Queen's note: Another set up and transfer chapter, and yes, in my head-space/head cannon Wreckers prefer to carry sparklings up on their shoulders or in the collar ridge, freeing up their hands.

Just A Stray, Just A Cover

Chapter Six

Walking Out

If nothing else, if there was one thing Amy was learning how to do, that she never thought should could, was balance. Over the last few days she was feeling well rested yes, mostly as Crosshairs just let her sleep whenever she felt the need to. The Wrecker had let her dose while sitting in his passenger seat, or in the crook of his right arm and partly against his front.

For the first day or two as the group moved west to this bolt-hole place Bumblebee wanted to find.

After that, Crosshairs had paused before entering the forest Hound was thumping into, watching as Bumblebee and Drift transform and walk in. The scout more just... vanishing as was Bumblebee's strange habit. The trooper shook his head, frowning down at Amy as she sat on his forearm right over the attached casing for extra ammo, clutching green and black armor. He needed his hands free now, but at the said time, Crosshairs was not really quite ready to open his armor pocket.

"Okay yea lil' bug," Crosshairs vented, reaching over with his left hand to nudge the girl with the back of a claw to get her full attention. The mech kept his voice low, not that the other mechs couldn't hear him if they really tried. "If yea're gonna be my responsibility an' all that slag... come on, up yea get."

Blinking, Amy shifted, using the larger hand to stand up, clinging to Crosshairs' as his wrapped digits around the girl. He gave a flicker of a smile at the resulting squeak as he lifted Amy up higher not lowering to the ground. The mech tilted his head to the right as he boosted the youngling to the space between his neck and the high collar ridge.

"Gotta get yea trained like a proper Wrecker sparkling bug," Crosshairs said, watching as best he could from the corner of his optic. Feeling Amy waver and brace against the side of his face, his fingers and blunted talons gently helping to guid the girl. He chuckled lowly in amusement as Amy dropped a bit, finding the odd space between armor and frame. He hummed, the gravelly voice getting a much thicker accent for just a few moments. "Adda girl, just don't try pullin' muscle cables. Yea'll be safe in 'ere."

"Safe?" Amy echoed, looking around as the large hand poked her one last time before vanishing, giving a little more light to look around this new place. She blinked and looked at what was under her hands, the black-grey colored metal was almost cored like, only thicker than her legs. But like so many things about Crosshairs, or any of the Autobots she had met, and been aloud near (Drift had gently but firmly turned Amy around and towards hound once before, and the girl stayed away from him so far after that), it was more than just metal.

The muscle cables as Crosshairs called them where warm just like his frame, if not a little warmer as the collar ridge surved as a wind break around his neck, and now Amy. The metal was oddly malleable and softer than expected, not like his face or the flex metal lining between body-frame and the over armor. they flexed slightly as Crosshairs started to walk again, minutely adjusted not unlike what a human mucles would do under skin.

It wasn't so bad, there was a distinct closed in feeling of her new spot that Amy like, but not so much. It did feel safe where she was. The girl pulled her legs in after her, so they weren't peeking out, shifting around and clinging to the mech's neck as he moved. Edging up and back, now with her feet braced on the inside of the high collar ridge and leaning to her right, a little more against the back of Crosshairs neck. She could still peek out. From the front or back behind if the girl dared.

However, less than ten minutes into riding in this new spot, Amy found out that she needed to stay low the hard way. As something had grabbed the attention of not just Crosshairs but the others, thus Amy's head got a good bonk from the edge of Crosshairs' jaw line. She winced, cringing against the unintentional smack as the mechs field thickened around her, wrapping around the girl that did not cry out.

Crosshairs frowned, splitting his attention to give silent reassurance to the girl while freezing at hearing a distant engine. His talons twitching in the air over one of his side arms, having pushed the over armor aside. He was ready to open the holster, but hesitating with no target visible.

"Come on," Hound grunted from ahead, "Time ta vanish like Unicron."

"Yeah..." Crosshairs muttered walking after though keeping one of his scanners back on the human pickup. He could see Drift now, coming out of a ready attach crouch, with Bumblebee firmly planted between the blue mech and where the humans were.

"Cross...?" Amy half asked, just under and back of the mech's left audio.

"Stay down, an' quiet bug." Crosshairs rumbled back, moving his frame through a bunch of organic trees was bad enough; Hound was in a class of Loud all on his own. Yet four Autobots trying to move around on this planet outside of a highway?

Primus below...

Thankfully Amy was at least quiet for the walk, at least until Hound and Drift started getting louder to yell at one another. Bumblebee came back from his forward scouting to buzz angrily at them, though he stayed notably lower. Crosshairs snorted at them, moving away a bit to help Amy down to the ground, making the girl wait long enough to take a roll of 'tp' he unsubspaced before letting the girl go to find a suitable place to relieve herself. The mech leaned on a thicker tree, watching the semi-controlled chaos of an in-fight.

What was it about?

Crosshairs had no idea, and stayed out of reach and out of direct line of sight, sending a text burst to Bumblebee that he would not be far off. The mech paused a few strides away, remembering Amy almost too late. He flicked out his scanners and moved the direction he had picked the organic up. She was emerging from behind a tree, looking more content then when she left.

The Wrecker gave another half flicker of a smile before waving at Amy, and as she came closer lowered a hand for her to scramble up into. "Back up yea get," Crosshairs said, boosting Amy back up to his neck, tilting his head to let her hide back under the collar ridge again.

"Where are you going?" Amy asked, peek up a lot more cautiously this time, leering of getting smacked again. "Not to the others?"

"When those slaggers calm down bug, or Bumblebee comes finds us." Crosshairs shrugged as he walked, heading the general direction of west again, he could feel Amy shift slowly around the back of his neck as he talked. The mech tilted his head back a bit, just enough to hear the girl squeak, and then a faint giggle as he straightened up. "At least someone is enjoyin' themselves."

"Yep," Amy nodded against the muscle cables, settling herself to be more laying down while leaning against the mech. She was getting the hang of his walking movements like this now. "Crosshairs?"

"Hmm?"

"What's a Unicron?"

The Wrecker face-palmed, venting a deep sigh like sound before attempted to explain. Some twenty minutes later Amy was just as confused as when he attempted to explain Primus. Only this time it ended with glow-beetles and some other cyber-fauna from Crosshairs' home world.