CHAPTER 21
Jokes and Celebration

"Yep, he's already driving me nuts."

Sideswipe laughed a little as Mark sat down next to him in the mess hall the next Saturday. The mech put his legs up on the table and looked at Mark with a cheeky grin. He had lasted longer than he had expected him to in Prowl's presence, that much he had to give him. "So, Prowler's given you a nice taste of how strict he can be, I take it?" Mark shot Sideswipe a sharp glare "What?"

"You find it amusing?" Mark asked, groaning "Do you know the caniption he had when he saw me with Grimlock yesterday?" He asked "He practically all but dragged me away from him. In front of that hot private, you know, the one right out of high school? The blond?" He asked.

"I don't look at human femme's that way." Sideswipe snorted "But slag, that does sound rough."

Mark grumbled something under his breath and crossed his arms. If he knew it probably wasn't the right time to be making jokes, he might have joked that the boy should quit acting like a sparkling. But he had a distinct feeling that he would be met with something to his helm, and the last thing he wanted was for his paint to be chipped. "Primus, you're gonna have a conniption if Red Alert ever comes to Earth." Mark raised an eyebrow "I could tell you who he is, but that would spoil the fun."

Mark rolled his eyes, leaning back in his chair. "So..." Mark paused a moment "What do you do to keep out from his watch then?" Sideswipe raised an optic ridge "Oh come on, Sides. I know you well enough by now to know you have to know a way." He added as the mech chuckled slightly "I'm your little buddy, you've gotta let me in on your secret."

"My secret?" Sideswipe laughed "You mean twenty-eight vorns of dealing with him and knowing how he works?" Mark laughed a little at that, though it was clear by the look on his face he was still annoyed "Aw come on, he's not that hard to figure out. Just don't do stupid stuff when you're around him, or at least when he's looking." He nudged him a bit "You can't be that bothered though."

Mark shrugged, he supposed he wasn't too bothered by it. After all, despite how serious, and sometimes, as much of a buzzkill he sometimes was, Prowl was a nice mech. Oftentimes asking him how his day was, and when he passed him in the halls, having idle conversation. But then again, he was also the mech that didn't come into the mess hall to eat, and kept to himself unless he ran into you. So he wasn't totally sure that Prowl was really the "friendly" mech he made himself out to be towards him.

"I guess he's at least a nice guy." Mark replied "He could be like Coulton, serious and a dick and a half."

Sideswipe gave a quiet growl at the mention of Coulton's name, as most people often did. "Heh, yeah. Prowl's annoying at time, but he is a good guy, I'll give him that." He explained, sipping on his energon slightly "In fact, he gave Coulton a piece of his mind earlier. I almost called you in to see, but I knew you had homework to do." Mark chuckled a little "So... He giving you any more trouble?"

"Hound won't let him near me." Mark replied "I haven't even seen him."

"Good, I hear he's been saying some nasty slag about your dad that you don't need to hear." Mark cringed, though he wasn't entirely surprised by that either, the man had a grudge against everyone it seemed "So, I was thinking that we could do some more combat training today." Sideswipe told him calmly "You're making good progress, so I was even thinking you could start working on sparring." He added.

"Really!?" Mark asked, a grin spreading over his face, the mech nodded "Awesome, Sides! I can't wait!" He quickly began to scarf down the food in front of him violently.

Sideswipe held up a hand slightly, and chuckled. He'd nearly forgotten for a moment how excitable the young human tended to get. "Relax, kid. Take a breather." Sideswipe held up his energon slightly "In case you haven't noticed, I haven't even finished my energon yet." He then added very playfully "Did you take that medication you take for your ADHD, because you sure aren't acting like you did!"

"Mute it."

"When did you start using our lingo?"

"I've been hanging out with you too much." Mark chuckled, his eyes lifting as Prowl came in to dispose of his cube of energon "Prowl..."

The mech nodded to both of them, a curious optic moving between the two of them. He looked between the two of them for a moment, and then sighed. "You two have been talking about me, haven't you? Not another prank I hope." He looked at Sideswipe, who just shrugged with a mischievous grin "Try not to be too bad of an influence on the youngling, Sideswipe."

"We were just talking about his combat training. Stop being so paranoid." Sideswipe snorted.

"You're teaching him how to fight?" Prowl questioned, then glanced over at Mark "You're certainly one brave little sparkling." He chuckled evenly, tossing the empty energon cube into a Transformer-sized trash can "Try not to break our young charge, Sideswipe."

