Chapter 10

Aloha

Barricade, Aloha decided, was a needy little grouch. He was also a drama queen. A giant, metal, brooding one. Somehow that was ten times worse than a regular sized human one. And he was a horn dog, which, surprisingly, wasn't as awful as one would think. If only because melding life forces with someone was the most amazing experience she'd ever had. Still, it was hard to wrap her 'pathetic fleshy processor' around the ridiculous fiasco that was now her life.

First, She was an adult alcoholic that still lived with her dad who constantly wanted to tell her to make better choices but never would because it went against his stupid beliefs. Second, there was this alien car thing in her garage room that was possibly-probably- as evil as whoever thought spiders were a thing that needed to exist. Third, it was now a he, and he had a name. Fourth, she couldn't figure out if she was cheating or not with this thing on her boyfriend, who she didn't like and who was also cheating on his wife with her, and could care less about what it said about her morally. And, finally, fifth, her brain and emotions were completely out of control because she couldn't meditate and calm down anywhere in her house without being roped into a 'transfer' with Barricade that usually led toward an 'overload' which meant that she ended up heaving on the floor with the world spinning around her.

There was, officially, nothing normal or boring about her life. That ship had finally sailed and it was time to wave goodbye.

A whopping two days had passed since their first meld.

She laid on her futon with her eyes set on the ceiling. Barricade was resting, finally. He was looking like a brand new car, or whatever he was. All of his clean lines were in tact and almost every dent in his body had been popped back out. Aside those few blemishes and his missing mirrors that wouldn't grow back, he was perfect. A side effect to all of the 'transfers' they'd been doing, or so he told her. Most of the time he'd made it sound like that was the only reason why he pushed for it.

Aloha wondered sometimes if he remembered that these things went both ways. While he certainly acted like it was done only out of necessity, she could sense a canyon-like hollow in his spirit that told her otherwise. He was lonely. Most likely had been for a very long time. Loneliness was something she understood deeply. Besides her father, who she still somewhat distanced herself from, there was no one in her life that she loved. And despite never saying it and pretending he was invulnerable to weakness, Aloha had quickly discovered that Barricade had no one. So that was her argument for agreeing to let this continue. Besides that the transfer was like her soul stuck a fork in an electrical socket.

Huffing, Aloha forced herself up. She got a cooler from her fridge and alternated between drinking it and gathering all of her dirtiest clothes up for the laundry mat. Once they were sorted into a pile, she picked the others up off the floor, then moved on to the next task in her mission to tidy her room. She passed Barricade's still form two or three times, each time she felt the tangles of his life force greeting her. Even when he was knocked out, he wanted familiar company. The raw intensity of that instinct or need hurt to think about.

Aloha pulled away from him and dressed into reasonable clothes before she gathered up her dirty pile and took it into the house.

Barricade

Barricade jolted awake to the sound of banging on the door behind him. Rumbling angrily, he ran a scan on the source. It was the meat bag attempting to court the female. He vented when the male persisted, fist pounding on the metal while he called her name.

Barricade considered transforming to blast him into the next galaxy. Venting, he searched the rest of the house for her signature and found it gone. Odd. The female didn't leave her home often, unless it was with her parent, who had left the early that morning, or with the arrogant glitch that was currently making a ruckus on their doorstep.

In a show of absolute willpower, Barricade sat still until the glitch gave up and left the area. Once he was sure that no one was nearby, he attempted to transform. His head ended up knocking against the lights hanging from the roof, making them sway precariously. He settled on the ground, then cursed when there wasn't enough room for his legs to stretch out. The end result was an awkward arrangement of too-big limbs in a cramped corner of the garage. It was immensely frustrating to finally transform only to be limited to such a narrow space.

Still, he had done it, and with minimal incident. His systems hummed and functioned as they were intended to. All of his joints and extremities appeared to be in good form. Discovering the female's healing life force had been a wild stroke of luck as it actively fed itself into repairing his damage with every merge. Progress was rapid and clean. More importantly, it allowed him to stretch out his energon reserves far more than he'd be able to without it.

Not that he should let that lull him into a false sense of security. Now that he was well enough to travel, priority one was locating his own store of energon. To do that, he needed to leave this place. Barricade considered his options and ran searches online for clues to a deposit somewhere planet side.

He was testing what he could of his weapons systems inside the space when the female returned. She walked up to the garage door, and Barricade scrambled to transform back down before someone caught a glimpse of him and alerted authorities. He shut his doors just as she slipped inside.

She looked at him questioningly, holding a container of clean coverings under one arm. Barricade vented at her, "That pathetic meat bag you call a mate came bashing on your door while you were gone."

He sensed her mood drop. She exhaled slowly, "He probably sent me an email that I didn't check. He does that every once and a while when he gets a chance to come by but can't wait for me to respond."

"Next time he comes uninvited I will snap his spine in half."

She moved past to set the container down on the floor in front of her futon. "Is it bad that I'm not even a little upset by that?"

He snorted. "Not surprising. Nothing screams disdain for someone like dousing your own spark to survive any contact they make with you."

"I'm going to ignore the fact that you watched us do the dirty the other night, you perverted mess."

"You didn't exactly make an effort to spare my senses of it."

