AN: Thanks for the positive feedback guys! Here's a set that actually became a "trilogy" of sorts. The second and third piggyback on the first, and they're all about the Prime 'Bots and their human charges spending a long day at the beach ;D


Down Time
Prompt: Vacation
Characters: Arcee, Jack, Bulkhead, Miko, Bumblebee, Rafael
Universe: Prime
Word Count: 495


"Surf's up, dude!"

Arcee sighed right along with her human partner when Miko broke through the Ground Bridge at a dead run with a hefty board held above her head. Bulkhead laughed at the young girl's enthusiasm and only checked the empty, enclosed beach once before following his charge down to the water. Bumblebee beeped in confusion at their surroundings, but Rafael promptly caught his attention, and the duo settled down on the sand not far from the diminishing portal.

The blue scout paid more attention to their surroundings than her other comrades and found it somewhat annoying that they would dismiss that small precaution. Sure she trusted Ratchet to bridge them to a relatively safe location, but a little caution never hurt.

Jack caught the motorcycle's quick survey of the area and chuckled. "Come on, 'Cee. There's no one around for miles."

"It doesn't hurt to check," Arcee insisted. She finished the quick check of the area and focused on Miko and Bulkhead, the former already swimming out towards the gentle waves that flowed towards them while the latter watched. She glanced over and caught Bumblebee raptly listening to Rafael explain the process of "sandcastles." "And what exactly was the point of this?"

"The point?" Jack repeated. Arcee tilted her head when the teenager pulled his shirt off and placed it on the sand beside the shoes he had kicked off. Bumblebee beeped in amazement as the first sandcastle was erected, and Bulkhead was beginning to go full guardian when Miko began to try and stand on top of her surfboard. "It's summer."

"So?"

"So? School's finally out, and it's time to relax."

"By getting sand in our joints and rusting at the speed of light?"

Jack sighed at the sight of Arcee's dubious look. "Come on, Arcee. Just…relax a little. We found this place just so you guys could enjoy it with us as you."

The teenager calmly went down to the water just as Miko was taking another tumble off her board. The energetic girl burst back out of the water with a call of reassurance to Bulkhead, who was tiptoeing around the very edge of the surf that washed up on shore. The sound of enthusiastic whirrs and laughter signified that Bumblebee and Rafael were enjoying their chosen activity.

Arcee merely sighed and reached up to tap the side of her helm. "Optimus?"

"Yes."

"I'm stuck here, aren't I?"

"It appears that Ratchet may be having difficulty with the Ground Bridge at the moment. Perhaps you should take the time to enjoy a game that Jack called 'volleyball.'"

"And the 'Cons?"

"Are showing little activity at the moment. Enjoy what the humans describe as a 'vacation.'"

Arcee sighed once more as the signal was dropped and stared at her group. Jack caught her gaze and gestured the ball he held at her. The scout sighed once more and reluctantly nodded.

Thus, Arcee learned that volleyball and Cybertronians did not mix well.


Sand Buddies
Prompt: Heat
Characters: Rafael, Bumblebee, Miko, Bulkhead, Jack, Arcee
Universe: Prime
Word Count: 500


Rafael chuckled when Bumblebee frantically beeped at the volleyball that barely missed their growing sand village. The scout huffed as he watched Miko run after the ball and return to the net that had been set up and beeped a few times towards the two teams that faced off. Rafael simply laughed a little more at the small, chiding speech his companion gave the others. "It's okay, 'Bee. If anything happens, we can just rebuild it."

Bumblebee whirred, and his door-wings fluttered as he scooped up a good amount of wet sand. He flexed his fingers in an attempt to dislodge the clumps of sand that made it between his joints and released a series of beeps that Rafael was prepared to respond to. "Yeah, sorry about that 'Bee. Guess I didn't really think sandcastles through, huh? We could go join the others if you want."

