Title: Changes
Rating: T
Universe: Rescue Bots
Genre: Drama/Romance
Pairing: Blades/Heatwave
Author's Note: Wow, just wow. It's been a long time, hasn't it? I have been so busy with school for the past several months, I'm in my fourth term of college and I'm a culinary student, so naturally, I am always busy doing something for that. Plus, things are changing in my life and it's very exciting and also scary. So I've been dealing with that for a while. Anyway, I will try to update my previous stories as soon as possible, whenever my muse decides to come back to life, and on June 19, I leave for Spain for two weeks, so I'll be gone until July 5.
Changes
He smiled as he lay in his berth, looking drained and exhausted, but a smile painted onto his faceplate as he held a small pink bundle in his arms, snuggling it to his chassis as he looked down at the sparkling wrapped in the soft fleece lovingly. She looked so much like her sire, and she had yet to meet him yet… and he had yet to even know she existed yet.
Blades sighed as he looked his newborn sparkling. How was he supposed to tell Heatwave about her? He didn't even know he was carrying, and Blades didn't know he was carrying until Heatwave left for his year of training with Optimus. He still had a few more months until Heatwave would return home, so he supposed that he had enough time to think about how to introduce them. But it wasn't enough time; there was never enough time.
Blades felt his sparkling stir in his arms and he looked down, seeing her face scrunch up with discontent and she let out a mewl, balling her fists before she let out a sob. He smiled as he opened his chest plates, letting her suckle the filtered energon from his feeding tubes. She latched on immediately and drank in the much desired fuel.
Her carrier couldn't help but smile.
"You still need a name." Blades said to himself as he stroked her helm lovingly. He watched her with the proud and loving look of a first time carrier as he went through millions of names in his helm. She looked so much like her sire, but she shined a beautiful scarlet color. He imagined that she would be a fire truck like him when she grew. She could be so cranky, but also so sweet. Primus, she was beautiful.
"You need a name as strong and gorgeous as you. What could that be?"
Blades watched as his newborn daughter turned away from his chest, and he patted her back to burp her. He smiled as he lay her back down in his arms, and he watched as she slowly opened her optics to him, seeing her bright amber eyes glowing up at him, and she smiled softly up at him, her arms reaching up to him.
"Primus, you're so wonderful." He whispered to her, smiling softly. He gasped quietly and smiled. "I've got it. I'll name you Blaze. Your sire will love it."
"…Or at least I hope he will."
Weeks had gone by since Blades had given birth, and since he was on what the humans called a maternity leave, Boulder and Chase were out patrolling the island. Normally, Dani would protest not being able to be in the field, but for once, she was happy to be home and helping Blades look after Blaze.
It came to a great surprise to the Burns family when Blades told him that he was carrying all those months ago, which lead to an awkward and strange Cybertronian biology and culture lesson for them all, which led to Kade almost heaving his lunch and Charlie having to cover Cody's eyes from Chase's very detailed slideshow.
But out of all of them, Dani was the most understanding. Even Blades was surprised, since she never showed any interested in material instincts, but perhaps she was more than meets the eye. Blades guessed that they had more in common with humans than they had previously thought. She was still off put by Blades carrying, since their concept of gender in their human society made things a little more difficult to understand, which Blades could still never understand, but that's another story for another day. But despite that feeling, she was more than willing to stay up with Blades at all hours of the night when Blaze would wake up crying for him. She couldn't help like a sire could, what with holding and rocking the sparkling, but she was there for support, and that was more than enough for Blades.
"She's so cute." Dani smiled as she sat on Blades' shoulder, looking down at the sleeping sparkling in her partner's arms.
Blades smiled. "She looks so much like Heatwave. I wonder if she'll act just like him too."
The brunette giggled. "Now I'm just imagining a girl Heatwave."
"That is kind of a funny image." The helicopter chuckled.
They both shared a laugh before Blaze let out a whine, having been disturbed from her nap.
"Looks like she's already taking after him." Dani laughed.
Blades blushed. "Actually no, that's me. Heatwave is a total morning person."
The woman quirked a brow. "Really? Who would of thought?"
"We get that a lot." He laughed.
