Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue. Heck, even if you did sue, I don't even have the action figures to give ya.
A/N: Hullo! Alright, so I am a very, very bad little author. I shouldn't make promises and then not keep them, although I must say, if everyone who favorited/added this story to their alert list (thank you all, by the by) had reviewed you would've knocked the 12 review bar on it's butt. I did have a reasonable excuse, though: and that is our church's major, yearly outreach kick-off thing was this week. We had something EVERYDAY from Wednesday on, and Tuesday night/Wednesday morning I saw Harry Potter at midnight with my cousin, so, yeah. Not the brightest thing I've ever done. But here's the update!!! Again, not to thrilled with this chapter, but they DO get better from here. This one is pretty much fluff and character development that is sorta necessary, but not all that engaging (in my opinion). NEXT CHAPTER IS BETTER! And yes, it is already written, and my mom is out of town this coming week so I can write LOTS more, so if I am so inspired I shall post early. No set number of reviews this time, though. Wow me, folks, I'll be bored.
Oh, yes. And I think the term 'aww' was in ninety percent of the reviews for last chapter. I nearly died laughing. You people rock my socks, even though its summer and I'm wearing sandals.
Chapter Thirteen: Of Dye Jobs and Bad Days
Mirage and Astrid saw more of each other in the next couple of weeks. They didn't monopolize each other's time, but they didn't clandestinely avoid each other, either. Over time, they were learning to appreciate things about the other that they hadn't taken the time to notice before.
Astrid had a clever mind and was well versed in the finer parts of Earth culture.
Mirage was an excellent literary debater and could really behave like a true gentleman when he wanted to.
Others around them began to notice, and each went around with a radiant grin like the thing had been their idea. The best part for Astrid was that Jazz was once again on speaking terms with anyone and everyone. The main 'anyone' on that list being Mirage. Now there were times in the rec room where she'd find herself sitting in front of her brother's guardian and her own, listening to the two of them converse and tease. If Jazz called Astrid short, Mirage called Jeremy rough and uncultured. To Astrid it was heaven. Never before had anyone volunteered to help her blatantly rip on her brother.
Unfortunately, the twins were still as active as they ever were, and they leaped at the chance to have some fun at Astrid's expense.
They cajoled her into taking a bet: who would fall asleep first on New Year's Eve- Annabelle or Epps? They didn't mention that they planned on dropping a few little pills into Epp's drink that afternoon. And, like the gullible fool she was, Astrid accepted. She also lost. When she came in the next morning with long blue stripes in her hair it was difficult to tell who was more shocked. Bluestreak looked like he'd fall over if a feather bumped into him; Epps (now recovered from the sleeping pills) forgot he was pouring coffee and scorched himself; Ratchet was decreasing the twins' estimated life spans with his glare alone, and, of course, Jeremy looked like he'd just seen Ironhide twirl into the room with a sparkly pink tutu.
Still, her brother was the first to recover, and he had no problem remembering how to use his tongue.
"What happened to your hair?"
Astrid shrugged, calmly dipping a tea bag in her mug of hot water. "I lost a bet," she said.
Across the room, Will moaned. Jeremy sympathized with his colleague's sentiment and let his face drop into his hands, taking a deep breath to calm himself. "With who?" he asked.
"Sunny and 'Sides."
"I should've known," Jeremy said darkly. "Tell me that dye isn't permanent."
"I could... but I don't like to lie."
"At least tell me there isn't some sort of dress code at your school..."
"There isn't." Astrid laughed. "Honestly, where do you think I go? It's a university - a conservative university, but still a university. It's not like I enlisted in a nunnery or something."
"Well that's... good."
"Seriously, Jeremy," Astrid scoffed, leaning back in her seat and cautiously sipping at her tea. "You have a tattoo. What's wrong with me getting a little coloring, hmmm?"
"Nothing, Astrid, nothing," he said tiredly. He lifted himself up from his slouch, but his hand still wandered up to rub anxiously at his forehead in a dead giveaway of his true feelings. "You're just... I guess I didn't ever consider you branching out... quite... like... this."
At his words, a broad, cocky grin spread out over Astrid's face. "Well... SURPRISE!
"Besides," she added, "it could've been worse. I had to use a loophole in our agreement to keep the twins from dyeing all of my hair blue."
Her new look continued to be a source of amusement for the mechs and humans on base for several days. The dents and scratches the twins received from the resident medic were also a hot topic of conversation. Wagers were already been made concerning what Ratchet, Jazz and Optimus would do when the girl started dating. There was also much debate concerning how much trouble the twins would get themselves into when Astrid started on the tricky path of romantic relationships. No one thought to speculate on Mirage's reaction.
All too soon, the holiday season was over, and it was time for Astrid to return to college with her guardian. The goodbyes were long, but nowhere near as emotional for Astrid as they had been the first time she'd left. Everyone was more at ease with her new living arrangements, seeing as how she'd passed all her first semester classes with flying colors, and no robots with red eyes had tried to take out the campus. High expectations were held by all for Astrid's performance in the next round of studying, and she looked forward to her future like she hadn't since her parents' accident.
