Chapter Text
1999–5 years after the events of the movie.
Noah combed his fingers through his daughters hair delicately, careful of any knots. Jody was very tender-headed, a metal comb was her worse enemy. But the man is happy to step to the plate and do his daughter hair for the day. Her hair was a 3A, so learning how to take care of her hair was a little work in the beginning.
Noah had always kept his hair short for the most part and never did much with it. And he always trusted his mama to be there when he needed help with his curls. Brianna and him had the same type curls so she always did what she did on her hair on his. But she couldn’t do that for Jody. So after several hair magazines, and talks with hair stylists from the salon down the block, later Noah was finally able to do his daughters hair.
He then went through the process of teaching Mirage all he had learned so the bot could do it too if Noah was u available for some reason. The Porsche seemed to understand all the knowledge quickly and was able to do Jody’s hair for the next week while Noah was on a solo mission for the Joes.
“Sweetheart, now remember, when you meet the Autobots they won’t be like your father, ya hear me?” He asked his daughter, starting on parting her hair for pigtails . “They can be a little…”
“Bitchy?” Jody supplies, grinning.
Noah chuckles slightly. He has a suspicion on where she got the word from; from his own mouth. Or maybe from her father, he does love playing hiphop songs on the radio that are the most kid friendly.
Mirage and him had discussed when they first adopted the kid that they wouldn’t set up a strict cussing rule.
Noah knew that if they didn’t let her cuss in front of them she would still do it behind their backs. And they didn’t want her to get in the habit of doing stuff behind their backs. They couldn’t afford for something bad to happen to their precious daughter without their knowledge.
“Yeah, ‘bitchy’, they can be quite the talkers too. So if you get overwhelmed, just notify me or your father.” Noah reassured her.
Jody didn’t do well with people. She would freeze up and refuse to talk. Recently it’s happened far less, especially with the help of giving her an object to distract her from the people. But there are days where the kid just can’t take it, and Noah makes sure to be there when that happens.
“I will!” Jody nodded quickly.
She fidgeted with the Sonic toy in her hands, turning it this way and that. Her nails were the same color as the blue for the toy’s quills, personally done by Charlie herself.
Charlie and Elena are the only people, besides Noah’s family, that know of his daughter. When they first adopted Jody, two years ago, Mirage didn’t think it was a good idea to tell the Autobots he had a child, said it would “get Optimus on his case.” Which, fair enough. Noah could see how adopting a child with a different species might cause Optimus to get involved.
And there was no way they were telling the G.I.Joes.
So they only told Noah’s mother and brother, who were both very supportive and love Jody to death, and Charlie and Elena, who were also very supportive and love taking Jody out of girl days.
“That’s good to hear.” He finished up her hair and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Now go and get your bag and we’ll meet M’rage out front.”
Jody squealed, quickly heading to grab her bag. She shuffled down the hall and into her room, ruffling through her stuff to find her bag. She had a bag that she took everywhere, it’s a red one with Spider-Man on the back. Inside are comics,-ones Kris didn’t want anymore—her favorite snacks, a walkie talkie, and a coloring book paired with a small box of crayons.
“Hey hot stuff, you guys almost ready to head on out?” Spoke from a very familiar voice, close behind Noah. The man turned around to see a tall slender man with dark navy hair standing there, smirk on his face.
“Mirage…” Noah smiles “how long you been standing there?”
The holoform stalked over, confidence clear in his swagger. His skin was tan with multiple lighter scars scattered all over. Some were newer, most were very old. His eyes were an unnatural blue, bright and pretty, shining with specks of white. And his hair was a dark navy—that could almost be mistaken for blue until the sun hit it—with streaks of a much bright blue throughout it.
“Not too long.” Mirage pulled Noah in by his waist, inching their faces together. His eyes flickered to the man’s lips as his hand came up to hold the side of his face. “Just long enough to hear how ‘bitchy’ my colleagues can be.” He snickered lightly, and god did he look beautiful.
Noah groaned but it was quickly, and welcomely was cut off by mirage pulling their lips together.
Noah will never fully get used to the kisses.
He melted into the embrace quickly, bringing his arms up to hang off Mirage’s neck. The holoform went to poke his tongue against his sparkmate’s mouth when a squeal came from the doorway.
“Papa!” Jody grinned big and ran over to her dads, pigtails jumping wildly.
Mirage pulled away from the kiss with a slight need in his eyes and a flicker of light annoyance at being cut off from a makeout sesh. But it quickly was replaced with joy as he turned to his daughter. “Hey sparkling!” He squatted down and held his arms out for Jody. She ran into him, almost knocking him down. “Woah! Getting strong there squirt!”
Jody giggled as she tried to squeeze Mirage even harder. The man exaggeratedly let out a groan, pretending he was hurt. Jody seemed to believe it though, her smile becoming even wider and her eyes shining even brighter.
God did Noah love moments like this. Like golden moments where he can enjoy his family. His sparkmate and daughter giggling and smiling without a care in the world. The man swears they have matching grins, how they both have a dimple on the left side and both of their right canines are a little crooked
He’d prefer Mirage to be in his root form though.
Sometimes it felt like the autobot stayed in his holoform as a form of hiding himself. It happened a lot when they first adopted her.Like he was scared Jody wouldn’t like him in his true form. Which was completely wrong. Jody loved Mirage, whether he was in root form, holoform, or alt form.
It doesn’t matter what form he’s in, he’s still her father. And slowly, very slowly, Mirage has been accepting that fact. Believing it.
“You ready to meet the big guys?” Mirage asked, pulling Jody away slightly to see her face. She quickly nodded.
“I wanna meet Arcee!” She said excitedly. From all the duo has told their daughter about the Autobots, Arcee was her favorite. Jody thought she was ‘cool’ and ‘badass’ so yeah.
Noah chuckled and went to pick up the girl. “Well today’s the day! Let’s go load up. Babe can you grab her bag?”
Mirage smiled and got up from his squatting position, “Sure thing my love.” He quickly grabbed the Spider-Man backpack and headed to the door, letting Noah follow.
When they get to the porsche Noah finally lets Jody down, letting the kid run to get in. When the door is closed the man looks over at Mirage’s holoform.
“Remember, if Optimus gives you shit,” he steps closer and puts a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t take it. Don’t let him ruin our family, don’t let him take you from me, from her. I can’t lose you again Mirage.”
A deep love erupts from within Mirage and he knows he would do anything to stay by Noah and Jody’s side. No matter if he’s labeled as a traitor or he’s seen as weak for falling inlove with a doomed being. He would fight Optimus Prime face to face if it meant he stayed by his family.
“It’s okay Noah,” Mirage smiled reassuringly.
The last time Mirage said that he died, Noah didn’t know how he was supposed to feel about that. He tried not to think of it like that. If he lost the bot another time Noah thinks he would break. The only thing that would keep him sane would be Jody, but he couldn’t raise her by himself.
How would she react? Terribly. For sure.
The man let out a shaken breath, “y-you’re right. Let’s go meet with the others.” He walked back to the Porsche, smiling at Jody through the window.
As he got in the diver seat Mirage’s holoform buzzed out of existence. “Ok sparkling, we’ve got to pick up Auntie Char and ‘Lena and then we can head to headquarters. Sound good?” The autobot asked, putting a little more excitement in his voice.
“Hell yeah!” Jody said.
And that was when they pulled out of parking and headed down the street. Noah stressed out, mirage stressed out but trying not to show it, and Jody wondering if they can get McDonald’s after this.