Since your asks are open, could I please get a oneshot of TFA Bumblebee playing with the readers hair. Just something sweet and comforting, like the two just relaxing at night cuddling. Sorry if this is too much!
A/N: FIRST OF ALL, this is absolutely not too much!!! This is AMAZING THANK YOU SM FOR REQUESTING THIS ONE I AM CRYING. I’ll leave it up to you to imagine what they just came home from, but otherwise, enjoy this slightly angsty bit. Bumblebee’s learned to slow down and appreciate the quiet moments after a rough day. I hope it’s okay!! :’0
Pairing: TFA Bumblebee x gn!Reader, can be seen as platonic or romantic.
Warnings: Some angst!
₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊
It had been a long day.
Fighting for your lives was a common occurrence by now. Bumblebee had been doing it for almost as long as he could remember. But you? You were just a human—one that was now wrapped up in a war that you realistically should have no part in.
The amount of times you’d come close—too close—to death because of it made him want to hide you somewhere off in the galaxy where no one would be able to hurt you ever again.
But of course… it wasn’t realistic. He was a soldier. He had a duty to his crew, to his leader, and to Primus himself to stop the Decepticons from enslaving and destroying. To help restore Cybertron one day. And you had a life to live here on your home planet.
Ironic… You had your own life to live, but the young Autobot’s introduction had pulled all of that completely to a halt.
You weren’t just any other teen anymore. You were an easy target—small and fragile when compared to the gargantuan and practically bulletproof alien beings that could crush you without a second thought if they so pleased. All it would take was one mishap, one mistake, one moment where he could be looking away—and it would all be over. The mere thought of it made his spark chamber threaten to implode, and every single time the possibility did flutter across his processor, he forced it away quickly.
None of that could happen. None of it would happen. He’d make sure of it. Once again, he tried to suppress the torrent of thoughts within his helm. Because at least for now, he didn’t have to worry.
The two of you were safe, locked away within his quarters at the plant. The other Autobots had filed into their home base alongside you both without a word, all retreating to their own spaces to rest and recuperate. It was more than needed following the events of the day’s earlier hours.
As he lay on his side, his optics searched every one of your features. Before, you were a mess—covered in dirt from the moment you were forced to duck for cover beneath a fallen tree in the woods. You found a change of clothes and were able to utilize one of the showers that Fanzone had offered to hire someone to fix up. You said yourself that it was a ‘godsend,’ and the look on your face at the moment confirmed that even further. You were comfortable and more relaxed now, allowing your limbs to loll out in all directions and taking the occasional deep breath every few minutes. Your eyes were closed, but he could tell that you weren’t in stasis. He gazed at your freshly-washed hair, but by now it was mostly dry and a bit fluffed up.
You genuinely looked comfortable, but still somehow tense. Bumblebee wondered what was rolling around in that organic brain of yours. It was probably something similar to what he was thinking, he figured.
So, gingerly, he reached out to you. “Hey.”
Your eyes found his optics in an instant as if you’d been snapped out of a trance. Your voice was a bit smaller than it usually was—tired. “Hey.”
After a pause, the scout curled his body a bit closer as if he wanted to whisper to you, his tone level and gentle still. “You wanna listen to my spark again?”
You stared at him for a long moment, and it was almost long enough for him to burn up from the inside out. Then you smiled, and his spark soared. “Yes, please.”
You’d said before that the sound of his spark calms you down. You’d listen to it, match your own heartbeat to it, and fall asleep comfortably. Every time you did, he could feel the way you’d eventually relax completely.
He loved it too.
So the scout leaned over, gently slid his servo beneath you, and rolled onto his back with you in-hand before he let go again. You settled yourself into a comfortable position with your head resting just next to the insignia in the center of his chassis, releasing a heavy sigh and falling limp almost immediately.
Bumblebee’s servos were still there, as if to cradle you or keep you from falling out of place. They were as gentle as they always were; a calm sense of security that neither one of you really recognized was an instinctual act. He slowed his own intakes, leveling his beating spark as it burned and flared with intense affection. He let his helm drop back so it could rest on the berth and he stared at the ceiling in silence.
As your breathing slowed, he thought of sparking up quiet conversation. He could never really stand silence for very long, but he found that moments like these were few and far between—and this silence was a comfortable one. Plus, he didn’t want to interrupt the very thing he’d just offered to you. So he did the next best thing that he figured might soothe you even further.
One of the mech’s servos reached for you again, and he started by slowly rubbing your back with one gentle digit. His touch was light, mindful of his own strength, but still firm enough to create a sense of careful pressure. He stayed locked in that action for what felt like hours, until it eventually moved to your head to find locks of your hair. One digit began to lightly twirl what he could, given the size of his servos. He remembered what you said previously—that playing with someone’s hair was one of the most relaxing things on Earth—and he wanted to deliver you that sense of comfort.
The pulsing of the spark in his chassis eventually calmed and slowed. It was rhythmic, strong, comforting—everything you wanted to hear after yet another day of chaos. The sound reminded you that he was alive, here, never going anywhere, and that you were just the same; alive.
Falling asleep to the sound of it was something you’d never grow tired of.
₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊ I’ll Keep You Safe — TFA Bumblebee X fem!Reader ₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊
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TEN — Entangled Creations
Word Count: 9.1k
Warnings: Suspense, playful and affectionate bullying, and a plot that is starting to thicken.
A/N: I’m so sorry for this chapter being late. EMS life is ROUGH. BUT… I have a few notes before we continue. There will be a major character death at some point… I’m adding that to the masterlist tags now. rip. ALSO, a reminder that this fic is largely my own AU. It doesn’t follow the plot of the TFA show, it takes a lot of elements and concepts from other TF media, and the sequel will be set in the TFP universe. If that’s not your cup of tea, no worries. I kindly ask that you just do not be passive-aggressive with me over it when the tags are right there, lol. Please feel free to ask questions or anything of the sort if you’d like to learn more! I’ll answer what I can without going into spoiler territory. Finally as always, please let me know what you think! Tags on reblogs and comments alwaysss give me so much life and they inspire me to keep writing. I LOVE knowing that people out there are enjoying my story. Thank you and enjoy!
₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊
Over the sound of crinkling parchment paper, you closed your eyes to relish in the mouthwatering taste of your long-awaited cheeseburger. After another long day of Autobot shenanigans, it was a welcomed moment of peace on the Detroit riverbank.
Bumblebee sat beside you with his legs splayed out before him, pedes slowly turning from side to side while he leaned back onto his servos in the soft grass. His optics searched the glittering water ahead while you sat perched on the large root of the tree that loomed above you both, fully enveloped in the need to satisfy your stomach.
Sitting in this exact spot had become the new norm for the two of you ever since the Blitzwing incident almost a month prior. Bumblebee wanted to be closer to the road and away from any obstacles—like an almost-full boatyard—so he could make a much easier getaway if he needed to. He’d learned from that incident, clearly.
And you absolutely weren't complaining. The wide river before you reflected the lights of the buildings across the way as well as the moon, whenever it was visible and full. The massive Ambassador Bridge stood to the left not too far away. You could easily move just beyond the dense branches to look up into the sky for some stargazing, and the upward slope behind you provided some privacy from any prying eyes on the road and beyond. It was certainly pretty, and definitely a quiet and peaceful spot to sit and relax with your friend. Plus, the nauseating height of that davit was no longer a worry.
The summer heat had faded, giving way to chillier nights and warm afternoons. Halloween was just around the corner now that October had come, and you couldn’t wait for Bumblebee to actually experience it this year, particularly because you’d since discovered that he was insanely easy to scare. The young mech could barely handle scary clips online, let alone a bunch of much smaller beings dressed up as monsters and creatures and everything in between. At least, that was what you’d assumed.
The Autobot in question continued to gaze ahead in silence while you wolfed down your burger. His optics fell on the Ambassador Bridge for a long moment before a shiver ran through his circuits and he shook it off before turning to arch an optic ridge at you. “You enjoying your fuel?”
A vigorous nod and a piece of lettuce falling from your lip gave him his answer.
He laughed softly, then turned his optics back to the water again. “Ratchet’s gonna try to work on the holomatter generator again in a few cycles. Maybe I actually could try human fuel soon.”
“I wonder how that’s gonna work,” You mumbled through another mouthful, “The food is solid, so where does it go when you’re not a holoform anymore? Like, if your holoform disappeared, would a pile of ground beef fall on the floor out of thin air?” The image in your head made you wince. “Actually, that would be so gross. Ew.”
“Yeah, actually. Ew.” He shot you another smirk, then looked back at the water once again. “I think it’d be cool to actually feel like a human for a day. To touch stuff and feel stuff. But also not. I don’t know.”
You took your last bite and balled the parchment paper up into a ball with one hand, tossed it into the paper bag on your right, then turned to look at him. “Why not?
“Because being so small and having no plating or armor would probably make me feel so defenseless and basically naked.”
Your head turned sharply to your left so you could send him a glare and half a smile, “Hey! We’re not totally defenseless!”
“Yeah, you are! You guys are all squishy and soft! I mean, it’s gotta feel weird, right?” He leaned up to take the pressure off his servos, then reached over to poke your side with one digit which earned him a sharp laugh. “See? I just can’t believe I used to think you were dangerous!”
You pushed his servo away with another laugh, staying upright to defend yourself from it again if you needed to.
“Besides, I’m your guardian.” Bumblebee leaned forward and brought his knees closer to his chassis to balance his weight on the grass. “I can’t really protect you if I’m just as small and squishy as you are.”
“You’d be surprised.” You mused. “Humans are strong too. You just gotta give us the right tools.” Then you angled your head to the side to give him a playful glare. “And I am still dangerous. Mentally, at least.”
The Autobot turned back to you and squinted. “Yeah—dangerously delusional.”
You rolled your eyes and smiled, then cast your sights back on the rocky riverbank ahead.
The bridge continued to glitter with passing taillights against the dark night sky. Your eyes studied the sheer height of it and for a long moment, you wondered how far the roadway actually was from the water. It was a sickening drop—definitely way further than you’d first thought. Even simply driving across it gave you a strange spike of anxiety and nausea. You couldn’t imagine ever looking down into the dark river from that height.
The thought of it made you shiver once more. You shook your head, then let out a dramatic sigh and threw yourself down onto your back in the soft grass.
It took a moment for you to move again, mostly because you simply enjoyed laying beneath a massive tree, breathing in the scent of fall, and relishing in it all with your eyes closed. When you did open them again, stars speckled the spaces in between the leaves above you as the branches swayed in a gentle breeze. You could only count a few of the leaves that were still green, some of them patchy and others completely swallowed in warm shades of orange altogether. Beside you still, Bumblebee was quiet for once. He seemed to be enjoying the serenity just as much as yourself.
Life alongside him really hadn’t been as insane as you’d originally been led to believe. Decepticon activity was quieter than usual, according to the other Autobots—which was certainly strange but no one was complaining about it. Detroit remained relatively peaceful on that front, and the people inhabiting the city seemed to be at ease as well. Almost two months without a Decepticon attack? Extremely suspicious, sure, but certainly not unappreciated.
Liz had now met Bumblebee two more times since that first awkward meeting. She seemed a bit more relaxed with the idea of her niece hanging around a boy in her age group, especially now that she was actually able to talk to him and get a feel for his intentions—even if they weren’t completely true. They were still nothing but good intentions, but it was still technically a lie nonetheless. You were just glad that she could relax now. She’d barely complained about the ‘cybertronian problem’ at all since that night either, actually.
Prowl’s words still bounced around in your head on random occasions. The lack of Decepticon presence might have brought your guard down quite a lot, but his never seemed to go down at all. His persistence for remaining vigilant was incessant—and even annoying at times.
Prowl’s just paranoid. The words broke through to the forefront of your other thoughts, Everything’s fine.
The lack of chaos and danger was more than you could ask for. It only meant that you could spend more quality time making up inside jokes with the extremely rude Autobot scout beside you.
“You’re my best friend, Bee. The best friend I’ve ever had.” You’d blurted the quiet statement without thinking or even looking at him. While you continued to stare up at the stars beyond the leafy canopy, in your peripheral vision you saw his helm jerk to the side so he could look at you.
He didn’t say anything, but he continued to search your features. Suddenly, your cheeks were burning and you could feel your chest growing hot. So continuing to talk seemed to be the best thing to do without embarrassing yourself—hopefully. “I’m just glad that I ended up moving to Detroit.” You finally turned to give him a mischievous smile, “Honestly, I can’t imagine what my life would be like without my own little talking car to harass me everyday.”
“Little?!” The scout’s emotion visibly twisted from feigned offense into something sinister, complete with a wicked smirk. “You–!”
His servos lunged forward and immediately began an onslaught of poking and prodding, tickling your sides and your middle while minding his own strength. You let out a shriek that was quickly drowned out with laughter, totally and completely unable to form shouts of protest. Somewhere in the attack, he used a digit to ruffle your hair and started laughing at how wild he’d made it look. Your arms flew out once or twice in an effort to shove him away, and of course it would never work. However, your broken pleading for mercy was what finally made it end.
Through your ragged breathing and now-rigid posture, you’d leaned all the way up once more and stared at him with wild eyes, your giggling dying down when he stated firmly, “That’ll teach you not to call me little ever again.” Then he turned his helm up at you like he was too good to meet your eyes, “Because I’m not the smallest anymore. You are.”
Your heart was racing still, unable to come down from the unexpected attack. He’d figured out that humans can be tickled, clearly. How? You had no idea. But it was certainly something to remember from now on. You’d just have to figure out how to get him back for it anytime he weaponized it against you. Surely there had to be something that could work.
For now, you gave in. “Oh, please forgive me!” The back of your hand met your forehead and you leaned back, “How will I ever survive without our friendship?” With the rest of your woeful words, you flopped back down into your original place with your back in the grass and released a dramatic sigh.
“I think you’ll live.” Bumblebee mused.
You pinned your eyes shut and sighed loudly again to see if it would instigate him further, but when he surprisingly didn’t say anything, you finally allowed your muscles to relax. With another deep breath, you inhaled the scent of the chilly night air once again and calmed the racing, gleeful heart in your chest. Your eyes opened once more to find those pretty leaves again. “I don’t think I would, actually–”
The branches were… darker, somehow. While you thought your eyes were simply struggling to adjust, you realized that the stars beyond the canopy were now gone. At your sudden silence, Bumblebee turned to look at you with questioning optics and a mouth that hung open as if he were about to ask you what was wrong. He saw your eyes narrow, arms slowly pushing yourself up as you squinted up into the leaves before he finally voiced his concern, “What’re you looking at?”
As the realization dawned on you, you felt your pulse rush. “There’s something up in the–”
Whatever it was, it moved. The branches high up above shuddered against it’s weight and the leaves rustled violently. Then multiple bright red eyes appeared, and you couldn’t hold back a gasp of alarm.
A loud yelp ripped out of your lungs as you were snatched from your place in the grass. Bumblebee whirled on his pedes and jumped away to stand with his back facing the river. He threw you up onto the top of his chassis in between his helm and shoulder plating before he whipped out his stingers, loud electricity pulsating from them through erratic sparks and narrowed optics searching the treetop. But whatever was there had now vanished.
Your hands gripped the edge of his chassis as you steadied yourself, your own eyes searching wildly, “I saw something! I know I–!”
A heavy thud from behind him sent him whirling on his pedes again, but this time the both of you shrieked in total and complete terror at the sight of an enormous spider on the rocky riverbank. His weapons surprisingly didn’t fire off—probably because he was too focused on screaming louder than you’d ever thought possible and simultaneously backing away. And you were vocalizing just the same.
The horrifyingly massive insect didn’t move or speak during your very vocal shared panic. By the time your voices were dying down, still nothing had happened. Only a glaring stare bleeding from every single one of those slitted red optics grew with intensity as Bumblebee’s voice droned off and your’s did the same.
Silence. Tense, thick silence blanketed the space between yourself, your friend, and the multi-legged being that was still unmoving on the river’s rocky edge. The only sound drifting across the open stretch was the faint thrumming of Bumblebee’s electric stingers.
Until a smooth feminine voice delivered a dry insult. “Well, that was dramatic.”
Then, it transformed. Bumblebee’s posture tensed beneath your palms and you reached for something to grab onto, absentmindedly remembering not to grab onto his horns.
The being stood, her long and pointed appendages curling behind her back as she moved to stand upright. Black, purple, and gold plating reflected the indigo moonlight from above and the streetlights from the top of the slope that were now behind you. Sharp heels, clawed digits, and a sleek form came to take shape just a few yards before him. The new face stretched her arms forward before she looked completely relaxed with one servo coming to rest on her hip. Her armored helm and faceplate lacked any and all emotion—other than maybe a single shred of irritation.
Bumblebee’s stingers pulsed with fresh energy and he narrowed his optics, glowering at the feminine cybertronian that clearly neither of you had ever seen before. Inwardly, you cursed at yourself while you waited for something to inevitably happen. I just jinxed us.
“There’s nothing to be afraid of, Autobot.” Her voice was smooth, silky, and definitely not at all unnerving. “It’s just a little spider.”
“Back up.” You could feel the scout’s voicebox vibrating up through your chest as he growled. “I can see that insignia just fine.”
The femme glanced down at the Decepticon symbol in the center of her armored neckband, then she let out a sigh that sounded more like a hiss. “What—this thing?” One of her claws reached up to tap it lightly, “I haven’t been one of them for a long time, sweetspark.”
You narrowed your own eyes at her suspiciously. Nothing about the femme standing on the rocks ahead of you made you feel anything other than alarmed and ill. Her plating had sharp edges and ribbed pieces, very obviously less uniformed than any other cybertronian you’d ever seen. However, it made sense when considering what her alternate form was. A massive, metal spider with unnervingly long legs would send anyone into a spiral.
Your friend continued to hold his pointed glare, his stingers vibrating with energy once again and never lowering even an inch. “Then what do you want?”
Her helm flicked to her left just slightly. Even though her numerous optics were solid in color, you could almost feel their burning intensity. She seemed calm and collected, but there was still something about her that just seemed… wrong. A shiver ran along the length of your spine and into your fingertips.
“My designation is Black Arachnia.” The dark femme started in that same silky tone. Bumblebee’s form tensed once again when she stepped to the side and began to slowly pace along the rocky shoreline. “I’ve been exploring this planet for a few vorns now, but I came back here when I heard of the drama that you ridiculous mechs will still not let die. Somehow, you’ve dragged the war onto yet another planet—as if destroying our own homeworld wasn’t already enough.”
“We didn’t destroy anything. You can blame your leader for that.” Bumblebee hissed viciously through gritted denta.
Black Arachnia ignored him, her optics focused on the rocks before her pedes as she took each slow step, still not at all concerned about the scout’s drawn weapons. “But then I saw you, Autobot. And I was intrigued when I saw that human following your every move.” Her helm turned gradually to look at him once more. “A cybertronian and an Earth organic attached at the hip? It’s interesting. You’re proof that our kind can tolerate organic matter.”
Bumblebee didn’t move or speak. Goosebumps exploded along the surface of your skin and against the fabric of your sleeves.
“It’s cute, in a way. I really wondered how that came to be.” Arachnia stopped in her tracks and let out a soft laugh. “So I’ve been observing your bond for the last stellar cycle.”
She’s been watching us? For how long? Another shiver quaked through your body, as if you weren't already completely and totally freaked out.
Movement from her caught your attention once more and when you looked back, you saw half-lidded optics already meeting your own squinting eyes. Then that same smooth voice practically purred, “What’s your name, sweetspark?”
Your fingers curled along the edge of Bumblebee’s chassis, white-knuckling your grip on him and your breath caught in your chest for only a brief second. Even if you wanted to respond, Bumblebee beat you to it.
“You’re a freak of nature and you need to frag off.” His stingers roared with energy and the electric currents flared along the air before he squared his shoulders. The Autobot genuinely seemed like he was one more word away from firing a shot at his target.
“Hmph. Nature.” Arachnia’s optics squinted at him and her lip curled, just a fraction of anger making itself known. She paused for a long moment and searched him up and down, but she still hadn’t moved. “Sometimes becoming a freak of nature is a good thing, believe it or not. Organic matter might just end up being the key to a kind of power one can only dream of.”
The femme’s servo slipped from her hip and she took one small step toward him, then those solid optics narrowed in on you once again. “We have far more in common than you’d think.”
Bumblebee took one step back and repositioned his stingers to aim at her helm.
Then, she smiled and hissed with a note of disgust. “Hold onto that one while you can, scout.”
“Get lost!” He barked an instant response.
You flinched when the sparking stingers before him finally released in a flurry of zaps. Bolts of electricity soared across the air, each one missing their intended target as she dodged them effortlessly. Arachnia bent her knees and launched herself upward faster than your eyes could follow before she landed, now standing in the grass a few yards away on Bumblebee’s left. The young ‘Bot jerked to the side to face her and held his stingers higher, but he didn’t fire again.
You’d expected her to retaliate, to lash out—something. But she didn’t. Her posture was still relaxed when she stood tall after her landing with her helm lolled over her shoulder to send him another unbothered look.
Bumblebee was practically seething, his chassis shuddering in sporadic pants with his knees bent and ready to act if needed. Through his movements, you’d latched onto the side of his neck with one hand and the edge of his shoulder plating in the other. Staring at the being ahead of you once again was the only thing you felt you could really do.
Arachnia stared back for a moment longer before she raised her servos defensively and took a step back. Then she smiled and murmured, “See you around.”
With that, she shifted. The massive cybertronian spider came to be again, then scurried up the slope and out of sight.
The scout remained tense and rigid for a long moment. Only at the sound of your shaky breathing did he relax just slightly, one stinger returning to a servo while he let out an exvent himself. Bumblebee then straightened and stood tall with his helm turning back to see where she’d disappeared. Clearly, he still wasn’t convinced that she really had left.
On a normal night, you might have thought that the tense silence was suffocating. Instead you found yourself thinking the same thing that he probably was—it’s still dangerous. But when scanning the top of the slope revealed nothing and there was no sound other than the acceleration of a few distant cars, your shoulders finally sagged. She was gone.
Your friend shook his helm like he was rebooting himself. When you looked to find his faceplate, you found a scowl and squinting optics still trained on where he last saw her. It lasted only a moment before he turned to meet your gaze. “You good?”
“I’m good.” You stared at him, jaw agape for a few seconds and blinking away any lingering scraps of wild alarm. “Are you good?”
