It was a calm morning in the base, Bumblebee had been watching the monitors that night and nothing interesting had happened meaning everyone could get some well needed recharge.
Bumblebee smirked to himself as he recalled the moment he had dropped Miko off in the Prime's quarters that night, buckets of paint galore. He'd had no issue showing the little seekerling how to hold a paintbrush and how to dip it into the paint can, she seemed really happy as well, so he took that as a sign that this plan was perfect.
"Good morning, Bumblebee," Ratchet said gruffly as he walked in with an alert Raf fidgeting in the crook of his arm.
"Bee!" Raf called happily in a soft, squeaky voice as he reached for him.
Bumblebee was quick to shoot around a stare at the sparkling that had just shouted his name whilst Ratchet rolled his optics at the shout.
The yellow mech's optics trailed the medic as he went to go and fix some sparkling grade energon for Raf and the two other sparklings that were bound to be in here in a matter of minutes with their guardians.
"Did he just speak or am I malfunctioning?" Bumblebee buzzed confused.
"No, you heard correctly, the little demon figured out he can say your name last night and that's all I heard throughout the night," the medic huffed as he sat the sparkling on the medical berth and passed him a bottle.
"Hey, Raf! Can you say anything else?" Bee asked happily.
"Don't think so," Raf's response came out as muffled as he was preoccupied stuffing his face with the energon he had just tugged out of Ratchet's hands, "Wait!"
"Rafael..." the medic sighed tiredly as the sparkling sputtered his energon over the berth.
"That means I beat Miko and Jack at something! They might be able to move but I can speak, and that means I'll be the one to get us back to our human forms!" he cheered.
"What's with all the shouting, Raf?" Arcee cooed as she walked into the main area with Jack on her shoulders, his arms attempting to wrap around her head to hold on as his guardian crossed the room to get a bottle for her charge.
"Rafael has discovered the ability to speak," Ratchet rolled his optics but had a small smile on his face.
"Hey, Jack! I can speak!" Raf called to his friend before shoving the tip of the energon bottle back in his mouth.
Jack's bright optics widened, "Raf, this is huge. You can tell the bots that we're still the same, we just need our human bodies back!"
"Well, I haven't quite figured out how to say other words in a way that they'll understand..."
"So, what can you say?"
"Bee," Raf grinned sheepishly.
"Well, it's a start I guess," Jack trailed slowly with a sulky look.
"Cute," Arcee smiled at Raf as she moved Jack to be cradled in her arms so she could feed him.
"Not when you hear it all night..."
"No, it's definitely cute," Bumblebee shut down the medic.
Jack scowled as he snatched the bottle from his guardian, "I can feed myself."
"What's cute?" Bulkhead stumbled in clumsily.
"Bee!" Raf called with a squeak.
"Aw, little buddy can say your name!" Bulk grinned with a slightly higher pitched voice.
Arcee's optic ridges raised in surprise and a smirk came to her face at the wrecker's reaction, "Where's Miko?"
"Still with Optimus, I don't think he trusts me to look after a sparkling."
There was a squeak of surprise and a clang sound and all four adult bots turned to look at the sparkling that had tumbled off of the berth that Ratchet had left him on.
"Optimus doesn't trust me either, he said Ratchet would be a better guardian for Raf," Bee buzzed sarcastically as they all watched the medic run over to the crying sparkling.
Optimus' optics onlined slowly and the big mech couldn't help but marvel at the perfect recharge he had just awoken from. He figured it wouldn't hurt to sleep in another few minutes, so he let his optics offline with a small smile.
The mech's optics shot open as he realised that Miko should have woken him up by now, whether it was screeching, laughing or tapping him, he knew there was something not quite right. Slowly, he got up from his berth, careful in case said sparkling were to roll out from somewhere.
"Miko?" Optimus called as he took in the sight of his empty berth. It was very clear that the sparkling had escaped his room during the night and gone on some weird little adventure.
The Prime left his quarters after thoroughly searching every corner of it and began walking slowly towards the main room, keeping his optics peeled for any sight of the seekerling running freely around base.
