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The yellow beetle sped down the road. He laughed as wind blew past his figure, causing small clouds of dust to form behind him on the sandy road. Finally, after what felt like forever, he rolled up to the meeting spot.
It was an old building so far from civilization Bumblebee wondered if he came across a relic of some ancient civilization the first time he found it. But no, that was just Oregon for you. Full of surprises waiting to be found by those in need of a miracle. The tiny thing built atop a small cliff overlooking the desert barely held on after the years, but that wasn’t a problem. How did no one ever find it before, he didn't know, but it was perfect for what they needed.
Bumblebee transformer and walked closer to the old thing. It was a pretty big all things considered, with the first floor ceiling being high enough for both of them to comfortably stand up straight. Paint faded with age, plaster peeling away from the walls, exposing the blank, cracked bricks underneath.
It was perfect.
Bumblebee waited with anticipation, shuffling from one leg to the other, the contents of his subspace pocked sitting heavily inside their containers. He wasn’t sure if this would work, but he sure hoped it would. He’d love to make the other’s day for once instead.
Finally, after what felt like forever, his audials picked up a faint sound of jet engines, steadily getting louder and closer. He felt a smile stretch across his faceplates, impatiently waiting to finally see his companion.
He heard the engines just outside before, air disturbed by the now familiar sound of transformation that greeted his audials. He waited and waited, more impatiently with each passing second, tapping his ped, thrumming with his fingers until finally, the pedsteps of his favourite jet greeted him inside.
Then Bee sprung up and without warning jumped onto his companion.
“Star!” He yelled, hugging the much larger seeker and giving him a quick peck on his cheek plates. He felt and heard both the other splutter, stuck between returning the affection and pretending it was too much for something like this.
Starscream was always like this. Pretending as if he wasn’t down bad touch-starved for any positive contact.
“Bumblebee! You-” Starscream tried to find words that’d fit both his intentions perfectly, but one expectant look from Bumblebee made him give up and return the hug fully, arms wrapped around the minibot tightly as he held him above ground. “...hello to you too. What’s the reason tonight?”
“Yeah, hello.” Bumblebee rolled his optics, his peds hitting the ground softly when Starscream finally let go. For someone insisting on not liking the whole thing, he held onto him for quite a while. “It’s a little surprise, no need to sound so suspicious. Come on!” Starscream was a naturally mistrusting bot, and Bumblebee knew that. Be it of nature or the world around him, it never deterred him. Well, at least once he finally got to know the other deeper, at least.
Grabbing the much bigger seeker’s servo into his own, he led him to the center of the room, unceremoniously plopping on the ground. The seeker stared. The minibot only stared back, not backing down.
“...You make me seem like a peasant.” Stascream mumbled furiously, yet sat down without much bigger complaints. Hah! A win for Bumblebee, that’s what this was.
“Stop complaining, you'll like this.” Bumblebee snorted, servo rummaging through his main subspace compartment before finally pulling out, holding a servo-sized cylindrical… something on it, wrapped in red and green wrapping paper.
Spike helped with that one. Bumblebee tried to do it himself, but the paper kept catching and ripping in between his digits.
“...what… am I looking at, exactly?” Starscream asked, sounding more curious than suspicious for once in his life as Bumblebee passed over the thingie into his own servos. It weighed a little, maybe a container? A container wrapped in… colorful tree bark?
“It’s a gift! Well, more specifically, human-styled gift.” Bumblebee explained, pointing to what Starscream held. “It was Christmas a couple days ago. It’s a time for humans where they buy each other presents and exchange them, usually in close circles like families, lovers, maybe workplaces. We had a whole secret Santa back at the ark actually, it was real fun.”
“Secret… Santa?” Starscream repeated the words, looking at Bumblebee like he didn’t quite believe they were real.
“Yes! Human children believe that Saint Nicolas, or Santa, goes around the globe and gives everyone the presents. Or coal if they’ve been ‘naughty’. Some old religious story, unimportant. Nowadays, people pretend to be him sometimes to keep the legend alive. Sideswipe somehow managed to get a Cybertronian-sized Santa costume for Christmas’ Eve! …I just hope it’s not related to the Junkticon costume conspiracy.” He shuddered, just thinking of that whole mess. Sideswipe still couldn’t hold a credit card in his name after that whole fiasco...
“The what.”
“Long story, unrelated. Anyways! It’s tradition to wrap presents like this. Or just put them in bags I guess, but I felt like this was more special, you know? So… feel free to rip it off and get to the goods!” He encouraged seeing Starscream’s unsure expression.
“Rip it off?” Starscream echoed, not looking encouraged in the slightest by Bumblebee’s eager nod. Still, after a small nudge he finally relented, one claw catching at the thin paper and ripping through it easily. A single line through the center of the gift until it connected, both halves falling apart to the floor slowly revealing-
“Polish?” Starscream’s optics sparkled just a tad bit brighter, twirling the shiny metal can around to look at both packaging and information. Good quality polish (for human standards at least), not the shitty kind he had to scavenge from the Nemesis’s storage.
Half of which was buried beneath rubble and barely usable anyways. But this… this was sweet. The gesture itself, he means. The thing itself was nowhere near what he had back on Cybertron during the Golden Age of course, humans could never compare, but it was… adequate for their current predicament. Better than what he had back at base.
It was nice. So, so very nice of Bumblebee to get this for him. For a split moment, he felt just a slither of self-consciousness in his spark over the fact he didn’t get the other anything, but the thought disappeared before it could even take root. Next time they raided some human facility, he’d grab some of this… dollars stuff the humans used and get Bumblebee something nice too! Checkmate, autobot.
“Mhm. I asked Sunstreaker to help me get some of the good stuff, you know? And it’s good for fliers, Tracks likes it apparently. ….not sure why he’d know that but hey! That sure helped.” Bumblebee continued, unaware of his dearest’s secret plans of giving Prowl more paperwork to fill, his spark singing when seeing that the other enjoyed it, mentally making a note to repay the favour to Sunstreaker. The gift really was a hit.
“I’ll make sure to test it for our next meeting then.” Starscream smiler, all sharp edges, dentaes and smugness only Bumblebee could find endearing, hiding the can into his subspace, his engine letting out a quiet, happy rev at the thought.
Bumblebee felt his own lipplates twitch upwards in turn, gaze softening as he the other’s servo returned from his subspace.
A thought later, he reached out and grasped it tightly, blunt digits closed around sharp claws.
“Couldn’t have thought of a better way to use it myself, Star.”