Cover Me
By The Black Dragon Queen
NOTE: For the wonderful Smut Filled NC-17 Adult Version, please check out my Adultfanfiction account (Same pen name) or my Live journal! Links can be found in my profile.
Chapter One Hundred Seventy Six: Moonlight Cruise
The mech was startled out of a sound sleep by a sudden noise at his side that commanded his attention. It was still dark out and the stars were still twinkling overhead so being roused out of a deep snooze was not anything he had expected on the deck of an aircraft carrier out in the middle of an ocean. He was momentarily grateful for the years of training he had under his belt, as the humans would say, because the last thing he wanted to do is startle so badly he'd roll right off the edge of the ship.
"Mind if I join you?"
Ironhide was instantly awake at the soft whisper by his tailgate and he thanked Primus that he didn't move so much as an inch to alert or awake any of the others as to his own aware status. "What are you doing up here?" he asked surprised as he opened his passenger door just enough for Will to slip in at the human's silent tapping on the handle to let the mech know he wanted entry. Ironhide kept an audio tuned to see if Will's arrival had been noticed by anyone else. As far as he could tell, everyone was still surprisingly deep in recharge. Perceptor was snoring away so perhaps that helped in covering Will's entry.
"Didn't want to be below," Will shrugged as he settled himself, stretching his legs out in front of himself and pulling his coat around him tightly. Ironhide instantly clicked on his heat for the human and Will smiled gratefully as he held his hands out over the vents.
Ironhide mentally frowned at Will's appearance. The humans had gone below after the massive cleanup of the paint for dinner while the mechs shifted into their alt modes for more stability while sleeping. That had been at least four hours ago and Will's sudden company was not anything Ironhide had been expecting. "Was Knight bothering you?"
Will rolled his eyes. "Why do you automatically assume-"
"Was he?" Ironhide insisted rather forcefully.
Will clamped his lips closed for a long moment before he sighed. "Yeah, a little."
"That sleazy-!"
"Ironhide! You're going to wake the others!" Will instantly hissed and Ironhide went silent again for a few minutes. Then the grumbling started. Will rolled his eyes again. "Epps wasn't helping either," he added to gain Ironhide's attention away from the thought of Knight. He took the bait.
"Oh?" Ironhide wasn't particularly surprised by that announcement. "Teasing you again?"
"Seriously, we need to get him a girlfriend," Will growled. "It will probably be the only thing that gets him to stop from teasing us." He paused. "Or even a dog."
"Do we want a dog on the base with that damn crocodile wandering about?"
"We have Judy's dog and Carol's cat," Will shrugged in response. Ironhide made a small irritated huffing sound but didn't design to reply and the two quickly fell into a peaceful silence for a few moments. "Do you think maybe he's angry with me?" Will asked after a long pause.
"Who? Knight?" Ironhide was caught off guard as he was pulled from the thought of Knight meeting Crikey, or rather being eaten by Crikey. He snickered at the thought.
"No, Epps," Will replied quietly.
"Why would he be angry at you?" Ironhide asked surprised.
"I don't know," the human replied mournfully. "Do you think he's mad that I'm always with you and have kind of left him to deal with everything going on?
"What?" Ironhide was genially surprised but the question. "Where on Earth- heck where in the universe did you get that notion?"
Will shrugged and picked at a loose thread on his coat. "I just feel bad about leaving him to deal with most of everything. Like with Soundwave and the others."
"I don't hear him complaining about anything," Ironhide replied truthfully.
"That's just it! He's not! But I feel guilty just the same," Will moaned as he hunkered down in his coat.
Ironhide thought about it for a long moment. "Maybe we could hook him up with one of the other single mechs?" he stated suddenly. "It seems to be the new thing after all."
Will turned to stare at the radio in shock. "You're kidding, right?"
"No, I'm not. Maybe that's just what he needs." A pause as Ironhide thought about it. "Perhaps that's what's up with Starscream. He just needs a date."
"You want to hook Epps up with Starscream!" Will hissed forcefully at the front dash.
"What? No!" Ironhide startled at the outrage in Will's voice. "I would never do that to Starscream."
Will just stared before a small snicker escaped him. "Oh you're just evil."
"It's the truth," Ironhide chuckled.
"Whatever," Will laughed as he stretched his legs a bit to get the blood circulating again and keep his foot from falling asleep and shrugged out of his coat, tossing it in the back seat.
"Do you want to head back in?" Ironhide asked after Will settled himself finally.
Will quickly shook his head. "Nah. It's fine. I just want to stay here for a while longer."
Ironhide hummed quietly and the two fell into a comfortable silence, just enjoying each other's presence during a, for once, peaceful and quiet moment. They had barely had any time together after first reaching sector seven's old headquarters and then with one event after another practically landing squarely in their laps, it had been a lot of non-stop chaos and Will was looking forward to a hopefully peaceful trip back to California.
Where it was warm! Will huffed a bit and hunkered down in his seat again. After going straight from Qatar to California, heading up north to practically the North Pole was a bit of a shock to his system. Heaven forbid they ever ended up someplace warm. Couldn't the Energon been located in Hawaii or Australia or something? No, it had to be in the middle of an ice cube of a continent.
And so help him, if a certain evil overlord wasn't dead, Will would have some rather choice words with Megatron about what would be considered practical parking spots. Thanks to the discovery of the ARC, that meant that there would have to be a second, and more than likely a third, fourth, fifth all the way up to too slagging cold to be visiting on a regular basis return trips! Will hoped that he would be able to figure out a way to stay behind and maybe help Maggie and Glen with their work. Heck, even Simmons wasn't such bad company when compared with the prospect of returning to Snowland located in the middle of Ice Cube.
