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A few nights later I had a strange dream. Well, dreams. I kept having this weird boiling feeling in the back of my intake and the front of my fore-helm, but the rest of my frame felt oddly cold even though I was holding Chardirakii right against my chassis every night. My dreams mainly consisted of smoking dark energon and a femme's crazy laughter, but they were broken whenever I jerked back online with a cough. This continued on for about a week, and when Chardirakii questioned me about it I replied with a reassuring smile I was at full capacity. But on Monday morning the next week I found my optics would not open and I felt more exhausted and miserable than usual. The burning feeling in the back of my intake was unbearably painful and my thoughts were all muddled and slow, as if they were moving through the human food honey. "Hey, Optimus, are you okay?" Chardirakii asked me, sitting up beside me in our berth. Her dark optics reflected concern,"I can already hear Ratchet and Ultra Magnus are up." I groaned and rubbed my optics, forcing them open. My vision was blurry. "Ch-Char...dirakii...I may not be feeling...at full capacity this morning," I managed to say, though my glossa felt thick and heavy in my intake. Immediately Chardirakii's cool servo touched my fore-helm, then jerked away. "You're burning up!" she exclaimed,"I'll get Ratchet." Quickly she snapped her helm armor on over her hair and left the room, returning seconds later with my trusted friend. Ratchet took one look at me and his optics widened. "Oh, Primus! Optimus, you look terrible!" he exclaimed, touching my fore-helm, then checking my pulse. Chardirakii stood nearby, playing with her claws. My optics' vision immediately sharpened and suddenly all I could focus on were the swift movements of those greenish-blue claws. "Chardirakii, it would be wiser if you left," I heard Ratchet say, though it sounded like a murmer to my audios. A loud rushing sound was currently blocking out any outside noise softer than a regular voice. Chardirakii looked upset,"Why?" "Your bright biolights and claws make it difficult for Optimus to focus on anything else," Ratchet replied,"He needs rest." Chardirakii's face-plates and optics were sad, but she left the room, giving Ratchet the space he needed to work. Ratchet took my temperature, checked my pulse again, checked my sparkbeat, then announced I had a fever. If I hadn't felt so awful I would've tried to deny it and instead declare I felt perfectly capable. But since my helm was now spinning fast enough to produce a splitting processor-ache, I did nothing. Ratchet pulled the covers over me and left the room, hopefully to start on a medicine for the fever. I closed my heavy optics again and drifted back into my fevered dreams. Every now and then I thought I could hear the voices of my team-mates murmering, but their words were soon forgotten. Suddenly an image clear as day appeared in my helm. A lovely femme with violet and dark green armor with magenta optics was walking towards me. She had a rather pretty frame, almost like an hourglass shape, and tall audio fins that swiveled to point behind her helm or straight up. Her dermas had been painted a lighter silver than the rest of her skin plating, which was a dark shade of silver. She stopped just in front of me and smiled. "Hello, handsome," she laughed in a bell-like voice, biting the tip of her digit seductively,"Wanna play a game with me?" I forced my optics open, then felt a servo stroking the side of my helm. At once I grabbed it, thinking in a panic it was the femme. But when I opened my optics it was only Chardirakii. She was kneeling beside the berth, stroking my helm lightly with her claws. Well, she had been...until I grabbed her wrist. "Cha...r...dira...kii?" I mumbled, my glossa still feeling too thick for my intake. Chardirakii pressed a couple digits to my dermas with her free servo and shushed me. "You need to rest, Optimus. That means no talking," she whispered. I looked at my beautiful Sparkmate, then thought back to the femme from my dream. While she had been desirable, nobody could surpass Chardirakii in beauty. Within or without. I slid my servo up Chardirakii's wrist and clasped her digits loosely in my own. Chardirakii smiled and squeezed my servo slightly, then leaned forwards and kissed my dermas very softly. The feel of her dermas lingered long after she pulled away, and a small, tired smile crept across my face-plates. "Sleep now, my warrior-prince," Chardirakii whispered,"You need it." "I...love...youu..uu," I murmered as I succumbed to sleep once more. The femme luckily did not appear, and I slept somewhat soundly with only a few odd dreams here and there. When I woke again, it was to loud arguing outside my berth-room. Bulkhead and Ratchet, then after a short while, Chardirakii's hiss at them to be quiet so I could sleep. Bulkhead chuckled,"Just like a worried carrier." Thankfully after that most noise stopped and I was grateful for the peace and quiet. I drifted in and out of sleep for the remainder of the day. Someone left a tiny bouquet of white flowers on my berth-side table and a couple cards. Probably the humans, bless their kind hearts. I asked Chardirakii to read the cards aloud for me, as she came in to check on me often. So she did, sitting beside me on the berth, holding the thin pieces of paper between two claws, reading each word to me lovingly. "To Optimus Prime: Hope you get well soon. Lots of love and prayers from me and my family and Bumblebee. Rafael," the first one said, then Chardirakii showed me the crude, but adorable drawing Rafael had made of me, him, and Bumblebee. I smiled. The second one was from Miko. "To Optimus: Get well soon. More Decepticons need their tailpipes beat! Love, Miko." The one made Chardirakii giggled a little. On the card was also a drawing, one of me punching Megatron in the face-plates. I smiled at that one too. "Send them...my thanks," I told Chardirakii tiredly. "I will, now it's time for you to rest again. Ratchet's almost finished with your medicine," she replied, kissing my cheek. I took her servo and squeezed it affectionately before she left.