“Psh, I’m good.” He tried to sound confident, but it didn’t really work. His apprehension was still evident in his optics, his posture that still hadn’t completely relaxed, and the fact that he kept looking up the slope said everything. However, his opposite stinger finally turned back into a servo nonetheless. “But that was really weird.”
“You don’t say?” Your eyes went wide and you craned your neck forward to find his optics again with a tone that emphasized the sarcasm. “She just said she’s been following us for a stellar-whatever!”
“A stellar cycle.” The Autobot corrected. His optics only flicked to your face for a second as he spoke. “It’s like– I think it’s a month for you guys. Or whatever you call it.”
Your shoulders slumped with a sigh, then you flopped over with your weight leaning on the side of his helm. The fresh image of those many pointed legs popped back into your head and a violent shiver wracked your bones. You let out a hiss of disgust, “I hate spiders.”
“Me too.” Bumblebee confirmed, his own shiver reverberating through his circuits. “Especially the Decepticon kind.”
You were honestly surprised that he wasn’t complaining about you being so close to touching his horns by now. “I didn’t even know those existed and honestly, I’m not really thrilled about it.”
“Me neither—to both of those points.” Bumblebee finally turned to face the tree that had previously provided shelter, then he reached up to pluck you from your spot atop his chassis. The scout set you down on the ground beside him gently before he shifted back into the familiar WRX and popped the driver’s door open automatically. “Let’s go tell the guys.”
You nodded wordlessly and jumped in, happy to feel the warmth of his interior. Until that moment, you hadn’t realized that the goosebumps along your skin were still very prominent—likely from the combination of feeling thoroughly freaked out and the chilly night air.
Bumblebee pulled up alongside the massive oak tree and stopped to let you out for a brief second. You needed to retrieve your almost-forgotten burger-joint paperbag.
₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊
“There was this… spider-lady. But it was really weird.” Bumblebee’s need to talk with his servos flying all over the place would likely never be something he’d stop doing. “Apparently she’s been stalking us for cycles like some kind of freak!”
Optimus’ words were mellow and level, and one of his servos held his chin in a thoughtful expression. “And you saw the Decepticon insignia?”
“Yeah! She said she’s not one of them anymore—apparently.” Bumblebee’s optics turned to pan across the room at the other Autobots.
When you both scrambled in through the open bay door, Bulkhead had been discussing something with Optimus. Ratchet was in the middle of his never-ending tinkering. And Prowl must have been in the hallway, because the slender mech only appeared after Bumblebee exploded with frantic rambling. The plant had been quiet for a long couple of weeks and it left the team almost restless to some degree. Some excitement—even if it was coming from the ever-dramatic scout—was more than enough to get them all to stop what they were doing without a second thought.
Your own words seemed to get trapped in your throat. By now, your comfort among the other Autobots had skyrocketed, but they still left you feeling a bit intimidated during group discussions sometimes. You were getting better at it everyday, but the idea that you were just a little pest never seemed to stop bleeding from the cracks of your subconscious. Prowl’s consistent attitude still wasn’t helping either.
“And you didn’t engage?” The cyberninja’s monotone voice carried over to the scout standing beside you. There was just enough of a suspicious tone in there, you almost thought he was trying to instigate something.
“Well, not really. I fired a few warning shots to get her to back off, but that was it.” Bumblebee’s optics flicked across his teammates briefly, then he looked down at you and down at his pedes. “She didn’t attack back.”
Prowl let out a quiet hiss that was half a sigh, his right servo reaching up to cover his visor. You saw Bumblebee tense beside you, so before any bickering could inevitably blow up, you leaned up and took a deep breath.
“She talked about cybertronians getting along with organics and stuff. It was really weird.” You finally managed to work up enough courage to add to the conversation, even if your eyes still stayed stuck and glued to the cement beneath your sneakers. “Then she said that we have a lot in common, and she left.”
“She said that she has a lot in common with who?” Ratchet’s voice from behind you startled you only slightly. The older mech was leaning over you so he could meet your eyes, and you had to crane your neck back to see it. He had one optic ridge arched in question. “You?”
“I mean– I think?” You looked away from his optics, glazed eyes scanning the faceplates of the other Autobots to gauge their reactions. “She was looking right at me when she said it.”
Both Ratchet and Prowl looked to Optimus, then Bumblebee and Bulkhead did the same after staring down at you for a moment longer. Clearly they were all looking to their leader to see what he would think about the strange encounter.
The noble Autobot in question had his optics trained on you for a long few seconds—long enough to make your stomach churn at the unwanted attention. “And you’re sure you weren’t followed?”
“Honestly?” Bumblebee shrugged, his features flinching at the sudden realization. “I hope not. If she’s actually been following us for almost a stellar cycle, I had no idea.”
You looked from your friend and back up to the taller leader. Bumblebee didn’t answer his question, so you did. “I don’t think she followed us back to the plant tonight, no. We kept checking behind us and we never saw anything weird.”
Optimus let out a huff of air. Then the mech turned slightly and began to pace for just a moment. He was very clearly deep in thought, squinting his narrowed optics and still holding his chin within his servo. Then he heaved a heavy exvent and turned to meet the optics of his surrounding and expectant comrades. “I don’t like it.”
“Who would?” Ratchet quipped, his tone dropping into thick sarcasm. “A techno-organic stalking humans wasn’t exactly what I would have expected for our roster.”
“A techno-organic?” Your voice cracked. “Is that what she is?”
Optimus let out a hmph, then squared his shoulders before he turned to face Prowl and Bulkhead on his right. “I’m going to scope it out, see if she’s still in the area. Prowl, you’ll come with.”
The mech in question nodded wordlessly. His helm turned to his right, hidden optics undoubtedly landing on you, and you could feel yourself shrinking deeper into your own skin under the weight of his stare. You tried to avoid his gaze but before you could internally explode over it, he’d already looked away once more.
Neither one of you had spoken a word to each other since he’d lashed out at you—not really. There wasn’t really any need for it. You’d tried your best to hide away from his intense presence more often than not, and Bumblebee also made that quite easy for you. The scout very obviously had never liked Prowl from the start—and that feeling was mutual—long before you’d showed up in their lives, so keeping his charge away from the irritable grouch became one of his top priorities very quickly. Especially after you refused to tell him about how your ‘conversation’ went.
“You two–” Optimus turned to point at Bulkhead, then to Bumblebee, “–stay here with [Name] until we get back with a report.”
Bulkhead nodded. Bumblebee folded his arms across his chassis and dropped his helm to the side. There was a sharp scowl adorning his faceplate and his narrowed optics looked anywhere else but at the commanding leader. The scout was muttering something, but it was too quiet for you to catch it all. Something about ‘my charge’ and ‘I never get to patrol for stuff like this.’
You blinked at him, then rolled your eyes and shook off the remaining nerves as they fired warning after warning in your brain. You were ever so slowly beginning to get a grip on your anxious thoughts, but it was still a fight nonetheless. Plus, it wasn’t like you’d be able to truly relax with the newfound knowledge of an alien stalker on the loose.
Optimus stepped into the space between yourself and the yellow mech with Prowl following just a few paces behind. Once again, you could feel the weight of his stare burning the surface of your skin as he stalked quietly past. But that time, you chose not to meet it.
Maybe ignoring Prowl enough actually would make it all go away.
The two beings exited through the open bay door and Ratchet closed it swiftly behind them. When he turned back to face the abnormal silence, he found a stagnant room with three youngsters expectantly staring back at him.
A scowl rippled along his scarred faceplate, “What are you all staring at? Go play one of those human games—or whatever mindless slag you love to distract yourselves with.”
The old mech ambled away and into his own medical bay. That left yourself, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead all staring after him—until you turned to look back at the scout, then to the wrecker.
With the both of them stupidly staring back and Bumblebee being abnormally quiet, you threw your arms up in the air and widened your eyes.
Bulkhead blinked, then his helm turned just slightly to the side. “What now?”
You simply shrugged, eyes surveying him and Bumblebee repeatedly. “I dunno.”
“We do what Ratchet said!” Bumblebee suddenly jumped in the spot where he stood, his arms waving animatedly before him and his optics squinting in a suspicious look. Then his ever-present mischievous smirk came back brighter than ever. “Distract ourselves with mindless human slag!”
You could feel a shiver run through your insides, but you matched the energy nonetheless. “I don’t… ew, dude. Just ew. You make it sound so gross.”
“You’re gross!” Bumblebee barked defensively as he pointed a digit at you. “I’m just trying to make sure we don’t rust while we wait stellar cycles for them to come back.”
The young ‘Bot turned on his heel and sauntered across the living space toward the mouth of the hallway. He stopped short just before disappearing around the edge of the wall where he could still see you and the giant green mech standing behind you. After a long moment again filled with silent staring, his optic lids dropped and he tipped his helm to the side, “Well? What’re you guys waiting for? Come on!”
The sound of Bulkhead’s shifting parts finally made you move when you realized he’d obeyed without a second thought, and you did just the same. Scrambling to catch up with enormous beings wasn’t as easy as it looked—not to mention holding that pace while trying to keep up with them. Their legs were way longer than yours, after all.
Bumblebee led the two of you back into his own living quarters. Once the young ‘Bot was inside the space, he turned and waited for Bulkhead and yourself to step in before shoving the heavy door closed behind you. Then he scampered across the concrete floor to the opposite wall and hurriedly rummaged through a pile of electronics. Wires and batteries flew into the air and all over the place as he tossed them away, earning him a bark from you after you’d dodged one of the many pieces of flying debris.
“Watch it, dude!” Another small battery flew past your skull. How could he even manage batteries with servos as large as his own? You didn’t know—but you did know that you didn’t want to get clobbered with them. “You’re gonna hit me with those.”
A sharp tang sounded off from Bulkhead’s pede as he was struck with the end of a powercable. One side of his oversized jaw twitched upward in irritation at the contact. “Maybe [Name] should have some armor around here.”
Your eyes shot up to find his optics, wide and amazed and sparkling with sudden interest. “Whoa! I want armor! That would be so sick!”
A scoff came from the hyperfocused scout across the room, but he didn’t look away from whatever he was trying to find. “[Name] doesn’t need armor! She has me.”
“That’s exactly the problem.” Bulkhead leaned forward with one servo outstretched as if he wanted to cover you with it, but he stopped just before reaching you when Bumblebee barked excitedly.
“Aha!” The yellow mech jumped backward and pumped his servos into the air triumphantly, then he turned and presented the object in his grasp to yourself and the just as equally confused Autobot standing behind you.
It was a large box of some kind—dark gray and black in color with cables coming out of the backside of it and a large lens on it’s front.
Bumblebee’s smug smile tugging at his faceplate made you want to make some kind of joke to fluster him. However, your genuine curiosity outweighed the need to do so. “And this is–?”
“A media player.” He stated matter-of-factly, optics closed.
You blinked at him before your eyelids dropped just slightly, even if he couldn’t see it. “That’s a projector.”
“No, it’s my media player.” The Autobot reared back and shot you a look of feigned disgust. “It plays media.”
You had to resist the urge to smile teasingly. “Yeah. Also known as a projector.”
“No, it’s–!”
“Oh, who cares what it’s called!” Bulkhead snapped from behind you. His booming voice was more than enough to get anyone to shut up. “It plays movies! So we’re watching a movie. Right?”
“Right!” Bumblebee smiled brightly, then he looked down at you and winked. “So go get your big pile of tarps while I set this thing up.”
You rolled your eyes and sighed dramatically, but turned to find your mess of blankets nonetheless.
Over the last month, you’d obtained some king-sized blankets of your own to keep at the plant. Soft, plush, and warm quilted ones that offered a level of comfort you didn’t even have in your own bedroom at home. After you’d discovered this, you almost wished you had purchased more than the few residing in Bumblebee’s quarters to keep at the house too. But something in the back of your brain told you that it wasn’t exactly just the blankets offering comfort—it was the company you had when you were nestled here within them. Plus, Liz would wonder what you’d spent all that money on.
After you’d assembled a mess of blankets on the floor to your liking, you kicked off your sneakers and leaped into them with an excited yap. Almost instantly, you were buried in the soft and feathery material and it was a welcomed invitation to immediately relax. You allowed your muscles to go limp and your shoulders to slump so you could sink even further down on your back, closing your eyes in bliss as you did so.
Until a shadow loomed, blocking out the dim light that was beyond your eyelids. So you opted to crack one eye open.
Staring down at you was Bulkhead. The wrecker had titled his helm in what looked like confusion, one of his optic ridges was arched and his jaw quirked upward in a half smile. “What are you doing?”
You could only return his smile as you closed your eyes again. “Basking in the beauty and comfort of some really soft blankets. You should try it sometime.”
You could hear Bulkhead’s physical reaction; leaning backward while undoubtedly continuing to arch his optic ridge as he replied, “Uh, we don’t really need blankets. And I can’t even really… feel them… I guess?”
You cracked an eye open once more so you could see him again. “You can’t? Why not?”
“Uh, well–” The huge mech leaned further back and looked away awkwardly, “–we don’t have exposed protoforms, so we can’t really feel stuff like that.”
You leaned up while gazing at him in shock, curiosity rounding your eyes. “You can’t? Are you sure?” You threw one hand over your shoulder and pointed at Bumblebee with your thumb. “Because if I so much as flick that dude’s plating, he gets all freaked out about how much it hurts.”
The yellow scout’s helm shot upward from where he’d originally been focused on plugging in the cables for the projector. His cheeks were blown up and his optics were wide and angry, like he couldn’t believe that you’d actually say that to another member of the team. “Hey!”
“What?” You threw a sideways glance over your shoulder and tried to stifle your snort of laughter, “It’s true and you know it! It happened like, four hours ago!”
“No, it’s not!” Bumblebee jumped in place and threw his servos up into the air. Then he turned his optics on Bulkhead. “Listen, she likes to make stuff up all the time, so I wouldn’t–”
“Nah. I believe her. She’s not making that up.” The larger Autobot blinked and suppressed a rumble of laughter in his own chassis.
The reaction instantly earned him exasperated shouting from across the room. “What? Why?!”
“Because that so sounds like something you would do and it happens all the time.” Bulkhead snickered in a giddy tone of voice and you couldn’t help the laugh that broke out.
The younger ‘Bot threw his servos all over the place like he was struggling to bat the airborne insults away. “I–! You–! I can’t even–!”
He stood there staring between you and the wrecker for a long moment, then whirled on his pedes and very obviously tried his hardest to focus his efforts back on the projector. Then came the unmistakable sounds of his fans kicking on.
Your explosive laughter finally broke free, simply unable to hold it in anymore. Every few seconds through your cracked eyes, you could see him bristling at the sound while he rummaged through the mess of cables in his servos. Though it was extremely difficult, you tried to speak brokenly through your fit. “Oh– come on, Bee! We’re just– we’re just messing with you.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Laugh it up back there!” Bumblebee’s voice had developed a slight sting, then he turned and squinted at you harshly. “‘Cause you’re so gonna pay for that.”
“Ohhh.” Your tone droned up and down through a mischievous smile and you squinted back. “I’m so scared.”
“You don’t even know the half of it–” He murmured menacingly. Then without warning, he turned and leaped forward, stamping his pedes on the concrete and stopping just short of your blanket pile. The action made you clumsily fall back into the pillowed mess with a yelp, but he hardly heard it because he was too busy shouting, “–because you’re about to scream your little organic head off!”
“What?” Your arms worked to shove yourself upright again and your voice broke through the movement.
Bumblebee leaned all the way over, looming above you with his usually-suspect smug smile. “It’s scary movie time.”
“Oh, great.” A laugh, then you rolled your eyes. “Now I get to listen to you scream like a little girl for the next two hours.”
“Yeah. That’s usually what happens.” Bulkhead, still standing behind you, snickered.
“Wha–!” Bumblebee lurched backward like he’d been physically struck and cursed, “Don’t make me laugh, [Name]. Primus.”
He ate his words, however.
Because only about forty minutes into the movie, Bumblebee was shivering beside you. He was struggling to suppress it, but you saw it as clear as day. Bulkhead sat on your opposite side with his pedes situated in front of him comfortably and even he was casting you sideways glances at times. Both of you saw it perfectly clear, even in the light that only came from the projection and the blue string lights around the room.
Then came the most glorious possible thing that could ever grace your eyes.
A creature in the projection jumped forward, and the scout let out the highest shriek you’d ever heard in your life. Not only did you have no idea his voice could even reach that level of volume, but his frantic flailing and the distance his body tumbled backward only made it all the more epic. The screeching lasted for a long few seconds, and when he finally stopped scrambling for a grip on anything within range that he could grab onto, he froze.
He saw you and Bulkhead staring at him with massive eyes and optics respectively. Then came the howling laughter. You’d rolled onto your side in your blanket nest, completely unable to breathe, just as Bulkhead fell backward with a loud crash as his plating met solid concrete. The ground beneath the fabrics trembled just slightly as he shouted broken words through his fit, and your chest began to hurt without a proper breath.
The small ‘Bot squinted at you both while you were lost in the elation. He shuffled over and sat back down without a word—only bitterly narrowed optics and a curled lip as he watched you both struggling to compose yourselves.
When you finally leaned up once more, you were wiping fresh tears from the corners of your eyes with the backs of each of your hands. Your laughter had simmered down into sporadic whimpers, like you were genuinely trying to silence yourself and it was close to an impossible feat.
Bulkhead was now upright once more as well, and you only knew that because you’d recognized the familiar sound of shifting metal. You cast your eyes to your left where the ever-silent scout sat silently—no doubt internally simmering like a tea kettle.
Finally and after a heavy sigh, you managed to form coherent words, “You can hold my hand if you want t–”
“I don’t need hand-holding!” Bumblebee flinched away like your outstretched hand was a loaded weapon, “You need hand-holding!”
More laughter ensued—as if his torture was never going to end.
It wasn’t much longer before the movie ended with just a few more jumpscares. Bumblebee tried to hide his fear, but that was absolutely an impossible task. He didn’t know how to quell his trembling, nevermind stifle his vocal panic. The young mech was the most vocal of any of the Autobots, so naturally it would make sense that he couldn’t handle sitting quietly through any movie—and a scary one at that. Truly, it was a glorious thing to witness and it helped your anxiety fade away more and more by the minute.
You couldn’t stop a loud yawn from announcing your exhaustion. It really had been yet another long day, and the emotional adrenaline-fueled fluctuations had taken their toll. Bulkhead agreed that it was time for stasis, and he left without teasing his younger comrade any more than he already had.
You stood up and climbed out of your blanket nest clumsily, nearly tripping over your own foot as you did so. Bumblebee was in the process of closing the hangar door behind Bulkhead, but he stopped when he heard your voice.
“Hey!” You were waggling one finger at him when he turned to look at you, “Come on. You know the drill.”
Bumblebee’s shoulders slumped and he squeezed his optic lids shut, angling his helm upward to groan at the ceiling. “Ugh! You and your protoform.”
Your response came after a curt giggle. “No. It’s called privacy. And you need to get used to it.”
Bumblebee was halfway through opening up the door once again when he turned to shoot you a confused look. “I just don’t get it! I mean– why? I have a protoform too, y’know. It’s not that crazy.”
You eyed him and quirked one brow. “Can I see it?”
Instantly, he snapped his mouth shut, his optics blew up, and you heard his fans kick on. “Uh, well–”
“Exactly.” You shook your head and laughed lightly, simply waving your hand at him. “Now scram. I’ll be done in not even a full minute.”
“Ugh.” He sighed, but he didn’t argue any further.
At the sound of that massive door sliding shut, you turned your focus over to your little makeshift shelf to the right of his television setup. Within it, you’d accumulated a bit of your clothes from home to keep at the plant. There were way too many times where you’d been showered with dirt over and over again. Bumblebee was still learning that in a dirt lot or a muddy patch of grass, he should at least move away from you before transforming as soon as you left his interior.
That, and you really just wanted to have some comfy clothes to change into after a long day of robot shenanigans running amuck.
Once you were comfortably tucked into a pair of sweatpants and your biggest sweatshirt, you called for your friend to enter the room once more. Bumblebee slowly cracked the door without looking in, asked if you were sure, and pushed the door open further once he had your confirmation.
For a ‘Bot that pretends to be annoyed all the time, he sure did respect your demands. Most of the time.
Bumblebee quickly closed the hangar door behind him, flipped that huge lightswitch on the wall next to it, then took a few paces over to his berth and sat down on the edge of it. His bright blue optics lit up tiny dust particles as they floated around his helm and in front of his faceplate, watching you curiously.
You were in the middle of tossing some blankets up and around your head, very obviously in the process of making your blanket pile comfortable to sleep in once more. After settling your heavy quilted blanket across the divot in the middle, you climbed in and allowed the warm fabric to swallow you almost completely.
Bumblebee’s optics focused on you for a moment longer. Then he let out a dramatic sigh and flopped over onto his back, slowly pushing himself into a comfortable place across the length of the berth with his pedes. “That was a long day.”
Silence, and then a reply muffled by blankets. “It was.”
His optics searched the ceiling, pipes and concrete illuminated by bright royal blue string lights. Then he smiled, “I’m starting to think I should keep you away from Bulkhead.”
“What?” He heard you shift and lean up, but he didn’t look. “No! Why?!”
“Because every time you guys are together, you gang up on me!” Bumblebee rolled onto his side so he’d be able to see you from the edge, “Bullying isn’t cute, y’know.”
“Oh, come on. You bully me all the time!”
True, he thought. “Yeah, but I don’t bully you the way you bully me when he’s in the room.”
“What?” He could see you staring up at him, your jaw working to form some kind of retort, but you gave up after a moment and flopped back down into your makeshift bed once more. “Wimp.”
Bumblebee lurched upward with his arms and digits outstretched. “See?! Exactly!”
“Oh my god.” Your laughing made him smile.
The mech leaned back down and settled himself once more and a comfortable silence fell across the dimly lit room. Silence was never really something he liked, however. “That femme was really weird.”
More silence, then came a tentative reply from down below him. “Yeah. I don’t like her.”
“Me neither.” Bumblebee scowled. “And she called you sweetspark! Only I can do that!”
He heard a tiny laugh, but you didn’t reply.
He narrowed his optics up at the ceiling, deep in a bitter thought. “Also, if she’s been rogue for a long time like she said, why didn’t she get rid of her slag insignia? It’s so easy.”
You leaned up out of the warmth once again in favor of finding his optics. “Really? How… do you even do that? Does it hurt?”
“It can. You can get a new piece of plating, or smelt it off. Usually you need a medic to do it for you.” The Autobot above you murmured, then you heard his parts shifting as a violent shiver wracked his form. “But smelting it off would probably feel worse than Unicron himself.”
