Authors Note: My apologies for the unplanned nearly two-year hiatus. It was not my intention to take that much time away from this story at all. Initially it began simply as needing to take a short break and return with fresh eyes, but that wasn't working. I kept trying to come back and work on it, stepping away, rinse and repeat. Tried to leave the story for while to write out other ones, or the next chapters, and still was hung up. Eventually, between that and life, time completely slipped away from me. Now here we all are though. I am finally content with how this chapter is and just want to get it posted.
For the unedited version of this chapter, I have it posted over on Archive of Our Own: /works/15323841/chapters/35553303
With a soft smile pressed upon her lips Phage-One stirred from pleasant recharge. Her gold rimmed optical lids fluttered open and the warm light of her aquamarine optics reflected off her cool, porcelain-white, sentio-metallic flesh. All around her, her quarters were cold and dark, but the massive body pressed intimately along her backside had kept her warm. With a glance she found she had lain throughout the late night and early morning as a captive within Optimus Prime's protective embrace.
He had wrapped himself around her while they recharged. His cranium rested atop her wild coiling omni-hair, his long strong legs entangled with hers and his thick, corded silver grey arm wrapped possessively around her midsection while the crook of his other arm served as her pillow. In turn, her own omni-hair had taken on a life of its own while she slept and slithered and coiled around his frame, seeking purchase where it could.
Phage-One settled in, closing her optics once more, as her bright red lips gently pulled into a dreamy smile. She would love to wake up to such calm and companionable comfort for the rest of her days.
At that moment, a sense of surrealism hit her hard. Those are Optimus's arms wrapped around me! she thought dreamily. Optimus is in my berth!
Her memories turned over to their passionate fragging the night before and a lopsided grin pulled at her lips. Her spark soared as high as the heavens. The strange and wonderful newness of it all had got its claws in deep in her and would not let go. A giddiness overcame her and she chanced a glance to observe Optimus's peaceful sleeping visage. She watched him for a time, letting the reality of her situation just slowly sink in. The longer she soaked in his embrace, a bright and mighty loving warmth ignited and bloomed within her chassis. No single memory in recent years jumped out at her where she had woken up and felt so wanted and cherished. She wanted to caress his face, kiss his lips and so much more.
A twang of mischievousness struck her then and she wondered if Optimus would not mind being woken up after a naughty fashion, but the longer she watched him sleep the notion slipped away. How much rest did Optimus get on a good day? She had not the faintest idea and was not about to disrupt what could have been some of the better rest he had got in a long while. She resigned herself to studying his face and battling the urge to run her hands all over his chassis and arms. The conundrum was a form of sweet torment she had not known before and enjoyed her personal conflict over everything else she had undergone.
Overlong, the whimsical smile she had woken with slipped into a wider and brighter grin. Phage-One shifted her position ever so much for optimum comfort, content to lie in Optimus's arms until the universe ended. An absolute impossibility, she knew, but one for which she intended to enjoy to its fullest. Unfortunately, in minutely adjusting her position, she disturbed his recharge. She stilled as Optimus stirred, hoping he would not wake up so she could continue to soak in the moment. He removed his heavy biochanic leg from their entangled limbs and threw it over her hip instead. His arm tightened possessively around her. His servo sought hers, and when at last he had discovered hers he entwined their fingers together. Then, at last, he settled down.
Phage-One could not stop gawking at their hands. The simple act of love triggered something deep in her. She began to fight against a spring of sudden tears that pricked at the corner of her optics. Resolutely and stubbornly so, she became determined then and there that she would do anything and everything for the mech beside her to see him as happy as he had made her. Grinning like a loon, she snuggled in deep beside Optimus Prime, fixing herself where she could listen to the steady thrumming of Optimus's spark. Whether it was the reassurance of that amazing spark pulse and everything that had come to light because of it, or the heightened emotions of the moment or everything all together, Phage-One was overtaken by a strong urge to kiss his digits entwined with hers and did so, planting a soft kiss on each of his fingers through her glowing smile.
