So. I hope you all aren't disappointed.

Part 5

The first part of the ceremony passed like a blur. Xaaron gave a speech. Shockwave gave a speech. More important and semi-important officials gave speeches.

Prime sat next to his creators and tried not to fidget. Jazz had helped him with the polishing and been a bit more vigorous than necessary, resulting in an itch on Prime's left shoulder. Starscream was half a row of seats apart from him, and Prime hadn't been able to see what Sunstreaker had done to his paint yet.

Eventually, the High Priest of Primus entered the dais, and the crowd, as restless as Prime after all that talking, fell into a hush.

The priest beckoned Starscream and Prime to come join them.

Prime did, feeling dazed.

Only when they both stood before the priest, facing each other, Prime realized that Starscream was covered in calligraphy just a shade darker than his paint. As such, it was difficult to decipher, but Prime caught a few snatches of sentences… 'pledge my loyalty', 'defend my people', 'destroy our enemies', 'equal at their creation'… enough to guess that Starscream was showing off every oath he had ever taken.

It was prideful and screaming defiance to everyone who had tried to rope him into their cause or confine him into a stereotype, be it hapless youngling, murderer, or Megatron's toy. I'm my own mech, it said.

Prime nodded his understanding. Starscream flashed him a tight smile.

The priest then began his sermon about the meaning of bondings. Prime mostly tuned him out in favor of focusing on Starscream. His intended seemed pale under the ink, which, of course, must have been an illusion.

"The hopes of our people are a great burden," the priest finally addressed their personal situation instead of the abstract and spiritual. "They hope for peace and a better life, and in one way or another, they look to you both as role models, mediators, or figureheads. It is a good thing you have chosen to bear this burden as one.

"Another's trust is a heady thing, it can corrupt the wavering and crush the weak. You will have to rely on each other and find strength in your union, not only for your own sake, but for this entire planet as well."

No pressure at all.

Prime got another quick smile from Starscream, and supposed that his growing anxiety was obvious.

"… chosen to make public vows that will serve as a reminder of your obligations. Join your hands now."

They did. Starscream's hands seemed somewhat cooler than usual.

"You may begin, Starscream."

Starscream shuttered his optics for a moment. Prime felt Starscream's hands begin to tremble.

"Optimus Prime," Starscream finally began. "I take you as my bonded mate. I promise to walk beside you, whatever may come, and have your back if need be. I will be your best weapon of attack and your last line of defense."

It sounded stilted, rehearsed, not at all what Starscream should sound like.

"I will stay with you, always, and cherish you, always, because you are my safe place to land, and there is nothing a Seeker needs more."

Formulaic, indeed, but by the set of Starscream's jaw and his raised chin, Prime knew he meant it. Primus. How could anyone live up to this kind of expectation?

"If you would, Prime?" the priest asked, and for just a nanoklick, Prime had the urge to bolt.

Starscream's hands squeezed his, promising it would be alright.

"Starscream. I take you as my bonded mate. I promise to be your haven, whatever may come. I will do anything to keep your sky open and your landings safe. I will stay with you, always, and cherish you, always, because you are my most honest critic and my best inspiration, and there is nothing I need more."

Starscream smiled, just a little.

The priest cleared his vocalizer. "The audience may rise for the incantation."

There was a general shuffling of feet as they did as told. Then, the priest laid his hands on theirs.

Prime felt a sub-sonic hum vibrating through him. Along with it, the priest spoke.

"Hands joined, sparks joined. Not two halves but one whole, never to crave again.

"Hands joined, sparks united. Where there grows weakness, there will be strength. Where there rules despair, there will be hope. Where there reigns loneliness, there will be love.

"Hands joined, sparks bound, together, to the well of all sparks and beyond."

The last words seemed to echo, and suddenly Prime' spark felt loose in his chest, wanting out, wanting… Starscream.

Starscream blinked, as if he was feeling the same, looking at Prime in absolute wonder.

How exactly were they supposed to keep their hands off each other for the remainder of the party?

