Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It had happened so fast, barely anyone had time to think about it. They were at one point playing around with a small remote toy and some dynamite they found somewhere within the mines (sometimes you don’t ask how these kids just discover certain things anymore) and the next moment they were staring at the gaping hole that was once Ratchet’s lab.

Nobody spoke. Nobody knew what to say. They were thinking all sorts of things however. They should have done this. They could have done that. They were in so much trouble. 

But in the end, they are left with the consequences of Ratchet’s wrath. Even Arcee, the one that warned the two mechs and three kids to be careful, was roped into this somehow and was part of the punished brigade when the Autobot Mech returned.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?!” His voice boomed across the lands. They could only hang their heads low since they knew they truly destroyed an important thing to the base. The human children were trying to say they weren’t at fault, to which Ratchet yelled back, “Just HOW was this not your fault? Please, I’m as you humans say, all ears.”

Of course the little humans, even the smartest one, didn’t know how to respond to that. So they just hung their heads just like the bots beside them. Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Arcee stood in line in front of Ratchet like students caught cheating in a math quiz.

“This will never be repaired! No!” He snapped suddenly to the three bots. “It WILL be repaired. By you three. You better pray you have this mess cleaned up by sunrise or so help me, the next time any of you come in knocked out from battle, you’ll have some parts in your mechanical bodies missing and replaced with a wind up toy monkey!”

Arcee really wished Ratchet hadn’t had the chance to take the kids to the toy store recently now.

“Get to it!” He said angrily and went off. Poor Optimus wanted to intervene but he knew that they had to face the consequences of their shenanigans at some point. He could only nod at them all as him and Ratchet left to go on patrol.

“Well, I'll take the east side of the mess.” Bulkhead offered.

“I’ll take the West.”

Bumblebee, in his whirls and beeps, said “I'll take the rest.”

It was technically his fault. He allowed the children to play around in the first place and was a little reckless with the toys, not realizing the dangerous dynamite and toys were attached together before he sent them off across the grounds. He was actually more glad the human children weren’t hurt.

The human children, given they were too small to really do much else than pick up trash, helped Bumblebee with his side.

Miko, the human female of the group jumped at one point, her back pocket rumbling. “Ugh, don’t tell me…” she said and read the text before rolling her eyes. “Again?! Come on, Ai! I don’t care!” She grumbled angrily and stuffed her phone back in her pocket.

“What’s up?” Raf asked as he walked towards the trash bin.

“It’s my cousin from Japan. She keeps trying to get me into this music thing she found online and I just hate the music! It’s dumb.” She said grabbing a soda can, checking to see if it was actually full of soda or not. Sadly, it was empty.

“Really? What’s it called?” Bulkhead asked, overhearing the conversation.

“It's called Miku something. It's a computer ai robot thing that sings any tune you make it into and I’m just not into that. Where is the heart? The love? The heavy metal?! The music with this thing is all girly and bouncy and it belongs in a 90’s anime.” She said.

“Can we hear?” The small boy asked, eyes all aglow. Miko chuckled despite herself and brought up her phone, mumbling about “You asked for it”.

The song that played next was something akin to a small girl with lots of auto tuning and electric sounds surrounding the chorus that almost drowned out her own voice. It was so distracting that each of the Autobots stopped their movements to listen curiously. Bumblebee seemed the most enthralled, coming down to the phone on the ground to stare at the image of a dancing girl that sang the song. Arcee was more disturbed hearing this “robotic” voice sound very unnatural saying the words. Even if she understood the words in another language, it was very odd to hear it from pieces of words put together for a song.

“This...is what people think what an AI robot sounds like?” She had to ask.

“This is what people WANT AI’s and robots to sound like.” Miko corrected with a shallow laugh. “It’s so not my cup of tea. High pitch singing make my ears bleed.”

“I kinda like it.” Raf said.

“You would. It’s sounds like a cartoon song than anything else.”

Raf blushed, but Bee backed him up with his own comment. Raf blinked confused and Arcee whirled around on Bumblebee surprised.

