Disclaimer: No-one, no-place, nothing. I own none except for what is mine and L.M. Dodger's. Have fun and enjoy.

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Chapter 7

Tasha sat in one of the room's chairs and stared at Shade for a moment. "Soo . . . You're the guy that saved my little Li-Li, huh?" she queried, eyeballing the tall Decepticon.

Shadowhawk twitched. Why is she observing me so? "Perhaps P—the fates thought it should be so, that I would be there to intervene on her behalf. However, I do not believe she would have come to any real harm," he said, becoming increasingly nervous—the mechanic seemed to be examining him. What is the human doing?

Tasha's expression turned sour. "You're not really an angel. What makes you think you're good enough for my little Leah?"

Leah turned beet red. "Tasha! It's not like that! Knock it off!"

Shade's brow furrowed in confusion. Tasha folded her hands together and placed them under her chin. "I just want to know if my daughter will be safe," she said, staring at Shade.

Primus . . . Wait . . . what??? Daughter!! Impossible! His thoughts were reeling as he ran a scan over the two and tried to see if there was a genetic match.

"Tasha, you idiot! I'm not your kid!" Leah had swiftly become enraged.

Tasha smiled coyly and shrugged. "Alright. He can stay." Shadowhawk and Leah promptly collapsed.

Leah growled as she looked up from the floor. "Why, God, do I have to deal with this idiot?!?!?"

Tasha just smiled. "Come on love-birds, let's go have fun!"

Leah and Shadowhawk sat back up. Leah rubbed her head to reposition her cosplay ears. Shade began to analyze the area. And they both watched Tasha's retreating back.

"I think I'll kill her if she keeps this up."

Shade scowled slightly, his face holding a touch of menace. "I have begun contemplating her demise as well."

Leah smiled at him and noticed how his eyes kept flickering around the area. Her joking smile became sympathetic and she punched his arm.

"Hey, don't worry about those fangirls. As long as you're with me and Tasha, no one will mess with you."

Just then, Shade noticed a girl dressed as Rukia peering at him from around a corner. He huffed and followed Leah out onto the Anime Oasis main floor.

"I'll hold you to your word," he said tersely.

The Rukia watched him walk into the masses and then ran away.

Shade was surprised that even though he was in a large crowd, he wasn't mobbed even once. All he had gotten was stares, a few pinches on the butt, and a pair of underwear thrown on his head. Every time something happened, Leah just would turn around and say it was normal. Shadowhawk shuddered at the thought of what WASN'T normal.

"Dear Primus . . ." he muttered under his breath, looking around. The Rukia cosplayer caught his eye again. She was staring at him, but this time she was red. "Hmm . . . Perhaps she has contracted an illness," he pondered out loud.

Leah was in mid-sentence. "Well, the underwear throwing IS a little odd. Who—"

Shadowhawk collided with her because he was still focused on Rukia. "What?"

"Who is ill?"

"Uh," Shadowhawk nodded his head in the girl's direction. "The young fem—girl over there. She appears to be unwell," he said matter-of-factly.

Leah looked at Rukia—the other girl quickly stared elsewhere. "Oh . . . I don't think she's sick ..."

Shadowhawk noticed a change in Leah's voice. "Are you alright?"

She grinned up at "Akuma". "I'm fine. You really don't understand girls, do you?" Shadowhawk thought a moment, and shook his head. Human females have no logical explanation AT ALL. I cannot comprehend how this race has thrived for as long as it has, he thought to himself.

Leah smiled. "How about relationships?" Shade shook his head again. "Well, I'm pretty sure you will soon," she said.

Shadowhawk couldn't help but notice disdain in her voice. He shrugged and walked on. They wove through the vendors, accosted by countless kinds of noise and smells and colors.

He had stopped and was disgustedly considering a poster featuring yaoi manga when he heard Leah cry out. He spun, fear closing his throat, in time to see an overloaded dolly run into her. She was knocked to the ground, boxes falling everywhere.

Leah had barely enough time to fall before Shade dove in among the boxes. Cardboard and packing material flew everywhere as he kicked, punched and knocked his way through the pile. Found her! Shade grabbed the nearest, most obvious part of her (luckily, it was her arm) and yanked her upright. By this time a crowd had gathered, and he shoved Leah behind him.

"Awww, jeeze! I understand being worried about the girl, but did you have to trash most of my inventory? I mean, come on!" The heavyset man who had been pushing the dolly stood over the now-decimated collection of boxes. "If I hadn't knocked into her—"

"But the reality is that you did knock into her, and if you were not a complete imbecile you would have accepted the loss of your property as a necessary exchange." Shade's voice was iron, his eyes flaming red. "Just be grateful all I damaged was the boxes."

The shorter man blinked, stunned. "Wait a minute. Are you threatening me?"

Shade scoffed. "Take it how you want, scumbag." Without another word, he wheeled around and walked away.