Arcee was sat peacefully on a crate with Jack consuming his morning energon, Bumblebee had Raf in his arms, both with their own energon, Ratchet was tapping away on the monitors for energon signals and Bulkhead was reading a data pad, apparently the big wrecker liked to try and educate himself when he had the time.
"Good morning, Autobots. I'm afraid Miko has gone missing during the night, and I require your assistance finding her."
All of his Autobots turned upon hearing their leader and the news he had to bring them.
"Good morning, Opti-"
Ratchet sputtered, unable to complete his sentence. Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Arcee felt their jaws almost fall off their hinges at the sight of their leader.
Optimus raised an optic ridge at his team, "Is something wrong?" he enquired.
"Optimus kinda looks good in pink," Jack shrugged as Raf giggled.
"Have you perhaps wondered why Miko might have disappeared?" Ratchet asked with a smirk.
Optimus looked at him blankly, waiting for an explanation.
"Yeah, she must have realised you wouldn't be too happy with her little project," Bulkhead laughed before he could stop himself.
"...Project?" Optimus was confused now.
"Look in the monitor, Optimus," Bee held a cheeky glint in his optics. His leader definitely couldn't point digits at him being incapable of looking after a sparkling. Raf squirmed slightly in his arms and let out some babbling when he noticed Bumblebee hadn't used the shortcuts that he had installed for the bots a few weeks after they had first arrived on base.
Optimus watched the monitor as Bumblebee pulled up the security camera view of the main room. The Prime remained externally stoic as he saw the state of himself on the monitors before looking down at himself.
Pink. Bright pink paint. All over him.
Internally, Optimus wasn't necessarily angry, he was disappointed in himself; a sparkling, practically a newspark had outsmarted him during his recharge and then run away to hide. How had he not found any spot of the paint on him or in his quarters?
It seemed that he needed to keep an optic on their rambunctious little seekerling. Apparently, she was just as curious, if not more, that human Miko.
"Okay, go get cleaned up, Optimus. We'll go look for Miko, she can't have gotten far," Arcee giggled as she stood up with Jack clinging to her and babbling to himself.
"Miko, only you..." he shook his head and let out a laugh. Okay, he needed to get on his friend's level, clearly, they were able to get away with things that human versions of them wouldn't be able to do.
Optimus nodded to and turned to walk to the wash racks with a small scowl on his face. It was the morning of the third day with sparklings on base, and already the trouble had begun.
About 3 hours later, Miko was found asleep in a vent close to the ground near Bumblebee's quarters. She was smothered helm-to-pede in pink paint and seemed very relaxed in the vent she was sleeping in. She was rudely awoken when she felt someone pulling her out and then passed over to a person with bigger hands.
Her small optics blinked open and onlined revealing her bright, happy optics. They formed into an unimpressed look when she saw the person holding her was a very unimpressed Prime.
"Aw come on, dude! You already washed off the paint before I could even see your reaction?!"
She already knew what the big mech looked like, but the reaction was what she lived for.
"Miko, where'd you find the paint?" Jack smirked from his place in Arcee's hold.
"I don't know," she shrugged, "Bumblebee gave it to me."
"Bee gave you it?" Raf was shocked that his best friend would aid Miko in a prank.
"Yeah that's right, Raf, 'Bee'" Bumblebee cheered when he heard his name come from the sparkling before he turned back to the older bots that were debating how to make sure the sparklings couldn't wander off in the night.
"I can say Bee's name and they understand it," Raf explained when Miko looked on confused
"Well, 'Bee was actually the one that came up with the plan to paint Optimus, but you didn't hear that from me," she grinned.
"Doesn't surprise me," the oldest sparkling shrugged, "He doesn't seem very impressed that he isn't Raf's fulltime guardian anymore."
"Miko," Optimus got her attention, "I'm not happy with you or your actions."
Miko merely stared at him in response before giggling at him earning a sigh from the Prime.
The group of bots all walked back to the main area where Arcee, Bulkhead and Raf started to entertain Jack and Raf whilst Optimus and Ratchet walked to the medical bay.
