Prowl – "15," Smokescreen – "8," Bluestreak – "5"

Note Prowl's the equivalent of teen. His age-equivalency really does matter here.

"Prowl, can you watch your brothers? Your sparker and I have to go to an impromptu-meeting," Charger shouted from down the hall.

Annoyed, Prowl set down the datapad. "For how long?"

"A couple of joors, three at most."

"Yes, I can do that." He didn't want to. It wasn't because he didn't love his brothers; he just really wanted to finish reading. While chances are Smokescreen would leave him alone after he found something, there was little chance Bluestreak could focus on anything that long.

A few breems later his "sparker" emerged from another room. "We're leaving now. Both your brothers are eating some energon. Would you like some as well?" Flashfire politely inquired. Prowl looked up into his friendly optics.

"No, thank you. I'm perfectly fine fetching my own energon." His voice carried the usual clipped tone whenever he talked to Flashfire. Part of him was annoyed it never seemed to faze Flashfire anymore. Another part of him liked Flashfire but he vehemently opposed that side. Flashfire turned to fetch something from a drawer and Prowl glared into his back, thinking how this mech uprooted his life practically the moment Blacksmoke left.

It took Charger almost three decaorns to be able to care for Prowl again. She was only in the hospital for half a decaorn but the stress of losing her mate and dealing with her unborn sparkling's body proved too hard for her. Prowl at first didn't understand how she was able to cope after having a breakdown; It turned out to be thanks to her coworker Flashfire. He always thought his carrier brushed off their fights because she was unbreakable but it turned out she dealt with it by seeking out Flashfire's company. Not long after his sparker's departure this unusual mech frequently helped his carrier and him, even playing games with Prowl for joors. Having the calm and supportive Flashfire around was what eventually caused the proverbial dam inside Prowl to break.

One night Flashfire stayed late and he found Prowl whimpering in his recharge. When Flashfire managed to wake him up, the complete lack of normalcy and the nightmare caused Prowl to break down. From there on Charger had him in therapy to deal with the attacks and his sparker's departure.

It wasn't until his first upgrade he realized there was something odd about Flashfire frequently taking him home after counseling. After that he noticed Flashfire wasn't going home a lot. Once Prowl saw this mech was replacing his sparker he lashed out. Prowl hated Flashfire – everything Prowl had done to make his family right again for his sparker was unraveling before his optics. Now his sparker would never come back, all because of this stupid mech!

Charger tried getting Prowl to understand but he refused, angry at her for betraying them when he was trying to fix the family. Apparently that wasn't the best way to express his feelings because Charger only extended his therapy. Prowl thought it was stupid but it turned out to be a good measure of foresight on Charger's part. She and Flashfire bonded not too long afterwards and Prowl learned why his family was so far from normal. At the time his creators were still together everyone they knew with a sparkling was bonded, except for them. It turned out Blacksmoke refused to bond with her due to 'the chance her emotions over the bond would cause him to falter in battle and deactivate.'

So not only was home not really home anymore but he finally understood why all the fully-upgraded mechs and femmes started treating him differently when Blacksmoke left. Learning this, Prowl redirected most of his anger at Blacksmoke. But Prowl never got to express his new feelings towards Blacksmoke – whom he no longer called sparker – because they moved to a new district as soon as his creator and Flashfire bonded. They moved primarily due to the huge social taboo their family was. Here, Prowl was to act like Flashfire was his sparker in their new neighborhood. Since Prowl could never talk about his anger issues with Blacksmoke he kept it buried deep inside. Well, the issues he kept buried. The anger had a tendency to escape him.

His anger tended to come out at Flashfire but it was more because he saw Flashfire as a symbol of the façade his life was becoming. It wasn't until his new half-brother was created that he really tried holding back. The loss of his other brother never left Prowl so he vowed to be the brother he once wanted to be. Unfortunately, even by the time his other half-brother was created Prowl still couldn't fully bring himself to be that brother.

"Alright, we're leaving now," Flashfire yelled from the front door. Little Bluestreak near ran to Flashfire and gave him a hug. "If you go outside, try to let the other sparklings get a word in edgewise."

A big grin broke across Bluestreak's face. "Okay! I can do that!"

After the two left, Bluestreak immediately walked over to Prowl with Smokescreen behind him. Bluestreak launched himself onto the couch before giving Prowl his best pleading voice. "Can we play a game? We could play…" and so started Bluestreak's long list of games he loved to play. Prowl could see Smokescreen was also feeling a little anxious. This never ended well for Prowl if he stayed home with his half-brothers.

