capitalh | as long as you're mine

Entry tags:

as long as you're mine

Who: Orion Pax and Arcee
Where: Ratchet's ship because it sucks less than the Rod Pod.
When: WHEN THE MUSIC HAPPENS.
What: Orion and Arcee try to dicuss their possibly doomed romance and end up serenading each other instead.
Warnings: It...yeah.

Orion hasn't exactly been forthcoming with his thoughts since the moment they had, but he hasn't been avoiding Arcee by any stretch of the imagination either. In fact, he's been coming around to check on her quite frequently, even if not much happens besides him asking her how she is progressing and maybe offering a shy smile before coming up with something he needs to go do.

He's happy, he thinks, but he isn't sure. If he forget for a moment that everything may be ending for him sometime soon, he can even think of it in terms of being one of the few good things that has happened to him here. Something that gives him hope beyond the pain that Megatron has caused him.

This time, he's doing what he usually does, which is slipping in at some point in the day to say hello. There's nothing expected happening...yet, anyway.

"Good to see you...Commander Arcee," he starts out, immediately questioning his own words.

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There hasn't really been room for talking about it, not with Ratchet's arrival and everyone recovering in the aftermath of the big fight. And granted, Ratchet's arrival has given Arcee a few more things to think about than she's really comfortable with. She hasn't really been totally ready to confront all of her own feelings on the matter, and the problem with Ratchet is that he wasn't really wrong. She knows the truth of what he'd said a little too well.

She's up out of the berth by now, at least -- she knows Ratchet would rather she stay down for a while longer but she's too antsy, spent too much time doing nothing but recovery. She's looking through datapads, pacing haltingly across the room as she studies the one in her hands, but she looks up when Orion enters, smiling slightly.

Commander. Right. Either he's trying to respect the chain of command or he doesn't know where things stand or...both, honestly, and Arcee can't blame him. She smiles anyway, stopping to lean back against the edge of the berth. "Good to see you too, Orion." She pauses, a little lick of uncertainty. They've seen each other since, but only briefly, never for long, and she's always been laid up. "How're you holding up?"

Falling back on the crutch of formality is an easy route to take, even if Orion isn't actually intending to shut her out in any way. He comes forward, obviously nervous, but trying his best to present himself in an open and kind manner. He definitely doesn't want her to think that he's going to push her to arms length now that this has happened.

He's just not used to this, and is really and truly uncertain of himself. For all his feelings, nothing like this had happened with Megatron. It's a strange feeling.

"I am feeling much better," he says. "I had almost forgotten what it felt like to have a functional frame before Ratchet arrived. I am very happy to have him here."

And he's really happy to have gotten so close to her, he thinks, but doesn't say it because what if it's too much?

"We're all lucky Ratchet's here," Arcee says, and she means it -- even if she's still feeling a little raw from the her conversation with him. "I'd be way out of commission if it weren't for him."

He seems tentative, hesitant, but she doesn't get the sense he's being distant. She doesn't think he'd have come here if that was his intention, anyway. She sets the datapad down and pulls away from the edge of the berth, her optics lighting softly in curious concern. "I'm glad to hear you're doing better," she says, half-smiling, and she means it. Things've been rough for Orion here, in more ways than one. "I'm sure having an old friend like Ratchet around is...that has to be a big comfort, having a familiar face around."

He inclines his head in a small nod, managing to relax his stance just a little bit. His expression becomes briefly nostalgic.

"It is...he is different, I think, but...so am I. He has made it very clear that the important things have no changed, however." Ratchet was even more forceful in personality now than he had been before. It was no mystery why.

"I have started to feel more comfortable among the Autobots." He hesitates. "Even those of you I only just met." Another pause "You have likely noticed." Spoiler, he is awkward.

Haha how do you make jokes.

It's impossible not to be just a little bit charmed by Orion's awkwardness, and Arcee smiles helplessly, her optics brightening. "Yeah, I've noticed," she says, her voice warmed, and she steps in a little closer, her head tilted back to look up at him. "It's good to see you getting more comfortable here. I mean, we all want you here, but -- mostly, we just want you to want to be here."

She realizes she's automatically talking away from the matter at hand, taking steps to avoid it, and that's...not what she wants to do. It's easy to shy away from it, but -- regardless of what Ratchet had said, of her own conflicted feelings, she doesn't want to put any distance between them, either. "I'm glad you're here, Orion. If you want to talk..."

He puts one of his hands to the back of his helm, trying to think of what to say. He has no practical experience for this.

