pullmeoutalive | log > how are these two so darn cute?

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log > how are these two so darn cute?

It had been an admittedly strange situation they had all been in - shopping mall, zombies, black outs - it was like a horror film gone wrong.

No one had any explanation for their sudden appearance in the mall, nor did anyone have an explanation for their sudden disappearance from the mall. Just as no one had an explanation for the blue Chevrolet Volt currently parked outside of B.A.B.E.L. headquarters.

For his own part, Jolt was doing what Autobots did best (aside from kicking Decepticon skidplate), and that was hiding in plain sight. Asphalt and sunshine, he decided, were preferable to zombie-laden carpet and the near-darkness of a mall without power. He just didn't like having to wait while Naomi was inside - no doubt trying to explain where the frag she'd been all this time. Jolt'd had a similar problem relaying his whereabouts to - of all mechs - Ratchet. (No doubt the medic thought he was glitched for insisting he'd been fighting off zombies all this time.) But, after much instance, and pleading for Optimus' permission, Jolt was allowed to stay with Naomi for the time being.

The Autobot sighed inwardly. He was still waiting, and he still hated it.

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More time had passed since her first encounter with Decepticons and, subsequently, the humans and Autobots of NEST. Since then, NEST and B.A.B.E.L. had worked together when certain situations arose, and the espers continued to do their missions as usual.

And then the mission that had nearly cost Naomi her life. She'd survived, of course, but at the cost of losing the man she'd tried so hard to save. Every night after she'd regained consciousness, save for the first one spent with Jolt, she'd had vivid nightmares and woken up in a panic, forced to relive every minute of the mission.

Physically, she was doing better-- she was still a little weak on her feet, but she'd been freed from the bandages and her injuries were mostly healed. But coming to grips with the Normal's death hadn't been easy. She wasn't even sure if she had done that yet. All Naomi knew was that she didn't want to cry anymore. So she'd taken to flying, after every mission, after every college class. She still faithfully kept Jolt clean, and did her best to keep up a cheerful front in his presence, but today was another day that she'd gone away from B.A.B.E.L.

Reminiscent of the first day girl and car had been together here, Naomi found herself once again at the riverbank. Save for the cars driving on the bridge overhead, it was peaceful. Quiet. No fretting from her supervisor, no questions about her health or well-being, it was just a place for her to think.

And if her thoughts would just stop straying to the same thing, it would have been a lot nicer.

Jolt was no expert when it came to human emotion, but he knew Naomi, and he knew that her front was just that- a front. Minamoto had been right- she didn't want to risk upsetting anyone, and the more she tried to keep up appearances, the more it pained him. She was distant with everyone, not just him, and while he supposed he couldn't blame her, it hurt. He'd watched Sideswipe cleave unwitting Decepticons clean in two before, and he found himself wondering dimly if this was what it felt like.

Usually when she was like this, he didn't want to announce his presence (he'd followed her more often than not), but today he'd had enough. Naomi needed to get away, if only for a little bit, and he was going to see to it that she got a proper vacation.

The blue Volt nudged up behind her, engine purring softly. "Hey."

The girl jumped, body instinctively tensing in preparation-- and then slowly relaxing when she saw who it was who'd followed her. For a moment, she just gazed at him, letting the familiar sight of the Volt bring her back to the present.

"Hey," she echoed just as softly. "Is something wrong?"

He ignored the question easily enough- what was wrong was obvious, but it wasn't an answer Naomi needed to hear, and asking it of Naomi in return would only earn him that fake smile. "I've been thinking," he said instead. "It's been way too long since we went for a drive."

"Eh?" The surprise was all too visible on her face, and it only grew when Naomi realized that Jolt was right. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been out on the road with him-- either due to the demands of the missions, or her own--

But she couldn't do that to him. The longer she stayed with him, the closer her control came to slipping, and she didn't want Jolt to be the one to have to deal with her. Not when she was like that. Even she would have been annoyed with herself by now.

She turned her gaze back to the river, finding it easier to look at than the car waiting patiently for her response. "Maybe later," she murmured.

Cybertronians were a long-lived race- the oldest among them surviving for millennia. Even one as impulsive as Jolt could possess surprising amounts of patience, and for Naomi, he found he was more than willing to stand by her for as long as it took her to get through this.

Now if only he could convince her of this fact.

"Naomi," he replied. His voice was still soft, but firm. "Not later. Let's go." He wasn't going to budge on this, and while it was probably a breach of so many rules of this alliance he'd formed with B.A.B.E.L., he intended to drive right out of town and keep driving until they were as far away as possible. (Shiho, in an act that surprised no one, had picked up on this little plan he'd been forming. The Children were more than willing to pack a bag for Naomi, along with some supplies, all of which were now nestled in Jolt's trunk.)

