This is a little birthday themed fic for StoryLady35 (on DA).
It's written in human-verse.
Please remember that English is not my native languages (and when I'm as sick as I'm now, it's more terrible than usual)
Knockout didn't know why, but he had to leave his house all of a sudden. Ratchet had told him it was busy in the hospital, so he had to help out. Ever the friendly man, Knockout went and helped out, even though it was his birthday..
He had hoped that Ratchet at least wished him a happy birthday, but he did not even spare him a glance. They got right down to business. Nobody in the hospital said something or seemed to know of his birthday, so he hid his frown and helped them all out. He just had to not think about the fact that he had been free and at home, reading in his favorite book, celebrating his own birthday on his own.
~Meanwhile at Knockout's apartment~
"Is he gone?"
"Yes, Ratchet called me to inform me that Knockout is at the hospital."
"But, he isn't coming back before tonight?"
"I don't think so, it really is busy at the hospital, he'll be gone for a while."
One by one, a group of people sneaked into Knockout's apartment. "Where do we start?" Arcee asked. "With dividing the tasks," Ultra Magnus said, sternly. "Me and Bee will do the cake!" Smokescreen instantly yelled.
Ultra Magnus shot him a glare. "I suggest that you, Optimus and Megatron do the decorating," Magnus said," you are after all the tallest." Optimus chuckled," That is true." Megatron shrugged, he didn't mind his task. He and Optimus went to get the box full of decorations out of the car.
"Ok, so Smokescreen and Bumblebee will bake the cake," Magnus said, glaring at Smokescreen when he let out a victory yelp," don't forget the candles." Bumblebee nodded," Will do." Smokescreen smiled as they walked towards the kitchen," This is gonna be a piece of cake!" It was completely silent for a small moment, before Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Smokescreen laughed out loud. "That was terrible," Arcee said, trying to hide her grin.
"Now, what about you two?" Ultra Magnus said, turning towards Bulkhead and Wheeljack. "Well, you always like to talk about how we fall under your command..." Wheeljack started, but an elbow to his ribs from Bulkhead had him shut up. Magnus glared at him for a moment. "You know what?" he said, a slight grin appeared on his face," I'm in charge of teaching you birthday songs."
"Are you kidding me?!"
Bulkhead quickly gripped Wheeljack's arms before he could charge at the bigger man. "Calm down Wheeljack, its just birthday songs!" Bulkhead said, not understanding why the other man was so mad. "You know I can't sing! He does this on purpose!" Wheeljack yelled. "No I'm not," Ultra Magnus said, straight faced," Anyway, Starscream, you and Arcee go to the city and buy the list of birthday presents for Knockout. It's not much that we came up with, but it should be enough."
Starscream smiled at Arcee and softly said: " Shopping trip~!" Arcee didn't look too happy about it, but she would certainly do her best to put up with annoying Starscream and get Knockout birthday presents. Knockout didn't know about the surprise party, but she couldn't help but feel that he depended on her to get it together. "We'll be back in a bit," she said as she waved goodbye to Bee and Smokey, who had poked their heads around the corner of the kitchen at the commotion Wheeljack made. Starscream grinned a devilish grin as he followed you out.
Optimus and Megatron returned with two boxes, all kinds of sprinkles falling out, leaving behind a trail. "Shockwave, you're in charge of the drinks," Ultra Magnus continued," Don't spike the punch." Shockwave didn't seem surprised that Magnus said that. "That would be," he paused for dramatic effect," illogical."
Ultra Magnus was about to walk off in search of paper to write the birthday songs, when a finger tapped on his shoulder. Ah, Soundwave, he was always so silent that Magnus had almost forgotten him.
"You seem like somebody with a sense of music, can you handle that?" he asked, pointing at the surround system. Soundwave nodded and gave him a thumb up. "Ouch." Followed a loud sound of someone falling on the floor. Loud rustling and things breaking followed.
