Stung

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Chapter 8: The Grand Canyon

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"You awake?"

"Yeah. The neighbors."

The pair next door were at it again, their moaning and giggling and impassioned words coming through the wall.

"Remind me of why I've not gone out yet to see if earplugs are available on this planet," Carly moped. "Maybe we should stuff your armor with towels and make a wall of it to cut some of the noise." For the past two weeks Bumblebee had gone about mostly 'undressed,' having carefully detached most of his yellow shell plating and stacked it up against the wall. She suspected that Vashi had something to do with it, but he'd not bothered to put it back on even though the temptress had abandoned him for the new mech that had been hired. Besides, it wasn't necessary for work and he was much more agile in this environment without it. The only time he needed it was if he were going out in car-mode. His four rubber tires were stacked in a corner to confirm his unnecessary mobility.

"I was already used to it," Bumblebee confessed, "and really it doesn't bother me."

"Already used to it? Oh come on, 'Bee. Spike and I weren't that bad, and we usually waited until you were on duty."

"Usually," he teased.

"And we weren't even close to that noisy."

"Usually," he teased again.

"Oh stop it," she laughed and tickled him, fumbling for inner seams and cables in the near-darkness, knowing that to be where he was the most sensitive to pressure and electrical fields. "I heard you and Vashi a few times. Okay, I had to press my ear to her door. But I could hear you."

"Shame on you!" he laughed "And we were quiet."

"Most of the time."

Bumblebee squirmed and tried to dodge her, eventually rolling away and off of the mattress, but her hands pursued. He tried to grab her wrists, but trying to be careful slowed him too much, and she easily avoided his grasp. "No fair! You know you have the advantage in a tickle fight." It wasn't long before she had him backed up against their bedroom wall and he was trapped.

"You're cornered now," she threatened jovially.

He turned his head away and raised his arms above his head, crossing his wrists as if handcuffed or bound. "I'm at your mercy. Do your worst," he moaned melodramatically.

She chuckled wickedly and raised her hands to assault him again, but then changed her mind and flopped against him in a big hug. "Oh well~" She pressed her cheek against the Volkswagen's warm underplating affectionately.

"Hey, I think the neighbors have stopped."

They listened, and things had definitely grown cooler next door.

Carly pushed her body off of Bumblebee's frame and brushed the hair out of her eyes. "I guess we were noisier than they were. Of course I'm wide awake now." She went to the bottle of wine Vaallo had given her and poured herself a small glass.

"Well that was fun," he said straightening out their much disheveled bed. "Since we have tomorrow off...both shifts, what would you like to do? We have money in the bank so we can actually go shopping. Or we could go sightseeing."

"If we have the whole day off, we could do both. And maybe we should put together another message home to Earth." It had been two Horobian weeks since they'd sent the last, and four weeks since the first.

Bumblebee lay back down on the mattress and pulled the sheet over himself. Carly slowly sipped and finished her glass of wine, and lay back down beside him. When she reached for his arm, he flinched. "No...I'm not going to tickle you again," she said, realizing that what he was anticipating. "Silly robot."

Bumblebee, lying on his back, slid his arm toward her, where she took it and cradled it tenderly. And then she shifted so that she lay between his arm and his torso.

The sounds of carnal passion started up next door again.

"They must be trying to start a family, the way they go at it," Bumblebee decided aloud.

"Or they're just horny all the time."

"Or both. You organics just have this amazing desire to reproduce, or to at least go through the motions of it. It wasn't even this bad back at the last base on Cybertron when I roomed next to the twins."

After listening to the female keen her way through what had to be a momentous orgasm, Bumblebee shifted onto his side so that his chest plating pressed against her back. "Carly," he said softly. "I know that we've been here a while, and it seems like it's going to be a lot longer than we first expected. If...you need that too... I'd be happy to help."

Carly felt her insides twist nervously, while at the same time something else inside of her twisted in the opposite direction. Had Bumblebee really just propositioned her?

Suddenly she was acutely aware of the warm air drifting from his vents and the steady pulse of his spark, and of the tiny clicks and whirs and pings his body made. Had a robot really just propositioned her?

No. This was Bumblebee. It wasn't a proposition. It was a kind, thoughtful offer. He'd promised to take care of her, and this was a way he felt he could...could he?

Of course he could.

