FIC: The Unconscious Mind (Bumblebee/Sam, Transformers, Human Series)
Title: The Unconscious Mind
by Keelywolfe
Bumblebee/Sam, Bumblebee/Sam/Sideswipe, Sideswipe/Sunstreaker
Rated NC-17
Summary: A continuation of the ‘human’ series, which are in order:
Forms of Life
Too Human
Experiments in Human Nature
Public Education
Knee-Jerk Reaction
Nervous System Hypothesis
Different Applications of Moral Support
This Body Electric
Notes: Thank you SO much to fyredancer for her continued efforts in making sure I don't screw this up. They are highly appreciated. :)
This past year Sam had had to do some serious readjustment of certain perspectives. For example, he wasn't particularly religious - his parents had celebrated Santa Claus - but he'd pretty much considered life to be creatures with a DNA pattern. Now he'd had to shift that idea to apply to walking, talking robots who were actually more alive than some people he had met. They certainly had better taste in music. Not too long ago he'd had to change his perception of the word sex. Sex now included holograms and robots; cars had long since been added to the formula, although he was more used to the idea of being in them at the time.
Now he had to add a new definition to the word kinky. Having a robotic hologram talk you through giving a blowjob to another hologram? Sam wasn't sure the word kinky was strong enough to hold the weight of that, but it was going to have to do.
"Slower, Sam…yes, that's it." Softly, close to his right ear as Sideswipe leaned lightly against him while he linked with Bee. Sam didn't have to look at him to know he was watching, gauging Bumblebee's reaction to every tiny movement he made. His jaw was aching a little and the hand he had wrapped around the base of Bee's cock to hold it steady was slick with spit because he couldn't quite get the hang of not drooling but every tiny sigh and squirm from Bee made it so, so worth it.
Bee shuddered a little, spreading his legs wider and Sam was sprawled between them, the silky soft skin of one thigh beneath his free hand. He stroked it absently, felt muscles jump beneath the tender skin. It was the first time he'd had a chance to really explore Bumblebee's holo and he marveled at every detail, the smattering of freckles that broke up the pale expanse of skin, the light dusting of hair on his belly and legs, fine blond and softer than a human's but Sam loved it, loved nuzzling that little line that trailed down Bee's belly. Better at being a human than a human would be, he thought with some amusement, and he tongued the tiny slit at the head, and felt the thigh beneath his hand tremble as Bee drew a sharp breath.
"Careful, that's too much, easy," Sideswipe's voice was thick, heavy with emotion he didn't need to name. Sam had long since learned that linking to Bumblebee gave Sideswipe a secondhand experience of this. It was weird, almost freaky, and Sam tried not to think too much about the total funk factor of giving what was the equivalent of a dual beejay since just giving them at all was still pretty new on his list of acceptable sexual maneuvers.
Graduating up to third base was a sweet accomplishment on its own, getting to this point without Sideswipe backing them off, and his own arousal was a sharp pulse of warmth in his belly; they'd been at this for hours, Sideswipe venturing back in easily like his discomfort of yesterday had been forgotten. Whatever the problem was, he'd thrown himself into teaching today, telling Sam where to touch and how, and it was probably wrong that it made the curling heat in his blood that much hotter.
The low noise Bee made was nothing like human, harsh like gears grating and one his hands caught at Sam's hair, tugging almost painfully, insistently as he tried to arch deeper into dark heat of Sam's mouth.
"He's ready for it," Soft breath against his ear. "Let him, Sam, give it to him now. Can you suck a little harder for him?"
God, he could, tightening his grip around the base and sucking Bee deeper, let his tongue curl beneath his fingers, licking at the edges of his hand. He wasn't quite choking, swallowing against the thickness and Bee shook under him.
"That's it, Bumblebee," Sideswipe said coaxingly, moving up to where Bee had his head thrown back against the pillows, blond strands clinging sweatily to his cheeks. "That's it, back off from the link and just…back off." He sat up abruptly. "Sam, stop he's-"
It was too late before Sam even had a chance to let him slip away, the tremors shaking through Bee as his body tightened, his hands holding Sam in place until they went completely slack. Sam shook them off, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand as he scooted back and looked at Sideswipe unhappily.
"It's all right, Sam," Sideswipe said. He brushed Bee's hair out of his face as he lay immobile, his systems waiting to power back up. "He's made a great deal of progress today. I expected there to be a few problems before he found the right configuration."
"Did he hurt himself?" He couldn't stop thinking about what Ratchet had told him. Memory loss.
"No, he's unharmed," Sideswipe said gently. "Ratchet is correct that an unexpected shutdown can be detrimental but if there is a capacitor to act as an energy reserve, it prevents any damage. That's why I'm here."
"But-"
"It's going to be all right! Both of you should relax a little," Sideswipe laughed. "I told you, this is just a wiring problem."
Both of them startled when Bumblebee smacked Sideswipe on the back of the head, neither of them having noticed he'd come back to himself.
"Yes, yes, it's not my wiring," he said contritely, rubbing the back of his head. "I think that's enough for today, Optimus is going to be back soon and we both have duties to attend to."
"Oh," Sam shifted uncomfortably, trying to ignore the dull throb between his legs. "I didn't know Optimus was gone."
