Title: Four Times Perceptor met Starscream And One Time He Didn't.

Characters: Perceptor, Starscream, Wheeljack

Verse: pre-war G1

Warnings/Content: mentions of explosion damage, robotic gore, and violence

A/N: Written for the LJ comm tf_rare_pairing's First Fives challenge.

First Meeting

"Ah, excuse me." Perceptor looked around the lab, then checked the data transmission again. Yes, this was the proper laboratory. He was supposed to meet his new lab partner here, but there was no one in the room.

"Who are you?" came a voice behind him.

Perceptor whirled around. A Vosnian flyer was behind him, a sneer on his lip plates and a supercilious expression on his face.

"Oh, I'm Perceptor. I'm supposed to meet my new lab partner here. You wouldn't happen to know where he is, would you?"

The flyer looked at him, then pushed past him. "Whatever. You'll be gone all too soon. You can have that corner," he pointed to a small workbench, "and stay out of my way." He walked over to a complicated-looked mass of tubes and bent down, taking a reading and making an annotation on a datapad. As with all students, their work had to be notated in an external datafile so their work could be used by mechs in later years.

Perceptor edged into the lab hesitantly. He had been warned that his lab partner was difficult, but he'd never expected that he'd be brushed aside such a short time after they'd met.

He made his way to the dusty workbench. The first thing he did was find the supply closet and gather some rags and cleanser, thoroughly cleaning the tabletop. He put away the supplies, then began to lay out his tools and datapads. Once everything was laid out to his satisfaction, he started setting up an experiment he'd been wanting to try. He didn't believe the results that had been published by Scanner and Collation and he wanted to reproduce the experiment.

He kept himself busy, checking out the supplies he'd need for the experiment, filing the experimental setup to his advisor, and returning to the lab. A keycard was in the center of the table, next to his datapad. He looked up, but his partner was carefully not looking at him.

Perceptor murmured, "Thank you" and tucked the keycard away before returning his attention to his own work.

"My name is Starscream," his lab partner said, "Stay out of my way, and I'll stay out of yours."

First Lab Accident

Perceptor stared at the experiment before him in horror. His processor had just enough time to analyse and send him the probable outcome before he was pushed violently backwards, wings and a body blocking his view of the impending explosion.

"Look out, you fool!"

The explosion blossomed, and Perceptor automatically began cataloguing the chemicals involved from the colors expressed in the explosion. He hit a table with his back, and then he knew nothing else.

When Perceptor awoke he was looking up at the medbay ceiling. He knew it was the medbay ceiling because for some odd reason, it was pink. It was the only ceiling, as far as he knew, in the Academy that was pink. He'd been told by his friend Ratchet that the reason the ceiling was that color was that energon faded to that precise shade of pink, and if someone came in wounded and energon got on the ceiling and it didn't get scrubbed off, further patients would never know that someone had bled in the medbay. Absently, Perceptor catalogued his injuries.

He'd taken massive damage to his chestplates, his arms were shredded, but his head and optics were fine. He remembered looking at the surface of Starscream's wing and figured that the wing must have absorbed the damage his head would have taken if not for the shield of Starscream's body.

He turned his head to see Starscream on the berth next to him. The flyer's wings were a mess, as was the back of his helm. Medics were all around him, working on the multiple leaks from the wings and back.

"We've got you," a voice came from above him, and a medic injected something into his primary energon line.

Perceptor allowed himself to sink back into oblivious recharge.

First Fight

"Am I not good enough?" Perceptor asked.

Starscream whirled. "Argh! You just don't get it, do you? I want to explore! This world is pulling me down! He's a fine mech, and he's a shuttle and a scientist. We have an opportunity to map worlds for the Exploration Arm of the Science Academy and I want to do this!" His vocal component had never recovered from the accident and his voice was always shrill, but it got worse when he was upset.

"But, why can't I be part of your team?" Perceptor wanted to know.

Starscream glared at him. "Because you can't fly, you're groundbased. Even your alt-mode doesn't move! We have to be mobile, able to get out of situations and be independent! "

Perceptor asked, "But if he's a shuttle, does that mean you're going to fly in him?"

Starscream shook his head, "I'm having mods installed that will allow me to fly in space under my own power."

"I can change, too." Perceptor begged.

Starscream looked at him with pity in his optics, and Perceptor cringed. He'd never gotten pity from Starscream before, and he'd never given Starscream any pity; it was one of the reasons they got along well enough to continue being lab partners.

"We have already worked up the proposal, have had it approved, and we're leaving in an orn. I simply thought you'd like to know where I was going since I will be leaving you in the lab alone. It wasn't an invitation, Perceptor." Starscream collected himself, his voice going back down to more normal levels.

Perceptor stood there, absorbing what Starscream said and furthermore, what he didn't say. Finally, he lifted his head and nodded.

"I understand. Good hunting, Starscream. May the winds of space never knock you off-course."

