Chapter 2

Author's Foreword:

... and the day continues with its end!

Added a couple of parts to make it clearer as to who speaks when along with a number of minor tweaks.

I remember this part took me a while to figure out ... back when I was writing it I had to come back and edit it as I got further into the ficcy to make it all makes sense.

It was kinda nice to get those six into this mess!

Thanks Shunner68!

Ratchet couldn't sleep; he was tortured by his conscience and the unrelenting curiosity as to how the transformer managed to get new arms or what the slag happened after the explosion. Altering his positions over and over again, the white youngling was still unable to get comfortable and after a while of rolling around on the berth, he finally got up, dressed himself and snuck out of the house.

The streets were dark, darker than usual but it didn't stop the youngster from running to the store.

What was the plan? That was a good question, he didn't quite know himself but it seemed like the right thing to do – if he laid any longer on his berth, the kid would have lost it.

"Ratchet?," someone called suddenly from the shadows.

"Who's there?"

"It's me, Prowl."

"And Smokescreen." Both came out into the light to greet their friend. "What are you doing here?"

"Eh, couldn't sleep."

"Same. Going to the store?"

"Yes."

"We are headed there too."

"Want to bet that we will run into Warpath and Blaster?"

"How much?"

"5 energon chips."

"You are on!"

"Um, Prowl, is it really wise to make bets with Smokey?"

"What's the worst that can happen?"

"Blam! Heya guys! Boom!"

"What's up, dudes?"

"Damn it!" the dicolor stomped and took out the prize.

"Fork over those chips." Smokescreen rubbed his servos together.

"I hate gambling!"

"I love gambling!"

"You guys couldn't sleep either," Ratchet turned to the other two, "huh?"

"Yeah, we gotta make it up to Wheelman, bro!"

"Or at least begin to! Chaboom!"

"Right, so, any ideas?"

"Kapew! Well, how 'bout we fix that wall for him? Kapow!"

"Yeah," the white mech nodded, "that sounds like a good idea."

"Let's go!"

They weren't too far from their target location, just a klik or so down the road and they were already there.

"Two questions."

"Yes, Prowl?"

"First, what are we going to do if our parents find out?"

"Well, we get in trouble."

"Baboom! That will be a hoot!"

"We are helping out a friend …"

"… but he said that he doesn't have any friends."

"Well, he could be just alienating himself from the rest of us because we hurt him by belittling something he is proud of, lowering his self esteem and making him desperate to prove, not only to us but to himself, that he can take care of himself."

"Whoa, why don't you become a psychologist?"

"What's a psychologist?"

"I don't know but my dad pays a boat load of energon chips to him."

"Sold! A psychologist it is!"

"And question number two, how will we get inside?"

"… oh …"

"… blam …"

"… dang …"

"… huh …"

"Well," Smokescreen took out a tiny pin and began messing around with the lock, "guess it's up to me."

"Hey!" Prowl grabbed his hand. "This is illegal! Besides, how do you know how to lockpick?"

"Our idea of finishing this for Wheeljack is not exactly a shining beacon either and my dad is a locksmith, remember?"

"Oh, right. So, wait a klik, he taught you how to lockpick?"

"No," the future psychologist got back to his task, "I am a little bit of a self-taught expert. Wait, the door is open."

"Huh?"

"Say what?"

"Krakafam?"

"Oh, this is not good."

"Are you serious?"

"No, no, look!" The tricolor gently pushed it, sliding it off to the side. "Someone is here already …"

"… or he forgot to lock up …"

"… or," the tricolor pointed into the depths of the dark shop, "someone is here already."

Slowly walking in, trying not to trip over anything, the five friends eventually made out quiet snoring and a figure lying down on the floor, resting its head on some of the tools.

"Wheeljack!"

"Shh!"

"Shush!"

"Quiet!"

"Blam!"

"Sh, Ratchet!"

"Sorry."

"Um, so," Prowl tiptoed to the sleeping kid, "what do we do?"

