I live on a dry campus, and I came back this weekend to my fridge full of bacardis. i am really hating this roommate thing. think of me when you sleep in your room. alone. lucky jerks. anyway i had fun writing this chapter :) thanks for all the great reviews!! xoxox

When I woke up I found that I was less than a foot from Hot Rod's dim, sleeping eyes. I was stretched on my stomach across his forearm, which was curled up towards his face as he lay on his side. My head was pillowed on my own arm, and my cast arm stretched over my head. My fingers rested numbly on his wrist.

I groaned, my whole body protesting the unusual angles it had taken overnight. I had no idea how we could have ended up that way, but I could think of worse ways to wake up.

His eyes brightened as he came out of his recharge. "G'morning," he mumbled. "What time is it?"

I reached out and brushed my fingers on the smooth metal of his cheek. "You're asking the wrong person."

"Oh, right… One second."

I watched his face as he looked up the time, noticing his eyes didn't take on the flat, empty look that Skywarp's had when using the Internet.

"It's a quarter after seven in the morning."

"We're up early."

He smiled at the plural and inclined his head closer until we were just inches apart. "We don't have to get up just yet."

"That depends. Any word on Optimus and the scouting mission?"

"Their situation is green. They're avoiding long range transmissions, so we won't know the details until they are back on base."

"Are you worried, Hot Rod? About the new Decepticon?"

"Nope. We still outnumber them, and chances are he's a useless little crony who doesn't even know that his leader is a piece of slag on the bottom of the ocean." I was silent at that, frowning at his growing anxiety. "Sorry," he finally said. "I didn't mean to put it like that. It's just that it really isn't likely he's anything more than a minor threat. Don't you worry, ok?"

"I'm not worried. I'm hungry," I moaned, hiding my face against his metal arm.

"Then I guess we're getting up," his said agreeably. I slid off of his arm and spent a second orienting myself as he sat up and swung his legs off the bed. In a few minutes were walking into the kitchen. Sam and Bumblebee were already there, Sam rapidly downing some Lucky Charms while Bee read the back of the box. They looked up and Bee waved us over.

Hot Rod set me down by the table and I went to the cabinets to get myself a bowl. Bee poured me some cereal from the box he was reading. "Thanks, Bee. How'd you sleep, Sam?" I asked mischievously.

"Would've slept better," he said through a mouthful of horseshoe marshmallows, "if Bee hadn't kept trying to get me to talk about the movie. I didn't even see most of it."

"I knew exactly when you fell asleep, and you saw forty-seven minutes," Bee rebuffed. "I just wanted to discuss the reasoning behind the humans' emotions…"

"It's a movie, it's not meant to be discussed. It's not real."

I smiled. "I don't know Sam, it didn't capture millions of hearts by being ridiculously unbelievable."

"Are you kidding me? That's why people love it! They don't want reality, they want fairytales." Sam was looking annoyed by this time.

"Sounds like it's three against one here, Sam," Hot Rod said amiably. "It's a good example of love."

"Yeah Sam, it's inspiring," I giggled, looking at Hot Rod as I said it. We shared a long look, but when we broke away from each other's gaze Sam was staring at us, his mouth hanging open with a rainbow marshmallow dangling from his lip.

"I didn't just see that."

"See what?" I asked innocently.

"That look. You gave each other The Look. You have a thing for each other."

I blushed at his bluntness and looked down at my cereal, poking at it with the spoon.

"It's none of your business," Bee chided Sam.

He shook his head incredulously and went back to eating his Lucky Charms, silent now.

I was mentally vowing never to never show my face again when the huge Autobot door slid open and Mirage stepped in, stopping and taking on an extremely relaxed and yet striking posture. "Guess who's back from the risky mission, younglings!"

I forgot my embarrassment and jumped up, smiling. "Mirage! Is Optimus back too? Who was the Decepticon? Did he see you? Was he any trouble? Did you-"

"Whoa, sweetheart, one question at a time!" He strode over and crouched down by the table, ignoring Hot Rod's dark stare. "Yes, Optimus is back. The Decepticon is unfortunately a flyer named Thundercracker. Not as wild as your old friend Skywarp, but he sure packs a punch." When my face read alarm, he patted me gently on the back. He must not have realized his strength, because I staggered a half step.

"Watch it, man," Hot Rod growled.

Mirage looked guilty. "Sorry, Bravura, I'm not used to organics so small."

I looked at Hot Rod, not understanding the force of his reaction but shrugging it off and smiling at Mirage. "It's fine. Did Thundercracker know you found him?"

Mirage shook his head in a very human gesture. "Nope, we didn't get too close. Skywarp was already there, debriefing, probably. Those two are going to be a handful."

Bumblebee stood up and Sam looked at him questioningly. "Sorry to be going so soon, but Sam has to get back before his parents ground him for 'all eternity.'"

I made a sound of disappointment. "Aw Bee, can't you let him take a cab?"

"Bee's the only maniac-driven yellow car I'll be riding in," Sam said smoothly, much to the other Autobot's feigned offense.

"I recall you saying I'm an excellent driver just a few days after we met, Sam."

"Yeah, and then you nearly killed us smashing through every broken down building you could find."

"It's called shaking off the enemy! There's a reason I'm the one with wheels."

