This is part 4 of a series of short stories that my friend and I have been writing. Part 1 was "Not Leaving You", Part 2 was "Mission Accomplished", and Part 3 was "Nightmare". Somethings that are mentioned in this reflect back to those, but it isn't required to read them first. Please enjoy!
Miko sat almost in tears as she loved on her cats Chi Chi and Ding Dong. Her phone was sitting beside her hooked up to her computer uploading all of her pictures. They were pictures of her time in America as an exchange student and of her time with the Autobots and Bulkhead. Those were the fun days when she didn't have to worry about school and could do what she wanted to. She smiled when she pulled up the first picture she ever took of Bulkhead. It was taken the first day she saw him after Optimus Prime told them about Megatron and how they were on Earth to protect them. Flipping through she saw the picture taken when she got on the 'Con ship with Jack and Raf, the picture of Wheeljack when he first came to Earth, and then one of her with Wheeljack and Bulkhead. They had become such great friends over the year and it pained her to look at how happy they were not even a year ago, but feel the sadness and pain of not knowing if she would ever see any of them again.
Feeling a tear fall down her soft cheek, she right clicked the picture and selected the option to set it as her background picture. At least if she couldn't see them in person, she could see them in a picture. But it still didn't make up for it. She rather have gone with them to Cybertron and left her entire life and identity behind than stay on Earth without the possibility of even talking to them. And to make things worse, she was back in Tokyo which meant she couldn't even go down to the current base that Ratchet runs and even see him.
Wiping her tear away, she flipped to the next picture. Seeing it made her heart sink. She had come running out of the school that day with a piece of paper in her hand. It was her English test that she happened to past with a B. Bulkhead was excited for her and that evening they went to Yosemite National Park in California. The lake where they stopped had been beautiful, she wouldn't dream of passing up the opportunity to take a picture. Taking a minute to close her eyes, she felt more tears falling from her face. This time she knew she couldn't stop them. She missed Bulkhead so much and all the pictures and memories weren't helping. Slowly she wiped her eyes as dry as she could before opening them and putting her computer down. She couldn't do it anymore. Picking up Chi Chi, she pulled her covers up and laid down. Holding her calmest cat close to her she cried herself to sleep thinking of all her memories with her best friend that she would probably never see again.
Bulkhead let out a deep sigh as he stood on a tower that looked over the horizon. The sun was barely just rising, and the big lug had finally managed to get away from the group long enough to have some time to himself. He mainly used whatever time he could get to just think. He thought about the war and how it had finally ended. He thought about the planet the last few years of the war was fought on, and he thought about its inhabitants. One in particular stuck out to him. His charge, his best friend on Earth, the one who stuck with him since the day she had first been taken to their base.
He remembered how she had been in so much shock and awe the moment she saw him. How she ran right up to him and began to fire questions at him like he had never seen before. For some reason, he had been so drawn to her. He remembered how they had many awkward moments in the beginning, but once they had found things in common about each other, they became inseparable.
He remembered how strong she was on the outside, and how he saw that barrier become withered and weak when she was terrified. He knew she had been insecure about showing that side of her, but once she let him in, she basically let him in on everything about her.
That was what stung the worst. Just knowing that he was billions of miles away from the one person he cared about the most in the moment, it killed him. He thought about her every single day, and he had a feeling deep within his spark that she was experiencing the same sort of daily pain as he was. He knew she missed him because he missed her so much it hurt sometimes. Just going through that last goodbye hurt as much if not more than the time he nearly had his whole backside blown off.
He had always hated seeing her cry, whether it was from fear or anger, he hated it. The only time he accepted it was when she was happy, but other than that, he despised hearing her cry. If he had the ability to cry, then pride be damned he would be crying at that moment. It was far too much for him to bear. The weight of the loneliness and the emptiness he felt in his spark was just too much. It was all too much. He knew he had other duties, but they had to understand the pain he was going through. He knew Bumblebee understood it, and he knew Arcee understood it, even though she probably didn't want to show it very much. It was settled. He had to go visit her.
Just so everyone knows, this will be updated quickly. I have over 20,000 words typed up for this already, but couldn't post it as one chapter.