Work Text:
“Skyfire, fraggit, where are you?!” Starscream passed over the sector where Sky’s locator beacon had last pinged, for the third time. It stayed silent, though, as the storm raged around him. “Dammit, don’t do this to me!”
Sky’s beacon stayed stubbornly silent.
“Please, Sky. Please.” He knew it was foolish, but Starscream descended a few hundred meters, hoping that maybe he would see something. Anything.
And then, improbably, he caught sight of the slightest hint of red in the white of the blizzard. It was a bit further away than the locator beacon had indicated before it fell offline, but if Sky had been able to walk after his crash…
Buoyed by new hope, he descended further. The winds were worse so close to the ground, screaming around rocks and coating his exterior with slushy snow almost immediately. And, as quickly as the slush was sinking into his transformation seams and attempting to freeze, Starscream understood why Skyfire might have gone down; external cold protection wouldn’t do any good when the icey water was seeping into protoform.
Quickly, he transformed and dropped down into the snow near the streak of red he’d seen. Then he ran across the few meters between them as quickly as he could.
And when he arrived, he screeched with dismay. He’d found Sky all right, but his partner was half-buried and had visible damage to his head and chest. “Oh you idiot. I told you we should have left sooner.”
“Star?” Skyfire lifted his head from the snow and peered at him with confusion.
“Yes, it’s me.” Starscream looked around, and spottend a small cavern formed by a few of the jutting stones in the landscape. It was probably where his partner had been trying to take shelter before he was overcome. “Come on, you have to get up. I can’t carry you, and we need to take shelter.”
“You should…” Skyfire shook his head slightly, almost as if he was trying to shake his thoughts together. “There’s a cave. Take shelter there.”
“Yes, I see the cave. But I’m not leaving you to freeze. Come on! Crawl if you have to!”
“All right.” For once, Starscream was glad that the shuttle wasn’t in the habit of arguing with him over anything too serious. He pushed himself up slowly and unsteadily, swaying back and forth as he got to his feet. “Let me lean on you?”
Star pretended not to see the energon and other fluids freezing into the snow as he nodded. Then he stepped close enough that Sky could put a hand on his shoulder to help keep himself steady. Or Steadier, anyway. “Of course. Then we’ll get to the cave, I’ll put a tarp across the door and bandage you up.”
“All right.” Skyfire put a hand on the Seeker’s shoulder, and leaned a bit more weight on him than he normally would. “You’ll have to lead me.”
“I will.” And he would never utter a complaint. Not when Sky was alive to be leaning on him and letting Starscream lead him to safety.
Figuring out how to get home would wait for later.