Leah was still blinking, head whirling. Without Shade's grip on her arm, she would have fallen. As it was, she was bouncing along behind him like a kite. After a few minutes of high-speed walking, they reached the wall. He scoped the area carefully, pulled Leah ahead of him, and turned her back to the wall. It registered in her extremely dazed mind that he looked terrified, and worried . . . light glinting off a piece of dust caught her attention and held it.

"Are yo—" His voice cut off. While staring at the speck, Leah realized that the pause was odd and unnaturally long. She pulled out of her daze and looked at his face. He was staring at her, expressionless.

"Shade?" He stood, silent.

"Shade, what's—" she stopped talking when he shook his head at her. They stood that way, Leah feeling increasingly awkward.

"Okay, Shade, it's not—" he cut her off with a gesture, bowing his head.

"No, really—" he shook his hand at her again.

"I mean—" another shake.

Leah drew a deep breath and was about to begin screaming profanities when Shade stood straight again. His face was flat and cold. "If you would please excuse me, I need a moment alone." His voice had a slight tremor in it.

"I—but—what—why—"

"Thank you." He spun on his heel, leaving the gasping Leah behind him.

Shade went out the doors and into the parking lot. His holoform disappeared, his chassis taking off from the parking lot at full speed. What in Primus' name is wrong with me?!

He sped down the freeway, unable to escape the memory and unable to make sense of why he was so . . . Disturbed. Disturbed is the proper description, he thought.

Why would such a simple occurrence affect him so profoundly? He was speeding past everyone, vision blurred and energon coursing through him. I have been warned against this . . . feeling . . . before . . . His eyes suddenly widened in realization—in pure shock.

It cannot be . . . it is impossible! She's a human! A worthless, dirty scumbag! There is no possibility of us ever . . . With that thought he went off-road. He drove to a secluded place and took on his Cybertronian form.

"No . . . she can't be my spark-mate . . . it's impossible . . ."

Leah was propped against the wall, staring disbelievingly at some point in space, when Tasha found her. "LI-LIIIIIIIIII! What are you doing?!?"

Leah blinked, her expression slowly stiffening from disbelief to something akin to pure fury. "Trying to figure something out."

"What do you need to figure out? Wow, that's a really shiny piece of dust," Tasha looked from her friend to the floating particle, her expression turning vapid.

"I need to figure out . . . why I shouldn't MURDER that BASTARD!!!" Leah's enraged words yanked Tasha from the scintillating world of dust and into the present. She shivered and quailed at the sight of her friend's face—she had never seen Leah so angry.

"Leah, look, I know John is a piece-of-shitter, but really—"

"I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT JOHN!!!"

"Oh, it's not?" Tasha tilted her head. "Well, you know not to take nasty vendors seriously, so it's not them . . . and I don't think you've spoken to anyone besides Shade and me, so it's nobody at the con . . . waitaminnit. Did . . . Shade . . . do something?"

Leah didn't answer. Her expression darkened until her face became a window into Hell.

"I'll take that as a yes. Can you explain what happened? Quietly!" She grabbed Leah's shoulder as she inhaled enough air to let her scream for the next century.

"First he hauled me around by the arm, then he wouldn't talk to me, and then he left. He left me! Just ran out and left without explaining what the hell was wrong. And that was after staring at me like I had grown a third eye or a second nose! He just left! Can you believe that he just left me like that?!?!" Leah's voice was rising in pitch and tone as she vented.

"No. No, I can't." Tasha's deadly soft voice yanked Leah back from her anxieties. "I can't believe that he just left like that. But I can assure you . . . it. Won't. Happen. Again." Tasha's expression was terrifying.

"Hey, Tasha, look, it's not that big of a deal. You don't have to kill him or anything, I'm just . . . frustrated. To tears."

"He is making you cry. THAT IS UNFORGIVABLE!!!!!" An eerie wind swept through Tasha's hair. The smaller-girl-turned-demon turned and began searching, muttering, "He must die."

"Tasha . . . . Tasha . . . TASHA. STOP IT RIGHT NOW!!" Leah had grabbed Tasha's arm. "I don't need you to ignore me too!"

Tasha stopped, stiff as a board. After standing there a minute, she turned. She looked like herself when she patted Leah's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Li-li. I won't ignore you again."

Leah sniffed, tears leaking from her eyes. "It's okay. I just wish . . . I wish I knew what was going on. He wouldn't . . . he wouldn't tell me anything!"

"Well, we can ask him when he comes back. I'll bring a bat, so if he doesn't want to talk we can make him!"

Leah slumped a little, laughing. "We won't use a bat on him, Tasha. Tempting, but no. What if he doesn't come back, though?" Disbelief

Tasha grinned a little. "Don't worry, Leah. I've been . . . observing. I promise you all of my Prisma color markers and my Kurama plushy that he'll be back."

Leah stared at her in disbelief. "And what if he doesn't?"

Fear filled Tasha's face and she dropped to her knees. "Can I keep my Kurama?"

Ooooo sparks are flying now (no pun intended). Stay tuned for the next installment.