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Bumblebee sighed contentedly, scrolling aimlessly on his datapad as he leaned his spinal strut against the command center wall.
It’d been almost a week since the last Decepticon attack, and Bee was starting to get anxious. The rest of the team thought the silence was amazing, but the former scout knew better. Something horrible was about to happen, he just knew it.
Beep Beep Beep!
Bee sighed, “Fixit, what’s the alert?”
The minibot rolled over to the console, “It’s an emergency beacon, but I can’t German- sermon- determine! If it is Autobot or Decepticon, or the exact coordinates of the alert. It seems to be blinking in and out randomly.”
The lieutenant groaned loudly.
”Sideswipe, Strongarm, go check out the signal. Keep your comms open, and be careful.”
Strongarm saluted and walked towards the gates while Sideswipe rolled his optics, “Relax Bee, we’ll be fine! It’s probably nothing.”
Bee just shook his head and went back to his datapad. His instincts were yelling at him to go with the two teens, but then again the yellow bot didn’t want to deal with whatever chaos was stirring.
————
“Move it ‘Con!”
”I’m- gah- I’m moving as fast as I can Autobot! My Energon levels are at 5% ya j-jerk!”
Bumblebee sat up, the new voice catching his attention.
Why did it sound familiar?
The Camaro moved quickly towards the entrance of the junkyard, curious about which Decepticon the team had managed to catch. The yelling got louder as he moved towards the sound, and he couldn’t help but tense as he heard the voice yell, “I thought you ‘Bots were all about fairness and scrap, lay off!”
Arriving at the entrance, Bee froze in shock.
”B-Breakdown?!”
The three bots in front of him froze, and yellow optics met blue, dumbstruck.
”Uh, lieutenant?” Strongarm started slowly, “You know who this ‘Con is?”
Bee ignored her, his attention on the purple and silver bot in front of him.
Said bot was just as focused, his optics not wavering from Bee’s faceplate as he slowly stood straighter, grimacing slightly from the grievous wound across his chestplate.
”Bumblebee?”
Bee took a deep vent, and the two teens watched in shock as he sprinted at the injured ‘Con, tackling him onto his aft. They jerked forward, beginning to intervene, but a quiet laugh stopped them in their tracks.
The Decepticon — Breakdown was it? — laughed quietly to himself as he wrapped his arms around the jittering mass of yellow plating clinging to his front as best he could with the cuffs around his joints.
”Bee, you’re freaking out your younglings.” He stage whispered into the former scouts audial.
Bee scoffed, pulling away, “I literally don’t give a frag, I haven’t seen you in like four vorns. And they aren’t my younglings slagger!”
Breakdown scoffed before his eyes widened in realization, “You- how in Primus name are you speaking, out loud, with real words right now?!?”
The Autobot gave him an unimpressed but vaguely proud look.
”Yes Breakdown, I’m using real words. Apparently dying and being brought back by cybermatter so you can kill the Decepticon leader will do that to you.”
”You did wha-“
”Um, excuse me? Hi?” Sideswipe interrupted, waving his arms above his head, “Yeah, can someone please explain to us what the frag is going on???”
Bee and Down blinked at the two teen bots.
Bee hunched his shoulder pads slightly, grinning sheepishly.
“It- we- uhh…” Bee stopped to take another slow, deep vent, “Strongarm, Sideswipe, this is Breakdown. My brother.”
The two gawked at him, glancing between him and the ‘Con.
“Your… brother??” Strongarm questioned. “Since when do you have a brother who’s a Decepticon?!”
Bee rubbed the back of his helm, “I—”
”Gah!”
The former scout was interrupted when Breakdown groaned, leaning forward as his optics flickered slightly.
“Not to rush you or anything, but I’m kinda leaking out over here.” he grimaced, trying unsuccessfully to press his cuffed servos over his gnarled chestplate.
Bee gaped slightly, having completely forgotten about the injury, “Right, let’s get that dealt with.”
He uncuffed the speedster and slowly helped him to his feet, the Stunticon leaning heavily on the younger.
The younglings shuffled behind, still utterly baffled by the situation.
————
“Bee, I swear to Primus if you don’t stop hovering I will personally shove your helm into a trash compactor.”
Bee backed away from the medical berth quickly, and Breakdown smirked at him.
“Sooo…” Strongarm started, “um, how exactly? Is this a thing?”
The brothers made optic contact for a klik before Bumblebee exvented quietly.
“Well, when the war started our city was one of the first ones hit by it.” Bee began.