"Oh!" Phage-One gasped when she felt a soft languid kiss press against the top of her cranium.
"Good afternoon." Optimus rumbled softly. At his leisure he placed another kiss in the mess of her omni-hair, then shifted his weight to plant one light kiss after another and another along her neckline. Phage-One shivered at the contact, smiling uncontrollably, and made a pleasurable sigh.
"Good afternoon." She quietly replied. "I didn't wake you, did I?"
She could feel his smile against her synthoplasic flesh. "No." At his pleasure he left a trail of kisses up her jawline to her audio where he kissed and nuzzled at it interchangeably. "Recharge well?" He asked, his lips brushing against her audio receptor.
Phage-One shivered. "Mmm...Well? More likewonderfully." She answered with a giggle and felt his lips quirk into another smile. "Did you sleep well?"
His reply was a rumbling chuckle and a large foolish grin. "Oh. Fantastic. Onlining next to you, however, has been the best part."
Phage-One shifted her position to look up at him with wide glittering optics. She matched his goofy smile, then leaned in quickly to steal a morning kiss from him that led to an exchange of several more. Giving in to her earlier desires, Phage trailed her hands across his bare protoform, squeezing intermittently where she pleased. At the last she caressed his face, still dumbstruck by his youthful glow.
He was not idle in her explore. Optimus ran his own hand over her, squeezing her soft supple metallic skin and admiring its flawless perfection in that it was devoid of any scars from conflict or the war. His slightest touch elicited pleasurable sighs and delighted squeals to pour forth from her red lips. Optimus's optics brightened eagerly at her responses and kept at his work.
She squeezed his arm in turn, a stray thought marveling at the solid strength in his arm, when Optimus himself let out a low delectable rumble. Her fingers let up, then an idea sparked. She began teasing the muscle cables across his protoform, lightly massaging as she went. Optimus broke off their kissing and buried his face into the crook of her neck, moaning in simple pleasure as she worked his muscle cables over. Her face lit up, excited that her barest touch could get that kind of response out of him, but when he began rubbing suggestively against her aft, she found nothing quite thrilled her more than how easily she could rev him up.
The heavy petting carried on until Phage-One pulled back, nuzzling his cranium to prompt him to look at her. As she shifted, Phage-One's omni-hair slid out of the way, coiling and fanning across the head of the berth. "Hm?" Grunted Optimus.
Through half hooded optics, she spoke with a sultry-smooth voice Optimus was fastly becoming addicted to; "Another round?" She teased. Her bright red lips turned up at one corner and she softly nipped at his bottom lip. "Is this the kind of good morning I have to look forward to from now on?"
He kissed her back, long and deep before answering heavily. "Absolutely."
Her spark was doing strange things in her chassis. It was oddly light and airy and practically vibrating against her breast. "I love you." She blurted out.
Optimus smirked. The sight mesmerized her. His large hand came up and cupped the side of her face. Instinctively, she closed her optics and leaned into his touch. "Et endura eyoto etu cyturn, Endurus."
She would never grow tired of hearing him speak such devotion. Each word he spoke, the Prime's love poured over the link through to her. Her optics flew open and searched Optimus Prime's own. Her optics glistened wetly. Her lips trembled.
Optimus's optical ridges sloped together. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." She smiled brightly. "Absolutely nothing."
And then she pulled him back in for another long kiss.
Without another word he wrapped his arms around her waist in a great powerful embrace and pulled her down to the berth. She went willingly, rolling with him as he settled on his backside and she sprawled on top. They fit together as perfectly as two gears in a machine and lay content, bathing in the afterglow of overload.
The Endurus snuggled deeper into his embrace. He glanced down to catch her listening to the strong thrumming of his sparkpulse. Her smile from before had not dimmed, though her optical lids grew heavy in sheer contentment. Before long, she lazily began tracing paths along his chassis that started strong and dropped off suddenly. Optimus drifted his digitips slowly along the valley of her spine and relished the occasional shiver and soft contented sigh of delight he elicited from his femme.
