Chapter 17
Typewith: http://typewith.me/thatonewithoilslickyoumeanallofourfics
Like I said on the ff.net chapter, I'm not going to put up the Optimus/Skywarp just yet. It is a pain to edit, and I just don't want to anymore. I'll be working on another to put up.
It's silent when he onlines. Blessedly silent.
Sleipnir are apparently nocturnal hunters, because when he looks out the window, there are none anywhere in sight.
Grapple is already online, sitting up, and pacing nervously. The cranebot looks at him for a moment before returning to pacing. Optimus sighs softly, "Do you think it's safe to leave the room yet?"
The mech shrugs, "I don't know. I could go look, but I'm kind of worried about what I'll find. If I take you with me, I'll draw more in, and if I leave you behind, they may get bolder and break in."
He looks at the berth, "Well, if we both go, we can defend ou-"
He cuts himself off to the sound of the door opening, and Wildrider steps in quickly. "Okay, you two, I'm told there's a sudden outbreak in sleipnir, and you both got the worst of it." They both nod, and the mech pulls out several cloths, some bowls, and very strong solvent. "You need to get cleaned up so that you aren't getting tracked by them. You're both in danger because you're a-"
Optimus rolls his optics, "Because I'm a virgin-"
"And I'm sparkbroken," Grapple cuts in.
A blink, and then, "Yes. Exactly. In any case, the sleipnir do not come out during the day, as it is when they are most vulnerable and easiest to attack them."
"But Loki came to Sari during the day," Grapple protests, and Wildrider wrings his servos nervously.
"Yes, but she is the High Priestess. Sleipnir do odd things around them." He holds out a box of shimmering powder, "I would recommend that you rub a bit of this on your sparks. It is Sleipnir powder, very rare since they were thought to be extinct. If a Sleipnir does manage to get you open, if they taste this on your spark, they will believe you have been interfaced by another marked bot, and it will distract their senses long enough for you to escape. Hopefully."
That isn't reassuring.
He takes the box, setting it on the side of the berth along with the other supplies. "Anything else we need?"
The mech shakes his head, "No. I'll be out in the main room to make sure you aren't attacked suddenly, anyway. Like I said, Priestesses make them act funny. I wouldn't be surprised if one tries to sneak out to get you anyway. Just call for me, and I'll be back instantly for you. I'm not doing a special knock or anything like that even if you want one. The things li-"
He nods, "Copy. I know. We got that. But they can't open doors?"
The bot taps the door, "See how the knobs are specialized? You need thumbs to get 'em open. No way to force open or anything like that. Thumbs are a requirement."
"It must be difficult for bots who do not possess thumbs, then. Or have enough fingers to turn the knobs." Optimus doesn't think that seems right, to exclude groups of bots from safety.
Wildrider shakes his head, "No. If you live here, you pay our taxes, and you are automatically enrolled for a modification to get something that will alow you to open the doors here. Even when we thought sleipnir were extinct, we followed this rule."
He nods thoughtfully, "And the visitors to the planet?"
The bot pulls out a datapad, "In the list of contact information I gave you earlier, it lists that you must have thumbs if you plan on visiting. We have every right to demand you leave if you don't." The datapad is handed over, the part showing this highlighted. "See?"
He looks it over, and nods, "Well, that does cover that. And the bots that want to visit but don't have thumbs are told to get a modification."
"Yes. If you get the mod and later move to our planet, we reimburse the credits for the procedure to the bots who have had it. It is the fairest way to keep our population safe." Wildrider smiles apologetically at them. "Please, go wash the dust off your armor and put a bit on your sparks. You may want to do this with fresh dust from the Priestess's sleipnir if you have to spend time with it in the future, Optimus Prime, sir."
He nods reluctantly, and Wildrider leaves the room. He looks down at the dust, taking some before offering the box to Grapple. The cranebot makes a face as he takes the box, "I don't think I like this fraggin' planet."