The yellow scout was shaking his head before the human had finished, lower octave whirrs and beeps furthering his lack of want to join the game. Bumblebee's optics quickly cycled through settings to glare at the ball that went bouncing by them again. Rafael laughed at the choice beeps his Autobot friend gave Bulkhead when the former Wrecker sheepishly apologized for how close the ball had come to knocking over the few castles they had erected. "'Bee! It's not that big of a deal. We can make more if anything happens."

Bumblebee seemed to realize how foolish he must have appeared, threatening to pop a silly ball and sticking sand up his Cybertronian companions' tailpipes if harm befell their little creations. Rafael smiled and barely acknowledged the victorious shouts coming from Bulkhead and Miko. "It's fine. I completely understand. When I'm at home and working on a computer program that's taken me hours to set up, I get really angry when I see any of my siblings anywhere near my laptop. You've worked really hard to make these sandcastles."

Door-wings fluttered up in a sign of gratitude for the little human's understanding of his overly protective behavior, and Bumblebee whirred in question of where to erect the next one. However, his whirrs were cut off when a ball plopped right down in the center of their village, spewing sand in all directions. The enclosed beach went deathly silent as both Bumblebee and Rafael stared at the ball.

"Uh…."

The sound had barely left Bulkhead when Bumblebee was ricocheting off the ground, a long, drawn out whine and erratically waving door-wings signaling his anger. He waved his finger around at the stunned group of volleyball players before snatching up the fragile ball they had been playing with and throwing it towards Arcee. The scout huffed as the bulk of his anger seemed to be tamed while the femme struggled to extract the popped remains of the ball from the wing-like kibble on her back.

Rafael gave the still faintly beeping Autobot a calming pat on the leg and began helping him rebuild their crushed sandcastles.


Surf's Up!
Prompt: Summer
Characters: Miko, Bulkhead, Rafael, Bumblebee, Jack, Arcee
Universe: Prime
Word Count: 477


"Cowabunga!"

Bulkhead tried not to cringe as he watched his human charge dive headlong into the frothy waves of the ocean. He could feel his spark thrum with worry at the sight of Miko paddling further out into the water on her surfboard. Whereas Jack now preferred to lay out in the sun with Arcee, and Rafael was now collecting seashells with Bumblebee for souvenirs, Miko—his daredevil little charge—would rather take her new surfboard and swim as far out as possible to "ride" the waves back to shore.

And that made Bulkhead internally fret.

"Bulkhead!" Miko waved from where she was sitting on her surfboard, gently floating up and down on the smaller waves that flowed beneath her. He gave her a sheepish wave back; like she needed to yell and wave to get his attention. Bulkhead was focused on her like a cybercat with a glitch mouse. She gave him a thumbs up when she spotted a big enough wave to surf. "Watch this!"

Oh, he was watching. And he was not liking the size of that wave coming up behind her. "Miko…"

"This is gonna be wicked!"

Bulkhead watched as Miko concentrated and got into a position to ride the upcoming wave. He didn't care how he may have looked, tiptoeing along the edge of the salty water. Miko was going up on her board, wobbling to and fro before becoming more stable. That certainly didn't last long though.

His spark jumped when the young human went tumbling off the surfboard. Miko had been in the middle of a raging battle with the Decepticons; she had been trapped in a completely different dimension; and been face-to-face with some of the meanest 'Cons out there.

But Bulkhead was feeling more terrified than ever when the wave passed and Miko didn't resurface.

"Miko?" Jack and Arcee had jumped up from their relaxing positions, and Rafael and Bumblebee were staring in his direction, but Bulkhead paid them no attention as he took his first steps into the salty water. "Miko!"

A pink and black blob suddenly popped out of the water, and Miko released a loud whoop as she climbed back up onto her surfboard. "Did you see that? That was wicked!"

Bulkhead reached a hand up to calm his jumping spark and waited for the human girl to drift on the waves to be flattened against his feet. He sighed and shook his head when she angled her head to grin up at him. "You finally got over your fear of the water, Bulk?"

The huge, former Wrecker sighed again at the innocent grin beaming up at her. But a small part of him couldn't resist grinning back. "A little."

"Awesome! Here, I'll show you how this all works."

Bulkhead was just happy that Miko had to come back onto the sand to teach him.