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I love using suspense…
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Sam tried to evaluate how well off he was, glancing up at Skids momentarily. The Autobot was staring at him intently, optics bright. It was more than unnerving, and Sam ducked his head again.
"You have two more seconds before I show you what it's like to be incinerated." Skids growled. He leveled a glowing cannon at Sam's face to demonstrate his point. Sam bit his lip, looking away from the blazing yellow light.
"Fine, fine." He threw a handful of poker chips out onto the table between them. "Call." When Skids laughed, Sam knew he was doomed.
"I win!" He held up his cards to show them off. Sam was amazed at the dexterity the Autobots had sometimes, as Skids fanned out the winning hand to flaunt it properly. Sam groaned.
"That's the last game I'm playing, okay?"
"Aw, man, you're no fun." Skids collected the last of Sam's poker chips.
"I've got no more time left to bet! I already owe you seventeen pairs of new tires, six waxings, and forty-seven car washes! I'll be busy until doomsday!"
"Looks like that might come sooner than you think" Sideswipe had been watching them and simultaneously looking up gaming strategies online. When Sam looked at him, he pointed out the window of the Autobot hanger. Bumblebee had been outside, trying to fix one of the transport vehicles in the last light of the day; Sam hadn't seen much of him all day. What concerned him, however, was the fact that Ironhide was walking up to Bee.
"Oh, this should be good" Sam groaned, putting his head down on the table. "Go stop Ironhide before he beats Bee up. He's your best friend, right? Keep him from killing mine!"
"Yeah" Sideswipe crossed his arms over his chest, "but I don't break up fights."
"And why the hell not?"
"Because Ironhide gets pissed when his paint gets scratched." He settled back to sit against the wall, content to just watch the situation that Sam was sure would come to blows. "Narcissistic bastard."
"Sure you're not just sulking cuz he beat you on that stupid game?" Skids grinned, and Sideswipe flipped him off, making Sam choke with laughter.
"Two points. Two fucking points." Sideswipe growled. "One more laugh, Sam, and I'm putting a blade down your throat." Sam heard footsteps, and a threatening growl. "Cool it, Bumblebee." Sideswipe waved a hand in Bee's direction. "Shouldn't you be busy fighting with Ironhide?" Bee shook his head no, as Ironhide walked up behind him.
"It's nearly nine" Ironhide said in the direction of Sideswipe, who stood up.
"Found a new club we should try" Sideswipe said, following Ironhide out, "about four blocks from the usual one."
"Hey!" Skids jumped up, "I wanna come!" he raced to catch up. Sam tossed his cards down onto the table, frowning at the losing hand.
"Him drinking would really scare me." Sam remarked. He jumped when he felt hands on his shoulders. Breath ghosted across the back of his neck before a kiss was pressed there. Sam glanced up, saw Bee's Autobot form and his holo form behind him. It was slightly unnerving, but nothing he couldn't get used to. "You know, Ironhide said something really interesting to me" Sam said, as Bee nudged him up out of his chair and turned him around, strong hands guiding him. "When we were at the club." He wasn't sure just how much attention Bumblebee was paying to what he was saying. Sam hopped up to sit on the tabletop, meaning to put some distance between them, but all this did was give Bee an easier time of getting him to lie flat on teh table. "And it was sort of... something that really made me think." Bee looked at him for a moment, then, seeming to decide to ignore what Sam was saying, climbed up on the table to straddle Sam. "I mean, I don't know, really, what he meant, exactly." Bee was making a big show of not listening, on his hands and knees above Sam, ducking his head to kiss Sam's neck. "He wasn't exactly clear or anything..." Sam struggled to keep trying to make his point, even as Bee did his best to prevent that. "I just- come on, can't you listen to me just a little bit?" Bee tilted his head, bottom lip sticking out. Sam took a moment to weigh his options, and decided to toss the conversation aside. "We'll talk later." He reached up and yanked Bee down by his shirt, attacking Bee's lips with his own. Bee made a sound of pure delight, writhing against him. Sam shivered wherever Bee's fingers touched; he could have sworn that Bee had been warmer the last time. Bumblebee distracted him from his thoughts with a bite to his shoulder, and Sam decided not to think anymore. He managed to disentangle one hand from Bee's shirt and reached down to push Bee's knee backwards. Bee slipped down, warm weight half on top of Sam. He made a soft purring sound, nuzzling against Sam's neck, and flicking little licks across the skin there.