A small tub was filled with cleaning solvent and a squeaking Miko was placed into it much to her displeasure.
"Hey! I like being pink!" she squealed as Optimus carefully scrubbed her small body.
"Hush, Miko," Optimus cooed slightly as he moved to her wing nubs. He smiled when the wing nubs flicked solvent at him and twitched when he gently cleaned them, "Primus, you're so precious..."
Prime mentally scolded himself when he heard a cough and turned to see Ratchet with a smirk on his face and a bottle in his hand for Miko. Optimus took it with a nod of thanks and held the bottle out for Miko, waiting for her to take it before he continued cleaning her.
"Thanks, big guy," she smiled as she took the bottle and began to drink her energon happily, "Oh man this is heaven..."
Apparently energon and someone rubbing her wing nubs was the best combination in the universe and she found herself slumped over the Prime's hand in a trance like state.
However, she was forced back into reality when Arcee walked over and placed Jack and Raf into the solvent with her, "Wouldn't hurt to clean these two as well," she smiled as she began gently brushing the solvent over both of their plating.
Jack and Raf looked at her awkwardly before they all tried their best to not look at each other. Both weren't sure how to feel about bathing with each other like this, plus it was embarrassing having Optimus and Arcee clean them like they were their parents.
But Miko easily shook it off, she had grown up in a family that loved visiting hot springs when they were travelling to different places in Japan. Soon she was sucking in air through her bottle and her optics onlined as the bottle was pulled from her mouth. She let out a small squeal as she was pulled out of the warm solvent, wrapped in a towel and placed against the Prime's large shoulder and was patted on the burp until she let out a burp.
Arcee pulled Raf and Jack from the tub a few minutes later after making sure both were squeaky clean.
"You guys okay?" she asked gently as she wrapped them both in a towel together. She was shocked that the sparklings had remained so quiet throughout the whole bathing process. The two young mechlings would be blushing bright red if their anatomy allowed it.
"So, I've come up with possible punishments for Miko," Ratchet drawled with a smirk.
Optimus' gaze fell from Ratchet to the sparkling now wrapped up in his arms and looking close to falling into recharge, "I don't think now is the time."
Ratchet smiled, his old friend was still a big softy, Prime or not.
"Nope! I'm awake, come on lemme go play with Bulk and the others. You guys are cool and all but you're like the grandpas of the team!"
"Would you like to go and play with the others, Miko?" Optimus asked softly.
"Yes!" she squealed in excitement and threw her arms up making Optimus chuckle and gently pat her head.
"Alright, now that we've got the gang back together," Bulkhead gestured towards the three sparklings, "I say we build a fort."
Bumblebee buzzed in excited agreement and nodded his head and Arcee rolled her optics with a small smile.
"Alright then gang, let's go get some crates and some mech covers from storage and then head to a training room. I'm sure Optimus and Ratchet won't mind us building it in there."
"Yeah, sounds good, 'Cee!"
Bumblebee and Arcee watched as Bulkhead scooped up all three sparklings and started sprinting towards one of the training rooms, said sparklings all squealing in delight. The two bots left behind were left with the delightful realisation that they'd be the ones to gather the supplies and bring it along.
"Faster, Bulkhead!" Miko shouted and threw her arms in the air at the makeshift rollercoaster.
"Yeah!" Raf followed suit and threw his arms up too.
"I feel sick," Jack groaned from the side of his friends, but it came out as a squeal making Bulkhead think he was enjoying himself as much as the other two.
Jack vented in relief when they reached the training room of choice and crawled to his friends upon being set down on the floor.
"Fort-building, huh? Decepticon activity must have dried up," Raf quipped.
The blue femme and the yellow mech walked into the room together, dragging along a bunch of supplies with them. They'd crafted a net from some of the mesh covers they had found to drag along all the empty energon cubes they wished to use alongside some spare coverings and support beams that had been left behind from the previous human residents of the base.
"Alright, here's how this is gonna work; Bulkhead, you and Miko are gonna stack these crates around the room. Bumblebee and Raf are in charge of support beams in between the spaces that crates leave. Jack and I are throwing mesh covers everywhere."