His femme. His processor repeated warmly as it rebooted from post-overload glow. His sparkmate.
Content and happy, Optimus smiled.
Then, worry tangled up Optimus's thick optical ridges. "You are the last." He blurted out suddenly.
"Hm?" Came Phage-One's dreamy reply.
Optics fixed on some unknowable horizon beyond her ceiling, Optimus wrapped his arms around her and held her fiercely against his frame. "I... cannot." He struggled to declare. "I cannot go through this again."
Klaxon alarms and whiplash confusion whipped up a pretty storm in her head. Immediately jarred out of her doze, Phage-One's optics snapped open and she tilted her cranium to look up at him. "What are you saying?" She piped off lightening quick.
His attention was still focused on some point on the ceiling, some foreign worry plaguing his brow heavily. Words tumbled from his mouth in a jumble. "I cannot go through the spark break again. You -I never meant- Not after Alita-1, but then you came along and, I cannot." His thick optical ridges met together over his olfactory. "I am sorry I am not making sense. This is harder than I imagined to say."
An icy sliver of dread pierced her spark. Phage felt her whole new bright future shatter apart. Her body tensed and she forgot how to breathe. She almost forgot how to speak. "What -exactly- are you trying to say?" Alarm rang in her voice, thick and heavy. Her tone jostled Optimus out of wherever he had drifted off too. He finally tore his optics from unseen shores and fixed his attention on her. "That you can't with me?" Phage-One blathered on, her voice taking on a panicky edge. "That this was a mistake?"
"What?" Said Optimus, looking more perplexed than troubled. "What was a mistake?" She searched his face for answers the same moment he Reached out for her for clarification through the Resonance. He met her rising panic and she his confusion. Prime immediately recognized the dissonance. :Why are you upset?:
"Us?" Phage said sharply. She was battling back hard not to break down entirely. "Last night! Are you trying to say last night was a mistake? That this—right now—was a mistake!?"
Horror sparked across his face. "No!" Prime barked loudly, startling her at the near panic that gripped him. He sat up in a rush, grabbed her by the shoulders and rolled so that he ended up on top, straddling her waist. His much larger and broader frame overshadowed her. In the same fluid motion, Optimus framed her face between his servos. "That is not what I was trying to say! I said I love you, Pandora Endurus. I would never say that lightly! I would never use you like that and run!" The panic that had seized him over the terrible miscommunication ebbed away and was replaced with hurt puppy dog optics. "...Did you really think I would?"
The sudden spike of fear broke, but the adrenaline rush from it left her shaken. Her slim white servo wrapped around his strong one. "The fear never crossed my mind until a nanoklik ago!" She exclaimed shakily.
A spark pulse of silence passed between them. In the tense nanoklik, Prime searched her optics, and she his. And then he rushed forward, capturing her lips in his and kissing her fiercely. She grabbed his face and kissed him back with equal vigor. In too short a span, Prime broke off the kiss to say huskily, "I wasn't trying to phrase it like that."
"Then, what exactly-" she asked thickly, lips swollen and cheeks tinged with color from embarrassment as much as heat from the moment, "-were you trying to say?"
A great sigh rushed from him. He pressed his forehead to hers and began carding his digits through her omni hair in curt agitated movements. "I was trying to say I cannot go through the pain of spark break again." When she continued her wide optic panicked stare Optimus snapped in frustration at his own mangled blundering of the moment. "Crossed wires-I am trying to say I cannot lose you too! I never meant to find another after Alita. I did not want to. But then you came along and... You are my last. I could never open up to another again. I do not want to. I could not." Phage-One was stupefied by Optimus's uncharacteristic distress. She had never seen this side of him before. As she searched his optics, wide and worried, she was struck by the realization that she was not the only one of them filled with anxiety over their future together or haunted by the shadow of Alita-1. "Do you compute what I am saying?" he asked desperately, almost pleadingly.
