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the-paris-of-people · 1 year

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For those of you that thought Kimberly and Canaan were out of left field...

Oh boy, buckle up, because I am going to explain how Kimberly and Canaan make perfect sense together and the show has been building to them since their first interaction. I'm going to be examining their scenes together, their scenes in other romantic relationships and interactions with friends, and ultimately investigate the events of the finale, which culminated in them developing feelings for each other.

In the first scene where Kimberly and Canaan are introduced, Canaan takes advantage of Kimberly's naivete by telling her he has to work multiple jobs to support his family because his mother is addicted to crack. I personally love this scene because it reveals Kimberly's lack of exposure to POC and touches on her unconscious biases prior to coming to Essex, but it also establishes the fun, banter-y dynamic between Canaan and Kimberly from the get-go. Kimberly later stands up for Canaan and this choice was 100% deliberate on the writer's part for K/C relationship building. Christopher Meyer's background reactions (in a lot of these scenes) suggest he's in awe at the different side of Kimberly that's shown to him through this interaction. Kimberly may have that sweet, kind, girl-next-door vibe but she also has a backbone and is not afraid to stand up for herself. Moreover, Canaan's being in agreement of Kimberly's speech and their shared position at Sips together implies shared values that bind them together, at least in the affluent world of Essex.

A few episodes later, when she and Bela attend the comedy gala, Kimberly understands from Canaan that he and Lila are not being tipped well as caterers. She leaves them a large tip and announces to everyone that they are on financial aid, which elicits pity tips from the attending gala members. Canaan initially doesn't believe this will work, and he's so surprised and grateful to Kimberly for her shrewd assessment of the situation, he gives her a portion of their tips later. Again, Kimberly's resourceful advice surprises and compels Canaan, setting them up for a deeper connection down the road.

For those of you who don't regularly follow my blog, I'm also obsessed with Ben and Devi from Never Have I Ever (another MK show) and love that Ben acts to "save Devi from herself" and often is her voice of reason, pushing her to be a better person. Canaan acts as this voice of reason throughout the remainder of season 1 for Kimberly, reminding to focus on her Econ homework instead of obsessing over Nico because it's likely not worth it (a hard lesson Kimberly learns on her own), imploring her not to cheat because she cannot pull it off. The latter observation suggests that over the time period of working together, Canaan knows her, knows that she cannot cheat, knows that is the least discrete person in the world and she cannot pull it off (again, Canaan is right again) He even calls her cute during this conversation, yes he compares it to when Nemo gets mad at his Dad, but it's clear during this commentary that while he may be passing it off as a joke, he genuinely finds Kimberly attractive on some level.

There's another comment in this scene Canaan makes to Kimberly that sets them both up to be together. Canaan tells Kimberly he sees her with "more of a sweet boy" and describes a nerd. All we know about Canaan at this point in season 1 is that he's funny, sarcastic, DTF (with Whitney at this point), and kind, the "nerd" aspect of his personality hasn't come up - at least for now.

During season 2, Canaan and Kimberly embark upon parallel journeys to date a great person, but not the right person for them. We can argue Leighton goes through a similar journey in another post, but that's for another day. At the end of s1 and beginning of s2, Canaan dates Whitney (who btw I would die for, no Whitney slander in the comments please) and while the two are attracted to each other, have good conversation, and seem to get along, they seem to have different attitudes towards their family and academic goals. Canaan defends Whitney's mom to her for coming to make sure she was okay after the whole Coach Dalton (aka the most heinous man known to society) fiasco and has a much more clear plan about his career/future than Whitney while Whitney is still trying to navigate her nascent relationships with her mother and biochemistry. I want to make it clear that there is ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with Whitney trying to figure that out and she's amazing and deserves the best and 100% deserves all the love in the world, but it's clear from the Zoe/phone incident (although CANAAN hello you 100% should have told Whitney and not invited Zoe to the Kissmas party) that Canaan values being with someone who's completely secure with themselves in order to build a strong relationship. It's notable that when Canaan is reassuring Whitney about Zoe he calls her "A dream girl" rather than "MY dream girl" and that may be reading too much into it but I think the article choice was deliberate on the part of the writers. Also before Canaan asks Whitney to be his gf, he compliments Whitney that the study geek vibe on her is cute. Again, interesting considering how he thinks the perfect guy for Kimberly as a nerd because she is one ... and at the same time he is also attracted to them.

