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“Please don’t tell me he was spying on us”.
Optimus turned to the other of Bumblebee’s side. He didn’t want to see the despair in his eyes, those sad, earth-puppy looking blue eyes, so childish for someone who’s been through so much pain. Eyes with pupils, widening at the sight of Sam.
Sam. The human kid. So small in comparison to the impact he had on the Autobots, those ones who left. So important yet so fragile. Not only physically as they’ve discovered.
Not like Prime himself had any illusions about the little human but it was nice not to notice the weakness that was always lurking in him. The weakness so big that it filled Sam to the edge.
He never told anyone of his subordinates but he was relieved when the NEST decided to keep Sam distant. He was neither a solider nor a civil servant. There was no point in keeping him near to them. But most importantly there was a danger in it.
Sam is weak. He could have betrayed them, could have made a mistake it would take too much of efforts to fix.
And he did. Now, at the moment of their most vulnerability, when they were ‘leaving’ the Earth. He betrayed them.
Humans have a saying “misfortune never comes alone”. How tooting of them.
Optimus couldn’t find enough power in himself to tell Bumblebee the truth.
“Go and see yourself”.
He always was like this. Shifting his responsibilities and duties onto the shoulders of others. If it wasn’t the life or death question he never really put efforts. He was saving energy for something really important.
He is a leader, not a mom for his troops. It was his excuse to keep his own hands clean of lots of troubles and unnecessary emotions.
“Make it quick”.
He passed by Bumblebee, and he had to lower the sound on his sensors because his steps were too loud in the silence under the ship and in his own head.
Let the Primes see how he hated such moments. He would never get used to them.
Bumblebee went to Sam, hurried anxious steps, now way less loud, and Optimus unconsciously stopped, listening to their short dialogue. A human would never notice the click of silence, when, Prime knew, bot’s sensors discovered the watch-con on Sam’s hand.
Such a small moment, such a little detail. Like a dot in the end of a long story.
He continued his way to the ship. He had orders to give and people to organize, he didn’t have time for Bumblebee temper tantrums and existential questions. Nor did he have any answers.
Personally he would like to know why Sam did it. Why he betrayed them. Personally not like the persona of Optimus Prime but like an Orion Pax he once was. Orion would spend days to figure out this little human’s logic, his reasoning, the way he thinks. Orion would join Bumblebee in his relationship mourning.
Optimus Prime would would not.