“We’re not sure what exactly happened since we were both only sparklings at the time, but the city was obliterated by whatever it was.”
“Our caregivers were offlined in the attack.” Breakdown cut in, continuing the story.
“I… I saw Autobots on the outskirts of the town around the time it happened, and I blamed them for it. I still blame them for it, but that isn’t important. Bee was too young to join the war, so I left him with one of the neighbors that survived and joined the ‘Cons for revenge.”
Bumblebee hunched his shoulders slightly, not looking at his brother, “About a cycle after Down left, some ‘Cons cornered us trying to take the little Energon we had. They- they managed to offline Lifeline, but some Autobot scouts overheard the fight and intervened. They took me back to the base and I joined the Autobots.”
“We met a few times throughout the war, and after we realized who the other was, we started meeting up in our free time every once in a while. We lost contact when slowpoke over here went back to Cybertron and I decided to stay on Earth.”
Strongarm and Sideswipe looked between the two of them before Strongarm spoke up, “You realize you just admitted to over a dozen different crimes, right?”
————
Pretend that Bumblebee and Breakdown have an emotional conversation about how their relationship will be now that the war is over.
I unfortunately don’t feel like writing it at all, and suck at writing this kind of scene. Although I might come back and fix this eventually
If someone else wants to write it, let me know and we’ll make this fic co-authored and add your scene! Or write it in a completely different fic and I’ll link it, whatever you want.i
————
Breakdown had been in the junkyard for a decacycle.
“Why is he still here?” Strongarm whispered to Sideswipe, hidden behind a shelf in a more abandoned part of the junkyard. “He’s completely healed by now, he must be up to something.”
Sideswipe shrugged, “He and Bee have been hanging out a lot lately. Maybe now that the war’s over they’re like, making up for lost time?”
The police car huffed, “He’s a ‘Con, they’re literally known for deception, which is what makes them so dangerous”
screeEAAACHHHH!
The teens jumped, running in the direction of the noise.
They halt as soon as they see the culprit.
“Lieutenant?” Strongarm says slowly, “What’s going on?”
Bee looks at her like a deer caught in the headlights. Former top scout of the Autobots, Optimus Prime’s right hand bot, head officer of their team, is buried under a pile of sheet metal, sitting on top of a giggling and squirming Breakdown… tickling him???
“Uhhhhh… nothing?” Bee states innocently.
Strongarm just stands there gaping as Sideswipe breaks down in laughter, elbowing her in the side.
“What was that about being a dangerous, deceptive Decepticon, Strongarm?” he cackles.
————
“Hey Bumblebee?”
Bumblebee hummed in response, focused on the report in front of him.
”How old are you?”
Bee froze in surprise, turning to look at Russell. The other bots and Denny, nearby, had a similar reaction before turning to the former scout, awaiting his reply. Breakdown snorted before going back to the video he was watching, already knowing the answer. Grimlock was the only one absent, having gone to grab some Energon cubes for everybody.
Bee set the datapad to the side, giving his full attention to the small human, “What brought this on?”
Russell rubbed the back of his head, grinning sheepishly as he replied, “Well, whenever you’re with Breakdown you act a lot differently — younger — than you do when you’re on missions and doing work stuff.”
”Oh, uh,” the lieutenant drawled, “Yeah, well, he is my older brother so that kinda makes sense. In human terms I think I’d be about…” Bee hummed to himself, muttering to himself and counting on his fingers, “48, 9,000,000, carry the 3… 20? I think? Yeah, I think I’d be about 20.”
”YOU WHAT?”
Bumblebee startled at the shout, looking towards the source.
Denny was gaping at him, eyes wide.
”You- I- you’re only twenty years old??? How- I thought you were at least in your thirties, you’re always so serious!” Denny ran a hand through his hair, pacing as he continued, “How are you barely out of your teens? You’d still get carded! And-“ the man’s eyes widened impossibly, “You’ve fought in a whole-ass war! You said you were a sparkling when the war started, so that would make you what… twelve when you started fighting Decepticons? Who lets a kid do that???”
The yellow bot shifted in his seat, “Well, I mean yeah that seems about right. And what was I supposed to do when the entire planet was at war? It was kill or be killed, no one got a choice in the matter.”
The junkyard was silent at that, even Breakdown having tuned in halfway through Denny’s rant.
”I… guess that makes sense. I still don’t like it though.” Denny muttered quietly.
Before anyone could say anything else, Grimlock came running over, Energon stacked in his arms and yelling, “Hey guys! I got the Energon! Who’s hungry?”
The conversation ended there, no one wanting to ruin the dinobots happy mood or continue on the gruesome topic.
