The Diego Diaries: Home Time Any Time (dd6 145)
-0-Home
Ratchet peered at the turkeys which were cooking well in the high powered ovens that would take about 20 minutes to make them ready to serve. On the stove, his giant pot of potatoes were boiling away and the room smelled good. Ratchet looked at the table. "We're going to need more room," he said. "Up and at 'em, Ironhide. We're having a horde soon."
He got up reluctantly, perfectly content that he was to sit on his comfy red chair and watch the floor show. Walking to the table, he pulled it apart, then got the three leaves that would extend it enough to seat a lot more individuals. As he did, the door opened and Alor walked in. "Where do you want this, Ratchet?"
Ratchet turned to the door, then grinned. "Slagger. I told you not to bring anything."
"Celebration cake isn't 'anything'," Alor said as Ironhide perked up.
"Celebration cake?" Ironhide said as he turned toward Ratchet. "Yay," he said tepidly out of fear and the thought of flying pans. "I, for one, plan to celebrate." He turned to his ada, then smiled. "Here, Ada. You can put that cake directly in my mouth," he said opening wide.
Huge laughter greeted that as Alor walked to the counter to put the big long box down. "What's for dinner, Ratch?" he asked.
"Well, I'm cooking not one, but two turkeys, making spuds for everyone and their targ, have two big salads in the fridge, will be cooking a vegetable when I have a second, and have a flotilla of buns in the warmer," he said, then smiled a brilliantly bright but totally insincere smile.
Alor snickered, then looked at the table. "Help me set up the dinner plates and things, sonny mine. We have a horde coming, I'm told."
"That we do," Ratchet said before the door opened. Prowl entered with a big box. "I brought dessert," he said as he was followed by his genitors and their big box, a passel of infants with a cat, and a grinning Prime.
Ratchet stared at them with hands on hips and fire in his optics. "Slaggers."
Prowl grinned. "I personally made three pies myself."
Slag deluxe greeted that admission as he put his box on top of Alor's. "Well, I see you have the same semi barbaric guests for dinner as before."
More slag, then the door opened. In walked Ravel, Appa Ratchet and his cat, Corr, Chan, and a little old mech named Sidewinder who was playing cards with Appa Ratch and was invited to stay while his bond was 'visiting' his sister for the afternoon in Pax. Glares were exchanged along with more dessert as introductions were tendered. Everyone stared at Ratchet who smirked at all of them. "Sit. Don't make me get out my big frying pan."
"You better sit," Ironhide said with a grin as he held plates for his ada who was organizing slag.
The door opened again with Blackjack wandering in with Scout. "HI, HONEY! I'M HOME!" he said before getting a job of his own. He didn't bring a dessert and would only know later on that he wasn't on Ratchet's shit list because of it. He sat beside Prime, took a beer, then put his son down. He smiled at the kids, then they all ran for Orion's room and The Toy Box. He grinned. "What's for dinner, Ratchet?"
"A big heaping cup of shut the fuck up," Ratchet said channeling a funny passive-aggressive graphic poster he once saw on the internet.
"Sounds good. I'm sure I've had it before," Blackjack said with a grin.
"I serve it often," Alor said with a smile. The door opened.
-0-Raptor and Hero a tad bit earlier
"What do you think, Princess?" Raptor asked as they stood in the bakery at Luna before heading out to meet up with Turbine.
"I think that one is pretty, Appa," she said as she sat on his arm. "I LIKE UNICORNS!"
Raptor laughed. "We'll take the cake that looks like a unicorn, please," he said to the clerk who was smiling at both.
"One cake coming up," the youngster said as he turned around to pick up a box for it. Soon, the two were on their way.
-0-Turbine a tad bit earlier
"What do you think, infants?" Turbine asked as he knelt in front of a baked goods case in a specialty bakery in Luna across the street from Luna Metro #3. "Hurry and choose, babies. We have to meet Appa Raptor at an art store."
Orion and Praxus looked up at their amma, then the cakes. "This one," Praxus said pointing to one smothered in candy. Orion smiled. "That one, Amma. I, ORION, DID THE SHES!"
Turbine who always laughed when Orion talked, taking a memory road trip back to a certain other small black Autobot when he did, stood up and grinned at the clerk. "We'll take both." A candy covered cake and one shaped like Captain America were loaded up. They would walk out the door, two cakes in the carry hold and two infants on the arm of their doting amma to walk four blocks to Raptor who was standing on a corner with a little femme, her little stone dragon and a cake.
-0-At the meet up at the station at Luna Metro #1, waiting for the Circle Line to Autobot City
They gathered together, Turbine and the little mechs, Raptor and his little princess along with Hard Drive, Delphi and Sunspot. Spot sat down to look upward. There was a lot of cake up there and he was praying hard someone would stumble. They hoofed it into a Circle Line train that just pulled up which would take them to Terra. From Terra, they would take another City Line into Autobot City and end up across the street from home at Metro #1. The doors closed, the train exited the station, and away they went.
-0-On a Circle Line train coming from Tyger Pax
They stood along the wall, Bluestreak holding a box with a cake and a pie in it as they headed over the river and through the proverbial woods to Granny's house. They had gotten dessert from a great artisan bakery two blocks from their house where the twins indulged their newly found passion for huge 'whipped cream-filled cream puffs'. The train was crowded with weekenders getting back to normal after the shoot out. They got off at their station while on the track next to them, everyone else heading for the party from Luna was as well. Climbing up the overpass and downward to the platform on the other side, they nearly ran over each other.
"AMMA!"
APPA! AMMA! I COMED TO LOU! I, ORION, LOVE YOU!"
