AN: Whew, I'm happy to see some people as excited about this remix as I am! Thanks for the lovely and encouraging reviews! And btw, does anyone have a tumblr? I need more people to follow! (plus if I really get down in a writing funk again I can be yelled at on there too lol)
"So… You threw roses at him?" Optimus asked, face mask down to hide the amused expression on his faceplates as he stared down at the teen on his desk. "What exactly were you hoping to achieve, young Miles?"
Miles sighed, glancing around the room. They were in what apparently was the Prime's office, a room that was as big as the Prime himself was with furniture to match. Miles sat on the edge of the Prime's desk, legs dangling off and barely having to look up with the mech sitting in front of him.
They'd arrived on base less than fifteen minutes ago, and he'd quickly been abandoned. Well, abandoned was a strong term. Barricade had been walked to something called a med-bay by Ironhide, Bumblebee explaining that his weapons would be taken away and that Ratchet, the Chief Medical Officer, would help the 'con with any wounds he had. Sam had then gone with Bumblebee so he could call his and Miles' parents, and explain that neither of them would be returning that night.
He didn't understand why he had to debrief the Prime, much less on his own. They'd been introduced by Bumblebee and then left, leaving Miles to give the Autobot leader the rundown of everything that had happened.
Glancing back up at Optimus, he shrugged. "I dunno, I guess I just wanted to distract him. It worked. On all of them, actually."
"Your race has always amazed me by how…" the Prime hesitated for a moment, glancing away as he searched for the right word. "Brave you can be despite your tiny size and short life span."
"I wouldn't really call it bravery," Miles replied, "More like stupidity. I don't think anyone's brave enough to think that tiny little teenage me with no weapons going up against giant Ironhide is going to work! But shocking people has always been something I've specialized in, and I didn't want him to hurt Barry."
Optimus allowed himself to chuckle, just a little bit. The mask that he used to cover his face slid up, and the teen appreciated the Prime showing him a small and amused smile. He watched as Miles stood up, the teen running a hand through his hair in what he assumed to be a nervous gesture.
"Look, I know and you know that Barry's not going to be trusted just because a human vouches for him. I'm just going to assume that he's probably not even exactly welcome, except maybe to be grilled by Ironhide to see if he made me crazy. Both sides have done damage to the other side. I'm going to guess that every Autobot here has done some sort of damage to a Decepticon, and Barricade has done his own fair share of damage to Autobots, I'm sure. I'm not going to ask you to trust him, or even be welcoming towards him. Just…"
"Put up with him?" Optimus offered, more than surprised that the human geniunely seemed to care for the Decepticon.
Miles nodded, "Yes. Put up with him. Barry's stubborn so I don't know if he'll even accept staying here, and if he does I don't know if he'll offer anything in return. We have talked before about him becoming a Neutral. I know it's not polite to ask for something when the other may get nothing in return, but…"
Optimus carefully picked Miles up, bringing him closer to his face. "You care for Barricade."
It was more of a statement then a question, but the teen knew well enough to answer. "Yeah, he grows on you, I guess. I know he can be a bit intimidating, but he's never actually done anything to me personally."
The Prime cycled air through his vents, the Cybertronian equivalent of a sigh. He stayed quiet for a moment as he studied Miles. After spending so many days with Barricade he was used to being scrutinized, but not usually so blatantly. He didn't know what the Prime was searching for, what his appearance or actions told him, but he hoped it was something good.
Optimus wasn't sure what he saw in Miles at the moment; the scan he'd taken of the organic when he'd first entered the room had revealed hormones that would have suggested heightened stress and nervousness, and the Prime knew he must still be feeling the same way, but he hid it well behind light-hearted jokes and a grin. He had no idea how Barricade and Miles had managed to become friends, even after Miles' explanation of how they met.
But he could see a world of possibilities in what the teen offered, and while it was a bit difficult to work out just how truthful the offer was, it was very tempting. There weren't that many mechs on the base the humans had provided for them yet. It wouldn't be that hard to get the Autobots to accept the Decepticon into their midst, especially if Miles helped to encourage Barricade with whatever strange friendship they'd developed. This could be an official end to the war, the two sides joining back together to try and forge a strong and hopeful future even without the Allspark to help guide them.
"If Barricade does become a Neutral then he will be welcome at the Autobot base," Optimus said after a minute of examining the teen, "His weapons will remain with us, however, until further notice."
