Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. Just the plot and OCs.
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Enjoy!
Chapter 3
Bumblebee toddled across Bluestreak's room carrying a can of paint that was twice as big as him making him look even more adorable as he struggled with the thing he wouldn't let Blue or Jazz or Prowl help him with. Jazz and Blue were laying on their bellies on the floor with him as he placed the can down next to his giant blank canvas before him while Prowl reclined at Bluestreak's desk reading some data pads while also watching what the youngling was up too. He had comm linked Optimus when the twins dropped him off.
He was now aware that something unsettling was going on, but he had not yet been told what it was about.
So he was weighing the options about what could be happening however, he found the youngling's giggles sort of distracting.
"So Lil' Bee," Jazz chuckled as he watched the youngling plop down before his big blank canvas. "What you up too?"
"Finish presents."
"Oh," Bluestreak grinned. "You're making more presents?"
"Yep," Bee smiled back at him before sticking his little brush into the closest can of black paint.
"And why did you need me?" Jazz questioned.
"Need holo picture." Bee turned his attention to the silver mech his optics suddenly very serious.
"Of what?"
"Meta Roan." The little youngling speaking the name of the long ago destroyed crystal forest made every mech in the room stare at him in shock for a moment.
"How do you know that place, Bee?" Jazz tilted his head truly amazed that Bee could possibly know about Meta Roan. He didn't recall telling him about it.
"Sunny told me 'bout it." Bumblebee shrugged. "Said that one time really long time ago he and Sides saw it. When they going someplace. Said they liked it and wish could see again. So me gonna paint it for Sides' and Sunny's present."
"That's real sweet of you, Bumblebee." Bluestreak reached out petting the little mech between his antennas. Bee chirped happily and purred at the action before looking back at Jazz.
"Know they not like New Vorn, but maybe can change that."
Jazz couldn't force himself to smile as he slowly sighed. "Bee I don't have any pictures of Meta Roan."
Bumblebee's bright smile fell as his hope suddenly faded. "Huh?"
If Jazz didn't have one what was he going to do?
"I have one." Prowl spoke up drawing all the bots attention. Picking himself up from his chair he walked over to come and sit cross-legged beside the little youngling who quickly scrambled into his lap.
"Really?" Bee asked hopefully.
In response Prowl pulled a data pad out of subspace, sent the image filed away in his processor to the pad, and then held the image before Bumblebee. The look of absolute wonder on the little one's faceplate made even the seemingly emotionless SIC smile.
In simple terms there was nothing like Meta Roan in any other galaxy. There really was nothing like it on Cybertron either anymore. Crystal City had once been a empire of singing metal and stones much like Praxus before the 'Cons leveled them, but once before all of Cybertron was reduced to ruble there had been a magical place between the cities that was revered as a place of wonder and peace. Towering structures that seemed to reach the two moons of Cybertron and beyond stood glitering in the light of night and day. They were magnificent creations of metal and stone fused together by a long dead volcanic explosion of sorts that created a small wonderland of so many dazzling colors the stars had once been jealous. The towering crystals were not shaped like the buildings and structures of the two once great cities which was probably why the place was never made into a city by the ancients of Cybertron. This expanse of magic was an interconnected network of light that formed more in the image of trees than metal or stone. Massive, rainbow like, glittering with the light of the sun trees. There was really no other way to describe them. They swayed and danced in the wind and the rain, singing songs Bumblebee wished with all his spark he would have been able to hear. The picture on the data pad before him truly didn't do the place justice, even if it was magnificent, no picture would ever be able to capture the beauty of that place. There was something in Bee that sang at the sight and told him it was a billion times more wonderful than what that image said.
Yes. He smiled to himself.
That would do perfectly.
Clicking happily he stanched up the data pad and laid it beside him, picked up his little brushes, and went to work using everything Sunstreaker had taught him up to now.
This was going to be perfect!
"I don't want it to be true." Ironhide sighed, leaning heavily on Optimus' desk as if without its support he might crash to the floor. They had left Ratchet with the twins upon his request and were now discussing between themselves what to make of all of this. "None of it!"
"I'd give anything to change it." Optimus whispered his faceplate resting in his hands as his elbows held him up on his desk. In that moment he no longer looked like the mighty leader of the Autobots. He looked much more like that young mech from so long ago who had destiny thrust upon him far too young. The mech that had to face the truth of what his brother had done to him and the rest of Cybertron. Put simply, he looked very broken.
Just like Ironhide did.
"But we can't change it, Hide." He sighed. "All we can do is move forward with it."
"I don't know what to snap about first!" Ironhide hissed trying to keep his cannons from whirling to life. "That I hated that all that happened to the twins or that Bumblebee came from a place like that."
"Where he came from doesn't matter." Optimus glared down at his hands.
It's wouldn't matter! He wouldn't let it matter! Bumblebee was theirs and no place of creation was ever going to change that!
"All that matters is that he is with us now."
"But the not knowing!" Ironhide sank into the chair across the desk his voice torn between a growl and a whine. "My processor is coming up with more horrifying things than I can tell you. I need to know the truth!"
"He is too young to have known the truth. Whatever the reason and the purpose behind him all that we can go on is that his carrier escaped that place and she took him with her. They probably ended up in Altihex sometime before Megatron attacked the city."
"So she escaped one pit just to die in another." Ironhide whispered.
"She saved, Bumblebee." Optimus countered.
"She died for him." Ironhide rested his faceplate in his hands. "And one orn I'm going to have to tell him all this."
"He knows she is gone." Optimus sighed, hating that the little mech did know that. He knew his carrier was gone. He'd known since the night they found him, and each and every bot in the crew hated that fact. Bee was to young to know such pain. He was too young to have known so much death and destruction. "He's known that for a long time. That is not something that never needs to be revisited unless he asks, but he doesn't know about the Rings. He is too young to have it explained to him."
"So what?" Ironhide mumbled around his fingers. "We just go on like nothing has happened. Knowing that he has nightmares! Knowing that he was sparked in the worst place in Cybertron's history! Knowing that I can't do anything to make that better. He's too fraggin' curious and sooner or later he's going to want to know things! He asked about their scars, and he's going to ask more things. I can't look him in the optics and tell him that his Sire was probably some murderous mech that would have killed him as soon as look at him!"
"You are his Sire, Ironhide." Optimus' sharp gaze snapped up and held Hide's tortured one. "As far as he is concerned. That is all he cares about. We know that, the universe knows that, and for now there is no amount of fact based information that we know as of yet. Other than what Trickster said and he made it quite clear that we can never tell Bee. So in truth there is nothing we can offer him. One orn he'll want to know about what he sees in his recharge and then we and the twins will have to tell him what we know about the Rings. He'll put the rest together himself. He's clever, he will. The only other thing we can do now, Hide, is love him and try to keep those nightmares from coming."
"Why has he never told either of us about them?!"
"I intended to find that out." Optimus assured him. "But for now we are going to give him the New Vorns Eve he wants. It's all we can do."
