So, here we are in December my last chapter update was back in April. I have no excuse except Writer's Block is a bitch. I actually had this chapter mostly done in May, didn't like it, and it stewed for 6 months. I spent most of my summer thinking up tiny idea scraps for a future Ayla and the Bots story that may or may not happen. I've hit Writer's Block again for the next chapter. I know exactly what I want to happen, I just have no clue how to make it happen. Hopefully it'll come to me soon.

Consider this chapter my gift to all of you guys, my readers. It doesn't matter if you're new to the story or have been here since Chapter 1 I really appreciate each and every one of you. Happy Holidays if you celebrate anything and I wish everyone the best in the upcoming year.

In this chapter: Sunstreaker discovers snot and stops denying his true feelings.

Tons of cookies and thanks to my wonderful and patient beta Vivienne Grainger. Without her I doubt that this story would be half as enjoyable because of all the mistakes. Even when I self check myself there's always something small and stupid, but obvious to everyone else that I miss.

As always, Read, Review, and Enjoy!

-The Beckster

PS- cookie to anyone who finds my super secret hidden message and comments about it in a review.


Chapter 9

Sunstreaker broke out of his partial recharge stupor as Ayla started shifting in her sleep and muttering. He cast an unnecessary glance around Med-Bay; it was empty. Ratchet was in Maine meeting an arriving mech. He only let Sunstreaker in for Ayla, but not without very real threats of disassembly, a frame reconstruction, and a change of paint color should anything be out of place.

Sunstreaker scowled at the thought and turned his glare to the unconscious, twitching human.

With a soft cry, Ayla sat up straight, a pained expression on her face. She did not get up and run, which the mech was grateful for; he really did not want to spend the whole time trying to restrain the hysterical human.

Maybe if he just got her to lie down again she'd just curl up and cry. Sunstreaker gently took two fingers and tried to push her shoulder down. To his dismay she wrapped her arms around his fingers and clung to them like a drowning person to a life preserver. Then, to make matters worse, she pressed her face against his fingers and started sobbing uncontrollably. Sunny tried to remove his hand from her grasp, but when he pulled it away she continued to cling and was lifted off of her bed.

"Ayla, let go," he murmured, trying to shake her off. Her grip only tightened. He vented reluctantly when he realized what he had to do. He turned his optics to the ceiling and scowled upwards. If there was a Primus he had a sick sense of humor. Ratchet was good at this; he would hold Ayla and pull a bunch of soothing words out of his aft, treating the human like a sparkling. Ratchet liked to do that. Sunstreaker would rather he could just leave Ayla where she was and let the night terror run its course without any effort on his part.

The yellow mech briefly considered just staying like this until Ayla fell back into a regular sleep cycle, until the still sobbing human turned her head smearing tears across her cheeks and his finger plating and, dear Primus what is that!

Instinctively he yanked his fingers out of Ayla's grip, a look of deep disgust gracing his face plates. The human fell back, missing the mattress and hitting the metal berth with an audible thud. Sunny studied the string of sticky, viscous, mucus strung between two of his fingers with horror for a brief second before reaching for the closest thing to wipe it off, Ayla's blanket.

Meanwhile, the woman's sobs became shrill cries of torment as she curled up as if trying to protect herself from attackers. With a miniscule twinge of guilt and a large wave of irritation as the shrill cries started to make his audials hurt, Sunstreaker slid one hand underneath Ayla's shoulder to lift her back onto the mattress. As soon as he touched her, Ayla's cries subsided and she pressed herself into his hand. The instant he rolled her out of his hand her cries rose in pitch.

Of course he thought sourly.

Awkwardly, but carefully, he maneuvered his hands to scoop Ayla into his arms. If she stayed curled on her side she'd fit just fine on his forearm, and it was really only going to be for a few more minutes. As before, the instant he touched her Ayla unconsciously pressed herself toward the physical contact, one hand reaching out and digging her fingers into a small crevice in Sunny's armor. Her quiet sobs continued and she started shivering on the cool metal. Muttering to himself, Sunny grabbed Ayla's blanket and laid it over her, managing to wedge part of it underneath her face to protect his armor.

Outside of his conscious control, a deep, instinctive string of programming initiated in his CPU. He felt his arm plating heat up to match Ayla's body temperature, and his arm moved close to his body automatically.