You scrunched your nose and titled your head, confused. “Uni-what? What about a unicorn?”
There was a sharp tang. Bumblebee definitely just clapped his forehead with his servo. “Unicron. He’s the… Uh, actually that’s a really long story. I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.”
“Huh. Okay.”
Another long pause came and went. Your eyes drifted from the edge of the berth above you and floated over the floor, then the walls, the many stolen street signs and posters, and the royal blue lights up above.
The sound of metal shifting grasped your attention once more, however.
“Hey, [Name]? Uh– do you…” Yet another long pause, and Bumblebee’s voice was way quieter than you’d ever heard it before. “Do you wanna, um– maybe go to stasis up here?”
You blinked, and suddenly your cheeks were burning and hot to the touch. “You mean up there with you?”
“Yeah, uh–” He sat up yet again, his voicebox faltering like he didn’t know how to speak, “I mean, you can if you want to.”
There was a warm feeling in your chest. And it grew, and grew, and grew until it threatened to combust. You kept your cool however, calm and level and not at all feeling warm from head-to-toe all over. Your lengthy silence made that feeling grow with intensity and you suddenly found yourself needing to deflect somehow, so you said the first thing that came to mind. “You scared up there all by yourself?”
“No!” He barked.
A hefty laugh fell out of you at his instant and defensive response. “Relax, sunshine. I’m just messing with you. And yes, I would like that.”
There was some quiet muttering that you couldn’t really hear clearly, and then the mech was moving to stand. Bumblebee loomed over you only for a second before he reached down to gently pick you up and out of the blankets. He placed you softly on the foot of the berth and leaned back down once more to retrieve your warm haven, then turned and dumped them at the head of the bare slab of metal. You let out a giggle and you weren’t sure if he heard it, but if he did, he chose not to react.
He waited for you to climb back into them before he slowly and very cautiously followed suit. By the time you were done fluffing them, his helm was already laying beside you.
Your eyes drifted over his faceplate, his optics, and down to where his servos were crossing his chassis. He refused to look at you but he obviously knew you were staring, because the sound of his fans spinning harder was way too loud for you to miss.
Yet another chuckle, then you settled in and pulled part of that heavy quilt over your legs. “Thank you, o’ great hero.”
“Yeah, sure, whatever.”
A curt snort, then you finally allowed your muscles to relax and you fell limp in the warmth and safety once more.
With a heavy sigh, you tried to focus on releasing each limb from any lingering tension one by one. Staring at the ceiling proved to be interesting just like Bumblebee was doing, but it wasn’t because you were blushing like he was.
Really, you were just starting to analyze without even realizing it.
The spider-femme—a techno-organic—really was weird. Not to mention everything she said and her threatening undertone. She mentioned organics and cybertronians getting along, fully admitted to stalking you and your best friend for weeks, and what she said when she mentioned ‘holding onto that one while you can?’ It was extremely unsettling at the bare minimum.
You couldn’t help but shiver.
Somehow, you’d managed to fall asleep not long after that. But Bumblebee was wide awake, and he absolutely could not relax.
At some point in the night, he rolled over so he could see you. You were there, in the plant with him, and nothing would happen to you. He was sure of it.
But there was this sinking, gnawing feeling that wouldn’t release it’s grip on his spark. It pulsated and grew the more he thought about it and he could feel the tremors within his circuits through every nanokilk that passed by.
No techno-organic former-Decepticon would ever get their nasty servos anywhere near you, and he would make sure of that. Because he’d fry their protoform from the inside out if they ever tried.
₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊ I’ll Keep You Safe — TFA Bumblebee X fem!Reader ₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊
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NINE — Materializing
Word Count: 9.9k
Warnings: The word ‘drugs,’ confrontations, an irritable Autobot medic (love him).
A/N: I know this chapter was supposed to come out September 26th, but that day ended up being the worst day of my entire EMS career so I am so sorry and I thank you all for your patience. I’ve been trying to post this chapter for the last three days, but work for the last full week has been just insane. The AO3 author curse is VERY REAL. I am tired. rip. Enjoy!
₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊
Gentle light filtered through the spaces between the blackout curtains in thin ribbons, bathing bits of the room in a golden glow. Those curtains were a great idea after all, being that you’d barely slept over the course of the previous two days. The darkness was more than welcome while you’d unknowingly slept in.
Eventually, noise beyond your closed bedroom door was finally what made you stir. Without a doubt Liz in the kitchen, you’d concluded.
Groggily and lazily, your arms moved to support your weight as you pushed yourself up and out of the warm safety of the covers. You turned your head to loll over your shoulder when you looked for the source of the light and found that it was definitely mid-morning at the earliest. You’d slept in way later than you’d intended to.
Thankfully, summer was still on and you had nowhere to be—other than breakfast with Liz, which you’d definitely forgotten about.
Kicking your legs out over the edge of the bed, you shifted your weight forward so you could stand. The air conditioning immediately made the surface of your skin explode with goosebumps and you promptly began searching for whatever hoodie was closest to you. How annoying it was, to beg for cold air everyday only to freeze during your groggy hours.
Once you’d situated yourself into the proper clothing and made a short stop in the bathroom to ready yourself, you stepped out into the hall and down toward the kitchen. Your bare feet against the soft carpet provided such an intense sense of relief, you hadn’t noticed how sore they were until then. Those sneakers were a few years old so they weren’t the best—particularly while running around a city alongside an alien robot. An upgrade was surely in order.
You popped your head around the edge of the doorway to the bright kitchen. At the sink was your aunt, who was in the middle of emptying the dishwasher as she listened to the news coming from the small television on the counter. Your eyes wandered around for a moment, wanting to test the waters before you made your presence known. Some small part of you was convinced that she knew that you’d snuck out last night, and you foolishly hadn’t thought of any excuses to get yourself out of the hypothetical predicament.
An older man was broadcasting the nuisance that had occurred last night, allegedly. Illegal streetracers taking out mailboxes, again. Allegedly.
“Hey,” Your voice was small at first, and you immediately cursed yourself for how meek it sounded. “Sorry I slept in so late, I… I didn’t mean to do that.”
Liz’s head jerked to look at you in surprise, then she turned back to focus on the dishes in the sink. “No worries, kiddo.”
Zero emotion. She sure was incredibly difficult to read at times. You just had to chalk it up to the knowledge that you just didn’t really know her all that well yet.
You blinked, then approached her and folded your arms over your chest—unconcious anxiety rearing it’s ugly head. “Do you need any help?”
“No, all good.” The woman murmured. “You hungry?”
At the mere mention of anything food related, your stomach growled like a freight train, and it was definitely loud enough for even her to hear. “Big time.”
“There’s a plate for you over there.” Liz pointed with her elbow to her right. “You’ll just have to throw it in the microwave for a minute or two.”
“Thank you.” You smiled at her, but her eyes were already back to the sink.
Sure enough, a full plate of eggs, bacon, toast, and some pancakes were set beside the television. Your folded arms extended to reach for it and when you picked it up, your ears picked up on the active broadcast once more.
That same tired man was relaying the known information the authorities had on the ‘delinquent nuisances’ that continued to rip up the city every other night. Apparently some of them were known to destroy public property, clip mailboxes, paste skidmarks all over the roads, steal roadsigns, and more.
Huh. Sounds like someone I know.
You turned your back on the television and padded across to the opposite wall where the microwave sat next to the fridge. Liz was still eerily quiet, but your anxiety was starting to quell itself. Surely if she knew, she would have said something about it by now.
When your plate was warmed, you retrieved it and turned toward the small table against the far wall. You pulled your chosen chair out to situate yourself down comfortably and thanked your aunt again as you did so. There was already a fork there waiting for you, and the need to satisfy your need for sustenance completely took over.
A new story came up as you absentmindedly chewed on a piece of bacon. That time it was detailing the continuing cleanup project from a little more than a month prior—the last time the city had felt Decepticon wrath. It was the same cleanup and restoration project that resulted from the day you met Bumblebee. Short clips of the Autobots working alongside city construction crews while they made repairs rolled across the screen as the broadcaster droned on.
No one had gotten hurt, thankfully, but two or three businesses were forced to close temporarily while their offices were restored. When images of the previous destruction came up on the screen, you immediately recognized the building as the one that Starscream had blasted with the intent of showering debris down onto your now best friend.
Then audio from numerous interviews with some of the locals began filtering over images of the damage. The owner of a small business—a short, older woman—launched into complaints about aliens bringing their drama into Detroit, which inevitably shattered her storefront windows on the ground level. A man in a suit voiced his demanding questions to the mayor, wanting to know why the people of Detroit were forced to shelter beings that were clearly a ‘threat to their lives.’ Then there was a small group of giddy children, exploding with excitement and huge smiles over the superheroes that called their city home.
You stopped mid-bite to curl your lip irritatedly. Did none of them know that the Autobots were quite literally stuck on the planet? Did they really think that the Autobots were a threat too?
A scowl from your left caught your attention and the look on your face fell instantly. Your eyes found Liz staring at the screen over her right shoulder, her brows furrowed and lip twitching. Then she shook her head and turned back to rinsing the dishes. “Those things need to go back to where they came from before they get more people killed.”
Your eyes were wide, staring at the back of her head as the wild thoughts in your brain fumbled to create a coherent response. You looked down at your plate and poked a piece of scrambled egg, suddenly realizing that your intense hunger had now completely vanished.
Your voice was small, tentative, like you were scared that she’d turn around to lash out at you for what you wanted to say. “Aren’t those ones the good guys?”
The older woman scoffed. “They’re all bad, [Name]. All they do is destroy the lives of us humans. Good guys or bad guys, doesn’t matter. Their fighting never ends and where there’s one, there’s more.” Your aunt finally turned to face you as she wiped her hands clean with a dishtowel, meeting your gaze with a stern look in her eyes. “Don’t you think they have the power to wipe our cities off the map? Our country? Our planet?”
You tried to soften the look that you knew was all over your face. You absolutely could not give anything away.
“They’ve all ruined so many lives.” The woman spoke pointedly, like she knew without a doubt in her mind that everything she was saying was completely correct—and there was some kind of shadow in her stare that unnerved you to your core. “I just wish they’d take their asinine drama back to where they came from.”
All you could do was blink at her. The fork in your grip rolled in your palm as the words that you wanted to say threatened to rip out of you, but you quelled them all. She’d probably never let you see the light of day again if she knew the truth.
“Why are you still living in Detroit then?” The question was quiet, and not at all accusatory. You were genuinely curious to know why—if she hated them so much—she’d choose to stay where the Autobots chose to set up a base. Simultaneously, you hoped to everything holy that your question wouldn’t give her any ideas.
The woman across the kitchen sighed again. She balled the dishtowel up in her hand before tossing it onto the counter behind her. You looked to find her gaze again until you saw her staring at the floor. Her silence was loud, and for the long few seconds it lasted, you almost regretted asking her.
“My work is here.” She finally responded, and then she chose to close the distance between you. Liz pulled the other chair out from the table and sat across from you, effectively blocking your view of the television. “I’ve worked so hard to get to where I am throughout my whole life. I just… I can’t throw it all away.”
“But you work as a researcher for a science magazine.” Or something. You weren’t really sure. You arched a brow and leaned toward her just a bit, “You can’t transfer? Or work remotely?”
Liz sighed again and leaned into the back of her chair. A sad and quiet laugh fell out of her after she finished her response. “No, unfortunately. My management would never let me leave. I don’t know if they’ll ever even let me retire.” She turned her head to look out the window on the front door, “I’ve tried.”
Something in your gut swirled with emotion. Relief? Anxiety? You weren’t sure. But you were now sure that you weren’t going to be leaving Bumblebee.
“Which means,” Liz started, leaning forward once more. Her demeanor was much brighter now that she’d apparently shaken her thoughts away. “I just have to stay vigilant now that I have a kid to look after. Make sure you don’t get into any trouble.”
You smiled at that.
“So where were you last night?”
Crap.
You forced your eyes not to widen and you tried so hard not to jump out of your seat. “What do you mean?”
When you looked at her again, her eyes were half-lidded with a look that said ‘don’t try to hide it.’ Her brows jumped up her forehead and her lips were pursed. Definitely not happy. “I went to check on you last night and you weren’t in your room, or anywhere else in the house. And your shoes were gone.”
Your stomach hit the floor and internal panic washed over your nerves in torrents. Oh, no. No no no no–
“I, uh–” Your voice stammered, struggling to form some kind of coherent excuse that didn’t sound way too far off. I was out committing a third crime over the course of three days with one of the alien robots you hate so much. No big deal.
“Don’t feed me any crap.” Liz muttered. The look she was giving you made you want to shrivel up into a ball on the floor. “Did you go out with those friends of yours again?”
A heavy sigh fell from your chest. “Yeah.”
“Are they making you do things?” The woman leaned forward with a sudden shift in her tone. “Are you doing drugs?”
“No!” You flinched at the mere implication, “We’re not doing drugs! We just– he–”
“He?!” Liz’s voice jumped to a level you hadn’t heard before and your eyes shot over to meet hers in a panic, cursing yourself for using the word. “You’re sneaking out at night to go hang out with a boy?!”
The fight-or-flight instinct was erupting now, and you were desperate for any way out of the confrontation. “No, I– No! Well, I mean– yeah, but he’s not–”
“My god.” Liz leaned back in her chair once more, then one of her hands rose to cover her mouth. “I’ve only had you for a little more than a month and you’re already sneaking out to meet boys. How did I let this–”
“Aunt Liz, I’m sorry for sneaking out. Okay? I am. Really.” You tried to level your voice and cut her off before she went into a parental tirade. You needed to get control of the narrative back, as bad as it made you feel. “But we’re not doing drugs. We’re not committing felonies. We’re not doing anything bad.” The lie burned your tongue as it left your mouth. “We just hang out, we play video games, get fast food... stuff like that. Regular, normal kid stuff. I swear.”
She stared at you suspiciously, hand still covering her mouth with her elbow propped up on the table. She was studying you intently, and it made you shrivel inwardly.
Your stomach twisted, both at the thought of lying to her but also from the fear of being ripped away from the only true friend you’d ever had.
“I just…” Again, your voice was quiet and nervous. “I didn’t have friends when I was living with Gramma. I didn’t get to just walk around and go do stuff—I basically lived in the middle of the woods. And Gramma wasn’t… all there, so nobody wanted to even be seen with me. I was the freak with a conspiracy theorist grandma.”
You met her eyes once more. She continued to stare through your very soul.
“I’ve only been here for a little more than a month and I already have the best friend I’ve ever had. And his family is so cool.” Mostly. You looked back down at your half-eaten breakfast as you spoke, then came a heavy sigh. “I want you to meet him, really. I do. I think you’d really like him.”
You just felt… sad. Pathetic. Begging for any scrap of friendship you could grab onto, and now the threat of it being ripped away was absolutely terrifying. Nothing about you had ever been normal, but Bumblebee made you feel normal. He made you feel seen and real—he didn’t think you were wrong, or stupid, or weird. He liked you. Everything about his presence made you feel like you’d finally found a right place for yourself in the world—that not all of it was bad.
But Liz would never get that, most likely. Her intense hatred for cybertronians was painfully obvious, and if she knew what your friend really was, she’d never accept it. Maybe you could meet him one day. If you chill out a little.
After a long moment of silence, the woman let out another heavy sigh. Her opposite hand reached up to her face and she rubbed her eyes with it. You could physically feel the frustration wafting from where she sat.
“Okay… You go get him and you bring him here so I can meet him.” She finally stated pointedly, angling one finger at you from across the small table. “And no sneaking out. Not ever. There’s a lot of freaks in the city and they all come out at night. Not to mention those giant, violent… creatures.”
A smile lit up across your face and that pit in your stomach vanished instantly in favor of sudden joy. “Thank you! Thank you, thank you!” You jumped from your seat at the table and clumsily picked up your mostly empty plate to discard it’s contents. You moved quickly out of excitement, rinsing the plate and tossing it in the dishwasher before scampering back to her once more. “You’re gonna love him, I promise!”
“I’d better.” There was a smile on her face now, but her suspicion was still evident, if only barely.
“You will!” I hope.
You scrambled back down the hall to your room and closed the door behind you. As soon as you had privacy once more, the smile dropped and you brought your hands up to cover your face with your back against the door. You wanted to scream, but the only thing that came out was hardly even a whisper, “What am I gonna do?!”
You dropped your hands and looked to find your phone where it was still charging on the night table. When you reached for it, you found it was already in the middle of vibrating with a notification. A few, actually. Your Autobot friend couldn’t resist blowing up your phone, particularly when you weren’t replying in a timely manner.
You didn’t even read his previous messages before you typed your own, We have a problem.
He replied almost instantly. Where? I’ll come blow up your wall!!!
Your eyes rolled hard. Not that kind of problem!
Oh.
Just come get me
You could hear the attitude in his typed words. Sweetspark, I never left.
₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊
“She’s gonna hate you.” With knees that were curled up into your chest, your fingers were pressing into your eyelids hard. A pothole in the road didn’t faze you in the slightest as you wallowed pitifully in the driver’s seat. “She’s so gonna hate you.”
Bumblebee let out a pssh. “I don’t get what there is to hate. I’m pretty awesome.”
“Of course you are!” You yelled with your hands flying out above your head in exasperation, “You’re too awesome! You’re an Autobot! And she hates Autobots!”
“Uh, I mean… the Decepticons are pretty bad–”
“All of you, she hates all of you. Any cybertronian is a no-go.” Your hands fell to your sides and your head dropped back against the headrest. With eyes that drifted lazily over the glowing dashboard, the volume of your voice trailed off with your thoughts. “I don’t know what we’re gonna do. Maybe I should pay someone to pretend to be my friend for a day.”
“Man, that’s just sad. That is so sad, [Name].” The scout’s voice was thick with mocking empathy, “I thought you were at least a little better than that.”
Your hands flew up into the air again. “Well, what do you expect me to do?! I can’t bring an alien robot to my aunt’s house! She went on a whole rant about you guys literally an hour ago!” Your voice only rose in volume as it went on. “If she knew that I’ve been hanging out with an Autobot this whole time, she’d probably throw me into Lake Erie.”
A long pause ensued, until Bumblebee let out a dramatic exvent. “I know what we’re gonna do.”
Your arms dropped to your sides again and you perked up just slightly. Any suggestion or idea was more than welcomed when compared to the thick wall of despair blocking out your rationale. “You do?”
“Yeah,” Bumblebee started with a tone that bled with disappointment. “I wanted it to be a surprise. But desperate times call for desperate measures, or whatever you organics say.”
You brightened up at that. He’d been planning a surprise for you? And he managed not to spoil it until now? The realization floored you, truly. “What is it?”
The Autobot’s tone was level at first, but as he continued to make his way toward the base, it rose higher with excitement and his speed began to pick up. “Y’know how we have holoforms?”
Your eyes blew wide open as your jaw dropped. “No! You never told me that!”
“What?!” He barked back, “You mean you’ve never seen Prowl’s holoform out in the wild before? He’s like, the easiest one to spot.”
“No!” You cried again, dumbfounded. How had you never seen them before? Why didn’t they use them that often? Was there a genuine purpose to them? Were they actual physical forms, or transparent, or made of light? So many questions.
“Okay, well–” The scout started with a sudden smoothness, absolutely smug like he was about to tell you his biggest secret, “We all have holoforms. It’s kind of a thing that used to help us blend in, but being that the city knows we’re here and whatever, we don’t really need them anymore. I haven’t used mine in a while.”
The young mech sped down one of the final straightaways just before the plant as he continued, “Honestly, I think we both knew that this exact problem with your carrier would come up at some point, so I asked Ratchet for an upgrade. But… I don’t think he started working on it yet.”
You couldn’t help your smile from spreading even wider. Witnessing what Bumblebee would look like as a human? You never would have thought it could be possible until now. “So that’s what your genius masterplan is.”
“Duh,” He shot back. “I’m so smart, I saw it coming from a deca-cycle away.”
“Easy there, dummy.” A snort broke through the sentences as you spoke them. “I still think I’m the smarter one in this little thing we got going on here.”
Bumblebee’s own sly laughter was like music to your ears. “Oh, yeah? Well, you never would’a thought of that.”
“Because I didn’t know that holoforms were even a real thing!”
“And I did, so that automatically makes me smarter than you!”
“Oh my god,” Your hands rose up to rub your eyes in feigned annoyance, but the smile on your face gave everything away. “You’re gonna be the death of me, truly.”
The note in his voice was purely playful. “Nah. I think you’re gonna be the death of me.”
Your eyes drew over to the sight of the plant, basking in the bright sunshine as it came into view. Prowl’s tree always seemed a little taller every time you saw it, seemingly sprouting with more life everyday. The leaves were bright and full, and plenty of small birds very obviously called it their home as they fluttered between the branches to their nests.
The thought of running into the skinny mech again made your stomach feel as if it was twisting up into a ball. You just tried to push the fresh memory away in favor of your yellow friend.
Bumblebee let you out just before the bay door, then he stood and gestured for you to enter first—he even bowed his head in respect. “After you.”
Your brows shot up your forehead at the polite move, then you squinted at him and smirked. “You’re too kind, sir.”
He simply snorted before he followed close behind.
Afternoon sunlight filtered through the many windows high up above. Bulkhead was in the main living space and watching something on the television, but you barely paid it any mind. “Hi, Bulk.”
The wrecker jumped and turned to look, then smiled when he saw the pair of you. “Hey, guys. What’re you up to today?”
“Oh, just looking for the doc.” The scout beside you placed his servos on his hips nonchalantly. “He’s gonna fix up my holomatter generator so I can go meet [Name]’s really annoying carrier!”
“Hey!” Your head snapped to the side to look up at him and you scrunched your nose. “Don’t be mean. She’s actually super nice.”
The ‘Bot turned to meet your eyes with half-lidded optics and a quirked lip. “You literally just said that she hates all cybertronians. And I think that’s really annoying!”
Rolling your eyes at this particular Autobot was such a common occurrence, it was beginning to make your head hurt. “Because she’s never actually spoken to one of you before! She just has no idea what she’s missing out on. If and when she gets to know you, I’m sure she’ll change her mind.”
Bumblebee scoffed and waved one servo at you dismissively, “Yeah, and I’ll grow wings like a Decepticon.”
He only earned yet another eye roll. When you looked back at Bulkhead, the green mech’s faceplate was contorted with a quizzical look, and then he raised one servo to rub the back of his helm. “Yeah, not really surprised. There are actually a lot of organics here that don’t like us.”