The two powerful mechs sat in silence a moment longer before Ironhide's low protective growl echoed around the room.
"He's mine! I don't care about anything else. He's mine! And the moment somebot tires to say otherwise I'm going to tear them to pieces. Sparked in the Rings or not he his nothing like those places!"
"I know, Hide." Optimus said quietly. "And so do you."
"But how am I supposed to explain to him that his carrier was probably an interface slave!? How am I supposed to tell him that she probably had no say in the matter of his creation!? How and I supposed to look him in the optics and tell him that!? How Optimus!?" Ironhide choked on his words before the last one came out in a broken mumble. "How?"
The Prime let out a shaky sounding breath. "That . . . I don't know."
"Stop looking at us like that!" Sunstreaker snarled tossing his cube of energon across the desk. It sailed for a few feet and crashed into the wall next to where Ratchet sat. The yellow and red medic didn't even flinch, but Sideswipe did.
"Jeez, Sunny. Your aim sucks."
SMACK
"Oww!"
"Mute it!"
Sides sat there beside his brother with a sparkling like pout on his faceplate as he rubbed the side of his head. "Did any mech ever tell you that you're abusive, Sunshine?"
"I will murder you." The golden mech warned his optics dark and narrow.
"Well you are."
Another fist rose while Sides just grinned, but Ratchet's voice stopped them. "Anybot ever tell the two of you that you act like you are related?"
They paused for a klick looking over at him before answering together. "Actually . . . no."
"Surprising. You should have seen Arcee and her sisters when they went after each other. It was never as violent as you too, but pretty much the same." He smiled slightly. A sad, lost kind of smile.
The twins stilled as they stared at him.
They didn't like seeing Ratchet downcast. It didn't fit him.
Throwing wrenches at their stupid afts fit him.
With a slight glance between them they spoke.
"Wish we could have met this femme of yours, Wrench." Sides said.
"Would have liked to see the femme that could actually put up with you." Sunstreaker added.
Ratchet snorted. "She was unlike any other."
"If she was anything like Quickfire then I image." Sides laughed. "I feel bad for that pour fool Mirage when he finally comes crawling back."
"She's gonna scrap him." Sunstreaker chuckled.
"After she kisses him of course."
"Oh yeah."
"Will you two knock it off?" Ratchet groaned not liking the picture in his head of his little might-as-well-be sister kissing any mech. Gah! He did not need that picture.
"What?" They echoed innocently.
"You're both awful." He rolled his optics.
"What?" Sides snickered. "We like Fire. She's cool."
"Saved Bee."
"Feisty femme."
"To bad she's hung up on that noble."
"Yeah,"
"Enough." Ratchet warned his gaze darkening as the pair of idiots almost giggled at him from where they sat in the chairs across from his desk. "You're not going to smooth talk your way out of this one."
That muted their giggles pretty quick.
"Come one, Ratchet." Sides mumbled.
"We told you." Sunny glared. "Let it go."
"I can't do that." Ratchet's optics swam with a sort of pain that made them both look away. They didn't want him to look at them like that. That wasn't why they told him.
They told him because he cared.
And they knew he cared.
So it was time he knew the truth.
Besides, it had everything to do with Bumblebee. They most likely would have never told anybot if it hadn't of been for Bee being connected to it. Now though the truth was out, and they were going to have to live with the repercussions. Even if they didn't want too.
"Why didn't you ever tell me?" The broken way that Ratchet mumbled it sliced through both twins' sparks making Sideswipe sink down in his chair while Sunstreaker crossed his arms and glared down at the desk that separated the pair from the first bot in their history they'd ever fully trusted with everything that they were. All their faults, all their gifts, now all their secrets, and in truth had fully just bared their souls too hoping he wouldn't toss them aside like the worthless scrap that deep down inside them they were secretly very afraid they might be.
They didn't tell him because they were ashamed . . . afraid . . . but neither one knew how to say that.
So they stayed quiet.
Ratchet stared at them a while longer before he sighed. "Why? Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, why didn't you tell me?"
"Because you were going to look at us like that!" Sunstreaker snarled as he mentally tried to figure out how he was going to get out of this damn room. He couldn't come up with an exit plan though, not one that Sides would follow him with, so he sat there and pouted. What else could he do? There was no other course to take, they'd already come this far, so he was stuck.
He hated being stuck.
"Am I supposed to take it another way?" Ratchet narrowed his gaze at them. Did they really think he could hear all that and it not break something inside him? Did they really think that he didn't care? Sure he was tougher on them then probably any other mech on this ship, but it was only because of that fear that lived down in his spark of one orn they'd get drug into his medical bay so thoroughly trashed that not even he could put them back together again. It was a thin, dangerous, line they danced around every nano-klick of their lives with the way they lived, and Ratchet was secretly terrified of losing them.
They were the sons he always wanted, as scary and glitchy as that sounded. He always figured if he and Arcee had ever had sparklings they would probably be no different than these two psychotic over grown younglings with tempers as short as his.
Didn't they know that?
Didn't they know that he loved them? That they were his family.
This ship was their family.
After all this time did they still think they were taking this world on alone?
Now he understood why they did. Primus! If he ever found out who that bastard Sire of theirs was he'd tear his spark out himself just to see if he had one. How!? How could a Sire do that to his own sparklings!?
Abominations! He had called them abominations!
There weren't fraggin' abominations!
Suddenly the medic went very still. He wondered, had any bot ever told them that besides that nurse they spoke of?
When they still remained silent Ratchet rolled his optics, took a deep breath, reached into his subspace, and nailed them both in the forehead with a pair of screwdrivers.
"OWW!" Sides hollered at the unexpected assault flailing back in his chair kind of comically while Sunstreaker just snarled across the desk the slightest hint of a scratch marring his perfect paint.
"You are not abnormal abominations." Ratchet told them pointedly.
The glaring and the growling stopped as their optics suddenly found his floor very interesting.
"You really think so?" Sides mumbled.
"Do I lie to you?" Ratchet narrowed his gaze.
"No."
"Then you have your answer."
"I am no abomination." Sunstreaker crossed his arms with a huff looking across the medic's office. Anywhere but him. "I am perfect. In every shape and form. Even the half attached to him." A thumb jammed in Sideswipe's direction.
The red warrior snorted. "Love ya too, bro."
"Don't call me that."
"Sunshine?"
A deep growl.
"Sunflower?"
A deeper growl.
"Oh! I got it! Sunny-mechling!"
SMACK
"OWW!" Sides suddenly found himself on the floor rubbing his noseplate. "Why does every mech on this ship hit me!?"
"Because you're an idiot." Sunstreaker grumbled as he straightened himself in his chair.
"Well you're the other half of an idiot." Sideswipe shot back slightly annoyed as he hauled himself back up into his chair. His antics at trying to distract himself were proving to be rather painful for his noseplate. Maybe he should lay off. Just the slightest bit.
