Chapter 10

"Uh, Zikya?" I turned around and saw Road Ripper staring right at me. "What's wrong? You look kind of worried."

"No, I'm fine!" I lied. Okay, stick to the plan. Tell him when everyone's in one spot.

"Well, I could give you a ride back home if you don't want to stay here."

"Yes! Please!" He looked confused for a second about my reaction, like I didn't want to stay with him at all. Ignoring it, he transformed and I crawled into the passenger seat.

"Holoform or no?" he asked.

"Not today," I said a shakily. All right, now he had to be thinking I was out of my mind!

"Suit yourself." I could tell he wanted to flash that (very) sexy holoform in the driver's seat. Though, I couldn't tell that either he wanted to have me stare at him for the ride home, or he actually just wanted to make me comfortable. Choice two was probably the best answer for that.

Once we arrived back to my burnt-up house, we saw a patient Wheeljack, a sleeping Sideways, and an infuriated Sunstreaker. I got out of Road Ripper like I was in front of the Decepticons instead and walked over. Road Ripper transformed and kneeled beside me.

"Is there something wrong?" he said. "You could talk about it, you know. We're your friends!"

"And more," I heard Sunstreaker grumble. Road Ripper (I could tell) pretended not to hear that and kept looking at me to get an answer. I turned my gaze over to the other Autobots and sighed.

"Something's going to happen to you, Road Ripper," I said in a nervous tone. "I don't really know how to put it into words."

"Just tell us," Wheeljack said. The smoothness of his voice calmed me down a bit and something in the back of my head said it was going to be okay.

"He knows you're the All Spark piece he's looking for," I said without looking at my car.

"Who?" he said. "Who's 'he'?"

"M-" Damn it, why couldn't I say it?! "M-"

"Just let it out, Zikya," Wheeljack cooed.

"Mega…tron," I whimpered. My head fell into my heads and tried to block a few tears. This was all unfair! No warning when the world was on fire, my family dead, and now the guy responsible wants to take my last friend away? How much more do I have to take!

"What?!" Sunstreaker shouted. "Megatron's here?!"

"He's looking for Road Ripper," Wheeljack repeated for me to clear it up. "He was merged with the All Spark, so Megatron plans to disassemble him until there's nothing left but the fragment he wants."

"I HATE HIM!" I screamed. Road Ripper's hand laid across my back to comfort me. It worked a bit; it was as warm as in electric blanket.

"Cool it down, Zikya," he whispered. "Nothing's going to happen to me, and I'm sure as hell I won't let anything happen to you."

"You're just saying that," I cried. "You can't predict the future."

"But we can always change it, remember?"

"Whatever…"

Road Ripper picked me up I both of his hands and pulled me over to his left shoulder for me to sit on. I leaned over to his head and stayed there, hoping he wouldn't turn his head so much. From that position, I saw Sideways getting back from his sleep and yawn. (Robots could yawn?)

"What'd I miss?" I said.

"Megatron's on his way to nab Road Ripper, since he's the All Spark fragment," Sunstreaker said, an uncaring tone in his voice. Didn't matter if the Tesla Roadster tripped over a boulder or killed by the Decepticon leader, he wanted him out of his sight.

"Whoa, back up!" Sideways said, a little more urgent. "Megatron? The big, bad, grey guy? He's here?!"

"What do you expect?" Wheeljack said. "he'll probably try to jump us while we're in stasis. I suggest we take shifts when we sleep. I'll go first. I'll wake Sunstreaker up at ten, he'll go to twelve, Road Ripper's up 'till three, Sideswipe to five."

"Do I get a shift?" I asked.

"You want one?"

"Yeah."

"You're with Road Ripper."

I looked at Sunstreaker to see a reaction. Exactly the way I thought; crossed arms, narrowed optics, and grumbling something in Cybertronian. Obviously pissed off that I didn't get the shift with him. Feeling slight pity, I whispered to Road Ripper and he answered to Wheeljack for me.

"She wants to share the shift with Sunstreaker," he said.

"Is that alright?" I said to him.

"It's fine, mama. One night won't hurt me," he answered back. Then to Wheeljack, "Can she?"

"If it's alright with Sunstreaker," Wheeljack replied. He turned his head to the yellow Lamborghini and he shook his head wildly with a large smile. "It's settled. Me, Sunny and Zikya, Ripper, then Sides. Got it?"

"Yep!"

"We're cool."

"Okay."

"Awesome!"