"Sure, Arcee, give yourself the easy part," Bee tilted his helm to the side and feigned shock.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I just thought you big, strong mechs would be able to deal with the heavy lifting," she smirked as Bumblebee straightened up and went to lift as many beams as he could, trying to be the big, strong mech that Arcee claimed he was, "Looks like we win, Jack."
Jack giggled up at his guardian before he could catch himself. His smile stuck to his face as he crawled past his guardian and over to the supplies where he found a mesh cover to pick up and carry around. He may be small, but he can still help out!
Miko and Raf watched from where they were sat together on the floor as their guardians picked up some of the supplies they needed and started to position them around the large space they had occupied. Their gaze was focused on Jack when they saw him pushing himself up from the floor and onto his two little legs, surprisingly the little mech made it and managed to stand up for a solid two seconds before dropping back onto his little aft.
"Woah Jack-Rabbit, look at you go," Miko cheered, "My turn!"
Miko honestly was trying, but Raf and Jack couldn't help but look at her as if she wasn't taking this attempt to stand up seriously. She pulled herself up using one of the crates that Bulkhead had placed next to her and tried to take a step away from her, but she was wobbling too much, and way more than Jack had been.
She slumped to the floor and groaned, Raf could speak and Jack was about to start walking. What was she good at?
"You'll get there, Miko, you're just little," Bulkhead called over to her from where he was stacking some crates.
"Damn right I will!" she called back as she pushed herself up to try again. She wobbled and fell to the floor again in heap.
"You're slouching your back when you stand, Miko. Maybe that's why you can't stay standing?" Raf offered as he watched his friend untangle herself and try again.
"Oh yeaaah, she has wings," Jack thought as he pushed himself up and stayed up this time as he focused on keeping his balance, "They might be extra weight or something?"
"Maybe, but still, there's no way bots with wings can't walk," Miko complained as she pushed herself up yet again, this time without the crate, "Progress!" she shouted and toppled over instantly.
Raf and Jack laughed at her, at least she could stay positive.
Jack was suddenly feeling nostalgic, last time he and his two friends had laughed like that, they'd been having a sleepover at base and had more pizza than three people needed, "I really miss being able to eat pizza..."
"I miss my laptop and school..."
"Can't relate on the school part, but it's weird how much I actually miss from human life as crappy as it could be," Jack said with a sigh.
"True say, but I think being Cybertronian could be fun. Imagine if they can't change us back and we end up going back to Cybertron with them, that'd be sweet!"
Jack's optics widened at Miko's statement; he knew it was meant with good intentions but Raf was a sensitive boy.
"Well, I have no doubt that the bots are gonna change us back eventually," the older boy placed a hand on the younger boy's shoulder.
Before they knew it, their guardians had completed the fort and picked them up. The training room was huge, and they'd managed to fill almost the whole room with the resources they had collected. During the construction, they had decided they could make the fort maze-like to make the games they'd play in there more fun.
"Alright, Bee. What games do you sparklings wanna play?" Arcee teased.
"I'll have you know I'm a professional at tag," the scout whirred confidently, "You're it!" he slapped Arcee and in an instant, the scout and the wrecker at shot off at hyper-speed into the fort maze.
"That wasn't fair!" Jack shouted angrily and then he realised what he was doing, "Chill, Jack... it's a game, I'm not actually a sparkling," he laughed uncomfortably to himself as his guardian started running after the fleeing mechs.
Miko peeked her little helm over Bulkhead's shoulder and her optics widened, "Incoming, Bulk!"
"We got this, Miko," and with that Bulkhead ditched Bumblebee and Raf and made a sharp turn around the corner and followed any path he saw in the maze.
Arcee wasn't expecting this sharp turn, tried to stop and ending up flying past the turn and crashed into Bumblebee, "Well, I guess that worked out, you're it!" she slapped the scout on the arm and sprinted past him and around the corner.
"C'mon Bee! Let's get her!" Raf pointed after Arcee and the scout took off after her, he was not about to be beaten especially since he had proudly declared he was a pro.
