Chapter Three: College Shenanigans
Carrying just one box, Zelda counted the door numbers until she reached her designated ones. Her roommate was called Leonardo Ponce de Léon Spitz, but she supposed he probably liked to shorten his name for day-to-day use, considering how much of a mouthful his name was.
That was the only thing she knew. There was no face to put to his name, not what he was studying, nothing. Just a name.
The moment she stepped into the room, Zelda was met with…a sight. She had to do a double take in all honestly.
It was an unorganised mess with partly unpacked boxes—like a tornado had swept through. Clothes were strewn, power cords abundant, and—a pile of kitten calendars on the floor? All of the room on one side was like an utter war zone. The other side, clearly hers, had been left untouched like a straight line down the centre of the room.
Zelda blinked, how…thoughtful?
She hoped this Leonardo was simply unpacking and wasn't actually this messy because otherwise, they would be having words.
Then she spotted several conspiracy photos and posters that were being pinned to the wall.
Area 51. Drug Pharmacies. Presidential assassinations…Yikes. Big yikes. What was Zelda getting herself into? But this in and of itself was rather amusing, all things considered. The bots were sure to get a laugh out of this.
Then, from the open door leading to the next room, an unfamiliar voice spoke.
"Hey, Zelda, right?" he tried for a casually flirty. "How can I help us get better acquainted, chica?"
Zelda turned to the guy, amused. "Leonardo, yes?"
He grinned, leaning on the doorframe in an attempt to appear cool. "Leonardo Ponce de Léon Spitz at your service but I better prefer Leo," he winked. "Better on the tongue."
"Right," she drawled. "Well, Leo, since we're going to be roommates, I'm inclined to say no more flirting. Mostly because I'm twenty-six, and you look like you graduated high school last year."
"Two years ago," he protested as if that was better. It wasn't.
Zelda shuddered at the thought of dating anyone more than two years younger than her.
"So you're twenty? Still too young, mate."
Leo sighed, visibly wilting. Clearly, he didn't have much luck with women. Poor guy.
"Besides, bad etiquette trying to hook up with your roommate, lots of issues there," Zelda warned. "Please keep that in mind."
To be fair, Leo wasn't unattractive, but he wasn't what people would call a "looker" either. He was almost olive-skinned, Zelda guessed one parent might be of a different heritage, but still passing for Spanish descent. His hair was dark and curly. His brows a bit thick but not messy. He clearly tried to keep himself healthy too but not actually work out. His eyes were a beautiful shade of green too.
She laughed when he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, shuffling the box to one hand to offer the other. "Nice to meet you, Leo."
"You too." Leo grinned, shaking it. Then he asked: "You a techie?"
Humouring him, Zelda nodded. "A bit. When your friend is a genius with that sort of thing, you tend to get drawn into it all."
Leo laughed like he knew exactly what Zelda meant. She supposed Leo did when he led her next door.
Next door was another dorm room. The two doors were usually locked but presently unlocked on both sides to allow access. Inside the room, besides the beds and move-in boxes, were two desks with high-grade computer setups.
Leo pointed to the closest guy, "This is Sharksky," then to the second guy, "Fassbinder. These two are my IT gurus."
Sharksky was a man of colour and clean-shaven. There wasn't anything noteworthy about him, much like Fassbinder, who was a long-haired brunet with an extended goatee and rectangular glasses.
"So boys, where we at?" Leo asked.
Sharksky piped up first with a grin. "Server's almost online, Leo."
"Network's up and running," Fassbinder chimed in with.
Leo clapped his hands, grinning as he rubbed them together. "Beautiful, that's what I like to hear. Welcome to my empire, chica, The-Real-Effing-Deal-dot-com. That's me. I'm sure you've heard of it."
Zelda blinked. "No, I haven't."
Fassbinder muttered, "Well, that sucks."
Zelda leaned down beside Sharksky to get a closer look at what this site was precisely—and considering what covered Leo's walls, she wasn't all that surprised to learn it was a conspiracy site. There were all sorts of things on the page, but the most notable were images of the bots. Yikes. Mission City too with some Cons. Double yikes. There were some from all over the world taken by random bystanders.
I guess there's more out there than I originally thought, Zelda tilted her head.
Standing up straight, Zelda moved closer to Leo, who was leaning over his own computer, fingers zipping across the keyboard. She rested beside the central tower for all the computers in an nonchalant motion.
"So, what is all this for?" Zelda asked, distracting the man as she slipped a hand behind her, gently resting it on the tower and letting minimal amounts of the AllSpark's power seep through her to draw on the information stored on the hard drive.
Before Leo could answer her, Fassbinder pipped up. "Leo! We got some brand-new Shanghai vid!"
Even with her attention focused on the information playing to her like a reel of film—she was looking for familiar faces, ones that could be identified in leading back to NEST and compromise them and their families—Zelda could hear the terrified cries from the video, understanding what the voices were saying as they fled and felt her stomach churn with guilt.
