Wow, it's only been one week? It feels like an eternity since I last updated! Anyway, I like this chapter, it's full of emotion :D

Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter Nine: Love's Keen Sting

Flash Bang sat alone in her room, curled up on the berth with her chin resting on her knees. Blurr had kissed her, and she now knew that he had feelings for her, but did she return them? She couldn't say for sure. Certainly she valued him as a friend, but he had ranked far above her before his loss of memory and know that he had most of it back was it worth the hope that he'd still want her when they returned to Cybertron? She'd heard rumours that he'd had a thing for the femmes back in his racing days, but that was long ago and the mech she'd come to know seemed far more responsible than the rebellious young racer Flash Bang's femme creator had been so interested in.

But he'd kissed her. After all they'd been through, didn't that stand for something? Flash Bang wasn't sure if she ought to hope for it, she wasn't even sure if she wanted it. But, either way, she needed rest, and so laid back on the berth and offlined her optics without another thought. Recharged didn't come for a long time, however.

Blurr spent the evening in a similar state, sat in his room and thinking about everything to do with Flash Bang. He loved her, he was sure of it now, despite the heated arguments and terse words between them. She was stubborn, which had annoyed him at first, but recently he'd seen it in a different light. She was determined to do what she could for Blurr, and she had been even before she'd known the cube of crushed metal she'd found not so long ago was Blurr. Her spark had told her to save that cube, and look at what it had led to for her! She'd gone on the adventure she'd wanted – she'd seen new planets (well, one), met new bots and had become – in Blurr's optics at least – someone.

For a moment, Blurr wondered if they had some connected destiny. The seemingly coincidental way Flash Bang had found him pointed to such a thing, but now he was worried that he'd ruined everything between them. He hadn't intended to, in fact, at the time, all he'd meant through the kiss was to free her from Soundwave's control. He was still surprised that doing so had worked – wasn't it just a little bit like a fairytale ending, as the humans would say? Or was it because their meeting had some greater meaning? Had their sparks been joined by Primus before their creators had even designed their blueprints?

Blurr was beginning to wonder if he'd been a hopeless romantic once, but he didn't remember such a thing. He did remember hordes of femmes dying for his attention when he was a racer, however. The virtual Flash Bang's lusty devotion to the virtual Shockwave had reminded him of that, however shameful it was.

I'll have to apologise to her, Blurr thought, even if it is just to clear the air between us. Having reached a compromise with himself, the speedster curled up into a tight ball on the berth and fell into recharge.

Flash Bang walked down the corridor quietly. It was early morning and she wanted to see the sun come up on the Boxing Day snow outside.

No, she wasn't avoiding anyone, or so she told herself.

She found the now-slushy snow more than a little surprising under support servo when she stepped outside, and yelped slightly as she slipped and fell to her aft. She looked around the dimly-lit street to see if anyone had seen her. No one had, thankfully, so she pulled herself back up to her support servos.

Flash Bang brushed the snow off her armour and checked for any kinks or dents. There didn't look to be any damage, so she carried on with looking for a good spot to watch the sunrise. She turned and looked up at the roof – it seemed like a good spot, so she revealed one of her hidden talents to the black, empty street. She leapt up towards a lamppost, placing a support servo against it and pushing off from it, sending herself upwards towards the overpass that ran by the plant. She grabbed the railing and flipped over the side. Up there, she looked down once more, and had a slightly nostalgic feeling as she saw the cracks from where she'd landed her ship. Optimus and his Autobots had helped her move it inside the plant not long after Flash Bang had arrived with Blurr, which was a shame as it would have made the perfect platform for jumping to the roof. Flash Bang moved to stand on the railing by the side of the road, before bending at the knees and shooting upwards. For a moment she flew through the air, but she had no time to enjoy the sensation of cool air running through her gears and circuits before flipping over once and landing on a lamppost. She leapt again, heading for the roof of the plant, and landed perfectly with a forwards roll.