Magnus turned to see Optimus lying on the ground, covered in a lot of decorations and shards of glass. "Oh hey…that's Christmas decorations…not for birthdays…" Megatron murmured. "Why'd you push me?" Optimus asked as he tried to scramble off of the floor. "I didn't, you were just in the way so I moved you aside," Megatron said dead serious.
Ultra Magnus decided to turn his back to the two large men. They'll figure something out, he thought. When he finally found pen and paper, and Wheeljack who had tried to steal Optimus' car and drive away but was stopped by Bulkhead sitting n the hood of the car making it impossible to drive away, he started writing down the lyrics of birthday songs he knew.
Bulkhead dragged an unwilling Wheeljack with him, back inside the apartment and Bumblebee emerged from the kitchen covered in cake flower. "What happened to you?" Shockwave asked, trying, and failing, to keep his expression neutral. "Smokescreen is impatient and ripped the package open, resulting in a giant flour cloud descending upon me," Bumblebee explained," I'm taking a quick shower and put on some new clothes."
As Bee disappeared into the bathroom, Ultra Magnus had Wheeljack and Bulkhead in a corner; all of them had a piece of paper in their hands. Wheeljack was mumbling while Bulkhead was actually trying to sing. Ultra Magnus regretted his choice to teach them how to sing.
Optimus had cleaned up the shards of the broken Christmas ornament that had fallen out of the box, while Megatron had already hung 4 garlands. Bumblebee came back out of the bathroom, clean clothes and all, and went back into the kitchen to help Smokescreen.
All of a sudden a loud boom filled the room and made the windows tinkle. "What was that?!" Smokescreen yelled from inside the kitchen. All eyes went to Soundwave standing by the surround system. "Bass was on full volume," he simply said and went back to organizing the music cd-s.
After some time, a table was filled with varies of drinks and the music was ready to put on. They still had to wait for the cake to get out of the oven, Starscream and Arcee with the presents and the finishing of the decorating of the living room.
Wheeljack had finally decided to make the best of it and he actually started to enjoy singing the birthdays song. Bulkhead's loud voice filled the small spare bedroom where they were practicing, he was slightly off. They abruptly stopped when a loud beeping sound blared through the apartment.
"What the hell is that?" Wheeljack screamed over the loud sound. "It's the fire-alarm!" Bulkhead answered. They all ran out of the spare bedroom, noticing the smoke coming from the kitchen. Megatron and Optimus were there first; Megatron kicked the door in, disappearing in the smoke filled room, followed by Optimus who carried a fire extinguisher.
Megatron reappeared with Smokescreen in one arm and Bumblebee carried in the other arm. Soon the smoke disappeared. Turned out, Optimus didn't need the fire extinguisher, it was only smoke and no fire, and so the kitchen was spared from the white powdery stuff.
Bumblebee and Smokescreen were lying on the floor, couching badly. "How could that happen?" Bumblebee asked. It was the question that burned on all of the other's minds too. "Wait a sec… Smokey? How much baking soda did you put in the dough?" Bumblebee asked, eyes wide in disbelief. "Uhm…2 cups, like you said," Smokescreen answered.
"SMOKESCREEN."
Everybody flinched at Bee's roar. " It said 2 SPOONS. NOT CUPS!" At his words Ultra Magnus shot Smokescreen one of his famous death stares. " No wonder..." Megatron said laughing. "So the cake practically exploded?" Wheeljack asked, laughing too. Optimus punched Megatron. " It's not funny," he said," we don't have any cake now." Soundwave stepped forward," Already contacted Arcee, she'll bring a cake along."
Ultra Magnus let out a sigh and ushered Wheeljack and Bulkhead back into the spare bedroom. They decided to practice some more time and then they stopped. Not like Ultra Magnus' ears could take anymore.
