The Lost Light was quiet. Unnaturally quiet. For once, the ship wasn’t shaking from some reckless space jump or spontaneous explosion. There were no shouts over the comms, no impromptu meetings in the command deck about another bizarre galactic anomaly or someone accidentally unleashing a chaos demon from a storage closet.

No chaos.

Just silence.

It unsettled you.

Not because you feared the peace, but because the quiet gave space to thoughts that usually got buried under all the noise.

You found yourself on one of the side observation decks, the lesser used one near the starboard engine banks. It was dim here, lit only by the faint glow of the nebulae outside, where dust clouds danced like dreamstuff across the stars. You sat with your back against the wall, one leg drawn up to your chest, helm tilted toward the view. Just ex-venting. Just thinking.

You hadn’t heard him approach.

Of course you hadn’t. He was light on his pedes when he wanted to be, when he wasn’t stomping around like he owned every inch of the ship.

“Figured you’d be here,” came that unmistakable voice, Rodimus’s voice. low, half-laughing, like the universe was one big inside joke and he was the only one who got the punchline.

*You didn’t turn to look at him yet. he walked over to you. “Before you ask about what happened with the captain’s meeting..” He paused for a second, then continued.

“I pushed it back, ultra Magnus wasn’t thrilled. But he’ll survive.” He added onto his sentence. You heard the familiar sound of his armor shifting as he dropped to sit beside you with a thud, close, but not touching. Never touching first. Never quite that bold when it was quiet.

You glanced at him. Bright red armor glinting softly, blue optics studying the stars like they were answers to a question he’d never asked. His flame insignia caught the light, vibrant and arrogant, like the rest of him. But you knew better than most, arrogance wasn’t all he was.

“You’re hiding again,” he said after a long moment.

You rolled your optics, though the corner of your mouth tugged upward. You let the silence stretch again. Not because you didn’t have things to say, but because saying them would change something. And that was the problem with you and Rodimus, it always felt like you were one sentence away from changing everything.

He nudged your pede lightly with his. “You’ve been quiet lately. Even for you.”