Title: Saving You, Saving Me

Rating: R

Warnings: Yaoi, Spoilers for Spotlight: Drift and All Hail Megatron

Pairing: PerceptorxDrift

Universe: All Hail Megatron

Everything was quiet. Everyone was quiet. The tension in the air was so thick Drift swore that he could cut through it with one of his swords. The death of Sunstreaker weighing heavily on shoulders, the news of him being the one that betrayed them made that weight even heavier. Sitting in a corner of a room that most of the team considered a common room, he silently observed. Being fairly new to the situation and also being a reformed Decepticon, he made as little conversation as he could lest he say something that would irritate the situation further. Silence was his friend and it usually payed off. Bumblebee was sitting to his left, trying to have a conversation with a very worried looking Hound. Ironhide had falsely accused Mirage of being a traitor and took it upon himself to be judge, jury, and thankfully, not executioner. Mirage was in a regeneration chamber currently but that didn't stop the dark green Transformer from worrying, such a devoted friend.

The only other being in the room was Perceptor, sitting on the floor, slowly sipping his meager ration of energon. Very little could be spared since most of the energon found was going to the repair systems that Optimus Prime was hooked up to. Tilting his head slightly, Drift recalled the first time he met the microscope.

Some orbital cycles ago, he had managed to sneak aboard a ship commanded by his former leader, Turmoil. Hoping to free some Autobot captives with stealth and subtlety, he didn't count on Kup and his team just blasting their way through the hull of the ship also save the same group. Subtlety out the window, he joined them in tearing through the Decepticons guarding them. With the guards down, he was suddenly face to face with the Autobot scientist who was analyzing him. His curiosity and wonderment with Drift's upgraded body caused him to poke and caress different parts of his frame, much to his slight discomfort. While the complements coming from the microscope were nice, his upgrades caused him to be more sensitive to touch than the normal mech. Luckily Kup interrupted Perceptor's study and set him to putting the highest security locks on the doors to the room.

Then it happened, one moment Perceptor was wondering why the 'Cons on the other side stopped trying to break through his locks, the next moment an energy blast pierced through his chest. All hell broke loose. The Autobots were firing at the Decepticons, the Decepticons were firing at the Autobots. One Decepticon saw Perceptor struggling to get back to his teammates, he took that moment to pin him down with a pede and shoot an energy round into his right optic. Drift tried to get to him, to get him out of harms way, but Turmoil saw that he didn't. After being shot at, and blasted down to the lower levels of the ship, Drift managed to overload the ship's power supply with Kup's help. Kup escaped and Drift took care of Turmoil. With the ship about to explode, Drift ran back to where Perceptor's stasis locked body was and escaped the ship with him.

After that incident, Perceptor's body needed major upgrades to deal with the extensive damage that he took. He still looked like the Perceptor he first met, but more deadly. His demeanor changed as a result of the incident as well. The light-sparked mech he met became very introverted and serious, business-like, rarely talked. Why was he so surprised? War changes everyone, Perceptor wasn't immune from it. Part of Drift wished that he was. He felt somewhat disturbed to see someone so carefree and pure corrupted like that. He shook off the feeling, now wasn't the time for such sentimentality.

Picking himself up from his corner, he walked over to the microscope, Perceptor noticed the movement and looked up. Optics met, Drift smiled, "May I sit?" Perceptor nodded in response. Drift sat and folded his legs up underneath him, "I just wanted to say thank you for saving my aft back there. That was some fine sniping."

Perceptor looked unfazed as he stared at his empty energon ration. Drift frowned slightly, he hoped to get more of a response out of the microscope. Bumblebee and Hound stood up and left the room, probably to check up on Mirage. "Thank you."

Drift's head perked up at the sudden response and turned towards Perceptor. "Thank you?"

"Yes, thank you for saving my life. Back on Turmoil's ship. I thought I was finished. No one came back for me, except for you." Perceptor's optics darkened, his shoulders drooped. Drift noticed.

"I wish I could be stronger, like everyone else. I'm just a burden on this team." Drift frowned.

"You know that's not true. From what Kup told me, you are the most useful person on the team. I'm not one to make assumptions, but it seems like everyone else thinks the same." Perceptor made a noise that almost sounded like a snort. He picked himself up from sitting and started to walk away.

"Don't try to cheer me up." He said as he walked away, leaving a bewildered Drift sitting alone on the floor.

Perceptor was given the 3rd lookout shift by Prowl, the post was at the top of the tallest spire of the building they occupied. He did not mind in the least, it was quiet, he could think. His thoughts were normally comprised of different things he could possibly do to help out the team. Tonight's thoughts were different, they consisted of Drift. He felt guilty about how he acted earlier, brushing off the person who saved his life was very rude. He would have to find the sword-wielder after his shift was over and apologize. His thoughts went back to the day he almost off-lined, pieces of memory filtered back to his consciousness; the energy beam piercing through his chest, trying to crawl back and being shot in the optic. He brought his hand up to where his right optic used to be, in it's place was glass that allowed him to zero in on a target with deadly accuracy when using guns. It had no scientific purpose at all. He frowned and lowered his hand.

The other memories were vague and cloudy in a pre off-line haze; the feeling of being lifted and held close, a silhouette against an orange light, wind rushing across his frame, then nothing. Perceptor then realized that the silhouette, the strong hands, were Drift. He wouldn't have known Drift had saved his life if Kup didn't tell him about it. He leaned against a railing for support and buried his face in his hands.

While the necessities of life were scarce, the building they took refuge in had enough rooms for each mech to have their own. Privacy was welcome since tensions ran so high. Drift felt lucky to to have the room he did, the others didn't want it since part of the ceiling was missing. He would lay down on a makeshift berth he scrounged up the materials for and would look at the stars. He didn't want a room with windows, the destroyed Cybertronian landscape was depressing enough to look at on lookout, he didn't want to have to deal with it during his downtime. A knock at his door, "Come in."

The sliding of the powerless door open and back into place broke the silence for a moment, Drift kept his eyes on the stars. "Drift?"

Hearing his name spoken jolted him out of his revery, "Perceptor? What brings you here?"

"I'm sorry to disturb you." Drift moved his hand as if waving away the unneeded apology while lifting himself up from his berth and walked over. "You didn't disturb me, I was just a little surprised that you are here. I was expecting it to be Prowl or Kup, thank Primus for nice surprises." Perceptor felt his faceplates heat up slightly.

"I...I just wanted to apologize for earlier on. I shouldn't have said what I did, it was rude and..." Perceptor stopped talking when Drift put his hands on his shoulders, his faceplates were now tinged with a slight shade of pink from the heat. "Why am I reacting like this?" He tried to ignore that thought even though it went against everything the scientist in him stood for. "...I...I was h-having kind of a bad moment and I-mmph!" He was silenced once more when Drift pulled him into a kiss. There was that feeling again, being held close by strong hands. Perceptor's fingers twitched lightly on Drift's chestplates, his processor wildly trying to make sense of the situation. Nothing made sense anymore, and he gave up trying to analyze everything and gave in to the moment.