Optimus dozed peacefully, his optics were offlined and his processor free from any worries as he relished in the blissful peace and quiet-
"Bossbot! Bossbot! Bossbot!/ OP! OP! OP!/ Optimus! Optimus! Optimus!"
............nevermind.
Groaning and mentally bemoaning having to cut his recharge cycle short, Optimus turned his optics online and saw the Auto Teens- Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Mantis and Sari- , as they seemed to call themselves nowadays, standing beside his berth, awake, alert and brimming with excitement.
"What is it?" he grumbled as he stood up.
"You gotta see this!" Mantis said grabbing his servo and with surprising strength that belied her size, dragged him along.
"Look! It's snowing!" Mantis said gleefully as she opened the door to show Optimus the cold white flecks gently raining down from the sky.
"Whoa...." Optimus breathed out in surprise and a bit of awe, stretching his servo out and allowing the small snow to flutter down onto his palm, his sensors feeling the slight tingle of coldness before it melted upon contact.
"This is nothing like the frost on Cybertron!" Bee said as he ran out and stood out in the open among the snow.
"You guys have winter on Cybertron too?" Sari- who was now dressed in warmer and thicker clothes to fend off the cold- asked.
Mantis nodded. "We have frost but...." She frowned. "It's kinda a nuisance."
Bulkhead nodded in agreement. "That always makes me slip and break stuff....more than usual." He said.
Optimus glanced to the side and saw Prowl sitting amongst the snow too, a few flecks of white clinging onto his plating.
"It looks like you got a head start on all this." Optimus said, walking over to the ninjabot, leaving the younger members behind to do their own shenanigans.
Prowl nodded, the action sending some snow fluttering off his helm. "Spring, fall, summer and winter- the four seasons of Mother Nature. One of many beautiful creations she has to offer." He said.
There was a muffled 'whoof' of a few things hitting the ground. The two older mechs turned around to see the Auto Teens lying down on the snow, servos and pedes eagle spread and moving up and down on the ground.
"What are you all doing?" Optimus asked, perplexed.
"We're making snow angels!" Sari said excitedly.
"Come on, brother. What're you waiting for?" Mantis asked.
Prowl huffed. As if he would do something so childish and.....light hearted and.....fun and................
Oh curse his spark and pride.
With a long suffering sigh and a warning glance to the grinning Auto Teens, he flopped down and did a snow angel as quickly as possible before hurriedly getting up and dusting himself off.
"There, happy?" he said.
"So what else do you guys do when it snows?" Bee asked Sari curiously.
"Well....." she began to count off on her fingers. "We can go ice skating once the water freezes, sleighing, ice fishing...oh! I know! We should make a snowman!" she said, clapping her hands together.
"A....snowman?" Optimus echoed. "A human made of snow?"
"Don't worry, you've got an expert here to teach ya." Sari said proudly.
And so their human ally instructed them on how to build a snowman. It was relatively easy and fun.
Mantis hummed along to Snow Fairy as she rolled the ball of snow, the rolling gradually gathering more snow and growing in size. Once it was to her satisfaction, she placed it on top of another.
"Why do you humans do these snowmen, if I may ask?" Optimus asked Sari as he used his axe to gather sticks- or branches in the Autobots cases- to use as 'arms' for their snowmen.
Sari thought about it shrugged. "I dunno. It's a human custom we do when it snows to y'know, have fun. It's kinda like art. Simple but still. Sides, it's even better when you do it with friends or family."
Optimus definitely agreed on the last part.
"I have to admit this....is a pretty fun bonding activity." He said with a smile as he used his servos to smooth out any bumps on the snowman.
"But you know what's even more fun than building snowmen?" Sari asked with a mischievous smile.
Before Optimus could ask, he heard something whiz through the air and whipped his helm around....
To get a face full of snow.
He smacked the snow away to see the Auto Teens standing there, all with sly mischievous- and a bit apologetic in Bulkhead's case- smirks on their faceplates as they each tossed a snowball up and down in their servo.
"SNOWBALL FIIIIIIGHT!" Bee whooped like a battle cry.
Everything after that became chaos.
Optimus found himself hiding behind a makeshift 'fortress'- really just a high pile of snow for cover- beside Prowl as the Auto Teens threw snowball after snowball all over the place, all of it blurred streaks of white across the terrain. He could hear all the Auto Teen shouting and screaming and whooping in glee at the chaos they were revelling in.
