Disclaimer: I do not own Tranformers nor am I in any way affiliated with the creators. I only own the story! ;)

This is my first attempt at a one shot, so I hope all goes well!

.:The Gift:.

It was cold. Very cold. However, with all the other hundreds or thousands of people crowding around, it didn't seem that bad. She adjusted her footing and leaned forward slightly on the railing as the excited people around her pushed and moved. She had gotten this close to the stage, she wasn't going to give up her spot now, not after being in that position for at least three hours.

She and all the other hoards of people were waiting for the Autobots. Despite their attempts at staying secret, the battle at Mission City and the several other random fights that they seem to have gotten into were too much to keep from the public. Eventually, a full statement was issued and the people became aware of all the Transformers; Autobot and Decepticon alike. There were all the normal reactions, anger, fear, horror, happiness, elation, curiosity. Eventually, the population settled down with all of it being split into several groups, some who hated all the Transformers and wanted them to leave, those who loved them and never wanted them to leave, and those who actually thought more about what was really going on and were trying to analyze which ones were the ones to be trusted.

She was one of the last group. She had read all the blogs, gathered all the news reports, watched every video there was to watch and she had come up with the conclusion that the Autobots were exactly what they said they were. They were, for all intents and purposes, the good guys. And she felt for there cause. She really did. It almost shocked her how much she cared. It almost felt like their cause was her own, their war was her own.

It never would be, she was relatively assured of that. After all, what could a 15 year old girl do? And it certainly wasn't helping her case that she had run away from home with every penny of her allowance just to see them in person. Her home was close, make no mistake. Las Vegas wasn't really that far from Phoenix, but it was her recklessness that she new would get her into trouble. She wasn't normally a reckless person, but she felt so strongly about this that she was certainly not going to take her parents answer of "no". She would not be denied the right to at least see the Autobots in person for once in her life. For all she knew maybe the only time in her life. She would deal with the consequences of her actions, but she had to see them, just once, at least once, while she got the chance.

She pushed her short brunette hair out of her face and looked around at all the noisy people. It seemed like there were more than before, but even being tall for her age, she couldn't quite see well enough to measure the numbers. It was amazing. She smiled at the thought of her and all these other people here, in Phoenix, Arizona during the coldest months of the year, all to see the Autobots. It was a feeling she was sure she might never feel again.

She turned back around and pulled her flannel lined hoody closer to her as she buried her face in her thick scarf. Being that she had run away and didn't have any other resources than her backpack, she had to pack light. She was about as warm as she was gonna get. She would have loved to have her gloves, but she had been so driven and hurried as she had packed to run away that she had completely forgotten about them. It was fine though. She was happy so long as she was here, and it seemed the warmth of the moment would be enough to keep her from freezing.

Suddenly, the crowd got a little louder and she could hear cheers. She smiled real big and started looking around. As she looked, a person in front of her yelled something and caught her in the face as they threw their arms up. "OW!" she yelled as she pulled her glasses from her hair and replaced them carefully.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" the person said loudly, still smiling.

"Its okay!" she said, smiling back.

Suddenly, more cheers and sounds from the crowd, this time in a more specific direction to the left of the stage. She spun around and leaned on the rail to look. There were people coming, walking up the designated walkway. She couldn't really make them out with all the other people in the crowd still in the way.

As she continued to watch the people approach, the cheers from the crowd kept getting louder and louder. She outright grinned. It was awesome! It was the strangest, happiest, greatest feeling she had ever felt, to be in a crowd of people, all there to see the same individuals and show their support for what was probably one of the single most important thing there was on their planet; Alien life, and their war for good.

She couldn't contain herself any longer and let out a shout of pure joy. She had no idea what she said, but she was utterly overjoyed. Her face hurt from grinning, her nose hurt from the cold, and her heart was bursting with warmth. That was all she knew.

