The Diego Diaries: Cloudy, No Bull (dd7 370)
=0=Later that night
"What the frag."
"Need a hand, Ironhide?" Ratchet asked from the doorway.
A frown greeted that. "Are you telling me that these runts are besting me?"
Ratchet gave him a dazzling smile. "Who? Me?"
Ironhide grinned as he looked down at four little kids in a tub. Prowler, Hero, Praxus and Orion were smiling at him, then Halo sat up from under water and spit some out of her little mouth. "Little goofballs."
"ATAR! LOU DOIN'?"
Halo laughed. "ATAR DOIN'!"
Everyone laughed, then looked upward at Ironhide with smiles.
Ironhide chuckled. "Sure," he replied.
It was bedlam for a moment before they were hosed off and dried. The big kids were in their lounge with Sunspot and Bos, another kid they shared. Ironhide had actually made an internal spreadsheet for the number and kinds of kids that were apparently his.
"Time to go to recharge," Ratchet said.
"ADA! LOU GET ME, ORION!" He took off like a bat with four little kids racing after him at top speed and at the top of their vocal capacitors.
They watched them jet past, then glanced at each other.
"You go first, slagger. I have to put this back together," Ratchet said as he looked at the disarray of towels, water on the floor, a soapy tub filled with water and forgotten toys.
Ironhide grinned as he handed Ratchet a wet cloth. "Piece of Celebration cake."
Ratchet watched him head down the hall, then grinned. "If you say so, slagger."
Screams and running feet commenced. Ratchet let him figure it out. It would take Ironhide a while.
=0=Up there
It was quiet in the living room where the two gathered after the family left and the children were tucked in. Prowl had made their evening snack and hot cups, bringing them in to place them on the end tables by their chairs. He sat, then glanced at Orion. "What do you think about your orn?" He grinned. "Your evening snack. Its something you like. We have it and talk together before recharge."
Orion nodded, then picked up the small plate with different pastry-looking items on it. They were beautiful, evidently high caste and like nothing he'd ever seen before. Some part of him worried that there might be penalties eating something he could never afford himself nor be allowed to buy anyway. Some part of him wanted to stash it in subspace to give to his genitors when Prowl wasn't looking.
You can take the bot out of The Jumble but …
"This colony is a beautiful and wonderful thing," he said as he bit into a cookie-like item. The flavor was astonishing. He stared at it, then Prowl. "This is very tasty. Thank you."
Prowl who was sipping his drink grinned slightly. "These are your favorite things."
Orion considered that, then bit into the item again. "We took the trains everywhere. Ironhide and Ratchet are amusing company."
"Ratchet is a loon," Prowl said. "I call him that because he's the opposite of me. Apparently he grew up a block or so away from your own. He remembers seeing you as a young mech but you never met."
"There were thousands of mechs and femmes living in The Jumble. You could lose track of someone in the streets and they might be standing right next to you without you actually seeing them," Orion said. "I find it strange that our home there is being preserved."
"We don't want anyone to forget what we did as a society to our own. I also don't want anyone to forget that the greatest Prime we ever had came from humble circumstances. What you own in possessions doesn't equate to greatness. Too many had that opinion and look at what happened," Prowl said. "You banned The System and the Pantheon along with Primus Himself underscored that fact."
"I find it strange to hear this," Orion said. "I do not doubt your words but it feels like you are talking about another mech altogether."
Prowl nodded. "This is temporary."
Orion considered that. "It may be that there is no way to return everyone to their former existences."
Prowl glanced at him. "I refuse to countenance that outcome. What's been made can be unmade." He stared at Orion. "I realize the position you're in and how difficult this may be for you. I once suffered amnesia due to a wound and it was a terrifying event. But I believe that this will work out in the end to return you to yourself."
Orion considered that. "I do not remember what that is but the evidence surrounds me. If this is the life I lived and wanted, it is my hope that I can remember it again."
Prowl considered the pensive tone in Orion's voice. "It was and you loved it. You never expected it. You were so good to your people, doing their business and never thinking about your own needs and desires. This life is your oasis."
Orion glanced at Prowl. "It would appear so."
It was silent a while as they ate their snacks and drank their cups of hot tea, then Prowl glanced at Orion. "What do you really think thus far, Orion? About the colony? About your life and the things you're learning about what you did for your people and Cybertron?"
Orion looked at Prowl. Prowl was very, very handsome he thought. Handsome and brilliant. "You are said to be devoted to me."
"I am because I love you," Prowl said. It was never hard to speak from his spark to Optimus when they were alone. Now, it was only slightly different with the familiar stranger sitting next to him. Orion was still Optimus, after all.
Orion stared back. "I have been told that by many. I find it … I never expected a normal life when I was this age, Prime or not. My age now that is as a younger mech. I never felt it was in the cards. There was something big waiting for me, something I did not know for certain. This I believed somehow. I did not know if I would be a part of it in a significant way or just a soldier in the vanguard. I knew it was going to help Cybertron and our people but how? I did not know. I believe I do now."
"We would've gone into extinction, I believe, without you."
"Before … this … what happened between us?" Optimus asked.
