Everything went surprisingly well for a few weeks. Miles had his best friend back and he and Mikaela had even developed an awkard semi-friendship. Sam was to blame for most of the awkwardness between the two, though, because he had reminded Miles about the way that he had used to call Mikaela a jock concubine, right within ear shot of said teenage girl. As payback Miles had invited the two over to have a scary movie night, including the movie Christine. It was almost funny how easily Sam was scared by the movies, but watching him freak out over Christine gave Miles a kind of smug satisfaction. He'd also told his parents about Officer Ticon, and they'd even seen Barricade pick him up before, so there was one less excuse he had to come up with.

It helped even more that his relationship with Barricade had improved in leaps and bounds. The 'con hardly even tried to 'train' him anymore, something the teen appreciated a lot. Now Barricade was more comfortable with just having normal conversations, not needing the teen to necessarily start up with questions about a certain topic anymore.

The downside was that Barricade was getting more and more stir crazy. Miles couldn't really blame him, all the 'con had to do was drive around and browse the internet without Miles there. And as fun as the internet could be it didn't do much to provide in the way of intellectual conversation, something that he quickly leaned that the 'con craved. With Miles he had some company and somebody to talk too, although there had only been one talk that he could really call philosophical-something about sparks and souls and what happened to a mech, femme, or human when they died-but outside of that there wasn't much for them to deeply talk about. It wasn't like they could really relate, after all. Miles had never fought once in his life, physically anyway, much less killed anyone or been in a war. To Barricade his life span was like the blink of an eye, and when they were together, in those silent moments where neither had anything to say, he could feel his mortality crashing in on him and suffocating him. Miles had never seen himself as fragile before, but now it was like a little voice was in the back of his head, whispering of all the things that could kill him. He never mentioned anything about it, and neither did Barricade. He wondered if Sam felt the same way whenever he was with Bumblebee.

But despite that, they were getting closer and learning to understand each other better. They were friends, despite how different they were. Miles was open about his feelings to Barricade, often using them to tease and disturb the 'con if he could. He found it ridiculously funny that such an advanced being was afraid of having someone close to him, but he supposed after a war like theirs he might have been too. Whenever he got to thinking too much about all that the Cybertronian may have gone through he had to find a way to cheer himself up, because he didn't need told when some existence's just weren't as pleasing as others. In the beginning Miles had trouble telling one growl from the next, but now he could say almost for certain if one growl was pleased versus one just being content. He was also reading the expressions Barricade made a lot better. While his faceplates held similarities to a human's face, the way they made expressions wasn't exactly the same. Being huge and black and made out of metal just made it harder for him, but he was learning as fast as he could.

To the outside eye it might not seem like Miles and Barricade were that close. It often might seem like Miles was making the huge 'con angry, but in truth that was just how he acted. That wasn't to say Barricade didn't get angry at the teenager, but this anger was a new one for him. Before if he had been angry at an acquaintance—no one outside of his old team having gotten the honor of being called a friend—or if they had had a dispute they would have a fight. Whoever came out on top was the winner and that was that. He couldn't do that with Miles, at least not physically. Barricade was half afraid that if he breathed to hard on the young fleshling it could kill him. They did have the occasional verbal disagreement. This would usually come around when Miles thought Barricade had been needlessly reckless and could have been caught, and Barricade would fight back because he couldn't stand that a "pathetic fleshling" was worried about him. This would end with Miles walking off for the rest of the day, and then coming back the next like nothing had happened. That was just fine with Barricade. He was a fighter, not an overly emotional Cybertronian.

Miles fell into a relaxed state, not being nearly as nervous about Sam finding out about Barricade as before. In fact, at the very moment he was in the shut down drive in with Barricade, and texting Sam. Barricade himself was using a holoform, just in case anyone came, and was relaxed against the side of his alt form. Like usual he was wearing the police uniform, and he had a scowl on his face. Miles was sitting inside his alt form with the door open and his legs touching the ground, not bothering to actually get out.

"Let's go to Las Vegas," Barricade suggested.

"I know you've talked to my mom with that form, but I don't think she'd agree to let even a police officer whisk me away to Vegas for a weekend."

"And why not?" Barricade asked, and Miles rolled his eyes at the offended tone. "You're not even of legal age to gamble, let alone drink. What could even a normal human police officer get up to with you?"