First Time Back

Perceptor walked along the halls, absently returning greetings from students, as he went through his electronic communication. He refused to read any communications from the Academy when he was working, since they tended to fracture his concentration and his work was more important. The Academy had learned that if there was something really important, a runner had to be sent to Perceptor's lab with instructions to physically pull the mech from his work and deliver him to whichever meeting or lecture needed him. Perceptor was now teamed with an engineer and inventor named Wheeljack. Wheeljack tended to grab Perceptor to give a lecture to students occasionally, but for the most part, 'Jack handled the student side of their shared job and let Perceptor loose in the lab. Their latest creation, a way to artificially create energon from petroleum products, was undergoing testing under Perceptor's close supervision, since Wheeljack admitted that this was the kind of work that tended to blow up in his face. Perceptor, on the other hand, was always extremely careful, having learned his lesson from the explosion that had damaged Starscream in his younger days.

Perceptor had just recently surfaced from his experiments and, as was his wont, was reacquainting himself with the world outside his lab.

He stopped as he saw someone he'd not expected to see for another four or five vorns. Starscream was standing in the middle of the hall, looking right at him.

"Starscream!" Perceptor said, walking forward quickly. "It's good to see you! I wasn't expecting you, but come, tell me about your adventures!" He laid a hand on Starscream's arm, giving a subtle tug.

Starscream resisted the pull and said, "You haven't read the memo, have you?"

Perceptor asked, "What memo?"

Starscream huffed air. "Read your mail."

Perceptor quickly scanned through his inbox and found two communiqués that looked probable, opening them and reading them.

He looked up at Starscream. "You lost your partner? Star, I am so sorry. Come, let's go to my lab. It's quiet and we can talk."

Starscream had no defenses against Perceptor's assumptions and followed him. Once in the lab, he told Perceptor everything over cubes of high grade, breaking down finally.

"They won't let me return to rescue him! I'm sure they don't believe me, but I didn't kill him. He's alive, just lost somewhere on that world, and it gets cold enough that it will freeze a mech and leave him in indefinite stasis. Why did I have to lose him?"

Perceptor wrapped Starscream in a hug, comforting his friend as best he could. "We'll think of something, Starscream. I know of a couple of mechs that might be able to help us. We'll call them tomorrow."

"Thanks, 'Cept." Starscream murmured, drooping now that the emotional storm had passed.

Perceptor led him over to the berth in the corner of the room and let him drift to sleep there, returning to the workbench to write up his ideas for Starscream and his thoughts on the possibilities of finding Skyfire.

Avoidance, or the time Perceptor DIDN'T see Starscream

Perceptor followed on Wheeljack's pedes as they raced through the headquarters of the Autobots. Wheeljack had let him stay in his lab as long as possible, finishing an experiment, but the time to leave was now.

Wheeljack suddenly grabbed him and pulled him into a nook in the hallway, pushing Perceptor in first and placing himself in front, his back to the hall and his arms wrapped around Perceptor. He pushed Perceptor's face into the crook of his neck and crowded him into the corner. An explosive wave raced down the hall, fire and gasses and bits of wall and ceiling all jumbled together in a fiery mass before rapidly retreating. Wheeljack's frame was build to take that kind of punishment, and Perceptor was grateful that his friend had protected him.

Wheeljack unwrapped himself and peered into the hallway, then grabbed Perceptor by the arm and pulled him back the way they'd come.

"But…!" protested Perceptor, "the exit is that way!"

Wheeljack shushed him, pulling him into the lab and then into the tiny closet that Perceptor had always used to store his berth. They huddled together as heavy footsteps came closer, entering the lab.

"Is this the place?" A deep voice asked.

"I think so. Lemme comm the commander." A lighter voice said.

It was quiet for a long time, then light footsteps came into the room, and a voice Perceptor would never forget said, "Excellent. Yes, this is it. Take everything, he always kept meticulous notes. Don't trash the place; we'll blow it up." With that, Starscream's footsteps left the lab.

Wheeljack slowly reached out and turned the lock for the door as Perceptor listened, horrified that his work would be taken by Decepticons and used against the Autobots.

The two mechs worked quickly, loading all of Perceptor's datapads into subspace, then checking all over the lab for anything useful. They tried the door, but since it was locked, they merely commed their coordinator that information, then finally, they left.

Wheeljack opened the door and pulled Perceptor out, running through the lab to his own lab, next door. His lab had not yielded as much useful knowledge for the Decepticons, and they had ransacked the place. Wheeljack took them over to his washroom and tucked them both into the stall.

"Wheeljack, I don't think this is the time to get clean." Perceptor said primly.

Wheeljack didn't respond, reaching over Perceptor and fiddling with the showerhead.

The stall revolved, stopping at 180 degrees. Wheeljack pulled Perceptor off the stall's floor, then the stall continued around, back to its original position.

They were in a tunnel, and Wheeljack started moving along it rapidly. Perceptor was sputtering, confused and uncertain. Wheeljack stopped and shoved him against the wall.

"This just got serious. I've thought that Optimus was making headway in his negotiations with Megatron, and we might be able to stave off war, but now, I know we're fighting. Everything we do has to be for the greater good. The only way we can help is by coming up with weapons or inventions or ideas that help the Autobots, and to do that, we need to survive. Starscream's here to rip off all our data and hard work and use it to fuel the uprising, and once he's gotten everything useful from the lab complex, he's going to blow the place up. We have very little time, Perceptor, to get our afts out from under this place and get to safety. So I suggest that you save your questions and move!"

Wheeljack turned and began running down the tunnel. Perceptor looked behind him, then resolutely turned his face to the future and ran after Wheeljack.

Finis.