Chapter Text
Sam was intrigued by these new creatures. The new creatures in question being the femmes that had arrived to Earth. He wasn’t the only one, the humans were curious and confused by the appearance of female Autobots after all this time. And how did that work? They looked female, sounded female, yet no one was inclined to answer any such questions he had on how that worked. Not even Bee who seemed particularly embarrassed when Sam asked if there was any difference.
He decided it was definitely a question for Ratchet later.
Sam was intrigued by the way they talked and carried themselves. Over video messages before landing, Sam had been able to observe them without them doing so in return. They were… he wasn’t sure dainty was the right word. But they definitely had some softer features. In a purely robot lady sort of way, they were beautiful, he decided.
Each one had a profile on hand from Prowl. Sure, he couldn’t read the whole thing, there were private notes about the bots in those, but Prowl gave him a summary and let him see the holos they had of them like he did for the last mechs who landed.
Elita One was the leader of their squad with Chromia being next in charge. There was also Arcee and Moonracer. Apparently Arcee had been a teacher once. And not just any teacher, she taught newsparks. Sam really hoped that did not mean he had to start their version of school, but Prowl kept talking not noticing Sam’s newfound discontentment. Lessons with Optimus and him were one thing, but school was another…
Everyone was excited as the days drew closer to their arrival. And Sam did learn one thing that made his not-brain glitch. Well, two things really.
Ironhide and Optimus were married.
Sort of.
He was not exactly sure how it worked, but he was not prepared to learn that information. So, as they talked on probably explaining it, he was stuck on the idea of Optimus and Ironhide on bended knees pouring their hearts out ring in hand. It made him giggle. The bots simply watched him with bewildered expressions until he was back to not so blatantly ignoring them.
Then the day came, and they arrived.
Sam figured the femmes had some form of an idea of him being here. Like when other bots arrived it was kind of hush-hush but definitely hinted at so they were prepared, but no information really got out about him. Things like saying Arcee’s old skills might come in use had piqued their interest. Sam was so ready to meet them, they were unlike the others he could already tell.
They landed met with Optimus and the command and returned inside for a debrief. Sam waited with Bumblebee in the back of the greeting party for obvious reasons. Mechs halted what they were doing the moment they sensed him, overtaken by questions, joy, and intrigue. When the femmes had spotted him, it was no different.
Actually, it might have had a worse effect. Sam did not exactly know what was happening. He was overwhelmed by a flood of fields and four very tall robot ladies. It took Optimus’ direct order for them not disturb him. For a brief moment he actually thought he was a goner under their gazes. Strong and determined, he wasn’t sure what they were going to do. They looked at him with a strange intensity that outmatched anything he had encountered before.
“It really is a sparkling!” The one he knew to be Arcee cried out. Suddenly she was on bended knee before him. She said something in Cybertronian, but Sam just stared back blankly. For a brief moment her features flashed with concern until Bumblebee responded back with something. He forgot Bee was directly behind him.
She tried again. “Hello little one, you speak English, yes?”
He nodded dumbly under her stare. His plating was beginning to crawl.
“I can’t wait to teach you.” She purred and with drew standing again with her teammates. As they were pulled away for briefing, each set of optics lingered until they were out of sight.
Sam turned to Bumblebee, “What was that about?”
Bee simply shrugged but looked after where the femmes had disappeared with a less than amused gaze. That should have been Sam’s first clue.
But the femmes were great. There was Elita One, she was so motherly like Optimus was all fatherly. She was like his mom when she’d run errands, responsible and respectable and a go getter. Then there was Chromia. She also reminded Sam of his mom, but in a different way. All blunt and brash with a similar humor. Their presence didn’t quite fill that void, but it did comfort him.
Arcee and Moonracer were definitely younger than the other two, but not as young as Bee. Honestly, he had a hard time comparing their ages and wondered if it would be rude to ask like with earth women. And Arcee being a teacher hung in the back of his mind.
