Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Come on. Jou can zay it. Zay zire. Zzzziiiiiirrrrreeee.”

Big blue optics stared at the large bot intently. Her wide optics were locked on her sire, who was watching her with hopeful expectancy. The pair stared at each other for a long moment before the sparkling lost interest staring at her sire’s grinning face and started looking elsewhere.

“… Or not.” Blitzwing sighed, his face switching back to Icy. Hearing his face spin, Sunset Wisp turned her focus back on her sire, caught off guard by the sudden change in color. Blitzwing couldn’t help but smirk a bit as Wisp reached up and started patting his face with curious beeps. Sighing, Blitzwing leaned back, gazing out on the city, watching from any sign of a familiar yellow car.

While Blitzwing knew he was capable of watching Wisp on his own, he would rather have Hummel back at base. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Hummel to be out on his own, never minding the countless trouble his Hummel would get himself into when no one watched him carefully every nanoklik… oh who was he kidding? Blitzwing hardly trusted Hummel to keep himself out of trouble, let alone do anything without causing any trouble without someone there to stop him.

He could hardly stay quiet for a whole cycle before he got bored and ran his intake nonstop. It was a wonder how Blitzwing managed to keep the last bits of his sanity from breaking with all the talking his Hummel did, but then again having spent so long with his Hummel, Blitzwing figured he developed enough patience to put up with the near endless chatter the smaller mech could produce. And Hummel liked it when someone would listen to him, even if half of what he was saying was very useless sometimes.

Though nowadays, Hummel had been more focused on their daughter than anything else. He hardly let her out of his sight, even for a slight moment. Hummel kept his focus solely on their femmling and taking care of her with Blitzwing.

He couldn’t really blame him. No one could. What happened two orbital cycles back was still fresh on Blitzwing’s processor. No doubt still fresh in everyone else’s too. Hummel’s especially.

Everyone knew that Blitzwing’s ex-comrades had been too quiet for a long while, yet the triple changer could only blame himself for letting his guard down. It was only supposed to be a regular day. A regular day with no worries or anything dangerous. He remembered how Wisp was being extra fussy that day and how Hummel decided to take her out for a small drive to try and calm her down.

Why did he even agree to let Hummel go? Why did he think that this ‘park’ Sari had suggested going to would be safe and let Bulkhead volunteer to go with them? Why did he think that the wrecker could watch over his family and keep them safe? Why didn’t he tag-along? Why?

Because he was stupid enough to believe Megatron wouldn’t do anything.

When Blitzwing found out that Megatron had stolen both his lover and sparkling, the ex-Decepticon felt everything inside him snap. Terror, worry, grief, fear, anger, rage, and hatred swirled inside him as he ran back to where he once called base in the old faction. Somehow, the remaining Autobots managed to stop him halfway there, but they could not quell his rage or his burning need to save his family.

Blitzwing blew up on them, exploding all his emotions on them that was equally matched by the medic’s fury that lasted a good few rounds before the Prime finally stepped in and separated them. His rage was still burning, but Blitzwing managed to get a grip on his emotions long enough to get a good idea of why Megatron would capture his family and Bulkhead and how to rescue them all.

It had been risky, life threatening, and completely out of events, but they managed to save Bulkhead, Hummel and Wisp along with Professor Sumdac. Everything seemed to turn out well in the end… or so they had thought for a while. Until he noticed a sudden change in Hummel.

Blitzwing couldn’t tell if that was good or bad at first.

While it was nice to see Hummel dedicated to care for Wisp, everyone could see from the very beginning that the mini-bot did not like being away from her. He hardly went anywhere without her and never let anyone besides Blitzwing or the medic hold her. And even then he kept a good optic on her. The medic found it very annoying very quickly during medical checkups, grumbling something about overreacting carrier codes. It was even clear that he took more care of the femmling than himself.

Thankfully, Hummel began to ease up after a while, though he still was very reluctant to leave Wisp alone. Even for a short amount of time. Blitzwing, the Prime, and Prowl eventually had to corner Hummel about the issue on servo and work something out about it. Hummel had tried to argue that nothing was wrong, but gave up quickly when they pointed out his recent behavior and how much it was affecting him. In the end they managed to convince Hummel to take breaks from watching over Wisp slowly, letting others take turns caring for her.

Wisp beeped as she grabbed Blitzwing’s lower lip, giving it a sharp tug.

“Mighty curious aren’t jou?” Blitzwing chuckled as his child continued to pull at his lip. “I zink jou get zat from Hummel. He’s always curious about everything. It’s rather cute.” Blitzwing smiled, carefully prying Wisp’s grip off him. The femmling let out a displeased beep at having lost her grip on her sire’s face and slapped her small servo against Blitzwing’s larger one.

“OoooOOOooo-o-o-Ooo~” Blitzwing cooed as his face spun to Random. “Feisty! Jou’re going to grow up vith a big attitude!” He cackled, leaning his helm forward and nuzzling the top of his daughter’s helm. Wisp beeped, momentarily forgetting her anger and leaned against the gesture. “Zuch a tiny bot vith a giant personality. I vonder vho jou remind me of? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Leaning back, Blitzwing smiled down at his child. Wisp was a few orbital cycles old now and was growing up well. While still small, she was certainly getting bigger every solar cycle. She was still smaller than Sari, only slightly reaching up to the human-er, techno-organic’s knees now, being compared to the size of something called a Teddy Bear. He didn’t know what a Teddy Bear was, but it must have been some form of compliment if Hummel didn’t object to it.

Still, she was tiny . Not as tiny as when he first saw her, but she certainly was small enough to fit in the palm of his servo and have room to move around. Her tininess reminded him of how small Hummel used to be. How his small size made Blitzwing wary and nervous being around him. His large size could have easily squashed him if he wasn’t careful and easy it was for him to lose sight of the small bot if he ever took his optics off him for even a moment. He had been extremely careful with Hummel back then and he didn’t stop worrying about accidentally stepping on him till his height reached past his knees.

Would he act the same around Wisp till she grew bigger? Probably. Being so much smaller than he was, Blitzwing would have to be cautious and careful around her so that he wouldn’t accidentally harm her. Not that he ever would do something to harm her. She was his sweet little femmling! Half of him and Hummel! There was no way he would ever dream of harming his little one!

No, Blitzwing swore he would never lay harm on his Hummel, and that vow also extended to his daughter.

He already failed keeping her and Hummel safe from the clutches of his old faction. He will not fail to keep his family safe from any harm.

His vision went red at the thought of his old faction. How dare they. How dare they bring harm to his family! No! How dare they even TOUCH his family! If he ever laid sight on a Decepticon ever again, he would make them wish they never came online!

“Beep.” Blitzwing’s anger faded slightly, smiling softly at his sparkling.

Her big blue optics gazed at him, wondering how this bot she had come to recognize as sire have so many faces. Why? Why did his face change so much? Did he eat those faces? That was just rude.

“Oh my little süßes Kind.” Blitzwing cooed at the small femmling, lifting a digit towards her. “I promise jou. I promise on my very zpark zat I vill do everything in my power to make zure jou’re happy. Jou und jour vounderful carrier.”

Wisp let out a series of delighted beeps as Blitzwing’s digit rubbed against her belly. Giggles slowly built up inside Blitzwing’s chest as he watched his daughter fall backwards slowly, squirming her tiny limbs around and beeping happily.

Happy. Yes. He swore to keep his sparkling happy. Blitzwing wished nothing but happiness for his little one and his little lover.

“Jou vill grow up to be zee most amazing bot zis universe vill ever zee.” Blitzwing whispered to his sparkling, smiling as she grabbed his large digit with her tiny servos. “Und no matter what path jou choose or vho jou grow up to be, I vill love jou from zee very center of my spark.”

“Got room in there for one more?” Blitzwing helm perked up at the familiar voice, looking over the edge and grinning down at the yellow minibot standing below him. Hopping off the roof, Blitzwing scooped Bumblebee up into his arms, planting kisses all over his face.

“Always!” The triple changer cackled, nuzzling helm against his Hummel.

Bee chuckled before his focus went to the sparkling beeping for his attention. Wisp huffed, reaching her little arms out towards Bee and making grabbing motions with her servos, demanding for him to hold her. 

“Hey there small spark. Did you miss me?” Bee chuckled as he carefully took Wisp. Happy to be in her carrier’s hold, Wisp beeped with delight, flinging herself at her carrier and hugging him around his neck.

“Zeems like zomeone did.” Blitzwing quietly chuckled, feeling whole again now that Hummel was back.

Chapter Text

“How is he?”

“Fine. A lil’ bit loopy due to major Energon loose, but he’s stable.”

“And the sparkling?”

“Alive. Surprisingly enough.” Ratchet sighed. “I honestly thought she wouldn’t make it through the night. She’s jus’ so…” Ratchet pulled a face, shifting his servos for the right word to say. “So… small .”

The Prime couldn’t help but agree with the old medic. He had seen very few sparklings in his past, but all of them were younglings instead of new emerged sparklings, and they all were much bigger than her. Even when he was standing right beside them, Optimus couldn’t help but be stunned at how impossibly small Bumblebee’s sparkling was. She was tiny, almost as small as a human new emerged sparkling. Were they even supposed to be this small?

“Is this… normal?” Optimus asked hesitantly, staring at the sparkling resting against Bee’s spark chamber. She was wrapped up in a small blanket, covering her entire body with a small flap pulled aside, exposing her chest that had tubes and wires connected to it and a small bit of her face. If he could even call it a face. She looked more like a half finished protoform than an actual sparkling.

“No. It’s not.” Ratchet huffed softly, moving around the medical berth to the other side to check on the I.V. bags, making sure everything was properly filled and flowing normally. “She’s not supposed ta look like that. She emerged too early. Much too early. It’s a miracle that she’s still alive even.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean most sparklings don’t survive early emergence. Not without proper medical attention or highly trained medics on hand to makes sure nothin’ goes wrong.” Ratchet answered without taking his optics off the I.V. bags. “Her body wasn’t even finished buildin’ when her spark detached from Bumblebee. Half of her systems aren’t even finished yet ‘nd she can’t even move a single digit.”

“But… she’ll live… right?” Optimus frowned, looking at the sparkling with worry. As much trouble Bee gave them for having a relationship with a Decepticon and having their child, that didn’t stop the Autobot leader from being concerned about the young spark.

“Hard ta say.” Ratchet glanced at the pair, rubbing the back of his helm. “I’m no expert with sparklin’s, I’ll admit. It could go either way down the line.”

“What about using that Key? Couldn’t that help?”

Ratchet pulled a face. “Prime I’ll be honest with ya. I’m not too comfortable with the idea of usin’ the Key on the sparklin’.” He glanced down at the pair. “The Key was used on Bumblebee plenty of times ‘fore, yet it did nothin’ to his nanite problem. As much as it’s been plenty useful in the past, I don’t want ta get hopes up fer nothin’. Sides, I’m not too comfortable with the idea of a powerful artifact mixin’ with a small sparklin’ would be such a good idea.”

Optimus’ frown deepened a bit but said nothing. If Ratchet wasn’t even confident with using the Key on the sparkling, he wouldn’t push it. Looking back down at the pair, his gaze lingered on the sparkling. All this trouble due to a sparkling. Though most of the blame went to her creators than her. “… Is it alright to touch her?”

“Should be. Though jus’ her servos. ‘Nd mind the cables. They’re the only thin’ keepin’ her systems steady ‘nd online.”

Optimus nodded, reaching down carefully and slipping a digit into the small servo. The sheer size difference between them was even more astounding, baffling Optimus even more that a Cybertronian could ever be so small. It was highly unthinkable. “… she’s so… little.”

“Heh. Never seen a new spark ‘fore, have ya?”

“Just younglings.” Optimus admitted, carefully rubbing his thumb over the small digits. “I never knew they emerged so… small.”

Ratchet chuckled, shaking his helm. “New sparks are normally small. Though with her she’s under the normal size, even for a half Con.”

Optimus hummed. Being Blitzwing’s child, he had expected the sparkling to be a bit bigger. Yet she certainly took him by surprise. Maybe she took more after Bumblebee? He hoped so. He wasn’t sure how to deal with another Blitzwing running around.

“By the way, about Blitzwing—”

“No.” Optimus frowned up at Ratchet. “I know what yer goin’ ta ask ‘nd my answer is no.”

“He just wants to see them.”

Ratchet scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest. “‘Nd let him on a ship that’ll detect his spark signature immediately? Let him wander inside? Let him touch ‘nd break everythin’ ?”

“He made it very clear that he only wants to see Bumblebee and their daughter.” It felt weird defending Blitzwing, but the ex-Decepticon had hardly done anything to warrant any mistrust or malice back at the base.

Ratchet scoffed, turning his helm away. “I won’t allow it! I’ve been lenient before, but I will not allow that Decepticon a single step on the ship! If he wants ta see his kid, that ain’t happenin’. I need full concentration ta make sure everythin’ goes fine, ‘nd havin’ him here would no doubt be a disaster!”

“Ratchet.” Optimus sighed, his shoulders sagging slightly.

“No ‘nd NO.” Ratchet huffed. “There’s sensitive equipment here ‘nd I don’t want any sensitive equipment broken!”

Optimus frowned, but didn’t push any further. It was clear that Ratchet would never allow Blitzwing on the ship willingly any time soon, and Optimus wouldn’t force it. Looking back at the sparkling, Optimus smiled softly and hoped for the best for the little femmling.

Tiny.

Frail.

Weak.

Ratchet could almost see it every time he closed his optics. A tiny body. Cupped in his servos as he carefully extracted it.

Already Ratchet could see multiple problems when he first saw the little femmling. Too tiny, no coloration, exposed inner circuitry, incomplete skin covering in multiple areas, and she was severely frail. The sight of her condition made Ratchet’s spark drop hard in its chamber.

A sparkling in this state shouldn’t be out of the gestation tank until full completion. The risk of offlining at this state was dangerously high. And time had been very short to keep her online.

Ratchet wasn’t sure when the last time he moved in such a hurry to keep someone online from such a bad state, but in the end he had managed to stabilize the sparkling. Thank Primus for that. Yet the old medic was still worried.

The sparkling had emerged too early. By what means he didn’t not fully know yet. He largely suspected it could be due to Bumblebee’s lack of nanites in his systems, but he still needed to look into it fully before he could make an accurate conclusion. For now, he needed to focus on keeping the young spark online.

Sparing a glance over his shoulder, Ratchet’s frown deepened seeing Bumblebee’s from still huddled close to the containment unit. The unit housed the small sparkling inside, monitoring and keeping her systems stable as her nanites tried to finish building her body closer to completion. While Ratchet was concerned for her, he was also worried for Bumblebee.

The minibot never left his sparkling’s side. Ever since the first day of her emergence, Bumblebee refused to leave his sparkling alone. No matter what.

Ratchet couldn’t tell if it was stubbornness or complete dedication fueled by deep worry for his sparkling, but he had to admit that he somewhat admired the kid for sticking with his child. Though he could see that Bumblebee was neglecting his own health and care. Ratchet had tried to persuade the scout to go rest and refuel but Bee stubbornly refused to move a single step away from his daughter.

He brought up this concern with Optimus and even he couldn’t convince Bumblebee to rest. Eventually, Ratchet gave up trying to get Bumblebee to rest after it became very clear that he would not leave his child’s side. With a soft sigh, Ratchet stood up, grabbing the thermal blanket and draped it over Bee’s sleeping form.

Bumblebee shifted in his recharge, but quickly settled down. Ratchet shook his helm, still baffled how Bee was dedicated to his sparkling. At least it was a good sign that Bumblebee was taking this seriously. Even if the sparkling might not make it. The old medic wasn’t holding on to any hope that the sparkling would pull through. The chances were stacked up high against her and it wasn’t looking good.

Still, if anything he really did hope that she made it. If she was lucky enough to inherit Bumblebee’s stubbornness, then maybe there was a glimmer of hope for her yet to pull through.

“She’s so little!”

“Bulkhead! Shh! Not so loud. You’ll scare her.”

Bulkhead’s optics widened, covering his intake. Still, it didn’t stop the large wrecker from looking at the small sparkling cradled in his friend’s arms with awe. He had seen plenty of sparklings back at the farm, but he never got over how small and tiny new sparks always were. And this one was REALLY small! “I can’t believe how tiny she is. She’s even smaller than Sari.”

Bumblebee smiled a bit. “Yeah. She was even a bit tinier than this when she emerged.” He held up his sparkling a little bit. “Glad she doesn’t seem to be staying that small forever.”

“But she’s still so little!” Bulkhead said while staring at the tiny being that was staring back at him with curiosity. Big wide optics blinked at Bulkhead, wondering what this new blob was and if she could eat it. Reaching her little servos out, the little femme tried grabbing at the large green bot, though he was bit out of her reach.

“Aaaaaaw! She’s cute!” Bulkhead cooed, sticking one of his pinchers out and letting the small sparkling grab it. “Have you thought of a name for her yet?”

“Uh, no, not yet. I’m still trying to find the best one for her.” Bumblebee glanced down at his daughter, smiling as she tried eating Bulkhead’s pincher. “I had a few that I would have used, but they didn’t quite work out in the end.” He lifted his sparkling up. “I mean, how would ‘Helm Crusher’ even work?”

“… Helm Crusher?” Bulkhead stared at him, blinking in disbelief at what he just heard.

“Blitzwing’s suggestion.” Bumblebee shrugged. “He was really keen on the names he chose too if she was a mech. It was either that or Gorge.”

“ Gorge? ”

“He liked the name.” Bee shrugged again, lifting his sparkling up next to his helm. “But, come on, does she even look like a Gorge?”

Bulkhead stared at the sparkling for a moment, studying her with his optics squinted. “… I think she’s more like a Gary.”

“… Gary?”

“W-Well! She kinda looks like a Gary!” Bulkhead quickly said, waving his servos as Bumblebee gave him a pointed look.

“Seriously?! What part of her—” Bee moved his sparkling to one arm and motioned with his free at his daughter. “—looks like a Gary?! That’s just as bad as Gorge!”

“It was just a suggestion!”

“She’s not a Gary!” 

“It was just a suggestion!”

“How’s Blitzwing doing?”

“Pouting. Like every other day.”

Bumblebee sighed, dragging a servo down his face. “And I take it he still hasn’t come out of the basement yet?”

“He seems quite determined to stay under the base and away from everyone else.” Prowl answered, adjusting his hold on the femmling. The little femme squirmed in the ninja’s hold, wanting nothing more than to be set down and explore the place. Prowl frowned as she somehow managed to turn herself upside down in his hold. “… She certainly seems to have inherited your impatience.”

Bumblebee giggled a bit, offering his servos out. “Yeah. She seems to get fussy when being held by someone else.” Taking his sparkling back, Bee hugged her closer to his chest, patting her back as she quickly settled down against him.

“Fascinating. She’s really attached to you.” Prowl watched as the femmling easily settled against Bumblebee, wondering how Bee managed to do it so easily.

“Yeah. She is.” Bee smiled down at his sparkling. “But not only me. She seems to like Boss-Bot too.”

“Really now?”

“Yeah! He’s the only bot who can hold her and she’s totally fine with it!” Bee pointed a digit at his sparkling, which she quickly tried to stick in her intake and eat. “I don’t know if it’s his personality or she just likes him or something.”

Prowl hummed, nodding his helm. “He is a very likeable bot.”

Bee hummed, watching his sparkling nibble on his digit for a while. His smile slowly faded to a frown however. “…  I just Blitzwing was here right now.”

“Bumblebee—”

“I know, I know.” Bee sighed. “We can’t take any risks as it is. Already get enough lectures with Prime and Doc-Bot about this, I don’t need anymore for you.”

“… I’m sure that once the danger passes, Blitzwing will be able to spend more time with you both.”

Bee sighed, holding his daughter close. “… I hope so…”

Chapter Text

“Come on Kleiner Glühwürmchen, jou can do it.”

Blitzwing was kneeling on one knee with his servos held out low to the ground, smiling at his child. A few feet away from him Bumblebee was sitting on his knees, keeping a steady hold on Wisp to keep her standing upright.

Not long ago, the pair had noticed Wisp trying to stand on her own. The first time seeing that, Blitzwing had squealed so high with excitement that a nearby window and Prowl’s visor cracked. Now the pair were once again trying to get their little sparkling to start taking her first steps, though it was easier said than done.

Easing his grip off Wisp, Bee kept his servos hovering around the femmling just in case she fell. Wisp stood on her stabilizers, shaky but managing to stand nonetheless. The little femme gazed down at her peds, blinking at the new height she was at.

“Zunzet~.” Wisp lifted her helm to look at her sire. “Come to zire.” Blitzwing beckoned. 

Wisp stared at her sire a moment, blinking her big blue optics slowly. After a few tense moments, Wisp slowly lifted one leg up. Her creators’ smiles grew as they watched her slowly lift it up… only to come crashing down as Wisp promptly sat herself down on Bee’s legs.

Bumblebee groaned, slapping a servo over his face. “Another failed attempt.”

“Vell, it vas certainly better zan last time.” Blitzwing sighed, getting up and moving towards his family. “She ztood a bit longer on her own vithout help.”

“I guess.” Bee sighed, picking Wisp up and bringing her up to optic level. “She’s close to that age where she should be taking her first steps. So what’s with you, hm? We’ve seen you try to stand a couple of solar cycles ago, so why are you being difficult? Ratchet says you should be trying to walk by now yet you keep sitting right back down. We know you want to start walking, so why are you being so stubborn?” 

Wisp stared at her carrier. A wide smile broke out across her face, reaching her servos out and patting them against Bee’s faceplate. Bee tried to keep a straight face but ended up failing, sighing lightly with a small smile creeping on his face.

“You’re so lucky you’re too cute to be mad at.”

Whirr. “As if jou could ever be mad at her.” Bee shot a grin at Blitzwing, shifting his body to stand.

“Yeah, I guess. Let’s call it a day. We’ve been at this for a while and it’s getting close to her nap time.” To prove his point, Wisp let out a small yawn and rubbed her optics.

“Oooooo~! Little Glühwürmchen getting tired after a long zolar cycle, ja?” Blitzwing cooed as the pair went back inside the base.

It was a little past noon when Wisp awoke from her nap.

Rubbing her optics, Wisp let out a tiny yawn and stretched her limbs. Once her optics adjusted, she gazed around. She was laid out on the old tire bed Sari had once used when she lived with the Autobots. Now it was used as Wisp’s bed.

Looking around, Wisp could see that she was alone in the area. Wisp puffed out her cheeks, not liking the loneliness she was in. She wanted her carrier and sire! How dare they leave her behind!

Edging herself off the tire bed, Wisp plopped on the ground and started crawling towards the doorway. Being already a few orbital cycles old, Wisp was already a master of crawling around and quite familiar with the layout of the base.

Normally her carrier often held her as he walked around the base, making it easy to get around without effort, but since he wasn’t here Wisp had to crawl her way to get around. It took a bit of time for her to reach the living room but she managed to get there. Once she entered the room, she looked around for either sign of her creators. Her carrier often hung around the loud box thing with moving pictures on it, and sometimes had a funny item and yelled at the box thing until sire picked him up and held carrier close till they calmed down.

Though now it seemed carrier wasn’t there. Puffing her cheeks, Wisp continued onward. Maybe they were further in? This place was pretty big. But sire was also big. And so was the big round bot. Yet she couldn’t see any of them.

Wisp stopped in the middle of the room, looking around with growing worry. Where was carrier and sire? The big round bot? And all the others? Wisp looked and looked, yet she couldn’t spot any of the beings she remembered.

Her lips quivered, ready to open her intake and cry her little spark out.

“I told you she’s fine kid!”

Wisp blinked. She knew that voice! 

Whipping her helm around, she spotted the grumpy bot coming out of the room he usually hid himself away in a lot. “Look, she was rechargin’ when ya left ‘nd I’m sure she’s still in sleep mode right now.” He huffed, not noticing Wisp sitting in the middle of the room watching him. “Ya can’t keep callin’ me ta check on her every cycle kid. Especially out on patrol.”

Wisp watched the grumpy bot quietly, wiggling her peds as he screamed at no one. She had no idea who the grumpy bot was screaming at but he seemed to be busy.

“Kid, listen. She’s fine . Bein’ away from her fer a megacycle—”

[ A MEGACYCLE?! ]

Wisp’s helm shot up. Did she just hear carrier’s voice? She looked around, but she couldn’t see carrier anywhere in the room.

“Primus kid! Calm down!”

[YOU GUYS SAID I WOULD ONLY BE AWAY FOR TEN CYCLES!] Wisp looked towards the grumpy bot, who had a strange look on his face. [TEN CYCLES! NOT A WHOLE FRAGGING MEGACYCLE!]

Wisp’s face lit up with a bright smile. Carrier! It was carrier! Carrier’s voice was coming out of the grumpy bot’s head! … how did he get in there?

“Bumblebee calm down already will ya?! Look, I’m tellin’ you she’s fine!” The grumpy bot huffed, moving out of the room.

Wisp let out a whinny beep, trying to follow after the grumpy bot who somehow had carrier inside his head. However the grumpy bot was faster, leaving the room and Wisp behind. Wisp beeped louder, trying to gain the grumpy bot’s attention. No! Don’t take carrier away grumpy bot!

She beeped louder but even that didn’t get the grumpy bot to come back. No! She had to get carrier back! But how? How could she get the grumpy bot to come back with carrier? Wisp gazed around till her optics landed on the couch. Her optics lingered on it till an idea hit her.

Of course! She needed to stand up! That got carrier and sire’s attention really quickly when she tried standing like everyone else. Maybe that will work on grumpy bot and get them to come back?

Crawling towards the couch. Placing her servos on the back, Wisp tried to stand. It was a bit of a struggle trying to get her stabilizers underneath her and push herself up, and when she managed that, she would lose her balance and topple backwards or to the side. Wisp puffed out her little cheeks in irritation.

This was much easier with carrier’s help.

Beeping out a growl, Wisp tried again, shifting her stabilizers under her and gripping the couch tightly then pushed her legs with all her might. Slowly, Wisp rose up on her shaky stabilizers, using the couch as a steady base to keep herself from falling over. Keeping her grip on the couch, Wisp finally managed to stand on her own. Looking down at herself, Wisp couldn’t believe how high she was now.

Beeping happily, Wisp enjoyed her new height advantage for a while. The moment was cut short when she heard the grumpy bot approaching.

“Bumblebee, look I keep tellin’ ya she’s fine.” The grumpy bot stepped into the room looking worried. “I jus’ checked on her ‘nd she’s—” The grumpy bot stopped short on seeing Wisp. Wisp happily beeped out a hello to the grumpy bot.

It worked! The grumpy bot came back!

“… Sssssshe’s completely fine.” The grumpy bot huffed. “Yes she’s fine. I’m lookin’ at her right now.” The grumpy bot leaned down and looked right at Wisp. “ Yes she’s fine. Completely fine. Here listen.” He lifted a digit in front of Wisp’s face, pressing lightly between her optics for a brief moment. 

Wisp let out a beep, rubbing her face and wondering why the grumpy bot booped her face.

“Ya heard that? Completely fine, jus’ like I said.” The grumpy bot moved away from Wisp. “‘Nd she’ll still be fine when ya get back.”

Wisp watched the grumpy bot sit himself down on the other side of the couch, frowning at the distance he put himself away from her. How dare he ignore her! And after all the trouble she went through to get this height! Puffing her cheeks, Wisp began moving towards the grumpy bot, keeping her grip on the couch as she moved her shaky peds with slow steps.

“ Bumblebee. Your kid is fine .” The grumpy bot growled, rubbing his face. “Jus’ focus on finishin’ up yer patrol ‘nd stop common’ me!” The grumpy bot huffed, leaning back against the couch. He only turned his attention on Wisp when she let out a loud beep. “… ‘nd jus’ what were you doin’ out of bed? Did ya do that jus’ ta give me ‘nd yer carrier a spark attack?” 

Wisp beeped, happy to have gotten the grumpy bot’s attention.

“Tsk. Yer Blitzwing’s kid alright.” The grumpy bot sighed, rubbing his face. “You know ya gave yer carrier a fright pullin’ a stunt like that. ‘Nd I lost half of my hearin’ ‘cause of it.” He pointed a digit at Wisp with a frown on his face. “Yer lucky yer a sparklin’ right now, or otherwise I would knock some sense into ya.”

“Beep!”

The grumpy bot stared at her for a moment before sighing again. He stared at her a moment before shaking his helm and stood up. “Yer probably hungry. Stay there a moment.” 

Wisp beeped angrily as the grumpy bot stood up and began leaving her again. No no no NO! He was not leaving her alone again! Moving her stabilizers, Wisp tried to follow the grumpy bot. Her steps were shaky and slow, puffing her little cheeks as she tried to keep her grip on the only thing keeping her upright.

But a problem arose when the grumpy bot moved further away from the couch, leaving Wisp behind. Wisp beeped loudly, trying to get the grumpy bot to turn around and come back. When that didn’t work, Wisp puffed out her cheeks in annoyance. How dare the grumpy one ignore her! She demanded attention!

“Beep! Beeeeeep!”

“Yeah, yeah. Jus’ han’ on a moment kid. Where did Bee put that Energon?”

Wisp glared angrily at the grumpy bot. Beeping wasn’t making him return. And he was so far away now... 

Looking at the distance she and the grumpy bot were, Wisp stared at his back for a moment before putting scowl on her face. Slowly, Wisp lifted one ped up, placing it down away from her other ped. Her stance was shaky, but she managed to keep herself upright. Growing confidence, Wisp slowly moved herself away from the couch, putting one shaky ped in front of the other. Her body swayed slightly, but the young femme managed to keep her balance, shifting one servo off the couch and then the other.

With her arms outstretched and her body shaking slightly, Wisp stood on her shaky stabilizers. Wisp glanced down at herself, beeping curiously at herself. How did the bigger bots make this so easy? Wisp looked back up at the grumpy bot. He was so far away from her now, but Wisp stubbornly refused to let it remain that way for long.

With a cute little huff, Wisp lifted one ped up. Her body shook by the off balance, but she quickly regained it once she put her ped back down right where it once stood. Wisp looked at her stabilizers, wondering how everyone made this look so easy. Carefully Wisp repeated the action, only this time she managed to move it forwards just a tiny bit. Beeping happily, Wisp slowly moved her peds, shakily lifting them and setting them down as she slowly began walking.

Her steps were light and wobbly, but she was making slow progress on taking her first steps.

Wisp’s attention on her stabilizers was shattered by a noise. Looking up, Wisp spotted the grumpy bot looking at her. A wide smile broke out across Wisp’s face, pleased to see she had gotten the grump bot’s attention.

“… Well aren’t you full of surprises?” The grumpy bot huffed with a smirk on his face, bending down on one knee and holding his servos out. Wisp was still quite a bit of a distance from the grumpy bot, but she squealed with delight and slowly made her way towards the grumpy bot. “Look at ya. Takin’ yer first steps ‘nd Bee ain’t even here ta see it.”

Wisp smiled up at the grumpy bot, stretching her little arms out towards him with grabbing motions.

“Kid’s gonna flip out when he finds out ‘bout missin’ this.” The grumpy bot’s smirk grew as Wisp finally reached his servos, losing her balance at the last moment and falling into his hold. Wisp happily beeped as she was lifted up, smiling at the grumpy bot and pleased with herself to finally have gotten his attention. She patted the grumpy bot’s face for a job well done. “Let’s hope he settles fer watchin’ it on the security feed, alright?”

“Meep!” Wisp happily agreed… even if she had no idea what the grumpy bot was saying.

“I MISSED WHAT?! ”

“Nothin’ much.” Ratchet tapped a key on the console, rewinding the footage on the screen. “Jus’ yer kid’s first steps.”

Bumblebee watched the screen with his intake hanging open, optics wide with joy and mixed sorrow as his little Wisp on the console screen took her very first steps towards Ratchet. RATCHET! Of All Bots! He kind of expected Wisp to take her first steps around him or Blitzwing, slag maybe even Prime, but Ratchet?! His sparkling took her first steps around Ratchet?! “Buzwa?! Hauna?! WHY?!”

Ratchet shrugged, doing nothing to hide his smirk at Bee’s bewilderment. “Beats me kid. Guess she felt ready to walk on her own at that moment.”

“But Why You?! Of All Bots Why Did Have To Be You?! N-No offense.” Bee shriveled under Ratchet’s glare. “I mean, I kind of get that she would walk towards someone for her first steps, but I thought that that bot would be either me or Blitzwing. Or even Optimus! But here you’re telling me I not only missed a major milestone of my sparkling’s development she took her first steps towards you and neither of her creators?!”

“Well neither of ya were in the base at the time when it happened.” Ratchet crossed his arms over his chest, huffing a bit. When Bee shot him a look of utter despair, Ratchet sighed once again, patting Bumblebee on the shoulder. “Look kid, it’s not the end of the world if ya miss seein’ yer kid walkin’. She still needs a bit of practice ‘fore she can walk without help. ‘Nd ya still got plenty of other firsts ta see ‘nd be there for.”

Bumblebee stared at Ratchet, contemplating on his words before sighing and nodding his helm. “Yeah… I guess you’re right. But it still stings that I wasn’t there to see it.”

“You’ll have other chances, don’t worry.” Ratchet patted Bee’s shoulder one last time before heading off towards the Medbay.

Bee stared at the screen, watching the video of Wisp over and over again. He still felt pretty guilty about not being there to witness his sparkling take her first steps, but he also couldn’t help but feel a great deal of pride for his daughter. And Ratchet was right in a way. There were still plenty of other firsts for him to be there for and see. He just needed to be sure he was there to actually see them. Him and Blitzwing.

A frown pulled across Bee’s face. Oh yeah. Blitzwing had missed seeing Wisp take her first steps as well. And judging by how he wasn’t here cooing over their daughter, it was pretty safe to assume that Ratchet didn’t inform him about this important moment.

Rolling his optics, Bee opened his comm link. “Hey Blitz! You’ll never guess what!”

[O! O! Is It A Game?! I Love Games!] Bumblebee cracked a small smile across his face.

“Wisp took her first steps!” Bee exclaimed, unable to hold in the excitement of the news. There was a beat of silence over the comm link.

[… VAT?! ] Bumblebee cringed at the volume and again when he heard something heavy crashing to the ground outside of the base.

… oh… whoops. Guess Blitzwing was flying back to base when Bee contacted him. Bumblebee made a mental note to ask before revealing next time he had big important news to share.

Chapter Text

“Bumblebee. Where do you think you’re going?”

Prowl’s voice was its usual calm and collective tone with his face neutral of any emotion as he watched Bumblebee’s alt-mode freeze at the doorway.

“O-Oh Prowl! H-Hey buddy! Didn’t see you there.” An uneasy chuckle emanated from the yellow car as Prowl walked over. “How, uh, how you doing?”

Prowl’s expression was unreadable as he stared at the vehicle. “Bumblebee, where’s Wisp?”

Bee’s alt-mode tensed. “W-What are you talking about? She’s right where I left her. Taking a nap on her bed.” Bee tried moving forward towards the door, but Prowl effortlessly moved in front of him, blocking his exit from the base. A cold pit slowly formed in Bee’s tanks as Prowl stared down at him with his arms crossed over his chest.

