"Hey, Kade! Could you pass us that box of ornaments?" Cody pointed to a box right next to where the redhead was sitting.
Kade snapped out of his thoughts and looked around for the mentioned box. "Here." He said, handing the box to Graham, who was standing on a stepping stool to reach the top of the tree.
"Thanks." Graham took the box and continued to hang up decorations.
It was Christmas Eve, and the Burns Siblings were busy decorating the bunker like they did every year. Normally the tree would've been done days ago, but with Graham in the Pacific Northwest, Kade at the Mainland Training Center, and Dani stationed in Faxian, there was no time to set it up.
This year, Chief was hosting a dinner party, and it was only a few hours before the bots and Greenes arrived.
Dani, who was wrapping ribbon around the tree, glanced at a sulking Kade and noticed he was still fidgeting with a small wrapped box. She frowned at his demeanor and looked for something that could cheer him up. She made her way over to him with a box filled with tinsel and offered it to him. "Wanna help us hang the tinsel on the tree?" She asked.
He was about to turn down her offer but Dani was insistent. "It could get your mind off things for a while."
He thought for a few seconds and accepted the box of tinsel with little interest. His sister flashed him a warm smile before going back to her own task, leaving him alone with the tinsel and his little wrapped box. Kade glanced at the small box before placing it in his pocket for safekeeping and with a still dull attitude, he dragged himself over to where his siblings were decorating the 10-foot tree.
"I'm sorry Hayley couldn't come." Dani lamented from the other side of the tree. Kade frowned at the reminder but continued to hang small amounts of tinsel on each branch.
"We know how hard you worked on the surprise, Kade. Sorry, it didn't work out." Graham placed a hand on his brother's shoulder to offer some comfort.
"She'll be here for Mid-Winter though." Cody tried to lift his spirits but his attempt was futile.
"Yeah..but it won't be the same." Kade let out a heavy sigh as he placed the last strands of tinsel on the tree. Once the task was complete, he went back to sulking on the couch, paying no mind to the concerned looks his siblings' were exchanging.
Not long after, they heard the ground bridge turn on in the other room and loud footsteps began marching towards them. Heatwave was the first to arrive followed by Boulder, Salvage, and Blurr.
"Hey, guys!" Cody set the box of ornaments down and walked over to greet the bots.
"Hey, Cody!" Blurr smiled at the small human.
"Anything we can help with?" Salvage asked, looking at the half-decorated room.
"You could help with the garland." Dani pointed to a large box that looked to be filled with grass.
"Sure. What do we do with it?" Salvage picked it up and was surprised to find it was a string made up of pine branches tied together.
"I'll show you." Boulder motioned for him and Blurr to follow him and led them to the other side of the bunker.
Heatwave stood in place and observed the decorations. After participating in this celebration many times, he still didn't understand the need to go all out with festive ornaments, only to put them away the day after Christmas. Still, his human allies seemed to enjoy it; and judging by the chuckles coming from the other side of the bunker Blurr, Salvage and Boulder did too.
The firebot continued looking around and saw his partner lazily sitting on the sofa. He subconsciously rolled his optics and was about to reprimand him for his laziness but stopped when he saw a frown painted on his face.
"What's wrong with Kade?" He tilted his helm down to Cody.
"Hayley is out of town with her family and he's taking it pretty bad." The blonde quietly replied, his face was painted with concern for his brother.
"Why? It's not like she's moving away." Heatwave frowned at his partner's behavior. It wasn't like him to act clingy.
"It's not that." Cody began to explain. "He was planning to propose to her today."
Heatwave's jaw dropped and his expression changed to one of pure shock. Kade hadn't mentioned anything about proposing to Hayley. It took him a few seconds to properly process Cody's words and a few more to compose himself before approaching the sulking redhead. "I'll go talk to him."
Cody nodded and watched the firebot confront his older brother while he went back to hanging up the last ornaments on the tree.
The ground bridge soon turned on again, this time with an orange portal that transported Quickshadow, HighTide, and Blades; the latter donned a beaming smile upon seeing the festive decorations being put up.