"You two really will do anything to not have to have this conversation won't you?" Ratchet rolled his optics.
"Yep." They rang out together.
The CMO just stared at them making them fidget.
"It's in the past, Wrench." Sides whispered. "Why can't you just leave it there?"
"Because—" The medic cut his bellow off letting it sigh out before he too replied in a whispered. "Your Sire hurt you."
"Yep." Sunstreaker shrugged as if it was an every orn type of thing. As if it wasn't horrible. As if it hadn't done more damage to him than he'd ever let anybot beside his twin know.
"We got over that a long time ago." Sides added, but the words sounded false even to him.
Because it was a lie.
Ratchet could see that it was. He knew them that well. Sometimes he thought he might know them better than they knew themselves.
"You're lying." He stated.
Sides went ridged.
"You are excellent at a good many things, Sideswipe. However, lying is not one of them."
"Talking about it won't change anything." Sideswipe huffed. "So why live in the past?"
"Because the two of you can't bottle up and bury everything!" Ratchet pleaded. "It will destroy you from the inside out!"
"That's going to happen sooner or later, Wrench." Sunstreaker sighed. "Nothing you do is going to change that."
"It could if you would let me try and help!"
"Not even you can fix all of us, Ratchet." Sides lifted his gaze to offer the medic a sad smile. "We're going to implode one orn and nothing you do will stop that. We don't know when to stop because we can't stop. If we stop we think and thinking is bad. So we don't do it. We fight, we thrash, we prank, we paint, we laugh, we beat each other into scrap, we annoy you, and we trail after that little yellow gift from Primus . . . that is what we do. And we're okay with that."
"We're better now than we've ever been." Sunny added. "All of that is thanks to you and Half Pint . . . and I guess this whole psychotic glitchy family of ours. Okay . . . yeah . . . even I admit it. You mechs are our family. As much as that annoys me. We did the one thing Wardrums said we could never do. We got close to something we could never replace . . . all of you. You . . . and Bee. Pit! Even slaggin' Ironhide! The glitch."
Sides chuckled at Sunny stumbling over the words. He knew better than to let his twin get frustrated though so he picked it up. "We might even be the slightest bit fond of Gears."
"If we weren't he'd be dead."
"Oh yeah."
"He's annoying."
"But amusing to mess with."
"It's fun to make him hate us more."
"Loads of fun."
"You're doing it again." Ratchet pointed out.
They both paused. "Oh."
"Is that really all of it?" Ratchet questioned not sure he really wanted to know but unable to keep himself from asking.
"The jest of it." Sides shrugged. "We did a lot, saw a lot, and survived a lot or horror we will never tell you but that isn't because we don't trust you, Ratchet. It's things we try to forget. We just . . . when Bumblebee came along we stopped trying to run from our past."
"He made us realize that we have stuff to live for now and that running wasn't going to get us anywhere but in an early grave." Sunstreaker sighed.
"And we can't do that to him. We can't leave him. So we started trying to piece ourselves back together little by little." Sideswipe said.
"It's working. Slowly. We told you guys. Never thought we'd get there, but we did. So we're doing okay, Wrench."
"We're trying; for you, for him, for Prime, and for this whole damn war."
"Because we're going to see the end of it."
"We aren't going to let that place best us."
"We never lose."
"Never have."
"Never will."
"If there are more questions you want to ask we'll do our best to answer them. Some we might not be able too, but we'll try. We don't want to be sparkless murderers. We don't want to be monsters. We're good at it and we're proud to defend this cause, but . . . we wanna be around to watch Half Pint grow up. We wanna be around to annoy you to the pit and back."
"And we intend to be." Sunstreaker finished. "Sooner or later we're going to pick the fight we can't win. That is how all warriors go out. We know that. We accept that. However, we are going to keep on fighting to keep it from happening for as long as we can. We owe it to our second chance."
Ratchet watched them as they trailed off into silence those dark blue optics staring back into his own so full of a haunting truth that he wanted with every part of him to fix. To wipe away the past and give them something better. He knew he could never mend the scars, they would always be there, but he could help their sparks heal. If they would let him.
Pit!
It didn't matter whether or not they wanted to let him. He was doing it anyway! Like it or not they were his stupid, glitchy, accident prone, pair of menses. A small smile ghosted across his lips as he thought of how much Arcee would have adored them.
Sideswipe's antics.
Sunstreaker's personality.
She would have wrapped them up in that comforting, demanding, calm presence that had been her and she wouldn't have stopped until she fixed every dark memory that plagued them.
Yes.
She would have agreed with him. That they might as well be their creations. He cared about them like they were, just the same as he cared for Bumblebee.
It was in moments like these that he watched them in all their silent pride and quiet magnificence that he saw what they could have been. What they should have been.
Two brilliantly burning sparks—separate but a part of each other—that glowed with defiance and purpose. They might not be the norm, but they deserved to be here, and they would fight for that right to exist alongside every other creation of Primus.
No, they were no accident. No freak of nature.
They were unique.
They were here for a reason.
Just like Bumblebee.
And just like he was going to do for Bumblebee, he was going to make sure they had every chance to reach what they should have been.
"Well like it or not you two over grown foolish younglings." Ratchet rose from his desk waving a wrench in a half-spark threat before he threw it into subspace. He knew the way they needed to be handled. The way they wanted to be handled. The way that he was best at handling them. So that was what he was going to do. The gruff indifference they clung too and always came running back to. The fact that he cared, but wasn't afraid to smack them back into their fraggin' place when they stepped too far out of line. That was the way they worked. That was the way they were family. And he not so secretly needed it as much as they did. "You're stuck with me now. From here on out. I don't give a damn who you are or what you came from. All I care about is now. And right now you are the two most annoying glitches I've ever had the displeasure of having in my medical bay. You're always slaggin' scraping each other and if you don't lay the frag off of it for at least a Decacycle I'm going to weld your afts to the ceiling. Got that!? You're my annoying Terror Twins now and I'll be the glitchy medic that does the foolish thing and takes up the notion to look after you both. I'm not gonna let you get yourselves scraped by no damn 'Con and I intend to make you keep that promise of sticking around to watch Bumblebee grow up! And of sticking around to annoy me. We're both gonna need ya."
As he marched across his office heading for the door the two stunned warriors watched him walk with their jaws hanging a little slack—not that Sunstreaker would ever admit to making such a face—their optics as wide as moons—once again not something the golden mech would admit too—and they stayed that way for a good few klicks as Ratchet picked up a few things that resembled presents that were placed here and there around the room before he turned back and lifted an optic ridge at them making both their jaws snap back into place.
"Well? Are you coming to New Vorns Eve with Bumblebee or are you going to go back to hiding away in your hole?"
For a moment longer both twins just stared at him in still shock before Sides swallowed harshly, sprang from his chair, and flew across the room before the CMO could blink about the fact that suddenly he was being hugged for dear life by the red glitchy frontliner.
