Author's notes: Hey folks, sorry it took me so long to get this chappie up. I have had issues. Any how, hope you like it.
RP1
The River and The Highway part 4
I woke up slowly to the feeling of a pair of strong arms around me and the smell of straw in my nose. I opened my eyes and realized that I one had some how gotten up into the barn loft and two, Optimus was leaning back against the wall holding me. Keeping me wrapped up in one of the blankets that he had found up there. Contrary to what some of you out there might think, contrary to what I up until that moment had believed, the body of an autobot is any thing but hard and cold. Thanks to this instead of waking up half frozen to death, like I had thought I would. I was dry and warm and felt the safer than I had in a very long time.
He must have felt me move or some how else known that I was awake because he shifted me in his arms a bit and looked down at me.
"Hey Angel," he smiled.
I tried my best to set up only to feel a wave of nausea come crashing down on me. I promptly leaned back against him and waited for it to past. Once it was over I raised my hand up and touched my face like I was trying to see if it were all still there. I was.
"Oh," I moaned a little at him, "What happened this time?"
"Exactly what Ratchet told you would happen."
I really didn't have the energy to fight with him so I just let out a big sigh and tried to pull away from him. He kept hold of me but thankfully changed the subject.
"So why do you have this stuff up here? The blankets and straw...." He paused and looked around, "This place hasn't been used in a while."
I looked up at him trying to guess what he had on his mind but I couldn't read his face for once so I just answered him.
"In the summer they use it to dry out the local tobacco crops, then when they take that down they replace the straw for me. I keep the blankets and things here, because when I'm staying here I like to come up here and write."
He looked around again and nodded, "It's a good place for that, its very peaceful here."
He closed his own eyes and leaned his head back against the wall for a moment, just enjoying the silence of the place. I put my head on his shoulder and enjoyed being near him. It wasn't real, but for a few minutes at least I could pretend that some how, some way, it was. That right then we were nothing more than two lovers hiding from the rain and the rest of the world.
Then reality came crashing back down on me as I heard him sigh and felt him shift me around again in his arms.
"Opt..." I got about one syllable out.
"Wait," He brought his hand up and put one finger over my mouth, "Just hush up for a second and let Me talk for a change will you?"
I was pretty stunned not to mention the fact that it was an insufferably cute gesture, so I stopped talking and got ready to listen to what he had to tell me.
"First off, tell me why you keep on running away from me? You of all people don't seem like the type of person that thinks running will solve any thing"
I opened my mouth to explain but he kept talking.
"Secondly I want to know do you care about me as much as I care about you. Because I love you Angel, I'm not going to fool around and pretend that I don't."
Despite the fact I felt like I was gonna barf I pulled away from him and looked straight into his face.
"You don't know why I took off? Optimus, how can you not know why I took off?"
He thought about that for a second and then started talking again.
"See that's what I thought." He nodded to him self, "You think because your human and I'm not that we can't or shouldn't have a relationship, Why not?"
"Why not," I gapped, "What do you mean "Why not?" Can't you figure it out?"
"Not really," he replied.
"Well for one thing," I tapped my hand on his arm, "There is the fact you mentioned, that you're a robot and I'm human. For a second thing, I don't ever want to be around so I could be used against you. Finally I don't think that my family would ever accept you and I refuse to subject some one I care about as much as you to that kind of treatment!"
He thought about this for a second, as several things I couldn't read passed over his face. Then he turned back to me.
"You know, I don't really give a slag what your family thinks about me." He stated, "And as for you being used against me as a weapon, while it is always a possibility there is the fact that more autobots than just me want to protect you."
I thought about that for a second as he continued.
"Chances are yes, having a relationship with me would put you in danger, but the same goes for any kind of relationship. While the threats usually aren't life and death, there is always the danger that some one will get hurt Angel."
I wanted to say some thing, but I could tell he still wasn't done so I did my best to keep my yap shut and let him continue.
"As for you being human and me being an autobot... He trailed off and then started again, "Dose it really make that much of a difference to you that our bodies aren't the same, because I couldn't care less."
"I'm sorry," I told him, "But I don't know what you mean? How can it not matter?"
"Simple, all I see when I look at you Angel, is a young beautiful woman, who's very lonely and scared, and capable off immense love if just given the chance."
"Your right, I admit it. I am scared Optimus," I couldn't help but feel the tears in my eyes start.
He saw this and pulled me back into his arms just hugging me for a few moments.
"I'm sorry," I muttered against him, "But yes, I do love you as much as you love me. I'm just terrified of getting hurt. Of what might happen if I let some one in."