It was no secret that Blades loved Christmas. He enjoyed any and every celebration but Christmas left a warm feeling in his spark and the only other holiday that came close to giving him that sentiment was Mid-Winter. Both holidays were pretty similar but Christmas meant TV specials, catchy carols, and colorful decorations and despite Mid-Winter's deep meaning to Griffin Rock, Christmas was the rotary's favorite holiday by just a little.
Quickshadow and HighTide watched the mesmerized bot find his way around the room before exchanging twin shrugs and going their separate ways.
HighTide made himself comfortable on one of the crates in a far corner of the room and watched the others talk animatedly while putting up colorful decorations. He had heard of this so-calledChristmasbefore but this was the first time he participated in the event. Much like at Earliween and Thanksgiving, Blades had asked him to come. The Scrubber Initiative project was temporarily paused for the Holidays so there was no point in staying to monitor the base so the old seabot gave into the rotary's pleas once again.
So far it didn't seem too bad but that didn't mean he was enjoying himself either. He found himself secretly hoping Cece would show up so he could share more of his stories with her. The young girl made an excellent audience and though HighTide would never admit it, he enjoyed seeing her brown eyes widen with quiet surprise whenever he got to a plot twist in his anecdote.
Quickshadow found herself leaning on a wall, analyzing her surroundings. The colorful decorations around the room seemed vaguely familiar and took her a few years back to when she was tailing the restless Madeline Pynch throughout Europe. She vividly recalled seeing infinite colored lights and beautifully decorated trees as she drove through the streets of London, chasing a new lead on the entrepreneur's whereabouts.
The concept of Christmas was by no means new to her. She'd seen many variations of the holiday throughout the years she had been on Earth and she noticed it was celebrated a tad bit differently in different places.
Some cities held festivals, many were laced with colorful lights and others had massive trees decked out in shiny spheres of various sizes and colors for the enjoyment of the community.
On the other side of the spectrum, she found the holiday to be much less noisy and extravagant in rural areas. Children found joy playing in wide fields covered in the soft form of precipitation she now knew as 'snow' and most of the festive rituals were held in the intimacy of one's home.
The tranquil manner in which under-crowded towns celebrated had its charm. It felt more real and down to earth.
She didn't exactly know the motives behind the holiday but despite the many forms she's seen it being celebrated, a single variable always seemed to be constant.
Family.
As she glanced around the room, she realized that variable was present there too and it brought a strange yet pleasant warmth to her spark to think that despite the eminent physical differences that drew the line between the cybertronians and earthlings present in the room, both parties were able to overlook the fact that they weren't blood or energon related and merge into a large, chaotic but close-knitfamily.
Her back struts leaned further back on the wall holding her up as she felt the warmth in her spark slightly diminish.
Despite being exclusively invited to Chief's Sunday dinners, being constantly accompanied by Cody and Frankie when the opportunity arose, and now being with Heatwave, she still debated her position in their family. She was stealthy and accustomed to lurking in the shadows yet ironically, she felt like a thorny rose in a patch of daisies.
Acceptance wasn't the issue. She knew the Burns and bots accepted her into their bunch but she still didn't feel she belonged.
"Merry Christmas, Quickshadow!"
She subtly flinched at the voice and looked down to see Cody smiling up at her.
She reeled back from her spiral of thoughts and focused her attention on the small human. "Hey, Cody." She matched his smile.
"How do you like the party so far?" He asked, ever the gentleman.
"I find the decorations pleasant to the optic," she replied truthfully.
His smile grew. He was glad he and his sibling's hard work had paid off.
"Though I am still a bit confused on the meaning of this whole celebration." She admitted.
"Oh, that's easy." his smile somehow grew even more. "It's about family. Gathering and celebrating with the people you care about." He gestured to the bots and people around the room.
So her assumption was correct.
"It's also about being generous and giving back to the community." This time he signaled to the colorful boxes stacked under the almost-finished tree.
A bit off but still.
She nodded and thanked him for his insight.
"Cody! It's your turn to pick the tree topper this year!" Dani called as she climbed down from the short ladder she was on.
A twinkle of excitement shone in the boy's brown eyes and he turned and ran over to his siblings but not before motioning for the agent to follow him.
Curious, she trailed after him and watched as Graham held out a box containing an angel with feathered wings and a shimmering golden star to the boy.
