The Diego Diaries: Ho-Ho-Ho! (dd7 177)
=0=At the abode of RvIH
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it."
Optimus who was walking with his genitors helping them to carry a number of their small children was grinning. He had a low grade buzz and was feeling no pain. "Did Ratchet just give Prowl the cure, Atar?" he asked his father.
Tagg who was walking on one side of him while Kes walked on the other to steer him in the right direction grinned. "He did, Orion. Do you want one, too?"
Optimus considered that, then grinned. "Perhaps later."
Tagg winked at Kes who grinned at him as they steered their son into Ratchet's giant apartment. It was already filling up with the usual suspects as the endless flow of individuals bearing food and drink and those who weren't began to arrive. Mech after femme after child after elder after mech came through the door, laughing and greeting each other as they were steered into the kitchen where Sun and 'Jack were coordinating the placement of offerings along with Auntie Lizzie and Steiner. Their genitors were sat down along with everyone else's so that someone other than them would do the work this time.
Chan, Corr, Docker who looked ready to charge back in and Appa Ratchet holding about three cats chatted and laughed, hugged children and helped some sit on their laps as the whirl continued. The crowd would be epic, spilling into two other apartments and the hallway outside.
And still more came.
=0=Down below
They rode up, then halted. Hopping off, Springer and Drift along with the usual crew and a host of youngling trainees climbed down to join the fun. A good dozen of the kids from the Auxiliary they created with Springer and Drift were there as well, 'attending a get together for a bit with the bosses, Ada/Amma/Appa/Atar'.
Like that.
They tethered their steeds at the racks provided and checked the horse's comforts before they walked in following Drift and Springer, Hercy, Kup, Bezel and Lon along with Terradive and Roto. They carried food and drink … mostly drink among the adults though a couple of the kids brought baked goods for 'good manners'. Up the elevators they went, a laughing jolly group for the ride to RvIH Land™. Behind them, still more came. The squad, friends of many a dirty fox hole, relatives and their relatives … they kept coming, flighted mechanisms and grounders, former 'Cons, N.A.I.L.S., Primus Peace Mission, Circle, Functionalist and Knight, all of them wandered in and upward toward fun and family.
=0=Inside the eye of the storm
Ratchet stood by the buffet table that ran forever that way and onward this way. It groaned with major allotments of goodness. Sitting in a chair nearby like the king of the world, Optimus Prime held two cows and a dog. They had walked to him and climbed upward, settling after a moment of walking around in circles.
"That hurt a little," Prime said when they finally lay down and vented mournful sighs.
"No pain, no gain," Hercy said as he watched a mech he LOVED relax a bit and enjoy himself. He knew Prime was fun given the right circumstances and he loved to be there when he was. Prime was the Prime he would die for if necessary, such was his respect for the youngster.
Optimus grinned at him. "Truer words never spoken." Then he giggled.
"Better cut back on Prime, Prowl. Mech is getting loaded," Ironhide said.
"Better cut back on both of you," Ratchet said as the kids began to get organized to eat.
"Don't be too hasty," Ironhide said to ultimate scorn and laughter.
Ratchet glanced at the young kids in the room. "Come line up and get dinner, infants. You're first and then the adults. Elders are going to be served a plate and drink so stay where you are."
"We are?" Corr said with a smile. "We can help, Sonny."
"We know. Consider it one of your Christmas Surprise presents," Ratchet said with a giant smile.
"Cheapskate!" a voice said from somewhere in the room.
Everyone looked around, then spotted a smirking Cliffjumper, a beaming Buzzie and a tiny femme of almost spectacular beauty standing in front of both who sat on the floor by the windows. The baby was snatched up almost immediately by Blondi.
"Mine," Blondi said. "All of them are mine."
"It's spreading, Prowler. Your psychosis is communicable," Ratchet said.
HUGE laughter greeted that.
The line went on, infants were settled to eat, then everyone else began to gather up to get their grub. By that time Optimus and Ironhide had theirs brought to them by their ball and chains, the elders were eating and everyone else was hoofing it to the buffet. Prowl and Ratchet squeezed in and stood with a plate in line.
"Ah, this is the life," Ratchet said to goad Prowl. "All that's missing is pretender gear and the Belagio."
"That's an amazing place," Prowl agreed.
"But the aftermath leaves something to be desired," Sunstreaker said from a chair nearby. Earlier …
^..^
"And these are my grand genitors, my Appa Styre of Praxus and my Amma Stealth of Praxus," Prowl said as he introduced the twins to their newest previously unknown family.
They shook hands as Styre and Stealth stared upward as the handsome faces of their newest grandsons (in-law).
"I'm so happy to meet both of you," Stealth said with a smile. "Your children are so lovely. It's so good to know you at last."
Sideswipe grinned. "I'm glad you made it. Its a tough life out there and we need to find everyone. Are you settled in okay?"
"We are," Styre said glancing at his beaming son and son-in-law, Venture and Miler. "Our son and Milie have done everything for us. It was amazing to stay at The Residence."
Sunstreaker nodded. "Whatever you need, call us. We'll come."
