Carly pulls onto the long dirt road that leads up to the Autobot hangar that sits atop the secluded outcrop overlooking Serenity Valley, California. Her stereo is turned up and 'Let You Down' by Seether starts blaring out of her open windows as she drives up the dusty dirt road. She watches the dust rise in her rear view as she absently mulls over her day. It's only three thirty in the afternoon, but it feels so much later. Her shoot at the modeling studio was extensive today. Ibrahim certainly did not make shit pleasant either, the twat.
She lets the song take over her thoughts and clears out that negativity. She hasn't visited the Autobots in a week and a half because of a heavy work load and so many bookings. She is so relieved to finally have a week off and she can't wait to start it with some of the coolest non-humans around. Boy, is she looking forward to non-human interaction for once.
Carly pulls into the familiar driveway in front of the gigantic hangar and pulls up beside a yellow search and rescue hummer with a black GMC Topkick beside it. Smiling, she puts her car in park and links her phone to the wireless intercom system so she can keep listening to her spotify playlist. She unbuckles her seatbelt and gathers her bag. Listening to this heavier genre of music helps her unwind after a long day of modeling and objectification.
She hears the music get louder inside the hangar and she smirks as she turns her car off and steps out. "Someone approves…" She says with a smile, slinging her bag over her shoulder. After swinging the door closed, she sweeps her curled blonde hair into a messy bun atop her head. "Good afternoon, boys," she says as she walks between the medic and the weapons specialist, giving them both slaps on the bumper. The two disguised Autobots rev their engines and Ratchet barks his sirens. Carly chuckles at them before striding over to the entry door at the edge of the sprawling hangar.
When she is about twenty feet from the door, she hears a heavy crash and the ground shakes, stopping her in her tracks for a second. "Shit, that wasn't an earthquake was it?" she wonders out loud as she continues walking towards the door. She picks up on more loud pounding and rumbling thuds that literally shake the ground she is walking on. She realizes the commotion is coming from inside the hangar.
"Huh…" she reaches for the handle and before her hand touches the knob, she sees and feels the whole side of the hangar shudder. Dust and dirt rains down in a delicate curtain and she blocks her eyes as she opens the door, stepping inside the hangar. "Jeez, what the hell…"
The next song on her playlist starts playing loudly in the background of a great amount of noise. Looking into the hangar as her eyes adjust to the lower light, she has quite a spectacle to take in.
The hangar has been completely cleared and from the ceiling hangs an enormous punching bag. On the other side, Optimus Prime bounces on his toes, arms up and poised to punch. To Carly's shock, his right leg snaps up and delivers a brutal kick dead center of the bag and the whole hangar trembles. Then, Optimus unleashes a flurry of furious punches before he pivots and lands a roundhouse kick before backing off a bit, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
Carly squints up at the Autobot leader and sees that he is literally dripping sweat, and cycling heavily. He's apparently been at it for a while. She marvels at the Cybertronian for a span, still amazed at the similarities between her species and his. To this day, she really had no idea that they were even capable of sweating, let alone getting remotely close to winded. But, in her defence, all of the intense action she was involved in, they were covered in layers of blood, dirt and grime anyway. She blinks herself back into reality and looks back up at the panting Autobot leader.
Optimus wipes sweat from his forehead and rolls his shoulders before he squares up to the punching bag again. Optimus roughly shakes out his arms, flinging huge drops of sweat across the concrete floor before he starts throwing brutal punches. He suddenly lunges forward and grabs the bag and drives his knee into it a couple times before he jumps back and lands a series of kicks at different heights along the bag with his right leg.
Carly walks over to the closest wall and grabs a folding metal chair and unfolds it, taking a seat to watch something she surely never expected to see a thirty foot tall mechanoid take part in.
Optimus lands a series of thunderous punches before he starts to trade punches for heavy-hitting elbow blows that resonate heavily in Carly's chest.
Bumblebee, who up until this moment was nowhere to even be seen, steps up from behind Optimus and offers the Prime a towel and a drum of energon. "Thanks," Optimus exhales heavily, letting out a breathy chuckle as he turns around and accepts the towel, wiping his face and neck before draping it over his right shoulder. With a deep sigh, he puts his hands on his hips and catches his breath.
