Out of everything in the universe for a former warlord to be scared of, needles weren't your first guess.

Trypanophobia is pretty common so you shouldn't be all that surprised, but this is a mech that worked with Shockwave for four million years, who must have had to undergo hundreds of thousands of upgrades and medical procedures.

And yet, Megatron still sits on an empty recharge slab, as far away from you as he can possibly get, stiff as a board and staring straight ahead, as if his crimson gaze can melt a hole through the door and allow him to escape from his mandatory health checkup.

"Thank you, for offering to do this." Megatron glances at you, visibly stiffening even more at the sight of the needle in your servo and immediately turning his helm away. "I don't really want Ratchet to see me like this, it's a bit..." he trails off when you take his arm, shuffling away minutely. "A bit strange, considering my history."

That feels like a bit of an understatement, but you suppose it gets the point across fine enough.

With every nanoklick that you waste preparing to draw some of Megatron's energon for tests, he seems to get more and more antsy. "I'm sorry, I'm a little more nervous than usual. Before... Before the Lost Light and this whole quest," back when he was leader of the Decepticons, he means. "I used to pretend that I was fine with needles and just pretend I was getting ordinary stabbed, but I can't pretend that you're just normally stabbing me and, oh, Primus, I don't think I can do this."

Megatron pulls his arm away from you and stands up, digits twitching at his sides. "I'm sure my energon is fine, I'd feel it if I had something wrong!" That's not how that works, "I know, I know, just... Can we get Ratchet to do this instead? I'm sure he'll have a grand time pricking me, and I can imagine him stabbing me, awkwardness be damned!"

He looks genuinely distressed, optics darting from your faceplate to your servos as if he's half scared you're just going to jump him. "I'll get it done some other time, I promise, I just need more time to prepare!"