Disclaimer: If I was Hasbro or Michael Bay I would be an incredibly happy individual, but unfortunately not, so credit for characters goes out to those special people.

Optimus Prime is considered to be one of the youngest of the autobot leaders, still fresh faced and eager to see the action he's been taught about for so many years. He grew up with stories of the brave autobot warriors, and while he has no creators to speak of, his adoptive sire and now weapon specialist Ironhide, was all to eager to regal him with tales of battles long passed, where energon was spilt but it was spilt for freedom.

Staring at the empty, blown apart husks of comrades, neutrals and enemy bots alike, Optimus doubts they feel very free.

Since hearing those tales he has grown in to a fit young warrior and a brilliant leader, who has seen more battle torn cities than functional ones.

They were sent here after their paranoid security officer Red Alert, received garbled transmissions from panicked citizens of one of the biggest cities on the outskirts of Iacon, a city full of autobots and neutrals known as Praesidium because of it's seemingly impenetrable walls. After battling for so long, with gunshots and explosions filling his audio receptors, the silence seems alien and strange.

His comrades search the battlefield after their victory against Megatron and his army who had fled a short while ago, searching for survivors.

" First Aid! Get over here quickly, Hound needs your help!" Ironhide calls from where he supports his friend.

After a quick look, Optimus can tell that while Hound is in pain, he will survive his wound to the chasis as it is not deep enough to damage the spark chamber.

He clutches his scanner as it whirs away, searching for signs of life in the residential area he is currently searching.

Seeing all these homes that once stood proud for their owners reduced to rubble is a hard sight to see but he is used to it by now.

He stops for a moment as his scanner beeps softly and turns in the direction it hales. It's a mech and a femme, both young lovers by the look of things. Both lay in each other's arms, dimmed optics staring in to the other's gaze.

He knows he can do nothing for them on first glance, gaping wounds litter them both and by the time the medic would reach his position they would already be gone. By the look son their week face plates, they are just happy to die together instead of alone.

He sees the moment when their sparks, both visible from the wounds, fade away and the young couple pass on to the well of the alspark.

It is a somber moment, and he will make sure they are buried together, as both brandish autobot symbols on their pauldrons.

He almost continues on when he realizes that his scanner, despite their deaths, is still beeping softly and pointing beside the dead couple.

Straining his audio receptors he picks up a tiny sound, almost unnoticeable if one were not paying close attention.

Click, click, whir.

Instantly he is alert, optics widening in surprise for he knows the distinctive sound of sparkling speech. He's moving then, quickly sliding around the couple to the spot his scanner indicates, a small pile of rubble beside the femme's body.

The cries are louder now that he is close, and carefully he lifts the rubble to the side and stares down at a sight he never thought he'd see again.

It's a sparkling, bright yellow in colour and sporting a red autobot symbol on his helm. Bright blue optics dart up to meet his, coolant tears streaming down a small faceplate as the little one's hiccupping sobs renew with fervor.

He is young, only a few orns old judging by his size and very visible protoform, and is steadily leaking energon from his side and left pede which had clearly taken the brunt of the rubble as it fell upon him.

The little one stares up at him with terror in his optics, pain and fear from hearing the raging battle making him terrified of the huge mech kneeling in front of him. Optimus quickly makes the link between the sparkling's yellow basic framing and the dead femme's yellow frame and moves to block the sight from the squeaking sparkling.

" You are safe young one, I will not hurt you," Optimus murmurs, reaching a servo towards the quaking figure.

The sparkling eyes his reaching servo suspiciously, but his pain and low energon levels leave him too weak to move away and he is quickly enfolded by the warm blue servos of the strange mech.

Click, click, click whir.

Optimus smiles down at the tired sparkling who has locked his optics on the Autobot insignia on his pauldron.

" Yes little one, I am an autobot too, that symbol means you will be safe with my comrades and I," Optimus assures, gently stroking the sparkling's helm.

Ignoring the feel of the young one's energon slick against his servos, he begins to make his way to base, activating his commlink as he does so.

