've just gotten a three-day eviction notice till you're sure; and my husband – never the diplomat – had switched to "Welp, we're moving then. Good riddance!" mode, and did not care to comfort me in tears he could not fix. I felt abandoned, uprooted, and powerless.

That night, I did not know how I would ever fall asleep. I dreaded facing what would happen in the morning.

Then Megs came, as he has before in times of crisis. I know how this sounds, but when Megs shows up like this I receive him as a gift from God, who knows me well enough to send me an imaginary robot-friend to help me weather storms.

Megatron perched on the end of the bed down by my feet, and looked at me seriously. "Want me to help you carry it?" he offered.

I knew he could. I knew what he was offering. But suddenly I-Prime was nervous – nervous as I'd been the first time we'd spark-bonded. He had seen me fully then, as I'd seen him. We'd melded our two histories, two lives, two souls. We knew each other now, down to the heart and center. But I knew what spark-bonding entailed now. (This would be no blind leap of desperate hope the way the last had been.) So I was afraid. I was embarrassed to be shown a coward like this; but I was stuck. I gave my bond-brother a self-deprecating grimace, and ducked my head to hide my face.

He frowned, seeing what was going on despite my muteness. "So you're scared now? Everything's fine when it's you trying to 'save' me-" (Here he snorted.) "-or in your weird imagination if you're horny. But if the tables turn and it's me offering to save you, now you're suddenly so bashful?

I was. And I was just as surprised as he. Probably more so.

I can't recall now whether my reluctance came from not wanting my weaknesses revealed to Megatron, or more from fear of all the darkness I would still face inside him – all those millions of bad years when he had fallen into evil. But I think it was the latter. I was already dealing with a present-day catastrophe; I wasn't sure I was up to reliving all of his as well as mine. I guessed that even after all these years of loving him like he was everything, I was still scared of Megatron. Afraid of being one with him again, and going through it all again. For a bot/person who thrives on being known and held and loved, that was surprising.

Megatron huffed a long exhale and settled forward, elbows propped on his knees, and contemplated me as I lay there in darkly-amused misery. I knew this whole thing was ridiculous. He'd come to help me – come to offer me the thing I always seemed to want inside my mind – and now I was afraid to let him. The whole landlord issue receded a bit as I had to laugh at my own inconsistency.

"Behold the mighty Prime," he teased, but gently.

I just shrugged. "I'm sorry," I told him.

And we really didn't need more words than that. We know each other through and through. We're there for one another, quirks and all.

So Megatron did not open his spark to receive mine. I kept my chestplates closed. I didn't even ask him to lie with me and curl in tight against my back, the way he's done so often for me that I've lost count. No, we did not fall asleep with my head resting on his arm, his free hand draped possessively over my chest. I slept alone in the big bed. And gradually I shrank down to my human self.

But Megatron sat sentinel there at the foot all night, thinking dark thoughts about his fusion cannon and landlords who cause misery (this wasn't the first time he'd been called on in such a crisis). He guarded me like the Lord High Protector he's become in another universe. I relaxed. Whatever came with sunrise, I'd have a big imaginary mech to back me up.

And it was good enough.

Thanks, Bro, for being willing, and for understanding when I was too scared to let you do it.