"Not even going to get into this with you right now, it's too nice of a day."

"Lake Tahoe?"

"Barry!" Miles groaned, looking at the holoform to find it smirking at him. "You're an absolute riot."

"And you are very unadventurous," Barricade replied with a shrug.

"I don't think going to Lake Tahoe sounds like an adventure," Miles muttered. "Anyways, you sure do seem to be wanting to go a lot of places lately."

Barricade rolled his eyes, "Can you blame me? I think I've gone stir crazy. I didn't even know Cybertronians could go stir crazy. There's something messed up about your planet that's causing me to glitch."

"Admit it, you just want to go on a roadtrip because you can enjoy feeling me inside of you." Miles laughed.

There was a few beats of silence before Miles actually realized the double meaning of what he had said. He felt his cheeks heat with embarrassment while Barricade started to laugh, because to the 'con it would mean next to nothing except an understanding of why it was funny to the teen, and that only embarrassed him more.

"You stupid Cybertronians come with too many possible innuendos. It's not my fault!" he huffed, climbing out of Barricade.

"You just have extremely poor word choice, fleshling." Barricade chuckled.

Miles ignored him in favor of climbing up on Barricade's hood and relaxing against the windshield. He yawned, texting Sam again. When the question of what he was doing came up, he replied he was hanging out with Officer B at the old drive in. He didn't think anything about it, he had told Sam they were hanging out before and nothing ever came out of it.

He stretched out lazily, starting to nod off on top of Barricade. The hood was just warm enough from reflecting the sun to be comfortable, and he could feel the engine running. He closed his eyes, drifting into a state of semi-consciousness. He was still aware of where he was and who he was with, but most of the sounds around them were tuned out, and Miles just day dreamed. He was only brought back to reality when he heard Barricade use the English equivalent of a Cybertronian cussword.

"SLAG!" Barricade growled, causing Miles to flinch and open his eyes.

The next thing he knew he could feel the saleen police cruiser reverse quickly, causing him to slide off the hood and hit the ground hard. Winded, he stared up at the clear blue sky in confusion, hearing Barricade speed off and knowing without having to look that the mech was speeding off into the distance.

After a minute or two he sat back up, and after a couple of minutes he saw a shiny yellow Camaro pull in to the parking lot. Miles did his best not to glare, because that explained everything he needed to know about why Barricade had just ran away.

Sam pretended to drive over to him, rolling down the window. "Thought you said you were here with Officer B?"

"He got called in for something or another," Miles replied with his best fake smile, "What are you doing here?"

Sam grinned right back, obviously missing how forced the smile was. His friend got out of the car and helped Miles up. The teen took a moment to brush himself off.

"Thought I'd come kidnap you. The last thing I need is you to become a hard ass from hanging around a cop too much. …And there's a new movie I really want to see but 'Kaela refuses to go with me. Since you were on the way I figured I'd stop by and invite the both of you, but since Officer Ticon isn't here it can be just you and me."

Miles opened his mouth to say something, but stopped when he heard Sam's phone go off. He laughed when Sam looked embarrassed, gesturing for him to answer it. He watched Sam walk off as he did so, starting to walk towards Bumblebee. He nearly tripped when he heard Sam raise his voice and the word Decepticon come out of his mouth. He nearly froze, glancing at Sam nervously then letting his gaze fall on Bumblebee. He had no idea that a Cybertronian could talk on the phone, but from what he could hear of the conversation he had to assume it was the Autobot.

He pulled out his own phone, quickly texting Barricade and telling him to lie low. He waited next to the Camaro until Sam came back over to him.

"On second thought, can we go to my house? Just have a guys night? A friend of the family wants to borrow my car for a hot date of his tonight." Sam explained, trying to sound sincere even though Miles could see it as a lie.

He just nodded, smiling. "Of course! Wouldn't want to cramp his style."

The next morning Miles was the first to wake up. He had spent the night at Sam's, sleeping next to his friend's bed on the floor. He stood up, looking to Sam to make sure he was asleep. Being as silent as possible Miles dug Sam's phone out from it's hiding place in a drawer, and looked through the texts. He felt bad for ignoring his friend's privacy, but if there was anything he could tell Barricade then he had to do it.