"Fine," Wheeljack said to his answers. "Get some sleep. You'll need it, especially you two." He pointed to Sunstreaker and me. He nodded his head and walked over to Road Ripper, to talk to me. He held out his hand towards me and I stepped into his palm. I didn't know why, but my hands felt they were glued near my heart as if to try and hold it down.

"Are you going to sleep next to me to wake up?" he said, a little shimmer in his eyes. I couldn't help but smile back. I looked back at Road Ripper to see what his opinion would be. The nod and smile told me it was okay. Obviously, he trusted Sunstreaker, even though he nearly killed him. I looked back to Sunstreaker, my hands still on my chest, to give him my answer.

"Yeah," I sighed. Why was it so difficult to say? "I'm with you tonight." His holoform appeared by his face and it leaned on the robotic form's face.

"Do you snuggle?" he said. Both him and the holoform were smiling. I gave out another crappy, girlish giggle.

"Sure, why not?" I said, trying to keep cool. Didn't work. I could tell because his smile got bigger and he even laughed. He put me back on the ground and his holoform jumped off. His robot form plopped to the ground and laid with his arms serving as pillows. His holoform wrapped his arm around me, over the shoulders, and kept me close.

"You're very pretty," he whispered into my ear. That sent a cute little shiver down my spine, then I realized part of that was Sunny moving his arm down and stroking my back.

"You don't even care if Road Ripper likes me," I said. He held my face in his hands and looked into my eyes while I looked into his. God, that was such a pretty blue!

"Don't talk about him while you're with me," he said. I chuckled.

"You want to make the most of it, huh?"

"Entirely."

"Is there an instruction or something?"

"Snuggle close, don't move, say my name every now and again, and please let me kiss you or something!"

"Forehead."

"Mouth."

"Cheek."

"Deal." He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and smiled. "There'll be more to come."

"I should've guessed."

He gave another chuckle and kissed me again on the cheek. The yellow-dressed holoform laid down in the grass and (I guess) I had no choice but lay next to him. Just to amuse him, I was so close a picture book couldn't wedge through and put my hand on his beating chest. His arm wrapped around my head to give me something soft enough to place my head on and he rolled over to the side, putting his other arm around my waist.

"Say it," he said.

I laughed.

"Say it!" he said in a sing-song voice.

For more amusement, I leaned near his ear and whispered "Sunstreaker" very softly. I saw him shiver and he groaned.

"What's the matter?" I teased him. "Can't handle a girl?"

"That just sounded good."

"Haven't had a girlfriend lately, huh?"

"Nope. I'm glad you decided to shift with me, though. You weren't feeling pity for me or anything, were you?"

"Eh." I shook my hand a bit, because I didn't feel like giving him the actual answer. He chuckled and nuzzled near my neck.

"You're soft," he said. From this position, I could tell how wide his smile was. This was probably his happiest, ever since he got here. I must've admitted, even I was glad to share a shift with him. I'm sure it wouldn't be so bad. I'm a tough, crazy chick.

I put my hand on his blonde hair, just to feel it. It felt so soft, I couldn't really feel anything! I found myself petting it and he laughed.

"Quit laughin'," I said.

"I can laugh if I want," he snapped back. "It's a free country here, ain't it?"

"If the Constitution survived, then yes."

Another chuckle. I was at least glad I could get him to laugh. And all it took was to sleep next to him and share a shift. (Notice that was sleep next and not with, duh.)

"I wish I had a girlfriend like you," he said.

"Kind of like Arcee?"

That was the magic button for him to stare up at me with a shocked face.

"What did you say? How do you know about her?"

"Sideswipe."

"Oh…"

"So?"

He raised an eyebrow. "So…what?"

"Why did she leave you for Jazz?"

"She said I was too controlling and cared more about myself than her."

"Lord, he admits the truth!" I said to the sky. Sunstreaker laughed again. (I was good at this!)

"Hearing it from you, I truly believe it."

"Like, after the blowtorch stunt I pulled?"

"Especially after the blowtorch!" Both of us laughed this time. He reached his head over to give me another kiss on the cheek. "How about you? What happened with all your boyfriends?"

"Jerks who left me so they could go after the easy ones."

I small groan emerged from Sunstreaker's throat and he laid his head near my chest. I could tell he was feeling guilty about the (seemingly) multiple times he chased after easies.

"That's when I decided boys were jerks." I stopped there.

"Until Road Ripper came to life?" See, he knew what I was going to say!

"Is it that obvious?"

