25 days of Christmas

Twenty-first: Twenty-one children small

"I can't believe you convinced me to do this…"

"Aw, c'mon Ratch', ya look… stunning…"

Ratchet grumbled to Jazz who was grinning widely in return. The medic was beginning to regret saying yes in the first place. The saboteur had said nothing about the red jacket, the black paint, the hat or the beard. Primus, it was ridiculous.

"'Member, i's for the kids… 'Sides, I thin' ole 'Hide thought ya looked good." Jazz smiled smugly. Ratchet spluttered incredulously, but had no retort on that one.

C H R I S T M A S

"Why me…" the white ambulance muttered as they walked in their bipedal modes toward the outer area of the nearest town. With Ratchet dressed like an oversized version of the humans' Santa Claus – Jazz had his good methods of persuasion – he couldn't transform. So they walked; a pleasant but very slow change of transport.

"Cuz yar big, white 'n' red and in need of sum' Christmas mood, man," Jazz grinned to the medic, blue visor flashing happily. Ratchet just grunted noncommittal, tugging the white, fake beard down around his neck. Jazz was going to run the base dry of money on that stupid Customize Your Christmas company, Ratchet thought.

"If any pictures of me in… this… turns up…" Ratchet trailed off threateningly. Jazz just waved a hand dismissivly in the air.

"Yeah, yeah, 'm a dead mech."

"No… I'm just not going to give you any painblockers for the Christmas hangover." Ratchet smirked when he saw Jazz wince.

"Aw, man, that's jus' cruel…"

"I know."

C H R I S T M A S

"Ya ready for this?"

"No…" If possible, Ratchet sounded a little… worried.

The two Autobots were standing by a huge… toy store, of sorts. It was located the quite odd place of the outer edge of the city, and was probably more of a storage warehouse than an actual shop. Either way, it was there the deal was supposed to work its magic, and attract quite a lot of little human kids. The generous humans that managed the toy outlet had agreed to hand out one thing to each and every kid – a thing the kid wished for that was available at their store – only if a Transformer would act as a giant, kind Santa Claus.

"Humans aren't that generous…" Ratchet had huffed at first.

"Christmas change people, man," Jazz had answered. "An' it's good publicity."

"Figures…"

And for some reason, known to only the higher beings themselves and Jazz, Ratchet had been picked out as the Santa. He had rejected at first, but Jazz knew that the medic was a soft-plated mech when it came to the younglings of any specie.

So there the dressed up medic was sitting, outside the door of some big – and it was rather huge – toy store. Luckily, the area was pretty deserted normally. Now, unfortunately, there was a flood of human parents with their wide-eyed kids.

Ratchet shifted nervously on the hastily build wooden box he had been giving to sit on, glancing to Jazz who stood by his side, grinning widely.

"What now?" Ratchet asked over the communication link.

"Ya begin, like we practiced. Oh, and remember the laugh!"

If there had been a proper response from 'Santa', it was drowned out by the cursing and insulting.

"Language, Ratch'."

"Oh, for Primus sake…"

And then the act began. Ratchet dropped his grumpy medic attitude and adopted the jolly-Christmas-Santa attitude (though it seemed quite strained). Fortunately, the kids were too awestruck to really notice that. Who wouldn't be, there was a giant version of Santa laughing in front of them.

Jazz was the only one who could hear the slight curses in between, through the comm. link. Either way, Ratchet acted pleasant (as pleasant as he could be), listened to the kids who he helped up to sit on his knee (trying not to look slightly bored), and he dutifully repeated that odd laugh to the little creatures' glee.

Then there was the troublesome kid once or twice. "Santa doesn't exist!" one little boy exclaimed the second he sat on the white Autobot-in-disguise's knee.

"Oh really?" Ratchet just said, not looking impressed, as he carefully picked the kid up and placed him down on the ground. "Well, if I don't exist, then you can wait down there and let the nice kids pass."

It left the same result every time. The child looked devastated, Ratchet waited a little before picking the child back up, asking if he/she would be nice now and getting an eager nod in response.

And the toy store held their promise, giving every kid one thing for free, no matter what their pointed at. Some of the older ones choose the expensive stuff, even if they didn't want it, and then there was the ones who picked what they really wanted.

There was a little girl now, sitting on Ratchet's giant knee and looking up at the 'Santa' in awe, all packed up in outdoors clothes; woolly hat, big jacket, and colorful mittens. When Ratchet asked the usual question "What would you like for Christmas" he got an unusual response.

"I would like it to snow!"

Ratchet, both optic ridges raised, honestly didn't know what to say. "Uh… Jazz…" he contacted the saboteur.

"Yeah?"

"This one wants snow…" So far, all the requests had been reasonable, and the ones that hadn't were by some of the slightly older children who knew that those request couldn't be fulfilled.

But this little girl was sincerely asking for snow, and was probably expecting it too.

"Dun' worry, Ratch'," Jazz sounded like he found it incredibly amusing. Ratchet didn't find it funny; he didn't want to disappoint a little girl like that. "I've gotit cover'd!"

"Covered, how can you have it covered?!"

Jazz didn't respond, instead he left Ratchet to stare at the little girl who stared back expectantly.

And then it began to snow. Ratchet barely held back the "What the…" as he looked up, surprised. Jazz had made it snow! How the Pit— Oh, there was a mechanism on the roof, he could see it if he zoomed in on it. Clever.

"Quick save…" Ratchet huffed to Jazz as he looked down to the kid. The little redheaded girl's eyes was positively gleaming, a smile as wide as her face plastered on, as she held a mitten-covered hand out to catch a snowflake.

"Thank you, Santa!" she said as she studied the slowly melting snowflake in her hand before looking up and smiling warmly.

Well, that was certainly spark-warming.

C H R I S T M A S

As the two Autobots were walking back to base, Ratchet taking off the Santa disguise so he wouldn't be seen with it on, and Jazz talking about what a success it had been, it began snowing.

Ratchet glanced to Jazz, who merely held up his hands, a grin growing on his face.

The medic sighed, looking up at the darkened sky from where the tiny snowflakes fell. "… How very cheesy…"

Jazz could just snicker in response.

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A/N: Christmas is a cheesy time, Jazz knew that.

Well, this turned out quite long… and quite late… Darn it.

Still, guys, any ideas, suggestion for the party, the presents, anything is welcome. I can honestly say that I have no idea what tomorrow's chapter is gonna be about…

And by the way, the ice skating idea was sparked from a review by –permantlyonfire- and this one was sparked by a review from Imbri (anonymous). Thanks, you guys!!

I'm having trouble deciding who I should hint as Ratchet's 'partner' (If I give him one). I don't really ship anything (doesn't mean I can't enjoy) and RatchetxTwins and RatchetxIronhide seems to be the most popular out there… I dunno.

Four to go!