On the flip side, we have Kimberly who begins a little romance with Jackson. Jackson seems like a great, nice guy who really likes Kimberly, which is a refreshing break for my girl considering she had been through the ringer and back with Nico, losing her scholarship, and donating her eggs. However, yes she has this great, hot guy who's into her- the issue is, she's not into him and she feels they don't fully understand each other. Jackson initially doesn't participate in the food worker's strike even though it's near and dear to Kimberly's heart, she's incredibly passionate about social causes and is helping organize the movement as well! Once Kimberly explains she wants him to support her, he does, but to Kimberly, she shouldn't have to explain. She feels Jackson immediately should have understood how the strike was important to her- worker's rights are in her core belief system (see: her upbringing and her speech at Sips in the first episode), and she should have a partner who immediately is willing to join which again, why I think it's intentional that this episode highlighted that Canaan helped her with the strike and was her team member while Jackson did not. After a conversation with Lila and Canaan (in which Canaan seems VERY jealous, might I add), she realizes how much it bothers her how little she and Jackson have in common. She doesn't get his EDM/country playlists, his love of wrestling, and while Jackson is willing to learn about the things he cares about and doesn't think that it's a big deal, it still doesn't seem like it's fully resolved.

In the background of these relationships, Kimberly and Canaan are orbiting each other. They update each other about their lives at the coffeehouse, they complain about Lila getting drunk on power, they work together on the strike, Canaan is there to observe Kimberly being supportive and prepping Lila for her manager interview, all until their journeys converge in the final two episodes of the season.

When Kimberly learns that Canaan is getting an award from the econ department, she's so excited for him and encourages him to attend. Canaan, who initially wasn't go to, has all of these dormant feelings for Kimberly that have developed over the past year which come to a head when he realizes how grateful he is to her for being so excited and supportive for him. He nervously invites her to the econ banquet, but because he's calm, collected, Canaan and he knows she's dating Jackson, he passes it off as a back-up invite. At the banquet, Kimberly, who is of aware that Canaan is kind, funny, and handsome, discovers a different side to him and sees that he's also humble, intelligent, hard-working, and cares about his family deeply, which reflect all of Kimberly's own positive qualities and values. On a value level, she realizes they have more in common than Jackson and Kimberly. They've worked together the whole year, there's been a small flame flickering between them, and once they're finally in a more romantic context, it's the match that lights the fire. Once he and Kimberly have that conversation about Canaan's mom's Alzheimer's, which is sure to come up in the future if I know Mindy's shows, she realizes that her hot work friend is much deeper than she knew he was, and she's interested in him and wants to know more, enjoys and wants time with Canaan more than she wants with Jackson. I don't think that Kimberly broke up with Jackson because she realized she had feelings for Canaan. I think she broke up with him because she realized, upon spending time with Canaan, she didn't have feelings for Jackson. Meanwhile, Canaan enjoys Kimberly's fun energy and openness at the banquet- she constantly is talking about how much fun she's having and wants to know more about his life and his mom and even though she's not cool or chill or fun, she's so unapologetically herself and happy about the way she lives her life and conducts herself (even when she almost eats the flowers off Canaan's dessert) and Canaan's into it.