You’d opened your mouth to speak, but Bumblebee cut you off without realizing.
“I don’t get why.” He reached one servo forward and waved it as he complained. “All we do is protect the city and stop Decepticreeps from totally destroying it. And we help the cleanup crews.”
The giant mech before the two of you squinted at Bumblebee. “And steal street signs, and race when it’s not allowed, and drive around the city like a psycho-bot, and–”
“Hey! Who said we can’t have a little fun?” The scout raised his servos before him defensively. “It’s not like it’s hurting anyone! Besides, those street signs always show up again within a couple cycles. Which means, they have extras. So it’s fine.”
Bulkhead stared at him with a tense jaw. Then he looked down at you, to which you simply shrugged and nodded in agreement with him. “He doesn’t get it.”
Bumblebee flinched back and looked down to you with huge optics. “I don’t get what? It’s true!”
“Oh, just– whatever.” You waved him off and turned on your heel with an aim for the medical bay. “C’mon. Let’s find Ratchet so we can get this holoform thing going.”
The look left on his face after you turned away from him was seeping with astonishment, like he was appalled that you’d have the audacity to make him feel dumb. Bulkhead at least understood that lots of humans get irritated with younger humans for being troublemakers, and Bumblebee would definitely be one of those kids if he was a human. He kind of already was.
Nonetheless, he followed you into the adjoining room without a snarky comeback.
As you rounded the corner of the wall, the Autobot medic came into view. Ratchet was standing beside a berth with a plethora of different tools and materials laid out before him. One arm was draped across his chassis and his opposite servo gripped his chin as his optics flicked back and forth, very obviously in the middle of trying to piece some information together.
The old mech only turned to look when he heard Bumblebee’s pedes come to a stop.
Tired optics fell on his comrade, and then they dropped down to you. His optic ridges rose in question, like he was both somewhat surprised and genuinely curious as to why on Earth the pair of you would be bothering him. “What?”
“Hi, Ratchet.” You started first, determined to get on his good side before Bumblebee could say anything stupidly annoying. “What are you doing?”
There was a small moment of quiet as he stared at you like he was trying to work your words through his processor. Then he spoke with a level tone. “Trying to figure out which tool won’t make our generators explode. Cybertronian technology doesn’t really mix well with human technology.”
You let out a small laugh. “I’m not surprised. I think your stuff would make our stuff explode.”
The mech blinked. “It usually does.”
Bumblebee leaned down with one servo partly covering his mouth so he could murmur, “You should’ve seen what happened last week. Ratchet looked like–”
“Anyways,” Ratchet’s tone hardened and he squinted at the younger scout, “Why are you two bothering me?”
You couldn’t really place it but for some reason, Ratchet’s irritation didn’t scare you like Prowl’s did. Something about him felt warmer than the cyberninja somehow. It definitely didn’t make you feel as nervous.
Bumblebee leaned up once more and offered him a bright smile, “Well, doc–!”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Well, Ratchet!” He could always recover quickly, you’d give him that. “Remember when I asked you about an upgrade for my holomatter generator? We kinda need it… sooner than I thought. Like, today actually.”
The older ‘Bot stared at him in silence, his face giving nothing away. Other than the idea that he was definitely annoyed.
Bumblebee continued without a care in the world. “So [Name]’s carrier is super annoying. She doesn’t like anything cybertronian, and she’s started to get super weird about [Name]’s one true best friend forever—me. But if she actually meets me, [Name]’ll probably get smelted and we’ll never see her again.”
Ratchet’s lip turned up just the slightest bit. “Tragic.”
Ouch. Squinting at him a bit was all you felt you could really do, given the circumstances.
“So, we need that holomatter generator pronto.” The scout finished his explanation with his servos on his hips and cracked one optic open to send a hopeful look toward the old mech. “Did you… start working on it yet?”
“No.” Ratchet stated flatly, then he turned his back to the two of you so he could look back down at the array of tools before him again. “I’ve got bigger things to worry about than the games of two sparklings.”
“But Ratchet!” Bumblebee jumped forward with his servos extended in defense, “If we don’t get [Name]’s carrier to like me, she’s probably gonna die!”
“She’s not gonna die!” Ratchet’s hoarse voice snapped back, his helm turning to shoot Bumblebee a glare. “I’ll get to your holomatter generator when I get to it. For now, you should just tell that carrier to get over it.”
“But she won’t!” Your smaller friend approached Ratchet’s right with his servos together in a plea. “Trust me, she won’t. She’s one of those humans who hates all living machines or whatever. She’ll take [Name] away! And [Name]’s a part of our team now! I’m her guardian, remember? I literally can’t let that happen!”
“Then don’t let it happen.” The medic turned to squint at him once again. “A human carrier can’t do much to stop an Autobot now, can they?”
“We’ll help you!” You blurted without thinking.
Both mechs turned to look down at you, neither of them speaking.
You took it as your cue to continue. “I mean… I’m happy to help you at least. I think what you do is really cool, and I’d really love to learn more about it. Being the only medic on the team is probably crazy, right?”
Ratchet stared at you, but by now the look on his faceplate had softened just a bit. Meanwhile beside him, Bumblebee’s optics were wide and they flicked back and forth between you and his teammate. He looked like he was silently willing your interjection to work.
“And I have small hands!” You continued, reaching out to show him your own tiny digits. “I can definitely reach into spaces that you might not be able to get to. That could help, right?”
The medic stared at you for another long moment, then he turned to look at Bumblebee. As he did so, the smaller scout’s faceplate brightened up with a huge smile, then he quirked an optic ridge and offered a thumbs up.
With a heavy sigh, Ratchet’s shoulders dropped and he lowered his helm. “Alright. Let me just–”
Bumblebee practically leaped up into the air with a shriek of triumph, and it was instantly shut down by a loud vocal snap from the older mech, “Don’t start that! I don’t even know if it’ll work!”
“At least you’re trying!” The glee in the yellow ‘Bot’s face was infectious. “And we’ll definitely help, because I’m also really good with my–”
“Nope.” Ratchet had already turned away, but then he whirled and pointed a digit in Bumblebee’s face, “You touch nothing. And you–” The same digit turned to point at you, “–maybe.”
“Thank you!” Hope flared and it warmed your chest. “Thank you, thank you!”
₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊
“Reach in there and pull that cable out, the one to the left of the red one.” Ratchet’s voice fell on your ears and your eyes narrowed in on your new target.
That laser focus of yours was drawn to a single tiny gray wire exactly where the old medic said it would be, and you reached into the open side of the generator to grab it gently. When your fingers had a soft hold on it, you pulled it out slowly and handed the end of it to the waiting Autobot hovering behind you.
“Nice job.” Ratchet praised as he took hold of the wire with a large pair of forceps.
The heart in your chest swelled with pride and you smiled up at him. Helping the medic with his work made you beyond grateful for the opportunity to expand your knowledge of the cybertronian race, their technology, and how exactly all of it worked. It was only a small glimpse into their mechanics, but you found yourself deeply invested and interested. Hopefully Ratchet would let you do this more often.
You watched his servos hold the wire steady while he inspected the freshly snipped end of it, curiosity knowing no bounds. “Does that have to get spliced with something?”
Ratchet’s helm jerked back by only a fraction, as if he’d tried to suppress his surprise. He looked to you and lowered the wire away from his face only slightly. “Yeah. This has to get spliced with that one–” He pointed to the black cable hanging outside of the open generator compartment, “–and that should make the light that makes up his holoform appear to be more… solid. Hopefully.”
The corner of your mouth curled into a small smile and you worked your jaw. “As long as it’s solid enough, we’ll be good. I think it’d be weird if she hugs him the first time she meets him. Hopefully she won’t want to shake his hand.”
“Hmph. That would be the polite thing to do.” His hoarse replied flatly and he turned his helm to find Bumblebee—who was totally not involved in the process of upgrading his own generator as he inspected the screens above some kind of complicated control panel. “But he’s not really the one I’d call polite.”
Ratchet rolled his optics and you couldn’t help the snort that came out.
The older mech picked up some kind of scope, then leaned forward to bring his focus back on the wire in his servo. He fitted the scope to his left optic and picked up a pair of cybertronian plier-looking-things, then stripped the protective gray sleeve from the end of the tiny cable. You watched patiently from where you were sat on the berth, slowly leaning forward to watch the medic work his magic.
Ratchet’s optics flicked your way for a split second, but he didn’t say anything.
He continued on to stripping the black cable and then slowly and precariously spliced the two together to merge them. To put the finishing touch on, Ratchet picked up his final tool—some kind of welder—and then the two cables were one.
He continued to stare in silence at the quality of the weld until he leaned back and let out a heavy exvent. “Aright. That should do it.”
“Awesome!” A joyful bark came from behind the red-and-white ‘Bot, and he slowly turned to find the source of it while you were still totally locked in on Ratchet’s finished work. Bumblebee was suddenly in the picture again, his pedes tapping the ground as he couldn’t stand still. “Thanks, Ratchet! Now we can finally get this whole carrier thing over with.”
The medic stared at him with dead-panned optics. “You still shouldn’t be lying, kid. It’s not very cute.”
“We’re not lying!” The excited scout looked away and smiled awkwardly. “We’re just… biding our time until she realizes that we Autobots are actually so totally super cool and everything.”
Ratchet let out a hmph and suddenly your attention was brought back to the two massive beings behind you.
Your eyes fell on Ratchet’s back when he turned away to focus his attention back on the holomatter generator, finally finding your voice. “Thanks, Ratchet. Seriously. Liz is nice and all, but she’s not really… reasonable when it comes to you guys. But once she sees how nice Bee actually is, maybe she’ll want to meet the rest of you!”
“Oh, Primus.” His servos reached over to pick up Bumblebee’s generator, which he began to fiddle with as he muttered, “More humans under my pedes. That’s just what we need.”
His dripping sarcasm on a normal day might have made you silence yourself out of the fear of irritating him, but somehow… Ratchet’s demeanor still didn’t make you feel that way. Not deep down, anyway. And definitely nothing like Prowl’s attitude did.
You smiled at him gratefully nonetheless. “I know you’re a busy ‘Bot, so thank you again.”
He let out another hmph, this time of acknowledgement you figured. Bumblebee quirked an optic ridge at you and you simply shrugged.
Within only a few more minutes, Ratchet had closed up the holomatter generator and commanded you to move away so Bumblebee could lay flat on the berth. He worked on the scout’s left side, so from your place you couldn’t see exactly where the ‘organ’ had to be installed, but it didn’t take very long anyway.
Ratchet stepped back once he was satisfied with his task. “Alright, give it a go.”
Your yellow friend practically leaped off the berth and stamped his pedes onto the concrete, then he whirled and winked at you. He switched himself into his vehicle mode, and sure enough, the sound of a sharp whirr kicked on and a beam of light materialized before the hood of the WRX.
Almost instantly, a young boy appeared. There was a bright blue light around him that gradually faded as his form took shape. He stood with his hands at his hips and he beamed with a bright smile. You found dark skin, a yellow-and-black heavy coat, black pants and sneakers, and the finishing touch obviously had to be the hat adorned with small horns.
You stared down from your place on the edge of the berth with huge eyes. Bumblebee as a human kid! It was really happening! Right in front of your eyes!
The holoform stretched his arms out and took a huge step forward, then practically performed a runway walk in a wide circle. Ratchet watched from where he stood beside you silently, and then your stare finally broke with a massive smile. “It worked!”
“‘Course it did!” The boy made of light barked back while the older mech offered you a flat servo to bring you down to meet the concrete, “Ratchet’s the best medic around!”
“Alright, alright.” Ratchet waved his servo dismissively and turned away once more. “Now get out of my cables and go do your thing.”
You turned to look at him once again with an elated smile. “Thank you, Ratchet! You’re the best!”
Of course, you didn’t catch it because his back was turned, but the mechanically-talented Autobot shook his helm with what might have just been a small smile.
The WRX pulled forward and out of the medical bay to enter the main hangar once more. You followed quickly, hurrying to catch up with the newly ungraded holoform as it confidently waltzed ahead.
You jumped to land into a spot in front of him and his eyes snapped open to meet yours. He sported that same signature smug smile, and his eyes held the same confident attitude that Bumblebee was always exuding.
Your eyes wandered up and down as you took in the sight. The quality of the hologram had far exceeded your expectations. He certainly looked real, not transparent, and after a moment the urge to test what would happen if you touched him was far too strong. You reached one hand out tentatively as if you were afraid of an electric zap of some kind. But as your hand passed through his arm, the light around that spot only fizzled and glitched for a second or two.
You reared back with glee. “This is so cool!”
“I know right!” Bumblebee’s hologram spun where it stood in it’s place before you. Then he looked at his own hands, turned his head to look down the back of one leg, and reached up to touch the horns on his hat. “This feels so much better than it used to feel. I actually feel… solid! Like, for real this time!”
Your face had started to hurt from smiling so much. As your eyes searched him over once more, his sly and smug look returned to the holoform’s face once again. “You think I’m cute, huh?”
Your face fell instantly. Your eyes were wide, emotion flat, brainwaves firing with complete and total confusion. He was cute, but you weren’t ready to say that and you certainly weren’t expecting him to outright call it out.
The boy made of light burst into a fit of laughter, struggling to talk through his broken giggling. Then he leveled himself out as he searched himself over once more. “Yeah, I know. It’s okay to say it, [Name]. I’m irresistable.”
Your eyes were still huge and you struggled to work through your racing thoughts. Your cheeks were burning, you could feel it. At first, the words struggled to come out as you stammered, but you managed to work out a sharp reply as quickly as you could. “No! You’re actually, uh– you’re shorter than I thought you’d be!”
His head whipped up to shoot you a glare so fast, you thought his neck would have broken at the sheer speed of the action. His cheeks blew up and his brows furrowed furiously, then he immediately pointed a finger at you. “Hey! No! I’m still way taller than you!”
Success. You’d somehow managed to get out of that, and he’d very obviously forgotten all about it.
Your own smug smile creeped along your face. “No! You’re like, an inch shorter than me now!”
“No, I’m not!”
“Yes, you are!”
The boy stomped over to you then stood straight. His face being so close to yours made your cheeks light up once again, but he was too distracted and determined to notice. One of his hands was hovering above his head and then it gradually moved to yours to measure the height difference. Once it made contact with your hairline, his arm glitched only slightly, and his eyes blew up once again. He was wrong.
You jumped away, partly to save yourself from the embarrassment that he was painfully oblivious to and also so you could point at him. “Hah! See? I’m right!”
“No, you’re not!” The hologram squawked and moved in tune with the WRX behind him, “I’m still taller than you because I’m taller than you as an Autobot so it doesn’t count!”
“Yes, it does!”
“No, it–!”
“Will you two take your bickering outside?!” Ratchet’s distant voice from the other room barked. “Some ‘Bots have other things to focus on around here!”
The both of you turned to look at the doorway you’d come from before you looked back at each other, then tried to stifle your respective giggling. The WRX pulled forward toward the open hangar door and out into the open, where the two of you promptly released the wave of what was previously suffocated laughter.
₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊
“Aright.” You let out a heavy breath to steady your nerves, asking both him and partly yourself, “You ready?”
“Ready as ever!” The living vehicle quipped back.
“Just remember,” You pointed a finger at the hologram in the driver’s seat, “Don’t be rude. If she asks you any questions—which she will—you tell her that your name is Bee for Brian, we love playing video games, going out for fast food, and hanging out with your family. Not ‘your team,’ your family. Okay?”
“I’m not really sure about that last one, but–”
“Bee.”
“Yeah, I know! I know.” The dashboard lit up as he waved his hands before him in defense, “I won’t frag it up, I swear.”
“I hope not.” Your hand reached for the doorhandle. “For your sake and mine.”
As you stepped out of the car, the cooler air hit you like a brick. Over the soft breeze, your eyes trailed along the road to find the amber glow of the sunset in the distance. The pretty sight of it illuminating the clouds signified the end of another long day approaching, and you really hoped that Liz wouldn’t ask him to stay for much longer than needed.
The boy confidently stepped up beside you with his hand on the exterior handle, opening the door the rest of the way to let you completely step out. He looked at you with one eye closed and half a smug smile but somehow, that look was much softer than it normally would be—only until he winked and gestured for you to step away from the vehicle. “M’lady.”
Obviously Bumblebee had no idea what a blushing human looked like, because you’d done it now three times since the holoform had materialized. And you were so forever grateful that he didn’t know to tease you for it.
You stepped away and he closed the door behind you. “Psh, what are you doing? Trying to look good for my aunt? Where did you even learn how to do that?”
“Saw it in a movie. Isn’t the whole point of this to get on her good side?” The boy extended his elbow out as he stood beside you, obviously executing yet another gentlemanly move he’d seen in a movie. This was the part where you were supposed to grab a hold of his arm.
“Uh, that’s not gonna work. You’re made of light right now, remember? I don’t even think you actually closed the door just now.” You rolled your eyes and giggled. “Besides, that would definitely be way too much.”
“No, it wouldn’t!” He leaned forward to exaggerate his words, “I’m being a distinguished gentleman. Gentle-bot. Whatever.”
“You’re hopeless.” Your hand clapped your forehead lightly, then you stepped forward toward the familiar house across the street. “Come on. I wanna get this over with.”
“Me too.” He quipped as he hurried to match your pace. “We should go down to the water after this. We haven’t been stargazing in forever!”
You shot him a look and laughed. “We did that like, three days ago!”
“Yeah, but then we almost got fried!” Bumblebee barked back. “We deserve to sit and chill without Blitzbrain interrupting us.”
You blinked, then nodded. True.
As you walked up the skinny path of stones leading to the front door, it opened without warning. There stood Liz with one hand on the interior door handle and her opposite hand resting on her hip. She stared pointedly at you until her expectant gaze flicked to the hologram of your friend beside you. Your stomach froze and then it dropped into your shoes. Suddenly, you didn’t feel even half as confident about this plan as you had before leaving the plant.
Nonetheless, you tried to brush off any visible anxiety. “Hi, Aunt Liz! This is Bee!”
The boy beside you smiled and waved sheepishly, like he was expecting the woman a few feet away to lash out at him for doing it. Even he didn’t seem so confident anymore either. Waves of fresh anxiety reverberated on the air between you and the being made of light, and you made sure not to be close enough to touch him.
“Bee?” The older woman questioned with a hint of something in her voice that you couldn’t quite figure out. “That’s your name?”
“Uh– yeah! Bee for Brian.” He repeated your words from before and the tone of his voice managed to make you relax. He seemed to be recalling his confidence once again and it soothed you too, whether he knew it or not.
“Well, hello, Brian. It’s nice to finally meet you.” Liz’s words were quiet, yet pointed still. She looked back at you and winked—whatever that meant. “Come on in.”
When the woman turned away to retreat back into the kitchen, you released a breath you hadn’t realized you were holding. Movement from Bumblebee’s hologram beside you caught your attention and when you looked at him, he was already looking back with wide eyes that said ‘holy Primus, it worked.’ You simply shrugged and motioned for him to follow you up the steps.
You watched him with intent as you waited for him to come completely through the doorway so you could close it behind him. The hologram surveyed his immediate surroundings curiously as you did so until Liz spoke up once again.
“So how did you meet my niece?” She was now sitting at the kitchen table with her usual cup of evening tea.
Bumblebee stood awkwardly beside you before you motioned for him to sit down, making sure to plant yourself between him and your aunt before he did. You just hoped that the action of pulling his chair out for him didn’t make her question why he wouldn’t do that for you.
“Um– I was–” His voice was unusually quiet for a change when he started his reply. “I was hanging around a few blocks away from here actually. One day. And uh, I saw her and she needed help… with something.”
Jeez, Bee. You would have slapped your forehead with your palm if it wouldn’t have been an extremely suspicious thing to do at that moment. Now you choose to be awkward?
“Oh?” Liz crossed her legs and brought the mug to her lips. “What did she need help with?”
Bumblebee was awfully quiet for a long few seconds that felt like they’d stretched on for years. “Her bag! She dropped some stuff out of her bag.”
“Oh,” The woman replied with an unexpected somber tone. “That’s how [Name]’s dad met her mom, actually. It’s a classic move, huh? Help a pretty girl with something she dropped.”
You would have flinched—or reacted sharply somehow—but her words were sending you for a loop. First she brings up your long-lost parents, then immediately follows up with questioning Bumblebee’s true intent. That’s… kinda messed up.
“I’d help anyone if they need it!”
Good answer.
“I’d hope so.” She murmured once more. “How long have you guys been friends?”
I already told you that. You bit back the thought. It felt as if you were having your own conversation with her in your head at the same time.
The hologram shifted in his seat, which unnerved you. You prayed silently that the chair wouldn’t make his light glitch out. “A little more than an orbi– a month.”
“Oh, cool.” She replied smoothly.
Liz was extremely suspicious, so much so that you could physically feel it radiating from her.
“Bee has his license.” You tried to interject to lift some of the awkward air away. “He’s got a cool WRX. And he’s a really good and really safe driver.”
“That’s good.” She placed her mug back down on the tablemat in front of her. “Your parents teach you how to drive?”
“Uh– yeah! I also took classes.” Wow. No, you didn’t. “I was in an academy for a while and they taught us how to… drive defensively.”
“Good, good. You kids need more of those kinds of things. Too many people drive like their lives are falling apart.” Liz stood suddenly and your nerves spiked.
She made her way to the sink and began to rinse out her mug. “Do either of you want anything? Something to drink?”
Bumblebee’s hologram opened it’s mouth to say something, but you interrupted before he could. “Nah, we’re okay. Thank you, though. We’re probably gonna go get a burger in a little while.”
“Oh, good.”
Liz was normally chatty, so the short replies weren’t making you feel any better. You turned your focus back on Bumblebee and shrugged. He opened his mouth to say something but as he did so, his arm lifted to reach up to the back of his head. To your horror, his fingers passed through the table and his whole arm glitched. The boy’s eyes blew wide and he snapped his jaw shut, then looked across the kitchen at your aunt just as you did the same.
Her back was still facing you and she was still rinsing the mug with tap water. “I won’t keep you kids then.”
A heavy sigh of relief came rushing out and your eyes narrowed in on the yellow-clad boy, silently willing him to hear your thoughts. Idiot! You’re gonna get us caught!
Bee shrugged and rolled his eyes. The two of you really were having a conversation in total silence.
It was cut off when you saw Liz appear out of the corner of your eye once again. She’d returned to her place at the table beside you and your glaring was immediately forgotten about. “I just wanted to make sure my niece wasn’t getting involved in the wrong crowd, but you seem like a nice boy.” She leaned back into her chair and crossed her legs again. “I’m just happy she has a friend now. The kids in the northeast weren’t very kind to her.”
