Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers!
Please R&R!
(Since I won't have time to post anything until after Christmas and my Birthday, this is my early Christmas Present to anybody who bothers to read this. I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas (or if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a brilliant 25th of December)! Enjoy!)
The story begins on an average winter on the eve of Christmas, breathtakingly cold with sprinkles of the white snow that covered the landscape in a thick frozen blanket. It was an average house, in an average city, on an average Christmas.
Carly, the mother, believed that the spirit of Christmas was like that of love, it was about indulging in magic and the meeting of distant relatives that stopped wandering the globe to be with their loved ones around a table of food, drink and conversation.
Spike, the father, was, to put it mildly, practical. He claimed to see through the commercial stereotypes of the season and would often be the 'Bah humbug' of the family during the first few hours of the coveted Christmas Day morning, though even he could not deny the mysterious feeling of magic in the air.
Daniel, the child, was exactly that. A child. He was a quick learner in school and had a wild imagination which was fuelled by everything and anything about him; he was also a firm believer in the magic of the season.
In the house a small boy was helping his mother hoist the chosen evergreen coniferous tree upright in the corner beside the blazing fire, the mother laughing as fallen needles from the tree jabbed at their thick, woolly sock covered toes. "There we go Daniel." She smiled crouching down beside the ten year old who was now gathering the fallen prickly needles that tried to torture his feet.
"Is the tree angry at us for picking it?" the naïve child asked handing his mother the fan of stiff green and brown stalks, "Is that why it's trying to hurt us?"
"No, No." his mother, a beautiful woman named Carly replied, rising with twin cracks of her knees and disposing of the fallen parts of tree in the kitchen bin. "He's just being temperamental."
"Carly, stop filling his head with nonsense." The father, a brown haired man named Spike sighed as he leafed through another page of his newspaper.
"See? Your father is grumpy too." Carly whispered to the pair's child who giggled, hiding his grin with both hands across his lips.
"I think it's time to hang up your robot decorations, what do you think?" the blond haired woman asked with a smile as he sons face lit up with glee.
"Yes!" Daniel cried, already racing towards the fixed attic steps tucked into the corner of the landing, his mother catching him before he could proceed up the first five steps.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" she asked the bewildered child who gasped in horror as he forgot the most important thing for his special decorations that would make their ritualised trip to the tree every year since Daniel had received them from his grandfather when he was two. "Uh-huh, thought so. You get those baskets and I'll look out your Christmas tree toys okay?"
Nodding enthusiastically, the boy ran for his room as Carly ducked into the attic, frowning at the fine layers of dust covering the room like the snow was covering her car outside. "Now if I was a huge sphere case where would I be?" she muttered, snapping her fingers and shoving a fort of boxes out of the way, reaching between two fusty boxes, grinning when she grabbed a worn leather handle. Attached to the handle was a large case in the shape of a planet made of a light alloy metal. Smiling she set the case on its circular base and snapped open the catches, half of the planet, the name 'Cybertron' embossed in gold coloured lettering across the front of the sphere, swinging open to reveal polished metal decorations in the shapes of different types of transforming robot toys in their own special foam outlined places.
The loud clattering and hurried steps of her child made her grin as Daniel was suddenly beside her, a bright purple basket under one arm while a bright orange one was under the other. "I got their spaceships mommy!"
"Who do you want to take out first this year? Autobots or Decepticons?" she asked with a warm smile as Daniel carefully set out the 'spaceships' before the case, childish writing and bold labels declaring the orange one was called 'The ARK' while the purple one was called 'The Nemesis'.
"Autobots!" Daniel cried excitedly, bouncing on his knees as his mother carefully extracted the 'Autobot' leader from his place and set him into the head of the 'ARK', the tiny label above the foam space declaring his name to be 'Optimus Prime'. "Prowl and Jazz!" Daniel grinned when his mother brought out the two black and white robots that were by far his favourites to play with.
Carly laughed softly as Daniel made a grab for Jazz and Prowl, pressing both robots together like they were kissing, "See mommy? They're happy to see each other!"
Once both 'Armies' were in their respective ships, Carly chased Dainel back down the stairs, both acting like their basket ships containing the Christmas tree toys were real.
"I'm going to catch you Optimus Prime!" she called ahead as her speedy son dived for the living room, holding the 'ARK' aloft above his head, laughing.
"No you won't Megatron!" Daniel shouted back dropping on his knees to skid the last few feet to the tree on the laminate flooring.
"Alright enough noise." Carly chuckled as Spike rolled his eyes, still trying to concentrate on his paper after having to work for most of the morning. "Let's get these 'Armies' on the tree."