"Impressive," a cool voice said. Flash Bang froze in surprise and looked up. Prowl was stood before her, sporting his new armour. Seeing the helmet reminded her of Gearshift, as it had every time she'd seen Prowl since his reported confrontation with Lockdown. If only she'd been there, she'd have wrung Lockdown's thick neck and more for what he did.

"Where the Pit did you come from?" she yelped in surprise. Prowl merely gave her a half smile before sitting down cross legged.

"I always come up here to watch the sunrise," he explained. "The tree in my room reaches through the roof." As he said this, he pointed to the foliage poking out of a hole a little way behind him. Flash Bang sighed slightly but went and sat down a little way to his left.

"I had hoped to be on my own for a little while," she mumbled to herself.

"You have no obligation to stay here," Prowl replied, but Flash Bang ignored him. Part of her was desperate for some company that wasn't Blurr or chatterbox Bumblebee. Neither of them said anything more for a while, as the sun had begun its crimson ascent through the sky. Flash Bang was almost camouflaged in the light as it covered the city, turning everything red. Out of the corner of her optic, Flash Bang could just about see Prowl, and for a moment thought he was watching her, but the presence of his visor made it hard to tell.

After a moment more, Prowl spoke.

"Flash Bang, might I ask you a question about Gearshift?" the ninja bot asked.

"Um, I guess so," Flash Bang replied, tearing her optics from the horizon hesitantly.

"How did he die, if I may ask?" Flash Bang was a little stunned by the question. "If it's too painful to talk about, then I apologise." Something about his tone made Flash Bang wonder if he meant that hastily added remark. Something felt to her like he was loosing his cool.

"It's fine, Prowl, really," Flash Bang lied anyway, holding back her suspicious tone. "He was murdered by Lockdown whilst trying to defend Iacon from invasion. Lockdown knew him from his Ninja Corps days and spitefully told him what he was… preparing to do at Master Yoketron's dojo, and Gearshift couldn't stop Lockdown from getting to him."

Prowl didn't say anything for a moment, and his perfectly blank expression made it impossible for Flash Bang to tell if he had been stunned into silence or was merely thinking through what the femme had told him. Before long, Prowl spoke again.

"I know Lockdown," he said simply, disregarding the fact that Flash Bang knew this. "He's tried to make several deals with me in the past, but only a coward would work with him."

"Didn't Sentinel make a deal with him?" Flash Bang asked.

"My point exactly," Prowl replied curtly. Flash Bang smiled slightly at that.

Flash Bang decided she had seen enough of the sunrise for that day, and said goodbye to Prowl before performing a few more complicated leaps to get down to the ground. She disappeared inside the base after casting a quick look down the road at an oncoming sports car. Prowl watched her go and, had it not been for his visor, the concern in his optics would have been obvious.

Gearshift, what did you do?

Blurr was getting very tired of processor checkups, but Ratchet insisted that they were necessary, particularly this time because the old bot had no idea why the human Blurr fainted in the virtual reality.

"Ow!" Blurr cried when Ratchet poked a very sensitive cable in his processor. "Careful!"

"Don't you go telling me how to do my job!" the medic roared. "I've been working in the field with this sort of thing for far longer than you've been running at the speed of sound."

"I'm a few mph faster than that, thank you," Blurr snipped. Ratchet had noticed that the speedster was acting somewhat cranky, but he couldn't tell why.

"Something on your processor?"

"You're poking around in it, so, regardless of your metaphorical meaning and instead speaking technically, yes," Ratchet rolled his optics, though he was surprised to hear him say such a long sentence. He'd been so quiet since he'd arrived!

"Is there something wrong, numb node?" Ratchet spat back. Blurr didn't reply, he just sat where he was and didn't say another word, which struck Ratchet as odd.

The old medic finished his check up before much longer and sent Blurr on his way, though gruffly mentioned his theory on way he'd passed out in the virtual reality.

"My thought is that in your delicate state you succumbed to Soundwave's music faster," Ratchet explained. "Also, seeing as you weren't being reprogrammed into a Decepticon, the procedure probably wasn't as complicated."

