Margo grabbed Optimus's front window. "Megatron's death wasn't your fault," Margo said soothingly.
"I am well aware," Optimus said. "However, I... always held hope he'd change for the better before the end."
Margo squeezed the glass frame comfortingly. "You'll be okay."
Optimus turned his head to look at his charge. "I am aware. However, though Megatron may be dead, the Decepticons are not without leadership. Starscream is just as dangerous under the correct circumstances."
Margo patted him reassuringly. "You'll do great. You have for millennia, after all. I know you will."
Optimus nodded.
A loud explosion had him jumping and pulling out a blaster.
"Decepticons!" Ratchet yelled warningly, pulling his own scalpels. Margo sat up.
Raf coughed. "No, just my volcano." The paper mache creation deflated. "Or, it was."
"Hold it still, Bulk!" came Miko's voice. "Jupiter needs its red spot!"
Margo poked her head out from Optimus's window and sat back against his neck. "Mimi, you always put-"
"Oopsie!" Miko said, a drop of red paint falling to the floor.
"-too much paint on your brush," Margo finished lamely.
"And don't call me that, fuckstick!" Miko growled.
Margo shrugged and curled up against Optimus's cabling.
Arcee picked up an exhaust pipe contemplatively. "Maybe it needs one of these doohickeys."
"You're a motorcycle, Arcee. Shouldn't you know how to build a motorcycle engine?" Jack asked teasingly.
"You're a human, Jack," Arcee answered back. "Can you build me a small intestine?"
Margo hummed. "I mean, he could, but he'd need a human female and nine months."
"MARGO!" Jack yelped.
"JACK!" Margo mocked.
"What are you doing?" Ratchet asked.
"Science fair projects," Jack said. "They're due tomorrow."
Optimus turned his head to Margo. "Where is yours?"
"Mine's a mold experiment. Location-sensitive. And already mostly done. I've just got to record the final growth tonight, and I'll be fine," Margo said. She yawned and stretched, collapsing lazily against Optimus's cabling. "Two fucking months, it's been driving me up the fucking wall."
A beeping caught Optimus's attention.
"What's that alert for, OP?" Margo asked.
"It is designed to alert us to a moving energon source, whether inside of a living being or exposed," Optimus said.
"So, since it's not you, it's gotta be the cons, yeah?" Margo asked tiredly.
"Most likely," Optimus said. "Bumblebee, your assistance with Raf's project must wait. There is a moving energon alert."
"But Optimus, the projects are due tomorrow!" Bumblebee protested.
"And why are you enlisting their help anyways?" Ratchet continued. "What would Bumblebee know of your volcanoes, or Bulkhead of your solar systems, or-"
"Or Arcee of our motorcycles?" Jack asked for extra emphasis on the irony.
"Exactly!" Ratchet said.
"Ratch, I'm gonna stop you right there," Margo said. "I'm pretty sure Bulk, 'Bee, and 'Cee are just helping with the heavy lifting, like actually making the volcano or making sure the planets don't touch the floor while they're drying, or the assembly of the engine. All the research is already done and typed."
"Exactly!" Miko jumped in immediately.
Jack looked helplessly at the collection of materials. "Yeah, exactly!"
Margo blinked as Optimus picked her up and put her on the couch. "You haven't done any actual research, have you?"
"I have!" Raf said.
Miko and Jack remained silent.
Margo pinched the bridge of her nose. "Fucking teenagers."
"You're a teenager!" Miko yelled.
"I'm hardly a typical teenager!" Margo riposted. "I actually have everything I need to get the project done in three hours as long as my host-brother doesn't hog the printer again! You don't even have it typed?"
Jack scratched the back of his head.
Margo collapsed dramatically against the faded couch. "You're all useless. Ratchet, do your worst."
The projects were, predictably, a disaster of epic proportions.
Miko's Cybertron model had fallen off its string and cracked the tile. Jack's 'motorcycle engine' was uncontrollable, and ended up destroying a door. Raf had accepted the model volcano graciously, but then spent half the night remaking it correctly so his poster board didn't look out of place. He fell asleep in the middle of his presentation, but at least a hole wasn't blown through the roof.
"And, Margo?" Optimus said. The girl lifted her head tiredly and made a questioning noise. "How did you do?"
"I got an eighty-nine to Miko's five for 'bringing fiction to a science classroom', Jack's forty-eight for 'being unable to control your project and lack of poster board' plus the hundred fifty-dollar damages fine for buying the door that made him sell his moped, and Raf's asking for a postponement, which automatically results in losing ten percentage points," Margo said.
"Well, on Cybertron, you would've been awarded the highest honors!" Ratchet said angrily.
"This isn't Cybertron, ya old bag of shit!" Margo riposted.
"Ya know, maybe they should've just told Ratchet to back the fuck up," Bumblebee blooped.
"Indeed, Bumblebee. The children would have been wise to stray from Ratchet's path," Optimus agreed.
"And don't curse, ya dickhead. Only I'm allowed to do that," Margo chided.
Yes, it's short. Sue me.