This really isn't well chaptered at all... Apologies! I never write with chapters, and trying to chop it up so that it fits = not flowing/good.
And people, keep telling me your favourite characters. I really appreciated it, more than you could probably imagine.
Enjoy (and ignore any spelling/grammar mistakes, I'm always coming across them, no matter what I do).
Once Drag had parked himself neatly back between Traction and Jak again, Alex clambered out of him and casually wandered over to Jak, aware that the guard was still watching him. He probably half expected Alex to start banging on the Mustang too, and admittedly, Alex was tempted to. Jak would no doubt put up a good performance; that was a cert.
Alex pretended to admire Jak, bending down to look at his rather large and flashy alloys, "I hope you yelled at Drag," he muttered quietly.
"Oh, man. That was some stunt he pulled there," Jak muttered, sounding as if he was unsure as to whether be amused or angry, "Something I'd do. But he really had no reason to do it. So yeah, we yelled at him. Crossfire too. He knows how to put Drag in his place, and Drag listens."
"I think he just likes to rub me up the wrong way," Alex rolled his eyes.
"I think he feels like you like to rub him up the wrong way," Jak gave a little shrug, bobbing up and down very slightly.
"What? When the hell did I-?"
"I didn't say he was right for thinking that. It's just his screwed way of viewing humans."
"For an Autobot, he sure seems more aligned towards the Decepticons," Alex muttered.
"He cares about humans, even if he doesn't show it. I just think something happened, or whatever, in regard to humans."
"Maybe my brother made him loose all hope in humanity," Alex snorted quietly.
"As likely as that seems, I don't think it was that reason," Jak sounded like he was smirking.
"I'm sure you'll get a reason out of him soon enough," Alex straightened up.
"I'm sure I will. Talent of mine, getting information," Jak casually twisted his front wheels back and forth a few times.
Alex nodded, "We'll probably be back in a second, we'll get a room, and by the looks of it, we park out in front of it."
"Well I'm not going anywhere. Not with mister creepy ass guard eyeing us all up. Because we are suspicious cars, of a suspicious nature," Jak sniggered.
Alex smiled and rapped his knuckles on his roof good-naturedly before wandering over to Bill and taking her arm, heading for the lobby, straight past the guard watching them both closely.
"You got a credit card, right?" Alex asked as they made their way into the lobby, which resembled and old bunkhouse; wood clad walls, a stone fireplace and various hunting trophies scatter around above their heads, ranging from bears to elk to mountain goats.
"Yes, I do. Tasteful decor," Bill commented as she walked over to the front desk where a foreign couple seemed to be arguing with one of the women working there.
"Totally," Alex nodded in agreement, pulling a face at the cougar placed above the desk, its glazed eyes boring into him. It also looked like it might fall down on top of them at any minute, which only added to the creepy effect. He cringed and looked around him before looking back at Bill who'd taken out her purse and pulled out a credit card, "You get the room. I'll be back in a bit."
"Sure," she muttered absently.
Alex made to walk off before he suddenly grabbed her purse, "Yonk!" he grinned before legging it out of the lobby, heading to a shop he'd spotted to the left of the desk, down a little hall.
"Oh for the love of-. Alex!" Bill snapped angrily, but he didn't hear her, since he'd skipped merrily into the shop and was blissfully ignorant of her threatening him under her breath.
Alex grinned gleefully to himself as he casually began to peruse the shelves of the shop he'd entered, which appeared to be selling various Native American style art, ranging from paintings to pots to jewellery. Nothing really caught his eye, but it wasn't trinkets he was after all. He needed food and beer. Oh and clothes. But that he could do without if food came along.
After a little while of wandering in circles, Alex found an opening into yet another shop, this one far larger and full of different items. He once again saw cabinets full of jewellery, however he also spotted a rack of heavy saddle clothes and a few western saddles, suggesting this was much of a general store. On one side of the large shop were typical tourist gifts, such as postcards, pencils, rubbers, t-shirts and hats. He gravitated towards them slowly before glancing to his right, spotting yet another opening which appeared to lead into a small food shop, similar to the ones that sprung up at gas stations or truck stops. The weak pull of the clothes broke instantly and he skittered through a group of rowdy large tourists and darted into the shop, grabbing a basket, which he promptly began to fill with various foodstuffs.
He didn't pay any attention to the prices, deciding that it could all be Bill's treat as he casually grabbed a six pack of beers and shoved them in the basket, which was already full of various cakes, biscuits, crisps and apples. All the best kind of food that would keep him going through the hardship, or so he reasoned. If Bill wanted something a little healthier, then she could just do her own shopping, and while she was at it, she could buy him a couple more shirts. He couldn't be bothered to go clothes shopping.