"I'll just get him a bunch of flowers to throw, that works pretty well in surprising you Autobots. May I suggest that you have someone do that in a training session? Gotta be prepared for anything in the heat of battle," Miles joked, but the Prime could hear the relief in his voice.
It said something a bit more that the teen was actually worried about the Decepticon, and wanted him to be safe. Bumblebee and Ironhide both had sent him a databurst of what fight there had been, and it was very obvious that Barricade had been distracted as soon as the teen had made his way in to the center of the battle, which meant that the 'con had to feel something for Miles as well.
"I'll talk to Ironhide about it. I'm sure he'll appreciate your suggestion, having been taken out by those deadly plants himself." Optimus replied, smirking openly and putting on a jokingly serious tone. He offered the teen his servo to climb into, moving it closer to the floor to ease his way down. "If worse comes to worse I will ask you to act as a liaison between Barricade and ourselves."
"Designate me as Flower Power and I'm your guy, big man!" Miles laughed, ignoring the serious tone in favor of climbing out of the Prime's servo when Optimus lowered it close to the floor.
He quickly made his way out of Optimus' office through the human sized door, nearly running right into Sam. Sam stared at him in shock, and Miles looked to the left to see that Bumblebee was standing near his friend in his bipedal mode, looking slightly guilty. He realized they both had been listening, and Sam grinned at him.
"Soooo, Flower Power and Bear, huh? Best dynamic duo I've heard of yet. 'Kaela will love it. Flower Power definitely suits you, you look like a frikkin' hippie, dude." Sam smirked at him.
Miles huffed, "Leave my hair out of this, Witwacky!"
"Original, Flower Power, very original!"
The two playfully threw insults at each other back and forth as Bumblebee picked them up and put them on his shoulders. The young Autobot carried them to the hangar that Barricade was currently staying in. It was a sparse thing, one of the tiniest buildings on the base, and it was being used as storage. When they entered Miles saw the 'con in his alt mode, parked in front of stacks of boxes.
Barricade growled, rolling forward. "Leave me and Miles alone for a moment."
Despite the slightly nervous look that Miles had, Bumblebee set the young human down. He left the hangar with Sam quickly, stationing himself and his charge far enough away that Sam couldn't hear that easily, but Bumblebee could still hear perfectly.
Sam looked at his watch, then at Bumblebee with wide eyes. "It's been an hour and they're still fighting?"
He had moved closer despite Bumblebee's protests. He was close enough that he could just make out the yelling that had been happening almost nonstop. There'd been a twenty minute period where not even his Guardian had been able to hear anything, but then the yelling had picked up again.
Sam knew that he didn't actually know the 'con, and that because of Barricade's initial actions towards him in the search for Archibald's glasses he had a large amount of dislike and small amount of fear for the mech. He was willing to push some of that aside if Miles was vouching for him, because he trusted his friend unquestioningly. But he wasn't sure if he'd ever be actually trying to make friends with the Decepticon if he was actually getting Miles to yell like that.
Bumblebee was about to reply when they were startled by Miles suddenly appearing through the door for the humans, slamming it shut behind him. He stormed over to the yellow Autobot and the human, hands clenched into fists. Sam went to say something, but Miles held up a finger, and the teen shut his mouth quickly. All three were silent as Miles calmed himself down.
Miles finally broke the silence, "You contacted my parents, didn't you, Sam?"
"Course," Sam replied. "Told mine that you know what's up now, so I think mom's formulating a good cover story we can give your parents. Military might still end up talking to them, though."
"Optimus and I can take care of what the military tells your parents. I'll drop you and Sam off at the human sleep station." Bumblebee informed them, picking up the still irate human and his Charge. "Most of the NEST members are on vacation, or are in the rec-room. I have comm'd Ironhide and he has said that Captain Lennox and Sergeant Epps will be there to get to see you."
Miles just nodded. Sam looked hard at his friend until he finally mouthed 'later' at him. Bumblebee carried them all the way to where the human barracks were, setting the two down in front of the door. Sam led Miles inside, where they could immediately see two military men, who Miles naturally assumed to be Captain Lennox and Sergeant Epps. The black man in military scrubs walked over to Miles with a shit eating grin on his face, hugging him tightly. He shot Sam a briefly panicked look, unsure whether he should return the hug or just pat the older man on the back.
"I barely know you," the man said into his shoulder, "And I already love you. You are so unbelievably amazing for taking 'Hide down with flowers!"