At first, they let him follow them around and ask his insatiably curious questions. Even giggling at some. They answered many with indirect answers and pointed him to Ratchet. Or responded with something along the lines of not to worry about it until he got creators and upgrades. Whatever that meant.
Like the bots they loved to coo and coddle him. And for once, Sam was okay with it. The femmes reminded him of his mother in a way he just couldn’t shake. He could never be mean to his mom. All of their doting felt right.
And they did a lot of doting.
If there was a stain on his chasis, it wasn’t there long. Chromia was sure to help him wipe down. It was embarrassing, but his plating had never been cleaner. If he was irritated at a game, Arcee was there to help him beat the level. He wasn’t even sure how she knew how to play the game. If he warbled in sadness, there was Moonracer ready with a hug. He did not need one, but the femme insisted. And Elita One had done something he did not know he was missing out on. She made him Energon treats. Actually made them from scratch. They were so good when they were warm and gooey.
Usually with the bots, Sam kept their treating him like a toddler in check. But the way Elita would talk to him and help him just reminded him of Judy. His mom who he never got to see and would probably never see again. He knew the mechs were seething with unbridled jealousy, which made him want to laugh a little. But the femmes were just different.
He very quickly began to expect running into at least one of them every day. Which wasn’t odd but was at the same time. There were mechs that he wouldn’t see for days or a week straight sometimes, but he saw one of them without fail every day after they first arrived.
That should have been his second red flag, but they were so nice!
Soon one femme a day was not the norm anymore. It was a combination of two, three, or even all. And Sam had to wonder just what did they do around here. Every time he was in the rec room the only ones in it were them anymore. It was like they knew he would be there. Granted, Jazz one time did say he could set a watch to him since he was usually in the rec room at certain times. But still… where was everyone else?
Once he entered the rec room, it was basically game over. As in he would be spending the day playing games, baking treats, or getting his plating buffed with them. He quickly found in the oncoming days as they hung around him more and more. At first, he thought it was the same reverence and intensity which new mechs watched him with behind their optics, but these ladies were starting to ride the line of overbearing. He wasn’t sure what to do. His father had taught him he should always respect women, but he wasn’t sure this applies to robot ladies too.
He soon put two and two together and figured they cleared out the rec room, so they could coo and coddle him undisturbed. For a brief moment, he thought he was simply overthinking it. There was no way they were doing all this. But after one strange interaction, he felt like his thoughts were justified.
“Chromia, don’t cha wanna go to the range and just have some alone time.” That was Ironhide in the rec room. He hadn’t run into him there in a while.
“At the moment, no. I went to the range with you yesterday.” Well, that was harsh. Honestly, it wouldn’t kill them to leave him alone for a day. Maybe the mechs might even come back to the rec room.
“‘Mia, you and Elita have hardly spent any time with me and Optimus. I think the kid’ll be fine if you’d just-“ Sam walked around the corner and gave a quiet unassuming stare at the pair. Both stared back, but Chromia did smile while Ironhide looked unimpressed.
“You know,” Sam started sweetly, “my parents used to go on date nights and leave me by myself. You don’t really have to be with me twenty-four seven.” Sam gave his best attempt at a smile, but he was nervous okay. He was trying to make this work. Ironhide was obviously confused for a moment before Chromia spoke up.
“You poor thing, they didn’t even take you along? Come on ‘Hide.” Sam gave an indignant chirp as he was scooped into the femme’s hold.
He was not really sure what just happened but looked back at Ironhide with a ‘I tried’ expression as he followed his femme love. She led them to the range, which was empty. Sam couldn’t help but think about how this would have been the perfect set up for him and Mikaela to slip off and do some extracurriculars. Wait-
“Look ‘Hide we can teach the bitlet safety and some pointers and do some target practice.” Sam was glad she interrupted that spiral he was about to go down.