————
“Get back here you slagging scraplet!”
Denny sighed as he heard another crash, resigned to his fate of once again cleaning up a stack of fallen something. Maybe he should make the scrapyard more bot friendly?
Bumblebee came sprinting around the corner, an enraged Breakdown, covered in bright yellow paint, following close behind.
The man smiled despite himself, happy to see the yellow mech acting his age. Finding out the lieutenant was barely out of his teens two weeks before had been quite the shock, and seeing him be chaotic instead of his normal serious, professional persona was a pleasant experience.
He’d been coming out of the ‘emotionless leader’ shell more and more over the month Breakdown had been there, which was at first the only reason the man had allowed the ‘Con to stay in the junkyard. Note how he said ‘at first’. The purple and silver mech had grown on Denny over time, as he did on everyone else.
Denny was pulled out of his musings by beeping coming from the command center, and he moved towards the noise with Fixit out of curiosity.
”Lieutenant Bumblebee?” Fixit yelled over the noise of the brother’s brawling. He had somehow managed to find a hose, and was simultaneously washing the paint off his brother and using the stream to keep the older far away from him.
Bee dropped the hose, laughing softly as Breakdown fell flat on his face at the unexpected drop in resistance before turning, “Yes Fixit?”
Fixit clicked away at the console, “I’ve just gotten a notification from Dime- Time- Prime! He and the rest of Team Prime will be arriving in the junkyard any moment.”
An engine sounded from above just as Fixit finished, the Prime Force One descending slowly from the sky.
Bumblebee halted, turning to look at the spacecraft, then turning his attention to his brother who was gaping similarly.
”Breakdown, you need to leave!” He whisper yelled, sprinting over to his brother and trying to drag him out of the junkyard, but he was too late.
Team Prime exited the ship, Optimus Prime at the front.
Optimus glanced around the junkyard before his eyes landed on the yellow bot and a small smile graced his faceplate, “Ah, Bumblebee, it’s good to-“ he cut himself off when his eyes landed on the bot next to Bee, his eyes widening almost imperceptibly as he moved into a defensive stance.
The rest of his team followed his gaze before quickly following suit, glaring at the ‘Con.
Breakdown growled, his blaster revealing itself as he snarled at the Prime.
Bee hurried to get between them, holding his arms out, “Optimus no, wait, this isn’t what you think it is!”
”Bumblebee, step away from the Decepticon.” Prime announced, ignoring the yellow bot’s words completely.
The former scout took a deep vent, not liking what he was about to do but needing to get the Prime’s full attention somehow.
”Sire- Dad, I need you to listen to me and stop jumping to conclusions for a minute to let me explain!”
Everybody in the junkyard froze, their eyes on Bee, but his gaze didn’t leave the big rig.
Optimus met Bumblebee’s eyes, shock and joy evident in his expression. Bee had his attention.
”Breakdown,” he said, gesturing to the ‘Con behind him, not noticing the baffled expression on his brother’s faceplate, “isn’t hurting anyone, he’s been staying with us for an orbital cycle and hasn’t done anything to betray my trust. And…” Bee braced himself for the reactions to come, remembering how his own team reacted, “he’s my brother. Biologically.”
The air in the junkyard stilled, nobody daring to vent. Team Prime gawked at him, weapons forgotten as their processors fried from the information. Prime was stiff as a statue, eyes not wavering from the lieutenant as he tried to understand what Bee had just announced.
Team Bee was still reeling from the fact that Bee had just called Optimus Prime, Autobot leader during the entirety of the war, ‘Dad’.
Breakdown didn’t dare to speak, knowing that any wrong move might get him blasted to pieces. Did his brother really just call the Prime ‘Dad’? What did he miss?
After what seemed like an eternity, Optimus fully lowered his weapons, transforming them back into his servos and exventing slowly.
”Explain. Now.”
Bee gave his explanation, reluctantly stepping aside to stand next to his brother instead of defensively in front as he spoke.
By the time he was done, everyone had their weapons put away and were staring at the ‘Con like he was some sort of museum exhibit.
The rest of Team Prime looked to their leader, waiting for this word.
Optimus looked between the brothers, his eyes lingering on his former scout. At the yellow bots slight nod, Prime nodded, “Alright, we will give him a chance.”
Team Bee and Breakdown let out a collective vent in relief, and slowly but surely the two teams started congregating, conversation between them slowly picking up until suddenly Breakdown spoke up, “So, is nobody gonna address the fact that bee just called Optimus Prime ‘Dad’?”