All of you really have three very special people to thank for this speedy and well edited chapter. The first to thank is Lady Tecuma, who selflessly sent me a second review anonymously so that I would hit my ten review quota. Thank you so much my dear, dear friend! You are far too wonderful for words!
The second person who deserves some deep and heartfelt thanks is Lecidre, who recently did a piece of fanart for As We Come Together regarding the characters Chase and Hound. I strongly suggest you all take a peek- she truly took my breath away with the pic. I swear I cried a little when I saw it, it's that beautiful. Lecidre, I can't tell you how truly grateful and inspired I am from your wonderful work. Your art simply makes me want to be a better writer to live up to the fanart you do.
And last, but not least, my wonderful and eagle-eyed friend Litahatchee, who has the amazing ability to spot a misspelled or missing word from a mile away. With out editing this chapter, my dear, every second sentence would probably be backwards or upside down, or worse yet, in French, because of my distraction and infatuation with Lecidre's fanart. You saved this chapter's ass, as well as a good portion of my own. I'll be forever grateful to you!
*Ahem* Now then, if we can get on with the thank yous I'm sure everyone is eager for- my deepest, utter, heartfelt, most sincere thanks to the reviewers of the last chapter. Each and every single one of you has made writing such a joy! Grateful hugs and love to Bluebird Soaring, Bunnylass, Jason M. Lee, CuteKitten, Chloo, Lady Tecuma, Silveriss, Lecidre, and Violetlight! May the universe smile upon you all!
Mi'kmaq- Pronounced "Mick-mack." It might come as a surprise to some of you who haven't been on my devART account to hear that the Banes' are actually native, but I was researching Megan Fox one day and saw that she has a little native blood in her, so I decided to draw on that. Chase would be a full-blooded, full-status Mi'kmaq from her mother and father, though Mikaela is only half through her father, while her mother had Italian roots.
As We Come Together
In Which Hound is Found
As far as days go, the last Friday morning of the month of October, which also just happened to fall on the very last day of October, looked like it was going to be a relatively cheerful day, if the clear dawn sky was any indication.
Mikaela quirked a smile as she peered through her bedroom window, feeling light-hearted for no other reason than to simply be happy. With a quickness and quietness she'd long since learned from sneaking around, she dressed in the nearest clothes at hand and slipped out her bedroom door. Sliding down the short hallway, she paused to peek into the living room to make sure the creature within was still dead asleep. As expected, Chase was facedown on the couch, sleeping in only a large football jersey she'd presumably stolen from someone and a pair of mismatched socks- one black, the other blue. The growling noise of her snoring was enough to assure Mikaela she had enough time to be out of the house and back again before her aunt woke.
Slinking into the kitchen, she spared only a glance back into the darkened, semi-quiet house before she was gone. The kitchen, as well as much of the house, was in a relative state of cleanliness it hadn't seen in a long time. Ever since that night out in the shed when Mikaela had let her drunken mouth run a little too long, Chase had been putting in an effort to be a little more human. The clutter that normally laid like a stale layer of dust through the house was cleared away, things swept up, dishes put away, glass bottles (and there were a lot of them) stashed for recycling, and every tool they had lying haphazardly about migrated back to their places in the shed. It was an interesting transformation to watch, and even better to assist. For the first time in a long time, the Banes house was a home that Mikaela was happy to return to, even if she still had to deal with a bear in the living room once in a while.
Dashing into the driveway, she circled around the Honda Civic on her way into the shed. Like every morning when Chase was still passed out, Mikaela took extra care to inspect the Jeep Gladiator that was taking up a more permanent residence in there. For the last few days, verging on a week, it had been left in the shed while Chase used the Civic to go back and forth to work. Her excuse was that the radiator was cracked and she was waiting for a new one to come in to replace it, but the excuse was weak at best. Chase just didn't want to drive her Jeep for some reason. Finding nothing particularly amiss with the Jeep this morning, Mikaela took up her Vespa and left, zipping down a few blocks to the corner store where she normally bought coffee for Chase in the mornings.
The employees recognized her immediately, greeting her with smiles and cheerful salutations. She returned them just as warmly, finding that she really did mean it without feeling like they were all just automated responses. Breezing over to the coffee dispensers, she chose the strongest, blackest coffee of the selection whose content was reminiscent of battery acid. There was a small display of cupcakes at hand near the coffee, decorated up in an assortment of Halloween themes. After contemplating the adorable collection of icing-spiders and candy bats and all manner of spooky sugary goodness, she chose a fat chocolate cupcake with a gummy tarantula on it.
The cashier, who Mikaela had known ever since she was old enough to bike to the store with her dad, laughed at the addition to Mikaela's usual morning purchase. "Getting in the mood for Halloween?" she asked, ringing up the two items.
"Something like that," Mikaela replied as she dug around for her pitiful pocketful of change. She was embarrassed to find that, after paying the bill on her cell phone and filling the gas tank of her Vespa, she didn't even have enough to pay for her cup of coffee.
