Sorry for not updating for so long... some personal things happened so it was hard to find time and motivation to write. But here is the next chapter at least! Some major things are gonna be happening and a little hint, Barricade is coming soon! And this isn't edited, so feel free to post out any mistakes! Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Candy smiled, feeling lighter then she had in days. Skipping along, she hummed, her small voice echoing faintly through the hallways. She was heading for the twins, eager to see the pranking duo again for some fun. Sideswipe was funny, always cheerful and upbeat, while Sunstreaker was always a bit on the grouchy side. She barely saw him conversing with the other Autobots, and always kept to himself and his twin. But he always softened for Candy, and she grew fond of his hidden interest in art.

She loved the Autobots, with their wide range of personalities. Suddenly her smile flattered. Jazz and Prowl. In the morning, she had done what she could to make Jazz a bit relaxed, only for Prowl to burst in and push Jazz off his chair. She was still unsure what provoked his aggressive actions, but he didn't want the two SICs to fight on account of her.

She shook her head. She could visit them later. Right now, she needed to find a way to apologize to the twins properly.

"Fleshy!" A voice suddenly sounded behind her.

Candy turned around with sinking realization as she recognized the mech immediately. Her grin dropped, and her body tensed.

Cliffjumper ran towards her. He was quite a distance away, but Candy still felt panic ignite in her chest.

"Wait!" The mech said helplessly, as Candy started running away.

She ignored him, taking ragged breaths as haunted memories resurfaced. Cliffjumper still pursued her, determination written on his face.

"Get away!" She screamed, still running.

She didn't want to be near him. She didn't want to hear his apologies, or anything he had to say. She didn't want to even look at him. Scowling, she tried to send him the message, flipping him off multiple times. He ignored it, leaving Candy unsure if he even knew what it meant, or if he was simply putting it off due to her small size. Either way, he wasn't gonna take no for an answer. After being scorn by his fellow Autobots for days, he knew the only way to repair his reputation is to build some sort of friendship with the small fleshy.

"Damn femme…" Cliffjumper muttered.

Candy turned a corner, and came to a dead end. Why the hell do they even have dead ends in this base? Cursing, she turned around to run, but Cliffjumper was already there, narrowing his eyes at her.

"I just wanted to say i'm sorry!" He said frustratedly, glaring at her.

Candy backed into the wall, ignoring his apology stubbornly, while her hand lingered at her side, ready to grab her newly acquired gun. The Autobot drew closer, unaware of the panic he was inflicting upon the poor girl.

"Can you just listen?!" He scowled, as she continued to back away from his looming figure.

Turning her head to avoid his piercing optics, she prayed that he would get the message. Just being near him made her afraid. He was the only bot who had forced her into anything, and she was tired of being the victim. And, it bothered her that her first kiss was with a giant robot. She touched her lips slightly, remembering the unfamiliar feeling.

Cliffjumper huffed, and turned her head towards himself. Candy froze as she felt his cool digits tilt her chin. Something inside her snapped.

"Don't touch me!" She screamed, pushing his servo away and taking out her gun.

Cliffjumper froze as she pointed the gun at him. Even though she looked angry, eyes blazing and breathing heavily, her hands trembled, almost losing the grip on the gun. She wasn't gonna hesitate to use it, because she knew that it was only set on stun, curtesy of Wheeljack.

He closed his eyes and groaned. "Stop being ridiculous."

The gun clattered to the floor as Cliffjumper picked Candy up, pinning her arms and legs, leaving her immobile. Candy couldn't contain her scream as she once again felt her weakness held against her.

"Quiet! Just listen to me!" He almost begged her.

"Nonononononononono" Candy said frantically, scrambling to move but being unable to.

Cliffjumper opened his mouth again, most likely to apologize, but he was interrupted, as an angry fist struck his face, throwing him against a wall, and flinging Candy into the air.

"Oof." Candy winced, as she hit the ground with a soft thud.

Rubbing her head, she looked up to see a very angry Sunstreaker, pinning Cliffjumper to the wall by his helm. Candy blinked, as he growled. It was a deep, uncontrollable sound, and it surprised her. Although Sunstreaker could be grouchy, or short tempered, he never engaged in brutal fights. But here, Candy could only watch as he battered Cliffjumper ruthlessly. The mech tried to explain his motive between his attackers crushing blows, to no avail, as Sunstreakers optics glowed with pure hate. What Candy didn't know, was that almost everyone at the base had heard of Cliffjumpers one-sided kiss, and when Sunstreaker had spotted Candy in Cliffjumpers grasp once again, he could only assume the worst.

"S-stop!" Candy managed to meekly shout out, but her plea landed on deft audios.