He'd been "taking care" of Vashi... at least until the new mech showed up. If he'd not been doing a good job it probably wouldn't have gone on most every night for the month of their affair. Back at Mt. St. Hilary he'd been Smokescreen's favorite berthtoy over the past few months, and according to Spike there had been others since their awakening on Earth. And there must have been other lovers in his past too, for he had to have learned somewhere. Despite his appearance and demeanor, he wasn't young or innocent by any means.

His hand curled over her belly and his head nodded slightly toward her. "I'm here if you want me," he whispered, a certain practiced tone of vulnerability in his voice, neither pleading nor desperate. How could anyone distrust that?

Carly sighed and lay her hand atop his, and he sighed back. And while she remained completely still, her mind was a capricious whirl of thought. Did she want him...in that way?

The answer from her body was a resounding yes. She did need what he was offering, and enough now not to care too much about how it was packaged. She'd even been wondering earlier how she might find a moment to slip away and take care of herself.

There was certainly no concern of pregnancy, nor a worry of catching anything from Bumblebee. Ratchet had said once that a Cybertronian was an inhospitable environment for the viruses and bacteria common to organic creatures. With all the oils, the fluids, the electricity, the high temperatures, the metals, the synthetics, and the chemicals, nothing organic lived long on or inside of them.

But the biggest concern came to the surface and bubbled out of the syrup of desire in a question. "What about Spike?" How would he feel about it, to find that his best friend had ended up sexually intimate with his girlfriend? They were both close to him, but this was the sort of thing that could drive an immovable wedge into a friendship.

Carly felt him smile against her hair. "Spike and I talked a lot about relationships, especially after Powerglide started seeing a human woman. I don't think he'll mind."

"You don't?" She could feel him pulling her ever so slightly closer.

"He'll understand... if you need it."

The man's moaning from next door was building to the point where their whispers were being drowned out.

"Think about it, Carly. Again, I'm here if you want me." He pulled her against his chest now and caught the edge of her ear between his lips. His glossa gave a single stroke up the captured edge. And then he pressed a delicate, dry kiss to the edge of her earlobe, his tongue wiggling her little gold hoop earring.

Releasing her ear, Bumblebee settled again with his hand resting on her hip with the fingers loosely curled, his vented breath wafting gently from a thoracic vent against her back.

Carly tried to reel in her thoughts. Damn he was tempting, and where had it come from? She'd never seen this side of his personality before. She lay still, feeling completely perplexed by the choice in front of her, and completely aroused by both the sounds from next door and Bumblebee's masterful touch. If anyone ever imagined the sunny little Autobot was inexperienced and naïve, they obviously had never looked below the surface of his personality.

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They went out just before the new day began, wanting to make the best of the time. Bumblebee had come up with a plan.

First they went shopping to purchase food, energon, and a few supplies. And on going past a clothing shop, the shopkeeper just opening for the day, Carly paused to look at the Horobian party gowns displayed in the window, practically melting at one matched set in three gradated shades of teal. "Those colors would be really pretty on me," she oohed and ahhed. An hour later they were walking out of the shop with it, along with a slip-dress, a pair of matching sandals, a set of jewelry, and a headdress. Bumblebee had insisted that she have a complete outfit, should they be invited to a party somewhere again. She'd protested at first, knowing the expense, but after seeing herself in the three-way mirror, attired in the matchless ensemble, she'd surrendered to vanity. The shopkeeper even tossed in a little lagniappe for her—three compacts of cosmetic powder, one orange, one creamy white, and one teal.

Bumblebee, back in his plates and tires for the day, transformed and they headed out into the desert. This road was in much better shape than the road they'd first come to Hax Horobis on and Bumblebee could put on some speed. It was actually paved, and even had some residents and services out along it. "Where are we going?" Carly asked.

"The Grand Canyon," the Volkswagen replied.

"What? In Arizona?"

"Here on Horobis. It's a huge canyon to the north of Hax Horobis and they actually call it the Grand Canyon."

She laughed. "Seriously?"

"You've seen those canyon pictures up in the spaceport and in the travel agencies. It's quite a tourist attraction here. I thought we'd go out and see it, stay for the sunset, and then head home and sleep. We'll be back with plenty of time to rest for first shift."

"That sounds like a good plan. How far away is it?"

"About two Earth hours, if we can maintain this speed."