Bumblebee’s eyes flicked to yours, you saw it. But you couldn’t look at him. He didn’t need to know your fears, or anything about what life was like for you back then. You would have snapped a sharp reply at Liz if the circumstances of the current moment weren’t already so tense.
However, your attitude came out just slightly in the end anyway. “On that note, we’re gonna go get some food if that’s okay.”
It was less so a question and more so a dare of some kind. Your aunt wasn’t aware of the fact that you didn’t want anyone to know what you’d come from, so you couldn’t really blame her—but the honesty stung you nonetheless. When her eyes found yours in question, she stared back at you like she’d been taken off guard.
You almost regretted your tone—almost—and you likely would have if she decided to push it, but thankfully she didn’t.
Liz leaned back once more and smiled while looking away, shrugging off the awkward eye contact in favor of the floor by her feet. “Of course. Just don’t stay out too late, okay? Please.”
Bee’s rigid posture straightened when she turned her eyes back on him. “I already told her that I don’t want her sneaking out. That’s how you kids will get killed.” She pointed a finger at him across the table. “Don’t do that again.”
“Uhh, yeah! Sure, sorry about that.” The boy scratched the back of his head with a nervous smile, “I’m a good influence though, I swear.”
Liar.
Liz arched an eyebrow at him before she pushed herself away from the table and stood with an aim for the window above the sink. She didn’t spare you another glance as she brushed past. “Okay! Go have fun!”
Bumblebee’s hologram practically leaped from his spot and in his rush, his whole form glitched once again. You shot him a wide-eyed glare in warning and he visibly winced at the intensity of it. You were definitely happy to get out of the house too, but there was no need to be reckless about it—not that he really knew how not to be reckless anyhow.
Regardless, your aunt’s back was turned once again so she missed it luckily. You still didn’t want to take any chances and you never would.
The boy quickly thanked Liz for welcoming him into her home and being ‘so cool’ about him hanging around her niece, then he turned and slipped out the front door after you’d opened it for him. You were close behind but as you stepped out, Liz grabbed onto your arm lightly.
You turned to look at her, fresh adrenaline piercing your bated breath. Something was still telling you deep down that she knew, but you also knew that that was likely just your anxiety talking.
“That car looks like the one I’ve seen on T.V.” She murmured, “You sure he’s not… affiliated with anything that you shouldn’t be?”
“No, Aunt Liz. He’s a nice guy.” Your response was flat, cold. If she couldn’t already tell that you were annoyed, she definitely would now.
She stared at you for a moment before her eyes softened and her gentle grip fell away. “I’m sorry about that. I figured you would’ve told him everything about yourself already.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t.” You muttered back under your breath bitterly. “And I kinda want to keep it that way.”
With that, you shrugged her off and stepped down onto the front porch to follow your friend. He was waiting patiently for you while rocking back and forth on his sneakers in place, very obviously losing his already non-existent patience.
You didn’t look back. There was nothing else to say. Not tonight, anyway.
The hologram of the teen beside you tried to keep up with your rushed pace as you made a beeline for the living WRX across the street. His eyes wandered up and down your back, your shoulders, the back of your head—suddenly very aware of how tense you were. “Hey, um– are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” The words were curt, but there was no animosity toward him. You just didn’t want to discuss it any further. “Let’s go get that burger because once again, I am starving. I really need to stash some snacks at the plant or something.”
Bumblebee’s eyes lit up. “You humans and your weird fuel. I’d give up half my processor to figure out why you love it so much.”
“Dude, you already don’t have half a processor.” You started with a brighter tone, reaching for the door handle on the passenger’s side, “But I just know you would love french fries. And burgers, and chicken nuggets, and–”
“Okay, okay! I think I get it.” The door before the hologram popped open automatically, and it didn’t matter now that he was mostly hidden from view if Liz was still watching. “Man. Ratchet’s really gonna have to hurry up with more generator upgrades. Maybe then I actually could try it one day. Chickman new-guts look so–”
“Chicken nuggets!” You corrected with a face contorted in disgust. “New-guts? Ew!”
The loud bickering continued as you and the figure made of light climbed back into his true interior, erratic laughter and yelling now muffled by tinted windows. The Autobot’s hologram disappeared from the driver’s seat only after he’d pulled away from his place by the cracked sidewalk.
As Bumblebee veered out of sight after reaching the stop sign, a shadow flitted along a rooftop at the opposite end of the street. Quiet, sharp tapping against the weathered shingles weren’t loud enough to alarm anyone inside the dwelling. In the fading light of dusk, slitted and glowing optics narrowed in on the home you’d just left behind.
Hey all! I’ve been wanting to put this together for a long time, so here it is!
These are 21 of the songs that have really inspired me to write the reboot. I have my own IKYS playlist that I listen to when I’m writing, brainstorming, editing, fleshing out future chapters, and these are all on it!
They’re not in any particular order other than the last one, which is the one I really feel like would be the theme song for the whole fic. Otherwise they range in genre, vibe, all that fun stuff. I won’t give anything away, but different songs have to do with different dynamics and situations that you’ll come to piece together down the line… wink wonk.
Sythwave is obvious, for galactic robots and all that. Cinematic epics for the drama and PMVs that I imagine in my head! Bumblebee I think would definitely like vibes of Kid Spirit, Weirdo, and the like. And then the angsty ones are there for obvious reasons.
If you have any personal songs that you like to associate with the fic, I’d SO LOVE to hear them! Who knows, they just might end up added to this list… ; )
(Please be aware that all of these are linked to YouTube so the visuals may vary, and every one of these songs can be found on Spotify!)
₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊
Kid Spirit — Family and Friends
Weirdo — More Fatter
Daylight Doom — MOTO BANDIT
Moon Man — Balu Brigada
Underground — Cody Fry
Cigarettes and Feelings — The Haunt
Buzzcut Season — Lorde
Cheerleader — Porter Robinson
Ocean’s End — Starjunk 95, BELELA
Summer’s Ending Soon — The Midnight
Deep Blue — The Midnight
Ripple — Good Neighbors
Automatic — half•alive
Green Lights — Yam Haus
Goner - Demo — Kids That Fly (this one hurts me for… reasons)
A/N: A request for one of my bffs, Alo ( @alopexabee ), over in the IKYS discord server. >:) This one had me DYING. I have a disco car wash near me, so naturally… it was fitting lmao.
Request: You trick Bee into going through an automatic carwash (he does not like it lmao).
Note: Platonic, fem!Reader
Warnings: None!
Ripping around in muddy woods is fun for anyone. But when your best friend is a living wannabe rally car? Man, it’s unbeatable.
What’s also unbeatable is his incessant complaining afterwards about how dirt and mud and pebbles get lodged all up inside his plating, in between his cables, and so on.
So you offered him a very quick and painless solution. A carwash!
The mech was confused. A carwash? Those exist?
Those EXIST? WHY?! Washing is a private thing!
You had to very intently insist that nothing bad would happen to him. None of it was actually sentient, so his privacy would be kept totally safe and secured.
It took some more coaxing, but after another twenty minutes or so of complaining, he finally made his way to the one you’d suggested.
Apparently it was like a… disco carwash? You’d said there were lights and music and basically that it was a dance party? But humans couldn’t get out to actually dance because they’d just get soaked or… something?
Whatever. Humans are weird.
He pulled up to the entrance and waited while you hung halfway out of the driver’s side window to slip some coins into the slot. There was a lot of whimpering, moping, complaining— “OKAY, how ‘bout we just leave?! This is dumb!”
“NO. I am not listening to you complain about all the silt and dirt that’s itchy all up inside your grill! Literally!”
The Autobot pouted and his form practically shrunk in submission—ultimate defeat. He hated when you got like this. Because how in the world was he going to look at you and say no?
He wanted to keep his plating on his protoform, thank you very much.
Bumblebee pulled inside slowly and cautiously. He scanned his surroundings thoroughly, like at anytime one of the rolling washers might choose to obliterate him.
Scaredy-bot.
As the door closed behind him, the young mech started to have second thoughts. “Y’know, uh, why don’t we go get you some food instead? I hate it when you get hangry or whatever it’s called—”
“Too late!” Your reply came out quick, just before you reached to turn up his stereo system and start moving your shoulders to the now very loud party music.
The lights around him faded in and out between a rainbow of different colors, then they started exploding with light as the beginning of the washing cycle took place.
The Autobot surrounding you absolutely panicked.
Water blasted him from above and he shrieked with alarm at the sudden temperature change. The soap dispensers at his sides exploded with rainbow soaps and polishers, pelting him from both sides simultaneously. Then came those massive, horrifying brushes.
If he would just sit still and stop screaming for a second, you thought he might actually be able to enjoy it. But you were absolutely positive that would never happen.
It wasn’t until water blasted his undercarriage did you truly see how bad he’d freak out.
The Autobot scout screamed like he was being gutted by Unicron himself. Bumblebee’s tires began spinning and squealing furiously and before you could even tell him to shut up, he’d ripped out of his place on the track and went flying forward, barreling through the brushes and ripping them out of place in his panic.
The living WRX exploded out of the exit like he was being hunted by the very Primes themselves.
He stopped, panting heavily. Then the ‘Bot transformed to stand up onto his peds, which promptly threw you into the pavement on your butt with a screech of protest, “Ow! Dude! Calm do—”
Bumblebee loomed over you menacingly, and that look of utter and complete betrayal was unlike anything you’d ever seen before. “YOU! I am NEVER trusting you again!”
Unbridled laughter exploded from you without a second thought at the sight of him. He looked like he was physically ready to blow up with huge cheeks full of air, but the soap covering his helm made him look like he’d spontaneously grown a huge beard. How dare you?
And he did not find it funny.
It took only a minute or two to get him to chill out. All you had to do was promise that you’d give him a good old fashioned carwash with a handheld sponge and a garden hose for all to be forgiven.
But he’ll never forget the one time you told him it would be fine only for his undercarriage to get blasted, scarring him for life.
₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊ I’ll Keep You Safe — TFA Bumblebee X fem!Reader ₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊
Join the IKYS Discord server!
IKYS Playlist
EIGHT — Distractions
Word Count: 7k
Warnings: Adrenaline junkies, a boy being weird for a brief moment, and your best friend continues to prove that he is a terrible influence.
A/N: SURPRISE!! ANOTHER UPDATE WITHIN NINE DAYS? FROM RAE? Absolutely insane. I wrote 6.5k words yesterday alone and idk what possessed me, but I am NOT complaining. Let’s get this plot rolling! But, uh… watch your back. There’s something in the woods.
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“Run run run run!” Bumblebee was whisper-yelling by the time you were close enough to hear him. Your legs were tearing across the front yard in the dark to get to him as quickly as you could, hopefully before any nosy neighbors could spot you.
The passenger’s side door popped itself open not a second before you reached him and you practically launched yourself in head-first. Your head collided with the steering wheel and the gearshift jerked backward in spite of the weight of your abdomen pressing down on it. The young Autobot was peeling away from the sidewalk before the door had even closed behind you.
“Ow!” You cried dramatically, hand reaching up to gingerly rub the side of your head as you laid across the two front seats, “I almost knocked myself out!”
Bumblebee snickered, his center console lighting up in a mischievous laugh, “Yeah, well, you did good, sweetspark. Because your carrier was running to catch you too, and she almost did.”
You stopped rubbing that sore spot on your head, eyes blowing into wide saucers. “What?” Then your head snapped upward to look out the rear windshield and you jumped to sit yourself upright with a loud screech, “What?! She saw me? No! No no no no—!”
The yellow ‘Bot exploded into a loud fit of laughter and you cut yourself off to stare at the center console. Now you were sitting up, legs partially still stretched over the passenger’s seat and your hands whiteknuckling whatever you could grab onto. Your brows furrowed as you stared at the illuminated parts of his dashboard, then your face contorted into a scowl, “That’s not funny!”
Bumblebee howled, “It’s so funny! You’re so scared of your carrier, you thought she was actually chasing you!”
You turned once more to look back, even though by then Bumblebee was now well away from the house and out of sight. Then you looked back at the steering wheel as it moved on it’s own. “She wasn’t chasing me?”
“No!” The Autobot was still laughing, “You’re so gullible, [Name].”
Your face lost its emotion and you dropped your head into one hand, shaking it as you did so. That was definitely not funny. Liz absolutely couldn’t find out about your giant alien friend yet. You especially weren’t ready for that blowout.
“Oh, look.” You looked back up into the road ahead of you as he sped down the street, “There’s Prowl!”
Bumblebee stopped laughing and slammed his brakes, his tires screeching loudly on the pavement and he shrieked over the sound, “Where?!”
The force of it sent you bumping into the steering wheel once more and you shouted again, “Ow!”
Bumblebee’s speed had dropped down to a crawl by the time you moved to settle yourself completely into the driver’s seat—lesson learned. He exclaimed again, “Where?! He’s following me? That stupid old–”
“You’re so gullible, Bee.” You shot the sarcasm to cut him off as you pulled the seatbelt across your chest, “It’s so funny.”
The living vehicle was silent for a long moment and you waited patiently for him to process his grave mistake.
“Y’know, [Name],” Bumblebee’s voice was flat, “I think you’re starting to catch on to me and my humor a little too well.”
You broke into laughter, completely unable to contain it any longer. The opportunity was just too perfect, and you needed to take revenge against him wherever you could. If he didn’t like it, maybe he’d learn not to use the same torture methods on you as often as he did.
The seatbelt around you tightened sharply, and it was so sudden that it cut your laughing short and forced an involuntary yelp out of your lungs. Then the Autobot snickered again, “I’m gonna have to step it up if you think you’re beating me at my own game.”
“I don’t think I am. I know I am.” Your fingers wiggled into the now-smaller space between yourself and the belt and you tugged at it, “Let me go! I can’t breathe, dummy.”
“For now,” He mused in a smooth voice. Then he shifted gears and began rolling away from the place he’d abruptly stopped, “You’re gonna want that when we get to where we’re going though!”
₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊
The roads on the outskirts of the city were practically desolate, which honestly surprised you. Shouldn’t there be at least some people coming into and leaving the city around midnight?
Actually, that was probably why these guys chose to do this here.
You gazed out the window as Bumblebee cruised past a number of muscle cars. There were plenty of young boys chatting and joking around with one another, and only a few girls in sight. Suddenly you were thankful that his windows were so heavily tinted. “How’d you even find out about this in the first place?”
The Autobot revved his engine when he noticed a small group to his left staring, then replied, “We used to do this in the city all the time, but the cops kept busting it. I think they started tracking some of them because they were actually showing up at meets before a lot of us even got there. So we do it out here now.”
A smile curled along your cheeks and you arched one brow at the steering wheel, “You say that like you’re a really active member or something. You do do this a lot, huh?”
“Well, duh. You take me as a ‘Bot that follows the rules?” You could hear the smirk in his voice, “Guess you don’t know me as well as I thought.”
“Jeez, Bee.” A laugh, then you propped your elbow up against the window to support your head, “All your skid marks and burnouts around the city and now illegal drag racing? The cops really do love you.”
“They do when we save the city on a regular basis, and when we clean up Decepticon messes! I think it’s a small price to pay.” He answered matter-of-factly, so sure of himself.
Bumblebee found a place to park on the edge of the road with an older red Mustang to his right. A few people were milling about around him, passing by and holding light conversation with one another. Every now and then one would cast a glance his way, but he ignored them in favor of you.
“We’re gonna lay low for a few kliks here. Then when they call us up, we destroy them all.” His excitement was infectious, and you could practically feel his joy within the air of his interior.
Your eyes followed them curiously as you spoke to your friend. “Do you normally win?”
“Against these guys and their rusty shells?” Bumblebee scoffed, “Duh. My systems are way cooler than anything they have.”
You rolled your eyes. Truly, the size of his ego was immeasurable. “I bet you’ve made a lot of enemies here then, huh?”
“Actually, not really. Shockingly.” Bumblebee’s center console continued to burst with light as he spoke, his earlier excitement dying down to somewhat curiosity, like somehow he hadn’t even thought of that concept before. “I like to think they just go home and leak all over their berths at night. Obviously, it’s the only thing they can do. No one’s kicking my aft here.”
“You like to think they what?” A curt laugh, then you covered your mouth with your hand. It was incredibly hard to not picture some certain images in your head and it grossed you out.
“Y’know—leak! That weird thing humans can do with their eyes!” If he wasn’t in his vehicle mode, Bumblebee definitely would have been poking at his own optics. You could picture it.
Then it struck you. “Oh. Ohhh! You mean crying!”
“Yeah, sure, whatever—fluid exploding out of their faces.” He sounded like he was rolling his optics, totally not at all embarrassed that he got something wrong. “Leaking sounds better than saying all that.”
“You could just say crying.” You laughed, “Crying is what it’s actually–”
The sound of a massive roar cut you off and your head snapped to the left to find it’s source. It was an old royal blue Mazda without a muffler, which wasn’t surprising. There wasn’t a car in sight here that did have a muffler. But this one was modified, clearly old but very loved. The spoiler on the backside of it was obnoxious for the actual size of the vehicle and it’s headlights were blinking up and down as it approached—straight toward the pair of you.
Bumblebee let out a groan so dramatic, it vibrated within his interior. You cocked your head back to the steering wheel as if you were making eye-contact with him with your own eyebrows raised. “What?”
“This guy again.” The Autobot muttered through thick irritation. “He keeps trying to beat me, even though it’ll never happen. He definitely leaks the most whenever we’re done for the night… I think he likes me or something.”
The thought made you giggle inwardly. Until another obnoxiously loud engine rev caught your attention once again. You cast your eyes back to your left and out the window only to find that this guy had parked directly next to Bumblebee, much to his disdain.
There was a young boy in the Mazda’s driver’s seat. His passenger’s side window was rolled down so you could see him perfectly; dark hair, tanned skin, and a huge smirk adorning his face. He was confident for sure, and he seemed far more ambitious than you would have thought after hearing what Bumblebee had to say about him.
His eyes were fixed on your window and you were immensely thankful that he couldn’t see through. But the continued revving of his engine was obviously trying to get your attention.
Okay… Maybe this was going to be far more annoying than you’d originally thought.
You let out a harsh scoff, then reached for the door to roll down your own window. The seatbelt across your chest stiffened and Bumblebee jumped. “Wait– what are you–?!”
His heavily tinted window was already coming down by the time you turned to shoot a look at the glowing console, “I’m just gonna tell him off! Don’t worry!”
When your head lolled back over your shoulder with a pointed glare ready, the stranger was already looking at you. As soon as you made eye-contact, the boy practically jumped in his seat. His eyes blew wide and his shoulders locked up—that originally sly look was now long gone. He shook his head to reboot himself but still continued to stare at you, absolutely dumbfounded.
Total silence fell across the space between your two vehicles for a long few moments. You arched a brow at him expectantly, suddenly very happy to see that you had surprised him somehow. Your voice came out thick and squared with irritation. “Well? You need help or something?”
He still stared, silent. The corners of his mouth twitched a couple of times like he was struggling to form the words for a response. As soon as your eyebrows furrowed, he finally figured it out.
The boy’s eyelids dropped down into a much softer look, his lip curled in a sly smile to reveal white teeth, and his posture relaxed. He moved one hand to swipe his hair out of his eyes and then leaned forward with his elbow on the armrest and his chin in the palm of his hand. “Hey.”
Oh, ew. Nope. Hard no. You rolled your eyes and turned away to lean back into your seat, finger reaching forward to flip the switch for the window to go back up as quickly as possible.
“Hey, wait– wait! I just wanna talk!”
The tinted glass stopped halfway up. You let out a sharp groan, then brought it back down and threw him the harshest side-eye you could muster.
“You– you’ve been kicking my ass for weeks and this is the first time you’ve actually talked to me.” He’d dropped that weird look in favor of genuine curiosity. “How do you do it? How long have you been racing here? What year is your WRX? Who taught you to drive like that?”
You stared, blinking and extremely suspicious. Jeez. Way too many questions.
“You could’ve started with asking for my name.” Your own eyes were now half-lidded and annoyed, and you hoped the point was getting across. It would’ve been hard to miss. “But to answer your much more important questions; he’s been racing way longer than you’ve even been alive, he’s a 2003, and self-taught.”
The kid stared, jaw agape. He seemed to be really good at doing that.
“How do we do it? It’s easy.” You leaned forward with your face just close enough to the window, it caught the ghost of your breath as you spoke. “I actually have a car that can handle me.”
You looked away, more than satisfied. The seat beneath you shuddered and you could hear Bumblebee just barely containing his giggling. The cyan light from the center console lit up a bit as he whispered to you through broken laughter, “Amazing. I’m so glad I brought you here.”
You snickered yourself, “What would you do without me?”
There was a shadow to your left and it caught you completely by surprise. The young boy had materialized practically out of thin air. He stood right outside your window and leaned down so he could see you better.
Bumblebee went silent instantly. You leaned away, finger ready at the switch for the window. That wave of irritation came back full force and your eyes shot to meet his.
“I’m sorry. I think we got off on the wrong foot.” He started gently with half-lidded eyes, like he thought the look was some kind of attempt at smoothing things over, “I’d love to know your name.”
You stared at him, then searched him up and down. His torn band t-shirt, denim jacket and ripped jeans seemed worse for wear and not at all like he was trying to keep up with a sort of punk style. His confidence was visibly obvious, and all it did was annoy you. “Too bad you lost your chance.”
“Did I?” He leaned closer, head now inching forward through the open window.
Your skin lit up with heat and you could feel the urge to throw a punch growing into an irresistibly inevitable outcome. Then he actually reached in, his hand going for a lock of your hair. “Maybe you could teach me how to drive like yo–”
HONK!
The boy jumped and let out a shriek, his head slamming into Bumblebee’s roof and instantly retreating out of the vehicle in his very vocal fit of panic. His hands whipped up to cradle the back of his head and he winced hard, eyes blown wide in absolute shock.
“Keep your grimey servos to yourself unless you want me to rip your stupid organic shell off your fragging protoform!” The Autobot’s voice was loud, his interior lights reaching a level of brightness that you hadn’t seen before. Intense fury was laced within every single one of his words—absolutely seething.
The boy blinked, flabbergasted. He stared at you with massive eyes and open jaws, like he wanted to say something but had no clue what. His eyes searched the yellow WRX for a brief second before he looked to you again.