Cody looked over his options for a few seconds before reaching for the star.
Dani grinned at his selection. "It's always the star with you." she held back a chuckle.
Cody sheepishly smiled and shrugged. Dani motioned to the ladder behind her but Cody shook his head.
"Could you give me a lift, Quickshadow?" He asked, pointing to the very top of the tree.
She was surprised by the question and was rather confused about the whole ordeal but she couldn't say no. She kneeled down and held her servo out for him to step onto and carefully lifted the boy.
On the other side of the room, Heatwave had been talking to a redhead who was still very much upset.
"Why am I just hearing about this now?" the mech asked, mildly offended his partner hadn't told him about something this big.
"You were constantly busy and besides, it's not like you have any experience in the matter." He shrugged but couldn't hide his smirk.
Heatwave simply rolled his optics. "Your point?"
It was Kade's turn to roll his eyes.
"I wanted to give her the ring disguised as a present while everyone was opening their gifts, but that opportunity went out the window." He sighed. "Any ideas on how to ask her now?"
"Just give it to her as a late Christmas gift when she gets back." The red firebot shrugged, dismissing the thought of being creative.
"Nah, that's too simple." Kade shook his head. "I want it to be special."
"I don't get why you're getting so worked up about asking a simple question." He cocked an optic ridge.
Kade glanced at the femme on the other side of the room who was holding up his younger brother and shot a coy smirk at the mech. "Not yet."
He walked away, leaving a flustered Heatwave to suppress the energon rushing to his faceplates.
He glanced over to where Quickshadow stood holding the small boy as he placed the star on top of the tree. He felt his sparkbeat quicken at the smile she wore when she saw the satisfaction on Cody's face. He couldn't help but smile to himself as well.
Quickshadow returned the small human to the safety of the ground and felt optics on her. She glanced around the room till her optics locked with Heatwave's for a fraction of a second.
She smirked when he turned away in an attempt to hide his flustered face from her and decided to go greet him. Heatwave watched her make her way over to him and began mentally preparing himself for the flurry of snarky commentaries she would make.
From the opposite side of the room, the rotary noticed the exchange of smirks and flustered faceplates between his leader and teammate, and with him being Blades, he obviously perceived it as flirting and excitedly nudged Dani.
She looked over at the two and felt a smile tug at her lips. "Don't look directly at them, they might see you!" She whispered and gazed down at the large box of decorations she was just rummaging through and waited for her partner to do the same.
While they pretended to be invested in the items, they snuck a few glances at the two bots and watched them like predators stalking their prey.
As she was rummaging through the box, her hand grazed over an item and she unconsciously picked it up. When she looked down she saw a small branch of mistletoe and playfully lifted it to where, in her perspective, it seemed as if it was hanging above the mech and femme's helms.
"What's that?" Blades asked curiously. It was much too small for him to notice it was the same plant in almost every Christmas special he saw.
"A mistletoe." Dani held up the branch to him. The name wasn't ringing any bells. "Y'know, the small plant that couples kiss under at Christmas?" She reminded him.
"Oh yeah." He nodded. Then suddenly, inspiration hit him and he glanced from the mistletoe to the two bots across the room with a look Dani knew all too well.
"Blades." She said in a warning tone. "We agreed we wouldn't interfere with their feelings anymore. It's for them to figure out." She repeated Chase's words from about a month ago when she, Blurr, Salvage, Boulder, and Blades had tried getting them in a room alone at Thanksgiving.
"It's a harmless prank! All I have to do is make this bot-sized." He waved off her warnings.
"It's your funeral." She shrugged and left the bot to scrounge through the box for any materials he could use.
Boulder, Blurr, and Salvage soon returned from decorating the other side of the bunker and set a box of leftover garland on the floor close to where Blades stood.
His light orange optics curiously gazed down into the box and immediately noticed the vague resemblance the green branches had to mistletoe leaves. "Can I use those?" He motioned to the box and waited for a reply.
"All yours." Boulder nodded and pushed the box towards him. The rotary thanked him and began searching for something he could use to cut the garland.
"Whatcha makin'?" Salvage hovered over the copter bot, optics fixed on the small project before him.