“You think I look like her?!” Arcee blurted out.

Bumblebee seemed to realize how that sounded and he held up his hands in defense, his voice whirling frantically.

“You think she’s pretty and blue like me?” Arcee said with a deadpan tone that showed he better have a better explanation than that.

Bumblebee flushed blue at the face, trying to explain further. Bulkhead was watching intensely, almost expecting a fight to break out while Jack, who had been quiet, stared on with a grin on his face.

“Bee, I think that’s sweet and all, but you know Autobots don’t sing. And I do not look like that thing.” She said and pointed at Jack, “No, don’t even comment.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything!” Jack said but his grin otherwise.

“Well, you don’t look like her or sound like her,” Miko said with a shrug. “But I bet you can dance like her if you tried.”

“Oh no.” Arcee said turning away from the music quickly. “Dancing doesn’t apply to us.” She said picking up a heavy piece and moving it to one side of the room.

“Aw, come on Arcee! I bet you’d be a great dancer. All that fighting out there is probably just all those dance moves you’ve been hiding from the world!” Miko said with a large smile. She turned to Bulkhead. “I bet you can dance.”

Bulkhead laughed. “Me? Oh no, never. I probably stamp out everything in my path.” He laughed.

“No way! I can prove you can dance!” Miko said.

“Oh great, not another project of yours, Miko.” Jack grumbled. “We’re busy with this.” And he waved his hand to the crater.

Miko ignored him, running to Raf’s backpack and pulling out a device he had despite the boy’s protests. She pressed a few buttons and a hologram came alive on top. “Ta da! We can use this! Is that okay, Raf?” She asked before already ignoring his reply. “Come on big guy, you can do it while you clean! I’ll help you!”

The next two hours was quite eventful to say the least.

Bulkhead had to go through some embarrassing trials with the music playing and following the movements of the tiny human person on Raf’s invention. Bumblebee was much quicker to learn the moves than him, given they were fast paced and Bee was nothing but quick feet. Soon the group found it was easier to start from ground zero with the big guy and do ballroom dancing. To get some rhythm going. And shockingly...he was good at it!

Lots of conversing went on during the clean up job along with laughter. It was a fun two hours for the group that spiraled into dancing history for the, to remember. The Autobots has many questions about dancing, finding out it was used for rituals of celebration and mating. Jack went on about what made certain forms more attractive than others. To this, Arcee would scold Jack when he went into too much detail and thought it to be made of lies.

“That’s it Bulkhead! One, two, three. One, two, three!” Miko said as Bulkhead twirled with Bumblebee in his arms. The scout happily volunteered to play the dance partner to help his buddy. They spun around the small space to “Moon River” sang by Audrey Hepburn. The calm singing helped Bulkhead relax and he was soon getting the steps.

“I’m doing it!” He cried out as he brought Bee into a dip. “How am I doing?”

Bee grinned, “Great, big guy!” He whirled in his strangled voice.

Arcee was still not done with her side and smirked at the two. “Aren’t you just the cutest pair.” She snickered. “I should record this for Wheeljack somehow.” She laughed.

“Please, don’t.” Bulkhead begged as the song came to a close. Bee bowed ladylike, making the kids laugh. He took notice that Raf was yawning a lot and bent down to say it was time to go home.

“I’ll take them.” Bulkhead said. Despite his lessons, he was quick to clean his spot. “You two finish up.” He offered. Arcee found no complaints as Jack waved them off and Miko hopped into the front seat of Bulkhead. Bee voiced his apology for breaking his humans toy and Raf waved him off.

“I'll make another one tomorrow. No worries.” He said with a smile. “See you tomorrow guys!” He yelled and Bulkhead drove off with the kids inside.

Arcee chuckled at them leaving. “Those kids...can you believe half the stuff they say?” She said with a small grin.

Bumblebee shrugged, sending a message, “They have a culture surrounding it like the kids explained. I wouldn’t doubt they honor it and enjoy it.”

