With the hundreds of diplomats, sages, leaders, scouts, scientists, filework nerds, and errant warriors around to choose from in Lodestar's hull's big meeting hall to share our thoughts through embraces, there was one I hadn't been able to get out of my head all evening since she walked up to a podium and started talking several hours ago, now deep in some sort of playful parlay over a multiversal alliance community…
The heavy, sturdy steps of her bulky winged firetruck frame. the excited or bemused faceplate ruffling as they talked pleasantries, the sword at her side, the large open gestures towards people, the casual touch with people she knew, the hands over their spark. Vivacious, not afraid to level words of reproach when someone tried to dig at her diplomatic stance. I was affixed on their words when I looked away, barely processing the details, but hearing her bravery. I knew it was their diplomacy face and voice, but she also clearly spoke from profound belief about the autonomy of sapient entities and their communities cohabitating with the cosmos, transforming together.
God damn, I couldn't remember the last time someone like a woman had this brain module melting effect on me, and that I had admitted it to myself. I was used to feeling cool and flourishing with pizazz. What's my name? Oh right, Spacewarp. I had been so level-headed with Chromia, our cuddling and kisses left me with a thoughtful rush, but Perihelion...
Wowza, totally different equally enjoyable reaction. I love the multiverse.
Perihelion stepped away from Nautica who is also a cutie with her diplomacy special interest cryptid altertransformer shtick and those round turbine fins aw bolts, and the other delegates of their seven-fold group and strode towards me, waving.
My body tensed up immediately and I urged it to relax and loosen, and I almost fell over in the process. Wait she's coming towards me, what do I do be cool uh uh "Hi mighty sweetspark, what can I do for you?" I offered hands to clasp. What the scrap was that Spacewarp!?! My head filled with heat, and I tried to keep the embarassment out of my optics. "I um, lets start over."
They laughed merrily, and met my hands with hers, and then inched their fingers over to hold mine briefly before letting go. I was totally flummoxed that she had taken my awful line or my apology so well. Was it awful? It was ironic I guess, whatever you do don't stare at the wheels on the sides of their thighs-
"Hey, Spacewarp, I was really impressed by your speech railing against imperial adventurism and disavowing the Decepticons on that basis. I've heard a lot about you from Flamewar and Grimlock about your cosmic kindness and wisdom, can we talk? I want to get to know you better, see if you'd be interested in helping the Mystibots, and uh-" she stopped for a moment, wheels on their wings whirring.
My brain module fired off a flurry of thoughts: she knows two of my fling pals, they wants me to do something with her faction, she wants to get to know me, scrap where is this going-
My wings teetered up and down. "Um, you were saying-"
"To explore mutual interests, sweetspark. I presume that's why your optics have been locked on me for several astro-cycles every time you look over where I happen to be before you look away and try to engage somewhere else. I'm quite flattered that the eloquent and known gallant rogue Spacewarp has been given pause by me. Am I presuming too much? I'm sorry-"
I guffawed. "No no, it's okay, you got it," I reached out to her hands and gave them a squeeze. "I'd like that. Sit with me a while, and then maybe a dance?" My mind finally started to get a grip. Common ground, thank Primus. "Let's start with why me?"
"Heh," they sat down in the chair next to me at the round table, and I joined her. "For the job? Already said. Me and you?" the pink and cyan biolight lines on her torso sides and forearms of her lavender frame brightened with a pulse. "Because I think you're sweet, because you have an honesty to you, because I think about how our big frames would complement each other holding one another... this is why I want to know you more, I need more than that. Your turn, what got you into me?"
"Ah, I get that," I laughed, confidence flowing a bit more at their compliments until my brain got stuck on the image of sitting in her arms, watching the stars, which left me excited and teaming with charge in my circuits. "Really do. You- you have this savvy, dedicated and passionate fire in you that I can only guess is why you have a Matrix of Leadership in your chest, you're a- new vocabulary for me" not sapphic, remember she's on a totally different aesthetic framework than your trans enby aft, "swordwielding trans torqdare mutuality is just a mood and a vibe all at once, I really like that. Something to do with liking people I can trust to watch my afterburner, but also it's my terminal sapphic brain, you get me?"