“Sounds great.” Ironhide voice was tight with irritation.
“Look Sam, this is your standard blaster. It-“ Sam stopped listening as she put the blaster a bit too close to him for comfort. How was he even here right now. Any other time the bots would have been throwing a fit.
“You know ‘Mia we haven’t really let the little guy around blasters.” Ironhide interrupted and Sam peeled his eyes from the very thing that had been shot at him before.
She paused and frowned. “‘Hide, none of you have taught him any safety of being around blasters.”
“We don’t really let him near them.”
“We didn’t let Bumblebee either, and the little terror almost shot his pede off.”
“Honestly, I thought you would have taught the bitlet by now. I guess we’ll have to go from the start. Sam, never point a blaster at something you don’t intend to kill.”
“Wait, that’s Safety 101 for you guys too? You pointed your canons at me and Mikaela in the alley when you met us!” Sam squawked indignant. “You could have killed us?”
“I did not intend to shoot you both. It wouldn’t have-” Ironhide began only to be interrupted.
“You did what?!” Chromia glared at him openly. “Ironhide!”
“’Mia-“
“Don’t you ‘’Mia’ me. That was so reckless, weren’t those the first humans you came across too! No wonder they think we’re all brutes!”
Sam sort of felt guilt edge its way up over the scolding he started, but he deserved it in some sense. After she was done with her tirade and Ironhide was thoroughly reprimanded, Sam got them back on track.
“Okay, okay, so gun, or canon/ blaster safety, right? I have the two best teachers for it. You guys can show me together.” Yay, he inwardly cringed.
It felt like forever, and they quizzed him. But they really did click and work together seamlessly. Sam could see it, he shipped it.
The real fun was target practice. They showed him how to aim and hold the blaster. They never handed it over to him completely; instead, they held it steady as he lined up the sight. They even let him shoot the blaster as they held it. It was loud and powerful. It was sort of thrilling to shoot a weapon that had been turned at him before. Hopefully Chromia and Ironhide had as good as time as him. They were smiling knowing smiles at each other, so it seemed to be a win. Maybe Ironhide might get some alone time later on with the femme.
When they came back, Sam knew it was late. He was tired from all the excitement and let the femme carry him back. They stopped at the rec room where Bee, Arcee, and Elita were lurking. Sam was so relieved to see Bee, and Bee perked up at the sight of him.
“There you are! I heard you had a fun time with Chromia and Ironhide.” Arcee blocked Bee from sight. It wasn’t purposeful. Slowly, he looked up to the femme.
“Yeah, super fun. Exciting, even. But man am I beat, I think it’s time I went to recharge.” Sam sat up in Chromia’s hold no longer lying limp across her plating and tried to wiggle down to get to Bee.
“Perfect, we’re just in time,” Arcee scooped Sam from her grasps before he even broke free. “We can take you to your quarters.”
Sam didn’t even get to answer, and they were off. Elita smiled and joining them as Sam looked over Arcee’s shoulder plating at a stunned Bumblebee. He was given a warm cube of Energon and was in recharge before Bee even ended up in their quarters.
They liked his chatter and never seemed to grow bored of him. But then he knew them and had very few questions left for them. The novelty of new bots always wore off eventually.
But he couldn’t shake them, he realized he had seen less and less of the bots and thought of instances where they had even managed to chase off Jazz. Jazz however was not above grabbing and scooping him to whisk him off somewhere.
The femmes watched with unreadable intense gazes. When one had tried to grab him and hold him like Bee would, he chirped in distress prompting him to be set back down. He liked them and would let them snuggle up to him, but he never really liked anyone to carry him. Jazz just didn’t care, and he was not about to have more bots that didn’t listen to him.
More than once mechs tried coming back to the rec room, but they never seemed to stay long. It was very much a ‘grab energon and run’ entrance. The few who dared stay were watched with what Sam could only call a cold gaze from the femmes. Disheartened optics would sometimes meet his, but then a femme would approach the mech in question and they took it as cue to head off. There was only the low, fast mutter of “bye, Sam” as they left.