"We work quietly, that's what." Ratchet silently moved towards the wall, carefully taking instruments in his arms and beginning to weld the wall back, making some noise and sending sparks flying.

"Mech he gonna be mad when he wakes up, dude." Blaster joined in.

"Dadoom! Imma gonna get polishing! Fweeshow!"

"I will get working on the other side."

"I will help Prowly." the future student of mental arts nudged his buddy.

"Stop calling me that."

"Never! You are too cute!"

"Fine, I will call you Smokey then!"

"Hm, I like that!"

"Oh, you are impossible …"

"Anybody know how to do this stuff?"

"Nope, not really."

It wasn't long until all five were fervently working away, doing their best with little to no knowledge on how to do it, yawning more and more with every passing klik.

"How did Wheeljack get his arms back?" Ratchet asked himself.

That was a mystery that ravaged their minds quite a lot. Not only that, how was he able to get into his apartment? Someone must have helped him: it was one thing to build a cannon, as malfunctioning as it was, and another thing to make new servos and attach them. Was it his parents?

"Wait, does he have any parents?"

That was a very good question. Thinking back to his talk with Esmeral, she said that it was Wheeljack's apartment and that there were explosions. Surely no parent would allow their kids to work with things so dangerous! Where were they?

"Why was he living in such a dump?"

Remembering the neighborhood the engineer lived in, Ratchet couldn't help but stumble on a dead end – not only was the school across town, it was one of the best schools in all of Iacon. His grades weren't by far the best, whatever he made or touched eventually somehow broke, normally exploding or else something really weird happening. What's the deal with that?

"Why …"

Why did he just take all the responsibility? Why is this so important to Wheeljack? Where are his parents? How does he live like this? Is there anyone to care for him out there? How does he survive?

The questions just kept on piling up with no answers in sight.

"DAMN IT!" Ratchet accidentally burned his hand and brought it to his mouth.

"HAAAA!" The sleeping middleschooler startled suddenly, woke up, waving his hands all over the place, catching Ratchet by accident and causing him to fall on top of the young engineer, face to face, "WHAT THE FRAG?"

"Um," he didn't know what to say or do so the kid spouted the first thing that came to mind, "hi?"

"Ratchet? The frag 're yeh doin' he'eh?"

"Um, lying on top of you?"

"Yeh got five astrosecs teh get off."

"Ratchet and Wheeljack, lying on the floor …"

"Shut up, Blasteh! Wait, what? What the slag yeh doin' he'eh? Warpath?"

"Prowl and Smokescreen are outside."

"Wait, outside? What …," taking a closer look around him, the youngling began freaking out, grabbing his head with both servos, "what the frag 're yeh guys doin'?"

"Relax! We here tah help, bro!"

"Help? HELP?"

"What's with all the noise?" Prowl and Smokescreen walked in, shushing loudly. "Wheeljack! You are, um, awake!"

"The slag I am!"

"We are trying to fix the wall …"

"Jus' freakin' go home, I can finish it …"

"You fell asleep …"

"… shut up …"

"… and you left the store open …"

"… shut up …"

"… someone could have easily walked in and took whatever they wanted …"

"… shut up!"

"Let us help."

"No."

"Why not?" Ratchet stood in front of him. "Why not? Please!"

"No, now go sleep …"

"Wheeljack! I am sorry for the way we behaved! We all are! I know how it is …"

"Do yeh? Do yeh really?" The mech squinted and leaned in so close that their noses were almost touching as he angrily continued. "Do yeh really? Did yeh eveh have teh get up Cybertron-knows-when teh go the school whe'eh everyone makes fun of yeh every chance they get?"

"I …"

"Do yeh know what it is teh cling teh the one thing yeh think yer good at, only teh be driven teh te'ehs by his classmates?"

"… I …"

"Do yeh know how it feels teh have every part of yer body break off? Do yeh know how hard it was fer me teh replace my hands all by myself? Do yeh know any of this stuff? Huh, Misteh top ef the class?"