"All I did was distract him," Miles laughed awkwardly, "I didn't take him down, not technically."
"If it had been a real battle that distraction could have gotten him killed, so you technically took him down," the other military man replied, moving forward and grabbing the black man by the back of his shirt and pulling him away. He grinned, "At least according to Ironhide, anyway, so he's pretty pissed off. I'm Captain William Lennox, but you can call me Will. This is Sergeant Robert Epps."
"I prefer Epps, though." Epps said, the wide grin still in place.
Miles shook both of their hands, "I'm Miles Lancaster, but I'd prefer just Miles. If it makes Ironhide feel any better you could tell him that I'm pretty sure if he flicked me hard enough I'd be a goner."
"It won't, but I will suggest not going too close to him for another hour or two." Will chuckled.
The Captain started to walk down the hall, the Sergeant moving to walk next to him and the teens falling into step behind him automatically. Sam mentioned something about Ratchet hurting Ironhide, and the two military men laughed, leaving Miles feeling a bit out of place. But then they stopped in front of a door that was opened to reveal two beds, two dressers, and two closets.
"This is where you two will be staying," Will said, and Miles and Sam looked at each other in surprise before grinning.
"Alright, guys night!" Miles yelled, pumping a fist in the air.
Sam laughed, playfully shoving his friend into the room. It quickly turned into a wrestling match, and Epps goaded Will into placing bets on the winner. Miles finally won after he attacked Sam's ticklish arm pits, leaving him begging for mercy underneath his friend. Will had to give Epps twenty dollars, cussing Sam out gently for his weakness.
"I would have thought you already had a room here," Miles said once Epps and Will had left them alone.
Sam shrugged, opening the closet on the side of the room he'd called dibs on to find military clothing, the same along with white socks and dark blue briefs appearing in the dresser. He wasn't too surprised that everything was the right size when he checked it.
"I've been here before, but they've been building it for awhile. These barracks are actually pretty knew," Sam told him, "Since it's only about an hour with Bee going fast it's never been that important to spend the night, though I knew I had a room being reserved for me. I think Mikky's who they were going to room me with, but you work just as well."
"How many Autobots are here, then?" Miles asked, moving over to Sam's side of the room and taking a few pairs of the pants, socks, shirts, and boxers and putting it in his own dresser. "Barry told me about Optimus, Ratchet, Ironhide, and Bee, but I know I saw someone else when Bee was taking us here."
"Sunstreaker and Sideswiper are here, too. They're twins, apparently." Sam grinned, "Really cool to hang out with, they come up with the best pranks. Sunny's a bit anal, though. No scratching his paint or telling him he looks bad or something."
Miles snorted, "A narcissistic robot from outer space?"
"Don't tell me you're surprised!" Sam flopped down onto his bed, leaning his back against the wall. "You must have noticed the holoforms. Even Barricade's looks unrealistically good, and outside of him all their vehicle forms look damn fine."
"Okay, I was starting to pick up on it." Miles admitted, thinking back to the holoforms that he'd seen Bumblebee and Ironhide make. "I was thinking it was more striving to be perfect than being narcissistic, but then again Barry is pretty full of himself."
"Speaking of Barricade, what exactly were you two fighting about?"
Miles groaned and rolled on to his stomach, burying his face in his pillow and holding his breath for a moment. Sam stared at him in surprise, feeling a bit bad for being angry now. Originally he'd been very angry that Miles hadn't thought to come talk to Sam when he had openly admitted to Barricade telling him everything, but he was starting to realize that while Miles' introduction to the Cybertronians had been entirely less life threatening than his own, it had still been stressful and trying. It was a different stress, a different hardship, then his own had been but he felt for his friend either way. Miles had just done what he had thought best initially, much like Sam had in Mission City.
"I basically took control of everything and didn't leave him any choices," Miles said after a moment, lifting his face from the pillow so he could be heard. "Well, none that didn't involve him directly being offlined because of it. He's angry because all the Autobots see me as his 'keeper', as he called it. I just want to help his stupid ass and make sure he doesn't get killed and he gets his panties all in a bunch because then the Autobots look to me. I mean, big surprise when he just automatically goes along with everything in the first place. Maybe if he'd actually objected and meant it to begin with then that would have discredited me, but of course he just blames it all on me!"
"If it makes you feel any better, I don't think he's capable of doing anything without you right now."