"Yeah, so you could drive off the deep end…"

Everyone chuckled at this one, even Bumblebee, and it wasn't long before they were driving out the gates and back to their home lives. Mirage, Hot Rod and I stood watching the gates grind shut behind them. Mirage punched the auto lock and looked from me too Hot Rod and back. "So what are we doing today?"

I shrugged. "Ping pong?"

"I was thinking of something more exciting," Mirage said with a sly smile. "It's summer, the season when you humans are supposed to be outside, producing skin pigment and luxuriating next to the ocean. Let's go somewhere."

"Um, where could I take a couple of huge robots without getting noticed, exactly?" I leaned back on Hot Rod's leg as I watched Mirage think it over.

"Hot Rod," he asked finally, "Didn't Ratchet have an extra mobile holoreceiver in his sickbay? I've already got one, but if you could borrow Ratchet's we could go soak in some native customs with our little friend."

"It's a bad idea," Hot Rod grumbled instantly. "Especially with a new Decepticon to worry about."

"You know there's nothing they can track her with, Hot Rod. He probably doesn't even care about keeping a pet anymore, what with me around to keep him on his guard."

I did like the idea of getting out, and I was curious to see what Mirage was talking about when he said 'holoreceiver.'

"C'mon, Hot Rod…" I wheedled. "Like Mirage said, I should be outside having fun. Just for a little while?"

"But… Bravura, it's dangerous…"

"With two big strong Autobots who would be right next to me the entire time? I seriously doubt that."

"We wouldn't be with you. Two useless hologram receivers would be with you, and Mirage and I would physically be in the parking lot."

"Hot Rod, lighten up. I'll even mask us the entire time. Not even a flicker of a signal would leak for anyone to see. Seriously, let the girl out. It's like you want to cage her up."

"I would never do that!" Hot Rod protested fiercely. "I'm just worried!" He looked down at me, dismayed. "If you want to go out so bad, fine, we'll go."

Mirage and I shared a victory grin.

"I'm going to go get the holoreceiver from Ratchet. Be right back." Hot Rod barely finished before he changed into his Aston Martin vehicle mode and peeled out, racing down the long halls at a ridiculous speed.

As his engine faded away, Mirage sat down against the wall. "What crawled up his exhaust pipe, anyway?"

I shrugged. "He's just worried, that's all. Last time we went outside you had to bail us out, remember?"

"Vividly. You aren't worried about something like that happening again, are you?"

"Not really. I really just want a break, and to have a normal… well, half normal day. Thanks for bringing it up."

"Anything for you, sweetheart. Did you bring up the relationship thing to him?"

I blushed at the memory of the night before, and Mirage laughed. "You did! He likes you after all. How do I know these things?"

"I… it's not like that. He's… He said he…"

"Don't worry, I won't pry into the details. Want to see my hologram?"

He reminded me of a little kid showing off his toys, and I eagerly latched onto the new subject.

He planted his hand sideways on the ground as if to shield something from me. After a moment I heard a loud buzz, which quickly melted back into quiet. He raised his hand, and there stood a tall and handsome dark haired man who looked like he was in his mid-twenties. He had a perfect tan and his Autobot-blue eyes stood out piercingly. He folded his arms across his chest and smiled, showing bright white teeth.

"Like it?"

"It looks so real," I murmured, walking over to him to inspect him more closely. Even less than a foot away I couldn't tell that he wasn't real. "Is it solid?"

"See for yourself," he said confidently. Mirage's voice came from the holograms mouth, causing me to jump slightly in surprise. "I don't bite…"

I slowly reached out towards the rolled up sleeve of his white button up, just barely brushing the very solid material when Hot Rod squealed around the corner far down the hall. I jerked away from Mirage, feeling guilty, while the big Autobot's hologram simply smiled innocently. Hot Rod rolled to a stop behind me and the brown haired man I'd seen after the hospital was sitting in the driver's seat. I watched as he got out, revealing that he too was tall, though not quite as tall as Mirage's. I approached him, smiling, and he smiled back.

He was good looking. His eyes were bright blue like Mirage's, but his tan was lighter. His hair was a warm brown and his build was a little lankier than Mirage. I reached out to touch his shoulder, but to my disappointment my hand sank into him without resistance. It felt like a hundred little jolts of static on my skin so I jerked my hand back and he frowned.

"Sorry, it's not solid. Ratchet's been busy with other things."

I tried to hide my sudden slump in mood by smiling. "It's fine! Let's get going!"

I heard Mirage transform behind me, and turned to see his hologram standing by the driver's door, watching me. "Are you riding with Hot Rod?" he asked almost plaintively.

"Yeah, I'd better," I said with a wink, then slid into the low-slung Vanquish S. Hot Rod's hologram was already inside, and then huge gate slid open. Mirage took care of the autolock, which required a code from the outside, and then we were on our way to 'have fun.'

"How come the locking system is some complicated, Hot Rod?"

"If someone ever manages to crack the entrance code, chances are they won't bother to lock it behind them. More than 60 seconds open and a citywide alarm will go off, alerting the entire complex."

"Oh. Any reason why nobody bothered to tell me that before?"

"You never asked." His hologram looked over at me, and I realized with a start that his hands weren't on the wheel. His arm was just inches from mine, and I mentally sighed. I couldn't touch him.

Edited March 20, 2010