Her initial shock gave way to sympathy. Her sparkrate started to slow. Forcibly, she took in slow, deep breathes. "...Yes. Yes, I do now." She gently touched his face and lightly trailed her fingers along his cheek. "I thought you were breaking up with me!" She laughed uneasily.
"No! I- No! Vector Sigma." Optimus grumbled quietly under his breath. He hung his head in embarrassment. "I mangled this."
"Shh." She cooed. "It's okay. It's fine. We're fine. We're fine, right? -Jesus, Optimus. Try not to scare me like that again, alright? I think I nearly had an attack!" He mutely nodded agreement.
Precious moments ticked by. The whiplash in emotions stirred up old and new anxieties within Phage-One. Her slim optical ridges sloped together over her olfactory. "...Optimus," she said quietly, "Why are you talking as if it is an inevitably you will outlive me? I have zero plans of terminating anytime soon."
His expression contoured into one of pain. Optimus closed his optics and pressed himself into the palm of her hand. His voice was raw as he spoke carefully. "I have outlived everyone else." He covered her hand with his, dwarfing hers in comparison and kissed the inside of her wrist. "I need you to live. I need you safe."
"I will be." She responded adamantly.
"You ran into a live battlefield with no regard for your own safety." Optimus reminded her.
"And if I hadn't – would there be anything left of the Autobots right now? Who would I be sharing a berth with right now?" Phage-One countered. After his terrible glare, she then added gentler; "I need you to stay safe too. I nearly lost you."
Slapped with the terrible reality seemed to knock some sense back into his processor. His features tensed, and for a nanoklik Optimus was gobsmacked as he processed the reality of her words. Once he had time to digest them he remarked tentatively, "I have had a...lot of close calls in my life. It is part of leading from the front lines."
"I understand that, but that does not make it any less hard on me. Even with the Matrix regenerating you, we both saw that it is not a guarantee. Do not make me a widow within the year..."
Optimus grumbled at her observation. "Are you speaking of an Earth Mega Cycle or Cybertronian vorn."
"That's not funny, Op."
"No, it is not. And that is the point, I do not want to make you a widow within either of our planets definitions of a solar year, but you know I cannot promise you that I will always be safe. You know I lead the charge every time. I do not expect anything from my Autobots that I would not do myself."
"Optimus." she said patiently. "Neither can I, love. Life is unpredictable."
"You do not have to be on the front lines!" Optimus responded aggressively. At her startled reaction to his tone, Optimus took a moment to gather himself. "Please." his expression was here and there, present but someplace far away. He searched her optics and after a time mentioned carefully, "As illogical as it is, make me the promise you will live."
"Only if you do the same."
"Pandora."
She frowned at the name but she did not say anything. "Such a promise should be easy to make between us, Optimus." With a tender smile, she leaned forward and rubbed their olfactories together. "I promise to be cautious. I promise to be careful. It should be easier now that we know my Creation Matrix has been regenerating me. I can promise when a situation goes sideways I can always phase to escape danger. And if things really go off the rail, I can heal you next time and you can use the Matrix in the same fashion on me. ...As long as we have each others backs, you will have nothing to fear, love." Her smile became bright and mischievous. "When's the last time Cybertron has had two Primes watching each others backs?"
"Since the Age of Primes." Optimus mumbled off with the careless disregard of the bookworm that he was at spark. "But that was –so- long ago."
:You cannot rely on your Creation Matrix to save you.:
The sudden Send surprised her. She backed away, blinking innocently at him. "What? Don't be ridiculous. Of course-"
:Mine did not save me.: "You were not safe just a few days ago."
It took her a moment to process both fronts of communication. "Optimus..." She sighed and was struck by the sudden nagging notion one gets when they have heard some strange yet familiar name before, or a place or thing and could not quite place where or why it was familiar. "What can I say or do to placate your fears?"
"Optimally it may help if I could hide you deep in the Ark."
"Optimus." she chided gently.
