Chapter Text
Team prime was going through the usual rotations, patrolling Jasper, scouting for the already decoded relics, studying the recovered ones, mining for energon. The day had been rather lax, no school Monday so the kids had a long weekend so spend with the bots. Raf watched as Optimus typed away at the main console. He was tense; more than usual, which was saying something. His optics were trained on the monitor unwavering. Even when Ratchet gave him an update, the prime kept typing with not much more than a nod and a thank you. It was practically the norm that everyone was just generally worried that Optimus worked too hard and that there wasn’t much anyone could do about it.
Raf looked away and down at his laptop, going over some notes from class to study. There wasn’t any homework since it was a holiday, but he wanted to keep up. Plus his mother insisted. Miko was psyched to not have homework. He teased that she never did it anyway to which she just told him to shut up. Bee leaned over the railing looking down and asking questions about different things on the diagrams. Raf would give a short explanation and usually brough up things unique to earth in the process. After he’d always ask what parallels and differences there were to Cybertron.
Bumblebee didn’t often talk about his old home, since he had already decided that Earth was his home now. He would entertain Raf’s curiosity though. He wasn’t a science expert like Ratchet and Raf were, so the scout couldn’t bond with the human over that. Raf was young, however, and apparently young human males like fast cars, so he had that going for him. Plus, his young friend had introduced him to the wonderful world of the internet which kept them both perfectly occupied. Though, he has gotten in trouble a few times for losing track of time looking at memes.
The signature sound of the only other high-performance engine on the team made the pair turn toward the entrance. Smokescreen transformed and did a small jump once he was fully bipedal. He shook of some of the desert sand and stretched his servos above his helm arching his back struts. His wings gave a little flutter and he let out a satisfied groan as he lowered his arms.
“I so needed that!” Smokescreen piped. Optimus turned wholly from the monitor to face Smoke.
“The drills were removed from the collapse site but no new tunnels for searching or rescue appeared to have been made, sir. The tread marks seemed recent, though. They’ll probably come back.”
Raf didn’t really listen to what Smokescreen was saying, he was too enraptured by Optimus’ attentiveness to their newest recruit. From the moment he started talking, Optimus’ shoulder plates lowered, relaxed, and his servos stopped twitching from anxiety to keep working. The humans’ brows furrowed; this definitely wasn’t the first time that something like this had happened. A few weeks ago, the Prime was rejecting anyone’s insistence that he needed to rest, Ratchet had asked multiple times and stormed off grumbling about how stubborn their leader was. However, when Smokescreen mentioned going to berth only once, Optimus had no hesitation to agree.
Last month, Smokescreen had been captured and taken aboard the decepticon warship. He was ambushed after going for a drive to cool off. The other bots tried to save him but were seconds late and he was dragged away. Coming back to base after the failure felt like trudging through tar. Bee talked to Raf when he drove him to school the next day. Raf wasn’t there, but he could practically hear the anguish in Optimus’ voice from Bumblebee’s recounting. Raf knew that the whole team cared for each other like family, but Prime had never acted like this with anyone else. Even when Arcee nearly died in the first few days of their meeting.
The same dawn, they lost the omega keys they had just gotten. Optimus seemed shattered, Raf had heard from Bulkhead how the prime had screamed into the sky. Smokescreen had gone to see him after overhearing the wrecker sharing with the human what had happened. Surprisingly, the next morning, they both seemed better, not amazing but definitely better than before. Smokescreen had been viciously interrogated a few days ago and for the first time in what Ratchet had said was millions of years, Optimus lost his cool. Yet, they were both calm and back to their usual routine just the next day.
Most astounding was what had occurred multiple months ago. Arcee had blown up at the new recruit after he endangered Jack when retrieving the Star Saber. June had a firm tone when disappointed and Raf’s own mother could give quite the lecture when he was in trouble, but Arcee crossed a line. The kid seemed crushed. Till he was properly acquainted with protocol Smoke was confined to base. He had been wandering around the deeper halls when Raf could have sworn he heard the sound of crying. There was some noise on top on the mountain they were inside of but proximity sensors said it was just Smokescreen hanging out up top. An hour later, Optimus followed to speak with him. When they both came back to the main hub, Smokescreen had looked like he won an energon lottery. What he had heard from the rookie behind him earlier didn’t match his current demeanor at all.
Raf was pulled out of his reminiscing by the movement of the rookie headed to the wash racks. He jerked an opposable digit while balanced on one leg before following the motion with his body and heading down the hall. Optimus had smiled and nodded in response, his gaze lingering a moment after the interaction had ended. Raf forced himself to stop staring at the two and turned back to his laptop. He was only confused for a moment before a theory his him like Breakdown’s hammer. ‘They’re in love!’ Not just secretly pining, they were actively dating each other. He sat back, pushed up his glasses, and smiled to himself. All of the odd interactions that had happened before suddenly seemed an obvious indication that there was something more than leader and soldier between the two Cybertronians. Raf sat up and refocused on his work, happy to see his team finding joy in their hard lives.
Bumblebee had been watching Raf this whole time and finally nudged him about his odd behaviors and gasp a few minutes ago. His brow plate arched in confusion. He gave his unique coded laugh about how Raf seemed to be completely in his own world just before. Raf attempted to play dumb for a moment. He didn’t care that he acted weird but if the couple hadn’t come out on their own, they probably didn’t want the information out. Bee insisted he knew the human too well, putting his servos on his hips as he inquired again.
“Well… I don’t think it’s really my secret to tell, but I think Optimus and Smokescreen like each other. I think they may even be dating.”
There was a pause before the autobot responded. “Ah, so you’ve noticed.” Bee did a reverse nod and shifted his weight backwards appearing more relaxed.