He sat on the free end of the berth and leaned against the wall. If he was going to hold Ayla like this until her night terror ended he might as well sit down.

He offlined his optics - just for a few minutes, just until Ayla stopped sobbing, he assured himself. He listened to her cry and picked up on the rhythmic pattern of her sobbing and breathing, and underneath it all he felt and heard the soft pulse of her heart. It was similar to a Cybertronian pump, the human heart, but while his pump made a constant thrum the heart had a distinct 'lub-dub'. It was a strange, a little uncomfortable, but oddly fixating.

Primus, it's been a long day… he thought before the recharge protocols that had been interrupted took over.

**************************************I wonder if…*************************************

Sideswipe quietly slipped into the dark Med-Bay. He had monitor duty at seven but wanted to see if Sunstreaker had spent the whole night in Med-Bay since he didn't return to their quarters after Ayla's episode.

On silent peds he crept around the divider that shielded Ayla's berth from the rest of Med-Bay. He froze and grinned wickedly when his optics beheld the sight of his twin and Ayla.

The yellow mech and the human were both dead to the world. Sunstreaker was seated on the berth leaning against the wall with his head tilted back, mouth slightly open. One arm hung limp at his side, the other was curled protectively against his chest plate, cradling a sleeping Ayla. Ayla was on her side, facing Sunstreaker, one arm acting as a pillow, the other pulling her blanket close to her, one leg curled up under the blanket and the other sticking out.

Sideswipe stored the picture to his CPU. This was going to be great blackmail, absolutely worth it when Sunny beat the slag out of him for it. The opportunity was too good to pass up, and it confirmed something he had been pondering for months.

Still grinning, the red terror silently left Med-Bay leaving its occupants undisturbed.

A few minutes later, Ayla's thoughts started running through her head before she could sleepily answer them. Why was her arm numb? Why was her bed so hard? Where was her pillow? She slowly opened her eyes half way. Why was everything yellow? Was this a dream? No, not a dream.

Her eyes widened. The walls of Med-Bay weren't yellow! She half sat up and looked around to see where she was and gasped in surprise when it hit her.

She was perched, rather precariously, on the arm of … Sunstreaker?

Ayla fully sat up and looked up at the still-sleeping mech. This was very awkward and unnerving. Ayla wanted down. Now.

"Umm … Sunstreaker?" she said quietly, hoping to wake the mech. No response.

"Sunstreaker," she tried again, a little louder. Still nothing.

Ayla sighed and sat up on her knees, facing Sunstreaker's chest plate. She looked up at him and shouted his name while tapping on his armor. It worked.

Sunstreaker sat forward quickly, his battle programs initiating. Ayla squeaked as she almost lost her balance, and just barely managed to get a grip on his armor before she fell. He looked down on his arm and saw the clinging human.

"Oh Primus…" he muttered as he gently removed the human from his arm. "I must have fallen into recharge while you were having your night terror."

"Right … well, um … that was really kind of awkward. I'm not gonna lie." Ayla stood there trying to work some feeling back into her arm, not looking at the mech next to her.

Sunstreaker grunted in reply, pointedly looking at anything but the human.

"How about we just say that never happened and never mention it again," Ayla offered.

"Agreed," Sunstreaker grunted as he stood up, working out the stiffness in his joints. He turned to Ayla, "I'm going to assume you would like a ride back to your room."

"Uh, no I can walk. If you'll just let me off of the berth, that'll be fine," Ayla said rubbing her sore neck.

The two went their separate ways after an awkward pause outside of the doors of Med-Bay. Both were eternally grateful that Med-Bay was empty and nobody saw what happened. That embarrassing incident could crawl into a dark corner of their memories and die.

*******************************anyone actually reads these*******************************

"Ah there he is, the cuddle bot," Sideswipe greeted his brother as Sunstreaker entered their quarters. He had been waiting all day to finally confront his brother.

"What?" Sunny replied, very confused.

Sides crossed the room and threw his arm around Sunny's shoulders, "Ya know, we were beginning to think you were a completely lost cause, totally incapable of any kind of affection towards anyone. But, I knew the truth."

"What are you talking about?" Sunny demanded, throwing his brother's arm off.

"I'm kinda jealous. You let Ayla touch you for what? Seven hours. And then I, your twin brother, can't even touch you for a minute. It's kind of sad. It hurts." Sides joked, placing his hand over his spark.

