A Mechanical Love

Chapter 6 Secrets in the Light but Unknown

It was finally Saturday, this week had been extremely rough. The bullies had finally sniffed you out and started to harass you nonstop. On top of that my father seemed to turn into a monster more often than normal. As well as rumors of somebody liking you had started circulating around the school. Normally you wouldn't care for the most part but with the revelation of developing feelings for your guardian, you started trying to find ways to get over the silly little crush. So if the chance to develop feelings for a human came then that may be what the doctor ordered to cure your puppy love.

You were sketching out a meme that you had seen but with your friends instead, trying to forget the pain of the week. Though you honestly thought it fit. The original meme was called 'When mom isn't home' but your version had become 'When Ratchet isn't home'. What you had was enough to explain everything. Wheeljack and Miko were in what seemed to be a kitchen. Wheeljack was playing a trombone while Miko was about to slam the oven door closed. The picture made you laugh and it wasn't even done yet. You were proud of this and decided to make it a full piece. So with the pencil work done, you got out your fine liners to start outlining the work of art when Wheeljack finally came back from patrol. But you didn't even notice as you were so engaged with the piece of art in front of you trying to forget your misery.

I entered the bases returning from my patrol to see all of the humans in the base. Miko, Jack, and Raf were all in the human loft playing video games and sitting on the couch but I didn't see (f/n) with them. I looked around the room and found her on the floor next to the ladder to the loft. I chuckled at the sight I knew she loved to be with the other kids but sometimes she just needed her space but something was off. Normally (f/n) said hello to me whenever I got back from my morning patrol. I studied her until I saw that she was engrossed in whatever she was doing with the book of papers in front of her and her earbuds shoved in her ears. I simply shook my head as the other kids said hello. I waved to them as I poked her to get her attention, shock covered her face as she looked up to me. (f/n) pulled her earbuds out of her ears and looked up to me a smile taking up her face.

"Hey there tater tot, missed me" I questioned (f/n). The nickname caused her to turn slightly red and puff her checks, the sight was adorable. "Nope, I enjoyed the time that you were away, butter butt" she responded, silence fell between us. "Really, Butter butt that's the name you came up with" I questioned her as her face became even redder.  "Well, I'm sorry I'm not as witty as you" she yelled between fits of laughter, it was a good sound to hear. 

"Anyways what are you doing that's so engaging that you didn't notice the 30ish foot robot enter the room" at my statement she rolled her eyes and went back to her spot. "For your information, I'm lining a drawing I made" (f/n) sassed back at me. She looked down at the piece and the joy had slowly drained from her face and she looked to me. "Hey Wheeljack, is it okay if we hang out in The Jackhammer for awhile," she asked a look of what seemed shame took over her face. I didn't say anything as I put my hand down next to her and she hopped on. We took the elevator up in silence. Something was wrong with (f/n) and it was eating away at her, I could tell.

We finally reached The Jackhammer and entered. We entered my berthroom and (f/n) breathed a sigh of relief it seemed. I went over to my workbench in the room and placed her down as I started to work on my latest project. My optics glancing over to (f/n) ever so often as she continued to do whatever she was doing with the book in her lap. "You know you can talk to me right (f/n)" she looked up at me and we shared a moment of optic contact. It didn't take long for liquid to start falling down her face and I started to panic. "Woah Woah Woah! (f/n) what's wrong? why is liquid falling from your optics? Do you need to talk to Doc? Cause I can take you back down if that's" she cut me off. "Don't worry I'm just crying it's a natural thing for humans. It happens when we're sad or our emotions are overwhelming" she looked at me with a look of utter despair on her face. Her face quickly darted downwards as silence again filled the gap between our words. I took my servo and lifted up her face so she was looking at me. "Do you want to talk about it. (f/n) I may not be great with emotions or human issues but I am your guardian and friend and I want to help you" she simply shook her head but held onto my digit as if her life depended on it. We stayed like that until she stopped crying and released my digit but I lingered for a bit until bringing my servo back to my side. I stared down at her and I finally realized that (f/n) has a lot of secrets that were hurting her and I wanted to know them, but I knew that she would tell me when she was ready. We continued what we were doing before as if nothing happened.

Finally, I heard (f/n) laugh as she lifted the book she had been working in. I stared at her for a moment until she showed me the picture she had created and our laughter filled the room. The picture was fantastic and her laughter was even better.