First Impression

IT'S MEEEEEE! Thank you so much to all you patient people who reviewed, fav'd and alerted this fic! I have been struck (quite hard, you'll be pleased to know) by that elusive inspiration! Another Bee and Sari one, open to your interpretation :) Batten down the hatches, 'bots, here it comes!

Disclaimer: I. Do. Not. Own. TFA. Talk to Hasbro. I own this laptop, this bed and this illness DX

They say that first impressions are often wrong. If the Autobots had seen Sari's first impression of Bumblebee, they would have agreed wholesparkedly.

The Bumblebee they knew was loud, obnoxious, selfish and somewhat bratty. He was reckless and careless and had very little use in battle other than as a distraction. He was brash and rude, and didn't give a frag what anyone else thought about him. Yes, he didn't want anyone on his team hurt and helped them when he could, but he tended to just make things worse and then throw a fit when scolded.

Sari saw different.

She had been afraid of the 'bots, at first. But he had saved her from the mutated cockroach, and carried out of harm's way. He wasn't as big as the others, but he was still huge, and just sitting on his servos she could feel the strength in him. He could have crushed her so easily, but he was so gentle with her, whilst careful not to drop or jog her too much.

And his voice. (If she could call it that; did it have a special Cybertronian term like everything else? She'd never thought to ask.) Usually that voice was cocky or whiny or just loud. Not now. Usually Sari was a lot like the Bumblebee the Autobots knew, but now she felt young and small and awed. But she couldn't see any malice in her robotic saviour.

He didn't know if he could trust her, she could just hand him over to the government the second she was safe (she wouldn't, but he didn't know that, and he was a 'he', she could tell), but he smiled at her in a friendly, open manner.

"Hi. I'm Bumblebee."

She liked him immediately.

"I'm Sari."

"Oh, don't be. I like my name."

It was an absent, distracted response. His sensors were focused on his surroundings, on keeping her safe. But it spoke volumes. She hadn't been offended; he was too sweet to offend her. She giggled instead and corrected him, liking him all the more.

His voice held a certain naivety to it, an odd, misplaced innocence, like that of a child. Along with the words themselves, it told Sari a lot. This was someone who was used to being ridiculed, to being second worst and laughed at for it. Someone who tried and tried but never succeeded, but he picked himself back up and tried again anyway, even if it were the hundredth time.

Someone who had a lot more worries and cares than he let on, who had seen and heard and done much more than he could ever bear to let anyone know, but he kept smiling and messing around and making people laugh, or playing pranks and making himself laugh, because unless someone was laughing he would break down and cry. (Turned out Autobots can't cry, but Sari hadn't known that at the time.) It wasn't his fault he made mistakes, and he often wondered why he bothered, but he tried anyway. Hoping that, maybe, just one time, he would actually do some good, something worthwhile. But at the same time, he was just a child (a youngling, but again, she didn't know) and there were things he didn't understand and couldn't do and didn't want to remember.

They say that first impressions are often wrong. If the other Autobots had seen Sari's first impression of Bumblebee, they would have agreed wholesparkedly.

Sari knew different.