"I LOVE YOU, AMMA AND APPA! I, PRAXUS, LOVE YOU TOO!"
"DO YOU WANT TO SEE MY *PRESENT*!?"
"What present, Hero?"
"I got a present from Appa Raptor, Praxus. See?"
Everyone 'seed'.
"APPA PUP-TOE! YOU DID GOOD FOR HO-HO!?"
"I did." Raptor grinned like a banshee.
"I, ORION, *LOVE* APPA PUP-TOE! HO-HO! YOU LOVE APPA PUP-TOE!?"
"I *LOVE* APPA RAPTOR!" Hero said as she leaned into Raptor, her little dragon clutched in her tiny servos. The infants leaned in again to see it including Kaon, Iacon and Uraya.
Uraya looked up at Sunstreaker. "Ada? I like that."
"Skyrim?" Sunstreaker asked Raptor who nodded. "Were there anymore?"
"Several, though this was the only red one," Raptor replied.
"That's an easy fix if Uraya wants a red one," Sunstreaker said.
"LELLO! YOU DOING FOR THE SHES!? YOU TAKING TO THE THING!? YOU DOING FOR THE SHES?!" Orion asked.
Sunstreaker laughed. "Yep," he said as he grinned at Orion. "After dinner and laughs," he said as he turned to lead the way upward. They followed and were on the street in no time.
-0-Home
Chairs were pulled in from across the hall at Alor's place and artfully arranged. When that was finished, the door opened. Everyone who was coming was outside. They 'camed'.
"ADA! I, ORION, LOVE YOU!"
"ADA! LOOK WHAT APPA RAPTOR GOT FOR ME!"
"ADA! I, PRAXUS, LOVE YOU TOO!"
"Orion? Where you be?" Prowler asked as he walked out of the hallway with the others. They stared at the group, then smiled at Orion, Praxus, Hero, Kaon, Uraya, and Iacon. "YOU CAMED! COME HERE AND PLAY!?"
Everyone smiled, was stripped of their gear, then danced off to Orion's berth room. It would be a nice noisy chat session about dragons, fun and stuff.
"Where do we put this stuff?" -The trine, Raptor, Hard Drive and Delphi, and Turbine
"How about up your afts?" Ratchet suggested to loud laughter and scorn.
Another stack of boxes began to rise next to the one already on the counter. Then everyone sat. Turbine grinned. "You need help, son?"
Ratchet looked at Turbine who was obviously raised right. "Nope," he said as he set up a cutting board on the counter. His wing ding sharp knives courtesy of his genitors lay there, too, along with an empty plate for the turkey. Ravel began to stand but sat after a stern look from Sonny.
Docker laughed. "You're such a pushy infant, Ratchet."
"I invited everyone. I will cook." Ratchet turned his back to them as he futzed with his stuff missing the looks everyone gave to each other. He picked up the pan of spuds from the heat, drained them, then set them on the counter. Taking a bit of cream and a lot of butter, he lathered them good, then began to mash them with his handy-dandy hand held potato masher. It was slow going with such a big pot and the tension in the room began to rise as the entire group sat in silence watching him.
Ironhide glanced at Prime who smirked, then glanced at Prowl who was watching Ratchet like he was insane and it was only a matter of time if he would figure out how to have the medic committed. Turbine, Delphi, Alor, and Raptor were having a ripping good time off line and soon everyone in the room but Ratchet would join them for the fun.
Ratchet sweated over the potatoes, mashing the shit out of them, mixing them to a creamy texture. He put the bowl in the other warmer next to a heaping bowl of buns, then turned to stare at everyone. They stared back with blank expressions, then almost as one raised their beers to him in salute. Ratchet grinned, gave them the Cybertronian equivalent of the finger … "RATCHET! THE PRIME AND HIS BOND IS HERE! By the way, where are Kes and Tagg?" Ravel asked … then turned back to the marathon before him. There were two turkeys to carve in front of an audience.
A slagging hostile audience, he thought with a grin.
When Prime stopped laughing, he grinned at Ravel. "They're coming. They had to pick up a dessert."
Ratchet smirked at Prime as the others laughed loudly, then the tense silence came back. He was now at the part where he would drain the green beans and butter their afts. He did, then put the pan lid back on. Turning to the ovens, he looked inside. The turkeys were done, so he turned off the heat, opened the door for the first one, then took it out to put it on the counter. It smelled good. Two cats, two dogs and a bug walked over to sit behind him as he considered how to carve a turkey that was as authentically created here as any real one on Earth and just as tricky. He whizzed through a video internally, then picked up his knives. One would think a doctor would be good at this and maybe they were. However, Ratchet wasn't organic, this was a lump of immaculately recreated turkey and he had not done this before.
He dumped that on Ironhide who didn't care if he looked like a doofus.
Now, it was his job.
Gripping his knife and big fork, he stuck both into the turkey. He would never be able to recount how the slagger slipped off the plate and fell onto the floor. Two dogs, two cats and a bug wouldn't care either but the entire adult population in the room who jumped upward almost as one would. So would Kes and Tagg who rapped on the door, then stepped in just in time for the stampede.
-0-TBC 10-02-17 edited 10-04-17
ESL: something that is tepid is lukewarm, or not hot. Tepid soup is nearly cold. A tepid response to something means its not very warmly received. :D
LEONESS: I remember that episode with Elmer Fudd and Bugs. Sooooo hilarious. :D:D:D I think he does remind me, too, of Bugs who is one of my heroes. Did you know he was based on Clark Gable of all persons? I have a wooden cut out of bugs and Daffy Duck who is just about the best loony tune character of all time hanging on my wall. :D:D:D I think he's rubbing off. Hugs, my dear Leoness.