“… i-if you want to g-go ch—”

“ Bumblebee. ”

A beat of silence passed before Bee let out a loud sigh and opened his left door. Prowl moved to the side, looking inside and clicked his gloosa. “Really Bumblebee?”

“Hey I was only making sure she was okay!” Bumblebee huffed as Prowl reached in and carefully pulled out Wisp from the driver’s seat. “I get uneasy when I’m not around her!”

“I understand your concern for your sparkling’s safety, Bumblebee. But you can’t take her everywhere with you all the time.” Prowl frowned at Bee, trying to keep Wisp still in his servos as she twisted and flailed her arms about.

“ I knnnnnoooow .” Bee transformed back into his regular form. “But I can’t help it! Every time I look away or leave her alone for one nanoklik, I can’t help but feel like she’s going to be in some sort of danger or harm without me around to protect her!” Bumblebee exclaimed, waving his arms about. “Or probably getting lost or teleport to some unknown part of the universe or—”

“Bumblebee, I doubt half of what you said could ever happen.” Prowl cut in through Bumblebee’s rambling before the scout could continue. Wisp struggled in his hold before the ninja finally set her down. With her peds on the floor, Wisp toddled off back inside the base. “She’s perfectly safe and happy here.”

“I know.” Bee kept his optics on his daughter as she toddled over to a corner of the room, plopping herself down next to a small pile of toys Sair had left behind for Wisp to play with. “But I still worry about her. Especially when neither me or Blitzwing are around to watch over her!”

“You do realize that you can leave her with the team right? We can be capable of watching over her as much as you and Blitzwing can.”

Bee frowned at Prowl. “Prowl, as much as I would like to have help, watching over Wisp is not something I think you can handle.”

Prowl looked at Bumblebee questionably, yet his face remained neutral. “What exactly is that supposed to mean?”

“Well for one she’s energetic, spunky, and wild at times.” Bee lifted a servo, listing things off with his digits. “And you’re quiet and all about stillness. I don’t think that’s a good match.”

“And yet I’ve watched over Sari just fine.”

“Sari’s older than Wisp so she doesn’t count.” Bee crossed his arms over his chest, pouting a bit. “Look, I’m just saying that I would feel a whole lot more comfortable being the one to watch over her.”

Prowl stared at Bumblebee for a moment, studying the young bot carefully. “… Bumblebee, when was the last time you had a break?”

Bumblebee blinked in confusion. “Oh that was uh… it was…” Bumblebee tilted his helm, scratching his chin in thought. “It waaasssss… a while ago?” An uneasy smirk crossed his face as Prowl gazed at him unimpressed.

The ninja stared at Bee for a moment longer before activating his comm-link. “Bulkhead this is Prowl. I need you to ask Blitzwing something for me.”

“WAIT NO NO DON’T!” Bee flailed his arms about, trying to lunge at the taller bot but was easily held back by a servo against his face. “DON’T ASK BLITZWING ANYTHING! DON'T SAY ANYTHING BULKHEAD!”

“I need you to ask him when was the last time Bumblebee had a break from taking care of Wisp.” Prowl continued, keeping Bee at bay as the scout tried desperately to silence the ninja. “… Really? That long?” He let out a low hum, nodding his helm. “Thank you Bulkhead. That clears things up for me.” Prowl ended the call, turning to Bumblebee with a stiff frown on his face.

“… Okay okay! So I’ve been caring for Wisp nonstop. Does that really make me a bad caretaker?” Bumblebee huffed.

“No. But it does make you a tired one.” Prowl stated as he glanced at the small beginnings of bags under Bee’s optics. “Bumblebee, I get that you want to be a good caretaker for Wisp, but obsessing over her and not letting yourself get any help isn’t the way to do it.”

Bee frowned and turned his helm away, gazing at the ground.

“It’s nice that you want to be with her, but if you keep insisting on caring for her by yourself, you’ll end up being the one in need of help in the end.”

“So?” Bee huffed.

“So, what I’m saying is that you need a break now and then.” Prowl placed a servo on Bee’s shoulder. “How about I watch Wisp? Just for a little while.”

“But—!”

“It’s not forever. Just a small short break.” Prowl insisted before Bee could go into full panic. “Like half a megacycle or so.”

Bee pulled a face, looking at his daughter. Wisp was busy chewing on a brick block, content with the toy. “… Well, I guess… But it’ll only be a short break!” Bee pointed at Prowl. “And you’ve got to promise nothing bad will happen to her while I’m gone!”

“Of course.” Prowl nodded slowly.

“And you have to keep an optic on her all the time. Ever since she started to walk, she’s been trying to sneak off when no one’s watching her.”

“I’ll be sure to keep her in my sights.”

“And you got to make sure she’s well rested and fed because she gets super whiny and grumpy if she doesn’t—”

“Bumblebee, I’m sure I can handle taking care of one small little sparkling for a while. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Four cycles.

Four simple cycles.

That was how long it took Prowl to realize how much he overestimated himself in this situation.

It took Prowl a whole cycle to convince Bee to let him watch over Wisp and get him to go off on patrol.

Another cycle to take a quick glance at Wisp before heading off to grab an Energon cube for her.

And return to find the spot completely vacant of the small femmling.

Panic didn’t set in. Not right away. Prowl just figured at first that Wisp had gone off to some other part of the room.

Only after searching the room and a few others did the panic slowly set in.

He started to worry that Wisp had gone outside, when he heard a small beep above him. Glancing up, Prowl jaw dropped as Wisp stared down at him high above on the catwalk.

“… How in Primus's name did you get up there?” The ninja mumbled as Wisp stared back down at him with a large grin on her face.

“Beep!”

“… That’s… not very informative.”

“Beep!”

Prowl frowned, shaking his helm. “Alright but you still need to come down.” It took some careful maneuvering but Prowl managed to get Wisp down from the catwalk. “How did you even get up there in the first place?” He wondered out loud, setting Wisp back down on safe on the ground, letting the young sparkling dash off. “Well, at least it won’t happen a second time.”

Prowl was right. It didn’t happen a second time.

It happened seven times over.

“How do you keep getting up here?!” Prowl growled, watching in horror at Wisp as she toddle across the catwalk happily babbling in sparkling talk. The ninja had no clue how she kept getting up there. He had pulled up all the ladders out of her reach and blocked every stairway up carefully so she wouldn’t keep getting up there, yet every time he took his optics off her ever for a nanoklik, Wisp always managed to get herself up high on the catwalk.

He was sure now that she was somehow using some sort of means to get herself up there. He just didn’t know how. “We need to put you on a leash.” Prowl muttered, once again going up to get Wisp down. Unfortunately for Prowl, Wisp had grown tired of the big silent bot getting her down from her new fun spot. It was her fun spot! Not his!

Just as Prowl was in reaching range, Wisp slapped at his servo, pulling a very surprised look off Prowl’s face. He reached again and got the same result. Prowl’s frown deepen, not deterred by Wisp’s actions and tried again. He managed to get his servos around her waist, but Wisp was anything but a calm sparkling.

“YEOW!”

“You are definitely Bumblebee’s sparkling.” Prowl muttered, treating his servo that had a small dented bite mark in it.

He briefly looked up from his wound to gaze at Wisp who he had put in a make-shift pen area. Wisp beeped in dissatisfaction. How DARE the silent bot put her in here! She had done nothing wrong to deserve this! Beeping unhappily, Wisp shook her little ‘prison’, demanding to be let out.

“No. You’re staying in there.” Prowl huffed, finishing patching his servo. “You keep wandering off and getting yourself in places you shouldn’t be.”

“Beep! Beep beep! Beep beep! Beeeeeeep!”

“Definitely Bumblebee’s sparkling.” Prowl muttered, grabbing the T.V. remote and turned the electronic on to a show with building houses. Wisp slowly ceased her struggle as her focus went over to the T.V., losing herself to the moving pictures and sounds on the screen. Good thing she also inherited Bumblebee’s short attention span as well. Prowl thought, settling himself on the ground and tried to meditate.

A few cyces had passed before Wisp got bored of the moving pictures.

Grabbing the bars of her prison, Wisp hefted herself out, climbing with a bit of struggle before finally managing to get to freedom. The silent bot wasn’t looking at her, which made Wisp smile as she stood up on her peds and dashed out of the room.

Ever since she gained the ability to walk on her stabilizers, Wisp had been itching to explore everything. But her carrier didn’t like it, keeping her close and pulling her away from things that looked fun to her, which she did not like too much.

Now that carrier wasn’t here, she could explore everywhere with him stopping her! Oooooh she was a happy sparkling! Where should she go first? There were so many places she hadn’t been to yet and she wanted to explore everything!

Wisp stopped at an open doorway, gazing inside to find a large brown and green thing. Wisp’s intake went into a large O shape, toddling over to the new thing. Wow. It was big as sire! Maybe even bigger!

With a wide smile, Wisp slapped both her servos on the new thing, gazing up at it in curious wonder. It was certainly big, just like sire and the other big bot! But it felt funny. It felt hard and rough. Sire’s big servos were hard, but they were warm and easy to recharge on. This new thing had a rough feeling to it.

Digging her little digits in the roughness, Wisp dragged her servos down, digging into this new thing. Oooooooo . She can dig into it like the hard surface! Smiling to herself, Wisp reached up one servo, digging her digits deep within it and began pulling herself up.

She quickly found out that this rough thing was much earlier to climb than the flat hard thing! With her digits digging in deep the rough thing and her peds kicking against it, Wisp was making quick work climbing up higher and higher this rough brown and green thing.

While this brown and green thing was much easier to climb, she quickly realized that this thing had arms. Lots and lots of arms covered in green stuff. None of it was tasty, so Wisp just kept climbing up and up till she spotted something in the arms that caught her attention.

It was a funny shaped thing, with a bunch of small blue things inside it. Wisp stared at it, moving closer to get a better look at it. The blue things were very  rounded, kind of like the blue round things on her carrier’s face. Wisp slowly reached out to touch the round blue things when one started shaking, surprising her and backing away with gaze locked on the moving orb.

It quivered, moving a bit here and there, peeking Wisp’s interest to get closer. She watched intently as cracks appeared across the blue shaking orb, watching with large wide optic as the cracks grew and something fluffy and yellow started peeking out. Wisp watched in fascination as a small fuzzy yellow thing popped out of the blue orb, her optics sparkling as the fuzzy thing began making odd noises.

“Cheep cheep!”

“Beep?

“Cheep cheep!”

“Beep.”

“Cheep cheep!”

“Beep! Beep!”

“Cheep cheep cheep!”

“Beep! Beep beep!”

The yellow fuzzy thing looked at her.

“Cheep!”

“Beep!”

“Cheep!”

“Beep!”

“Cheep!”

“Beep!”

“ WISP! ”

Wisp turned her helm, hearing the familiar name and finding the silent bot down way below her looking up with a face full of fear. She stared at the silent bot, then pointed at the fuzzy thing and beeped.

Prowl could only sigh and hold his helm as a processor-ache began to form.

The city had been quiet. Something Bee for once was glad for as he came back to the base. Driving around had relaxed the yellow Autobot, but he figured that he spent enough time away from his sparkling and longed to get back to her.

“I’m back!” Bumblebee announced proudly, looking around the base lobby till he spied Prowl splayed out on the couch and Wisp sitting in front of the T.V. watching cartoons.

Upon hearing Bee’s voice, Wisp lost any interest in the colorful television and beeped happily as Bee raced over to his sparkling, scooping her up into his arms. “Hello my little spark~” Bee cooed, relaxing as Wisp beeped happily and nuzzled against him. “I missed you. I missed you soooooooooo why are you wearing a chain?”

Bee looked at his sparkling carefully, finding a thin chain tied around Wisp’s chest as an improvised leash with plenty of bite marks and drool on it. Along with that, he could also spy bits of tree bark and a leaf stuck in the underside of her helm. The scout frowned, turning his helm to ask Prowl but found the ninja out cold on the couch. Looking carefully at him, Bee could spot a few scratch marks all over Prowl’s face, looking like the ninja had an encounter with a wild cyber-cat.

“… You know, I’m not so sure if Prowl was a good choice to watch over you.” Bee whispered to Wisp, taking the chain leash off her and made a mental note to ask anyone else besides Prowl to watch Wisp next time he needed another break.

Chapter Text

Things were quiet these solar cycles.

Optimus wasn’t sure if  it was a good thing or not, but took a moment to enjoy it while it lasted. Good things like this only lasted for short sweet moments, and he would rather get a chance to enjoy them while he could before something hectic happened.

The Prime never viewed himself as a violent bot. He was more calm and peaceful than most other mechs, which made him more approachable to others.

Maybe that was why Wisp was so calm around him. Optimus turned his gaze from the screen to the small femmling sleeping peacefully against his chest plate. Earlier, Bumblebee had hurriedly asked the Prime to watch over her before chasing after a fuming Blitzwing who had flown away. Optimus had no clue to what had happened, but given that Ratchet had locked himself in the Medbay he could take a small guess.

Optimus sighed. He could understand there was still some animosity between Blitzwing and Ratchet for good reasons, though he sometimes wished that they didn’t fight constantly with each other or at least at their arguments outside of the base. It was tiring to keep those two from killing each other.

At least Blitzwing behaved himself with the rest of the team. While he was still a bit disappointed with Bulkhead keeping Bee’s relationship with a Decepticon a secret, he could see the wrecker did it out of concern for his friend and got along somewhat easily with Blitzwing. Prowl was a close second, though Blitzwing still kept most of his distance from everyone beside Bumblebee and Wisp unless they approached him first.

Still, things had rather calmed down nowadays. Though there was still the problem with no way to contact Cybertron about anything that’s been happening over the last couple of orbital cycles. Or warn them about Megatron.

Bulkhead had assured everyone that it would take nearly stelar cycles before Megatron could stop transwarping around the galaxy, yet there was still the lingering fear in the team. Notable with Bee and Blitzwing.

Shaking his helm, Optimus tried to focus back on the monitor. As much as he trusted Bee to keep Blitzwing under some control, he still had some limit of trust to the former Decepticon. No matter how much Bee could vouch for him, Blitzwing still had committed some unforgivable acts that could not be overlooked so easily. He would give the triple changer a chance, but ultimately Blitzwing would still need to pay for his actions in the end at some point.

Glancing down at Wisp, Optimus smiled as she let out a tiny yawn and rubbed her cheek against him. “You sure are a cute little sparkling. It’s kind of hard to imagine that Bumblebee and Blitzwing of all bots are your creators.” He quietly spoke, rubbing his thumb gently against Wisp’s other cheek. Wisp made a little beep, snuggling against Optimus that made the larger bot’s smile widen.

She was a sweet little sparkling. It was hard to imagine that she was Blitzwing’s daughter or even half Decepticon. She could pass off as a normal Autobot sparkling if anyone else saw her. She had normal blue optics and didn’t share any notable Decepticon heritage from her sire. Her coloring was a bit questionable, but it could easily be passed off as a small harmless color defect. It was going to be hard to explain her existence when they returned to Cybertron.

That… wasn’t something Optimus looked forward to honestly.

If anyone on Cybertron found out about Bumblebee’s long time secret relationship with a Decepticon, he wasn’t sure what would happen. The lightest punishment Optimus could think would happen would be banishment. At worst? Imprisonment for life in the Stockades without any chance of freedom.

Optimus knew what Bumblebee did was wrong, but he could never imagine sending Bumblebee to such a place. Yes Bee was technically a traitor, but he was still part of his crew and proved more than once that he was still a loyal Autobot. He just wasn’t sure if anyone else could see that.

But what about the sparkling? What would happen to her if anyone found out about her true heritage?

Optimus sighed, shaking his helm. He would worry about that later. Right now they all had to focus on finding a way to contact Cybertron and warn them of the danger. Megatron was still out there, and things would not be completely peaceful until the warlord was locked away.

His thoughts were cut off as Wisp beeped and opened one of her optics, gazing up at Optimus with a sleepy half open optic.

“Why good morning.” Optimus cooed quietly, lifting Wisp up slightly to his optic level. “Did you have a good nap?”

Wisp beeped sleepily, stretching her little arms and stabilizers out with a big wide yawn. Optimus smiled, turning away from the monitor. “You must be hungry. Let’s get you something to refuel.”

Wisp sleepily snuggled against Optimus’s neck as the mech crossed the room to the refueling area. He was nearly halfway there when the door to the Medbay slid open. Optimus glanced over his shoulder to spy Ratchet coming out of the room looking irritated.

Optimus frowned, unsure if he wanted to get in a conversation with the older bot or not. Though it seemed Ratchet made the choice for him when the old medic spotted him. “Prime, a word.”

Optimus’s shoulders sagged, sighing inwardly in his helm. “What’s the problem this time Ratchet?”

“Problem? Problem? Blitzwing’s the problem that’s what!” Ratchet fumed as Optimus groaned deeply inside his helm. “I swear that bot is nothin’ but a helm-ache ‘nd trouble.”

“What did he do this time?” Optimus sighed, already tired of this conversation.

“What did he do?! He made a fraggin’ insulin’ comment ‘bout our capabilities that’s what!” Ratchet threw his servos up in the air. “Said we were only lucky ta beat Megatron due to fraggin’ luck ‘nd nothin’ more.”

Optimus frowned. “I’m… are you sure that’s what he said exactly?”

Ratchet snorted. “Not the whole thing, but got enough of the tail end of it ta hear we only beat Megatron only by fraggin’ luck . Fraggin’. Luck. It wasn’t fraggin’ luck! Luck got nothin’ ta do with it! We only had the upper hand ‘nd fraggin’ chance that—”

“F… faaaaaa…” Ratchet words were cut off when a tiny voice butted in. Both mechs optics were wide, slowly glancing to where the voice came from, landing their gaze on little Wisp. 

“Faa… faaaaaaaaa… fffaaaaag?” Wisp squeezed out, blinking her optics as the two mechs stared at her. “Faaag… fag… fag!” A smile crossed her face. “Fag! Fag! Fag fag fag fag fag!” Wisp continued to shout out, happily squealing as Optimus and Ratchet stared at her.

“… she spoke…” Optimus mumbled, staring at the small sparkling in his grasp.

“Well I’ll be.” Ratchet smirked, lifting a digit to Wisp. “Finally talkin’, eh? ‘Nd Bee ain’t even here. Do ya jus’ like doin’ stuff without yer carrier around ta see it?”

“Fag!” Wisp squealed, grabbing Ratchet’s digit with her tiny servos. “Fag fag!”

“Yep. Definitely Bumblebee’s kid if her first word is a swear.” Ratchet chuckled, allowing Wisp to nibble on his digit. “That’s twice he missed out on a first.”

The pair went quiet… till it dawned on them how much trouble they were in.

“Primus! Her first word is a swear! ” Optimus panicked, already imagining Bumblebee’s reaction to hearing his sparkling’s first word being a swear. The minibot had taken great care not to swear around Wisp and made sure everyone was careful about it around her. “Bumblebee is going to flip when he finds out about this!”

“Fag!”

“Bumblebee? It’s Blitzwing got ta worry ‘bout!” Ratchet pointed out. “That fraggin’ Con is goin’ ta turn us into scrap heap once he finds out we taught his kid ta swear!”

“Fag fag!”

“Yes! Thank you for pointin’ out the situation kid!”

Both mechs panicked as Wisp continued to shout out her first word, unaware that she was just making the situation much worse for them.

“What do we do?! What do we do?!” Optimus panicked, taking to pacing around the room. “If Bumblebee and Blitzwing come back and find Wisp swearing, who knows what’ll happen!”

“He’ll sic Blitzwing on us that’s what!” Ratchet growled, rubbing his helm as an ache started. “That is if Blitzwing hasn’t already offlined us first. That mech is ‘bout as sane as a twister on engex in a populated city.” 

Optimus… couldn’t really deny that. It was plainly true that Blitzwing wasn’t the most sane mechs out in the universe. Nor was he the calmest bot either. Blitzwing was like a cannon that had a very short fuse that was always lit. So far Bumblebee had managed to keep the triple changer from firing at any of them, though he couldn’t stop Blitzwing all the time.

“W-Well, m-maybe they won’t notice.” Optimus tried to be optimistic. “Maybe they’ll just think it’s short for something.”

“What words could she ever had heard that would sound like fag ?”

“Uh well…” Optimus tried to think of something. Anything that sounded close to the word. “ … uuhhh… fig? That-that could work.”

“Fag!”

“ … Or not.” Optimus sighed, rubbing his helm. “That wouldn’t work. There’s no way either of them would fall for that.”

“Faag.”

“And you are not helping in this situation.” Optimus lifted the sparkling up to his optic level. “Couldn’t you just have said sire or carrier as your first word like any other normal sparkling?”

“Yer forgettin’ whose sparklin’ yer talkin’ to Prime.”

“Fag!”

“… right.” Optimus sighed. He thought a moment, looking at the small femme in his servo. Wisp stared at him with her big optics, smiling at him with childish innocence. “… maybe we can try teaching her a new word?”

“A new word?”

“Maybe something else? We could try teaching her a new word to say and say that was her first word.”

“Fag fag fag!”

Ratchet frowned. “I don’t know Prime. She seems ta like throwin’ that word a lot.”

“It’s worth a shot.” Optimus shrugged, looking at Wisp with a small smile. “Sunset, we’re going to teach you a new word.”

“Fag!” Wisp happily cheered, flapping her little arms.

“Yes, that’s… an okay word. But we’re going to teach you a better word.” Optimus gazed around the room, looking for something. When he found it, he immediately went over and picked up the item, holding it up for Wisp to see. “See this? This is called a block. Block.”

“Fag!” Wisp shouted, slapping her servo on the toy block. “Fag!”

“No block. Bllllooooock.” Optimus repeated, saying the word out slowly. “Bllloock.”

“Fag!”

“Bllock.”

“Fag!”

“Block.”

“Fag!”

“Block.”

“Fag!”

“Bl. O. Ck.”

“Fag fag fag fag!”

Optimus groaned, looking at Ratchet for help. The medic only shrugged. Sighing, Optimus shook his helm. “This is going to be a lot harder than I thought.”

Optimus was not off point with his comment.

“Red.” Optimus pointed at his armor, tapping on the metal. “Reeed. Ree—”

“Fag!” Wisp shouted, earning a loud groan from the older bot. “Fag fag fag!”

Optimus held his helm in her servos, shaking it in defeat. “I can’t. I’ve sent megacycles on this and she still won’t say anything else!”

“Well, got ta give ya credit fer tryin’.” Ratchet sighed, rubbing his neck. “Ya almost managed ta get her ta say somethin’ else.”

“Almost.” Optimus agreed, sighing heavily. “Almost, but not quite there.” He glanced at the sparkling. Wisp had one of her stabilizers in her grip, looking at her ped curiously before trying to stick the whole thing in her intake, only to tumble backwards due to her unsteady balance.

“Fag.” Wisp mumbled as she continued to try to stick her ped in her intake.

“Great. Now she’s learnin’ to use it fer everythin’.” Ratchet huffed, getting off the couch. “At this point she’ll keep sayin’ it ta her adult stage.”

Optimus sighed, his shoulders drooping in defeat. “I guess there’s no point in hiding it from Bee. We’ll just have to tell him about it and hope he doesn’t freak out over it.”

“Freak out over what?” A calm voice caught everyone’s attention.

“Oh, Prowl.” Optimus smiled at the ninja. “I forgot you were still here.”

“Fag!”

Prowl looked at Wisp, frowning a bit. “I see Wisp has picked up on Bumblebee’s profanity.”

“Well it’s actually more my fault.” Ratchet admitted. “Kid kept warnin’ me not ta fling out any swears ‘round his kid.”

At that, Prowl cracked a small smile. “Bumblebee telling you not to swear? That’s certainly something I would never guess he would do.”

“Yeah, well, guess since becomin’ a carrier, he’s been takin’ the role of creator very seriously.” Ratchet looked at Wisp with a soft smile. “Havin’ a sparklin’ really matured the kid. Though he still has a long way ta go.”

Optimus had to agree. While Bumblebee was still rather immature at times, Bee took very good care of his sparkling. Almost to the point of being rather overprotective of her.

“Fag!”

Prowl frowned. “So, her first word happens to be frag?”

“Fag fag!”

Frowning, Optimus looked to Prowl. “We’ve been trying to get her to say something else all day, but so far no luck.” He explained to the ninja as he came closer. “The closest I could get her to say was fun, though it sounded more like fu before she went back to—”

“Fag!”

Optimus groaned, shaking his helm. “Bumblebee will not like this when he finds out.”

“Or worse, Blitzwing.” Ratchet huffed.

“Is there anything you can do to help?”

Prowl pondered a moment before shrugging. “There’s not much I can do to help Prime. He might not care either way. He probably would just say frag it or not notice it’s a swear at all.”

“… fwwwwag… ‘t?”

Optimus and Ratchet snapped their helms to stare at Wisp in shock as Prowl’s face dropped, realizing his mistake too late. “Wait no that’s not—!”

“Fwag ‘t!” Wisp happily chirped, happily laughing as the adults looked on in horror. “Fwag ‘t fwag ‘t fwag ‘t!”

“Now look what ya done ya idiot!” Ratchet yelled at Prowl. “If Bee wasn’t sure if his kid could swear, he’ll definitely know now!”

“I didn’t mean to.” Prowl held up his servos in a placating gesture. “It just slipped out.”

“Slipped out? Yer the most quiet on the team ‘nd ya couldn’t manage yer fraggin’ language?!”

“I could say the same to you.” Prowl muttered, though the comment didn’t go unnoticed from the medic.

“What?” Ratchet growled, glaring at Prowl who flinched under his gaze.

Seeing things were getting out of hand here, Optimus quickly gathered Wisp up in his servos and headed out of the base. He didn’t want her learning any new words from these two.

Once outside, Optimus took a moment to glance behind him, shaking his helm as his two team members began to argue. Sighing, he gazed up at the darkening evening sky, as if begging Primus for help. “Just once.” He mumbled, looking at the small femme in his servos. “Can’t we have a normal day just for once?”

Wisp tilted her helm, staring at Optimus with her wide optics. The Prime smiled at her, lifting a digit and rubbing the back of it against her cheek. Wisp leaned into the touch, smiling sweetly. Optimus’s smile grew a bit wider.

“For being such a small sparkling, you sure cause a lot of trouble.” Optimus chuckled. How could such a small sparkling like her cause so much trouble?

“Heya Boss-Bot!” Optimus jumped, turning to the voice a small bit of dread washed over him. Wisp beeped happily as Bumblebee drove up, transforming back to his alt-mode and reached out for his sparkling. “Hello little sunny~. Did you miss me?” Bee cooed as Wisp snuggled against his face. “I missed you.”

Optimus watched the display with a small smile. It was nice to see Bee caring for his sparkling. Though how he was going to take the news of his sparkling swearing was a mystery to him. It was better to break the news now than later.

However, just as he was about to, a hum of a jet engine cut him off. Gazing up, Optimus watched as a familiar jet transformed into Blitzwing a few feet away, landing on the ground with a heavy thud as Bulkhead drove up. Even at this distance Optimus could see that the ex-Decepticon looked unhappy to be here.

“… How’s Blitzwing holding up?” Optimus asked Bee, making sure his voice was low enough for only the scout to hear.

Bee spared him a small glance, gazing at Blitzwing a moment to be sure he wasn’t watching. “… Not good.” Bee muttered. “He’s really holding out, but I think Ratchet really hit a nerve on him this morning.” He looked at Blitzwing with a small frown. “He flew all the way out of the city before I found him and even then it took some time to convince him to come back.”

“Was he really that upset?” Optimus asked, genuinely concerned about the triple changer.

“Yes.” Bee’s shoulders sagged, hugging Wisp close. “Even his Random face wasn’t its usual self. And that’s saying something! He was all moopy and sad instead of his usual funny and insane self!”

“Fun!”

“No no, funny sweet spark. Funny. Fun—Wait What?!” Bumblebee pulled Wisp away from his shoulder, looking at her with wide optics. His shout caught everyone’s attention, staring at him as Bee stared at Wisp in surprise. “What did you just say?”

“Fun!” Wisp repeated, clapping her servos as her creators stared at her in shock. “Fun fun fun fun!”

Bee and Blitzwing stared at her with their intakes hanging wide open. “… Oh My Gosh!” Bee was the first to break out of his shock, holding Wisp up with a wide smile on his face. He rushed up to Blitzwing, holding their daughter up for him to see. “Her first word! Her very first word can you believe it Blitz?! She said her very first word!”

Blitzwing stared at him for a moment before a soft smile crossed his face. Whirr. “OoOoOo-hoho! Looks like ve have two chatterboxes now!”

“Shove off Blitz!” Bee slapped Blitzwing’s leg yet there was a large notable smile on his face. “She’s only saying one word now. It’ll be a while before she can actually talk.”

Whirr. “I can already hear zee zilent times leaving.” Blitzwing sighed, smirking down at a frowning Bumblebee.

“Oh you’ll hear the silent times leaving alright! Just wait till I teach her some new words! You’ll be begging for some silence when I’m done teaching her how to throw it down!” Bee huffed as the pair headed for the base, leaving the team outside as they watched them in silence.

Bulkhead smiled, watching the happy duo enter the base. “Isn’t that sweet? Wisp saying her first word. Heh. Good thing it wasn’t a swear. I don’t know if anyone could handle having two bots swearing a lot around the base, right guys? … guys?”

Turning his helm, Bulkhead found the rest of the team on the ground face first, completely still and unmoving. “… Man, you guys probably had a great time with Wisp today huh?” The wrecker beamed, not being able to pick up the quiet groaning from the three mechs on the ground. 

The night passed quickly and soon it was noon.

Optimus spared a quick glance at Bumblebee and Blitzwing. The pair were seated on the floor near the center of the room, playing with Wisp and trying to get her to speak more words. The Prime let himself smile a bit, happy at the small family and relieved that yesterday’s incident had been forgotten and hoped that the peace would last.

“Fwag ‘t!”

Optimus nearly dropped his datapad hearing those words spoken out loud from an all too familiar young voice. Across the room, Prowl stood more rigid as Ratchet spat out the fuel he was drinking.

Optics slowly turned to the voice. Wisp was sitting on Bee’s lap, eyeing a toy block in her servos as her creators stared at her in mute horror to what they had just heard. Everyone stared at the small young Cybertronian in silence and horror, with the only expectation being Bulkhead who just came into the room right at the moment Wisp spoke out loud and looked at the pair in surprise.

“… uuhh… was it just me?” Bulkhead looked around the room, wondering why Prime, Ratchet, and Prowl’s faces looked like Megatron was in front of them. “Or did Wisp just—”

“Fwag ‘t!” Wisp screamed out, throwing the cube with a smile. “Fwag ‘t!” She giggled, clapping her little servos together. “Fwag fwag fwag ‘t!”

Bumblebee and Blitzwing stared at their daughter in mute horror, looking at one another before snapping their gazes at the rest of the team with sharp hot glares.

The sounds of tires screeching on the floor caught Bulkhead off-guard, spinning his helm around and watched as half of the team left the base in a hurry in their vehicle modes. He stood there for a moment before turning his helm to look back at the remaining bots in the base. “… so, uh… how was your day yesterday?”

Blitzwing said nothing as he silently stood up, moving past Bulkhead as he walked towards the door then sprinted outside with a scream of anger and shouting something in German before taking off after the fleeing team members in his jet-mode. The wrecker watched as all four vehicles disappeared from sight before turning his focus back on Bumblebee and Wisp.

“… Don’t look at me. I made sure not to swear around her.” Bumblebee huffed, placing his chin in the palm of his servo.

Wisp smiled to herself. “Fwag ‘t!”

Chapter Text

For most of his life, he was always viewed as a weakling. He really couldn’t deny that he wasn’t the strongest bot around, but while he lacked in strength he made up for being the fastest bot on wheels ( till he met Longarm’s conjunx, thanks a lot Blurr ).

Still, he did pretty good in battle, even having plenty of close calls before too. Some that got him really chewed out by his team and by Blitzwing when he learned of these close calls. Though Blitzwing took it a bit further by reminding him that he wasn’t indestructible or completely beyond capable of sustaining injuries.

Hey! He knew. He suffered through plenty of injuries to get that point settled in his processor thank you very much.

Though, as much as he suffered through, none of it compared to the pain he was going through right now. And do you want to know the worst part of it all?

It was being inflicted on him by his own daughter .

“Fwag ‘t!”

“No no no! Leaf. ” Bee held up the said item, holding it right in front of Wisp to see. “Get it? Leaf. Leeeeeeaffffffffffffffff!”

“Fwag ‘t!” Wisp happily chirped, making Bee groan and slap his face with his servos which Wisp took as entertainment. “Fwag ‘t fwag ‘t fwag ‘t!”

“That’s it!” Bee threw his arms up. “I give up!” He flopped his back against Blitzwing’s stabilizers, covering his face with his servos and intended to hide there for the rest of forever.

“Come now Hummel, I’m zure zhe’ll get it.” Blitzwing rubbed one of Bee’s arms. “Zese zings just take zome time. Zhe’ll get it at her own pace.”

Bee dragged his servos down far enough for his optics to peak out, gazing up at Blitzwing with a deadpanned gaze. “… Own pace? Blitz, do you even realize why I’m trying to get her to learn a new word?”

“Fwag ‘t!”

Blitzwing spared a small glance at Wisp. “… I can take a guess.”

Bee groaned, hiding his face again. “Seven solar cycles. She keeps saying that for seven whole straight solar cycles! No matter how much I try to teach her a new word, she just keeps on saying the same thing over and over!”

“Fwag ‘t!”

“Yes! Thank you Wisp!” Bee huffed, crossing his arms with a clear pout on his face. “Thank you for proving my point!”

“Fwag ‘t!” Wisp happily chirped, crawling over to a stick laying on the ground a little ways away. Picking it up, she gazed at it up and down before throwing it away with a giggling ‘Fwag ‘t!’ and crawling off to look at something else as her carrier groaned in misery. 

Blitzwing smiled sympathetically down at Bumblebee, patting his shoulder. “I’m zure zhe von’t zay it forever Hummel. Zhe just needs to find zomething else to zay.”

“LIKE WHAT?!” Bumblebee threw his arms up, throwing the leaf away as he sat up. “I’ve been trying to get her to say something, ANYTHING else, yet she’s stuck on saying that all the dang flipping time!”

As Bee and Blitzwing were busy talking with each other, the leaf Bee had thrown away was caught up in a soft breeze, drifting through the air with no set direction. It rose high in the air, doing a flip before dropping down, lifting up at the last second before it could skim against the ground. It swayed back and forth, spinning lazily about with no sign of stopping.

It drifted over Wisp’s helm, brushing against one of the small nubs that were growing there. The little sparkling froze, glancing up at the leaf, watching as it slowly peeked over her helm, balancing on the very tip of one of its edges on her forehelm before tracing down her face, staying between her optic for only a moment before being carried off by the wind.