Throughout the entire series, the writers set Canaan and Kimberly to get together. They always got along, were good for each other, balanced each other out, have a great platonic chemistry, and needed to date other people to realize the qualities they valued in each other as future potential partners. I know a lot of people wanted a classic "slow burn" situation and I was a little disappointed they didn't do it with them, but upon reflection, I actually like the route the writers took. They dropped little hints that Kimberly and Canaan would get together, and when they finally saw each other in a new light, away from work and their friends, and got to know each other more deeply, they realized they wanted to explore something more. Honestly, it's super realistic to have that one event that puts your hot friend in a new light and to just go for it and date afterwards instead of dragging it out. Based on the very first episode though, and even the whole first season, it's obvious they were setting up some kind of conflict between Kimberly and Whitney over dual interest in Canaan so while I think the situation is shitty and low-key devastates me, it was ALWAYS bound to happen and didn't just "come out of nowhere." Anyway, I urge you to rewatch the series and watch Canaan and Kimberly's interactions closely, it surprises me that there was so much uproar over them getting together when although not completely explicit, it was built into their arcs in s1 and s2.

#i will comment on the whitney stuff in another post if yall are curious #but genuinely it's not petty drama or ruining their friendship #it's very built into the character flaws of both kimberly and whitney to behave the way they did #and again the show was setting up for this conflict #and obviously whitney and kimberly going through this is going to make their friendship stronger #kimberly should have absolutely told whitney but also why is everyone acting like kimberly shot someone and is this backstabbing bitch when #she's been one of the most loyal friends and is the “mom” of the suite but she just made a mistake like a normal 18/19 year old that she wi #ll likely learn from and never hurt whitney like that again #anyway yall are sleeping on canaan and kimberly they are adorable and they are full supportive husband/wife energy and endgame potential #canaan x kimberly #kimberly x canaan #tslocg #the sex lives of college girls #canaan greene #kimberly finkle #i will protect whitney kimberly and canaan with my life #also canaan was very resolute in his decision to break up with whitney #it was clear to him they were not right from each other

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ivycorp · 1 year

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Riot's TFP AU: Have you tried turning your Prime off and on again?

Agent Fowler kept a folder on everyone - the one for Optimus for a very long time contained a log of dates and places. The frequency of whatever he was tracking decreased at some point significantly, coming to a halt - and judging from the man's smile, it was a good thing.

When Agent Fowler was informed he would be dealing with giant alien robots from space, he was torn between being understandably stupefied by the notion of lifeforms from beyond the stars existing at all, and wondering if he had actually pissed someone off on the last work party. His superiors specified he was mainly to collect intel from within as a ‘liaison’ - to help them figure out what made the Cybertronians tick, and let them prepare for the eventuality when the Earth would have to deal with them as their own enemies.

“Precaution, agent - we can’t let ourselves be caught unawares should they turn on us,” his commander said, handing over a slim file of what they already knew. It was barely a few pages long, with more blanks than any actual information - which meant he was essentially going in blind.

Marvelous - it was truly an ideal state of matters when talking with huge robots that can squash you like a bug.

Someone up there in senior command really didn’t like him.

Fowler accepted the job in the end, but on the inside he hoped it wouldn't last too long; he would usually choose shorter gigs to not grow attached to his targets. And when aliens were added into the picture, there was no place to get mushy - he needed to stand firmly on the side of humanity and his country.

In the beginning, it wasn't too difficult to keep the necessary emotional distance while remaining adequately civil - the differences between them were so numerous, the Autobots appeared standoffish and weird at first; he suspected that to them, he most likely seemed the same. They worked together, but that was it; he struggled to make progress beyond what he was told directly. Dry recounts, a few remarks, a hushed conversation here and there of which he heard a fraction at best.

He was almost considering reassignment, anything to alleviate the boredom - he'd even take the traffic duty over yet another day of silence. The paperwork was filed, ready to be sent out to his supervisor with a note that his skills were not being properly utilized, when he heard a loud clash.

Getting up and peering over the railing, he saw Optimus Prime sprawled on the floor by the console. Fowler cursed to himself; the one day when everyone was on patrol but their leader, he suffered some malfunction. How was he supposed to react? Should he get some jumper cables or something?

