*Gasp!* Lookit what I just updated!
Title: Honey, Prime, I shrunk the Kids Officers!
Chapter: Chapter 19 - Bloody Tears Gears.
Rating: PG 13 - Humor.
Pairings: Prowl x Jazz, Ironhide x Ratchet, Hound x Mirage, Inferno x Red Alert, Sunstreaker x Bluestreak. Vaguely implied one sided Bluestreak x Gears.
Summary: When one of Wheeljack's experiments blows up, the consequences take their toll on the Ark's crew.
Notes: Gears is charged with watching over the sparklings for an insignificant hour. (And before anyone goes WTF? about the one-sided apparent pairing, in my defense, I blame the Dreamwave continuity for giving it some semblance of plausibility.)
Thanks to nkfloofiepoof for her help with the baby speech.
"I shouldn't have left my berth this morning," Gears muttered and looked down at the assortment of sparklings sat around him the floor of the recreation room. It all began with him going to get his morning energon cube and coming across Bluestreak, who was carrying a recharging Sideswipe. They did some small chatting while Jazz, Hound, Ironhide and Inferno came in to drop their respective sparklings on the playpen. Blaster wasn't there, as he was required to assist Cosmos, and his cassettes were necessary as well.
With all but Inferno stuck in monitor duty or other tasks that didn't require them to leave the Ark, everyone was resigned to look after their respective sparklings, with Bluestreak offering to watch over Red Alert, after all he has experience with Lamborghinis. Gears would never admit that comment didn't sit well with him.
But then Wheeljack called them over to his lab, and Bluestreak was quick to thrust the recharging Sideswipe in Gears' arms, begging him to take care of him until he was back. Gears just couldn't bring himself to say no to the gunner and no sooner had he agreed to watch over the sparkling, the remaining mechs entrusted their respective sparklings to him.
"One hour tops," they said. And Gears found himself charged with five sparklings who had managed to beat the Decepticons by being unbearable. Gears knew he was in trouble, he just knew it, but he still couldn't say no. No matter what Bluestreak would ask, he couldn't say no to the young Datsun.
So now, he was looking down at the sparklings. Sideswipe, Mirage and Perceptor were still deep in recharge, and Perceptor looked like he wasn't going to online for another three hours at the very least. Prowl and Red Alert were quiet, just looking up at him with curious blue optics. Jazz warned him to keep an eye on Prowl, even if he was well behaved, the sparkling had a penchant for sticking anything he could into his mouth. And Red Alert was known for trying to wander too far in his exploration of his surroundings and affinity to horseback rides. The mini bot suspected these two alone would keep him very busy.
Prowl tilted his head up, his door wings raising up in wonder at this mech he wasn't sure he had seen before, but since Jazz left him with this mech, he was probably safe. The sparkling got to his hands and knees and crawled the small distance to Gears feet, tapping a foot with his little hand to get his attention.
"Yes?" Gears bent a bit to look better at the sparkling, but still staring down at him. Prowl wasn't sure he liked this mech that wouldn't bring himself close enough to look at him face to face.
"Who?" Prowl asked curiously tilting his head back some more until he lost his balance and fell backwards. Red Alert chirped and stood up in wobbly legs, taking the few steps to his sparkling friend and looked down at him, chirping worriedly.
Prowl frowned and whimpered but managed to sit back up, glaring angrily at the tall mech for making him fall back and feel sore on his police lights again.
Gears sighed heavily and knelt down to the sparkling's level and hesitantly reached to stroke the sparkling's head. "I'm Gears," he said with a tight smile.
Prowl tilted his head a little, processing the mech's name and then pointed a diminutive finger to the mech's face. "Gurrs!"
"Close enough." Gears smile widened and couldn't help but wonder if Bluestreak was this cute when he was a sparkling. "Jazz is so not going to let you live down your cuteness, Prowl."
"Jass!" Prowl smiled, and threw his arms up, forgetting all his sore spots.