The cashier, Wendy was her name, took pity on Mikaela, pushing the coffee and cupcake toward her. She was well aware of the Banes' family situation. "Don't worry about it, honey. Just take them and get on home," she said soothingly.
"You sure?" Mikaela wondered, embarrassed.
Wendy leaned across the counter to pat Mikaela's hand fondly. "My dear, you've been coming here since before you were tall enough to see over this counter. Customer loyalty like that doesn't come along very often. Think of this as a treat from me to you." She winked, already closing the cash register with a definitive snap.
"Oh, alright. Thank you. Uh- Happy Halloween!" Collecting her coffee and cupcake, Mikaela wandered back to her Vespa, balancing the two items between her legs all the way back to her place.
Chase, as it just so happened, was awake by the time Mikaela walked in the front door. She was still clad in only a jersey and mismatched socks, but her tar-black eyes were bright as they zeroed in on her niece bearing gifts. She cracked a dry smile upon seeing the coffee.
"Sorry to break it to you, Mickey, but I don't got a hangover this morning," she rasped, hopping up onto the countertop with predator-like grace. Her tangled hair caught in the sunlight streaming in through the window, casting her in a warm haze that made her russet skin glow, making her look like a wild thing dragged in from the depths of a forest.
"I know. I was just trying to be nice," Mikaela replied nonchalantly, handing the coffee over anyways. "I got you this, too." She held out the sugary tarantula-topped cupcake, which her aunt regarded with sharp curiosity.
"You sucking up for something?"
"No, it's your birthday present this year, since I didn't have any money for anything else." She neatly forgot to mention she didn't even have the money for the cupcake.
"Is it the 28th already?" Chase breathed, possessing the look of an adult who just realized how fast time was flying by without noticing.
Mikaela looked a little guilty. "Actually, no, it's the 31st. I forgot about your birthday and only remembered this morning. So happy belated birthday."
Cupcake in hand, examining it amusedly, Chase shrugged. "Better late than never, I guess. I still thought it was September." She used her toe to reach over and open the cutlery drawer, and then shifted her body so as to use her hands to pick up a knife. She cut her cupcake in two and handed the bigger half to Mikaela. "Nothing better than cupcakes for breakfast," she said ruefully, toasting her half with Mikaela's.
"So nutritious," Mikaela exclaimed with every ounce of sarcasm she had, though she made a point of taking a bite out of the chocolate confection and found it delicious.
"Thanks for the birthday present, kid. Love it," Chase laughed, but set her own cupcake aside in favour of glancing to the crooked clock on the wall. "It's getting late, though," she commented. "You going to school today?"
"Skipping," Mikaela informed without fear of reprimand. It was another reason she was in a relatively good mood, although she couldn't quite understand why. Miles, it seemed, had discovered the Cybertronians' existence Wednesday night and was now insisting on hanging with Sam and Mikaela to get the full scoop. When Sam had called her out of the blue Thursday night to make the suggestion, her heart had tumbled in her chest in a way it shouldn't have at the prospect of hanging out with an ex, but she agreed nonetheless.
Chase arched a dark eyebrow. "Skipping, huh? Early Halloween celebrations, right?"
"Not even close. I'll save the trick-or-drinking for you tonight," Mikaela replied, hearing the familiar purr of a certain Camaro's engine as he rolled up to the curb.
"Suits me fine," Chase replied with a shrug. "Have fun doing… whatever is it you're gonna do today."
"Sure." In a fond gesture, Mikaela leaned forward to hug her aunt, and was surprised to find the hug returned with a laugh and good squeeze.
"Get going, would you? I'm going to go put some pants on." With a good-natured smack to her rear, Mikaela was shooed out of the house to meet up with Bumblebee, Sam, and Miles at the curb. She was greeted with a range of hellos, warm ones from Bumblebee, slightly nervous ones from Sam, and one of complete and utter alien-worship from Miles, who was more than happy to scramble to the back seat of the Camaro in order for Mikaela to take her place in the passenger's seat.
"It's good to see you all, too," she said, sliding into the warm leather like she was coming home after a very long time away.
Miles was in her ear before she could even fasten her seat belt. "Girl, forget everything I have ever said about you being an evil jock concubine. You are the most awesome ass-kicking female on the face of the planet!" Obviously he'd been informed of some of the things that went down a few months ago.
She playfully shoved the blond back into his seat. "I'm not that amazing, Miles," she assured with a roll of her eyes.
What truly made her day was the moment Sam glanced over at her and smiled an awkward smile that she had missed so much. "Nah, he's right," he said. "You were kickass at Mission City."
Flattered, Mikaela replied, "You weren't so bad yourself."
A full orn worth of recharge would do any mech wonders, as Hound was discovering as he came back online. His self-repair programs were working at an amazing 97 percent and a vast majority of the damages incurred to him two Earth months before were already repaired. The Mu virus remained, but its presence had long since become an annoying hindrance rather than a worrying problem. He thought briefly about transforming and giving himself a good stretch to shake out some of the stiffness that had accumulated in his frame, but he checked himself before he started to rearrange his frame. Registering the four walls around him, he remembered where he was and why it was an extremely bad idea to transform. He'd undoubtedly get into more than a little trouble with his little human friend.