“Well I know they had a millennia to build that up,” Arcee waved him off. “I’m just saying I’m shocked to hear it.” She said picking up the last parts of her mess. “I mean, it’s crazy to think even animals like birds do that sort of thing. Dancing around for a mate ritual.”

Bumblebee laughed, “Maybe some bots should give that a try instead of flirting. It would probably save them some time.”

At that Arcee had to laugh, pointing at him. “Don’t give them any ideas.”

The two chuckled and fell into comfortable silence for a moment. Soon enough Arcee grew curious about the hologram. The femme didn’t want to admit that she was curious to try this “dancing” herself. Not with so many prying eyes. She glanced to Bumblebee, seeing his back was turned. He wasn’t watching per say...and even if he did, it was Bumblebee. Any judgements he may have will stay with himself.

So she reached over to press the button of the hologram machine as a song started to play. This was a little more upbeat than the ones Bulkhead was dancing to. And because of this, the hologram of a female was shaking her hips and swaying her body around in what she thought were “snake like”. Arcee was confused by this but memorized the movements. It made fluid actions with her arms and her legs and Arcee felt these were a little dramatic for just a little display. Still with no hesitation, her body started to go along with the moves of the hologram.

Bumblebee heard the music but thought it was just the music playing by itself and didn’t mind listening to it. However, hearing the heavy footwork behind him made him look behind his back. He literally made a double take at what he witnessed!

Arcee was dancing. But not just dancing. No, it felt much more than that. Otherwise Bumblebee would not have been as entranced as he was. He wouldn’t have been staring at her unable to tear his optics away.

Whatever Bulkhead or any of the humans were doing, it was not like this. Arcee was moving her shoulders and hips to the rhythm almost perfectly. The blue femme was concentrating on the song and not him, so Bumblebee was free to openly gawk at her. At one point she raised her arms over her head and brought them down over her body; gliding down over her shoulders and chest and swaying waist...

Funny things started to happen as he kept on staring at her. If he had a proper throat, he would have swallowed the lump that formed in there. His circuits felt like they were twisting around each other inside his lower abdomen, like wires were disconnecting and reconnecting in the wrong places. Not only that, the temperature in the room felt a lot warmer.

Arcee was probably the most oblivious threat to him ever. Because not even Megatron himself could distract him from her act. Nothing could tear his optics away.

Arcee turned around finally, still copying the hologram, and flushed in the face to realize Bumblebee was staring at her with an intense gaze. It startled her by how intense it was. “Bee?” She said. When no response came she tried again louder. “Bumblebee!”

That got the scout. He snapped his eyes up to her and his whole face lit up like a headlight. He jumped to his feet and tripped over himself to fall flat on his aft.

“Geez, calm down, Bee!” She said stepping over to him to help him up. The scout was almost too flustered to take her hand, embarrassed with himself. “What was that about?”

The yellow bot was avoiding her eye, staring at anything but her face and especially her body. It was dangerous to dare to even think of her form since his circuits were still acting up.

“Bee?” She tilted her head, placing her hands on her hips. He cleared his throat and she eyed him suspiciously. “Not to sound too forward but...were you staring at me in a inappropriate fashion like Jack was talking about earlier?”

Bee couldn’t have felt more mortified. Jack’s specific words he remembered were, “Some guys like to see girls dance because it's hot and they want to go out with her down the line and...dance too.” The bots were at a point they knew enough of the language to know what he truly meant though…

“You...danced too well.” He said finally.

Arcee nodded slightly, “Well thank you. I was trying to just...test it out myself. See how hard it could be.” She said, sounding like she was trying to justify her need to dance an obvious obscene performance for nobody. Well...almost nobody.

Bumblebee tapped is foot nervously, afraid where this will lead to. “It was very distracting.” He admitted. “I mean, you danced very well. And,” he struggled to get the words out. “I think you would be great at more dances.”

