Chapter 20

Kate looked at the object in her hands. It was expensive. But it was the biggest model they made, not too mention it was also the newest one as well.

I wonder if it would be okay for Blue, Kate thought as she saw the Best Buy clerk come back over to her, smiling up a storm. Either he's way too excited about this potential sale or he's flirting with me. I wonder if I should tell him about my Cybertronian boyfriend, Kate laughed to herself.

"Nice, isn't it?" He asked her.

"Yeah, I like it," Kate nodded.

"Most people who've bought this model get it because the image screen is big and they can see everything a lot better. The image it captures is very clear and crisp."

Yeah, but how would it work for a 16 foot tall Autobot? Kate thought.

"We have 90 days, same as cash if you're interested. No interest for 90 days."

"No interest, huh?"

"Nope, none."

Kate smiled then and handed it back to the sales clerk.

"I'll take it," She said finally.

"Don't even think about it, motor mouth!" Thundercracker snarled to the young gunner holding the gift Kate had given him, putting his hand up to try and shield his face.

"Aw, come on TC! Don't you want to see how awesome you look?" Bluestreak replied cheerfully.

"I don't need a picture to tell me how awesome I look. I've already long known that," The Seeker snorted back.

Kate laughed. When she had given Bluestreak the digital camera a few days back, he was beside himself, thanking her profusely, eager to try it out. And try it out he did.

There were pictures of the human guards, some of whom posed as a group, giving the thumbs up, some flipping the bird, others inspecting their weapons, oblivious to the Autobot's camera.

"Hey Blue, you and J.W. ought to sneak up on Hide and get one with him and Maggie," Bumblebee suggested, the new nickname for Kate stemming from her little drinking odyssey a few days back.

There were pictures of Optimus with his arms crossed, smiling, Maggie being petted by Ironhide (to which the weapons specialist threatened the young gunner unmercifully if he ever showed that photo to anyone, Bluestreak would never see another earth day or Cybertronian one for that matter, which ever came first), pictures of Jazz joking around with Bumblebee, Bumblebee posing with his gun looking tough, Ratchet looking annoyed at being interrupted in the middle of a check up session with Jazz (which were far and few these days given how well Jazz had healed), and Thundercracker taking off for the sky, trying to get away from Bluestreak's shutterbug happiness.

And before long, Bluestreak had almost filled the entire memory stick with pictures including his most favorite one of them all, the one where he was crouched down to Kate's level, his hand holding her close in front, her smile wide, the afternoon sun behind as Bumblebee snapped the shot for them.

Heading into his quarters to download all the images to his laptop, so he could see them in full, Bluestreak sat down at his desk, Kate next to him.

Turning around to her, Bluestreak grabbed his camera.

"I just thought about something. I don't have one of you alone! I have to get one just of you. Hey, go stand over near the wall and I'll get one. I have a little bit of space left on the memory stick," Bluestreak told her.

Kate stood up against the wall and posed, blowing a kiss toward the young gunner. Laughing some, Bluestreak snapped the shot and then proceeded to download everything onto his computer.

Looking around at his quarters, Kate saw a couple weapons leaning up against the wall, a few various tools here and there, a detailed colored map of what she assumed was probably Cybertron, various data pads scattered here and there from duty reports filled out after patrols, saved replies to his friends back home, and a moderate (for him at least) sized black trunk that was locked.

All in all, his space was pretty clean and Kate wondered if his clean and tidy habits would extend over if he were human.

"Done!" Bluestreak announced.

Getting up, he walked over to Kate and bent down smiling at her.

"Thank you, Kate for the gift. It's the nicest thing anyone has ever given me. I can't wait to show everyone else when they get here! Sunny'll love it! He and Sideswipe will probably fight over who looks the best. They do that sometimes. Hound will probably love it too because he can take pictures of his favorite earth images."

"You are very welcome, Blue," Kate laughed.

Smiling at her, Kate saw a little bit of mischief in Bluestreak's optics, like he had something brewing up in his head and was thinking about how to execute it to the tee.

Taking his finger, he pushed her gently up against the wall, startling Kate somewhat.

"Okay…that's new," Kate grinned.

Bluestreak held her grin and proceeded to run his finger down her neck and down to where her shirt buttoned. He was so close. He wanted to know. He had to know.

Moving his fingers over, Bluestreak felt the roundness of her body's form, the strange garment underneath. Caressing gently, hearing a slight sigh come from Kate, he slowly moved his fingers to where Kate's shirt buttoned closed. But from his fingers being so big, the fasteners wouldn't open and as he tugged at the garment, he accidentally and unwittingly pulled the blouse half open, the buttons hitting the floor.

"Easy Blue!" Kate exclaimed.

Smiling at her, on a new kind of mission he was liking more and more, Bluestreak slipped his fingers onto her one breast, resting it there at first and then squeezing.

Primus, it's squishy! Like squishy, squishy! Perfectly round and squishy! He told himself as he squeezed again, temporarily entertained.

Trying to smack his fingers away, Kate exclaimed, "Hey, those aren't hand toys!"

Bluestreak giggled back. Figuring he had gotten this far, noticing how Kate's expression was one of contained amusement, pleasure, and curiosity, Bluestreak pulled the rest of the blouse open, her mid section exposed and smooth.

"Blue, hey, come on…" Kate started.

Finger tips tracing a line down to her belly button, Bluestreak wondered if maybe that was some kind of outlet for her too. Totally focused on everything he had seen the night when she was overcharged, he proceeded to tug at the top of her pants, finding out the closure clasp on it was being a little more stubborn than her top garment.

"Hey…" Kate said.