Wisp beeped, getting up on her stabilizers and followed after the leaf. It wasn’t easy as the leaf was flying through the air and Wisp was stuck toddling on the ground trying to reach for something out of her reach. Wisp beeped in annoyance as the leaf slipped out of grasp before she could grab it, mad at the flying object that refused to come down.

She just wanted to grab it! Was that too much to ask?

She followed it, determined to grab the mean floaty object that did not want to be grabbed. She went around and around in circles, dashing one way then another way after the floaty object. It drifted high, then flew over to a grey thing, laying down on top of it.

Seeing her chance, Wisp waddled quickly towards the grey thing, reaching her tiny servos out to grab the leaf. But just as she almost reached it, the wind kicked up, blowing the leaf away just as before she could even touch it. She let out an angry beep, watching as the floaty thing went further away from her.

Huffing, she climbed up on the grey thing with a set mind to get over it and chase after the floaty thing… only to find herself being picked up suddenly.

Wisp beeped unhappily, gazing up at her carrier with a pout on her face.

“Wisp, you can’t climb that.” Bee said as he set Wisp down away from the rock she had been trying to climb on. “You’ll hurt yourself.”

“Hummel it’s not even zat high of a rock.”

“She still could hurt herself!”

Wisp huffed, crawling off as her carrier got busy making odd noises at sire. Her carrier made a lot of noise, it was kind of annoying sometimes.

Anyway, she needed to find that floaty thing! She wanted to grab it and she was determined to get it no matter how far—! Oh wait, there it was.

The floaty thing wasn’t far away as she thought. It was just a small bit away. Smiling, Wisp started to head over to it. However, her easy journey was cut short when her servo touched something wet. Beeping in surprise, Wisp pulled her servo back, looking at it in confusion at the wet droplet that clung to her servo.

Wisp beeped softly, gazing at her servo covered in water droplets curiously. Why was her servo wet? She didn’t remember trying to eat it… or did she?

“Rrrrt.”

Wisp flinched, gazing down as a small… something, jump out in front of her. Wisp blinked, staring at the odd thing.

“Rrrrt.”

Her optics widened in surprise as the new thing made an odd noise. She stared at it for a moment before deciding that she liked this new thing. But much to her disappointment, the new thing moved away from her. Puffing her cheeks out, Wisp tried to grab this new thing, toddling over to it and tried to grab it, only for it to hop away at the last second from her grasp.

“Beep! Beeeep!” Wisp angrily beeped, catching her creators attention.

Blitzwing smirked as he saw his daughter chasing after a small organic, chuckling as she started to mimic the creature’s hops as she chased it. Whirr. “Oh look Hummel! A giant toad chasing a zmaller one! Ahahahahaha!”

Bee rolled his optics but let himself smile a bit. “Well at least she’s not slimy or eating flies.”

“Ohoh. Zat vould be a hard one to explain to jour medic!” Blitzwing cackled.

For a while now, Wisp had been stuffing items she could get her servos on into her intake. Most of the time it was only small items like bits of metal and small items, though there was one time where she managed to get a whole watermelon in her intake. Bee shuddered at the memory. There were so many watermelon bits in her intake, and the bath afterwards was not fun for anyone.

“Beep beep!” A small smile crossed Bee’s face, watching Wisp playing without a worry in the world.

He was kind of glad Blitzwing had convinced him to have a day out of the base away from his team. As much as he cared about them, his nerves were kind of on edge over the last couple of solar cycles with the whole ‘teaching his sparkling to swear while he and Blitz were away’ thing.

Honestly, he needed a little break from the team and spend some time with his family. They didn’t really hang out together except at night recharging.

“Beep!” Wisp happily beeped, holding her servos up with the toad in her grasp. “Beep!”

Blitzwing giggled madly, clapping his servos as Wisp toddled over to them with a big smile on her face. “Hooray! Jou caught it mein süßes kind!”

Bee bent his knees so that he was closer to Wisp’s highest, smiling at her as she held out the toad for him and Blitzwing to see. “You caught yourself a little friend Wisp?”

“Beep!” Wisp held out the toad to Bumblebee. 

Bee held out one of his servos to Wisp, allowing her to place the toad in his open palm. The toad blinked up at him, letting out a small crook and then leaping off towards the pond.

“Beep! Beep beep!” Wisp quickly chased after the retreating toad as Bee and Blitzwing watched with amused smiles.

Whirr. “Zeems zhe enjoys being out of zee base.”

“I guess.” Bee hummed. “But did we really need to come here of all places?”

“Vhat do jou mean?” Blitzwing tilted his helm. “Jou don’t like being here?”

“No, no. I do, I just.” Bumblebee took a small glance around.

It was a clearing, one that he and Blitzwing had used to meet up in secret back when their relationship was still hidden from both of their teams. It was a small clearing with a small lake in the center of it with thick trees and foliage surrounding the area. Bumblebee had stumbled upon it by accident, but it turned out to be the perfect place for both of them to meet up since it was away from the city and hardly anyone came out here.

“Just curious I guess.” Bee shrugged, rubbing the back of his helm. “There’s plenty of other places we could go to, but why did you pick this place to hang out in?”

Blitzwing smiled down at Bumblebee. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“Uh, no. That’s why I’m asking.”

The triple changer rolled his optic, reaching out and pulling Bee forward. “Zis is zee place vhere ve came to zee each other on rare nights ve could get away from it all. All those times ve hung out here just to zpend time together and let ourselves forget about zee world and zee chaos it vas in just for a moment. Filling it vith memories and moments I vill always cherish because I made zem vith jou Hummel.” He smiled softly down at Bee, pressing their helms together. “It’s also zee place vhere jou told me about jour condition, about zee zmall zpark ve created together. Zat vas zee happiest moment of my life!”

A blush formed on Bee’s face, smiling softly and glancing away. “W-Well, it wasn’t a complete happy moment back then.”

“True. But zis place still holds a lot of memories zat hold more varmth and happiness zan I’ve ever made in my younger ztellar cycles.” Blitzwing nuzzled his face against Bee’s. “And I vanted to make more memories vith and our little Glühwürmchen here.”

“Beep!” Wisp ran around in circles, still chasing after the toad.

The pair chuckled at the cute display their femmling was putting on. “Zee point is zat vhile zere are other place ve could go to, here has more meaning and memories zat I vant to build.”

Bumblebee hummed, leaning his helm against Blitzwing. “I guess. We did have a lot of good times here, huh?”

“Ja. Plenty of zem.” Blitzwing agreed. “Like zat one time jou brought a whole box of zese zings called fireworks and—”

“Okay!” Bumblebee pulled back, throwing up his arms. “We don’t need to remember THAT time!”

Whirr. “Vhy not? It vas such a fun zing!” Blitzwing smirked at him. “All zose colors and noises! Especially vhen zat ztary rocket almost got jou in zee—!”

“Nope!” Bee turned on his heels, marching over to Wisp as Blitzwing cackled. “We don’t need to remember that! That memory is not allowed to be remembered! Not even for a moment! Nada! Zip!”

“But it vas zo funny!” Blitzwing followed after Bee. “Jou should have zeen jour face back zen! Priceless!”

“And now it’s banned forever from our processor!” Bee pointed at Blitzwing, keeping Wisp close to his chest with one arm supporting her. “And banned from ever being mentioned again! For this point on, that memory which shall not be named is banned from being mentioned or talked about ever again!”

Blitzwing just cackled, scooping his small family up and hugged them close. Wisp beeped happily at the display of affection while Bee huffed, though he didn’t hide the smile growing on his face as he snuggled close to Blitzwing.

Chapter Text

“Jou need to ztart hanging out vith other bots.”

Blitzwing paused in his steps, turning his helm to glance over his shoulder. “Hm?”

Standing a few ways behind him stood a femme Seeker, sleek and thin like any other normal Seeker yet stood only to his chest in height, making her much smaller than normal. Her coloring matched his only the purples were on a much lighter tone, but she didn’t wear a visor like he did, exposing her sharp optics for others to see and had a small tiny black dot under the right side of her intake. Her frame had more build and strength to it than a normal Seeker frame with various trinkets and knick knacks covering her limbs and torso, something of an odd trait not found in many Decepticons. Her large wings also tended to droop than point upwards behind her back, pressing so close to her body that some idiot might just think she was a Grounder. Of course they would quickly change their minds when she inflicted her wrath upon them for thinking such nonsense. 

“Jou heard me.” She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “Jou need to zpend zome time vith other bots instead of zlipping avay und flying off zomevhere to Primus knows vhere all zee time.”

Blitzwing stared at her a moment, taking in her words carefully before turning his helm away. “I like to have alone time.”

“Alone time? Jou do zat plenty of times in jour own room ven jou’re actually here.” The femme huffed, moving closer towards Blitzwing. She only took a couple of steps before Blitzwing’s wings sprang up and fluttered, halting her movements in her tracks.

“Vhere I like to have my alone time is none of jour concern.” Blitzwing turned, glaring somewhat at the femme through his visor. “Vhat I do is my own business and none of jour own off duty, liebe schwester . If I vant jour opinion I vould ask for it.” He stared at her a moment then turned around. “But I didn’t. And I don’t vant it. Ever. ”

“I’m just zaying it out of concern liebe bruder!” The femme shouted, stopping Blitzwing’s attempt at leaving. “Jou’ve been going off zomevhere over the last couple of ztellar cycles vithout a vord of vhy or vhere.” Blitzwing glanced over his shoulder to look at the femme with an impassive look. “Did jou really zink jour geschwister vouldn’t notice after all zis time?”

Blitzwing invented slowly, pinching between his optics under his visor. “Nein. I haven’t. Never have.” He glared at her. “Nor had I needed to before because jou nor any of our geschwister ever mentioned it being a problem before. Vhy are jou making it zuch a deal now Fringet?”

“Because I’m jour schwester!” Fringet hissed, moving briskly up to Blitzwing and poking the larger Seeker in the chest. “Und it’s my job to vatchout for my familie.”

“ Neiiin . It’s not.” Blitzwing brushed Fringet’s digit off his chest. “Zat’s my job.”

“Just because jou are zee oldest doesn’t mean all responsibility fall only on to jou liebe bruder.”

“Ja. It also falls on the zecond oldest geschwister.” Blitzwing crossed his arms over his chest. “Tringit.”

“He’s only older zan me by two zolar cycles!” Fringet stomped her ped down hard, her wings springing high up on her back and shaking the metal hoops pierced into them, trying to make herself look larger, though Blitzwing was so used to her outburst at this point that it hardly fazed him. “Und jou’re only older zan him by four zolar cycles in our batch!”

“Ja. I’m four zolar cycles older zan him. But.” Blitzwing smirked. “Jou’re still two zolar cycles jounger zan him, zo zat makes jou zix zolar cycles jounger zan me.”

“Doesn’t matter! It’s still my job to vorry over jou!”

Blitzwing waved a single servo, turning his body towards the exit. “Vorry over zomeone vho vants to be vorried over.”

“At least tell me vhere jou’re going!” Fringet grabbed one of Blitzwing’s wings, stopping him from going any further. “Jou never tell anyone vhere jou keep disappearing off to! Vat if jou get hurt und need help?!”

Blitzwing tried shaking her off, but Fringet’s sharp claws kept a good grip on him, digging into his sensitive plating of his wing. “Fringet! Get off!”

“Nein!”

“Off!”

“Nein!”

“ Off! ”

“ Nii-i-i-i -IGGGGH!”

Blitzwing cringed as Fringet’s claws dragged against his wing. When the claws were finally removed, he turned to see another Seeker holding Fringet up by her wings. This Seeker was another one of Blitzwing’s siblings, looking almost exactly like Blitzwing, yet much much bigger than him with his right side covered in scars and half haphazardly done weld marks along with a large crescent cut under his left wing and his coloring was much more darker than Blitzwing’s colors.

“Tringit! Put Me Down!” Fringet screamed, kicking her stabilizers about and making all her little trinkets jingle. “Down!”

“Nein.” Tringit rumbled slowly, his voice heavy and deep. “Großer bruder said let go.”

“Danke Tringit.” Blitzwing thanked his brother as Tringit nodded in acknowledgement. “Keep her from following me.” He pointed at his struggling sister as he made his way towards the exit. He knew Tringit well enough to know he would obey without complaint from him, but he would rather hurry and get away before Fringet managed to get out of their brother’s hold and try to follow after him anyway.

“Jou ztill need to tell us vhere jou’re going!” Fringet cried out. “Or vhy! Jou at least owe us zat!”

Blitzwing paused. Then he looked back at his siblings. Fringet was glaring at him with her sharp bright red optics, daring him to try and brush off her question like he usually did. She had a point, in a sense. “It’s not zomezing I can tell jou.” He turned his back on them. “But what I can tell jou is zat it’s… zomezing important zat I need to attend to vithout any of my nervige geschwister following me.” With that, Blitzwing briskly left, smirking slightly at Fringet’s angry shouts from him to come back and explain being muffled by the door.

It took him far longer than he would have liked to arrive.

Blitzwing frowned as he came down for a landing on a small asteroid that was far enough away from a small settlement. He always prided himself on arriving on time whenever he went off to see his friend as it was risky and dangerous being so close to enemy territory, but Blitzwing knew this sector didn’t have the best security as Cybertron did, so sneaking in and out was always easy to do as long as he didn’t get any closer to it. This sector had only a small handful of Autobots living here that could easily be overrun by Decepticon forces should they ever choose to attack, yet it was completely left alone. Mostly due to the fact that it was a pitiful place not even worth attacking. It didn’t even have a SpaceBridge so there was no worth or gain to be found here.

Except for one.

His thrusters hummed into silence as he landed softly, gazing around for a familiar bright sunny color he always looked forward. It took him a while before he spotted it off in the distance, smiling as he noticed it coming towards him, raising one of his arms and waved.

As the color came closer, Blitzwing could start making out the shape and detail of a Cybertronian vehicle racing its way towards him. When it reached ten feet away from him, the vehicle suddenly transformed into a bot, running the rest of the way towards him as Blitzwing kneeled down and spread his arms wide open, embracing the smaller mech tenderly.

The smaller mech pulled back first, smiling brightly up about Blitzwing in a way that made his spark flip. “Hey Blitz! About time you got here! I was starting to wonder if you got lost out there in space!”

Blitzwing chuckled. “Me? Lost? Highly unlikely Kleiner.”

“Hey it could happen!” Kleiner insisted as he moved off of Blitzwing, allowing the Seeker to stand up. “Just because you can fly doesn’t mean there’s no chance that you won’t ever get lost out there!”

“True. But zo far it hasn’t happened.” Blitzwing smirked down at the smaller mech as they began walking side by side. “And it’s highly unlikely to happen in the future.”

“Don’t count it out just yet Blitz! You’ll get lost one of these solar cycles, I can promise you that!” Kleiner punched the air with one of his servos balled into a fist. The action made Blitzwing’s smile soften, turning his helm away with a chuckle escaping his intake.

“Jou make zee most ridiculous promises Kleiner.” Clearing his throat, Blitzwing looked back at his small Autobot friend as he began chatting away at something.

Autobot friend.

Not a pair of words he would ever think to ever use in his life. He would have never used the word friend for a mech from an enemy faction. And yet…

Kleiner smiled up at him. Bright, carefree, accepting, and genuinely happy. In the past whenever Autobots saw him, they made faces of disgust, fear, hatred . 

Not Kleiner. 

Never Kleiner.

Kleiner always looked at him with curiosity, interest, beaming at him with that wide beautiful smile of his from then even to now. Blitzwing could blame that it was due to youthful ignorance that Kleiner never saw him in a bad way, but that was stellar cycles ago, back when he was still a very young youngling, completely smaller than he was now. And now?

Now he had a good friend who he could relax and connect with, sharing and keeping secrets that he couldn’t keep with his own siblings. Fringet was a motormouth whenever she learned a new dirty secret, Tringit was a slow mech whose only concern was to be pointed in the direction of a bot to beat down upon rather than listen to anyone’s woes, and V… well, V was V. It was better not to get them involved with anything he did.

Especially with something that would be viewed as treachery in their optics.

“You okay Blitz?” Kleiner’s voice cut through Blitzwing’s thoughts, snapping him back into focus.

“Hm? Oh, ja. I’m fine. Just thinking.”

“Bout what?” Kleiner looked up at him with those big blue optics filled with curiosity. Even after all these stellar cycles, those optics never seem to stop being so big and wide with youthful energy in them.

Blitzwing went quiet for a moment, wondering if it was alright to tell Kleiner. He knew he had siblings, but it always felt weird to the Seeker whenever he spoke of his family to Kleiner when the small Autobot had no clue what it was like to have any siblings. But as he thought about it, Kleiner never once showed any interest or hurt whenever Blitzwing mentioned his family before. “… about Fringet’s insistent need to get herself involved vith my life.” The Seeker huffed. “Don't know vhy. Nothing about it has been intresting zo far to deserve her bad opinons.”

“She’s your sister right?” Kleiner scrunched his face. “Your… s-schawester?”

“Schwester.” Blitzwing corrected. “And correct. Zhe came from zee zame factory as I did, from one of zee close to last made batches zuccessful from zee factory. Zhe came online close to vhen I came online, zo zat makes her my zister. My annoying, bugging, prone for destruction and mayhem clingy zister .” Blitzwing huffed, his wings fluttering in annoyance. “Honestly, I’m lucky to have onlined first. If Fringet had onlined first, zere vould be no telling vat disaster zhe vould have brought on during zee var and zee Trine.”

Kleiner looked up at him curiously. “Trine… that’s what your family is called, right?”

“Nein, nein.” Blitzwing shook his helm. “A Trine is vat ve Zeeker’s call in a group. Mostly in zmall group vith normally only zree Zeekers in zem. Zee Trine is made vhen zere are Zeekers compatible enough to vork together or feel comfortable enough vith each other to form a Trine.”

“Does everyone in a Trine like each other?”

Blitzwing paused for a moment. Did everyone like each other in a Trine? He thought back to all other Seekers and their Trines and compared them to his own little Trine. “… Veeellll, zome do. Zome Trines are very close vith one another vhile others can be a bit… vell… picky vould be a nice vay to zay it.”

Picky wasn’t really what he would use to describe Trines that didn’t get along. They were more like murderous time bombs that were stuck on the last nanoklik just waiting to go off and only worked together because of their uses in a team. Though that rarely meant that sort of Trine stayed together in the long run. And more often or not members of a Trine often… ‘ disappeared ’ out on scouting missions with their Trines.

Blitzwing could guess he was lucky his siblings actually liked him enough to work well on and off the battlefield or otherwise he just might have been like those Trines.

“I remember one particular group of Zeekers.” Blitzwing hummed. “Always arguing, always zhouting at each other and getting under zeir nerves all zee time. It vas a zmall group zat held highest rank in the war next to Lord Megatron at zee time due to one of zee members being zecond-in-command. Zere vas never a peaceful moment vith zose zree around each other in zee zame room. Zlag, jou could hear zem arguing from one end of zee zhip to zee other end!”

“Wow. That must have been a tough time getting decent recharge with those guys around.”

“It vas.” Blitzwing sighed, rubbing his face. “Zee countless ztellar cycles vorth of recharge, forever lost.” The Seeker chuckled, shaking his helm. “Honestly, I don’t understand how zose zree ever zought zey vould make a good Trine in zee first place.”

Kleiner chuckled. “They really drove each other crazy, huh? Even to this solar cycle?”

Blitzwing’s smile faded. “Uh, nein… nein. Zee Trine…” He rubbed the back of his helm, looking off somewhere. “… Two of zee Zeekers are… no more. Both vere downed in battle from enemy fire. Zee only zurvivor vas zee zecond-in-command… everyone zought zat he vould celebrate zee deaths of his Trine after zat battle…” Blitzwing shut his optics, surpassing a shudder in his body as his memory banks brought up the file filled with screams of anguish echoing in the halls of the war ship. “… he didn’t… he never did… he vas never zee zame after zat…”

“… I’m sorry.” Blitzwing’s optics snapped open, gazing down at Klainer in surprise.

“Vhat for?”

“You didn’t seem comfortable bringing it up.” Kleiner gazed at the ground, rubbing his arm. “I shouldn’t have asked.”

“… Ba!” Blitzwing waved one servo. “Zat vas a long time ago. Zee past is only zee past. Nothing can really change zat.” He looked down at Kleiner, smiling softly at him. “No point in trying to stay zomevhere jou don’t enjoy. Now, how about ve forget about being zad and try having fun.” He held out a servo for Kleiner to take. “Zere’s a zpot I’ve been vanting to zhow jou for avhile now.”

After mentioning that, Kleiner’s face perked up. “Really? What is it?”

“Mmm, let’s just zay zat it’s a zurprise.”

Kleiner smirked up at him. “A surprise huh? Well since you went through all the trouble, it’d be kind of rude not to accept right?” Kleiner grabbed his servo, carefully climbing up Blitzwing as the Seeker helped him climb to his back.

“Jou good?” Blitzwing asked as soon as Kleiner was on his back, making sure the small bot was secured between his wings.

“Yep!” The minibot happily replied, wrapping his arms securely around Blitzwing’s neck, holding on tightly while keeping his body pressed close to the Decepticon’s back. “All good here!” Kleiner smiled brightly, pressing close to Blitzwing that the Seeker could feel the warmth of his small frame seep into him. 

Blitzwing’s spark did a flip. Feeling Kleiner’s small body pressed against him always remined him of the major size difference between them. It was always staggering to the bigger mech. Shaking his helm, Blitzwing readied himself. “Hang on.”

“WOOOOOOOOOOOW! You weren’t kidding!” Kleiner ran ahead of Blitzwing, gazing around the area with wonder. “This is so cool!”

“Isn’t it?” Blitzwing smirked, happy to see Kleiner enjoying his surprise. The surprise was a small planet that the Decepticons had come across centuries ago on scouting missions. There was nothing noteworthy here except the plant life displaying strange lights at night on this planet.

The small Autobot ran this way and that, trying to take in the surroundings and vivid colors of lights these plants were showing off with a wide smile on his face. The colors danced around Kleiner’s frame as he moved about, catching Blitzwing’s interest that the minibot’s sunny yellow color now was splashed with soft lights that moved and danced across his armor. Had Kleiner recently gotten a shine?

“How are they even glowing?” Kleiner bent down to look at a flower that was glowing a dark shade of purples and reds. “Are they even safe to touch?”

“I’ve read it’s due to zomezing called Bioluminescence. And if jou let it touch jour plating, it’ll zlowly melt off jour armor and fry all jour circuitry till zere’s nothing left.”

“WHAT?!” Kleiner screamed, jumping away from the flower he had been reaching out to touch.

Blitzwing chuckled, covering his intake. “I’m joking. Zey’re completely harmless.” He continued to chuckle even when Kleiner shot him a small glare. “If it vas really dangerous I vouldn’t have brought jou here in zee first place.”

“You better not.” Kleiner huffed, following after Blitzwing as the Seeker led the way. “But, seriously. This place is AMAZING! It’s like a night show or a dance club o-or all the stars in the universe got sucked up here on this planet! How come no one ever comes to this place?”

“Vell for one zing zis planet lacks resources.” Blitzwing explained as he held back a green colored branch for Kleiner to walk under. “And it didn’t meet any ztandard requirements from either zide during zee var zo it vas quickly abandoned and forgotten for a long time.” He waved Kleiner over, pushing away some bushes that glowed a nice light blue hue.

Kleiner gasped, racing ahead of Blitzwing and coming to a stop in a clearing. Well, not exactly a clearing.

It was a wide open area, filled with blue/green glowing grass that reached to the underside on Kleiner’s chest. The trees in this area grew white flowers from their branches. A light wind blew gently in the air, plucking off loose petals from their stems, carrying them in the air like falling stars. 

Kleiner reached out, trying to grab at one of the petals flying through the breeze. Blitzwing watched as Kleiner went chasing after the petals, watching the mech run and chase after the petal with surprising interest. Kleiner didn’t really like nature that much. It had taken Blitzwing a large amount of time to find things of nature to interest, even when he himself didn’t normally like these things as well.

But there had been some expectations here and there that managed to catch their interest. And Kleiner’s, if it was something that could catch his attention anyway.

Seeing as Kleiner was busying himself, Blitzwing found a nice spot to sit on the ground, taking out his portable tools and a small rock to work on, he decided to busy himself as well. It was an old routine he found comfort in.

Back when Kleiner was just a small youngling, well small-er , Blitzwing would watch over him as the young mech ran around and burned off his energy. Sometimes the small Autobot brought along some datapads or some play things to play with or even extra Energon and a couple of sweets for the both of them to nibble on. Other times Blitzwing would bring something to busy Kleiner to distract or try to teach him something new since his caretakers never enrolled him in any schools.

Well, they did once, but according to Kleiner, it didn’t end too well.

Now that Kleiner was much older now, he didn’t need to keep a careful optic on him as much as he used to. Didn’t mean Kleiner stayed out of trouble most of the time, so it was best if Blitzwing stuck close to ensure his safety.

“What’s that supposed to be?” Blitzwing looked up from his work, shooting Kleiner a small smile as the small mech sat down next to him. His wide optics stared at Blitzwing’s project, looking at the angles and shapes with interest. He wasn’t into art as much as Blitzwing was, but he still showed some awe in his work. “Is it supposed to be an animal? Oh! Cybercat! It’s a cybercat right?”

Blitzwing chuckled, shaking his helm. “Nein, it’s not a cybercat. It’s just zomezing I’m messing vith.” He held up the mini-sculpture, looking at it from all angles. “Just zomezing to mess around vith and relax.” 

Kleiner squinted his optics at the item. “… I still say it looks like a cybercat.”

“Vhatever jou zay.” Blitzwing grinned, focusing back on his work to chipping away at the stone.

“So, anyway, I got a new job.” Kleiner began speaking, fiddling with the few petals he had managed to catch in his servos. “It’s not very fun, but then again most jobs aren’t.”

Blitzwing hummed, listening to Kleiner as he worked.

“Basically what I have to do is run around and deliver stuff around the city, so I’m like a mail-bot now. I guess it’s kind of okay? Running and driving around and all but some of these bots I’ve been delivering to are just plain rude. Like there’s this one femme who got mad at for dropping her package even though nothing was damaged, and this one mech who keeps complaining that I’m too slow on delivery. Frag! One bot even said my color was bad taste and I should be looking for a job in the underground!”

His tool froze, snapping his optics to Kleiner in surprise. “Vhat?!”

“Yeah! That’s what he said!” Kleiner huffed, throwing the petals to the air. “I told my manager about it but he didn’t even care!” He huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and leaned against Blitzwing’s side. The larger mech froze from the contact though Kleiner didn’t seem to notice as he continued. “It sucks. Everything about that job sucks.”

“… J-ja.” Blitzwing stammered, trying to get his tools to stop shaking. Oh wait. Those were his servos shaking.

Kleiner sighed, leaning back and flopping to the ground on his back. “It sucks. My job. Every bot I meet. Being an Autobot literally sucks!”

Blitzwing frowned down at his friend, setting his items back in his subspace. “Jou don’t mean zat.”

“Yeah, I do!” Kleiner huffed as Blitzwing eased himself down next to him. “Being an Autobot isn’t what everyone keeps saying it is, and you’re even proof of that!”

“Me?” Blitzwing tilted his helm in confusion. “How am I proof?”

“Remember when I asked about the war when I was a sparkling?” Kleiner scooted himself so he was up closer to Blitzwing’s face. “Back when I didn’t know a thing ‘bout Decepticons and Autobots?”

Blitzwing nodded. He remembered it well. Explaining the bits of the war to Kleiner with the young Autobot clinging to his every word. He even remembered giving Kleiner an old war datapad to prove his words true in later stellar cycles.

“I did some digging on the war, and compared it with an old journal that Fir… my old caretaker had. The things he and you described about the war and the events leading up to it were nothing at all what the datapads had in them. Slag they! They even made you guys sound worse than how you explained it!”

Blitzwing hummed, slowly piecing together what Kleiner was trying to say. “Zo zee altered jour history zen to try and hide zee past. Typical.”

“I know right?! I mean they described you guys as monstrous brutes with no sense of morality or know anything but war and carnage, yet YOU!” Blitzwing flinched as Kleiner pointed his digits right at his face. “Are not a mech bent on war and conquest or any sort of those things! You make art! Read boring old datapads!”

“Oi!”

“I say it because it’s true. And! And!” Kleiner jumped up, climbing on top of Blitzwing’s chest and gazed down at him with intensity in his optics that made the Seeker’s spark stop a moment. “And you’re the nicest Decepticon I’ve ever met! … Granted you’re… the only Decepticon I’ve ever met. But!” Kleiner gazed down at him with a burning energy in his gaze.

“You’re really nice. You’re not some mech out for bots helms or burning down every single settlement you come across. Slag you did nothing to me when we first met, and everyone keeps saying how Decepticons would always go in for the kill when they see an Autobot. And. And you make really great art out of stone when I can only make them into smaller stones. You tell the most wonderful stories I will never forget. You cared about me even though we’re supposed to be enemies… but.” Kleiner sat back, looking away with a soft smile on his face. “You’re the bestest friend I could ever ask for. And basically the only bot who actually showed any care towards me…”

Blitzwing stared up at Kleiner in shock at his words. Words that held more care and compassion than any of his other fellow Decepticons had towards him other than his family, but even their words didn’t seem to hold as deep of meaning to them like Kleiner’s did at that moment. 

Kleiner looked back at him, smiling brightly. “You’re a hundred times better than any Autobot any solar cycle.” He tilted his helm to one side, closing his optics with an easy but sincere grin on his faceplate. “And I would take you over any of those snobs any time.”

The winds picked around them, shaking free loose petals from the branches.

Blitzwing’s optics grew large at the scene, watching petals fall all around Kleiner in a soft bath of bright glowing light that just seemed to make his colors stand out more than before.

No. His smile. His smile was almost glowing. Or was it the tilt of his helm? The easiness he was displaying around him? The youthful energy that he always gave off?

When Kleiner opened his optics, Blitzwing was lost to that soft, gentle, caring gaze of the bright blue filled with no malice. No disgust. No anger. No judgment. 

Just.

Honest care and admiration he always held towards Blitzwing.

“…” 

Blitzwing didn’t know when he moved, but before he even realized what he was doing, he sat up and grabbed Keliner by the shoulder, pulling him closer as his free servo gently tilted Kleiner helm with his chin jutting out far enough with his intake exposed. Kleiner’s gaze became confused as Blitzwing pulled him closer but still held that soft gentleness in them as Blitzwing closed his own optics, closing the gap between them and pressed his lips softly against Kleiner’s.

Time seemed to stop.

For a split nanoklik, everything around the Seeker seemed to have… disappeared.

There was no wind, no breeze, no soft colors, no plants, no planets, no stars, no… anything.

Just him and Kleiner.

And the soft kiss between them.

His spark felt light. Lighter than he ever felt before, even when drifting through space he felt like his whole being was made of the lightest thing in the whole universe. There was a faint tingling sensation going up and down Blitzwing’s spinal sturt, his armor buzzing on every part of his body, feeling warm and cold at the same time. Kleiner’s lips almost felt natural against his. Like they had meant to be there all along and that he finally found the missing piece.

He didn’t know when Kleiner started pressing back, but he registered that Kleiner was kissing him rather than pulling away. Blitzwing could faintly taste the Energon and sweets Kleiner had on his lips and he briefly wondered if he should have brushed this morning. It tasted so wonderful to him, as if it was a flavor he had never known he wanted until that very moment.

When they finally pulled away from each other, Blitzwing felt reluctant to move away and was already missing the soft warm touch, longing for more of it.

As he opened his optics, he was greeted by the sight of Kleiner’s optics fluttering open.

Oh. How had he not noticed how big and blue they were before? They were… so beautiful.

“W… wow.” Kleiner spoke softly, touching his lips with a dazed foggy happy look. “You… kissed me.”

Blitzwing smiled softly, nodding.

They gazed at each other, completely lost in each other’s gaze… till their processors finally caught up with them.

“… You kissed me.” Kleiner repeated, the dazed fog lifted from his face, replaced with shock and realization. “You. Kissed me.”

The situation of his actions slowly dawned on Blitzwing as his mind replayed the act over and over inside his helm.

Cold washed over the Seeker.

He kissed Kleiner.

He kissed Kleiner.

He.

Kissed.

Kleiner.

They stared at each other for a long moment.

“… OH FRAG! YOU KISSED ME!” Kleiner screamed, startling Blitzwing and tumbled backwards off the Seeker, landing in a heep against his legs. The Autobot’s servos hovered over his face, completely in shock over what had happened just moments ago. “Y-you. You kissed me.”

“Kleiner! I-I-I am zo zo zorry!”

“You kissed me.”

“I-It vas! I didn’t! Oh Primus vhat did I do?!”

“You kissed me.”

“Look! It’s not as bad as jou might zink—vhat am I even zaying?”

“You kissed me.”

“It’s A Term Of Appreciation!”

That got Kleiner’s attention, snapping out of his shock and staring right at Blitzwing. “What?”

There was a tight knot forming in Blitzwing’s tank, fear throbbing inside his spark. “… Z-Zeekers… Zeekers zhow zigns of appreciation and trust zrough kissing. It-it doesn’t really mean much other zan a zhow of zmall affection and a deep level of trust. Zey do it all zee time.”

The shock in Kleiner’s optics lessened a bit. “… R… Really?”

NEIN! SEEKERS DON’T RANDOMLY KISS BOTS! THAT IS JUST! WRONG! “J-Ja. Of course.” Blitzwing lied easily as his thoughts screamed at him in his helm. “It’s a very common zing for Zeekers to do.”

Kleiner frowned, looking uncertain. “So… do you and your sibling usually… kiss a lot?”

“NEIN!” Blitzwing screamed, disgusted at the idea of even kissing his own siblings. “Nein. Ziblings don’t kiss ziblings like zat! Zey only do it to bot vho aren’t related to zem to zhow a zign of trust.”

“Oh.” The stiffness in Kleiner’s body went away, sighing in relief. “Okay. That’s good… I guess.” Kleiner shifted his gaze away a moment with his servo still hovering over his intake. “So… does this mean you have a lot of bots you ki-uh, trust then?”

“V-Vell. Jou’re actually zee first.”

A heavy silence fell over the two.

“… the first?”

“… ja.”

“… as in…  first Autobot to trust?”

“… nein.”

“… like… first in a while of trusting friends?”

“… nein.”

“… so… first as in… f… f-f-f-first kiss? Ever?”

“… j-j-j-j-jaaaaaa.”

“… oh.”

The heaviness seemed to double.

Blitzwing’s face felt extremely warm to the point that he was sure his pale blue face had turned bright and red like his visor. Kleiner was probably no better.

After a few cycles of just sitting there taking in the situation of what they had done, Blitzwing choughed into his fist. “V-Vell I believe it’s time for jou to go home. Z-Zomeone is bound to notice zee zhip jou borrowed is due to return and vould vant to take it back now, ja?”

Kleiner numbly nodded his helm, silently climbing up to Blitzwing’s back without uttering a single word. The whole way back to the asteroid was nothing but silence with neither mech making a single word to each other or even looking at each other. Though Blitzwing did sneak a few peeks back at Kleiner to make sure he was still there. Kleiner still had one of his servos hovering over his lips with a small far away look in his optics that didn’t go away from the whole trip back to his ship or even after taking off.

