A/N: Hello!

Moved into uni a couple weeks back, and I still don't have a complete timetable. So, I've been doing what you guys really need me to do, which is watch old Hellboy films!

Yes. You are about to read a oneshot inspired by Hellboy II.

BRING TISSUES. Trust me on this.

Just for your reference, I probably won't be updating any of the big stories for a bit, at least until my timetable settles down. But fear not, I have not given up on them!

DISCLAIMER: I am not Barry Manilow, and make no profit from this work of fiction. If I was, I wouldn't be living in a broom closet while at uni, let me tell you.

Enjoy!

Can't Smile Without You

The Ark tended to be quiet at night. Optimus Prime rather enjoyed it that way.

However, recently, the night was...different.

Sadder.

The Prime walked the halls of the Ark: dark, quiet now, without the hustle and bustle of the Autobot soldiers busily going about their jobs. Perfectly silent, aside from the quiet music drifting through the air.

Most of the soldiers on the Ark had developed some kind of taste in Earth music. Whether it was Blaster's cyber-punk assaults on the sanity; Hound's mellow folk tunes; Mirage's smooth jazz; Perceptor's ridiculous K-Pop; or even the peculiar song that Ratchet liked (Suicide is Painless, if Prime recalled correctly), everyone had a discernible taste.

While Prime himself preferred a dash of Mozart's Requiem in D Minor "Dies Irae", he recognised the music currently playing. Slow and sad. Human music, with steady pianos and quiet acoustic guitars. It was Barry Manilow, and "Can't Smile Without You."

It reminded him of Elita, a long time ago, in a time not ruled by war.

Prime leant against the wall, quietly singing the words to himself under his battle-mask, memories steadily filtering their way through his mind.

You know

I can't smile without you

I can't smile without you

I can't laugh

and I can't sing

I'm finding it hard to do anything

you see

I feel sad, when you're sad

I feel glad, when you're glad

If you only knew

what I'm going through

I just can't smile

without you

He made his way forward, through the empty rec room towards the solitary blue light coming from the security centre. Prime stopped at the door, sadly watching the figure sat at the security monitors, a charred and blackened piece of armour clutched in his servo, the words FIRE CHIEF painted proudly on the once-white metal.

The mech swayed his helm slowly in time to the music, old recordings of a white-and-red femme dancing across the screens, and his doorwings tilted downwards in barely-hidden despair, singing to himself quietly.

You came along

Just like a song

and brightened my day

Who'd have believed that?

You were part of a dream

Now it all seems

light years away

Prime carefully stepped forward and lowered himself into the other chair. He took two vintage high-grade cubes of Energon out of his subspace and slid one along the desk.

Prowl caught the cube and regarded it coldly. Prime held his cube out in a toast.

Prowl held up his own cube and tapped it gently against his leader's, a sad smile on his face.

You see

I can't smile without you

I can't smile without you

I can't laugh

and I can't sing

I'm finding it hard to do anything

Prime pulled the Matrix out of his chest and sat it face-up on the table, the ancient blue spark opening and projecting what each wanted most.

A pink femme wandered through a library, with a datapad in her servo and a smile on her face; and a white-and-red femme watched the monitors and chewed the end of her pen, humming to herself.

Prime sings bass and Prowl sings tenor, two lost soldiers in a world that had been without light for a long time.

You know

I feel sad, when you're sad

I feel glad, when you're glad

If you only knew

what I'm going through

I just can't smile

without you

Well, that was depressing. Might be more son!Chase in the future though, because it's literally the cutest thing ever omg