"I definitely do, 'sapphic brain'," she chuckled, and I snorted at their joke. "Maybe Sapphicwarp would be a good nickname... if I understand what you mean by your vocabulary, you've certainly picked up on how to talk about my aesthetic hearth." She put her hand over the middle of their chest, and leaving me a bit in awe at her easy flow over her love for that. "I'm a mutuality kind of dare myself, as you say. Your, aesthetic is-"
"I'm a sapphic nonbinary gal, on the masculine-spectrum side of things, your honor, and that's a lovely name," I nodded. "And um, what would you like to know about me? What I do, what I like, you've already heard much, I gather."
"Well, Sapphicwarp," Perihelion leaned on her hand while looking at me, and I felt like I was going to melt again from her words and gaze. "I guess what I want to know besides your love for reading, history, geography, music, languages, what do you do for fun when you're not traveling or in deep space between places? Besides sharing family time with your minibot pals."
"Oh uh, some of what you said, listening to music, reading the loads of books we've got downloaded or letting Boom Tube read to me, write my logs, think about folks I love, catch up on the latest Robot City Stone episode, and there's this 22nd century human-made evolution game from cells to space I really like when I don't got spoons for anything else..."
"Aww, that's really cool," she leaned back in her chair. "I really like reading too, philosophy stuff, tabletop board game manuals and fan supplements. That game sounds really interesting... we have an equivalent back home that was a multispecies project from when I was young, would you like a copy? It's one of my favorites, especially the procedural comic panel visual novel portions-"
"Please, I'd love that," I reached out a hand, and they put theirs on mine. "I've been meaning to get into the visual novel genre because there's just so, so much sapphic stuff there from over the millennia, but just couldn't find a gateway one in with pacing and replayability to my liking."
"It's called Assemblage of Stars, it has co-op, if you'd like," she winked. "I'll get you one from my quarters later, thumb drive with my other stuff and mods, and also the OS it runs on."
"I think I'd like that," I mellowness flowered in me, their hand touching mine, her glorious path crossed with my own, my frame and circuits feeling overjoyed in their shape sharing this moment, and the predictable urge after brought itself to words in my mouth. "I um, I know we can chat more, about where we're from, what our boundaries are, but I'll lay them flat on the table to level with you and then ask if you'd like to dance. I like kissing, my faceplate does come off, and I'm happy to share touch with limbs, terms of endearment are fine, not big on derogatory talk, am okay with touch anywhere, I just um, don't have what most members of a lot of organic species have-"
"Pff don't worry darling, even if I was interested in sex I don't have parts or wiring for that either and don't want them on me," she nodded and gave my hand a pat, leaving me content with their attention there. "My faceplate doesn't come off, but I am happy to receive kisses or nuzzle heads, and yeah I don't like put downs either. I do like gestalt patching though, sharing minds, if you'd like to try someday."
"Hmm, I think after we talk more after our dance, that would be swell. Would you be okay with me smooching you while we sashay in tempo?" I sighed, circuits cool and graceful, bustling.
"Yes, yes I would, and I think talking more after letting our bodies get to know each other on the dance floor is a good idea," she stood, letting go of my hand to offer an elbow. "Would love to lock elbows on the way there, thinking the observatory deck, stuff is nice and slow there."
"Uh, sure, that does sound perfect," I got to my feet and wrapped my arm around hers, and we made our way through the hall, greeting people in passing who we knew on the way out, and took the nearest turbolift, leaning in the blue gray wall of the big square after pushing the button for the observatory deck.
We gazed at each other some more as the turbolift propelled towards our destination. I was awash with feelings about how adorable Perihelion was and had been the whole time, holding her peace and to my delight enjoying mine. I reached out to her other shoulder and then wrapped my arm around her head. "I have half a mind to nuzzle heads with you right now, if you want, Perihelion Prime."
They responded by leaning in, her head's wave crested helm clonking their faceplate with my own, rubbing up and down, pressing her helm guards occasionally with my own. I did my best to reply in kind, embracing her, sensors soft and attuned to her in my faceplate and mouth underneath, and my frame close with hers.
Endearing, quiet moments, slow and steady, filling my mind with the time and love, brought to a stop by the turbolift doors opening in front of the domed observatory. We untangled from our hug and stepped out, holding hands, chuckling, into the starry windows with soft notes wafting through the dancing crowd from a band composed of an armored car Arcee with an electric mini-harp, a sports car Jazz with a cyber-bass, a racecar Hot Rod with a clarinet, and a bird-winged engine-legged Airazor singing wordlessly into a microphone.
"The stars are beautiful, both in the void beyond, and in the people here," Perihelion hummed. "Like your own."