She rolled her eyes at his offended tone. The female sank down on her seat-bed and rifled through the container. Barricade studied her, instinctively scanning her to check the progress of her recovery. He sensed her life force flowing through her body, escaping in small vents through the roots in her flesh left by their transfers. It was richly colored, and he could sense the emotions that plagued her even from across the garage. Not at peace, and not quite in turmoil. Something was weighing on her processor, though.

Not his problem, he firmly reminded himself. Barricade inched forward on his tires, "Female."

"Demon spawn."

He rumbled quietly at her automatic response, "I will be leaving soon."

She stopped and raised her eyes to him, though her expression was too neutral and foreign to read. "What?"

"I didn't stutter, fleshling."

"Aren't you still recovering?"

"I can travel."

She stared at him for a long time, offering no clue to what she thought of his decision. The female shrugged then, "Alright, then." She dismissed him and returned to her previous task.

Barricade stared at her. Was that all? She had snappy responses to everything he did or said, but now she was suddenly content to ignore him? "Preferably sometime this week."

"You could just go today," She dropped nonchalantly. Her eyes raised to his frame again, "Theres nothing keeping you here."

Oh, no she wasn't. She was not about to subject him to a passive aggressive female tantrum because she saw some kind of relationship where there wasn't one. Barricade hissed at her, "No, theres not."

She squinted at him, "Whats your deal, Barricade? Stop acting like I should freak out if you go." He growled back at her, and she quickly cut him off, "listen here, you dumb dandy. I don't care what you do with your life as long as you just take care of your stupid butt-headed self. If you think I'm being sassy with you because I think theres something between us just because we did some things together, then you're the one who hasn't been paying attention."

Silence. Barricade processed her words and did a double-take on her body language.

"I mean, really? I pimp out myself out to some stupid a-hole that thinks he's god's gift to the world so I can use his connections. And thats not the first time I've done this. Besides you, theres been others I've snuffed myself out for, just to stay ahead. Foreplay, sex, transfers, overloading, whatever. Its just a means to an end and there is no value in it to me. There never was. I am not looking to get attached to anyone. I have no interest in it, so you can trash that idea right now."

She started folding her clothes, something he'd never seen her do. A distraction to what she was feeling or thinking? Barricade narrowed his optics and expanded his field toward her, like a predator leaping for it's prey.

He completely encircled her in it, delving into all of the key roots of her life force that reacted best to him. Her physical body went rigid with a startled yelp, but her energy broiled beneath the surface, hungry to breach and join his. It was a matter of coaxing her forth, and seizing the bond as it burned open between them yet again.

On a mission to prove his point, he flooded her with feeling, color and signals. Reactions she couldn't willingly alter or stop rushed back to him, carrying an intoxicating pleasure and excitement that sent him soaring on a high he had yet to get used to.

'No value' his aft. She thrived on the joining just as he did. 'You enjoy this', and his thoughts didn't need to carry a smug tone because she would feel it clearly and know that he had won. 'You are no less immune to this than I am, and you, more than any other fleshling I've seen, are prone to addiction.'

'You're an asshole.' The heated response felt like whiplash, but he felt himself grin. Even her rage acted like a catalyst. It burned in both, insult and pleasure. Chuckling, he guided the flow of their transfer, running her anger down to his spark where it mellowed into something softer but no less heated. Back to her, and he felt her resolve crumble.

Dead-set on having the last word, he focused entirely on leaving her weak and wanting more.

Aloha

Aloha's eyes burned like molten lava when she returned to her room after a long cold shower only to find Barricade innocently napping away. If he was human, she would have punched him in the throat then kicked him in the nuggets for his stupid all-male power trip he'd just pulled on her. He may be sleeping soundly after his hard-earned victory, but he was about to figure out just how dangerous a wild Aloha could be when backed into a corner.

He may have won the battle, but the war was hers.

Aloha dropped a full arm load's worth of Press N' Seal plastic wrap and three rolls of duct tape on her wrist on her turn table.

While he was asleep in la la land, she went to work. His field reacted to her, pleasantly sliding across her skin in greeting and open acceptance. She divided her attention between her work and constantly soothing him with her own energy, making sure he felt safe and secure so he didn't wake up before she was done.

With borderline murderous intent, Aloha completely encased his body in two or three layers of plastic wrap before she grabbed Darla's top half from the floor and dressed her in an old t-shirt with 'THE MOODY BITCH' written in huge letters in permanent marker across the front. Then she took the mannequin and slapped her down on top of Barricade's body like the world's most glorious hood ornament and strapped her down with two rolls worth of duct tape. The last roll was spread all across his frame, wrapped tight over the plastic to make sure it wasn't coming off any time soon.

Aloha took pictures from every angle, intending to have copies made and stashed everywhere for black mail and reminders that the only reason Barricade was lucky enough to even be graced with her presence was because she bought him for dirt cheap to tear him apart and reshape him into something else.

Grabbing her lap top and a beer from the fridge, Aloha left the house and sat down on the curb to download pictures and drink.

Less than twenty minutes later, an engine roared in wrath. She felt the vibrations all the way to the curb, and sensed the black anger of his spark. Aloha raised a middle finger toward the garage and tipped her bottle back.

I hope everyone enjoyed this update. I'm sorry I haven't gotten around to replying to everyone yet, I promise I'll sit down and do that soon as I can.

Love to all, wishing you a good week.

Aloha, her father and the story belongs to me. Barricade and Transformers does not.