Disclaimer: Don't own it.
A/N: Plot bunny provided by cheysulinight down on the tfbunnyfarm on livejournal.
The bunny: 2007movieverse - People notice the Autobot symbols (and one Decepticon symbol) on various vehicles and a new trend starts.
Trends
Autobot Fever
Hopping out of his flashy Camaro once it parked in a spot, Sam closed the door gently and patted the hood. The headlights flashed in response, and he smiled before dashing off into the building before the bell for first period rang.
'Late, always late!' Sam thought as he barreled down the hallway. Almost at an all-out sprint, he finally made it to his homeroom — just after the bell sounded throughout the school.
"Late again, Mr. Witwicky? One more tardy from you, and I'll be seeing you in detention," warned his ancient homeroom teacher, wagging her finger at him in admonishment.
"Sorry, ma'am," Sam muttered, struggling a bit to slow down the hammering of his heart. Walking down an aisle of desks to the back row, he dropped his backpack to the floor and collapsed into his seat.
Wearily, he didn't even glance at his best friend as he continued to try and catch his breath. "How's it goin', Miles?"
"Oh, just fine, bro," he responded. "Trouble waking up this morning?"
Sam dragged his hand over his face and nodded tiredly. "Yeah, my alarm went off and I — Miles! What the hell is on your t-shirt?" he asked frantically, once he finally looked over at his friend.
Miles looked down in confusion. "Huh? Do I have ketchup on me? I swung through the drive-thru this morning to get some taters before heading to school."
"No, not a spot. What's that?!" questioned Sam, pointing viciously at the logo on the t-shirt.
"Oh this? I decided to start my own clothing line. I wanted to be original! And I know you got it put on your car, and it looks pretty cool. So I decided, why not expand on it with more merchandise?"
"You c-copied the symbol from my car?" Sam stuttered in disbelief.
"Yeah, hope you don't mind! You know, you should get it copyrighted though, especially if this thing picks up. I expect it's gonna do well," Miles said, leaning back in his seat with his arms crossed.
Rolling his eyes, Sam said, "Yeah, and why is that?"
"'Cause I've already sold like a hundred tees and sticker decals in the last month! Tim over at the comic shop is letting me sell 'em there. He says they can't stay in stock."
Sam felt his eye begin to twitch.
"And even cooler, I started sellin' tees with the other logo printed on it."
"What other logo?"
"I saw it on the police car that sometimes likes to patrol by your house. You know, the pointy diamond shaped one with little ears. It kinda looks like a possessed bunny! But it's purple, so the chicks should dig it. The one you came up with kind of looks like a caveman that's crying."
Upon hearing this bizarre explanation from his friend, Sam froze. "Miles, you can't sell t-shirts and merchandise with either of those logos on them!"
"Dude, don't get all bent out of shape. I'm willin' to give you a decent percentage of my profits since I kinda stole the weird doodle from your car."
Slapping his hand upon his forehead, Sam had a bad feeling about this.
Two weeks later at the lookout…
"Let me get this straight. Your friend saw the Autobot insignia on Bumblebee while in his alt mode. He thought it looked — how did you say it? 'Chilled'?" Ratchet struggled for the right word.
"Cool," Sam helpfully provided.
"Ah, yes. Cool. He then proceeded to imprint it upon the clothing humans cover themselves with. And now it has become a trend? Commonplace for humans your age to be sporting this clothing with the insignia on it? Even considered desirable?" the CMO ventured.
"Pretty much. Everyone at school has been going crazy over it! Now Miles and the guy at the comic shop are beginning to make a franchise out of it. They've expanded to making key chains, hoodies, notebooks — basically any flat, sellable surface they can put it on. I'm getting weirded out seeing the Autobot symbol everywhere I go. And no one even knows what it really is!" Sam shouted, pacing back and forth in front of his robotic friends.
Ironhide grunted and would have rolled his optics if he could have. "Now, remind me why you decided to wait until now to tell us all this?"