He blinked in shock unsure of how he was supposed to respond to the happy purr of the ex-gladiator's engine before the mech pulled away with that dashing smile of his as his optics twinkled.
He looked over the stunned medic's faceplate for a moment before he patted him on the head like a cyber-puppy. "So much better than the first one."
And with that he practically danced out of the office leaving Ratchet standing there with his processor whirling trying to figure out if he'd just glitched and imagined all that before he suddenly found Sunstreaker standing very close to him. Closer than Sunstreaker ever got to anybot that he wasn't trying to offline beside Bee or his twin.
Ratchet lifted an optic ridge again. "Are you going to hug me too?"
The golden mech snorted. "As if. I do not hug."
"Then why are you so fraggin' close to me?"
Those dark blue optics twinkled with something Ratchet didn't really think he was reading right before a half smirk flashed across Sunny's lips gone before Ratchet was even sure he'd really seen it as the mech whispered.
"Thank you. For everything . . . that you never had to do."
And then he was gone as well, though with much less prance in his step than his brother had had, leaving the medic standing there his arms full of gifts as he blinked.
Did they just . . . accept . . . me as . . . .? A smile graced his lips as the thought over what they had said.
Better than the first one?
Yeah.
They did.
With a grin he hid as he exited his office Ratchet walked toward the rec room in search of what was finally looking to be a very happy New Vorns Eve.
"I have a feeling this is going to go horribly wrong." Drift glanced at Blaster as the room filled up with mechs.
"Probably would have gone better if Sides hadn't left and then never came back." Blaster nodded sadly.
"Should we pull the plug?"
"Are you glitchy?" The orange-ish mech snapped under his breath. "I spent six hundred credits on that fraggin' thing! It's falling from the sky."
"But what happens when Prowl glitches?"
"Then the whole room dies laughing."
"Yeeeeeah," Drift drawled. "And then Ratchet the Hatchet beats us to death with a spoon."
"That's never bothered you before."
"He hasn't been smiling behind a cup of energon like that before." Drift mumbled as he watched the CMO sit at a table with the other commanding officers, a paint splattered youngling, and the twins.
Slaggin' Sides.
The traitor.
"He's up to something, or he knows something." Drift finished. "Sides might have told him."
"Sides would never rat us out." Blaster shook his head. "Besides Jazz helped me plan it. He knows too."
"Well at least we'll have somebot that jokes for the rest of our lives in the brig."
"You gotta stop being so negative, Drift." Blaster laughed nudging him in the shoulder. "It's New Vorns Eve! Lighten up!"
"What are you two scheming over here?"
Both mechs sat bolt upright in shock fully prepared to defend themselves to what had to be their commander only to let out a shared sigh when they realized it was only Bluestreak.
"Oh Blue," Blaster chuckled. "It's just you."
"Well glad to see you mechs too." Blue laughed plopping down in a chair beside Blaster and across from Drift as he sipped at his glittering cup of energon.
"We thought you might be Prowl . . . or worse Ratchet." Drift told him.
The young gunner grinned. "Oh? What you up too now?"
"You'll find out when the countdown ends."
"Ah, but I wanna know." Blue pleaded. "You can tell me! I won't tell. I can keep a secret, honest. I really can!"
"Bluestreak," Drift smiled at the younger mech. "No offence, but you couldn't keep a secret to save your hide."
The gunner pouted. "Can too."
"Please." Blaster laughed. "You're as bad as the youngling."
"Am not."
"Are too."
"Not."
"Too."
"Not."
"Too."
"Not!"
"Too!"
"Not! Too! Not! Too! Not! Too! Nottoonottoontoonottoonottoonotoonottoo . . . ." Sides trailed off with a silly smirk as he seemingly poofed up at the table. "What? I thought we were playing a game?"
Bluestreak laughed while Drift and Blaster rolled their optics.
"We are, Sides." Blaster said. "It's called the Sides-never-came-back-to-help-us-finish-the-thing-it-was-that-we-were-doing game."
Sideswipe sat at the table beside Drift with a wave of his hand. "I got busy."
"Yet you aren't in the brig?" Drift asked.
"Probably will be by the end of the night."
"That makes the lot of us." The white and red mech sighed with a smile.
"Oh lighten up!" Sides smacked him in the shoulder. "This is pranking gold! This will go down in the fraggin' history books! There is just one problem."
"What's that?" Blaster leaned forward.
"I didn't think of it." Sides answered making all the mech around him laugh.
"Well you aren't claiming this one." Blaster retorted. "I spent too many credits on it."
"I'll take some of the blame though." Sides smirked. "Just to be a part of it."
"Okay, now I really want to know." Bluestreak whined.
"In time, young apprentice." Sides shared a playful grin with the young sniper. "In time."
"Don't let Prowl hear you call him that." Drift snorted.
"Yeah," Blaster added. "He's kinda over protective of his young apprentice."
Bluestreak's doorwings lowered in embarrassment. "Awe knock it off you mechs. Prowl's a great teacher."
"Yep and he only has the patience to teach you. Something none of us understand seeming as most times you never stop talking. He tends not to teach a lot of mechs anyway." Blaster snickered. "Well besides Bee when Bee's older. He'll teach him. We all know that's gonna happen. Come to think of it, never really asked ya before, Blue. What's it like to no longer be our youngest little mechling?" The orange mech reached over and noogied the slightly larger mech behind his chevron. Blue laughed shoving him off trying to pretend that he couldn't feel Prowl watching him across the room. His mentor was curious as to what he was up too. He knew there would be questions later. Not that he minded.
"I embrace it." Blue chuckled shoving him away again. "No mech can call me youngling anymore."
"Oh yes we can." Drift grinned.
Blue's smile faltered a little.
"We just know it bugs you, so we don't." Sides relented.
"Strange thing coming from you." Bluestreak lifted an optic ridge.
"I can pick it up again, Youngling."
"No don't!" Blue waved his hands out in front of him quickly making the mechs around him laugh. He gave a half grin hoping they really wouldn't take up the nickname again before the clock on the far side of the room rang the bream. Every mech looked up and grinned.
One bream till the countdown.
Time for presents.
"I'M FIRST!" Sides hollered racing across the room and crashing into Hound and Trailbreaker his twin rolling his optics and following after him as the red warrior bounced—yes bounced—before the laughing brothers who tossed a box at both of them. They owed Sides for getting them a rare telescope not long ago so they both got the twins a gift. Much too Sunstreaker's surprise. He didn't do anything. His brother did. Though when you got one twin you got the other and the two scouts were too nice for their own good so Sunny figured that was what was behind it.
The rest of the room began to mingle even more, gifts being exchanged, when Bluestreak felt optics on his wings. Looking over his shoulder he found Bumblebee staring at him.
He smiled.
Of course! He'd almost forgot.
Springing up he waved by to the two mechs at the table that were grinning deviously and made his way over to the table where the youngling was hopping.
