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Skyfire tried to ignore the freezing cold whipping and bashing at his plating. The storm had grown since he'd passed over the mountain tops. This was meant to be a simple routine mission to drop off some equipment at one of the Autobots’ northern bases, but the route required him to fly through so many snowy mountains.
He hated the cold; the way it stuck to his plating and dug its way into each and every line in his circuits.
It was different in space. Space was cold, yes, but that was just an endless open void. On Earth, cold was a physical force in the form of rain and ice. It could drip past the seams in his plating, dig its way in and freeze his inner circuits. Skyfire imagined that cold once again engulfing him, oppressing every circuit of his frame until he couldn't even move--
Skyfire shook himself out of those thoughts. He knew the weather was never as tumultuous now as it had been back so long ago. Besides, this time other mechs knew the route he was taking. Even if he crashed it wouldn't take long before they would be able to locate him and send a rescue.
Skyfire forced himself to focus. Only a few more miles of this landscape and then he'd be out of the snow. Maybe on the way home, he'd take a different route.
Skyfire detected a blip on his sensors; another vehicle was approaching fast. It had to be some sort of aerial judging by how quickly it moved over the uneven terrain. Skyfire wondered if it was an earth jet, but then he caught the flash of a rather distinctive set of colours on its plating.
"Oh no..."
It was Starscream.
Skyfire immediately banked left and flew lower to the ground. Starscream didn't seem to be heading in the same direction as him; it looked like he had been sent here on some other mission. Hopefully they would simply go in opposite paths if they just...
Starscream started to change his course to tail Skyfire. He had been spotted.
Skyfire cursed inwardly. He didn't really have much hope of outmanoeuvring or outgunning a seeker, let alone Starscream. He had to hope Starscream wouldn't want to engage in a fire fight.
A missile streaking past him told him that Starscream probably did.
::[There you are, traitor!]:: Starscream sent out a public comm. ::[Why don't you just surrender and come with me back to the Decepticons as my prisoner?]::
::[Star, it doesn't have to be like this.]::
::[You're the one who chose to leave and join those sanctimonious Autobots!]::
Skyfire took another sharp turn just as the winds picked up.
::[Star, please! We don't have to resort to fighting!]::
::[Speak for yourself.]:: Starscream said with the kind of glee he used to reserve for a particularly difficult science problem.
The wind and snow were picking up. Skyfire could only hope the limited visibility would help him lose Starscream, but still a bolt of fire rushed past him. Skyfire made another sudden bank to the left.
The winds were getting worse, Skyfire could barely see. It was suddenly as though he were back in that storm. The one where he crashed.
Skyfire's sensors maybe turned off for a moment. He was sure he’d just imagined that sudden patch of pure white ahead of him. And there was the sensation of chilled water crawling down the lines of his circuitry and freezing up. He wouldn't be able to move, and then he'd be trapped again, and this time nobody would find his body.
::[Skyfire? What are you doing?]::
Skyfire wasn't really watching where he was going, he just stared blankly forward.
::[SKYFIRE! SNAP OUT OF IT! YOU'RE GOING TO CRASH!]::
Skyfire only just managed to snap out of his reverie as he saw he was about to ram straight into the ground. He tried to pull up, but his thrusters failed to respond. Once again there was nothing he could do to avoid his fate.
He braced himself for impact as he crashed into the mountainside. As he skidded to a halt, his engines stopped cold. Once again, snow began to cover his frame. Then, just as before, everything went dark.
Skyfire hadn't been expecting to wake up. He was surprised when he onlined and found he wasn't encased in ice. He seemed to be in a cave, though it was not exactly large. It was only just wide enough for him to lay down in, and probably not tall enough for him to stand up. Though it was enough right for the other jet standing at the cave’s entrance.
"Starscream?" Skyfire called out.
Starscream was looking out into the snow beyond, his stare hard and impassive.
"Starscream?" Skyfire called again. He tried to sit up, but he wasn't expecting to feel so cold. He could tell where the ice on his frame had melted and turned into trickling water running down his circuits. He checked his internal temperature and saw it was several degrees below average, the sort to be expected in this sort of climate, but still within the optimal range. Skyfire wrapped his arms around himself and started to shake his wings, anything to get a bit of warmth back in him.
Finally Starscream turned his glare towards Skyfire.
"Hpmh, you're awake. It's about time." He stepped forward, letting the click of his heels sound especially loud as he stepped closer. He held his arms behind his back and regarded Skyfire like a drill sergeant about to grill a particularly impertinent recruit. "We've got to wait until this blasted storm has died down before we can get out of here."
"How... did we get here?" Skyfire said, recalling the unpleasant details of how they got to be in this situation. "You shot me down?"
Starscream's wings shot as far upward as his frame would allow and he began to storm around the cave.
"How dare you. I most certainly did not."
"Then... what happened?"