Leo was at the man's side in seconds. "Post it, baby! Go, go, go! FTJ! FTJ!"
"Oh, it's cleeean," Fassbinder cried excitedly.
Zelda blinked, nonplussed. "What's FTJ?"
"Fuel the jet. Fuel the jet, bro," Leo whispered, far more engaged in the video. Zelda slowly released AllSpark's power, letting it settle once more. She watched the video as explosions and people fled, worrying her bottom lip.
Fassbinder continued to ramble. "FTJ. FTJ! Legit! Did you see that? Did you see that?"
Leo turned to Zelda with a pointed glance. "Look at this. Half of Shanghai gets wrecked and China says gas leak. Don't believe the hype, chica."
Sharksky spoke up: "Just like the alien robots in LA two years ago that everyone covered up."
Zelda, with all her years of training, didn't falter at Sharksky's words. Instead, she merely turned towards him.
Fassbinder, seeing her look, grinned. "Yeah, I saw these robots, and they did this, like, firing thing and they came down and there was this woman they were chasing! And she was like—"
Zelda grimaced for a number of reasons. "That would be pretty hard to hide if there were massive alien robots or whatever."
Fassbinder groaned. "Woman, it's not fake. The internet is pure truth."
Right.
"Yeah," Sharksky easily agreed.
Zelda cocked a brow because that was not true, and that was a fact.
Fassbinder sniffed, jaded by Zelda's lack of belief. "Video doesn't lie."
"Right," Zelda nodded, being impartial on the whole thing because this was all really ironic.
Fassbinder continued to ramble: "No, man, I've seen them. They're, like, these robots—shit! Leo, bad news! We just got scooped. The video's already up on GFR."
Leo cursed. "Damn it, 'Binder!"
He rushed to Fassbinder's side and then grimaced. "Ugh, Robo-Warrior. The guy's our main competition on conspiracy stuff. Effing was my effing idea and he stole it! He's been linking to my site and thieving hits forever."
"Sounds tough," Zelda hummed, edging back toward the doorway and into her room, intending to leave them to sort their problem out. Thankfully, Jazz chose that moment to stick his head into the room with a grin.
"Hey, sweetspark."
"Jazz," Zelda crooned in greeting, resting a hand on his arm and with another flare, fed him the information she had found.
Jazz's eyes flickered, his smile never faltering. If anything, it widened as she felt his amusement. "Quite the roommate you have."
Zelda gave a fond roll of her eyes.
"Chica?" Leo had followed her out, leaning on the door frame much as he had at her arrival.
"Leo!" Zelda whirled around to face the man. "I'd like you to meet my brother in everything but blood, Jazz."
As they gave their greetings, Zelda nabbed the box Jazz was holding to set on her bed—which she would not be using. Zelda had brought her hammock because there was no way she would be sleeping on a bed.
"Where are the twins?" Zelda asked, noticing their absence. She had expected Sunstreaker and Sideswipe to appear before Jazz.
Jazz sniggered. "They got caught up, unfortunately. Poor boys are too attractive for their own good."
Zelda arched an intrigued eyebrow, a playful smile dancing on her lips as she envisioned the amusing scene of Sideswipe and Sunstreaker being enthusiastically surrounded by a gaggle of college girls.
"Best go save them then," Zelda mused and hurried out of the room, ignoring the strange niggle at the image that presented itself. She refused to touch it with a ten-foot pole.
Jazz followed after her with a poorly covered laugh.
Finding the twins trying and failing to approach the building was funny. Yet, the humour turned slightly sour for Zelda as she observed the girls clustered around the twins, their laughter ringing out a bit too loud and their gestures becoming increasingly bold and intrusive. It was as if they believed they had a right to invade the twins' personal space, and Zelda felt a flicker of protectiveness bubbling up inside her.
Sunstreaker, clearly uncomfortable, shifted from foot to foot, trying to project an air of indifference while his expression betrayed him. The corners of his mouth turned up in a strained smile, but his eyes darted nervously between the girls and his brother. He had grown accustomed to the antics of the guys back at base, where their camaraderie brought an easy going familiarity he could tolerate, but Sunstreaker wasn't the most physical of Cybertronians.
Sideswipe was trying hard to be polite, but the effort made the interaction feel strained and awkward.
Sunstreaker's head had snapped up as Zelda stepped out of the dorm building and she felt a flash of relief/help/what-do-I-do?
Zelda bit back a smile, come-to-me/firm/intent.
It was the best she could portray without literal words since the bonds she shared weren't technically real spark bonds Cybertronians shared. She hoped the emotions were enough for him to understand what she was trying to portray.
Sideswipe beat him to it.
"Zelda!" he cheered the moment he spotted her, almost shoving through the girls and sweeping her up by the waist. Zelda laughed as he spun her around, and when back on her feet, Sideswipe pressed a kiss to her temple.