And maintain it they did, coming in time to the great gash through the plateau, where an ancient river had carved its way though aeons of rock layers, partially aided by a geological fault and certainly aided by the torrential scouring of the heavy rains that eroded the deserts around Hax Horobis. "It does look like the Grand Canyon," Carly said, completely impressed by the view.

"It's really something, isn't it?" Bumblebee agreed, equally struck by the depth and the sheer vastness of it.

And they weren't the only ones there to enjoy the sight. Plenty of other tourists stood on the platforms clinging to the canyon rim, marveling and recording images and purchasing souvenirs from the locals. Given the mix of sizes, colors, and races, they'd come from all over the galaxy to see the natural wonder.

"Only thing missing is the donkey ride to the bottom of it," Carly remarked, looking over the pictorial books one sales stand offered. "You can do that at the Grand Canyon, if you don't want to hike down." She picked up a book that appeared to be mostly photographs and thumbed through it.

"Actually, there's a road to the bottom here. We could drive down to the river."

"Really?" She looked excitedly up at Bumblebee. "I'd love to do that. Would there be time?" She reached into her bag and gave the vendor a five-jil coin for the book of pictures. It would be yet another interesting souvenir of her trip to Horobis to share once she returned.

"There should be. It's a toll road—costs 15 jil—but is probably worth the fee."

"Bumblebee! Let's do it! We can't drive to the bottom of the Grand Canyon at home, but we can here!" she said excitedly.

"All right then," he smiled. "I'll look at the map and see where to go."

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The narrow two-lane road wound terrifyingly down into the canyon, in places narrowing down further to just one lane. At least it was paved and in good shape. Carly found herself holding her breath in some stretches, places where on one side of the road, a cliff rose straight up a hundred feet...or more, and on the opposite side it fell straight down twice that...or more. Thankfully there were guardrails through the worst stretches, and where a rare bit of flat land could be found atop some of the harder layers of rock, there were places one could pull over and gaze at the incredible panoramas.

They finally reached the bottom as the second quarter of the day began. Stopping and transforming, Bumblebee breathed a long sigh of relief—it had been a difficult drive. There were more hotels and tourist facilities at the bottom, but they decided simply to walk the trail that led along the river. On coming to a sandy beach-like area, where several other tourists were swimming or just wading in the shallows, Carly decided this was a good idea. After all, it was nearly the hottest part of the day, and the heat had continued to rise the deeper they had descended into the canyon. She wished she had a swimsuit, but wading would be pleasant enough. She took off her sandals and headed into the river.

Bumblebee followed, enjoying the cool of the water on his feet and tires as well. He moved out to where river was deeper and swifter, but paid attention to where his seats were, not wanting to get them wet. Something he'd never had to worry about on Cybertron.

And after cooling themselves, they drove the upstream road to a picturesque slot canyon and walked the winding trail up it, upon which the sun rarely shone. Further up the canyon road was a shrine above a sacred spring, apparently inhabited by some fertility goddess, to whom Taliseet women came to pray for children. For a fee, a priest would lead hopeful couples to the source and splash them with the water that had just bubbled up from the ground. "Our neighbors should come here," Carly giggled quietly after Bumblebee translated the sign for her. The final stop on the upper canyon road was at an arch on the canyon wall, where everyone stood beneath it to have their picture taken.

After the arch, they pulled off of the road and had a meal in a whispering grove of trees. And after eating they tucked down for a nap, Carly curling into Bumblebee's arm. The grove was out of sight of the road and so they could enjoy a little peace and solitude. According to the guidebook, there were no longer any Bashaduu in the area, the large predatory insect-like creatures that roamed most of Horobis, one of which they had encountered on their first day here.

On waking, they followed the lower canyon road. The sights to be seen along it included several waterfalls that issued from side canyons, a turbulent set of rapids on the main river—the antithesis of the gentle shallows they had waded in earlier, and an amazing viewpoint found at the top of a set of stairs hewn from the living rock. For these, Bumblebee put Carly atop his shoulders and climbed, taking them up quickly. While the views from the road had been spectacular , this viewpoint looked down an unusually straight section of the canyon into the distance, and for the umpteenth time that day the two gazed in silent wonder at the beauty of the Grand Canyon. Carly leaned fondly against Bumblebee's helm, glad to be sharing this with him.

