"Can you tell me what you're doing up there?" Prowl asked, helm tilted upwards to look at his adoptive sister who was hanging upside down on the rafters like a bat attaching wind chimes to the beams.
"Decorating, duh." She said, obviously.
Prowl gazed around her room. Ever since Ratchet told them they would be staying on Earth for a while, Mantis hadn't wasted any time and went back to settling her to do list for her room.
Currently, she was decorating it, hanging up some fairy lights to offer her light at night and a poster of some...... 'anime' she watched- whatever anime is, Prowl didn't really know or care.
He walked over and his optics fell on the box still filled with some strings of fairy light and other knick knacks. He picked up a dreamcatcher and admired the mesmerizing craftsmanship and let his sensors graze the feathers.
"Where'd you get all this?" he asked.
"Found it while on patrol. Some guy was hosting this 'yard sale' and he said he didn't want all that stuff so I thought he wouldn't miss it." Mantis said nonchalantly as she successfully placed the wind chime in place.
"You stole it?!" Prowl asked.
"Of course not!" Mantis said, offended. "I left a note. Now, pass me the dreamcatcher." He tossed it up to her and she caught it. "Thanks."
"Hiya sis!" Sari said, coming in.
"Yo." Mantis replied, giving a two digit salute in greeting despite hanging upside down like a bat. She swung back and somersaulted through the air before landing gracefully, servos spread out in a 'T' like landing pose.
"Show off." Prowl muttered.
Mantis just ignored her brother and allowed Sari to bring her to the main room. Sari turned around on her heel and clasped her hands together, excitement evident.
"Ok, so I figured since you and others will be staying here for a while, you and I should celebrate with......." She paused for dramatic effect. "An all girls sleepover!" she said with a flourish.
"An all girls sleepover?" Mantis echoed.
Sari nodded enthusiastically. "Yup, just you and me. The girls have fun and dance the night away. It'll be awesome! We can watch movies, play video games, eat snacks- oh wait, sorry you can't but I can tell you about them! Oh and we can also style up your dreads and I can't wait to teach you about manicures and-and...."
"Whoa whoa, dial it down and hit the brakes!" Mantis said, giving Sari a chance to stop and breathe again. "I get what you're trying to say and I'm in." she said.
"Really? Yes!" Sari cheered. "This is going to be the best sleepover ever!"
"Can I come too?" Bee asked, chiming in. "It sounds like fun and I'm down for it."
"Sorry, Bee, no can do. It's girls only." Sari said, hugging Mantis's pede.
"Awww, now I feel so out of the loop. Oh the pain." He put a servo over his spark chamber in mock hurt. "I'm being replaced!" he wailed.
Mantis chuckled and rubbed his helm. "Chillax, BB. It's just one night and us girls need some personal time too, ya know?"
"For what?" he asked.
Mantis flipped her dreads over her shoulder. "Femininity. Girl power and all that." She said.
".......wha?" Bee asked, confused.
Mantis and Sari rolled their eyes/optics and glanced at one another. "Boys." They both said then laughed.
"Come on, let's go plan!" Sari said, jumping up and grabbing Mantis's digit. Mantis smiled, finding Sari's excitement infectious and allowed herself to be dragged off with the human girl she's grown fond of.
Bulkhead blinked as the two girls passed by him and looked at Bee imploringly.
Said minibot shrugged. Girls and femmes, some things he will truly never fully understand.
^^*************^^
Sari gladly plopped herself down on the massive bean bag in Mantis's room- another thing she picked up at a yard sale- and sighed contentedly as she sunk into it comfortably. While the bean bag was big enough for three- maybe even four if you squeeze- people to sit on, it was just big enough for Mantis to sit down on herself without squashing it.
"Let's get this show on the road!" Sari said. Her excitement was contagious as Mantis also sat down next to her.
"You know, this reminds me of that slumber party brother told me about." Mantis realized.