"Pretty much." He moved his upwards and seemed to be looking past my face and to my head. I felt his arm move and he tugged at my ponytail a bit. "Why do you wear this?"

"My hair gets in my way sometimes." It was sort of true. Usually I couldn't stand it when my hair suddenly decided to go in front of my face and almost feel like choking me. I felt something else in my hair and realized that he was taking out my ponytail. He took a portion of my hair and ran his fingers through it.

"Looks better this way," he said.

"Can I put it back now?"

"No!" he laughed. "Primus, I can't even have one night with you, can I?"

"That, um…That reminds me. Thundercracker mentioned someone named Optimus Prime yesterday. Who's he?"

"Leader of the Autobots."

"Plain and simple?"

"Plain and simple."

"Is he here?"

"Not sure. He might be a few miles away, he could be back at Cybertron. No one knows where he is. Since we've landed on this planet, we've kind of lost touch with everyone else. We can only talk to others who are forty mega-miles away."

"Sucks, huh?"

"Yeah. We're just lucky that we have at least Wheeljack here if we get into a mess and need a fix-up. But, and don't tell him I said this, I think he's really whacked."

I looked over at Wheeljack, sitting on a large stump, taking over his shift. "What's wrong with him?"

"Nothing's really wrong with him, he's just freaky when it comes to inventing stuff. Last time we were on Cybertron, he was making a machine that builds catapults. We had to wait for Ratchet, the main doc 'bot, to come by just so we could check it out."

"Let me guess, people got hurt?"

"Prowl and Chromia were. But not that bad…" He seemed to trail a bit and yawned. "Let's go to sleep. We got a shift at twelve, remember?" He leaned his head over to my shoulder and lad there like it was a pillow. I put my arms back around my head after I took the ponytail holder from Sunstreaker's arm.

"That's not fair," he grumbled.

"Look around you, boy. Nothing is anymore." With that, and another laugh out of the yellow teen, we went to sleep and waited for Wheeljack to come by and wake us up.

(-)

In the morning, I was probably so tired I didn't even know I was awake. Sunstreaker's holoform was on top of me and hugging me tightly across my waist. His head was on my chest and I wish I had enough strength to push him off. I didn't have to when I realized he was awake.

"You're pretty good for a virgin," he said. My eyes became wide with anger and that turned into the strength I needed to get out from under him and grab him by the collar of his shirt.

"Excuse me?!" I said.

"Kidding! You're gullible!" he said, putting his hands up in surrender. I let go of his shirt and glared at him intensely. I knew it worked when his crawled back a little. The holoform disappeared and I looked over at the robotic form that turned on.

"That joke was so not necessary!" I screamed. Sideswipe, who was now getting off his shift, looked at us.

"Don't take it personal, Zikya," he said, smiling. "Even I play the same jokes."

"You guys are mean," I growled. I turned around towards the basement near my house. "Where's the blowtorch?" I started walking when Sunstreaker put his hand out to block me. I turned my body towards him and crossed my arms.

"Fine, I won't do it again," he said. His optics looked apologetic enough, so I shrugged my shoulders and walked to where Road Ripper was still sleeping. He was curled up in a ball and looked so cute I wanted to squeeze him! I remembered that the only reason he was in a ball was because I forgot to fix the heater in his system a couple weeks ago. I tapped him lightly on the cheek and his eyes opened slowly. He smiled at me and said good morning. God, he was so irresistible!

"Morning, baby." I put my right arm on his neck and kissed him on the cheek.

"How was it with Charles Manson?" he chuckled.

"Not bad. Except he just made me think we might've had sex."

His optic twitched a bit.

"It was a joke of his."

"Oh. I was about to give him another taste of my strength."

"No more fighting."

"Yes, mama."

I patted his cheek. "Good boy." He gave me another smile and sat up. I heard a couple of…well, it was some form of skeleton, crack as he stretched.

"What else happened during the shift?"

"I think I might've slept through it."

"Yeah, you looked pretty knocked out when I was up for my shift."

"I remember looking at the stars with him. I said they were pretty, he said I was, then he gave me a kiss on the cheek, and I gave him the same kiss back."

"Only the cheek?"

"Well, there was a forehead moment thrown in there. And he made a loophole."

"Oh?" His optic ridge raised a bit.

"He kissed it twice, I yelled at him, then he said 'You never said anything about the neck, now did you?'. That guys drives me insane!"

"Well, tonight, you're shifting with me, okay? I'll behave."

"That's a good Roadster…"

xXx

Author's Note: Sunstreaker's a moron, ain't he?