"What—what do you mean?" asked the Autobot, looking confused.

"Well, um, I-I…" Tomato was searching for words that he couldn't find. Finally, though, he came up with something he thought might work. "I-I don't know why Primus lets pretty young femmes like you get injured in the heat of battle, but apparently he does."

"Please, help me." She reached her arms out. Tomato picked her up (to the best of his ability) and slung her arm around his shoulders. She leaned on him, using her remaining leg and his support to board the Nemesis.

"Just sit down on our couch for a little, okay?" said Tomato nervously, helping her sit down. He was still staring at the socket where her leg was supposed to be attached, and (again) wishing he could be of some help—but he had been trained in battle, not medicine.

"Is there anything you can do for my leg?" she asked desperately. The wound was still as bad as ever; raw energon was still spilling out onto their couch. Tomato thought Megatron might be mad about the couch, but that was the least of his problems right now.

"Wait a minute," Tomato said. He did know one thing—if she lost enough fuel this way, she could easily go offline.

"What is it?" she asked.

"We need to bandage up your leg," Tomato told her quickly. "There's got to be something around here we can use. I'll go look."

"Would you?" she said gratefully.

Tomato searched the ship as fast as he could, and finally located an old roll of medical tape in the storage room. He rushed back out and sat down on the couch next to the femme, who was looking scared again.

"Now, I know this is going to cause slight discomfort, but we need to bandage up your leg socket." Tomato bent down and took off a piece of medical tape. "If you run out of fuel by bleeding so much, you could go offline."

With that, Tomato began to clumsily bandage up her leg, wishing there was a medic around. The femme seemed like she was in deep pain, but she didn't say anything. Maybe she just didn't want to make things worse.

"Is that better?" Tomato asked tentatively, after he'd finished.

"A little." Tomato was relieved to see the femme smile slightly. "Thank you."

"N-No problem," Tomato replied, suddenly feeling embarrassed, for whatever reason. Exhausted, he sat down on the couch next to her. She made him feel uncomfortable, but good at the same time.

"So…what's your name?" Tomato asked, looking almost shyly into her shining blue eyes; she met them, and gave him another smile.

"My name's Blueberry," she replied. "I know it sounds kind of like a weird name for an Autobot, because blueberries are an organic fruit, but I'm just the same color as one, so…"

"It's okay," Tomato told her. "I'm the same color as another type of organic fuel, a tomato. Nobody knows if tomatoes are fruits or vegetables, but since they match my color scheme, I'm known as Tomato."

"Delighted to meet you, Tomato." Blueberry stuck out one dark-blue servo.

"Oh, um…you too," he said, feeling shy again as he took her servo and shook it.

"Thank you." Blueberry looked around the base.

"How come I haven't seen you before?" Tomato asked curiously. "I stayed on the Elite Guard ship for a little, but I didn't see you anywhere."

"Probably because I'm usually not on the ship," Blueberry explained. "Every solar cycle I commute to University of Crystal City, and it takes a lot of time to get there if you're only a little compact." She laughed.

"You go to University of Crystal City?" Tomato asked, interested. "What are you studying?"

"I'm trying to get a degree in science and technology," Blueberry told him. "I want to be an Elite Guard scientist. Science has always interested me. What about you?"

"Oh, um, I-I'm a Decepticon warrior," Tomato replied. "When I was younger I didn't know anything about fighting or anything like that, but my father, Megatron, taught me."

"Well, not that we Autobots know Megatron personally or anything, but…" Blueberry shrugged. "I never thought he'd be the type to want sparklings around his base."

"I was adopted," Tomato explained. "Both my real parents went offline when I was really young, so I can't remember them. I always thought of Megatron as my real father."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Blueberry said, looking shocked and a little embarrassed. "I-I didn't mean to bring that up. That's awful!"

"It's okay," Tomato told her. "I can handle it."

"That's good," said Blueberry, nodding.

The atmosphere of the room had become rather awkward, so Tomato activated a quick subject-change. "So, um, I bet your leg would stop hurting a little if you had some energon. Want some?"

"Well, usually I prefer oil, but I guess I could try some." Blueberry smiled.

