On His Knees - Transformers
On His Knees
Author's Notes: Shortly after I started reading Transformers fics way back in April 2012, I stumbled across Balrog Roike's fabulous "28 Starscreams" collection. After that, I found a few other 28 fics, and decided to try my hand at those prompts, albeit with no particular character or pairing involved. (It was actually supposed to be my TF fandom debut. Yeah, that didn't work out.) Unfortunately, it's now a few years later, and my endeavor hasn't gone quite as well as I'd hoped. I'm now tired of what very few oneshots I have done taunting me from their folder, and I have no desire to even start the other twenty or so. So, I will be posting what I have finished and mostly finished sometime in the next few months. On the off chance that I write more of these oneshots later on, they will be added.
Anyway, onto specifics! I originally wrote this story for my writing class. (Happily, my teacher liked it, even though she didn't know the characters.) It was a dialogue assignment, so expect lots of chatting.
For anyone curious, there is a tribute to Star Wars in here. See if you can find it!
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Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers.
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"Sideswipe! What are you doing?"
With a yelp, the red warrior jerked out from underneath the table, slamming his helm in the process with a sickening crack. Rubbing the spot ruefully, he glanced upwards with woeful eyes. "Hi, Prowl. How come it's always 'What are you doing?' or 'What have you done?' Why don't you ever give me the benefit of the doubt?"
Prowl stared back, utterly unimpressed. "Because, Sideswipe, it is always your fault. I have never found you in an unusual position, such as on your knees and peering under a table, that does not somehow cause chaos sometime in the future."
Sideswipe winced theatrically. "Prowl, you wound me." He grinned and tapped the back of his helm. "Right here."
Ignoring the hooligan's theatrics, Prowl tried again. "Sideswipe. What did you do?"
Realizing that the officer was not going to be deterred, Sideswipe wilted. "That's not what you asked me the first time." Apparently, the veteran prankster had honed his ability to gage Prowl's patience into an art form, because he swiftly continued, "Well, Bumblebee was watching Daniel. You know, Carly and Spike's three-year-old youngling? I guess there was some really urgent emergency with the minibots or something, because Bee practically begged me to watch Daniel for an hour or two. It was actually going pretty well for the most part, but when we started playing hide and seek, well…"
With a growing sense of dread, Prowl scrutinized the red frontliner. "Sideswipe, where exactly is Daniel?"
Shamefacedly, Sideswipe refused to meet Prowl's gaze. "I don't actually know. We had fun for a while, but now I can't find him! The kid's an amazing hider; he has some incredible potential," the twin muttered. "Anyway, Sunny and Bluestreak volunteered to help and are searching all over the place. He couldn't have gone far with those little legs of his, he's not out of the Ark, and there've been no alarms sounded. We just can't find him, and he's been missing for half an hour!" Sideswipe finished his monologue at a slightly higher pitch than he began it, and threw his servos in the air helplessly.
Disbelief coursing through him, Prowl felt his logic center slowly ticking towards a lockdown. "Do you mean to tell me, that for the last half an hour, we have had a vulnerable human sparkling running in our midst, with absolutely no one taking care of him, and you haven't told anyone!"
Flinching back from his superior's verbal assault, Sideswipe nevertheless managed to rally a defense. "It's not my fault! I really was doing a good job and playing with him and everything, just…" his voice trailed off. "You know, I'm honestly not sure exactly how he managed to sneak out on me. I kept a super sharp optic on him, and-"
"Enough." Prowl's voice sliced through Sideswipe's rambling with the ease of experience. "Continue searching. I will join you in your efforts. However," his voice took on an exasperated tone, "why have you not informed everyone else?"
Sideswipe merely leveled a flat stare at him. "Prowl. His dad and grandpa regularly muck about in our systems; they both have an excellent understanding on how to hurt us, up to and including me. Bumblebee is more than capable of making our lives a living Pit, and he would have no problems finding eager helpers. And don't get me started on what Carly would do to us. Fortunately, we do know that he is perfectly safe; everyone watches where they step, and Red Alert went through and baby-proofed the place years ago." His countenance brightened, and he enthusiastically concluded, "So, we decided to find him first and beg forgiveness later!"
Shaking his helm, Prowl led the both of them out the door and started down the hall. "Fine. But if you do not find him in twenty more minutes, you're telling Bumblebee exactly what happened."
Sideswipe huffed and rolled his eyes in an exaggerated fashion. "I suppose that's fine." Without warning in the middle of his gesture, the frontliner stopped and gaped through an open doorway. Spark sinking, Prowl peered into the Dinobots' quarters before joining Sideswipe in his undignified pose.
There, fast asleep in the center of Swoop's right servo, lay Daniel, sleeping the sleep of the innocent.
Eventually, the flier glanced up from the datapad in his other hand. "Hello! You looking for him Daniel?"
Remembering himself, Prowl snapped his mouth shut and regained his calm. "Yes, we were. How did you find him?"
Carefully, Swoop shrugged and explained. "Me Swoop find him Daniel in middle of hallway looking for place to hide. So me Swoop offer to hide him Daniel. After just a little bit, him Daniel take nap. Me Swoop not mind." Swoop turned hopeful optics on the two other Autobots. "Can him Daniel stay here until him wake up or her Carly arrive?"
Nodding decisively, Prowl pleasantly consented to the idea. "Sideswipe, you're fired. Go find your twin and Bluestreak, and all of you keep out of trouble. Swoop, comm. me if you require anything or if he wakes up."
"Me Swoop understand!" the Dinobot answered, quietly ecstatic.
Prowl quickly escaped before Sideswipe could protest his decisions. Primus, spare me from the trials of sparklings! Ah, well. One crisis down; time to prepare for the next one.
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Second Author's Notes: This bunny actually sprang from a favorite Baby Blues joke originally. I just modified it to fit this prompt. Essentially in the strip, when a mother asks her daughter why she's looking through the cupboards and stuff, the daughter replied that she and her younger brother had been playing hide and go seek with their baby sister. Until, well, their brother forgot where he hid her. This story is obviously not the same, but Sideswipe isn't that irresponsible! He is just woefully inexperienced when it comes to dealing with little kids. As for the Star Wars reference, one of the more infamous lines is "It's not my fault!"
Finally, I humbly ask forgiveness for utterly forgetting Prowl's doorwings. Mea culpa!