Turning away, he opens his plates to put the dust on his spark, "I don't either, and I'm not very fond of putting this on my spark." It feels ... odd. Makes him kinda sick, as well. He's a bit dizzy from it and it isn't the least bit fun. When he turns back, Grapple looks as disorented as he feels.
The bot drops in the berth, pulling a cloth over and pouring the solvents into one of the bowls. "Let's get this over with."
The solvent stings, but it's far from the worst thing he's ever cleaned himself with. It hurts more to think of the sparklings that had to undergo cleanings like this, when they would hardly understand why they were being polished with something that hurt so badly. At least the sick feeling is slowly fading away as his spark adapts to the dust on it.
He hopes the dust on his spark fades away by the time he bonds to Ultra.
They're about part way through when the console beeps. Optimus winces, he'd forgotten completely about comming Ultra. Reaching over, he turns it on and returns to scrubbing Grapple as the bot cleans him, "Hello, Ultra."
His intended looks at him in confusion, "Is... is there any reason you're doing such a harsh scrubbing this morning?"
Grapple hisses irritably as Optimus works on a scrape in the bot's armor, "We're cleaning to keep sleipnir away. No clue if it will actually work, though."
"The texts say that removing the powder will help," Ultra looks like he hasn't recharged all night long, and there's a stack of datapads beside him. "You will leave that planet immediately, Optimus. If I have to order you as your Magnus, I will."
Optimus jerks up to attention, "Yes, sir. But I don't need an order to leave. I have no desire to stay here at all. I will return as soon as possible, after Wildrider finishes checking for sleipnir in the area."
Ultra looks relieved, "Good." His intended rubs his optics, "I don't trust the things, and I want you to stay as far away from them as possible."
Grapple and him make a face at that, and he works on the crane's helmet, "Good luck with that. Sari is keeping one as a pet. Called Loki."
Ultra's optics widen in shock and slight fear, "No. Optimus I don't want you to be in the same ship as that thing. You could offline, and I don-"
Grapple scowls, "We got told to use dust from it on our sparks to keep it from eating us."
Datapads go flying as Ultra pulls one from the middle of the stack and starts scrolling through it, expression unhappy, "That. . . might work. If the dust is harvested by the High Priestess herself. Otherwise it is inert the moment a normal bot touches it."
He stares at the dust in the box. "Then I sincerely hope this dust was harvested by a priestess in the past, or we put it on our sparks for no purpose."
Ultra studies the datapad, "Did you feel dizzy and kind of sick after applying it?"
They nod, and Grapple scrubs at Optimus a little harder when the bot finds a dent, "Yes. I almost fell over when it happened, and do you take care of your frame at all? You just went to the hospital and this happens."
He makes a face at the crane, and Ultra nods thoughtfully, "Then, yes. It should be okay. Sari is likely going to be asked to send dust to pretty much every sleipnir planet. She'll have to inform them of her preferences for consorts. Which is to say, for them not to send her any at all."
Otherwise she'd be surrounded by bots sent to Cybertron as offerings. Pretty racecar bots that she would have a difficult time turning down, especially if they are model class bots like Blurr.
Optimus just wants to go home. Curl up with Ultra on a berth and feel the warm pulsing of his spark through his armor, without worrying about a pair of blue optics peering in through his window at night.
He lets his servos drift over his sparkplates to clean them, aware that Ultra is watching.
Grapple grabs his servo, "Stop that. Your bot is half offline from worry, and you doing this won't help." The cranebot turns to Ultra, "You will call in sick this sol. Go recharge and know that Optimus can call you the very moment he gets to the ship."
Ultra blinks, "No. I need to go in. We have so-" his intended yawns, "some diplomats coming, and I need to warn them about sleipnir returning. It wouldn't be a good idea to just let that go unannounced. It will need to bring up old protocols that were out of use, and this is a sure sign that Sari is the High Priestess. Make it so they can't argue against it anymore."
He gets the sense that Ultra wants Sari to come to a council meeting riding on her sleipnir just to force the bots to accept her. It's not a bad idea, really. They couldn't deny her status then.
