The Diego Diaries: Cloudy (dd7 380)
(I considered redoing last night's part because of sleep mania and after correcting about ten spelling and keystroke errors decided to plow onward with a new piece.)
=0=There
Ironhide couldn't believe the strength of Ratchet as they rolled around in the usual manner. He was a mech of the world or so he thought but he had no idea. He didn't care at the moment, however, as Ratchet tossed him around like a frisbee. Good thing he'd soundproofed the room against the possibility of some action he thought as he lay face down with an arm bent backward and a big mech sitting on him with a grin.
"How do you like it so far, ba-bee?" Ratchet asked.
Ironhide's reply was muffled by the pillows. "I do. I like wrestling. When do we get to the good stuff?"
"First of all, Ironhide," Ratchet began as he leaned in to whisper in the big mech's audials, "you like it this way. Apparently you've confused wrestling and facing somewhere in your pumpkin head. Secondly, I can't remember the second thing."
Ironhide laughed as he humped upward tossng Ratchet halfway across the room. Rising with a grin on his face, he cricked his neck. "I forgot it, too, ba-bee. Come to Papa."
Ratchet did. Like a heat seeking missile.
=0=Over there
It was quiet in the room as they lay together. It was peaceful and the house was silent. Children slept in their little berths nearby, all of them his. Orion had thought about them a lot. They were easy to love. So was everything else including his genitors being here living the dream. He himself lived in an elegant house which Prowl worked hard to make a home. It was evident with everything that Prowl did for him and the children that he was loved passionately. It was an astonishing thing that the elegant winger from the among the highest of castes in Praxus of all places was in love with him.
Orion pulled the big mech closer and he burrowed in. Orion felt his warmth and love. He felt a lot of other things, too, as a healthy young mech but something held him back. Something inside felt like he would steal someone else's thunder if he acted on his growing attraction and impulse. It itched inside him and he couldn't scratch it.
"Orion."
He glanced down. Blue optics were staring at the wall nearby in a handsome face, a white one with a slightly muted blood red chevron. It was beautiful, that chevron. Its red color against a white face that held intense blue optics was a marvel of construction and design.
"Yes?"
It was silent a moment.
"What do you feel now? Right now?"
Orion considered that, the invitation in Prowl's voice. "I feel … loved and needed. Its a new feeling in this context."
Prowl shifted to look at him. "How do you feel about it?"
Orion stared at Prowl and considered that he loved this mech somewhere farther down the road he was on. He loved, was intimate with him in all manners possible and they shared space, lives, processors, confidences and children. "I am happy to know it. I am happy that somewhere down the line I got what I never believed I would have or even need."
Prowl stared at him, then settled back against his broad chassis. It was silent a moment, then he spoke again. "I think you and I have more in common than you know. My genitors were dynastic bonds. It was good that they grew to love each other. My grandgenitors were planning one for me. It was what we did. I never would've allowed it. I think even then I knew that I was waiting for you."
Orion stroked Prowl's shoulder a moment, a gentle touch from a mech who could tear steel out of beams with his digits. "We are worlds apart, you and me. I cannot conceive of the life you have led."
"I rebelled. I never accepted The System. We never formally met until you became Prime but I knew chapter and verse about you. I kept track of you because as the movement and your star rose, plans were being made to eliminate you. I didn't allow them to come to fruition where I could. I got word through friends to warn you … like the rally in Nova Cronum and the speeches in the north. You were told of plans to arrest or shoot you. I sent them via Ultra Magnus."
Silence prevailed a moment, then Orion nodded. "I have heard such tales, that the government isn't or wasn't pleased. I have not given those speeches or held rallies in Nova Cronum yet."
"Not yet," Prowl said. "I sent word to ensure that the actions were thwarted."
"Why?" Orion asked.
"Because I hoped you'd win. I wanted you to win. I wanted a different life for everyone. You had many enemies in the Citadel and it got to the point where I was left out of conversations. Suspicions fell on me at that point, me and two others." It was silent a moment. "I wanted you to win."
Orion considered the mech in his arms and the soft sound of love in his voice. Then he made up his mind. Pushing Prowl over gently, he stared into the big mech's optics. "You saved me then."
"A few times," Prowl said. "Good thing considering this place and life. I wanted one for everyone, to save Cybertron and our people but it didn't happen."
Orion nodded. "But you tried."
Prowl stared a Prime, at the handsome face of the only individual he ever told everything that he felt, did or thought. This was the Only One. Then he touched Orion's face gently. "In the end it works out."
Orion nodded. "It did," he said as he leaned down to kiss Prowl. There would be no more need for words for a while.
=0=There again
He lay half off the berth with his processor ringing bells of happy tidings. He grinned slightly. Maybe there really WAS something about older mechs.
