In which Alison goes for a drive, attends a tea party, and have a Valentine's date.
Surprisingly, the 'Cons' attack had been a pressure valve release, and everyone started to relax. In fact, the mood around base was rather jovial, and morale was high. Even better, the battle brothers adage proved true, with the soldiers and the 'Bots being even closer than before, especially the frontliners and their away teams.
A patrol rotation was set up, with every 'Bot aside from Ratchet, Wheeljack, Arcee and Bumblebee taking turns looking around the Midwest for any signs of the 'Cons. Two 'Bots would be out at a time, with a team of five COTA personnel joining them, and they'd be out for five days before rotating out. Our pilots were getting plenty of flying, especially with having to take circulous routes to not lead the 'Cons straight to base. It might be pointless if Soundwave was already orbiting the planet, but that also depended on him paying attention to us, and Starscream's team not being a group of rogues.
So far, no sign of the 'Cons had come up, but while before it was met with suspicion, this time it was a sign of our victory, that they were too beat to cause trouble. Prowl, tactician and raincloud he was, pointed out this could be an intentional ruse to make us overconfident, but even those words weren't enough to bring us all down.
Civilian life passed much the same as before, but again was relaxed. Mom and Dad nearly had heart attacks from hearing my part of the battle, and I felt a little coddled that next week when they insisted on coming to base with us, but it passed quickly, thankfully, and it wasn't so obvious to cause teasing or mockery (that I knew of at any rate). The school easily bought the excuse we used for my hand, and let Mikaela or Miles write out my work so long as I at least made an attempt with my left hand (all I got were squiggles even worse than my usual chicken scratch, so I usually only tried one question before handing it over). Luckily, it was all healed in about a week and a half, but Ratchet refused to let me practice with my powers until three weeks passed, as a precaution.
Even with that restriction, I was back to full duty come the first of February, just in time for Asami to step up my training. She asked that I meet her in the garage instead of the training ground for our afternoon training, and led me inside once I arrived. "So, what are we doing here?"
"I know you have your abilities and usually have at least Bee around you to keep you safe," Asami said, leading me down an aisle of cars. "But, there might be times that won't be enough and you need to retreat to safety while others keep fighting. So I'm going to show you how to get away yourself."
"Oh, really?" That sounded exciting, and I looked over the cars. "So we're going to hotwire one of these cars and go for a joyride?"
Asami laughed. "No hotwiring, at least not yet. I'll teach you that some other time. Today, we'll be taking out my car." She stopped us in front of a Dodge Charger, and oh, it was gorgeous. Glossy burgundy with matte black accents, I could have seen one of the 'Bots taking it for an altmode if they'd seen it. Probably Elita or Arcee, it seemed very femme fatale.
"Damn, she's a beauty," I said.
"That she is," Asami said, moving to open the driver's side while I waited at the passenger's door. "I got her just over a year ago. Been saving up for a while and traded in my mom's old car for a bit extra towards it."
"Was it the same one she hit your dad with?" I asked, climbing in.
"Actually, yes, it was. She had it brought over after she and Dad married. Apparently, she said it was a classic and having it around would 'keep him on his toes'."
"I'm guessing you inherited it once you got your license?"
"Yeah, Dad took care of it with that intention. But after the accident…" she trailed off, rubbing the steering wheel with her thumbs. "I needed something new. Besides, this beauty has a lot more under the hood than some thirty year old ride."
"Are we gonna get to see that in action?" I asked, hoping to distract her from any more painful thoughts.
It seemed to work as Asami smiled, put the Charger into drive and pulled us out of the garage. She drove us to the open range behind the 'Bots' training yard and found a relatively smooth area to drive in. "What you're going to be learning is aggressive driving. That means using all the horsepower you can to your advantage, while also being able to control it. Since this is the first time, I'll be doing most of the driving. I want you to get an idea how it feels. So-" she shifted gears and her smile grew into a grin, bright as the sun in the sky, "-hold on tight." With that, she hit the gas and we took off across the plain.
