Chapter Text
Bumblebee ex-vented as he rolled to a stop next to a small hill and transformed. “No sign of Steeljaw again”.
“Primus damnit”! Strongarm growled, hitting root mode and stamping her pedes in frustration. “He could be anywhere now”!
“He could also be nowhere”, Sideswipe offered, surprisingly the wise one there this time.
“Hold on, let me call Fixit and see what his scanners picked up”, Bumblebee mused, activating his comm while the teens bickered in the background.
Some distance away, Grimlock and Drift were having a moment of their own.
“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”! the Dinobot hollered as he too, ran around in root mode, this time with Slipstream and Jetstorm astride his giant shoulders. “ARE WE FEELING THIS MOMENT OR NOT”!?
“WE ARE! WE ARE”! Slipstream yelled back, enjoying the rush of cool wind on his faceplates.
“THIS WOULD BE MUCH MORE FUN IN YOUR DINOSAUR MODE”! Jetstorm yipped, but he too was having the time of his life.
And Drift? Well, he was seated on a flat rock just opposite them, legs crossed over one another like lotus petals and servos resting on his knees. His optics were shuttered as his mind rested and pondered in meditation, frame so still he looked like a statue. Earlier, Grimlock had asked him if he wanted to play with them, but Drift had declined and said he would meditate instead.
In reality, he was actually rethinking every decision that had led him to this point in life.
Drift had never had a family. He had been an orphan sparkling since as long as he could remember, surviving off anything he could scavenge or steal without leading to oilshed. In his later teen years, he joined the Decepticons under the promise of better supplies, being christened with the name ‘Deadlock’ under Megatron’s command. It had taken a long time for him to finally realise the extent of the warlord’s depravity, and when he had, he fled.
Shadow Raker had come across him one day, down on his luck and frame shivering from a lack of essential nutrients, and offered to take him under his wing in return for his services. ‘Deadlock’ had accepted without resistance, badly in need of Energon and somewhere that wasn’t cold to the point of deactivation to sleep. Using that vulnerability, the insectoid Decepticon had forced him to do heinous things that still haunted his processor most nights when he tried to recharge. Things, even under threat of deactivation, he would never forget.
With a sigh, Drift un-shuttered his optics to glance at his ‘teamie’ (as Grimlock so often liked to refer to him) and his pupils, or their ‘kids’ as Grimlock also liked to refer to them as. Slipstream and Jetstorm had been his main motivation for leaving Shadow Raker, changing his name and deciding to become an unaffiliated bounty hunter. Drift had witnessed firsthand how they had not only been neglected, but abused by the Decepticon and the day that had drawn a line had been when the two came back with multiple leaking wounds after Shadow Raker had pulled them aside to ‘discipline’ them, and he had taken one look at their shivering and wounded frames, almost annihilated Shadow Raker on the spot and made off with them into deep space.
For a long time, Drift had been comfortable with the three of them maintaining a student-mentor relationship. He didn’t trust himself, someone so broken they made tree bark look intact, to care for a sparkling, much less two. Being with Grimlock and the rest of the Bee Team, however, seemed to enable him to bring out that side more, and Drift found that he was beginning to…like it?
With a sigh, he un-shuttered his optics. He wasn’t so sure anymore.
The excited yelps from his two mechlings came to a stop, and soon he was graced with the sight of them curled up in Grimlock’s large arms, fast asleep. The Dinobot in question bounced them gently and the gaze in his optics as he looked down at them was nothing short of fond…
“Heya Teamie”, Grimlock addressed him suddenly and Drift had to reset his vocaliser before he bleated static. “You don’t mind me askin’ ya somethin’”?
Drift inhaled deeply. “What is it, Grimlock? Does something concern you”?
“I was wonderin’”…
He trailed off there, and Drift had to bite back the urge to tell him to hurry up. It would be rude, and dangerous on account of him cradling his students. Eventually, however, he replied.
“Y’know, its been some time since we caught Steeljaw, so I was thinking, maybe you’d want t’leave Earth at this point? I mean, I’m alright ‘ere, but maybe you, Slipsteam and Jetstorm wanna get a move on and find somethin’ else to do”?
Ah.
Well, yes, he did, but he also didn’t.
In the past, Drift would’ve said yes, and promised to return should their paths cross again. As much as Bumblebee had been incredibly generous with him in insisting he did not have a ‘life debt’ to him, Drift could feel himself becoming restless. He had long gotten used to moving around constantly, drifting (he shivered at his involuntary pun) from bounty to bounty, planet to planet, settlement to settlement. Where Slipstream and Jetstorm were concerned, he stopped longer than was needed to let them have their fun exploring and training before they left.
But now? Now, after so long on this blue ball of water and dirt, he no longer desired leaving. It was dirty, muddy, wet and fluctuating in its temperatures…and he liked it. Then came the Bee Team. After leaving first the Ronin and then Shadow Raker, Drift had declared Slipstream and Jetstorm to be all he needed in his life and no more. They were close-knit in a way few could hope to understand, despite Drift’s harshness with them and their resulting reluctance and fear with him. They trained together, the Minicons clung to his side and tailed him wherever they went, he shared an Energon cube with them sometimes and they often slept in the same berth together, and Drift hadn’t expected that closeness to grow since joining Team Bee. Under Bumblebee’s guidance and influence, their relationship had improved.
And it would possibly deteriorate if he declared they should leave.
As much as it surprised him to see that Grimlock had actually waited for him to answer, he also surprised himself when he responded. “I am not leaving anytime soon”.
Grimlock didn’t seem shocked. “Oooo…why though”?
“To be transparent with you, Grimlock, my relationship with my pupils had been…rusty, in the past”, Drift explained, toning it down as much as possible so his ‘teamie’ would understand. “And as it has improved since arriving on Earth, I do not wish to leave. If they are comfortable, then so be it. They deserve it after centuries of having to be on the move”.
“What about you though”? Grimlock asked, looking down when Slipstream snuffled and then fell into recharge again. “Sure you wanna stay even when Earth makes you…eh…feel kinda grimy”?
“It would appear I have come to like this blue planet as well”, Drift mused, and as he rose, he padded up to Grimlock and rested his broad servos on the Dinobot’s muscular arms. “So yes, I will stay. Neither of you will be seeing the last of me anytime soon”.
Grimlock immediately broke out into a huge smile at that, and without warning, he shifted the Minicons to one arm so he could hug Drift close with the other. “Awww, thanks teamie”! the Dinobot almost purred, sending a flush of heat through Drift’s faceplates before he pulled away. “But hey, offer’s still on the table either way, so don’t feel bad”.
“I have had time to consider it, and I remain resolute in my answer for now, Grimlock”, Drift affirmed, then checked on his pupils. “The day must have tired them out. Jetstorm especially doesn’t recharge as deeply as this”.
“Or maybe they feel safe enough to sleep this time”, Grimlock wondered aloud, and Drift too, seemed to consider the possibility for a moment before their reverie was interrupted.
“Alright team, no sign of Steeljaw for now, so lets rev up and roll out”! he called to all of them, then commed Fixit for a Groundbridge.
Drift shifted into his vehicle mode in a whirl of orange and followed behind Grimlock. Rocks and leaves crunched under his tyres as he pondered on Grimlock’s observation, the thought lingering long after they were all back in the scrapyard.