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It had been six orbital cycles without communication from Bumblebee's side, he knew repair missions could extend if the damage to the space bridge was severe but Bumblebee hadn't disappeared for this long, at least not without telling him, Bumblebee normally updated him on his missions while he went on about telling him how his day had been or how long it would take the repair crew to reach the space-bridge. He hadn't paid attention to the lack of communication during the first weeks. He had gotten used to Bumblebee not picking up his call because of the bridge's damage and the repair needed or because the connection hadn't been enough to hold a call. Still, it had been six months without him giving any signs of being online, he had tried tracking their ship but it ended up in lost time, the signal had vanished, and the only thing present on the ship’s file was the approximate of where it had been located before the tracker went down.
It was frustrating, to say the least, Megatron had disappeared in the same time frame Bumblebee had, leading to him feeling absolutely and devastatingly lost on Cybertron, he didn’t have any sort of direction to follow from his leader aside from staying hidden in this disguise and collect data, but what was he supposed to do with anything he collected if Megatron was gone? He couldn’t exactly call Strika for help, nor did he think that was a good idea, she was probably stressing her mind about Megatron’s whereabouts too, and without Bumblebee he was quite lonely and slowly going insane without anybot to really talk to, sure, he had his colleagues but his and Bumblebee’s relationship was different, it was far more special.
He groaned irritated, he didn’t want to deal with any of this at all, he knew something could go wrong when he accepted, or forcefully got assigned because of his frame’s abilities, the mission to go undercover but Megatron disappearing and getting attached to a certain minibot wasn’t on the list of possible casualties.
He stopped in his tracks, he needed to snap out of his thoughts, he needed to focus. Longarm shook his head slightly and snatched a quick glance at the keycard in his servo before passing it through the security panel attached to the door of the apartment, the door hissed open and he warily entered the apartment, he had been in before, but he had been accompanied by Bumblebee all those times, now the feeling of merely walking into the apartment felt unfamiliar. He circled air into his vents and breathed out deeply, this was a simple task, pick up Bumblebee’s things now that he was considered officially missing by Autobot Command laws.
He wished they had waited a bit longer before accepting Bumblebee and the crew he was assigned with as missing. Maybe so he could hope for a bit longer for Bumblebee to return safely back to Cybertron.
He closed the door on his way in and looked around the apartment. He didn’t want to move, nor did he want to move anything, it felt wrong in a way, like silently accepting that Bumblebee was gone forever, he couldn’t be offline, could he? He was far more stronger than anybot gave him credit for.
He stood awkwardly for longer than he should have in the middle of the room, offline or not, he needed to proceed, the only reason he was inside Bumblebee’s apartment was because of a call informing him he needed to pick up Bumblebee’s belongings since he was listed as one of the minibot’s emergency contacts, a thing that had been his initial idea to keep an eye out for Bumblebee just in case.
He walked over to the small bedroom and pulled one of the boxes he had been carrying with him and gently placed it on the floor, he looked around for some cycles before deciding to pull everything that was in berth and the nightstand near it into the box, he carefully placed some data-pads he recognized as gifts he had given Bumblebee, old photos from boot camp and the trainee insignia they had given them when they had first entered boot camp. Then a shiny object caught his eye.
It was behind one of the datapads, it was a small charm shaped like a thunder, he vividly remembered when Bumblebee got his hands on the tiny charm, that time he was dragged along to a festival on one of the few days they allowed the cadets out of the academy for a few hours, Bumblebee had been off fighting with the charm machines for two identical rewards, one that had been given to him as a gift.
He rubbed the charm softly, tracing the worn-down sharp edges and the chipped parts where the cheap paint hadn’t held up after all these years, his gaze softened the more he looked at it. He missed Bumblebee an awful lot.
Longarm opened his subspace and carefully placed it inside.
Then he returned to packing the rest of the room and apartment, he roamed the small complex for a few more hours, he had filled four boxes up before he decided to leave the apartment and return tomorrow morning, maybe he could escape for a few hours from his office to finish packing the little that was still left behind. He stared at another box he had found before he left, debating taking that one with him right now or leaving it behind to pick up everything together. He extended his arm and snatched the old box he had found filled with Bumblebee’s boot camp belongings and closed the door behind him, hearing the locks activate once again before he walked off.
He arrived at his apartment and left the box on a table he had near a couch, he grabbed an energon cube and sat down, getting everything out of the worn-out box he went for the photos first, there were tons of them inside the box, some more ragged on the edges than the others, he couldn't help but smile at the ones where Bumblebee and he were together, he also noticed that those were more carefully looked after when compared to the ragged edges of other photos inside the box. It made him grin, made him feel more important and special than he probably was.
He wished he had been this careful with the few things he got from boot camp, he still conserved some datapads with some backed-up data with very few photos inside them, and he still had the charm Bumblebee gave him, it was less worn out from time giving that he had saved it inside the plastic sphere Bumblebee initially gave him with the tiny charm inside.
It was late by the time he picked everything back into the box, he had lost track of time again while seeing the old photos, he grabbed the box along with the empty energon cube, placed the cube in the kitchen, and then walked off to his room, he placed the box carefully below his berth, making sure the lid of the box was on to avoid the dust as much as possible.
Longarm left the box alone and walked into another room of the apartment, filled with computers, there were some datapads dispersed around the room and near one of the walls there was an office table and chair, he slowly walked to one of the computers, and turned the device on, it illuminated the whole room on a soft blue colored light, he vented a sigh before pressing some buttons.
A call was attempted to start before the computer itself hung up, bright letters reading ‘unsuccessful connection’, just like yesterday, just like last week, and just like the last months when he hadn't given up hope of Bumblebee answering back miraculously, picking up the call with his usual energetic tone making Longarm’s days happier by telling him in what trouble he had gotten himself on this time or just appearing totally entertained when Longarm spoke, paying attention to every single word that came out of his intake.
And maybe there was more than entertainment and simple interest in both of their eyes when they heard each other speak, he had caught Bumblebee staring at him more than once with absolute adoration in his eyes, and he would be lying to himself if he didn't admit he had shared the same looks to Bumblebee’s direction more than once too, or just gazing at his servo with longing and the need he felt to be close to him, hold him softly.
He turned the computer off, darkness taking over the whole room once more.
He could try again tomorrow, and then again and again, filled with the hope of seeing him once more.