"What do you mean?" Sunny asked, turning to his brother and watching him cautiously.

"I saw you this morning in Med-Bay. You fell into recharge while holding Ayla during her night terror. I have pictures. It was precious."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sunny, when are you going to stop lying to yourself?" Sides dropped the humorous act and faced his brother.

"I'm not lying about anything," the yellow twin growled back.

"Says the mech who refuses to admit to himself, or anyone else, that he has grown attached to a human."

"I don't –"

"Sunny, you can't lie to me, and you can't hide it from me, as much as you've tried. I noticed the first day we got back together that anything concerning Ayla you hid from me, and yourself. I'm not stupid, I figured it out, and you didn't hide anything. When she dislocated her hip back in November you almost had a spark failure. Her first night terror, your initial thought was to defend her. You can't deny that!"

"I'm not having this conversation with you," Sunny growled, turning towards the door.

"Yes you are, because you're not going anywhere," Sides grabbed his brother by the shoulder and turned him around. "Now stop being a stubborn sparkling about it and just fess up. Don't make me dig, because I will," he threatened, already using his bond to read his brother's emotions.

Sunny fumed for a minute. He felt Sides using their bond, but he didn't push him away. He didn't open up either. If his brother was going to pry it out of him, then he was going to have to work for it. The two stared at each other in an unrelenting stalemate and the minutes ticked by.

With a frustrated huff of air he finally caved. Slowly, as if the words burned him on the way out, Sunstreaker reluctantly admitted, "Alright, I … care about Ayla. Satisfied?"

"Not completely; because for some glitched reason you've been lying to yourself for the better part of a year. So aside from the obvious reasons; what else has convinced you that lying to yourself, will just make everything fine? Were you afraid that the universe will come to an end because you cared about someone other than yourself and me, especially an organic? Or everyone on base would short circuit with the realization? Or that Ayla would shun you and push you away? You know she's still convinced that if you could get away with it you would finish what you started last summer."

Sunny answered his brother with a cold stare. Sides returned the stare while digging deeper until he found the answer. Twins couldn't read each other's minds, as many mechs thought. Mind reading was impossible, though some mechs seemed to be able to do just that. Rather, certain key words Sides thought about would cause an unconscious reaction in Sunny's spark that lead to other emotions and subjects leading to it. This digging was an art and Sideswipe was its master. Unfortunately, it only worked between mechs who shared a twin bond.

"Your reputation?" he said disbelievingly, "You've been doing this just to protect your reputation!"

Without warning Sideswipe's fist connected with the side of his twin's head. Sunny barely caught himself on the edge of his berth, momentarily dazed.

"What the slag was that for!" he shouted, his hand curling into a tight fist, ready to return the blow.

"For being such a glitch head! You put up all of that just so people wouldn't think you've gone soft? Are you stupid?" Sides dodged Sunny's punch and quickly threw the still fuzzy mech to the ground. He pinned his brother to the floor by holding his arms down and sitting on him. "Honestly, what were you processing? Your slagging reputation!"

Sunny fought under his brother's grip. In a larger space he would have thrown him off in a second, but he didn't feel like destroying their room at the moment. Committing murder was beginning to sound very enticing. Maybe if Primus was feeling generous he would grant him the ability to shoot lasers out of his optics, like that freak Decepticon Shockwave could.

"Stop moving or I'll punch you in the face again. Break one of your optics this time, you stupid glitch head."

To Sideswipe's surprise, Sunny stopped fighting. Instead he settled for glaring death at his twin. Not falling for the trick, Sides kept his grip just as tight.

"Now really, Sunny, did you think that people would think less of you as a warrior just because you care for a human? You are stupid! Nobody thinks that way except the Decepticons." Sideswipe was working himself up for a long rant. "I'll give you a good example: Ironhide. He would kill for little Annabelle, do you think that makes him any less of a warrior on the battlefield? No. And look at Bumblebee, do you know how many times he's almost offlined to protect Sam?"

"Don't compare me to him! He's just a scout!" Sunstreaker spat, as he fought for his freedom again.

"Regardless!" Sideswipe said, quickly pinning his arms back down. "Having someone to fight for and protect has made them fight harder. They aren't just fighting for the cause; they're fighting to protect someone else. You're under the delusion that it's a bad thing or a weakness. You're wrong. I don't know why it's taking so long for you to get that through your processor. It's not a difficult concept."

