"Oh, yeah, ain't that somethin'..." Wheelie trailed off boredly, wondering when she'd become tired of him or realize that he wasn't "babysitting material". Then again, she hung out with Ironhide most of the time, and he always half-expected the weapons specialist to get ticked off and yell at her. But he never did. What was it about this little chatterbox that everyone seemed to enjoy? If Ironhide enjoyed something that wasn't busting Decepticon skulls, then it had to be special.
"And when we had to paint our family in school." She showed him the painting. He was expecting the picture to just hold her mother and father, but was surprised when it shown more people than just those two. From what he could recognize, there was Ironhide (of course), Bumblebee, Skids and Mudflap, Ratchet and Optimus on there. There were others too, but Wheelie didn't bother to look as he caught sight of a little stick figure with blue messy hair and bright red eyes standing a little ways away from the rest of the crowd. Was that supposed to be him? Not that he was upset by the child's less-than-museum-worthy art skills, he was just entirely taken aback that she had included just about every Autobot she had ever met on the paper. Especially him.
Before he could even question why he was in the picture, she put it aside and shown him another picture. "What I want to be when I grow up." Annabelle glanced up at him with a smile, before turning back to her creation. It shown her standing next to her father and Ironhide, dressed in camoflauge. A blank stick figure with a rough drawing of the Decepticon symbol was crossed out and lying on the ground. Yeah, that was a girl that spent too much time around Ironhide, allright. Wheelie felt a lump forming in his throat and tugged at the increasingly uncomfortable collar of his shirt with his free hand, as Annabelle was still grasping his other one- as if she were afraid that he would run off when he got the chance. "What's a-matter, Wheelie?" She asked, looking up at the blue-haired teenager, who looked to be nervous about something.
"Ah, nothin'...just, eh, promise me that when you grow up you won't turn out too much like Ironhide, allright?"
Unfortunetly, as soon as he said this, the same exact Autobot entered the room, clearly having heard his name. Wheelie stood frozen like a deer in headlights, his eyes wide and unblinking in shock. Ironhide's bright cyan eyes glared at the ex-'Con for a few moments, before flickering to Annabelle, then back to Wheelie with even more infuriated intensity.
"What are you doing with her?" He growled, sending shivers down Wheelie's spine. The "criminal" opened his mouth to speak in his defense, but Annabelle beat him to it.
"I was showing him my pictures from school, 'Hide." She chimed in, cheerfully- unaffected at all by his angered growls. "And he was telling me not to be too much like you. Why?" The girl asked, looking back up at Wheelie who was now as pale as a powdered ghost.
"Yes, Wheelie. Why is that?" Ironhide looked ready to beat him into next month, while Wheelie was speechless.
"I-I-I, um, you see, it's because- Oh, do you hear that? I think warrior Goddess is calling me!" Wheelie quickly tugged his hand free of Annabelle's grip and attempted to dash out of the kitchen faster than lightning, before Ironhide grabbed the back of his shirt- choking him.
"Oh, no you don't!"