No one can ride a sleipnir other than a Priestess.
It is a simple fact that no bot could argue against. "I will inform her of that as soon as possible, Ultra." Optimus touches the screen. "Please, recharge for me now, sweetspark. You look so tired. You can reschedule the meeting for this evening instead."
Ultra blinks tiredly, "Let me watch you for a little longer, love. I miss you terribly when you aren't with me."
He smiles, not having the spark to deny his beloved. "Just for now, Ultra. But I don want you to recharge."
Ultra just nods, laying his arms across the console to rest his head, and watch Optimus with dim and tired optics. "Anything for you, my love."
He works on Grapple quickly, letting the mech clean him a little faster as well. He thinks he should say something, but everytime he's about to start, he see's Ultra dozing with dim optics at the screen, and he can't bring himself to say anything. When they're finished, Sari strides into the room, and glances over at the console, "Good. Get up, Ultra." The bot starts online, blinking rapidly, and she continues before Ultra can get his bearings, "You're going to go to bed. Sleep. You don't need to deal with this bullshit today, but you need to be fully rested tomorrow."
"I. . . yes. I won't be very coherent at the meeting today if I go with a spark full of worry." He kisses his fingertips and touches the screen. "Be well, my Optimus. I will contact you later this sol."
Optimus returns the finger kiss, and watches the screen go dark. "Why did you interrupt, Sari? I was talking to him, and-"
"And he needs the rest more than that. He's an old bot. Ancient old. Crumbling to bits old. You should let your old man love rest."
He gives her a dirty look, "He isn't that old, Sari."
She waves a servo, "We've been over this. Everyone is old. This is how it is." She points at Grapple, "You're clean." She points at Optimus, frowning for a half moment, "And you're clean." She claps her servos together, "Time to go to the ship. I gave the planet a supply of Loki's dust to refresh what they had left. What you guys got should work for now, so keep it with you, Grapple. Optimus should be perfectly safe in his room in the ship."
"Safe from Loki?" Grapple asks, and Sari snorts.
"The Allspark showed me how to turn off the spark-nomming part of his processor. I have to do it ever single fragging sol until it eventually fits into his code like normal. He might lick Optimus, but if Optimus showed him his spark, Loki wouldn't remember what to do with it."
That was far more reassuring than having a saferoom.
He hands the dust to Grapple, who puts it in his own subspace, and they walk out of the cottage. Sari is picked up by Afterburner the moment she's out of the building, and covered in kisses. She giggles loudly, cuddling her consort close, "Silly bot. I was barely gone." Afterburner just nuzzles her again, murmuring something softly that gets him a kiss.
Turning away, Optimus sees that Perceptor is looking at Loki with calculating interest, so he walks over to the science bot to hear what the mech has to say. He's kind of disappointed to hear, "You really aren't that bright, are you? I was hoping you'd be something wonderful, but you're just a multilegged and dumb turbohorse."
Loki looks significantly less shiny today after being de-dusted, and it makes an unhappy chiming sound before rubbing all over Perceptor, licking his chest after, only to make the unhappy chime again.
Sari doesn't even bother looking over. "Yeah. I get it. You don't have your dust and you're very upset about it. I really don't fragging care, Loki."
The sleipnir stamps its peds.
Optimus looks away, "Are we going back to the ship, then?"
Sari nods, "Yeah, just waiting for Berry and Lime to show up. I told them to go hunting before we left, and I don't want them to die of sadness." She cuddles against Afterburner sulkily, "Which is what Allspark says will happen if I take off without them with me." She looks much less upset as the racecar kisses her frame, "I can just leave Loki in one place after I have his programming set, while the laserhawks will want to follow me at almost all times." Her optics flicker and venting hitches at something Afterburner did to her winglets, and she tugs away, "Stop that. I don't care that we got woken up last night. We'll do that later."
"If you are certain, Sari," he says, tone full of regret. "I do not like waiting to pleasure you. You had to wake up early to collect Loki's dust, and I didn't even get to mmph," he's cut off by Sari's fingers in his mouth.