Arcee stared at the yellow bot who looked more blue from his blushing than anything else. Her own faceplates felt they were turning blue too and she turned around quickly to hide the smile that was growing on her face. “That so?” She said, a smile in her voice.

Bumblebee felt relieved to hear the tone and nodded. “Oh yeah! You did a better job than the hologram itself! I would love to see you do more!”

Arcee turned to him a raised brow and a wicked grin. “Oh WOULD you?” She nearly laughed and Bumblebee, shameful, shrugged shyly. Arcee laughed, shaking her head. “You are too much. Next time you’ll be the one dancing and I’ll watch.” She swore.

“I don’t think I could move like you do, Arcee...it wouldn’t have the same affect either. I can assure you that.” Bumblebee said, stepping away from her to finish up his cleaning. The two continued their chore,the music still playing and now and again, one would catch the other tapping their feet to the beat.

When Bulkhead returned, the area was cleaned up and empty.

Chapter Text

Bumblebee was doing his rounds outside of the Nevada landscape when he heard a beeping noise. A distress signal? Arcee was on the other side of the ridge by now, it would take a while for her to get to his position if he asked her to come look with him. So for now, he’ll just investigate on his own.

Honestly, he wanted some space. Recently a lost comrade showed up. Someone he knew in fact; Windblade. For the past week the two were inseparable, catching up to old times. But it caused some weird vibes to arise in the Autobot group because of this. Particularly with Arcee…

The scout couldn’t explain it. Everytime the femme entered the room, Arcee just suddenly dropped into a sour mood. Bee tried to talk to her about it, but she always brushed him off saying stuff like “I’m not bothered” or “Go on and talk to, Windblade.”

It was all so very confusing. Even Raf didn’t have any idea what was going on with her.

So, this trip to patrol with said temperamental femme was bound to be an awkward one. He was less than lenient to call her for backup.

Bumblebee followed the signal to a space behind large rocks that could hide anyone for an ambush. Bee approached with caution.

As soon as he stepped into the clearing behind the rocks however, he was greeted with a frantic face and claws extending to grab him lightning fast! They didn’t harm him however. Instead, they grabbed him to yank him behind the rocks to hide and only gripped onto him tightly. The shock was enough to make him stumble forward and lose balance but the holder wouldn’t loosen their hold. But that wasn’t the strangest thing about this.

It was Starscream.

“Bumblebee! Oh, thank the stars! Just the bot I wanted to see!” he said, the words spilling out of his mouth quickly.

Bumblebee went on alert, about to pull up his guns, but Starscream was quick to stop him with his pleading.“Oh no, no, no! Please! Hear me out.” he begged.

The scout eyed him and still raised his arm guns to the Decepticon. He bleeped out some words, “What do you want, Starscream?”

“I need your help!”

That was odd. Not new, but definitely odd.

“Help you with what?” he asked suspiciously.

“You brought in that new Autobot to your base, did you not?” the frantic jet plane bot rambled out.

Now Bee was confused but concerned. What would he want with his old friend? But he nodded all the same.

“I think...I think I’m in love!”

The world stopped. The air stood still. And it felt like Unicron himself appeared to tell him that he was going to become a circus monkey and tap danced away. Bumblebee was speechless. Well, more so than usual.

“I beg your pardon?” Bee asked in slow bleeps.

“I know it sounds baffling. Me? Falling in love with someone? Let alone an AUTOBOT? Let alone an autobot that I just met?” Starscream rambled, All he said made complete sense and Bumblebee only grew more confused. “Well, I assure you, it's not without reason. For you see young bot, it all started with a strange dream I had when all rulers of Cybertron are gone and I was going to run for its new king!”

Bumblee tuned him out, deciding he needed backup. This was an emergency no bot alive can handle alone. “Arcee? Arcee, do you copy?”

“What?” came the snippy tone through the comlinks.

“I may be in a situation I can’t handle alone…” Bumblebee tried to say without sounding intimidated by her tone.

“Oh really? That’s surprising. You barely were alone this week.” she replied, still snippy.

