Note: All Cybertronian characters are in a human/pretender form.
Disclaimer: Transformers and characters within the brand do not belong to me. Ember (c) Me. Lyrics (c) Loquat.
You're a dandelion seed…
…that flies through the air…
…and lands randomly…
…then disappears…
Moving was something Barricade was used to. He knew little of a long term home; his role in the Decepticons kept him traveling around often. That was the life of a soldier, no matter what race you hail from. And this move was no different for him.
After living in some pathetic excuse of a building for a handful of months, Megatron had finally declared they were moving, much to the dismay of Ember. She had protested about moving even long after they had done so. Still, she had to admit that their new base of operations was impressive. She had said that the place they had moved into was a mansion that would have made Tony Stark envious. Barricade could never understand why she insisted on using movie references so often. He contributed it to being a human thing and dismissed it often.
A month had passed and things were pretty quiet. Soundwave had to temporarily forfeit his guardianship over Ember due to some mission and the task of watching over the girl fell on him. He protested this under his breath, but managed to work it out. He had gotten a cover job as a security officer at a Pratt & Whitney branch and pulled a few strings to get Ember in as a paid intern, seeing as she was so interested in engineering.
Since then, her animosity towards him had suddenly decreased. Why, he didn't bother to find out. They simply went to work in the mornings and came home in the late afternoons, barely saying a word to each other, but the silence between them being no where near tense or uncomfortable. It was as if they simply existed in the same plane and accepted that fact.
One evening, after returning from their "jobs" to tend to other small tasks at the base and unwind, Barricade stepped out into the rooftop deck to meditate on his current mission assigned to him. Little to his surprise, Ember was up there as well, leaning against the railing that spanned the length of two sides, sipping away at a Smirnoff as she stared out over the landscape. She had taken to spending her evenings up there since the day they moved in. Occasionally she had her pet bird keep her company, other times she was alone. On this evening, she had left her bird in her room and was enjoying the silence. He eyed her for a moment, then stepped over to her side and leaned on the rail as well.
"Hey, Copper." Ember muttered absently. She brought the bottle to her lips and tipped it, the blood thinning liquid gliding smoothly into her mouth and down her throat. As she lowered it, her nose wrinkled a little in response to the bittersweet taste. Barricade noted she had that little habit whenever she drank.
"I've told you a hundred times, my name is not Copper." Barricade answered, annoyed with the name she had tagged him with. He gave her a warning scowl, but was well aware that she had grown used to getting that look from him; it was an empty threat and she knew it. Yet again, silence fell between the two of them. It was like that for a good ten minutes before she suddenly broke the silence.
"How do you do it?" She asked, cocking her head to regard him with a cool stare. Barricade furrowed his brows and frowned, trying to figure where the question came from. "How do you just get up and move somewhere new without having any trouble?" She clarified upon seeing his expression.
"I don't have petty attachments for starters." Barricade said rather bluntly, "And after doing it for thousands of years, you get used to it." Ember reached up and drew a stray lock of hair behind her ear and looked out over the vast expanse of land before her, the only break in the monotony being a large lake some five minutes away. The trees around the area looked as if they were on fire as red and yellows and oranges mingled together to create the perfect autumn setting.
Barricade found it odd that humans enjoyed looking at millions of leaves dying and seeing them as pretty when they were so opposed to killing and death in the first place. As a breeze picked up, the trees swayed hypnotically and freed several fiery colored leaves. They twirled and danced on the wind lazily, rising and falling as they moved to some unheard music of nature. As the gust changed direction and headed their way, Barricade waved a leaf away as it threatened to attach to his face.
"So you're kind of like these leaves..." Ember stated. Barricade raised a brow and looked to her as she straightened up and finished off her drink. "You go where the wind takes you; or in this case, where Megatron's orders take you." Barricade took a moment to mull over the statement and shrugged.
"If it makes sense to you, then fine, that would be true." He said simply, letting his impatience with her poetic thinking slip into his tone. Perhaps she'd get the hint and stray from the topic.
"So what will you do when that wind stops and you're left hanging in the air?" That question struck a nerve. He scowled at her and pointed to the door.
"Go. Now," He growled, "I'm not going to listen to those kinds of words."
"I was just-"
"LEAVE!" Ember pursed her lips and glared at him. So much for trying to get him to think about something other than "Lord Megatron's glorious cause". She turned and headed inside without a word, leaving Barricade to himself on the roof.
As the door closed, the wind died off leaving a particularly red leaf to flutter and struggle to stay afloat in the air before slowly falling down and down. Barricade watched the leaf until it touched down on the ground, where it blended into the mass of other fallen leaves around it.