"Realistically," he responded despondently, "we do what we have discussed before: protection detail and train you and hope that is enough." The pain would not leave his face. That gnawing fear. His survivors guilt. Gingerly she tried to Reach out to him through their Bond but Optimus threw up a wall between them. "Stop." he said firmly then ducked his cranium low and mumbled, "I do not want you to feel that."
"What's gotten into you, love? I've seen you worried about the Autobots before, but this..." Her slim optical ridges knitted together. "If you will not let me in, at least talk to me. Help me understand where your sudden paranoia is all stemming from. -I get that it must be springing from Alita-1's death and the paranoia you must have over everything that has happened with your ex's, and I am sure what Megatron said at the bar hasn't helped. But there is something more, isn't there? I don't think I have seen you quite this desperate before." Her words trailed off, uncertain of exactly where she could possibly take the conversation and how far she dared even press it. She tried to be as sympathetic as she possibly could. "I mentioned before, and I am extending the offer again, when you feel you are ready to talk about any of it I am here for you. No pressure. I just want to help. If I can."
Suddenly abashed by his behavior, Optimus looked everywhere but at her. "I daresay that it is coming from that..." his attention trailed to their compromised bodies. "I am sorry for springing it all on you like this right now."
"Are you sure, Optimus." Ratchet's words started trickling back to her from the day before, when she had eavesdropped on their conversation—that there was something important he hadn't told her yet.
Post overload fog started to lift from her processor. Optimus's sudden anxiety attack, the strange hints he had been dropping to her for days, Ratchet's odd comment...
"Everything just hit me all at once." Optimus carried on. "I cannot stop thinking about what Ratchet did and the road ahead." Desperate to reaffirm her existence Optimus took her hand and kissed the inside of her wrist a plethora of times. "He was right to try and protect you. With your Creation Matrix the war is going to refocus on you. Megatron knows that you created a Resonance between us. He knows me well enough to know that I would not want to severe it either. In time he will learn you are a Prime in the truest sense of the word. -I am worried for you. I do not think you have fully comprehended the level of danger on the road ahead of you. A path Ratchet tried to help you avoid."
"Ratchet's guardianship nearly doomed us." She reminded him softly.
"Despite his best intentions, Ratchet was...gravely misguided. I am afraid my old friend may have irrevocably shaken the steadfast trust that many had placed in him."
She bit her lip. "Have you...had the chance to speak to Ratchet after the extraction? -I mean, really talk? While I was out for the last week? You both seemed to be on friendly terms..."
His thick optical ridges fell over his optics in a disgruntled and moody glare. "Not exactly. We have both been dancing around the subject—strictly speaking only on the bare medical necessities. I still need time to process this level of personal betrayal... Ratchet knows I value his input. All of Command does –and he used that to lie to Command-to me- to protect you. Not just once, not twice, but on multiple occasions for two Earth Mega Cycles. I...I am having a hard time understanding his logic this time around."
"He already said—"
"To protect you from us. I had not realized how deep the cracks in morale had gone... Ratchet should have informed us of the whole situation so we could put security in place to protect you. So I could have helped you sooner. He's taken so much valuable time. And after the incident with Bumblebee and Spike at the Seabase, Megatron will invest resources into discovering what that was about. It is only a matter of time before Megatron realizes that you have a functioning Matrix. When he does, he will come after you and he will not stop."
"This isn't the kind of pillow talk I expected after everything, Op."
Using his arms, Optimus pushed himself up. His features stern. "You need to take this seriously. Everything. From Megatron's threats to Ratchet's transgressions. As I am protected at all times, you will be protected at all times. You cannot leave the Ark without approval or escort. This is not something we will compromise on. It will be done. Megatron and the Decepticons will attempt to kidnap you and when they do they will do to you what they did to me in New York. Or worse. Primus above... I do not know what I-" A deep personal pain and fear haunted his optics. "I. Need. You safe, Alo Ata."
She put on a brave front for him. "As you wish."
