Thundercracker really doesn't want to answer this ping to his comm.

It's 0200 hours, Skywarp's been out hitting the high grade and he already knows that this conversation is going to be ridiculous. He should just sink back into recharge and pretend that he didn't notice the ping, but then Skywarp will make faces at him and give him that betrayed look and then he'll feel disturbingly guilty ...

Damnit.

Sighing, he answers.

"Warp? What's going on."

"TC. PRIMUS, YOU'RE THERE OKAY GOOD. THAT'S A GOOD THING. A REALLY REEEEEALLY GOOD THING."

Skywarp's voice is overly loud and somewhat slurred and damnit, he's obviously overcharged and this is going to be a pain in the processor, so Thundercracker cuts him off before he can really get going.

"Skywarp, if you keep yelling, I'm hanging up on you. Then you can wake up Starscream and let him deal with it."

Even horribly overcharged as he is, Skywarp immediately recognizes that Thundercracker's threat is a serious one. His voice shifts to an exaggerated stage whisper.

"TC? Is this okay?"

"Yes. Now tell me what you wanted to say or let me go back to recharge, idiot."

"Um, well..." Skywarp pauses for a moment, then whines miserably. "I'm lost."

"Skywarp, how the Pit is that even possible?" Primus, they had advanced global positioning systems for a reason!

"Well, I mean, we were sort of messing around and wrestling a little and I think something... disconnected. Um."

At least Skywarp had the decency to sound vaguely embarrassed, but Thundercracker is already quite aware that he isn't going to be going back into recharge any time soon.

"You are such a slagging idiot. Can't you find your way back by looking for visual land marks?"

"But this planet is all just green, TC! It's all green and brown and there's nothing like where we are and it's so hard. I can't even fly straight!"

The tone of Skywarp's voice rises progressively as he talks, whining into tones that are, quite frankly, making Thundercracker's teeth itch.

"So what are you expecting me to do."

"Carry me home?"

And Thundercracker groans, because that was Skywarp's wheedling voice, which means that he might as well get up now because there is no way he is getting out of doing this. "... I hate you. So much."

"YOU'RE MY HERO, TC! FOR REAL!"

Next time, Thundercracker thinks, he's call-forwarding Skywarp to Starscream.

(He doesn't.)