Deciding he might at least investigate, he went down and approached the mech with caution. Maybe it was some sort of robotic narcolepsy? Was Optimus sleeping?

The agent's brows furrowed - could they even sleep?

He called out to the bot, hoping it would stir some reaction, but it all fell on deaf audials. He noticed the lights and noises that he associated with their kind were absent.

To Fowler, Prime looked pretty much dead.

He spent the next few minutes panicking, trying to discern how he would break the news to the command (and well, to bots too) - when the mech shook and on-lined with a soft gasp. The man stepped away, instinctively trying to give space to breathe to a being that didn’t even have lungs; he cursed quietly, trying to stamp out the flash of empathy that tried to read its ugly head at the obvious discomfort he was witnessing, as the Autobot leader got himself up to a sitting position, wincing at the stray electricity dancing on his plating.

"What was that?"

The Prime turned his helm, one of his servos massaging the middle of his chest gently; seeing the human, he raised the other one to wave the inquiry away.

"Nothing serious, Agent Fowler, do not concern yourself with this - it's not the first time it happened, and it will not be the last," said the mech placatingly, composure slipping at the end of the sentence to reveal… exhaustion? Seeing the bot already start to gather himself up, legs shaking slightly, the man decided to drop it. He would add it to the report and keep his eye out on the Prime to make sure it doesn't occur too often.

He repeated to himself that he was not growing concerned - that would imply caring, and that would imply getting attached. Very unprofessional.

The reassignment paperwork was not sent out that day, though.

*****

Over the next few weeks, he kept to his routine without any major changes. Yet, something about that odd incident made him ask Ratchet a vague question about Cybertronians rest cycles. The medic was never very talkative, usually outright dismissive, but the question caught him by surprise - he actually gave a brief, but clear answer that turned the agent even more pensive. They were able to recharge, but they would not power down completely for it - so whatever struck the Prime was not a nap or a fainting spell.

Thanking for the information, he walked back up to the raised platform and stopped, looking around. Arcee and Bumblebee were out on patrol, Cliffjumper and Bulkhead took off on a joyride…

Where was Optimus?

The man walked around the base, looking at every nook and cranny in search of the missing Autobot leader; a familiar sound of restarting machinery caught his ear, letting him follow it to the source. He found the Prime resting between storage boxes, frame barely visible in the dim room, biolights glowing in the darkness. When the agent got closer, he started recognising what the mech was muttering:

"What was it this time… you can't keep… this is not… please…"

Fowler tried to remain stealthy, as he wanted to hear more of what Optimus was talking about; however, before he could actually catch anything, the automatic light sensors tripped and the room illuminated, startling the bot.

"Who's there?" came a loud question, as the sounds of a Cybertronian scrambling to get up joined in. The agent cursed internally, before he put his shoulders back and strode inside.

"It's me, Prime, relax," he said pacifyingly, trying to look confident and not at all like a man who just failed at trying to eavesdrop on an alien. The red and blue bot looked at him, shoulders dropping; the bright optics focused on him, and he had a feeling the mech was looking inside of his soul directly. Fowler intently did not think about spying, even though he was certain there was no way the other would know he was trying to listen in on whatever was happening.

"Agent Fowler, what can I do for you?" Optimus inquired, slipping back into the familiar dynamic - most likely hoping the man wouldn't ask what he was doing in the dark storage room.

"Nothing, I wasn't looking for you - I was just passing by, must have walked too close to the sensor," the man decided to leave the matter be for now, gesturing towards the lights. The mech stared at him, before nodding in understanding.

"Then don't let me stop you from your duties, Agent Fowler, I'll be back at the main console in a few minutes if you do require my help," the Autobot leader acknowledged, and the man took it as a great opportunity to leave without raising suspicion.

As he walked down the hallway, he wondered why the lights weren't on in the first place - just how long was Optimus not moving in this room?

