It would be nice if the rec room was deserted when Prowl walked in. But, of course, it wasn't. It never was on the day after a party, but he couldn't stop himself from getting his hopes up. He could almost hear Jazz laughing at him, saying that it was Optimus who was supposed to have the positive outlook. Prowl was supposed to be the rule-riding tight-aft.

It was a carefully constructed image. Mostly, he kept to it. But sometimes, he felt the need to prove to himself that he cared just as much as his leader did.

If he was any kind of nice to himself, he would have chosen a more pleasant way to do so. Cleaning up spilled energon and equally spilled mechs was not the most enviable task, but it needed doing.

He could, however, share the misery around a little.

::Lover, I hope you appreciate my sacrificing my morning just so you can lie in.::

::Don't complain,:: Ratchet replied. There was a lazy happiness to his tone. As well there should be – Prowl could barely walk normally. He'd had to practice walking in his quarters before he had dared leaving them. ::You like taking care of them almost as much as I do.::

He suppressed a smile. ::Some pair we are. Both of us care too much for our own good, and neither of us show it.::

Ratchet purred. ::Knew there was something I liked about you.::

::Aside from my amazing skill in berth, you mean?::

::Yes, aside from that, you glitch.:: Ratchet laughed. ::And considering that… Don't be late coming back, okay?::

::I'll be back as soon as I'm done,:: Prowl promised.

He put on a frown as he surveyed the rec room scene, doorwings stiff on his back in the very image of Disapproving Superior Officer. There were several issues requiring his attention.

Mirage wasn't a problem. The spy was standing by the dispenser, most likely fetching the morning's rations for himself and his lover. Hoist, waiting in line behind him, was also all right.

The main problem was Ironhide, recharging in a very awkward position underneath one of the tables. The way his arms and legs were arranged left no doubt as to what he had been doing under there. The leg sticking out from behind him, Tracks' grey and royal blue, revealed who he had been doing it with. For that matter, so did Smokescreen's doorwings and yellow chevron between Ironhide's legs. All three of them were lost to the world.

They were too heavy and too intertwined for him to move them easily. Prowl was half tempted to leave them like that, but… Ironhide's open interfacing panel was not the first thing bots wanted to see when they came to get their energon. He'd have to cover them up somehow.

"Hoist."

The crane-former turned to look at him. "Sir?"

"Help me move this table to its side in front of them, will you?"

Hoist looked where Prowl was looking and chuckled. "A bit too much there, huh? Sure thing, Prowl."

When the sinful trio was properly concealed, Prowl turned his attention to Wheeljack. The engineer was slumped over a table, clearly unconscious. He was at least decent.

"Don't worry about Wheeljack, sir," a cheerful voice said from behind him. "I'll get him back to quarters."

"Thank you, Trailbreaker. Make sure he refuels as well."

"On it." The defense specialist smiled as he moved in, picking up the smaller white mech easily. "Come on, Jackie, you can't recharge here."

Wheeljack mumbled semi-coherently, and Trailbreaker laughed. "Yeah, right back atcha, 'Jack."

Prowl stepped aside to let the black mech cart his mostly unresponsive cargo out of the room. That was the two worst problems dealt with.

Now, all that was left was checking up on the mechs who weren't in the rec room. With a sigh, he requested the list from Teletraan-1 of bots who hadn't withdrawn their ration yet or had others do it for them.

The list was longer than he liked. Luckily, it didn't look like he'd have to handle it alone. A handy pair of reliable reinforcements were just finishing their rations at a nearby table.

"Good morning, Fireflight, Perceptor."

"Hello, sir," Fireflight chirped brightly. "Did you have a nice Halloween?"

"Very nice, thank you." Understatement of the vorn. "And you?"

"We had a very nice evening," Perceptor said softly. Prowl didn't miss how the scientist's fingers squeezed the younger flier's, or the fact that they were both blushing slightly. An interesting, somewhat unanticipated, but not unwelcome development.

Prowl offered them both a smile and relaxed his doorwings slightly. "I'm glad to see the two of you have found each other. And I'm sorry for interrupting."

"It's okay, sir," the Aerial replied. "We were mostly done. I guess this is about my brothers, isn't it?"

"Yes." Prowl put on his Stern Countenance. "They have not yet refueled."

Fireflight nodded solemnly. "I'll take care of them, sir."

"Silverbolt and Skyfire first?" Perceptor asked, standing up. "That'll give you a chance to talk to Skyfire as well."

The blush across Fireflight's face deepened slightly, and he looked down. "Yeah. I still need to apologize." He stood as well, somehow moving closer to Perceptor at the same time. "Let's get them some energon. 'Dive and Raider are together, but I'm not sure where Slingshot is. We may have to hunt for him."