Sunstreaker did something he rarely did, admitted defeat. He finally relented to the only force in the universe that could make him – his own self. Sideswipe was right, for once, and he knew he needed to listen to his brother. He finally listened to his CPU. With a rush of air through his vents, Sunny looked away from his brother, his death stare softening to "maim and mangle." "You're right," he admitted. "Now what?"

"Well I've done my job, now you need to do yours. I think Ayla would greatly appreciate the knowledge that you don't want to kill her every second she's in your presence. Otherwise just be more open and social to her. Talk to her, more than your occasional exchange of witty banter. Have a real conversation. Have you ever held a real conversation with her? I bet you don't know basic things about her, like her middle name or her favorite color." Sides finally released his brother and stood up.

"Her middle name is Louise," Sunny replied as he pulled himself to his feet.

"You just looked up her file and saw that, you didn't know that off the top of your CPU."

"Why does it matter?" Sunny growled before his fist flew up and connected with his brother's face. "That's for hitting me."

Sideswipe grunted in pain, he should have seen that coming – especially from Sunstreaker. At least he still had the pictures of Sunny and Ayla to use as blackmail if his brother ended up being more stubborn than usual. He shook himself and checked for any leaking energon; that hit was harder than normal. His twin had a smug, satisfied glint in his optics as he scowled at Sides.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm tired. I want to recharge sometime tonight. Try and curb your murderous impulses and not kill me in my sleep. At least let me see the light of day before I offline." He paused as if suffering an internal conflict, "But that would mean my last sight would be your ugly mug … nope, I still want to see daylight. Don't murder me tonight."

Sunny glared at his twin dangerously as the red mech settled himself onto his berth and offlined his optics. He hit the light switch (maybe a little harder than necessary), lay down on his own berth, and offlined his optics, but his CPU wouldn't shut down and let him recharge. His thoughts kept turning to Ayla.

The human, in all her inferior, revolting, organic glory, had somehow wormed her way into his spark. He wasn't even sure how. She was practically useless, with no apparent skills and still on strict physical restrictions because of her injury. She wasn't a fighter, even before her injury; she was too small to hold her own against anyone and she shied away from physical confrontations like the plague. Mechanics and technology were foreign languages to her, so even when she was finally fully recovered she wouldn't be able to take up a conventional position on the team. And she was organic, physiologically inferior to him and simply not built for survival in a war, or even fit to be around Cybertronians. He had to be ridiculously careful when interacting with her. All in all, a nuisance and not worth his time.

Yet somehow, Sunstreaker was attached to her. The more he watched her as she healed the more she grew on him. Ayla simply didn't irritate him as much as other humans. Was she still irritating? Yes, but he didn't want to punt her across the tarmac every time she opened her mouth - probably because she didn't complain about anything and everything, like most humans. Many would have considered her stoic, but she just respected other's privacy and expected them to respect hers. She was determined almost to the point of being stubborn, but she was smart enough to know where to stop before she crossed the line by too much. She was brave too, in an unconventional way. She had nerves of steel and would stand her ground against anyone to defend herself. Pit, she stood up against him and that was something some Autobots didn't even think about doing.

The young woman had spirit. A malicious spirit that sometimes exploited the fact Sunny couldn't do anything to her if she pushed him too far. At least when Sideswipe pissed him off he could beat the slag out of his red alter ego. Sideswipe was right; even though she pissed him off on a regular basis he did feel protective of Ayla almost as if she was a sister and not just another organic.

Sunstreaker mentally scoffed at the thought of claiming Ayla as his adopted sister and pictured various mechs' reactions to the claim. Prowl would probably suffer a logic glitch and go into full stasis lock (which was fun to witness on any other occasion), Ratchet would lock him in med bay and spend a week doing a deep CPU scan to find exactly where his coding went wrong (which was never enjoyable), Sideswipe would be the worst with non-stop nicknames and heckling. Life with him would be pit.

His optics flashed online when he remembered that Sideswipe had pictures of him and Ayla from that morning. He cast a glance to his brother, already in recharge.

He'd kill him another day for those pictures.


I really hope I didn't crush any hopes and dreams of anyone wishing for this to be an AylaxTwin(s) story. I've always planned on their relationship being a brother/sister relationship.

Until next time!