A/N: This chapter goes a bit more into what happened to the Autobots after Chicago. In my version, NEST Disbanded after that as most, if not all, the Decepticons were destroyed. Hence why Will retired slightly young. So just keep that in mind. :)

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CHAPTER 11
Meet the Autobots

It was when the excitement of Christmas Eve had died down when Tony had snuck out to hang out with Ironhide. He'd been tempted to before, but now that Ironhide had finally stopped being openly hostile, he felt comfortable. It was the others that were intimidating. The Peterbuilt truck, Optimus Prime. The Emergency Vehicle, Ratchet. And of course, a pair of mischievous twin Corvettes by the name of Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. The other Autobots didn't live in the general area, some out of the country, in fact. Other than Bumblebee, who he'd meet the next day when Sam and his wife, Carly were over.

Ironhide moved some appendages in his grill to help the young human onto his hood slowly. A few days ago, he wouldn't have let him anywhere near his paint job, but now, much like Annabelle he was welcome on his hood or shoulder any time. He was mostly listening to the Autobots talk, more than a little curious about what they all had to say. He almost wished one of the other would transform, but he figured it might draw unwanted attention. "Anthony." Tony blinked at Ironhide's voice "What's with the silence, boy? I can hardly get you to keep quiet!" He noted.

"By the looks of things, your youngest charge is simply shy, Ironhide." Ratchet told him, Tony's face went a shade of bright red "Or simply wishes to listen. But judging by the shade of red his face just went... I'd say he's-"

"I'm just a little amazed I'm actually around you guys." Tony replied with complete honesty "I really only came over to listen in on what you were saying. I didn't think anyone really wanted to TALK to me." He noted, he felt a rumble beneath him "Okay, ever since he got the stick out of his butt, Ironhide might have wanted to." Ironhide jostled forward slightly "I was kidding, I was KIDDING." He insisted.

"Well I can certainly see why you like him Ironhide. Kid's got your sense of humor." Ratchet snorted.

Ironhide didn't know whether or not to take that as a compliment or not. "I just feel sorry for whatever femme this kid brings home. Has anyone told you what Ironhide did to Annabelle's boyfriends?" Sideswipe attempted a joke of his own "You're going to have a hard time finding dates kid. Ninety percent for them will be scared off by your Dad's truck." He added.

Ironhide groaned, not so much at the joke as the thought. Sideswipe was probably right, when he'd been raising Bumblebee he'd practically put his dates under a lamp as the humans would put it. When Annabelle had had dates, he'd tried to scare almost all of them off. When Tony started dating, Primus only knew what he'd do to them. "Will's youngest is like my youngest, anything I do to the femmes he dates is... Deserved." Ironhide grunted, Tony caught an "Mmm-hmmm" from Sideswipe "You're worse then I was when it comes to the Epps children!" He noted flatly.

"He has three daughters, and a son. It's hard not to get that way." Sideswipe stated in regards to his charges "It's Sunny over here that's that way about Fred, though. After all, he IS his car most of the time." The mech noted.

"The punk grew on me, what can I say?" The stoic yellow Corvette replied.

"This punk convinced me to let him drive me." Ironhide noted, bluntly "So if he's going to be doing that, he's going to have to put up with my 'attitude' on his dates." Tony's eyes widened at the thought of that brand new horror "Relax youngling, I won't be... TOO rough." The way Ironhide's voice sounded made Tony think it was probably a lie "Just don't bring any "Biker Chicks" they give me a spark attack." He noted.

Optimus was mostly silent, being that NEST had dissolved after the Dececpticons were destroyed in Chicago, he and Ratchet lived with charges too. Ratchet could probably vaguely relate, he lived with a medic named Ben, and his wife. They had a little boy of about three who Ratchet probably scanned eight times a day for bruises or cuts, or just illness. Optimus had a charge too, but significantly younger.

It had been a soldier's dying wish for Optimus to look after his unborn child. Optimus had been close friends with the man, and thus, did as the dying man had asked. He'd been a friend and mentor to the boy for a while. But once he'd turned sixteen, and gotten a truck license, he'd kept even more to his word, and become his guardian. Now a year later, the boy, Chase, was graduating that year, going to College in the fall. He'd have a family in a decade, maybe more, and then he'd likely experience that.

