Through Ash and Dust (ROTB)

The flight to Peru certainly was not a very short trip. Though Optimus was okay with that. Saphira has already slept for two hours of the trip, and they still had several hours to go before Stratosphere would reach South America. She had fallen asleep against his chassis, and while he has considered moving inside his chassis, he decided not to. He held her gently with his hands as she slept peacefully. She seemed comfortable against him, and he did not want to disturb her by moving her suddenly. It made him happy to watch her as she slept, catching up on much needed sleep. And he would find himself watching her as she slept. And he found himself caressing her back gently with his thumb, and while he knew she was not awake to enjoy it, he felt she would appreciate it.

Though while he held Saphira against him, he would gaze at Bumblebee's body as it sat beside him. Optimus was feeling a lot of guilt at this time. He really did feel like that he could have done more to stop Scourge, and prevented him from killing Bumblebee. He knew he could not go back to change what has happened, but that did not mean that Optimus didn't feel this pain. He wished that they got the key sooner, because maybe this would not have happened.

And the only comfort he had right now was Saphira. He never expected a human to ever win his spark. He never went out of his way to harm humans, but he never wanted to trust humans. He knew that humans would hunt them down if they ever knew the existence of the autobots, and he was not willing to subject any of his autobots to that kind of torment. And he had disliked having to watch a human when Mirage brought her. He had wanted to get rid of Saphira, but it was good that Mirage convinced him not to.

He did find himself watching Saphira from the very start though. Mostly because he had to, but when she would write in her diaries about them, it was definitely interesting to him. Especially as she never mentioned what the autobots actually looked like, which he had thought was an interesting decision she has made. But Optimus had found her respect for the autobots to be suspicious at first. She agreed with him and did as she was told to do, but Optimus had found it suspicious, even though he had appreciated the cooperation.

And when she lost her job the way she did, Optimus had felt bad. Especially since she had been assaulted over it at the time. Looking back, Optimus had regretted his behavior towards Saphira. She didn't deserve the attitude and treatment that he had given her at the time. Though Optimus had the mind of wanting to protect his autobots, and he could not be blamed for wanting to do that. And he knew she never blamed him. She often understood it.

Mirage was watching Optimus quietly as he was intrigued by how gentle Optimus was with Saphira. He was very glad that he brought Saphira that day, even if it was not intentional. Now Optimus has someone in his life who made him happy, even though she was not an autobot. "I have to say, Optimus, it makes me happy that I had accidently brought Saphira that night." Optimus looked at Mirage as the bot began to speak. "It is nice to see you happy. Of course, I know we are all grieving, but you know what I mean."

Arcee nodded slowly in agreement, as she had been watching as well. "I agree with Mirage. When he first brought Saphira to us, I thought he was a giant idiot for doing that." She elbowed Mirage playfully, making the young bot roll his optics in amusement at the femme. "Though, to be fair, I was mostly listening to orders. But Saphira grew on me as time went on, and I am glad she is my friend. The number of times she and I have had some girl time has been nice. Though...it would be nice if we had more time together."

Mirage nodded in agreement. "Yeah...having the Transwarp Key will be great...but that means we will be leaving a new family member behind." He looked over at Saphira with a sad expression. "I didn't overly like humans myself, but I enjoyed watching them and observing their quirks, but Saphira was different. When I first saw her, I thought I was lucky that a pretty, little human was going to be driving me around." He chuckled softly before his expression turned back to sadness. "I'm going to miss her when we get back home."