'Brothers,' Prowl corrected himself. He wasn't allowed to call Bluestreak or Smokescreen half-brothers for the same reason he couldn't call Flashfire anything but sparker. Prowl's CPU kept pointing out the errors in calling them brothers and Flashfire "sparker", constantly reminding him of his shattered family.

"How about we just go to the park?" Prowl interrupted both his thoughts and Bluestreak.

/-/

Having finished the chapter in his new datafile, Prowl saved his place and set the file aside so he could check on his brothers. He knew he should keep a closer optic on Bluestreak since he was still adjusting his motor skills and his new friends loved to push them. The twins were surprisingly advanced for being only slightly older than Bluestreak. It amused them greatly to see other sparklings fail miserably to keep up and usually they didn't play with others. However, Bluestreak's determination amused them as well so they let him in.

Prowl saw Smokescreen first, huddled over a pile of energon goodies with other sparklings. They were all watching Bluestreak and the twins swing down the rails connected with a number of short bars. Prowl sighed, wondering if he should tell Charger or Flashfire about Smokescreen's habits. Smokescreen had been smart, if not a little mischievous; he noticed others tended to follow patterns and realized he could get more energon goodies if he challenged other sparklings to games about the outcomes. Just like Smokescreen, Prowl knew playing on the bars would end one of three ways: Bluestreak would lose his concentration and fall, Sideswipe would try something fancy and fail, or Sunstreaker would be distracted and miss the next bar. Usually it was Sideswipe distracting him, but sometimes something from the side grabbed Sunstreaker's attention. It wasn't quite clear why he paid these objects an unusual amount of attention, but Prowl suspected it had something to do with their polished and vibrant appearances.

Just then, Sideswipe lost his grip, teetering on the verge of falling. Prowl saw Smokescreen perk up, a hopeful sparkle in his optic. 'Ah, so that's who Smokescreen put his wager on'. Prowl turned back and saw Sideswipe recover. His brother's group went back to silently stalking the trio with their optics. Sideswipe still hadn't given up on doing whatever the Pit he was trying to do.

Prowl decided he was not going to stand idly by and let Smokescreen win, thereby encouraging the habit. That meant one of the other two had to fall first. Obviously Prowl wasn't going to sabotage his youngest brother, so that left poor Sunstreaker. Prowl crept along just out of sight until he approached a bright, blue-green orb one of the betting sparklings brought. Carefully, Prowl moved it until he was in range of Sunstreaker, ducking behind a small wall. Now if only Sunstreaker would look to his left.

'Bingo'. Prowl rolled the orb past Sunstreaker just as the sparkling was reaching for the next bar. As he predicted, Sunstreaker watched the orb and missed. Sunstreaker fell and landed on his back with a loud crack. Sideswipe immediately jumped down and helped his twin up. Prowl could tell Sunstreaker was upset but otherwise fine so he went back and fetched his reading material.

"Smokescreen! Bluestreak! Time to go!" Prowl signaled, realizing it was getting late.

Smokescreen showed up first. "Can we stop by the energon goodie stand on our way?" Smokescreen gave Prowl his best pouty look.

"Why?" Prowl asked, lifting an optic ridge as he feigned his surprise. "Where are the ones you already had?"

"… Some sparkling stole them."

/-/

The three of them arrived home after Charger and Flashfire. Charger greeted them before taking Smokescreen and Bluestreak to get cleaned up.

"Prowl?" Flashfire called. Prowl followed his voice into the kitchen. There were a few dirty energon containers. "Can you help me with those?" Prowl obligingly started cleaning them.

"How was the park?" Flashfire asked.

"Fine."

"Anything happen?"

Prowl hesitated. On one hand he was trying to get along better with Flashfire, but on the other hand Prowl wasn't a turborat. "Bluestreak played with the twins again." Eventually Smokescreen would slip up around his creators so there was no need to turn his brother in.

"Ah yes, the twins from Kaon. What are their names again…? Sidewipe and Sunstreak?"

"Sideswipe and Sunstreaker," Prowl corrected.

"Do they know yet if they're permanently staying in Praxus or are they going back to Kaon?" Prowl understood why Flashfire was concerned for the twins. Rumors were the Decepticons were developing an interest on the city but no Autobot or Neutral knew for sure yet. Most didn't believe it and Prowl suspected whoever was deciding the twins' fates didn't either.

