Learning to Walk Again 4

Learning to Walk Again

Chapter Four

Mom walked in, as my eyes and Dinobot’s optics met for the first time. He started to move, but I was beside him in an instant, carefully, gently keeping him on his back. He was a mess. There was a gash upon his right cheek, following his . . . his cheekbone. I touched my own scar, on my left cheek, and then saw his chest. A long, ugly laceration ran from his left shoulder . . . to nearly his right hip.

It mirrored my own.

I raised my eyes to gain his gaze again, and kept it, as I asked, “What happened?”

He replied in a low voice, breathing heavily, “I was battling . . . seven Predacons . . . all at once. Perhaps . . . perhaps it will kill me.”

I put my hand on his shoulder, and looked up at Rhinox, as memories that once had been lost started to come back. “He saved my life before, when I got these scars. Isn’t there something I can do? I don’t want him to die any more than he wanted me to.”

His hand went up slowly, to weakly touch my own. I looked at him, and took his hand in both of my own, then bent my head over it, sighing. Rhinox’s voice was gentle. “He’ll tell you what needs to be done. I cannot.”

He left the room, gently taking my mother with him. Rattrap touched my shoulder, and I looked at him out of the corner of my eye, then fully. He smiled a little, then said, “You . . . you both get better, ’kay?”

I smiled in return, and nodded. He left, and I heard no more feet shuffling outside the door. Dinobot shifted again, and his optics dimmed. “You . . . Hn. You might be embarrassed . . . by what has to be done.”

I snorted. “I don’t care what it is, but . . . on a scale of one to ten?”

He blinked, paused, then replied, “It is hard to say.”

“Like I said: Scale of one to ten.”

“I don’t know.”

I reached out slowly, hesitantly, then steeled myself, and touched his brow, letting my fingers slide to the side of his head. I rested my hand there, and said, “Even you’re nervous.”

“I . . . I hurt. I’m in pain.”

I nodded, and he turned his head to one side, looking away from me. I leaned over him, and there I saw . . . I will not tell what I saw, only that it took some time before he was calm again. He was stressed about something, but what . . . ? He didn’t say.

The sun shed its final rays, and I decided to give up. I pulled his upper torso up off of the bed, and cradled him against me, not caring what he thought of me. He needed comfort. His bloodied hand went up to grasp my upper arm, as he turned his face into my right shoulder. I sighed, and said, “Tell me what has to be done, Dinobot. I have to help you. It’s . . . it’s my duty as a future . . . future wife, I guess.”

He looked up at me, his face like that of a child’s, disbelieving. “Future . . .Who told you that it was in the future?”

“My mother. Why?”

“She didn’t tell you that you were already?”

I blinked down at him, then sighed, and smiled. “Well, now things make sense, especially a few of the things that Mom said to me.”

He sighed, and told me, hesitantly, of course, a little embarrassed and somewhat ashamed of what I had to do, but I didn’t care. “So you saying that since my shirt was already ripped, then it was possible for us to . . . what was it?”

“Conjoin.”

I nodded. “Right. I’m sorry, I’m just a little tired from the day. So that’s all?”

He nodded his head once, and it looked painful. I sighed, and looked around us. My eyes had adjusted to the early darkness that comes with winter in the northern hemisphere, as it was now December, and only five-forty-five, and as dark as it would be, if it were eight-thirty in July. I looked back at him, and smiled, saying, “Well, at least it’s dark.”

His smiled was slow, pain-filled, and barely there, but I saw it, and recognized it.

Well, here goes nothing.

Pain . . .

Much pain . . .

My chest hurt again, my palms hurt again, the first scar on my cheek hurt again . . . as well as the four new ones. They had cauterized and healed during the process, the conjoining. Not to mention, that all my scars had reopened. Even if it were all for nothing, though, I’d do it all over again if it meant that Dinobot would stop hurting.

I was curled up beside Dinobot, barely breathing. It hurt. He jerked awake, as he had fallen asleep before the process was done. How, I don’t know, but as soon as he was alert, my world hurt more. I groaned, and buried my face into his shoulder. “Stop thinking. It hurts.”

I could feel him look at me, and I reached behind me for my spare shirt that I had put there, since the other one had his blood . . . No . . . it was called mech-fluid . . . but how did I know that?

Anyway, I hated the thing. It was pink. Why couldn’t that shirt have been the one that had been ripped when I was attacked, or even now, and not my more-favored navy-blue one? Dinobot blinked. “You’re . . . where are you going?”

“Getting painkiller. And food. I can’t go without either.” I blinked, as he chuckled slightly. My own chuckle blended with his, and I admitted, as I pulled the shirt over my head, saying, “Yeah, that sounded pretty bad, didn’t it?”

He nodded, and I sat up carefully, then stood, walking over to the closet, and pulled out my futon that I used when staying at the Pavilion. After spreading out all the official bedding, I helped Dinobot up, and over to the bed, then back down. I spread a blanket over him, and he looked up at me, in a sort of odd sort of way. He voiced his thought a moment later. “Why are you caring so much for me, when you’re just about as injured as I am?”

I smiled, and said, “Your heart hurt just as much as my body was hurt, when I was attacked. Don’t deny it. I felt it. Still, you saved me, you cared for me. I remember waking up five times, while in the hospital. Every single time, I felt you near me, somewhere, whether it was by the foot of my bed, watching me, by my side, and . . . correct me if I’m wrong, but once, I thought that you were in your beast mode, keeping me warm.”

He nodded slowly. “The heating system in your room gave out, and I kept you warm, until they could move you. You woke up not a minute after I did so.”

“Why don’t I remember more?”

He chuckled. “They kept you drugged quite well.”

I smiled, and shook my head. “Figures. I knew it.” Once we had looked at each other, again, I asked, “Did you need anything?”