For once the ride across the country in Mirage's front seat was actually enjoyable. Not just tolerable, but actually almost... fun. He'd managed to download several other books off the internet that Astrid had suggested and they discussed each one in depth for nearly half the drive. The other half was spent listening to music of a classical caliber - which Astrid also suggested - or riding in peaceable silence. Astrid was aware that so far she'd been sharing more facets of her world with Mirage than he'd been sharing of his, but she never broached the topic with him.
When, if, he was ever ready, he'd tell her what he wanted to.
.O.O.O.
It was very cold in Ohio. Astrid had almost forgotten that little piece of information during her sunny stay in Tranquility, but it was a fact that greeted her with harsh enthusiasm the minute Mirage's holoform opened the door for her.
"Wow," she gasped. "I'd forgotten that it still snows in some parts of the world."
"Is this temperature dangerous for your species?" Mirage asked, a tinge of concern coloring his voice.
Astrid waved him off immediately. "Nah. I'm just a wussy."
Her guardian, who was growing more friendly by the day, handed her out like a gentleman from the shiny sports car and made sure she had her balance in the slick snow outside before releasing her hand. Not that it mattered a few seconds later.
Like the cold, it really should've come to no surprise to Astrid when she was tackled to the ground by a streak of energy wearing a long brown coat and a brilliant red scarf that acted like the tail of a kite. Her attacker squealed with glee and nuzzled in closer to her friend, sending them both deeper into the snow. Had she been knocked flat on any warmer or drier surface, Astrid would probably have just waited out her friend's expression of joy, but as things were, she had no intention of letting the snow soak through any deeper than her outermost layers.
"Jenna, honey, you know I love you, but this snow is really cold, and I don't want to deal with the puddle it'll leave in our dorm room."
"Right! My apologies!" Jenna said happily, peeling herself away from Astrid and offering her a hand up.
"Thanks," Astrid grunted as she was heaved to her feet.
"You're welcome," said Jenna. Her eyes tracked over to Mirage, then swung back to Astrid, and she gave her a meaningful waggle of the eyebrows.
Before the thought could send roots any deeper into Jenna's imagination, Astrid sternly said,"No, Jenna. I know what you're thinking, and it's not like that at all."
"What?" Jenna pouted. "The way he..." A hand clamped over her mouth and prevented any further comment on her part.
"Ah! Stop!" Astrid cried, slowly taking her hand away. "We'll discuss this in the room. But not here, ok?"
Jenna's eyes flew up to the pasty clouds and with a dramatic sigh she said, "I think I can survive that long..."
"Good," Astrid said, grabbing her by the arm and leading her off. "I'd hate to have to drag your dead body away somewhere and hide it."
"That's right," Jenna said. "Because the cause of death would be your fault. Keeping close friends in suspense about important facts for too long would definitely make you a murderer."
"Whatever, friend-tackler."
"Tight-lipped prude."
"Nosey conclusion-jumper."
"Wait, does that mean..."
"Shut-up for a minute will you! The dorms aren't that far away."
"That depends on who you ask."
.O.O.O.
"So," Jenna said, watching from her bed as Astrid towel-dried her hair, "you two aren't...?"
"It's not like that, no," said Astrid. "He's a friend of the family, like I said, a military friend of my brother's, and he just happens to live up here. Once his tour was over he came back to his old home, and he came with me Tranquility to visit his old soldier buddies. Satisfied?"
"Mostly," said Jenna, "except for the part about his originally coming from this giant cornfield." Astrid moved to protest, but Jenna beat her to the punch. "Really, Astrid, just take a good look at him. He's not hard on the eyes, so it shouldn't be that difficult for you. What kind of guy who dresses that well, speaks that correctly and has hair that awesome is raised in central Ohio? Southern, maybe, but around here? Not a chance...
"While we're on the subject of hair..."
"Yeah, yeah, I know," Astrid grumbled.
"Get a lot of slack from your brother?" Jenna grinned.
"Sorta."
"What happened?"
"I lost a bet."
Jenna fell off her bed, roaring with laughter. The pillow that hit her didn't come as too much of a surprise.
.O.O.O.
The snow did not stop falling for three days. By then the path from Astrid and Jenna's dorm to the buildings where their classes were held was a veritable slip-and-slide. The amount of students arriving dry (save for their boots) and still looking as neat and pressed by the time they reached class was a swiftly dwindling few. Astrid, however, had been one of the lucky ones so far. In fact, the first few days of the new semester were going even better than she'd anticipated. But all that changed on one frozen morning, when she had the audacity to get up before the sun and try to reach the library in time for some early studying.
On her way to the building, which was the closest one to her dormitory, she encountered a patch of ice that hadn't been there the day before.
One second she was fine, bright and cheery, walking in a straight line with her backpack on and her books held primly in the crook of her elbow. The next, she realized that her feet were in the air, the world was tilting so that she had a fabulous view of the morning sky, and her precious - and expensive - textbooks had flown out of her grasp. By the time the third moment arrived, she had come to the conclusion that her head, butt and back hurt terribly, and that she was going to have to either wear some very soggy clothes for the rest of the day, or she was going to have to skip early studying in order to change.
