Sunstreaker's Charge ✔️

Ch. 17 More Support

Sideswipe's P.O.V.
Lily cried herself to sleep. So far, she hasn't touched the schoolwork Luke got for her this week. While we don't want her to fall behind with her schoolwork, it's the least of her problems. Sunstreaker does not like hearing what happened. Dreading this might be part of what we'll deal with for a while.
"Do what you have to do so she'll be able to do her schoolwork and hopefully go back to school," Sunstreaker insists and leaves the room.  
He knows we can't force Lily to do schoolwork no matter how concerned we are that she'll fall behind. It's hard to believe he's concerned.
"Aren't you two supposed to be working?" I ask.
"Uh... well—." Crosshairs starts.
"I knew it! Why am I even her guardian if I need babysitters?!"
"No, we said we'd help you, and Lily needs to know not everyone is avoiding her," Drift explains.
We consider getting Crosshairs' sister to help us and getting the others to join us at night for a little while, but working on too many problems at once could backfire.

We agree to get Lightning involved, and hopefully Jasmine though she works in the medbay and has her baby sister to care for. After a little time, we'll see about getting the others to spend time with Lily.

Lightning's P.O.V.
".... I don't think we should get every femme involved," Crosshairs explains as we walk down the hall, "even if we want Lily to befriend others. She's dealing with a lot already..."
"She knows the others are avoiding her," I sigh, "I don't know if letting her befriend Sunstreaker is a good idea. Even if he's oddly unhappy, she's terrified of him."
I'm informed about the tricky situation and how Lily struggles with how she wants to think about Sunstreaker. It's a perfect opportunity to influence her to hate Sunstreaker, but though we worry she'll end up dead, we want her to decide for herself.

Lily is happy to see another Autobot — even if it's my holoform — proving that she knows the others are avoiding her.  
I know it's hard for her to hear we must take things slowly, and she's tired of her mind being confused.  
We get her to do some schoolwork before lunch.

Sunstreaker's P.O.V.
I hate feeling guilt that I scared Lily more than I feel guilt towards a human. Knowing her mind is confused about how to think about me doesn't help. 
I try to work on this piece for Lily, but I'm distracted by her struggle. I have an idea, but no one is going to take part. Forcing them will not help the situation. All I can do is tell Prime my idea, and he can tell the others, and there'd be a better chance that they'd think it's a good idea.

"I can't force everybot to spend time with her either," Optimus tells me, "but this is concerning. All I can do is talk to everyone about how unacceptable this is."
Damn it, all this from watching me kill. It's perhaps a good idea to keep Lily away from me. How long before we start this all over? If Lily can stop being afraid of me, to begin with. 

I have Rung meet me by Sideswipe and Lily's room and have Drift be part of the meeting.
"You asking me to meet you is strange," Rung admits, "especially when I've been telling you for centuries to come talk to me."
"Then you know this is not about my nightmares. Do you think if I went to Cybertron for a while, I'd be helping Lily?"
Rung sighs, "No, we'd be temporarily removing the problem at this phase, and that would be a good step later down the road. For now, increasing how often she sees you is best."
"I suggest starting with later in the day," Drift adds, "though today Lily struggled with nightmares and feeling confused; I believe seeing Sunstreaker early in the morning would cause difficulty concentrating on her schoolwork."
"This is complicated, and it'll take time. Are you aware you have to work with Lily? Even if, for now, that means limiting how often she sees you?"
"Yes."
I know this will take time, but I don't like it, and not because I'm impatient. Knowing Lily will deal with nightmares, fear, and confusion about me is what I don't like. All this scrap in eleven days unbelievable. 

"He scared a little girl," I hear a soldier whisper as I walk by a group of soldiers.
Tonight, you are mine, fragger.
Sunstreaker, what are you thinking? Sideswipe questions.
Nothing, just worry about Lily.

Sideswipe's P.O.V.
I know this feeling. There's no getting Sunstreaker to stop torturing or killing, even if there's a chance Lily will find out. This is one thing I doubt will change, even if Sunstreaker wants Lily to befriend him, but this will not help things. I can't stop him without Lily finding out. 

While Crosshairs, Drift, and Lightning take Lily out for lunch, I meet Sunstreaker in the cafeteria. Sunstreaker does not like that Lily isn't with him, and he knows he won't be invited to tag along with anybot and Lily for a while and hates it.  
"I'm happy Lightning is getting involved, but I hate avoiding Lily for a while."
"You haven't lost her, Sunstreaker. She'll come to you when she's ready," Optimus claims, "this is hard for her—," he argues,
"No, it's as usual. No femme wants to be my friend! And dating, ha!"
"Oh, yes, she doesn't want you at all. That's why I got all these pictures from her phone before she deleted them!" I argue, showing some of the pictures.
"No, she doesn't! I can't even take her out for lunch! Or drop off breakfast if she's awake! She deleted all the pictures she took! She wants nothing to do with me!"
Sunstreaker leaves the cafeteria enraged.
"I shouldn't have said she deleted the pictures," I sigh, "but I watched her delete them. Sunstreaker asked me to get them before Lily deleted the pictures. Oh, scrap, I wonder if she's regretting that while feeling confused?"
"It's best to ask her and let her know you have the pictures," Optimus suggests.

Sunstreaker's P.O.V.
I walk down the hall, finding the fragger who was talking scrap about me standing alone. I slam him to the wall while he's unaware, knocking him out, and no one will be around to see me drag him into the hangar.

Once at an abandoned warehouse, I throw the soldier out of my Lamborghini's trunk, watching him stumble to the ground.
"I have a problem with fleshies who talk trash about me!" I rage, standing over the fleshie.
"You just can't accept it's true."
"You can't accept there are consequences for talking trash about me!" I smell his fear as I rip his clothes off and start cutting his abdomen, "should I let you bleed to death or dissect you? Hearing you scream in pain," my knife goes keeper as I cut, making the fleshie scream, "on second thought; I'll do both. You can lie here and bleed until you die."
I move the knife across his abdomen, his intestines popping out as he screams, "the animals will take care of you."
I leave the warehouse, clean my clothes and return to the base.