"Don't tell me you're still cold?" Ironhide asked as Will shivered for the eighth time in only five minutes.
"What? Oh no. Just thinking about the cold and how happy I am to leave it behind."
Ironhide laughed at that. "I think I know what you mean. I've never been so happy with the prospect of being 'giving a lift', as it was, instead of driving myself. Driving in that was absolutely awful."
Will laughed quietly. "I can only imagine! It's hard enough for us to drive in it, I can only imaging the problems you lot had."
"At least Optimus finally got to ditch the trailer."
Will snickered. "All in all though," he said with a smile, "it's good to finally be going home."
Ironhide made a noise of agreement. "It's actually amazing to me just how quickly that stupid base has become home to me," he admitted seriously after a long moment of silence.
Will couldn't help but find himself nodding in agreement. After losing what he had considered a home with Sara and Abby he thought he might never feel such a way again. The thought of home had really been what kept him going while stationed in Qatar and to lose it almost first thing had been devastating. It hadn't been so much the farm house either but rather just the thought of actually having a home, a place for him to belong too had been enough.
Now he had found that place with Ironhide and the other Autobots. 'And Decepticons,' he added quickly. It almost eerie how quickly those seven had settled in with the others and became stable presences at the base but Will simply chalked it up to a Cybertronion thing and returned to his thoughts on actually having a home.
He could only imagine what Ironhide must have been going through. Will always did have a "home" to go back to really be it with Sara or, and he shuddered at the thought, moving back in with his parents. Ironhide, and the others, lost his whole world. Will felt his heart lurch at the thought of Earth being destroyed and having to roam the universe with no place to call his own.
Ironhide started a bit when he felt Will's hands gently stroking his dash in an almost comforting manner. "What?"
"Oh nothing really," Will murmured gently. "Just…" he trailed off, not quite sure what it was he actually wanted to say. Sympathizing wasn't really anything he could do as he never really lost anything in the brutal way Ironhide had and offering condolences seemed rather impersonal and standoffish.
He was stopped from saying anything however when Ironhide suddenly spoke up. "Is this another way for humans to ask for sex without asking?"
Will's eyes flew wide. "What?" He winced as he practically squeaked that word and clearing his throat tried again. "What?"
"It said so on the site," Ironhide elaborated. "Sometimes when wanting sex the female, or in our case partner, would make overt gestures such as touching fondly. Or was it just fondling?"
Will's eyes blinked rapidly trying to figure out where the translation from "comforting patting" went to "blatant grouping". "Um… no actually. We are on the middle of the deck surrounded by not only the others but the night shift as well."
"So? No one's paying attention to us. They're either asleep or working." Ironhide's tone had taken on a rather pleading tone.
"You're kidding, right?" Will asked incredulously. "How-?" In response the glove box suddenly dropped open and Will saw a rather recognizable shape in camo green. "Well obviously," he rolled his eyes. "But still no batteries. How-?"
"There should be a cord underneath."
Will frowned puzzled. "Cord?" and sure enough as Ironhide had said there was a rather long cord underneath with a jack for the cigarette slash charger socket. Will's eyes widened to what had to be the size of dinner plates. "You're serious?"
"Please?"
"But you can't transform! What are you going to do?"
"I get to watch," came the rather gleeful reply.
Will groaned a bit but still looked about just to double check that no one was indeed watching. "Smug Gunner," he muttered as he plugged in the device and clambered into the backseat where he would have more room to maneuver as it were.
"Damn straight!" Ironhide replied giddily and he settled in for the show.
It was well over an hour when Will finally moved back to the front seat, straighten his clothes as he settled back in the passenger seat. "Sorry about the windows," he murmured as he reached forward to try and wipe some of the condensation off of them.
"Don't worry about it," Ironhide chuckled. "I would have said something if it was bothering me."
"Doubtful," Will smirked. "Your mind wasn't anywhere near the windows."
"And whose fault was that?"
"Yours I'm sure," Will snickered as he snagged his coat and reached for the door handle. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Don't move!" Ironhide suddenly hissed at his companion. "Someone's moving about out there."
Will froze, ducking down a bit so as not to be as easily noticed but ensuring that he still had a view of most of the mechs scattered about the deck. Ironhide was right. One of the others was clearly not asleep and was moving about the deck, weaving in and about the others and headed towards one other figures specifically near where Ironhide was parked.
Will glanced down at the dash questioningly but Ironhide said nothing, instead remaining focused on the mech gently rolling towards the other figure. It was easily enough to recognize who it was that was moving about but what he was doing awake was another thing entirely that posed many questions that had no answer. What he was doing going to that particular mech when the two had been avoiding each other like the plague for the past few days was a whole other slew of questions.
There was a long moment of silence and then a muffled thud. Nothing happened and Will shook his head minutely. Two more thuds and the mech finally got a responding grunt. Will could hear the mech that had been approached mumble a sleepy "what?" and he strained to hear the response.
"Wake up," Barricade ordered Bumblebee quietly yet very firmly. "We need to talk."
Will glanced down at Ironhide's darkened radio but Ironhide said nothing, instead listening intently at what the Decepticon was saying to the no-longer-youngest-Autobot. Will turned back towards the front window and leaned forward, anxious to hear what promised to be a rather intense exchange.
-To Be Continued
Author's Note: Okay, SMUT LOCATED ON MY AFF ACCOUNT AND LIVE JOURNAL! Links are in profile. For those of you not into the smut, I apologize for the tiny chapter and hope this cheers you up and gives you something to look forward too! Please note that I only posted the more popular/most anticipated movies. There's a link at the top of my profile (which I update as I find out things) to my complete list and more info/my commentary and thoughts.