After his flight from both the lab he had woken up in and the Nemesis base as a whole, Skywarp just... kept going. Time was strange, as unreal as everything else when he kept partially slipping away from reality. Eventually, he ended up in his hideout-slash-stash, the old warehouse in the long abandoned industrial quarter of an even longer abandoned town.
The sun set and rose several times, though Skywarp was fairly certain it was in the wrong order. Eventually however, he did figure out that if he kept a tight enough hold on his emotional state, he could stay where he belonged, more or less solid.
Though that was easier said than done when his spark kept reaching out for the connections that had been there for most of his functioning and came up empty. Resentment bubbled up - how could Thundercracker do that to him? When he had been the one to always want their trine to be more like the traditional kind, the sort that actually supported each other in that slagging mushy soft way?
Unless he didn’t.
Skywarp froze. His whole form flickered and he sunk several inches into the crate he was sitting on. The bond might simply have snapped after being neglected for so long, sure. But would that really have had that violent an effect? Or had the whole thing imploded as badly as it had because...
Old instincts had Skywarp reach out to Thundercracker’s spark to try and assure himself he was alive - but of course, there was nothing there. He almost, almost opened a comm to Sideswipe. But if the Autobots had turned on TC and killed him...!
Skywarp transformed and took off. He attempted a warp jump without much care for the risks, and found himself rebooting shortly after in free fall. Another crash, though much less severe.
The world wobbled and shuddered and for a moment there were stars in the sky in midday and then there was an ocean under him that did not belong there. Skywarp forced his thrusters back online.
Every mile of progress had to be fought for. But eventually, he did make it into Autobot airspace. He paused there, landing and transforming though his see-through pedes actually stood on ground several inches above that which was visible and real in this dimension.
Survival instincts reared their heads. But he needed to know. He needed to make sure. And anyway... He glanced at his hands. The left appeared somewhat more solid than his right, but he could see the rocky ground through both of them. He doubted a laser shot would do as much damage to him as it would normally.
Determined, he stepped forward into Autobot territory.
In this moment, Sideswipe, for better or for worse, is fueled completely by curiosity.
There’s not an ounce of malicious intent in his body. No aggression or hostility. And beyond that initial odd invasion of space where he more or less dropped himself into Skywarp’s lap, knees bracketing paler hips, he doesn’t seem to be doing much else beyond that. He just cants his helm and peers up at the seeker with a puzzled look on his face.
It’s not really registering immediately that hey, he’s probably waaaaaay too close. And that’s in part due to the fact that by nature he’s always been a naturally physical person. The sort who craved positive contact and touch. Pats on the shoulder, a bump of the arm, a hug…
It doesn’t even cross his mind how bizarre this position is because honestly? It just seemed to be the best vantage point.
And speaking of vantage point, in response to Skywarp’s vague noise, Sideswipe who is still much too close but looking to be a mech on a mission, answers with a completely serious. “Hey. Can I touch your face?”
So….have fun with that Skywarp. Ball’s in your court.
Skywarp’s wings did an odd kind of flapping motion up and down as he couldn’t quite decide which way should go. He might not have been the best at reading others but Sideswipe doesn’t seem aggressive. Which should probably have been either a red flag in itself or at least irrelevant because he was an Autobot and Skywarp was a Decepticon.
Yeah, if he kept repeating it maybe one of these orns he will act accordingly.
He understood physicality, tactility - shared it, on some level, though in his case the casual touches tended to be more rough even when the interaction was a positive one. But slaggit, like the Pit was he going to let Sideswipe get one over him, much less by allowing himself to be pushed off balance by something so minor.
“Sure,” he grinned, forcing his frame out of the instinctive tension that had set in.
Skywarp had regained some control, recovered somewhat since that meeting less than an hour after waking up with his spark alone and damaged in a way he had never felt before.
He could feel the way it was getting harder to hold himself together and solid and there at the news, but it was… manageable.