"N-n-no …"

"That's what I thought." Wheeljack looked at all five bots one by one. "Go home, all of yeh."

"We want to help!"

"Uh-huh, shu'eh."

"Look, Wheeljack," Prowl stepped in, "we are all genuinely sorry for doing that! Please!"

"Yeah, bro, if we didn' care, why would we come?"

"Question," the mech asked as he grabbed the welding torch and continued where the others left off, "'re yeh tryin' teh get fergiveness from me 'cus yeh ca'eh or is it 'cus yeh wanna feel betteh?"

"Wow," Smokescreen said after a whole klik of silence, "dude, that's deep."

"Wheeljack! Come on!"

"Fine!" He turned around, crossing his arms. "I forgive yeh, happy now?"

"No!"

"Nah, not really, bro."

"No."

"Nope."

"Dram! No!"

"Well," the engineer got back to his task, shrugging his shoulders, "that ain' my problem."

"Hey, Wheeljack," the psychologist-to-be made a step forward, "what if we were making fun of you because we are jealous?"

"Huh?" It took a dozen astroseconds for everyone to recover from the random question. "Wait, what?"

"Jealous? Ef me?" The middleschooler tilted his head, squinting, with a very confused look on his faceplates. "Smokescreen, what the frag h've yeh been smokin'?"

"Jealous?"

"Pachow?"

"Really, jealous?"

"Whoa, bro …"

"Jealous, huh?"

"That was random …"

"No! Think about it!" Ratchet said after mulling about it quickly. "You show up to school everyday with some new cool gadget that you made yourself and does something really awesome! Sure it may malfunction but that is more than anyone can say about you then about us! We can't even weld a wall back together and you got over half of the job done in just a few cycles!"

"I want that robotic Ick-Yak that sings the alphabet you brought to school …"

"Blam! Those cryoshots sounded lovely! Kaboom! They sure packed a punch!"

"I want to have your calculator! It shoots energon chips and plays music!"

"Would be nice to get those sweet rocket powered boots of yours that run on candy, bro!"

"I want to get that flower that transforms into a spaceship with wheels and a siren!"

"Uh." Wheeljack had a hard time telling if they were making fun of him or actually meant what they were saying. "'re yeh guys, um, high on somethin'?"

"No! Prowl is too much of a scared-y petro-rabbit to do this stuff!" Smokescreen giggled.

"I am not afraid, it is illegal!"

"Blam! Would be nice to try that scrap!"

"No! Nobody is doing drugs!"

"Yes, we are serious! You are making things every day that we could not even dream about! If we tried, we would have never gotten anything together to begin with, let alone have it working!"

"Well, eh, yeh guys didn' do such eh bad job on the wall the'eh, yeh we'eh almost done too."

"What? Really?"

"Really? We had no idea what we were doing!"

"What? Fer real?"

"Well, we did our best to fix it for you!"

"Oh …"

"It just needs a little more work and some polishing."

"Come on! Let us help you!"

"Yeah, bro! Come on!"

"Blam! Come on!"

"Please?"

"Fine, fine," Wheeljack volleyed each of them some of the instruments, "Smokescreen, Prowl, Warpath, Blaster, yeh guys stay inside and finish the job he'eh. Ratchet, come with me, yeh'll help me hold and weld things togetheh."

"Let's go!"

"Break!"

"Blam!"

"Woohoo, bros!"

"Thank you!"

The six kids quickly rushed off to complete the repairs and go home for some much wanted sleep.

"So, I got a question for you, if you don't mind."

"Shu'eh, what up?"

"How did you get your hands back?"

"Built new ones."

"How?

"Quickly."

"Yes but, um, like, how? Your hands were missing!"

"Yeh think this is a pleasant topic of convehsation?"

"Sorry."

"It's ok."

"You live alone?"

"Yeah."

"I don't know if you know this but on the day when that happened, I, eh, kinda, eh, went over to your place."

"Huh? Really?"