The first five minutes was obvious showing off, with the speedometer shooting up to the hundreds, and staying there as Asami drifted us into turns, changed imaginary lanes, and at one point made a high speed U-turn to send us rocketing back the other direction. It was so thrilling, I ended up laughing and screaming through it and after a minute Asami's laugh joined mine. It was the first time I had heard it so joyful.
"So, what'd you think?" she asked when we finally slowed down to a stop.
"That was amazing!" I cheered, flipping a few loose strands of hair out of my face, which felt like it was going to split from how widely I was smiling. "What'd we hit, a hundred-twenty?"
"A hundred-thirty, but close enough," Asami had a matching grin, and her eyes seemed to be sparkling. "I haven't been able to do this for a while, so I didn't want to risk going higher. At my best, I can handle her going her max at almost two hundred."
"You should be a NASCAR driver with those skills. Who taught you to drive like that?"
She shrugged. "Self taught really. I used to hang around a couple guys who would race me when we were younger. Did a lot of crazy stunts to one up each other."
"How you manage to not get busted?"
"We didn't. Luckily, the guys I hung out with were both sons of a cop. He normally let us off with a stiff warning and a message to my father about what I was up to."
"Was he mad?"
"No, he always knew I was a leadfoot." Asami redirected my attention. "Now, we're going to go again, but slower, so you can get a starting feel for it. Pay attention to how the car shifts as we do."
She took off at about thirty-five, and I did as she instructed. After about three laps around our makeshift course, she had me take over and practice. The Charger handled beautifully, and moved the way I wanted with ease, almost like it knew just before I did. Once I had gotten comfortable, she had me speed up, first forty, then forty-five, fifty, fifty-five, sixty. We hit seventy just before Asami said we were done for the day.
"This going to be our routine now?" I asked as we rolled back into base.
"We'll do this once a weekend, then a couple times a week once you finish school," she said.
"There's still some time before dinner, is there anything else you want to work on?"
"No, not today," Asami said as we slowed to a stop outside the barracks. "I need to give this girl a wash, then I got a few things I need to work on."
"Do you want any help with washing?" I asked, unbuckling.
"Nah, I can handle it. Besides," she nodded behind me, "looks like someone wants you."
I turned and saw Bee standing by the barracks, waving to us. "Alright. See you later, Asami." I hopped out and ran to Bee. "Hey buddy, what's up?"
"I was told to tell you this the minute you finished training today," he said, then took a very prim and proper stance and a formal tone. "Director Alison is cordially invited to a party hosted by the children of COTA in the Nursery. Dress is semi-formal and scarves are required. I am to also act as your escort to this party."
I laughed at how seriously he took the role of messenger, but managed to answer, curtsying. "I gladly accept the invitation, and shall be ready for my escort forthwith." Luckily, I had gotten an urge to dress nicely for school on Friday, so I just changed back into my white blouse, black vest, and black and white polka dot skirt, snagged a scarf from Mikaela's bag, then let Bee take me to the Nursery.
Inside, Sarah and Lizzie were in charge of the Base Brats, all of them and the hatchlings sitting at a table with a tea service and snack cakes set out on it. The humans were drinking hot chocolate, while the hatchlings had cubes of purified energon drained from the Decepticons before they were dismantled. A little ghoulish to some, but Ratchet insisted it was perfectly safe and even necessary for the hatchlings' development.
"Alison!" Meghan said excitedly, jumping up and giving me a hug, the Epps sisters following to do the same. They all were wearing either a princess costume or an outfit similar to mine. "We were worried you weren't going to come."
"And why would I refuse?" I asked. "I'm always happy to spend time with my favorite girls, and boys." I nodded over to Fred, who was starting to become fussy if you lumped him in with the girls. Poor guy was just outnumbered in the younger generation.
"We're not your favorite girls, Mikaela is," Shaniqua said as she and Mozembiqua gave me their hugs.
"And Bee's your favorite boy," Shareeka finished.
I laughed. "You almost got me there, but they're my favorite grown-ups. You all are my favorite children."
