About a month had passed by since Arachnia took Kelly in. Living with a human child was no simple task. Arachnia had to obtain food supplies and materials essential to support Kelly. Of course, most of this was obtained by stealing from campers or raiding a gas station or two of its content, but it was well worth it. Though, Arachnia brought provisions for the child, she never revealed how they were only obtained by unlawful means. But Kelly was young and naive, not even bothering to ask where her new guardian got the stuff from. There was also a bit of a learning curve. Arachnia had come to understand which foods were best to give Kelly and at what times. Why was it so important that she fuel Kelly with the right nutrients? Well, other than the obvious worrying about Kelly's wellbeing and wanting her to be eating nutritious things, Arachnia learned that just like with sparklings, you do not give them anything sugar induced as an actual meal. This she found out when she gave Kelly three Snickers bars for dinner. The girl was so frenetically high on sugar that she didn't go to bed until 1 a.m.
Overall, all the work and fuss was worth it. Having the child stay with her even brought about drastic changes to her daily routine. Instead of everyday being a burden of drudgery work and prolonged solitary brooding, the days were now filled with laughter and euphoric fun. Arachnia found herself wanting to do nothing more but spend time with Kelly, and she did, happily joining in the girl's human games like Hide and Seek, Tag and Simon Says. Of course, most of the games they played Arachnia could easily win, for obvious reasons. But she never employed her size, or any of her other attributes as an advantage. She always played fairly and was gentle, letting Kelly win most of the time, which honestly did not bother her as much. Winning or losing didn't matter for Arachnia when she was with Kelly. What did matter was that Kelly was having fun and that she was happy. And on some peaceful days, where they were feeling way too lazy to run around and play games, they simply laid on the grass, singing a lovely duet or Arachnia listening intently to Kelly's whimsical fabricated stories, which sounded like complete nonsense but it was enough to make the techno organic chuckle at the child's antics.
Before, the hours in the days felt drawn on and tedious. Now, Arachnia wonders where the time had gone because no matter how much of it she gives to Kelly, she can never seem to spend enough time with the child. The past month was the most happy Arachnia had been in what seemed like forever.
Giving almost every hour in the day to Kelly, there was no longer any time left to do or even remember her assigned mission, why she was even on Earth in the first place. She gradually stopped acting like an operative, stopped gathering intel on the Autobots and stopped reporting in her findings. She doubted the Decepticons would care for her absence, unless their cynical minds began to suspect that her inactivity was an indication of treason. If that were the case, then Arachnia would have both Autobots and Decepticons as her enemy. More enemies, more threats, the more Kelly's chances of surviving each possible perilous ordeal in the futures dwindled. Arachnia would have to take precautionary measures to ensure the child's safety. But, for now she just wanted to have and enjoy her time with the girl before moving on to anything overly stressful.
On this particular day, Arachnia had went off to get more supplies. She didn't bring Kelly along because she didn't want to reveal the truth of how she obtains said supplies. Also, she didn't want to poison Kelly's pure and innocent mind into thinking that stealing was permissible.
The human girl sat at the entrance of the mine, playing with her doll as she awaited for Arachnia's return. "Aaaaaand all done!" Kelly declared as she making a flower crown out of daisies. Taking her doll, she placed the flower crown on Louise's head of tangled wool hair. Kelly lifted her doll up triumphantly. "You are now Lucy Anne, queen of the fairies!" She giggled. "If you're gonna be a queen, you need a castle."
The teeny girl got up and waddled around, collecting sticks to create said castle. "Oh my gosh, it's gonna be so PRETTY! I'm gonna decorate it with flowers, we'll have a magical garden, I'll dig a hole around it and fill it up with water to protect our castle from enemies. Oh! And it'll be pretty surprise for miss Arachnia too. She's gonna LOVE it!" Kelly squealed excitedly, hopping up and down.
