Queen's note: sneaking... kinda
Just A Stray, Just A Cover
Chapter Four
Stand Up
"How about this one?" The deep gravelly voice drew the attention of the sales associate. More so as the voice and the general shape out of the corner of her eye, it did not really match up with the overly cheerful children's section of the cloths department store. What the woman saw, was perhaps the most amazing and funniest thing she had seen this day. There was a group of three, two men and a comparative tiny girl in the arms of one of them. The bigger of the two was holding up a bright blue shirt with a Frozen theme to show the girl he was holding.
The little girl shook her head, grasping at the vest the man had, "Jammies."
"Bug, you need more than pamajas." The bigger, and darker-ish of the two men said with an evaporated sigh. This man looked very much like a 'biker' that just was not in black leather, just in working cloths. He was maybe 6 and a half feet tall and built with muscles yes, but also, quite a bit of forming chub on his front. He had a rather impressive beard, brown in color like his hair, though it had a few random bits out-right braided into it the beard was well kept and cleaned. Maybe a kind of construction with solid boots, pants like carharts, he had a plan black t-shirt and a greyish vest with enough pockets to be a work vest of some sort.
"No I don't." The little red-brown haired girl said, eyeing the next offered shirt from. She was, not quiet surprisingly dressed in a pants and shirt of blue pajamas like cloths, though had sandals. In her hand not gripping the shoulder she was braced on was a slightly too big ball cap. The girl looked like she had just been picked up from somewhere with outdoor activities with a sun burn on her face and a few stains of a kid's over-active day. The bright green eyes seemed a bit tired, though interested in what was going on to put her two sense worth in on the cloths.
"Sorry junebug, yea' need something more than that." The other man said. He was a bit taller and leaner in build, dressed a bit sharper in a surprising mix of black pants and a green shirt. Though there was no tie. This man looked up with bright green eyes, not unlike the girl's, though sharper it seemed as he seem to look right over at the retail worker. Arching an eyebrow at the young woman, he gave her the impression of the man not being impressed with many things. For a moment he almost seemed to be annoyed with her being there before calming down as he noticed the work vest.
"Are... you looking for something in particular?" The worm, Becky asked, looking between the two men.
"Thank gods," The fatter man said shifting the girl on his arm, it was impressive that he was supporting the girl with just one arm, even with how small she seemed to be. "Cory!"
"Yeah, yeah," the second man, Cory, said softly before smiling at Becky, polite and shy of charming. It was an expression of someone who was having a long day so far even if it was not very late in the day. Yet was still making the effort to be civil, "Do you work in this section?"
"Yes," Becky nodded, walking a little closer after setting down the cloths she had been folding back into place.
"My niece needs some knew cloths," Cory started, waving at the girl who was back to insisting to the bearded man that pajamas worked for everything. Cory had a basket not far from him with cloths neatly stacked inside, and his own long jacket on the back. He glanced at the girl and added in a lower voice to not draw her attention, "I just finished adopting her this morning, her... father didn't take the best care of her after my sister passed. An' though I can get…"
Cory waved at his basket, and then sighed and motioned next to the display of under things, "I never had ta get these for birthdays an' such..."
Suddenly understanding what was happening with this odd group, the woman looked over at the girl and back, "Never had to shop for underwear for little girls?"
"Nooo," Cory shook his head, aware it seemed how things could sound out of context. "An' as yea' can hear, the lass is on a pajama phase or somethin'. But she needs some cloths."
"Flower!" the girl chirped to the side.
"Finally, something ya' like..."
Becky glanced over again, eyeing the girl and turned her attention back to Cory, "How old is she?"
"Eleven." The man said, glancing back at the display.
"Well, the lines we carry, you can see the information here on most of the bags," Becky started walking over and picking up a colorful, though mostly pink bag pointing to one corner on the top and then the other. "You can see the recommended ages here on the left, and the general weight of the kids this side will fit."
Cory made a face, "Does there have to be so much...pink?"
"It is the girl section, so, yeah…there's a lot, but on the other side of this is some more colors, not much but it's there." Becky shrugged, noticing the cloths so far in the basket seemed to be in reds, yellow, black and green shades. Some mini blue jeans as well- with a flower on them, and two pajama sets.
"Hmm...thanks lass." Cory looked up, nodding to the woman- only to pause and then asked, "Actually, can I pick yea'r brain?"
Becky nodded, hearing the girl's soft voice asking 'Uncle Hound' if they could get some water. She could just see the big man melting in a way and nodding before tossing the few approved shirts in the basket and heading off to go get that with a girl flopped on his chest and shoulder. Becky spent the next hour helping this odd group- not daring to ask of the two men were just friends or partners. None the less, Becky helped by filling in the gaps of supplies needed for kids that they, or Cory did not have. It was Cory who managed to get the girl to go into the changing rooms half way through, speaking softer to Amy before she would try something else other than pajamas.
The man was willing to go pay for a set a cloths the girl finally decided were okay, still not as good as pajamas but the shorts and new yellow shirt with a white daisy on the front and back. By this point the rest of the soft-line workers had seen or met one of the group, and seeing the bruising on the girl's legs and arms made almost all twitch. No wonder this Cory was taking her in... and maybe Becky herself felt a little bit better about humanity. Even though something clearly happened to Amy, she seemed to be safely in the charge of a new guardian, family at that.