As Prowl left, Sideswipe made a slight mocking face at his back. Mark only chuckled, biting into his scrambled eggs yet again as he looked up at Sideswipe. "To be fair, you did almost let me break my arm last week." Mark laughed slightly at the comment, though Sideswipe didn't look amused "What? I still have the bruise where I hit that wall to prove it!"

"Now it's your turn to mute it."

The grin never left Mark's face.

...

"Still nothing, huh?"

Crosshairs turned as Hound made his way into the communications center. He frowned a little, shaking his head and rubbing the back of his helm in response. "You do know that you're not the leader anymore, right?" Hound rolled his optics a bit "And the short answer is no. We got some communications from First Aid, he's still making planetfall soon. But not a peep from Prime." He explained.

Hound nodded a bit, seating himself beside the mech quietly. His optics narrowed a bit as he leaned back. "I hope that nothing has happened to him n his absence." He noted calmly "I know that the chances of that are very low. But I worry about him Crosshairs. So much has changed just since he's been gone, I don't know if I can handle any more changes if something did happen."

"Tell me about it." Crosshairs shook his head "You're not the only worried one."

Hound nodded his head a little before staring quietly out the doorway as laughter filled the air. He took notice of Mark and Sideswipe making their way down the hallway, to who knows where. "That's music to my ears right now." He noted, putting his hands behind his back "He still hasn't been sleeping too well, but I've at least gotten that it's about other things out of him."

Crosshairs stared over at Hound. "It's only been a couple of months, can't expect him to be over all of this yet. That revelation still hit him pretty slagging hard." Hound nodded his head slowly in agreement "I still remember you not being able to recharge well for a year after Moonshift and Coldsteel..." He quickly noticed the warning look in Hound's optics "The point is, I warned you it wasn't going to be easy..."

"I'm aware..."

"SHHHH!"

As Crosshairs stood, Hound quickly caught on to what had gotten his attention. At first, as he turned the dial up on one of the machines, all Hound could hear was static. But then, the faint sounds, the voice, the soft baritone. "Aut...Bots..." Optimus's voice was only faint for a moment, but they'd know it anywhere "Received... Transmission..." Both Autobots stared at each other in shock "ETA... One month..."

And then they completely lost the signal, yet the message had come loud and clear. "Prime's coming back!" Hound shouted, now on his feet himself as he rushed towards the door "PRIME RECIEVED OUR MESSAGE! He's on the return!" As he stepped into the hallway, the sound of several mechs, and one human boy rushing out echoed through the hall "One month! He's one month out!"

Hound could tell that Mark was a little lost in the excitement that shot through the Autobots. Though in his excitement, Sideswipe scooped the young human up and did a little circle around the hallway. "I never had a single doubt." Sideswipe chuckled "Someone should go inform Lennox and Epps, so they can warn the human officials."

As Sideswipe set him down, Mark jogged over to his guardian. The human saw the twinkle, and the gleem in his optics that signified the fact that this was, indeed a reason to celebrate. "That soon?" Mark asked, Hound nodded "Geez, that was quick..."

"He wasn't gone for long." Hound shook his head "Likely, he only traveled a month before stopping, wherever he did." Hound explained, carefully scooping the human up and lifting him to his normal perch on his shoulder "Your little "fanboy" friend might just get his wish to meet Prime yet." Mark laughed a little bit in response "Wouldn't be counting on any combat training today, though."

Mark nodded, he understood completely, of course. It was a reason to celebrate, after all, as this meant they stood more of a shot against Galvatron. And what's more, this meant the Autobots wouldn't be down their true leader, or one of their friends again. "Let's get through him meeting Mark before we even think about introducing him to the Kenny boy you don't even know." Crosshairs told Hound with a snort, stepping out of the room "But you know when Prowl's getting excited..." Mark noticed the smile on Prowl's face down the hall "That little work will be done today."

"You guys are acting like a bunch of little kids on Christmas morning."

"True." Hound chuckled "What do ye say, kid? Let's go make sure that information is relayed to the rest of NEST?" Mark nodded, and Hound turned towards "Alright, Crosshairs, you have my duties for a bit."

"Of course I do."

As Hound rushed down the hallway, Mark couldn't help but smile himself. It was good to see the somber tone the base usually had livened up. And what's more, it was nice to see the Autobots as excited as they were. Though of course, he had seen Hound as excited as he was now. "You know, I'm actually excited too." Hound turned, surprise in his optics "It's gonna be awesome to finally actually meet Optimus Prime."

"And you soon will, Mark." Hound replied proudly "Just you wait, it will be a fine day when you do."

Somehow, Mark didn't doubt Hound's words at all.

...

A/N: Though it was time to make it officially clear that Optimus will be coming back soon. :)