"Some transporting issue." Sideswipe hopped up and for the first time Sam noticed that he must have severed his link from Bumblebee before he'd gone offline because he had an obvious problem of his own. He saw where Sam was looking and smiled ruefully. "Don't worry about that. I'm sure Bumblebee doesn't need my assistance to help you with yours."
The arms that circled him and pulled him back into Bee's lap stated eloquently that he didn't. It didn't stop Sideswipe from leaning down and pressing a quick kiss against Sam's forehead. "Behave!" he called over his shoulder.
The moment the door clicked shut, Sam had a chance to learn exactly how little help Bumblebee needed in giving pleasure, and it looked whatever duties Bee was supposed to be doing were going to have to wait.
~~*~~
It was well over an hour later when Sam finally managed to crawl shakily out of the bed, sweat still drying prickly-cool on his skin. Bee had left him there with a bruising kiss and a wave before he'd gone off for the day, not looking a damned bit like he'd just spent the better part of an hour sucking cock like a freaking Hoover. He could probably suck the shine off a trailer hitch and recalling how many Autobots had hitches suddenly made that idea a lot less attractive.
He'd missed breakfast by about three hours and lunch was on hold until he had a long, long shower. Right now he smelled like about week's worth of wet dreams.
The little light on his computer was blinking insistently and Sam stopped long enough to click it, frowning when he saw who it was from. Not yet, not today. Not after that sex marathon with his mouth still aching a little and his teeth begging for a toothbrush. It took longer than it might have for him to clean up and Sam was blaming whoever it was that had designed his lovely shower. Good for all kinds of muscle aches. Today seemed very much like a t-shirt and jeans day, balls to whoever didn't like saluting the raggedy savior of the world.
He took the time to comb his hair and then his stomach would be denied no longer. There would be food or soon he'd be chewing off his own limbs. There were no more than a half dozen soldiers between him and the canteen which made the tiny guilty twinge he felt at dressing down ease a little. Hell, most of them were just in fairly casual gear. It wasn't like the president was going to show up for inspection, at least not this week. Come to think of it, he might want to make sure Bee gave him a heads up if that was ever going to happen--
The sight of a yellow Camaro tearing around the corner before he could even walk in the door startled him and he blinked in confusion as Bee transformed and stood next to him, his holo form shining quickly into existence. He looked…agitated and Sam couldn't help looking around, half expecting a fleet of Decepticons to fall from the sky but wouldn't Bee have just grabbed him then and ---oh, my god.
It was almost astonishing to think once he would have been delighted to see her walking towards him, dark anger shading her lovely eyes. Optimus was walking carefully behind Mikaela, letting her lead the way on her path that was heading straight towards him.
Dimly, he heard the canteen door open behind him, heard two soldiers pause in their conversation as they noticed the gorgeous young woman stopping in front of their resident hero. And slapping him hard enough across the face that his ears began ringing.
"A letter," Mikaela said, slowly and deliberately. "You broke up with me in a letter. No mention of the fact that your entire family was just going to up and vanish, or that Decepticons tried to kill you." Her voice rose steadily, a few more interested people appearing, eager to see the excitement of the day. "Do you have any fucking idea how I felt when I stopped by your house that day and everything was just gone! And then I get a letter in the mail, oh, sorry about that! You are the most cowardly piece of shit boyfriend that any person has ever had and believe me, I've had some prize winners, but you! Don't you people have jobs to do somewhere?"
Her shout startled the growing circle of soldiers who all abruptly decided that they did have places to be that didn't involve gorgeous angry women with murder in their eyes. Optimus had long since deserted them for safer climes. All Sam could do was stand there because she was so completely right and he'd earned every shitty insult she could throw his way.
"You complete asshole!" Mikaela whispered and threw her arms around him. He caught her automatically, wrapping his arms around her as she shook, tears starting and leaking warmly through his shirt. Guilt was a thick, bitter taste at the back of his throat that he couldn't swallow away and God, yes, she had deserved better than a letter and he'd known he was a complete shithead for doing it that way. He'd known it and done it anyway because he'd never expected this confrontation.
We reap what we sow! His mother's cheerful voice in that back of his mind and that was another layer of guilt, that blinking mail icon sitting there accusingly on his desktop.
Sam buried his face into Mikaela's shoulder and took a deep breath, fighting back his own tears because there was no way he was going to be pussy enough to cry in front of all these camo boys.
"I'm sorry," he whispered to her, barely a croak. "I really am."
"Yeah, I bet," Mikaela said, pulling away and swiping at her cheeks. She looked over Sam's shoulder and gave a watery smile. "Hey, Bumblebee, the new gear looks great."
God, he'd completely forgotten Bee was standing there, his hands in his pockets and looking ill at ease "How did you know that was Bumblebee?"
"Please, who do you think helped him pick this out?" She flicked at Bee's blond hair, tousling just enough that it fell into artful chaos. How it was possible she could make him any prettier, Sam wasn't sure, but it was working. Mikaela walked around Bee, studying him carefully. "The pants are tight enough but the shirt could use a little more and maybe something sleeveless?"
Bee's shirt promptly shifted into something a little less Fruit of the Loom and a lot more Adidas, the sleeves shrinking back as it tightened across his chest, defining the lines of muscle. It was difficult not to stare but he supposed he could blame it on the wonder of holographic wardrobe changes.