Sam had a brilliant idea after Wheeljack was all but thrown from the room one day. He just wouldn’t go to the rec room. Prowl, Jazz, and Redalert might put the base on lockdown, but they would get over it when he was found. He was never told he had to go stay there. He was only told he wasn’t allowed to go outside alone. And the bots kept a vigilant watch over him. Now he just needed to decide where to go. That was another reason he was mainly in the rec room. There was always bots and video games there.
And then it came to him. He would just visit Bumblebee in the monitor room. It could get boring, but he would just bring the tablet Prowl gave him. He could also catch up with Bee. Despite sharing a room, he had barely had time to talk to the mech.
The next day he sped past the rec room. Bumblebee usually left before he awoke from recharge, so he was already on duty. Sam clutched the data pad to his chasis and booked it the whole way there. When he got in front of the door, he spammed the panel until the door slid open.
“Sam?” Sam rushed in and smashed the control panel so the door would close.
“Hi, Bee!” he chirped happily and plopped on the floor and powered on his data pad. “Hope you don’t mind me joining you today.” Now that he was sat, his vents were running just a bit faster than normal.
Bee chuckled, “No, of course not.” He then looked him over. “What is with the hasty entrance, did you manage to piss off Ironhide or something?”
With how their last meeting went, probably. “Nope, I just haven’t gotten to hang out with favourite buddy in ages.”
Bee hummed, “Yes, it does feel like it’s been a while.” Bee made his way back to the control panel and Sam noticed there was another bot manning the other set of monitors. In the dim light he saw Redalert carefully observing some strange frequency.
“Don’t mind him, he can’t here us. He’s looking into an imbedded frequency trying to decipher it. Though we should probably let him know you’re here if we want to avoid an incident.”
“Do not put my location on the channels.” Sam said quickly causing Bee to pause. “I don’t want anyone looking for me, just ping Red.”
Bee merely shrugged, and Sam guessed he complied. They chatted and Sam asked and listened about what Bee had been up to. Apparently, he was given the assignment of helping Redalert isolate the strange incoming frequencies and had been quite busy.
“So how do you like the femmes? I heard Jazz say something about you spending a lot of time with them.”
“Yeah… They are interesting.” Sam struggled to describe them as anything but obsessive.
“I cant believe you let Elita One and Arcee put you to bed-“
“That was humiliating!” Sam snapped. “I do not want to talk about that. Matter of fact, let’s skip the femmes. What else do you want to talk about?”
“You know I haven’t really seen much of the femmes. Just at training. Are- Sam, are they why you’re hiding?”
“No.” Sam felt his face burn. “Maybe.”
“Why?” Bumblebee’s tone became serious. It was like he activated guardian mode. “Are they being aggressive or-“
“Nope, you have it all wrong! It’s worse than that, they are being nice! Too nice!” Sam thew his arms up in despair and fell back from sitting. “They are driving me nuts, Bee. And I hardly see anybody. It’s like they chased everyone off. Which I thought was crazy, but I have seen them do it. You didn’t tell me they were level 10 clingers!”
The door swooshed open, and Sam’s spark stop spinning. Illuminated by the pale light of the hall was Optimus. He looked the room over and settled his sight on Sam and Bee.
“Has any one seen Elita One?” He asked, and they shook their helms in a negative. It was not quite a sigh he gave but definitely a longsuffering vent. Sam wondered if he was missing Elita One like Ironhide was with Chromia. Optimus went to move on when Sam caught the sight of familiar plating.
“Jazz!” Sam shouted and the mech practically fell over himself to turn around and see him.
“Hey, lil’ mech! Long time no see. I’m surprised there aint no femmes in here.” That was as playful as it was seething. The femmes seemed to grind Jazz’s gears.
