Luciana looked at herself in the mirror. Her makeup was completed and the top layer of her hair was currently rolled into hair curlers while the bottom layer remained straight. With a sigh, she began to take the curlers out. She enjoyed the way her hair looked like this.. it made her feel beautiful, even though Ratchet always argued that she was already gorgeous.
As soon as she fixed it to her liking and locked it in place with hairspray, she made sure everything else looked good before grabbing her purse off of the bed.
Today was the day she would be re-meeting the Autobots in their bipedal modes. Today was the day she would test her loyalty with Ratchet. She told herself that no matter what emotions filled her heart, she would always be there for him.
Grabbing her car keys, she walked out of the house after locking the door and got in her car. Ratchet would be waiting there for her because he'd already went there for work early that morning. She put the key in the ignition, but before she could actually turn the Monte Carlo on, a silver blur burned rubber as it came to a halt right beside her car.
Gasping, her neck snapped in the direction of the silver blur and she closed her eyes with relief when she realized who's car it was. It was Steve.. then she froze. Well, that's what she was told his name was, anyway.
She watched as the 'human' got out of the car, which was a small Corvette Centennial Convertible, and sure enough, the blonde-haired boy dashed over to her door. She opened it, "Uh, h-hey, um, Steve."
"What's up?" he replied. "Oh, and call me Sideswipe. That's my real name. Anyway, Ratch' told me to come get you. He said it'd make you feel less alone and he doesn't like you driving under all this stress."
"Oh," she began. "Uh," was there really any room for argument? With a sigh, she nodded. "Okay, S-Sideswipe."
Helping her out of the car, the holoform opened up the passenger door to his alternate mode, and she climbed in. She looked at the interior of the car and was almost drooling at how neat and organized everything looked. It may have been small, but it was one hell of a comfortable ride.
"You okay?" He asked as they began to drive away from the house. He passed her a concerned look and continued to stare at her. It made her nervous that he wasn't paying attention to the road, but then it hit her that he was the car, too.
She nodded and then they sat in silence for a minute.
"So, what do you do?" She finally asked.
He looked at her with a smirk, "Depends on what you mean."
"Like.. Jimmy's a weapons specialist, Ratchet's a medical officer-"
"I'm a practical joker," he replied, making Luciana burst out with laughter for the first time in a while. "I'm serious. You should see all the dents in my bipedal mode that I have from Ratchet and his wrenches."
"Ratchet can't be that bad," she told him as they pulled up to a red light.
Sideswipe laughed out loud, coming to a stop. "Oh, boy, Luci. Wait 'till you're in the med bay all the time. I'll show you how he really can be."
She frowned at that," Are you saying he's not-"
"himself around you?" Sideswipe finished with question. She nodded and he shook his head. "Nah, Ratchet really does love ya. He wouldn't ever fake that."
She couldn't help but smile. "I see. Okay, Sides."
"See. You're already calling me by my nickname. You'll get used to us pretty quick. We're just like humans.. except we look a bit different, that's all.. and we have different customs.. and we're better drivers," he listed and Luciana couldn't help but laugh. "Don't worry. We don't bite too hard." With a wink and a friendly hand on her shoulder and continued to drive onward to base.
A knock at the med bay door made Ratchet jump slightly and growl. He was trying to fix a data pad that had helplessly fallen to the floor and cracked on impact. Its internal memory was still intact, but the screen itself was completely busted. He needed that information that was stored inside it.. and with Wheeljack not on Earth yet, it was almost hopeless to fix by himself.
He tossed it aside (gently) for now and walked over to answer the door. Opening it, he met the optics of Ironhide. "Can I help you? I was busy."
"Don't give me that attitude. You're wife is here," Ironhide replied. "Sideswipe just drove her through the gates."
Quickly transforming into his alternate mode, Ratchet drove out of the med bay while Ironhide followed. When Ratchet saw Luciana in the distance, standing next to Sideswipe's holoform, he mentally smiled to himself. It was soothing to see her on base, but at the same time, it could be bad. She was probably nervous, no doubt.
When he got closer, he didn't bother activating his holoform. Instead, he spoke through the radio. "Hey, Luc'."
She waved silently and then looked around. "So.." she began, but stopped when she saw more vehicles coming to surround her.
Ratchet noticed her heart rate increasing and he growled, "Would you imbeciles back up? Give her some space." He revved his engine angrily, inching forward.
The other did as told and Luciana couldn't help herself. She smiled. "So this is what you're really like?"
A loud snort echoed from the other side of her. She looked over to see Jimmy's big, black tank of a pickup truck sitting there. "Sometimes I wish he'd treat me like his wife. Maybe I'd have less dents."
"Ironhide, I swear one day-"
Ratchet was cut off short when an even louder engine blared through the air. Luciana's neck snapped over in the direction of the noise and her eyes widened just a little when she saw the massive flamed Peterbilt making its way towards them. She'd seen the truck before, but knowing what it really was made her nervous.
As it came to a halt, pieces of its metal began to shift and grow bigger and taller. She had to take a step back just to prevent herself from falling over by craning her neck too much. God, was he tall..
Finally, it all ended and everything was silent. The only thing audible were the tiny noises of compressed air as the giant leaned down towards her. She watched as the robot-looking being held out a finger to her. "My name is Optimus Prime. I'm the leader of the Autobots. We've met before, but I believe this is more appropriate."
Hesitating, she reached out her hand to gently shake the finger. "Um, it's nice to meet you, Optimus."
Without replying to her, he stood up straight and looked at his comrades. "Alright, Autobots; transform."
And so, they did.
Ironhide was the first to complete the process and he bent down to her level. "Luci. You knew me as Jimmy, but now you can call me by my real designation, Ironhide."
She nodded once and then squinted her eyes. She reached her hand out gently and placed her fingers next to his optic. He wasn't sure how to react, so he just stood there, not wanting to hurt her. "What happened to your eye?"
Everybody froze, knowing the weapons specialist got touchy about the topic of his optic. The giant scar that crossed its path was a bad enough reminder of the hell he'd gone through.
"It doesn't matter," Ironhide replied gently, to everybody's surprise.
"It doesn't hurt, does it?" She asked, flinching her hand away, realizing then that she could be making it hurt worse if it did.
He shook his head slowly. "Not physically." With a quick sound that reminded her of a clear of the throat, he stood tall and pointed to another Autobot. "This here is Bumblebee. He's out main scout, but he communicates through the radio due to the fact his vocal processors are damaged badly." Luciana smiled when he waved and she waved back. He was cute, she could admit. "Other than that, this is all of us, but we're scheduled to receive more Autobots soon."
Stepping back, she eyed every single one of them before nervously speaking. "So.. you guys are all here to protect, right?"
"Of course," Ratchet replied for her. Optimus nodded, allowing Ratchet to speak for him instead. If there was one thing Optimus understood, it was that Ratchet would move heaven and Earth to keep her safe. He bent down on one knee. "And we always will be."
With a big intake of air, Luciana let it all out and paused, looking around at them all once more. Then, folding her arms, she nodded slowly and the smallest of smiles formed across her face. "Well," she began, nodding her head once. "I think I can live with this."
And that was when Ratchet closed his optics gently, smiling with relief.
Not sure about this one yet. I'm running low on ideas, so this is where I ask that if you have anything you'd like to see, I take all ideas into consideration. :)