@look-back-month-challenge Day 14: Valentine's Day
I was going to do a few more but I had a hard enough time getting this many photos I liked enough to post. I wish I'd planned ahead and had some backgrounds and props at the ready but such is life.
Not quite because they're war criminals, no. But there's a painful complexity to it. Arcee knows it more than anyone. She's done things out of desperation, she's been pushed to doing things she never should've done, she's been lied to by bots who only saw her as a pawn to further their schemes, and sometimes she's let her emotions get the best of her. It's not hard to get.
She sees herself in so many of the Autobots and Decepticons who come into her office. When she hears a mech break down in tears about their actions, she sees herself; still so young, angry, grieving, racked with guilt for what she's done. It hurts to think about it.
She's grateful to still have Greenlight and Gauge. So many millennia away from them and they still held her close in their sparks. They know her history better than anyone and they still choose to love her for it.
It refreshes her processors just seeing them. It always feels like her fans and pumps get a boost when she's with them. Spending some quality time with her conjunx and mentee is the one thing she always looks forward to.
Even if she comes home to a burning kitchen because Gauge tried to cook dinner.
Title: Time Off
Fandom: IDW2
Ship: Arcee/Greenlight
Word Count: 100
Rating: G
Summary: Arcee and Greenlight find that their scheduled off time has miraculously synced up.
A/N: For TF Femslash February’s prompt “free day”! Which isn't actually a prompt, obvs, but I decided to use it like one anyway, lol. While you’re here, consider donating to Care for Gaza.
.
Arcee froze in her hab doorway, staring. Greenlight, datapad in hand, stared back from the couch with equal surprise. Then her face lit up with realization, a reflection of Arcee's own.
"We…" Arcee trailed off, afraid to break reality.
Greenlight, smiling, said, "We actually have the same off-shift."
Arcee finally stepped the rest of the way inside. The door at her back bolstered her confidence and she strode over to drop down beside Greenlight. "I have the rest of the day," she said, smiling herself.
"Me too," said Greenlight. She set her datapad aside and drew Arcee into her arms.
Title: This Life You'll Live
Fandom: Transformers IDW2
Ship: Arcee/Greenlight
Word Count: 1000
Rating: PG
Summary: Missing scene. Greenlight returns home to Arcee and Gauge after the autopsy.
A/N: My piece for @femmemetalezine! Thanks so much for having me :D
.
"Greenlight!"
The sound of her name pulls her out of her own thoughts just in time for her to see Gauge rushing to meet her, bouncing out their front door ahead of Arcee like she might fly away if only she tries hard enough. Greenlight catches her around the middle and pulls her close, ducking to catch the scent of new life and hope from the curve of her neck. Arcee steps in and wraps her arms around both of them, catching Gauge's giggles between their sparks.
Gauge snuggles into them for all of three seconds before she begins to wriggle, little feet probing for the ground they'd been so keen to escape. Greenlight can't remember a moment yet that Gauge hasn’t been moving. The memory of another little body lying still and cold stings her spark and she sets Gauge down still within the protection of their embrace, hands light on her shoulders. Arcee's fall over top of hers, entwining their fingers there.
"Missed me that much, hm?" Greenlight asks, offering them both the closest thing she can manage to a smile. It's harder with that little face, open and curious and excited, pointed up at her. She has to look at Arcee instead, not that it's much better having those silent questions bore through to her core. "Does that mean I'm the favorite?"
Gauge gasps, then whirls to throw her arms around Arcee's waist and snuggle into her belly.
"Noo," she whines, not quite covering her giggles. "Don't say that! You'll make Arcee sad, look."
Arcee, for her part, is too awed to play along with being sad. Her arms wrap around Gauge in turn, reverent and fierce, and she looks back at Greenlight with those silent questions in her optics again, burning even brighter. The sight of her, of both of them, makes Greenlight want to bundle them all away in the deepest corner of their home, the rest of the world left to rust.
"We both missed you," Gauge tells Greenlight as she peeks away from Arcee. That smile is back, if it was ever gone at all. "We were going to go see my quarters but Arcee said that we should wait for you, since you're invited."
Her spark feels like it might burn out of her chest. Before she knows it, she's taken a knee in front of Gauge and her hands are back on her, Arcee's quick to rejoin them. "Are you tired of us already?" she makes herself joke, hands pressed to Gauge's shoulders like she can keep her there, fingers tight around Arcee's in a silent plea.
Gauge gasps and jumps forward to wrap her arms around Greenlight this time. She pulls back and looks at Greenlight with a decent impression of the face the Arcee had used to reassure her when she'd been nervous that first night. "Of course not!" she says with soothing pats on Greenlight's back. "I love being here with you! But I need to know my new home."
It takes every scrap of self-control she has not to blurt out that Gauge isn't ready for that, not yet, not in this world that’s so much crueler than the one that she was born from yesterday. She darts a glance up at Arcee, who looks so much in pain that Greenlight almost checks her over for damage before she recognizes it as a reflection of her own feelings.
Oblivious, Gauge bounces between them. Greenlight's grip on her eases, though she doesn't relax, and as she stands, she runs her hands down from those little shoulders. Arcee follows as Gauge obligingly raises her arms so that Greenlight can trail all the way to those little hands. The three of them twine their fingers all together, Gauge huffing at how much higher their reach is than hers but giggling again when they briefly lift her.
"We can't expect her to stay her whole life with us," Arcee says even as her fingers tighten, "no matter how much we want to keep her."
"But so soon?"
“We’re behind schedule,” Acee reminds her, gentle but firm. The set of her jaw is brittle. “I don’t want the unrest hindering Gauge more than it has already.”
"You can visit me!" Gauge is quick to assure them both. "And you can even stay with me tonight, if you want. Arcee said that my quarters will have been stocked for me, so I can make refreshments!"
"I think an overnight sounds fun," Arcee says, face softening out into a smile as she looks down at Gauge. She meets Greenlight's gaze. "We have a lot of things we still need to discuss before tomorrow anyway."
Greenlight doesn’t respond for a long moment-- then she nods, resolute. She steps back, lets go with one hand to settle beside Gauge. Arcee follows suit so that they're holding Gauge from either side. Gauge starts her bouncing back up in earnest, holding tight and swinging their arms along with hers as she leads the way with a skip in her step, forgetting that she doesn’t know where she’s going. Yesterday, they might have waited longer to correct her, let her explore. Yesterday is a long way in the past.
When they reach her new quarters, they'll have to talk to her. Have to explain before she hears from somewhere else. But the tragedy is new yet, hardly more than an uneasy whisper on the streets. Not at all hard to miss beneath the pattering clang of new feet on the ground and the whistling of a carefree tune. They still have time for Gauge to enjoy this world and its promises before she has to know what it's become. When they do tell her, enshrined in her own home, they'll make sure she knows, too, that they'll be beside her all the way.
And as she meets Arcee’s gaze again over Gauge’s head, Greenlight knows that they’ll build her a new world, brick by brick, if they have to.
