Hey there, everyone! Okay, so I decided to do something that other authors have done, specifically my fantastic beta, Alathea2. You should check out those stories, they are pretty dang good, in my opinion. Anyways, so I decided to kind of do a prequel/side-stories to my current story (as of Wed 4 Sep 2013), Shadows and Gold. I suggest reading that story before reading these, because I don't think it will make much sense otherwise.

Please note that any mistakes are my own, and I do not own anything but the plot and my OCs. This will not be beta-ed and will always be marked as complete, because each story is it's own. Until I have finished with Shadows and Gold, I will keep all the time periods up to it only, so I will not influence anyone into making the wrong assumptions and getting angry because my side-story section didn't follow the actual story line.

However, I will take suggestions and will go far into the past. I will mark what POV the section is in, and any additional notes. All of my time-telling comes from another amazing author, Karategal.

Sorry this note is so long, but you really should read it so you aren't missing out on anything important. Updates will be when I get to them. My main concern is SandG as of now. Thanks, have fun, and have an amazing day!

P.S. I own nothing.

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Title: Tiny Little Guy

Word Count: 1372

Warnings: None

POV: Maia

Summary: Maia's home after a long time being away from home due to her studies. What she sees when she walks through that door will change her life forever.

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Before I left because of my education, I never dreamed of being gone from home for so long. The long, forever-stretching distance between Praxus and Kaon didn't help, either. Kaon wasn't the nicest of city-states, or the cleanest, or the best. And it most certainly wasn't the safest, either. However, they had something that no other city-state had, and that was an education center focused on all forms of physical and mental skills.

The Kaonian Institute for Warriors was a one-of-a-kind place. It trained bots mercilessly; long joors spent honing skills and learning new ones. They never accepted more than a few dozen, and I was one of the lucky few that had been specifically chosen. I had always wanted to be a soldier, ever since I saw them parading through Praxus, helms held high, faceplates still and unyielding, but a warm glint in their optics.

For almost six and half vorns I had been in Kaon, separated from my creators. I was no longer their little femme anymore, though. I had grown much during the time I spent in Kaon and on trips that we took all around Cybertron, and not just in the physical sense. Yes, I had a new frame, one that fit my growing and expanding protoform, but I also was more disciplined and mature.

Now, however, my creators had sent for me to come back to my city of flare and crystals. They had a surprise for me, and I couldn't wait. When the shuttle hadn't even come to a complete stop I had jumped off and began racing towards my home. We lived a modest part of the city, not quite outside of it, but definitely not inside.

"Spock, Softspeed, I'm home!" I called when I threw open the front door to our house. It all appeared to have changed, I noticed, as I froze just inside the doorway. The table we always sat at when we'd have our energon was moved, the washracks had a funny scent, and many small toys, ones that I recognized as my own sparkling toys, were strewn about the floor in the gathering room.

"Maia?" called out the tired voice of my sire.

"Yeah. I'm home," I said, less enthused than when I had first entered. My creator came out of the small room that he had always used as his office, rubbing his bleary optics. He was very tired, I could tell, so I helped him to the low backed couch and sat next to him. His arm wrapped around me, hugging me tightly to his reinforced frame.

"I've missed you, my little Metalflyer," he whispered my secondary designation in my audio, tightening his grip on me ever so slightly. "Oh, how I've missed you."

"I've missed you, too, Spock," I spoke softly, nuzzling my helm into his neck, careful not to nick him with my chevron. Ever since I was a sparkling, I had always loved to dream about being a Metalflyer. They were just fictional flying creatures that breathed fire or ice, with large, expansive wings that lifted their bodies up and made them even faster than the fastest Seeker. Since I pretended so much that I was one of those large, dangerous metal beings, Spock had always called me his 'little Metalflyer.' The term of endearment still warmed my spark as it did way back then.

"Come, I want to show you something," the cobalt and black mech stood, setting me on the ground, and gestured me to follow. Confused, I trailed behind him, still seeing subtle changes in my home. Of course things would change. I was gone for the almost seven vorns, everything changes. I'm a walking testament to that. "Softspeed?" Spock called to his sparkmate, as we stood right outside his office. "Maia is here; she's home."

"You can come in," called my carrier's soft, almost musical voice. Spock let me enter first, and I froze when I caught sight of Softspeed, wings freezing in a high position that almost hit my sire in his faceplates. Before I even settled my gaze on my carrier, I noticed the large changes in the room I had, once upon a time, been forbidden to enter. Not that that stopped me, of course.