Blitzwing watched from a distance as Kleiner’s ship took off back to the settlement, standing there a long time even after the ship disappeared from his sight. When he did start moving again, his movements were stiff and slow, his steps heavy as one of his servos reached up and hovered over his intake, trying to make sense of what happened.

The living space was dark when Blitzwing finally returned, still in a half daze with the tips of his digits hovering over his intake. His stabilizers carried him over to the closest thing to sit upon, sinking himself down on it without looking or pulling his digits away from his lips.

The memory played over and over in his mind, remembering the soft touch of Kleiner’s lips pressed against his, the buzz of energy between them, the warmth of Kleiner’s servos cupping his cheeks and pressing deeper during the… during the…

Blitzwing’s wings fluttered as heat spread to his cheeks as his mind tried to think up an explanation of what happened. It was an accident. It was just an accident. There was nothing going on in that moment and that was it…

His digits brushed against his lips, with one corner twitching softly.

“Vhat are jou zmiling about?”

Blitzwing jumped, suddenly realizing Fringet and Tringit standing in front of him. “V—Vhen did jou get here?”

“Cycles ago.” Fringet huffed, leaning her face close to an uncomfortable distance to Blitzwing’s face. “Ztanding here trying to talk to jou after jou came zrough zee door.” She squinted her optics, gazing at Blitzwing’s face carefully. “… Jou zeem… different.”

“Different?” Blitzwing tried to lean away from Fringet. “Different how?” He did a quick scan of his body, hoping that none of Kleiner’s paint had scraped off on him.

“I don’t know, jou zeem…” Fringet pulled back, waving her servos around while pulling a face. “… different.”

“Zat’s very informative.”

“Nein nein nein. I mean jou look… off. Like zomezing has changed. Or zat zomezing has happened. Or zat it’s changed yet not.” Fringet tried to describe it. “It’s like. It’s like—”

“Happy.” Tringit’s deep voice rumbled, pulling the attention on him. “Bruder looks… happy.”

“… Happy?” Fringet looked at Blitzwing, her optics gazing over every part of his frame slowly, paying attention to every detail to transformation lines and joint seams. Blitzwing stayed still, used to his sister’s gaze and was sure not to crack under pressure. When her optics landed on his face, she stared at him, keeping their optics locked on to each other with neither showing signs of backing down.

Finally, whatever Fringet was looking for on Blitzwing, she found it… and the Seeker suddenly felt uneasy when a wide smile slowly broke out over her face.

“… Oh.” Fringet grinned widely as her wings started to flutter. “… My.” Her arms came up, squishing against her cheeks as stars, literal stars, starting popping up in her optics. “PRIMUS!” She squealed, making Blitzwing and Tringit flinch and back away. “BLITZWING! Did jou just recently receive jour first kiss?!”

“VHAT?! N-Nein!” Blitzwing denied, covering his intake as heat flooded his face. How in the world did she figure that out?! “Nein! N-No zuch zing has happened!”

The act only seemed to drive Fringet further as she let out a happy high squeal, dancing on the tips of her peds and wings fluttering up and down with joy. “Jou DID! Jou did get kissed! Was für ein wunderbarer Moment!”

“Jou have it all vrong!” Blitzwing stood, trying to stop his sister.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! ICH BIN WAHNSINNIG AUFGEREGT!” Fringet bounced about before gasping and turning to Blitzwing and pointing her digits at him. “ZAT’S zee reazon vhy jou don’t let anyone following jou! Jou have been off to zee a zpecail zomeone!”

Blitzwing’s jaw dropped. “V-Vhat?! Nein! It’s not like zat!”

“Jou’ve been zecretly zeeing zomeone over all zese ztellar cycles all zis time!” Fringet happily exclaimed. “Jou’ve been off to zee zem in zecret vith no one else zo zat only jou could zpend jour time vith zem alone vith no distractions or anyone bugging jou! Schnell! Schnell! Tell me all about zis vonderful bot vho has done zee impossible of vinning jour iron guarded zpark!”

“Nein nein!” Blitzwing waved his arms and shook his helm. “Zere is no one! It’s just me and zat’s it!”

“But I just vant to know about jour femmfriend!”

“KLEINER IS NOT A FEMME!” Blitzwing quickly covered his intake, his optics widening behind his visor as his siblings stared at him in shock.

“… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Fringet screamed as Blitzwing groaned in missry. “JOU HAVE A MECHFRIEND?! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

“Ve’re… Ve’re not official!” Blitzwing huffed, turning his helm away as he crossed his arms over his chest. “And zee kiss vas only an accident! Nothing more!”

“But jou ztill liked it!” Fringet bounced over, poking Blitzwing in the chest. “And jou’re not official yet! A kiss is only zee first ztep lieber bruder! Zoon jou’ll be taking him on dates und bringing zem gifts und zpending countless nights under zee ztars trading vords of love vith each other!” She gasped, slapping her cheeks. “Jou two might even become conjunx endura!”

“VHAT?! NEIN! Fringet jou are taking zings too far!” Blitzwing screamed. “He’s just a good friend and it vas an accidental kiss! Zat’s it! Just an accident! Nothing zpecail or important about it!”

Fringet stopped, staring at Blitzwing silently. “… He didn’t kiss jou back zen… riiiiight?”

Blitzwing flinched, his spark doing flips in its chamber as he recalled the incident. “U-uhh…” Blitzwing stammered, his wings fluttering slightly yet did not go unnoticed by Fringet.

The femme Seeker smiled broadly, leaning in close to Blitzwing. “Did he kiss jou back? Orrrr vas zat an accident too?” She fluttered her optics at Blitzwing, daring him to say anything that she was most likely not going to believe.

Blitzwing stared at her long and hard… and then deeply sighed.

“I KNEW IT!” Fringet whooped, throwing her arms up high in the air. “I knew it! Tringit! Don’t just ztand zere like a brick vall jou dumm! Give jour lieber bruder a varm hug for his good fortune!”

“Vhat?! Nein! Nein! I don’t need a—GAH!” Blitzwing choked as Tringit easily scooped him up into his arms and pulled him in a hug tight and hard enough to make Blitzwing’s armor creek and bend under the strain. It was hard to draw in air through his vents, it was hard to even struggle in Tringit’s hold yet that was only just a smudge of the Seeker’s strength. 

“Ooooooooh! Zis is zee best news I’ve heard zince… vell, ever!” Fringet did a little dance as Blitzwing’s life was slowly being squeezed out of him. “Our bruder! Having a friend. Nein, a crush. Nein! A mechfriend!” She whirled around with a loud gasp. “Neiiiin! A FUTURE CONJUNX!”

“Ve’re not in a relationship!” Blitzwing hissed, finally managing to separate himself from Tringit’s death hug only to be immediately glomped in a side hug from Fringet.

“Not yet.” Fringet grinned mischievously. “But zeeing as jou are in a good mood und not crying like a pitiful mech from a bad rejection, jour Kleiner must have zome feelings tovards jou as vell!”

“V-Vhat? Fringet, jou are being ridiculous.”

“Maybe.” The femme Seeker easily moved in front of Blitzwing, placing her digits against his chest and rythematically tapping her sharp claws against his armor. “But he didn’t reject jou before, during, or after zee kiss no? He gave no indication of disgust? Hatred? Fear? Zhock?”

Blitzwing opened his intake to refute, but paused. Thinking back at it, Kleiner… didn’t really show any of that after the kiss. While yes both of them were in shock when they realized what they had just done, but just before that Kleiner looked… well, happy if it was the best way to describe it. Dazed and in a calm state of bliss, but nonetheless happy. And the kiss? It was the most wonderful thing Blitzwing had ever experienced in his life. “… he… vas in shock from zee kiss.” Fringet’s expected gaze lost some of its excitement. “… but zat vas mostly due to zee zudden zurprise of zee kiss.” 

Fringet’s excitement came back tenfold, bouncing on her peds and embracing Blitzwing in a tight hug. “Oh lieber bruder von mir! Zis is going to be zee greatest zing in jour life!” Blitzwing scoffed, wanting to push Fringet off him had Tringit not come from behind and wrapped them both in his thick arms, hugging both siblings from behind. The eldest of the three decided to let this slide. “Just zink! Jou! Vith a zpecail zomeone in jour life!”

“Is good zing.” Tringit rumbled happily, smiling down at his siblings. “Is nice to zee bruder find lover.” He nodded slowly, lifting one arm up and giving Blitzwing a thumbs up. “Blitzwing found happiness vith other bot. Is great zing for bruder.”

“… Danken Tringit.” Blitzwing mumbled, reaching up and patting his brother on the arm. At least one of his siblings was supportive on an energy level he could manage.

“Now ve don’t to vorry about jou zpending jour vhole life zingle und ending up a zad old hermit like ve all zought jou vould be!” Fringet happily exclaimed.

“… Vhat? ” Blitzwing growled lowly, glaring right at his sister’s wide optics.

“… Uuuuuh Iiiiii zaid I need to tell V!” Fringet quickly slipped out of Tringit’s hold, rushing out the room with angry Blitzwing not far behind her.

“FRINGEEEEEEEEET!”

Chapter Text

“Bumblebee?” Optimus peeked over the couch, finding the young scout passed out on the furniture.

Bumblebee was fully sprawled out, laying on his back with one stabilizer hanging over the edge and his arms crossed over his chest curled around Wisp. While her carrier was fast asleep, Wisp was wide awake, sitting upright. Seeing Optimus, Wisp beeped, lifting her arms up at him and making grabbing motions with her tiny servos.

Optimus smiled down at the young spark, carefully reaching down and picking the sparkling up in his servos. “Hello Sunset.” He quietly whispered, making sure not to disturb Bee from his recharge. “And how are you this afternoon you little troublemaker?”

“Beep!” Wisp smiled, hugging his thumb and rubbing her cheek against it. “Beep!”

“Hey hey hey, shh.” Optimus gently poked Wisp’s other cheek. “Your carrier is recharging, so you have to be quiet.”

“Beep.”

“A little better.” Optimus grinned slightly. He spared a glance at Bumblebee. The scout seemed to look peaceful, which was a relief to the Prime.

Since there was a sparkling in the team now, someone had to watch over her, which naturally fell on Bumblebee since he was her carrier. He had been doing well so far, but he also tried to care for her all by himself. More than once he denied help from his teammates, despite the fact that he clearly needed help and a break from watching over his sparkling all the time. Even Blitzwing had trouble convincing him to let others look after their child for a short.

He had been getting better at letting others watch over her, but that took some convincing for the young bot to do so. If the circumstances had been better, Optimus would have thought he was just being a bit too overprotective of his sparkling.

But sadly, things didn’t work out that way. Everyone knew that Bee’s over-protectiveness for his sparkling came from fear and trauma, acting out only to protect his sparkling from threats that he hadn’t been too careful of. Bee loved his sparkling, he had proven it time and time again when he found about the life he was carrying, and took great risks to keep them safe.

Optimus frowned, remembering when the young scout had unexpectedly left when his carrying had been found out. The news had been very mixed with the team, but Optimus was sure things would have been different had he been there to keep things from escalating to the point Bumblebee would run away. At least he would have stopped Ratchet from scaring away mini-bot.

He wasn’t sure what would happen after that. When Bumblebee had been returned to the team, the scout nearly screamed his helm off when he came to in the med-bay and was less than happy to see his team again. Who knew the scout had such a deadly aim?

It had taken Optimus a few solar cycles for him to convince Bumblebee to come out of the room he had locked himself in while also keeping Ratchet from trying to remove the developing protoform, despite knowing it was Blitzwing’s child.

Though in the end, he was kind of glad of himself that he didn’t let Ratchet remove the sparkling.

He smiled down at Wisp as she continued to rub her cheek against his thumb. Such a sweet sparkling. How could anyone think otherwise? She was a bit of a mischief he’ll admit, but she was still a sweet little sparkling nonetheless.

“How about we let your carrier have a small break?” He walked toward the console. “He could use one after watching over you nonstop for a whole deca-cycle.”

“Beep!” Wisp flopped backwards, lifting her limbs up and smiled. “Beep beep!”

Optimus couldn’t help but chuckle. “My thoughts exactly.”

The friendly one was watching over her now.

She didn’t mind. The friendly one was nice and warm, so they were safe in her option. And they were comfy to sleep on!

Now if only she could get them to play with her.

Wisp stared up at the friendly one. He was focused on the glowy thing with the moving pictures. Only this one wasn’t fun to watch and didn’t have those funny beings either.

Boring!

She wanted something fun to do!

“Beeeeeeeep.” Wisp huffed, puffing her cheeks out. 

The friendly one looked down at her. “Something up Wisp?” Finally! They were giving her attention!

“Beep!” She lifted her arms up. “Beep beep beep! Be-beep! Be be be be beep! Beep beep!”

They smiled at her, shaking their helmy. “Such a talker. You certainly are Bumblebee’s sparkling.”

“Beep!”

“Heh. Well at least you aren’t saying the other word.”

“Fwag ‘t!”

“…” The friendly one made a face, which she found quite funny and giggled, clapping her servos together. “… we really need to teach you some better words.” The friendly huffed, poking her soft belly and making her squeal with delight.

Yes! Pay more attention to her and not the boring no fun glowy thing!

“How does Bumblebee even take care of you all the time without a single break?” The friendly one continued talking, rubbing her belly as they spoke. “Ever since he had you, his energy levels seemed to have dropped in half. He’s not as active as he was before. Though I guess that’s partially your fault. Taking care of a sparkling must not be an easy thing to do.”

Wisp fell backwards, grabbing her peds and smiling up at the friendly one. She had no idea what they were even saying, and she didn’t really care. They were giving her attention that she rightfully deserved and not to the glowy thing. Yay for her!

“Beep beep!” Wisp grabbed the friendly one’s touchy thing, hugging it against her and gazing up at them with a big smile on her face. “Beep!”

“I’M UP!” A voice suddenly shouted, startling Wips and the friendly one. “I’m up! I’m—Wisp?”

Hearing her name, Wisp looked to see carrier on the ceiling. How they get there? “Beep!”

Carrier looked over at them, letting out a deep sigh. “Oh, there you are.”

“Afternoon Bumblebee.” The friendly spoke as carrier got up and came over. “How was your nap?”

“Okay I guess.” Her carrier picked her up and suddenly carrier was back on the ground. How they do that?! “More restful than most nights with her around.” Carrier nuzzled her, making her squeal with affection. Yay! More attention! “She… wasn’t any trouble to you, right?”

“Bumblebee, Wisp was fine. She was very well behaved, no trouble at all. Which is surprising considering who her creators are.”

Carrier made a face at the friendly one. “Yeah yeah laugh it up. I’m just glad that she’s healthy and thriving.” Wisp pulled a face, slapping carrier on the cheek. Hey! Turn your focus back on her! I crave attention! “And you. Stop being such a troublemaker.” Carrier lifted her up, bonking their helms together.

“Beep!” Never!…  What’s troublemaker?

Chapter Text

There was a grim look on Ultra Magnus’s face when Jazz stepped into the room.

If that wasn’t enough for Jazz to know there was bad news, then he would be calling himself a fool. “You called for me sir?”

Ultra Magnus was quiet for a moment before looking up at Jazz. “Agent Jazz, have you or any of our agents received any contact from Optimus Prime and his team?”

“No sir.” Jazz shook his helm. “I haven’t heard any sign or tell from OP or his team. Something bugging you?”

“I haven’t received any reports from Optimus Prime for a while now.” Ultra Magnus sighed. “He’s usually more punctual in sending his reports every few solar cycles. Yet I’ve received no contact from him for a couple of orbital cycles now. Any attempt to contact them has been futile with little success.” He went silent for a moment before speaking again. “I’m afraid something must have happened to them.” With that he stood, looking at Jazz with authority in his optics. “You shall go with Sentinel Prime and his team to check in on Optimus’s team on earth. Something big must have happened and I want to know what.”

Bumblebee woke with a start.

There was a tingling sensation going up and down his spinal strut, a buzzing energy rubbing against his plating. His venting hitched, feeling the urging need to get up and move screaming in his stabilizers.

Bee cast a quick look around the room. He was seated on the couch, leaned up against Blitzwing with only the soft glow from the TV as their source of light in the darkness. He threw a glance behind them, gazing at the front door. A quick glance at Blitzwing to confirm he was still recharging, Bee carefully slipped out from his mechfriend’s arms without disturbing him. Double checking to make sure Blitzwing was still sleeping, he quickly and quietly moved towards the door.

Pressing his helm against the cool metal, he listened carefully to the sounds outside. Usually if he was quiet enough, he could pick up on the soft sounds from the other side like a soft chorus of crickets chips, or cars driving off in the distance in the city, or even the low howl of the winds. But there was nothing of the usual noises tonight. There was only silence.

Most who paid attention to the noise would have been alarmed by the sudden quiet, but Bee only smiled, opening the door up and gazed outside. There was a slight chill in the air and Bumblebee could feel energy building up. Dark clouds were rolling in the sky, rumbling deeply like a lion waking from its nap.

Bee’s digits twitched, his plating shook as he stared up at the sky, watching the clouds cover the stars in a thick blanket of shadows. A rush was kicking in his stabilizers, begging him to run outside and get closer to the clouds, but Bee held back. His spark picked up, wide optics looking around the sky till they landed on one certain spot.

He kept his focus on that one spot, his body rattling with anticipation. Opening his intake, he let out a single soft whisper.

“Boom.”

Lightning flashed from the spot Bee had been staring at, giving the world a brief glimpse of light as bright white cracks of energy against the air before dashing away as quickly as it came. And then… 

BOOM!

A loud crack of thunder rumbled the earth and shook the sky. Bee could feel the shock wave of the thunder hit against his chest, gasping as his body shook with delight, feeling more like a young sparkling again as energy rushed around and around his Energon lines.

A wide smile crossed his face, sighing contently. A thunderstorm was brewing tonight. One of the few things he actually liked about nature. The energy in the air. The buzz in the winds. The untouchable power in the sky. Bumblebee could feel it all around him, getting him hyped up and excited.

Cybertron never had any weather, and neither did the colony he grew up in, so the only storms he ever experienced were cosmic storms out in space though he never got a chance to ever get close to one. He only ever saw them from a far off distance.

But here on Earth? That was a different story.

Earth has so many different things, but having weather that you can actually risk getting close to? Sign him up!

The first time Bee experienced Earth weather, he couldn’t hold still. The scout had to run around, shifting in and out of vehicle mode constantly, driving circles around the base at high speeds, whooping and cheering like an energetic youngling. He had to be dragged back inside by Optimus and Ratchet when the storm started to get worse.

Ever since Bumblebee could hardly wait for the next thunderstorm. He enjoyed them so much that he could even feel when the next one was coming and how big it was going to be.

Though he did promise Prime to stay indoors if the weather was going to be a bad one. Like that would stop him from enjoying a wild storm before it even started though.

Bee looked to the sky then at the open area outside the base. The storm hadn’t started just yet. If he went out now, he could do a few laps around the base and make it back in before the first drop of rain hit the ground. He bounced in place, ready to spring and drive outside with his engines revving loudly to match the rumble of thunder up in the sky.

His venting hitched, getting into a runners position to bolt outside.

“Vhere do jou zink jou are going?” A smooth voice cut through the silence behind Bee.

The Autobot stumbled, twisting around to find Blitzwing standing a couple feet behind him. “Blitz!” Bumblebee hissed, patting his chest to sooth his racing spark. “How do you always manage to be so sneaky?”

A small smirk appeared at the corner of Blitzwing’s intake. “Comes naturally vhen jou hang around a tiny Autobot zcout all zee time.”

Bee huffed, puffing his cheeks out at Blitzwing’s attempt of a joke.

“Vhat are jou doing?” Blitzwing walked over, bending down to gaze outside. “Did jou hear zomezing?”

Bumblebee smiled, pointing to the sky. Blitzwing glanced at him questionably. Bee didn’t say anything as his digit and thumb pressed together. With a snap of his digits, a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, taking the triple changer by surprise as Bumblebee only smiled with unconstrained glee. A loud rumble of thunder shook the sky.

Bee shook with eagerness, smiling at Blitzwing with bright optics. “Just the wonderful sounds of a storm brewing in the air.” He sighed happily, hugging himself. “Can’t you feel it Blitz? The buzz in the air? The energy in the sky?” He sighed as he gazed wistfully at the dark clouds. “If only Cybertron had storms like these to enjoy.”

“Enjoy?” Blitzwing scoffed with a smirk on his face. “Hummel, I’m pretty zure jou’re zee only one vho enjoys zis type of weather.”

“And what exactly is my type of weather?” Bee asked teasingly.

“Zee dangerous kind.” Blitzwing chuckled, his face switching to Random. “And zee crazy kind as vell!”

Bumblebee rolled his optics. “You’re not crazy.”

“Many others vould beg to differ Hummel.” Blitzwing chuckled, sticking an arm outside. Whirr. His Icy face came back, gazing at the sky with his monocle. “… It’s been a vhile zince ve had zis kind of veather.” He hummed. “Maybe it’s a zign.”

“A sign?” Bee chuckled, gazing out at the sky. “For what?”

“Zomezing big?” Blitzwing shrugged, pulling his arm back inside. “Vho knows?”

Bee smiled at his mechfriend, flashing him a mischievous glint in his optics. “Since when did you become such a soothsayer?”

“… vhat?”

“Another word for oracal.” Bee clarified. His helm snapped back to the dark clouds, gazing at them intently with a wide grin on his face. Another flash of lightning crossed the sky, followed closely by a crack of thunder.

“How do jou find entertainment from zis?” Blitzwing asked as the first rain drops began falling from the sky.

“I donno.” Bee shrugged, physically restraining himself from running outside and play around in the rain. “As I said, Cybertron doesn’t have weather to enjoy. Kind of both a downer and a plus on both sides I guess.” He watched as the rain slowly started to build up and fall heavily against the ground. “Maybe it’s the electricity in the air? Ratchet always said that I get way more hyper when there’s a large energy spike nearby.”

“He must be right in zome zense.” Bee blinked in surprise as a large servo suddenly scooped him up. He frowned up at Blitzwing as the triple changer sat on the ground, placing Bee on his lap and hugged him close.

“Is this really necessary?” Bumblebee huffed, getting himself comfortable.

“If it means keeping jou from doing zomezing idiotisch, zan ja.” Blitzwing smiled down at Bee’s glare. “Zee last time ve vere alone during a zunderstorm, jou kept running around like a maniac and almost got hit by lightning.”

“Hey! That was one time!” Bee wiggled in Blitzwing’s arms. “And I wasn’t even close to that tree when that lightning strike!”

Whirr. It was Blitzwing’s turn to glared down at Bee. “Jou Ztill Could Have Gotten Hit Jou Idiot! I Nearly Had A Zpark Attack Back Zen!”

“I still didn’t get hit!” Bee huffed. “And that was a long time ago. It’s not likely to happen again!”

“Because I VON’T Let It Happen Again.” Blitzwing growled, pulling Bee closer to his chest. Hot air poured out from his vents, hot enough that steam started coming out.

Bee opened his intake to argue more, but was cut off by “Beep! Beep beep!”

The pair looked at Blitzwing’s chest in surprise, seeing a pair of glowing orbs behind the tinted glass. Whirr. “Oops. Forgot zhe vas in zere.” Blitzwing carefully opened the canopy of his cockpit. Wisp tumbled out and into Blitzwing’s servo, letting out a series of unhappy beeps at the pair.

“Aaaaww, sweet spark, did we wake you?” Bee took Wisp into his arms, smiling softly down at her. “I’m sorry. Carrier and sire were just arguing about something stupid.”

“Only to jou.” Blitzwing huffed, earning a jab from Bee.

Wisp kept beeping, showing her dissatisfaction at being awoken from her sleep, only to jump and let out a small scream when lightning flashed outside. She clung to Bumblebee’s chest, staring with wide optics to the rain pouring outside.

Her creators gazed at her in surprise. “Oh! That’s right.” Bee spoke up as he calmly rubbed Wisp’s trembling back. “This is your first time experiencing a thunderstorm outside the gestation tank, isn’t it?”

“Beeeeep.” Wisp trembled, pressing herself close to Bumblebee. “Beeeeep beeeeeeeeeeep.”

“Shhh, it’s alright Wisp, you’re safe here.” Bee quietly spoke as he tried to calm Wisp down. “Carrier’s got you, don’t worry.

It took a while for Wisp to calm down, yet her body still shook, gazing up at Bee with fear in her optics. “Beeeep.”

“It’s alright Wisp, I’ve got you.” Bee smiled down at her, hugging her gently against his chest. “Lightning can’t get you in here, so you’re safe.”

“Ja. Lightning von’t get jou here zveet zpark.” Blitzwing pitched in, pulling Bee close to him and smiled down at the pair. “It’s not even zat interesting.”

Bee pulled a face, gazing up at Blitzwing with an unamused look. “Oh yeah? And what exactly is interesting to you, hm?”

Blitzwing only smirked before his face switched to Random, cackling as he squished his face with his servos. The action caught Bumblebee off guard, watching as Blitzwing’s faces kept switching and making various looks with them. He almost began to worry that something important must have broken if Blitzwing’s faces were just spinning with no control, but he soon realized it wasn’t the case when Wisp started to giggle and laugh.

A relaxed smile crossed his face as Blitzwing entertained Wisp with his many faces, managing to get a laugh or two from Bee as well. Soon the family was in a giggling fit, enjoying the many faces that Blitzwing displayed, completely enthralling their attention on him as the thunderstorm went on outside.

After a while, Blitzwing finally granted mercy on his family, letting them get their venting under control. “How’s zat for interesting?”

Bee was still giggling, looking up at Blitzwing with a wide smile. “I-I-Interesting? That was down right great Blitz!” He flopped against Blitzwing, giggling like mad. “Never thought you would do something like that.”

“Oh really?”

“Well, maybe something with your Random face, but I totally didn’t expect you to use all of your faces.” Bee admitted. “I really thought I had you figured out Blitzwing, but you just keep on surprising.”

“I vill take zat as a compliment.”

“It was.”

“Good.” Blitzwing leaned back, reclining far enough that Bee was perfectly comfortable against his mechfriend’s abdomen. “Truth be told, I didn’t zink either of jou vould like it.”

“Wouldn’t like it? Come on Blitzwing, give yourself some more credit. That was awesome.”

“To jou maybe. I doubt others vould appreciate it zough.”

Bee frowned at that statement. He hoped that Blitzwing was referring to bots from his old faction and not his team. While there was still uneasiness, everyone seemed to be warming up more to Blitzwing. Aside from Ratchet. The medic still kept shooting glares at Blitzwing when he thought the triple changer wasn’t looking.

Bee couldn’t understand how Ratchet could still be hostile towards Blitzwing when he kept proving to be a good sire and mechfriend if not a completely somewhat changed mech. He will admit Blitzwing still needed to work on his temperament, but he was at least trying to be civil to the team.

At least that hostility didn’t extend to Wisp… speaking of which.

Bee’s smile faded, looking down at his lap that lacked a certain weight on it, finding it empty. “Wisp?!” He shouted, causing Blitzwing to jump. Thankfully Bumblebee didn’t have to worry for long. He quickly spotted Wisp crawling towards the open door, babbling in sparkling talk. “Oh thank Primus.” Bee sighed in relief.

“Ve really need to zink about getting her a bell or zomezing.” Blitzwing huffed. “Zhe keeps crawling away vhen no one’s vatching her.”

“Yeah.” Bee rubbed the side of his helm, recalling all the moments Wisp managed to get away. The first time that happened, Bumblebee had gone into a complete panic until they finally managed to find Wisp. “Maybe we should.”

The pair watched as Wisp slowly crawled outside. The rain was starting to let up, making a light drizzle than a harsh pour that it was an hour ago. The lightning had also ceased, making it safe for the sparkling to be outside without worry of being hit. The little femmling gazed up at the sky, beeping curiously at the strange phenomenon falling from the dark clouds high above her. She turned her helm and pointed at the sky, beeping at her creators as if saying, ‘Look! The sky is crying!’

Bee could help but laugh a bit, moving off Blitzwing’s legs to retrieve Wisp. However, Wisp pulled a face and clumsily stood up, dashing further out into the rain.

“Wha-?! Wait Wisp No!” Bee chased after his sparkling, getting drenched in the rain as he tried to grab her. Bee had failed to realize just how mobile Wisp was getting these days and how fast she was learning how to run. While Bumblebee had the advantage of longer legs, his size combined with the wet ground made it difficult to turn and slow down when Wisp made sharp turns to stay out of his reach.

Blitzwing was no help as he only stayed in the base, cheering Wisp and Bee on with his Random face and whooped when Wisp managed to evade Bumblebee’s servos.

“You are completely no help!” Bumblebee screamed at his mechfriend, slipping and falling on his chest.

“I’m providing moral zupport!” Blitzwing cackled as Bee picked himself up and glared at him.

“If you want to be support, then help me catch Wisp!” He pointed at their sparkling, who was doing a little crazy dance she had picked up from Sari.

Bumblebee had no qualms with Sari teaching his sparkling Earth culture and giving away her old toys to Wisp to play with, yet he couldn’t help but feel she was avoiding him for some reason.

“Beep beep beep beep!” Wisp hopped ped to ped, shaking her little arms about, beeping in a way that was almost like singing. It was completely adorable to Bee. “Beep beep!” Wisp bent down, getting on her servos and shook her tiny bottom in the air. “Beeeep!”

“Learn some dignity!” Bee shouted yet he was completely smiling at his sparkling’s actions. She was certainly a wild one.

“Phhhtttt!” Wisp squeezed her face with her servos, sticking her glossa out.

Bee had never been so proud teaching his sparkling that. He feigned being hurt by the action, earning a giggle from Wisp. “Why I never! Who taught you such manners?”

“You!” Bee blinked in surprise as Wisp pointed at him. “You you you you!”

“… heh. Yeah, okay, I did.” Bumblebee chuckled, rubbing the back of his helm. “But maybe I should teach you some manners as well!” He dashed over to her, making for a grab that almost worked had Wisp not jumped out of the way.

“Ha ha! You ‘iss!” Wisp giggled loudly. Her joy didn’t live long though, and let out a surprised yelp. “‘Ire!”

“Looks like I got jou~!” Blitzwing cackled as Bee picked himself up off the ground.

“No! Down! Down ‘ire, down!” Wisp wiggled in her sire’s servos, yet Blitzwing maintained a good hold on his sparkling.

Whirr. “My my. Being quite chatty zis morning are ve?”

“It’s morning?!” Bee exclaimed, looking up at the sky. The sky was still covered by clouds, blocking any view of daylight.

“Possibly.” Blitzwing shrugged. “It vas pretty late at night vhen ve fell asleep. Vouldn’t zurprise me if it vas morning already.” Whirr. “At least ve didn’t party all night long! I vould be zhowing off all my moves! Cha-cha-cha!” Blitzwing shuffled his peds, kicking up the large puddle he and Bee were standing in. 

“Down!” Wisp shouted, reaching her arms out towards the ground. “Down down down down!”

“Zuch a demanding zparkling!” Blitzwing cooed, poking Wisp at her side and making the sparkling squeal. “Ve might need to curb zat out of jou vhen jou get older!”

Bee smiled at his family, watching Blitzwing interact with Wisp with such care and attention. He didn’t know what the future had in store for them, but he was just glad to be living in moments like these with the bots he cared most about. “Alright, alright. Let’s head back inside now before we start rusting, okay?”

Blitzwing paused and looked down at him. There was a long stretch of silence before Random’s jack-o-lantern grin grew wide and lifted up one of his peds.

“Uh, Blitz? What are you—” Bee sputtered as Blitzwing stomped his peds down on the puddle, spraying Bumblebee with dirty water.

“Zee only one vho’s going to rust is jou keline Hummel!”

“We’ll just see about that!” Bee grinned audible to audible as he kicked the puddle, sending a spray of water back at Blitzwing.

Whirr. “HA! Jou Call Zat Vimpy Move an Attack?! I’ve Zeen Better Attacks From A Pile Of Zticks!”

“I’ll Show You A Pile Of Sticks!” Bee challenged as he and Blitzwing went about kicking sprays of water at each other as the rain kept falling around them. Bee jumped and hopped in each large puddle while Blitzwing used his size to send large waves of water at Bumblebee. All the while Wisp happily watched for Blitzwing’s servos, enjoying the new game her creators were playing against each other.

They lost track of the time as they went on playing and didn’t even realize Optimus was watching from the doorway of the base with a soft smile on his face.

“Oh! Oh! Zave me Visp! Jour carrier is being zooooo mean to me~!”

“Don’t use our sparkling as a shield! That’s cheating!”

Chapter Text

The weather outside was nice today. Clouds covered the sky and blocked most of the sun’s light, yet it was still sunny out for people to enjoy. The seasons were turning a bit colder though. With Summer coming to an end and Fall quickly approaching, many had started wearing warmer clothing to keep the cold at bay.

In the past she hadn’t paid much mind to the weather. Not unless it was really cold out or the heat was hot enough to melt her ice cream before she got to finish it. Those days, her dad often had to remind her to bundle up so she would catch a cold or help her pick out which clothes to wear that wouldn’t cause her to have heatstroke.

Now thinking back on it however, she began noticing how she didn’t seem to notice the cold until thick snow was starting to pile outside or how easy it was for her to get overheated on a bright sunny day.

Sticking her hand out, she gazed through her fingers, wondering how she had missed the little details and signs all those years ago.

I acted and looked like a normal human being, nothing really stood out too much that I wasn’t what I thought I was. She thought, looking at her outstretched hand. Though, I guess I should have suspected something. Dad never let me outside to hang out with other kids, or let me enroll in a normal school. I never even questioned why I didn’t have a mom when I was a kid.

Sari sighed, placing her hand down. The weight of the revelation of her techno half and her origins were a heavy thing on her mind, yet she was slowly coming to accept it as the days passed. There were so many questions that were unanswered yet there was no one to give her a full explanation. Her dad didn’t know. Her friends didn’t know. There was no one she could turn to and ask.

Maybe it wasn’t something that could ever be answered. They certainly weren’t going to magically appear before her right here and now so… maybe she needed to accept that she wasn’t going to find them. Probably for another time.

For now though, she could focus on the present. Like spending time with her dad and helping her friends.

A lot had happened over the months, and it was only going to get crazier. Megatron was still out there in Omega Supreme. Hopefully he was still stuck transwarping, but it would only be a matter of time before he eventually escaped. Blitzwing had told everyone of the Decepticon leader’s plan, and they were up against the clock to get the SpaceBridge up and running to get to Cybertron first before the warlord did.

Speaking of Blitzwing, she had mixed feelings about him.

On one hand, he was a former Decepticon who helped Megatron and fought against her friends and a whole bunch of other bad stuff he didn’t seem to regret over. He kept giving her weird faces each timeshe got too close to him and he was still rude to her dad.