"Uh huh, uh huh, sweet, maybe some ink here?" She touched his upper arm and a band of odd symbols circled his bicep. "Nice, what is that?"
"It's Cybertronian." Sam said, squinting at it. "I've seen it before but I don't know what it says."
Bee shrugged a little, gesturing his helplessness.
"You can't talk again? Oh, that sucks!"
Bumblebee nodded sourly, slipping his hands back in his pockets. Dressed like that, he looked a little more punk, slim and pretty with his hair falling in his eyes and…Sam swallowed thickly and looked away. Damned teenage hormones.
"It's pretty good," Mikaela decided. "But how about blue eyes?"
"I like them green." It slipped out before he could think about it, wincing a little mentally but fuck, he did like them green. A wardrobe was one thing but this was how Bumblebee had come to him and-only Mikaela had seen him first, hadn't she. She'd helped him design this.
The look he was giving Sam now, he couldn't quite decipher. Soberly watching him, his eyes still green, and Mikaela was touching him, poking at his clothes and ears, ready to change even more.
"You still haven't mentioned what you're doing here," Sam blurted, shifting on his feet uncomfortably. It probably wouldn't look good if he yanked her away from Bumblebee, but she was talking about piercings now.
"Maybe just a diamond stud or a gold hoop," Mikaela fingered Bee's ear thoughtfully before glancing at Sam. "Optimus pretty much swooped in and took off with me. He said you all figured I'd be all right but there was a lot of Decepticon activity in the area and they finally decided I'd be safer here." She shrugged. "It's not like my stepmom is going to miss me and besides, how often to you get a knight in shining stainless steel to rescue you?"
"More often than you'd think," Sam smiled a little, feebly, staring at her fingertips still rubbing Bee's ear. "Why don't we take a look around and get you settled in a little? I'm assuming Optimus dropped you off here and possibly showed you where you're sleeping."
"I wanted to see you first. Asshole." She slapped him in the middle of the chest, hard enough to make him grunt.
"So let's show you around then."
Bumblebee stepped forward, nodding eagerly, his eyes literally glowing with his enthusiasm, and somehow, the idea of him being around Mikaela was more than he could take today.
"Didn't Optimus want you to do…something?" Sam gestured vaguely. "Whatever it was Sideswipe was talking about?"
He went still, the light in his eyes fading and his nod was reluctant.
"Always work to do, yeah?" Mikaela said, and she hugged Bee quickly, giving him a little kiss on the cheek that he accepted bemusedly, giving Sam one last look before he stepped backwards against his robot form and faded, giving them a much larger and very mechanical wave before he transformed and drove away.
Mikaela turned to him, bouncing on her toes in a way that would have made his eyes bug out not all that long ago. Weird how quickly some things changed. "Well, come on, show me where they keep you stashed in this place."
~~*~~
Sam managed to persuade her to wait long enough for him to grab a quick sandwich, munching it down on their way back to his quarters. He watched her poke through his meager possessions, not even having a secret box to stow away from her although he'd quickly yanked the blankets up over the sheets.
"So this is your room?" Mikaela asked, unenthused. "It doesn't seem very you. No posters or books or anything."
"They've got all my stuff here in storage," He flopped down on the bed, sitting up with his back against the wall. "But I'm supposed to get a new place soon so I'm not really worried about it. I'd have to pack it all up again and I don't really need any of it at the moment." Not with most of his time being taken up with holographic orgies.
"Yeah, a bed is pretty much all you really need." Something in her voice made him look up, just in time for her to kiss him. Too shocked to pull away and she tasted like cherry lip-gloss and Juicy Fruit, her tongue small and soft against his lower lip. He pushed her away, gently, before she could deepen it. "Mikaela…"
She'd already stepped back, a sad little smile on her face. "Yeah, that's about what I figured. It wasn't just the Decepticons that had you sending me a paper brush-off."
Again, that guilt, twisting bitterly in his stomach. "I'm sorry."
"Don't, please. It's okay. I sort of knew, you know? You were so distant."
*Me*, he almost said, and didn't because hadn't he been? He had, reflecting her distance he'd thought but that wasn't really the truth. Mikaela had been someone he'd wanted before he'd had any clue what he did want. She'd been an abstract of desire that he'd built up in his mind but he'd really known next to nothing about her. Once he'd learned, the heat had melted into something gentler, a perfect friend but not what he wanted in a girlfriend. In fact, it was starting to seem like he wasn't really interested in a girlfriend at all.
With Bumblebee it was so different…had he been falling for Bee even back then? Not physically, of course, not then, but everything about him, from his fondness for obscenity to his gentle nature. And hadn't Sam just about seduced him the very moment he found out that he could? Not that Bee had needed much seducing. They'd just about fallen into each other. It made him wonder how long Bee had wanted him.
Mikaela had resumed her exploration, poking idly at his computer. "Looks like you have mail."
Sam half-stood, reaching a hand out to her automatically. "Don't. It's from my parents."
"They aren't here?" She sounded surprised.
"No. I had the government hide them and give them new names and stuff." The growing horror on her face made him stammer on. "They'll be safer that way, you know? Away from me."
"Safer?" Mikaela repeated. "Sam, that's probably the most horrible thing I've ever heard. Your mom was so nice and you just had them shuffled off to…do you even know where? And you aren't reading their e-mails?"
