Synopsis: Prowl has a crush on a femme. Will his spark get broken? Romance and fluff, no slash, no smut. Rated G for Genius. Okay, maybe not.

Setting: Iacon Autobot Headquarters; the war has just begun. Prowl is a promising young bot recently appointed as Optimus Prime's Second In Command.

Chapter 1: The Virus

Prowl blinked his optic shutters in surprise – he must have been infected with some horrible virus. Yes, that would explain how he was acting. How the virus got into his system, past all his extensive security programs and firewalls, was a tricky question, but a trickier one was this: Why was it making him feel… what was the right word to use… different around this femme? Clearly it was the virus making him feel this way; normally he would never gawk at anyone or anything, but whenever he came across this femme he could feel his optics being pulled toward her, glancing her body up and down, following every curve and detail in her frame.

He had wanted many times to go talk to her, but he had no logical reason to. She was a rookie – one of the newest recruits on the base. Being as he had just been appointed the Second in Command of the Autobots, Prowl had many new responsibilities to deal with, and so he hardly saw her at all. He didn't even know her designation. Despite all this, he still found himself yearning to speak to her. However, his stubbornness was not going to allow the virus to have its way with him. He refused to let himself approach her and make senseless small talk – he would not submit to the virus that openly. But he did allow himself to observe her – that is, whenever she happened to be nearby. He would not deliberately go out of his way to see her, but whenever she was near his optics were always looking curiously in her vicinity. Eventually he became dissatisfied with only seeing her once or twice a week for mere seconds at a time, perhaps passing her in a hallway or catching a glimpse of her frame from across a large room filled with mechs, so he adapted his tasks so that he was able to take his afternoon refueling break at the same time she usually took hers.

Prowl enjoyed seeing her more often, but at the same time he knew he should schedule an appointment with Ratchet to simply terminate the quirky virus. But he enjoyed observing her. He quickly saw that she was very observant too – of everything around her. Although a rookie, she had been on the base quite long enough to know what her surroundings were; therefore it was not necessary to constantly be so vigilant. But she remained watchful anyway… just like Prowl. Not paranoid, not nervous, just watchful. More aware of his surroundings than the average bot, it was a well known fact that sneaking up on Prowl was close to impossible. Now, gazing at the young femme and seeing how alert she was, he realized that she was the same way. She had even caught him looking her way now and again, but being as smooth as he was, Prowl simply pretended to be glancing around the room to evade prolonged optic contact with her. Then, once she turned her head or became occupied with something else, Prowl would let his gaze wander her way again.

She was quiet most of the time, but not shy by any means. When other bots would sit next to her in the refueling area she would participate in friendly conversation, but Prowl noticed that she often preferred to sit alone, attentively watching the activity around her. Prowl wondered what thoughts went through her processor as she sat tranquilly in the refueling area, sipping on her cube of energon slowly, optics taking in everything.