"I think the pink one would look amazing on you, Miko."
Miko brought down her phone to swipe between the images of the three dresses. "My host parents think the purple-and-white one would fit me. Jack and Raf both liked the baby-blue one."
"You'd look amazing in every one of them," Bulkhead assured her, "but which one do you like best, Miko?"
"Ugh, I don't know!" she groaned in frustration, "I like them all! And I can't decide. That's why I wanted to know what you think, Bulk. They're all three so gorgeous and I can't decide!"
"Can't decide what, kid?"
Miko turned her head to see Wheeljack moving towards them.
"Wheeljack!" she exclaimed, then made herself look serious. "I need your help."
The white wrecker joined the two with a raised eyebrow.
"Jackie, Miko's going to prom," Bulkhead explained to his friend, excitement brimming in both voice and optics.
"Prom?" Wheeljack's frown deepened.
"It's like a party humans in school go to every year. They dance, eat, hang out with friends—"
"—generally just having fun," Miko finished.
"Sure sounds like a party," the white wrecker commented with a considerate nod.
"Uh-huh, and when you're going to prom, you need to dress up! And I'm having trouble with that, so I need your opinion, Wheeljack." Miko lifted her phone for Wheeljack to see, swiping between the three images of a long purple-and-white dress; a shorter and puffier pink one; and a baby-blue strapless one with a glittery pattern down the silk.
"Which of these dresses do you like the best?"
The wrecker lowered his helm, squinting his optics at the images. Clothes were a foreign concept to cybertronians, and what dressed well on a human was unsurprisingly something they all lacked in expertise. Wheeljack was no different. Bulkhead held back a chuckle.
Wheeljack finally stepped back with a hum, looking thoughtful.
"Definitely the puffy one," he said at last, "you could hide so many blasters under that thing."
Bulkhead whipped his helm to face his fellow wrecker.
"No, no—Primus Jackie, she does not need weapons."
Miko looked all too gleeful. "How many blasters?"
Bulkhead turned back to the teenager. "Miko—"
"At least four," Wheeljack supplied with a wry grin. Bulkhead glanced between them in horror. Oh, no. No, they were not doing this. Absolutely not.
"No," Bulkhead said to them both firmly, "No. No weapons, Miko. And I swear to Primus, Jackie—"
"Aww," Miko slouched in disappointment.
"Kid got to protect herself, Bulk," Wheeljack argued casually, like of course she should be armed with a weapon or two who wouldn't.
"It's prom, Jackie. You don't bring weapons to prom, for Primus' sake."
(As the night of the prom arrived, Miko had decided on the pink dress, proving Bulkhead right once she put it on; she looked awesome in it. Together with Raf and Jack, the children arrived at school driven by their respective guardians. If anything, Bulkhead was just as excited as Miko was the whole way.
It sure turned out to be an exciting night; she beat Jack and a few others in a dance-off; devoured snacks past the point of what was probably wise but didn't vomit; sang karaoke twice almost flawlessly; punched a jerk in the face for refusing to leave a girl alone, and then she and said girl (her name was Sari) spent the rest of the night together, dancing and laughing and having a great time
The ride home she spent talking her guardian's audio receptors off, but Bulkhead was more than delighted to hear all about it, sharing laughs with her as she retold how while dancing someone had tripped and brought one of the snack tables down with them.
Back at the base, Ratchet forced her through a quick scan to make sure she wasn't too intoxicated, and June did a double-check all while Miko kept retelling the night for anyone with ears, or audio receptors. Wheeljack voiced his approval of having punched a jerk in the face, then Miko sent a message to Sari and promptly fell asleep on the couch before she got a response.
The small knife she'd slipped with her (sorry Bulkhead) in case of an emergency was still strapped to her leg, unused. It'd been a good night.)
