This a one-shot fic where Sidestep has his first Fourth of July celebration and learns that not all explosions in the sky are bad. A little belated, I didn't think to write this until night came.
Sidestep was confused, for the last few days, the Autobots were acting strange. Many of the Autobots were hanging red, white and blue banners with such a strange pattern and streamers in the same color. Filled with curiosity at the long thin paper left on the ground by one of the Autobots, he shuffled over to it and picked it up. The sparkling learned the streamer unraveled fairly quickly and ended up wrapped in it in seconds.
Sidestep clicked in irritation as he tried to remove himself from his colorful bondage, inciting chuckles from some of the Autobots. Some mornings, he would find some of the Autobots covered in those streamers stomping into the med bay and learning that his daddy and uncle Sunny were responsible for it like when they painted Optimus Prime in the same patterns as the banners. Luckily for the twins, Optimus Prime didn't mind at all and had kept the paint on.
Wheeljack seemed to be blowing himself up more than usual. What piqued his curiosity more was when the humans, Sparkplug, Spike and even Bumblebee walked onto the Ark carrying bags full of colorful items. He wanted to follow and investigate but was thwarted by his current sparkling sitter. He looked up and pouted, a smile was returned. "It's a surprise." Was all that Jazz told him.
On top of it, it seemed Prowl, Red Alert, Inferno and even Ratchet were busy preparing something that Sidestep barely got to see the medic. Sidestep was getting frustrated, not knowing what was happening.
The next day, Sidestep came out his nap from pokes and prods. He turn over and gave Sideswipe his best Ratchet glare. Sideswipe smiled and said, "No use recharging the day away, today's a special day."
"Why?" Sidestep inquired with a yawn.
"Today's the Fourth of July."
Sidestep frown trying to understand what his daddy said and failed. "What that?"
"You'll see in a little while." Sunstreaker said near the door.
Sidestep was utterly confuse by the mystery and wished he knew why today was so special. After getting an energon cube, Sidestep noticed most of the Autobots were being festive while others were grumpy. What added to the mystery was whenever Bluestreak, who could never stop talking, saw the sparkling he would clamp his mouth shut. It saddened Sidestep because he loved listening to Bluestreak talk; it was soothing and would help him fall into recharge.
"What's going on?" Sidestep asked his daddy.
"You'll have to be patient." Sideswipe tsked at his sparkling.
"No fair." grump Sidestep.
"There you are." Someone called and turning around, the twins and Sidestep watched as the humans, Bumblebee, and Jazz walking over to them.
"We have something for you, Sidestep." Bumblebee said that perked Sidestep's interest.
"What is it?"
"Hey, Bee. Did you get us any Roman Candles?" Sideswipe asked the yellow beetle.
"You both are banned from those after what happened last year." Prowl informed the twins as he walked into the rec. room.
"Well in our defense, the Decepticons were attacking and we thought it was a good idea." Sideswipe told the tactician.
"No Roman Candles." Prowl ordered.
"You take away all the fun." Sideswipe pouted.
"Roman Candles?" Sidestep wondered.
"Nev'r mind that, let's go da base." Jazz said and turned to Prowl, "Will you be joining us, Prowlie?"
"I will as soon I finish going over some datapads."
"Ok, see ya later, Prowlie." Jazz told his bonded.
"Yeah, catch ya later… Prowlie." Sunstreaker said with a smirk and got a glare out of Prowl.
Sideswipe picked Sidestep up and headed out the rec. room, "Bye-bye, Powie." Sidestep said waving to the tactician.
Once outside, Sideswipe set Sidestep on the ground and the sparkling stared up at the pretty colors the sun was making as it began setting.
He turn as a bag in Spike's hand rustled and pulled a long stick with colorful paper at the end. Spike handed the stick to Bumblebee who in turn, held out to Sidestep. The sparkling stared at the stick with a tilt of his head and Sideswipe took his tiny servo in his, "You hold it like this and hold it away from you and don't let go." Sideswipe said and showed him how to do it.
Sidestep frowned at the stick in his servo, even more so as Sparkplug pulled a lighter out his pocket, he flick it on and set the paper aflame. The humans backed away from it and Sidestep watched the flame crawl up the paper and squeaked as sparks shot out the stick. He watched as it seemed to sputter and then more color sparks came out. It held him mesmerize until it died out. He clicked unhappily as he stared disappointed at the dying ember.
"Don't worry." Bumblebee smiled at the sad sparkling, "We have more."
They spent half an hour with the sparklers, delighting Sidestep. Next, they brought out some turtles and little tanks. Sidestep watched the turtles skate a few feet on the ground and spat out more sparks. Around this time, a few Autobots came out the base when they began lighting the tanks, they'd laugh as Sidestep imitated Warpath with the tanks.
As the last of the twilight made way to night, all the Autobots walked out the base, Sidestep was excited to see Ratchet and watched as Spike, Sparkplug and Bumblebee who had gone into the base came back out with the items. He watched as the Bumblebee transformed into his alt mode, both the humans stored the bags into the back seat and got in. Sideswipe sat on the ground where Sunstreaker favored standing and leaning against the wall, the red twin pulled the sparkling into his lap. Bluestreak sat next to Sideswipe and Sidestep chirped happily at the Datsun.
"Bumblebee to Optimus, Spike and Sparkplug are ready to go." Bumblebee informed Optimus.
"Tell them to go a head and start." Optimus replied back to the scout.
"What happening?" he asked the young Datsun.
Bluestreak smiled and said, "You'll see soon." He looked up at the sky. Curious, Sidestep looked up, searching for something to happen.
Within a few minutes, a bright light flew towards the sky from a distance and a loud bang followed. Sidestep yelped in fear and buried his face into Sideswipe's chassis, he shivered, waiting for the Decepticons to attack. Sideswipe rubbed Sidestep's frame soothingly and he looked up at his creator. There was a smile on the red Lamborghini's face as he said, "You're missing it."
Missing what? Sidestep wondered and looking back to the sky, he saw it was filled with bright lights in all kinds of color. He was soon enthralled by the lights that he didn't seem to mind the loud explosions.
It lasted for an hour and half and once it was over, the Autobots went back into the base to either go to their quarters to recharge, get to monitor duty, some transformed and drove off for their patrol. Ratchet and Prowl talked about how well it went without any injuries or needing to put anything out.
Sidestep could feel the pull of recharge as his creator carried him into the base. "Did you enjoy the fireworks?" Sideswipe asked him.
Sidestep yawned and nodded. "Glad they weren't flyin' 'cepicons."
Jazz chuckled as he said, "Not all blasts in the sky are bad."
"Hm-mm." Sidestep agreed as he fell into recharge, never forgetting the pretty sparkles in the sky.
Rather cute ^-^ I had fun writing this and I hope you all have fun reading it.