CHAPTER 21

Drew woke up to what sounded like explosions, but could better be described as Ironhide's morning training. Sighing a bit, he entered the main room with a small yawn. Ironhide's acute sense of hearing allowed his attention to be caught right away. Mostly because Chromia had gone to work that morning, while he had the day off, so the only other person in the 'home' was Drew. Drew was used to this by now, having been on base for close to a month, but still found himself surprised to wake up each and every morning. "Mornin' son." Ironhide smiled a bit with a nod "Sleep well?" He questioned.

'Son', Drew wasn't used to it still, but Ironhide tended to use that terminology more often then not. He however pulled a smile, and nodded his head a bit, stroking his leg in place of a hug, knowing he was in the middle of training. "Hard not to sleep well on that bed, 'Hide." Drew admitted, nodding a bit.

He'd learned a lot about his new Foster Family since moving in. First of all, that they couldn't have kids, since Ironhide's spark was their form of infertile. They hadn't had the chance to adopt with separate jobs so often getting in the way. So when she had moved onto Earth, they had been working to take in a human. Yet, the fallout had happened and they had just never found a human they could take in. Then Drew had come along, and Ironhide had taken a chance. And quite frankly, Drew was glad they had, he liked them a lot. He had been in Foster Homes before the Fallout, but none of them compared to this final one. They'd accepted him into the family quite easily, and treated him like their own.

"Are ye hungry? I should get your breakfast before too long." Ironhide noted, lowering his weapon, he made his way towards the newly installed kitchen area "I have the day off today. So I figured we could do something. Y'know, get some bonding time in." Drew nodded, he definitely liked the sound of that "Anything in particular you want fer breakfast?" He questioned.

"I'll just take cereal. If we have any here."

"Of course we do, you forget that fresh food thing that Wheeljack concocted." Ironhide shrugged his shoulders a bit, getting the cereal ready for him "So are you liking it here, y'know, with Chromia and I?" Drew nodded his head with a smile "Good, good, just wanted to be sure." He noted, with a smile "Because we like having ye, but we weren't sure if the feeling was reciprocated." He added, Drew simply nodded a bit, taking the food and seating himself to eat.

"I really like living here, which is saying something as I wasn't sure..." Drew stared up at the mech, who smiled lightly "You two have treated me better then all of my Foster Families combined. Which, again, is really saying something. Because there were some really nice ones." He left out the fact there were some really bad ones, choosing not to think about that "You guys really make me feel like part of the family, even if I'm just your Foster Son." He admitted.

Ironhide nodded, knowing that if things continued to go well it wouldn't be a Foster situation for long. Unlike Cliffjumper and Jazz, he and Chromia wanted to see how well things worked out before they filed anything. Things were going great so far, but he could only imagine anything could go wrong at any given time. "It may not always be that way, Drew. Things keep going good like this... And we'll make it official." Drew stared at Ironhide in surprise "We just want to be sure it's what you are sure you want before we sign and file papers. Even in these times, adoption is a real big step." He noted.

"I totally get that." Drew replied, finishing off the bowl, he carefully brought it to the kitchen, cleaning it off for a moment before setting it in a cabinet "If I were you, I'd do the same thing, you guys have only known me for a month. And you didn't meet me in the most conventional way." He admitted with a shrug taking a deep breath "I'm fine if you guys don't even want that. I've been there before, I've been just fostered for a long time." He shrugged his shoulders "That's normal for me." He smiled reassuringly.

Ironhide's spark sank a little at this, that the boy was actually wiling to be on his own with nothing to his name. Never have a true family, just temporary ones, for the next five years on the Autobot base, whenever the others chose to trust him. He knew that was going to happen, somewhere in his spark, he knew that Drew was meant for him and Chromia, and he almost felt bad for saying they were even hesitating. "Not what I meant, I said we wanted to make sure you were ready before we did." Ironhide crouched down to his Foster Son, and stared him in the eyes "Chromia and I really like ye kid, don't think yer going anywhere." He told him.

"No offense 'Hide, but they all said that." Drew admitted "I'm gonna go get dressed so we can head out."

Drew made his way towards his bedroom with Ironhide looking a bit pained by that statement. He could tell that Drew had been hurt a lot, and it pained him just to think about that. He knew he'd have to talk to Chromia that night, about all of it. But that could wait.

