A Cheetah with Different Spots

Chapter 4: Danger Familiar and New

The hot savanna sun shone down onto Cheetor's back, and the soft warm wind toyed with his fur as he ran. His spark pounded, and his vents came quick and sharp. Paws clawed at the dirt. He had to keep moving. His optics flicked left to right, and his audio receptors remained perched ready to catch any kind of sound. He couldn't find her with his nose as her scent was everywhere.

Deep growling came from his side, and he was suddenly tackled. The catbot tumbled down into the dry pale golden grass reeds, rolling over himself and his attacker. He finally came to a halt in cloud of dry dust with a female king cheetah lying on top of him playfully licking him.

Cheetor started laughing, "Okay! Okay! You got me! You win!"

The wild cat, Chicory, who was currently sitting on top of the young maximal, flicked her ear before celebrating her victory by continuing to groom Cheetor. Much to the catbot's dismay. He knew that trying to stop Chicory from doing this little ritual, would only end with him getting swatted. So, resistance was futile. He only wished to know why she insisted on doing it every time they met.

Cheetor tried get up only have Chicory pin him back down, "Come on, Chicory. I need to get up. Please."

Chicory twitched her ear, and flicked her tail back and forth. Though, she, thankfully, relented and hopped of the young maximal, allowing Cheetor to get to his paws.

"You're getting better at tag. But I'm not going to go so easy on you next time," Cheetor said.

Chicory, tilted her head.

"Don't look at me like that. I was going easy on you."

The female wildcat, just harshly shook her head, as if she was trying to shake some unforeseen water off of her fur, and stalked off into the grass. Cheetor was quick to follow her. Optimus had finally given the youngster some time off to spend with the maximal's newest member. And the catbot was enjoying every nanoklik of it.

Chicory had decided to lay down in the shade of a nearby tree, effectively ending their game of tackle tag on her victory. Not that Cheetor minded much, it was hot out there. The cat bot joined her, lying down beside her. The shade was cooling, and a small breeze ruffled their furs. It was quite relaxing. Cheetor even offlined his optics, thinking that a nap might be nice. And he would've drifted off, but Chicory decided that his fur still wasn't clean enough for her taste.

Cheetor's audio sensors flipped back annoyed, but he eventually relaxed and let the female wildcat do what she wanted, "You're so lucky Chicory, you know that?"

Like always, Chicory didn't answer. Just continued to lap her sandpaper tongue over his fur.

"I mean, you get to run all day, and do what ever your want. You don't have to deal with assignments, preds that try to shoot at you, or a crew of crazies. Not that I don't like the others, we can just get on each other's nerves, you know?"

Chicory didn't answer.

"Bigbot, don't get me wrong, is a great leader. It's just sometimes he thinks I can't handle that much responsibility. Rhinox and Rattrap are usually too busy to hang out. Though, if Rattrap is in a good mood, sometimes I can get him to play videogames with me, and Airazor has joined us once or twice when she didn't have anything else to do. Tigatron, well, big cat is rarely at the base, and dinobot...I try not to annoy him."

Cheetor sighed, "I know that I tend to rush off, but I'm not actively trying to cause trouble. We have the predacons for that. It's just sometimes, they don't understand how much I want to help them, and they think I'm being way too reckless and immature. But I'm not that reckless, I'm just eager. You understand?"