"You just sit right here then," Tomato told her, and quickly ran to the refrigerator.

Hmm…what kind of energon should I get her? What kind of energon do femmes like? Tomato recalled that Blackarachnia seemed to drink quite a bit of dark energon, but he didn't guess Blueberry would want it too—he knew Autobots were very much against dark energon. Fizzy energon, maybe? Or should he just stick with the classics (basic energon)?

Tomato decided that basic energon would be the safest, so he grabbed a cube, ran back out into the main monitor room, and handed the cube to Blueberry.

"Thanks," she said. "Want any?"

"N-No thanks," Tomato wheezed, trying to catch his breath and letting Blueberry drink her energon cube.

After that, Tomato and Blueberry didn't talk to each other much for a little. At first, the sounds of the battle could still be faintly heard from outside, but eventually they died down, and the Decepticons walked in, looking exhausted.

"Oh scrap, c'mon!" Tomato hissed. He didn't want to pull Blueberry from the couch so quickly, not in her condition, but he knew that if Megatron saw an Autobot inside the base, he wasn't going to be very happy. So when nobody was looking, Tomato helped Blueberry sneak outside.

As fast as he could, Tomato led Blueberry to where the Elite Guard was getting ready to go back to base. Blueberry winced in pain, but tried to hobble along as best she could.

"I'm a Decepticon, so I can't let the Elite Guard see me," Tomato explained to Blueberry, setting her down on the ground. "Just call out and they'll hear you. Tell them you hurt your leg in battle and need a replacement leg."

"When can I see you again?" Blueberry asked suddenly.

Tomato, taken completely by surprise, fumbled around for words again and finally blurted out, "You want to see me again?"

"Yes, you seem like you'd make a great friend." Blueberry smiled again and brushed Tomato's cheek softly. Though her servo was made of metal, her touch felt warm. "Do you want to see me again?"

"I-I, um, sure!" Tomato knew his (normally silver) faceplates were turning about as red as the rest of his body. "You're—you're, um, nice."

"You're nice, too." Blueberry giggled and Tomato felt that strange feeling again like he was going to blow a gasket. "You made me feel better after my leg got shot off."

"Well, um, I hope it gets fixed," Tomato told her. Of course, he wasn't thinking about Blueberry's leg or the Autobots or anything. He was thinking about how she'd asked him to meet up with her again, which was, to him, one of the best things that had ever happened to him, ever. An amazing femme like Blueberry wants to meet up with me? With ME?

"Hmm…well, I'm glad you want to meet up again," said Blueberry. "We couldn't see each other on the Elite Guard ship or the Nemesis, but how about you sneak away to the Elite Guard ship tomorrow night, and we go someplace else that's special?"

"Of course." Tomato knew he could get in huge trouble if Megatron caught him sneaking out at night, but she was so beautiful, and this might be his only chance…

"I'll look forward to it." Blueberry gave Tomato a little kiss on the cheek, and he felt a little woozy, like he felt when he was training in the Ropes section of the obstacle course and there was that one that had cut off all the energon flow to his CPU. "You had better get going now, and then I'll call the Autobots to come take me back to base. None of our doctors came with us, so I can't get patched up here."

"Oh, um, that's too bad." Tomato gently patted Blueberry's head, then stood up. "Feel better, and I'll see you tomorrow night, okay?"

"Okay," said Blueberry. After Tomato had left her side, he heard her calling Ultra Magnus's name, and he knew she was going to be all right. The walk back, however, wasn't very fun for him.

What were you THINKING? Tomato scolded himself, recalling the stupid, tactless (in his opinion) things he had said to Blueberry when they met each other. She probably thinks you're some kind of idiot now! Why weren't you able to just TALK to her? Are you some kind of freak? What's wrong with you? Now she probably won't EVER want you to ask her out! Don't you have a functioning CPU?!

"Yes, of course I have a functioning CPU!" Tomato yelled at himself.

Then why don't you ask her out? You should ask her out. Tomato's conscience kept on harassing him, and it was really getting annoying. You're too scared to ask her out, aren't you? Coward!

"I'M NOT A COWARD!" Tomato hollered, not realizing that he had just stumbled into the main monitor room. "NOW LEAVE ME ALONE, YOU GLITCH-HEAD!"