“Tell me about it,” he muttered, “but, hey Jazz! I want to hang out with Bee.” Jazz looked from him to the mech mentioned and back. “You know,” he stressed. “with Bee.”
“Yeah,” he nodded catching on. “Yeah, with your favourite mech. I get cha, Sammy. I can make that happen.”
“Thanks!”
Bumblebee was given the week off.
Which was bad news for the femmes because Sam only had one mech that he would fight them over.
Day one with Bumblebee did not play out so smoothly as Sam wanted. He and Bee had awoken from recharge and set them selves on the simple task of acquiring energon…which was in the rec room. Sam played as tactfully as he could keeping a close glom onto Bee’s side. As suspected, there were indeed femmes there and waiting, Arcee and Moonracer. Sam could see the femmes stiffen in surprise at Bumblebee’s nonchalant presence. They decided on paying him no mind however as they approached Sam.
Sam watched them with a wary eye, or uh, optic. Moonracer strode up to him with a confidence of a bot foolish enough to try and pick him up. Sam stumbled back away from the approaching teal menace grasping for his guardian only for his servos to collide with nothing but empty air. Sam made the mistake to turn in search of his guardian, only to see him at the energon dispenser collecting them two cubes.
How considerate.
Moonracer picked him up while his back was turned. Sam yelped in a high distressed warning. Moonracer, startled, held him at arm’s length unsure what had happened. Bumblebee did not take kindly to Sam’s cry of alarm and was there in a flash.
“Good morning, Moonracer,” Bumblebee said curtly, “I thought you and the other femmes had become accustomed to Sam, but it seems a few things escaped your notice. Sam is not fond of being picked up. So, it would be in your best interest to put him back on his pedes.”
Bumblebee was clinical in his speech. His annoyance was not veiled at all. Sam’s spark fluttered at the curt rescue on his behalf. Rude yet heroic.
Moonracer did not appreciate the talking down to, “I know Sam quite well, thank you. I’ve gotten to make his acquaintance these past few orns, I can’t say the same about you. I’m sure Sam doesn’t need you talking on his behalf.”
Sam did not like that.
“PUT ME DOWN!” Startled, Moonracer did just that.
Sam scampered behind Bee and wrapped his arms around what he could reach of his waist. From his knew strategic position, he eyed the femme with a newfound hostility. It seemed to throw both Moonracer and Arcee through a loop. The femmes stared after him in confusion, and Moonracer’s features took on a hurt, wounded expression.
“S- Sam are you all right?” Arcee said peering around Bumblebbe’s form where Sam had buried himself in his side.
“Fine now, thanks.” He mumbled in Bee’s side. He looked up at the mech who seemed concerned. Sam merely gave him a dashing smile and noticed Bee still held two cubes of energon. “Gee, thanks Bee!” he chirped sweetly. “Do you want to watch the SpongeBob Movie? The first one, it’s the only good one.”
Bumblebee huffed a small laugh, “I thought you’d never ask.” Bee looked over him fondly as he let Sam lead him to the couch in front of the giant monitor the had converted into a designated TV.
Sam plopped down but noticed how Bee hesitated and looked back over to the femmes. Don’t start feeling remorse now, Sam thought exasperated. He knew what Bee was about to do, why did the mech have to be considerate.
“Would you two like to join us-“
“Yes!” Arcee was seated before Bee with how fast she moved. She plopped down, right next to Sam who was also seated next to the arm rest leaving no space for Bumblebee next to him.
Sam was gobsmacked by how quickly it all fell apart. Bee took a seat next to Arcee and passed the cube over to Sam. Somewhere in the process, an energon goody was placed atop the cube and Sam elected to ignore it. He had had enough of the treats. Moonracer settled somewhere behind them, Sam felt her lingering presence but had no intention of beckoning her closer. Arcee at some point in the movie pulled out a thermal tarp and draped it over them. They cuddled up watching movies huddled under the thermal tarp for the day. Sam wanted to show Bee some more new movies but wanted them for when they were more alone. Bumblebee suggested a few titles the femmes might like that they had watched before. It irked Sam that Bee had to give the suggestion over Arcee, and it irked him more to find he wasn’t even under the blanket.