"May Primus bless your union," the priest said. "And now kiss already," he added in a low hiss.

It felt like a spell broken. Prime drew Starscream in to kiss him, with no thought spared on decorum, and the crowd erupted into cheers and the occasional hoot.

They had trouble letting go of each other, and stayed only long enough to collect the mandatory hugs.

Once they were safe inside the house, Prime pinned Starscream against the first available wall ad kissed him again, roughly, while Starscream's fingers grappled against his chest.

Finally, Prime remembered what he had planned and broke it off. "This is not how I wanted it to go…"

Starscream pouted at him. "I don't care. Let's get it over with, we can do romantic later."

"It doesn't feel right."

"Don't make me stop and think, Optimus."

Prime stilled and suddenly realized that the trembling he'd felt start when Starscream had offered his vow hadn't let off yet. The jet was a bundle of nervous energy, and obviously, it was caused by anxiety and not desire.

Leaning down to nuzzle Starscream's cheek, Prime said, "We don't have to do it tonight. It's two orns before we'll have to face Ratchet again."

"No. If you let me put it off now, I might not be here tomorrow." Starscream offered a dry laugh.

"You'd bolt. You pressed for this, and now it's time and you're ready to bolt." Disappointment seeped into Prime like a trickle of cold water, negating the wild bounding of his spark the priest had caused.

"Almost. Don't let me go." Starscream leaned back against the wall and Prime felt how he forced himself to relax. "I told you I have a trust issue."

At least it wasn't doubts about the commitment itself. Prime rubbed his thumbs in soothing circles on Starscream's shoulders. "Whatever it is you're hiding, I won't judge you."

Starscream lifted one corner of his mouth.

Encouraged, Prime took Starscream's hands and tugged him along to the ramps to the upper levels, up to the first floor, walking backwards the entire time so Starscream would have to look at his face. He elbowed the door to the master bedroom open, glad it rested on old-fashioned hinges, and nudged Starscream around until he bumped into the berth and had to sit if he didn't want to fall over.

Earlier this orn, Prime had covered the berth in the oversized blanket he'd gotten for both of them, and he'd had vague thoughts about making a comment to Starscream, maybe teasing him by quoting the poem the blanket sported by way of decoration. It seemed all wrong now, though. More an elaborate distraction than honest sentiment.

Letting go of Starscream's left hand, Prime sat down next to Starscream. "Will you continue to let me take the lead until we've 'gotten this over with'?"

Starscream made a small, sorrowful noise. "I'm a disappointment on all fronts, aren't I." He turned a little so he could look at Prime. "I don't know how I ever thought I could seduce you."

"You did a rather good job the few times you tried," Prime jumped to reassure him. "But if you insist…" Treat it as a game, don't let him wallow in his supposed shortcomings or his fear.

Prime leaned in to kiss Starscream again, two, three rather chaste pecks before Starscream caught on and let Prime ravish his mouth without much protest. It took an agonizingly long time until Starscream sought hold on Prime and began to make the occasional little noise. Wary for negative responses, Prime then maneuvered Starscream onto his back and took his mouth to other regions. He tried out the cockpit first, then the shoulder vents, which garnered him actual, blissful responses. Starscream arched his back off the berth, even.

"Optimus," Starscream eventually found his coherency again. "Please…"

Maybe, he was begging for a sparkmerge. But however reduced to wanting release Starscream was, Prime wasn't. Driving Starscream near the edge had been too much of an intellectual exercise. "You want to work for it?"

He didn't wait for an answer, just kissed Starscream again, and nearly sighed in relief when Starscream's hands finally moved along the grille on his front. He hummed his appreciation and broke the kiss to nuzzle Starscream's neck for a bit.

Then Starscream's fingers were on his antennae in teasing light brushes and he groaned, because it wasn't enough. Through the haze, he rubbed at Starscream's cockpit just to give something back, and just when Starscream started pinching the tip of one of the antennae, and he thought he couldn't take it anymore, Starscream's chest armor spread open and let the first glance of sparklight through.