Though he supposed he might have intimidated his Prom Date last year. Just slightly when he told her if Chase wasn't back by eleven he had a tracer on the limo, and he'd know when foul play was involved. He wasn't sure the girl had even called or talked to him after Prom. "Prime takes the cake with that Chase kid's prom date though." Of course, Sideswipe had brought it up "Didn't you like drive to where they were because they were five minutes late?" He asked.

"Overprotective Guardian of the year." Ironhide jested.

"The boy has no Father, I was simply... Doing my job." Optimus spoke for the first time since Tony had joined the conversation "I'm the closest thing he has, and much like his Mother, I was worried." He then added "I don't believe any of us can speak about the other's overprotectiveness. We all are in one way or another." Tony laughed a bit "Just add Anthony to the long list of young charges." He added.

"How do you even have a young charge?" Tony asked.

"He was given a special form of license, as he is not ACTUALLY doing the driving." Optimus explained "It was less-than-easy, but I trusted no other vehicle to provide the safety I could. It's a long story." He chuckled slightly, Tony nodded slowly "Though needless to say, when we arrived at school the first day after we went through it all... Well..." He then added "We turned a few heads, as you humans would say." He added.

"No surprise there, you normally need to be eighteen to get a truckers license." Ironhide snorted.

Tony crossed his arms a bit, and leaned against his Guardian slightly. Oddly enough, the boy felt safe right now, whereas at one time, he had been terrified of Ironhide. The way his engine purred slightly, he knew Ironhide enjoyed the closeness too. It was odd, how no more then a few months ago, they were at one-anothers throats. Yet now, they just continued to get closer to one another, especially after the talk with Annabelle that Tony still had absolutely no idea about, and probably never would.

"Good news is though I only have, lets see here... Eighteen girls I'm crushing on?" He felt the truck beneath him tense "Gotcha again, big guy." He added teasingly.

Ironhide grunted, not liking being tricked in that way. But, he noted, Tony would learn, eventually. Ironhide wasn't the youngest mech around, and one of these days, he swore his spark would cave because of one of his jokes. "If you had that many crushes, I think I'd probably die from some form of spark attack." Ironhide noted "Please, never be serious about that." He groaned.

"You don't want to scare an older mech." Ratchet added "Especially not one as overprotective as Ironhide." He explained.

"Old, are you?" Tony asked, turning to Ironhide "How old are you exactly?"

"In human terms of age? Old enough to be YOUR Father, perhaps Grandfather." Ironhide grunted.

"He's five years older than Will, so fifty." Ratchet noted.

"That's not old at all, Ironhide." Tony laughed.

Ironhide groaned, he hated saying his age, human's didn't find it 'old'. But much like most people, he considered his age somewhat-old, at the very least. Most others didn't, but he considered himself old. Even if he really wasn't old until he was over 60 vorns. "Can we please get off of the subject of my age? Primus almighty." He groaned.

Tony yawned quietly at this, and though he at first guessed he was teasing him. He noticed Tony was growing more and more relaxed, sighing a bit, he grunted. "Go to bed, young one. It's late, and your parents likely are wondering where you are." He then added "We will talk in the morning." He added.

Tony nodded his head, standing up slowly, he nodded at the other Autobots. "It was great to meet you all, guys." Tony nodded his head at them, and smiled, opening his mouth to say something else, but he felt Ironhide nudge him "Okay, okay, you big lug, I'm going to bed." He rubbed his hood slightly, smiling "Love you too, you old fart." He noted.

Ironhide would have smirked if he could, Tony would learn the meaning of 'tough love' soon enough. Sure he was growing to love the boy, he probably already did. But he had to deal with the fact he gave a lot of tough love. "Love ye too you little brat." Ironhide chuckled "Sleep well." He added.

He heard chuckling as Tony head for the home, and turned slightly to the twins. This was why he hated being soft around his charges, the laughter, and he could never get out of it either. "Oh mute it, you punks." Ironhide noted.

For the first time, he realized, he was more than okay with what he said. And frankly, it scared the weapons specialist more than the embarrassment of saying it.