"Yes, yes, Jazz." Gears shook his head and carefully picked the online sparklings, carrying them along to get a couple of energon cubes for the other mini bots. It was part of a daily routine he set up for himself, filling up a tray with cubes for all the mini bots he knew would be coming to refuel to start their shift. Unlike other 'bots, Gears actually made a point of reading the schedules closely to see which mini bots would be in early shifts. It was a nice gesture for which he expected no thanks, and he usually didn't receive many. Cosmos, Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Seaspray and Beachcomber were the ones that always thanked his attentiveness, and Brawn on occasion. Anyone else just kind of took the cubes and left with their processors busy in only Primus knew what.
Gears didn't mind, he was used to be on the background most of time, the only mechs that usually talked to him in a regular basis were Bumblebee, Hound, Jazz and Bluestreak. "Okay, little 'bots, I need to fill the cubes. You sit here and don't move." Gears set Prowl and Red Alert in the bar, keeping an optic on them at all times while he filled the cubes. Prowl and Red Alert remained obediently on their places, too interested in what Gears was doing to try to wander anywhere.
With the rations for Brawn, Huffer, Windcharger and Cliffjumper served and arranged on a tray, Gears set the tray on the bar. Prowl eyed the tray with interest and got on his hands and knees to crawl to the tray, intending to examinate the energon. "Oh no, you won't." Gears picked the sparkling before he could reach the cubes, bringing Prowl close to his face. "Those are not for sparklings, they'll make you sick."
Prowl frowned cutely for a moment but then tilted his head and patted Gears' face. Gears couldn't help but smile at the sparkling. He really wondered if Bluestreak was nearly this cute as a sparkling. Then, an idea crossed his processor and Gears set the sparkling back down in the bar. He picked an empty cube and held it in two fingers before the sparklings. "Hey, you two wanna help me hand these out?"
Gears moved the cube around a little, and grinned when the sparklings followed the cube with their optics. "All you have to do is hold them out like these to the other bots." The mini bot helped to move Red Alert's little hands while he held the empty cube, holding it up to be taken. Prowl immediately caught on --after all he had handed Jazz a 'nakin'; and quickly grabbed one of the full cubes in his unsteady hands, miraculously keeping it from spilling while he offered it to Gears. "Yeah, just like that, Prowl." Gears grinned and took the cube, setting it back down on the tray. "But you gotta wait until the 'bots are here."
As if they had been summoned, Brawn, Cliffjumper, Windcharger and Huffer came into the room, talking among themselves. Red Alert chirped loudly and excitedly, bouncing a little on his seat and waving to the new arrivals.
"Hey, there, Red. Hiya, Prowl." Windcharger smiled to the sparklings.
"Chaja!" Prowl said excitedly while Red Alert grabbed one of the cubes and held it up for the gray and red mini bot, though, spilling a little on the tray as he did.
"That's me," Windcharger murmured with fond amusement and caught the cube before Red Alert could drop it. "Thank you!"
Red Alert clicked happily and reached for another cube which he offered to Huffer, although this time he received no thanks, which made the baby Lamborghini pout. Prowl wasn't about to let his friend's efforts go without proper thank you.
"Bad Huffa!"
Huffer choked a little on his energon and looked over his shoulder at the frown Prowl was aiming at him. "Thank you, Red Alert," he mumbled, and with both sparklings satisfied with his thanks, made his way out of the recreation room.
"Bawn!" Prowl held a cube up for the gruff mini bot who smiled at him and nodded, thanking him and Gears for the cube.
"Hey, Gears. Sparkling sitting?" Cliffjumper grinned and watched Prowl struggle to reach the last cube, casually spinning the tray around just a little so the sparkling could take the cube.
"Just for a little. Wheeljack's debriefing the other bots about something."
"Cwiffjumpa!" Prowl held the cube up for the red mini bot and Cliffjumper chuckled at Prowl's attempts to pronounce his name. "Thank you, sprocket!" The red mini bot poked Prowl's nose and accepted the cube, swallowing it all in one gulp. "'Kay, gotta get going. See you around, guys!"
Prowl and Red Alert waved clumsily at the departing mini bot and turned back to look at Gears expectantly. "Guess we better go back to the pen, huh?" Gears picked up the sparklings and made his way back to the pen where he tried to settle back comfortably against the wall where the other sparklings were still deeply in recharge.
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"Man, it's going to feel so odd to have them back to be grown mechs," Bluestreak said as he walked down the halls with Jazz, Hound, and Ironhide.
