Family | Tfp AU

Comfort and Conflict

>> Early Monday morning>>

Bee waited impatiently for Firestar's car to come around the corner. It had been a long weekend without her, even with talking over the phone several times a day, and it had been difficult to tell if she was happy or not.

At last the black car came down the street, and pulled into the driveway. Bumblebee jumped up from the couch and hurried out to meet her, coming to the driveway just as Firestar was getting out, and he smiled, glad she was back.

“Hey, Star!” He called as he walked over to her. He grunted slightly as she dropped her cane and threw her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly and starting to cry quietly. He returned the hug and rubbed her back, wanting to ask what was wrong, but knowing now was definitely not the time, so he simply held her close and let her cry for a minute.

When she seemed to be calming back down, Bee gently pulled back a little and bent down to pick up her cane, handing it to her before leading her back inside, his arm around her shoulders in a side hug. Clearly that visit with her dad had not gone well…

“I got out our stuff ready last night so we won't have to rush,” Bee told her as they sat down on the couch. Firestar smiled a little, leaning against him with her arms still around him. “Do I dare ask if you're ok--?”

“You have no idea how much I missed you!” Firestar blurted suddenly, burying her face in his shirt as she cried. Bumblebee blinked in surprise and hugged her back tightly.

“I missed you, too, Star,” he said quietly in her ear, stroking her hair softly to comfort her. He glanced up as Ratchet entered the room, pausing when he saw Star was crying. They made eye contact for a moment, having a silent conversion, and Ratchet nodded slightly before walking back out again, to give them a minute. Bumblebee continued stroking her hair and whispering softly to her, ignoring the fact that she had completely soaked his shirt with her tears, and let her cry it all out.

After a few more minutes of crying, the tears started to subside a little. Bumblebee felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and carefully pulled it out and looked at it, still holding Firestar close. It was a text from Ratchet.

‘If she wants to, I can excuse you two from school today.’

Bee took a deep breath and looked down at his foster sister. “If you want, we can just stay home today, take it easy.”

Firestar frowned and looked up at him, tears still falling down her cheeks. “Can we?”

Bee nodded. “Ratchet would call the school and excuse us.”

“Ok…” Firestar said quietly, resting her head on his chest with a small sigh. Bumblebee smiled slightly and texted Ratchet back asking him to excuse them.

>>Lunch time at the high school>>

“Where are they?” Jazz wondered aloud to his sister as he leaned against the flag pole, waiting for their friends.

Arcee frowned. “Well, Bee wasn't there in History, so maybe he's not here today.”

“But what about Star?”

“I don't know, maybe you should text Bee and see if we need to go pick her up from class or something,” she suggested. Jazz nodded and pulled out his phone to ask.

‘Hey, are you and Star here today?’ He typed. A few minutes passed before Bee replied.

‘We stayed home today. Star had a hard weekend.’

‘Is she okay?’ Jazz asked, suddenly a little worried about his friend. Another few minutes went by.

‘She'll be alright. Maybe you guys could come over after school? Cheer her up a little.’ Bee suggested.

‘Sure, we'd love to hang out and help her feel a little better,’ Jazz smirked.

“What did Bee say?” Arcee asked in mild annoyance, poking her brother's arm. Jazz shrugged her off and handed his phone to her.

“You can just read it. Let's go sit down,” He said, leading the way over to a table a few yards away. They sat in silence for a minute while Arcee read through the text conversation.

“Aw, that's too bad that she's sad,” she sighed, handing the phone back to her brother before unpacking her lunch. “I wonder what happened with her and her dad…”

“Yeah...but we definitely shouldn't ask her about that,” Jazz said seriously, taking a bite of his sandwich.

“Oh for sure, that would be super insensitive!” Arcee agreed, starting on her lunch as well. “She probably doesn't want to think about it at all right now.”

“Maybe Smokescreen could come with,” Jazz suggested. “He always manages to make her laugh.”

“That's true,” Arcee laughed. “He gets out just an hour after we do, so we could just have mom bring him over when they get home.”

“Hey, whatcha guys talkin about?”

The siblings turned to see Cliffjumper walking over, a slightly cocky smirk on his face. Jazz grumbled something as the boy approached, and Arcee shot him a silencing look before addressing her boyfriend.

“Oh hey, Cliff,” she smiled as he sat on the bench next to her. “We were just talking about trying to cheer up one of our friends after school.”

“Oh yeah? Who?”

“Firestar,” Jazz said in a flat voice. “But it's none of your business.”

“Jazz!” Arcee hissed. “There's no need to be rude, he was only asking!”

“Yeah, but this is more of a personal matter, that should only talked about among friends,” Jazz growled, throwing Cliffjumper a look. Cliff’s eyes widened slightly and he held up his hands.

“Dude, I'm not trying to pry or anything,” he assured him, standing up from the table.

Arcee put a hand on his arm. “Cliff-”

“Hey it's fine, ‘Cee. I-I'll talk to ya later,” he glanced warily at Jazz before walking off. Arcee groaned and turned to glare at her brother.

“What?” Jazz snapped, glaring back at her.

“Look, I know you may not like Cliff, but that's no reason to be such a jerk to him!”

“Whatever,” Jazz muttered, looking away and starting on his sandwich.

“I'm serious, Jazz! What is it that makes you hate him so much?!” Arcee hit a fist on the table.

“I don't hate him,” he said quietly. “I just don't like him.”

“And why is that?” she demanded, determined to get a straight answer from him.

Jazz finished his bite and looked her right in the eyes, his expression serious. “Because he's too old for you, and you're too invested in him.”

Arcee blinked. “Too old for me?! Jazz, he's only one year older than me!”

“Exactly! He's going to graduate this year and you'll have to break up anyways because he'll be an adult, while you're still just a high schooler.”

Arcee frowned. “Why would that mean we'd have to break up? We can still be friends after he graduates.”

“It just doesn't work that way,” Jazz shook his head, taking another bite from his sandwich.

“Says who besides you?” Arcee asked sassily. “And either way, Cliff is different; we'll make it work, you'll see.”

Jazz gave her a look. “Sure. Fine. But don't come crying to me when he breaks it off and you can't think of a reason why,” he huffed, finishing his sandwich and grabbing the rest of his lunch before walking away. Arcee glared after him and folded her arms infront of herself, angrily.

“Don't you worry,” she muttered, watching him walk back into the school. “There won't be any reason too.”