Three days. It had been three days since Cory had slept.
Not that it mattered at this point. The main point was that she needed sleep. And she needed it bad. Her appointed guardian, Moonracer, had taken note of her charge's lack of 'recharge' and had taken to attempting to get her to do so. Unfortunately, Cory simply couldn't sleep. One doesn't sleep when finals are coming up.
Exams were very close, and she didn't feel ready at all.
All those tests, all that studying, and Cory still felt like her head wasn't crammed with enough knowledge. At this point, she was running on pure willpower, and caffeine. Oh, and the pack of red bulls in her backpack, of course. At the moment, however, she was sitting in class and taking notes on the teacher's lecture.
It was no surprise that she zoned out for a moment.
"Miss Dewitt!" The sound of the teen's name being called had her jumping and slamming her legs against the desk, grimacing in pain, she answered.
"Yes?"
"Please answer the problem on the board." At the teacher's order, Cory blearily stared at the written math equation.
Well, shit. Math wasn't her strong point. And with a fried brain, no less?
"Six. The answer is six." The soft hiss in her ear spurred her into action, and the weary student called it out. The teacher nodded, seemingly satisfied. Cory just slumped in her seat slightly, exhaustion creeping up to the forefront of her mind yet again. Oh how she longed for sleep. But sleeping meant that that time that COULD be used for studying was being wasted. She needed to be ready for those tests.
Class continued, allowing Cory to glance back at her savior. There, her guardian sat, eyes roaming over the classroom in the seat right behind her. Long, pastel blue hair pulled back into a ponytail, glowing blue eyes, and perfect body shape… Moonracer was gorgeous, that much was clear. The teen blinked a moment before turning back towards the board.
She had saved her from the teacher. Not only that, Cory noted, but she had been looking out for the little human during all of this, and had dealt with her craziness.
Overemotional due to lack of sleep, tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. Her chest felt heavy, and she had to bite her lower lip to keep from letting the tears free.
Only through willpower and discipline did she keep them away.
The teacher continued to yammer on, unknowing of one of his student's mental breakdown. You can only go so long without sleep before everything starts to collapse around you. And Cory had already witnessed her fair share of hallucinations and other mental issues.
She was more than thankful when the bell rang.
All of the students rushed out the door, leaving Cory and Moonracer to follow behind at a slower pace. The teen was fine, up until she stepped out of the doorway. Stumbling, her vision blurred and darkened slightly at the edges.
"Woah." Her soft mumble was lost to her own hearing, and even the sound of her guardian's voice was muffled in her ear. She couldn't hear Moonracer very well.
"Cory? Cory! You okay?" Silvery gray eyes, glazed with exhaustion, blinked up at the Autobot holoform. In response, the female teen managed to nod blearily before leaning against the wall. It was such a shame that Moonracer's hands left her once she was stable. Cory was really starting to miss her touch.
"Dammit, you need sleep." The hiss went ignored, for the teen had found something far more interesting. Moonracer's face, in her teen holoform, was just so… pretty. Although, had she been in her true form, she would have been stunning. So much more than the projection of hardened light that stood before her. Lost in her rampant, looping thoughts, Cory didn't notice that Moonracer had come even closer. The hallway was now empty, devoid of human teens, as they had left for their next class.
"You're really pretty, you know that?" The mumble drew forth a cobalt blush from the holoform,
"Cory, you need sleep, you're… you're just saying things." The Autobot field medic/sniper huffed, "Come on, let's go to the office and call base. We can head back and- MMPH!" The back of Moonracer's body smacked gently, yet solidly against the wall.
Cory had lunged forward, and was now pressing her lips against the other female's in a sloppy, almost drunken like kiss.
Grabbing a fistful of Cory's hair, Moonracer promptly ripped the human off of her.
"What- why- you-!" Sputtering, she gaped at the delirious human, who just grinned- rather loopy and with no small amount of delirium- up at the holoform. The teen's stormy gray eyes were unfocused, and now her chocolate brown hair, long and once in a high ponytail, was now in a messy state.