*****

On one of the few occasions where the Autobots were asked to help the human side of the alliance months later, Fowler had the dubious pleasure of getting stuck between rock and a hard place - quite literally.

When he rode inside Optimus's cabin, writing up his report after they successfully delivered some sensitive military cargo without encountering the mercenaries they expected, he forgot that the lack of engagement was not equal to lack of possible excitement; a tremor shook the ground caused a landslide, which barrelled straight into the truck and threw them out of the road, off the edge of the cliff. The agent noticed the bot shift, turning to cushion the fall in a more controlled fashion, before they hit the bottom with a loud thud.

Dizzy but alive, Fowler got up on his legs, panting, adrenaline coursing high through his veins, as he started making his way towards the unmoving Autobot. Optimus had taken the brunt of the damages, and while the man got thrown to the side, the remaining rocks and pieces of road landed right on top of the mech.

"Prime, you good?" he called out, and upon hearing no response, frantically began to clear the rubble. His hands hurt, but he managed to dislodge a piece of the structure so that it unveiled a familiar red armor. After a bit more digging, he unburied the blue helm, dirty and scratched up.

There were no signs of life, and mech's chest was impaled right through by a piece of what he could recognize as a mangled crash barrier. The agent patted himself down for a phone, before he pulled out the wrecked device. It was beyond recovery, and he cursed not being able to hail anyone for help - the return trip was just him and Prime, so there would be nobody looking for them for a while.

He supposed at some point Ratchet would realize their leader dropped dead - he knew the medic was monitoring all the crew's stats. It was actually weird that there was no space bridge in there yet.

Worry growing, he shrieked when the mechanism emitted a disharmonious sound - and Optimus groaned. The bot got up, hissing as the metal embedded in him started sliding out. The screeching and squelching of unknown origin combined into a sickening discordant noise that made him want to barf.

"Watch out, Prime, it nearly killed you!" Fowler threw his hands up, hoping to catch the attention of the mech; the blue optics shifted towards him in a mix of surprise and relief.

“Ah, you had not been harmed - that’s good,” Optimus said, smiling weakly as he propped himself up on his elbows and glared at the metal jutting out of his torso. The long servos tried to reach behind his back, failing to grasp at the end of it - the piece got buried deep into the ground.

The only way off it was up.

“You said it ‘nearly’ killed me, correct, Agent Fowler?” the Autobot asked aloud, though the man felt this was less of a question and more of an acknowledgement, as he could swear he could hear the quotation marks in the sentence. Numbly, he nodded, and nearly snickered from stress when the bot said something that sounded suspiciously like a curse in a foreign language - the emotion behind the words was very much recognizable. He grabbed the barrier and tore it as close to his windshields as possible, before he leveled Fowler with a tired look.

“There is a chance this will ‘nearly’ kill me again - if this happens, don’t worry, just give me a few minutes. If I try to do this again after that, tell me it didn’t work and to call Ratchet instead,” came the orders, voice of the mech devoid of any humor - the agent could only nod his head again, as Prime sighed and started pulling himself off it, inch by inch.

At some point the rubble he was in shifted, making him sway; the mech seized up with a guttural sound in his vocaliser, and his biolights blinked away. Fowler stood there, watching the bot dangle like that for a couple of minutes, before the sound of re-starting systems filled his ears again.

Optimus groaned, looking around disoriented, as he tried to move again.

“No!” shouted the man, successfully stopping the bot, as he quickly followed it up with “it didn’t work, call Ratchet,”; to his amazement, Prime listened, opening the comm line to the base, as the familiar lights of a ground bridge appeared close by. The medic came out, shouting at his leader, as he started chewing the mech’s audials off for getting stuck into another weird situation again. The blue and red Autobot apologized the entire way back, as he limped to the medbay - agent following silently, wondering what had he actually witnessed.

