Chapter Text
Bumblebee groaned. It's helm was ringing, systems resting as they tried to remember what happened. All it could remember was Ratchet being an aft, being chased by Prowl and Bulkhead through the streets of Detroit, getting lost in a forest, finding a Decepticon, an explosion going off-- Wait a klik!
Despite it's frame's protest, Bee shot up and frantically scanned the area. They weren't in a prison cell, luckily. They were trapped under some sort of debris. Unluckily, it seemed to be trapped with somebot else.
Shockwave.
Shockwave had aem backplates to Bumblebee. Bee thought of escaping, but how would it get out?
Shockwave knew the Autobot was awake, but aem didn't want them to know ae knew, oh no. Ae would scare Bee, and make the situation worse. Right now, Shockwave was trying to find an optimal solution to get aemself out from under the debris.
Ae couldn't comm Soundwave for a gatebridge, the heavy debris interfered with aem connection to the Nemesis. The same went for Bumblebee.
Bumblebee pulled themself up to their pedes and kicked a rock at Shockwave. It hit aem square in the back.
"I don't see why you did that, Autobot."
"Well I don't see why I have to be stuck with you, of all 'Cons."
Bee crossed it's arms and watched Shockwave get onto aem pedes.
"What were you even doing in the forest, alone and crying?"
For once, Shockwave had spoken before ae thought.
"I- What?! I was not crying! And it's none of your business!"
"That's not true; you were, indeed, sobbing your optics lenses out."
"Why do you care?!"
Shockwave actually stopped at that. Why did ae care? Ae didn't know. It was… illogical.
"I don't know, to be honest."
Bee scoffed and looked away from the seeker, thinking about what Ratchet said back at base mere joors ago.
Shockwave assumed the conversation was over and went to go back to calculating escape plans when ae heard Bee mutter something. At first, ae thought it was just Bee talking to themself, but then it kept happening, so Shockwave assumed Bee was talking to aem.
"Come again?"
"I said, it's funny."
Shockwave might not be a master of emotions, ae found them illogical and problematic, but ae's pretty sure something funny wouldn't make you cry that hard.
"I don't follow. Why would something funny make you break down like that?"
Shockwave turned to face Bumblebee. It was sitting against the wall, kneejoints pulled up to their chassis, faceplates buried in between said kneejoints.
"No, the fact that you care more about me than my own teammate does. That's funny."
"Oh…"
Bumblebee felt tears well up in their optics. Shockwave stared down at the minibot for a few kliks before moving.
The Decepticon took a seat beside the Autobot. Bee glanced up at aem. Shockwave returned the look. After much consideration, Shockwave spoke.
"Do you wish to talk about it?"
"I-- um, you, you know what… sure. "
.
.
"Apparently, all the bad things that happen are my fault. Bulkhead and I were just playing around, and then he accused me of stealing their paint. It was a joke. A joke! But Ratchet decided he was gonna be a buzzkill, mud stained valveplug and started ranting about how I caused so much trouble for him and the team and I should've never even made it past boot camp, and that if it were up to him he would've…"
Bee held back tears. Shockwave could sense the pain, even though Bee kept his EM field held tightly in. Yet again, before ae thought, ae reached out to Bumblebee with aem EM field to try and calm then down.
"He said he would've let me die at Tyger Pax."
Shockwave took a few nanoklliks to process that. Ratchet, the Autobot's medic, the one the team should be able to go to for advice and support, really said that? And to say that right to the Tyger Pax victim's face…
"Did Optimus hear?"
"I don't know, the others might've gone and told him though."
Shockwave and Bumblebee sat in silence. Not quite comfortable, not quite tense, just… silent.
Shockwave was calculating what it would take to get aem fellow Decepticons to target Ratchet. Ae could easily convince Soundwave, and Soundwave could look for any bounties or dirt on the elderly medic. If they couldn't find anything, they could simply craft a bounty to convince most of their teammates, especially Lockdown-- wait, why was ae even thinking about this?
Illogical. Completely illogical.
Bumblebee threw their helm back and sighed.
"Any ideas on how to get out? I'm getting cold."
"No."
… cold?
"Hey- I-- what the Pitt?!"
Against all logical coding, Shockwave pulled Bumblebee up into aem lap and held it tightly. Bumblebee was quiet for a few nanokliks.
"Um. I guess this is okay…"
Bumblebee admitted sheepishly. It cuddled up against aem chassis and went into a light recharge. Shockwave soon followed.
~~~~~~
"Bumblebee?!"
Shockwave and Bumblebee both woke up with a jolt.
"I'm not the only bot who heard that, right?"
"It appears your friends have arrived."
Soundwave let go of Bumblebee. It begrudgingly left the cozy, warm frame.
"Bulkhead?!"
"Bumblebee! Guys, Bee's in here!"
The sound of heavy pedesteps approaching the debris echoed through the room.
"So… what are you gonna do?"
"I just sent a distress signal. It seems your friends have thinned the debris that was blocking our comm connections."
"Um… before I, um, we leave… I just, I just wanna thank you."
"You want to...thank me? Why?"
"Because you, um, listened to me."
"Oh. Well, you're welcome."
Bumblebee smiled sheepishly at Shockwave, then turned to look up at the "ceiling." Suddenly, a bunch of the debris was thrown to the side, presumably from Bulkhead's wrecking ball.
"Little buddy! Are you alright?! Primus, I was so worried-- Is that Shockwave?!"
"I've been stuck with this mech for, like, forever! Get me out of here!"
"Prowl, Arcee, take Bumblebee back to base and get them into MedBay. Bulkhead and I will handle this."
"Or vill jou?"
Blitzwing landed harshly and cackled, Lugnut followed drei.
"Oh c'mon! This is the last thing I need after being stuck with a know-it-all Decepticon!"