These Paths We Tread (Autobot x OC)

IX. The Touch

“Just everything, I guess. I mean, everything’s changed, right? We saved the world and we met aliens! Can you believe it?” she finally replied, throwing her hands up in emphasis.

“No, not really, to be honest,” her friend laughed. “Never thought I’d be sitting here with you, a group of soldiers, a couple of nerds, and one beautiful girl.”

“Aw, you’re so sweet, Sam,” Mikeala giggled, and again the bile rose in Catherine’s throat.

“It is a lot to think on, but just take it a piece at a time if it’s too much. And if that doesn’t work, just think about how you’re a celebrity that nobody will ever know—kind of like the ones in those cheesy B movies that nobody ever really remembers until they see it at a store,” Lennox grinned, and the redhead couldn’t help but laugh.

“Yeah, well those celebrities can kiss our asses, ‘cause they got nothin’ on us,” Epps added from across the room, their conversation apparently not as small as they thought.

“Damn straight. No stunt double or fake explosions over here,” a soldier she didn’t know grunted.

“And the aliens weren’t props, neither. Real, live, metal beings fighting with us and against us! Hot damn!” shouted another.

“And did you see the two big guys duking it out? Man, am I glad the big red guy is on our side!” shouted a third.

“You mean Optimus? Yeah, he’s freaking awesome, right?” Sam laughed, and the soldiers looked with surprise at him.

“They have names?”

Catherine raised a brow, “Well, yeah. Optimus is the ‘big red guy’, Jazz is the silver one, Ratchet is the green one, Bumblebee was the yellow one, and Ironhide is the black one with the huge cannons.”

“Kinda weird names. I mean, seriously—Bumblebee? Doesn’t seem all that threatening.”

Epps snorted, “Yeah, you say that, but try getting away from a hoard of pissed of ones without getting stung. ‘Bees are the devil, man!”

“So are you three close to the robots or something?” Maggie spoke up curiously, and both Catherine and Sam shrugged.

“I guess. I mean, Bumblebee’s gonna be my car and we’ve known them longer than you guys,” he replied.

"Granted, ‘longer’ means like a day, but they’re actually all really cool. I think you’d guys would like Ironhide a lot— he’s got a thing for guns and blowing stuff up. Jazz, too; he’s way into Earth culture,” Catherine grinned, but it faltered when she saw Sam’s frown.

“Catherine... Jazz is dead, remember?”

Her stomach dropped, but not because Sam was right, but because she had almost revealed something she shouldn’t have. She recovered quickly, replying with a meek “oh right”, and correcting her present tense to past. There were some sympathetic looks around as she pulled off a good act of pretending to be upset and hiding it by describing the other mechs. She advised them that Ratchet might not be the best to talk too—the Autobots didn’t understand “borders” very well, yet. Bumblebee, though, she urged hanging with because he was great, and Optimus was cool, too, although she wasn’t sure if he was the hanging out type.

“Dang—you sure know a lot about these guys,” a soldier laughed.

Again her stomach dropped, but she laughed it off, “Yeah, well, I’m just, uh, good at reading people I guess? Yeah, yeah, they’re robots, but they’re alive, y’know? They’re basically just giant, metal humans.”

“Well, I don’t know about that. Those other ones—the Decepticons, right? Yeah, well they sure as hell weren’t human," a soldier growled. 

“Anyways,” Lennox spoke up, figuring the tone was maybe going somewhere it shouldn’t, “it wouldn’t hurt to get to know them. We might just end up working with them.”