*****

“Optimus, please, let me take a look at it,” said Ratchet, poking at the mech’s internals, mending the remaining wires with care and precision. Prime shook his helm negative, mumbling:

“You tried that already, old friend, and we both know I can't remove it yet.”

Fowler froze with an arm raised, as he was about to knock on a pipe and ask the medic some questions about Cybertronian biology he was getting more curious about lately - instead, he darted to the wall, hiding behind one of the storage boxes, telling himself he was not feeling guilty for listening in on a private conversation between a doctor and their patient.

He was not the one sworn to secrecy in that matter.

This was expected from his job!

Why did he feel so bad about listening in, then?

“Still, this is not healthy for you!” the angry words came back at the Prime; the man had to strain his ears to pick up what followed after, muscles aching from trying not to make a sound and stop this conversation.

“The fact that I had to add a delay on the medical alert for when you drop off-line just because that one time you kept on dropping and coming back several times in a row because of whatever you and this piece of scrap in your chest disagreed about - you don’t even remember what was the subject of the discussion! - it’s simply asking for trouble! Had you not called, I would have never known you needed assistance!” Ratchet fumed, angrily slamming something closed, before gathering the equipment and leaving it to clatter on the tray for treatment later on. A sympathetic hum was heard, and the medic emitted a sound of exhausted disappointment.

“I really wish you would let me try again - Decepticons aren’t around, so you suffer for nothing,” he mumbled, as he went back to the sanitizing unit, to get the equipment cleaned up.

Fowler could see the familiar legs of Optimus at the edge of his field of vision behind the crate, as the mech calmly patted his friend on the shoulder and stated:

“If in a year we will be able to say the same, I will be open for another attempt - for now, I have a feeling we are not alone here.”

The agent stood still, mulling these words over, as he finally slipped away into the base proper. From such an odd piece of intel, he wasn’t sure if he could explain it in his report - so for now, it remained out of the official documentation.

Until he knew a little bit more.

Not at all because he was actually worried.

*****

Ten months later, Fowler noted at least twenty of those strange occurrences - and when Cliffjumper died, alerting them to the enemy presence, he had to restrain himself from looking at Ratchet’s offended face, as he grumbled about ‘stupid Cons not waiting with this slag for two more months’. The man had by then grown a bit more attached to the Autobots, but he still periodically considered calling it quits - the paperwork sitting in drafts all this time, ready at a click of a button to get him into a less weird job.

When he observed the Decepticons in action, he congratulated himself on the patience - they were providing him more information than he could ever hope to piece away from the Bots alone! They talked so much and with so little care, it was like taking candy from a baby.

He quickly picked up on some sort of prior history between the two factions’ leaders, though he was surprised at how little Optimus seemed to be affected by this weird dance between him and Megatron; to Fowler, it looked like the silver mech was putting so many innuendos about their lives that he started using it as a reference under what was previously a blank slate of ‘Prime’s past’ in his file. The red and blue bot did not show the same level of engagement, and the man could see it was driving the former gladiator into anger. It was like watching a telenovela - and he was quickly sucked into the drama.

The agent wrote down ‘possibly exes?’ in the file quite early on, later scratching out the first word, instead underlining the latter four times.

Month after that, he added exclamation marks.

It later came into being the central part on the mind map he created to keep up with all the information he was getting.

And there was a lot of it.

As more and more Cybertronians showed up, his job became way more dynamic - between reports, missions, and increasing liveliness of the inhabitants of the base, he barely had time for boredom. He was sure he was close to getting into internal communication on board the Nemesis, and that would for sure give him even more intel. He needed more insight, to give them an edge in this conflict - to both the Autobots and humankind.

Especially since the Bots somehow managed to get kids involved in the mess.

‘Still’, he mused, looking around from where he stood finishing up a phone call, ‘at least the guys have some life in them now.’

