"...Lacey?" Lyric blinked, looking down at her tiny friend, confused and bewildered as to why she was there...on her parents berth...where she slept...
Her face went flush with embarrassment with realization.
"W-what are you doing here?!" she squeaked, subconsciously gripping at her blanket tighter, covering her front as if that would help to hide her.
"Uhhh..." Lacey seemed at a loss of words for a moment.
"Lacey will be staying with us for a while, until Ironhide is able to take care of her" Prowl spoke up, adjusting Lyric's shoulder armor and getting his hand slapped for it.
"Why? Why hasn't he gone to fetch her?" she asked, acting as if what she'd just done was completely normal and nothing to be shocked about.
"Its a long story girly, an' ah'm sure yer buddy's heard more than enough 'bout it by now " Jazz input, snickering at Prowl's frown.
"Where is she staying?" inwardly she prayed for them not to say 'here' as in, their room, along with her, that would have been awkward, it was awkward already with just her.
"We will make some arrangements in your room" Prowl told them "if not, then the living room should suffice."
"Are you all right with that Lacey?" Lyric asked, crawling away from her creators and to Lacey, feeling oddly like a person in a tale when they just met a tiny fairy.
Lacey looked down to the floor that was the berth, shuffling her feet a little, looking a bit timid.
"I don't want to be a bother'r'anythin'..." she mumbled.
Lyric frowned, huffing.
"What have I told you about that attitude?"
"Not...to apologize...so much?" she said slowly, as if fearing answering wrong.
"To be more confident and not so self blaming" Lyric said, poking her on the shoulder with a finger, nearly throwing her off balance.
Lacey ducked her head further in shame, to which Lyric let out an angry hum.
When that didn't seem to do anything, she sighed, reaching down to pick up her friend with care, wrapping her in the blanket with herself, then turning around to her creators "we'll be in my room if you need us" she said quickly, then turned away just as fast, eager to get out of there before they could say no.
She hurried out the door, and quickly ordered it to close again on the other side, and only then did she relax in the dark living room.
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry they brought you into this... you don't have to stay here if you don't want to." she said, sounding tired.
"'Rather be here with you than that creepy infested room of doom" Lacey said, glaring at nothing in particular, hugging herself "with all the sharpy objects and the creepy doctor people."
Lyric chuckled, relaxing and walking towards her room "regardless, I'm glad you're here... things shouldn't be so weird around here anymore with you around."
"No problem!...How weird?"
"Well...for starters my parents are totally gay for each other...that's something weird to live with."
"True...and they had you as a baby."
"yeah that doesn't really help... I keep trying to imagine Jazz with a pregnant belly..." she shuddered "thankfully they told me that's not how it works for them."
"What else ya got?"
"Well...they work for an army as well, I mean... its weird to have them talk about battle tactics and stuff like that, it feels very surreal sometimes." she explained. "And the tvs? Its all recorded stuff they have, its not actually being sent through an antenna or anything."
"Okay, that's not TOO bad... I mean yea its kinda weird, but not too weird."
"They also know a lot of shit about my entire life...its freaky...and sometimes I catch them being affectionate to each other, like cuddling and teasing...I swear I once woke up while they were making out, they stopped before I could be fully awake to realize it, but I'm pretty sure they were."
"Eeewww...were you on their bed that time too?"
Lyric's face heated up so bad it went almost red.
"W-w-well yeah...b-b-but on the other base our quarters was just one room... and they weren't on the berth, they were on the couch." she said quickly, absolutely horrified at the implications.
"You poor traumatized thing you...yes that counts as...so weird."
"I know right?!" Lyric nearly squeaked. "I mean, its awkward when they do it! I don't even wanna know if they ever got away with anything ELSE." she shuddered again, opening the door to her room.
"that so warrants some...oooh!" the young human's attention was diverted by the room's odd décor, looking around with big shiny eyes. "its so shinnnyyyy"
"Uhhh..yeah...shiny...its a representation of the universe...some galaxy I don't know...likely their own...our own...argh! Its confusing." she said setting her down on the berth and closing the door.
Lacey looked around at their surroundings with curiosity, more at ease now that she didn't have strangers around.
Lyric returned to the berth and let herself fall on it with a huff, Lacey being thrown up in the air with the impact a little then falling back onto it.
"So...are you still able to draw?" Lacey asked, turning around to look at her friend, who rested her head on the pillow.
Lyric shook her head a little.