"I am uncertain of appropriate conduct," he says tentatively.

Arcee vents out a quiet laugh at that, just briefly, if only because she's sort of at a loss herself. This is difficult, strangely so, but somehow Arcee finds his cluelessness comforting.

"It's kind of murky territory," she admits, spreading a hand helplessly. "And I have a feeling Ultra Magnus isn't the authority consult on this." Never let it be said that Orion is the only Autobot who doesn't know how to make a tactful joke. "But what really matters is whether or not you're comfortable with...what happened."

"I am fine with it," he says, and notes that that was probably too removed sounding to come off right. He frowns, and tries again. "I mean that I am comfortable and...I do not regret what happened. I only regret..."

He trails off, uncertain if he wants to talk about it right now.

"Circumstances."

Arcee relaxes a little, but she's still not sure how relieved she is. In a way, it might have been easier for her if he'd ended things there -- clean and simple, just like that. But she's not sure that's what she wants, either. Orion's presence warms her spark in a way she's not really prepared to let go of just yet.

"The circumstances...aren't ideal, I know." Arcee's optics dim slightly, but she reaches out to lay her hand over Orion's, stepping in closer. "I don't know what's going to happen any more than you do. But if you don't regret what happened, then...neither do I." She means that, too. She doesn't regret it. If she's totally honest with herself, she doesn't have high hopes that it'll survive his becoming Optimus again. But that doesn't mean it isn't worthwhile. If it makes Orion happy now...

He smiles faintly, but it doesn't last long. His spark is tight in his chest. He's not the sort of person to think only in the moment. If he's happy now, that only means that it will hurt even more if this does slip away. If this will be the end of him.

"I...am glad for that, Arcee," he says, but he doesn't look very glad.

Arcee can see he's still preoccupied with what's yet to come, with what might happen. She doesn't know if it'll hurt for Optimus, if losing this would cause him pain or if it would simply be gone. It's hard to say. She's known Optimus for thousands of years, but there had always been something impenetrable about him in that regard.

She feels something she can't quite articulate swell in her spark as she takes his hand in both of hers. She knows the uncertain future is weighing heavily on him -- not just with this, but the doubt and fear over how much of himself he'll lose when he takes the Matrix. There's nothing Arcee can do about that, nothing she can say to make it easier. But she has him now, at least. Maybe that'll be enough -- just for now.

In the seconds before Arcee opens her mouth to speak, she becomes vaguely aware that she can hear music somewhere, but what takes her attention is the fact that when she speaks, they're not exactly the words she'd intended to speak -- they're more candid, more honest than Arcee had really counted on being. That, and the fact that she's singing.

"Kiss me too fiercely, hold me too tight," Arcee sings, a startled expression taking hold of her face even as she feels something warm flood her spark, her fingers curling a little more tightly around Orion's. "I need help believing you're with me tonight..."

What the frag? Arcee is alarmed, but at the same time, she can't seem to stop singing -- it's like someone's opened up her spark and translated her feelings into music. Weirdly catchy, entrancing music at that.

"My wildest dreamings could not foresee
Me here beside you with you wanting me."

Orion is taking more than a little of guard by Arcee suddenly saying these things - especially since they are apparently being sung along to music. Music that is coming...from nowhere in particular. More than that, he is confused by his seeming inability to reply to it with anything other than a few tentative notes of his own.

His hands only hold hers back more tightly, with no sense of inhibition. His voice is low and soft, like something completely unused to this kind of activity but with the potential to be a deadly baritone.

"If just for this moment...you can be mine," he sings back. "I'll give up resistance, and cross this borderline."

He swallows tensely, something in his eyes sad but bewilderingly genuine considering how inwardly alarmed he is at the singing.

"And if it turns out it's over too fast..."

He trails off for just a moment.

Edited 2014-07-17 18:59 (UTC)

Arcee is no doubt gripped by the stark weirdness of the situation -- but at the same time, it's hard to fixate on that, something tugging her attention more to the matter at hand. These aren't the words she'd meant to say, but none of what she's singing is wrong, either, just -- intimately honest. Stranger still, she's not finding herself as reluctant to say these things to Orion, either. There's something...weirdly cathartic about all of this, as Arcee joins Orion, their voices mingling harmonically.

"I'll make every moment last," Arcee promises, her optics soft and bright as she meets his gaze, "as long as you're mine."

Like Arcee, Orion is finding he's attention pulled inextricably towards the moment at hand rather than the strangeness of it all. In tune with the words they sing, all that seems to matter is sharing this together, all doubts and worries be damned.

