A/N: 25 days until AoE comes out on blu ray and dvd. Are you all as pumped as I am?! R&R. Enjoy!

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Tools

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Optimus loved watching Cade work with his tools.

Perhaps it was an odd thing to enjoy watching, but he simply could not help himself. Watching Cade work with his hands alone was quite mesmerizing, but when he had one of his tools in his hands, that was when things reached levels of incomprehension. He was so deft at using each and every one of them. They were not his olds ones – those had been, along with everything else, destroyed when Lockdown blew up his house and lab – but they were still the tools Cade was used to.

Optimus could watch him for hours – literally, hours – and has done so already countless times since his return to Earth. He found it relaxing and even stimulating at times. And he loved seeing the numerous expressions that would cross Cade's face while he worked with his beloved tools. Concentration. Determination. Happiness. Relief. Frustration. Anger. Disappointment. Confusion. Doubt. Eagerness. Joy. The expressions that automatically displayed themselves were hypnotic to Optimus, even after his years on Earth and having dealt with many humans.

There were times when Cade would be working on his latest project with his tools that Optimus would think back to when they first met. He remembered vividly how Cade had repaired him, without hesitation, without fear or doubt. His hands and tools ran over Optimus' form, putting things in place, melding them, wielding them, screwing them, and even, although those times were few and far between, hammering some bent pieces of his form back to where they needed to go (it was the noise Optimus disliked, so loud and grating). Cade had worked on him with such care and tenderness that it had utterly baffled and amazed Optimus that a human would be willing to be so kind to him after everything that had already occurred. Now, Optimus felt Cade's gentle, yet rough hands on him in other ways, though none of them overly appropriate for open discussion.

Even now, with his Autobots residing with Cade on his farm, if Optimus needed repairs, it was Cade he went to. That did not happen often, for which Optimus is most thankful for, but when it did, he wasn't even ashamed to admit that he thoroughly enjoyed it. Cade's work, his skill, with his tools was something Optimus had never seen before, even when cooperating with the military. It was something that Cade had been born with, an innate understanding and mindset of how to build and fix things with his tools. They were like extensions of his arms, hands, and fingers; every time Optimus needed Cade's skills, it was as though the tools that touched him were actually a part of Cade himself.

"I can practically hear you thinking, y'know," Cade said, a smile in his voice. Optimus blinked and stared down at him.

Cade had taken off his smock and had put away his tools. It seemed that while Optimus had been contemplating Cade and his dear tools, he had finished fixing the…boom box – that was what it was called, wasn't it? – that a neighbor had dropped off at his newly built collection box out front. He looked sweaty and tired, having been working on many other things all day, but he was still as radiant as ever in Optimus' optics.

"I apologize, Cade. I was merely thinking about your tools," Optimus said. Cade arched an eyebrow and grinned.

"My tools, uh? You want me to pick you up a copy of a hardware store magazine next time I'm in town? Give ya some…read material, if you know what I mean," Cade said, laughing as he wiggled his eyebrows at him. Optimus grinned and shook his head.

"That will not be necessary. I have everything that I already need," Optimus replied.

"Good because I was actually gettin' kind of worried about the possibility of you looking through magazines while your spark mate is standing right here in front of you," Cade said, laughing, although Optimus could detect a small sliver of doubt. He was not surprised. Cade, he had learned from Tessa, had never thought himself good enough for Emily; Primus only knows what Cade thought of himself now that he was Optimus' spark mate.

"There is nothing for you to fear, Cade. You will always be enough for me," Optimus quickly reassured him. Cade gave him a genuine smile, then.

"You know, the boys are still out around the town and Tessa isn't due back home from college for another couple of weeks. For once, we have the house to ourselves," Cade told him. "I think we should make the most of it, don't you?"

Optimus smiled down at his mate and his spark began generating his now often used holoform.

"I could not agree more," Optimus said and before long he was gazing into Cade's eyes from a mere four inches up instead of about thirty feet or so.

"Well then…" Cade began, a grin spreading across his face, "race you to the bedroom!"

Before Optimus could blink, he was dashing out of the barn, laughing all of the way. Chuckling softly himself, Optimus quickly jogged after his human, ever so thankful for the alone time and, of course, Cade's deft work with his tools.