It wasn't hard to figure out that BB was Bumblebee. He guessed that The Hatchet was Ratchet and that Harda$$ was Ironhide from the way he kept talking about weapons. OP probably stood for Optimus Prime. Those were the first contacts to appear, the people Sam had been talking to last night. Thinking for a moment, he chose to read the conversation between Bumblebee and Sam. After doing that he was fairly sure he had everything he wanted to know, so he carefully put the phone back in it's hiding spot, and texted Barricade.

Extra Autobots would be coming into town to do an extensive search three days from now. He didn't know what one's, and just texted Barricade the information he could find out. He sat back down on the floor until Sam woke up, and the two made plans to see the movie Sam had wanted to see the day before.

The next evening Miles let Sam come pick him up with Bumblebee, reluctantly leaving his phone at home to charge because he had accidentally let it go dead. It wasn't like he planned on texting during the movie, but he knew if Barricade needed him for whatever reason that the 'con would have absolutely no way to reach him, nor did he even know where Miles was going to be. The teen shook the guilty feeling off, figuring he was just worrying too much about Barricade being found out. It wasn't like he could do anything to help the 'con if Autobots came in, anyway.

Miles let himself enjoy the movie, but half way through Sam disappeared into the bathroom. After a few minutes he became worried for his friend, wondering if he was suffering from something. Being the good friend that he was he went to check on his friend, but when he got to the bathroom doorway he froze, Sam's voice floating out towards him. He listened in, guessing that when Sam paused the other person on the end of the line was talking.

"What do you mean they're really coming tonight? You told me they'd be coming in three days, and that still leaves two days! ….Why would they hack into my phone company just to see my texting? …. Well, okay, it is kind of obvious that you're with me… Ugh, fine. Now I have to text mom to hide Mojo in the house in case Ironhide stops by. The last thing I need is him trying to 'exterminate' Mojo again. Bye, Bee." Sam finished, hanging up the phone.

Miles reached into his pocket to grab his phone and warn the Decepticon, then cursed when he realized it was at home. He shoved the bathroom door open, heading inside quickly as he thought of a good excuse to give to Sam to get them out of there quickly and give him a way to get to Barricade.

Sam looked at him questioningly, and Miles took a deep breath. "I forgot that my mom wanted me to pick something up for her, and I left my phone at home so she's going to expect me to have it. The store is going to be closing early, so we need to go. She'll have my ass on a silver platter if we don't!"

Sam just nodded, a bit worried about how freaked out Miles seemed. When Miles practically shoved him out of the movie theater and towards Bumblebee, he got even more worried. He knew his mom almost as well as he knew his own, and while she could be strict, he didn't see why Miles was freaking out this badly. Getting in and pretending to start Bumblebee, he went to where Miles told him. He was more than surprised to find that Miles was so anxious to get to a flower shop, and voiced his surprise out loud.

"A flower shop?" he asked incredulously.

Miles practically bolted out of the Camaro and ran into the store, not bothering with an explanation. He only paused long enough to actually buy a bouquet of roses, and then ran out the back door. The flower shop was one of the closest stores to where he usually met Barricade, and he silently prayed that the 'con hadn't left for a drive.

Alternating between a sprint and fast walking, he got there in about 15 minutes. Thanking the small dose of adrenaline running through his veins for that, he made his way over to Barricade. The 'con appeared to be in recharge, so Miles tapped on his hood impatiently, holding the bouquet of roses close to his chest.

Startled, the Decepticon snapped out of his light recharge. He silently took in a red in the face Miles, clutching roses to his chest.

"I'm flattered, really, but roses just aren't my thing." Barricade drawled.

Miles scowled, "Haha, you're so freakin' funny, Barry. I came to tell you that the Autobots are coming tonight. Apparently they were paranoid about someone hacking into Sam's phone company and reading his texts so they lied."

"Oh that's just wonderful." Barricade growled, doing a quick scan accordingly. "According to my scans there's one heading right for us."

"Yeah, that's probably Sam and Bumblebee. I was hanging with him at the movies and one thing led to another and bam, I'm here. With flowers. I mean, I know Tranquility's a small town, but there really should be more than one flower shop..." He trailed off as he watched Barricade transform into his bipedal form, awed into silence by the transformation he'd already seen before.

