Series Title: The Five Stages of Love
Chapter Three: Passion
Pairing: slight Sunny/Bee/Sides and implied Cliff/Bee
Rating: PG-13, will be R
Warnings: creative language
Summary: The sweetest bot on the Ark is bound to be able to love anybody, right? Even two violent minibot hating frontliners.
Ratchet glared down at Bumblebee when he practically wobbled into the medbay, closely followed by the twin terrors, and the medic pointed the minibot towards a berth. "Red commed me that you were heading back to the medbay nearly a cycle ago. Where have you been?"
The yellow mini shot Ratchet a shame filled look as he made his way over to the indicated berth, but before he could try to pull himself up onto it, Sunstreaker lifted him off the ground. Placing Bumblebee on the berth, much to the surprise of the medic, who had expected the toughliner to toss the mini, Sunstreaker smirked over at the red and white bot.
"We botnapped him, for a bit of fun. He's kind of tired from it." Glaring suspiciously at the frontliner and his grinning twin, Ratchet moved over to inspect Bumblebee, who was sitting up on the berth with a soft blush on his face. And why were Sunstreakers servo's still on 'Bee?
"You were supposed to be sitting through a short monitor shift then going to your own room for some recharge, not going off to play 'clang, clang' with the twins." The yellow mini scoffed at Ratchet's statement, and though the medic was joking, he wouldn't be happy about how close he was to the truth.
Though they certainly hadn't gotten far enough for it to be considered 'clang, clang', a phrase Jazz had been using for vorns, the twins said they intended to do as much as he was willing, as soon as he was able. Bumblebee dreaded to know what would happen to the twins if the medic was to find out about their intentions, not to mention what some other bots on the Ark would do to them.
He was good friends with several bots and best friends with the rest of them. They wouldn't be happy when they found out, especially if they thought he had been forced as part of some sick joke. 'Best to keep it as quiet as possible-'
"How did you know that's what we were doing? Course, 'Bee was too tired for it to be real-real." Ratchet's wrench flew out of nowhere and smacked the grinning red twin as the medic began to run scans on the little bot, the readout's indicating that Bumblebee's levels were only slightly higher than they had been earlier, something that made the medbot frown.
"That's not funny you dumb-aft. You should never force a bot, it's just not right." Sunstreaker's expression reverted to his usual scowl and he crossed his arms over his chassis.
"I would never force a bot. I'm not a Decepticon, despite what Cliffbouncer thinks. 'Bee was totally up for it." Ratchet paused, Sunstreaker's statement running through his mind. Flickering his optics, the medic looked up at the golden toughliner.
"Are you two playing some prank on me?" Bumblebee couldn't keep his faceplates from flushing again, looking anywhere but at the curious medbot when Ratchet glanced back down at him. "Or just messing with 'Bee? I'll have you know that I won't stand for you pranking one of my friends like that. I will reformat you into toasters. Pink ones."
Both twins shuddered at the thought, but Sideswipe stepped closer to the berth. "We're serious. 'Bee's an absolute sweet spark. He's been a good friend to us for a long time, but Sunny and I both decided we want more." Grinning, the red twin grabbed one of 'Bee's servo's and pulled it up to kiss it.
"And we don't really like waiting for things so... Now or never, right?" The expression on the medbot's face had gone from suspicious to scandalized to enraged in a matter of astroseconds, and Bumblebee noticed a decent amount of fear on the twin's faceplates.
"We thought it would be best to have our relationship out in the open before anyone could start spreading rumors. Though 'Bee mentioned his worry that you would want to reformat us into toasters, even said that." Sideswipe reset his vocalizer at the increasingly stoney look on Ratchet's face. "We're taking it slow...?"
"Get. Out." The medic's voice gave everybot in the room a chill, even the recently onlined Wheeljack, who was sitting up on his berth. "I will talk with you later, but get out of my medbay. Now!" The toughliner's turned into blur's as they rushed from the room, though Sides managed to plant a small kiss on Bumblebee's cheek before running out with his brother.