Prowl smirked slightly. "I was a very tense, self contained and cold individual. I was all business all of the time. I didn't have any good thing to say about The System but I was so driven by the job that I had no time for anyone outside of their utility toward winning the war.
"You were open, genuinely brilliant, learned faster than anyone I ever met and intuitively capable of doing the hard things well and without waffling about it," Prowl said. "You and I clashed. I'm noted for throwing and breaking things when frustrated. I excel in overturning furniture."
Orion grinned. "I see."
Prowl smirked slightly. "I'm rather infamous for some things." He looked at Orion. "I loved you the moment I saw you. You were genuine and wonderful. We didn't actually speak about this thing between us until we met up again just a few years ago."
"I am not given to emotional displays and sentiment in public. I am … sadly serious," Orion said.
"I find you wonderful," Prowl said.
"My genitors hold you in great love and appreciation," Orion said. "That is a very good reference for me to know."
"Your genitors are the greatest pair I ever met," Prowl said.
Orion grinned slightly. "I will not argue. Your own are very kind and welcoming."
"Now," Prowl said. "We have a good family and circle of friends. You're the center of our world and the glue that holds things together. You will return to yourself. This I know."
Orion nodded. "I hope that wherever and whatever I am supposed to be that I can be that one."
"You will again," Prowl said with a determined cast to his voice. "This I believe."
=0=Down there
They sat in their chairs as Ratchet called up a program on the monitor. There were humans, large animals and an arena.
"What's this?" Ironhide asked as he sat eating a snack in his chair.
"This is genius. This is called 'The Greatest Wrecks 2018' from the Professional Bull Riders Association."
"What's a bull and who rides it?" Ironhide asked.
"Well, its a huge bovine called a Brahma or Charolais and it weighs up to a ton or more of pure muscle and horns." Both Ironhide and Ratchet glanced to the windows where Robby was standing in his sleep. Both stared at him, each other, then the monitor where images of the huge beasts were shown. "Uh ..." Ratchet said as he called up the internet for information. "A human rides on the back of those things and hangs on for 8 seconds to win. If a bull is strong and good, it earns you points for how you ride it and how long. The bull will buck you off and then stomp your internals."
It was silent as they saw huge bulls do that on the screen.
"The guys in the funny clothes are called either rodeo clowns or bull fighters who are supposed to help draw the bull off when they make the human rider kindling. You hang on with one hand and don't touch the bull with the other or you're disqualified. No one ever walks away without injury."
Ironhide considered that, then grinned. "My kind of sport."
Ratchet smirked. / … or as you call it … foreplay .../ "This is considered the most dangerous sport in the world. The bulls don't get hurt but the cowboys do. They hold onto a strap in front and another one is placed at the back. That strap in back is usually protected so it won't hurt the bull but just remind them to buck hard. Apparently, that's the only reason they raise these creatures. Some of them are worth staggering amounts of money."
Ironhide glanced at him, then the screen. "Let's go then."
They would go.
=0=Up top
It was dark in the berth room as they lay together in each others arms. Orion hadn't objected when Prowl in his neediness turned to him. Now it was a given. The room was dark and warm, light outside weakly streamed in.
"Thank you, Orion, for helping us with this," Prowl said softly.
Orion considered what to say. "I will help you, Prowl."
"You always do," Prowl murmured softly.
=0=Down there
"So … he stayed on 8 seconds, got bucked off and still did good," Ironhide mused on a bull named Spit Fire who had bounded his 2,000 pound body like a mad rabbit. He'd bucked the cowboy off and during the mayhem that followed stepped on him a few times before heading for the tunnel that would get him out of there. Now the cowboy was being swept onto a stretcher to be taken off.
"Yep," Ratchet said. "Its complicated."
Ironhide grinned. "Apparently." He glanced at Ratchet. "Do you have other games, too? I like this one a lot."
"You're quite the horseman, Ironhide. You own about eleven and you play in sports, adult professional sports like football and basketball. You also said you were going to take up golf and play baseball if there is a team start up."
Ironhide glanced at him. "I don't know half the games but I sound amazing."
Ratchet laughed. "You are."
Ironhide grinned at the ravishing stranger sitting next to him with a big smile on his face. "What else am I good at?" he asked with a low purr.
Ratchet who felt the tinglies in spite of himself considered that question with exaggerated thoughtfulness. "Well, I can think of a thing or two but they involve body slamming and punches to the face."
Ironhide chuckled. "Sounds like fun."
"It is," Ratchet purred as he leaned closer to Ironhide.
Ironhide felt his systems flutter, then leaned in closer with a smokey optic leading the charge. "Why don't you show me?"
Ratchet leaned so close he could feel the vibration of excitement in Ironhide against his lips. "I will."
Ironhide felt his flutter valves quiver in just the right places. "You will."
Ratchet leaned in so close their lips almost touched. "Sure. When you bring me a note from your ada." He sat back with a luscious smile.
"Frag," Ironhide said before he laughed long and loud. Then they get back to the bucking bulls.
It was actually a very great evening. edited
=0=TBC 9-4-2020 Some of my mom's ranching family rode in the rodeos. (row-dee-oh) You can watch bull riding on Youtube at the Professional Bull riders channel, PBR