The speedster continued to remain silent as he left the med bay with his helm under his arm, taking in what Ratchet had said and rubbing his bare cranial unit with his free servo. He slid the cool blue metal helm back on as he entered the rec room and ran a servo over his fin. Ever since he'd experienced life as a human, he'd realised how much he loved his fin. It had been his signature feature since before his racing days, and it was after he thought that that it struck him that more of his memories had returned.

I'm pretty much back together now, he thought. But things still don't feel right somehow.

Blurr didn't bother to look where he was going as he walked to the sofa in the rec room, he kept his optics trained on the floor as he walked, and it was because of that that he crashed headlong into an equally downtrodden Flash Bang. There was a loud clatter as their chassis bashed together and an even louder one as the slightly less stable Flash Bang went flying down to the ground. Blurr was there in a second, pulling her to her support servos, but when she looked up at him, void of any obvious emotion, Blurr just froze for a moment. He'd really hit her hard with that kiss.

"Uh…" was all Blurr could say as they just stared at each other awkwardly. Flash Bang eventually pushed him aside and picked herself up, moving to walk away as she did so.

"Flash Bang," Blurr called quietly. "I'm sorry."

Flash Bang didn't reply, but she did stop. She didn't turn to look at him, or make a sound of acknowledgement, she just stood there. Blurr was unsure if he ought to approach her, and gingerly took a small step forwards. Before he could move further, Flash Bang whirled round to face Blurr, a weak smile on her faceplate.

"We never opened our presents, did we?" she suddenly said. Blurr was a little confused by the remark, but the smile she wore gave him a little confidence.

"No, we didn't," he replied. Catching her hint, he turned to walk to the tree, which still stood in the rec room with its flashing lights and gaudy traffics signs. Blurr knelt down to where the prettily wrapped presents sat, each and everyone untouched. Sari hadn't thought to pester her friends to open them up after their tiresome escapades over Christmas.

Blurr knelt down by the tree and tugged Flash Bang's gift out from under it by the delicately curled ribbon tied round it. Sari had wrapped it in red paper that matched Flash Bang's armour and the ribbon and matching bow were in gold. He handed the box to Flash Bang, who gave it a slightly surprised look. Blurr assumed she hadn't realised he'd bought her anything. She took the gift cautiously, as if the thing would explode into a cloud of some infatuation-inducing chemical that would make her swoon over Blurr. She pulled the shimmering ribbon loose and then took to pulling at the paper. Scraps of red cascaded to the ground as the box was revealed.

"A… a photo frame?" Flash Bang said, slightly perplexed.

"So you can remember your first real adventure," Blurr explained. "It's loaded with pictures of Detroit and the base and everyone here… Do you like it?"

Flash Bang just stared at the thing for a while, but then a huge grin spread across her faceplate and she looked up at Blurr with genuine adoration.

"Blurr, I love it!" she cried, hugging the box to her chest. "Let me try it out."

She turned to an empty plug socket as she gently pulled the frame from the box, careful not to drop it. She placed it on the floor and plugged it in, settling back on her heel struts as she watched the photos flicker by. They were so lovely! Snowy pictures of Detroit, funny pictures of Bumblebee, Bulkhead and Sari messing around, Prowl hanging upside down from his tree, Ratchet having a stasis nap whilst Bumblebee prepared to drop a bucket of water on him, Prime standing heroically with the sun setting behind him and loads more. Flash Bang felt lubricant coming to her optics as she watched. The last one that flashed up was of Blurr in a rather stylistic pose, a blue streak behind him showing his path of movement from the road to bounce off a wall. Flash Bang grinned slightly at the image, confused feelings slipping away slightly.

As the slideshow finished, Flash Bang turned to Blurr.

"I've got one for you," she said sneakily. She crawled over to the tree and pulled out a box wrapped in shiny blue paper, just like Blurr's armour, with a silver ribbon. Sari clearly had a thing about colour schemes.

Flash Bang thrust it at Blurr, slightly awkwardly but still with a huge grin on her faceplate. She'd cheered up so much in mere moments! Blurr took it from her and pulled the ribbon off and then the paper. He had no idea what to expect, but what he found underneath made him crack a smile. It was a data pad-like journal, and the box displayed it as "The Spark Journal 5000". Blurr looked at it for a moment, just smiling, but after a while he began to laugh merrily.