Starscream paused, going tense all over again, so Prime moved in to kiss him, once again. "It'll be alright," he murmured. "We'll be in this together. Promise you won't laugh at me?"

The question startled Starscream into a smile, and he burrowed deeper into the berth, opening further up. Prime just looked on for a moment; the spark gave off golden, warm light very at odds with Starscream's bristly personality.

"Beautiful," he said, because it was. He wanted to lose himself in that light, and so he opened his own chest armor and lowered himself a little further, and fell.

He plunged into Starscream, into what he was at the core of his being, and what he wasn't, into what he thought he was, what he wanted to be and what he perceived as his strengths and weaknesses. Saw Starscream's ability to care to the point of overprotectiveness. Saw tenacity. Saw hurt, though Starscream refused to let him experience the exact memories. Saw Starscream's glee when he found Prime's memory of killing Megatron, the absolute satisfaction when he spotted the one nanoklick when Megatron had shown fear.

Eventually, Prime resurfaced, and they just stared at each other across their now shared mindscape. It had been not what they had expected.

I'm a war build, Optimus, Starscream said. Some flight-capable, ultra fast, ruthless killing machine your predecessor ordered to be made. I'm programmed to have less qualms about injuring and killing other sentients than you do. Doesn't mean I enjoy it.

Prime pointed back to his memory of Megatron's death.

That was personal. I'd have done much worse if I could have.

He never… laid a hand on you.

You mean that he never raped me.

Yes.

He kept me in a small, dark, windowless place for a quarter vorn. I couldn't fly. He disabled my chrono. I was always expecting something to happen. Waiting for him to snap.

You didn't show me. There was much Starscream had not shown him.

I don't particularly want to remember.

Please. I need to understand.

… he was sitting with his back against the wall, so at least he could be sure of something. He was staring into the direction where he knew the door was.

It was important not to move too much, otherwise he lost all sense of direction.

The darkness crawled over his plating, clawed at him. It tore at the memories that surfaced, and he fought an almighty war for each, only to wonder later if it had been a real memory or a sensor ghost produced by his overheated CPU.

He wanted to move, wanted out, away from those invisible talons in the darkness. Sometimes, he was shivering from it, so much his wings vibrated against the wall and he thought he might burst.

He wanted out, but he wasn't quite sure if there even was an outside. If not all his life previous to this black little place was merely an illusion made to torture him with longing.

He wished for Megatron to return. Starscream was aware Megatron was visiting, because sometimes energon cubes turned up, but Megatron always seemed to know when he was awake, and avoided coming in then.

Starscream wished for Megatron to show himself. To do something that would make him feel real. Something that would somehow assure him that his life didn't only consist of the darkness, the bare walls and the sensor ghosts. He'd welcome him, and sometimes was even close to begging to the empty room, just for some sensory input, anything, really, even if Megatron beat him into a pulp. Even if he forced him into interfacing.

Prime gasped and nearly broke contact.

Hating him was the only thing that kept me from going crazy, Starscream said. Well. Crazier. I had to focus on something.

I'm sorry. Indeed, Megatron couldn't have been much more devious in his punishment. He'd probably waited for Starscream to break, to beg for the abuse.

Can we talk about something else, now?

I'm sorry. Of course.

Outside, Prime leaned down to kiss Starscream.

Or that. Starscream's hands went to his antennae again.

As Prime's pleasure flooded over the bond, the darkness retreated.

Prime freed one hand and began teasing along a wing. Starscream moaned.

Tearing himself away from their mindscape, Prime watched as Starscream writhed under him.

You are beautiful.

So I'm told. His nonchalance was betrayed by the happiness that suddenly flooded their connection.

Starscream renewed his attention to the antennae. You're not so bad yourself. Along with true desire. I've wanted you since I first met you.

A mouth replaced the fingers, sucking, teasing. You're fragging hot.

It was all too much. Prime fell into blissful oblivion. He felt more than heard Starscream's shriek as he followed.

