Title: „To Perceive and to See – Part 3"
Status: Three-Shot, Complete
Fandom: Transformers, G1
Characters/Pairing: Perceptor/OC; Bumblebee, ensemble
Word Count: 661
Disclaimer: I would love to own Transformers, but that honor belongs to Hasbro and some others.
Rating: T
Beta: And for the last part, too, the great snare-chan!
Summary: The last cycle only leaves one question: How the heck did Perceptor meet a mech like Firecracker?
Warning/Genre/AN: hinted at slash, OC chara; fluff, H/C; Please R& R ^v^ Constructive criticism, suggestions, comments, – all that is most welcome!
To Perceive and to See - Part 3Perceptor found himself surrounded and the focal point of a whole table of fellow Autobots. He shifted uncomfortably on his chair with a scrape of metal - he should have expected this sudden interest.
Jazz grinned good-naturedly and pushed a cube of Wheeljack's famous high-grade his way. Perceptor took it and nipped a swallow straight away, grateful that Firecracker was not present. All the curious optics burned on his plating, as if magnified.
"Come on, out with it!" encouraged Bumblebee, with Bluestreak beaming over his shoulder armor.
Resigned to his inevitable fate, Perceptor began. "I first met him in Iacon. Some former colleagues of mine had managed to convince me that I needed a break. So they invited me to the 'Lithium Flower', a new club. I had too much high-grade and ended up at a strangers table," he paused to take another sip. "I talked about my research."
Bumblebee pulled a face at hearing that. But Perceptor remembered fondly the endless string of equations, a locked secret to him, back then. And the excitement, which not many of the 'bots here would be able to understand, as he faced such an intellectual challenge.
"My chosen subject was the modification of ultra-"
"Please, Percy – don't get into details!" moaned an already overcharged Sideswipe, with a desperate optic roll.
"Agreed," Bee chimed in. He raised his servos in a placating manner. "No offense, Perceptor, but let's just say it's insanely complicated and likely too much to get in the tank of a non-scientist, okay?"
Perceptor vented a quiet sigh only Prowl may have noticed – and Jazz, of course. He had long since given up on trying to make them understand or share in his scientific enthusiasm. He knew by now that they did not mean to hurt his feelings, but to come to that realization had taken some vorns in which he had felt... underappreciated.
"That is fine by me. So... I showed that stranger my vid-feed from an earlier conducted experiment, which basically made certain radiation visible through coloration..." Perceptor trailed off without realizing it.
He could still see it vividly: the projection, a burst of colors. And he remembered that feeling, even clouded as it had been back then due to the warm fuzz of overcharge, intent optics. Never leaving him out of their sight.
"I feel the urge to strangle you," Sunstreaker informed him pleasantly, rapping his knuckles impatiently on the tabletop.
"Ahem. Firecracker looked at the hologram and said 'It's beautiful' – I answered that his observation lacked any kind of scientific value."
Ironhide snorted into his half empty cube, which earned him an elbow in his rib-strut from Ratchet. Prowl's stern gaze was all it took to silence the snickering twins.
"And?" Jazz prompted, helm tilted in curiosity, his visor gleaming a bright blue.
"Firecracker just laughed, as if I had made a... a joke," Perceptor had provoked another bout of snickers because he had tasted the last word on his glossa with open wonder. "There is no method to deduce why or how, but that moment was the beginning of our relationship and engraved itself into my memory core with unusual vividness."
"The translation for more romantic 'bots might be 'love on first optic-catch'," supplied Hound helpfully.
"Oh, I would say it was," confirmed a baritone.
Arms circled around Perceptor's frame, in what must have looked like a dangerously crushing embrace; it was not. Firecracker was always aware of the vast differences in their respective builds and thus careful.
Perceptor relaxed into the familiar shape behind him, feeling the rush of spark energy from his bondmate answered by his own and how their EM fields mingled without effort. It was a safe haven he cherished.
The conversation picked up soon enough, but he spared it not a fraction of his processing capacity. He was satisfied with his knowledge, for once, because part of it was knowing that Firecracker was right there at his side.
End
AN: Maybe I'll write another mini-trilogy, then focused on Firecracker... Anyone interested? Even if not, don't think you can escape, should the writing mood strike me again *wink*