Sunstreaker basically materialised beside them, his face not giving anything away, but she felt his relief. Zelda copied Sideswipe and brought Sunstreaker in for a cheek peck.
"You two okay? I was wondering where you'd gotten to," she teased, not at all subtlety peering around them at the girls with a cocked brow. They didn't look too pleased but scattered without protest.
"Miracle worker," Sunstreaker muttered, returning the cheek kiss with a temple one.
"Yeah, they wouldn't leave us alone," Sideswipe huffed, watching the girls go about their ways. "We weren't that big of a fan of attention back on Cybertron, but it feels wrong coming from humans."
Zelda offered an apologetic smile. "Unfortunately, it just seems there's another thing our people have in common."
"Ain't you three just such cuties," Jazz drawled playfully.
"Jazz," Sunstreaker groaned as Sideswipe flustered.
Zelda herself laughed lightly at the teasing, ignoring the flutter of her heart.
Sideswipe finally gathered himself, clearing his holoform's throat. "You ditched us! Not cool."
Zelda turned to Jazz, brow cocked, and Jazz just grinned. "Not my fault you let yourself get surrounded like that."
Sunstreaker, oh-so unimpressed, glowered.
"Let's go get the rest of the stuff," Zelda said, playing mediator and nudged Sideswipe with a smile.
Thankfully, Jazz reframed from teasing the twins any further and Zelda breathed a sigh of relief.
With the limited stuff that Zelda brought with her and the number of helping hands, all her boxes were brought up that one time. Zelda introduced the twins to Leo, who was not so subtly intimidated by them, and Sunstreaker played into it, earning a squeak from Leo as Sunstreaker threatened him about keeping to himself.
Zelda pulled him away by his ear, scolding him for scaring Leo. Sideswipe laughed, assuring Leo that Sunstreaker meant no harm and that he was playing. Totally just playing.
"How long have you three been together?" Leo asked Zelda as they reached the dorm entrance.
Zelda stopped, and Leo almost walking into her because of it.
"What?" she whirled around to face him in confusion. "Together? Who?"
Leo stared at Zelda for a moment before laughing, face full of disbelief. "Sorry, sorry, I assumed."
"Okay?" she blinked and carried on when people arrived needing to use the door.
Honestly…
Zelda was promptly distracted by ridiculously familiar laughter. She turned to see Judy carrying an empty ziplock bag while Ron and Sam panicked and rushed after her. Seeing that her family needed some assistance, she excused herself to come to their recuse.
Zelda caught Sam's eye as she gently wrapped an arm around her aunt's waist. "Hey Judy, what have you been getting up to?"
"Zelda!" Judy beamed. "There you are!"
"Here I am," Zelda played along with a soft laugh. "Have fun with the hippy crowd on your cheat day?"
Zelda easily took the bag and inspected it. She didn't even need to bring it up to her nose to catch a whiff of the former contents. Zelda withheld a grimace. Whoever made them did not cheap out.
"I feel great!" Judy sang and happily let Zelda lead her towards Ron's car.
"I bet you do, Auntie Judy, and you're gonna feel great for the next several hours or so," Zelda teased, sparing a glance towards her uncle, who opened the passenger car with a grin. Judy happily climbed into the car, and as Ron closed it, Zelda turned to him. "She'll get pretty hungry soon, and make sure she's got some water on hand."
"You're a lifesaver. You know that, right?" Ron sighed happily.
Zelda laughed, offering him a brief hug before patting a relieved Sam on the shoulder.
Leo whistled. "That's some skill you have."
With a snort, Zelda waved a hand towards Leo. "Sam, this is my roommate Leo. Leo, this is my cousin Sam."
Leo gave Sam a once-over. "You a techie?"
Zelda sighed, realising Leo was about to rehash his own greeting with her. Instead, she turned to find the twins and Jazz waiting by their bodies, all wearing looks of varying amusement.
"Cheat day, huh?" Sideswipe grinned when she was close enough.
With a groan and a shove to his arm, Zelda pulled him in for a hug. "I hate you."
"No, you don't," Sideswipe chimed smugly.
"Right," she drawled and promptly released him from the hug to get to Sunstreaker, earning a pout at the cut-short affection. Sunstreaker happily pulled her close, sending his twin a smirk. Zelda pressed a kiss to his cheek for extra emphasis, making the red twin whine as Zelda turned her attention to Jazz.
"As you already know, Optimus will be assigning Bumblebee as your Guardian," Jazz explained once they pulled back from their hug.
Zelda grinned at the reminder, excited after Bumblebee's pouting yesterday. "Gonna give him all the cuddles."
"What? No!" Sideswipe whined, hugging Zelda from behind and holding her to his chest. "That's not fair!"
But Zelda merely laughed evilly. "Suffer."
Sunstreaker sniggered.