What I want to try: Presents, or Santa Claus. Whichever one you decide fits.
Disclaimer: I own nothing in here. You can take the human characters! Bwahahaha!
Cliffjumper nearly had it.
The other Minibots nearly had it too.
Trust Prime and Jazz to agree to this ridiculous slaggin' idea and the rest of the Ark too to support the officer's suggestion.
And their excuse? 'Big huge warriors' like themselves could not fit into the Oregon Mall's teeny tiny cargo doors and central square, and the Minibots could.
The Minibots had little choice but to accept the offer, or else Sideswipe, the original Santa Claus, who loathed the job and his brother would smash them to pulp. They were pretty sure that the Dinobots would've joined in the pounding too.
So they went ahead with the idea. Santa Claus and a few of his elves were going to make a presence at Oregon Mall – in the form of the Autobots' Minibots in costume.
They hated it, and who more than Cliffjumper had the right to march out of there right now?
He was the unfortunate one who had to play Santa.
One by one, disgusting children from pig-tailed girls in pink frocks to buzz-cut boys in tiny street-cult shirts sat on his lap one at a time. At least all of them pulled his 'beard' or pulled his 'hair', which was really human wigs adhered to his head to make him look a little more 'human' than the dumpling he already was.
What was worse was that each child seemingly had a yard-long Christmas wish-list at the ready and they were not getting off Santa's lap until he has heard each and every one of their requests. When the liaison officer (bless her spark, the young teen girl must have been as riled as they were) asked the child to get off as the waiting child was getting impatient, a shout or scream or 'NO!' was the answer.
Cliffjumper thought his audio sensors would explode soon.
On second thought, it would have been much bliss. If he couldn't hear those whiny kids mumble and declare into his audios what they wanted, be it a Barbie doll or a motor car or an electric guitar or Mummy's shoes (some precocious kid in Gucci wanted that), he would've been let off the job. They only chose him because he was entirely red, and he fitted the fluffy red and white suit so well.
The others weren't better off. Bumblebee took the job as head elf, as the head elf was the one allocated to take pictures with toddlers that had screamed and panicked when placed in Santa Claus's lap and were passed to him to let him or her clam up. The white flash of the camera normally did the trick, and a complimentary lollipop.
However, poor Bumblebee was going blind.
Gears, Brawn and Huffer were the other elves, set about to move the cartons of the abovementioned lollipops and to 'smile and wave' at the kids. Sometimes, they pretended to tell Santa about the gifts being ready and something about Rudolph visiting tomorrow. And others, well, they tinkered with the reindeer props and the 'worktable', which Huffer dominated, to pretend to create a toy out of spare parts that Wheeljack kindly donated.
To top off the elves' sorrows, they all were in green suits, much like Cliffjumper's, save that instead of a red sleeping hat, they were wearing green ones and they had no human wigs attached to their facial plates.
"Bee, when can we stop?" Huffer moaned to the yellow Autobot.
"Five minutes. It's a whole lot less than the three hours and fifty-five minutes we spent here, so let's try to take it to the end."
Everyone could tell that Bumblebee was trying to be optimistic, but even the bubbly yellow 'bot was not.
Cliffjumper, or better known as Santa, looked to the liaison officer, just as a little boy who asked for a ton of candy (and recited all the brands and flavours) jumped off his lap.
"Are we done yet?"
The brunette-haired girl looked at her watch, the frown on her face turning in more than usual.
"Almost. I'm waiting for someone."
Noticing that there were no children lining up to see him this time, 'Santa' leaned forward from his Christmas Chair, something Wheeljack made as well that definitely could not explode, and took interest.
Anything to get rid of the boredom and his ringing audios.
"Who?"
"My little sister. She wants to meet Santa Claus, and has been begging and pleading to me to bring her along for work, but I couldn't possibly do that with all the other kids to handle."
The brunette looked up, and the frown was replaced by a grin.
"Alicia! Over here!"
At once, a little girl came hurrying over. This one was noticeably different than the rest, with her crumpled jeans and a long-sleeved plain green top that covered her hands.
The teen picked her up and sat her on Cliffjumper's crimson felt pants.
"Thanks, Gabriel," the little one said in a quiet voice.
The teen nodded and looked at Cliffjumper, "she's all yours, Santa."
The other Autobot elves stopped their work, and watched on.
Something told them that something special was going to happen.
Something did.
"Well, child," he spoke in the voice he used to charm the children, or so as Jazz had insisted as he trained him, "What's your Christmas wish?"
"Well… I don't really have one. I do have my brother's Christmas wish. He got a nasty flu bug, stuck home sick so he can't come to see you."
The Autobot elves stayed at a distance, but watched on.
"Well, go on."
The little girl cleared her throat.
"My brother wants to see an Autobot with his own eyes as his Christmas present."
Cliffjumper was surprised, but he tried his best to suppress it.
"I'm sure you also have a wish as well."
"I wish to see my brother happy on Christmas Day."
The second bomb of surprise. A kid that's not selfish and making a whole rant of Christmas presents.
Primus bless her.
"Well, that's sweet. You're a good child, thinking of your brother's wish than your own."
She smiled, "Thank you, Santa."
The first 'thanks' he heard today.
"You're welcome," Cliffjumper said as he signalled for an 'elf'.
Huffer stepped forward, with a lollipop in hand.
'Santa' took it and passed it to Alicia.
"Here you go, and I'll see that your brother meets an Autobot on Christmas Day. "
The little child took the candy with a bright beaming smile and bounced off his lap, just as the four o' clock bell chimed through the mall, bringing the day at the mall to an end.
"Hey, Cliff," Bumblebee smiled as he whipped off his elf hat and revealed a video camera still on record mode, "check out what I got!"
As Optimus Prime and the entire Ark crew, except a certain red Minibot, watched the footage of Cliffjumper and Alicia, a chorus rose from the Autobots.
"Aww..."
Bumblebee ended the video and looked up at Prime.
"Let's make this kid, and his sister's, wishes come true, eh?"
At the fourteenth home on Kingstein Street at eight on Christmas morning, a little boy with hazel hair stepped outside his home and received a wonderful surprise.
At his doorstep was the entire Autobot crew, with 'Santa' and his 'elves' at the front.
"Merry Christmas, Albert!"
A/N: Written in half an hour. Good grief!