Shaking his head, Prowl answered him. "I've never really spoken with either twin but I haven't heard anything yet. I suspect neither has Bluestreak."

Flashfire chuckled. His youngest sparkling couldn't hold anything in. "Read anything interesting?"

Prowl pondered if he really was becoming that predictable. "Just the usual," he said lightly. He kept it hidden he was still planning becoming an Enforcer. He knew his carrier would be upset and he didn't want to explain his new reason.

"More about Enforcer tactics and training?"

Prowl jerked his head abruptly towards Flashfire. 'How does he know?' Trying to hide his shock, Prowl denied it. "I'm sorry; I don't know what you're talking about."

"You don't have to worry. I'm not telling your carrier."

Somehow that didn't make Prowl feel any more better. Prowl stubbornly refused to elaborate on anything as he stared back at Flashfire.

After a lengthy silence, Flashfire leaned against the counter and tried approaching the subject carefully. "I think it's great you're concentrating on your studies even before you start the academy. Are you planning to focus solely on becoming an Enforcer or are you thinking about trying other fields?"

"I'm not sure yet," Prowl said after some hesitation. "There are a few other fields that appeal to me, but as far as dividing my studies between two fields, I'm not sure."

"I think there are a few disciplines you'd enjoy that could equally benefit from your help. Might try looking into something with strategic planning?" Flashfire suggested.

His suggestion surprised Prowl since he was actually considering some disciplines with that nature, but it was strange hearing someone else say it. It made him slightly uncomfortable listening to Flashfire encourage him over the subject while accepting his decision to train as an Enforcer. Actually, that last part made him very uncomfortable. "Well, I'll keep that in mind."

Flashfire saw Prowl turn to end the conversation but he wasn't done. He was trying to get the young mech to open up because he was concerned about several things, this being one of them. "If you aren't certain about studying other fields, then perhaps you're uncertain about becoming an Enforcer?"

Stopping in mid-step, Prowl whirled around. He didn't like the passive-aggressive jab from Flashfire. "I am very positive about becoming an Enforcer." His tone was terse as he fought to tightly control his anger. He knew it was misplaced but Prowl didn't care. He hated it when others thought he was some fragile mech who couldn't handle being an Enforcer.

Flashfire, for his part, could feel Prowl's anger and let it wash over him. As Prowl had gotten older, he started keeping his emotions visibly in check but he could feel Prowl's anger from past experience. He was trying to encourage Prowl as much as he could but that didn't always quell their fights. It never bothered him about what they were fight about, but rather why they were fighting. Unbeknownst to Prowl, Flashfire knew the majority of Prowl's anger with him came from his unresolved issues with his actual sparker. If Prowl misplaced his anger on him instead of keeping it bottled up then it was okay with him. Eventually Prowl would have to deal with his issues but only he could decide when. So Flashfire welcomed Prowl's anger lashing out on him if it kept Prowl from turning it on himself. Some time ago when Prowl did keep it in Flashfire discovered Prowl's anger had taken an unhealthy outlet. He hadn't told Charger.

"I think it's great you've picked a discipline and you're already preparing for it, but I can't help but worry perhaps you've decided a little too soon. Maybe you should try taking the general classes at first when you attend the academy. Try some classes in areas you're interested in or what you aren't nearly as familiar with."

"I know what I'm interested in, so I fail to see why I'd waste time trying out other fields."

"I'm not asking you to waste time. They require you to take some gen classes. I'm just saying you might want to start there and try some things out."

"I'm not interested in 'trying some things out.' Just like I'm not interested in this conversation." With that Prowl turned and left, leaving their home without so much as a goodbye.

/-/

Choosing to walk where he was headed, Prowl tried calming down before he got there. Normally Prowl didn't blow up that fast but there were two exceptions: his creators (or rather his carrier and his fake-sparker) and his future career. He knew he shouldn't behave like that with Flashfire. He really was only trying to help but Prowl didn't want it. He could take care of himself despite what others thought.

Suddenly, someone ran into Prowl, bowling him over. Disorientated, Prowl managed to sit up before looking at the mech who crashed into him. Seeing who it was, Prowl scowled before hiding his irritation. 'Of all the mechs and femmes, Primus had to pick this one to run me over.'

The mech in question lifted and shook his head before settling his gaze on Prowl, or rather turned his visor at Prowl's face. "Sorry 'bout that. We were just playing a game and I missed the disc my friend threw."