But on the other hand he was trying his hardest to be nice. Yeah he still did things that were frowned upon, yet he was really trying to better himself. For his own sake or for Bumblebee’s she didn’t know, though she suspected it was mostly the latter. He was a rather good boyfriend to Bumblebee despite every bad thing he had done in the past.

She had to admit, she wasn’t expecting Bee’s ‘secret boyfriend’ to be a large, dangerous Decepticon. The whole Decepticon thing was probably the main reason Bee kept quiet about his boyfriend’s identity from the team, even from her.

Learning that her best friend had a boyfriend had been a surprise to her when he made a passing remark about spending Valentine’s Day with them when she explained what holidays were to him. She tried getting more info about them, but Bee kept his mouth shut about it. He never revealed their name, what they looked like, or even what color their armor was. The rest of the team was no help as they didn’t know either.

Bee kept his mouth shut on the matter and wouldn’t say anything about it except for how they met, how long they’ve dated, and how much they hung out together. She thought it was sappy how Bee got all gaga for his boyfriend when she and everyone else didn’t know who he was dating.

Not till Bee got pregnant, or sparked as Ratchet called it, by said mysterious boyfriend, and said mysterious boyfriend turned out to be the crazy triple changer Blitzwing.

Not a fun time for everyone when they figured that out.

Still, Blitzwing really was trying his best and Bumblebee kept him in check whenever his anger was starting to get the better of him. He kept things from going too far between Blitzwing and the team, which was a good thing as Ratchet couldn’t seem to get along with Blitzwing at all.

Not to mention all while caring for a sparkling.

When Bee had Sunset Wisp, it was like he did a complete 180 on his personality. He spent more time watching over Wisp than he had ever done with video games or driving around town like a speed demon. He didn’t even hang out much with her anymore back then. She thought she would be okay with it, but she missed hanging out with her friend.

Looking at her hand again, Sari frowned deeply. Things have changed so much in such little time, it was hard to imagine that not long ago she had befriended a group of alien robots and her life became more interesting and free than ever before and the weight of a steadily fast approaching war didn’t hang over her like a thick cloud.

There were days that she wished she still hung out with Bee like the old days. Those days always seemed more peaceful than the current present she was in right now, longing for them again as time went by. To spend some time with her old friend and just forget about her worries for the time being and that she didn’t…

No. She shouldn’t think about it. Bee already forgave her for what happened. He didn’t hold it over her or held any malice towards her. He didn’t think of her as some dangerous being and still considered her his friend…

Right?

“I gotta say, you guys are making good progress.” Bumblebee stared up at the large structure before him that was looking more and more like a SpaceBridge each passing solar cycle.

“Thanks, but it’s still going to take a few solar cycles before it becomes operational.” Bulkhead stated, surveying the progress with Bumblebee. “Building the outer part was easy thanks to Blitzwing’s help.”

The pair spared a glance at the triple changer, spying him sitting in front of Wisp and messing with something in his servos. “Look!” Blitzwing gleefully showed the young femme what he had, which was a twisted metal pole that was shaped into a human food. “It’s a pretzel!”

Wisp giggled and clapped her small servos as Blitzwing handed the twisted metal to his daughter. Bee watched with a small smile on his face, enjoying seeing Blitzwing interact with Wisp in such a sweet manner that made his spark swell with joy.

“Hey, little buddy.”

“Hm?”

“Have you talked to Blitzwing yet?” Bulkhead kept his voice low enough not to be overheard but loud enough for Bumblebee to hear. “You know, about… you know.”

Bee’s smile fell. “… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You know, about what Prime talked—”

“So! How long until you think it’s up and running Bulkhead?” Bumblebee quickly turned on his heels, walking towards the SpaceBridge. “A solar cycle? A deca-cycle? An orbital cycle? It better not last a whole flipping stellar cycle, cause, who knows what’ll happen by then?”

Bulkhead grumbled silently. Bumblebee was avoiding it again. As much as he understood why his little buddy was trying to avoid talking about it, it really wasn't helping him in the long run. The longer he tried putting it off, the more it was going to hurt him in the end.

“Vith zee rate ve’re vorking at, ve zhould be done in less zan orbital cycle or zo.” Blitzwing answered, moving to stand beside Bulkhead with Wisp in his servo. “It’s been faster progress zan vith zee one Megatron zas trying to build.”

“That’s because you guys were doing it all wrong!” Bulkhead huffed. “You were dealing with sensitive circuitry and machinery! You can’t just go tossing stuff around and expect it to work!”

Bee rolled his optics as Bulkhead continued to point out the flaws of the old SpaceBridge that Megatron had tried building, though he was also silently glad that Bulkhead was interacting with Blitzwing without hesitation like he normally did whenever he talked with the triple changer. That was a good sign. It meant he was truly warming up to Blitzwing.

He was worried that Bulkhead would still be wary of Blitzwing, yet he warmed up to the triple changer as time went on. He couldn’t quite say they were friends, but at least they hung out normally without any force, awkwardness, or anger between them. If he was being honest, Bulkhead had the best subtle friendship out of everyone in the team with Blitzwing. Prowl was a close second, though Optimus might take that place soon.

The only bot who didn’t get along with Blitzwing was, unsurprisingly, Ratchet. Those two avoided each other like water and oil.

Bumblebee really couldn’t bring himself to blame either of them for acting that way, though he really wished they wouldn’t throw each other death glares so much. He didn’t want fights to start breaking out around Wisp. She was still too young to be around any sort of roughhousing.

Bumblebee blinked as he felt something touching the top of his helm. Gazing up, he found a pair of wide blue optics staring back down at him.

“Beep!”

“Why hello to you too.” Bee smiled, reaching his servos up to keep Wisp from falling off. “And where did you come from?” He twisted around, finding Blitzwing looking at the sky whistling with his current face on Random.

“There’s only a few pieces left that need to be finished before we can call this whole thing done.” Bulkhead gazed up at the portal device. “After that it should only take me a while to calibrate the coordinates and get everything stabilized and everything should be good to go!”

“Well let’s hope so!” Bee grinned at his friend. “Or otherwise this would have been all for nothing!”

Whirr. “It better not be.” Blitzwing scoffed, crossing his arms. “Ve already vasted enough time on zis.”

Bee opened his intake to say something to Blitzwing, but his words caught in his vox as he spotted Sari and Professor Sumdac approaching. “Oh hey Sari!” He gave her a small wave.

Sari froze, her eyes going wide. “B-Bumblebee?”

“Oh. Hello Bumblebee.” Isaac waved in a small greeting. “I didn’t expect you to be here.”

“Just stopped by to see how things were doing.” Bee smiled at the pair. “And also have an excuse to see Blitzwing.”

“Well, it’s very nice to see you again.”

“Yeah.” Bee nodded his helm, making sure that Wisp didn’t fall off or hit against his helm. “Nice to see you guys too!”

“Beep!” Wisp cried out, waving the twisted metal in one servo.

Sari smiled slightly, waving at Wisp. “I see you brought Wisp with you.”

“Like I would leave her behind.” Bee smiled at his friend. “She’s been really fussy lately so I’ve been giving her a ride around Detroit to calm her down. Though, it doesn’t seem to be getting the best results lately.”

“Vhat do jou mean? Zunzet loves jour rides!”

Bee looked at Blitzwing with a small frown. “Well, she likes it when I go fast, but the streets have been really busy and crowded lately that I can’t get to a fast enough speed to calm her down. Ow!” Bee flinched in pain, glancing at Wisp briefly as she swung the twisted metal wildly in her servo.

“Fwag it!” She screamed, tossing the twisted metal away.

“Wisp! Don’t throw stuff!” Bumblebee lifted the sparkling off his helm, looking at her sternly as she kicked her peds. “I really thought seeing your sire would calm you down.” He mumbled dejectedly, rubbing his sore helm.

“Fwag it!” Wisp cried out, squirming in Bee’s holding and huffing. “Fwag it fwag it fwag it!”

“… I’m not letting Ratchet watch over you anymore.” Bee sighed, turning to Blitzwing and Bulkhead with a sad smile. “Sorry. I think this little one needs a nap. I’ll see you guys back at the base later, okay?”

“Sure thing!” Bulkhead nodded his helm with a grin, yet Blitzwing looked at Bee in concern.

“Hummel, are jou zure jou can handle Visp?”

“Come on Blitz, I got her!” Bee flashed a wide smile at his mechfriend, carefully wrangling the squirming sparkling to settle against his chest. “A little drive around should get her to calm down no prob.”

Blitzwing didn’t look convinced however. “Jou zaid zat traffic vas busy. Are jou even zure jou can go fast enough to get her to calm down?”

“I’m sure!” Bee kept grinning, moving towards the exit. He paused for a moment and looked towards Sari. “… You know. We haven’t really hung out much lately. Maybe you can swing by the base later and hang out with Wisp?”

A brief look crossed Sari’s face, glancing at the ground. “Oh, sorry Bee. I, uh, I promised to spend the day with dad later. Maybe some other time?”

The smile on Bee’s face fell slightly. “Oh… okay.” He spared the group one last glance. “See ya!” He put on a false cheer and left after that.

Isaac looked at his daughter in confusion. “Sari, why did you do that?”

“I don’t know what you mean.” Sari shrugged, turning to her dad with a small smile. “I only told Bee I was spending time with my dad. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“But aren’t you and Bumblebee friends?” Isaac placed his arms behind his back. “You used to hang out with him before.”

Sari made a face that was unreadable before quickly smiling again. “Well, he seems to be busy anyway taking care of Wisp. I don’t want to get in the way of that.”

“Such a strange way that they nearly have the same reproductive way as humans do.” Isaac mumbled, walking off to begin work.

Sari sighed, missing the way Blitzwing was staring at her with a deep frown.

“… I’m sure she just really wants to make up for lost time with her dad. There’s nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all.” Bee muttered to himself, watching the light flash on and off as the elevator descended down. “I would want to spend more time with my creators if I was separated from them for a long time.” He looked down at Wisp. “You would do the same, right Wisp?”

Wisp stared at her carrier, blinking her bright blue optics at him. “… ppt.” She stuck a bit of her glossa out.

“Yeah! You’re right!” Bee smiled. “It’s just a natural thing. Nothing to get upset about! I’m sure she’ll visit at her own time.” He tried to keep his optimism up as the elevator doors opened. “She just wants to spend time with her dad, that’s all! Just a reasonable thing that people do and shouldn’t get upset over about.”

“Fwag it.” Wisp mumbled, trying to chew on her carrier’s thumb.

“That’s right. Forget about it.” Bee beamed as he headed out the front door. “I’m sure I’ll see Sari some other time.”

The moment he was outside, he was getting ready to transform when the ground shook with force as a large shape landed in front of him. Keeping his arms around Wisp, Bee struggled to stay upright and standing. When the shaking passed, Bumblebee looked up to see—

“Blitzwing?”

“Hallo meine wundervolle Familie!” Blitzwing’s dark face grinned at Bumblebee. “I hope jou don’t mind me dropping by. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

“Blitz as much as I am glad to see you, I just saw you a couple cycles ago. What are you doing?”

“It’s not vhat I’m doing Hummel.” Blitzwing’s large grin seemed to grow bigger. “It’s vhat jou’re doing!”

“What?” Bee tilted his helm in confusion, though it didn’t last as it turned into shock when Blitzwing held up a struggling Sair in one of his servos. “S-Sari?! Blitz what are you doing?!”

Whirr. “I already told jou Hummel.” Blitzwing calmly spoke as he set Sari down next to Bumblebee. “It’s vhat jou’re doing. And vhat jou are doing is keeping zis one from distracting bots from zeir job.”

“Hey! I wasn’t distracting anyone!” Sari pointed a finger at Blitzwing. “You just grabbed me and screamed out random nonsense and jumped off the building before anyone could react!”

“As I zaid. Distracting.” Blitzwing shrugged his shoulders. “Zee ZpaceBridge is near completion, yet having jou zere vould only cause problems.”

“Hey!”

“Zoooo I vas zinking, vhat better vay to keep jou from messing vith anything zan to zpend zee day vith Hummel?” Blitzwing flashed Bee a small smile and Bumblebee realized what was going on.

And he wasn’t liking it.

“Uh, Sari could you hold Wisp for a moment? I need to have a quick word with Blitzwing.”

“Uh, sure?” Handing her the sparkling, Bumblebee grabbed Blitzwing’s arms and pulled him a distance away.

“What are you doing?!” He yelled/whispered once they were a safe enough distance away from the techno-organic.

“Vhat? Jou two are friends are jou not? Friends normally like to zpend time together.”

“Yeah! But not in a sort of forced slash hostage kind of situation!” Bumblebee hissed. “That’s not how friendships normally work!”

“And avoiding each other clearly vorks as vell.” Blitzwing huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

“What do you mean by that?” The anger in Bee’s chest faltered as Blitzwing’s face spun to Hothead, glaring down at him both figuratively and literally.

“I’ve had enough of it. Jou two have been avoiding each other for far too long and I’m zick of it.”

“We haven—”

“Hummel.” Blitzwing growled, taking a deep vent and dragging a servo down his face. “… Jou keep telling me how Zari keeps avoiding jou vhen zhe visits zee base, yet jou also avoided her for a long vhile as vell. Vhat’s going on? Aren’t jou two close friends like jou kept telling me all zose orbital cycles ago?”

Bee stared at Blitzwing for a bit, casting a quick glance at Sari to be sure she wasn’t looking then motioning Blitzwing to get closer. “The thing is.” He whispered once Blitzwing’s helm was close enough. “I know we sort of… avoided each other for a while, but I was doing it to give her some space after… you know.” He motioned to his chest, right where a weld mark had been painted over.

“I think she’s been avoiding me because of the whole incident.” Bee continued, sparing a glance at the pair. Sari was making a few faces at Wisp as the femmling tried grabbing at her hair. “I know it was just an accident and I know she really didn’t mean to and most of it was my fault anyway for rushing in without thinking, but I think she still blames herself about it… even when I told her over and over that it wasn’t her fault.”

“… have jou tried talking to her about it?”

“You think I haven’t tried? Like we both know, she’s been avoiding me. Getting her to talk to me isn’t as simple as it sounds, you know.” Bee sighed. “Besides, what can I say that’ll keep her around long enough for me to talk to her? She’ll dash off the moment she can get a chance to!”

Blitzwing hummed, nodding his helm. The pair went silent for a moment, thinking things over while occasionally glancing at Sari and Wisp to make sure they were still there. After a moment, Blitzwing’s face returned to Icy.

“Zay, Zari?” Blitzwing spoke loud enough to catch the techno-organics attention. “Hummel and I vere talking and he brought up an interesting idea.”

“What are you doing?” Bumblebee asked before Blitzwing slapped a servo over his intake.

“Zince Detroit’s ztreets zeem to be crowded at zee moment, maybe jou vould be zo kind enough to know vhere Hummel can drive around freely? Jou know, like a large road or zome place to go, just zomezing zat vill help calm Visp down and be a fun activity at zee zame time. As a day away from zee city, for zee both of jou.”

“… Iiissss that such a good idea?” Sari looked concerned, trying to keep Wisp from pulling on her pigtail. “I’ve never been out of the city before and you sort of get a little… antsy when you haven't been around Bee after a few hours.”

“Psh!” Blitzwing scoffed, freeing Bee’s intake and shrugged. “Hummel could use a day off and have zome fun. And vho better knows about having fun on zis planet zan jou?”

“Yeah! You know a great ton of stuff Sari!” Bee chimed in, not really getting where Blitzwing was going with this but whatever it was, he’d take it before his mechfriend began thinking of more elaborate and complicated plans that tended to… go badly.

“I, uh, already promised to hang out with my dad?” Sari replied weakly, trying to keep a hold of Wisp as the femme began trying to climb her head, wincing as she grab and tugged at her hair.

“He’ll be busy helping vith zee ZpaceBridge most of zee day.” Blitzwing pointed out. “And jou could use a day out as vell. Professor Sumdac has mentioned zat jou’ve been ztaying in jour room for quite a bit of time. Zo maybe zis might be good for jou as vell?”

Sari stared at them for a moment, biting on her lower lip.

“Come on, Sari. It’ll just be for a while. Not forever.” Bee gently pressed. “I miss hanging out with my friend.” He added quietly.

A moment passed before Sari finally sighed. “L… let me just talk to my dad first. See what he thinks.”

“Alright! Cool!” Bee gave her two thumbs up as she disappeared back into the tower. Once she was out of sight, he dropped his smile and turned to Blitzwing with a deep frown.

“… Vhat?”

“Blitz, as much as I love you, sometimes I think your methods of helping might have a different effect than the what you might be expecting.”

Blitzwing shrugged. “Vell, it vas either jou two ztart talking vith each other villing.” Whirr. “Or putting jou both on an iceberg and let jou zort it all out in zee middle of zee zea!”

Bee frowned at his mechfriend, pinching between his optics and sighing. “Is it really that bad?”

Whirr. “I vouldn’t zay bad.” Blitzwing placed a servo on Bee’s shoulder, turning the scout to look at him. “Zough I feel zis has dragged out long enough. Jou both are hurting from zis and jou both need closure from it before it becomes zomezing beyond repair.” He gave Bee a gentle smile. “Jou two had a truly good friendship from vhat I zaw orbital cycles ago and from zee vay jou talked about jour friendship vhen ve met up in zecret. I do not vish to zee zat friendship jou have get destroyed zo easily.”

Bee sighed, placing a servo over Blitzwing’s and giving it a squeeze. “Since when did you become so insightful?”

“Zince I ztarted dating a hotshot Autobot vho deserves all zee friends he’s made over zee ztellar cycles.” Blitzwing grinned as Bee gave him a warm smile.

“… Thanks Blitz.”

“Gern geschehen, Schatz.” Blitzwing smiled, right before he started covering Bee’s face with kisses.

“Blitz! S-Stop!” Bee laughed, reaching forward and pulling Blitzwing’s helm in for a real kiss.

“Are you really okay with this?”

“I see no real problem with it.” Isaac, making sure the scarf was secure around Sari’s neck. “You have been spending a lot of time in your room, so perhaps this will be a good experience for you.”

“But I’ve never left the city before.” Sari readjusted her hold on Wisp, who was busily chewing on one end of the scarf. “Even when I went camping that one time, it was still close to the city’s borders. What if we go somewhere really far?”

“Sari.” Isaac smiled fondly at his daughter. “I regret many things in my life that I’ve kept a secret from you. But I did it out of love and care. Staying here won’t help you grow to be a strong brave woman I know you can be. Besides, it’ll only be for a few hours at most. And you will be spending time with your friend and I trust that he will keep you safe. He’s done it plenty of times before.”

Sair only let out a soft hum, gazing at the ground of the elevator as it descended back down to the ground floor. “I guess.”

“Think of it as a learning experience.” Isaac smiled. “You’ll get to see new things, meet new people. Oh! I almost forgot.” He reached into one of his satchels hooked on his belt, pulling out a small round device. 

“What is it?” Sari asked, taking the device from her father’s offered hand.

“It’s mostly a prototype and still in testing phases, but I figured this would be a good time to give it to you since you might be out for a while.” Isaac showed her how to turn it on, watching with a smile as Sari watched the screen come to life. “It’s not a phone, but it has many features like it and much more uses than a regular one. It can pull up data, maps, locations, anywhere you want to go. It even displays holographs and images at any size you want, along with voice command. And it also has an app that lets you listen to your favorite tunes as well.”

Sari fiddled with the device, bringing up holoprojectors of cities and people and many other things before storing it all away. She gave her dad a small smile, pulling him into a hug. “Thanks dad. I’ll put it to good use.”

“I know you will Sari.” Isaac smiled as they pulled away. “Now, you remembered to stay warm and not stay out too long. It’s starting to get chilly out and I don’t want you catching a cold.”

Sari giggling. “I know dad.”

“And you have the money gave you right? And you know what to do with it?”

“Only use it to buy food or necessities.”

“And you’ll remember not to stay out too late? You’ll come back when it starts getting too dark out.”

“Don’t worry dad. I’ll be back.” She adjusted Wisp, pulling the scarf out of the sparkling’s mouth. “It’ll just be a couple hours. Maybe a quick drive around and then I’ll be back.”

“And you’ll be sure to call me if there’s any trouble.”

“I will don’t worry. Although, if there is trouble, I’m sure I can handle it.” Sari beamed at her dad just as the elevator reached the final floor. “I promise we won’t go that far and we’ll come back as soon as we can. Don’t worry so much.”

Isaac sighed, nodding his head. “Every good father will always worry over his child Sari. Just promise me one thing before you go?”

“What’s that?”

“Promise you will have a good time out with your friend.”

Sari blinked in surprise at her father before nodding with a small smile. “I think I can manage to do that. I’ll call you later!” She waved goodbye at her father as she headed towards the front door.

“Just remember to be careful!”

“I will!” Sari smiled at her dad one last time before stepping outside, finding Blitzwing a Bumblebee standing off at a distance waiting for her. Her walking slowed down till she was a few feet away from them, managing a small smile on her face as they awaited her answer. “So… my dad says that it’s okay for me to go.”

“Wunderbar!” Blitzwing clapped his servo, getting off the ground. “I need to head back now. Construction on the ZpaceBridge isn’t going to finish itself.” He planted a quick kiss on Bee’s helm then took off to the sky, flying high above the pair till he disappeared at the top, leaving the two and small femmling standing there and stare at each other.

“… Sssssoooo.” Bee spoke up after a brief silence passed. “You have any place in mind we could go to?”

Chapter Text

The silence was awkward.

Bumblebee was never great with being quiet, but for once he couldn’t bring himself to say anything as he drove along the highway. What could he say? It was awkward enough that he was in this situation in the first place. Thanks a lot Blitz.

Thankfully, neither of his passengers seemed to be bothered by the silence and didn’t make any effort to break it. Well, at least one of them didn’t seem to want to.

Wisp had her optics glued to the glass, watching with fascination at the scenery passing by rapidly. Most of the time she sat quietly in Sari’s lap, but occasionally she let out a soft beep or coo when something interesting caught her attention. At least she wasn’t throwing a fit anymore. The speed he was going at and a quick nap fixed that probably easily.

Sari on the other servo had been silent the whole time, keeping her eyes glued on the device she had that was showing them the way to this… zoo.

“… Hey uh… you never really explained what this zoo thing is. What exactly… is it?” Bee mentally cringed at his own hesitation. He meant to sound curious for information, not uncertain for a conversation. Slag, he was supposed to be good with people. Was he losing his edge?

“It’s…” Sari started, taking Bumblebee by surprise. “It’s sort of a place where people go to when they want to see animals.”

Bee beamed inwardly. She was talking to him. She was talking to him! “If they wanted to see animals that bad, shouldn’t they be able to see them on the internet?”

His friend smiled, giggling a bit. Progress! “Well yeah. But people also like seeing the real thing too, Bumblebee.”

“So what exactly is at a zoo?” Bee asked, moving to a new lane. “If it’s a place people go to see animals, I’ve seen plenty at the park!”

“There’s more than dogs and squirrels to look at in a zoo Bumblebee.” Sari smirked, adjusting her grip on Wisp as the sparkling tried getting closer to the glass of his door window.

“Like what?”

“Like dolphins, lions, giraffes, monkeys. Just to name a few.” Sari listed off a few animals, looking more and more relaxed as the conversation continued. “Most animals at zoos come from different regions all around the world that aren’t native to this place.”

“Really? Then why bring them to zoos?”

Sari just shrugged. “I guess people are just too lazy to see animals in their natural habitats?”

“If Prowl ever heard that, he’d probably go metal.”

“Probably.” Sari agreed, smiling at him just as the device started flashing. “… It says that we’re almost there. Just take a left at the next exit.”

“Got it.” Bee chimed, not wanting to point out that he could see the directions on the holograph she had displayed. “Ssooo. What exactly do you do at a zoo?”

“Mostly just look at all the animals there.” Sari shrugged again. “That’s what zoos are normally for.”

“What? That’s literally it? That’s so lame!” Bee groaned, taking a left at the instructed exit. “How can anyone find staring at animals a fun thing? I’m not there yet and I can tell this is going to be boring!”

“Hey! I’ve never been to one before either.” Sari huffed, grabbing Wisp and lifting her up. “And neither has Wisp. Maybe it’ll turn out to be fun.”

“I doubt it.” Bee grumbled. “How much fun could it be to see a bunch of animals?”

“Waaaaaaaa!” Wisp gasped in surprise, watching funny looking squirrels with a black and white tails run around and around.

“What kind of squirrels are those?” Bumblebee asked, keeping his eyes on the animals with Wisp clapping and giggling in his arms.

“They’re called lemurs silly.” Sari couldn’t help but giggle at her friend’s naivety. “It’s a type of monkey from an island called Madagascar.”

“Have you been watching Prowl’s nature shows again?” Bee asked, keeping his eyes on a pair of lemurs that were chasing each other up and down a tree.

“Nope. Just reading the info off a helpful little sign right here.” She pointed to a small info sign that was screwed on to the railing. “It says that there are over a hundred species of lemurs that are only found on a tiny island of Madagascar that come in a variety of shapes and sizes.”

Bumblebee moved to glance over her shoulder, reading the info sign. “… That island must be overcrowded if it has that many lemurs on it.” He muttered, causing Sari to cover her mouth to hide her giggles.

Getting her giggles under control, Sari pulled out a zoo map she managed to grab at the entrance. “Let’s see… we’re currently near the main entrance and there’s three different areas of the zoo we can visit.” She held out the map far enough for Bee to see. “There’s the Arctic, the Rainforest, and Africa. And there’s also a reptile house near the back. Huh. This zoo has nearly everything. It even has an aquarium where you can view all the sea animals.”

“Why would anyone want to see a bunch of fish? Aren’t they just… fish?”

Sari only gave him a knowing grin. “Well I guess people can find interest in everything. So, which area do you want to see first?”

Bee pulled a face, looking over the map as Wisp tried slapping it. “I guess… we can try the Rainforest first?” He shrugged. “It’s the closest thing here, so why not?”

“Okay.” Sari folded the map up, tucking it away. “I’m kind of interested to see what’s in there. I wonder if they have any tigers.”

“What’s a tiger?”

Sari paused for a moment, wondering how she could describe a tiger without giving away too much. “It’s sort of like a house cat. But bigger and covered in stripes.”

“A big house cat.” Bumblebee muttered, shaking his head as he followed after her. “Boy, how interesting.”

Sari tossed a small smile over her shoulder at her friend. “You’ll see. There’s bound to be plenty of stuff to be interested here.”

Bee shrugged, setting Wisp on his shoulder and missing the way Sari flinched briefly. “Well I’m not fully set on it till I see with my own optics.”

“Come on, give it a chance Bee. Wisp is already enjoying it so far.” Sari pointed out.

Indeed, Wisp seemed to be having a good time. The femme was looking at everything with wide interest, whipping her head around to see everything and babbling happily with a big smile on her face.

Bee spared his daughter a glance, slowly smiling at her eagerness. “Okay. I guess you’re right. I’m still not fully set on it but Wisp does seem to be having a good time. Though I wish Blitzwing was here as well. He would probably enjoy this kind of stuff.”

“I’m not even sure he would fit through the entrance Bee. You barely fit through it yourself.” Sari tried not to imagine Blitzwing struggling to get through the front gate and how much destruction he could cause from it. “And I don’t think I want to get banned for life from this place.”

“Whatever.” Bee shrugged, shifting Wisp a bit and causing her to giggle. “I can’t help but wonder how he’s doing though.”

“I’m sure he’s fine Bumblebee. He’s probably focusing on working on the SpaceBridge with Bulkhead and my dad. Nothing new.”

“You. Did. What?”

Blitzwing kept his gaze down, pressing two of his digits together as Optimus stared him down with a hard stare. “I… zent Hummel out to zpend zee day vith Zari?” He tried to manage a small grin, but it came out shaky and uncertain on his face.

Optimus stared harder at the former Decepticon, trying to fathom what he had just heard. Earlier in the day he knew Bumblebee had gone off driving to settle Wisp down. He didn’t worry at first, not until a megacycle and a half had passed by the minibot hadn’t returned to base. Optimus tried calling the scout over the comm-link, but found that he couldn’t reach him. At first he just figured that Bee had forgotten to turn his link back on as he had shut it off when he ran away, but the worry still ate at him so he went around the city hoping to find Bee hanging out at his favorite spots before finally checking on the last place he was certain Bee would go to.

And now here he was being told that Bumblebee had left the city entirely. By the very triple changer mech himself.

At least he had the decency to look ashamed with himself when he informed him of the events that had gone on. “In my defense, my mind vans’t in a ztable zet at zee time I zought it vas a good idea.” Whirr. “Vhich it vas! Kind of.”

Optimus sighed, pinching his nazzel ridge tightly to stop the processor ache he could feel slowly growing in his helm. “And no one bothered to tell me about this ‘good idea’ earlier because?”

“It zlipped my mind! As most zings do.” Blitzwing’s jagged grin grew with a small chuckle before his face switched back to Icy. “It really hadn’t occurred to me at zee moment to inform jou of zuch zing. I assumed a zmall part of me zought zat he vould inform jou of it before leaving… guess not.”

Optimus stared at the mech for a good while before turning his gaze on an equally ashamed Bulkhead. “And what’s your excuse for not telling me about this?”

“W-well I was kinda busy.” The wrecker squirmed under Optimus’s gaze. “A-and I thought Bee would tell you on his own too.”

Optimus could almost groan. No. Scratch that. He did groan. Loudly. “Why? Why?! Why did neither of you bother to inform me of this before he left?! I spent nearly all morning trying to find him when he didn’t show up and only now you’re telling me he’s not even in the city! We are in the middle of a fast approaching war and you two sent Bumblebee off without telling me while I was starting to think that he ran off again!”

Both mechs cringed and gazed at the ground in shame.

A moment passed before Optimus sighed, rubbing his face tiredly. “I’m sorry. I… I shouldn’t have snapped like that. But you still should have told me sooner about this.”

“Sorry Boss-bot.”

“Viele Entschuldigungen.”

Another sigh escaped Optimus’s intake, shaking his helm. “Honestly, what even compelled you to send Bumblebee out of the city?”

Whirr. “Bonding time!”

“Bonding time?” Optimus asked, confusion crossing his face.

“Mm-hm!” Blitzwing nodded his helm. “I zent him out to zpend zee day vith Zari!” Whirr. “I Vas Tired Of Zem Avoiding Each Other! Zem vere acting as if zey vere valking on metal zcraps around each other and it vas getting annoying!” Whirr. “Not to mention zat Hummel vas missing his friend. He may have not zaid it out loud, but he missed hanging out vith his organ-uh… his friend.”

Optimus stared at Blitzwing a moment before shaking his helm. “Alright. But was it really necessary to send them out of the city?”

“The roads were blocked!” Bulkhead spoke up. “Uh, I mean the roads were blocked. Bumblebee mentioned that it was hard to drive through the city earlier so it really wasn’t an option.”

Whirr. “Not vith a fussy zparkling to calm down!”

“I do recall the roads being busier than normal.” Optimus hummed, recalling how it took far longer than normal to get around the city. Bumblebee would have trouble calming Wisp down at speeds that slow, so it would make some sense that he would need to leave the city for wider space. And as much as he hated to admit it, Blitzwing did have a point. Sari and Bumblebee had been avoiding each other after… that. Bee had been trying to make peace with it, but Sari always seemed reluctant to even get close to him.

It all had been an accident and Bumblebee knew that. He didn’t hold it against his friend for something she wasn’t in control of. Though a part of it could be his to blame for rushing in and not thinking things through. It was the only time Ratchet and Blitzwing ganged up to chew Bumblebee out on his actions, though Blitzwing had been more emotional during the whole thing and had refused to talk to Bumblebee for a whole deca-cycle. 

For a brief time, Optimus thought Blitzwing would break up with Bumblebee and split, but thankfully his fears were never met. In fact, Blitzwing stuck very close to Bumblebee. Everywhere the scout went, Blitzwing followed him like a shadow for a whole orbital cycle before finally giving Bumblebee space. Though Blitzwing would always go back to being glued to Bumblebee’s side when he spent a few mega-cycles away from him.

Which was… odd that Blitzwing didn’t seem to be bothered by the large distance between them. He eyed the larger bot up and down. Now that he had a good look at him, Blitzwing seemed a little… tense. “Are… you okay?”

Blitzwing stared at him, glancing at Bulkhead then back at the Prime, pointing at himself.

“Yes, you.”

“Oho! I’m fine~!” Blitzwing waved a servo with a carefree tone. “Vhy? Jou vorried about old Blitzy?” He batted his optics at Optimus, making the Prime cringe slightly.

He really questioned Bumblebee’s taste in mechs. “Just a bit concerned. For a while you seem to get tense when you’ve spent any time away from Bumblebee for a long period. I’m actually quite surprised you let him go on his own and didn’t follow after him to make sure he stayed out of trou… ble…” Optimus paused, spying Bulkhead shaking his helm and waving his arms widely at him. He raised an optic ridge slowly at the wrecker’s action.

Why was Bulkhead…? He glanced back at Blitzwing. The mech’s body had gone stiff, staring at Optimus with a blank look. He wasn’t smiling, or he was, but his intake was closed, leaving only his bright red optics to shine against his dark face. There was something in his optics that made Optimus uneasy.

“… uh… are you… okay?” Optimus asked uneasily, feeling smaller and smaller under the triple changer’s unblinking gaze. “… Blitzwing?”

The mech suddenly blinked and his face switched over to Icy. “Oh ja ja. I’m fine. Completely fine!” He chuckled, twisting on his heels and walked off towards a pile of steel beams. “ Totally fine! Honest! A hundred percent, completely, totally, honestly, zincerely, truly—” Whirr. “ FINE! ” Blitzwing screamed, slamming his fists down on the bars. The force easily bent the steel, forcing the ends to point skyward and shook loose a few items that weren’t bolted or welded into place.

Optimus and Bulkhead looked at each other, sharing a worrying gaze.

“… ICH HABE EINEN GROSSEN FEHLER GEMACHT! ” Blitzwing suddenly screamed, startling the pair. “Idiot idiot IDIOT! Vhat Vere Jou Zinking?! Nothing Apparently!” He twisted around holding his helm, looking close to having a sparkattack. “Hummel Is A Magnet For Trouble! He Always Causes Trouble Vherever He Goes!”

“Bl-Blitzwing! Calm down!” Optimus tried to calm the growing distressed triple changer. “I’m sure Bumblebee’s fine.”

“JOU DON’T KNOW ZAT!” Blitzwing screamed right at Optimus’s face. “Jou’ve Zeen All Zee Assortment Of Trouble He Can Get Into! Zere’s No Vay He’s Alright Right Now!”

“Do you ever get the feeling that someone is talking about you?”

“Noooo?”

“Hm.” Bumblebee frowned, rubbing the back of his helm. “Must be something in my systems then.”

“Do bots ever get sick?”

“Na. We’re robots! We don’t ever get sick… well, when you’re a full grown bot anyway.” Bee looked down at Wisp. The young sparkling was watching the animal inside the enclosure intently, keeping her optics on the animals with clear interest. He spared a quick glance at the sign which read mountain gorilla, which to him looked like a bigger beefier version of a monkey without a tail. “Sparklings however are prone to getting viruses and glitches in their systems though.”