"You gotta promise you'll explain what he was talking about" Sam said, looking over at Bee. Bee was lying on his side, one leg across Sam's, and one arm thrown across his chest. He looked at Sam for a moment, his free hand clenching in Sam's shirt. "Promise?" Bee's only reply was to press a kiss to Sam's shoulder, and cling to him tighter, leaving Sam no choice but to hope it was the answer he wanted. Bee pushed himself back up, and Sam was sure it was no accident that Bee kissed him before Sam could demand a straight answer. Okay, Sam thought, grinning, done being dominated. I want to see what he likes.. He nudged Bee off of him and slid off the table, unable to help a grin at Bee's indignant look. He grabbed Bumblebee by the shoulders and pushed his back to the table, grabbing Bee's wrists and pressing them to the tabletop as well. Bee squirmed and made little whining noises, straining to get out of Sam's grip. Sam just kissed him hard and nudged his knee up between Bee's legs, making Bee squirm and make little breathy noises that were closer to whimpers than he would admit. These were noises Sam hadn't heard from Bee before, and he found that he really, really liked it. He applied more pressure, making Bee arch his back, moaning. Sam grinned and kept at it, delighting in how Bee squirmed and bucked in his efforts to try and get his hands free. Bee lifted his head to glare at Sam, who just leaned forward to kiss Bee's wrists, consequently pressing against Bee's crotch. Bumblebee gasped aloud, head hitting back on the table, hissing something Sam couldn't quite understand. "Like that?" Sam traced Bee's ear with his tongue, eliciting more delighted sounds. Bee was mouthing something silently, that looked like a long string of curses, with a 'more' thrown in every now and then. And who, Sam thought, am I to deny him?
Neither noticed the two Autobots standing outside, looking in through the high windows.
"It's as bad as you said" Sideswipe muttered, turning away from the window to look at Ironhide. "Ratchet is aware?"
"Yeah." Ironhide started across the runway. "Don't know what we're going to do, though. Might want to make them work it out for themselves, for all I know."
"Right" Sideswipe shook his head, following, "Bumblebee's just a sparkling, and a foolish one, from the looks of it. Whatever choice he makes, it won't help him any. Figures, that it would have to happen to the one who won't know what to do."
"Guess it's just that kind of situation" Ironhide said. "Where every option demands a hell of a sacrifice." He ended the conversation by folding back into the pickup truck and roaring across the cement. Sideswipe looked back at the hanger doorway, where he could just see the edge of the table, Sam only half on it, Bee's sneaker kicking against the chair as he writhed and twisted. Sideswipe just sighed, and a moment later, the corvette raced away, the glinting silver vanishing into the darkness.
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A blaring car alarm pulled Sam from sleep at five the next morning. He pulled the pillow over his head and did his best to ignore it. A quick look around the room told him that Bee had still not returned. As usual, there was no trace that he'd been there two nights previously- any clothing he had merely fell out of existence one it lost contact with his holo. Sam wanted to go back to sleep until Bee showed up to join him in bed, but seeing as he hadn't seen Bee in two days, it seemed less than likely that he would be getting his wish anytime soon. The car alarm kept at its beeping and wailing continued for seven more minutes, at which point Sam couldn't even try to sleep any longer. Sam dragged himself out of bed and to the window to see who was the culprit. A silver corvette was in the street before his building, lights flashing and turn signals going on and off. "Okay!" Sam shouted down, "I'm coming!" The car alarm was turned off with a last beep. Sam ran to get dressed, before Sideswipe got impatient again. He snatched the note taped to the front door and scanned it on his way down the stairs, while trying to pull his jacket on with one hand. The note was from Bee, and just said that he was working at the engineering complex, that Sideswipe would be taking care of Sam, and that Bee was sorry in advance for anything Sideswipe did. Sam didn't think complaining about needing a babysitter would get him anywhere; it hadn't worked for the last three years, and he doubted it would work now. Ironhide had been his substitute guardian the previous day, which hadn't been that bad, but somehow, he had the feeling that Sideswipe's wakeup call was about to set the mood for the rest of the day. As soon as he set foot on the sidewalk, Sideswipe's passenger side door swung open, nearly taking out a man walking by.
