We Are A Family

Aging

Let's start these cute little family drabbles out sad, shall we.

It was impossible for anyone, human, mutant, or cybertronian to imagine them without the other.

Drift and Ratchet, with their kids, 2 sets of different species twins. Cybertronians Sideswipe and Sunstreaker and the humans Bata and Alex.

Ever since the autobots had arrived on earth years ago, they had been together.

Battles, human holidays, birthdays, injuries and illness, near-death experiences. They had lived through it all.

And they all knew humans aged, much faster than cybertronians did. They also had much shorter life spans.

And that made everyday harder. Each birthday. Because everyday Bata and Alex lived they were that much closer to death.

They didn't notice. With their short life spans, and often threatened lives, Bata and Alex lived those life-killing days to the fullest.

But Sunstreaker and Sideswipe did. Ratchet and Drift did.

They noticed as their hair began to go grey. They noticed as their skin got all wrinkly. They noticed when they started to forget.

Luckily, the twins had been pretty healthy. No cancer or terminal illnesses.

With the war over, they tried to spend the most time they could with their human family.

They all used their holo avatars more (It was easier to hug them). Even Sunstreaker, who hated his bland human appearance.

Honestly, Sideswipe didn't really believe they would die. Alex was a mutant and Bata was...some sort of dimensional being.

He believed somehow, someway, they would live forever.

They didn't. It was amazing, when their hearts stopped in their sleeps. The two died in the same second. Weather some twin ability or their genetic mutations caused it, no one is sure.

Sunstreaker took it the hardest. He, who had been with Bata in her final moments, who had clutched her elderly form to his body as if she were still that twelve-year old girl who had wanted a ride to the pizza parlor. His keens rang out over New York.

For a while, it was like a piece of all their sparks had died. They walked in shadows of themselves, the silence representing the loss of Bata's barbs, Alex's laugh.

Then, they were searching through earth tv shows (their time on earth had got them hooked) and Ratchet told them to play Bata and Alex's favorite movie.

Each scene brought a memory. Bata acting, Alex complaining...the times they fell asleep curling around them.

One day, a long, long time later, when all the original human autobot human kids had long passed, their names legends on both worlds, a random bot asked Sunstreaker if it was worth it. Having Bata and Alex as part of their family.

"I mean, when they died, you all completely lost it. All that pain and suffering could have been avoided if you had never met them"

Sunstreaker shook his head. "Those little kids were the light of our lives. They still are. No matter the hurt that came when their lights went out, it would have been worse to have always been in the dark without them."