Your shoulders were tense, your own shock painfully evident in your eyes that matched his. A nervous laugh forced it’s way through your gritted teeth while you maintained the extremely awkward eye-contact and you shrunk down into the seat, your finger finally pulling upward to close the window.
Now? You were so incredibly and endlessly thankful for Bumblebee’s insanely tinted windows.
The boy's hand rubbed what was now undoubtedly a huge bump on the back of his cranium, looked down at the ground, and shook his head before turning to walk back to the driver’s side of his own car. When he opened the door to step inside, you finally looked away.
Your eyes slowly turned to look at Bumblebee’s glowing dashboard. The two of you were silent for a long moment, your lips pursed and eyes wide as you stared where you thought he could see you. Until the tension finally broke simultaneously and you both released a howling fit of matching laughter.
“Whew! Bee, that was amazing!” You shouted at him brokenly through your fit, hardly able to breathe. “I can’t believe you did that!”
“Why not?” Bumblebee’s voice was finally coming back down to a coherent tone, “I’m a guardian now! It’s literally my job to protect and defend.”
Bumblebee is a soldier first.
Your laughter died, then you blinked and shook your head to force the intrusive thought away.
“I’m so thankful.” You sighed dramatically, woefully bringing the back of your hand up to your forehead and slumping down in the driver’s seat, “What would I ever do without my hero?”
“You’d have to deal with annoying humans—without a really loud car—probably.” Bumblebee had calmed down by now, but he revved his engine for good measure.
Your eyes rolled again and you cast a lazy glance over your shoulder at the boy in the Mazda beside you, “Eugh. Boys.”
Somebody patted the roof of Bumblebee’s exterior to the right and it made you jump. There was a man there, loudly announcing that they’d be getting started momentarily.
The Autobot revved his engine again, “Looks like we’re up first! I love starting first. Let’s everyone here know just what they’re up against.”
“You’ve been talking this up since I met you.” You laughed again, settling in the seat as Bumblebee pulled forward, “Time for your moment to shine. You better live up to my expectations.”
“I literally can’t not live up to your expectations.” He responded cooly, inching forward through the crowd of people that was beginning to form at the starting point, “I’m the fastest thing this city has ever seen.”
“Yeah, yeah. We’ll see about that.”
The road before him stretched far into the darkness. Trees lined the sides of the pavement on either side and the moon cast their shadows faintly. It seemed like a relatively simple track, but you knew it wasn’t based solely on what the yellow ‘Bot had already told you about it.
There were small groups of cheering people on either side of the imaginary starting line. Most of them seemed jittery and excited, while some others actually seemed a bit more stoic and relaxed. You wondered what they were all thinking as they stared at your living vehicle. Did they know that this was the yellow Autobot? Did they ever try to talk to him like that boy just tried to talk to you?
Probably not. That kid was genuinely surprised that you chose to entertain his attitude, if only briefly.
“Up first is the undefeated 2003 yellow WRX!” A man with a small megaphone caught your attention to your right. The crowd began to settle slightly as he stepped forward, coming to a halt before Bumblebee’s grill. “And up against him is Isaiah in his ‘95 Mazda RX-7!”
You blinked at the man, then turned to look for your opponent.
Oh, great. It was that boy.
The royal blue Mazda rolled forward and came to a stop on your left once again. His passenger window was still down so you could see him clearly. There was a wicked glare pointed at your window and his lip was curled in a snarl. He was definitely angry.
“Oh.” Your voice started dark and low, then your tone perked up mischievously, “Isaiah looks like he wants to get absolutely destroyed, Bee.”
“Guess it’s a good thing he’s used to that by now.” Bumblebee was more than ready, and more than happy to deliver.
“Don’t know why you keep trying, kid. But I think I speak for everyone here when I say we like the persistence! You got guts.” The announcer’s voice barely fell on your ears as you stared back with a wicked smile. This was going to be fun.
“Ready…”
Bumblebee’s engine roared and Isaiah floored his pedals to match the intense volume.
“Go!”
An airhorn blared loudly over the cheering, signifying the start. Bumblebee’s tires spun and he was off, peeling away from the mass of headlights and humans and into the darkness ahead. Isaiah’s Mazda ripped away from the line not a second later, hot on the Autobot’s tailpipe.
Adrenaline exploded in your veins as the force of sudden speed pressed you deeper into the fabric of your seat. Your eyes were stuck on the sights ahead of you; trees and bushes zipping by at a speed you didn’t think possible. You let out a shout of joy at the feeling, having never experienced anything like it before.
Bumblebee’s voice matched your excitement, loudly exploding with bursts of energy and happiness as he soared across the cracked blacktop.
The pavement ahead curved to the right and out of sight beyond the treeline. The Mazda tailing you surged forward on the outside as Bumblebee clung to the edge of the road, dropping a gear and letting off the gas as his steering wheel spun to the left. Your head whipped to find your young opponent, and you barely caught a glimpse of him turning his own steering wheel with every bit of strength he had.
A small smile quirked the corner of your lip upward. Maybe all you had to do was tire him out. Seemed simple enough.
Bumblebee shifted gears once more, whipping his body back into a straight line and soaring ahead along the next straightaway. Isaiah’s Mazda hung back but stuck close, tailing the Autobot’s bumper at an unnerving mere few inches. The boy tried to head left, then right, but Bumblebee managed to block every maneuver he made.
“Yawn!” He shouted over the sound of his own engine, “Too easy, as usual!”
You let out a howl of laughter, watching as the steering wheel before you kept itself in check.
The road ahead was curving once more, this time to the left. Bumblebee aimed to keep himself on the inside of the turn, but the reckless boy on his bumper peeled out way too far on the left and punched his gas pedal. With half of his vehicle off the road and kicking up clouds of dirt, the blue Mazda ripped up to become parallel with the Autobot in the blink of an eye.
Bumblebee was forced to jerk to his right to make room for the ambitious human. His form wobbled the slightest bit as he maintained his control, and the split-second maneuver forced your stomach to jump up into your throat.
Bumblebee let off the gas once more to take the sharp left turn, and Isaiah’s vehicle tore ahead.
“Well, that was rude.” The young mech’s voice was nonchalant and completely unbothered. He dropped a gear then floored the gas pedal, the volume of his screeching tires almost overtaking the sound of his words, “Time to put you back in your place!”
“He’s flying!” You leaned forward to stare at his taillights ahead in the center of the windshield, “Don’t you have boosters or something?”
“Sweetspark, believe me, I’ve been begging Ratchet for those upgrades!” Bumblebee punched it forward, his engine roaring with effort as he surged ahead and quickly closed the distance between himself and his opponent once more, “But I don’t need ‘em for this!”
His headlights lit up the road before him and reflected off the glittery surface of Isaiah’s buffed bumper. The boy was mirroring the Autobot’s earlier maneuver, which highlighted his desire to stay ahead of him for as long as he could. But Bumblebee knew this track very well, and he knew what was coming next. It was this particular human’s notorious weak spot.
You could see the light pollution in the sky above the treeline once again. The short track was nearing it’s end, and it surely wasn’t going to last much longer. Right?
Your friend laughed lightly, then his gears shifted and he blasted forward. The move sent your stomach flying back up into your throat as he ripped toward the Mazda ahead of him. At the last possible second, Bumblebee’s steering wheel jerked to the right, narrowly avoiding the boy’s royal blue bumper and gunning it.
You let out a satisfied battle cry as you watched the Mazda wobble from the sheer force of Bumblebee’s speed as he passed him. When you looked back to the road ahead however, that shout turned into one of terror.
The pavement ahead curled upward before it abruptly ceased to exist, curving back down and out of sight. It was a sharp incline followed by an unnerving drop, no doubt. You sank down into the driver’s seat as far as possible and your arms flew out to your sides to grab onto anything you could as you braced for the inevitable disaster. “You’re crazy!”
“Trust me!” The Autobot shouted back, and the seatbelt tightened around you.
He throttled forward and then flew—literally. As Bumblebee crested the hill, his tires left the ground. You let out a shriek as gravity forced your hair into your face and then away once more as soon as the same force overtook the living vehicle, which promptly sent him plummeting straight back toward the ground at an alarming speed. His steering wheel turned sharply to the left while in midair, then his gas pedal hit the floor and his engine revved louder than you’d heard all night.
The scout hit the ground with screeching tires, already in the middle of a harsh left turn. If it wasn’t for the tightly secured seatbelt, you were sure you would’ve went barreling through the passenger’s side door. Bumblebee’s tires continued to scream as he maintained his control around the curve, then he ripped to the side in a sharp 180 and skidded to a halt. It was all over before you could even blink.
Your head lazily popped up to see beyond the dashboard again. Loose strands of your messy hair were blocking your eyes and you felt queasy, trembling and fighting to quell the sudden nausea that threatened to overtake you.
Bumblebee was panting heavily but he was ecstatic, and high on adrenaline. “Watch!”
“Wha–” Your voice was small and hoarse from screaming, but you did so, eyes searching the road ahead of you now with your back to the remainder of the track.
Isaiah’s old Mazda materialized seemingly at the speed of light. You could barely hear his terrified screaming over the sound of his own screeching tires, scrambling to stop before he reached the maple bushes directly ahead of him. He appeared for hardly even a second before the royal blue RX-7 went barreling into the trees and a loud crash sounded off, abiding by his desire to stop.
“Ohh, that was a rough one this time!” Bumblebee exploded into laughter, his interior vibrating around you, “And it works everytime!”
“Is he dead?!” You’d managed to shake the nausea away as soon as your queasiness soared straight into another choking wave of fear—this time for someone else entirely.
“No!” Bumblebee yelled, then immediately quieted himself and stopped laughing. The Autobot began to roll forward slowly and tentatively, “...I think.”
A small cloud of dirt and dust was billowing from the space where the teen had entered the trees. Luckily and surprisingly, he hadn’t ended up that far into the woods, as you were able to see that striking shade of blue not too far from the road. Isaiah had crashed into a massive thicket of bushes with a tree situated behind them, which was inevitably what ended up stopping the vehicle. You sat staring, muscles growing rigid and tense as Bumblebee drew closer and no sound came from the crashed vehicle.
Until a horrified shriek came from the open driver’s side window. The door popped open and Isaiah came stumbling out, “No! My car!”
A huge breath of relief rushed from your lungs and your shoulders dropped, then you slumped back down into the seat. Immediate regret swallowed you whole. His car didn’t look… totaled by any means, but it definitely was not okay.
Your face contorted in a grimace and you found your cautious voice as you leaned forward toward your own open window, “Are you okay?!”
The teen boy whirled on his feet to face the voice. He looked like he was visibly bristling, his arms throwing themselves up in the air as he stammered and struggled to find the words, “Wha–! I–! Why did you–?!”
You winced and reared back. He looked fine. There were no visible injuries whatsoever. His car on the other hand…
“You!” Isaiah’s anguish was painfully evident. He turned back to face the mild carnage and his hands slapped his own face, then he threw his head back and let out a muffled shriek into his palms.
All you could do was watch the event as it unfolded. Bumblebee was snickering quietly, so you flashed a lighting-fast glare at the center console. Then you turned your attention back to the unfortunate teenager, “Okay, uh… We’ll call a tow truck for you!”
Another infuriated shriek of total despair met your ears and you awkwardly rolled up the window. Bumblebee turned his body to face the end of the track again before he revved his engine for good measure, which instantly earned him a sharp swat to the steering wheel. The scout scoffed lightly, “What? You didn’t have to introduce yourself! Plus, he was weird anyway. He needs to learn how not to race at some point.”
Your eyes stayed stuck on that spot off the side of the road in the rearview mirror. “I guess.”
“Come on! We won, [Name]!” The Autobot floored his gas pedal and drifted left, then right. His tone was brighter and louder now that he wasn’t staring down his much younger enemy, “I told you nobody would beat us.”
A smile found it’s way back to your face, your guilt melting away even if just slightly. Bumblebee was right. The kid was weird—not to mention extremely rude. Maybe he did deserve it? “I never doubted you, sunshine.”
There were a few more sharp turns and dips in the road, but now that the competition was out of commission, Bumblebee was taking them leisurely and playfully. His level of intensity had dropped dramatically and he’d managed to make each drift far less nausea-inducing in spite of the force of gravity. The light pollution from before was much stronger after a mere minute or two of the continued drive, and the treeline had begun to thin out as you reached the destination.
The road straightened out ahead and there they were; small crowds of people and the headlights of their muscle cars bathing the pavement before them. They exploded in cheers upon seeing the WRX tearing from the trees and drifting out of the final sharp turn. His brakes squealed and he came to a halt just past the line where you’d originally started.
“To absolutely no one’s surprise, we have our little yellow winner and he’s still undefeated!” That same man from before was trying to yell over the sound of Bumblebee’s fans, “Will that Mazda kid ever learn? No one knows.”
The young ‘Bot let out a curt groan and he mumbled bitterly to you, “Little’… Pffsh. And when will he learn that I have manifolds bigger than anyone else here?”
You rolled your eyes and laughed, waving your hand in front of your face like you were waving away his irritation. People were beginning to approach and surround him while they broke out into applause, and it finally caught your attention. Your nerves were beginning to show at the sudden focus on the two of you. Bumblebee seemed proud, but you were suddenly starting to grow uncomfortable with it.
“Come on, Bee.” Your voice started small and you tried to comfort yourself by patting his dashboard, “I’m tired, and I actually need to get some sleep.”
“Awh, what?!” His disappointment was loud, and for a second, you almost felt bad about it. Until his tone climbed into a painfully dramatic level, “But [Name]! We just got here! You wanna go home already?!”
The crowd was growing louder. “Uh– yeah. I haven’t really slept in like, two days? Remember?”
The scout sighed loudly and he sat still for a long moment, but then his gearshift dropped and he began to slowly inch forward which automatically parted the crowd in front of his bumper. “So lame.”
You remembered your final task for the night—other than making it to your bed—and rolled down your window one last time to yell into the crowd of drag racing enthusiasts. “Can someone go get that kid?! He probably needs a tow!”
Another wave of cheering and laughter erupted from them as Bumblebee cleared the last of the stragglers and pressed forward, his engine revving to drown them out. But you did manage to catch some of their excited shouting as the distance between you and them widened. They were simply elated to find out that the mysterious yellow WRX driver was—in fact—a girl.
The drive back to your aunt’s home was rather uneventful. Bumblebee had actually apologized for trying to push his luck. He figured you were tired, especially when considering that the only sleep you’d really gotten in the previous twenty-four hours was on a pile of his old tarps and blankets. A lot had happened even between now and then, never mind the chaotic and mildly life-threatening events of the previous day.
The mech pulled up to the stop sign at the end of the street and rolled to a halt. He was quiet for a moment and you looked at the light in the middle of his dashboard, thoroughly confused for a brief second. It wasn’t until the seatbelt released you and the door at your side popped open did you finally catch on.
You stepped out and into the crisp night air. The end of August was nearing and living so close to a massive body of water meant that the air would cool as soon as the sun went down, if only sometimes. You weren’t complaining however. This summer had been particularly hot, especially while hanging around giant mechanical living beings of metal for the last month or so.
You looked up to the stars as you waited patiently for him to switch into his bipedal form. They glittered and twinkled silently, only broken up by a moon that was almost full and a few stray bands of clouds here and there. Part of you was apprehensive, your eyes searching for something that moved against the distant balls of gas, but nothing out of the ordinary reared it’s ugly head. And the lack of it soothed you.
The yellow scout beside you leaned forward onto one knee and the movement reclaimed your attention from the night sky. You turned your eyes back on him and met his optics, immediately remembering to shake off any look that said that you were thinking about any nefarious entities.
If Bumblebee caught it, he didn’t let on. His optics searched your face, then their lids dropped halfway and he smirked. “Did I impress you, sweetspark?”
A smile broke out across your face and you turned away for a brief second to hide it. You could physically feel the heat rushing to your cheeks, so staring at your dirty sneakers for a moment seemed like your next best idea.
“I guess it was pretty cool.” Your smile grew wider. “It was nice to finally see how fast the ‘fastest ‘Bot around’ is.”
“You guess?” The Autobot reared back in shock and it forced you to look at him again. “It was amazing! I’ve never destroyed that human like that before!” Bumblebee leaned forward once more with his servo cupped around his face, like he was trying to whisper to you even though not another soul was within sight, “This is the part where you say, ‘I’m honored.’”
You blinked at him and the sheer audacity, then laughed lightly. “Yes, I’m honored. So honored that I got to witness you run a teenaged boy with an ego as pompous as yours off the road, which definitely might have maybe totaled his car.”
“Hey!” The mech jerked backward once again like he’d been physically struck, his optics blown wide. “I did not! He ran himself off the road!” The Autobot crossed his arms over his chassis and then turned his chin up defiantly, “I just didn’t help, that’s all.”
“Pfft, definitely not.” You reached forward to swat at the plating that guarded his knee, and your knuckle making contact sounded off with a small twang, “But he was weird. So it’s cool.”
“Right! You’re right. Weird.” Bumblebee turned to look at you again with a stupid smirk.
You smiled up at him, genuine happiness seeping from your very form. He returned the look, dropped his servos, and reached toward you with one of them curled into a fist. Now, his voice was soft and quieter, gentle even. “See you in the morning?”
Your smile grew even brighter and you bumped his fist with your own. “See you in the morning.”
While your legs turned to bring you down the sidewalk and back to your home, your gaze lingered on him for a moment longer until you fully turned away. Bumblebee flashed his headlights from his chassis to light you up and you muttered a curse through a laugh under your breath. That giant yellow idiot was definitely going to get you both caught on this street at some point.
You just needed to figure out a way to get him to meet Liz—without her ripping up one side of you and down the other for befriending the one specific thing she’d warned you about from the start.
₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊
Moonlight bled through the leafy canopy deep in the woods outside of Detroit. In spite of the waxing gibbous, the forest floor was dark and thick, blotting out any and all detail one might normally be able to see with the naked eye.
There was an enormous mass of inky blackness hidden within a huge thicket of mapleleaf bushes and overshadowed by old white pines. Their branches were wide and they hung low, the moonlight barely reaching any part of the massive object. It was the perfect hiding place.
The mechanical hiss of moving parts was the only thing to finally break the silence.
Then there was a ring of some kind—alien and unnatural.
Movement among the pine branches flung their nighttime dew out into the grass. In spite of the brink of a changing season and the intense heat, the forest was still lush and full of life deep within, well away from the prying eyes of the city.
A hulking, towering being stepped out and away from the hidden mass within the trees. The moon lit up multi-colored plating in a soft gray-blue light, dulling it’s usual hue against the patchy shadows of the canopy. One massive servo reached upward to find it’s face, and there was a quiet click when a button was pressed to answer the alien sound.
A small glowing blue light lit the tall being’s faceplate in the darkness. Then there was an audible smile in a slick feminine voice on the other end of the line.
“You’ll be pleased to know that I’ve finally located our little runaway experiment."
“It’s been a long time.” A deep, gruff voice rumbled through the air in response. Slitted optics narrowed in on the comm link situated before him and the hulking mech flexed his digits. “You sure it’s the right one?”
“Of course I am.” The femme’s voice held the slightest twinge of irritation at her partner’s doubt. “She’s been relocated—practically right into our very servos.”
“Finally.” The dark mech let out a huff of an exvent at the confirmation, then a half-smile curled it’s way up one side of his marked faceplate. “Now I’ll go do what I do best.”
“Not yet.” Her voice was suddenly sharp and commanding, then laced with vicious disgust when she continued, “My lovely little organic contact managed to allow those pathetic Autobots to get involved.”
“So?” His beaming red optics turned to stare out into the woods, their light reflecting in the dew droplets on the branch that was just below his line of sight. He was quiet for only a brief moment, unbothered and not at all concerned in the slightest. “That’s never stopped me before.”
“Don’t worry, dear friend. By all means, you can do all the dirty work when the time comes.” The femme’s voice smoothed out once more, as if her counterpart’s confidence had rubbed off on her through the comm link. “For now, let me do some more digging. I need to pay that contact of mine a little… friendly visit. It’s been far too long.”
Her tone lightened even further, “For now, you can keep watch. You’ll know when the time comes.”
The mech’s posture straightened as he stood tall and cracked his helm to the sides while rolling his shoulders, fresh anticipation and excitement bubbling up within his spark chamber. He chuffed, then his optics turned back to his comm link and his wicked smirk curled upward once more. “Looking forward to it.”
The forest only ever goes silent when a predator is nearby.
₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊ I’ll Keep You Safe — TFA Bumblebee X fem!Reader ₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊
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SEVEN — Guardian
Word Count: 9.9k (an absolute unit)
Warnings: Confrontations, Reader somewhat spirals with anxiety, Prowl being mean(?).
A/N: I realized while I was writing the last quarter of this chapter that the reader definitely already has anxiety. Also, Prowl is rude as hell in this one. But don’t worry, it’ll all start to make sense soon… eheheh…
₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊
Studying the mud that was caked within the threads of your beat up sneakers was suddenly a very interesting thing to do.
An irritated sigh a little ways away from you made you wince. Prowl was standing in the center of the Autobots’ main living space and pinching the bridge of what would be considered his nose. The plant was silent with not another soul in sight, apart from Bumblebee.
The scout’s weight shifted to rest mainly on one ped. When you cast a hesitant glance his way, you found that he looked completely and utterly unamused—bored, even.
That was until Prowl stalked toward him. Without saying a word, the skinny mech grabbed the younger bot’s servo and lifted it into the air to turn him around. Bumblebee let out a squawk of protest until Prowl snapped back to cut him off, “Will you calm down? I’m only checking for damage.”
The scout pulled and yanked his servo from his grip, then a scowl immediately replaced his alarm. “You could just ask, y’know—and no. No damage. I’m fine.”
If Prowl’s optics were visible, you were absolutely positive they would be rolling into the back of his helm. The corner of his mouth quirked up into a mirrored look of irritation. “Ratchet will check you over in the morning. For now, stasis.” He glanced down at you for a split second, and the look was enough to make you cringe even in the darkness of the silo. Then he aimed a pointed digit between the both of you, “Don’t do anything stupid for the remainder of the night.”
Bumblebee feigned a look of shock in response, like he was very obviously pretending to take offense. “Me? Never.”
“I’m serious.” The ninja-bot practically hissed. He turned his back and stalked into the dark hallway ahead, “I’ve seen enough foolishness tonight to last me through the next stellar cycle.”
Your brow quirked as you watched his figure disappear into the shadows and thought to yourself, Seriously? What is your problem? Grouchy old metal toothpick.