“Really? Why?”

“Sparklings have trashy firewalls. Their systems need time to grow and get stronger to fight back against bugs like that.” Bee explained, managing to push back all the memories of his sparklinghood that he spent sick and weak from his body fighting against viruses and bugs in his systems.

“ Well that explains somethings .”

“Hm?”

“Nothing!” Sari smiled at him. “You enjoying the zoo so far?”

Bee frowned a bit, thinking of his answer carefully. The zoo was nice, though it was still rather boring to him. Still, Sari seemed to be enjoying it. And so did Wisp. Slag, if he told the truth Sari might think that this was a bad idea and try to leave. Slag! He can’t have that! They were starting to have normal conversations again!

“It’s really not what I expected.” He managed to say, going for the easier way than saying the flat out truth. “Wisp is really enjoying it so if she’s happy about it, I like it.”

“She really seems to be liking the animals.” Sari smiled at the little sparkling as they moved on towards the next exhibit, all while Wisp was trying to keep her gaze set on the gorillas and frowned unhappily when she couldn’t see them anymore.

“Yeah I really don’t get that. I know Blitzwing isn’t a big animal lover and neither am I, so I don't know where she gets it from.” He lifted Wisp up, gazing into her optics as if the answer would appear if he looked hard enough. “Maybe it’s just her being a sparkling.” He shrugged after a while. “She’ll probably grow out of it when she gets older.”

“Does Cybertron have any animals?”

“Not much.” Bumblebee frowned, remembering the very few animals he managed to see on Cybertron. “Animals don’t really have a big part on Cybertron. Outer colonies however had plenty of them.”

Sari stopped short, looking up at Bee with interest. “Outer colonies?”

“Yeah. Outer colonies.” Bee shrugged again, saying it like it was basic knowledge. “Most of them were just small camps and safe havens for civilian bots when the war was starting to get real rough back on Cybertron that became their own cities and settlements as time went on. A sort of home away from home. Most famous or retired war heroes often secluded themselves on outer colonies to live peaceful lives, but it was always hard to because outer colonies are far away from Cybertron.”

“… Have you ever been to one?”

“Wha?”

“One of the outer colonies, have you ever been to one of them?”

“Oh uh.” Bee fidgeted, trying to come up with a quick lie. “Y-Yeah. Once. It… wasn’t what I thought it was like. I rather not talk about it.”

“Oh. Okay.” Sari turned her gaze away from him, causing Bee’s spark to squeeze in pain. Before he could say anything to try and make her feel better, she suddenly perked up. “We’re getting close to the tiger! Just up ahead, look!”

Bee looked up, seeing a bunch of kids gather around a glass window. With his curiosity picked at, Bumblebee quickly headed over with Sari leading the way. Once he was close enough, he peered into the window, searching for the big house cat Sari was talking about. “… sooooo… where is it?”

“I don’t know.” Sari was peering into the glass, looking over a bunch of kids heads that were crowded around the glass. “Maybe it’s hiding somewhere further in?”

Bumblebee frowned, looking around the area. It was a pretty big open space, with a good amount of trees in the back and a wide pool off to the side. He could spy a few large balls and a bridge leading to one tall stand to a tree-house. There wasn’t a lot of space to hide, but the tiger was nowhere to be found. Tilting his helm a bit, Bee took a step back and stood at full height, searching the trees instead.

It took him a while and some moving about till he finally spotted it. It was in one of the far back trees, sleeping on one of the thick branches. “Oh! Sari! Sari! I see it!”

“Where?” Sari walked over, keeping her eyes on the ground.

“It’s up in one of the trees.” Bee pointed at the trees. Sari kept her eyes squinted, shaking her head after a while. “Here.” Bee crouched down, offering one of his servos out. She spared it a single glance before giving him a smile, setting her down on the open servo and allowing him to lift her up on his shoulder. “It’s right there.” He pointed to where the tiger was once Sari was settled on his free shoulder.

“Oh I see it now.” Sari beamed once she spotted the tiger. “Wow. So that’s a tiger.” She stared at it in wonder. “It’s beautiful.”

“Eh. It looks like a big house cat to me.” Bee shrugged, lifting Wisp up so she could see the big cat as well. “See that Wisp? That’s a tiger, right there in the tree.”

“Ooooooooo.” Wisp cooed, leaning against Bee’s servo and reached out with one of her tiny servos.

“You can see the tiger?” A small voice caught Bee’s attention, turning his gaze downward to see a small group of kids standing beside his stabilizer.

“Yep! It’s right up there in—” 

“I wanna see the tiger!”

“Me too! Me too!”

“I want to see it too!”

“Let me seeeee!”

“… oh boy.” Bumblebee chuckled nervously as young kids started crowding around him.

After nearly an hour of staring at the tiger (and giving a bunch of kids a chance to see the big cat) they moved on to the Arctic section of the zoo. But quickly backtracked for the Africa section when they found out that the Arctic section was a large building and Bumblebee couldn’t fit through the front doors.

At first Bumblebee didn’t seem to be enjoying the zoo all too much, not till he spotted an animal that made him do a double-take.

“They’re almost as tall as Blitzwing!” He exclaimed, staring up at the tall animal. “I didn’t know that animals can get this tall!”

Sari could only smile at her friend’s surprise. She really thought he would go for the cheetah.

“Look at ‘em! They’re so tall. ” Bee held Wisp close to his chest, watching the large creatures with wide eyes. “How are they so tall? Why are they so tall? Why are their legs so long? What’s up with their necks?”

“Ab ba ba tphh!” Wisp shouted, kicking her little legs in excitement. At least she was enjoying animals.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying the giraffes Bee.” Sari leaned against the fence, watching the animals walk across the field with their long legs. She had seen plenty of animals on TV and during one Prowl’s documentary shows, but nothing beat seeing the real thing before her.

“Carrot?” She blinked, turning her head to see one of the zoo’s workers holding a carrot out towards her. “A dollar for a carrot to feed the giraffes.”

“Sure.” Sari nodded, taking out the money he dad had lent her. “Hey Bee, you wanna try feeding the giraffes?” 

“That’s a thing here?” Bee asked, startling the worker.

“Yep.” Sari handed the worker the money, grabbing a carrot for each of them. “People really seem to like feeding animals. You want to give it a tr—” She turned around, holding out one of the carrots for Bumblebee to take but froze in horror.

She wasn’t holding a carrot. She was holding a glowing blue energy blade. Her eyes traveled up and nearly screamed. The blade was embedded in Bumblebee’s chest, right where his spark lay behind the thin armor, sparking with energy and Energon started to leak out the wound. She gazed up at her friend’s face, finding it contorted in shock and pain, staring back at her in mute horror with Energon dripping out the corner of his eyes and mouth.

She wanted to scream, to pull the blade away, to do something, but her body wouldn’t respond. Bee’s mouth was moving, reaching a shaking hand towards her.

“Sure!”

Sari blinked, finding herself holding a carrot out instead of an energy blade. She watched mutley as a large yellow and black hand took the offered carrot, turning her gaze up at Bee’s smiling face. “So, uh… what exactly do I do with it?”

“You just stick your carrot out towards the giraffes.” The zoo worker informed Bumblebee. “They’re a little shy around strangers so they might not approach you at first but that won’t stop Sasha.”

“Who?”

“She’s our oldest giraffe in the zoo. She’s mostly seen as the big leader of the herd and loves to steal carrots from visitors. In fact.” The worker pointed at something, making Sari and Bumblebee turn their focus out towards the pen.

One of the giraffes was slowly making their way towards them. It was larger than the other giraffes, with a darker coat and a notable scar on the left front leg, limping slightly whenever they stepped down on that leg.

“Sasha is a rescue animal. A long time ago when Sasha was just a baby, a group of poachers had killed her mother and intended to sell Sasha as an exotic pet to the black market. Luckily, a group of park rangers were able to save the poor girl but unfortunately, due to the injury on her leg, she was deemed unable to survive out in the wild.” The worker explained as Sasha came closer, lowering her large head towards Bumblebee. “So she was moved here for a better chance at survival. We’ve been able to give her a good life here thanks to the efforts of everyone who wanted to give her a second chance.”

Bee looked between the giraffe and the carrot in his hand, slowly holding it out for Sasha. Sasha gave the carrot a few sniffs before sticking her long tongue out and wrapping it around the carrot.

“Gah!” Bumblebee jumped back, watching as Sasha licked up the carrot into her mouth. “What the frag?!”

“Fwag!” Wisp happily chirped.

“What in Cybertron’s name was that?!” Bumblebee pointed a finger at Sasha, looking at the worker in surprise and a bit of disgust.

“That was just Sasha’s tongue.” The worker chuckled. “Giraffes use them to reach for the leaves in tall trees or grab tasty treats out of unsuspecting visitor hands.”

Bumblebee glared at the chuckling worker’s retreating back. “You could have at least warned a bot.” He muttered, shaking his servo. “You want to give it a shot?” He asked, turning his focus back on Sari. 

She blinked, shaking the image out of her head, gazing down at the two remaining carrots in her hands. “Uh, s-sure.” She held out one of the carrots, watching Sasha lean down and lick up with her tongue. “Wow. Crazy tongue.”

“More like a gross tongue.” Bee huffed, causing Sari to smile slightly. “Good thing Blitzwing wasn’t here to see that. I would never live it down.”

“Why?”

“As much as I love Blitzwing, he gets…” Bumblebee pulled a face. “ Ideas for pranks every time he sees something grossing me out. Normally they’re all harmless but sometimes he can get just a smidge overboard with them once in a while. The grosser the better he always says.” He snorted. “I don’t understand him sometimes. Or whatever he’s thinking at the moment.”

“Well, I can take a guess that he’s focusing on the SpaceBridge.” Sari shrugged.

“LET ME GO! LET ME GO!”

“Blitzwing! You need to calm down!” Optimus shouted, grunting as he tried to push the triple changer away from the tower’s edge.

He and Bulkhead were currently not having a good solar cycle. Mostly thanks to the very mech they were trying hard to keep from taking off.

“I NEED TO GET TO MY FAMILY! IT’S NOT ZAFE OUT ZERE! ZEY NEED ME!”

“You’re the one who sent them away from the city!” Bulkhead pointed out, causing Blitzwing to cry and try harder.

“Not helping Bulkhead!”

“ HUMMEEEEEEELLLLL-L-L-L-L-L! ”

There were so many new things!

She couldn’t remember the last time there was a new thing before her in all her life!

There were colors, many weird things walking around! There were even super interesting things behind invisible walls that were big, small, crawling on all fours, or even having lots and lots of colors! Just like the pictures in the books!

“You really must be enjoying the zoo, huh Wisp?” Wisp glanced up at carrier, beeping happily at him. “Heh. That’s good. Let’s bring your sire next time, okay?”

Wisp beeped again, kicking her stabilizers out. Yes! Bring sire! She liked his funny faces! Bring them to make things more interesting!

Her attention didn’t stay long on carrier when she spotted something from the corner of her optic. Turning her helm, she spied something that made her insides flutter. Oooooooo. It was so pretty! She had to have it!

“Whoa! Hey, what’s gotten you all worked up Sunset?” Wisp tried to struggle out of carrier’s hold, reaching for the pretty thing.

“I think she wants one of those balloons.” The one that looked like a bot but not a bot spoke.

“I don’t know. Don’t those things… pop?”

“Yeah? What’s wrong with that?”

“Weellllll.” Wisp froze. Oh no. She knew that tone her carrier used. It meant only one horrible thing. BATH TIME! No! NOOOO! She didn’t need a bath! No Bath!

“No ‘ath!” She screamed out, struggling even more to escape carrier’s arms. “No ‘ath!”

“You’re not getting a bath Wisp. Calm down.” Carrier shifted her around, pressing her close to the familiar sound that always calmed her down. “I already had enough of you splashing and screaming for one deca-cycle.”

“No ‘ath!”

“No. No baths.” Carrier booped her face, causing the young femme to squeak and rub it.

“Wisp really doesn’t like baths does she?”

“Oh you have no idea. The last time that she needed one was after a bad rainstorm when she ran through five different mud puddles before I found her.” 

“No ‘ath!” Wisp chirped, looking back at the pretty thing that was moving away. No! No! Don’t go pretty thing! She needed to put it in her intake! She MUST have it!

She whined and beeped, but carrier kept a good hold on her as they moved further and further away from the pretty thing.

Wisp huffed unhappily.

She was going to get that pretty thing.

No matter what.

It was a while before carrier gave her to the bot but not a bot.

The bot but not a bot was nice. They gave her helm pats and nice hugs.

But she didn’t want pats and hugs.

She wanted the pretty thing.

And the bot but not a bot didn’t look at her as often as sire or carrier.

As soon as bot but not a bot set them down, as soon as they looked away, Wisp took off as quickly as she could.

Carrier was always good at keeping her by their side when she wanted to explore, making sure she didn’t get to go where she wanted to go.

But not now!

Wisp giggled as she ran past all the not bots who looked like the bot but not a bot.

It was so fun to see them make faces as she ran by their stabilizers, giggling like mad as she made one or two fall on their afts.

But she wasn’t here to make not bots fall. She had to hurry before carrier found out she was gone and got all not happy.

She didn’t like it when carrier was not happy. It made her not happy when he was not happy.

But she won’t be away for long! She was just going off to get the pretty thing and be back!

… where was the pretty thing anyway?

Wisp stopped for a moment and looked around, trying to find the pretty thing.

Everything looked different now that carrier wasn’t holding her. It all seemed bigger and far away from her now.

Looking around, Wisp caught a glimpse of the pretty thing, taking off towards it with happy glee.

She followed after it till she lost sight of it.

The pretty thing seemed to like hiding too.

Well she can play this game too!

She ran around, looking for the pretty thing.

It wasn’t long before she saw the pretty thing again going into a large white box.

Squealing happily, she ran over to the white thing, slipping between not bots to get inside.

She didn’t run for long once she was inside. Slowing to a stop, Wisp looked around.

She was in a big room. A big white room with large square windows in the walls.

The room also felt cold, which Wisp found very nice. She was getting too hot, and she liked cool places.

She walked towards one of the large squares, standing on the tippy tip of her peds to look inside and—

WOW! So many colors! So pretty!

Wisp ogled at the pretty colors floating around from the other side of the invisible walls. She went over to a different square in the wall, finding more colorful things.

Moving square to square, Wisp found more and more interesting stuff to look at, completely forgetting about the reason why she came in here in the first place.

She moved further along, going deeper and deeper into the building, not realizing that she was looking at different assortment of fish that soon switched to penguins.

She stuck around the penguins longer than the colorful fish, racing from one end of the tank to the other end with a small group of Fiordland penguins following her in the water. One even copied her helm movements and getting the attention of people standing off to the side.

It wasn’t until she reached the largest square in the wall that she stopped in awe.

On the other side were a group of leopard seals, swimming gracefully through the water, but to the small sparkling, she though they were flying in the air, just like her sire.

Squealing with delight, Wisp ran up to the invisible wall, pressing her face against it and watched the flying… things with wonder.

One of the seals stopped and stared at Wisp.

Wisp tilted her helm to one side.

The seal copied her.

She tilted her helm to the other side.

It mirrored her moves.

Wisp smiled.

She spent nearly two hours playing with the seal, attracting a large crowd that swooned over her cuteness with her interaction with the seal before the bot but not a bot finally came and found her.

“You really should consider getting Wisp a bell or something.”

“Gee. I hadn’t thought of that before.” Bumblebee grumbled, driving down the highway.

The sun was gone in the distance, covering the sky with the last bit of golden rays that turned the clouds into shades of reds and purples, matching the colors on Wisp’s armor.

Bumblebee had meant to leave earlier back for Detroit before the sunset, but when Wisp went missing, he had a mental breakdown, running around the zoo ragged before Sari finally managed to find the missing sparkling with the zoo’s staff help. And after that it took the worried mech an hour or so to calm down.

Said sparkling was now curled sleeping in the reclined passenger seat, recharging peacefully after a long solar cycle, forcing Bee to reduce his speed so he wouldn’t accidentally wake her, so it was taking longer to reach the city.

“She’s such a troublemaker. I don’t know where she even gets it from!” Bee quietly hissed, trying not to rouse Wisp from her peaceful slumber.

“It’s a mystery.” Sari said with a knowing smirk on her face.

“Oh laugh it up while you can. You have no idea how worried I was about her! She could have gotten lost, or stolen! O-or hurt! And wouldn’t have been there to protect her!” Bee could feel his spark nearly clench at the horrible thought.

“Hey. It’s alright Bee.” Sari placed one of her hands on his dashboard, rubbing it with a soft smile on her face. “I know it wasn’t a laughing matter, I’m sorry. I’m just glad she wasn’t hurt or anything.”

Bee went silent for a moment before sighing. “Me too. I really should have warned you about Wisp wandering off. She’s been doing it more and more often that I just…” He sighed deeply. “I don’t know.”

The smile on Sari’s face fell slightly. “… hey Bee?”

“Hm?”

“Can we pull over before we get to the city? I…” She gazed out the window, rubbing her arm. “We…  need to have a talk.”

Confusion filled the scout’s processor, but he didn’t want to decline his friend’s request. Besides, he had a feeling about what she wanted to talk about. When the city came into view in the distance, the sun had already set, leaving the world in darkness with only the stars in the sky and Detroit’s lights shining the way.

Bee pulled off to the side on a hill overlooking the city, coming to park and letting Sari step out and lean against his door.

Neither of them spoke for a long time. They only stared at the city’s glistening lights.

“… can you believe that it’s been over two years since I’ve met you guys?” Sari spoke after a long silence.

“Time really does fly by here.” Bumblebee mused.

“A lot of things happened in those few short years. Something I never thought possible. Like meeting a group of alien robots.”

“Mmm. Crash landing on a planet and waking up to become heroes.”

“Being an earth expert and becoming good friends with said aliens.”

“Experiencing new stuff, new sights, new sounds, new freedom.”

“Getting the Key.”

“Enjoying the spotlight that was never an option back on Cybertron.”

“Having adventures I never thought were possible before.”

“You said it.”

Sari glanced at him with a small smile before it fell away and she looked to the ground with a sad frown. “Then things changed again when the Decepticons arrived. Though, I guess that was sort of a good thing for you.”

Bee flinched a bit. “It… wasn’t all good. I had to sneak out a lot to go see him and doing it behind everyone’s backs was… it wasn’t a good feeling. Not even before we got to Earth.”

“I guess I really shouldn’t have been mad at you back then when you came back.”

“I did kind of deserved to be yelled at.”

“A little. And I guess it kind of turned out well in the end.”

A small bit of pride swelled in Bee’s spark at the weight sleeping in his passenger seat. “I guess.” His pride deflated shortly however when Sari spoke again.

“And then I found out I was part robot.” She lifted one of her arms, letting it switch into its other form. “Things started to go crazy again and…” Her face twisted. “And… I stabbed you.”

“Sari—”

“How are you so calm about this?” She cut him off, leaning off him. “How… Why did you forgive me so easily? I almost killed you that day. You could have DIED that day and the Key lost its power so we couldn’t revive you and it would have been all my fault that…” She sat on the ground, hugging her knees, mumbling so softly Bee had to strain his receptors to hear her. “That I killed my best friend.”

Bumblebee sat in silence for a long while, feeling the cool breeze of the night wind brush against his plating. “… It was mostly my own fault.”

“No it wasn’t.”

“I was the one who came at you.”

“I was the one who stabbed you.”

“… yeah.”

“… Bumblebee, can you tell me something?”

“What?”

Sari lifted her head, looking at Bumblebee. “Why do you always throw yourself between your friends and danger? Like when Meltdown Tried to shoot Bulkhead with his acid. Or when you got between me and one of Starscream’s blasters. You could have almost died on both accounts but you really cut it close when… you know.”

Bee was silent for a long moment. Longer than he would ever like to be.

Sari waited patiently for him to talk, for an answer, for anything . But when Bumblebee stayed silent, she turned her head away with a sad sigh.

“A long long time ago.” Sari blinked, turning her head back towards the yellow car. “Back before I was on the team, long before I went to bootcamp and got my name, and longer before Blitzwing was even a triple changer, or even when I took my first step on Cybertron, I used to live on one of the outer colonies.”

“It wasn’t a good one. It was one of the ones that bots tended to avoid at all costs. It was a place where law didn’t matter and no one really cared about you or paid you any attention or if you were an Autobot, neutral, or even a Decepticon. I lived there for maybe… a thousand or so stellar cycles there with two caretakers. Firetrail and Dusty.”

“They weren’t my creators. Far from it. But they were nice. At least, Dusty was. Firetrail was just… there. He didn’t treat me badly, but he was a heavy drinker at times and spent more time at his job than hang out.”

“Dusty was better at being a caretaker. Most of the time. He at least tried his best to be there for me whenever he got off his shifts and tried to give me a good sparkling-hood.”

“Both of them had been in the war, which I never found out why they chose to live on that outer colony out of all the rest. I was too young to question it back then and I was too scared to. Most of the bots there were mean, but kept a far distance when Firetrail was around. Despite being a heavy drinker and rarely being around off his job, bots were smart enough not to get on his bad side. Not unless they wanted to have his blade sticking all the way into their helms.”

“Anyway, it was around when I was nearing a thousand stellar cycles when…” Bumblebee paused. “… when Dusty died.”

“… it… it hadn’t been a normal death. It was more like an ambush… an ambush that was meant for me.”

“I was stupid. I should have stayed near Dusty like he told me when we were out shopping yet I foolishly left his side when a mech lead me away, promising me a stupid thing that almost had me taken away… Dusty was smart enough to keep checking if I stayed close to him and he managed to find me before I was taken away.”

“But that bot was persistent and… he had backup.”

Bumblebee went quiet again, this time there was a notable shudder in his frame.

“It was my fault that night.” He whispered. “Dusty managed to hide me and hold off as best he could but… but help didn’t arrive fast enough to save him.”

Sari gasped softly, watching as her friend transformed and sat on the ground next to her with his helm bowed low. He went quiet for a moment, watching Wisp sleep peacefully in his lap. “… my powers hadn’t activated yet and I wasn’t physically fit or strong enough to fight back. Dusty only hid me behind metal bars and told me to stay quiet and not to watch… but as you know I… I was never good at following all my orders.”

“… you saw him die.” Sari whispered, earning a small nod for Bee.

“The whole darn thing.” He sighed, shaking his helm. “It took me centuries to stop having nightmares about it, along with help from Blitzwing to not fully blame myself for it, but after that solar cycle… nothing was the same.”

“Dusty had been my only friend on that scum of a colony, and when he died it was because I was too weak and didn’t do anything to help. Yeah I get that I was powerless and I probably would have caused more harm than good, but I still could have done better back then…”

He paused briefly before looking at Sari. “It was the last day I ever saw Dusty alive… and it was the last time I ever wanted to see the ones I cared about and love die before me. After that solar cycle, Firetrail dumped me on a different outer colony, one that was nicer and less dangerous than the previous one. Just a little. One of his old pals took me in, he only gave me a single glare… and then he left.”

“He just… left you?”

“Yep. Up and left without a word or anything to me. Completely cutting all contact with me. I think he blamed me for his conjunx’s death and I…” He sighed deeply, rubbing his face. “My new caretaker had been… somewhat better. He wasn’t Dusty, but at least he wasn’t Firetrail either. He was at least kind enough to get me some help after the whole ordeal I went through. But it still left a deep impression on me.”

He looked down at her. “I didn’t have anyone besides Dusty back then. And when I lost him it had been one of the worst moments for me. I promised myself that if I ever managed to make a new friend, I would do anything to make sure that they would stay alive no matter what the cost was… even my own life.”

“B-But!” Sari jumped to her feet, grabbing Bee’s arm. “But that’s not right! You can’t just throw your own life away from someone else! You have a reason to live too! Not to be some walking shield!”

Bumblebee chuckled, shaking his helm. “Blitzwing said the same thing to me too when I told him that. If it wasn’t for him and the help I got, I would have thought that was all I was good for.” He gazed up at the stars, frowning a bit. “… I rarely think about it now. About what I could have done and should have done. I still hate myself for what happened and I still miss Dusty at times, but I got over it… mostly.”

He turned his helm to look at Sari, giving her a serious look. “Sari. What happened that day… I don’t blame you.”

“But I—”

“No. Wait.” He held up a servo, stopping Sari from speaking. “Let me finish. I don’t blame you. You weren’t in control and you couldn’t stop it.” He gazed at her softly. “But you wanted to. You didn’t mean for your systems to go haywire and cause destruction.” His optics became softer. “You didn’t mean to stab me. I know you didn’t mean to stab me. I know you would never stab me on purpose. It was all an accident.”

He laid a servo on her back. “Part of it was my fault too, you know. I rushed in, not thinking like I usually do, just running on impulse and worry for your safety. Yeah, I got stabbed, but if I had just stayed behind and though about it or listened to Optimus when he yelled at me to stay back, I would have been okay.” He pulled a face, scratching his helm. “You know. Now that I think about it, I guess it was really all my fault that I got stabbed. I mean I was the one who rushed in and you were keeping a far distance and… Sari?”

Sari’s shoulders were shaking with her head bowed, making an odd noise with her hands balled into fists.

“Oh. Oh nononono Sari, please. Don’t cry. I—” Bee lowered himself to get a better look at his friend but was taken by surprise when she flung herself at him and hugged as best she could. He could see clearly that she was crying, but there was a notable small smile on her face as well.

“H-how in the world did I end up with s-such a good friend as you?” She asked through shaky tears, burying her face against his chest as he cried.

Bumblebee went stiff for a moment before bringing his arms down slowly, wrapping his friend in a hug.

They stayed like that for a while, letting Sari cry her emotions out as Bee rubbed her back and spoke soft words to her. When she got her emotions under control, she pulled away, wiping her eyes with a small yet satisfied smile on her face. “Thanks. I still feel bad about what happened, and I might not be okay for a while… but I feel a little better about it now.”

Bee smiled down at her, gently scooping her up in his servos and lifting her to meet his optics. “Hey, it’s okay. Things don’t magically get fixed overnight. Just take your time and don’t let it bottle all up inside. I told you that I’ll be here to listen, and I still will be. You’re my friend, and you always will be, no matter what.”

Sari giggled, leaning her head against Bee’s. “… thanks Bumblebee.”

The Autobot smiled at his friend, staying there for a while till a strong cold wind kicked up, making Sari shiver a bit. “I think it’s time we head back.”

“Yeah.” Sari rubbed her eyes, gazing out towards the city. “It’s gotten pretty late out. My dad is probably starting to wor…” She stopped, squinting her eyes.

“… What’s the matter?” Bee asked, noting Sari’s change in behavior.

“Bumblebee, do you see that?”

“See what?” He looked out towards the city, trying to find what caught Sari’s attention.

“That.” Sari pointed at something off in the distance. “Above the city.”

Bee strained his optics, trying to spy what Sari was pointing at. It took some time before he finally spotted what she was looking at.

A dark swirl of clouds had gathered over the city, forming into a spherical dome that reminded Bumblebee of one of Prowl’s nature documents that showed this thing called a tornado and how the weather worked on this planet. It was probably one of the only times that he actually found himself interested in. Granted he was only interested in watching and tuned most of the stuff out but he still watched it and that’s what counts!

Still, it didn’t make sense. Tornadoes shouldn’t be able to form right above cities right? So why… 

His optics widened as the clouds broke apart, revealing a very large, very familiar looking ship descending down slowly from the sky. 

“Is… is that—?”

“Zteel… haven.”

A cold wash of dread spread over Blitzwing’s body as he watched the large ship descend from the night sky. No. No, why? Why? Why was it here? Why? He had been doing a good job, hadn’t he? He did nothing to warrant Hummel’s team to call for backup. Right? Right?! This. This had to be a dream. A bad nightmare! That’s it! A nightmare! This was all just a nightmare! He’d wake up soon! He’d wake up and be with his family and nothing will be wrong and they’ll all be happy and none of this was really happening before him and and and and AND AND ANDANDANDAND—!

“ JOU! ” Blitzwing rounded on the closest being, which happened to be the lumbering wrecker. The mech barely had time to react before Blitzwing dashed over and grabbed his pathetic neck in his servos. “VHAT’S ZEE MEANING OF ZIS?! VHY IS ZAT ZHIP HERE?! DID JOU AUTOBOTS CALL IT HERE TO ZEND ME TO ZROW ME INTO ZEE ZTOCKADES?!”

“Wha—No! No!” The wrecker squirmed in his servos, struggling to get away from his wrath. “It’s not like that! I swear!”

“ZEN ANSWER ME! Vhy Is It Here?! Did Jou Autobot Zcum Plan Zis Behind My Back?!” Blitzwing pointed at the ship that was landing. Oh Primus it was landing. That meant it wasn’t passing by. It wasn’t just going to fly overhead and leave him alone. It was landing and Autobots were sure to get off and arrest him and probably Hummel and oh Pit Hummel where was he he needed to get out of here with Hummel and their sparkling before those Autobots could do anything to his family from his treacherous team before any harm came to them—

“I don’t know! Really!” The wrecker managed to dislodge his servos from their neck. “I’m just as surprised as you!”

“Did Jou Plan Zis?!”

“No!”

“Zen Vhy Is It Here?!”

“How should I know?! I don’t know why it’s here, I’m just as confused as you!”

Blitzwing growled deeply, throwing his fist in the air. “Vell Zat Just Clears Zings Up!”

“Look I don’t know why it’s here! Maybe they just got lost or something!”

“How Could Zey Get Lost Vhen Zey Clearly Made It To Zeir Destination?!”

“Maybe they’re only stopping for directions?!”

“HA! Good Luck Vith Zat! Jou Lost Jour Zhip Zo Jou Don’t Even Have a star… map…” Blitzwing’s anger started to cool, slowly turning his gaze back on the ship. “… jou… don’t have a zhip.”

“Yeah, thanks for pointing that out. Twice.”

“J-Jou…” The cold was creeping up on Blitzwing as he slowly put the pieces together, his body beginning to tremble as realization was forming in his helm. “J-Jou can still contact Cybertron…” His whole body was shaking as he looked at Bulkhead, hugging his chest tightly to stop his wild pounding spark from flying out from its chamber. “… r-r-right?”

“… Blitzwing.” There was a strange look on Bulkhead’s face. One that the triple changer was not liking one bit. “We lost all form of contact with Cybertron… when we lost Omega Supreme.”

The cold became unbearable to Blitzwing, stumbling back like he had been punched. “V-vhen vas zee last contact jou had?” Bulkhead gave him a look, one that they both knew the answer to. It was obvious. Orbital cycles ago. Far back when they sent Omega Supreme transwarping out into space with Megatron trapped inside. Cutting away the only contact to Cybertron they had. He gazed out at the ship in terror. It all made sense now. Lost contact, the sudden arrival of the Elite Guards ship.

This was a scouting mission.

They were here to check up on Hummel’s team, wanting to find out why everything went completely silent here on this planet.

“Blitzwing?” His helm snapped back at Bulkhead. Was his vision shaking? No. His whole body was shaking. His armor was rattling loudly, poorly hiding his terror of the whole situation. Oh. It’s been a while since he felt real fear. “You okay?”

Okay? He just learned that the happy fantasy he was living was coming to an abrupt end. He was far from being okay. “I… I…” The shaking was becoming uncontrollable. His split mind was spinning round and round, even though his face remained on Icy. It hurt. Everything hurt. Every fiber, his armor down to the last wire, was trembling with fear.

Fragging Autobots. They rubbed off on him more than he thought.

“Hey, Blitzwing. It’s okay. It’s going to be alright.” Alright? Alright? Did he really not see the gravity of the situation before him? Did he not realize how much trouble he was in? How much trouble Hummel was in?

Hummel.

Blitzwing’s spark stopped dead.

Hummel wasn’t in the city. He didn’t know of the danger. He didn’t know of the Elite Guard ship that signaled the arrival of the one group that would no doubt lock him and their little sweet innocent Sunset up once they found out about everything between them. Hummel’s team had been merciful to him and their sparkling, but the Elite Guard? They would lock them both up without second thought!

His helm twisted to the outskirts of the city, trying to find the speck of yellow he loved so much. He had to warn Hummel. He had to get to Hummel first before the Elite Guard did and brought harm upon him. He had to take him and their sweet Sunset Wisp far away from the danger.

Twisting on his peds, Blitzwing marched with determination, stopping at the very edge to turn and face Bulkhead for a final time. “Do not follow me.” He spoke swiftly as he allowed his body to fall backwards, letting gravity pull him completely off the edge. He fell for some feet before quickly transforming into his jet mode, pulling up just at the last nanoklik before his body hit the ground and shooting off into the night with determination to get to Hummel and Wisp and get them to safety far far away.

If someone had been watching the night sky, they could possibly make out the dark form of a jet flying out of the city. If someone had been watching the ground underneath the jet, they would possibly spot a bright yellow car speeding into the city just as the jet left it, completely unaware that of the other going different directions.

Chapter Text

Four solar cycles.

It had been four solar cycles since the Steelhaven landed on Earth.

Four solar cycles since the team knew any peace.

Sentinel had been driving the team up the wall when he learned that they had lost their ship, making snide remarks that cut deep to the core. Optimus tried his best to keep things under control, though the team could see he was trying his hardest not to clock Sentinel across the jaw.

Especially when he found out about Wisp.

While most of the team put up with Sentinel’s attitude, Bumblebee wasn’t sure how much longer he could tolerate the pompous Prime’s attitude when he laid his optics on the small femmling. It was lucky that he bought Ratchet’s made up story when he questioned the sparkling’s existence, but they were sure he wouldn’t take it well if he found out the story was a lie and who her sire was.

Speaking of the sire, no one had seen any sign of Blitzwing. Bulkhead had secretly informed everyone on his team that the triple changer had left in a hurry the night the Elite Guard had landed. Ratchet was sure the triple changer had taken off like a coward when he saw the Steelhaven approaching.

Bumblebee couldn’t find it in himself to be mad. As much as he missed his mechfriend, he would rather have Blitzwing be far away from the city than let Elite Guard find him and imprison him.

Though that meant that Bumblebee was stuck caring for Wisp on his own.

Usually, Bumblebee didn’t mind. But with Sentinel and his team around and keeping everyone else occupied, that just made things harder for the scout. He had to be extra sneaky and careful than ever before with the new team around. Avoiding the other team was hard, especially from a pair of new faces who had taken a big interest with his sparkling and a certain familiar unfriendly acquaintance who he really wished wasn’t here.

“Do you usually sneak around like a creep?”

Bumblebee flinched, his body tensing as he slowly turned his helm. “W-Wasp! Hey!” He tried to put on an easy smile, but it did nothing to ease his worries as his old boot camp associate stepped out from the shadows. Creep. “Didn’t… didn’t see you there. What are you doing here?”

Out of all the bots of the universe, why did it have to be Wasp?

“Finished patrolling the city.” Wasp shrugged. “Your rundown base was closer than the ship, so I decided to crash here for the night.” He narrowed his optics at Bumblebee. “What are you doing?”