"You crashed. Of your own accord. Now don't you feel foolish?" He gave Skyfire a hard glare and resumed his pacing.
"No, I don't," said Skyfire. "I wouldn't have crashed if you hadn't started firing at me."
"And I wouldn't have started firing at you if you had simply agreed to be my prisoner and come back with me to the Decepticon base."
"Hmph!" Skyfire huffed as he sat up, pulling his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them. "That hardly seems like a choice."
"Still, the moment this storm is over I'm taking you back to the Decepticons as my rightful prisoner," Starscream said in his most haughty voice.
"You must be joking."
"Of course not, do I look like I'm joking? I shot you out of the sky, fair and square."
Skyfire scoffed. "Yes, shooting at someone after they've had a panic attack. Very fair and noble."
Starscream paused, opening and closing his mouth several times before turning his back on Skyfire. He crossed his arms and then sat down in a huff, staring out at the snow again. It looked like he was trying to stop the storm through the sheer force of his glare.
Skyfire waited until he realised that Starscream wasn't going to say anything, so he got himself comfortable. Well, as comfortable as one could be. It was very cold, and all the melted ice fragments had managed to invade his plating. And trapped like this, there were limited ways he could warm himself up again. He hugged himself tighter and brought his wings closer, doing anything he could to trap the heat around him.
"Will you stop that infernal noise?" Starscream shouted. Skyfire looked down at his rattling plating. Apparently he had not done that good a job of hiding his shivering.
"I'm sorry," Skyfire said. "It's just so cold."
"It's not that cold." Starscream rolled his optics. "You're just whining."
"No, it is cold, can't you feel it?" It was definitely cold, it was all around him. He could feel it digging into his plating. The cold seeped in through his lines like icy water. His temperature was dropping.
He checked his internals again, though it showed he was at just the same temperature as he had just been a moment ago. That couldn't be possible! It was much colder now, he was sure of it. Maybe his temperature gauge was frozen. Maybe none of his internals were reading correctly because he was shutting down, maybe he'd go into stasis again if he didn't warm up soon. His vents started heaving as he thought about what would happen this time if he fell into deep stasis, and never woke up again.
"Skyfire? Skyfire, look at me." Someone was holding his head. Their touch was so warm on his cheeks. He stared up at a set of bright red optics. Bright burning blazing red.
"It's okay," the figure before him said, "it'll be okay."
Skyfire listened to the voice, trying to believe it.
"E-e-everything's so cold..." Skyfire shivered.
The figure removed his hands from Skyfire's face and instead wrapped them around his frame. Skyfire reached out his arms and wrapped them tightly around the other figure, desperate to gain their warmth, desperate to get rid of the overwhelming cold.
"Sssh, it's okay," Starscream said as he stroked Skyfire's head. Starscream was warm. He wasn't so warm that he made all the cold go away, but there was enough to stave it off for now.
"I don't want to go offline..." Skyfire whimpered. "I don't want to fall into stasis."
"You won't," Starscream said. "I'm right here. I promise."
Skyfire buried his face in Starscream's chest. Starscream just stayed by his side and kept comforting him.
Eventually Skyfire's panic started to recede. He was still shaking, whether from the cold or from the panic he couldn't tell, but he could feel himself returning to lucidity.
Starscream hadn't moved; he still had his arms wrapped around Skyfire and still stroked his helm softly. Skyfire lifted his head and saw Starscream again staring blankly into the snow outside.
Eventually Skyfire spoke in a tiny mumbled, "Thank you."
"It's alright," Starscream said.
"I... I don't do well with the cold," Skyfire tried to laugh. "It reminds me too much of..."
"I know," Starscream cut him off. There was a long pause between them. "Is there anything I can do?"
"Hold me."
Starscream nodded. Skyfire laid down by Starscream's side and held the seeker close in his arms. It wasn't much, there was still the chill around them and the howl of the wind outside, but at least Starscream was still beside him.
Skyfire stared into Starscream's optics.
"I used to dream of this, when I was trapped. I imagined you would appear and come and save me from the ice."
"Stop being so sentimental, Skyfire," Starscream huffed.
"But you just..."
"It's too late now. You're the one that chose to be with the Autobots."
"I know, and I miss you every day."
"Look, just shut up and go to recharge already. I don't want to talk about this."
"Okay," Skyfire mumbled as he shuttered his optics.
He had worried with the ice and the snow he wouldn't be able to get any recharge at all, but with Starscream there he found he soon drifted off.
In Skyfire's sleep he thought he heard a voice.
"I miss you too," it said. "For all those years I missed you. I dreamed of coming back and finding you, or you'd just appear on Cybertron one day. Those dreams never stopped."
Skyfire didn't move.
"And then I finally found you again, and you just had to leave and spoil everything. Now you're here and yet I miss you more than ever."
"I'm sorry." Skyfire onlined his optics to see Starscream's bright red ones illuminating the darkness. On Starscream's face was a look of stark terror at realising he had been overheard.