Meanwhile, Bulkhead had been mapping out the maze that he had tangled himself and Miko in to get away from Arcee. A shout told him that Bumblebee was now 'it' and the big mech was now attempting to tread quietly through the maze that had been crafted. Honestly, he thought he would've remembered where he was since he helped to build this thing, but the fort was so damn big that it was easy to get lost.
The wrecker and the seekerling soon approached a cross in the maze and both stuck their helms out to see if there was any sign of a small blue femme or a young yellow scout.
"Alright, Miko, which way we heading?" Bulk turned to look up at the sparkling sat on his shoulders. She released one of her arms from her grip on his helm and pointed to the straight forward and the big mech walked straight ahead.
She didn't say a word as she didn't want her and Bulk to get caught. The seekerling giggled quietly, this was reminding her of when she made Jack and Raf play Slender with her.
Both perked up suddenly when they heard pedefalls coming their way, and fast. It was too light to be Bumblebee, so it was Arcee but both didn't know if she had been tagged or not. This could be a trap.
"Hold on, Miko!" Bulk called as he turned around and ran just as Arcee turned the corner and ran from the direction they were just about to walk in.
"Bee's coming!" she shouted with a big smile on her face as Jack laughed wildly.
"You're not it?" Bulkhead shouted back as he continued running.
"Might be!" she grinned as she overtook him and sprinted even faster.
Bulkhead watched after the fast femme as she turned a corner and successfully imbedded herself into the maze they had created, but his attention was diverted when he heard a high-pitched squeal come from behind him accompanied by some heavier pedefalls.
"There they are!" Raf squealed as he pointed at Bulkhead and Miko.
Miko's head whipped to look at her friend and his guardian before smacking Bulkhead on the helm with her little servos, "Step on it, Bulk! They're gaining on us!"
But it was too late, the young scout had caught up and smacked Bulkhead on the arm with a triumphant buzz and a happy squeal from Raf, "Tag it!"
Bulk smiled evilly and moved an arm to make sure Miko was secure on his shoulders before darting after Bumblebee, "Not gonna be it for long!"
The base had gone quiet, too quiet. Ratchet and Optimus knew that the three younger bots had taken their charges to wind down and have some fun. They must have gone deep into the base as there was no sign of any of them.
"I wonder what they're up to," Ratchet pondered as he tweaked some of his recently broken tools, courtesy of Bulkhead.
"I do not know, old friend. But it is too quiet for my liking," Optimus responded from his position at the monitors. A small alert sounded from the monitor drawing both mechs' attention, it was an energon signal that was currently unearthed, meaning the Decepticons were still yet to have come across it.
Optimus was quick to activate his comm link and sent a message through to the frequency everyone on base shared.
{Autobots, we have discovered an energon signal which must be attended to immediately, prepare to roll out.}
However, he was met with static. No pings of confirmation, no responses of any form, and that had both mechs worried. Just where were the Autobots and what were they doing?
"They definitely haven't left base. We would have seen them drive out or activate the groundbridge, they're probably engaged in some uncanny way of keeping themselves entertained," the medic scoffed as he continued fixing his tools.
"The energon can wait, the Decepticons don't seem to have made contact with this signal. I will go and find them and make sure they are not in any form of trouble," Optimus nodded as he begun making his way into the deeper parts of the base, keeping his optics and audials wide open for any sign of his team.
As he ventured deeper, he became increasingly concerned at the lack of life in the halls. There were six of them altogether, for Primus' sake, and Optimus couldn't find a clue that led to a single one of them. That was until he heard the multiple shrieks of laughter and the squeals of young sparks coming from one of the training areas.
The Prime walked in the direction of all the commotion but stopped in his tracks when it all went silent again. Had he imagined all of that?
His worries were shut down when it all started up again and repeat. It made him wonder why there were periodic bursts of noise and then silence. Even the sparklings would go quiet with their guardians, yet he could just about get Miko to quieten down on occasion. What on Cybertron were they doing?