I love you, he mumbled once he'd reached the bottom.

So do I.

The last thing Prime perceived before he drifted off to recharge was a communication.

:It's done, Shockwave. Thank you.:

:Congratulations, then. I will see you in the morning.:

xxx

Prime awoke with a start.

Get off, get off, GET OFF! A voice shrieked at him, from inside and outside. Hands were grappling at his front.

"Huh," he said.

The screaming stopped.

Prime onlined his optics. The room was still dark. Sometime around a joor after their arrival, the windows would have tinted for the night.

"Starscream?"

Pure terror flooded him.

"I can't see."

Starscream had dialed his optics to their dimmest setting to enhance his night vision, but night vision meant preciously little if there was no outside light source.

"Lights at fifteen percent," Prime commanded and sat up.

"Ow!" Starscream protested. "Get the frag off my wing, you oaf."

"Sorry." Prime did the necessary shuffling. A klick or so before, Prime must have rolled off Starscream and landed on a wing, causing Starscream to wake and have a panic attack. "This kind of sleeping arrangement is obviously not working."

"What a brilliant deduction." Underneath the barbs, Starscream was still on the verge of another panic.

"Thank you. Now. We've seen this doesn't work. I'm afraid I prefer to recharge on my back." He added a wordless query.

"Right side," Starscream offered reluctantly.

"I'll leave the left side of the berth to you, then. That way you'll be able to use me as a pillow."

Starscream raised a corner of his mouth. The 'he's going to leave me here to rust!' feeling receded somewhat.

"Next. The light controls aren't coded to my voice. You can access them anytime you want."

"Lights to thirty percent."

As the room grew brighter, Starscream's mind calmed.

"Do you leave the lights on when you recharge?"

"No." Starscream sighed. Finally the nervous tension drained out of him. He burrowed deeper into the pillow, suddenly looking like the sated, newly bonded mech he was. "Usually the lights from outside are enough."

That made sense. "Computer? Access window settings. Disable auto control. Windows clear and one hundred percent reflective from the outside."

"Oh." Starscream sat up as the Palace came into view, hundreds of windows beckoning warmly, statues and sculptures flooded in colored light for the festivities. "I forgot how beautiful this looked from above." A sense of flight, of wind across ghostly wings, a sudden turn around a tower and then the Palace. Almost inconceivable that the same people who had built the barracks in Vos had built this.

"I forget how beautiful it is, sometimes, too. I keep thinking about the mechs that occupy it more than about its looks."

"Yes," Starscream agreed, completely missing out on an acerbic comment.

"You're tired."

"Hmm."

"Can you get up for just a klick? I have something to share with you."

"Except the berth."

"Yes."

Lazily, Starscream sat and stood, leaning against the wall for support. Prime got a sense that Starscream had lost even more recharge last night than he himself had.

Prime stood as well, and pulled the blanket back.

"The light of my optics?" Starscream cited. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking. He'd shut himself off.

"It's a classic. Besides, I liked the colors." Blues, yellows and greens.

"We're clashing horribly with it."

"And?"

"Nothing. You spent a fortune on this."

"Yes."

"Why?"

I wanted you to feel welcome. I wanted you to know that your presence here is appreciated. I like the sense of indulgence a blanket offers.

You're going to spoil me rotten. Starscream smirked.

You deserve to be spoiled some. Come join me in decadence?

They had to wriggle a little until they were both comfortable, Starscream nuzzling against Prime's arm, one leg thrown over his.

xxx

Prime woke to Starscream teasing his grille.

I love being bonded, he said when Prime was awake enough to listen.

Hmm. Prime basked in the sense of trust he received.

I never thought I could trust anyone this much. I don't think I've ever trusted anyone this much. It's odd. But nice.

I love you, Prime sent.

I know. I'll never have to doubt again. This is amazing.

Yes. Prime reached out and drew Starscream in for a lazy kiss.

They spent the morning exploring, then it was time for the reception.

This meant sitting on the some chairs decorated with an array of blue and red drapings under a white gazebo with glittery decorations und not being able to leave.

