A/N: I loved writing this one, and drew heavily on Dishonoured's Corvo. Also did a cover drawing, at last. Hurrah! Favourite if you liked, follow if you want more, and review no matter what. Enjoy!

"Bodyguard". Pre-war Cybertron. In which Red Alert decides she needs a bodyguard.

Red Alert did not need a bodyguard.

Who was she kidding? She desperately needed one. There were assassins and murderers and Primus knew what else around every corner, and she couldn't deal with that.

So began the search. Of course, she was so paranoid she turned down most of the applicants because they were...they were...well, she just didn't trust them.

Then, when the tall ex-Enforcer still in patchy uniform black and white paint with a faded crimson chevron on his helm and a few patches of oxidation on his chin (obviously unemployed for some time) walked in, and when she suddenly decided, yes, this is the one, everything seemed to be substantially safer.

Prowl (his name was Prowl, she learned – not that Prowl talked much at all) was reliable, and logical to a fault (she learned through her insanely rigorous questioning that his tendency to overanalyse situations and glitch out led to him being discharged from the Enforcers);he was very good at tactically looking very loomy and intimidating so Red Alert had no trouble at all; and he was enthusiastic in protecting Red Alert (from both words and fists – he literally grabbed the slimy mech on the medic council – Knock Out, his name was – by the neck and hurled him out of the door for making more than a few overly distasteful and quite suggestive comments in Red Alert's direction) and was also very good at protecting Red Alert (the last poor glitch who tried to jump her after she had gone into the Kalisian back streets on call got his arm ripped straight off and lost three of his abdomen supports, along with taking an acid beam to the chestplate and singeing his door-wings); and he never commented once on Red Alert's neurotic/irrational behaviour regarding security (which she though was nice).

Basically, Red Alert really did like her bodyguard. But, her insecure tendencies led her to randomly speculate, one day, just why Prowl didn't talk much. Maybe he was mute. (She dismissed that one, as he did talk, just not much.) Maybe he had processor damage. Maybe he was plotting to murder her in her sleep.

Rationality kicked its way back into her thoughts and she decided that maybe he just didn't really like her.

This made Red Alert extremely sad for some reason, so she resolved to be nicer to Prowl. That was how you made others like you, right?

So, she asked him about things. What he liked, what he didn't like, and then she sent him to get his paint retouched and to clean himself up, and then she sat in one of the squares with another femme medic called Minerva (who wasn't nearly as safe-feeling as Prowl was) and talked about things, until Prowl reappeared looking much cleaner and with a fresh, shining paintjob (still in black-and-white monochrome, which looked quite dashing on him, actually), upon which Red Alert got very flustered because she realised just how attractive Prowl was, and Minerva nudged her and asked in a stage-whisper where she could get her own super cute Enforcer escort, so Red Alert flicked her visor and her face-mask down and hid behind them until Minerva had cheerfully knocked her on the shoulder and gone off giggling.

Prowl didn't seem affected. Of course he wasn't. Prowl was completely fantastic and loyal and brilliant at everything. That was nice.

After this, she decided to take the Enforcer back to her own home (he was currently living under a bridge or something as he didn't stay in Red Alert's smallish living space in West Kalis; she had cameras and laser tripwires and an illegal neutron assault turret in there and it was safe). Inside, she noticed Prowl looking quite longingly at her Energon cubes and graciously handed him one without him even asking, which surprised him (she let out a girlish giggle because he was so adorable when he was surprised), and then she talked at him until he finally opened up and they talked properly (Red Alert discovered just how good a conversationalist Prowl was, which was promptly added to the fairly large list already writing itself under the title "Why Prowl is Amazing").

This happened at least three times, and then, on the fourth time, she was so at ease with Prowl being around her that she pressed a small, apprehensive kiss on his cheek on his way out. He froze and his door-wings flapped excitedly. Red Alert regretted the kiss almost instantly until Prowl dipped his helm and placed an even smaller and more apprehensive kiss on her cheek, and then she smiled.

So maybe Red Alert didn't need a bodyguard. But that wasn't going to stop her having one.

More d'aww.