Getting a little frustrated at the clasp not budging, his logic circuits set on what he wanted to do, Bluestreak tugged again, making the clasp break free easily.

"HEY!"

Bluestreak blinked his optics at Kate then, surprised by the shouting, aggravated tone in her voice.

"Huh?"

"What the hell has gotten into you, Blue?"

Ducking away from him, Kate stood in the middle of Bluestreak's quarters, trying to figure out someway to keep her blouse together.

"I thought…that's what you would want…for me to…to…do…what humans do when they do what they do," Bluestreak said weakly.

"You thought I wanted you to rip my clothes off?" Kate asked in disbelief.

"Well…I guess…I saw it…when I was looking up info about human mating rituals and I came across a few sites that showed it. I thought it was really weird and complicated looking as your access outlets are situated in a really strange place, but I thought maybe if I could see how it was done, maybe I could…you know…try something for you…" Bluestreak replied shyly.

Kate's eyebrow shot up. "What sites were you looking at, Blue?"

Quickly, Bluestreak got to his desk and pulled up a file marked "Favorites". And when Kate saw the title of the site he had been surfing, "Rough and Tumble Ecstasy", she had to stifle a mix of exasperation and a laugh.

Seeing the pics of the naked women and men who were engaged in various sex acts, Kate looked at Bluestreak sympathetically.

"That's a porn site, Blue!"

"Porn? What's that? Is it a human teaching site for mating practices? There's thousands of them on the internet. There must be a lot of humans learning. It's pretty basic for us Cybertronians, in, out, done," Bluestreak said.

"Not too far off from some humans," Kate mumbled underneath her breath.

"What, Kate? Did you say something?"

Kate made a shrugging motion with her hand. "Nothing, it was nothing. Blue…" she sighed. "That is not human mating."

"But it looks real and it sounds real. They have little sample videos that you can watch and I…"

"Blue, that is not an accurate portrayal of how humans mate, trust me. All of that is for show, hyped up, over exaggerated, do you know what I mean?"

Bluestreak looked perplexed. "I guess…I thought mating was mating…"

"Human sexual intercourse is complex," Kate said.

"I'll say!" Bluestreak exclaimed.

Suddenly, the young gunner got very quiet.

"Are…you…mad at me?"

Kate sighed. "No, Blue I am not mad at you. I don't mind you touching me, you know that. I don't mind you're curious. That's understandable! But if you're curious, just ask me, okay? I'm a pretty open minded type of person. I'm not going to laugh at you or think it's weird. You don't have to feel uncomfortable about it. My feelings for you aren't going to change if you simply want to know. Tearing my clothes off on the hand, might get a little costly for me!"

"Okay. I'll keep that in mind. Thank you, Kate for being so understanding. This is…new…for me."

"It's alright. It's new for me to. We'll just take it slow."

Heading to his door abruptly, Kate said, "Take me home."

"What?" Bluestreak cried then, trying to block her way. "No! I'm not! I thought you said you weren't mad?"

"I'm not, Blue! Just take me home. I've got to get something, not too mention, I've got to put on some new clothes!" Kate said, smiling.

Understanding, Bluestreak started to calm down. "Oh, okay."

"Now, let's just hope we don't pass anyone on the way out now that my clothes are falling off me!" Kate laughed.

The entire base was pretty much closed down for the evening. Except for the humans who were on their patrols, pretty much a pin drop could be heard as most of the Autobots had all settled in for the night for their daily recharge cycle. Everyone except the young gunner and the human who was lying on his chest, curled up snugly, his hand resting on her back gently.

Lying with half his body on the tiny couch in the rec room, the lights off, Bluestreak and Kate were quiet, finishing up watching a movie Kate had brought from her house called "The English Patient".

She had said she wanted to show him a more accurate view of what human mating consisted of. As Bluestreak watched the epic film intently, with its sweeping cinematography and ill fated lover storyline, he couldn't help but think how it resembled somewhat what Kate and he were going through, how they were meant for each other, but yet everything else around them was stacked against their being together normally.

And when the movie ended, Bluestreak remained quiet, obviously affected by the spark wrenching ending he didn't think was fair. But as he was slowly coming to find out, human ways of living were not always fair to begin with.

Getting up, Bluestreak set Kate down on the couch, watching her as she sprawled out comfortably on her back. Kneeling down beside her, Bluestreak leaned gently over her.

Stroking his cheek, Kate sat up and gave him a long kiss on his lips that were smiling afterwards.

"Kate…what do you think…it would be like…for us? If we could…mate. Have you ever thought about it?"

Kate laid back and sighed. Oh yes, she had thought about it. Played it out to the very last detail of what it would be like. Like a fantasy she never wanted to end, a dream she never wanted to wake from.

There was only word for it.

"Heaven, Blue. It would be heaven," Kate said looking up at the ceiling, her voice soft.

And then turning back to face him, remembering something, Kate asked suddenly, changing the subject, "Hey, I thought we made a deal. You got to touch and I get my bra back, remember?"

Bluestreak thought about it for a minute. He did say that.

Finally, he replied casually, "Nah, I changed my mind. I think I'll keep it."

Hitting Bluestreak playfully on his arm, Kate felt his fingers run down her side, making her laugh from being so ticklish, her happy laughs being the only thing heard through out the quiet and darkened corridors of the sleeping Autobot base.

Author's End Notes:

"The English Patient" is a 1996 Academy Award winning film by director Anthony Minghella. It is a multi-layered story focusing on a critically injured patient telling his story to the nurse who is caring for him. Similar to how this story opened up with the Prologue telling everything backward, the movie opens the same way. It is a beautiful and breathtaking film. I highly recommend seeing it.

Thanks to everyone for reading!

K.D.B.