The medbay doors closed after the twins and the sound of a lock engaging made a cold feeling of dread settle in 'Bee's tanks. He looked up at the medic with apprehension, but Ratchet was looking over at Wheeljack now. "The lowest of the low." He said in a quiet voice. "How could they? I thought Toss the Minibot was a sick game, but now they're playing this one? Fraggers..."
Shaking his helm, the medic pushed Bumblebee to lay down. "Your levels are way too low. Sitting through a monitor shift? Fine. Getting pranked by the twins? Not fine." He shook his helm again and went to set up another energon drip, trying to ignore the kicked-puppy look the yellow minibot was sending him.
"'B-bee?" Wheeljack's vocalizer glitched, barking a short stream of static. "A-are you s-sure this isn't a-a-a prank?" The engineer tried to reset his vocalizer, but the static only increased for a klik. "I kn-know you l-l-like the twins-s, but you sh-shouldn't let them m-mess with y-you, okay?"
"Like the twins?" Ratchet looked scandalized, his optics and mouth wide. "You can't be serious, 'Bee! I mean, don't you remember how many times I had to repair you from them tossing you around? Or how about when Sideswipe welded you to the ceiling of an unused storage room and disabled your communicator?" The yellow mini cringed at the reminder, wondering if he should bother asking the twins about that incident. "You were there for nearly an entire joor before you managed to get your communicator working again."
"W-wait, Ratchet-t-t. 'B-bee doesn't h-hate any bot, you kn-know that. A-and he likes th-the twins b-b-b-because he does. Y-you can't really dec-c-cide who you like, ya kn-know?" Hooking the IV into 'Bee's line with a little more force than necessary, Ratchet muttered an apology when the mini flinched. "H-he's liked th-them for a-a while, but kn-knew that they b-both, S-sunstreak-ker especially, d-don't like m-minibots-s-s."
"Thank you, 'Jack." Bumblebee smiled at the engineer, who flashed his helm-fins a bright yellow. "But I think you should stop trying to talk, that sounds painful." Snickering, the injured bot laid back down on his berth and shot 'Bee a thumb's up. "And Ratchet?" The medic turned to face the minibot, a frown on his faceplates. "Thank you for worrying about me, but 'Jack is right. I've liked the twins for a long time."
He reached out to take one of the medic's servo's, knowing they were his weak point, and held onto it tightly. "Even if this is a prank, I'll try to enjoy it while it lasts. If it turns out bad, I'll help you pick out colors for their new frames." Bumblebee softly squeezed one of the red servo's and tried to ignore how dizzy he felt, even while sitting down.
"Just don't get hurt 'Bee. I can put your frame back together and I can fix most spark damage, but not that. I can't repair a broken spark when the the pain is emotional, ya know?" Nodding, the yellow mini settled back on the berth as he felt his recharge cycle starting up. "I put a light sedative in the drip, because you need to recharge, okay?"
Though his vision blurred, 'Bee managed to see a smirk form on Ratchet's face. "I'll have my talk with the twins now."
((((()))))
Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were standing just outside the medbay doors, trying to listen to the conversation going on inside, but knowing it was a futile effort. The walls of the medbay were mostly soundproof and Ratchet was actually doing a good job of not yelling, but it was Bumblebee he was talking to.
"We knew that this would happen." Sides frowned at his brother. "'Bee's good friends with just about everybot, so we'll be getting a lot of lectures and threats, especially from Wheeljack. Aren't they best friends or something?" Nodding, the red twin started to walk away from the medbay doors, Sunstreaker turning around to follow him.
"It's not fair." Glancing curiously at his brother, the golden twin didn't bother saying anything, knowing that the prankster side to Sideswipe was pouting. "We've liked him for a long time and Ratchet's just gonna diss that? Not cool."
Sighing, Sunstreaker softly, for him, punched his brother's shoulder, making the red twin stumble and glare. "Who are we, Sideswipe?" Seeming to think for a moment, the other toughliner frowned.
"Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. What, did you forget?" Snorting, the golden warrior turned back to the doors, pacing, which was unusual for the handsome frontliner.
"We're the minibot hating pranksters, remember?" His frown deepening, Sideswipe's helm dropped.
"Oh, yea..." Sighing heavily through his vents, the red twin glanced up at the security camera's. "I wonder who we'll hear it from next?" Of course, Ratchet chose that moment to open the doors of the medbay and glare at the toughliner's.
((((()))))
Perceptor had ordered several chemicals from different labs so that he could study the different reactions that the chemicals had to energon in his attempt to make a more concentrated form of the fuel. Chosen because of the argument they had, which nearly led to a fight had Prowl not broken them up, Cliffjumper and Tracks were heading back to the Ark with the shipment, both bots being quiet despite the length of the trip.
Growing agitated with the silence, Cliffjumper revved his engine, pulling ahead of the larger sports car. "Hey!" Tracks revved his engine in reply, pulling up to drive next to the red minibot. "If you wanted a race you could have just said something!" Cliffjumper snorted, slowing down to get behind the other bot, completely confusing the corvette.
"I don't want to race, you aft-head. I'm just bored with this stupid trip. I could be back at the base-"
"With Bumblebee?" Cliffjumper nearly stuttered to a stop, the red tint of his vehicle form almost brightening at the comment.
"No, Primus! Why does everyone keep saying that?" Snorting, Tracks picked up his speed again.
"Maybe because at the celebration last night you very loudly proclaimed that he belonged to you." Cliffjumper couldn't believe the words coming out of Track's vocalizer, his vehicle form stuttering to a complete halt. Sitting still for nearly a breem, the red minibot tried to remember what had happened the night before, his processor not yielding any answers.
He would normally get overcharged at a party, but he had never forgotten the entire night before. Gunning his engine, he started back towards the Ark again, hoping to catch up to Tracks and get him to explain before they reached the labs, but he wasn't nearly as lucky as he had hoped. Tracks had already gone inside to Perceptor and was unloading the chemicals, much to the scientists excitement.
The red mini put what boxes he could fit onto the counter, grumbling quietly at the manual labor that didn't involve shooting something. Tracks waved happily at him, having unloaded and signed in all of his boxes and already leaving the room. Cliffjumper just sneered at the mech, drawing a curious look from Perceptor.
"Cliffjumper?" The scientist tilted his head to the side. "Are you alright? I do hope that it wasn't too much trouble to procure and transport my samples. If so, then I apologize." The red minibot shrugged, stacking the small remaining boxes on the floor.
"It's fine. Just something happened last night that I don't remember 'cause I was too overcharged. Bots have been teasing me about it all day and it's really annoying." Perceptor smiled softly and reset his vocalizer, the soft coughing sound equivalent to a human clearing their throat.
"From the rumors spreading across the Ark you very loudly told Tracks that Bumblebee belonged to you. Of course, I did not witness the event, but Bluestreak will tell any mech with functioning audio receptors all about it." Gawking at the scientist, Cliffjumper cursed and smacked himself in the faceplates.
"The frag is wrong with me?" Grabbing at the forms he needed to sign for transporting the chemicals, the red mini cursed again, shaking his helm. "I need to tell Bluestreak to shut up, seriously. And find 'Bee to explain." Perceptor smiled a few kliks later when Cliffjumper handed him the forms and began to leave.
"I wish you luck in your endeavor Cliffjumper." Nodding at the scientist, the red mini quickly made his way out of the lab and towards the medbay.
"Thanks, I'll probably need it." He didn't stop to see if the well-spoken science-bot had a reply to that, but picked up his pace, hoping to get to the medbay before 'Bee was discharged. Unfortunately or fortunately, he caught the modest end of a rather frightening lecture that Ratchet was spouting at the twins.
"And I'll only tell you this once, understand me? Primus help you if 'Bee comes in here one joor sobbing because of you aft-heads, because I will hunt you down and insure that the rest of your life cycle is an absolute misery. Got that?" Both toughliner's nodded, though Sideswipe had a broad grin on his faceplates.
