True Leadership )-Predaking x Youngling Reader-(

Just Fine

     Bumblebee rummaged through a pile of data pads, huffing as the one he wanted continued to evade his sight. It was hard enough to worry about the growing population, failed constructions, and Predaking's frustrated meetings. He didn't need this on his processor as well, but the call made him frantic. It pushed him to skip his usual recharge despite having skipped them several nights before. Some wondered if he ever rested; Bumblebee himself wondered- of course he did, just not very often.

     A data pad fell to the ground and he swore, quickly picking it up and dusting nothing just to make sure it was okay. There was a chip in the corner but it turned on well enough. Still wasn't the one he was looking for.

         "Bumblebee, you should be in recharge," Ultra Magnus stated, but the younger bot simply continued his search.

         "With all due respect, I'm a bit busy."

         "If that's respect, I'm a scraplet," the mech huffed behind him, "Besides, the pad you look for isn't here, it's back in Iacon. You can get it in the morning."

         "Why was it brought back to Iacon?" Bee panicked, "I'll get it now and rest when I'm back-"

     He was halted by the bigger bot, who shook his helm.

         "Bumblebee, you are wearing yourself out." Ultra Magnus held a tenderness in his optics he only developed after Optimus Prime's death, having learned to be patient and kind to those still learning. "Your optics are dim, and your movements are slow- sloppy even. In this condition you could cause an accident. I don't think Rafael would take kindly to hearing his friend was worrying about his duties to the point of being unsafe."

     Bumblebee looked to the ground, nodding solemnly.

         "Go, rest for now. It's a new day tomorrow, and your duties will be just the same then."

     The smaller mech gave him a salute, to which Ultra Magnus gave one back, though with a slight smile to his derma. He knew the soldier was thinking of simply going out anyway, but Bumblebee took one last look in the direction of Iacon before heading in the opposite direction, towards his home.

/~\

         "No, no, no, no-" Tapper panicked as he ran after the younling who skittered across the bar room floor, knocking over chairs and disrupting tables. He couldn't believe he had agreed to this. She was over his helm in her natural form and three times as long. How Predacons were able to have the ability of Mass Displacement, he had no idea, but she didn't like her other form because it was cramped. The short mech set up the chairs along the way, trying to be quiet, but the overly energetic femmeling was too much to keep up with as she played this horrible game.

         "No- don't do it-" Tapper locked optics with her as she stared intently at him, ridiculously long tail about to knock over another chair, "Don't-"

     She did it anyway, bobbing up and down on her squatty legs as she made happy grunting sounds that sounded almost like laughter. Her wings, useless in this form, bobbed with her happily, flapping a bit to disrupt the still air of the bar.

     Admitting defeat, Tapper sat on the floor, groaning as he rubbed his optics. He needed a drink. But he swore to Predaking he wouldn't as long as the Predacon youngling was with him.

         "Primus- what were you thinking," He was speaking to both himself and the deity of life. "You gave Predaking a youngling and I agreed to this- We both must be drunks!" He hollered at the ceiling, only to jump as a transformed (Y/D) pounced on him, knocking him to the floor this time. He stared, terrified, into those unblinking red optic. She was grinning with that freakishly wide mouth of hers and it put him on edge even more. She contorted her faceplate a bit before-

         "Drunk!"

         "Oh no-"

     Tapper tried to keep her quiet by putting a servo over her derma but her cursed biological asset of a freakish intake continued to let her say 'drunk' all she wanted, as if it were the best word in the world, the galaxy, even. He pleaded with her, but it only made the femme giggle as she pounced on him again, bouncing from off him, onto the table then accidentally kicking the chair to fall on top of him. The mech groaned-

         This was going to be a long day without Predaking.

     He stayed on the ground this time. His lack of movement made the she-beast on the table concerned. She peered down at him, unblinking and focused.

     He looked alive-

She leaped down, gliding in a small circle with her petite wings. She sniffed him.

He smelled alive. Though reeked of something else.

     She sniffed at him again, only now in her beast form, a much less cramped form than her robot one, and far more natural. She whimpered, nudging his side, but when he gave no response she nudged harder. The youngling looked at the fallen chair, then eyed the new dent in his helm. Sniffing at it she deduced this was the cause for his lively-deadness. Transforming to her robot mode, she set the seat back up, only to run off upstairs where he lived and sometimes experimented, different bottles and glass containers holding different colored liquids. (Y/D) didn't like the smell, it made her woozy and faint, but she charged past these smells, grabbing his odd, comfy covering and glided back down to the bar floor, finding him and covering them both up with the large piece of cloth. She was glad he didn't smell as bad as his room, but it was a similar smell.

     (Y/D) crawled under the blanket up to his helm, kissing the new dent with a short 'mwah', and snuggled into his side.

         "Night-night."

     She let her optics dim to a dull crimson, still aware of her surroundings, even more so now that her attention wasn't on Tapper or having fun. Now she felt and saw everything-

     A scraplet skittered on outside, only to be picked up by a flying creature, still smaller than (Y/D). Dust flew past them as a cooler made it's dull whirr to fend against the heat of the suns at high noon. Tapper's spark beat thrummed at a steady rhythm, healthy and strong. His systems sighed as the dull, unnoticed pain slowly ebbed into nonexistence, and he was allowed to rest without the pounding helm-ache. (Y/D) smashed a scraplet that dared come near her new friend, a chittering sound coming from her voice box as she smiled.