Written after watching "Along Came A Spider". It never seemed like Bumblebee took into account human aging, especially with Nanosec, so the fact that Sari aged in this episode is interesting, and I wanted to write a reaction to it.

Speeding

There was something very wrong.

Sari didn't know nearly as much as she pretended she did, and she knew even less about her Autobot friends, but she knew that the look on Bumblebee's face was wrong.

"Hey?" she ventured, stretching her arm cautiously out towards him, fingertips brushing the armor on his upper leg. Bumblebee looked down at her, face still all wrong, from his seat on the grass in the park. Normally, the park would be teeming with humans. But today it was quiet. Normally, Bumblebee would be bored with the lack of attention from adoring humans, and insist that Sari hop in so he could take them somewhere way more fun.

But he just sat there with that sad, thoughtful look on his face.

"Bee?" Sari questioned waveringly, a little scared and a little sad herself, for reasons she couldn't quite pin. "What's up?" He smiled a little at her, and she felt like her heart would break.

"Nothing," he finally replied. "Just thinkin'."

"'Bout what?" she pressed, both hands resting against his armor now, head tilted back to look up at his face worriedly. He was quiet again, for too long.

"Just about what happened," was the eventual response. Sari frowned, forehead wrinkling in confusion.

"What do you mean? Lotsa stuff happens. 'Cause if you're thinking about what that police officer said when we got pulled over, it's nothing! We'll beat 'em next time, right?" She grinned hopefully up at him, but he only gave her that sad little smile again and picked her up.

"Bee?"

He didn't answer her, just held her in his cupped hands and pressed her lightly against his chest plating, over his spark. Sari's mouth opened in realization, and she flung her arms wide across the plating and pressed the side of her face against him. Maybe he was sad that even when she tried her hardest, she couldn't get her bear hugs to be enough.

Bumblebee just looked down at her small form, and thought.

"Sari?" he asked quietly. She looked up at him, face still partially smushed against his armor on one side.

"Yesh?"

He smiled down at her briefly, but it was wavering and weak.

"Promise something, okay?"

Sari lifted her head up and looked at him seriously, confused but still listening. "Okay."

"Don't..." he seemed to struggle. "Don't leave."

She furrowed her forehead again, eyes narrowing in bewilderment. Bumblebee wished she wouldn't do that. It only made him remember the way her skin wrinkled and folded, wilted like the first few plants that Prowl had tried to keep without knowing how to keep them alive...

"Leave?" Sari chirped. "Why would I do that? You guys are the greatest!" And she promptly threw herself back on him enthusiastically, closing her eyes and nuzzling him in fervent affection. Her skin made tiny, squeaky sounds against the metal.

"That tickles..." he protested weakly, but it only made her giggle.

The rest of the day was spent driving around, Sari doing her hardest to cheer Bumblebee up. Multiple times, she asked him what was "keeping him down".

He couldn't tell her that just looking at her red hair reminded him how it had gone gray and limp, like Nanosec's, like every other human's did, eventually...

But at the end of the day, as the earth was tilting further away from the sun, they had ended up in a different park, Bumblebee sprawled out on his back watching the clouds turn colors above them while Sari was curled up on his chest, exhausted from all the activity. She was breathing deeply and regularly.

But Bumblebee couldn't help but watch, and count the exact time between each breath. He couldn't help but worry so much his spark pulsed erratically whenever she was a moment off, so afraid she would stop. Stop breathing, stop talking, stop moving, stop living, right there in his hands.

He thought that whoever decided humans should have a break on their lives was more horrible than the protoform-spark-eating Megatron.

It wasn't enough time. Not nearly enough. And for a bot that prized speed above all else, he thought it was unfair in the worst way that he should wish so much for something to slow down.