“What do you mean?” Raf whispered. The human perked up at an alluded confirmation. He closed his laptop and gave his guardian his full attention.
Bee lowered his communication pitch to lessen the volume, the closest thing he could get to whispering. “I mean, you think right. They are.”
“How do you know? They told you?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
There was clear awkwardness in his code, so he didn’t press further. Raf wasn’t one to pry, but he got information anyway since Bumblebee was overjoyed about finally having someone to talk to. He couldn’t quite vent to the young child how he actually found out because he walked in on them interfacing, but it was nice to finally talk about the general scenario; since the couple themselves clearly weren’t.
While they both understood privacy, they couldn’t quite get why the two were so secretive about it. Maybe Optimus was shy? That word just didn’t fit the mech, and they never showed any signs, not intentionally and even then, everything was subtle. The most anyone could notice on the regular was Optimus’ attentiveness to Smokescreen and Smokescreen’s hysteria over the Prime’s existence. That could all be chalked up to Smokescreen being new, young, and needing a little more watch. Bee relayed to Raf how he had told Smokescreen it’d be better if they came out, but the white mech had danced around the question with no real answer.
Smokescreen had told Bee some details after the ‘incident’. He only really knew that Optimus made the first move, and they were madly in love. Raf smiled at every new piece of information. The human told about the events he had noticed before and pointed out where he had identified signs in hind sight. After pondering for a moment, Bee slapped his servo to his helm crest. He held his servos palm up and tilted his helm back.
“How did I not see it before!” He and Raf laughed together.
“Don’t beat yourself up, I only just realized today.”
“Realize what?”
The boys immediately went silent as a female voice broke through their conversation. Bee was going to shoot a playful jab at Raf at the unusual sassy comment, but couldn’t bring himself to make a sound with Miko boring holes into his chassis with her gaze. They stared at her like she was a T-rex; maybe if they don’t move, she will just go away. Miko squinted and crossed her arms walking over to Raf. She’d try to intimidate Bee, but she wouldn’t understand anything he said anyway.
“I said ‘realize what?’ what did you just realize?”
“Miko, stop interrogating them,” Jack piped up from his position on the couch.
“They were whispering back and forth,” Miko dropped her voice at the word ‘whisper’ as imitation before returning to full volume when she spoke again. “You can’t say you aren’t curious, people only whisper when they have something to hide~!” Miko sang more and more as her sentence continued.
Bumblebee’s wings dropped; he didn’t like how fast the news was spreading. Technically he hadn’t told Raf, but he still spilt details and gave solid confirmation. Raf looked up at him silently asking for what to do. Bee just took steps back and shrunk in on himself. He didn’t have a clue what to tell his friend. This wasn’t keeping some negative thing hidden that he could get teased around, but Miko was unpredictable and could make a scene. The scout didn’t want to think about how Optimus would react to such an invasion of his private life.
“We…” Raf looked anywhere but the girl’s eyes.
She leaned in, turning her head to the side as if to hear better. “Yes?” she dragged out as she inched forward.
“We were talking about Optimus-,” Raf realized he didn’t have to say more and promptly shut his mouth.
Miko looked up with a raised brow at the former archivist. He sure had a lot of secrets, but they were usually war and battle related. Stuff that he wanted private because it was traumatizing. Yet, Raf and Bee were laughing which didn’t add up.
“What about him?” Miko finally lowered her voice to match the boys.
Bee sagged and waved a nondescriptive servo towards Raf. “Might as well tell her, she’s not gonna leave you alone.”
“What’d he say!?”
Raf chose to divulge the information rather than directly answering Miko by quoting his friend before doing so, avoiding unnecessary translating. “We think-” Raf was cut off as his guardian chirped at him before recoiling in on himself a moment. Now this was really getting Miko’s attention. Raf continued, “We know, that he and Smokescreen… a-are dating.”
Raf and Bee winced in preparation for her to scream. Point and yell. Run off to tell someone else. Her eyes lit up and she looked at their leader with a big smile. She leaned in and in the quietest voice they had ever heard from the loud teen, Miko said, “Aw, that’s so sweet.”
The boys were shocked and at their expressions Miko crossed her arms and shifted her weight to one leg. “Hey, I do have some restraint.”
“That’s a shock.” All heads turned to Jack, who had heard the whole interaction.
‘Slag, now almost every human knows!’ Bee withheld the urge to show physical reactions.
“I’m surprised but also not, ya know?” Jack spoke kicking one leg over the back of the couch and leaning his back against the arm rest. “Like, Smokescreen idolizes Optimus and Optimus has been really welcoming.”
Bumblebee nodded. “That’s what I’ve noticed,” Raf translated.
The boys turned to see Miko walk over to the balcony and lean against it. Seeing she wasn’t running off to do trouble, the others turned back to continue their conversation. The girl turned around and went on looking at the team’s leader. He was always so stoic and Smokescreen so reckless, one would think that their personalities would grind on each other violently. However, she had noticed that drastic gap beginning to close. Optimus was becoming slightly more conversational and Smokescreen was a fast learner around protocol. Them being together made so much sense. Rather than the contrast be an issue, they helped share where the other needed improvement.
Miko’s smile grew as she kept thinking. Above everything they were just so cute! Smokescreen was a fanboy from the beginning and now they were in a relationship. Miko could only imagine how they started out, how absolutely flabbergasted the rookie must have been. She had so many questions, but it was not like she would get answers. She doubted anyone would talk. On the other hand, Raf, Jack, and herself just figured out today, but Bee already knew. She bet that the whole team did, but just kept the secret out of worry for the humans reaction to robots in love. She rolled her eyes before she turned to look at the boys, they were occupied. She slipped off her shoes and used the quiet of her socks to sneak down the steps and over to the training room.