Bumblebee hugged himself as he stared up at the stars. Strongarm was right. What was he doing? He had fought beside Optimus Prime, Arcee, Bulkhead, and he had killed Megatron, helped restore their beloved planet, Cybertron. Now he was a simple officer, keeping punks and fugatives like Sideswipe from demolishing statues, like the great statue of Optimus Prime. Primus knows he couldn't knock The Fallen's tribute-statue down. No, it had to be the mech that practically raised him. He sighed. But, perhaps Optimus would have had the statue taken down himself if he saw it.
Somehow his sighing didn't wake Strongarm, who was sleeping beside him on a sheet of metal. Instead, Grimlock had wandered over to give him a little nuzzle and a few words of his "wisdom".
"If you're yawning, you should sleep."
"I'm sighing, Grimlock."
"Why? Are you not tired?"
Bumblebee sighed again and he looked at him. Is this how Ultra Magnus felt with the Wreckers around?
We need to sneak in quietly.
BLOW IT UP!
No, no, we need to sneak in quietly.
BLOW IT UP!
He looked slowly at the Dinobot again. "Just get some sleep."
"I'm not tired like you."
Bumblebee slapped his face with the palm of his servo and sighed loudly.
"Oh, are you trying to knock yourself out?" Grimlock moved his servo to do the same, only to Bumblebee's face and not his own. "May I try?"
"GRIMLOCK! I'M NOT TIRED!"
Strongarm shifted and groaned quietly. Sideswipe twitched in his own makeshift berth, but he didn't do much else.
"Well, some people are trying to get some sleep, and I think you should show them a little respect."
"Mother of..." Bumblebee groaned and he found the need to break something. He longed for his old team, like Bulkhead, who would break things on a regular basis, and Ratchet, who would yell at Bulkhead for breaking things that he would of course need. "Grimlock, this is getting nowhere. Just lay down and sleep, okay?"
"What about you?"
"I'm fine."
"I don't think so."
Bumblebee growled lowly as he sighed again. He stood and he dusted his armor off, then he walked into the surrounding forest to get away from Grimlock.
But the Dinobot was following as silently as he could.
Which meant that the earth was shaking beneath Bumblebee's pedes.
The warrior let him follow, knowing that Optimus would have done the same thing if he heard Bumblebee padding as quietly as he could after him.
Primus, where was Optimus now? Was he smiling down at him? Or was he frowning? He rubbed his face and helm, tears threatening to well up in his optics, but he kept them under control. He didn't want Grimlock to think that he was weak or something.
He sat down at the edge of a river and he dipped his pedes in. He could almost feel Optimus sitting beside him and he could almost hear him launch into a story about Alpha Trion or the Thirteen that would somehow give Bumblebee the advice he needed at that exact moment.
Long ago, before Cybertron's Golden Age...there were Thirteen Primes...
He whined as the voice faded away. Grimlock flopped down beside him and stuck his own pedes in the water.
Was the Dinobot copying him!?
He shot a glare at the 'bot and Grimlock gave it back.
Unbelievable...
"Are you going for a swim?"
Bumblebee sighed and he shook his helm. Primus, he was sighing a lot. Was there something wrong with him? "No, Grimlock."
"Are you going to go fishing?"
"No, Grimlock."
"Are you going to-"
"No, Grimlock!" He had started to laugh, and that stirred an image from his past.
Optimus laughing fondly down at Bumblebee as the little scout tried to speak, but his vocodor would give up and the young mechling would be left pawing at his face in confusion. "You'll be able to speak soon enough, Bumblebee, and then we will never be able to get you to be silent. Primus knows you will hardly recognize your voice when it comes back to you. Have patience, dear one. You will need it."
Did Optimus know that Bumblebee would be in this position? He doubted it. Optimus was not Alpha Trion. He couldn't know the future.
Could he?
Grimlock meanwhile was imitating Bumblebee, and it occured to the warrior if the Dinobot just needed the same companionship that Bumblebee was longing for.
Bumblebee was in a strange part of the world that he had not been to before with a strange group of 'bots and a few strange humans.
Sideswipe, Strongarm, Grimlock, and Fix-It were in the same boat as he was. It occured to Bumblebee that he might have been insensitive. Strongarm and Sideswipe had crawled out of the Well a few months ago. Bumblebee had seen Strongarm as a sparkling himself. He had chosen her out of sixteen others. Sideswipe had been one of the ones that were not claimed. Had Grimlock been one of them? Perhaps. Maybe Fix-It had not been claimed, either, and he was given the duty of piloting ships around. It was a lonely job, he knew...
He looked up at the stars, and for a moment, one seemd to wink like Optimus used to whenever the Prime gave him a present or told a rare lie and Bumblebee had caught on to it before everyone else.
"You know, Grimlock..."
The Dinobot looked at him.
"I think we should go swimming."
The Dinobot had no idea what was going on, so it was easy for the smaller warrior to tackle the huge mech into the water. They floundered around for a bit, not because it was deep, but because the rocks were constantly moving, the water was surprisingly cold, and Grimlock had not expected it so he was squeaking and grunting as he tried to regain his footing.
The commotion had roused Strongarm and Sideswipe from sleep, and the pair padded through the forest in time to see Bumblebee sitting on Grimlock's belly.
"Come on in, guys, the water's not as cold as you think."
Sideswipe raised an optic ridge and padded back to camp, but Strongarm grabbed him and drug him in after her.
Bumblebee smiled. He remembered the bonding sessions Optimus had ordered. It was supposedly healthy for teams to bond, and now that Bumblebee was orchestrating it, he could see why.
Drills and orders did not make a team a unit. Games and physical contact did.
And sometimes swimming in a river with a Dinobot, a punk, and two officers (one in-training) helped make a group of 'bots a team.
Strongarm was tired first. She was still young, so she burned out fast. Bumblebee carried her out of the river and laid her back in her berth. This time he laid curled around her, and Sideswipe flopped down on the other side of her.
Grimlock drew everyone into his arms as he laid down, and Bumblebee's back was pressed against the green armored mech's chest. He looked up at Grimlock.
"Thanks," he whispered.
Grimlock nodded slightly, pressed his forehelm to his, then laid his helm down beside Bumblebee's.
Optimus watched over them, smiling down at them. He could see them growing into a tough team with bigger and stronger bonds than Team Prime had. He turned his attention to Grimlock, who was watching him with narrowed optics. He could see affection between the dino and his former scout. He smiled softer as he knelt and he touched Grimlock's helm.
Then he was gone.