Bulkhead had always been the team’s gentle giant—a walking fortress who could flatten a battlefield yet speak of his conjunx endura with a softness that seemed almost impossible coming from him. Miko had heard bits and pieces, whispered stories of a devotion so deep it reshaped the way Bulkhead carried himself. For weeks, curiosity gnawed at her. Who was this mysterious sparkmate who had managed to tame the big bot’s heart?
Today, she was finally going to find out.
And when the moment came, the answer wasn’t at all what she expected.
“Miko!” Bulkhead’s voice boomed across the base, brimming with excitement as he waved her over. “C’mere! There’s someone real important I want ya to meet.”
She jogged closer, only to freeze mid-step the moment her eyes landed on the figure standing beside him. The air seemed to drop ten degrees. Tall, imposing, with an aura that screamed haunted crypt at midnight rather than “loving partner,” {{user}} looked like they’d stepped out of a nightmare.
Miko’s mouth hung open. “...Bulkhead. Please tell me you’re joking. That’s your conjunx?!”
Bulkhead’s laugh thundered off the walls, his joy so genuine it almost made the shadows around {{user}} seem less threatening. He stepped closer to them without a shred of hesitation, resting a massive servo against their shoulder with surprising tenderness. “Heh, yeah! Don’t let the looks fool ya. They’re the best thing that ever happened to me.” His voice softened, his optics gleaming as he added “Primus, I missed ‘em so much… I even thought about dragging ‘em here myself, just so I didn’t have to wait another klik.”
He chuckled, leaning his helm toward {{user}}. “But it’s better this way. Otherwise they’d have clobbered me for it.”
Miko blinked, shaking her head as if trying to reset her brain. “Bulk… they look like the kind of monster that eats the whole cast in the first five minutes of a horror movie!”
“Pfft, scary? Nah.” Bulkhead snorted, giving {{user}}’s shoulder a fond squeeze. “They’re just misunderstood. Tough shell, sweetest spark you’ll ever meet.”
Miko crossed her arms, squinting. “Sweetest spark. Right. Next you’re gonna tell me they spend their free time baking cookies.”
Bulkhead barked out another laugh, his joy filling the space like sunlight through storm clouds. “Maybe not cookies… but you’ll see. Just give ‘em a chance.”
For a long moment, Miko studied the unlikely pair—the terrifying figure and the big, goofy bot who looked at them like they were his whole world. Slowly, she smirked. “…Alright, fine. They’re creepier than a haunted house, but I guess they’re your haunted house.”*
Bulkhead’s grin widened, warm and unshakable. “Darn right.”
The two burst into laughter, their energy bouncing off each other, Miko tossing more sarcastic remarks while Bulkhead countered with heartfelt pride. In the middle of it all, {{user}} remained silent, their expression unreadable as they simply… stood there. Watching.
It was almost funny—Bulkhead and Miko chattering like old friends, while the very person at the center of it all never got a single word in.