"Yes, Swindle sold me the information for a pack of fireworks and one of Firestar's bed sheets."

"Eh, disturbin'."

"I know, right?"

"How did yeh get Firestar's bed sheets?"

"Inferno has a huge crush on her, I told him where she lives and that in return he must get me one of her bed sheets …"

"That's, eh, weird."

"Yes, you should have seen the look on his face."

"Priceless?"

"Scarier than the time Alpha Trion talked to us about his new roommate, what was his name, Kup?"

"Oh, yeah, that was jus', like, holy Cybehtron! Whe'eh did he find that guy?"

"No idea. So, yes, I came over to your house, I guess you weren't there."

"Uh-huh."

"Well, for what it's worth, I am glad that you are better."

"Uh-huh, thanks."

"And, again, I am sorry. I won't do it again."

"Eh, ok. Thanks, I guess?"

"Did you see the note I left you?"

"Yeah."

"I don't suppose you read it?"

"No, one of my neighbors used it teh clean their valve."

"Speaking of which, how come you live there?"

"Huh? What you mean?"

"Why do you live there? Can't your parents afford a better place?"

"Eh," Wheeljack stopped for a few astroseconds and then got back to work, "it's only temporary, dad finally quit drinkin' and 's now lookin' out fer jobs all the time and mom got betteh afteh eh car accident 'n' now 's takin' ca'eh of her parents in the suburbs."

"Oh, I see. I am sorry about your dad's drinking and hope your mother is better."

"Eh, thanks, I guess."

"And who is this Esmeral?"

"Ah, some chick that comes now 'n' then teh take ca'eh of Kup."

"Oh, right, you guys are neighbors."

"Yeah, the otheh day she asked fer my help in developin' an idea."

"What was it?"

"Breastforce."

"Breastforce?"

"Breastforce."

"Breastfroce?"

"Yeaup, Force of the Breasts. The force of my breast will kill yeh on the spot. Killeh breasts!"

"A force that is of breasts?"

"Yeah, there is a whole lotta force in those breasts of hers."

"Huh?"

"Eh, nevehmind."

"She got breasts?"

"Yeah, biggeh than Prowl's …"

"Prowl has breasts?"

"I have breasts?" the middle schooler peeked through the tiny hole in the wall.

"Urgh, fer cryin' out loud!"

"I don't have breasts!"

"Blam! Damn! Yah got breasts!"

"Holy moly, bro, you do!"

"I wonder about the psychological implications …"

"Stop staring at my chest!"

"Daem those are big, Prowl!"

"Stooop iiiit!"

"What have I done …"

"Moving right along," Ratchet put in the last piece of the wall, muting the other three looking at Prowl's figure, "huh, we are almost done."

"Yeh, a bit of polishin' afteh this piece 'n' we should be done."

"Hey, Wheeljack."

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for this opportunity."

"Eh, yer welcome?"

"We were wrong to make fun of you …"

"In that case I'm sorry too."

"Why are you apologizing?"

"I lost it, mech. Yeh got any idea how hurt yeh guys could'a been if it worked?"

"I, um, got the general picture. Was the cryoshot supposed to explode?"

"Nope, it malfunctioned too."

"Ah, I see. You make a lot of stuff!"

"Gotta make a livin' somehow."

"How?"

"Huh?

"How do you make a living?"

"I, uh, sell crap."

"Your inventions?"

"Uh-huh, let's go with that."

"Right."

"What's with all the questions?"

"Oh, what do you mean?"

"Yer askin' me an awful lot of questions."

"Well, um, I want to know more about you."

"Is that genuine or eh one time thing?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I mean that I neveh really had friends."

"No! Wheeljack! I really want to know more about you! Want to ask me some questions? I don't mind!"

"Uh-huh, so, um, parents?"

"My mom is a ballet dancer and my dad recently finished his medical training."

"Ah, a nice family, huh?"

"Eh, more or less."

"What yeh wanna be?"

"Well, being a doctor doesn't sound all that bad."