"No...my sketchbook became too small once I...changed." she explained. "I wish I could...but I can't even grab a pencil..." she said with some sadness.
"Ah... well... have you met anyone nice around here? To hang out with?"
"I guess..." Lyric replied with a shrug, stretching out across the berth. "there's only mechs around here...but they're okay...ish.
One of the youngest, is oddly my uncle... but he's pretty neat, loves to talk and telll me stories."
"Cool" Lacey said, indicating for her to continue.
"There's also Bumblebee, he's okay, very happy, very positive kind of person, pretty small too, he hasn't out right said it, but I think he works for Jazz..."
"What do they do? Jazz and ...Bumblebee? What kind of name is that anyway?"
"I'm not completely sure, they weren't very specific, I know Jazz is head of special ops, which makes him Bumblebee's boss. Prowl said he does infiltration and sabotage, but I got the feeling he does more than that. I'm not sure what Bee does though."
"Sweet..."
"Dangerous" Lyric pointed out "he's...very strange, he looks like a very nice and happy person most of the time, I almost believe it...almost. But then when its needed, he can change completely into something else...its frightened me a little.." she admitted, rolling onto her side to look at her friend.
"Well...they...are in a war, I mean... sometimes you need to, y'know...stop bein' yourself...kinda like Vietnam, they had no choice to be killers even though they weren't."
"I know... I know that...but..."
"Sometimes everybody has to do stuff they don't like" Lacey said with a shrug.
"I know...whats scary is what they DO for me... I mean... they've killed to protect me Lacey...I don't even know how many, I know of at least three by Jazz... heck even I..." she cut herself off looking away.
"Parents will do anything to protect their children...right?"
"Heh... doesn't really sound like the life we led until now does it?"
Lacey grew a bitter smile. "Yeah... it doesn't... at least we're in it together right? So it won't be too crazy."
Lyric smiled, reaching over to lightly tap her friend's knee with the tip of her finger.
"Yeah...that'll be nice." Lacey could feel the finger tremble slightly, the gears inside making a very faint clattering noise. "And Lacey...?" she said, calling her friend back to attention. "while we're here, I'll look out for you, nothing's going to harm any of you. I promise."
Lacey tilted her head to the side, observing her friend, trying to figure her out. "Whaddya mean?"
Lyric's hands wrapped around Lacey's body, and dragged her closer to the large femme, resting her against the armor covering the base of her neck.
"Like you said...this is a war...bad things happen, I won't let those bad things happen to you guys...I'll do everything I can to stop it."
Hesitantly, Lacey took a moment, taking in all the signs.
"What happens to us? What about you?"
"I'll be fine. You know I will, I'm used to this kind of job."
"You mean taking the fall for others?" The girl said sarcastically.
Lyric looked away, not wanting to face what her friend was about to say, they'd gone over this a few times before.
"No. You listen to me now" Lacey said, grabbing at her chin plate and trying to pull her to look at her. It was a harder task than it sounded. "If we're gonna survive this, and if we're gonna stick together, then we have ta start trusting each other." she said, struggling with her words, it was hard for her to put it together in a way she could clearly express herself "so don't go starting to hide things from us or acting like a hero. That's not how it works."
"I'm not acting like a hero...I'm just...look, I'm the one with more experience here... hell I'm the eldest one! It falls on me to be responsible for you guys, I'm the one that's gonna have to guide you guys when you start getting your bodies too! I'm the one that's going to have to tell you what to do when the Decepticons manage to invade again! I'm the one that's-"
"Waiiiittt wait wait wait wait!" Lacey interrupted "So you've met with them before?"
Lyric froze, her optics darting away guiltily.
"Well I...sort of...I mean there was that first time when they came to get me..."
Lacey narrowed her eyes, crossing her arms " What happened?"
"Well... that first time Jazz and Prowl managed to protect me long enough until the autobots came, they nearly got themselves killed though...and I nearly got myself abducted." Lyric said uneasily.
"Mmmmhmm?" Lyric could feel the pressure from her friend, even if she hadn't said much, it was implied.
"After that I was taken to their base on earth, I've no idea where, I never got to go outside of it. I was in there for months. But anyway, during the first weeks Jazz and Prowl recovered and stuff, and then there was an attack on the base..."
"Aaaannndd?" Lace prodded.