Briefly anger-- completely unprovoked-- flared inside of her, and it was only by sheer force of will that Naomi forced it down. So he was being insistent on this. So he didn't seem to understand that she didn't want to burden him. She hadn't wanted to burden anyone, which was why--

She stood, looking more like a lost child than a powerful esper. All this time, she'd been struggling to suppress fear. Fear of-- what? Rejection? She'd stood up for herself before, and that hadn't earned her any enmity. But this time was different. No one's life had ever been lost in her hands. She hadn't been responsible for a person's death. She had...

Naomi looked at Jolt now, trembling slightly. She needed to go. She needed to stay. And, for the life of her, she couldn't figure out which one she needed the most, even if the Autobot had already done so.

For his own part, Jolt remained quiet, trying his damnedest to ignore the pain in his spark as he watched her struggle.

His passenger-side door swung open, and he waited.

To get into the car meant to walk away from B.A.B.E.L., she knew. For minutes, or hours, who knew. It meant leaving the place she'd owed a duty to ever since they'd welcomed her as one of their own. It meant being selfish, even if just for a little while, and running away-- this time more than just a brief flight away until she had to return. More than just mental distancing.

But it also meant placing her trust in Jolt, and never once had Naomi hesitated to do so. That wasn't about to change now.

Taking a deep breath, she slowly stepped forward, one foot in front of the other, until she'd not only reached the car but climbed inside.

The door swung closed behind her, as gently as it had opened, and the car pulled onto the road.

They would be back, eventually. Naomi belonged at B.A.B.E.L. and he wasn't so foolish as to take her away from that forever. No, this was a retreat. A vacation. A necessity. But they would be back. He'd promised The Children as much, just as they'd promised to cover for him as best they could.

Jolt's hologram flickered to life when they merged onto a more traffic-heavy section of road, and he cast a sideways glance at her. "Hey you," he said, a small smile playing on his lips. "I'm glad you're here."

She'd stayed quiet until the hologram appeared, gazing out the window at nothing in particular. Jolt didn't appear to have a destination in mind, other than "Somewhere Not Here", which she was finding to be more appealing by the second. Still, she couldn't help but wonder why he'd been so unyielding on it.

Naomi blinked when he addressed her, meeting the hologram's eyes. It took a moment, but then a smile of her own appeared-- small and tentative, but genuine.

"Somehow," she replied quietly, "I can't really say no to you, Jolt-san."

Oh that smile, small though it was, was like a gift. His own grin broadened slightly, the only indication of how elated he was to see her smiling.

"It's my charm, isn't it?" he said, allowing himself to joke a little.

"It's a lot more than that," came the reply with complete honesty and sincerity, while Naomi looked surprised at her own response. Not that she hadn't meant it, because she had-- she just hadn't expected to say it directly, instead of responding to his joking with a bit of her own humor.

... Then again, she was still floundering when it came to restoring that humor.

The hologram's eyebrows rose- Jolt was clearly as surprised as Naomi- but the surprise quickly gave way into another grin. To be honest, the honesty was more refreshing than any joke could have been.

He paused for a moment, thinking, and then with a quirk of his brow, the radio kicked on. So maybe he was stealing Bumblebee's shtick, but sometimes music had a way of saying things that he couldn't quite figure out how to voice himself.

♫ "Is it me or is it all of us
And are we dull or glorious?
Am I on the way down
Or is this the same thing twice?
Oh this feels so nice

Come with me
Maybe we'll get away?
Come and see
Baby it's better when you...
Come with me
Maybe we'll get away?
Come and see
Baby it's better this way..." ♪

This time, it was Naomi's eyebrows who arched, not having expected the sudden burst of music. She probably should have expected anything, given how unpredictable the Autobot could be, but she paused to listen nevertheless.

"Is this real, is this insanity?
Is it fate or is it clarity?
Am I on the way down
Is this the same thing twice?
Oh this feels so nice" ♪

Relevant almost immediately, from what she could tell. She'd been wallowing in a deep state of agonized confusion for a little while now, and hadn't quite realized how to get out of it. But-- being here, with Jolt-- somehow, it helped. It was painful, and it would probably get worse before it got better... but nothing had hurt as much as pushing him away.

At this point, it was probably impossible, anyway.

Jolt only offered her a smile- albeit a slightly goofy one. There would be time for Naomi to come to grips with things when they got to... wherever they were going, but the drive, he felt, shouldn't be awkward.