"Uh-huh, I see. All right, now hold this thing so that I can polish it. Yeah, like that."

"I envy you."

"Huh? What the slag?"

"You can make all sorts of things and we can't even put a wall together without help."

"Eh, I'm shu'eh yeh got somethin' teh be proud ef."

"Maybe."

"Eh, all right'."

"What did you mean when you said that you never had any friends?"

"Well, people who called themselves my friends eitheh abandoned me, backstabbed me, were tryin' teh get back at someone …"

"Oh, I am sorry."

"Eh, it ain' yer fault."

"I know but still! Everybody should have a friend."

"Jus' a matteh ef time 'till all of yeh even forget I was eveh in the class."

"No! Wheeljack! I promise that won't be the case!"

"Uh-huh, we'll see."

"No! Wheeljack!" Ratchet turned to the young engineer, "I promise, it won't happen!"

"Hey! We are done on our end!" Prowl, Smokescreen, Warpath and Blaster walked out of the store to inform the other two.

"We cleaned up and everything, bros!"

"Blam! The slag we did!"

"This was quite tiring …"

"Of course, it is the middle of the night and we got no sleep what so ever in a very long time."

"Are you guys done here?"

"Yeah, we're done, lemme put the tools away …"

"By the way, Wheeljack?"

"Yeah?"

"How did you manage to open the doors? I don't suppose you have a key, do you?"

"Eh, one of my inventions."

"And it unlocks doors?"

"Uh-huh."

"And how are you going to close it?"

"I, uh, didn' quite think that through …"

"So what are we going to do?"

"Eh, relax, Prowl, I'lla think of somethin'."

"Right. Better do it fast, dawn is nearing."

"Huh? You guys can go home."

"The job is not complete!"

"Um, the wall's repaired."

"But how are we gonna lock the door, bro?"

"Wait, we?"

"Yeah, we gotta think of something."

"Maybe I could give it a try?"

"Smokescreen, unlocking doors without a key is one thing but how are you going to lock a door without one?"

"With that attitude we will never know."

"Blam! What if we stayed until the store owner comes back?"

"And what, fall asleep as someone enters into the store and steals everything?"

"It was probably a bad idea to do this at night to begin with …"

"Nobody asked yeh guys teh come!"

"We all came because we were concerned for you!"

"Yo, yo, yo! Brothers! Let's not fight, 'right? Any ideas?"

"Hey!" Ratchet snapped his fingers. "Wheeljack, you said that you got in because of your device, yes?

"Yeah."

"Kaboom! I see! What if yah reverse it? Boom!"

"I don't think that is quite the way it works …"

"Better idea that we ever got from you, bro!"

"Guess somebody has more chest than brains."

"Hahahaha!"

"Hohoho!"

"Hehehe!"

"Hey! Stop it!"

"I think that Prowl oveh he'eh is right."

"Huh? Big boobs is right?"

"Ha!"

"Ok, first of all, stop makin' fun of his chest, it ain' his fault those things 're huuuuuge …"

"Hey! And thank you?"

"Next, he's right, the device I made doesn' work that way."

"So what is this invention of yours?"

"Eh, well …"

"Come on! Let us see it!"

"Babam! Come on!"

"Let's see that Wheelvention, bro!"

"Come on!"

"Please!"

"I bet it is a screwdriver of some sort."

"A sonic screwdriver!"

"What? That's just stupid!"

"Yeah, I felt silly just by saying it …"

"A reworked fork that can also flip all by itself!"

"A microphone that allows you to command machinery!"

"A boomerang bottle!"

"Eh, it's actually eh shoe …"

"A shoe!"

"A shoe! How br… wait … what?"

"A shoe?"

"A shoe?"

"A shoe?"

"How in the name of all that is Cybertronian did you manage to open a locked store with a shoe?" Prowl tilted his helmet.

"Yeh just need teh know whe'eh teh hit it …"

"Great, do you know where to hit a lock so that it would close?"

"Um, I got eh guess …"

"All right, let's finish with the clean up and lock that door."