"I'm trying to make a larger replica of this." He held out the small strand of Mistletoe to the yellow mech, who analyzed it for a few seconds before peering into the other box Blades was looking through earlier and pulling out a few large red baubles.
Blades watched as the yellow mech proceeded to trim the garland and position it with the baubles to where it looked just like its miniature version.
When he was done, he held it out to a satisfied Blades who thanked him and set off to plot his little scheme.
Not long after, Chief appeared sliding down the firefighter's pole in his old cooking apron.
The aged police officer warmly greeted the bots and sat down on an armchair with a tiresome look in his eyes.
He looked up to see the bots exchanging confused and concerned looks and felt the need to explain so they wouldn't worry. "I'm fine, just been cooking all day." A light chuckle escaped his lips.
"You wouldn't be so tired if you accepted my offer to help earlier." Dani crossed her arms over her chest.
Chief couldn't find it in him to tell her why he refused her offer so he quietly sighed and sunk further into his armchair.
Dani was good at many things but it was quite evident that cooking wasn't one of them. The girl was an alchemist in the kitchen, testing new flavor combinations and always adding in unnecessary ingredients that traditionally wouldn't go together. She was the type of chef who could never make the same thing twice because of how random her recipes were. Despite her lack of skill, she still enjoyed the task and—much to her brothers' disappointment—insisted on cooking for her family quite often.
Her brothers rated her dishes by how edible they were because they had learned long ago that they would never taste, much less look like how they're supposed to.
"I'm still available, come on." She set down the rolls of wrapping paper she was holding and began to make her way toward the red elevator.
"No!" Her brothers' sudden yells, made her stumble to a stop. She turned around with a raised brow at their behavior and waited for some sort of explanation on their behalf.
The three exchanged anxious glances, they hadn't meant to blurt at her but flashbacks of bitter flavors agonizing their taste buds clouded their minds and they spoke without thinking.
Seeing as his sister was still waiting for an explanation on their part, Graham cleared his throat to try and mend the situation. "..Y-you already helped out with the decorations, Dani." He looked to Cody for some sort of confirmation that he was saying the right thing. The boy quickly dipped his head in a nod and Graham kept going. "Maybe we should let Dad take care of the food?" He did his best to spare her feelings.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Dani furrowed her brows at him and watched him visibly gulp.
Cody stepped in, hoping to prevent any arguments. "What Graham's trying to say is—" he was cut off by Kade.
"You can't fry an egg to save your life." He looked at her with bored eyes.
Dani's jaw slightly dropped in offense. "Yes, I can! You can't toast a piece of bread without carbonizing it." She jabbed back.
"Yeah? Well, at least I've never burned watertryingto make oatmeal. Like how is that even possible?!" Kade furrowed his brows.
"Technically you can't burn—" Graham began but was silenced by Dani and Kade's sharp glares at him.
Cody, Chief, and the other bots watched the two siblings argue back and forth, not sure how to stop them.
No one had noticed the red elevator descend or the Greene's step off and witness the chaotic scene.
"We really have the worst timing," Frankie spoke and everyone turned to see them standing in front of the elevator with gift boxes in hand.
Kade and Dani piped down and went to greet them.
"Hey Doc, Professor Baranova." Chief greeted them while helping them with the boxes they were carrying. "Sorry about all the commotion." He sheepishly chuckled.
"No worries, Chief." Doc chuckled along with him and both began chatting away.
The old sea bot was now sitting up on his crate, scanning the room for Cece. The small girl was doing the same from across the room and eventually, they locked eyes/optics. Unbeknownst to him, a faint smile crept onto his mouthplates at the way her eyes shone with excitement.
She wiggled out of her mother's arms and weaved her way over to him with her stuffed frog in hand. Once she was at the foot of the crate, she reached out her small arms as if asking to be picked up.
HighTide felt every eye and optic on him waiting to see what he would do. He paid them no mind and lifted the young girl off the floor and gently set her on a nearby crate.
A few snickers and 'awes' from the others echoed around the room at the adorable interaction before they went back to whatever it was they were doing before.
"Hey, Cody!" Frankie walked towards the blonde with a wrapped box in hand. "Merry Christmas!" She extended the gift to him.
"Thank you and Merry Christmas to you too." He grinned, accepting the gift.