"And I thought winter was the time for peace, for rest and hibernation." Prowl said dryly.
"......well it....does seem like a good.....teamwork exercise?" Optimus said lamely. It does require teamwork and strategy after all.
"Brother! Help!" Mantis cried.
Prowl's brother instincts kicked in and he stood up.
"Wha-"
SMACK!
For a moment, everyone froze and the battle paused. Everyone gazed at Prowl, optics/eyes wide and jaws dropped as a snowball slowly slid down his faceplate, the rim of his visor now white.
"It was him!" the Auto Teens yelped, dropping any snowball they were holding onto and pointing to Bee.
"Hey!" the minibot protested. "That was an accident! I swear! I cross my spark swear!" he said, crossing his spark chamber.
Prowl in reply.......
Flung a snowball at a speed with a level of strength that would make any baseball player jealous. It hit Bee right smack in the faceplate with an accuracy that would give the best sharpshooters a run for their money.
Bee fell down onto the snow with a 'oof'.
"Now I believe we are even." Prowl said curtly, dusting his servos off before turning around, intent on not getting dragged into their shenanigans.
SMACK!
His denta gritting and optic twitching in annoyed fury, he slowly turned around to see Mantis standing there, unapologetically tossing another snowball up and down.
"Leaving so soon? Fun's just starting." She said innocently.
"Fun.....you say?" Prowl said slowly. "Very well." Then his tone darkened. "I hope you all find being buried six feet under snow chilling your system FUN!" he roared.
And so the chaos continued. Except this time it was more of a hunt with Prowl trying to grab any one of the Auto Teens to bury them in snow and said teens running and flinging snowballs like their lives depended on it.......or systems in this case.
"What in the name of Cybertron is WITH ALL THE RUCKUS?!" an all too familiar cranky gruff voice bellowed.
Optimus turned around and his optics widened when he saw Ratchet stomping out into the open.
"Ratchet! Get dow-"
SMACK!
This time there was definitely a look of shocked guilt on Mantis's faceplate as she realized her shot had missed severely. She had been aiming for Prowl but his fast reflexes allowed him to dodge. Thus, the snowball ended up sailing towards Ratchet.
"Oh scrap." Bulkhead whimpered.
"We are so screwed." Bee said.
"Doc- I mean, Ratchet. I swear I didn't mean to hit you!" Mantis said, waving her servos wildly. "I was aiming for Prowl but he ducked outta the way!"
"It's still your fault." Prowl muttered under his breath. He didn't want to risk facing Ratchet's wrath either, thank you very much.
With eerie calmness, Ratchet bent down.....
And with a roar, stood back up holding a snowball as big as Bulkhead over his helm, reared up and ready to be thrown.
Sari whistled while the others looked on in horror.
"Skedaddle." Mantis said.
None of them needed any further prompting as Optimus all but threw himself away from his original hiding spot that was within range and went on the hunt for new cover.
The other Auto Teens ran as fast as their pedes could carry them away from the furious medic.
"That mech's gone bat-$hit crazy!" Mantis screamed.
"YA THINK?!" Sari and Bee yelled back.
".....we're all so dead....so very dead." Bulkhead whimpered.
^^*************^^
A solid 5 minutes later, Optimus and Prowl- who deemed it safe to come out of their hiding spot- ventured out in search of their teammates.
They didn't have to search long when they saw Ratchet walk towards them, dusting his servos off with a satisfied, contented look on his faceplate.
"Ratchet....where are the others?" Optimus asked warily.
Ratchet waved him off. "They're just 'chilling' as those human youngsters would say."
Optimus and Prowl shared a confused yet surprised look at how Ratchet for once, used an Earth slang.
"Oooooook?" Optimus said uncertainly.
And so the trio of adult mechs walked back to base.
^^*************^^
Just as they were out of sight, three helms and a human head managed to pop out of the snow.
"I-I-I t-t-think s-s-snow ain't that fu-fun after all." Mantis said between chattered denta as her systems were overwhelmed by the icy snow her entire body was trapped in.
"I d-d-didn't k-know Ratchet could be that st-strong." Bulkhead said.
"A-anger is one he-heck of a motivator." Bee chattered.
Sari simply nodded.
They all made a mental note to never, ever again have a snowball fight anywhere near Ratchet.