Fic: Do You See Me Like I See You
Title: Do You See Me Like I See You?
Author: Leslie (sunny_and_sides)
Rating: PG
Pairing wanted: Ironhide/Bumblebee
Warnings: none
Disclaimer: They don’t belong to me. I wish they did.
A/N: Told from Ironhide’s POV - requester wanted “Either 'Hide or 'Bee assuming that the other never really sees them, only to find out they've known the whole time; a quirky comment from either Ratchet or Optimus along the lines of "about time...”
You wouldn’t know it if you were standing here with me, but sometimes I hurt. I watch him, talking with Samuel, playing with him, laughing with him and it hurts that he doesn’t see me the way I see him. No one thinks I know what love is, but when I look at him, I realize I could easily love him, if I don’t already. I stand and watch him from the shadows; I follow him to the lookout then stay far enough back so as not to bother him; I watch him sleep at night and long to lie next to him and wrap one arm around him; I long to keep him safe.
But he doesn’t see me the way I see him. He looks at me and he sees an old guardian, a mech who watched over him as a youngling; the one who taught him how to shoot and fight; the one who taught him how to lead his own unit; the one who found him after Tyger Pax and brought him home once again. He sees me as a savior. He’d never see me as a lover, he barely sees me as a friend.
Well I’m not paralyzed
But, I seem to be struck by you
I want to make you move
Because you’re standing still
If your body matches
What your eyes can do
You’ll probably move right through
Me on my way to you
I’m watching over you again. It’s night. You’ve just come back from an inner city battle and Barricade took a good size chunk out of your chest and side plates. You were bleeding out energon by the time you made it back to base. I wanted to go hunt him down and kill him for what he’d done to you. It took Prime and Prowl to keep me here on base and then Ratchet came and told me you’d asked for me. By the time I got down here, though, you were already unconscious once again. So I’ll stay here at your side until you wake. And I’ll look into your baby blue optics and you’ll look through me and you’ll never see what I want you to see.
That I’ve fallen in love with you. Me… the old warhorse… yeah… I’m in love with you.
And I don’t regret it at all…
*****************************
Bumblebee’s optics came online slowly to find Ironhide sitting in a chair next to the medical bunk, optics shuttered, obviously in recharge. Bumblebee sighed softly and shifted onto his side, watching the older mech intently.
“I was afraid I was going to die,” he whispered softly to the sleeping weapons specialist. “I fought and fought against myself to get back here, to get back to you, because I had to tell you… I need to tell you… I love you and I know, I’ll never be worthy or old enough or anything and I’ll try to make it stop but I’m not sure I can. I think I’d have to leave this base or die before I could stop loving you.” Bumblebee’s optics dimmed as energon tears fell down his face.
“I’d never ask you to stop,” Ironhide answered hoarsely as he reached over and squeezed Bee’s hand. Bumblebee looked up quickly and tried to pull away but Ironhide held him more tightly. “No, little Bee. Let me say this. I love you. I fell in love with you. And I didn’t think you’d ever see me that way. I was starting to think I’d be the one who’d have to leave.” Bumblebee whimpered softly and pushed himself up, moving until he could shift onto Ironhide’s lap, curling closer to the larger mech and pressing his face against ‘Hide’s chest plates.
“I’ll never let you leave. And I’ll never see anyone the way I see you, Ironhide.”
“I feel the same way…”
Behind a curtain near the back of the room, Ratchet turned to Optimus and smiled.
“It’s about damn time…”
~finis~