Oh no…Bumblebee…the twins…and a sparkling…together and unsupervised! BEWARE! Keep you children, nieces and nephews, grandchildren (hey, you never know who's reading), and pets away for safety!

The Recreation Room

It took all of a minute for Bumblebee to get over his fear. Even when Magnus glared at him he couldn't stop laughing. It was a sight to see the huge City Commander holding the little, bubbly, giggling sparkling as far away from his lubricated armor as possible.

"Bumblebee, don't make me order you to stop laughing," Magnus growled menacingly.

"I'm trying," he cackled.

(giggles!)

"At least he must feel better now," Bee smiled, then burst into laughter again.

Magnus was not amused. Bumblebee was laughing. The sparkling was laughing and kicking his feet excitedly as he dangled in the air. Magnus was not laughing.

"Sit!" he suddenly barked loudly at Bumblebee.

The young scout dropped fast into the closest chair. Optics wide. Form rigid with fear. More importantly, not laughing.

Even the sparkling stopped giggled. Magnus felt the little body trembling in his hands. He sighed. It was not his intention to frighten the tiny mech.

'This is just not my day,' he wearily thought to himself. To Bumblebee, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be so harsh."

Optimus chewed nervously on a finger, pulling his legs up into himself. The big red, white, and blue mech was angry. Time for the only defense he knew to use.

"I'm sorry, little one," Magnus cooed, seeing huge tears filling the sparkling optics, finger in his mouth with his bottom lip sticking out.

(wail!)

"Yeah, I deserved that one," he winced, rocking the sparkling close to his chest. It took a couple of minutes but the sparkling quieted down. Sorrowful little blue orbs looked up at him. "I think I'm mad at Optimus for not telling me about you. I'm only his best friend. Logic dictates he would have told me the happy news instead of being surprised the way we were."

(warble?)

"That's right. Your father and I grew up together. And I'm going to rip him a new aft when I see him."

The sparkling smiled, still chewing on his finger. The big mech wasn't mad anymore!

"It doesn't make sense that they left him in Wheeljack's lab either," Bumblebee mentioned. "That's not like Optimus or Elita at all."

"I know. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the fight they had," Magnus mused, glancing down at his…dirtied armor. "Still, I need to get cleaned up. Jazz should be back any minute with that towel."

Optimus was sat down on the table near the yellow and black mech. The mech tickled his belly making him giggle. Hehe. He liked this mech more than the others. He was funny.

"I'll be back in shortly," Magnus smiled, gently patting the sparkling on the head. "Bee, this sparkling better still be in one piece when I get back!"

"Of course, Sir," Bumblebee beamed gleefully.

Magnus simply shook his head, smiling then left Bumblebee all alone with the sparkling.

Wow! He was in charge of the sparkling! Bee had always hoped that one day he'd be able to sparkling sit. He remembered how Optimus and the others always took time to play games with him or comfort him when he was a youngling. He even remembered how Optimus hardly ever got mad at him no matter what he did.

"You've got a great, father, you know that little one?"

The sparkling twittered reaching for the cup Bumblebee was still holding.

"Oh, sure, here you go."

Bumblebee tilted the cup slowly, being extra careful and making sure the sparkling didn't get too much air in his holding tank as he gulped down his drink.

(burp)

"Wow! He looks just like Optimus!" Sides exclaimed as he and his brother arrived.

"Sounds more like us with that belch though," Sunny snickered.

"Good, you brought the towel," Bee noticed.

"Jazz said it was to clean the sparkling," Sides said, taking a seat and handing the towel to his best bud.

"Ah, Bee…where's Magnus?" Sunny asked, looking around the 'conveniently void of any officers' recreation room.

"He went to go get cleaned up," Bee answered, trying to hold back a laugh. He cleared his vocal processor. "Said he'd be back shortly."

Bee almost blurted out that the sparkling lubricated on Magnus then thought better of it. If the twins got a hold of that information they'd be hell to pay…in this life and the next!