"-I don't know what I...what..." Optimus stuttered to a stop. He stared at her in surprise then immediate relief flooded his tired face. "You are not going to fight me on this?"
"Heavens above, Optimus!" She exclaimed. "No." she declared adamantly. "I have zero interest in being on the front lines. So do not worry about that. I am very much content to hang back at the Ark with Ratchet and Huffer and continue my studies into the metallurgy and engineering and medical pursuits. And, of course, whatever else scientific pursuits intrigue me."
"Such as the quantum mechanics surrounding spacebridge technology."
She brightened. "Exactly that kind of sort! But if you ever need the extra sniper-"
"I have mechs for that."
"If you ever do, I said, I'll have your back."
"I appreciate the offer, but I do not need that kind of support from you, my star. I said I need you safe." His face contorted into perplexion. "Why did you say that sooner?"
She blinked innocently back. "Optimus, you needed to air our your burden, not me to interrupt."
"Ah." He mumbled, somewhat abashed. "Here I am breaking down when I scared you by jumbling this from the start."
"Oh, Optimus." she expressed sweetly and tenderly stroked his face. "Never apologize. I cannot imagine what you have gone through. I can see it is incredibly difficult on you. I can see and Feel through the resonance how gutted you are. How afraid. I am glad you could talk to me about it, but tell me -What more can I say or do, realistically, to placate your fears?"
When he could not answer, Phage-One was left with only one course of action she could think of. Tenderly and urgently she wrapped her hands around his head and pulled him down. Initially, Prime resisted but Phage persisted, shhing and cooing soft nothings until she had coaxed him to lay his troubled head upon her breasts. She trailed her fingertips along his audio in repeated calming motions as he listened for a long while to the rhythmic pulsing of her spark.
After a calm respite, Optimus said quietly, "Pandora..."
Her olfactory wrinkled. "You keep insisting on calling me by that."
"Because it is your true designation." Optimus said firmly. "You cannot run from it anymore than I can from being Optimus Prime. I keep telling you, you no longer fit the designation, no matter that Jazz tried to give you a battle designation. He did not know you already had one. Pandora Endurus is the sum of all you are- all your trials and tribulations, your growth, the powerful femme you have become. Stop trying to hold yourself back from who you truly are. Everyone can see through the lie you are trying to convince yourself of."
Clarity hit her hard in that moment. She thought back to yesterday when she had finally had a moment to catch her reflection. It was not the pale ghostly face of Phage, but the mature regal face of the Endurus. She thought back to their return to the Ark and recalled, where once she had stood just under Jazz's height, she now towered above him. With her painful reformate, she had soared even above Ratchet and Ironhide and Trailbreaker -three of the tallest of the mechs under Optimus Prime and Jetfire. Now that she had a moment to reflect, she probably stood just a head, give or take, under Optimus Prime's own size.
It was ridiculous. Her insecurities be damned. What had she to be insecure about? She was now a gorgeous amazonian metal goddess with the Prime as her sparkmate.
"The designation is...childish, is it not? As silly as a grown man named William still trying to go by his childhood nickname of Willy instead of Will."
The analogy caught Optimus off guard. "I...suppose?"
"It is, I assure you."
"Does this mean you are finally accepting yourself and your new station?"
She smiled crookedly, a steadfast confidence coming over her as she continued to stroke his cranium. "It does."
A huge sigh of relief rushed all at once from Optimus Prime. "Alo Ata, my light, my guiding star...! That is wonderful!" He reaffirmed his hold around her and nested himself deeper into the valley between her breasts.
A tranquility and sense of unity came over them, and yet Optimus continued speaking; "...The Autobots would have questioned why if you had renounced your true designation. It would not have bode well for the start of a New Cycle if leadership was weak and indecisive. They need strong but kind leadership."