"Go get stuff!" Bee sang. "Go get stuff!"
"Alright, we'll go get the stuff." Bluestreak laughed at him scooping up him off the table and tossing him up so the little mech was straddling his neck his little yellow fingers playing with the tall red chevron atop the gunner's forehead.
"You hid these mysterious presents he keeps talking about?" Ironhide lifted an optic ridge at the sniper his pervious worries and mood having been put aside when he caught sight of how happy his charge was.
Blue faked mock horror. "What? You don't think I'm good enough for him to trust?"
"That's not it," Hide chuckled. "You just can't keep a secret to safe your aft."
Once again Blue pouted.
"Why does every mech say that?"
"Because it's true, Blue." Jazz patted him lightly on the arm while the off tone grey mech rolled his optics and started for the door.
"Whatever," He called over his shoulder. "We'll be back, I suggest you all have his gifts ready."
"Presents!" Bee cried happily as the door shut behind him though he could still hear the mechs of his family chuckle at his voice.
As the young sniper walked down the long glittering black halls of Eternity he smiled as Bee swung his little feet bouncing them off Blue's armor while he giggled and pulled at his chevron.
"You excited, Bee?"
"Yep!" Bee giggled. What kind of question was that? Was he excited? Duh!
This was New Vorns Eve!
Sunny and Sides weren't sad anymore—something he was planning to make permanent—and his whole family was laughing together having a good time. On top of that it was time to open present!
How could he not be excited?
"You happy, Blue?" He asked.
"If you're happy than I'm happy, Bumblebee."
"Want everybot be happy." Bee nodded seriously as they rounded the corner that lead to Bluestreak's quarters.
Blue glanced at him as best he could with the little mech sitting around his neck. "You do that a lot don't you?"
Bee leaned around so that his big baby blue optics twinkled at Bluestreak's light bright blue ones. "Happy good."
"Yeah, Bee it is. Just let me tell you something it took me a while to figure out." He said as he keyed in the code to his room and they stepped inside.
"What?"
"You aren't responsible for every other bots happiness, alright?" The normal playful tone of the young grey mech slipped out of his voice as he let Bee down onto his desk why the shuffled around collecting the boxes that he had stashed and helped get for the little mech over the last few orns.
Bee blinked at him.
He didn't really understand what that meant.
When Blue looked back at him the sniper realized that he didn't. With a sigh he sat all the boxes down, pulled up a chair, pulled the youngling into his lap, and leaned back looking down at him while he stared up in return.
"You're too young for me to really explain it." Bluestreak sighed. "So I'll leave it at this. You're not always going to be able to make every bot smile, Bee. Sometimes not even your level of adorableness is going to make everything better. So don't get too down if Sides and Sunny don't magically love New Vorns and stuff like it from here on out. Okay?"
Bee pouted. "But want them to be happy."
"And they are happy." Blue assured him cupping his little cheek and pulling him back up to look at him. "They are happy with this family and the crazy lot of us. They are happy with you being their Half Pint. Just because they don't love New Vorns as much as you and me do doesn't mean that they won't be happy, and you aren't responsible to make them happy all the time."
"Yes me is." Bee argued.
Bluestreak shook his head. "No. You're responsible for doing what we tell you, drinking your energon, reading your lessons, not snaking off too much, and being a good little youngling. That's the only things you are responsible for. Now on the up side you pretty much make every mech chipper all the time anyway so you're pulling it off well. But I don't want you sad if it doesn't always end in a smile."
Bumblebee wasn't really sure what all Blue said meant, but he nodded trying to figure it out. If he wasn't supposed to make every mech happy, than what was he here for? He was too small to be of any use. His use was making every mech happy.
At least the way he saw it.
"It just took me a while to figure that out, Bumblebee. And I still try even when I know I can't make everything better. I just want you to know that it isn't your fault if some mech is a little down."
"Know that." Bee shrugged. "Just don't like."
"Well you and me both little brother." Bluestreak rubbed him between the antennas before tossing him back to his spot, picked up all the presents, and went on a march back to the party.
"Maybe," Bee said as he swayed with Blue's movement. "With both us we make better."
Bluestreak smiled brightly.
"I hope you're right, Bee. I hope you're right."
There were presents everywhere.
Everywhere.
And Bumblebee absolutely loved it.
Every member of his family was running around the rec room, throwing gifts at each other, laughing, carrying on, eating, drinking, playing, and just all around enjoying themselves. Even the twins. Who had gotten a few gifts and given a few. They were laughing quite freely as they threw streamers at Trailbreaker and Hound. Bee was interested in the gifts that had been given to other members of him family, but to be honest he was far more concerned with what he got and gave.
So he demanded that he got his presents before he gave any.
His loving caretakers thought it was just the youngling being a youngling, but they were wrong. Bee wanted them to get their gifts after him because he wanted to see every moment of everything. So he tore into his mountain of gifts. There were vid games, a total assortment of stuffed toys and action figures, he received more coloring pages than he knew what to do with, paints, canvas, novels, board games, a few play ships with lights and buzzing blasters—courtesy of Wheeljack who got smacked over the audios with a wrench until he assured a very angry medic and guardian that there was nothing in there that could blow up—he even got a few data pads full of images of foreign planets and of Cybertron back when it looked like he and every other bot around him knew he might never see.
In all he was more than ecstatic and he proved this by the giggles, hugs, and kisses he gave out. Then once he had reached the bottom of his gifts he plopped himself down in the center of the pile of presents that he had a little help in acquiring and started with Prowl.
Giggling quite dramatically to himself as every little part in his frame vibrated with sheer joy he watched the strict SIC lift an optic ridge at him before he slowly and carefully opened the small white and red wrapped package and found something that made his optics widen ever so slightly. Most would have missed it, but Bee didn't. Just as Bluestreak—who not so secretly high-fived the little mech—didn't while the other commanding officers leaned around to see what had Prowl looking at it in shock.
When Jazz caught sight of it he grinned like a fool shooting Blue—who he knew helped the youngling get that—a look though the young grey sniper had suddenly made himself vanish into the crowd as if he'd never been there at all.
Prowl's present wasn't sparkly or handmade, but it was perfect for the mech. It was a digitized copy of an earth novel that Wheeljack had come across on one of his many investigations into the strange place. A novel called The Art of War.
Bee beamed like a solar flare when the white and black mech looked down at him with a smile reaching out and petting him between his flickering with joy antennas.
"Thank you, Bumblebee. I look forward to reading it."
"Blue helped." Bee chirped.
"I imagine he did."
"'Kay!" Bee spun around for the next gift. "Jazzy next!"
The silver mech blinked in shock. "Me?"
"Duh!" Bee laughed, tossing a small gold box his way.
The saboteur caught it with ease and opened it with must less smooth patience than Prowl had. The mechs around him rolled their optics in amusement as he tore into it with the excitement Bumblebee normally did. What he found made him still his movements though and just stare down in silence.
Something Jazz never did.
Ever.