And speaking of his little human friend, the door to the shed pried open to admit his uncombed, unwashed, barely dressed, spitfire female friend. She gave Hound a quick glance and slumped disappointedly when she assumed he was still in recharge. In a gesture she never would have done were he awake, she set down her coffee and cupcake and grabbed a soft rag from her workbench, giving Hound a quick run down to wipe away the thin layer of dust that had settled on him.
"Been lonely without you annoying the piss out of me, buddy," she admitted to his supposedly sleeping form. "Too quiet, y'know? Guess you must have really needed the sleep, though…"
Hound, as he saw it, determined that this was the best time to let his human friend know that he was online.
"Good mornin', Chase!"
She jumped about a foot in the air.
"Holy fucking shit, Hound!" she screeched, clutching her chest as her heart tried to beat its way out of her ribcage.
Hound laughed, and then had to activate his windshield wipers when a cup of coffee was flung at him. "Sorry, sorry, Ah couldn't resist!"
"I bet you couldn't!" Chase hissed. She banged him on the hood hard enough to make the metal rattle, and then kicked his front wheel a few times, though Hound hardly felt the attacks. "I just about pissed myself!"
"Ah didn't scare ya that badly," he said, still laughing.
Her mouth curled into a stubborn frown which only lasted a few seconds until Hound's warm, revving laughter caused her to crack a bare smile. "Fine, you didn't scare me that badly, but you're still an ass for doing it in the first place."
"Ah can live with that."
"You better." Chase ran her hand along his grill. "Glad to see you're awake, though." She failed to mention that she'd been lonely as hell without him, but he'd heard her well enough when she'd first come in that he didn't care. "Did you have a nice- uh, recharge?"
"Yeah, real nice," Hound replied happily. "Ah was finally able to charge all mah power reserves, even my holo-matter ones." He was gratified to find Chase took an interest in the information.
"It's good that you were finally able to get charged up," she replied. "I didn't think you had to recharge for so long; I was starting to think you were never going to wake up." She shrugged a little, skating over how much it bothered her to be ignorant of Cybertronian technology. "If it wasn't for the occasional noise your fans make, I'd of thought you were dead."
"Mah kind recharge a little longer than yours, but Ah had no intention of staying that way. Ah was bound to wake up some time," Hound replied, nudging his friend happily. She returned the gesture, unsuccessfully shoving him. He enjoyed the effort; it showed how comfortable she'd finally become in his presence.
"You know, it was so much quieter with you asleep. You could have stayed that way so I could have some peace around here." The look on her face, as far as Hound could translate, meant that she didn't mean the taunt literally, but as a joke.
"Ah'll keep that in mind for next time," Hound laughed. His attention was then drawn to the cupcake as Chase reached for it, plucking the black-and-orange gummy from the top and popping it in her mouth. "What's that?"
She swallowed the spider whole. "What's what?"
"That thing you're ingestin'."
"The spider?"
Hound paused. "It wasn't real, was it?"
Chase sent him a flat look. "No, stupid. It was a candy."
"Ah see, and the other thing?"
She held up her half of her birthday cupcake for his inspection. "You mean the cupcake?"
"Yeah."
"It's my birthday present. Mickey got it for me." And then, a tad bit defensive because she knew half a cupcake wasn't exactly all that impressive, she added, "And it's damn good, too."
Accustomed to Chase's defensive nature, Hound ventured to safer waters. "Your kind celebrate your days of creation here?"
Shoving the rest of the cupcake into her mouth, Chase answered only after she took her time savouring the mouthful of chocolate. "A lot of people do, I suppose. I can't say what everyone does, but a lot of people celebrate the day they were born. Why? Cybertronians don't?"
"No, we don't," Hound replied.
"Age ain't important to your kind?"
"Not really, no. Maturity is considered a more important trait, no matter the age of the bot."
This seemed to garner some subtle interest from the human, who would be considered skating along the fine precipice of middle age now. "So… you're only as old as you feel on Cybertron?"
Hound considered the analogy, thinking of younger bots he knew who held enough wisdom to rival planetary libraries, and older bots who had the mental capacity of a youngling. "Essentially, yeah. Ya act however old ya feel."
"I like that," Chase commented vaguely.
"Our system of considerin' maturity over chronological age works well for mah species. It's hard ta keep track of exactly how old ya are when ya live for such a very long time."
"You have a point," the human conceded. "We don't have that problem around here. Our lives go by in a flash." She said it with some experience.
"Ah gathered as much," said the Autobot softly. He wanted to change the subject, choosing a lighter topic. "Do ya exchange gifts with others on these days, like the cupcake Mikaela gave ya?"
"Sure, we'll give gifts. I don't speak for the whole planet, but I guess it is common enough," Chase said. Her eyes narrowed on him. "Why the sudden interest? Is this another one of your I-want-to-know-everything-about-you-humans things?"
