Chapter 2: Meeting

Prowl was especially worn out today. The rising threat of the Decepticons and their leader, Megatron, was putting all the Autobots on edge. He had loads of strategic planning to do, along with almost endless meetings with other high ranking officials, to keep Iacon safe in the hands of the Autobots. However busy he may be, though, he was not about to miss his refueling break. An exhausted Second in Command is a useless Second in Command.

Entering the refueling area, Prowl selected a cube of energon from one of the large supply lockers and casually scouted the room for a certain bot. Seeing that she was at her usual table – in the corner next to the window that overlooked a portion of Iacon – he found his way to a table near hers, but not too close to draw her suspicion. Sitting across from her, Prowl's optics rested on the femme's gorgeous face. He was able to see her optics, subtly glowing pure azure light. She was looking down at a data pad, temporarily giving up her vigilance for reading. Prowl had seen her read before and wondered what she was reading now. He also enjoyed reading from time to time – although it is much more time consuming than simply downloading the raw data, reading contains a certain pleasantness that cannot be achieved through simply downloading and analyzing the information.

His optics fixated on her face, he did not expect it when she suddenly looked up directly at him and caught him by surprise. Too caught in the depth of her azure optics to look away, Prowl simply looked back at her. He was staring now, staring at those deep blue optics, unable to look away, and wanting so badly to walk over and speak to her but unable to budge from where he was.

Their optics stayed locked for a few seconds longer before she looked back down at her data pad. Prowl was disappointed at first, but then realized that he might have made the situation awkward by staring back at her like that. Then again, now that he stopped to think about it, maybe she had noticed all the other times he was looking at her. Maybe he was acting more suspicious than he previously thought. He began to feel slightly embarrassed for his actions toward her. He had no right to stalk the femme, although he wasn't really stalking. Prowl wondered exactly why she had looked at him like that; was she annoyed with him? Was she irritated? Or possibly… interested? Her expression had been hard to read, the lower half of her face obscured by her data pad.

Primus, what am I thinking? Prowl said to himself. Of course she wasn't interested; she would have approached him if she were. He should have gotten the virus checked out by Ratchet a long time ago… simply terminating it would have prevented any of this from happening. Maybe he'd stop by the repair bay right now and see if Ratchet had time to check his systems. Becoming anxious, Prowl moved to leave only to notice the femme had gotten up and was walking toward his table.

His processor feeling excited panic only for a nanosecond, Prowl kept his cool and simply shifted in his seat and let her approach him. She stopped across from his table, her body language neutral and hard to interpret.

"Hi."

Somehow Prowl had expected more than that and was taken aback by her short but friendly greeting. He was also awed by the smooth, light, feminine and yet strong croon that was her voice.

"…Hello," Prowl managed to say back after the slightest of pauses. He had sounded more forceful than he meant to, and he wished he could take it back and say it again in a friendlier tone. Being so used to the formalities of communication with other high ranking bots, he had become accustomed to speaking in a rather stern voice most of the time. But he most certainly did not want to make the femme feel uncomfortable around him, so he reminded himself to keep the situation friendly.

After a slight hesitation, the femme spoke again, "Mind if I sit here?" she asked, indicating to the seat across from Prowl.

"Go ahead," he replied a bit more casually, and even managed to curve his facial plates ever so slightly into the smallest of smiles. He was finally talking to her!

"My name is Prowl."

"Yes, I know," she said with a friendly smile. "You're the Second in Command of the Autobots. I've been informed about you."

"...Of course," Prowl was at a loss for words. He had wanted to talk to her, but he wasn't really good at participating in conversations. He didn't really even know what to start talking about.

"…You're fairly new to the base, aren't you?" He asked her in an attempt to kill the slightly awkward silence that had settled between them.

"Yeah, just arrived two months ago. Transferred straight from the Autobot Academy."

"Are you adjusting well to life on the base?" For lack of a better subject, Prowl asked her basic questions that some of the older bots had asked him when he had been the rookie on base few years ago. It didn't really matter to him what he spoke to her about, as long as he could listen to her wonderful voice for a while longer.

"Yes, for the most part. But it sure is different than life back at the Academy."

"Better, or worse?"

"Oh, much better. I feel like I'm actually making a difference here..."

They talked together until she had to return to her duties. Prowl couldn't seem to pull himself away from her, even though he knew he had to. He would have spent the rest of the day talking to her if he could have.

Perhaps this virus wasn't so bad after all.