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(Warning(s): G, none)
When you were just a kid, you never noticed that gradual transition from falling asleep, lulled by your companionably quiet father at the wheel while your mother read, stared outside, or provided input for directions under the glow of a small flashlight. You didn’t have to drive, have to do anything except occasionally look outside or watch the steady rise and fall of your brother’s chest as he completely passed out from that night’s karate practice.
But even then, it showed in little ways: demands to do more chores or pull your own weight around. Do everything necessary to be less of a burdensome child and more of a blossoming adult.
Charlie’s eyes cracked open, feeling her cheek pressed tacky and warm to the side window of the Volkswagon Bug and the healthy thrum of Bee’s engine as they chugged along an abandoned country road, the brunette’s eyes squeezing shut once before blinking away the heavy dregs of sleep. “Bee? What time is it?” she inquired softly, drowsily. Though, part of her didn’t want to ask. Falling asleep in the bug was like falling asleep in someone’s arms.
However, when she just realized it, she peered over the dash to the sight of the waves crashing upon the shore and cool sea breeze, the bleary show of creamy gold on the horizon suppressed by heavy violet clouds tinged with gold, despite how beautiful it was entirely.
“I WANTED to s p e n d time with you,” Bee’s voice crackled in myriad tones and genders as they pulled to a slow stop. “A d a t e.”
Charlie sat blankly in the cabin of the car at that, feeling her cheeks gradually heat up like suffused flame. “You do?” she forced herself to say coherently, a restless heat stirring in her gut. Swallowing thickly, she brushed an errant strand of hair behind her ear. “…I’d like that, Bee.”
It was a soft admittance, but when there was a mechanical whirring and clangorous collision of parts as Bee reformed himself, she couldn’t help the giddy feeling that bubbled into her heart when she found herself sprawling on the hood of Bee’s chest, uttering a breathy laugh. “A date, huh? Anything you have in mind?”
Truth be told, after her father’s death, she hadn’t allowed herself to open up to anyone. Even though she’d had these stupid, fleeting fantasies of hooking up with Tripp Summers, in hindsight she was glad nothing ever came of it. Here and now, how could one measly crush ever compete with this? She felt like she was diving off that crane again, fighting through the locke and the currents generated from destroying Shatter in that decisive blow, fighting her way until seeing him suddenly made the world fall into slow, serene focus.
As if the chaos of the past several hours had never happened. Seeing those blue oculars of his flare back to life had stirred something in her. Something sweet and protective.
Bee made an inquisitive chirp when he noticed Charlie fall silent, notably concerned. The young woman suddenly pulled herself up higher where she craned to gaze at Bumblebee with a distant look in her eyes, her mind all static and warmth. Bumblebee, too, locked eyes with her while small, tender hands took him by the sides of his face and Charlie angled her head enough to plant an inexorable kiss on the grille where a mouth would be, something overwhelming her more than even waves upon the shoreline.
It wasn’t until the glow of his eyes behind thin eyelids did she realize how Bee’s hand was drifting near her waist, impossibly gentle as not to crush her with his prodigious strength. When that realization finally sank in, Charlie’s eyes widened in mortification and she jumped from his body like she’d been stung.
“Oh God, what the hell did I just…?” she demanded of herself before hearing Bumblebee scramble to his feet, concern evident as he gingerly hovered near her. “Bee, I’m so sorry—”
“Was it SOMETHING I did?” the autoboot queried cautiously, a feeling of guilt beginning to swim its way into the girl’s chest.
…Why had she done it? Did she really crave closeness that badly she sought it from an autoboot of all things? Silently, she admonished the thought. Bumblebee wasn’t just something. He was a person. He was…
What did that make him to her? What was making her heart thunder in her chest, and what made her kiss him like that?
“I’m not angry, Bee. Not at you,” Charlie sighed as she plopped onto the sand, wind ruffling through her hair. “It’s just—we’ve been through a lot, right? And…we grew close. But, I seriously overstepped some boundaries just now, and…” Her cheeks heated too much for her to continue, unable to look at the autobot square in the face, gaze averting even when Bumblebee sat down with her.
“Don’t people do that when they love each other?”
That reasoning hit her in the heart like a sledgehammer.
“Well—!” Charlie sputtered when she leapt to her feet, rising and pacing away but not before Bee emulated her and followed her path. “To be completely fair, there’s different kinds of love! There’s familial, platonic, friendly—a whole chart, actually. You know, Ron has a whole chart on it? There’s storge, agape, um, eros—” Distractedly did she pace, cheeks flaming and unable to think straight. Rambling, anything to derail the topic.
“Family doesn’t kiss like that. Neither do friends,” Bumblebee clarified pointedly, cutting through her argument like it was the thinnest rice paper you could imagine. “I’m not blind to human customs, Charlie.”
Charlie groaned dramatically and threw her hands up. “Okay, I give up! Just—” The moment’s humor seemed to fizzle away, a genuine insecurity flitting over Charlie’s features as she folded her arms and gazed imploringly at Bee. “Bee, I can’t just…admit to that like it’s nothing.” Come to think of it, she’d never kissed anyone like that in all her eighteen years. No casual, dumb middle school crushes, even. This… She knew what had compelled her. She just didn’t want to say it.
Tepidly did she feel a finger poke her shoulder, hard and steel and familiar. Turning around, with a broken expression did she turn back to see Bumblebee open his arms wide for her, throwing her arms around his neck and not even thinking twice about embracing him like this. Three people she’d ever hugged felt like home: her dad, her mom, and now Bee. Even though he was steel and his heat was dry and sometimes acrid and mechanical, it felt like home to her. Another home.
“I love you, Charlie.”
That shouldn’t have made her break down the way she did. After her father’s death, dealing with life after him, someone else coming in while her family seemed to perfectly move on—to meeting Bumblebee and everything they’d gone through together, it came as a catharsis she never thought would come. All in the form of this embrace and something she thought she wouldn’t feel so passionately again.
“I love you, too, Bee.”
They rested their foreheads together, Charlie sniffing back what she could but leaving her tears to be dried by the wind. She did. Despite it all, she did. She loved Bumblebee. She didn’t want a life without him.
Suddenly, the soft strings of Clair de Lune filtered through Bee’s radio and a small smile alighted on her lips. Slowly and reluctantly did she withdraw from the hug, wiping away the last of her eyes and clearing her throat, some new and tender understanding between them. Offering out her hand, she smiled adoringly at him.
“Come on. You’re not leaving earth without learning how to dance. Um…even if ballroom really isn’t my thing, but—come on, we’ll give it a shot.”
“I’ll try not to step on your toes.”
‘You’d better not!” Charlie exclaimed with a laugh.