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Working alongside the Autobots was a dream come true for Chip Chase. How many other humans could say some of their best friends are alien robots? Not many. And, unlike some of his own race, they didn’t treat him differently for his disability - he was another valued member of the human Autobot team, with his own strengths and unique talents to help combat the evil Decepticons.
There were so many Autobots, and each one a trusted friend, but for Chip, he loved being in the lab of the Autobot base - science and technology that had almost been beyond his imagination happened here. Wheeljack and Ratchet had become some of his dearest confidants and compatriots in their respective fields, and were more than willing to have him at the table.
Though there was one Autobot in particular that interested Chip, the one who was currently hunched over his latest project, examining it closely with his one magnifying optic. Perceptor was a real man – mech? – of science, test tubes and hypotheses his best friends. Chip took a ride on one of the elevators up to the surface he was working on, curious as to what the Autobot was up to.
“Hello, Perceptor,” he greeted, hoping he wasn’t breaking the other’s concentration.
“Oh, hello there, Chip. It’s nice to see another like-minded individual.” There was a barely-there smile that Perceptor had every once in a while. The rarity of it, and the fact that it seemed Chip saw it the most, always made his heart race a little.
“What are you working on today? Nothing volatile, I hope!” Though he knows that if it was, Perceptor wouldn’t have allowed his human friend so close to his work.
“Do I look like Wheeljack?” He scoffed, and his enmity towards his fellow Autobot made Chip snicker behind his hand.
“Hey, I resent that!” Said Wheeljack, who only turned his head incrementally from his computer monitor to shout over his shoulder. “And besides, name the last time I blew the lab up!”
“... it was just twenty kliks ago.”
Chip could see some evidence of said explosion in the charred marks on the ground, raising a brow at the Autobots.
“That wasn’t blowing up the lab! That was a little explosion. Tiny. Not even worth talking about! An extreme failure on my part!” Wheeljack grumbled as he returned to his work, leaving Perceptor and Chip to themselves.
Chip rolled his chair over near Perceptor’s current project, inspecting it with interest. “What are you working on today, Perceptor?”
“I’m studying organic deoxyribonucleic acids,” he responds, returning to his examination. Chip thought it looked familiar - however, the DNA that was displayed on the table was many times larger, something he thought he would never be able to see with the naked eye. With the technology Cybertronians had, he shouldn’t be surprised that it was possible. “I find it very fascinating.”
“I’ve always been curious, do the Autobots have their own DNA? Genetic coding from when you’re born?” Chip asked curiously, looking up comfortably at the bot who decided to lean down on the table, to be more at his human companion’s height.
“We call ours CNA. Cybernucleic acids.” Perceptor explains, pushing his DNA sample to the side to pull up and enlarge a CNA sample for Chip’s perusal. “Unlike organic DNA, this has a more strict coding to it. We’re not organic by any means, but we’re not simple computer programs, either.”
Perceptor continued with his Cybertronian technobiology lesson, and Chip was very invested in it, asking questions whenever he had them, the Autobot being very thorough and drawing intense diagrams of formulas and the chemical structure of Cybertronium. Chip admired Perceptor’s passion and intensity for knowledge and learning - it lit a fire to his own passion. The two of them contributed and poured their combined intellect into the mould of that shared passion, creating something powerful, raw, and, Chip thought, unnamed.
“Riveting, Chip. Absolutely riveting. Not many can keep up with the stride of my thoughts as you can.” Perceptor’s normally neutral tone seemed almost… pleased, and Chip let the praise wash over him like morning sunshine.
“That so? I would’ve thought the other Autobots would at least–” Chip responded with a smile he could barely hide.
“No, just you.” The Autobot intercepted quickly, optics lingering on him for a touch longer before turning back to his work.
Chip stared incredulously at the back of Perceptor’s helm, heart pounding loudly in his chest. What could that have meant? Or was he reading too much into it? That look of appraisal… approval. Someone the Autobot thought of as an equal to himself, when others of his own kind could not. In Perceptor’s estimates, at least.
“R… Right. The feeling is mutual, Perceptor.”