"You like it?" Flash Bang asked tentatively. Blurr could only nod in reply.

"Flash, I love it!" he answered after he regained control of himself. "Perfect thing for someone who's having trouble keeping his memories together, wouldn't you say?"

"That was the idea," Flash Bang replied happily. She helped Blurr take it from the box and held onto the cardboard as she watched Blurr turn it on. He started to write something immediately, but he cheekily refused to show it to Flash Bang.

"I'll show you when it's done," he said sneakily. "You'll just have to occupy your own time for now." A sly grin spread across his faceplate as Flash Bang pouted.

"Fine," she said, pretending to be offended. "I'll go for a drive."

Blurr watched her go as he began to write in the journal. He knew exactly what he was going to write, but he'd have to show her the finished product when the time was right.

Flash Bang decided she rather liked Earth, despite the silly name, but her processor was still in turmoil over Blurr. She didn't want to think about that just now, she just wanted some peace. She drove through Detroit, loving the cheery feel that seemed to fill the air around her. People were so happy, giving each other gifts, chatting over cups of coffee, hugging and… kissing.

Flash Bang drove on faster, not wanting to observe anything even slightly romantic. As she drove, she found herself approaching Sumdac Tower, the enormous building reaching high into the sky. From where she was, she could just about see Optimus Prime and Bulkhead observing the new space bridge. They'd finished it that very morning and it was an impressive addition to the already impressive tower.

She didn't stop at the tower. Instead she carried on through the various districts until she found herself outside Detroit's University of Robotics, founded by Sumdac himself. Like the tower, it was an inspiring building, built from metal and glass with a huge, seamless glass dome atop it. It looked like a great big bubble, and inside Flash bang could see a number of little helicopter-like robots flitting about. What they were for, she didn't know.

Outside the university, sat on the cold stone steps, was the familiar tawny-haired head of Isabelle Thwaites. She was sat next to another girl her own age, and they were both tucking into pots of steaming microwave ramen. Flash Bang would happily have left the two alone, but Isabelle suddenly looked up from her lunch and shouted, "Flash Bang?" Flash Bang stopped and transformed, kneeling down to the girl to say hello.

"Not seen you in a while," Flash Bang remarked. "Had a good Christmas?"

Isabelle shrugged. "I was supposed to go home for the holiday, but my brother's sick and Mum doesn't want me catching whatever he's got. Do you celebrate Christmas on Cybertron?"

Flash Bang laughed. "No, Sari gave us the low down on how it works."

"I see," Isabelle said. "What are you doing this far out on your own?" Isabelle looked about for any signs of other Autobots, but there were none. Flash Bang was clearly alone.

"I've had a… trying Christmas," she explained, not bothering with details.

"Blurr made a romantic advance, didn't he?" Isabelle quipped. Flash Bang was stunned at her deducing skills.

"How in Primus' name did you know?"

"Come on, Flash Bang, you'd have to be blind not to see how he feels about you!" Flash Bang rocked back on her heels struts and looked away. "So, how do you feel about him?"

"That's the problem," Flash Bang replied. "I don't know how I feel."

"Ah, classic symptoms," the other girl put in.

"Of what?"

"Of a reluctant heart-er, spark," Isabelle explained. "You love him but you don't want to admit it to yourself!"

Flash Bang just stared at the two girls sceptically for a moment, not wanting to believe them but knowing full well they were right. She'd never let herself notice the signs. Her spark would often pulse erratically whenever she saw Blurr, her faceplate heated up whenever he got near, and she'd felt some connection to him when he was just a cube of crushed metal! Didn't that mean something?

But she still couldn't help but wonder, as she had before: would Blurr still want her when they got home? Was his romantic attachment to her just because there were no other femmes around? Was he in desperate need of… that unspoken activity? Or did he really love her?

