Comfort From An Unusual Source (Optimus and Monite)

Monite had received a communication wave from Technick.

They had even spoken together for a short while.

That meant that she was alive at least and from the sound wave of her voice she seemed like she was doing well. It did not appear that she was under duress to say what she had said to her, therefore, Monite was forced to believe that she was not being made to tell her that she was alright when she really was not.

It broke her heart however to hear that she did not want to come back and join Monite at the Autobot base, that she was content to be with the Decepticons. Originally when she had heard this Monite was all set for halting the communication wave there and then, wanting nothing more to do with her friend - until she had calmed down at least.

Then she heard Technick's explanation and as much as she hated the fact she could not fault what she was thinking.

Through this kidnapping she had found her father, Skywarp and his allegiances were to the Decepticons, therefore she was going to be staying with her father and did not need any help or rescue from the Decepticons who had taken her from her. It seemed as if the neutrals were far more disgusting than they thought, as Technick told her how she had been subject to a memory circuit suppression against her will.

Placing her head in her hands, Monite tugged softly at her fibres and trying to stop the overwhelming sensation of the loss of her close friend, but failing for the most part. Expressing air from her vents harshly, Monite sniffled.

Optimus was going through his base, checking on each and every member of his team in turn.

He enjoyed this time because it was time he had to himself but at the same time it was time he dedicated to his bots and his femmes and that was what he enjoyed the most about it. Sighing happily as he bid his farewells to Bumblebee at the defence controls, Optimus was off to go and see the twins when he heard something with his sensitive scanners.

Moving closer to the closed door, Optimus heard the sound of sniffling through the metal of the door and the wall and opened it, intent on helping whoever was inside.

Seeing that it was Monite, and that she seemed to be ready to burst into tears about something, he moved closer to her and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder,

"Monite... Monite please tell me what's happened." he urged her softly, "If it's about your friend Technick, don't worry. I have my best bots continuing the search as we speak."

He paused for a moment before touching her cheek gently,

"Don't cry though Monite... it'll all be alright soon."

Monite jumped a little bit when she heard the door opening up to the room that she had taken refuge in to respond to the communication from Technick. It might as well have been her berth room because that was where she slept and where all of her personal affects were, but she didn't want to presume that it was her own in case that was going a little bit too far.

As soon as she saw that it was Optimus, her desire to stop the expression of hurt on her features doubled, if not tripled. Yet, as soon as she did this great rolling tears of excess energon came streaking down her face, she must have been holding them back and they had burst forth seeing Optimus' comforting frame there.

The touch of his hand on her shoulder relaxed her and she wiped away the tears with her fingers, wanting to look her best for the commanding mech. He always made her spark flutter, although she didn't know why.

Leaning her head into his touch Monite took a soft breath in and enjoyed the sensation of his warm plating touching her still slightly wet cheek;

"I just received a communication wave from Technick, she has elected to stay with the Decepticons." she whispered softly "Her father is among their ranks and she wants to stay with him...I cannot lie and say I am not saddened by this. I do not wish to be on opposite sides to my good friend, I do not want to fight her...but I realise now I may have to."

Optimus had always hated seeing people cry and that went doubly so for femmes.

The amount of emotion for a bot or a femme to cry was at least a thousand times greater than that of a human being, he had found. So for Monite to be leaking such excess energon from optics meant that she was in a lot of pain. And what's more, it meant that she hadn't had a lot of time to adjust to the pain she was feeling.

He knew almost immediately that touching her cheek and holding her shoulder would not be enough for her. Deciding that she needed this more than he thought she ever would, Optimus wrapped his massive arms around her delicate frame and pulled her in for a soft but firm hug, a reassuring hug, to show her that the world wasn't ending just yet.

That some people still cared.

"It's alright Monite, Technick is home with her father now. Though this was not the resolution that you sought in the beginning, perhaps you can find solace in the fact that she is finally reunited with her father?" he suggested quietly as he stroked her back gently in the hug, "This is not about leaving you or the Neutrals; it is about staying with her father after having him taken away from here for many years."

He paused before slowly letting her out of the hug, to look up into her optics,

"Are you feeling better my dear?"

Monite blinked softly when she felt Optimus wrapping his arms around her, it felt amazing to have the strength and warmth of him wrapped around her like this. It made her feel like the world wasn't so bad after all, but she knew even if he made her feel better now there would still be that time where she must see Technick in battle and face her down, even hurt her.

She didn't want to hurt her, she wanted to be friends with her still. Could that even work now that they were on different sides of the war? She didn't think that it could.

"I know that she must be happy to be reunited with her father, and I am glad that my friend is happy, but I am not glad that we will most likely never be able to be friends again." she sighed "I never even got the chance to say goodbye to her in a proper manner, I feel that it is not the right end to our friendship."