"Oh.....that...." Sari remembered then waved it off. "That one's different. This one is gonna be more fun and girly. Nail painting! Movies! Talking about hair! Video games! Trading crazy stories! Snacks! Fun!"
"Then how bout we start with some nail painting and I'll tell you a crazy story or two about my training days? No promises they'll be fun." Mantis said.
Sari perked up. On the contrary, she very much wanted to learn more about Mantis and Prowl's training days- a bit hard since the latter is pretty tight lipped about everything. She took out a storage container filled with nail polish for her and flipped it open.
"You do realize I've never done this before, right?" Mantis pointed out.
"That's why you've got the local expert here to show you the ropes." Sari said, buffing her nails on her dress.
And so Sari began to choose which color she wanted and what patterns she wanted Mantis to paint on. She even pulled out her tablet and searched up some tutorials to guide the femme.
With her glossa poking out of the corner of her mouth and optics zeroed in on the rather small nails in concentration, Mantis delicately picked up the brush and began to paint.
"Wow, you're pretty good at this." Sari commented as Mantis painted polka dots on her fingernail.
"Patience yields focus." Mantis said, not taking her optics off the task at hand. "This is pretty fun." She commented, finding the brushing motions of nail polish on fingernails oddly satisfying in a way.
"Told you so~" Sari said.
A few minutes later, Mantis set the final brush down and blew on Sari's nails to dry off any excess. "Voila! My work is done." Mantis said, proud of her handiwork.
"Wow, you're pretty good at this. Ever thought of running a salon?" Sari asked as she admired her manicure.
"You're gonna have to wait for it to dry for a while. Here, let me help." Mantis said, taking out her tessen and gently fanning the nail polish to quicken the drying process.
"Yeah, sooooo in the meantime, how bout you gimme the deets on you and Prowl's training days?" Sari prompted.
Mantis pursed her lips at that. "Where to start?" she chuckled. "Ok, I got one. On my first day at training, my actual official training to become a Cyberninja, I got my first test on the spot." She said.
"On the first day? Wow." Sari said.
Mantis nodded. "Wow indeed. Basically Shifu asked an old acquaintance of his to dress up as a Decepticon and pretend to rob our home and then brother and I basically had to find some way to stop him." She said.
"And? Did you?" she asked, bouncing in excitement.
Mantis smiled nostalgically as the memory came back to her. "Not really. Other than dropping a lamp on top of him- which was my idea by the way- I mean, we got a couple good hits on the guy but he practically yanked Prowl off him and yeeted him across the room." She said.
Sari snickered.
"I got ticked off and thought hey, why not try to whack the guy with a vacuum cleaner? But Shifu came in and cleared things up." Mantis said.
".....that's it?" Sari asked, slightly disappointed.
"Nope, after that we had to do something much worse." Mantis snorted.
"What's that?" she asked.
"Clean up duty." Mantis deadpanned.
Oof, that really was worse.
"Ok!" Mantis snapped her tessen shut, startling Sari. "I think it's about dry now."
Sari blew on her nails and examined it. "Yup. Ok now gimme your hands, it's your turn now." She said.
Mantis obliged. "This paint job necessary?" she asked.
"Of course! For style." Sari said. "Hm.....don't think you're the pink type......"
"How about green? Kinda like nature. Maybe a bit of gold, white and yellow to make it stand out." Mantis suggested.
"Perfect!" Sari said, clapping her hands together in agreement.
And so Mantis patiently held her servos out and allowed Sari to paint them in the shades of green. The femme found that this....wasn't so bad. Perhaps the waiting might be boring and the having to stay still bothersome- especially if she were Bee- but it was also relaxing.
And she didn't have to worry about being bored since she could also easily strike up a conversation with Sari.
"Man, those cons were whack!" Mantis said, telling Sari what happened in the lake from her perspective. "I mean, one never seemed to run out of missiles to go kaboom while the other never seemed to run outta words."
"Like Bee?" Sari asked.