"Just curious, Ah suppose," Hound admitted. "Ah don't have access to the internet to do the research mahself, remember? All Ah got is you and radio."
The human's face knit into one of vague concern as she remembered. "Yeah, right, I know." She stroked him along his grill gently, almost fondly. "Keep your hopes up, Hound. You'll be found soon, and then you'll be surfing the net like a nerd on cocaine."
Despite the oddity of the idiom, Hound bobbed on his shocks in agreement. "Of course. Ah'll be found sooner or later."
As what had become common within the last few orns, Chase smiled easily and somewhat openly. "That's the spirit."
"In the mean time, Ah was wondering if it was alright ta show ya somethin'? Ah've been workin' on it for the last couple weeks and Ah think Ah finally got it right."
"Is that so?"
"Now that Ah'm all fully charged, Ah'll be able ta show ya properly." Hound paused, measuring what it was worth to say anything more. "You could think of it as a birthday present, if ya like." He sounded like he wanted to make it a birthday present.
"Sure, why not?" she shrugged, under the impression that something small and unspectacular was about to happen.
There was a brief shimmering in the dim light of the shed, and then something solid came into existence. Chase knew it was solid because of the faint whoosh of air being forced out of the area it was previously occupying as something else filled it. First she was startled, and then she was forced to pinch herself to make sure what she was seeing was real. The last thing she'd expected to happen was see a human appear in her shed. She'd long since gotten over her resentment for the holo-dog, but this was a whole new can of worms.
"Hound, is that you?"
The holographic figure looked rather proud of himself. "Yep, it's me."
"Holy flying shit," she murmured in disbelief to herself. As carefully as she could, she inched around Hound's hologram to the door, closing it so no one else would catch sight of the odd stranger. While Chase was known for bringing home strangers, she had the distinct feeling the neighbours would certainly raise their eyebrows if they caught sight of this stranger. There weren't many who wouldn't raise their eyebrows if they caught sight of him.
After making sure the door was secure, she turned back to see if the man had disappeared. He hadn't. She repeated her favourite swear words in her head, questioned her sanity, and then laughed at herself for being the one miserable human out of six billion on the planet to end up with Hound, of all the aliens in the universe, as a friend. For once, she ignored the burning need for a drink.
Hound took Chase's speechlessness to spark. The hologram looked himself over carefully, from his feet to his hands to anything else within visual range. "Ah did get it right, didn't Ah?"
"Uh-huh."
"Then why aren't ya saying anything'?"
"Because I might swear at you if I do."
"Oh. Take your time, then."
By the looks of things, Hound had been more attentive than Blaster when trying to formulate a proper hologram matrix, though they were completely unaware of the other mech's attempts. Hound's design was largely based off of Chase's own physical parameters, barring the fact that she was female and he wished to identify as male. Basing his image off a real human obviously helped him remember the need for certain details, such as pores and lines around his eyes that could either have been from the sun or smiling too much, all of which accumulated into having him appear in the age range of late thirties. The hologram was quite tall for a human in general, and developed in a way that conveyed that he'd worked most of his life in a physically demanding profession. To be fair, he really had worked in a demanding profession, just not as a human. For the finishing touches, he largely copied Chase's aesthetic endowments, such as the pigmentation of her skin. He was, after all, a mimic at spark.
Chase opened and closed her mouth a few times before managing to say, "You look- um…"
"Ya don't like it, do ya?" Hound sighed. His frame sagged on his wheels, and even the hologram looked disappointed. Chase crossed her arms over her chest, stubborn and frowning.
"I like it fine, Hound," she sighed, feeling a tad strange talking to the imitation-human when she was so accustomed to talking to either a truck or a dog "It's a really interesting birthday present. I can honestly say no one's ever gotten me something quite like this before."
He looked marginally cheered by this. "So ya like it?"
She shrugged. "I guess. I mean, you look very…"
"Ah look like what?" Hound pressed, daring to take a step forward.
"Um…"
Hound unintentionally loomed over her, a consequence of having designed himself larger than the other human. She coughed, warning Hound that he best back off or he'd find out what it felt like to have a human's fist driven into his abdomen. He backed off, and Chase finally found some words to say.
"You look human," she said lamely.
"That's what Ah was going for," he chirped.
"Sure." She looked him up and down and couldn't help but think the hologram was a distinct improvement over the dog. "Why do you look like that, exactly?"
"Like what?"
"Like me." She brought herself about a foot away from the hologram, the top her head reaching just below his nose. It was strange standing next to someone taller than her. She topped at six-foot-three, so Hound must have been at least six-foot-seven. She hesitated to touch him, letting Hound take her hand and place it to his humanlike cheek to show that he was indeed solid. His cheek was warm and a bit rough with short stubble. "You look like me."
"You're the human Ah've been around the most," he informed. "It only makes sense that Ah'd mimic ya."
"Mimicking me?" Chase snorted. Sure, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but this was just getting ridiculous.
"Ah do recall ya describing it like 'monkey-see-monkey-do fuckin' aliens'," Hound piped in helpfully.
