A Small Situation

~>2<~

Optimus' pov

I just stand there, holding the sparkling. What am I supposed to do? Of course I can't say that out loud, I don't need my team thinking I'm unable of just taking care of a sparkling or something... I've done it before, just not during a war. Scrap...

"Optimus, please tell me this is a joke." Arcee states. I just give her a look and she immediately understands.

"Um, so... how exactly did this happen? And how do we change him back to normal?" Bulkhead asks. I'm about to reply when Ratchet speaks up

"Bulkhead, do you think that if we had a way to change him back to normal, we'd still be standing here?!" He growls. I look at him and he just huffs and turns away.

"Megatron has a new weapon that... allows him to change our age." I choose my wording carefully. I sigh, "he'd aimed for me but Bumblebee jumped in the way..." I look down at the sparkling in my arms who looks up at me in return. He smiles and tries to grab at my faceplate. I feel bad for this happening... kind of like it's partly my fault and yet, as I look at him, I realize that if this doesn't have any bad side effects, this could give him the chance to grow up and have a better life... he could start over. I force myself not smile slightly at him.

"What is going on in here?" I hear Ultra Magnus ask. Someone runs up next to me.

"Woah... is that Bee? What happened? Is he okay?..." he keeps asking questions as I look up.

"Enough!!" I hear ratchet yell at Smokescreen. He flinches and then walks away, clearly disappointed that none of his questions were answered. I sigh again.

"Ultra Magnus, Smokescreen... this is Bumblebee... and he's a sparkling." I say. Smokescreen drops his jaw and Ultra Magnus just stands there.

"Is this a joke?" He asks. I roll my optics.

"I just asked the same question." Arcee states and he takes that answer as a no.

"What happened? Will he be okay? Please answer my question and don't let Ratchet throw that wrench at me..." Smokescreen says quickly. I look behind me to see Ratchet taking aim with his wrench.

"What?" He asks. I tell him to put it away and he does while grumbling to himself about how annoying everyone is. I turn back to Smokescreen. I tell them about what happened and when I'm done explaining, Smokescreen cautiously walks towards me and even more cautiously pokes at Bumblebee. The sparkling starts giggling, and then laughing. No one really knows what to do, so I ask Smokescreen if he'd like to take Bee for a while. He nods his helm vigorously and carefully takes the sparkling from my hold. Ratchet looks over at us.

"Smokescreen I swear to primus, if I hear anything other than laughing coming from him, for example crying, I will hurt you. If you drop him, I will hurt you. If you-" he's about to continue but Smokescreen cuts him off.

"Okay, okay... I get it. I won't make him cry, and I won't drop him." He mumbles as he walks off. Bulkhead decides to follow and Ultra Magnus decides he now has better things to do. Which leaves just me, Arcee and Ratchet.

"So... Optimus, what exactly do you want to do about this?" Arcee asks. Her and Ratchet are the only ones who know about me being Bumblebee's actual sire.

"To be quite honest with you, I don't know... I just hope this won't harm him." I say. Her and Ratchet both nod.

"How exactly do you plan on taking care of him... or do we need someone else to take over that job for you?" Ratchet asks. I sit down on one of the many boxes of human missiles we have in here and out my faceplate in my servos.

"I... I don't know... I don't know what to do, but I don't want to show that in front of the others. It could be too dangerous for him and for them to just tell them about my situation but at the same time, I don't know how to hide it." I stress. Ratchet and Arcee both sit down next to me.

"We'll figure something out... eventually. For now, would it be helpful if I tried to take care of him?" Arcee asks. I look up and sigh forcefully.

"Yes that would be helpful... thank you Arcee." I say and she smiles slightly, getting up to go make sure Smokescreen hasn't killed him yet. Ratchet and I talk for a few more minutes about what we're going to do before he takes his leave for the med bay. I sigh forcefully and put my helm in my servos.

Smokescreen's pov

I get to the training room and place Bumblebee on the floor. It's so strange seeing him this small... I mean, I know I'm older than him and stuff but like... not this much older. He stares at me with his wide cerulean optics, smiles and reaches for my faceplate. Confused, I move closer to him. He smacks me.

"Ow, you little scrap! What was that for?!" I glare at him. He looks slightly startled and begins whimpering. Well scrap. Ratchet's gonna kill me. Just as he's about to start crying, primus help me if he does, Bulkhead walks in.

"Um, you do remember that Ratchet said you weren't supposed to make him cry, right?" He says, sarcasm laced in his voice. I glare at him too now.

"For primus' sake, just help me before he starts screaming. I'd really rather not have Ratchet in here anytime soon..." I snap and he rolls his optics as he picks up the sparkling. He starts rocking him gently and Bumblebee immediately starts to giggle again instead. He starts chirping and making other strange noises. He reaches for Bulkhead's faceplate, and Bulkhead starts to lean in.

"Bulk, wait! It's a trap, he's just trying to slap your faceplate!" I say and he quickly snaps his helm up.

"What?" He says in confusion. I roll my optics at him.

"He reached for my faceplate before you came in and he slapped me. You've got to be careful, he's a sneaky little scrapling." I warn. He just rolls his optics at me, again.

"Smokescreen, he's a sparkling. Sparklings are curious little beings who like to touch and grab things. He was probably trying to grab your faceplate but wound up hitting you instead. He doesn't know the difference." Oh, well... I guess that makes sense. As I'm about to speak up, Arcee saunters in.

"I figured I'd find you two lug nuts in here." She says. We both look up from our conversation at her.

"Hey." Is all Bulkhead says to her. I just wave, I'm pretty sure she still doesn't like me.

"Bumblebee dead yet?" She asks in a flat tone, like she full out expects him to be.

"No." I snap. She raises an optic ridge.

"So, destiny's child hasn't ruined anything yet today? Better take Bee from you now, or he might end up being the thing you screw up today." She says sarcastically and quite honestly, I can't tell if she's joking or not. I don't screw up that often, do I? Bulkhead hands over the sparkling to Arcee and she looks down at him, a hint of sadness in her expression.

"You poor thing..." she mutters as she starts walking out of the room, "Optimus left you with Smokescreen." She looks back and smirks at me. I knew a heartfelt word toward Bumblebee was too good to be true.

"Man Bulkhead, why is she so mean all the time?" I ask once she's out of audio range. He looks down at me.

"She's got a bit of a rough past is all." He responds. He then leaves, probably to go find something interesting to do. I look down at my pedes and begin to wonder why Optimus seemed so distressed about this. Like, more distressed than he would be if it were anybody else...