“Yeah? Well… I’m tired anyway.” Bumblebee muttered, definitely low enough so Prowl wouldn’t actually be able to hear it. He turned to you with his optics still narrowed in a sideways glare down the dark hall, then he shook his helm. Almost immediately, his irritation melted as soon as those bright blue optics fell on you. “I am pretty beat… But definitely not because he said anything.”
You smiled, relaxing now that Prowl was gone. “Yeah? Are you sure about that?”
“Well, yeah. I mean, I was stomped on by an ugly bucket of slag with anger management issues.” He tilted his helm and quirked a brow ridge at you, “But you’re human. You’re telling me you’re not tired after all that?”
You let out a hmph, then lifted your nose at him teasingly, “Not at all.”
“Really?” His helm tilted further, “Jumping into a quarry all day in the heat? Trespassing twice? Watching the most awesome Autobot deliver a smackdown?”
Your eyes snapped open to shoot him a look of shock, “You delivered the smackdown? Is that what that was?”
The ‘Bot jerked his helm back like he’d been physically struck, “Uh– yeah? Did you miss the part where I zapped his circuits?” After he finished speaking, he yawned.
You stifled a laugh. Then halfway through your response, you yawned too, “No, but that was kind of–”
When you cut yourself off to yawn without realizing, Bumblebee jumped and pointed a digit at you, “See! I knew you were tired!”
Oh my god. You flinched at his reaction at first, then a torrent of numerous remarks struggled amongst themselves to come out first. “Wha–! I–! You–!”
“I nothing. You yawned.” Bumblebee folded his arms across his chassis and turned toward the hallway, “Time for stasis.”
“Yawns are contagious!” The realization hit you like a brick as you hurried to follow him, “You did that on purpose!”
“I have no idea what you're talking about.” Bumblebee mused, casting a nonchalant glance your way. His sly smile at the sight of your cheeks flushing red was almost enough to make you explode on the spot.
You waggled a pointed finger at him accusingly, “Oh. You’re so in for it, buddy… someday.”
“Oooh.” His vocal notes thrummed up and down in fake fear, “I’m terrified.”
The walk to his quarters barely took longer than you’d thought it would. Quite honestly, it only took so long because the plant itself was enormous. Walking from room to room felt like walking the length of a baseball field—for a human. For the Autobots, it must feel like absolutely nothing.
The young mech wordlessly waited for you to follow him into the space before sliding a heavy door shut behind you. The creaking and scraping sounds it made while being dragged against a rusted frame made your insides curl with disgust—like nails on a chalkboard. He winced too, but as soon as it was done, he was back to his usual self.
Bumblebee flipped a single switch on the wall beside the door and light fell from above to illuminate the space. His space. And it was right then that you realized… you hadn’t actually seen his room before.
The first thing you noticed were the many ropes of lights hanging from all over the place. There were lots of lit strings meant for decorating the outside of a house, most likely. Traffic lights positioned in one corner blinked in all three colors as they dangled from the ceiling. He had numerous disco balls, kaleidoscope projectors, lava lamps—anything and everything one could imagine. If it lit up to catch the eye, it was in there.
Nailed into the walls were loads of different street signs and posters depicting a plethora of different musicians. You recognized a few; rap artists, rock artists, and pop artists for starters. The mass amount of street signs confused you though. You squinted to read their names for a moment, then quickly forgot about them when the scout moved to stand beside you.
“Yep. This is my shining oasis.” He started, fists resting atop his hips. “Cool, huh?”
You blinked, eyes shooting back to the street signs. “Did you steal those?”
“Uh, no.” Bumblebee moved forward to stand in the middle of the room and pointed at them, “I borrowed them. For my decorative flare.”
“Yeah, you have a ‘decorative flare,’ alright.”
The yellow mech turned his helm back down so he could squint at you, “I bet your room’s not as cool as mine.”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” The smirk you shot back nearly sent him reeling. He wanted to continue to tease you, but the exhaustion was finally beginning to weigh on him. He’d never admit that to you, however.
“It is pretty cool though.” You smiled, barely catching his optics as they drifted back to further gauge your reaction to his space. “I like all the lights you have. Kinda surprised you guys have working electricity, too. I bet the city still thinks this place is abandoned.”
Bumblebee let out a scoff, “We’re Autobots, [Name]. We don’t need humans to power our stuff. It probably wouldn’t even be enough to–”
“Yeah, yeah—human power is super weak compared to Cybertronian power—I know, I know.” Your head turned to your right when you caught sight of a massive stereo system built into the wall. “I guess I’m just surprised they haven’t showed up to harass you guys about it yet.”
“Oh, they have.” He quipped back.
Oh. You couldn’t suppress the snort.
“So! This is where I stay during stasis” The mech started, patting the berth on the opposite side of the room with one servo, “You can… Uh…”
You watched him, thoroughly amused as his optics jumped around the room in search of something. He stomped into the corner beside his enormous stereo system and reached down, bundling up a huge pile of oversized blankets and tarps. Then Bumblebee walked back over to the edge of the berth and opened his arms wide to dump them onto the floor in one great heap of fabric. A cloud of dust billowed up into the air when they made contact with the concrete and he swiped his servos against each other, satisfied with his work.
“Since you organics are really soft– I mean squishy and… whatever. I guess you need something soft to go into stasis on too.” Bumblebee’s servos returned to his hip for a brief second, then he pointed at the pile and looked back to you across the room with a bright look on his faceplate, “So! You go to stasis there.”
You blinked again, glancing from him to the rough fabrics. Oh, god.
Truly, he was trying so hard to be hospitable. And he likely didn’t understand that humans had to care more about dirty and dusty objects than they did. Allergies and hygiene were very real priorities to humans, but… now that you were thinking about it, they probably didn’t have to worry about those things at all.
Regardless, you didn’t want to come off as rude or ungrateful. However, he should probably still learn these things if you were going to stick around.
“Thanks, Bee.” You approached him and the hunkering mass of fabrics, eyeing it suspiciously, “But, uh… Could you shake those out a little bit, please? There’s a lot of dirt on ‘em. And there’s definitely probably some spiders in there too.”
Bumblebee’s faceplate contorted in confusion, “So what? They’re just dusty.” Then that stupidly teasing smile came back again, “You afraid of a little dirt, [Name]? And spiders?”
“No, I just… I don’t wanna sleep with them all in my hair.” Your eyes found his optics and you made a pleading face, “If I don’t have to.”
The Autobot rolled his optics, “Whatever you say, sweetspark. But you’re gonna have to get used to some dirt if you wanna stick around with me. I love dirt.”
The wave of disbelief within you couldn’t have been stronger. “You didn’t even like the grit in your carpets from the quarry!”
“That’s different.” He mused as he lifted the wad of tarps.
“How?!”
“Because I don’t like grit. It’s all wet and sometimes it’s slimy. Ew.” Bumblebee looked away as he shook the fabric mass furiously, angling his helm to the side so the floating specks of dust didn’t get into his optics.
Instead of shooting a sarcastic comment back at him, his pause gave you a second to realize something. That puppy-eyed look actually worked when you used it on him. Now you knew that you could use it against him in the future. Yes!
Once the waves of dust died down a bit, the mech stretched his arms forward to lay the fabrics on the ground beside his berth. He layered them with care, casting a sideways glance at you every few seconds or so, and then piled one massive blanket up in the center of it all. It almost looked like a nest of sorts, you thought.
Bumblebee stood straight and admired it for a moment. “Better?”
You approached the blankets and patted them gingerly. They were softer than you expected, which was a pleasant surprise. Maybe sleeping on them actually wouldn’t be so bad until you could get your own comfy setup here. “Yes. Perfect.” Then you smiled up at him, “Thank you.”
“No problem.” Bumblebee chirped, “I’m gonna turn the lights off. But before stasis, we better think of some good excuses for when we get our cables fried in the morning.”
“You think they’re gonna fry us for that?” You plopped yourself into the soft pile and reached down to pull your sneakers off, casually glancing over your shoulder to watch him hit the levered lightswitch. “Why? Isn’t fighting those guys what you’re supposed to do when you see them?”
The only light now came from the dark blue outdoor string lights along the ceiling. It added an ambiance that you didn’t realize would be so comforting. Bumblebee’s peds passed you before he turned, planted himself on the edge of his berth, and nervously reached to cup the back of his neck with one servo. “Well, yeah. But they don’t like it when I do it by myself. Always saying ‘call for backup’ and ‘you’re too small’ or… whatever. I’ve been fighting those ugly slagheaps for a long time too!”
He looked away, his optics narrowing to focus on the floor instead. “It’s like they have no faith in me.”
Suddenly, you remembered your comment from before and the shame that came with it made you feel hot. You mocked him for getting his butt handed to him too. Bumblebee was able to pull moves way quicker than you thought possible. He was fast, agile, and fully capable of making split-second decisions in the heat of the moment. He truly was a skilled fighter, but… maybe his size was sometimes a disadvantage, especially when up against someone as large as Blitzwing.
“Well, there’s only so much you can do when your enemy’s super unpredictable and has literal jet engines strapped to him. So… if it makes you feel any better,” You angled your head to the side to catch his gaze, and when he met your eyes, you offered him a smile, “I think you were awesome.”
Bumblebee stared at you for a long moment, thinking. Then he blinked, cracked a huge smile and set his half-lidded optics on you, very obviously preparing to release a witty reply. Your heart swelled. Bad thoughts gone. Success.
“I guess I was pretty awesome, huh?” The yellow mech propped one servo up on his knee and planted his chin into the palm of it, gazing at you with the same half-lidded optics, “Bet you’ve never seen anything cooler than that.”
“Oh my god, here we go again.” You rolled your eyes and leaned all the way back into the nest of blankets he’d made for you, “Actually, one time I saw a fox hunting mice where I used to live. Did you know all foxes jump on their prey like that? So cool–”
“Primus.” Bumblebee shook his helm before dropping it into his servos, “How is a fox cooler than a Decepticon getting fried by my super sick stingers?”
“Well, have you ever seen them?” Your hands flew out to your sides to emphasize your point, “They’re so agile and swift and so pretty! You–!”
“Nuts and bolts.” The Autobot cursed, then swung his legs up to rest completely on the berth. He sighed loudly, and it was almost loud enough to make you think he was trying to rile you up further. “You’re weird.”
“No.” The reply came out so fast. You were beginning to think that you were finally catching up to his speed in conversations like these. It made you feel as if you were glowing with joy, inside and out. “I just appreciate robots and nature.”
“Huh.” Bumblebee’s response came out in a sigh at first. “Then you’d get along great with Prowl.”
Prowl. You sighed too. The older mech was so… bitter. He seemed so kind at first. What changed? Why didn’t he like you anymore? Did he ever like you to begin with? Why couldn’t you say or do anything around him without feeling like you were disrupting his very existence?
You squinted your eyes at the ceiling, deep in thought. This couldn’t go on forever. It wouldn’t go on forever. Because you weren’t going to let it. Who did he think he was anyway? Did he think he was better than you or something? That you’re just some stupid human kid who knows nothing about the universe, or life? Or anything? Because if he did, he was wrong.
Quite frankly, you’d spent most of your life getting bullied already. So you definitely weren’t going to take any more of it from a tall metal beanpole with an attitude problem.
“Uh– sorry. How ‘bout we don’t talk about that creaky buckethead.” Your yellow friend above you had leaned over so he could peek over the edge of the berth at you. “We should definitely figure out what we’re gonna tell Optimus though.”
“Oh, man. Yeah.” Your eyes blew wide for a second at the thought of the imposing leader. Disappointing him was already reminding you of a classic disappointed father figure. “I guess I’m still on probation too, huh? Do you think he’ll kick me out?”
Bumblebee scoffed, “No! He can’t kick you out of here even if he wanted to. You’re stuck with us now. Plus, I won’t let him.”
Your heart fluttered in your chest. The thought of having a genuine best friend for the first real time in your life who’d do anything for you? It was unbeatable. You couldn’t help the smile on your face.
The mech’s cyan optics gleamed in the darkness as he peered down at you, “Maybe we could tell him… that Blitwing never saw it coming!”
“Or we could just tell him the truth.” You stifled a laugh, but your tone turned serious and you shifted to get more comfortable in your makeshift nest, “That we were minding our own business until that creep basically fell out of the sky and attacked us first. Because we were.”
“Huh.” Bumblebee’s optics squinted and he turned his sights away, like he was pondering the idea. “True, true.”
“We don’t have to lie about anything, Bee.” Your fingers began to fidget nervously, almost as if you didn’t believe your own words. “We didn’t do anything wrong.”
“We didn’t call for backup.” The young scout replied in a mocking and rehearsed tone. “That’s what they’ll say, remember?”
“Oh.” You blinked, shoulders drooping. “Yeah. We didn’t.”
“So,” He continued almost immediately, “We call for backup from now on.”
Your head turned so you could catch his gaze again, quirking a brow as you did so. “That’s it? That’s your masterplan? I could have told you that!”
“But you didn’t.” Bumblebee turned his ‘nose’ up at you and he disappeared from sight to lean all the way back down onto the berth. “So I win.”
“What? There was a competitio–?” Cutting yourself off would be wise, you thought. This was one of his many routes into teasing you, and you finally caught on. So you rolled over and nestled in close, finally relaxing your muscles and closing your eyes. “Oh, whatever. I’m too tired for this. G’night, idiot.”
“G’night, meatbag.”
There was a long silence. So long, it almost broke you. Until a massive fit of laughter exploded from the both of you simultaneously, and some broken shushing ensued. If you woke the other Autobots now, there would be no escaping Prowl’s wrath.
Not that you really cared anymore. Not really. You were going to figure out what his problem was, no matter when or how it happened.
₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊
“Remind me again why you didn’t call for reinforcements?” Optimus’ angry bellow wasn’t as loud as you were expecting. “You could have been offlined!”
The room was eerily silent. You stood beside Bumblebee with fidgeting hands, struggling to suppress your nerves. The air was thick and festering with irritation and anger. You could feel it.
Optimus stood before both yourself and Bumblebee. Prowl and Ratchet were leaning on the wall behind him with their arms crossing their chassis, and Bulkhead stood behind the concrete couch in the main space. Every single optic was trained on you both and your skin was threatening to set itself on fire in shame.
“And even worse!” Optimus continued, pointing one servo down to you. “[Name] was with you! She could have been offlined!”
The much smaller scout’s brow ridges lowered, determined and defiant. “I didn’t get the chance to! I was in the middle of handing his aft to him!”
“That’s not what was happening when I showed up.” The ninja-bot’s stoic voice carried itself over and Bumblebee’s helm snapped to face it. “Blitzwing had you pinned.”
“Oh, what do you know?” Bumblebee snapped the retort like venom. “You weren’t even there for most of it!”
Prowl pushed his weight off the wall and slowly began to stalk toward him, helm lowered like a feline preparing to pounce as he hissed, “It only takes one nanoklik—one mistake—for you to get smelted. You were pinned under him and his cannon was ready to fire.” The skinny mech reached Bumblebee and pointed a digit into his chassis with a sharp ting, “If I didn’t show up, your spark wouldn’t be lit right now.”
Bumblebee smacked Prowl’s servo away so fast, you took a step back. “Get your aft out of my face before I–”
“Calm down, both of you!” Optimus had shoved his servos between the two quarreling ‘Bots to separate them, pushing them both a few steps back from one another. “Bumblebee. Listen to me.”
The scowl on the scout’s faceplate didn’t falter at all and he held the ninja-bot’s intense stare. Only after another few seconds did he scoff and turn himself away in favor of his leader.
Optimus held his gaze, his tone only a slight bit softer than before. “You have a responsibility to someone now. You can’t go looking for conflicts. And you definitely shouldn’t be handling them on your own.”
Suddenly, the ground beneath your feet felt like it was quaking. You felt sick, mind spinning with anxiety and all sorts of other bad feelings. Was this somehow your fault? Was Bumblebee trying to show off for you or something? Why didn’t you convince him to run while he still could? Why didn’t you–?
This whole thing was stressing you out a whole lot more than you were expecting it to.
“That human–” Optimus pointed to you and you felt your stomach drop into your sneakers, “–is your charge. You can’t go looking for danger—especially when she’s with you.”
“I wasn’t looking for anything!” Bumblebee’s voice went shrill, almost desperate. “Blitzwing caught us by surprise! What was I supposed to do about–?”
“You call for reinforcements.” The leader finished in a level tone.
Thick waves of anger were wafting from your friend. You could feel them in the air. Regardless, his shoulder plating wasn’t as tense anymore, signifying his defeat. Your breath was caught in your throat. All you wanted to do was speak up—defend him somehow—but simultaneously you felt like you were way out of your depth. Even if you did say something, you didn’t know what you could say that might help the situation at hand.
Bumblebee’s helm dropped to the side just enough so you could see his expression once again. His optics were narrowed, staring at the floor and flicking back and forth like he was wracking his processor for what to say next. But Optimus beat him to it.
The red-and-blue leader leaned away from his subordinate and turned to you. You met his optics as soon as you realized that the attention was now being fully drawn back to you and your stomach flipped.
You felt so… small. These gargantuan beings were just discussing you like you weren’t standing right in front of them. Was this what it was always going to feel like?
It wasn’t a pleasant thought. At all. You’d have to find your voice sooner rather than later—for your own sanity.
“[Name],” The massive mech started after he crouched down to get a bit closer to your level. “Are you alright?”
Wow. You bit back the bitter thought. Could have started with that, big guy.
“I’m totally fine.” You tried to speak with a level voice as you held his intense blue gaze, but a shaky breath came out instead. Optimus was much more intimidating than he was probably trying to be. “We tried to run, honestly. But Blitzwing just kept catching up to us. Bee was just doing the best he could.”
Visibly, something flickered in the Prime’s optics as he watched you speak. You’d only just managed to catch it before it quickly vanished. Irritation.
“I’m sure he did. Everyone here knows that Bumblebee’s a skilled fighter.” Optimus leaned away and stood tall once again before he turned to send the scout another harsh look. “But everyone here also knows that he has a tendency to act first and use his processor later.”
Bumblebee bristled, but he still didn’t say anything. Your stomach twisted in your gut at the thought of making the situation even worse than it already was for him.
“Listen, kid.” A new voice, gruff and older, spoke up to catch the younger mech’s attention. Ratchet’s optics were closed, still leaning in his place at the wall with one servo rubbing the side of his helm. “I don’t have a lot of resources on this planet. I don’t have my old lab, I don’t have a lot of the necessary equipment, and we barely have an energon supply. If you get hurt, the prognosis would be… slag, honestly.”
“I know that.” Bumblebee muttered bitterly. Only a second later did he whirl to face Ratchet, then Optimus, and then Prowl all in one go. “Why don’t any of you think I can handle myself?! Primus– I’m an Autobot just like all of you!”
“But she isn’t.” Prowl used a sharp digit to point at you without even sparing you a glance.
Suddenly, fresh anger started to bubble in your chest once more. Again, someone was talking about you like you weren’t standing right in front of them. It made you feel small. Insignificant. As if your voice didn’t deserve to be heard, or that they didn't care what you were thinking for yourself. Whether what he was saying was true or not—it didn’t matter. It made your face contort with fury without having to try.
Optimus let out a loud sigh and brought one servo to press on his optics, as if he was trying to rub the frustration away. The sound caught the room’s attention once more. “[Name] is a part of this now, whether we like it or not. Blitzwing saw her with Bumblebee. And as a human, that makes her an easy target.”
The glinting of light across Bumblebee’s plating caught your attention when he turned to face you. After you made eye-contact, there was some kind of unreadable emotion on his face, like he was thinking long and hard about something as he stared you down. That—piled with the ‘you’re a target now’ thing—only made the anxiety worming around in your chest grow stronger.
More movement out of the corner of your eye prompted you to turn once again. Prowl backed a few steps away from the group. His voice was cold, monotone, yet laced with something you couldn’t quite figure out as he stared at Optimus. “And that’s exactly what never should have happened.”
With that, he turned and stalked down the hall, away from the rest of his team—and you.
Bumblebee scoffed loudly and rolled his optics. Meanwhile, you could physically feel your anger threatening to boil over as it crept along beneath your skin.
“Bumblebee.” The Prime’s voice was cooler now, it’s earlier edge melting away just slightly. “If the Decepticons find out you have a human friend, they’ll try to use it against us. It’s our job to keep her safe. She shouldn’t go anywhere without one of us to look after her.” The red-and-blue mech placed a servo on your friend’s shoulder plating, prompting him to look up to meet his optics. “You’re a guardian now. Back on Cybertron, it’s one of the most important roles a ‘Bot could ever have. Don’t treat it like it isn’t one.”
“Obviously, Boss-bot.” Bumblebee’s gaze hardened. Then he turned his helm to look back down at you and cracked a small smile. “You’re not going anywhere without me.”
Hesitantly, your eyes flicked back and forth between the two Autobots. Then you looked to Ratchet, and then over to Bulkhead who—comically—had been way too afraid to say anything throughout the whole exchange. The wrecker looked like he thought he’d shatter the imaginary glass box around him if he moved at all. You’d almost forgotten that he was even there.
The gnawing feeling alongside the knowledge that you were a burden on this team was now very, very real. Bumblebee’s feelings were obvious. At least Bulkhead seemed to like you. Optimus looked at you like you were his roommate's pet. Ratchet hardly paid you any mind and when he did, it was because Bumblebee was annoying him somehow with you in tow. And Prowl very obviously could not stand you.
All you wanted was friends. Not to become someone’s problem, or a liability. Why were they chalking you up to be some kind of nuisance? Why did they let Bumblebee befriend you at all if this was how they felt about you from the start?
Your nerves were starting to fry. Rather than continue to freak yourself out over it, you took a deep breath and tried to ignore the pit in your gut. The questions would have to wait.
“Yeah.” You cast your eyes back to the two mechs standing before you. “Thanks, Bee.”
₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊
“You better pray to Primus, because I’m so gonna destroy you!”
The air was lighter in Bumblebee’s room. Optimus had barred you both from leaving the plant until nightfall to avoid any scouting Decepticons, in spite of Bumblebee swearing that they don’t normally do that anyway. He’d boiled the Prime’s logic down to ‘being a scaredy-bot workaholic who can’t relax’ once the leader was out of earshot. Bulkhead told him to quit being mean, and that Optimus was right.
You were just trying to ignore all of it by now, nestled back in your little pile of blankets on the floor of your friend’s room. The swirling thoughts in your brain never felt good when they started to go haywire.