"Enjoy him for the last forty eight hours, Blue." Jazz chuckled. Wheeljack explained to them the machinery needed to return the sparklings back to normal required forty eight hours to charge properly. Just two more earth days and Prowl would be back to normal, and neither Jazz nor Ironhide would have to put up with that Behemoth of working schedule he endured. Ironhide definitely had a newly acquired respect for Prowl's ability to keep up with all that work by himself.
"At least sunny won't be trying to hit Wheelj--" Bluestreak stopped abruptly in mid sentence, staring in wonder at the scene displayed before his optics.
Lightly in recharge, Gears was leaning against the wall of the play pen, Sideswipe, Mirage and Perceptor cuddled against his leg, Red Alert was sprawled over Gear's middle and Prowl was crawling around the pen with the other sparklings' blanket over him.
Jazz grinned widely and with light steps headed to the pen, picking up his stuck-as-sparkling mate, removing the blanked in the process. "Havin' fun, Prowler?"
"Jass!" Prowl patted Jazz's face, then turned to look back at the recharging Gears, "Gurrs?"
"That's kinda cute," Ironhide chuckled softly and carefully picked up Perceptor, making sure not to disturb his rest. Hound did the same with Mirage and so did Bluestreak with Sideswipe.
Moving the red twin to rest against his shoulder, Bluestreak shook Gears gently. "Hey, Gears."
The mini bot's optics flickered on and off for a moment before they came fully online. "Huh?" He looked around disoriented for a moment then sat up, remembering what he was supposed to be doing. "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to go offline."
"It's all right, it's pretty early anyway," Bluestreak murmured with a smile, reaching up for Red Alert. "Thank you for watching over them, Gears."
Gears nodded and smiled the tiniest smile, "Anything for you, Bluestreak."
"Yes, thank you!" Jazz piped in. "Say bye to Gears, Prowler, gotta go back ta do your work." Jazz grinned and nuzzled his baby Datsun when Prowl waved good bye to the mini bot. The other mechs thanked Gears as well and left.
Gears watched Bluestreak leave the room with the sparklings in his arms. "Anything for you..." He whispered softly.
Chapter: Chapter 19 - Bloody Tears Gears.
Rating: PG 13 - Humor.
Pairings: Prowl x Jazz, Ironhide x Ratchet, Hound x Mirage, Inferno x Red Alert, Sunstreaker x Bluestreak. Vaguely implied one sided Bluestreak x Gears.
Summary: When one of Wheeljack's experiments blows up, the consequences take their toll on the Ark's crew.
Notes: Gears is charged with watching over the sparklings for an insignificant hour. (And before anyone goes WTF? about the one-sided apparent pairing, in my defense, I blame the Dreamwave continuity for giving it some semblance of plausibility.)
Thanks to nkfloofiepoof for her help with the baby speech.
"I shouldn't have left my berth this morning," Gears muttered and looked down at the assortment of sparklings sat around him the floor of the recreation room. It all began with him going to get his morning energon cube and coming across Bluestreak, who was carrying a recharging Sideswipe. They did some small chatting while Jazz, Hound, Ironhide and Inferno came in to drop their respective sparklings on the playpen. Blaster wasn't there, as he was required to assist Cosmos, and his cassettes were necessary as well.
With all but Inferno stuck in monitor duty or other tasks that didn't require them to leave the Ark, everyone was resigned to look after their respective sparklings, with Bluestreak offering to watch over Red Alert, after all he has experience with Lamborghinis. Gears would never admit that comment didn't sit well with him.
But then Wheeljack called them over to his lab, and Bluestreak was quick to thrust the recharging Sideswipe in Gears' arms, begging him to take care of him until he was back. Gears just couldn't bring himself to say no to the gunner and no sooner had he agreed to watch over the sparkling, the remaining mechs entrusted their respective sparklings to him.
"One hour tops," they said. And Gears found himself charged with five sparklings who had managed to beat the Decepticons by being unbearable. Gears knew he was in trouble, he just knew it, but he still couldn't say no. No matter what Bluestreak would ask, he couldn't say no to the young Datsun.
