Hope this chapter doesn't disappoint!

R + R please!

*Disclaimer: I don't own transformers*

~ o ~

Abby had this big idea of repainting Ironhide pink while he was recharging, but I had a better idea. He still needed to be recharging in order for the plan to work, but what I had planned involved more than just a new coat of paint. I outlined the plan to Abby and Sideswipe, watching as their faces lit up in incredulous expressions, before we each departed to retrieve the necessary goods.

After Abby and I had picked up the white paint, amongst a couple other things, we made our way back to the main hanger where we waited for Sideswipe to give us the 'go ahead' signal—meaning that Ironhide was, in fact, recharging. True to form, I saw that Ironhide was indeed recharging in his truck form while humans that were milling about kept a wide, quiet berth around him. Neither Prowl nor Optimus were anywhere in sight, thankfully, and I exchanged a grin with Abby, before we casually wandered over.

We were intercepted halfway there by Will, however, who came over looking suspicious.

"What are you two doing?" He eyed the paint cans warily.

"Nothing much," I said innocently. "Just thought we would give Ironhide over there a touch up on his paint job." I nudged Abby and she nodded, both of us looking as mischief-free as possible.

Epps who had snuck up alongside Will snorted at us, obviously not believing a single word out of my mouth, before grinning broadly. "You better be careful. I like a good prank as well as anybody, but I also like continuing to live."

"Don't worry. We have an infallible plan setup in the case that he comes after us," I said, and they looked at me like I was both incredibly brave and stupid. I didn't blame them. By pulling a prank on Ironhide of all bots I was sort of playing a game of Russian roulette. An incredibly dangerous game of Russian roulette.

When neither soldier made any move to stop us, Abby and I continued on our way to where Ironhide was recharging. I paused in front of him, looking over his still form. The Topkick certainly was bigger up close than it appeared from far away, and I realized that the sooner we got started on painting it the better. The absolute last thing I wanted was for him to wake up before we were finished. I put the white paint can I was carrying down, and carefully pried the lid off. Then I ran my fingers across the hood of the truck to see if there was even a minor shudder. No movement and no voice. Grinning at Abby, I dipped the brush into the paint, and she did the same, and we got to work painting over the black.

I don't know how long we worked, but at one point holoform Sideswipe and Sunstreaker—both blonde haired and blue-eyed—appeared and took over for me as I worked on constructing the bunny ears and tail. For the tail, I stuffed a thick wad of toilet paper into the bottom part of a white sock and then cut and tied off the top of it, leaving a round little ball. While for each ear, I took two more pairs of white socks and shoved pieces of cardboard—cut to resemble rabbit ears—into them, stapling shut the bottom. And finally, for the nose, I opened up the can of pink paint and had Sunstreaker paint it directly onto the front of the truck that was now white.

It took us all probably a couple of hours to finish painting and for the glue to dry. But by the time we were done, Ironhide was a new truck. Complete with a set of bunny ears and a cute little tail to match. I thought he looked marvellous.

Passing soldiers stopped and stared, some pointing, others snickering. But his new paint job also attracted the attention of the other bots, such as the Chevy twins who were laughing their asses off in the far corner, smart enough to keep their distance but unfortunately not smart enough to keep quiet about it. There was the rumble of the truck engine then, and Abby and I nearly skidded away from the truck, grinning, and behind Epps, who was taking a picture of the truck with his phone. Some of the braver humans outright laughed when Ironhide finally did awaken and transform, showcasing his now white armour, along with the pink rabbit nose on his chest. The bunny ears and tail unfortunately fell off during his transformation, but hey, considering that everyone had already seen him with them on, it still made for a pretty funny prank. Even Optimus smiled when he walked in from the hallway.

"What's so funny?" Ironhide asked gruffly; and I held my breath as he glanced around at everyone, before looking down at himself. His optics widened in surprise, and I couldn't help but finally laugh at his dumbstruck expression. He blinked at the sight of the rabbit nose on his chest, stared blankly at the tatters on the floor by his feet, before his expression quickly shifted into anger. It didn't take him long to put two and two together, especially considering Abby and I had splatters of white paint on our bodies, and he fixed us with a dark glare, his cannons whirring to life.

Oh shit.

Still laughing, I transformed up into my bipedal form and grabbed Abby, who, for all intents and purposes, looked like she was about to give herself a hernia: she was bent over laughing so hard. I bolted with her in my arms—watching as amused soldiers rushed to get out of the way—into the hallway where I ran as fast as I dared over and around scrambling humans to Prowl's office.

I banged on the door wildly, praying all the while that Prowl was indeed there lest we be screwed. It opened after only a moment and I darted in, shutting the door almost in Ironhide's face as he was nearly upon us, before hurrying around Prowl to hide under his desk. Ironhide pounded angrily on the door, but thankfully Prowl did not let him in. He must've taken the cue from Abby and I.