Escapade had come over, waiting 'til the girls had moved to hug Bee's holo before kneeling and gently wrapping me in his arms. "Hi, Momma," he said. "How has your day been?" He and his siblings had gotten much better at speaking English lately, with tutoring from the Base Moms and Brats. They could hold full conversations, and seemed developmentally around Fred or Mozembiqua's age.
"It has been good, busy as always. And how are my boys doing?" I asked, as Rascal ran down his arm to rub against my face. I scratched under his chin and he started purring.
"We've been good," the steering wheel said. "Ironhide and Chromia let us do some practice shooting on the range."
"And even let me use my Dew Gun!" Dispensor said excitedly, moving in for his hug once his brothers let me go. "They didn't even get mad when I sprayed them either."
"Uncle Will promised them they'd get first wash from the troops afterwards," X-Cat said, stretching and skittering over from her spot next to Shaleeka. "You should have been here, it was fun."
"I'm sure it was," I said, and made a note to ask more about it later. I know it would only be a matter of time before the hatchlings would need to learn to defend themselves, but a part of me hoped I would be able to bring peace about before then.
I hugged the little X-box, who then took off to sit in Shaleeka's lap, and Bee and I took our seats at the table. Lizzie handed me a cup of chocolate and I thanked her. "And how have you two been? Keeping busy?"
"Fairly," Sarah said. "Keeping up with the kids is practically a full time job in and of itself. I'm cutting Will off at two, mark my words."
"Same here," Lizzie said. "Ed and I would like another, but I don't know how we'll handle two Meghans."
"Pray for a boy," I said, "then raise him to love theatre. It's a different kind of drama, but shouldn't be hard to handle."
"Good luck with that," Bee said. "All boys love cars and robots, right Fred?" He looked to the three year old, who was squishing a zebra cake and licking the filling as it squeezed out.
"Yeah!" the boy said, showing a messy grin.
We laughed, then the conversation moved to other topics, like the current base gossip, the novel Lizzie was currently editing, and what Will and Sarah were planning on having planted on the farm that year, with helpful and not so helpful input from the kids and hatchlings. Eventually the conversation drifted to Valentine's Day plans, and I happily informed the women that I had already signed off on twenty-hour hour liberties for their husbands for the day, so they could spend the night somewhere special, all expenses paid by me.
"Oh, you didn't have to do that, Alison," Lizzie said.
"I wanted to. Aside from the deposits into the stock and poker accounts, I'm actually doing anything with the huge paycheck the government's giving me," I smiled, thinking of how much I had stashed and saved up versus what was still in the account. "And with all the things you all have done for me and COTA, especially the number of times Will's about pulled his hair out because of me, it's the least I could do. Monique and Epps are getting the same offer too."
"What are you doing for Valentine's?" Mozembiqua asked.
"I'm not a hundred percent certain," I said. "Though I was thinking a nice picnic date would be fun."
"Do you have a gift for her yet?" Shareka asked.
"Is it a necklace? I think she'd like that," Shaleeka said.
"A movie?" Escapade suggested.
"I ordered some jewelry for her, but I'm still thinking of something else she might like." I wanted to do something very special for our first Valentine's together, but my mind had been coming up blank.
Bee put a hand to his chin, tapping it with a finger. "You know, she really likes it when you sing. Maybe you can practice something for her."
"That's a great idea, Bee!" I beamed over at him. "I'm surprised I didn't think of that."
"You can sing a Disney song!" Fred said, almost knocking over his cup as he smacked a hand on the table.
"No! She's gotta sing a romantic song," Shareeka said. "Like from Titanic or Cinderella."
"Cinderella is Disney, stupid," Shaniqua argued.
"Girls, don't call names," I chided, as a thought popped into my head. "And I think I know just what I'm singing for Mikaela."
The rest of tea went by splendidly, and the same could be said for the next two weeks as well. As soon as I could, I downloaded sheet music for the song I wanted, and I practiced every night before I went to sleep. It wasn't one hundred percent perfect, but I was determined not to mess up for my love.