"Sleep. Now." Masking shock with firm sternness and putting aside her thoughts for the moment, Moonracer began dragging the taller human female down the hall.
"But I don't wanna! I gotta stuuudyyyyy! Baaaabyyyyy! Please!" Cory wailed, and the holoform huffed a little at both her whining tone and her new nickname for the Autobot femme.
"No." The answer was simple and blunt. The human could do nothing but squirm and protest. However, she was still taken to the office, the base was still called, and someone was still sent to pick them up. Moonracer found herself quite busy trying to restrain and talk sense into her sleep deprived human charge.
"But I loooooooove yoooooou!" The whine was mostly ignored,
"No, you do not. You're sleep deprived." Moonracer sighed,
"Nu-uh! Love you!" The crazed human insisted happily, her attitude doing a complete one-eighty.
Moonracer still held onto her tightly, not letting her get free.
Cory just wasn't in her right mind.
Soon, Ratchet arrived and signed them out before proceeding to take the human female from Moonracer, and haul her into his red and white ambulance form. Moonracer climbed aboard her motorcycle form, and followed Ratchet back to base.
The doctor didn't say anymore than what was necessary. He was too irritated.
Once on base, he quite promptly took a squirming, screaming and VERY upset Cory back to med bay for sleep. The little human was not happy in the slightest. She had tests to prepare for! But the Autobot medic showed very little concern, telling her that she needed to sleep, both to process the information she had learned and to be ready for said tests.
Cory was not convinced.
When the two were out of sight, Moonracer dismissed her holoform and transformed to her full height. The motorcycle became a rather short femme Autobot with what seemed to be soft curves, smooth legs, and a well constructed face. She crossed her slim arms for a moment, watching after her charge and the medic. Then, sighing, lowered her stance and started down the hall.
Arms at her side, hips swaying, she walked slowly and in thought. Now that her charge had been taking care of and everything had calmed down, she found herself in a whirlwind of uncertainty and emotions she didn't understand.
It was no surprise Chromia caught up with her.
"Hey, wasn't that your charge?" Dark blue legs strode alongside her own pastel blue ones. The first femme nodded, unwilling to speak much to the other femme. Though Chromia was nice, and kind to a point, she tended to have a rather big mouth, and be fiercely hot headed if you said the wrong thing. Moonracer wasn't sure she wanted this incident spoken of to everyone on base.
"Ya' know I'm pretty sure you like your charge more than you let on." The darker blue femme pressed slightly,
"I have no idea what you're getting at." Moonracer snorted,
"I mean, you seem to have a soft spot for her. You care for her more than my mate cares for his." Chromia grinned a little and leaned in, unnerving the other blue Autobot, "And I'm pretty sure that kiss says she likes you more than she should too."
The words stilled Moonracer's feet. She gaped at Chromia, somewhere between disbelief and horror, sputtering uselessly for the second time that day.
"How- when-?!"
"Oh, I have my sources." The dark blue femme grinned and put her servos on her adopted sister's shoulders, "But I think you should think about what you should do next, and maybe give this a shot? After all, that little human seems to care a lot about you."
"Preposterous!" Moonracer scoffed,
"Ah, now you sound like Ratchet." The usually gruff Autobot laughed. Then, she turned, releasing her friend, and began to walk away.
"In any case, you should think this over carefully and decide what you're going to do next. And keep Cory's feelings in mind, yeah?" Chromia continued on her way, waving over her shoulder without looking back, "Ta-ta!" The other femme stood and watched her walk away, thinking for a moment. It wasn't a surprise that Chromia cared for Cory.
The human had wormed her way into many sparks on base.
"...I wonder…" Quietly, beginning to immerse herself into her own thoughts, Moonracer headed off once more. What to do next? So many questions, so many possible answers. But which was the right one? Which did she believe? This would take time to answer.
And as she walked away, a delicate servo moved up on its own accord, and touched her lip components gently.
Without her knowing; Moonracer began to smile.