"Umm…who are you talking to, Tomato?" asked Shockwave, looking at Tomato like he was crazy.

"Oh, um—nobody!" Tomato felt himself blushing again. "Just a little out of it, I guess."

"Did those filthy Autobots mess up your CPU?" Megatron walked furiously up to Tomato and pulled him to the couch.

"I-I, um, I don't know, I guess not," Tomato said nervously, as Megatron pushed him down.

"And what's with all this raw energon on the couch?" Shockwave pointed to the raw energon Blueberry's injury had left.

"How am I supposed to know?!" Tomato cried.

"Why are you being so defensive?" asked Starscream.

"Who's defensive? I'm not being defensive!"

Megatron sighed and lifted Tomato up. "Just…just go to your room, okay, Tomato? I'll talk to you later."

"There's—there's nothing wrong with me!" Tomato insisted, but the other Decepticons didn't want to hear it.

LATER, AROUND NIGHTIME…

Tomato was trying to go into stasis, but he couldn't get Blueberry out of his CPU—those blue eyes…that beautiful face and body…how she'd kissed him on the cheek…how she'd actually asked to see him again…everything that had happened during their meeting was still fresh in his memory core.

Tomato was sure Megatron thought something was wrong with him now, and that it was the Autobots' doing. Technically, he was right, but he didn't know the full story—and he was never going to.

Before he could resist, Tomato picked up his data pad and opened a fresh document, on which he typed "Blueberry + Tomato" and added "3" (a heart). Very romantic, he thought.

Unfortunately, at that very moment, the door flew open and Megatron was standing in the doorway. Tomato, panicking, tried to put his data pad away but it accidentally flew out of his servos instead and hit Megatron in the CPU.

Megatron scowled and gave the data pad back to Tomato. "What were you doing?"

"Nothing, nothing at all," Tomato lied nervously. Never before had he lied to Megatron, but Megatron finding out about his encounter with Blueberry was the last thing he needed. After all, Megatron didn't want anything to do with the Autobots, and Tomato knew it.

"What went on when you were with the Autobots?" asked Megatron seriously, sitting down on the edge of Tomato's bed.

"Really, nothing," Tomato told him. "I-I mean, they were just the glitch-heads you said they were, but they thought I belonged to them…like I was some kind of Autobot relic. I wanted to come home, but they wouldn't let me."

"You would rather stay here, wouldn't you?"

Tomato nodded emphatically, but then he thought of Blueberry again. Trying to hide the tears in his eyes and the blush in his cheeks, he just solved this problem by putting the pillow over his faceplates. The only thing Tomato was looking forward to right now was seeing Blueberry tomorrow night. Only one solar cycle to get through…for him, that was the most important thing.

On the other hand, though, there was no explanation for why Tomato could possibly be feeling this way. Wasn't it true that Blueberry, being an Autobot, was his worst enemy? He couldn't think of her as the enemy, but the way he felt about her was like nothing he had felt before, either, and he just wanted things to be as clear-cut as they were before he got captured. Even though if his capture hadn't happened, he never would have met Blueberry, and that couldn't be good…Tomato involuntarily groaned with frustration. It was just too much to handle.

"Oh, Tomato," said Megatron, taking the pillow off Tomato's faceplates and drawing him into a one-armed hug, though Tomato tried to resist. "Just don't worry…it'll be all right."

"No, just forget it." Tomato pulled away and wiped his eyes, scrambling for a way to change the subject. "Why did you tell the Autobots you were giving the AllSpark away? Was it a trap?"

"Yes," Megatron replied. "I wanted you back on our side, so I lured them over here and now you're back home. You can forget all about those horrible Autobots."

"Um, y-yeah, I'll be sure to do that." Tomato couldn't forget Blueberry, but he decided he would try to forget the rest. Who cared about them?

"Okay, good." Megatron squeezed Tomato's shoulder and left the room. Tomato lay down on his side and tried to relax, picturing his love interest in his CPU. Not long after, he drifted into stasis and dreamed about his arms wrapped around her in a gentle embrace, and her giving him a kiss not on his cheeks, but on the lips this time.