"Come with me
Maybe we'll get away?
Come and see
Baby it's better when you...
Come with me
Maybe we'll get away?
Come and see
Baby it's better this way..." ♫

They were making good time, given that it was the middle of the day, and traffic was light. The buildings eventually thinned until they gave way completely to countryside, and countryside to mountain roads lined with trees.

Oh, this was better. Jolt liked nature, probably more than he cared to admit around his fellow Autobots, but his choice of an electric car for an alt hadn't purely been for the unique fighting abilities it provided.

Speaking of unexpected yet again...

Being the government-funded organization that it was, B.A.B.E.L. owned all sorts of land, including an entire green and mountainous landscape that was provided for special and more intensive training in a real-life environment. It had always been Naomi's favorite place to train, and one The Children had come to love, too. Where they were now was almost like it, except that this wasn't owned by the base.

It was beautiful, but Naomi's confusion only grew. Just how far was Jolt planning to go?

Far enough.

According to his GPS (which, by the way, was an ingenious human invention), there was a dirt road that veered off the main road right about-

Here.

"Hold on," he cautioned. He wasn't exactly built for off-roading, and the road was only used by those who knew where it was- and judging by its condition, that wasn't many people. The road wound through the trees, before eventually coming to rest at a clearing. The spot had clearly been used by campers before, as evident by the fire pit and a few scattered logs for places to sit.

She just barely managed to latch onto the door handle for some kind of support, having nearly whacked her head against the dashboard at the first lurch of car meeting dirt. The grip kept her balanced for the most part until Jolt had reached his apparent destination.

Which was when Naomi shot him a look that stated that he'd better have a good explanation for this one.

For his own part, Jolt, who had discarded his hologram when he hit the dirt road, managed to come off as perfectly innocent. "What?"

He didn't exactly... have a plan after getting her out of the city and away from everything, and now he realized he had best be thinking of something.

Had she not been sitting, Naomi would have placed her hands on her hips in a perfect imitation of the director when she was dealing with a troublesome esper-- or supervisor. As it were, she still managed to look stern.

"Don't you 'what' me. I don't know exactly what's going through your processor, but-- camping? You know what my supervisor's going to be like!"

"Only for a couple of solar- er, days," he blurted, nearly forgetting himself when it came to measurements of time. "And your supervisor would freak if you were gone for two hours, what's a little more time?"

There was a pause as Jolt collected himself. When he spoke again, he was serious. "Even if you don't know it yet, this'll do you some good."

A couple of days. She had just been brought out here by a car who seemed to have been possessed by Fujiko, because she was exactly the kind of person who was all about getting out and doing something different.

... Except when she slept for weeks, of course.

There was another flash of anger at his words, but Naomi restrained it once again, instead reaching for the handle to let herself out. "And just how do you know this?"

"Because," his tone was still serious, but his voice had softened- almost as though he could tell she was angry. Maybe he could. "Because I do." He really wished he was more eloquent when it came to this sort of thing. Moreover, he really wished Ratchet were here, as odd as that sounded. If anyone knew what it was like to lose a life after working so hard to save it, the Autobot medic did.

But the fact of the matter was Ratchet wasn't here. Jolt was, and he was going to have to try and make due. "I've seen seasoned soldiers crack under less, and I know you're trying, but you're cracking regardless. I just... I wanted to give you the chance to put everything back together."

"Put... everything back together?" Once she was out of the car, Naomi tilted her head back, eyes locked on the small, equally-blue expanse of sky that peeked through the trees. Her voice was quiet, the tone almost dangerous.

That danger became evident when a wind that most certainly hadn't been there before began to whip at her hair and there were sparks of red light in the air around her. The trouble with being anywhere close to an esper when their emotions were even the slightest bit... wild was that things just tended to happen around them.

And right now, Naomi's tenuous grip on her own emotions was slipping. She was angry-- not at Jolt, he was trying-- but at herself. She was frightened. She was confused, and upset, and so many other things that she would have given anything not to be. Just as she would have given anything not to have Jolt witness her like this.

"The more something cracks, the more likely it is to break." It was a simply stated fact. "The sooner it breaks, the harder it is to put back together. Even for an esper. If this..." She shook her head, taking a step back, and then another. "Maybe you're right, and I'm cracking, but that's-- that's exactly why I didn't want to-- with you, especially-- if I break, you'll--"

Naomi broke off, staring at the Volt almost helplessly. This probably wasn't what he'd intended when he'd searched her out, and now the poor Autobot had to be wondering if his human friend had completely lost it.

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