Jazz was never speechless.
But he was now.
Which his might-as-well-be brothers found very interesting.
Bee just grinned.
Turning it over in his almost claws like fingers the silver mech held a small data chip that appeared to be one that housed recorded video with a name sticker over the top of it that had scribbled in very youngling like print the words 'Music with Jazzy'. Jazz blinked, looked up at Bumblebee, looking back at the chip, blinked again, looked back at Bee, and then stared at the chip.
No other mech knew that Jazz was teaching Bee about music, about how to play Cybertronian instruments. At least he hadn't thought they did.
Though when he glanced across the room past the giggling youngling to find Sides and Sunny not to discreetly watching he grinned.
Looking back to Bee he closed the chip tightly in one hand, scooped up Bee in the other, and quickly squished the little mech to him hugging him as the youngling giggled throwing his arms around his neck and earning himself a kiss between his antennas.
"Thanks, Lil' Bee." Jazz whispered, looking forward to finding out just what was on the chip.
Bee clicked happily.
"How about the twins next?" Jazz asked him.
Bee nodded quickly in response. "Sides! Sunny!"
In a flash of red and golden the forms of the twins were at the youngling's beck and call.
"What's up, Half Pint?" Sideswipe questioned most of his bright ruby red colored frame covered in sticky string—one of Wheeljack's latest inventions—and colorful streamers. As per normal Sunstreaker didn't have a blemish on him but he was grinning more than normal.
Bumblebee scrambled down Jazz's frame, toddle across the table, and slid a light blue wrapped package to the pair of warriors. They tilted their heads in unison which Bee found secretly kind of funny as they stared down at him.
"You got us something?" Sunstreaker asked.
"No Sunny, he just wants us to look at it." Sideswipe chuckled.
"Don't make me smack you in front of the youngling." The golden warrior growled cutting his optics to his brother.
Sides muted it.
It was best not to have fist fights in front of Bumblebee. He didn't like them and Optimus, Ironhide, and Ratchet liked them even less. Even if most of the time Ironhide and Ratchet were the ones doing most of the damage to whoever it was that annoyed them at present.
"'Corse got ya something." Bee rolled his optics and pushed the box the last bit to the twins.
"Cool!" Sideswipe laughed, snatching it up and holding it up to his audios shaking it back and forth.
Bee giggled while Sunstreaker rolled his optics.
"You're gonna break it you idiot."
"Am not
"Are too."
"Am not."
SMACK
"Oww! Not again!" Sides moaned rubbing his shoulder fiercely as Sunny snatched the package from him while Bumblebee shook his head dramatically trying to hide his amusement. He really wished sometimes those two wouldn't smack each other so much. He knew it was how Sunstreaker dealt with emotions he didn't know how to handle or express, even his youngling self could understand that, but he wished he could come up with some way to help Sunny not have to smack so much.
"You are a glitch you know that?" Sunstreaker huffed.
"You said no hitting in front of the youngling!"
"Well stop being stupid and I wouldn't have to hit you!"
"You know if I hit you as much as you hit me and every other bot we'd both be—"
"Dead?" Jazz put in with a chuckled.
"Yeah!" Sides threw a hand out nodding at the saboteur.
At that point Bee was pouting at the pair of them with his arms crossed and his little foot tapping on the table.
Ironhide, Optimus, and Ratchet found that picture kind of adorable.
"Sides," The little mech mumbled.
The twins went of arguing snatching the package back and forth.
"Sunny?" Bee sighed when neither mech even cast him a glance. Looking back over his shoulder he blinked those big baby blue optics at Ironhide.
The ebony mech smirked down at him.
"I think you lost 'em, Bee."
Bee pouted for a few more klicks.
They were still arguing.
"Hide," The little mech whined. "Fix it."
A devious grin spread across the massive mech's lips and in one sparkbeat Optimus' hands flew up to cover his audios while Ratchet leaned away doing the same when in a flash of black metal and a whirl of plasma the weapons specialist lifted a cannon toward the ceiling and fired.
The initial shock was every mech in the room snapped to attention a few weapons programs shifting into action as every optic in the room locked on the smoking plasma cannon held above Ironhide's head. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker had been mid fist pulled back at each other only to freeze mid throw with their gift now laying forgotten on the table and spin to face the massive black mech.
"What the—"
Ironhide cut the red warrior off letting his cannon fall as he narrowed his gaze at the pair. "Don't ignore my youngling."
There was a moment longer of still silence before the room burst into laughter and went back to mingling while Bumblebee beamed even brighter bouncing on his feet as the twins rolled their optics dropping their fist.
"Spoiled bratling." Sunstreaker mumbled though he wore a smirk. The 'bratling' went right on grinning at him not at all bothered by the title.
"You know we did most of the spoiling, bro. We can't say that." Sides smiled over their bond.
"I don't have to admit to that." Sunstreaker retorted as he snatched up the gift before his twin could grab it and went to opening it as Bee began to bounce happily again on the table. The golden warrior ignored him so that he wouldn't have to work so hard to hide the smirk pulling at his lips while his brother leaned rather dramatically over him bouncing just as much as the youngling. The golden warrior also had to hide his optic roll at that. However, when he tore the layer of wrapping off the large rectangular shape the proud faceplate of the warrior fell slack and Sides' bouncing came to a rather abrupt end.
Bumblebee's didn't though.
He just grinned bigger than ever when both mechs just stared unblinking down at the canvas in the golden mech's hands as he slowly tore all the covering away. When it was free of all obscurities and the twins stayed silent Bee's bouncing stopped as well and he tilted his little head his antennas growing still in their flickering as he pulled nervously at his fingers.
Maybe he hadn't done good enough.
He was oblivious to the mechs around the table that watched him and the twins curiously—he couldn't even feel Ratchet's deep gaze—he was to focused on the fact that not even Sideswipe was talking. He just stood there dumbly at his brother's shoulder looking over the canvas with no emotion at all on his sculpted faceplate. When they wanted to be the twins really were hard to read and right now Bee was really wishing they weren't.
"Like it?" He whispered quietly knowing that even in the noise of the room they would hear him.
They stayed silent.
His bright baby blue optics found the table then as he concentrated on his right foot which he was twisting around slowly drawing circles with his toes. "Thought you'd like. Tried best could."
Suddenly a quiet squeak rang out over the room though it went unnoticed for the noise and Bee was suddenly dangling in the air by his scruff bar in Sunstreaker's hand. He found himself level with a pair of dark blue optics that swam with an emotion he really couldn't place, but the small smile that graced his lips told the youngling enough.
"Meta Roan." It wasn't a question as the golden warrior glanced at Sides who was grinning like an idiot as he held the abstract swirling forest of colors and shades that were almost touchable on the canvas.
"Said liked." Bee shrugged. "Happy New Vorns."