::Probably better that way. Anyone sees the three of us together, all our afts are toast. Speaking of…::
He trailed off because he knew what had to follow the point he just made but he really didn’t want to put it out there.
So, Skywarp is pretty sure he shouldn’t let an enemy soldier that close without some kind of reaction. He is also fairly certain that any other Autobot - and most Decepticons to be honest - trying what Sideswipe was doing would end in some rather nasty injuries.
But... it’s Sideswipe. They celebrated Halloween together. Thundercracker trusts him and for all his flaws, TC wasn’t a terrible judge of character. And he’d also not like Skywarp laying hand on Sideswipe, in a genuinely angry way rather than a put-frog-spawn-in-your-energon-again way. And actually Skywarp doesn’t really want to lash out at him anyway and-
There is now a lambo in his lap. And Skywarp is still kind of frozen.
Then there’s a bizarre flare of something excited, because look! Another familiar mech that he hasn’t seen in like an eternity.
:::Skywarp!::: =D
Then sanity returns.
Because said mech is still a member of the opposing side, that was very much still trying to wreck their collective slag regardless of the weirdly friendly conversation or two that the two of them had had off the record before Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were flung across the universe and lost for two years.
Can’t be treason if it didn’t officially happen, right?
:::Yep. Despite the universe’s lack of trying. :::
:::You?:::
For a split second something seems to seize in Skywarp’s chassis. No one has said his name so happily since... since Thundercracker... Well. Better not to dwell on it. Doesn’t help he did miss Sideswipe, much as he tries to deny it.
Treasonous. Foolish.
And Sideswipe knows it, too. Maybe being stationed on Cybertron and well out of casual communication range with him for over a year was not a bad thing. They had agreed to lay low after Sideswipe’s command element seemed to have caught on to their talks, but Skywarp had been just about ready to break the radio silence a few orns before his assignment to Shockwave’s latest pet project.
Anyway, better to focus on the then and there. They’re both alive. Presumably, so is Thundercracker. It’s a start.
::Right now it’s two pieces, but all the really important bits are in one of ‘em sooooo... yeah.::
“That’s not good. Okay, don’t panic. Or maybe panic.“
“I don’t panic, I improvise.”
Pause.
“What exactly is supposed to make me panic though?”
Because this is another frontliner. His instincts and creativity in the face of Slag Going South was probably somewhere close to Skywarp’s, so if he was still worried…
After sufficient time has passed (At least a few days) Sideswipe sends a hesitant, apologetic ping. He's apologizing for his early apology. Or something. He doesn't even know anymore. But here it is.
He has been trying to just... not think of Sideswipe. Or Thundercracker, but mostly Sideswipe. Easier said than done, unfortunately, while one is laid up in medical bay with nothing to keep the mind occupied while the Constructicons try to procure the parts for a replacement arm. Can’t even properly use a datapad like this.
So despite his efforts, Skywarp has actually spent a lot of time in his own mind turning this... whatever it is that’s going on with Sideswipe over and over. And he has come to one unpleasant conclusion: He let his guard down. He let Sideswipe see too much, allowed him in through the gaping hole in his shell that is losing TC and he really, really shouldn’t have done that. Even if Sideswipe never turns on him - and he has to eventually because neither of them will betray their factions - there is only one outcome for this.
Only one thing left to do in way of damage control - even if makes his spark feel like lead and his tanks churn. Better to rip off the wing than let the rust spread, so to speak.
::What do you want?:: he asks, tone flat and borderline hostile and only barely covering for how much he doesn’t want to do this.
“I can't it's on your side now! The counter moved!”
“Get the rice get the rice- aaand it's on fire.”
“Ten seconds. We still need fish!”
“Okay okay okay, we need rice!”
Ding-ding.
The bell freezes them and they watch as the scoreboard's stars fill.One, two, three – four.Sideswipe lets out a whoop while Skywarp barks out a triumphantlaugh. There is a high five.
“O-kay, now let's see if we can get Kevin this time, yeah?”