"Seriously. Another word out of you, and I'm gonna have to come up with some creative punishments for you not being able to shut up about private things."
Afterburner's optics dim and engine revs softly, "Of course, my Priestess."
She sighs softly, "Whatever." She slips out of the racecar's arms, and walks over to Optimus, "This will go faster if you take me back to the ship. You guys go in vehicle mode, and Loki, Berry, and Lime will catch up."
Optimus is about to point out that her laserhawks aren't here, when Lime dives into his line of sight.
It drops a petrorabbit at her peds, and she stares at it blankly.
"No. Just. No." She turns away from it and Lime screeches, diving down to pick the petrorabbit up again. Sari waits for Optimus to transform down, and slips inside him. There are immediately two laserhawks shooting laserbeams at him, and Optimus curses and tries to dodge as best as possible.
Sari just sighs and opens one of his doors, allowing Lime and Berry to hop inside. She glares at them as they settle in. "Stupid birds."
When they get to the ship, Optimus instantly goes back to his room when he lets Sari and her pets out. She waves at him vaguely, just like how he does in return, but doesn't pay much attention due to Afterburner grabbing her and kissing her.
He makes it into his room without incident, and closes the door very firmly. He kind of wishes there was a way for him to lock the door securely, since Loki kept looking at him with hungry optics the entire time he was driving.
He realizes that it won't eat him right now, but it is still slightly freaky to be looked at like a snack.
Optimus settles down at his desk and places his Ultra figurine out. He's going to get work done on it, and it should help him calm down about the fact that there's a virgin-eating monster on board the ship, just waiting for Sari to forget to refresh his coding.
On the upside, Optimus knows he can offline the beast if he needs to, because he's certainly had to fight worse things on training missions. It can't possibly stand up to some of the Decepticons he had to take down. He'll most likely have to do a temporary offlining, since Sari will be upset if Loki goes grey.
But if it goes for his spark, all bets are off.
He pulls out all of the various datapads Perceptor gave him and the tools as well, and settles in to work.
Like I said on the ff.net chapter, I'm not going to put up the Optimus/Skywarp just yet. It is a pain to edit, and I just don't want to anymore. I'll be working on another to put up.
It's silent when he onlines. Blessedly silent.
Sleipnir are apparently nocturnal hunters, because when he looks out the window, there are none anywhere in sight.
Grapple is already online, sitting up, and pacing nervously. The cranebot looks at him for a moment before returning to pacing. Optimus sighs softly, "Do you think it's safe to leave the room yet?"
The mech shrugs, "I don't know. I could go look, but I'm kind of worried about what I'll find. If I take you with me, I'll draw more in, and if I leave you behind, they may get bolder and break in."
He looks at the berth, "Well, if we both go, we can defend ou-"
He cuts himself off to the sound of the door opening, and Wildrider steps in quickly. "Okay, you two, I'm told there's a sudden outbreak in sleipnir, and you both got the worst of it." They both nod, and the mech pulls out several cloths, some bowls, and very strong solvent. "You need to get cleaned up so that you aren't getting tracked by them. You're both in danger because you're a-"
Optimus rolls his optics, "Because I'm a virgin-"
"And I'm sparkbroken," Grapple cuts in.
A blink, and then, "Yes. Exactly. In any case, the sleipnir do not come out during the day, as it is when they are most vulnerable and easiest to attack them."
"But Loki came to Sari during the day," Grapple protests, and Wildrider wrings his servos nervously.
"Yes, but she is the High Priestess. Sleipnir do odd things around them." He holds out a box of shimmering powder, "I would recommend that you rub a bit of this on your sparks. It is Sleipnir powder, very rare since they were thought to be extinct. If a Sleipnir does manage to get you open, if they taste this on your spark, they will believe you have been interfaced by another marked bot, and it will distract their senses long enough for you to escape. Hopefully."
That isn't reassuring.
He takes the box, setting it on the side of the berth along with the other supplies. "Anything else we need?"