"We had an argument," Sam mumbled and somehow that sounded very insufficient in the face of her astonished horror.
"Oh, well, that's just fine then. You had an argument. Sam, you're their only kid and you might as well be dead for all the good it's doing them."
"I just want them to be safe," Sam protested but the memory of his mother's tears was making his own eyes ache and he hadn't wanted to think about this today but his parents didn't have the same option.
Mikaela shook her head. "I lost my dad a while ago and I would give anything for him to be here. And I know he wouldn't give a damn about the danger. Do you think your mom and dad do? How happy can they be with a new life, a new house, and no son?"
"You think I made a mistake?" Already knew the answer and it hurt, a bone-deep ache and if a person's soul could bleed, Sam's was making a pretty good effort in that direction.
"I think you had good intentions," Mikaela corrected gently. "Call them, see what they want."
"Not today. I think I've had all the shocks I can take today."
Mikaela looked at him doubtfully. "Sam…"
"I will, tomorrow, okay? I promise."
"I know you will. Your mom was way too nice for me to let you do this to her." Mikaela turned away from the computer and grabbed his hand, tugging him to his feet. "Come on, enough of this. Let's check this place out! I bet you haven't even been in half the buildings."
"I think I've only been in about four."
She rolled her eyes. "How can you not be exploring the giant robot city? What do you do with your time?"
"I-" Have wild sex with my car. Yeah, that was going to be said just about never. "I've been busy," Sam said, lamely.
"Oh, please. Come on, let's go!" She tugged his arm impatiently.
"I'm not sure if this is a good-"
"Come on!"
~~*~~
As sneaky teenage espionage trips went, this one was pretty unsuccessful. So far, he and Mikaela had managed to sneak into three storage warehouses, one human barrack which they had barely escaped from due to the skimpiness of Mikaela's shirt and one building that had contained a lot of electronic beeping things that they mutually decided to avoid.
It might have been boring if Mikaela hadn't been so completely dedicated to finding something interesting.
"What about this one, have you been in here?"
Sam sighed. "It's not the canteen, it's not the infirmary, and it's not my room. So, no, I haven't."
"Have you done nothing but play World of Warcraft since you got here?" She slipped through the door, barely waiting for Sam to follow. Another warehouse from the looks of it, boxes stacked neatly on racks.
"I haven't logged in since-mrph!"
Mikaela's hand cut off his furious whisper, her eyes wide and shocked in the dim light. He had to squint through the dimness to see, crouching down to peer through a crack in the boxes to see-
Sideswipe, he knew that face, that long hair, and Sam knew that expression, too. Drawn tight with need, his lower lip caught between his teeth and the noises he was making, base and low, made Sam's pants feel distinctly tighter, almost as pretty as Bumblebee and the dark head between his legs, bobbing up and down in a distinct rhythm and his hand twined tightly into the dark tendrils and oh, my sweet god-
He grabbed Mikaela's arm frantically, dragging her backwards and they both stumbled through the door, shutting it quietly and Sam kept going, walking determinedly, dragging Mikaela behind him until they were far enough away that his nerves stopped screaming at him to take a powder and get hell away from here. They ducked behind another building, both of them panting for breath as they leaned against the metal siding.
Mikaela's eyes were saucer wide, a rim of white visible around her irises. "They were…they were…"
"Yeah," Sam mumbled, still trying to process what he'd seen. And who he'd seen. "Why does this keep happening to me!" he burst out, slamming a fist against the wall behind him.
Mikaela stared at him, blinking. "This has happened to you before?"
"Not them, but yeah!"
"And you said you hadn't been around! Who did you see last time?"
"I…uh…it doesn't matter. This is so much more wrong, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are brothers!"
That made her frown, confused. "How can robots be brothers? It's not like they have the same mom or something."
"I have no idea but they are! Something has got to be wrong, Sideswipe wouldn't do that unless Sunstreaker was forcing him."
"Not to diss your theory there, but he didn't look all that upset. Man, that was hot."
Sam stared at her speechlessly.
"What?" Defensively. "I can't think two guys are hot?"
"Yes, but, I mean…"
"You know, that's prejudice right there! It's no wonder that the gay community can't get a decent foothold in society with attitudes like that."
"Wha…I'm not prejudiced!"
"You just said you don't think that two guys would be hot together!" She jabbed an accusing finger into his chest.
"I do so!"
She stopped. "You do?"
That was a subject that needed changing. "Look, it's Sunstreaker! He's an asshole!"
"A hot one." She looked at him appraisingly. "So you do think two guys are hot."
Sam scrubbed a hand over his head and really wished he'd just taken her to the rec center. A few torturous hours of DDR would be so much better than this. "I need to find Bumblebee; I've got to talk to him about this."
Not that he had any idea where Bumblebee was but he knew exactly who to ask. Ratchet always knew entirely too much about the whereabouts of others.
"That's not an answer!" Mikaela called after him before she jogged up next to him, eyeing him suspiciously.
"One normal day, that's all I ask," Sam muttered, walking determinedly towards the infirmary. "Just one. Is that so much?" He directed the question at the sky, blue and innocent above him. It chose not to answer, which was just as well, and Sam led Mikaela on a march to the infirmary and from there, who knew. This yellow brick road didn't seem to have a set finish.