Sunstreaker grinned at him before sending a warm, welcoming, hug like pulse through the linked bond he and his twin shared with Bumblebee to which the little mech giggled at the feeling of sending it back double fold along with his smile as Sides did the same as his brother. Bumblebee knew that in this room full of bots not even Sideswipe would express the emotions flooding the little mech's spark out loud, but the feeling was enough.
They were happy.
Truly, honestly, and for the first time on this orn in a very long time . . . happy.
Because of Bee.
And he was on cloud nine.
"You know, Half Pint." Sides chuckled as he flashed the painting between the table and the youngling. The couple of mechs that hadn't seen Bee paint it optics widened at the sight and Sides handed it over to Ratchet when his hand came up. In the mean time Sides snatched up the youngling from his brother and cradled him against his spark petting him between the antennas earning himself a purr. "One of these orns you're gonna be better than Sunny."
Bee laughed shaking his head. "Nope."
"You might." Sunstreaker smiled softly over at him.
"Just have good teacher." Bee shrugged earning another warm pulse from both mechs and the others at the table before he scrambled down back to the middle of his now smaller pile of presents.
When Ratchet handed the gift back to the twins he paused a moment to rub the youngling affectingly on the head in a silent thanks before Blaster called out across the room demanding the twins presence.
"Thanks, Half Pint." Sides chuckled. "We'll be back."
"Maybe." Sunstreaker added as the two took their gift and went off to get Blaster down from the wall where Inferno had stuck him with Wheeljack's sticky spray.
"I can see that stuff becoming a problem." Prowl sighed.
"You can confiscate it after the party." Jazz laughed. "Let 'em have fun for tonight."
"It is almost New Vorns, Prowl." Optimus smiled at his SIC.
"The only reason I haven't said anything."
"Once again," Ratchet shook his head. "Which one of you is commander of this army?"
"It varies from orn to orn." Optimus' optics twinkled with mirth.
"Ain't that the truth?" Ironhide full on laughed.
The table of brothers laughed together quietly while Bee sat in the dead center of them smiling before he picked up a rather oddly shaped yellow package and toddled over to Ratchet. The medic snorted at him in amusement as the little mech stood before him holding it up proudly. The box was just about as big as him, but it was light weight enough that he could hold it with ease and peak over the top blinking his big optics up at his favorite medic.
"You got me something too?" Ratchet asked jokingly as he plucked the package from Bumblebee. Lifting it before him he gazed around the table. "Alright, which one of you helped with this?"
"Not me." Jazz shook his head.
"Nope." Hide did the same.
"I didn't even know he did all this." Optimus smiled.
All optics turned to Prowl.
"I only helped with the twins." The SIC shrugged innocently.
"Jacky helped." Bee chirped up.
The whole table went suddenly still and the medic leaned away from the package in his hand. For a moment the mechs all just stared at each other before Ratchet glanced across the room looking for Wheeljack. When he found the wacky inventor over trying to help Cliffjumper who was now 'magically' stuck to the wall he sighed turning back to Bee.
"This isn't going to blow up in my faceplate is it?" He questioned.
Bee paused making each mech around him nervous as he studied the package before he bit his lip and shook his head.
"Don't think so."
"That's reassuring." Ratchet mumbled.
"Okay word it this way," Jazz spoke up. "Jacky wasn't letting you play with explosives again was he?"
Bee kept his lip pinned between his teeth.
He promised he wasn't going to tell. They had fun. He wasn't ratting Jacky out. Besides no bot heard the boom.
However, when his silence stretched on his family had their answer.
"And now I'm going to scrap him." Ironhide growled pushing himself up from the table only to have Bee squeak at him when he was half way up.
"No! Didn't hurt nothin'!"
"Not the point, Squirt." Ratchet shook his head at him though he did pull Ironhide back to his seat.
"Gah!" The big black mech grumbled. "I'm gonna to twist him until he has doorwings, then I'm gonna tear them off."
"Ouch," Optimus cringed slightly. "A little harsh don't you think, Hide?"
"Nope." The WS shook his head.
"You know," Jazz laughed. "Wheeljack ain't really all that much of a pushover. He is a good warrior."
"When he stops trying to analyze everything." Prowl snorted.
"Ain't that the 'Con calling the virus-viper deceptive?" Ratchet shot at the white and black mech.
Jazz busted out laughing along with Ironhide. Optimus was more discrete, hiding his smirk behind his hand while Ratchet just grinned over at the SIC who glared back.
"You know, Ratch." Prowl started. "I haven't seen your bay reports in a good while."
The laughter came to an end and the medic scowled.
"You wouldn't."
"Try me."
With a snort Ratchet looked away affectively surrendering. For now.
Jazz broke out into laughter again. "And mechs say Prowler don't know how to have any fun!"
Prowl shrugged, his doorwings twitching as he tried to hide his humor.
Bumblebee had watched the whole act unfold around him with amusement, but now he wanted to finish his presents. It was already almost New Vorns and he'd spent the last few breams trying to convince himself that he wasn't tired and in desperate need of recharge because he knew as soon as he yawned Hide would scoop him up and carry him to berth just like every New Vorn before. He'd never, ever, got to be a part of the countdown because he would always fall into recharge, but this vorn he was twelve vorns old and he was going to stay awake.
And then he planned on recharging all orn tomorrow.
Sounded like a perfect plan to him.
"Hey!" Bee bounced to wake himself up and gain attention as he pulled at the armor on Ratchet's arm. The medic turned his focus back down to him. "Present!"
The CMO chuckled at the earnest pointing the little mech was doing to the box in his grip so Ratchet relented and tore the package open. What he found made him laugh and snort all in the same moment. Wrapped neatly in clear plastic was a set of large, very light weight, wrenches glittering and shimmering like brand new with the words 'Ratchet's Throwing Wrenches' printed on the sides of each one. As the mech around him—even Prowl—laughed at the sight Ratchet picked one up and tossed in up and down in his hand. They were sturdy and would take a good beating, but they were lighter than his normal tools which meant they'd have probably three times the range. The CMO smiled deviously as he looked down at the little youngling who beamed before him.
"Clever little youngling aren't you?" Ratchet chuckled patting him on the head.
"Jacky helped." Bee grinned wider.
"Yes," Ratchet turned his gaze across the room his deep blue optics pinning his oblivious prey where he stood. "He did."
Faster than a strike of lightening Ratchet swung and a wrench went sailing through the crowd with a metal hum making several duck from the sound and yelp away while some just watch almost as if it was happening in slow motion as the tool sailed across the distance with ease and nailed Wheeljack right between the optics making the tri-tone mech squeak out in pain before he crashed into the ground.
After a moment of shock silence the room busted out laughing.
Again.
"Nice shot, Ratchet!"
"Ha-ha damn that was awesome!"
"Ouch!"
"Awesome, Ratchet!"
"Well, we're all dead."
"Ratchet the Hatchet has some new toys!"
"Run for your lives!"
"That was so epic!"
"What the pit was that for!?" Wheeljack hauled himself back to his feet rubbing his forehead as he held the new tool glaring through all the praise and laughter to his friend. "I made them for crying out loud."
