Subi: Amusement. n-n

Anonymous: KITTY! (dances around, then stops suddenly) oo;... You didn't that.

Subi: Oo Riiight...

19. Lessons Learned

"You sure you don't need any help? Because you look like you do." I asked, smirking at the sparking side panel of Karahrr's. Although she was so energetic before, it was only a matter of time before that front crashed down; and so it did. I discreetly noticed that she was falling behind, getting faster in pace as to not look otherwise. "Jumping into place doesn't do anything either, you know."

"I don't need any slagging help!" was the standard issue reply.

"Okaaay then," Topspin glanced oddly at her then shook his head. Her side was sparking even more, and he just merely muttered something about 'stubborn cat-demons', while following her movements. It was pretty amusing to see someone refusing help in such a state. Out of nowhere, joining, were blackish sparks in an increasing amount, getting our attention if it even happened to stray off. "Erm…Karahrr?"

"Yes?" She snapped, sounding wearier by the moment.

"Are black sparks the best thing to walk with?" I asked before the other mech could comment again. She turned around, optics widening slightly.

"Slag, I'm turning back! I don't really want to know what shape I'll be in either." She groaned, "Great…" Stumbling a few more steps, she fell to the ground, changing into her original form. Topspin just yawned in boredom.

"About time, frankly. Sparkin' pretty bad, but I don' think she would like it if we repaired her, would she?" I couldn't help but snicker to myself.

"I'd pity anyone who went near her with a wrench while she's awake and without her permission."

" Eh…You'd have to knock her out to try that, but there'd be consequences." He shuddered, "How else do you think I got this dented up?"

Preferring not to answer that question, I looked toward Karahrr, then how far we'd gotten. "So, are we going to stop for now, or toss her over our shoulder and continue?" The sphere-like mech looked closer, and shook his head.

"A bit too scratched to pick 'er up, and I'm sure she'll find some way to get as us for it." Like her temper would deter me from doing that, I thought, giving him a flat look at that last comment.

"We're going," I growled, easily scooping Karahrr into my hands without hurting her and starting in a north-easternly direction that would take us to Autobot City.

"Are you slaggin serious! If we don't put her down and stay put she's gonna beat the slag outta us-"

"She won't damage me to the point of being unable to repair it herself."

"Maybe you!"

"You know who 'Star Convoy' is?"

"Well duh... I mean, who wouldn't have heard of that seeker than hangs aroun' Autobot City-"

"Then turn your vocalizers off unless you don't want to have them anymore."

"... Is that a threat?"

"Yes." Idiot...

"Okay then," Topspin said, and kept his mouth shut as we kept walking...

A few hours later, while Topspin and I stopped for a bit to ease the strains on our frames, Karahrr woke.

"About time you woke up," I growled at her, having been forced to endure several- admittedly boring- mercenary stories from Topspin.

"I take it that you missed me?" She asked dryly, hisses of pain stabbing through her question.

"Perhaps," I answered, without any hint of whether I really cared or not.

"Just don' kill me because he decided that we needed to keep goin'," Topspin broke into the conversation.

"Right..." Karahrr said sarcastically.

"Say, would now be a good time ta mention that some of my circuits are overheatin'?" Topspin inquired. I twitched. All these delays! We're never going to get back to Autobot City at the rate we're going! I suppressed a snicker of laughter as Karahrr chucked a rock at him.

"It was just a question, fer Cybertron's sake!... Yeesh..." He eyed her from the several meters away where he'd jumped to. "Either of ya goin' to be nice an try ta fix it, or no?"

"No, but I'm guessing we'll have to take a look at it anyway either way." Karahrr sighed out, reaching for some spare tools. Wait… 'We'?

"'We'?" I glared at her, not liking the instantaneous volunteering.

She glared back, replying, "Yes, 'we'. I only know so many systems and there's less chances of screwing up if you work at it too, Mr. Scientist-and-I'm-Shiori's-"

"I get it!" I interrupted. A pause was held as Topspin gave a glance that said 'in your condition?.!', "And Topspin, give me another look like that and I'll make sure you stay the way you are." He quickly looked away, sitting still so she could see what was wrong. But apparently she wasn't very efficient. Prodding around and talking to herself here and there, eventually shouting out "I can't make heads or tails of these slagging systems!" This was taking too long- way too long- for my liking.

I pushed her aside, saying "Go do something useful then." The cat demon gave a twitch of the tail and limped off, the rest of what she did I could care less. But to substitute for how much easier it was going to be, Karahrr decided to rant at me. Not like I'd care.

"Why didn't you tell me you were Starscream?.!" Not exactly a rant, but some louder questions than usual that get annoying after a while.

"Wasn't it obvious enough?" I asked in reply, looking over what appeared to be a radar-like system on Topspin. The sphere-mech looked between the two of us in confusion.

"Eventually! Besides, how am I supposed to look after you if I don't know who you are?.!" I turned to her, taking out the wrench I was using on the mech. He nearly yowled in pain, but I was too busy focusing on the nuisance in front of me.

"Look after?" I inquired, hiding my anger. She rose her head in confusion of the situation, bandages and empty bag of herbs still in hand.

"Yeah- Slag!" The wrench missed and she was instantly on the other side of Topspin's foot. With a small groan, she poked her head over the edge of his foot and tried to justify it. "Shiori told me to, so complain to her!" and with that she quieted herself to bandaging all the cuts that managed to reopen and bleed even more.

"Figures," I muttered.

"Oh, and you forgot your tool over here!" Before I could go to Topspin and continue repairing him, the wrench I had thrown at her was chucked at my head. I growled and picked it up, deciding that I dealt enough with her.

Some time later, he was fixed up enough to function, give or take a few dents. Karahrr was still pacing -or more like limping- back and forth in boredom, ready to go. It appeared that she didn't have enough cloth for all the cuts, but she wasn't complaining. Finally setting back out, Topspin had the sudden courage to snatch the cat demon and ignore her protests as he carried her along the way. Of course, her staff was well hidden among other things in my subspace pocket, so that's probably where his bravery came from. After an hour or so, she gave up, boredom resulting in her yawning and curling into sleep. I looked at him oddly.

"Does she usually sleep this much?" he only chuckled, moving her up on his arm.

"Cats sleep a lot, I heard. I'd be sleepin' too if I had the beating she had." A small rock pelted his armor, and we looked at her to see her hands glowing a light blue, then it faded away.

"It's the herbs, you slagging idiot." She sleepily mumbled, curling in more. "Now let me sleep..." ... ...

Subi: We'd like to send a "THANK YOU, READERS!" note out. So. If you've gotten this far in what I've said, you know why I'm rambling...

Anonymous: And Fk360 animelover? Can you please- please- add something to your reviews? The same old "This is great. Update soon" thing is scaring us.

Subi: And you said I'm scary...

Anonymous: You are scary, just not in the same way... And thank you all for reading this far, we realize it may have seemed a little boring in the beginning, but it's getting better now, yes?. :3