Finally, Sam was done with movies and he and Bee made their way to their quarters much to the femmes’ disappointment. His irritation was seething under his plating still as they unwound.
“What’s the matter, Sam?” Bee asked as he hoisted Sam onto the higher berth in the room.
Their room configuration was odd compared to other layouts. It was about the same size as every other shared quarters. It seemed smaller though it was because they had both berths on the floor and not stacked like bunks. Sam’s shorter berth was to the left against the wall, and Bee’s was pushed up against the wall one faced when walking into the room. The arrangement made an ‘L’ shape. He and Bee had decorated the walls with posters, pictures, and anything they deemed interesting. Currently, due to Bee’s absence and Sam’s uncaring attitude while he was away, the room was a disheveled wreck.
“The matter? Bee, we got stuck with Thing One and Thing Two all day! Actually, that probably would have been fun, but no!” Sam let out a frustrated groan. “I wanted to spend time with you. Jazz is going to make me sit with him for hours for this. I can already hear the coos. No doubt I’ll have to up play my ‘cute’ sparkling chirping.”
Bumblebee rolled his optics but smiled fondly. “Thank you for your sacrifice. I- appreciate it. I was not sure how much longer I could stand to be trapped in there with Redalert.”
“Yeah, he seems intense.” Sam decided that was the best word for him. Bee said nothing in disagreement.
“Well, we could always spend time together cleaning up in here tomorrow.” Bumblebee did not sound convinced that that was what he wanted to do with their time.
“Tomorrow? You’re already talking about tomorrow? We still have today. And I know you don’t want to clean. I don’t.” Sam lied on his back, helm hanging over the edge of the berth, pedes on the wall, and his arms sprawled.
Bumblebee gave a low thoughtful hum as he pushed one of Sam’s arms back to him and hopped to sit on the berth with him. “It might not be what I or you want to do, but we’ve been reported.”
“Reported? By who, no one comes in here!”
“I have my guesses,” He stated stalely. “But we mainly need to get on it because of Prowl. He did room inspections, and everybody got cited with violations. Jazz was the one who told me someone tipped him off. I was told we needed to clean up before they separated us for being bad influences on each other-“
Sam sat up nearly falling off the berth. “Absolutely not! I would throw the biggest fit you ever seen- don’t use that against me, you know what I mean! I am talking a melt down to match the time that security guard put me in a holding cell for ‘try to sneak in’ a top-secret base underground! Honestly that was sooooo stupid! I was already past three security check points. You know what, no, this is worse than that- I’ll make it worse than that!”
“Sam, Sam!” Sam snapped his attention to his frantic guardian. How long had he been calling him? “Sam,” Bumblebee tried again seeing he had his attention, “it was just a joke, but a warning. No harm done. I doubt they’d even think of actually doing it.” He stroked his fins and plating in a soothing manner.
Sam deflated. “Oh.” With the wind pulled from his sails, Sam felt exhausted. Curse his tiny new, fragile spark.
“Time for recharge.” Bee stated and scooped Sam into his lap. Instead of getting up and placing Sam on his own berth however, Bumblebee simply reclined the two of them back, rearranging Sam until they were both comfortable.
“But you already recharged.” He complained yet snuggled down deeper into his guardian’s side.
“Some more time in recharge won’t hurt me, might help actually. Now, it’s time for all good little newsparks to recharge.”
Sam grumbled in protest at the teasing. But he was tired, and soon recharge took him.
The next time he awoke, he begrudgingly helped Bee organize. It turned out that Bee was just as lost as him on how to do so. In the end, they worked it out. More than half the day was gone to their efforts, but Bee was still willing to do more with him.