She needed to stop her friend. Even though she hated Cliffjumper, Sunstreaker looked set on to kill. While Cliffjumper was continuously hit, Candy spotted her gun only a few feet away, keeping her eyes on the fighting duo, she crawled slowly to the weapon, trembling as the ground shook. Finally, she picked up the gun with weak fingers, and without a thought, shot Sunstreaker.

"Ah!" Sunstreaker gasped as the stun gun shocked him.

He looked towards Candy with wide eyes, before closing his optics and crumpling onto himself. He lay still. Cliffjumper stared at her before running off, limping every step, obviously regretting apologizing.

Candy crawled over to Sunstreaker and examined her shot. And frowned. A large scorch mark tainted Sunstreakers chest, and she was sure that he wouldn't be happy about his paint job. She sighed, and tried to calm her racing heart. So much had gone wrong in a matter of seconds. She lay her head on him motionless arm.

"Sorry Sunstreaker." She murmured.

She sat their for a few minutes, before he started to stir, shaking the ground slightly. Groaning, he sat up and looked at Candy with wide optics.

"You, you shot me!" He exclaimed in disbelief. "Nice way to greet your friend." He grumbled.

Candy giggled slightly. It was good to see Sunstreaker again, even if it was under tense circumstances.

"Sorry Sunny. You looked set out to kill. " Candy apologized.

Sunstreaker slumped, confused. "But, Cliffjumper…."

"He's an afthole. I'm glad you came, but you didn't have to beat him up so bad." Candy said.

In fact, she would be lying if she said that she didn't feel at least a bit guilty. He had only wanted to apologize, yet Candy refused him. Still, she hated him.

"Yeah, I didn't mean to scrap him up, well, I did mean to but," Sunstreaker vented. " Oh slag it. I wanted to offline him right there and then! He was touching you!"

Candy shrugged. "He was only trying to apologize."

"He didn't have to corner you!"

Candy looked up at Sunstreaker with a small smile. "Thank you for caring for me, but its really okay. Just let it go. There's nothing you can do."

Sunstreaker frowned at her last statement. "What do you mean?"

She scowled at him. "Don't act like you don't know." She said in a dead tone.

The much larger mech flinched visibly.

"But, Candy, it doesn't mean anything to me." He reassured her. "Don't worry. I like you because of you."

His blue optics bore into hers, silently pleading for her to forgive him. Candy wanted to trust him. She really did. Sighing, she smiled again, a little sadly.

"I know."

It was quiet, before Sunstreaker shifted and stood up, stretching his cramped limbs. He looked down, and spotted the scorch mark. His optic twitched visibly, while Candy braced herself.

"CANDY! MY PAINT JOB!"

She groaned.

"CANDYYYYY!" Sideswipe squealed happily.

Candy ducked as he raced towards her. Before he could trample over her, however, Sunstreaker roughly pushed him to the side. He looked down on his brother with a shake of his head.

"Primus Sideswipe. Do you want to kill her, or are you just stupid?"

His brother pouted childishly. "I was just excited! You're such a downer, Sunny."

Laughing, Candy walked up to Sideswipe, holding out her hand. "Here Sides, put this on your head and you can hug me all you want."

Sideswipe looked unconvinced as he carefully picked up the small box with his digits. Looking back at Candy's eager eyes, he hesitantly placed it onto his head.

His twin snorted. Throwing a glare towards his brother, Sideswipe looked at Candy with questioning optics.

"And, what the point of this?"

"Press the button!"

At her urging, he pushed the button. Sideswipe yelped as everything seemed to collapse into him, and the floor rushed towards him at an alarming rate.

Then it was done. Sideswipe looked at himself with wide optics. He turned around as Candy walked up to him, closer to his size, but still short. The world suddenly seemed a lot bigger, and Sunstreaker towered over him.

"Wow." Was all he could say dumbly. "Wow."

Beaming, she stood in front of him, happy to be able to talk to him without craning her neck.

"Isn't it cool? Wheeljack made it. He said he's going to install it into the Autobots so that you can interact with humans better."

"Yeah." Sideswipe said, yet again looking around him.

He understood now why humans were so afraid of him. It was terrifying, the way everything loomed around him, and he felt exposed and weak at this size. He heard a whoosh at his side, and realized Sunstreaker had joined him.

He stood there dazed for a second, before stepping forward to lightly touch Candy's hair. She stiffened, and he let go abruptly, as though he was unaware of what he was doing. He, like his twin, marvelled at the details that they could now find on her face. Hints of light pink dusted the bridge of her nose and her cheeks, while light lashes framed her eyes delicately.

"What's wrong?" Candy said worriedly.

They spaced out just as Bluestreaker had when he had shrunk. Maybe it was a side effect. She noted herself to visit Wheeljack later and discuss the issue.

Blinking, Sideswipe gave her a cheeky grin before poking her side playfully. "In this form, it'll be a lot more fun to bother you."

"Noooo!" Candy half laughed, half wailed, as he tackled her, tickling relentlessly.