Ratchet sat on the berth propped up with pillows. He grinned at Ironhide. This was a mech who needed more practice. Now that he had a note, Ratchet would make sure he got it. If you didn't use it, the humans said, you could lose it. He leaned over to look at the mech whose helm was on the floor. "You alive there, soldier?"
Ironhide laughed. "Barely. Do you still think this is child abuse?"
"I don't know. I've never abused any children. What kind of comparison would I be able to make?" Ratchet asked as he help pull the big goof back onto the berth.
Ironhide lay quietly and contentedly. "That was fun."
"It always is when you do it the first time. The trick is keeping it interesting for the 2,000,000th time."
Ironhide glanced at Ratchet with a frown. "This isn't my first time."
Ratchet smiled. "Name your other partners. Remember, I have a bond link."
Ironhide frowned deeper. "You don't. I'm not bonded to you yet."
"Once a bond, always a bond," Ratchet LIED.
Ironhide sat up to stare at Ratchet. "You're lying."
Ratchet smiled at him as he waited for Ironhide to squirm.
"Aren't ya?" he asked as his confident facade turned to ashes.
"I don't know, Ironhide. I think I want to frag."
Ironhide's optics surged a moment, then settled back. "Okay," he said with a big grin.
They would.
=0=Morning
Prowl rounded up the kids, got their bags together, then turned to Orion. He was helping Possibility get into his tiny onesie. It would always be a marvel how someone so big could manage to do tiny things anyway.
"Here, Atar," Posey pointed to a flap on his little suit as he glanced up at his father. "You do that good."
Orion grinned. "If you say so."
Prowl smirked. "He speaks well for a small mech."
Orion stood as he looked at all the kids staring back at him with mirth. "Is it time to go then?" he asked.
"It is," Rambler said with a smile. "Are you coming to watch our band class?"
Orion glanced at Prowl.
Prowl grinned. "We both are."
It was a happy mob of children that walked out the door with their big old dads for the start of another orn in paradise.
=0=Over there
"More?"
"I think I ate enough to fuel a battleship," Ironhide said. He grinned at Ratchet who smirked back at him. :249, huh?:
Ratchet set Orion on the floor. :You doubt it?:
:No. You might need to upwardly revise your standing:
Ratchet laughed aloud as he glanced at Ironhide. Then he walked to the counter where he spent a moment or two of needless activity bent over to rummage through the bottom shelves of the kitchen while monitoring Ironhide's vitals. They were revising their standing as well.
SCORE!
When everyone was ready to go so were they. A herd of children and a bouncing dog walked out with two smirking genitors toward the elevator and the bus/cab stands below.
=0=Down below
Grandparents, friends, neighbors and passels of children waited at the corner for the convoy of transportation to arrive with their attendance counting bus aides to make sure a tot didn't get on the wrong vehicle. Gossip and conversation was loud and happy as they made their way to the curb.
"Look who the dog dragged in," Ratchet said as Prowl halted beside him.
"Are you, Fido, referring to me?" Prowl asked.
"HA! I knew you'd say that because I, Ratchet can predict things from the predictable."
"You have no idea, Loon, how unpredictable I am," Prowl countered.
"HA! I RATCHET PREDICTED YOU'D SAY THAT!"
A hard jab to the chassis ended that line of amusing conversation. Everyone watched the children board buses and cabs, then disappear onward. A chat with the elders about their orn and the forking over of Halo to Appa Raptor was achieved. Ordinarily, Ironhide would have grumped himself into a tizzy but apparently he didn't remember that he did so he didn't.
Like that.
"Where are you going today, Prowl? Orion?" Turbine asked.
"We have to go to The Citadel and catch up. There's more to learn if he's going to pass for Optimus," Prowl said. "Fortunately, he's got all he needs to do it and more."
Everyone grinned at Prowl including Orion. As they turned to go, Ratchet smirked at Prowl. :Tell me about our Messiah having all that he needs. Inquiring minds and all …:
:I don't tell everything: Prowl replied smugly. :Where would that get you?:
:If it were me at Orion's age, hard labor on Sterris 9: Ratchet replied.
Prowl's amusement would carry over WIFI.
Ratchet turned to Ironhide. "How about hitting the trail unless you want to rag his aft all over Cybertron again?"
"We would," Raptor said as he slid a singing Halo into his hold and turned up the heat. Given that all the grandpas carried blankets, toys and snacks in their hold and subspace, any child they could grab on the way out was perfectly set up to be well and safe. "Come with, infant," he said to Ironhide. Raptor began to walk toward The Fortress with everyone following.
Ratchet watched them go, then glanced around. "Yes. I'll just … I'm going over … somewhere." Ratchet laughed, then headed toward the Med Tower and a catch up session with She Who Must Be Obeyed™ otherwise known as Lee-Lee.
=0=TBC 9-15-2020 edited