“Arcee, I’m with Starscream.” Bee said in as serious tone he can convey through the coms.

“...Alright. I’m coming, You sound fine though. What’s going on? Are you spying on him?” Arcee finally dropped her strange attitude to get back into business. The scout was relieved. If anything could snap Arcee out of anything, it was the prospect of beating Decepticons.

“No. He’s talking to me right now.”

“What? He’s not messing with you is he?”

“No.”

“Is he trying to recruit you?”

“No.”

“Then what is he talking about?”

“Well that’s where I need your help. See, he’s telling me he’s in love-”

Bumblebee could have sworn he heard the screech of wheels on the other end along with a strangled “WHA-” before the line was cut off. Bumblebee stood there contemplating just booking it, before turning back to Starscream who was still babbling oddly enough. He didn’t seem to notice Bee took a break.

“-And then I actually CHEERED for her being crowned king of Cybertron. ME! I allowed her to take MY position! I was actually happy for her. Now tell me, what sort of nonsense is that?” the Con asked. Bee could only stare and Starscream dropped to his knees at the scout. “Please help me, Bumblebee! I know we’ve had our differences, but please offer kindness on one so love-struck?I just need to know...what is she like? She holds so many mysteries that I need to uncover. Like what is her name?”

Bumblebee looked around, almost expecting someone to jump out and yell “Surprise!” to end this joke. But none came. Starscream just finally lost his mind.

“Uh...her name is Windblade.” he said at last.

“WINDBLADE, I might have known! Such a melodious sound.” he sang. Bumblebee was starting to feel worried for this Con now.

“Uh, Starscream? Are you sick?”

“Sickly in LOVE!” Starscream sang and approached Bumblebee. “Tell me more.”

Bumblebee backed up, just in time to see two wheels appear from behind and slam right into Starscream’s face and send him sprawling on the ground. Arcee transformed right away and pressed a gun to his neck.

“YOU STAY AWAY FROM HIM, YOU SICKO!” Arcee bellowed at the Con that saw stars dance in his eyes. “Bumblebee? Are you okay? Did he do anything to you?”

Bumblebee shook his head, stepping over. “He wasn’t hurting me. He was just talking to me.”

“I don’t care if he was holding flowers and a bubble gun. This nutjob is NOT going near you! Little fragging freak, saying he is in love with you- what sort of scrap is that?!” she raged, pressing her gun down on the mech who whined in protest.

The yellow bot stood there blinking in surprise before waving his hands frantically at Arcee. “No! No, no, no, Arcee! It's not like that! He wasn’t saying he loved me. He was saying he loved Windblade back at the base.”

Arcee only got angrier it seemed and she stamped on Starscream’s face. “WHY? Oh my Sparticus, does everyone have to fall for that-” she started to ramble before stepping off the mech altogether and stormed away for a second. “Okay, fine. That’s his problem. Why are you still here talking to him?”

“He seems actually confused. I feel bad leaving him here. And he wants advice. Maybe you can…” Bumblebee tried to explain weakly.

“Advice for what?” Arcee seethed quietly.

“How do you court an Autobot?” Starscream suddenly appeared between them, staring at the blue femme with the same desperate gaze. Arcee cried out in surprise and then backed away from the delusional Con. “Please, small Autobot femme. I must know. What must I do to get her affections?”

Arcee stared wide eyed at the mech like he grew flowers on his chest. She turned to Bee with a “Are you serious” expression while Bee shrugged helplessly.

“This is on levels of weird I can’t even dream of.” Arcee shook her head slowly.

“Please!”

“Alright, alright! Geez! Calm your servos.” Arcee said waving at the mech. She rubbed at the place between her optics, breathing in deeply. “Okay, um...what do you want to know?”

“How would I gain the attention of the Windblade?” Starscream asked without hesitation.

“Heh, how about you ask Bumblebee here?” she asked eying the bot who jumped slightly.

“Me? How would I know?” he asked genuinely confused.

Arcee rolled her eyes. “Ugh, forget it.”