"We'll find him," Perceptor promised, placing an arm around Fireflight's waist. "Come on, sweetspark."

Prowl couldn't imagine what Fireflight had to apologize to Skyfire about, but he didn't let it trouble him very much. Perceptor seemed to have the younger mech well in hand. In a moment of hidden glee, Prowl took an image capture of the scientist's hand on the back of Fireflight's neck, the way the fingers were caressing him, and sent it off to his lover.

Ratchet's response was immediate. ::I did not see that coming.::

::Nor I,:: Prowl confesses. ::They're very sweet together.::

::How're you doing? Will you be back soon?:: There was a hint of subtle teasing in Ratchet's voice. ::I have something for you.::

::I bet you do. Impatient mech,:: Prowl chided gently, trying to ignore the effect Ratchet's words had on his frame. ::I need to check on Prime, Jazz, and Red Alert. The rest of them should be fine.::

::Then hurry,:: Ratchet purred. ::I want you in me.::

Well, that wasn't subtle at all. Prowl shivered. ::I'll be there soon, lover.::

::Good.::

Prowl was filling up energon cubes before Ratchet had even cut the connection. Subspace full, he turned to find his errant fellow commanders.

Jazz was the one to answer Red Alert's door, much as Prowl had expected.

"Hey, Prowler. Doin' the rounds, huh?" He took the two proffered cubes. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. I hear the maze was a success?"

The saboteur grinned. "Windcharger actually screamed loud 'nough that his vocalizer shorted. But don't worry, no one got hurt." He winked. "Much. It was mostly their pride that took a beatin', anyway. And I know what you're goin' t' say."

Prowl gave an inquisitive flick of doorwings. "And?"

"It helped," the shorter mech admitted. "I got my demons tamed for a while. Thanks for lettin' me at it."

"Good." Prowl let his doorwings twitch, knowing that Jazz would understand exactly what it meant. "How is Red Alert doing?"

A genuine smile crossed the saboteur's faceplates. "He's fine. Yesterday was kinder t' him than we feared, so he's good today. He's still in recharge." Jazz took a step back, preparing to let the door close. "Thanks for th' energon, m' mech."

"Of course. I'll see you both later."

"Yep." Jazz grinned. "Now go on, finish your rounds. One stop left, am I right?"

"One stop left," Prowl confirmed. He winked – it was okay to show that much emotion when it was only Jazz there to see. "And then I'm going back to Ratchet."

"If the rest o' the Ark knew you two were fraggin' like petrobunnies, it would break their fragile little minds," Jazz chortled. "See ya, Prowler."

The door slid shut behind him.

Prowl turned away and walked to the other end of the hall to knock on the door there. It took long enough for anything to happen that he pinged Teletraan-1 again to get a verification that Optimus was inside and that he was awake. He was just about to knock again when the door opened and Optimus' unmasked face smiled down at him.

Wordlessly, Prowl offered him an energon cube.

"Thank you, my friend. I'm glad to see you're maintaining the tradition." The Prime turned aside to put the cube down.

Behind him, Prowl caught a glimpse of golden plating. His optics widened, and his doorwings slipped from his ironclad control and climbed as high as they could go. "Optimus, why is Sunstreaker in your quarters?"

Optimus' smile turned bashful. "We spent all night watching movies. When he fell into recharge here, I didn't want to move him."

There were several layers to those words. "You didn't want to move him because you didn't want to wake him, or you didn't want to move him because you wanted to keep him here?"

"Both," Optimus admitted with another sheepish smile. He glanced back towards the recharging frontliner on the couch. "I just – it feels like I may have something here, my friend. I'd like some time to figure it out before we have to face the Ark again."

Prowl looked from his leader to the frontliner, and nodded. "You won't be disturbed." He pulled out another energon cube, handing it over to Optimus. "And I'm happy for you, sir. I know Sunstreaker better than almost everyone but his brother and Ratchet. He's a good mech at spark."

"That he is," Optimus said softly. He offered Prowl another smile. "Thanks for taking care of us."

"You're welcome. Now go sit with your guest, and I'll go join my lover again."

Optimus chuckled. "You do that. He must be getting impatient."

"He is." Prowl could almost hear Ratchet's impatient growl in his mind. "See you later, sir."

Optimus nodded. Prowl had the time to see him sit down at Sunstreaker's head and stroke his cheek before the door slid shut.

Time to get back to Ratchet. He could feel his frame heating up at the thought.

::All done, lover. I'm coming back to you now.::

The reply came at once. ::Good. I'm waiting.::

Prowl permitted himself a smile as he headed towards his own quarters.