Wincing at his tone, Sam looked up at the black weapon specialist. "Uh, I didn't think it would catch on?"
"Obviously, that isn't the case," Ratchet pointed out, somewhat amused with the situation.
"Most of Miles' ideas never work out! How was I supposed to know one of them would actually succeed?"
Bumblebee took that as his cue to crouch down to his human friend's level. "Sam, this isn't your fault. As you said, there's no way you could have known this would happen."
"So what do we do now?" Ironhide said, glancing about to his teammates.
"Nothing. No harm seems to be coming from it. Let the humans do as they wish, for all I care," Ratchet replied to his old friend.
The Topkick shrugged his massive shoulders. "Hmph, I certainly won't strain my processors over it."
Noticing that Sam had neglected to detail the full story, Bumblebee nudged the teenager. "Don't you have something else to tell them, Sam?"
Looking up at his guardian innocently, he said, "Uh, no?"
"Sam," Bee scolded, placing his hands on his hips.
"Oh fine! Yeesh, Bee, you sound like my mom. I may have forgotten to mention that Miles also copied the Decepticon symbol from seeing it on Barricade…"
"What?! What did the slagger go and do that for?" Ironhide growled.
Ratchet's optics blinked in surprise. "Humans are now sporting the Decepticon insignia as well? Primus…"
Sam shrugged helplessly. "Miles told me because it's purple, girls might like it better."
"Wait a nanoklik," Ratchet interjected. "From what you are implying, am I right to say that purple is considered a feminine color on Earth?"
With an unsure look, Sam answered, "Not everywhere…some places. I don't think I own anything purple, but guys wear it, too. But for the most part around here, yeah, I guess you could say purple is kinda a girly color."
There was a moment of silence as all three present Autobots exchanged glances — until laughter burst out from their vocal processors.
Sam's look grew even more confused. "What's so funny?"
Bumblebee was able to restrain some of his laughter, keeping it down to a few chuckles. "We apologize, Sam. It's just that, if Cybertronians were to view purple things as you seem to, well…"
"It would mean all the Decepticons are a buncha femmes," Ironhide snickered, also reining in his amusement. "Oh Primus, if Megatron knew and he was still online, he'd deactivate all over again!"
"You know," Ratchet began, the others looking expectantly at the mech. "Would this whole situation have happened if Prime and Megatron hadn't designed the insignias the way they are?"
"Maybe," Sam said. "It's hard to say. It's unlikely though. Humans tend to like strange things — even random logos that come out of nowhere."
Just then, they heard the steady sound of a scooter making its way to their location. Mikaela came into view and stopped to park her vehicle before joining her boyfriend and alien acquaintances.
Sidling up to Sam and pressing her lips to his cheek, she turned to look up at their towering companions. "Hey guys!"
"Hello, Mikaela. Why didn't you call Sam? I would have gone to pick you up," Bumblebee said, blue optics focused on her.
"It's okay, Bee. I haven't ridden my scooter in ages anyway," she said with a sweet smile.
As she continued to speak with the Camaro and boy, Ratchet's sharp optics picked up something unusual shining near Mikaela's head.
"Excuse me for interrupting, Mikaela, but what exactly are those dangling from your audios?" he politely asked.
Unconsciously feeling her earlobe, Mikaela's face broke out into a smile. "Just earrings, Ratchet."
Ironhide took a closer look. "Are those miniature forms of the Decepticon insignia?"
Sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck and face blossoming from white to crimson, she nodded. "I couldn't help myself. They were just so cute!"
Her boyfriend and the others stared at her.
"What? They are!"
At that moment, Optimus Prime drove up to join his loyal unit and human companions. Transforming, he stood at full height and broke the silence.
"Greetings! I hope everyone is well. Now let's get this meeting — Primus! Mikaela, you haven't pledged yourself to the Decepticon cause, have you?!"