As per tradition, everyone invited filed by and left gifts and well wishes.

Most of either weren't much of a surprise, but some stood out. Jazz and Mirage came bearing a variety of energon pastes.

"You couldn't have waited with the lewd presents until next orn?" Prime asked.

"Aw. Optimus. I just wanted you to have the fun stuff earlier."

Likewise, Starscream's trinemates insisted of handing some cuffs over now. Just before they got whacked over the head by Starscream, they produced a rather big print as peace offering – Iacon Academy at sunrise. Pretty, and a shared experience, Starscream commented. We showed them all up, didn't we.

Prime's parents offered a stack of datapads with selected family pictures.

Prowl had pestered Bluestreak, Ironhide, Red Alert, Silverbolt, Ratchet and a few other ex-officers into pooling for another print, this one antiquarian. A city map of Vos when it still had an Academy.

Other than that, Starscream collected more hugs than Prime. It seemed that all Seekers and most other Decepticons in attendance knew about at least a bit of Starscream's history. Seeing all this protective energy focused on the second most scary mech an Autobot could have imagined during the war was a little unsettling.

It did also cause some mutterings, which Prime tried to glare into submission.

Eventually, that afternoon was over, too.

Prime and Starscream spent the evening trying out the wall in the hallway and the couch.

xxx

The third orn brought another appointment with the medics early in the morning.

Ratchet was doling out the silent treatment and only grunted when Starscream thanked him again for contributing to the gift.

Once the reading confirmed the obvious – "you're not talking enough," the Decepticon medic had stated – both medics accompanied them upstairs to the final bit of ceremony.

They met a pompous city hall official in the atrium, and under the watchful eyes of the crowd were officially registered.

Prime and Starscream had to endure two joors of small talk, then politely extracted themselves to head home and relax a bit before the real party began.

That one, at least, was a total success. Jazz had taken over Prime's entertainment station and was selecting the music. All five sparklings present had retreated under a table to play house, despite their parents belonging to opposite factions. A very young Seeker had attached himself to Bluestreak and they were chatting about youngling things – video games, music, vids. Bluestreak had even lost his defensive posture.

Prowl had been cornered by the Elder Trine of Vos. NOw they were comparing notes about rebuilding a city. Mirage was having a conversation about political systems with Shockwave and Soundwave. Ironhide and Ratchet were reluctantly talking to the Seeker medic and his mate, the gray and blue mech who had long ago rescued Starscream.

Starscream's trine mates were boasting with clearly exaggerated war stories for the benefit of Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. Starscream listened intently to a rant on the proper keeping of documents by one of Prime's old archivist colleagues.

It made Prime belief that the peace might last.

The entire thing deteriorated to dancing after a while. While Shockwave and Soundwave did not come as a surprise after numerous hints from Starscream, Prowl was having a few dances with Arrowhead, of all mechs.

"It's a two plus one trine, just like my own" Starscream supplied after Prime commented on it. "Arrowhead is the one."

"Hmm."

Later, when nearly everyone had taken their leave, they found Prowl lingering on the terrace, hugging himself.

"Everything alright?" Prime asked.

"I'm not sure." Prowl sounded a little dazed. "I think I was just proposed to."

"You think?"

"Let me guess," Starscream interrupted, suppressed laughter evident. "He said, 'will you allow me to court you?'"

"Yes."

"So what did you say?"

"I'm not sure."

"Well. He won't have faulted you for that, because you aren't a Seeker. But you should get back to him with a real answer. Soon."

Prowl nodded and finally left after bidding them good night.

I never figured Arrowhead would go after a grounder, Starscream said.

You did.

Yes. I'm the odd one out.

I find myself rather grateful for that, Prime admitted.

Starscream beamed up at him.

The 'classic' line is actually stolen from an Arabian song. I don't remember the artist, unfortunately. 'Habibie, ya noor al ainie' - 'My darling, oh light of my eyes'. This is about the extent of my Arabian vocabulary, though.