"Maybe I'm foolish, maybe I'm wise," he sings to her, his voice still soft but growing bolder. "But you have me seeing through different eyes..."

"Even if our world has gone to hell..." The sorrow for their loss shows in his optics, but his words carry a note of hope. "Your love has save me more than I can tell."

Arcee's never had so candid a conversation -- if you can call a musical number a conversation -- with anyone before, and maybe that accounts for how moved she is at Orion's words. She feels something tugging at her spark at his voice, a rising tide of emotion -- there's no questioning that things have been difficult for the Autobots lately, that the war has looked ever bleaker, but for the first time in a while, Arcee has something that makes the world seem a little less grim.

"Every moment, as long as you're mine," Arcee sings, her voice joining his as she reaches up to brush her fingers against the lower edge of his helm. Strange, that they both know to sing the same words without really knowing at all. "I'll wake up my body, and make up for lost time..."

He raises his hand and puts it over hers, holding it to him as if it might slip away at any moment. This is all so much more emotional (and slightly melodramatic) than he could have ever been otherwise. But still so sincere.

"There may be no future," he sings more gently, like a warning, "for us as a pair..."

Arcee has no doubt in her mind that Orion is being sincere; he's always sincere, but even so, there's something about the song that makes his honesty unquestionable. Under normal circumstances this would definitely exceed the general level of melodrama that Arcee is comfortable with, but right now Orion's hand is warm on hers, a comforting weight, and she doesn't want to let that slip away.

"Although I may know, I don't care!"

His voice joins hers in a rising crescendo. For a moment, everything else feels impossible far away.

"Just for this moment, as long as you're mine." He gazes into her optics longingly, unaware of anything outside of them. "Come be how you want to and see how bright we shine!"

Arcee hasn't felt this swept away by anything or anyone in a long time -- is this what that feels like? It feels like it's been so long since she really opened herself to anyone that she's almost forgotten. She feels as though she's standing at the edge of something deep and bottomless, something significant; she feels the bottom drop out of her fuel tanks, the strange sensation you get from staring over the edge of a chasm. And for the first time in a long time, she doesn't shy away from it, her gaze locked on Orion's.

"Borrow the moonlight until it is through," Arcee sings, her voice rich with promise and emotion as it mingles with his, "and know I'll be here, holding you..."

He reaches down to gently brush a thumb along her her cheek, the need to close the gap between them growing within him. He leans down and tries to raise her up, the tone of his words becoming more intimate to match.

"As long as you're mine," he sings with a note of solemnity, as the music gradually begins to slow. He moves to kiss her, chastely.

"What the hell is going on in here?!"

Ratchet stands in the doorway, looking furious and a little alarmed--he'd heard weird sounds from his quarters and had followed them into the medibay to find... this.

Whatever this was.

The strange atmosphere brought on the inexplicable music and singing seems to evaporate completely the moment Ratchet's voice rings out. Arcee freezes in Orion's grip, her feet hovering off the floor -- somehow in the throes of musical passion, the notion that Ratchet might hear them, that anyone might, had completely failed to occur to her.

"Ratchet!" Arcee's head jerks in Ratchet's direction to stare at him, her voice strained with surprise. The strangeness of the situation seems to fully sink in all at once, even if she's left with a lingering openness of affection for Orion. What's going on here? Good question, because Arcee actually has no idea.

Orion's optics widen suddenly, staring at Ratchet in horror, and then at Arcee. He puts Arcee down immediately (gently, all the same) and takes a step back from the two of them. He has no idea either.

"I do not know," he all but yells. Hey, it's the truth.

"I wish that shocked me," Ratchet snaps, before he raises a hand and pinches the bridge of his nose carefully.

"At any rate," he continues, eyeing them balefully. "The Commander still needs her rest. And would to better to not be handled in the meantime."

"Ratchet," Arcee says in a warning tone laced with exasperation. Embarrassed and totally startled by the whole turn events as she is, she directs a pointed look at Ratchet, crossing her arms over her chest almost self-consciously. But as much as she kind of wants to crawl into a hole and go offline for the next thousand years or so, there's no ignoring the sheer bizarreness of the situation -- and the fact that she has no idea what caused it.

"I'm fine. But -- " Arcee glances at Orion quickly, cycling air through her vents. The tide of emotion brought on by the song is still rising high in her spark even though the music's faded. "I mean it, Ratchet, we have no idea what just happened. Seriously, when have you ever known me to sing?"

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