Some Secrets Must Never Be Told

Some Secrets Must Never Be Told.

Summary: When Bumblebee is woken by bad memories, Optimus goes to comfort him, and remembers how and in what circumstances he found Bumblebee-something the younger mech must never be told about.

Rating: T

Characters: Optimus/Bumblebee (non-sexual context.)

Disclaimer: Transformers and all canon characters within belongs to Hasbro and Dreamworks/Paramount, not me.

A/N: One of two short giftfics for Yuuzaiden on Livejournal, for her help in making my animated icon.

Some Secrets Must Never Be Told.

Prologue.

Optimus Prime could not have said what brought him out of the energy-conserving shutdown that he and others often performed to while away the hours when humans recharged by 'sleeping' every night.

Although human sleeping and waking hours were variable, the time between 3AM and 5AM was often the time when even the most nocturnal humans had gone to bed, and the early risers were still deeply asleep. It was during these two hours that Optimus and the others tended to power down their systems, but were ready to power back up in a millisecond if they were needed.

The Autobots (and the Decepticons too, of course) had so many more senses and methods of communications than those of humans, although they seemed to cope just fine. It was nothing a human would necessarily have picked up, but Optimus could tell, somehow, that someone was in distress. He widened his sensors and felt with all his scans for anything that might have prompted it. He soon worked out who it was and rose from his rest pallet, heading for Bumblebee's room.

Optimus sent his identifying code: the door opened to admit him. The younger mech was sat up on his rest pallet, optics wide and glowing a hot blue. He was in a semi-crouch, as if ready to move suddenly. The lights were on already as Optimus entered: Bumblebee must have put them on upon waking.

Optimus walked over.

"Bumblebee?" he asked. Bumblebee shook his head.

"I'm sorry if I disturbed you, it was bad memories." He replied.

"Bad memories." Optimus repeated quietly. Then, even gentler: "Tyger Pax again?"

Bumblebee gave a small nod.

Optimus closed the remaining distance to Bumblebee's rest pallet, dropping to a kneeling position. He held out his arms, and Bumblebee wordlessly climbed onto Optimus' lap, and clung to the larger mech's sides: Optimus closed his arms around Bumblebee and held him, just as he had held Bumblebee when he was a child, and the sounds of conflict had woken and frightened the youngster.

He had been able to stroke Bumblebee up and down his back then: the sensors in a child's body would have triggered a soothing effect leading to the child's voluntary shutdown, but in an adult, the same caresses were highly stimulating, often a lead up to spark-merge and interfacing, and had Bumblebee ever approached Optimus with that in mind, Optimus would have been flattered, and happy to oblige, but that was not this situation, so this was neither the time nor the place for Optimus to stroke the scout's back.

Bumblebee nuzzled his face into Optimus' chest as he had in that innocent child-stage, and Optimus put one hand up to rub the back of Bumblebee's cranial structure, a gesture that was calming for both adults and children of both genders. Bumblebee's hands were tight on the seams of Optimus' armour, but as Optimus held Bumblebee, and sent him a databurst comprised of reassurance and a feeling of safety, the younger mech's hands began to relax and he relaxed against Optimus.

As he held Bumblebee like this, Optimus cast his mind back to when he had first encountered Bumblebee.