"No, it's the trigger happy one."

The next thing Miles knew he was being picked up, something that he had gradually been adjusting to. He was then promptly shoved into one of the nearest trees, the 'con hardly pausing long enough to make sure the teen was balanced enough in a branch to not fall out immediately.

"Hey! Put me back down!" Miles yelled, getting angrier as Barricade ignored him and walked away. "Get back here and get me out, you stupid over-sized bear!"

Miles fumed as Barricade disappeared completely from view. He started to look for the best route down, and saw a black GMC topkick go flying past. He muttered to himself angrily, having to take his time to get out of the tree so he wouldn't hurt himself. By the time he reached a branch he could jump off of he saw Bumblebee pull up and Sam get out.

"Miles, how the hell did you get up there?" Sam asked, staring up at his friend as he quickly got out of Bumblebee.

Sam knew that he might not be the brightest of the bunch, but even he had realized that Miles had run out of the flower shop the back way after a few minutes. Bumblebee had been following the general direction that he'd went in when Ironhide had commed the Scout to tell him about some organic that had been near to where the Weapons Specialist had first located Barricade, and the description had fit Miles perfectly.

It made him and Bumblebee question whether or not Miles really did know Barricade, but Sam realized he needed to focus more on his friend at the moment then any possibilities of his friend knowing about the Cybertronians.

"Attempting to call upon my chimpanzee ancestors!" Miles sarcastically replied, putting the bouquet of roses in his mouth and swinging down onto Bumblebee's hood.

"Dude, you need to tell me what's going on." Sam said, staring at his friend as he slid off Bumblebee's hood. "Do you know about what's going down near here?"

Miles took off running, "There's no time!"

He disappeared behind some trees before Sam could get anything else out, and he cursed his friend for taking Mason out running so often. Sam got back into Bumblebee quickly, the Autobot racing after Miles. He grew frustrated when they couldn't get to his best friend quickly because of trees and bushes that were in the way. At this rate Miles would end up where Barricade and Ironhide were. He could get seriously hurt, and that was the last thing Sam wanted.

Bumblebee came to a stop when he reached the area where Barricade and Ironhide were fighting, quickly transforming and picking Sam up. He held his tiny charge to his chest protectively, ready for anything to happen. He watched the battle between his fellow Autobot and the Decepticon closely, surprised to see that the 'con was mainly defending himself and trying to disable Ironhide but not out right harm him. Ironhide didn't seem to notice, or didn't care.

His optics were drawn away from the battle only when he heard Sam cry out Miles' name. He looked and saw the young teenager to be closer to the battle than he should be, and Sam was frantically trying to get his friends attention and call him away from the spot he was in. He noticed Barricade look at Miles in shock, only to be knocked on his aft the next instant by Ironhide. Ironhide shoved his cannon in the 'cons face, ready to blow him to pieces. But the next moment surprised everyone.

"HEY YOU BIG STUPID AUTOBOT! TAKE THIS!" Miles yelled, tossing the bouquet of roses at Ironhide as hard as he could.

Ironhide turned to look at what had made the noise, only to be hit in the face by the bouquet of roses. Of course this didn't do any damage whatsoever to the large, war-hardened Autobot, but it shocked him into freezing. In fact, everyone froze. Bumblebee and Sam looked at Miles with a mixture of horror, amusement, and awe. Barricade would have looked at him if he could have trusted Ironhide enough to take an optic off of him.

Ironhide turned his cannon on Miles, causing the young teenager to squeak and raise his hands as if to defend himself. "No, I don't feel lucky!" He exclaimed, looking ready to back down, but then thinking better of it.

He walked closer to Ironhide and Barricade, coming to a stop directly next to the Decepticon. He laid a hand on Barricade's ped, mustering up any bravery within him and looking at the large Autobot in front of him. He could hear Sam in the background, yelling at him to get away from the two mechs, but he ignored his friend in favor of glaring up at the Autobot.

"You!" Miles accused, gesturing wildly at Ironhide. "Where do you get off attacking someone who hasn't even done anything to deserve it? Has he done anything to any of you since before Mission City?"