Miles smiled bitterly, "Oh, I know. And that just makes me feel worse. Fucking asshole won't even be able to play nice without me there to act as a buffer and he chases me away. He'll expect me to just walk in and forgive him tomorrow."
Sam stared at his friend for a moment before standing up and clapping his hands together. He decided he didn't really like such an ugly expression on his friend's face, and that heavy talk could be put off for another day.
"Alright, we're gonna go have some fun! Will mentioned some downtime in the rec-room before he left, wanna go?"
Miles shrugged, "Might as well."
"This is what you guys do for fun around here?" Miles asked in disbelief.
Sam looked at his best friend and then followed his line of sight down to the floor. He had to admit that Monopoly probably didn't seem all that cool when they were on a base with giant alien robots, but it was all they had. What with the construction and the barracks only recently being completed only a few soldiers had bothered to stay full time; those that did brought nothing more than board games because the Autobots had an awful knack for wanting to join in and use things. It had quickly gotten them banned from the rec-room after Optimus had accidentally broken one of the soldier's play station for a second time.
"What, you suck at Monopoly?" Epps asked teasingly.
"Not so bad that I can't beat you," Miles responded automatically as he sat down.
Epps smirked, "Wanna bet?"
Sam shared a look with the Captain, because they both knew that when Epps bet on something the man never lost. Miles would find that out quickly on his own, though.
The next morning rolled about without any problems, and Sam woke up earlier than Miles. He got up and quickly changed, leaving their shared room as quickly as possible. Sideswipe stopped him on his way to breakfast, and after an interesting conversation with the Frontliner he went and got his food. Bumblebee's holoform joined him almost as soon as he sat down alone in the cafeteria, and Sam thought about asking the Scout how he always knew where he was, but he knew he probably wouldn't like the answer, so he didn't bother.
Sam then moved on to the rec-room, Glen and Maggie already inside of it and watching some early morning show. He joined them, sitting on an empty couch and putting his feet up on the coffee table as Bumblebee took the only armchair in the room. All four made idle conversation.
When Miles finally appeared in the human rec-room, Sam's mouth nearly hit the floor. He had been friends with Miles for practically forever, and he had always had about the same hair style. He often used to get teased about it in school, being called a hippie or a skater-wanna-be. But gone was the shoulder length hair that Sam had become so used to, the hair that had given Miles his peace loving vibe.
Epps and Will came in behind his friend, the Sergeant's face lit up with his normal grin. "Mr. Cocky here had to go and get his bet taken care of."
"But he's naked now!" Sam exclaimed, staring at his friend in open shock.
"Oh, shut up." Miles went and sat next to him, elbowing him hard as he did. "It's just hair."
"You've had the same haircut since kindergarten," Sam pointed out.
"And now he doesn't!" Epps sat on Sam's other side, chuckling. "Had good ol' Sarah chop it all off. Nearly cried when we asked her to give him a new look, she did. Woulda thought we were selling his soul to the devil with the way she talked about the next hair cut and the cut after that."
Will leaned over the back of the couch and smacked Epps over the head.
"Don't call my wife the devil if you want to live," Will said seriously, moving towards the other couch and snatching the remote from Glen.
"Think a change of pace was overdue, anyways." Miles said, "And I think she did a good job."
Epps whistled, "Boy's smart. Knows not to insult a woman in anyone's hearing, especially not her own, or around a lackey of hers."
"I prefer to sleep in the bed, not on the couch, thank you very much." Will glared at Epps.
Sam just shook his head, standing up and grabbing Miles and pulling him up as well. "C'mon, I have inside information on a prank that's been inspired by you and we need to get there quick or we'll miss out on the good seats."
Miles questioned him but Sam thought it best not to answer and instead lead him out of the rec-room and towards the exit. Almost immediately they heard a Cybertronian's footsteps and they moved to the edge of the hall to let the mech pass by them. But instead the Cybertronian yelled out at them, prompting them both to turn around. And before either of them could blink Miles was being picked up. The teen couldn't help but let out a disgruntled squawk of surprise as he was suddenly picked up by a large yellow mech that he had never seen before.
"Sunstreaker! What are you doing with Miles?" Sam asked, apparently just as baffled as his friend.
"He's the inspiration for our latest prank, so I'm taking him with me to the best seat for it." Sunstreaker explained, already striding down the hall and away from Sam. "You go between the Med-bay and the storage hangar for your seat!"