Their wordless reverie was broken by a noisy tour group coming up the stairs and so they retreated. "I'm glad I bought that book . It has pictures of all these things we're seeing. I never want to forget this place," she sighed.

"Are they good pictures? I'm not sure how well my video captures here will turn out. I'm programmed to photograph Decepticons...not landscapes."

"I'm sure you'll get some good ones. Your other photos turned out. Though the pictures in the book are exceptionally beautiful—taken by professionals, I'm sure. So you get the right light and the most dramatic views. There are some amazing sunset pictures too."

"I hope the sunset tonight is a good one. I'd hate to be disappointed."

"Well, if it is, we'll just have to come back again before we leave Horobis," she said determinedly.

"That sounds like a plan," he grinned.

Back on the road, there was one more stop along the lower canyon, this one another shrine atop another sacred spring. Here Bumblebee bought a small bottle of water from a priest for two jil, just like all the other tourists were doing. The sign here promised that anyone who sprinkled the sacred water on his or her head before a business venture would be granted success. "I finally have the perfect thing to take home to Smokescreen," Bumblebee laughed on explaining it to Carly. "He'll love it!"

"You don't really believe it will work, do you?"

"Of course not! But it can't be any more of a trick than his deals are sometimes."

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The pair lay upon the blanket atop the canyon's rim, having finished another meal. Horobis had particularly marvelous sunrises and sunsets owing to the combination of long days and a meteorologically active atmosphere. The sun took longer to rise or set, and so the brilliant colors remained longer. And it was those brilliant colors they were staring up at now. Flaming apricot clouds stood in stunning contrast to the blue-green atmosphere. The highest billows were still an aureous white, while the lowest were a greyish-rust hue.

"I just realized something, 'Bee," Carly said suddenly. "My new dress...it's the color of the sky on Horobis."

"It is!" he agreed. "No wonder the lady gave you that orange blush to go with the bluish one. You're like the sunset."

"I'll need to get some of those white paper circles like Vashi glues to her face to represent the moons," she said, pointing toward the east where the smaller of Horobis's two bright white satellites was playing peek-a-boo among the clouds. And then she crawled up onto him and propped herself upon his chest, looking down at his faceplate. Her fingers strayed up to trace the bends in it. "Though the dress Vashi loaned me was a pretty color...a nice optic blue," she said, her fingers approaching the edges of his eyes.

"I'd like to see you in yellow, myself."

"Blondes look terrible in yellow," she answered. And then she wondered if that opinion had been an innuendo, or if he'd just picked up a bit of vanity from Tracks regarding one's personal color. The two were often paired together on patrols. But she decided to toy with his answer. "Well, how about this? Pink slip. Yellow shoes. Yellow and black gowns. Black gloves. Yellow headdress. I'd look like you."

"And your facepaint?"

"Blue over the eyes. Silver under them."

"You would look like me...or Sunstreaker, except for the pink. His interior is solid black."

Carly rolled onto her back and looked up again at the sunset. The bat-like creatures that lived in the desert, stirred by the hush of the evening, were beginning to venture forth to hunt, their thin leathery forms passing overhead.

The human and the Cybertronian continued to watch the sky as the light slowly faded, both coming up with combinations of Horobian dress to recreate the various color patterns of the Autobots they knew. Perhaps Vashi would let her play in her closet some afternoon.

"Sunsets on Cybertron were nothing like this," Bumblebee said softly. Our star fell below the horizon and that was it. Nothing like the ones on Earth. Nothing like here. When we first awakened on Earth, for the first deca-cycle or so there would always be this exodus from the Ark at dawn and dusk, all of us wanting to see the sun come or go."

"Were you still going out to see it?"

"I would if I wasn't busy."

"And you still think it's beautiful?"

"Of course I do," he chuckled. And then he sat up slowly, Carly sliding down into his lap. His hands reached out and lifted her into a standing position, and then he simply gazed at her in the last of the day's light. "There are a lot of beautiful things on your planet," he said tenderly.

Carly couldn't help but blush. There was that same tone of voice again, that vulnerable one he'd used the day before.

"There was some resistance when we first set the Ark on a course for your solar system, but now most of us are glad in that decision. I'd never have met you...and Spike, if we'd gone somewhere else."

