Title: Love is Unkind
Verse: Shattered Glass (AU). Pre-war
Series: None
Rating: T
Warnings: Implied-Slash.
Pairings: Perceptor/Thundercracker
Note: For November 2011 challenge: tf-rare-pairing. Livejournal .. 'five firsts challenge'/a 623 words.

"It's very strange that the people you love are often the people you're most cruel to."
~Kenneth Branagh

first meeting

Thundercracker ran into the other mech, knocking them both onto the floor. He looked up, flustered. The other mech glared, and then smiled, offering Thundercracker a servo. Thundercracker took it after a moment still looking flustered.

Perceptor grinned, "Well, aren't you a pretty thing?" He nearly purred.

"No, no...not really." Thundercracker mumbled. "Look I'm sorry. I didn't mean to run into you."

Perceptor's optics narrowed, "I don't know. You should make it up to me."

"Make it-what?" Thundercracker blinked at him.

"A date, then. What was your name?"

"Thundercracker."

Perceptor grinned ferally. "I'm Perceptor." He pinged an address at the other mech. "I will meet you there in a joor?"

"Ah...sure." Thundercracker blinked watching him go. He was still not entirely sure what had happened.

OoOoOoOo

first jealousy

Perceptor scowled at the crowd, and watched Thundercracker as he chatted with to other aerials. He hated them both. He hated all of Thundercracker's friends, in truth. They impeded on the attention he should be getting. Attention he deserved.

Perceptor's optics narrowed, watching the other two fliers as their wings fluttered about in a language he could not understand. Vosian wing language. It enraged him. He had asked Thundercracker about it on any number of occasions. Thundercracker had even tried to explain, but the intricacies of this were lost on him. It made Perceptor wonder, for the billionth time, why TC was even wasting his time on a "stupid grounder" like him.

He just was not good enough. Could never be good enough.

OoOoOoOo

first fight

"Just stop seeing them."

"What are you going on about, Percy. They are my best-friends. You act as though they hate you. They don't, really. Stop-stop being so insecure." Thundercracker finished lamely.

"You hate me, don't you."

"Ugh. Why would you even say that. I love you. How many fragging times do I have to say it before you believe me? I love you."

"Stop lying."Perceptor yelled.

"You-are not even making any sense tonight."

OoOoOoOo

first time in combat

Thundercracker was shocked at first. He had not seen Perceptor in so long. The last place he had expected to see him was across the battlefield. He had just walked out of the rooms they had shared one night, and never came back. Thundercracker had been scared at first, scared for Perceptor. He had worried someone had taken him. Worried he had been robbed. Deactivated. He had not even left a note. Thundercracker did not know what had gone wrong, what he had done wrong, and it haunted him for cycles.

Then there Percy was. Well, and alive, with a fresh Autobot branding on him. Thundercracker's spark broke all over again.

OoOoOoOo

first injury

Thundercracker looked up at the ceiling of the med-bay, and wished he could have a big cube of high-grade. He knew better than to ask Hook if he could have one. "He shot me, Hook." He finally croaked, finding his voice. "He shot me." The wound hurt far less than the other wound Perceptor left in his wake.

"I'm sorry, Thundercracker. Truly." The medic murmured,putting a comforting hand on Thundercracker's shoulder. "I know it doesn't help, but I truly am."

Thundercracker made a little keening sound, and finally let himself fall into recharge. It was the best escape he had.