“I checked the weather, Jazz and the others are patrolling, it seems like a good day to go outside. Would you like to?” Bee definitely knew the answer.
“And here I thought I’d never see the light of day again. Lead the way!”
Bee laughed as they exited their newly made-up room. To say they had fun outside was an understatement. Sam ran around for what felt like hours. Jazz, Swerve, and Bluestreak stopped by for a moment. It had been so long since he’d seen them. They played a quick game of tag and were off. Jazz had left them with a strict warning about the time, all but saying to head inside. Sam was saddened since the sun had barely started it its trek to set.
Bumblebee heeded the warning, probably not wanting to be sent back to the lair of a monitor room with Redalert earlier than expected. Once inside Bumblebee marched both of them to the wash racks. Sam did not like the sand between his joints but felt like the scrub downs he received were always unnecessarily thorough. Bluestreak had said when he helped him once that they wanted to keep his flimsy sparkling armor in top condition. In nicer words obviously.
Once clean, Sam was once again tired out. He felt as though he had been more active today than he had in months.
“Sorry Bee,” he muttered as Bumblebee helped him put fresh wax on his back plates. He was drifting off.
“Why are you sorry? We had a lot of fun outside today. That’s bound to make any sparkling tired.”
Sam gave a distasteful huff. “I hate being a sparkling.” Bumblebee stopped what he was doing, and Sam realized what he had said. He sat up in alarm. “I mean, I just hate not being able to keep up with you guys. I mean I am one of you, but I suck at it.”
“You are simply new to it.” Bumblebee corrected. “Besides, when you were a human you slept way more.”
“Hey!”
“Well, you did. Now you stay up much longer. I do not think you could have stayed up five days in a row as a human. Although it was not for a lack of trying.” Ah yes, the time he aimed to stay up for a whole week without recharging. He had been miserable the last two days. Absolutely wretched to everyone. Ratchet had been furious. His personal best as a human had been broken though. He definitely surpassed his 78-hour record.
Sam giggled at his own antics.
“Recharge, Sam.” And with that comforting command, he did.
Sam realized they had never went to the rec room the day before. They also never ran into femmes. Sam hoped to keep up that streak, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Sam sat up and looked over to Bee’s berth where the mech was sitting reading a data pad. He gave a small chirp in greeting and Bee looked up in acknowledgement. His attention however was directed to the door. Maybe he got a com because he went over, unlocked, and opened the door. Elita One stood tall and imposing on the other side.
“Bumblebee, there you are.” She said coolly.
Bumblebee was taken aback at the sight of the femme leader. “Yes, uh, did you need something?”
“Yes actually, Optimus needs your help with something. I told him I would come get you.” She looked past him briefly and spotted Sam giving a pleasant smile.
“Oh. He does? Did I miss a com.” Bumblebee was genuinely confused.
“Nope. Nothing to worry about, sweetie. He didn’t have the chance.” Elita stepped into the room. “He is in his office.” She glanced around the place with a scrutinizing gaze, much like his mother after he was done picking up his room. “Wow, it looks much better in here, good job boys.”
Sam frowned at that.
With grace and authority, Elita successfully managed to chase Bumblebee off. “How are you, Sam?” she smiled delighted.
“Oh, I’m fine. I just…woke up.” He trailed off distracted. He hadn’t even really sat up yet. Recharge was still clouding his processor.
“Would you like to come with me to the rec room?” Even in his sleepy state he should have seen that coming.
Sam groaned. She probably chased Bumblebee off for the day. “Sure, why not.” He was sure it was biting. He could feel the angered warble in it.
Elita just smiled, probably blaming it on a cranky sparkling. Bleh. Elita dared scoop him. She was fast about it, pinning him to her chest in a way his mom did when he threw tantrums at the grocery store. Sam did not throw a tantrum. He was simply too tired still. He would let it slide just this once as he listened to the thrum of a spark that sounded like his mother’s heart. And just like that, another day was stolen away by fussy femmes.