The mech shakes his head, "No. I'll be out in the main room to make sure you aren't attacked suddenly, anyway. Like I said, Priestesses make them act funny. I wouldn't be surprised if one tries to sneak out to get you anyway. Just call for me, and I'll be back instantly for you. I'm not doing a special knock or anything like that even if you want one. The things li-"
He nods, "Copy. I know. We got that. But they can't open doors?"
The bot taps the door, "See how the knobs are specialized? You need thumbs to get 'em open. No way to force open or anything like that. Thumbs are a requirement."
"It must be difficult for bots who do not possess thumbs, then. Or have enough fingers to turn the knobs." Optimus doesn't think that seems right, to exclude groups of bots from safety.
Wildrider shakes his head, "No. If you live here, you pay our taxes, and you are automatically enrolled for a modification to get something that will alow you to open the doors here. Even when we thought sleipnir were extinct, we followed this rule."
He nods thoughtfully, "And the visitors to the planet?"
The bot pulls out a datapad, "In the list of contact information I gave you earlier, it lists that you must have thumbs if you plan on visiting. We have every right to demand you leave if you don't." The datapad is handed over, the part showing this highlighted. "See?"
He looks it over, and nods, "Well, that does cover that. And the bots that want to visit but don't have thumbs are told to get a modification."
"Yes. If you get the mod and later move to our planet, we reimburse the credits for the procedure to the bots who have had it. It is the fairest way to keep our population safe." Wildrider smiles apologetically at them. "Please, go wash the dust off your armor and put a bit on your sparks. You may want to do this with fresh dust from the Priestess's sleipnir if you have to spend time with it in the future, Optimus Prime, sir."
He nods reluctantly, and Wildrider leaves the room. He looks down at the dust, taking some before offering the box to Grapple. The cranebot makes a face as he takes the box, "I don't think I like this fraggin' planet."
Turning away, he opens his plates to put the dust on his spark, "I don't either, and I'm not very fond of putting this on my spark." It feels ... odd. Makes him kinda sick, as well. He's a bit dizzy from it and it isn't the least bit fun. When he turns back, Grapple looks as disorented as he feels.
The bot drops in the berth, pulling a cloth over and pouring the solvents into one of the bowls. "Let's get this over with."
The solvent stings, but it's far from the worst thing he's ever cleaned himself with. It hurts more to think of the sparklings that had to undergo cleanings like this, when they would hardly understand why they were being polished with something that hurt so badly. At least the sick feeling is slowly fading away as his spark adapts to the dust on it.
He hopes the dust on his spark fades away by the time he bonds to Ultra.
They're about part way through when the console beeps. Optimus winces, he'd forgotten completely about comming Ultra. Reaching over, he turns it on and returns to scrubbing Grapple as the bot cleans him, "Hello, Ultra."
His intended looks at him in confusion, "Is... is there any reason you're doing such a harsh scrubbing this morning?"
Grapple hisses irritably as Optimus works on a scrape in the bot's armor, "We're cleaning to keep sleipnir away. No clue if it will actually work, though."
"The texts say that removing the powder will help," Ultra looks like he hasn't recharged all night long, and there's a stack of datapads beside him. "You will leave that planet immediately, Optimus. If I have to order you as your Magnus, I will."
Optimus jerks up to attention, "Yes, sir. But I don't need an order to leave. I have no desire to stay here at all. I will return as soon as possible, after Wildrider finishes checking for sleipnir in the area."
Ultra looks relieved, "Good." His intended rubs his optics, "I don't trust the things, and I want you to stay as far away from them as possible."
Grapple and him make a face at that, and he works on the crane's helmet, "Good luck with that. Sari is keeping one as a pet. Called Loki."
Ultra's optics widen in shock and slight fear, "No. Optimus I don't want you to be in the same ship as that thing. You could offline, and I don-"
Grapple scowls, "We got told to use dust from it on our sparks to keep it from eating us."