After a short span, Optimus takes the energon and strides around the bag to where Carly can see his whole body without the bag obstructing her view. She watches in fascination as his heaving breaths pause when he swallows each mouthful of energon. After a good thirty seconds, he stops drinking, letting out a heavy, satisfied exhalation. With his other hand, he takes the end of the towel and dabs sweat off his face again as he walks over to Carly. She looks up and smiles at him as he crouches down beside her, then he lowers himself onto his rear with a heavy grunt and a sigh. Carly can feel the heat pouring off the Autobot commander in waves as he continues to cycle heavily. He takes a deep swig of energon and rests his forearms on his bent knees.
Quite impressed, Carly smiles up at him, quite content to just watch him breathe and sweat for a few more seconds at least.
"Good afternoon, Carly." Optimus' smooth baritone initially gives her goosebumps as it startles her from her daydreaming.
His head is tilted lazily to the side and he looks down at her out of the corner of his optics.
"Hey, Optimus, I didn't know you… boxed… you're quite good!" Carly smiles up at the huge Cybertronian as the volume of the music over the intercom turns down a bit. He is so considerate. Carly muses to herself.
Optimus chuckles before he takes another swig of energon and wipes his mouth on the back of his hand. "I saw it on the internet recently and wanted to give it a try. I really enjoy blowing off steam by sparring, so it came quite easily to me." Optimus reaches for the towel on his shoulder and wipes away some sweat from his face and chest, "It is okay that I sat beside you?" He asks as he sits up straighter.
Carly nods enthusiastically and Optimus smiles, positioning himself a little better before he leans fully back against the hangar wall. Prime lets out a satisfied sigh and rests the back of his head on the wall, tilting into the left to look down at Carly. "I like this music. I think I'll play it whenever I box, it is quite satisfactory." Optimus remarks as he reaches over himself and offers her his right hand.
Carly smirks, "You should check out some of my workout playlists," she says as she eagerly climbs onto his hand.
Prime chuckles as he lifts her up to his left shoulder and deposits her on the smooth armor plating there. "Thank you for broadening my musical horizons, Carly. I accept your offer with enthusiasm!" He exclaims softly as he taps wirelessly into her phone and browses her spotify library.
"See anything you fancy, Prime?" Carly inquires when she notices the soft glaze his optics have acquired, and the tiny twitching movements his pupils make, indicating he is reading the hard drive on her phone.
Optimus lets out a quiet chuckle that she feels resonate in her chest as he continues reading, "Indeed, your collection is vast and varied. Very well cultivated. Is that the word?" he pauses, then nods in self assurance, "Yes. I have found a great deal of new music I am eager to listen to. Thank you for sharing with me, Carly." He says as his optics blink, refocus and fall on her. She sees the corner of his mouth pull up in a sincere smile.
It never fails to give her that full body wash of goosebumps when his eyes lock on her with such focus and intensity. Very few people ever look at her with that much sincerity behind their gaze. Like she is the only thing that exists in that moment. It's very nearly unsettling. She feels the calm rush of warm air as he cycles deep breaths, hears the tiny micro-adjustments of his hydraulics and muscles. The soft whirring of his cooling fans on his cranial central processors. The click of his optics as he blinks to keep his lenses clear and focused.
"Of course," She says distractedly as she stares back into his intricate optics.
The corners of his optics crinkle with his smile and she cannot help but grin back at him.
"Did you have a productive day at the studio today?" his gentle baritone rattles her brain back to reality again.
Carly absently picks at her cuticles, "Well, I suppose it was tolerable until Ibrahim arrived and started meddling with Adrian's staging setup. Adrian had a beautiful set arranged. We were shooting a bahamian resort balcony type set up, it was so lovely. He had all the lights angled just so, so that it looked like it was late afternoon and sweltering. It was right before lunch break when Ibrahim just walked in with his Starbucks in one hand and started moving lamps and baffles and rearranging props. Ugh… he's such an entitled twat."
Prime's expression is so complex, she sees the anger in his furrowed brow, the clench in his jaw of indignation, the tilt of his optics that he gets when he is sympathetic.