So now, he was looking down at the sparklings. Sideswipe, Mirage and Perceptor were still deep in recharge, and Perceptor looked like he wasn't going to online for another three hours at the very least. Prowl and Red Alert were quiet, just looking up at him with curious blue optics. Jazz warned him to keep an eye on Prowl, even if he was well behaved, the sparkling had a penchant for sticking anything he could into his mouth. And Red Alert was known for trying to wander too far in his exploration of his surroundings and affinity to horseback rides. The mini bot suspected these two alone would keep him very busy.
Prowl tilted his head up, his door wings raising up in wonder at this mech he wasn't sure he had seen before, but since Jazz left him with this mech, he was probably safe. The sparkling got to his hands and knees and crawled the small distance to Gears feet, tapping a foot with his little hand to get his attention.
"Yes?" Gears bent a bit to look better at the sparkling, but still staring down at him. Prowl wasn't sure he liked this mech that wouldn't bring himself close enough to look at him face to face.
"Who?" Prowl asked curiously tilting his head back some more until he lost his balance and fell backwards. Red Alert chirped and stood up in wobbly legs, taking the few steps to his sparkling friend and looked down at him, chirping worriedly.
Prowl frowned and whimpered but managed to sit back up, glaring angrily at the tall mech for making him fall back and feel sore on his police lights again.
Gears sighed heavily and knelt down to the sparkling's level and hesitantly reached to stroke the sparkling's head. "I'm Gears," he said with a tight smile.
Prowl tilted his head a little, processing the mech's name and then pointed a diminutive finger to the mech's face. "Gurrs!"
"Close enough." Gears smile widened and couldn't help but wonder if Bluestreak was this cute when he was a sparkling. "Jazz is so not going to let you live down your cuteness, Prowl."
"Jass!" Prowl smiled, and threw his arms up, forgetting all his sore spots.
"Yes, yes, Jazz." Gears shook his head and carefully picked the online sparklings, carrying them along to get a couple of energon cubes for the other mini bots. It was part of a daily routine he set up for himself, filling up a tray with cubes for all the mini bots he knew would be coming to refuel to start their shift. Unlike other 'bots, Gears actually made a point of reading the schedules closely to see which mini bots would be in early shifts. It was a nice gesture for which he expected no thanks, and he usually didn't receive many. Cosmos, Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Seaspray and Beachcomber were the ones that always thanked his attentiveness, and Brawn on occasion. Anyone else just kind of took the cubes and left with their processors busy in only Primus knew what.
Gears didn't mind, he was used to be on the background most of time, the only mechs that usually talked to him in a regular basis were Bumblebee, Hound, Jazz and Bluestreak. "Okay, little 'bots, I need to fill the cubes. You sit here and don't move." Gears set Prowl and Red Alert in the bar, keeping an optic on them at all times while he filled the cubes. Prowl and Red Alert remained obediently on their places, too interested in what Gears was doing to try to wander anywhere.
With the rations for Brawn, Huffer, Windcharger and Cliffjumper served and arranged on a tray, Gears set the tray on the bar. Prowl eyed the tray with interest and got on his hands and knees to crawl to the tray, intending to examinate the energon. "Oh no, you won't." Gears picked the sparkling before he could reach the cubes, bringing Prowl close to his face. "Those are not for sparklings, they'll make you sick."
Prowl frowned cutely for a moment but then tilted his head and patted Gears' face. Gears couldn't help but smile at the sparkling. He really wondered if Bluestreak was nearly this cute as a sparkling. Then, an idea crossed his processor and Gears set the sparkling back down in the bar. He picked an empty cube and held it in two fingers before the sparklings. "Hey, you two wanna help me hand these out?"
Gears moved the cube around a little, and grinned when the sparklings followed the cube with their optics. "All you have to do is hold them out like these to the other bots." The mini bot helped to move Red Alert's little hands while he held the empty cube, holding it up to be taken. Prowl immediately caught on --after all he had handed Jazz a 'nakin'; and quickly grabbed one of the full cubes in his unsteady hands, miraculously keeping it from spilling while he offered it to Gears. "Yeah, just like that, Prowl." Gears grinned and took the cube, setting it back down on the tray. "But you gotta wait until the 'bots are here."