Valentine's Day came, and it started out wonderfully. Mikaela and I presented each other with bouquets of our favorite flowers at the start of the schoolday, and used just about every excuse during the day to be sickeningly sweet, to the pretend disgust of Miles. I didn't expect a scene to happen considering how long everyone's had to get used to us, but Trent did sneer at me when he caught my eye before turning back to his new girlfriend (his third since Mikaela dumped him). After school, Mikaela and I split up to get ready for our date. We were going to have a picnic on the lookout, then go see a movie around eight.
I changed into the floral sundress Bee got me for my birthday, and I matched it with a white bolero jacket, a pair of sandal heels and silver drop earrings, while my dog tags remained around my neck and Bee's bracelet around my left wrist, as always. A quick dusting of eye shadow and blush and a swipe of lip gloss finished the look. I turned to Bumblebee, who had popped his holo into my room after I waved him up. "So, how do I look?"
"Gorgeous," Bee said, grinning at me from his spot on my bed. "But then again, you always are, so it's not much different than your everyday."
"Oh I don't know, I think grungy better fits me after training with Asami," I said, smoothing my hair behind my ear and checking the time. "You think Mikaela will like it?"
"No way she won't," Bee said, standing and placing a hand on my shoulder. "Mikaela loves you, she'd think you're gorgeous in a trash bag. Though she might ask you to change into actual clothes." He laughed as I tried to slug his shoulder. Then I gave him a hug.
"Thanks Bee. I can always count on your opinion." I gave him a kiss on the cheek, then jumped back and picked up my guitar case before heading to the door. "Come on, let's go."
Bee was quiet for a moment, but when I looked back, he jumped around and said "Right behind you," following me to the kitchen and grabbing the picnic basket from the counter. After a hug and kiss from Mom for both of us, we made it out the door.
Mikaela was waiting for us on her porch, wearing a red sundress with white flowers, a brown jacket and matching heels and purse, and once she hopped in we headed straight to the lookout. Mom helped me make the food for our picnic, and it consisted of her delicious homemade chicken salad, fresh cut carrots with peanut butter and ranch, potato chips, and fruit salad. Once we were mostly done eating, we exchanged our gifts. My physical gift for Mikaela was a set of jewelry that resembled different little tools and hardware.
She smiled as she opened the box. "You just want to let everyone we meet know I'm a mechanic, don't you?"
"Hey, how many other people can claim their girlfriend can strip an engine, clean it up, and have it running twice as well as before, and be able to back it up?" I asked.
"More than those who can say their girlfriend is the leader of an alien-human joint organization." She pulled a jewelry box out of her purse. "And hopefully this will help show how much you mean to me."
I took the box and opened it. Inside were a bunch of charms, each maybe two inches square and obviously handmade with care, and a small chain to clip them onto. One was a cube that looked like the AllSpark before I absorbed her, another was a red wrench, and another was a yellow and black bumblebee. The last one made me gasp though. It was a silvery blue face insignia. Specifically, it was the symbol of the Unification, the one Optimus showed me in our lessons.
I lifted it from the box. "I- Is this?..."
"You're always talking about how you want to bring the Autobots and Decepticons together again," Mikaela said. "And I remembered how you mentioned that insignia after one of your Unification era lessons. I thought it would be a good symbol for you, and I wanted to show that I understood what you are fighting for." She twisted the edge of her skirt. "Do you like it?"
I didn't have the right words to say, so I leaned over and pulled her into a hard kiss, letting her know how much I liked it. "They're perfect," I said after we pulled back for air, resting our foreheads together. "And I know just where to put them." I took off my dog tags and opened the chain, sliding the wrench and the bee on one side of the tags and the AllSpark and insignia on the other. Closing the chain, I held it up. "This is my center. When I have doubts, I'll hold onto this and remember what I'm fighting for. For the AllSpark. For peace. For those I love." I put the tags back on and gave Mikaela another kiss. "You're good at making me feel like I don't treat you good enough."