She engulfed him in a short embrace and followed him towards the large tree where he set his gift next to all the other presents.
"Not to pry, but what were your brother and sister fighting about?" Frankie asked, referring to the argument she walked in on.
"Dani wanted to help my dad in the kitchen and Kade straight up told her she couldn't cook," Cody explained.
"Ooh. That's harsh." She winced. "Has she tried using a cookbook?"
Cody nodded. "Yeah, but she follows the steps out of order so it never really works out." he frowned.
They changed the subject to how their winter break was going so far but were soon interrupted by Heatwave's angered tone from across the room. "BLADES!"
The two teens turned to see the mischievous rotary holding up a handmade mistletoe above an angry Heatwave and a confused Quickshadow. They exchanged amused glances and watched the firebot's face begin to turn blue.
Quickshadow had been listening to Heatwave explain why there were red stockings hung up on the walls when the rotary came over and interrupted them by hanging an abnormal-looking decoration above their helms.
Heatwave felt his cheek plates begin to burn up and tried to look confused.
"Don't act like you don't know what this is, Heatwave." Blades scoffed and swayed it directly in his face.
The red mech furrowed his brows at the rotary's annoying behavior and glanced at Quickshadow, who only lifted her shoulder pads in a shrug.
She stood observing the unfamiliar item Blades was holding up and assumed it was another Christmas decoration of sorts. She couldn't help but wonder what it meant and why it made Heatwave so uncomfortable.
"Blades! Stop it!" The firebot furrowed his brows indicating he had enough and the rotary finally ceased his teasing. He frowned at his failure but he refused to give up. He took the mistletoe and went back over to where Dani was finishing wrapping the gifts she got for her family.
She took one glance at his faceplates and immediately knew of his failure. "Told you." She rolled her eyes.
"Whatever." He muttered and set the handmade decoration into his cabin.
Quickshadow watched Heatwave sigh in relief when Blades left and raised an optic ridge at him. "What was that all about?"
Heatwave fumbled for a way to tell her. "I..uh.." that's when he felt everyone staring at them and his throat went dry.
"I'll tell you later." He promised in a whisper and walked off to another part of the room to gain control of his rapid sparkbeats.
"Hey, Quickshadow. Merry Christmas!" Frankie greeted with a wide smile, pretending she hadn't seen the awkward scene that took place just seconds earlier.
"Merry Christmas." She smiled down at the girl.
"We're gonna go outside to play in the snow. Wanna come?" Cody asked.
Quickshadow raised a brow at the intriguing invitation. She'd encountered snow many times but never stopped toplaywith it. Seeing no harm in their proposal, she glanced at Cody and Frankie's expectant faces and gave in to their request with a nod.
The two smiled and led her out of the bunker, towards the back of the firehouse where a fresh blanket of snow had fallen just hours before.
The two teens began molding the snow into an asymmetric circle and began rolling it across the ground.
She gazed down at the snow for a moment, before leaning down and scooping some up in her hand. It was cold as expected but it was also soft and malleable. It sorta reminded her of wet sand except snow wasn't as messy.
She heard snow crunching behind her and turned to see the rest of the team coming toward them.
Blades, Blurr, Salvage, and Chase ran past her and began playing around with the snow. She watched Blades and Salvage roll a snowball across the lawn, Blurr mold various snowballs and stack them up in pyramids and Chase lay on his back struts and move his arms and legs to create an interesting imprint in the ground.
Dani and Graham walked past her dragging Kade with them with Boulder trailing behind Graham. She noticed Heatwave talking to the redhead earlier and wondered why he was upset.
Doc Greene, Professor Baranova, and Chief were the last ones to appear. Each held a mug of what she could only assume was coffee.
She heard a few squeals of laughter and turned again to find Cece motioning for HighTide to put her down on the ground. She smiled in amusement and almost flinched when a warm servo discreetly wrapped around her waist.
Her optics locked with his and a lingering question resurfaced to be answered.
His cheek plates held a tint of blue and his servo slid off her waist to hold her servo.
Unaware of the scene behind them, Cody and Frankie had finished building their snowman. Cody placed the carrot he got from the fridge and placed it on its face.
"Heads up, Cody!"