...

Drew always hated storms, so the fact that his bed was near a window and it was storming outside did not help whatsoever. He sighed a bit, trying to ignore the lighting and thunder near his window. Taking a deep breath, Drew pulled himself out of bed after a moment. He knew it was crazy to ask two Autobots to sleep in their room that night out of fear, but he figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. Sneaking out of his bedroom slowly, he made his way down the hallway towards their bedroom. Only to stop midway to the door itself. "All I'm saying is, even though it's been a short time, we NEED to consider this Chromia." He heard Ironhide speak, Drew was surprised they were online so late "The poor kid has no one, and never has had anyone. He needs a good family, he needs a real home. Not this Foster Care bullslag." He noted.

Drew felt his face fall, he backed up slightly, unable to believe what he was hearing. They weren't considering giving up so early, he told himself. It'd only been a month, they wouldn't-they couldn't be wanting to give up already. "I agree Ironhide, he needs a home. Perhaps it is the best option for him right now. It'll be a hard transition at first-." Drew made his way away from the door in disbelief, hanging his head.

The door slowly slid open to reveal Ironhide, who stared at Drew. "Kid, it's four in the morning, you should be in bed." Ironhide told him, Drew turned his head, quietly pulling back tears "What's wrong?" The mech questioned, concerned.

"I thought you said you liked me." Drew whispered, Ironide's optics grew with confusion "I heard you guys. Talking about-About." He bit his lip slightly "Are you going to already give up on me?" He questioned.

"What? NO! Oh Primus, you must have caught the end of the conversation." Ironhide told him, nervously, staring at Drew "Andrew, we were talking about whether or not we should just get this adoption out of the way." The boy stared at Ironhide in surprise "We realize, you're the only one on base that's 'Fostered'. And a lot of Autobots don't trust you." Ironhide carefully scooped the boy into his hand, and carried him in "And we both know you're very scared of being hurt again." He settled Drew on the edge of the berth calmly "So we had this talk a little earlier then we expected to." He turned to Chromia.

"We wanted more time to think all of this out. If we were even ready for this responsibility." Chromia told Drew calmly, she shook her head a little, then looked at Drew "But in the end, this is just as much about you as it is about us. About what is best for you." Drew felt tears slowly fall from his eyes, expecting it to be a flat 'no' "Which is why, Andrew, we have decided that we are ready, if you are." Drew stared up at her in surprise, unable to believe what he'd just heard "Drew, if you really want to be in our family, we won't say no." She added.

"You'll just abandon me like the rest of them." Drew began "They ALL said they'd adopt me, that they'd-."

"They weren't all US, Andrew." Ironhide interjected, bringing him towards his spark "The last thing we want to do is to hurt you in such a cruel way, Drew. You're a good kid deserving of more then just the rest of his life in Foster Care." He brought the boy into a careful hug, and looked down at him "No one is forcing us to do this. We want to do this, and we want you in our family." He noted, bringing him forward "If you will do us such an honor." He told him quietly.

Drew felt his heart skip a beat, noticing that Ironhide was very serious. He had a good feeling that he was in no way lying, he didn't seem to be the lying type. And to top it all off, he was smiling, a gentle, genuine smile. "Thank you." Was all he could bring himself to say, hugging the crook of Ironhide's arm "Thank you so much." He whispered with a nod, confirming his answer, the two Autobots smiled at one another quite happily.

"Now that that is cleared up. What were you up for." Ironhide questioned, resiting Drew in his arm.

"T-The storm scared me... I know this'll sound immature and stupid but-."

Ironhide smiled, and settled him in a large, but secure compartment in his chestplate. Smiling a little, he patted his head with a forefinger. "Sleep tight, young one. I'll protect you from the storm." He smiled, playfully, but gently.

Drew smiled a bit, and snuggled against the armor gently, falling asleep within moments. Ironhide and Chromia both sighed slowly, hoping they had made the right choice. There would be no going back the next day when they signed the documents, not without hurting a very fragile human being. Ironhide lifted an arm around his bonded calmly, and smiled. "We finally have a family." He told her calmly "So you can stop complaining about it." He teased.

Chromia simply slapped his chestplate, away from where Drew was sleeping. Ironhide chuckled a bit, letting himself fall into stasis. He knew the next day would be a very, very big step in their lives.