"And I'd never have met you," she replied, stepping closer to him. She'd gotten fairly good at reading the emotions of the mechs, some of them being easier to interpret than others. Those that associated more with the humans, and those that appreciated human culture to a greater degree, were the easiest to read. And right now, Bumblebee's expectant expression and twitching hands were pretty much begging her to hold him. Or perhaps she was projecting her own difficult urges onto him.

He smiled as she reached up and put her arms over his clavicular plates. "I'm glad you're here with me...here on Horobis," she whispered into the auricular vent on his neck.

"The feeling's mutual," he sighed back, his arms enclosing her. One hand slid up to her upper back and one curled about her hips. "Carly..."

"'Bee?"

"Right now I just want to hold you and never let you go. I hope you can forgive me for feeling so close to you."

"Oh, 'Bee..." She closed her eyes and pressed her cheek against his, her nose falling into the concave divide between his faceplate and helm, her arms curling about his neck. "I feel close to you too." It was all she could say, some rather awkward emotions bubbling up inside her at that moment. Close was a good word...a gateway word that could imply whatever this situation needed.

"If you weren't here with me on Horobis, I'd feel so alone," he said breathlessly.

And right now all those emotions were telling her to do was to kiss him...to forget her mores and her boyfriend and their mismatched races and just press her lips to his and go for it. But she still held back, as did he, neither coming up with the courage to express what they were feeling.

The bats now flew thickly about, snapping insects from the air and chirping where they rested in the trees. The lights at the visitors' village had come on some time ago, but now there seemed to be something happening there. They could hear music and a voice over a loudspeaker.

Carly and Bumblebee pulled apart slightly and looked to where the rest of the world was going on without them. "Shall we go look?" Carly asked, somewhat reluctantly breaking apart from him.

"Yes...let's" he said, seeming equally reluctant to break away from her. The pulse of his spark had just synchronized with her heartbeat as it usually did when they were physically close and concentrating on each other. Last night, when they'd gone back to bed after the interruption and the tickle fight, it had synchronized fully and remained so through the whole recharge period. This was a normal thing for two mechs, but it was as if his spark didn't know what she was, and probably it didn't care anyway. It just wanted to sing the same song.

Was this what Powerglide felt for Astoria?

Bumblebee shook out the blanket, folded it, and tucked it into subspace, retrieving Carly's jacket at the same time, for which she was appreciative.

They went over to the visitor area and at the center of the plaza, a group of Taliseet were assembling. Their clothes were as colorful as their skin, though their dress looked nothing like what the Taliseet in Hax Horobis wore. And when music came over the loudspeakers, they paired up and began to dance in a large circle. "Folk dancing!" exclaimed Carly. "You go halfway across the galaxy and they still have folk-dancing!"

They stood watching the dancers, Carly leaning back into Bumblebee's waist and arms, where he held her protectively. When two pretty little Taliseet children, dressed as their parents in colorful costumes, came about to ask for tips Carly dropped a few coins into their basket. "How could anyone resist those big dark eyes?" she sighed. And then she had Bumblebee take her picture with the sweet little things, for which she gave them some more money.

When the folk-dancing demonstration finished, Bumblebee transformed and they got back onto the road, Carly snuggling as tightly as she could against Bumblebee's seat. She never wanted to leave him now. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with the Autobots. And was it really that horrible to have been stranded so far from home with him? So many times before she'd imagined Spike there, riding along in the cab with her. But now, and with some guilt, she did not conjure him. Instead it was just her and Bumblebee.

She fell asleep against the seat, lost in the hum of his engine and the vibration of the road and the feelings that had risen in her heart.

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"Stung" continues in Chapter 9: "I Will. I Want To" The chapter BB/Carly fans have been desperately awaiting!

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Please send a little message my way if you're enjoying the story. Commentary is definitely appreciated! I would be nice to hear the thoughts of my readers.

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Author Notes

The Grand Canyon – Those of you who have been to the bottom of the Grand Canyon in Arizona know this. The temperature rises the deeper into it you are. It can be snowing at the rim and pleasantly warm at the bottom at the same time.

The Shrines – These are based upon experiences of my travels in Japan, where different springs and shrines are noted for certain mystical powers.

Folk Dancing – " Yes, no matter what the culture, folk dancing is stupid." – MST3K on "Progress Island USA"

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Transformers and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Hasbro and Takara Tomy. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.