Mechanical love

Chapter eighteen

It hadn't taken long for them to get to the mall that Carolina usually went to.

Despite Ironhide's unusually massive frame, they'd been able to find a parking spot beneath the shade of some trees.

Sure Ironhide had been forced to half park on the adjacent curb and had a stand-off with another driver who also wanted the spot, but eventually, they'd parked and Carolina had climbed down from the massive truck.

"You didn't have to intimidate the driver like that you know!" she scolded him, poking the side of the bonnet like a mother pointing at a disobedient child.

"Why not?" came Ironhide's voice from the grill, "It was fun!"

She scoffed and shook her head, "Trying to run them over was not the way to go about it, you cranky old fart! The poor guy thought you were going to kill him!" To her surprise, the grill rumbled deeply and she realized that he was laughing at the remark.

"Who's to say I wasn't?" he retorted. Carolina responded by kicking the tire with her sneakers; noticing that she felt it more without her steel-capped boots to protect her toes.

"I know you weren't, because if you were I'd take you apart and turn you into a women's edition sports car." She threatened, thumping her fist playfully on the hood.

"You wouldn't...?" he said, sounding like he was apprehensive about his own statement; it came out more like a question.

Carolina took full advantage of this and shot him a sinister-looking grin, not knowing whether he could see it or not.

"Just try me."

A round of sarcastic, amiable laughter rippled between them before Carolina looked over to the shopping centre, an apprehensive look on her face before she turned to look at the Topkick, "Are you going to use that Holoform of yours and come with me?"

He scoffed a little, "I was just going to wait here. Why? Do you need me to go with you?"

"Well..." she said cheekily, "I'm going to need someone to carry my bags." She laughed to herself a little before resting a hand gently on the side of the towering vehicle, "I'm only joking Ironhide, but seriously; you'll probably get bored waiting out here so long, I'm more than likely going to be a while. Will you please go with me?"

There was a moment of contemplative silence before the heard a heavy sigh.

"Alright fine; but you will not tell anyone about this. If anybody asks, I waited in the parking lot. Holoforms are so...artificial to me; I can't use my cannons."

This made Carolina snort in amusement, "You can't use them in public anyway!" she laughed, "But I promise. Not a word."

Running her finger and thumb over her lips like a zipper, she patted him on the side and stepped back; secretly a little excited to be able to see a Holoform from Ironhide.

She heard an electrical buzzing from inside the truck, seeing a faint blue light through the heavily tinted windows before it finally stopped; and she waited with bated breath. Finally, the driver side door swung open and a figure jumped down. Tess nearly had a heart attack.

Ironhide's form stood around 5'9 and was incredibly sturdy. The amount of muscle and girth that he possessed gave Tessa the impression that if she hadn't already known him; she would have avoided him in the street.

He simply oozed dangerous.

She had to smile and shake her head to herself, thinking just how well the form suited him. Short, spiky black hair was atop his head, his face was clean-shaven and there was a large, marring discolouration over his right eye; a scar of some sort.