She bent over the rail just a little further to see the people better and finally got her first look at them. It was Secretary of State, John Keller, a General whose name she couldn't remember, several people in black suits and shades whom she assumed were from the group called Sector 7, and finally... her eyes widened. It was them. The Autobots. She dimly realized, somewhere in the back of her mind, that they must be using what they had called their Holoforms, because she new quite for sure that the Transformers were gigantic compared to humans. And considering that they were now human size, give or take a foot or two, there was no way they weren't using projections of some sort.

She just stared in shock as they walked closer to the stage... then, she grinned absolutely ear to ear. "WHOOOHOOOOOOOO! YAAAYAAAAHH!" She couldn't really think of anything else to shout. She suddenly started jumping up and down in her spot as she watched them walking closer and closer to the stage.

She looked at each Autobot, and examined as best she could what they looked like and how they walked. It was hard to do whilst jumping up and down, but she had to so something with the sudden well of energy that had come out of nowhere. She took in every inch of all of them. She couldn't remember all their names quite suddenly, but she did remember one: Optimus Prime.

She focused on him as they all got to the stage steps. He was the tallest, he looked strong, proud, humble, and kind all at the same time. She watched as he looked calmly around at the crowd and waved his hand out to all the people. Suddenly, tears came to her eyes. She wasn't sure why, she wasn't sure what emotion she was feeling, but she started crying. Something about Optimus Prime and the other Autobots; something about the whole thing, about seeing them for the first time, seeing them all together, seeing them smile and wave to the people. It was just something... and it overwhelmed her.

Finally, suddenly, almost without realizing it, she called out. "OPTIMUS, OPTIMUS PRIME!"

He looked down, right smack-dab at her. Her eyes widened. Oh SHIT!I caught his attention, oh FUCK! As his brilliant blue optics bored into her eyes, she suddenly felt the urge to give him something. She blinked and held up her hands, "Wait!" She suddenly started feeling around herself and touching her hands to her pockets. What in the world could I POSSIBLY give him! Suddenly, she knew.

She grinned as she pulled off her bronze brushed glasses and folded them quickly. She looked back up at him and leaned over the fence railing as far as she could, outstretching her arm to the fullest of its length. "Please! Take these-as a gift! They mean everything!" She looked up at him with a smile and wide eyes, still able to see him clearly with her nearsightedness.

There was a strange look on his face, almost like confusion. Then, he bent and outstretched his arm. Her heart soared.

Suddenly, she felt hands on her hips and legs, arms cradling her abdomen and realized the people next to her in the crowd were helping her, trying to stretch her out further over the railing. Tears came to her eyes again, her smile was so big she feared she may blind the Autobot Leader.

Their eyes were still locked. Only for a moment, he took his optics away to make sure he grabbed the glasses carefully. He looked back to her. As she felt his metallic hand on the other end of her glasses and stared into the brilliant blue optics that were his eyes, she suddenly felt like they were the only beings in existence.

"Thank you, little one." His voice was so deep, so strong, so powerful. The expression on his face, which could have only been one of gentleness of some kind, was so moving.

She smiled, tears of utter joy streaming down her face. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

And then, her hand slipped from the glasses. The hands pulled her back over the railing. She was suddenly aware of how loud it was. There was cheering, shouting, screaming, all sorts of noises. She was suddenly being hugged tightly by people she didn't know, kisses on her forehead, her cheeks, bear hugs, sweet hugs, shaking hugs. All the while she had the biggest smile she ever had in her life plastered on her face, and tears running the whole time.

In that moment, the world felt it was as it should be.

Optimus looked carefully at the glasses in his hand. He heard a member of Sector 7 walking towards him. As he looked up to dispel the man's suspicions he suddenly heard an earsplitting wailing sound. Just when he looked to the source of the noise... an explosion tore into the crowd.

Everything was chaos. Frightened humans ran everywhere, knocking down the railing, each other, stumbling and racing to get away from the center of the explosion. Keller started barking orders, Sector 7 started mobilizing their force.

