These Paths We Tread (Autobot x OC)

XXI. Bad Moon Rising

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Two months later.....

For what felt the millionth and certainly not last time, Catherine was beginning to regret having made Teletraan. She loved him, really she did, but she detested the damned sound of his blaring alarm. She had been having a wonderful little dream about some Cybertronian’s memories, as she had for the past week, and then bam—she was jerked awake because the little guy was trying to blow out her ear drums. If there was any good news, it was that it was Sunday, which meant she would get to work with Ratchet instead of Lennox or Marissa.

It wasn’t that she didn’t like working with them, because she did—in a way. But her exercises with Ratchet were more exciting, intriguing, and in tune with what she was positive was her true calling. Sure, the constant workout had already made her so much stronger in almost two months’ time, and all the work with her liaison-teacher had done wonders for her people skills and knowledge, but she was by far more interested and happy with her progress with her powers, although it wasn’t much.

“I’m up! I’m up!” she growled, waving the little drone off as she slid out, pushing her wild hair back down. He silenced his alarm, but scurried after her into the bathroom to make sure she went through her daily routine. He even put a timer on his chest screen, letting her know she had thirty minutes to get to training. While it was her day to work with Ratchet, Lennox stressed she had to work out every day. That was fine, and she understood, but she sometimes really wished she could have a night schedule like some of the other soldiers instead of five-thirty in the morning. She took relief knowing that, unlike normal bases, she didn’t have to deal with the lining up thing in the morning. Lennox had told her there just wasn’t time, and the schedule at NEST was made so that someone was always working, so it would conflict with everything.

Ugh. Just get dressed and get going. You’ll be in the Medbay soon, she rumbled silently, slipping on her workout gear after she’d tied back her hair and brushed her teeth. Waving goodbye to Teletraan, she hurried off, no longer needing the aid of Lennox or an escort to get around. She passed by a few of the Autobots and waved to them too, having gotten to know them already. Some she was still working on in regards to smaller details like their likes or dislikes, but she at least knew all of their names. They were all fairly decent so far.

She waved to any humans she passed by, too, having become friends with a good amount of those that had the same shifts as she did. They were all pretty nice, although some she'd noticed weren’t exactly thrilled about her being there. It was generally in just the way they would occasionally glance at her or the snarky comment played off as witty remarks, but she’d figured it out. Thankfully, there was only a few, and she made sure to act civil around them and make friends with as many people other than her group as possible. She had quite a few names down, and was getting to learn more about them. It helped that Marissa drilled her nearly every lesson, forcing her to make sure she got to know them.

If there was anything good about it besides having possible allies in a conflict, it gave her workout buddies in the training room. It was nice to have some small talk when jogging or lifting weight and it also helped her learn about more of the soldiers. Breakfast was a good place for that as well, and she often found herself sitting with people other than her group more than once. That had gotten her a few mock-jealous comments from her companions, but it was all in good jest, and they still had her back on their training days.

Regardless, she was also happy to finally make her way back to her room, clean up, pick up Teletraan, and head down to the Medbay. Again, she ended up waving at the Autobots she passed by. Now that all the new teams were back, it was almost impossible to not encounter one of them. She used to always catch them by surprise, but they had learned very quickly to watch where they put their feet after Ratchet had nearly blown out their audios for almost stepping on her once. By the way Jazz had been scowling that day, she was glad it was the medic who had found them and not her guardian. She didn’t think they’d still be in once piece.