As Optimus let her out of the hug, Monite didn't want it to end and she almost pouted softly but held herself in check. Optimus was often so busy she didn't see him much and it made her spark dull slightly with the idea he would be leaving her to go and see someone else, even Monite admitted, made her slightly jealous!

"A slight." she admitted with a soft smile "Thank you, Optimus for the embrace. Your metal is very warm and relaxing." Monite admitted with a little blush.

Holding her hands in front of her chassis, Monite bit her lip, nervous; "Are you...are you well? I feel as if I might be coming down with something, my spark gives the most peculiar readings now a days, I think I should visit Ratchet soon to check."

Optimus liked having Monite in his arms.

There was just something about having the smaller bot in his arms like this that set his spark alight with happiness. But why was he happy? He didn't know the reasons for it. He knew that it was because he was hugging her but why would that give him such a massive amount of happiness? He didn't know but he would love to find out.

"Who is to say that you may never again be friends? Who is to say that your friendship has even ended now?" he asked her quietly, "Friends can be found in the most unlikely of places Monite. And if you are an Autobot and she a Decepticon then friendship is still possible. You just refused to fight each other."

He felt the plating of his cheeks heat up and he tried to cover it up with a small coughing sound to draw her attention to his optics rather than his cheek plates,

"It was no problem at all to embrace you." he told her honestly before chuckling a tad awkwardly, "I have never had such a compliment before."

He smiled a little bit,

"I am well Monite and I too have been experiencing fluctuations in my spark activity." he hummed with a frown, "I don't think it's anything too medical though. Can I check your spark?"

Monite frowned softly, she didn't think that it was a good thing to mix friendship and war together, things would get complicated and then there would be all sorts of conditions that they had to make to their friendship and therefore it would become ridiculous. Biting at her dental plating, Monite shook her head and had to come to terms with the fact that their friendship would be taking hits because of this choice.

"I think that it is just...simpler to keep friendship out of wars, it might all become reduced to not killing certain bots because they're close to your friend and then things would simply become too complex." she stated with a small sigh "I will always have the memories that we created together, on the bright side."

When Optimus coughed, Monite smiled softly up at him, losing herself in the bright shining blue of his optics. They were beautiful. They showed his power, his authority but also his soft and gentle emotions. They were the most expressive parts of his anatomy.

"Admittedly it was a strange compliment." she laughed softly "But it was a pleasant sensation and I thought that I might share it with you I hope it wasn't a problem."

As soon as Optimus asked if he might examine her spark, Monite gasped and her hands rather inadvertently drew themselves around her chest where her spark was concealed. It was a severely personal thing to show someone your spark and although the idea appealed to Monite for unknown reasons...she didn't think that Optimus would be so forwards.

"That is a severely personal aspect of a Cybertonian to show Optimus..." she whispered "I am surprised that you ask to see it, but, I suppose if it is your wish I shall show it to you."

Her spark was hammering so hard in her chassis Monite thought it was going to break free! Yet Monite gently pressed the central panel of her chest, and it clicked back to show the gentle pulsing white that was her spark, it glittered and echoed off of the shining metal that had folded back around her chest. Why would she show him such a personal thing...it gave her a thrill, to have Optimus examine her inner most being.

She hoped he found it to his liking for reasons unknown.

Optimus sighed a little bit but he supposed that she was right. Friendship might become a bit of a liability in war simply because it would make a large list of people who were not to be touched despite how dangerous they were. After all, it only took one of her friends to be friends with Megatron for the whole war to go south really quickly,

"Perhaps you are right..." he admitted with a little bit of a sigh before smiling, "That is a wonderful way to think about it."

He shook his head a little bit and tried to ignore how his cheek plates were now almost boiling hot to touch,

"Not strange." he admitted before also admitting, "But usually reserved for couples I must admit."

Of course he knew that it was an incredibly personal part of a bot or femme but... but for some reason he couldn't explain, he wanted to see her spark. He had seen sparks throughout his time on the battlefield and when at peace too. But he didn't want to see her spark to say A spark but because he wanted to she HER spark.

As if he instinctively knew that there was a difference,

"I know it's a lot of ask but... I feel the need to see it." he admitted rather sheepishly, "I feel the need very strongly."

Looking at her spark, he couldn't see anything different about it but his own spark seemed to be reacting to it. Curious, he opened his optics to a new range and looked closer until... he still couldn't see it.

But he could feel it.

He could feel the pulse of her spark beating in time with his own... in sync. Like they were paired or something. Like his spark was only pulsing, only continuing, because hers was doing the same. It felt like his spark was getting hotter and hotter and hotter, the strength of it climbing until it felt like the fires of a thousand suns contained within his spark.

It was so powerful, so humbling and so connecting.

Suddenly he felt like he knew her like he knew the back of his hand and, what's more, she was all he could think about. Even as he fell to his knees from the backlash of the emotions, he could feel her. He could feel her spark,

"So... beautiful..."