Now this was just starting to hurt Bumblebee’s feelings. These mixed signals were not nice or fun.

“I ask you because you are a femme,” Starscream continued, ignoring the obvious love triangle mess. “What of you? How would you want a mech to court you for your affections?”

At this, Arcee blushed blue in the faceplates, optics snapping to Bee who looked just as shocked but was also looking at her curiously for her answer. She snapped them away, frowning to hide any embarrassed emotion boiling up in her gut. The Decepticon was not a fool. He knew exactly what he saw. And for that, he grinned.

“Or...a better question is how would you want a mech YOU fancy to court you?” he asked snively. Arcee sent him a glare to try and shut him up. And after a staring contest, the blue Autobot yielded.

“If you must know…” she started, pausing to gather her nerve. Bumblebee found himself holding his breath and Starscream impatiently urged her to hurry up.. “He wouldn’t have to try too hard. Bots who try too hard look pathetic. And...he wouldn’t have to anyway. He is already sweet and brave and cunning...if the one I am thinking about should ever think to court me...I wouldn’t mind if he asked to take me out for a drive. Nothing special. Just a drive. Me and him. Just to know he was thinking of me and wanted to spend time with me.”

The space between Bee and Arcee felt much shorter then. Perhaps it's because Bumblebee actually stepped closer to listen to Arcee, but somehow he felt a stirring in him. His insides fluttered at her words and Bumblebee didn’t know why he was growing so excited.

Was that all it took?

“Well, as great as that may sound, how does that help me? I can’t drive. Neither can she. She flies. Like me.” Starscream said with an almost smug air to him and breaking the silence between the two Autobots.

“Then take a flight around the desert.” Arcee said, glaring at the bot.

“True. Alright then, what else?”

Arcee groaned, rubbing her neck. “Uh, tell her she’s a great fighter.”

“Never saw her fight.”

“I was talking about what I would want still.”

“Still not helping me.”

“Then tell her she’s pretty!” Arcee snapped angrily.

“Cliche, but it might just work.” Starscream went on. “What else?” he nearly bounced on his heels.

“Primus, did you drink something before coming here?” Arcee said with a concerned tone.

“I think I crashed actually before sending out a distress signal so I’m a little out of sorts.” Starscream answered truthfully.

“How about…” Bumblebee spoke up gaining their attention. “Tell her she’s...smart. And Brilliant.”

“Oh, very good!” Starscream said as Arcee blinked in surprise at Bumblebee.

“And that no other bot could compare to her. Because none can hold your attention like she does.” Bumblebee continued, his eyes drifting from Starscream to Arcee. She blushed under his stare, her insides fluttering at his words. “And that you’d like to take many drives to many places in the future.”

The silence that stretched between the two went on. Autobot and Autobot kept on staring into each other’s optics until-

“Ugh, you two are like two twiddle birds throwing love stones. You’re not help at all. I’ll just catch her when she flies and demand she follow me. So ta-ta to you both and try not to...as they say, “get nasty” out here when I’m gone.” Starscream said with a wicked grin. With that said, he transformed and flew off into the skies, leaving a blushing duo behind.

They stood there in the embarrassed wake of the Decepticon for some time before Arcee spoke up first.

“Let’s never speak of this again. That was just too weird.”

“Agreed.” Bumblebee nodded, more than happy to erase the evening from his mind. As Arcee was about to transform, Bee grabbed her arm. “Uh, Arcee? How about we just...take a walk back this time?” he offered, smiling shyly at her.

Surprised, Arcee agreed. She smiled up at the mech as her hands slipped into his own and the two quietly walked back to base. They took their time as dawn rose and the two saw Windblade was the first to take a small voyage into the world, flying off the top of the base. Arcee and Bumblebee had to watch in strange fascination when Starscream appeared beside Windblade and guided her to a rock formation a ways away. Probably to talk.

Even from where they stood, they could see Windblade slap Starscream clear across the face. Perhaps their advice didn’t go that well afterall