Welp, this one is kinda short, however it popped into my brain without warning, and demanded to be placed here. So just for kicks, a little bit of Chapter 5 - Tactics
(BPOV)
Bumblebee pulled up behind his sister's place of employment, grinning.
He had a ton of bytes already lined up, ready to play for her, he wanted to make her laugh. He loved it when he got to make her laugh.
Kae half-stumbled out of the door, his poor sister looked absolutely dead on her feet, and her day was just barely beginning. Bee let out a sympathetic hum and opened his door for her.
"Bumblebee," Kae murmured, cuddling into his seat and closing her eyes. "You are, quite possibly, the sweetest, most thoughtful person I have ever had the honour of knowing."
Bumblebee grinned, gently hugging her tiny frame into his seat and winking his holoform online.
"You've already changed?" he asked gently. Mikaela nodded tiredly, Bumblebee changed his tactics, reaching out and laying his holoform's hand over hers, and wishing that she could feel it.
Her eyes were still closed as she smiled, reaching out and lightly running her hand over the holoform's.
"How do you know I'm doing that?" Bumblebee demanded, his optics wide in shock as he drove toward Sam's parents' house.
"I dunno, I just do," Kae shrugged gently, smiling and caressing the seat she was cuddled into. Her phone rang, and Bumblebee recognized the signal.
His Prime was calling the femme.
"Hello?" Mikaela answered with a smile.
"Mikaela," Prime rumbled quietly.
"Optimus," Mikaela smiled, it was a real smile now, lighting her face with the love and happiness that Bee rarely saw anywhere else. There were only two occasions that he got to see that expression: when she was waxing his armour, and when she was talking to Prime.
And all told? He really didn't mind sharing his sister with his Prime, and really, he had no doubt that the second his Prime saw that expression, he'd never leave Kae's side.
"How are you doing?" Mikaela asked gently. Optimus remained silent, evidently trying to decide how to answer the question. "Really?" Mikaela stated, as though he had answered. "Well did you at least get the chance to tell him off?"
Optimus snorted, and Bee had to try really hard to not chirp with glee. His Prime had damn near laughed again!
"That, is not funny," Optimus rumbled sternly the next moment.
"Then why did you laugh?" Mikaela asked with mockingly innocent curiosity.
"I did not laugh," Optimus rumbled flatly. The kind of tone that would have had Bee looking down and away, if only to allow the Prime his privacy in the small fallacy.
"Did too," Mikaela shot at him.
"I most certainly did not!" Optimus rumbled indignantly.
"I can hear you grinning Optimus," Mikaela smirked. In the background, the almost silent sound of Optimus' battle mask covering his face. "Covering your lower face with your battle mask isn't going to stop me from hearing your grin Optimus." Mikaela laughed at him.
"Stop that," Optimus chided the femme, amusement lacing his voice again.
"Stop what?" Kae immediately asked curiously.
"Making me smile," Optimus rumbled. "I mean-!"
Bumblebee almost popped a processor. He. Had never heard that tone from his Prime. That did it, he needed to get the two of them together. Nobody had made his Prime laugh in his living memories. Ironhide remembered Prime laughing, but that had been a long time ago.
"Oh what!? Is that an order Optimus!?" Mikaela asked in a mockingly shocked tone.
Silence for a moment.
"Let's try yes..." Optimus rumbled musingly.
"De-nied," Mikaela sang cheerfully. "Now did you tell the moron that pissed you off that he's a moron, or didn't you?"
"That would be incredibly rude, Mikaela," Optimus rumbled with his usual tone of infinite patience.
"Uh huh, and?" Kae shot back at him with a grin.
"And how am I supposed to properly do so?" Optimus finally rumbled.
For the first time ever. Bumblebee was scrapping thankful he was at a red-light. Because his sister, had just managed to twist a Prime's arm into spilling.
Scrapping. Priceless.
"Well, may I know whom you are intending to tell off?"
"For the sake of your safety, it is probably best that you do not know the little slagger's name," Optimus rumbled irritably.
"Mkay, well, I'll tell you what, here's the formula for a true human verbal beat-down," Mikaela grinned. "Did you want to hunt down a pen and paper?"
Of course the Prime wouldn't need such accoutrements, if he needed to remember something exactly, he'd simply record it.
But the suggestion itself made the Prime snort again. So that was her tactic. Bee couldn't help but grin.
"Step one, observation, discover his mental weaknesses," Mikaela began with a grin.
"Lieutenant Bumblebee," Optimus rumbled suddenly.
"Prime?" Bee asked curiously.
"It occurs to me, that it would be far simpler for you to holoform the liaison's speech for Mikaela," the Prime stated patiently. "If you do not mind, Mikaela."
"Oh bring it!" Mikaela grinned, she leaned forward.
Bumblebee smirked, showing off his hologram skills as the miniaturized liaison appeared, standing frozen on his dash.
"Can you bring up the height difference between him and Lennox?" she murmured.
Bee nodded and put a little Major Lennox beside the man, then began playing the bytes the Prime had sent.
Out of sheer habit, he sent the visual of Mikaela to his Prime.
(OPOV)
Optimus jumped slightly, accepting the video feed of Mikaela from his scout as she leaned forward, watching the hologram intently.
The man's speech played through once, and she sat back, frowning.
"Right, play it again Bee," she commanded calmly.
"What the hell do you think you're playing at?" the liaison shouted again. "High speed chases though cities, destroyed property, is this some kind of a game for you!?"
Optimus had been taken aback, infuriated at the man's impertinance, the mere suggestion!
But Mikaela began answering, where he had been unable.
"Sir, allow me to remind you," she stated sternly. "That we are first and foremost guardians. When the lives and safety of those we protect hangs in the balance," she leaned forward, much as he would. "I do not play games," she growled softly.
He should have said that. The man had then begun implying that his size had anything do do with his intelligence.
"Lennox," Mikaela stated curiously, looking at the still form and appearing as though she were ignoring the liaison. "Is it common among your race for those of smaller statures to attempt to compensate with verbal abuse? Sir, simply because my form greatly exceeds yours, does not give you licence to be insulting," Mikaela stated patiently.
What did she mean by that? Mikaela was rather small for a human... and surely she would know her own cultures... unless...
Bumblebee was giggling quietly.
"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" the man had demanded. "Or are you simply pretending that you know anything about tactics for the sake of maintaining amnesty?"
It had been at that point that Optimus' attention had been greatly taken up, commanding his weapons master to proverbially turn the other cheek.
"Director, it would seem that your education is greatly lacking," Mikaela growled. "Please allow me to fill in a few of those gaps, particularly seeing as I was fighting against the Decepticons long before your race even had comprehension of the meaning of sentience!"
It finally occurred to him. She was not saying what she would, she was giving him the words he needed. But it was not fully what she said, it was how she said it. A calm, practically emotionless delivery, picking the man apart with practiced ease. And that was what she was doing, with every comment the liaison made, she retorted, making a subtle observation at the man's expense.
The recorded speech finished again, and Mikaela grinned.
"Got all that?" she asked cheerfully. Optimus couldn't help but smile.
"I do," he rumbled through that smile, logging not simply the audio, but of her expressions as she spoke.
Because as welcome as her observations were on the Liaison, the way her optics snapped every time she heard an insult to him was absolutely fascinating.
A final note, nameless Liaison shall remain nameless. We'll meet Galloway later, and have some fun with him. A billion thanks to FireRose and Bee for helping me polish these to a gleaming shine.