And maybe being spoiled, but that seemed to be to be okay.
Amy was dosing on Cory's shoulder when the group left, and a cart-runner relaying later on that Cory had walked to a new module corvette and put Amy inside. Then after an argument with the other man, put most of the things in an older one ton truck before the group left to the highway.
Cory glanced over at the girl in his passenger seat once on the road, considering how boring this 'raid,' had been he wasn't planning on going anywhere else. He sighed, or it seemed like it as there was an odd echo of the sports car itself doing something alike as well.
The girl looked up at him, and then the dash, "Thank you."
The holo-form reached out, ruffling Amy's hair. "Just don't expect me to do this again soon. Food is one thing, all that other stuff..."
"Pajama's are better...but I like these too." Amy felt the snort coming from Crosshairs' himself as she pulled her legs up into the passenger seat.
The not really man snorted, "Two 'shops' are too many." Cory, Crosshairs said as he had he holo-form lean back in the driver's seat. Waving in and around the traffic, to the point of getting ahead of hound. Crosshairs grinned internally, waiting until they were out of the city limits before increasing his speed, flashing a text comm. to the Autobot that he was going to drive and meet him back at the hide out rocks.
"Hang on bug," Crosshairs said finding a more unused road, with plenty of curves. There was a soft giggle from his passenger seat as Amy was pressed into the door in a turn. At least the little human wasn't much of a bother herself, and seemed happy to just ride along, even when the holo-form was shut down.
Crosshairs did not want to admit that Bumblebee had a good idea, shifting his hologram a little to match with the cover story that had been made up. How Bumblebee knew no one would ask about any possible relation between him and hound's holo-form...
He did not want to know what the humans thought.
The drive was well needed to help Crosshairs calm down, the shopping trip had been far more tense for the mecha then for Amy. With no more humans around the holo-form was dissolved and the windows tinted a bit more. Crosshairs did not slow down for a few hours, taking a long way back to the hide out in the desert. Only once he ran out of room to drive, did Crosshairs stop, shrugging open his passenger door.
Getting Amy out wasn't as hard this time, and the wrecker transformed to stretch, "Primus below..."
"What's that?" Amy asked from where she was edging closer to stand by Crosshairs' right foot, and to be under the cover of his over armor.
"What?" The mech tilted his head, glancing down and flicking the edges of his over armor to get it out of the way, kneeling down. Though keeping his right shin and pede in place, reaching down to gently poke the girl with the back of his blunted talon.
"What's a primus?" Amy aske, leaning on the mech's fingers as they were close.
"Who," Crosshairs paused, considering what he should say or if any more. "He's... our creator, what used to be Cybertron. Or...he was inside of it."
"...where you came from?" Amy asked, tilting her head back to look at the blue optics. She thought about that as she stood, on hand on the larger on coming closer to her again, watching the metal digits opening and turning to be palm up. Taking the offer, Amy crawled up into Crosshairs' hand to be picked up.
"Yes, Cybertron." The mech said as he stood and started walking, his scanners set to wide scan, above and below. "Primus is at its core. That's how my world was alive."
"Was...?" Amy echoed, and then squeaked as she was given a pet on her head and back at first. It was not as scary at first it seemed, now that Amy was grasping that the Autobots were not going to hurt her if they could help it, and the child could see that the giants of metal were making an effort not to. "Did something happen?"
"Yeah," Crosshairs paused what he was saying as he still put the girl up on his shoulder. Deciding that if he had to take care of the little organic, then he was going to start treating her like proper wrecker youngling. That started with getting Amy to start to learn how to balance on his shoulder... or against his neck.
No, it was not cute. It was not nice to have someone sparkling sized leaning against the muscle cables. Crosshairs was not going to admit he liked the feeling of Amy seeming to cuddle as she settle inside his color ridge.
"A long time ago, for you, the war with the Decepticons started on Cybertron." Crosshairs started to walk again as he explained, waving a hand upward at the darkening sky. "A lot of slag happened, a lot of mecha died, and the planet got corrupted."
"By what?" Amy asked, bracing herself in a new position, leaning on the muscle cables, deciding that she liked the feel of vibrations as Crosshairs' talked. The gravelly voice was starting to be...nice. It wasn't the too-smooth like...He had used to try and do. It was a further difference that seemed to help with that safe feeling that was starting. "Did it hurt the place? Cyber...tron?"
"Aye," Crosshairs said, letting the wrecker accent slip as he paused in the shadow of a rock outcropping. He smoothed his over armor before poking one of Amy's feet, "Megatron an' his Cons did some bad slag with dark energon. So did Sentinel, forced Wrecker crews out of the Levels after he started collapsing the levels."
There was a long thoughtful pause, as most of what Crosshairs said went over Amy's head for now. Yet she chewed on what she could grasp before asking what stood out to her. "Does that mean your world changes like you? Stands up?"
It took a moment before Crosshairs found himself letting out a bark of laughter. Once catching up to the child's likely 'logic,' "There's roomers that Primus could do that Junebug. Never saw it happen myself."
"Can that happen to earth?" Amy asked, her eyes wide at the thought of this happening. "Stand up?"
Crosshairs snorted and shook his head minutely, "Nah, not unless it's hiding Unicron, I don't think your planet with 'stand up' softspark... we're almost back to the hide out, an' yea'r getting some sleep an' all that slag."