The next day, Sam found himself dreading going anywhere near the rec room.
“Bee please, let’s hang out in our room.” Sam knew he let out a distressed chirp and cringed. Those femmes probably heard it and would be coming. They had gotten to close for Sam’s comfort to the rec room.
“If you want,” Bee conceded.
It did not take long for them to be tracked down. Arcee had opened their door as Sam sat coloring on the floor. He looked up at the femme appalled they had left the door unlocked.
“What are you guys doing?” She asked sweetly. Sam wanted to explode. Why couldn’t they leave him alone for even one day.
“Hanging out.” He gritted out pausing in flipping the pages.
“Mind if I join,” Sam did actually. This was his room! Well, his and bees. And he wanted privacy!
“NO!” Even Bee looked shaken at the outburst. “I mean not in here,” he quickly added quickly. “Let’s go to the rec room. There’s more room and we can get some energon.”
They walked to the rec room without saying a word. The whole time Sam was as close as he get to Bumblebee without tripping him. He wasn’t overly short, and Ratchet said he would actually get taller after upgrades. The universe was actually kind to him for once with that. He would have hated being proportionally the size of an eight-year-old to the bots all his robotic life. Right now, he stood at Bumblebee’s elbow. That was not tall at all compared to the other bots since Bee was shorter…shortest? Yep, probably the shortest. Maybe Cliffjumper or Jazz could be shorter. But no, Sam saw Jazz not laid back and slouching before and he was taller than Bee then.
Sam looked up at Bee with a silent appraisal. Bee noticed him staring and stared back only for Sam to look away leaving him bewildered.
Sam concluded that Bee was in fact the shortest. Something he knew he couldn’t share until he himself got taller.
“Sam there you are! We have more Energon goodies!” Moonracer’s greeting grated his audio receptors.
Sam actually felt sick to his stomache, or uh, tanks? Either way, he could not choke down another Energon goodie without purging.
“Ummm, no thanks, I’m good.” He scooted closer to Bee after declining. Though after the last month or so, he wasn’t sure Bee could save him from the femmes.
“Wh- what?” She seemed to deflate.
“I’m just not hungry.” He tried to placate.
“But you just said to Bumblebee you wanted energon.” Arcee supplied from behind him. If it could, his optic would be twitching.
“But that is like a drink, you know?” That look told him they did not know. He might as well tell the truth. “I think I’ve just had one too many energon treats for a while.” Bee had the gall to snicker beside him.
Sam knew the perfect way to get back at him and let the femmes know how his favourite list went.
When they sat down for the movie to start Sam purposely ignored the femmes moving to make spots for him to join or their hushed whispers of “over here Sam, here’s a spot”. He turned to Bee and pushed him into a spot dab smack in the middle of the femme hoard. They quickly made room for them both, but Sam had no intention to get on either side of Bee. Instead, he jumped right into his lap with a none too gentle plop that seemed to knock the air from Bee’s vents. He made sure to make himself comfortable by snuggling in close to his guardian as the movie opened.
As the movie slowly went on, he could feel the stares of the femmes on the both of them. Bee seemed to notice too since he sat with a stiff rigidness not common to him. The first time a femme tried to grab him he saw it from the corner of his optic and shifted before they even brushed his plating. The second time he took his arm and wrapped it around Bee’s neck and shifted until Bee’s hold was around his sides. Sam was practically buried in his chest plates, but it beat the femmes playing pass the sparkling. When he was genuinely tired and bored of the movie, he burrowed his face into the crook of Bees neck and stayed that way for a long while.
He hoped the femmes caught on that there was only one true favorite and that was his guardian. They chased off every bot, but they were trying to cross a dangerous line. No one tried to replace Bee. Sam almost felt bad for snapping at them, but they did not try to so blatantly chase him off again.