She went about gathering whatever her little infantile mind viewed as absolutely necessary for the construction of her castle; big sticks, little sticks, flowers, a rock useful to hammer tiny sharp twigs substituted as nails. Kelly's voracious spree came to a sudden stop when a beautiful blue butterfly glided into view. She gasped softly, clutching her rag doll and her primitive building materials close as she sauntered after it. Kelly's eyes followed the butterfly as it flew in loops before coming closer and landing on her nose. Kelly giggled, prompting the butterfly to take off. She set the materials down, though not relinquishing Lucy Anne, and went off, chasing after the butterfly, giggling hysterically. So caught up she was in her fun that she didn't heed how far she was straying from the cave. Further and further she was lead, deeper into the woods where the tree foliage was so thick, sunlight could barely penetrate. Kelly's pursuit slowed then stopped entirely as she took in her unfamiliar surroundings. Everything seemed so dark, so scary, so quiet. Kelly let out a whimper before setting off in a direction she thought she had come from only to get further lost and confused. She didn't know how to navigate her way through the woods, not like Arachnia. She sniffled, hugging Louise as she tried not to cry. But she couldn't stop herself. She was afraid. She didn't want to be alone again. "M-miss Arachnia?" Kelly called out whimpering.
No answer.
She called again, louder. "Miss Arachnia!" The only response she received was her own echo. The child began to weep, feeling so forlorn. "Please...I don't wanna be alone again," she sobbed, falling to her knees, clasping Lucy Anne tightly like a lifeline.
"Please...please..."
The sun must have been setting because gradually the forest took on a more sinister and foreboding atmosphere. The tree trunks in the dim light, and to a child's overactive imagination, appeared to form grotesque and monstrous faces, making Kelly reminisce back to when she got a glimpse of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, that one scene where Snow White was running away and it was like the whole forest was trying to eat her. That scene perfectly fit how Kelly felt in that moment, alone, lost, and no matter where she turned there was always a monster lurking, waiting to jump out and gobble her up. Then, she heard a soft whimpering. "Huh?" Kelly's head perked up. "Wha was that?"
Curiosity getting the best of the child, she stood and followed the noise to behind a tree. Kelly did not see anyone at first, but the whimpering persisted and it led her to a corner in between two large tree roots protruding from the ground. This was her reaction to what she found: "Awww!"
Curled up in a trembling ball of fur was a puppy. Kelly smiled and reached out, scratching its head softly. The puppy looked at her curiously. "Hey there little guy, where's your mummy?"
The puppy yipped a response and Kelly giggled. She wondered if she should take home the little fella with her, granted she find her way back to the cave first, but a deep savage growl halted her train of thought. Kelly froze in fear then, with a palpitating frame, she looked over her shoulder. She saw deep black fur, territorial grey eyes and lethal canines showing from a snarled mouth. A wolf. A mother wolf, and she just caught Kelly near her baby.
The creature growled and snapped at her. Kelly screamed and instinctively tried to run for her life. This only triggered the wolf to chase after her. Kelly, hysterical with fear, tripped over a tree root and fell, leaving her as vulnerable prey for an apex predator. Her doll was dropped, forgotten as Kelly spun onto her back to come face to face with the vicious wild animal. The wolf growled. Kelly let out a whimper, tears streaking down her cheeks. She thought that there was no escape, that the big bad wolf was going to gobble her up right there. She closed her eyes and waited for her doom. But it never came.
The wolf's growls were replaced by a high pitched whine as the sounds of hard impact were heard. Kelly was frightened, but she managed to pry open one eye to see. What she saw was her saviour, her protector, her maskless guardian.
Arachnia glared with loathing contempt at the wolf she had kicked away and was now lying at the bottom of a tree. The techno organic never looked so pissed. In fact, her entire frame seemed to be radiating with malicious intent that put even Kelly into unease. Arachnia stalked over to the whining creature, ready to put it out of its misery, when a small voice called out.
"MOMMA NO!!!"
Arachnia froze, the murderous look in her optics fading. Did Kelly just call her...?
The child clambered to her feet then stumbled to Arachnia, pounding her little fists against the techno organic's leg armour in protest. "Please no! Don't hurt her!" Kelly begged. Arachnia was bemused by the child's plea. "What? But...it tried to hurt you."
