All The Things She Said

Black optics narrowed above a lethal weapon pointed straight at her head. "Move and I'll blow your head off. And don't think I won't, Maximal."

Airazor stared blandly up at the threatening widow. "Can I at least sit up?"

"…fine." Blackarachnia took a step back to give her room.

"How civil of you."

"Now, now. Be nice to the Predacon pointing a gun at your head."

Airazor made a sound that might have been laughter had the situation been any less dangerous. Pain shrilled along her neck and left wing as she slowly levered herself into an upright position; Blackarachnia must have knocked her out HARD. "Why aren't I dead yet?"

"I'm curious. Why did you pick the tiger over the ape?"

"…what?"

"You heard me." Blackarachnia smiled with sweetness so false it made a mockery of the attempt.

It was the falcon's turn to narrow her eyes. "Why do you care?"

"I had a bet with Terrorsaur that you'd hook up with Primal. I lost a week's worth of monitor duty to that featherless chicken, and I want to know why. Answer the question!"

An exasperated snort answered her. "Why does everyone assume that Tigatron and I are together?"

The gun wavered for a brief moment. "What?"

"We're not together like that. We just patrol together, and he's very polite to me."

Blackarachnia steadied her aim. "But you two are always—"

"No we're not! He's afraid to get close to anyone after…why would I tell YOU that?" Airazor snorted again, this time at herself. "Slag. I swear, everyone on this planet is convinced that we have to be more than friends. Rattrap, Cheetor, and even the slaggin' Preds…" She started to gesture expansively, then appeared to think better of the idea when Blackarachnia's pincer tightened visibly on her gun.

Full lips only curved in a smug smile. "Heh. Well, what's the matter? Can't convince anyone that the featherduster's worth being 'more than friends' with?"

Airazor twisted her own lips in a sneer. "Hardly. What's the matter, jealous that you and Tarantulas don't have half of what me and Tigatron do?"

"I—how dare—I'll—"

"Awwww, poor deprived Predacon. Seriously, is there anyone in that base who gives a scrap about you?"

The mouth that opened to snap out an answer stayed open just a moment too long.

She caught the hesitation. "…isn't there?"

"Slag you, Maximal." The spider turned her face, presenting an impassive profile while still keeping an eye on her captive. "Just had a sudden thought that was more important than…whatever it was that you said."

A touch of pity entered blue optics. She could guess what kind of thought it was, even as her more cynical side told her not to assume that any Predacon could be that unaware of her own faction. Before she could stop herself, an impulse made her blurt out, "I keep asking myself, wondering how—"

"What's it like being the only female Maximal?"

"—alright, I guess."

"I've noticed that there's this kind of expectation when you're a femme, at least in my experience. Everyone else can get along fine on their own, but we're expected to hook up with someone. They think that romance is ingrained in females. I'm sure you know what I mean." Black optics turned back to study her slyly, and neither of them showed relief at missing whatever it was Airazor had been about to say. "After all, why else does everyone assume that you have to be with Tigatron?"

Under the surface, those unspoken words mixed her up inside with what had been spoken, and blue met black with all the confusion of a cornered raptor. Her wounded wing spasmed, burning her with forgotten pain as her instinctive, baffled flight-or-fight reflex kicked in. She wanted to fly away, fly high and far until the sun and rain had taken all the words away. "It's all my fault," she blurted out, for a bare moment completely honest about something that nobody else had bothered to probe. "He told me he wanted me so much—that is, he told Cheetor that he wanted 'her' so much and I assume that I wasn't meant to overhear because I'm pretty sure I'm the 'her' he was talking about, but I never told him that he's just a good friend so everyone keeps on thinking that we're closer than we are, even him, because I just don't want to hurt him and I'm afraid of what they'll think of me." She closed her mouth with a snap, stunned at the rush of words she hadn't even realized were waiting to get out.

"But you said he was afraid to get close," Blackarachnia prodded after the falcon had stared at her for too long.

She looked away. "I never said he wasn't trying. People tend to do stuff even though they're frightened, you know."

The widow actually laughed at that. "You're so ashamed of admitting that you don't want to be tied down to him!" she exclaimed, an almost vicious delight filling her words. "Can't we be single? I don't care if they stop and stare at me for saying it: I don't feel any more need for one of them than they feel for each other!"

Airazor blinked up at her. "Each other..?"