Finally, the noise led Optimus to push open the large doors of the training area that all the noise was emanating from and he was met with a sight that made him freeze. His optics widened as he took in the confusing sight of mesh blankets strung up all over the large area with the occasional support beam or stack of crates hanging out of the side of the structure.
A fort, he realised.
And if the sound of three bots running told him anything, he guessed that they were engaged in some form of game to keep the sparklings entertained. Where was his invite?
"Autobots," he called, and a smirk came to his face plates when all of the running, shouting and laughing completely stopped.
"Frag, it's Optimus," came a whisper, but the Prime could only just make out what the small voice had said, let alone who had said it.
"Maybe if we stay quiet, he'll think we're somewhere else," came another whisper.
"That's stupid, he clearly knows we're in here," another whispered voice joined in.
Optimus struggled to conceal a chuckle when one of the whisperers snapped back, "Well, it's worth a try."
And then there was silence again. So, they wanted to mess around with Optimus Prime? He figured he could indulge in their games.
He walked towards the entrance of the fort without saying a word and let himself in. He was shocked at the amount of detail that had gone into making this, he would never have guessed that the inside had different turns and random dead ends. He walked calmly through the maze, taking any turn that wouldn't lead him in a circle whilst trying not to get the points on his helm caught on the mesh roof that had been constructed.
There was a quick flash of yellow and a small squeak of surprise that followed it. Optimus followed as quietly as he could, and suddenly he rounded the corner coming face to face (in order of closest to him to furthest from him) Raf, Bumblebee, Jack, Arcee, Miko and Bulkhead.
Before any of them could react or say anything to him, Prime smirked at them, "You have three seconds to run, if I catch you, you're out."
The bots and sparklings exchanged shocked but exited glances before they all shot off and away from the Prime.
"1... 2... 3!"
With that, the Prime went sprinting after his subordinates in the fort maze, hunting them down like a wild dog. He noticed that they had all decided to stick together and strategically try and throw him off course by pretending that one of them had split from the group every so often. Clearly, they had been in this maze long enough to know the ins and outs of every corner, turn and long run.
However, their game was ended when Bulkhead clipped his large frame on a support beam as he ran from Optimus, which in turn led Bumblebee to stumble into some stacked crates as he tried to dodge the beam the falling beam.
Optimus honestly tried to reach and pull Arcee away from the falling crates, but they smashed into her shoulder, making Jack fly off her and hit the floor with a cry of shock. More crates were about to tumble as the entire balance of this area of the fort had been completely thrown off by the loss of two major support systems, and said crates looked like they were about to land right on top of Jack.
The four Autobots didn't know what happened, but Optimus shot forward at hyper speed and snatched the sparkling up off the ground right as the crate fell. The cry of an upset sparkling in Optimus' arms let everyone know that their game was over, so they all dug their way out of the broken part of the fort and into a part of the training area that wasn't fortified.
Jack was successfully shocked; he was clinging to Optimus like his life depended on it and shaking.
"That was way too close," he managed to squeak out as he felt the Prime stroke his back in an attempt to comfort and calm him.
Slowly, his grip on Optimus loosened and he reached over for Arcee making little grabbing motions towards her. He was handed back to Arcee where he was cradled and gently checked over for any dents, fractures or torn wires. To her relief, he seemed to have taken the fall like a trooper as there was no damage, though she would still ask Ratchet to scan him later on. Once she had calmed Jack, she joined her friends and looked at their leader sheepishly.
"I understand that this was made with no intention of harm coming to anyone, however, as we have all witnessed, this is unsafe for the sparklings," Optimus began, "I don't believe it would be wise to use this as a setting for your games again."
"Aww!" Miko groaned from where she was still perched on her guardian's shoulders, "Of course he takes away the only fun thing that we have!"
"Well, I did almost die," Jack pointed out.
"That sounds like a you problem," Miko rolled her optics.
Raf touched his eyes, a form of tick that developed from pushing up his glasses when he was unsure of something, "I guess Optimus is right, that could happen again and seriously hurt one of us."