Her thin optical ridges furrowed. Once again, her lack of thorough understanding of Cybertronian culture was biting her in her aft. She did not understand what he meant by a 'New Cycle,' but thought she recalled him mentioning it before. If she had to hazard a guess, just by the implication of the words, then Optimus Prime must have been implying that she was somehow supposed to be the start of a New Age. It seemed pretty logical to her. Goodness, he had only been hammering that point across to her at every opportunity. From her human understanding, once an old way of existence had ran its course, a new age would begin, set in motion by a series of events. In human history, that typically resulted in a lot of bloodshed and disaster before a new age could begin. Given everything that she had discovered about her existence thus far, and the Creation Matrix housed within her, and that it had upgraded and repaired the Ark, she understood what lay ahead. The problem she saw with it—the Cybertronian factions really could not afford to have an all out war over her. They were less than one-hundred. Already an extremely endangered alien species. All out conflict, per a New Cycle's implications, would mean extinction.
Except she had healed Optimus Prime's body from the brink of death. She could heal whoever was left... Could she also raise them from death?
"You are the leader of the Autobots."
"I am, but when I am off base, as my sparkmate and a Prime, they are going to turn to you for guidance."
"There is Jazz and Prowl."
"And should they need the deciding factor of their Prime-they will turn to you for that final call."
Her processors, just recovering from the post-overload fog, ground to a sudden halt. She had not considered that the burden of command would fall on her in any significant capacity. And yet, it made absolute sense.
Optimus continued calmly, "I said yesterday, when you leave your quarters you will see after the miracle you pulled off that the Autobots regard you on my level. If you appear weak, they will question legitimacy of your capability. Accepting your new role is an important first step."
Her fear of commitment began to rear its ugly head, but she resolutely squashed it before it could take hold. Optimus Prime was worth it. Her Autobot family was worth it. "If we are going to be the perfect team, we need to have a long discussion about what is expected of both of us as partners, let alone as my role as the Endurus."
Optimus Prime smiled at her bravery but grew strangely quiet. Then, abruptly, he sat up using his arms. The gravest of expressions was pressed upon him. "There is something I must show you."
She quirked an optical ridge high at him and tried to lighten the mood. "Is it how to transform?"
Optimus started to say then stopped. Considering. Then finally said, "We have to go over that too, don't we?" He sighed, shaking his cranium. "I should have told you before...all this." He said, subtly gesturing to their current state.
"When?" She lightly laughed. "During that whole conversation when you dropped the bombshell on me that I had, by Cybertronian law, married us on the field of battle? Or after, when we spent the rest of the day and night fragging each others processors out?" She gestured that she wanted to kiss him, and Optimus obliged, leaning forward to indulge. The tingling, electrical arcs of green and blue lightning jumped between every light kiss.
Optimus pulled back before he could be pulled back into another romp and whispered quietly, "Pandora."
"Hm?"
"There is something very important I have to show you." He reminded.
She dropped her head on the pillow. "Does this something require we leave my quarters?"
"Unfortunately, it does."
She huffed. "Then we will have to clean up." She rubbed olfactories with him, working hard to keep the mood light and Optimus from falling into whatever worry was trying to eat him alive. She suggested then; "Couples shower?"
Optimus Prime perked up at the idea. A low purr from his engine and a crooked grin were his answer.
Their optics caught, both alight. Her grin matched his, and then the new couple began tittering and chuckling. Optimus Prime sat up and Pandora Endurus rolled out from under him. Just as she had her pedes planted on the floor Optimus moved lightning quick and slapped her aft. Pandora squealed then darted for the washroom laughing the whole way. Optimus rolled swiftly off the berth and chased her down, but just as he rounded the threshold a towel hit his face. Optimus froze. Bewildered. Further in the washroom he heard Pandora Endurus snickering.
"Not every day someone gets the leg up on you." Optimus peeked over the towel. The look he gave her melted the smirk off her face. "Oh!"
In a single motion, Optimus pried the towel off his face and was on her in two large steps. Pandora Endurus cried shrilly as Optimus Prime swept her off her pedes with effortless strength, flung her over his broad shoulder strut and carried her proudly into the shower. All the while his beautiful new conjunx enduras laughed merrily at his antics.