He shook his head. “No. Not yet.”

“Yet? Nourishment? Nothing?”

He smiled. “I have no doubt that Rhinox will lecture you later.”

I pulled the blanket up and around him, then grabbed a sweater, and said, “Sleep. I’ll be back soon. Please don’t try to get up.”

He nodded, and it looked like he fell asleep right away. I leaned over carefully, and touched his brow again, gently. I let myself kiss it lightly, then left, before he could wake up from that one touch. I entered the kitchen, which was more modern, and I saw Michael, also called Brute, and Itosugi there. They looked up at me, and visibly jumped. I looked at them in shock, then touched my face, and remembered the scars. I winced. “Yeah. Hi.”

“Wh . . . what happened?” Michael asked.

Before I could find an excuse, he looked to behind me with wide eyes. I turned, and saw Rattrap at the door, anxiety written all over his face. “How is he?”

I smiled, and nodded. “Asleep, from what I could tell, and breathing easier. He’ll take a while to return to his normal self, but . . .” I looked at him solemnly. “What is it?”

“He can’t come back with us. It’d be too harsh on ’im, an’ we don’t want ’im collapsin’ under all da pressure.” He walked further into the room. “So you remember?”

“Most things,” I replied. “I’m remembering more of what had happened on the day I was attacked. Then, even a little of my drugged-up hospital days.”

Michael looked at me. “So you were right?”

Ito-chan was laughing. “I knew there was something odd about you after you came out!”

I glared at them, and then went around the kitchen, starting to boil water, as well as toast a bagel. Hmm . . . peanut butter? Or cream cheese? Ooh . . . cream cheese and seedless strawberry jam! Now we’re talking!

Rattrap sat, and we were soon joined by my mother, Silverbolt, and Cheetor. The wolf, as well as the younger Maximal, were full of questions about me. I answered them through mouthfuls of food as fast as they asked them. Soon, though, Optimus came in, and sat, watching me. I turned, and put tea down on the lacquered table for Mom, Jett, and Ito-chan, and myself. I looked at the other four Maximals. “Tea?”

“What does it taste like?” Cheetor asked.

I blinked. “Uhm . . . without sugar, this flavor’s kinda fruity. It’s called Chinese Black Tea, but it’s really good. Other flavors can be bitter, but this one’s sweet-ish.”

Optimus was smiling behind a hand, and Ito-chan sipped the tea, and then grimaced, blew on the liquid, and I laughed. “Do you like it frozen, Ito-chan?”

“You Europeans frighten me at the heat you drink the tea at! Baka.”

I glared at him in play, clicking my tongue. “No name-calling, Ito-chan! And in another language, as well . . . it’s just plain rude!”

He grinned, bowing elegantly over the cup. “Hai, onna no ko no meiyo ni atai suru.”

I blinked. “Right. Lemme think . . . ‘Hai’ means, yes, ‘onna no ko’ means girl, ‘no’ means of, ‘meiyo’ means honor . . . but you lost me after that.” I snorted. “My synopsis: you’re mocking me!”

He ran out of that room faster than I had seen him move in months, laughing.

Optimus and Mom wouldn’t stop laughing at me, either.

Later that evening, after a rough Cybertronian anatomy and physiology crash course from Rhinox, when the numbers on the digital clock changed to 8:00, I was entering my room. I knew I had been blushing deeply around every corner. I’m just like that. That, and Rhinox was chuckling every so often, after looking at me. He was apologetic afterwards.

Dinobot was breathing deeply, and Rhinox had declared him to be in the safe zone, after a brief examination while I had been making myself tea out in the kitchen. I changed behind a screen, and then walked to the bed, and crawled between the sheets, putting my back to the Maximal, wanting to give him his privacy.

I heard his voice. “Before you left . . .”

I didn’t turn. Crap. He hadn’t been asleep after all. Gah . . .

“Why?”

I looked over my shoulder at him, finally, but he wasn’t looking at me. I returned to looking at my closet, and replied, “I thought that you had fallen asleep. Forgive me.”

Before I really could understand what was happening, he had pulled me close to him, turning me in the process, so that I was curled into him once again. He looked into my eyes. “Why, when there was nothing that you did that should give me reason to demand an apology from you?”

“But . . .” He shook his head, and I leaned into him again, then whispered, “Everything’s happening too fast for me to really keep up with the day.”

“Tell me. I’ve waited for so long, to listen to you speak to me.”

I sighed. “I got ready this morning, for the Regional Finals. I didn’t know that I was going to win, much less win by my friend actually laying his sword in front of me! Surrendering, to me. Then, literally, right after that, I was attacked by Fang, who had placed fourth. He had been on my case ever since I started at the arena.”

Dinobot touched the new scars. “He did this to you.”

I nodded, and he gently pulled my head down to rest on his shoulder. I closed my eyes. “Then, once I knocked him senseless, defending myself, I was approached by Optimus, who said that I had to get back here.”

“Yes,” Dinobot said. “He called Rhinox, since my comm-link was scrapped. Rhinox said that I would survive.”

“How long would you have had?” I asked, afraid of the answer.

“As long as you lived, although it would have taxed us considerably. We’re connected in spirit or soul . . . never got those two straight, anyway . . . but I would live in pain,” he said. His hand went up to gently tug on a strand of my bangs. He absently wrapped it gently around a finger, then released it, resting his hand on my shoulder, instead.

That night, as I fell asleep, I realized that Mom was right about him. Everything that she had said to describe him, was right.

In my last act in consciousness, I wrapped my left arm over his chest, and pulled myself closer to the new source of heat, sighing, as the last of the immediate pain wore away, leaving behind only the sensation of pain that I felt from Dinobot’s healing wounds.

Yet somehow I felt that in his heart, his spirit still pained him in some way.