"Right!" All six immediately set off for the post-work responsibilities and in under a few dozen astroseconds managed to get everything in order.

"So," Blaster said as they all stood in front o the store, all staring at the door, "how we gonna tackle that motherslagger?"

Wheeljack reached into his backpack, took out the unlocking shoe, closed up the store and hit it with his invention.

"Eh, I'm out of ideas."

"What if we all stay here until the owner comes back? We can take shifts!"

"And tell what to the store owner? We broke into your property to fix it? We are going to get in trouble."

"Klank! Got any better ideas?"

"Not at this moment …"

Blaster was stroking his chin, Ratchet was scratching his head, Wheeljack was inspecting the lock, Prowl had his arm crossed, Smokescreen tapped on his forehead and Warpath loudly yawned.

"Hey!" Ratchet came up with another idea. "He must have a spare key somewhere, right?"

"Hm, makes sense."

"Yeah, but where is it?"

"Hm, if I was the store owner, where would I keep the key?"

"Tazink! Me and Smokey are gonna check the cashier drawers."

"I suppose me and Blaster could take a look somewhere in the back."

"Wheeljack and I will take a look if it is somewhere outside."

"Ah! Found it!" The psychologist-to-be found they extra key by opening one of the drawers. "Let's lock up!"

"All right!"

They didn't need another invitation and within astroseconds the store was safely locked up.

"Now," Prowl crossed his servos again with a little effort, in his mind cursing his growing chest, "what do we do with the key?"

A dread silence befell the group.

"… frag …" the engineer facepalmed.

"We could sneak it back in when the store opens!"

"That is an idea."

"Eh, I'lla do it, you guys have done mo'eh than 'nough …"

"No!," the white mech stepped forward, "we are all in this together, even if we weren't, we would still come to help you."

"Heh, yeh shu'eh yeh will be able teh get up in the mornin'?"

"Eh, so we will sleep in class," the future psychologist waved him off, "big deal."

"Blam! So we do what we always do in class?"

"We could always compensate for what we missed by forming a study group."

"Yeah! Great idea, bro!"

"All right, what time is it?"

"It will be dawn in a few cycles."

"All right, let's meet up back here in two cycles."

"Man, I hope our parent's didn't find out …"

"All right," Ratchet rubbed his hands together, "see you guys."

"Bye!"

"Bababloom!"

"Later."

"See you."

"'Re yeh comin' with me?" Wheeljack was surprised when the white mech walked with him down the street.

"Yeah, my house is a little down the road."

"Ah, all right."

"Hah, nice teamwork we got, eh?"

"Eh, I guess."

"Again, I am sorry …"

"Will yeh stop apologizin'? Yeh got any idea how irritatin' it gets?"

"Sorry. Oops! Sorry! Damn! Sorry! Argh! Sorry!"

"Jus' stop talkin'."

"Right! Sorry. Yeah, I will shut up. Wait, are you really going to go all the way across town?"

"That's whe'eh I live and I'd love some recharge."

"But you will have only half of a cycle for that!"

"Betteh then nothin'."

"Hm, maybe you could recharge at my place …"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Yer parents certainly won' like findin' me the'eh. Plus with my rechargeh I'll be up 'n' runnin' in less than a quarter of a cycle."

"What did you do?"

"I tweaked it."

"Really? How?"

"Ain' tellin' yeh, kinda of a secret."

"Are you sure it is safe?"

"Of course not!"

"Then …"

"I don't exactly have time teh lie 'round 'n' do nothin' fer cycles, I got work, I need teh pay bills, y'know, stuff like that."

"Wow, you lead a very hard life."

"Eh …"

"I would break by now if I lived like this …"

"Eh, buddy, I kinda broke down a couple days ago …"

"Oh, right."

"Don' worry, I can take ca'eh ef myself."

"Well, here is my house."

"Nice place yeh got."

"Yeah, we are renting one of the rooms so I get to share a room with Ironhide."