He stopped on the stairs, realizing how true that statement was. Fowler racked his brain trying to recall if he saw Arcee smile so openly before. Had he heard Bulkhead’s laugh so loud? Had Bumblebee allowed himself some time to play around? Brows furrowing in concentration, he opened his notepad and checked his personal tally he kept on Optimus.

There had been no new entries from when the Decepticons returned.

*****

The appearance of Unicron into the equation caused an uproar; even worse was the fact that the only solution they could think about involved cooperation with Megatron. There was not much time left for dilly-dallying, and Optimus did not leave much room for argument, having tried the diplomacy route and failing spectacularly before getting rescued by his nemesis - who was way too giddy for such an event, gloating and flirting the entire time.

It made the agent laugh internally to see the Autobot leader ignore all of it, in favor of dealing with the situation on hand - to the Decepticon’s obvious dismay.

Knowing the silver mech was inside the base felt like a horrible intrusion, nonetheless. There was nothing that could be done about it, and the agent prayed that he would not have to write down today’s date in his little log.

As he watched them cross the space bridge, he admitted that at least if he needed to add another entry, the Prime would be there, alive and well.

The entire operation passed quickly, nerves flying high, as the tremors finally ceased - crisis averted. The Earth would see another day, and the public would be none the wiser that the planet was, in fact, a giant robot.

Opening the space bridge again, the Bots returned, oddly quiet for such a success.

Fowler looked at them, and his face fell.

Optimus wasn’t with them.

“Where is he?” he asked, walking closer to the guardrail, right as Ratchet piped up with the same sentiment. The agent knew that if the mech had been killed, they would have dragged the husk back - and he would probably wake up after a few minutes.

As always.

He always came back.

No matter what, no matter how bad - he always powered up, looking around before his memory caught up to him enough to start thinking again.

When the bots explained their leader couldn't recognize them and left with Megatron, he decided the group chat he got into would be way more closely monitored than he initially suspected.

*****

Getting Optimus back was a relief.

Fowler already knew a bit more than others what had happened from the Vehicons recount of the events, as he lurked on as an anonymous presence with them on the comms. He decided to keep the majority of it to himself, expecting the rumors to be at least slightly exaggerated - he could try to let the mech retain his dignity.

The notes he took were for now out of the official documentation, hidden in the depths of his archiving cabinet under lock and key. It could have been an insinuation of a bored staff, he knew how easy gossip spread and mutated.

And it's not possible they had been going at it as often as the messages implied. They were at war, on the same ship as Soundwave who listened in on anyone at any given time - that must put a bit of a damper on the horizontal tango.

Prime walked between his Autobots, smiling, letting them touch him; understanding the need for reassurance, his presence grounding the others. He allowed himself to be pulled into hugs, right before he was dragged away by the medic who already raged at all the check-ups he needed to run ('I expect you to carry tons of malware, so you ain't touching any consoles before I clear you' Ratchet threatened, pulling the mech by a servo insistently).

Right as it should be: down to the mumbled curses, laughing kids, and their exhausted but relieved Bot companions.

Their worries were finally over, their leader returned, and things would be back to normal soon. If they gave him time and space, he would be the patient, wise figure they got used to.

Fowler later guessed they never really knew the actual 'normal' for the mech, so they really shouldn't have been as surprised as what followed.

*****

There was something different about the Prime, but the agent wasn't sure yet if this was actually a bad thing.

On one hand, the mech had been way more expressive, open to conversation and emotion; there were more positive interactions, as the underlying stiffness he associated with Optimus being, well, a Prime - he heard Ratchet say like the sole fact was the worst thing that could have happened to the bot - was gone. The kids enjoyed that a lot, responding well to his smiles and encouragement shared at their curiosity.

On another, it became very obvious that the past Megatron was alluding to was, in fact, precisely as he implied.

And the feelings were very much returned.

The agent kicked himself mentally for not believing the group chat more - the staff on board Nemesis obviously knew what was going on and were not shy to gossip about it. At least he was not forced to be within the same ship as Megatron, who seemed to be most affected by the shift of this dynamic.