She rolled her eyes, tugging at the small scruffy patch of black hair in the hollow beneath his bottom lip. "I don't recall having facial hair."
He laughed. "Ah may have taken some artistic license." He'd never had hair before, so it seemed like a fine time to try it out.
"Very artistic," Chase commented, more to herself than to him.
He felt her hand move over his cheekbones to his black hair. His sense of touch was more acute in the hologram than in his actual frame; Chase's fingers felt like little trails of fire against the matrix's surface. He turned his head carefully as she followed the curve of his neck to his broad shoulders, and then let her trace the outline of his arms. He was built much larger than an average human, but Chase seemed to appreciate it. Hound almost purred as the human continued her inspection. Humanity, he determined, was lucky to be able to feel so much so acutely. He'd never been so aware of the sensation of touch before.
Her gaze, so dark as to be black, met his warmer chocolate brown stare. A frown played at her mouth that wasn't severe, merely thoughtful.
"If you think this will help you blend in, it really won't, you know." She said it offhandedly, as if still considering the words as she said them.
"Why not? Ah thought ya said Ah looked human."
"Sure, human," she agreed reluctantly. "But you also look like me. Not always a good mix, if you know what I mean."
Hound canted his head. "No, Ah don't know what you mean."
"Visible minorities don't always fit in around here." She held up her russet-toned hand, a shade lighter than Hound's own chosen colour. "When you look different from everyone else, that's all you'll ever be- different."
"Pigmentation variances in flesh don't matter ta me," Hound asserted.
Chase smiled pityingly. "Unfortunately, it matters to the rest of the world, bastards that they all are. Maybe for your first time looking human, you should try for something other than me, I mean- uh, you should try something other than native." She had thirty-eight years and two days worth of being Mi'kmaq, so it was safe to say she had a little experience on the short end of the minority stick.
Hound pondered the suggestion, and then shook his head. "Nah, Ah think Ah'll stay this way. It took me long enough ta make this matrix just right, Ah don't wanna make another one. Besides, Ah think Ah like looking this way." He took Chase's hand. "I like this colour more than the colour of paler humans' skin."
Chase's cheeks pinked and she tugged her hand away. "Fine, you stay looking like that if you want. It might be a bit tougher for you, but at least you'll look better. Hell, your hologram's big enough that I doubt anyone would want to start trouble with you anyways." She backed away to the door, cracking it open and letting some fresh air into the stale room. "I was just coming in to see if you were awake, and now that I know you are, I'm going to get ready for work. I'll drive the Civic, so don't bother starting yourself up."
"Oh no, Ah'll drive ya. Ah'd like ta drive ya," Hound offered happily. "Ah could try mah new hologram out on other humans." He tried to follow Chase out, but she shooed him back in with a strong shove to the chest, sending him sprawling back into his alt mode.
"Not a good idea," she laughed, finding Hound's insistence funny. "How about when I go out tonight, I take you with me? That sound better? It'll be a lot more fun, being Halloween and all."
Hound perked up. Chase couldn't decide what looked funnier; a hologram of a man looking like a kid in a candy store, or a Jeep doing a really good impression of the same thing.
"Alright, Ah'll go out with ya tonight," Hound agreed happily.
"Good." Chase backed herself out of the shed, careful not to let the door open too wide. She paused, halfway out, and then looked back. "Uh- y'know what, Hound?"
"Yeah?" He was half way through dispersing the holo-matter matrix.
"While I'm at work, maybe you could spend the day figuring out the human significance behind clothes."
"Oh, Ah knew Ah was forgetting somethin'!"
Teenagers, by some cosmic law of the universe, always found themselves gravitating back to one house by the end of the day to do absolutely nothing, which, when asked by an adult what they were doing, suddenly morphed into them doing "stuff." This law held true with Mikaela, Sam, and Miles, all three of whom found themselves magically transported back to Mikaela's house by the end of a very exciting and exhausting day. Even though Miles had been weaned off the energy drinks, the moment Bumblebee rolled onto base there'd been no stopping the kid. He was easily excitable when in the presence of beings who validated his very reason for existence, which meant Sam ended up apologizing more than once for his friend over the course of the day.
It wasn't until Ratchet finally got fed up with the annoyance and started to roar that his med bay wasn't a zoo that the humans and Bumblebee figured it would probably be safer to remove themselves from the base until Miles learned to curb his enthusiasm. Which, as previously pointed out as a cosmic law of the universe, brought them back to what they were currently doing: stuff.
Mikaela's day, which had been pretty great to start with, turned out to be entertaining for the rest of it.
Bumblebee, given permission by Mikaela, was parked on the front lawn instead of on the curb like he usually was. With some complicated rearranging of mirrors and reflective surfaces, much of which was done with Blaster's help, the scout was able to project a light-and-field hologram into the living room. While he wasn't able to see, feel, hear, or speak with it, it did give the illusion that he was a part of the gathering. He was a skilled enough scout to make it look like he was interacting with them, even if his voice was being transmitted through Sam's phone, which had kindly been set beside the hologram.