Once his basket was so full that he was struggling to lift it, he hefted it over to the till, pushing it towards the cashier with a grin.
The woman frowned at him slightly, but didn't say anything, instead just began to pass his items through the till before shoving them haphazardly into a plastic bag.
Alex took the opportunity to prod around in Bill's purse, pulling out with a look of mild interest a crisp fifty-dollar bill. She may only be young, but her job as an up and coming actress come model was obviously paying her well. He waved the money around experimentally, most likely never having held such a large sum of money in his hand, before he reluctantly handed it to the woman at the till who was watching him with a look of distaste.
As soon as the change was in his hand, he shoved it into the purse, which in turn was forced into a pocket, before snatching up the food-laden bag, casually wandering back towards the lobby to find Bill.
She was leaning on the counter, running her hands through her hair, looking rather exasperated as she tried to reason with the man behind the desk she was talking to.
"No, no," Alex could hear her now, "You must have two single beds!"
"Sorry ma'am," the man shook his head, "Only double bedded rooms are left available."
"Is there any kind of pull out bed?" Bill sighed, running a hand over her face.
"I did mention there wasn't before," the man smiled apologetically.
"Fine, fine," Bill muttered, "Give me a double room then."
"Yes ma'am," he looked down at his computer, beginning to tap things into it.
Alex took it upon himself to saunter over to Bill right then, casually leaning against her as well as they desk. She grunted in annoyance and shoved him away, not looking impressed.
"What's up?" he raised his eyebrows.
"Stupid rooms," she muttered, suddenly lunging for what he thought was his crotch. He yelped in surprise and tried to leap backwards, however her hand just slipped into his pocket, groping around for her purse.
"Be careful with what you're grabbing!" Alex squirmed suddenly, trying to claw at her arm to get her to remove her hand.
"That was not your-.!" Bill began to protest but was cut off.
"It was!" Alex hissed, "Hand out now!"
"Well if it was, it's very unimpressive," she scowled and turned her back on him as the man began to talk to her again.
Alex pulled a face at her back, muttering under his breath, "It's damned impressive, I'll have you know."
If she heard him, Bill ignored him, too busy signing various documents and handing over plastic money to pay him any attention. Alex just shoved his hands in his pockets, shuffling his feet in an attempt to get comfortable after she'd been rummaging around.
Eventually Bill straightened up from the desk and moved over to one side, fumbling with a few sheets of paper and a little card holding envelope that contained two key cards for the room that she had just booked for the night.
"All done?" Alex asked, moving over to her.
She nodded, "Not what I wanted though."
"What d'ya mean?" he frowned.
"They only had rooms with double beds. No twin singles," she muttered, taking out one of the key cards and handing it to him.
"Cosy," Alex grinned at her as he took the key, knowing that Jak would fully approve.
"Not exactly what I was thinking," Bill sighed and rolled her eyes.
"You were thinking more?" Alex couldn't help the excited edge creeping into his tone.
"Alex no!" Bill looked horrified, "Don't!"
"Oh…" he muttered, suddenly looking extremely crestfallen.
Bill stared at him before shaking her head, muttering something quietly under her breath that Alex didn't quite catch, "Right," she sighed eventually, "Did you get some food?"
"Uh, yeah," Alex offered her the bag. She leant over it and peered around inside for a little while before straightening up, rolling her eyes.
"I'd like to see you live off this for even a few days," Bill muttered, "You basically just have litres of Bud, enough Lays to last a year, and hundreds of Twinkies."
"Chocolate Twinkies," he corrected, "They're lovely."
"They're disgusting," Bill shook her head.
"Nah, I like the way that as you bite into them all the white creamy stuff comes out," Alex smirked.
"Why am I sharing a room with you?" Bill groaned, running a hand over her face, "I might just go and sleep in Traction's flatbed."
"I won't kill you," Alex smirked, "Come on, it's getting late. We need to get the guys before checking out our nice cosy room," he took her arm again and began to lead her out of the lobby, ignoring her weak protests to get off her.
Out in the parking lot, Alex was relived to find the security guard appeared to have disappeared, as well as the three Autobots in the same positions he'd left them. He'd had a feeling that he might find Jak and Drag locked together in a car fight, but thankfully, it didn't seem to have happened.
Alex detached himself from Bill and went over to Jak straight away, casually flicking a crinkled leaf off his hood, before opening the driver's door. He glanced over at Bill who was watching him with raised eyebrows, so he just shrugged, "Take Drag or Traction."