Optimus and the Autobots dispelled their Holoforms. Just as they started transforming into bipedal form, Ironhide commed him. .:Its Starscream and his Trine! Barricade's signal is here too!:.

"Autobots! We have to bring them down NOW!" Optimus shouted.

They all locked in on the signals of the plaguing Decepticons and moved accordingly. Before Optimus really had a chance to move far, Starscream came barreling at him. Already having his cannon out, Optimus aimed and fired. The flier screamed in agony as he arched upward away from Optimus, Energon spraying the ground and a few running humans as he did so.

The battle took an agonizing hour and a half, Barricade putting up one of the most stubborn, long lasting efforts he had in quite a while. Starscream had run after Optimus' first shot. His Trine however were more interested in getting some sort of revenge for harming him. Despite the time it had taken to drive them off, it wasn't altogether that hard. They're fury made them stupid and completely incapable of actually battling properly. They took blind and reckless shots, harming more the buildings, roads, and sadly humans than they were actually harming the Autobots. Soon enough with well placed hits, they were gone. Barricade was almost on the verge of offlining when he finally ran. Without Starscream's Trine mates to distract the others, he came under full attack of Optimus, Ironhide, Ratchet, and Bumblebee.

When it was all done, the Autobots and the authorities surveyed the damage.

Many, many humans were injured. There were not near as many deaths as was expected, but it was still tragic. More damage was really done to the city itself. Luckily only in a small part of the city's center, but it was still millions of dollars worth of damage.

Optimus walked through the stage area where the press conference was supposed to have been held. He gazed out to the large crater in the ground, a few hundred feet away. Many hazmat teams were in the area. Body bags littered the ground. They had cordoned off the crater, some in the process of putting a tent around it. His optic ridges drew down and his face contorted into the Cybertronian equivalent of a scowl. Luckily his mask was up, but anyone looking still would have cringed at the expression in his optics. His fists clenched, his metal digits groaning slightly with the pressure.

Suddenly, a glint caught his optic. He looked down, into the broken remains of the stage. He squinted his optics. He leaned down and moved a large piece of the wood that had made up the stage. The light hit the object he was searching for... and his optics widened. Very slowly, he reached down and very gently grasped the object between his thumb and index digit. He lifted it up, and brought it to the light.

It was the pair of glasses that the human girl had given to him. He looked in awe at the lenses... not a scratch marred the glass, not a single scrape mangled the metal frames. He placed them in the palm of his hand carefully. Not a single thing was wrong with them. They didn't even look dusty as they glinted warmly in the sunlight.

Optimus Prime stared at the glasses for quite some time. For some reason, he couldn't seem to find an emotion. Possibly, he was in a state that he remembered the humans calling "shock". He blinked and looked at the multitude of body bags. He realized he had no idea what had happened to her... the girl. He didn't even know her name.

The memory of that moment flashed before his processor. Her face so happy, smiling and wide-eyed, water running down her face... "Please! Take these-as a gift! They mean everything!" He looked slowly down at the glasses.

Suddenly, anger boiled inside of him. The Decepticons had already done too much to this world, and continued to harm the innocents that inhabited it. That little one, so happy, kind, and caring; caring enough to give up to him, an alien to her, something necessary to her life. He shuttered his optics tight and slowly, carefully engulfed the glasses in his fist.

He made a decision.

He would keep them, those small, metal wrapped lenses. A true gift from a loving inhabitant of the world called Earth... for as long as Primus would allow. He would keep them, if for nothing more than to remind him of that little life that cared so much in one single moment.

XxXxX

So, just to be annoying, this is actually a prologue to the original story. CAUGHT YOU DIN'T I! Anyway, if anyone is interested in reading, I will post the first chapter shortly, and will include: Continuation of "The Gift" in my summary.

Also, I haven't rewatched the first two movies in quite some time and haven't even seen the third yet. (gerr) So, I could be wrong with some of the specifics and if anyone catches such misinformation I would love for them to correct me! :3

Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed, and I would loooooove to know your opinion! ;D