Bulkhead and Bumblebee were sitting on the floor to your right, optics focused intently on the massive TV against the wall as they battled it out in a videogame. Bumblebee’s arms were swinging up and down and left to right, like the movements would help his digits on the controller somehow. Bulkhead had to have his own home-made controller due to his unique servos and their sheer size alone. Plus—up against Bumblebee—he was already at a severe disadvantage.
“[Name] gets to play the winner!” The yellow mech piped excitedly, then he shot you a side-eye and a sly smirk. “But as usual, I’m gonna destroy her too.”
“That’s not fair! How are you doing this?!” The wrecker beside him tensed, his voice rising to a shriek as he swung his massive servos through the air, “You’re cheating!”
“No! I’m just that good at this game!” Bumblebee sprung to his peds, determined to snuff out his competition.
Your eyes flicked back and forth between them as the battle grew even more intense. A loud laugh came barreling out and you shifted to sit on your opposite leg once the other one had begun to cramp. Then a realization struck you and you gasped, sitting straight up and bending forward. “Bulkhead! Wait until the track starts to turn right again, then hold ‘X’ and you’ll blast off!”
Like lightning, Bumblebee’s helm snapped to the side so he could witness your treachery firsthand. “Hey! No! No helping the enemy! Bad!”
“Bulkhead’s not my enemy. You are!” A huge mischievous smile broke across your face and now you were leaning all the way out of your soft blankets to stare at the TV, “Do it do it do it!”
The wrecker waited until the right-hand bend on his half of the screen appeared once more. He continued to steer in a shaky line until the moment to strike finally hit, and he punched the button with another shout. His digital green truck blasted off, straight past Bumblebee’s bright sedan and across the finish line at the last possible second like something out of a movie. The two of you jumped to your feet with loud, triumphant cries just as Bumblebee screamed and threw his servos up to grab the sides of his helm in despair.
“Yeah!” Bulkhead’s heavy pedsteps made you wobble before he turned to you, one massive servo extending down to you for a high-five. “Thanks, [Name]! I don’t know any of the tricks in this game. And he never shares any.”
“Hey! What do you want me to do? Start losing?” Bumblebee cocked his weight mostly onto one ped and gave Bulkhead a look that feigned innocence with his servos raised in front of himself defensively.
“Uhh,” The wrecker blinked, “Yes?”
“Come on, Bee.” You walked to stand beside the scout so you could give his leg a comforting pat or two. “You gotta share these secrets at some point.”
His helm jerked back and then down so he could raise his brow ridges at you. It was a look that questioned how you could ever suggest such a thing. “No, I don’t.”
You were going to snap back with another teasing comment. He tortured you enough, so you genuinely tried to take advantage of the opportunity to return the favor whenever one presented itself. However, something sounded off in the hallway just as you were going to do so. You turned around to find the source of it, as did your two taller friends.
Standing a few feet away outside of the open doorway was none other than the ever-irritated ninja-bot. His lip was curled the slightest bit and he stared in silence with his servos curled into fists. No one said a thing, and it only took another second for you to realize that the sound that had caught your attention must have been another one of his dramatic sighs.
Prowl turned and shook his helm before continuing down the hall toward his own quarters.
“Pssh. Whatever, crank-bot.” Bumblebee shrugged the interaction off and looked down at you, but you didn’t notice it.
The intense anger that you’d been feeling before came back in a massive wave, flooding every one of your senses for the first time in a very long time. Suddenly it felt like you were back in your old high school—trained to cringe and silence yourself whenever one of your peers would visibly or verbally let you know that your presence wasn’t wanted anywhere near them. Back then, you used to get upset. You’d been told for so long that you were a nuisance, annoying, weird—any and every insult under the sun hurled at you like it was second nature. You used to believe them, and it kept you awake at night for so many years.
Not anymore.
You threw your arms down at your sides, beyond irate. Your stomping feet carried you around the blanket pile and you headed straight for the enormous doorway.
“[Name]– Hey!” You hardly heard the shifting of Bumblebee’s mechanics when he jumped to follow you, practically running to put himself between you and your fleeing target. “Whoa, whoa!”
He moved one ped to block your path. You stopped in your tracks and your head snapped up to glare at him.
The mech’s optics softened when he met your eyes, but they were also questioning and his voice held a note of suspicion, “What are you doing?”
“I’m finally gonna go figure out what his frickin’ problem is!” It wasn’t a shout that was directed at him necessarily. But he was in the middle of preventing you from reaching your very important and very impulsive objective.
“Uh-oh.” Bulkhead’s soft voice came from behind you. “I wouldn’t if I were you.”
“Who cares what his problem is?” Bumblebee asked urgently, yet gently. One of his servos rose to point in the direction of the older mech. “That’s just Prowl! He doesn’t like anyone!”
You stared at him, then looked away and balled your fists. Your heartrate was still rising and you let out a sharp huff of air, thinking hard.
“Besides…” The young mech in front of you leaned down onto one knee to get closer to your level, “You got me and Bulkhead. We’re your friends. You just gotta ignore him. He’s just a rusty old stiff know-it-all who has no idea what having fun is.”
His words tumbled around your brain for a second. You tried to ponder them. Really, you did. Bumblebee was right—it was stupid.
But he didn’t know everything about you. He didn’t know what you had to deal with before, and he didn’t know that you didn’t want to do it all again.
You swiveled around him without meeting his optics, “I’ll be right back.”
His helm followed your movements and he jumped back to stand on his peds, voice rising into alarmed whisper-yelling, “No– bad idea, bad idea!”
But you were already in the hallway and turning right, trotting down the corridor with fierce determination. Surprisingly—and to your relief—Bumblebee didn’t follow you.
You’d seen Prowl walk to the very end of the hallway a few times before. He always turned into the last doorway on the left. It had to be his room.
As you approached, you could feel the waves of anger growing stronger. Who does he think he is? Like he’s so much better than everyone else?!
When you reached the silo’s door, it was cracked open by only a few inches. You brought your face close to peek inside and found the mech standing before… a tree?
Without thinking, your fingers reached to grip the edge of it and you tried to push. It was difficult for sure, but after you managed to creak it noisily to the side a bit more, you had an in and you squeezed through.
Prowl was already turning to look down at you from a good dozen or so feet away. For a split second, he actually looked surprised to see you. As you stepped inside, you couldn’t hold it in anymore.
“Okay. What’s the problem, dude?” You stopped with a good amount of distance between the two of you, eyes searching every part of his form like you were sizing up an opponent.
Once again, Prowl sighed. He brought one servo to his faceplate and grimaced. The extreme annoyance was already perfectly clear. “Go back to the others–”
“No!” The curt shout came out quicker than you could even think. “I thought we could’ve been friends!” Your hands flew all over the place as the tone of your voice rose, desperate for answers. “You were so cool before! What happened? What did I do to you?”
“Nothing.” Prowl’s voice had practically dropped down to a growl. He turned his body away, but you could physically feel the optics behind his visor burning holes into your own. “Leave me be and go back to Bumblebee. You’re not supposed to leave his side.”
You stared, dumbfounded as the questions still swirled around in your head and your heartbeat pounded in your ears. He stared back, until the moment he turned his back to you completely and spoke monotonely once more. “I see he’s already doing a great job.”
With eyes blown wide open at the sheer audacity, the fury boiling within you finally exploded into a raging fire. “Dude! What is your problem?!” Your feet carried you a few paces closer and you felt your gut twisting. “What am I doing to you that’s so bad? Why are you so nasty to Bumblebee? Spit it out!”
The opportunity for him to respond came and went when you stopped for a mere few seconds. He still didn’t say anything, didn’t move—nothing.
“Is it because I’m a human?” That question came out in half a laugh. “You think I’m small and weak and a liability to you guys? That I’m gonna cause all sorts of problems by just existing in the same space as all of you?”
Still, nothing. But you were persistent. “Or maybe you’re just–”
“You are a liability!” Prowl shouted without any warning, whirling to face you with hackles raised. It silenced you instantly and you recoiled at the unexpected volume.
“You are a human, so you are small and weak.” He took a step closer.
You stepped back. Your once immense anger and fury had vanished, and the feeling plummeted straight into something else entirely.
“In case you don’t know, we’re fighting a war here. We’re stuck on this planet with limited resources, severely outnumbered and we have to be extremely vigilant with every move we make.” Prowl’s tone dropped as he spoke, venom lacing every one of his words. “Bumblebee is a soldier first, even if he acts like a sparkling. And he definitely shouldn’t be a sparkling-sitter. If he doesn’t get his processor out of the stars at some point, his naivety is going to get him killed. Not to mention you.”
You stared at him, shocked to your very core. Nothing could have prepared you for the normally calm mech’s sudden level of intensity. You could feel yourself shrinking and you couldn’t find the proper words to respond. You just felt… small.
“I tried to tell him not to get distracted. That bringing you into our lives—and this war—was a mistake.” Prowl’s shoulders loosened and he stood straight. If you were thinking clearly, you might have noticed that it was because he noticed that he was scaring you.
Then he sighed quietly, and he finally turned his back to you once again. He looked up to gaze at the enormous tree that was branching in all different directions out of the ceiling. The birds that he loved to observe so much were now long gone thanks to the unusual commotion.
Your head finally dropped so you could stare at the floor, struggling to ground yourself. You just didn’t know what to say. It was overwhelming, nevermind unexpected. What he’d said wasn’t at all what you were envisioning for this confrontation.
“Getting attached to a human is sparkbreak waiting to happen.” The mechanical sounds of the mech in front of you whirred as he moved, turning to look at you one last time. His voice was soft, almost forlorn. “And you’re both going to have to learn that the hard way.”
With that, Prowl leaped soundlessly into the branches of the tree in front of him and out of sight.
₊ ⊹ 🐝 ⊹ ₊
Streetlights passed by slowly. You tried to count the ones in the distance absentmindedly during the ride home to keep your mind occupied, but it wasn’t really working.
Bumblebee was worried. You’d been unusually quiet since you slipped back into his room after your blow out with Prowl, visibly shaken, and you didn’t want to tell him anything about what had happened. He thought about confronting Prowl himself, but you insisted that he didn’t need to. That it was pointless.
The light from his center console glowed softly when he spoke, “You sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah.” A lie. Your fingers fidgeted with the hem of your shirt. “I’m good.”
Silence followed, other than the sound of the bumps and potholes in the road beneath the Autobot’s tires. He didn’t believe you and you knew it, but neither of you said anything about it.
Your aunt had texted you twice throughout the day to ask where you were and if everything was okay. You should have known she’d be upset—of course she would be. You haven’t been home since yesterday morning and you were going to have to make up a lie to get out of it once again. You hated lying—especially to your family.
“I’m gonna be sticking close to your house for the night, okay?” Bumblebee tried to catch your attention again. He seemed desperate to break the silence that kept settling every few minutes or so.
“Yeah, yeah.” Your quiet voice fell off. Prowl’s words kept ringing in your mind and you knew you probably weren’t going to sleep through the night. “Boss-bot’s orders.”
The mech stammered as if he was tentatively stepping on eggshells. “Uh, well— yeah but I don’t really… I don’t want to leave you anyway.”
Liz popped back into your head again. You blinked at the glowing center console. “I don’t want to leave you either, Bee. I wish I could stay out, but Liz is probably gonna kill me for staying out past curfew a full twenty-four hours ago.”
“She can’t kill you.” Bumblebee stated matter-of-factly, “You have a guardian now, remember? I won’t let her.”
“Psh, how would you even get into the house to stop her?” A laugh finally broke it’s way out of you for the first time in hours. “You’d have to blow a wall apart or something.”
“Ooooh, that’s a good idea! Thanks for the suggestion!” His tone picked up immediately to encourage yours, finally happy to hear something other than complete and utter misery in your voice. It made you smile in spite of everything else.
No matter what Prowl said, it didn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter. He was wrong. You weren’t going to get in their way, you weren’t going to get involved in any intergalactic drama, and you definitely weren’t going to get Bumblebee or yourself killed.
…Right?
The rest of the drive went by far too fast. Bumblebee was driving slower than usual to take advantage of his last few minutes with you until the next day, but it still felt as if it had only been a moment since you’d left the plant with him.
He wanted to question you further. To figure out what in Primus’ name Prowl could have said to make you shut down so hard, but he didn’t want to push it either. At this point in your friendship, he hadn’t tested your limits like that yet. And he didn’t want to start now.
As the Autobot pulled up in front of one of the other houses on your street, he quickly flicked his headlights off so his presence wouldn’t bring any unwanted attention. Another lie, you thought. You really hated hiding things from Liz so soon after she’d welcomed you into your home. Simultaneously, you hated that you had to hide the fact that for once in your life, you had finally found a real friend. One that truly didn't mean it when they mocked or belittled you. A friend that cared, just like you cared for him.
Compile all of it—and Prowl’s words—into the huge mess wracking your mind at the moment and you had a perfect recipe for insomnia. Brilliant.
“Let me know how it goes, okay?” Bumblebee’s cyan lights illuminated your features in the rearview mirror. His voice was soft and gentle, and you hated it. It was just full of pity.
Your response came out in a soft huff, like you were trying to reboot yourself before tackling the daunting task ahead of you; an upset family member. “I will. And you let me know what happens when I’m not at the plant. Someone’s probably… really not happy tonight.”
Your yellow friend was quiet for a brief moment, but to your relief, he didn’t press.
“Nah, I’m not going back to the plant tonight.” Bumblebee’s voice was chipper, but almost too chipper. Like he was trying really hard not to question your tone. “I have a new job, remember? There’s a girl that needs me at all times.”
Ew. You couldn’t contain your giggling, even if it was quieter than it usually was. He still caught it and it made him smile too.
He definitely shouldn’t be a sparkling-sitter.
The intrusive memory sent a shiver straight through your bones. You tried to shake it off. Honestly? Sleeping in your own bed for the night sounded heavenly. But the thought of inevitably mulling through the events of the previous two days was daunting and you remembered that once again, sleeping likely wasn’t going to be possible. Not for tonight, anyway.
You’d jumped from the edge of a quarry repeatedly, witnessed a violent smackdown, feared for your friend’s and your own life, were lit on fire during a “team discussion,” realized you were now roped into their drama, had a sleepover with an alien robot, exploded on Prowl when you thought it was deserved, and now you were most likely facing another confrontation with someone you barely knew.
Yeah, you’d be lucky if you slept through the night at all.
“Awesome.” You said it partly to Bumblebee and partly to yourself, though he didn’t know it. “I’ll let you know if I need any saving in there. Just don’t break down the wall on the left side of the house. I actually like my room.”
“Your room that’s definitely totally not cooler than mine?” Bumblebee shot the humor at you lightly as the driver’s door beside you popped open and your seatbelt clicked itself undone. “Sure. I guess I can spare it.”
“Oh,” Your legs swung out to the side so you could begin the climb out of his interior and you sent one last look at the center console, your eyebrows raised, “You’re too kind.”
After you stepped out, you looked for the house a few lots away. The lights in the living room and kitchen were on, meaning there was no doubt that Liz was waiting for you. It wasn’t late in the night by any means so you figured she’d still be awake anyway. You were just foolishly hopeful that you might have been able to avoid her for the night altogether.
“Hey, seriously.” The unusually gentle voice of your usually loud friend pulled your focus from the house and back to him. While he spoke, you reached back into his interior to grab your backpack so you could get yourself ready. “Lemme know what happens, okay? I’ll be waiting. And… if– if you need anything–”
“I’ll let you know, Bee. Promise.” You closed the door with a soft push and tried to ignore your heart screaming in protest. You didn't want to leave him either. “And I promise I’m fine. So don’t go running back to yell at Prowl, okay?”
He was quiet for a long moment. “...Okay.”
“Bee.”
“I won’t, I won’t!” The vehicle before you actually shifted like he was tensing up. “Promise.”
A tiny laugh forced itself through your nose and you smiled sadly, patting his roof in an effort to reassure him. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Yeah… tomorrow.” There was a note of mischief there, enough to make you squint at him.
Whatever. You just wanted to curl up into your own blankets, ones that were actually clean. So you turned slowly and smiled at him, wondering whether he could even see it or not. “Thanks, Bee.”
“Stop thanking me so much!” The ‘Bot called after you as you traversed the neighborhood’s sidewalk.
The walk was short. Bumblebee parked closer than he normally did, but you didn’t really care. It wasn’t like Liz would be able to see him unless she came all the way out of the house and into the street anyway.
As you stopped at the end of the pathway to her front door, you glanced over your shoulder one last time at the yellow WRX and waved. He flashed his highbeams in response, and you continued on. Taking one short deep breath as your hand found the door handle, you tentatively pushed it open.
Almost at once, you heard something shifting inside the kitchen. Then a voice. “[Name]!”
The edge of the door left your line of sight as you pushed it in and there she was. Liz was previously sitting at the kitchen table before she stood up, clearly. Her hands were gripping the frame of the chair like her life depended on it. She looked fine, definitely not like a parental figure that was thoroughly freaked out. At least, that was what you tried to convince yourself to make yourself feel better.
“Hey.” Your voice was soft, nervous. “I’m sorry, I–”
“You can’t do things like this!” She wasn’t necessarily yelling, but the tone of her voice definitely caught you by surprise. “I was worried sick! Where were you? What happened?”
The older woman practically flew around the chair in front of her so she could walk straight up to you. Her hands reached up to cup your face, eyes searching everywhere for any signs of injuries or distress. “Are you hurt? Did something happen? Why didn’t you come home? Why didn’t you tell me to come get you?”
The flurry of questions was suddenly overwhelming, not to mention her hands being so close to your face as they flew out of her. Your hands involuntarily reached up to block her from touching you any further. “I’m fine! I’m… I’m fine. I promise. Nothing happened. I just wanted to stay with my friend for the night. Honest.”
You met her wild eyes. There were still millions of questions in them and she didn’t look convinced at all. If anything, she just looked extremely worried. “Are you sure?”
You nodded your head wordlessly. Your backpack finally fell off of your shoulder and you pushed the door closed behind you. You didn’t even get the chance to realize that you were still holding onto the outside doorknob until that moment.
The woman before you sighed loudly, then she took a step or two back. She looked away with her eyes on the table and she folded her arms across her chest. “Okay… What happened?”
She brought her eyes back to yours. Her worry was gone, now very visibly replaced with some kind of anger or disappointment. Or both.
Now this was the moment you were dreading the most—lying your way out of it.
You tried to look her in the eye while you said it all. You really did. “They wanted me to stay over at their house so we could play some videogames, that’s all. I swear. We didn’t do anything stupid. And their parents were home the whole time.”
You swallowed, gauging her reaction while you continued to hold eye-contact with her. Nothing stupid, other than trespassing twice in one day and then almost getting blown up and watching my friend almost die.
Liz searched your face like she was looking for something to point out. She stared quietly, then a heavy sigh fell out of her after a long moment. Her shoulders slumped and the rest of her posture relaxed a bit shortly after. She met your eyes again. “You just… You need to tell me where you are, okay? And I really need to meet these friends of yours. I don’t like not knowing who you’re hanging out with, or where you are. I’m supposed to keep you safe.”
Bee keeps me safe perfectly fine. The thought flashed in your mind and you tried to push it away so you could focus on her. But you don’t know that, and you can’t know it.
“I want you to meet them too! And you will. Soon.” The words flew out quicker than you could stop them. Yikes. Now that was something else you’d have to figure out later too.
The woman eyed you once again, but her suspicion seemed to have finally melted away. Then she sighed again and pushed herself away from the kitchen counter. She shuffled over and wrapped her arms around you in a hug without a word. It took only a brief second for you to realize that you wanted to hug her back. She squeezed you tight in her arms before she leaned away, her own hands moving down to gently grip your biceps so she could keep your attention once more. “I’m glad you’re safe and I’m glad you’re home. Now go to sleep, okay? I’ll have breakfast ready in the morning. Then we can talk about bringing your friends over here for a change. Yes?”
“Yes.” Your agreement came out in a heavy sigh. Exhaustion was finally beginning to creep up on you, as well as a huge sense of relief. “I’m sorry again, Aunt Liz.”
“It’s okay.” Liz released you. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“See you in the morning.” You offered her a tired smile and leaned down to grab the discarded backpack at your feet. She returned it, then said goodnight.
Not a moment later, you were walking quietly down the hall to your own bedroom with enormous eyes. I can’t believe that actually worked. Holy crap.
Quickly, you pushed your bedroom door open and quietly clicked it shut behind you. Immediately your phone was out of your pocket and in your hand, typing furiously to the very friend you were hiding from Liz. I’m fine! No saving needed, o great hero.
You hit send, then threw the phone onto your bed. You’d never been so desperate for a change of clothes before. They were still the same ones you wore to the quarry, and the same ones you wore while standing in the woods with a burning patch of grass in front of you the night before. There was no doubt dirt and grit and probably specks of ash scattered within the threads. You just couldn’t believe you hadn’t thought of it until you were finally standing in your own bedroom.
The layers came off easily and were quickly thrown into the hamper sitting against the far wall. Fresh, clean, and heavenly soft pants went straight on and you quickly dug for a loose t-shirt in one of your dresser drawers before—finally—you slipped on your most comfortable hoodie.
Throwing yourself down onto your bed had never felt so good. A comfortable sigh of relief came out and every single muscle in your body relaxed. You hadn’t realized how tense you’d been before.
The phone a few inches away from your head vibrated against the soft blankets beneath it. You reached for it without a second thought. Bumblebee had replied, You sure?
A laugh came out once again. Yep. Perfectly totally absolutely.
You tossed the phone back down beside your head and closed your eyes. Maybe sleep would actually come easier than you thought. Until the device vibrated again only a few seconds later.
It’s too bad you have to stay in tonight. I just got some great intel.
You furrowed your brows and typed back, Oooo, do tell.
It took a moment, but Bumblebee still responded quickly. Come outside and I’ll bring you to a race. Unless you’re scared of breaking the rules.
Exhaustion? Gone. Destroyed. Forgotten about. You flew up and off of your covers to scramble over to your bedroom window and peeked out from behind the curtain.
Of course, there he was. He’d moved closer to the house since you last saw him but he was still parked quietly, well away from the glow of the closest streetlight.
You cursed under your breath and looked away from the window. No. No, [Name]! Bad idea, bad idea. You literally just got in trouble twice today. Don’t do it. No.
The time it took between his last text must have dragged on too long for him, because you’d just gotten another one. Knew you were a scaredy-bot.
Oh, no you don’t. You threw your arms down at your sides and groaned. Your bed would have to wait.
Because you’d already thrown on a pair of proper pants and sneakers to slip out of your bedroom window before you could spare it another glance.