After one of those missions that ended with everyone being very weirded out, he decided it wasn't bad to ask him about one of his suspicions on an unrelated topic - it's not like the day could get much stranger.

"So, Optimus, the Matrix ain't bothering you as much these days?" Fowler asked without preamble, hoping the bluntness would make it less inappropriate. The mech grinned, and confirmed:

"Yes, there should be no more spontaneous deaths triggered by SOMEONE," he looked down at where the Matrix resided in his frame with a frown, "who decides that the best option to win an argument is to make me forget the topic of it by killing me out of the blue, removing the last few minutes from my memory as a by-product."

He placed his servos on hips, as he spoke to the middle of his chest disapprovingly:

"Very mature approach, for sure."

Optimus cocked his helm to the side, as if listening to someone speak, before he added an angry "No excuses, you ain't pulling this on me ever again, you piece of scrap - ‘will of Primus’ or not, we will talk things out like grown mechanisms, you hear?" slapping his torso right above his spark, driving his point home.

Fowler couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him in response, as his theories were getting validated.

"Has the Matrix been turning you off and on again, hoping you would drop whatever the issue was? Would it be happening again anytime soon?" he asked to clarify, as his brain was filled with an image of an ethereal looking bot insistently pushing the power button to force a shutdown, only to do it again when the same issue popped in right after and getting mad that it's not working with such a stubborn mech that Optimus was turning out to be. It made him laugh, but it also was worrying to think that it could start again.

Prime nodded, smirking, as he added:

"It surely seemed that way, but the game has changed - no more 'blue screens of death' for me, I'm glad to say."

The agent decided in the end that the change was good - this Optimus smiled way more often.

*****

Laughing at the last messages from the chat, Fowler saved yet another file onto his phone; he would need to print this out and include it in his reports, though he expected other agents would grow only more concerned at the mess the Cybertronians were creating lately. For a brief moment, he wondered if maybe there was a problem with him, before he shrugged - it really didn't matter, he enjoyed this too much. His documentation was thorough these days, and as Prowl remarked, very well organized.

Plus, he was getting very good at fancy presentations - he wouldn't give up a chance to whip up another one for the matter of a surprise addition to the lives of certain faction leaders. He had so many pictures saved, he had to use them for good.

Aside from the baby album he was preparing in secret for Optimus, of course. He should have probably written it down - he kept on forgetting to check up on the large print order he placed, so a physical memo could help. The agent flipped his notepad open, pen at the ready.

The little thing no longer carried the tally log of all the Primes Deaths And Returns; these pages were transferred into the side file cabinet, as another reference in the 'no longer applicable concern' category: it fit right by 'estimation of chances of Megatron killing off Optimus' and 'list of injuries and treatments related to being grabbed by a Cybertronian'.

A message piped on his phone, and he snorted at the picture sent by the kids from the day at the beach, visiting Griffin Rock for some well deserved R&R. He went to type a reply, when he found the old and forgotten reassignment request. Fowler shook his head at his old worries.

With no hesitation, he deleted the draft.

This job was not boring at all.

************************************

@transingthoseformers I couldn't find the post in which it was mentioned that Fowler has seen Optimus die enough time to know how to react to it, but it's been sitting with me for a while so... yeah.

#tfp au #transformers #maccadam #tfp_AU_writing #i will add it to AO3 at some point but I for now I am staring at the screen frowning #i am a victim of 'i cant publish sth if it aint complete' and its ruining my life #because my list of wips goes longer and longer and Riot yes I blame you (I love you for this ofc)#and i wip while i wip and its a never ending nightmare of seeing yet another post and going 'oh no'#I gather things on the list and make my way through it BUT I CANT PUBLISH BEFORE I FINISH #which is why this AU evolving is so beautiful and scary because I need to keep up!!!#I am so happy to see so many people join in tho #love you all

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