-finis-
Read Next Chapter
by Keelywolfe
Bumblebee/Sam, Bumblebee/Sam/Sideswipe, Sideswipe/Sunstreaker
Rated NC-17
Summary: A continuation of the ‘human’ series, which are in order:
Forms of Life
Too Human
Experiments in Human Nature
Public Education
Knee-Jerk Reaction
Nervous System Hypothesis
Different Applications of Moral Support
This Body Electric
Notes: Thank you SO much to fyredancer for her continued efforts in making sure I don't screw this up. They are highly appreciated. :)
This past year Sam had had to do some serious readjustment of certain perspectives. For example, he wasn't particularly religious - his parents had celebrated Santa Claus - but he'd pretty much considered life to be creatures with a DNA pattern. Now he'd had to shift that idea to apply to walking, talking robots who were actually more alive than some people he had met. They certainly had better taste in music. Not too long ago he'd had to change his perception of the word sex. Sex now included holograms and robots; cars had long since been added to the formula, although he was more used to the idea of being in them at the time.
Now he had to add a new definition to the word kinky. Having a robotic hologram talk you through giving a blowjob to another hologram? Sam wasn't sure the word kinky was strong enough to hold the weight of that, but it was going to have to do.
"Slower, Sam…yes, that's it." Softly, close to his right ear as Sideswipe leaned lightly against him while he linked with Bee. Sam didn't have to look at him to know he was watching, gauging Bumblebee's reaction to every tiny movement he made. His jaw was aching a little and the hand he had wrapped around the base of Bee's cock to hold it steady was slick with spit because he couldn't quite get the hang of not drooling but every tiny sigh and squirm from Bee made it so, so worth it.
Bee shuddered a little, spreading his legs wider and Sam was sprawled between them, the silky soft skin of one thigh beneath his free hand. He stroked it absently, felt muscles jump beneath the tender skin. It was the first time he'd had a chance to really explore Bumblebee's holo and he marveled at every detail, the smattering of freckles that broke up the pale expanse of skin, the light dusting of hair on his belly and legs, fine blond and softer than a human's but Sam loved it, loved nuzzling that little line that trailed down Bee's belly. Better at being a human than a human would be, he thought with some amusement, and he tongued the tiny slit at the head, and felt the thigh beneath his hand tremble as Bee drew a sharp breath.
"Careful, that's too much, easy," Sideswipe's voice was thick, heavy with emotion he didn't need to name. Sam had long since learned that linking to Bumblebee gave Sideswipe a secondhand experience of this. It was weird, almost freaky, and Sam tried not to think too much about the total funk factor of giving what was the equivalent of a dual beejay since just giving them at all was still pretty new on his list of acceptable sexual maneuvers.
Graduating up to third base was a sweet accomplishment on its own, getting to this point without Sideswipe backing them off, and his own arousal was a sharp pulse of warmth in his belly; they'd been at this for hours, Sideswipe venturing back in easily like his discomfort of yesterday had been forgotten. Whatever the problem was, he'd thrown himself into teaching today, telling Sam where to touch and how, and it was probably wrong that it made the curling heat in his blood that much hotter.
The low noise Bee made was nothing like human, harsh like gears grating and one his hands caught at Sam's hair, tugging almost painfully, insistently as he tried to arch deeper into dark heat of Sam's mouth.
"He's ready for it," Soft breath against his ear. "Let him, Sam, give it to him now. Can you suck a little harder for him?"
God, he could, tightening his grip around the base and sucking Bee deeper, let his tongue curl beneath his fingers, licking at the edges of his hand. He wasn't quite choking, swallowing against the thickness and Bee shook under him.
"That's it, Bumblebee," Sideswipe said coaxingly, moving up to where Bee had his head thrown back against the pillows, blond strands clinging sweatily to his cheeks. "That's it, back off from the link and just…back off." He sat up abruptly. "Sam, stop he's-"
It was too late before Sam even had a chance to let him slip away, the tremors shaking through Bee as his body tightened, his hands holding Sam in place until they went completely slack. Sam shook them off, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand as he scooted back and looked at Sideswipe unhappily.
"It's all right, Sam," Sideswipe said. He brushed Bee's hair out of his face as he lay immobile, his systems waiting to power back up. "He's made a great deal of progress today. I expected there to be a few problems before he found the right configuration."
"Did he hurt himself?" He couldn't stop thinking about what Ratchet had told him. Memory loss.
"No, he's unharmed," Sideswipe said gently. "Ratchet is correct that an unexpected shutdown can be detrimental but if there is a capacitor to act as an energy reserve, it prevents any damage. That's why I'm here."
"But-"
"It's going to be all right! Both of you should relax a little," Sideswipe laughed. "I told you, this is just a wiring problem."
Both of them startled when Bumblebee smacked Sideswipe on the back of the head, neither of them having noticed he'd come back to himself.
"Yes, yes, it's not my wiring," he said contritely, rubbing the back of his head. "I think that's enough for today, Optimus is going to be back soon and we both have duties to attend to."
"Oh," Sam shifted uncomfortably, trying to ignore the dull throb between his legs. "I didn't know Optimus was gone."