Her lower lip jutted out and she glared at the grey sky, which seemed to promise more snow, as her headache slowly came to roaring life. Eventually, she decided that there was no point lying there in the snow, so she pushed herself up, clutched a hand to the back of her head, gathered up her soggy books and trudged back to the dorm. A few extra hours of sleep weren't sounding so bad anymore.
When she arrived, though, she discovered that the girls in the next room were getting themselves pumped up for the morning with an energizing mix of rock music with just enough bass to unsettle the immediate neighbors. Needless to say, catching a little extra shut-eye was next to impossible. Jenna was up anyway by that time, and Astrid just threw the whole plan to the wind. At least she got to change, though, she reasoned.
She settled for swallowing a good dose of asprin and making herself a large thermos of strong, hot tea to take along to class. But of course, fate wasn't nice enough to just let it be at that.
As Astrid was walking along the slippery, snowy paths that led across campus, she came face to face with a fellow freshman... who happened to be running in the opposite direction. The two collided in an impressive display of flailing arms and skidding rears that got attention from every other soul unfortunate enough to be caught out on that nippy morning. There were a few hoots, several offers of help and a lot of shrugged shoulders. But Astrid ignored them all for, spilled out in a tragic brown stain that had melted through a good foot of snow before its heat had escaped - was her tea. The boy who'd ran into her apologized repeatedly, but was forced to go on or be late for class, leaving Astrid to stare at her ruined chai latte.
By the end of the morning she was ready to call it all quits and just flip burgers for the rest of her life. Not only was there the world's longest line for lunch, but when she finally had all her food on her tray, Astrid had found the one puddle of water on the floor left by snowy boots and taken her second fall of the day. Then she was not only tired, wet, and in pain, but covered in salad dressing and chicken noodle soup in front of pretty much the whole student body.
Suddenly she decided that she didn't want to even bother with her afternoon classes. She just wanted to go back to bed and pretend like it had all been a bad dream. Jenna had those two classes with her, anyway, and she'd probably be willing to let Astrid study off her notes. It wasn't even like they were particularly hard courses.
And so, tears leaking from her eyes, and an embarrassed flush illuminating her face like a big red Christmas light, Astrid cleaned up the mess she'd made and quickly ran out of the cafeteria.
Her eyes were so blurry that she could barely see at all, but her feet knew the route back to her dorm even better than her mind did, and they started to steer her in the right direction. But a loud honk from a car horn made her stop. Slowly, she turned around to blink pathetically out into the parking lot and strained her puffy eyes in vain to distinguish Mirage from the rest of the impressionist painting smeared out before her. There was a low purr from an engine, and suddenly the flashy GT was pulling up on the street next to the sidewalk. Mirage had his window down and his holoform leaning out for the sake of any concerned spectators who might be watching Astrid's progress from inside the nearby buildings, but it was the tenor of his engine that alerted Astrid to her guardian's true concern.
"Are you alright?" he asked. "You look... distressed."
"Yeah," Astrid sniffed, swiping at her leaking eyes with the back of her sleeve. "I'm ok... sort of."
"What has happened?"
"I fell - twice- and dropped all my stuff in the snow, and I embarrassed myself in front of the whole university, and I didn't get my tea this morning, and my head hurts, and my whole body hurts, and... I guess I've just had a really bad day, Mirage," Astrid said, tacking an unconvincing snicker onto the end. "It's just been a really rotten day. That's all."
Mirage's speakers slowly came to life with calming classical music and his holoform climbed out to open the passenger side door for her.
"Let's go for a ride," he suggested. "You really do look like you could use it."
Astrid sniffed again, blinking furiously against her overactive tear ducts and waded around the car, slumping into the offered sanctuary. The heat was immediately turned full blast on the shivering teenager, and Mirage actually kept his holoform activated for once as he steered them off campus. They wound up in the rural countryside surrounding the tiny town built around the university, and Astrid watched with dazed interest as the speedometer slowly swung farther and farther right.
"... I think you're way past the speed limit," she said.
"I believe so," her guardian replied.
"Well... shouldn't you be slowing down?" Astrid asked.
A chuckle vibrated through the speakers and sent a pleasant shiver through Astrid's seat. "What's the point of possessing the capacity to become invisible if one never uses it?"
"Mirage," Astrid said in wonderment, "I think I really honestly like you right now."
Mirage's reply was to laugh and up the speed. "Let's see if we can't outrun your bad day, shall we?"
A/N: We broke the 100 review line! YAY!
Replies to Those Without Accounts:
Me;): Thanks for the review! Yes, they are cute, and their relationship will be anything but smooth. *Evil cackle of doom* Thanks again!
GodisGod!andIamnot: Thank you! I was worried about it being a little bit filler-ish. I think this one is more so, but it was necessary. Yay! You caught that! Hope to see more of your reviews!
Sammy J: Aww, gee *blush*. Thank you very much. Seeing the new movie definitely gave me a boost. This is a shorter chapter, but they get longer. Thank you again very much, and I hope to hear from you again!