"Aw, that's a mighty fine complement for my spark, dear," I looked into the constellations of the galactic arm around us, the hilly and light-speckled planet Caminus in view from our high orbit, which I eventually turned to fondly. "You can see the lights of one my favorite planetary community of polities in this universe. I love their take on the Way of Flame, how they embraced the ever-changing aspects of fire, the sense of home, story, and creation, and wary study of fire's destructive power, that informs their gender systems' structure and their society… like your hearth, of your own Caminus, no?" I looked over at Perihelion, and her faceplate ruffled with a nod.
"Yes, exactly that," she slipped out of my hand to put her palms on the sides of my waist, facing me, and I keened quietly with excitement while she laughed. "My embrace of transformative momentum and rotational motion from force, with my carefully shaped heaviness in my frame and my sense of intrepidness and glory in being myself, does make my torqdareness and transness feel like a fire, a shining star. I adore it, and I like how people of this world use their own terms closer to yours for it. Since you have such a love for fire dear, shall we dance?"
"Please," I put my hands on the sides of her mid-riff, my spark practically bursting from it's casing, my mind pleased and focused on just Perihelion as they held me. "Something simple and close until the next song, then we can get a little more creative."
"Mmm, agreed, Sapphicwarp, let's start with some steps in a square," Perihelion took a step forward, and I took a step back, and then to the side, which she copied, before taking the next step back, which I followed. Foot by foot, we made a square pattern, hands on our torsos, optics peering into each other's. My metal frame may as well have softened, and her optics seemed to too, their green luminescence smaller as well, focused on me.
Step by step, we held each other's torsos, in one another's gravity. I loved every bit of it, and the quietness spoke volumes about our engagement in the rhythm and holding.
In the corner of my optic, the other three musicians in the band started to sing alongside Airazor, and the song came to a stop shortly after.
Perihelion and I hugged each other close, laughing. I was giddy across my fuselage. A simple thing, the dance we had done, but a nice dip further in mutual interest.
"Do you know the starflung dance?" Perihelion whispered in my audial.
"Maybe not yours, I know others by that name from other worlds," I smiled under my faceplate, creasing the armor in front of my mouth. "Why don't you show me when the next song starts?"
"Sure," we held on a while longer, and then harp sounds came on, and she put one hand on one of my own, gently and firmly. "The idea is that I spin you around in step, and then let go of your waist to let you go into a further 'orbit', with you switching the hand that holds mine, and then you close back in and hold me, and do the same thing for me. Ready?"
"Sure," I let my hand in her grip follow theirs up in front of us, and she started to turn, and I followed, a spinning stroll, note by note, until we came around in full, and she let go of my waist, and I stepped forward and away, letting go of their hand with my left to meet hers with my right, and we spun through several chords. I noticed some folk stop their dancing to watch us, and I gave a little nod and salute, firing my rocket thrusters for a little lift off the ground in the last part of the spin.
"Woohoo, yeah Spacewarp, you got it!" Perihelion cheered while keeping an iron grip on my hand, and I came back down to hold Perihelion close, nuzzling cheek guards again before stepping back and spinning her…
My senses alit and a twirl, I took in her few heavy steps before she took flight, almost pulling me up with them, and I followed her orbit as best as I could, quickly grabbing my faceplate to take it off as I saw them on her way down-
She embraced me under the wings, landing right along my torso, and I put an arm around her head and kissed her on the middle of their faceplate, nice and long.
Quiet cheers sounded around us, as my lips parted from her smooth sturdy faceplate, and she bonked my lips in return with lightness that showed practice, to my mind, the force of her head and neck available but held back. I let out a sigh, and kissed them again.
"Definitely want to get to know you after this, want to spin again, dear torqdare Perihelion?" I whispered.
"Yes, to both, dear Sapphicwarp…" Perihelion sniffed, and bright cyan droplets fell from her optics. "I think I know what that word really means now, it's so pretty…"
"Aw- aw sweetie, I didn't mean to make you cry," I tried rubbing her wings, and they chuckled, still teary.
"It's okay, it's euphoria and passion- seeing you in me, though we are so different in other ways, there is a mutuality for sure," she nuzzled my cheek with hers. "Maybe we could just stand here and kiss instead… I feel so amped up right now in all the right ways."
"Then let's do that," I brought my face in to share more touches of armor and mouth, spark roaring inside me, turning their words over and liking them, my systems all warm and collected. Wowza, I think I love them and want to see if this lasts a while…