It was sometime in the afternoon when Flash Bang returned to base. Blurr was on the sofa, still typing away in his new journal, but he looked up when he heard her come in. She seemed sad again, although after a moment Blurr began to think she looked more thoughtful, like she'd hit some realisation about something that had been bugging her for a while. Before he could say anything, Bumblebee appeared from down the corridor.

"The Elite Guard's back," he said, slightly annoyed, slightly excited. He probably wanted to see the Jet Twins again. Blurr was interested to meet them, too, as was Flash Bang. Neither one had seen them yet. The trio drove to Sumdac Tower where the ship had landed. When they arrived, they quietly watched Optimus Prime talking to Sentinel. For once, no harsh words were spoken, and the two even saluted each other as Sentinel turned to go back onboard. Jazz was stood with him and also prepared to board but, as he did so, he saw Blurr.

"Blurr! I forgot you where here, dawg," he said. Sentinel Prime looked over at the speedster too.

"There you are! You're needed back on Cybertron, stat!" the Prime demanded. The Jet Twins peeked out from behind their Prime to see who he was talking to.

"Sir, Cybertron probably isn't the best place for Blurr right now," Flash Bang tried to explain.

"No-bot asked you, femme," Sentinel spat. Blurr seemed more than a little riled up at the Prime's tone.

"Sir," Blurr said in his more "officer" tone of voice. "I doubt I'll be of much use to Intel as I've recently had a problem with my memory banks."

"What do you mean "problem"?" Evidently no-one had told Sentinel what was going on with Blurr last time he was there.

"After finding evidence supporting Wasp's innocence I returned to Cybertron but was attacked by the Decepticon Shockwave. I was almost killed and my processor took heavy damage and when I was rebuilt my memory was gone." He pulled Flash Bang to his side. "Flash Bang here has been helping me to restore it." Flash Bang took a brief moment of pride in how Blurr only mentioned her.

"Hm," the Prime said. "So you're refusing to go back to Cybertron just because you're a few data tracks short of a full processor?"

"In a literal sense, yes," Blurr replied. Sentinel growled slightly and moved to grab Blurr. Jazz got there first, however.

"Whoa, SP!" he said in his constantly chilled out way. "Give the bot a break! Going back to all the mess on Cybertron ain't gonna help him anymore than you dragging him by the support servo onboard. I say let him jam here for a while." He turned to Blurr. "Why did Shockwave attack you, dawg?"

"Because the evidence I found would have blown his cover as Longarm," he explained. "Not that that would be of any use anymore, from what I've heard."

Sentinel looked like he may have wanted to carry on the argument, but the Jet Twins suddenly pushed passed him and began to excitedly pester Blurr.

"Mister Blurr, sir," Jetfire said as he almost pounced on Blurr, "you be telling us of your racing of days, yes?"

"Uh…" Blurr didn't know what to say in reply. He still didn't have all of his days as a racer back.

"Oh! Or maybe when you were being looking into Decepticon sleeping agent?" Jetstorm added.

"Sleeper agent," Blurr corrected. "I never did finished that case, "Longarm" sent me here just as I was about to make a breakthrough."

"You have suspect of prime?" both asked in unison.

"Yes, but just as I was preparing to apprehend her I was given my mission to Earth," Blurr explained.

"Who is being unknowing traitor?" Jetfire asked.

"Well, my research all pointed to Rosanna, you know, the singer?" Blur told them. The Twins nodded, hooked on this "gripping" story. "I was certain it was her, I was even referring to the target as "Flip Sides", for obvious reasons. Apparently, Shockwave didn't want her being exposed."

Despite the enormous interest Flash Bang had in hearing of Blurr's work as an Intelligence Agent, she couldn't help but wonder if she could use the ship's communication devices to talk to Mercury. She'd been missing Mercury an awful lot lately, and she just knew her femme creator was going to blow a circuit when she finally reappeared.

"Um, Jazz, sir?" she called tentatively. The mech turned to her.

"What's up?" he replied kindly. Flash Bang quickly explained her request, after which a warm smile spread over Jazz's faceplate.

"Sure thing, little lady," he said as he led the way inside, careful not to attract Sentinel's attention.