Miles tried to look at where they were going, but he eventually gave up when he remembered that he hadn't even had a tour of the base yet. While he'd been to the Prime's office he wasn't sure what building it was in, and Sarah had simply been stayin in the barracks with Will, so that hadn't shown him anything new at all. The most recent place he'd been to that was new was the cafeteria, Epps barely letting him grab something to eat before he was dragged to the rec-room to show off his new look.
After a few minutes they finally arrived at their intended destination, Sunstreaker entering a building. The mech went up a wide staircase, only slowing down when he made it out onto the roof of the building they'd just been in. He set Miles down, and he and the teen moved over to the edge.
Miles stayed silent, looking down at the ground over the edge. The building he was standing on was almost directly beside another, a narrow—for the Prime, anyway—alley between the two. He assumed that this building was for the storage one that Sunstreaker had mentioned, the insides seeming to agree with that, which meant the one next to it had to be the Med-bay. A bit away he could see a mech walking towards them, and his stomach dropped when he realized it was Ironhide.
He looked up to the opposite roof and noticed a red mech that he'd seen the night before, one he assumed to be Sunstreaker's twin. Next to the red mech were several large barrels, and Miles could guess that they were holding something that neither he or Ironhide would like in them.
"Ironhide," Miles called weakly. "Ironhide, stop!"
The teen was able to project his voice a bit better the second time, and the mech paused in his walking and looked up, but it was too late. Sideswipe quickly tilted the first barrel full of a clear liquid down onto Ironhide, and the strong scent of rose perfume drifted across the roof to him. That was followed by another clear liquid, then a few barrels of rose petals. There was so many that the Weapons Specialist was practically buried in them.
Once he did break free there was an unusual amount of the rose petals sticking to him, and the mech tried to swipe them off in annoyance only to realize they were glued on. The teen wondered what kind of glue was that fast acting, and beside him Sunstreaker started to cackle. Across from him Sideswipe began to do the same, and Ironhide's helm shot back up as he looked upwards at them.
Miles gulped at the rage he saw in the blue optics, and Sunstreaker and Sideswipe immediately stopped laughing. A yellow servo wrapped around him once more, Sunstreaker going back the way they'd come and running out of the building. Sam stood just outside of it, red in the face and nearly doubled over from how hard he was laughing. He was placed down next to his friend just as Ironhide let out what could only be described as a very pissed off bellow.
"Y-you m-might," Sam fought to breathe and stop from laughing, "You might want to go save your twin, Sunstreaker!"
Sunstreaker nodded, racing off to help his twin. Sam finished composing himself as the sound of cannon fire began in the distance, followed by tires squealing. He looked to Miles and smirked, noting that he looked a bit paler than usual.
"And you might want to hide from Ironhide." Sam said, trying not to laugh at his friend. "He'll blame you for giving them the idea."
Miles was able to hide from Ironhide until lunchtime. The two teens spent the time up until then introducing Miles to everyone; by the end of it he'd officially met Ratchet, Sideswipe, and several other soldiers. They were just going on a tour of the base with Bumblebee when Miles disappeared. One minute he was walking next to Sam, and the next he was gone. Sam looked around questioningly, and even Bumblebee was taken aback by the sudden disappearance until they noticed the rose petals on the ground and figured out what had happened.
After sharing a laugh, the Guardian and his Charge went and got an energon cube, taking it to the storage hangar that Barricade was staying in. When they entered the hangar Barricade was in his bipedal form and when he saw it was just them he looked behind them, then away when he realized no one else was coming in.
"Miles is off being tortured to death by Ironhide," Bumblebee told him, trying to be comforting.
Sam snorted, giving his Guardian a frown. "Even if Ironhide hadn't grabbed him he wouldn't have wanted to come. He's pretty pissed off."
Bumblebee vented softly at the teen, moving and setting the energon cube in front of the Decepticon. He was ignored completely, though. Red optics glared harshly at Sam, and the Scout wasn't too surprised by that. A glance back revealed that Sam didn't actually seem to care, glaring right back. He was quickly realizing that he might as well just leave the hangar for all the attention he was getting.
"You're assuming I care where he is, fleshling." Barricade growled. "And even if I did, I know he always comes back after a day or two."
"Not happening this time, 'con." Sam replied, just smiling. "Smart move upsetting the only person on your side. I'd suggest you get a few tips on relationship advice with humans before talking to him again."