"Yes, well…" what was his name… Jazz? Yes, that was it. "Please remember to keep an optic on where you're running or at least an audio, Jazz."

"Same could be said fer you. Keep an optic out on your surrounds and whatnot." Jazz got up and offered his hand to Prowl. Prowl swiftly rolled up onto his heels, completely ignoring the offer.

"Perhaps wherever you're from they might be fine with others running blindly into the streets, but here in Praxus we prefer a little more common sense." Prowl couldn't remember where this mech was visiting from but he didn't care. He'd been here too long as far as Prowl was concerned since the orn they met. It didn't help that they had a knack for finding each other.

"Funny, all the Praxians I've met don't seem to mind a little fun. Guess you're the only one with a bar up his aft about it."

Prowl growled; this really wasn't helping him calm down. "And when you and your 'fun' get hit by a transformer racing through the streets, please let me know how that's going. If you can still talk, that is."

Jazz waved his hand and fetched the thin disc lying on the ground. "Safety's overrated. I've been hit by lots of things and I don't care. I'd rather enjoy life and get hit a thousand times than be like you."

Jazz's comment burned as Prowl watched him throw the disc back towards his friend before chasing after it. Prowl glared daggers into his retreating back before turning away.

/-/

By the time he reached the apartment door Prowl had managed to only partially calm down. His circuits still burned after having two arguments in less than a joor. Knocking, the door immediately retracted and Prowl stepped in.

Sitting casually at the table and drinking some energon was the mech he'd been seeing. Conex was Prowl's first love interest, although he wasn't Conex's. Prowl didn't mind though; Conex was a great mech and his past relationships failed due to his partners not being able to give Conex what he wanted. Prowl wasn't going to let that happen to them.

"What's up?" Conex lazily greeted him.

"I'm so angry right now. My sparker and I had another fight. Then I ran into that glitch-head Jazz – or rather, he ran into me – while I was coming over here and got into a second argument." Prowl burst out, clenching and unclenching his hands.

"Mmm…" Conex turned his attention back to the screen Prowl hadn't noticed when he came in. "What was the first argument about?"

"About me becoming an Enforcer."

Conex turned his blue optics back to him. "I thought you said you weren't telling them that."

"I wasn't!" Prowl snapped. "I don't know how he found out but needless to say, it didn't go well."

"Uh huh." Once again, Conex turned the majority of his attention towards the screen. "What'd he say?"

"That I should consider other fields of study rather than focus all my attention on becoming an Enforcer. Perhaps something involving strategy." He dropped his weight into a chair by Conex, causing it to creak a little. Prowl winced.

"Who cares? It doesn't matter what they think. Really, Prowl, you're being too emotional about this," Conex admonished. His words stung Prowl and he immediately felt guilty. Prowl knew being emotional was a turn-off for Conex and he tried to reign it in, but he wasn't always successful. "Why don't you grab some energon and sit here with me and watch what's on?"

"Okay." Prowl did just that, keeping his feelings in so he didn't lose the one mech he really cared for.

After the show ended, Conex got up to discard his container. "Anyways, it really doesn't matter what your sparker or even creator thinks. We both know you want to become an Enforcer and not some useless mech on the sidelines."

"Of course," Prowl immediately assured him. He knew Conex didn't like those mechs and femmes just like Blacksmoke didn't.

'So you seriously need to get over it. If you want, you can spend the next several joors over here if you think that glitch's gonna keep pestering you." Prowl considered it. Chances were Flashfire wouldn't so long as Charger wasn't busy in another room. Still, if he said yes then he could spend some time with Conex and he liked that prospect better.

"Probably. I'd like to stay here for while."

"Fine, but I don't want to hear anything more about strategy," Conex playful warned.

Although he laughed, internally Prowl grimaced. He wanted someone to talk to about the fields he was interested in but Conex didn't ever want to hear about. But it was a fair trade in his CPU to stick with becoming exclusively an Enforcer if it meant he got to be with his one love. Conex was the right one for him; he couldn't imagine anyone better. "Not a problem. It's not like I'm into that sort of a thing."

Yeah, I know Prowl's a bit generally stupid but he is suppose to be a teen, so to speak. Believe it or not, I really am going somewhere with this. If you're wondering about the whole family secrecy and social taboo thing, it's based off of US American society in the 1950s.

Last thing: There are only 2 more chapters left for the 'past.' This doesn't reflect on when the 'present' chapters will end.