Datapads go flying as Ultra pulls one from the middle of the stack and starts scrolling through it, expression unhappy, "That. . . might work. If the dust is harvested by the High Priestess herself. Otherwise it is inert the moment a normal bot touches it."
He stares at the dust in the box. "Then I sincerely hope this dust was harvested by a priestess in the past, or we put it on our sparks for no purpose."
Ultra studies the datapad, "Did you feel dizzy and kind of sick after applying it?"
They nod, and Grapple scrubs at Optimus a little harder when the bot finds a dent, "Yes. I almost fell over when it happened, and do you take care of your frame at all? You just went to the hospital and this happens."
He makes a face at the crane, and Ultra nods thoughtfully, "Then, yes. It should be okay. Sari is likely going to be asked to send dust to pretty much every sleipnir planet. She'll have to inform them of her preferences for consorts. Which is to say, for them not to send her any at all."
Otherwise she'd be surrounded by bots sent to Cybertron as offerings. Pretty racecar bots that she would have a difficult time turning down, especially if they are model class bots like Blurr.
Optimus just wants to go home. Curl up with Ultra on a berth and feel the warm pulsing of his spark through his armor, without worrying about a pair of blue optics peering in through his window at night.
He lets his servos drift over his sparkplates to clean them, aware that Ultra is watching.
Grapple grabs his servo, "Stop that. Your bot is half offline from worry, and you doing this won't help." The cranebot turns to Ultra, "You will call in sick this sol. Go recharge and know that Optimus can call you the very moment he gets to the ship."
Ultra blinks, "No. I need to go in. We have so-" his intended yawns, "some diplomats coming, and I need to warn them about sleipnir returning. It wouldn't be a good idea to just let that go unannounced. It will need to bring up old protocols that were out of use, and this is a sure sign that Sari is the High Priestess. Make it so they can't argue against it anymore."
He gets the sense that Ultra wants Sari to come to a council meeting riding on her sleipnir just to force the bots to accept her. It's not a bad idea, really. They couldn't deny her status then.
No one can ride a sleipnir other than a Priestess.
It is a simple fact that no bot could argue against. "I will inform her of that as soon as possible, Ultra." Optimus touches the screen. "Please, recharge for me now, sweetspark. You look so tired. You can reschedule the meeting for this evening instead."
Ultra blinks tiredly, "Let me watch you for a little longer, love. I miss you terribly when you aren't with me."
He smiles, not having the spark to deny his beloved. "Just for now, Ultra. But I don want you to recharge."
Ultra just nods, laying his arms across the console to rest his head, and watch Optimus with dim and tired optics. "Anything for you, my love."
He works on Grapple quickly, letting the mech clean him a little faster as well. He thinks he should say something, but everytime he's about to start, he see's Ultra dozing with dim optics at the screen, and he can't bring himself to say anything. When they're finished, Sari strides into the room, and glances over at the console, "Good. Get up, Ultra." The bot starts online, blinking rapidly, and she continues before Ultra can get his bearings, "You're going to go to bed. Sleep. You don't need to deal with this bullshit today, but you need to be fully rested tomorrow."
"I. . . yes. I won't be very coherent at the meeting today if I go with a spark full of worry." He kisses his fingertips and touches the screen. "Be well, my Optimus. I will contact you later this sol."
Optimus returns the finger kiss, and watches the screen go dark. "Why did you interrupt, Sari? I was talking to him, and-"
"And he needs the rest more than that. He's an old bot. Ancient old. Crumbling to bits old. You should let your old man love rest."
He gives her a dirty look, "He isn't that old, Sari."
She waves a servo, "We've been over this. Everyone is old. This is how it is." She points at Grapple, "You're clean." She points at Optimus, frowning for a half moment, "And you're clean." She claps her servos together, "Time to go to the ship. I gave the planet a supply of Loki's dust to refresh what they had left. What you guys got should work for now, so keep it with you, Grapple. Optimus should be perfectly safe in his room in the ship."
"Safe from Loki?" Grapple asks, and Sari snorts.
