An Opportunity

[heliopauseentertainments]

Prompt: Day 6 - Legendary/Cozy

Continuity: IDW1

Rating: Teen

Relationships: Megatron/Orion Pax

Characters: Orion Pax & Megatron

Warnings: Alternate Universe Canon Divergence, AU of an AU, Vignette, Established Relationship, Suggestive Themes, Minor Injuries, Cuddling, Not Beta Read

Summary: In which Orion and Megatron are separated from supervision for the first time.

Notes: Canonical to An Unfamiliar Battlefield

Crossposting: AO3 | Tumblr

Fic under cut. See AO3 for complete notes.

Orion and Megatron braced themselves. An incoming enemy mortar exploded against the mountain face beneath them. The ground trembled, a crack forming in the rock as it began to give way.

On instinct, Orion shoved Megatron back towards the solid edge, hoping to knock him over it to safety. Megatron stumbled before grabbing Orion by the arm.

“No!”

The ground fell away beneath their feet as they tumbled into the narrow ravine below.

Orders from Sentinel to retreat sounded in their commlinks, nearly drowned out by the wind roaring past them.

He pulled Megatron close as the ground loomed, hoping that in his last act as a protector, he could at least break his partner’s fall.

 

---

 

The ground in the ravine was cold. And dim. And wet.

It must have rained since they landed and went offline. Orion’s body ached, his armor cracked and split in several places, but it was at least in one contiguous piece.

Dried fuel clung along the breaks, but it looked like his nanites had at least sealed the leaks. At least, that held true for what he could see of his hands and arms stretched out in front of him in the low light. His diagnostics also reported no leaks, not that his diagnostics were always accurate.

He pushed himself up to look for Megatron, only to be stopped partway up by something heavy.

“You’ve been out for some hours.”

Ah, it was just Megatron.

Orion rolled over onto to his back to find his partner kneeling and leaning over him.

“Are you hurt?”

“Nothing that can’t be fixed,” he said, shaking his head. “You?”

Megatron hardly seemed dented but evening was settling in, the sun having disappeared behind the mountains above them, making it more difficult to distinguish damage on gray armor. The glint of rain droplets clinging to the metal didn’t help. There was what looked like congealed fuel on his face and hands, places more vulnerable to damage due to the thinner, more delicate plating necessary for tactile feedback.

“Uninjured.” Thanks to his dense armor, most likely.

Since he was up and moving and talking, Megatron was probably fine, but he also had a habit of hiding injuries. Understandable given how he was forced to experience medical care. Orion would just have to keep an eye on him.

“Do we have an ETA on pickup?”

No sounds of battle echoed down from above so the fight was evidently over.

Megatron shook his head.

“My commlink was shattered in the fall. Yours probably was as well.”

“You’d think for such vital safety equipment, they’d spend time engineering durable ones.” Orion laughed it off as he checked his own commlink. Dead. Which would explain the sound of little bits rattling around inside the left side of his head where the commlink had been implanted. “At least that means we don’t have to listen to Sentinel for awhile.”

Megatron scoffed and moved back, but the smirk on his face underscored his amusement. Orion’s jokes must have been getting better over the years, he thought.

Now having room to sit up at last, Orion stretched his sore arms overhead. The world continued to darken around them as night fell on this planet. Only the glow of their optics and biolights gave them anything to see by as the air temperature began to drop further.

“What do you suggest we do then?” he asked, scooting across the ground to sit at Megatron’s side.

Warmth radiated off his armor, even if he was damp with rain. Orion leaned against him to catch as much of it as he could.

Before Valve had died, there probably would have been an emergency rescue mission mounted to “secure the Fallen,” but with Starscream in charge, that was unlikely. That at least meant they wouldn’t need to make a mad scramble up the side of the mountain in hopes of not being either shot on sight or violently detained.

He figured that Megatron would have already spent the past several hours mulling over the possibilities, both to pass the time and to have some sense of having control over the situation. Chronic worrier behavior.

Orion reflexively wrapped his arms around Megatron’s torso. A bit of a stretch from this angle; he couldn’t quite get his hands to touch, but the thought was there. Megatron patted his arm, leaving his hand in place as though to prevent Orion letting go.

“Probably, one of a few possibilities has occurred,” Megatron said, looking up at the cliff face above them. It was steep but not perfectly vertical. They could theoretically climb it. “Starscream might be convincing Sentinel that we’ve died, but I doubt it unless he plans on mounting an unofficial mission to make sure. If the battle were still raging up there, I would suppose they simply haven’t had the time, but it’s been quiet for almost as long as you were unconscious. More likely he is actively delaying our rescue, though to what ends, I cannot say.”

Or perhaps Starscream was buying them time. A rare opportunity to shield them from the panopticon of their existence.

“I think I know the answer,” Orion said. Or at least he hoped he knew the answer. If he were wrong, there was a chance of some significant embarrassment.

He grinned, letting his mask retract. The sudden rush of cold air on his face was unpleasant, but he had a plan to solve that shortly.

Loosening his grasp, he hiked a sore leg over Megatron’s, shifting to sit mostly comfortably on his lap. With their aches and pains, they would have to be ginger, but they probably had all night.

Cold wet rock was hardly different than the ice-water shower back home anyway.

“We can climb back up in the morning.”