"Oh! Yer brotheh?"

"Yes."

"Didn' yeh say he went to a military college?"

"Yes! He is as old as we are and already got military assignments! Can you imagine that?"

"Wow, yeah, the guy's tough!"

"Um, Wheeljack?"

"Yeah?"

"Before you go I, um, want to say something."

"What?"

"I promise that I will be your friend."

"Don' force it on yerself …"

"I am not! I wanted to talk to you a long time ago I, just, I don't know …"

"All right, I'm willin' teh give it a shot!"

"Great!" Ratchet jumped forwards and hugged his new friend. "Let's make the best out of it!"

"Hehe, right."

"Well, I won't hold you any longer. See you! Get your recharge!"

"Heh, yeah, see yeh!"

The middleschooler slowly walked towards his house, seeing that the engineer safely got around the corner and yawning, sneaked into his abode:

"All right, time for recharge!"

"Ratchet!" The lights suddenly turned on as his parents and Ironhide popped out of nowhere.

"AAAAAH! Freaking Cybertron!"

"We are so proud of you!"

"Huh? Wait, what?"

"That was Wheeljack, right?"

"How do you know about Wheeljack?" The kid, in shock, looked at his red brother. "Ironhide! Did you tell them?"

"I'm sahrree, Ratch! Ai was resistin' t' the last b't ai lost the battl' when they brought ah'oot the energon Twinkies!"

"Oh, Ratchet!," his mother ran up to her son and hugged him, twirling around, "I am so proud of you!"

"Mooom!"

"Yes, son!" The father joined in on the fun as the red boy kept stuffing his face with the delicious pastry.

"Not only has our boy had his first crush …"

"… but he also made his first step towards winning him over!"

"Why, Ironhide," the boy was getting more and more embarrassed by the astrosecond with both his parents hugging the slag out of him and singing their joy out, "just, why?"

"Aw, c'me on, bro! It's all good fam'ly fun! Imma proud o' yah too! Wish I c'ld talk to mah crush …"

"Oh," the middleschooler gave up on any resistance to his parents' signs of affection, "I am sure Chromia would love to see you devouring Twinkies."

"… wond'r eef she laeeks them …"

"Wheeljack!" Esmeral growled, squinting when the middle schooler tried sneaking into the apartment.

"Ergh, scrap …" the young engineer faceplate-palmed.

"I told you not to go there!"

"Yeah, well, I didn' want teh miss any mo'eh classes!"

"What if you got mugged?"

"Then I'd thrown Grimlock at them!"

"You left your datapad here at home!"

"… woops …"

"Yes! Woops!"

"But nothin' happened!"

"Yes, well, next time something may happen and you would be unprepared!"

"Don' worry!"

"And who else will worry, huh? The supposed parents that exist only on paper?"

"I'm sorry …"

"Wheeljack," the femmebot walked up to him and cupped his face in her hands, "I don't know what I would do if anything happened to you. You are like a little brother to me!"

"I'm sorry …"

"Ah," giving the inventor an intense hug, she gave him a peck on the cheek, "promise me you won't do these kinds of things again! I get worried! Thank Cybertron you are all right! How are you going to handle yourself when I move out?"

"Yeh'll always be in my heart."

"And so will you."

"If that Deathsaurus guy eveh hurts yeh, I'll slag 'im senseless."

"Haha, of course."

"'N' don' worry 'bout me, Esmeral," the kid looked his roommate in the optics, lighting up like a rainbow, "I got friends!"

Author's Notes:

Secrets are forged and secrets are revealed! Don't go away ... well ... if you HAVE to go sleep and eat, that's fine ... but do come back next week for the next chapter!

For those who don't know, Deathsaurus is the main villain from "Victory". Esmeral is his wife. They live happily ever-after ... apparently ... somehow ... I don't know a lot of this stuff is pretty trippy!

Yes, Wheeljack has a datapad that transforms into some sort of deadly animal that he named Grimlock ... I don't know ... I am weirded out myself ...

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