“What do you mean what am I doing? I’m getting myself a snack.” Bumblebee held up a cube of Energon. “What, can’t a bot get fuel whenever?” He tried getting around Wasp, but the green mech blocked his path. Bee shot a glare at Wasp. “Out of my way Wasp.” 

Wasp didn’t budge. “You’ve been spending a lot of time with that sparkling.”

“Uh, duh. She’s a sparkling. They need a lot of care.” Bee tried to move around Wasp, but the mech kept blocking his way. Bee shot a glare at Wasp.

“I mean, you’ve been spending more time with that sparkling than doing your job.” Wasp clarified, crossing his arms over his chest. “You haven’t been out on the field since we got here. Makes me wonder if you’re using that sparkling as an excuse to get out of doing work.” He narrowed his optics more. “Which you should be doing instead of putting all your attention on useless sparkling that’s just a waste of time.”

Bee’s optics blew wide for a moment, staring at Wasp in shock. Then his optics narrowed, glaring at Wasp with burning anger. Whether it was seeing his expression or sensing a change in demeanor, Wasp lost his own glare and actually looked scared at Bumblebee.

“ Never. ” Bee growled, pointed his free servo at Wasp’s face, causing the green mech to flinch. “ Never. Call her a waste of time.” He glared at Wasp for a moment longer, then shoved his way past the mech. He needed to get away from the mech before he did something regrettable.

The scout didn’t relax till he was finally inside and the door was firmly shut, sighing in relief and sagging against the door. “Of all the mechs that just had to be on Sentinel’s team. Of all the bots on Cybertron that I know and disliked, it just HAD to be Wasp. Why?! Why is Wasp even on this team?! He was bad enough at boot camp and now here?!”

Bee groaned, recalling all the pain and humiliation Wasp had put him through while in boot camp. Oh those solar cycles were hard. The solar cycles he spent putting up with it all, the sleepless nights he spent worried that Wasp and his lackey Ironhide would pull something as he recharged. And it didn’t help that Sentinel’s rigorous training drained nearly all of his energy to keep going.

The only thing that made him stay in that Pit back then was his new found friendship with Bulkhead and his caring secret friend ( who-he-was-totally-not-crushing-on-hard-at-the-time-and-wishing-to-be-more-than-to-be-just-friends ) Blitzwing. Granted, Blitzwing couldn’t physically be there, but late night calls listening to his voice brought a sort of calmness to Bumblebee that gave him strength to continue enduring it all.

Though it was during one of those late night calls that Longarm found out about his secret relationship. Longarm had confronted him about it when he tried slipping back to the recharging area. The mech had been so angry at him at the reveal. He had normally been calm and distant from everyone else but Bumblebee guessed that even the most emotionless of bots could get angry.

And to make matters worse? Longarm was going to reveal his secret to Sentinel.

When he heard that, Bumblebee acted without thinking. Hanging around Blitzwing for so many stellar cycles, the Decepticon thought it would be a good idea to teach the minibot how to defend himself from any danger if push came to shove when he got big enough. Bumblebee never thought he would actually use them, but by then he was glad that Blitzwing did.

So running high on adrenaline rushed fear, Bee had flipped the mech on his back, pinning him down just as Blitzwing had taught him, and pointed his stinger right at Longarm’s face, setting them on their highest level and ready to shoot if the mech made even one wrong move.

Bumblebee had never killed a bot before and he never intended to, but to keep his secret safe he was willing to do it. Thankfully it never came to be. Longarm surrendered and calmed Bumblebee down, willing to talk and listen to the minibot. Bee had serious doubts at first, but quickly came to trust the mech as he listened to Bee’s story as he explained everything.

He kept insisting that Blitzwing only had good intentions for him and actually meant no danger, and to his surprise Longarm agreed. The mech promised to keep his secret, though Bee kept his doubts about it. He only truly trusted the mech when the stellar cycles passed and Elite Guards never showed up to take him away, though he did stay in contact with Bee after boot camp.

Having a reliable friend like Longarm really helped keep his spirits up, and he was more than glad to be out of there when he was kicked out along with Bulkhead. It wasn’t the big guy’s fault that the tower fell on Sentinel! If his chin wasn’t so damn big he could have easily missed it!

Still, he was more than glad to be out of there and away from Wasp. He was able to forget about the mech after so long and he was sure they would never see each other again, but Primus seemed to love proving him wrong.

Bee slid to the ground, covering his face as he recalled the horror when he saw Wasp again after so many stellar cycles was not what he expected, nor did he enjoy it one bit. And what was worse? 

Wasp was an Elite Guard scout.

He had never felt so hurt seeing that symbol across Wasp’s chest, the one thing he had longed for when he was still a youngling now displayed proudly for everyone to see right on the mech who bullied him in boot camp. The sight had smacked Bee hard across the face, seeing his old dream giving to a mech whose personality was terrible to be around.

It didn’t help that Wasp took great pleasure in rubbing it in. That solar cycle had been a nightmare to Bee as Wasp picked his old habit back up, making Bumblebee do embarrassing stuff just because he was a higher rank than Bee was now. More than once Bumblebee imagined strangling the mech but kept his temper in check at the time.

It was also around that time that he snuck out frequently to see Blitzwing in the deep of night. Just like before, Blitzwing was able to help him endure it all, though he had to stop the mech from doing anything crazy when he learned that his former bully was on Earth.

Bumblebee had been so relieved when Wasp left, but now he was back, and Bee was not happy about it.

Bumblebee whimpered, hugging his knees and deeply wishing that the guard would go away and Blitzwing was here with him.

Morning came too quickly for Bumblebee.

Bee groaned, feeling his face being smacked over and over by tiny servos. He tried to ignore it, but gave up when Wisp started beeping loudly. “Alright, alright, I’m up.” Bee sighed, shifting his upper body to sit up, rubbing his optics and glared slightly at the culprit responsible for waking him up.

Wisp stared up at him, blinking her large optics at him, letting out a soft beep.

“Oh now you learn to be quiet.” Bumblebee huffed, grabbing Wisp and tucking her against his chest as he swung his peds over the side of the berth. He tried not to think of the lacking large warm secure presence that was usually beside him. Bee felt a small pain in his spark, keeping himself from turning his helm just to confirm that no one was there.

Why did it hurt so much? He had spent plenty of solar cycles without Blitzwing around in the past, so why did he feel so alone right now?

“Beep.”

Bumblebee blinked, gazing down at Wisp. The little femme had her face pressed close against Bee’s chest, gazing up him with those big optics of hers.

The scout managed to pull a small smile on his face. “I’m fine Wisp. I’m just missing your sire… a lot.” Briefly, his optics gazed over his shoulder before snapping them away and shook his helm lightly and sighed. “… he’ll be back. He’ll come back when the Elite Guard goes away and things will return to normal. Kinda.”

Bee sighed once again, sliding off the berth. “I just have to hold out till the Guard goes away. They’ll be gone soon. They’ll be gone soon.” Bee tried to reassure himself, peeking out of his room and looking around to be sure that no one was there before he realized that he was being ridiculous. His team knew about his secret relationship with Blitzwing now, why was he acting like he was sneaking out to see him?

Relaxing slightly, Bee headed for the living room, tickling Wisp on her abdomen and making her giggle. Bee smiled down at her, relieved to see she still was in high spirits these past solar cycles. His smile faded when his receptors picked up on something, frowning when he recognized Sentinel’s voice.

Pressing himself against the wall, Bee peeked into the room, spying the large chinned mech discussing something loudly with Optimus. From the look on Boss-Bot’s face, Optimus didn’t seem to be enjoying the conversation one bit. Bee greatly pitted the poor Prime.

“—and now we don’t even know where Megatron is! You’ve made quite a mess to clean up Optimus!”

“Look Sentinel, things got out of control during the last battle.” Optimus sighed, pinching between his optics. “But that’s why we need to alert Cybertron of—”

“Of what Optimus? Of the mess you and those dead-wights you call a team made? Forget it.”

“Sentinel this is serious! If no one on Cybertron knows about Megatron—”

“Then there won’t be any mass panic. Is that what you want, Optimus? To have the whole planet in a blind panic from your mess up?”

“No! But they need to know so they can be prepared!”

“Optimus, from what you told me, Megatron is stuck transwarping all around the galaxy.”

“But that doesn’t mean he still won’t find a way to Cybertron!”

“And whose fault would that be? You’re the one who sent him out there in the first place.”

Bumblebee glared at the back of Sentinel’s helm, wishing the mech would shut up and leave Optimus alone. How in Primus’s name were they friends before? It made no sense to Bee.

“Not only that, you’re playing sparkling sitter now? And I thought you couldn’t get any lower.”

Bee’s body flinched.

“It wasn’t something we expected to do! Bumblebee… found her one solar cycle.” Bee gazed down at Wisp, watching as his sparkling tried picking at the Autobot symbol on his chest. “She was all alone and needed someone to watch after her.”

“He should have left her where he found her.”

Bumblebee’s body went rigged. What… what did he just hear?

“Sentinel!”

“What? I’m just being honest here. This is a war, you’re all supposed to be soldiers ready for battle. Not watching over a random sparkling.”

“How can you say something so awful?!”

“Oh come on Optimus, sparklings are nothing but trouble anyway! In fact, your scout seems to be more focused on that sparkling than doing his own slagging job. I think it’s time someone else had their time wasted watching over it.”

“What?”

“I’m taking that sparkling back to Cybertron when we leave. Your scout already wasted enough time over it and distracted your team from the duties you’re supposed to be doing. It’s high time he gets his helm back on straight and gets back on the battlefield without that distraction in the way.”

Bee felt his spark freeze at Sentinel’s word. Without thinking, he dashed off to his room with Wisp clutched close to his chest. He did not just hear that. He did not hear that. He did not hear Sentinel say such a thing.

Bee didn’t stop, not even saying a word to Prowl as he passed the ninja. He just dashed to his room, shutting the door and locking it behind him, clutching his daughter close to him as he fell to his knees and cried.

It was a long while before Bee dared to step out of his room, looking up and down the hallway for anyone in sight.

When he was sure things were quiet, Bumblebee quietly left the room, making sure his steps were silent as he moved towards the living room. He peeked inside, looking around for anybody before dashing over to the supplies. Grabbing a few cubes from himself and Wisp, Bee tucked the cubes away in his subspace. Once he was sure he had enough to last for a good while, he made his way back to his room.

Once there, he locked the door, taking a moment to look around the place before shaking his helm. Moving towards the berth, Bee carefully picked up Wisp, still deep in recharge. He smiled softly down at her, placing a quick kiss on her helm. Shifting her carefully to one arm, Bee climbed up on the berth, grabbing on to the stack of crates he had placed there earlier and began climbing.

Back when he was still seeing Blitzwing in secret, Bumblebee had to get a bit creative with sneaking away from the base. The last time he got caught by Ratchet had been too close, so he had to figure out ways to sneak out without anyone noticing. It had been tricky at first, but Bee found a suitable way that was sneaky, quiet, and less likely to get caught.

And it happened to be the very window in his room. Granted it was a bit small and far out of reach, but Bee managed to make do with it. It had been his only exit once before back when he found out he was carrying and wanted to keep his sparkling safe. Now he was using it again to keep his sparkling from going to the wrong servos.

Once his peds were safely on the ground again, Bee took a moment to glance back at the base. A few orbital cycles ago Bumblebee didn’t even think twice about leaving. His mind had been in too much panic and worry for his developing sparkling’s safety rather than thinking about the consequences of his actions before taking off with no plan or idea. This time, he had a plan.

One he hoped would work.

Transforming into his alt-mode, Bee took off into the night.

Once he was far enough from the base, Bee let out a soft sigh of relief, picking up speed to get further away from the base. “Okay. Hard part’s over. Now I just have to make it to the warehouse and things will be okay!” Bee tried to sound optimistic, though it came out more strained and forceful than he hoped for.

Honestly, this was mostly a half baked idea that he hoped would work. It was simple, hide Wisp away in the old abandoned warehouse he hid in orbital cycles ago, keeping her away from the Elite Guard till they leave and then wait for Blitzwing to come back! Simple! … right?

Right! Besides, only he knew where the place was so no one would think of looking there! … Well, maybe Prowl might, but that was beside the point! His team would understand that he was only doing it out of care for his sparkling, and he was not going to let anyone take her from him.

“Brother, does that car down there be looking familiar?”

A pair of jets flew over the city, spying a yellow car with a black stripe driving down the path. The car looked very similar to Wasp’s alt-mode. Very similar indeed.

“Oh! Yes brother! It be looking like Wasp! But not.”

“You be thinking what I’m thinking?”

“That it has to be the Bumble of the bees?”

“Yes!”

The two watched the yellow car for a while, keeping distance so that they wouldn’t alert him of their presence.

“Where do you think he’s going brother?”

“I don’t know brother. Maybe we should follow him and be finding out?”

“But Sentinel Prime told us to watch over the city of Decepticon creeps.”

“Oh, that being a good point brother.”

The two silently thought for a moment, trying to figure out on what to do. It wasn’t till the yellow Autobot drove out of the city that Jetstorm got an idea.

“Maybe the Bumble of the bees is out looking for Decepticons!”

“You be thinking so brother?”

“Yes! Why else would he be out driving around at night?”

“Oh! That be good thinking brother! We should go and help him!”

The two changed course, following after the unsuspecting Autobot. It was a while before they lost sight of the yellow Autobot, losing him in the thick green big bushes.

“Brother do you be having any visual on the Bumble of bees?”

“No brother. I can’t be seeing him anywhere.”

They flew around for a while, looking for any sign of a bright yellow in the deep sea of green. A few cycles had past and they were getting close to calling off the search when Jetfire finally spotted something.

“There!”

Down far below them was a small clearing, far from the city with no building is sight save for one. And it wasn’t a nice looking building either. It looked rusted and old and almost ready to fall over if given a good enough shove. Right in front of it stood the yellow Autobot back in his robot form.

The twins dropped down from the sky, making a fast descent that would have made plenty of other bots worry about the speed they were going at. They were quickly approaching the ground, transforming in the air and landed safely on the ground, making a small tremor with their landing.

The yellow Autobot whipped around, gazing at the pair with wide optics. “Wha-What are you two doing here?! How did you find this place?”

“We be following the Bumble of bees!” Jetfire exclaimed, walking over to the smaller Autobot with his brother. It was only then that they spotted the small sparkling in his arms. “Oh! You have small sparkling with you!”

The yellow Autobot’s optics widened, glancing down at the small sparkling sleeping in his arms.

“Oh! Are you be taking her out on a night walking?”

“Oh, that might not be a good idea Bumble of the bees. There could be dangerous Decepticons around. They could be lying in wait and hurt the sparkling if you’re not careful.”

“Yeah?” The smaller Autobot frowned at them, tucking the small sparkling close to his chest. “Well she’s in more danger hanging around Sentinel.”

The twin exchanged glances, gazing at each other in confusion. “What being the Bumble of bees meaning?”

“Nothing that you would understand.” The smaller mech sighed, heading off somewhere. “Just go back to base okay? And stop calling me Bumble of the bees . My name is Bumblebee, okay?”

“But!”

“It being not safe out!”

“Does it look like I care?” The smaller Autobot snapped back, walking towards the thick organic green stuff. “Just leave me be.”

The twins watched him for a while before glancing at each other.

“Wait!”

“We follow you!”

This night could not get any worse for him.

Bee mentally groaned, trying not to let his irritation show as the twins followed him. Why, oh, why were they following him? He made it clear that he didn’t want them hanging around. They already ruined his first plan of hiding away in the old warehouse, he didn’t want them following him now while he searched for a better hiding spot for Wisp.

Having them around, they could blabbed to Sentinel where he had hidden his sparkling and he really didn’t want that. He really didn’t want to be separated from Wisp again.

Glancing behind his shoulder, Bumblebee frowned at the sight of the twins still following him, looking around the area with deep concentration and bodies tense, ready for battle. Did they really think a Decepticon was just going to jump out of nowhere and attack them? He hadn’t seen a Decepticon, minus Blitzwing because he was an ex-Con now, in a few orbital cycles.

They must have run off to lick their wounds after Megatron disappeared, though Bee hoped they were gone for good.

“What’s that?!” One of the twins, Jetstorm if he remembered correctly, pointed his arms out in one direction. Bee only took a small glance at what he was pointing at and sighed.

“That’s just a squirrel. Again.” Bee grumbled. “They’re completely harmless.”

“Are you being sure?”

“Yes. I’ve told you guys already, most of the organic life here is harmless.”

“But Sentinel Prime said that all organics are dangerous!”

“Yes! He has many good wisdoms and knowledge on such things!”

“Well maybe he’s wrong about a lot of stuff.” Bee growled, feeling his irritation growing by the name he really didn’t want to hear right now. What did those two see in him? That guy was a total jerk! “I’ve been on this planet far longer than he has, so I have far better organic expertise than he does.”

“… that is true.”

“Bumble of the bees?”

“Bumblebee.”

“Can we be asking you a question?”

Bee tensed, looking over his shoulder at the twins. “About what?”

“You know more organic life being on this planet. We be wondering if you could answer a few questions me and brother have on this place!” The orange twin, Jetfire, explained as Jetstorm nodded his head in agreement.

“Yes! You said you been on planet longer! You must know plenty of organic stuff!”

“Oh.” Bumblebee blinked in surprise, relieved that they weren’t asking why he was out here in the first place. “Uh, well I know a few things about organics.” Not as good as Prowl since he was a nature enthusiast, but he did still have a good servo full of knowledge in his processor.

“O! O! Which organic is the most dangerous?!”

“Is it being true that they be spewing slime if you get too close?”

“Do they really drink all your Energon from your systems?!”

“How bad is their breath? Is it true it being so bad your armor melts right off?”

“How many times do you need to fight off organic viruses?!”

“Do they really like to eat your digits and optics when you recharge at night?”

“Can they crawl into your processor when you sleep and turn you into walking dead bot?!”

“Oh! That being scary though brother!”

Bumblebee stared at the duo, completely dumbfounded by all the questions. What had Sentinel been telling these two before they got here? Over half of it was completely ridiculous! “Okay, wait a moment. What exactly has Sentinel been telling you?”

“Everything from the experiences he encountered with organics here!”

“Mhm! Mhm!”

Bee stared at them for a good while before sighing deeply. “I’ve got some bad news for you two.”

He didn’t know how he managed it, but Bumblebee found himself sitting in a forest ground with a sleeping sparkling resting on his legs, trying to explain to two very confused Autobots capable of flight how and why all of Sentinel’s knowledge on organics were all wrong.

“But… I am not understanding.” Jetfire was sitting cross legged, his arm folded over his chest with a deep pout on his face. His brother mirrored him, both looking confused and slightly muddled. “How is mud not being a rust fungus? Or fish not having lasers in their optics?”

“Or that rabbits are the most dangerous creatures of all?” Jetstorm sounded just as confused as his brother about the revelation that over half the stuff they’ve been told wasn’t really true.

Bee couldn’t help pitying them a bit. He couldn’t blame them, over half of the stuff they thought they knew about was told to them by a mech who couldn’t even see past his own ego that was just as large as his chin. “Hate to say it, but none of that stuff is really true.”

Jetfire stared at his servos, looking like his whole universe had been shattered. “My mind… is in tumbles of confusion.”

“Well that’s what happens when you don’t check the credibility of your sources.” Bee shrugged. “Take it from an expert who has done fieldwork on this stuff.” Granted that he had never done any real fieldwork and he was no expert.

“I am still being confused on some stuff.” Jetstorm spoke up, placing his hand on his chin. “How are you being sure of what you be telling us?”

“Again, I’ve been here way longer than Sentinel has. I think I’m more qualified in knowing these sorts of things than him.” The twins glanced at each other, pulling a small frown with clear doubt in their gazes. Bee rolled his optics. “Look, if you don’t believe me that’s fine. But how about I show you how harmless organics can be?”

The twins looked at him in surprise as he picked up Wisp and stood up. “How would you be doing that?”

“Easy.” Bee looked around, spotting a clearing in the distance. He motioned the twins to follow him, heading towards the clearing with a small smile on his face. He stopped at the edge, looking around the area.

The clearing was wide enough to fit a large parking lot, covered by a sea of long grass that reached far past Bee’s knees. A soft breeze pushed against the grass, creating rolling waves of green. He looked around, trying to find something in the tall sea.

“What is the Bumble of the bees doing brother?”

“I don’t know brother.”

Bumblebee ignored the pair, continuing his search till he finally spotted something. “Can one of you hold her for a bit?” Bee held his sparkling out to the twins, making sure that Jetfire held her carefully when he took her. “Don’t run off with her.” Bee gave him a pointed glare before walking off into the clearing.

“What is you be doing?” Jetstorm called out to him, but Bee didn’t answer back. Instead, he crouched low to the ground, walking carefully with his servos outstretched and his optics locked on his target. When he was in range, Bee sprung forward, clapping his servos together over his target. He brought his servos towards his face, peeking into his cupped servos to be sure he caught his prey.

Smiling triumphantly, he stood back up and made his way back to the twins. The twins eyed him anxiously, looking back and forth from between his face and his cupped servos. Standing before the twins, Bumblebee slowly opened his servos as the twins cautiously leaned forward.

Sitting on Bumblebee’s open palm was a small tiny bug. The twins looked at it confused for a moment until the tiny bug suddenly flashed green, making the pair jump back in shock.

“That tiny organic flashed! It flashed!” Jetstorm screamed, pointing at the bug in Bee’s servos.

“It be having fire powers!” Jetfire shouted, holding Wisp close to him as if he was trying to shield her from an attack. Wisp let out a small squeak, feeling her body being constricted from the tight hug.

“Pfft. No it doesn’t.” Bee could help the smirk on his face. “It’s just a harmless little firefly.”

“Firefly? Does it spew fire?”

At that, Bee chuckled, shaking his helm. “Nah. It’s just called a firefly because it glows. That’s all.” Bee held out his servo for the twins to see. The brothers moved closer, gazing at the tiny bug with new interest as it crawled across Bumblebee’s digits, watching it as it flashed a couple of times before taking off in flight.

“It flies!” Jetfire exclaimed, watching with Jetstorm as the firefly flew back out into the meadow.

“It flies like we do!” Jetstorm agreed, grinning wide as he watched the firefly take off.

“See? Nothing scary about it.” Bee shrugged, holding his servos out for his sparkling. Jetfire’s smile fell, slowly giving Wisp back to Bee with a sad pout.

Wisp beeped in a sleepy tone, rubbing her optics and looked at everyone with a grumpy glare. She pressed her face against Bee’s chest, hiding herself as best she could.

“Oh! Brother look!” Bee and Jetfire looked at Jetstorm, finding him pointing at something. The pair turned and looked out at the meadow, finding a growing number of fireflies appearing and blinking their lights in the night air.

The twins gazed at the scene in wonder, finding themselves in awe at the sight. They shared a glance before mischievous grins broke out across their faces. Before Bumblebee knew it, the twins dashed into the meadow, waving the arms and servos about at the fireflies.

“I will catch more than you brother!”

“Not before I get more than you do brother!”

The twins playfully teased at each other, trying to catch as many fireflies as possible. The way they were doing it was too chaotic to work. Bumblebee had seen Sari catch fireflies plenty of times to know how to do it properly.

Seeing the twins running around trying to catch the small insects reminded Bee of the time he and Blitzwing would try to catch some on a clear night. It was always Bee’s suggestion at doing something fun on a date night, and while Blitzwing would either scoff and call it childish, think it would be a waste of time, or straight up say something completely random, he always participated in trying to catch a few of them.

Sometimes it was a race between them to see who would catch the most fireflies the fastest, and Blitzwing would always come out the victor in the end. Bee had come close to winning once one time, yet Blitzwing still managed to beat him. He remembered pouting at the loss as Blitzwing chuckled before the larger mech bent down and placed a kiss on one of his horns and tell him in a soft voice how much fun he had. It was those sort of nights Bee enjoyed the most.

Hopefully when Blitzwing came back, they could go catch some fireflies again sometime.

“Mister Bumble! Come join us!” Bumblebee blinked in surprise, looking at the twins as they smiled at him.

“Yes! Yes! Come join us catching the small bugs of fire! Is plenty for you and brother to catch! Though I will be catching the most!”

“Not if I catch more than you brother!”

Bee stared at the pair for a while before letting out a soft sigh. “All right. First one who catches more than ten fireflies wins!”

Chapter Text

When had he last seen a sparkling?

A little over two hundred stellar cycles. He had seen plenty of pictures of Longarm’s sparkling and had seen the little guy a few times when Blurr made a quick couple of data drop-offs to his conjunx. He was able to get a good look at Shockrr a couple of times when he was still so tiny, his spark melted seeing such a tiny mech recharging in his carrier’s arms. It reminded him of the sparklings and younglings that were raised in the dojo way back.

All the cute small tiny faces. Though he would admit that sometimes they were a servoful to handle at times. He remembered one youngling always sneaking away in master Yoketron’s room to get away from all the screaming and hyper younglings and wouldn’t come out till everything was quiet again.

Such a shame how he turned out in the end.

And such a tragedy that befell the dojo during the war.

He hadn’t been there when it happened, but when he got word that not only had the dojo been attacked but all the protoforms inside had been stolen as well, he could swear his spark stopped dead for a moment. The news only got worse when he learned that Yoketron had been murdered and none of the younglings that had been sheltered there were ever found. It was a hard blow on him.

Not just the loss of his master, but all those innocent sparklings.

After the war ended, sparklings became very rare. Only higher-ups and important bots were allowed to create a sparkling, but hardly had the time to do so. Not to mention the law clearly stated that families were only allowed to have one sparkling only.

So color his armor purple and call him a Decepticon when his optics landed on the small femme.

Jazz couldn’t believe his optics when he saw her. A tiny femme clutched in the arms of O.P.’s scout gazing at everyone with those big blue optics with bright splashes of color on her body. He was in awe of her.

Sentinel wasn’t.

He didn’t understand how anyone could look at a sparkling in disgust, or call them a waste of time. Smart of the kid to keep clear of Sentinel’s path, though Jazz didn’t like that the kid was avoiding the Prime and everyone else. Especially keeping a clear distance from Wasp.

It was clear from his last visit to Earth that the scout and Wasp had some sort of history, so he avoided the mech as much as he could. But the twins? Naw. They kept trying to get a good look at the small sparkling and kept bugging the scout to hold and play with her. To which he responded with a solid NO, keeping the twins back as far as possible when they persisted.

Jazz could see that the kid took care of the femmling the most, so he did his best not to burden the mech with his presence. Which was a mighty shame. He really wanted to hang with the small femme. Longarm didn’t like other bots being around his kid when he was still a bitlit, and he missed holding a small sparkling in his arms back in the old days. But it was alright. If the kid didn’t want him holding the little femme, he wouldn’t cross the line bothering him with such a silly request. If it made Bee happy enough, he won’t even try to approach the small femmling.

That didn’t seem to cross the little sparkling’s mind, however.

Jazz was hanging around the base talking with Prowl giving him some advice on his skills and where he needed to improve on one solar cycle. It was nice to have another fellow Autobot who appreciated and took an interest in the organic life on this planet to talk about with who wasn’t going on and on about how dangerous it all was. They were in the middle of discussing the Earth’s weather cycles when Jazz when he felt some cold and wet smacking against his stabilizer.

Jumping slightly, Jazz gazed down. Wisp stood next to him, covered helm to peds in dripping red paint, which she was spreading onto Jazz’s stabilizer, smacking his armor with her tiny servos and covering the area with as much paint she could get on.

“Wisp.” Prowl let out a soft sigh, shaking his helm when he saw the mess Wisp was making on the Elite Guard. “I’m sorry. I was sure she would still be recharging till Bumblebee gets back.”

“It’s all cool, yo.” Jazz reassured, smiling down at the femmling as she kept trying to coat him in red. She stared up at him, poking her glossa out from between her lips as she made circles on his armor. “She really is something else.” He bent down, smiling at Wisp at an optic level. “To think an AllSpark fragment made this little bitlit. Crazy how it works sometimes.”

He held a servo out, unsure if he should pick her up without Bumblebee’s permission. He didn’t want to give the scout a good reason to be angry with him when he got back from scouting, and he really didn’t want to give him a good reason to dropkick him in the helm as he had with Wasp when he found him trying to take the sparkling a few solar cycles ago. It was impressive how the scout ran from one end of the room to the other just to deliver a deadly kick. Kid must have some Velocitronian in him somewhere.

Once again Wisp didn’t hesitate to touch the older mech, slapping her servos onto his palm and giggled as she spread the paint to a new part of him.

Prowl let out a small groan. “I keep telling Bulkhead to put his painting supplies somewhere where Wisp couldn’t get to. I don’t understand how she keeps getting herself covered in paint without anyone noticing.”

“Phttt!” Wisp let out a small raspberry towards Prowl, continuing her task in making Jazz into a new color.

Prowl frowned at her, shaking his helm slightly. “Looks like someone is going to need a bath.”

Wisp froze, staring at Prowl with her optics wide with horror. Before either mech moved, Wisp spun around and dashed out of the room.

“Wha-Wisp! No, don’t! Shoot!” Prowl run after the runaway bitlit. “Get back here!”

“Guess someone really doesn’t like baths, huh?” Jazz chuckled as he followed after them.

“You doing okay there little buddy?”

Bulkhead eyed his friend in concern. They had been driving around on patrol for a while now in one sector of the city and yet not once had Bumblebee made any form of conversation. To see the normally talkative bot be so silent and quiet was slightly alarming to Bulkhead.

He knew Bee well enough to know that when he got silent, it usually meant that something was worrying the smaller mech. Bumblebee was good at hiding his worries and secrets, but sometimes he slipped up once in a while.

“Hm? Oh, yeah, I’m, I’m fine.” Even in his vehicle mode Bulkhead frowned deeply. If he wasn’t sure that there was something up, he was now.

“Come on Bee, you can talk to me.” He tried to prob gently, hoping that Bee would open up to him.

“I’m fine, really.” There was a tired tone in Bumblebee’s voice, something the Bulkhead noticed as Bee spoke. “I’ve just been really tried taking care of Wisp, that’s all.”

“If you’re worried about Wisp, you could always let one of us watch over her.” Bulkhead offered as they drove down the road. “You know we’re there for you, and we love watching over Wisp.”

“I know you do.” Bumblebee sighed. “I know all you guys do. But that’s not…” Bumblebee went silent, driving alongside Bulkhead in silence for a while.

“… is it because of Blitzwing?” Bulkhead asked, seeing Bee tense at the name.

It was no secret that Bee missed the triple changer. He had seen plenty of moments where Bee would gaze out the window with a longing look in his optics. Bulkhead wasn’t sure what his friend saw in the large ex-Con, but he wouldn’t judge his buddy about it.

Blitzwing made Bee happy, that he could see clearly. Yeah, he wasn’t happy that he found out Bee’s secret mechfriend had been a Decepticon, but he couldn’t deny that Blitzwing truly made Bee happy. There was a clear shine in his optics that seem to brighten whenever they were together and it wasn’t hard to see that the feeling was mutual with Blitzwing as well.

It took some time for him to accept it, but Bee knew the triple changer far longer than anyone else on the team. He trusted Blitzwing and Bulkhead couldn’t bring himself to really get between that.

“… no.”

“Bumblebee.”

“I’m fine. Nothing’s wrong.”

“Bee, you’ve been too quiet lately.”

“Isn’t that supposed to be a good thing?”

Bulkhead sighed inwardly. Bumblebee was starting to get defensive. When that happened, it was going to be harder for the mini-bot to open up. How did Blizwing make it seem so easy? He really wished the mech had taught him how to get Bee to open up about his problems to others. Maybe then he would know how to help his friend out.

“… Look, I’m fine Bulkhead. Really. I just… just wish the Elite Guard would just leave soon.” Bulkhead blinked in surprise at the confession.

“Why?”

“So Blitzwing can come back, duh. Guard in the city, Blitzwing leaves. Guard out of the city? He’s sure to come back!”

“… and… what if he doesn’t?”

Bumblebee’s tires screeched on the pavement, catching Bulkhead off-guard and hitting his brakes hard. The pair sat on the road, which was thankfully clear of any vehicles.

“… what are you implying?”

“Huh?”

“What are you implying.” Bumblebee repeated, his voice coming out harsh in a way that Bulkhead knew he accidentally hit a nerve. “Are you trying to tell me something?”

“N-No! Not like that!” Bulkhead panicked as Bee turned himself to face Bulkhead, feeling his friend glare slightly at him. “I’m just saying that, uh, maybe, when the Elite Guard does leave, Blitzwing might not know and he could probably… still be… out… there?” He explained, hoping Bee wouldn’t explode on him.

Bee was silent for a long time, staring Bulkhead down with silence.

“… If he doesn’t know it, then I just need to go out and find him.” Bumblebee finally spoke up, turning himself back to face the road as Bulkhead sighed in relief. “But I’m sure he’ll come back. He has to. When have fifty stellar cycles worth of time to catch up on, and I’m not looking forward to adding more to the pile. Besides, he adores Wisp too much to miss out being in her life.”

“I know.” Bulkhead couldn’t help but chuckle slightly, recalling how the triple changer fawned over the photo Optimus managed to take a cute photo of Wisp and Bee recharging together. He wouldn’t shut up on how cute the pair were and going on for megacycles on end. Not to mention that Blitzwing kept searching for Bee even after they managed to find Wisp.

“I just hope he comes back soon.” Bee sighed as they started driving again. “Wisp really misses her sire.”

“I don’t know. She seems kind of happy.”

“That’s because she’s more distracted by everything around her.” Bee huffed. “With new bots around the base and everything that’s been going on, she’s going to be distracted for a while before she even realizes Blitzwing is gone. Hopefully, she won’t notice till after the guard leaves and her sire comes home.”

“And if that doesn’t help, she can always play with my paints!” Bulkhead pointed out. “She really likes to get covered in that stuff and spread it around everywhere.” The bigger mech couldn’t help but chuckle at the memory of finding Wisp covered in various paints on the living room floor one morning, smiling innocently up at everyone as if she didn’t make a whole mess spreading paint everywhere in the middle of the night without waking anyone.

“Uh, sorry about that.” Bumblebee chuckled nervously as he recalled that day as well.

“It’s no problem. She seemed happy with it… except when you had to give her a bath.”

“Don’t remind me.” Bee shuddered. While cleaning up the whole room had been an easy task, cleaning Wisp was a whole other problem everyone had come to find out. Turned out, the young femmling did NOT enjoy baths and loudly protested and screamed her little helm as her creators struggled to get her clean. “She has no problem going out in the rain and splashing in puddles. Why does she hate baths so much?!” Bee whined.

“I don’t know.” Bulkhead shrugged as Bee sighed deeply.

“Well, as long as she stays clean, at least she won’t need a bath for a while.”

“NO! NO! NOOOOOOO!”

Wisp screamed and kicked, thrashing her arms and stabilizers about as the two mechs keeping her there got sprayed with soapy warm water.

Prowl frowned at the struggling sparkling. “This would go a lot faster if you would just cooperate and let us clean you Wisp.”