"You treat me just fine," she told me. "Just spoil me on my birthday and I think we'll be even."
"Alright. I do have another gift for you though. Hop on the hood."
Mikaela raised a brow slightly, but sat on Bumblebee's hood as I grabbed my guitar from the back and walked back around to the front. Bee, who had been quietly playing radio while we ate, changed the music to a karaoke of the song I'd chosen. I sat across from Mikaela, strummed a few chords to make sure I was in tune, then started playing the intro.
"I wander through fiction to look for the truth
Buried beneath all the lies
and I stood at a distance
To feel who you are
Hiding myself in your eyes.
At this point, I lifted my eyes to meet Mikaela's and we held gazes for the whole rest of the song.
"And hold on before it's too late
We'll run till we leave this behind
Don't fall just be who you are
It's all that we need in our lives
"And the risk that might break you
Is the one that would save
A life you don't live is still lost
So stand on the edge with me
Hold back your fear and see
Nothing is real 'til it's gone
Below us, I could feel Bee sink down on his wheels, almost like a sigh. He seemed to like the song too, and that made my heart warm, and I projected that into the next verse the best I could.
"So live like you mean it
Love 'til you feel it
It's all that we need in our lives
So stand on the edge with me
Hold back your fear and see
Nothing is real 'til it's gone
"Hold on before it's too late
We'll run till we leave this behind
Don't fall just be who you are
It's all that we need in our lives
It's all that we need in our lives
It's all that I need in my life."
Mikaela was smiling when I finished, and waved me closer. I slipped the guitar off and scooted next to her, and she pulled me in for a long kiss. I couldn't help but sigh and melt into it, pulling her close and laying back on Bee's hood. I pulled her half on top of me and held her hips tight as her fingers tangled in my hair. We kissed until we were out of breath, then just rested our foreheads together. "I loved it. Where'd you hear that one?"
"It played on the radio when I dropped you off the night we met," I said. "It also was the love theme for you and Sam in the movie."
Mikaela made a face. "I don't know how that version of me could have gotten together with him. I could tell just from Thanksgiving we were incompatible."
"Like I said, main character syndrome. Before the Jump, I would read fics where the two of you broke up but stayed friends, and I actually liked those the best." I then snickered. "O- One of them, you and Sam broke up before the story, and he ended up in a love triangle with Barricade and Bumblebee."
"What!?" Mikaela yelped with a half laugh, and I could feel Bee start vibrating under us as if he was containing laughter of his own.
"Yup. Oh, and how can I forget the one where Bee had a crush on you and Sam, then ended up falling in love with Ravage."
Bee's engine roared to life under us and rocked back on his wheels, and I laughed. "I know, I know, it was a shock to everyone else too. Not the biggest one, but enough of one."
Mikaela raised a slight brow, giving a sidelong glance to Bee. "You're not in love with a 'Con, are you Bee?"
"What!" Bee rocked again. "No, of course not!"
She laughed. "All right, let's move on from who was in a love triangle with who," Mikaela said, shifting to lay next to me. "I just want to cuddle and watch the sunset before we head out for the movie."
"Sounds like a plan," I said, tucking myself closer to her side and turning to face the lookout. Laying with my girlfriend on the hood of my best friend/car and watching the sunset on a beautiful Valentine's Day evening. I couldn't think of anything better.
AN: And for those who wanted some fluff, we've got fluff! If anyone is curious at to what fics Alison is referencing at the end, they are "Cover Me" by blackdragonqueen and "Crackalackalicious" by ladydragon76 respectively. Both fics are great reads (and a big source for my Bayverse Bot characterizations), I highly recommend them. They can both be found on AO3 and a "clean" version of Cover Me is here on FFN.
So what'd you think of this chapter? Does Asami's training make sense? Was the tea party cute? What about the date? Let me know in the comments.
Guest Review Replies
None this week, another quiet one on the guest front.
I'll see you all next week, same 'Bot Time, same 'Bot Channel!