As they progressed up from the bottom of the tree, Carly jumped when Daniel tugged on her jumper holding out the little robot called Jazz and pointing up near the top of the tree, "Jazz wants to go up to the top of the tree with Prowl."
"Alright," Carly smiled threading the special gold band over a branch near the top as Daniel readied the doorwinged Prowl to go up near the grinning toy called Jazz.
"Mommy!" the brown haired child suddenly cried out, just as a loud thump and a crack was heard making Carly swing around, nearly jostling several of the toy decorations from the tree. She found Daniel crouched over a crumpled looking Prowl, the poor little doorwinged toy having lost one of his doorwings and his tiny red chevron.
"Oh Daniel." She sighed as the ten year old started to cry, she knelt down by her son thumbing away the distraught tears, "It's okay dear, Prowl's only a toy. How about you and I go shopping for another one on the internet later?"
"I want that Prowl!" Daniel blubbered through his tears as Carly turned to pick up the broken Datsun toy that hung limply from her hand, Spike looking up from his paper in concern, folding it away to come and comfort their son.
"Daniel he's just a toy." Carly tried to explain fearing she had gone a bit far with their game that the toys were real. "Come on honey, your daddy will help you set out the milk, cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer. It's time for you to go to bed. Santa doesn't come to give gifts to little boy's who are awake."
Still sniffing, Daniel brightened fractionally, though he gazed mournfully at the broken toy in his mother's hand as Spike led him to the kitchen.
Sighing Carly finished hanging the toys on the tree, wrapping it with some silver tinsel and topping it with a golden star, listening absentmindedly as Spike told their son a story for bed. She frowned at the Prowl toy laying sprawled in the 'ARK' basket before shaking her head, stacking the purple basket 'Nemesis' underneath before picking them up and dumping them on the kitchen counter.
"To be honest I'm surprised those old things lasted this long." Spike commented as he walked back into the kitchen finding his wife trying to piece Prowl back together, straightening out the crumpled doorwing that was still attached to the Christmas tree decoration. "They were made in the eighties after all. Any replacements are going to cost a fortune."
"I suppose you're right." Carly sighed mournfully, stepping on the mechanism to the bin which opened like a gaping mouth, the bottom riddled with old bubble wrap from a package and Christmas tree needles and dumping the old doorwinged toy and his parts into the darkness.
===Later that night===
Magic begins at Midnight.
The wind rattled the windows as snow danced and twirled with the currents, and through the mailbox, a gust of wild sparkling snow made its way to the tree curling around the evergreen and wrapping around the toys.
The Christmas tree's star ignited and robotic visors and optics onlined…
The first thing the Autobots and the Decepticons noticed was that Prowl was missing. The Decepticon's, the Christmas toys that had been splattered with purple splotches after a painting accident, shrugged and went back to socialising no really caring either way as the Autobots, the toys that were bestowed with red splotches, went frantic as they scoured the tree branches in search of their friend.
Jazz, a Porsche styled robot, went absolutely barmy, nearly falling out of the tree as he couldn't find his partner and occasional love interest in Daniel's games when he played with them up in the attic, after all, Prowl did have an effeminate figure, no wonder their child owner cast the doorwinger as the princess most of the time...
He had seen Prowl fall from Daniel's hand but not where Carly had taken him.
"Prowler!" he called out to the house, jumping from branch to branch as the irate Ratchet shuffled down the trunk after him, along with Ironhide and Optimus, all four of them intent on finding their lost comrade as they left the rest of the Autobot decorations to warily make sure Megatron didn't try to eat the cookies on the side table again. But they needn't worry this year; Starscream was currently engaging the other toy in a game of twister on one of the broader branches.
"Maybe she left him in the baskets on the counter," Optimus suggested, pointing at the kitchen counter that loomed in the distance like a far off mountain, both the 'Nemesis' and the 'ARK' baskets peeking over the top, "That's where she left Wheeljack last year by accident."
"Yes, but she learnt her lesson after he blew up the toaster." Ratchet quipped back as the small toys began their trek across the floor towards the kitchen.
The fire had long burnt out leaving charcoal and the musky smell of peat rippling through the house. The presents at the bottom of the tree provided the first obstacle for the miniature mechs, Optimus, being the tallest decoration, giving them a leg up as they tried and failed to vault over a broad package wrapped in nauseating neon yellow wrapping paper.