Blaster happily provided a fair amount of entertainment as he went about exploring Mikaela's dwelling. Understandably, he'd never been in another alien's house before, aside from Miles'. Now he had free run of the Banes' place and was loving every minute of it.
"Are any of you going to celebrate Halloween tonight?" Bumblebee asked curiously to the three humans as they lounged nonchalantly about the living room.
Sam shrugged from where he sat on the floor in front of the couch. "Don't know. We're a little old to be running the streets in costumes."
"I think I'm going to stay here and hand out candy to the kids," Mikaela informed. As much as she loved going out with her aunt to tramp around town, this felt more like a stay-at-home year.
"I'll be trick-or-treating until the day I die," Miles announced happily, more than willing to supply any information the awesome-alien-robot-scout wanted to know.
Mikeala tilted her head. "I thought Sam said you were a…"
"Witch?" Miles supplied, unbothered. "Sure I am, although my mom's coven prefers 'Wiccan' 'cause there's less stigma around the word."
Mikaela nodded. "Um, yeah… I didn't think you guys did Halloween."
Miles smiled, scratching the back of his neck. "Yeah, well, it's my mom who's real big into the Wicca and New Age stuff. She celebrates Samhain and stuff like that, but she lets me and Bret figure out our own way in life, you know? I like the free candy and shit I get for Halloween, and besides, I can honestly say that I'll probably be the only legitimate witch out on the streets tonight."
Mikaela laughed. "That's pretty awesome, I guess."
"I wish I could participate in Halloween. Not for the candy, but for the opportunity," Bumblebee sighed. "It is so hard to find things to do on this planet when everyone is so small here."
"I know what you could go as if you did go out for Halloween," Sam voiced. "You could be a car disguised an alien robot disguised as a car. You'll have the best costume in town!"
"No one will ever know it's you!" Miles exclaimed, laughing.
Blaster popped his head into the room, a baseball cap crammed over his metal head. "You could try it, Bee," he teased. "Ya never know, maybe you'll win a prize somewhere."
"I highly doubt it," Bee sighed.
"Never know until ya try," the mech shrugged, switching his baseball cap for a cowboy hat. Neither fit well over the awkward proportions of the microbot's head, but he didn't seem to mind. He offered a smile to Mikaela. "Thanks for lettin' me look around. Ya got a real interestin' house." Sadly, he'd failed to discover the source of the sensor ghost he'd picked up Wednesday night.
"No problem," Mikaela replied.
Bumblebee's hologram flickered, his attention diverted elsewhere for a moment. "Mikaela, I believe your paternal aunt is returning."
"Huh, I guess she got off work early. Just get off the front lawn and you'll be fine, Bee," Mikaela instructed as she began putting all the mirrors back into their right places, which forced Bumblebee to turn off his hologram. Blaster already had his hologram in place, grinning contentedly on the couch. A minute later, the Civic swung into the driveway followed by muffled footsteps across the lawn. The door creaked open and Chase shuffled in, her head popping into the living room to see who was there. Sam was regarded with some amount of scepticism, and Miles and Blaster were looked up and down with the flat look of disinterest.
"Hey," Mikaela greeted.
Chase nodded to her niece. "Hey." Her eyes shifted back to the trio of boys, looking them up and down, then she looked back at her niece. "My, how your standards keep dropping."
"They're better than the company you keep," Mikaela countered. "Didn't I catch you talking to a dog a little while ago?"
"Touché," the woman laughed. Since this day was turning out to be remarkably fine for both Banes women, Chase decided to do the most human thing she could think of, offering her hand to both new faces. "Chase," she announced, then jerked her head in Mikaela's direction. "That little brat's jail warden."
"Miles," one chirped, carefully shaking her hand.
"Blaster," said the other, and then added, "It's my real name, too."
Chase laughed. "Go figure." She glanced to Sam, mussing his hair roughly. "And I already know you, boy."
"Good to see you too," Sam greeted with false warmth.
Chase glanced from Sam to Mikaela; they sat on opposite sides of the room, barely facing each other, and had 'post-breakup awkwardness' written across their foreheads, and yet there was a smile on each of their faces that could obviously be attributed to hanging out with each other again. Instead of pointing this out, Chase said something else what was bound to catch the group's attention-
"There's a shitload of candy in the car for tonight. Eat it or hand it out- your choice. I'm going to get changed." She was gone in a faint whiff of motor oil and sweat.
Mikaela rolled her eyes and got up, the rest following her. True to Chase's word, the backseat of the Civic was strewn with bags of candy she'd picked up half-price somewhere. It was enough to cause a kindergarten class full of hyped up kids to spontaneously combust.
"This is a lot of candy," Blaster commented as he gathered the bags with minimal effort.
"We get a lot of bratty kids around here," Mikaela replied. "It's best to appease them with candy or else they egg the house." Miles and Sam exchanged guilty looks; on more than one Halloween they'd been out with friends egging houses for kicks.