Flash Bang had always wanted to see the inside of the Steelhaven. She'd heard stories about it from Gearshift, of the battles it had fought in and of the heroes that flew it. Gearshift had always had a thing about heroes and their deeds. The inside of the ship was incredible! The passageways were cavernous and the white polished metal that lined the walls was almost reflective. The place was well lit and evidently well kept, making Flash Bang wonder if Sentinel held respect for the ship or simply wanted to boss about his two young rookies into doing all the dirty jobs.

The bridge was as impressive as they come, and Flash Bang couldn't help but do a small twirl as she took in the wondrous sight. Jazz chuckled slightly as he powered up the monitor and patched a link to Cybertron.

"What's yer femme creator's communication number?" Jazz asked her. Flash Bang bounded over to the controls and typed it in for him. Before long the monitor flickered and Mercury was there.

"Flash Bang?" she asked, stunned. "What are you doing on the Steelhaven?"

"Long story, Mercury," Flash Bang replied quietly. "I just wanted to let you know that I'm safe."

"Well, you've been a long time going about it! It's been decacycles!" the femme replied. Flash Bang flinched slightly at the anger in her tone.

"I'm sorry I didn't contact you sooner," she said. "The crew of Autobots on this planet don't have a communicator anymore."

"Don't give me excuses," Mercury spat. "What are you doing off Cybertron anyway? And where the slag is my ship? Do you know how many deliveries I've had to turn down due to lack of transport?"

Something was wrong. Flash Bang had done plenty of things that had angered Mercury before, but she'd never acted like this, not once!

"I'm sorry; I'll make it up to you! I'll see if the Elite Guard can take the ship back, it's not damaged," Flash Bang offered. Mercury just folded her arms.

"You'd better hope it isn't!" she hissed. "Flash Bang, if you do ever come back to Cybertron, I don't want you coming home."

"What?" Flash Bang screeched. "You're… kicking me out?"

"Yes," Mercury said. "Don't try coming home."

The screen went blank and Flash Bang fell to her knees, cupping her faceplate in her servos as lubricant fell from her optics. Jazz moved to comfort her, but Flash Bang just slipped out of his way and ran out of the ship. Her support servos clattered along the metal floor as she ran, and even the appearance of the Jet Twins didn't stop her.

"Why is little femme being sad?" Jetfire asked her curiously.

"Maybe she is hurting?" Jetstorm suggested. But Flash Bang just kept on going.

The other Autobots had begun filing inside as Flash Bang sped out into the open. She ran passed the lot of them, even Blurr, who quickly took to dashing after her. She threw open the door to her room and collapsed on the berth, sobbing almost hysterically. Blurr followed her in, walked up to her slowly.

"Flash…?" he called out quietly to the femme. He didn't have time to react, however, as she pushed herself upright, spun round to Blurr and kissed him, lip modules flat against his. Blurr didn't move for a moment, shocked out of his shell, but eventually he wrapped his arms around her waist and held her there. After a moment, Flash Bang pulled away.

"I love you," she whispered, looking up at him with tearful optics.

"I love you, too," Blurr replied, taking her faceplate in his servos and kissing her again. After a moment he pulled away and rested his chin on her cranial unit. They just stood there for a while, embracing each other, revelling in their shared revelation. They were in love, and now they knew it.

"What happened, Flash?" Blurr asked softly. Flash Bang wiped away her lubricant tears, which had also begun running down Blurr's chest, before answering.

"I managed to get a hold of Mercury," she began. "But she went absolutely psycho! I mean, yes, I did take her ship but even so! I did it to protect both you and myself, how can she hate me for that?"

Blurr didn't answer her; he just stayed as he was and held her, hugging her into his chest. He thought for a good long while about it, but no conclusion came. Mercury had seemed like one of the most loving femme creators anyone could ask for, and Flash Bang had always spoken of her fondly.

So what changed?

Aww! I'm so sorry! I had to put more sadness in this or it just wouldn't feel like it was something I had written. The next chapter's gonna be really exciting to make up for it though, I promise!

Please review!

:D