A/N: my many, many, MANY thanks to Okamichan for not only letting me play in her sticky verse, for beta-ing this chapter, but for also reminding me to get off my aft end and DO something with the beta-ed story. And for her awesomeness I will return the favor with poking her about writing the next chapter in her sticky verse so I can post the multiple stories (including the ones involving the promised Springer and Arcee) up here. I can't post anything else in this verse until she does. I glare at the turtles and novels that have stolen her!

His name whispered through him on a signal Sideswipe hadn't used since before the war. It made him stop, turn and make his way into the crumbling building he had almost passed by.

"Sideswipe, report!" Prowl's voice came through his comm comparatively loud and clear, making the mech wonder if he'd imagined the call.

"Heard something. I'm going to check it out." He entered the structure cautiously. He tested the creaking and groaning floor before he took each step, it didn't appear like it would hold up under much stress as even the more stable looking slabs bowed underfoot.

"Be careful. We still have enemies in the area."

"Copy that." Metal scraping over granite in the next room caught his attention. The melee fighter hesitantly went in and had to suppress a cry of surprise and horror.

She looked like she had gone through the smelter and then dragged back through the Pit with the way the enamel on her once perfect body flaked and fluttered to her listless hands, but he knew exactly who lay against the wall. She still held a regal air, but the war screamed on her grimy faceplates. Her once perfect, glittering green plating had faded to black and in the dim light he picked out dents and scratches in the thin metal.

"Unicron above!" he breathed, "Stardust!"

She slowly looked up at him; her optics dim and cracked. "Sideswipe?" her vocalizer glitched out his name.

He knelt beside her, moving carefully to ensure he did not jar her. "Nebs, what are you doing here?"

"Had no where else to go. I'm useless now." The broken dancer let her head fall back to her chest with a clunk.

Bracing a hand against the wall beside her, Sideswipe activated his comm. "Prowl, I need a med evac for civilian survivor."

"No!" the femme beside him hissed, grasping at his wrist. "I don't want to live any more." Her optics dimmed as sadness filled her vocalizer. "Tell your brother he was right about me."

The red mech cut the audio on his comm for a moment and grasped her shoulder struts, forcing her to look at him. "If you have a message for Sunny, you're going to have to tell him yourself! I'm not letting you die here."

"Sideswipe, confirm your position for med evac."

He let go of her and triangulated his position. "486 by 79 by 21." He glanced over to see Stardust giving him a pleading expression. "I mean it, Nebs. You want any message to get to Sunny, you're doing it!"

Silence, expect for the agonizing knocking of her dry engine, descended over them as they waited for the med team. Finally he spoke, his tone much softer than before. "Remember the last painting Sunny did of you nude before we left?"

"Of course," she murmured weakly, "you said it sold for more than any of his other paintings."

"Sunny's the one who bought it. I found out after the war started." Sideswipe picked up the incoming medic team on his proximity alarm and turned away so he wouldn't have to see the shock that openly rode her face. "In here!" he called to the team. "And watch the floor!"

"Watch it do what?" Came the sarcastic response of Blades.

Hot Spot came in the room first and stopped, catching sight of the femme. "Primus!" he hissed, then turned to the twin to ask: "I.D.?"

Sideswipe didn't look back at her. "Her designation is Stardust."

"The dancer?" Blades asked in awe.

Streetwise leaned over the other Protectobot's shoulder to see into the room. "I saw a performance of hers once and only once! I could only afford the one show."

Blades smirked wickedly. "Who were you trying to impress?"

"Slag off!"

"Get it together, she's critical!" their leader snapped, making them all move. Hot Spot put a hand on Sideswipe's shoulder struts. "Good thing you checked this place or we would have missed her completely."

Sideswipe met her optics as the mechs worked to stabilize her barely functioning system enough to move her out. "Yeah." He said softly, unsure what else to say.

He'd called her in one night after rehearsal, and had her model in a more casual pose for once. The more modest pose, however, didn't stop the artist from taking what he always did.

He sank his dental plates into her shoulder strut and she groaned his name in the pleasure that shot through her.

"Primus frag it why can't you keep quiet?" He snarled back, air rushing through his vents in a vain attempt to cool his heated systems.

She looked back at him, her optics burning bright in anger. "Why do you keep you doing this?

His constantly angry glare morphed to absolute fury. "Why?" he whisper, his careful control gone. "You want to know WHY?" he screamed, pulling out of her and flipping her onto her back. Too stunned to do anything else, Stardust let a pleasure induced shriek rip through her vocalizer as he slammed back into her and screamed: "BECAUSE ITS WHAT YOU FRAGGING WANT!"

He thrust hard one last time and his plug snapped into place. She arched her back into him as the energy flooded her, a cry of pure ecstasy tearing through her vocalizer. Over her, he let out a savage, lasting roar and gripped the berth beneath them hard enough to dent it. He lay on her for a long moment, panting, until she spoke.

"That's not true."

He let out an exasperated snort and got up, refusing to look at her. "Fine, keep lying to yourself. Sides and I are leaving for the front lines." Latching the last of his plates, he walked out of the room, and she never saw either of the twins again.

When Stardust came online she found herself in an unfamiliar room and looking at a very familiar glare. The room remained perfectly silent, save for the quiet sound of the Energon running directly into her fuel pump from a back up tank behind her and the faint swearing from a mech in another room.

"Is it true?" She asked, her voice a hollow echo of what it once was.

"What?" The golden mech demanded.

"You bought that painting." She didn't need to specify which one.

He growled and jerked his head to the side. "What if I did?"

She cut her optics and let the sterile air of the med lab cycle through her vents. "You were right about me."

The femme barely registered his movement as he crossed the room. Reactivating her optics, she found the angry artist-turned-warrior leaning over her so close that their nasal ridges nearly touched.

His frame shuddered with barely contained fury. He held his position for a long beat before he captured her mouth with his in an almost painfully forceful kiss.

He suddenly yanked away from her and turned to march out of the room. At the door he paused and glanced back, the glare still twisting his beautiful face. "When this war is over, you'd better be ready to show up at my studio."

"I'll be there," she whispered. Exhaustion suddenly cascaded over her and she began to quickly fall back into recharge.

Sunstreaker gave her one last long look, his glare faltering as she slipped offline, and left.