"Heads up, we may have a visitor heading our way," Bumblebee warned, drawing attention to the SUV parking directly across the road from them. The man that climbed out could be described best as imposing; he was tall and broad, dark russet skin stretched tight over hard worn muscle, a thick latticework of pitch-black tribal tattoos snaking up his arms. His long black hair was pulled back into a low ponytail at the nape of his neck, some stray strands falling into his hardened eyes as he scanned the street.
Mikaela startled, suddenly pale. "Daddy?"
David stilled as he heard Mikaela's voice, frowning briefly as he placed the voice, and then breaking into a wide grin. "Hey baby girl," he called.
"Daddy!" She was off like a shot, meeting David at the curb for the most exuberant hug in the history of all hugs. "Oh my god! I can't believe you're here! I mean, what are you doing here? I thought you said you were working for people-! I'm so glad you're here though!" She hugged him tightly, letting herself be swept up into a bear hug. He was exactly as she remembered him, like a great big teddy bear; his growling voice, his big arms, his smell, which was a mix of cigarettes and aftershave.
"I missed you, baby girl," David said, smiling fondly.
"I missed you too," Mikaela replied breathlessly. "But I thought you weren't going to be around for a while. You said in your letter you didn't know when you'd be back."
David's smile faded a little. "Yeah, I'm not here for long, hon. I'm still on business."
Mikaela's smile faltered. "Oh... you mean you're not here to see me?"
David was quick to catch her face, rubbing her cheeks with the pads of his thumbs. "No, baby, girl, that's not it. I'd come see you any day, I swear, but the people I work for- they got this call that there was something they needed in this area, and since I know it best, they sent me. I just wanted to swing by here to see you before I went to check out what they wanted me to see."
She deflated quite a bit with the news, her smile holding on by only a flicker. "You're not here for long, are you?"
"Only for a couple of minutes." He glanced down to his watch, and then did a double take, his expression darkening. Blaster backed up a step as he picked up something he had missed before, sending a rapid message to Bumblebee, who discreetly started to inch away along the curb.
"What is it?" Mikaela asked, noting her father's change.
"Mickey…" he watched his daughter carefully, unsure of how to broach the subject. "You don't have anyone special here, do you?" The way he said special, as if the word meant a very dirty secret, put Mikaela on edge.
"Special how?" she asked.
"Special like not from around here," David stressed, laying a hand to her shoulder. The touch felt no longer friendly. She backed away a step, suddenly wary of her father's presence. She didn't like the look on his face- the expression he usually wore when he saw a car he liked and was already planning to steal it.
"Nobody like that around here," Mikaela murmured, waving vaguely to Sam, Miles and Blaster. "Just my friends."
"Are you sure?" He looked to his watch again, and then his gaze strayed to vehicles in the vicinity, first the Civic, then the Jeep, and then finally landing on Bumblebee. Whether it was the car thief in him, or just because Bumblebee looked like a kickass car, his gaze turned hungry as he stared at the Camaro.
"I'm sure, Dad." Squinting at the watch to see what could have possibly bothered her father, she noticed it wasn't a watch at all but an extremely compact Geiger counter.
As friendly as he had been when Mikaela had first run into his arms, David was all the more imposing as he stared down at her now. He was staring at her with that look all parents have- the one that says they can read your every thought. "You wouldn't be hiding something from me, would you?"
"No, I wouldn't."
Sam and Miles quickly caught on to the change in tone between the father-daughter reunion. They didn't like the way David was staring at Bumblebee, and they really didn't like the way Mikaela seemed to be shrinking in front of her father. Unlike Blaster, who kept his distance from the newcomer, the pair moved to flank their friend.
"Look, Mr Banes, sir, there isn't anyone here that shouldn't be here," Sam assured, trying to look as serious as he could. It was hard summoning up a serious face when the man he was facing off with looked like a bear compacted into a human body.
"I can think of one person who shouldn't be here," Chase voice suddenly growled. She'd changed into a pair of jeans and a semi-wrinkled tank top she'd dug out from between the couch cushions, and now loomed darkly in the open doorway.
David tensed as he registered the presence of his younger sister.
"Chase," he grunted curtly.
"David," Chase hissed poisonously. She stalked down the stairs and came abreast of her brother in the same manner a panther would approach a potential enemy. At close range, it was easy to see they were related. It was even easier to see they hated each other, if the way they were sizing each other up was any indication.
One inappropriate thought Sam entertained was that it was like watching one of those documentaries on the National Geographic channel, one where two grizzly bears were facing off. At any given moment, the tension was going to break and they'd go for each other's throats.
"What are you doing here?" Chase snarled, breaking the ominous silence. She glanced to Mikaela to make sure she was alright. If David had tried anything to hurt her, it would be a fight to the death between the siblings. Even if her brother had fifty pounds worth of muscle on her, she'd fight.
"I'm here to see my daughter."
"Bullshit." She stabbed an accusing finger into her brother's chest. "Tell me the real reason or I call the cops."
