Disclaimer: Not mine

Warning: Pre-war AU

A/N: Finally! I had to wrestle with them both, but they finally cooperated. How come I ship them when it's so hard for me to write them, I have no idea. Anyway, tell me what you think.

Fate's Playground

Their first meeting was nothing special. He wanted to pick up his merchandise and the other was just doing his job at the docks. They didn't even exchanged designations and both would've purged the image of the other from their processor if it weren't part of their jobs to remember it. Fate, though, never does anything without a plan (as insignificant as it may be) and that ordinary meeting would soon become one of many afterwards.

Sideswipe was a relatively successful merchant. He and his brother were not rich, but together they managed to make a rather struggle-free living. Unfortunately, a merchant's life is not free of danger. There would always be 'enemy' businesses that would try to get their servos on his merchandise or simple mechs that would try to get his well-earned credits from him. Sideswipe knew how to take of himself and used as much credits as he could spare to upgrade himself to be able to take on military models if he had to in order to protect himself and his property.

Sadly, he had no one to protect his merchandise on deliveries. After a couple of supply crates were missing on the docks and a complete shipment disappeared while on a delivery transport, Sideswipe used some of his credits for upgrades to hire a mech to keep in charge of his shipments. After a meeting with the dock manager, Sideswipe found himself hiring the same mech that had received his shipment a while ago. His designation: Orion Pax.

Orion turned out to be extremely responsible and not once was a shipment missing or incomplete. Sideswipe was more than satisfied with the mech's work, but he couldn't afford to raise his salary. Instead, the red mech made a point to gift him small tokens of appreciation for his work. A drink together soon became the favorite between the two and Sideswipe was more than glad Orion turned out to be a fun, easy going mech.

Sporadic drinks together slowly became a routine after each delivered shipment. Orion's life was like an unencrypted datapad and Sideswipe found himself on the role of friend and confidant to the worker mech. Orion didn't hide anything; from his disappointment at spending less time with his best friend, Dion, to his crushed spark when a femme called Ariel turned him down.

It was that one event that made Sideswipe consider interfacing with the mech. Orion was a young mech, like him, and good looking too. Sideswipe was sure the femme was crazy if she turned the poor mech down. Maybe Orion was a tad too naïve and too good for his own health, but he had cared for the femme. Sideswipe couldn't offer him love, if that was what Orion wanted, but he could offer comfort for the time being. Orion, to his surprise, accepted the offer. An offer that was the beginning of, if not a real relationship, the closest thing to one they could ever get when Sideswipe wasn't looking for love and Orion was too afraid to love again.

Most things in life don't have a happy ending. Their pseudo-relationship didn't have one either. Granted, they spent a vorn and a half as interface partners. Orion never shared his berth with anyone else and Sideswipe was polite enough to stop interfacing with others after a meta-cycle of starting their thing. By the end of the vorn the whispers of war were taking force and the rumors of en energon shortage were beginning to seem real. Until there came the day Orion went to the docks to spend his free day with his old friend Dion. He and Sideswipe had scheduled one last cycle together before Orion left with a shipment. He never met with Sideswipe that cycle and didn't answer his comms. He'd been fragged to the Pit and back until his brother told him the news. War broke out on the docks and everyone there had been offlined. Orion was offline and the Decepticons were to blame. Sideswipe swore right then and there he would avenge Orion's death. Only in death was he able to admit that maybe the worker had meant much more to him than he'd been willing to admit.

Optimus Prime didn't remember much of his old life. He knew his old designation. He knew he'd been a simple dock worker. He could remember his friend Dion and the love of his live Ariel (whom he had to remember to call Elita-One now). Only she remembered more than he did and she had assured him they were never together. But he was still so sure he'd been with someone… loved someone… and if it hadn't been her… then who?

Most of the time he could forget about it. He needed to concentrate on keeping the Autobot Army functioning. Old broken memories of a bot long dead would not keep them all alive. And he'd succeeded in burying Orion so deep in his processor it was as if the mech had never even existed. It would take crashing down on an alien planet and spending millions of years in stasis only to find themselves stranded and unable to communicate with Cybertron to make him remember Orion. It was on the dead of night, when the peace and quiet made his processor turn back to those small glimpses of Orion's life. When his spark cried out for another that he'd been sure was Elita, but now he was sure was just another Cybertronian that died with him that day. But even worse were the times his processor worked while he recharged. It gave him images that were all but gone when he onlined, leaving him with just phantom caresses and whispered words of something… not quite love… but something… and it made his spark ache for someone that didn't seem to love him back as well. Someone he would've continued to believe dead if not for Fate.