"What else do they want us to do? All they've done so far is cuddle us and this was the only fun thing we've been able to do!" Miko was getting angry now. She didn't realise she would become this frustrated being a sparkling, but she missed all the things she could do as a teenage human. Being a baby robot was emotionally taxing and there was absolutely nothing she could do. She surmised that Jack and Raf were probably more accepting because they'd lived their whole lives in boring Jasper.
"Hey, Miko" Bulk bounced her a little and tried reassuring her, "Look, Jack's fine there's nothing to be worried about."
"That's not... Ugh." She was so ready to throw a tantrum, but she was abruptly plucked from her perch and held by Optimus who looked at her with a questioning gaze.
"Miko, we can find other games to play," the Prime tried as he stroked her wing nubs.
"No!" she slapped a hand against Optimus' chest but instantly realised what she had done, "Wow, okay I need to chill..."
The other bots looked on with wide optics as they took in what had just happened. Miko really wasn't looking to be in the Prime's good books. First, she painted him pink and now she'd slapped him and shouted "no" in his face.
"Miko, you do not hit me nor anyone else," he said sternly as he frowned at her to which she responded with another rebellious shout.
All other Autobots in the room looked on in disbelief until one of them got over their shock and a big grin came to their face.
"Way to go, Miko! Your first word!" Bulkhead cheered as he pumped a large fist in the air.
Arcee raised an optic ridge at the wrecker's support for the naughty seekerling but said nothing. If he wanted to enjoy another version of a loud, obnoxious Miko then that was his business. She looked down at the sparkling in her arms and lightly brushed her digits over her faceplates whilst she counted her lucky stars that Jack couldn't speak yet, Primus knew she was over his smug comments.
Before Optimus could say anything else to the seekerling held in his arms, Raf suddenly let out a raspy cough onto his guardian's chest plates who could only respond with a buzz mixed with disgust and concern. Everyone in the room became increasingly worried when the youngest sparkling broke out into a violent coughing fit that shook his little body, and wordlessly, they collectively walked back to the main room where they could let Ratchet give him a check-up.
"What could have caused this?" Ratchet muttered to himself as he took the wheezing sparkling from Bumblebee's arms.
Raf felt awful and being passed over to another bot made his little helm spin making him wretch as he tried to not throw up. He groaned as the medic scanned him and could only pray that whatever this was would soon pass. He felt cold, but incredibly hot, he was pretty sure he was shaking, and his body was registering a pain that he could only compare to have tiny needles shoved into his organs. It was sharp and unforgiving, and, in the end, he gave in and let out a pained cry. The little mech's optics were beginning to ache and burn so he shut them off.
The medic gently lowered the sparkling to the medical berth and turned to his worried teammates practically pressed against him in anticipation.
"Rafael is showing symptoms of cyberflu," he shook his head in disbelief and an undertone of sadness, "For now, I would advise everyone to stay away from the medical bay unless absolutely necessary, and, I cannot stress the importance of keeping Jack and Miko away from him. Rafael's systems are not fully developed and are easily attacked by illness..."
"It's not your fault, Ratch," Bulkhead tried as the doctor trailed off, "None of us could have ever guessed that one of them would get so ill."
Ratchet shook his head, "As a physician, I should've vaccinated the sparklings sooner."
"While that may be true, we understand that your resources as a doctor are limited, and thus vaccinations had to be delayed," Optimus reasoned with his friend.
Bumblebee's doorwings drooped and his eyes adjusted trying to keep the sorrow from showing on his faceplates. Raf would have to fight this battle without the support of his guardian. Some words were exchanged, but Bumblebee wasn't paying attention. The scout perked up slightly when he felt Bulkhead pat him on the shoulder in an attempt to comfort him, and he allowed the wrecker to lead him away from Raf and Ratchet, Optimus and Arcee following closely behind.
Optimus looked down at Miko when she squealed up at him and he gave her a warm smile. He resisted the urge to chuckle when the sparkling tilted her head in confusion, very obviously not familiar with this facial expression etched onto the Prime's face.
"All will be fine, Miko. For now, Rafael must rest," he cooed to her as he tucked her closer to his chest.