Invisible String

The Lakes

The cold hadn't stopped, in fact, every day the weather had been decreasing in decency. Rain one day, frost the next. It made your mind wonder to a warmer place. A part of you wanting to ask if you could take a road trip down south. Just for a weekend. But no chance materialized for you to bring it up since everyone was itching for the fall season to turn to icy winter. The terrains were worried about if their alt modes would keep them warm enough or if they would sadly have to migrate to a warmer climate (or hibernate as Nightshade had suggested in all their wisdom). But the Cybertronians had been reassuring them that it would be ok and the percentage of their kind that couldn't handle the cold was small and had other traits that would have popped up by now.

"You would have started malfunctioning by now, Twitch. Your frame would have started to change colors the moment you didn't get enough sunshine." You remembered Elita trying to relieve the young bot but sadly to no avail. Twitch was still convinced she was going to suddenly start flying south for no reason, you only hoped she would take you with her.

With the cold weather also came the start of holiday after holiday. The kids were all excited for Halloween, but you were happy to watch them get their costumes ready rather than making one yourself. You didn't know if you were going to walk with them or just stay home and hand out candy from the flower shop. Trying not to think too hard about it, you had taken up a few hobbies of your own. Your current one had been baking. Back in your old world, your oven hadn't worked correctly so you were only able to use the stove top part to make crappy Mac and Cheese and Ramen noodles.

So while the Malto children were putting together Halloween costumes, you were ears deep into your oven, cleaning it out from your latest pie-splosion. Even though you were trying to bake, it still took skill to master. Skill you didn't have yet.

You had tried to look up "What would make a pie explode in the oven?" to see what you did wrong but to your dismay all you got was recipes for no-bake pies and articles about how to make pies. It would have been fine if it wasn't your fourth attempt to make a stupid pecan pie. You were almost about to cave in and reach for a can of pumpkin puree before a small knock came from your balcony doors. You jumped and turned, whipping your apron off and wiping pie filling and flour off your face and hands.

You reached for the door, expecting to see one of the kids come to bother you but instead you were meet with piecing red eyes...er, optics.

"Hey-y Megatron, what are you doing here? I thought you were off on a mission." You awkwardly stumbled over your words. Try as you may, you still fumbled when you saw him. If he noticed or not, you couldn't tell. He never mentioned it and acted like you were acting completely normal.

"It was too cold for my rotators; I couldn't make it a mile north before I started freezing up. I had to turn back." You felt skeptical of his reasoning, knowing what little you did know about Cybertronians, he didn't have any of the characteristics that his kind would have had if they weren't able to handle the cold. But you didn't confront him on it, in fact you were glad to have an excuse to get out of your next failed attempt at making a pecan pie.

"Yeah, it is getting cold out. I don't know how excited I am for the snow to start falling." You thought about the journey it would be to walk home every day when the snow was up to your knees and shuddered. He let out an airy chuckle at your expression but gave no further comment.

Was this it? Had you been reduced down to simple small talk about the weather? The way your emotions would ebb and flow every day after his confession was mind numbing. But instead of breaking the silence, you clasped your hands behind you and rocked on your feet, trying to look anywhere but in his direction. You wanted to scream, jump from your balcony and force him to force you to give him an answer. It was a resounding yes of course, you knew that. He knew that. But there was still a mile high brick wall that was built between you, and every time you tried to chip away at it you would turn around to see it had not only been repaired but fortified.