1. Guardians (A TFP Fanfiction Story)

Chapter 26

Ratchet sighed, rubbing his optics slowly as he backed away from the screen. Sitting in my usual spot, between his helm and shoulder plate, I looked over to his faceplate worriedly. Ever since I had injuries him over a week ago, he could barely keep up with his work. I placed my hand on his helm encouragingly.

"You okay?" I asked quietly, knowing he didn't want to catch the attention of the others.

His helm turned, optics on me. "I should be fine. Just a.. helmache."

I nodded and drew my hand away, feeling my face flush a bit in embarrassment. "Okay. What is Optimus looking at?" I asked, looking over to where the leader was reading something solemnly. It sounded like a doom prophecy.

He too glanced over to the Prime worriedly. "Nothing good. It seems that the prophecy has befallen on this world."

I shuddered as the other Autobots expressed their confusion to Optimus, worry and anxiety edged in their voices. From the way it sounded, they had every right to be worried.

"Oh," Ratchet said, remembering something. "I believe that Bumblebee is picking you up from school tomorrow," he said.

I nodded. "Yes, it's his turn." Ratchet was still too injured and exhausted to drive me back and forth, barely being able to change into his alt mode without pain. The other guardians were taking turns bringing me back to base from school. Today it had been Bulkhead's turn, which would have been more pleasant if not for the music.

My guardian turned his optics back to his work. "Well, I overheard Rafael saying that he really wanted to go racing today, and also wanted you to come. Said you needed more time out of base."

I smiled, nodding again. "Okay, that's fine. Sounds fun!"

"As long as you are not driving," he said with a rare smirk.

I laughed. "Right!"

Ratchet continued his work for a little while longer before he noticed the other children working on something on Raf's laptop. He leaned over to see before his optics narrowed.

"Wait, is that Bumblebee?" he asked skeptically.

I looked over, and though it was farther away and harder to see, I could definitely tell it was the Autobot scout. Raf assured him that he had it taken care of.

"We just scrub, and replace Bee with..," Raf said slowly, dragging something over to where Bumblebee's picture had previously been.

A dancing Mars cat?

I bit back a fit of giggles, knowing that I was right next to Ratchet's audio receptor. To my surprise, however, Ratchet laughed once, nice and loudly too. I jumped in surprise as his faceplate fell when he realized what he had just done. The other kids all stared in shock.

"Ratchet actually laughed?" she said in disbelief.

Ratchet stuttered and looked away, obviously embarrassed. I bit back another snicker at his silly behavior.

"Huh," Jack chuckled. "Hey, Optimus, you wanna see something funny?"

"No," came Optimus' simple reply.

Jack flinched, but Arcee came to his rescue. "Don't take it personally. Primes are built that way."

"Yeah, I've never seen Optimus laugh, cry, or lose his cool," Bulkhead joined in, shrugging.

Ratchet glanced away from his work. "Optimus certainly keeps his emotions in check, but I've known him longer than any of you have," he explained. "And he was different before he became a Prime."