As he walked over to where we were still parked beneath his desk, he raised an optic-ridge—somehow I just knew without even seeing him—and said, "Do I even want to know?" Abby snickered, and when he squatted down in front of us, he gave us a look that suggested he knew we were up to no good. I tried to appear innocent, but he only narrowed his optics even further.

"Okay, okay. We may have given Ironhide just the tiniest touch up on his paint job." His expression didn't change. "Alright, we painted him white with a rabbit nose on the front of him and super-glued a pair of bunny ears and a tail to match. Only the ears and tail were sort of ripped to shreds when he transformed." I grimaced. "And now he's kind of chasing us around base."

Abby snickered again. "That's putting it lightly."

"Okay, rephrase: he totally wants to murder our asses."

Prowl looked unimpressed. Finally he said, "I thought you would have more sense than to pull a prank on Ironhide." Then he stood back up and took a seat in his spinning chair. Ironhide was still banging on the door, so Abby and I stayed put. No way in hell were we going out there with Mr. Arm Cannons on the loose. He hit the door so hard I thought surely it was going to break, regardless of whether the thing was made of metal or not. Thankfully though, after a few minutes of Prowl ignoring him and us not coming out, the pounding stopped and we heard his heavy footsteps disappear down the hallway. As soon as it did I released a gush of air I didn't realize that I'd been holding. It was then that I recalled that I had a question that I'd wanted to ask Prowl, and I peeked at him from under the desk. "Can I ask you something?" I asked him.

"You may," he answered, without looking at me.

"Do you think you could write a Praxian translation program for me?"

He stopped typing. "You want to speak Praxian?" he asked, looking down with something akin to interest. I nodded, and Abby looked up at me in confusion.

"Praxian?" she said, one eyebrow raised.

"His native language," I explained, watching as first understanding flooded her gaze and then excitement.

"You can speak Cybertronian?" she said.

"Neocybex, actually," I said. "But yeah, I can." Just to demonstrate my ability I quickly spoke a few words to her in Cybertronian, enjoying the way her eyes lit up.

"That is so fucking cool," she half whispered.

I smiled at her, before turning back to face Prowl, a silent question on my face. He studied me seriously for a long moment, obviously uncertain of whether I was sincere about wanting to learn or not. Finally, he nodded. "If you certain you want to learn how to speak it—"

"I am," I said immediately, and he nodded again. I was so happy I could have hugged him right then and there. I'm not sure why I wanted to learn the language so badly. Perhaps it had to do with the knowledge that it was a dying language, or with the fact that it was Prowl's native tongue. Either way, I could hardly wait for him to have the program written. I wondered what—

"Hey Prowl-bot, say something sexy in Praxian!" Abby called up then, causing me to choke on nothing, and Prowl's engine to temporarily stutter. He narrowed his optics at Abby in a silent reprimand, before seeming to think it over for a moment, and then—to my great surprise—actually saying a quiet sentence in what I assumed was Praxian. All I could do was stare. It was by far the most beautiful language I had even heard, even if I didn't understand a word of it. It was somewhat higher pitched sounding than Neocybex, with an almost musical ring to it. I wanted more than ever to learn how to speak it, though something told me I would never be able to copy his melodious accent. All at once I felt saddened by the fact that such a beautiful dialect was fading into oblivion.

After a while I said, "What did you say?"

He didn't say anything for a moment, and then he said, "Your optics shimmer like stars on a quiet night." He said it so quietly, it almost sounded as though he was half whispering like Abby had done earlier.

I felt my face redden, and I looked away, suddenly bashful about my optics. I noticed that Abby had gone eerily silent, and I turned my attention down to her to find that she was watching us with a little smirk. I shot her a look, but she pretended to examine her nails. Finally she flicked back her fiery hair.

"Should we go see if Fluffy Buns is still out there looking for us?" she asked.

I blinked. "Fluffy Buns?"

"Well we dressed him up as a rabbit, didn't we?"

For some reason I pictured Ironhide in a bunny suit, and I snorted, bursting up into giggles, as I imagined him trying to look all intimidating and whatnot while he waved around a carrot instead of his cannons. Primus! If only I could actually get away with a prank like that! That would be one for the photo album!

It took me a long time to sober, and by the time I did both Abby and Prowl were giving me odd looks—well Abby was, Prowl was more or less just staring at me. Either way, it cracked me up, and soon I was laughing all over again.

"Oh for fuck's sake, Janie," Abby said. "Will you please tell me what the hell is so funny?" I struggled to verbalize my random thought, and her eyes went so wide I was surprised they didn't fall out. Soon we were both laughing our heads off, before a clang sounded beside us, startling us both. I turned, shocked to find Prowl on the ground with smoke coming out of his head.

Ratchet was less than impressed when a few minutes later I appeared in the med bay dragging Prowl's unconscious frame. I was half laughing, half freaking out so badly that it was minutes before I was able to even explain what had happened, and when I finally did, I nearly pulled a Prowl and passed out right then and there.

Ratchet smiled.