Origins: Bumblebee

Chapter 8: A Smuggler/Jazz Leaves

It was, Bumblebee decided, not so bad having another bot on board. In fact it was actually kind of nice having some company he decided. Although it was slightly unnerving, not to mention annoying, to have someone stare at you and watch your every move as though fearful of being harmed. Bumblebee took another sip of energon, pretending not to notice Jazz who was blatantly staring at him, making no attempt to cover it up. After several minutes of this Bumblebee could take no more and sat down the energon and said, "Go ahead; ask away."

Jazz jumped, banging his knee joints against the underside of the table. "Ow!" he ruefully rubbed his sore joints.

"Are you all right?" amusement shone on Bumblebee's gray faceplate. The worried tone in his voice, however, gave him away.

"I'm fine," Jazz assured the assassin. "So what did you want me to ask?"

"Well I'm sure that you have a lot of questions about me and this ship so go ahead; ask my anything." Bumblebee leaned back in his chair, making himself as comfortable as possible.

"Well," Jazz said hesitantly. "What do you do for a living?"

"I'm an assassin," Bumblebee replied then laughed when Jazz jumped again, banging his knee joints a second time. "If you keep that up, Jazz, then you won't have to worry about me killing you."

"Why didn't you kill me when you found me?" Jazz asked.

"Contrary to popular opinion we assassins don't kill every single bot that gets in our way. If we did that then there wouldn't be any bots, except for myself of course, left online."

Jazz didn't look at all convinced but nodded anyway, leaning back in his chair ever so slightly. Bumblebee smiled but inwardly felt saddened. He had finally found himself a possible assistant but had already scared him off.

"That's pretty cool,' Jazz said at last, his blue optics still wide. "I never knew anyone who was an assassin before."

"You're not scared of me?" Bumblebee raised an optic ridge in surprise.

Jazz shrugged. "You haven't given me a reason to yet."

"If you stick around long enough I just might give you one," Bumblebee said with a chuckle.

"Was that an invitation?" Jazz asked jokingly, seriousness underlying his tone.

Bumblebee opened his mouth to say no but closed it again. He had been joking but the more he thought about it the more appealing it sounded. It was a little lonely living all by himself he had to admit. It might actually be nice to have company for a change. Besides, he was considering a change of careers and he could use an assistant. "Yes it was," he said. "You are more than welcome to stay with me for as long as you want. I promise that I will never hurt you and as long as you stay with me you will be under my projection. But if I ever catch you stealing from me or if you betray me you will not live to regret it. Do I make myself clear?" Bumblebee's voice, which had been jovial and friendly seconds before, was now cold and harsh.

"Understood," Jazz whispered, looking terrified.

"Good," Bumblebee leaned back and smiled. "Now that that's out of the way would you like to stay?"

"Yes I would," Jazz said firmly after thinking it over. Bumblebee's terms were fair, he had to admit. "As long as I don't have kill anyone," he added.

"I would say that you don't have to but the truth is, more than likely, you will have to one day. But I will do everything in my power to make sure that you don't have to."

Jazz nodded. "Ok," he said then finished his energon.

Jazz stared at Bumblebee in horror then spoke, disbelief coloring his voice. "'The Smuggler'? Please tell me that you're joking," he begged.

"No I'm not joking." Bumblebee looked completely serious as he stood there with his arms crossed and a grin on his gray faceplate.

"Okay you being a smuggler I don't have a problem with. But you naming your ship 'The Smuggler'? That I do have a problem with." He crossed his arms and scowled at the black and yellow minibot.

"My ship, my rules," Bumblebee reminded him. "Besides, I happen to like that name."

"It's unique; I'll give you that much," Jazz agreed. "And it'll catch the attention of every Elite Guard vessel between here and Cybertron."

"Maybe," Bumblebee admitted rather reluctantly.

"Besides, no self respecting smuggler would ever name their ship that."

"Exactly!" Bumblebee crowed. "They wouldn't! Which is why no one would suspect me! It's perfect!"

"It's crazy," Jazz said flatly. "As are you. Not to mention it's actually brilliant."

"Well then you must be crazy too," Bumblebee said cheerfully.

Jazz just groaned and fell quiet. When he finally spoke again it was to say, hesitantly, "Bumblebee, we need to talk."

"You want to leave, don't you?" the minibot sounded calm.

Jazz gaped at him and finally managed to stammer, "How…how did you know?"

Bumblebee gave him a weary smile. "We've lived together for about ten years, Jazz. I think I should know when something's up."

"It's nothing personal," Jazz hastened to assure him. "I mean, I'm grateful for everything that you've done for me and all that but…" he hesitated, unsure of how to go on."

"I understand," Bumblebee smiled. "I've taught you all that I can. You must live life for yourself. I did the same thing myself even if it wasn't exactly my choice," he said darkly, remembering how hurt he had been when Yoketron sent him away. He shook his head; now was not the time to be thinking about that. "I have something for you," he said abruptly then walked out of the room, signaling for Jazz to follow him.

Feeling slightly confused Jazz did so. They stopped outside one of the cargo bays so Bumblebee could enter the code then stepped inside. Bumblebee walked over to one of the crates then handed it to Jazz. The blue and white mech opened it only to gasp in surprise when he saw the contents. "I don't know what to say," he said at last, gazing at the pile of credits that lay there. "Except thank you."

"You're welcome," Bumblebee replied. "All that I ask is that you stop by every now and then to visit."

"Don't worry," Jazz said as he sat the crate down and hugged Bumblebee. "I definitely will."

A/N: 3 reviews please will accept 1.

Sorry that this chapter is so late but between Black Friday, my 18th birthday, and my aunt coming over I've been hard-pressed to do anything except for work on my English and Religion papers which, by the way, were impossible but fortunately they don't count for much.

A/N/N: Don't forget to vote!