"You know it's five AM, right?" Sam grumbled, climbing in and shutting the door.
"You know that I've got stuff to do today, right?" Sideswipe pulled away from the curb, speedometer shooting to fifty miles per hour in a matter of seconds. "Just because you can't get your lazy ass out of bed before ten AM doesn't mean I have to shorten my to-do list." Sam just rolled his eyes and said nothing; he could see why Sideswipe and Ironhide got along so well.
"Do I at least get to have breakfast, or is that considered unnecessary?" Sam slouched down in the seat, arms crossed over his chest. The toe of his sneaker hit the glove box in front of him, and almost instantly, something shocked him. "Ow!"
"Leave scuff marks and I will kill you before Bumblebee even knows what's going on." Sideswipe said sweetly. Sam scowled.
"Sor-ry. Didn't anyone ever tell you that black leather is easy to scuff, and that if you're a jerk about it, you shouldn't get it?"
"I like it" Sideswipe growled back. Sam was thankful when he stopped in front of one of the main cafeterias that the military people frequented. "You have six point four minutes. Go." Sam heaved a sigh, glaring at the glove box.
"That's barely enough time to get something!"
"Six point three." Sam swore under his breath and scrambled to get out of the car. He returned seven minutes later, to see the corvette pulling away from the sidewalk. "Hey! Hey!" Clutching his bagel, he sprinted to catch up, smacking at the locked door handle. People on the sidewalk gave him strange looks and stepped back. "Let me in! No fair! I was thirty seconds late! Just half a freakin' minute!" He kept slapping at the door and stumbling along in a clumsy run as Sideswipe sped along the sidewalk. It took half a block for Sideswipe to decide to be nice, and when he screeched to a stop, Sam nearly fell from stopping so fast. He yanked the door open and fell into the seat. "You-" he panted, "are a jerk sometimes."
"You were late." Sideswipe sped up impatiently, speedometer needle shooting from the left of the circle to the right. "And I don't like waiting."
"Next time, I want a better babysitter..."
A couple hours later, Sam was wandering through one of the towering warehouse-like buildings, waiting for Sideswipe to finish up whatever he was doing. He'd taken a stab at explaining it to Sam, but had stopped when he realized that the finer points of quantum mechanics were over his audience's head. "Stuff with machines" he summed up, and shooed Sam into the hallway. Sam meandered through until he got to the part where the building joined the military rec centre. The first room on his right was the largest, and before he could so much as open the door, there was a loud crash from inside, followed by a very colorful string of curses. Sam pushed open the door, and nearly laughed out loud at the scene before him. The room had been tastefully decorated, with black leather couches, a widescreen TV, gaming system, and the like. Now, men he recognized from Capt. Lennox's team were swarming about, with ladders and colourful streamers. One ladder was overturned, and the soldier beneath it was the one cursing up a storm.
"You okay?" Sam asked, seeing as the other men were too busy laughing to help. The soldier frowned.
"Fine..." He struggled to disentangle himself from the mess of streamers, until Sam pulled the red, white and blue streamers away from him. The man sat up. Sam was able to now see that he had sky-blue eyes, short, golden blonde hair, and one of the most perfect smiles Sam had ever seen. "Thanks... the things I do for my country, man..." the smile vanished for a moment as he scowled at the bruise forming on his arm.
"You're quite the maverick, Tanner." Capt. Lennox climbed down a ladder to get more streamers. "We all strive to be just like you."
"What are you guys doing?" Sam looked around; streamers were hung from every available spot in the room, including doorway to the adjoining cafe.
"Decorating for the party tomorrow night." Lennox said, grinning. "Fourth of July! Best holiday of 'em all!"
"Actually" Tanner put in, still sitting on the floor, "I'm pretty fond of Christmas, too." Lennox rolled his eyes.
"For the presents?"