"You know you already said that? Though not in that context, but you've already said it more than once so..." He snickered at the look on Ratchet's face, but before the medbot could start into another lecture, Sides faceplates fell into a soft smile instead. "We're serious Hatchet. I know it'll take a while for everybot to believe it, but we're absolutely serious about this."
"So quit screeching at us and answer my question," Sunstreaker leaned forward, his servo's curled into fists at his sides. "Is 'Bee okay?"
"What's up with 'Bee?" Cliffjumper, having filed away the conversation as something he would certainly ask about later, didn't expect the incredibly violent reaction he got from the golden twin when he moved towards the small group.
"I will fraggin break you into a billion separate pieces and keep you alive at the same time, you pipe-sucking, ugly aft son of a glitch!" Sideswipe quickly grabbed his brother and held the volatile mech back as best he could, though he was slowly being dragged forward.
More surprised than scared, Cliffjumper had moved around the twins to stand next to Ratchet, watching in fascination when the red twin communicated something to his brother through their bond, the golden mech calming down almost immediately.
"The frag was that about?" The medic couldn't keep the surprise from his expression as he stared at the heavily venting Sunstreaker, who still hadn't taken his optics off of the red minibot.
"Oh, Sunny's just upset because of Cliffdiver being all ''Bee is mine' last night." The golden twin growled loudly, his engine revving impressively. "Sunstreaker, I mean. I meant to say Sunstreaker." Sideswipe glanced warily at his brother, knowing that the golden mech wouldn't be afraid to beat the slag out of him and would probably even enjoy it.
The red mini rocked in place for a moment, scratching at his stomach plates. "Yea, about that..." Ratchet, grinning, glanced between the three bots and stepped away, wondering how this would go down. "I don't even remember saying that or even remember anything from last night, so I was heading down here to apologize to 'Bee, cause I figured somebots were probably teasing him about it and I didn't want him to get the wrong idea."
Ratchet raised an optic ridge and began to walk towards the medbay doors. "'Bee was only in the monitor room for a short time earlier, then he was with his new 'significant others', who eventually had to bring him in here because he was about to pass out from their 'activities'." Sputtering at what the medic was alluding to, Cliffjumper stomped after him.
"'Bee doesn't have a significant other, frag-it-all! Who the slag are you talking about?"
"Why do you care?" He glanced back at the twins, taken back by the sneers on both of their faceplates. "From what you said earlier, you don't actually like him like that, so what does it matter?" Puffing himself up, Cliffjumper growled.
"It matters because I want to give the slaggers a piece of my processor! They should've thought about the fact that 'Bee was in the medbay earlier and shouldn't have-have..." Cliffjumper waved his servo's around in odd gestures. "Whatever! Done their 'activities', okay?" Sideswipe couldn't keep himself from laughing, leaning on his brother for support until the golden mech shoved at him to get off.
"The words you are looking for are 'heavy petting'. Which normally leads to 'interfacing', which is an intimate act between two bots who care about each other or want to get off-"
"I know what the words are Ratchet!" Cliffjumper slapped his hands over his audio receivers, shaking his helm roughly. "Shut up! I'll just tell 'Bee later, frag-it-all..." Quickly moving past the twins and heading to the washracks, as there was still quite a bit of dust on him, the red mini continued shaking his helm, much to the amusement of the three larger bots.
"Pri-... Primus, he's all- *snort* all shy about saying it!" Sideswipe pulled away from his brother completely to lean against the wall. "Oh, my vents hurt..." Ratchet had walked back into the medbay as the red twin snickered quietly for another klik before straightening. "I think we should steal the PA system later and announce that Bumblebee is ours. What do you think?"
Sunstreaker grinned, reaching out with a fist to bump it against his brother's. "Let's do it now."