Starscream looked as if he might bolt and scurry out into the night and fly away rather than stay and face the consequences of his confession. However, Skyfire still had his arms wrapped around Starscream, so he couldn't easily escape.
"I really am sorry," Skyfire said. "Leaving you was the most painful thing I ever did."
"Then why did you do it?" Starscream's optics narrowed into slits.
"I just couldn't stand to fight alongside the Decepticons. I couldn't stay and do what I know isn't right."
"You just can't see what the Decepticon cause is, what it was."
"I can see what it's become."
Starscream fell silent again, looking away from Skyfire. It made Skyfire's spark feel heavy with guilt.
"I still wish we could be together. Do you think there's a way we could fix things?"
"You agree to come back to the Decepticons?"
"What? As your prisoner?"
"No, of your own volition."
Skyfire smiled.
"I'm not sure I can. I don't think I could."
Starscream's optics dropped and he turned away.
"I know."
"Maybe one day, this war could end peacefully, and then maybe we could be together again?" Skyfire said hopefully.
Starscream snorted. "Megatron would never allow that, he's too stubborn."
"I think Prime would."
"Don't be fooled by Prime, he's just as immoveable. I don't think the two will ever come to a compromise."
"Would you? If you were in charge of the Decepticons?"
Starscream thought. "Maybe, I think it would be nice not to have to squabble all the time, but I'd like at least a few years leading the army when I take over before I have to give it up, you know?"
"Very well. In that case, when you take over as Decepticon leader, the longer you keep the war going on, the longer I'll refuse to talk to you."
"What? That's not fair!" Starscream squawked. Skyfire chuckled.
"I think it's very fair."
"It is extremely unfair, I feel. Skyfire, you are being unreasonable."
"Then find a way to make the war end."
"That's quite a lofty ask."
"Still, I think that's the only way we'll be able to make things work."
"Hmph! Why do you have to be so stubborn?"
"I think I learnt from the best."
"What? How dare you!" Starscream started hitting his sides. "The impertinence!"
Skyfire chuckled. "Those are my terms."
"And they say I'm the evil manipulator."
"Yes, indeed." Skyfire pulled Starscream closer and leaned his head on his shoulder, softly whispering into his audials. "When the war ends we can get a new home together, work on science experiments and make Cybertron the grandest it has ever been. All in your image. We'll have a beautiful apartment in Vos, with a large balcony big enough for a runway, lavish crystal structures, and those sort of hanging chairs with the low backs so your wings have all the space."
"You've been thinking about this."
"I have."
"It's a nice fantasy."
"But it doesn't have to just be that."
Starscream hummed in a way that Skyfire knew meant he was intensely thinking through his proposal. "It does sound very nice. Maybe one day."
"One day, I promise," Skyfire said.
"It would be nice," Starscream mumbled as his arms wrapped around Skyfire's neck. The two pulled in close, both of them perfectly warm despite the cold.
When Skyfire woke up, he found he was alone. He looked around the cave, but there was no one else there, and outside there was no wind or snow, only light streaming in through the cave entrance.
There was no evidence Starscream had been here at all, except for the lingering warmth on his plating.
Outside Skyfire heard the crunch of someone walking through snow. A moment later, a familiar head popped through the cave entrance.
"Oh hey, Skyfire! We found you," Jazz smiled at him, and Skyfire found himself smiling back automatically. "We were getting worried about you."
Skyfire stood up, shaking his wings.
"Thank you, I just got grounded by the storm, it came up very suddenly. Thank you for coming back for me."
"Of course, we weren't gonna leave you. Come on, let's get back to base." Jazz led him out and Skyfire saw a small party of Autobots who had been sent to collect him. He hadn't been abandoned when he crashed.
"Sorry we couldn't get to you until now. The weather made it hard to pick up on a signal."
"It's okay." The storm had cleared, and now the sun beat down on Skyfire’s wings, warming his circuits. He hummed contentedly.
"Sadly, it'll be a bit of a long walk back to base."
"I can probably fly now. At least there's no storm anymore," Skyfire looked out across the mountains, hoping to catch a glimpse of silver wings amongst the clouds.
"Only if you're feeling up for it," Jazz said.
"I think it'll be safe. Besides, I want to stretch my wings."
He transformed and allowed the party of Autobots to hop along inside. Once they were in he fired up his engines and took off, happy to be away from that little cave but still thinking fondly of having Starscream in his arms.
As he was flying he got a private comm.
::[I'll hold you to that proposal,]:: said Starscream.
Skyfire chuckled.
::[Okay then, I promise it'll be so.]::
::[It better.]:: The comm went silent for a second before it came back. ::[I'm glad you're safe.]::
Skyfire paused, replaying those words in his mind.
::[Thank you.]::
::[Just promise you won't mention it to anyone. Or I will kill you]::
::[Of course.]::