Airachnophobia (Airachnid X Male Reader)

20. A Flight Interrupted

     "So, why'd you bring so much food?" Airachnid asked through the slightly awkward silence as Y/N situated himself in her cockpit. The man smiled at the question, as he wanted to tell her anyway.

     "I don't plan on going back home all that soon tonight." He explained, looking for the seatbelt.

     "Don't bother strapping in, if I fly terribly enough for you to be jostled around in there, it's 'cause we're being shot at." Airachnid spoke in her syrupy feminine voice. It wasn't the most reassuring thought, but Y/N stopped searching nonetheless. "Why aren't you super keen on going home?" She followed up. It was the dryest conversation the two of them had shared so far, likely due to their reaffirmed difference in size and species. It was much easier for Y/N to talk to Airachnid when she was shorter than him, and he was going to try to fix that.

     "Two reasons," he took a pause to think of how he wanted to word his next sentence, "I want to have plenty of time to spend with my favorite fifteen foot tall femme, especially now that you're free to do what you want," she hummed in approval, Y/N's seat vibrating from the lower frequency, "but also because my parents are driving me nuts." He finished. Airachnid's hum turned into a disapproving huff that came from empathy, as she knew firsthand exactly how his parents could act. "We can forget about that, though, because I'm too excited to fly in a helicopter for the first time." He admitted. The propellers above him started spinning, slowly at first, and the femme laughed heartily at his inexperience.

     "I'll be sure to make it exciting for you, then." She assured him. Y/N rolled his eyes, unsure whether she could see him or not.

     The noise from the propellers increased in volume as they spun faster and faster, and all of a sudden, in much less time than it would take a commercial helicopter, Airachnid lifted off the ground, carrying him with her. His stomach dropped, but after a moment it returned to his abdomen as he sat up. Her windows had seemed stark black from the outside, but from inside the cockpit, the light of the sunset flooded in once the pair got over the line of trees. The bright orange light painted the sky, creating red rays in the clouds.

     Y/N looked up in awe, not speaking for fear he would ruin the majesty of the moment. His mother always said that God is an artist, a saying he had disregarded in the past. Now, looking up at the subsurface scattering on the puffy cotton balls above him, he took it seriously.

     "That's something, isn't it little one?" Airachnid broke the silence. Y/N had almost forgotten that he wasn't alone, his attention having been sucked up by the colors of the sky. Rather than surprise him, though, he found her voice calming as it enveloped him. Being in her alt mode, her voice came from the helicopter's speakers, much like he had heard it the first day they met, when he didn't know she was anything other than a pilot stuck in her craft.

     "It sure is. I've never been airborne before in anything, so this is doubly new to me." The man admitted. He heard Airachnid laugh through the intercom. They were both silent for a few minutes, admiring the sky. Suddenly, Airachnid spoke out of the silence.

     "We've got company. Hold on!" She announced urgently. Y/N didn't have enough time to brace himself before Airachnid started dropping out of the sky. She was clearly trying to evade something, but his stomach was taking priority over his brain as it turned itself upside down. He couldn't even think as the G-force pulled his insides around his body. His arms tensed up to grab the walls of the cockpit as the ground grew closer and closer. Suddenly, Airachnid pulled up and all the force Y/N was feeling pulled downwards on him all at once.

     "What the hell is going on?" He practically yelled, terrified. He looked out the windows to try and catch a glimpse of what spooked her so badly, but he couldn't see anything.

     "Soundwave is on our tail. I don't know how he found us, but I'm going to have to fight him alone. I'll drop you off on the ground once we get ahead of him. Call the Autobots right away. I might not like them, but I don't have a Ground Bridge. They can get you to safety." She sounded so serious, Y/N could only nod. Soon enough, the land under them started getting closer and closer, and as soon as they touched it, Airachnid opened the cockpit for him to exit.

     "Be safe." He said to her as he stepped out. She just laughed, closing the cockpit back up.

     "You should be telling that to Soundwave." There was a dangerous edge in her voice as she climbed back into the sky. "Hurry up, get out of here." With that, she sped off into the distance, and Y/N quickly saw the Decepticons' communications officer fly right behind her. Before he could catch a view of their fight, he looked through his phone for Optimus' contact. He tapped it, and the comm link started ringing. Just as he was about to ask for a Ground Bridge, a whistling noise took him by surprise. A tiny metal object was flying straight at him from where Soundwave just was. It looked like a bird.

     "Optimus--" Y/N couldn't get the words out in time as the metal bird grabbed him off the ground, knocking the wind out of him. He dropped the phone and his only chance of escape with it, and he was carried off into the sky. A Ground Bridge did appear in front of him and the bird, but somehow Y/N knew it wasn't going to take him to the Autobot base.