"Why does he behave like a scorned child?" Optimus queries, his optics growing distant as he accesses the digital photo database at her studio and scans through the photographs. "Ah, Carly these photographs are-" He trails off suddenly and blinks rapidly a few times, head tilting just a little. "Oh… um…" He clears his throat awkwardly and Carly suddenly blushes when she remembers that the second half of the shoot had her posing in only a swimsuit bottom, and her top was barely obscured by various props. Sometimes only her hand barely stood between her nipples and the camera lens. Optimus takes a steadying breath, clearly embarrassed, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize… you're… these are very beautiful… uh..." Optimus blinks a few times and arches his eyebrows, "I'm sorry."
Carly bursts into laughter, her cheeks burning, "Thank you Optimus, but don't worry about it, loads of people have seen shots of me like those. It's nothing new. Remember, I get paid to do this."
Optimus lets out a relieved chuckle. "Sorry, just seems a touch invasive as far as human customs are concerned."
Carly shakes her head in amusement, "Best if you try not to think about it." she says with a cynical smirk.
"Very well then. So, aside from the meddling, was your day good?" Optimus asks, resting his head against the metal wall and closing his optics.
Carly smiles, "Yeah, other than that, it was a pretty average day."
"Good to hear. What do you say we wash up and get something for dinner? My treat, anywhere you like." Optimus asks with a cocked brow ridge and bright optics.
She can see the sparkle of excitement and happiness in them. He is, hands down, her coolest friend. "Awe! You're a gentleman and a school bus, Prime." Carly quips and Optimus lets out the rowdiest chortle, letting his chin touch his chest plates as he doubles over with laughter.
"I'm neither of those things you confusing creature!" Optimus retorts with a playful spark in his optics. Carly gives him a one-two punch to his cheek and Optimus flinched involuntarily.
"AH! One more for flinching!" She slugs another playful punch into his cheek that has him laughing so hard she has a hard time keeping her balance.
"Alright, alright! I concede! Now, off to the shower with you, fleshling!" Optimus commands with a half playful smirk as he scoops her from his shoulder and places her carefully on the ground.
Carly turns and watches him stand. She shakes her head at him and narrows one eye, "Says the sweaty semi." Carly laughs and Optimus just playfully waves her off as he strides over to the far side of the facility where a shower stall big enough for him has been fabricated. "Meet you out front in thirty minutes, Optimus!" Carly calls after him as she makes her way to the human quarters just ahead of her through a set of double doors.
As Optimus steps into the roomy stall and starts the hot water, he rolls his head to unkink his neck a little. He knows he will be stiff tomorrow, but he really enjoyed boxing to that music today. It gave him that extra drive to push through to the end. It felt good.
As the hot water cleans off the day's grime, Optimus listens to a couple of the new songs from Carly that particularly interested him.
Carly dresses in comfortable but still quite fashionable clothes and puts on a very small amount of makeup after her shower. Satisfied with her appearance, she grabs her wallet from her bag and leaves hee things in her personal quarters. She locks her door and heads down the hall and through the hangar. When she steps out of the side door into the driveway, Optimus Prime is waiting, in his alt-mode, all gleaming chrome and glistening paint as the sun starts to hang nearer the horizon.
As she approaches, the driver door opens and she climbs in to the cab.
"Where to, Miss?" Optimus' voice comes through the cab speakers.
Carly buckles in and puts a hand on the wheel and a foot on the clutch. Her other hand ghosts over his gearshift. The cab shudders as his engine roars to life. "I'm thinking sushi… at that one really authentic Japanese place on the docks by the fish market." She says as she puts her right foot on the gas and gives the Cybertronian's engine a good rev. Under her left foot the clutch engages and the gearshift moves with her hand to first gear. The gas pedal smoothly depresses and the clutch evenly releases and she barely feels the transmission engage.
"Coming right up." Optimus says lightly as he drives a lazy circle in the parking lot and heads towards the dirt road. As he makes his way smoothly through the gears, Carly notices that he is playing that song by Seether through his radio. She smiles as the California coastline draws closer and her music plays quietly in the cab.
Carly's mind wanders to thoughts of sand and sun and sweaty wrestling Autobots and she smirks. Now that would be something she would pay to see.