Ironhide growled, "No, bu-"

"No buts!" Miles quickly interrupted him, raising his voice. He could almost feel everyone's eyes on him as he tried to stand his ground. "Barricade was loyal to Megatron, but now Megatron is dead! He hates Starscream, and refuses to be under his command. He hasn't done a single thing to make you guys come after him!"

Sam spoke up from his spot in Bumblebee's hand, staring at his friend with a weird expression on his face. "Miles, you don't get it, Barricade is dangerous!"

"No, you don't get it, Sam!" Miles snapped, turning his glare on the other teen now. "Bumblebee and Ironhide are just as dangerous as Barricade, and you don't have a problem with them. I know he threatened you for those glasses, but he never actually hurt you."

"So what are you saying?" Ironhide asked, sneering. "The little 'con wants to play friendly with us? Wants to be an Autobot?"

Miles huffed, looking around for who would be the easiest to talk to. His eyes landed on Bumblebee, "I doubt he wants to be an Autobot, ever. But he could be a neutral, right?"

"Well... he could provide us with some information about the Decepticons that we don't know, in return for us giving him a place to stay, energon, and possible protection as a neutral." Bumblebee offered, his voice rough and broken, sound staticky compared to his fellow Cybertronians. "I can comm Optimus and see what he says."

"You have got to be kidding me," Ironhide growled.

"Ironhide, you know as well as I do that Megatron is dead and the war has no reason left to be fought." Bumblebee turned a hard look on the Weapons Specialist, "It is up to our Prime, but I declare Barricade protected under the Treaty of Iacon until we can decide what we want to do with him."

Ironhide seemed a bit cowled by the Scout's strong response, and even Sam seemed to be relaxing a little bit with his Guardian taking charge, but Barricade was getting angrier.

"I believe I should get a say in this," Barricade growled.

"No," Miles replied, recognizing the anger in his tone and knowing that if he raised his own voice it would set the 'con off that much quicker. "Your way of laying low obviously failed, and you said yourself that Starscream would try to kill you again if any other Decepticons know where you are. This is the best option."

Barricade glared at Miles, slowly getting to his feet as Ironhide backed away from him. Miles watched the 'con expectantly, so he was surprised when Ironhide suddenly grabbed him from behind, apparently not thinking that Barricade was safe for him to be around even now. He was shoved in Bumblebee's direction, and the Scout just took him without a word, maneuvering him into the same servo as Sam. Miles glared at Ironhide.

"Optimus says we can lead Barricade to the base and see what we can work out. He wants Miles to come since Miles is, uh…" Bumblebee trailed off, looking down at the teen in uncertainty.

"We're friends," Miles offered. "I've been helping him all on my own, not been forced or nothing."

"Right," Bumblebee nodded his helm as if he understood, though his voice sounded like he couldn't believe it. "Since you're friends with Barricade our leader wants you to visit base as well. Sam will be coming along with us."

He set the two teens down, transforming into his Camaro form. Ironhide and Barricade transformed as well, the three Cybertronians lining up. Bumblebee in front, Barricade in the middle, and Ironhide bringing up the rear. Sam and Miles got into Bumblebee, Sam no longer even bothering to pretend to drive the Autobot. Both Barricade and Ironhide activated their holoforms to give the appearance of being non-sentient when Bumblebee reminded them.

They started to drive out of the forest quickly, and Miles sighed, leaning back in Bumblebee's passenger seat.

"I'm kinda happy this happened," he admitted, glancing over at Sam. "It was kind of hard hiding that I knew from you, and freaking you out making you think I had guessed or noticed something strange at the same time."

"Wait, that was why you had us watch Christine! I couldn't get in Bumblee for a week without flinching because of you!" Sam exclaimed, glaring as Miles laughed. "Wait, that's not important, tell me how you and Barricade met!"

Miles rolled his eyes, telling Sam everything that had happened since finding Barricade. He included Bumblebee into the conversation since he didn't really have a choice as they were inside the Autobot, skimming over unimportant details like what they'd talked about and how much time they'd spent together. After he had finished all three were silent.

It was true that he was kind of happy that they had been found out, especially since it seemed that they were able to get an audience with Optimus without having Barricade getting hurt in the process. But he couldn't help but worry over what would happen. He didn't fool himself into thinking that any of the Autobots would just trust the Decepticon, or that the Decepticon would be welcome. He just hoped that Barricade would behave long enough to at least not get hurt.