As if they had been summoned, Brawn, Cliffjumper, Windcharger and Huffer came into the room, talking among themselves. Red Alert chirped loudly and excitedly, bouncing a little on his seat and waving to the new arrivals.
"Hey, there, Red. Hiya, Prowl." Windcharger smiled to the sparklings.
"Chaja!" Prowl said excitedly while Red Alert grabbed one of the cubes and held it up for the gray and red mini bot, though, spilling a little on the tray as he did.
"That's me," Windcharger murmured with fond amusement and caught the cube before Red Alert could drop it. "Thank you!"
Red Alert clicked happily and reached for another cube which he offered to Huffer, although this time he received no thanks, which made the baby Lamborghini pout. Prowl wasn't about to let his friend's efforts go without proper thank you.
"Bad Huffa!"
Huffer choked a little on his energon and looked over his shoulder at the frown Prowl was aiming at him. "Thank you, Red Alert," he mumbled, and with both sparklings satisfied with his thanks, made his way out of the recreation room.
"Bawn!" Prowl held a cube up for the gruff mini bot who smiled at him and nodded, thanking him and Gears for the cube.
"Hey, Gears. Sparkling sitting?" Cliffjumper grinned and watched Prowl struggle to reach the last cube, casually spinning the tray around just a little so the sparkling could take the cube.
"Just for a little. Wheeljack's debriefing the other bots about something."
"Cwiffjumpa!" Prowl held the cube up for the red mini bot and Cliffjumper chuckled at Prowl's attempts to pronounce his name. "Thank you, sprocket!" The red mini bot poked Prowl's nose and accepted the cube, swallowing it all in one gulp. "'Kay, gotta get going. See you around, guys!"
Prowl and Red Alert waved clumsily at the departing mini bot and turned back to look at Gears expectantly. "Guess we better go back to the pen, huh?" Gears picked up the sparklings and made his way back to the pen where he tried to settle back comfortably against the wall where the other sparklings were still deeply in recharge.
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"Man, it's going to feel so odd to have them back to be grown mechs," Bluestreak said as he walked down the halls with Jazz, Hound, and Ironhide.
"Enjoy him for the last forty eight hours, Blue." Jazz chuckled. Wheeljack explained to them the machinery needed to return the sparklings back to normal required forty eight hours to charge properly. Just two more earth days and Prowl would be back to normal, and neither Jazz nor Ironhide would have to put up with that Behemoth of working schedule he endured. Ironhide definitely had a newly acquired respect for Prowl's ability to keep up with all that work by himself.
"At least sunny won't be trying to hit Wheelj--" Bluestreak stopped abruptly in mid sentence, staring in wonder at the scene displayed before his optics.
Lightly in recharge, Gears was leaning against the wall of the play pen, Sideswipe, Mirage and Perceptor cuddled against his leg, Red Alert was sprawled over Gear's middle and Prowl was crawling around the pen with the other sparklings' blanket over him.
Jazz grinned widely and with light steps headed to the pen, picking up his stuck-as-sparkling mate, removing the blanked in the process. "Havin' fun, Prowler?"
"Jass!" Prowl patted Jazz's face, then turned to look back at the recharging Gears, "Gurrs?"
"That's kinda cute," Ironhide chuckled softly and carefully picked up Perceptor, making sure not to disturb his rest. Hound did the same with Mirage and so did Bluestreak with Sideswipe.
Moving the red twin to rest against his shoulder, Bluestreak shook Gears gently. "Hey, Gears."
The mini bot's optics flickered on and off for a moment before they came fully online. "Huh?" He looked around disoriented for a moment then sat up, remembering what he was supposed to be doing. "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to go offline."
"It's all right, it's pretty early anyway," Bluestreak murmured with a smile, reaching up for Red Alert. "Thank you for watching over them, Gears."
Gears nodded and smiled the tiniest smile, "Anything for you, Bluestreak."
"Yes, thank you!" Jazz piped in. "Say bye to Gears, Prowler, gotta go back ta do your work." Jazz grinned and nuzzled his baby Datsun when Prowl waved good bye to the mini bot. The other mechs thanked Gears as well and left.
Gears watched Bluestreak leave the room with the sparklings in his arms. "Anything for you..." He whispered softly.