"And...I was left in the quarters while they defended base...a mech managed to infiltrate through though...he came to our quarters..." her voice quieted down. "I tried to hide...but he still found me. He ...H-he grabbed me, threw me to the floor, and the next thing I knew, he was coming down at me with this electric spear or something, and he pierced me...straight through the heart."
Silence fell for a few agonizing minutes, Lacey watching her friend, the shaking had increased a bit.
"But...you're here now...right? You're alive..."
"It HURT. It hurt so bad...and whats worse? Whats worse is that I woke up in a Decepticon base, unable to scream because everything hurt so much, with no sight. I barely remember anything, I don't KNOW what they DID to me while I was out! I just remember panicking, and making a run for it, I tried to scream, it hurt so bad." she touched her own throat as if the memory was still fresh "it hurt everyone else too...I just remember running towards a warm presence, blindly trying to escape. That presence was Jazz in the end... I managed to get back to safety, the Autobots had come for me, and took me back. But it was too late...my old body was too damaged to put me back, and I had been put into a Decepticon frame... Ratchet had to operate on me to put me in a new body, I've been recovering since... I'm still...recovering..."
"Well... you're here now...and they're not here, right...?"
"Yeah..." she agreed with a trembling voice. "its just... I think the worse part is not knowing what happened while I was out... I keep having nightmares about it...imagining it... or I think I'm imagining it, I'm not sure if I'm actually remembering things..."
"Its probably just the stress...you did say you were still recovering"
Lyric nodded at this.
" I never told them about it...my creators I mean, I never told them about the nightmares. I... I just can't... I'm scared what they'll think of me if those nightmares are memories..."
"I don't think those will be memories...probably just your mind playing tricks on you. Because you're so scared."
"I know...but...there's always that doubt you know? This IS a war...they're not going to be nice and clean about it...Heck I don't even know how IT works!"
"It...?"
"You know!" Lyric said flustered, flailing her arms. "IT! Robo...sex..."
Lacey couldn't help herself, and burst into laughter.
"I'm sorry! I'm s-sorry!" she said between laughs. "that's just..." she had to take a moment to recover her breath "Sorry...sorry..."
"Lacey! I'm trying to talk about something serious here!" Lyric whined, her face heating up again in embarrassment.
"I know, I know, sorry" her friend repeated "That was just...ah...well how DO they do it?"
"Uh... I... don't know...that's the whole point...can they even do it? They must have some way to do it if they can reproduce..." she mused.
"So...they have some form of-"
"Please don't say it, I'll start imagining my creators doing it the human way" Lyric interrupted.
"Fair enough." Lacey conceded "well why don't we ask them?"
"W-w-WHAT?!" Lyric squeaked, stiffening "No! Nononononononono! God! That's embarrassing! That would be horrible! I could never ask them something like that!"
"Girrrllsss!" Jazz's voice came so suddenly the two jumped in their place, clinging to each other and staring at the door like deers caught in the headlights. Jazz's voice was coming from the other side.
"Time ta eat somethin'! Come out soon" they heard.
They stared at the door for a few minutes before Lyric regained her voice "W-we're coming!" she called out, before looking at Lacey "Not a word about this!" she said, before wrapping herself in the blanket again, Lacey sitting in her arms.
She set in the code for the door and it opened, they could hear music in the living room.
Lyric stepped out hesitantly, and looked around, turning towards the kitchen just in time to see Jazz casually passing by Prowl on his hover chair, and squeezing the other's aft. Prowl jumped with a start, then came down with some sort of cooking utensil slapping his mate on the hand.
"No samples until after dinner and everyone is asleep" Prowl told him in a low voice, using sub harmonics he did not usually employ while working.
"Oh god... I think I'm gonna puke..." Lyric muttered, frozen in the spot, they hadn't noticed them yet.
"I second that motion...how do you live?" Lacey muttered back while Lyric slowly inched back into the berthroom.
"Feigning ignorance has been working so far."
"Wow...that...was weird...no, that was awkward." Lacey commented, still too taken by surprise.
"Just you wait until you meet YOUR creators, Ironhide isn't as easy to hide as those two..." Lyric said with a scoff "you better pray he's not as obvious about these things...geez...my old parents never acted like this around me... I never once even saw them kiss...these two? They do it all the time around the quarters."
"Eeewww...thanks... I didn't need that." Lacey said with a small smile.
Lyric tried to listen in at the door, trying to hear if it was safe to go outside. "Well... I guess we should make it known that we're coming out this time around..."
With that, she took in a deep breath, and stepped out again.