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"I'm sorry, Galvatron. I can't get away. I honestly can't."
On the bridge of the Dis, the Decepticon Emperor's optics narrowed. "Can't or won't, Prime?"
Rodimus hung his head. "I. Uh. I suppose it's technically won't." He knew how Galvatron felt about personal agency. Claiming he was being literally prevented from doing something he wanted to do could potentially result in the Dis laying siege to Iacon on his behalf, and that would be worse than awkward. "Galvatron, you know all this diplomatic stuff is important to Cybertron and that means it has to be important to me whether I enjoy it or not. The Erithee ambassadors are all on their claws right now deciding how they feel about us and if I skip out of the negotiations it isn't going to impress them. And we need this treaty." He sighed guiltily. "So yeah, I'm busy. I need to stay here. I'm sorry and I would much rather be with you, but... command responsibilities, y'know?" He offered his lover a wistful smile.
Galvatron nodded. "You're in a bad bargaining position if you let them find out they can manipulate you just by being skittish at you, but very well, you run your empire and I'll run mine! Next time, Rodimus!" He cut the connection before Rodimus could reply and the Dis' huge engines lit up as the warship lifted its prow, turning to rise from Cybertron's orbit.
"...I love you," Rodimus whispered regretfully to the blank screen. It was almost a joke between them that Galvatron never gave him time to say it over comms, but there were days he really wished the warlord would.
***
"Negotiations, bah!" Galvatron shook his head in disgust. "I don't know how he has the patience. All right! We're heading for Orodron." He ran his fingers over the Dis' touchpad, confirming the new course.
"Orodron, my lord?" Cyclonus queried. The resource-rich world had been on the list of potential raid targets for some time, but had been repeatedly passed over for being too close to Cybertron.
"You heard what the Prime said!" Galvatron replied, optics gleaming. "If he's too busy to see me, he's too busy to stop me! So let's get Orodron while the Autobots aren't going to interrupt us!"
Cyclonus and Scourge looked at each other with dawning understanding and widening grins.
***
"You didn't have to go this far just to get my attention, Galvatron!" Rodimus yelled as he threw himself in front of a mob of cowering Orodronians and fired at his lover. "I can't believe you'd be this petty!" He knew deep down he shouldn't let it get to him - if you date a Decepticon, he'll act like a Decepticon whether he loves you or not - but he'd honestly thought better of Galvatron than to act up like this just because Rodimus had refused to toss over a day's schedule for him on zero notice. Now he'd had to scramble the troops and ditch the Erithee diplomats anyway - though they'd insisted on coming too, their ship was observing from orbit and Primus only knew what they were making of this - and he and Galvatron were back to making war when they could've been making out and it all just hurt. It was hardly like Rodimus could fly into his arms across enemy lines, so what did Galvatron even want? "Satisfied now?!"
"What do you mean, get your attention?!" The familiar battlefield pitch of Galvatron's voice, engineered to be heard for kilometres even over jet engines and artillery, was high and harsh with outrage and combat-strain. "You said you were stuck on Cybertron, Prime! I took you at your word!" A blast from Galvatron's cannon hit close enough to blister Rodimus's plating, forcing the Prime to duck. "What, you thought I was trying to make you interrupt me?!"
Rodimus wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry as the words punctured the self-pitying extrapolations he'd been making. Of course. Of course Galvatron hadn't deliberately stooped to petty emotional manipulation. Of course he'd taken Rodimus's words at face value and just seized the opportunity they implied, because Galvatron, and if he'd thought about it, Rodimus probably would have seen this coming. Despite the smoke and fire and destruction, despite his worries about the Orodronians and the interrupted treaty negotiations, all Rodimus could feel was a sudden rush of exasperated affection for his lover. Galvatron might be an impossible tyrant and an utter pain in the skidplate, but he had a level of sheer blunt-force integrity that nobody else Rodimus had ever known could match.
Sometimes an energon raid really was just an energon raid. "I forgot you don't think like most people!" he called back. "Sorry!" His rifle seared a black stripe down Galvatron's flank and sparks flared from the wound.
"Rrrgh - I can't believe you had the bearings to show your faceplate here, Prime! All right, we were done anyway! Decepticons, fall back!"
Rodimus lowered his weapon as Galvatron soared skywards, watching as Cyclonus, Scourge and the Sweeps broke smoothly away from combat to fall in with their lord. He always ached inside when he watched the Unicronians in battle, seeing the way they worked together and covered each other, that synchronisation and unity that he was so often on the wrong side of the battlefield from. He envied Cyclonus and Scourge. They got the luxury of never having to split their sparks like he did.
"Autobots, stand down!" He called the all-clear, and waited as his troops checked in. Minor damages, nothing drastic. A few demolished buildings, some civilian injuries, but the Orodronians weren't natural fighters and most of them had had the sense to get straight out of Galvatron's way. He spared a smile for one who peeked up wide-eyed at him from an impromptu foxhole by his feet. "You okay, little guy?"
"That was amazing," the Orodronian exclaimed. "You were so brave!"
Rodimus wondered sometimes whether the "aw, shucks" expression was one of the things that came with the Matrix. He always felt sure it made him look like Optimus.
***
"Galvatron?"
"Prime?"
They stood face to face on one of Charr's windswept walls, regarding each other in the star-glimmering twilight of the Decepticon throneworld. Rodimus had made a point of being the one to come over, this time. "I owe you an apology. I'm sorry for standing you up... and I'm sorry for not being as busy as I thought I was." He crooked a wry smile.
"I should think so too, Prime!" But there was laughter lingering at the edges of Galvatron's voice. "How did it turn out? Did your alien allies decide they were as unimpressed as you feared?"
"...they contacted us as soon as we left Orodron and said they wanted to sign the treaty," Rodimus admitted sheepishly. "Apparently, seeing that I was willing to drop everything to protect innocent aliens from the evil Decepticons impressed them enough that it saved about three months of sitting round a conference table." He ducked his head and gave Galvatron a grin. "So, uh... thanks?"
Galvatron's laugh echoed off the ancient walls. "I take it you didn't tell them about this!" he said, as he stepped forward to take Rodimus into his arms.
The pang of guilt was worn blunt by familiarity and muted by affection - not to mention by the knowledge that if he actually did the math, the galaxy was almost certainly safer while he was kissing Galvatron than it was any other time. "Nope."