She rolled her eyes and sighed loudly, going over to Drag. Alex looked away from her and slid into the Mustang, leaning across to put his food purchases on the seat next to him.
Jak shut the door for him and started up the engine, "So, room and food, yeah?"
"Yup," Alex sat back in his seat, "Great food, but Bill's not pleased."
"Why not?" Jak began to roll forward slowly, waiting for Alex to tell him where to go.
"Beer and chips," Alex smirked, "All the good things in life."
"If you say so," Jak sniggered, "Where to?"
"Uh," Alex pulled the key out of his pocket and looked at the number on it, "We would be in the Ponderosa Lodge, room number seven one five three. Hope we're on the bottom floor of this motel style building, so I can stare out the window at you."
"I hope you are too," Jak snorted again in amusement, "I also hope that you have see through curtains so that I can see your lady friend changing through them."
Alex scowled and pummelled the steering wheel, "Oh yeah? Well I get to share a bed with her! In your face. Or grill. Whichever is more applicable."
"Oh whoppie doo," Jak muttered, sounding rather jealous as he began to move off, turning left from his parking space and trundling along slowly towards a gas station over to one side.
Alex folded his arms smugly, glancing behind them as Drag, then Traction, began to follow them. He let Jak slowly make his way around the gas station towards a large block-like and wooden building, rows of doors along the bottom and the top, parking bays lining the front of it. He casually leant across to the plastic bag and pulled out a bottle of beer, looking around him expectantly, "You don't happen to have a bottle opener, do you?"
"Do I look like I have one in my back pocket?" had Jak been able to, he'd have rolled his eyes.
"Well you are some super advanced robot species. I would have though a bottle opener would have come as standard," Alex grinned.
"Maybe it would have if we had bottles back home?" Jak rolled his cabin as he shrugged.
"True, true," Alex nodded, looking around again briefly before leaning forward to the central part of the Mustang. He mused quietly to himself before suddenly pushing the edge of the bottle cap into the CD player's slot, beginning to lever it up and down.
"Hey, hey! What are you doing?" Jak swerved slightly in shock, narrowly missing a passing car, "Cut that out!"
"Be quiet and hang on a second, this is working," Alex muttered.
"You'll break my CD player!"
"It's fine. Your interior isn't cheap metal and plastic like normal cars, you're hardcore Autobot metal," Alex twisted the bottle slightly.
"Well, yeah, I am actually," Jak sounded rather proud suddenly.
Alex smirked, giving the bottle a final jerk and the cap popped free, clattering down into the passenger's foot well.
"You clean that out," Jak told him quickly, "I don't want that rattling around."
"Sure, sure," Alex took a swig from the bottle before sighing contently, "Much better."
"I'm sure it is. My poor interior," Jak muttered quietly, finally coming to a halt in a parking bay directly opposite a door, which sported the number one five and three, "Now get out. Take the bottle cap with you."
Alex grinned, leaning across to grab the cap from the floor, before picking up his food bag too, "See you in the morning."
"I'll be watching you," Jak commented, opening his door.
"Don't be so creepy," Alex slid from the seat, jumping out the way suddenly as Traction nearly ploughed into him as he slid into the space next to Jak. He flashed his lights briefly in what Alex guessed must have been an apology. He patted the Ram's hood, took another sip of his beer, then glanced over Jak to see Bill getting out of Drag, muttering quietly and rapidly to him as she did so.
Alex raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything as she walked over to him, indicating the door, "You going to open it then?"
"Oh yeah, sorry," Alex quickly moved over to the door and slid the card into the lock, waiting a few seconds before pulling it out slowly. There was a click and a green light flashed a few times, letting them know that access was granted. Alex pushed down on the handle and shoved the door open, grimacing slightly as he heard it creak and groan under just a little pressure.
"Secure," he heard Jak mutter quietly behind him just as he walked into the room, sniffing slightly as he looked around, before turning his attention to draining his beer. Bill shut the door behind them and paused too as she took in the room.
It was of a fairly good size, with simple off white walls with a few portraits of men on horseback or the surrounding countryside. The large double bed was placed in the middle of the right-hand wall, it's garish green, orange and yellow covers the brightest thing in the room. Two simple bedside tables flanked each side, and Alex couldn't help but wonder if they were just cardboard painted as wood, since they looked so flimsy. Opposite the bed was a small fridge encased in some kind of wooden cabinet, a microwave on top of that. Beside the makeshift kitchen was the small and rather boring TV on a long chest of draws that spanned most of the left wall. On the furthest wall, there was a single sink with a large mirror in front of it. Alex couldn't help but preen a little as he caught sight of his reflection, casually flicking his hair out of his face and striking a pose.