"Slaggit, if they don't have to fall in love, why should we?" The spider flung out the pincer not holding a weapon on the Maximal. "Look at me! What do you see, huh? Have I lost my mind? Do you," her voice dropped down to a sinister whisper, but this time Airazor thought that her malice was directed at someone other than her. "Do YOU ever think that you'll be free from it? Free from the pressure they don't even consciously know they're putting on us, the pressure to declare that we're head-over-heels for one of them, and I keep thinking—" Blackarachnia stopped suddenly, those full lips clamped shut on whatever it was that she had been about to admit. This time it had been her that had crossed the line, and deep in her black eyes there was an appalled Predacon frantically trying to think of a way to cover her slip. "Thinking that it doesn't matter," she continued, trying to smooth it over. "It's just a gender difference, really. It's just a social expectation built in from who-knows-when. When you think about it, we're really just machines. Why do we even HAVE genders, anyway?"

But the falcon knew it had been Blackarachnia who had spoken, not the arrogant Predacon she met on the battlefield. "Ever tried to pretend that it doesn't matter? Try to forget that you're female?"

The Predacon faltered. What did honesty matter now? For Primus' sake, she had the Maximal at gunpoint; it wasn't like she was going to run off and tell anyone! For that matter, why would it matter if she did? "It might not be that difficult for you," she said snidely, thrusting her chest out, "but I've got a lot more evidence to ignore."

Airazor stomped on the absurd surge of envious anger that flashed through her. "Why exactly," she mused out loud, blue optics meeting black in defiant curiosity, "do we care about who has bigger breasts? For something purely cosmetic, I can't figure out why I compare mine to yours and come up short." She took what pleasure she could in seeing the surprised realization spread across the widow's face. "It's stuff like that that drive me crazy when I try and figure it out," she said softly.

Blackarachnia blinked at her from behind her gun. For all her surprise, the sights didn't waver from the Maximal's forehead. "Like you're going out of your head just trying to think about it," she said just as quietly, trying out the feel of the words never said aloud. "But I'm not like you, featherhead. I'd never let myself be…assumed into a relationship I didn't want."

She lowered her optics. She knew what the widow meant. Everyone's assumptions about her and Tigatron, and she'd never get the courage to speak against what's assumed…and she'd end up in a relationship because it was expected. Everything Blackarachnia had said was true if she could only admit it to herself, but even if she didn't, the words would keep running through her head.

Seeing it in the blue optics staring at the ground, the gun finally wavered. Because for every feeling she'd finally put into words, there were a dozen more still waiting to be said. Blackarachnia wondered with a distant uneasiness if she'd ever be able to say them if they were snapped at this Maximal she held prisoner; a predator/prey exchange full of bared fangs and claws that sliced away all the social lies told to conceal a truth no one wanted to say out loud. Here, in the cave formed by an overhanging rock, the sound of them echoed until she wanted to slam her head against the ground to get rid of them. Running, creeping, shouting into the abrupt silence of her thoughts, and they weren't enough. They were just words, just simple words, and Predacons were made for action.

Carefully, hesitantly, unsure of exactly what she was doing, the widow leaned forward. Airazor looked up sharply into her face, and in her optics there was that yearning for that something they shared. Blue glass took in the empty space where there had been a gun pointed at her head, and also the body filling that space. There was uncertainty, a brief moment of wondering what they were doing, and the falcon tilted her body away from her sore side. Leaning forward, they looked each other in the face as if for the first time, bared spark to bared spark.

"I want to fly us away somewhere where faction doesn't matter," Airazor murmured sadly. She only smiled slightly when the widow seemed unable to follow her line of thought.

"But it always matters," Blackarachnia said slowly. "You can never be free of it, just as we can't stop being females." Without conscious thought, she had lowered herself to her knees, leaning forward over the Maximal sitting on the ground. Feathers sticky with mechfluid ruffled and smoothed on the falcon's wings as Airazor gradually moved to meet her halfway. "It'll always be there…"

Blue optics, so close to black, dimmed with realization. "Between us," Airazor whispered…and she punched Blackarachnia square in the nose.

It was supposed to be different than this, but I understood this plot more. I don't like using the inside thoughts of characters like 'I'm thinking this' during a scene, but since I'm specifically including lyrics from the song "All The Things She Said" by Tatu in the writing it seemed appropriate. It's odd looking at Blackarachnia from this perspective. Seriously, who thinks about her as a vulnerable person before Silverbolt falls in love with her? She's a cynical, bad-aft example of a heartless Predacon. And it's hard giving Airazor more than a 2D personality.

In any case, I believe this idea was spawned by someone saying she'd never seen a Blackarachnia/Airazor romance before. Plus, it annoys me that every female character must pair off with someone.