TF: Arrangement

[wildernesstales]

Rating: PG-13
Series: G1
Pairings: Starscream/Ratchet
Summary: They always managed to meet when they needed to.  Just to sit and talk, or simply be themselves.
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: As per usual, the good things in life are not mine to have, but belong to someone else... in this case Hasbro, Takara and IDW and anyone else I’ve forgotten…
Authors Notes: For the tf_rare_pairing  prompt - Ratchet/Starscream: dancing among the stars.
Feedback makes friends.  Flames dealt with by the masters of paranoia and fire, Red Alert and Inferno.
 

He couldn’t help but stare.  It was a graceful sight; Starscream’s form backlit by the moon, silhouetted against the night sky.  The orange heat from his thrusters was just visible as he soared and dove through the sky.  Dancing with the stars, he’d called it once.  Ratchet thought that was certainly accurate; Starscream looked like he was performing a complex dance with the way he twisted and turned in the air.

Ratchet shifted position, taking a sip of his energon, even as he kept his optics focussed on Starscream’s form.  He’d lost track of how long he’d been out there watching his lover, but he didn’t care.  The thrill he got from watching Starscream in his natural habitat easily overrode any feelings of discomfort he got.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It hadn’t been a planned meeting – Ratchet had gone out for a drive after the latest battle, assured that all his patients were out of the danger zone.  He needed to get away, to think about something that wasn’t work and relax.  And then he’d heard Starscream’s engines.  The Seeker had landed in front of him, already transformed, hands resting on his hips.  Ratchet had skidded to a halt before transforming and glaring at Starscream.
“What are you doing here?”
“I was flying.  You?” Starscream smiled that insufferably smug smile that never failed to make Ratchet’s spark skip a pulse.
“Driving.” The simple exchange was almost too much.  Starscream’s smile widened and he launched himself into the air, transforming and firing his thrusters.  Ratchet just stood and watched, taken in by the sight.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Many casualties?” Starscream asked once he’d landed and settled on the ground next to Ratchet.
“As always.” Ratchet shrugged and passed Starscream a cube of energon.
“I wish I could say I was sorry.” Starscream offered, nodding his thanks to Ratchet for the cube.  Ratchet shrugged again.
“If you said you were sorry, I think I’d worry.” While they were on different sides of the war, somehow, they managed to forget that when they were together.  They didn’t talk of the present, never spoke about the future and only touched on the past when they were reminiscing.  Yet their conversations always lasted long into the night.

And as time passed, the conversations became more than that.  It was an escape for the both of them.  Somewhere and someone with whom they could be themselves, not just the Autobot CMO or the Decepticon Air Commander.

And even then, things became more.  They got closer and closer and neither one of them could now say who had made the first move.  All they could remember was the pleasure of the other’s touch.  And they kept coming back to one another.  Somehow.  Their meetings weren’t planned, but it was as if they knew the other needed them, and they made their excuses to leave.  The meeting place was never the same either.  Sometimes it would be an open road in the middle of the night, sometimes a forest clearing early in the morning.  Wherever and whenever, they were always there.

“You’re thinking again.” Starscream nudged Ratchet with his elbow, jolting the medic out of his thoughts.
“So I was.”
“What about?”
“Us.”
“Oh.” It was an unspoken arrangement that they never talked about what had happened, or what could happen.
“What do you think will happen after the war ends?”
“Some days, Ratchet, I’m not even sure the war will end.” Starscream huffed a sigh, settling himself neatly against Ratchet’s side, wings carefully spread.  “And let’s not talk about the war, hmm?”
“Better things to talk about?”
“Better things to do…” And Starscream proceeded to show Ratchet exactly what better things he had in mind.