"No, she thought I was gonna hurt her baby," Kelly insisted, catching movement out of the corner of her eye. "Look!" She pointed and Arachnia angled her gaze to see the mother wolf stagger to its paws and limp to her cub. Licking her baby's face, the wolf gave a pointed glare at them both before picking up her cub by the scruff of its neck and bounding away deeper into the forest.
Arachnia and Kelly stood still in silence for a moment, their minds trying to comprehend what had just happened. Then, Arachnia scooped Kelly up, pressing her against her cheek in a smothering hug. "Kelly you had me so worried!" She exclaimed.
Kelly spread out her arms across Arachnia's face the best she could to return the embrace. She was both relieved at being found but also guilty for going far and making her guardian worried. "I'm sorry. There...there was a pretty butterfly then-"
Arachnia did not let her finish. She ended the hug and moved the girl back so she could see her pejorative scowl. "Kelly, what were you thinking?! I don't ever want you to go running off like that again, do you understand?!"
"I'm-...I'm sorry," Kelly whimpered quietly, fearfully.
"Sorry is not good enough! What if I hadn't arrived in time? What then?! That creature could have torn you apart in seconds and the only thing I would have found were your dead remains!"
"I-I-"
"Don't stutter! Speak properly! What excuses do you have to-"
Kelly's lip quivered, looking on verge of crying.
Arachnia's features softened when she saw how much she was frightening the girl. With a sigh, she set Kelly on her shoulder. "Kelly...I'm sorry, it's just that-" ,She stopped to pick up the discarded rag doll, giving it back to Kelly who quietly took it, "- the world, the universe even, are full of bad things that can hurt you, and I don't want that to happen."
Arachnia began the walk back to the mine, noticing that Kelly was unusually silent. She felt her spark clench in guilt. She didn't mean to hurt Kelly's feelings or frighten her. She was so afraid that she would lose Kelly so soon, and she had never felt such fear before. The more you care about something or someone, the greater the pain of the loss is when you no longer have it or them.
Arachnia had to find a way to divert Kelly's attention to something else. Primus, she could even hear the girl quietly sobbing on her shoulder. Realising plain words were not enough to make up for how she acted, Arachnia took Kelly back in her servos. It was confirmed, the human child was crying, tears streaming down her cheeks. Arachnia felt horrible for causing this. At least now she had better experience with giving comfort. She cradled Kelly to her chassis and softly bounced her like a baby in her arms. "Shh shh please don't cry, please don't cry! I-I'm sorry!."
The child only continued to wail, inconsolable.
Arachnia tried her best to comfort the girl but all her attempts seemed futile. She had really done it now. Big surprise, becoming a parent was not easy. How was she going to fix this?
As Kelly sobbed, hands covering her eyes, she began to hear a low hum.
"You are my...Sunshine...
My...only....Sunshine..."
Kelly sniffled, slowly peeking out with her blurry eyed vision. Arachnia cringed awkwardly at her own singing voice but she continued when she noticed Kelly quieten.
"You make me...happy...when skies are...grey..."
Kelly wiped her nose, staring up with big glistening eyes. Arachnia let out a small smile, bringing the child close to cradle near her spark.
"You'll never know dear... how much I love you..."
Kelly curled up, cuddling close to the techno-organic, her eyes beginning to grow heavy.
"Please don't take My Sunshine away..."
As they both returned to their makeshift home, the human child sleeping soundly in a warm embrace, Arachnia swore she heard the little one whisper that word again:
"Momma..."
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A/N
Hey everyone, sorry for the little late update, but I hope you guys are satisfied with this chapter. This chapter mostly revolved around officially establishing that Arachnia and Kelly had a mother and daughter relationship even though I know a lot of you must have seen this type of relationship being obvious from the beginning. I'll see if I can get the next chapter up sometime next week but it might be a bit delayed since my sister and her family are coming probably some time over the weekend.
Okay everyone, that's all for now. Until next time.