"Sweet!" Sunny cheered, heading straight for the high grade supplies.

"So, he's really Optimus and Elita's sparkling," Sides exhaled, watching Bumblebee gently clean the sparkling's armor.

Wow! What's this? Optimus warbled excitedly grabbing the fluffy white thing the yellow and black mech was wiping him with. Optimus giggled, burying his face in it. It was so soft!

Bumblebee and Sides laughed at the sound of a muffled raspberry.

"Drink up mechs," Sunny grinned, setting down three cups of high grade down.

(raspberry)

"And look, entertainment too!"

"Sunny, be nice," Sides chided. "There's a difference between being cute and being entertaining."

"And I'm both."

"You're incorrigible, Sunny," Bee said, shaking his head.

Bee disagreed. The sparkling more cute than entertaining. On impulse, Bee covered the sparkling's head with the towel, waited a couple of astroseconds then pulled the towel off.

"Peek-a-boo!"

Surprised blue optics blinked rapidly looking up at him. Bee was rewarded with one of the biggest smiles he'd ever seen in his entire life. He quickly set the towel over the sparkling's head again then yanked it off.

"Peek-a-boo!"

Pure sparkling overload erupted! Squeaks, giggles, smiles, beeps, whistles, mayhem.

That was fun! Optimus liked that. So he pulled the white fluffy thing up over his own head and then pulled it off. The yellow mech and black mech said the three words again. Optimus giggled wildly. Hehe.

"You two should headline at Vegas," Sunny sarcastically commented after about the tenth time Bumblebee said peek-a-boo and the sparkling giggled.

The sparkling was cute. Even Sunny would admit that. And the little fragger looked a lot like Optimus, even the little flames on his armor matched. But Sunny could only take so much. He needed some action! And if there was no action he needed the alternative. Thankfully, he was near a supply of high grade.

"Stuff if up your tail pipe," Bee countered, grabbing his cup of high grade. "He's having fun. That's what's important."

Optimus' tank gurgled when he saw the yellow and black mech drinking. Oh! He had a cup too! Only his was empty when he looked in it. So he logically reached for one that was full.

"Sorry little mech, this one's mine," Sides smiled, patting the sparkling on the head and taking his cup out of reach. "I love your little antennas though. They're so cute."

"Yeah, you'll have to grow a bit to reach the supplies if you want any," Sunny added.

Optimus turned and watched the all yellow mech filling up the cup he was holding. The large container the liquid came from was placed on the top shelf where there were more. Optimus noticed there were little containers too for him!

"Oh hey, Bee remember that time we snuck into some high grade," Sides blurted out excitedly.

"We about drove Ratchet nuts during the couple of days we had to stay in the med bay," Bumblebee laughed. "Optimus took pity on him and tried to keep us away from him for a month."

"Only we kept going back to bug him anyway!" Sunny snorted as he sat back in his seat.

The mechs were talking and laughing loudly. Optimus looked from his cup to where the all yellow mech refilled his cup. It didn't look like they were going to get him some. And it didn't look that hard to get to the liquid that could fill his tank.

Not hard at all!

(whistle!)

"Holy Frag!" Sides sputtered spraying high grade onto the table. "How'd he get over there so fast?!"

Bumblebee turned his head, shocked to see the sparkling had climbed up to the top shelf and was perched right on the edge. A high pitch squeal of delighted sound as little hands grabbed hold of a small high grade canister.

"Frag it to pit!" Bee shouted, getting up so fast his chair fell over.

Optimus shook the container trying to figure out how to get the liquid out and into his tank. Suddenly a hand grabbed hold of him. On instinct, Optimus bit it and growled. No one was going to take his drink away!

"OWW!"

It worked! He was free. And falling. But he was tough and took the fall well. With his prized held securely in one arm he crawled away…fast.

Up next: Magnus comes back and finds chaos in the recreation room!