As they reached the couch, Ironhide shrieked like a femme as a bold spider scuttled in front of them, its long creepy legs making the quartet shudder when it disappeared into the shadows of the curtains beyond the kitchen door which had acquired a barrier of tinsel after the golden strand had slid away from the hook holding it up.
Frowning, Jazz cautiously stepped over the rustling bush of shiny gold onto the kitchen lino warily checking for mice. The little critters would gladly chew up one of them if it meant fodder for their nests.
They quickly scampered across the floor, sliding on a patch of water that either Carly or Spike had forgotten to mop up before they went to bed; Ratchet even fell onto his aft, in a fit of curses, as he found a patch that had frosted over as the temperatures dropped harshly outside. Jazz frowned as he stared up at the kitchen counter looming like a god above them, the cupboard door were long planes of white, not a blemish upon them for gripping upon, apart from the silver handles several toy meters above.
"Great." Ironhide huffed, "How in the Pit are going to get up there?"
"Use the bin." Jazz grinned running over to the mechanism on the shiny black bin that sat sulking to itself in the corner. "Catapult time again Ironhide!" he cheered to the horrified rust red Autobot, who had once had a bad experience in the attic with Daniel and his slingshot as he bounced onto the handle, whatever that was beneath the lid letting out a low echoic groan, making the gathered Autobots jump and cluster together in fear.
"Jazz!" the voice whispered in a familiar hiss, the Porsche decoration perking up at the familiar voice.
"Prowl!" he called back, using the mechanism as a spring and flopping over the bin lip as the lid came down on his aft earning a yelp from the black and white decoration. "What are you doing in the bin?"
"Carly put me here," came the huffed reply along with some shuffling, bits and pieces of a metal frame snapping back into place, "Doesn't she know I'm easy to fix?"
"I've been trying to fix you since we onlined," Ratchet snarked from the ground, his hands on his hips, "I'm checking you over when we get back to the tree."
"Yes, Ratchet." Prowl dronish tone came back as Ironhide and Optimus chuckled shaking their helms as they started to stack themselves up, one on top of the other as Jazz grabbed Prowl's arm from the inside and commanded them to pull.
Hauling Jazz's pedes, both black and white mechs tumbled from the bin in a surprising shower of evergreen needles. "Oww." Jazz groaned as Prowl rolled off of him, "You're heavy Prowler."
"Oh like I haven't heard that before." The doorwinged mech huffed, smoothing out another crick in his left doorwing that he had recently reattached. "I can't believe she threw me away!"
"Oh calm down." Ratchet grumbled as they began to pick their way back across the room towards the brilliantly glowing tree beside the dimmed fire, "I had to leave my spot on the tree to come and find you. And it was a brilliant spot this year, Cliffjumper has probably nicked it."
"Prowl and I have our honeymoon spot." Jazz claimed proudly, enveloping his play partner in an enthusiastic embrace.
"Just because Daniel made me the 'Princess' in his games doesn't mean I'm a femme!" Prowl hissed, flicking Jazz on the audio horn as he stomped off, wings flared proudly.
"He's just cranky because he got thrown out." Jazz snickered to a chuckling Ironhide.
"I heard that Jazz!" Prowl snapped moodily.
===Early Christmas Morning===
"Thank you mommy!" was the first thing Carly heard as she opened her eyes to the sound of Daniel's overjoyed cry.
"He'd better not have opened his presents early again." Spike grumbled rolling over and dragging the covers with him.
Shaking her messy blond hair, Carly rolled from the bed, wrapping her dressing gown over her nighty tightly to fight off the morning chill and slipping on her favourite slippers, she went off in search of her son. "Daniel, it's six in the morning." She admonished lightly with a yawn, as she found the boy staring up at the tree.
"You fixed Prowl!" Daniel grinned up at her with adoration making her frown sleepily.
"I fixed…Prowl?" she asked slowly scanning the tree from the bottom up, her eyes widening in surprise as she spotted the Jazz and Prowl figures Daniel adored playing with dangling next to each other, their little metal hands entwined. The most bizarre thing was that the black and white Christmas doll was fully repaired; his doorwings flared and shiny as if he had never been broken. "Oh."
"Thank You!" Daniel chirped as Carly shrugged putting it down to Spike finding a spare somewhere.
"No problem sweet heart, but come back to bed for another hour and I promise you can jump on your dad." Carly bargained with a laugh as Daniel's eyes lit up, before following his mother back to bed, two robot decorations turned their helms and smiled smugly at each other as the magic faded into the morning, turning them back into the Autobot tree toys once more.
Later on, as Carly cooked the Dinner, she would discover Christmas tree needles scattered around the bin's base…