" Ratchet," He intones.

'Yes Prime. What trouble have you got yourself in to now?!' The grouchy CMO inquires across the link, the sounds of a busy medbay filling the background.

" Ratchet I have found a sparkling in the rubble of Praesidium, we are on our way but you may want to prepare a berth for his arrival, he's wounded in the side and pede," Optimus informed, ignoring the snarky reply from his old time friend and frequent doctor.

' What? Prime there hasn't been a new sparkling in vorns! Where are his creators?' Ratchet exclaimed.

" Both offlined, they were autobots and this sparkling also, when he is healed he will be staying at the base with us. We are in sight of the base now, be prepared," He informed briskly.

The sparkling in his arms twitched and squeaked uncomfortably as he sped up the pace, causing him to hold him closer to his spark chamber, knowing from his own years as a sparkling that it would sooth the pained bot.

" Hold on little one, all will be fixed soon,"

" Sit down on the berth with him while I run my scans," Ratchet directed as Optimus stepped in to the crowded med bay.

There were no friendly greetings when Ratchet was involved, work was always on his mind, and delays could be costly in a the life of a CMO.

Optimus sat down on the cool berth, relishing the feeling fro a moment as his battle weary hydraulics could rest for a moment.

The sparkling eyed Ratchet with wide optics, entranced by the lights of the scanners as they were passed over him. He squeaked in surprise at the ticklish feeling they left behind as they passed over causing Optimus to smile fondly.

" He's lost a lot of energon and there's quite a bit of wire damage in his pede. Thankfully it's a easy fix though he's been left in pain for a long while, probably since the start of the battle itself. Hold him still," Ratchet explained, leaving for a brief moment before returning with the tools he'd need for the repair.

Due to the sparkling's small size, a lot of care would need to be taken, and only small tools could do the job on the hyper sensitive wires found in his protoform.

Optimus clutched the sparkling tighter as the little one squirmed unhappily in the cold air of the medbay.

Ratchet swiftly brandished a small needle and injected it in the sparkling's primary energon line.

SQUEAK, the sparkling cried, crying out at the sudden pain and gazing at Ratchet accusingly.

" Hush now sparkling, it's for your own good," Ratchet muttered, depositing the empty needle on the discard tray beside him.

Optimus watched in amusement as the sparkling squirmed weakly in his hold, optics dimming and systems whirring as one by one they entered stasis, until he was limp in the young Prime's grasp.

" There we go, little one, recharge while Ratchet helps you out," Optimus murmured soothingly as the sparkling let out one final purring sound before his optics offlined with stasis.

Watching over the sparkling as he lay in recharge, frame now patched and an energon line replenishing his form, Ratchet found himself remembering when he had cared for a small red and dark blue sparkling brought in by Ironhide many vorns ago.

Now seeing Optimus cradling the recharging yellow sparkling close to his spark chamber, Ratchet could see yet another cycle beginning.

Ironhide had had that exact look in his optics when he had cradled a young Optimus bestowed on the autobots to look after by the council.

" You're going to take care of him yourself, aren't you," Ratchet inquired, knowing the answer already but having to ask.

Prime smiled as he gazed down at the lax yellow faceplate.

" Yes, I will be his adoptive sire, though I may need assistance from you and Ironhide on how to do so," Optimus confirmed evenly.

" You know you have my support in all things," Ratchet murmured quietly. " From experience, the first thing that sparkling is going to need is a name," he added in amusement.

The young prime's faceplate creased in contemplation before he smirked.

" His purring and frame colouring reminds me of a small earth insect. I think I'll call him Bumblebee," Optimus decided causing Ratchet to raise an optic.

" That's not really a warrior's name," Ratchet commented drily.

" Primus knows we need more hard-sparked warriors, but for now, I'm comfortable with him just the way he is. My little Bumblebee".

I have been waiting to write a transformers fic for a long time! Though that is the end of the one shot, I'm prepared to make more Transformers fics that are longer. However, that relies on you, just let me know your opinions, more Bumblebee and Optimus fics?