"Like a more crazy maniacal Bee with personality disorder." Mantis supplied.
"Yikes." Sari said.
Mantis shook her helm. "No kidding. Man, Drift is gonna flip when he finds out about this." Then she realized with a slight pang of regret that until now, she still hasn't contacted him to let him know that she was alright. Then again, last she heard of him was when he was off on a mission on one of the moon colony's. Maybe he didn't even know she was gone yet.
"Done!" Sari said, closing the bottle of nail polish. "Whaddaya think?"
Mantis brought her servo up to admire. It was.....actually a pretty good job all things considered. Sari even added lines to make some of them look like leaves and she even used a dotting tool to make small flowers. It was probably easier for Sari since her hands were smaller than her bigger digits.
"You sure the paint will stay on?" she asked.
Sari nodded. "I heard how people use nail polish to fix scratches on cars so it should be no problem." She said.
"So....whaddaya wanna do now?" Mantis asked, letting Sari take the lead in this time.
"Movies! You like anime, right?" Mantis nodded. "Then it's time for some good old classics. Think you can hook this up to your hologram projector like Prowl?" Sari asked, taking out a portable media player.
"Lemme try." Mantis said, stretching her servo out for Sari to give her the media player. She fiddled with it somewhat then......
"It works!" they both said as the opening credits for Spirited Away played.
Sari settled herself comfortably on Mantis's pede with a bowl of popcorn at hand. "So, what kinda snacks do you bots eat?" she asked as she popped a popcorn in her mouth.
"We've got rust sticks and stuff." Mantis said.
Spirited Away was definitely a nominee award deserving movie, Mantis had to admit and that was only the start! Howl's Moving Castle, Kiki's Delivery Service, Totoro and Kimi no Na Wa never failed to get her spark thumping.
The designs, the characters, the twists, the suspense, everything was so fascinating, so intriguing, so....so......she didn't have enough words for it.
She sniffed and Sari blew her nose in a tissue as they watched Mitsuha discover the message Taki- who she doesn't even remember- wrote on her palm which was just so deep.
"You should've written your name you idiot!" Mantis wailed at Taki.
"Why can't they just be straightforward for once?!" Sari bawled.
Yup, one heck of an emotional roller coaster right there.....kinda like her life now when she thought about it.
Next was hair.
This one was trickier but thanks to tutorials on YouTube, it didn't take long for Mantis to understand braiding.
"Man, you really learn fast." Sari said, impressed with the French braid waterfall hairstyle Mantis's nimble digits did.
"I had to. Observing was the only way for me to learn back then since Shifu wasn't willing to teach me." Mantis said.
"Why didn't he teach you? Weren't you his daughter?" Sari asked.
Mantis shrugged. "He had his reasons. Probably over protectiveness, you know how dads are." Then she sighed. "Not like I can say much though."
"Don't worry, I mean, what kinda Cyberninja can say they've been to an organic planet with a team of repair bots, made friends with an awesome Earth girl with a wicked AllSpark powered key and kicked Decepticon butt?" Sari listed off.
Mantis chuckled. "I guess you've got a point. Hand me the brush, please. Thank you." She gently worked the brush through Sari's red hair.
"And we're done your majesty." Mantis said.
Sari picked up a mirror and admired her reflection, tilting her hair this way and that. "I love it! It's amazing!" she squealed then leaped up and hugged Mantis. "You're the best, sis!"
Mantis patted her fondly. "I could get used to this." She said.
"Ok, now lean back and lemme do yours." Sari said.
"You sure about that? I mean....can you even reach my dreads?" Mantis asked.
"Positive. Just lean against there." Sari instructed.
Mantis leaned her helm against it and Sari climbed up to the upper floor where she could see the top of Mantis's helm. "You think you could take your bun out?" Sari asked.
"Oh sure." Mantis reached her servo up and undid the bun. Sari watched, intrigued- she always wondered how Mantis kept her dreads tied up in a bun- and watched as Mantis took something akin to a bobby pin out before slipping the 'bun' off like a hairnet.