"You weren't scared that night on the road..."
"Yes I was. I was terrified that when any one I knew found out what I had done, that they would turn against me, just like they do every one that doesn't meet their expectations."
He nodded at me, "I can understand that, but unfortunately taking the path of least resistance isn't something that I've ever been able to do..."
"I don't understand?"
Optimus got that strange look on his face again, "Since the day I was put in command it's always been for me, take command, go from one place to another and never ever let anything stand in the way of what I was doing. If I did, and there were more than a few times, it either wound up getting someone I loved hurt, or putting my whole world in danger."
He let out another long sigh, "now I'm sorry, I came here to find you and tell you how I felt, not let you play therapist to me."
I shook my head at him, "Do you honestly think there is a way to make this work, that the two of us could be happy together?"
"Yes I do, I wouldn't be here if I didn't. I'm not claming that it's gonna be perfect, no relationship is..."
"But we should be at least willing to try?" I finished.
"Yeah," he said, and then he grinned at me, "Ya' know you never did answer my second question."
"Oh? What was it again?"
The grin came back, "you never told me weather you loved me or not?"
I grinned back, "really? I thought I did? Well then, let me make my self perfectly clear. I love you Optimus Prime."
"See?" he grinned more at me, "The world didn't come to an end by you saying it."
"Well even if it had," I paused and smiled my self, "It wouldn't matter. I've already made it to heaven here on earth."
I put my arms around his neck and he pulled me up into a long hug. If the truth were told we probably could have stayed like that the rest of the night, we probably would have if something hadn't snapped the two of us back to reality. The energon surges.
Just as I was there snuggling up to the man of my dreams, one of the worst ones yet proceeded to hit me. It left me gasping and shaking so bad that I nearly fell out of his arms.
"Slag," He muttered, "I was hoping me being here would be enough to make those stop."
"Guess not," I managed.
I held on to him until the trembling finally stopped and I could get some air back down my lungs.
"We have got to go back to the house and see if there is something Ratchet can do to stop this."
Of all the things that could have happened next I wasn't prepared for his reaction. For some strange reason he looked down at me and proceeded to, of all things, get embarrassed. He muttered something under his breath and I got the sneaking suspicion that he knew more than he had told me about how to get rid of this.
"Optimus?"
I found out right then and there that it is indeed possible for transformers to blush because as he looked back down at me his face started to take on a purplish tinge around his cheeks.
"Ahhh....Ummm..." He tried.
"Speak in coherent sentences." I ordered.
He coughed and tried again, "Ratchet already told me how to ahh... get the energon out of you're system."
"Mind sharing?"
"There has to be an energy transfer..." the blush was getting worse.
"Come again?" I wanted clarification, even though I had a feeling where this was going to go.
"Between umm... your and my bodies...again..." if that blush got any worse his head was going to pop.
"And just how did the tin plated witch doctor tell you that this had to take place?" I grinned at him, loving every second of it.
He muttered something under his breath.
"Out loud Op'," I demanded.
"He said it had to be through the lips..."
"So you mean I have to kiss you?" I clarified.
Optimus Prime, the chosen one of Primus, the great leader of his people, the champion of peace in a thousand worlds, swallowed and nodded yes with a barely audible, "uh huh."
It was unbearably cute that he was embarrassed over having to kiss me, so I saved him the trouble of getting any closer to a brain, or in his case, CPU aneurysm.
"Why didn't you just say so?"
I sat up and took his face in my hands and proceeded to give him a very long kiss. I think he was under the impression that my sanity was going to return when the energy left my body, and I would try and get away, so just in case he wrapped both arms around me to keep me there. Then he started kissing me back.
It was something that can even to this day I can only call indescribable. I have no words; a writer has NO WORDS that can tell you how I felt just then. Let me just leave that by saying it was some thing that I will never forget.
The two of us came down off of cloud nine as we heard the voices of the rest of the guys on the farm start up outside of the barn. I pulled away and smiled at him.
"I think we'd better head back now."
"Yeah," He smiled back down at me and kissed me on the nose, "I'm glad."
"For what," I asked.
"That the two of us finally found a bridge for ourselves," he hugged me.
Then pulled me to my feet and headed for the ladder down to the main part of the barn.
"I love you," I told him as we started down.
"I love you too Angel."
I had come to this place with the belief that I would never be able to have what I wanted, That I would spend my life alone wanting for some one that I could never have. The truth was that I had just been running because I had been scared. As the two of us were ushered back to the house, I realized that I was immensely glad that I had been wrong, and I swore that this time... This time I wouldn't ever allow this bridge to be burned again.