The mentioned boy looked up only to see a white mass flying towards him at an alarming speed. His reflexes kicked in but he wasn't able to fully evade the impact.
He playfully glared at Frankie before bending down to make a snowball of his own. Frankie cautiously took a few steps backwards before sprinting away. Cody ran after her with a revenge-seeking snowball in hand.
A few meters away from them, Dani and Graham were still trying to lift Kade's spirits.
"I know things didn't go how you planned but try to enjoy yourself. It's Christmas." Graham pleaded with his brother.
Kade exhaled and finally realized he was being childish. "..You're right. I'll figure out some other way to ask her." His lips lifted into a small smile.
"That's the spirit." Dani grinned.
Out of nowhere, a snowball collided against the back of Kade's head causing a chill to run down his spine. "Hey!" He turned around, eyes scanning for the culprit who turned out to be his youngest brother.
Before the blonde could apologize and tell him it was a miscalculated throw, Kade was already forming a clump of snow into a ball. The snowball flew towards Cody but Frankie pulled him behind their snow wall before it hit him.
The two shared a knowing smile and began assembling an army of snowballs.
Blurr saw Kade throwing snowballs at Cody and immediately joined in with Dani, Graham, Blades, Salvage, and Boulder.
A snowball flew towards Cece but HighTide managed to shield her before it hit her. The small girl continued to roll around in the snow, unaware of the imminent danger on the other side of HighTide's servo.
Quickshadow took notice of the snowball fight happening a few feet away from her and was tempted to join.
Heatwave was still a stuttering mess and it was clear she wouldn't get anything out of him soon, so she pressed the snow she was holding in her servo and aimed at his mouth plates to shut him up.
The mech felt a chill run down his spine and quickly wiped the cold precipitation off his mouth plates and a look of indignation masked his features. Quickshadow was unable to hold back her laughter and it only added to Heatwave's annoyance. He began forming a snowball of his own and threw it at her only to miss.
Their competitive sides surfaced and both started forming multiple snowballs to throw at each other.
Chief and Doc eagerly joined the others while Professor Baranova took Cece inside before she caught a cold, leaving HighTide to be dragged into the fight.
Within minutes, the entire team—excluding Anna and Cece—were at war with each other.
Frankie and Cody were still hiding from Kade, Chief and Doc were going all out at each other but insisted it was 'friendlyrivalry'.
Blades and Boulder were helping Dani and Graham build a snow fort, Blurr was throwing large masses of snow at the other bots while Salvage was shielding the humans from Blurr's negligence.
Chase was questioning every rule in the game and HighTide was reliving some of his better days at war.
Heatwave and Quickshadow seemed to be on a battlefield of their own. The mech launched snowball after snowball but only managed to hit her a few times.
He tackled her and the two of them began rolling around in the snow trying to pin the other down. Heatwave's size was an advantage but Quickshadow's swiftness made it that much harder to hold her down. She was like a slippery bar of soap and Heatwave failed to hold her down multiple times.
Naturally, Quickshadow quickly neutralized him by pinning his knees and torso. Heatwave struggled under her grasp to no avail and finally surrendered in defeat. The agent got off him and helped him get up, a victorious smirk was plastered on her lip components and Heatwave only rolled his optics.
Surprisingly, the only ones who witnessed them fooling around were Cody, Frankie, and Chase. Luckily the three knew to keep quiet and exchanged knowing smiles before focusing on the fight they were in.
Sometime after the heated snowball fight, the cold winter winds became too much and forced everyone to retreat inside.
While everyone was removing excess snow off their bodies and frames, Blades seized his opportunity and readied himself near the open garage door with the mistletoe in servo.
The bots and humans began pouring inside and luckily, Heatwave and Quickshadow were the last two to come inside he met them at the door with a smug smile on his face.
Heatwave begrudgingly looked up and saw the mistletoe taunting him.
"Blades—" he was running on his last reserve of patience.
"You have to!" He insisted. "You'll both get bad luck if you don't—"
"We don'thaveto do anything." Heatwave abruptly cut him off.
The rotary was going to protest but a long stern glare from both parties was enough for him to chuck the mistletoe onto a nearby counter and leave them alone for good.
