OHMYGOSH I am so sorry! I fear this story is quite sappy and very emotional, and I have no idea where it came from. However, I really hope I gave some clear backstory as to what happened in the 4-year difference between TF:Prime now and in my Neutralverse story. Poor Bumblebee, I really do beat up on the poor 'bot a lot.

TF:Prime belongs to Hasbro, and I pray to Primus himself that the franchise never dies.

34. Not Enough

I had a dream,

That I could fly from the highest tree,

I had a dream…

~Priscilla Ahn

.o.

Bumblebee was lounging at Autobot base, his human companion late yet again this week, and Bumblebee had a pretty good idea of where he was, too. Raf was growing up, becoming a young man, and that scared Bumblebee quite a bit. It hurt the little Autobot scout, watching Raf literally out-grow him like he was a toy. He treasured every memory he had of Raf & himself, and the fact that he was losing his human friend made his optics water slightly.

Bumblebee thought back to a year ago, when Raf had met this girl. The human boy was barely pushing 15 at the time, and this femme had him completely wrapped around her pointed finger in a matter of weeks. He fawned over her like she was made of glass, responding to her every whim, and Bumblebee knew he was rapidly losing his best friend.

The first day that Raf had "introduced" her to Bumblebee, the Autobot knew right away she was trouble. Taller than Raf by at least a head, lanky, blonde, and with a permanent scowl on her face that could send shivers down a Decepticon's back, this Latisha character instantly rubbed Bumblebee the wrong way. He drove the two of them back to the girl's house, wherein the whole ride there she complained about his "gaudy" paint scheme, how uncomfortable his seats were, and how loud he was when he revved his engine. Bumblebee felt his energon boil, but what made the scout even more irritated was when Raf told him to go back to base and not worry about picking him up tomorrow for school.

Bumblebee tried to talk to Arcee about it, but all she said was that his human was aging, and that it's probably a phase that he would grow out of. The scout smiled hopefully, but he knew that Arcee was practically in the same boat. Her own human friend, Jack, was also growing up, now going to college and working two jobs. Bulkhead's human, Miko, was also growing up, into a rather stunning femme surprisingly. Miko had continued her international studies within the high school's exchange student program, and when senior year hit, she decided to move to the United States permanently. Her parents were none too happy about her decision, but Miko couldn't leave Bulkhead. It made Bumblebee slightly jealous, wishing that Raf was more like Miko, willing to stand up for him, to be by his side until the end. However, there was a bit of tension between the four of them when Jack and Miko started dating. It had surprised the Autobots, all except Ratchet, who apparently saw it coming a hic away, and it seemed to bother Arcee more than anyone else.

The Autobot scout felt for Arcee, and he knew that she was afraid of losing yet another partner. Even though Jack had told the motorcycle probably a hundred times that he would never ditch her, she still worried. But Bumblebee's human friend never said anything. They'd even gotten into a few fights as of late, Raf even telling Bumblebee that his "chirps were irritating," at one point. Bumblebee felt the world around him crash that day, and begged Ratchet to fix his vocalizers completely. However, when the scout got his voice back and actually spoke to Raf instead of clicking at him, the small human simply scoffed at him, turning the Autobot away to hang with Latisha instead that day.

Bumblebee could feel the energon tears freely flowing down his face now as he sat in silence, unsure of whether he could wait for Raf anymore. Ratchet had indeed warned them all that humans age faster than they would, and that their human companions would grow into adults long before one vorn passed, and Bumblebee closed his optics, the tears steadily falling from them as he heard Ratchet's condescending voice in his head. He wished he wasn't so blind to see that he and Raf were growing apart, and he wished he could take back every argument, every mean thing he'd said, everything.

"Bumblebee? You ok?" A soft voice came from behind Bumblebee, and he quickly rubbed at his optics to remove the leaking energon. He turned to face Raf behind him on the upper balcony of the Autobot lounge, his face twisted in worry. Bumblebee simply nodded, not trusting his vocal processors at the moment.

"You sure don't look ok, but whatever you say," Raf climbed over the balcony railing and onto Bumblebee's shoulder and down on the 'bot-sized couch. Raf leaned forward to snag one of the regular sized video game controllers, brushing the dust off it. Bumblebee watched his human friend curiously as he cleaned off the gaming console that hadn't been touched in several months, starting up the game.

"You wanna play?" Raf looked up into Bumblebee's eyes, and the scout could tell that Raf had been crying as well, the edges of his eyes slightly red. He felt himself study Raf's features, noticing that he'd let his normally clean-shaven face gather hints of stubble, and the fact that Raf was wearing his glasses again. Latisha was something else, forcing Raf to dress a certain way, wear contacts instead of his glasses, and keep himself unbelievably clean all the time, and seeing Raf start to return to his old self made Bumblebee all the more curious.

"You," Bumblebee paused momentarily, clearing his vocalizers again, "You alright there yourself?" Bumblebee watched as Raf shifted under his gaze, breathing a heavy sigh before he spoke, his tone even softer than before.

"Latisha and I… we kinda broke up," Bumblebee felt his optics widen significantly, noticing that Raf was starting to cry again. "And only now do I see the damage I've caused, especially between you and me," Raf looked up at Bumblebee, his lower lip quivering as the salt-water leaked from his eyes. "I'm so sorry Bumblebee. It's not enough, but I'm sorry. For everything," Raf's gaze went back down to his hands as they twiddled uncomfortably, and Bumblebee simply scooped up his human companion in his hand.

"Don't be sorry, Raf. I should be apologizing to you too, for being a bit of a jerk myself," Bumblebee paused, bringing Raf up to his shoulder in the closest hug he could ever give the human, biting his lower lip as Raf reciprocated it. "Don't blame yourself either. Just… let's, let's fix it. Together," Bumblebee finally let his own energon tears fall in conjunction with Raf's as the two of them sat in silence, letting their tears cascade together to the floor, the start of the long road towards mending their friendship.