"Yeah." Tanner grinned. "And the mistletoe." This made Lennox sigh and shake his head. "What? Kissing happens to be one of my favorite pastimes!" Had Sam looked away a moment sooner, he would have missed the glance that Tanner threw at him. As it were, he pretended to have missed it.
"Great" Lennox scooped up the mess of streamers off the floor and righted the ladder. "remind me to burn all the mistletoe in December. And would you get off the floor before that ladder falls on you again?" Without thinking, Sam offered a hand, and Tanner grabbed it and pulled himself up. "Oh, right." Lennox shifted the streamers to one arm, so he could gesture to Tanner. "Sam, this is Tanner Morrey."
"There are two Morrey's here" Tanner said cheerfully, "That's why I get the privilege of having a first name."
"Tanner, this is Sam Witwicky." He turned to leave, "Oh, and Sam, party starts at eight tomorrow."
"Cool." Sam said, as someone tapped him on the shoulder. A soldier stood behind him.
"Sideswipe sent me with a message for you." The man said, then frowned. "Do I have to repeat it word for word?"
"Um..." Sam blinked, and the soldier sighed.
"He said- word for word, okay, he actually said this-" he drew in a breath, "Uh, 'tell Sam that he had better get his sorry ass out here before I leave without him, and if he takes more than thirty damn seconds, he won't live to see the light of day tomorrow.'"
"Sounds like him alright." Sam sighed. "Great. Thanks." He looked over to Tanner, "Catch you later, I guess."
"See you" Tanner gave him that bright smile, and Sam bolted out of the room before Sideswipe could come looking for him. He sprinted down the hallway, skirted a corner and stumbled through a doorway, reaching the street in time to slam into the corvette before it left.
"Twenty-nine seconds!" he panted. "Don't leave without me!"
"You're learning fast." Sam got in, and Sideswipe accelerated away. "I have one more stop."
"You said that was your last one."
"There's one more thing I want to do." They stopped in front of a small building. "Wait here."
"And risk getting killed?" Sam said innocently, making Sideswipe growl.
"Fine, fine. Come." Sam got out, and Sideswipe's human holo materialized beside him. Sideswipe's preferred form was a tall, unfairly dashing man of about twenty-six, with black hair and steel-grey eyes, and the sort of finely chiseled features that were made for admiring. He strode into the building, leaving Sam to hurry to catch up. Sideswipe led him down a hallway and into a large, air-conditioned room. The hum of computers competed with the clatter of printers and shuffle of the handful of people sitting at the desks. "Tech center." Sideswipe explained, winding around the desks.
"Sideswipe! What's up?" One of the tech stood up upon seeing Sideswipe, offering his hand. "Should I guess what brings you by?"
"Guilty pleasures, man." Sideswipe grinned, and the tech laughed. Sam stopped listening as they launched into a discussion of some online game, and the best strategies for it. Sam just stood back and didn't listen, glancing around the room. "Okay" Sideswipe eventually said, "we can go now." He was flipping through a book the tech had given him.
"That girl's looking at you" Sam snickered, discreetly indicating a woman sitting at a computer, her green eyes flickering up to Sideswipe and back to the screen again. Sideswipe looked over, and a smile appeared on his lips, even as he said nothing. "Do you know her?"
"Nope. Just another admirer. We should go, c'mon."
"Great" Sam muttered, following, "You're as arrogant as Ironhide." Sideswipe snorted at that.
"There's a difference." He pushed open the door, and Sam rushed to keep up with his long strides.
"Yeah? What's that?"
"I've got reason to be arrogant." He informed Sam in a ridiculously matter-of-fact tone that Sam just barely managed to keep from snickering at. "Shut up and get in." The holo vanished and the corvette engine roared impatiently. Sam hurried to jump into the passenger seat before he got left behind.
"Where to now?"
"To take you back, thank the heavens." The corvette sped through the winding streets of the city. More than once, a pedestrian dived out of the way. "I'm afraid I'm just not cut out for this guardian stuff."
"That's for sure" Sam muttered. "Hate to break it to ya, but Bee is a hundred times better."
"At least I don't-" Sideswipe started, then seemed to change his mind. "If I wanted to be better, I would be. I just don't want to."