The helicopter looked down, seeing his daughter's amber eyes looking up at him with a tired and upset expression. "Yep, that's totally me."
Dani wasn't the only one there to help Blades out with the sparkling. Boulder and Chase were more than happy to assist, Boulder mostly. Whenever Blades needed a break, like to go take a nap or just a moment of peace, Boulder, and reluctantly, Chase would watch after Blaze. Boulder loved sparklings, having been the second oldest out of four other siblings. He was used to being around babies and toddlers and was often the babysitter for many family friends. Chase, on the other hand, seemed indifferent towards the little tikes. Granted, he loved Blaze because she was his friend's daughter, but children in general, he didn't have an opinion of them. He was the youngest of seven; so naturally, he never had any family experience with sparklings. Boulder seemed to love them though, so Chase figured he would give it a shot.
Although Boulder never did let him sing lullabies to Blaze… again. Not after that one incident. The police bot knew that singing wasn't his strong suit, so he decided to do something else.
Blaze was particularly fond of books, all kinds of books. Books about Earth, about Cybertronian, about fairy tales and true stories; all of them piqued her interest. She seemed very interested in Earth's police codes, much to Blades' surprise and Chase's delight. She did, however, tend to fall asleep from time to time when Chase read to her, but she still loved when he read to her a bedtime story about their adventures on Earth and Cybertronian, and adding the occasional policeman lesson in every now and again.
But right now, Chase was not reading to her. Now, she was with Boulder, playing peek-a-boo with the bulldozer as they sat on the floor in the bunker.
"Where did the sparkling go?" Boulder smiled as he hid his face with his servos.
Blaze looked around, confused.
"There she is!" He moved his hands, grinning wide as the scarlet sparkling clapped her tiny servos together and giggled.
Her laugh was contagious as Boulder began laughing too and hid his face again. "Where did Blaze go?" then moved his hands away quickly. "There she is!"
Blaze smiled wide, laughing hard as she fell back, and Boulder couldn't help but do the same as he picked her up and chuckled. The sparkling smiled, reaching up to touch his faceplates.
"You've grown so much in the past few months. You're gonna be too big for me to carry soon."
The green mech chuckled, watching as her face puffed up with a pout. "You're so cute." He tickled her chin, seeing her pout contort into a smile and giggle.
Chase watched from the other side of the bunker as he sat in front of the control panel, overlooking the camera feeds from around Griffin Rock. He didn't even notice that a certain little scarlet colored sparkling had slipped way undetected by Boulder and had crawled underneath the panel and hugged Chase's leg. The police bot didn't even notice until she made a cooing sound, and he looked down to see her smiling up at him. He leaned down and picked her.
"How did you escape Boulder's watchful optics, young one?"
Blaze only answered by rolling onto her back, giggling as she reaching her arms out towards Chase.
The blue mech looked back and forth, before he broke his stoic persona for just a moment as he sat back down with her in his arms.
"I suppose Boulder is correct. You are cute."
She replied by gurgling and cooing up at him with smile.
Several more months had passed since Blaze's birth, and the Rescue Bots had received a call from Optimus that Heatwave would be returning in a few weeks' time. That made Blade's tanks churn with anxiety and anticipation, meaning that he only had a few weeks to figure out how to tell Heatwave that he was pregnant and gave birth to his daughter while he was away with Optimus on a training mission for nearly an Earth year.
The copter bot paced in his quarters as Blaze took her afternoon nap.
"It's not like I can keep this a secret from him. I can't exactly hide a sparkling from him… forever." Blades sighed. "But what if he's mad? What if he thinks that she's not his? Oh what am I saying, she's a mirror image of him. But that doesn't mean that he won't leave. I know he won't leave Griffin Rock. But he couldn't leave our relationship and disown her. Oh Primus what am I going to do?"
"Maybe you should stop and take a breather for a second, for starters."
Blades jumped when he heard the voice behind him, and turned to see Chief Charlie Burns standing at the entrance to his quarters.
"I was walking by and heard you rambling on. Sounds like you've got a lot on your mind and not much time to think about it."