"Some transporting issue." Sideswipe hopped up and for the first time Sam noticed that he must have severed his link from Bumblebee before he'd gone offline because he had an obvious problem of his own. He saw where Sam was looking and smiled ruefully. "Don't worry about that. I'm sure Bumblebee doesn't need my assistance to help you with yours."
The arms that circled him and pulled him back into Bee's lap stated eloquently that he didn't. It didn't stop Sideswipe from leaning down and pressing a quick kiss against Sam's forehead. "Behave!" he called over his shoulder.
The moment the door clicked shut, Sam had a chance to learn exactly how little help Bumblebee needed in giving pleasure, and it looked whatever duties Bee was supposed to be doing were going to have to wait.
~~*~~
It was well over an hour later when Sam finally managed to crawl shakily out of the bed, sweat still drying prickly-cool on his skin. Bee had left him there with a bruising kiss and a wave before he'd gone off for the day, not looking a damned bit like he'd just spent the better part of an hour sucking cock like a freaking Hoover. He could probably suck the shine off a trailer hitch and recalling how many Autobots had hitches suddenly made that idea a lot less attractive.
He'd missed breakfast by about three hours and lunch was on hold until he had a long, long shower. Right now he smelled like about week's worth of wet dreams.
The little light on his computer was blinking insistently and Sam stopped long enough to click it, frowning when he saw who it was from. Not yet, not today. Not after that sex marathon with his mouth still aching a little and his teeth begging for a toothbrush. It took longer than it might have for him to clean up and Sam was blaming whoever it was that had designed his lovely shower. Good for all kinds of muscle aches. Today seemed very much like a t-shirt and jeans day, balls to whoever didn't like saluting the raggedy savior of the world.
He took the time to comb his hair and then his stomach would be denied no longer. There would be food or soon he'd be chewing off his own limbs. There were no more than a half dozen soldiers between him and the canteen which made the tiny guilty twinge he felt at dressing down ease a little. Hell, most of them were just in fairly casual gear. It wasn't like the president was going to show up for inspection, at least not this week. Come to think of it, he might want to make sure Bee gave him a heads up if that was ever going to happen--
The sight of a yellow Camaro tearing around the corner before he could even walk in the door startled him and he blinked in confusion as Bee transformed and stood next to him, his holo form shining quickly into existence. He looked…agitated and Sam couldn't help looking around, half expecting a fleet of Decepticons to fall from the sky but wouldn't Bee have just grabbed him then and ---oh, my god.
It was almost astonishing to think once he would have been delighted to see her walking towards him, dark anger shading her lovely eyes. Optimus was walking carefully behind Mikaela, letting her lead the way on her path that was heading straight towards him.
Dimly, he heard the canteen door open behind him, heard two soldiers pause in their conversation as they noticed the gorgeous young woman stopping in front of their resident hero. And slapping him hard enough across the face that his ears began ringing.
"A letter," Mikaela said, slowly and deliberately. "You broke up with me in a letter. No mention of the fact that your entire family was just going to up and vanish, or that Decepticons tried to kill you." Her voice rose steadily, a few more interested people appearing, eager to see the excitement of the day. "Do you have any fucking idea how I felt when I stopped by your house that day and everything was just gone! And then I get a letter in the mail, oh, sorry about that! You are the most cowardly piece of shit boyfriend that any person has ever had and believe me, I've had some prize winners, but you! Don't you people have jobs to do somewhere?"
Her shout startled the growing circle of soldiers who all abruptly decided that they did have places to be that didn't involve gorgeous angry women with murder in their eyes. Optimus had long since deserted them for safer climes. All Sam could do was stand there because she was so completely right and he'd earned every shitty insult she could throw his way.
"You complete asshole!" Mikaela whispered and threw her arms around him. He caught her automatically, wrapping his arms around her as she shook, tears starting and leaking warmly through his shirt. Guilt was a thick, bitter taste at the back of his throat that he couldn't swallow away and God, yes, she had deserved better than a letter and he'd known he was a complete shithead for doing it that way. He'd known it and done it anyway because he'd never expected this confrontation.
We reap what we sow! His mother's cheerful voice in that back of his mind and that was another layer of guilt, that blinking mail icon sitting there accusingly on his desktop.
Sam buried his face into Mikaela's shoulder and took a deep breath, fighting back his own tears because there was no way he was going to be pussy enough to cry in front of all these camo boys.
"I'm sorry," he whispered to her, barely a croak. "I really am."
"Yeah, I bet," Mikaela said, pulling away and swiping at her cheeks. She looked over Sam's shoulder and gave a watery smile. "Hey, Bumblebee, the new gear looks great."
God, he'd completely forgotten Bee was standing there, his hands in his pockets and looking ill at ease "How did you know that was Bumblebee?"
"Please, who do you think helped him pick this out?" She flicked at Bee's blond hair, tousling just enough that it fell into artful chaos. How it was possible she could make him any prettier, Sam wasn't sure, but it was working. Mikaela walked around Bee, studying him carefully. "The pants are tight enough but the shirt could use a little more and maybe something sleeveless?"
Bee's shirt promptly shifted into something a little less Fruit of the Loom and a lot more Adidas, the sleeves shrinking back as it tightened across his chest, defining the lines of muscle. It was difficult not to stare but he supposed he could blame it on the wonder of holographic wardrobe changes.
