Chapter Text
One of the first thing Strongarm noticed about lieutenant Bumblebee was his alertness. His attentiveness to his surroundings. It reflected in his strategy, how he always made sure to have at least one extra way out. The way he talked, not as loud as anyone else, almost as if always keeping an ear out. Even in how he was the hardest to prank by Sideswipe. Though, looking at the number of the attempts, he sure was his favourite target. It was all these little things that told her how hyper vigilant he always was.
And she admired that in lieutenant. It showed how truly strong he was, how serious he took his job, even if his sometimes aversion to stick to the protocol irritated femme bot.
All this is to say, he was almost always prepared for an attack. And it was this knowledge that told her Sideswipe's idea was incredibly stupid.
"Come on, Strongarm. It'll be fun. I just want to scare Bee a bit. Not like I'm gonna punch him or anything." Sideswipe reasoned, getting on her nerve already, as they walked through endless shelves of scrape yard.
"No, and that's final. Can't you see how stupid it is?" Blue bot shot back, knowing that the only reason they even had this argument was because she caught him sneaking up on Bumblebee and confronted him.
"No, because it isn't." Red rebutted, clearly not understanding her frustration.
"It is."
"Is not."
"Is too."
"Is not- why do you even care. It's a small joke, whaits the harm?" When Strongarm failed to answer autobot took it as a cue to continue "Besides, what could even happen? He'll just scream like you all do, or even jump a little. It'll be fun, come on." She stayed silent, unsure how to respond. The bot urged her forward, and after a minute of walk it became clear why.
There, less than ten meters away from them stood Grimlock, in his dino mode, and Bumblebee himself, chatting about something. It was clear they were too engrossed in their talk, when lieutenant didn't even twitch upon younger's arrival.
Sideswipe's optics shined at the rare opportunity to caught their leader off guard. And, despite her best effort, she knew a losing battle when she saw one.
Opting to instead stick close to the other bot in hopes of preventing any further damage, lest Grimlock break something out of fear, she walked right behind him. They stopped soon after, at the end of the shelf, when Sideswipe signaled for her to stop. And.
And as annoyed as she was, she couldn't help her curiosity. Strongarm never imagined she could sneak so close to lieutenant without him noticing, and was more willing to put up with their prankster's joke, if only this once.
Looking at their leader, blue bot noticed how his shoulder pads were loosened, and the hesitant, almost soft smile took up his face plate. The one reserved for those quiet moments when he reminisced about past, or they made a particularly good job on a mission. He looked... oddly relaxed. Making a pit of guilt in Strongarm's stomach even bigger, when she realised they were about to ruin this moment.
However the autobot wasn't quick enough about her change of mind, as Sideswipe already made his way to the other two, and femme bot could only watch as he raised his servos behind Bumblebee's back plate, clearly ready to tackle him to the ground, following by the scream of horror from the older.
But that didn't happen.
Instead Strongarm saw almost in slow motion as Sideswipe put his digits on Bumblebee's shoulder pads, shout at ready. Yet as he made contact with their leader reaction was instantaneous, and not a moment later red bot was laying on the ground on his chest plate, with his servos behind his back plate, and a servo of none other that Bumblebee himself on his neck guard.
Everyone frose, not knowing what to do, wide-eyed expression mirrored on both Sideswipe and Grimlock's face plates, her's probably identical.
However, Bumblebee's shocked her the most. Only half of his helm was turned, but it was enough to see a carefully blank expression.
"Um...hey Bee." Nervously said Sideswipe, craning his helm, trying to look at the bot in question.
And just like that the spell was broken. Lieutenant's expression returned to normal, as he swiftly let go of younger's servo, and stood up, almost tripping over himself and ending up backed against Grimlock, who only looked down confused.
"Scrap, didn't know you had moves like this." The younger chuckled, clutching his shoulder pads.
"Sideswipe, don't do that. You could've endangered yourself. I didn't hurt you, did I?" Bumblebee scolded him, but quickly moved to examine his arm guard, making sure to touch gently.
"Stop worrying, boss bot, its nothing." Sideswipe halfheartedly argued, though he couldn't hide his bewilderment. "Although my mouth piece hurts."
"That's what you get for being an idiot." Strongarm intervened finally. "But he's right lieutenant, I don't recall practicing something like this at the academy." And she prided herself on knowing every important one.
Bumblebee only signed somewhat tiredly after a moment, leaning on Grimlock, who at this point was in his robot mode, and put his helm on shorter bot's.
"Because it's not from the academy." Lieutenant looked almost embarrassed as confessed. "It's something that was drilled into me is all." At that he look away, rubbing his neck guard in weirdly human way.
"Teach me." Sideswipe said curtly, making everyone look at him in disbelief.
"What?" Bumblebee asked, unsure if he heard that correctly. As Sideswipe? Not only willing but wanting to learn something from him? Unbelievable. Yet the look of awe and determination in his optics told a different story.
"Teach me." Repeated red bot. "Come on, that was so cool, imagine what I could do with it combined with my incredible speed." He practically begged.
"I don't know, it's not useful in our usual circumstances. Our main point is to disarm the enemy, not blast their helm off." And maybe it was the admission of the threat, or how easy lieutenant said that, but it made Strongarm really glad that Bumblebee was on their side. And the fact of not following through was reassuring not only to her, if how Sideswipe rubbed his neck guard and his nervous smile were anything to go by.
The only unaffected by anything was Grimlock, who just stood behind their leader, helm on helm still.
"Yeah, that was cool, Bee." He said finaly, grinning. "Maybe not as cool as punching the enemy, but still cool."
At that lieutenant only signed fondly, his face plate finally breaking into that private smile again.
"Yeah, maybe..."
As Strongarm looked at their leader, she saw how relaxed he is at the moment, his posture loosing it's stiffness at last. He won't be like this for long. She knew that a few minutes later he'll be on guard again, looking for any threat possible. But right now with them, she's glad he doesn't have to.