"Thank you," Stealth said as he hugged Sunny.
Sunny hugged him back.
He meant what he said.
=0=RvIH™
They began to settle, some near the windows between the Christmas Surprise trees and some along walls. A soft buzz filled the air as they dined. The school kids sat on the floor near Springer and Drift eating their food as they glanced around clearly amazed to be in such august company. They'd gathered on a street corner in Iacon waiting for the Watch to pick them up. When the big mechs arrived, they clambered onto the back of the horses, then rode to The City and the party, a laughter filled jolly adventure for everyone.
Most of them were due back home at some point to join the festivities there but nearly all of them were prepared to spend the whole orn with the bots here. They were excelling at school, working hard on their training to be good medics and junior G-Men as well as helping unknowingly their families to accept and even grow in the new paradigm. Only a handful of families were unhappy about their efforts and newly found interests but they kept it to themselves. Their kids were happy. Maybe they would outgrow it.
Or not.
Stories buzzed around the room …
"Then I climbed out and ran like a gazelle."
Everyone grinned at Sandstorm relate crimes of a past that was known to few and lamented by no one.
"You were a robber?" a little Auxiliary femme from the group asked with big optics.
"Things were different in those orns, little Missy," Sandy said as he grinned at the little femme. He rapped his beer bottle on the floor drawing everyone's attention. "Who in this room has a police record or should have one?"
Huge laughter went up and so did more than half the servos in the room.
The little femme and her other partners in law enforcement glanced around then she grinned. "That was then. This is now."
HUGE laughter and agreement greeted that, then the little femme was given a huge piece of cake from Sandstorm who reached over his head to pull it from the table next to him. They would sit together on the floor, her eating cake and listening to him with wide optics as he told her of his life in the poor lane. It would be educational.
"Ada."
"What, Praxus?"
"I can have cake?"
Ratchet leaned over to look at a tiny version of himself who stared back with a gigantic smile. "You want cake?"
"I want cake, PLEASE!" He giggled as every kid in the room turned around to look at him.
"CAKE!" -every kid in the room
Moments later …
"Thank you, Amma," Ratchet said as he lounged in his chair.
"You're welcome, Sonny," Docker said with a smile as she cut pieces of cake and other elders led a child away to sit and eat it. "We got this, infant."
"No one doubts it, Amma," Ratchet said with a grin. He sipped his beer. His plate was refreshed, his beer was cold, the babies were in servo. All was well as hell.
=0=Out there
A scout ship slipped into the sensor range of Homeland. It sped forward, shot out a sensor burst, then flew back to where it had come. A bridge opened, it slipped through, then was gone.
Nearby at Sun Base, Cole who was a regular army commander of Autobot legend was running the show for the newbie group who were skeleton crew on world for their joor. He noted the flash, the bridge, then glanced at the overall data scrolling overhead.
Musing on it, a little femme Home Guardsman glanced up at him. "What do we do, Commander? Do we tell the Prime?"
Cole considered that. "Not yet, Dixie. We need more data. Send the Seekers out to gather it," he said as he walked to tactical to sit and ponder the possibilities. Seekers flew out, the skeleton crew and disappeared into the sky. It would be a short interlude by their own bridge to get there, scan deeply and well, then return. Cole would ponder the data for a while.
=0=RvIH™
They sat around the apartment, several others, the hallway and around the corner of the corridor eating, drinking, laughing and relaxing. It was beautiful inside the apartments and the interlude was long overdue. The next round of football games were wagered, a round of moaning when someone mentioned there would be no other major holidays after the New Year/Memorial Day celebrations until just about Festival in what the humans called July.
Lights twinkled inside and out as they waged good humor and togetherness. All around the great colony those who were long time residents and those who had just arrived watched the velvet night filled with illumination outside their homes. It was peaceful here. It was wondrously like Cybertron though the feel of it was just about all that most of them thought hadn't changed. The rest … the inequity, uncertainty, oppression and deprivation was gone and not missed. The feeling of belonging, of enough of everything, of opportunity and joy would eventually become 'normal' but for many that was a work in progress.
The party warbled onward, lies were told, cake and other desserts parted out as the crowd came and went, rotating through the one joor on, one joor off schedule of holidays on Mars, Cybertron and the Empire. Kids would run in circles laughing and playing. Animals would mooch for food. Elders would tell about how it was 'back in the orn' and the youngsters would lap it up. Sitting among them with a sense of elation they never felt before, Styre and Stealth of Praxus would enjoy themselves for the first time in eons.
Missing in action would be Shadow and Zenith.
=0=Cole
He sat in front of the screen watching the situation out in deep space. The Seekers had returned and the news was weird. The ships had Cybertronian signatures of a type they had never seen before. It was Cybertronian and it wasn't. He needed more data so instead of rotating out, he stayed and was joined by other commanders of great experience and skill who came and then stayed, too, to work out the anomaly that had appeared out of nowhere. The kids would go home and come in on the regular schedule. It was, after all, Christmas Surprise.
=0=TBC 1-7-2020