More dreads fell out and flowed down her back. It made Mantis look so.....different.
"Hm......let me see......" she took her tablet out.
"How about something else." Mantis suggested turning around. "Instead of tying it, how about dyeing it?"
"Dyeing it? Of course!" Sari said then her mood dropped. "But with what?"
"With these!" With a flourish, Mantis reached out and pulled a tarp off a pile to reveal boxes of paint and spray paint cans.
"Whoa!" Sari said as Mantis placed the boxes near her. "You got these at a yard sale too?" she joked.
"Nah, helped this nice lady get a cat down from the tree and she gave me these as thanks. Said her son didn't need them anymore. I wanted to add some colour here too so I thought why not?" Mantis said.
"I've always wanted to get highlights!" Sari squealed in excitement as she eagerly shook a can of neon pink.
Mantis laughed. "Just go easy and don't turn me into a walking paint disaster." She said, turning around.
"Puh-leeze, you've got a maîtresse at your service." Sari said in a fake French accent.
^^*************^^
"OMFG brother is so gonna flip when he sees this." Mantis snickered as she admired her colored dreads in the mirror. Sari had managed to more or less hold back and ended up coloring each in different colors. Some were a stunning gold, some were in different shades of green and teal, some were black and there was the occasional yellow or silver one. She even added some neon green onto her!
"I think you and I should start a salon- 'Autogirls'." Sari said with jazz hands. "Whaddaya think?"
"I think I'd rather use these servos to throw a punch." Mantis said.
There was a knock on her door. "Come in." Mantis invited.
The door opened and Prowl stepped in. He raised an optic ridge at the hairdos the two female members of his team had.
"You two seem to be having fun." He said.
"Tons of it." Mantis agreed and she waited for the paint on her dreads to dry. "Don't worry, it's only temporary." She waved off.
Prowl nodded, faceplate stoic as usual but deep down, he felt warmth and was glad Mantis was willing to open up and have fun with others. She seemed to be a good influence around Sari so far and vice versa. He was glad she could build a bond like that was someone else- a human no less.
"Don't go to bed too late, alright?" he called.
Mantis and Sari rolled their eyes/optics. "Yes dad." They drawled.
Prowl sighed. Everyone seemed eager to team up with his sister to gang up on him! Was there some 'conspiracy' going on?
He shrugged and walked off to his own berthroom for some meditation.
^^*************^^
Ratchet stretched as he walked down the corridors, towards his berthroom but stopped when he came across Mantis's. The light was still on but there was no sound coming from behind the door.
Huh, that's odd. He recalls hearing them discussing about some kinda sleepover. Whatever it was, he knew it would warrant noise in some way or another. This quietness was a bit suspicious. Hm.....
He opened the door and softened when he saw Mantis and Sari dozed off, Sari on her lap while Mantis leaned the back of her helm- which now had colored dreads, Ratchet noted- against the wall.
Ratchet huffed, though there was no actual annoyance behind it and draped a nearby blanket over Sari, least the kid got a cold.
Then he switched off the lights with a quiet 'goodnight' mumbled under his breaths and left.
Checking the main room, he found that Bumblebee had once again fallen asleep playing video games on the couch with Bulkhead sprawled on the floor out cold.
He sighed and hauled Bee over his shoulder and using his magnets- and some grunting and cursing- he dragged them both back to their respective berthrooms and tucked them in.
........darn it, he really was getting soft, wasn't he?
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Hi readers, I just wanna say thank you to one of my followers Nakii_nyah whom gave me the inspiration for this chapter so credit for this chapter also goes to her. And to all my other followers, if you're reading this, thank you for all the support.
Now a quick word from one of the Auto Teens- Bumblebee.
Bee: Thanks, everyone! Stay tune for an update and more of my awesomeness! Remember to live life on the fast lane! See ya!