((((()))))
Bumblebee onlined, the sound of feedback screeching across the base wide speaker system and startling him out of recharge. He sat up slowly, glancing across the medbay at Ratchet, who was doing a bit of work on Wheeljack. "What was the announcement?" The medbot shrugged, turning the engineer slightly to get at his side better.
"Red Alert hasn't said anything-"
"Attention occupants of the Ark!" Three sets of optics widened as Sideswipes voice came out of the speakers, a playfulness to his tone.
"We are making this announcement ahead of time to stop any rumors that might be forming. Firstly, I would like to congratulate Spike on 'losing his virginity', which basically means he lost his interface seals. And congratulations to Carly for taking it. Secondly!" Sideswipe grunted and an exclamation of 'fine, fine, you say it!' was heard in the background.
"Listen up bots!" Sunstreaker somehow managed to be intimidating even when he wasn't present. "Bumblebee is a claimed minibot, our minibot, and we don't want to hear about some slagger, like Cliffpopper, shouting out that 'Bee belongs to him. Furthermore, whatever bots decided to let 'Bee finish that shift in storage room 13 by himself, better be ready to get slagged because-"
A loud pounding broke through the rest of whatever Sunstreaker was going to say, Red Alert's alarms sounding in the background. "We'll be in the brig if someone wants to talk to us!" Sideswipes voice sounded far too cheerful considering the situation...
As the PA system cut out, 'Bee stared over at Ratchet with a very slack look on his faceplates. The minibot wasn't sure if he should feel embarrassed, angry, concerned, confused, happy or excited and it was difficult to feel all of the emotions at once. "I'm going back into recharge. Please don't let anybot wake me, okay?"
The medic nodded, staring at 'Bee with a mix of concern and humor, but Wheeljack was laughing hard enough that he nearly fell off of the berth. "Oh, it h-hurts t-t-to laugh..." Ratchet just shook his head, trying to decide if he should bother remembering today or pretend like it was all a strange dream brought on by being overcharged the night before.
The day had been full of humor, no doubt about that, but he felt bad for Bumblebee being caught in such a strange web. "Now there's a thought." He muttered into the quiet of the medbay, Wheeljack's vocalizer giving out on him completely. "Of course, instead of a spider and a fly, it's two bots and a 'Bee."
Chuckling, the medic looked down at the shaking engineer and checked over the fresh welds. "Let's have a look at your vocalizer now, 'Jack. See if I can get you to stop stuttering."
Of course, Ratchet had a slew of visitors over the next few cycles, mostly bots looking for Bumblebee, but some of the visitors were mechs who required medical attention because their processors had crashed from the illogical information.
((((()))))
Cliffjumper, who had been sitting on his berth prepping for recharge, was staring at the far wall, his optics dim. 'What the slag was that announcement? A joke or something?' The red minibot pushed himself to his pede's and started to pace, an unusual feeling of rage jumping through his systems.
''Bee and I... We're just friends. Right?' He tried to recall the party the previous night, when he had apparently gotten into an argument about Bumblebee's aft with Tracks, but he was still drawing a blank. Settling back down on his berth and starting up his recharge cycle, Cliffjumper muttered the phrase, trying to trigger a memory.
"'Bee's aft is mine. 'Bee's aft is mine. 'Bee's aft is-" Cliffjumper shot up, his faceplates going slack and his optics widening as he realized what he had been talking about. CJ would be the first mech to admit that he was an incredibly honest bot when he was over-charged, but he wasn't very good at putting his thoughts into words.
Tracks had been alluding to making 'Bee his roommate, just to stare at his aft more, and Cliffjumper had gotten protective of his friend when he realized that the corvette had less than honorable intentions. But with how he had defended his fellow minibot, by vehemently claiming him in a somewhat vulgar manner, it made sense that bots were acting like they were an item.
"Slag it all." Laying back down, the red minibot started up his recharge cycle for the third time. "I'll just explain it later. Fraggers gotta make everythin' complicated. Dumb-aft Tracks fer startin' it..." His words slurred as he finally drifted into recharge, resolving to appease the situation as quickly as possible.