[Transformers] Days Long Past
Title: Days Long Past
Setting: You can all blame ajremix for this one. I felt sorry for Octane (though er, I hadn't exactly set out to write that particular sequence of events, but yeah. Not my fault!) Set long after the events of With all thy Mercies, A Warm and Tender Devil Soul & Under Clearer Skies.
Characters: Octane, Fireflight, cameo by the other Aerialbots
Days Long Past
"His years with others must the sweeter be,
For those brief days he spent in loving me."
- George Eliot
A long time from now...
It's been forever and more and yet he finds himself standing here, the newly-signed peace treaty still so fresh and recent that the glares sent his way feel like nothing more than the usual routine.
He remembers fingertips pressing to his wing, trying to offer sympathy and understanding and care to someone to whom nothing was owed and takes a step forward and then another. It is a memory that has been sustaining him for far longer than he'd ever realized, a memory that drives him on now in what is no longer enemy territory, through looks and whispers that no longer carry the weight they once did.
He remembers the first one who steps in his path, the arrogant tilt to voice and manner still present though muted somehow. He's expected he knows and after a moment and with a great deal of reluctance, the path is clear once more. The group's leader limps up to him and nods slowly, then leads him deeper within the compound until they reach a door, barred tight to block out the outside world.
"He's in there. Hasn't been out since... yeah."
He stares at the door for a while, until the leader steps back and limps away, drawing the others who had gathered away with him, their protests brushed away with a single, tired gesture. In the silence of the hallway he stares at the door until he loses track of time. The words won't come and he doesn't know what to say and with a resigned creaking of joints and weary servos, he slowly leans forward until his forehead is resting on the cool surface.
"He was happy with you."
The words hang there for the longest time and there is no answer, no motion in reply from the other side of the door. It feels as though time is standing still and he isn't sure coming here, blundering his way through this is anything either of them can handle.
"I'd never see him as happy as when he was with you."
But there was nothing else he could do - it was the least he could do - and so he continues, regardless of anything else. There is no one waiting for him, and no other place to go. Here seems as fine a place as any to stay, as long as it takes.
"Thank you."
It isn't until the door opens and the red and white lunges for him, engine keening high and desperate while he clings to the triplechanger, that Octane realizes he let go of his own grief long ago.
Setting: You can all blame ajremix for this one. I felt sorry for Octane (though er, I hadn't exactly set out to write that particular sequence of events, but yeah. Not my fault!) Set long after the events of With all thy Mercies, A Warm and Tender Devil Soul & Under Clearer Skies.
Characters: Octane, Fireflight, cameo by the other Aerialbots
Days Long Past
"His years with others must the sweeter be,
For those brief days he spent in loving me."
- George Eliot
A long time from now...
It's been forever and more and yet he finds himself standing here, the newly-signed peace treaty still so fresh and recent that the glares sent his way feel like nothing more than the usual routine.
He remembers fingertips pressing to his wing, trying to offer sympathy and understanding and care to someone to whom nothing was owed and takes a step forward and then another. It is a memory that has been sustaining him for far longer than he'd ever realized, a memory that drives him on now in what is no longer enemy territory, through looks and whispers that no longer carry the weight they once did.
He remembers the first one who steps in his path, the arrogant tilt to voice and manner still present though muted somehow. He's expected he knows and after a moment and with a great deal of reluctance, the path is clear once more. The group's leader limps up to him and nods slowly, then leads him deeper within the compound until they reach a door, barred tight to block out the outside world.
"He's in there. Hasn't been out since... yeah."
He stares at the door for a while, until the leader steps back and limps away, drawing the others who had gathered away with him, their protests brushed away with a single, tired gesture. In the silence of the hallway he stares at the door until he loses track of time. The words won't come and he doesn't know what to say and with a resigned creaking of joints and weary servos, he slowly leans forward until his forehead is resting on the cool surface.
"He was happy with you."
The words hang there for the longest time and there is no answer, no motion in reply from the other side of the door. It feels as though time is standing still and he isn't sure coming here, blundering his way through this is anything either of them can handle.
"I'd never see him as happy as when he was with you."
But there was nothing else he could do - it was the least he could do - and so he continues, regardless of anything else. There is no one waiting for him, and no other place to go. Here seems as fine a place as any to stay, as long as it takes.
"Thank you."
It isn't until the door opens and the red and white lunges for him, engine keening high and desperate while he clings to the triplechanger, that Octane realizes he let go of his own grief long ago.