"Uh huh, uh huh, sweet, maybe some ink here?" She touched his upper arm and a band of odd symbols circled his bicep. "Nice, what is that?"
"It's Cybertronian." Sam said, squinting at it. "I've seen it before but I don't know what it says."
Bee shrugged a little, gesturing his helplessness.
"You can't talk again? Oh, that sucks!"
Bumblebee nodded sourly, slipping his hands back in his pockets. Dressed like that, he looked a little more punk, slim and pretty with his hair falling in his eyes and…Sam swallowed thickly and looked away. Damned teenage hormones.
"It's pretty good," Mikaela decided. "But how about blue eyes?"
"I like them green." It slipped out before he could think about it, wincing a little mentally but fuck, he did like them green. A wardrobe was one thing but this was how Bumblebee had come to him and-only Mikaela had seen him first, hadn't she. She'd helped him design this.
The look he was giving Sam now, he couldn't quite decipher. Soberly watching him, his eyes still green, and Mikaela was touching him, poking at his clothes and ears, ready to change even more.
"You still haven't mentioned what you're doing here," Sam blurted, shifting on his feet uncomfortably. It probably wouldn't look good if he yanked her away from Bumblebee, but she was talking about piercings now.
"Maybe just a diamond stud or a gold hoop," Mikaela fingered Bee's ear thoughtfully before glancing at Sam. "Optimus pretty much swooped in and took off with me. He said you all figured I'd be all right but there was a lot of Decepticon activity in the area and they finally decided I'd be safer here." She shrugged. "It's not like my stepmom is going to miss me and besides, how often to you get a knight in shining stainless steel to rescue you?"
"More often than you'd think," Sam smiled a little, feebly, staring at her fingertips still rubbing Bee's ear. "Why don't we take a look around and get you settled in a little? I'm assuming Optimus dropped you off here and possibly showed you where you're sleeping."
"I wanted to see you first. Asshole." She slapped him in the middle of the chest, hard enough to make him grunt.
"So let's show you around then."
Bumblebee stepped forward, nodding eagerly, his eyes literally glowing with his enthusiasm, and somehow, the idea of him being around Mikaela was more than he could take today.
"Didn't Optimus want you to do…something?" Sam gestured vaguely. "Whatever it was Sideswipe was talking about?"
He went still, the light in his eyes fading and his nod was reluctant.
"Always work to do, yeah?" Mikaela said, and she hugged Bee quickly, giving him a little kiss on the cheek that he accepted bemusedly, giving Sam one last look before he stepped backwards against his robot form and faded, giving them a much larger and very mechanical wave before he transformed and drove away.
Mikaela turned to him, bouncing on her toes in a way that would have made his eyes bug out not all that long ago. Weird how quickly some things changed. "Well, come on, show me where they keep you stashed in this place."
~~*~~
Sam managed to persuade her to wait long enough for him to grab a quick sandwich, munching it down on their way back to his quarters. He watched her poke through his meager possessions, not even having a secret box to stow away from her although he'd quickly yanked the blankets up over the sheets.
"So this is your room?" Mikaela asked, unenthused. "It doesn't seem very you. No posters or books or anything."
"They've got all my stuff here in storage," He flopped down on the bed, sitting up with his back against the wall. "But I'm supposed to get a new place soon so I'm not really worried about it. I'd have to pack it all up again and I don't really need any of it at the moment." Not with most of his time being taken up with holographic orgies.
"Yeah, a bed is pretty much all you really need." Something in her voice made him look up, just in time for her to kiss him. Too shocked to pull away and she tasted like cherry lip-gloss and Juicy Fruit, her tongue small and soft against his lower lip. He pushed her away, gently, before she could deepen it. "Mikaela…"
She'd already stepped back, a sad little smile on her face. "Yeah, that's about what I figured. It wasn't just the Decepticons that had you sending me a paper brush-off."
Again, that guilt, twisting bitterly in his stomach. "I'm sorry."
"Don't, please. It's okay. I sort of knew, you know? You were so distant."
*Me*, he almost said, and didn't because hadn't he been? He had, reflecting her distance he'd thought but that wasn't really the truth. Mikaela had been someone he'd wanted before he'd had any clue what he did want. She'd been an abstract of desire that he'd built up in his mind but he'd really known next to nothing about her. Once he'd learned, the heat had melted into something gentler, a perfect friend but not what he wanted in a girlfriend. In fact, it was starting to seem like he wasn't really interested in a girlfriend at all.
With Bumblebee it was so different…had he been falling for Bee even back then? Not physically, of course, not then, but everything about him, from his fondness for obscenity to his gentle nature. And hadn't Sam just about seduced him the very moment he found out that he could? Not that Bee had needed much seducing. They'd just about fallen into each other. It made him wonder how long Bee had wanted him.
Mikaela had resumed her exploration, poking idly at his computer. "Looks like you have mail."
Sam half-stood, reaching a hand out to her automatically. "Don't. It's from my parents."
"They aren't here?" She sounded surprised.
"No. I had the government hide them and give them new names and stuff." The growing horror on her face made him stammer on. "They'll be safer that way, you know? Away from me."
"Safer?" Mikaela repeated. "Sam, that's probably the most horrible thing I've ever heard. Your mom was so nice and you just had them shuffled off to…do you even know where? And you aren't reading their e-mails?"