Faster than what she could have evaded, David had her arm in a vice grip and twisted until he put her to her knees. He bent his head to speak directly into her ear, using his weight to keep Chase on the ground. "I broke your arm once, little sister, I can do it again if you push me."
"I was eight, you bastard. I've gotten a little stronger since then," Chase snarled, low enough so they couldn't be overheard. This was an exchange between brother and sister. "You're here for money and don't try to deny it; you ran out and you can't steal a car to make more. Guess the people you're working for ain't cutting it, are they?"
"And if they're not?" David twisted his sister's arm tighter, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of showing pain. When Sam looked like he was going to try to help, she snapped at him, unwilling to let the kid get hurt by getting mixed up in something that didn't concern him.
"If you're just here for money, then don't fuck with your daughter. For some God awful reason, she loves you and I won't let you hurt her. You want money, you come to me and I'll give it to you, but don't you dare hurt that girl or I swear to God I'll rip you apart." She jerked her head back in hopes of breaking David's nose, but missed. She was shoved to the ground for her troubles, allowed to scramble away so she could take up a protective stance in front of the trio of teens.
"You're still just as bull-headed as ever, little sister," David sneered.
"And you're still a dick head, big brother."
He drew up to his full height. "Look, you don't want me here, and I don't want to screw around with you any longer than I have to." He fixed Chase with a dark glare, daring her to contradict what he was about to say. "I've got a job to do, and either someone around here starts talking, or I'm going to start using some methods of persuasion."
Chase backed up closer to the teens, making sure she had them covered. "You ain't gonna find nothing here that isn't supposed to be here, so Get. Lost."
Mikaela made a move to intercede between the two adults, but Sam held her back. "Are you insane?"
"They're my family- I can handle them," she hissed under her breath. He released her reluctantly, watching as his ex-girlfriend slid herself between her father and aunt, both of whom towered over her like storm clouds.
"Move your ass, Mickey," Chase growled between clenched teeth.
"No," Mikaela snapped back.
"Mikaela-!"
"He's my dad, Chase! You can't just tell him to get lost!"
"Watch me!"
David looked more or less moved by his daughter's defence; he appreciated the opportunity it gave him to goad his sister. "You better listen to her, Chase. No sense starting a fight out here when you know I'll win." And as soon as he won, he was going to take whatever he could out of the house, and then he was going to call his employers to get the hell down here to check out the haywire readings he was getting.
"You good for nothing son of a bitch-!"
Movement near the shed announced the entrance of a new face to the fray. He was of similar build to David, but lacked the fierce look all Banes' seemed born with. Regardless of that, when he came to stand at Chase's shoulder in order to shield the teenagers better, he did a very good impression of looking like an intimidating human.
"Is there a problem here?"
"Who the hell are you?" David demanded.
"A friend," Hound informed, warning lacing his voice. He had several hundred vorns worth of warfare on this human and despite his good nature, he was more than happy to use his experience to defend his friend and her family.
Chase, while shocked to see his hologram, was clearly relieved to have some backup. David, on the other hand, found his chances of winning in the eventuality of a fight were no longer in his favour with the appearance of the stranger. As Chase shifted closer to Hound, David backed away. Sam, Miles, and Mikaela, once she'd been dragged back to safety by Sam, gaped openly at the newcomer, marvelling at where the hell he could have come from.
Most miraculously of all, Bumblebee and Blaster suddenly discovered where their long lost comrade had been hiding for the last two months.
The needle of David's not-really-a-watch watch buried itself, looking like it was going to have a nervous breakdown with all the ambient radiation it was detecting. David regarded it for a moment before sighing in disgust. "This is getting absolutely ridiculous." He resigned himself to contacting his goddamn superiors the moment he got hold of a phone, turning to leave for now.
"Dad?"
"Sorry about this, Mickey. I've got to go," he sighed, offering her a distantly ashamed look. He crossed the street in a few long strides, and then was gone in the SUV before anyone could stop him.
Mikaela could only watch as her dad drove away. She was a little dazed, really confused, and in desperate need of a hug. Sam was kind enough to lay a hand to her shoulder, while Miles nervously wondered what to do in situations like this. She relieved both males of trying to come up with a way to comfort her by grabbing them around the necks and hugging them tightly.
"I'm sorry you had to see that, guys," she sniffed, not afraid to cry in front of friends.
Sam rubbed her back, putting aside any awkwardness he felt in order to comfort her. "It's okay," he murmured quietly.
Hound laid a hand to Chase's arm. "Are you alright?" he asked concernedly.
"No, but thanks for backing me up anyways," she sighed, and then looked the hologram up and down critically. "At least you're wearing clothes."
Blaster, who had been all but forgotten by the humans, wandered into the shed and stared sceptically at Hound's alt mode. Turning to the right, he followed his scanners to the source of the faint sensor ghosts that had been bothering him for the last little while, uncovering a small Cybertronian dampener hidden beneath a moth eaten blanket. With a simple flick of a switch, he turned it off and grinned as his resonance scanners quickly identified the hidden Autobot in the area.
"Long time, no see, old buddy," Blaster said, thumping Hound happily on the hood.