"Mistake number one." That sounded not so surprisingly like Sideswipe where ever he was in this crowded mess.
"Stop letting the youngling play with explosives." Ratchet deadpanned and the laughter rose up again tenfold.
Wheeljack just gaped at him before his light blue optics glared at Bumblebee.
The little yellow youngling smiled innocently batting his big blue orbs.
Waving them all off Wheeljack kept the wrench and went back to trying to get Cliffjumper off the wall.
Satisfied, Ratchet looked back down at Bumblebee who was still smiling.
"Thanks Squirt."
"Welcome." Bumblebee then grabbed a large red box that really was far too big for him to pick up and scooted it quite dramatically across the table to Optimus. The commander chuckled quietly under his breath as Bee brought it to him and then plopped down beside him still beaming like the sun.
This present he had had no help with what so ever. Well besides Bluestreak hiding it for him. Other than that though it was totally on his own. He even wrapped it! Which was why it looked kinda funny, but that didn't matter to the youngling. He just sat there and smiled for all he was worth as the Prime carefully tore into the present. What he found made him smile almost as bright as Bee was.
A colorful, messy, wonderland was sprawled out on the large white canvas before him in the many shapes and colors that made up the whole collection of Autobots that the youngling knew. Even Hammerdown, Quickfire, Hot Rod, and Ultra Magnus. Every bot that the youngling knew and loved found a place somewhere in the picture and around dead center was the mechs around the table with Bumblebee there smiling pretty much like he was now though in the picture he was in Ironhide's arms. They weren't all that realistic of bots. Sill very youngling like—Bee had down finger painting and abstract sort of shapes like the tress in Meta Roan because the lines were so different and he could make mistakes—drawing bots was another story though and the ones on the canvas were very stick-figure-ish, but to Optimus and the mechs that leaned around to look at the image it couldn't have been anymore perfect simply because of the words scribbled across the top in youngling writing.
'My family'
Followed by a sweet little smiley face.
Optimus thought his spark might burst with happiness as he reached out both physically and mentally wrapping Bumblebee up and snuggling him to his spark as he lightly kissed the giggling youngling between his antennas.
"I love it, Bumblebee." The Prime pulsed over their bond and though the youngling still wasn't very good at forming words over the bonds he had he answered as best he could. With a bright happy pulse and a short reply.
"Welcome."
Once he in return snuggled into Optimus' neck cables and kiss the Prime on the cheek plating he scrambled back down to the table with a happy giggle and retrieved the last present he needed to give out bringing it to Ironhide with a pep in his little steps and that same beaming grin.
Ironhide chuckled, plucking the tiny light weight blue package from the youngling and opening it quickly when he checked his internal clock and saw that it was only nano-klicks from when the countdown was going to start. The mechs around the room sent up the call and soon they were counting though Ironhide paid them little mind when Bee didn't even glance up as he watched him. Seeing that the youngling wanted to see him open his gift more than countdown to New Vorns he obliged and just as the countdown reached zero and the room sprang into cries of 'Happy New Vorn!' and such the WS pealed back the wrapping to find a small data pad picture frame with an image of him holding Bumblebee that had been snapped without him knowing. There was a look of unaltered happiness on his faceplate as he played with the youngling in what appeared to be a quiet corner of the rec room both he and his charge smiling brightly as the youngling stood in his arms his little hands leaning on his spark and his faceplate utterly riveted by whatever it was that Ironhide was telling him. For a moment Ironhide drank in the picture and then his optics traveled to the bright blue words that were burning brightly at the top of the screen.
'To best Sire in whole universe! Love, Bee'
Sire?
Ironhide stared.
He'd . . . never actually said that before.
Ironhide almost broke down in tears right then and there.
He might have actually if in that very moment Gears hadn't fallen from the ceiling by a rope covered in silver and white glitter and a rainbow assortment of feathers with a gag tired around his mouth as he thrashed back and forth wildly with a sign swing from his chest reading 'Happy New Vorn'.
For a moment the whole room stared in silence until Prowl glitched, almost every mech broke down laughing again, and Bee started giggling uncontrollably.
"SIDESWIPE!" Ratchet and Prime yelled in unison jumping to their feet finding the now cowering red mech in the crowd.
"I DIDN'T DO IT!" Sides pleaded hiding behind Blaster. "At least not all of it!"
"Who did?" Jazz gasped around his laughter as he not so secretly snapped picture after picture that is until one of Ratchet's brand knew wrench bounced off his head. "OWW!"
"Like you don't slaggin' know!" Ratchet hissed. "That has your sick humor written all over it."
"Actually it has it glued all over it." Jazz corrected rubbing the side of his head.
Ratchet snarled. "Do you know how long it's going to take me to get all the glitter and glue out of his wiring!? I swear to pit whoever did this is on janitor duty for a Decacycle! AND I HAVE TO FIX PROWL! AGAIN! I'M GONNA SCRAP ALL OF YOU!"
"Whoever is responsible," Optimus rubbed a finger between his optics.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Blaster, Sides, Drift, and Jazz started heading for the door. "We know. We know. Brig."
While all that was happening and mechs were rolling around each other laughing Ironhide had scooped up Bumblebee quieting his giggles and nuzzled his faceplate lovingly into the little mechs soft frame. Bee clicked a very happy sparkling like sound as he hugged his guardian back.
"Like?" He whispered over all the noise.
"You don't know," The youngling would have sworn he heard tears choking Hide's voice. "How much Bee. You don't know. Primus . . . I love you my little Bumblebee."
"Love you too, Hide." Bee smiled snuggling in tighter. "Best Sire ever."
A joyful tear rolled down the battle hardened mechs cheek as the first few klicks of the new vorn rolled into life.
Right then there was no war. There was no pain, no hardship, no stress, no anger, no hatred, and no darkness. There was only the joy and the love in the air around this psycho glitchy family that was the Autobots. There was only the warmth bubbling up in two sparks that were now forever intertwined together with a love and a link that nothing would ever be powerful enough to break.
Tomorrow there would be war. There would be the harsh reality of what they were and who they were all forced to be. There would be battles to plan, losses to category, strategies to discuss, and a never ending battle born of hatred and spite to continue to beat back with all that they were.
But now there was peace, laughter, and joy. It was a new beginning. A fresh start. Even if the start was still in the middle of chaos and darkness there was something in the very stardust around them that said change was coming. Tonight it felt like a good change . . . whether it would be was yet to be learned, but for now there was only this.
There was only an adopted son and Sire basking in the glow of a new chapter of their lives.
There was family . . . there was hope.
Well that was fun to write.
I can't put into words how much I love this chapter.
Not much to say this time. I think this chapter speaks for itself. Hope you liked it, and I'd love to hear what you thought! So please review!
Next chapter we have another much loved mech joining the mix and he's got his own share of secrets.
Chat with ya later!
-Jay