Optimus Prime sat on the couch, optics on some human horror film and a cube of midgrade in his hands. There was no one else with him since his schedule often meant he finished his work late and those not recharging were all on duty. All except a red twin, who just arrived from a drive in the city. Said twin who stared almost in shock from the doorway as Optimus slowly drank his cube.

A strangled mechanical sound, akin to a human sob, made the Autobot leader close his facemask with an audible click and turn to the mech who made that sound.

"Sideswipe?" he asked with a frown as the mech only stared at him with pale blue otics, "What is wrong? Is it Sunstreaker?"

Sideswipe didn't say a word, but took a step back when Optimus got off the couch. The Autobot leader stood still, confused blue optics stared at the Autbot twin, who seemed to have gathered his courage and was now approaching him.

He was startled when the black fingers touch his facemask. His worry that there was something wrong with Sideswipe dying when the twin finally spoke.

"Orion…"

It was a mere whisper, yet it made his spark tremble, "How?"

Another mechanical sound escaped the Lamborghini, fingers caressing the facemask while pale colored optics stared into his own, "You were dead. I waited for you that cycle and you were dead."

"You knew Orion?" Optimus asked the shocked mech and received an almost hysterical laugh in response.

"Knew Orion?" Sideswipe began, fingers trying to find a way to take that facemask off, "He was…"

Optimus waited for the other to finish, but Sideswipe seemed to have frozen midsentence. Blue hands gently pried the black hands off his face. An unknown impulse making him retract his facemask for the first time in front of someone that wasn't Ratchet. The sudden realization that this mech knew who he'd been and could answer his questions making him hunger for the rest of that unfinished sentence.

"Orion was…"

The last thing he expected was for Sideswipe to yank him down and kiss him. It was a desperate kiss and Optimus' shock didn't let him reciprocate, but the red twin didn't care. A black hand found his way into a transformation seam and Optimus shivered in pleasure before he managed to place some distance between him and the twin.

"Why did you do that?"

"You're not him," was all Sideswipe said before turning around and leaving the room almost running.

A week after that incident Optimus was unable to take a decent recharge. Orion's life kept intruding at the most inopportune moments. He found himself hoping to get glimpses of the red twin that now seemed to be avoiding him. He spent hours staring at his face which looked almost the same as Orion's without his facemask.

It would take yet another chance encounter for both mechs to meet again. This time it was on one of the many hallways.

"Sideswipe."

"Sir."

Both mechs stared at each other awkwardly.

"I'm sorry."

Sideswipe looked away, "For what? Getting shot?"

"No. I am sorry for forgetting you."

At this, the Lamborghini's head whipped back to look at the Autobot leader.

"You didn't remember?" there was a surprised, almost desperately hopeful, tone, "I thought you didn't want to be seen with me. I thought…"

"You thought I thought myself above you since I carry the Matrix."

Sideswipe looked remorseful, "I thought you died. I gave up everything to avenge you and then I find out you've been alive all along. And what would a Prime want with a lousy merchant?"

Sideswipe looked miserable, and he didn't seem to notice the shocked blue optics that kept staring at him. In turn, Optimus could not quite grasp the idea that every Decepticon the mech before had torn apart had been for him… to avenge him. It was frightening and yet, the part of him that still remembered what it felt like to die, was oddly pleased.

"Orion died, Sideswipe," Optimus forced himself to speak, "The mech that found him found no other way for him to survive except reformatting. I didn't remember you because… because I never met you."

Something in the pale blue that stared at him seemed to die and Optimus regretted submitting Sideswipe to the truth. A truth that killed Orion for a second time to the Lamborghini.

Black hands on his windshield made him start. Blue locked on blue.

"Think you can join me for a cube of midgrade in my quarters, Sir?"

Optimus found himself smiling behind his facemask.

"Actually, that sounds nice. I will comm. you with a specific time for it once I get a good optic at my schedule."

"Looking forward to knowing more about you, Sir."

"While not on duty, call me Optimus."

A/N #2: I really don't like the title. Suggestions are extremely welcomed.