"Sure. Sure. And I'm sure you could have beaten Ironhide at that stupid game if you'd actually wanted to, right?"
"Precisely." The corvette pulled up in front of the engineering building. "Out."
"What're we doing here?" Sam obeyed, dreading another over-his-head lesson on quantum mechanics, or whatever they were called. Sideswipe's hologram appeared on the sidewalk beside him, and started towards the grey building at a brisk pace. It was one of the buildings the Humans frequented, rather than the Autobots. Whenever they had to work there, it was in holo form.
"I'm returning a gift" Sideswipe pulled open the glass door, and Sam caught it before he was hit in the face by it. "You."
"Love you too" Sam barely avoided running into the next door that closed in his face. "Where are we?"
"Tech building, so I can give you back to Bee, thank the merciful heavens." Despite the heavy cynicism, Sam couldn't help but grin at Sideswipe's words. It had been two days, but it had felt like a hell of a lot longer; Sam was starting to really miss Bee. They went to the back of the building, where it opened up into a serious of high-ceilinged rooms, passing several of the military technicians and ending up in front of a metal door. The words Human Resources was printed on it in grey paint, and had a black line through it. The sign above it read Technological Development E//Restricted Access. Sideswipe pressed his hand to the reader by the door, with the short explanation that he'd gotten his wiring recognized for restricted access areas and his holo handprint would do when he wasn't in Bot form, and pushed open the door. "Tech Development. I try to avoid the place." The reason became apparent as soon as Sam stepped inside- the chaos was enough to give anyone a headache. Drills screamed and metal clattered to the ground; in the center of the room was the machine they'd gotten out of the pyramid, and workers were swarming around it, taking it apart to see how it worked.
"Isn't that thing useless now?" Sam asked, pointing to it. Sideswipe nodded.
"Doesn't stop them from being fascinated. Now where the hell's Bee?" He wandered off to look, leaving Sam in the middle of the commotion. He glanced after Sideswipe for a moment, and in the next second, someone had flung their arms around him and was hugging him like they were afraid he was going to disappear.
"Bumblebee!" Sam couldn't help the grin that found its way to his face; two days suddenly felt like a lot longer than it had actually been. "Was making Sideswipe my sub guardian some sort of plot to make me miss you more?" Bee's pure excitement at just seeing him was possibly the cutest thing Sam had ever seen. His amber eyes were bright when he finally let Sam go and just looked at him, practically bouncing with energy. The look on his face was one Sam recognized- he had something to say, and hoped Sam would be able to figure out what it was without having to hear it. This time, Sam knew it was because he couldn't talk, and not because he didn't want to. "Voice mod went out entirely again, huh?" He reached out to trace his fingertips over Bee's neck, making Bee smile. "That sucks." Bee kept looking at him with that look. "Miss me at all?" Sam guessed, and Bee smiled shyly.
"Good, you found him." Sideswipe came back over from the other side of the room. "He's yours now, Bee" He walked off, probably thanking every deity in the world that he was free of the temp guardian job.
"Do I have to wait until you've finished here?" Sam asked, and Bee nodded, apologetic look on his face. "No problem, sounds cool." Bee led Sam by the hand back to where he'd been working on dissecting some part of the machine, pointing to a metal box that Sam could sit on. Sam was perfectly content to just sit and watch Bee work. Every now and then, Bumblebee's gaze would flicker up to him and then back down. Definitely the cutest thing ever, Sam decided, when Bee blushed at being caught looking up. Bumblebee was a thousand times better off than he'd been at the beginning of summer, Sam realized, thinking back to the times he'd come home from a date with Mikaela and Bee would crawl back into the garage, clearly sulking and absolutely adamant about not discussing it. Bee had been constantly upset beyond what seemed like all reason, and Sam was endlessly relieved that it wasn't like that anymore. Right now, Bumblebee practically radiated happiness.
Sam just hoped to every deity that Sideswipe had been thanking a moment ago that it would last.
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I'll update the rest pretty soon! But if I added the next scene, it was like, eight pages, which seemed like a little much.
Hope everyone liked that!
Review review review review! Please!!
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