"We had an argument," Sam mumbled and somehow that sounded very insufficient in the face of her astonished horror.
"Oh, well, that's just fine then. You had an argument. Sam, you're their only kid and you might as well be dead for all the good it's doing them."
"I just want them to be safe," Sam protested but the memory of his mother's tears was making his own eyes ache and he hadn't wanted to think about this today but his parents didn't have the same option.
Mikaela shook her head. "I lost my dad a while ago and I would give anything for him to be here. And I know he wouldn't give a damn about the danger. Do you think your mom and dad do? How happy can they be with a new life, a new house, and no son?"
"You think I made a mistake?" Already knew the answer and it hurt, a bone-deep ache and if a person's soul could bleed, Sam's was making a pretty good effort in that direction.
"I think you had good intentions," Mikaela corrected gently. "Call them, see what they want."
"Not today. I think I've had all the shocks I can take today."
Mikaela looked at him doubtfully. "Sam…"
"I will, tomorrow, okay? I promise."
"I know you will. Your mom was way too nice for me to let you do this to her." Mikaela turned away from the computer and grabbed his hand, tugging him to his feet. "Come on, enough of this. Let's check this place out! I bet you haven't even been in half the buildings."
"I think I've only been in about four."
She rolled her eyes. "How can you not be exploring the giant robot city? What do you do with your time?"
"I-" Have wild sex with my car. Yeah, that was going to be said just about never. "I've been busy," Sam said, lamely.
"Oh, please. Come on, let's go!" She tugged his arm impatiently.
"I'm not sure if this is a good-"
"Come on!"
~~*~~
As sneaky teenage espionage trips went, this one was pretty unsuccessful. So far, he and Mikaela had managed to sneak into three storage warehouses, one human barrack which they had barely escaped from due to the skimpiness of Mikaela's shirt and one building that had contained a lot of electronic beeping things that they mutually decided to avoid.
It might have been boring if Mikaela hadn't been so completely dedicated to finding something interesting.
"What about this one, have you been in here?"
Sam sighed. "It's not the canteen, it's not the infirmary, and it's not my room. So, no, I haven't."
"Have you done nothing but play World of Warcraft since you got here?" She slipped through the door, barely waiting for Sam to follow. Another warehouse from the looks of it, boxes stacked neatly on racks.
"I haven't logged in since-mrph!"
Mikaela's hand cut off his furious whisper, her eyes wide and shocked in the dim light. He had to squint through the dimness to see, crouching down to peer through a crack in the boxes to see-
Sideswipe, he knew that face, that long hair, and Sam knew that expression, too. Drawn tight with need, his lower lip caught between his teeth and the noises he was making, base and low, made Sam's pants feel distinctly tighter, almost as pretty as Bumblebee and the dark head between his legs, bobbing up and down in a distinct rhythm and his hand twined tightly into the dark tendrils and oh, my sweet god-
He grabbed Mikaela's arm frantically, dragging her backwards and they both stumbled through the door, shutting it quietly and Sam kept going, walking determinedly, dragging Mikaela behind him until they were far enough away that his nerves stopped screaming at him to take a powder and get hell away from here. They ducked behind another building, both of them panting for breath as they leaned against the metal siding.
Mikaela's eyes were saucer wide, a rim of white visible around her irises. "They were…they were…"
"Yeah," Sam mumbled, still trying to process what he'd seen. And who he'd seen. "Why does this keep happening to me!" he burst out, slamming a fist against the wall behind him.
Mikaela stared at him, blinking. "This has happened to you before?"
"Not them, but yeah!"
"And you said you hadn't been around! Who did you see last time?"
"I…uh…it doesn't matter. This is so much more wrong, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are brothers!"
That made her frown, confused. "How can robots be brothers? It's not like they have the same mom or something."
"I have no idea but they are! Something has got to be wrong, Sideswipe wouldn't do that unless Sunstreaker was forcing him."
"Not to diss your theory there, but he didn't look all that upset. Man, that was hot."
Sam stared at her speechlessly.
"What?" Defensively. "I can't think two guys are hot?"
"Yes, but, I mean…"
"You know, that's prejudice right there! It's no wonder that the gay community can't get a decent foothold in society with attitudes like that."
"Wha…I'm not prejudiced!"
"You just said you don't think that two guys would be hot together!" She jabbed an accusing finger into his chest.
"I do so!"
She stopped. "You do?"
That was a subject that needed changing. "Look, it's Sunstreaker! He's an asshole!"
"A hot one." She looked at him appraisingly. "So you do think two guys are hot."
Sam scrubbed a hand over his head and really wished he'd just taken her to the rec center. A few torturous hours of DDR would be so much better than this. "I need to find Bumblebee; I've got to talk to him about this."
Not that he had any idea where Bumblebee was but he knew exactly who to ask. Ratchet always knew entirely too much about the whereabouts of others.
"That's not an answer!" Mikaela called after him before she jogged up next to him, eyeing him suspiciously.
"One normal day, that's all I ask," Sam muttered, walking determinedly towards the infirmary. "Just one. Is that so much?" He directed the question at the sky, blue and innocent above him. It chose not to answer, which was just as well, and Sam led Mikaela on a march to the infirmary and from there, who knew. This yellow brick road didn't seem to have a set finish.
-finis-
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