"The Allspark showed me how to turn off the spark-nomming part of his processor. I have to do it ever single fragging sol until it eventually fits into his code like normal. He might lick Optimus, but if Optimus showed him his spark, Loki wouldn't remember what to do with it."
That was far more reassuring than having a saferoom.
He hands the dust to Grapple, who puts it in his own subspace, and they walk out of the cottage. Sari is picked up by Afterburner the moment she's out of the building, and covered in kisses. She giggles loudly, cuddling her consort close, "Silly bot. I was barely gone." Afterburner just nuzzles her again, murmuring something softly that gets him a kiss.
Turning away, Optimus sees that Perceptor is looking at Loki with calculating interest, so he walks over to the science bot to hear what the mech has to say. He's kind of disappointed to hear, "You really aren't that bright, are you? I was hoping you'd be something wonderful, but you're just a multilegged and dumb turbohorse."
Loki looks significantly less shiny today after being de-dusted, and it makes an unhappy chiming sound before rubbing all over Perceptor, licking his chest after, only to make the unhappy chime again.
Sari doesn't even bother looking over. "Yeah. I get it. You don't have your dust and you're very upset about it. I really don't fragging care, Loki."
The sleipnir stamps its peds.
Optimus looks away, "Are we going back to the ship, then?"
Sari nods, "Yeah, just waiting for Berry and Lime to show up. I told them to go hunting before we left, and I don't want them to die of sadness." She cuddles against Afterburner sulkily, "Which is what Allspark says will happen if I take off without them with me." She looks much less upset as the racecar kisses her frame, "I can just leave Loki in one place after I have his programming set, while the laserhawks will want to follow me at almost all times." Her optics flicker and venting hitches at something Afterburner did to her winglets, and she tugs away, "Stop that. I don't care that we got woken up last night. We'll do that later."
"If you are certain, Sari," he says, tone full of regret. "I do not like waiting to pleasure you. You had to wake up early to collect Loki's dust, and I didn't even get to mmph," he's cut off by Sari's fingers in his mouth.
"Seriously. Another word out of you, and I'm gonna have to come up with some creative punishments for you not being able to shut up about private things."
Afterburner's optics dim and engine revs softly, "Of course, my Priestess."
She sighs softly, "Whatever." She slips out of the racecar's arms, and walks over to Optimus, "This will go faster if you take me back to the ship. You guys go in vehicle mode, and Loki, Berry, and Lime will catch up."
Optimus is about to point out that her laserhawks aren't here, when Lime dives into his line of sight.
It drops a petrorabbit at her peds, and she stares at it blankly.
"No. Just. No." She turns away from it and Lime screeches, diving down to pick the petrorabbit up again. Sari waits for Optimus to transform down, and slips inside him. There are immediately two laserhawks shooting laserbeams at him, and Optimus curses and tries to dodge as best as possible.
Sari just sighs and opens one of his doors, allowing Lime and Berry to hop inside. She glares at them as they settle in. "Stupid birds."
When they get to the ship, Optimus instantly goes back to his room when he lets Sari and her pets out. She waves at him vaguely, just like how he does in return, but doesn't pay much attention due to Afterburner grabbing her and kissing her.
He makes it into his room without incident, and closes the door very firmly. He kind of wishes there was a way for him to lock the door securely, since Loki kept looking at him with hungry optics the entire time he was driving.
He realizes that it won't eat him right now, but it is still slightly freaky to be looked at like a snack.
Optimus settles down at his desk and places his Ultra figurine out. He's going to get work done on it, and it should help him calm down about the fact that there's a virgin-eating monster on board the ship, just waiting for Sari to forget to refresh his coding.
On the upside, Optimus knows he can offline the beast if he needs to, because he's certainly had to fight worse things on training missions. It can't possibly stand up to some of the Decepticons he had to take down. He'll most likely have to do a temporary offlining, since Sari will be upset if Loki goes grey.
But if it goes for his spark, all bets are off.
He pulls out all of the various datapads Perceptor gave him and the tools as well, and settles in to work.