Everyone took the moving platform down to the bunker except the Chief who went to the kitchen to make some hot cocoa.
Down in the bunker, Anna and Cece were on the couch watching an animated Christmas film. Cece eagerly looked over the couch and tried to greet the others as they walked in.
The Chief came down with a tray full of mugs and handed them out.
"Can we open presents?" Cody asked excitedly. They usually waited to open gifts on Christmas morning, but their current projects and schedules didn't allow them that luxury so they all agreed to open them on Christmas Eve.
Chief agreed and everyone gathered around the tree. Doc brought his Minimizer to maximize the bots' gifts.
Frankie brought over a white box wrapped with a blue bow and waited for her dad to maximize it.
Cody came over and helped her push the box towards Quickshadow and took a step back to watch her open it.
"It's from my Dad and I." Frankie grinned.
Quickshadow stared at the colorful box for a few seconds before carefully tearing the wrapping paper off. She was left with a plain white box and in it was a container filled with a bluish-green substance.
"It's a face mask made out of energon!" Frankie smiled. "Technically it's metal polish fused with energon but it came out in a cream-like consistency so I consider it a face mask." She further explained.
"It's a lovely gift, Thank you." The femmebot smiled at the girl and placed the container back into its box. She slid the box into her cabin for safekeeping and watched the others rip their gifts open.
Everyone seemed pleased and content with what they received and she couldn't help but smile at the peaceful atmosphere in the room.
Soon, Dani suggested they watch a movie. She chose 'Frosty the Snowman' because she knew it was secretly Kade's favorite film since he was little.
While the others were busy setting up for the movie, Quickshadow wanted to get some fresh air. Without thinking twice, she used Blades' helipad lift to access the roof of the firehouse and was immediately greeted by a cold breeze that sent shivers down her back struts.
Her arms wrapped around her torso in an effort to stay warm as she neared the edge of the roof but the view from where she stood was almost enough to get her to forget the cold.
The landscape in front of her was covered with snow and illuminated by lights.
She didn't fully comprehend the idea behind covering a house with a million colorful lights but she couldn't deny it was aesthetically pleasing to the optic.
Mesmerized by the lights, Quickshadow stood on the roof of the firehouse and gazed at the decorated lawns across the street, forgetting how cold she felt. She was so captivated in fact, that she hadn't heard the helipad move behind her or the soft pet steps that approached her from behind.
A pair of warm arms wrapped around her shivering frame and fortunately for him, Quickshadow was able to recognize his touch.
"You're freezing," he whispered. Quickshadow watched a cloud of smoke leave his dermas with every word he spoke.
"Good thing you're not." She let her frame melt into his arms and nuzzled into the warmth of his frame.
"Better?" he asked after a few seconds.
"A little." She muttered.
She could practically see him roll his optics and smiled to herself. She leaned her helm back to look up at him but she was met with a strand of the very thing they had been avoiding all day.
The mistletoe.
She shifted her gaze to see the mech grinning down at her and a playful smile tugged at her dermas before she turned around in his embrace and looked him in the optics, waiting for him to finally explain the meaning behind the plant.
"It's tradition.." He began, "..for two people standing under a mistletoe to kiss..or else bad luck falls upon them." He rolled his optics at that last part.
Her cheeks turned slightly blue at the revelation. "So you didn't want to kiss me?" She playfully jabbed.
"What? N-no! I just-" he quickly defended. "I didn't like how Blades put us on the spot like that. I didn't want you to feel uncomfortable."
Quickshadow nodded in understanding and waited for him to make a move.
"So are you going to kiss me or are you just trying to increase our bad luck?" She quipped.
His grin only widened and he teasingly swayed the mistletoe above their helms.
Within the next few seconds, she was standing on the tips of her peds, arms wrapped around Heatwave's neck and dermas mere inches away from his. Heatwave leaned his helm down and closed the distance between them with a soft, tender kiss.
They pulled away moments later, Energon staining their cheeks. They still weren't used to giving or receiving that level of affection but was starting to feel natural.
Heatwave pulled her closer to his fame in order to shield her from the cold. Snow continued to fall around them but they didn't pay much attention. They stayed locked in each other's embrace, gazing out at the sea of lights that mirrored the starry night sky.