“NO!” Wisp kicked her stabilizer, sending a spray of water to Prowl’s face. The ninja sighed as water dripped down his chin as Wisp continued to kick and scream in protest.

“Is she always this rebellious getting clean?” Jazz asked, trying to keep a hold on the small femme so she wouldn’t runoff. For a tiny bot, she sure had a lot of energy and fight in her.

“Now I know why Bumblebee dreads giving her a bath.” Prowl sighed, grabbing a sponge floating in the water, and reached for one of Wisp’s arms to clean.

“No!” Wisp’s snapped, baring her denta at Prowl before the ninja could touch her. “No touch! I bites!” She snapped her jaws a few times in a biting motion, which Prowl quickly pulled his servos away for her.

“Come on Whispers.” Jazz cooed down at her, drawing the sparkling’s attention on to him. “Don’t be like that. Baths are good for you. You’ll feel nice a clean after we get all that paint off ya.”

“No!” Wisp crossed her arms over her chest, puffing out her cheeks and shooting the pair an angry glare just like he sire would do to make others back off. Though it didn’t seem to cross her little processor that her sire was a big scary bot while she was a cute tiny sparkling, so her glare came off more as cute than threatening.

“Come on lil’ Sunset. Just let Prowl wash off some of that paint clinging to your armor.”

“And let that gremlin bite me?” Prowl rubbed his servo, giving Wisp a pointed stare that she returned with her own.

“If ya don’t want to, I can take over.” Jazz held out one servo, taking the sponge from Prowl, and smiled down at Wisp as she turned her glare on him. Before he could begin getting to work cleaning her, Wisp opened her intake and lunged at the servo still holding her, biting down on the appendage hard enough to make Jazz jump in pain and release the small bot.

Prowl quickly reacted, grabbing the fleeing femmling before she could escape. Wisp whined loudly in protest, renewing her attempts to escape the other mech’s clutches as he set her back down in the water. “Are you alright?” Prowl asked once he was sure he had a good grip on Wisp.

Jazz nodded, rubbing his servo. “I see why you guys warned me about her denta.” He winced at the sight of a perfect bite mark embedded in his armor, letting out a low whistle. “Girl’s got a nasty bite to her.”

“I bites!” Wisp screamed, snapping her denta at the pair though Prowl was well aware to keep his servos and his digits out of biting range and Jazz was too far away to be a victim again. “I bites!”

“We’re very aware of that Wisp.” Prowl sighed. 

Jazz frowned, rubbing his servo thoughtfully for a moment. There was no way they were going to be able to finish cleaning at this rate. No matter how much pleading or trying to convince Wisp to cooperate, the little sparkling was determined to make sure that she would never get clean. And they couldn’t be forceful with her. Primus only knows how many times Jazz had seen the outcome of those moments with fussy sparklings back in his time.

An idea crossed his mind, snapping his digits. “Hey, Wisp. Watch this!” Once Wisp set her optics on him, Jazz began to focus. It had been a while since he had pulled this move, but he still knew the rhythm of Processor-over-matter like the back of his servo.

“WhhhaaaAAAA?!” Wisp squeaked as the sponge that Jazz had dropped earlier began floating in front of her. Her optics went wide, watching as it bobbed up and down in the air with nothing holding it. She looked between the older bots, waving her arms around the sponge, yet there was nothing holding it up. She tried grabbing it and pulling it down, but the item refused to go down. Huffing, Wisp tried pulling the floating object down, grunting in a cute way that made Jazz crack a smile at the attempt.

“Impressive.” Prowl too was in awe at the display, though he was more impressed that wisp has lost and interest in escaping and instead focused on trying to get the floating sponge out of the air.

“Thanks. Though, you might want to hurry and finish cleaning that paint off her.” Jazz chuckled as Wisp somehow managed to lift half of herself onto the floating sponge and was trying to get the rest of her on top of it.

When scouting duty was done, Bumblebee wasted no time heading back to the base. When he got there, he stumbled upon a large paint stain on the floor, though he didn’t have time to think about it as Jazz and Prowl walked into the room with Wisp wrapped up in a thick towel in Jazz’s arms. The little sparkling didn’t seem all too pleased and was trying to bury herself deep within the fabric.

He knew that look all too well to realize what had happened and eagerly took his sparkling back with an embarrassed yet thankful look on his face. “I hope she wasn’t any trouble.”

“Trouble? Naw.” Jazz waved a servo. “She was total a sweetie the whole time.”

Bee smiled, trying hard not to point out Prowl’s disapproving glare aimed at him and the bite mark he could clearly see on the mech’s servo.

Chapter Text

When Bumblebee first introduced Blitzwing to the crazy events that were called holidays on this planet, it took the triple-changer a little while for him to warm up to the odd cultures that humans seemed to like so much. It didn’t escape the small Autobot’s mind that Blitzwing could possibly never fully enjoy these holidays, though his mechfriend did seem to like Halloween when it rolled around, taking delight in scaring unsuspecting trick-or-treaters passing by. He even managed to join in a few times, causing quite a stir and every formal complaint was worth it.

Wisp on the other servo took an immediate liking to most of the holidays when she was old enough to understand what holidays were. Most of which Bee noted to be around the colder part of the stellar cycle. Being ten stellar cycles old, the thrill in partaking these holidays never seemed to dim in his sparkling’s bright optics when the day was upon them. It always brighten Bee’s day to see his sparkling happy.

“CARRIER!” Wisp’s voice carried out through the base, making a bee-line straight for Bumblebee as he stepped into the living room that morning, throwing herself at his stabilizers and hugging him tight. The hug jolted any remaining drowsiness Bee could have had remaining in him waking up, taking Bee by surprise but already brightened his spirits as he looked down at the femmling hugging him.

Wisp was certainly getting big. She was already a little past his knees and growing with each passing solar cycle. Her coloring, still remaining in a sunset variety, had now settled with certain colors on certain parts and limbs. Her chest still remained a bright sunny yellow with her shoulder plating taking on the orange that was once fused to the bright yellow when she was a sparkling. Her upper arms and stabilizers had a fiery bright red and the rest of her armor on her arms became a deep vibrant purple. Separating each color were her jet black joints, just like Bee’s own joints. One of the few physical things she got from him. Her lower stabilizers were certain to be the same as well, but thanks to tank treads that formed while she was still a bitlet, it was hard to tell.

Let it never be said that Blitzwing and Bumblebee didn’t love their sparkling to bits and pieces, but Blitzwing was extremely glad that their little Sunset didn’t show any signs of inheriting her sire’s triple changing in her systems. It was already bad enough that bots back on Cybertron didn’t like her because she was Blitzwing’s sparkling. If she inherited his triple changing capabilities, who knew what would happen if the public figured that out. It was still something Bee kept an optic out for though. Seekers didn’t get their wings till further down the line, so there was no ruling out the possibility just yet.

The only remnant of Wisp’s odd coloring still together was her helmet. Her helmet had the resemblance to an old german flight helmet, with two hanging flaps and a pair of large goggles sitting just beneath her small horns that, unlike Blitzwing’s own pair, could slide over her wide bright blue optics. From the top of her helmet sat the vibrant purple, mixing in with fiery red that faded to orange in the middle till it turned into that sunny yellow at the end, reflecting a perfect sunset which became the first half of her namesake. Her left horn had a small trinket attached to it, a small gift from her aunt.

“Good morning~!” Wisp greeted with a cherry tone in her voice… which was odd considering that she wasn’t a morning bot. And it was still pretty early in the morning. Bee wasn’t an early morning type of bot as well, but he still got up before Wisp did, so this clearly meant that something was up.

“Morning small spark.” Bee smiled down at his sparkling, patting her helm. “And what are you doing up this early? You normally get up around noon.”

“It’s not noon?” Wisp tilted her helm, batting her optics just a tad too much to look innocent. She definitely inherited his bad lying streak. “I didn’t notice.”

“Uh-huh. Where is it?” Bee looked about the room, gazing at everything carefully.

“Where’s what, Carrier?” Wisp asked in an innocent tone.

“There’s only two reasons why you’re up so early.” Bee walked around the room, looking behind furniture and large stacks of crates he probably should sort out soon. “Number one. Pets.” He gave his daughter a knowing look as she turned her gaze upwards and whistled out a small tune. “Number two. You got some big plan going on that you don’t want me finding out.”

“Whaaaa?! Pfft! I have no idea what you mean! Ha haaa…” Wisp chuckled nervously, trying to avoid Bee stare as he turned around and glanced at her with an unamused look on his face. The nervousness grew on her face as Bumblebee crossed his arms over his chest and tapped his ped on the ground. “… it’s outside in the tree hollow.” Wisp sighed, slumping her shoulders as she pointed at the door.

Bee’s optics narrowed in disappointment, walking towards the exit with his helm high. Wisp followed after him, talking fervently with excuses as he opened the door and stepped outside. “It Was Fluffy Carrier! An-And It Was Really Cute Too! I Just Had To Bring It Home!”

“Sunset Wisp, we talked about this.” Seeing the old tree in his sight, Bee marched right to it. “You can not keep bringing home every single animal you ‘find’ and keep it as a pet!”

“But! B-But I got it for you!”

Bee stopped at the tree, turning his helm to frown down at his daughter. “The thought is appreciative Wisp, but I don’t want a pet.” He reached into the hole, feeling around carefully while wondering what sort of animal Wisp brought home this time. “Pet’s are hard to take care of and I already have enough to handle taking care of you.” When he felt something soft brush against his digits, he grabbed it so it wouldn’t get away. “Now you are going to return it right where you found it or put it in an animal rescue because I don’t want a—” He turned to look at what he pulled out, bilking in surprise at what he saw. “… teddy bear?”

“HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!” Wisp shouted, bursting into a giggling fit as Bumblebee stared at the small toy in his servo in shock. The teddy bear was a panda with a red bow tied around its neck, holding a large pink heart in its paws that had the words ‘I 💘 U’ sewn on it.

“I wanted it to be a bumblebee.” Bee looked down at his daughter when she spoke up again. “But I couldn’t find one that was a plush. So I had to go with a teddy panda instead.” Wisp shrugged as Bee kneeled down to her level.

“You mean to tell me you pretended to hide an animal from me, just to surprise me with this?” Bee couldn’t help but smile as he asked, holding the panda out and pointing at it with a grin.

“Uh-huh!” Wisp nodded her helm, smiling brightly with the small gap in her denta showing. “It’s a Valentine’s gift! To show you how much I love you!” Hearing that, Bee couldn’t help himself as he scooped up his daughter and hugged her tightly.

“You little rascal!” He beamed at Wisp as he pulled away. “You didn’t need to surprise me like that. I would have settled for you just giving it to me.”

“Yeah, but then it wouldn’t have been funny!” Wisp giggled, hopping down and twirled around as Bee stood up. “And Sire always told me that the best surprises are the ones that everyone finds funny!”

A small jolt of sadness shot through Bee’s spark at the mention of Blitzwing, taking a bit of joy he was feeling and dampened it with the reminder that the triple changer was not here. Despite his help in the war, Blitzwing still had to serve his time for what he had done in the Great War all those stellar cycles ago. Bumblebee protested when it was brought to light when the war was over, but Blitzwing had agreed to the charges much to Bumblebee’s distress. Thankfully, since Optimus became Magnus, Blitzwing was granted some leniency since he abandoned the Decepticons and helped the Autobots during the final war.

He did too much in the past not to get a full pardon, but bots did recognize that Blitzwing was more than willing to change enough not to land him in the Stockades for all eternity. Instead, Blitzwing had to work in the mines with community service to boot. Not a pleasant punishment, but it was the best Optimus could do for him that the council would allow. At least he was allowed to see his family a few times each stellar cycle.

Bee looked at the teddy bear, frowning slightly. He missed Blitzwing. He was allowed to go see the triple changer, but Bee didn’t want to stay far away from Wisp or leave her in the care of others unless it was someone he knew and trusted. Bots still had mixed options and views of his sparkling, and he didn’t want to risk the chance for any of the more… stubborn type of mechs getting their servos on her.

“Carrier?” A small voice cut through his thoughts, drawing him to the present where Wisp stood with worry creeping up on her face. “Do… did you not like the surprise?”

“Oh no!” Bee shot his servos up, waving them around wildly. “No no no no no! I LOVED the surprise Wisp! I really liked it!” He looked at the teddy bear in his servos, smiling at it. “It’s really sweet of you to give me this for… wait. Did you say it was Valentine’s Day? Sweetie, Valentine’s Day isn’t until the fourteenth.”

“But today is the fourteenth!” The revelation caught Bee off guard, getting up and heading inside to check the calendar pinned to the wall and… yep. Today was Valentine’s Day. The day that celebrated love.

The day that seemed to openly mock Bee by reminding him of the far distance he and Blitzwing were at.

Bee grimaced. He didn’t normally celebrate Valentine’s Day when it came around. He didn’t see much reason too as he couldn’t find a reason to celebrate it without Blitzwing. He only celebrated it twice, once when it wasn’t on the actual holiday and the other was just a simple gift exchange. After that, Blitzwing was sent off to the mines and Bee spent his holidays alone… ish.

“Valentine’s Day!” Wisp cheered once she stepped into their home, grinning brightly at Bee in a way that rivaled the sun. “The day of hearts and love and flowers! And, most importantly, FREE CANDY!”

“Most of which you can’t even eat.” Bumblebee couldn’t help but point out with a small smirk on his face.

Wisp stood still for a moment before shrugging. “Well, yeah… but everything else I get for free without eating it.” She bounced on her peds, clapping her servos together and smiled up at her carrier. “And that’s what we’re going to do today!”

“I’m sorry… we?” Bee raised an optic ridge. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

Wisp went over to him, hugging his stabilizer with a smile that was sweet enough to give a gross thing called cavities. “I mean you should spend Valentine’s Day with me! You always spend Valentine’s all moopy and sad and stuff. This time, you’re spending the whole day with me!”

“Wisp, that’s a nice thought, but I really don’t feel like celebrating Valentine’s today.”

“But Caaaarrrrrrrrriiiiiiieeeerrrrrrrrrr!” Wisp whined, making her optics big and jetting her lower lip out in a pout. “You’re always so sad on this day! And I don’t like it when you’re sad! You keep locking yourself in your room and have Ratchet or Uncle Bulky come over to watch me!” She pressed her face against him, batting her optics that were glistening with coolant building in them. “Can’t you spend today with me? Pllllleeeeeeeeeaaaaaaasssssseeeeeeeee?”

Bumblebee frowned. Spending a day with his daughter did sound nice. And Wisp really seemed to want to spend the day with him. But on Valentine’s Day? The day of love? The one special day that he couldn’t spend any time with the mech he loved while everyone else got to celebrate it with their loved ones? Silently mocking him about his apparent lack of that special someone beside him?

He really didn’t want to disappoint Wisp, but at the same time he really didn’t want to see everyone else having a good time without their partners. He was about to turn down Wisp’s request, but looking down at those big blue optics and the reminder of the teddy bear still in his servos, his resolve cracked and he sighed heavily.

Ah slag. One day out with his kid wouldn’t hurt right? He could just pretend it was a normal day and still try to have fun about it.

“Alright, you win.”

“Yaaaaaaayyyyyyy!” Wisp cheered, throwing her arms up and danced about the room which made Bee smile. One day. He could spend one day with his kid without any trouble. After all, Valentine’s Day wasn’t THAT special, right? Hardly anyone celebrates it anymore these days. This was going to be easy!

This was NOT easy.

Everywhere Bee looked, he could see Valentine’s all around him. Shops were displaying special sales on chocolates. Hedges in the park were trimmed into hearts. People were walking around wearing colors of pink, red, and white that were associated with the holiday.

Slag, the whole park was even decorated in a whole Valentine theme celebration! Everywhere he looked he could see couples walking about having the time of their life, further drilling in the fact that he couldn’t enjoy this day like they could.

At least Wisp was having a good time.

Wisp was happily humming to herself, kicking her stabilizers as she watched the world outside Bee’s wind go by. She waved at a group of kids running around playing with a small ball back and forth between everyone with a wide smile on her face. It was nice to see that his daughter got along with people so well and didn’t inherit her sire’s distaste for organics. That was still something Bee was trying to help him with.

Still, Bee wished that there were sparklings around her age to play with. Bots who she could befriend and hang out with without Bumblebee needing to worry about her safety. That was most likely never going to happen since most other Cybertronians were still adjusting to the new changes back on Cybertron. And Bee wasn’t so sure if other mechs or femmes would like it if Wisp tried to play with their sparklings considering her heritage.

Many had voiced their options on Wisp during Blitzwing’s trial and some of them weren’t pleasant to hear.

“You know.” Wisp spoke up, cutting through his thoughts. “The streets and parks seem to be crowded today. Let’s go for a walk in the woods!”

“A walk. In the woods.” Bumblebee couldn’t help but deadpan at his sparkling’s suggestion. He didn’t mind taking a walk now and then with Wisp. Primus only knew how much energy the little femme needed to burn off every solar cycle just to be able to recharge through the night. “Wisp, you know very well that I don’t… enjoy taking walks through the woods.”

“Why not? A walk through the woods sounds nice!”

Not unless a certain sparkling tries hiding wild animals in her carrier’s trunk to bring home again. Bee thought bitterly, recalling all the times Wisp tried to smuggle squirrels, toads, foxes, snakes, birds, owls, and even an entire deer to bring home. The worst incident was when she tried to bring a whole beehive home. He really, REALLY couldn’t understand where her passion for animals comes from.

“Wisp, I really don’t think—”

“Please Carrier? Plllleeeeeeaaaaasssssssssssse?” Oh no. She was using the pouty face. Not the pouty face.

No! He had to be strong and resist! There was no way he was going to keep falling for the same trick every single time!

He really needed to learn to say no to that face.

“FREEEEEEEEEEEDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!” Wisp ran around, hopping into small snow drifts and rolling around in the snow covered ground. She gathered up a large mound of snow, burying her face in the frozen water and hugged it. “Snoooooow.”

“I’m highly concerned about your sanity sometimes Wisp.” Bee muttered to himself as he watched his sparkling flip to her back and made snow angels. The weather outside wasn’t so bad, yet there was still a chill in the air that most would consider bundling up to keep warm. Not Wisp. Wisp loved the cold.

“Carrier! Carrier! Come join me!”

“I would love to Wisp, but I’d rather—” His sentence cut off when a snowball hit his knee. He gazed down in surprise as another snowball hit his stabilizer.

“That’s two points!” Wisp cheered, causing Bee to look up at her and smirk. Oh, she was just asking for it. Bending down and scooping up as much snow as he could, he packed it into a ball and chucked it at his daughter. Wisp squealed with delight as she jumped out of the way, scooping up to make more snowballs to throw back at Bee.

Not wanting to be beaten, Bee scrambled around to grab as much snow as he could, tossing at his daughter as they began to have a snowball fight. Servo full of snow was tossed and thrown in the air, going back and forth between creator and creation with laughter filling the air.

Noon rolled around before both Cybertronians finally got tired, leaning against a thick tree for support as their fan ran high to cool their systems down.

“Okay.” Bee panted, his face hurting from all the smiling and laughter. “That was fun.”

Wisp giggled, splaying herself out on Bee’s legs. “Yeah. Let’s do that again!”

“Uh, maybe later sweet spark.” Bee patted her helm. “How about we rest for a while instead?”

“Borrrrrring!” Wisp whined, flipping onto her back but didn’t get up like he half expected her to. She stayed silent for a while before turning her optics towards him. “Hey Carrier. How did you and Sire get together?”

“Wha?” Bee blinked in surprise, caught off guard by the question.

“You and Sire.” Wisp repeated, flipping to her front and gazed intently at Bee. “How’d you get together?”

“O-oh! Well, uh, y-you see.” Bee’s cheeks heated up. He hadn’t thought about that solar cycle in a long time. The night they confessed their love for each other. “Welllll it was a long time ago. I, uh, might not be able to remember much about it.”

“Tell me!” Wisp moved to her knees, looking at Bee with pleading excited optics. “Tell me! Tell tell tell tell tell tell tell tell!”

“Alright! Alright.” Bee cupped his servo over Wisp’s intake, stopping the brigade of words from falling out of her intake. “Let’s see… it was somewhere around a thousand stellar cycles ago. Way back when me, Optimus, Bulkhead, Ratchet, and… Prowl, were still SpaceBridge repair bots. Around that time, your sire and I were secretly meeting each other as Decepticons and Autobots still had a very rocky relationship back then.”

“Around a few stellar cycles into the job, your sire got his… upgrade.” Bumblebee closed his optics, remembering that solar cycle. The night was like any other for their secret meetups and he could remember the thrill in seeing his secret friend again. Only when he got there, he found another bot. Or, whom he thought was a different bot at the time. “Your sire… struggled a bit with his new upgrade.” He remembered that once the shock wore off, he stayed with Blitzwing to calm the now new triple changer down.

Blitzwing had still been fresh off the new upgrade, unsure of how to handle his new changes and the extra faces and how Bee would think of him then. It took all night for Bee to convince Blitzwing that he didn’t think of him any different from the way he was before, easily accepting the Con as he was then and now.

“It took a bit of talking with each other and a long while for your sire to accept his new upgrades, but it was that night that I learned something.” He opened his optics slowly. “I… I was in love with your sire. For a long time actually. It really opened my view of him that night and…” Bee paused for a moment, blushing a bit. He could still recall his worry and panic when he realized his feeling for the then still Decepticon Blitzwing.

An Autobot loving a Decepticon was highly taboo back then, not to mention completely treacherous. There was no way anyone would ever approve of it, much less accept that they had fallen for someone who was supposed to only be considered the enemy. But he did. And it scared Bumblebee.

Thinking back on it, he was embarrassed to say that he was scared of his feelings for Blitzwing for a long time. He knew it was wrong to love a Decepticon, or even be friends with them. Yet he knew Blitzwing since his sparklinghood, he couldn’t think of him anything else but a friend and crush. It plagued his mind for solar cycles till he finally got the courage to do something about it.

“… the next time we met up… I told him how I felt.”

Wisp gasped, hopping on his stabilizers. “And he told you he liked you back?!”

“Pft! Slag no!” Bee chuckled, watching the excited smile on his sparkling’s face crash and morph into shock. “When I told him that I ‘liked’ liked him, the first thing he did after the shock wore off was take off and leave me standing alone in our secret spot without a word.”

“… WwwwwhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!” Wisp shot up, looking at her carrier in shock. “He LEFT you?! He LEFT you?! I thought he LOVED you! Why would he do that?!”

“I was in shock too. I was completely spark broken when he left. Thinking that he really didn’t like me in that way and I ruined a close friendship with that confession.” More than that, Bee had been so broken at the thought that he didn’t act his normal self for deca-cycles. His team had noticed his odd change in behavior and tried to get him to cheer up, though that only got Bee to snap at them and yell at them to leave him alone.

“But! But Sire LOVES you!” Wisp crawled up to his chest, slapping her servos on his yellow paint with a look of determination. “He wouldn’t have done that! He would never!”

“He did, Sunset. And I was sure he didn’t think of me the same way either.” A smile crossed his face. “Not until a gift showed up one morning addressed to me.”

“Gift?”

“Yep! A tiny metal box, as large as my servo.” He held up his servo, mimicking the size of the box. “With the words ‘BUMBLEBEE’ etched on top. Ratchet had found it by the entrance one morning, which confused everyone since no one was able to use the SpaceBridge and the ship’s scanners didn’t pick up on anything to alert anyone of an approaching spaceship.”

“Why not?”

“Because your sire was smart enough to hide his signal so he could get close enough to leave the gift behind without getting caught.” Bee poked Wisp’s cheek. “And do you know what was in that gift?”

Wisp shook her helm, leaning in closer with wide curious optics.

“It was a beautiful, rare, incredibly hard to find cosmic stone!” Bee’s grin grew, remembering the surprised and shocked faces of his friends as he pulled out the stone from the box. “Crafted in a beautiful necklace that I could wear around my neck.” He wrapped his servos around his neck, sighing at the memory of placing that necklace on for the first time. The weight of the necklace sat comfortably against his armor, cold metal against his warm body. “It was beautiful. But that wasn’t all! There was also a note at the bottom of the box too!”

It wasn’t really a note. More like a letter. A very detailed, long thought out, letter that was both an apology and a confession. Bumblebee had read, re-read, and read it again so many times that he couldn’t believe that it was addressed to him.

“The note was from your sire, explaining why he left, how sorry he did so, and how he wanted to talk to me.” Bee was certain his cheeks were bright red. That letter was the very thing that healed and ignited his hope in his spark again. “We met up again after that and well, you sire confessed his own feelings to me right then and there and we were mechfriends ever since.”

“Secret mechfriends?”

“Of course!” Bee poked Wisp’s cheek again, earning a giggle from her. “We couldn’t let everyone else know we were dating back then or else we’d be in big trouble! Our dates had to be kept hidden from others and they only lasted for a few short megacycles, but they were very meaningful to us… actually.” He grabbed Wisp and stood up. “I think we’re close to one certain dating spot your sire had planned for me that was meant for Valentine’s Day when we saw each other again.”

“Really?!” Wisp’s optics sparkled as Bee set her down. “Can we go there?! Please?! Please?! Pleasssssse?!”

“Okay okay. Calm down, Sunset. We can go.” Bee chuckled, transforming into his alt mode. “There should still be plenty of light left to go check it out before we can head home.” The little cheer Wisp made as she climbed into her seat made Bee’s spark flutter happily.

The moment he could see the old abandoned amusement park, Bee’s confidence waned. He hadn’t been back here since Blitzwing brought him here for their first reunited date on Earth. It had been a surprise Blitzwing had set up just for Bumblebee when he learned about Valentine’s Day from his mechfrined. While it was meant for the holiday itself, the thought was still touching and Bee loved it immensely.

“Whoooooooooaaaaaaaa! It’s a park!” Wisp jumped in her seat, pressing her face against the glass. “It’s a park! It’s an old park!”

“Wisp, don’t jump on the seat while I’m driving.” Bee slowed down, coming to a stop just a few feet away from the park entrance. Wisp hopped out the moment he put himself into park, running up to the ruined gate as Bumblebee transformed back into robot mode. A whole ten stellar cycles had passed and yet everything looked the same to Bee.

The rundown rides. The rusted metal wore away by the elements. The metal crafts Blitzwing had a hand in crafting into hearts, flowers, and other assortments of things that were linked to the holiday. Bee came back to this place only once before to take down all the lights and store the generator away someplace safe.

“Don’t go too far Wisp. We’re only going to stay here for a little while.” Bee called out as he stepped over the small fence, following after Wisp as she ran inside the abandoned park. It was still a wonder how no one seemed to care about this place anymore and just left it all to rot.

Wisp didn’t seem to mind the poor state the park was in, running up to different rides with wonder and glee while pointing out a few that she knew yet still needed her carrier to tell her what ride was what. “Hey Carrier, what’s this? Carrier, what’s that? Hey Carrier, do you think this still works? Carrier, I though you said that teacups were only in small sizes. Are their giant sized humans that you haven’t told me about yet?”

It was nice to have something to distract his thoughts.

“Hey Carrier, what’s that over there?”

“What’s what over where sweetie?”  

“There!” Wisp pointed at something in the distance. Bee followed her gaze where she was pointing at.

At a distance there was a small clearing that Bee was sure wasn’t there the last two times he was here. The area was cleared of debrie, with potted plants lining the way to a small archway that was shaped into a heart. String lights were wrapped around the arch, conveniently shaped into small red and pink hearts as well. Laying just underneath the archway was a small gift wrapped up with a pink ribbon.

Bee blinked in surprise, walking over to the archway. Who put this here? Last time he checked, no one would go out this far into the woods. And last he knew, no one would find an abandoned amusement park romantic. Not counting when Blitzwing brought him here that one time.

Picking up the present, Bee examined the box. The bottom wasn’t wet, so it couldn’t have been out here too long. Yet, he didn’t see anybody nearby. Brushing his digits over the ribbon, Bee found a small tag stuck between the pink lace. Pulling it out, he found a small stencil pastel picture of a bumblebee on one side, flipping over on the other side to see who it was addressed to.

To: The Cutest Yellow Autobot In The Universe~

… was this really addressed to him? Couldn’t they have been a bit more creative?

“What’cha got there Carrier?” Wisp asked as she walked up next to Bee.

“A gift. For me apparently.”

“Who’s it from?”

“It doesn’t say.” Bee pulled at the bow, undoing the ribbon and opening the box. Inside the box was a small heart shaped object, painted white with gold trimming. It was rather plain looking to Bee who took it out to examine it more. Bringing it up close to the audible, he gave it a small shake. He couldn’t hear anything and was starting to figure that it was just a simple gift when he spotted a small button on the very center of the heart.

Curious, Bee pressed the button.

A soft little melody began to play from the heart, popping the top open to reveal the small music box hidden inside. Bee started in awe at the gift, completely surprised that someone would go this far to give him something like this. The question was, who would go to all this trouble to give him this?

Bee looked down at his daughter, seeing a pleased smug look on her face. “Wisp, did you…?”

“NOPE!” Wisp shook her helm, popping her lips in the end. “My gift was the teddy bear. That’s from your special admirer!” She pointed at the gift as it came to the end of its small sweet tune. “I helped them pick out the music box though! And where to give it to you!”

“My admirer?” Bee asked, wondering who could have planned this with Wisp. “Who is—”

“O! Oh wait! I have to do the poem!” Wisp pranced in place, stepping back a few paces and clearing her vox. She puffed out her chest and opened her intake wide… but quickly deflated after a brief moment. “Uh… ah frag it! I forgot most of it!”

“Language Wisp.” Bee chided, putting the gift away in his subspace.

“Hang on, give me a nanoklik!” Wisp grabbed her helm, grunting a bit as she tried to remember the poem. “Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Oh!” Her optics shot open. “I remember the end of the poem! The rest was kind of boring and long so I’ll just get to that part.”

Bee rolled his optics as Wisp started again. “From the moment I met you, you were nothing but sweet, kind, and loyal. And even now with all this time past, you are still the same mech I fell in love with. Even if you sometimes drive me insane.”

A snort tore through Bee’s intake. However his secret admirer was, they seemed to know him well. He looked around the area, taking in the decor and wondering who to thank for helping his sparkling set this all up for him. It had to be someone he and Wisp knew, or otherwise she wouldn’t have gone through all this trouble.

“So with alllll of my spark, just for you today! I am truly proud to happily say!” 

Bee blinked as his upper half was suddenly enveloped by something warm and tight. He didn’t have time to jump and scream or take out his stingers to defend himself and his sparkling when something warm and familiar pressed against the side of his helm. His spark halted, intake opened slightly in shock, optics locked on Wisp’s grinning gap-toothed smile as someone kissed him, KISSED HIM, right against his helm.

The kiss lasted a few good nanokliks before the mysterious bot pulled away, allowing Bee to turn his stunned gaze slowly away from Wisp to look directly into a bright red optic with a matching monocle.

“Happy Valentine’s Day.” Blitzwing spoke softly, a small grin playing on his intake as Bee’s optics grew three times their size.

Once it registered in his processor that he was looking at Blitzwing, his lover and mechfriend, Bee wasted no time flinging his arms around the triple changer’s neck and kissing him with full force smack on the lips. That familiar laugh he missed so much echoed in the field as Blitzwing’s face switched to Random, though it didn’t deter Bumblebee from kissing the triple changer more, placing kisses all over his face and savoring the familiar touch as Blitzwing kissed him back.

Pulling back a bit, Bee took in the dark face of his lover, feeling himself almost ready to cry. “Blitz!” His digits traced the triple changer’s jaw, taking in the sight of one Blitzwing’s face as if to etch the image into his databanks to never forget. “Oh my Primus! What are—?! How are you—?! You’re here!”

“Of Course I Am! I Couldn’t Be Anyvhere Else Now, Can I?” Blitzwing cackled at his own joke, switching back to Icy. “It’s nice to zee jou again, Hummel.”

“It’s great seeing you again!” Bee grinned so much his cheeks were hurting, but didn’t care. Blitzwing was here and that’s what mattered to him at the moment. “Did you set all this—” He gestured to the decor and lights in the area. “—just for me?”

“Veellll. I had zome help.”

“Dang right!” The pair looked over at Wisp, seeing her puff out her chest and standing proud. “I helped get you out of the base so you could see the whole place Sire made pretty just for you!”

“Really?”

“Yep! I also helped Sire plan this so you wouldn’t be sad today!”

“Visp told me how jou usually zpend zee holiday alone during jour last visit.” Blitzwing explained as he lifted Bee up in his arms and seated himself on the ground with Bumblebee sitting in his lap. “And honestly? I really vanted to zpend zee day vith jou too. Properly zis time.” Whirr. “OF COURSE ZOSE INSUFFERABLE PUNNY AUTOBOTS VOULDN’T LET ME COME ZEE JOU! NO MATTER HOW GOOD I VAS BEHAVING!”

“That’s where I came in!” Wisp chimed in, running up to them and hugged her sire’s massive stabilizer. “I had a talk with Grand-Sire Op to let Sire come visit on Valentine’s!”

Bee’s intake hung open in shock, staring at his sparking at the news. “You got Optimus to get your sire to come visit? How’d you manage that?!”

“My charms.” Wisp winked her optic playfully, and Bee couldn’t deny that most of his old team couldn’t resist Wisp’s talent at being cute. “I didn’t want you to be so sad today Carrier. Not on Valentine’s Day.” She crawled up to hug Bee, rubbing her cheek against his chest.

A sad smile crossed Bee’s face, rubbing Wisp’s helm. She planned all this. For him. Just so he wouldn’t be sad. “Oh Wisp.” Bee pulled her into a hug. “You’re just about the greatest thing a carrier could ask for. I love you.”

“Even more than video games?”

“Even more than video games.”

“Even more than racing?”

“Even more than racing.”

“Even more thaaaaaaaaan Sire?”

“Okay that’s just pushing it.” Bee pulled away, smiling down at his giggling daughter. “Let’s just say you and your sire are fifty fifty with each other.” He turned his helm to smile up at Blitzwing.

“Hey! I should get more than fifty! I came up with the plan and everything!”

Whirr. “Mmm true. But jou didn’t help me decorate zee place now did jou?”

“I was distracting Carrier!” Wisp climbed up onto Bee’s shoulders and pointed at her sire’s blue face. “Without me, he would never have gotten surprised! So I’m the real hero of the day!”

“Don’t get so full of yourself now Sunset.” Bee poked Wisp’s stomach, causing her to back away and fall into her sire’s large servo. “You did plenty to help.”

“I did a lot!”

“Ja. Jou did.” Blitzwing chuckled as he brought wisp up to his helm and nuzzled her. “Jou certainly did my little süßes Kind.” Wisp giggled and bumped her helm against Blitzwing’s, making Bee’s spark flutter at the sweet sight.

He would need to call Optimus later and thank him for allowing Blitzwing to come visit today, but for now he just wanted to spend the rest of the day with the ones he loved.

Because that’s what Valentine’s was about wasn’t it? Spending time with loved ones and being loved while giving love. And Bumblebee had all the love to give to his family who gave back just as much, if not more.