The orange bot sighed and sat down. "I just don't know what to do. I'm so worried about what Heatwave will do when he finds out that… well… he's a sire."
Charlie came up and sat down next to Blades. "Parenthood is a scary thing, and it's hard to do it alone. Trust me, I know. But I don't think Heatwave will leave you because of this little surprise development. I'm not sure how he'll react to it, but I don't think he'd go as far as to leave you because of it. Heatwave is a good bot, and you should remember that."
Blades took a deep breath and thought for a moment. "I guess you're right. But I can't help but feel worried."
The Chief smiled. "That's normal for all parents. My late wife was always scared to tell me whenever she had gotten pregnant, but I always calmed her fears with my excitement every time she told me. Plus, even if Heatwave is a little peeved, I'm sure he'll come around."
"I sure hope so, Chief. I really hope so."
Those weeks passed like minutes to Blades, as the day had finally come to when Heatwave would return to the island from his training mission with Optimus. He could barely contain his fear and excitement, but he managed to keep it in as they saw a familiar fire rescue boat in the distance, speeding across the water towards Griffin Rock.
"There he is! There's Heatwave!" Cody Burns smiled as he looked through his binoculars. The rest of the team was very happy to see him after being away for so long, but no one was more happy, and afraid, to see him than Blades.
The red mech skidded up close to the shore line before transforming and flipping through the air, landing on his feet in front of his team. He smiled. "You guys miss me?"
It was a rush of sound and a blur of color as the Burns' and other rescue bots, minus Blades, ran over and hugged him. Even Kade abandoned his masculinity for just a moment as he hugged Heatwave's leg. Normally the fire truck would make a snide comment, but he figured that he would let it slide, just this once.
When the humans and other bots finally dispersed, Heatwave could see Blades standing a few feet away, smiling but also fidgeting. Heatwave didn't think much of it since it was normal behavior for Blades, but he had no idea what he was about to soon learn when he would return to the fire house.
They didn't exchange any words but they shared a soft, knowing smile. Heatwave wasn't much for PDA, and Blades respected that.
He would tell Heatwave when they got back. He just hoped it would go as well as he hopes.
Heatwave smiled as they retreated to their quarters after having family time with the Burns'. They all had questions about his adventures overseas on the mainland with Optimus, and they were all eager to hear his stories. But now, with the rest of the family tired and heading to bed, Heatwave was ready to turn in, exhausted from his long journey home, but also happy to spend some alone time with his lover.
The red mech smiled as he kissed Blades' neck, chuckled when he heard him squeak and saw the blush on his face. "Did you miss me?"
Blades smiled. "Of course I did. I missed you every day that you were gone."
"Heh, cheesy." Heatwave chuckled and kissed his cheek.
"But you love it."
"You're damn right."
The copter bot smiled softly before he took a deep breath. "Before we do anything, I need to show you something…"
The fire truck raised a brow. "Okay… what is it?"
Blades turned and took a deep breath before he opened the door slowly and quietly. "Just remember to be quiet."
Heatwave watched him and followed him inside. "What is it that you want to—" His words became trapped in his throat when Blades turned around, holding a small sleeping sparkling in his lover's arms. "Is that… no, that's impossible."
Blades looked up at him. "It is. This is Blaze… our daughter." He pulled the blanket down and showed her to him, Heatwave immediately seeing the resemblance between him and her. But despite this, he was still in disbelief.
"But how? I don't—"
"It was before you left for your mission a year ago. A few weeks after you left, I found out I was carrying. I wanted to tell you before… but…" Blades looked down and blushed. "I was scared…"
He was scared to look up at Heatwave, because he knew what his expression would be. This is exactly what Blades was afraid of.
"Did you think you could keep this from me for long? Why didn't you tell me before I came back?! I'm away at training for a year and then I come home to this!"
The copter bot swallowed thickly, holding his daughter close. "I'm sorry. I was scared…"
Heatwave growled before he stormed out of the bunker, Blades hearing him transform and drive off into the night. He kept his tears at bay when he heard Blaze whine, having been woken up by her sire's angered outbursts. "It's okay, baby…"
"I'm sure he'll come around…"
"Or at least… I hope so."