The doorbell rang and in a beat of a heart they all were scared that it was Knockout returning, until Soundwave opened the door and Breakdown and Dreadwing stepped in. "Are we too late to help?" Breakdown asked as he took in the place. " No, not really, you can start cooking some dinner for all of us, Knockout will be back soon," Ultra Magnus said. " Haha, yes, he keeps texting me how busy he is and how nobody will let him go," Breakdown said smiling," although he believes that I forgot his birthday too and that kind of breaks my heart…"
"Don't worry, he'll understand once he gets here," Dreadwing said, as he walked into the kitchen. "It smells in here," he said, snuffing loudly. "My fault," Smokescreen answered from the couch. "Of course," was his reply.
Breakdown wen to greet Shockwave and Soundwave, who were playing a card game at the table, before joining Dreadwing in the kitchen to make dinner. Megatron clapped his hands once he finished hanging the last garland. "Beautiful," he said proudly, looking over all the decorations.
"Uhm…aren't those Christmas trees shaped?" Bumblebee asked, pointing at some lights in the corner of the room. " No, they're not," Megatron said. Bumblebee shrugged, not wanting to say more about it. "We did good," Optimus said while clapping Megatron on the shoulder. Megatron smiled at him.
The doorbell rang again and it was quickly answered by Smokescreen. It revealed Arcee and Starscream, surprisingly both with smiles. They had a couple of bags full of nicely wrapped packages and bags of candy. "Did you find everything?" Ultra Magnus asked, walking out of the spare bedroom.
"Yup," Starscream said," Arcee here is actually pretty cool to shop with." Arcee gave him a look of annoyance. "When she's not trying to drag you out of the store once you've paid." Arcee stuck out her tongue and grinned devilish. "Where do we put the presents?" she asked.
"On this table," Shockwave said as he cleared the table of cards. Starscream went into the kitchen to grab bowl to put the candy in. While he was there he managed to steal a taste of the food Breakdown and Dreadwing were making.
"Oh!" Bumblebee exclaimed," Ratchet texted that they're on their way." Ultra Magnus turned towards Smokescreen and Bulkhead," Quickly, put the candles on the cake!" Everybody sprang into action to finish the last little things before they turned off the lights and hid behind the furniture.
~With Knockout~
He didn't know why Ratchet insisted on bringing him home, but he actually liked it. Maybe, he had remembered after all? Although after all day working at the hospital, nobody who had dropped hints of remembering his birthday, he had no hope left.
"Thanks for bringing me home," Knockout whispered as he turned the key of the door to his apartment. "No problem, sorry for dragging you to work on your free day," Ratchet said, sounding guilty. "That's okay, you wouldn't have made it on your own," Knockout said, grinning.
As he opened the door and stepped inside, followed by Ratchet, he turned on the lights. He thought his heart stopped beating when everybody jumped from behind the furniture and yelled "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" at him. "Oh my god!" he said, faking fainting," you did remember!" He shot a look at Breakdown, who looked very guilty.
"Did we surprise you?" Smokescreen asked. " You sure did," Knockout said, smiling. He looked around the room, seeing the decorations and the table full of presents and candy. His smile widened. "Did you do this just for me?" he asked, not really believing it.
"Yes," Bumblebee said," and it wasn't easy, so you better appreciate it!" Knockout nodded, before his nose began to itch. "Did you almost burn down my kitchen?" he asked, looking at everybody one by one. "Almost!" Smokescreen said far to happy.
Breakdown stepped closer to Knockout, kissed him on the cheek and handed him a plate full of food. "Happy birthday," he said. Knockout smiled at him as he sat on the couch. "You know, even though you guys almost burned down the kitchen, I appreciate you trying to bake me a cake," Knockout said," really."
"Yeah, I think it was better we bought ne in the end," Smokescreen said as Dreadwing walked out of the kitchen with the cake in his hands, candles lit. He couldn't really see where he was going, so he moved the cake out of the way of his sight, accidentally putting the low hanging garlands on fire.
As everybody ran around in panic, Knockout just sat at the table, laughing loudly. The fire wasn't big and it only burned some decorations. These were his crazy friends and he wouldn't want to celebrate his birthday with anybody else.
He loves them all.