ante_luce | I really should be watching my back a lot better...

PxJ comm challenge response. Weird and written in under 2 hours, most of which was spent searching for music. *glares at bunny that tackled from out of nowhere*

Music is 'Live Twice' by Darius.

Challenge: Sing to awaken a missing Autobot.
Title: Silence and Song
'Verse: G1 Transformers
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Slash. You may need Kleenex.

Silence.

It was unnerving.

Particularly since this mech was rarely ever this quiet.

His friends worried. Cajoled. Coaxed. Forcibly dragged him into the Rec. Room to refuel, into the Med Bay for a check up, into the wash racks and outside to the places that he'd loved before... this.

His lack of resistance frightened them. His voice, dull and toneless, even more.

It was as if he was already gone, absent in spirit although his body still functioned, just waiting for reality to twig on and get with the program.

Then, one day, he vanished.

No one saw him leave, nor did they realise what had happened until a whole day had passed. Not that they would have, the mech hadn't forgotten a single thing from before, he just... He'd have more time to do what he wanted if he planned properly.

= = =

Silence.

Suddenly interrupted by the sound of an engine.

A car pulled up outside the structure, and transformed. He hovered at the entrance, the memories stalling him and making him hesitate, making him lean his forehead against a painfully familiar and almost painfully bright wall, just cyling air until he worked up the nerve to proceed.

As he wandered deeper and deeper in, more recollections brushed by him. As he passed particular locations (ones his steps took him to, unwitting or otherwise, he couldn't say), his pumps stuttered and his spark keened, the sound a shade more pained than it had been for the last...

Ever since then.

He reached one final room, and his pedes stopped. He was wherever he'd been going.

The door opened with nary a squeak of protest, prompting a faint smile, awkward in its lack of recent use. The construction of his hom- this place, had been first rate. He entered, looking about him. The room was mostly empty, not that he'd expected it to be anything less. They'd cleared it out when they moved.

"I miss you."

The words echoed, the sound cracked with more than just disuse.

"Miss you all."

The mech settled against a wall, curled upon himself, and finally, allowed himself to grieve properly. Liquid welled and trickled down from his optics, and his air intakes whirred and hitched in quiet sobs, until his grief was worn out for the time being, and the sounds died away.

= = =

Silence.

It weighed on him.

He couldn't say how long he sat there, but his optics had shut off from his ignoring their data, and his tears had long dried, leaving faint traces where they had dripped down.

It was too quiet. As reserved as this room's previous occupant had been, there had never been a quiet this... overwhelming.

A sound.

He tensed.

Had they found him already?

Rising from the ground, he scanned for the source of the noise.

And found nothing.

The sound continued, and his audios eventually identified it as... music.

Music that was coming... from him.

Bewildered and more than a little uneasy, he ran a check on himself, and found nothing out of place.

He shut off his sound system, and the music stopped.

Shaking his head, he turned to leave the room when the music started again. With a startled cry he stumbled and crashed to the floor, then scrabbled backwards until he was flush against the wall again.

The music played on, and he recognised the tune. It was one he'd loved. And one that he couldn't bear to even think about now. Gritting his denta he sent the command to turn it off again, but the music played on.

Scared now, he sat there, listening, paralysed by the song and the weight of the memories and emotions it carried.

"I missed you too."

The sound was barely audible over the music, but he wasn't hearing it with his audios. The song changed now, and there was a faint whisper-brush of digits over a tear track, as if to wipe it away.

"... If I could only let you know,
I'd give up everything I own,
For just one more day with you..."

A familiar voice murmured the first few lyrics of the song, and he shut off his optics. The whisper-brush solidified, and he could feel arms wrap around him.

"...When you told me, I froze.
It still echoes, in my soul..."

He shook his head, smiling faintly at the memory the words conjured up.

"...Please forgive me,
If I didn't say, I love you,
Every single day..."

He whispered back to contradict the presence.

"Didn't need to be told."

The song gradually ended, and this time, the quiet was not as stifling.

"Thanks Prowl."

A gentle pulse of warmth, and a fading whisper.

"Time to go back Jazz, you've been away for too long."

He knew the other was describing more than just the time he’d spent here, and he agreed.

He rose and left.

= = =

Silence.

They stared at the mech who wandered into Autobot City. He was smiling, not as broadly as he’d used to, but it was genuine. He spoke, and they smiled back. There was music in his voice once more.

“M’back now. Sorry if I worried anyone.”