The large desk was gone, as well as the matching chair. The datapad shelf was filled with sparkling stories, toys, and pictures of the entire family, including a faceplate I didn't recognize. The walls had been repainted from their harsh steel grey to a soft cream color, and a crib, my old one, sat where the desk used to be.

My mostly pink creator turned in her chair to gaze at me tiredly, but her stunning smile still gracing her symmetrical faceplates. However, it was not the sight of my carrier that rooted me where I stood. No, instead it was what she held in her servos, wrapped in a heating blanket.

Spock pushed me closer to Softspeed gently, and I had the vague notion that they both knew I was stunned. But by their expressions that I could see out of my peripheral vision, they were still apprehensive about the situation. Slowly, like someone had chained heavy metal blocks to my pedes, I moved closer to inspect the small bundle.

Judging by the chevron that had already started to bud, I knew that the little thing was a mech. When had they had another sparkling? Were they trying to replace me? Unknown to myself, I was starting to project feelings of hopelessness, loneliness, and a kind of grief nameless to anyone who had never had a younger sibling to my creators.

"Maia…we still love you," Softspeed crooned as she held the small mech in one arm and pulled me onto her lap with the other. "We are not trying to replace you. We just wanted someone else to share our love; we wanted you to have a sibling."

"What's its designation?" I choked out, golden-amber optics still locked on the tiny frame.

"His designation is Prowl," Spock answered. That's what they were going to call me if I turned out to be a mech.

"He's so small, though!" I said fiercely, but quiet enough that I wouldn't wake the small protoform.

"All the newly sparked Praxians are this small," my pink and grey carrier replied. "You were even tinier." I remembered the stories well. I was sparked too early, with a low chance of survival, and thus was the littlest protoform my creators had ever seen. After two reabsorptions, they didn't know if they could handle the premature deactivation of their first online sparkling, but I pulled through, much to their excitement.

"Can…can I hold him?" I asked tentatively, almost scared that they would deny me to hold my brother. Spock lifted me off of my carrier's lap and after she stood, he plopped me back onto the chair. Softspeed showed me how to hold him and she carefully set him in my arms.

I couldn't tear my gaze from him. He didn't have any primary armor yet, but his protoform was full of sharp edges and soft contrasts. I didn't notice my creators starting to walk out, gentle and loving smiles upon their faceplates. My new brother, Prowl, was a handsome little mech already. I would have to beat the femmes and mechs off of him when he came of age when he no longer thought that love was gross and a stupid thing.

His sudden shifting caught me off guard, and I froze, unsure what to do. His optics onlined gradually, and I quickly noted that they were the same shade as my own. When he focused on me, I was unsure as to what he would do. Would he go back into recharge? Would he start to cry and scream?

One little servo wiggled out of his cocoon, and began to reach out to my faceplates. I lifted him higher so he could his tiny servo on my faceplate. I smiled at his wide-optic expression, and he gurgled in greeting.

"I'll always protect you, Prowl, and I will always love you. Even if you become a murderer, you'll always be my little brother, and I'll never leave your side."

… … … …

Short, yes, but I think it gets the point across just fine. So Maia met Prowl for the first time, and was actually pretty accepting of him. I don't do over dramatics, one because I'm no good at it, and second, I personally find no use in it. I try to be as realistic as I can, but at the same time, putting a little embellishment into it.

A little help with the vocabulary: when I mentioned that Maia didn't live in Praxus but not completely out of it, it's kind of like a suburb.

-A secondary designation is like a nickname.

-A Metalflyer is a dragon; I didn't want to go with the usual Cyberdragon or anything like that, so I made up my own name (and I have absolutely no creativity, so it's not all that good, but oh well.)

-With Praxians, I think there is a way early on to distinguish between femmes and mechs, and that's by looking at the spots where wings and a chevron would come in because the mechs get them first.

-Reabsorption is like miscarrying, but instead of like in humans where we expel the fetus, it actually gets reabsorbed into the body like a deer.

-And to tell you the truth, I'm not quite sure why Spock and Softspeed picked the same color optics for Prowl as Maia; it just happened, I guess.

-No, Spock is not named for what you think he is; he was actually a family friend's dog.

Anyways, I hope you liked it. Please leave your comments and suggestions, because I can't do it all myself. Have an amazing day, all!