Bumblebee scouted the houses carefully. Which ones were brightly lit. Which ones were busy. Which ones were more scary than festive. Which seemed to have the more tolerant humans. He considered the amount of kids, the music, the decorations, the signs in the front yard.

Whenever he was satisfied, he stopped and let the two cassettes out.

"Trick or treat!" It was Eject's turn to ask, and the little mech was grinning madly at the human answering the door.

"My, those are excellent costumes!" the woman exclaimed, handing each of the twins a chocolate bar. "Did you make them yourselves?"

It wasn't the first time tonight someone had asked. Rewind and Eject were small for Autobots, sure, but they were nearly the size of adult humans. Bumblebee had fended all sorts of awkward questions all night. Most humans seemed to land on the idea that the twins were teenagers with some form of mental disability, making them act younger than they were.

Bumblebee didn't disabuse them of that notion. The humans could believe what they wanted. The most important thing was that the twins were having fun.

"Unca Bee helped us, didn't ya, unca Bee?" Rewind said, glancing at Bumblebee's holoform.

"I did, Roger," Bee replied, petting the cassette's head. "But you did a lot of the work." He smiled at the woman. "Thank you."

"Yes, thank you!" Eject chirped.

"You're welcome," the woman gushed. "So sweet of you to take them out trick-or-treating."

"I don't mind." Bumblebee smiled. "They're almost like family to me, and they think this is so much fun." He turned back towards his alt mode. "Come on, you two. You tired yet?"

"Not tired yet, are we, Eric?" Rewind was practically bouncing.

"Not tired," Eject agreed. He waved at the woman. "Happy Halloween!"

"Happy Halloween!" The woman waved back, before she was engulfed by a swarm of little demons and other costumed characters.

The neighboring house looked good, too. Bumblebee sent the cassettes ahead up the path as he smiled and waved at the couple already waiting in the doorway.

Trust the humans to come up with such a ridiculous holiday.

The snarl of a high-performance engine behind him stole his focus. He knew that sound – it was enough to give him goosebumps of the best kind.

::So how is the candy-begging going?::

::Well,:: Bumblebee replied, turning and straining to catch a glimpse of red plating. ::I think we'll be done soon.::

::Good,:: Cliffjumper purred. ::Then maybe we can entice you to come back for some real treats.::

::Oh?:: Bumblebee grinned. ::What do you have planned?::

::What do you think?:: That was Air Raid, breaking into the comm channel. When Bumblebee focused, he could hear the whine of his lover's jet engines in the skies above. ::Bet I can make you scream.::

::You always do,:: Bumblebee replied. ::So good, both of you.:: He turned to see Rewind beaming at the cookies they were handed. ::Let me get the rugrats some more loot, and I'll be all yours.::

Cliffjumper cruised past him, engine growling enticingly. ::You already are.::

Bumblebee's eyes followed that red aft. He couldn't very well object to that. ::Be ready for me.::

::Always am,:: Air Raid promised. ::See you in a little while.::

::Can't wait.::

Bumblebee wrested his attention away from Cliffjumper's red plating to see Rewind and Eject bouncing back towards him. "Ready to move on? Or are you getting tired?"

The twins looked at each other. "Let's do this for a bit more," Rewind decided. "Then we can go home, give our candy to Spike and Carly."

"Sounds good." Bumblebee opened the door. "Come on, in you get. Where to next?"

"That way," Eject said. He winked at Bumblebee. "Don't worry. We'll let you go back to Cliff and Raider soon."

Bumblebee laughed. "Guess I'm too transparent, huh?"

"Totally," Rewind chirped. "Come on, can we hit that one? Please?"

"Yeah, sure." Bumblebee grinned. "Go ahead." He leaned back against his own alt mode, smiling at them. Just a few more houses, and then they could go home.

A roar of jet engines above told him that he probably wouldn't even get inside the Ark before he got pounced. Which was fine by him – Air Raid always ran delightfully hot when he'd been flying. Bumblebee might not be able to walk properly in the morning.

It was going to be a good night.