Transformers Prime: A Sparkling Issue

Chapter 3 - Prime Sitter

The clerk, now turned Prime, sighed. "Of course the memory would return after all is done."

Honestly, he didn't know why he didn't think of it before (although screaming sparklings might have had something to do with it). Oil in energon wasn't uncommon even among adult Cybertronians. Back on Cybertron the older would often be seen mixing the lubricant with their drinks to keep their aging parts from groaning or binding up. He had even heard Ratchet on more than one occasion suggest that a mixture be taken every so often to help prevent wear and tear on any bot's inner works and to maintain smooth operation. Said it saved him work.

But reminiscing had to wait as the chain of troubles was far from over. Tanks now empty again, the sparklings began to cry for more food, holding their bottles out with little shakes. Optimus set the sparklings he held on the floor, taking a quick glance at himself with light digested. He couldn't just make up more energon and leave them like this, covered in their own spit-up. He put things in an order of how to proceed: First he would clean them up as much as he could, then himself, then make up more but this time using the formula, then while they ate he would clean up what had been expelled on the floor. But he was sure a rag would only get the majority of it off them. Which meant in order to do the job right...

Then, the realization of what he was going to have to do. All the sparklings were going to need another bath. Only this time he would be handling it all alone. But as that was last on the list, he focused on his problems one at a time.

He got one of the towels the kids had put out to dry after the sparklings' first baths and wiped his servos so the blue muck wouldn't keep spreading to everything he touched. Then he picked up each one at a time and cleaned them off as best he could. During which Optimus had some trouble trying to keep them out of what was still on the floor and wondered why little ones' have a fascination of wanting to crawl through such things (especially after getting cleaned). Once while wiping Arcee, the femme began giggling hysterically as the towel tickled her sensitive mid-section and he made sure to have a gentler touch after that. When done, he set the towel aside as he would use it to clean the floor later. The train of sparklings again followed him all the way to the storeroom and back, whimpering excitedly up at the tall mech when they saw the glowing cube in his servos.

Again, Optimus set out the bottles in a row, but this time with a canister of oil nearby. He filled each half full with new low-grade energon and then capped them off with half oil. He screwed on the lids and shook each one thoroughly (though he did find out you must cover the nub with a finger to keep it from squirting out). Oil may not mix with much else, it does actually combination with energon, just making it a bit darker in appearance. Herding all to a clean area, Optimus passed out the bottles which were eagerly taken and made sure all were eating properly. Bumblebee did stop to watch with saddened optics at the large mech walked away, wanting to be held again. But seeing it wasn't going to happen this time, he went back to drinking with a whirring sigh.

Optimus filled one of the other tubs with water and fetched some of the soap to suds it up. Taking it and the towel he'd put aside, the Prime got down on servos and knee plates and started scrubbing the evidence of his diminutive babysitting knowledge from the floor. As he squeezed out the towel of murky blue water, he wondered what his friends back on Cybertron would say if they could see him now.

Thankfully, this time all dinners stayed where they should, and the sparklings quickly downed the entire containers. By the time he'd finished mopping up the floor, Optimus had to refill them all again as they demanded more before going to work on cleaning himself. It isn't the easiest task for a Cybertronian to clean oneself while in bot mode which was why they had special showers for that back on Cybertron; here Earth had no such luxuries. But Optimus managed to get off all the blue that had crusted to his metal plating and rinsed himself down with the hose. All the while he kept an optic on the sparklings, but they were content to sit still as they all drank their contented fill. Optimus had just finished drying off when Bulkhead put his empty bottle down with a coo and let out a burp.