She grabbed onto Sunstreakers legs, scrambling to get away from her attacker.

"Nope, you're on your own." He huffed, kicking her off lightly.

"Traitor!" She managed to gasp between laughs.

Grin broadening, Sideswipe continued. After a few minutes of painful laughter, he finally relented, bringing his hands to his sides and stepping away. Sunstreaker grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her away from a still smug Sideswipe.

"Hey!" He called, as Candy started running, along side with Sunstreaker.

They laughed at they ran out into the hallway, both of them dashing away from Sideswipe. Candy didn't notice when Sunstreaker laced his digits with hers, or when he looked at her flushed face with an expression close to adoration.

"Do you think we lost him?" She laughed, looking behind her as they slowed down.

Sunstreaker smirked. "We did."

Candy smiled. "Ah."

Then suddenly she turned red. Standing stiffly, her eyes turn down towards her small hand, which were interlocked with Sunstreakers metal one.

"I'm sorry!" She yelped, and made a move to pull her hand away.

A firm grip resisted. Candy looked up. The mechs face curved into a small smile, and he held on. Knowing it was no use to try and pry his servo off, she let her arm limp, and refused to meet his gaze, face turning red once again. They stood silently.

"Candy!" A familiar voice half wailed.

They both looked up to see a familiar red bot running towards them.

"No! Don't go please! I'm sorry!" He cried as they turned around to leave him once again.

Candy planted her feet as Sunstreaker jerked forward.

"C'mon Sunny, I think we've punished him enough." She said, finally letting go of his hand and going to the pouting mech.

Sideswipe cheered pretty quickly, and before long, he was laughing along with Candy.

"Hey." Sunstreaker interrupted them.

Both of them turned to him,

"We need to head to the main hanger." He said, a bit guilty for ruining their good time.

Sometimes he worried that Candy enjoyed Sideswipes company more then his. She seemed to get along well with him most of the time, and the two were both very enthusiastic.

"Hey Sunny?" Candy's voice broke through his thoughts.

"Lets go." The yellow mech grumbled, walking away from Candy's concerned face.

She and Sideswipe traded a look before following after him.

After turning back to their original size, they arrived in the large hanger. Candy shivered. It was the same place where she had gotten kissed by Cliffjumper.

Now, however, there was only two other beings in the room, besides the three of them. One of them was a bot. A cute looking, yellow bot, who introduced himself as Bumblebee. But Candy didn't concentrate on him. She was too busy gaping at the other boy in the room.

A human.

She turned towards Sunstreaker, but he just shrugged. He was just as clueless as her. The boy took aa friendly step forward, smiling. He looked a bit uncertain, however, and only made eye contact with Sunstreaker and Sideswipe.

"Hey! I heard there was someone who moved here? Where is he?" He said.

The twins face crinkled in confusion as they glanced towards Candy, who sat in Sideswipes hand. She curled in on herself. She knew what was gonna happen.

"Um, Sam?" Bumblebee said hesitantly. "She's right there."

Candy blinked. When the yellow bot spoke, it didn't feel like English; more like a series of clicks and beeps. But somehow she could understand them. But it was obvious the boy, Sam, could not, as he looked at Sunstreaker for a translation.

"She's right here." Sunstreaker said plainly, as Sideswipe pried Candy from his hand.

She slid to the ground, not even bothering to look at Sam. The tension in the room was clear, as Sam looked around in pure confusion. Candy couldn't blame him. She'd be confused too.

"Uh, where?" Sam asked again.

Sunstreaker's optics narrowed. "She's here you stupid fleshy!"

Sam remained silent and just looked up angrily at his guardian.

"There. Is. No one!"

Sideswipe stepped forward. "This isn't funny. She's right in front of you."

"I don't see anyone." Sam said stubbornly, looking pissed off.

"Sam-" Bumblebee attempted, but Candy cut him off weakly.

"It's no use. He can't see me."

Sunstreaker took a step forward, making Sam jump.

"Are you blind?" He growled, ignoring the soft sounds Candy began to make.

Sam didn't back down. "I don't see anyone!"

Candy rushed to Sunstreaker and clung onto his leg, holding on tightly.

"Please…" She whispered. "Just let it go."

They all left the room, leaving a confused Sam behind. Candy could tell Sunstreaker was pissed, even though he was quiet. Only when they got back to the twins room did he blow up.

"How couldn't he see you?! I mean, sure you are tiny but even I can spot you!" He ranted.

Candy only shook her head sadly. "People usually don't see me, I'm not even sure why."

There was only silence as the twins took in what she said.

"It's okay guys…I have you-" Candy stopped halfway, eyes widening.

Sideswipe nudged her slightly, concerned. "What's wrong Candy?"

She only looked back at him with horrified eyes before lifting her hand up slowly. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe gaped.

Her hand was turning blue.